Explore every episode of the podcast Al Jazeera English

EU foreign ministers displayed unity as tensions in the Middle East worsen. Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, voiced growing concern, emphasizing that all 27 members demand Israel cease attacks on UNIFIL, which involves several European countries. France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, stressed that Israel’s security should rely on dialogue, not force, while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon. Besides the Middle East, the EU also approved a €35 billion loan to support Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with drones and missiles.

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Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, Tehran's streets have been adorned with revolutionary slogans and images of fallen troops. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is on a regional tour to prevent further escalation in the region. He has visited Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman, aiming to strengthen cooperation and deter Israeli attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. Despite Iranian calls for peace, Araghchi warns of retaliation if attacked, including targeting American troops. Israel's imminent response to a recent Iranian attack is expected to focus on Iran's nuclear and economic infrastructure.

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Air raid sirens have sounded in more than 190 locations in northern and central Israel after further rocket launches. Some were stopped by Israel's iron dome.

It’s just the latest barrage of rockets, missiles, or drones launched by Hezbollah. On Sunday night, a major attack with unmanned aerial vehicles killed four Israeli soldiers at a military base and left seven in serious condition. Dozens of other people sustained minor injuries.

Hezbollah has increased the number of rockets and missiles it's fired towards Israel since the end of last month.

It's in response to Israel launching a massive air campaign on Lebanon.

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An Israeli air attack on northern Lebanon has killed at least 18 people.

The attack happened in the village of Aitou.

Residential homes sheltering people displaced from elsewhere in Lebanon were hit.

Many of the buildings and vehicles in the blast zone have been destroyed.

It's the first time Aitou has been targeted.

Red Cross volunteers searched for survivors while ambulances evacuated the wounded. Israel's strikes have primarily targeted southern Lebanon, though the specific target in Aitou remains unclear.

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More than 1.6 million children under the age of five are at risk of malnutrition because of flooding in in South Sudan.

Parents say they don’t have enough food or clean drinking water.

800,000 people have fled their homes and thousands of acres of land are under water.

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Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have a little over three weeks to sway voters in the upcoming US presidential election.

And as Israel's war on Gaza continues, each candidate has a vision on how to restore peace. But thousands of kilometres away, Palestinians see the headline that matters to them.

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The Pentagon has confirmed the Biden administration is planning to send a missile defence system to Israel to protect against any Iranian threats.

It also says US troops will be deployed to operate the system, known as “THAAD”.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense requires 95 soldiers to operate.

It is highly effective in shooting down short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It can hit targets as far as 200 kilometres away.

It consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment.

The United States previously deployed a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 for training and an integrated air defence exercise.

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An Israeli air strike on the grounds of Al-Aqsa Hospital has killed at least four Palestinians, injured dozens and caused a huge fire,

The attack hit tents near the hospital building where many displaced Palestinians were sheltering.

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An Israeli air strike on the grounds of Al-Aqsa Hospital has killed at least four Palestinians, injured dozens and caused a huge fire,

The attack hit tents where many displaced Palestinians had been sheltering near the hospital building.

Gaza's media office says this is the seventh time this year Israel has targeted the grounds of Al Aqsa Hospital, killing Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes.

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China has been accused of circling Taiwan in large-scale naval and air force exercises.

Taiwan says China's latest war games are blatant provocations that seriously undermine regional peace and stability.

It has been warning of an increase in Chinese military activity over the past five years.

Beijing views the island as its own territory, a claim which Taiwan's government rejects.

Wen-Ti Sung is a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. He says the escalation is concerning, but not surprising.

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US President Joe Biden has toured the worst affected areas of Hurricanes Milton and Helene in Florida.

He announced millions of dollars in funding to protect the power supply.

Many residents are still flooded out of their homes.

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The head of the United Nations says Israel's latest attacks on peacekeeping forces in Lebanon may constitute a war crime.

Antonio Guterres called on the Israeli military to guarantee the safety and security of UN forces.

This comes after Israeli tanks destroyed the main gate of UNIFIL headquarters and fired several rounds.

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Israel says at least 4 of its soldiers have been killed and 61 people have been injured in a drone attack on an army base in northern Israel.

It's the deadliest Hezbollah strike on Israel, since the war on Gaza began.

Hezbollah says it was in response to an Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital on Thursday.

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Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has died at the age of 69.

