American YouTuber MrBeast’s latest video, in which he says he built 100 wells across Africa, has drawn a complex response online since it was published on Saturday.

Some Kenyan activists and journalists said he has spotlighted the failures of the Kenyan government, while MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, anticipates that he will be “canceled” following the reaction.

The new wells will provide clean drinking water for up to 500,000 people in Cameroon, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, Donaldson said, while an accompanying fundraiser to support local water aid organizations had raised more than $300,000 by Monday morning.

Donaldson’s 10-minute video also showed him donating supplies to Kenyan schools, such as new furniture, soccer balls, computers, whiteboards and projectors; building a bridge across a river to safely connect a village with the local schools and hospital; and donating bikes to a village in Zimbabwe to help children get to school.

Prominent activist Boniface Mwangi contrasted Donaldson’s actions with those of the Kenyan government, saying that “we are a “shameful, horrible country…a begging nation governed by millionaires.”

He added on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Every five years we give newly elected members of parliament, and senators a Sh5 million car grant ($33,000), fuel those cars every month but we have no money to drill boreholes for our people?”

Similarly, freelance journalist Ferdinand Omondi lauded Donaldson’s efforts but said that “it’s embarrassing that a YouTuber jetted into Kenya on a charity tour to perform tasks our taxes should have completed ages ago.”

While much of the reaction seemed to focus on the video’s shaming of the Kenyan government, Donaldson anticipated a backlash, saying on X that he “knows I’m gonna get canceled because I uploaded a video helping people, and to be 100% clear, I don’t care.”

Aspiring Kenyan politician Francis Gaitho criticized Donaldson’s video, saying on X that it perpetuated the stereotype that Africa is “dependent on handouts…and philanthropic intervention,” though Gaitho’s comments attracted criticism of their own.

Donaldson is the most popular individual creator on YouTube, with more than 200 million subscribers. He has become known for his philanthropy, posting videos in which he sponsored 1,000 blind people’s cataract surgery and bought prosthetic limbs for 2,000 amputees.

Such videos have helped him build a business empire potentially worth more than $1 billion and garnered him enough recognition that Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in 2023.

Some critics have previously accused Donaldson of exploiting vulnerable people to generate views and revenue but he said on X that “I’m always going to use my channel to help people and try to inspire my audience to do the same.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Donald Trump to visit Ukraine, after the former US president claimed he could end Russia’s war against Ukraine war within 24 hours if he wins reelection next year.

Zelensky questioned Trump’s claim in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, and invited him to visit Ukraine to see the scale of Russia’s invasion himself.

“If he can come here, I will need 24 minutes – yes, 24 minutes… to explain (to) President Trump that he can’t manage this war. He can’t bring peace because of Putin,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky also praised President Joe Biden for visiting Ukraine earlier this year, saying “I think he understood some details which you can understand only being here. So I invite President Trump.”

Zelensky’s comments came after Ukraine’s top commander last week warned the war had entered a “stalemate,” and as he is fighting to maintain his hard-won support in a world distracted by conflict in the Middle East, and with US lawmakers divided over whether to continue funding Ukraine’s war effort.

Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, wrote in a long essay for The Economist that “just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that put us into a stalemate.”

While Ukraine has resisted Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than 20 months, Zaluzhny wrote that without a massive technological leap to break the deadlock, “there will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Since launching its counteroffensive in early summer, Ukraine has managed to retake just a sliver of land, rebuffed by nearly 1,000 kilometers of heavily fortified Russian defenses. Russia still occupies nearly one-fifth of Ukraine, and in recent weeks has launched fresh offensives in the east, around Avdviika and Vuhledar in Donetsk and near Kupyansk in Kharkiv.

Zaluzhny said that the conflict had entered “what we in the military call ‘positional’ warfare of static and attritional fighting… in contrast to the ‘manoeuvre’ warfare of movement and speed.” He warned this will benefit Russia, giving it time to rebuild its military power for renewed assaults on Ukraine.

Asked by NBC if he accepted his top general’s characterization, Zelensky said “the situation is difficult,” but did not think the war had reached a “stalemate.”

“We hold the initiative in our hands. You can imagine what a full-scale war or what two years of a full-scale war is like. Everybody gets tired. Even the iron gets tired. But, nevertheless, I am proud of our warriors and of our people, that they are strong… Our people have a strong desire to win,” he said.

