Gaza ceasefire plan in balance as US says Hamas proposed 'changes'
By Tom Bateman, BBC state department correspondent, travelling with Antony Blinken • David Gritten, BBC News
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Hamas has proposed "numerous changes" to a US-backed plan for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, which currently hangs in the balance.
He told reporters in Doha that some of the changes were "workable" and others were not, but that the US and mediators Qatar and Egypt would "try to close this deal".
Hamas said on Tuesday that it was ready to “deal positively” with the process but stressed the need for Israel to agree to a permanent ceasefire.
Remaining British judges urged to resign from Hong Kong’s top court
The three British judges still on territory’s top bench under pressure to quit after two others stepped down last week
Pressure is increasing on the last remaining British judges who sit in Hong Kong’s top court to resign, after two senior justices stepped down last week because of the “political situation” in the former British colony.
Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins resigned as non-permanent overseas judges from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal on Thursday. Collins cited the “political situation in Hong Kong” in a brief statement about his departure.
In a piece published on Monday, Sumption went further. Hong Kong “is slowly becoming a totalitarian state”, he wrote, in the Financial Times. “The rule of law is profoundly compromised in any area about which the government feels strongly.”
Amsterdam court sentences murderers of journalist De Vries
Peter R. de Vries, a crime journalist, was shot in the city center in Amsterdam in 2021. Now, three men were sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for their role in his murder.
A Dutch court on Wednesday handed down sentences over the 2021 assassination of crime journalist Peter R. de Vries.
De Vries was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Amsterdam street on July 6, 2021. De Vries died nine days later. He was 64.
Three main suspects were convicted, with two of them sentenced to 28 years in prison and one to 26 years.
Israel kills senior commander: 'Most significant assassination' for Hezbollah since Gaza war
Illegal taxis creating quandary for Japan's police, cab monopolies
As Japan experiences a post-pandemic tourism boom, the re-emergence of illegal taxis driven by foreign nationals is causing headaches for police on the roads as well as powerful taxi companies who believe them a threat to their monopoly.
While ride-hailing services that allow private drivers to independently offer their vehicles as taxis are common in other countries, such services, only implemented recently in limited areas of Japan, must be operated by taxi firms that hire the drivers.
Illegally operated taxis with white plates are widely known as shirotaku, or "white taxis," while commercial vehicles such as official taxis bear green plates.
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