As oil soars, experts watch Red Sea tankers for clarity on Houthi blockade
EDITOR’S ANALYSIS Houthi blockade for now is shaping who moves Saudi crude, not whether it moves, analysts say, even as oil prices soar. As oil prices hit $100 a barrel on Thursday, experts say they are watching to see which vessels Yemen’s Houthis allow to pass through in the Red Sea as that will indicate how the crude market trends. Brent futures rose $6.58 or 6.96 percent, to $100.65 a barrel, exceeding $100 for the first time since late May. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4US government cancels subpoena against three New York Times reporters list 2 of 4White House says will not block Tate brothers’ extradition to UK list 3 of 4France wildfires force evacuation of over 20,000 people from tourist town list 4 of 4US attacks Iran for 13th night as Trump threatens ‘bigger’ strikes end of list That was on the back of the Iran-aligned Houthis saying they were cutting off the passage Riyadh had been using to ship parts of its crude oil once Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to retaliate against United States and Israel attacks. On Monday, the Yemeni group declared a naval blockade on shipments from Saudi Arabia and said they would target Saudi, Israeli, and United States-linked tankers in the Bab el-Mandeb, which links the Red sea to the Indian Ocean. On Thursday, the Houthis attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers, the group said, with a Saudi news agency later confirming that one of the two vessels was set ablaze. It is not clear if the second one was also hit, according to marine analysis firm, Windward. “The Houthis are quite mercurial and there is no complete clarity on what the blockade means,” said Michelle Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward. “We’re watching now the ability of Chinese-owned tankers at [Saudi port] Yanbu if they are allowed to go through Bab el-Mandeb. Two have gone through but those had been loaded before the blockade was announced.” The Houthis have previously relied on China for help, including for drone components, and “the Chinese have previously had a free pass”, said Bockmann, including between 2023 and 2025 when the Houthis attacked cargo ships aligned with Israel and the US in the Red Sea in the wake of the war on Gaza. Windward tracking shows the cargo that moved through the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint on July 20 was Saudi in origin but Chinese in crew and destination, and it drew no interdiction. The two vessels passed through the same corridor that Western- and Saudi-linked operators were being warned to avoid. The enforcement is calibrated to affiliation rather than cargo and the blockade is shaping who moves Saudi crude, not whether it moves, Windward said. “No one has ever been able to predict their actions… but they know you don’t have to do a lot to get the oil markets to react,” said Bockmann referring to the rise in benchmark oil prices on Thursday. Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, underscored that the standoff in Bab el-Mandeb is happening while crude buffers have nor been replenished after the peak of the Hormuz crisis earlier this year. “The multiple chokepoints are new and an example of littoral states looking to use their leverage,” Ziemba said. Diesel also impacted For now, both the Houthi threats and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz through which nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil transited before the US-Israel war on Iran, has sent prices soaring, including at the pump in the US reaching the national average of $4.09 per gallon (3.4 liter). “Today’s rise in oil prices could cause $0.10 to $0.20 rise over the next week or two per gallon average price in US,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. But De Haan is looking beyond the two straits and says he’s watching the availability of diesel as price per gallon averages $5.34. “Diesel prices are being impacted more significantly,” he told Al Jazeera. One reason behind that is that Ukrainian drone attacks have taken offline some of Russia’s oil refineries. The shortages are being felt domestically leading to Russia banning diesel exports, De Haan said. “Oil exports are one story, but supplies of diesel gasoline, jet fuel is another story,” he said. Another unknown in the mix is the role of China which, historically has been a major importer but slashed those imports in the past few months, helping stabilise global prices as some pressure on demand eased. “It’s been one of the reasons that oil prices haven’t gone up dramatically – that china slashed its imports, and no one predicted that,” De Haan said. “For now, we don’t know if china is using its own strategic reserves or if it will start import again.” Between those geopolitical plays and the upcoming hurricane season in the US, there is “another wildcard ahead for global refining capacity” and prices, De Haan said. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump says Saudi nuclear pact hinges on kingdom joining Abraham Accords
Claim casts further confusion over deal to launch US-supported civilian nuclear programme in Saudi Arabia. United States President Donald Trump has said that a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia is “totally subject” to the kingdom normalising relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords. Trump’s statement on Thursday, a day after the agreement was announced, has cast confusion over an already opaque deal, the full details of which have not been released. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3US and Saudi Arabia announce nuclear cooperation deal list 2 of 3Why is Iran still able to conduct deadly attacks on US military sites? list 3 of 3Saudi Arabia and US agree to landmark nuclear deal for civilian purposes end of list In a post on his Truth Social Account, the US president wrote that the agreement “will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords”. