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☆ A divided Israel stands at a perilous crossroads on its 75th birthday
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Hadas Gold | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

And weakens the pillars that hold our nation together,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog warned this week in a speech to Jewish groups. The legislation has plunged Israel into the largest and longest protest movement in the country’s history. Frozen peace processBut as Israel celebrates 75 years since its founding with fanfare, Palestinians mark the same event with mourning. It was during the Jewish state’s creation that more than 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes in what is now Israel. “This is the end of the era of limited conflicts,” Gallant told reporters, according to the Times of Israel.

☆ More women describe having forced abortions in Nigerian Army programme
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

And both lost their pregnancies after they were taken into custody by Nigerian soldiers and given unidentified pills and injections. Nigerian military leaders previously have adamantly denied the existence of the abortion programme and the deliberate killing of unarmed children. We respect every living soul.”Asked about the military’s comments on the programme, Yau replied: “This happened to me, and they are denying it. After she was put into a room with three other pregnant women, Yau said, army personnel gave her pills and more injections. Reuters was unable to determine if this tally overlapped with others cited in its December story about the abortion programme.

☆ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is actually a unique ocean ecosystem teeming with sea creatures that cling to the plastic trash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Great Pacific Ocean Patch refers to a big swirling soup of plastic in the ocean. The findings challenged the assumption that coastal species couldn't survive in the open ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch typically refers to an area of the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii in which floating trash concentrates due to factors like wind and currents. The findings also contradicted the assumption that coastal species could not survive in areas of open ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch refers to areas of marine debris concentration in the North Pacific Ocean.

☆ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so huge and permanent that a coastal ecosystem is thriving on it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Haram and her colleagues examined 105 items of plastic fished out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between November 2018 and January 2019. Courtesy Linsey Haram/Smithsonian InstitutionCoastal aggregating anemones found on a black floating plastic fragment collected in the garbage patch. Oceans of plasticThe Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas, is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. If you look up at night, you see all those white dots, that’s essentially what you see in the garbage patch. A bag of plastics and debris collected in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is unloaded in Sausalito, California in July 2022.

☆ Doctors are building tech startups to help fix a healthcare system reeling from crisis after crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But with increasing patient demand and complexity, there are not enough doctors in the healthcare system to match that level of care, he said. With its promise of free universal healthcare, the UK's National Health Service has long been a source of national pride. A growing number of clinicians are becoming "doctorpreneurs," applying their first-hand experience in healthcare to build startups to help fill that gap. As clinicians in the UK expand their startups abroad, they predict the doctorpreneur trend will become a global phenomena — with health startups in other countries looking to the UK for inspiration. Selim noted that many doctors — across continents — are also incentivized by a unifying mission, which is to offer patients hope.

By Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced it would prohibit non-Muslims from entering the holy site for the rest of Ramadan. “I see these visits as a raid on our holy site,” he said. That status quo is slowly being chipped away, says Sheikh Rani Abusibr, an Imam of nearly twenty-years at Al-Aqsa. There was a heightened security presence at the holy site when Easter, Ramadan, and Passover celebrations overlapped. Without the status quo arrangement being enforced, there are fears that an already tumultuous region could spiral out of control.

☆ Turkey's Erdogan condemns Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa mosque
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISTANBUL, April 5 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday condemned the Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, which led to clashes with worshippers, calling such acts in the mosque compound a "red line" for Turkey. The incident came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover, stoking fears of further violence at the mosque compound, a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The name of this is the politics of repression, the politics of blood, the politics of provocation. Turkey can never remain silent and unmoved in the face of these attacks," Erdogan said. "Putting a hand on al-Aqsa mosque and trampling on the sanctity of the Haram al-Sharif is a red line for us."

☆ Factbox: Where is Al Aqsa mosque and why is it so important in Islam?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 5 (Reuters) - A Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday has triggered a furious reaction from Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and the wider Arab and Muslim world. WHERE AND WHAT IS THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE? The Al-Aqsa compound has long been a flashpoint for deadly violence over matters of sovereignty and religion in Jerusalem. Under the longstanding "status quo" arrangement governing the area, which Israel says it maintains, non-Muslims can visit but only Muslims are allowed to worship in the mosque compound. Palestinians protested, and there were violent clashes that quickly escalated into the second Palestinian uprising, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

☆ This SoftBank-backed startup just launched smart glasses that enable surgeons to virtually observe and advise on procedures across the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The practicing surgeon is the founder of Proximie, an augmented reality startup that enables healthcare professionals to observe and advise on surgeries virtually. The wearable PxLens headset enables remote users to get a first-person view of surgeries or training procedures in 2D. Riddhi Kanetkar/InsiderThrough its 4K camera lens, the glasses enable surgeons and remote users to have a detailed view of the operating room. "It's almost as if you're standing over the shoulder of the surgeon in the operating room," said Hachach-Haram. "I see a world where every operating room in the world will be digital, and accessible to anyone."

