That was the immediate reaction from US President Donald Trump to Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.Tehran says it’s still awaiting what it called a ‘definitive repsonse’ from Washington, through mediators.So, is his rejection of the proposal an effort to pressure Tehran for more concessions?Abas Aslani – Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic StudiesAmbassador Henry Ensher – Former U.S. diplomat and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Read briefing The Republic of Ireland has been thrust into the global spotlight over two controversial Nations League football games against Israel.On match days, Peadar Browns pub in Dublin’s historic Liberties area is usually jam-packed with football fans piling in to watch the game on various screens.As kickoff approached in the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League game against Israel on Sunday, there was a similarly busy crowd.The pub has made a deliberate decision not to show the game tonight in protest against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.“We committed about a month ago not to show any of the upcoming Nations League fixtures until Ireland made a stand against Israel,” says owner Aidan Brown. “We didn’t show the Kosovo game, and we’ve absolutely no intention of showing the Israel games.”Brown has been compiling a list of venues refusing to screen the match. At his last count, it included 140 pubs and bars in Ireland and abroad. He expected the number had risen before kickoff as tumultuous events within the Ireland team reverberated around the country.Ireland, a staunch and long-standing ally of the Palestinian cause, has been thrust into the global spotlight over whether the team will play the two scheduled games against Israel.Brown compares the atmosphere in Dublin to one of the most enduring sporting dramas in modern Irish history.“I think this is just as big as Saipan and the Roy Keane saga in 2002,” he says.Saipan became a national drama when Ireland captain Roy Keane left the 2002 World Cup squad in Japan after a confrontation with manager Mick McCarthy over training facilities.This time the public debate across the island of Ireland is not about football standards, but moral ones.In Derry, in the north of Ireland, Liam Doherty, another pub owner refusing to show the game, describes a similar sense of mobilisation.“It has to come from the bottom up, and it has to come from a small nation,” says the owner of the Delacroix bar. “I think that we have to be the one that shows that this is just wrong.”Rebecca O’Keeffe, chair of Irish Sport for Palestine, which has led the Stop the Game campaign, says the past week has shown just how far that mobilisation has spread.“It’s a mass movement,” she says. “It’s reached corners of Ireland that maybe wouldn’t have been engaged with this issue before. It’s all people can talk about. We are past the point of symbolic gestures and hollow words.”It’s not unanimous, but Irish public opinion is clearly against tonight’s fixture taking place.A poll of Irish football supporters found 76 percent opposed to the match going ahead. Among athletes, 63 percent of members of the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland voted against playing the game.But that groundswell of public sentiment has been ignored by those in charge of the sport in the country, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).In November, 93 percent of FAI members voted for the association to seek Israel’s suspension from UEFA competitions.Yet when the FAI voted in July on whether the Republic of Ireland should play Israel, it chose to proceed with the fixtures. The motion passed 75 votes to 32, with three abstentions. The FAI cited the consequences non-fulfillment could have for Irish football, such as potential points deductions.Daniel Lambert, the Bohemian FC chief commercial officer who helped propose the original November motion, says the sequence explains much of the anger towards the FAI.“It’s been mishandled from the very first day by the FAI,” he says. “The November vote was a very clear instruction from the membership, but they never really entertained not playing the games.”Lambert argues that the FAI also failed to recognise what it could have gained by taking a stand.“There are huge benefits to not playing,” he says. “Not only would it have the support of the Irish people … this would have enhanced the FAI’s reputation, not damaged it.”Susan Shalabi, vice president of the Palestinian Football Association, believes the buck stops even higher up.“The deeper issue is that the FAI and many others should never have been placed in this position,” she told Al Jazeera. “Had football’s international governing bodies [FIFA and UEFA] consistently applied their own rules, this dilemma would not exist.”Instead, the decision has been left not with the governing bodies, but with the Irish players themselves.Earlier this week, more than 160 Irish sportspeople signed an open letter calling on the squad to boycott the fixtures. Team coach Heimir Hallgrimsson said some players were “really uncomfortable” playing, while midfielder Jason Knight said the games should not be happening.Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu told his teammates he did not want to play. The players subsequently voted to fulfil the fixture, with reports suggesting eight had voted against playing. Bazunu was the only one who ultimately refused.“To do that on your own in a group of 25 players is staggering courage,” he says. “He’s represented Ireland more than those 24 players ever will. He has the respect of the Irish people forever.”
