Daily News

The 2024 United States presidential race was the first “podcast” election – and given the millions of views and votes a podcast appearance can bring, it won’t be the last. Ryan Kohls reports on the allure of – and the problems with – the political podcast interview.

Ecuador's election authority has declared incumbent President Daniel Noboa the winner of Sunday's presidential runoff. His supporters have been celebrating, after what was expected to be a tightly fought race between the centre-right incumbent, and his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. She's calling for a recount and says there's been a grotesque electoral fraud.

In Gabon, preliminary results have been announced in the country's first election since a 2023 military coup. The man who led that coup - Brice Oligui Nguema - has won in a landslide - with more than 90 percent of the vote. He's the first leader in more than half a century to not belong to the Bongo family dynasty.

Gabon is among seven west and central African countries where the military has seized power in recent years. When the army overthrew the president there in 2023, it ended 56 years of rule by the Bongo dynasty. On Saturday, some 920-thousand registered voters went to the polls - in Gabon's first election since that coup. The winner, Brice Oligui Nguema, is the army general who led that military takeover. And now says he'll bring democratic changes and reforms--- But can he deliver on his promises?

Just before a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar, General Zaw Min Tun sat down with Talk to Al Jazeera. In a rare interview, the military government’s spokesperson defended military rule amid growing armed resistance, looming war crimes trials, and international condemnation. Hours later, entire villages were gone, and thousands were dead. As Myanmar faces war, disaster, and diplomatic isolation, this interview captures a country on the brink and a government attempting to hold on.

Israeli forces have targeted Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital with missiles, destroying the emergency unit and putting the only functioning hospital in northern Gaza out of service. Health officials at the hospital evacuated patients, while some of them, including critically ill patients, were forced to flee after the Israeli military issued a warning before the attack. Mads Gilbert, an emergency medicine doctor who has spent extensive time working in Gaza, says the attack on al-Ahli Hospital is effectively “a death sentence to anyone who sustains major injury or trauma or has a surgical condition, who needs surgery” in northern Gaza.

Israel's total blockade of Gaza is fuelling desperation across the strip. Food, water and medicine are running out, leaving thousands of Palestinians without basic necessities. The United Nations says people face “barely livable” conditions.

Northern Gaza's only functioning hospital is now out of service after an Israeli military strike. An attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City destroyed the facility's emergency unit, the main entrance and a unit holding medical oxygen, for intensive care patients. Hospital staff scrambled to empty the facility after a forced evacuation order from the Israeli military came just minutes before the strike. Many are now sheltering on the streets near the hospital.

Israeli forces have attacked the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. Two air strikes destroyed the hospital's emergency unit, the main entrance and a facility holding medical oxygen, for intensive care patients. What was the largest, remaining, functioning hospital in northern Gaza, is now out of service. Hospital staff scrambled to evacuate the facility before the strike and move patients and the injured from earlier Israeli strikes. Many are now sheltering on the streets near the hospital, in the middle of the night. Rescue workers are scouring through the rubble of the destroyed buildings looking for survivors. Israel has repeatedly targeted Gaza's hospitals with impunity throughout its devastating war. And now northern Gaza's only functioning hospital has been forced out of service.

Talks between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme will resume next week, following what Iran has described as “constructive” discussions in Oman. The negotiations are indirect, with envoys relaying messages through intermediaries. The Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the heads of the negotiating teams spoke briefly after the latest round.