Lebanon warns of ‘new war’ as Israel launches fresh deadly strikes
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said his country is at risk of being drawn into a “new war”, as dozens of new Israeli air strikes against the Hezbollah armed group killed at least two people. Salam issued the warning on Saturday, saying Israel’s “renewed military operations on the southern border” would bring “woes to Lebanon and the Lebanese people”. At least two people are confirmed killed and eight others injured by Israeli air raids, according to reports from Lebanon’s National News Agency.Three of the victims, including one of those killed, are children, it said, citing the country’s government-run Public Health Emergency Operations Center. Earlier in the day, Israeli artillery and air strikes hit southern Lebanon, after its military claimed it had intercepted three rockets launched from a Lebanese district about 6km (4 miles) north of the border. Israel said it targeted rocket launchers it claims belong to Hezbollah, which it holds responsible for the assault. The Israeli military said earlier it had intercepted Advertisement The Lebanese group Hezbollah issued a statement denying any involvement in the series of rocket attacks on northern Israel from southern Lebanon. In its statement, Hezbollah accused Israel of creating a pretext to renew its air attacks and reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire agreement signed in November. Quoting two security sources, Israel’s Army Radio has reported that the military response in southern Lebanon has not finished. “There will be additional strikes in the coming hours,” the sources said. Protracted conflict Saturday’s reported exchange was the first since Israel abandoned a separate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip with Palestinian group Hamas. Lebanon has also blamed Israel for the protracted conflict, after failing to withdraw from all Lebanese territory since a ceasefire deal was declared in November last year. Under the deal, a January deadline was set for an Israeli withdrawal but was later extended to February 18. Since then, Israel has remained in five locations inside Lebanon, and has carried out dozens of deadly strikes against supposed Hezbollah targets. On Saturday, Salam declared that “all security and military measures must be taken to show that Lebanon decides on matters of war and peace”. In a separate statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned “attempts” to destabilise his country and reignite violence, as he called for action to prevent further escalation of the conflict. Israel has also justified the latest attacks on Hezbollah, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order was “in response to the rocket fire at Israel this morning”. Advertisement In a statement, Netanyahu said that he and Defence Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israeli military “to act forcefully against dozens of terror targets in Lebanon”. Netanyahu said Israel was holding Lebanon’s government responsible for “everything taking place within its territory”. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said there is “a lot of concern that the situation will spiral out of control”. “What we understand is Lebanese officials are holding talks with the US-led committee monitoring the ceasefire to try to de-escalate tensions,” she said. Gaza war spillover The conflict in Lebanon marked the deadliest spillover of the Gaza war, rumbling across the border for months before escalating into a blistering Israeli offensive that wiped out Hezbollah’s top commanders, many of its fighters and much of its arsenal. The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a written statement on Saturday that it was “alarmed” by the border violence. “Any further escalation of this volatile situation could have serious consequences for the region,” it said. In an interview with Al Jazeera, political analyst Sultan Barakat of Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha warned that “as long as the [Israeli] occupation continues … the resistance will continue”. Adblock test (Why?)
India’s ‘political iftars’ once stopped riots. Are they corrupt stunts now?
