World politics

World politics

More than a year has passed since the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest judicial body, issued its first order in the landmark case brought against Israel by South Africa, which contends that Israel has been committing acts of genocide in its war in Gaza. The ICJ found that "with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide...and the right of South Africa to seek Israel's compliance," South Africa's case was "plausible."

Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto thought he was having a private word with US president Donald Trump at the Gaza peace summit in Egypt this week. Instead what unfolded was a hot-mic slip up, with Prabowo heard asking Trump to line up a call with his son Eric, or his son Don Jr, who both serve as executives at the Trump organisation.

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, a key figure in African politics, has died at the age of 80 during a trip to India for medical treatment, according to local police and hospital officials. The former prime minister, who as opposition leader had waged five unsuccessful presidential campaigns between 1997 and 2022, had suffered a heart attack, the Devamatha Hospital in the southern Indian state of Kerala confirmed to The Associated Press news agency on Wednesday.

Over the past several years, the committee has dedicated quite a bit of work to increasing the source taxation of cross-border services, including the creation of article 12AA, which combines two previous treaty articles - 12A and 14 - and allows for the gross basis taxation of cross-border services. Another such measure is article 12C, which addresses the taxation of insurance premiums, and was created by the previous committee.

US President Donald Trump has told the Israeli parliament that Monday was "a day of profound joy" and a day to give praise to the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." "The hostages are back; it feels so good to say it," he said. "This is the end of an age of terror and death" and the beginning of turning the Middle East into "a truly magnificent region, Trump went on.

My friends, this is only a partial list, but it's enough to affirm what I've said time and again. Donald Trump is the greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House.

"[Ukraine] would like to have Tomahawks. That's a step up," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on October 12 en route to the Middle East for a Gaza peace conference. "Yeah, I might tell him [Putin] if the war is not settled, we may very well do it," he said. "We may not, but we may do it....Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don't think so," Trump added.

Some of those bodies are being unearthed right now, as we speak. They're working on it right now, Trump said. It's a tragedy. It's a tragedy, he said.

This past July, I bought eggplants at the farmers' market, intending to make my grandmother's signature maqlubeh: the cinnamon-and-allspice-scented rice dish layered with fried eggplants and chicken, cooked in a pot, then flipped onto a serving platter, forming a golden dome. Before I had the chance to peel the eggplants, stripe by stripe, and drop them into hot oil, a WhatsApp message came in from my mother-a single, waving-hand emoji at an unusual hour.

Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan hasn't just taken the mask off; he's taunting those who were ever fooled by it. While the civilized world is celebrating the peace deal between Israel and Hamas brokered by President Donald Trump, Hasan is worried about it. Why? Because Hamas is set to give away its leverage, which happens to exist in the form of Jewish lives.

Just a day earlier, Ben-Gvir led a group of Jewish worshippers in prayer on the Temple Mount, the flashpoint site in Jerusalem that also houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, and called for "total victory" in Gaza. Now he was sitting with his fellow ministers to discuss how to bring to an end two years of hostilities that had reduced much of Gaza to a charred wasteland-but had left Hamas still standing.

For months, Donald Trump has presented himself as the very incarnation of a global peacemaker, touting an ever-changing list of international conflicts that he claims to have settled. Sometimes it has been six, sometimes as many as ten. "I ended seven wars," the President told the U.N. General Assembly last month, "and in all cases they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed," which was not true but has not stopped Trump from repeating it.

This version was drafted by Seth Mandel of Commentary, with whom I've been working, wrote Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

While the world's attention is fixed on Ukraine another flashpoint could ignite an even greater conflict. Just 112 miles from China's coast lies Taiwan, an island of 23 million people facing 1.4 billion people and the world's largest army. "For Beijing, it's not just territory, it's destiny. For Washington, it's a red line." "Taiwan's military posture is built around a core strategic principle known as the porcupine strategy or asymmetric defence. The goal is not to defeat the numerically superior PLA of China in a conventional war, but to make an invasion so difficult, so costly and so bloody that Beijing is deterred from ever attempting it."

"The (Hamas) movement's delegation participating in the current negotiations in Egypt is working to overcome all obstacles to reaching an agreement that meets the aspirations of our people in Gaza," Mr Barhoum said in a televised statement. He said a deal must ensure an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip - conditions that Israel has never accepted.

George Mitchell, the great US advocate for the Northern Ireland peace agreement, described diplomacy as 700 days of failure and one of success. In Gaza, tragically, there have been 730 days of failure and none of success. Indeed, the destruction, the death toll and the spillover of the conflict into other countries is a monument to shame diplomacy and what remains of international law. Arguably, it is the profession's lowest point since 1939.

Environment and Energy Minister Ines Manzano said Noboa's car showed signs of bullet damage. In a statement to the press, she explained that she filed a report alleging an assassination attempt had taken place. Shooting at the president's car, throwing stones, damaging state property that's just criminal, Manzano said. We will not allow this.

When Vladimir Putin met with Donald Trump in Alaska in August, one prominent strand of social-media commentary had nothing to do with the possibility of a deal to end Russia's war against Ukraine (the meeting's ostensible purpose). Rather, it turned on the question of whether Putin-who faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, stemming from Russia's wartime actions-could conceivably be arrested when he stepped foot on U.S. soil.

There are people I don't like, and I would like to put them on one of Musk's spaceships and send them all off to the planet he's sure he's going to discover, Goodall tells interviewer Brad Falchuk during the revelatory 55-minute special discussing her life, work and legacy. Would Musk, the SpaceX founder and Trump ally with a penchant for apparent Nazi-style salutes and firing thousands of federal workers, be among them, Falchuk wanted to know.

As Syria turns the page after Bashar al-Assad's fall, the transitional government promises justice, truth, and rule of law.

The plan precluded the future annexation of the West Bank, which so alarmed Netanyahu's allies in Israel that they dispatched Jewish settler leaders to the U.S. to talk him out of signing. Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, issued three demands: that the Palestinian Authority play no role in the future governance of Gaza; that Hamas completely disarm; and that there be no mention of a future Palestinian state. The proposal overlooked all three.

A New York Times investigation reveals that when Witkoff, a real estate developer and longtime friend of Trump, began his new position as a diplomat in the Middle East, his son Alex took over his company, the Witkoff Group. Since then, not only has the Witkoff Group continued to ink major deals with investors in the Gulf Arab states, but the elder Witkoff has not even fully divested from the company.