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Best luxury yacht: 7 ultimate luxury cruisers you can buy

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Final week for applications for women’s Ocean 50 trimaran programme

Advice on making an Atlantic crossing from people who have done it

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Practical cruising.

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CNB 66 yacht test: Intoxicating cruiser is a cut above the mainstream

Saffier SE37 Lounge test: A veritable supercar of the seas

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The biggest yachting news stories of February 2024

Two months into 2024 and the yachting world shows no sign of slowing down, with a handful of superyachts now delivered, Lürssen 's 82-metre Project Cali spotted en route to sea trials and a first look inside Red Yacht Design 's 28.5-metre Waterlily . BOAT   looks back at a busy month and rounds up everything you might have missed...

1. World's largest sportfish launched in Amsterdam

Known as the world's largest sportfish yacht, Royal Huisman 's 52-metre Project 406 was launched in Amsterdam. The six-deck yacht, designed by Dutch studio Vripack , was sighted travelling through Amsterdam from the shipyard's inland new-build facilities in Vollenhove.

2. Crew member dies while working on 62m Baton Rouge in Antigua

The chief engineer on board 62.5-metre Baton Rouge died in hospital following an incident on board the yacht while docked in Antigua. Mainstream media reported the 47-year-old's cause of death as electrocution. He has been identified by friends as British national Roy Temme and an investigation is pending.

3. Winston Churchill's former yacht Amazone to undergo restoration at Pendennis

Delivered by British yard Thornycroft in 1936, the 38.9-metre Amazone is set to undergo a major restoration at Pendennis following 20 years of disuse as a houseboat in France. She was ferried from Le Havre to Falmouth before being transferred to Pendennis Shipyard on 14 February. 

4. 65m Feadship superyacht Promise.D delivered

Formerly known as Project Capri, the 65-metre Feadship Promise.D was delivered following successful sea trials in December 2023. The secretive superyacht is the newest delivery in a series of highly-anticipated projects to come from the Dutch shipyard and was previously spotted on transport through the Dutch canals.

5. 145m Lürssen superyacht Luminance delivered

The 145-metre Lürssen superyacht  Luminance was also delivered this month. She is the eleventh largest superyacht in the world and has been kept tightly under wraps since construction began in 2018. Marking the 30th collaboration between the designer and the shipyard, her exterior design is the work of Espen Øino , while the interior design is the work of Francois Zuretti .

6. First look: inside Waterlily, the first 28m Mazu 92 DS model

Red Yacht Design offered a first look inside the first unit in Mazu Yachts ' 92 DS series, the 28.5-metre Waterlily . She marks Mazu’s first foray into steel construction, soon to be followed by a 112 DS and 132 DS model. Waterlily was a BOAT International Design & Innovation Award finalist.

7. Baglietto reveals new 50m explorer yacht model X50

Baglietto unveiled its newest semi-custom 49.9-metre explorer model, designed by long-time collaborator Francesco Paszowski . The first model in the XO series – centring around the tagline “Explore, Experience, Observe” – will be the X50 and discussions are already being held with a potential owner. It was revealed at the same time as the Fast50 model .

8. Lürssen's 82m Project Cali spotted en route to sea trials

Lürssen 's 82-metre Project Cali was spotted snaking down the Kiel Canal in northern Germany in preparation for sea trials after being launched from Lürssen's Rendsburg facility in October 2023. Designed in-house by Jim Robert Sluijter, Project Cali is characterised by a reverse bow and expansive deck spaces that place a "great emphasis on outdoor conviviality". She is scheduled for delivery in early 2024.

9. Rossinavi introduces new yacht brand called Nolimits

Italian shipyard Rossinavi introduced a new yachting brand to the market called Nolimits. Comprising five crossover all-aluminium models designed by Fulvio de Simoni , the yachts will range between 30 to 45 metres and all sit below the 500 GT benchmark. Just weeks after the announcement, the first NL45+ unit was sold to an American client .

10. Migaloo PSY reveals 166m submersible superyacht concept Migaloo M5

Migaloo PSY revealed a 165.8-metre submersible superyacht concept known as Migaloo M5. Suitable in both tropical and arctic conditions, the Migaloo M5 is designed to be fully submerged at a depth of 250 metres for approximately four weeks. Leisure highlights include a spa, an outdoor cinema, a helipad, helicopter hangar and two "Midget Submarines" for further deep sea exploration.

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From Sea to Shining Sea

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CRN launches the M/Y 141 Superyacht: An icon of innovation and bespoke quality

The new all-aluminium 60-metre CRN creation has touched the water for the first time A new full-custom CRN superyacht was launched today at the Ferretti Group...

RIVA AQUARAMA: An exceptional book edited by Assouline to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the iconic Riva run-about

Ferretti yachts 580: fine time machine, speed made easy : beneteau first 36, custom line launches a new navetta 30 superyacht, an icon of the sea.

Riva renews the partnership with Scuderia Ferrari for the Formula 1™ World Championship

Ram Riva Classiche and Milano Autoclassica: classic motorboats and cars celebrate tradition together in Milan.

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CSE publishes economy-wide ESG performance study

The CSE has just released its annual ESG research. Here, Professor Nikos Avlonas discusses the findings and the superyacht industry’s status

Crystalbrook Superyacht Marina goes up for sale

The listing follows a string of high-profile Australian marina transactions as the country’s multi-billion dollar marine sector continues to grow…

MB92 Group and Pinmar collaborate to tackle plastic waste

Acting on goals set in their sustainability reports, MB92 Group and Pinmar have created their own recycling capability…

Echo Yachts to build world’s largest sailing catamaran

As the Western Australian industry continues to grow, the Perth-based shipbuilder will construct a fully custom 57-metre, twin-masted catamaran…

The value of ‘guaranteed dockage’

IGY Trident takes luxury marina service and support to a new level…

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Damen Yachting launches Five Oceans

The second Yacht Support 53 has hit the water at Damen Yachting's Antalya shipyard…

Is the future of maritime remote?

While AI is impacting many elements of our lives, robotics capabilities are also advancing at breakneck speed…

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SuperyachtIndex Press releases

Medaire partners with lj elogbooks to enhance onboard medical record keeping.

LONDON, 20th March 2024 – Leading health, medical and travel safety solutions provider MedAire has announced a partnership with LJ eLogbooks, respected provider of bespoke and digital logbooks. The partnership initially sees the creation of a new di

Aeolus collaboration offers a compelling path to future-proof yachting

In late summer 2022, custom yacht builder Oceanco hosted a roundtable to discuss a revolutionary vessel concept – Aeolus – that would set new standards in superyacht design. Bringing together some of the sharpest creative and technical minds from the yach

MedAire and Acquera enter strategic partnership

Global yacht agency, Acquera Yachting and health and security services provider MedAire , have strengthened their support to the superyacht industry, by forming a strategic partnership. This new relationship will leverage the combined global reach

As the Western Australian industry continues to grow, the Perth-based shipbuilder will construct a fully custom 57-metre, twin-masted catamaran

The second Yacht Support 53 has hit the water at Damen Yachting's Antalya shipyard

KISMET joins the charter fleet

Having sold the previous 95-metre KISMET, Cecil-Wright has listed the owner's new 122-metre Lürssen ahead of the European charter season

Project Fox Launches at Pendennis

The 35m Pendennis-built explorer will now enter its final commissioning, outfitting and sea trials, with an expected delivery May 2024

ABB TechTalks: Meeting the strictest Underwater Radiated Noise URN notations with Azipod® propulsion

Introducing the revolutionary ABB Dynafin™ – the latest propulsion innovation by ABB

ABB Dynafin™ and the new era of superyachts - Interview with Lateral Naval Architects and Oceanco

Antigua fire extinguished

Falmouth Harbour ablaze after Tropical Storm Phillipe

Europlan 3D and VR

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Welcome to the home of superyacht news. Updated daily, Yachting Pages brings you the latest news and updates from the global superyacht and leisure marine sectors, covering everything from new-build yacht launches and business developments to environmental issues affecting the marine industry. It's important to stay informed with what's going on, which is why we publish stories every weekday. To share your news story with our editorial team,  email us  today with a minimum of 250 words (including quotations) and some imagery. If it is considered to be relevant to our yacht owners, captains, and crew audience, we could choose to publish it.