Zelensky also pointed to Ukraine’s successes in the Black Sea and in Crimea, the annexed peninsula that is a vital artery for resupplying Russian troops in mainland Ukraine. “The Russian fleet is being destroyed by our ammunition,” Zelensky told NBC, after a number of successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian warships and Crimean ports over the summer.

‘We can’t trust terrorists’

But convincing his allies of the possibility of victory is becoming increasingly difficult for Zelensky, as the world’s attention pivots to war in the Middle East, and amid warnings from Congress that US funding for Ukraine may soon run dry.

The White House has made clear that the amount of money the US has available for Ukraine military aid is quickly running out, as new House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate remain at odds over the Biden administration’s request to pass more than $100 billion in national security funding. President Biden urged Congress to pass the supplemental bill, which includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine and $14.3 billion for Israel, as a “comprehensive, bipartisan agreement.”

Zelensky argues that Ukraine’s fight against Russia is in the US’ national security interests. He told NBC that American soldiers could eventually be dragged into a broader European conflict with Russia if Washington’s support faltered.

“If Russia will kill all of us, they will attack NATO countries, and you will send your sons and daughters. And it will be – I’m sorry, but the price will be higher,” Zelensky said.

“You have to understand, just come to Ukraine and see. We are the same people. We have the same values,” he said when asked why US lawmakers should approve further military aid to Ukraine.

Congress’s reluctance to approve additional spending for Ukraine comes as a number of Republican presidential candidates – and other western officials – have argued that Ukraine should enter peace negotiations with Russia to bring the war to an end.

Zelensky, who has long opposed the idea of peace talks, told NBC: “I am not ready to speak with the terrorists because their word is nothing. Nothing. We can’t trust terrorists because terrorists always come back, always come back.”

The cause of mysterious mass deaths of African elephants has finally been unraveled — and scientists who authored a new report say that the outbreaks could be more likely to occur amid conditions created by the ongoing climate crisis.

Thirty-five African elephants in northwestern Zimbabwe dropped dead under baffling circumstances between late August and November 2020. Eleven of the massive herd animals died within a 24-hour period.

“They died over a very narrow window. That’s one of the most enigmatic parts of the whole puzzle. That many animals dying quite close together but not right next to each other over such a narrow space of time. It’s really to my mind, rather unique, certainly in this part of the world,” said Dr. Chris Foggin, a veterinarian at Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust in Zimbabwe, who is a coauthor of the study on the cause of the deaths.

Earlier that same year, about 350 elephants in neighboring northern Botswana also had died suddenly over the course of three months.

Officials and experts were initially at a loss to explain the die-offs, which occurred among Africa’s biggest population of elephants. Poaching, poisoning and drought were all blamed.

It turns out a bacterial infection killed the elephants, according to the research based on samples taken from 15 of the animals that died in Zimbabwe.

An analysis, published October 25 in the journal Nature Communications, showed evidence of infection by a little-known bacterium called Bisgaard taxon 45 that caused septicemia, or blood poisoning.

The deaths took place as food and water resources dwindled during the dry season, forcing the elephants to travel increasing distances to look for water and to forage.

The authors said that heat, drought and population density in that area were likely contributing factors to the outbreak.

And the extreme conditions that scientists project will occur with more frequency as Earth warms could mean more elephant deaths in the future.

“It’s premature to say that climate change has influenced (this) but it may do so in future if we get more and prolonged droughts, or the rainfall patterns (change) and we have a much harsher dry season,” Foggin said. “I do think that if that is the case, then we are more likely to see this sort of mortality event occurring again.”

The elephant mortalities in Botswana have been attributed to cyanobacterial neurotoxins, but further details have not been published, the study noted. Foggin said there was no proven connection between the Zimbabwe and Botswana elephant deaths.

An embattled species under threat

The African elephant is a flagship species that faces significant pressure from poaching and habitat loss. Listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, population numbers diminished by 144,000 to about 350,000 between 2007 and 2014, with continuing losses estimated at 8% every year, according to the study.

Some 227,900 elephants live in the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area — 500,000 square kilometers (193,051 square miles) of protected land, which is about 90% within Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Evidence of infection was found in six out of the 15 samples, the study authors wrote, which was corroborated by isolating the bacterium in the lab and in-depth genetic analysis.

