Egypt says it will join South Africa’s ICJ case
With Egypt joining South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel, Alon Liel, former director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, tells Al Jazeera the move is an “unbelievable diplomatic blow to Israel”.
“Egypt is the cornerstone of our standing in the Middle East,” he said. The connections that Israel has in the Middle East and North Africa today, including with Jordan, the UAE and Morocco, is all “a result of what Egypt did 40 years ago”.
“With Egypt joining South Africa now in The Hague, it’s a real diplomatic punch. Israel would have to take it very seriously.
About 50,000 protest in Tbilisi against Georgia ‘foreign agents’ bill
US says parliamentarians must choose between Kremlin-style laws or Euro-Atlantic democratic path
An estimated 50,000 people marched peacefully in heavy rain in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Saturday night after the US said parliamentarians had to choose between Kremlin-style laws or the Euro-Atlantic democratic path they had embarked upon.
The march was the latest in a series of public protests against a “foreign agents” bill that would require media and commercial organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from outside the country to register as “agents of foreign influence”.
Fish Farming in IcelandInvasion of the Zombie Salmon
The salmon is swimming directly towards the camera. Its left eye can’t be seen, but the right one seems to be looking directly at the viewer. Its mouth is open wide and its face is a flesh-colored, swollen-and-scarred mess, lacerated and eaten away at by sea lice and bacteria. A swimming cadaver. An animal bred in captivity, swimming in a hopelessly overcrowded net set up by humans – humans who are raking in millions.
Activist Veiga Grétarsdóttir calls the fish in the image the "Zombie Salmon." She says that her picture, which she snapped in the Arnarfjörður fjord in Iceland, changed everything.
'God, have mercy!': Survivors recount horror of Indonesia flood
Rina Devina was getting ready to go to sleep with her husband and two of her children at home on the Indonesian island of Sumatra when she heard a thunderous noise and someone shouted "flash flood!"
Hours of heavy rain and cold lava from nearby volcano Mount Marapi inundated two districts just before midnight on Saturday, sweeping dozens of people to their deaths and damaging homes, roads and mosques. More than a dozen remain missing.
Residents of Tanah Datar and nearby Agam district who survived recounted their horror when the flash floods tore through, carrying their neighbours away and submerging houses and buildings.
"The rain was very heavy, I heard the thunder and the sound similar to boiling water. It was the sound of big rocks falling from Mount Marapi," Rina, a 43-year-old housewife in Agam, told AFP.
Iran's hardliners win parliamentary run-off vote
Iran's hardline factions have strengthened their grip on power in a run-off parliamentary election. Most independent and opposition candidates were barred from running.
Iran's hardline factions have won most of the remaining seats in a parliamentary run-off vote, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
Hardliners have secured 233 of 290 seats in Iran's parliament, according to a tally by the Associated Press news agency.
What do we know about the run-off vote?
The "principlist" faction won 10 of 16 remaining seats in the run-off vote in Tehran, with the Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces (SHANA) receiving the remaining six. Both groups are classified as hardline factions.
The majority of the remaining seats in the provinces were also taken by hardline groups.
Malaysia’s ‘orangutan diplomacy’ plan slammed as ‘obscene’
China has “panda diplomacy,” Australia parades koalas at global summits – and now Malaysia plans to join the Asia-Pacific trend for adorable ambassadors, by gifting orangutans to countries that buy its palm oil.
But the idea has come under heavy criticism from conservationists, who note that palm oil is one of the biggest factors behind the great apes’ dwindling numbers – with one leading conservation professor calling the plan “obscene.”
The world’s most widely consumed vegetable oil, palm oil is used in everything from shampoo and soaps to ice cream. Clearing land for palm oil plantations has been a major driver of deforestation, the greatest threat to the survival of critically endangered orangutans.
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