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the claim. Any acceptance of normalising ties with Israel under the accords would represent a major pivot for Riyadh, which has long opposed such a prospect. Trump’s statement came a day after the US Department of Energy announced that Washington and Riyadh had signed “a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership” as well as a “bilateral safeguard agreement” related to the launching of a civilian nuclear programme. The deal will require approval from the US Congress. Several US media reports have suggested that the agreement will allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium domestically, as opposed to importing nuclear fuel. Such a provision would represent a major departure from how Washington has approached civilian nuclear programmes abroad. It has long opposed providing enrichment technology and knowledge to countries that do not already possess it. But in his statement on Thursday, Trump appeared to deny the report, writing without further context: “There will be no enrichment of material!” “The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities,” he added. Uranium enrichment is not prohibited under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), to which both the US and Saudi Arabia are signatories. Enrichment is needed to create nuclear fuel, but, when done at a much higher level, it is also the basis for creating nuclear weapons. Iran’s enrichment of nuclear material has been a major justification for the ongoing US-Israel war, launched on February 28. Tehran has long maintained it does not seek a nuclear weapon, while framing enrichment rights as a matter of sovereignty. Saudi Arabia has also long sought a civilian nuclear programme as it has pursued reducing its dependence on fossil fuels. Still, nuclear non-proliferation groups have heavily criticised the pact announced on Wednesday, with several lawmakers saying it could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, particularly if the deal allowed for domestic enrichment. Some have warned it could incentivise Iran to seek nuclear weapons. Israel has also for years been assessed to possess nuclear weapons, although the US government has long maintained a policy of ambiguity towards the ally. Turkiye, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates maintain civilian nuclear infrastructure to varying degrees. ‘Many questions’ Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said Trump’s latest claim on the Abraham Accords has cast further confusion over the agreement. “This…does not appear to be part of the original agreement either,” he said. “So there are many questions that arise, and no doubt there will be many questions in Congress.” Several Arab countries agreed to normalise ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, initially signed by the UAE and Bahrain in December 2020, during Trump’s first term as US president. The move made the two countries the first in the region to recognise Israel since Jordan in 1994. Morocco and Sudan have also signed the accords, although Sudan has not ratified the agreement. Despite the agreements remaining in principle, Israel’s relations with the signatories have cratered amid its genocidal war in Gaza. Prior to the conflict, the accords were largely criticised for side-stepping the Palestinian issue. Both Trump and the administration of former US President Joe Biden have for years vociferously pushed for Saudi Arabia to join the accords. Adblock test (Why?)
More than 100 UK millionaires ask new PM Andy Burnham to tax them more
Calling themselves ‘Patriotic Millionaires’, they say ‘wealth and power have been concentrated in a small group for too long’. A group of 120 millionaires in the United Kingdom have asked the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to increase taxes on the ultra-wealthy, saying they are willing to pay more so that the country can reinvest back into its people. In a “Proud to Pay” letter released on Thursday, the millionaires, including sports broadcaster Gary Lineker and actress Julia Davies, told Burnham: “As millionaires we have a clear message for you, our new Prime Minister: tax us. We are proud to pay and here to stay.” Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3Burnham pledges devolution and discipline if he becomes UK prime minister list 2 of 3‘Where do I get that from?’: UK asylum seekers face hefty repayment bill list 3 of 3Elon Musk poised to make history as world’s first trillionaire end of list Calling themselves “Patriotic Millionaires”, the group said “wealth and power has been concentrated in a small group for too long”, hurting “our country, its people, our democracy and our environment”. “For a better Britain, this has to change,” they said, adding that the money raised from higher taxes on wealth could be used to reduce inequality, support public infrastructure and back small businesses. ‘Basic British value’ Lineker, a former professional footballer, said Britain’s wealthiest can afford to chip in more, as Brits struggle to get by every day. “Paying your fair share is a basic British value, but so many ordinary people are already paying more than they can afford,” said Lineker. “Our richest people can do more and most want to. To live up to our national values, our new government must raise taxes on extreme levels of wealth for a fairer, better, more hopeful Britain,” he said in the statement. Asked about the letter, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds on Thursday said she welcomed the initiative, but gave no indication whether the government would consider a policy change. “Well, look, it is day four of this new government, and obviously any major tax changes would be announced at a budget,” Reynolds told Sky News. “I welcome the fact that people of good means are saying that they want to pay more. They can pay more,” she said. “There is a link on gov.uk, but look, we have to look at tax policy in the round, and we only make