The Trump administration does not “intend or expect” to again take military action in Venezuela, Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio told the US Congress, but theoretical threats like an “Iranian drone factory” could change the government’s thinking.
A young Tunisian man goes on a personal journey to find his biological mother and understand where he comes from.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed what he called an “extraordinary achievement”. Israeli forces retrieved the body of Ran Gvili, an Israeli man, who died on October 7, 2023, from a Palestinian graveyard in northern Gaza. Israeli TV showed Israeli soldiers singing a Hebrew song at the site. Western media spoke about the importance of the operation and this “moment of national healing”.
Here in Gaza, the Israeli operation to retrieve the body spread fear, pain and death. Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians near the graveyard and desecrated hundreds of Palestinian graves. Hundreds of Palestinian families now have to search for and gather the remains of their loved ones, and four families have had to dig new graves.
What was presented to the rest of the world as a “standard military operation”, was in reality, a serious crime under international law. Grave desecration constitutes a violation of a key provision of the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that dead bodies and graves must be respected.
In the Palestinian context, the attack on cemeteries is yet another form of collective punishment. It sends a clear message: that the Palestinian people will be denied dignity even in death.
This is, of course, not the first time Israel has committed crimes against the Palestinian dead.
Throughout the war, Israel has been attacking, bulldozing and digging up graveyards across the Gaza Strip. By January 2024, CNN reported that at least 16 Palestinian cemeteries in Gaza had been desecrated. Israel justified its actions by claiming that Hamas was using the cemeteries for “military purposes”. Satellite imagery and footage revealed that entire cemeteries were levelled, with Israeli troops converting some into military positions.
The excuse that Palestinian graveyards are desecrated only out of military necessity does not hold, however. Palestinian burial sites in the occupied West Bank are also regularly attacked. Just earlier this month, Israeli civilians stormed a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem and destroyed graves. In January 2023, a Christian cemetery, where a lot of senior Christian leaders were buried, was also defaced in Jerusalem.
And it is not just resting places for the dead that Israel is ravaging. Even Palestinian dead bodies themselves are a target. Last year, the Israeli army sent hundreds of bodies of Palestinians to Gaza. Many of them had clear signs of torture; others were so mutilated that they could not be recognised, forcing the local authorities to bury them in mass graves.
In other cases, the Israeli authorities have withheld Palestinian dead bodies from their families as yet another form of collective punishment. Currently, Israel holds the bodies of Palestinians who died as far back as the 1967 war. In 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court officially allowed the Israeli state to hold bodies for the purpose of “negotiations”.
All of this – the desecration, the exhumation, the mutilation, the withholding of dead Palestinians and its legalisation – is meant to wipe out the memory of the deceased and prevent their loved ones from mourning them and having closure. It is meant to punish; it is meant to humiliate. Even in death, Palestinians cannot have safety and peace.
All of these crimes against the Palestinian dead have not received even a fraction of the media attention that the burial of the dead Israeli captives released from Gaza did. The humanising stories, the extensive photoshoots, the reports on official ceremonies were not afforded to Palestinian victims, whose bodies Israel has dug out and desecrated.
There were no reports on the Palestinian families who went to the graveyard and experienced the horror of seeing the remains of the graves of their loved ones scattered. There was no global sympathy for their suffering and pain.
By now, we have seen and experienced all kinds of unimaginable crimes committed by Israel. What has made them that much worse has been the global silence about them.
It is tragic that we should have to remind the world that graves are sacred and protected spaces under international law, including Palestinian ones.
Tehran, Iran – The Iranian government is putting into place contingency plans for basic governance as the threat of another war with the United States and Israel looms large.
President Masoud Pezeshkian gathered governors of Iran’s border provinces as well as his economy minister in Tehran on Tuesday to delegate some responsibilities to the governors if a war breaks out, state media reported. A working group was also formed, tasked with ensuring the increased flow of essential goods, particularly food.
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The governors have been given authority to import goods without using foreign currency, engage in bartering and allow sailors to bring in products under simplified customs rules, according to the government-run IRNA news agency.
“In addition to importing essential goods, governors now have the authority to bring in all goods that are directly linked with the livelihoods of the people and the needs of the market in order to balance the market and prevent hoarding,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying at the meeting.
