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A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo for talks on efforts to broker a ceasefire in the war in Gaza after indications that Israel has provisionally accepted a six-week phased hostage and truce deal before the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Qatari and US mediators also arrived in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, according to the state-linked Al Qahera News. Talks involving Israeli negotiators took place in the Qatari city of Doha on Saturday and Hamas is expected to respond on Sunday or Monday as time runs out before the unofficial deadline of 10 or 11 March, when Ramadan starts. The month of fasting is often accompanied by an uptick in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even in quieter years. A Hamas official told Agence France-Presse that if Israel were to meet its demands – which include a complete military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and stepped-up humanitarian aid – this would “pave the way for an agreement within the next 24-48 hours”. Another unnamed Palestinian official told Reuters, however, that a ceasefire deal was still not imminent, saying: “We’re not there yet.” A US official said on Saturday that Israel had “more or less accepted” a deal presented by mediators. Stemming the bloodshed in Gaza has been a difficult diplomatic task in the nearly five-month-old war sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel in which, according to Israeli figures, about 1,200 people were killed and another 250 abducted. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 30,000 people, displaced more than 85% of the 2.3 million-strong po[CENSORED]tion from their homes and left more than half of the strip’s infrastructure in ruins, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry and the UN. Increasing the flow of aid is crucial. The local health ministry said on Sunday that 15 children had died from malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, and the UN has said about a quarter of the total po[CENSORED]tion is “one step away from famine”. Hamas has indicated its negotiating position could be influenced by the deaths of 115 Palestinians in Gaza who were killed after Israeli troops opened fire near a crowd of people scrambling to get food from an aid convoy on Thursday. Israel’s military said on Sunday that a preliminary review found its forces did not strike the convoy and that most Palestinians died in a crowd crush, although it acknowledged it fired at individuals who it said posed a threat to soldiers. The military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari did not give details on the alleged threat but said “an independent, professional and expert body” would do a more thorough examination that would be shared “hopefully in the coming days”. UN officials visiting al-Shifa hospital the day after the attack said they saw many survivors with gunshot wounds, matching interviews with doctors treating the injured and witness accounts of the incident. The scale of the looming starvation has pushed the US to start airdropping food into the besieged territory, a move criticised by aid agencies and human rights groups as expensive and ineffective. A November truce in which about 100 hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinians in Israeli jails collapsed after a week, and progress on a second deal has proved elusive. With just a week left until Ramadan begins, desperate civilians in Gaza, the relatives of the remaining hostages and international mediators are all aware that time may be running out to broker a comprehensive ceasefire. The latest negotiations have centred on a proposal to pause the fighting for six weeks, increase the flow of aid, and for Hamas to free the default defined category of vulnerable hostages: the sick, the wounded, elderly people and women. The number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released has to date been a particular sticking point in talks since the first ceasefire collapsed at the beginning of December. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/03/hamas-delegation-arrives-for-gaza-ceasefire-talks-in-cairo

Asked what he thought of Western civilisation, Mahatma Gandhi is said to have quipped that such a thing “would be a good idea”. (The West, he suggested, was not so enlightened.) But as Josephine Quinn makes clear in her new book, Western civilisation has always been a bad idea, or at any rate a wrong-headed one. To compartmentalise history into a set of distinct and essentially self-contained civilisations is a misguided quest that has dangerously distorted our understanding of the world, Ms Quinn asserts: “It is not peoples that make history, but people, and the connections that they create with one another.” Ms Quinn, a historian and archaeologist who teaches at Oxford, does not spend 500-odd pages trashing what generations of schoolchildren have been taught to take pride in as European achievements. Instead, she demolishes the underlying concept of what she calls “civilisational thinking”. Her argument is simple, persuasive and deserving of attention. https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/03/01/the-history-of-the-west-is-not-quite-what-you-learned-in-school

PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - Vetements designer Guram Gvasalia drew out the proportions of clothing for the label's 10th anniversary catwalk presentation on Friday, which brought crowds of celebrities, including Cher, to the Paris Fashion Week event. "The most Vetements show ever," the label posted on Instagram in the run-up to show. "You've been waiting for it for ten years." Natalia Vodianova opened the show, walking briskly down the red carpeted runway in a thick, tailored suit with heightened shoulders and bulky trousers, and a fitted, low-cut bustier. A series of oversize looks followed, including suits in crinkly materials, a long T-shirt with sleeves that splayed out to the side, a hulking camouflage ensemble and jeans with extra fabric that trailed behind. Georgina Rodriguez wore a dress printed with the name of football star Cristiano Ronaldo, while another model had an enormous grey hoodie printed with a message: "I'm retired, this is as dressed up as I get." https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/guram-gvasalia-supersizes-styles-vetements-runway-show-2024-03-01/

Messi "a voulu humilier Hong Kong" L'influent quotidien local Global Times a également fait sienne la théorie de l'absence délibérée. "Une théorie est que les actions (de Messi) ont des motivations politiques, dans la mesure où Hong Kong voulait stimuler l'économie à travers cet événement et que des forces extérieures ont délibérément voulu humilier Hong Kong [et par là même la Chine, NDLR] avec cet incident. Cette hypothèse ne peut être exclue", a relevé le média nationaliste, tandis que sur Weibo, l'équivalent chinois de X, des Chinois se sont amusé à caricaturer Messi en soldat japonais ou américain. "En allant jouer aux États-Unis, Messi est devenu un élément de la marque USA", analyse Simon Chadwick. "Qu'il le veuille ou non, il sera perçu comme un défenseur des États-Unis et des intérêts parce qu'il joue pour une équipe américaine." En 2019 déjà, le sport avait été le terrain de jeu des tensions entre les États-Unis et la Chine. À l'époque, c'était le basket qui avait été concerné : Daryl Morey, le manager général des Houston Rockets, avait dans un tweet fait part de sa solidarité avec les manifestants prodémocratie hongkongais. Colère de Pékin. Dans la foulée, les chaînes de CCTV, chaînes publiques chinoises, ont supprimé tous les matchs des Rockets, puis cessé de diffuser le championnat de NBA. Le boycott a duré un an. https://www.france24.com/fr/sports/20240303-lionel-messi-et-les-contradictions-de-la-géopolitique-et-du-foot-business