Tag: Explainer

What is Trident, the US floating pier off Gaza? Will it work? | Explainer News

A $320m floating pier built for delivering aid has been attached to Gaza’s shore and began being used to deliver aid on Friday, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) says.

Aid groups have criticised the pier as a costly and ineffective distraction from the fact that land deliveries are the most efficient way to help Gaza.

What was initially proposed as a way to supplement aid to a starving population as Israel’s punishing war on them continues may become the only source after Israel seized and closed the Rafah land crossing with Egypt. Israelis have also begun attacking aid trucks heading to Gaza through Israeli crossings.

CENTCOM said aid trucks are “expected to begin moving ashore in the coming days” via the pier. Shipping data shows the MV Sagamore cargo ship carrying the aid is near Cyprus after waiting in Ashdod, Israel, for a few days due to bad weather.

How does the pier work?

The US has long used Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) to land troops and equipment in areas where they have no access to a fixed pier.

It is using the same capability to build the Trident Pier for Gaza.

The project has two components, a floating offshore barge that is a first point of arrival for aid deliveries and a 550-metre (1,800ft) causeway anchored to the shore.

(Al Jazeera)

Aid is assembled and inspected in Cyprus, in the presence of Israeli officials so it requires no further checks on arrival, then departs by cargo ship – the Sagamore, so far.

When it arrives after a journey of about 15 hours, aid is unloaded onto the floating pier and then loaded on trucks driven by aid workers that board smaller US Army boats to be transported to the Gaza shore.

When the operation reaches full capacity, 150 trucks are expected to make their way into Gaza daily.

International aid organisations say a minimum of 500 trucks are needed each day.

What are the main challenges?

The project stops on bad weather days as rough seas slow down the ships while the pier is unusable in waves higher than 90cm (three feet) or winds faster than 24km/hour (15mph), according to a 2006 US Naval War College paper on safe cargo handling.

Earlier this month, CENTCOM had to pause offshore assembly of the pier due to high winds and high sea swells, moving everything near Ashdod.

The project also needs complicated logistics and security with many moving parts and details yet to be finalised.

Every step added to aid delivery increases both cost and risk, Sarah Schiffling, deputy director of Finland’s HUMLOG Institute which researches humanitarian logistics and supply chain management, said.

“We’ve got this quite complex structure of what needs to happen – and then the aid still needs to be distributed in Gaza,” Schiffling said. “If you haven’t got fuel, then the whole thing doesn’t work.”

It is also unclear who will be responsible for each stage and who guarantees the safety of aid workers unloading and distributing aid. On Thursday, CENTCOM said: “The United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution into Gaza,” but did not specify whether this would be the arrangement throughout.

International and local organisations are painfully aware that past aid distributions in Gaza have ended in tragedy.

Israel’s military has attacked aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza at least eight times since October, with Human Rights Watch saying none of the aid organisations were warned before the attacks.

On Monday, a foreign United Nations staff member was killed in an attack in eastern Rafah when the vehicle they were travelling was shot at. Last month, Israel struck a convoy belonging to World Central Kitchen, killing seven aid workers.

 

Why is the project controversial?

The pier has been criticised as a complicated and costly alternative that tries to deflect attention from demanding a more appropriate and much simpler solution – for Israel to open land crossings to Gaza and to secure aid trucks going in.

Israel has been ordered to open more land crossings by the International Court of Justice as part of a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

The court order in March was followed by a modest increase but aid remained nowhere near enough to meet the overwhelming need, according to UN and nongovernmental aid agencies.

Humanitarian aid had been trickling in through the Rafah crossing but came to a halt when the Israeli military seized control of the area in its offensive in the southern city.

According to Schiffling, Ashdod, just north of Gaza, would have been better for aid delivery, but there is no political willingness. “There is sea infrastructure, it’s just not available to get the humanitarian aid in to then get it across the land border into Gaza.”

Interactive_Rafah_crossing_enter_exit_May8
(Al Jazeera)

US authorities say the pier is intended to supplement, not replace, aid deliveries over land and have called for the opening of land routes.

“We’re in a situation where anything going into Gaza is fantastic and we want more of that,” Schiffling said. “[Maritime aid delivery] can be an addition, but it cannot replace road access.”

US President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address in March that the pier would “receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter”, a move largely seen as an attempt to appease his Democratic Party’s base as he runs for re-election in November.

The pier “looks quite spectacular and demonstrates what the US military can do without it being a military intervention”, Schiffling said.

“[W]e can understand why it was great for President Biden to announce it in his State of the Union address.”

Washington has provided billions of dollars in aid as well as weapons that Israel has used in Gaza since October 7.

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Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ bill: What’s the controversy about? What’s next? | Protests News

Georgia’s Parliament passed its new “transparency of foreign influence” bill – also known as the “foreign agents” law – on Tuesday despite mass protests that have rocked the capital, Tbilisi, for the past few weeks. After the bill was passed, thousands of protesters clashed with the police outside the parliament building in the centre of Tbilisi.

The new law was initially proposed by the Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012, last year but was withdrawn following protests against it. The bill was reintroduced in March this year after a new prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, took office, leading to protests throughout April that were met with violent crackdowns and arrests by masked riot police.

Footage broadcast on national television on Monday showed lawmakers from the governing and opposition parties brawling in parliament. Opposition parliament member Aleko Elisashvili punched the governing Georgian Dream party leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, in the face.

So, what’s in the bill and why is it so controversial?

What’s in the ‘foreign agents’ bill?

The bill, which passed with 84 members of parliament out of 150 voting in favour, requires non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media outlets with more than 20 percent of their funding coming from outside Georgia to register as bodies “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.

If they refuse to do so and to disclose sensitive information about foreign funding, they will be met with a fine of 25,000 lari ($9,360), followed by additional fines of 20,000 lari ($7,490) for each month of non-compliance thereafter.

NGO and media organisations fear being forced to close if they do not comply. Eka Gigauri, head of the Georgian branch of Transparency International, the anti-corruption NGO which has operated in the country for 24 years, told France24: “The implication would be that they might freeze our assets.”

How has the government justified the bill?

Georgia’s government says the bill is needed to promote transparency, combat “pseudo-liberal values” promoted by foreigners and preserve the country’s sovereignty.

Georgian Dream’s backer, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has accused NGOs of being foreign puppets and plotting a revolution.

