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European Union leaders will consider imposing 25 percent tariffs on a range of US imports, including steel, clothes, and food, but not bourbon or other alcoholic drinks, following US President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports from the EU.

One IDF officer said that not only are Israeli troops killing military-age males, "we're killing their wives, their children, their cats, their dogs. We're destroying their houses and pissing on their graves."

• Over 600 people, including children, have been killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war across Syria since December 2024.
• Extensive contamination from landmines and explosive remnants of war across Syria poses fatal risks to civilians returning home to urban and rural areas.
• Syria’s transitional government should work with international donors to establish structures, policies, procedures, and programming to urgently survey and clear landmines and explosive remnants of war and to secure stocks of weapons.

• Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia responsible for 91% of executions
• States weaponizing death penalty against protesters and ethnic groups
• Rise in drug-related executions in violation of human rights

A team of legal experts, including renowned human rights barrister Michael Mansfield KC, are lodging an extensively researched 240-page report (see summary) with the War Crimes Team at London’s Metropolitan Police, on behalf of The Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).

The submission requests the War Crimes Team investigate suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by British citizens and dual nationals in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2024. The report is based on six months of extensive evidence gathering and will be handed over in early April.

Human rights and legal experts, practitioners and advocates to sign the following statement that outlines the importance of fully deploying the state’s existing legal accountability mechanisms to investigate war crimes.

At the time of writing (6 April 2025), the Israeli military has recommenced its ground and air offensive in Gaza, while its ongoing military campaign in the West Bank has not ceased. Israel has killed over 1300 people in the three weeks alone, while its government and military continue to enjoy near total impunity for continued war crimes and crimes against humanity (ICJ, 2024). Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children and hundreds of thousands have been seriously injured in indiscriminate attacks since October 2023. Aerial and ground attacks have flattened entire neighbourhoods and cities across the Gaza Strip, forcibly displacing 90% of its 2.2 million inhabitants. Israel has consistently blocked and obstructed humanitarian aid, bringing about conditions that expose the civilian population to a slow and calculated death.

• The sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, including the right to abortion and family planning methods, have been significantly eroded in Romania.
• Romanian authorities are not only failing to uphold sexual and reproductive health rights but is often enabling efforts to block women and girls from exercising these rights.
• Romanian authorities should ensure that unmonitored and unregulated processes in the healthcare system, lack of information, availability, or affordability are not impeding women and girls from making informed decisions about their health.

Despite the WHO's polio campaign reaching a high number of children in Gaza, hundreds of thousands remain at risk of paralysis amid Israel's blocking of aid

Thousands of Palestinians chanted against Hamas during anti-war protests last week in the Gaza Strip, the biggest show of anger at the militant group since its attack on Israel ignited the war.

Protesters said they were venting anger and desperation as they endure a new round of war and displacement after Israel ended a ceasefire. They leveled unusually direct criticism at Hamas even while remaining furious at Israel, the United States and others for their plight.

Public expressions of dissent have been extremely rare since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007. The militant group has violently dispersed occasional protests and jailed, tortured or killed those who challenged its rule. Hamas has faced no significant internal challenge since the start of the war and still controls Gaza, despite losing most of its top leaders and thousands of fighters.

China said Friday that it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the United States from April 10, making good on a promise to strike back after US President Donald Trump escalated a global trade war.

The Constitutional Court of Korea ruled on April 4, 2025, to uphold the impeachment of South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, and remove him from office for imposing martial law on December 3, 2024.

cross-posted from: https://biglemmowski.win/post/5857010

"The missile struck an area right next to residential buildings — hitting a playground and ordinary streets," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

"Such a strong country, such a strong people — and such a weak reaction. They are even afraid to say the word 'Russian' when talking about the missile that killed children," he said in a post that also praised countries including Japan, Britain, Switzerland and Germany for their "principled statements."

"Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade," he said.

Guess he has some cards after all.

The Iranian authorities are preparing to inflict the cruel and irreversible punishment of finger amputation against three prisoners as early as 11 April, following their torture-tainted convictions in unfair trials, Amnesty International warned today. The organization is calling on the international community to urgently press the Iranian authorities to end this spectacle of brutality. All Iranian officials responsible for ordering and/or carrying out these acts of torture must be criminally investigated and prosecuted.

The US imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s departing police chief and five other officials on Monday, saying they had undermined the semi-autonomous city’s “protected rights and freedoms”, and warned of additional visa restrictions for Chinese officials blocking “reciprocal access” to Tibet.

The sanctions against Hong Kong Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee and other high-ranking officials announced on Monday will freeze any assets they have in the US and restrict any financial transactions with them under US law. The sanctions were imposed on Chiu a day before he retires on Tuesday.

Citing an executive order signed by President Donald Trump during his first term, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move showed “the Trump administration’s commitment to hold to account those responsible for depriving people in Hong Kong of protected rights and freedoms or who commit acts of transnational repression on US soil”.

A new corruption allegation is rocking Israeli politics intertwining allegations of bribery, media manipulation, and high-level government interference.

Qatargate, as it has been dubbed, centres on a claim that senior advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received illicit funds from Qatar through intermediaries, allegedly in exchange for promoting pro-Qatar messaging.

The investigation has already led to the arrest of two of Netanyahu’and the prime minister himself has been questioned.

At the same time, Netanyahu’s controversial attempt to replace Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar—who is overseeing the investigation—has raised suspicions that the Prime Minister is trying to obstruct justice.

Forward: ‘Qatargate’ and the web of huge scandals rocking Israel, explained.

France this week warned that failure to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran could lead to war, further raising tensions in an already volatile region.

• Government affiliated militias deliberately killed civilians from Alawite minority
• Syrian government must ensure independent, effective investigations of these unlawful killings and other war crimes and hold perpetrators to account
• Truth, justice and reparation crucial to ending cycles of atrocities

Arabic - Persian - Dutch

A number of large Iranian container ships are using the trade route to the port of Antwerp in Belgium as cover for suspicious activities, which are being closely monitored by Western intelligence agencies. However, catching them in the act is nearly impossible. There are six suspect ships tracked by the investigative team that are believed to be involved in espionage, aiding the Houthis in their attacks on commercial vessels, and transporting weapons to Syria and Russia. A team of investigative journalists, along with the Belgian newspaper De Tijd, followed the route of these six Iranian ships on their journeys from Iranian ports to Europe via the Syrian port of Latakia.

Kyiv’s assault on Kursk in August 2024 took Russia by surprise. But Russia’s ongoing retaking of the Kursk region may remove a bargaining chip for Ukraine in the talks to end the war. As an additional weigh in the balance, Justice Info has calculated that Russia has put on trial at least 67 Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk, who were sentenced to between 14 and 26 years in prison.

American doctors who volunteered in Gaza report witnessing a disturbing pattern of children being shot by Israeli snipers.