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.

Since last week, Port-au-Prince has been gripped by a wave of highly coordinated gang attacks on law enforcement and state institutions. Armed groups have burned down police stations and released thousands of inmates from two prisons, in what one gang leader described as an attempt to overthrow Henry’s government.

The violence erupted while Henry was in Kenya, where he signed an agreement underpinning a Kenyan-led mission of 1,000 police officers to Haiti to restore security in the Caribbean country. The prime minister’s last appearance in public was in Kenya on Friday, before arriving today in Puerto Rico, per Mojica.

Haiti’s government declared a state of emergency on Sunday amid the spiraling violence in Port-au-Prince. The United Nations has said 15,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes in the capital, adding to the over 300,000 who had already been displaced by gang violence.

The government cited the “deterioration of security,” notably “increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs,” including kidnappings and killings of citizens, violence against women and children and looting, according to a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert.

The violence prompted the Dominican Republic to suspend all cargo and passenger flights to and from neighboring Haiti. Dominican President Luis Abinader said Monday that a heightened level of security was in effect on his country’s border with Haiti and that any escaped Haitian prisoner who tried to enter the country would face “a drastic response.”

Aid groups are scrambling to help residents of the capital. Doctors Without Borders, known in French as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said it will scale up their medical activities in Port-Au-Prince to care for the “mounting number” of people injured since the country was plunged into chaos.

“The violence has taken on a new dimension since last weekend, causing a massive number of casualties,” MSF said in a Tuesday statement about the move.

The aid group has however struggled to provide care to Haitians, as the country’s main port is now difficult to access and the international airport has been closed. “We fear we will run out of medicines and medical supplies, which are absolutely essential to meet the enormous needs we are facing at the moment,” Haiti MSF head Mumuza Muhindo Musubah said in a statement.

Half of Haiti’s population, 5.5 million people, need humanitarian assistance, the UN said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Seven men are now in custody in India for the alleged gang-rape of a tourist and assault on her husband, authorities said, in a case that has shone a new spotlight on the endemic problem of sexual violence against women in the country.

On Saturday, police announced that three men had been arrested in connection with the incident and that they were seeking four more.

The couple, who had been traveling by motorcycle from the state of West Bengal to neighboring Nepal, were found late Friday by police officers on patrol, said Pitambar Singh Kherwar, superintendent of Dumka district police in Jharkhand state.

They were taken to the hospital, where the woman told the doctor she had been raped, he said.

Police have formed a special investigative team, Kherwar said. It is unclear whether the suspects have legal representation.

The arrests come after a travel vlogger couple on Saturday posted on their Instagram account that they had “knives (held) to our throats,” during an attack in India. The woman had been raped and brought to the hospital for DNA testing, they said.

The couple posts in Spanish, and the woman says on her Instagram page that she is Brazilian.

On their Instagram story, the woman showed bruises on her face, saying, “This is what my face looks like, but it isn’t what hurts the most. I thought I was going to die.”

In a follow-up post Sunday, the couple thanked their followers for their support, saying they are doing well and that “the police is doing everything possible to catch” the remaining suspects.

India’s National Commission for Women (NCW) condemned the alleged attack.

NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma has spoken to the victim and extended all required assistance, the organization posted on social platform X on Saturday.

Jharkhand minister Mithilesh Kumar Thakur called the alleged assault a “condemnable incident.”

“If a crime has been committed, the culprits will not be spared,” he said on Saturday.

India has struggled for years to tackle high rates of violence against women, with a number of high-profile rape cases involving foreign visitors drawing international attention to the issue.

In 2018, A British woman was allegedly raped while walking to her hotel in the western state of Goa, a popular tourist destination; two years earlier, an American woman was allegedly drugged and raped by a group of men in her five-star hotel room in New Delhi. And in 2013, six men were sentenced to life in prison for the gang rape of a Swiss tourist.

According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 31,516 rape cases were recorded in 2022, an average of 86 cases per day.

And experts warn that the number of cases recorded are just a small fraction of what may be the real number, in a deeply patriarchal country where shame and stigma surround rape victims and their families.

Around 170 people have been “executed” in attacks on three villages in Burkina Faso’s northern Yatenga province, the regional public prosecutor has said.

Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said in a statement on Friday that his office was initially informed of the “massive murderous attacks” in the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe on February 25.

The statement was re-posted to the country’s justice ministry’s Facebook page on Sunday.

Coulibaly said people were also injured, although no figure was given.

He appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

The statement did not mention which group was behind the attacks.

Meanwhile, authorities have yet to announce an official death toll from separate attacks on February 25 that targeted a mosque and a church in the north and east of the country.

At least 15 Muslims and 15 Catholics were killed when “hordes of terrorists launched simultaneous attacks” on Tankoualou and Essakane villages, the government press agency Agence d’Information du Burkina (AIB) reported last week.

The European Union condemned those attacks while expressing solidarity with the troubled nation.

The junta-led West African country is one of the world’s poorest nations and has become an epicenter of violence carried out by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

The violence began in neighboring Mali in 2012 but has since spread across the arid expanse of the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.

Large areas of the north and east of Burkina Faso have become ungovernable since 2018. Millions have fled their homes, fearing further raids by gunmen who frequently descend on rural communities on motorbikes. Thousands have been killed.