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Here’s a view of the sun from Dakar, Senegal:
How visible today’s partial eclipse will be depends, unsurprisingly, on how clear the sky is where you are.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa
Israel admits firing at ambulances in Gaza after Palestinians say rescuers missing in Rafah
Body of team leader found almost a week after six rescuers went missing, Gaza’s civil defence agency says
Israel’s military admitted on Saturday it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip after identifying them as “suspicious vehicles”, with Hamas condemning it as a “war crime” that killed at least one person.
The incident took place last Sunday in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.
Continue reading...Friday briefing: How Gaza is becoming the deadliest conflict zone for journalists
In today’s newsletter: Media workers in Gaza and the West Bank have faced relentless danger, and attacks on press freedom on the rise across the world
Good morning.
More than 170 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 2023, with some estimates putting the toll as high as 206. It is the deadliest conflict for media workers in recent history. In a sobering report, Thaslima Begum gathered some of their stories. And attacks on journalists worldwide are on the rise, with deaths occurring everywhere from the Middle East to Europe.
UK economy | Lower-income households are on track to become £500 a year poorer by the end of the decade as a result of the UK chancellor’s spring statement, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation.
Monarchy | King Charles required hospital observation on Thursday after experiencing “temporary side-effects” as part of his medical treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace said.
Canada | Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over” as governments from Tokyo to Berlin and Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.
Asia-Pacific | Japan has for the first time released plans to evacuate more than 100,000 civilians from some of its remote islands near Taiwan in the event of conflict amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Taipei.
Environment | Supporters of the climate group Just Stop Oil have announced that after three years of disruptive protests they are ending their campaign of civil resistance. Hannah Hunt, whose speech on Valentine’s Day 2022 marked the beginning of the campaign, made the announcement outside Downing Street in London on Thursday.
Continue reading...No Other Land co-director condemns Academy’s letter to members after Hamdan Ballal attack
Yuval Abraham criticised the Academy’s statement defending its silence after Israeli settlers attacked his co-director Hamdan Ballal
The Israeli director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has condemned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its response to a violent attack on his Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal, who was beaten by Israeli settlers and detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Monday.
Earlier this week, Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham criticised the Academy for failing to publicly speak out in support of Ballal. Now he has criticised a statement issued by the Academy to its members on Wednesday, in which it appeared to defend its silence.
Continue reading...Israel parliament defies protests to pass law tightening grip over judges
Opposition parties say political control of appointments will make judges subject to politicians and undermine democracy
Israel’s parliament has passed a law expanding elected officials’ power to appoint judges, in defiance of a years-long protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to drive through judicial changes.
The approval of the bill, which opposition parties say will make judges subject to the will of politicians, comes as Netanyahu’s government is locked in a standoff with the supreme court over its attempts to dismiss the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara and Ronen Bar, the head of the internal security agency.
Continue reading...Six Russian tourists die after submarine sinks off Egypt coast
Another 39 people rescued and brought to shore after incident on vessel at Red Sea resort
Six Russian tourists have died and 39 people have been rescued after a submarine sank near the resort of Hurghada, the latest in a series of fatal accidents involving tourists on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.
Four survivors, including at least one child, were admitted to intensive care, according to an official statement.
Continue reading...Netanyahu repeats threat to seize territory in Gaza as anti-Hamas protests continue
Israeli PM warns of seizure of territories and ‘other measures’ if Hamas refuses to release remaining hostages
Benjamin Netanyahu has repeated Israeli threats to seize territory in Gaza if Hamas refuses to release the remaining Israeli hostages, as, for the second consecutive day, hundreds of Palestinians joined protests against the militant group and demanding the end of the war.
The Israeli prime minister’s warning came a week after Israel resumed its military operation in the territory, shattering the relative calm of a January ceasefire with Hamas.
Continue reading...‘It was revenge for our movie’: Oscar winner says soldiers helped settlers attack him in West Bank
Hamdan Ballal says Israeli soldiers beat him with their rifle butts and threatened to kill him
The Oscar-winning Palestinian film director Hamdan Ballal has said that Israeli settlers who attacked him were aided by two Israeli soldiers, who beat him with the butt of their rifles outside his home and threatened to kill him.
In an interview with the Guardian, Ballal, one of the four directors of the film No Other Land, which documents the destruction of villages in the West Bank and won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards, recounted how on Monday two Israeli soldiers first encircled him while a settler was assaulting him, before violently striking him on the head and threatening to shoot him.
Continue reading...Hundreds join protest against Hamas in northern Gaza
Demonstrators shout ‘Hamas out’ and carry banners saying ‘we want to live in peace’
Hundreds of Palestinians have joined protests in northern Gaza, shouting anti-Hamas slogans and calling for an end to the war with Israel, in what has been described as the largest protest against the militant group inside the territory since the 7 October attacks.
Videos and photos shared on social media late on Tuesday showed hundreds of people, mostly men, chanting “Hamas out” and “Hamas terrorists” in Beit Lahiya, where the crowd had gathered a week after the Israeli army resumed its intense bombing of Gaza after nearly two months of a truce.
Continue reading...Trump dismisses Signal security failure as ‘the only glitch in two months’
President says national security adviser Mike Waltz, suspected of adding journalist to chat, ‘has learned a lesson’
Donald Trump defended his embattled national security adviser on Tuesday and said the leak of highly classified military plans was “the only glitch in two months”, as scrutiny intensified into how top US officials shared operational details for bombing Yemen in a group chat.
