Anwar Abdul Nabi perches on the edge of a bed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Her eyes are sunken with grief.

The young mother tenderly holds the fingers of her daughter, Mila. Just minutes ago, the 7-year-old girl died of starvation.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the militant group Hamas killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others in southern Israel on October 7.

Since then, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 30,717 Palestinians and wounded another 72,156 people, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave, while its siege has drastically diminished vital supplies and left the enclave’s population of some 2.2 million people exposed to high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, according to the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC), which assesses global food insecurity and malnutrition.

At least 20 Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said on Wednesday. The youngest baby who died of starvation in the enclave was one day old, according to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital. The true number could be even higher, as limited access to northern Gaza has hindered the ability of aid agencies to fully assess the situation there. UN experts accused Israel of “intentionally starving” Palestinians in Gaza. Israel insists there is “no limit” on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime on aid trucks has meant that only a tiny fraction of the amount of food and other supplies that used to enter Gaza daily before the war is getting in now.

Children, mothers at risk

One-year-old Watin, in northern Gaza, has grown tired and weak from dehydration. Instead of drinking baby formula, she is surviving on one to two dates a day.

The babies of thousands of women “who are due to give birth in the next month in the Gaza Strip are at risk of dying,” the UNICEF State of Palestine Humanitarian Situation report said on Tuesday. At least 5,500 pregnant women “do not have access to prenatal or postnatal check-ups because of bombings and need to flee for safety,” the report said.

“Anxiety is also leading to premature births,” the report added, citing the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF.) The report also said over 90% of children “aged 6-23 months and pregnant, breastfeeding women face severe food poverty with access to two or fewer food groups per day.”

Food shortages are reportedly the worst in northern Gaza, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war. Child malnutrition in the region is about three times higher than in southern Gaza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Screenings at health facilities there have previously found at least one in six children under the age of two are acutely malnourished, said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the territory. He warned those figures are “likely to be greater today.” Pregnant and breastfeeding women also face “grave threats to their health” caused by malnutrition, the Global Nutrition Cluster, an alliance of NGOs, reported in February.

“There are babies who died in their mothers’ wombs, and surgeries were performed to remove the dead fetuses,” he said on Monday. “Mothers are not eating because of the conditions we are living in, and this affects the infants … There are causes of many children suffering from dehydration and malnutrition, leading to death.”

Israel’s bombardment has forcibly displaced at least 1.7 million Palestinians, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Many of those who fled the fighting are crammed into overwhelmed shelters without basic sanitation, leading to the spread of infections. Malnourished children, especially those with severe malnutrition, are at greater risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization.

‘We have become like dogs’

On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt sent 42 tons of medical supplies and food via airplanes in the region, the Emirati Ministry of Defense said. The US military said it had, alongside the Royal Jordanian Air Force, parachuted more than 36,800 meals into northern Gaza that day.

But human rights groups criticized the drops as inefficient and a degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave. Melanie Ward, the CEO of the UK-based NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians, urged Israel to “immediately open all crossings into Gaza for aid workers to assist those in need.”

“Only safe and unfettered access for aid and aid workers, the lifting of the siege, and an immediate ceasefire can end starvation in Gaza,” she said in a statement on Saturday.

Even when aid does make it into the strip, collecting it can be dangerous.

“We thank God that there is humanitarian aid being dropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes,” he said on Tuesday. “I try as much as possible to obtain milk from the planes that drop aid so that we can provide milk for my nieces for as long as possible.

“Planes are dropping aid on northern Gaza, and we have become like dogs, running after a bone.”

The war in Sudan is “triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis,” with more than 25 million people “trapped in a spiral” of food insecurity, a United Nations agency has warned.

Nine in 10 people across the country face “emergency levels of hunger” and are “stuck” in areas “largely inaccessible” due to “relentless violence and interference by the warring parties,” the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said Wednesday.

The war, which has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the UN, has left 18 million people “acutely food insecure” in Sudan and millions more in neighboring South Sudan and Chad.

“Twenty years ago, Darfur was the world’s largest hunger crisis, and the world rallied to respond. But today, the people of Sudan have been forgotten. Millions of lives and the peace and stability of an entire region are at stake,” said Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the WFP.

