This month I will conclude my tenure as the commissioner-general of Unrwa – the United Nations agency that has provided essential, public-like services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East for more than 75 years. As the world struggles to emerge from the quagmire of Gaza and the US-Israeli war against Iran threatens to engulf the entire region, I am profoundly concerned about the future of Palestinian refugees and the multilateral system at large.

Having endured more than two years of relentless physical, political and legal attacks, most fiercely in Palestine, Unrwa has reached breaking point. The risks to Palestinians’ rights and the stability of the region are immense.

In December 2023, amid the escalating brutality of the war in Gaza, I wrote to the president of the UN general assembly that in my 35 years of working in complex emergencies, I had never had cause to report the killing of 130 personnel, nor to predict the killing of many more. I did not imagine then that the number of colleagues killed would triple – the death toll is now more than 390 – or that so many others would sustain life-changing injuries, or be arbitrarily detained and tortured.

Hundreds of Unrwa premises in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. The parliament of Israel adopted legislation to end the agency’s presence in occupied East Jerusalem, including by forcibly shutting schools and health clinics, and cutting off the supply of water and electricity to our premises. The Unrwa headquarters in East Jerusalem was seized, looted and set on fire, with senior Israeli officials celebrating the destruction on site and online. A deputy mayor of Jerusalem even threatened to “annihilate and kill all members of Unrwa”.

I'll just leave this here.

Sohrab Faqiri spent Eid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for the grave of his brother, killed in a massive Pakistan airstrike on Kabul this week.

Pakistan’s bombardment campaign, on what it says is terrorist and military infrastructure in neighbouring Afghanistan, appeared to have gone catastrophically wrong. A rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was hit on Monday night, according to the United Nations and the Afghan authorities. The UN’s preliminary death toll is 143 people, while the Taliban administration puts the figure at more than 400 dead.

Faqiri’s brother, Qais, a tailor and father of a 10-year-old boy, was being treated for the last three months at the facility, called Omid or “Hope”. Faqiri rushed there after the airstrike, but could not find him among the survivors. He spent the next two days visiting hospitals in Kabul, but there was no sign of Qais. Then, by chance, he saw a video of a mass burial by the authorities of the airstrike victims and spotted his brother.

On Thursday – marked as Eid in Afghanistan – he went to the hillside graveyard on the edge of Kabul, where the burial took place. There, he found rows of stones planted along lines of upturned earth. But there were no names to identify any of the bodies.

“Worst of all is that his grave is not known to us,” Faqiri said, speaking at the cemetery, bursting into tears. “This is the saddest moment, for a person on Eid day to search for the body of his brother.” He has not had the heart yet to tell their mother.

For the first time since 1967, al-Aqsa mosque – Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site – was closed at the end of Ramadan on Friday, with tensions rising among Palestinians as Israeli authorities keep the complex shut, forcing worshippers to hold Eid prayers as close as they could to the sealed site.

On Friday morning, hundreds of worshippers were forced to pray outside the Old City, as Israeli police barricaded the entrances to the site.

Because of security concerns related to the US-Israeli war on Iran, on 28 February Israeli authorities had in effect sealed off the mosque complex in Jerusalem to most Muslim worshippers during Ramadan. Officials framed the move as a security measure linked to the escalating confrontation with Iran, leaving thousands of Palestinians to gather and pray outside the gates of the Old City instead.

However, Palestinians say the move is part of a wider Israeli strategy to leverage security tensions to tighten restrictions and entrench control over the al-Aqsa mosque complex, known as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, which also encompasses the seventh-century Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine. To Jews it is the Temple Mount, the site of the 10th-century BC first temple and second temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD70.

It was over beers on an autumn evening in Zurich in 2024 that a group of journalists with an independent Swiss research collective began to discuss investigating Palantir, one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

Three years earlier, Palantir had advertised that it was setting up a “European hub” in the Swiss municipality of Altendorf, a sleepy town of roughly 7,000 people on the shores of Lake Zurich.

Press coverage of the move was positive: a Swiss national newspaper said the canton of Schwyz had “pulled off a coup” by landing a US tech company. But the journalists in the collective, WAV, were not so sure. They wondered what Swiss authorities were doing with Palantir.

WAV approached a small Swiss reader-funded magazine, Republik, to collaborate on a story. One year and 59 freedom of information requests later, their investigation, which alleged that Palantir had persistently courted Switzerland but had been rejected, made waves across Europe – prompting debate in Germany and comment from UK politicians.

Palantir was not happy. The journalists say they had interviewed company executives and sent a full list of questions before publication, but that the company demanded they print a detailed rebuttal, with a list of points that the journalists say went well beyond the scope of their investigation. When the magazine refused, Palantir filed a lawsuit in a Swiss commercial court demanding that it do so.

Donald Trump has branded the UK and other Nato allies “cowards” but anger is growing among cabinet ministers that his war in Iran could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances.

Senior members of the government are in despair about the potential effects on the economy, with experts warning of higher energy prices and mortgage and borrowing costs.

