Latest news with #HolyLand
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rescue group ramps up evacuations of Americans in Israel
(NewsNation) — Demand is surging for a U.S. rescue organization's services as thousands of Americans seek to leave Israel during the country's ongoing conflict with Iran. 'In the rescue game, every day's an adventure. Most of us haven't slept in three or four days, including myself,' Bryan Stern, founder of Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, told 'Elizabeth Vargas Reports' on Thursday while updating his group's efforts to get Americans to safety. He said about 5,000 'pretty desperate' travelers have asked for assistance in exiting Israel as the U.S. State Department urges people not to travel to the Holy Land. Trump has reviewed attack plans on Iran: Source 'I do agree with the State Department — it's time for everyone to go,' Stern said. 'The situation's going to get worse, not better. The risk is certainly increasing, not decreasing. … You could always come back.' Because airspace is restricted, Stern's organization, which is staffed by military veterans like himself, must make arrangements by land or sea for the evacuations. The latter option is not optimum, he said. 'Maritime operations are hard, and I'm not really a fan of them, to be frank. Bad things happen on the water. Engines break. People get sick. People drown,' Stern said. 'The land and the air are far safer and more forgiving.' For information about how to help support Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, check out the organization's website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Phoenician Scheme is fantasy. It is also a remarkable engagement with the real-life conflict in the Middle East
The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson's makebelieve treatment of the war-ravaged near east, reimagines the region as a sunlit Levantine fantasia of cypress trees, fez hats, camel-riders and kitsch hotels, all photographed with the lustre of an Ottolenghi cookbook. Meanwhile, livestreamed daily to our news feeds, the warlords of the Holy Land exhibit for us an equally spectacular dystopia of cities pummelled into sawdust, of skies scarred with scorching white phosphorus and gun-toting paragliders. How could these images be of the same place? What does it mean that they have been produced at the same time, and that we are consuming them alongside each other? The film is set in the Middle East of a parallel universe. It's 1950, but decolonisation, the Holocaust, the world wars – none appear to have taken place; history has stalled in a kind of perpetual belle époque, leaving only a pastiche of the orient in its imperial heyday, meticulously reconstructed in the film's geography and production design, its storylines and characters. In place of the warring states unleashed by Europe's botched withdrawal from its imperial mandates, the entire Levant forms a single nominally sovereign territory known as Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia, named after the ancient civilisation once inhabiting what would now be Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. Those national demarcations don't exist in the film, as you can see from all the quaintly displayed trademark Wes Anderson cartography, the whole region pristinely undivided – as it was before the first world war. All the ethnic and sectarian squabbles that beleaguer these lands in the real world are magically replaced by a peaceable patchwork of aristocratic families, each with their respective toeholds. Their inflated titles mean nothing, their names allusions to the toothless dynasties once patronised by imperial overlords. The film's King Hussein refers to more than one Hashemite monarch installed by Britain and Prince Farouk to Egypt's last king. The fact that a svelte Riz Ahmed has been cast to play a character, whose real-life inspiration, King Farouk, was a worldwide celebrity infamous for his fatness, tells us everything we need to know about the distorting mirror through which Anderson reflects the history of empire. Above all, the colonial order is represented by the film's devious protagonist Anatole 'Zsa-Zsa' Korda and his visionary scheme to build railways, tunnels, canals and dams across Phoenicia. The significance of infrastructure in colonial mythology cannot be overstated. Anderson says Korda was inspired by his father-in-law, the