Digital pharaohs and stranded dolphins: photos of the day
A woman takes her daily exercise in the village of Sre Ampel at dawn Photograph: Heng Sinith/AP
Public housing estates in Singapore, which is home to many bold, modernist buildings Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters
Students gather near the presidential palace at a protest against government budget cuts Photograph: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters
Zacharia Mutai, an animal caregiver, sits with a 35-year-old rhino. Najin and her daughter, Fatu, are the last remaining northern white rhinos in the world Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
People watch in Hostages Square as the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a woman and her two children, are handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza Photograph: Oded Balilty/AP
Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers during a dress rehearsal at the Hippodrome Photograph:Members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, guard a cemetery as the bodies of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz are handed over to Red Cross teams as part of a Hamas-Israel prisoner-hostage swap Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
A candombe drummer performs during a carnival parade. The style of dance and music was developed by enslaved Africans and their descendants in the 18th century Photograph: Matilde Campodonico/AP
A member of the M23 rebel movement stands guard at the Place de l'Indépendance during a special cleaning exercise and public meeting after the group's takeover of the city Photograph: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images
Election posters promoting the far-right party Alternative for Germany Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP
A woman takes part in the Battle of Flowers event at the city carnival. The theme is King of the Oceans Photograph: Syspeo/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock
A labourer directs a donkey-pulled cart loaded with clay bricks at a factory in al-Kifl district. Economic hardship has pushed 5% of the country's children into labour, according to a UN study in 2018, often in harsh, unhealthy conditions Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
Cia Base, a vertical dance and aerial circus group known for its innovative routines, perform on the wall of a shopping centre Photograph: Bob Karp/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock
Unifil vehicles drive past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the southern village. Israeli forces have withdrawn from several border villages under an extended ceasefire deadline Photograph: Fadel Itani/AFP/Getty Images
The Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Ground Forces Academy military band commemorates those killed during the Euromaidan protest in 2014 Photograph: GlobalA visitor attends the preview of Egypt of the Pharaohs, an exhibition at Bassins des Lumières, the largest digital art centre in the world
Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
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Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Israeli ultra-Orthodox party leaves government over conscription bill
JERUSALEM, July 15 (Reuters) - One of Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, said it was quitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition due to a long-running dispute over failure to draft a bill to exempt yeshiva students from military service. Six of the remaining seven members of UTJ, which is comprised of the Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael factions, wrote letters of resignation. Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of UTJ, had resigned a month ago. That would leave Netanyahu with a razor thin majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, or parliament. It was not clear whether Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party, would follow suit. Degel Hatorah said in a statement that after conferring with its head rabbis, "and following repeated violations by the government to its commitments to ensure the status of holy yeshiva students who diligently engage in their studies ... (its MKs) have announced their resignation from the coalition and the government." Ultra-Orthodox parties have argued that a bill to exempt yeshiva students was a key promise in their agreement to join the coalition in late 2022. A spokesperson for Goldknopf confirmed that in all, seven UTJ Knesset members are leaving the government. Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have long threatened to leave the coalition over the conscription bill. Some religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition are seeking exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from military service that is mandatory in Israel, while other lawmakers want to scrap any such exemptions altogether. The ultra-Orthodox have long been exempt from military service, which applies to most other young Israelis, but last year the Supreme Court ordered the defence ministry to end that practice and start conscripting seminary students. Netanyahu had been pushing hard to resolve a deadlock in his coalition over a new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis. The exemption, in place for decades and which over the years has spared an increasingly large number of people, has become a heated topic in Israel with the military still embroiled in a war in Gaza.
