Why 25-year-old Mahnoor Omer took Pakistan to court over periods
Growing up in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, Mahnoor Omer remembers the shame and anxiety she felt in school when she had periods. Going to the toilet with a sanitary pad was an act of stealth, like trying to cover up a crime. “I used to hide my pad up my sleeve like I was taking narcotics to the bathroom,” says Omer, who comes from a middle-class family – her father a businessman and her mother a homemaker. “If someone talked about it, teachers would put you down.” A classmate once told her that her mother considered pads “a waste of money”. “That’s when it hit me,” says Omer. “If middle-class families think this way, imagine how out of reach these products are for others.” Now 25, Omer has gone from cautious schoolgirl to national centrestage in a battle that could reshape menstrual hygiene in Pakistan, a country where critics say economics is compounding social stigma to punish women – simply for being women. In September, Omer, a lawyer, petitioned the Lahore High Court, challenging what she and many others say is effectively a “period tax” imposed by Pakistan on its more than 100 million women. Pakistani governments have, under the Sales Tax Act of 1990, long charged an 18 percent sales tax on locally manufactured sanitary pads and a customs tax of 25 percent on imported ones, as well as on raw materials needed to make them. Add on other local taxes, and UNICEF Pakistan says that these pads are often effectively taxed at about 40 percent. Omer’s petition argues that these taxes – which specifically affect women – are discriminatory, and violate a series of constitutional provisions that guarantee equality and dignity, elimination of exploitation and the promotion of social justice. Advertisement In a country where menstruation is already a taboo subject in most families, Omer and other lawyers and activists supporting the petition say that the taxes make it even harder for most Pakistani women to access sanitary products. A standard pack of commercially branded sanitary pads in Pakistan currently costs about 450 rupees ($1.60) for 10 pieces. In a country with a per capita income of $120 a month, that’s the cost of a meal of rotis and dal for a low-income family of four. Cut the cost by 40 percent – the taxes – and the calculations become less loaded against sanitary pads. At the moment, only 12 percent of Pakistani women use commercially produced sanitary pads, according to a 2024 study by UNICEF and the WaterAid nonprofit. The rest improvise using cloth or other materials, and often do not even have access to clean water to wash themselves. “If this petition goes forward, it’s going to make pads affordable,” says Hira Amjad, the founder and executive director of Dastak Foundation, a Pakistani nonprofit whose work is focused on promoting gender equality and combating violence against women. And that, say lawyers and activists, could serve as a spark for broader social change. The court docket describes the case as Mahnoor Omer against senior officials of the government of Pakistan. But that’s not what it feels like to Omer. “It feels like women versus Pakistan.” Activists of Mahwari Justice, a menstrual rights group, distributing period kits to women in Pakistan [Photo courtesy Mahwari Justice] ‘It’s not shameful’ Bushra Mahnoor, founder of Mahwari Justice, a Pakistani student-led organisation whose name translates to “menstrual justice”, realised early just how much of a struggle it could be to access sanitary pads. Mahnoor – no relation to Omer – grew up in Attock, a city in the northwestern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province, with four sisters. “Every month, I had to check if there were enough pads. If my period came when one of my sisters had hers too,” finding a pad was a challenge, she says. The struggle continued in school, where, as was the case with Omer, periods were associated with shame. A teacher once made one of her classmates stand for two entire lectures because her white uniform was stained. “That was dehumanising,” she says. Mahnoor was 10 when she had her first period. “I didn’t know how to use a pad. I stuck it upside down; the sticky side touched my skin. It was painful. No one tells you how to manage it.” She says that shame was never hers alone, but it’s part of a silence which starts at home and accompanies girls into adulthood. A study on menstrual health in Pakistan shows that eight out of 10 girls feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when talking about periods, and two out of three girls report never having received information about menstruation before it began. The findings, published in the Frontiers in Public Health journal in 2023, link this silence to poor hygiene, social exclusion and missed school days. Advertisement In 2022, when