They have already begun contingency planning in case the conflict is protracted, including considering lowering speed limits to minimise fuel consumption.

With the conflict continuing to escalate, the UK confirmed it was authorising the use of British military bases to strike Iranian missile launchers that are targeting commercial ships in the strait of Hormuz. Previously, UK bases were only being used to strike Iranian sites targeting British allies and interests in Gulf states.

A video shared by Tehran Times claims to show the moment a US F-35 fighter jet was hit during a combat mission over Iranian airspace. The clip shows the aircraft appearing to take damage, with explosions, smoke trails, and the jet veering off course mid-air.

A US F-35 fighter jet was attacked during an Iranian strike and forced to make an emergency landing at a military base in the Middle East, according to CNN. The claim, first made by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), would mark the first known instance of Iran hitting one of the US military’s most advanced and expensive aircraft in the ongoing conflict in Middle East.

According to the IRGC, the stealth jet was struck by air defence systems over central Iran in the early hours of Thursday. A video shared by Tehran Times claims to show the moment a US F-35 fighter jet was hit during a combat mission over Iranian airspace. The clip shows the aircraft appearing to take damage, with explosions, smoke trails, and the jet veering off course midair.

In a statement, the IRGC said it had "struck and seriously damaged" the aircraft at around 2.50 am (local time), adding that the jet’s fate remains unclear and that there is a "high possibility" it may have crashed. The group also said the operation followed the interception of more than 125 US-Israeli drones, calling it evidence of improvements in Iran’s air defence systems.

If confirmed, the incident would mark the first time Iran has successfully targeted an F-35, a fifth-generation fighter jet that costs more than $100 million and is considered a cornerstone of US air power. Both the US and Israel have been deploying F-35s extensively since the conflict escalated on February 28.

US CONFIRMS EMERGENCY LANDING, PLAYS DOWN DAMAGE

According to CNN, US Central Command said the aircraft was "flying a combat mission over Iran" when it was forced to make an emergency landing. "The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition," spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told CNN. "This incident is under investigation."

However, Washington has not issued any official statement. The Pentagon said its operations are going as planned, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the US is "winning decisively" and that Iran’s air defences have been "flattened".

Amid escalating conflict, at least 16 US aircraft have reportedly been destroyed since the start of the war, including 10 Reaper drones, while several others have been damaged in combat or accidents.

[ADDENDUM]

The actual video of the event, plus more, from The Hindustan Times:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YZZAGO0rkLk

archive link

archive link

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/44205127

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit and driving down a hallway in a vehicle that then caught fire, according to authorities.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.

The synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at its early childhood center were not injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

In the playground of the rich, nobody wanted this war. For decades, Dubai built itself up as a sanctuary of unadulterated consumerism visited by tourists the world over.

But now, the city in the United Arab Emirates faces an existential threat, as the war between the US and Israel and Iran has shaken the foundations of the “Dubai dream” that so many foreigners had bought into.

The UAE has borne the brunt of more than two-thirds of Iran’s strikes; the state targeted in part, say analysts, for its deep military and intelligence partnerships with western powers, and Dubai’s reputation as a favoured centre for global finance and western holidays.

“The shine has definitely been taken off,” said John Trudinger, a British resident of Dubai for 16 years, who is a headteacher at an Emirati school in Dubai. He employs more than 100 teachers from the UK and said most have been so “deeply traumatised and really struggling to cope” with the sudden arrival of war in Dubai that they have left and won’t come back.

They are among the tens of thousands of residents and tourists that have fled Dubai since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran almost two weeks ago. The city’s large population of migrant workers largely don’t have that privilege.

A Swiss canton has suspended its pilot of electronic voting after failing to count 2,048 votes cast in national referendums held on March 8.

Basel-Stadt announced the problem with its e-voting pilot, open to about 10,300 locals living abroad and 30 people with disabilities, last Friday afternoon. It encouraged participants to deliver a paper vote to the town hall or use a polling station but admitted this would not be possible for many.

By the close of polling on Sunday, its e-voting system had collected 2,048 votes, but Basel-Stadt officials were not able to decrypt them with the hardware provided, despite the involvement of IT experts.

"Three USB sticks were used, all with the correct code, but none of them worked," spokesperson Marco Greiner told the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation's Swissinfo service.

The canton has since commissioned an external analysis of the incident, adding that it deeply regrets the violation of affected voters' political rights.

Huh. A functioning government apologizing for disenfranchisement.

The Israeli state’s genocidal assault against the people of Gaza now appears to be the first installment in an ongoing series. The next episode is what the United States and Israel are doing to Lebanon and Iran. It’s not just the relentless bombings and missile launches with little regard for civilian life that’s so reminiscent of the war on Gaza. It’s not just the slaughtering of children followed by easily debunked denials. (The casual mendacity of both governments is jaw-dropping.) It’s not the assassinations of governmental and religious leaders. It’s the attempt to kill hope.