Lebanese construction magnate Fouad Maalouf, also the film's dedicatee. But Korda is as much an empire-builder in the mould of Cecil Rhodes or Ferdinand de Lesseps. With his African mines and railways, Rhodes brought to heel the better part of a continent. In building the Suez canal, a waterway in the deserted sands between Africa and Asia, De Lesseps performed Moses' miracle in reverse. Such magnificent infrastructure projects, said to be beyond the wit of the native, were the glory of empire and still feature in reappraisals of it ('What about the railways?'). It's in this context that Korda's Phoenician scheme must be understood: a plot to re-engineer the Middle East in his image. This is the east as a career, in Disraeli's famous words. And through such a career, the Palestinian literary critic Edward Said wrote, 'one could remake and restore not only the Orient but also oneself'. That sums up Korda, who is as motivated by megalomania as money. There's always been something grippingly cinematic about that. It was another Korda – the Hungarian Jewish émigré film director Zoltan Korda – who more than anyone demonstrated that, in colonial adventure films that he made with his brother Alexander in the 1930s, relating heroic adventures in a timeless orient under eternal British rule. In naming his hero Korda, Anderson proudly acknowledges his debt to a controversial narrative tradition. In its most pointed contrast with reality, its greatest hallucination about empire, The Phoenician Scheme unfolds in a cosmopolitan world that is, for all its lying and cheating and double-dealing, completely free of racism. Imperial cosmopolitanism is symbolised, of all things, in headwear. The fez is absolutely ubiquitous in the film, as it was among colonial elites, Muslim, Christian and Jewish. (There are photos of Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, as a fez-hatted law student in Istanbul.) It fell out of fashion in the postcolonial Middle East, becoming a symbol of colonial nostalgia. Sign up to Film Weekly Take a front seat at the cinema with our weekly email filled with all the latest news and all the movie action that matters after newsletter promotion Anderson positively luxuriates in that nostalgia, in the ecumenical fellowship of the fez, worn in the film by Frenchmen, Arabs, Armenians, all happily sharing cocktails. Korda appears to be Armenian (judging by the script on his birth certificate) but in a bizarre twist Korda dons the distinctive white fez and robes of Lebanon's Druze sect, just as pharaonic imagery strangely adorns Phoenician hotels: all part of the pastiche. This is history stylised beyond all proportion. It's meant to evoke the urbane world that existed under imperial rule, before the emergence of violent ethno-nationalism. The state of Israel is absent from the film, but Zionism, interestingly, isn't. One corner of Phoenicia, visited by Korda, has a kibbutz, replete with Hebrew signage, quotations from the Old Testament and the suggestive imagery of 'making the desert bloom', palm trees sprouting from the barren earth. It has its own visionary founder, a rival of Korda's, played by Scarlett Johansson, working the land in khaki shorts, like the pioneer kibbutzniks portrayed in early Zionist posters. Crucially, though, it's labelled a 'private utopian outpost'. Nationalism is such an anathema to the ethos of the film that Zionism is reduced to the personal enterprise of another one of those visionaries making a career in the east. It has no aspirations to statehood. Such nonpolitical strains of Zionism were originally favoured by followers of the movement, including Einstein and Kafka, and one suspects it's the kind most palatable to Anderson. But this sanitised, fantasy vision of Zionism is of a piece with Anderson's fantasy of empire. Historically in both, violence and racism were always simmering. The Phoenician Scheme may at once be Anderson's worst and most profound film, a beautifully textured engagement with the past, and an almost morally repugnant retreat from the present. Its transformation of tragedy into comedy feels perverse. To watch The Phoenician Scheme amid the devastation of Gaza – during which it was also filmed – is to see two images of history, two maps of our time, disorientingly superimposed over each other: the sweet fantasy of a much-promised land, and the bitter, bloody reality of how it's turning out.