There was no evidence of toxins, including those from cyanobacteria, or any viral infection. 

Delays resulted in poor sample quality

In addition, no dead scavengers or other wildlife species were reported or observed in the vicinity of dead elephants as would be expected with cyanide or other intentional poisoning, the study noted.

“Although there was not culture or molecular evidence to confirm Bisgaard taxon 45 in more than six mortalities in Zimbabwe, the elephants examined were in good body condition and unlikely to have died of drought-related starvation or severe dehydration alone,” the study noted.

No elephants had their tusks removed from poaching, and no external signs of trauma were observed. Tests for anthrax were also negative, Foggin added.

The researchers said they failed to detect the bacteria in the other samples — a fact they attributed to poor sample quality and delays getting the necessary permits that meant it was too late to perform some lab work.

“Most carcasses were degraded at the time of sampling, making the initial sample quality poor. Additionally, exporting wildlife samples for analysis involves obtaining multiple permits from different entities — a process which can take months,” the study said.

What is known about the bacterium?

Bisgaard taxon 45 has previously been associated with tiger and lion bite wounds in humans. The bacteria have also been found in a chipmunk and healthy captive parrots.

The microorganism, which does not have an official name, is closely related to another, more common bacterium known as of Pasteurella multocida, which can cause hemorrhagic septicemia in other animals, including Asian elephants.

That bacterium was also linked to the mass deaths of 200,000 critically endangered saiga antelope in Kazakhstan in 2015, the study noted.

Foggin said researchers had been monitoring wildlife in the area for presence of the bacteria, but no further elephant deaths as a result of Bisgaard taxon 45 had been confirmed since 2020.

Somali authorities have declared an emergency after heavy rains triggered floods across the country that have left thousands trapped and many others displaced from their homes.

The heavy rain in the East African country follows several years of drought and successive failed rainy seasons that have triggered a humanitarian crisis. Studies show that the drought was made more likely by the human-induced climate crisis.

At least 10 people have died since flash floods from torrential rains, which are expected to be heavier than normal as El Niño began sweeping through communities last month, the Somali Disaster Management Agency said Sunday, citing the country’s deputy prime minister.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced so far, according to the United Nation’s humanitarian agency (OCHA), which estimates that 2,400 others in villages located along the overflowing Juba River are feared trapped in flood waters in Jubaland, one of the worst affected states.

“In Baardheere (in Jubaland), local authorities are appealing for urgent support for more than 14,000 families that have been cut off from the main town and are unable to replenish their domestic supplies,” OCHA said in a statement Monday.

Other regions such as Hirshabelle, Puntland, Galmudug and South West have also been badly hit by the deadly floods, according to the UN agency.

On Monday, Somalia’s state broadcaster shared aerial imagery of nearly submerged buildings in the South West’s Baidoa district, as officials raced to evacuate stranded families.

South West and Jubaland states are the worst hit by the floods, with over 200,000 people affected in each state, according to OCHA.

The agency added that in Puntland, heavy rains and floods destroyed a camp for internally displaced people and cut off electricity and internet connections in the state’s north Gaalkacyo neighborhood.

Flooding in the Galmudug state also caused the deaths of two teenage girls and a boy who drowned in floodwaters. Similar casualties involving two children were also recorded in South West’s Berdale district.

The flash floods come just months after Somalia marked the end of its lengthiest drought in decades, which killed over 40,000 people, mostly children under five years old, according to UNICEF.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military offensive nearly a month ago, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said Monday.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Islamist militant group launched a brutal attack on October 7, killing 1,400 in Israel and kidnapping more than 240. Israel retaliated by launching an air and ground offensive on Gaza, vowing to eliminate the militant group.

Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al Qudra said 10,022 Palestinians in the enclave had been killed by Israeli strikes, including 4,104 children, 2,641 women and 611 elderly people. Those numbers suggest about three-quarters of the dead are from vulnerable populations. The ministry also reported 25,408 injured.

There have been “many, many thousands of innocent people killed” in Gaza, White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told reporters on a virtual gaggle Monday.

Thousands more Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last month than those who died in conflicts with Israel spanning over the last 15 years.

