International Glance
The Trump administration’s military airstrikes against boats off Venezuela’s coast that the White House claims were being used for drug trafficking are “extrajudicial killings”, said Rand Paul, the president’s fellow Republican and US senator from Kentucky.
Paul’s strong comments on the topic came on Sunday during an interview on Republican-friendly Fox News, three days after Donald Trump publicly claimed he “can’t imagine” federal lawmakers would have “any problem” with the strikes when asked about seeking congressional approval for them.
US forces in recent weeks have carried out at least eight strikes against boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast, killing about 40 people that the Trump administration has insisted were involved in smuggling drugs.
Speaking with Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream, Paul asserted that Congress has “gotten no information” on the campaign of strikes from Trump’s administration – despite the president claiming the White House would be open to briefing the federal lawmakers about the offensive.
Republican senator calls Trump’s military airstrikes ‘extrajudicial killings’
Israel relents as search for Gaza bodies expands with Egypt’s help
As the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire enters its third week, Palestinians return to destroyed buildings posing deadly hazards with an estimated 66,000 tons of unexploded ordnance buried in the rubble.
Hamas expands its search for the remains of 13 captives as Israel relents and allows teams from Egypt and the Red Cross into Gaza to help find their bodies.
US President Donald Trump hints that troops from Qatar – and elsewhere – may be part of an international stabilisation force to be deployed “soon” in Gaza.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 68,519 people and wounded 170,382 since October 2023. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks and about 200 were taken captive.
Ukraine: Donald Trump pivots again
Ukraine’s president had hoped that Donald Trump, who has taken a tougher line against Russia in recent weeks, might agree to sell Kyiv long-range Tomahawk missiles. But Trump, who had shared a two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin the previous day at the Russian leader’s request, not only ruled that option out but lectured Zelenskyy on the need to make territorial concessions. He apparently tossed aside maps of Ukraine during the ill-tempered meeting, warning Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms or be “destroyed” by Russia.
Trump’s harsh tone should concentrate the minds of European leaders as they explore the idea of using frozen Russian assets to secure a £122 billion loan to Kyiv. It’s now clear that the US can’t be relied on. This makes Europe’s support for Ukraine more important than ever. Trump’s rejection of Ukraine’s request for Tomahawks has been presented as a concession to Moscow, said Jennifer Kavanagh on UnHerd, but that’s “unfair”.
Trump threatens to 'cut all ties with Israel' if West Bank annexed
President Donald Trump warned Israel would lose its crucial backing from the United States if it annexes the occupied West Bank, as visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced confidence that a US-backed ceasefire in Gaza would hold.
Trump's remarks were made to Time magazine by telephone on 15 October - just days after the Gaza truce plan he spearheaded took effect - but were only published on Thursday.
"It won't happen," Trump said when asked about calls in Israel to annex the Palestinian West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. "It won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries."
He added: "Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened."
https://www.newarab.com/news/trump-us-will-cut-all-ties-if-israel-annexes-west-bank
Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, leading to condemnation Thursday from US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Israel at the time and who echoed Trump's comments.
When asked on Thursday if he was concerned by the votes, Trump told reporters at the White House: "Don't worry about the West Bank. Israel's not going to do anything with the West Bank."
The United States remains Israel's most important military and diplomatic supporter.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party boycotted and criticised the vote, though members of his ruling coalition support annexation.
Arab and Muslim countries, which the US has been courting to provide troops and money for a stabilisation force in Gaza -- a key element of Trump's ceasefire plan - have warned that annexation of the West Bank is a red line.
In Gaza, a mass burial offers little closure and new questions
Maybe one day, they will be able to put a name to the Palestinians buried side by side this week in the Gaza soil.
Palestinian health authorities told NBC News that each plot at the mass burial site in Deir-al-Balah would be clearly marked, so that a rebuilt health system might eventually help identify the remains — decomposing and in some cases apparently mutilated — that were returned by Israel as part of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The 54 unidentified bodiesBut for hundreds of families who had flocked to Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, where the remains were delivered, the mass burial brought little closure in their quest to confirm whether missing loved ones were indeed killed. were laid carefully in a long line of white shrouds as Palestinians gathered around the grave site.
But for hundreds of families who had flocked to Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, where the remains were delivered, the mass burial brought little closure in their quest to confirm whether missing loved ones were indeed killed.
Israel said all the returned bodies belonged to combatants in Gaza, without providing evidence to support the claim.
“Their loved ones’ bodies were so deformed and beyond recognition that they couldn’t even identify them and lay them to rest,” Moureen Kaki, a Palestinian American aid worker from the medical nongovernmental organization Glia, said in an interview Thursday.
Iraq condemns Israeli West Bank annexation bills as ‘flagrant violation’ of international law
Iraq on Friday condemned the Israeli Knesset’s preliminary approval of two bills to impose Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem, describing the move as a “flagrant violation of international law,” according to the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA).
In a statement, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemns the Knesset’s approval of two draft laws aimed at imposing sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and illegal settlements.”
The ministry said the step “constitutes a blatant breach of international law and a direct assault on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
“Such expansionist measures undermine prospects for stability and entrench the reality of occupation and settlement, threatening peace and security across the entire region,” it added.
Baghdad urged the international community to “shoulder its legal and humanitarian responsibilities and take a firm stand against Israel’s aggressive and expansionist policies toward the Palestinian people.”
Off-site power is being restored to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, officials say
Off-site power to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces for nearly four years, is being restored after a monthlong outage, officials said Thursday.
Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk said the damaged 750-kilovolt Dniprovska transmission line linking the Russian-occupied plant to Ukraine’s grid has been repaired, while work continues on the Ferosplavna 330-kilovolt backup line that runs through Russian-held areas.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the repairs to Europe’s largest nuclear power station were carried out under a local ceasefire. It described the return of off-site power as “a key step for nuclear safety.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces established special ceasefire zones for repairs to be safely carried out — a rare case of cooperation between both sides.
“Both sides engaged constructively with the IAEA to enable the complex repair plan to proceed,” Grossi said in a statement.
Grynchuk said Ukrainian energy workers have repaired the plant’s power lines 42 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. During that period, the facility lost external power and had to rely on emergency diesel generators on 10 occasions.
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