A crackdown on political dissent is well under way in Germany. Over the past two years, institutions and authorities have cancelled events, exhibitions and awards over statements about Palestine or Israel.

There are many examples: the Frankfurt book fair indefinitely postponing an award ceremony for Adania Shibli; the Heinrich Böll Foundation withdrawing the Hannah Arendt prize from Masha Gessen; the No Other Land directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham being defamed by German ministers. And, most recently, the philosopher Omri Boehm being disinvited from speaking at this month’s anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald.

In nearly all of these cases, accusations of antisemitism loom large – even though Jews are often among those being targeted. More often than not, it is liberals driving or tacitly accepting these cancellations, while conservatives and the far right lean back and cheer them on.

Germany has recently taken a chilling new step, signalling its willingness to use political views as grounds to curb migration. Authorities are now moving to deport foreign nationals for participating in pro-Palestine actions. As I reported this week in the Intercept, four people in Berlin – three EU citizens and one US citizen – are set to be deported over their involvement in demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza. None of the four have been convicted of a crime, and yet the authorities are seeking to simply throw them out of the country.

US stock markets tumbled on Thursday as investors parsed the sweeping change in global trading following Donald Trump’s announcement of a barrage of tariffs on the country’s trading partners.

All three major US stock markets closed down in their worst day since June 2020, during the Covid pandemic. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 6%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow dropped 4.8% and 3.9%, respectively. Apple and Nvidia, two of the US’s largest companies by market value, had lost a combined $470bn in value by midday.

Meanwhile, the US dollar hit a six-month low, going down at least 2.2% on Thursday morning compared with other major currencies and oil prices sank on fears of a global slowdown.

Context:

The evidence used to convict Lucy Letby of poisoning babies is flawed, seven leading experts have said, in a dossier that will be submitted to the miscarriage of justice watchdog.

The former nurse’s legal team will on Thursday hand an 86-page report to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) which they say casts “serious doubt” on her convictions.

Letby, 35, was found guilty of deliberately poisoning two baby boys with insulin on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital in August 2015 and April 2016 respectively.

The prosecution told jurors at Letby’s trial there could be “no doubt that these were poisonings” and that “these were no accidents” based on the babies’ blood sugar results.

A detailed analysis of the cases due to be handed to the CCRC on Thursday suggests jurors were “misled” about several aspects of the insulin cases, Letby’s legal team said.

The report by seven experts claims that the Roche immunoassay test used in the two cases – and presented as proof of deliberate insulin poisoning – is unreliable.

The BDS National Committee (BNC) has decided to make Microsoft a “priority target” to pressure the company to end its support for Israel’s war effort, after revelations that its AI and cloud services have been heavily used in the genocidal assault, organizers told Drop Site News.

Two Microsoft employees fired for their activism, Abdo Mohamed and Hossam Nasr, played key roles in driving the BNC’s decision. The pair organized a vigil outside the company’s headquarters in 2024.

The committee is asking all those who have taken its pledge to take three concrete steps

1. Cancel your Xbox Game Pass subscription

2. Boycott Candy Crush, Minecraft, and Call of Duty—flagship videogame franchises owned by Microsoft

3. Boycott all Microsoft Gaming products, including Xbox-branded consoles, headsets, accessories, and all games published by Microsoft-owned publishing labels (such as Xbox Game Studios, Activision, Bethesda and Blizzard)

An Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in Gaza City has killed at least 27 people, rescuers said, and hundreds of thousands in the Rafah area are fleeing in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war amid Israel’s newly announced campaign to “divide up” the Gaza Strip.

Three missiles hit Dar al-Arqam school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon, the civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said, killing several children and wounding 100 people.

Another 20 people were killed in a dawn airstrike on the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, bringing the total number of casualties reported by the local health ministry to 97 in the past 24 hours.

Algeria's military announced on Tuesday that it had shot down an armed drone near the country's southern border with Mali, marking a rare and potentially significant military escalation in tensions between the two neighbours.

The aircraft, identified as a Turkish-made Akinci combat drone, was intercepted on Tuesday, 1 April, as it entered Algerian airspace near Tin Zaouatine, a remote town that has become a stronghold for Tuareg separatists opposing Mali's military government.

Algeria has been increasingly vocal in its criticism of the Malian leadership and its military operations in northern regions long plagued by instability.

Among Algeria's primary concerns is the presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, now operating under the Africa Corps, who have been assisting Mali's armed forces.

Moscow's growing influence in the Sahel has strained its ties with Algiers, one of its last allies in North Africa.

The annual exercise, Iniochos 2025, involved F-15s, air combat simulations, and operational coordination. A total of 11 countries took part.

Israel’s participation included intelligence aircraft, a Hercules transport plane, and dozens of ground crews.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are among countries whose air forces trained alongside Israel.

France, India, Italy, Poland, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Spain also participated.

The annual exercise also comes after Israel violated the ceasefire agreement with Gaza, killing over 1,000 Palestinians since 18 March.

April 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street is bracing for Tesla (TSLA.O) to report a drop in first-quarter vehicle deliveries on Wednesday, but analysts and investors cannot agree on how bad the decline would be.

An average of 15 analysts who lowered their forecasts in the past 30 days expect deliveries to drop 3.7%, according to Visible Alpha, but some analysts and investors termed it conservative and predicted as much as 12% slide.

JERUSALEM, April 2 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a four-day visit to Hungary on Thursday, defying an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel has expanded its military operation in the enclave.

As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made clear when he issued the invitation that Hungary would not respect the ruling.

Muslim marriage app Salams has come under fire after users highlighted that it was acquired by the Match Group, with many accusing its CEO, Spencer Rascoff, of being ‘pro-Israel’.

Dozens of people on social media sites such as X and Reddit have called for Muslims to boycott the app, after a post from Rascoff’s LinkedIn page appeared to show support for Israeli soldiers.

Rascoff, who has worked for Match Group since March 2024, wrote a post on LinkedIn stating: "Proud to support Ohana co-founders Jacob Ian Halbert and Ezra Gershanok’s campaign to help cover rent bills for Israeli soldiers fighting overseas."