Prime Minister Kobakhidze, a strong proponent of the bill, said if authorities did not pass the bill, Georgia would lose its sovereignty and “easily share the fate of Ukraine”. The exact meaning of his statement was not immediately clear. He has previously said the bill promotes accountability.

The Georgian government has also argued that the new law is similar to transparency legislations in Western countries – such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act in the United States and similar directives planned in France and other European Union countries.

What are the objections to the bill?

The bill is deeply unpopular – with some 50,000 protesters gathered in Tbilisi on Sunday.

Critics argue that this law will limit democracy and media freedom and will also jeopardise the country’s bid to join the EU. Georgia applied to be part of the EU in 2022 and was granted candidate status in December last year.

The bill has been dubbed the “Russian law” by opponents due to its similarities to Russian legislation used to crack down on critics of President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin.

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili dubbed the bill an “exact duplicate” of the one in Russia in an interview with CNN. While Zourabichvili has promised to veto the bill, her move can be overruled through a simple majority in parliament, which the ruling Georgian Dream party enjoys.

Some critics also argue that the bill will move Georgia closer to Russia. The two former Soviet countries have had a strained relationship since Georgia’s independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, particularly over Georgia’s Russia-friendly, separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions – a dispute which led to violent conflict in 2008. Most countries recognise these regions as part of Georgia, but Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria all regard them as independent.

The Georgian Dream’s billionaire backer, Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, has not publicly condemned the invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of leaning towards Moscow.

What’s next?

NGO workers, activists and journalists say they fear harassment and persecution in Georgia as a result of this new law. Baia Pataraia, who heads the women’s rights NGO, Sapari, said she has experienced harassment, threats and accusations of being a foreign agent since the reintroduction of the bill. Pataraia refuses to register as a foreign agent.

Organisations also fear losing funding as many are largely dependent on funding from overseas. Nato Shavkaladze, who runs a shelter for women escaping domestic abuse in Georgia, told the AFP news agency: “If we don’t register, we will probably cease to exist.”

What’s the reaction to the bill?

The bill has not only prompted discontent among Georgia’s public. The US and the EU have also voiced their concerns and strongly disagree with the government’s argument that the new law is similar to transparency legislation passed in Western countries.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, warned on May 1 that Georgia was “at a crossroads”. The EU has warned that this move could hinder the Black Sea country’s admission into the bloc. “EU member countries are very clear that if this law is adopted it will be a serious obstacle for Georgia in its European perspective,” said EU spokesman Peter Stano.

Until right before the passage of the bill, the US was urging Georgia not to go ahead with the move, saying it would be inconsistent with its stated goal to join the EU and have a relationship with NATO.

“We’re deeply troubled by Georgia’s Kremlin-style foreign agents legislation,” US Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. “If this legislation passes, it will compel us to fundamentally reassess our relationship with Georgia.”

The US ambassador to Georgia, Robin Dunnigan, said in a statement on May 2 that the US government had invited Prime Minister Kobakhidze to high-level talks “with the most senior leaders”. But Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the invitation was declined. Instead, Kobakhidze accused the US of supporting “revolutionary attempts” by NGOs working in the country, such as EU-funded organisations Transparency International Georgia and ISFED, which often highlight government corruption and abuses of power.

Ministers from Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia also expressed dismay over the new law, urging Georgia to scrap the bill. The ministers will meet the Georgian president, foreign minister and the head of parliament on Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch also opposed the bill in an X post on Tuesday, saying it aims to “silence media and civil society” and that it “threatens rights”.



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Nakba remembered: What is the right of return? | Gaza

NewsFeed

76 years on from the Nakba, Palestinians continue to demand their right of return after they were expelled from their homes during the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Al Jazeera’s Nada Qaddourah breaks down the situation and looks at the parallels with Israel’s current war on Gaza.

Published On 15 May 2024

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Boeing’s jets turn 70: A timeline of highs, lows and turbulence | Aviation News

On May 14, 1954, Boeing, now one of the world’s largest commercial aerospace companies, unveiled its first commercial jet-powered passenger plane, the Model 367-80 prototype, at its Renton Field plant on the south shore of Lake Washington in Washington state, where jetliners are still produced today.

The 367-80 would eventually be retired on January 22, 1970 but not before its technology had been used to create the famous 707 model – and, later the hugely successful 737.

Initially, airlines were cautious about embracing jet technology, citing worries about expense and noise levels among other things. However, the successful test flights of the 367-80 demonstrated the advances aviation had made in increased speeds and altitudes.

Ultimately, this success laid the groundwork for Boeing’s 707 plane, which was launched in 1957. US airline group Pan Am began regular 707 flights on October 26, 1958, signalling the industry’s broader acceptance of jet airliners. Before the 707, propeller-driven aircraft had dominated commercial air travel.

Boeing’s 737 model was launched in 1967 and would become the most commercially successful aeroplane in aviation history.

However, in recent years, Boeing has suffered a string of technical failures. Most recently, a Boeing 737 carrying 85 people caught fire and skidded off a runway at Senegal’s main airport, injuring 10 people including the pilot, while a Boeing 767 cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing following a front landing gear failure.

Last week, Boeing was forced to postpone the launch of its new CST-100 Starliner capsule, designed for launch into space, after engineers detected a problem with a rocket valve.

Here is a timeline of some of Boeing’s highs and lows over the past century.

(Al Jazeera)

A century in the air – some of Boeing’s highs

The company, which was first founded as Pacific Aero Products Co by William Boeing in 1916, was officially named Boeing Airplane Co in 1917, shortly after the US entered the war. During the war, Boeing provided Model C trainer planes to the US Navy, designed a new patrol “flying boat” and signed a contract with the US Navy to build 50 Curtiss HS-2L seaplanes.

In 1917, it also produced the first US-designed and built bomber plane and its Martin MB-1 bomber made its first flight.

During World War II, Boeing produced bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress. The B-29 Superfortress planes, named Enola Gay and Bockscar, were the two aircraft used to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The atomic bombing caused almost 200,000 casualties. Long-term effects on survivors would lead to radiation sickness and such cancers as leukaemia, thyroid cancer and lung cancer, due to radiation exposure.

  • Launch of the 737 airliner

One of Boeing’s most significant contributions to commercial aviation was the 737 series of jetliners, launched in 1967. The model would become one of the best-selling commercial jetliners in aviation history. Nearly 12,000 have been built.

