Japan sees big wins for far-right, anti-immigration party that denounced ‘Jewish capital’

Sanseito’s leader, Sohei Kamiya, has denied being antisemitic.

Japan's opposition party Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya smiles as he speaks to members of the media at the vote counting center in Tokyo on July 20, 2025.

 (Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images)

By Shira Li Bartov
July 25, 2025
JTA

Japan’s far-right Sanseito party emerged triumphant in the country’s latest parliamentary election this week, signaling the rise of a nationalist, anti-immigrant movement with a history of decrying “Jewish capital.”

Sanseito, which flies a “Japanese First” banner explicitly inspired by President Donald Trump, gained 14 seats in the country’s upper house elections on Sunday — a leap from only one seat, held by leader Sohei Kamiya.

The upper house is less powerful than Japan’s lower house, where Sanseito has three seats. But the party’s upper house victories stripped a majority from the center-right Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed almost continuously since its formation in 1955, triggering calls for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to resign.

Sanseito was born only five years ago during the COVID pandemic, when Kamiya founded a YouTube channel and built a base of social media followers united by their disaffection with conventional political parties. The channel opposed public health measures such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and espoused conspiracy theories about global liberal elites who sought to weaken Japanese security and cultural purity.

Kamiya won Sanseito’s first upper house seat in 2022. During the campaign, he published a pamphlet that claimed Jewish financiers were profiting from inciting fears about COVID, saying that Sanseito would not “sell Japan out to Jewish capital.” About 1,000 Jews live in Japan, most of them immigrants and expatriates.

Kamyia has denied being antisemitic. According to Jewish journalist Jake Adelstein, he said at a press conference earlier this month, “I have Jewish friends and in fact, was a member of the Japan-Israel Friendship Society, which led online commentators to accuse me of being a puppet of the Jews.”

In this election, Sanseito campaigned on restricting immigration and foreign capital, bolstering defense and curbing gender equality and diversity policies. Kamiya has advocated for women to leave the workplace and focus on raising children.

Though Japan has a relatively low number of immigrants — only about 3% of the population — immigration has increased since the 1980s, when it opened up to migrant labor from across Asia and Latin America. More recently, the government has softened immigration laws to allow more workers into a country with an aging, shrinking population.

Nonetheless, local commentators say that Sanseito’s platform resonated with voters who are frustrated with Japan’s rising inflation and cost-of-living crisis. The party blamed immigrants for hoarding welfare benefits, depressing wages and worsening crime, claims boosted by a torrent of disinformation online.

UN chief criticizes UK government for classifying pro-Palestine group as terrorist

Emanuel Xhindi | U. Tirana Faculty of Law, AL

JULY 25, 2025 

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk cautioned on Thursday that the UK government’s decision to list the activist group Palestine Action under terrorist legislation may contravene international standards.

Türk noted that under international standards, acts of terrorism should be limited to “criminal acts intended to cause death or serious injury” with the goal of “intimidating a population” or the government towards a particular act or omission. Under section 2(b) of the UK Terrorism Act 2000, a terrorist act can include “serious damage to property,” which Türk found too broad compared to international standards.

Türk went on to elaborate that:

The decision appears disproportionate and unnecessary. It limits the rights of many people involved with and supportive of Palestine Action who have not themselves engaged in any underlying criminal activity but rather exercised their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

UN experts previously warned the UK government against the “unjustified labelling” of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, particularly because a ban leads to the criminalization of any membership or support with Palestine Action. In mid-July, UK police arrested protestors who were upset about the classification of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. 42 protestors at a sit-in in central London were arrested, while 13 protestors outside of the BBC Cymru Wales headquarters were also arrested.

The UK parliament voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organization earlier this month. Ms. Yvette Cooper, the secretary of state for the Home Department, issued a draft proscription stating, among other reasons, that the organization had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage.”

The decision to ban Palestine Action comes after several recent acts by the group, including how the activists from the organization allegedly broke into a military base in Brize Norton in late June and spray-painted two military planes.

Sen. Sanders demands US action to stop 'atrocities and starvation' in Gaza

'American taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb civilians and support the cruelty of Netanyahu,' says Bernie Sanders

Diyar Güldoğan |26.07.2025 - TRT/AA



WASHINGTON

US Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded the US end support for Israel’s "illegal war” in the Gaza Strip, with mass starvation and civilian casualties.

"After 21 months of brutal war, the Netanyahu government’s extermination of Gaza is entering a new and terrible phase. America and the world cannot continue to look away. We must reckon with what is being done with our taxpayer money, our weapons and the support of our government.

"More than that, we must act to stop it," Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for blocking humanitarian aid, and pointed to data from humanitarian groups and the UN that indicate one-third of Gaza’s population is going days without food, with children dying from malnutrition and hospitals collapsing under starvation.

