Turkey hosted talks between Libya's eastern and western administrations last week with the goal of reunifying them, a senior Turkish official familiar with the talks told AFP Wednesday.

Ankara is one of the rare countries that maintains ties with both sides in Libya, which has been divided between rival leaderships since 2014 following the 2011 downfall of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

"Discussions have so far focused primarily on military unification, while political unity is expected to be addressed at a later stage," the official said.

The talks, which took place in the capital Ankara, were attended by military officials from Libya's eastern and western administrations as well as diplomats, the source said, adding that Turkey was acting as a mediator between the two sides.

Beset by instability since the overthrow of Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising, Libya is divided between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Turkey strongly backed the Tripoli-based government during years of conflict in Libya, but ties with eastern authorities have warmed significantly in recent years.

On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the time had come to reunify the eastern and western administrations, hinting that an announcement could come soon.

"We have now reached a stage where the conditions are ripe to permanently secure the reunification of the east and the west," Fidan said after hosting a meeting of top European diplomats and regional powers in Istanbul.

"One of the most important pillars of national unification is how the military units currently controlled separately by both sides will be brought together under a single umbrella," he added.

US 'backing'

The Turkish official who spoke to AFP on Wednesday said that no agreement had yet been reached, but the parties had agreed to continue the talks.

"Turkey is the priority to host the talks but they could also take place in Libya," he said.

"Given that Ankara now enjoys close ties with both Libya's eastern and western administrations, it is undoubtedly in a stronger position than any other external actor to negotiate a compromise on military and political reunification," Hamish Kinnear, an analyst at UK-based consulting group Verisk Maplecroft, told AFP.

Turkish mediation comes as Washington and the United Nations are also pushing for the reunification of the oil-rich country.

Asked whether Turkish and US plans conflicted, a foreign observer told AFP that Ankara and Washington's positions "are, in fact, aligned".

"If there is any significant friction, it is primarily with the Europeans, who are deeply divided on this issue, notably France and Italy, as well as Russia, which would see its influence diminish," the observer commented.

Kinnear agreed that Turkey's push for what he described as an "elite bargain" to reunify Libya "likely has the tacit backing of Washington".

Competition for power

Under the proposed US plan for Libya's reunification, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who heads the Tripoli-based government, would remain prime minister, while Saddam Haftar, the eastern commander's son, would become head of the Presidential Council.

Kinnear suggested that the Turkish initiative might be "enough to secure a temporary reunification of Libya's governments", but warned that, in the longer term, destabilising competition for greater power and influence "is likely".

He said it was unlikely that these key figures would relinquish their direct influence over militias loyal to them and remain satisfied with their formal positions alone.

Last week, Libya's eastern-based parliament approved a maritime demarcation deal with Turkey, years after rejecting it when it was first signed.

The agreement has drawn anger from the European Union, Greece, Israel and Egypt, who denounced it as an infringement of their sovereign rights and a violation of international law.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at the criticism, saying it had "no legitimate basis", speaking after a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Analysts say Libya's approval gives Turkey stronger political backing for offshore surveys and negotiations over exploration.

Multiple civilian vendors were among the dozens reportedly killed in an attack on a market earlier this week in a poverty-stricken Darfur city in southwestern Sudan, where they had gathered to sell goods to paramilitary fighters, witnesses said Wednesday.

More than 100 people were killed and 113 others were wounded on Monday in a Sudanese military drone strike on a busy market in Nyala, the capital of the South Darfur province, said Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence. The group said many of those killed and wounded were women and children.

A cigarette vendor told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday that hundreds of Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, fighters had gathered at the market that evening. He said that he moved his stall between gatherings of the paramilitary fighters to sell cigarettes and that a drone struck around 8 p.m., killing dozens of fighters and women selling food. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Mohamed Didan, the official spokesperson for the Special Operations Forces fighting with the army, wrote on Facebook that more than “150 militia recruits” were killed at the Dumaya camp, west of Nyala, in what he described as a “precise and targeted airstrike.”

The latest attack came as part of the ongoing war between the army and the RSF, which broke out in April 2023, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to aid organizations. The war has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced around 13 million people.

Another witness told the AP that the explosion was massive and killed many fighters. He estimated that around 14 civilians, including women and children, were also killed, most of them women selling tea and food.

The witness, who also spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of reprisals, said that civilians in Nyala often gather wherever fighters congregate to sell food and tea to earn a living amid widespread unemployment and few sources of income.

Final casualty figures from Monday’s attack in Nyala are unconfirmed amid limited information from the city.

Sudan Doctors Network, another group that tracks violence, gave a lower death toll and said that the attack was from shelling. It said in a statement Wednesday that at least 21 people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded. The toll includes civilians.

“The release of this statement was delayed due to difficulties in verifying the information, given the challenges of accessing field documentation sources within Nyala amid ongoing active military operations and security constraints that hinder efforts to monitor and verify the conditions of victims and the injured,” the group said. “The identities of all victims and the circumstances surrounding their presence at the site remain under verification, particularly in the absence of detailed and confirmed casualty lists.”

Doctors Without Borders, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said Tuesday that 36 bodies arrived at its hospital in Nyala and reported seeing 150 wounded in an emergency room. It said 21 of them were wearing civilian clothing.

“Medical staff worked around the clock treating patients, including women and children. They’re all very shaken. The question everyone is asking is ‘Why are markets being targeted? The places where people need to access food, where a lot of civilians gather,’” said Dale Koninckx, MSF project coordinator in Nyala.

The war has pushed some parts of the country into famine. In RSF-controlled Nyala, the share of children seeking treatment for severe acute malnutrition more than doubled between January and August, from five to 11%, according to the latest figures by the United Nations released earlier this month.

Drone warfare has become the deadliest threat to civilians in Sudan’s conflict and both the military and the RSF are being supplied with drones by a number of countries in the Middle East and beyond, experts previously said.

Mubarak Bekheit, an aid worker in Darfur, told the AP by phone on Wednesday that many people remained missing and some bodies had yet to be recovered from homes in the area after the strike hit a civilian neighborhood.

“I personally know that war has no morality, but the reality we witness every day is that civilians are the ones paying the highest price. They lose their lives, their loved ones, and their homes, while living under the constant fear of further bombardment," he said.

Brazil's defeated right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in Florida by private plane Wednesday after fleeing his country in defiance of a court order to surrender his passport.

Following speculation over his whereabouts, the 45-year-old disembarked the jet at Opa-Locka Executive Airport outside Miami, AFP witnessed, having flown via Argentina and Ecuador.

Bolsonaro, who lost a runoff election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, is under investigation in Brazil for alleged corruption and money laundering and, with his defeat, is set to lose parliamentary immunity.

Only last week, he had seemed likely to become the next president of Brazil after coming out on top in the first round of elections, but Lula made a surprise surge to retain power.

Bolsonaro -- who travelled to the US with his wife and daughters -- had vowed that as president he would free his father Jair, who is under house arrest for coup-plotting after his own electoral loss to Lula in 2022.

A police source told AFP that Flavio Bolsonaro's Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been canceled, but the senator has also held Italian nationality since 2023, according to Italian documents seen by AFP.

The administration of President Donald Trump, an ally of the Bolsonaros, earlier said it would grant him and his family US visas.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the Bolsonaro family members were inspected and cleared "with applicable immigration laws and procedures."

