Author: ALJAZEERA

Taipei, Taiwan – Chinese programmer Chen earns his living working remotely for a Western tech company. But in his free time, he answers to a higher calling: helping his fellow citizens jump the Great Firewall that blocks them from freely accessing China’s internet. Chen is a volunteer “maintainer” who helps run V2Ray, one of a number of open-source virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy servers that are gaining in popularity amid China’s crackdown on commercial VPNs, which are illegal to use without government authorisation. Like commercial offerings such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, V2Ray, whose original developer is unknown, allows users…

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Washington, DC – The Israeli army will be fighting in Gaza for the next seven months at least, Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said earlier this week. The prediction drew concern over the fate of the Palestinian territory, which is already facing famine, mass displacement and daily Israeli violence that has killed more than 36,000 people since October 7. A prolonged war also would harm Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in November, experts say, as the United States president already faces plummeting public support for his unequivocal backing of Israel. Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC think…

Benny Gantz’s party has proposed holding early elections after demanding PM Netanyahu agree to post-war Gaza plan.Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s centrist party has proposed holding a parliamentary vote on dissolving the Knesset, but it was unclear whether he has enough support to bring about early elections. The move on Thursday followed an ultimatum that Gantz issued this month, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to a plan for post-war Gaza by June 8. He threatened to quit the coalition if no such plan was forthcoming. Gantz joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after Israel launched its war on Gaza on…

Hamas says it has told mediators it would not take part in more indirect negotiations during ongoing aggression but was ready for a “complete agreement” including an exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel stopped its war on Gaza. Talks led by key mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the United States to arrange a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group that governs Gaza have repeatedly stalled, with both sides blaming the other for the lack of progress. The Hamas statement on Thursday came as Israel pressed on with an offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, despite an order by the…

The bloc says the charges on grain and other farm products will halt imports of these goods.European Union trade ministers have agreed to impose prohibitive tariffs on grain and other agricultural products from Russia and Belarus from July 1. The tariffs will be 95 euros ($102.76) per tonne for cereals and 50 percent of their value for oilseeds. Tariffs will also apply to beet-pulp pellets and dried peas. The ministers’ decision on Thursday follows a proposal from the European Commission on March 22. The announcement of the new tariffs quickly drew Russian disapproval. “The new messages from the EU will…

Washington, DC – Joe Biden’s support among Arab American voters in critical swing states has plummeted during the war in Gaza, a new poll found, in the latest sign that the United States president’s backing of Israel could hurt him in November’s election. The Arab American Institute (AAI) poll released on Thursday showed Biden’s support among Arab Americans hovering at just under 20 percent. Biden won nearly 60 percent of the Arab American vote in the 2020 US presidential election, which saw him defeat his Republican predecessor and 2024 challenger Donald Trump to win the White House. James Zogby, president…

Michael Mezzatesta is a climate educator based in Los Angeles, California. For the last two years, he’s used TikTok and Instagram as a means to spread the word about climate marches and real-life ways people can get involved and fight to take on climate change. In September 2023, he helped generate interest in the climate march in New York. “We were expecting maybe 5,000 to 10,000 people there. I’m pretty sure more than 50,000 people showed up,” Mezzatesta told Al Jazeera. He says that is largely thanks to TikTok. “I had folks coming up to me that I didn’t even…

The government’s decision still requires the approval of the European Union member country’s parliament, which is set to vote on the motion on Tuesday.The Slovenian government has approved a decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state, Prime Minister Robert Golob said, following in the steps of Spain, Norway and the Republic of Ireland. “Today the government has decided to recognise Palestine as an independent and sovereign state,” he said at a news conference in Ljubljana on Thursday. The government’s decision still requires the approval of the European Union member country’s parliament, which is set to vote on the motion on…

Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published two eyebrow-raising pieces in a row that cast doubts on Israel’s democratic norms. On Wednesday, it published an opinion piece by Jonathan Pollak with chunks of text redacted, referencing a standing gag order preventing media from discussing “administrative detention” – a system under which Israeli forces hold Palestinians indefinitely without charge or due process. The following day, it published a story detailing how, two years ago, the Israeli government prevented it from publishing an investigation using “emergency powers” and threats. This story later became the subject of an explosive report by +972 Magazine and the…