"When mass death from starvation begins, it is difficult to reverse. Aid groups say Gaza faces a tidal wave of preventable death. This is the direct result of the Israeli government’s policies," he said.

Stressing that Israel did not allow a single shipment of aid into Gaza from March 2 to May 19, Sanders said more than 1,000 Palestinians have been shot down while trying to get food aid in the last two months.

"Most of these deaths are the result of Israel’s replacement of the established United Nations distribution system with the untested Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose few distribution points have become death traps for Palestinian civilians, with near-daily massacres," he added.

The GHF aid distribution sites, launched May 27 in Gaza, which also have US backing, have been described as “death traps” by critics.

"This is the reality: Having already killed or wounded 200,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, the extremist Israeli government is using mass starvation to engineer the ethnic cleansing of Gaza," said Sanders.

Sanders said the US has provided more than $22 billion in military aid to Israel since the war began in 2023, despite the rising death toll.

"In other words, American taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb civilians and support the cruelty of Netanyahu and his criminal ministers.

“Enough is enough. The White House and Congress must immediately act to end this war using the full scope of American influence. No more military aid to the Netanyahu government. History will condemn those who fail to act in the face of this horror," he added.

Israel has killed more than 59,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

 Is anyone going to stop a looming death spiral in Gaza?

A veteran aid worker’s warning on what happens next in Gaza.

by Nicole Narea

Jul 25, 2025, 

VOX

LONG READ

Palestinians carrying pans gather to receive hot meals, distributed by a charity organization in Gaza City, where residents are struggling to access food due to the ongoing Israeli blockade and attacks on July 23, 2025. Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images

Gaza is on the brink of a mass starvation crisis, and once it starts, it will be difficult if not impossible to stop.

The Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip has faced various levels of food insecurity throughout the war that Israel has waged on the territory since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, fluctuating with the amount of aid Israel has allowed to enter the enclave via checkpoints it controls.

Related  The dire state of Gaza negotiations, briefly explained


In March 2024, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) — the primary organization tracking food insecurity worldwide — issued a warning that every resident of Gaza was at risk of crisis levels of food insecurity, and half were at risk of famine. (Crisis levels are reached when a population has “food consumption gaps alongside acute malnutrition” or is “only just able to meet their food needs, resorting to crisis coping strategies like selling off essential livelihood assets.” Famine is the most serious form of hunger, involving a complete lack of access to food and resulting starvation and death.) A famine was never officially declared, and food access peaked during the negotiated ceasefire reached in January.

In March, Israel cut off all shipments into the Gaza Strip, including food aid, when the ceasefire expired. Israel justified it as a tactical strategy to get Hamas to release more Israeli hostages as part of continuing negotiations.

The flow of humanitarian aid has since slowed to a trickle under the purview of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group backed by the US and Israeli governments. It began operating in May, and is the sole entity that has been allowed to deliver food. Almost one-third of the 2.1 million people remaining in Gaza are not eating for multiple days in a row, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

Israel has also made it treacherous for hungry Gazans to even access food from the GHF. The UN estimates that the Israeli military has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get aid in Gaza since May. There are four GHF distribution centers throughout Gaza, three of which are in areas where the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders, and they are often only open for short periods of time, sometimes spurring crowds to rush to get provisions.

After enduring more than 21 months in a war zone with inadequate nutrition, the population of Gaza is worn down, and humanitarian groups say that imminent famine will likely cause many to die — not just from hunger, but also from preventable disease that their bodies can no longer fight off.

To understand how Gaza got to this point and what happens next, I spoke with Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, an organization that advocates for humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people. Our conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

How has access to food in Gaza changed throughout the course of the war?

What happened from really almost the start of the war through all of last year was a population that was hovering right at the edge of a starvation emergency, but never quite dipping fully into it.

The Israeli government had been hugely restricting aid through January and February of 2024. The warning of potential famine came out in early March [2024], and then they subsequently allowed a great deal more aid in in April, and the situation improved. Some of the concessions that the Israelis then made in late March into April, and somewhat beyond that, really did make a meaningful difference. And then the Rafah offensive started in May, and things worsened again after that.

The period of the ceasefire [beginning in January 2025] was the best period for aid access since the war began. For six weeks, hundreds of aid trucks were coming in every day. There was relative freedom of movement and freedom of operation for aid organizations who previously had been heavily, heavily constricted by [Israel Defense Forces] operations and permission structures.

There was always just enough that would be allowed in to prevent the kind of full-blown famine outcomes that I think we’re now beginning to see.

Why is the population of Gaza now on the brink of starvation?

