geneva_convenience

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced overnight into Sunday that it would postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners, using unsubstantiated claims of Hamas violating the ceasefire agreement as justification.

Accusing Hamas of so-called “humiliating ceremonies” and the “cynical use of hostages for propaganda,” Netanyahu’s office declared that the scheduled release of Palestinian detainees on Saturday would be delayed until Israel secures the next batch of hostages.

An Israeli man attacked an Israeli woman with an axe in Jerusalem on Wednesday, mistakenly believing she was Christian, Anadolu reported yesterday, citing Israel’s Channel 13.

According to the media reports, police suspect that the attack, which took place in Jerusalem’s Old City, was motivated by “hatred of Christians”.

Eyewitnesses told the channel that the suspect shouted “Christian” at the victim before violently attacking her inside her home, leaving her with severe injuries. The suspect then fled the scene.

US President Donald Trump dismissed General Charles "CQ" Brown, the top US military officer, on Friday, marking a major shake-up in the leadership of the armed forces.

Trump did not provide a reason for Brown's removal, which came less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This follows a series of federal worker layoffs and efforts to dismantle government institutions early in Trump's second term.

Brown, nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, was the second Black person to hold the position.

In response to Brown’s dismissal, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that he was searching for a replacement for Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the US Navy.

Brown had made personal remarks about discrimination in the military, particularly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Reflecting on his own career, Brown said, “I’m thinking about the pressure I felt to perform error-free, especially for supervisors I perceive had expected less from me as an African American.”

Iraq's oil ministry announced that preparations to restart oil exports via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline are complete. This development follows a near two-year halt in crude shipments from the Kurdistan region, which had been disrupted by disputes between Baghdad and Erbil. Improved relations between the central Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional administration have paved the way for resuming exports.

The suspension began in March 2023 when Turkey halted pipeline operations after an International Chamber of Commerce ruling required Ankara to pay $1.5 billion to Baghdad for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018. Recent amendments to Iraq's federal budget law, which set transport and production costs at $16 per barrel and require the KRG to transfer its oil output to the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), have facilitated the resumption of exports.

This comes amid reports that the Trump administration is pressuring Iraq to restart Kurdish oil exports, allegedly threatening sanctions similar to those on Iran if Baghdad does not comply. Reuters reported that this pressure is part of Trump's renewed "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran, aimed at cutting Iranian oil exports to zero to curb its nuclear ambitions. US officials argue that allowing Kurdish oil exports would help offset the loss of Iranian supply in global markets, stabilizing prices and maintaining energy security.

Earlier this month, the president said he favored taking control of Gaza and displacing the Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave. Over the course of several days, he repeatedly waved aside objections to the idea, including flat-out rejections from the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.

At the time, Mr. Trump said that he would be able to persuade the leaders of those two countries — and potentially others in the region — to accept the Palestinians through the force of his will.

“They say they’re not going to accept,” Mr. Trump said. “I say they will.”

But in a telephone interview with a Fox News host on Friday, Mr. Trump seemed to concede that his efforts at persuasion had failed and the refusal by Egypt and Jordan to accept displaced Gazans would make the idea unworkable.

Earlier this month, the president said he favored taking control of Gaza and displacing the Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave. Over the course of several days, he repeatedly waved aside objections to the idea, including flat-out rejections from the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.

At the time, Mr. Trump said that he would be able to persuade the leaders of those two countries — and potentially others in the region — to accept the Palestinians through the force of his will.

“They say they’re not going to accept,” Mr. Trump said. “I say they will.”

But in a telephone interview with a Fox News host on Friday, Mr. Trump seemed to concede that his efforts at persuasion had failed and the refusal by Egypt and Jordan to accept displaced Gazans would make the idea unworkable.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that a special agency would be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans, after Israel expressed commitment to a US proposal to take over the Palestinian territory and expel its residents.

In 1966, after years of friction with the US over whether France should have its own independent nuclear deterrent, the French president, Charles de Gaulle, withdrew his country from Nato’s integrated command (not, however, from the alliance itself – a common misconception) and asked all US forces stationed in France to leave. In response, the US secretary of state, Dean Rusk, asked de Gaulle: “Does that include the dead Americans in military cemeteries as well?”

In a single weekend, JD Vance’s direct attacks on European democracy at the Munich Security Conference and his meeting with far-right, anti-European political forces in Germany, have given de Gaulle his historic vindication.

There are some things that you avoid saying for as long as you can, for fear that just uttering the words will help bring them into being.

On October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel, Israeli legal scholar and women's rights advocate Ruth Halperin-Kaddari called in a favor from her longtime friend and former colleague, United Nations Special Representative Pramila Patten. Halperin-Kaddari, who in 2018 was ranked as one of the world's hundred most influential people in gender equality policy, conveyed her conviction that Hamas had orchestrated mass, systematic sexual assaults the previous day, urging that Israel needed UN recognition of these allegations.

Patten, as the special representative on sexual violence in conflict and under-secretary-general of the United Nations, was not empowered with a mandate to launch investigations or produce findings. Yet Halperin-Kaddari believed Patten was uniquely well positioned to lend the UN’s imprimatur to Israel’s allegations. “I called her and said, ‘Pramila, we need you here, what do I need to do?’” Halperin-Kaddari would later recount on a podcast.

Patten responded with caution, asking “Do you know if it really happened?” Though not previously reported, this exchange—which Halperin-Kaddari has referenced multiple times in interviews—ultimately led to Patten’s visit in late January 2024. The trip was a controversial one: While Patten and her UN team were hosted and chaperoned by Halperin-Kaddari, they lacked any formal investigatory mandate, and the decision to conduct such an unprecedented mission was met with fierce dissent inside her own office.

Patten ultimately published a report that was wielded by Israeli officials as evidence to bolster allegations of systemic sexual violence. Yet a close reading of the text showed it contained far more nuanced language that seemed to undermine those officials’ claims. The report’s central finding—that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks”—fell short of confirming that systemic sexual violence had in fact occurred. Yet media coverage, particularly articles featuring Halperin-Kaddari’s commentary, often presented Patten’s report as definitive proof that backed up Israel’s incendiary claims.

Bannon, host of the influential War Room podcast and a former White House chief strategist during Trump's first term, gave a speech Thursday at the annual conservative gathering in Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

During his speech, Bannon repeated his calls for Trump to run for an unconstitutional third term, telling the crowd, "We want Trump in '28."

Bannon later said near the end of his speech that "the only way we lose is if we quit" and that they will never "surrender." He then chanted "fight, fight, fight" before raising his right arm with his palm down.

An Israeli soldier recently released from Gaza has told media that Hamas allowed her and other prisoners to observe Jewish traditions and holidays, permitting them to practice their religious rituals.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview on Wednesday with Agam Berger, who was recently released from Gaza as part of the prisoner swap deal with the Palestinian resistance group.

She recalled that she and other captives "were surprised" when Hamas provided them with various items, including a Jewish prayer book, known in Hebrew as siddur.

"We have no idea how it happened, but they simply handed us prayer books," she said, describing the issue for her as "particularly unusual." "It (the prayer book) wasn't random ... it arrived exactly when we needed it most," Berger said.