During the Apollo programme, which ultimately saw American astronaut Neil Armstrong become the first person to walk on the moon, Boeing built the Saturn V’s maiden rocket in 1967. That same model rocket would be used for the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, landing astronauts on the moon.

  • Boeing, the billion-dollar company

Boeing made $1bn in sales for the first time in 1956. It was publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker symbol BA, in January 1978 and is currently valued at $109.5bn.

Which fatal crashes have involved Boeing planes?

More than 100 years after Boeing was first founded, Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 domestic passenger flight, crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang in Indonesia, en route to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkal Pinang, killing all 189 people on board on October 29, 2018. An investigation by the Indonesian authorities blamed a combination of an aircraft design flaw which had forced the plane to dive down, inadequate training and maintenance problems, one year later.

Residents collect debris at the scene where Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed in a wheat field just outside the town of Bishoftu, 62km southeast of Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019 [Jemal Countess/Getty Images]
  • Ethiopian Airlines crash, 2019

Less than a year after the Lion Air incident, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, also a Boeing 737 MAX 8 and a scheduled international passenger flight from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, crashed near the Ethiopian town of Bishoftu just six minutes after takeoff on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 people on board. The same technical issue which had been found in the Lion Air case was also discovered.

The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide due to concerns about a faulty sensor that had caused its Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) to continually tilt the plane downwards, causing it to dive.

As a result of the controversy over the design flaw, Boeing’s board removed CEO Dennis Muilenburg as chairman but allowed him to remain chief executive.

The Boeing 737 MAX was finally cleared to resume flights by the FAA in November 2020, after the problem was fixed but Boeing had already been heavily criticised by the US House Transportation Committee for failing to take better safety measures.

What incidents involving Boeing planes have happened this year?

  • Alaskan Airlines door panel blowout, January

In January this year, a door panel on Alaskan Airlines flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet, blew out, causing rapid decompression and forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Portland International Airport. Some passengers suffered minor injuries but nobody was killed or seriously harmed. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) immediately grounded the 737 Max 9, of which there were 171 in use worldwide. Loose hardware was reported in an initial investigation.

This photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board shows a gaping hole where the panelled-over door had been at the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, on January 7, 2024, in Portland, Oregon [National Transportation Safety Board via AP]

The incident caused a flurry of conspiracy theories which have ramped up in the past three months because of the deaths of two Boeing whistleblowers.

John Barnett, a quality control engineer who worked for Boeing for more than three decades, was found dead in March 2019. His body was discovered with a gunshot wound and a suicide note in his truck, which was parked in a hotel car park in South Carolina.

Two weeks ago, Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, a supplier for Boeing, died in an Oklahoma hospital due to a staph infection that quickly developed into pneumonia.

  • Air Senegal plane skids off runway, May

A chartered Air Senegal Boeing B737-300 plane skidded off a runway before takeoff early on Thursday, May 9 at Blaise Diagne International Airport in the capital, Dakar. Eighty-five people – including two pilots and four cabin crew – were on board the flight operated by TransAir and bound for the Malian capital Bamako. At least 10 people were injured, the transport ministry said.

Photos showed the damaged plane at a standstill in a grassy field with a damaged wing, its emergency exit slides deployed.

Videos shared on social media appeared to show a left wing on fire.

A FedEx Express Boeing 767 cargo plane made an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport on May 8 without deploying its front landing gear but managed to stay on the runway and avoid casualties [Umit Bektas/Reuters]
  • FedEx flight makes emergency landing, May

On Wednesday, May 8, a Boeing 767 cargo aircraft belonging to FedEx made an emergency landing at Istanbul in Turkey after its front landing gear failed. No one was injured and the crew successfully evacuated the aircraft.

  • Corendon Airlines plane has burst tyre, May

Also in Turkey, 190 people – including six crew members – were safely evacuated from a Boeing 737-800 belonging to Corendon Airlines after one of the aircraft’s tyres burst on Thursday, May 9, during landing at Gazipasa, an airport near the Mediterranean coastal town of Alanya.

  • Boeing Starliner launch halted, May

Boeing called off the inaugural crewed flight CST-100 Starliner space capsule on Monday, May 7, after engineers detected an issue with the Atlas V rocket valve. The decision to call off the launch on Monday came two hours before the scheduled liftoff and about an hour after two NASA astronauts had strapped into the spacecraft.

NASA chief Bill Nelson posted on X. “Standing down on tonight’s attempt to launch. As I’ve said before, @NASA’s first priority is safety. We go when we’re ready.”

(Al Jazeera)

Is Boeing’s safety record being investigated?

Boeing has been the subject of 32 whistleblower complaints lodged with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the workplace safety regulator, in the United States during the past three years

Air safety officials in the US are also currently investigating whether employees at Boeing falsified inspection records for the 787 Dreamliner.

Sam Salehpour, another whistleblower and quality engineer who worked for Boeing for 10 years has stated he had safety concerns regarding the 787 Dreamliner. Last month, Salehpour testified at a congressional hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the safety of the 777 and 787 aircraft.

He stated: “I have analysed Boeing’s own data to conclude that the company is taking manufacturing shortcuts on the 787 programme that may significantly reduce the airplane’s safety and the life cycle.”

Boeing strongly refuted the claims and stated that it is “fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner”.

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Why are social media users blocking celebrities over Israel’s Gaza war? | Israel War on Gaza News

The growing protest efforts against Israel’s war on Gaza have now spawned a cyberspace movement that has erupted in the past few days, targeting celebrities who are seen as being insensitive towards, or even supportive of, the death and destruction in the Palestinian enclave.

The campaign that took off after the Met Gala on May 6 has earned the names: Blockout 2024, celebrity block list and digitine. The idea is to  block famous celebrities on social media networks such as Instagram, X and TikTok.

But what’s it all about, why are parallels to the French Revolution coming up, does blocking a celebrity hurt them, and is the campaign seeing any impact?

What is Blockout 2024?

The Blockout 2024 is an online movement where social media users are carrying out a digital boycott of famous celebrities ranging from Hollywood actors to social media influencers for their silence on Israel’s war on Gaza, or in some cases, their purported support for the war.

Various TikTok, Instagram and X users have begun circulating lists of celebrities and their businesses to block.

The point of the move is to reduce the earnings the celebrities make through ads on social media platforms.

