A Thai court on Wednesday ordered the kingdom’s most popular political party to end its campaign to amend the country’s notoriously strict royal defamation law, dashing its supporters hopes for reform of the powerful monarchy.

The Constitutional Court in Bangkok ruled the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the most seats in last year’s election, violated the constitution through its campaign to amend the lese majeste law.

It ruled Move Forward and its leaders, including former prime ministerial hopeful Pita Limjaroenrat, sought to overthrow the constitutional monarchy through their actions.

The ruling is considered a blow to the Southeast Asian country’s reform movement and the millions of young people who delivered a crushing defeat to the conservative, military-backed establishment by voting for change.

And analysts say it opens the door for further prosecutions to be brought, which could ultimately see Thailand’s most successful party at the last election dissolved, and bans and criminal charges levied at its leaders.

In its ruling, the court said many Move Forward lawmakers had campaigned to abolish the lese majeste law, face charges under the royal defamation legislation, or used their position to bail out others charged under it.

The court ordered the party to “stop any act, opinion expression via speech, writing, publishing or advertisement or conveying any message in other forms” with the aim to abolish or amend the law.

The ruling could now ensure that no party or person would legally be able to push for amendments to lese majeste, known as Section 112, without violating the constitution.

“This would effectively mean that the lese majeste law would become untouchable,” said Munin Pongsapan, associate professor at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Law. “The only way to amend it would be to get rid of the current constitution and draft a new one that reduces the Constitutional Court’s power and jurisdiction.”

Munin added that such a ruling “would severely violate the constitution itself that it meddles with the parliament’s sovereign legislative power.”

But Move Forward lawmaker Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn said on social media platform X that the reform movement would continue whatever happened to the party.

“Regarding party dissolution, I have never been worried, I would say, I simply shrug my shoulders since in my heart the word ‘party’ has already become an ideology. Dissolved or not, we will continue,” he said.

Thailand has some of the world’s strictest lese majeste laws, and criticizing the king, queen, or heir apparent can lead to a maximum 15-year prison sentence for each offense — which makes even talking about the royal family fraught with risk.

Sentences for those convicted under lese majeste can be decades long and hundreds of people have been prosecuted in recent years.

Earlier this month, a Thai appeal court extended a man’s prison sentence to a record 50 years for insulting the monarchy, in what is believed to be the toughest penalty ever imposed under the lese majeste law.

Move Forward pledged to reduce lese majeste sentences and limit who can bring forward a case. Anyone – including ordinary citizens – can bring lese majeste charges on behalf of the king, even if they are not directly involved with the case.

For years, human rights organizations and free speech campaigners have said the lese majeste law has been used as a political tool to silence critics of the Thai government.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist from Chulalongkorn University, said Wednesday’s verdict “raises questions about the monarchy’s role in Thailand’s constitutional order.”

“The court decision to uphold the lese majeste law as sacrosanct beyond accountability may suggest that Thailand functions within a monarchical order rather than under a constitution with popular legitimacy.”

Thitinan added that the prosecution of Move Forward “will likely heighten tensions and put the royalist establishment on a collision course with growing demands for reform and progress.”

Protests ignited over similar ruling by same court

Once a taboo subject, the issue of royal reform and amendments to lese majeste has seen a turning point in Thailand since huge youth-led protests in 2020, with people increasingly speaking about the monarchy openly and publicly, despite the legal risks.

Hundreds of thousands of predominantly young people took to the streets in towns and cities across the country, demanding democratic, military and constitutional reforms, as well as reforms to the powerful monarchy.

For the first time, the idea of a sacrosanct monarchy and a king shielded from public scrutiny was openly challenged by a new generation of young Thais.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn ascended to the throne in 2016 after the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who had reigned for seven decades.

Protesters demanding royal reform wanted to abolish the lese majeste law, and to ensure the king is answerable to the constitution, with protesters scrutinizing Vajiralongkorn’s immense wealth and power.

The catalyst for those protests was a similar ruling made by the same court four years ago.

Move Forward’s predecessor, the Future Forward Party, came out of nowhere to win the third most seats in the 2019 election.

But shortly afterward, several of the party’s leaders were banned from politics and the party was later dissolved after the Constitutional Court ruled it had violated electoral finance rules.

Many of those who took part in the protests now face lese majeste charges and long jail sentences and rights groups say the right to freedom of expression in Thailand has come under increased attack since 2020.

