Hamas announced Tuesday it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organisations, including rivals Fatah, to work together for “national unity” and govern Gaza jointly after the end of the conflict with Israel. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted the Palestinian groups, said they had agreed to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to oversee post-war Gaza. Source link
RAMALLAH: Deep divisions will limit progress at reconciliation talks between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah this month, conversations with five sources in the groups indicate, but the meetings highlight that the militant group is likely to retain influence after Israel’s war in Gaza. The talks between Hamas and the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be held in China in mid-June, according to officials from both sides. They follow two recent rounds of reconciliation talks, one in China and one in Russia. China’s foreign ministry declined to comment. The next meeting will be held amid attempts by international mediators to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza, with one of the key sticking points being the “day-after” plan – how the enclave will be governed. Considered a terrorist organisation by many Western nations, Hamas was shunned long before its Oct 7 attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel, with more than 250 hostages taken, triggering the war in Gaza. But even as it is pummelled militarily, the meetings of Hamas politicians with officials from the Fatah …
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transforming the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelling, has died. He was 84. The playwright, director and troupe leader died late Saturday from a blood clot in the brain after he collapsed at home and was rushed to a Tokyo hospital on 1 May, his theatre group Karagumi said in a statement on Sunday. Kara, whose real name was Yoshihide Otsuru, rose to stardom in the so-called Japanese underground movement of the 1960s known as “un-gura”, characterized by a kitsch rebellious style also found in his contemporaries Shuji Terayama and Tadashi Suzuki. Kara’s colourful shows, often in makeshift tents evocative of a traveling circus, rejected the established theatrical modes then dominating modernizing Japan that were mostly Western, middle class and well-behaved. His plays, such as “Koshimaki Osen,” were characterized by a raw energetic physicality, blatantly …
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to press ahead Monday with plans for securing and rebuilding Gaza once the Israel-Hamas war ends, but reticence among the Arab nations that U.S. officials envision will help oversee the devastated territory underscored the difficulty Washington faces in forging a “day after” blueprint. Source link
Growing up in Ukraine, Arsen Mednik often found himself singled out – at school children would point at him, calling him “gypsy”, while employers were often reluctant to hire him when they learned he was Roma. But in early 2022, as Russian forces began their savage occupation of his home town of Bucha, Mednik was among the first Ukrainian Roma to volunteer in the defence of the country. “My only thought was that I wanted to defend people,” he said. “The Russians weren’t paying attention to who was Roma or Ukrainian. They just killed everyone.” The 34-year-old is among the many Roma people on the frontlines of the war on Ukraine, risking their lives despite their own personal experiences of marginalisation and wider concerns over whether they will have a place in the country when the war ends. Destroyed buildings in Bucha, Arsen Mednik’s home town. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian Exact figures of how many from the community are fighting are hard to come by, but it is estimated that there are a few thousand, …
Italian actor and singer Paola Cortellesi has been breaking hearts and box office records on her home turf with this directing debut. It’s a richly and even outrageously sentimental working-class drama of postwar Rome, a story of domestic abuse whose heroine finally escapes from misogyny and cruelty through a piece of narrative sleight-of-hand that borders on magic-neorealism, performed with shameless theatrical flair and marvellously composed in luminous monochrome. The film pays homage to early pictures by De Sica and Fellini, and Cortellesi’s own performance is consciously in the spirit of movie divas such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren and Giulietta Masina. The scene is Rome just after the end of the second world war, when American GIs were a presence on the streets and Italian women had just been given the right to vote – though exercising it while under the baleful eye of the film’s misogynist menfolk is another matter. Cortellesi plays Delia, a woman who is being regularly beaten by her brutish husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea). He makes her slave around the house, …
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week for talks that he said will focus on pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants, and planning for a post-war Gaza. Speaking Tuesday during a visit to the Philippines, Blinken told reporters that there will need to be arrangements in place for how to approach governance, security, humanitarian assistance and redevelopment of Gaza. Blinken said the United States has impressed upon Israel the imperative of having a plan, and that the hope remains the conflict will end as soon as possible. Much of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure and homes have been leveled as Israel pursued its campaign to eliminate the Hamas militant group following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies and included the capture of about 250 hostages. The Gaza health ministry says the Israeli counteroffensive has killed nearly 32,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. More than half of Gaza’s population …
You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter. Sign up to get the rest free, including news from around the globe and interesting ideas and opinions to know, sent to your inbox every weekday. At the end of last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally did what critics have long demanded. He issued a proposal to his war cabinet outlining a vision for a postwar future for the Gaza Strip. But Netanyahu’s hard-line vision, which includes Israel maintaining indefinite military control over the territory, was panned by analysts as a bid to kick the can down the road and restore an untenable status quo. The plan, circulated early Friday, is “largely a collection of principles the premier has been vocalizing since the beginning of the war,” noted Jacob Magid of the Times of Israel, “but it was the first time they have been formally presented and submitted to the cabinet for approval.” My colleagues outlined some of its core points: Israel’s military will stay in Gaza as long as it takes to demilitarize …
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, February 18, 2024. RONEN ZVULUN / REUTERS After four and a half months of war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formalized a first version of what the “day after” in Gaza would be on Thursday, February 22. For weeks, pressure from Israel’s main allies, starting with the US, had been mounting to outline a path towards the end of hostilities in Gaza and a program for the establishment of an administration at the end of military operations in the enclave. While claiming to meet these expectations, the text drawn up by Netanyahu’s office laid down maximalist conditions, in contradiction with the American suggestions for a way out of the war, and was immediately rejected by Palestinian organizations. Strictly speaking, this was not a peace plan for the enclave, the terms of which could be negotiated, but essentially security guidelines to define the situation in Gaza “the day after Hamas,” notably maintaining an Israeli military presence in the enclave as well as in the occupied West Bank. US Secretary …
Netanyahu releases a postwar plan for Gaza, which experts say is more about domestic political posturing than offering a tangible plan for the months and years ahead. Source link