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Israeli government and military clash over proposed camp for Palestinians
A feud has broken between the Israeli government and the military over the cost and impact of a planned camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza, as politicians criticised the former prime minister Ehud Olmert for warning that the project would create a 'concentration camp' if it goes ahead. The 'humanitarian city' project has become a sticking point in ceasefire talks with Hamas. Israel wants to keep troops stationed across significant parts of Gaza, including the ruins of Rafah city in the south, where the defence minister, Israel Katz, says the camp will be built. Hamas is pushing for a more comprehensive withdrawal. Husam Badran, a senior member of the group, said the camp plans were a 'deliberatively obstructive demand' that would complicate talks, the New York Times reported. 'This would be an isolated city that resembles a ghetto,' he said in a message to the paper. 'This is utterly unacceptable and no Palestinian would agree to this.' Katz revealed last week that he had ordered the army to draw up plans for a camp. It is envisaged that Palestinians would be crammed into an area between the Egyptian border and the Israeli military's 'Morag corridor', which cuts across the strip. Katz said initially 600,000 people would move there, and eventually Gaza's entire population. Those inside would only be allowed to leave for another country, he told Israeli journalists at a briefing. The plan was unveiled while the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was in Washington DC for an official visit, but it was understood to have his backing. The plan caused immediate alarm among Israel's allies, including the UK, and domestically. Olmert, who led Israel from 2006 to 2009, has been the most high-profile domestic critic of the project. He said that if Palestinians were forced to move to the camp, it would constitute ethnic cleansing. His comments evoking comparisons with Nazi-era Germany were fiercely attacked inside Israel. The heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, in effect called for Olmert to be jailed over the comments, with a barely veiled reference to time he served for corruption offences after leaving office. '[Olmert] already knows prison very well,' Eliyahu said. 'There is no other way to shut him down from the hatred and antisemitism he spreads around the world.' The military has also opposed the project, even as it has followed orders to draw up plans to implement it. In a security cabinet meeting on Sunday night, tensions broke out into the open as the IDF chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, clashed with Netanyahu, Israeli media reported. Zamir reportedly said the project would divert funds and other resources from the military, sapping its ability to fight and undermining efforts to rescue hostages. His office had previously argued that moving and 'concentrating' civilians was not a goal of the war, in response to a legal petition brought by reservists concerned they would face illegal orders to commit war crimes. Netanyahu reportedly lashed out at Zamir, saying the plans he had presented – which estimated several months of construction work, and perhaps up to a year – were 'too expensive and too slow', Israel's Channel 12 reported, citing official sources. 'I asked for a realistic plan,' the prime minister reportedly said, demanding that a cheaper, faster timeline for construction be delivered by Tuesday. Finance ministry officials raised other practical objections to the 'humanitarian city' plan, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported. They said an estimated 15bn shekels (£3.3bn) annual cost would be a huge drain on the state's budget. That cost would probably fall on the Israeli taxpayer, taking money away from schools, hospitals and welfare, the paper added. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each. Senior Israeli officials estimate that constructing a proposed 'humanitarian city' in the Rafah area would cost between $2.7bn and $4bn, Ynet reported. They added that if the plan proceeds, Israel would initially bear nearly the entire cost. The row came as Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 31 people, according to local hospitals. Twelve people were killed by strikes in southern Gaza, including three who were waiting at an aid distribution point, according to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which received the bodies. Shifa hospital in Gaza City received 12 bodies, including three children and two women, after a series of strikes in the north, according to the hospital's director, Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia. Al-Awda hospital reported seven killed and 11 wounded in strikes in central Gaza. UN agencies, including those providing food and health care, reiterated a warning made at the weekend that without adequate fuel they would probably be forced to stop their operations entirely. In a joint statement, they said hospitals were already going dark and ambulances could no longer move. Transport, water production, sanitation and telecommunications would shut down and bakeries and community kitchens could not operate without fuel, they said.
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
BBC adviser asked ‘is documentary clean of Hamas'? Bosses never bothered to reply
The BBC's Gaza documentary was declared to be 'all clean of Hamas', despite its narrator being the son of a Hamas minister, a report has found. Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was categorised as a 'high risk' project by the BBC, yet was broadcast without crucial questions being answered. A month before the broadcast, an editorial policy adviser at the BBC asked: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure, e.g. the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas]? I'm sure it has…' The question was never answered, but the programme went ahead. Three members of Hoyo Films, the independent production company that made the documentary, knew the narrator's family background but did not tell the BBC about it, the report found. They paid Abdullah Alyazouri's family £795 for his contribution, and also gave him a gift card for a computer game and a second-hand mobile phone, to a total value of £1,817. The day after the documentary was broadcast, it emerged that Abdullah, the 13-year-old narrator, was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy minister for agriculture in the Hamas-led government. An internal review conducted by Peter Johnston, the BBC's director of editorial complaints, ruled that the documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy by failing to disclose 'critical information' about Abdullah's family history. But it cleared the BBC of breaching impartiality guidelines, despite Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, earlier saying that the row was a 'dagger to the heart' of the broadcaster's reputation for impartiality. Ofcom announced that it was launching an investigation into the BBC 'under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience'. Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, apologised for the 'mistake' but refused to say whether anyone would face the sack. She viewed the documentary at a special screening ahead of its television broadcast, but defended her role. She said: 'I didn't know then what I know now.' 'Unflinching' documentary Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone was billed as an 'unflinching' documentary narrated by Abdullah, a Palestinian boy living in the so-called 'safe zone'. It was broadcast on Feb 17. 'My name is Abdullah. I'm 13 years old. I'm stuck here in Gaza. Have you ever wondered what you'd do if your world was destroyed?' he asks, leading viewers through the rubble. He explains that he attended 'the best school in Gaza, the British school' but now lives in a tent. Other children featured in the film include Renad, a young girl who presents a TikTok cookery show, and Zakaria, an 11-year-old who works as a fixer at one of Gaza's hospitals. The documentary includes scenes from inside the hospital, including a doctor in an operating theatre holding up a severed arm and shouting: 'Look what the Israelis are doing to the children of Gaza.' Jamie Roberts and Yousef Hammash, the film's two directors, remotely directed two Gazan cameramen, as Israel does not allow foreign journalists to operate inside Gaza. What the filmmakers knew Hoyo Films, the production company engaged by the BBC, spotted Abdullah on Channel 4 in April 2024 and approached him to become a contributor. Two months later, they submitted a 'taster' tape to the BBC in which he appeared prominently. By July, three members of the production company – the director, the co-director and one crew member in Gaza – had become aware that Abdullah's father was Ayman Alyazouri, according to the report. They met the father in August to gain permission to film Abdullah. But Hoyo did not at any stage share Abdullah's family background with the BBC. Interviewed for the report, they claimed to have reached a view that Abdullah's father was in 'a civilian or technocratic position', rather than a political or military one. This was supported by the fact that, when they met him, Mr Alyazouri was moving openly around Gaza and not taking security precautions. In addition, the Gazan civil government – other than the health ministry – had not been functioning since 2023, so they considered him to be 'no longer in employment'. The report noted: 'The production company was also under the impression, whether rightly or wrongly, that there was a clear distinction between officials and ministers working for the Gazan civil government and Hamas.' BBC failures The BBC identified early on in the production that the documentary carried 'reputational risk' and a 'due impartiality challenge', adding it to the internal managed risk programme list. One of the commissioning editors sought advice from BBC colleagues who identified the need for due diligence and background checks on the contributors and crew, including potential links or affiliations to Hamas. The editorial policy unit was consulted for advice, and provided notes. One adviser from the unit asked on Dec 19 last year: 'I presume we have checked out the bona fides of the people we use?' On Jan 8, a BBC commissioning editor sent a WhatsApp to Hoyo asking if there was a paper trail on the background checking of contributors. Hoyo replied: 'No – we did a social media check with those that are online and [a] check with local community members – all clean of Hamas.' On Jan 12, they asked: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure e.g. the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas]? I'm sure it has…' And on Jan 15, a note from a member of the BBC commissioning team asked if anyone had checked Abdullah's family background. But at a zoom meeting on Jan 22 to address any outstanding issues, these last two questions were not answered. The report found that the production company carried most of the responsibility for the failure to inform the BBC but that it did not intentionally mislead the broadcaster. However, it added that putting Abdullah forward as the narrator – given his background – was wrong. But it also said the BBC 'bears some responsibility', first for being 'insufficiently proactive' in failing to scrutinise the role of the narrator at an early stage, and then for its 'lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions'. The BBC should not have signed off on the film without having the answer to every question, the report concluded. Narrator's payment Abdullah's adult sister was paid a £795 'disturbance fee' for his participation in the programme, while Abdullah was given a second-hand mobile phone and a gift card for a computer game – together, this amounted to a total value of £1,817. The production company said the money was intended for Abdullah's mother, as his legal guardian, but was paid via the sister as the mother did not have a Bank of Palestine account. In his report, Mr Johnston concluded: 'I do not consider the amount or purpose of any of these payments to have been outside of the range of what might be reasonable.' The fallout Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, previously asked why nobody had been fired over the documentary, although her language on Monday was noticeably calmer. Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, said he was sorry for the 'significant failing' in relation to accuracy. Ofcom launched its own investigation into whether audiences were misled. The BBC promised 'accountability' but Ms Turness refused to be drawn on whether anyone would lose their job over the mistakes. She apologised for the error but sought to blame Hoyo Films, saying: 'The questions should have been answered by the independent production company at the many times of asking.' As for the future of the documentary, it may be re-edited into shorter films that could be made available on iPlayer.