Thousands of people have been killed and eight million displaced since fighting broke out in April between forces loyal to two rival generals – army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF), and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Both forces and their allied militias have been accused of killing civilians, ransacking houses and ethnic cleansing, leading to accusations of crimes against humanity and fueling the exodus from the East African country.

The WFP said it was now “struggling to keep pace with the significant level of need” and described the humanitarian response in the two neighboring states as “at breaking point.”

The crisis has deepened since the program was forced to halt its operations transporting aid from Chad to Sudan’s western Darfur region after local authorities revoked permission for cross-border truck convoys, according to the WFP. Since August, more than one million people had received WFP aid via the route.

One in five children at transit centers at the main border crossing between Sudan and South Sudan are malnourished, according to the WFP

“Newly arrived displaced people in South Sudan make up 35 percent of those facing catastrophic levels of hunger – the highest possible level – despite accounting for less than 3 percent of the population,” the WFP added.

‘Stomach-churning findings’

The warning from the WFP came as US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the UN had found evidence that girls as young as 14 had been raped by “elements” of the Rapid Support Forces in WFP storage facilities controlled by the paramilitary faction.

Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday read out sections from the UN Panel of Experts’ final report on Sudan, a report she described as “52 pages of stomach-churning findings.”

She said the report claimed that RSF snipers “indiscriminately targeted civilians, including women, pregnant women and young people,” and “schools, hospitals, markets, government buildings and humanitarian assets were looted mostly by RSF and allied militias and destroyed by shelling and bombing by the two warring parties.”

Thomas-Greenfield said the latest report included “gruesome photos” taken in West Darfur “where the RSF has targeted members of the Masalit community.”

“This is just a snapshot of the death, destruction, depravity that has defined this conflict. A conflict that, as this report details, is being fueled by arms transfers from a handful of regional powers. Armed transfers that must stop,” she said, remarking that the international community “is not doing nearly enough” to address the crisis.

“It is my hope that this sobering report will, at long last, shake the world from its indifference to the horrors playing out before our eyes,” she added.

Astronomers have spotted the oldest “dead” galaxy ever observed while studying the cosmos with the James Webb Space Telescope, and it’s one of the deepest views into the distant universe made with the observatory to date.

The galaxy existed when the universe was only about 700 million years into its current age of about 13.8 billion years. But something made the galaxy suddenly halt star formation almost as quickly as star birth had begun more than 13 billion years ago, and the researchers have yet to uncover the cause.

A report describing the discovery appeared Wednesday in the journal Nature. Studying the galaxy could reveal new insights about the early universe and the factors that affect star formation within galaxies, according to the authors.

“The first few hundred million years of the universe was a very active phase, with lots of gas clouds collapsing to form new stars,” said lead study author Tobias Looser, doctoral student in extragalactic astrophysics at the University of Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology, in a statement. “Galaxies need a rich supply of gas to form new stars, and the early universe was like an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

The research team was surprised to find a so-called dead galaxy that essentially lived fast and died young so soon after the big bang that created the universe.

“It’s (usually) only later in the universe that we start to see galaxies stop forming stars, whether that’s due to a black hole or something else,” said study coauthor Dr. Francesco D’Eugenio, astrophysicist and postdoctoral research associate at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, in a statement.

What causes galaxies to die

Star formation ceases when environmental factors starve a galaxy of the gas needed to seed the birth of new stars.

Supermassive black holes or the violent interactions of stars can be the culprits that eject gas from galaxies, bringing star formation to a quick halt. Or, the act of star birth can consume so much gas that there isn’t time for enough to be replenished to ensure the process will continue in the future.

“We’re not sure if any of those scenarios can explain what we’ve now seen with Webb,” said study coauthor Roberto Maiolino, professor of experimental astrophysics at the Cavendish Laboratory and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, in a statement.

“Until now, to understand the early universe, we’ve used models based on the modern universe. But now that we can see so much further back in time, and observe that the star formation was quenched so rapidly in this galaxy, models based on the modern universe may need to be revisited,” Maiolino added.

The Webb observations revealed that the newly discovered galaxy, named JADES-GS-z7-01-QU, experienced a short, energetic burst of star formation that lasted between 30 million and 90 million years before star birth suddenly stopped.

“Everything seems to happen faster and more dramatically in the early universe, and that might include galaxies moving from a star-forming phase to dormant or quenched,” Looser said.

An unusual observation

The dead galaxy revealed by the study is not the first astronomers have come across, but it is the oldest one observed thus far.

