Saturday, January 27, 2024

News roundup, 27 Jan 2024

- The International Court of Justice has made an interim ruling on the genocide case raised against Israel by South Africa.  The court has not ordered a complete ceasefire, much to the chagrin of the Palestinians; it did however order Israel to abide by the terms of the Genocide Convention of 1948, ensure that its military does not commit any genocidal acts, ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and allow fact-finding missions to search for evidence of such acts. The ruling also has implications for those who supply weapons to Israel; the US, in particular, has been unwilling to make the supply of weapons conditional on Israel respecting human rights. The Israelis, not surprisingly, are defiant. Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, is holding off on commenting; perhaps he's still trying to figure out whether his already poor reelection chances will be harmed more by antagonizing Mississauga or Thornhill.

- Ukraine may face an uphill battle to retain all their territory, but they're doing their darnedest. They've now started targeting oil refineries and depots with low-cost drones in the hope of disrupting the oil exports Russia depends on to finance their "special military operation".

- Donald Trump has been ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million, including $65 million in punitive damages, for his continued social media attacks on her. This is on top of $5 million previously awarded to Carroll for sexual assault and defamation.

- Texas has blocked federal border patrol agents from a park in the town of Eagle Pass, apparently because they might not just leave migrants to die like Texas would prefer. There's a timeline here; alarmingly, a trucker convoy calling themselves "God's Army" is headed for the area. It's almost as if they want to fight Civil War II. Meanwhile, even though the Democrats were willing to make huge concessions on the border in return for continued aid for Ukraine, the Republicans are having second thoughts out of fear that it could end up making Biden look good and harm Trump's chances in the fall.

- Several Rwandans were granted refugee status in the UK during the time when they were trying to argue that Rwanda was a safe country to which other refugee claimants could be sent. Certainly its president does not seem to handle criticism well.

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