In an interview with NBC, the president said, “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” as Democrats called for an investigation into the sharing of the plans for this month’s major airstrikes in Yemen on the Signal app. Later on Tuesday, during a meeting with ambassadors, Trump said his administration would investigate the incident but claimed “there was no classified information” shared on Signal.
Continue reading...Hamdan Ballal: Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested
Director of No Other Land attacked by armed settlers in West Bank and handed to Israeli military, witnesses say
A Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been arrested by the Israeli army after masked settlers attacked his house.
According to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the attack, Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the the film that documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank, was surrounded and attacked by a group of about 15 armed settlers in Susya in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.
Continue reading...Drones, informers and apps: Iran intensifies surveillance on women to enforce hijab law
Iranian police are using digital tools to identify and punish women who defy the Islamic state’s harsh dress code
Like many women in Iran, Darya is used to feeling under surveillance. Yet in recent months, the 25-year-old finance analyst from northern Tehran says that she never knows who could be watching her every move.
She says she has received messages from the police before warning her of suspected violations of the country’s strict hijab laws, but last November she was sent an SMS message containing her car registration plate that stated the exact time and place that she had been recorded driving without her head properly covered. Next time it happened, the SMS warned, her car would be impounded.
Continue reading...Israeli strike at Gaza hospital kills five, including senior Hamas figure
Ismail Barhoum and medics die in attack, which Israel says was based on extensive intelligence
An Israeli airstrike on Sunday night hit the largest hospital in southern Gaza, killing five people, including a Hamas political leader.
The Gaza health ministry said the strike hit the surgery department at Nasser hospital in the city of Khan Younis. The Israeli military said its attack followed extensive intelligence and used precise munitions to minimise harm at the site.
Continue reading...Gaza medics issue malnutrition alert as total Israeli blockade enters fourth week
Israel continues to batter territory in renewed offensive as death toll from nearly 18 months of war passes 50,000
Malnutrition is spreading in Gaza, medics and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory are warning, as a total Israeli blockade of all supplies enters its fourth week.
There has been no sign that Israel will open entry points to allow essential aid to flow or ease its new offensive in Gaza, which started on Tuesday with a wave of airstrikes that killed 400 people, mostly civilians, ending two months of relative calm. On Sunday, Palestinian officials said the total death toll from nearly 18 months of conflict had passed 50,000.
Continue reading...Israel strikes southern Lebanon and Gaza amid calls for halt to ‘endless war’
One killed and seven wounded in attack as freed hostages and families of those still held in Gaza urge end to fighting
Israel carried out a strike in Tyre, south Lebanon, on Saturday, killing one and wounding seven people and endangering the shaky truce that ended a year-long conflict against Hezbollah, as 40 survivors of Hamas captivity called on the Israeli government to halt the “endless war”.
The strike on a building came after Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in Lebanon on Saturday, its most intense aerial assault on the country in four months. In total, six people were killed, including a child, and 28 injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Continue reading...Netanyahu claims decision to fire Shin Bet chief not connected to Qatar inquiry
Israeli PM says Ronen Bar sacked over 7 October report, rather than investigation into his office’s alleged links to Qataris
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a Saturday speech that the decision to fire the country’s domestic security chief Ronen Bar was made before the announcement that Bar was investigating the prime ministry for alleged ties to the Qatari government.
Netanyahu said that he had decided to fire Bar, the director of Shin Bet, after the agency’s report on the 7 October 2023 attack, rather than after it opened its investigation.
Continue reading...Gaza’s ceasfire brought hope, but it was the calm before a brutal storm
New strikes are ‘just a beginning’ said Netanyahu, after Trump inspires Israel to seize territory with massive military onslaught
In Gaza this weekend, the mood is darker than it has been at perhaps any time in this long, appalling war. Last Tuesday Israeli warplanes, tanks, artillery, drones and ships launched a wave of strikes, shattering the increasingly fragile pause in hostilities that had brought respite to the devastated territory for nearly two months. The ceasefire had also brought hope which, Palestinians in Gaza said, made the return to violence that much more unbearable.
In a video statement last Wednesday, Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, called on 2.3 million people in Gaza to “banish Hamas”, saying “the alternative is complete destruction and ruin”.
Continue reading...Israel to ‘seize more ground’ and warns Hamas it will annex parts of Gaza
Defence minister issues threat as IDF intensifies offensive with ‘non-stop’ overnight attacks across territory
Israel’s defence minister said he had instructed the military to “seize more ground” in Gaza and threatened to annex part of the territory unless Hamas released 59 Israeli hostages still held in the devastated territory.
Israel Katz’s warning on Friday came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified the new offensive launched on Tuesday, when a wave of airstrikes shattered the truce that had brought a fragile and relative calm since mid-January.
Continue reading...Netanyahu disputes court order freezing decision to fire Shin Bet chief
PM says government will decide who heads domestic spy agency as protests against Ronen Bar dismissal continue
Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a fierce battle with Israel’s judicial system after the supreme court blocked his attempt to fire the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.
Amid protests against ministers’ vote to sack Ronen Bar, the top court on Friday froze the decision, with the order remaining in place until the court can hear petitions filed by the opposition and an NGO against the dismissal of the chief of the Shin Bet.
Continue reading...Who is Ronen Bar, the sacked chief of Israel’s Shin Bet security service?
Former special forces soldier made enemies after disagreements with far-right factions in Netanyahu government
Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s powerful internal security service, the Shin Bet, may seem an unlikely rebel.
A former special forces soldier who holds degrees from Tel Aviv and Harvard universities, Bar has devoted three decades of his working life to the service of the state. His frame is lean, greying hair close shaved, features gaunt, manner reserved and speech moderate.
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