Category World News

Air strikes have reportedly killed hundreds of people in Gaza as Israel intensified its bombardment in line with a plan for “conquest” of the enclave.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that at least 50 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight, adding to 143 reported to have been killed the previous day. The casualties pushed the total death toll in the Palestinian territory since Israel launched its onslaught on October 7, 2023 to more than 53,000.

In response, Hamas called on the international community to hold Israel to account for what it described as a “barbaric escalation”. The Israeli military has not commented on the strikes.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated a promise to push ahead with a promised escalation in pursuit of his aim to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that governs Gaza.

That follows an announcement by Netanyahu last week that the military campaign would be intensified should Hamas fail to agree a deal to release the remaining captives by the time United States President Donald Trump finished his tour of the Middle East.

Trump was due to wrap up his four-day trip, which did not include a visit to Israel or Palestine, on Friday.

There had been hope that the tour could help usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of aid to Gaza. The humanitarian crisis in the enclave is building with an Israeli blockade of the territory now in its third month.

However, Israeli officials suggested last week that plans include the “conquest” and full military occupation of the entire Gaza Strip, and potentially a bid to push Palestinians out of the enclave – a suggestion also put forward by Trump.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,010 Palestinians and wounded 119,919, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The Strip’s Government Media Office has updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of others missing under the rubble are presumed dead. The war followed an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 250 taken captive.

‘Not for sale’

Israel has halted the entry of food, medication and all other essentials into Gaza since March 2, saying that the blockade, alongside “military pressure”, is intended to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.

However, senior Hamas official Basem Naim reiterated on Thursday the group’s position that the entry of aid into Gaza is a prerequisite for any talks with Israel.

“Access to food, water and medicine is a fundamental human right – not a subject for negotiation,” he added.

The US and Israel are preparing a plan that they say will allow the resumption of aid by an NGO, while keeping supplies out of Hamas’s hands.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has said it will begin distributing aid this month. However, the United Nations and other aid organisations have ruled out involvement in the initiative, saying it does not respect the impartiality, neutrality and independence of aid operations.

However, the US is pushing on, apparently keen to “get involved” in Gaza, as Trump put it during his trip to the region.

Speaking in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the US president said: “We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving.”

The previous day, however, he reiterated his idea of having the US take over Gaza and pushing Palestinians out of the enclave.

“I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good … let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” he said, adding that he would be “proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone”.

The comments echoed a widely condemned idea he floated in February for the US to “take over” the devastated territory and redevelop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

In response, Hamas official Naim said that the territory is “not for sale”.

Doha, Qatar – Reigning men’s javelin world champion and Olympic silver medallist Neeraj Chopra is set to get his 2025 athletics season under way at World Athletics’ Doha Diamond League event in Qatar on Friday.

The two-time Olympic medal-winning Indian athlete – gold at Tokyo 2021 and silver at Paris 2024 – walks into the new season following a stressful few weeks at home.

From facing social media backlash for inviting Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem to the inaugural Neeraj Chopra Classic javelin event, to publicly pledging his support for the Indian armed forces amidst their near full-fledged war against Pakistan and dealing with the weight of expectations on the field – Chopra says he’s happy to get back on the field.

In this brief chat with Al Jazeera, the 27-year-old star spills his thoughts on the mental pressure of being a high-profile athlete in India, the boon and bane of social media, and the upcoming athletics season.

Al Jazeera: How do you deal with the mental pressure of being a high-profile athlete and celebrity in a sport-mad country like India?
Neeraj Chopra: The ability to win medals for my country is a matter of great pride for me and, to some extent, it takes care of some of the pressure.

As long as I focus on my tasks and challenges on the field, I am able to overcome the mental challenges.

I mostly train outside India, sometimes in South Africa during off-season and in Europe during the competition season. When I go back to India I have to live up to my public image and act in a certain way, especially for sponsorship deals, and I don’t enjoy it very much.

Initially, after my success at the Tokyo Games, it was difficult but with time and the help of some of the experienced athletes, I have learned to deal with it.

Al Jazeera: Is social media to be blamed for some of this pressure?
Chopra: Social media has given everyone with a phone and an internet connection the platform and freedom to say whatever they like and attack whomever they want.

Some people take to social media to vent their pent-up frustrations. If they are facing any issues in their personal lives that can’t be aired, they take aim at people on social media.

However, I try not to worry about such comments and focus on my work.

Al Jazeera: Have there been instances where you’ve felt the need to quit social media and, if it comes down to it, would you be able to go off it?
Chopra: Of course. I can quit social media in a heartbeat if I want to. I never feel obligated to maintain a presence.

I am there to share my journey, promote the sport and create a pathway for other athletes from my country.

I want to show what goes behind becoming an international athlete.

I am not an influencer, I am an athlete. Javelin is my career, not social media. I can quit social media very easily.