Why was this year’s Met Gala so controversial?

The Blockout movement was set off by this year’s Met Gala, which took place in New York on May 6.

Social media users were upset when images of the lavishly dressed celebrities surfaced online at the annual fundraiser.

They pointed out that some of these celebrities had never made online statements or addressed the continuing war on Gaza, where Israel’s relentless bombardment has killed more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children.

The ‘let them eat cake’ moment

On May 7, a video surfaced of TikTok influencer Haley Kalil, lip-syncing the words “let them eat cake”, outside the Met Gala. Kalil has 9.9 million followers on her TikTok account @haleyybaylee.

Those infamous words, often attributed to Marie Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution, have in popular imagination become synonymous with an elite so disconnected with the lives of citizens unable to find even bread that they suggest cake as an alternative.

Kalil’s video stirred anger because of the backdrop of the starvation crisis in Gaza. Insufficient food has been on the rise over the seven months of war.

Only two days before the Met Gala, on May 4, Cindy McCain, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in a news interview that northern Gaza is experiencing “full blown famine”.

Users online have now started calling the Blockout, the “digitine” or the digital guillotine, leaning into the French Revolution reference.

Kalil issued an apology video on May 10 on her TikTok account. She said that she did not have an actual invite to the Met Gala and was involved in the event only as a host with E! News. She justified her use of the audio by saying that it was a trending audio on TikTok.

“I am not informed enough to talk about it in a meaningful or educational way,” she said in the apology video in response to questions about why she is not talking about what is happening in Gaza. She did not mention “Palestine”, “Gaza” or “Israel” in the video.

How does blocking a celebrity affect them?

Besides Kalil, other celebrities on the blocklists include Israeli actor and former soldier Gal Gadot, American media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian, American actors Zendaya and Noah Schnapp; American singer Taylor Swift and British singer Harry Styles.

While there have been online movements in the past to unfollow some of the celebrities that are now being blocked, experts have said blocking is more effective as a protest strategy than unfollowing.

The effect of unfollowing on a celebrity’s overall audience and engagement metrics is minimal, Eddy Borges-Rey, an associate professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar told Al Jazeera. Borges-Rey’s research work examines social media and algorithms.

“Social media celebrities heavily rely on high visibility and engagement to attract and maintain advertising deals,” he said, adding that when someone unfollows a celebrity, they simply stop seeing the celebrity’s posts in their feed. The content can still indirectly show up through their search pages or algorithm-driven feeds such as the Instagram Explore page or the “For You” pages on TikTok and X.

Since even non-followers view the celebrity’s content if they have not blocked the celebrity, this does not significantly hurt the celebrity’s reach.

On the other hand, “if someone blocks the celebrity, they completely cut off all interaction with their content,” said Borges-Rey.

This decreases the celebrity’s audience size, leading social media algorithms to deprioritise their content. As more people block a celebrity, their posts become less visible across the platform, even to those users who have not blocked the celebrities.

“A reduction in visibility can lead advertisers to perceive the celebrity as less valuable, potentially cutting back on the amount they are willing to pay for ads on the celebrity’s profile, thereby directly affecting their ad revenue,” he added.

How have people reacted to the Blockout?

While many social media users online have been proponents and participants of the movement, others have described it as an example of performative activism.

Some have also suggested that posts about the Blockout, by crowding social media, are diverting attention from updates and information about what is actually going on in Palestine, as well as fundraisers for Gaza.

Has the Blockout made a difference so far?

While the Blockout started only a few days ago and the number of people who have blocked a particular account does not show, celebrities have started to lose followers.

On Saturday, NPR reported that Taylor Swift lost roughly 300,000 followers on TikTok and about 50,000 followers on Instagram over the past week.

“They [celebrities] live off of our attention,” an X user posted. “If they don’t have any, they cease to exert their influence.”



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India Lok Sabha election 2024 Phase 4: Who votes and what’s at stake? | India Election 2024 News

India is bracing itself for the fourth phase of its weeks-long elections on May 13 to elect 96 members of parliament to the Lok Sabha, or the lower house of parliament, as the world’s largest electoral exercise moves into its final month.

The two main contenders for power are Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a coalition of 26 parties led by the main opposition party, Rahul Gandhi‘s Indian National Congress.

Last week, the third phase of the voting saw Modi cast his vote in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar constituency. It also saw the competition between the two main contenders heighten as the Congress Party’s former President Sonia Gandhi said Modi and the BJP were focusing “only on gaining power at any cost”.

The fourth phase also features a bit of glamour in the east of the country, where Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election in West Bengal’s Asansol, and to the south, where actress Maadhavi Latha from the BJP is standing for the Hyderabad seat in Telangana. Latha is pitted against Asaduddin Owaisi, a four-time MP from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party.

The first three phases of the election, which were held on April 19, April 26 and May 7, saw a voter turnout of 66.1, 66.7, and 61 percent, respectively. The voting so far has been lower than in the 2019 elections. In total, 969 million people are registered to vote in 543 parliamentary constituencies across 36 states and federally-governed union territories.

Who is voting in the fourth phase?

Registered voters across nine states and a union territory will cast their ballots for the following constituencies:

  • Andhra Pradesh: All 25 constituencies in the southern coastal state
  • Telangana: All 17 constituencies in the southern state
  • Jharkhand: Four of the eastern state’s 14 constituencies
  • Odisha: Four of the eastern state’s 21 constituencies
  • Uttar Pradesh: Thirteen of the northern state’s 80 constituencies
  • Madhya Pradesh: Eight of the central state’s 29 constituencies
  • Bihar: Five of the eastern state’s 40 constituencies
  • Maharashtra: Eleven of the western state’s 48 constituencies
  • West Bengal: Eight of the eastern state’s 42 constituencies
  • Jammu and Kashmir: One of the union territory’s five constituencies

Which are some of the key constituencies?

Hyderabad (Telangana): Asaduddin Owaisi is being challenged by the BJP’s Maadhavi Latha in his family bastion. Owaisi’s brother, Akbaruddin Owaisi is a member of the state legislative assembly while his father, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, represented the parliamentary constituency, with a substantial Muslim population, six times. Owaisi pitches himself as the voice of India’s Muslim minority whose issues he regularly raises in his parliamentary debates. Owaisi was given the “best parliamentarian” award in 2022.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): This constituency in Kashmir registered just 15 percent voting in the 2019 election, which was marred by a boycott. This is the first parliamentary election in Kashmir since the region’s special status was removed in August 2019. The two biggest mainstream pro-India parties in the region – the National Conference and People’s Democratic Party – have fielded Aga Syed and Waheed Parra, respectively, as their candidates.

