Latest news with #Israel-GazaWar
Mint
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Who is Muhammad Sinwar? Hamas leader found dead in Gaza tunnel after Israeli bombing
Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz on Sunday said that the top Hamas commander and younger brother of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, Muhammed Sinwar, was 'likely killed' in an airstrike on Gaza last week, reported News18, quoting several media reports. 'Based on all indications, Mohammed Sinwar was killed in a strike carried out on the grounds of the European Hospital in Khan Younis," News18 quoted Katz as saying while speaking during a closed-door meeting with parliamentarians. Mohammed Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, popularly known as Mohammed Sinwar, is a prominent Palestinian politician and militant who served as the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the leader of the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam brigades from October 2024, reported The New York Times. Born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp on 16 September 1975, Sinwar spent several years in Israeli and Palestinian Authority jails in the 1990s. He joined the military movement of Hamas in 1991. Arrested by Israel in 1991 for suspected terrorism, Sinwar was released within a year. But he was arrested for several years by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in the 1990s. Sinwar is considered to have operated "behind the scenes", which gave him the nickname 'The Shadow'. Sinwar became the commander of Hamas' Khan Younis brigade in 2005. In 2006, he was a participant in the abduction of Gilad Shalit, who was released in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, one of whom was his brother Yahya Sinwar, as per the reports. In May 2021, Israel made six assassination attempts on Sinwar. Earlier in 2014, Hamas announced that Sinwar had died during the Israel-Gaza War, but later the information was found to be incorrect. According to the Israeli intelligence, Sinwar is believed to be one of the masterminds of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel had placed a $300,000 bounty on information about Mohammed Sinwar's whereabouts. On 13 May, the Israel Security Agency and IDF claimed that Sinwar was targeted in an Israeli airstrike on a bunker under the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis. Saudi channel Al-Hadath claimed Sinwar's body was recovered from the tunnel along with Muhammad Shabana, however, official confirmation is yet to arrive.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Watch '60 Minutes' Call Out Paramount's Editorial Interference in On-Air Rebuke After EP's Departure
On April 22, Bill Owens, only the third executive producer of '60 Minutes' in its 57-year history, abruptly resigned from his position, citing editorial interference from management at CBS. And now, the news magazine itself has aired a stinging rebuke of that interference, delivered on-air by host Scott Pelley as the closing segment of its April 27 broadcast. The network's parent company, Paramount, has been trying to clear the way with the Trump administration's Department of Justice for its Skydance merger. Following Trump's lawsuit against '60 Minutes' for what the now-President and his attorneys had suggested, with little basis, was a flattering edit to a 2024 interview with his opponent Kamala Harris, Paramount appears to have become worried it might not be smooth sailing for the merger after all. More from IndieWire David Chase Wasn't Sure James Gandolfini Was 'Threatening Enough' to Play Tony Soprano 'The Last of Us' Review: Episode 3 Sets Its Sights on Revenge - Spoilers Therefore, in January, CBS introduced a new layer of management to add extra supervision in vetting stories across CBS News' portfolio of shows. Susan Zirinski, who had once been president of CBS News, was named interim executive editor. In his on-air rebuke, Pelley was clear to mention that CBS had not killed any stories about the Trump administration or its effect on Americans' lives in the past few months. But his statement made it clear that interference had occurred. 'In tonight's 'Last Minute,' a note on Bill Owens, who until this past week was executive producer of '60 Minutes.' He was our boss. Bill was with CBS News nearly 40 years, 26 years at '60 Minutes.' He covered the world. He covered combat, the White House. His was a quest to open minds, not close them. If you've ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him, then you understand what we've enjoyed here. Bill resigned Tuesday. It was hard on him and hard on us. But he did it for us. And you. Stories we've pursued for 57 years are often controversial. Lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he'd lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it, but in resigning Bill proved one thing: He was the right person to lead '60 Minutes' all along.' The on-air criticism, unusual for '60 Minutes' — though Lesley Stahl expressed her displeasure — follows increasing discontent across the broadcast journalism world as executives balance their reporters' independence with a desire to play nice with the administration. MSNBC was already in a mess, with falling ratings and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's misguided November visit to Mar-a-Lago. The network then fired Joy Reid and reduced Alex Wagner's visibility. NBCUniversal is hoping to spin off the network as its own company later this year. Jon Stewart had also called out CNN and NBC News for telling reporters not to share their opinions. Mark Thompson seems to have stabilized the ship at CNN. He needed to, following Trump-courting missteps during the Biden years such as firing Brian Stelter (who's now been rehired) and hosting a town hall with Trump the day after he'd been found liable for rape as the verdict in the E. Jean Carroll civil trial. Not to mention that little matter of cutting from sobering footage during the first day of the war on Ukraine in 2022 to an Applebee's commercial. How to navigate this moment is something all the networks are struggling with, but in the case of CBS and '60 Minutes,' one thing does seem clear: The moves of the past few months that prompted Owens' departure were made to serve Paramount's interests, not the viewers'. Watch the entire segment of Pelley discussing Owens' departure below. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
