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Russia is increasing its influence in Burkina Faso, where disillusionment with French politics has left a void. | What's happening? |
An Indian government committee has recommended that polls for local bodies to parliament be held together. | What's the latest? |
At least two Indians have died on Ukrainian front lines, revealing the desperation caused by widespread joblessness. | What's the scoop? |
Mahmoud Darwish’s poems are ever relevant to the conditions of Palestinians, particularly now in Gaza. | Anything noteworthy? |
Rights groups accuse former police officer’s G9 gang alliance of committing atrocities, including killings and rape. | What's going on? |
Video Duration 24 minutes 06 seconds | Any new developments? |
From: The Bottom Line | What's the buzz? |
Professor Jeffrey Sachs: ‘‘US is complicit in Israeli genocide’ | Got any headlines? |
Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs says the war in Gaza could end today if the US stopped supplying weapons to Israel. | Got any news? |
Live updates, | Any updates? |
Children among those wounded after Israeli jets targeted house in Deir el-Balah, southern Gaza. | What's happening? |
Rafah, Gaza – The loss of nine-year-old Yazan, or Yazouna as his mother called him, hangs like a dark cloud over the el-Kafarna family’s tiny living space. | What's the latest? |
They huddle together in a shelter that Sharif el-Kafarna rigged up out of bits of wood, cardboard and sheeting in front of the third-floor door to the elevator in an UNRWA school in Rafah. | What's the scoop? |
It is tidy inside and a string of Ramadan bunting hangs on one wall, but nothing can hide the fact that the family of five sleeps, prays, eats and spends all day in a space about eight metres square (80 feet square). | Anything noteworthy? |
Breaking down, his mother wept: “This is our first Ramadan without Yazan, God has ordained this for us and we cannot complain, we can only praise him and have faith.” | What's going on? |
Yazan died on March 4 at the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, hooked up to breathing machines and IV drips, his body having wasted away to nothing during five months of relentless war during which his family ran from one supposed “safe place” to another, terrified, destitute and hungry. | Any new developments? |
He would have turned 10 on June 4. | What's the buzz? |
Yazan’s family spend all their time in the cramped shelter his father was able to build in front of an elevator door on a school landing [Screengrab/Sanad/Al Jazeera] | Got any headlines? |
A protected childhood | Got any news? |
Yazan was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a month-old infant, amid an earlier Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in 2014. | Any updates? |
His parents took great pains to structure his life in Beit Hanoon where they lived before the war so he had the food, supplements and healthcare he needed. | What's happening? |
“Yazan needed special vitamin mixes for his mental acuity and these injections to keep his body strong, as well as physiotherapy which he needed regularly.” | What's the latest? |
“He needed healthy food as well, eggs, vegetables, fruits, dairy. He would also eat baby cereal and we would puree foods for him so he could eat,” his father, Sharif said. | What's the scoop? |
He also received physiotherapy at home by therapists from various associations who would visit the family home regularly. There were also therapists who worked with him to provide psychological support and some basic learning. | Anything noteworthy? |
“He enjoyed his sessions, you could see it in his eyes. He would smile, sometimes he’d clap, too, and his eyes would follow what was happening, like the trainers talking to him or shows on a screen that we’d show him,” his father said. | What's going on? |
The little boy was thriving, and his parents celebrated him as much as they protected him. | Any new developments? |
Yazan’s mother broke down as she spoke to Al Jazeera about the loss of Yazan [Screengrab/Sanad/Al Jazeera] | What's the buzz? |
“We’d have birthday parties for Yazan. He would smile, he would clap when he heard music, he was moving well, thank God. | Got any headlines? |
“We’d do the whole thing, with a birthday cake and party food, just like we did for the other kids,” his mother said. | Got any news? |
Understanding and love | Any updates? |
The couple has three surviving children, eight-year-old Mouin, four-year-old Wael and four-month-old Mohamed, who was born weeks after Israel began its assault on Gaza on October 7. | What's happening? |
Mouin was the closest of the brothers to Yazan, his mother told Al Jazeera. | What's the latest? |
“He would sit with him and watch him for me when I had to be in another room. He didn’t change his diapers or anything like that, but he would spend hours with him just watching something or chattering,” she said. | What's the scoop? |
Because Yazan could not speak, he made different sounds depending on what he needed, his father said. | Anything noteworthy? |
“I couldn’t understand what he wanted to, well, his mum was the one who knew what he wanted based on the sound he was making,” he said. | What's going on? |
Yazan’s mother smiled fondly at the memory of her relationship with her eldest. | Any new developments? |
“He was closer to me … such a good kid, our relationship was great and I always understood him. He’d make a particular noise when he was hungry, another one if he was startled. | What's the buzz? |
Yazan’s father, Sharif, is still devastated at what happened to Yazan [Screengrab/Sanad/Al Jazeera] | Got any headlines? |
“I took him with me everywhere, to market, to my family’s places, he just came along. We went to the beach, too, but I didn’t put him in the sea because I always worried he’d get too cold, I’d just bathe him in the tub.” | Got any news? |
Memories of that past life bring fleeting smiles to her face as she describes their two-bedroom home with its big living room and kitchen where the children had space to play – now they huddle with their parents in a tiny space all day. | Any updates? |
“Fridays we’d have a big family meal, then take our afternoon siestas and go out to visit our families, either we’d go to my family or to my in-laws’,” she said. | What's happening? |
Sharif used to work as a driver, earning enough money to provide everything the family needed, especially Yazan. | What's the latest? |
“I tried to do the same here,” he said. “We’re from Beit Hanoon, we were displaced to Jabalia, then Nuseirat, then Deir el-Balah, and when we got here, I made sure we had our own space, so Yazan would be as comfortable as I could manage for my son,” Sharif continued. | What's the scoop? |
War brings the beginning of the end | Anything noteworthy? |
“I was so happy when I was watching my son growing day by day when he had the food and medicines he needed. But then when the war started, he couldn’t get the treatment or the right food any more,” Sharif said. | What's going on? |
Yazan was alert and thriving before the war, thanks to his family’s efforts to take care of him [Courtesy of the el-Kafarna family] | Any new developments? |
They tried, he continued, as hard they could to secure what Yazan needed to survive – soft, nutritious food that could be eaten by the little boy – but first, the supplies dwindled, then the black market prices rose alarmingly, then finally, there was no more of the food to be found. | What's the buzz? |
Yazan’s health began to deteriorate in front of his parents’ horrified eyes as they carried him in their arms from one supposed “safe” place of displacement to another. | Got any headlines? |
No amount of softened bread scraps they gathered for him could help keep him alert and strong, and his already thin frame began to waste away. | Got any news? |
“He started to deteriorate day after day. We didn’t have enough medicine so I’d try to skip days to make what we had stretch further,” his father said sadly. | Any updates? |
“We took him to the hospital and he lived his last days on life support at Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital. By then he was no longer able to respond to anything, not even his mother.” | What's happening? |
Yazan spent 11 days in the hospital before he died on March 4. | What's the latest? |
“I can never forget Yazan,” his mother said, in tears. | What's the scoop? |
“He’s in my heart and mind every minute of every day. Look at what’s happening to our children!” | Anything noteworthy? |
The suspension follows an earlier move that has seen thousands of French soldiers exit the West African nation. | What's going on? |
Niger has suspended its military agreement with the United States “with immediate effect”, according to the ruling military spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane, in a blow to US security interests in the region. | Any new developments? |
The pact allowed US military personnel and civilian defence staff to operate from Niger, which plays a central role in the US military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region and is home to a major airbase. | What's the buzz? |
The decision, announced on Saturday, came after senior US officials – led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and US Africa Command head General Michael Langley – visited the West African country earlier this week to discuss democratic transition. | Got any headlines? |
Speaking on local television, Abdramane said the US delegation did not follow diplomatic protocol, and that Niger was not informed about the composition of the delegation, the date of its arrival or the agenda. | Got any news? |
“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism,” Abdramane said. | Any updates? |
The US military had some 650 personnel working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The US military operates a major airbase in the Niger city of Agadez, some 920km (572 miles) from the capital of Niamey, using it for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. | What's happening? |
A drone base known as Air Base 201 near Agadez was built at a cost of more than $100m. Since 2018 the base has been used to target ISIL (ISIS) fighters and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, in the Sahel region. | What's the latest? |
‘A huge blow to the US’ | What's the scoop? |
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera correspondent Shihab Rattansi said the move is “a huge blow to the US”. | Anything noteworthy? |
“Niger is the centre of US operations in west and north Africa, notably at its Air Base 201, the most expensive construction project ever undertaken by the US government. It’s there for war on terror operations but it’s really there also for great power projection against countries like Russia and China.” | What's going on? |
Last October, Washington officially designated the military takeover as a coup. But in December, the top US envoy for Africa, Phee, said the US was willing to restore aid and security ties if Niger met certain conditions. | Any new developments? |
The military said the delegation had accused Niger of partnering with Russia and Iran on “secret” deals, which the government denies. Officials also said the US had “threatened” action against Niger if the Niamey fails to cut ties with both countries. | What's the buzz? |
The military government “forcefully denounces the condescending attitude accompanied by the threat of retaliation from the head of the American delegation towards the Nigerien government and people”, spokesman Abdramane added. | Got any headlines? |
A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Reuters news agency, said the officials had “frank discussions” in Niamey earlier this week about the trajectory of Niger’s ruling military council – known by its French initials CNSP. | Got any news? |
“We are in touch with the CNSP and will provide further updates as warranted,” the official added. | Any updates? |
Niger has been under military rule since July 2023 when an elite guard force led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani detained President Mohamed Bazoum and declared Tchiani ruler. | What's happening? |
Like the military rulers in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger has also kicked out French and other European forces. Both Mali and Burkina Faso have turned to Russia for support. | What's the latest? |
Source | What's the scoop? |
: | Anything noteworthy? |
Al Jazeera and news agencies | What's going on? |
Since February 25, women with name tags and huge stacks of papers have been knocking on every door in the Russia-occupied parts of four Ukrainian regions or approaching residents outside their apartment buildings or houses. | Any new developments? |
The documents are lists of voters, and the women and, rarely, men are election officials who usually teach in nearby schools, accept utilities payments or work as government clerks. | What's the buzz? |
They ask residents for their IDs and nudge them to fill in an early ballot form with the names of four candidates in Russia’s presidential election, current and former residents of the occupied areas told Al Jazeera. | Got any headlines? |
One of the candidates is Vladimir Putin, who is all but certain to win his fifth election, and the remaining three presidential hopefuls are figureheads from pro-Kremlin parties whose participation is widely understood by observers as an attempt to create an illusion of choice. | Got any news? |
The Ukrainians rarely refuse to fill in the ballot for a very persuasive reason – a masked, gun-toting Russian serviceman towering next to the official and a car filled with more armed men nearby, Al Jazeera has learned. | Any updates? |
The “voting” usually takes place near the entrance of an apartment, and the election official along with the armed soldier can see whose name is ticked off on the ballot. | What's happening? |
“There’s no secrecy of vote,” a former resident of Mariupol told Al Jazeera, speaking about how her friends and relatives voted on Wednesday. | What's the latest? |
“People who love Ukraine must submit to the regime and pretend they support everything that’s going on because they’re afraid for their lives.” | What's the scoop? |
She added, however, that there are resistance groups that largely consist of young people who leak information about the numbers and location of Russian soldiers and weaponry to Ukrainian intelligence services. | Anything noteworthy? |
Some locals hope that their participation in the vote will give them a literal free pass out of the occupied area. | What's going on? |
“My father-in-law had a heart attack and died. My mother-in-law’s hair turned grey because of what we had gone through. All we want is to leave and never look back,” Tatyana, who lives in the port of Berdiansk in southern Ukraine, which was occupied in late February 2022, told Al Jazeera. | Any new developments? |
She and her husband voted early, on Monday, unsurprisingly for Putin because they don’t want to be blacklisted by Russia-appointed authorities. | What's the buzz? |
They plan to cross into southern Russia and take a plane to Kazakhstan, where their relatives agreed to shelter them. | Got any headlines? |
The few Ukrainians who refused to vote or badmouthed the election have been rounded up and taken to “basements”, as informal prisons are known in Russia-occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, according to the Eastern Human Rights Group, a Ukrainian watchdog. | Got any news? |
The rights group and the three Ukrainians Al Jazeera interviewed for this article, whose full names will not be used for safety reasons, reported the threat of guns at polling stations in the occupied regions. | Any updates? |
So the only way to safely say “no” is to keep the door closed to election officials and avoid the polling stations that opened on Friday, the first day of Russia’s three-day election. | What's happening? |
“Nobody touches” those who stay at home, said a former resident of the Russia-occupied southern town of Enerhodar who fled to Kyiv but is in constant contact with her family and friends at home. | What's the latest? |
The reason is simple – vote-rigging, which has been documented in Russia in previous elections and is widely expected to be even more pronounced in the occupied parts of Ukraine. | What's the scoop? |
“I think the turnout will be 120 to 150 percent,” the former resident quipped. | Anything noteworthy? |
Observers agreed – and said Kremlin-appointed officials will compete with each other in vote rigging to report large turnouts and a big percentage of votes for Putin. | What's going on? |
“At the pseudo-elections, there will be maximal vote-rigging because local ‘viceroys’ will try to surpass the ‘Chechen count,'” Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch told Al Jazeera, referring to the nearly 100 percent turnouts and pro-Putin votes in Chechnya. | Any new developments? |
Moscow-appointed “viceroys” openly urge residents of the occupied regions to vote for Putin. | What's the buzz? |
“I’m confident that the activity of our citizens will be high and every resident of the region will vote for our president,” the Russia-installed governor of Zaporizhia, Yevgeny Balitsky, said on Telegram. | Got any headlines? |
On Friday morning, Russian officials reported the early vote turnout – 45 percent in the occupied part of Zaporizhia and 58 percent in the Donetsk and Kherson regions. | Got any news? |
The RIA Novosti news agency filed the report at 8:05am (06:05 GMT), five minutes after polling stations opened in public schools and government buildings in the occupied regions. | Any updates? |
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