The travel ban was issued by powerful Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led the case against Flavio Bolsonaro's father and is a controversial figure hated by the Brazilian right.

Flavio Bolsonaro had vowed to seek the justice's impeachment if he were elected.

A 'shameful' act

Lula, who won the election with 51.8 percent of Sunday's vote, called Flavio Bolsonaro fleeing the country a "shameful" act.

"A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide," he said in Brasilia during his 81st birthday celebration on Tuesday.

Brazil police issued a statement Wednesday saying that he was not considered a fugitive.

Following his election defeat, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the result, citing the decision to extend polling hours over transport problems that prevented some citizens from voting. But he insisted he would never flee.

Trump, speaking early Wednesday before Bolsonaro landed, repeated his accusations that the Brazilian election was rigged.

"The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible," the president said, adding that he approved of Bolsonaro's plan to travel to the US.

Argentina's opposition lawmakers on Wednesday demanded to know how Flavio Bolsonaro had managed to travel through the country to the United States.

While Argentinian authorities said he was carrying valid travel documents, officials have requested chief of cabinet Diego Santilli to provide details to parliament, according to opposition lawmaker Agustin Rossi.

Fraud cases

The most high-profile fraud case against Flavio Bolsonaro centers on the unreleased biopic "Dark Horse" starring US actor Jim Caviezel as Flavio's father Jair.

In May, the outlet Intercept Brasil revealed audio recordings in which Flavio Bolsonaro negotiated approximately $24 million to finance the film with banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed over one of Brazil's biggest-ever fraud cases.

Before the leak, Flavio Bolsonaro had denied knowing Vorcaro, or that he had financed the movie.

In July, the Supreme Court ordered a probe into the financing of the film, and whether it involved corruption, money laundering or the illegal movement of currency.

Flavio Bolsonaro acknowledged Vorcaro had funded the film, but insisted it was a private business deal that was "completely legal."

In another probe, police are investigating whether Flavio Bolsonaro laundered money and moved funds out of the country in collaboration with his close friend, the lawyer Willer Tomaz.

Flavio's father Jair Bolsonaro never conceded defeat after losing to Lula and left the country on the eve of his rival's inauguration, only returning to Brazil three months later.

Almost 24 hours after the polls closed, it has become clear that Israel's high-stakes election has ended in a stalemate.

Neither of the two opposing blocs has enough seats to form a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, with Netanyahu's far-right coalition leading with 53 seats to the opposition bloc's 48.

The final tally won't be known until Friday, when the hundreds of thousands of "double envelope" votes are counted, and the official result won't be published until next week.

But with almost 90% of the votes now in, the two blocs' options are becoming clearer. Though Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot have both staked a claim to victory, they will both face an uphill struggle if they are to form the country's 38th government.

Here are three potential paths ahead following yesterday's inconclusive vote.

Netanyahu remains in power

Despite seeing his bloc shrink compared to the 2022 election, Netanyahu's Likud is poised to remain the largest party in the Knesset and his bloc closer to a majority than the opposition.

With 86% of the vote now in, the Likud-far-right-Haredi alliance is eight seats short of a majority, while the anti-Netanyahu bloc requires another 13.

That doesn't necessarily mean Netanyahu has the upper hand.

His options for coalition-building are as narrow as Eisenkot's, and hinge on being able to break his rival's alliance and bring some of the opposition to the other side of the aisle.

Addressing supporters, Netanyahu claimed his coalition had won a "decisive majority" and called for the formation of a "national right-wing government" - a statement that was interpreted in some quarters as an overture to the right-wing members of Eisenkot's coalition.

Avigdor Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu and the pro-settler Naftali Bennett align with Netanyahu on key issues, including ensuring Jewish supremacy at home, annexing much of the occupied West Bank, and maintaining a permanent war footing abroad.

But defection is likely to remain a distant prospect. Both have staked out staunchly anti-Netanyahu positions on the campaign trail and have ruled out entering any form of government with him.

They are also firmly opposed to ultra-Orthodox Jews' exemption from military service, which would likely continue under a new Netanyahu government. This is particularly true for the aggressively secular Lieberman, who is dead against working with Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism.

There has also been speculation about whether Netanyahu could try to form a unity government with Eisenkot in a last-ditch bid to remain in power.

President Isaac Herzog - who will soon decide which of the leaders stands the best chance of forming a government - has voiced support for a unity government, though both leaders have until now flatly rejected the idea.

To get Eisenkot on board, Netanyahu could ditch his far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies, though this is unlikely to be enough to convince the Yashar leader to serve in government led by a man he has so sharply criticised.

Since the polls closed, Eisenkot has not tempered his language about the incumbent prime minister, accusing him of "division and incitement" and maintaining a "culture of lies".

Netanyahu ousted by an Arab-backed government

Eisenkot's coalition is currently on course to win 48 seats in the Knesset, five fewer than Netanyahu and 13 shy of an overall majority.

This means that his path to government runs directly through the Arab parties, which are poised to win a record number of seats and hold the balance of power.

Between them, the conservative Ra'am and the leftist/nationalist Joint List are projected to win 19 seats, meaning Eisenkot will not be able to form an administration without their support.

Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas has indicated he would be willing to enter government with the former general, in a repeat of his agreement with Naftali Bennett in 2021.

The problem for Eisenkot is that the math is not likely to add up, even after bringing Ra'am inside the tent. With the Islamist party on course to get seven seats in the Knesset, an alliance would still leave him six seats short of a majority.

That leaves the possibility of cooperating with the Joint List, which has offered to support a minority government led by Eisenkot, should it agree to several conditions, including committing to establishing a Palestinian state.

The group's leader, Yousef Jabareen, appealed to the opposition to start talks, saying it is offering a clear path to ousting Netanyahu and the far-right from power.

"Anyone who wants to offer a substantive and genuine alternative to Netanyahu's blood-soaked government will have to talk to us to secure the path to the change that the public in Israel longs for," he told Israeli media on Wednesday.

He articulated the choice facing Eisenkot and his partners in stark terms: "It is either continued racism, continued exclusion and continued supremacy, or genuine Jewish-Arab partnership."

Ahmad Tibi, who leads Ta'al, one of the three parties in the Joint List, said the key question coming out of the election is whether the opposition will be "brave enough" to break the taboo of working with Arab parties in order to block Netanyahu's return.

While both Palestinian-led groups clearly want to work with the Jewish-Israeli opposition, it is far less clear whether the feeling is mutual. For most of them, it is likely to be quite the opposite.

Aside from Yair Golan's centrist Democrats, the instincts of most of the opposition will be to refuse working with Arab parties and avoid reckoning with the new Palestinian agency expressed at the ballot box. Even if Eisenkot were to accept the Joint List's support, getting his hawkish partners on board would be a big ask.

Balad leader Sami Abu Shehadeh – who was banned from running in the election – said that racism among Jewish-Israeli leaders would block Arab parties from helping to unseat the current far-right government.

“When someone who is a candidate to be a prime minister says he does not want to sit with 20% of the population … this is racism," he told The New Arab.

Another election

If both sides fail to form a government, Israelis would be forced to return to the polls for another election.

The second vote would need to be held within 90 days of the Knesset being dissolved, keeping Netanyahu and his cabinet in power in a caretaker capacity.

