Palestinian President Abbas appoints Mohammed Mustafa as prime minister | Israel War on Gaza News

The move comes as the Palestinian Authority faces pressure to reform from the US amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser Mohammed Mustafa to be the next prime minister in the face of US pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority as part of Washington’s post-war vision for Gaza.

Mustafa, a US-educated economist and political independent, now faces the task of forming a new government for the PA, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In a statement announcing the appointment on Thursday, Abbas asked Mustafa to put together plans to re-unify administration in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, lead reforms in the government, security services and economy and fight corruption.

Mustafa replaces former Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh who, along with his government, resigned in February citing the need for change amid Israel’s war on Gaza and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.

The internationally recognised PA, which is dominated by the Fatah party, exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, but lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007.

Aims to reunify governance of Palestinian lands after face major obstacles, including strong opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a devastating war that is still grinding on with no end in sight.

Fatah and Hamas are expected to meet in Moscow this week for talks.

Mustafa, 69, has held senior positions at the World Bank and previously served as deputy prime minister and economy minister.

In 2015, Abbas appointed Mustafa as the chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly $1bn in assets and funds projects across the occupied Palestinian territory.

He served as a deputy prime minister responsible for economic affairs from 2013 to 2014, when he led a committee tasked with rebuilding Gaza after the seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed.

Speaking at Davos in January, Mustafa said the “catastrophe and humanitarian impact” of Israel’s continuing war on Gaza was much greater than a decade ago.

At least 31,341 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, most of its 2.3 million population have been displaced and are in desperate need of aid, and swaths of the enclave now lie in rubble.

Biden administration officials have urged Abbas to bring new blood, including technocrats and economic specialists, into a revamped PA to help govern post-war Gaza.

But it is unclear whether the appointment of a new cabinet led by a close Abbas ally would be sufficient to meet US demands for reform, as the 88-year-old president would remain in overall control.

Israel, meanwhile, has said it will never cooperate with any Palestinian government that refuses to reject Hamas and its October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Mustafa, in his Davos remarks, described the October 7 attack as “unfortunate for everybody”.

“But it’s also a symptom of a bigger problem … that the Palestinian people have been suffering for 75 years non-stop,” he said.

“Until today, we still believe that statehood for Palestinians is the way forward, so we hope that this time around we will be able to achieve that, so that all people in the region can live in security and peace.”

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US Senate leader Chuck Schumer calls for new Israel elections amid Gaza war | Israel War on Gaza News

The top legislator in the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, has offered his most strident criticism of Israel since the war in Gaza began, calling for a leadership shake-up in the country.

On Thursday, Schumer, a Jewish-American Democrat, took direct aim at Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech from the US Senate floor, saying the Israeli leader has been “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza”.

Schumer pushed Israel to hold elections to replace Netanyahu and said the prime minister had “lost his way” in his pursuit of “political survival”.

“There needs to be a fresh debate about the future of Israel after October 7,” Schumer said, referring to the date when the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, spurring the present-day war.

“As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may,” Schumer continued. “But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice.”

Schumer, the Senate majority leader, did not suggest a timeline for any eventual vote, though.

More than 31,341 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, many of them children. The spiralling death toll has prompted widespread condemnation and fears of genocide in the territory.

But President Joe Biden and other prominent US leaders have largely been circumspect in their criticism of Israel’s military campaign. The US is a longtime ally of Israel, and it contributes approximately $3.8bn in aid to the country every year.

Still, Schumer’s words — and more vocal criticisms from Biden himself — have signalled a shift in the approach Democratic leadership is taking towards Israel, amid mounting public pressure to seek a permanent ceasefire.

“We should not let the complexities of this conflict stop us from stating the plain truth: Palestinian civilians do not deserve to suffer for the sins of Hamas, and Israel has a moral obligation to do better,” Schumer said in his speech. “The United States has an obligation to do better.”

Schumer added that Netanyahu was one of several “major obstacles” to a two-state solution that might eventually resolve the conflict. Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the notion of a two-state solution, despite the Biden administration insisting it should be a cornerstone of any post-war plans.

Given the Israeli government’s refusal so far to change course, Schumer hinted that the US may be forced to “play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using leverage”.

Response to Schumer’s speech

The speech marks one of the most direct and biting speeches given by a high-ranking US political leader during the war’s first five months.

And it quickly prompted a response, both from the Israeli government and the Biden administration.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said Schumer’s comments were his own and did not represent the stance of the administration.