Legal Rights group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said that since the start of those protests in July 2020, at least 1,938 people have been prosecuted for their participation in political assemblies, with at least 262 people charged with lese majeste during that time.

Little hope of change for ‘lost generation’

Move Forward won the most seats and the largest share of the popular vote in the May, 2023 election.

The result was a decisive victory for progressive parties and delivered a crushing blow to the conservative, military-backed establishment that has ruled on and off for decades, often by turfing out popularly elected governments in coups.

But Move Forward was prevented from forming a government because it failed to win enough support for its royal reform agenda in parliament, which heavily favors the establishment under a political system implemented by the previous ruling military junta.

Pita then resigned as leader of the party, which is now in opposition.

Thailand’s turbulent political history has previously seen parties that have pushed for change run afoul of the powerful establishment – a nexus of the military, monarchy and influential elites.

Lawmakers have faced bans, parties have been dissolved, and governments have been overthrown. Thailand has witnessed a dozen successful coups since 1932, including two in the past two decades.

The purportedly independent election commission, anti-corruption commission and the Constitutional Court are all dominated by members in favor of the establishment.

Wednesday’s ruling will likely only further entrench that feeling for many young supporters that there is little hope for change within Thailand’s political system.

Concern is mounting for thousands of sheep and cattle stranded off the coast of Australia after authorities ordered the Israeli-owned ship transporting the live cargo to turn around over fears it could be targeted by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

More than 16,000 animals are aboard the MV Bahijah anchored off Western Australia, where sweltering heat is adding to pressure on the Australian government to decide whether to re-export the live cargo or allow the vessel back to dock following more than three weeks at sea.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said on Wednesday it was considering a request from the exporter to offload some of the animals, before re-exporting the remainder.

Animal welfare advocates say they should be offloaded as a matter of urgency.

Australia’s live export trade has long been a point of friction between the industry and those who say it prioritizes revenue over animal welfare.

The Australian government has pledged to end the live export of sheep but has yet to give a timetable about when that will happen.

A long journey

The MV Bahijah left the port of Fremantle in Western Australia on January 5 for the Middle East, according to a statement from the Australian government.

A crisis has enveloped the region’s vital Red Sea shipping lane in recent weeks, as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attack commercial vessels in what they say is retaliation against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

Fifteen days into the ship’s voyage, a request to divert the vessel around Africa, as other ships have done to evade Houthi missiles and drones, was rejected. 
 
“To ensure the health and welfare of the livestock on the MV Bahijah, the department directed the exporter that the consignment be immediately returned to Australia,” said a government statement on January 20.

Earlier this week, the government said it was working with the exporter on a plan, but by Wednesday, as summer temperatures rose, no decision had been made.

John Hassell, president of the Western Australian Farmers Federation (WAFarmers), which represents the state’s agricultural industry, said a decision should have been made days ago.

“I would have thought the department should have had its stuff sorted out well before it got here,” he said. “If the animals are in good nick, if there’s no disease if there’s plenty of space, we’ll (resupply the ship) and turn it away,” he said. “It should have been gone by now.”

“I’m comfortable that the sheep are in the shade sitting down, chewing their cud in the warm parts of the day and eating when it’s cooler, like they do on the farm,” Hassell said.

“Grave” concerns

However, Suzanne Fowler, Chief Science Officer with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), said it’s a matter of urgency that all animals are offloaded.

“These animals have now been on board the ship for a minimum of 26 days. The temperature in Perth is starting to touch 40 degrees (102 Fahrenheit) today,” she said.

“The evidence tells us that the welfare of the animals is only going to get worse and worse over the coming days due to the amount of time they’ve spent on the ship. So, it’s very urgent and we couldn’t be more gravely concerned.”

Hassell, from WAFarmers, said offloading the animals would only cause them more stress.

If allowed to disembark, the animals would be governed by Australia’s strict biosecurity system, which is designed to assure importing countries that the country’s livestock is disease-free.

Mark Harvey-Sutton, CEO of the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council, said any animals taken off the boat would be placed into quarantine before being re-exported or killed in an Australian abattoir.

“They would essentially be in quarantine indefinitely until a market was found for them. There’s no two weeks quarantine and you’re out sort of thing.”

Hassell said the only reason some animals would be offloaded would be to create space for the return journey.

“If the animals have gotten bigger and fatter on the trip over and require more space, then that’s why they’ll be offloaded,” he said.

The RSPCA has requested permission for an independent veterinarian to board the ship to assess the animals.