New Delhi, India – It was the month of Ramadan in 1974, and the northern city of Lucknow, a hub of India’s Shia community, was on the boil. Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, a stalwart of India’s then-ruling Indian National Congress party, had taken over as the chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, whose capital is Lucknow, only a few months earlier. Shia-Sunni clashes had erupted at a time on the Muslim calendar that represents peace, prayer, reflection and a sense of community. To push for a truce, Bahuguna invited Shia leader Ashraf Hussain for a meeting. Hussain refused, saying he was unable to come because he was fasting. So Bahuguna made Hussain an offer: He could break his fast at the chief minister’s residence. Hussain accepted. The menu included fruit, sherbet, sheermal, kebabs and Lucknow’s famous biryani. And successful truce talks. At a time when Hindu-Muslim tensions in Uttar Pradesh and many other parts of India were also on the rise, Bahuguna’s iftars became a yearly affair. In subsequent years, the meals were planned, and guest lists started expanding. Advertisement In his book An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, Paul R Brass noted that Bahuguna established “a happy rapport with the Muslims” by acting boldly to suppress “anti-Muslim rioting”. The veteran politician started a phenomenon that has since become a staple of India’s political calendar: Ramadan is crammed with iftars hosted by parties and politicians eager to host influential Muslims as they court the community’s votes. Over the past 50 years, these iftars have become shows of political strength and platforms to forge alliances or to forgive past skirmishes to move on. On the one hand, analysts said, political iftars help underscore India’s secular identity – non-Muslim political leaders hosting Muslims for a meal during the holy month. “Iftar reflected a certain notion of plurality, an idea of celebrating differences in commonality,” sociologist Shiv Visvanathan told Al Jazeera. But political iftars have also attracted increasing pushback — and not just from current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has for the most part shunned these events. Critics have argued that these iftars are performative acts that are more about the interests of the leaders hosting them than about the Muslim community. “It was not sought by Muslims, and we must always remember that. Political iftar parties were not a creation of the Muslims,” said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst who has attended several such events. “Political iftar was a kind of religious outreach programme.” Advertisement “It was envisaged by non-Muslim political actors, and the Muslims were guests. They were just the showpieces.” Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi invited elite Muslims to her iftars but failed to hold on to enough Muslim voters to win the 1977 elections [File: AP Photo] When Indira Gandhi used iftars for revival — but failed By the mid-1970s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s relations with Bahuguna, her party leader in charge of the politically critical state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, often dominated headlines. The narrative: Bahuguna’s popularity in Uttar Pradesh, across all communities, unsettled Gandhi, whose courtiers tried to shape her mind against the state leader. In 1975, Bahuguna resigned. Some said he was pushed into quitting. That year would prove the start of one of independent India’s most tumultuous periods. Faced with a student movement against her and an emboldened political opposition, Gandhi was also found guilty by a High Court of misusing state resources to win the 1971 elections. A day after India’s Supreme Court upheld that verdict, which also barred her from contesting elections for six years, Gandhi imposed a state of national emergency, arresting opposition leaders and suspending civil liberties. The state of emergency would also strain the Congress party’s ties with one of its most loyal support bases: India’s Muslims. Since independence in 1947, the community — India today has 200 million Muslims, behind only Indonesia and Pakistan — had largely voted for the Congress party, initially under the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and then under Gandhi. Survivors of the bloody partition of British India, which killed more than 2 million people and displaced millions, India’s Muslims faced questions about their place in the new nation, and a secular Nehru, who committed himself to safeguarding their security, was seen as their best bet. Advertisement That pattern held all the way up until and including the 1971 elections, which Gandhi won, Theodore P Wright Jr, the late political scientist known for his work on South Asian politics, wrote in 1977 in Asian Survey, a California-headquartered journal. However, during the national emergency, Gandhi’s government oversaw two campaigns that alienated Muslims. An aggressive family planning initiative aimed at controlling population growth used forced sterilisations that spawned fears among Muslims that a Hindu majority country was in essence trying to end the growth of their community. In several instances, men from villages with large Muslim populations were rounded up and taken to sterilisation camps, where they were forced to undergo vasectomies. In some cases, the men fought back, leading to deadly clashes with security forces. In all, from 1974 to 1979, India sterilised more than 18 million people — double the number that underwent sterilisation in the previous five years. At the same time, Gandhi’s government led a large slum demolition campaign as part of an urban beautification effort that sought to clear informal settlements in cities. Tens of thousands of people were forcibly evicted from their homes as bulldozers tore down their shanties. In many cases, they were not offered any alternative housing. Muslims, India’s poorest community by religion, were disproportionately impacted. Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, was the face of these campaigns, which stirred widespread resentment among Muslims. Advertisement After the state of emergency was lifted, Bahuguna left the Congress to join a newly formed group of other defectors called the Congress for Democracy (CFD). Religious leaders like Abdullah Bukhari, the shahi imam of Delhi’s Jama Mosque, openly backed the new group,