major tax announcements at budgets.” Burnham, who has sought to address Britain’s rising cost of living, has said his administration may “ask for a little bit more” in taxes and suggested this could include a wealth tax. “I do believe we need a greater sense of fairness and people feeling that things are being done in the right way and a fair way,” Burnham said during a podcast interview on Wednesday. Putting in place a 2 percent minimum annual tax on the Britain’s super wealthy – those with more than 100 million pounds ($133.3m) in assets – could raise about 10 billion pounds ($13.3bn) a year, according to a recent report by Gabriel Zucman, economics professor at the Paris School of Economics, and Ben Tippet, lecturer in economics and wealth inequality at King’s College London. The report recommended such a tax, saying it would “raise meaningful revenues and dampen runaway inequality”. According to Patriotic Millionaires, a 2 percent tax on wealth above 10 million pounds ($13.3m) could raise 24 billion pounds ($32bn) a year for the UK, while reforms to capital gains tax could raise a further 12 billion pounds ($16bn). Adblock test (Why?)
In India, fear has switched sides
Twelve years, one month and 24 days after Narendra Modi was sworn in, the words “Modi must resign” were uttered full-throatedly for the first time – without fear, in front of witnesses and cameras – on the streets of the national capital. India’s Gen Z is saying the unthinkable. For more than a month, students, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), have been camped out at Jantar Mantar, a prominent protest site in central New Delhi, seeking education reforms and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. This week marked a significant escalation in the movement’s demands with students now also calling for the resignations of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Modi has announced fast-track courts to deal with exam-leak cases, but the government has offered no apology for the police crackdown on protesters or indicated that officers accused of using excessive force will be investigated. The CJP had called for a march on the Indian Parliament on Monday, the first day of the monsoon session. The government’s misstep was to forcibly take activist Sonam Wangchuk to Safdarjung Hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike. He had not eaten since June 28 in support of the students’ demands. The forced hospitalisation drew even greater support for the students. “Unmobilised” people – those who had not been called on or directed by any organisation to join the protest – also started pouring in, trying to make their way to parliament. More than 100,000 “cockroaches” streamed into central New Delhi, paying no heed to warnings from the Delhi Police or government decisions to close 16 metro stations leading to Jantar Mantar, barricade roads, jam the internet and bring in plainclothes goons. Still, people kept pouring in. Central New Delhi became a tinderbox, and students stood their ground, facing pellet guns and batons through heavy overnight rain and clouds of tear gas. By the end of the march on parliament, at least 200 people had been injured. Police officers were filmed staging evidence, assaulting women and using spiked batons and tear gas. The Delhi Police assault acted as a force multiplier with India’s opposition parties staging their own protest, this one outside the prime minister’s residence. The protests spread across India, like a stubborn oil stain, from Patna and Mumbai to Goa. Families of children who died by suicide due to the exam leaks joined the protests. Farmers who had protested for an entire year on Delhi’s borders in 2021 returned from Punjab with food, supplies and additional volunteers. Social media were awash with reels of former voters for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party joining the protests. Just a few hours after police cleared the protest site, the monsoon cockroaches returned to Jantar Mantar that same night after a tumultuous day spent trying to reach parliament. What began as a dispute over education has morphed into a broader moment of resistance. There can no longer be any doubt that India’s elections and political system are being manipulated through voter fraud, horse-trading, hate speech, coerced political defections and the misuse of state institutions. Voter manipulation alone makes even the Emergency era when democratic rights were suspended under Indira Gandhi from 1975 to 1977 look decent by comparison. The education minister refuses to resign. Rajasthan’s health minister blames parents for overdosing their children instead of holding the manufacturers of substandard cough syrups responsible for the deaths of children in India and around the world. The petroleum minister says fuel prices will not be reduced even as global crude oil prices fall sharply. And the finance minister has responded to complaints about soaring onion prices by saying she does not eat onions. Modi has been presiding over a scam-tainted government that has lost its legitimacy. Across his three terms, he has not accepted a shred of responsibility for any crisis that has befallen Indian citizens on his watch: COVID-19, demonetisation, the revocation of Article 370, the violence in Manipur and inflation. Every time he is challenged, he moves further away from the democratic principles on which India was founded. In 2019, when he bulldozed the Citizenship Amendment Act through parliament without any meaningful debate, citizens erupted with similar anger. The protests that followed echoed the present moment, but they were cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Modi administration imposed a nationwide lockdown when India had reported just over 500 confirmed cases, arrested protesters and dismantled the protest sites. This is the biggest crisis of his tenure as prime minister – and of his entire political career. Modi has never lost an election since first contesting one in 2002. He