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Guidi Srl: special focus on materials in marine accessories

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Superyachts | English Edition

Dubai yachting conference addresses key issues

As a part of the annual Dubai International Boat Show calendar, the Dubai Yachting Conference is held the day before the show opens. As with previous editions of this event, its various presentations and panels addressed both local issues and

NL 50 Plus: striking, sinuous, timeless

A striking and curvaceous super yacht, offering exceptional deck space and high-end amenities, fully customizable interiors, and very short construction time by industry standards. NL 50 Plus is the new creature signed by Italian studio Nuvolari Lenard, which has created

Dubai, Gulf Craft Group is born and aims for global yachting leadership

A new corporate group to make a strategic leap towards the goal of leadership in the boating sector. Gulf Craft has chosen the stage of the Dubai International Boat Show to announce the birth of the new Gulf Craft Group,

The International Yachting Media

Superyachts news.

As a part of the annual Dubai International Boat Show calendar, the Dubai Yachting Conference is held

A striking and curvaceous super yacht, offering exceptional deck space and high-end amenities, fully customizable interiors, and

A new corporate group to make a strategic leap towards the goal of leadership in the boating

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NOLIMITS: Rossinavi has launched its new brand

A new brand, five yachts from 30 to 45 meters, and many outstanding features that enable long-distance

SAGASU, a dreamy 48 meters: Hydro Tec’s new masterpiece

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Superyacht Stefania goes to judicial auction in Antibes

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Superyacht Cup Palma gets off to a great start among rookies and prominent veterans

Superyacht Cup Palma is looking forward to summer 2024 with great enthusiasm. In fact, the 28th edition

La Belle Classe Superyachts Business Symposium, yachting at the heart of Monaco’s challenges

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Monaco Energy Boat Challenge returns in July for its 11th edition

The 11th edition of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge is scheduled to occur from July 1st to

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Superyachts News belongs to The International yachting Media , the most read boating magazines network in the world.

The editorial group was born in 2014, from the entrepreneurial creativity of Luca D’Ambrosio who, awarded for digital innovation in 2011 by the President of the Italian Republic, has developed a digital native system for the international broadcasting of nautical news.

All the publisher’ titles are based on quality of informations, an enhanced multimedia approach and a great user experience.

The magazine opens with a gallery of news – Superyachts headline news – illustrated with full screen images of great impact.

Scrolling down the reader enters the heart of the magazine with market news –  Superyachts  –

A large space is dedicated to follow the theme of Concepts , a subject much loved by design enthusiasts. It then continues with lifestyle , launch , and destinations .

Luxury yachts: history and definitions

Superyachts began to appear at the beginning of 1900 when the first wealthy shipowners ordered their construction with the intention of using them exclusively for leisure purposes.

Among the first motor superyachts we find many conversions of merchant or military boats. A perfect example is the famous Christina O which, 99 meters long and originally launched in 1943 under the name HMCS Stormont (an anti-submarine frigate), was purchased in 1947 by Aristotle Onassis and then converted to private use at a crazy expense for that time: four million dollars.

Today with the term superyachts are generically indicated all those pleasure boats longer than 24 meters, (about 80 ft), although, in reality, there are more precise definitions and subdivisions.

The first large subdivision obviously concerns their length. Are in fact specifically defined superyachts , leisure yachts between 24 and 50 meters while, with the term megayachts , we normally indicate those over 50 meters and up to 100 meters.

The few and fantastic pleasure yachts that exceed 100 meters are defined today gigayachts , like the Azzam that, launched in April 2013, measures the beauty of 180 meters (590 feet) and, perhaps for a short time, is the longest superyacht in the world.

The market of these magnificent giants of the sea is very active. From a 2016 statistic we learn in fact that in the world there would be 10,000 active superyachts, 80% of which are motor yachts.

Every year about 150 Superyachts are sold, produced and launched all over the world. The first producing country is Italy, which also enjoys the supremacy of the shipyard that claims the title of first producer in the world: it is the Azimut Benetti group that has been in first position for 21 years.

Megayachts News

These boats are real floating royal palaces, offering a wealth of facilities and equipment on board that make both relaxation and entertainment sublime. Most of these yachts offer suites and lounge areas, a gym, a disco, a cinema, a swimming pool, a spa, an area reserved for tenders, water toys, submarines and, on the largest yachts, one or more helidecks for private helicopters.

One of the main peculiarities of superyachts is the presence on board of a highly professional crew , able to provide a five-stars assistance during the entire cruise period. The crew is generally made up of the following categories of personnel: the captain, who is in charge of the boat; the chef, who is in charge of the kitchen and food management and the staff who, like in a luxury hotel, is dedicated to serving the guests. Onboard we normally find also a technical crew, dedicated to the operation and maintenance of the boat, usually a motorist and an electronics expert who, together, ensure the operation of the boat and all the systems on board.

It is therefore a very various and luxurious market, that is constantly evolving. Our online magazine was born from this observation, a publication entirely dedicated to these fantastic masterpieces of naval art.

Superyachts News Magazine

The Superyachts News magazine has been created in two languages and brings the spectacular images of these boats to the web. The site has been designed to offer a rich, pleasant and functional experience, facilitated by the use of graphics created for mobile devices and only later adapted to desktop use.

From the beginning, the publisher set out to develop an innovative and unique model, developed to broadcast free news worldwide.  A multi-channel, web and social system designed for the yachting and luxury market, i.e. for a sector that certainly wants to communicate globally, reaching an audience of users with high spending power.

The International Yachting Media group publishes 6 magazines and is top ranked globally. With over 900,000 views per week in more than 200 countries, it is probably the most read yachting media in the world.

The audience includes shipowners (around 80%) as well as a significant proportion of captains and crew members who are among the top influencers in the industry. The main audience segment (86%) are men aged between 35 and over 50.

Geographically the publications are very strong in Europe and the Americas with a coverage of respectively 53% and 40%. Over 50% of our digital magazines are accessed through organic search .

The International Yachting Media was born in 2014, from the entrepreneurial creativity of Luca D’Ambrosio who, awarded for digital innovation in 2011 by the President of the Italian Republic, has developed a digital native and unique system for the international broadcasting of nautical news.

“Our media approach is a unique reality in the publishing panorama.” says Luca D’Ambrosio, founder of the publishing group “The innovative and fully digital strategy, together with the internationalisation, are the key to our success around the world”.

The group currently broadcast 6 magazines in 4 languages reaching more than 200 countries every day, totalling approximately 900.000 views per week.

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All the publisher’s magazines are based on quality of information, an enhanced multimedia approach and hyper-connected user experience. The International Yachting Media offers a unique interactive experience, where every reader is lead through an extraordinary journey made of hypertextual features, animated photos, sound effects and breath-taking videos.

Our magazines offer the best of the multimedia world in a container that does not need paper to be leafed through but that manages to summarise and enhance the purest and most important values digitally.

The system is independent from the original language of the article; our staff translates, composes and publishes content worldwide and within 24 hours. In parallel with the articles published, our team distributes content on our English, Spanish, French and Italian social network pages.

The International Yachting Media offers a huge variety of web portals that are not limited to the publication of magazines and their news, but extends to unique websites, or simply web sections, made to fulfill almost every boat owners’ needs: from the ports and anchorages online pilot book – the most complete and most up-to-date pilot book of the Mediterranean – to the possibility of buying and selling a sailing yacht or a powerboat.