As a member of the Scottish National Party, Salmond was a key figure in Scotland's independence movement.

He served as First Minister from 2007 to 2014, stepping down after the failure of an independence referendum.

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A local militia helping Nigerian security forces fight the armed group Boko Haram, is expanding its influence and operations.

The Civilian Joint Task Force has, for more than a decade, supported the military with intelligence gathering and combat operations.

The efforts led to the recovery of most of the areas held by Boko Haram in Nigeria’s northeast.

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The United States is sending an advanced anti-missile system to Israel, the Pentagon has announced, as President Joe Biden’s administration continues to provide “ironclad” support for one of its top allies amid mounting tensions with Iran.

At the direction of US President Joe Biden, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin authorised the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and its associated US military personnel. This move aims to bolster Israel's air defences following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on 13 April and again on 1 October, Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement.

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At least 39 people have been injured following a drone attack in northern Israel. Hezbollah claims its drones targeted an Israeli military camp. Israeli media reports that among the injured, five are in critical condition, after the attack near the town of Binyamina in the Haifa district.

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The United Nations says Israeli tanks burst through the gates of its peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon after three platoons of Israeli soldiers crossed the Blue Line.

The UN peacekeepers said in a statement at 4:30am (01:30 GMT), two Israeli army Merkava tanks “destroyed” their main gate and “forcibly entered the position” while peacekeepers were asleep.

“The tanks left about 45 minutes later after UNIFIL protested through our liaison mechanism, saying [the Israeli military] presence was putting peacekeepers in danger,” it said.

At 6:40am (03:40 GMT), peacekeepers reported several rounds being fired about 100 metres (328 feet) north of their position in what appeared to be an attack with some sort of chemical agent.

“Despite putting on protective masks, 15 peacekeepers suffered effects including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions after the smoke entered the camp. The peacekeepers are receiving treatment.”

The Israeli army must obey its “obligation to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property” at the Lebanon border, the force said after the latest attack.

“Breaching and entering a UN position is a further flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said in a statement.

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Bushra Khalidi, from the British charity Oxfam, says the hunger situation in besieged northern Gaza has deteriorated so drastically that people have resorted to eating animal feed, donkeys and horses just to survive.

The comments come as Israel’s military blocked food from entering northern Gaza for the past 10 days, something she called “unacceptable” as it cuts the area off completely.

“People are not surviving, people are very likely dying of starvation as they have been since the beginning of the war. The problem is we’re talking about levels of destruction that didn’t exist several months ago,” Khalidi told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t know how people will survive. It’s likely they’ll die of starvation, die from the massacres we’re seeing in the north, or die trying to evacuate to the south.”

She said most Palestinians are “ready to die in their homes” rather than doing the “death march” to southern Gaza, where Israeli attacks are also ongoing.

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The United States and Israel have no intention of calming the situation down in the Middle East, argues Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders.

Duss tells host Steve Clemons that the US and Israel are working in lockstep to create a "new security arrangement" in the region.

With full support and coordination from the US, Israel is free to wreak havoc in the occupied Palestinian territory and Lebanon, striking at will in Syria and Yemen, and planning to attack Iran directly again - with no end in sight.

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Addressing Guterres, the Israeli prime minister has demanded removing UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon after many of them were wounded in Israeli attacks.

“Mr Secretary-General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office.

At least five UN peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israeli forces fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu’s appeal comes a day after the UN forces in Lebanon refused to withdraw from the border area despite five of its members being wounded in Israeli fire in recent days.

Netanyahu, speaking at a cabinet meeting, said Israeli forces asked UNIFIL several times to leave but it “met with repeated refusals” that provided a “human shield to Hezbollah terrorists”.

“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers. We regret the injuring of UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injuring. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone.”

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More than a year into Israel’s most brutal assault on Gaza, much of the besieged enclave has been destroyed, including many schools and hospitals. Last year, as the war was just beginning, we visited Gaza’s largest and most important hospital - al-Shifa - as it faced collapse following the Israeli siege on water and fuel. The electricity was about to run out and al-Shifa was close to collapse.

Now, more than a year later, we go back to the hospital that served so many Palestinians throughout so many attacks on Gaza. Al-Shifa Hospital ­is now an empty shell after the latest siege. No patients remain at the facility. Most of the buildings are extensively damaged or destroyed and the majority of the equipment is unusable or reduced to ashes. The scale of devastation has left the facility completely non-functional, further reducing access to life-saving healthcare in Gaza. Restoring even minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible but with a partial reopening, not impossible.

