Middle East

Hiyam Taha, a pharmacy graduate born in 1997, is running with Masar Jadid in the November election. The face of a new generation, she is fighting for the Palestinian territory’s future against the Fatah-Hamas dichotomy. She calls for shedding the needy label, noting that ordinary Palestinians want to rebuild peace and freedom.

KonohaFest, scheduled for 3 and 4 October in a suburb of the city, was targeted. Stalls, games, food and anime character costumes were shut down early. A fundamentalist group vandalised stalls and attacked participants, including families. The government has remained silent.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Father Bashar raises the alarm regarding yesterday's attacks on Christian-owned property. Police arrested three individuals today. In his homily, the parish priest addressed young people, urging them to stay and not be afraid. Protecting a crop safeguards the land.

Fiji, Tuvalu and Australia are organising the pre-COP31 meeting, dedicated to the Pacific’s climate challenges. Attendance by international leaders is low. The meeting aims to give a voice to island nations threatened by rising sea levels and to place the region at the centre of global diplomacy.

Maysa and Mary were among the five victims of yet another Israeli drone strike that was reportedly intended to target a Hamas leader. Condolences from Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Holy Family community. Some 1,150 people have been killed since the ‘ceasefire’ that was supposed to end the war; 62 Christians in Gaza have died since the start of the conflict.

Government forces have launched heavy raids on rebel positions in Sana’a, Saada, and Taiz. Yesterday, Riyadh accused the Houthis of attacking Madinah, which they deny. The Wall Street Journal reports Beijing is helping the Houthis with dual-use (civilian and military) goods. Yemen’s healthcare system is at the point of collapse.

Bishop Martinelli is bringing it to the parishes of the Vicariate. The eighth centenary of his death is “not a commemoration, but an opportunity” to rediscover a “living legacy.” The Saint of Assisi speaks to “a vibrant Church living among different peoples, cultures and religions in the Arabian Peninsula.”

The emergency landing of a Flydubai flight in Saudi Arabia, likely due to an attempted hijacking by a pilot (an Omani national), has drawn attention to the route that symbolises the new ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. This route has seen rapid growth, even amid Israel’s isolation caused by the war in Gaza.

The US-led military mission comes to an end tomorrow. The crux of the matter lies in arms supplies to the militias and state control. Today, Iraq is the point where various fault lines converge: Iran and the United States, the Arab world and regional powers, the central government and the militias, national sovereignty and external influence.

During a parliamentary debate in Damascus, criticism was levelled at the “excessive number of female teachers” and calls were made for corporal punishment (which the Minister of Education has, however, ruled out). Meanwhile, an estimated two million children have dropped out of school due to poverty. And the issue of safeguarding the identity of minorities remains unresolved.

Indicators are in the red, entrepreneurs are operating at a loss, and families are resorting to loans even to pay for weddings. High fuel costs are leading to illegal logging, and people are increasingly forced to forgo necessities. Despite warnings from the IMF, the banking lobby holds 90 per cent of account holders in a stranglehold.

Each summer the French Dominican friar and official at the Dicastery for Christian Unity completes a new stage of an uninterrupted pilgrimage on foot that has now taken him from Rome all the way to Antioch. He reflects on the pilgrimage as a synthesis of life, the hospitality received in monasteries and mosques, and the encounters along the way. “Patriarch Bartholomew told me: ‘Go all the way to Jerusalem’.”