Last, but not least, in order to allow boat owners to virtually discover all the best world premieres, we launched in April 2019 a very special virtual boat show. The Virtual Boat Show is a real aggregator of multimedia content that collects all the information, many of which in absolute preview, with regards to models produced by shipyards, in an elegant and extraordinarily interactive platform, where you can find sea trials, virtual tours, videos, relevant links and also a direct contact channel with shipyards.

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Sailor Cole Brauer makes history as the first American woman to race solo around the world

Aboard her 40-foot racing boat First Light ,  29-year-old Cole Brauer just became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself.

The New York native pulled into A Coruña, Spain, on Thursday after a treacherous 30,000-mile journey that took 130 days.

She thanked a cheering crowd of family and fans who had been waiting for her on shore.

“This is really cool and so overwhelming in every sense of the word,” she exclaimed, before drinking Champagne from her trophy.

The 5-foot-2 powerhouse placed second out of 16 avid sailors who competed in the Global Solo Challenge, a circumnavigation race that started in A Coruña with participants from 10 countries. The first-of-its-kind event   allowed a wide range of boats to set off in successive departures based on performance characteristics. Brauer started on Oct. 29, sailing down the west coast of Africa, over to Australia, and around the tip of South America before returning to Spain.

Brauer is the only woman and the youngest competitor in the event — something she hopes young girls in and out of the sport can draw inspiration from.

“It would be amazing if there was just one girl that saw me and said, ‘Oh, I can do that too,’” Brauer said of her history-making sail.

It’s a grueling race, and more than half of the competitors have dropped out so far. One struck something that caused his boat to flood, and another sailor had to abandon his ship after a mast broke as a severe storm was moving in.

The four-month journey is fraught with danger, including navigating the three “Great Capes” of Africa, Australia and South America. Rounding South America’s Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet, is often likened to climbing Mount Everest because of its perfect storm of hazards — a sharp rise in the ocean floor and whipping westerly winds push up massive waves. Combined with the frigid waters and stray icebergs, the area is known as a graveyard for ships, according to NASA. Brauer  said  she was “so unbelievably stoked” when she sailed past Cape Horn in January.

Marco Nannini, organizer of the Global Solo Challenge, said the comparison to scaling Mount Everest doesn’t capture the difficulty of the race. Sailing solo means not just being a skipper but a project manager — steering the boat, fixing equipment, understanding the weather and maintaining one’s physical health.

Nannini cited the relatively minuscule number of people who have sailed around the world solo — 186, according to the International Association of Cape Horners — as evidence of the challenges that competitors face. More than 6,000 people have climbed Mount Everest, according to  High Adventure Expeditions .

Brauer stared down 30-foot waves that had enough force to throw her across the boat. In a scare caught on camera, she badly injured her rib   near the halfway point of the event. At another point, her team in the U.S. directed Brauer to insert an IV into her own arm due to dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea.

She was able to stay in constant communication with members of her team, most of whom are based in New England,   and keep herself entertained with Netflix and video calls with family through Starlink satellites.   That’s also how Brauer was able to use Zoom to connect with NBC News for an interview, while she was sailing about 1,000 miles west of the Canary Islands.

While Brauer was technically alone on First Light, she had the company of 450,000 followers on Instagram, where she frequently got candid about life on an unforgiving sea while reflecting on her journey.

“It all makes it worth it when you come out here, you sit on the bow, and you see how beautiful it is,” she said in an Instagram video, before panning the camera to reveal the radiant sunrise.

Brauer grew up on Long Island but didn’t learn to sail until she went to college in Hawaii. She traded in her goal of becoming a doctor for life on the water. But she quickly learned making a career as a sailor is extremely difficult, with professional racers often hesitant to welcome a 100-pound young woman on their team.

Even when she was trying to find sponsors for the Global Solo Challenge, she said a lot of people “wouldn’t touch her with a 10-foot pole” because they saw her as a “liability.”

Brauer’s message to the skeptics and naysayers? “Watch me.”

“I push so much harder when someone’s like, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ or ‘You’re too small,’” Brauer explained.

“The biggest asset is your mental strength, not the physical one,” Nannini said. “Cole is showing everyone that.”

Brauer hopes to continue competing professionally and is already eyeing another around-the-world competition, but not before she gets her hands on a croissant and cappuccino.

“My mouth is watering just thinking about that.”

Emilie Ikeda is an NBC News correspondent.

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After sailing around the world, Cole Brauer says she's more grounded than ever

Cole Brauer's adventure put her in the history books and in the heart of the most isolated and dangerous places on Earth. Not to mention Instagram .

The southern oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific that Brauer endured alone in her 30,000-mile sailboat voyage brought her face-to-face with bigger waves and storms than most people will ever see."It's like going to Mars and hoping that you can breathe," says Brauer, who became the first American woman this month to sail solo nonstop around the globe . "It's not made for humans."

She's now a seafaring celebrity who has been deluged with more questions about aquatic travel and surviving the dangers of the deep than Jules Verne and Jacques Cousteau. That's because Brauer's social media followers now total half a million, and many are asking about her journey and how she did it.

"With this newfound fame, I want to keep my feet on the ground," says the 29-year-old from Long Island. She's looking to chart a new course in the sailing industry, which has historically been a bastion of elitism and exclusivity, she said.

Brauer used Starlink − the low-orbit satellite network owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk − to get an internet signal on her voyage so that she could talk to her team, FaceTime with her mother and post videos to Instagram from her 40-foot Class40 sailboat, First Light.

She departed from A Coruña, Spain, on Oct. 29 and was at sea for 130 days. She competed against 15 male sailors, eight of whom had to drop out. Sailors set off at staggered times, depending on the speed of their boat. Brauer finished second in the race, behind France's Phillipe Delamare.

"Cole put in a tremendous effort to achieve a tremendous result," said Marco Nannini, who organized the Global Solo Challenge race.

Treacherous conditions in the Southern Hemisphere

Because the race took Brauer around the world, she had to endure scorching temperatures near the equator and near-freezing cold in the globe's southern oceans − where waters are more choppy and dangerous to sail, she said.

"I always had respect for the ocean, but this was an absolute different level," Brauer said. "It's beautiful. It's uninhabited. It's just untouched by humans."

Stronger winds and underwater currents in the Indian, South Atlantic and Pacific oceans often react to form bigger waves and "crazy storms," Brauer said, making those areas "some of the most dangerous places to be on the planet."

Unlike the part of the Atlantic Ocean stretching between North America and Europe, the southern oceans have a lot less traffic, Brauer said. During the two months she sailed there, she said, she saw only one other boat. The weather was colder and grayer, and the nights were much shorter.

The scariest moment came about two weeks from the end of race, when over just a couple days a fellow competitor had to abandon his ship because it started to sink and another had to do the same after his boat lost its mast.

It caused Brauer to feel paranoid, she said, even imagining noises coming from her own boat, which was also going through normal wear and tear.

"I just felt like, 'Oh my gosh, what's going to break next?'" she said. "Is the boat going to break in half?"

Alone in the middle of the ocean, Brauer felt homesickness, then zen

Brauer made it all the way around the world the same way any sailor goes from one point to another: staying out of direct wind and tacking from one direction to the next until she finally got to the finish line.

"You want to go straight, but you can't," she said. "You can't sail directly into the breeze; you have to tack back and forth at a 45-degree angle. I went around the world tacking, and jibing, and eventually you make it there − but there's a lot of twists and turns."

Brauer also had to constantly check the weather and change sails while also maintaining the boat.

"Everything has the possibility of breaking," Brauer said.

