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Israeli far-right minister backs contentious West Bank settlement plan

Israel’s finance minister backed plans on Thursday to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the occupied West Bank, calling for the territory’s annexation in response to several countries’ plans to recognise a Palestinian state.The United Nations chief warned that building Israeli homes in the area would “put an end to” hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Israel has long had ambitions to build on the sensitive parcel of land east of Jerusalem known as E1, but the plan has been frozen for decades amid international opposition.Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, while critics and the international community have warned construction on the roughly 12 square kilometres would undermine hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.The site sits between the ancient city and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near routes connecting the north and south of the Palestinian territory. There are also separate, frozen plans to expand Israel’s separation barrier to envelop the area.”Those who want to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive a response from us on the ground… Through concrete actions: houses, neighbourhoods, roads and Jewish families building their lives,” said Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, who was speaking at a pro-settlement event on the advancement of plans for the E1 parcel.”On this important day, I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, to abandon once and for all the idea of partitioning the country, and to ensure that by September, the hypocritical European leaders will have nothing left to recognise,” the far-right figurehead added, using the Biblical term for the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.Britain and France are among several countries to announce in recent weeks plans to recognise a Palestinian state later this year, saying they wanted to keep the two-state solution alive.- ‘Breach of international law’ -Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said “If this went ahead — which we call on the Israeli government not to do… it would sever the northern and southern West banks.”He added that “it would put an end to the prospects of a two-state solution”.The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the plans and called for “genuine international intervention and the imposition of sanctions on the occupation to compel it to halt the implementation”.”Colonial construction in the E1 area is a continuation of the occupation’s plans to destroy the opportunity for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” it added.The European Union’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the plan “further undermines the two-state solution while being a breach of international law” and called on Israel “to desist”.Germany said it “strongly objects” to the plan and called on the Israeli government to “stop settlement construction”, while Saudi Arabia also condemned the move “in the strongest possible terms”.Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, denounced the E1 plan as “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution”.The NGO said the final approval hearing would be held next Wednesday by a technical committee under the defence ministry that has already rejected all objections to the proposals.After the bureaucratic steps are completed, “infrastructure work in E1 could begin within a few months, and housing construction within about a year”, Peace Now said.The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israeli settlers.

Trump’s tariffs have not reduced Panama Canal traffic — yet

Tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on dozens of countries have so far not affected container ship traffic through the Panama Canal, its administrator said Thursday.Allies and adversaries alike are facing higher levies on exports to the United States as Trump’s long-threatened “reciprocal” tariffs go into effect over trade practices he considers unfair.Analysts have …

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Oil prices rise ahead of US-Russia summit as stocks digest inflation data

Wall Street stocks finished little changed Thursday as markets absorbed a disappointing inflation report, while oil prices shot higher on the eve of a US-Russia summit on Ukraine.After a negative start, major US indices worked their way back up to even following July wholesale price data.The producer price index rose 0.9 percent on a month-on-month …

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UN warns Russia, Israel of conflict sex crimes listing risk

The United Nations warned Israel and Russia on Thursday that their militaries faced being listed as parties suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict in light of credible evidence of violations.UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s report said the two countries risked being added to a list of parties thought to use sexual violence including rape in conflict that includes Myanmar’s military, Sudan’s army and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.”Due to significant concerns regarding patterns of certain forms of sexual violence perpetrated by Israeli armed and security forces and Russian armed and security forces and affiliated armed groups, these parties have been put on notice for potential listing in the next reporting period,” said the annual report. “These concerns relate primarily to violations recorded in detention settings.”In the case of Israel, the report alleges “credible information” military and security forces perpetrated patterns of sexual violence including “genital violence, prolonged forced nudity and repeated strip searches conducted in an abusive and degrading manner.”In February, the Israeli army said it had charged five soldiers for abusing a Palestinian detainee at a site used to hold Palestinians following the start of the war in Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.Among the charges was an allegation that the accused had stabbed a man with a sharp object “which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum.”The report said there was “credible” evidence of violations “against Ukrainian prisoners of war, in 50 official and 22 unofficial detention facilities in Ukraine” and Russia.”These cases comprised a significant number of documented incidents of genital violence, including electrocution, beatings and burns to the genitals, and forced stripping and prolonged nudity, used to humiliate and elicit confessions or information,” it said.In 2024, the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine documented 209 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, the report added.Israel has cooperated with a special representative on the issue of sexual violence in conflict, whereas Russia has not, the report said.The report said however that Israel’s refusal to grant access to inspectors had frustrated her ability to determine patterns and trends.Israel rejected the report’s findings and called a letter that accompanied it from Guterres “unusual.” “The UN must focus on the shocking war crimes and sexual violence of Hamas and the release of all hostages,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said.”Israel will not shy away from protecting its citizens and will continue to act in accordance with international law.”Russia’s embassy to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