“Through enforcing this policy, a considerable part of the pressures resulting from the cruel sanctions are neutralised,” he said in reference to harsh restrictions imposed by the US as well as United Nations sanctions reimposed in September, which the Iranian government blames for the economic crisis the country is going through.
But while the government resorts to focusing on the basics, nearly all of Iran’s 90 million people and all sectors of the country’s beleaguered economy continue to suffer from an unprecedented internet shutdown.
The digital blackout was imposed by the theocratic state on January 8 as nationwide protests reached a boiling point, followed by the killings of thousands of Iranians.
The intranet set up to offer some basic services during the state-imposed shutdown is slow and has failed to shore up online businesses. Traditional shops are also struggling to bring in customers.
Amid a large deployment of armed security personnel, most shops are now open in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar – where the protests against the poor economic conditions started on December 28 – and other downtown business districts.
But a shopkeeper at the Grand Bazaar told Al Jazeera that business activity is a fraction of what it was several weeks ago.
“There’s not much life and energy in the markets these days,” he said on the condition of anonymity. “The worst thing is that everything is still so unpredictable. You can see that in the currency rate too.”
Iran’s rial has been in freefall after markets partially reopened this week, degrading trust in the national currency.
The rial hit a new all-time low of about 1.6 million per US dollar on Wednesday. Each greenback had changed hands for about 700,000 rials a year ago and about 900,000 in mid-2025.
However, Central Bank of Iran chief Abdolnasser Hemmati said at the meeting with the governors in Tehran that the currency market was “following its natural course”.
He said $2.25bn worth of foreign currency deals have in recent weeks been registered in a state-run market set up to manage imports and exports, which he described as an “acceptable and considerable figure”.
The comments from Hemmati – who was also the Central Bank chief from 2018 to 2021 and was impeached as economy minister in March – immediately drew fire from the ultraconservative Keyhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is directly appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The newspaper said his comments run counter to the reality in the tumultuous currency market as well as Hemmati’s promises of price stability for essential goods when he re-emerged as the Central Bank governor last month.
While dealing with foreign pressure, Pezeshkian’s government has also been hounded by hardliners at home who have demanded immediate changes to his relatively moderate cabinet.
The infighting became so serious that the supreme leader publicly intervened, telling lawmakers in parliament and other officials during a speech last week that they are “forbidden” from “insulting” the president at a time when the country must focus on providing essential goods to the people.
For his part, Pezeshkian has kept his rhetoric focused solely on “combating corruption” through an initiative that has eliminated a subsidised currency rate used for imports of certain goods, including food.
Pezeshkian’s government argued the subsidised allocated currency was being misused by state-linked organisations. The scheme was supposed to deliver cheaper imported food, but that has not been the case.
The money freed up by the initiative has been distributed as electronic coupons among Iranians to buy food from select stores at prices set by the government.
But each citizen will get only 10 million rials per month for four months. That figure amounted to just over $7 when it was announced during the protests early this month, but it is now worth closer to $6 as the fall of the national currency further erodes purchasing power.
To add insult to injury, the announcement of the subsidy scheme contributed to an abrupt tripling or quadrupling of prices for some essential goods, including cooking oil and eggs. Iran’s annual inflation rate remains untamed at nearly 50 percent and has been on a rising trajectory in recent months.
The top two state-run carmakers, which hold a large monopoly in Iran’s auto industry, have also been positioning themselves for yet another price hike as the end of the Iranian calendar year approaches in March.
One of the firms, Iran Khodro, said on Tuesday that it would increase prices by up to 60 percent while local media reported that the other, Saipa, was expected to follow suit. The government has reportedly intervened to delay or slow the price hikes.
Sam Wainwright hatched plans with his father to get back into the Wales squad and now, just over two years since the death of his biggest fan, the prop is eyeing a return to Test rugby.
The 27-year-old tight-head was called into Steve Tandy’s squad for the Six Nations on Tuesday because of an injury to Cardiff team-mate Keiron Assiratti.
Wainwright will get the chance to appear in Test rugby for the first time since 2022, and for the first time since his father, Shaun, died in November 2023.
“Dad passed away two years ago and we talked to each other and said that we’d get back to this position,” said the prop.
