Author

admin

Browsing

Intel’s stock price has struggled for most of 2024, even as most of its semiconductor cousins were thriving. Why pay attention to Intel Corp. (INTC) now?

The stock showed up on my StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) scan, which is a good enough reason to analyze the stock. The scan is provided at the end of the article.

Vice President JD Vance emphasized the increase in US AI systems manufacturing in the AI summit in Paris. Since Intel is the largest domestic AI chip producer, the stock price got a much-needed boost. gave INTC a boost.

Previously, INTC has been beaten down hard. Weak earnings didn’t help, and the stock has been acting like a sinking ship with no lifeboat since the second half of 2024 (see chart below). But things may be shifting as it looks like the lifeboat may have appeared, bringing the stock a little closer to the surface.

The daily chart of INTC stock below gives a good picture of the price action.

FIGURE 1. DAILY CHART OF INTEL STOCK. The stock has closed higher for four consecutive days. It’s now hitting its first resistance against the 200-day moving average. Look for a breakout off of this level.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Note the following points in the chart:

  • The stock price has risen for four consecutive days with increasing volume.
  • Thursday’s close is battling against its 200-day simple moving average (SMA) resistance.
  • The SCTR score has crossed above the 76 level, the first criterion of my scan.
  • Intel’s relative performance (price relative/relative strength) against the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is now in positive territory (13.02%).
  • The moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) has crossed above its signal line and moved above zero.

With all the positive technicals, does it mean INTC stock is a buy at these levels? A break above the 200-day SMA would check one box. Beyond that, I would look at the November 2024 high (see weekly chart below).

FIGURE 2. WEEKLY CHART OF INTC STOCK. After a steep fall in mid-2024, Intel’s stock price is showing signs of recovery. A break above its early November high would be the first sign of a move higher.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

A break above this high could mean that INTC could float toward its 52-week high. However, there are resistance hurdles to cross — the July 2024 high and January to March 2024 consolidation — before reaching the December 2023 high.

The bottom line: I’ll be monitoring Intel’s stock price closely. I’ve set an alert to notify me when the stock price crosses $26.25. If the indicators in the daily chart still indicate buying pressure is still strong and the trend is bullish, I’ll consider adding INTC to my portfolio.


SCTR Scan

[country is US] and [sma(20,volume) > 100000] and [[SCTR.us.etf x 76] or [SCTR.large x 76] or [SCTR.us.etf x 78] or [SCTR.large x 78] or [SCTR.us.etf x 80] or [SCTR.large x 80]]


Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

Not everyone likes to take a contrarian stance. Most people prefer to move with the market, not against it. But for those who thrive on going against the grain, extreme market movements — whether a rally or selloff — present opportunities.

Wednesday morning was one of those sessions. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report came in hotter than expected, sending markets into an early plunge before trading mixed later in the day. This presented an ideal opportunity to hunt for stocks that might be bottoming.

My first move was to check the StockCharts’ Advancers & Decliners tool on my Dashboard for a real-time picture of market activity.

FIGURE 1. ADVANCERS & DECLINERS TOOL SECTORS VIEW. The hardest hit were Real Estate and Utilities.

The Real Estate and Utilities sectors were the most affected in the early part of the trading day. I needed a second angle to view the sector action. So, I switched over to the Sector Summary tool.

FIGURE 2. SECTOR SUMMARY TOOL. Percentage-wise, real estate had lost the most at the time of viewing.

After deciding to focus on the Real Estate sector, I ran a bearish New 52-Week Lows scan to see what I might find.

FIGURE 3. IMAGE OF SCAN PAGE AND RESULTS.  I found two homebuilder stocks: DHI and LEN.

DR Horton Inc. (DHI) and Lennar Corp. (LEN), two of the biggest US homebuilders, were making new 52-week lows.

Full transparency: If you notice the super-low SCTR scores, well, they’re making new 52-week lows … and I’m searching for a bottom, not only price-wise, but in terms of a turnaround from extreme technical weakness.

But how were they compared to their industry peers? To analyze their relative performance, I switched over the PerfCharts to get a comparative view, adding SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) as an industry proxy in addition to a third major homebuilder—Toll Brothers, Inc. (TOL). TOL wasn’t on the list, but, as one of the major homebuilders showing relative strength despite its decline, I included it for comparison.

