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Athletic Club host Qarabağ FK on Wednesday at San Mamés, aiming to earn their first points in the new Champions League league phase as the Azerbaija...
Israel has given final approval for a highly controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank, a move that critics say would effectively sever the territory and deal a severe blow to the prospects of a future Palestinian state.
The project concerns E1, a strategic tract of land east of Jerusalem. Plans for development there have been debated for over two decades but repeatedly stalled under U.S. pressure. The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is deemed illegal under international law, and in a landmark ruling last year, the International Court of Justice said Israel must end settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as its occupation of those areas and Gaza, without delay.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician and former settler leader, hailed the decision as a direct response to recent European announcements of support for Palestinian statehood. “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” he declared. “Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea.”
The move drew sharp international criticism. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy described it on X as “a flagrant breach of international law,” while German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Josef Hinterseher said Berlin “strongly rejects this approval” and stressed that settlement expansion violates international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
The location of E1 is considered pivotal, as it lies between Ramallah in the north and Bethlehem in the south. The two cities are only 22 kilometres apart, but Palestinians must currently take long detours and navigate multiple checkpoints to travel between them. In any eventual Palestinian state, E1 was expected to provide a direct link.
The settlement decision comes as the situation in the West Bank grows increasingly bleak, with a surge in settler violence, evictions, military raids, and restrictions on movement, even as the world’s attention remains fixed on the conflict in Gaza.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military announced it had begun the first stage of its long-planned offensive to seize Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre. Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Israeli forces were now “holding the outskirts of Gaza City.”
Israel is also calling up 60,000 reservists, the largest mobilisation in months, as fighting intensifies and negotiators continue efforts to broker a ceasefire nearly two years into the war. The scale of the call-up carries major economic and political implications in a country of fewer than 10 million people.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee blamed recent European moves to recognise Palestinian statehood for undermining the Gaza ceasefire process. “The noise that has been made by European leaders recently ... is having the counterproductive effect that they probably think that they want,” he told the Associated Press.
The escalation follows mass demonstrations in Israel, where hundreds of thousands recently rallied in support of a ceasefire. Rights groups have warned that an expanded assault could deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where most of the enclave’s two million residents have been displaced, swathes of territory have been reduced to rubble, and famine looms.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
A shooting in Nice, southeastern France, left two people dead and five injured on Friday, authorities said.
Snapchat will start charging users who store more than 5GB of photos and videos in its Memories feature, prompting backlash from long-time users.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has welcomed Azerbaijan’s decision to lift all transit restrictions on cargo shipments to Armenia, calling it a major step toward regional peace and economic cooperation.
Iran's economy is at risk of simultaneous hyperinflation and severe recession, officials and analysts say, as clerical rulers scramble to preserve stability with limited room to manoeuvre after a snapback of UN sanctions.
Memorandum of understanding signed during Turkish Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu’s official visit to Georgia.
The inaugural meeting of defence ministers from Central Asian nations took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Chikovani was in Yerevan, Armenia on Monday for an official visit following an invitation by his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan.
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