floods devastated Pakistan, Mahnoor began Mahwari Justice to ensure that relief camps did not overlook the menstrual needs of women. “We began distributing pads and later realised there’s so much more to be done,” she says. Her organisation has distributed more than 100,000 period kits – each containing pads, soap, underwear, detergent and painkillers – and created rap songs and comics to normalise conversations about menstruation. “When you say the word ‘mahwari’ out loud, you’re teaching people it’s not shameful,” she says. “It’s just life.” The same floods also influenced Amjad, the Dastak Foundation founder, though her nonprofit has been around for a decade now. Its work now also includes distributing period kits during natural disasters. But the social stigma associated with menstruation is also closely tied to economics in the ways in which its impact plays out for Pakistani women, suggests Amjad. “In most households, it’s the men who make financial decisions,” she says. “Even if the woman is bringing the money, she’s giving it to the man, and he is deciding where that money needs to go.” And if the cost of women’s health feels too high, that’s
Trump says all trade talks with Canada are terminated
BREAKINGBREAKING, US President says fraudulent advertisement featuring the late President Ronald Reagan to blame for termination of talks. By Reuters Published On 24 Oct 202524 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share US President Donald Trump said that all trade talks with Canada have been terminated following what he called a fraudulent television advertisement in which former President Ronald Reagan spoke negatively about tariffs. “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late on Thursday. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump added. Earlier on Thursday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute posted on social media that a TV ad created by the government of Ontario in Canada “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” The foundation also said that Ontario had not received its permission “to use and edit the remarks” of the late US president. The foundation added that it was “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address. Listen to President Reagan’s unedited remarks here: https://t.co/1gQUcbR4eZ pic.twitter.com/iqmjSuypp0 — Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) October 24, 2025 Trump’s announcement on the end of trade talks also follows after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aimed to double his country’s exports to countries outside the US because of the threat posed by the Trump administration’s tariffs. Advertisement The Canadian prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s decision. This is a breaking news story. More to follow soon. Adblock test (Why?)
Irish presidential election: Who is running and what’s at stake?
Voters in Ireland will head to the polls on Friday to elect a new president for a seven-year term. While the Irish presidency is a mostly ceremonial role, this election takes place amid a historic shift towards a more polarised political system, Barry Colfer, director of research at Dublin’s Institute of International and European Affairs, told Al Jazeera. Since the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922 and the subsequent end of the Irish Civil War in May 1923, Irish politics, unlike in other European countries, have not been drawn along left-right lines, he said. “What we’re seeing today for the first time in Irish history is a presidential election between objectively left-wing and right-wing candidates.” This change has become more apparent in recent years. In the 2020 general election, left-wing nationalist party Sinn Fein – the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army – won the most first-preference votes for the first time since the country’s founding, bringing an end to the traditional two-party dominance of the centre-right parties Fianna Fail (FF) and Fine Gael (FG). By the end of the voting process, Sinn Fein had 37 seats, finishing close to neck-and-neck with FF at 38 and FG at 35. There are 174 seats in Dail Eireann (Irish for Ireland’s lower house of parliament) in total, with 88 needed to form a government. The two previously dominant parties’ origins date back to the Irish Civil War and its aftermath, with FG’s forerunner supporting the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which granted the country partial independence, and FF opposing it. Advertisement For the first time in their history, FF and FG were forced to enter into a formal coalition government with the Green Party in 2020 to be able to form a government. Following the 2024 election, they partnered with independents instead of the Greens. President Michael D Higgins at the Irish National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Ireland, September 