WORLD - The African Mirror

May

2024

Israel tells World Court South Africa case makes a mockery of genocide

ISRAEL defended the military necessity of its Gaza offensive on Friday at the International Court of Justice and asked judges to throw out a request by South Africa to order it to halt operations in Rafah and withdraw from the Palestinian territory. Israeli Justice Ministry official Gilad Noam called South Africa's case, which accuses Israel of violating the Genocide Convention, "completely divorced from facts and circumstances". "(The case) makes a mockery of the heinous charge of genocide," Noam said. He called it "an obscene exploitation of the most sacred convention," referring to the international treaty banning genocide, agreed after the…

May

2024

By GRAM SLATTERY, SARAH N. LYNCH and ANDREW GOUDSWARD

Donald Trump wants to control the Justice Department and FBI. His allies have a plan

WORLD

SOME of Donald Trump's allies are assembling proposals to curtail the Justice Department's independence and turn the nation's top law enforcement body into an attack dog for conservative causes, nine people involved in the effort told Reuters. If successful, the overhaul could represent one of the most consequential actions of a second Trump presidency given the Justice Department's role in protecting democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law. It would also mark a dramatic departure from the department's mission statement, which identifies "independence and impartiality" as core values. Trump, who has been indicted on dozens of criminal charges by the…

May

2024

By BERNARD ORR

Putin to push growing Moscow-Beijing trade in China’s northeast

WORLD

AFTER sealing pledges of a "new era" of strategic partnership with China's Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to highlight the growing importance of trade near the Russian border in China's northeast. Putin ends his two-day, red-carpet visit to China in Harbin in Heilongjiang province, which has long-running trade and cultural ties to Russia, touring a Russian-China Expo and a forum on interregional cooperation. Facing political isolation and Western sanctions over Russia's two-year-old invasion of Ukraine, Putin is increasingly turning to China to support its war economy. Amid the pomp of a full state visit, Putin and Xi signed a joint statement on…

May

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and EMILY ROSE

Israel moves into north Gaza Hamas stronghold, pounds Rafah without advancing

WORLD

ISRAEL'S tanks pushed into the heart of Jabalia in northern Gaza, facing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs from militants concentrated there, while in the south, its forces pounded Rafah without advancing, Palestinian residents and militants said. The slow progress of Israel's offensive, more than seven months after it was prompted by Hamas' deadly cross-border raid, highlighted the difficulty of achieving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aim of eradicating the militant group. Armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have been able to fight up and down the Gaza Strip, using heavily fortified tunnels to stage attacks in both the north - the…

May

2024

By BERNARD ORR, GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and ANDREW OSBORN

Putin and Xi pledge a new era and condemn the United States

WORLD

CHINA'S Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin pledged a "new era" of a partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon that was sowing chaos across the world. Xi greeted Putin on a red carpet outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where they were hailed by marching People's Liberation Army soldiers, a 21-gun salute on Tiananmen Square and children waving the flags of China and Russia. China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he…

May

2024

By JODY GODOY, JACK QUEEN and LUC COHEN

Trump’s lawyers to attack Michael Cohen’s story of hush money scheme

WORLD

DONALD Trump's lawyers resumed their cross-examination of the Republican presidential candidate's ex-fixer Michael Cohen, aiming to undermine his testimony that Trump was intimately involved in buying a porn star's silence over an alleged sexual encounter. Cohen, 57, who served as Trump's personal lawyer for over a decade, testified this week that Trump ordered him to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to protect Trump's presidential campaign. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies having a sexual encounter. The New York case, one of four criminal prosecutions he faces, maybe the only one with a jury verdict before his Nov. 5 election rematch with Democratic President Joe…

May

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Fighting intensifies between Israel and Hamas-led militants in north and south Gaza

WORLD

GUN battles between Israel and militants from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and smaller Palestinian factions intensified overnight into some of the fiercest in months in both northern and southern Gaza, both sides said. Israeli tanks reached densely populated neighbourhoods and narrow alleyways of the militant stronghold of Jabalia in the northeast, facing heavy resistance. Residents said the army destroyed clusters of homes there in areas where they had not invaded before. The armed wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said its militants killed and wounded Israeli foot soldiers during fierce clashes in eastern Jabalia, the biggest of eight refugee camps built…

May

2024

By LUC COHEN and JACK QUEEN

Takeaways from Trump’s estranged lawyer Michael Cohen’s trial testimony

WORLD

DONALD Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen testified at the former U.S. president's criminal trial this week, asserting he had Trump's "signoff" to buy a porn star's silence and undergoing a cross-examination by Trump's lawyers. Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records to cover up Cohen's $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says they had in 2006. Trump denies an encounter. Defence lawyer Todd Blanche is expected to resume cross-examining Cohen, the star prosecution witness, on Thursday. Here are five milestones from Cohen's testimony so far: * 'Just do it' Cohen testified on Monday…

May

2024

By GABRIEL STARGARDTER and DOMINIQUE VIDALON

Gunmen ambush French prison van to free drug dealer, killing two guards

WORLD

GUNMEN wearing balaclavas ambushed a prison van in northern France to free a drug dealer known as "The Fly," killing two prison guards, severely wounding three and triggering a major police manhunt. The brazen, morning attack at a toll booth in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France underlines the growing threat of drug crime across Europe, the world's No.1 cocaine market. It came on the same day that France's Senate released a major report on drug trafficking, warning that the country faces a "tipping point" from rising narco violence that represents "a threat to the fundamental interests of…

May

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israeli tanks push into Gaza’s Rafah, as battles rage in the north

WORLD

ISRAELI tanks forged deeper into eastern Rafah, reaching some residential districts of the southern border city where more than a million people had been sheltering, raising fears of yet further civilian casualties. Israel's international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into refugee-packed Rafah, where Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. The World Court, also known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), said it would hold hearings on Thursday and Friday to discuss a request by South Africa seeking new emergency measures over the Rafah incursion, which Qatar says has stalled efforts to reach…