If you fully cut someone off [from food] when they are otherwise in good health, it’s going to take longer for them to deteriorate. If they have spent a year-plus being one step removed from starvation, then they’re much more vulnerable. Another shock to their system has the risk to be much, much more damaging.

I think that’s what we’re now seeing, when Israel withdrew from the ceasefire in March and imposed a total, complete, hermetic blockade on Gaza.

There was, for a while, enough residual aid that had been brought in during the ceasefire.The population could stretch that out and and make do for a while before the deprivation really started to bite again.

I would argue what we’re seeing is still effectively an extension of that blockade, because the primary aid that Israel has been allowing in is through this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is not a meaningful factor in terms of the hunger situation in Gaza. The amounts they’ve been letting in are vanishingly small.

This Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is distributing modest amounts of very poor quality aid to, as far as we can tell, a pretty limited number of people: the ones who happen to be able to get to their sites, which is not most of the population. The cost of a bag of flour has gone up from 50 shekels during the ceasefire earlier this year to over 1,700 now.


What happens if famine sets in now?


When you have a population that is that stressed, whose health has deteriorated that much, or is [already] in such an advanced state of population-level food deprivation and malnutrition, then things can turn bad very rapidly, because there is nothing to stand in the way of starvation.

We have seen this kind of a trajectory in other settings before. Once people’s coping mechanisms are exhausted, once their food and financial reserves are exhausted, once their bodies are in a very weakened state due to sustained malnutrition over a long period of time, then it doesn’t take much to kill someone.

It is very hard for your body to fight off disease or survive an injury, or even just survive. In most famines, we see mortality coming from a mix of both outright starvation and opportunistic infections. So people’s bodies are greatly weakened, and they can’t fight off diseases that would otherwise be very survivable.

There is nothing coming on the horizon to improve that situation unless the Israeli government allows the mainstream professional humanitarian community to actually do their fucking jobs, and that is the one thing they will not allow.

Famines have a momentum, and the longer that they are allowed to deepen, the harder they are to reverse. You need your standard food aid package distributed at scale. But you also need specialized, fortified food products, because people are in such an advanced state of malnutrition. You need advanced therapeutic malnutrition treatment, because a lot more people are now going to be coming into an advanced state of malnutrition that requires inpatient malnutrition treatment.

You need clean water because the food that’s being distributed has to be prepared with water. You need fuel so that people can cook the foods. You need medical treatment because many people who die in a famine die of disease, rather than outright starvation. And you need to improve sanitation, because if people do not have good sanitation, that’s what allows the spread of waterborne diseases.

None of that’s possible right now.

Why in your view has the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation been so ineffective?

A core principle of humanitarian aid delivery is you want to get the aid as close to where the population is as possible.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation inverts that: They make the people come to the aid, rather than bringing the aid to the people. And they make people come to the aid through a deeply insecure territory, past IDF forces, who have been consistently trigger-happy anytime they see a crowd of Palestinians nearby.

I and others warned very early on that this was likely to produce massacres, that this model was a recipe for disaster.

Another core principle of humanitarian aid is that you must not provide aid in a way that increases the risk to the population. There’s a very strongly ingrained ethos of “do no harm.” This is a “do harm” ethos, if anything. You’re creating a situation where, in order to access aid, you compel people to cross a military perimeter where they are routinely shot at. That is not humanitarianism.

Some advocates have suggested that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. Do you agree with that?

That’s indisputable. It’s explicit. They want Hamas to relent, and they see the starvation of the population as a pressure point there.


Do you think the US is complicit in that?


I think the US is certainly complicit in that. I think even the Biden administration bears a degree of complicity in that, because they put somewhat more pressure on the Israeli government than the Trump administration has. But fundamentally, they tolerated the situation that brought Gaza to this point.

They tolerated a year-plus of starvation tactics being used, deprivation and illegal blockade tactics being used, and obstruction of aid, including aid provided by the US government. Rather than taking that on with the Netanyahu government, they did gimmick after gimmick. They did air drops. They did that ridiculous pier operation.

It wasn’t until nearly the very end of the administration that they sent the formal letter to the Israeli government demanding concrete progress. And then, of course, there was no meaningful progress.

I don’t think that solely falls on the Trump administration. Obviously, it is currently the Trump administration’s complicity.

HEAR, HEAR

Feature

Canada Must Deploy Peacekeeping Troops into Gaza to End Mass Starvation

Pitasanna Shanmugathas | U. Windsor Faculty of Law, CA

JULY 25, 2025 

Gaza is suffering “man-made mass starvation” caused by the blockade of aid into the territory, the head of the World-Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said, as more than 100 humanitarian agencies urged Israel to allow supplies in to alleviate the crisis.

