Two days earlier, people in Lebanon’s capital had commemorated the 2020 Beirut port explosion. The boom was reminiscent of the shattering sound back then, when 237 people were killed. 

This explosive sound was quickly followed by another — stronger and louder. In the streets, terrified people scrambled for shelter.

It was not a bomb or an explosion at the port: Israeli attack planes had torn through the air, flying as close as possible to the ground, fast enough that they broke the sound barrier. 

The sonic boom and shockwave this creates is used as a tool of psychological warfare, and it came right before a scheduled speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

It wasn’t the veiled threat of war by Israel that threw Marian Sesay, a Sierra-Leonean migrant living in Lebanon. It was the trauma of the past.

“Those sonic booms, that’s like what happened on the fourth of August explosion for sure,” says Sesay, referring to the port explosion among whose fatalities were 76 foreign nationals.

“Now, I’m scared of every little sound,” she says.

On that day in 2020, 2 750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate kept in Beirut’s port exploded, killing hundreds, injuring more than 6 000 and leaving about 300 000 people homeless.

Sesay was a domestic worker then in the Bourj Hammoud municipality, on the outskirts of Beirut, not far from the port. When the blast boomed through the air, like everyone, she was stunned at first then fear rapidly set in.

“After the blast, I was afraid of everything. I had insomnia and I was always afraid I was going to die,” she recalls. “That sound is a trigger.”

Sesay came to Lebanon 10 years ago to work for a Lebanese family under the Kafala system, an extreme form of employment sponsorship that allows employers to control the entry, exit, work and residence of migrant workers, making the labourers vulnerable to exploitation and modern slavery, particularly in domestic work.

Collectively, the Arab region is home to more than 24 million migrant workers, making up 40% of the labour force — the highest share of any region, according to the Global Slavery Index. Lebanon has at least a quarter of a million from Africa and Asia.

Crises exacerbate the vulnerabilities of workers under the Kafala system and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion was a case in point.

“Many of the people in the affected areas were vulnerable women, and while Lebanese had other places to go to, they didn’t,” says Ghina Al-Andary, an officer at Kafa, an NGO that helps domestic migrant workers in Lebanon.

In the affected area, in-house help had become a status symbol.

Viany De Marceau, a Cameroonian who came to Lebanon as a domestic worker under the Kafala system in 2015, explained this in an article for the Migrant Worker Action group: “Along the port of Beirut, two maids per apartment are not enough. The more maids you have, the better you are regarded. There are two Filipinas for the cooking, two Ghanaians to take care of the children, an Ethiopian or a Cameroonian for the cleaning.”

After the 2020 blast, most of the help Lebanon received was prioritised for locals. One MP, George Atallah, proposed a law to explicitly exclude families of non-Lebanese victims from compensation.

Marceau wonders who remembered the Africans who died on 4 August 2020.

She wrote: “Even in death, for you, we do not count. They retrieved the bodies but did not mention the presence of the black women, our presence.”

In the aftermath, some migrant workers decided to leave Lebanon. Others chose to stay. They healed with the help of some organisations, their community and their family back home.

But the scars are still there — scratched each time Israeli jets break the sound barrier, as they have done several times since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.

The Israeli state responded to the attack not only by bombarding Gaza (where more than 41,000 people have since died), but also stretching the hits, or threat of them, to parts of Lebanon, Syria and even Iran, in pursuit of Hamas allies like Hezbollah. 

This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here

The call by Israel’s largest union to paralyse the economy follows a night of massive demonstrations, with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets in an outpouring of grief and fury over six hostages killed in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli soldiers recovered the bodies of the six “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” of southern Gaza on Saturday, the military said.

Relatives and demonstrators accused the government of not doing enough to bring them back alive, and called for an immediate ceasefire to rescue the dozens still captive.

“We must stop the abandonment of the hostages… I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken,” said Histadrut union chair Arnon Bar-David.

“Starting tomorrow (Monday) at six in the morning, the entire Israeli economy will go on complete strike.”

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, 97 remain captive in Gaza, including 33 the army says are dead.

Scores were released during a one-week truce in November, with campaigners and family members believing another deal is the best option to ensure the rest return.

“We are asking our government to stop everything and to make a deal,” Yair Keshet, uncle of hostage Yarden Bibas, said during Sunday night’s protest in Tel Aviv.