Fowler said while the livestock may not be showing signs of illness now, it’s only a matter of time.

“The stress of the animals is only going to yield in the coming days and that sense of fatigue where they can’t cope anymore, will only worsen,” she said. A lot of these diseases you won’t see until it’s too late.”

Pakistan’s incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption, his Pakistan Tehreef-e-Insaaf (PTI) party said Wednesday, in the second legal blow to beset the beleaguered politician this week.

Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were convicted by the National Accountability Bureau in a case related to the unlawful sale of state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Khan, who has been jailed since August on several charges, has also been barred from holding office for 10 years, the PTI said. Bibi was taken into police custody shortly after the sentencing, the party added.

Wednesday’s sentencing comes almost one week away from a general election expected on February 8 and just a day after Khan was handed a 10-year sentence for leaking state secrets. He will be allowed to serve his sentences concurrently.

Pakistan’s upcoming election is seen by many analysts as one of the least credible in the country’s nearly 77-year history, owing to the military’s crackdown on Khan and his aides.

Khan maintains widespread popularity among Pakistan’s largely young voters, who view him as a clean break from the political dynasties or military establishments that ruled the South Asian nation for much of its independent history.

The former star cricketer turned politician rose to power on a ticket of anti-corruption in 2018, but has been embroiled in political controversy since he was dramatically ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022.

That moment set the stage for a months-long showdown between Khan and the powerful military, who he accused of orchestrating his removal. The military denies Khan’s accusations.

One of the few politicians to challenge Pakistan’s army generals, Khan drew tens of thousands to nationwide rallies that became a fixture in Pakistan’s volatile political scene, with public anger reverberating across the country against the ruling dispensation.

In response, the military responded by launching a widespread crackdown on Khan and his party members, intimidating many into silence, banning them from leaving the country, and arresting others on various charges.

The PTI has been prohibited from using its famous cricket bat symbol on ballots and TV stations are banned from running Khan’s speeches.

“Another sad day in our judicial system history, which is being dismantled,” the PTI said of Wednesday’s sentencing, adding “this ridiculous decision will also be challenged.”

Khan was sentenced to three years in prison and barred from holding office for five years last August in the same case by the Election Commission of Pakistan. That conviction was later suspended.

He maintains the charges against him are politically motivated, an allegation authorities deny.

This story has been updated.

The main pro-union party in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said Tuesday it had reached a deal with the UK government that would end its near two-year government boycott and mark a return to power-sharing in the province.

Jeffrey Donaldson, leader of the pro-UK DUP, made the announcement at a press conference in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The move could see the first minister position filled by a member of the nationalist Sinn Féin party for the first time since the power-sharing arrangement was put in place as part of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Sinn Féin won the most seats in the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2022.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for almost two years since the DUP walked out in February 2022, ostensibly in protest against trade rules put in place after the UK left the EU in 2020.

Brexit put strain on the carefully calibrated power-sharing deal that was intended to help maintain peace in Northern Ireland, which was wracked by a bitter sectarian conflict known as the Troubles between the 1960s and the negotiated peace of 1998. More than 3,500 people were killed in the violence, and about 47,500 people were injured.

Post-Brexit trade rules imposed customs checks on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the UK’s mainland.

A deal known as the Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed to allow Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, to remain within the EU market so that it could trade goods freely across its land border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state.

The adoption of the protocol infuriated unionist politicians in Belfast who claimed the move created a trade barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, therefore undermining its position within the union. Since then, the DUP has refused to return to government with the pro-Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin.

Unionists in Northern Ireland, like the DUP, are in favor of remaining in the United Kingdom, whereas nationalists, like Sinn Féin, are in favor of the unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.

Post-Brexit deal reached

At a press conference on Tuesday, Donaldson said his party had concluded that a package of new measures provides a basis for the DUP to nominate members to the Northern Ireland executive (the province’s governing body).

He added this would be subject to commitments between the DUP and the UK government in Westminster being “fully and faithfully delivered as agreed.”

“I believe that a clear decision has been made tonight… And I believe that in that decision, we have a basis for moving forward, provided and subject to the [UK] government honouring its commitments,” said Donaldson.

Donaldson went on to say the package “safeguards Northern Ireland’s place in the Union and will restore our place within the UK internal market,” adding it will also remove checks for goods moving within the UK and remaining in Northern Ireland, and will end the province “automatically following future EU laws.”