What’s more, the galaxy also had a low mass, similar to a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way known as the Small Magellanic Cloud — which is still forming new stars. Previously observed dead galaxies have been much larger, adding another quirk to the Webb discovery.

The newly found galaxy is billions of light-years away from Earth, and a light-year is how far a beam of light travels in a year, or over 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). So Webb is essentially observing the galaxy as it existed in the past — and astronomers have not ruled out the possibility that it may have essentially resurrected and begun star formation anew.

“We’re looking for other galaxies like this one in the early universe, which will help us place some constraints on how and why galaxies stop forming new stars,” D’Eugenio said. “It could be the case that galaxies in the early universe ‘die’ and then burst back to life — we’ll need more observations to help us figure that out.”

Saadi Baraka wakes at dawn and works until dusk, digging on his knees in the dirt as he tries to bury Gaza’s dead with dignity in a cemetery he says has run out of room.

The graveyard at Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, dotted with the green and gray of shrubs and tombs, has been expanded several times in recent months to accommodate the interminable flow of bodies.

Baraka, 64, was a gravedigger long before October 7. But he says the horrors he has seen since then – dismembered children, whole families buried together, graves filled “with tens of people in each” – have been hard to comprehend.

“I try to go to sleep, and I swear I can’t even if I take 2 kilos of sleeping pills,” he said.

Baraka estimates around 85% of those he has buried have been women and children. “They killed all the women. They were all killed because they are the ones that stayed at home,” he said.

Of the thousands of bodies that have poured into his cemetery, he claimed he has buried no more than three Hamas fighters. He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is lying when he says he is killing Hamas.”

Most tombstones are a single concrete block – the same used to build the walls of the grave. Epitaphs are scratched into the concrete with a nail, or simply etched into the wet cement with the tip of a spade.

As Baraka and his men work, they are surrounded by the buzz of Israeli drones and the stench of death.

“Of course it smells, those are mass graves,” he says. He remembers many of the dead by name. “This is the Laghi family, this is the Abu Hasanein family, those are Abu Hattab,” he says, pointing.

While many of the dead have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, which have pummeled Gaza for nearly five months, many are now dying of hunger, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A WHO team said Monday it found “severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed,” during a recent visit to the north of Gaza.

The warning came just days after scores of Palestinians were killed trying to access food in Gaza City on Thursday. At least 118 were killed and 760 injured in an incident where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops used live fire as hungry and desperate Palestinian civilians gathered around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.

After the incident, the US for the first time air-dropped humanitarian aid into Gaza. More than 38,000 meals were dropped Saturday along the Gaza coastline in a combined operation by the US Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force. A further 36,800 were dropped Tuesday, according to CENTCOM.

But Baraka dismissed the operations as a political stunt. “We don’t want them to drop fast food from airplanes. They are showing off.”

Baraka said he worked in Israel for 28 years and wants to live to see an end to generations of violence.

“I only want peace and I see no other solution. We should live as one and that’s it. It’s enough with all those wars,” he said.

He said he supports “two states for two people living together with love,” but warned that Israel’s attempt to “destroy” Hamas will not bring this about.

“You are wasting your time, Netanyahu,” Baraka says in Arabic, before switching to Hebrew. “If you want to finish Hamas – I tell you in Hebrew so you can hear me – you are wasting your time.”

The shooting took place at the Kuwait Roundabout on Rasheed Street in Gaza City shortly before midnight, said one eyewitness, who had traveled there to try to get flour.

The incident came just days after one of the worst single tragedies to occur during Israel’s war with Hamas, when scores of Palestinians were killed trying to access food aid in Gaza City.

It is unclear if there were any casualties in Monday’s incident. Overnight data from the health ministry did not specify.

Israel has for months limited the flow of aid into Gaza, however some trucks have been allowed into the northern part of the strip where hunger is most acute. Amid a collapse of public authority in Gaza, the arrival of aid trucks has sparked chaos and disorder that often leaves thousands at risk of harm during the distribution.

Thousands of residents of northern Gaza often travel for miles to wait for hours in the hope of receiving some of the limited aid entering the enclave. Many leave with nothing.

The World Health Organization on Monday warned that a growing number of children in Gaza are dying of starvation and dehydration. A WHO team found “severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies,” during a recent visit to sites in northern Gaza.