In the face of this catastrophe, Canada must urgently deploy peacekeeping forces to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and end what U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, has called “the fastest starvation campaign we’ve seen in modern history.” More than 18,000 Canadians have already signed Parliamentary e-petition 6619, calling on the Canadian government to “work with international partners, including the United Nations, to urgently deploy peacekeeping forces to Gaza for the protection of civilians, to support the delivery of humanitarian aid.” The petition, sponsored by NDP Member of Parliament Heather McPherson, affirms that “impartial international peacekeeping forces have historically played a vital role in protecting civilians and facilitating humanitarian aid in areas of armed conflict.”

Yet when JURIST reached out to Canada’s current ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, to inquire why Canada has not publicly supported the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Gaza to help end mass starvation, no response was given.  The lack of response highlights a broader hesitation within the Canadian government to translate growing public concern into concrete international action—despite Canada facing a  formal UN investigation for its complicity in enabling Israeli atrocities.

Editor’s note: After the publication of this piece, JURIST received the following response from UN Ambassador Bob Rae:

In order for there to be a peacekeeping operation, there has to be a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas. Those discussions are currently underway. Canada has long been calling for such a [ceasefire].  We support the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the West Bank. A peacekeeping force would require authorization by UN and whether Canada would join would depend on agreement / but security and safety must return to the region.

In a comment to JURIST, Western University law professor emeritus and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Michael Lynk, stated:

The United Nations General Assembly has affirmed, on numerous occasions, its permanent responsibility with respect to the Question of Palestine until it is satisfactorily resolved in all of its aspects.

Given that Israel is conducting an unlawful occupation—as determined by the International Court of Justice in July 2024 and accepted by the General Assembly in September 2024—and has shown no indication of ending this occupation by the September 2025 deadline, and given its repeated defiance of legally binding provisional measures issued by the Court in January, March, and May 2024, the United Nations has the legal responsibility to take all feasible steps to end both the occupation and the military assault on Gaza.

This would include sending peacekeeping forces and a peacekeeping administration to all parts of the occupied Palestinian territory (as was done in East Timor) to facilitate the transition to a genuine Palestinian state.

The legal pathway for such intervention exists through established UN mechanisms that circumvent Security Council paralysis. As Fakhri notes, “when the Security Council is in a deadlock because of a veto, the United Nations General Assembly has the authority to call for peacekeepers to accompany humanitarian convoys to enter Gaza.” Canada should immediately invoke the “Uniting for Peace” resolution and work with like-minded nations to authorize a robust peacekeeping mission through the General Assembly. The East Timor precedent that Lynk references provides a concrete example of how the UN can deploy comprehensive peacekeeping missions to facilitate transition to statehood when occupation powers refuse to comply with international law.

Canada’s moral authority to lead such an initiative is undercut by growing international scrutiny of its own role in the humanitarian catastrophe. In May 2025, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination launched a formal inquiry into Canada’s military exports to Israel, expressing “deep concern” that these transfers may be facilitating “crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide” in Gaza. This marks the first time a UN treaty body has formally examined Canada’s potential legal responsibility in connection with Israel’s assault on Gaza’s civilian population.

The operational rationale for deploying peacekeepers centers on breaking Israel’s blockade on Gaza that has precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian collapse. Current conditions in Gaza represent a complete breakdown of civilian protection, with Amnesty International documenting how “hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured either near militarized distribution sites or en route to humanitarian aid convoys.” Displaced Palestinians like Ghada al-Fayoumi describe how “there’s no food, no bread, no drinks, no rice, no sugar, no cooking oil, no bulgur, nothing.”

A recent Leger poll demonstrates that Canadian public opinion aligns with this legal imperative, showing “49 per cent” of Canadians “agree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip,” with “more than 60 percent of Liberal Party, NDP, Green Party and Bloc Quebecois supporters” believing “Israel’s actions amount to genocide.” This public consciousness creates political space for Canada to lead an international peacekeeping mission that could break Israel’s blockade and save thousands of lives— while addressing the profound contradiction of a country under UN investigation for enabling the atrocities in Gaza.

A Canadian-led multinational peacekeeping force could fulfill three urgent roles:

1. Physically breaking the blockade by securing humanitarian corridors;
2. Protecting civilians from ongoing violence; and
3. Creating space for sustainable political solutions

The mission would require sufficient mandate and resources to deter attacks on civilians and aid operations, potentially including naval vessels to secure sea-based aid delivery and air assets to monitor compliance with international humanitarian law. Canadian Forces could coordinate with nations like France, Ireland, Norway, and South Africa—countries that have shown strong support for Palestinian rights—to deploy a comprehensive mission combining military protection and humanitarian capacity.

