Top Israeli and Egyptian officials held a secret meeting in Cairo on 24 April, aimed at discussing Tel Aviv’s plans for an invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. Three senior Israeli officials told Axios on Wednesday that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi met with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and Egypt’s army chief Osama Askar. The report came the same day that an Israeli defense official said that Israel will launch the operation in Rafah as soon as it gets government approval. Israel is “moving ahead” with the operation, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, but gave no specific time frame.

US and Israeli officials held a virtual meeting last week to discuss plans for Rafah. The decision to launch the operation is “conditions-based and not time-based, and connected to the humanitarian situation on the ground,” Tel Aviv emphasized to Washington during the meeting, according to US officials. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on 23 April, citing Egyptian officials, that Israel’s evacuation plans for Rafah are near complete. The plan will take two to three weeks and will be carried out in cooperation with Washington, Cairo, and other Arab states, including the UAE. Egyptian forces have deployed in the northern Sinai and along the Gaza border, and are at “full readiness” after being briefed by Israel on plans for Rafah, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on 18 April.

Israel’s evacuation plan involves moving Rafah’s civilian population upwards towards the southern city of Khan Yunis, as well as other areas of the strip, the report states, adding that shelters with tents, food supplies, and medical facilities will be set up. Recently published satellite images show a large tent compound in Khan Yunis and Israeli troop gatherings at army bases and outposts near the strip – signaling that the invasion of Rafah may be imminent.

A collection of Golden Wind sillies (mostly Bruabba)

my twitter - my insta

me and the bestie assigned their music tastes

Gunilla: no way congress just said that…

Samirah: what? what did they say?

Gunilla: THEY SAID YOU A BITCH

"my, my, how can i resist you?"

Did the other one! It's a au of what if Samirah Al Abbas was evil or Loki's right hand woman. Smth like that- so basically what if samirah was on Loki's side! :D

Here's the base again for anyone who wants to use it! I didn't draw it but I still can't find the og artist- :((

Now presenting, for one night and one night only! The USS ENTERPRISE'S ABBA TRIBUTE BAND: Jim and the Dynamos!

Finally drew the star trek abba-core verse based on this post :)

Please don't repost, but reblogs are welcome :D

Jealous Morpheus who doesn’t want to admit his newfound feelings for his very close inmortal friend Hob, he knows Hob has had many affairs through the centuries they’ve know each other but gets livid when his sibling desire decides Hob is an interesting human and crashes one of their dates meetings.

Hob had never met any of Morpheus’ siblings yet and was very visibly amused by Desire, which itched a part part of Morpheus that hadn’t felt this sensation in a millennia, he hated the way Hob’s eyes hadn’t returned to him once since his sibling had fixed themselves way too close to him, he knew their knees must’ve been touching, Hob’s human warmth going to another, and not just another but Desire. his relationship with his sibling was complicated from a human perspective and even more complicated from an endless one, Desire loved to get on his nerves and push him to “every edge you’ll allow me to my dear brother” and Morpheus would be lying if he said he hadn’t fault in indulging them from time to time, they were his most persuasive sibling after all.

But right now, having to endure the light touches of desire’s fingers pulling strands of hair out hob’s eyes, the way they just leaned closer and closer and how their voices reduced themselves to whispers into each other’s ears completely ignoring him was making his vision blurry and his head spin. Maybe he had become boring to Hob, maybe he was not such a good companion as he thought himself to be, maybe hob wanted someone bolder, louder, more physically engaging than he had been and desire checked all of those boxes. He was still deep inside his own thoughts when a warm hand reached his making him stiff, hob took his hand back immediately and morpheus cursed himself mentally. He asked if he was all right and if he wanted to take his leave for the night, Morpheus noticed it was just the two of them again and before he could ask Hob told him Desire had left a while ago, that he found them charming but “nothing and no one could beat that puzzling dark gaze of yours, dream” it wasn’t the first time Hob called him by name, but it still sent a thrill through Morpheus’ entire being every time he said it, he suspected Hob knew about it somehow.