☆ 'Unpredictable' election in Africa's largest economy is set to resonate around the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

After 24 years of uninterrupted democracy since ending military dictatorship in 1999, Africa's most populous nation and largest economy is conducting its seventh election. Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's president, speaks during the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York. Leena Koni Hoffmann, associate fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, told CNBC on Monday that the presidential election will be the "most unpredictable" since the transition to civilian rule. Alongside the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine, Koni Hoffmann noted "missed opportunities" and "self-inflicted crises" under Buhari's regime. Economists panned the decision, which Koni Hoffmann suggested rendered Nigeria and its neighbors more vulnerable to the damage of the pandemic.

☆ Nigeria’s Election Puts a Troubled Democracy to the Test
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Nic Cheeseman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

On Feb. 25, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and largest oil producer is due to elect a new president. Criminal activity, such as thefts and kidnappings for ransom, is on the rise. Now a major currency crisis that erupted in January has resulted in protests, fights and attacks on banks. Under the circumstances, the last thing Nigeria’s 220 million people need is an election marred by manipulation or violence. But this prospect is becoming increasingly likely as the political temperature rises and cash shortages threaten to undermine the capacity of the country’s electoral commission to administer the vote.

☆ Nigerian rights panel, underfunded and overmatched, begins probe of powerful military
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja/File PhotoFeb 7 (Reuters) - A special panel named by Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission launched an investigation Tuesday into recent Reuters reports on rights abuses by the country’s army. Nigerian military leaders said the abortion program did not exist and that children were never targeted for killing. The U.S. defense and state departments, the United Nations Secretary-General, the German foreign minister, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch all called for Nigeria to investigate the Reuters findings. In a 2002 paper, two Nigerian scholars called the body "a red herring” to distract from human rights violations. In 2013, the military allegedly killed as many as 200 civilians in the town of Baga, in northeastern Borno state.

☆ Blinken to visit Middle East amid heightened tensions between Israelis and Palestinians
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Simon Lewis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks during a visit to NASA headquarters with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other U.S. and Japanese officials (not pictured) in Washington, U.S., January 13, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank from Sunday to Tuesday to discuss heightened tensions between Israelis and Palestinians as well as the war in Ukraine with regional leaders, the State Department said. The decades-old status quo allows only Muslim worship at the compound, a site also revered by Jews. While Israel has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has limited its assistance to Kyiv to humanitarian aid and protective gear. Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 31-year-old started suffering stomachaches after a monthslong job search—how she managed her anxiety
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As her graduation date approached, Haram began applying for jobs early, even before her program ended in May 2022. As the seasons went by, however, and she still wasn't getting any offers, major anxiety began to set in. And with all of the waiting, hoping and various unknowns, the job seeking process is nothing if not uncertain. Here's how she quelled her nerves and why Cassine believes these are useful tactics for anyone else dealing with anxiety. And in enabling other people to feel that way, Haram was able to feel seen, heard and valued herself.

☆ Fact Check-Video of snow falling near the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque of Mecca is digitally altered
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A video showing snow falling at the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia’s Masjid al-Haram, the Grand Mosque of Mecca, has been digitally altered, according to the kingdom’s National Center for Meteorology. Similar versions can be seen on Facebook (here and here) and Twitter (here), where it has amassed hundreds of thousands of interactions. However, the video has been manipulated, according to Hussain Al-Qahtani, the official spokesperson of Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Meteorology (NCM). “The rolling video of snow falling on #SacredMosque is not correct and has been processed with additional effects,” he wrote on Twitter (here). Snow did not fall near the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque on Jan. 1, 2023.

☆ West backs Nigeria's war on extremists, and backs off on human rights
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +21 min

“While respect for human rights is unquestionably a high priority, we have many other equities at stake,” McCulley wrote. He said the focus on human rights had sent relations between the two countries into the “lowest ebb” in his three years there. Nigeria’s human rights record wasn’t only a moral issue – it was a legal one. Working under these laws provided “openings to incentivise and institutionalise” human rights protections within the Nigerian military, the State Department said. The pact also noted that London and Abuja had agreed on an “enhanced human rights dialogue” to ensure compliance with international rights standards.

☆ Nightmare in Nigeria: The army’s secret campaigns to crush Boko Haram
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Reuters reveals secrets behind the Nigerian military's long campaign to crush the nation's Islamist insurgency: a mass abortion programme aimed at women and girls impregnated by Boko Haram fighters, and targeted killings of children vilified as offspring or allies of the enemy.