Brauer slept on a pile of bedding on the boat's floor for two to four hours at a time. She boiled water and used a warm wash cloth to bathe, she said. She packed 160 days' worth of freeze-dried food, including a peaches and cream oats mix that became her favorite.

Despite the technical challenges of sailing around the world, homesickness was by far the biggest challenge, she said. In Spain, before she set off on the race, nightly family-style dinners with teammates and group outings in A Coruña created intense personal bonds that she longed for on the ocean.

"All of a sudden I had a family of like 12, and you get very used to being surrounded by all these boisterous and loud people," she said.

But then, something clicked one evening when Brauer was in the boat's bow watching the colors of the sunset bleed through a massive sail.

"My body and my mind finally got used to being out there and and knowing that this was like where I was supposed to be," she said.

Brauer said she saw dolphins, sea turtles, plenty of fish and even a whale as big as her boat.

"It's just so magical," she said.

Pitch-black night skies were another highlight, Brauer said, especially when she was sailing through hot areas and the darkness brought cooler temperatures.

Brauer documented every moment on Instagram

Brauer shared details of her journey with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. At the start of the race, her Instagram account had 10,000 followers and now boasts nearly 500,000.

Creating and posting more than 150 original videos from the boat allowed Brauer to stay connected with other people even when she was in the middle of the ocean.

Many of Brauer's videos showed her raw emotions up close, like in one post from early in the race when she angrily vents about the moment she realized she'd have to fix several boat parts on her own.

"Right now I've been feeling just broken," she says in the video.

That vulnerability is what's allowing Brauer to chart a new course in the sailing industry, she said.

"I've shown a good piece of me. I've put my heart and soul out there and I think a lot of people are really afraid to do that," she told USA TODAY. "If you want to judge me for changing or molding myself a different way, you don't have to follow me."

Race win was a team effort

Brauer surrounded herself with a team of sailors and experts who helped guide her from ashore. There were medical staff, a weather router, an expert rigger, an electronic systems manager, a sailmaker and many other team members.

Next, Brauer and her behind-the-scenes team are preparing for the Vendée Globe in 2028, another around-the-world race with stricter rules and a bigger cash prize. She won 5,000 euros (about $5,430) for finishing second in the Global Solo Challenge.

That race will be far more difficult, Brauer said, because the sailors have to race on their own and cannot receive any verbal assistance from their teammates on land.

Almost two weeks since reaching dry land, Brauer said, she now craves being out on the ocean more than ever and even feels a sense of pain when she's not able to see the water or look up to see a sky covered in white, fluffy clouds.

"The fear used to be about the boat, when I was on the boat. Now the fear is not being out there," she said. "I'm not afraid of the ocean − I'm afraid of not being on the ocean."

As for her goal of sailing around the world?

"I did everything that it took to get here, and now I can bask in it. I made the biggest dream that I could possibly think of doing and then did it."

The superyacht world is speculating that Mark Zuckerberg just bought this 118-meter boat

• The 118-meter superyacht Launchpad made her maiden voyage last week.
• The yacht world is speculating that her owner is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• Here's what we know about the luxury vessel.

In the world of superyachts , privacy is the most valuable asset. It can be next to impossible to discern the details of a superyacht transaction — and that's particularly true if the vessel in question is worth nine figures.

Yet some in the boat blogging world are speculating that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the new owner of Launchpad, a megayacht currently moored in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after she made her maiden voyage from Gibraltar to St Maarten last week. Launchpad clocks in at 118 meters long, about nine meters shorter than Jeff Bezos' superyacht Koru .

The transaction could not be confirmed, with yacht world insiders declining to share what they know and representatives for Zuckerberg not responding to a request for comment from Business Insider. In the past, reports about Zuckerberg owning superyacht Ulysses have proven false.

Related stories

"It is Feadship's standard policy to never divulge any information about our yachts with reference to ownership, costs, or delivery, etc," Feadship, the ship's builder, wrote to BI. "Whether it is an 18-meter Feadship from the 1960s or a 118-meter Feadship from the 21st century, we do not share private information."

But Zuckerberg's name has been connected to Launchpad for a few months now, beginning in December when reports swirled that he visited Feadship's shipyard in the Netherlands.

Then, earlier in March, yachting bloggers like eSysman SuperYachts and Autoevolution started speculating that he officially snagged the boat, originally built for a sanctioned Russian businessman, at a $300 million price tag. (While that's a seemingly huge amount, it's still less than 0.2% of Zuckerberg's $177 billion net worth.)

Another clue that might point to US ownership is that the yacht bears the flag of the Marshall Islands, a US territory and commonplace for American buyers to register their ships, according to public marine tracking.

If Zuckerberg were to have bought Launchpad, he would join a cohort of superyacht-owning tech billionaires . Along with Bezos, the likes of Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison and Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have purchased impressive boats with even more impressive amenities.

SuperYacht Times , an industry publication and intelligence platform, has some of the best images of the yacht. Photos show a swimming pool on her main deck and a large helipad.

While less is known of the interior, a vessel of her size can likely sleep dozens of guests and crew and may have amenities like an expansive gym where Zuckerberg could practice his jiu-jitsu or a spa with a massage area. We suspect there's also space for plenty of toys — which could include his viral hydrofoil foil .

Do you have any details about Launchpad or any other superyachts? Email reporter Madeline Berg at [email protected].

Watch: Walmart heiress' superyacht vandalized by activists in Ibiza

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An aid ship is sailing to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands face starvation 5 months into war

An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP video shot by Marcos Andronicou)

Starving Palestinians in northern Gaza, mostly children, queued to fill their pots at a makeshift kitchen set up by volunteers on the first day of Ramadan in the Jabaliya refugee camp. (AP video shot by Mahmoud Issa) (Production by Wafaa Shurafa)

The ship, left, belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, departs from the port of southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

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The ship, left, belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, departs from the port from southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

The ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, exists the port from southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Palestinians line up for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

The ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, departs from the port from southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

The ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, departs from the port of southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

The ship, right, belonging to the Open Arms aid group with aid on a platform ferry some 200 tonnes of rice and flour directly to Gaza, departs from the port of southern city of Larnaca, Cyprus, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail Tuesday from Cyprus to Gaza, the international charity behind the effort said. The shipment is a test for the opening of a sea corridor to supply aid to the territory, where starvation is spreading five months into the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib, right, welcomes Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos before their meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Kombos said during a visit to Beirut Tuesday that after the first ship carrying aid from Larnaca to the besieged Gaza Strip has landed, “we have already put the mechanism in place” for larger shipments and “will be working towards making this a more systematic exercise with increased volumes.” (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos speaks during a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib, after their meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Kombos said during a visit to Beirut Tuesday that after the first ship carrying aid from Larnaca to the besieged Gaza Strip has landed, “we have already put the mechanism in place” for larger shipments and “will be working towards making this a more systematic exercise with increased volumes.” (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Islamic Group known as Jamaa Islamiya carry the body of their comrade Mohammad Riad Mohyeldin, who was killed in an apparent Israeli strike on Sunday, during his funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People gather near a destroyed warehouse which was attacked by Israeli airstrikes, on the Hezbollah stronghold town of Safri, near Baalbek town, east Lebanon, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. A Lebanese security official and an official from the militant Hezbollah group say two Israeli airstrikes over northeastern Lebanon have killed at least two people and destroyed a warehouse. (AP Photo)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail for Gaza on Tuesday in a pilot program for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory, where the 5-month Israel-Hamas war has driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation .

The push to get food in by sea — along with a recent campaign of airdrops into isolated northern Gaza — highlighted the international community’s frustration with the growing humanitarian crisis and its inability to get aid in by road.

The food on the aid ship was collected by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, and is being transported by the Spanish aid group Open Arms. The ship departed from the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus and is expected to arrive in Gaza in two to three days.

