DEN HAAG (ANP) - Drie Palestijnen krijgen vooralsnog geen hulp van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken om Gaza te verlaten en naar Nederland te reizen. Hun verzoek om bijstand van Nederland af te dwingen werd afgewezen door de rechter.

Voor alle drie ligt een visum klaar op de Nederlandse ambassade in Jordanië, maar de Palestijnen kunnen momenteel Gaza niet uit en wilden daarbij hulp van Nederland. Eerder zijn wel tientallen mensen geholpen door Buitenlandse Zaken, maar het ministerie noemt dat bij de rechter "een geste vanwege de zeer schrijnende veiligheids- en humanitaire situatie op dat moment in de Gazastrook".

De rechter ziet dat de situatie in Gaza nog altijd schrijnend is, maar heeft nu het hulpverzoek om procedurele redenen afgewezen. De drie personen moeten zich melden bij een civiele rechter als ze nogmaals in beroep willen gaan tegen het afwijzen van hun hulpvraag.

British women in Spain and Greece face ‘huge problems’ entering UK because of differing surname rules

New rules requiring British dual nationals to show a UK passport when entering Britain are “discriminatory” against women, campaigners claim.

From 25 February, British dual nationals are required to present a British passport when boarding a plane, ferry or train to the UK, or attach a new document, a “certificate of entitlement”, which costs nearly £600, to their second passport.

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Mico Montes’s perplexing horror portmanteau relies more on atmosphere than its actors for effect

Writer-director Mico Montes’s debut feature is a workably creepy, fitfully absorbing horror effort that centres around a group therapy session run by squeaky-voiced shrink Dr Hedonia (Rachel Alig). One would think at least one of the good doctor’s patients would have wondered how their therapist came to have a surname that means pleasure in Greek, and why this might be. Sadly, none of these hapless souls, all of whom are seeking help for trauma, seem to have even a cursory acquaintance with classical languages.

That said, most of them do seem prone to a florid monologue style as they describe what’s brought them to the room. Lenny (Torrey B Lawrence), for instance, while talking about the fire that destroyed his house and all his possessions, waxes lyrical in the most violently violet prose style, incanting about “the night’s breach” how he was “perplexed by taunting thoughts” and so on. Does anyone actually talk like this?

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A crusty-topped marvel that pilfers all the parts of a puttanesca, sploshes them on gnocchi, smothers them in mozzarella, breadcrumbs and parmesan, and crisps it all up under the grill

Puttanesca purists, look away now. This dish takes the classic elements of a puttanesca – that is, anchovies, capers, olives, tomatoes – and combines them into a rich sauce for gnocchi, which are then covered in mozzarella, breadcrumbs and parmesan, and flashed under the grill. It’s exactly what you want on a rainy night. In fact, my sauce-averse toddler thought it smelled so good that she stole half of my plate – a win all round. (Although her pretty decent suggestion was that next time I use it as a pizza sauce, rather than on pasta or gnocchi. Noted.)

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A study says IHL is at ‘critical breaking point’ amid horrendous violations in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. But to declare its demise would be premature

Is international humanitarian law (IHL), the law designed to spare civilians as much as possible the hazards of warfare, at risk of imploding? That is the conclusion of a new compendious study of current armed conflicts around the world, citing the killing of civilians and other atrocities in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and elsewhere. “While the threat to IHL is not yet existential,” it warns, “it is at a critical breaking point.”

There is no doubt that the disregard for civilian life in these conflicts has been horrendous. In Gaza and Sudan, it has risen to the level of genocide. But do these represent serious violations of the law or its demise?

Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments

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Moon was a distraction and Mars the goal for billionaire SpaceX chief – could Trump have influenced his U-turn?

Barely a year ago, the moon was “a distraction” to Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of SpaceX then fixated on his ludicrously ambitious project to build a self-sustaining city on Mars within 20 years.

Why bother returning to the orbiting chunk of rock humanity conquered half a century ago, he reasoned, when the greater prize of the red planet lay tantalizingly in reach for his company’s mighty Starship rockets?

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JD Vance is seeking to create a ‘trading bloc’ as shortages and climate crises mean a kaleidoscope of rare earths are increasingly jealously guarded

The announcement by the US vice-president, JD Vance, that the country is seeking to create a new critical minerals “trading bloc” is a final, exotic, nail in the coffin of the old global trading system. The era of mass abundance, as supplied by unfettered free trade and global markets – “neoliberalism” – is over. We live in a new world of strategic competition between states over scarce but essential resources, with shocks to supplies from human activity and natural disasters an ever-present risk.

This means recalibrating how we think about our economy: the new economic fundamentals today are resource constraints and climate and nature crises, and these, rather than human activity, will increasingly shape the world we inhabit. Flows of finance and stocks of wealth will matter less than stocks and flows of real material resources.

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A simple, warmingly spiced supper, irrespective of whatever mince you choose to use

I make variations of these meatballs every fortnight for my children, usually with chicken mince. The texture is fantastic and, whisper it, they’re even better made in an air fryer. Yes, I finally got one and it’s fantastic. You do, however, have to cook them all in one layer, which, depending on the size of your air-fryer basket, might mean cooking them in multiple batches. It feels more efficient to make them all in one go, though, so I’ve provided oven timings below.

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More than 130,000 people considered missing or disappeared in Mexico as drug cartels expand

It was a bright morning in August 2022 when Ángel Montenegro was taken. A 31-year-old construction worker, Montenegro had been out all night drinking with some work buddies in the city of Cuautla and was waiting for a bus back to nearby Cuernavaca where lived.

At about 10am, a white van pulled up: several men jumped out and dragged Montenegro and a co-worker inside before speeding off. Montenegro’s co-worker was released a few hundred meters down the street, but Montenegro was driven away.

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McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has offered an early assessment of the pecking order in the build-up to the 2026 season, arguing that Ferrari and Mercedes appear to be the most competitive outfits as things stand.