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,122
These are the key developments on day 1,122 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is the roundup of key events on Saturday, March 22. Fighting Russian attacks killed two people late on Friday in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and three more in the country’s north and east, officials said. Zaporizhia regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, said nine people were also injured in the attack and the city had been struck more than 10 times. CCTV footage recorded on Friday showed debris falling outside an apartment building following a loud explosion in Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Rostov-on-Don’s acting regional governor, Yury Slyusar, said a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building on the 17th floor, injuring two people. Attacks took place in the southern Russian region of Voronezh, where regional governor Alexander Gusev said more than 10 Ukrainian drones were destroyed. No damage or casualties were reported. Ukraine’s public prosecutor’s office said that Russia had dropped six glide bombs on the village of Krasnopillya in Ukraine’s Sumy region. In another village, two people were injured. Air raid warnings were issued in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other parts of the country, with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko calling on people to seek shelter. According to Klitschko, debris from a downed flying object hit a building in the capital, causing a fire. Satellite imagery showed craters and damaged bunkers at Russia’s Engels strategic bomber base after Ukraine struck it with drones on Thursday. The attack triggered a major blast and fire. The base in Engels hosts Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable heavy strategic bombers. Ukraine accused Russia of illegally pressuring Ukrainians in occupied territory to change their legal status or leave and said it would report the practice to the International Criminal Court. Advertisement Russia – which now controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory – issued a presidential decree on Thursday saying Ukrainian citizens living “in Russia without legal grounds” should “regulate” their status by September. Russia’s Ministry of Defence accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up a gas metering station near the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, in what it described as a “deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime … to discredit the US president’s peaceful initiatives”. Ukraine’s military General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the Sudzha gas metering station as part of Russia’s “discrediting campaign”. The gas metering station serves a major pipeline that had pumped Russia’s natural gas to Europe until supplies were halted last year. Ceasefire Talks between Ukrainian and United States representatives in Saudi Arabia on Monday will focus primarily on technicalities surrounding a potential limited ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said. Tykhyi reiterated that Ukraine had agreed to the US proposal for a full ceasefire lasting 30 days and again blamed Russia for the failure to implement any sort of ceasefire so far. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will not travel to Saudi Arabia for the talks, but Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is set to participate. Western military planning to enforce a potential ceasefire in Ukraine is set to intensify in London next week as the United Kingdom said “nothing is off the table” over possible troop deployment for Kyiv. “Thousands” of personnel would be required to support any operation whether by “sea, on land or in the air” as allies prepare “for all eventualities” amid diplomatic efforts to end the war, the UK said. Ukraine does not consider a United Nations mission an alternative to the deployment of a contingent of foreign troops or security guarantees to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “With all due respect, the UN will not protect us from the occupation or [Russian President Valdimir] Putin’s desire to come back,” Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel in Kyiv. Advertisement Politics and diplomacy North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official in Pyongyang, North Korean state media said. Friday’s meeting between Kim and Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Security Council secretary, followed a South Korean intelligence assessment in late February that North Korea had likely sent additional troops to Russia after its forces suffered heavy casualties fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war. Shoigu conveyed a message from Putin, who extended his greetings to Kim and expressed gratitude for North Korea’s “solidarity with Russia’s position on all critical geopolitical issues, particularly on the Ukrainian issue”, according to his televised comments. South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said military cooperation between North Korea and Russia must stop, and North Korea should not be rewarded for its wrongdoings in supporting the war in Ukraine. Japan’s foreign minister told his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on Saturday that unilaterally changing the status quo by force was unacceptable. “On the situation in Ukraine, I emphasised the need for the international community to unite in calling out that any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force will not be tolerated anywhere in the world,” Takeshi Iwaya told reporters following trilateral talks in Tokyo with Beijing and Seoul. Thousands of people demonstrated