Top UN court to open hearings on Israel’s aid obligation to Palestinians

The UN’s top court will on Monday open a week of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians, more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza.United Nations representatives will start the five days of sittings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), followed by a Palestinian submission.Another 38 countries will then address the 15-judge panel, including the United States, China, France, Russia and Saudi Arabia.The League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union will also make submissions.The UN’s General Assembly approved a resolution in December asking the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the matter “on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency”.The resolution, spearheaded by Norway, was adopted by a large majority.The UN has asked judges to clarify Israel’s legal obligations towards the UN and its agencies, international organisations or third-party states to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population”.Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.The UN estimates 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced since the two-month ceasefire ended in mid-March.Israel resumed air bombardment on March 18, followed by renewed ground attacks.This has triggered what the UN has described as “likely the worst” humanitarian crisis the occupied Palestinian territory has faced since the war started after the Hamas October 7, 2023, attack.- ‘Broad frustration’ -That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 52,243 people in Gaza since October 2023, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.At least 2,111 Palestinians have been killed since March 18.The UN considers the ministry’s figures reliable.The Israeli government says the assault aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.Hostages’ relatives have said it could “sacrifice” their loved ones.Although the ICJ’s advisory opinions are not legally binding, the court believes they “carry great legal weight and moral authority”.In July, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion confirming that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful” and must end as soon as possible.”The parties to the conflict have shown little commitment to comply with international law,” said Haris Huremagic, a PhD candidate at the Geneva Graduate Institute.”The request for an advisory opinion reflects broad frustration with the lack of meaningful dialogue to address the dire situation in Gaza,” Huremagic wrote on the Voelkerrechtsblog on international law.Norway’s initiative was triggered by an Israeli law banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from operating on Israeli soil.Israel accused some UNRWA staff of participating in the Hamas attack.Independent investigations say it has not provided evidence for its headline allegation.

Mosque murder suspect arrested in Italy: French prosecutorMon, 28 Apr 2025 05:45:02 GMT

A man suspected of stabbing a young Malian to death in a mosque in southern France and filming his victim writhing in agony has surrendered to police in Italy, a prosecutor told AFP on Monday.The suspect, “Olivier A.”, a French national born in Lyon in 2004, “surrendered himself to a police station in Pistoia” near …

Mosque murder suspect arrested in Italy: French prosecutorMon, 28 Apr 2025 05:45:02 GMT Read More »

Women’s flag football explodes in US as 2028 Olympics beckon

Flag football, a non-contact version of American football, is spreading like wildfire among US girls drawn by the prospect of its inclusion in the 2028 Olympics, its popularity even sparking plans for a professional league.”It’s the youth version of pickleball, the fastest growing adult sport,” says Michael Colt, comparing flag football to the racquet sport that’s all the rage among the over-30s. “It’s crazy.” Colt, 44, coaches the Staten Island Giants, last year’s under-18 US champions.Since he co-founded the club in 2019, its youth teams have earned a host of national titles and sent several players to the national team.Colt said it had been “a struggle” early on to gain recognition and find backing.”We fought for everything,” he said. “We were kind of always pushed to the side, like this wasn’t serious.”And I see that about the sport to this day, when you’re asking the difference in the sport. In the beginning, nobody really wanted to coach girls.”The Giants’ trajectory mirrors that of the sport as a whole. Developed as an alternative to collision prone tackle football, girls’ and women’s flag was relatively unknown six years ago.Yet particpation reached close to 270,000 girls aged six to 17 in 2024, according to the USA Football, which oversees US teams in tackle and flag football — and Colt’s Giants club has the financial backing of the NFL’s New York Giants.Even as the NFL throws its impressive weight behind the game, the scope of flag football can still come as a surprise to the uninitiated, especially the opportunity it provides for gridiron-loving girls.When 14-year-old Brielle Caetano talks about flag, which she has been playing since kindergarten, people “are very in shock”.”And (then) I tell them you can get a (university) scholarship from that,” Caetano added. “They’re definitely in shock.””Football has always been considered a boy’s sport,” noted 16-year-old Annie Falcone of the familiar high-contact game whose pinnacle is the NFL. “But flag football has grown so much for women of all ages.”In flag football, most often played in a five-on-five format, an offensive player is “tackled” by pulling one of two “flags” worn on a belt around the hips.No blocking is allowed, further reducing the risk of injury in a game that focuses on running and throwing skills.”It’s just incredible to me how fast flag overall is growing, but really led by girls and women,” said Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football’s chief executive officer.”In my probably 30-plus years of being involved in sports, I’ve never seen a discipline of a sport scale (up) as fast as we’re seeing flag.”Hallenbeck said a lot of credit for that growth goes to the NFL, which is pushing to develop the game.That includes at the youth level, with the NFL organizing its own national flag tournament for boys and girls in July this year, with sponsors and a TV broadcasting contract.- Fandom, opportunities -While the NFL is the most-watched pro league in the United States, it has struggled to expand the game outside US borders.The NBA has become a global phenomenon, and elite basketball leagues prosper outside the USA. But tackle football has found a foothold in just a few other countries such as Germany and Mexico.Hallenbeck said flag football could be an international game-changer.”(They are) really pushing flag to help grow fandom and opportunities around the world and then obviously putting a lot of emphasis around it here in this country,” he said.Gaining inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is a key part of that campaign, and is already having an effect.”It’s a source of motivation for me and for the girls right now,” Falcone said.The NFL is already looking beyond the Games, and is “exploring very aggressively now an opportunity to create a professional flag league for both men and women, obviously two different leagues,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in February.”They’re trying to gather sponsors,” said Colt. “I definitely think it’s going to be a professional sport by 2032.”