FIGURE 4. PERFCHARTS COMPARING XHB, DHI, LEN, AND TOL. TOL is the only stock outperforming its industry peers.

TOL is the only stock outperforming its peers, with LEN and DHI leading XHB downwards.

Back to my objective, I’m looking for stocks within the industry that might be close to bottoming out. But before I can do that, I must assess whether the industry might be bottoming out and if the current market response to the newly released CPI figures may be overextended or justified by underlying valuations.

Below is a five-year weekly chart of XHB.

FIGURE 5. WEEKLY CHART OF XHB. The index topped, but will it bounce or continue its decline?

If you look at XHB’s rising prices from the beginning of 2024 through October, in contrast to the Relative Strength Index’s (RSI) decline from above the 70 threshold, the bearish divergence is clear, confirming XHB’s topping action. The RSI is below the 50-line but nowhere near oversold territory. 

Looking at sector breadth, the Real Estate Bullish Percent Index (BPI) is currently favoring the bulls, as over 50% of stocks within the sector are triggering Point & Figure “buy” signals. Although homebuilders don’t appear to be participating in this rally, will the broader sector eventually help lift the industry (in other words, are homebuilders bottoming)?

The critical level to watch here is $97 to $101 (see blue highlight), two swing lows that should serve as technical support. To broaden the viable support range, I overlaid an Ichimoku Cloud. If XHB falls below either the swing low or the cloud, then, technically, there’s plenty of downside to go. If it bounces, then a bullish case might take shape.

With this in mind, look at all three stocks (TOL, LEN, and DHI) side by side.

FIGURE 6. ACP CHARTS OF TOL, LEN, AND DHI.  TOL, the better-performing stock, is nearing a critical support level.

The blue horizontal lines in each chart mark recent swing lows, all of which are (or were) critical support levels. TOL is about to test that level, while LEN and DHI have already fallen below theirs.

Here’s a daily chart of TOL.

FIGURE 7. DAILY CHART OF TOL. Watch how price responds to these two support levels.

TOL is nearing support at the $120 December swing low. A closer look at the RSI reveals a slight bullish divergence, with the indicator rising from the 30-line even as TOL briefly dips below $120 before staging a strong bounce. Meanwhile, the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) has fallen into negative territory. However, this dip is less pronounced than in December, when TOL’s price may have formed a bottom.

If TOL closes below $120, the more critical support level is $110. This is the longer-term support level shown in the weekly chart. If TOL remains above this threshold and proceeds to advance, then it’s likely that a bottom may be in place. Check volume and momentum to confirm the reversal if or when it happens.

Next, take a look at this daily chart of DHI.

FIGURE 8. DAILY CHART OF DHI. I’m using a measured move approach to determine where it might find support before the next swing low.

If you reference the weekly charts in Figure 6, you’ll see that DHI had fallen below critical support at $135 and is still falling. The next major level of support would be the October 2023 low at $100. However, given the near-symmetry of each swing, you might expect DHI to bounce at the “measured move” level near the $118 range.

The CMF is well below the zero line, indicating that selling pressure is driving the stock’s decline. However, the RSI presents a bullish divergence, with its recent lows trending higher even as the stock continues to fall. Still, without a definitive bounce and a shift in the CMF — a key volume indicator — there’s no clear confirmation that a bottom is in place.

Lastly, let’s switch over to a daily chart of LEN.

FIGURE 9. DAILY CHAFT OF LEN. In the near term, there’s no support in sight.

The next support level for LEN may be the November 2023 low of $101. In the near term, however, there doesn’t seem to be much in sight to prevent LEN’s descent. That said, a few volume-based signals suggest the selling pressure may not be entirely one-sided.

  • The Accumulation/Distribution Line (ADL), shown rising above the current price (see green line), indicates that money flows are increasing; a bullish sign for LEN.
  • The volume of selling pressure, according to the CMF, is significantly easing.
  • The Money Flow Index (MFI), which tracks volume and momentum, is climbing even as LEN continues to decline, indicating a bullish divergence.

While there’s no sign of bottoming, you may want to continue monitoring the stock for signs of stabilization.

At the Close

This piece demonstrates an attempt to spot bottoming opportunities during Wednesday’s market selloff. By tracking sector performance with StockCharts tools—namely, Advancers & Decliners and Sector Summary—I spotted Real Estate as one of the hardest-hit areas. A New 52-Week Lows scan flagged LEN and DHI, which I compared to TOL using PerfCharts to gauge relative strength. While these stocks haven’t confirmed a bottom yet, there are hints of a shift.