After last week’s deadly aid delivery, the United States for the first time air-dropped humanitarian aid into Gaza. More than 38,000 meals were dropped Saturday along the Gaza coastline in a combined operation by the US Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force. A further 36,800 were dropped Tuesday, according to US Central Command.

The growing risk of starvation in Gaza has reinforced the urgency of ongoing ceasefire talks. US Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday called for an “immediate ceasefire” to last at least six weeks, saying Palestinians in the enclave are “starving” because of “inhumane” conditions and urging Israel to provide more aid.

Ceasefire talks between mediators and Hamas are continuing in Cairo but there are “difficulties,” Egyptian state media Al Qahera News reported, citing a senior source. The source denied that talks had broken down, as some media organizations earlier reported.

Talks have failed to make significant headway, and it’s unclear how much progress can be made at all, as Israel has not sent a delegation there.

Maldives on Tuesday said China will provide it with “military assistance,” in the latest sign that the Indian Ocean archipelago’s pro-China shift is well under way following the election of President Mohamed Muizzu last year.

The Maldivian Defense Ministry said it signed an agreement with Beijing Monday “on China’s provision of military assistance” and that the deal would foster “stronger bilateral ties,” according to a post on social media site X.

Details of what the assistance would entail were not released but the ministry said the deal was “gratis” — or given for free.

The move is part of a push by President Muizzu since taking office in November to develop closer relations with China, following his “India Out” election campaign that promised to remove Indian troops from Maldivian soil and reassert “lost” national sovereignty.

In January, Muizzu set a deadline of March 15 for the complete withdrawal of Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago nation, according to the president’s office. An update from his office last month said negotiations had agreed troops would leave in stages, with the first withdrawing before March 10 and the rest before May 10.

According to Reuters, there are 77 Indian soldiers and 12 medical personnel from the Indian armed forces in Maldives. India has also given Maldives two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft, which are mainly used for marine surveillance, search and rescue operations and medical evacuations, Reuters reported.

The new deal with China marks a significant shift in Maldives’ foreign policy from Muizzu’s pro-India predecessor, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

The tiny South Asian nation is regarded internationally as a tourist destination popular for its white sand beaches and turquoise lagoons.

But the archipelago of nearly 1,200 low-lying coral islands, with a population of fewer than half a million people, spreads over a swathe of strategically important waters and shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.

Given their geographic proximity and strong historic and economic ties, India was for decades Maldives’ closest partner and New Delhi viewed the region as part of its traditional sphere of influence.

But Maldives has long found itself in the middle of a geopolitical tussle with both India and China vying for influence.

China has increasingly expanded its footprint in Maldives, most visibly through large-scale infrastructure projects such as the $200 million China-Maldives Friendship Bridge.

In January, Muizzu traveled to Beijing for a state visit and the two countries signed 20 agreements that included cooperation on infrastructure, trade, economy, green development, grants, and other development projects.

That includes about $127 million in aid to develop roads in the capital Male and build 30,000 social housing units, according to a news release from the president’s office.

During the trip, Muizzu hailed China as “one of the closest allies and developmental partners of Maldives.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Tuesday that Beijing is “committed to working with the Maldives to build a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.”

“Normal cooperation between China and the Maldives does not target any third party and will not be disrupted by any third party,” she said.

In his presidential address on February 5, Muizzu said Maldives must fortify its military capabilities and its defense force was about to achieve round-the-clock surveillance capabilities over the nation’s 900,000 square kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone.

The government will also not renew an agreement that enables foreign countries to measure and map the oceans and coasts of Maldives, he said.

As dawn slowly broke on the horizon, a large fleet of Chinese vessels came into view from the deck of a Philippine Coast Guard ship as it entered the contested waters of the South China Sea.

Significantly outnumbered by the number of Chinese vessels, the four ships in the Philippine convoy on a resupply mission to troops were quickly surrounded and separated during a frantic high seas skirmish on Tuesday morning.

Within just a few hours, the window of one Philippine boat would be shattered by water cannon and four sailors aboard would be injured.

China’s determination to assert its disputed sovereignty over the entirety of the vast South China Sea has sparked increasing clashes with its neighbors in recent years, particularly the Philippines, which is a mutual defense ally of the United States.

The Philippine ship tried to find safe passage through myriad China Coast Guard ships as well as fishing vessels that form part of China’s shadowy “maritime militia” blocking their path.