A new election, coming after potentially weeks of coalition talks, would push the country into a protracted period of uncertainty, with no guarantees that a new vote would resolve the deadlock.

It would recall the years of instability between 2019 and 2022, when four separate elections were held. The gridlock was brought to an end four years ago when Netanyahu entered government with the extreme-right.

President Herzog on Wednesday appealed to political leaders to do everything they can to avoid a rerun of the election and urged them to "keep an open mind" in coalition discussions.

Netanyahu may calculate that a fresh election is his best option, especially with US president Donald Trump threatening to resume the war on Iran following the 3 November midterms. 

Matthew Hoare is a journalist at The New Arab 

Follow him on X: @matt_h_9

Edited by Charlie Hoyle

Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to face more constraints as Israel's caretaker prime minister after Tuesday's election, but experts say his government could still retain significant powers including when it comes to waging war on Iran.

Neither Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition nor an opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot is projected by Israeli media to win a majority in the country’s 120-seat legislature. Eisenkot has acknowledged the prime minister was still in office as a caretaker but issued a warning that Netanyahu might use security for political ends.

Netanyahu's office has previously rejected accusations he is using the Iran conflict for political gain. His office did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.

“If you look at the letter of the law, a caretaker government has the same authority, has the same powers as a regular government,” said Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, adding however that a caretaker government “has a duty of restraint” and more limited discretion to act in some areas.

A caretaker government faces limitations when it comes to issues such as appointments, but has leeway to act in matters where there is a public interest, analysts say.

“In general, security issues are the clearest exception to this duty of restraint,” said Or Asher, a researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Tachlith Institute, noting that Israel's supreme court has previously held that a caretaker government must avoid far-reaching decisions unless they are justified by a pressing necessity.

“The Supreme Court has historically avoided intervening in decisions to go to war, and parliamentary oversight is at its thinnest in the weeks after the new Knesset convenes and before its committees are formed,” Asher said, adding that “a caretaker prime minister can legally take Israel to war, including against Iran”.

After the final ​tally is in, Israel’s President ​Isaac Herzog is expected to consult ⁠party leaders and then tap the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a ​government, with the nominee then getting up to 42 days to establish a government.

Syria summoned the Jordanian ambassador to Damascus on Wednesday and handed him a formal protest note over Jordanian airstrikes in the southern province of Daraa that killed seven civilians, including three children.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Sufian al-Qudah over Monday evening's strikes, which also wounded three people, according to the state news agency SANA.

The diplomatic protest came just a day after Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi agreed to establish a joint security committee to investigate the strikes and prevent similar incidents.

The agreement also included plans to strengthen intelligence sharing and security coordination between the neighbouring countries.

During a telephone conversation with Shaibani, Safadi expressed "deep regret" over the civilian deaths and offered condolences to the Syrian people.

However, he maintained that the strikes had targeted positions belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group, citing intelligence about imminent threats and planned attacks against Jordan.

The dispute began on Monday when the Jordanian military announced an air operation in southern Syria targeting alleged terrorist organisations linked to those responsible for Friday's deadly attack on a church in Jordan's Karak province.

Jordan's military said the operation was coordinated with the Syrian government, a claim Damascus rejected.

Syrian authorities said no prior coordination had taken place and condemned the strikes as an unacceptable violation of the country's sovereignty and airspace.

According to Daraa's health directorate, the bombardment killed seven people, including three children, a woman and three men, one of whom was elderly.

Three others were wounded in strikes targeting the al-Tuff area and locations near the towns of Nasib and Muzayrib.

Emergency teams conducted search-and-rescue operations at four sites affected by the bombardment.

On Tuesday, Syria's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attacks, describing them as a breach of the principles of good neighbourly relations.

Syria's parliament also called for a joint investigation to establish the circumstances surrounding the strikes and ensure that civilians were not targeted again.

The escalating tensions prompted Syrian authorities to close the Nasib border crossing with Jordan to passengers and commercial traffic on Tuesday.

The crossing reopened on Wednesday morning, with movement returning to normal following diplomatic discussions between the two countries.

Israel's election results could still change as officials count hundreds of thousands of special ballots known as "double envelopes", potentially affecting the parliamentary gains made by Arab parties and the balance of power between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition, led by Gadi Eisenkot.

Preliminary results gave Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats, compared with 48 for Eisenkot's bloc and 19 for Arab-led parties, leaving neither major bloc with the 61 seats required for a majority in the 120-member Knesset.

However, between 600,000 and 650,000 special ballots could influence the final distribution of seats, particularly for smaller parties hovering around the electoral threshold.

What are double-envelope ballots?

Double-envelope voting is a mechanism used in Israeli elections to allow people who cannot vote at their registered polling stations to cast ballots elsewhere.

The system protects voter anonymity while preventing duplicate voting.

Unlike ordinary ballots, which are counted locally, double-envelope votes undergo additional verification and are processed during the final stages of the election.

Who can vote using double envelopes?

The system covers voters whose professional, medical or geographical circumstances prevent them from reaching their designated polling stations.

They include Israeli soldiers and military officers, diplomats serving abroad, hospital patients, medical personnel on duty, prisoners and detainees, and people with disabilities.

Israeli military personnel account for the largest proportion of these ballots, making their voting preferences particularly significant.

How does the system work?

Voters place their chosen party's ballot paper inside a standard blue envelope containing no identifying information.

That sealed envelope is then placed inside a larger outer envelope bearing the voter's personal details.

Election officials transfer the ballots to the Central Elections Committee, where they check the information against the national voter register to ensure the individual has not voted elsewhere.

Once verified, the anonymous inner envelope is separated from the identifying outer envelope and mixed with other ballots before counting.

If a duplicate vote is detected, the special ballot is invalidated and the case may be referred for legal proceedings.

Why could these votes change the results?

The large number of outstanding ballots could affect the allocation of Knesset seats, particularly among smaller parties close to the electoral threshold.

With each parliamentary seat requiring approximately 40,000 votes, shifts in party support could determine whether some parties enter parliament or lose representation.

The final count could therefore alter coalition calculations, although it would not necessarily resolve the political deadlock.

Could Arab parties lose seats?

Arab-led parties could see their parliamentary representation reduced despite the high turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Because Israeli soldiers account for a substantial share of double-envelope voters, and Palestinian citizens are largely exempt from compulsory military service, Arab parties traditionally receive a smaller proportion of these votes.

As the outstanding ballots are added to the national total, their overall vote share could decline, potentially costing them seats.

Ultra-Orthodox parties also tend to perform less strongly among double-envelope voters because of lower military participation.

However, the large number of Israeli reservists voting this year could make traditional patterns less reliable, complicating predictions about which parties might benefit.

When will the final results be known?

The double-envelope count might not be completed until Friday, 30 October.

Acting Central Elections Committee director Dean Livne warned that high turnout could mean more special ballots than initially anticipated, potentially delaying the count.

Until those votes are processed, the final parliamentary balance remains uncertain, including the extent of Arab parties' gains and their potential influence over the formation of Israel's next government.

International human rights organisations and press freedom groups have condemned the conviction of Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah and the court-ordered closure of Mada Masr, warning of an escalating crackdown on independent journalism in Egypt.

In a joint statement signed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders, among others, the organisations called on Egyptian authorities to allow the independent outlet to operate freely.