It’s worth adding LEN, DHI, and TOL to your ChartLists and keeping an eye on them. Once they stabilize and bottom out, it could signal an early entry point well before the next uptrend takes shape.


Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

Hamas said it will release Israeli hostages as initially planned after holding “positive” talks with mediators, following a dispute with Israel over the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The militant group had postponed the release of more hostages this weekend, accusing Israel of violating the fragile ceasefire. In response, Israel warned it would return to fighting.

After talks with key mediators Egypt and Qatar, Hamas said that the releases – which will see Palestinian prisoners exchanged in return – will go ahead.

“Hamas confirms its continued position to implement the deal according to what was signed, which includes exchanging prisoners according to the specified timetable,” a statement by the militant group said.

“The talks were characterized by a positive spirit,” the statement said, adding that Egypt and Qatar affirmed they would work to “remove obstacles and fill gaps.”

Israel has not responded to Hamas’ statement.

It is unclear yet whether Hamas’ announcement will be enough to resolve the dispute with Israel. The standoff had threatened the first pause in fighting in over a year, and the next phase of the ceasefire has yet to be determined.

US President Donald Trump has suggested dismissing the multi-staged approach of the deal altogether and giving Hamas an ultimatum to release all the hostages at once.

While Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s demand, he hasn’t explicitly agreed to it – instead issuing an ambiguous statement, saying Hamas must “return our hostages by Saturday noon” – without giving a figure – or the military “will return to intense fighting until Hamas is completely defeated.”

So far, 16 out of 33 Israeli hostages scheduled for release in the current phase of the agreement have been freed by Hamas, and 656 Palestinian prisoners from a list of nearly 2,000 have been released by Israel.

In its statement on Thursday, Hamas said mediators pledged to follow up on its demands for Israel to allow the entry of housing supplies, medical equipment, fuel, and relief aid. The group also said mediators confirmed they would “remove obstacles” to resuming the ceasefire agreement.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

US President Donald Trump’s “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has sparked fears in Europe of a “dirty deal” being struck to end the war in Ukraine on terms favorable to Moscow without Kyiv’s involvement.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Ukraine would not accept a peace deal negotiated by the United States and Russia alone. He conceded it was “not pleasant” that Trump spoke with Putin before calling Kyiv, calling into doubt the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” that has largely held over three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, warned against a “quick fix” and a “dirty deal” to end the war, saying that Europe and Ukraine must be at the table for talks because no peace deal can be implemented without their involvement.

For European members of NATO the future suddenly looks a whole lot more uncertain. Since the foundation of the alliance, Europe has relied on the American nuclear umbrella, the deployment of sizable US military contingents in Europe and the vast US defense budget and weapons pipeline.

Trump’s call with Putin, and his subsequent announcement that negotiations would begin immediately on reaching a deal in Ukraine, blindsided European leaders and threatened to leave them with the grunt work of funding and overseeing any settlement.

In other words: Washington will do the deal (and may get paid in rare earth minerals by Ukraine as Trump has demanded), and Europe will pick up the tab.

Newly minted US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO allies in Brussels that European and non-European troops – but not Americans – would have to police any agreement between Ukraine and Russia. There was also a brutal denial of Ukraine’s aspirations to join the alliance. Hegseth said Washington did “not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome.”

A NATO official subsequently briefed that “NATO membership is not necessarily something that needs to be negotiated with Russia. It’s something that’s a decision for allies and that decision has been linked to when the time is right.”

The official insisted that “the alliance’s position has not changed and Ukraine is still on a path to membership.”

‘Any deal behind our backs will not work’

The Europeans, both in NATO and in the EU – are struggling to be heard as Trump focuses on doing a deal with Putin to end what he has called the pointless bloodshed in Ukraine.

Kallas said that “any deal behind our backs will not work.” She added that “appeasement also always, always fails. So Ukraine will continue to resist and Europe will continue to back Ukraine.”

The allies have been fond of the mantra “No settlement in Ukraine without Ukraine.” That might now be expanded to “…without Ukraine and Europe.” Six European governments, including France, the UK and Germany, said Wednesday night in a panicked joint statement: “We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies.… Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”

Šakalienė and her Baltic counterparts, on Russia’s borders, are especially anxious at the turn of events. She said there was a stark choice: “Whether we decide to fall under the illusion that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin are going to find a solution for all of us, and that would be a deadly trap, or we will, as Europe, embrace our own economic, financial and military capacity.”

