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Items by Reuters
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How US allies are preparing for a possible second Trump term
Germany is waging a charm offensive inside the Republican Party. Japan is lining up its own Trump whisperer. Mexican government officials are talking to Camp Trump. And Australia is busy making laws to help Trump-proof its US defence ties. Everywhere, US allies are taking steps to defend or advance...
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Widowed Palestinian does not expect much from US action against Israel
Omar Assad’s 81-year-old widow still hopes to see justice served against the Israeli soldiers she blames for his death two years ago in the Occupied West Bank, but is not pinning hope on any action the United States might take against their battalion. Assad, a dual Palestinian-US citizen, died...
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Why is the US looking to sanction Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion?
Israeli leaders said they will fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units for alleged human rights abuses after media reports said Washington was planning its first sanctions against the country’s defence forces. The United States will impose sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion over its treatment...
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After surviving an Israeli air strike, Palestinian boy dies seeking aid
When an Israeli air strike destroyed his family’s home in November, Zein Oroq was pinned under rubble. He was wounded but survived, while 17 members of his extended family died. But Zein, 13, would later suffer a cruel fate in Gaza, where Palestinians face severe shortages of medicine, food...
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Gaza’s IVF embryos have been destroyed by an Israeli air strike, killing hopes and dreams
When an Israeli shell struck Gaza’s largest fertility clinic in December, the explosion blasted the lids off five liquid nitrogen tanks in a corner of the embryology unit. As the ultra-cold liquid evaporated, the temperature inside the tanks rose, destroying more than 4,000 embryos plus 1,000 more specimens of...
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Sudan’s humanitarian crisis explained
A year of war between rival military factions in Sudan has pushed parts of the country to the brink of famine, and left 25 million people — about half the population — in need of humanitarian aid, according to aid agencies. Sudan was already burdened with rising hunger, a...
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Who is fighting in Sudan?
Here are some facts about Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group which have been fighting each other for a year, devastating their country, reigniting ethnically-targeted killings in the Darfur region, and displacing millions of people. The army and RSF were uneasy partners in the toppling...
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FACTBOX – Airlines suspend flights due to Middle East tensions
Global airlines faced disruptions to flights on Monday after Iran’s missile and drone retaliation on Israel further narrowed options for planes navigating between Europe and Asia. While Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon reopened their airspaces on Sunday, some routes continue to be affected. Below airlines have provided an update: Cancelled/Rerouted Germany’s Lufthansa suspended its regular flights...
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Sudan’s year-old war: The build-up and the turmoil
Sudan is now a year into a war between rival military factions that has killed thousands, forced millions to flee and created a humanitarian catastrophe. Below is the timeline of the events that led up to the conflict and the turmoil that followed: The build-up 19 December, 2018 –...
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What is the UK’s Rwanda migrant deportation plan?
Britain’s Parliament is set to pass legislation that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hopes will pave the way for the Government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda if they arrive in Britain without permission. Last November, the UK Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful, but Sunak says the new law overrides any...
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Are Iran drones turning the tide of Sudan civil war?
A year into Sudan’s civil war, Iranian-made armed drones have helped the army turn the tide of the conflict, halting the progress of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Force and regaining territory around the capital, a senior army source told Reuters. Six Iranian sources, regional officials and diplomats –...
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What military support does the US provide Israel?
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has prompted calls for Washington to put conditions on the billions of dollars in military funding and other assistance it provides to Israel, which has received more US foreign aid since World War Two than any other country. The following are details of US...
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FACTBOX – What we know so far about the seven aid workers killed in Gaza by Israel
An Israeli airstrike on an aid convoy in Gaza on Monday killed seven workers from the Charity, World Central Kitchen, including citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland. Israel said it mistakenly killed the air workers and promised a full investigation. Here is what we know about those killed. Saifeddin Issam Ayad...
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Iran has many options for retaliation against Israel, but all are risky
Iran faces a dilemma following an Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria: how should it retaliate without sparking a wider conflict that Middle East analysts say Tehran doesn’t appear to want? Monday’s air strike, which killed two Iranian generals and five military advisers at Iran’s embassy compound in...
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Gulf Arab states test waters with Iraq investment
In Baghdad’s Green Zone, a heavily fortified legacy from Iraq’s war-torn years, the glitzy Qatar-financed Rixos Hotel is taking shape, highlighting growing investment interest from Gulf Arab states. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani hopes to host Gulf Arab monarchs and other Middle Eastern emissaries in...
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Egypt’s Sisi: Authoritarian leader with penchant for bridges
Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, has been criticised as a despot for crushing opposition lingering from a brief period of democracy, while winning praise from supporters for boosting security and driving an army-led infrastructure binge. The former General began a third term on Tuesday after sweeping a 10 December election, overshadowed...
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A war crime? Israeli soldiers play with Gaza women’s underwear in online posts
Israeli soldiers have been posting photos and videos of themselves toying with lingerie found in Palestinian homes, creating a dissonant visual record of the war in Gaza as a looming famine intensifies world scrutiny of Israel’s offensive. In one video, an Israeli soldier sits in an armchair in a...
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Destruction, lawlessness and red tape hobble aid as Gazans go hungry
In mid-March, a line of trucks stretched for 3 kilometres along a desert road near a crossing point from Israel into the Gaza Strip. On the same day, another line of trucks, some 1.5 kilometres long, sometimes two or three across, was backed up near a crossing from Egypt...
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As famine looms in Gaza, children are getting weak and losing their ability to move
Six-year-old Fadi Al-Zant is acutely malnourished, his ribs protruding under leathery skin, his eyes sunken as he lays in bed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where famine is bearing down. Fadi’s spindly legs can no longer support him enough to walk. Photographs of Fadi from before...
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Biden-Netanyahu rift raises questions about US arms to Israel
A deepening rift between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Gaza red lines has set up a potential showdown between the two leaders and raised questions about whether Washington might restrict military aid if Israel goes ahead with a ground offensive in the south...
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Mother’s voicemail at her graveside marks painful Ramadan for Gaza son
Marking the first day of Ramadan alone among the graves of his loved ones at a cemetery in Gaza, Ibrahim Hassouna listened to a voicemail message his mother left him before she was killed in Israel’s military offensive on the Palestinian territory. Normally a time of religious devotion and...
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Arab songs about Gaza put spotlight on Palestinian issues
From pathos to praise of Hamas, songs written by musicians across the Middle East in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza are putting the Palestinian issue back at the forefront of Arab popular culture. The music mixes defiance, helplessness and anger over the Israeli onslaught. In Cairo, the popular...
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Who is Mohammad Mustafa – the man who could be the next Palestinian PM?
Mohammad Mustafa, who is expected to become prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, is one of the leading Palestinian business figures and a rare ally of PA head, Mahmoud Abbas, who has overseen Gaza reconstruction under Hamas rule. A US-educated economist, he once ran the Palestinian telecoms company, Paltel,...
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Climate change confined to mere annex in draft WTO deal
The World Trade Organisation’s chief is on a mission to put climate change at the heart of its work as part of an effort she is leading to get the watchdog to square up to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. But at a biennial WTO meeting in Abu Dhabi,...