Refugees fleeing fighting in Darfur arrive at the border between Sudan and Chad on April 22, 2024, in Adre, Chad. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images International impunity helped allow a power struggle in Sudan to spiral into ethnic violence. Twenty years ago, American celebrities like George Clooney and Ryan Gosling urged us all to “Save Darfur” from the brutal conflict and ethnic cleansing campaign occurring under Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir. Bashir is now gone, but the militias he empowered have been carrying out brutal ethnic cleansings yet again in at least some parts of Darfur, according to a ..read more

Mexico City is being threatened by a water crisis after the main reservoirs remain under 40 percent of their full capacity due to low rainfall, geography, and lack of infrastructure. | Hector Vivas/Getty Images Mexico City is staring down a water crisis. It won’t be the last city to do so. Mexico City is parched. After abysmally low amounts of rainfall over the last few years, the reservoirs of the Cutzamala water system that supplies over 20 percent of the Mexican capital’s 22 million residents’ usable water are running out. “If it doesn’t start raining soon, as it is supposed to, these [rese ..read more

Palestinians walk around the rubble of buildings destroyed after an Israeli attack on the As Salam neighborhood in Rafah, Gaza, on May 6, 2024. | Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images The US has offered unconditional military aid to Israel throughout the war in Gaza. Israel’s operation in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza that houses more than a million displaced Palestinians, may have finally forced the Biden administration to do something it has been hesitant to do: pause a weapons shipment to Israel. The administration has been reluctant to restrict military aid to Israel in any way ..read more

Jessica Gow/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images Politics on Eurovision isn’t new. It’s been part of it almost from the start. The annual Eurovision Song Contest kicked off yesterday and is bracing for protests and audience disruptions over Israel’s inclusion in the event as its war in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack rages on. The song contest will be thousands of miles away — in Malmo, Sweden — but fury over the war is expected to be palpable in the small Scandinavian city, whose population will swell with both Eurovision fans and protesters. Over 1,000 artists in the host country ..read more

During a demonstration against the Israeli government, protesters hold flags and signs calling for a hostages deal with Hamas on May 4, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. | Amir Levy/Getty Images A deal will still be tough. The war in Gaza hangs in the balance this week as Israel ramps up for what many predict could be the bloodiest battle of the war, while at the same time, a ceasefire deal to end the fighting — at least temporarily — looks more possible than it has in months. On Monday, the political dynamics of the conflict shifted dramatically when Hamas announced it had accepted a draft proposal ..read more

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) walking the halls of Congress. | Nathan Howard/Getty Images Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned cell-cultivated or “lab-grown” meat. Why did Democratic Senator John Fetterman lend his support? Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law to ban cell-cultivated or “lab-grown” meat from the Sunshine State. “Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere,” DeSantis said. “We’re not doing that in the state of Florida.” Cell-cultivated meat is made by feeding animal cells a mix of nutrients to produce real meat without slaughtering an animal. It’s an emerging technol ..read more

A December 2023 photo shows a Palestinian girl injured as a result of the Israeli bombing on Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. | Saher Alghorra/Middle East images/AFP via Getty Images AI nudges us to prioritize speed and scale. In Gaza, it’s turbocharging mass bombing. Israel has reportedly been using AI to guide its war in Gaza — and treating its decisions almost as gospel. In fact, one of the AI systems being used is literally called “The Gospel.” According to a major investigation published last month by the Israeli outlet +972 Magazine, Israel has been relying on AI to decide whom to ..read more

AI is supposed to help militaries make precise strikes. Is that the case in Gaza? Israel’s war with Hamas, in response to the attacks of October 7, 2023, has led to more fatalities than in any previous Israeli war, with at least 34,000 Palestinians killed as of May 7, 2024. In Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, just over 1,400 were killed. One factor in that difference is the use of artificial intelligence. Israel’s incorporation of AI in warfare has been public for years through both defensive and offensive weapons. But in this war, AI is being deployed differently: It’s generating bombing targets ..read more

Signs hang at George Washington University’s Gaza solidarity encampment, created by students in conjunction with other DC-area universities, in Washington, DC on April 25, 2024.  | Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images And is it feasible? Plus three other questions about the student protesters’ demands. A core demand at the heart of the protests over the war in Gaza currently roiling college campuses across the US and around the world: that universities divest from Israel. That means withdrawing funds their endowments have invested in companies that are linked to Israel ..read more

Inspectors and police are seen raiding the Al Jazeera offices in Jerusalem, Israel, on May 5, 2024, and confiscating its equipment.  | Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images Press freedom is in a state of emergency in Israel and Gaza. Israel’s decision to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in the country signaled an escalation in an already hostile environment for journalists covering the war in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has previously called Al Jazeera a “mouthpiece for Hamas,” accused the Qatar-based news network of threatening Israel’s national security and used ..read more