Thailand Celebrates Arrival Of Chinese Tourists Under New Visa-free Policy

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Heavy fighting raged Sunday across Gaza, including in the devastated north, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the U. S. blocked the latest international push for a cease-fire and rushed more munitions to its close ally. Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a permanent cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

On Dec. 10, 1948, the world brought into existence the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which established the modern system of human and civil rights as we know it today. It is because of the UDHR that no one, according to international law, can be killed by a state on a whim nor put behind bars because a government official feels like it. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But as the UDHR turns 75, it is gravely concerning that states which played an integral part in shaping this foundational text have a poor human rights record today.

Each year, in the darkest days of winter, Hanukkah reliably arrives. We kindle lights and discuss the possibility of miracles. Each year is different. We return to Hanukkah a little older and altered by the changes within ourselves, our communities, and the world. This year is darker than any I’ve lived through.

The fog of war currently shrouding Hamas and Israel is not the only fog obscuring a path forward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] While each side’s worst trauma has been triggered by Hamas’s depraved mass slaughter and Israel’s scorched-earth counter-attack—for Jews the Holocaust, for Palestinians, the Nakba—the fighting has also exposed a fundamental divide between two sets of grievances: what I call 1948—when the modern state of Israel was established; and 1967—when the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip began. 1948 challenges Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign state; 1967 challenges the Palestinians right to self-determination. Both rights are legitimate—Israel has a right to statehood and Palestinians have a right to self-determination—but only one can be negotiated. You can’t ask Israel to commit national suicide, though you can demand it recognize Palestinian rights. By conflating two sets of grievances represented by 1948 and 1967, Israelis and Palestinians have been able to valorize their own victimization and deny the other’s legitimacy.

Efrat Machikawa is convinced every day that passes with her 79-year-old uncle in Hamas captivity is threatening his life. Her uncle is hard of hearing and suffers from high blood pressure and other conditions that depend on life-prolonging medication, she says, similar to other elderly hostages still in Gaza. After hearing about conditions of captivity from the testimonies of freed hostages—of surviving in dark tunnels with only rice and bread to eat—she fears that those who remain are dying. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This is why we have to make sure they come back tomorrow,” Machikawa tells TIME in a video call from southern Israel on Saturday evening.

Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his repressive and unyielding grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March that he is all but certain to win, according to state media reports. Putin still commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power, despite starting an immensely costly war in Ukraine that has taken thousands of his countrymen’s lives, provoked repeated attacks inside Russia -– including one on the Kremlin itself -– and corroded its aura of invincibility. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A short-lived rebellion in June by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin raised widespread speculation that Putin could be losing his grip, but he emerged from it with no permanent scars, and Prigozhin’s death in a mysterious plane crash two months later reinforced the view that Putin was in absolute control. Putin announced his decision to run in the March 17 presidential election during a Kremlin award ceremony, according to Tass and RIA Novosti state news agencies. About 80% of the populace approves of his performance, according to the independent pollster Levada Center.