New York Times
28-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
‘60 Minutes' Chastises Its Corporate Parent in Unusual On-Air Rebuke
In an extraordinary on-air rebuke, one of the top journalists at '60 Minutes' directly criticized the program's parent company in the final moments of its Sunday night CBS telecast, its first episode since the program's executive producer, Bill Owens, announced his intention to resign. 'Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,' the correspondent, Scott Pelley, told viewers. 'None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.' A spokesman for Paramount had no immediate comment, and has previously declined to comment on Mr. Owens's departure. Mr. Owens stunned the show's staff on Tuesday when he said he would leave the highest-rated program in television news over disagreements with Paramount, CBS's corporate parent, saying, 'It's clear the company is done with me.' Mr. Owens's comments were widely reported in the press last week. The show's decision to repeat those grievances on-air may have exposed viewers to the serious tensions between '60 Minutes' and its corporate overseers for the first time. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, has been intent on securing approval from the Trump administration for a multibillion-dollar sale of her media company to a studio run by the son of Larry Ellison, the tech billionaire. President Trump sued CBS last year, claiming $10 billion in damages, in a case stemming from a '60 Minutes' interview with the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, that Mr. Trump said was deceptively edited. Ms. Redstone has expressed her desire to settle Mr. Trump's lawsuit, although legal experts have called the case far-fetched. In his remarks on Sunday night's telecast, Mr. Pelley presented Mr. Owens's decision to resign as an effort to protect '60 Minutes' from further interference. 'He did it for us and you,' Mr. Pelley told viewers of the show, which began airing in 1968. 'Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.' After '60 Minutes' ran a segment in January about the war between Israel and Hamas, Ms. Redstone complained to CBS executives about what she considered the segment's unfair slant. A day later, CBS appointed a veteran producer to a new role involving journalistic standards. She reviewed certain '60 Minutes' segments that were deemed sensitive. Representatives for Mr. Trump and for Paramount are involved in settlement talks, and mediation is expected to start this week. Mr. Pelley's on-air monologue on Sunday night evoked a previous moment of public discord between '60 Minutes' and its corporate overseers. In 1995, also in a closing note to viewers, the correspondent Mike Wallace said on air that the program had chosen not to broadcast an interview with a former tobacco industry executive because managers at CBS News had given in to legal pressure. '60 Minutes' ultimately aired the interview, and the episode was later dramatized in 'The Insider,' a 1999 movie starring Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman, a '60 Minutes' producer. Sunday's '60 Minutes' episode also featured a segment that examined the Trump administration's decision to reduce funding to the National Institutes of Health, including an interview with a former director who expressed his concerns about adverse effects on Americans' health.
The National
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Dave Chappelle set for Abu Dhabi Comedy Season in June
American comedian Dave Chappelle will return to the UAE capital for Abu Dhabi Comedy Season in June. The show, set for June 27 at Etihad Arena, will be Chappelle's fourth in the UAE. His 2024 event, part of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Comedy Week, welcomed a record-breaking 14,000 guests, the largest attendance for a comedy event in the region's history. Organised by Live National Middle East and GME Events in association with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi and Miral, Abu Dhabi Comedy Season will also feature comedians including Trevor Noah, Kevin Hart, Gad Elmaleh, Michael McIntyre, Fluffy, Pete Davidson, Bill Burr and more. Chappelle promised he would return to the UAE at the end of his 2024 Abu Dhabi show, saying: 'The fact that you guys are doing this festival here is one of the most powerful things that is happening in the world. I was told before stepping on stage that this is the biggest comedy show the Middle East has ever seen. Mark my words, I will be back.' The comedian, both widely beloved and consistently controversial, is known for his razor-sharp wit and fearless approach to comedy. His last set included pointed observations about the Israel-Gaza War, which he referred to as a 'genocide', as well as comments on US political figures and the African-American civil rights movement. The National's Saeed Saeed wrote in his review: "His latest show is primarily a celebration of telling jokes, no matter how big or small. At times it can be dazzling, with Chappelle's ability to twist and turn a particular premise when recalling his experience travelling in a time machine, while at other times it as direct as the toilet humour unheard of since high school days." Famed for his sketch comedy series Chappelle's Show (2003 – 2006), Saturday Night Live hosting appearances and his six acclaimed Netflix specials, the comedian has won five Emmy Awards in his career. Tickets, which require registration, go on sale at 8am on April 14 through Live Nation's website and April 15 on Ticketmaster's website, before a general sale on April 16.