At least 40 dead in Sudan’s worst cholera outbreak in years

Cholera has claimed at least 40 lives in Sudan’s Darfur region over the last week as the country weathers its worst outbreak of in years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.At a cholera isolation tent at a Sudanese displacement camp, an AFP journalist saw women and a young girl receiving intravenous fluids, while exhausted and weak patients sprawled on camp beds.Citing rising cases of cholera which “exacerbate the worst effects of malnutrition”, the European Union called on all parties to “urgently” allow in international aid.Medical charity MSF said the vast western region, which has been a major battleground over more than two years of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, had been hardest hit by the year-old outbreak.”On top of an all-out war, people in Sudan are now experiencing the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years,” MSF said in a statement. “In the Darfur region alone, MSF teams treated over 2,300 patients and recorded 40 deaths in the past week.”The NGO said 2,470 cholera-related deaths had been reported in the year to August 11, out of 99,700 suspected cases.Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with bacteria, often from faeces.It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps.Cholera can kill within hours when not attended to, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration, and antibiotics for more severe cases.There has been a global increase in cholera cases, which have also spread geographically, since 2021.MSF said mass displacements of civilians sparked by the war in Sudan had aggravated the outbreak by denying people access to clean water for essential hygiene measures, such as washing dishes and food.The delivery of humanitarian aid has become almost impossible.”This cannot continue,” the EU said, in a joint statement with several countries including Britain, Canada and Japan. “Civilians must be protected, and humanitarian access must be granted.”- No other choice -“The situation is most extreme in Tawila, North Darfur state, where 380,000 people have fled to escape ongoing fighting around the city of El-Fasher, according to the United Nations,” MSF said.”In Tawila, people survive with an average of just three litres of water per day, which is less than half the emergency minimum threshold of 7.5 litres needed per person per day for drinking, cooking, and hygiene.”At a cholera isolation centre in a tent at a Tawila displacement camp, an AFP journalist watched met patients suffering in the latest outbreak.”We mix lemon in the water when we have it and drink it as medicine,” said Mona Ibrahim, who has been living for two months in a hastily erected camp in Tawila.”We have no other choice,” she said. “We don’t have toilets — the children relieve themselves in the open,” she added.According to the World Health Organization, between January of 2023 and July of this year, Sudan had the highest number of cholera deaths of any country in the world.Sudan’s mortality rate from cholera, at 2.1 percent, is more than 2.5 times higher than the global average.- Contaminated water -Since forces loyal to the regular army recaptured the capital Khartoum in March, fighting has again focused on Darfur, where the paramilitaries have been attempting to take El-Fasher.The besieged pocket is the last major city in the western region still under the army’s control and UN agencies have spoken of appalling conditions for the remaining civilians trapped inside.”In displacement and refugee camps, families often have no choice but to drink from contaminated sources and many contract cholera,” said Sylvain Penicaud, MSF project coordinator in Tawila.”Just two weeks ago, a body was found in a well inside one of the camps. It was removed, but within two days, people were forced to drink from that same water again.”MSF said that heavy rains were worsening the crisis by contaminating water and damaging sewage systems, while the exodus of civilians seeking refuge was spreading the disease.”As people move around to flee fighting, cholera is spreading further, in Sudan and into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan,” it said.MSF’s head of mission in Sudan, Tuna Turkmen, said the situation was “beyond urgent”.”The outbreak is spreading well beyond displacement camps now, into multiple localities across Darfur states and beyond,” he said.”Survivors of war must not be left to die from a preventable disease.”burs-raz/dc