"We, the undersigned organizations, condemn in the strongest terms the conviction of Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of the independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, and the court's order to shut down one of the country's leading and last remaining independent newsrooms," the statement said.

The organisations described the ruling as the latest development in an expanding campaign against Egypt's independent media.

The New Cairo Misdemeanor Court on Tuesday convicted Attalah of operating a website without a licence, imposing a fine of three million Egyptian pounds (approximately $54,000) on her and ordering Mada Masr's closure and confiscating its equipment.

Attalah was detained inside the courthouse following the ruling and released seven hours later after the fine was paid.

During her release procedures, she discovered that a separate conviction had been issued against her in absentia in 2024, sentencing her to one year in prison for "spreading false news" and operating an unlicensed website.

Her lawyers have challenged that conviction, with a hearing scheduled for 11 November.

The joint statement by rights groups also raised serious concerns about alleged procedural irregularities during Tuesday's trial.

Journalists were reportedly excluded from the courtroom during critical proceedings, while Attalah's defence team was denied sufficient time to examine the case file or submit evidence and call witnesses.

The court also reportedly appointed another lawyer to represent Attalah despite her objections and the presence of her eight-member legal team.

Amnesty International described the ruling as a "crushing blow to press freedom in Egypt", while CPJ regional director Sara Qudah warned that it sent a message to journalists throughout the country.

"If Egypt can put in custody one of its most respected editors and shut down her newsroom, no independent journalist in the country is safe," Qudah said.

Mada Masr, founded in 2013, has repeatedly sought a licence from Egyptian authorities, but its applications have been rejected or left unanswered.

Its website has been blocked inside Egypt since 2017, although it has continued publishing investigations into government corruption, human rights abuses and other politically sensitive subjects.

The latest prosecution followed Mada Masr's participation in a solidarity newsroom established after Egyptian authorities arrested six journalists from the investigative and fact-checking platform Matsadaash in September.

Some of those detained told prosecutors they had been tortured and forced to record fabricated confessions, according to the joint statement.

The signatories said the crackdown had since expanded to include the questioning of journalist Rasha Azab and a coordinated defamation campaign against the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate.

CPJ reported that 25 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt as of late October, the highest number since 2021.

The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate has separately intervened in Attalah's case, urging media regulators to resolve Mada Masr's longstanding licensing dispute rather than pursuing criminal proceedings.

The organisations called on Egyptian authorities to overturn the closure order, end the use of licensing laws to criminalise journalism and immediately release imprisoned journalists.

"The expanding arrest, closure and defamation campaign against independent media sends a clear message of fear and intimidation to newsrooms across the country," the joint statement warned.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the joint statement to the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). The statement was issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The article has been updated to reflect this.

French prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into death threats against Muslims and racist hate speech broadcast during a live discussion on social media platform X, according to French media reports on Tuesday.

The investigation follows an X Spaces discussion in which participants allegedly called for violence against Muslims and immigrants, prompting La France Insoumise (LFI) politician Thomas Portes to alert authorities to the threats last week.

Portes shared excerpts of the discussion, highlighting racist remarks including "this is not the country of Arabs".

Other participants reportedly urged listeners to "take advantage of street prayers because they're all gathered together" and said they "need to target a small neighbourhood and make it French". Some allegedly discussed killing people.

"I am immediately referring the matter to the Prosecutor of the Republic of Paris [Laure Beccuau]," Portes said.

According to French media reports, the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office referred the case to police after becoming aware of the threats targeting Muslims and immigrants.

Prosecutors reportedly launched an investigation into suspected public incitement to hatred or violence based on origin or religion, direct online incitement to commit a terrorist act, and public calls to commit violent crimes.

The New Arab has approached the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office for comment and could not independently verify whether Portes' complaint directly prompted the investigation.

The investigation comes days after a series of racially motivated attacks in Trappes and nearby La Verrière, outside Paris, last week.

A gunman killed one person and wounded five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in shootings that officials said may have constituted an Islamophobic "terrorist crime".

Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the person killed was "of African origin", while one of the wounded, who was in critical condition, was "of North African origin".

Following the attacks, the French Council of the Muslim Faith condemned the "consequences of hate speech, stigmatisation and scapegoating", renewing its warnings about the dangers of rhetoric targeting Muslim communities.

The incidents have heightened concerns over growing anti-Muslim hostility in France, where far-right political figures have increasingly targeted Muslims and immigrants in their rhetoric.

French Muslim organisations have repeatedly condemned anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies promoted by far-right politicians.

Marine Le Pen, a leading figure in the far-right National Rally party, has previously proposed fining women who wear the headscarf in public spaces.

The European Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the European Commission’s refusal to release 17 documents concerning EU-funded infrastructure projects in Gaza, telling The New Arab on Wednesday that the inquiry was under way as the Commission confirmed it had received the request.

The inquiry was prompted by a complaint from the online newspaper EUobserver, which requested the records as part of an investigation into the extent of destruction caused by Israeli attacks on EU-funded infrastructure in the war-torn Palestinian territory.  

The European Ombudsman launched the inquiry on October 14 after the Commission refused to disclose the documents.

"The complainant made the access request to the Commission in February. In June, the Commission refused access to all 17 documents that it had identified as falling within the scope of the request on protection of data, international relations, and commercial interests grounds," a spokesperson for the European Ombudsman told The New Arab.

"The complainant in July asked the Commission to review its initial decision and then turned to the Ombudsman in September when they did not receive a reply from the Commission."

The European Ombudsman stated that it has since asked the European Commission to respond to EUobserver by 4 November at the latest, as European Ombudswoman Teresa Anjinho will examine the requested documents herself if the response is unsatisfactory. 

Fifteen media and press freedom organisations have also urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to improve transparency amid the investigation.

In an open letter published on Wednesday, organisations including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on the EU chief to address what they described as a “silent crisis” that has hindered journalists’ efforts to obtain information needed to scrutinise matters of public interest. 

The open letter, backed by the 15 organisations, criticised lengthy delays, questionable refusals and extensive redactions that can render disclosed documents largely meaningless.  

The signatories also alleged that the Commission sometimes fails to retain and properly archive important records. 

"The European Commission’s reputation for safeguarding EU democratic values is in peril," the letter read. "At a time when democratic norms are under attack around the world, now is the time to uphold these values." 

The letter, spearheaded by CPJ’s EU deputy advocacy director, Tom Gibson, called for the repeal of the European Commission’s internal procedural rules introduced in December 2024, which the signatories said had made access to documents more difficult. 

Their demands also included a renewed action plan to improve journalists’ access to information, including implementing the European Ombudsman’s recommendations and rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

In addition, the signatories called for the Commission to strengthen procedures for registering and archiving documents. 

PEN International, one of the signatories to the open letter, told The New Arab that "restrictions on access to information can leave critical questions about decisions concerning Gaza and the use of European public funds unanswered".

It continued: "Delays, excessive redactions and withheld documents make it harder for journalists to establish how decisions were made, how public money is being spent and who should be held accountable".

PEN International further warned that restrictions on access to such material meant that "public debate risks being shaped by official accounts that cannot be independently scrutinised, weakening citizens’ ability to question decisions made in their name".

It added: "We are calling on the Commission to uphold its legal obligations and ensure that access to documents works in practice, not just in principle."

