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Protesters in Tel Aviv Rally Against Gaza Hostage Videos
new video loaded: Hundreds Protest in Tel Aviv After Hostage Videos Surface From Gaza
transcript
transcript
Hundreds Protest in Tel Aviv After Hostage Videos Surface From Gaza
The circulation of videos created by Hamas showing Israeli hostages living in dire conditions incited families to protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a ceasefire and the return of their loved ones.
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Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told us clearly that Netanyahu is committed to ending the war. We now understand that the statements issued by political sources two days ago, claiming a comprehensive deal is on the table, were empty slogans. The preconditions set by Israel are unrealistic and unworkable. We will not get our children back unless the Israeli government places a real initiative, a real initiative on the table.
Recent episodes in Israel-Hamas War
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Israeli forces have killed 62 Palestinians in Gaza since morning, according to medics | Gaza News
Dozens killed on Saturday include 38 Palestinians seeking aid at controversial distribution sites, according to sources.
Sixty-two Palestinians, most of them aid seekers, have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since dawn on Saturday, hospital sources in the besieged enclave have told Al Jazeera.
The death toll includes 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The deaths are the latest killings reported near GHF-operated sites, despite Israel’s announcement last week that it would begin implementing “tactical pauses” in fighting in some areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid.
Israel announced the start of the daily pauses in military operations on July 27. However, 105 Palestinians were killed while seeking food on Wednesday and Thursday alone, the United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory said on Friday.
As of Friday, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid, according to the human rights office.
Another 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of starvation or malnutrition since the start of Israel’s war in October 2023, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Palestinians in the enclave have reported numerous cases of Israeli soldiers and American security contractors hired by the GHF deliberately firing on aid seekers in the vicinity of the distribution sites.
Facing growing international condemnation over the conditions in Gaza, Israel has in recent days allowed airdrops of aid into the enclave by countries including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Spain, Germany and France.
But humanitarian groups, including the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, have warned that the airdrops are insufficient and called on Israel to facilitate the free flow of assistance via land.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said that just 36 aid trucks entered the enclave on Saturday, far short of the 600 trucks it said were needed to meet the humanitarian needs of the population.
In Khan Younis, a Palestine Red Crescent Society staffer was killed and three others wounded by an Israeli attack on its headquarters, according to the aid group.
“One Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff member was killed and three others injured after Israeli forces targeted the Society’s headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building’s first floor,” the PRCS said in a post on X on Saturday.
Reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah earlier on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said that Palestinians have not seen any improvement in their situation despite the recent deliveries of aid.
“In the markets, you barely find food. Whatever is available is very, very expensive, and Palestinians are still forced to risk their lives to get whatever they can get,” Khoudary said.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, on Saturday said Gaza was experiencing a famine that had been “largely shaped” by the attempts to replace the UN-led aid system with the “politically motivated” GHF.
“Sidelining & weakening UNRWA has nothing to do with claims of aid diversion to armed groups. It is a deliberate measure to collectively pressure & punish Palestinians for living in Gaza,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.
UNICEF has warned that malnutrition in Gaza has exceeded the threshold for famine, with 320,000 young children among those at risk of acute malnutrition.
“We are at a crossroads, and the choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die,” Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said in a statement on Friday after a recent visit to Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Investigation launched by Office of Special Counsel into Jack Smith, former lead investigator of criminal probes on Trump
US officials have opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led two federal criminal cases against President Donald Trump, US media reported Saturday.
The Office of Special Counsel told The New York Times it was investigating Smith for potentially violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal workers from engaging in political activity while on the job.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton had reportedly asked the agency to investigate whether Smith’s actions had been designed to influence the 2024 election.
The agency, which monitors the conduct of federal employees, did not immediately respond to request for comment by AFP.
Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022, and charged Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.
Trump denied both charges and sought to frame them as politically motivated, accusing the Justice Department of being weaponized against him.
Neither case ever came to trial, and the special counsel — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.
Smith then resigned before Trump could fulfil his campaign pledge to fire him.
The Office of Special Counsel operates separately from special counsel offices at the Department of Justice, such as the one headed by Smith.
The prosecutorial decisions made by Smith do not typically fall under its remit, according to the Times.
It cannot lay criminal charges against Smith but could refer its findings to the Department of Justice, which does have that power.
The most severe penalty under the Hatch Act is termination of employment, which would not apply to Smith as he has already resigned.
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies.
He has stripped former officials of their security clearances and protective details, targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from universities.
Last month the FBI opened criminal investigations into its former director James Comey and ex-CIA chief John Brennan, two prominent Trump critics.
Days later Comey’s daughter Maurene — a federal prosecutor who handled the case of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who has been repeatedly linked to Trump — was abruptly fired.
Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in America. Explore this year’s list.
Public Schools to Reintroduce Presidential Fitness Test Under Trump Administration
President Donald Trump on Thursday reinstated the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools.
First instated in the 1950s to gauge young people’s health and athleticism, the assessment included sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups and a sit-and-reach test. It also featured a competitive component, recognising the best performers with the Presidential Fitness Award.
The test had been discontinued in 2012 and replaced with a fitness program during Barack Obama’s term.
The BBC’s Bernd Debusmann takes a look at the test’s history and what Americans have to say about it.
Video by Alex Foster
Produced by Blanca Estrada and Madeline Gerber
Deezer’s Revenue Stays Steady at $305M in H1 with Total Subscribers Dropping to 9.2M
France-headquartered music streaming service Deezer has published its financial results for the six-month period ending June 30, 2025, reporting flat revenue performance as its total subscriber base continued to decline.
Consolidated revenues in H1 reached €267.1 million ($305 million), down 0.3% YoY, but up 1.3% at constant currency.
Deezer’s total subscriber base fell to 9.2 million at the end of H1, down from 9.4 million in Q1 and against 10 million in H1 2024.
The decline came as subscribers acquired through business-to-business partnerships shrank 21.1% to 3.9 million in H1.
As a result, Partnerships revenue also slumped 11.9% YoY to €76.5 million ($87m), which the company attributed to the “conversions of Mercado Libre promo cohorts to Premium offers.”
The double-digit drop in Partnerships revenue offset the 1.2% YoY increase in Deezer’s revenue from Direct subscribers to €173.6 million ($198) for H1, which the company attributed to “solid momentum in France with a QoQ acceleration of the subscriber base” and a slight 0.5% increase in ‘Rest of World’ subscribers achieved without new marketing investments.
Deezer’s Direct subscriber base climbed 5.5% YoY to 5.3 million, with Direct subscribers in France growing 8.2% YoY to 3.6 million and Rest of World subscribers inching up 0.5% to 1.8 million.
“We delivered our second consecutive half year of positive EBITDA – a major financial milestone that reflects the discipline of execution of our strategy and confirms our turnaround.”
Alexis Lanternier, Deezer
Despite the flat revenue performance and the overall drop in total subscribers, Deezer reported an adjusted EBITDA of €2.1 million ($2.4m), recovering from an adjusted EBITDA loss of €5.0 million ($5.7m) in H1 2024. This represents an improvement of €7.1 million ($8.1m) and marking the company’s second consecutive half-year of positive adjusted EBITDA.
Deezer said: “This good performance mainly reflected higher adjusted gross profit and strict management of SG&A and marketing expenses which decreased by 6.1 million YoY.”
Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Deezer, added: “We delivered our second consecutive half year of positive EBITDA – a major financial milestone that reflects the discipline of execution of our strategy and confirms our turnaround. Deezer is on track to meet its financial targets announced for the full year.”
Deezer’s H1 revenue performance, however, showed mixed results, with its home market of France driving growth while international markets declined. The company generated €160.2 million ($183m) in France, up 4.0% YoY, while its revenue outside France fell 6.2% YoY to €106.9 million ($122m).
Direct subscription ARPU (average revenue per user) stood at €5.50 ($6.29) per month, down 1.8% YoY, while Partnership ARPU improved 3.7% to €3.10 ($3.54) per month due to what Deezer called “a better mix” following the Mercado Libre subscriber conversions.
Meanwhile, the company’s ‘Other’ revenue segment, which includes advertising and ancillary revenue, surged 77% YoY to €17.0 million ($19.4m) in H1, driven by what the company described as “the good performance of the white labelling solutions for hardware / media partners.”
The company’s adjusted gross profit totaled €65.5 million ($74.8m) in H1, up 1.5% YoY, while adjusted gross profit margin improved to 24.5% from 24.1%.
Deezer reported a net loss of €7.6 million ($8.7m), improving from the €19.4 million ($22.2m) net loss in H1 2024. While the company’s free cash flow narrowed to €1.0 million ($1.1m) from €7.3 million ($8.3m) last year, Deezer said it expects positive free cash flow for the second year in a row.
During the first half, Deezer launched several strategic initiatives as part of what CEO Alexis Lanternier called its “new strategic plan.” These initiatives include the launch of Deezer Business, which has attracted brands like UGC, Converse, and Dunkin’, renewed partnerships with Orange and Bouygues in France, as well as Sonos in the US. The company also introduced what it claimed was “the world’s first AI tagging system for music streaming.”
The AI tagging system revealed that 18%, or more than 20,000, of all music uploaded daily to Deezer are 100% AI generated. Deezer filed two patent applications for the technology in December.
