It’s midday, and the sun is high in the sky, a natural cyan canvas peppered with puffy, cauliflower-shaped clouds. With little warning, the clouds cluttering the horizon start to vanish before your eyes. Not long after, the world begins to darken, as the golden orb that sustains life on Earth swiftly disappears from view.

For the entirety of that sliver of time when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, blocking the star’s rays and causing it to disappear momentarily for those best positioned to bear witness to the rare phenomenon, those fluffy, white masses will stay gone — reforming only once the sun has made its triumphant return.

That’s at least what scientists expect to take place in swaths of Mexico, Canada and the United States during April 8’s total solar eclipse. If weather permits, those living in the 49 US states where a partial eclipse is expected could also spot some clouds vanishing.

During an eclipse, shallow cumulus clouds start dissipating in large proportions when only a fraction of the sun is covered, and they don’t reform until the end of the event, according to a study published February 12 in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. The findings also suggest the phenomenon may have implications for sun-obscuring climate solutions such as solar geoengineering.

But this doesn’t mean your vantage point of the forthcoming eclipse is guaranteed to be cloud-free as the research isn’t applicable to all clouds — only the shallow cumulus kind found hovering over land.

“Those are the low, patchy, puffy clouds that you normally find on a sunny day,” said Victor Trees, a doctoral candidate in the department of geoscience and remote sensing at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, who led the study. “If you see those puffy clouds during eclipse day, then have a close look, because they might disappear.”

Eclipse effect

Low-level cumulus clouds begin to disappear in large numbers over cooling land surfaces when just 15% of the sun is covered, the new paper revealed. Although awareness of the phenomenon isn’t new, according to the study authors, the evidence to back it up and provide clarity around timing is.

“People have seen this before from the ground. … If you’re standing on the Earth’s surface, you can count the clouds and then you can watch them disappear,” Trees said.

But it was never known from what precise moment the clouds began reacting to the obstruction of sunlight, he added. “That is very difficult to determine when you’re standing on the Earth’s surface, because the clouds are constantly changing shape and size.”

That’s why Trees and his colleagues decided to study them from above using satellites. Satellites measure the sunlight reflected by Earth, and from the reflected sunlight, scientists can derive properties of clouds. But prior, similar research never took the moon’s shadow during an eclipse into account, Trees explained — a necessary step to be able to analyze clouds that were otherwise hidden inside the shadow of the moon.

The research team focused on data collected during three solar eclipses that took place over Africa between 2005 and 2016. They discovered that cumulus clouds dissipate during eclipses because of the relationship between solar radiation and the formation processes of the clouds.

During an eclipse, the surface cools rapidly from the moon’s shadow blocking the sunlight, Trees explained, preventing warm air from rising from Earth’s surface — a core ingredient in the formation of cumulus clouds. That rising air process leading to the production of clouds usually takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes, according to simulations.

This means that even if you see those clouds vanishing when the sun is already partially obscured by the moon, the origin of this effect was already initiated.

“When there’s still plenty of light outside, and people commonly do not realize the solar eclipse is happening, the clouds already are changing,” Trees said, noting that when there’s only minimal obscuration, the atmosphere is already affected.

“And then, with a delay, you see it in the clouds.”

‘Key component in the climate system’

Far more than masses of water droplets that drift across our skies, clouds are indispensable elements in our atmosphere. Not only are they an essential part of the water cycle, but they also help control Earth’s energy balance and influence the planet’s climate.

Shallow cumulus clouds, in particular, serve a critical function. These boundary-layer clouds, or clouds in the lowest part of the atmosphere most impacted by Earth’s surface, are widespread across the globe and the world’s oceans, occurring sporadically year-round. They don’t tend to produce rain, but certain conditions can facilitate their growth into cloud forms that do. They are also very effective in reflecting sunlight back to space.

Shallow cumulus clouds are among the better understood clouds, in part because they are low-altitude liquid clouds, according to Jake Gristey, a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies the relationship between shallow cumulus clouds and solar radiation.

“The reason that this study focuses on shallow cumulus clouds is because the sunlight reaching (Earth’s) surface really has a direct impact on the evolution of these particular types of clouds in a way that is not the case for other types of clouds,” said Gristey, who was not involved with the paper.

Typically, as the sun comes up in the morning, the intensity of the sunlight increases and that causes the temperature of the land surface to increase. The warmer land then heats up the near surface air directly above it, and that results in the air rising in an updraft, where it expands and condenses to form the clouds. They often persist throughout the afternoon before dissipating in the evening when the sun goes down.

An eclipse presents an opportunity that “doesn’t really occur under other circumstances” to study the impact of rapid change in sunlight intensity on clouds that are driven by solar heating, Gristey said.

“It’s important that we’re able to understand the processes that (cause) these clouds to form and persist as they’re a key component in the climate system,” he said.

But what exactly shallow cumulus clouds’ role is when it comes to the rapidly warming climate remains a long-standing subject of uncertainty in the scientific community. Throw an eclipse into the mix, and things get more complicated.

“There are a lot of things we don’t know regarding clouds, regarding their behavior and evolution during the eclipse,” said Kevin Knupp, a professor in the department of atmospheric and earth science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville who was also not involved with the study.

What’s new and noteworthy about the paper, Knupp noted, is that it’s using more data to establish the relationship between the eclipse-induced cooling and reduction in cloud cover.