He said the new legislation will guarantee “unfettered access” for Northern Ireland businesses for the rest of the UK.

Speaking to BBC Radio on Tuesday, Donaldson said he expected the full details of the decision – comprising of both constitutional legislation and practical arrangements – to be published as early as Wednesday once the UK government finalizes details.

He added the devolved government could return to Stormont – Northern Ireland’s seat of power – within days “if the (UK) government moves with the speed that I believe they can.”

What’s next?

After the deal is published and the legislation is passed, this could lead to a recall of the Northern Ireland Assembly, which would need to see assembly members elect a new speaker.

Once a speaker is elected, the political parties that are entitled to jointly lead the executive will put forward their nominees to lead as first minister. The executive is the body that makes decisions in Northern Ireland.

For the first time, Sinn Féin will nominate a first minister because it won the most seats in the election last year.

The DUP will also nominate a deputy first minister. Donaldson will not be nominated because he resigned his assembly seat when the party walked out of the government two years ago.

A ‘significant step’

The prime ministers of Ireland and the United Kingdom both said they were “hopeful” that the deal with the DUP would help restore power-sharing.

Downing Street said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was “confident that the steps taken pave the way for the restoration of power-sharing,” while the office of the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) said Leo Varadkar had a “good call” with Sunak and that both leaders hoped this “paves the way for the early restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive and the Assembly.”

The UK’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris welcomed the move as a “significant step.”

“I am pleased that the DUP have agreed to accept the package of measures that the UK Government has put forward and as a result they are ready to return to the Northern Ireland Assembly and nominate representatives to the Northern Ireland Executive,” said Heaton-Harris on X, adding that the UK “will stick to this agreement.”

“I now believe that all the conditions are in place for the Assembly to return, the parties entitled to form an Executive are meeting today to discuss these matters and I hope to be able to finalise this deal with the political parties as soon as possible,” he added.

Sinn Féin’s Vice President Michelle O’Neill said she welcomed the restoration of power-sharing. “The parties will come together later today. We have much to do to confront the challenges facing our public services, workers and families which require urgent action,” she said on X.

Ireland’s Tánaiste – the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin – also welcomed the decision, calling the return of the assembly and executive “good news for the people of Northern Ireland, and the Good Friday Agreement.”

“I look forward to working with the Executive and Assembly in the time ahead,” said Martin on X Tuesday.

US Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin also welcomed the decision.

“The people of Northern Ireland are best served by a power-sharing government in Stormont as outlined in the Good Friday Agreement. [US President Joe Biden] has long made clear his support for a secure and prosperous Northern Ireland in which all communities have a voice and enjoy the gains of the hard-won peace,” she said on X.

Correction: This story has been updated with the correct year that Sinn Fein won the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly vote.

The French National Assembly has passed a historic bill that moves the country one step closer to enshrining the right to abortion in its constitution.

In a vote in the lower house of the French parliament on Tuesday, 493 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, 30 against. The bill will now move to the Senate for debate and a vote and, if approved, a special body composed of both chambers of the parliament will meet again for its adoption.

The bid for constitutionalization became a priority for the French government following the overturning by the United States Supreme Court of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The cause had been championed for several years by left-wing lawmakers and women’s rights activists.

When parliamentary discussions began at the lower house over the text of the proposed bill last week, the threat of France following in the footsteps of the US echoed loudly in the chamber. Almost all of the lawmakers that spoke in support of constitutionalization stressed the importance of ensuring that the reversal of reproductive rights witnessed across the Atlantic would never reach France’s shores.

“History is full of examples of… fundamental rights… which everyone… believed to have been definitively acquired, and which were then swept away… as we were recently reminded by the decision of the US Supreme Court,” Justice Minister Éric Dupont-Moretti said in his opening speech. “We now have irrefutable proof that no democracy, not even the largest of them all, is immune.”

If the bill becomes law, France will become the first country in the world to include abortion rights in its constitution, according to a constitutional expert and Guillaume Gouffier Valent, a lawmaker in charge of the law, marking a historic moment for reproductive rights in the country and around the world.

France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal hailed the vote as “a great victory for women’s rights,” while Gender Equality Minister Aurore Bergé called it “historic.” “We have a duty to press on. For our mothers who fought. For our daughters, so that they never have to fight again,” Bergé wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A long road to adoption

Although the bill has now been approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, it is not yet guaranteed to pass into law. A vote will take place in the Senate in February and later in the French Congress, a special body composed of both chambers of parliament. The adoption of the bill relies on a three-fifths majority vote in the latter, which is expected to happen in time for International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024.