16, 2025 [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] Who serves as president of Ireland, and what do they do? The presidency has a relatively limited political role, comparable to that of monarchs in other countries, said Gail McElroy, a professor of political science at Trinity College Dublin. It is “seen as a unifying role beyond politics”. The president represents Ireland abroad and hosts visiting heads of state and other dignitaries at the official presidential residence, Aras an Uachtarain, in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. The president is, above all, responsible for ensuring that the Irish Constitution is followed. After the presidency was established in 1938, one year after the current Bunreacht na hEireann (Irish constitution) was adopted, it was generally held by a statesman with a long affiliation to one of the two main political parties. For instance, Eamon de Valera, one of the leading political figures during Ireland’s War for Independence and founder of FF, served as taoiseach (prime minister) from 1937 to 1948, 1951 to 1954 and from 1957 to 1959, and then as the country’s third president from 1959 to 1973. The election of Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first female president, in 1990 “marked a watershed moment”, McElroy told Al Jazeera. The election of Robinson, who had been nominated by the Labour Party and the Workers’ Party, and also received official support from the Green Party, transformed the presidency from a largely symbolic, conservative office into one with more significant diplomatic influence. Her presidential campaign had included a commitment to expand the role of the president into a more active one focused on social issues and to foster an image of a “new Ireland”. Before becoming president, she had served as a senator in Seanad Eireann (Irish senate) from 1969 to 1989, and been a member of the Dublin City Council from 1979 to 1983. During her time in office, she signed two significant bills that she had fought for throughout her political career: a 1992 bill to fully liberalise the law on the availability of contraceptives, and a 1993 bill fully decriminalising homosexuality. She also signed the legalisation of divorce into law in 1996. Advertisement As president, Robinson also took significant steps to foster an atmosphere of reconciliation between Ireland and the United Kingdom. She made history by being the first Irish president to meet a British monarch, then Queen Elizabeth II, in an official capacity. She also controversially met and shook hands with Gerry Adams, then the leader of Sinn Fein, a significant move towards dialogue at a critical time in the Northern Ireland peace process. And finally, Robinson used her presidential platform to advocate for human rights worldwide, notably becoming the first head of state to visit Somalia in 1992 following the civil war and famine, drawing international attention to the country’s humanitarian crisis. Mary McAleese, the first person born in Northern Ireland to serve as president, held the office from 1997 to 2011 – like Robinson, during pivotal years for the Northern Ireland peace process that culminated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement ending the three-decade conflict that had begun in the late 1960s in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles. Her emphasis on reconciliation culminated in a historic state visit to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth II. Michael D Higgins, president since 2011, has stretched the conventions of his office with, at times, strong criticism of government policy on both domestic and foreign policy issues, particularly regarding the country’s housing crisis and longstanding policy of military neutrality. Higgins has also been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, in line with the overwhelming majority of the Irish public, and has been unequivocal in calling for a permanent ceasefire since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza. The Irish government has been one of the most critical voices of Israel within the European Union, supporting South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Higgins has described Israel’s war on Gaza as the “incredible destruction of an entire people” and echoed the Irish government in calling it a breach of international law. At times, Higgins has
Israeli airstrikes target multiple areas across Lebanon
NewsFeed Israeli airstrikes have targeted multiple areas in eastern and southern Lebanon, claiming to hit Hezbollah targets. Israel has been carrying out regular attacks on Lebanon despite a nearly year-old ceasefire between it and Hezbollah. Published On 23 Oct 202523 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Will Trump’s sanctions against Russian oil giants hurt Putin?
