The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court including over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it ramped up pressure to neuter the court of last resort.The four judges in The Hague, all women, will be barred entry to the United States and any property or other interests in the world’s largest economy will be blocked — measures more often taken against policymakers from US adversaries than against judicial officials.”The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other US ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.”I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel,” Rubio said.The court swiftly hit back, saying in a statement: “These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”Israel’s Netanyahu welcomed the move, thanking US President Donald Trump’s administration in a social media post.”Thank you President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio for imposing sanctions against the politicised judges of the ICC. You have justly stood up for the right of Israel,” he wrote on Friday.- War crimes -Human Rights Watch urged other nations to speak out and reaffirm the independence of the ICC, set up in 2002 to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.The sanctions “aim to deter the ICC from seeking accountability amid grave crimes committed in Israel and Palestine and as Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, including with US complicity,” said the rights group’s international justice director, Liz Evenson.Two of the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued last November for Netanyahu.The court found “reasonable grounds” of criminal responsibility by Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for actions that include the war crime of starvation as a method of war in the massive offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Israel, alleging bias, has angrily rejected charges of war crimes as well as a separate allegation of genocide led by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.The two other judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan.- Return to hard line -Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. But almost all Western allies of the United States as well as Japan and South Korea, the vast majority of Latin America and much of Africa are parties to the statute and in theory are required to arrest suspects when they land on their soil.Trump in his first term already imposed sanctions on the then ICC chief prosecutor over the Afghanistan investigation. After Trump’s defeat in 2020, then president Joe Biden took a more conciliatory approach to the court with case-by-case cooperation. Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken rescinded the sanctions and, while critical of its stance on Israel, worked with the court in its investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ICC judges in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the alleged mass abduction of Ukrainian children during the war. Both Putin and Netanyahu have voiced defiance over the ICC pressure but have also looked to minimize time in countries that are party to the court. The ICC arrest warrants have been especially sensitive in Britain, a close US ally whose Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer. Downing Street has said that Britain will fulfil its “legal obligations” without explicitly saying if Netanyahu would be arrested if he visits.Hungary, led by Trump ally Viktor Orban, has parted ways with the rest of the European Union by moving to exit the international court. Orban thumbed his nose at the court by welcoming Netanyahu to visit in April.

US President Donald Trump has signed a travel ban on 12 mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, reviving a controversial measure from his first term expected to trigger a fresh wave of legal challenges.Trump said on Wednesday the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on an Egyptian man they said was in the country illegally.The move bans all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, according to the White House.Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some temporary work visas from those countries will be allowed.”The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message posted on social media platform X.”We don’t want them.”- World Cup, Olympics, diplomats excluded -The ban will not apply to athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Trump’s order said.Nor will it apply to diplomats from the targeted countries, according to the spokesman of the secretary-general of the United Nations headquartered in New York.”As we’ve said before, whatever system is put in place (should be) one that respects people’s human dignity,” said Stephane Dujarric, who added it was for individual countries to determine how to control their borders.UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that “the broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law.” And Amnesty International USA called the ban “discriminatory, racist, and downright cruel.”Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meanwhile claimed Trump was being “poisoned” by “lies” about his country, while Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello warned that it was the United States that posed a risk to visitors from Venezuela and elsewhere.With seven of the 12 countries banned from Africa, the African Union said the move would harm “people-to-people ties, education exchange, commercial engagement, and broader diplomatic relations” and urged “constructive dialog.”Yemen’s internationally recognised government urged Washington to “reconsider” the travel ban, or to at least exempt Yemeni citizens “in recognition of the difficult humanitarian conditions” in the war-ravaged country.In Myanmar, one student affected by the ban only got her US study visa two days ago and said it would hit many young people’s dreams of escaping oppression.”We don’t really have life here, and people want to escape to a country where we can breathe, we can walk, we can study,” she told AFP from Yangon.In Haiti, Pierre Esperance, a human rights activist in the capital Port-au-Prince, warned that following the decision, the impoverished and violence-hit country “will be further isolated.”The ban could yet face legal challenges, as have many of the drastic measures Trump has taken since his whirlwind return to office in January.