☆ In Nigeria's long war, a young woman is brutalised by both sides
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

It was a pleasant evening in the summer of 2014, in her Nigerian village near the Cameroon border. Reuters could not reach representatives of Boko Haram or its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, for comment. But by October 2014, the militants were enforcing extreme sharia law in her village, Aisha said. Boko Haram men often came looking for them, knocking on their door and forcing them to hide. But she did not believe she could do so with Bana, as boys were particularly valued in the Boko Haram community.

☆ Nigerian Army massacred children in war on insurgents, witnesses say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

CJTF members provide the army with intelligence on suspected insurgents, serve as interpreters and help soldiers navigate sometimes unfamiliar terrain. Bello Danbatta, a spokesman for the CJTF, told Reuters that the military and CJTF forces did not target civilians. During combat operations, soldiers told Reuters, it was common to take aim at anyone they came across in areas the army did not fully control. And in a war in which insurgents have forced minors to fight, soldiers said they couldn't even trust in the innocence of children. Soldiers told the women that their children needed injections for malaria and other afflictions, she said.

☆ UN Secretary-General calls on Nigeria to investigate report of forced abortions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

To match Special Report NIGERIA-MILITARY/ABORTIONS REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS, THIS PICTURE WAS DIGITALLY MASKED BY REUTERS TO PROTECT THE IDENTITY OF THE WOMAN. Dec 9 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Nigerian authorities to investigate allegations of systemic and coerced abortions reportedly perpetrated by the Nigerian army, U.N spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Nigerian Army has run a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country's northeast since at least 2013. "We call on the Nigerian authorities to fully investigate these allegations and make sure there's accountability," Dujarric told reporters later on Friday. Nigeria's defence chief said on Thursday the military will not investigate the report, saying it was not true.

☆ U.S. seeks more information on Reuters report over Nigerian military secret abortion program
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 7 (Reuters) - A Reuters report that the Nigerian military ran a secret mass abortion program in its war on Boko Haram is "harrowing" and the United States is seeking more information, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday. "It was a harrowing report. It's a concerning report and for that reason we are seeking further information," he said. Reuters was unable to establish who created the abortion program or determine who in the military or government ran it. Nigerian military leaders denied the program has ever existed and said Reuters reporting was part of a foreign effort to undermine the country's fight against the insurgents.

[1/3] A man walks across a set up of terra cotta heads, a French woman collection representing the remaining Chibok school girls in captivity in Lagos, Nigeria, November 29, 2022. The artwork, titled "Statues Also Breathe" and conceived by French artist Prune Nourry, consists of 108 life-size clay heads, made by 108 students from all over Nigeria, and now on display at an art gallery in Lagos. Boko Haram militants abducted around 270 teenage girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014. A small group of women who were among the abducted girls and were later released took part, as did some parents of the missing women. "These girls have been in distress for eight years," said Habiba Balogun, coordinator of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign in Lagos.

☆ Nigeria military ran secret mass abortion program in war on Boko Haram
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

The existence of the army-run abortion programme hasn’t been previously reported. The conflict zone The abortion programme has taken place in the northeastern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, where the Nigerian military has been fighting Islamist insurgents. A spokesperson for Jonathan told Reuters that the former president had “no knowledge of any allegation of such heinous acts” by the Nigerian Army. Some of the most powerful military leaders in Nigeria oversaw counterinsurgency operations in the northeast as the abortion programme grew. Waging war on Boko Haram The abortion programme began during the presidency of Jonathan.

☆ Qatar World Cup ambassador says homosexuality is ‘damage in the mind’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN — An ambassador for the World Cup in Qatar has described homosexuality as a “damage in the mind” in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF just two weeks before the opening of the global soccer tournament in the Gulf state. Excerpts of the television interview were shown Monday night on ZDF’s news program Heute Journal. Concerns about the conservative country’s treatment of homosexuals living in the country as well as LGBTQ tourists attending the World Cup have also been expressed for a long time. In the interview, Salman also said that homosexuality “is a spiritual harm.”“During the World Cup, many things will come here to the country. The interview was cut short by a press officer of the World Cup organizing committee after Salman expressed his views on homosexuals, ZDF reported.

☆ Qatar World Cup ambassador says homosexuality is 'damage in the mind'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A Qatar World Cup ambassador has told German television ZDF that homosexuality was "damage in the mind", as the Gulf state prepares to host the global tournament in less than two weeks. The country expects more than one million visitors for the World Cup and Khalid Salman said anyone coming to Qatar for the tournament should behave according to the rules of the country. When asked why it was haram, Khalid Salman: "I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Reuters contacted FIFA and World Cup organisers in Qatar for comment. Organisers have repeatedly said everyone was welcome in the country during the World Cup.

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