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A key border crossing is set to reopen, the ceasefire is moving forward and the United States is imagining a gleaming new Gaza, but Palestinians in the devastated enclave are still struggling to simply survive.

Residents of the Gaza Strip described desperate conditions this week, but also expressed hope that the reopening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt and phase two of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal will bring some relief after more than two years of death and destruction.

We "hope that this will be good for us because we are living in a very bad situation," Samir Abu Daqa, from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said as he stood in front of a makeshift tent with his five young children.

"We want reconstruction, we want a life, we want schools, we want medical treatment, we want hospitals," said Abu Daqa, 51, who said he previously worked in a cafeteria but was injured during the war and left unable to work.

After months of stagnation, a breakthrough was made this week in efforts to push ahead with the ceasefire deal that was brokered in part by President Donald Trump.

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No formal direct talks have been held between the US and Iran for a decade. Now, as Donald Trump continues to threaten direct military attacks against the regime, Turkey is stepping in as a last-ditch mediator.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will travel to Ankara for talks aimed at preventing a US attack, as Turkish diplomats seek to convince Tehran it must offer concessions over its nuclear programme, if it is to avert a potentially devastating conflict.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, proposed a video conference between Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian. It’s not yet known if the two sides will agree to the virtual sit down.

Araghchi’s visit on Friday comes against the backdrop of urgent international diplomacy and increasingly aggressive threats from both sides.

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday that his department would be able to deliver on any military instructions given by Trump. “They [Iran] have all the options to make a deal,” he said. “They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. And we will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects.”

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President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to sidestep the United Nations through his new Board of Peace appears to have inadvertently backfired after major world powers rejected U.S. aspirations for it to have a larger international mandate beyond the Gaza ceasefire and recommitted their support for the over 80-year-old global institution.

The board to be chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his plan for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president’s ambitions have expanded to envisioning the board as a mediator of worldwide conflicts, a not very subtle attempt to eclipse the Security Council, which is charged with ensuring international peace and security.

The board’s charter also caused some dismay by stating Trump will lead it until he resigns, with veto power over its actions and membership.

His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tried to ease concerns by saying the board’s focus right now is only on the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire plan.

“This is not a replacement for the U.N., but the U.N. has served very little purpose in the case of Gaza other than the food assistance,” Rubio said at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

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Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday signed a law that will open the nation’s oil sector to privatization, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

Lawmakers in the country’s National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law earlier in the day, less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital.

As the bill was being passed, the U.S. Treasury Department officially began to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil that once crippled the industry, and expanded the ability of U.S. energy companies to operate in the South American nation, the first step in plans outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio the day before. The moves by both governments on Thursday are paving the way for yet another radical geopolitical and economic shift in Venezuela.

“We’re talking about the future. We are talking about the country that we are going to give to our children,” Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez proposed the changes in the days after U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.

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Israeli forces carried out a number of raids and assaulted many Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, with at least 130 Palestinians temporarily detained since Tuesday night, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

Israeli forces shot 20-year-old Mohammad Rajeh Nasrallah during a military raid into the town of Ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, and Nasrallah was pronounced dead Wednesday due to the severity of his wounds. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers stormed Palestinian land near the town of Turmus Aya, close to Ramallah, and uprooted at least 200 olive trees, according to the Wafa news agency.

A major settler attack began Tuesday evening in al-Halawa in Masafer Yatta, with at least 40 settlers assaulting residents, torching property, and blocking ambulances from reaching the wounded, according to Drop Site contributor Jasper Nathaniel. The attack has left many Palestinians injured as emergency medical access remains obstructed; no casualty figures have yet emerged.A major settler attack began Tuesday evening in al-Halawa in Masafer Yatta, with at least 40 settlers assaulting residents, torching property, and blocking ambulances from reaching the wounded, according to Drop Site contributor Jasper Nathaniel. The attack has left many Palestinians injured as emergency medical access remains obstructed; no casualty figures have yet emerged.

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Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Wednesday announced a new leader for a nascent small air defence branch within the Air Force.

Reporting to Pavlo Yelizarov, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Colonel Yevhenii Khlebnikov will direct a newly designed air defense group meant to “analyze, counter and anticipate future threats,” Fedorov wrote on social media.

The Ministry of Defense described Khlebnikov as bringing both frontline experience and leadership qualities to the table, having served in Air Force anti-aircraft missile units and having worked within the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the development of air defence.

Specifically,  Khlebnikov led the use of Bayraktar drones during the defense of Kyiv and the region of Chernihiv in the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion, and took part in planning the operation to liberate Zmiinyi (Snake) Island of “Russian warship go f@#k yourself” fame.

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