In a July report, EUobserver highlighted concerns over the Commission’s lack of transparency as it aimed to investigate documents relating to EU funding for Gaza's physical infrastructure projects such as water supply, stormwater management, sanitation and renewable energy projects. 

However, concerns have mounted that many of the projects have since been destroyed during Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza. 

The report also questioned the Commission’s refusal to disclose the records amid reports that direct losses resulting from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza had exceeded $80 billion across 15 vital sectors, according to the territory’s Government Media Office. 

The destruction has extended beyond buildings and facilities to roads, water and electricity supplies, telecommunications and sewage networks, as well as economic infrastructure and public services. 

Speaking to The New Arab earlier this month, Gaza's Government Media Office director-general Smail al-Thawabta highlighted that over 95% of Gaza’s population now relies entirely on humanitarian aid and community kitchens to meet basic needs.  

Meanwhile, EUobserver reported that losses suffered by EU-funded projects in Gaza were estimated at approximately €155 million alone. 

The European Commission has responded to the claims, with a spokesperson telling The New Arab on Wednesday that it had received the European Ombudsman's inquiry.

Addressing the criticism, the Commission stressed that it is "one of the most transparent institutions in the world".

"We take this responsibility extremely seriously. Every year we receive more than 7,000 access to documents requests. That's 30 per working day on average. This is more than any other EU institutions," the Commission spokesperson told The New Arab.

"We process them all," they added.

"How long a request takes to be processed depends on several factors: the scale and scope of the request, the type of documents or the internal consultations needed to retrieve them."

Amid growing scrutiny of the European Commission, von der Leyen has also faced criticism over her handling of Israel’s actions in Gaza.  

Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned her failure to implement proposals made last year to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and impose sanctions on Israeli ministers and settlers. 

Despite the lack of action, mass protests have taken place across Europe, condemning EU-Israel ties and accusing the bloc of complicity in the Gaza genocide. 

"These failures come with consequences: not only for her own credibility and that of the EU, but most of all for the lives of millions displaced, killed or wounded in Palestine and across the region," Amnesty International said in a September statement. 

"Von der Leyen should use this year’s address to remedy that, by firstly making good on last year’s proposals, then by ensuring the EU joins the ranks of those banning trade with Israel’s illegal settlements." 

Israel's opposition has approached Arab parties to discuss cooperation on forming a new government, following an election in which high turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel helped deny Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a parliamentary majority.

Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Arab Movement for Change and a member of the Knesset, revealed that opposition parties had contacted Arab political leaders to coordinate efforts to replace the current Knesset speaker and explore future cooperation.

Tibi said Arab parties were not seeking ministerial portfolios in the next government but intended to use their parliamentary strength to end Netanyahu's rule.

He credited the surge in Palestinian voter turnout with preventing Netanyahu from securing the majority needed to form a government, opening the door to an alternative that could end the far-right coalition's grip on power.

The Joint List would support an opposition-backed candidate to replace the Knesset speaker, Tibi said, while condemning politicians who refuse to cooperate with Arab parties.

"Whoever insists on not forming alliances with Arab parties will lose power," he said, describing attempts to portray Arab votes as illegitimate as racist.

Arab parties offer Eisenkot parliamentary support

According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Tibi confirmed that the Joint List was negotiating with the opposition's "change camp" to facilitate the formation of a new government without formally joining the coalition.

"I want to do everything I can in the Knesset to pave the way for the announcement of a government," he said. "We will probably not be an integral part of this government, but there are other arrangements and possibilities."

Sources familiar with the discussions said the Joint List had offered opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot a parliamentary "safety net", similar to the arrangement under which Arab lawmakers supported Yitzhak Rabin's government in 1992.

Such an arrangement could allow Arab parties to support a government from outside the coalition without accepting ministerial positions.

The sources said contacts with Eisenkot's camp had continued over recent days and remained ongoing.

Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen also called for a "genuine Jewish-Arab partnership" to remove Netanyahu from power.

"Anyone who wants to offer a substantive and genuine alternative to Netanyahu's blood-soaked government must engage in dialogue with us and pave the way for the change that the public in Israel is seeking," Jabareen told Israeli media.

Netanyahu incites against Arab voters

The developments follow an election campaign in which Netanyahu repeatedly warned supporters about rising turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu shared photographs and videos focusing on Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi and high turnout in Arab communities.

In one post on X, Netanyahu shared an image purportedly showing voters outside a polling station in Rahat, a predominantly Arab city in southern Israel.

"This is what is happening today in Rahat. You cannot stay at home; go out immediately and vote Likud. We are fighting for our homeland," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Democrats leader Yair Golan suggested that Arab parties should be included in opposition efforts to form a new government.

"Every member of the Knesset elected through the legal process is a legitimate part of our political system," Golan said.

However, far-right Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman rejected cooperation with Arab parties, instead calling for a rebellion within Likud against Netanyahu.

Lieberman accused Netanyahu of destroying the nationalist camp, saying the prime minister had behaved "like the head of a criminal organisation".

Washington, DC - Across the United States, many candidates who support Palestinian human rights are set to score wins in the country's midterm elections in November, reflecting a big shift in US public opinion on Israel amid the war on Gaza.

The House of Representatives will likely see an influx of progressive Democrats critical of Israel who won primaries against pro-Israel opponents.

And two Senate candidates - Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Troy Jackson in Maine - who have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza are locked in close races that could see them clinch seats in the upper chamber of Congress.

Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, communication director for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), says US voters are starting to make the connection between foreign and domestic policy.

Progressive candidates have "done an excellent job exploring the intersection between the genocide in Gaza and Israel's broader destabilising conduct in the Middle East with the affordability crisis in America", Abdelrahman told The New Arab.

Since the start of the war on Gaza, the US government has provided Israel with more than $21 billion in military aid at a time when Americans are struggling with skyrocketing inflation.

The war on Iran, which the US launched jointly with Israel, put further strain on the cost of living and pushed energy prices to record highs.

"Every single day Americans are waking up to videos and pictures of the Israeli government bombing civilian infrastructure, killing Palestinian children, spreading crimes across the Middle East," Abdelrahman said.

"Meanwhile, the average American cannot afford rent. The average American has seen their wages stagnate. This funding of the Israeli government has cost the American people tons of money."

Dwindling support for Israel

Public opinion in the US has been turning against Israel for years, polls show - a trend that was accelerated by the well-documented Israeli atrocities in Gaza over the past three years.

A Pew Research Center survey in July suggested that 63 percent of US adults have unfavourable views of the Israeli government.

"The American people have come to their own conclusions that it's a great moral hazard to this country to have a government that wilfully ignores the will of the American people," said Abdelrahman.

"Now more Americans sympathise with Palestinians. Now more Americans are calling for arms embargoes and sanctions on Israel."

During the primary season, pro-Palestine progressives won House races in districts from New York to California through Michigan and Colorado.

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's victory last year ushered in what appears to be a new era of progressive politics in the largest city in the US. Candidates backed by the mayor won three major House contests, ousting two staunchly pro-Israel incumbent Democrats.

Darializa Avila Chevalier - who participated in the encampment against the war on Gaza at Columbia University - defeated Adriano Espaillat.

Brad Lander, an Israel critic, won his primary against Congressman Daniel Goldman, who has been one of the most uncompromising pro-Israel Democrats.