The United Nations Human Rights Office said last week’s attacks on Gaza’s largest refugee camp “could amount to war crimes” given the scale of casualties and destruction.

Israel has said that it is targeting Hamas operatives in Gaza, adding that Hamas “intentionally embeds its assets in civilian areas” and uses civilians as human shields, a defense echoed by US officials.

‘A graveyard for children’

On Monday, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children,” adding that “the unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent.”

“The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity,” Guterres reporters at the United Nations in New York.

The UN on Monday launched a $1.2 billion “humanitarian appeal,” Guterres said, calling the “trickle of assistance” making it into Gaza insufficient to “meet the ocean of need.”

Nearly 500 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have crossed into Gaza since the conflict began a month ago – roughly the same amount that had been crossing into the area each day prior to the Hamas attack. The Israeli government has not allowed fuel to enter in with the shipments.

“Without fuel, newborn babies in incubators and patients on life support will die,” Guterres said.

The international charity Save the Children said last month that the number of children reported killed in the enclave during Israel’s campaign had surpassed the annual number of children killed in armed conflict globally in each of the past four years.

The United States has backed Israel’s campaign throughout the war, saying it has a right to defend itself. It vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for humanitarian pauses to deliver aid into Gaza on October 18, but President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that he was supportive of a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of more hostages held in Gaza.

Washington has also warned Israel that support may wane if the carnage in Gaza doesn’t stop.

Israel’s operation in Gaza has triggered protests across the world and prompted warnings of a potential intervention from Iran-backed militants in the region, which have already been engaged in skirmishes with the Israeli military.

Israel is, however, yet to show any signs of backing down, saying its operations in Gaza are only expanding.

Nearly 1.5 million Gazans have already been displaced in the 140-square-meter strip, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Friday, with thousands sheltering in crammed schools and hospitals with dwindling food, water and power.

Palestinian workers who were expelled back to Gaza from Israel last week have accused Israeli authorities of “torture,” alleging they were stripped naked, held in cages, viciously beaten and, according to one worker’s account, subjected to electric shocks.

Most workers from Gaza work in construction or agriculture. They tend to spend weeks away from home, rather than commuting, which is why so many were in Israel when Hamas launched its terror attack on Saturday October 7.

Al Radia said that right after the war started, he and some of the other Gazan workers fled to Rahat, a predominantly Arab Bedouin city in southern Israel, where he says they were turned over to the Israeli army by local residents.

“(The military) took our phones and money, we couldn’t communicate with our families, we were given food on the floor in plastic bags,” he said.

The security official said that in some cases, their detention was also for their own protection, as they were at risk of violence from Israeli communities.

Six human rights organizations in Israel have filed a petition to Israel’s High Court arguing these detentions were “without legal authority and without legal grounds.”

Gisha, an Israeli not-for-profit organization focused on protecting the freedom of movement of Palestinians and one of the groups behind the petition, said in a statement last week that it had “reason to believe that the holding conditions in these facilities were extremely dire, and that detainees were subjected to extensive physical violence and psychological abuse, as well as being held in inhumane conditions.”

Many of the workers say they had no idea where they were taken. According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, a human rights organization based in the occupied West Bank, many were held in two detention centers: one in Ofer near Ramallah and one in Salem near Jenin.

Another worker from Beit Lahiya, Mahmoud Abu Darabeh, also described beatings by what he says were Israeli forces.

Abu Darabeh said he was detained on the second day of the war. “They put us in cages like dogs, beatings, insults, they didn’t care whether people are ill or not, some of us were injured, their feet got rotten because they didn’t get any medical treatment,” he said.

The men faced daily interrogations from the Israeli authorities asking about their homes and family members, Abu Darabeh said.

He also described how some of the workers died during detention and while crossing into Gaza.

“Some people died on the way here because they were beaten and subjected to electric shocks,” Abu Darabeh said. He said he personally witnessed others who were detained with him being shocked.

“There have been cases of abuse towards the detainees outside of the official detention facilities. These cases were treated very seriously, and they were dealt with disciplinary measures,” the official said through a translator, saying that to their knowledge, four soldiers were removed from the IDF following incidents of abuse and two soldiers were put in military prison for their conduct.

When asked if any of the detainees died as a result of abuse, the official said that they were aware of two deaths of Gazan workers who were detained, but said these deaths were the result of chronic, long-term health issues these workers had before entering Israel, not the result of abuse.

