The film It Was Just an Accident, a film from Iran, won the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. For his filmmaking, which served as inspiration for his award-winning work, the dissident has endured years of travel bans and prison sentences in Iran.
My brother-in-law, Samer, was killed in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on April 27, when his vegetable stall was bombed. He lacked weapons. He lacked political charisma. In a place where food has become more expensive than gold, he was a quiet man who was trying to make a living feeding his children.
By profession, Samer wasn’t a vendor. He was an advocate for the oppressed’s rights. However, he was forced to make a change of course by the war.
He was able to purchase vegetables from neighborhood wholesalers during the ceasefire. Supply levels dramatically decreased after the war resumed and the crossings into Gaza abruptly stopped, but he still maintained a small vegetable stock. Even as buyers became scarce as a result of the high prices, he kept selling day and night. He frequently made a generous effort to give us free vegetables, but I never did.
I froze when I learned about Samer’s murder. My husband and I tried to keep the news from them, but I was able to tell the truth through tears. Although he appeared to want to scream, his scream continued to linger inside his throat. Perhaps his burdened soul couldn’t bear the expression of grief because of something.
Samer left a devastated family and three young children behind. No one anticipated his demise. It shocked me. Even in the most difficult circumstances, he was a good and sincere young man who was always upbeat, loving, and full of laughter.
In front of his vegetable market, he still has a loving voice in my memory.
Samer is one of the many food sellers who have died as a result of this genocide. Anyone who works in the food industry has been targeted. As if they were selling food, they were bombed, as if fruit and vegetable vendors, grocers, bakers, shop owners, and community kitchen workers. As if the food they were supplying was a threat, bunkeries, stores, farms, and warehouses have been destroyed.
One of the busiest streets in Gaza City’s Remal neighborhood, al-Wahda Street, was bombed ten days after Samer’s death. At least 33 people have died.
The Jabaliya bakery’s immediate vicinity was bombed two weeks prior to Samer’s martyrdom. A food distribution center in Khan Younis was targeted days earlier. Since the start of the war, more than 39 food and distribution centers and 29 community kitchens have been targeted, according to the Gaza-based government media office.
By now, it is obvious that Israel is not only preventing food from entering Gaza through its deliberate starvation campaign. Every component of the food supply chain is being destroyed as well.
All that is currently available to purchase are scraps because of the frequent targeting of vendors and markets for those whose incomes allow for food purchases. In Gaza, death has become more simple than life.
The worst victims of starvation are babies and young children. At least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, died in Gaza in less than a 24-hour period as a result of starvation and lack of medical care, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor on May 21.
Since the aid embargo started in early March, the Gaza-based Ministry of Health announced on May 5 that at least 57 children had died as a result of malnutrition.
I frequently skip days without eating to give my kids whatever little food they have leftovers. My husband usually returns with nothing but scraps after spending the entire day looking for something to quench our hunger. If we’re lucky, we divide our children’s leftovers between two pieces of bread.
Even more intolerable is the hardship that Samer’s wife must endure. She tries to keep her tears a secret from her children, who keep asking when their father will leave the market. She had to become a father overnight as a result of her long lines in front of neighborhood restaurants in search of some food.
She frequently returns empty-handed, yelling, “When Dad comes back, he’ll bring us food,” to comfort her children. Her children sleep hungry and dreaming of a meal to fill their stomachs, which their late father never will provide.
Hamas claims that Israel is preventing Gaza from receiving aid, but Israel has made that claim. The claim has been refuted by the Western media, who are blatantly involved in the distortion of the truth.
Yet it is obvious that Israel is also pursuing Gaza’s entire population. In accordance with international law, it deliberately obstructs the flow of humanitarian aid by using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently demanded that all Palestinians be barred from Gaza in exchange for a truce in order to put an end to the conflict.
His choice to pass food through the crossings is nothing more than a PR stunt. To reassure the world that we are not starving, enough flour was brought in to allow the media to distribute images of bread at a bakery.
These images, however, do not accurately represent what we encounter on the ground. The majority of my family’s bread has not been delivered to me, just like my family has. Where available, flouri continues to cost $450 per bag.
Aid organizations claim 119 aid trucks have entered since Monday, compared to 388 that Israel has claimed. Because the Israeli army continues to target anyone attempting to secure the distribution of aid, an undetermined number of these have been looted.
When compared to the needs of the world’s starving population, this minuscule amount of aid Israel is providing is insignificant. Every day, at least 500 trucks are needed to carry the bare minimum.