had been appointed, rather than elected, chief minister of Gujarat in 2001. Since then, he has served three consecutive terms as chief minister, followed by three consecutive terms as prime minister, while repeatedly rigging the electoral playing field in his favour. The first two days of parliament’s monsoon session ended without Modi personally addressing the issue of education reforms. The third day, as protests intensified, Modi was a no-show. With him, everything is the Indian National Congress party’s fault. Or the citizens’ fault. Or foreign influence. It is always someone else’s responsibility. But this time, the strategy may not work. He has never faced an opposition as united, diverse, young and angry as this one. The students expect the education minister to be held accountable and, by extension, Modi too. The march alone is rightly being billed by the organisers as a historic moment for India. The protest, standing on the shoulders of Shaheen Bagh and the farmers’ protest, has turned into an uprising. So far, every government decision, from detaining Wangchuk to cracking down on protesters, has backfired, strengthening their resolve. This week, while tumultuous, stands in stark contrast with Modi’s tenure, which has seen an unprecedented erosion of fraternity and genuine solidarity among citizens. It has baffled me all these years that we have continued to think of ourselves as one nation. What is this nation without Kashmir?
The Morocco-Algeria rivalry is remaking Europe’s North Africa policy
This month, three high-level visits within the space of six days showed how the rivalry between Morocco and Algeria is increasingly shaping the policies of European governments in the Maghreb. On July 15 and 16, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu led a large ministerial delegation to Morocco, consolidating the rapid rapprochement between Paris and Rabat. At almost the same time, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was in Berlin seeking to deepen Algeria’s partnership with Germany. Four days later, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in Algiers, continuing efforts to repair relations strained by Madrid’s shift towards Morocco. The principal fault line in the rivalry is Western Sahara. Morocco controls most of the territory and has made support for its sovereignty claim, or its autonomy proposal, a central test of its foreign partnerships. Algiers backs the Polisario Front’s demand for independence and has responded sharply when European governments endorse Rabat’s position on the territory. Both countries possess significant leverage. Morocco offers intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation, help in managing migration, investment opportunities and access to its economic networks in Africa. Algeria has major natural gas reserves, a substantial domestic market and considerable influence over security and diplomacy in the Maghreb and the Sahel. European governments cannot therefore manage the two relationships in isolation. Decisions that strengthen ties with one can reshape their diplomatic, economic and security cooperation with the other. France provides the clearest example. In 2024, President Emmanuel Macron backed Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and described Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the basis for resolving the conflict. The decision helped end a prolonged period of tension between Paris and Rabat, but triggered an immediate crisis with Algeria, which recalled its ambassador. Lecornu’s visit showed that France does not regard its 2024 shift as a limited diplomatic concession. It is building a wider strategic partnership with Morocco around it. The two governments advanced cooperation on energy, investment, security, migration, education and infrastructure. They also discussed a direct electricity link that could bring renewable energy from Morocco to France and continued preparations for a future bilateral treaty. For France, Morocco offers a relatively stable partner at a time when French influence has declined across much of the Sahel. Several governments in the region have expelled French troops, downgraded relations with Paris or sought alternative security partners. Morocco, by contrast, has expanded its economic and diplomatic presence in West Africa through banking, telecommunications, construction and religious and security cooperation. Rabat therefore offers Paris a means of preserving influence in Africa while developing new commercial, energy and security projects. In return, Morocco gains investment, diplomatic prestige and further international support for its position on Western Sahara. The depth of France’s commitment is perhaps clearest in what Paris appears prepared to overlook. As Lecornu visited Morocco, new reporting reinforced allegations that Moroccan intelligence had used the Israeli-made Pegasus spyware against senior French officials, including Lecornu while he was serving in government as minister of local authorities. Morocco has repeatedly denied acquiring or using Pegasus. The allegations did not disrupt the visit. The two governments publicly celebrated their security cooperation and continued preparing a broader strategic partnership, demonstrating the importance Paris now attaches to its relationship with Rabat. This choice has carried costs. France’s relations with Algeria were already burdened by disputes over colonial history, migration and security. Macron’s Western Sahara decision deepened those recurring tensions into a broader strategic rupture. Security cooperation stalled, French companies faced growing obstacles and French wheat was largely excluded from Algerian import tenders. Paris and Algiers have since cautiously reopened dialogue, but France has shown no willingness to reverse the policy that caused the crisis. Algeria did not force France to change its position. But it demonstrated that alignment with Morocco could reshape France’s economic, diplomatic and security