Šakalienė acknowledged that historically the US had been “paying for our security. And that needs to be corrected.”

Her Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur, cited the poet Alexandre Dumas – “One for all, all for one” – as the bedrock of the transatlantic relationship, and also spoke of raising defense spending.

Flat-footed

But production lines, investment in new technology and recruitment do not happen overnight. There’s been intense talk since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began of ramping up defense industries in Europe. But that’s a multi-year process.

The head of French defense giant Dassault, Éric Trappier, said last year that “Europe believes all of a sudden that working on defence is a good thing… Between that realisation and the reality of building a European defense industry it’s going to take many years and even many decades,” he told the Financial Times.

Those words were echoed Thursday by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We are not producing enough and this is a collective problem…. Russia is producing in three months in ammunition, but the whole of the alliance is producing in a year.”

European weapons manufacturers have also complained about arcane decision-making processes in Brussels, where the European Commission has angled for a much greater role in procurement.

And this sudden increase in spending is expected at a time of sluggish growth and tight public finances.

The events of 1989, when the Soviet bloc evaporated, left a legacy of defense cutbacks in the West that are only now being reversed.

Together, as Zelensky noted this week, Ukraine and Europe have fewer men under arms than Russia. Zelensky is doubtful that Europe or another monitoring force alone is up to the task of securing any peace. “I don’t think any UN troops or anything like that have ever really helped anyone,” he told the Guardian this week. “We are for a (peacekeeping) contingent if it is part of security guarantees, and I would underline again that without America this is impossible.”

With Hegseth saying there is no way the US will commit troops to some sort of 1,000-kilometer long demilitarized zone stretching from the Black Sea to Kharkiv, there is no clarity over what those guarantees might be. Zelensky said Thursday that rather than a contingent of maybe 5,000 peacekeepers, there would need to be 100,000 as part of a “deterrent package.”

Some European ministers fear that Trump fatally misunderstands Putin. German defense minister Boris Pistorius said Thursday he regretted the new administration taking Ukraine’s prospective membership of NATO off the table immediately and added: “Putin is constantly provoking the West and attacking us again. It would be naive to believe the threat would actually diminish after such a peace agreement.”

Their next chance for allies to temper – or at least interrogate – the administration’s strategy will be at this weekend’s Munich Security conference, to be attended by US Vice-President JD Vance and Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

Europe sidelined?

Europeans may now be forgiven for glancing backwards to existential moments in their modern history.

One is the Munich agreement of 1938 that gave Hitler free rein to continue Nazi aggression against allies that were neither armed nor ready for war against a fully militarized society.

The other is the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 that suppressed the Prague Spring, an effort at liberalization that threatened Moscow’s dominance of Eastern Europe, just as Ukraine’s sharp tilt to the EU was seen as a threat by Putin.

At that time, US Senator Henry Jackson told NATO parliamentarians that while there was little disagreement in the US about the value of the Atlantic Alliance, there was “a widespread feeling in my country that so many Europeans were less concerned with the security of their homelands than we were.

“To many Americans it has seemed that a prosperous Western Europe was not making a reasonably proportionate contribution to the common defense effort,” Jackson said. “I am convinced that the future vitality of the alliance depends in very large measure on the degree and quality of European efforts to keep NATO strong.”

Fast forward half a century and the demands of the Trump administration that European members of NATO, many of which have struggled to reach a defense spending target of 2% of GDP, are now expected to hit 4 or 5% – (a level higher even than the US) and step beyond that security umbrella.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Daniella Gilboa has wasted no time in putting the joy back into her life after being released from 15 months in captivity in Gaza. She got engaged to her longtime boyfriend and sang at a party when she and other freed hostages left the hospital.

But Orly knows that what she is seeing in these first days after Daniella’s release is just the surface. “There are a lot of things under and I’m sure that we can see them when the days go by.”

It’s the same for Naama Levy and Liri Albag, released alongside Daniella on January 25, their mothers said. They appear physically healthy, and they are home. But they were imprisoned in Gaza for 477 days and free less than three weeks, so much of their recovery is yet to come.