Critics have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political gain.

“Were it not for the delays, sabotage and excuses” in months of mediation efforts, the six hostages “would likely still be alive”, campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

Six killed hostages

During protests that convulsed Tel Aviv on Sunday night, demonstrators marched past six symbolic coffins draped with the Israeli flag and carried pictures of the deceased hostages.

A handful of protesters clashed with police while some burned tyres on a blocked highway where they defied water cannon.

The six hostages were identified as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov.

Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said all six “were abducted alive on the morning of October 7” and “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them”.

Qatar-based Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said they were “killed by Zionist (Israeli) bombing”, an accusation the military denied.

Israeli health ministry spokesperson Shira Solomon said the hostages were “murdered by Hamas terrorists with several close-range gunshots”, about 48 to 72 hours before their autopsies.

A senior Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “some” of the six had been “approved” for release in a potential hostage-prisoner swap under a deal yet to be agreed.

“This is not how imagined it would end, Eden, my love,” Yerushalmi’s mother tearfully told mourners at a funeral in the central city of Petah Tikva. “I wanted so bad to have you back alive.”

US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the hostages’s deaths, but “still optimistic” about sealing a ceasefire deal.

The Biden administration has been leading mediation efforts along with Qatar and Egypt.

Polio vaccinations

In the besieged Gaza Strip, rescuers were digging through rubble for people buried alive by Israeli strikes on a school sheltering displaced in Gaza City.

Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Sunday’s strike on the Safad School killed 11 people.

Israel’s military said it had hit a Hamas command centre.

Nearly 11 months of war have flattened much of Gaza and destroyed its water, sanitation and medical facilities, contributing to the spread of preventable diseases.

Across Gaza, a series of “humanitarian pauses” are expected to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first confirmed polio case in 25 years.

The vaccination campaign formally launched on Sunday at three health centres in central Gaza, according to Yasser Shaaban, director of Al-Awda hospital.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, called it a “race against time to reach just over 600,000 children”.

“For this to work, parties to the conflict must respect the temporary area pauses,” he posted on social media.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

West Bank raids

In the occupied West Bank, at least 24 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched raids on Wednesday, including 14 who militant groups claimed as members.

On Saturday, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Israel to immediately end its attack on the Jenin refugee camp, saying it had received “information that Israeli soldiers are rounding up dozens of young Palestinians from their homes and interrogating them, as well as subjecting them to various forms of mistreatment, including beatings”.

An AFP photographer saw Israeli bulldozers in the Jenin city centre a day after an official said soldiers had destroyed streets and power and water had been cut off in the adjacent camp.

“(We live in) terror and fear for the children,” said Jenin resident Adel Marai Egbaria.

“No one dares to go out.”

Further south near the Tarqumiya checkpoint, Israeli police said a “shooting attack” killed three officers on Sunday.

According to the UN, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.

Twenty-three Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to official figures.

© Agence France-Presse

The Gaza Strip, already battered by years of siege and warfare, had once again become a battleground as Israel unleashed an 11-day military offensive. 

This was not the first time El Sayed had faced such peril; over the years, she had become an unwavering witness to the cycles of bloodshed that defined life in Gaza.

Two and a half years later, on 8 October last year, El Sayed found herself in a familiar situation. She reported in real time, live on air, as an Israeli missile targeted the tower behind her — a building symbolic of media freedom, home to numerous media institutions Al Jazeera colleague Wael Dahdouh— in retaliation for a Hamas attack the previous day.

As the tower crumbled, El Sayed was no longer just an observer of the destruction; she was a survivor, living through the very story she was reporting. 

This time, however, the scale of devastation was far greater. The death toll mounted, and with it, the weight of the stories she had to tell.

Among those stories was that of 11-year-old Ashfaaq, who emerged from an ambulance in Khan Younis, his face bruised. 

Clutching a blue backpack tightly against his chest, he approached El Sayed and said: “Do you know what I have here?” 

Inside the bloodstained bag was his little brother, Ahmed — a grim reminder of the human cost of war.

For El Sayed, these were not just stories, they were personal battles. 

As a mother of four young children, with her eldest just 13, she found herself in an agonising position. The struggle between her duty as a journalist and her instinct to protect her family weighed heavily on her, tugging at her with every live broadcast she delivered. 