Climate geoengineering controversy

The new findings on the high sensitivity of shallow cumulus clouds to an eclipse-driven decrease in solar radiation call for more research on proposed solar geoengineering techniques, noted study coauthor Stephan de Roode, an associate professor at Delft University of Technology.

“We should actually ask whether geoengineering techniques, which intend to diminish the solar radiation over much longer time-scales, could potentially lead to changes in global cloud patterns,” said de Roode, who studies the effect of global warming on clouds.

Scientists have spent decades studying how to best tackle the idea of decreasing the planet’s temperature through solar geoengineering techniques — one of the world’s most controversial climate solutions. Diminishing cloud cover could be an unexpected consequence of some of the main techniques that would aim to obscure the sun, according to the authors behind the new paper. 

“If you diminish the solar radiation by, say, a certain fraction, then the effective fraction of solar radiation that you receive at the ground surface will actually be more than you have been anticipating because you have less clouds,” de Roode said.

“That means that more solar radiation can reach the ground surface, despite the fact that you’re trying to diminish the amount of radiation by geoengineering techniques,” he said, adding that this feedback effect could make such techniques “less efficient.”

Others are not so sure. “I think we have to be a bit careful. There is probably a lot more work that’s needed to connect the results of their study to geoengineering proposals,” CIRES’ Gristey said.

One piece of this research that the study does acknowledge needs further investigation is the “very different timescales involved,” when comparing the duration of an eclipse to several proposed solar geoengineering methods, Gristey added. “For example, even if aerosols are injected into the stratosphere … those aerosols will persist in the stratosphere for much longer than a couple of hours that we see with the solar eclipse,” he said.

De Roode hopes those across North America gearing up for the next solar eclipse remember to keep an eye out for any vanishing low-lying cumulus clouds. Even some of the millions of people outside of the eclipse’s path of totality may be able to spot the disappearing clouds the day of — weather and geographic conditions permitting.

“I hope that people will all take a curious look up into the skies during the eclipse to see if what we found for Africa, the disappearance of the shallow cumulus clouds, whether Americans also observe this in their country,” he said.

“It’s such a spectacular phenomenon.”

Ayurella Horn-Muller has reported for Axios and Climate Central. She is the author of “Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South.”

The truth, as it often is, was less strange than many had thought. After weeks of frenzied conspiracies about why Catherine, Princess of Wales, had been so long out of the public eye, she revealed the reason: She had been diagnosed with cancer, was in the early stages of treatment and had taken time to tell her young children.

For Kate and her family, the past three months have been a crisis. But for others, they may have brought opportunity.

Innes and his research team linked 45 social media accounts posting bogus claims about the princess to a Kremlin-affiliated disinformation campaign which has previously peddled conspiracies about Russia’s war in Ukraine and French President Emmanuel Macron. The motive of such campaigns, Innes said, is to “destabilize” Russia’s Western antagonists and “undermine trust” in their institutions.

The United Kingdom’s relationship with Russia has long been mixed. The Brits have been happy to provide services for – and welcome in the wealth of – oligarchs from the former Soviet Union, despite hostilities between London and Moscow. A 2020 UK parliamentary report found “plenty of evidence of Russian interference” in its democratic processes, saying Russian influence had become “the new normal.”

The Cardiff researchers have run a large research program into disinformation since 2018, but began investigating the Kate conspiracies after seeing “unusual patterns in the traffic data” and “spikes coming out of nowhere.”

“The accounts were not making original posts themselves, but were reply-commenting to posts about the Princess of Wales story, introducing material about the Ukraine war, denigrating Ukraine, or celebrating the integrity of the Russian elections,” Innes said.

The pattern of behavior was one his team recognized from a group of Russian actors his team had studied before.

The group is referred to as “Doppelganger,” a Kremlin-linked operation that has targeted audiences in the United States and Europe, including Ukraine. It is a commercial firm contracted to run disinformation campaigns, Innes said. In late 2022, Meta – the owner of Facebook and Instagram – warned Doppelganger had been mimicking major news outlets and creating spoof articles.

Meta said it disrupted the group, but its disinformation campaigns have since grown more sophisticated. Last week, the US Treasury sanctioned two Russians and their companies believed to be part of Doppelganger, accusing them of running “a sprawling network of over 60 websites” stoking disinformation on behalf of the Russian government.

Some conspiracies may be created afresh. Earlier this month, the British Embassy in Moscow was forced to deny insensitive rumors about King Charles III which had begun to circulate wildly on Telegram and in the Russian media.

But often the group seeks to foment stories already causing division. The Kate rumors were particularly easy for the campaign to target, Innes said, because much of the Western public was already in a conspiratorial “mindset.”

When Kensington Palace announced in January that Kate had undergone planned abdominal surgery, the initial reaction in Britain was more shock than suspicion. But, with every week she spent out of the public eye, speculation swirled further.

But amateur sleuthing on social media only tipped into full-blown conspiracism when the palace released a photograph of Kate and her three children on Mother’s Day. The photo, which should have put an end to the rumors, instead fueled them. Members of the public swiftly clocked several discrepancies in the image including blurs on a sleeve cuff and a zipper out of joint.

Within hours, multiple global news agencies had recalled the image from circulation, citing manipulation concerns. The following morning, Kate issued a mea culpa: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.”

The Yale historian Timothy Snyder has long argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s way of maintaining power is through “strategic relativism.” Unable or unwilling to make his own country better through domestic policy, he settles instead for making other countries look worse, bolstering Russia’s standing by weakening others.