The official said that, to his knowledge, these abuses did not include electric shocks.

‘They tied our arms, blindfolded us’

In response to the attacks, Israel began an unrelenting bombing campaign on Gaza, while the country’s defense minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on the enclave.

Before the October 7 attacks, about 18,000 Gazans had permits that allowed them to cross into Israel for work – where wages can be as much as ten times higher than in Gaza.

All of them would have been subjected to a rigorous security clearing process by the Israeli authorities before being issued the permit.

Immediately after the attack, Israel also revoked the Gazan workers’ permits, which made it illegal for them to stay in the country. Since returning to Gaza was not a possibility, many tried to flee to the occupied West Bank.

The security official said that at the beginning, some of the facilities didn’t have shade, but added this was rectified within a few days. The official said detainees were only restrained when in transit.

One man, from the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, sobbed as he described how they were packed into metal cages and deprived of sleep, a known form of torture.

“Every now and then, they came to us and asked us to stand up. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up,” he said. “In one place, we were around 150 people in a metal cage. It smelled very bad, I think it was used for chickens or rabbits before,” he added.

“They beat us and stole our money, and they took our clothes off and kept us naked,

I was only in my underwear for more than 20 days,” he said.

‘Dehumanization and insults’

Amani Sarahneh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners Society, said some of these men were detained on the way to the West Bank while some were detained in the West Bank.

The men tried to reach the occupied West Bank because once Israel revoked their permits, they were in legal limbo – their stay in Israel became illegal, but there was no clear way back to Gaza with border crossings on both the Israeli and Egyptian side closed. While they also need permits for the West Bank, it was safer for them to be in a territory that is under Palestinian control, they believed.

“Most of the testimonies were about being starved, being continuously beaten during the day, handcuffed, isolated from their surroundings,” she said, adding that videos showing Palestinian prisoners being treated violently and in an inhumane manner have surfaced online.

“They didn’t do anything wrong; they were not charged with anything … yet many of them were interrogated and systematically tortured, abused, brutally beaten, they faced all kind of dehumanization and insults,” she added.

Dror Sadot, a spokesperson for B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, an NGO, said the October 7 attacks by Hamas have led to a huge spike of aggression towards Palestinians.

She said that this rhetoric and the anger over the crimes of Hamas trickles down to the individual soldiers, who then treat any Palestinian with rage.

Sadot said that long-term experience with the way the IDF generally handles cases of abuse is not convincing.

“We’ve been investigating this for so many years – the military enforcement system works as a whitewash mechanism with almost no indictments,” she said.  “So they will say ‘those are the exception, not the rule,’ but if the impunity for soldiers continues – and not just the soldiers but also the policy itself – when no one’s being held accountable, of course, things will just continue,” she added.

Exhausted and injured, but overjoyed to be back

Some are elderly, visibly exhausted, and drenched in sweat, while others appear to be injured.

At least three have deep, visible cuts on their wrists which appear to have been caused by hand ties.

Most of the men are not carrying any personal belongings apart from the clothes they are wearing.

One man, 58-year-old Mohamed Atallah, was wearing a plastic number tag on his wrist.

They touched the ground with their foreheads, thanking God to be back in Gaza – the place that has become a hell on earth since they last left it.

More than 40 years ago, Farouk El-Baz — a space scientist and geologist known for his field investigations in deserts around the world — theorized that the wind played a big hand in shaping the Great Sphinx of Giza before the ancient Egyptians added surface details to the landmark sculpture.

Now, a new study offers evidence to suggest that theory might be plausible, according to a news release from New York University.

A team of scientists in NYU’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory set out to address the theory by replicating the conditions of the landscape about 4,500 years ago — when the limestone statue was likely built — and conduct tests to see how wind manipulated rock formations.

“Our findings offer a possible ‘origin story’ for how Sphinx-like formations can come about from erosion,” said senior study author Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in a news release. “Our laboratory experiments showed that surprisingly Sphinx-like shapes can, in fact, come from materials being eroded by fast flows.”

The team behind the study, which the release said had been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Fluids, created clay-model yardangs — a natural landform of compact sand that occurs from the wind in exposed desert regions — and washed the formations with a fast stream of water to represent the wind.