The war wasn’t just something she reported on — it was something she and her family endured daily.

The trauma reached breaking point just four days after her Al Jazeera colleague Wael Dahdouh lost his family in an Israeli airstrike.  

El Sayed’s own home was targeted. Her husband received an anonymous phone call: “You’re speaking to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). You need to take your family and leave your home right now. Otherwise, your life will be in danger.” 

The specificity of the call made it clear — they were targeting her family because of her work as a journalist.

“The moment I heard my 12-year-old scream at me, ‘We’re going to die because of you!’ I felt my world crumble,” she recalls, her voice thick with emotion. “To be in that position as a mother, when all you want to do is protect your children …”

After three months of relentless daily reporting, the situation became unbearable. 

El Sayed and her family were forced to flee Gaza, leaving behind everything they knew, in search of safety. 

They escaped under the cover of sniper bullets and shelling, with the journalist carrying the heavy burden of choosing between her profession and her responsibility as a mother.

In the months that followed, El Sayed found herself in Cairo, grappling with survivor guilt. 

“Why did I survive? Why was I able to come out?” she questioned. 

The only solace she found was in continuing to speak about Gaza from the outside. It was this drive that brought her to Johannesburg, where she addressed a gathering of journalists during her tour of Southern Africa.

Hosted by the humanitarian journalism portal Salaamedia, El Sayed’s message was clear — the media had failed the people of Gaza.

“We have reached a time when the global media has become very professional in exposing everything and anything that happens in any part of the world. Yet, the media’s integrity is compromised when it becomes politicised, when it follows agendas instead of standing as an authority for justice, for the people, regardless of all governments,” she said.

“In Gaza, this failure was palpable. The media failed us. They failed to amplify the voices of the people of Gaza, to connect them to other people in the world. 

“The popular support we see now among people in different areas of the world has come after many months of suffering, after many lives have been lost. 

“People are now searching for voices from inside Gaza — voices that can give evidence of the crimes against humanity being committed.”

For El Sayed, telling a story is no longer enough. 

“Your role as a journalist, as a voice, is to amplify,” she said. “It’s not just about speaking to decision-makers and government officials. 

“It’s about connecting people who endure daily sufferings with others around the world. If government officials don’t care, then the people of the world should support those who are suffering.”

Her journey from Gaza to Johannesburg is not just the story of a journalist but of a mother who bore the weight of her children’s lives on her shoulders while carrying the responsibility of telling the world about the atrocities in her homeland. 

“I had to make the choice between my profession, my career and my responsibility as a mother,” she reflected.

Now, as El Sayed advocates for her country from outside its borders, she remains steadfast in her belief that the role of journalists is not just to report but to bear witness, to give a voice to the voiceless and challenge the forces that seek to silence them.

Her advice to young journalists who fear for their future is simple yet profound: “Always remember that the people in the story are more important than any organisation or institution you work under.”

In a world where the lines between truth and propaganda are increasingly blurred, El Sayed stands as a testament to the courage and conviction it takes to tell the stories that matter, even when the cost is personal. 

Her journey is a powerful reminder of the moral and ethical role of journalists in times of genocide — when bearing witness is not just a profession, but a duty to humanity.

The United States provided the tip of the threat to this week’s “Eras” tour concerts which have been cancelled, the US administration said.

Austrian police on Wednesday arrested suspects aged 19 and 17 over a plot to kill “a large number of people” at one of the three gigs, which were meant to start Thursday, according to authorities.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said that “an 18-year-old Iraqi close to the main suspect and who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group was arrested” in Vienna on Thursday.

The main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian with North Macedonian roots, had allegedly confessed, saying he “intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives”, according to domestic intelligence agency (DSN) head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

The second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian of Turkish and Croatian origin, had been hired by a facility company that was to have worked at the Ernst Happel Stadium where Swift was to perform, said Haijawi-Pirchner.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer said there were “concrete and detailed” plans to commit a “bloodbath”.

The White House on Friday confirmed the United States had provided intelligence to Austria to thwart the plot.

“We work closely with partners all over the world to monitor and disrupt threats,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

The Austrian army’s intelligence service was warned of a looming attack 10 to 15 days prior by two unspecified countries that helped it foil the plot, news agency APA had reported.