Read briefing The billionaire cofounder of Microsoft says without restrictions, AI could ‘cause a billion deaths’.Not requiring AI to have safeguards and be subject to outside monitoring is “completely irresponsible” and could lead to global harm to humanity, said tech mogul Bill Gates, in a series of media appearances where the philanthropist weighed in on global discussions concerning how to regulate the technology.“You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion of what safeguards and monitoring looks like,” Gates said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, parts of which aired on Sunday.Gates warned that the technology was “certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths.” Ensuring that did not happen, he said, could be a more difficult task than other existential threats, such as slowing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.The tech pioneer turned philanthropist said he was willing to speak with US President Donald Trump to convey his concerns directly and disagreed with his characterisation of recent warnings over the danger AI posed as a “hoax”.“I hope that, given my life’s work in the field, my saying how unique and different this is and how concerned I am will add to what he’s hearing from other people,” Gates said in the interview.In recent weeks, the heads of leading AI companies have said publicly that their industry needs frameworks and guardrails to ensure the technology does not outpace human oversight, spin out of control and prove to be catastrophic for the world.“If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of Anthropic, the company behind Claude, told members of the United Nations Security Council last week.But Trump and senior officials in his administration have baulked at imposing regulations on the multi-trillion-dollar industry, which they say is part of a race between the US and China.On Saturday, the day after meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss AI, Trump repeated his scepticism of the warnings and said he would not regulate the industry. He compared the apocalyptic warnings to other issues he is dismissive of, such as climate change and Russian interference in US elections. “It’s just like, everybody’s going to be dead, you’re all supposed to be dead now because of global warming. It’s like Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. All of these different hoaxes,” Trump said.Gates told CNN that the kind of safeguards needed for AI development would not harm the industry.“The amount of slowing down is not going to be that dramatic,” he said. “To have a monitoring or policing layer that says, is this being used for a cyberattack, is this being used for bio-terrorism, that can be done.”The 70-year-old co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 and ran it during an era of widespread consumer adoption of personal computers and later the internet. He became the richest person in the world in 1995, and retained that spot throughout much of the next two decades, before giving much of his wealth away for philanthropic causes and being replaced by a new generation of tech moguls, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.Earlier this month, his philanthropy, the Gates Foundation, said it was committing $1bn to expand AI access in the developing world.
Read briefing Hamas accuses Board of Peace of aligning with Israel after excluding UN agency for Palestinians from Gaza operations.Palestinian group Hamas has condemned the Board of Peace’s decision not to work with the United Nations agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, and for saying that the agency will have no role in Gaza.The US-created Board’s decision is “a complete alignment with the Zionist [Israeli] position”, aimed at ending UNRWA’s operations, preventing it from delivering aid to Palestinians and eliminating the right of return, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said on Saturday.On Friday, the Board of Peace said that “UNRWA’s involvement in Gaza is unchanged.”“We will only work with trusted partners who will deliver for the people of Gaza and contribute to a deradicalized Strip,” it said in a post on X, adding that “UNRWA fails on those litmus tests”.In his statement, Qassem said it was “strange for the Peace Council to adopt this hostile stance towards UNRWA while simultaneously failing to provide aid to Gaza or compel the occupation to abide by the ceasefire agreement and halt the daily killings of Palestinians in the Strip”.UNRWA, set up in 1949, has for decades provided aid and education services to Palestinian refugees and preserved their national rights.Palestinians see the agency as safeguarding their right of return to their homeland, while Israel wants it dismantled.The Associated Press reported on Friday that Board of Peace members had been more willing to work with UNRWA behind the scenes than their public stance suggested.At the Board of Peace briefing to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, officials named several UN agencies as partners. UNRWA was not among them.However, a Board of Peace official, speaking to The AP on condition of anonymity, confirmed that board members had met UNRWA officials several times.The official said the agency’s programmes could continue if they served Gaza’s residents well, but maintained that “UNRWA’s days are over”.Philippe Lazzarini, who led UNRWA until earlier this year, told The AP that members of the Palestinian technocratic committee appointed by the Board to govern Gaza wanted to work with the agency.On Thursday, Lazzarini accused the Board of failing to deliver on its mandate, saying in a post on X that Israeli authorities are still blocking basic aid “as part of a wider plan to keep Gaza unlivable for Palestinians”.