Friday, April 26, 2024
Germany: Police clear pro-Palestinian protest camp outside parliament building
Six In The Morning Friday 26 April 2024
Israeli PM says ICC decisions will not affect actions
Benjamin Netanyahu says any rulings issued by the International Criminal Court will not affect Israel’s actions but would “set a dangerous precedent”.
“Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to undermine its basic right to defend itself,” the prime minister said in a statement shared online.
“While decisions made by the court in The Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they will set a dangerous precedent that threatens soldiers and public figures.”
Last month, the Law for Palestine organisation made the first in a series of submissions to the ICC, accusing Israeli leaders of committing the crime of genocide committed against Palestinians.
“The 200-page document, drafted by 30 lawyers and legal researchers from across the world and reviewed by more than 15 experts, makes a compelling case for the genocidal intent as well as for the prosecutorial policy that the court has followed in other cases,” the group’s Anisha Patel and Hassan Ben Imran wrote in an opinion piece published by Al Jazeera.
“If the ICC fails to act once again, it risks undermining its own authority as an institution of international justice and the international legal regime as a whole,” they said.
‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel is civil liberties threat, say lawyers
Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s legal team and employer speak out after arrest over podcast comments
The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said.
Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 17 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate.
“This case is unique,” said Hassan Jabareen, her lawyer and the director of the human rights organisation Adalah. “This is not only about one professor, it could be a [precedent] for any academic who goes against the consensus in wartime.”
China's ByteDance denies plans to sell TikTok in US
Earlier reports had suggested ByteDance planned to sell the app, without its powerful algorithm. US President Biden recently signed a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the US if it is not sold.
ByteDance denied reports it intends to sell its popular TikTok app within the United States, after US President Joe Biden signed into law a legislation that would effectively ban the app should it not divest from the Chinese tech giant.
"ByteDance does not have any plans to sell TikTok," the company said, as the issue around the ban of TikTok further instigated rising tensions between Beijing and Washington.
During a visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China on Friday, Chinese chief diplomat Wang Yi warned of an increase in the "negative factors" in the relationship between the two countries, claiming that China's right to develop was being "unreasonably suppressed."
Junta-led Burkina Faso suspends BBC, Voice of America for two weeks
Burkina Faso has suspended the BBC and Voice of America radio networks from broadcasting after they aired a rights report accusing the army of attacks on civilians in its battle against jihadists.
The British and US broadcasters are the latest international media organisations to be targeted since Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African country in a September 2022 coup.
"The programmes of these two international radio networks broadcasting from Ouagadougou have been suspended for a period of two weeks," Burkina's communications authority, the CSC, announced late on Thursday.
It said the decision had been taken because BBC Africa and the VOA had aired and also published a report on their digital platforms "accusing the Burkina army of abuses against the civilian population".
Meta sued in Japan over investment ads with fake celebrity endorsements
Four people sued the Japanese arm of U.S. tech giant Meta Platforms Inc on Thursday over false investment ads using fake celebrity endorsements on Facebook and Instagram.
The plaintiffs, including those from Kobe and Tokyo, filed the lawsuit with the Kobe District Court, claiming they had lost money because the company was negligent in verifying the legitimacy of such advertisements. They are seeking a total of 23 million yen in damages.
Social media scams soliciting investments by using the names and images of prominent business figures without their consent have become nationwide problems lately, with the amount of money defrauded reaching around 27.8 billion yen in 2023 alone, according to the National Police Agency.
The most streamed female Francophone artist has become a target in France’s culture wars ahead of Paris 2024
Aya Nakamura was born in the former French colony of Mali, raised in France and is widely considered the most streamed female Francophone artist in the world.
The 28-year-old, as well as being Malian, is a French citizen, and a multiple-platinum-selling pop star who was brought up in the Parisian suburbs. However, ahead of Paris 2024, Nakamura finds herself at the center of France’s culture wars.
Amid widespread rumors the singer would perform at the Games’ Opening Ceremony, singing an Edith Piaf song, some members of France’s far-right have questioned whether she embodies French heritage, values and identity. Piaf is a key figure in France’s musical – and national – identity.