However, Canada cannot credibly lead such a mission while simultaneously undermining Palestinian self-determination through Operation Proteus and supplying military goods that may support Israeli war crimes. Operation Proteus, whereby Canadian police train Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to suppress protest against Israel’s occupation, fundamentally contradicts Canada’s stated commitment to protect Palestinian civilians and erodes Canadian credibility before a single Canadian peacekeeper is even deployed into Gaza.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has already acknowledged that Israel’s “denial of humanitarian aid in Gaza is a violation of international law” and called for replacing “Israel’s control of aid distribution” with “comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations.” This statement provides a policy foundation for peacekeeping deployment, while international momentum builds with France’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood creating diplomatic opportunity for coordinated action.

The UN investigation into Canada’s complicity underscores a stark reality: continuing with the current policy of passive alignment with Israeli actions while claiming to champion human rights is an unsustainable and morally bankrupt position.

Canada’s path forward demands immediate and decisive action:

• Terminate Operation Proteus to eliminate policy contradictions
• End all direct and indirect exports of military goods to Israel to address UN concerns about complicity
• Mobilize international partners to pursue General Assembly authorization for a peacekeeping mission; and
• Deploy Canadian peacekeepers with a clear mandate to break the blockade and secure humanitarian access

History will judge Canada’s response to this crisis. Canada has a legal and moral obligation to meet the moment.

Canada urges 'Israel to unblock humanitarian aid immediately'

'As I will discuss at the United Nations next week, Canada is committed to a two-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live peacefully side by side,' says foreign minister

Merve Aydogan |25.07.2025 - TRT/AA




HAMILTON, Canada

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand called on Israel Friday to "immediately" allow the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where deaths by starvation have climbed in recent days.

"Today, I spoke with Minister Gideon Saar. I underlined the urgent need for Israel to unblock humanitarian aid immediately, of which Canada has committed over $300 million, and to end the unnecessary humanitarian crisis in Gaza," Anand said in a post on X.

She said Canada remains committed to efforts to restore peace and stability in the region.

"I also reiterated Canada’s ongoing support for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must release all hostages, lay down its arms and play no role in the governance of a Palestinian State," she said.

She confirmed her attendance to upcoming UN conference in New York on the two-state solution, and said: "Canada is committed to a two-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live peacefully side by side."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday had condemned Israel's failure to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, urging the Israeli government to relinquish control over aid distribution and allow international organizations to take the lead.

"Israel’s control of aid distribution must be replaced by comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations," he said on X.

Palestine urges Canada to recognize statehood amid growing global momentum

Palestinian Foreign Minister Farsin Aghabekian Shahin during phone call with his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand cites Gaza crisis, stalled revenues, and rising global support as key reasons for Ottawa to act

Aysar Alais and Tarek Chouiref |25.07.2025 - TRT/AA



​​​​​​​RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Palestinian Foreign Minister Farsin Aghabekian Shahin on Friday called on Canada to recognize the State of Palestine, saying the move is vital to protect the two-state solution from further erosion.

Shahin made the appeal during a phone call with Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, according to a statement from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

She said Canadian recognition would “help preserve the political horizon for peace” and counter Israel’s continued unilateral actions.

The call comes amid renewed diplomatic momentum for Palestinian statehood.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris would officially recognize Palestine during the UN General Assembly in September.

So far, 149 of the UN’s 193 member states have recognized Palestine—a number that has steadily risen since Israel began its war on Gaza in October last year.

Shahin and Anand also discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and efforts to revive international engagement toward a comprehensive peace, the statement said.

Shahin stressed the urgent need for a cease-fire, unhindered humanitarian access, and an end to what she called Israel's use of starvation as a weapon of war, which violates international law.

She urged Canada to take a more active role in pressuring Israel to release Palestinian clearance revenues it has withheld for months.

“These funds are essential for the Palestinian Authority to continue providing basic services to its people,” she said, warning that the financial strain could undermine regional stability.

The Palestinian Authority has not been able to pay full salaries to public employees for the past two months. Since 2019, Israel has withheld portions of Palestinian tax revenues under various pretexts, totaling more than $2.7 billion.

Israel has killed more than 59,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and triggered famine-like conditions.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on the enclave.

How France's recognition of the state of Palestine could shift Middle East dynamics

France has announced it will recognize the state of Palestine, a move that could shift discussions about the Middle East’s future

“Macron’s declaration could create a precedent because it would be the first Western country in the G7 to do so"

July 25, 2025 
By John Leicester | AP


PARIS — France’s bold decision to recognize the state of Palestine could help to shift conversations about the future of the Middle East , even if it’s unlikely to have an immediate impact for people in Gaza or on Israel’s war with Hamas .