relationship with Algeria. Spain encountered the same pressure after making a similar choice. In 2022, Sanchez’s government abandoned Spain’s previous neutrality and described Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving the Western Sahara conflict. The decision helped Madrid repair a damaging dispute with Rabat, but provoked an immediate backlash from Algeria. Algiers recalled its ambassador, suspended its two-decade friendship treaty with Spain and halted most non-gas trade. Spanish exports to Algeria collapsed, although Algeria continued honouring its gas contracts. Once again, Algeria could not compel a Western government to reverse its policy. But it could force that government to adjust its wider regional diplomacy. Spain has since tried to repair relations with Algeria without sacrificing its renewed partnership with Morocco. Sanchez’s July 20 visit to Algiers marked the clearest sign yet of this recalibration. The two governments agreed to revive high-level bilateral mechanisms and deepen cooperation on energy, investment, migration and security. The challenge for Madrid is that both relationships are essential. Algeria remains a major gas supplier, while Morocco is crucial to Spanish trade, counterterrorism and migration policy. Madrid also remembers the 2021 Ceuta crisis, when Morocco appeared to relax border controls during a diplomatic dispute, allowing thousands of people to enter the Spanish enclave. The breakdown with Algeria, meanwhile, damaged trade and complicated energy diplomacy. Sanchez is therefore attempting a difficult balancing act: preserving Spain’s rapprochement with Morocco while rebuilding the cooperation with Algeria that this rapprochement severely damaged. Tebboune’s simultaneous visit to Berlin illustrated Algeria’s efforts to widen its European partnerships. Germany and Algeria discussed deeper cooperation on energy, investment, industry, migration and security, including the potential including the potential export of Maghrebi hydrogen to Europe. The German-Algerian relationship has its own economic and strategic foundations and cannot be reduced to the rivalry with Morocco. But closer ties with Berlin broaden Algeria’s European options beyond France. Morocco and Algeria are no longer merely competing for Western support. Through energy, migration, security cooperation, market access and regional influence, they are increasingly shaping how European governments organise their relationships across the Maghreb. France has made Morocco a central pillar of its regional strategy. Spain is rebuilding ties with Algeria without abandoning its rapprochement with Rabat. Algeria
Trump threatens to bomb Iranian bridges, power plants over ship attacks
Iranian official says Tehran would retaliate by targeting ‘energy facilities in which the United States has interests’. President Donald Trump has warned that the United States military will target Iran’s civilian infrastructure each time Tehran’s forces fire at a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. If the warning, issued on Wednesday, materialises, it would represent a major escalation in the conflict, which is already spiralling across the region. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3US Secretary of State say Iran is in ‘a lot of trouble’ list 2 of 3Iran war’s $37bn price tag: Why does the Pentagon want $67bn more? list 3 of 3‘Just want to go back’: Lebanese await return as army enters ‘pilot zone’ end of list “From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump has previously said the US would bomb Iran’s bridges and power stations, going as far as threatening to wipe out the country’s civilisation, but Wednesday’s statement is more specific than his previous threats. Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency cited an Iranian military source as saying that Tehran will retaliate in kind if the country’s infrastructure is attacked. “If the Americans target a bridge or power plant in Iran, Iran will reciprocate by hitting infrastructures and bridges in the region, including energy facilities in which the United States has interests,” the source said, according to Tasnim. The official added that passage through Hormuz is safe for ships, but it must be coordinated with Iran. The US and Iran have been exchanging attacks for the past 12 days as the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that was supposed to end the war between the two sides got derailed over the fate of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has claimed sovereignty over the strategic waterway, arguing that the MoU gives Iran the authority to manage the strait. The Trump administration, however, has insisted that the Hormuz must return to its pre-war status as an international, free passageway. The hostilities restarted after ships that crossed the strait on the Omani side without coordinating with Iran were targeted. The US military has been striking military targets in Iran as well as civilian ports and bridges, killing dozens. Tehran has retaliated with barrages of missiles and rockets on bases housing US troops across the region. Iranian attacks have killed at least four service members in Jordan and Iraq this month and injured several others. Late on Tuesday, the Pentagon identified 28-year-old Angel Rampersad as the third fatality of an Iranian missile strike in Jordan. Rampersad was missing in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Trump is set to attend the arrival of the bodies of the service members in the US – known as dignified transfer – at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday. He said Iran will “pay a big price” for killing US troops. “They’re getting decimated,” Trump said as he departed for the airbase. Renewing the war has sent oil prices soaring once again after a brief reprieve during the ceasefire. The average price of one gallon (3.4 litres) of petrol in the US has surpassed $4 after dropping to around $3.80 from a high of $4.50 during the truce. Adblock test (Why?)
