What is the Rafah crossing and why is it Gaza’s lifeline?
Palestinians have been gathering at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip in the hope of leaving ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive.
US media reported that it would open for dual nationals to leave and for humanitarian aid to enter, without giving timings.
However, the crossing point remained closed on Monday afternoon.
What is the Rafah crossing?
It’s the southernmost post of exit from Gaza and borders Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.
There are only two other border crossings from and into the Gaza Strip – Erez, a crossing for people with Israel in northern Gaza, and Kerem Shalom, a solely commercial goods junction with Israel in southern Gaza. Both are shut.
Solar-powered off-road car finishes 620-mile test drive across north Africa
The Stella Terra was designed by students at Eindhoven University of Technology and completed trip without recharging
A solar-powered car said to be the first in the world capable of driving off-road over long distances without recharging has completed a 620-mile (1,000km) test drive across Morocco and the Sahara.
The two-seat Stella Terra, designed by students at the Eindhoven University of Technology, completed the journey across a variety of challenging landscapes as part of a final test of its lightweight frame and aerodynamic profile.
The car, which runs off the energy provided by multiple solar panels on its roof, has a top speed of 90mph (145kmph), weighs only 1,200kg (1.2 tonnes) and has a range of at least 440 miles (710km) on a sunny day.
Qatar mediates return of four Ukrainian children taken to Russia
Four Ukrainian children who were taken to Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are to be reunited with relatives following the mediation of Qatar, officials said on Monday.
Moscow has been accused of bringing thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia from Moscow-occupied territories.
The children, aged between two and 17, have been staying at the Qatari embassy in Moscow while Doha mediated between Russian and Ukrainian authorities, a diplomat briefed on the process said.
They include one child whose mother has been detained in Russia, and another who lost contact with his mother as he was in a Russian hospital when the war broke out.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner Maria-Lvova Belova over the alleged illegal deportations.
Australia: Musk’s X fined over child abuse content concerns
X, previously known as Twitter, has been fined under Australia’s Online Safety Act for allegedly failing to demonstrate it was doing enough to crack down on child sex abuse material.
An Australian internet safety watchdog has fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 610,500 Australian dollars (€367,000) for not sharing information about its efforts to combat child sex abuse content.
X, previously known as Twitter, is the first online platform to be fined under Australia’s Online Safety Act.
The eSafety Commission asked X, TikTok, Google, Discord and Twitch in February for details about their measures for detecting and removing child sexual abuse material.
X was singled out for failing to provide any response to some questions, “leaving some sections entirely blank.”
Japan vulnerable to energy shocks, as 95% of its oil is from Middle East
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Japan’s dependence on oil from the Middle East has risen to a record level at a time when global oil markets are haunted by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Today, nearly 95 percent of the oil imported by Japan comes from the Middle East, exceeding the figure of 77.5 percent during the 1973 oil crisis, when oil prices soared and costs were felt in areas far from the energy sector.
“Japan needs to revisit the lessons it learned during the oil crisis,” said Keiichi Konaga, who was an aide to Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka during the crisis.
Analysis: Why is so much anti-Palestinian disinformation coming from India?
Amid the Israel-Gaza war, Indian right-wing accounts are among leading amplifiers of anti-Palestinian fake news.
The cliche goes that the first casualty of war is truth.
With Israel’s occupation of Palestine, disinformation often comes with a side of anti-Palestinianism and Islamophobia, turbocharged by social media amplification, especially under Elon Musk’s leadership of X, formerly known as Twitter.
But an intriguing element of the disinformation that has flooded social media since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel is that a lot of it has been produced or spread by right-leaning accounts based out of India.
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