In a world where nations are again using military force to impose their will on others — notably Russia in Ukraine , and the U.S. and Israel with their recent strikes on Iran and its nuclear facilities — French President Emmanuel Macron is attempting to strike a blow for diplomacy and the idea that war rarely brings peace.

With less than two years left of his second and last term as president, Macron also has his legacy to think about. Not acting decisively as a humanitarian disaster unfolds in Gaza could be a stain when history books are written.

Macron has levers to influence world affairs as leader of a nuclear-armed, economically and diplomatically powerful country that also sits at the big table at the United Nations, as one of the five permanent members of its security council.

Being the first member of the G7 group of industrialized nations to take this leap carries domestic risks. Presiding over a country with both Europe’s largest Jewish population and largest Muslim population, Macron is on a public opinion tightrope. His words will please some voters but infuriate others — a fact reflected by deeply divided political reactions in France to his decision announced on X on Thursday evening.

But after staunchly backing Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas and its Oct. 7, 2023 , attack that triggered the war, Macron is signaling that France’s support can only go so far.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the shift by one of his country’s closer allies in Europe. “Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became,” he said in a statement. “A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it.’’

A step but not a magic wand

The idea that Palestinians and Israelis could live side by side in peace in their own states has perhaps never looked more unrealistic — with Gaza in ruins and the occupied West Bank facing increasing settlement by Israelis. Macron’s words alone won’t change that. Still, the French leader’s message is that the hope of a “two-state solution” achieved through diplomacy must not be allowed to die — however unattainable it may seem.

“This solution is the only path that can address the legitimate aspirations of both the Israelis and the Palestinians. It must now be brought about as quickly as possible,” Macron said in a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which confirmed his decision to recognize Palestine as a state.

“The prospect of a negotiated solution to the conflict in the Middle East seems increasingly distant. I cannot resign myself to that,” he said.

The first impacts are likeliest not in Gaza but in world capitals where leaders may face pressure or feel emboldened to follow France’s lead. Attention is focusing on other G7 nations, because of their economic and diplomatic sway.

“Macron’s declaration could create a precedent because it would be the first Western country in the G7 to do so, which could have the effect of leading others,” said David Rigoulet-Roze, a researcher at the French Institute of Strategic Analysis.


Although more than 140 countries recognize Palestine as a state, France will be the biggest, most populous and most powerful among those in Europe that have taken this step.


“It creates some small momentum,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London who also added, however, that “this is not enough.”


“France should be congratulated, and Macron should be congratulated for doing that and showing the courage,” he said.

A shift in the balance of big powers

Until now, China and Russia were the only permanent members of the U.N. Security Council that recognized Palestinian statehood. France will join them when Macron makes good on his promise in September at the U.N. General Assembly. The new trio will leave the U.S. and the U.K. in a security council minority as its only permanent members that don’t recognize Palestine as a state.

The so-called P5 nations are divided on many other issues — including Ukraine, trade and climate change — so France’s shift isn’t, in itself, likely to spur radical and rapid change for Palestinians. Still, if only mathematically, the U.S. — Israel’s most important ally — and the U.K could find themselves more isolated among the big powers in any discussions on solutions for the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed Macron’s decision on Friday, saying “What he says doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything.”

France may have better traction with the U.K. Putting Brexit behind them, the U.K. and France are now drawing closer, most notably in support for Ukraine. If British Prime Minister Keir Starmer follows Macron’s example, Trump could become the odd man out on Palestinian statehood among the security council’s big five powers.

Starmer has signaled growing disquiet over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying in a statement Thursday that suffering and starvation there “is unspeakable and indefensible.” But he doesn’t seem ready to take a leap like Macron, suggesting that fighting must stop first.

“Statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people,” Starmer said. “A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution.”

—-

AP writers Jill Lawless in London, and Michelle Price in Washington, contributed.

Starvation in Gaza as MPs call for UK to recognise Palestinian state

By Jonathan Rugman

 Contains distressing content.

25 Jul 2025

Amid warnings of “catastrophic” levels of starvation in Gaza – the UK, France and Germany have issued a joint statement calling for an end to the war and urging Israel to “immediately lift the restrictions on the flow of aid”.

But Sir Keir Starmer said that recognising Palestinian statehood should be part of a wider ‘pathway’ to peace.

Dozens killed as fierce tropical storm batters the Philippines as president warns country must 'adapt' to climate change

26 July 2025, 

Residents of Malabon city in the Philippines wade along a flooded road as Typhoon Co-may intensified seasonal monsoon rains. Picture: Alamy

By Jennifer Kennedy

Typhoon Co-may tore through the north of the Phillippines this week, leaving 25 people dead and eight missing

Typhoon Co-may hit the town of Agno in Pangasinan province on Thursday night, with winds reaching speeds of 74 miles per hour.