Canada: le suspect de l’attaque à la voiture-bélier qui a fait 11 morts inculpé

Le suspect d’une attaque à la voiture-bélier qui a tué 11 personnes et fait des dizaines de blessés lors d’un festival de la communauté philippine de Vancouver a été inculpé de meurtre, a annoncé dimanche la police.”Le parquet de Colombie-Britannique a inculpé Kai-Ji Adam Lo”, le suspect âgé de 30 ans, “de huit chefs de meurtre”, a déclaré la police dans un communiqué, ajoutant que d’autres inculpations étaient attendues.L’homme présenté comme un habitant de Vancouver, qui a comparu devant un tribunal avant d’être remis en garde à vue, a agi délibérément et a des antécédents de troubles mentaux, selon la police.Aucun motif n’a été confirmé pour cette attaque survenue samedi soir dans la ville de Vancouver, dans l’ouest du pays, en pleine campagne électorale alors que les Canadiens sont appelés aux urnes lundi pour des élections législatives. La police a exclu cependant la piste terroriste.Le Premier ministre canadien Mark Carney s’est rendu dimanche à Vancouver, où il a assisté dimanche, des fleurs à la main, à une veillée religieuse organisée pour les victimes, selon le média CPAC.”La nuit dernière, des familles ont perdu une sœur, un frère, une mère, un père, un fils ou une fille”, a-t-il déclaré. “Ces familles vivent le cauchemar de toutes les familles.Le suspect a “un lourd passé d’interactions, avec la police et des soignants, liées à la santé mentale”, a déclaré Steve Rai, un haut responsable de la police de Vancouver, lors d’une conférence de presse dimanche.”Même si je ne peux pas m’exprimer à ce stade sur un possible mobile, je peux désormais dire, confiant, que les éléments de ce dossier ne nous mènent pas à penser qu’il s’agit d’un acte terroriste”, a-t-il ajouté.”Il y a désormais 11 décès confirmés, et nous pensons que des dizaines d’autres sont blessés, dont certains gravement”, a poursuivi Steve Rai, prévenant que le nombre de morts pourrait augmenter.”Il s’agit du jour le plus sombre de l’histoire de Vancouver”, a-t-il estimé.- Des corps “écrasés” -Peu après 20H00 locales samedi (03h00 GMT dimanche) selon la police, “un homme au volant d’un SUV Audi noir” a foncé à travers la foule dans le quartier Sunset on Fraser de la ville de la côte pacifique où des membres de la communauté philippine s’étaient rassemblés pour célébrer la journée Lapu-Lapu, qui commémore une victoire du XVIe siècle contre les explorateurs européens.Abigail Andiso a raconté au Vancouver Sun qu’elle a entendu de grands bruits, puis des hurlements: “Il y avait des corps. Ils ont été écrasés. Certains étaient déjà morts sur place”.Des images partagées sur les réseaux sociaux et vérifiées par l’AFP montrent un véhicule, un SUV noir dont l’avant est très endommagé, arrêté dans une rue jonchée de débris avec des camions de restauration rapide tout autour.Sheila Nocasa était sur place peu avant l’incident. Elle a dit à l’AFP être “sous le choc”, “anéantie”.Des personnes sont venues dimanche déposer des fleurs pour rendre hommage aux victimes sur le site de l’attaque.”C’est très traumatisant”, a indiqué à l’AFP Mohamad Sariman, qui travaillait dans un food truck au festival Lapu Lapu et qui dit avoir entendu une “grosse détonation”.De nombreuses communautés asiatiques, notamment chinoise, indienne et philippine, vivent dans l’ouest du Canada, pour beaucoup autour de Vancouver, troisième agglomération du pays.Dimanche, le roi Charles III, chef d’Etat du Canada, s’est dit “profondément attristé” par cette “terrible tragédie”. Le président français Emmanuel Macron a dit sa “solidarité aux Canadiens et à la communauté philippine”.De son côté, le président des Philippines Ferdinand Marcos a déclaré dans un communiqué qu’il était “complètement bouleversé d’apprendre ce terrible incident”.- “J’ai peur” -“J’étais choqué” en apprenant la nouvelle, a déclaré dimanche matin à l’AFP Julie Dunbar, une retraitée de la capitale Ottawa. Elle rappelle tristement qu’il “est arrivé la même chose à Toronto” en 2018, quand un homme avait tué 11 personnes avec un van. “J’ai peur de la société dans laquelle on vit”.Ce drame fait monter la tension à quelques heures du scrutin, lundi. La campagne électorale a été dominée par la question de la guerre économique avec les Etats-Unis de Donald Trump et ses menaces d’annexion.Le nouveau Premier ministre Mark Carney, qui se présente comme un rempart face au président américain, est donné favori par les sondages. Il a modifié le programme de son dernier jour de campagne en raison de l’attaque à Vancouver.bur-tib-fz-ab/lgo/roc 

