Middle East

As Israel-Hamas war approaches grim milestone, fears of widening conflict

5:09pm January 20, 2024

by Geoff Brumfiel

The death toll in Gaza is approaching 25,000 since Israel's war against Hamas began. After a weeklong blackout, cell and internet services are slowly returning.

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A displaced Palestinian woman prepares bread inside a tent at a makeshift camp in Rafah near the Gaza-Egypt border earlier this month.

World News

Flour for Gaza to be shipped through the Israeli port in Ashdod, the White House says

11:57am January 20, 2024

by Becky Sullivan

Humanitarian groups had called for Israel to open the port to help alleviate the food crisis. All of Gaza's 2.2 million residents are at imminent risk of famine, the U.N. warns.

Emergency services work at a building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday.

World News

Israeli airstrike on Damascus killed at least 5 Iranian advisers, state media say

11:43am January 20, 2024

by The Associated Press

A strike on the Syrian capital destroyed a building used by the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. One of those killed was a local Hezbollah commander

World News

Iran's strikes in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan raise tensions in the fraught region

8:41am January 20, 2024

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon asks the Atlantic Council's Masoud Mostajabi about Iranian strikes in northern Iraq and Pakistan, and about tensions in that region of the world.

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President Biden leaves a White House event on Jan. 19, 2024.

Biden is being tested by politics in Israel and at home with the Gaza conflict

8:36am January 20, 2024

by Asma Khalid

President Biden takes the long view on Middle East peace. But in an election year where Democrats are divided on the issue — and as Gaza casualties mount — his support for Israel could cost him.

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Michal Brody-Bareket attends a rally in Jerusalem on Dec. 29 calling for a cease-fire and release of the hostages held in Gaza. She is a longtime activist whose son is a soldier deployed in Gaza and founded The Mothers' Cry, a group of mothers of soldiers and other concerned Israelis calling to end the Gaza war.

World News

Israel's anti-war movement includes mothers of soldiers serving in Gaza

7:45am January 20, 2024

by Daniel Estrin

A group of Israeli mothers, whose sons are fighting in Gaza, is calling to end the war. They hold a minority view, but draw inspiration from a successful protest by Israeli mothers in a previous war.

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Is the series of snowy storms in North America making you a little ... um ... squirrely? Well imagine if this was the first time you ever saw snow in your life! We reached out to people in the Global South and other parts to share their stories of the first time they saw snow.

In between shoveling, we asked folks from hot spots about their first time seeing snow

7:41am January 20, 2024

by Gabriel Spitzer

If snow has lost its charms for you, consider what it's like to experience it for the first time. People from the Global South and other snowless places share what it was like to discover snow.

The Galaxy Leader cargo ship was seized by Houthi fighters in the Red Sea in late November. The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader, operated by a Japanese firm but having links to an Israeli businessman, was headed from Turkey to India when it was seized and rerouted to the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

As Houthi attacks on ships escalate, experts look to COVID supply chain lessons

7:27am January 20, 2024

by Scott Neuman

Shipping experts hope lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Suez Canal disruption in 2021 and Somali pirate attacks more than a decade ago will mitigate widespread problems this time.

Palestinians rescue a child from under the rubble after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 18, 2023.

World News

Women and children are the main victims of the Israel-Hamas war, U.N. says

7:15am January 20, 2024

by The Associated Press

Women and children are the main victims in the Israel-Hamas war, with some 16,000 killed, according to the United Nations agency promoting gender equality.

Why Puerto Rico has such deep support for the Palestinian cause

6:42pm January 19, 2024

by Adrian Florido

In Puerto Rico, solidarity with the cause of Palestinians runs deep, in large part because of their shared colonial histories and struggles for self-determination.

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