The United States separately plans to construct a sea bridge near Gaza in order to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational. President Joe Biden’s administration has provided crucial military aid for Israel while urging it to facilitate more humanitarian access.

WAR RAGES WITH NO END IN SIGHT

The war , triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, has killed over 31,000 Palestinians and driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the United Nations , because they cannot find enough food or afford it at vastly inflated prices.

Efforts by U.S., Qatar and Egypt to broker a cease-fire and hostage release before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan stalled as Hamas demanded that any temporary pause in the fighting come with guarantees for ending the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive into the strip’s southern city of Rafah , where half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, and to keep fighting until Hamas has been dismantled and all the captives it is holding have been returned.

The war threatens to spill across the Middle East as Iran-backed groups allied with Hamas trade fire with U.S. and Israeli forces. The Israeli military said around 100 projectiles were launched into Israel from Lebanon early on Tuesday, one of the biggest barrages since the war began. It appeared to be in response to Israeli airstrikes deep inside Lebanon the day before.

A pair of Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in northeastern Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded 20. Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have traded fire nearly every day since the war began.

The Israeli military said it also hit two targets in Syria used by Hezbollah.

‘OUR CHILDREN CAN’T FIND ANYTHING TO EAT’

Aid groups say it is nearly impossible to deliver aid in much of Gaza because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order after the Hamas-run police force largely vanished from the streets.

Conditions are especially dire in northern Gaza, which has widespread devastation and has been largely cut off by Israeli forces since October. Up to 300,000 Palestinians are believed to have remained there despite Israeli evacuation orders, with many reduced to eating animal feed in recent weeks.

On Monday, the first day of the normally festive month of Ramadan , children with pots lined up at a charity kitchen in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp. Each was given a small portion of cooked carrots and sweet potatoes to break the dawn-to-dusk fast.

“Our children can’t find anything to eat,” said Bassam al-Haw, a volunteer. “No food, no water, no flour.”

Six humanitarian aid trucks brought aid directly into northern Gaza on Tuesday evening, coordinated by the Israeli military, which called it a pilot program to determine if additional food can be brought overland into the north. The military said the aid was checked at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing near Egypt and brought into Gaza at the 96th gate crossing, which is close to Kibbutz Be’eri.

The World Food Program delivered food into northern Gaza on Tuesday for the first time since Feb. 20, according to the United Nations. After being checked at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the military said six humanitarian aid trucks brought WFP aid into Gaza at the 96th gate crossing, close to Kibbutz Be’eri.

Aid groups have been struggling to get aid to the isolated area for months, although some private convoys have managed to deliver food. The World Health Organization and others delivered food, fuel and medical supplies Monday to two hospitals in the north, the U.N. said.

SEA ROUTE BRINGS PROMISE AND POTENTIAL PERIL

The planned sea route has the support of the European Union, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and others. The U.S. and other countries have also launched airdrops, but such efforts are costly and unlikely to meet the mounting needs.

The United Nations welcomed the inauguration of the sea route, but reiterated that transporting aid by land is the best way to get the most aid into Gaza.

The Open Arms ship is towing a barge loaded with food. Once it nears Gaza, two smaller vessels will tow the barge to a jetty being built by World Central Kitchen, which operates 65 kitchens across the territory, the group said. It plans to distribute the food in the north.

“The best security is to have enough food in Gaza,” Andres said. “We want to make sure nothing happens to anybody.”

Scores of Palestinians were killed last month during a chaotic aid delivery in the north organized by Israeli troops, who fired on the crowd. Israel said most of those killed were trampled to death, while Palestinian officials said most had been shot .

Israel, which controls Gaza’s coastline and all but one of its land crossings, says it supports efforts to deliver aid by sea and will inspect all cargo shipments.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was the first time a ship had been authorized to deliver aid directly to Gaza since 2005 and that the EU would work with “smaller ships” until the U.S. completes work on its floating port.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said during a visit to Beirut that there is a “mechanism” in place for larger shipments, with the goal of “a more systematic exercise with increased volumes.”

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Israeli offensive launched in response has killed at least 31,185 Palestinians. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said women and children make up around two-thirds of the dead.

Israel blames the civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The military has said it has killed 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.

A strike on a home in the central city of Deir al-Balah early on Tuesday killed 11 people from the same family, including four women and five children, according to hospital records and an Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies brought in.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Hadjicostis from Nicosia, Cyprus. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel; Raf Casert in Brussels and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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Strict enforcement credited for smooth sailing during Miami Beach Spring Break 2024

By Anna McAllister

Updated on: March 15, 2024 / 3:48 PM EDT / CBS Miami

MIAMI BEACH — It's been smooth sailing in South Beach for spring breakers , thanks to the city's strict enforcement this year.

"The laws y'all put up and stuff, you scared everybody away ain't gonna lie to you," said King Cid.

The City of Miami Beach, beefing up its police presence and implementing parking and towing rules, along with DUI checkpoints.

This comes after two people were shot and killed in South Beach last year during spring break.

"It was chaotic, it was complete disorder," said Miami Beach City Commissioner David Suarez.

Commissioner Suarez says last year's spring break tarnished the city's reputation and says city leaders are working to change how the city is perceived.

"It's just these two weeks in March that unfortunately have tarnished our brand," said Suarez.

The city's now-viral breaking up with the spring break campaign appears to be effective — so far.

But, we still have to get through what's expected to be the busiest weekend so far.

"It is a big test, it's a bit of an unknown but based on the last couple of weeks, things have been quieter. I think we're going to be okay. We have robust measures in place but we're ready, we have law enforcement out there and I think we're going to have a good weekend," said Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner.

Despite the new rules and enhanced security this year, a lot of visitors say they're still loving their time in beautiful South Beach.

"It's not as rowdy but we're still having fun, we're having a blast and I pretty much see the same thing for everybody else," said Jazhaia Watkins.

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Anna McAllister joined the CBS 4 team as a reporter in December 2022 and is ecstatic to be back in South Florida.

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‘Below Deck’ Sails Into a New Era

With a different captain at the helm and new production elements, the reality show about charter yachts is switching up its style.

By Shivani Gonzalez

Starting a new season of “ Below Deck ” can be similar to returning to summer camp as a kid — you know it’s going to be fun and that you’ll be in the same environment, but some of the people will be different and you’re not quite sure what the vibes will be.

This time around, in particular, feels that way because for the first time in the show’s 11-season run, Captain Lee Rosbach is no longer at the helm. It’s a pivotal moment for a franchise that has become one of the most popular entities in the sprawling universe of reality TV since premiering on Bravo in 2013 . The show’s appeal was built on endless romances between various crew members (“boatmances,” as they came to be known), horrible charter guests and some sort of passive-aggressive fight about how many shackles of the anchor chain should be in the water. And there was always Rosbach presiding over the drama as he trudged around the boat, reeling off one liners like “I’m madder than a pissed-on chicken” and “we screwed the pooch so many times we should have a litter of puppies running around.”

At the center of the show now is Kerry Titheradge (the stern yet goofy captain of “Below Deck Adventure” fame), who is managing the Motor Yacht Saint David with the cheeky chief stew Fraser Olender by his side.

With that change in captain, the energy on the boat — both onscreen and off — is different, according to Olender.

“Lee has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him,” Olender said in an interview. “With Kerry, he taught me a lot and sort of forced to me confront issues directly with my team, work them out, as opposed to making executive decisions too soon.”

This shift in management style changes the central conflict — whereas the drama once focused on the captain swiftly kicking out any unpleasant crew member (as we might have seen with Rosbach), the drama now focuses on the whole crew trying to get along (since Titheradge gives people those second chances).

Additionally, Olender noted that the captain’s relationship with the crew can also affect the drama on board.

“Captains absolutely do get involved, whether they know it or not,” Olender said, adding that for the crew, everything is about “trying to impress your captain.”