“There are a number of things we wanted to see Israel do differently,” Miller acknowledged nevertheless.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich weighed in as well, condemning Schumer’s remarks.

“We expect the largest democracy in the world to respect Israeli democracy,” Smotrich said.

US Republicans, for their part, used the speech to blast the Democratic leadership. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, for instance, described Schumer’s call for new elections in Israel “grotesque and hypocritical”.

“The Jewish state of Israel deserves an ally that acts like one,” McConnell said.

Critics push for action

Schumer attempted to preemptively fend off such criticism during his speech, underscoring his pro-Israel bona fides. As the highest-ranking Jewish person in US government, he also drew on his family’s history with the Holocaust to underscore his sympathy for the Israeli plight.

“If the events of the last few months have made anything clear, it is that Israel is surrounded by vicious enemies, and there are many people around the world who excuse and even support their aims to expel and kill Jews living in their hard-won land of refuge,” Schumer said.

But while Schumer and other top Democratic leaders have remained stalwart in their support of Israel, their rhetoric has shifted in recent weeks to be increasingly critical of its military campaign.

Biden, for instance, has warned Israel about pursuing a ground operation in the southern city of Rafah, calling it a “red line“. Officials have also denounced Israeli impediments to the distribution of aid in Gaza.

Still, critics of the administration have said such words are empty without more material action.

Earlier this week, for instance, eight US senators — including Vermont’s Bernie Sanders — issued a letter to the president calling on him to premise aid to Israel on the condition that access to humanitarian aid in Gaza be expanded — and any impediments removed.

Settler sanctions

Schumer’s speech on Thursday also came as the US announced more sanctions on Israeli settlers and illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank — one area the Biden administration has shown more willingness to act.

The US Department of State said the outposts known as Moshes Farm and Zvis Farm had been bases for violence against Palestinians. Thursday’s sanctions also targeted three illegal Israeli settlers.

The administration in February imposed sanctions on four Israeli men it accused of being involved in settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which has surged since October 7.

“It is critical that Israel take additional action to stop settler violence and hold accountable those responsible for it, not just for the sake of the victims of this violence, but for Israel’s own security and standing in the world,” Miller, the State Department spokesman, told reporters.

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Palestinian family breaks fast in destroyed Gaza home | Israel War on Gaza

NewsFeed

Mahmoud Ahmed is one of thousands of Palestinians spending the month of Ramadan in a bombed out home, with few ingredients to prepare meals to break the day’s fast.

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A Two-State Solution? | Digital Series

It’s been called the war on Gaza but all of the occupied territories are at war, in one way or another. Hopes were once high that the West Bank might one day form part of a sovereign Palestinian state. But is a two-state solution even possible today? And where would you even start?

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What’s in the UK’s new definition of ‘extremism’ | Politics News

United Kingdom Communities Secretary Michael Gove has unveiled the government’s new definition of “extremism” to the House of Commons amid heightened domestic tensions since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in October.

The veteran Conservative Party politician said on Thursday that the new definition seeks to tackle the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Britain.

Gove, who days ago asserted that “good-hearted people” attending pro-Palestinian demonstrations were “lending credence to extremists”, told MPs that the war in the Middle East was behind a “significant increase in extremism”.

Gove’s statement to parliament comes just four days after three former Conservative home secretaries – Priti Patel, Sajid Javid and Amber Rudd – signed a joint statement with others, including Neil Basu, the former head of counterterrorism policing, warning about the risks of politicising “anti-extremism” measures.

“We urge the Labour party and the Conservative party to work together to build a shared understanding of extremism and a strategy to prevent it that can stand the test of time, no matter which party wins an election,” their Sunday statement read.

But Gove, who described Israel as “a light to the world” at a Conservative Friends of Israel event in 2017, remains under pressure to justify his new initiative as speculation mounts over whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will call a general election this spring or bide his time until later in the year.

What is the new definition of ‘extremism’?

According to the government, this new definition has been made more “precise”, so individuals or groups that meet the new definition can be identified and essentially blacklisted. Its focus is ideological, in contrast to the last version drafted in 2011, which placed greater emphasis on acts of violence.

According to the new definition: “Extremism is the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others” or “undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights”.

It also includes anything that would “intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve” either of the above aims.

The strategy is nonstatutory, which means groups would not be prosecuted merely as a result of meeting the parameters of this new definition. Instead, those labelled as “extremist” by the government would become ineligible for any government funding. Groups that are blacklisted under the new definition would also be barred from meeting with ministers.

