US President Donald Trump has cut funding to the World Health Organization, prompting swift condemnation from international leaders. Cybercrime has increased during the novel coronavirus pandemic. But a group of cybersecurity experts is volunteering to help fend off attacks. And deportations from the US, the country hardest-hit by COVID-19, continue amid the global health crisis. Those proceedings could be spreading the virus farther.
Jared Kushner has been working on a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians — a "deal of the century" is how President Donald Trump has referred to it. Almost no one is impressed. And it's not clear if the plan will even see the light of day.
A truce to end a surge of deadly violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel took hold Monday, just as Gazans were preparing to begin the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Humanitarian organizations fear the water crisis in Gaza is so acute, it may become uninhabitable by the year 2020.
Largely symbolic, the law was enacted just after the 70th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel. It stipulates "Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it."
As the daily scene on the border shows, young Palestinians are increasingly beyond reach, put off by a four-year stalemate in peace talks with Israel and little progress toward healing internal rifts.
"We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect," Trump tweeted. "With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"
Two Palestinian men armed with meat cleavers and firearms killed four worshippers at a synagogue in West Jersualem on Tuesday. While it was the deadliest attack of its kind in the city since 2008, it was also yet another sign of rising violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
At demonstrations against Israel's operation in Gaza, angry crowds have attacked protesters. Those who are against the war say they now fear more violence, but still feel an obligation to make their voices heard.
While the Israeli military presses its offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank continues. Even on security matters, the Palestinian Security Forces are still cooperating with Israelis.
The situation in Gaza is open-ended, with only the Israelis knowing when they will have achieved their objectives and end their ground invasion. But, regardless, the current situation presents the best opportunity in years for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to assert himself.