National Post
03-06-2025
- General
- National Post
Iddo Moed: False narratives about Israel have violent consequences
I am the ambassador of a country that was built by unexpected leaders. Article content Article content The founders of the State of Israel were not aristocrats or members of a wealthy elite. They were refugees and immigrants — men and women who arrived with little more than determination and hope. They fled violence, persecution, and antisemitism from every corner of the world: pogroms in Europe and Asia, attacks by mobs and ultimately expulsion from Arab lands, and the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust. Article content Article content While Jews have had a continuous presence in the Holy Land for millennia, modern Israel was forged in the crucible of exile and survival. Today, Israel is a thriving liberal democracy with a diverse and multicultural society, a dynamic economy, and a strong defence force. Article content Article content We are proud of these achievements. But we have never forgotten an important lesson from Jewish history: false narratives, when left unchallenged, have violent consequences. Article content One need not look far to understand why this lesson is so deeply ingrained in our psyche. Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, was moved by what he witnessed during the infamous Dreyfus Affair in late 19th-century France. A Jewish army officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was falsely accused and convicted of treason. The campaign against him was led by the virulently antisemitic press — particularly La Libre Parole, which pushed a dangerous narrative: that Jews were inherently disloyal. Article content Given our history, we are highly attuned to the moments these falsehoods begin to surface. That's why, when I woke up Sunday morning to headlines from nearly every major Canadian media outlet — except National Post — about an alleged incident at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid hub in Rafah, I was immediately concerned. Article content This war has shown us, time and again, how Hamas manipulates facts on the ground, creating stories of atrocities that either didn't happen or happened in a very different way. The media often amplifies these claims uncritically, and by the time the truth emerges, the damage is done. Article content The most egregious example came just weeks after the October 7 massacre. The Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry claimed an Israeli airstrike had killed hundreds at Al-Ahli Hospital. Israel immediately launched an investigation — but the media didn't wait. The story exploded across front pages and screens around the world. Article content By the time the investigation revealed that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket, which was confirmed by the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, millions were misled. Worse, some politicians — including Canada's own foreign affairs minister at the time — rushed to condemn Israel before the facts were known.
Malay Mail
01-06-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
Menstruating women should make standard haj intention, not conditional, says Perlis deputy mufti
MAKKAH, June 1 (Bernama) -- Female pilgrims who are menstruating do not need to make a conditional intention (niat ihram) when beginning their Haj rituals. Instead, they should make the standard intention for Haj to ensure their worship remains valid according to Islamic law. Perlis deputy mufti and Haj advisory chief, Tajul Urus Abdul Halim, said making a conditional intention is not encouraged, as it may affect the validity or completeness of the Haj. 'Women are advised not to make a conditional intention because the Haj journey in the Holy Land spans several days, so it is best to avoid doing so. 'If a woman makes a conditional intention, there is a risk her Haj may be considered invalid or incomplete if the condition attached to the intention is mistakenly believed to have been fulfilled.' he said. Tajul Urus added that making the intention (niat) is one of the main pillars of Haj and must be done either when leaving the accommodation or at the miqat (the designated place for ihram), regardless of whether the woman is menstruating or not. 'If a woman does not make the intention for Haj, she cannot perform the pilgrimage. Therefore, she must make the intention first, even if she is menstruating, as menstruation does not invalidate the Haj intention,' he said. He explained that menstruating women may still perform all the essential and obligatory rituals - such as standing (wukuf) in Arafah, spending the night (mabit) in Muzdalifah and Mina, and performing the stoning of the jamrah, except for the tawaf, which must be postponed until they are in a state of purity. Tajul Urus also clarified that pilgrims performing Haj and offering a sacrificial animal (qurban) are not bound by the recommended etiquettes followed by those performing qurban alone. 'They are not required to avoid actions such as cutting nails or removing hair, as these etiquettes are only encouraged for those offering a sacrifice but not performing Haj,' he said. MAKKAH, June 1 — Female pilgrims who are menstruating do not need to make a conditional intention (niat ihram) when beginning their Haj rituals. Instead, they should make the standard intention for Haj to ensure their worship remains valid according to Islamic law. Perlis deputy mufti and Haj advisory chief, Tajul Urus Abdul Halim, said making a conditional intention is not encouraged, as it may affect the validity or completeness of the Haj. 