“We also continued to spearhead responsible innovation in the music industry, promoting fairness and transparency, as we launched the world’s first tagging system for 100% AI generated music in streaming.”
Alexis Lanternier, Deezer
Lanternier said: “We have successfully launched our new strategic plan, introducing a first wave of innovative features aimed at empowering our users, connecting them in more personal ways with their favorite music and artists. The success of this new strategy led to strong momentum in France, with steady subscriber growth.”
“We also continued to spearhead responsible innovation in the music industry, promoting fairness and transparency, as we launched the world’s first tagging system for 100% AI generated music in streaming.”
Music Business Worldwide
Recap of 2025 Worlds in North America: Jack Alexy Places Third in 100 Free with 46-Second Swim
By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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- LCM (50m)
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North America had a big day seven, putting at least one athlete/team on the podium in all six event finals. One of the biggest stories out of the day, was the American team setting a new World Record in the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay. Leading off that relay, Jack Alexy split 46.91, his 3rd sub-47 swim of the meet and his 4th in the last two months.
Before last month, Alexy had never been 46 in the 100 free. He came into the United States Nationals at the beginning of June at 47.08 from the 2024 Olympic Trials, which was the U.S. Open record at the time and the 14th fastest time in history.
He struggled a little bit at the Olympic Games the next month, swimming his fastest time in the prelims of the event at 47.54. In finals, he swam 47.96 to finish 7th overall. He also led off the men’s 400 freestyle relay in 47.67, six tenths off of his Trials time.
It has been a completely different story this year. At the 2024 Trials, he broke his own U.S. open record and swam his first 46, stopping the clock in 46.99 to become the sixth swimmer to ever break 47 seconds.
At these World Championships he has been a bright spot on the American men’s team, and in the 100 freestyle semifinals, he had an exceptional swim of 46.81 to break the American record and become the 3rd fastest performer in history. In the finals, he turned around and swam another 46, touching in 46.92 to win the silver medal.
Last night, he started the meet with a bronze medal in the men’s 50 freestyle, swimming 21.46. He then led off the American mixed relay team in 46.91 to become the first swimmer to break the 47 second barrier three times in the same meet.
David Popovici and Pan Zhanle have both done it twice in a meet. Popovici broke 47 twice at the 2022 European Championships, swimming 46.86 and 46.98 and at this year’s Worlds, swimming 46.84 and 46.71. Pan accomplished the feat at last summer’s Olympic Games, swimming 46.92 and 46.40.
Alexy also becomes the most consistent 46 swimmer in history. When he swam 46.81 in the event semifinals, he joined only Pan and Popovici in the club of swimmers who have broken 47 multiple times. Popovici first did it back in 2022 at the aforementioned European Championships, and after swimming two 46s there, it took him nearly two years to get back under the mark, and coming into these championships, nearly three years later, he had only done it four times.
Pan has a slightly shorter timeline, having swum his first 46 in 2023 at the 2023 Asian Games. He followed up that performance with four more 46-second swims over a six month span last year.
Alexy just picked up his fourth swim in two months.
He was not the only impressive swimmer on the relay. Patrick Sammon split a blistering 46.70, his first sub-47 split of his career in the 2nd spot and Kate Douglass was 3rd in 52.43.
After a difficult week that saw her scratch the 100 fly entirely and a few difficult relay swims, Torri Huske anchored the relay in 52.44 to bring the team home less than four tenths under the previous World Record.
This is the 3rd long course relay World Record the United States has set in the last year and Huske featured as the anchor leg on on all three relays. On August 3rd 2024, the Americans broke the mixed medley relay record in 3:37.43, which Huske anchored in 51.88. On August 4th 2024, the women broke their medley relay record in 3:49.63, and Huske anchored in 52.42, and then last night she swam the leg again to pick up her 3rd world record.
After the race, Huske said “I gave it everything I had. They set me up really well, and I was just praying that I didn’t mess it up. But I felt supinspired watching katie earlier and that got me going.”
Other North America Medals from Day 7
- Gretchen Walsh (United States) won the women’s 50 butterfly in 24.83, coming in as the only swimmer under 25 seconds, touching almost half-a-second ahead of Australia’s Alexandria Perkins‘s 25.31.
- Regan Smith (United States) finished 2nd in the 200 backstroke to pick up her 4th individual silver medal of the meet, touching in 2:04.29, almost a second behind Australia’s Kaylee McKeown
- Claire Curzan (United States) took the bronze medal in the women’s 200 backstroke in 2:06.04, more than a second ahead of 4th place.