“Grandiose plans is what the Board of Peace does best. Plans however will not keep the people of Gaza warm this winter,” he added, urging that crossings into Gaza be opened and supplies let in at scale.On the ground on Saturday, Israel’s pattern of violations against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank continued.Israeli attacks killed seven Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, including one person who succumbed to wounds sustained prior, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said.In northern Gaza, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in Jabalia, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. An Israeli drone strike near Joulis Street and al-Nouri Tower in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed another person and wounded others.In al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, an Israeli drone strike wounded several Palestinians, including a girl, while Israeli artillery shelled areas east of the city.An Israeli quadcopter also opened fire on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza, wounding three people, including another girl.Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces stormed Ramallah-based Birzeit University, raiding one of its buildings while students sat final examinations, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.In Tulkarem, forces arrested resident Bashar Odeh after raiding his home in Shuweika, and interrogated others during home searches in Zeita.In Bethlehem governorate, Israeli forces closed the military gates at the entrances to western villages, stopping residents, including pedestrians, from passing.Raids continued across other localities, including the Qalandiya and Am’ari refugee camps.
Read briefing Demonstrators are demanding early elections and accuse Pedro Sanchez’s government of negligence.Thousands of people have rallied in the Spanish capital to protest the government’s policy on irregular migration and its handling of a recent migrant influx into the North African enclave of Ceuta.Saturday’s protest in Madrid was organised by right-wing civil society group Sociedad Civil Espanola and backed by the mainstream conservative People’s Party (PP) and far-right Vox.According to the government, 20,000 people attended, while protest organisers put the turnout at 180,000.At the end of July, more than 70,000 migrants stormed into the autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco, before most of them were returned. However, thousands remain stranded.Demonstrators accused Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his government of failing to protect the borders of Ceuta.They are calling for an early election to be held by mid-November, with Vox demanding Sanchez be tried for treason. Spain’s next general election is not due until August 2027.PP’s secretary-general Miguel Tellado said there was a “widespread feeling that the government has not acted responsibly; there has been a dereliction of duty, extreme negligence”.“Spanish society has to take to the streets to ask the government to defend our territorial integrity,” he added.The July 30 and 31 surge of people into Ceuta led to unprecedented scenes and the deaths of dozens of migrants.Sanchez said on Tuesday that Moroccan border control failed to adequately handle the incident and that an investigation was still under way, adding that Rabat had been asked for answers.The Spanish government estimates that between 6,000 and 10,000 stranded migrants remain in Ceuta.Vox leader Santiago Abascal is demanding that everyone who arrived in late July be deported to their country of origin.Abascal said Ceuta remained “invaded because Sanchez continues to be Morocco’s servant”.Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Saturday that the government is planning to approve a decree on Tuesday to accelerate the return of migrants from Ceuta to Morocco.The protest is the second under the March for Dignity banner. That demonstration was held in late May before the incident in Ceuta and attracted 40,000 protesters, according to the government.
Read briefing Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of ‘flagrant attacks’ and condemns Houthis in UN addressSaudi Arabia has used its address to the UN General Assembly to accuse Iran of flagrant attacks on civilian and economic targets across the region, while calling on the international community to condemn Houthi actions threatening Red Sea shipping.
Read briefing Ireland will play their Nations League fixture against Israel on Sunday after holding a squad vote on whether to proceed, following one player’s intention to withdraw. Head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson said playing the match does not mean supporting the war in Gaza, adding that the team intends to wear black armbands in memory of lives lost.
Read briefing Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia’s ‘fight for truth and justice’ in Ukraine will continue ‘through to the end’, vowing that the objectives of Moscow’s military operation will be achieved.
Read briefing Afghan taxi drivers are playing music in their cars despite it being banned by the Taliban. The drivers are risking punishment by the morality police. Music has been restricted to religious or patriotic songs approved by Taliban authorities since they returned to power in 2021.
Read briefing Dozens of countries’ delegations walked out of or were absent for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN General Assembly speech in protest over Israel’s war in Gaza. Here’s which countries’ seats were visibly empty — and which delegations remained.
Read briefing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the UNGA was filled with bold claims about Israel’s policies. But as delegates walked out and with Israeli elections weeks away, was his real audience at the UN, or back home? Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Saleh has the latest.
Read briefing Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, a signatory to the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia at UNGA 81, calling threats to holy sites a ‘red line’. His remarks come as Pakistan and Turkiye send military chiefs to Riyadh for an urgent meeting.
Read briefing Little-known Israeli mapping team is redrawing land boundaries as Palestinians face growing illegal settlement expansion.Al-Mughayyir, occupied West Bank – As the October olive harvest approaches, Bilal Abu Alia stands near his home, gazing at his family’s land – territory he says Israeli authorities have taken from his family in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.Of their original 0.4sq km (100 acres) of land, Bilal explains that his family can now only access a small area that includes their home and a few olive trees.Land confiscation in the occupied West Bank doesn’t always begin with a direct seizure. In many instances, the process starts with the redesignation and demarcation of land on official Israeli maps, with the Israeli Civil Administration’s “Blue Line Team” playing an important role.According to a report published in mid-September by the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements, a body affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Blue Line team was officially established in 1999. Its primary role is to identify and formally designate areas that Israeli authorities classify as “state land”.Comprising surveyors, cartographers and legal experts, the team uses modern surveying technology and geographic information systems to review and redraw those boundaries on official maps, according to the bureau.The significance of the process is that land included within the boundaries Israel recognises as “state land” can subsequently be allocated for settlement projects, which are illegal under international law.Israel’s Civil Administration has argued that Blue Line revisions are technical corrections of historic surveying errors. But the United Nations has said that the revisions have essentially expanded the boundaries of land classified by Israel as state property.The bureau report argues that, in recent years, the Blue Line team has evolved from a technical mechanism for boundary demarcation into a tool increasingly used to accelerate settlement expansion and legitimise settlement outposts.The team recently re-demarcated areas in the northern and central West Bank totalling almost 0.2sq km (49 acres) that were reclassified from “state land” to land designated for settlement activity, according to the office. That included land that belonged to the Palestinian villages of Jalud, Qaryut, Turmusayya and al-Mughayyir.Al Jazeera has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment, but has yet to receive a response.In August 2025, an Israeli settler was shot while encroaching on Palestinian land in al-Mughayyir. Israeli forces subsequently launched a four-day operation in the village, during which bulldozers uprooted thousands of olive trees across much of the village, including the land later taken from Bilal’s family.“We were informed that we were barred from accessing this land, that it had become a military zone and then state land. We watched as the olive trees planted by my great-grandfather a century ago were bulldozed and uprooted right before our eyes, yet we were powerless to stop it,” Bilal told Al Jazeera.Israel informed the family that the land had become a closed military zone, off-limits to both Palestinians and settlers. However, shortly after, Bilal noticed a settler plowing the land. After the family lodged a complaint with the military liaison office, the settler stopped ploughing for a few days but soon resumed under the protection of the Israeli army.“Furthermore, in December 2025, months after the olive trees were uprooted, we attempted to gather the debris to at least salvage the wood,” he added. “We discovered that the land was under camera surveillance; my father, my elderly uncle and I were arrested and held for three days handcuffed, blindfolded and left lying on the cold ground at an army camp.”The land was once a source of livelihood for Bilal’s extended family, but the family says it can no longer farm it. Meanwhile, settlers continue to enter and use land in the area surrounding their home.The family attempted to file an objection against the confiscation of their land, but Bilal said he was only given three days to file an objection, leaving them no real opportunity to act, while bulldozers had already begun work on the site.The implications of the Blue Line team’s work go far beyond merely altering colours or boundaries on a map: A reclassification of land to state property can effectively open it up to construction projects or illegal settlement expansion.In the case of al-Mughayyir, this occurs within the context of broader settlement expansion that, according to the National Bureau, encircles the village and restricts residents’s ability to access and utilise their land.This mechanism suggests that land seizure often unfolds in stages: The land is first surveyed and boundaries redrawn before being designated ‘state land’ and then designated for settlement expansion.In the northern West Bank, the measures add to the continued expansion of Israeli settlements around Jenin. For example, the bureau points to military seizure orders affecting land around Qabatiya, near Jenin.