Trump thinks Zelensky ready to give up Crimea to Russia

US President Donald Trump said he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to concede Crimea to Russia as part of any ceasefire deal, as talks on a truce entered what Washington called a critical week on Monday.Trump also stepped up pressure on Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian president should “stop shooting” and sign an agreement to end the grinding war that started with Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.Trump’s comments came a day after he met Zelensky during the funeral of Pope Francis, breaking the ice after a major row between the US and Ukrainian leaders at the White House in February.”Oh, I think so,” Trump told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, when asked whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” Crimea — despite the Ukrainian president repeatedly saying he never would.Trump added that during their talks in the Vatican they had “briefly” discussed the fate of the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.The 78-year-old US president, who boasted before his inauguration that he could halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine within one day, launched a diplomatic offensive to stop the fighting after taking office in January.Kyiv and western allies have feared that Trump was pivoting towards Moscow’s position.But the US leader has appeared increasingly impatient with Putin in recent days.Russia launched drone and missile attacks the night after the Vatican talks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.- ‘Stop shooting’ -“I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal,” Trump said Sunday when asked what he wanted from Putin. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it.”The White House has said that without rapid progress, it could walk away from its role as a broker. Trump indicated that he would give the process “two weeks.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier Sunday stressed the importance of the week ahead.”We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to a deal to halt the fighting, Rubio told broadcaster NBC. “I think this is going to be a very critical week.”But there is still US frustration with both sides, as the war, which has devastated swaths of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people, drags on.Ukraine launched a “massive” drone attack on Russia’s Bryansk region on Sunday, killing one civilian and injuring another, the regional governor said.Washington has not revealed details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for an end to hostilities.Russia claims to have annexed four eastern and southern territories of war-battered Ukraine since its full-scale invasion three years ago, despite not having full military control over them.Russia holds about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea. – ‘Territorial concessions’ -But Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Sunday that Ukraine should not agree to all the steps reportedly set out in the deal proposed by Trump.Kyiv knew a ceasefire “may involve territorial concessions,” Pistorius told broadcaster ARD. “But these will certainly not go… as far as they do in the latest proposal from the US president.”Europe has pushed for a bigger role in the Ukraine talks, with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joining Trump and Zelensky briefly for the meeting in Saint Peter’s Basilica.Rubio meanwhile had a phone call Sunday with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the foreign ministry in Moscow said.The pair said there were “emerging prerequisites” for starting negotiations towards a long term peace, a statement said.Russia insists on keeping the territory it has taken and demands the demilitarization of Kyiv, plus an end to western support.In a sign of the war’s global dimensions, North Korea on Monday confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to Russia’s Kursk region and said its soldiers had helped Moscow reclaim territory there.Moscow over the weekend claimed the “liberation” of Kursk, where Kyiv launched a shock cross-border offensive in August 2024, hoping to use land there as a bargaining chip in any peace talks.But Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine’s army was “maintaining our presence on Russian territory.” burs-dk/jgc

