Author: ALJAZEERA

NewsFeedThe EU’s Humanitarian Commissioner says he’s seen first-hand how important the work of UNRWA is in the Palestinian territories and is glad to see the bloc reinstating funds for the aid agency. Several countries pulled funding for UNRWA following accusations, by Israel, of employees being involved in the October 7th Hamas attack.Published On 6 Mar 20246 Mar 2024 Source link

South Africa warns Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation, asks court to order all parties to cease hostilities.South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order additional emergency measures against Israel over its war on Gaza, the court has said. In its application, South Africa warned that Palestinians in Gaza were facing starvation and asked the court to order that all parties cease hostilities and release all hostages and detainees. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the South African presidency warned that the people of Gaza cannot wait. “The threat of all-out famine has now materialised. The…

Officials say the attack on the Greek-owned, Barbados-flagged ship has caused fatalities.The Greek-owned cargo ship True Confidence has been hit by a missile about 50 nautical miles (93km) southwest of the Yemeni port of Aden in an attack claimed by Houthi forces. The bulk carrier was drifting with a fire continuing onboard after it was attacked on Wednesday, a statement by the ship’s owner and operator said, adding that no information was available on the status of the ship’s 20 crew members and three armed guards. But a shipping source told the Reuters news agency that three sailors were missing…

The deal comes as the central bank said it would let the Egyptian pound trade freely.Egypt has signed an expanded $8bn deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has said. The new agreement announced on Wednesday is an expansion of the $3bn, 46-month Extended Fund Facility that the IMF struck with Egypt back in December 2022, which was predicated on the shift to a more flexible exchange-rate system. The deal comes as the central bank said it would let the pound currency trade freely and announced an interest-rate hike of 600 basis points in a…

The video that OpenAI released to unveil its new text-to-video tool, Sora, has to be seen to be believed. Photorealistic scenes of charging woolly mammoths in clouds of snow, a couple walking through falling cherry blossoms and aerial footage of the California gold rush. The demonstration reportedly prompted movie producer Tyler Perry to pause an $800m studio investment. Tools like Sora promise to translate a user’s vision into realistic moving images with a simple text prompt, the logic goes, making studios obsolete. Others worry that artificial intelligence (AI) like this could be exploited by those with darker imaginations. Malicious actors…

In the beginning of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, China appeared to be on the same page with its regional partners, Saudi Arabia and Iran, when it came to the big questions. All three condemned the Israeli aggression, called for a negotiated settlement addressing Palestinian grievances and held conferences and summits together to express their collective opposition to the conflict. But the Houthi attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea have upset this consensus. As Iran officially denies any direct involvement despite its unquestionably close relationship with the Houthis and Saudi Arabia remains strategically quiet after the end of…

Rafah, Gaza – A tiny little girl called Wafaa is sitting in front of a tent in Tal as-Sultan, playing in the sand listlessly as she cries with hunger. It is difficult to tell how old she is given her emaciated frame, but her mother, Tahrir Baraka, 36, tells Al Jazeera that Wafaa is two years old. Baraka is despondent in the family’s worn-out tent, holding a can of peas and trying to start a fire to cook something for her five children. “I’m worried so much about my children. I don’t care if I eat, I worry about them,…

Beirut, Lebanon – Officials in the United States say undersea telecommunications cables in the Red Sea were cut on Tuesday, disrupting 25 percent of data traffic between Asia and Europe. A US official told the BBC they were attempting to find out if the cables had been sabotaged or if it was the result of an anchor dragging along the seafloor. But what are these cables? Who put them there? How important are they? Here’s everything you need to know about the world of undersea cables. What are undersea cables for? Communication. Telecommunication signals and messages cross stretches of the…

For most countries, the first day of fasting is likely to be March 12, depending on the sighting of the new moon.The first day of fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Mecca will be Monday, March 11 or Tuesday, March 12, depending on the sighting of the new moon. Ramadan is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, which begins with the sighting of the crescent moon. Saudi Arabia and other Muslim-majority countries rely on the testimonies of moon sighters to determine the start of the month. How is the Ramadan moon sighted? For the moon to be…

EXPLAINERIsrael continues attacks while its forces turned back a 14-truck food aid convoy.Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, March 6, 2024: Fighting and humanitarian crisis On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces killed three civilians and injured an unknown number of others in an attack on a home in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Separately, on Tuesday, Israeli forces turned back a 14-truck food aid convoy bound for northern Gaza following a three-hour wait at a checkpoint, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it has distributed flour to some 370,000 families in southern…