The storm followed more than a week of seasonal monsoon drains that lashed a large part of the Philippines.

At least 25 deaths have been reported since last weekend, and eight people have been reported missing. The deaths were mostly caused by flash floods, falling trees, landslides, and electrocution, according to officials in the Philippines.

Military personnel, police officers, coast guard members, firefighters, and civilian volunteers have been mobilised to help rescue affected residents.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Thursday: "Everything has changed."

Read More: At least 14 dead following military clashes at border between Thailand and Cambodia

Read More: Two people 'burned alive in vehicle' as Cyrus wildfires rip through areas close to popular tourist town

A couple aboard a wooden boat docks at their submerged home at a village in Calumpit town, Bulacan province. Picture: Getty

The typhoon has now been downgraded to a tropical storm. Picture: Alamy

He later convened an emergency meeting with disaster-response officials, emphasising that both the government and the public must adjust to the growing frequency and unpredictability of natural disasters driven by climate change.

Over 80 towns and cities have declared a state of calamity, allowing quicker access to emergency funds and the freezing of prices on essential goods. Mostly of these places are on Luzon, the largest and most populous island in the Philippines.

278,000 people have been forced to seek shelter in emergency shelters or with relatives. Around 3,000 homes have been damaged, according to the government's disaster response agency.

Schools in Manila have been closed since Wednesday. Classes are also suspended in 35 provinces across the main northern region of Luzon.

The United States has said it will provide military aircraft to assist in delivering food and other aid to remote areas if weather conditions deteriorate further.

Forecasts predict more than a dozen more tropical storms will strike the Philippines before the end of 2025.

Doctors in England start 5-day strike after pay negotiations with government break down



By —Associated Press

Jul 25, 2025 

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of doctors in England’s state-funded health system walked off the job Friday in a five-day strike over pay that the government says will disrupt care for patients across the country.

Resident doctors, those early in their careers who form the backbone of hospital and clinic care, took to picket lines outside hospitals after talks with the government broke down.

READ MORE:    South Korean doctors hold mass protest against government’s medical school admissions plan

The National Health Service said emergency departments would be open and hospitals and clinics would try to carry out as many scheduled appointments as possible.

The doctors are seeking a pay raise to make up for what their union, the British Medical Association, says is a 20% real-terms pay cut since 2008.

“When doctors decide to take strike action it’s always portrayed as though we’re being selfish, but we’re here as a body to help the public day in, day out, to work hours that don’t even end sometimes,” said Kelly Johnson, a doctor on the picket line outside St. Thomas’ Hospital in central London,

“Here we are just trying to get what’s right for us so we can do our best to serve the public.”

The government says doctors have received an average 28.9% increase as part of a deal to settle previous strikes and it will not offer more, but is willing to discuss improved working conditions.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged the doctors to go back to work.

“Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage,” he wrote in The Times newspaper.

“Behind the headlines are the patients whose lives will be blighted by this decision. The frustration and disappointment of necessary treatment delayed. And worse, late diagnoses and care that risks their long-term health,” Starmer wrote.

Health sector staff staged a series of rolling strikes over more than a year in 2023-24, seeking pay rises to offset the rising cost of living. The strikes forced tens of thousands of appointments and procedures to be postponed.

The strikes hit efforts by the National Health Service to dig out of an appointment backlog that ballooned after the COVID-19 pandemic and led to longer waiting times to see a doctor.

The strikes stopped after the Labour government elected in July 2024 gave doctors a raise, but the union held a new strike vote last month.

DOGE CUTS

US Plane suddenly drops 500 feet to ‘avoid mid-air collision’ with British jet fighter

Jessica Kwong
 July 26, 2025 

METRO UK

A Southwest Airlines plane dove 500 feet to avoid crashing into a Hawker Hunter (Picture: Shutterstock)

A Southwest Airlines plane abruptly dropped about 500 feet reportedly to avoid a mid-air collision with a British jet fighter.

Flight 1496 plummeted from 14,100 feet to 13,625 feet only six minutes after departing from Hollywood Burbank Airport in California on Friday, flightRadar24 shows.

Passenger Steve Ulasewicz said he ‘felt a significant drop’ that lasted eight to 10 seconds and that ‘the plane was just in a freefall’.

‘People were screaming,’ Ulasewicz told NBCLA.

A Hawker Hunter was flying at an altitude of about 14,653 feet when the Southwest plane started descending (Picture: Getty Images)

‘It was pandemonium.’

He said the pilot announced that the plane used software to avoid getting into a mid-air collision.

A Hawker Hunter, N number N335AX, was flying at an altitude of about 14,653 feet when the Southwest airplane started to descend.