Based on the composition of the Great Sphinx, the team used harder, non-erodible inclusions within the featureless soft-clay mound, and with the flow from the water tunnel, the researchers found a lion form had begun to take shape.

More on the mysterious Great Sphinx origins

While the Great Sphinx of Giza has its mysteries — what it originally looked like and why it was made — it is believed that the 66-foot-tall (20-meter-tall) statue was carved out of a single piece of limestone.

The original theory that wind had shaped a yardang into the Sphinx’s formation was first featured in a 1981 Smithsonian Magazine article by El-Baz titled “Desert Builders Knew a Good Thing When They Saw It.”

El-Baz said he did not believe this new study provided any more support to his original theory.

Salima Ikram, distinguished university professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, questioned altogether the idea that the Sphinx had started with a yardang.

“Once the Great Sphinx was carved, nature played a part in its further formation, but it is unlikely that the original form was based on a yardang (which are generally of mud — this is limestone) as there are significant quarry marks and working marks surrounding it,” said Ikram, who was not involved in the study, in an email.

“There is too much evidence of human intervention in the construction of the Great Sphinx to make the yardang theory feasible,” Ikram said.

The New York University researchers said their results suggest that Sphinx-like structures can form under fairly commonplace conditions, but their findings don’t resolve the mysteries behind yardangs and the Great Sphinx.

The first Gay Games in Asia has faced a political backlash in co-host city Hong Kong after a group of conservative lawmakers called on authorities to scrap the event – and even suggested it could breach a sweeping national security law.

The four-decade old event – which brings both gay and straight athletes around the world to compete in a festival of sport, art and culture – kicked off on Friday with Hong Kong and the Mexican city of Guadalajara as joint hosts.

But there has been vocal opposition from some within the Chinese financial hub’s new “patriots only” political system that was ushered in by Beijing following huge and often violent democracy protests in 2019.

Eight city lawmakers on Wednesday backed a petition from conservative groups calling for the games to be scrapped, accusing the event of advocating for LGBTQ rights and spreading “Western ideology”.

Junius Ho, a firebrand legislator known for both his intense pro-Beijing nationalism and opposition to gay rights, said the petition “objects to any Western ideology that sugar-coated its agenda in the name of diversity and inclusivity for a sports event.”

He also suggested the event could breach provisions within the new national security law that ban foreign powers interfering in Hong Kong’s governance.

“In short, the national security act is the legal basis,” he said.

Another pro-Beijing lawmaker Peter Shiu said the game went beyond an ordinary sports event.

“This is obviously just advocacy. I have no idea how it managed to reach Hong Kong,” he said.

Gay Games organizers hit back at the opposition from Hong Kong lawmakers and have vowed the event will be a proud, non-political, celebration of inclusivity.

“All our books have been checked by professional accountants, open and transparent,” said Lisa Lam, co-chair of Gay Games, at the Hong Kong launch on Thursday adding they had been “abiding by the local laws since Day One.”

They also dismissed concerns that the allegations may deter participants from attending.

“Everyone has their own opinion about things, but we are just about sports and culture,” said Alan Lang, the event’s director of sports.

A spokesman did not answer the first part and replied on the latter: “Any activity that takes place in Hong Kong must not contravene any laws of Hong Kong.  Law enforcement agencies will take action if there is any breach of the laws, whether it relates to general offences, crimes or acts endangering national security.”

A changing city

The rhetoric from pro-Beijing lawmakers comes at a time when the space for China’s LGBTQ community is being increasingly squeezed under Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Hong Kong does not allow same sex marriage and there is no law banning discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation. But as an international and financial gateway to China, Hong Kong has long had significant and vibrant LGBTQ community.

Multiple government restrictions on same sex equality – including the ban on gay marriage – have been successfully challenged in the court, most recently in September when the city’s top court ordered authorities to come up with some sort of civil partnership alternative for same sex couples.

But the city has also been transformed in the wake of the 2019 protests with Beijing cracking down on pro-democoracy activists using a newly imposed national security law that has criminalized much dissent.

While the law has not been used to specifically target the LGBTQ community, many of Hong Kong’s prominent democracy activists were vocal supporters of greater equality and have been prosecuted under the sweeping legislation or have fled overseas.

National security offences carry up to life in prison and authorities have broadened powers under the law to seize assets as well as a much higher bail threshold for those arrested.