“She’s back in her room,” Ayelet Levy Shachar said of her daughter and her girly pink bedroom complete with soft toys. “Although she does prefer to sleep with her mom at night.”

Naama, Liri and Daniella were all in their teens on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters stormed their outpost at Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the border with Gaza.

They were performing their mandatory military service as unarmed “spotters,” tasked with looking at activity inside Gaza and reporting back to commanders at another base.

Fifteen of their fellow spotters were killed in the surprise militant attack on communities and a music festival that left 1,200 Israelis dead and 250 kidnapped in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The Israeli war on Hamas that followed has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, injured twice as many and leveled much of Gaza.

Daniella, Liri and Naama were captured with four more young women: Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Ori Megidish and Noa Marciano. Ori was rescued weeks after the attack, while Noa was killed in Gaza. Karina was also released on January 25, while Agam was freed five days later.

Video taken by Hamas on October 7 and later released by the women’s families showed the female soldiers being lined up against a wall by men with rifles. Their hands were bound behind them, and they were ordered to sit, many still in their pajamas, their faces and bodies spattered with blood.

On the day of the attack, with no word from Naama, Ayelet had first thought maybe her daughter was just unable to reach her in the chaos. But then she saw a video of Naama being dragged by her hair, her pants covered in blood, and being shoved into a vehicle.

And unknown to her, her daughter saw it too.

“She saw the video, she knew about it, and she did see myself and her father in different interviews,” Ayelet said. “She heard sometimes on the radio her brother speaking, her grandfather speaking. It wasn’t an everyday thing, but sometimes she was exposed to the media, and it did give her a lot of strength and support and helped her throughout those days.

“She waited to catch a glimpse of one of us. She told me even that she was following with the color of my hair during this time,” Ayelet added with a laugh.

Naama was wounded by shrapnel that day. Some she was later able to pick out of her skin; the rest remains in her body, Ayelet said.

Naama and Liri had only arrived at the outpost a couple of days before the attack, but Daniella had already been there nine months, her mom said.

Orly knows Daniella was hit in the leg that day, but much else is still unknown.

“October 7 is the most hard thing for her to speak about, and I don’t ask her about it,” Orly said. “She didn’t tell me yet about what happened that day. I just know that she lost a lot of her good friends … The loss of them is very hard for her, even more than the period of time of the captivity … I assume that in a few days or a few months, she’ll decide to talk about it, and she will tell me about it herself. I don’t want to make any pain for her.”

The mothers have learned a little about the conditions their girls, all now 20 years old, were kept in.

Shira Albag said Liri was held with Agam Berger, and sometimes Naama.

“Liri most of the time was in apartments with civilians,” she said. “It was difficult because they needed to do some things for the people of the house — to clean the house and to cook for them and to sit with the children and try to teach them English or play with them.”

Despite the physical closeness, there was little human kindness. “They didn’t treat them nice,” she said of the captors.

Amit Soussana, a woman freed in November 2023, has credited Liri for saving her life. She said the militants were convinced she was in the Israeli military and tied her up and beat her as they demanded a confession. At one point, other hostages were brought in to pressure her. Instead, Liri spoke to the guard and persuaded the captors that Amit was not a soldier.

“It seems like Liri, but I heard this story from Amit. Liri didn’t tell us yet the story,” Shira said. “I know it was very difficult for her. She saved Amit’s life. But when Liri will be ready, she will tell the story herself.”

Liri, Daniella and Naama were, along with Karina Ariev, the second group of hostages to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire deal. In a highly choreographed handover, they were paraded on a stage, dressed in olive-green military style outfits, and given certificates about their release and “gift bags” including souvenir keychains.

Their release was in marked contrast to the chaotic first handover of the 2025 truce and they seemed healthier than the three pale, emaciated men freed on Saturday.

Daniella watched that last release with her mother and talked about the condition of one of the men — her cousin Eli Sharabi.

“Daniella told me, ‘Mama, just know that if we were released two months ago, I looked like Eli’ because she also lost a lot of weight there,” Orly said. A change happened two or three months ago when Daniella and Karina were separated from other captives. And instead of four of them having to share one plate of food, then it was just two.

“It’s important to understand that we see Daniella, how she looks like right now, it doesn’t mean anything about what happened there and how she felt there.”

Hamas and its allies still hold a total of 73 people — some believed to be dead — taken from Israel during the October 7 attacks. Three additional hostages, held captive since 2014, are also still in Gaza.