‘Hunger breaks everything’: desperate Gazans scramble for food

At the break of dawn, 10-year-old Youssef al-Najjar races barefoot, clutching a battered pot, to a community kitchen in Gaza City, only to find hundreds of others already queueing.”People push and shove out of fear of missing their turn. There are little children who fall,” said Youssef, his voice barely rising above a whisper.Thousands of Gazans, including many children, rush to community kitchens every day in the hope of securing food for their families.The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened significantly since Israel blocked all aid from entering the territory on March 2, days before resuming its military campaign following the collapse of a ceasefire.Supplies are dwindling and the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks” to kitchens.The weight of responsibility fell on Youssef’s shoulders after his father was killed in the war. He dreams not of toys or games, but of something achingly simple: to sit at a table with his mother and sister, eating peacefully.For that, each morning, he races to the community kitchen.”Sometimes, in the chaos, my pot slips from my hands, and the food spills onto the ground,” he told AFP.”I return home empty-handed… and that pain is worse than hunger.”AFP footage from a community kitchen in Gaza City shows scores of boys and girls crowded outside the facility, pushing their pots and pans forward in a desperate attempt to secure whatever food they can.One young man is even seen hitting a boy with a metal pot as he approaches a container of freshly-cooked rice.”I have been waiting for over five hours to get a plate of rice for the children to eat,” said Mohammed Abu Sanad, a displaced Gazan, at another such facility. “I have no income, and if we get food from the free kitchen, we eat. If not, we’ll die of hunger.”The WFP, one of the main providers of food assistance in Gaza, said these kitchens were expected to run out of food “in the coming days”.- ‘I wished I would die’ -For Aida Abu Rayala, 42, the need was greater than ever.”There is no flour, no bread, no way to feed my children. We stand for hours under the blazing sun and sometimes in the freezing cold,” said Rayala, from central Gaza’s Nuseirat area.”Some days, after hours of waiting, the food runs out before my turn comes.”Rayala’s home was destroyed in an air strike, and the family now lives in a tent of thin nylon sheets.One day, she waited for three hours, her feet blistering from standing. When she finally reached the counter, there was no food left.”I went home with empty hands. My children cried… and in that moment, I wished I would die rather than see them hungry again.”At the heart of Gaza’s food assistance is Faten al-Madhoun, 52, a volunteer chef who runs a charity kitchen in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.She and her 13 volunteers cook by hand, over wood fires, without proper kitchens or modern equipment.”Some days we prepare 500 meals, but more than 600 people show up,” Madhoun said.”The need is enormous. And with every day that the borders stay closed, it only grows.”With flour vanishing from the markets, bakeries shuttered, and even basic vegetables now luxuries, the community kitchens have become the only remaining source of food for tens of thousands.- ‘Want to live with dignity’ -Alaa Abu Amira shares a similar plight in the southern Khan Yunis area.”If you arrive late, even by a few minutes, there’s no food,” said Abu Amira, 28, who used to live in the northern town of Beit Lahia.”People crowd, they push, they fall. I saw a child get injured, and once, a little girl was burned when a pot of hot food spilled on her.”When he manages to secure a meal, it is often cold, tasteless, repetitive — canned peas and beans, rice half-cooked on makeshift wood fires.”Our stomachs can barely handle it anymore,” Abu Amira said, “but what choice do we have? Hunger breaks everything.”Despite the daily ordeal, Rayala vowed to continue with her quest for food.”Tomorrow, I will try to go earlier, hoping to get a plate of rice. We just want to live with dignity,” she said.

Washington dit croire Zelensky prêt à renoncer à la Crimée à l’aube d’une “semaine cruciale”