Read briefing Bystander video of ICE agents forcibly arresting a US citizen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, has gone viral after federal officers mistook the man for a suspect they were seeking. The man was hospitalised with head and neck injuries. Police are investigating.
Read briefing The lawsuit comes two months after the state filed a similar lawsuit against competitor Kalshi.New York State has filed a lawsuit against prediction market company Polymarket amid allegations that it violated state laws against illegal gambling.The suit, filed on Thursday by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, comes two months after the state filed a similar lawsuit against competitor Kalshi. That followed the state suing Coinbase and Gemini for offering users the ability to bet on “sports, entertainment, and elections, in violation of New York laws”, according to a release from the attorney general’s office at the time.The state accused all the companies of operating without licences from the State Gaming Commission.“Our gambling laws exist to protect New Yorkers, prevent the potential harms of problem gambling, and ensure funding for educational and public benefit programs,” James said in a statement announcing the suit.“By skirting New York’s laws, Polymarket is targeting the most vulnerable and depriving New York families of critical services and support. My office will never hesitate to take action to defend our laws and keep New Yorkers safe.”The suit also alleges that the company encouraged gambling among young people. It accuses Polymarket of targeting users as young as 18, while state law requires users to be at least 21 years old to take part in mobile sports betting.“By running an unlicensed gambling operation, Polymarket has done more than just knowingly violate state law, they have put New Yorkers at risk, especially those underage who are most vulnerable to problem gaming,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.The more than 30-page lawsuit claims that Polymarket, which is valued at more than $20bn, has advertised sports betting in particular since July 2025. It pointed to a post on X from August 17, 2025, about the launch of its US mobile app that said it was “BAD NEWS (For sportsbooks)”.Prediction markets allow users to wager on so-called event contracts, covering political events, sports, elections and even award shows. Concerns about the role of prediction markets came to a head earlier this year when wagers were made in the hours before the United States and Israel first struck Iran, prompting widespread backlash in Washington.“We chose to engage with them directly on the substance and address their concerns,” chief legal officer Neal Kumar said in a statement.“They preferred the media hit. Any time the [attorney general’s] office wants to swing by, our door is open for a conversation about how we protect consumers and offer fair, transparent and legal markets.”Kalshi is facing similar allegations in New York State. Kalshi has been critical of reporting on lawsuits against it and allegations that it is akin to a sports betting or gambling platform.The Polymarket lawsuit comes days after reporting from the Wall Street Journal that alleged a wave of users had linked stolen bank debit cards and then used them to make wagers, effectively draining the accounts. According to the report, when CEO Shayne Coplan was made aware of the issue, he responded: “Just keep growing and pay a fine if regulators ever find out.”New York State’s lawsuit joins a growing list of states that have sued prediction market platforms, including Arizona, Massachusetts, Nevada and many others. Those states are at odds with the federal government, as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has claimed that the federal agency exerts authority over the regulation of prediction markets.Polymarket has close ties with the family of US President Donald Trump. The prediction market platform has investment from 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm backed by Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest son, who also serves on the company’s advisory board.