Krishnanagar, Baharampur and Asansol (West Bengal): These three parliamentary contests in West Bengal state, bordering Bangladesh, offer a mix of star power and political significance. Bollywood actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is seeking re-election from Asansol, while ex-cricketer Yusuf Pathan is taking on senior Congress Party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has been representing Bahrampur since 1999. Chowdhury was also the leader of the opposition Congress Party in the outgoing Lok Sabha. Pathan is the candidate of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party that rules the state and is also aligned with the national opposition INDIA alliance – even though the coalition’s members are standing against each other in West Bengal.

Yet, the most high-profile electoral battle in the state on May 13, is in Krishnanagar, where the fiery TMC parliamentarian and fierce critic of Modi, Mahua Moitra, is seeking a second term. A former vice president of JPMorgan Chase based in London, Moitra entered politics in 2009. Her parliamentary speeches asking tough questions of the government often go viral. In December 2023, the firebrand MP was expelled from parliament after being accused of accepting cash to ask questions. She said her expulsion was a way to silence her. She has challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court. The BJP has fielded Amrita Roy, whose husband is a descendant of the erstwhile king of the region, against Moitra.

Kannauj and Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh): Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party – a regional powerhouse that has seen its influence shrink with the BJP’s rise – has decided to enter the electoral race in Kannauj in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which accounts for 80 seats in the parliament. The BJP currently governs the state. Kannauj, known for its perfume industry, has been a Yadav family bastion. Akhilesh, his father Mulayan Singh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav have represented the seat since 1999. But in 2019, Dimple lost to the BJP in a shock defeat. Akhilesh’s entry into the electoral fray is an attempt to wrest back the family pocket borough.

The other seat that has attracted a lot of attention is Lakhimpur Kheri, where controversial federal Minister of Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni is seeking re-election. Mishra has been caught in a storm since his son Ashish Mishra allegedly ran his car over farmers protesting against now-repealed farm laws. Ashish is out on bail and farmers’ groups as well as activists have been demanding that Mishra be denied a ticket by the BJP.

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): This constituency, a stronghold of the BJP, has been in the news for unlikely reasons. The Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew from the race at the last minute, after the last date for candidates to file nominations had passed. The Congress could not field a replacement and Bam later joined the BJP. Thirteen other candidates are in the fray, but the Congress Party has urged voters to opt for NOTA (none of the above) in protest.

When does the voting start and end?

Voting will begin at 7am local time (01:30 GMT) and end at 6pm (12:30 GMT). Voters already in the queue by the time polls close will get to vote, even if that means keeping polling stations open longer.

Complete election results for all phases are to be released on June 4.

Which parties rule the states being polled in the fourth phase?

  • The BJP governs Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh outright.
  • The BJP governs Maharashtra and Bihar in alliances.
  • Odisha is governed by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which leans towards the NDA but is not a part of the alliance.
  • Andhra Pradesh is governed by the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party.
  • Congress governs Telangana.
  • Jharkhand is governed by the INDIA alliance led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
  • West Bengal is governed by the All India Trinamool Congress Party, a member of the INDIA alliance.
  • Jammu and Kashmir is governed directly by New Delhi. Its state legislature remains suspended.

Who won these Lok Sabha seats in 2019?

  • In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress, along with parties now affiliated with the INDIA alliance and those affiliated then with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, won 13 of the 96 seats to be decided on May 13.
  • The BJP and parties affiliated with the NDA won 50 of the seats in 2019.
  • The YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh won 22 seats while the Telangana-based Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) won nine seats in 2019.
  • The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won two seats in 2019.

How much of India has voted so far?

The first three phases of the Lok Sabha elections have already decided the fate of 284 MPs.

So far, voting has concluded for all seats in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Karnataka, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura; the Andaman and Nicobar islands; and the Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry union territories.

The fifth phase will kick off on May 20 and the sixth on May 25, before the election heads towards the seventh and final phase on June 1.

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Gaza’s mass graves: Is the truth being uncovered? | Israel War on Gaza News

Palestinian emergency workers continue to uncover mass graves in and around three hospitals in the Gaza Strip, months after Israeli forces laid siege to them, claiming they were being used as Hamas command centres.

More than 500 bodies have been recovered with Palestinian officials saying several of them showed signs of mutilation and torture amounting to war crimes. Israel’s military has rejected the allegations as “baseless”, saying the bodies were buried by Palestinians during the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas in the area.

The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have called for an independent investigation to determine the truth and ensure accountability. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “It’s important that all forensic evidence be well preserved.”

But as Israel intensifies its assault on the southern city of Rafah, having closed the crossing into Egypt and preventing any possible deployment of forensic teams or equipment into Gaza, burial sites are being dug up and evidence haphazardly collected.

Experts said the disturbance of sites where proof of war crimes might lie will make the search for truth harder – yet not all hopes for justice are lost.

How is evidence being collected from the mass graves?

Three mass graves have been found at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, three at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and one at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya.

Mohammad Zaanin, a member of the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that a fourth gravesite containing 42 bodies had been found at al-Shifa Hospital. The bodies were decomposed and unrecognisable, but some had IDs on them or were identified by relatives from clothing remnants.

Civil Defence teams have been documenting the remains through photos and videos, working with little protective gear and no forensic equipment. “We have some body bags and a little equipment to protect our hands and noses, but in reality, this is a local effort, and it puts a lot of pressure on our team,” Zaanin said.

Thani Nimr Abdel Rahman, who works with the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp and has visited the burial sites at al-Shifa Hospital, said she witnessed the ground being excavated using bulldozers.

Before the dead are reburied at a new site, relatives of the missing search for pieces of clothing around the remains for a sign of their loved ones. At times, the corpses have been left unattended. “The dogs came to devour the bodies, and the smell was deadly,” Abdel Rahman told Al Jazeera. “[This work] requires more capabilities and forensic experts, none of which are available in Gaza.”

Has evidence of war crimes been found?

Several Civil Defence members have claimed to have found evidence of ill treatment, including torture, extrajudicial executions and unlawful killings of noncombatants that could amount to war crimes.