Separately, Mamdani-backed state legislator Claire Valdez won the contest for an open US House seat.

All three are running in safe Democratic seats; they are all but certain to win in the general elections on 3 November.

In Pennsylvania, State Representative Chris Rabb, a vocal opponent of Israeli policies, also won the primary in a safe Democratic district. In Colorado, progressive candidate Melat Kiros beat incumbent Diana DeGette.

Several similar storylines played out across the country, setting the stage for the most pro-Palestine Congress in US history that will take office next year to chisel a sizable gap in the near-unanimous bipartisan support that Israel has enjoyed on Capitol Hill for decades.

AIPAC 'is on its heels'

These victories came despite tens of billions of dollars spent by pro-Israel groups - spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) - to defeat candidates who support Palestinian rights.

Usamah Andrabi, spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a leading left-wing group that backed many of the pro-Palestine candidates that won this year, said overcoming AIPAC's spending took years of organising and building awareness about the role of the pro-Israel lobby group.

In 2024, AIPAC spent record amounts of money in primaries and successfully toppled two Justice Democrats-backed incumbents - House members Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman.

Andrabi said it took multiple election cycles to turn AIPAC's endorsement into "a toxic kiss of death" for Democratic campaigns.

"We suffered some really terrible losses, but this lobby is on its heels," Andrabi said.

AIPAC has been trying to conceal its spending on behalf of candidates by funnelling money to subsidiaries with generic-sounding names, known as shell PACs - a tactic that Andrabi said shows the unpopularity of the pro-Israel group.

Andrabi told The New Arab that the rise of numerous progressive candidates across the country was a product of the anger of Democratic voters after President Donald Trump won in 2024.

"Democratic voters woke up in 2025 realising that the Democratic establishment was wholly unfit and unprepared to defend our communities against Republican extremism and fascism," he said.

Andrabi added that while Gaza may not have been a top priority for all voters, support for Israel featured heavily in many contests because candidates were able to draw a line between foreign wars and domestic issues.

"It's not that every single district and every single voter in this country, the most important issue on their mind is, 'How do we end the genocide in Gaza?' But our candidates were connecting the dots, like Darializa did, who led with the slogan of 'babies, not bombs,'" Andrabi said. 

"Why are we spending billions of dollars bombing hospitals and schools and killing babies abroad when the same government is defunding our schools and our jobs and our hospitals at home, and we can't afford to put a roof over our head or food on the table?"

The progressive newcomers will increase the number of legislators in Washington who are willing to push for a break from unconditional support for Israel in US policy. However, the contingency remains a minority within the Democratic caucus.

But Andrabi said the progressive bloc will have a "monumental impact" in the next Congress by highlighting where the Democratic base stands.

As Democratic voters sour on Israel, some lawmakers who have avoided criticising the US ally throughout their years-long careers have backed measures to hold the Israeli government accountable for its abuses over the past year.

Last month, 46 out of 47 Democrats in the Senate voted for a bill to compel the State Department to investigate increasing Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank, including the killing of US citizens.

Abdelrahman, of AMP, said he hopes the next Congress upholds Washington's own laws prohibiting aid to human rights abusers.

"Previous administrations and previous iterations of the American Congress have sidestepped justice and accountability for the sake of protecting Israel, and what we hope to see is that the status quo is broken," he said.

Ali Harb is a journalist based in Washington, DC. His work focuses on US foreign policy, elections, and Arab American communities

Follow him on X: @Harbpeace

Edited by Charlie Hoyle

A diplomatic initiative involving Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan has exposed divisions among Iranian hardliners, with influential conservative figures disagreeing over whether the talks represent recognition of Tehran's regional influence or an attempt to force concessions over Yemen.

Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin and Pakistani military chief Asim Munir visited Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior security officials.

The meeting, held amid renewed threats of US and Israeli military action against Iran, concluded with an agreement to continue discussions on regional security.

According to Reuters, citing a Pakistani official, Munir presented Tehran with a proposal to end hostilities that had received US President Donald Trump's approval.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar could reportedly act as guarantors of an agreement, although no diplomatic breakthrough was announced.

The initiative has generated contrasting reactions among Iranian political figures, according to Iranian media reports.

Iran's state-run Iran newspaper welcomed the visit, declaring that regional security was impossible without Tehran's participation.

Abdollah Ganji, a former editor of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Javan newspaper, similarly portrayed the talks as recognition of Iran's regional importance.

Writing on X, Ganji suggested that Tehran was becoming central to an emerging regional security arrangement opposed to Israel.

However, Hossein Shariatmadari, the influential editor of the hardline Kayhan newspaper, questioned the intentions of the visiting governments.

Shariatmadari argued that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan were too closely aligned with Washington to act as credible mediators.

He also challenged the optimism expressed by Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who had presented the meeting as an opportunity to establish a new regional security framework.

Shariatmadari warned that the initiative could weaken Iran's position by relieving pressure on Washington while encouraging Tehran to distance itself from regional allies.

Former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, meanwhile, advocated a broader regional security arrangement based on non-aggression, confidence-building and economic cooperation.

Much of the controversy concerns Yemen's Houthi movement, which has renewed attacks against Saudi Arabia amid continuing tensions over the country's unresolved conflict.

Saudi Arabia led a military intervention in Yemen beginning in 2015, launching a devastating bombing campaign and imposing restrictions on the country's ports and borders that contributed to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Although large-scale fighting diminished following a UN-brokered truce in 2022, the conflict remains unresolved, with the Houthis controlling much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

The movement maintains close political and military ties with Iran but has its own domestic political objectives and decision-making structures.

Shariatmadari warned that the diplomatic initiative could result in pressure on Tehran to abandon the Houthis, something he insisted Iran would not do.

Hardline parliamentarian Mahmoud Nabavian defended the movement, arguing that attacks against Saudi Arabia would continue while restrictions on Yemen remained in place.

Former parliamentary national security committee chairman Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, however, suggested that resolving the Yemen conflict was a central priority for Saudi Arabia and its regional partners.

The diplomatic initiative comes as Washington reportedly prepares for another military campaign against Iran following the 3 November US midterm elections.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration had warned Gulf governments to prepare for a possible short but intense military operation.

The prospect of renewed fighting has increased the urgency of regional diplomacy, even as Iranian political figures disagree over whether negotiations could protect Tehran's interests or undermine its regional alliances.

Pop star, activist, skincare entrepreneur and founder of an editorial platform (among her many ventures), Dua Lipa has long championed manifestation, from writing down her goals and using her song Training Season to manifest her ideal partner to mapping out major career milestones, including headlining Glastonbury.

Now, she is turning her attention to literature, taking on the role of curator for this year's 19th London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre, one of London's leading arts and cultural venues, and cementing her status as a literary goddess of our time.

The festival brings together established literary names and emerging writers for conversations, readings, and events that explore the stories and ideas shaping our lives.

Generously supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, this year’s edition also coincides with the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary.

Running until 1 November, the festival has already offered plenty to get stuck into. From conversations with literary icons to poetry confronting the realities of our time and powerful personal testimony, The New Arab looks at some of the standout moments and ideas that have stayed with us so far.

Literary icons, intimate conversations and the power of poetry

For one day only, Dua made an appearance at the festival, taking to the stage alongside some of the most celebrated names in literature.