“It was a big thing in the back of my mind, I’ve always been hungry to get back in.
Wainwright’s family were in the stands when he won his first cap in Wales’ historic 13-12 win against South Africa in Bloemfontein – the only time the men’s national team has won a game against the Springboks on their soil.
The prop from Prestatyn, then with Saracens after earning a move from Rygbi Gogledd Cymru (RGC), helped win a scrum penalty that set up field position for Josh Adams’ late try that was converted by Gareth Anscombe.
Wainwright was able to celebrate with his father, who was instrumental on his rise to Test level.
“He was a huge influence,” said the prop. “We were best friends and he did everything with me.
“He was one of the biggest support networks for me and when I got the call-up I thought about him a lot, it was quite emotional.
“We’d speak about everything and he’d watch every game. When I was at the Scarlets he would tell me what to pick up on after every game.
“He was unbelievable for me and that’s why getting this call up was a bit emotional for me. He would have been proud of me – 1,000%.”
A former rugby league player and a construction worker, Shaun ensured that Sam was able to give RGC his full attention.
“I told him I wanted to follow his route and have the rugby alongside it, but he would never let me do it,” said Wainwright, whose exploits earned a chance with Saracens in 2019.
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Huw Evans AgencyWainwright is behind Tomas Francis and Archie Griffin in the pecking order in the build up to Wales’ Six Nations opener against England in London on Saturday, 7 February.
The aim will be to win his fifth cap at some stage to add to the four he won as a replacement in 2022, with two outings in South Africa followed by autumn appearances against Argentina and Georgia.
Wainwright switched from Scarlets to Cardiff last summer and has made seven appearances for the United Rugby Championship play-off hopefuls.
He is confident that time in the middle will help him to thrive if called upon by Tandy.
“I’ve played a lot more rugby than when I was last in,” said Wainwright. “I’d only played 20-something games for Saracens at the time and was then put into that environment.
“When I was here last time it was a big learning curve for me and I’ve played a lot of rugby in between with Scarlets and Cardiff.
“I had those caps early in my career, but I understood I still had a lot to work on. I was quite critical of myself and I went away and worked hard.
Amazon is slashing 16,000 jobs in a second wave of layoffs at the e-commerce giant in three months, as the company restructures and leans on artificial intelligence.
Wednesday’s cuts follow the 14,000 redundancies that the Seattle, Washington–based company made in October. The layoffs are expected to affect employees working in Prime Video, Amazon Web Services, and the company’s human resources department, according to the Reuters news agency, which first reported the cuts.
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Amazon confirmed to Al Jazeera that all the cuts to the company will affect corporate-level employees.
In a memo to the employees, shared with Al Jazeera, Amazon said workers in the United States impacted by the cuts will have a 90-day window to find a new role in the company.
“Teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we’ll provide transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits [as applicable], and more,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said in the note provided to Al Jazeera.
The announced reductions come amid a broader restructuring effort at the company. Earlier this week, Amazon announced it would close its brick-and-mortar Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores, accounting for more than 70 locations across the US.
Some of those physical stores will be converted into Whole Foods Market locations. Amazon acquired the Austin, Texas–based grocery chain in 2017, and it has since grown by 40 percent.
The cuts come alongside increased investment in AI. In June, CEO Andy Jassy touted investment in generative AI and floated the possibility of redundancies.
“We expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” Jassy said in a blog post at the time.
According to the AFL-CIO CEO PayWatch tracker, Jassy made 43 times more than the median employee at the company.
Amazon’s stock tumbled in midday trading and was down 0.7 percent. Overall, however, the stock is up 7 percent year to date.
Amazon is the latest company in a wave of redundancies hitting the tech sector at the start of the year. Earlier this week, Pinterest announced it would cut 780 jobs as the social media company reallocated resources amid increased investment in AI. Last week, Autodesk said it would cut about 1,000 jobs, also tied to AI.
Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks redundancies in the tech sector, shows that more than 123,000 tech workers lost their jobs in 2025 as companies, including Salesforce and Duolingo, doubled down on AI investments.
But it is not just the tech sector facing redundancies. On Tuesday, UPS also announced job cuts. The shipping giant said it would eliminate 30,000 jobs and close 24 facilities as it reduces deliveries with Amazon.