Rami Dababesh, a member of the Civil Defence team who took part in the exhumation work at al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera that his team had found “headless corpses”. Paramedic Adel al-Mashharawi said he saw bodies of children and women dressed in hospital garments.

Civil Defence member Mohammed Mughier said at least 10 of the bodies had been found with bound hands while others still had medical tubes attached to them. He added that additional forensic examination was needed on about 20 bodies of people who they suspect had been “buried alive”.

Yamen Abu Sulaiman, the head of the Civil Defence in Khan Younis, said some of the bodies found at the Nasser Medical Complex had been “stacked together” and showed indications of field executions having taken place. At least 392 bodies were recovered at this site alone.

Is the evidence gathered reliable?

Mass grave investigations are typically a highly complex, lengthy and expensive process, requiring significant expertise and resources. The overarching operating principle underpinning the forensic scientific approach is “do no harm” because interference with the site may prejudice the evidence.

“The first reaction from pretty much everyone is to dig the bodies up because it’s a very emotional thing,” Stefan Schmitt, a forensic scientist at Florida International University who has investigated mass graves in multiple conflicts, told Al Jazeera.

“But bodies are safer underground when it comes to identifying them and determining what happened. Particularly in this case, where the truth is so incredibly important and where all sides are propagating their own version of the events, it’s especially important to be able to determine what really took place.”

Digging up bodies, especially using invasive methods such as bulldozers, wipes out clues that could help determine responsibility and archaeological evidence that could reveal when a grave was dug and with what tools, Schmitt said.

Every exhumation also scatters evidence as decomposing body parts are left behind in the original burial site. Once a corpse is moved and reburied, information on where it came from can be lost.

Inaccurate information may also be added as part of the documentation process. Schmitt said misidentification by grieving relatives who are psychologically inclined to want closure is frequent in the context of war. Claims of bodies having been decapitated or buried alive were also hard to back up without autopsies being carried out.

Photographic and video evidence alone may not be sufficient to remedy confusion. For visual evidence to be viewed as reliable, a chain of custody must be ensured, Schmitt said.

The process of documentation must give a clear sense of the exhumation process both spatially and in regards to timing with pictures containing information including metadata and geolocation taken in a sequence. Shots must be framed to feature landmarks before zooming in on the details. The information is then methodically collected in a spreadsheet, from which each entry is hyperlinked to the relevant visual data.

“I have been shown pictures that came from Gaza, but I couldn’t see the chain of custody. I don’t know where they’re coming from,” Schmitt said, adding that this means he has consequently unable to give an expert opinion on what they show.

“What is happening right now is destroying evidence. I know that that’s not deliberate, but it plays into the hands of those that don’t want the truth to be told.”

Can international organisations help?

The UN has called for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves in Gaza. The EU backed the call, saying the discovery of bodies at the hospitals “creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights” while the US said it wanted the matter to be “thoroughly and transparently investigated”.

It is unclear which organisation would heed the call, or who in the future might take up the hefty task of investigating.

UN human rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told Al Jazeera the international body was not providing support in evidence gathering at burial sites in Gaza “because it requires specific expertise that does not exist on the ground”.

Is there any hope of justice for victims?

As the Rafah border crossing with Egypt remains closed, the prospects of foreign investigators being sent in to investigate allegations of war crimes appear slim.

However, not all hope for justice is lost. “What you have got, as opposed to what you haven’t got, might itself be extremely revealing,” said Geoffrey Nice, a British barrister who led the prosecution in the trial of Serbian politician Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

“Because you haven’t got it all doesn’t mean you haven’t got enough,” Nice told Al Jazeera about forensic scientific evidence.

In the former Yugoslavia, remains were dug up for decades, and DNA testing ensured identification even many years after the events. “Efforts on identification never end, and there is a huge body of evidence. Never worry about what you haven’t got. Use what you have got,” the barrister added.

Evidence gathered at the mass graves could point to specific offences or be merged into a broader inquiry into war crimes. An unbiased judiciary and investigatory organisation may be set up, but this will take decades of work and cost a large sum of money, requiring the support of wealthy countries.

According to Nice, should a tribunal for Gaza be set up, “it would not be sensible to have participating members from any countries that supported Israel with weapons.”

“The Israel-Gaza conflict is hopelessly sensitive. The funding body, be it the EU or someone else, has got to be prepared after having funded it to have absolutely no further engagement except when asked,” he added.

Is justice being pursued elsewhere?

Legal proceedings are also already ongoing at top courts. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is overseeing an active investigation into the atrocities on October 7 by Hamas and the response by the Israeli military. The office of the prosecutor has jurisdiction in the Palestinian territories but has not made any public comments about the discovery of mass graves.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), a separate court, is considering a case brought by South Africa in which Israel stands accused of committing genocide in Gaza. It will take several years to reach a verdict, during which time, the court is expected to investigate a litany of alleged offences.

Among key provisional measures issued to prevent the crime of genocide, the ICJ ordered Israeli authorities to “take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence” related to the allegations. It also ordered unimpeded access to humanitarian aid, which humanitarian organisations said has been blocked since the offensive in Rafah began.

“If the general conclusion of any court is that what is going on in Gaza is beyond the limits of warfare, then it is not difficult to track the chain of command back to the top,” Nice said.

Then, the barrister added, “you can start to see if there is individual responsibility.”

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Are US graduation ceremonies the latest battleground for Gaza protests? | Israel War on Gaza News

EXPLAINER

Here’s how pro-Palestine campus protests and encampments are affecting graduation ceremonies at US universities.

College graduates all over the United States this year are walking on stage to collect their degrees after donning Palestinian flags and keffiyehs with their caps and gowns.

Graduation ceremonies are taking place in May during protests and encampments in solidarity with the nearly 35,000 Palestinians killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began more than seven months ago.

Protesters who have set up encampments on campuses for the past several weeks are calling on their universities to cut academic and financial ties with Israel. Counterprotesters are making themselves heard as well with some carrying Israeli flags and displaying pro-Israel messages during commencement ceremonies.

While students at some institutions are using graduation to further their protests, some universities – including Columbia University in New York, where the first encampment appeared in April – have cancelled ceremonies. Other universities have changed venues and put security measures in place.

Which US universities have seen protests at graduations?