First up was British novelist Zadie Smith, whose debut novel, White Teeth, was published when she was just 24 and went on to become one of the most celebrated novels of the new millennium.

The programme also featured American singer and writer Patti Smith, who discussed her memoir, Bread of Angels. She spoke about her family and early interest in art, recalling how seeing a Picasso painting at the age of 12 and leaving the church after being told there was no place for art helped shape the independent spirit that has remained a defining part of her life and work.

Dua also welcomed Mustafa Ahmed, known as Mustafa the Poet, to the stage to discuss Nour, a project created with WePresent that brings together poetry, photography, interviews and visual art. Made freely available in 2025, the project explores themes of faith, love, grief and everyday rituals.

During the conversation, Dua revealed that Mustafa officiated her wedding to Callum Turner and wrote a poem for the couple. She described the gesture as meaningful and dedicated Noor Hindi’s Ode to Friendship to him.

Their discussion also touched on friendship and the importance of allowing the people we love the freedom to change and grow.

Special guest readings from poets Victoria Chang and Safia Elhillo added to the programme’s celebration of poetry.

A celebration of British Somali poetry 

The focus on poetry continued beyond Dua’s appearance with A Celebration of British Somali Poetry, which brought together five poets to explore identity, migration and belonging. Among them was Samatar Elmi, who shared The Genocide Will Not Be Televised, a poem that combines historical references with raw, contemporary outrage.

Samatar recited the poem, which includes the lines: “The genocide will not be televised. The genocide will not be brought to you by Newsnight, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Piers Morgan will not ask if you condemn Hamas twice a day and thrice on Sundays. There will be no need to learn that if you place a gun to a parrot’s head, it squawks: ‘Israel has a right to defend itself,’ ‘Israel has a right to defend itself,’ in [a hundred and sixteen] languages, because the genocide will not be televised.”

Nadia Murad on survival and reclaiming her life

From poetry confronting the reporting of violence, the festival moved to personal testimony.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad sat down with BBC journalist Lyse Doucet to discuss surviving Islamic State group (IS) captivity in Iraq, becoming a leading voice for survivors of sexual violence and reclaiming her life beyond her past.

As Nadia put it, "Survival isn’t the same as finding peace. It’s an ongoing negotiation with memory." She also reflected on the expectations she faced early in her activism, when people pressured her to put her work before her own hopes of building a new life. "Are you supposed to suppress the part of myself that loved makeup and hair?" she asked.

Nadia also spoke about her mother, who was killed by IS, and the price women have to pay during violence and conflict.

Reflecting on how public conversations often focus on the numbers of soldiers and men killed, she said: "You know, the world focuses so much on how many soldiers are recovering or how many men were killed. It’s always about the numbers and the destruction.

"But there is always a specific price that women pay. My mother was killed because she was a woman, and they felt she was a threat to them. They thought that if she survived, she would rebuild that house or build a new one and bring the family together."

To end, Nadia reflected on how she met her now-husband, Abid Shamdeen, who was working as her translator at the time.

Describing him as the "love of her life, who gives me hope every day," she also shared a touching story from her latest book, I Choose My Beginning: A Story of Courage and Activism.

When Abid asked if there was one thing she wanted to do for herself, Nadia admitted that she felt self-conscious about her teeth. He never judged her for it. Instead, he eventually told her, "Nadia, I found you an orthodontist." Before she knew it, she had braces, "like a teenager."

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Tareq Baconi on Palestine and freedom

The festival also turned to questions of freedom and justice, as authors Ta-Nehisi Coates and Tareq Baconi joined journalist Nesrine Malik to discuss Palestine, decolonisation and their books, The Message and What Now: On Palestine, Freedom, and Our Global Future.

Tareq argued: "People who have and continue to colonise Palestine, there is no way in which the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, this colonial relationship, can coexist. Zionism means Palestinian extermination, so if we are committed to Palestinian life, we have to confront Zionism for what it is: this racist ideology that has no place in our world."

Ta-Nehisi, meanwhile, discussed how American slavery's need for expansion ultimately contributed to its own undoing, suggesting that oppressive systems can be driven by an insatiable appetite for more land and control.

He also pointed to Zionism's emphasis on maintaining a Jewish demographic majority as evidence of its exclusionary character, arguing that such a "project" cannot be separated from questions of racism.

Rama Duwaji brings the festival theme to the screen

Beyond the festival’s live events, a campaign film featuring words by Dua and animation by Syrian artist Rama Duwaji brings this year’s theme, Read the World Differently, to life on the Piccadilly Lights billboard and at the Southbank Centre.

One standout piece of writing on screen was an excerpt from Sufiyaan Salam’s Merky Books New Writers’ Prize-winning debut novel, Wimmy Road Boyz, which was also featured on Dua’s Service95 platform. The story follows three British-Pakistani friends on a chaotic night drive down Manchester’s Curry Mile.

A book swap for readers

For festivalgoers looking to take a little literary inspiration home, the festival’s book swap offers the chance to exchange books and leave recommendations for fellow readers.

It is a simple way to keep the conversation going beyond the stage, with each book offering the chance to discover a new favourite or see a familiar story in a new light.

And if there is one thing Dua’s own love life suggests, it is that a shared love of books can be a pretty good conversation starter. 

The singer and Callum reportedly first bonded at a party in Los Angeles after discovering they were both reading Hernán Díaz’s Trust, having each just finished the first chapter when Callum joked, "So we’re on the same page."

The London Literature Festival runs until 1 November 2026, with events still to come

Zainab Mehdi is a British-Iraqi journalist and Associate Features Editor at The New Arab. She holds a BSc in Modern History and International Relations from the University of Essex and an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS

Follow her on Instagram: @zaiamehdi_/@zainabmehdiwrites_

At its core, every coming-of-age memoir asks: How do I convince the world that I exist? However, Elena Dudum’s memoir They Told Me Back Home Would Be Beautiful (Atria/One Signal) complicates this simple idea by asking: How do I prove my existence when the world is committed to destroying the evidence?

Unlike traditional coming-of-age memoir that simply deals with the trials of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, this memoir is dedicated to the process of coming into consciousness in the face of outright denial. 

A Palestinian Christian raised in San Francisco, in some ways Elena’s upbringing follows the prototypical footprint for any diasporic Arab American — her grandparents came to America and built lives.

However, the particulars of her story stand out — her Palestinian-born grandparents married American-born Arabs, and contrary to post 9/11 American popular conception, she is not Muslim.

Instead, she was heavily involved in her Palestinian Christian community as a child. She moved through adolescence and young adulthood in proximity to privilege, privately educated and rubbing elbows with San Francisco's elite.

However, the truth is that although she was in the right rooms, people viewed her differently.

A third grader in 2001, she pulled her teacher aside: "I told Miss Crane that my cousin and I would not share where our family was from… We would tell people we were from Guatemala."

The fact of their origins, uttered in hushed tones. Disguised and distorted, for fear that true disclosure would mutate into misunderstood hatred.

Whether it was classmates' parents, a friend's boyfriend at the bar, or even the college administration, Elena Dudum constantly had to push against the idea of her identity rather than its reality. 