Read briefing Israel’s election panel has voted to disqualify the two main Palestinian-led lists from next month’s election. Reacting to the decision, Hadash lawmaker Ofer Cassif, also barred, told Al Jazeera Israel has become a ‘fully fledged fascist dictatorship’. The bans are not final and appeals are expected.
Read briefing This week the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) joined forces with former rivals to create an opposition alliance. The fighters say they want to overthrow the government in Addis Ababa.Some commitments contained in that deal remain unfulfilled. Both the government and TPLF accuse each other of breaching the terms of the agreement.
Read briefing Macklemore says ‘being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work’, promises to donate proceeds to Palestinian causes.Grammy Award-winning rapper Macklemore has announced a string of shows in support of Palestine after he was controversially dropped from Ed Sheeran’s United States tour after speaking out against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.The 43-year-old American rapper, who has almost 40 million monthly listeners on Spotify, announced his Free Palestine Tour on Thursday, with shows set to take place in Dublin, Paris and London in late October.Macklemore said he will be joined by other musicians and will announce their names soon. He added that US shows are currently being organised.He said all proceeds raised from the tour will be donated to causes supporting the Palestinian people and the wider movement.“If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” Macklemore said in a statement.“There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now. It’s 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore,” he continued.“People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it.”English punk rap duo Bob Vylan have expressed their support for the tour, responding to Macklemore’s Instagram post with a heart emoji. The British YouTuber and influencer known as Chunkz, who has more than four million followers on Instagram, also praised Macklemore.On September 4 at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Macklemore, who was one of Sheeran’s opening acts, expressed support for Palestine.“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine’ … My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality,” Macklemore told the audience at the time.Soon after, the rapper announced that he had been dropped from the Sheeran tour.Venue owner Robert Kraft later confirmed that Macklemore was barred from performing at his Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Kraft denounced what he described as the rapper’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery” and argued that such actions led him to decide that allowing Macklemore to perform at his venue “would cross that line”.Kraft is a Jewish-American billionaire and has donated to several Israeli causes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity, said in 2019 that Israel did not have a “more loyal friend” than Kraft.Macklemore claimed Sheeran and his team removed him from the tour following pressure from Kraft.He alleged that Kraft rallied the owners of the remaining stadiums that the tour would include and persuaded them not to allow him to perform. The rapper said that Kraft then told Sheeran the tour would not go ahead unless he was dropped.Neither Kraft nor Sheeran have commented on Macklemore’s allegations that stadium owners were contacted by Kraft.
Read briefing Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie warned the UN General Assembly of “forces of destruction and mayhem” as Tigray rebels joined other rebel groups to seize airports and target government positions in northern Ethiopia, triggering fears of a renewed civil war.
Read briefing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says summit would be opportunity for Russian president to engage with global leaders.United States President Donald Trump has invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the upcoming G20 summit in Miami, Florida, the latest step meant to build ties between the two countries amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that Putin had been invited to travel to the summit in December, saying that he hopes the Russian leader will take the opportunity to meet with global leaders.“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with,” Rubio said. “So we’ve invited President Putin to the G20.”“We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said.Rubio’s remarks followed a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), currently convening in New York City.During a speech to the UNGA on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the world to place more financial pressure on Russia.“When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time. And that is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he said, adding that he is sceptical that Russia is sincerely interested in taking steps that could end the war.Trump has searched in vain for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.Ukrainian officials have called for a pause on strikes targeting energy infrastructure and for steps to facilitate shipping for the Black Sea. Russia has given little sign that it is interested in such an arrangement.“We are not going to have a pause in our special military operation,” Lavrov told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, accusing Europe of wanting to pause the fighting in order to “pump the Kyiv regime with weapons”.Rubio, however, continued to express optimism about the possibility of a temporary ceasefire.“I think both sides have expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involves grain and energy,” he said. “Obviously, you know, that won’t be easy, either.”Zelenskyy told reporters that Kyiv remains open to a maritime truce in the Black Sea.“We are waiting for Russia’s response,” he said, adding that his country is ready “to ensure safe shipping and food security in the Black Sea if Russia is ready to take real steps towards de-escalation, too”.The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian territory. The arrest warrant obliges member states to arrest Putin if he travels to their countries, but the court has no enforcement mechanism for this. The US is not a member of the ICC.