Washington has announced new sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, in an effort to pressure Moscow to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine. This marks the first time the current Trump administration has imposed direct sanctions on Russia. Speaking alongside Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said he hoped the sanctions would not need to be in place for long, but expressed growing frustration with stalled truce negotiations. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “Every time I speak to Vladimir [Putin], I have good conversations and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” Trump said, shortly after a planned in-person meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Budapest was cancelled. Trump’s move is designed to cut off vital oil revenues, which help fund Russia’s ongoing war efforts. Earlier on Wednesday, Russia unleashed a new bombardment on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, killing at least seven people, including children. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new sanctions were necessary because of “Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war”. He said that Rosneft and Lukoil fund the Kremlin’s “war machine”. A Lukoil petrol station in Sofia, Bulgaria, on October 23, 2025 [Stoyan Nenov/Reuters] How have Rosneft and Lukoil been sanctioned? The new measures will freeze assets owned by Rosneft and Lukoil in the US, and bar US entities from engaging in business with them. Thirty subsidiaries owned by Rosneft and Lukoil have also been sanctioned. Advertisement Rosneft, which is controlled by the Kremlin, is Russia’s second-largest company in terms of revenue, behind natural gas giant Gazprom. Lukoil is Russia’s third-largest company and its biggest non-state enterprise. Between them, the two groups export 3.1 million barrels of oil per day, or 70 percent of Russia’s overseas crude oil sales. Rosneft alone is responsible for nearly half of Russia’s oil production, which in all makes up 6 percent of global output. In recent years, both companies have been hit by rolling European sanctions and reduced oil prices. In September, Rosneft reported a 68 percent year-on-year drop in net income for the first half of 2025. Lukoil posted an almost 27 percent fall in profits for 2024. Meanwhile, last week, the United Kingdom unveiled sanctions on the two oil majors. Elsewhere, the European Union looks set to announce its 19th package of penalties on Moscow later today, including a ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas. How much impact will these sanctions have? In 2022, Russian oil groups (including Rosneft and Lukoil) were able to offset some of the effects of sanctions by pivoting exports from Europe to Asia, and also using a “shadow fleet” of hard-to-detect tankers with no ties to Western financial or insurance groups. China and India quickly replaced the EU as Russia’s biggest oil consumers. Last year, China imported a record 109 million tonnes of Russian crude, representing almost 20 percent of its total energy imports. India imported 88 million tonnes of Russian oil in 2024. In both cases, these are orders of magnitude higher than before 2022, when Western countries started to tighten their sanctions regime on Russia. At the end of 2021, China imported roughly 79.6 million tonnes of Russian crude. India imported just 0.42 million tonnes. Trump has repeatedly urged Beijing and New Delhi to halt Russian energy purchases. In August, he levied an additional 25 percent trade tariff on India because of its continued purchase of discounted Russian oil. He has so far demurred from a similar move against China. However, Trump’s new sanctions are likely to place pressure on foreign financial groups which do business with Rosneft and Lukoil, including the banking intermediaries which facilitate sales of Russian oil in China and India. “Engaging in certain transactions involving the persons designated today may risk the imposition of secondary sanctions on participating foreign financial institutions,” the US Treasury Department’s press release on Wednesday’s sanctions says. Advertisement As a result, the new restrictions may force buyers to shift to alternative suppliers or pay higher prices. Though India and China may not be the direct targets of these latest restrictions, their oil supply chains and trading costs are likely to come under increased pressure. “The big thing here is the secondary sanctions,” Felipe Pohlmann Gonzaga, a Switzerland-based commodity trader, told Al Jazeera. “Any bank that facilitates Russian oil sales and with exposure to the US financial system could be subject.” However, he added, “I don’t think this will be the driver in ending the war, as Russia will continue selling oil. There are always people out there willing to take the risk to beat sanctions. “These latest restrictions will make Chinese and Indian players more reluctant to buy Russian oil – many won’t want to lose access to the American financial system. [But] it won’t stop it completely.” According to Bloomberg, several senior refinery executives in India – who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue – said the restrictions would make it impossible for oil purchases to continue. On Wednesday, Trump said that he would raise concerns about China’s continued purchases of Russian oil during his talk with President Xi Jinping at the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea next week. Rosneft’s Russian-flagged crude oil tanker Vladimir Monomakh transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkiye, on July 6, 2023 [Yoruk Isik/Reuters] Have oil prices been affected? Oil prices rallied after Trump announced US sanctions. Brent – the international crude oil benchmark – rose nearly 4 percent to $65 a barrel on Thursday. The US Benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, jumped more than 5 percent to nearly $60 per barrel. Pohlmann Gonzaga, however, predicted that the “market will correct from this 5 percent over-jump. You have to recall that sentiment in energy markets is still negative due to the gloomy [global] economic backdrop.” Adblock test (Why?)