Elon and the Other Gaza
People & Power How the world’s richest man helped trigger an HIV crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries. When Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was made head of Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, he took a knife to foreign aid spending. He claimed billions were being lost to corruption within USAID and wasted on useless and absurd programmes, including $50m on buying “condoms for Hamas” in Gaza. But he was talking about the wrong Gaza. Mozambique’s Gaza province suffers one of the highest rates of HIV in the world and depended heavily on USAID for treatment and prevention. When Musk closed the agency down, it set off a chain reaction, putting the lives of millions of people at risk. Al Jazeera travelled to Gaza province to witness the real-life consequences of Musk’s ruthless cuts. Published On 22 Jul 2026 Adblock test (Why?)
France becomes first EU country to officially ban social media for children
NewsFeed France will ban social media for under-15s from September 1, following the UK and Australia’s moves toward blanket restrictions. However, the approach remains highly contested, with research suggesting such bans may be ineffective as young users learn to bypass restrictions. Published On 22 Jul 2026 Adblock test (Why?)
Palestine weekly: Ahead of elections, Israel doubles down on attacks
On July 17, hours after Israel’s parliament formally dissolved itself and set an October 27 election date, an Israeli drone struck a funeral procession outside Ahmad Yassin Mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least eight mourners as they buried a man killed hours earlier. The UN human rights office said Israeli attacks have killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women, between July 13 and 20, warning that the pattern “raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes in Gaza”. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3US defence chief Hegseth puts Iran war cost at $37.5bn so far list 2 of 3How will Khalil al-Hayya’s leadership shape Hamas? list 3 of 3Can mediators broker a truce between the US and Iran? end of list In the same week, Israel’s military carried out daily killings, ministers raced to pass legislation before parliament dissolved, the Civil Administration issued demolition and land-seizure orders, and settlers attacked Palestinians with near-total impunity. All of this points towards an unrelenting few months of violence and dispossession before elections take place. A mass-casualty week in Gaza Beyond the Nuseirat funeral strike, the week’s Gaza toll included a string of air attacks on homes and displaced families. On July 15, an Israeli helicopter attack killed Omar Sami Abu Qassem, his wife Asmaa Ghazi and their six-year-old daughter Habiba in Deir el-Balah; their three-year-old son was the only survivor. On July 18, an Israeli warplane struck a residential building in Gaza City’s Nassr neighbourhood without warning, killing Adham Nasman, his wife Marwa and three of their children; a third child survived only because he was not home. Israel claimed that Nasman was a Hamas commander – the group has not issued a statement confirming that. A day later, Rida Abu Asr was killed by Israeli artillery shelling in Zeitoun, one of several people killed in the neighbourhood that day as tanks advanced towards Dawla Junction, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Israeli strikes also killed seven police officers, including the director of Jabalia’s police station, in an attack on a checkpoint on July 14, and repeatedly hit tents sheltering displaced families in al-Mawasi throughout the week, according to Wafa. Then, an overnight Israeli air attack on July 21 killed Firas al-Masri, his wife Salsabeel and their four children as they slept in Gaza City, according to medical officials. Amid this string of mass-casualty attacks, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz told Channel 14, while touring northern Gaza, he felt satisfaction from the scenes of destruction, which he said resulted from a deliberate Israeli policy. He added that Israel was studying the establishment of three military-style settlement outposts in northern Gaza. Katz’s statements coincided with a march on Sunday by the Nachala settler movement to the Gaza border fence, in which right-wing Israelis – accompanied by more than a dozen ministers and legislators, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party – called for the re-establishment of settlements inside Gaza. On the other side of the fence, the Israeli-controlled “Yellow Line” has continued expanding westward, with new blocks placed near al-Qarara and reaching the Abu Miri roundabout east of Deir el-Balah, forcing hundreds more families to flee Israel’s advance, according to local sources. Amid such developments, the humanitarian picture in Gaza, laid out in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) July 