Cameroon, China, Israel-Palestine.
Today's three stories you should know.
Cameroon
It’s rare that good news is featured in Proximities, so starting with some today. Cameroon has received a delivery of more than 330,000 doses of a new malaria vaccine - the first one to be approved by the UN’s World Health Organization. It is the first African country to receive the vaccine - known as RTS,S - after pilot programs in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. Shipments are due to arrive in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone over the coming weeks. Both Cameroon’s Health Minister Manaouda Malachi and Juliette Haenni of the UN children’s agency described it as a historic moment. They’re not wrong. Malaria is one of Africa’s deadliest diseases by far and kills 600,000 people a year, the vast majority of them children.
More from Reuters here.
China
China has expanded a crackdown on mosques, according to a report from New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW). Beijing has long been criticized for targeting Muslims in its Xinjiang region with policies the UN has said may amount to “crimes against humanity.” But, outside of Xinjiang, mosques have now been decommissioned, closed or demolished in the Ningxia region and Gansu province, HRW said. The Chinese government is keen to stamp out religious expression, rights groups say, seeing religion as posing a potential challenge to its secular rule.
More from AP here.
Israel-Palestine
By now, you’ll have read all about the deal between Israel and Hamas. There will be a truce in Gaza and Hamas will release 50 Israeli women and children it is holding hostage. Slightly slipping under the radar, though, is the fact that as part of the deal Israel will release about 150 Palestinian women and children that it has been holding in its jails, many for years. Al Jazeera today spoke to some of their families.
More from Al Jazeera here.