The Philippines accused the China Coast Guard ships of colliding with two of their vessels, causing damage to their exteriors. One of the smaller Philippine boats was also hit by water cannons from two Chinese vessels, shattering the windshield and leaving the crew on board with injuries.

China countered that its coast guard vessels “took control measures” against Philippine ships that it claimed “illegally intruded” into its sovereign territory. It said the damaged Philippine ship ignored repeated warnings and “deliberately rammed” into a China Coast Guard vessel in what it said was an “unprofessional and dangerous manner.”

Resupply for a crumbling wreck

Their mission was to resupply a small group of marines living on a World War II-era ship grounded on an obscure contested reef.

Missions like this have become one of the most regular causes of direct confrontations between the Philippines and its giant neighbor China, which has built up the world’s largest navy. What happens among the tiny islands, reefs and atolls of this corner of the globe could have profound international repercussions and become a major global flashpoint.

Departing the sleepy port of Bulilyan on the southern tip of the Philippines’ Palawan Island, two Philippine Coast Guard ships embarked on a 13-hour overnight journey north to the Sabina Shoal, where they met up with two smaller resupply vessels staffed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, transporting food, water and other essentials.

The coast guard ships then tried to escort the smaller vessels as they navigated the disputed waters on a four-hour steam toward the next location.

Their target was the Sierra Madre, a rusted ship that rests on a strategically vital shoal that has become the epicenter of this simmering confrontation.

The US-built Philippine Navy landing craft was run aground deliberately in 1999, with a national flag hoisted on board. Since then, rotating detachments of Filipino marines have been living on board, hunkering down through tropical heat, typhoons and long spells away from home in a bid to assert territorial rights and prevent any Chinese development there.

The vessel rests atop a contested reef, which even has a name that is under dispute. Though internationally known as the Second Thomas Shoal, the Philippines call the reef Ayungin Shoal, and China refers to it as Ren’ai Jiao.

The teardrop-shaped reef forms part of the contested Spratly islands – which are all claimed by China. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also made territorial claims to some of the shoals.

During the confrontation, Filipino crews counted a total of five China Coast Guard vessels, 18 boats belonging to Beijing’s “maritime militia” – and at a further distance, two Chinese naval vessels and a military helicopter, said Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela on Wednesday.

“The Philippines is solely responsible for this,” China’s Coast Guard said. “The Philippines is dishonest in its statements, deliberately stirs up trouble, maliciously incites and sensationalizes, and continues to undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea region.”

China’s Foreign Ministry has lodged a solemn representation with the Philippines to extend its “strongest protest,” spokesperson Mao Ning said in a regular press briefing Tuesday.

In December, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the Philippines of making repeated provocations and infringing on China’s sovereignty. Earlier in 2023, China also accused the Philippines of attempting to deliver “construction materials” to reinforce the Sierra Madre, which meant “the Chinese side was made to respond with necessary moves” adding that the China Coast Guard “took warning law enforcement measures.”

Fighting over reefs and atolls

At first glance it’s hard to imagine why these remote, unpopulated reefs and atolls are so hotly contested – but they lie in a strategic location in Asia’s main shipping lane, which has more than $3.4 trillion in trade passing through it every year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) China Power Project.

Over the last few decades, China has built up tiny reefs and sandbars far from its shores across the waterway into artificial islands heavily fortified with missiles, runways and weapons systems – sparking outcry from the other claimants.

The Philippines says the development of Mischief Reef, close to Second Thomas Shoal, was what originally prompted them to ground the Sierra Madre.

In 2016, in a case brought by the Philippines, an international tribunal in the Hague ruled that China’s claim to historic rights to the bulk of the sea had no legal basis.

But Beijing has rejected the tribunal’s ruling and continued its military buildup, with many features lying hundreds of miles away from China’s mainland. It also maintains a large presence of coast guard and fishing vessels – which has frequently stoked tensions with its neighbors.

China’s Foreign Ministry has long defended the behavior of its vessels in the South China Sea and said Beijing will “firmly safeguard” what it views as its territorial sovereignty. It insists that the Philippines is illegally occupying the Second Thomas Shoal.

The US military also maintains a regular presence in the South China Sea, with aircraft overflights, so-called “freedom of navigation” operations, and patrols and exercises with allies and partners to assert that the South China Sea is an international waterway.