Swift was set to perform three shows from Thursday to Saturday as part of her mega record-breaking “Eras” tour.

The European leg of the sold-out tour began in Paris in May and has taken in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Poland.

Her next concerts are at Wembley stadium in London from next Thursday and authorities have said they will go ahead.

In Austria, the shows had been expected to bring in some 100 million euros ($109 million) and gather 170,000 fans, according to APA estimates.

Swift has not yet commented on the decision to cancel the Vienna shows but said she was “completely in shock” after a deadly attack in Britain on July 29 at a Swift-themed dance class.

Three girls were killed and five people seriously wounded in the mass stabbing at the class in Southport, England.

© Agence France-Presse

Austrian authorities detained two suspects on Wednesday for allegedly plotting to attack this week’s Vienna concerts by the US star, which organisers cancelled at the last minute.

The 19-year-old main suspect had confessed, saying he “intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives,” domestic intelligence agency (DSN) head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner told a news conference.

“His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people during the concert… either today or tomorrow,” he added. The concerts were to run from Thursday to Saturday.

The second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian, was employed at a facility management company which would have “provided services” at the Ernst Happel Stadium where Swift was to perform, said Haijawi-Pirchner.

The younger suspect, who has so far refused to talk to authorities, was “in the area” of the stadium where he was detained, said Haijawi-Pirchner.

According to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, a “tragedy was averted”.  “The situation was very serious”, he added, particularly in view of a recent attack at a Taylor Swift themed event in Britain, where three girls were killed in Great Britain.

Explosives and detonators were found in a search of the main suspect’s apartment, authorities said.

Disappointed Swifties

Austria’s top security chief Franz Ruf told reporters the two suspects had recently made changes in their private lives.

The main suspect, an Austrian with Northern Macedonian roots, had changed “his appearance and adapted it to Islamic State propaganda”, while the second, an Austrian of Turkish or Croatian origin, had broken up with his girlfriend, he said.

Ruf earlier confirmed that authorities had received information “from foreign partners” which led to the arrests, but he declined to specify.

Police had promised to ramp up security for the concerts while having minimised any concrete danger, but organisers still cancelled Swift’s shows. About 65,000 people were expected at each show.

Swift did not immediately comment on the decision to cancel the Vienna shows but after the British attack said she was “completely in shock”. Three girls were killed and five people seriously wounded in the mass stabbing at a dance class in Southport inspired by the American singer.

According to Ruf, police “did everything humanly possible to ensure” that the Vienna concerts “could go ahead”, but the cancellation decision was taken by the organisers.

The 34-year-old star was to bring her record-breaking “Eras” Tour, which began its European leg in Paris in May, to Vienna on Thursday.

Following France, the tour stopped in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Poland.

In Austria, more than 170,000 spectators were expected to attend the shows, bringing in some 100 million euros, according to estimates by the news agency APA.

By the end of the year, “Eras” had already become the first tour to sell more than $1 billion in tickets and it is on track to more than double that by the time it concludes in Vancouver in December.

Austria experienced its first deadly jihadist attack in November 2020, when a convicted IS sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in Vienna, killing four people and wounding 23 before police shot him dead.

© Agence France-Presse

While diplomats worked to avert a feared conflagration, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Jordan’s King Abdullah II said on Sunday that a regional military escalation must be avoided “at all costs”, the French presidency said after they held a telephone call.

With major military action from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and others widely expected, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “If they dare to attack us, they will pay a heavy price.”

The nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has already led to a violent fallout which has become routine around the region.

In the deadliest incident on Sunday in Gaza, the Civil Defence agency said an Israeli strike hit two Gaza City schools housing displaced people, killing at least 30.

This brings to at least 11 the number of schools hit in Gaza since July 6.

Israel’s army confirmed the latest strike, saying Hamas was using the schools.

Near the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv, medics and police said two people were killed in a stabbing attack.

The assailant, a Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was “neutralised” by police and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

‘Highly volatile’

Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war broke out in October, announced the deaths of two of its fighters without specifying where.

The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on the southern border village of Hula killed two people.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported Israeli strikes on various areas of south Lebanon, after Hezbollah said it had fired a fresh barrage of rockets at northern Israel.

The Israeli military said most of the 30 projectiles launched from Lebanon were intercepted.