Several Hawker Hunter jets were in the area conducting a routine operation at the time of the incident, a source told ABC News.

Southwest Airline Flight 1496 continued on its journey after the terrifying incident and landed safely in Las Vegas (Picture: FlightAware)

Planes are equipped with collision avoidance systems that guide them to go down or up as the other aircraft is expected to go the opposite direction.

The Southwest plane and the British jet fighter were several miles from each other when the pilots received the alerts to move positions, according to preliminary data.

Southwest stated that it was in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to ‘further understand the circumstances’.

‘No injuries were immediately reported by Customers, but two Flight Attendants are being treated for injuries,’ stated the airline.

‘We appreciate the professionalism of our Flight Crew and Flight Attendants in responding to this event.

‘Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.’

Ulasewicz he saw an injured flight attendant receive attention from medical personnel immediately after the plane landed safely in Las Vegas, its intended destination.

The frightening incident happened nearly six months after American Airlines Flight 5342 collided mid-air with a military Black Hawk aircraft and both sunk in the Potomac River in Washington, DC, killing all 67 people on board.

Southwest flight plummets, injuring flight attendants

1 hour ago
Max Matza
BBC News

Getty Images


A Southwest Airlines plane rapidly dropped in elevation after departing from the Los Angeles area on Friday, with passengers posting online that the pilot was forced to rapidly change course to avoid a potential collision with another aircraft.

Flight 1496 from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Las Vegas plummeted rapidly, lifting passengers out of their seats and injuring two flight attendants.

The crew "responded to two onboard traffic alerts... requiring them to climb and descend to comply with the alerts", Southwest said in a statement.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was investigating the "incident". It comes less than one week after a similar near-miss.

"Ensuring the safety of everyone in the national airspace system remains our top priority," the FAA statement added.

Stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore was onboard the plane, and was among the passengers saying that the erratic move was due to a near-miss with another plane.

"Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us. Wow," Dore wrote on X. "A flight attendant needed medical attention."

His colleague Stef Zamorano added that all the passengers applauded when the plane landed.

Caitlin Burdi told Fox News that passengers were "screaming" as the plane rapidly fell.

"It was terrifying. We really thought we were plummeting to a plane crash," she said.

She added that the pilot came over the speaker afterwards to say that the plane had almost hit another plane, and that they had lost contact with air traffic control.

"I just remember him saying, 'What just happened was we almost collided with another plane, and I had to make the emergency attempt to go under because we lost service with the air traffic controller,'" she said.

According to CNN, the plane was nearly intercepted by a privately owned Hawker Hunter fighter jet after less than six minutes in the air.

The jet crossed less than two miles in front of it, and within a few hundred feet of its altitude, CNN reported, citing flight tracking data. It had departed from El Pas, Texas and was flying to Oxnard, California.

The Southwest statement said that the flight continued on to Las Vegas, "where it landed uneventfully", and that the airline is "engaged" with the FAA "to further understand the circumstances".

"We appreciate the professionalism of our Flight Crew and Flight Attendants in responding to this event. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees."

It comes less than one week after a Delta regional flight from Minneapolis was forced to make a sudden evasive manoeuvre to avoid a US military bomber.

Delta flight makes 'aggressive manoeuvre' to avoid collision with military aircraft

4 days ago
Ana Faguy
BBC News


A Delta regional jet pilot was forced to make an "aggressive" evasive manoeuvre to avoid a potential mid-air collision with a US military aircraft before landing in North Dakota.

The pilot, who identified the aircraft as a B-52 bomber, is heard in video recordings shared on social media saying it was "kind of, sort of coming at us". "So, sorry about the aggressive manoeuvre," he says.

Delta Air Lines regional jet SkyWest Flight 3788 was en route from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Minot, North Dakota on Friday, the airline said.

"We took a really hard right turn, we were completely sideways," Monica Green, a woman on the flight who recorded the audio told the BBC. "I was facing the grass."

"We had no idea what was going on, we didn't know if there was anything wrong with the plane or if the sharp turns would continue," Ms Green said.

As soon as the plane became level again, the passengers went quiet, she said.

The aircraft landed safely "after being cleared for approach" but "performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path", the SkyWest Airlines said in a statement.

After the plane landed, the pilot came out from the cockpit and explained to the passengers that the tower instructed him to turn right but that when he looked over, he saw a B-52 bomber.

At that point he was instructed to turn left but said he looked over and "saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us".

The pilot told the passengers that the other aircraft was moving faster than the SkyWest plane, so he made the decision to turn behind it.

"It caught me by surprise," he said. "This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up."

He concluded his message with an apology: "Long story short, it was not fun, but I do apologize for it - and thank you for understanding." Passengers responded with applause, the video shows.

SkyWest Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident.