Gaza is on the “precipice of major disease outbreaks”, the World Health Organisation has said
With 800,000 people crammed into overcrowded schools and other “collective centres”, skin infections including scabies are being found, along with jaundice and diarrhoea, the WHO said.
There is one toilet for several hundred people and “open defecation”, regional emergency director Richard Brennan told Sky News.
While the schools were designed to accept displaced people, their populations are six to eight times what they were intended to cater for. Others are living in tents.
Each person has one to three litres of clean water per day, when the accepted minimum in a humanitarian crisis is seven litres, Mr Brennan said.
There are “chest infections, respiratory infections”, while cases of jaundice “give concern for hepatitis”.
He added: “We could be on the precipice of major disease outbreaks. Putting in disease control efforts in these overcrowded, unsanitary contexts is incredibly difficult.”
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Gaza health workers thanked for ‘heroic efforts’
Of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 22 are out of action, Mr Brennan said, adding that before the conflict began, 3,500 beds were available. Now, it is down to 1,400.
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Many families are subsisting on one meal a day. In addition, colder weather is on the way.
“The next few weeks are going to be very tough indeed,” Mr Brennan added.
Referring to the 31 premature babies evacuated from al Shifa hospital and taken to southern Gaza, Mr Brennan said they were likely to travel on to Egypt in the next day or two, depending on their condition.
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Babies evacuated from al-Shifa arrive in Rafah
While Mr Brennan described it as “one of the few good news stories of the war so far”, he added: “We don’t know where any of the parents are, how many of them are orphans.”
Many are very low in weight, they all have serious infections and 11 are classed as in a critical condition.
The WHO is working with authorities to try to trace their parents.
Cathay Pacific has apologised after an episode of Family Guy depicting Tiananmen Square was included in inflight entertainment.
The episode of the adult animated series – known for pushing boundaries – includes a scene referencing the 1989 protest crackdown, in which China’s military violently suppressed massive pro-democracy protests.
Cathay Pacific is Hong Kong’s flagship airline.
“Cathay Pacific is aware of the incident and sincerely apologises to the affected customers,” the company said in a statement.
“We emphasise that the content of the programme does not represent Cathay Pacific’s standpoint, and have immediately arranged to have the programme removed as soon as possible.”
The airline said the content of its inflight entertainment system is managed by a third-party provider.
“We have consistently provided them with clear instructions to ensure that the recommended content meets our company standards.
“We have promptly informed the service provider of the seriousness of the incident, and have instructed them to thoroughly investigate the cause and strengthen oversight to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future.”
Singer Fuse ODG has released an “alternative” charity song to Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? after criticising the original for having potentially damaging effects on Africa.
The single titled We Know It’s Christmas (Band Aid Reply) was released by the British-Ghanaian singer on Tuesday, in what he described as “not just a song” but a “statement”.
Writing about his new song in The Guardian, the singer said he is “offering an Afrobeats alternative to Band Aid” as a “celebration of progress and a step toward reclaiming our narratives”.
He said the Afrobeats genre has in the past helped to unite Africans globally and “foster pride in our heritage”.
“We’re no longer waiting for charity; we’re building our own futures. This is about empowerment, pride, and showing the world that Africa’s story is far more than poverty and aid,” he wrote on YouTube.
The rapper said all the funds from the single will go to the New Africa Growth and Relief Fund, which he has launched to help build a “financial safety net” for the continent.
It comes after pop star Ed Sheeran said he was not asked permission for his vocals to be used in Band Aid 40, and would have “respectfully declined” if he had been asked, referencing a post by Fuse ODG, for updating his view on the matter.
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Fuse ODG said a decade earlier he had refused to take part in the 2014 revamp of the 1984 project as he feels that while it helps get “sympathy and donations, they perpetuate damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s economic growth, tourism, and investment”.
He said his “mission” is now to “reclaim the narrative, empowering Africans to tell their own stories, redefine their identity, and position Africa as a thriving hub for investment and tourism”.
The singer acknowledged that while the public’s generosity in reaction to the original single – which was launched by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to help charities working with starving children in Ethiopia – was “genuine” and addressed “a specific humanitarian crisis”, the way it depicted Africa “did more long-term harm than good”.
He claims the song “inadvertently contributed to a broader identity crisis for Africans, portraying the entire continent as one monolithic, war-torn, starving place”.
Band Aid 40 was released last month to mark the song’s 40th anniversary. It is a remix which blends the voices of artists who have featured on previous editions including Harry Styles, George Michael and Bono.
Reacting to recent criticism of the hit, Geldof said earlier this week that none of the arguments put forward by critics like Fuse ODG and Sheeran would “get any oxygen if Band Aid didn’t come out”.
“Sentiment changes, opinions change, theory changes over 40 years, and that’s correct. You can’t stay stuck,” he said while appearing on ITV show Lorraine.
“You’ve got to find different ways of combating these issues and different ways of talking about them and what we’re celebrating here, and none of these arguments will get any oxygen if Band Aid didn’t come out. That’s part of all this.
“So Ed says, ‘This is the way I feel now’. And I’ve put in the call – he’s a really lovely man, he’s an intelligent guy, he’s a major artist and we’ll have a chat and we’ll either agree or disagree but we’ll talk about it.
“But the debate must be made, and it means that we can argue our point of view even more strongly. So that’s where I’m at with this.”
A gunman has tried to assassinate a prominent Indian politician at the Golden Temple in the Indian city of Amritsar,
The assailant fired at Sukhbir Singh Badal, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab, at one of the holiest shrines in the Sikh religion on Wednesday.
No injuries were reported.
The suspect, later identified as 68-year-old Narain Singh Chaura, was overpowered by bystanders and was handed to police.
Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the gunman was “a former terrorist and a criminal”.
“He has been arrested and the weapon has been recovered,” he said.
The incident was caught on camera by media filming Mr Badal, who was performing his “sewadar” as a religious punishment meted out by the Akal Takht, the highest religious authority of the Sikhs.
He and some of his party leaders were directed to perform guard duty, wash dishes, clean shoes and toilets at the Golden Temple and several other gurdwaras, or temples.
A small board hung around his neck acknowledging the “misdeeds” committed by him and his government while he was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017.
At the time of the assassination attempt, Mr Badal was in a wheelchair with a fractured leg, holding a spear as a guard at the temple gates.
Mr Bhullar said alert police officers managed to stop the attack.
“Deploying policemen in uniform at the Golden Temple was a challenging task because of religious feelings,” he said.
“There are many restrictions and constraints in checking or frisking people coming to the temple. We did what was possible and the result shows how prepared we were.”
The attacker is believed to be a member of the now-inactive militant group Khalistan Liberation Army.
Leaders of Mr Badal’s party and opposition leaders are demanding a high-level judicial probe into the incident and say the law and order situation of Punjab is deteriorating – a claim denied by the ruling state government.