Meanwhile, some Western governments have threatened sanctions and used symbolic measures to allegedly compel Israel to stop starving us. Why was it necessary to wait until our children were starving before doing this? Why do they only threaten, disregarding the law, and act accordingly?
Our top wish for today is to discover a loaf of bread. In this devastating famine, which has destroyed our lives and destroyed our planet, our only concern is how to continue to survive. No one in our lives is now in good health. We’ve turned into corpses. Even though our bodies are dead, our hearts still tingle with hope as we yearn for the miraculous day that this nightmare ends.
Who will, however, support us? Who has our hearts broken yet, and how is that?
And the most crucial question of all is: When will the world stop blinding us to our slow, brutal hunger?
Alan Yentob, the former BBC executive and presenter, has passed away at the age of 78, his family has revealed.
In 1968, Alan became the controller of BBC One and BBC Two before he left the BBC as a trainee. He was the author of the beloved television series Absolutely Fabulous, Have I Got News for You, and Colin Firth’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Additionally, he created CBBC and CBeebies.
For his contributions to the arts and media, Alan received a CBE on the 2024 birthday honours list.
His wife, Philippa Walker, remarked, “Every day with Alan, Jacob, Bella, and I had the promise of something unexpected. He and I both had exciting lives.
He had a curiosity, a funny, a late-night, and a creative soul throughout his entire body. He was a profoundly moral and kind man, but more than that, he was. A mile-long trail of love is left in his wake.
Alan Yentob was a renowned figure in British broadcasting and the arts, according to BBC Director-General Tim Davie. He was a creative force and cultural visionary who helped shape decades of BBC and other programming while also having a passion for telling stories and providing public service that left a lasting legacy.
“Alan has fought for almost 60 years for originality, risk-taking, and artistic ambition.” His influence is woven into British cultural life from Arena to Imagine, from commissioning groundbreaking drama to providing a platform for emerging voices.
He firmly believed in the BBC’s role as a welcoming place for creativity, curiosity, and the arts.
“Alan was an unmistakable presence, not just a pioneering creative,” he continued. He brought warmth and energy to every conversation, being witty, and ever-evolving. He gave generously of his time, fought for what he believed, and supported other people’s efforts.
To work with Alan was to be inspired and spurred on to think more. He was a mentor and champion for so many people in the fields of television, film, and theater, and had a unique gift for identifying talent and inspiring others.
“An excellent original, above all. His passion was personal, not performative. He attributed this to culture’s ability to enrich, challenge, and connect us.
One of our generation’s most outstanding creative minds has passed away. However, his legacy will continue with his programs, his voice, and the generations he inspired.
“His family and loved ones are in our thoughts.” Alan will be greatly missed as a friend, colleague, and key figure in British culture.
New skipper Shubman Gill claims that former captains Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have a “blueprint” for India’s upcoming Test victories.
After the 38-year-old and the contemporary great Kohli both retired from the sport, Batter Gill, 25, was announced as Rohit’s replacement on Saturday.
India won 40 of its 68 Test victories, while Rohit, who took over in his place in 2022, had the next-best win percentage as captain.
Gill said, “I have always been inspired by Indian cricket’s greats and legends.”
“It’s very fortunate that I get to play with a lot of them.
Both had a different style, but it was inspiring to see them work toward a common goal.
Gill was chosen as the team’s skipper, ahead of bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who had previously been Rohit’s vice-captain.
His first five-test series, which will debut on June 20 in England, will be highly anticipated.
Gill, the captain of the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League, said, “I’m looking forward to this exciting opportunity, and I think the upcoming series in England will be very exciting.”
I think that my performance and my ability to lead by example, not just through my work but also through my discipline and effort on the field.
A leader should be able to tell a captain when to intervene and when to make room for the players, according to the article.
Everyone has a different personality because everyone has lived and grown up differently.
India won series victories in Australia and England, going 2-2, and were unbeaten in home matches throughout Kohli’s tenure as captain.
Although Australia defeated them in the 2023 World Test Championship and New Zealand’s unbeaten run at home was ended by New Zealand last year, they made it to the final under Rohit.
Virat was “very aggressive and wanting to lead from the front,” Gill claimed.
You might not notice that Rohit was aggressive in his expression.
He was a tactful and attentive observer. He addressed the players in a very friendly manner.
Queen legend Freddie Mercury had a secret daughter which he kept secret from the world, it has been revealed. The woman, whose identity is still being protected, confessed she has been shrouded in privacy since she was a child. And although she has now come forward to speak about her dad, she is only known as B.