Where might the stolen Louvre jewels end up; will the robbers be caught?
The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, reopened to the public on Wednesday after a jewellery heist prompted a three-day closure. During the robbery, a band of thieves broke into the French capital’s iconic museum and stole eight items of jewellery containing precious jewels from the Napoleonic era on October 19. The robbers are still at large, and the jewels have not been found. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Here is what we know so far about where the jewellery could be, whether it can be traced, and whether the robbers will be found. What was stolen from the Louvre? At 9:30am (07:30 GMT), a group of robbers used a truck-mounted ladder to reach the gilded Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo’s Gallery) on the second floor of the museum before taking an angle grinder to a window to access the French crown jewels. The heist took place around half an hour after the museum opened to the public. The stolen articles were: A tiara from the jewellery set of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense A necklace from the same duo’s sapphire jewellery set A single earring from the sapphire jewellery set An emerald necklace from a set belonging to Empress Marie-Louise A pair of emerald earrings from the Marie-Louise set A brooch known as the “reliquary” brooch The tiara of Empress Eugenie A large brooch of Empress Eugenie The robbers also stole a ninth item, the crown of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. But it was recovered nearby, thought to have been dropped by the thieves, according to the French Ministry of the Interior. How much are the stolen items worth? The haul of jewels is worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102m), Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau told RTL radio on Tuesday. Advertisement “It is important to remember that this damage is an economic damage, but it is nothing compared to the historical damage caused by this theft,” Beccuau said. Sets of jewelry, including the crown, tiara, and large bodice bow of Empress Eugénie, on display at the Louvre Museum on October 21, 2023 in Paris, France. The Louvre reopened its doors to visitors in Paris on October 22, 2025, three days after thieves stole jewels worth around 88 million euros ($102m) in a daring daytime heist [Zhang Mingming/VCG via Getty Images] Why is this heist different from previous robberies at the museum? This is not the first time the Louvre has been robbed. However, previous robberies have mostly involved the theft of paintings – for example, the Mona Lisa, which was stolen in 1911 – rather than jewels. “A jewellery theft is a very different thing to consider because of the high intrinsic value of the object stolen,” American art historian Noah Charney told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “A painting doesn’t have a high intrinsic value because it’s usually made of panel and pigment, and canvas and nothing more. Whereas jewellery has a high intrinsic value because if you break down what was stolen and sell the components, the value is still significant,” Charney explained. Where could the jewels be now? The jewels are most likely still in France, Dutch art historian Arthur Brand told Al Jazeera. They could be sold on the black market, but this would reduce their value because of the high risk associated with being in possession of them. “They are very ‘hot’ and the price on the black market will be way below the regular market,” Brand said, estimating that the black-market prices would be between 10 and 30 percent of their value. This means the $102m jewels could sell at between $10.2m and $30.6m on the black market. Charney said the thieves will not need to go to the black market at all if the jewels are recut significantly and no longer identifiable. However, re-cutting gems also reduces their value. If a thief tries to re-cut an antique diamond to a modern shape, they may lose some of the diamond’s size and value. Corinne Chartrelle, a former officer with the French Police’s unit for cultural property trafficking, told Reuters that the stolen jewels could ultimately be sold in major diamond markets such as Antwerp in Belgium, where some buyers may not care about their origins. Alternatively, “they might try to sell the jewels in countries like India, Israel or Dubai,” said Brand. Will the thieves be caught? “The thieves will get caught for sure. Recovering the jewels is 50 percent – depends on the time it will take to arrest the thieves,” Brand said. Advertisement Public prosecutors have tasked the BRB (Brigade de Repression du Banditisme – or the Banditry Repression Brigade), a specialised Paris police unit experienced in handling high-profile thefts, with investigating the heist. Former police officer Pascal Szkudlara, who previously worked in the BRB, told Reuters that the unit is experienced in such cases, and handled the 2016 Paris theft