At least 10 people have been killed by deadly airstrikes carried out by Pakistan, according to the Taliban, in three of its eastern provinces. Another instance of the fragile ceasefire that ended fighting at the border in October.
Published On 25 Nov 2025
In stark violation of international law, Israeli policy forces thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, similar to the Gaza Strip.
32, 000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes in just three refugee camps this year, according to a report released last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to HRW, the Israeli operation that began in the West Bank’s Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps, which started in January, caused the most extensive mass displacement of Palestinians since 1967.
list of 4 itemsend of list
Since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the rise of Israeli violence in the West Bank, where more than 1, 000 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since October 7, 2023, and Israelis living in illegal settlements have launched increasingly violent attacks on Palestinians.
More than 1, 000 Palestinians were displaced when Israel destroyed their homes in Area C, which is located in the West Bank without even symbolic Palestinian administrative control, according to a report released earlier in November by the UN. Another 500 people were left homeless in occupied East Jerusalem. Israel cited a lack of building permits in those areas, but Palestinians are notoriously elusive for them.
Even as human rights organizations request that senior Israeli military and political officials be investigated for their actions in the West Bank refugee camps and the ongoing displacement of civilians, Israel has so far had few consequences for its actions in the occupied West Bank.
“We are witnessing the total abandonment of Palestinian lives.” Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem’s executive director Yuli Novak stated on Friday that Israel has already demonstrated that it is capable of much greater violence than what we are currently seeing in the Gaza Strip. Because there isn’t a mechanism within Israel or outside to restrain it or stop its ongoing ethnic cleansing, the situation in the West Bank is “deteriorating by the day and will only worsen.” The international community must end Israel’s impunity and demand accountability for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
The West Bank is intended to be annexed, according to numerous senior Israeli government officials.
A bill that would grant Israelis the occupation of the West Bank received preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament in October, which is widely regarded as a flagrant violation of international law.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hardline finance minister, has made it clear that he has no intention of leaving the West Bank. He resides in an illegal settlement.
Smotrich stated to his party’s members at a meeting last year that he was “establishing] facts on the ground in order to make Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] an essential part of the state of Israel.
“We will establish sovereignty first on the ground, then through legislation,” he declared. According to Smotrich, “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Smotrich.
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, more than 700,000 Israelis reside in illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
In a project that the finance minister claimed would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich announced the opening of a new “E1” settlement that would involve the construction of 3, 000 homes separating occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank in August.
Israeli authorities frequently invoke planning regulations or claim that Palestinian homes have been constructed in “closed military zones,” which are land that the Israeli state, its security services, or for settlements in the occupied West Bank.
It is “almost impossible” for a Palestinian to obtain a building permit from the Israeli authorities, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Israel claimed that it displaced residents in the refugee camps in the Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem as part of “Operation Iron Wall,” an effort to oust the camps’ residents from the camps. Residents of the camps are still prohibited from returning months after Israeli forces first entered them in late January, and many of their homes have been destroyed by bulldozers.
Residents were permitted to file objections and petitions with Israel’s Supreme Court, according to a military spokesman, and the demolitions were carried out in “operational necessity.”
All of these petitions have been rejected, even those that allege Israel’s actions violate international humanitarian law.
Israeli settlement-based groups are increasingly violent, with some settlers occupying some of the highest positions in the Israeli state. Israelis illegally establish their homes in occupied Palestinian territory. More than 260 attacks in October left people dead, property damaged, or both. The most incidents the agency has recorded since 2006 when it started gathering data in 2006 is eight on average per day.
Israeli soldiers are watching as Israeli settlers escort Palestinians during the olive harvesting season.
The most recent attacks are “not random, but deliberate efforts to undermine Palestinian rural life,” according to the Palestinian Farmers’ Union (PFU).
Many American families have a tradition of shopping at stores like Walmart for cranberries, sweet potatoes, and the Butterball turkey, a cult favorite.
However, under US President Donald Trump, questions of inflation and economic stability have become a hot button in the annual Thanksgiving meal kit.
list of 4 itemsend of list
The Walmart kit’s price suggests that the Trump administration’s economic policies are slowing inflation, according to the administration. However, experts claim that the narrative is more complicated than what tinned pumpkin and stuffing packages can reveal.
The retailer is advertising a lower price this year, which is lower than the White House’s preferred $7 per person for 8 people in 2024.
Trump once more stated to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that “we’ve got]prices] way down from last year. According to Walmart, Thanksgiving is exactly 25% less than last year.
However, the retailer’s offer includes restrictions, as well as a caveat. The kit uses more generic products than name brands, which typically lowers costs, and has fewer items (20 versus 29 last year).
Companies that provide Thanksgiving meal kits, such as Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger, can choose how to incorporate the costs into their packages.
Official data, however, actually indicates that prices are rising. Turkey prices will be about 40% higher than they were this year last year, according to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts, largely due to supply shortages linked to avian flu.
However, the price of turkey has fluctuated depending on the source of the data. Turkey will cost 16 percent less than it did this year, according to the American Farm Bureau. However, Purdue University researchers discovered that the price will increase by 25% over the previous year.