Speaking to French media, Gérard Lacher, the president of the French Senate, recently voiced his opposition to the bill, saying he doesn’t think that “abortion is threatened in our country,” and arguing that constitutionalization is therefore unnecessary. Some right-wing lawmakers have expressed similar viewpoints, maintaining that abortion rights in France are in no imminent danger.

Speaking to the National Assembly during parliamentary discussions on the bill, Gender Equality Minister Bergé responded to these arguments, highlighting the rise in anti-abortion movements and the rollbacks on abortion rights occuring in other countries. These developments are raising alarm bells among French campaigners like Bergé, emphasizing the need to permanently safeguard abortion rights before a potential conservative shift in politics – one that’s happening across the world – makes it impossible to do so.

“This law is not just a symbol, because for too many women, this right is still hindered… because insidiously, throughout the world, this right is retreating,” Bergé said in her speech. “There’s no reason to believe that what’s happening around us can’t happen here too, as if we were immune to any form of regression,” she added.

A national move with a universal message

France’s decision to constitutionalize abortion was spurred in large part by a global context riddled with roll-backs on reproductive rights. Elsewhere in Europe, right-wing governments have been cracking down on abortion in the past few years.

In eastern Europe, both Hungary and Poland have recently introduced restrictions on abortion access, measures that were frequently mentioned by France’s own lawmakers during the debate in the National Assembly.

At the same time, the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the US left many French women wondering if they would be next. Now, they hope France’s own move to enshrine abortion rights could serve as inspiration abroad.

Gouffier Valent shares Pravi’s sentiment. This law “means everything,” he said, “because of the message we’re sending to French women and men for current and future generations… And the universal message we want to send to the whole world in defense of women’s rights.”

This is a developing story. It will be updated with more details.

In a surprise move, the most powerful Iran-backed militia in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, announced on Tuesday the suspension of its military operations against US forces in the region two days after a drone attack killed three US service members and wounded dozens of others.

“We are announcing the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces (US troops) – in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government,” Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement.

“We will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways, and we recommend to the brave Mujahideen of the Free Hezbollah Brigades to [carry out] passive defense (temporarily) if any hostile American action occurs towards them.”

The group is considered the most powerful armed faction in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in the country. The US holds Iran broadly responsible for arming and supporting these groups and has specifically singled out Kataib Hezbollah as likely to have carried out the deadly attack on Sunday.

Asked about the statement, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing Tuesday, “We’ve seen those reports. I don’t have a specific comment to provide other than actions speak louder than words.”

“I don’t think we could be any more clear that we have called on the Iranian proxy groups to stop their attacks. They have not. And so we will respond in a time and manner of our choosing,” Ryder said.

The US has carried out a series of strikes in Iraq and Syria since the start of the war in Gaza targeting Kataib Hezbollah and other groups in response to attacks on US interests in the region in recent months. Even so, the attacks have persisted. US troops in the Middle East have come under attack approximately 166 times since October, US officials said.

Ryder said he was aware of three attacks since the deadly drone strike that killed three US service members in Jordan.

Kataib Hezbollah also tried to distance Iran from their almost daily attacks in Iraq and Syria since October 17, saying they have carried out the attacks at their “own will, and without any interference from others.”

“On the contrary, our brothers in the axis – especially in the Islamic Republic – do not know how we work jihad, and they often object to the pressure and escalation against the American occupation forces in Iraq and Syria,” the group added in the statement.

The motive behind the group’s decision is unclear, but an adviser to the Iraqi prime minister said the prime minister’s efforts have paid off.

The US has reimposed economic sanctions against a Venezuelan state-owned mining company and says it could go on to reimpose further sanctions on the country’s oil and gas sector after Venezuela’s Supreme Court barred main opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado from running for president last week.

The US Treasury on Monday revoked General License 43, which had authorized dealings with mining conglomerate CVG-Minerven. The Treasury said US companies have until February 13 to wind down transactions that were previously authorized by that license.

While US economic sanctions against the mining company are unlikely to cause significant damage to the Venezuelan economy, the US State Department has crucially signaled it intends to renew oil and gas sanctions from April 18, if there’s no progress between Venezuela’s authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro and the opposition “particularly on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s elections,” it said in a statement.

Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez described the move as “blackmail” on Tuesday, warning that Caracas would stop cooperating in repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants from the US if Washington’s “economic aggression” intensifies.

Sanctions against Venezuela were first imposed in 2017 and gradually increased as the South American country’s political crisis deepened in the following years.

In October, the Biden administration lifted general economic sanctions targeting Venezuela’s mining and oil industries, in support of an agreement struck in Barbados between Maduro and the opposition to hold free and fair elections in 2024.

But on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a decision to disqualify Machado, the opposition’s main presidential candidate. The court’s ruling amounts to a repudiation of the agreement, both the opposition and the United States have claimed.

“Actions by Nicolas Maduro and his representatives in Venezuela, including the arrest of members of the democratic opposition and the barring of candidates from competing in this year’s presidential election, are inconsistent with the agreements signed in Barbados last October by representatives of Nicolas Maduro and the Unitary Platform,” US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, White House’s spokesperson John Kirby had said Maduro had until April to return to the negotiating table and commit to what was agreed last year, including holding free elections where all candidates are allowed to run, or sanctions could be reimposed.

Reinstating oil and gas sanctions could cause substantial damage to Venezuelan exports which are largely dependent on oil, analysts have said. It also has the potential to impact the US domestic gas market because several US companies, including Chevron, operate in Venezuela and Venezuelan crude is regularly exported to refineries in the US Gulf Coast, data from the US Energy Information Administration show.

Machado also commented on Rodríguez’s warning that Venezuela could stop cooperating on repatriation flights, saying, “You can imagine that it breaks my heart to see our people being used in such a hard and unlawful way. I want Venezuelans to come back to our country and to come back freely to our country because they have a future in our land.”

Israeli tanks fired live ammunition and smoke grenades after entering a hospital complex in southern Gaza where more than 8,000 people are sheltering, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Tuesday.

After surrounding the Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis for more than a week, Israeli military vehicles drove into the compound and were stationed in the hospital’s front yard, which is crowded with thousands of displaced people, according to the PRCS.

The tanks were “firing live ammunition and smoke grenades,” the aid agency said in a series of messages between 10 a.m. ET and 11 a.m. ET.

In the past, Israel has frequently asserted that Hamas is using hospitals and other infrastructure as a cover for tunnels and military operations.

The PRCS also reported fire from Israeli tanks in the area earlier Tuesday, which it said killed one displaced woman and injured nine others.

Israeli forces “demolished the outer wall of the building and fired … smoke bombs at the displaced people and the association’s staff,” the organization said.

“The situation is becoming more dangerous. We are extremely concerned for the safety of our crews, the wounded, the sick, and the thousands of displaced people in the building.”

Despite frequent shelling and strikes in the area, medics have tried to sustain operations at Al Amal.

Residents of northern Gaza were originally told to evacuate to the southern city, but with Israeli operations now focused on Khan Younis the situation is worsening for the already displaced people.

Many are afraid to move to supposedly safer areas and little aid has reached these facilities in recent days because of the fighting.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel has faced fierce criticism for launching attacks in and around hospitals, which are protected under international humanitarian law.

In a separate operation Tuesday, Israeli special forces dressed as civilians and medical staff infiltrated a hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin and killed three Palestinian men it claimed were planning a “serious attack” on Israel citizens.

The raid on the West Bank hospital was defended by the IDF’s Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, who claimed the men targeted were involved in a terrorist cell planning a “serious atack” on Israel civilians.

“We do not want to turn hospitals into battlefields,” Halevi said, “But we are even more determined not to allow hospitals in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, above ground or in tunnel shafts and tunnels under hospitals, to become a place that is a cover for terrorism, and one that allows terrorists to stash weapons, to rest, to go out to carry out an attack.”

A decade-long survey of the night sky has revealed a mysterious new type of star astronomers are referring to as an “old smoker.”

These previously hidden stellar objects are aging, giant stars located near the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. The stars are inactive for decades and fade until they’re almost invisible before belching out clouds of smoke and dust, and astronomers think they could play a role in distributing elements across the universe.

Four studies detailing the observations published January 25 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers observed the old smoker stars for the first time during the survey that involved monitoring nearly a billion stars in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.

The observations were carried out with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope, situated at a vantage point high in the Chilean Andes at the Cerro Paranal Observatory.

The search for newborn stars

The team’s initial goal was searching for newborn stars, which are hard to detect in visible light because they are obscured by dust and gas in the Milky Way. But infrared light can pierce through the galaxy’s high concentrations of dust to pick out otherwise hidden or faint objects.