Britain’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, gives a speech at Downing Street on March 1, 2024 in London, England about an increase in ‘extremism’. He said: ‘Our streets have been hijacked on far too many occasions in recent months by small, ‘hateful’ groups.’ [Carl Court/Getty Images]

Can groups or individuals deemed ‘extremist’ be named?

Yes. A full list of those identified as “extremist” is expected to be published in the coming weeks. Gove told The Times on Thursday that people and organisations on the list would be identified by “academics, officials and ministers” who would “carefully consider a person or group’s behaviour over a longer period before labelling them extremist”.

However, in parliament on Thursday, Gove took the step of naming the neo-Nazi British National Socialist Movement, the far-right Patriotic Alternative, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Cage advocacy group, and Muslim Engagement and Development as UK-based organisations that will be held “to account to assess if they meet our definition of extremism and [we] will take action as appropriate”.

Of the two far-right groups, Gove said they “promote Neo-Nazi ideology” and are “precisely the type of groups about which we should be concerned”.

The British National Socialist Movement was founded in 1985 – born from the older “British Movement” – and is known for its football hooligans and “white power” skinhead movements. Patriotic Alternative, founded in 2019, is the UK’s largest “white nationalist” movement with branches all around the country.

What has been the reaction to the new definition?

The archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, said in a joint statement on Tuesday that the new definition “risks disproportionately targeting Muslim communities, who are already experiencing rising levels of hate and abuse”.

A Muslim Conservative peer, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who has long urged her party to tackle Islamophobia among its members, said on X on Wednesday: “Michael Gove will not divide us in his ideological pursuit of a policy that has been rejected and criticised by victims of terrorism, ex Home Secretary’s and even the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

John Mann, an independent adviser to the government on anti-Semitism, told the BBC: “I think that the government needs to listen to people who are advising that the politics of division will not work.” He said it should prioritise “bringing communities together”.

Cage, which campaigns on behalf of communities it says have been adversely affected by the West’s “war on terror”, posted on X: “We reject the counter-extremism and counter-terrorism powers that allow for arbitrary and authoritarian interventions against dissenting citizens. We will explore all avenues, including legal, to resist the Government’s deep dive into authoritarianism.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said in a statement on Thursday: “As the coalition of groups who have been organising the national marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, we condemn Michael Gove’s statement today. His redefinition of extremism, framed as a defence of democracy, is in reality an assault on core democratic freedoms, seeking to silence dissenting voices.”

The two far-right organisations named by Gove under parliamentary privilege did not immediately respond.

Activist Peter Tatchell calls for a ceasefire during a demonstration in London on March 9, 2024. Protests against Israel’s war on Gaza have been criticised by some politicians and linked to a spike in anti-Semitism [Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

Is Gove’s initiative an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian campaigners?

Some said it is. Chris Doyle, director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Al Jazeera that Gove’s initiative is based on a Conservative government tactic that aims to “play culture wars” and “to link the [pro-Palestinian] protests to extremism and anti-Semitism”.

He added: “It [also aims] to drag Labour into this and challenge [its leader] Keir Starmer as to whether Labour agrees with these plans. If Labour does, it will further divide the party. If it does not, Gove will accuse Labour of being soft on extremism. At the same time, it is a huge distraction from the real issue, which is the Israeli slaughter in Gaza.”

Indeed, some observers have suggested that Gove’s move is simply a culmination of efforts by the ruling Conservatives to equate pro-Palestinian activism with “extremism”.

For example, just after the Israeli state launched its war on Gaza following the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, then-UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman took to labelling protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, which has so far killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, as “hate marches”.

And last month, Conservative MP Paul Scully faced criticism after he claimed there were “no-go areas” for non-Muslims in parts of London and Birmingham. He later apologised for these comments.

One day after the staunchly pro-Palestinian campaigner George Galloway secured the English parliamentary seat of Rochdale in a by-election on February 29, Sunak made an impromptu speech outside his Downing Street residence, where he alleged that pro-Palestinian marches were a hotbed of “intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence”.

What is Gove’s history of tackling ‘extremism’?

The Scottish-born MP began espousing his views on “extremism” 18 years ago when he published his book exploring the roots of  “Islamism” in Britain, Celsius 7/7, in the wake of the coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the London transport system on July 7, 2005.

In a review of Gove’s book for The Sunday Times in 2006, acclaimed Scottish historian William Dalrymple alleged that Celsius 7/7 was “riddled with … factual errors and misconceptions” and said Gove’s work was fatally undermined by his having “never lived in the Middle East … [and having] barely set foot in a Muslim country”.