A source of hope and joy in Iran—as in Palestine—has always been organized sports. In Iran, soccer, wrestling (where Iran has achieved global acclaim), and volleyball are three of the main sporting ventures in which Iran competes internationally. Yet it’s difficult to play—and by extension impossible for a child to have dreams of athletic glory—when the sports infrastructure is destroyed. As I’ve pointed out for over a decade, Israel has long targeted sport facilities and athletes in Gaza. The logic is that if you kill the joy that comes with leisure pursuits and extracurricular activities, you kill the will to resist.

In yet another echo of Gaza, on March 5, one of the first bombing targets in Iran was the historic Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran. Perhaps the most iconic sports facility in the Middle East, Azadi has played host to many of the most storied moments in Iranian athletic history, including a 1998 World Cup qualifier match against Australia played in front of 128,000 people. The Azadi indoor facility, which holds 12,000 and is a central locale for basketball, martial arts, and volleyball, is now a smoldering husk.

Fucking disgusting. Can you imagine the apocalypse if Iran bombed the Rose Bowl?

Overnight on March 7, Israel bombed fuel depots outside of Tehran, Iran’s capital city. Playwright and filmmaker Homayoun Ghanizadeh woke up the next day to black smoke and carnage. What follows is his account of a private citizen trying to maintain some normalcy in the face of a relentless bombing campaign.

I remember that before I went to sleep, Trump’s toys had bombed Tehran’s oil depots. My father calls American military equipment Trump’s toys. I like his fantasy and the way he describes Trump’s mental landscape. I wake up and sit in bed. My phone clock must be broken, because it is showing 8:45 in the morning, while the darkness outside suggests it is still the middle of the night. It is probably an internet disruption. Of course, there is no internet at all to be disrupted. It has been nine days since Khamenei was killed and Iran has suddenly fallen into the middle of a war. I realize that my phone clock is actually working correctly, but why is the sky still dark and the sun missing?

I step onto the terrace and see that a black and impenetrable layer of oily smoke has been drawn between us and the sun. My partner coughs. Her throat hurts. My eyes burn a little, too. Through the window, partly obscured by the thick crisscrossed strips of duct tape everyone is using to reinforce glass, I see that several birds are lying on the street. Seeing the bodies of dead birds lying on the street like the dry leaves of trees is becoming something ordinary for us in Tehran.

If anyone knows the emotional turmoil the Iranian football players have experienced in the past 48 hours, as they leave their homeland behind for a new life in Australian, it’s Tooba Sarwari.

The Afghanistan-born cricket player left everything behind when she fled to Australia on a humanitarian visa in 2021 amid the fall of Kabul.

The Iranian footballers’ individual experiences are as unique as they are unenviable, says Sarwari, ~~who arrived on a humanitarian visa amid the fall of Kabul.~~

(Seriously ... how did an editor not catch the same phrasing in consecutive sentences?)

“I don’t want this happening for none of the girls in the world,” she says, from her new home in Canberra.

She recalls her own first night in Australia in 2021, when she lay down on her bed and covered her head with her blanket.

“When I reached Australia, I realised that, ‘oh, my family is not with me’, I left everything.”

The Iranian women have chosen a life on the other side of the world from their home, from their loved ones. They have been granted temporary visas that provide a pathway to permanent residency. After four years, they may be able to apply for Australian citizenship.

Thousands of pets are being abandoned in Dubai as their owners flee the Middle East because of the Iran war, animal charities have said.

The RSPCA said pets of fleeing UK nationals could become “hidden victims” of the conflict as people who had relocated to the Gulf city scramble for an exit and struggle to bring their animals.

Last week, the UK government operated an emergency evacuation flight for people leaving the Middle East as the war continued. About 45,000 British nationals have left the Middle East since 1 March.

Hannah Mainds, the chief executive of the RSPCA Blackpool and north Lancashire branch, previously lived in Dubai and helped care for pets left behind after their owners suddenly left the country.

“Some [pets] were microchipped and clearly once loved, but their families had gone. It’s heartbreaking for rescuers and frightening for the animals,” Mainds said.

On a steep hillside in western El Salvador, Oscar Leiva watches rainfall in December, a month that once marked the start of the dry season. During this harvest cycle, flowering came early and then stalled. A heatwave followed. What remains of the crop is uneven, lower in quality and more expensive to produce than the last.

For Leiva and his family, coffee has never been just a crop. His mother, Marina Marinero, remembers when the rains arrived on schedule and the harvest could be planned months in advance. Today, the calendar no longer holds. Decisions about pruning, fertilising and hiring labour feel like educated guesses. Each mistake carries a cost the family cannot afford.

For generations, coffee shaped El Salvador’s rural economy, structuring land use, labour and exports across much of the country. By the mid-1970s, El Salvador ranked among the world’s leading coffee producers, with harvests exceeding 5 million quintales (a quintal is equivalent to about 46kg). Now, national production struggles to reach 1 million quintales. The decline reflects more than market cycles.