“i would like to stay for a little while longer, if you don’t mind”

Every relationship needs the Queen lover demon and the ABBA enjoyer angel

pizza, drink, and movie w/ my beloved mum 🥰

Okay so I'm new enough here (and white), and this is the first time I've heard the samirah name issue. Why is shortening her name not a good thing? /genq

Great question! First of all, I'd like to preface this with the fact that I'm white and have a pretty simple, European name, and I reccommend you talk to actual people of color, especially muslimas. There's a few on Tumblr and on Twitter you can talk to (comment for some specific blogs).

Long story short, "Samirah" is an ethnic name. Shortening it to "Sam" takes its heritage and meaning away.

For reference, we can see how the name "Annabeth" is treated. Annabeth has the same number of syllables as Samirah and it has a couple obvious nicknames that could have been used out of it, i.e. "Annie," "Anna," or just the single-syllable "Beth." But her name was never shortened. Keeping the name in its full form does make it sould a little more regal, more refined. More importantly, it doesn't detract from the meaning of the name. Shortening "Samirah" to "Sam" makes her name less dignified-sounding, less imposing— which is ridiculous, considering what kind of a character Samirah actually is.

We have to ask the question, then: Why would Rick Riordan, being a fallible human, shorten the beautiful name "Samirah" into "Sam?" The only conclusion is that the shorter version makes it more familiar to white readers. When this is only done to characters of color and not to white characters, there is an obvious discrepancy.

Ethnic names have a long and nasty history of being shortened to sound more comfortable. I know a girl with an ethnic name who goes by a smaller, more English version because it's "easier to pronounce." When I tried to learn how to pronounce her real name, she told me, "It's fine; I'm used to people messing it up." And she shouldn't have to be used to that.

When we change ethnic names to sound more like Western European ones (this applies to Eastern European names, too, by the way), we diminish the culture that they came from. Samirah is a beautiful name; it means (from a quick Google search) "evening conversationalist" or "good friend." Meanwhile, Sam is a distinctly Christian name, deriving from Samuel or Samantha— and Samirah is not Christian.

TL;DR: Making ethnic names Western-ified is damaging because it undermines the culture that the name originally comes from while simotaneously taking meaning and dignity out of the original name.

Wondering if my Spotify wrapped will be embarrassing again

Boo... Finland, Norway, and Austria were all robbed. Rigga morris 🙄

WIP WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

thank you @imagineacoolusername for the tag <3

"Hi, how can I help?" Mary said with a tired smile.

The customer smiled back and a distant image of James Potter appeared in her smile, "I was wondering if you had this in xs? I couldn't find it on the rail." 

"Wait here, I'll check in the back for you." 

She walked off and entered the backroom, where her work friend was taking a break. 

"Mary!" She cheered, like Marlene did all the time, "I had to clean some kid's puke earlier. I am definitely quitting. It was disgusting."

She spoke with a heavy Scottish accent, just like Lily's.

"You say that every day." 

She shrugged, "One day, I promise you. One day. I'm going to do something so much more. What about you? I don't think you've ever talked about any big dreams." 

Mary found the shirt in xs, but turned back to her friend before leaving, "this was my dream." 

Her friend snorted with a small huff, like Remus when he found something funny but wasn't sure if he should, "Selling shitty clothes at such a low wage that you have to work a second job in the only spare time you get?" 

Mary laughed with a shrug, "Yeah. I'm happy. It was better than what I thought I'd have to do." 

She left the backroom and walked back to the tills; looking down at the tshirt, a superman symbol splashed on the front. Peter had one just like it, he had always admired the hero, wanting to be just as powerful.

Maybe he got to be. She didn't want to know. 

this is from when all is said and done, a wip of mine focused on mary and emmeline reuniting after the war (canon divergent cause emmeline doesn't die in it)

The king has lost his crown