Syria remains country hardest hit by landmines due to casualties, says UN official West Africa and Sahel are also areas of serious concern due to impact of landmines, says UN Mine Action Service official ... 04/27/2024 - 1:21 am | View Link
Why Syria matters as Israel and Iran’s shadow war moves into the open Syria has long been a key battleground in Iran and Israel’s shadow war. But since October 7—when Iran-backed Hamas launched its ground incursion into Israel from Gaza—attacks on and from Syrian ... 04/24/2024 - 3:53 am | View Link
Iran cuts Syria presence after strikes blamed on Israel: monitor Iran has reduced its military footprint in Syria after a succession of strikes blamed on Israel, a source close to Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and a war monitor said Wednesday. But Iran had ... 04/23/2024 - 11:17 pm | View Link
The Latest | Failed rocket strike launched on US-led coalition forces base in Syria A U.S. defense official said that a failed rocket strike was launched Sunday night at a base housing U.S.-led coalition forces at Rumalyn, Syria, marking the first time since Feb. 4 that ... 04/22/2024 - 5:38 pm | View Link
Attack blamed on IS militants kills 22 pro-government fighters in central Syria An opposition war monitor and a pro-government media outlet say an attack on pro-government fighters by suspected members of the Islamic State group in central Syria killed 22 pro-government fighters. 04/18/2024 - 9:05 pm | View Link
TEL AVIV, Israel — The White House on Sunday said U. S. President Joe Biden had again spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a cease-fire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.
The White House said that Biden reiterated his “clear position” as Israel plans to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there.
BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities on Saturday were investigating the killing of a well-known social media influencer, who was shot by an armed motorcyclist in front of her home in central Baghdad.
Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known as Um Fahad or “mother of Fahad,” was popular on the social media sites TikTok and Instagram, where she posted videos of herself dancing to music and was followed by tens of thousands of users.
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An Iraqi security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said that the assailant opened fire as Sawadi parked her Cadillac in front of her house on Friday, killing her, then took her phone and fled the scene.
The killing took place in Zayoona, the same neighborhood where a prominent Iraqi researcher and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi was gunned down in 2020.
As we mark Passover, when Jews celebrate their founding liberation from a tyrannical Pharaoh who enslaved them, the sages remind us Pharaohs come in all guises and liberation is not a one-time event. It must be re-enacted in each generation and in each heart.
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Today,16 million Jews in a world of eight billion face rising external threats.
In the early 2000s, one in 12 of the British population was born abroad. Now that figure is closer to one in six—higher than even America, the proverbial land of immigrants. And the number is still rising rapidly; over the last two years, almost 2 million people have moved to the U.
Rags-to-riches tales, revenge plots, and plenty of twists—Chinese viewers are loving what they can find in internet “micro-dramas,” the latest big thing in Chinese entertainment of vertically-shot shows posted on social media with episodes that have runtimes of just a few minutes or less.
But Chinese authorities, wary of losing control over messaging, aren’t loving the new medium so much—and are cracking down on the booming micro-drama industry.
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Unlike legacy television productions with longer production schedules and larger budgets—and strict government oversight—the micro-drama industry has risen through the proliferation of low-budget, quickly made mini-shows that often cost only a fraction of the time and money to put in front of viewers, and until recently, were largely unregulated.
Not known for award- or acclaim-worthy scripts or acting but rather for their pure bingeworthiness, micro-dramas tend to lean into familiar tried-and-tested themes, like love affairs, family disputes, and tensions between the rich and poor.
Read More: China’s Solution to Inequality?
Mass graves with hundreds of bodies were discovered last weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, prompting serious concerns about war crimes, according to the OHCHR, the U. N.’s human rights office.
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Much remains unknown about the victims, but the discovery of the bodies comes after Israeli troops ended their two-week operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in early April.