Since his election in 2021, Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., has taken a stronger line against China, in a departure from the foreign policy approach of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who trod much more softly with Beijing in return for economic cooperation.

Last week, Marcos Jr. told Australian lawmakers that his country is on the “front line” of maritime disputes and “will not yield” an inch of territory.

The Philippines ambassador to the US, Jose Manuel Romualdez, also said last week that the South China Sea – not Taiwan – is the “real flashpoint” for an armed conflict in the region, and warned that “all hell breaks loose” if Washington decides to invoke its mutual defense treaty to protect Manila, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.

Diplomacy has taken place between the two sides, with a bilateral meeting held in Shanghai between China and the Philippines late January and both sides agreeing to calm tensions and find ways to communicate over their differences.

But the reality out at sea is quite different.

Rats and roaches

For the Filipinos who conduct this resupply mission every month, the maritime confrontations with China have become routine.

The missions are exhausting and dangerous, and often carried out in sweltering temperatures, but there’s a sense of pride among the crew, who believe they are trying to protect their nation’s territory. They call themselves “Coast Guardians.”

Tarriela, the Coast Guard spokesperson, said a China Coast Guard vessel had come within 20 yards (60 feet) of the Cabra.

The women and the officers on board stay in bunk rooms, and the rest of the crew sleep in a communal room below deck, which also doubles up as the dining hall – unfortunately making it a favorite spot for cockroaches.

But the living conditions on the coast guard vessel are still far better than on the wreck of the Sierra Madre.

They caught their own fish and cooked them on board for most of their meals, and they tried to create a makeshift gym using random items on the deck as weights.

To make their time a little easier, care packages are sometimes airdropped into the ocean – in 2014, that included letters of support from schoolchildren, and fried chicken from the Philippine fast food institution Jollibee.

The marines, who usually carry out a 90-day deployment on the ship, are sometimes rotated out during the resupply missions at sea – with a successful rotation carried out on Tuesday, said Tarriela.

During the mission, only one of the two resupply boats successfully made it to the Sierra Madre due to the Chinese maritime blockade, reducing their supplies until next month’s attempted mission – which will likely face the same confrontations with China. Still, the fact that they managed to deliver supplies at all made the trip “a success,” Tarriela said.

A US warship, the USS Mobile, was spotted on the Philippine crews’ journey out on Monday evening, ahead of the confrontation with Beijing, said Tarriela. However, he said, the Philippines did not coordinate with the US during the operation.

After the clash on Tuesday, the US released a statement saying it “stands with our ally the Philippines following (China’s) provocative actions against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the South China Sea on March 5.”

It also pointed to its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, which it said “extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – including those of its Coast Guard – anywhere in the South China Sea.”

‘Gray zone’ tactics

Analysts say China employs “gray zone” tactics around Second Thomas shoal, carrying out actions just below what might be considered acts of war but that achieve the same result: Beijing gaining territory or control without firing a shot.

But Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said it may be time for the US to reevaluate what constitutes an act of war after watching the video of the water cannon smashing the Philippine vessel’s windows.

“Without clarifying what ‘armed attack’ constitutes, this episode will keep recurring since Beijing senses impunity,” Koh said.

Ray Powell, director of SeaLight at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, said the onus is on Philippine partners and allies, like the US, to take new actions to push back on China.

“Will the US, its allies, other members of the international community, will they get together and say something more than finger-wagging has to happen here?” Powell said.

“Because we’ve tried that, and it doesn’t seem to be discouraging or deterring China at all.”

When a total solar eclipse creates a spectacle in the skies over Mexico and North America on April 8, it will mark the first time such an event has occurred in this part of the world for nearly seven years — and the last time one will until 2044.

Total solar eclipses happen when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun’s face. But these celestial events aren’t all exactly alike.

While April’s eclipse has a path similar to the one that occurred on August 21, 2017, albeit moving in the opposite direction and covering more ground, there are quite a few differences between the two that make 2024’s occurrence one to anticipate, according to NASA. One key factor that sets this year’s event apart is who will be able to see it.

NASA estimates that 215 million adults across the US saw the 2017 eclipse directly or virtually.

“This year’s total solar eclipse will be at least partially visible to all in the contiguous United States, making it the most accessible eclipse this nation has experienced in this generation,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.