The hospital’s emergency department and surgical and maternity ward buildings are extensively damaged due to explosives and fire. The western wall of the emergency department and the northern wall of the neonatal intensive care department (NICU) have been torn down. At least 115 beds in what once was the emergency department have been burned and 14 incubators in the NICU destroyed, among other assets.

Numerous shallow graves have been dug just outside the emergency department, and administrative and surgical buildings. In the same area, many bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible, a smell of decomposing flesh engulfing the hospital compound.

According to the acting hospital director, patients were held in abysmal conditions during the siege. They endured a severe lack of food, water, healthcare, hygiene and sanitation, and were forced to relocate between buildings at gunpoint.

This film will bring to light the devastation of al-Shifa Hospital, and what this means for the healthcare system of Gaza.

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As Lebanon falls under relentless fire from Israel, we spoke with Karim Makdisi about Israel’s psychological warfare and the desire among the political and media class to ‘remake the Middle East.’

Karim Makdisi is an Associate Professor of International Politics at the American University of Beirut and co-host of the Makdisi Street.

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Patients, the injured and babies in incubators are being forced to flee the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza - after the Israeli army's forced evacuation order.

They are now seeking shelter in Gaza City's Al Shifa medical facility.

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Turkey has lost two million hectares of wetlands in the past 12 years - mostly due to unregulated water use.

The findings in a new study have also highlighted that in the last six decades, most of the country's lakes have dried up.

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Israel has expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon, by targeting at least three areas outside traditional Hezbollah strongholds.

The town of Deir Bella in northern Lebanon was hit by an Israeli air strike, for the first time since hostilities escalated.

Two people were killed and four others injured.

A strike targeting Maaysrah killed at least nine people.

Four people in Barja were killed by an attack there.

Many people fled to northern Lebanon to escape Israeli air strikes elsewhere -- which has prompted further concern about an expansion of the war.

There's widespread destruction in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, after an Israeli air strike hit a market there.

First responders say a fire broke out after the attack, stopping them from reaching the scene.

At least eight people were injured.

Nabatieh has come under several Israeli attacks since cross-border hostilities escalated.

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It is three weeks to the US presidential election, and polling suggests Donald Trump has a slim lead over Kamala Harris in the crucial swing state of Arizona.

For decades it's traditionally been a Republican stronghold, but Joe Biden won it by a narrow margin in 2020.

That’s partly because of the significant number of independent voters in the state.

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The Israeli army says it's intercepted five rockets above the city of Haifa.

It says the barrage was fired from Lebanon - triggering warning sirens across northern Israel.

There are no reports of injuries.

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At least eight Palestinians have been killed in a new wave of Israeli air strikes that targeted a home in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

At least 30 people were killed across Gaza on Saturday.

Staff from the World Health Organization have been moving patients from the last major medical facility in the area, after Israeli threats to leave or face deadly attacks.

But more injured people continue to turn up at Kamal Adwan Hospital, after every Israeli air strike.

Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout reports from Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Israel has stepped up its attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp with heavy gunfire being heard in the area on Sunday morning.

Thousands of Palestinians have already been forced from their homes by Israeli forces. Those fleeing had been travelling on foot towards Gaza City.

But witnesses say Israeli forces have now put sand barriers on the main streets between Gaza City and the northern part of the strip, besieging tens of thousands in Jabalia.

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Israel has escalated its bombing campaign in Lebanon, with airstrikes on at least three villages outside traditional Hezbollah strongholds.

At least 15 people were killed in the central and northern region on Saturday.

One of the locations targeted was in the town of Deir Bella in north Lebanon, which had not been struck before.

The towns of Maaysrah and Barja were also hit.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli forces have carried out air strikes on Nabatieh.

At least eight people have been injured.

Nabatieh has come under several Israeli attacks since cross-border hostilities escalated.

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The US has expressed concern to Israel after its troops fired on UN peacekeeper positions in Lebanon.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Israeli counterpart, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, demanding the safety of the UN Lebanon peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL.

40 nations contributing to UNIFIL have also signed a joint statement, reaffirming the protection of peacekeepers.