This phenomenon plays out early in the new season when the lead deckhand, Ben Willoughby, called out a fellow crew member over the radios about not wearing a life vest — something he easily could have done in private. The drama that followed became an interpersonal conflict between the two of them, both with the ultimate goal of impressing Titheradge. (Of course, the two deckhands had kissed on the previous crew night out, which is more in line with the “Below Deck” drama viewers are used to.)

For “Below Deck” showrunners, the changeovers in the cast allowed them to rethink what the show would look like.

From the season premiere, it was immediately apparent that Rosbach’s absence wasn’t the only change this season: The filming is sleeker, the daily, multicourse meals prepared by the chef are given their own glamour shots and the cameras sometimes cut to the perspectives of yachties running around on deck and through the galley.

“Our showrunner, Lauren Simms, is an avid consumer of all different kinds of media,” Noah Samton, a senior vice president of unscripted current production for NBCUniversal, said in an interview. “She pitches us different ideas on how to stylistically evoke different feelings and change the mood a little bit of ‘Below Deck’ without removing what really works.”

Moving through the rest of the season, and potentially through seasons to come, Olender is aiming to bring a cutthroat management style while also bringing affection for his stews, all with his signature British humor.

On Bravo’s side, there are changes in the works for the other “Below Deck” spinoffs — including “Sailing Yacht,” “Mediterranean” and “Down Under” — which collectively, have 26 seasons. Specifically, Samton said that “Down Under” is currently filming and that even though fans should be ready to see new things, the show will stay true to its original concept.

“These are real yachties doing a real job so you have to stay within those confines because the audience isn’t going to want anything that is too produced or fake,” Samton said. “So we have to find ways to reinvent while staying true to the original concept of the show.”

And as Olender said: “I’m sure that every year if I were to work with this franchise again, that I’ll be thrown a collection of total chaotic and disastrous stews — that’s what makes it watchable.”

An earlier version of this article misquoted Fraser Olender, the chief stew of “Below Deck.” He said, “I also feel like Kerry this season. ... Lee has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him,” not “I feel like Kerry this season, as opposed to Lee, has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him.”

How we handle corrections

Shivani Gonzalez is a news assistant at The Times who writes a weekly TV column and contributes to a variety of sections. More about Shivani Gonzalez

Israel’s war on Gaza updates: ‘Humanitarian islands’ for Rafah civilians

With international community’s help, Israel’s military says it will transfer 1.4 million Palestinians to central Gaza ahead of its Rafah invasion.

• Israel’s military plans to transfer about 1.4 million Palestinian civilians trapped in southern Rafah city to “humanitarian islands” in the middle of Gaza before it launches a ground invasion.
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the US government has yet to see an Israeli proposal to “get civilians out of harm’s way” in Rafah and ensures shelter, food and medicine.
• Israeli attack hits a UN aid distribution centre in Rafah, killing at least one UNRWA staff member and wounding another 22.
• At least 31,272 Palestinians have been killed and 73,024 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attack stands at 1,139 and dozens continue to be held captive.

Thank you for joining us

The live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here .

To learn more about Israel’s attack on a UN warehouse in Rafah in southern Gaza, you can view our photo gallery here .

And you can find more news, features and videos on the conflict  here .

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of today’s events:

• An Israeli attack hit a UN aid distribution centre in Rafah, killing at least one UNRWA staff member and wounding more than 20 others.
• Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari says that there are plans to push a significant amount of the more than one million displaced Palestinians in Rafah towards “humanitarian islands” in the centre of the Gaza Strip in advance of Israel’s planned offensive on the city.
• Lebanon’s Hezbollah has said two of its fighters were killed in the Bekaa Valley after Israeli jets launched attacks on the area for a second consecutive day. Israel also killed a Hamas member in south Lebanon’s largest city Tyre when it attacked a car.
• An unpublished report by UNRWA details the extensive use of torture against Palestinians taken prisoner by the Israeli military in Gaza, including 21 agency staff members and 15 family members of UNRWA staff, an accusation Israel has denied.
• Israeli forces shot a Palestinian who allegedly stabbed two Israelis at a checkpoint near Jerusalem.

Report: US privately tells Israel it will accept small-scale Rafah offensive

A report from US news site Politico says that senior US officials have told their Israeli counterparts that the administration of President Biden will support the targeting of “high-value Hamas targets in and underneath Rafah”.

The report cites four unnamed US officials, who told Politico that the US wants Israel to avoid a large-scale invasion of the southern Gaza City, where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltered after fleeing Israeli bombardment in other parts of the Strip.

“In private conversations, top administration officials have signaled to Israel that they could support a plan more akin to counterterrorism operations than all-out war, four US officials said”, the report says.

“That, the administration officials argue, would minimize civilian casualties, decimate Hamas’ ranks and avoid scenes that have led to souring public opinion on Israel’s campaign and Biden’s handling of the war.”

The US has long said that it would require a plan to protect civilians in Rafah before it supported Israel’s promised Rafah invasion. Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that the US has yet to see such a plan.

Palestinians name a street after late US airman

Palestinians named a street in Jericho after Aaron Bushnell – the US airman who died after setting himself on fire to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.

Watch our video report below:

Getting aid into Gaza ‘very unpredictable’

Janti Soeripto, president of the charity Save the Children US, says it is “very unpredictable” which aid trucks can make it into Gaza and which ones are rejected.

“I saw a wooden toy box with games for children being rejected because the box was made of wood, and it had to be packed in carton boxes,” Soeripto, who was at the Rafah crossing in January, told Al Jazeera.

“Hygiene kits with soap, blankets and sanitary pads for women got rejected because there was a nail clipper in it. The list goes on.”

Moreover, Soeripto said even if trucks make it into Gaza, distribution inside was “problematic” amid the ongoing fighting in the coastal enclave.

“There’s so much rubble and destruction around that it is physically even hard to actually get the last mile in order to deliver our supplies when they make it in,” she added.

Attack on UN aid centre targeted Hamas commander: Israel military

Israel says its air strike on a UN food distribution centre in southern Gaza killed a Hamas commander after the UN said one staff member was killed and 22 others were wounded.

The Israeli military said the strike killed Mohammad Abu Hasna, whom the military described as a Hamas fighter who provided intelligence on Israeli troop positions, and was “also involved in taking control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to Hamas terrorists”.

In a statement, Hamas said Abu Hasna was a member of its police force and condemned his killing as a “cowardly assassination” meant to disrupt aid distribution.

Hamas identified another of the five killed as the head of an emergency committee for Rafah, Nidal al-Sheikh Eid.

WATCH: US woman rescued from Gaza rubble after Israeli air strike

An American woman living in Gaza was pulled from the rubble of an Israeli air strike after a two-hour operation to free her.

After she was freed, she had a message of solidarity with Palestinians facing Israel’s war. Watch the video below:

‘Who are you negotiating with if Hamas has been defeated?’

The leader of Hezbollah says Israel has already lost the war on Gaza, even if it launches a ground invasion of Rafah with the stated aim to “destroy” Hamas.

“Even if you go to Rafah, you have lost the war. Despite all the massacres, Gaza’s people will not surrender to you. The people of Gaza are still embracing the resistance,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech.

“Who are you negotiating with if Hamas has been defeated?” Lebanese media quoted him as saying.

“All Palestinian factions are unanimous in stopping the aggression, contrary to what is being reported that Hamas is obstructing the negotiations.”

EU Council president calls for pause in Gaza fighting

Charles Michel says a humanitarian pause is urgently needed, as well as the release of all captives.

“The EU will continue to insist on increasing urgently [needed] humanitarian aid, protection of all civilians and respect of international humanitarian law,” he said in a post on X.