The Russian Foreign Ministry leapt on the faux pas with Kate’s photo, saying the British media and political system had “merged” to create “an ecosystem of lies.”

In a barbed statement, the ministry said the princess’s prolonged absence from public life “once again highlighted the rotten nature of the British political establishment, based on its desire to completely control public opinion… through mass media manipulation and fake news.”

In the days after the Mother’s Day photo, Kate was seen with her husband, Prince William, at a farm shop in Windsor near their home on March 19.

Innes said he and his researchers saw a sudden flurry of activity the same day – primarily on X, formerly Twitter – in a way he said was “absolutely consistent with Doppelganger.” All of the accounts his team identified had similar names, were created at the same time, had very few followers and acted in a coordinated way, he said.

“The 45 accounts all either had this naming convention of either a letter A start or a letter B start, like ‘Aardvark56,’” he said, which was “sufficient to be able to validate the claim that we know who is behind this.”

The timing of the Kate conspiracies was also propitious for the Kremlin – coming just as Putin secured a fifth term in power in a stage-managed election devoid of credible opposition. The bots, Innes said, piled onto posts about Kate’s health with comments talking up the legitimacy of the Russian vote.

A conspiracy striking at the heart of the British establishment coming at a time beneficial to Russia created a “goldilocks zone” for Kremlin-linked actors, Innes said.

“Tactically, what they were trying to do was to get their messages about the Russian elections and Ukraine into the Western media ecosphere. But why this was such a good story for them was because it allowed them to hit their strategic aim… to destabilize the UK and its Western allies.”

Emotions were running high in the Australian town of Alice Springs this week when mourners attending the funeral of an 18-year-old man attacked its oldest pub, smashing windows and kicking doors.

For Northern Territory officials, Tuesday’s violence – and clashes later that night involving around 150 people armed with axes, machetes and knives – was the final straw.

“Enough is enough,” Chief Minister Eva Lawler said Wednesday, as she announced a two-week curfew for children between 6 p.m and 6 a.m in the central business district.

“If someone is under the age of 18 and they’re seen out in the town center, they will be taken home or taken to a safe place. Kids are not safe on the street,” she said.

Since then, relative calm has returned to Alice Springs, or Mparntwe, its traditional name. But debate has raged over the effectiveness of the emergency measures that some described as a knee-jerk response to complex social issues.

Some Indigenous groups and leaders have backed the action as a necessary circuit-breaker, but others say what local children need is support, not more policing in a country with a low age of criminal responsibility and high rates of incarceration for Indigenous youth.

Complex problems

Northern Territory officials said the trigger for Tuesday’s violence occurred three weeks ago when an 18-year-old man died in a car accident during the early hours of March 8.

At the time, local news reports said he was sitting on a door of a suspected stolen vehicle, when it turned a corner and rolled on top of him. Eight people fled the scene.

Darren Clark, founder of community group Action for Alice, said youths rampaged through the town on Tuesday smashing windows before attacking the Todd Tavern, a well-known hotel and bar.

He said the group appeared to be seeking retribution.

“They’re looking for the driver of the car … So, that’s what this is all about,” Clark told radio station 2GB Sydney.

According to police, the mourners in Alice Springs came from Utopia, a region around 230 kilometers (143 miles) to the north-east that’s home to several large Aboriginal communities.

It was named Utopia by German settlers, who were said to have been fascinated by the abundance of rabbits that were easy to catch. It’s now known as a hub for Indigenous artists whose work is sold worldwide.

Utopia suffers many of the same problems seen in Indigenous communities nationwide – overcrowded housing and high levels of domestic violence, unemployment and alcohol abuse.

The issues are widely considered to be the legacy of colonization more than two centuries ago that deprived traditional owners of their ancestral lands.

Decades of racism and neglect erupted on the streets of Alice Springs on Tuesday, though youth crime is a problem in many other Australian cities.

“This is an issue that is absolutely complex. I know people don’t always like to hear the word complex, but when you see young people who have fetal alcohol [syndrome], that have trauma, that have experienced domestic violence, that go to homes where there’s alcohol, they’re not cared for. Those are the issues that are part of the story of Alice Springs,” Lawler said.

Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson told 10 program “The Project” that some children are on the streets at night because it’s safer than being at home.

“These children are out here because there’s drunk parents, or there’s family and sexual violence happening at home,” he said. “If this curfew saves kids’ lives because it takes it gives the police the power to take them to safe places, then I think that it’s absolutely worth it.”

Children behind bars

Some Indigenous leaders support the curfew and are working with the government to implement it, but other groups say there hasn’t been enough consultation.

Jared Sharp, Principal Legal officer of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), told Sky News the curfew could make matters worse.

“There is nowhere in the world that has said that a youth curfew is effective – it just criminalizes young people. It ensnares young people in the justice system, and that’s just not what we need in a place like Alice Springs, where the rates of Aboriginal people in jail and youth detention are already off the charts,” Sharp said.

Last August, the Northern Territory became the first Australian jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. According to the latest government figures, on an average night in the June quarter of 2023, more than 800 children were in detention across Australia – 60% were of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. The figures show Indigenous children are 29 times as likely to be in detention than non-Indigenous youth.

Writing in the Guardian, Catherine Liddle, CEO of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), said Indigenous children are being exposed to unacceptable levels of violence.

“We cannot arrest our way out of this,” she wrote. “Alcohol and substance abuse is a symptom as well as one of the drivers and it is not the only one … It is no accident that we are seeing youth crime escalating as rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child removals grow.”

