Category: International Conflict

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for a suspension of trade with Israel, as she spoke of Europe’s “painful” inability to respond to the war on Gaza and ensuring humanitarian disaster. In her most extended condemnation yet of the Israeli government, von der Leyen criticised plans for illegal settlements that would split the occupied West Bank in half, as well as incitement of violence by extremist Israeli ministers, as a “clear attempt to undermine the two-state…

LONDON – Britain imposed sanctions on one individual and four entities on Thursday under its Iran sanctions regime, saying they are part of a network that supports Tehran’s overseas activities, including “destabilisation” in Ukraine and Israel. The sanctions include an asset freeze on Iranian oil magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, and on four companies operating in the shipping, petrochemical and financial sectors, the foreign office said in a statement. Britain said Tehran relies on revenues from such trading networks to fund…

Ottawa will acquire up to six yet-unnamed vertical take-off and landing aircraft from Canadian manufacturer MDA Space for use aboard the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class multi-role frigates. Canada plans to acquire up to six domestically sourced uncrewed aircraft to support maritime surveillance and targeting for Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) ships. Ottawa on 5 August announced it has awarded procurement contracts to Ontario-based MDA Space covering a new fleet of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to be operated from the RCN’s Halifax-class…

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, as Washington kept up its pressure on the war tribunal over its targeting of Israeli leaders. Washington designated Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada, according to the U.S. Treasury and State Department. ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli…

ATLANTA – An active shooter incident at the Fort Stewart US Army base in Georgia has resulted in casualties, authorities said, and the base has been put on lockdown. “The installation was locked down at 11.04am and law enforcement is on the scene,” Fort Stewart said in a Facebook post, adding the incident happened in the 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team area and that casualties had been reported. No further information was immediately available, including the number of casualties and…

On July 26, Taiwanese citizens went to the polls and voted on whether to recall 24 of their 113 representatives—or 21 percent of the legislature. It was an unprecedented moment in the island’s democratic history. Citizens have recalled individual Taiwanese legislators in the past, but never before have they attempted to recall politicians en masse. The recalls were ultimately defeated. But their very occurrence, and the months of campaigning that preceded them, highlight a fundamental challenge in Taiwan’s politics: deep…

US President Donald Trump intensified his trade war with Canada a day ahead of his Aug 1 deadline for a tariff agreement, saying it would be “very hard” to make a deal with Canada after it gave its support to Palestinian statehood. Mr Trump is set to impose a 35 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement if the two countries do not reach an agreement by the deadline. “Wow! Canada has just announced…

KYIV – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy restored the independence of Ukraine’s two main anti-corruption agencies on Thursday, moving to defuse a political crisis that has shaken faith in his wartime leadership and worried Western partners. Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days in a rare show of discontent after lawmakers led by Zelenskiy’s ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies. Zelenskiy reversed course after the outcry, under pressure from top European officials,…

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students. The Civil Rights Division’s Notice of Violation finds that UCLA failed to adequately respond to complaints of severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and abuse that Jewish and…

There are typically not many winners in a trade war, but Boeing appears to be reaping some rewards from the one started by US President Donald Trump. The aerospace company has received a steady stream of new orders as part of trade deals between the United States and other countries. These sales could be a boon for Boeing as it emerges from years of bruising crises. They also allow Mr Trump to claim that his unconventional trade policies are helping…

WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled on July 25 that a nationwide injunction he issued in February that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship should remain in place. In a written ruling, US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston said his earlier nationwide injunction was the only way to provide complete relief to a coalition of Democratic-led states that brought the lawsuit before him, rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that a narrower ruling was warranted because of…

BERLIN – Germany plans to reintroduce compulsory screening for military service for 18-year-old men as part of plans to ramp up defence capabilities, a defence ministry source said on July 24. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz has made boosting Germany’s threadbare military a key priority given the threat from Russia and US President Donald Trump’s questioning of the traditional American security umbrella for Europe. The drive for now aims to attract volunteers to the armed forces, but includes provisions for compulsory…

Microsoft Corp warned that Chinese state-sponsored hackers are among those exploiting flaws in its SharePoint software to break into institutions globally, with the US agency responsible for designing nuclear weapons now among those breached. In a blog post, the tech giant identified two groups supported by the Chinese government, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, as leveraging flaws in the document-sharing software that rendered customers who run it on their own networks, as opposed to in the cloud, vulnerable. Another hacking…

WASHINGTON – An Afghan who moved to the United States after working for the U.S. military in his home country was seized by armed, masked immigration agents, put in a van and taken out of state, attorneys and members of Congress said on Tuesday. Identified only as Zia by members of Congress and his attorney out of concern for his safety and that of his family, the man had worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military during the war…

A new wave of purges has engulfed the senior leadership of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army. Since the 20th National Party Congress in October 2022, more than 20 senior PLA officers from all four services—the army, navy, air force, and rocket force—have disappeared from public view or been removed from their posts. The absences of other generals have also been reported, which could foreshadow additional purges. Most notably, since the fall of 2023, three of the six uniformed members…

When a major study appears in JAMA Psychiatry—a high-profile journal that shapes headlines and clinical decisions—its findings carry weight. So when Kalfas and colleagues released what they billed as the most comprehensive analysis of antidepressant withdrawal to date, it drew immediate attention. The study concluded that symptoms were generally “mild,” short-lived, and possibly amplified by nocebo effects—positioning itself as the last word on the subject. The authors mobilised a rapid media campaign to shape the public narrative, with the Science Media Centre issuing…