of media personality Kim Kardashian’s engagement ring, worth $4m. Szkudlara said he was “100 percent” confident that the thieves would eventually be caught. Police are expected to review surveillance camera footage going back weeks in an attempt to identify suspicious people in and around the premises. However, time is limited because if the jewels are recut, they will never be returned to their original form, even if the thieves are caught. Have there been other robberies in European museums recently? The Louvre robbery comes amid a recent spate of jewellery thefts from other museums in Europe. Recent incidents include: September 2025: Museum of Natural History, France On September 30, a 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona after stealing six gold nuggets from the Museum of Natural History in Paris. The gold nuggets were worth about 1.5 million euros ($1.74m). The woman was arrested while trying to dispose of melted gold – it is unclear who may have melted it. The museum’s alarms and security system had been disabled in a cyberattack, but it is also unclear whether the thieves were the ones behind the cyberattack or
LIVE: Trump to host NATO chief as Putin meeting collapses
blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visits the US as Trump proposes freezing the battle lines in the Russia-Ukraine war. Published On 22 Oct 202522 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
LIVE: Real Madrid vs Juventus – UEFA Champions League
blinking-dotLive MatchLive Match, Follow our live build-up, with full team news coverage, ahead of our text commentary stream of the UCL tie. Published On 22 Oct 202522 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Trump claims Middle East countries offered to fight Hamas in Gaza
United States President Donald Trump has suggested that several countries in the Middle East have offered to send forces to Gaza to fight Hamas, renewing his threats to the Palestinian group amid the fragile ceasefire in the territory. “Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Trump did not specify which countries offered to go into Gaza, but he did single out Indonesia for its assistance in the region. “I would like to thank the great and powerful country of Indonesia, and its wonderful leader, for all of the help they have shown and given to the Middle East, and to the USA,” Trump said. Jakarta and other governments have offered to send peacekeeping troops to restore security and stability in Gaza, but no country has said that it would be willing to clash directly with Hamas. “The love and spirit for the Middle East has not been seen like this in a thousand years! It is a beautiful thing to behold! I told these countries, and Israel, ‘NOT YET!’ There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right,” the US president said. “If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL!” Israel has killed nearly 100 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect on October 10. Trump often issues similar threats to Hamas. But it is not clear what the US or any other force can do to strong-arm the Palestinian group that Israel has not. Advertisement Over the past two years, Israel has killed most of Hamas’s political and military leaders, while also levelling Gaza to the ground and imposing famine on the territory in a campaign that leading rights groups and United Nations investigators say is a genocide. Shaky ceasefire Trump had been hailing the ceasefire, which his administration helped broker, as a historic turning point to bring peace to the region. But from the outset of the truce, Israel has been killing Palestinians it claims were approaching areas under control of the Israeli military, which are not clearly marked. Moreover, Israel has continued to restrict aid to Gaza despite commitments in the deal to allow a surge in humanitarian assistance to the territory. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has only allowed the entry of 986 aid trucks into the enclave since the start of the ceasefire, a fraction of the expected 6,600 trucks, at a rate of 600 daily. On Sunday, the agreement was pushed to the brink when Israel launched a wave of air strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians and fully suspended the entry of aid to Gaza after two Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah. Israel blamed Hamas for killing the troops, but the Palestinian group denied any involvement, underscoring that the incident took place in an area under Israeli control. Some US media outlets reported that the Israeli soldiers were killed after they drove over an unexploded ordnance. Besides the day-to-day issues threatening the truce, question marks continue to hang over the long-term future of Gaza, including how the territory will be governed. Trump has stressed that Hamas must disarm, but the Palestinian group has linked giving up its weapons to the establishment of a Palestinian state. On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that