Sixty more police arrived in Alice Springs this week to build a more visible police presence during the curfew period, and police liquor inspectors were allocated to patrol liquor stores in the area.

Addressing the media on Thursday, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said the measures weren’t about “locking up kids.”

“The objective is to keep kids out of the criminal justice system,” he said. “If they do commit violent crime, they will be arrested and taken to the court where they can answer to a judge and go through the justice system.”

In the early hours of Friday, three youths aged 12, 13 and 17 were arrested in Alice Springs after allegedly entering a home with weapons and threatening one of the residents with a firearm, according to police. They allegedly stole keys to two cars that were later found abandoned south of the town’s business district.

Children in the Northern Territory are due to go on school holiday next Friday – the curfew is expected to cover at least part of the break, but territory officials haven’t ruled out extending it, if needed.

The Kremlin’s security services were aware of an ISIS threat days before a deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow, Russian intelligence documents obtained by a UK-based investigative organization suggest.

According to the London-based Dossier Center, the documents showed ethnic Tajiks radicalized by ISIS-K – the Central Asian offshoot of the terror group ISIS – could have been involved.

At least 143 people were killed last Friday in the deadliest attack on Russia in decades, when assailants stormed Crocus City Hall with guns and incendiary devices, just before a concert was to be held.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack with statements, photos, and a propaganda video filmed by the attackers.

The Dossier Center is a Russian investigation group backed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled former Russian oil tycoon turned Kremlin critic. It has previously unearthed details about Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime, often using documents and leaks from inside the Russian government.

“A few days before the terrorist attack, members of the Security Council received a warning that Tajik citizens could be used in terrorist attacks on Russian territory,” said the group’s latest report, released on Sunday, referring to the Russian security agency.

“Even before the attack on Crocus City Hall, a source close to the intelligence services told the Dossier Center about this,” it added.

Shocking footage of the attack showed how victims fled for their lives and ducked to safety in horror, with the venue transformed into an inferno.

Four suspects, who are from the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan but worked in Russia on temporary or expired visas, appeared in court earlier this week facing terror charges, showing visible signs of injury. Three pleaded guilty, according to Russian media.

Despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at historic lows, the United States warned Russia that ISIS militants were planning to stage an attack in the country.

Earlier in March, the US Embassy warned of an increased threat of terror attacks on Russia, with National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson saying the US had shared this information with Russian authorities under the “duty to warn” policy.

But in a speech just days before the attack, Putin had dismissed the American warnings as “provocative,” saying “these actions resemble outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.”

Putin, who recently won a stage-managed election to secure another term, has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Ukraine had helped orchestrate the attack. Ukraine has repeatedly denied having any links to the attack.

Former Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev, an exiled Kremlin critic, said the latest evidence posed serious questions for the Russian leadership and its security forces.

ISIS-K claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul in 2022.

The following year, German police arrested several people from Tajikistan accused of plotting an attack on Cologne Cathedral, according to the Dossier Center. Suspected ISIS-K members were also arrested in Kyrgyzstan, accused of plotting an attack at an orthodox church.

According to the Dossier Center, Russian law enforcement was monitoring all these reports and “considered the risk” to Russia.

Ireland has become the latest nation to say it will intervene in the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, in a reflection of the country’s long-standing position of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Ireland announced this week it would file its intervention, adding to growing international pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to dial back its devastating assault on Gaza and end severe restrictions on food aid pushing Palestinians toward famine.

In a speech on Wednesday, Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said that both the Hamas October 7 attack in Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza “represents the blatant violation of international law on a mass scale.”

The case was brought to the ICJ by South Africa, and in an initial ruling in January, the court ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing it of genocide.

According to reports, Ireland is expected to include in its intervention the argument that Israel’s blocking of food aid to Gaza could be considered an act of genocide.

A ‘shared colonial experience’

Ireland’s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict has made it an outlier among European governments. Zoë Lawlor, who leads the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), said there was “deep empathy and sympathy in Ireland with Palestinian people.”

That solidarity is largely born out of a shared experience of subjugation by an occupying state. The island nation was under English and then British rule for more than 800 years, after Anglo-Norman invaders seized huge stretches of land from the native Irish in the 12th Century.

“Ireland was Britain’s oldest colony,” said Jane Ohlmeyer, a history professor at Trinity College Dublin, pointing out that Ireland was unlike other Western European states, many of which were themselves imperial powers.

“But like Palestine, (Ireland) had direct and sustained experience of imperialism,” she said. That “shared colonial experience” between the Irish and Palestinians “has undoubtedly shaped how people from Ireland engage with post-colonial conflicts.”

While under British control, Ireland was often subjected to violent and discriminatory rule from London, most infamously with the Great Potato Famine in the 1840s, during which roughly 1 million people are estimated to have died from hunger after the potato crop repeatedly failed. The failure of the British government to adequately help the starving population forced over 1 million more to emigrate.

Leo Varadkar, who recently resigned as prime minister of Ireland, alluded to that during St. Patrick’s Day commemorations at the White House this month, when he drew parallels between the Irish and Palestinian experiences.

“Leaders often ask me why the Irish have such empathy for the Palestinian people. And the answer is simple: We see our history in their eyes,” Varadkar said. “A story of displacement, of dispossession, national identity questioned or denied, forced emigration, discrimination, and now, hunger.”

Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, says Irish support comes from a history of shared experiences.

NGOs and top international human rights officials have warned that Israel’s restrictions on the entry of food aid will tip Gaza into famine. This month, the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, said the practice may amount to using starvation as a weapon of war.

After many failed attempts to regain its sovereignty, both violent and peaceful, Ireland was partitioned by the British in 1921. Part of the province of Ulster in the north of the island remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. The remaining territory left the union a year later, becoming known as the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland.

Ohlmeyer contends that Ireland “provided the template for partition” in historic Palestine in 1948.

Both partitions were created largely along religious lines. Ulster was famously referred to as a “Protestant state for a Protestant people” after its inception in 1921. In 1917, the British government declared there should be “a national home for the Jewish people” within historic Palestine. The United Nations presented a plan in 1947 to partition the land between Arabs and Jews, which the Palestinians rejected.

Ronald Storrs, the first British governor of Jerusalem, described the plan for a Jewish homeland in Palestine as “a little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism.”

During and after the 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, the Palestinians’ struggle for liberation was seen by its residents through the prism of their own conflict. Republican Irish nationalists, campaigning to split from the UK, generally sympathized with Palestinians. British loyalists and unionists in Northern Ireland typically sided with Israel.

In 1980, the Republic of Ireland became the first European Union member to declare a need for an independent Palestinian state and has since pushed for a two-state solution. The Irish government describes peace in the Middle East as a “key foreign policy priority” and blames Israeli policies for “making peace more and more difficult to achieve.”

Palestinians a ‘domestic issue’ in Ireland

Ireland consistently criticized Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza before the Hamas attacks on October 7, and since then, politicians and the public have expressed concern over what has been largely viewed as a heavy-handed Israeli response.

Simon Harris, the country’s new prime minister, is unlikely to take a softer stance. Ireland’s youngest-ever leader highlighted the impact of the war on children in a speech to parliament in November, remarking: “You cannot build peace on the mass graves of children.”

Israel has not shied away from firing back at Ireland. Its heritage minister, Amihai Eliyahu, said in November that Palestinians in Gaza “can go to Ireland or deserts,” among other incendiary comments that Netanyahu has tried to distance himself from. In February, Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, said in an interview with radio station Newstalk that she only heard a “one-sided view, portraying Israel as the only villain.”

When Emily Hand, an Irish-Israeli girl, was released by Hamas after being held hostage for 50 days, Varadkar’s subsequent post on X saying she had been “lost” caused an uproar in Israel.

The Irish ambassador was summoned to the Israeli foreign ministry, with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accusing Varadkar of losing his “moral compass” and needing a “reality check.”

Opposition parties in Ireland have taken an even stronger stance than the government, particularly Sinn Féin, a party that supports the reunification of Ireland and is active on both sides of the border. Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, has said “Gaza cannot become the graveyard of international law,” and has at times called for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled.

A galvanized population

Public support for the Palestinians has been put on display during nationwide demonstrations that have been held in cities and towns across Ireland since the Gaza war began.

“Sometimes, in all the roads in all the cities, I see the Palestinian flag,” said Abdalmajid, the ambassador. “It’s something that tells the Palestinians you are not alone in this world; there are other people in this world who know (how) you’re suffering.”

Lawlor, from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, has participated in demonstrations for the past 25 weeks in either her home city of Limerick or the capital, Dublin.

“What we’re seeing in Gaza has really mobilized people to an extent I have never seen,” she said. “We’re a population that also had a famine imposed on us by a colonizing power. So, I think that’s very resonant with people here.”

A January Amnesty International poll showed that 71% of people in Ireland believed Palestinians were living under an apartheid regime, while a poll in the Irish Times in Februrary showed 62% believed Israel’s attacks on Gaza were not justified.

For activists like Lawlor and the opposition Sinn Féin, the Irish government’s intervention at the ICJ was long overdue.

“Our experience of the peace process and our experience of the importance of international solidarity and interventions has made us acutely aware that this isn’t something we can just sit back and watch on our TV screens,” said Carthy.

“I do not think it is appropriate that a country like Ireland would have diplomatic relations with the State of Israel as it would with other states that aren’t in gross violation of international law,” he added. “And I think it would be a meaningful measure that the Irish government could take to expel the Israeli ambassador until the onslaught on Gaza is ended.”

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland’s main pro-union party, is stepping down after he was charged with “allegations of an historical nature,” the DUP announced on Friday.

Jeffrey Donaldson, 61, confirmed to his party in a letter that he had been charged with historical allegations and resigned as leader with immediate effect, the party said in a statement.

“In accordance with the Party Rules, the Party Officers have suspended Mr Donaldson from membership, pending the outcome of a judicial process,” it continued.

The announcement came hours after police issued a statement on Friday saying that a 61-year-old man had been charged with non-recent sexual offenses, but did not name the person.

“Detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested and charged a 61-year-old man for non-recent sexual offences,” the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) statement said. “A 57-year-old woman was also arrested and charged at the time for aiding and abetting additional offences.”

UK and Irish media have reported that the police charges relate to Donaldson. Both individuals charged by police are expected to appear before Newry Magistrates Court on April 24.

Donaldson’s social media accounts were deleted overnight, including on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. His page on the DUP’s website was also taken down.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said Friday her “priority” was to “continue to provide the leadership the public expect and deserve” following Donaldson’s resignation.

“The DUP Leader has resigned after being charged with serious offences,” she said in the statement, adding: “This is now a matter for the criminal justice system.”

O’Neill, who is a member of the pro-united Ireland party Sinn Fein, is joint head of the Northern Irish government alongside Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP, a pro-union, pro-United Kingdom party.