Al Jazeera: You and Arshad Nadeem have flipped the script on a mostly European-centric sport by winning back-to-back Olympic medals in javelin, but will this success translate into the growth of track and field sports in the South Asian region?
Chopra: Honestly, up until a few years ago I didn’t I see a great future for athletics in India and couldn’t find a way to take it to the masses.

Now, however, I am beginning to see a change. For instance, for the first time, four Indian athletes are part of the Doha Diamond League meet this year and that’s a great sign. I’m ecstatic. It means people are sitting up and taking notice.

Javelin has slowly become a global event and is not restricted to European athletes any more.

My competition, the Neeraj Chopra Classic, is a step in the same direction. I want to use it as a platform to showcase the sport to Indian masses and help it grow.

Al Jazeera: The Doha Diamond League is where your season is about to get under way. You have an Olympic silver medal under your belt, but your World Athletics Championship title will be on the line this year. How do you feel about 2025?
Chopra: I’m ready and excited to get things going. I have a new coach, former Olympic gold medallist Jan Zelezny, who has helped me make minor changes to my routine.

It took some time to adjust to the changes but I feel great. I have been troubled by some groin issues but it’s all in the past now.

I can’t wait to start the new season.

Al Jazeera: Your fans have been willing you on to break the 90-metre barrier for some time now. Does that pressure get to you and do you think this will be the year to surpass 90m?
Chopra: I feel reinvigorated and am in great shape physically.

In addition to the physical aspect, Zelezny has also passed on tips that help me deal with the mental part of being an athlete. It helps keeps the pressure at bay.

I have been training and performing consistently, which forms the basis of achieving the best results on the field. No one can predict what will happen on the day of the competition but I am always looking to go beyond my previous best.

Several javelin athletes have thrown their personal best in Doha and I aim to do the same on Friday.

The US president says he is looking for a solution to ‘bad things’ happening in Gaza, including starvation. Donald Trump also predicted progress on Ukraine-Russia peace talks “in two or three weeks”, as he talked to reporters on the final day of his Middle East tour.

The two main contenders for Poland’s presidential election on Sunday locked horns over Europe and traded personal barbs this week as they each made final bids for the support of floating voters.

The winner will take over from current President Andrzej Duda, of the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party, at a crucial point when neighbouring Ukraine is battling Russia, and when cooperation between the government and the president is vital to push through reforms.

Looking visibly tired at his rally on Tuesday, Rafal Trzaskowski of the ruling centre-right Civic Platform, stood on a platform at Krakow’s central Market Square amid a large crowd cheering his name, blue European flags fluttering beside the white-and-red Polish ones.

“I didn’t think it would be necessary to remind all of us, especially my main competitor, that honesty is the most important thing, human decency is the most important thing, and selflessness is the most important thing,” said Trzaskowski, referring to a recent news story about his competitor Karol Nawrocki, an independent candidate supported by the opposition Law and Justice party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023.

Nawrocki allegedly purchased a flat in Gdansk belonging to an elderly man in exchange for a promise to provide him with care. According to the man’s family, the promise was not fulfilled, and he was placed in a state nursing home.

In response, Nawrocki has said he will donate the flat to charity and pointed out that under Trzaskowski’s mayorship, families had been evicted from state accommodation in Warsaw.

Nawrocki’s rally in Zabrze took a different tone – and featured a special guest. Alongside George Simion, the ultranationalist winner of the first round of Romania’s presidential election on May 4, Nawrocki took aim at the EU.

“Together with Romania, when George Simion wins and when we win on May 18, we will build a Europe of Homelands, in which we will not allow the European Union to centralise and turn Poland and Romania into its provinces,” Nawrocki said.

Simion, together with the crowd, chanted “Donald Trump!” and called the United States president “a symbol of the fight for freedom which will transform the whole Europe”. Earlier this month, Nawrocki, who argues that Poland should focus on an alliance with the US rather than the EU, met with Trump in the White House and allegedly received his backing.

Embracing anti-migrant rhetoric – on all sides

In the race for floating votes, both candidates have eased up on some of their parties’ more traditional positions. Nawrocki has abandoned Law and Justice’s commitment to a welfare state in exchange for a message of free market liberalism.

The more liberal Trzaskowski, for his part, has kept relatively quiet about women’s and LGBTQ rights, and embraced a harder line on security and immigration by promising to cut benefits for unemployed Ukrainians who have taken refuge in Poland from the war with Russia and endorsing his government’s suspension of asylum rights last year over what Poland sees as Belarus facilitating migrants to cross their shared border.

Security and anti-migrant rhetoric have been a key feature in this election, as both main candidates lean closer to the views of the populist Slawomir Mentzen, a tax adviser turned leader of the ultranationalist, conservative Confederation party. He has called for migrants crossing from Belarus to be fired upon, is opposed to welfare payments for Ukrainians and is likely to emerge as third in the presidential race.

“In public opinion polls and focus groups, among all voters, including voters of the new left, there has been a visible anti-Ukrainian trend, which has social and economic rather than cultural roots,” said Bartosz Rydlinski, a political scientist from Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw.