The National
12-03-2025
- Politics
- The National
Twelve must-read books about history of Israel-Palestine conflict
Nearly a year and a half on from the beginning of the Israel-Gaza War, the continuing horrors continue. And with reverberations still strongly felt far beyond Palestine, the conflict continues to hold the world's attention as millions refuse to give up hope for peace. But as often repeated, the conflict did not begin on October 7, 2023 and historical context is needed to make sense of current events. Below are 12 books that may help. This is by no means an exhaustive guide, but the titles listed here should give readers perspective on some of the key historical threads at work in the region today. Most of the books on this list are written by those with a personal connection to Palestine. Take-off-Nahisi Coates's The Message is not, and that's part of what makes it so valuable. Within the book of essays, the famed author and advocate for the black American community writes pointedly about his first trip to Palestine as a guest of a book fair, where he was witness to a system that he found similar to what the black community had endured before the civil rights movement. Through that lens, he surveys the history of both Zionism and the Palestinian cause in a way that is accessible to a global audience, particularly because it remembers the lesson of Martin Luther King Jr: 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' Written by Edward Said, a celebrated Palestinian-American academic, literary critic and political activist, this is an illuminating piece of literature that expands on the tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, while showing how the conflict is perceived and reflected in the West. The book was originally written in 1979, but was updated in 1992 to reflect on the way events like the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the intifada and the Gulf War impacted the Palestinian struggle. Written by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine details the Nakba of 1948, when hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and more than 700,000 Arabs forcibly displaced, during the creation of the state of Israel. The Israel-Palestine conflict is often boiled down to a two-sides issue, ignoring the diverse communities in either camp. Jewish-Iraqi author Avi Shlaim's memoir is a first-hand account from within one of those oft-ignored communities – the many Arabs who moved to Israel from across the region and the alleged racism and inequality they experienced once they moved to what had been billed as a utopia. Moreover, Shlaim's book makes strong allegations against the mid-20th century Zionist movement, claiming that it was members of that community that conducted bombings against Iraqi Jews to motivate them to flee to Israel, and their story was subsequently rewritten to serve a Zionist narrative. A book by former BBC Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen. As the title suggests, Six Days highlights the events leading up to and around the war between Israel and several Arab nations in 1967. It breaks down the conflict hour by hour, examining decisions and military tactics of Israel and Egypt, Jordan and Syria. In The Iron Cage, Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi explores the history of the Palestinian struggle for independence, starting from the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire, when British colonial forces took over Palestine. Khalidi begins with the British mandate period and the arrival of Jewish immigrants, through to the Nakba and the modern era. An autobiographical work by the late Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah was first translated into English in 2000 by Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif. It follows Barghouti's attempt to return to Palestine from Egypt after the 1967 war. He was barred from entering. It took him another 30 years to finally be able to return to the town he grew up in. It is a gripping first-hand perspective of the difficulties Palestinians face while trying to travel within the country or return to it. Written by Ghada Karmi, this autobiography offers a first-hand account of the events of 1948. Born in Jerusalem in 1939, Karmi travelled to the UK after the Nakba, spending formative years in a Jewish suburb in London. The book is a poignant and moving read, exploring the effects of displacement while major events shift the political landscape in the Middle East. Another book by an Israeli author, My Promised Land draws from archival documents, interviews, as well as private correspondences and diaries. At its heart is the story of author Ari Shavit's family, beginning with Shavit's great-grandfather, a British Jew who arrived in Palestine in 1897. Shavit's book expands on the perspective of Jewish people who arrived in Palestine at the turn of the century and tries to offer a multifaceted perspective of the creation of Israel. Another work by Khalidi highlights a letter written in 1899 by the author's great-great-uncle, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem. In the letter, al-Khalidi addresses Theodor Herzl, the founding father of the Zionism movement, as the mayor was taken aback by the Zionist calls to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The book, as a whole, highlights a trove of archival materials, personal letters and multigenerational reports to show the continued challenges Palestinians face under occupation. This memoir by Palestinian author and lawyer Raja Shehadeh presents a portrait of a unique father and son relationship against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shehadeh's father, Aziz, was a prominent lawyer and activist. He specialised in land cases, specifically defending Palestinians whose land had been seized by Israeli forces. He was also actively involved in the political arena, and was one of the first Arabs to propose the establishment of an autonomous Palestinian state. Aziz Shehadeh was murdered in 1985. He was stabbed to death outside his home in Ramallah. Understandably, Aziz's death was life-altering for his son, Raja. The two had a somewhat strained bond. Differing perspectives on how to approach the Palestinian struggle weighed heavy on their relationship, as did parental expectations. We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I addresses the complexities of their relationship. The book touches upon themes of identity and family and how they are impacted by political turmoil. It is a moving account of individual struggle within a larger sociopolitical context, while also containing universal topics of familial reconciliation. Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli air strike in December 2023 along with his sister, brother, and four of his nephews and nieces. His works have proliferated across the internet as an anthemic expression of the harrowing experiences that Gazans have been facing for decades. Alareer's works have been released in a collection titled If I Must Die, named after his 2011 poem that became an internet sensation. The book includes essays and poetry that go back to 2010, as well as writing that following Israel's invasion of Gaza in October 2023. If I Must Die offers a different vantage point into the Palestinian experience. It may not delve into the historical aspects of the conflict as some of the other titles, but it does provide a more emotive lens from which to understand the struggle. It contains works of scathing satire that delineate the cruelty of the Israeli onslaught, taking cues from Jonathan Swift's classic 18th century essay A Modest Proposal. Some pieces delve into tragic moments in Alareer's life, such as the death of his brother, Mohammed, by an Israeli air strike. Others touch upon significant moments in Gazan history, such as the deaths of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni and Mustafa Tamimi, a 28-year-old Palestinian taxi driver.