against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Friday, charging that he has authoritarian tendencies and a pro-Russian stance. Serbia’s deputy prime minister said Russia’s spy services had helped Belgrade authorities respond to months of antigovernment protests, remarks which critics said revealed that the government had become dependent on Moscow. “I am very grateful to Russia’s special services, which always support us in our fight against colour revolutions, primarily with information,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexandar Vulin said in an interview with Russia’s RIA state news agency. Advertisement Russia criticised the European Union’s plans to significantly boost the bloc’s defences. The UK government said it had frozen more than 25 billion pounds ($32bn) in Russian assets since the start of the war in Ukraine three years ago. Military aid Germany’s Bundestag budget committee approved $3.25bn in additional military aid for Ukraine
Thousands join march in Turkiye’s Istanbul to protest mayor’s arrest
Thousands gather near Istanbul’s town hall in support of the city’s recently arrested mayor. Thousands of protesters have joined a march in Istanbul in support of the city’s arrested mayor, defying a warning from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that authorities would crack down on “street terror”. Demonstrators took to the streets in Turkiye’s commercial hub on Friday for the third consecutive day to show their support for Ekrem Imamoglu – Erdogan’s chief political rival – who was arrested on Wednesday, days before he was due to announce his 2028 presidential run. Opposition leader Ozgur Ozel said more than 300,000 people had joined protests across Istanbul. “We are 300,000 people,” the CHP leader told the vast crowds in front of City Hall, saying protesters had gathered at several places across the country’s largest city due to the road and bridge closures preventing people from all being in one place. The mayor was arrested early on Wednesday over alleged corruption and “terror” links. Dozens of other prominent figures, including journalists and businesspeople, were also detained. After the detentions, the government announced a four-day ban on political demonstrations. Advertisement The arrests came a day after a university in Istanbul invalidated Imamoglu’s diploma, in effect disqualifying him from the presidential race because having a university degree is required to run for the nation’s highest office under the Turkish Constitution. Imamoglu said he would challenge Istanbul University’s decision. Erdogan on Friday said the government would not tolerate street protests and accused Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) of links to corruption and “terror” organisations. “An anticorruption operation in Istanbul is being used as an excuse to stir unrest in our streets. I want it to be known that we will not allow a handful of opportunists to bring unrest to Turkiye just to protect their plundering schemes,” Erdogan said. Government critics viewed Imamoglu’s arrest as an attempt to remove a key challenger to Erdogan from Turkiye’s next national ballot. Government officials rejected accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insisted that Turkiye’s courts operate independently. Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Aksel Zaimovic said there were “many university students” at the protest outside Istanbul’s municipality building. “They say they are protesting the arrest of Imamoglu as well as the decision by Istanbul University to revoke Imamoglu’s diploma,” he said. Zaimovic also noted that protesters told him “this movement is intended to send a message about ‘systemic injustice’ in Turkish society rather than supporting any one political party.” Advertisement “Many say their right to elect an individual to represent them is being challenged by these latest developments,” he added. Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu gather outside the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality building to protest on March 19, 2025 [Murad Sezer/Reuters] Protests over Imamoglu’s arrest began in Istanbul on Wednesday and quickly spread to 32 of Turkiye’s 81 provinces, according to an AFP news agency count. The CHP, Turkiye’s main opposition party, which was intending to make Imamoglu its presidential candidate on Sunday, has described his arrest as a “coup”. “Don’t be silent! Otherwise, they’ll come for you,” protesters yelled. Many held aloft placards with slogans such as “Don’t be afraid, the people are here” and “Rights, law, justice”. Since the protests erupted, at least 88 protesters have been arrested, Turkish media reported, with Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya saying 16 police officers had been hurt. Police have also detained another 54 people for online posts authorities deemed “incitement to hatred”, he said. Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkiye’s largest city in March 2019 in a historic blow to Erdogan and the president’s Justice and Development Party, which had controlled Istanbul for a quarter-century. Adblock test (Why?)
Netanyahu’s targeting of an Israeli spy chief and the attorney general
NewsFeed “Israel under Netanyahu is becoming more and more authoritarian.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to fire the Shin Bet spy chief and Israel’s attorney general have many worried the country may not survive as a democracy. Published On 21 Mar 202521 Mar 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
What challenges lie ahead for the new IOC president?
Zimbabwean lands top job in world sport. Kirsty Coventry becomes the first woman and first African to lead the International Olympic Committee, the world’s largest sports body. Bans on Russia but not Israel and the role of money in the Olympic Games are two challenges she faces. What other hurdles lie ahead? Presenter: Sami Zeidan Guests: Philip Barker – editor-in-chief of the Journal of Olympic History Donald Rukare – president of the Uganda Olympic Committee Bassil Mikdadi – founder of the FootballPalestine.com website Adblock test (Why?)
