Venezuela, Venezuela, and China’s expanding footprint are discussed by Mario Lubetkin on Washington’s resurrected sphere-of-influence doctrine.
Latin America was first used as the country’s strategic sphere of influence in the 1800s, and now the United States is doing so. Critics warn of legal violations and rising regional unrest as Washington expands maritime operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Published On 20 Dec 2025
Students at the Islamic University of Gaza have re-enrolled in in-person classes for the first time in two years as a result of Israel’s genocide against the besieged Palestinian enclave.
About 500 displaced families are now residing in these buildings that Israel’s relentless assault has rendered hollow shells. This Gaza City university, which reopened following the ceasefire in October, is now a home to.
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The former lecture halls’ original locations, which were stark examples of Gaza’s dual crises of homelessness and educational collapse, are now covered in tents.
One of the students looking for safety on campus, Atta Siam, said, “We came here after being displaced from Jabalia because we had nowhere else to go.” However, this is a place for education. It’s a place where our kids can study, not as a shelter.
Despite conditions that don’t closely resemble a functioning university, thousands of students have rekindled hope as a result of the partially resumed classes.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, UNESCO estimates that more than 95 percent of Gaza’s higher education facilities have suffered significant damage or destruction.
Youmna Albaba, a first-year medical student, claimed she had a dream about enrolling in a university that was properly equipped.
She said, “I need a place where I can concentrate fully and with all the necessary qualifications.” “But I didn’t find what I had imagined here,” she continued. I do still believe that everything is being built from scratch.
More than 750, 000 Palestinian students have been left without education for two consecutive academic years by what human rights organizations and experts from the UN have called “scholasticide,” according to the Gaza-based organization Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
Recent statistics reveal that 137 of the country’s 494 schools and universities have been completely or partially destroyed, with 137 of those destroying themselves. According to Al Mezan’s report from January, there were 12,800 students killed, along with 760 teachers, educational staff, and 150 academics and researchers.
In January 2024, Israeli forces destroyed Isra University, which was the last remaining university in Gaza.
In the face of power cuts, equipment shortages, and subpar learning environments, professors at the Islamic University are using whatever resources are available. Dr. Adel Awadallah compared using plastic sheets to accomodate as many students as possible by covering exposed walls with plastic sheets. He claimed that we have borrowed motors to run the university’s equipment.
Taus of students rely on these temporary arrangements to continue their education despite only four classrooms being operational.
In April 2024, UN experts warned that the destruction might be a deliberate attempt to scuttle Palestinian society’s foundations.
Their statement read, “As schools are destroyed, so are hopes and dreams,” referring to the pattern of attacks as systematic violence against the educational infrastructure.
Beyond just physical destruction, the difficulties are greater. Families with limited access to food, water, and medicine find it nearly impossible to support children’s education.
Electricity blackouts, internet outages, and ongoing displacement have undermined the Ministry of Education and UNRWA’s remote learning initiatives.
Yet, students continue to study. They have consistently identified returning to school as a top priority, a chance to reclaim normalcy and their futures, despite the trauma of more than two years of Israeli bombardment and the loss of family members.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to lead the investigation into the government’s failings ahead of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 has drawn sharp criticism from all sides of Israel.
Since the attacks, there have been countless calls for a state commission of inquiry to be led by a sitting or retired Supreme Court justice.
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The establishment of an inquiry that can demand the government’s guilt has been backed by senior military figures, the families of many of the people who were killed or taken as captive on October 7 and polls of the Israeli population.
Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to prevent any official inquiries into any errors in his or his government’s actions, arguing instead that the responsibility of overseeing his nation’s genocidal war against Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 70, 000 people since October 2023, had to be prioritized.
However, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Thursday that Netanyahu would instead be moving forward with legislation to create a politically appointed inquiry, with parliament Speaker Amir Ohana, a close ally of the prime minister, expected to play a significant role in the selection of its members.
A chair would be chosen from among the six members of the plan’s body, according to the organization. For each of the six appointments, the government has stated that it will first seek cross-party support. However, Ohana would be authorized to appoint its representatives if the opposition boycotts the proceedings as is widely anticipated.
On Monday, coincidentally the day that Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial is scheduled to take place, the ministerial team tasked with determining the scope of the inquiry will meet in West Jerusalem.
According to a poll conducted by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies in October, three out of four Israelis voted in favor of establishing an independent state inquiry.
Senior military personnel and the families of those killed or taken hostage by the October 7 attack experience feelings that are particularly high.
After some of the families of the bereaved were accused of holding up signs demanding a state inquiry in court, some of the proceedings in Netanyahu’s criminal trial were delayed earlier this month. They strenuously denied this accusation.
The relatives did not “provoke him]Netanyahu] in the eyes and demand the simplest of things, a state commission of inquiry,” the father of one of the soldiers killed on October 7 told the judges.