And in 2014, Gove – then the education secretary – was accused of leading an “Islamophobic witch-hunt” against schools in Birmingham, England.

Eight years later, a New York Times podcast on the issue alleged that Gove had ignored warnings that assertions of an “Islamic extremist takeover” of Birmingham schools, known as the Trojan Horse affair, were “bogus”.

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The Sacrifice Zone | Al Jazeera

People and Power travels to Zambia to investigate one of the world’s worst ‘sacrifice zones’.

Around the world, tens of millions of people live in so-called “sacrifice zones”, areas which have become permanently impaired by environmental degradation, mostly due to pollution from heavy industry. One of the worst such sacrifice zones is in Kabwe, Zambia.

Here, 220,000 residents live close to an old lead and zinc mine which operated for almost a century. Although the mine closed in 1994, many residents say their children are now suffering from the effects of lead poisoning, and are seeking compensation.

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Divisive Catalan amnesty bill clears parliamentary hurdle in Spain | Catalonia News

Spain’s lower house of parliament has approved an amnesty bill aimed at forgiving crimes – proven and alleged – by Catalan separatists during a chaotic attempt to hold an independence referendum in the region six years ago.

The MPs on Thursday voted 178 in favour to 172 against in the 350-seat house.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promoted the amnesty as a way to move past the 2017 secession attempt.

However, the bill has also met opposition from millions of Spaniards who believe that the people who provoked one of Spain’s biggest political crises should face charges, including embezzlement and promoting public disorder.

Sanchez has already pardoned nine jailed Catalan independence leaders, a move that helped heal wounds at little political cost. But the amnesty is proving to be much more divisive.

Secession attempt

The secession crisis erupted when a regional administration led by Carles Puigdemont staged a referendum on independence, defying orders from the national government and a ruling from Spain’s top court that doing so violated the constitution.

Madrid sent in police to try to stop the referendum, and protests against the police deployment turned violent. Some polling stations were unable to open.

The referendum passed, but turnout was low at 43 percent. Nearly four weeks later on October 27, 2017, the Catalan Parliament declared independence, but the declaration failed to garner any international support. Puigdemont and several other senior officials later fled Spain.

Hundreds or thousands of people in Catalonia face the threat of prosecution related to the referendum or protests, and Puigdemont and other leaders remain abroad.

Recent court probes have accused the former regional president of allegedly masterminding massive protests in which demonstrators fought with police and that closed roads, train lines and the Barcelona airport in 2019.

Sanchez, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, agreed to the amnesty to secure the backing of two Catalan separatist parties after an inconclusive national election in July turned them into kingmakers.

The conservative opposition accuses Sanchez of selling out the rule of law in exchange for another term in the Moncloa Palace. It has organised street protests in recent months.

Page-turning ‘reconciliation’

The Socialists’ parliamentary spokesman Patxi Lopez defended the bill on Thursday as a move to seek a page-turning “reconciliation” with Catalonia.

The opposition Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo hit back, saying: “This is not reconciliation but submission.”

It was not clear whether the deal will add stability to Sanchez’s minority government. Junts, a separatist party led by Puigdemont, said it would vote for Sanchez to form a government in return for the amnesty and nothing more.

The bill still faces a number of procedural hurdles. The Senate, which has a conservative majority, is expected to reject it, which would mean that parliament’s lower house would have to vote for it a second time to push it through.

Sanchez’s party had a hard time crafting a bill that satisfies the separatists. If passed, the legislation will surely be highly scrutinised by the courts.

Parliament, including Sanchez’s party, voted down an earlier version of the legislation in January when Junts said it did not do enough to protect Puigdemont. The bill then went back to a parliamentary committee, which tweaked it to suit Junts’s needs.

Puigdemont now lives in Belgium, where he has become a European Parliament member. A fugitive from Spanish justice, he calls himself a political exile.

Early elections

Thursday’s vote comes a day after Catalonia’s regional leader called early elections.

That decision added more uncertainty to Spanish politics and led to Sanchez cancelling plans for a 2024 budget because of the difficulty he would have had trying to get the support of the two separatist parties during election time.

Spain granted a sweeping amnesty during its transition back to democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

But legal experts are divided over the constitutionality of an amnesty for the Catalan separatists. Its legal critics said it violates the principle of equality among Spaniards by favouring those of one region.