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US aircraft manufacturer Boeing is planning to lay off 17 thousand workers. That's ten percent of its entire workforce. Strike action by its machinists has forced its factories to close. The aero-space giant is also facing legal pressure over deadly crashes and serious in-flight mishaps in re-cent years.

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More injured Palestinians are still arriving at Kamal Adwan Hospital following the latest Israeli attacks in Jabalia. That's despite hospital staff already trying to evacuate patients from the facility.

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Environmental groups say illegal sand mining is taking a damaging toll in South Africa. But for many, it's a crucial source of income in a country where one third of the population is unemployed. And global appetite for sand is keeping miners busy.

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Iman Ayad, a 22-year-old medical student from Gaza, faces immense challenges studying in a tent since the war on Gaza began. Using a friend’s laptop for online classes, she remains committed to her education, motivated by her desire to help the people of Gaza. Despite the hardships, Iman refuses to give up, knowing her studies will enable her to make a difference for her community.

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Many Palestinians in Gaza have made the difficult decision to leave the occupied territories.

And some have found success abroad but they say their thoughts are never

far from their homeland of Palestine.

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Online video streaming is becoming a mainstay of cultural life in Africa where audiences are growing. Now web series creators on the continent are seizing the opportunity to explore complex and often controversial themes.

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Public transport workers have brought the capital Lima to a near standstill after calling for a three-day strike.

Drivers are demanding the government take action against gangs who violently impose them extortion fees.

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The months of October and November mark the olive harvest season for Palestinians.

But in the past year, the UN says at least one-million olive trees have been uprooted by the Israeli military in Gaza

Despite the destruction, Palestinians across Gaza continue to honor the tradition of olive picking as an act of resilience.

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Teenage volunteers in central Gaza are teaching other children how to sing and play musical instruments.

Displaced themselves, they're helping traumatised kids to smile again some have lost limbs, their homes, and their family members.

And still aren't safe from Israel's ongoing bombing.

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Resistance songs have formed the soundtrack to Palestine solidarity marches around the world.

Music by Arab artists has reached new audiences.

But it’s also artists beyond the diaspora who are using their platform to shine a spotlight on Israel’s war.

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The art of tatreez traditional Palestinian embroidery is a way for Palestinians to express their identity, resilience and connection to their homeland.

Some of the women who were forced to flee Gaza are now using tatreez as a way to cope with displacement - and preserve their traditions, away from home.

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Despite all they’ve suffered, the people of Gaza have persevered in the last year.

Many continue to live with dignity and also use creativity and innovation under the most testing of circumstances.

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Authorities in the US state of Florida are assessing the damage from Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on Wednesday night as a category 3 storm.

It crossed the state, killing at least 16 people and causing extensive damage.

In Clearwater - entire homes were submerged

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The opposition front-runner in Mozambique’s election has threatened to call a nationwide strike if the ruling Frelimo party is announced the winner.

The electoral commission is still tallying the election results, following Wednesday's polls.

The opposition and observers have reported widespread irregularities.

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Many of the dead and wounded are coming from nearby Jabalia. Several people have been killed there in Israeli attacks on a school being used as a shelter. At least 34 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since dawn on Friday.

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Guy Shalev, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, says his NGO, which documents human rights abuses, has been closely following Israeli attacks on Gaza’s health system.

“There are more than 20,000 Palestinians who await medical evacuation in Gaza who can’t be treated there and can’t get out,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that only several hundred have been allowed to leave since May. In the occupied West Bank, the organisation is working closely with Palestinians to document “settler violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities” while trying to assist prisoners.

“Access is very restricted. For instance, the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] has not had any access to any Israeli prison in the past year, which is a dire violation of prisoners’ human rights and of international law,” he said.

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The Israeli military says the sirens sounded in several areas in central Israel, and “interception attempts were conducted”. A second update by the military said that two unmanned aircraft had crossed from Lebanon. It said the Israeli air force successfully intercepted one aircraft, but that one had caused damage to a building in Herzliya in the northern part of the Tel Aviv district. It added that no casualties have been reported.

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Israeli forces are attacking UN peacekeeper troops in southern Lebanon. Why are the soldiers there and why does Israel see them as targets? Al Jazeera’s Virginia Pietromarchi has some answers.

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The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a Japanese pressure group that campaigns against the use of nuclear weapons. The prize defied widespread expectations that peacemakers in the Middle East would receive it. But the actual recipients drew their own parallels with the war in Gaza and Lebanon.

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