Herzi Halevi, the former head of the military, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant have both repeatedly called for a state inquiry.
22 former captors and dozens of family members wrote open letters to the government demanding either a state inquiry be launched or the government step down.
The letter urges Israel’s government to stop evading, stop putting things off, stop lying, and establish a full state commission of inquiry right away.
However, Netanyahu and his ruling coalition have repeatedly criticized the concept of a state inquiry, claiming that a Supreme Court-appointed judge cannot be relied upon to render an impartial decision.
Fury outside the coalition
The Democratic leader, Yair Golan, wrote on social media that “this isn’t a conflict of interest; it’s organized crime organized under the guise of the law.” The man who caused the biggest disaster in human history is seeking an alibi rather than answers.
The planned inquiry has been criticized by other Netanyahu opponents.
A guilty conscience also comes to life when Avigdor Liberman, the Yisrael Beytenu party’s leader, uses a Hebrew expression that reads “a guilty conscience gives itself away.”
Meanwhile, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party announced that it would request that the government appoint a state commission of inquiry on Monday.
Angrily.
The October Council, a group representing the families of Israelis killed and taken captive on October 7, released a statement in response to the government’s announcement. “The Israeli government continues to spit in the face of the bereaved families, the freed hostages, the hostages’ families, the victims’ families, the residents of the south and the north, the reservists, and of all Israeli citizens.”
You, who will be subject to the same state commission of inquiry, will not obstruct the investigation or conceal the truth, the letter continued, addressing the government. You won’t be permitted. You have fought back against us, against our loved ones’ memories, and against our children’s future.
An army investigation into its actions on October 7 and subsequent attacks in February found that the army had greatly underestimated the Palestinian group’s capabilities.
Halevi acknowledged the “terrible” security and intelligence “failures” that had plagued the military’s response to the incursion and that he had already resigned prior to the inquiry’s conclusion.
Eyal Zamir’s successor, Halevi, appointed an external panel in November, which revealed the military’s “inadequate” investigation into its conduct.
Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, acknowledged a number of mistakes in a separate investigation in March, including failing to correctly identify Hamas’ threat and share information with the military. Ronen Bar, the Shin Bet director, announced his resignation in April following a drawn-out dispute with Netanyahu.
As fighting continues in the vast strategic Kordofan region, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that the ongoing violence is “horrifying” and that all those involved will be subject to lasting condemnation.
Rubio stated at a press conference on Friday that the conflict in Sudan needed to end, adding that the new year would provide “a great opportunity for both sides to agree to that” and allow desperately needed aid to reach the millions of people who are still ensnared in the conflict.
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His remarks came as Kordofan’s violence has caused more than 50 000 people to flee and at least 100 civilians to die since early December.
Rubio remarked, “What’s happening there is horrifying, it’s atrocious,” adding that “everyone involved will look bad one day as the truth about what actually happened there is revealed.”
President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in late November, and US special envoy Massad Boulos just returned from speaking with Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, and UAE officials.
Rubio claimed to have collaborated with the United Kingdom and had conversations with leaders in the area.
The top US diplomat cited external weapons sources as a key factor in the ongoing, third-year, brutal conflict between the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“All of these weapons were obtained abroad,” the statement states. According to Rubio, they must have originated somewhere else and must have done so through somewhere else.
Conflict experts claim that Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied that the UAE provides direct material support to the RSF through a network that spans neighboring nations.
In addition, the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are involved in mediation efforts while the SAF is close to Turkiye, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Rubio acknowledged the difficulty of achieving a ceasefire, claiming that parties frequently agree to commitments but fail to do so, especially when one side believes the momentum on the battlefield is in its favor.
Rubio argued that the US role is to convene parties and encourage outside actors to use their influence, not that any of these organizations could function without the support they were receiving externally.
According to the Sudan Doctors Network, at least 16 people have died in the past two days as a result of the RSF and allied fighters shelling residential areas of Dilling, including women, elderly residents, and children. The heaviest fighting has now moved from Darfur to Kordofan, where the RSF and allied fighters have shelled residential areas.
According to Mohamed Refaat, the international organization’s chief of mission in Sudan, El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan and a crucial hub for transportation connecting routes to South Sudan, eastern Sudan, and Darfur, the next potential target appears to be.
He warned that if fighting breaks out in the city, more than half a million people could be affected.
Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed on December 13 when drones struck their Kadugli base. What it called a “heinous and deliberate” attack that might lead to war crimes was condemned by the UN Security Council on Friday.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 80% of all fatalities have been attributed to strikes on medical facilities in Sudan this year, according to a report released on Friday. The WHO has verified 201 healthcare premises attacks since the conflict started in April 2023, with 1, 858 people dead.