A scene that stands out: Her own sense of self, punctured as an eight-year-old, when a friend's father driving her asks, "Where’s your family from again?" This inspired a grown man to ask a child whether or not she supports Israel. The first of a lifetime of questions ended with the resolute thought, "You guys anti-Semitic or something?" 

From a young age, she is forced to understand that her identity is immediately challenged. Her family, a threat.

But she didn't understand this alone. Her father, forever frenzied with the need to educate his children, through private education and lectures on the way to school, armed them with the phrase: "You would be attributing to me a prejudice to which I do not subscribe." 

A legacy of proof

This memoir, of course, follows the coming-of-age canon by having a parent to push against, but what I admire most is that this father-daughter relationship is unsentimental and deeply unresolved.

Are family dynamics ever truly resolved? So many memoirs pretend they can be. But Elena does not stray from truth: the difficulty of her father, and the identity of being Palestinian.

From childhood to adulthood, her father's lecturing is consistent. But his command and ferocity deplete her (and him) over time, her willingness to listen as a child arms her for the revelations she finds on her own as an adult.  

How do you not lose your mind when trying to prove something you know exists? Elena writes, "Now he scours the web for one-hundred-year-old magazines about Palestine: LIFE, National Geographic, even The Illustrated London News, the world’s first graphic weekly news magazine. For years, he would reference these mysterious documents but show them to nobody. ‘I have proof,’ he would say, ‘that Palestine exists.’"

He has the archive. The difficulty lies in his inability to trust, even when his own daughter tries to access what he has hoarded as precious truth. 

The lack of sentimentality comes down to this fact: this book is about inheriting a mission, whether she wanted to or not.

Each chapter starts with an epigraph from her father's archive: A quote from a 1946 issue of Life Magazine, describing the beauty, bounty, and existence of Palestine.

As much as he tries to keep her from it — growing belligerent and paranoid at the request — the epigraphs nod to one simple fact: she has inherited his mission, his collection.  

She doesn't want to inherit this mission; her very existence forces her to. 

Refusing to be erased

Elena’s memoir looks hard at who gets cast as actor and who as victim in narratives of atrocity, and how American institutions and everyday language shape that framing.

Her writing is clear and cogent: it points to the syntax and grammar of oppression, as well as the deliberate silence it produces.

What I find most palpable in this text is the question of how language can erase, displacing blame and reframing crime as power. 

But it's not simply syntax and grammar; it's a lifetime series of silences. She takes her reader through her experience as an undergraduate at Barnard and a graduate student at Columbia, both institutions I also attended.

However, I did not embody the very identity that those institutions deny, villainise, and deliberately silence. She takes us through her discussions with the president of Barnard after their banner was removed from Barnard Hall after one single day (which I witnessed firsthand).

Elena goes against her father's advice, fearing for her safety. She speaks up, but to no avail: "I resented him for instilling a fear in me just as much as he instilled a fire."

As a graduate student at Columbia, Elena audits a course called The Creation of Israel. After sitting in class, agitated by the rage she witnessed her father embody, she can’t help but push back on every claim backed by studied evidence and stats, and the professor ultimately asks her not to participate. 

But Elena knows better. Her family’s orange grove, remembered by her grandfather, whom she calls Siddi. She imagines Siddi as a child, sitting in a tree with ripe fruit in his palm.

The gold jewellery on her wrist, all her Taita carried away with her during the Nakba. In her genome, through generational word of mouth: she remembers. Her family’s name, engraved above a doorway in Palestine. Her family’s history, still standing in Ramallah. 

When asking her father the very question she grapples with most: "When did I know I was Palestinian?" Her father replies, "‘It’s not because I’m Palestinian that I’m like this,’ he says. I can’t see him, but I know he’s shaking his head. ‘It’s just who I am."' 

Ultimately, Elena’s personal narrative is the counter-archive: her life, testimony. She braids memoir with archival fragments; the form itself treats family memory as resistance. She knows the rage, the denial, the sheer fight, foisted upon her and her father: "Here I am, Palestinian in your wake." 

Those who witness her and her memoir in entirety hold her rage and pick up the mantle. She is no longer alone in the fight for posterity, for truth. No one can ignore this memoir, or the power of rage-inducing truth. 

Paulina Pinsky is a Los Angeles-based writer, author, writing coach, educator, podcaster and performer. She is the co-author of the teen guide to consent, It Doesn’t Have to Be Awkward: Dealing with Relationships, Consent, and Other Hard-to-Talk-About Stuff

Follow her on Instagram: @paulina_pinsky

The UK will increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, Chancellor John Healey has announced in the Autumn budget on Wednesday.

The Chancellor said this was part of the UK's plan to meet NATO's defence spending target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

US President Donald Trump has pressured European members of NATO to spend least 3.5% of GDP on core defence requirements after several members of the military alliance failed to meet the previous defence spending target of 2% of GDP.

As well as spending on military forces, NATO counts spending on police forces who are trained in military tactics, and can be deployed abroad as part of military operations, as defence expenditure.

Healey said he will set out the details on how he will meet the defence targets next year.

He also announced an increase in private investment in defence.

Healey previously served as Defence Secretary in Kier Starmer's Cabinet, before resigning in June over the former Prime Minister's defence investment plan, which he said "falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time."

Healey's resignation is widely considered one of the key factors behind the end of Starmer's premiership earlier this year.

In 2025, while Defence Secretary, Healey said the UK is in "in a new era of threat," citing the previous US-Israeli war on Iran, and Russia's war on Ukraine.

"As the threat grows, Britain must step up," he said in the same speech in Parliament.

In his budget announcement on Wednesday, he repeatedly cited the war in the Middle East as a leading cause of the UK's high cost of living, especially due to rising energy costs.

"These are the global economic storms we face'" Healey said, "we must choose the course we steer through them."

Healey also announced a £100 winter energy payment for millions of households in the lowest council tax bands.

The Chancellor also announced an extension of the five pence cut to fuel duty until July 2027.

Duty for motor fuels was temporarily cut in 2022 after fuel costs spiked following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Healey announced that the measures to ease energy bills will be funded by a temporary 3% increase in taxes for banks. The rise will be on top of the 25% corporate tax rate they currently pay.

Healey also announced an end to gas standing charges from next year in a bid to help households with energy prices which rose after the US and Israel's February invasion of Iran.

Currently, households pay a fixed yearly fee on top of their household gas bill, regardless of their usage. Scrapping the standing charge will shift that payment onto the unit rates.

That means around 60% household that use less gas will save money, while those that use the most gas will see their bills increase.

The move will not cost the Government any money. Rather, it will shift some of the burden for energy bills from lower income households to those on higher incomes.

 

Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the Israeli elections and news from across the region.

More than 90% of the votes have been counted in Israel, with polls suggesting no outright winner and Netanyahu's coalition only slightly ahead of the opposition alliance.

Arab parties are set to win roughly 18-19 seats in a record projected performance, meaning they will likely become a key element to the future government formation. Despite this, neither main bloc has agreed to invite them to form a government.

Voter turnout in Tuesday's general election stood at 77.7%, with reports also suggesting voter turnout among Palestinian communities inside Israel reaching about 80%.

Meanwhile, Israel's military raid and siege of Hebron continues for the sixth day, displacing more than 4,000 people and imposing restrictions across the southern West Bank.

In Yemen, the Houthis have attacked Taiz and ordered the evacuation of Aden Airport.