Haredim Are in the Israeli Army Now
Amid the grief I felt a deep pride in these soldiers, whom I knew as chairman of Nahal Haredi, a civilian organization that supports ultra-Orthodox soldiers in the IDF. These young men came from Haredi communities that traditionally oppose army service and attend schools that speak openly against enlistment. Yet they chose to serve. Some had to fight bureaucratic and social resistance to join a combat unit.
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CNN
22 minutes ago
- CNN
Gaza's journalists who never quit
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CNN Producer Abeer Salman reflects on the risks these journalists have taken and the stories they've reported on for the world to see. 02:30 - Source: CNN Can hockey help heal US-Russia relations? Ahead of Presidents Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska this week, Russian hockey stars tell CNN's Fred Pleitgen they hope sport could help bring the two nations -- and people -- closer. 01:38 - Source: CNN Journalists killed in targeted Israeli strike on Gaza Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif was killed in a targeted strike in Gaza on Sunday alongside multiple other journalists. The Israeli military accused Al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell, an allegation Al-Sharif had previously denied. 01:50 - Source: CNN Australia will recognize Palestine in September Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Monday that Australia will recognize a Palestinian state at the General Assembly of the United Nations in September. 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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Australia's Albanese says Netanyahu 'in denial' over suffering in Gaza
By Alasdair Pal SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was "in denial" about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a day after announcing Australia would recognise a Palestinian state for the first time. Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at next month's United Nations General Assembly, Albanese said on Monday, a move that adds to international pressure on Israel after similar announcements from France, Britain and Canada. Albanese said on Tuesday the Netanyahu government's reluctance to listen to its allies contributed to Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state. "He again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people," Albanese said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC, recounting a Thursday phone call with Netanyahu discussing the issue. Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state is conditional on commitments received from the Palestinian Authority, including that Islamist militant group Hamas would have no involvement in any future state. Albanese said last month he would not be drawn on a timeline for recognition of a Palestinian state, and has previously been wary of dividing public opinion in Australia, which has significant Jewish and Muslim minorities. But the public mood has shifted sharply after Israel said it planned to take military control of Gaza, amid increasing reports of hunger and malnutrition amongst its people. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched across Sydney's Harbour Bridge this month calling for aid deliveries in Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsened. "This decision is driven by popular sentiment in Australia which has shifted in recent months, with a majority of Australians wanting to see an imminent end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said Jessica Genauer, a senior lecturer in international relations at Flinders University. Neighbouring New Zealand has said it is still considering whether to recognise a Palestinian state, a decision that drew sharp criticism from former prime minister Helen Clark on Tuesday. "This is a catastrophic situation, and here we are in New Zealand somehow arguing some fine point about whether we should recognise we need to be adding our voice to the need for this catastrophe to stop," she said in an interview with state broadcaster RNZ. "This is not the New Zealand I've known."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Images of people setting bottles of food adrift towards Gaza are AI-generated
As UN agencies warned that Gaza is slipping into famine, social media users shared images falsely claiming they show Egyptians throwing bottles filled with beans, rice, or other dry food into the sea, hoping they will reach the Palestinian territory. Although there have been media reports of such symbolic gestures by Egyptians, the widely shared images contain visual inconsistencies indicating they were AI-generated. "Egyptians set food adrift in the sea in an effort to help Gaza," reads part of a Malay-language Facebook post shared on July 25, 2025. The post continues: "In an effort to help the people of Gaza, Egyptians filled one- and two-litre bottles with dry food such as rice, beans, and lentils before releasing them into the Mediterranean Sea in the hope that they would reach the shores of Gaza." The accompanying image appears to show a group of people releasing plastic bottles filled with rice or flour into the sea. The image was also passed off as genuine elsewhere on Facebook and in other languages such as Italian, French, and Arabic. A similar claim surfaced in a Bengali-language Facebook post on July 27, 2025 with an image of several bottles filled with food and notes floating in water. "May Almighty's divine power deliver this to the hungry people of Gaza," reads the caption. The image also circulated elsewhere on Facebook, and some users appear to believe the picture is genuine. One user wrote, "Hopefully it reaches the people of Gaza..." "Thank you.. may Allah bless you for your efforts," another commented. The pictures circulated online as Palestinians scrambled for basic supplies after Israel imposed a near-total blockade on March 2. UN agencies warned that Gaza was "on the brink of a full-scale famine", while the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the Palestinian death toll in the nearly 22-month war had topped 60,000 (archived link). The war was sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, the majority civilians, based on an AFP tally of official figures. Israel began allowing a small trickle of aid to enter the densely populated territory in late May -- having imposed a total blockade in March after ceasefire talks broke down -- and started a series of "tactical pauses" while allowing deliveries from aid trucks and airdrops in Gaza. Although there have been media reports of a genuine symbolic initiative launched by "Egyptian citizens horrified by the images of famine", the images circulating online contain visual inconsistencies indicating they were AI-generated (archived here and here). Visual inconsistencies An analysis carried out using the Hive image verification tool on the image of people dropping the bottles into the water concluded that there was a 99.9 percent probability that these visuals were made by AI. The image also features a hand with a distorted thumb in the foreground, fully filled bottles floating improbably on the sea which defies the laws of physics, and people all facing the same direction unnaturally -- hallmarks of AI-generated images. While there is no foolproof method to spot AI-generated media, identifying watermarks and visual inconsistencies can help, as errors still occur despite the meteoric progress in generative AI. The plastic bottles in the second falsely shared image also appear to float unnaturally on the water's surface, while the size of the items contained in the bottles appears larger than the opening of the container. AFP has debunked other posts of the Israel-Gaza conflict that falsely presented AI-generated images and videos here.
