New regulations following consultation mark a further step towards a qualification that could connect communities.

<article data-history-node-id="431622" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/eu-says-un-gaza-plan-vote-important-step" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/eu-says-un-gaza-plan-vote-important-step" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">EU says UN Gaza plan vote 'important step'</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>The European Union hailed the UN Security Council's vote in favour of US President Donald Trump's&nbsp;Gaza&nbsp;peace plan as "an important step".</p> <p>It is "an&nbsp;important step&nbsp;in advancing the comprehensive plan to end the&nbsp;Gaza&nbsp;conflic,"&nbsp;the EU's foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.</p> <p>"It consolidates&nbsp;the ceasefire,&nbsp;enables&nbsp;humanitarian access&nbsp;at&nbsp;scale and opens the way&nbsp;for&nbsp;early&nbsp;recovery, reconstruction&nbsp;and&nbsp;institutional&nbsp;reform&nbsp;in&nbsp;Gaza."</p> </div> </div> </article>

<article data-history-node-id="426091" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/france-demands-media-access-gaza-slams-israels-expanded-military" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/france-demands-media-access-gaza-slams-israels-expanded-military" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">France demands media access to Gaza, slams Israel’s expanded military campaign</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p data-end="204" data-start="96">France has called for independent journalists to be allowed into Gaza to report on conditions inside the besieged enclave, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.</p> <p data-end="797" data-start="490">Speaking to France Inter radio, Barrot said: “We hope to get some journalist staff out in the coming weeks,” referring to AFP reporters still trapped in Gaza. The French news agency earlier described their situation as “untenable,” with the Society of Journalists (SDJ) warning: “We risk seeing them die.”</p> <p data-end="1002" data-start="799">An AFP statement said staff are enduring unbearable conditions despite showing “exemplary courage and resilience.” The SDJ added: “We have lost colleagues to war and imprisonment, but never to hunger.”</p> <p data-end="1153" data-start="1004">Barrot, speaking from Kyiv, also strongly condemned the latest Israeli assault on Gaza. “This offensive will only deepen the catastrophe,” he said.</p> <p data-end="1287" data-is-last-node data-is-only-node data-start="1155">France renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access into the Gaza Strip.</p> </div> </div> </article>

Survey by Unison finds people on health and care worker visas also having to share beds and sleep rough

More than 80 people, mostly gay men and transgender women, were rounded up between September and January, NGO says

Israel dropped around 100,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza and destroyed 88 percent of its infrastructure, according to government data

Scientifique internationalement reconnu, il avait été à la fois le trublion et le pilier de l’Institut de physique du globe de Paris avant de se lancer en politique dans le sillage de Lionel Jospin, p...

YouTube video by RISE UP - Revitalising languages

Throughout the year the Guardian aimed to report on every woman whose death has led to a man being charged

Troops beat Hussam Abu Safiya and kidnap him alongside other doctors, leaving North Gaza without any health services

Once listed as ‘illegible’, the words of inmates held in bleak fortress are revealed by latest technology