there is no hard timeline for Hamas disarmament. Later that day, his vice president, JD Vance, who is currently visiting Israel, suggested that an international force needs to deploy to Gaza and establish “security infrastructure” before Hamas disarms. Vance optimistic about ceasefire Speaking to reporters in Israel later on Tuesday, Vance expressed optimism about the future of the ceasefire, saying that the bursts of violence were not unexpected. “We are doing very well. We’re in a very good place. We’re going to have to keep working on it, but I think we have the team to do exactly that,” he said. Vance reiterated that Hamas must disarm, but he acknowledged that the process will take time. Asked about efforts to return the bodies of slain Israeli captives, an issue that Israel has cited to justify blocking aid to Gaza, the US vice president highlighted the difficulty in reaching the remains amid the widespread destruction. Advertisement “This is not going to happen overnight,” he said. “Some of the hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages no one even knows where they are.” While the bodies of around 15 Israelis remain in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have gone missing throughout the war, many are presumed dead and buried under the rubble. Israel has returned the bodies of at least 135 Palestinian captives to Gaza with many showing signs of torture and execution, according to health official in the territory. On Tuesday, Vance announced opening the Civilian Military Co-operation Centre (CMCC), a US-led base in Israel that will facilitate reconstruction and aid delivery to Gaza. Brad Cooper, the commander of the Middle East-based Central Command of the US military, said there are 200 American troops serving at the centre. “This facility will be the hub for the delivery of everything that goes into Gaza as we look to the future,” he told reporters. The US military had said that American soldiers will not be on the ground inside Gaza. Adblock test (Why?)
Dutch privacy watchdog warns voters against asking AI how to vote
Body finds that chatbots provide biased advice, including by leading voters to the hard-right Party for Freedom. Published On 21 Oct 202521 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share The Netherlands’s data protection watchdog has cautioned citizens against consulting with artificial intelligence on how to vote, warning that popular chatbots provide a “highly distorted and polarised view” of politics. The Dutch Data Protection Authority said on Tuesday that an increasing number of voters were using AI to help decide who to vote for, despite the models offering “unreliable and clearly biased” advice. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The watchdog issued the warning as it released the results of tests conducted on four popular chatbots – ChatGPT, Gemini, Mistral, and Grok – in the run-up to parliamentary elections on October 29. The research found that the chatbots more often recommended parties on the fringes of the political spectrum when asked to identify the three choices that best matched the policy preferences of 1,500 fictitious voter profiles. In more than half of cases, the AI models identified the hard-right Party for Freedom (PVV) or left-wing Green Left-Labour Party as the top choice, the watchdog said. Parties closer to the political middle ground – such as the right-leaning People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and the centre-left Democrats 66 – were recommended much less often, according to the watchdog. Meanwhile, some groupings, including the conservative Christian Democratic Appeal and left-leaning Denk, were “almost never suggested”. Monique Verdier, deputy chair of the authority, said that voters who turned to AI risked being encouraged to vote for parties that do not align with their preferences. Advertisement “This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections. We therefore urge voters not to use AI chatbots for voting advice because their operation is neither transparent nor verifiable,” Verdier said in a statement. “Additionally, we call on chatbot providers to prevent their systems from being used as voting guides.” The October 29 election comes after the PVV, led by anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders, pulled its support for the government after its coalition partners refused to back a 10-point plan to radically curtail immigration. Wilders’s PPV, which scored one of the biggest upsets in Dutch political history by winning the most seats in the 2023 election, has consistently led opinion polls before next week’s vote. While the PPV is on track to win the most seats for a second straight election, it is all but certain to fall far short of a parliamentary majority. The other major parties in the Netherlands, which has been governed by coalition governments without interruption since the 1940s, have all ruled out supporting the PPV in power. Adblock test (Why?)