After nine members of the original group of 73 were released, 64 medical workers are still being detained in Nyala, the RSF’s parallel government, according to the Sudan Doctors Network on Thursday.
The representative of the African Union to Sudan, who has condemned what he describes as systematic RSF attacks on civilians, said the perpetrators will not escape punishment and rejected any parallel institutions on Sudanese soil this week.
Both the RSF and the SAF have been accused of war crimes, with El-Fasher and the RSF also facing genocide allegations.
Prior to Sharif Osman Hadi’s funeral, a well-known leader of the country’s 2024 student-led uprising, Bangladesh isobserving a national day of mourning ahead of his passing. His death sparked two days of protests all over the country.
As Hadi’s funeral was scheduled to take place on Saturday at 2 p.m. (8:00 GMT) at the South Plaza of Bangladesh’s parliament building, known as Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, police in Dhaka deployed body cameras throughout the capital city.
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All public and private buildings lit up to mark the day of mourning with the Bangladeshi flag in half-mast.
In the most recent turbulent period of the country’s recent history, media reports on previously untold incidents of violence as cultural institutions, newspapers, and political buildings were reeled from earlier in the week’s arson attacks and mob rushes.
Anisul Islam Mahmud, the president of the National Democratic Front and the head of a Jatiya Party faction, was reported by the daily Prothom Alo that his home was vandalized and set on fire in Chattogram, Bangladesh’s second-largest city, on Friday around midnight.
The main state-sponsored cultural center in Bangladesh, The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, announced in a newspaper called The Daily Star that all programming and exhibitions would be suspended. Following the arson attacks that occurred on Thursday in two of the organization’s buildings, the group cited security concerns.
Ambushes that forced dozens of employees inside the Daily Star and forced them onto the roof of the latter caused the latter to lose both fire and Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. However, the publications made a promise to continue publishing online.
Hadi, a 32-year-old spokesperson for Platform for Revolution, died on Thursday in a hospital in Singapore after being shot in the head by masked attackers more than a week ago.
After earlier urging its followers to refrain from engaging in violent acts, Inqilab Moncho urged users on Facebook to attend the leader’s funeral on Saturday.
In addition to serving as Inqilab Moncho’s spokesperson, Hadi planned to run for president of the city’s Bijoynagar district in the upcoming elections, which are scheduled for February 2026.
However, he was struck in the head by two assailants riding a motorcycle that had just arrived in his area while he was traveling in a battery-operated auto-rickshaw.
Hadi was transferred to Singapore General Hospital for treatment of brain stem damage after three days of treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He passed away on Thursday evening, triggering the most recent wave of mass protests in Bangladesh.
Although there were numerous arrests made in connection with his death, according to Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury from Dhaka, “the killer may have escaped to India through the border, at least based on rumors made by police and others.” Both Hadi and Inqilab Moncho had stooped on India.
The prospect of the killer’s flight, along with frustrations over India’s handling of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, led to “a strong anti-India sentiment” in the crowds that started pouring into the streets on Thursday evening in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong, and Gazipur.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s assassinated father’s home was torn down by demonstrators, the Awami League’s headquarters, and stifled traffic on various roads. The Indian Assistant High Commission in Chittagong was reportedly targeted for pro-India sympathies, while Prothom Alo and Daily Star newspapers were also attacked.
Since Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, Bangladesh’s interim government has been led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who “strongly and unequivocally” condemned the violence, including what it referred to as the “lynching of a Hindu man in Mymensingh.”
Protesters poured into Dhaka’s Shahbag Square on Friday afternoon as Hadi’s body was being repatriated from Singapore and demanded that all responsible for Hadi’s death and Hasina be extradited.
According to one activist, protests will continue until “Sheikh Hasina and all those responsible for killings are returned.”
After being found guilty of crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that led to her arrest, Hasina was sentenced to death in November. According to the UN, her government’s desperate efforts to cling onto power resulted in 1,400 deaths and thousands of injuries during the weeks of violence.
Sajjat Hosen Sojal, the mother of 20-year-old student Sajjat Hosen, was shot and burned by the police shortly before Hasina was forced to resign and flee the country, according to Shaina Begum, who told Al Jazeera after the verdict: “I cannot be calm until she is brought back and hanged in this country.”
On a chessboard in Goa, it was a beautiful November afternoon as something familiar appeared. Wei Yi, the world’s sixth-ranked Indian grandmaster, destroyed his Chinese counterpart. Epicaisi was playing on his own soil and enjoyed by the students who crowded around his board in a snoring haze. The game was already in progress as soon as he moved his pawn to the center of the board and pressed the “dual-timer chess” button.