Israel’s war on Gaza, raging since October 7, has caused mass civilian deaths, reduced vast areas to a rubble-strewn wasteland and sparked warnings of looming famine in the Palestinian territory of 2.3 million people.

With HH @TamimBinHamad @AmiriDiwan , agreed on the urgency to reach an agreement on a humanitarian pause & release of hostages. I thanked Qatar for its efforts. The EU will continue to insist on increasing urgently humanitarian aid, protection of all civilians & respect of… — Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) March 13, 2024

Aid groups provide new evidence of Israel attack on staff members

Medical Aid for Palestinians and the International Rescue Committee provided new details of an Israeli air strike on a residential compound housing humanitarian workers and their families.

The January attack wounded several team members despite coordinates being shared with the Israeli military, which offered six different explanations that “ have not provided clarity” as to why it happened, a statement said.

“The variety of responses highlights a continued lack of transparency regarding what occurred. It is clear from this experience the Israeli military and government are either unable or unwilling to properly investigate this serious incident,” the groups said.

The statement called on Israel’s allies, including the US and UK, to launch “a full, independent and timebound investigation into the 18 January incident – and all reported attacks on deconflicted facilities and personnel”.

“As current suppliers of arms and munitions to Israel, governments such as the UK and the US have a particular responsibility to hold Israel accountable for this and other attacks on aid workers and civilians.”

Israeli army attacks Hezbollah

On X, the Israeli army says it recently attacked “military buildings used by the terrorist organization Hezbollah” inside Lebanese territory.

It claimed attacks on the areas of Mis al-Jabal and Ita al-Sha’ab in southern Lebanon. Additionally, the army said it carried out artillery attacks on the Wadi Hamool area.

Earlier in the day, Israel attacked a car in Tyre, south Lebanon’s largest city, killing two, including Hadi Mustafa, a Hamas member based in the Rashidieh Palestinian refugee camp near Tyre.

Criticism of Israel’s war and occupation is not anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism, its prevalent nature, and the shame and guilt for the Holocaust that sit at the heart of Germany’s memory culture have indelibly shaped my life.

For many of Israel’s most ardent supporters, there is no space in the debate for those who criticise Israel’s actions. Nowhere is this more clear than in Germany, where German Jews, many of them Israelis, make up a disproportionate percentage of those detained for protesting against Tel Aviv’s warpath.

Violence begets violence. “Never again” must mean never again by anyone, against anyone.

You can read more of this opinion piece here .

Aid seekers injured by Israeli bullets in Gaza City

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that nine Palestinians awaiting aid distribution at the Kuwaiti roundabout in southern Gaza City were wounded by Israeli forces.

This roundabout has been the site of several attacks on aid seekers by Israel in recent weeks.

We will bring you updates on this attack as information comes in.

Israeli MPs approve revised wartime budget

Israel’s parliament has adopted a revised budget for 2024 allowing for more spending to finance the war against Hamas, now in its sixth month.

The new budget passed by a vote of 62 lawmakers to 55.

It modifies the budget passed in May 2023, increasing the spending limit by 70.4 billion shekels ($19.4bn), or more than 14 percent, according to a statement from Israel’s legislature, the Knesset.

Of that amount, 55 billion shekels ($15.1bn) could be allocated to the military and 15.5 billion ($4.1bn) could go “to finance civilian needs”, the statement said.

WATCH: How does US intelligence disagree with Israel on Gaza?

In its annual report, the US intelligence community says Hamas cannot be destroyed.

The group’s elimination is a core aim of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s merciless onslaught in Gaza.

So why is the US continuing to arm Israel to fight a war it doesn’t believe can be won?

EU, 5 other nations call on Israel to open additional crossings to Gaza

The European Union and five other countries in a joint statement called on Israel to open additional crossings besides the Cyprus maritime corridor so more aid can reach the coastal enclave.

“The ministers agreed there is no meaningful substitute to land routes via Egypt and Jordan and entry points from Israel into Gaza for aid delivery at scale,” it said, following a virtual ministerial meeting.

“The ministers underscored the need for Israel to open additional crossings so more aid can reach Gaza, including the north, and to ease overall customs restrictions to facilitate an increased flow of life-saving humanitarian assistance.”

While supporting 🇨🇾 maritime corridor, we call on 🇮🇱 to open additional crossings so more aid can reach #Gaza , including the North, and to ease overall customs restrictions. Joint statement after ministerial meeting by @EU_Commission , 🇨🇾, 🇬🇧, 🇺🇲, 🇦🇪, 🇶🇦 https://t.co/QQsK1BiOaG — Janez Lenarčič (@JanezLenarcic) March 13, 2024

Blinken comments on Israeli attack on UNRWA facility

In his news conference, the US secretary of state has told reporters that the US offers its condolences to the families and loved ones of those who “apparently” were killed in today’s bombing of an aid distribution facility operated by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees.

According to UNRWA, the attack killed at least one of its staff members and injured an additional 22 other people.

Blinken admitted that he did not know “the facts” of the incident, but said that he spoke to the Israeli army about it, which told him that they were investigating.

He said that the incident reinforces “the imperative of having much better and much more consistent deconfliction,” between humanitarian workers and the Israeli army, adding that the people working to distribute desperately needed humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must “be able to do their jobs with as much security and as much confidence as possible”.

The Israeli military, the Israeli government, have a responsibility to make sure that humanitarian work can be carried out,” he continued, including not striking “clearly marked” humanitarian facilities.

Israeli attacks on aid trucks and Palestinians seeking the aid carried by those trucks have been frequent over the last several weeks, including in northern Gaza, which is on the verge of famine.

Israeli military says it will push Rafah’s civilians to ‘humanitarian islands’

Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari says that there are plans to push a significant amount of the more than one million displaced Palestinians in Rafah toward “humanitarian islands” in the centre of the Gaza Strip in advance of its planned offensive on the city.

“We need to make sure that 1.4 million people or at least a significant amount of the 1.4 million will move. Where? To humanitarian islands that we will create with the international community,” Hagari told reporters at a briefing.

Hagari said those islands would provide temporary housing, food, water and other necessities to evacuated Palestinians. He did not say when Rafah’s evacuation would occur, nor when the Rafah offensive would begin, saying that Israel wanted the timing to be right operationally and to be coordinated with neighbouring Egypt, which has said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing its border.

The US has frequently said that it will not support an Israeli invasion of Rafah without a clear plan to protect civilians there.

During its war on Gaza, Israel has frequently designated areas and corridors of movement for civilians as “ safe zones ” before bombing them, killing many.

Blinken says Israel has still hasn’t presented a plan to protect civilians in Rafah

The US government has been consistently saying that it would not support Israel’s promised invasion of Rafah without a “clear” plan from the Israeli government to protect the more than one million displaced Palestinians that are currently sheltering there.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the US government has “not seen such a plan” as of yet.

“We need to see a plan that will get civilians out of harm’s way if there is to be a military operation, and not only get’s them out of harm’s way, but ensures that they have shelter, food and medicine,” he said.

Protecting civilians must be ‘priority’ for Israel: US

Protecting and aiding civilians must be “job number one” for Israel in the war-battered Gaza Strip, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.

“We look to the government of Israel to make sure this is a priority. Protecting civilians, getting people assistance they need, that has to be job number one, even as they do what is necessary to defend the country to deal with the threat posed by Hamas,” he told reporters.

US President Joe Biden has made contradictory statements about how he intends to approach mounting international concerns over Israel’s military actions.

On Saturday, he said an invasion of the southern city of Rafah would be a “red line” for Israel not to cross. Still, he said he would never “leave Israel” or “cut off all weapons” for the US ally.

‘Deep distress’ over Gaza war to sour St Patrick’s Day at White House

The annual White House celebration of St Patrick’s Day will be less festive because of Irish anger over US support for Israel’s attack on Gaza.

