iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
Tens of thousands lined the streets of capital Dili, waving Vatican-coloured flags and umbrellas while screaming as the 87-year-old was driven through the streets flanked by security
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Gazan tailor turns to bicycle to power sewing machine
Hit by severe fuel shortages due to the war and skyrocketing costs for alternative energy, Palestinian comes up with innovative solution to make ends meet
A girl pedals a bicycle turned into a makeshift power source for the tailor operating his sewing machine at a shop in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP
In Gaza, where energy is scarce, one Palestinian tailor has found a way to make the wheel of his sewing machine turn again in the chaos of war.
With a bicycle and help from his children, Raad Saad powers his sewing machine in the ruins of his factory as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rages.
Ten months into the war that has created severe fuel shortages and skyrocketing costs for alternative energy, Saad said the bicycle offered a glimmer of hope.
Saad was not always behind the machine. Before the war erupted, he ran a factory and employed 20 workers.
"I used to import and export every day," he recalled.
Saad's factory and his home in the same building were damaged by Israeli shelling and airstrikes. He managed to secure a small part of it, where he now works.
He used bricks and fabric to set up the bicycle-powered machine. Saad's 13-year-old son Issa turns the pedals as his father sews.
"There is no money. This is why we came up with the alternative way, using small batteries and LED and we are moving forward," Saad explained.
Saad has been displaced four times in the war, like many of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians who struggled to make a living during the best of times in one of the world's most densely populated places.
Aside from trying to find a safe place to hide from the bombing, Palestinians also face a humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of power, fuel, water and medicine.
The war in Gaza started after Hamas burst through the border fence and attacked southern Israel on October 7 killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel hit back with an offensive that killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and flattened much of Gaza, according to Gaza authorities.
"We started our new journey using new solutions," Saad said.
More news from World
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina's ouster, according to a preliminary United Nations report
Some 1.5 million people were still without electricity on Monday and a major bridge across the swollen and fast-moving Red River collapsed in northern Phu Tho province
The attack also wounded at least 15 others
The protests started across Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore, before spreading to cities in several European countries and to the US
The patient has been isolated in a hospital and is in a stable condition, according to the health ministry
The 87-year-old pope is visiting Papua New Guinea as part of his ambitious 12-day, four-country tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest of his 11-year-old papacy
Authorities were searching for Joseph Couch, considered a person of interest in the shooting that temporarily closed I-75 in both directions