These demonstrations include those at:

  • University of Michigan: During the May 4 ceremony, some students held Palestinian flags and banners in protest. Police officers were present during the two-hour ceremony, which did not stop as a result of the protests. The protesters demanded that the university divest from companies associated with Israel. The institution has allowed students to set up an encampment on campus. However, during a dinner held for honorary degree recipients on the night of May 3, police assisted in breaking up a large gathering outside the dinner venue, and at least one person was arrested.
  • Northeastern University: The Boston college held its commencement on May 5 at Fenway Park. The ceremony was peaceful, and some students held Palestinian and Israeli flags. Undergraduate student speaker Rebecca Bamidele also called for peace in Gaza. Last month, police arrested about 100 protesters at Northeastern after breaking up an encampment on campus.
  • University of Illinois Chicago: Graduation speaker Aysha Affaneh used the occasion to speak about the killing of civilians, especially children and students, in Gaza. “I urge you all to acknowledge the class of 2024 of Gaza that no longer exists,” she said.
  • Indiana University: Hours before the institute in Bloomington held its commencement on May 4, an alternate ceremony was organised by protesters in Dunn Meadow, where the university’s encampment had reached its 10th day. Students and faculty, including political science Professor Abdulkader Sinno spoke at the alternate ceremony. Sinno was temporarily suspended in December after he was found to have misrepresented an event organised by the Palestine Solidarity Committee as an “academic event” on an official university form. Protesters also gathered outside the venue for the official ceremony. The Indiana Daily Student newspaper reported that two planes circled in the sky above the venue with banners reading “Let Gaza Live” and “Divest Now – Whitten Resign”, referring to Pamela Whitten, the university’s president.

Which universities have cancelled graduation?

While most US universities are pressing ahead with their ceremonies as scheduled or tightening security, some have cancelled commencements altogether:

  • Columbia University: On Monday, Columbia announced it had cancelled its main university-wide graduation, which had been scheduled for May 15. Instead, there will be smaller ceremonies for each school within the wider institution. Columbia became the epicentre for the pro-Palestine encampments after students pitched tents on April 17, faced a crackdown by police and reported events stage by stage from the ground via the student-run radio station.
  • University of Southern California (USC): Like Columbia, USC cancelled its main ceremony in favour of smaller events for different schools. More than 100 commencement events started on Wednesday and will continue until Saturday.
  • California State Polytechnic University: The campus in Humboldt, North Carolina, will host smaller ceremonies off campus. The institute called police onto the campus last week to arrest student protesters who were demanding divestment from Israel. The campus has been closed since then.

How else have protests affected graduations?

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, had been scheduled to speak at the University of Vermont’s commencement on May 19. However, the institute has announced that Thomas-Greenfield will no longer be speaking.

This followed a week of protesters at a student encampment demanding that she be removed as the speaker on the basis that she has, on behalf of the US, vetoed several UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Are US universities taking action against graduation protests?

While some universities have chosen not to try to clear the encampments during graduation, including Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, some universities have tightened security and put rules in place that prevent protests.

At the University of Pennsylvania, signs, posters, flags and artificial noisemakers will be prohibited at the May 20 graduation, the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reported.

At USC, students are allowed to carry only clear bags at ceremonies. Umbrellas, banners, selfie sticks and machines that make noise such as whistles or air horns have been forbidden.

On Monday, the president of Emory University announced that its commencement a week later will take place off campus at an indoor complex called the Gas South District in Duluth, Georgia, due to “concerns about safety and security”.

A student wears a graduation cap with the flag of Israel on top during the University of Michigan’s spring commencement [Nic Antaya/Getty Images/AFP]

How has the US government responded to the graduation protests?

US President Joe Biden said he welcomed peaceful protests at commencements, according to White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.

“We have been very clear. We believe all Americans should have the right to peacefully protest,” she said on Tuesday. “What we don’t want to see is hate speech, violence.”

Biden is scheduled to deliver a graduation speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta on May 19.



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Which bombs has the United States stopped shipping to Israel? | Israel War on Gaza News

The United States has halted the shipment of some types of heavy bombs to Israel and US President Joe Biden has also pledged to halt the supply of some offensive weapons and artillery shells to the country if it goes ahead with its assault on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.

Here’s what we know so far.

What is the US saying?

Biden issued this warning, possibly his starkest yet against Israel, during an interview with CNN on Wednesday. In the same interview, he also said that the US would continue to supply defensive arms such as Iron Dome interceptors, underlining his continued support for Israel’s defence.

US officials said on Wednesday that the US had paused a shipment of heavy bombs, including 1,800 of 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs and 1,700 of 500-pound (227kg) bombs.

The Washington-based news outlet Politico reported that the weapons held back also include Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which are guidance kits that convert “dumb” bombs dropped in free-fall, ballistic trajectory into precision-guided ones.

These weapons had been included in an earlier shipment for Israel, approved before the recent supplemental aid package authorised by the US Congress in April, which assigned $26.38bn for Israel, including $9.1bn for humanitarian purposes.

At a US Senate hearing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US is reviewing near-term security assistance to Israel in the context of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Rafah.

“We’ve been very clear…from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battle space,” Austin said.

What damage can heavy bombs cause?

On explosion, a 500-pound bomb can severely harm or kill everything or anyone within a 20-metre (65 feet) radius. A 2,000-pound bomb has a destruction radius of 35 metres (115 feet), according to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts defence policy research and analysis.

Depending on the type of surfaces it hits, a 500-pound bomb can create a crater of, on average, 25 feet (7.6 metres) across and 8.5 feet (2.6 metres) deep. A 2000-pound bomb will carve out a crater 50 feet (15 metres) across and 16 feet (5 metres), according to the PDA.

A 2015 report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says of the 2000-pound bomb: “The pressure from the explosion can rupture lungs, burst sinus cavities and tear off limbs hundreds of metres from the blast site.”

Israeli forces used 2,000-pound bombs on the Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, according to analysis by The Guardian and The New York Times. Two impact craters estimated to be 40 feet (12 metres) wide were identified.

Aerial bombing in densely populated areas is not explicitly illegal in international humanitarian law. However, civilians cannot be targets of the bombing and any civilian casualties must be “proportionate” with a specific military aim. Both the Additional Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Hague Convention of 1907 lay down these rules. Israel is a signatory to both.

If the numbers of civilian casualties are not proportionate and are “clearly excessive” as measured against any direct military advantage, then the attack qualifies as a war crime according to the statute of the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Israel’s war on Gaza.

