Author: ALJAZEERA

Israel’s military says it is investigating suspected drone attack and why the country’s defences failed to intercept the ‘aerial target’.Yemen’s Houthi fighters have claimed responsibility following a suspected drone attack on Israel’s Tel Aviv, which killed one person and injured at least 10, according to reports. A spokesperson for the Houthi armed forces said in a post on social media on Friday that the Yemen-based group had “targeted ‘Tel Aviv’ in occupied Palestine”. The Israeli military said it had opened an investigation into the large explosion near the United States Embassy office in the city and would determine why the…

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Taipei, Taiwan – The Wall Street Journal is embroiled in a controversy over press freedom after one of its reporters said she was fired for taking a leadership role in Hong Kong’s biggest media union amid deteriorating civil liberties in the Chinese territory. Selina Cheng, who until this week covered China’s electric vehicle market for the US newspaper, said she was let go on Wednesday after being informed that her role was being made redundant due to restructuring. Cheng said she believes the real reason she was fired was because she was elected president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association…

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Fears of new trade tensions with China drive main indexes lower.Wall Street’s top indices fell as a rebound in tech shares tumbled, adding to losses triggered by fears of new trade tensions. After a mixed day on European equity markets, losses on Wall Street were broad-based on Thursday, with energy the only one of 11 industrial sectors to advance in the S&P 500. The Dow, which had notched records the last three days, led major indices lower with a 1.3 percent drop. “It doesn’t take much of an excuse for markets to take some profits when they’ve had such a…

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Israel’s security minister toured a courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in a provocative move that could threaten ceasefire talks.Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City. Tensions over the site in occupied East Jerusalem have fuelled past rounds of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and Ben-Gvir’s visit on Thursday threatens to disrupt sensitive talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Israel’s more-than-nine-month war on Gaza. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit as a “provocative intrusion” that endangered the fragile status quo regarding the Jerusalem compound. The mosque is situated in the…

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At least eight United Nations-run schools serving as shelters to displaced Palestinians have been hit by Israeli attacks in the last 10 days. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) say 120 of their educational institutions have been hit since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7. Families living in disused classrooms face fatigue, trauma and the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of shelters stretched far beyond capacity. Despite the difficult conditions and the risk of bombardment, many seek out the relative safety of UN schools, some guided by the memory of past wars where these spaces provided…

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Israeli government official calling Phillipe Lazzarini a ‘terrorist sympathiser’ also puts his safety at risk, UN says.The United Nations has denounced an Israeli government spokesperson for calling the head of its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) a “terrorist sympathiser”. Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the comments by Israel’s David Mencer were “downright dangerous”. Mencer took aim at UNRWA head Phillipe Lazzarini in a videotaped speech on Wednesday, saying his agency had been deeply infiltrated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. “Now if the UN was doing what it was designed to do, then Philippe Lazzarini…

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