O’Neill said that she will strive to “ensure the four-party executive coalition delivers for the whole of our community now and in the future.”

Donaldson had been chief whip of the DUP since May 2015 and became party leader in 2021.

First elected in 1997, he was the longest serving sitting lawmaker in Northern Ireland before his resignation, according to the DUP.

He was first elected as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), but switched his affiliation to the DUP in 2004.

Under his leadership, the DUP refused to participate in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government in protest over post-Brexit trading rules. This two-year political deadlock came to an end in February.

The DUP announced on Friday it had unanimously appointed Gavin Robinson as interim party leader.

When Ghanaian Afro-dancehall and reggae star Stonebwoy visited Jamaica earlier this year for the Island Music Conference, he made headlines with an impromptu freestyle alongside Shaggy, Sean Paul and Wyclef Jean. But for the 36-year-old, the trip was about more than just performing — it was a pilgrimage.

Arriving in the capital, Kingston, just a week after the US release of the biopic “Bob Marley: One Love,” the singer linked up with the Reggae legend’s grandson, Yohan Marley, to record new music for Stonebwoy’s forthcoming album. The session was the Ghanaian’s first visit to Bob Marley’s iconic Tuff Gong Studio.

“I’m inside of a legendary monument, and this is a monumental situation right now,” said Stonebwoy as he laid down his tracks, seamlessly alternating between English, Jamaican Patois, and Ghanaian Twi, riffing off other collaborators in the studio.

“It’s emotional, man,” the visibly affected singer said during the session. “It means a lot. I feel like I’m surrounded by the spirits of those who built here.”

“Once upon a time, Bob Marley was probably sitting in the same spot that I am sitting in,” he added. “It’s like a world reserve for music, for consciousness, for somebody who stood up for humanity in his music.”

Jamaican sounds take root in Ghana

Very few have propelled Ghana’s dancehall movement to greater heights than Stonebwoy, whose real name is Livingstone Etse Satekla. He is not only one of the most renowned Reggae and dancehall artists across Africa but he also commands the respect and admiration of Caribbean audiences.

For Stonebwoy, there’s nothing strange about a Ghanaian having such a deep affection for music forms that originated in Jamaica.

“The influence of the motherland is significant in the formation of Reggae, dancehall, and Caribbean music styles,” he noted, likening the storytelling and style of these genres to Highlife, a West African fusion of traditional rhythms with jazz and calypso.

“It’s the message of the style of music that influenced me to go the direction I did,” Stonebwoy said.

“Highlife music is definitely a style of music that also tells a lot of conscious stories, just like reggae.”

“We can relate, and we love each other’s journeys,” he added. “It’s time for us to continue to bring it together in order to sing one song, like Bob Marley said.”

While at Tuff Gong Studios, he recalled that the first Bob Marley song he ever heard was “Three Little Birds,” a childhood favorite of Stonebwoy’s often played by his father.

“The Rastafarian communities were in their primes during those times, in the eighties and nineties, so there was that movement across the whole of Africa that was indulging,” Stonebwoy recalled.

“And then, of course, the music flew over to support the ideologies and cancel out apartheid, so like there was an influx of consciousness.

“The energy in which the messages were delivered was so captivating to my heart.”

Inspired by his idol, Stonebwoy embraces the “One Love” ethos, which transcends Marley’s song title. Rooted in Rastafarian beliefs, “One Love” embodies a profound message of hope, unity, and universal love.

In 2023, Stonebwoy was part of a “Buffalo Soldier” remake on Marley’s posthumous album “Africa Unite.” The album reinterpreted Marley’s classics with Afrobeats rhythms, aligning with Stonebwoy’s aim to spread peace, love, and unity through his music.

“It’s all about one love, Blackness, and Africa,” he said.

Uniting the Black diaspora through music

From Afrobeats to reggae, Stonebwoy has worked with musicians including Rick Ross, Beanie Man, Shaggy, Keri Hilson, Russ, Davido, and Angelique Kidjo, shining brightest when mentoring emerging artists.

He has also hosted Ghana’s BHIM Festival for seven years, showcasing African-Caribbean music. Each year includes a cypher for upcoming artists to showcase their freestyle skills, reminiscent of Stonebwoy’s own beginnings at the Kashari Level rap battles on Adom FM two decades ago. And he has consistently supported other artists, even those not signed to his Burniton Music Group label.

“There are a lot of people that I helped release singles, et cetera, without any formal agreement whatsoever,” he said. “I have my platform for everybody.”

As much as Stonebwoy has accomplished, he still hopes to do more, including eventually collaborating with Rihanna and Taylor Swift.

“I know it’s going to happen one day,” he said.

Until then, he has his eyes set on making sure the sounds of the Black diaspora continue to dominate worldwide.

“We have a certain kind of message, a certain kind of tone, a certain kind of voice, and a void to fill,” Stonebwoy explained.

“When you have a seat at the table, you really do have to work at it and go grab it because just like the greatest of greats have ever come and dominated and inspired all of us, the same way we also have come and take a place.”

On April 12, Stonebwoy is set to drop the single titled “Ekelebe,” featuring Nigerian rapper Odumodublvck.

A series of Israeli airstrikes targeting areas close to the Syrian city of Aleppo have led to casualties among both civilians and military personnel on Friday, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.

Thirty-eight people were killed, according to Reuters, including five members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. One of the Hezbollah fighters was a local field commander whose brother was killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon in November, Reuters said.