Read briefing The ruling seals six years of legal battles after Weinstein’s initial conviction for sexually assaulting TV assistant.Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, has been sentenced in Manhattan to 15 years in prison for a felony sex crime in another #MeToo reckoning.Weinstein’s sentencing on Wednesday for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley followed a legal odyssey spanning more than six years, when New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction. A second jury found Weinstein guilty again at a retrial last year.Once among the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, Weinstein was an Oscar-winning producer whose hits included “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” But his downfall came quickly after sexual assault allegations in 2017 set off the #MeToo movement.Weinstein, 74, is expected to appeal and maintains that he never raped or sexually assaulted anyone. He is now likely to remain behind bars well into his 80s. Seated in a wheelchair, he was quickly moved out of the courtroom after the sentencing, while some of his accusers hugged and brushed away tears.Haley, 49, appeared in court on Wednesday morning and delivered a victim impact statement in which she talked about enduring seven years of public smear campaigns and humiliation orchestrated by Weinstein, his legal team and allegedly paid podcasters aiming to sour her image.Haley added that her experience following the assault had “already been a life sentence” for her, and implored the judge to take all of this into consideration.Owing to a cycle of retrials, appeals and judicial proceedings, Weinstein has remained incarcerated since his 2018 arrest and is now serving time in a prison medical ward.Weinstein, first publicly accused of wrongdoing in 2017, was detained a year later. In 2024, New York’s highest court overturned the original 2020 conviction that had sentenced the former Hollywood producer to 23 years in prison, ruling that the inclusion of extraneous, non-indicted testimony had compromised the equity of the trial.Prosecutors attempted to retry the case last June, but it ended in a split verdict after the jury foreperson refused to return to deliberate amid a jury room feud. Weinstein was convicted of a first-degree criminal sex act on a separate count at the time, again.
Read briefing Experts warn the UN faces crises of funding, relevance, and Security Council gridlock.As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), experts say the institution is battling an existential crisis of funding, relevance and Security Council gridlock.Major conflicts appear intractable, and powers like the United States and Russia can bend the UN’s Security Council to their will; member states are looking for new mechanisms to bring accountability to the venue and for a new secretary-general to voice their concerns. The body has been accused of failing to stop what its own experts have said is a genocide in Gaza.World leaders are not under any illusion that the UNGA is in good health, said Daniel Forti, head of UN Affairs at the International Crisis Group. Yet many still understand the venue’s power.“The vast majority of leaders, from small states, from middle powers, and even a few from major powers, recognise the importance of a UN that is a global conversation platform,” Forti said.The UN is juggling multiple conflicts – from high-profile wars involving Iran to the often overlooked catastrophes in Sudan and Myanmar.In the Ukraine war, the UN says more civilians were killed in the first eight months of 2026 than in the whole of 2025, and even NATO powers now say they worry about spillover into their countries.Russia has repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has continued to appear before the UNGA to urge member states to help stop Moscow.On Wednesday, Zelenskyy spoke for the fifth time before the assembly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, urging leaders to further tighten economic measures meant to punish Moscow despite its vetoes of Security Council resolutions.“Many of you here have seen more than once how the abuse of the veto at the UN weakens the world and pushes peace further away,” Zelenskyy said.In the Israeli war on Gaza, the UN has labelled Israel’s conduct there a genocide, but it has struggled to exercise real agency. Security Council resolutions have been repeatedly vetoed, and UN relief agencies have been targeted by Israel without any accountability.The ongoing war between the US, Israel and Iran is having economic impacts across the globe and threatens to plunge Yemen back into a civil war.