- ‘Terrorists’ -Rumors of a new Trump travel ban had circulated following the fire attack on Jewish protesters in Colorado, with his administration vowing to pursue “terrorists” living in the United States on visas.US officials said suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national according to court documents, was in the country illegally having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.Trump gave specific reasons for each country facing travel restrictions — a list that notably did not include Egypt — insisting the move aimed to protect the United States from “foreign terrorists and other national security” threats.His proclamation said Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen lacked “competent” central authorities for processing passports and vetting.Iran, with which the United States is in negotiations on a possible nuclear deal, was included because it is a “state sponsor of terrorism,” the order said.For most of the other countries, Trump’s order cited an above-average likelihood that people would overstay their visas.dk-burs/gw/bjt/sla

Robert Zubrin quite literally wrote the book on why humanity should go to Mars — so why has the renowned aerospace engineer soured on Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur leading the charge?In an interview, the 73-year-old founder of the Mars Society delivered a blistering critique, accusing the world’s richest person of undermining the mission through divisive politics and a bleak vision of the Red Planet as an escape from Earth rather than a journey of hope.”On one level, he’s absolutely instrumental in opening up this opportunity to get humans to Mars, both through the development of Starship and also the inspiration that has caused,” Zubrin told AFP, referring to Musk’s prototype rocket.”But for it to succeed, it has to go beyond these — this initiative cannot be seen as a Musk hobbyhorse or a Trump hobbyhorse — it must be seen, at a minimum, as America’s program, or preferably the Free World’s program.”Zubrin’s 1996 book “The Case for Mars,” since updated numerous times, laid out a practical blueprint for reaching and settling the Red Planet using existing technologies and local resources — with the ultimate goal of transforming the atmosphere for long-term human habitation.- Supporter turned critic -The book won praise from Musk himself, who once posed with Zubrin at SpaceX’s Starship facility in Texas and called it “worth reading.”But today, Zubrin — who co-authored the Mars Direct plan in 1990, has published hundreds of papers, and invented several advanced propulsion concepts — sees troubling signs.While he described Musk as a “tremendously talented and forceful person,” he said his success has bred “hubris and arrogance,” comparing him to Napoleon as he thumped his fist for emphasis.He was especially critical of Musk’s embrace of Donald Trump during the 2024 election and his role as the administration’s chainsaw-wielding cost slasher.”This combination of Trump and Musk is not going to persist forever,” Zubrin warned, in an interview conducted before the pair’s relationship imploded Thursday in a spectacular public row.”And if this program is identified as their deal, it will be crushed as soon as opposing forces have sufficient power.”During their fight Thursday, Trump called Musk “crazy” threatened to terminate his government contracts worth billions of dollars.Zubrin also condemned Trump’s efforts to gut NASA’s space science budget — a move he sees as fundamentally at odds with the exploratory spirit of the Mars endeavor. The Mars Sample Return mission — aimed at retrieving specimens collected by the Perseverance rover — is among the biggest science projects on the chopping block.Although the mission, developed with the European Space Agency, has suffered delays and budget overruns, Zubrin said eliminating it entirely rather than reforming it would be a mistake.”This threatens to brand this program with the mark of Cain of original sin — that this program is born with the blood of the murder of Space Science on it.”- Creative outpost -Where Zubrin still sees promise is in Starship — Musk’s massive prototype rocket aimed at making life multiplanetary, though the vessel’s repeated test explosions show there’s a long way to go.He diverges with Musk over how it should be used. Starship is far too large to serve as a Mars ascent vehicle, Zubrin said.The Mars expert has proposed a vessel he calls Starboat — a compact lander that could shuttle between planetary surfaces and orbit, using a fraction of the propellant and surface power.But his sharpest critiques are philosophical. He rejects Musk’s portrayal of Mars as a refuge from a dying Earth — a vision that echoes the works of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.”We’re not going to Mars out of despair,” Zubrin said. “We’re going to Mars out of hope… to establish new branches of human civilization which will add their creative capacity to that of humanity as a whole.”He sees Mars not as refuge but renewal, where a campaign beginning with robotic missions in the late 2020s and culminating in human landings by 2033 could inspire bipartisan support, showcase American ingenuity and restore national purpose.”If we do the kind of program that I advocated… we will once again, as we did in Apollo, astonish the world with what free people can do,” he said. “We’ll make it clear that freedom, not authoritarianism, is the future of the human race.”