While two-thirds of the stars were easy to classify, the remainder were more difficult, so the team used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope to study individual stars, said Philip Lucas, professor of astrophysics at the University of Hertfordshire. Lucas was the lead author of one study and a coauthor on the other three.

As astronomers monitored hundreds of millions of stars, they tracked 222 that experienced noticeable shifts in brightness. The team determined that 32 of them were newborn stars that increase in brightness by at least 40 times, and some as much as 300 times. A large percentage of the eruptions are ongoing, so astronomers can continue monitoring how the stars evolve over time.

“Our main aim was to find rarely-seen newborn stars, also called protostars, while they are undergoing a great outburst that can last for months, years, or even decades,” said Dr. Zhen Guo, Fondecyt Postdoc Fellow at the University of Valparaiso in Chile, in a statement. Guo was the lead author of two studies, and coauthor on the other two.

“These outbursts happen in the slowly spinning disc of matter that is forming a new solar system. They help the newborn star in the middle to grow, but make it harder for planets to form. We don’t yet understand why the discs become unstable like this,” Guo said.

An unexpected stellar discovery

During their observations of stars near the galactic center, the team identified 21 red stars that experienced unusual changes in luminosity that puzzled astronomers.

“We weren’t sure if these stars were protostars starting an eruption, or recovering from a dip in brightness caused by a disc or shell of dust in front of the star — or if they were older giant stars throwing off matter in the late stages of their life,” Lucas said.

The team focused on seven of the stars and compared the new data they collected with data from previous surveys to determine that the stellar objects were a new type of red giant stars.

Red giants form when stars have exhausted their supply of hydrogen for nuclear fusion and begin to die. In about 5 or 6 billion years, our sun will become a red giant, puffing up and expanding as it releases layers of material and likely evaporating the solar system’s inner planets, although Earth’s fate remains unclear, according to NASA.

But the stars spotted during the survey are different.

“These elderly stars sit quietly for years or decades and then puff out clouds of smoke in a totally unexpected way,” said Dante Minniti, a professor in the department of physics at Andrés Bello University in Chile and coauthor on three of the studies, in a statement. “They look very dim and red for several years, to the point that sometimes we can’t see them at all.”

The stars were largely found in the innermost nuclear disc of the Milky Way, where stars are more concentrated in heavy elements. Understanding how the old smokers release elements into space could change the way astronomers think about the way such elements are distributed across the universe.

Astronomers are still trying to understand the process behind the stars’ release of dense smoke, and what occurs after.

“Matter ejected from old stars plays a key role in the life cycle of the elements, helping to form the next generation of stars and planets,” Lucas said. “This was thought to occur mainly in a well-studied type of star called a Mira variable. However, the discovery of a new type of star that throws off matter could have wider significance for the spread of heavy elements in the Nuclear Disc and metal-rich regions of other galaxies.”

Hanadi Gamal Saed El Jamara, 38, says sleep is all that can distract her children from the aching hunger gnawing at their bellies.

These days, the mother-of-seven finds herself begging for food on the mud-caked streets of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

She tries to feed her kids at least once a day, she says, while tending to her husband, a cancer and diabetes patient.

Over more than 100 days, Palestinians in Gaza have seen mass displacement, neighborhoods turned to ash and rubble, entire families erased by war, a surge in deadly disease and the medical system wrecked by bombardment. Now starvation and dehydration are major threats to their survival.

“We are dying slowly,” reflected El Jamara, the mother in Rafah. “I think it’s even better to die from the bombs, at least we will be martyrs. But now we are dying out of hunger and thirst.”

Israel’s strikes on Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks have killed at least 26,637 people and injured 65,387 others, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. The Israeli military launched its campaign after the militant group killed more than 1,200 people in unprecedented attacks on Israel and says it is targeting Hamas.

People in northern Gaza ‘eat grass’ to survive

Mohammed Hamouda, a physical therapist displaced to Rafah, remembers the day his colleague, Odeh Al-Haw, was killed trying to get water for his family.

Al-Haw was queueing at a water station in Jabalya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, when he and dozens of others were struck by Israeli bombardment, Hamouda said.

Israel’s blockade and restrictions on aid deliveries mean stocks are desperately low, driving up prices and making food inaccessible to people across Gaza. Shortages are even worse in the northern parts of the strip, according to the UN, where Israel concentrated its military offensive in the early days of the war. Communication blackouts stifle efforts to report on starvation and dehydration in the region.