The SDLP, Northern Ireland’s smaller nationalist party, said it isn’t sending any representatives to Washington, DC, for Friday’s event.

“The White House St Patrick’s Day event is a party. We have taken the principled position that we won’t be attending that party,” said Claire Hanna, an SDLP lawmaker.

“This is about the deep distress that we and our constituents feel practically every hour of the day about what’s going on in Gaza, and our attempt to use whatever opportunities we have — parliamentary and otherwise — to contribute and create international momentum to end this,” the Washington Post quoted Hanna as saying.

Dutch PM Rutte calls on Netanyahu to step up humanitarian aid into Gaza

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged his Israeli counterpart to “drastically reduce the level of force” unleashed on the coastal enclave.

“Further escalation must be prevented and an Israeli offensive in Rafah would cause a humanitarian disaster,” he added.

It was good to be in Israel and Egypt today to speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu ( @IsraeliPM ) and President El-Sisi ( @AlsisiOfficial ) about the alarming situation in the Middle East. All efforts must now be directed at agreeing an immediate pause in the fighting, leading to a… pic.twitter.com/6xkJyqywso — Mark Rutte (@MinPres) March 13, 2024

‘Stop Arming Israel’ protesters block San Francisco airport in US

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have shut down part of the San Francisco International Airport to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the end of all US military assistance to Israel.

Demonstrators chanted “Free, free Palestine” while holding a banner that read “Stop Arming Israel” as they blocked access to security gates inside the international terminal in northern California.

Protesters also halted traffic outside the departures entrance, blocking all lanes while marching in a circle with Palestinian flags.

Israel’s war on Gaza has sparked mass demonstrations in major cities across the United States and led to repeated interruptions at US President Joe Biden’s campaign events.

HAPPENING NOW: Protestors demanding a #CeasefireNOW and an end to the genocide in Gaza have SHUT DOWN the Intl Terminal at #SFO pic.twitter.com/ZjNGFsaRS8 — Critical Resistance (@C_Resistance) March 13, 2024

MSF condemns last months’ Jenin hospital attacks

The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says Israel’s attack was just the “latest act of appalling violence” at the facility.

“In the last months, our team has witnessed bullets and tear gas grenades being fired at the facility, a minor being killed, ambulances being obstructed, and healthcare professionals being targeted,” Samuel Johann, MSF project coordinator in Jenin, said in a series of posts on X.

“Shooting people in a hospital, or any act of violence in a healthcare facility, is completely unacceptable. We unequivocally condemn the continued attacks on healthcare facilities.”

South Africa says citizens fighting with Israeli forces in Gaza will be arrested

South Africa’s foreign minister has said that any of her country’s citizens who fight with the Israeli armed forces in Gaza will be arrested when they return home.

Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor made the comments earlier this week at a Palestinian solidarity event attended by officials from South Africa’s governing African National Congress Party.

“I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and are fighting alongside or in the [Israeli military]: We are ready. When you come home, we are going to arrest you,” Pandor said, to rapturous applause from the audience.

She also encouraged people to protest outside the embassies of what she called the “five primary supporters” of Israel and its military action in Gaza.

In December, the foreign ministry said that the South African government was concerned that some of its citizens or permanent residents had joined the Israeli military to fight in Gaza.

Those with dual South African-Israeli citizenship could be stripped of their South African citizenship, the foreign ministry said.

‘Total Disgrace’: Anger, Frustration as Mass Heating Failures Across Russia Leave Thousands in the Cold

P ODOLSK, Moscow region – Residents throughout Russia affected by unprecedented winter heating outages in recent days have expressed their frustration and urged local authorities to restore heating in their homes.

In Podolsk, a town some 30 kilometers south of the capital Moscow, at least 149,000 residents — nearly half of its population — were left without heating when a heating main burst at a nearby private ammunition plant.

“It’s a total disgrace. There is no heating and no hot water. We have to sleep in sleeping bags,” Yuri, a local resident, told The Moscow Times.

“I have no words to describe how bad the situation is," said Yuri, who declined to provide his surname. "We have had no heating for almost six days."

Heating issues have affected residents in the Moscow region, where temperatures have plunged to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in the past week, as well as people in the Far East Primorye region , the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg , Penza , the southern Voronezh and Volgograd regions and more.

In the Tver region, a group of residents filmed an appeal to President Vladimir Putin, saying that they “are freezing from the cold” in the village of Novozavidovsky.

“We're literally being killed by the cold,” a woman in the video said, adding that they have been sending requests to local authorities since September after their houses were connected to a boiler room whose power was reportedly insufficient.

“This is some kind of torture and extermination of the population 100 kilometers from Moscow,” she added.

Residents of the Moscow region town of Elektrostal lit a fire in the street to draw the authorities’ attention to the heating problem.

“It’s impossible to stay in our houses. We're freezing!” a group of women in the video said.

Suffering from subzero temperatures, residents are placing the blame on local authorities and utility services for failing to take necessary precautions and not taking action to resolve the situation.

“We are sending complaints everywhere but no one listens to us. We have portable heaters working in every room, but the temperature inside is still 10 degrees Celsius,” Yelena from Podolsk said.

“There is a clinic and a hospital, as well as kindergartens, where there is no heating. And we have no answers, no assistance, no explanation,” Yelena added.

Podolsk authorities opened temporary heating centers and declared a state of emergency.

Local authorities linked the heating problems to the fact that the town is heated by a boiler plant owned by the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant, a private ammunition factory and one of the largest weapon cartridge production enterprises in the country.

“The facility is under tight security conditions, which limits our ability to oversee winter preparations,” the Moscow region’s Vice Governor Yevgeny Khromushin said last week. “We were unaware of the problem for nearly a day.”

An unidentified Moscow region official and two senior executives at the plant were arrested on suspicion of providing unsafe services, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement Tuesday.

Investigators said that Podolsk’s deputy mayor was accused of misusing authority by issuing a readiness certificate for the boiler house at the plant.

In the neighboring Tver region, the authorities opened a criminal case over the laundering of over 84 million rubles ($938,993) in heating bills paid by residents, the Astra Telegram channel reported this week, citing unidentified sources. According to investigators, the heads of the local water intake and boiler house misappropriated the heating payments for personal use.

Reacting to the heating failures, Putin on Tuesday asked Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov to provide heat and electricity to the affected residents.

The outages appear to be the latest effect of several decades of crumbling infrastructure in Russia which have been linked to endemic corruption and mismanagement.

The overall decay of Russia's municipal infrastructure surpassed 70% in 2022, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia reported .

According to Sergei Pakhomov, head of the State Duma’s Construction, Housing and Utilities Committee, water pipes that were 90 years old or even older were still in use as recently as two years ago in some cases.

Housing, utilities and communal services are a common source of problems for Russians during the winter.

In St. Petersburg, residents regularly complain about extensive ice coverage on city streets and sidewalks, with many people ending up in the hospital over the years due to slipping and falling accidents.

In the Siberian republic of Khakassia, two villages were left without electricity last month due to apparent issues with outdated communication systems.

In the winter of 2020, five people in the Perm region were killed after a pipe burst.

When asked about the latest heating outages, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the problems and linked them to poor municipal infrastructure, saying that people “had to endure a lot of inconvenience in the cold and without electricity.”

"Despite all the titanic efforts to update all housing and communal services systems, there's still a certain part that remains considerably deteriorated. These programs will continue, but it is impossible to update all pipes and all housing and communal services systems in 10-15 years,” Peskov said.

As for now, residents affected by heating issues appear to lack optimism that the problems will be solved efficiently.

"It's been a week since we've had heating, and the temperature in my apartment is around 11 degrees Celsius,” Podolsk resident Lidiya told The Moscow Times.

“Unfortunately, no one knows when it will be repaired,” she added.