China
A huge achievement for China’s ambitious space program as it lands a rover on Mars. The Zhurong robot touched down early on Saturday, China’s state news agency announced. The vehicle is tasked with exploring the planet’s vast and icy Utopia Planitia region. The US is the only other nation to have landed a rover on Mars.
More from BBC here.
Israel-Palestine
The violence in Israel-Palestine has featured in the last five newsletters and, as predicted, shows no sign of letting up. The UN says that 10,000 Palestinians have now been forced from their homes in the Gaza strip and the death toll has reached 126 people, including 31 children. Violence has also broken out in the West Bank and on Israel’s border with Lebanon. Ignoring international calls for de-escalation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that the bombardment will continue.
A reminder of my coverage recommendations: Al Jazeera live blog here. Middle East Eye live blog here. Al Jazeera television streaming live here. Israel’s Haaretz newspaper here. And useful background pieces here, here and here.
Global
The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in January that vaccine inequality was one of the greatest challenges of our times and that, by failing to address it, the world was on the brink of “catastrophic moral failure”. Tedros recalled that today, saying:
“In January, I spoke about the potential unfolding of a moral catastrophe. Unfortunately, we’re now witnessing this play out. In a handful of rich countries, which bought up the majority of the supply, lower-risk groups are now being vaccinated.”
The WHO chief said at a press conference that, instead of vaccinating children, rich countries should donate vaccine doses to the COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme.
More from the Guardian here.