“Poles are not angry at Ukrainians for living separately or not speaking Polish. [But] in a country with highly limited access to public services, there is an irrational sense of injustice. There is a sense that Ukrainians do not work, but use healthcare. Which is nonsense, because most Ukrainians work and pay taxes.”

‘I want to live in a normal country’

At the Krakow meeting, amid the sea of Polish and European flags, the crowd rallied for value-based politics – and change.

“I want to live in a normal country, I want my daughter to grow up in a normal country, in a country with a positive attitude, without any negative emotions. Poland deserves to develop, to be respected in the world and that is why I came here today,” Anna Szol, a 48-year-old entrepreneur, who joined Trzaskowski’s rally with her daughter, told Al Jazeera.

When asked about the situation at the Polish-Belarusian border – where, since 2021, thousands of migrants to Europe have crossed – and the suspension of asylum rights, Szol, just like her candidate, said she agrees that the move is justified.

“This is the result of Putin’s and Lukashenko’s actions to send to the border poor people who are not aware of what’s going on. Human traffickers are often involved. This is a NATO border and it simply has to be extra secure,” Szol said.

However, Rydlinski said such a suspension of human rights would embolden the far-right agenda in the longer term and weaken liberal parties.

“The difference between liberal and populist parties should be that liberal parties treat human rights seriously,” Rydlinski says. “Research shows that when liberal and left-wing parties accommodate far-right issues, they do not win populist voters, but lose their own.”

Pushing through reforms

The winner of this presidential election will be crucial for the current government, which has been hamstrung from carrying out reforms by the current president, who has used his power of veto to block them.

This includes the reversal of controversial judicial reforms introduced by the Law and Justice government during its eight-year rule. The European Court of Justice deemed several Law and Justice judicial reforms as contradicting EU law, especially regarding the independence of the judiciary, and imposed penalties on Poland beginning in 2021.

“What is at stake in the election is whether the current government is going to be able to carry out its programme in full. One of the key things that has been characteristic of the political scene over the last 18 months is that the government has been essentially blocked in a number of things that it has committed to do,” said Ben Stanley, a sociologist and political scientist at the SWPS University in Warsaw.

“If Nawrocki wins, it will certainly lead to the maintenance of the situation as it is currently with a hostile president vetoing or threatening to veto what the government wants to do. That will affect both the rule of law issues and also many of the elements on the government’s legislative agenda,” Stanley said.

A 23-year-old Mexican influencer, Valeria Marquez, was fatally shot while livestreaming on Tuesday.

Marquez, who had more than 113,000 followers on the platform, was broadcasting to her audience when the attack occurred.

According to a statement from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, the case is being investigated under femicide protocols, applied in instances where a woman is killed due to her gender.

What is femicide?

Femicide refers to gender-related killings against women and girls. According to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women, femicide is rising around the globe.

In 2023, a woman was intentionally killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member.

Of the 85,000 women and girls killed across the world in 2023, 60 percent (51,000) were murdered by an intimate partner or a family member.

How common is femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean?

Honduras has the highest femicide rate with 7.2 women killed per 100,000 in 2023, followed by the Dominican Republic (2.4 per 100,000) and Brazil (1.4 per 100,000).

Mexico has the fourth-highest femicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, alongside Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia – all with 1.3 killings per 100,000 women in 2023.

In terms of absolute killings, Brazil saw the highest number of femicide cases with 1,463 women murdered. It was followed by Mexico, where 852 women were killed as a result of femicide in 2023. Honduras had the third-highest number, with 380 femicide cases.

Femicide is on the rise in Mexico

The rate of femicide is rising on the whole in the country, despite some fluctuations over the years.

It has become a major concern in Mexico with recorded cases rising significantly over the past decade. In 2015, femicides represented 19.8 percent of female homicides. This proportion had increased to 24.2 percent by 2024.

According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNCLAC), in 2015, the rate of femicide in Mexico was 0.7 women per 100,000. In 2023, that number now stands at 1.3 per 100,000 women – though that’s down marginally from a peak of 1.6 per 100,000 in 2021. Gender-based violence against women grew globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mexico was no exception.

While statistics from UNCLAC show the rate of femicide in Mexico has declined over the past three years, it remains a pronounced and often silent issue due to underreporting, say experts.

In Mexico, some 85 percent of women aged 15 and over who have experienced physical or sexual violence did not file a complaint, according to Mexico’s National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships.

Where in Mexico has the worst rates of femicide?

The killing of Marquez took place just days before another woman, a mayoral candidate in the state of Veracruz, was also shot dead during a livestream alongside three other people.

According to Mexico’s National Public Security System (SNSP), the national rate of femicide was 1.18 per 100,000 in 2024.

The state of Morelos, in south-central Mexico, had the highest rate of femicide with 4.7 women per 100,000 murdered, followed by Chihuahua (2.35 per 100,000) and Tabasco (2.22 per 100,000).

In Jalisco state where Marquez was killed, the femicide rate was 0.63 per 100,000 in 2024.