Sirens sounded again early on Monday in northern Israel’s Upper Galilee region after “numerous suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon”, the Israeli military said.

The attack triggered a fire and an officer and a soldier were “moderately injured”, it said on Telegram.

The cross-border violence since October has killed some 547 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 115 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Saudi Arabia and France became the latest of several countries calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon.

“In a highly volatile security context”, the foreign ministry in Paris “urgently asked” its nationals to avoid travelling to Lebanon and suggested those already in the country leave “as soon as possible”.

France also urged its nationals living in Iran to “temporarily leave”.

Several Western airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon and other airports in the region.

Qatar Airways said the Doha-Beirut route would “operate exclusively during daylight hours” at least until Monday.

Ceasefire hopes dimmed

Wednesday’s assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, hours after the Israeli killing of Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut, has triggered vows of vengeance from Iran and the “axis of resistance” of Tehran-backed armed groups.

Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran and others of killing Haniyeh, has not directly commented on the attack.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 39,583 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Haniyeh was Hamas’s lead negotiator in efforts to end the war. His killing, and that of Shukr, “does not suggest Israel is sincerely interested in a ceasefire”, said Middle East expert Andreas Krieg.

Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators have for months tried to broker a truce and hostage-release deal.

‘Greatest peril’

Analysts have told AFP that a joint but measured action from Iran and its allies was likely, while Tehran said it expects Hezbollah to hit deeper inside Israel and no longer be confined to military targets.

Israel’s ally the United States said it was moving additional warships and fighter jets to the region.

In an interview with ABC News, White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said the United States was “doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over”.

As part of those efforts it is “so urgent” that a Gaza ceasefire deal be reached, Finer said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasised the need to calm regional tensions in a call with Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq, where some Iran-aligned groups targeted US troops earlier in the Gaza war.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi held “consultations” with Iran’s acting top diplomat Ali Bagheri and met President Masoud Pezeshkian in a rare visit to Tehran, local media reported.

The G7 group of democracies convened by videoconference to discuss the Middle East and expressed “strong concern” over the threat of escalation, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

Haniyeh’s killing “has brought the Middle East to its moment of greatest peril in years”, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said in a report.

The ICG said that securing “a long overdue ceasefire” in Gaza was “the best way of meaningfully reducing tensions in the region”.

Hamas officials, but also some analysts as well as protesters in Israel, have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war.

“Peace is made with the strong not with the weak,” Netanyahu said Sunday at a ceremony in Jerusalem.

© Agence France-Presse

“What this latest ruling indicates is that international momentum against Israel’s continued violations of the rights of the Palestinian people is growing,” Ramaphosa said in reply to the debate on his opening of parliament address last week. 

“Just as our own struggle for national liberation was eventually won with steady victories, so too will the quest for Palestinian statehood be ultimately realised. Our own history and experience demands no less of us.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in an advisory opinion on Friday said Israel must withdraw from occupied Palestinian land “as rapidly as possible”, adding that Palestinians were entitled to reparation for unlawful acts.

“The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the occupied Palestinian territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful,” court president Nawaf Salam said.

Crucially, the court found that other states had a legal obligation not to assist or support the 57-year occupation.

The advisory opinion followed a request by the UN General Assembly in 2022, well before the start of the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza which South Africa considers genocide.

South Africa in its submission to court in February described Palestinian suffering under the occupation as worse than that endured by its black majority during apartheid.

“We as South Africans sense, see, hear and feel to our core the inhumane discriminatory policies and practices of the Israeli regime as an even more extreme form of the apartheid that was institutionalised against black people in my country,” Pretoria’s ambassador to The Hague, Vusi Madonsela, said.

The court on Friday said Israel was in breach of the international convention on the elimination of all forms of racism.

In a separate case, South Africa has asked the ICJ to declare Israel in breach of the 1948 UN convention on genocide.

As the siege of Gaza continues, the country’s legal team has twice asked the court for additional provisional measures to be added to its interim order on 26 January that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts prohibited under the convention.

In May the court, in response to its latest application, ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that would bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

Although Israel has rejected the court’s pronouncements, South Africa’s legal action is seen as having shifted international opinion on Israel’s retaliation for the 7 October massacres by Hamas in western Israel and contributed to the mounting isolation of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In May, the top prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said he is seeking the arrest of Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges including “starvation”, “wilful killing”, and “extermination and/or murder”. 

