As the Israel-Hamas war nears its three-year mark, an outbreak of algae throughout Israel’s desalination plants is threatening the country’s water supplies, which could affect the sewage systems in Gaza. And experts say the ongoing war is likely to exacerbate the problem.

What did the commentators say?
The issue began after a microalgae bloom in the Mediterranean Sea forced five out of six desalination plants on the Israeli coast to shut down, according to Israel’s national water company Mekorot, per CNN. These plants remove salt from seawater, and their closures caused a ripple effect due to the country’s “heavy dependence on desalination for drinking water,” said the outlet. Israel is “arid and has neither big rivers nor abundant rainfall, but its mastery of this technology has made it a water superpower.”

While Israel itself is unlikely to see a shortage of water, it could lead to a compounding crisis in Gaza, which has already seen “many of its pipelines and water infrastructure destroyed during the devastating war” with Israel, said NBC News. The algae currently attacking Israel’s water supplies may actually be caused by the situation in Gaza.

The “discharge of untreated sewage from the Gaza Strip into the sea is contributing to the worsening crisis affecting the Israeli desalination facilities,” said the Zalul Environmental Association, an Israeli environmental NGO, to The Guardian. The wastewater “contains nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which feed microalgae.”

Scientists are “trying to assess possible environmental fallout from Gaza’s destroyed wastewater infrastructure” and determine how much of a role it may have played in the algae bloom, said Middle East Eye. Regardless of the cause, it’s a “reminder of the dire humanitarian conditions facing 2 million Gazans,” said The Washington Post. Gazans have “faced severe water shortages and have often resorted to using makeshift latrines.”

What next?
This kind of event will probably keep happening thanks to the steadily warming planet. It’s a “fair estimation that this will not be a once-in-a-lifetime” thing, said Edo Bar-Zeev, an associate professor of water research at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, to CNN. People “can assume that this will occur more and more through climate change.”

The Department of Education has formally rescinded the 2024 Title IX regulations, a Biden-era policy that extended the federal ban on sex discrimination in schools to also protect LGBTQ+ people. And the change prompted pushback from advocates.

What has the White House done instead?
In the regulations’ place, the department reinstated 2020 regulations from President Donald Trump’s first administration, which took immediate effect “without a notice-and-comment period,” said EducationWeek. Trump’s regulations outline how schools “must handle reports of sexual misconduct,” including setting a “stricter definition for what constitutes sexual harassment and giving more due process rights to those accused,” said The Washington Post.

The change formalizes how the Trump administration has enforced Title IX since January 2025 and will “faithfully reflect court orders and congressional intent” while “reducing confusion for parents, students and educational institutions,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon (pictured above) in a press release. The department will continue to “hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.”

McMahon has “led the administration’s push to restrict civil rights protections based on gender identity,” said The New York Times. The Biden-era Title IX rule was “already struck down in the court system” after challenges from Republican states, said The Hill.

Who will the change affect?
Critics of the move say it will harm transgender athletes and weaken protections for sexual assault victims. Sexual harassment and assault “continue to be pervasive in schools,” said Shiwali Patel, the senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, in a statement. Yet, McMahon and the Trump administration have “decided to ignore what survivors need,” instead “weaponizing Title IX to attack trans students.”

Title IX is supposed to be about protecting students and “ensuring that they are safe from abuse, harassment and discrimination while they pursue their education,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a press release. But Trump and his “cronies aren’t interested in any of that.” 

Rather than “enforcing protections for students,” they are “rescinding them,” said Robinson. They don’t care if “sexual harassment and assault go unaddressed.” We know who will be hurt: “women, girls and others who are vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and abuse, including LGBTQ+ students.”

French firefighters wave flares and trade union flags as they climb the Triumph of the Republic sculpture at the Place de la Nation during a rally in Paris. Tens of thousands of public sector workers, fed up with low wages, joined the demonstration.
Thomas Samson / AFP / Getty Images

Fall is when a new batch of shows take to the road. This year, you can island-hop to Cuba, live forever, see the future or rewrite 19th-century America through guffaws. It’s going to be a good theatrical autumn.

‘Buena Vista Social Club’
This musical (pictured above) is a tale of four intertwined lives as much as it is a partial story of Cuban history from the 1950s through the 1990s. The “interconnections between musicians, songs and a society have rarely been evoked as vividly and as lovingly,” said The New York Times. (through Sept. 12, 2027)

‘Death Becomes Her’
This musical adaptation is based on the 1992 cult film but aims not to mimic it other than with a whole lot of how-did-they-do-it stage magic. It’s a self-aware beast, mocking both itself and our culture’s obsession with staying forever young and employing side-splitting comedy. (through Sept. 5, 2027)

‘Maybe Happy Ending’
Equal parts technical marvel and emotional heart-render, this show is difficult to explain. It goes something like this: A soon-to-be obsolete humanoid robot model of the future meets a newer humanoid robot model, and the two embark on a transformative road trip. The musical is intimate, futuristic and profound. (through Aug. 29, 2027)

‘Oh, Mary!’
The smutty brainchild of Cole Escola began its life far from Broadway in 2024 and was an instant hit with in-the-know culture fiends. It moved to Broadway a few months later. And a newly launched tour brings the historically inaccurate tale of an alcoholic, wannabe cabaret-singer Mary Todd Lincoln to the nation’s theaters. (through May 16, 2027)