Israeli leaders have approved a military operation in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces are shelling the area. The move came hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal. A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official say Israeli tanks have entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah, coming within 200 meters of its border with neighboring Egypt. We talk about it with Lucia Goracci, RAI correspondent. | On May 5, more than 4 million Panamanians elected a new president, at the same time changing the migratory reality for the hundreds of thousands of people who cross the Central American country from South America, Asia and Africa to reach the United States. The victory went in fact to the conservative José Raúl Mulino, 64 years old, candidate of Realizando Metas (Realizing the Goals), a right-wing populist party founded by the former president Ricardo Martinelli, convicted of corruption. One of Mulino’s campaign promises was to close the Darién Gap, an area of densely forested jungle that migrants must cross to enter Panama from the neighboring country, Colombia. And that he is also currently facing a severe drought. Migrants first crossed the region starting in the 1990s, when Colombian citizens used the jungle to escape guerrilla groups and drug warfare and flee to Panama or elsewhere. In the 2000s, Venezuelans began traveling through Central America and the Darién Gap, seeking refuge in the United States across the Mexican border. Today, migrants from places as diverse as Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Haiti, Nepal and China (first entering Colombia or Brazil) follow the same dangerous path. How will the reality, and the migratory route, change now? We talk about it with Roberto Da Rin, Sole24ore journalist and expert on Latin America. | Polling is underway for the third of India’s seven phase elections, with 11 states voting for 93 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. In this round, Modi himself will vote. The first two phases of voting took place on April 19 and 26 in 190 constituencies, with turnout of 66.1% and 66.7% respectively, around 4% less than in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes to win a third consecutive term, but opposition parties say Indians risk losing many freedoms if he remains in power. Narendra Modi will find out in June whether he has won. After a decade in power he is omnipresent, but alongside him we often see a less discussed politician who helped engineer the extraordinary rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Amit Shah – often called India’s “second most powerful man” – is a formidable old friend, Modi’s closest confidant and the mastermind behind his electoral juggernaut. We talk about it with Matteo Miavaldi, journalist, co-author of Altri Orienti podcast editor of Chora Media. Anna Maria Giordano at the microphone.
07 May 2024