Ramaphosa said he would later on Monday meet South African lawyers who brought the application to the ICJ to thank them for their work, and said South Africa would never waver in its support for Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

“We will continue to pursue progressive internationalism and advance principled solidarity,” he said.

Biden posted on Sunday that he had decided not to accept the nomination to run for a second term as the Democratic presidential candidate in the US 2024 elections.

pic.twitter.com/RMIRvlSOYw

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as president for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,” Biden posted.

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

In the letter he addressed to “My Fellow Americans” Biden wrote that over the past three and a half years the country had “made great progress as a nation”.

“Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We have made historic investments in rebuilding our nation, in lowering prescription drugs costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years, appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court and passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world,” Biden posted.

Biden noted his belief that the country is in a better place than before and it was thanks to the American people. He said the country overcame a “once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression”. He said America had “protected and preserved our democracy, and we’ve revitalized (sic) and strengthened our alliances around the world.”

“It has been the greatest honor (sic) of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek re-election I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.

Biden said he would address the nation later this week in more detail about his decision.

“For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me re-elected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work, and let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me. I believe today, what I always have, that there is nothing America can’t do when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America,” Biden posted.

According to CNN, Biden has offered his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as a replacement nominee, and a senior Democratic official told the broadcaster that they believe other party leaders will follow suit.

Reacting to the news in a telephone interview with CNN former President Donald Trump described Biden as going “down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country”. Trump added that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat than Biden would have been as an opponent in the 2024 election race.

Aviation officials in the United States briefly grounded all planes, while airlines elsewhere cancelled or delayed flights, as systems running Microsoft Windows crashed.

Microsoft said the issue began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affecting users of its Azure cloud platform running cybersecurity software CrowdStrike Falcon.

“We recommend customers that are able to, to restore from a backup from before this time,” the US software giant said in a technical update on its website.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a post on several social media platforms that a fix had been rolled out for the problem, describing it as a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts”.

Experts suggested applying the fix would not be straightforward. And the global nature of the failure prompted some commentators to question the reliance on a single provider for such a variety of services. Shares in CrowdStrike slumped by 20 percent in pre-market trading.

Here is an overview of the main disruptions.

Airports and airlines

Airport operations and flights were a major victim of the outage, which forced delays and cancellations globally.

At Sydney Airport in Australia, flight operations and airport services were affected, creating long queues of passengers trying to reach their destinations.

Hong Kong International Airport also announced that some airlines were affected, and Singapore’s airport also said it had been impacted.

“Due to a global outage affecting IT systems of many organisations, the check-in process for some airlines at Changi Airport is being managed manually,” the airport posted on Facebook.

At Delhi airport, three Indian airlines reported major IT disruptions.

In Europe, Berlin International Airport was blocked on Friday morning before traffic partially resumed at around 11:00 am (0900 GMT).

Flight arrivals were halted at Zurich’s airport before it announced on Friday afternoon that flights could again land, while in Vienna and Budapest, the check-in systems of several airlines had to be operated manually, causing “significant delays”.

Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, a major European hub, was also affected, as were all airports in Spain, causing disruptions at the height of its summer tourism season.

In France, Air France said it was facing IT-related disruption on several of its services, but not at the Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports serving the Olympics host city Paris.

The IT systems of the ADP group, which manages the Paris airports, were unaffected but the breakdown has “had an impact on the operations of the airlines concerned at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly: slowdown in check-in, delays and temporary suspension of certain flight schedules”, the company told AFP.

But Transavia France said it had been forced to cancel nearly 40 flights.

Ireland’s Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline in terms of passenger numbers, warned that it was experiencing a “disruption across the network due to a global third-party IT outage which is out of our control”.

In North America, major airlines including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all their planes early on Friday because of “communications issues”, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

They later said they were beginning to resume operations after hours-long delays.

Public transport

Britain’s largest rail operator said it was affected by the IT problems, leading to potential last-minute cancellations as companies were unable to access certain systems relating to drivers.

“We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network”, the four lines operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) posted on X.

In Gdansk, northern Poland, the Baltic Hub Container Terminal, a deep-water terminal, also reported disruption before returning to normal.

Financial sector

The London Stock Exchange was hit early by a technical problem affecting its platform for disseminating information to the market.