Freddie had a fling with a pal’s wife in 1976 and the only people that knew of her existence was his bandmates, family and long-term partner Mary Austin.
Many people assumed their relationship was a little distant after Freddie Mercury decided to keep his daughter’s privates for 15 years. That is far more outrageous than that.
Lesley-Ann Jones’ latest biography Love, Freddie, makes it clear that the Queen star made every effort to establish a working relationship with B.
B claimed in a handwritten letter that was published in the book that he treated her like a “treasured possession.”
Freddie sadly passed away in November 1991 from AIDS, but he had a regular visit to B at the house she shared with her mother and step-father.
B was aware that Freddie was her father from the age of three, Lesley-Ann claims.
The singer even had a room in her family’s home to spend the most time with her.
Freddie made sure he would call B every day while the legendary musician was touring the world with his band Queen or working on new songs in the studio.
Lesley-Ann told the publication that she was aware of the identity of her real father when she was a young child.
She continued, “Focus on the unusual family, privacy, and discretion were preserved in a way that not even some members of Freddie’s immediate family knew he had a child.”
And it perfectly captures the love Freddie and his daughter had for one another in a handwritten letter provided by B.
The letter read: “Freddie Mercury was and is my father. We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life.”
He adored and was devoted to me, B continued. By the standards of most people, the circumstances surrounding my birth may seem unusual and even outrageous. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. He never let his love for and care for me go away. He held my hand like a valuable possession.
B has lived a private life all her life. And it appears that she prefers to continue doing so for the good of her husband and kids.
She continued, “It’s incredibly private how I live with my husband and our family in another country. We want things to continue in this manner. We want nothing to obstruct our peaceful, uncensored existence. Nobody needs to know who I am.
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Oasis fans who have forked out hundreds on tickets to see the band on their reunion tour have been dealt a worrying blow.
Concertgoers who have purchased tickets to their show at Manchester’s Heaton Park have been notified that they need to enter a ballot to get close to the stage at the venue. Ticketmaster issued an email to ticketholders urging them to take part in a draw that will determine if they are allowed into the “front standing” area or just “general admission.”
It warned that those who don’t take part in the ballot or are not selected to be in the front section will only be allowed to enter the rear section after the decision was made to divide the venue into two areas. The email – sent as rehearsals for the tour get underway – says the decision has been made in part to try and “ensure fan safety.”
Hello, Important details about your event, according to the Ticketmaster email. The event planners have requested that we provide the following information:
The Heaton Park events safety advisory group divided the concert hall into two areas, each with a separate ticket and entrance gate, each with a separate entrance and ticket. This will improve the visitor experience and ensure fan safety when they visit the site.
“All general admissions card holders have the option to opt-in to the front standing area.” Tickets will be chosen randomly from the applicant pool if the number of opt-in requests exceeds the number of available tickets.
If you want to request tickets in the front standing area, please click the link HERE to do so. The opt-in link is active until noon on May 30. You’ll be notified of a follow-up notification no later than June 20th, confirming your assigned area and gate entry details once the opt-in window closes.
“Please take note that you cannot split up your orders if you opt in. You don’t need to do anything if you’re content to stay in the general admissions area.
Some fans have taken to social media to criticize the plans, with many arguing that if they purchased tickets separately from their friends and won the election, they would still be able to access the general area in the event that their friends won’t be able to place, while others claim that they haven’t even received the invitation to vote. One user wrote on X: “Now it appears that not everyone has received the email to enter the front pit,” despite the fact that the front pit will be balloted for the Heaton Park gigs. Do they actually want to ruin it?
Another person said, “It’s completely absurd that this Oasis front pit access ballot for Heaton Park is the chaos of Finsbury Park, where my feet didn’t touch the ground for 30 minutes in the crush.” Some fans, who have purchased standing VIP tickets for prices starting at almost £300, have also received the ballot email, which questions the status of their own tickets.
One person posed the question, “Hi, would you mind confirming whether or not the Hospitality Ticket (VIP GA) for Oasis at Heaton Park, which is originally priced at £268, will be automatically assigned a spot in the front section?” Many thanks.
What if I applied for VIP general admission to the front section or can I still access the VIP bar/bathrooms from both sections, according to a second comment?
A third wrote, “Genuine query regarding Oasis tickets. Does anyone know whether Wembley will be affected by the new Heaton Park email? How VIP works. Do we receive general admission as well?