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Facebook Tweet Email Link Walls, tall and deadly, line three sides of Gaza. On the fourth lies the sea, stretching out to the horizon. Its waters, and the fish within them, have long nourished Gazans isolated from the outside world. Today, its beaches offer no respite and little shelter for the displaced, with the fishermen that once plied the shores now banned from the Mediterranean, stripping people of another desperately-needed food source. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reiterated a security order banning Gazans from even swimming off the coast earlier this month. And, as Israeli forces patrol the shore with…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Hong Kong  —  For the third time in as many months, US and Chinese officials will meet in Europe for trade talks — and this time, Beijing is arriving at the negotiating table more emboldened than ever. Its firm grip on strategic minerals has compelled the Trump administration to roll back some export curbs on China, including a stunning reversal of the ban on sales of a key Nvidia AI chip. Meanwhile, the Chinese economy has delivered better-than-expected growth months into the trade war, according to government data, posting a record trade surplus that underscores the…

Israel’s far-right national security minister denounced the government’s decision to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling it “a surrender to Hamas” and saying he was excluded from the deliberations. “On Saturday night, I was informed by a source in the Prime Minister’s Office that during Shabbat a security consultation took place without me,” Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote Saturday night on social media. Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest, which falls on a Saturday. During Shabbat, observant Jews normally refrain from work, outside of emergencies. “They know very well that, as Minister of National Security, I am available on Shabbat for…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Phnom Penh, Cambodia / Bangkok, Thailand  —  Cambodia and Thailand exchanged fire across their disputed border for a fourth day on Sunday, hours after US President Donald Trump announced the two Southeast Asian nations had agreed to ceasefire talks. At least 32 people have been killed and at least 200,000 displaced since Thursday, according to Thai and Cambodian officials, in clashes that have rumbled on despite calls from the United Nations, United States and China for the fighting to stop. Both sides have accused the other of starting the latest border flare-up, and traded blame for…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Hong Kong  —  With her short hair and unshowy clothing, Fan Chunli looks every bit the middle-aged woman from rural China. Among a crowd of youngsters vying to become the next breakout star in one of China’s most popular stand-up comedy contests, she stands out. But when the 50-year-old takes the mic, she beams with life and drips sarcasm, unloading jokes about her abusive ex-husband that bring the audience into a mix of laughter and tears. Hailing from a place where simply knowing how to use the internet “makes me the Elon Musk of my village,”…

Facebook Tweet Email Link In Melissa Knicely’s nearly 19 years at a North Carolina animal shelter, she’s learned to spot an unofficial and heart-wrenching sign that the economy may be taking a turn for the worse: When there’s a surge in the number of people looking to give up their pets. That happened in the late 2000s, as the pain from the financial crisis spread; at other times when waves of layoffs hit the region; and, more recently, when inflation spiked. And in recent months, that activity, which is referred to as “owner surrenders,” has picked up steam at Charlotte-Mecklenburg…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Ezra Klein begins one of his recent podcasts by telling a joke that has been making the rounds. Basically, a conspiracy theorist dies and ascends to heaven. God is there to greet him and explains that as part of the celestial welcome, he will answer any question the man has. “Please, I must know the answer to this one,” the man says, “who killed John F. Kennedy?” God answers instantly, “That’s easy: Lee Harvey Oswald.” Shocked, the man murmurs, “This goes higher than I had thought!” This is the dilemma in which Donald Trump finds himself.…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Kinshasa, Congo AP  —  At least 21 people were killed on Sunday in an attack on church premises in eastern Congo by Islamic State-backed rebels, according to a civil society leader. The attack was carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) around 1 a.m. inside the premises of a Catholic church in eastern Congo’s Komanda. Several houses and shops were also burnt. “More than 21 people were shot dead inside and outside and we have recorded at least three charred bodies and several houses burned. But the search is continuing,” Dieudonne Duranthabo, a…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Israel has announced a daily “tactical pause in military activity” in three areas of Gaza to enable more aid to reach people, amid growing international outrage over starvation in the territory. The Israeli military said the move would “refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.” The pause – which will also see the military open up corridors to facilitate aid delivery by the UN and other agencies – has come too late for dozens of Palestinians, with officials in Gaza reporting more deaths from malnutrition and among people desperately trying to get…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Istanbul AP  —  Wildfires that have engulfed Turkey for weeks threatened the country’s fourth-largest city early Sunday, causing more than 1,700 people to flee their homes and leaving a firefighter dead. Meanwhile, firefighters elsewhere in the region, including Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro, were also battling blazes fed by unusually high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds. Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa in northwest Turkey spread rapidly, tinting the night sky over the city’s eastern suburbs with a red glow. Dozens of severe wildfires have hit the country daily since late June, with the…