The FTSE 100, its main index, opened around 20 minutes late

In addition, the applications of several banks were affected in Australia, according to Australian television station ABC.

The problem also affected banks in Ukraine, including the online bank Sense Bank.

In Turkey, Deniz Bank reported disruptions to its customers.

Media

The disruptions also affected the media, such as Australian broadcaster ABC, which said its systems had been paralysed by a “major” problem.

In France, Canal+’s subscriber service explained on Friday morning that it was suffering the “repercussions of a major global technical failure”.

TF1, the leading private channel in France and Europe, was also affected, with its morning show starting several minutes late.

British television channel Sky News saw its broadcasting briefly interrupted.

The Paris Olympics

The IT outage is “impacting Paris 2024’s IT operations” just a week ahead of the opening ceremony for the Summer Games, the Olympic organising committee said.

The accreditation system has been affected, preventing some people from collecting their badges, a source within the organising committee told AFP.

Flight disruptions could also impede the arrival of athletes and delegations.

Other sectors

In Japan, some operations at McDonald’s restaurants were disrupted, and in Australia, self-service checkout terminals at one of the country’s largest supermarket chains displayed error messages.

In the Netherlands, several hospitals reported being affected by the outage, leading to the closure of an emergency department and the postponement of operations.

Britain’s government activated its civil contingencies committee as general practitioners (GPs) across Britain were unable to access patient records or book appointments.

A National Health Service (NHS) spokesperson said there was an issue with its appointment and patient record service “causing disruption in the majority” of GP services.

© Agence France-Presse

A White House candidate often chooses a vice presidential running mate who can appeal to new categories of voters or compensate for acknowledged weaknesses in terms of image or policy.

Trump, though, tapped a conservative white man like himself, from a state he already had every chance of winning.

“We’re ecstatic,” Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said on the Republican National Convention floor minutes after Vance was announced as Trump’s VP choice, calling him a “great addition” to the ticket.

Vance has “lived that experience” shared by millions of working-class and middle-class Americans, he said.

But will Trump’s plan work?

Age rebalance

Even if his octogenarian rival Joe Biden appears to be suffering more than him from advanced age, Trump knows he is no spring chicken at 78.

By picking Vance, who at 39 is barely half Trump’s age — and the first millennial on a major US party presidential ticket — he could neutralize what had been the relatively youthful advantage of Biden’s vice president, 59-year-old Kamala Harris.

Should the current Democratic president bow out of the campaign, as some in his party are calling on him to do, attention might shift to Trump’s age. A particularly youthful running mate would rebalance the average age on the GOP ticket.

Trump may also be looking for a capable young successor to carry the torch of Trumpism forward — and no doubt he believes Vance has the potential to lead a new MAGA generation.

MAGA loyalist

Vance was once a fierce Trump antagonist, but he has made a U-turn to establish himself as one of the billionaire’s most ardent defenders.

He has deleted earlier tweets critical of Trump and instead passionately embraced his ideas, advocating a radical anti-immigration fight and uncompromising economic protectionism.

And he proved his loyalty by defending tooth and nail Trump’s unfounded theory that the 2020 election was stolen.

Trump was scalded by his experience with his vice president in his first term, Mike Pence, who, after years of unwavering loyalty, had declined on January 6, 2021, to comply when Trump asked him to refuse to certify Biden’s election victory.

“Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate because he will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law, and certainly no matter the harm to the American people,” said Biden campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon.

Seduction of the Rust Belt

Ohio has steadily shifted rightward, and Trump would theoretically carry his running mate’s home state without him.

But he is betting Vance can help him win the neighbouring states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, along with Wisconsin.

All three of them are crucial battlegrounds capable of tipping the scales on November 5.

Vance’s 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” was extolled by some as a window into the lives and troubles of the white working class — and their support for Trump.

Vance “embodies Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, those Midwest states,” Ohio delegate Charlie Frye, 53, told AFP at the convention.

The senator “had a blue-collar upbringing in the Midwest, which I think is really powerful.”

It is notable that Trump is not thinking only of the presidential election.

Ohio is the scene of a hotly contested battle for the state’s other senate seat, held by a Democrat, and Vance’s momentum could aid the Republican challenger — and in the process help the party regain control of the upper chamber of Congress.

© Agence France-Presse