- Ilya Kharun (Canada) earned the bronze in the men’s 100 butterfly, touching in 50.07 to touch just two-hundredths ahead of Canadian teammate Josh Liendo‘s 50.09 for 4th.
- Katie Ledecky (United States) won her 7th World Championship title in the women’s 800 freestyle. Holding off challengers from Canada and Australia, she finished in a new championship record time of 8:05.62, her 3rd fastest swim ever.
- Summer McIntosh (Canada) finished 3rd in the thrilling 800 freestyle final. Her time of 8:07.29 was her 2nd best time ever after her 8:05.07 from Canadian Trials.
Other semifinals/finals swims
- Santo Condorelli (United States) finished 8th in the final of the 50 freestyle with his time of 21.73.
- Lilly King (United States) finished 4th in the women’s 50 breaststroke semifinal to qualify for tomorrow’s event final with her 30.22. Tomorrow’s race will be her final individual swim of her professional career.
- Gretchen Walsh (United States) tied with Australia’s Meg Harris for the 3rd seed for tomorrow’s 50 freestyle final, touching in 24.31.
- Torri Huske (United States) finished 7th in the 50 free semifinals, earning a lane in the final at 24.41.
- Taylor Ruck (Canada) was 10th in the women’s 50 freestyle semifinal, touching in 24.53
- Quintin McCarty (United States) became the first American man to earn a spot in a backstroke final at these World Championships, swimming 24.52 in the semifinal to qualify 7th.
- Canada’s 4×100 mixed freestyle relay was 6th, touching in 3:23.16 with the team of Ruslan Gaziev (48.43), Josh Liendo (47.64), Mary-Sophie Harvey (53.46), and Taylor Ruck (53.63)
North America Medal Table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
U.S.
|
8 | 11 | 7 | 26 |
| 2 | Canada | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
Medal Table Through Day Seven of 2025 World Championships
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
U.S.
|
8 | 11 | 7 | 26 |
| 2 |
Australia
|
7 | 4 | 6 | 17 |
| 3 | Canada | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | France | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | China | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| 6 | Germany | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 7 | Romania | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Italy | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 9 | NAB | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 10 | South Africa | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 11 | Great Britain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 13 | Hungary | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | Switzerland | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 16 | Belgium | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 16 | Japan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 18 | Poland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 19 | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | South Korea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | NAA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2025 Worlds: North America Recap, Jack Alexy Swims Third 46 Second 100 Free
AI and Lasers Enable Drones to Navigate Ventilation Ducts
Drones are going full Die Hard as researchers from Inria, CNRS, the University of Lorraine, and Aix-Marseille University work on how to help quadcopters fly through ventilation ducts without getting lost or banging into the walls like a bean in a can.
As anyone who has seen Bruce Willis’s famous Christmas movie can tell you, moving about in ventilation shafts is really difficult, but sometimes it’s something you have to do when you’re trapped in a skyscraper full of terrorists. You also have to do it if you’re a drone built for inspecting air shafts or doing reconnaissance for military, police, or rescue missions.
The problem is that shafts are small, dark, enclosed spaces where everywhere looks like everywhere else. That means it’s very hard to navigate. Worse, being inside a closed cylinder means that a quadcopter is going to produce all sorts of currents that could send the drone smashing into the walls, which is never good.
Inria / G. Destombes
To deal with this, a team led by Inria research director Jean-Baptiste Mouret is looking at how to make it easier for quadcopters to handle ducts with a diameter of about 14 in (35 cm). To do this, the team used a robotic arm equipped with a force and torque sensor to measure air flow in hundreds of spots inside a short model duct to build up a map that shows the unstable danger points in a circular duct and safer ones where the air currents cancel one another out.
In addition, the team studied how to use lasers and AI to help drones to navigate in a duct’s pitch-black, near-featureless environment. In this way, it was possible for the drone to fly about with more stability and less banging into things.
According to Inria, the next step will be to build a prototype drone that will include cameras, thermal imagers, or gas sensors to allow it to do useful inspection work.
Now if they only get it to shout a certain variation on “Yippee-Ki-Yay,” they might be on to something.
The research was published in NPJ Robotics.
Source: Inria
Map: Mexico Hit by 5.8-Magnitude Earthquake
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. The New York Times
A moderately strong, 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck in Mexico on Saturday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The temblor happened at 11:58 a.m. Central time about 1 mile northeast of San Ildefonso Villa Alta, Mexico, data from the agency shows.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Central time. Shake data is as of Saturday, Aug. 2 at 2:17 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Saturday, Aug. 2 at 5:14 p.m. Eastern.
Maps: Daylight (urban areas); MapLibre (map rendering); Natural Earth (roads, labels, terrain); Protomaps (map tiles)