Trying to heal the trauma of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank
Jenin and Tulkarem, occupied West Bank – Omaima Faraj bows her head in silence for a moment – she’s tired, but the work does not stop. She arrives at a school-turned-shelter near Tulkarem where her first patient, an elderly displaced woman who greets her tenderly, is waiting for her to measure her glucose and blood pressure. Then she moves to the next classroom, the next patient, walking down an open passage drenched in late-February sunshine. Faraj, 25, has been volunteering to help residents devastated by the Israeli raids for weeks. She is one of the young Palestinians working to address the emergency Israel is creating across the occupied West Bank as it raids refugee camps and displaces thousands. Rushing into danger When Israel’s military occupation and displacement of the camp began in what the Israelis have called operation “Iron Wall”, on January 21, Faraj rushed into the camp instead of running away from the violence. The volunteers prioritise visits to patients with chronic diseases [Al Jazeera] She stayed there with her fellow volunteers for more than 12 critical days, when the attacks were at their fiercest and people were still trying to organise to flee the camp. Advertisement They focused on delivering aid to people in need – the injured, the elderly, and people with limited mobility. Nobody could get to a hospital because the Israeli soldiers wouldn’t let them. Israeli soldiers harassed the volunteers, Faraj recounts, describing how they would threaten her and her colleagues, telling them to leave and never return or they’d be shot. One incident particularly haunts her, of an elderly man who was trapped in his house for four days. The team kept trying to reach him, but Israeli soldiers blocked their path. Finally, the International Committee of the Red Cross intervened, coordinating with the Israelis to allow safe passage for the volunteers. When they reached the man, he was in dire straits – lacking food, water and hygiene for four days, but they were finally able to evacuate him. As they were leaving, they were goaded, warned not to return – or risk being shot. Backpack medics “We didn’t have an emergency plan for this,” says Alaa Srouji, director of the Al-Awda Center in Tulkarem. Two volunteers visit an elderly displaced woman to help her and check her health [Al Jazeera] Al-Awda and the Lajee Center of Aida Camp in Bethlehem are training volunteers to document the expulsions of people and camp conditions so they can assess the aid needed. The volunteers are about 15 mostly female nurses and medics who came together when the Israeli raids began, to provide medical aid and distribute essentials to the thousands who were harmed. Their young faces show the toll of nearly two months of working nonstop with people displaced by the Israeli attack on the Nur Shams and Tulkarem camps. Advertisement They are struggling to fill a huge gap left when Israel banned the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) from helping people in the occupied West Bank. These volunteers don’t have headquarters, they spend all day walking around to serve people with nothing more than their backpacks and determination. They go to one of the 11 temporary, hurriedly set up shelters or wherever their patients have managed to find a place to live. They bring medical and psychological support and also clothes, food, and other necessities to those who have lost everything to Israel’s raiding soldiers. Ismael, 23, risked returning to Tulkarem camp, where his home was. He stands in awe of the destruction Israel has inflicted [Al Jazeera] In their backpacks are gauze, portable glucose monitors, gloves, bandages, tourniquets, manual blood pressure monitors, notebooks and pens. “Our role as a local community is so important,” says Alaa. The volunteers must also support each other emotionally, holding group sessions to cope with the toll of working within their devastated communities. Many of them are from the camp, so they are also displaced, targeted, and have seen their neighbourhoods levelled by Israeli bulldozers. Faraj is no different. Like many Palestinians, she is marked by loss and violence after her 18-year-old brother was killed by an Israeli drone in January 2024. The camp is a no-go zone. Some displaced residents take the risk of returning to their homes to try to retrieve some of their belongings. They navigate rubble-filled streets, the stench of rotting food left behind in now-abandoned houses, and sewers torn open by bulldozers, while Israeli soldiers patrol and drones hover overhead, searching for movement inside the camp. Advertisement Laughing, crying, screaming the trauma An hour’s drive from Tulkarem is Jenin, and 10 minutes from Jenin is a village called Kafr Dan where an unusual sound filters in the air – children’s laughter. Children shout, jump, and scream during a Freedom Theater programme to allow them to discuss their trauma and give them a space for play and laughter [Al Jazeera] About 20 children roam