Beijing also imposed a new political system on Hong Kong whereby anyone standing for elected office or prominent government positions had to be vetted for the patriotism to China and whether they posed any national security risk.

Hong Kong was initially chosen in 2017 as the sole venue for what was supposed to be an event held in 2022. But it had to be postponed for a year because of the city’s strict coronavirus controls at the time, which were in place for far longer than most places around the world.

Guadalajara was then added as a joint host, a first for Latin American, but that has also carried some controversy, with participants raising safety concerns over a location where drug cartel violence is endemic.

According to Reuters, no previous Gay Games has had fewer than 8,000 participants. But a week before the event, only 2,458 participants had registered for Guadalajara and Hong Kong had just 2,381.

“In my heart of hearts I wish the whole thing was cancelled and we could skip to Valencia in 2026,” Wayne Morgan, a senior Australian athlete who has competed in six Games already, told Reuters referring to the Spanish host of the next Games.

Taiwan’s athletes explicitly raised Hong Kong’s national security law as a reason they don’t feel safe in going to the city, fearing arrest if they were to wave a Taiwanese flag.

Taiwan’s Gay Sports and Movement Association said their athletes would take part in the Mexican leg instead. Taiwan has a thriving LGBTQ community and in 2019 became the first place in Asia to legalize same sex marriage.

China’s Communist Party claims democratic self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, despite having never ruled it and have vowed to one day “reunify” it, by force if necessary. Relations between Taiwan and China are at their lowest in decades.

‘Come and join us’

Gay Games organizers have attempted to play down those concerns, saying participants are still coming from all over the world.

“Like the 2,381 athletes (coming to Hong Kong), there are individuals who chose to come and they come from different nationalities, different territories and different countries as well,” said Lang, the director of sports.

Funding for the Gay Games has come mostly from international banks, insurance companies and law firms that have long been calling for greater inclusiveness in the city for their LGBTQ staff. And events are being largely held in private establishments, not Hong Kong’s public sporting venues.

The government was represented by a single official, Regina Ip, at the opening ceremony.

One of Hong Kong leader John Lee’s top advisers and also a lawmaker, Ip has been one of the few Hong Kong politicians vocally supportive of the games.

The event, Ip said, “showcases Hong Kong as an open, inclusive and pluralistic society.”

Meanwhile Chan Kwan-on, one of the Gay Games ambassadors in Hong Kong, urged critics not to jump to conclusions and come see for themselves.

“Come and join us and have a feel. We are not that evil,” he said. “Love and peace.”

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has called for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas, saying that supporting the protection of Palestinian lives does not equal being antisemitic or pro-terrorism.

“What we’ve seen in recent years is the charge of antisemitism being weaponized in order to silence any criticism of Israel,” she said.

“I want to absolutely and wholeheartedly condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia…but I also want to remind everyone that Israel does not represent all the Jewish people around the world. Israel is a state and is alone is responsible for its own crimes.”

Israel declared a “complete siege” on Gaza following the October 7 terror attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave.

Hamas killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) count.

The Israeli siege and accompanying bombing campaign has seen Gaza pounded with relentless airstrikes, and a blockade of vital supplies to 2.2 million people living in the isolated strip. As of Sunday, more than 9,700 people had been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Minister of Health in Ramallah, using figures that are drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

At a summit on Saturday, attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Arab leaders called for an immediate ceasefire, while Blinken repeated the US position that a ceasefire would give Hamas time to regroup for another attack on Israel.

The US is calling for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting for aid to be delivered, but Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said Sunday that no pause was needed because “there’s no humanitarian crisis.”

“I know that some who are against the ceasefire argue that it will help Hamas. However, I feel that in that argument, they are inherently dismissing the death, in fact, even endorsing and justifying the death of thousands of civilians, and that is just morally reprehensible,” she said.

‘Avalanche of human suffering’

Israel has repeatedly urged Palestinian civilians to move south of Wadi Gaza, the waterway that delineates north and south, as it intensifies its air and ground assaults across the strip.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that Israel is “making every effort” to get the civilian population in Gaza “out of harm’s way.”

He added, “Hamas is doing everything they can to keep them in harm’s way.”

But Rania said Israel’s claim of trying to protect civilians is “an insult to one’s intelligence.”

