Why is MAGA splitting over Israel?
On this week's episode, Yalda and Richard talk about the growing international condemnation of Israel's war in Gaza, including from a usually staunch ally - the evangelical right wing of America.
But what has made them voice a rare criticism?
The two also talk about the shaky ceasefire that is currently in place in the southern Syrian city Sweida. This is the first real test for the new Syrian leader, but can he contain the violence?
And, Yalda gives an update on the situation in Afghanistan where women and girls have been arrested by the Taliban for violating their strict dress code.
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Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russia and Ukraine to hold first peace talks in seven weeks
MOSCOW, July 23 (Reuters) - Russian negotiators flew to Turkey to hold peace talks with Ukraine on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, before what will be the first direct discussions between the warring sides in more than seven weeks. Russia played down expectations of any breakthrough at the meeting, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week should focus in part on preparing a summit between himself and President Vladimir Putin. "Naturally, no one expects an easy road. Naturally, this will be a very difficult conversation. The projects (of the two sides) are diametrically opposed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Previous talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers. But those meetings lasted less than three hours in total and made no breakthrough towards a ceasefire or a settlement to end almost three and a half years of war. U.S. President Donald Trump last week threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. But three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin, unfazed by Trump's ultimatum, would keep on fighting in Ukraine until the West engaged on his terms for peace, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance. On Wednesday, Russia said its forces had captured the settlement of Varachyne in Ukraine's Sumy region, where Putin has ordered his troops to create a buffer zone after Ukraine mounted a shock incursion into Russia last year and held onto a chunk of its territory for months. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report. In recent weeks, Russian forces have launched some of their heaviest air attacks of the war, focusing especially on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Ukraine has hit back with attacks of its own, and last month inflicted serious damage on Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bomber fleet by smuggling drones close to air bases deep inside the country. Zelenskiy said earlier this week that the agenda for talks was clear: the return of prisoners of war and of children abducted by Russia, and the preparation of a meeting between himself and Putin. Putin turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskiy to meet him in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Zelenskiy's five-year mandate expired last year. Russia also denies abducting children. The Kremlin said this week it was unrealistic to expect "miracles" from the talks. At the last meeting on June 2, Russia handed Ukraine a memorandum setting out its key demands, including: full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own; limits on the size of Ukraine's military; enhanced rights for Russian-speakers in Ukraine; and acceptance by Kyiv of neutral status, outside NATO or any other alliance. Ukraine sees those terms as tantamount to surrender, and Zelenskiy described the Russian stance as an ultimatum. Ukraine wants an immediate ceasefire, reparations, international security guarantees and no restrictions on its military strength.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
‘Mass starvation' across Gaza as Trump puts pressure on Israel
More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that 'mass starvation' was spreading across the Gaza Strip as President Trump intervened to put more pressure on Israel to change its tactics. In a statement, the 111 signatories — including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam — warned that 'our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away'. 'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,' the statement read. It came as the United Nations said that more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed as they queued for aid in Gaza in the past two months. The UN's human rights office said Israeli troops or other gunmen had shot 1,054 people since late May, of whom 766 were killed near sites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The rest were killed while trying to reach UN aid convoys. Israeli officials said they had not identified a famine in Gaza and blamed United Nations bodies for not collecting and distributing food and supplies. Some 950 trucks' worth of supplies were waiting to be collected by the UN from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, according to Cogat, an Israeli military agency. According to the UN, Israel's restrictions and permit rejections are the reason for the mounting stockpiles at the border points, as aid organisations are regularly barred from transferring aid to warehouses and distribution sites, or risk coming under fire from the Israeli army if they do not obtain permissions. As reports mount of children starving to death amid a dearth of supplies, Karoline Leavitt, Trump's press secretary, said the president had spoken to Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and had been distressed by the latest 'mass-casualty event' at an aid station on Sunday, when Hamas said 79 civilians were killed after Israeli troops opened fire. Trump had raised with Netanyahu recent airstrikes by Israel on troops loyal to the Syrian interim government and a strike on a Catholic church in Gaza, events Leavitt said had caught him 'off guard'. Father Gabriel Romanelli, the priest of the Gaza church, has described for the first time since the incident on Thursday how an Israeli tank shell exploded on the side of the roof, wounding him in the leg and killing three parishioners. Leavitt, referring to the shootings at the aid point, said: 'The president never likes to see that.' Israel said its troops fired 'warning shots' on Sunday, though both it and the GHF have repeatedly claimed that UN and Hamas figures are inflated. '[Trump] wants the killing to end and he wants to negotiate a ceasefire in this region,' Leavitt added. In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas called for protests and sit-in demonstrations to take place at Israeli and US embassies across the world this weekend 'until the siege is broken and famine ends in Gaza Strip'. Netanyahu and Hamas are under renewed pressure to reach a ceasefire deal. Both sides have agreed to one in principle but have not reached terms. Israel wants the right to resume the fight to 'eliminate Hamas' after a prisoner-for-hostage exchange, while Hamas is demanding the ceasefire be guaranteed as permanent. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe this week to continue pushing for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, a US official said on Tuesday. Axios reported that Witkoff is expected to depart for Rome on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday for a meeting with the Israeli minister of strategic affairs Ron Dermer and a senior Qatari envoy. Trump hated 'the pictures of starvation of women and children who desperately need that aid', Leavitt added. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 people, including 80 children, had so far died of malnutrition. Those figures could not be immediately verified but aid organisations have confirmed the deaths of children as malnutrition becomes widespread among the strip's two million inhabitants, most living in the rubble of its former towns. The UN's World Food Programme has estimated that nearly 100,000 women and children were already suffering from malnutrition. Despite the calls for a ceasefire — or perhaps in preparation for it — Netanyahu has shown no sign of letting up in the attacks on Gaza. Tanks this week pushed into the town of Deir al-Balah, which had been less damaged than other cities in the strip to date. In their statement, the 111 humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods. 'Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,' the signatories said. 'It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,' they added. 'The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.' The World Health Organisation said its warehouse and staff residence in the town had been struck. Altogether, 25 Palestinians died in airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, the health ministry said. Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, told the security council the situation in Gaza was a 'horror show'. He said: 'We are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. That system is being denied the conditions to function.' Romanelli told the newspaper La Repubblica about the explosion at his church. 'I was in my office working and I got up to get a tea with Father Yusuf,' he said. 'At that moment the shell arrived. The door blew in. If I had still been sitting at my desk I would probably be dead.' Romanelli, 55, an Argentinian of Italian origin who was a confidant of the late Pope Francis, said he was making a good recovery but his community was still in shock. 'Luckily, most people were indoors. The children, thank God, were inside,' he said. 'The cross that was hit is very large. The fragments arrived throughout the courtyard. Whoever was outside was hit … Everyone was shouting. They were terrified.' Pope Leo prayed for the injured and the three who died in the attack, reading out their names — Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh, Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad and Najwa Ibrahim Latif Abu Daoud — at angelus prayers on Sunday. The Vatican has expressed growing frustration at the killings in Gaza. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Catholic Church's senior representative in the Holy Land, said he had witnessed people queuing in the sun for a meal. 'This is a humiliation that is difficult to bear when you see it with your own eyes. It's morally unacceptable and unjustifiable,' Pizzaballa said. Cardinal Augusto Lojudice, a former colleague of Leo when he served in the Vatican administration, denounced 'the killing of children queueing for a handful of rice'. 'The massacre of innocents cries vengeance to heaven. We can no longer hold back from denouncing it,' Lojudice said in an interview with La Stampa. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the top Vatican official after the Pope, questioned whether the attack was an accident 'or whether there was a desire to strike a Christian church, knowing that the Christians are a moderating influence in the Middle East and also in relations between Palestinians and Jews'. Netanyahu has said Israel 'deeply regretted' hitting the church with 'stray ammunition'.
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
Deadly Israeli strikes continue in Gaza
More than half of those killed were women and children. Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than two million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive. People in #Gaza, including UNRWA staff, are fainting due to starvation and severe hunger. People including children are dying from severe malnutrition. People are being starved. UNRWA alone has thousands of trucks in neighbouring countries waiting to enter Gaza – banned by… — UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 23, 2025 A breakdown of law and order has led to widespread looting and contributed to chaos and violence around aid deliveries. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday. More than 100 human rights groups and charities signed a letter published on Wednesday demanding more aid for Gaza and warning of grim conditions causing starvation. More than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. Israeli activists take part in a protest against the war in the Gaza Strip (AP) Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that forces were operating in Gaza City, as well as in northern Gaza. It said that in Jabaliya, an area hard-hit in multiple rounds of fighting, an air strike killed 'a number of' Hamas militants. "Silencing voices. As if banning international media is not enough. Humanitarian workers are also banned when they report on atrocities committed in #Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory. The denial of a visa to our colleague from @OCHAopt is the latest in… — UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 22, 2025 Troops struck roughly 120 targets throughout Gaza over the past day, including militant cells, tunnels and booby-trapped structures, among others, the military said. One Israeli strike hit a house on Tuesday in the north-western side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties. The dead included six children and two women, according to the health ministry's casualty list. Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Palestinians are relying on aid in an increasingly dire humanitarian situation (AP) Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said. A third strike hit a tent in the Naser area in Gaza City late on Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa Hospital said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes. It blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate from populated areas.