Israeli warplanes initiated an attack around 1:45 a.m., local time from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo, according to a military source quoted by SANA.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the attack.

Israel has previously launched attacks on Aleppo and the Syrian capital Damascus, including before the October 7 war, saying it feared that Iran would turn Syria into “a base for aggression” against the Jewish state.

Both Syria and Israel consider each other enemies and do not share diplomatic relations.

Friday’s strikes are some of the deadliest since Israel intensified its military campaign against Iran-backed groups in Syria and others last year, following the October 7 attack on Israel by the Iran-backed group Hamas.

Following the Hamas assault, clashes between Iran-backed groups in the region and Israel have notably increased. Armed groups have also engaged in attacks with US troops backing Israel in the Middle East.

In Syria, Hezbollah maintains a strong presence, having done so since the 2011 Arab Spring protests which in some parts of the Middle East spiraled into proxy wars. Hezbollah was an active participant, fighting alongside Iran-aligned forces in Syria and on behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who brutally quashed the opposition.

An Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East, Hezbollah has since October 7 been embroiled in intense cross-border fighting with Israel. Its involvement in the war has sparked fears that Israel’s war in Gaza could spill over into a wider regional conflict.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

As the total solar eclipse, occurring across Mexico, the United States and Canada on April 8, draws near, experts are reminding spectators to grab a pair of eclipse glasses to view the celestial event safely — and to make sure they aren’t fake.

Counterfeit eclipse glasses are “polluting the marketplace,” according to a release shared by the American Astronomical Society, or AAS.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun’s face from view for a few moments. About 32 million people in the US live within the 115-mile-wide (185-kilometer-wide) path of totality, or locations where the moon will appear to completely cover the sun and the lunar shadow falls on the Earth’s surface. People outside the path of totality will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse in which the moon only blocks part of the sun’s face.

The only time it’s safe to view the sun without eye protection is during the totality of a total solar eclipse, or the brief period when the moon completely blocks the light of the sun, according to NASA.

Otherwise, experts say it’s absolutely necessary to wear certified eclipse glasses or use handheld solar viewers that meet a specific safety standard, known as ISO 12312-2, when watching all other phases of a total or partial solar eclipse. The safety standard means that the lenses meet international requirements for direct solar viewing, according to the AAS.

The lenses of solar eclipse glasses are made of black polymer, or resin infused with carbon particles, that blocks nearly all visible, infrared and ultraviolet light, according to The Planetary Society. And sunglasses won’t work in place of eclipse glasses or solar viewers.

“Sunglasses, smoked glass, unfiltered telescopes or magnifiers, and polarizing filters are unsafe. Inspect your eclipse glasses or handheld viewer before use — if torn, scratched, or otherwise damaged, discard the device,” according to a release by the American Optometric Association.

Looking at the sun without properly made eclipse glasses can result in severe eye injury, from temporary vision impairment to permanent blindness. But the AAS has discovered the production of fraudulent eclipse glasses that won’t provide the necessary protection needed to view the sun safely without incurring eye damage.

How to spot fake eclipse glasses

The counterfeit glasses might be hard to spot because they include information and even original artwork that suggest they were made by a known reputable manufacturer of the products, but different factories that have yet to be identified actually made them, according to the AAS.

“Until recently, the only counterfeit products we knew of were cardboard-frame eclipse glasses made by an unidentified factory in China but printed with ‘Mfg. by: American Paper Optics’ (APO) on them,” the AAS shared in a news release. “APO is one of the major U.S. manufacturers of safe solar viewers and prints its name and address on its eclipse glasses, whereas the Chinese copycat products have APO’s name but not its address. Thankfully, these particular counterfeits appear to be safe.”

But close tracking by the AAS has revealed that more unidentified factories are producing counterfeit glasses printed with the name and address of a Chinese factory called Cangnan County Qiwei Craft Co., which creates safe products. Some of the fake glasses also include the name or logo of Solar Eclipse International, Canada, which is Qiwei’s North American distributor.

While some of the glasses appear to be safe and are virtually indistinguishable from actual Qiwei products, others have lenses about as dark as sunglasses, which means they aren’t safe to use, according to the AAS.

“Filters that provide safe, comfortable views of the Sun generally transmit between 1 part in 100,000 (0.001%) and 1 part in 2,000,000 (0.00005%) of its visible light,” said Rick Fienberg, project manager of the AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force, in a statement. “Solar filters are at least 1,000 times darker than even the darkest regular sunglasses.”

The AAS has curated a list of safe manufacturers and resellers of eclipse glasses and filters for optical devices, including cameras and smartphones. The AAS task force for the eclipse has confirmed that solar viewers and glasses made by all known manufacturers of the products in the US and across Europe, as well as some Chinese manufacturers, have been tested in a lab.

“We now recommend that if you want to buy solar viewers online, buy only from sites you reach by clicking on the links from our list, or from a seller whose identity you can verify and whose name appears on our list,” according to the AAS. “We recommend not buying eclipse glasses from random sellers in online marketplaces, even if they claim to get their products from a supplier on our list or to be approved by the AAS or NASA. The U.S. space agency doesn’t approve or endorse commercial products, so any claim to the contrary is a warning sign that you’re not dealing with a trustworthy seller. Similarly, if a vendor claims to be on the AAS suppliers list but you can’t find it there, you shouldn’t trust them.”

Tips for safely viewing the eclipse and testing your glasses

For those who didn’t purchase their glasses directly from a vetted vendor on the list, there are ways to test eclipse glasses before April 8.