How has Israel reacted to Biden’s statement on offensive weapons shipments?

Israel asserts that its only interest is in destroying Hamas and that it does not target Palestinian civilians. It claims to take all precautions to avoid unnecessary casualties. It has justified its assault on Rafah with the claim that the city is home to Hamas’s remaining battalions. More than one million civilians have taken shelter there from the Israeli bombardment on other parts of the Gaza Strip over the past seven months, however.

On Thursday, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told Israeli public radio Kan: “This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war.”

Erdan said Biden’s warning would bolster the positions of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.

“If Israel is restricted from entering an area as important and central as Rafah where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and leaders of Hamas, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our goals?” he said.

How much military aid does the US provide to Israel?

The US sends Israel about $3bn a year, most of which is provided as Foreign Military Financing (FMF).

The US has historically supplied substantial foreign aid to Israel; a total of $297bn (adjusted for inflation) between 1946 and 2023, $216bn of which was in military aid and $81bn in economic aid, according to data from the US Agency for International Aid (USAID). Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US aid since its founding.

After the Hamas attack on October 7, the US sent navy ships such as guided missile cruisers armed with naval guns and destroyers alongside $2bn worth of munitions to Israel.

Israel is reliant on US military aid because of a global ammunition shortage following the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Israeli daily business newspaper, the Calcalist reported, adding that while the Israeli military has avoided conceding this in public, Major General Eliezer Toledano admitted in March that the army is reducing air attacks in order “to better manage the economy of armaments”.

Has the US paused military aid to Israel before?

Yes. The US paused military aid to Israel in 1982, when then-President Ronald Reagan imposed a six-year ban on cluster weapons sales to Israel. This followed a congressional investigation which revealed that Israel had used the weapons on areas with civilian populations when it invaded Lebanon in 1982.

What is happening in Rafah?

Israel launched a military offensive on Rafah and seized control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, cutting off access to humanitarian relief, on Tuesday, hours after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal. This followed an overnight assault on the area using warplanes which killed at least 12 civilians.

After Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7, more than one million internally displaced Palestinians have taken shelter in Rafah – many of them previously displaced from other parts of Gaza following Israel’s orders to evacuate from those areas. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed over the course of the war, most of them women and children. Thousands more are missing, feared dead under the rubble.

As Rafah is the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, observers say that civilians now have nowhere else to go.

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A year since Pakistan’s May 9 riots: A timeline of political upheaval | Imran Khan News

EXPLAINER

Nationwide riots on this ‘dark day’ last year triggered a months-long political crisis that saw ex-PM Imran Khan jailed, and a crackdown on his party.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has scheduled rallies all across the country on Thursday to mark a year since the arrest of its leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Cricketer-turned-politician Khan was arrested on this day last year, triggering a political crisis that lasted for months, which saw the PTI chief imprisoned again in August on several serious charges and a government crackdown on his party.

Khan, 71, remains embroiled in a slew of cases in which he has been convicted, and is currently lodged in Rawalpindi town’s Adiala jail.

Here’s a recap of the lead-up to Khan’s May 9, 2023 arrest, and the key events that transpired since:

2022

April 10: Khan loses a no-confidence vote in parliament, forcing his removal from power. He alleges a United States-backed conspiracy to sack him. Rival Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party becomes the prime minister. The US has denied any role in Khan’s removal from power.

October 21: The Election Commission of Pakistan disqualifies Khan as a member of parliament after finding him guilty of “corrupt practices”, two months after he is charged in the state gifts case, which relates to him allegedly selling gifts he received from foreign countries when he was in power.

November 3: An assassination attempt is made on Khan while he is leading a protest in Wazirabad city in Punjab province to demand snap elections.

2023
May 9: Khan is arrested in a corruption case while making a court appearance in capital Islamabad, triggering nationwide protests by his supporters who blame the military for orchestrating the arrest. The military has consistently denied any role in Khan’s legal or political troubles.

 

PTI supporters protest Khan’s arrest in Karachi on May 9, 2023 [Sabir Mazhar/Anadolu]

May 11: Amid deadly protests led by PTI, Pakistan’s Supreme Court says Khan’s arrest is illegal, ordering his immediate release.

May 17: Authorities allege that Khan is hiding May 9 rioters in his residence in Lahore. Pakistan’s National Security Committee approves the military’s decision to try the arrested protesters in military courts.

August 5: Police arrest Khan in Lahore after an Islamabad court sentences him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts.

August 6: Pakistan’s election panel bars Khan from politics for five years following his conviction in the state gifts case.

August 9: President Arif Alvi dissolves the country’s National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, paving way for elections.

August 14: A caretaker government takes office under Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar.

August 20: Khan’s close aide and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is arrested in the state secrets or cypher case – which refers to the leaking of a secret diplomatic cable Khan alleges proves his charge that the US was involved in his removal from power.

October 21: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif’s elder brother, returns to Pakistan from self-exile in the United Kingdom. A few days after his arrival, the Islamabad High Court grants him bail in several corruption cases.

October 24: A five-member Supreme Court bench declares the military trial of civilians in May 9 cases unconstitutional.

November 21: Islamabad High Court declares Khan’s in-jail trial illegal, striking down his indictment in the cypher case.

December 14: A six-member bench of the Supreme Court upholds an appeal by the government against its October 24 ruling. This allows the military trial of the May 9 accused to continue.

2024

January 13: Khan’s PTI is banned from using the iconic cricket bat symbol for not holding intra-party elections. PTI-backed candidates are forced to contest the elections as independents.

January 30: Khan is sentenced to 10 years in jail in the cypher case.

January 31: A court in Rawalpindi sentences Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to 14 years in the state gifts case.

February 3: Another court in Rawalpindi sentences Khan and Bibi to seven years, ruling that their marriage violated Islamic law.

February 8: Pakistan holds parliamentary and provincial elections. PTI alleges widespread vote rigging — accusations that the government denies.

February 13: PMLN and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), along with other allies, form the government despite PTI-backed MPs emerging as the single largest bloc in parliament.

March 11: Police arrest more than 100 PTI supporters protesting against alleged rigging in the election.

April 1: Islamabad High Court suspends jail sentences of Khan and Bibi in state gifts case.

May 8: Bibi, who was under house arrest at Khan’s Bani Gala residence in Islamabad, is moved to Adiala jail.

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