According to government data, potatoes and rolls have increased by 3.7%, and apples have increased by 5.3%, all overperforming the government’s inflation rate of 3.1%.
Cranberry sauce, according to a new analysis from Groundwork Collaborative, The Century Foundation, and AFT, has increased by 22% from the same time last year.
Wine prices are declining as a result of domestic production, but imported European bottles are experiencing a 15% increase.
Americans are now more cautious about spending in light of rising wholesale costs, limited economic data, and concerns about upcoming social safety net programs. In its most recent reading released on Tuesday, consumer confidence is still at its lowest level since April.
The increase in poultry consumption is unrelated to economic policy. Turkeys are hampered by an ongoing strain of avian flu, with more than 2.2 million birds affected so far in 2025 and more than 600,000 confirmed infections in September. Farmers must slaughter the entire flock to stop the spread, further reducing supply even when just one bird has positive tests.
The largest, most geographically distributed avian flu outbreak ever to be identified is the current global H5N1 panzootic. More than any other previous avian influenza event, according to Crystal Heath, executive director of Our Honor, a veterinary advocacy organization, which has affected more countries, more wild species, and more continents at once.
In February 2022, Heath stated that the virus “started to spread through commercial poultry operations in the United States.”
However, the rise in prices is attributed to economic policy, which is a driving force behind other staples.
The price of agricultural products, such as tomatoes and potatoes, has increased as a result of both import costs and rising prices for farm inputs, many of which are imported directly, such as the fertiliser needed to grow food and farm machinery like tractors.
Farmers are paying more in input costs because of tariffs on imported materials, including parts, fertiliser, and other chemicals. According to Babak Hafezi, chief executive officer of Hafezi Capital, an international consulting firm, “these higher costs then get passed along, driving up the price of each unit and contributing to inflation.”
According to Hafezi, a shortage of labor costs agricultural products like apples, potatoes, and tomatoes, which are now more expensive.
“The problem is that fruit never makes it into the market when it hangs on the trees without being picked by anyone.” However, imports are needed because there is still a need. When I visited a California lemon farm, I noticed fruit everywhere, with the exception of the lemons that were just falling to the ground and going bad.
The price of canned goods has also increased as a result of tariffs.
Due to tariff increases, Campbell’s, one of the biggest producers of prepared foods, announced earlier this year that prices would need to go up.
The effects of tariffs are still being felt, as are any immigration issues that affect farm workers or workers in meat-processing plants. The system is still being hit by a lot of exogenous shocks. According to Matthew Higgins, professor of management at Tulane University, “This isn’t just, Hey, we had this huge run-up in inflation during COVID and prices haven’t come down,” he told Al Jazeera.
Trump eased tariffs on some consumer goods last week. Experts claim that the change does not mean that consumers will see lower prices this Thanksgiving or even at all, even though it immediately has an impact on imports and wholesale goods.
“Unless there is some major disruption, such as a recession, and people can no longer consume at their current levels,” Hafezi said, “the likelihood is very low.”
This has a historical precedent. Producers raised prices as a result of supply-chain strains in the COVID-19 pandemic, and retailers followed suit. Consumers already showed they would tolerate higher prices, leaving grocery stores with little incentive to lower them, even after those strains were eased.
That was made known by the Federal Trade Commission’s report for 2024, which listed higher grocery store prices.
According to the report, “some businesses appear to have used rising costs as an opportunity to increase their profits, and profits remain elevated even as supply chain pressures have decreased.”
Regardless of the cause, consumers are putting more pressure on themselves to get ready for the holidays, especially as a result of the recent US government shutdown.
In the weeks following the shutdown, City Harvest, a New York City-based nonprofit that collaborates with soup kitchens and food distribution centers, reported an increase in demand.
According to Jenna Harris, associate director of donor relations at City Harvest, “many federal employees were people seeking food assistance for the first time.”
City Harvest also noted that there are the city’s busiest and busiest visitors on record.
It’s really just showing that the rising cost of food is an issue, Harris continued, noting that about 67 percent of New Yorkers who visit food pantries have jobs, sometimes multiple jobs.
Visits have increased by 85 percent since 2019, according to FeedNYC, but the pressure is getting worse as a result. Families are navigating the SNAP program’s upcoming changes and the looming cost of healthcare in 2026. States have started contacting recipients of new requirements and giving them three months to comply if they don’t, or they could lose benefits altogether.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, approximately 2.2 million Americans could lose their health insurance premiums if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies aren’t being discussed, leaving low- and middle-income families struggling to keep coverage.
“As you move down the socioeconomic ladder, there is a lot of uncertainty, and that uncertainty only gets worse.” You’d expect people to be more cautious about spending money during the holidays, according to Higgins.
Diego Maradona, the player who won the World Cup five years ago on Tuesday, passed away, in Al Jazeera’s thoughts.
Published On 25 Nov 2025
As Amnesty International has started labeling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ actions as war crimes, Al Jazeera spoke to refugees fleeing Sudan’s el-Fasher who had experienced family loss, rape, and torture. Despite the announcement of a three-month truce, survivors face limited mental health support and are forced to rely on one another to cope.
Published On 25 Nov 2025