16 situation report, continues to deteriorate. Sixty-three percent of households in Gaza now access less than six litres of drinking water a day, while 60 percent live within 10 metres of exposed sewage. Livestock feed imports have been blocked for more than a month, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirmed, tripling barley prices and threatening a die-off in August that would reverse the modest herd recovery recorded between October 2025 and May 2026. Israeli settler roads open – and Palestinian gates close The escalation in Gaza parallelled a sharpening campaign to create “facts on the ground” across the occupied West Bank. This past week, the Israeli security cabinet approved 1.3 billion shekels ($426.3m) to establish 34 new illegal settlements. On July 15, it approved an additional 1.075 billion shekels ($352.5m) for settler road infrastructure, Wafa reported, which will support much of the new settlements and outposts reaching far-flung areas of the West Bank. Smotrich called the decision a “settlement and security revolution”, aiming to establish more than 100 settlements and 160 agricultural and pastoral outposts. That funding framework provided the context for this week’s wave of demolitions, whose stated purpose has moved beyond permit enforcement to clearing land for the proliferating settlement infrastructure campaign. Israel’s Crimson Thread barrier project continued with the systematic destruction of Palestinian water infrastructure in the northern Jordan Valley, with Israeli forces and settlers destroying three artesian wells near Atuf, confiscating pumps and generators, and severing roughly 800 metres of pipeline serving 4,500 dunams (4.5 square kilometres) of farmland, according to the Atuf Village Council. In Masafer Yatta, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission has tied a wave of demolition and stop-work orders in Ad-Deirat and Ar Rifaiyya directly to a planned settlement road to run alongside Route 356 – a project that puts three of five local schools serving 700 children at risk, including Ar Rifaiyya’s, which lost a court appeal against demolition on July 8. Israeli authorities also issued a military order seizing land in Jaba, north of occupied East Jerusalem, for what Palestinian officials say is another settlement road linking Route 60 to the Nabi Yaqub settlement – the latest in a string of military seizure orders used to facilitate settlement infrastructure. The same infrastructure drive has increasingly shaped the geography of violence in the occupied West Bank, including in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, where 17-year-old national youth football player Fadi al-Naasan died on July 18 of wounds from a settler-and-army raid on July 11 –
More than 140 dead, missing on refugee boat stranded off Mauritania
UN says a boat carrying refugees and migrants from Africa drifted for 25 days before arriving at a port with dead and living on board. At least 143 refugees and migrants are dead or missing from a single boat off the coast of Mauritania that was trying to reach Europe, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says. The agency said on Tuesday that it was “extremely saddened” by the deaths, which came despite three rescue operations off Mauritania between July 14 and 18 that pulled 387 people to safety from other stranded boats. Recommended Stories list of 2 items list 1 of 2‘We can’t go out’: Migrants hide as Mauritania presses deportation campaign list 2 of 2EU-backed migrant crackdowns in Mauritania fuel fear and deportations end of list The vessel had set off from Bafuloto in The Gambia and was rescued on July 18 after 25 days adrift, carrying bodies and 38 survivors when it reached the port of Nouadhibou, the UNHCR said. “Among the survivors of… that ship were two children who have lost all their family members during the journey, and they are recovering in hospital,” UNHCR spokesperson Matt Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva. Another person died on another vessel that disembarked in Mauritania on July 14. The dead were from sub-Saharan African countries, he said, without giving details of how they died. Mauritania’s coastguard put the number missing at 122, saying the boat ran out of fuel after leaving The Gambia with 160 people on board. The UNHCR called the route to the Canary Islands “one of the world’s deadliest”, citing long distances and overcrowded, unseaworthy boats, and urged more access to education and jobs to offer alternatives to the crossings. Mauritania is a major departure point on the Atlantic route, where tens of thousands attempt to reach the Canary Islands, part of Spain, each year. Arrivals have fallen sharply under a European Union-funded crackdown, in which Mauritanian authorities have deported thousands of asylum seekers and migrants and pushed departures to longer, deadlier journeys from further down the coast. Adblock test (Why?)