Ayelet took time to thank US President Donald Trump for getting the ceasefire deal done and allowing the release of hostages. The terms of the deal map closely to an agreement then-President Joe Biden unveiled last May but could not complete.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister until November, told Israel’s Channel 12 News earlier this month that Hamas had agreed to that deal in July, but Israel did not go along with it.

“Unfortunately, there are fewer hostages still alive now, more time has passed, and we are paying a heavier price,” he said.

Ayelet echoed that sentiment. “They could have been home sooner. They should have been home sooner,” she said.

The drive and passion shown by the families and much of Israel over nearly 500 days to get the hostages freed is ramping up to a new urgency as the truce — and hope for more releases — hangs by a thread.

“We need to see them all home now,” Ayelet said.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Last year was the deadliest for journalists in more than three decades, with the majority killed in the Middle East, according to a report released Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed in 2024, the most recorded since the CPJ began collecting data three decades ago.

Nearly 70% of those deaths were at the hands of the Israeli military in Gaza and Lebanon, the report said, with 82 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces denied targeting media workers, saying it “takes all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians including journalists.”

Last year’s death toll exceeded the previous record in 2007, when 113 journalists were killed, almost half of them amid the US-led war in Iraq.

“The war in Gaza is unprecedented in its impact on journalists and demonstrates a major deterioration in global norms on protecting journalists in conflict zones, but it is far from the only place journalists are in danger,” the committee’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement.

It accused Israel of being “slow and not transparent” in its inquiries into soldiers’ killings of journalists, of shifting blame to the victims and ignoring its duty to hold its military to account.

After Gaza and Lebanon, the report identified Sudan and Pakistan as the deadliest places for journalists, with six media workers killed in each last year. Mexico, Syria, Myanmar, Iraq and Haiti also had multiple killings of journalists in 2024.

“The number of conflicts globally – whether political, criminal, or military in nature – has doubled in the past five years, and this is reflected in the high number of deaths of journalists in nations such as Sudan, Pakistan, and Myanmar,” the CPJ said, citing data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) monitoring initiative.

Targeted killings on the rise

The CPJ report said at least 24 journalists worldwide had been killed deliberately because of their work over the past year, describing this as “an alarming rise in the number of targeted killings.”

Among them was Ismail Al-Ghoul, a 27-year-old Palestinian journalist, who was killed alongside his cameraman, Rami Al-Rifi, in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza last July, sparking condemnation from advocacy groups.

In the immediate aftermath of Al-Ghoul’s killing, his employer, Al Jazeera, denied what it called “baseless allegations made by the Israeli occupation forces in an attempt to justify its deliberate killing of our colleague, journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul, and his companion, cameraman Rami Al-Rifi.”

The IDF has rarely provided specific answers about the circumstances that led to the killing of journalists. Instead, the Israeli military has issued vague statements that reiterate their forces do not intentionally target journalists or that the matter is under investigation.

Trapped in the strip alongside their fellow Gaza residents, Palestinian reporters have been the eyes and ears of those suffering under the shadow of war. And with foreign media largely unable to enter, it is their photos, footage and reporting, often gathered at great personal risk, that have shown the world what is happening.

The committee said 10 journalists were deliberately killed by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon. The 14 other journalists whose deaths it determined were deliberate were from Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Mozambique, India, Iraq, and Sudan.

Failures to protect press

The report highlighted the ongoing failures to protect journalists and media workers, especially freelancers, in countries with consistently high rates of killings.

It cited the killing of a veteran journalist, Alejandro Martínez Noguez, who was shot last August in Mexico while under police protection as an example of the “persistent flaws” in the country’s mechanisms meant to protect journalists.

“The death tolls in Mexico, Pakistan, India, and Iraq reinforced the extreme dangers journalists face in these nations, which have experienced repeated killings over multiple decades despite numerous efforts in some of these countries, including at the national level, to address this,” the report said.

Freelancers, it said, were killed at an “unprecedented rate” last year. A total of 43 were killed, more than a third of all media worker deaths, the majority of which were Palestinians in Gaza.

“The typical freelancer frequently works alone, without staffers’ access to protective equipment, security guards, insurance for medical treatment, or benefits that would help surviving family members,” the report said.

It called on governments, international institutions and media organizations to ensure accountability for threats and attacks against journalists and to provide media workers with the necessary support to do their work.