around the garden of a large house. They’re gathered into a rough circle by trainers who encourage them to speak – loudly – to let out their fear and anger. The activity is organised by the Freedom Theater of Jenin, which came to Kafr Dan to provide this moment of respite for displaced children to simply be, at least for a moment. They started up inside Jenin camp as a space where children and youth could participate in cultural activities but have been blocked by the Israeli army from being there. So, “We bring the theatre to the children,” says Shatha Jarrar, one of the three activity coordinators. The children are encouraged to be as loud as they like, to scream out the fear and anger they hold inside after the violence they have been exposed to. A game involving a small ball balanced on a spoon is next, making the children laugh again and their watching mothers smile, happy to see their children happy. Sitting by the side is a smiling Um Muhammed, 67, who has brought some of
Migrant deaths hit record number in 2024, UN agency says
Nearly 9,000 fatalities confirmed worldwide, but real toll likely much higher. Nearly 9,000 people died last year trying to cross borders, the United Nations agency for migration says. The death toll set a new grim record for the fifth year in a row. The number of deaths on migratory routes has more than doubled since 2020. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded 8,938 migrant deaths in 2024. The real death toll is likely much higher given that many deaths go unreported or undocumented, the IOM said in a statement on Friday. “The rise of deaths is terrible in and of itself, but the fact that thousands remained unidentified each year is even more tragic,” Julia Black, coordinator of the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, said in the statement. The IOM’s deputy director general for operations, Ugochi Daniels, said: “The increase in deaths across so many regions in the world shows why we need an international, holistic response that can prevent further tragic loss of life.” “Behind every number is a human being, someone for whom the loss is devastating,” he added. Advertisement Asia was the region with the most reported fatalities with 2,788, followed by the Mediterranean Sea with 2,452 and Africa with 2,242. Final data are not yet in for the Americas, but at least 1,233 deaths (including 341 in the Caribbean) occurred in 2024. At least 233 migrants lost their lives in Europe and 174 in the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, a new record. According to the IOM, migrants are all people who leave their place of residence for any reason, for any length of time, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Some seek asylum because they are fleeing war or violence. News of the record death toll comes days after the agency announced it was suspending many “lifesaving” programmes around the world and firing hundreds of employees due to United States aid cuts, impacting millions of vulnerable migrants and refugees worldwide. The Geneva-based IOM is one of several groups helping displaced people that have been hit by major US aid cuts, forcing it to scale back or shutter programmes, which it said will have a severe impact on migrants. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli ex-deputy FM confronted over Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza
Redi Tlhabi challenges ex-Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon on Israel’s ceasefire breach and its war on Gaza. Israel has shattered the ceasefire with Hamas this week through extensive air raids that killed hundreds of civilians, including at least 200 children. Israeli ground troops were also deployed, ending the ceasefire that lasted just less than two months. Then, on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened the residents of Gaza with “destruction and devastation” if they did not expel Hamas. So, what lies ahead for Gaza and is it in danger of a complete takeover? This week on UpFront, Redi Tlhabi speaks with Israel’s former deputy foreign minister about Israel’s war in Gaza. Adblock test (Why?)
Are Gen Z rejecting city life for farm life?
Today on The Stream: We examine why so many people of Gen Z age are choosing farm life over city dwellings. Faced with burnout, soaring rents, and a yearning for a slower, more intentional life, Gen Z is leaving cities behind for farms. From homesteading to off-grid communities, young people are redefining success through self-sufficiency and sustainability. But is rural life truly the answer, or does it bring its own set of challenges? With increasing land costs, social isolation, and infrastructure limitations, can this movement endure? We hear from those embracing this shift. Is rural living the key to a healthier, more sustainable society? Presenter: Anelise Borges Guests:Shannon Hayes – CEO, SAP Bush Hollow FarmVictor Gabriel Lara – Creative directorPatrick Vernuccio – Urban gardening content creator and authorMohammed Ali Al Khater – Co-Founder and CEO, Torba Farm Adblock test (Why?)