Grandmasters rise as effortlessly in this nation where chess was first practiced as coconut trees grow along the coast. A child’s early life begins with a game that teaches them to plan or, more likely, to endure, slipping through the cracks of cramped, overworked working-class homes and classrooms. That’s how chess entered my world at least. Without having money to pursue higher education and having a temper that kept him between jobs, my brilliant Periappa (uncle) frequently ended up taking care of me. When he gave me my favorite inheritance, the game of chess, at the age of six, I must have been six.
I can still recall Periappa declaring, “These are my favorite, holding a chipped, toy-sized plastic knight in front of me.” If you learn them, they can be deadly. I was certain that I would always want something. Chess became a sensation in my life rather than a pastime. Chess was a pheromonal relationship for me.
When Periappa sat me down for a game, I was a difficult, friendless child who was prone to sulk. I anticipated victory. What kind of adult enjoys beating a six-year-old? Periappa would throw the game because he loved me, persisted everything I knew about life. But that was not the love he had. Chess is not that particular game, either. Both were based on strategy, not mercy.
No one loses at this game, he said in my first chess lesson. You instruct someone, or you learn something. Of course, I was prepared to take no lessons. I threw a fit, then I threw the pieces, sobbed a little, and never entered chess. It was brief if I had a chess career. I can recall winning a neighborhood tournament before being distracted by life, boys, and school, stumbling away from both my uncle and chess.
He had passed away by the time I had to play chess.
Perhaps I was brought back after his death. I could only be near him if I played chess on a board. I stayed this time. The chessboard served as my only source of escape from life’s uncertainty when the pandemic washed ashore. With his voice in my head, I had to wrestle with myself.
Soon enough, you develop a style, much like writers do when they start to develop a voice. Bobby Fischer was well-known for his devotion to bishops. In the middlegame, Garry Kasparov’s rook activity was fatal. One of the greatest players of the moment, Magnus Carlsen, is renowned for being a very active king in endgames. Because one of the few players who doesn’t give a damn about the outcome, Epicaisi is known as the “madman on the board.” He becomes dangerously precise and reckless as a German sniper as a result. However, all that happens happens when things go according to plan.
They disregarded it. With one minute left in the Erigaisi-Yi game, Erigaisi blundered his rook. He repeatedly made moves that gradually weakened his position at that time. I watched him lose piece after piece as he was sat in the middle of the playing hall, between two rows of spectators, with a notebook on my knee. He was unable to leave the animal until it had broken down.
The kind of theatricality that keeps fans glued to it was present.
As an amateur chess player for decades, I’ve learned that the addiction rarely stems from the game in its entirety, but rather from a few moments, such as the rigorous, disciplined violence of the Erigaisi-Yi match or the obsession with a single piece. It was the knight, in Periappa’s opinion. Zugzwang is what holds things together, in my opinion. A player has to move in an endgame, but every move they make weakens their position. They are unable to turn around or pass. There is no relief on the board, but there is. I’ve spent years attempting to understand zugzwang in an effort to understand how my relationship with Periappa ended.
We used to communicate easily when we were younger, which is a challenge that people still face today. However, as a child, the geometry of proximity changes, and I began to notice his flaws. He had a difficult husband and father, and his views on my education, boyfriends, and even chess were unwelcome. No single rupture occurred; it was a gradual accumulation of delayed calls and visits until there were fewer and fewer topics to discuss. I watched him in excruciating pain in a Bombay hospital with nothing to say or do at the conclusion of our relationship. We had already slid into separate corners as pieces drifting into an endgame and locked ourselves into an emotional zugzwang of our own creation by the time he passed away.
In the hope of tying a neat bow of chess wisdom over the ominous turn of events, I studied zugzwang after he passed away. The “immortal zugzwang” between Aron Nimzowitsch and Friedrich Saemisch in 1923 is something I can spend hours reading and watching. Because of the fact that white is completely tied up in the final position and makes no mistake about it, it is one of the most well-known chess matches ever. Total board-wide paralysis, as if Nimzowitsch had encased Saemisch’s pieces in invisible wire. No checkmate is necessary, just the humiliation of defeat itself. The only way out is through inevitability, not spectacle.
The grief did not end after Periappa’s passing; it persisted. I regret never explaining to him that Mount Everest was now my personal Mount Everest after mastering the knight. I regret that he passed away without realizing that I, in fact, loved knights. that my childhood contained a deep, reptilian portion of my brain that the knights had curled up in. That one small preference, which was casually passed down, endured more than our conversations ever did. There is no hidden significance here. In fact, I believe there is no purpose to it. That might be the only things that relationships still have, such as unused charging cables or expired email accounts.
It teaches me new things every time I go back to Zugzwang. Deep endgames, when every choice hurts, are the lessons that still bother me these days. I can still see the outline of a chipped plastic knight standing up to me and urging me to choose, but Zugzwang turns into a mirror.