A longer, more visible eclipse

More people will be able to see the 2024 eclipse because the path of totality, or locations where people will witness the moon’s shadow completely covering the sun, will be wider. The moon’s distance from Earth varies as it orbits our planet, and during the 2017 total solar eclipse, the moon was farther away from Earth and caused the area of totality to be narrower, extending from about 62 to 71 miles (100 to 114 kilometers) wide.

But the moon will be closer to our planet during this year’s event, so the path its shadow will follow over North America is expected to stretch about 108 to 122 miles (174 to 196 kilometers) wide.

The path of the 2024 eclipse also passes over more densely populated areas and major cities than before. Only 12 million people lived within the area of totality for the 2017 eclipse, while nearly 32 million are in the 2024 path, and 150 million people live within 200 miles (322 kilometers) of it.

People outside the path of totality will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse, where the moon only blocks part of the sun’s face. A whopping 99% of those living across the US, including parts of Hawaii and Alaska, will be able to glimpse at least a partial solar eclipse without having to travel.

April’s eclipse will also have longer period of totality than 2017 because of the moon’s proximity to Earth. Totality is one of the shortest phases of an eclipse, and its duration is dependent on viewing location. Observers closest to the center of the path will experience the longest totality, and the length of that window decreases closer to the path’s edge.

In 2017, skygazers glimpsing the longest totality experienced it for two minutes and 42 seconds near Carbondale, Illinois.

This year, an area about 25 minutes northwest of Torreón, Mexico, will offer the longest totality at four minutes and 28 seconds, but people across Texas and even as far north as Economy, Indiana, will see totality that lasts longer than four minutes. And when the eclipse crosses into Canada, viewers can still expect to see totality for 3 minutes and 21 seconds.

The longest period of totality in recent history was seven minutes and 8 seconds, and it occurred west of the Philippines on June 20, 1955, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Want to know what you’ll see during the eclipse? Use our interactive map to determine where you’ll be in the path. And don’t forget to grab a pair of eclipse glasses to safely watch the event.

The great solar experiment

While the eclipse is a treat for sky-gazers, the event also offers scientists an opportunity to study the sun in unique ways. And April’s eclipse will allow scientists a special glimpse of the sun during one of its most active periods, called solar maximum.

The sun experiences a regular 11-year cycle of waxing and waning activity tied to when the star’s magnetic field flips. The 2017 eclipse occurred as the sun neared solar minimum, when the star experiences less activity.

Experts have predicted that solar maximum, the peak of solar magnetic field activity, will occur later this year. Scientists anticipate that exciting features resembling loops, streamers and bright curls will be visible in the sun’s hot outer atmosphere, known as the corona, when the moon blocks the star’s surface from view during the upcoming eclipse. The corona, which is fainter than the surface of the sun, is easier to see during an eclipse, allowing scientists to study it in greater detail.

It’s also possible that an eruption of material from the sun’s surface, called a coronal mass ejection, might be visible during the eclipse.

Several experiments will fly aboard NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft during the eclipse to study the corona with the hopes of capturing new details about its structure across different wavelengths of light.

Scientists have voted against a proposal to declare a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene to reflect how profoundly human activity has altered the planet.

The vote followed a 15-year process to select a geological site that best captures humanity’s impact on the planet. The international union’s Anthropocene Working Group, which spearheaded the effort, made a July 2023 announcement that identified the location as Crawford Lake in Ontario because of the way sediment from the lake bed reveals the geochemical traces of nuclear bomb tests, specifically plutonium, from 1950.

The vote was not unanimous, said Kim Cohen, an assistant professor of geosciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a voting member of the subcommission.
“There were some abstainees. There was a minority of yeses to a majority of nos,” said Cohen, who voted in favor of the proposal.

Phil Gibbard, a professor emeritus of quaternary paleoenvironments at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and a voting member of the subcommission, said that the “proposal for a formal Anthropocene was rejected by a 66% vote.”

‘Very disappointing’

The geologic time scale provides the official framework for our understanding of Earth’s 4.5 billion-year history. Geologists break down our planet’s history into eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages — with an eon being the largest chunk of time and an age the shortest.

While few scientists doubt the impact humans have made on the planet, the geological community was divided about whether the changes rose to the level of epoch, suggesting it was too soon in geological terms for such a declaration.

Some experts argued that the start of the Anthropocene could be better defined in other ways, such as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Others have suggested the impact of humans on Earth was better classified as a geological event that unfolds gradually over a long period of time.