“There’s no way to tell just by looking at them whether eclipse glasses are genuinely safe,” Fienberg said, “but it’s easy to tell if they are not safe.”

Try on the glasses indoors first. Nothing should be visible through the lenses, and even the brightest lights should only appear very faintly. If furnishings or wall decor are visible through the lenses, these glasses aren’t safe to view the sun.

But if the glasses pass the indoor test, the AAS recommends putting them on outside during a sunny day and looking around. Again, nothing should be visible through the lenses, unless the sun is reflecting off an exceptionally shiny surface, and even then the light will appear faint if the glasses are safe.

If the glasses pass that second test, try looking at the sun through them for less than a second. If the glasses are safe, the sun will appear comfortably bright and likely white, yellow, orange or bluish white.

On the day of the eclipse, stand still and cover your eyes with the glasses or solar viewer before looking up. And never remove the glasses while looking at the sun. For those who wear eyeglasses, wear eclipse glasses on top of them or hold up a handheld viewer in front of them.

And remember to outfit any camera lenses, binoculars or telescopes used to observe the eclipse with the proper solar filters. Never look through an unfiltered optical device of any kind in this situation, even while wearing eclipse glasses.

Avoid eclipse eye damage

It’s only safe to view the eclipse without eye protection when the moon completely blocks the sun from view and no light is visible — and be sure to put your eclipse glasses back on before any light reappears.

Looking at the sun without proper eye protection can result in solar retinopathy, or retinal damage from exposure to solar radiation. While the highly specialized cells inside our eyes don’t feel any pain, the rods and cones and photochemical reactors become inflamed and damaged when looking at the sun, said Ronald Benner, an optometrist and president of the American Optometric Association.

It’s a bit like the effect that occurs when we see a camera flash go off, which can distort our vision for a few minutes before it goes away. But the intensity of solar retinopathy causes permanent damage that won’t be immediately apparent. Overnight, the cells can die, and they won’t be replaced. There is no treatment for solar retinopathy. It can improve or worsen, but it is a permanent condition.

The changes in a person’s vision depend on the type of damage that is done, and these can occur in one or both eyes.

“The retina is an extension of the brain, so it’s actually neurological tissue, and when you damage that, it doesn’t always come back,” Benner said. “If you damage one cell, that cell may never be the same. But if you damage a group of cells, then you’re going to end up with blotchy vision, like having someone dab oil on your windshield. If you just kind of damage them and they don’t completely die, then color vision is going to be altered. What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing other than prevent it.”

If the damage occurs in the center of someone’s vision, it can affect the ability to read or recognize faces, Benner said.

If you experience vision issues or eye discomfort after viewing the eclipse, Benner recommends booking an appointment immediately using the American Optometric Association’s doctor locator. Symptoms may take hours to a few days to manifest, and they include loss of central vision, altered color vision or distorted vision.

“For most people, it’s an alteration of color vision,” Benner said. “The next morning, colors just don’t look right, or it may be bleached out it or just kind of hazy all the time. For others, it may be that they actually have holes in their vision.”

And always keep an eye on children wearing eclipse glasses to make sure they don’t take them off and look directly at the sun. Benner advises that parents talk to their children on how and when they can view the eclipse and when they can take their glasses on and off. And if parents worry that their kids may take off their glasses at the wrong moment, make plans to watch the eclipse on TV or use the pinhole projection method to view the eclipse indirectly.

“Make sure that you’re protecting not just yourself, but more importantly your children,” Benner said. “If your child experiences eye damage, they have to live with it the rest of their life. And they may not be able to tell you, ‘I’m not seeing clearly out of one eye.’”

A decision by the United Nations to appoint Saudi Arabia as the chair of a gender equality forum has been criticized by women’s rights advocates.

The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) unanimously appointed Saudi Arabia to chair its 69th session in 2025, according to the Saudi Arabia Mission to the UN. Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, was elected as chair Wednesday.

Ahead of the decision, Amnesty International Deputy Director for Advocacy Sherine Tadros called out Saudi Arabia for its notorious treatment of women.

“The Commission on the Status of Women has a clear mandate to promote women’s rights and gender equality and it is vital for the chair of the commission to uphold this. Saudi Arabia’s abysmal record when it comes to protecting and promoting the rights of women puts a spotlight on the vast gulf between the lived reality for women and girls in Saudi Arabia, and the aspirations of the commission,” Tadros said Friday.

“Saudi Arabia cannot prove its commitment to women’s rights merely by securing a leadership role in the commission. It must demonstrate its commitment through concrete actions domestically,” Tadros added.

Human Rights Watch also warned about the UN decision, saying last week that “Saudi Arabia systematically discriminates against women and persecutes women’s rights activists.”

But Saudi Arabia says it is eager to help women by working with the CSW as part of its new vision for the kingdom.

“The kingdom’s chairmanship of the committee comes as an affirmation of its interest in cooperation within the framework of the international community in enhancing women’s rights and empowerment, and it is also in line with the qualitative achievements achieved by the kingdom in this field, thanks to the special attention and care the kingdom’s leadership pays to (women’s) empowerment and rights,” state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Wednesday.

The Saudi government website “Saudi Vision 2030” says it aims for “a strong, thriving, and stable Saudi Arabia that provides opportunity for all.”

The Saudi Press Agency added, “The Saudi Vision 2030 also included priorities and targets that focused on women’s full participation at all levels and investing their energies in a manner consistent with their enormous capabilities.”