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Tunisian President Kais Saied presented US counterpart Donald Trump’s senior Africa adviser with photographs of starving children in Gaza, official video of their meeting posted late Tuesday showed.Saied told US envoy Massad Boulos, who is also the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, that “it is time for all of humanity to wake up and put an end to these crimes against the Palestinian people”.”I believe you know these images well,” Saied was seen telling the envoy as he showed a photograph of what he described as “a child crying, eating sand in occupied Palestine”.Saied showed Boulos several more images, saying that Palestinians in Gaza were subjected to crimes against humanity.Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than two million people have endured 21 months of devastating conflict.”It is absolutely unacceptable,” Saied was heard saying as Boulos stood silently, occasionally nodding. “It is a crime against all of humanity.”More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading across the Gaza Strip and that their own colleagues were suffering acutely from the shortages.The head of Gaza’s largest hospital said on Tuesday that 21 children had died from malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the previous three days.Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.Following his visit to Tunisia, Boulos flew on to the Libyan capital Tripoli on Wednesday, Tunisian media reported.

With fuel prices exorbitant and road travel treacherous in the war-battered Gaza Strip, AFP video journalist Youssef Hassouna has to walk for hours in the searing heat every day just to document the news.”I walk 14 to 15 kilometres (nine miles) every day to reach the news sites,” he said. “This morning, I walked about a 25-kilometre round trip in search of information.”More than 21 months of war between Israel and Hamas have displaced almost all of Gaza’s population, triggered severe shortages of food and other essentials, and reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble. Hassouna, 48, said his arduous journeys, in searing heat, were “very, very difficult” and even took their toll on his shoes.”I used to change my shoes every six months,” he said. “Today, I wear out a pair every month.”Whether filming the chaotic scramble for meagre aid or the bloody aftermath of an air strike, Hassouna said that extreme scarcities of food, clean water and medical care in Gaza further complicated his efforts to cover the devastating conflict. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.More than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading across the population of over two million people, after Israel imposed a more than two-month aid blockade, only easing it a little in late May.Hassouna, who is based in Gaza City, said his main struggle was accessing enough food to feed himself and his family, including a sick sister who lives with him.After living through almost two years of conflict, his once full face appears drawn and his eyes sunken.”My weight used to be around 110 kilograms (over 17 stone), today it is between 65 and 70 kilograms (barely 11 stone),” he said.- ‘Prices multiplied by 100’ -The deepening hunger crisis in Gaza has sent the prices of what little food there is soaring, leaving daily essentials out of reach for many.”Obtaining food in Gaza is extremely difficult. Even when it is available, prices are multiplied by 100,” Hassouna said.He explained that a kilogram of lentils which used to cost three shekels ($0.90) would now set him back 80 shekels ($24).The price of rice, he said, had gone up 20 fold.”Access to water is equally difficult, whether it is fresh water or salt water,” Hassouna added.”Children have to queue for four, five, six or even seven hours to collect it”.Hassouna said that his work documenting the conflict sometimes posed problems with Palestinians living in Gaza, who feared Israeli reprisals against journalists.”Some like journalists, others do not,” he said.”Those who support us come to talk to me, ‘Tell us what’s happening, when will this war end? Make our voice heard abroad, tell the whole world that we don’t want war’.”Others say the opposite, “Don’t come near, don’t join us. Journalists are targeted by Israeli bombings’.”Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s October 2023 attack sparked the war.That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Wishing calm for future generations, Hassouna said he wanted to send a message of peace. “Since our childhood, we have lived in war, and we do not want our children — or even (Israeli) children — to experience this,” he said.”We all want a life without conflict.”

In the Japanese city of Seki, famed for its razor-sharp artisan knives, news that incoming US tariffs will be lowered is welcome but not entirely unexpected.Around 40 percent of kitchen blades produced in Seki, where knifemaking expertise dates back 700 years, are exported to the United States, local authorities say.The two countries announced Wednesday they …

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