Colin Waters, the chair of the AWG who led the development of the proposal to make the Anthropocene an official part of Earth’s geological history, said the outcome of the vote was “very disappointing.”

“We have as a group many eminent researchers in their field of expertise who wish to carry on as a group, in an informal capacity, that will continue to argue the case that the evidence for the Anthropocene as an epoch should be formalised, as consistent with the scientific data presented in the submission,” said Waters, an honorary professor at the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University of Leicester, via email.

“If the above vote is confirmed … then the current proposal cannot progress, but given the existing evidence, which continues to grow, I would not be surprised if there is a future call for a proposal to be reconsidered,” he said.

The term ‘Anthropocene’ is in wide use

The proposal will not go any further at this stage, said David Harper, a professor emeritus of paleontology at Durham University and the chair of the International Committee of Stratigraphy, which would have held a vote on the proposal if the subcommission had passed it.

The committee is also part of the International Union of Geological Sciences, which represents more than 1 million geoscientists around the world.

“This is the commission’s expert group for this interval of geological time and we are bound by its decision. The current proposal will proceed no further according to our statutes,” Harper said via email, adding that he hadn’t been officially informed of the decision and wouldn’t comment any further.

Cohen said there were several arguments both for and against the proposal raised during the six-week period of discussion by the subcommission, but declined to give further detail. Regardless of whether the term is officially classified as a geological epoch, Anthropocene is already widely in use, Cohen noted.

“Everybody talks about it already. In journals, many people use it. But in geology, not so many as all the other sciences,” he said.

Hamas said Tuesday there could be no “exchange of prisoners” before a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as it responded to proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

“The security and safety of our people will not be achieved except through a permanent ceasefire, the end of the aggression, [Israel’s] withdrawal from every inch in Gaza…and the entry of aid to our people in Gaza is our utmost priority,” Hamas senior leader Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.

“Any prisoner exchange will not be completed except after the completion of all this.”

Hamas’ response comes as negotiators race to reach a deal that would pair a pause in fighting with the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Whether that deadline can be met remains uncertain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously ruled out stoping the military campaign before Hamas is completely destroyed.

Hamdan on Tuesday also accused Israel of stalling on reaching an agreement and warned that the negotiations would not be “open-ended” as Israel continues its offensive in Gaza.

“We have affirmed our conditions for a ceasefire: complete withdrawal from the sector, the return of displaced persons to the areas they left, especially in the north, and the provision of sufficient aid, relief, and reconstruction,” he said.

Reuters and Al Jazeera reported last week that Hamas was reviewing a draft proposal for an initial ceasefire lasting roughly six weeks, during which 40 Israeli hostages would be exchanged for 400 Palestinian prisoners.

Hamdan’s response came just hours after US President Joe Biden said a potential ceasefire was “in the hands of Hamas” as he boarded Air Force One at Hagerstown airport.

Biden said the “Israelis have been cooperating” and that a ceasefire is necessary.

“We need a ceasefire,” he said, calling the deal on the table a “rational offer” and saying the Israelis had agreed to it.

“We have to see what Hamas does,” he said.

Race against the clock

The Biden administration has been racing against the clock to secure a ceasefire before Ramadan, which is expected to begin March 10, fearing any aggressive military push by Israel during the Muslim holy month would only further inflame tensions across the region.

Biden said Tuesday that without a deal by Ramadan, the situation in Israel and specifically Jerusalem would be “very, very dangerous.”

When Biden was asked about his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said it was “like it’s always been.” And he repeated his assertion there were “no excuses” for Israel not to allow more aid into Gaza.

The US has become increasingly vocal about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where the United Nations warns hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine and US ally Israel continues to obstruct the bulk of aid deliveries.

On Saturday, the US made its first humanitarian airdrop into the strip — 66 bundles containing meals but no water or medical supplies, a US official said. Aid groups have criticized the air drops as an ineffective and degrading way to get aid to Palestinians in Gaza, with the International Crisis Group’s UN director saying they are at best a “temporary Band-Aid measure.”

One of the strongest rebukes of Israel by a US official to date came from US Vice President Kamala Harris, who on Sunday forcefully called for more humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying that people in the region are “starving” in the face of “inhumane” conditions and urged Israel to do more.

This is a developing story and will be updated.