'Women are advised not to make a conditional intention because the Haj journey in the Holy Land spans several days, so it is best to avoid doing so. 'If a woman makes a conditional intention, there is a risk her Haj may be considered invalid or incomplete if the condition attached to the intention is mistakenly believed to have been fulfilled.' he said. Tajul Urus added that making the intention (niat) is one of the main pillars of Haj and must be done either when leaving the accommodation or at the miqat (the designated place for ihram), regardless of whether the woman is menstruating or not. 'If a woman does not make the intention for Haj, she cannot perform the pilgrimage. Therefore, she must make the intention first, even if she is menstruating, as menstruation does not invalidate the Haj intention,' he said. He explained that menstruating women may still perform all the essential and obligatory rituals - such as standing (wukuf) in Arafah, spending the night (mabit) in Muzdalifah and Mina, and performing the stoning of the jamrah, except for the tawaf, which must be postponed until they are in a state of purity. Tajul Urus also clarified that pilgrims performing Haj and offering a sacrificial animal (qurban) are not bound by the recommended etiquettes followed by those performing qurban alone. 'They are not required to avoid actions such as cutting nails or removing hair, as these etiquettes are only encouraged for those offering a sacrifice but not performing Haj,' he said. He further advised pilgrims to make proper preparations before starting their journey, including trimming nails and attending to personal grooming, to ensure comfort throughout the Haj. — Bernama
Axios
30-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
How Minneapolis' Cultural Districts tell their stories through food
From golden raisin lattes to shawarma, the many restaurants of Minneapolis' seven Cultural Districts serve up more than meals — they're an invitation to connect with the history, culture and community that have shaped the city across generations. The background: Each Cultural District reflects a distinct identity shaped by generations of Indigenous, immigrant and BIPOC communities. Some districts began as industrial or transit corridors; others were built through necessity as communities of color were denied access to housing and commercial opportunities elsewhere. Over time, Minneapolis' neighborhoods became home to a layered mix of cultures, from Dakota and other Indigenous nations to Scandinavian, Eastern European and Middle Eastern immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. In more recent decades, Latinx, Somali and Hmong communities have added new voices, flavors and traditions to the city's cultural fabric The impact: That cultural vibrancy comes to life in the restaurants, cafes and markets that anchor each district. Here are just a few spots where you can eat well and learn more about the communities that make each district unique. 🫓 Maria's Café (Franklin Avenue East) Located inside the Ancient Traders Market, Maria's is beloved for its Colombian-style sweet corn pancakes and breakfast burritos. About Franklin Avenue East: This district is home to a thriving Indigenous community. It's a hub for Native-led organizations, artists and food entrepreneurs working to preserve — and evolve — cultural presence. Plus, plus, plus: Check out All My Relations Arts or take the "Unholy Tour," a guided group tour of the origins of the American Indian Movement and the Indigenous history of the area. ☕️ Bichota Coffee (38th Street District) Just a short walk from George Floyd Square, this Black- and woman-owned café is known for ethically sourced beans and Capriotadas, or sweet, spicy golden raisin lattes. Community events and craft nights make it a gathering space as much as a coffee stop. About 38th Street: The café sits in a district shaped by Black entrepreneurship and resilience — and continues to anchor conversations around justice and healing. Here's what else: Swing by Listen2Us Studio, a living photographic archive of the 2020 protests, or catch a show at Pillsbury House & Theatre. 🥙 Holy Land (Central Avenue District) Originally a deli, Holy Land has now grown into a full-service restaurant and market, known for its shawarma, hummus and fresh pita made in-house. About Central Avenue: Shaped by a working-class population of Lebanese, German, Polish and Eastern European communities brought to the city in the 1930s to work in Northeast's railways, the district has long been a hub for immigrant entrepreneurship and heritage. 🍦 La Michoacana Purepecha (East Lake Street) A colorful ice cream shop serving mangonadas, paletas and bubblegum-pink piñon (pine nut) ice cream. About East Lake Street: Surrounded by mercados and murals, this district is a cultural and commercial center for Minneapolis' Latinx and Somali communities. The takeaway: Across Minneapolis' Cultural Districts, restaurants are more than just places to eat — they're places to linger, to learn and to connect more deeply with the stories rooted in each neighborhood.