The government said the amnesty could help hundreds of people while the pro-independence Catalan organisation Omnium Cultural said it should benefit about 4,400 people, mostly minor officials and citizens who either helped to organise the referendum or participated in the protests.

The courts would decide the application of the amnesty on a case-by-case basis.

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NATO allies must do more as Ukraine runs out of ammunition: Stoltenberg | Russia-Ukraine war News

NATO’s secretary-general calls on members to show the political will to offer more support for Kyiv against Russia.

Ukraine is running out of ammunition and NATO members are not doing enough to help Kyiv, the alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said, in unusually blunt comments about the state of the war.

“Unprecedented aid from NATO allies has helped Ukraine survive as an independent nation. But Ukraine needs even more support and they need it now,” Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.

“The Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition,” he said.

More than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s military has recently been grappling with significantly reduced weapons supplies from the West.

“NATO allies are not providing Ukraine with enough ammunition and that has consequences on the battlefield every day,” Stoltenberg said.

“It is one of the reasons why the Russians have been able to make some advance on the battlefield over the last weeks and months.

“It is an urgent need for allies to make the decisions necessary to step and provide more ammunition to Ukraine. That’s my message to all capitals.

“We have the capacity, the economies, to be able to provide Ukraine what they need. This is a question of political will. To take the decisions and to prioritise support for Ukraine.”

Stoltenberg presents the 2023 NATO annual report [Virginia Mayo/AP Photo]

The US on Tuesday announced a new $300m weapons package for Ukraine, but a further $60bn in funding remains stalled by Republicans in Congress.

On Wednesday, European Union countries agreed to provide five billion euros ($5.48bn) for military aid to Ukraine as part of a revamp of an EU-run assistance fund.

However, the bloc is well behind schedule in its promise, made last year, to send a million artillery shells to Ukraine by this month.

The Czech Republic has led an 18-nation coalition buying artillery shells from outside Europe, and this month Prague announced that the first of 300,000 shells could reach Kyiv within weeks.

EU leaders will meet at a Brussels summit next week to discuss initiatives aimed at boosting Europe’s weapons industry.

Meanwhile, Russia has ramped up its domestic arms production by putting its economy on a war footing and has received major deliveries of weapons from Iran and North Korea.

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EU probes Chinese site AliExpress over potentially illegal online products | Technology News

The European Union also sent requests for info to tech giants on their use of generative artificial intelligence.

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into Chinese e-commerce site AliExpress over concerns about illegal and pornographic content on its platform.

In a statement on Thursday, the European Union’s executive arm said it would investigate the e-commerce giant under its Digital Services Act (DSA), a law requiring companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful products on their platforms.

The probe will determine if AliExpress breached the DSA in “areas linked to the management and mitigation of risks, to content moderation and the internal complaint handling mechanism, to the transparency of advertising and recommender systems, [and] to the traceability of traders and data access for researchers,” the commission said.

Fake medicines, food, and dietary supplements sales – as well as pornographic material that the commission said minors can still access on the website – are major issues, the statement read.

How AliExpress recommends products to shoppers and whether the site complies with a rule requiring a searchable repository of adverts provided on the platform are other areas of investigation.

The move followed a “request for information” order the EU sent to Alibaba Group Holding Limited, owners of AliExpress, last November, in what was the first stage of the investigation.

In recent months, the EU has challenged the might of Big Tech companies with the DSA – which first came into force last August – and a sister law, the Digital Markets Act.

Both policies have hit tech giants with strict curbs and obligations on how they do business. So far, they have targeted “very large” platforms with more than 45 million monthly European users.

Platforms face fines that can go up to six percent of their global turnover for violations.

“The Digital Services Act is not just about hate speech, disinformation and cyberbullying,” Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s internal markets chief, said on Thursday.

“It is also there to ensure [the] removal of illegal or unsafe products … This is not negotiable.”

On Thursday, the commission also sent requests for information to Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, X – formerly Twitter – and others regarding their use of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Officials said they will examine whether the companies conduct risk assessments and have risk mitigation measures to tackle potentially harmful generative AI content.

Microsoft’s LinkedIn will separately receive scrutiny over whether it allows profiling in its advertising service following a complaint from civil society organisations.

Earlier in February, the commission opened formal probes into TikTok regarding concerns that the site breached transparency, minor protection, and addictive design rules.

Probes into Meta and X were also announced in December over their regulation of disinformation regarding Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament greenlit the Artificial Intelligence Act, the world’s first set of rules to regulate AI. The act is expected to be endorsed by the European Council in May.



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