“Every journalist killed is the loss of a truth-teller. Those who chronicle our reality and hold power to account deserve justice. We will not stop seeking it,” the committee said in a post on X.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The first of two vessels carrying 1,000 tons of a Chinese-made chemical that could be a key component in fuel for Iran’s military missile program has anchored outside the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on Thursday, ship tracking data shows. It could be a signal that Iran’s missile production is back to business as usual after the devastating, and embarrassing, attacks by Israel on key factories last year.

The ship, Golbon, left the Chinese port of Taicang three weeks ago loaded with most of a 1,000-ton shipment of sodium perchlorate, the main precursor in the production of the solid propellant that powers Iran’s mid-range conventional missiles, according to two European intelligence sources.

The sodium perchlorate could allow for the production of sufficient propellant for some 260 solid rocket motors for Iran’s Kheibar Shekan missiles or 200 of the Haj Qasem ballistic missiles, according to the intelligence sources.

The shipment comes as Iran has suffered a series of regional setbacks with the collective defeat suffered by its allies: The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Hezbollah’s losses in Lebanon. Following Israel’s strike on Iran’s missile production facilities in October, some Western experts believed it could take at least a year before Iran could resume solid-propellant production. This delivery points to Iran being not far from – or that they could already be back to – the production of its missiles.

The shipment was purchased on behalf of the Procurement Department of the Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization (SSJO), part of the Iranian body responsible for the development of Iran’s ballistic missiles, according to the sources.

The sources could not say if the Chinese government knew of the shipments prior to media reporting about their movement late January. The delivery of sodium perchlorate in itself is not illegal, nor does it breach Western sanctions.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in January that she was not aware of the specifics of the case, but that China has always abided by its export control laws as well as the country’s international obligations.

Sanctions backdoor

The United States and United Kingdom have levied sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines company, with the State Department saying the firm is the “preferred shipping line for Iranian proliferators and procurement agents.”

The UK treasury said the company was “involved in hostile activity” by Iran and highlighted its links to the Iranian defense sector.

Both the Golbon and Jairan are under US sanctions.

Meanwhile, China has remained a diplomatic and economic ally for sanctions-hit Iran, decrying “unilateral” US sanctions against the country and welcoming Tehran into Beijing and Moscow-led international blocs like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS.

China also remains by far Iran’s largest energy buyer, though it has not reported purchases of Iranian oil in its official customs data since 2022, according to analysts.

Despite China’s historic ties to Iran’s defense sector, observers say Beijing has scaled back security ties over the past decade as it seeks to bolster relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The US has in recent years, however, sanctioned a number of Chinese entities for alleged roles supporting Iranian military drone production. Recent joint naval drills between China, Iran and Russia have also signaled a potential deepening of government to government strategic ties.

A key ingredient

Although sodium perchlorate trade is not restricted by Western sanctions, it can be chemically transformed into ammonium perchlorate – a fuel and oxidizer which is a controlled product.

“There really aren’t very many alternative things” that the chemical in the Chinese deliveries can be used for, aside from for rocket propellants, fireworks and fuel, he said, adding: “perchlorates have a fairly narrow range of uses.”

Increasing controls on perchlorates in the West have seen China become a major alternative supplier of such chemicals, he said.

“This is just the latest shipment in a decades-old pattern,” Lewis added.

Supply troubles

Defense analyst Hinz said that while Iran has previously boasted of its ability to produce ammonium perchlorate themselves, this delivery hints at supply chain bottlenecks as domestic precursor supply has been unable to meet missile production needs. It’s a problem even countries like the US can face, he added.

Hinz said that Iran’s solid propellant production infrastructure has “dramatically expanded in the last few years – and potentially even since October 7, (2023),” with new sites built and existing ones enlarged.

Kheibar Shekan missiles have a range of 880 miles (around 1,420 km), with their Haj Qasem cousins able to reach targets 900 miles (around 1,450 km) away, according to the Western intelligence source. Although not the most technically advanced weapons in Iran’s arsenal, their range does make them valuable for attacks on Israel.

Hinz said that variants of such missiles have been used by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen against Israel, despite the distance ostensibly outstripping the missiles’ standard range. Modifications of the warhead mass or secondary propulsion units could lengthen their reach, he said.