“When 1.1 million people are asked to leave their homes or risk death, that is not a protection of civilians, that is forced displacement,” she said.

Rania said she didn’t believe Israel’s evacuation orders were for the benefit of Gaza, but rather an attempt to “legitimize their actions.”

Last week, US President Joe Biden expressed skepticism over the death figures provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

Asked about that stance, Rania said it was standard “Israeli propaganda.”

“Trying to minimize the horrific consequences of their actions, trying to dehumanize Palestinians further and desensitize people to their suffering…they’re trying to exonerate themselves and they’re trying to exonerate the viewer,” she said.

More than two million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan according to the UN agency UNRWA.

Jordan air-dropped a medical aid package to a Jordanian field hospital in Gaza on Sunday, King Abdullah II said on social media, and last week the country recalled its ambassador to Israel, citing the war.

Queen Rania questioned how many more people must die before “our global conscience awakes.”

“All they want to hear is apologies from Palestinians. You’re being bombed, that’s your fault,” she said. “You’re being starved, that’s your fault. You dare be born in the occupied territories, that’s your fault… It’s been unbearable to watch the avalanche of human suffering.”

A throat-searing blanket of smog has enveloped New Delhi, forcing schools to shut and disrupting the Cricket World Cup as officials rush to contain a pollution crisis that has become an annual occurrence in the Indian capital.

“Sadly, every year when November rolls around there a sense of dread as the air turns foul,” said resident Prachi Bhuchar. “We have been in Delhi for over 15 years now, but each year makes it tougher to stay on because it is a living hell.”

The city’s air quality declined last week after colder temperatures trapped particles from surrounding crop burning, creating a toxic haze that reached hazardous levels for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.

New Delhi started the week with  a PM 2.5 concentration nearly 80 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit, according to Swiss air quality company IQAir.

PM 2.5 particles include pollutants such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon, and exposure to them can impair cognitive and immune functions with links to lung and heart disorders.

The pollution has threatened the ongoing Cricket World Cup after Sri Lanka was forced to cancel their training session over the weekend as the men gear up to play Bangladesh at the capital’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday.

To ease conditions, India’s cricket board last week announced a ban on firework displays for the remaining matches of the tournament.

Authorities are scrambling to relieve the city of its smog, implementing emergency measures including halting non-essential truck movement and construction work. People are wearing face masks and trucks have been sprinkling water on the roads to reduce dust levels in the city.

Worried residents are also rushing to buy air purifiers, local media reported, after doctors advised residents to remain indoors to avoid exposure to the toxic fumes.

Awesta Chaudhary said it is “very scary” that her nearly three-year-old son is growing up in “such toxic conditions.”

“I have noticed that even if you have a small opening in the window or anywhere, the smog is just making it inside your house. I am not taking (my son) out to the parks. We try to limit him indoors as much as possible because we are very scared to expose him,” she said

“I believe the government can do much more than what they are already doing, and more strict regulations need to be made to curtail the levels of pollution,” said Chaudhary, who said she has been running her air purifier for more than 72 hours straight.

Nobody spared

India has long struggled with its smog problem, which ranges from choked urban centers with high amounts of vehicular pollution and industrial waste, to agricultural areas that suffer from pollution caused by crop burning – a practice of burning cultivated fields to prepare land for the next crop.

New Delhi, home to more than 20 million people, is often ranked among the world’s most polluted cities and research shows residents’ health is suffering.

According to a 2021 study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), bad air could reduce the life expectancy of Delhi residents by as much as nine years.

The study also found that every single one of India’s 1.4 billion residents endure annual average pollution levels that exceed guidelines set by WHO.

In 2019, the central government announced a national clean air campaign, with an aim to reduce particulate pollution by up to 30% by 2024.

Specific plans were created for each city; in Delhi, those plans included measures to reduce road traffic, burn-offs and road dust, and to encourage the use of cleaner fuels.

But in the past few years, India’s pollution problem has worsened, partly due to the country’s dependency on fossil fuels.

Doctors say they have seen an increase in pollution-related illness, with patients complaining of cough, throat irritation, shortness of breath and skin problems, among others.

“High pollution level spares nobody but the most vulnerable population are people with lung diseases like asthma, bronchitis and lung damage.”