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Sven Lilienström, founder of the Faces of Democracy initiative, spoke via Zoom with Ukrainian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk (42) about the humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine, the red lines in peace negotiations, and whether a world led predominantly by women would be a better one.

Ms. Matviichuk, democracy is facing a crisis of credibility and trust. How would you personally speak up for democracy? And what do democracy and democratic values mean to you?

Let me explain this with something concrete, because when we speak about values, it is very difficult to talk about abstract things.

Twelve years ago, millions of people in Ukraine raised their voices against the corrupt and authoritarian Russian-backed government. They demonstrated peacefully for the chance to build a country with a European future. In response, the authoritarian government launched large-scale and systematic persecutions.

It was tough. At that time, I was the coordinator of the civil initiative Euromaidan SOS. Every day we provided support to hundreds of people throughout the country who had been beaten, arrested, tortured, or charged with fabricated criminal cases.

When journalists or sociologists asked these people why and for what they were fighting, they used the language of values to explain it. Ordinary people have no detailed knowledge of how the European Union functions, what the mandate of the European Parliament is, or what the role of the Council of Ministers is. But they used the language of values to say: we are peacefully fighting for a chance to build a country where everyone’s rights are protected, where the government is accountable, the judiciary is independent, and the police do not beat students who are peacefully demonstrating.

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When 10-year-old Bayan Al-Ankah was fatally shot in the head by the Israeli military while in a displaced persons camp in Gaza last week, according to her family, she became one of several hundred Palestinians killed during a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Mediators Qatar and Egypt worry that the truce is threatened by near-daily Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The continued viability of the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza hinges on two crucial next steps: the deployment of an international force in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.

But countries involved in this key phase of the ceasefire are still debating fundamental details about how to proceed — and the U.S. goal of having international forces in Gaza by early 2026 faces challenges.

A U.S. State Department document this month obtained by NPR lays out the Trump administration's vision for the international troops: to be "supporting the demilitarization of Gaza, dismantling terrorist infrastructure" and "decommissioning weapons used by terrorists."

But many countries say they will refuse to send troops to confront Hamas over its weapons.

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The US military launched airstrikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for an attack on US personnel, two US officials said on Friday.

The attacks come after Donald Trump vowed to hit back after an attack last weekend in Syria by a suspected Islamic State member.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the strikes as a large-scale response that included targets across central Syria.

Trump said on social media that the Syrian government fully supported the strikes and that the US was inflicting “very serious retaliation”.

US Central Command said the strikes hit more than 70 targets across central Syria, adding that Jordanian fighter jets supported the operation.

Syria reiterated its steadfast commitment to fighting Islamic State and ensuring that it has “no safe havens on Syrian territory”, according to a statement by the foreign ministry.

Two US Iowa national guard members and a civilian interpreter were killed on Saturday in the central Syrian town of Palmyra by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, according to the US military. Three other US soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

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Republican lawmakers support President Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile military campaign against Venezuela, including lethal U.S. strikes against suspected drug smuggling boats and seizing sanctioned oil tankers coming to and from the South American country.

But there’s one step they aren’t willing to endorse, at least so far: a military invasion involving land-based troops.

“I don’t think having troops on the ground in Venezuela is a good idea,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told HuffPost. “Putting pressure, in terms of the sanctions on the oil — a lot of that oil has already been sanctioned, as you know — I think it’s fine.”

“My views haven’t changed about landing ground troops or offensive operations in Venezuela. I’m not a forcible regime change guy,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) noted.

But the questions surrounding the legality, strategy and wisdom of Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela and its president-turned-dictator Nicolas Maduro, have so far not resulted in significant Republican pushback against the administration’s approach, even as rumors swirl of further escalations and potential pushes for outright regime change.

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A delegation of 30 Canadians, including six members of Parliament, was denied entry into the West Bank early on Tuesday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-canada-9.7017424
A statement from Israel's co-ordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT), which manages the civilian authorities and border crossings in the West Bank, said the delegation's entry was being denied "for security reasons."

"Earlier today, several foreign nationals arrived at the Allenby border crossing without prior co-ordination," the COGAT statement said.

"Following checks conducted by the security authorities in co-ordination with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Population and Immigration Authority, their entry into the Judea and Samaria area was denied."

A spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), which had members in the group, told CBC News each delegate was asked to sign a form declaring they are a threat to public safety before they could enter the territory.

But Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi, who was one of the MPs not allowed to enter the West Bank through the Allenby land crossing from Jordan, later told CBC News the NCCM mischaracterized what happened at the border.

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Israeli forces withdrew to the yellow line in October as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas. The partial withdrawal left Israeli forces in control of more than half of the strip.

The yellow line was intended as the first of three demarcation lines, to which Israeli forces would withdraw as the ceasefire progressed through its three stages.

The Israel Defense Forces said it launched a series of strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, targeting what it alleged were one Hezbollah member and several military facilities used by the group.

In a post to X, the IDF said it attacked a Hezbollah member in the Al-Tayyiba area of southern Lebanon.

In an earlier post, the IDF reported several strikes on what it called Hezbollah "infrastructure sites" elsewhere in the region.

Among the targets were an alleged Hezbollah military compound the IDF said was used for training and weapons storage. Several other "military structures" were also attacked, the IDF said.

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