“People butchered a donkey to eat its meat,” Hamouda says friends in Jabalya told him earlier this month as shortages worsened.

In what could be a serious blow to humanitarian efforts, several Western countries have suspended funding to the main UN agency in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in recent days over explosive allegations by Israel that several of its staffers participated in the October 7 attacks. The UN fired several employees in the wake of the allegations.

Jordan’s foreign minister urged those countries suspending funding to reconsider, saying UNRWA was a “lifeline” for more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza and that the agency shouldn’t be “collectively punished” over allegations against a dozen of its 13,000 staff.

‘No clean water’

Gihan El Baz cradles a toddler on her knee while comforting her children and grandchildren, who she says wake each day “screaming” for food.

“There are no drinks, no clean water, no clean bathrooms, the kid cries for a biscuit and we can’t even find any to give her.”

Displaced parents in Rafah, where OCHA reported more than 1.3 million residents of Gaza have been forced to flee, say the stress of being unable to protect their children from bombardment is compounded by their inability to provide enough food. Limited access to electricity makes perishable goods impossible to refrigerate. Living conditions are overcrowded and unsanitary.

“People are forced to cut down trees to get firewood for heating and preparing food. Smoke is everywhere and flies spread widely and transmit diseases,” said Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi, the director of an orphanage in Gaza City who fled south with the 40 people under his care – most of whom are children and infants living with disabilities.

Hamouda, the displaced health worker, used to feed his children – aged six, four and two – a mixture of fruits and vegetables, biscuits, fresh juices, meat and seafood. This year, he said, the family has barely eaten one meal a day, living on dried bread and canned meat or legumes.

“Children are being violent towards each other to get food and water,” said Hamouda, who works at Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital and volunteers at a nearby shelter. “I can’t stop my tears from falling when I talk about these things, because it’s very hurtful seeing your kids and other kids hungry.”

All 350,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are especially vulnerable to severe malnutrition, UNICEF reported last month.

Increased risk of dying

The “scale and speed” of potential famine in Gaza will consign child survivors to a lifetime of health risks, said Rebecca Inglis, an intensive care doctor in Britain who regularly visits Gaza to teach medical students.

Malnourished children, especially those with severe acute malnutrition, are at greater risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization. Cases of diarrhea in children under age five have increased about 2,000% since October 7, UNICEF said.

Hamouda said his own children have diarrhea, cold and flu symptoms. “The children’s bodies are dehydrated … their skin is dehydrated.”

Challenges to food distribution, blocked aid

Shadi Bleha, 20, is trying to feed a family of six. Twice a week, they receive two water bottles, three biscuits and “sometimes” two cans of food from UNRWA, he said.

In other cases, vendors purchase aid from merchants and trade at markets for inflated costs. Some people with cars travel further afield to get water, returning to displacement camps to resell water for hiked prices. Intensified strikes also raise prices. Three weeks ago, a 25-kilogram bag of flour cost $20 in Khan Younis, according to Al-Naizi, but after the IDF intensified attacks on the southern city, it became $34.

Others say they receive humanitarian parcels that have been opened, with items missing. Dates, olive oil and cooking oil found in aid packages are reportedly sold on the black market for more than double their value.

On January 21, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said 260 humanitarian trucks were “inspected and transferred to Gaza,” marking the highest number since the start of the war.

The WFP has called for new aid entry routes, more trucks to pass through daily border checks, fewer impediments to the movement of humanitarian workers, and guarantees for their safety. On January 5, the agency reported six bakeries in Deir al-Balah and Rafah had restarted operations, but three remained out of use. “Bread is the most requested food item, particularly as many families lack the basic means for cooking,” it said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military offensive has razed at least 22% of Gaza’s agricultural land, according to OCHA. Livestock are starving and fresh produce is hard to come by.

“It’s absolute chaos and people are absolutely desperate, people are absolutely hungry,” added Touma. “The clock is indeed ticking for famine.”

“Sometimes families make a personal decision to sell WFP food in exchange for other household items that they might need. To be clear, any food distributed by the WFP is not for sale,” the agency said in a statement.

The war has also caused widescale loss of employment in Gaza, further draining residents’ purchasing power as prices rocket.

“We live almost in a jungle where war, murder, the greed of merchants, the injustice of institutions in distributing aid, and the absence of government lead to this deadly chaos,” al-Naizi said.