Solid propellant is also used in Iran’s short-range missiles – like those used in the past against US bases in the region and in exports to Russia, Hinz said. Iran’s largest and most powerful ballistic missiles typically use liquid propellant.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, wreckage from at least one Kheibar Shakan missile was recovered following Iran’s October 1, 2024 barrage against Israel. Analysis from one of the Western sources confirmed that some 50 medium-range missiles with solid propulsion were fired at Israel by Iran in this attack.

Iran’s arsenal is believed to hold “over 3,000 ballistic missiles,” US Air Force Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told Congress in 2023 – but exact numbers of each type of missile are unknown.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

A humpback whale briefly swallowed a 24-year-old kayaker last Saturday during a father-son excursion out on the icy waters around Chile’s southernmost Patagonia region.

The terrifying moment, captured on camera by the kayaker’s father, showed the whale surfacing in the Strait of Magellan and gulping Adrian Simancas for a few moments before releasing him.

“I thought it swallowed me,” Adrian said in the video.

“When I turned around, I felt on my face like a slimy texture; I saw colors like dark blue, white, something approaching from behind that closed… and sank me,” he said. “At that moment, I thought there was nothing I could do, that I was going to die, I didn’t know what it was.”

But despite the uncertainty, he felt his life vest “pull me up, and then two seconds later I was back on the surface and then started understanding what happened,” he said.

He then heard “what sounds like a strong wave hitting behind me and when I turn around, I don’t see Adrian or his pack raft, so I got worried, and around three seconds later I see he’s shot up to the surface and the pack raft after him.”

When asked if both father and son would go back to kayaking, they said in chorus: “of course.”

The Strait of Magellan is a popular tourist destination due to its outdoor activities and flora and fauna. Kayaking with dolphins and humpback whales is one of the activities advertised on the government’s tourism website.

Humpback whales typically feed on krill and small fishes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA says humpback whales are popular among whale watchers as they are active on the surface and often jump out and slap the water with their pectoral fins or tails.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Thailand has received 260 human trafficking victims, more than half of them Ethiopians, from Myanmar, its army said on Thursday, in a massive repatriation that comes amid a mounting crackdown on scam centers operating along a porous border.

Criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people and forced them to work in illegal online operations generating billions annually across Southeast Asia, especially along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to the United Nations.

“After screening the group and verifying their nationalities, it was found that there were 20 nationalities,” the Thai army said in a statement, with 138 of them Ethiopians.

Although these illegal operations have been in place for years, Thai authorities renewed efforts last month after Chinese actor Wang Xing was abducted in Thailand, lured on the promise of an acting job.

He was later freed by Thai police who found him in Myanmar.

On Wednesday, a large group of trafficking victims who were sent back from Myanmar’s Myawaddy area were seen crossing the Moei River to Thailand, where they were directed onto Thai military vehicles as soldiers looked on.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a Myanmar rebel group based along the Thai border, said it had found around 260 people from unspecified “businesses” when its personnel looked for forced labor in areas under its control.

“We don’t know how they got here,” the outfit’s chief of staff Major Saw San Aung told Reuters. “We are continuing the search of forced labor, and we will send them back.”

Thailand earlier this month cut electricity, fuel and internet supply to parts of Myanmar where the illegal compounds operate, reflecting growing unease in Bangkok over the impact of scam centers on the vital tourism sector.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Sri Lanka extended power cuts for a third day on Thursday as it scrambled to restore its national grid to full capacity after a monkey triggered a widespread blackout over the weekend that disrupted supply to the island’s 22 million people.

An outage lasting six hours on Sunday was blamed by power minister, Kumara Jayakody, on a monkey that disrupted a grid station in a Colombo suburb. No power cuts were implemented on Wednesday, which was a holiday in Sri Lanka.

The animal had come into contact with the transformer at the station, disrupting supply to the entire country. There were no immediate details on whether the monkey survived the incident.

One-hour power cuts will be implemented from 6 p.m. (12:30 GMT), the island’s state-run power monopoly, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), said in a statement.

Sunday’s disruption also affected the island’s only 900 MW coal fired power plant, causing it to operate in safe mode, the CEB said.

“All efforts are being made to restore the grid to full capacity but power cuts will be implemented to manage peak demand hours in the night,” the CEB statement added.

Ninety-minute power cuts were implemented on Monday and Tuesday to manage demand. An investigation into the outage was being conducted by the energy ministry.

This post appeared first on cnn.com