Le président américain Donald Trump a dit croire que le dirigeant ukrainien Volodomyr Zelensky est prêt à renoncer à récupérer la Crimée occupée par la Russie, au moment où les négociations sur l’Ukraine entrent lundi dans une “semaine cruciale” selon Washington.Bien que Kiev ait jusqu’à présent toujours exclu l’idée d’abandonner cette péninsule annexée par la Russie en 2014, le dirigeant américain a estimé dimanche que la position de son homologue ukrainien Volodymyr Zelensky pourrait changer.”Je pense que oui. La Crimée, c’était il y a 12 ans”, a déclaré M. Trump à des journalistes lors d’un déplacement dans le New Jersey, en réponse à la question de savoir s’il pensait que M. Zelensky était prêt à “abandonner” ce territoire dans un contexte de recul des troupes ukrainiennes sur le front.L’abandon de la Crimée par l’Ukraine est régulièrement avancé par Washington comme une possible prémisse à un plan de paix avec Moscou. Celui-ci comprendrait également un gel de la ligne de front, selon les projets de l’administration américaine.Les propos de M. Trump interviennent à un moment où Moscou affirme avoir entièrement “libéré” la région russe de Koursk, dont l’Ukraine avait conquis plusieurs centaines de kilomètres carrés en août 2024 et que M. Zelensky avait dit vouloir monnayer dans le cadre d’un “échange” territorial.MM. Trump et Zelensky se sont depuis parlés en tête à tête à Rome en marge des funérailles du pape François samedi.Dans ce contexte, le secrétaire d’Etat américain Marco Rubio a estimé dimanche que des progrès pourraient être accomplis dans les prochains jours.”Nous sommes proches (d’un accord), mais pas assez proches”, a-t-il déclaré à la chaîne NBC. “Je pense que cette semaine sera cruciale.”Le président américain a toutefois exprimé des doutes ces derniers jours sur la volonté de Vladimir Poutine de mettre un terme à la guerre.- “Asseyez-vous et signez !” -“Je veux qu’il arrête de tirer. Asseyez-vous et signez l’accord”, a lancé M. Trump dimanche. “Nous avons les bases d’un accord, je crois, et je veux qu’il le signe”, a-t-il ajouté.Le ministre allemand de la Défense Boris Pistorius a pour sa part estimé que l’Ukraine ne devrait pas céder tous les territoires occupés par la Russie comme le voudrait M. Trump.”L’Ukraine sait bien sûr depuis longtemps qu’un cessez-le-feu ou un accord de paix durable et crédible pourrait impliquer des concessions territoriales”, a-t-il dit dimanche à la chaîne de télévision ARD. “Mais celles-ci n’iront certainement pas aussi loin (…) que la dernière proposition du président américain.”Trente-huit mois après avoir déclenché une invasion à grande échelle de l’Ukraine en février 2022, la Russie occupe environ 20% du territoire ukrainien, en incluant la Crimée.Samedi, le chef d’état-major de l’armée russe, Valéri Guérassimov, avait assuré que la région de Koursk avait été entièrement “libérée” des troupes ukrainiennes.Le général avait notamment salué l'”héroïsme” des soldats nord-coréens combattant pour la Russie – la première admission par Moscou de leur participation au conflit.La Corée du Nord a elle aussi confirmé lundi pour la première fois la présence de ses troupes en Russie pour participer “aux opérations de libération des zones de Koursk” dans le cadre de l’accord de défense mutuelle entre les deux pays. L’agence officielle KCNA a assuré que l’effort de guerre de ces soldats s’était “conclu victorieusement”.- Futur monument à Pyongyang -“Ceux qui se sont battus pour la justice sont tous des héros et des représentants de l’honneur de la patrie”, a déclaré le dirigeant nord-coréen Kim Jong Un, cité par KCNA. Il a ajouté qu’un monument commémorant les “exploits de la bataille” serait bientôt érigé dans la capitale Pyongyang.L’Ukraine a cependant affirmé dimanche que ses troupes continuaient de se battre en territoire russe.”Notre armée continue de mener des opérations dans les régions (russes) de Koursk et Belgorod. Nous maintenons notre présence en territoire russe”, a déclaré dimanche M. Zelensky lors de son discours du soir.Un commandant russe à Koursk a confirmé que l’armée russe conduisait toujours des opérations dans la région frontalière, selon une émission de la télévision d’Etat diffusée dimanche.M. Zelensky a appelé à faire davantage pression sur Moscou afin de créer des opportunités pour de la “véritable diplomatie”.”La situation sur les lignes de front et les activités actuelles de l’armée russe prouvent que les pressions exercées en ce moment sur la Russie pour arrêter cette guerre sont insuffisantes”, a-t-il jugé.Parallèlement aux combats sur le front, les deux pays se livrent quasi quotidiennement à des attaques aériennes. Dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, un civil a été tué et une autre blessée dans une “attaque massive de drones ukrainiens” sur la ville russe de Briansk, au sud-ouest de Moscou, selon le gouverneur local Aleksandr Bogomaz.