Author: ALJAZEERA

The election campaigns are all but done, the debates have concluded, and all that remains is the vote. Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian will compete in Friday’s run-off presidential election in Iran, after no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, held on June 28. The winner will become Iran’s new president, following the death of the late President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19. Who are the two candidates left in the race? The run-off will be contested by Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian. Jalili is mostly known internationally for…

Muhammad Nimah Nasser is at least the third senior commander killed in cross-border fighting since October.Hezbollah says a top commander has been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, at least the third high-ranking official in the group to be killed in almost nine months of cross-border fighting that has sparked fears of wider regional escalation. The Lebanese armed group on Wednesday said that Muhammad Nimah Nasser, also known as “Hajj Abu Naameh”, had been killed. The Iran-aligned group later said it had launched 100 katyusha rockets targeting Israeli military positions. The announcement of Nasser’s death on the group’s…

Israel has illegally claimed 23.7sq km (9.15sq miles) of West Bank land as its own so far this year, Peace Now says.Israeli authorities have green-lighted the largest West Bank land seizure in more than three decades as the rate of land grabs in the occupied Palestinian territory peaks, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog says. The planned seizure, approved by Israel’s government late last month but only publicised on Wednesday, targets 12.7sq km (4.9sq miles) of land in the Jordan Valley, the Peace Now NGO said. The move raises the total amount of West Bank land that Israel has declared its own…

The vote comes as many of Saied’s political opponents and media critics are in jail or facing prosecution.Tunisian President Kais Saied has called a presidential election for October 6, setting himself up for possible re-election as many of his political opponents are behind bars. Announcing the date in an official decree on Monday, Saied did not confirm whether he would seek re-election but is widely expected to stand for another five-year term. The former constitutional law professor was elected to office in 2019 as an anti-establishment stalwart promising to root out corruption. He took full control of the country in…

Israeli police say suspect has been killed and they are investigating the incident as a possible ‘terror attack’.At least two people have been wounded, one severely, in a stabbing attack in a shopping centre in northern Israel, according to police. The attack took place on the second floor of the Hutzot Karmiel Mall in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel on Wednesday. Israel’s national ambulance service said medics were treating two men in their 20s, one in a very serious condition and the other fully conscious. Video footage from the scene shared on social media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad…

Wafaa Elwan’s five-year-old son cannot sleep in the Gaza tent city where she and her seven children shelter, but it is not the guns of war that cause his nightmares. “My son can’t sleep through the night because he can’t stop scratching his body,” the anxious mother said. The boy has white and red blotches over his feet and legs, and more under his shirt. He is one of many in Gaza suffering from skin infections, ranging from scabies to chicken pox, lice, impetigo and other debilitating rashes. More than 150,000 people in the Palestinian territory have contracted skin diseases…

As voters in the United Kingdom go to the polls to choose their next government, the rising cost of living is among the top issues of concern. Household budgets have been strained over the past few years by high inflation driven by the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. While inflation has finally returned to the central bank’s target of 2 percent after hitting double-digit highs in 2022 and 2023, people are still paying much more for essentials, including food, than they were just a few years ago. With public discontent over living standards running high,…

The 12 officials say the cover provided to Israel has ‘ensured’ the US’s ‘complicity’ in the war on Gaza.A group of former United States government officials have claimed that Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza puts national security at risk. The 12 officials, who resigned over the last nine months protesting against the US policy, said in a letter released late on Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s support for Israel means that Washington has “undeniable complicity” in the killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. They labelled the White House policy on the war in the enclave “a failure…

Redesigned bills pay tribute to Japanese capitalism, women’s equality and scientific innovation.Japan has issued its first new banknotes in two decades, with the redesigned bills featuring 3D holograms intended to thwart counterfeiters. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday said the redesigned 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen bills paid tribute to Japanese capitalism, women’s equality and scientific innovation. “I hope the people will like the new bills, and they will help energise the Japanese economy,” Kishida told reporters at the Bank of Japan. The bills feature holograms of historical figures whose orientation changes depending on the angle they…

South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – and 12 other countries have backed the case. “Genocide” is a legal term that has been increasingly used to describe what Israel is doing in Gaza as it kills more people, a figure nearing 40,000. What other terms have been used to describe what’s happening in Gaza? Genocide, killing a people Genocide is the “deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”. It…