“From Ukraine, to Gaza, and Sudan, and also with what’s happening now in Iran, the veto problem leaves the UN hamstrung,” said Alanna O’Malley, professor and chair of Global Governance and Wealth and head of the Department of History at Erasmus University.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Al Jazeera’s James Bays this week that these conflicts were having real humanitarian impacts worldwide, including reduced food access, rising fuel prices, and global inflation.The UNGA will allow the opportunity for some discussions for parties involved in these kinds of conflicts, but it is unlikely they can reach major agreements, said Forti.But the assembly is still the only forum where all 193 member states are equal, and nations have tried to invoke new procedures and reach back into historical mechanisms to try and mitigate the veto deadlocks, O’Malley said.A 1950 resolution, dating from a deadlock over the Korean War, has allowed the UNGA to debate issues vetoed in the Security Council. And in 2022, an impasse over Ukraine generated a new mechanism forcing any permanent council representative – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US, often called the P5 – to come before the UNGA and explain when it uses the veto.“The idea is to build more accountability into the system for the P5, to make the veto not just harder to use, but also ensure it uses a lot of political capital,” O’Malley said.Calls for reforms have only increased since 2023 and Israel’s war on Gaza, O’Malley said, with “unprecedented” majority votes in the UNGA challenging the Security Council.Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the UNGA, though, is remaining relevant as major global powers go their own way.The administration of US President Trump has pushed through its own Board of Peace, a body that has accomplished few of its goals but has secured Security Council approval and claims to take on responsibilities previously handled by UN agencies, like distributing aid or managing refugees.Unhappy with the UN, Trump has also imposed sanctions on the body’s special rapporteurs, as well as organisations like the International Criminal Court.Washington, though, may not be the only government looking to strike out on its own.Chinese President Xi Jinping is in the US this week, but he will not be attending the UNGA. He last addressed the body in 2021 via video, but this year he will skip it altogether, opting instead for one-on-one talks with US President Trump. China has positive views of the UN, often using the Security Council to weigh in on global issues, Forti said, but it is also looking for alternatives, through venues like BRICS and the SCO, to strengthen multilateralism.
Read briefing Manchester United’s debt remains over one billion pounds ($1.3bn) despite record revenues that are unable to prevent loss at the UK football side.Manchester United’s annual net loss increased by almost one third to 43 million pounds ($57m) despite record-breaking revenues announced on Wednesday.The Red Devils reported 677.6 million pounds ($897.8m) in revenue in the year to June 30, up 1.7 percent.However, the football club announced a seventh straight annual loss after taxes as co-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s cuts to operating costs offset contractual payments to sacked manager Ruben Amorim and a big increase in loan repayments.The latest earnings relate to a turbulent 2025-26 season, which saw former United player Michael Carrick replace Amorim and secure qualification for the Champions League.The increase in revenue was driven by an uptick in broadcasting income, boosted by a third-place finish in the Premier League, up from 15th the previous season.But commercial and match-day income each fell close to five percent during a season in which there were no European fixtures. Broadcasting income jumped almost 20 percent.United’s accounts showed that they paid 8.2 million pounds (10.9m) in exceptional items, mostly related to the departure of Amorim, who left in January after 14 months in charge.Accounts also revealed that the club paid 63.5 million pounds ($84m) to acquire land adjacent to stadium site Old Trafford, on which they plan to build a new 100,000-capacity arena.Ratcliffe has overseen wide-ranging, and often unpopular, cost-cutting measures, including widespread job cuts, after completing a deal to buy a stake in the club in February 2024.Man United CEO Omar Berrada said the latest figures showed the club’s underlying strength.“This shows the direct impact of the work we have been doing over the past two years,” he said in a statement.“It also proves Manchester United’s enduring popularity and commercial strength.“While these results confirm that we are on the right trajectory, we will continue to take a disciplined approach to ensure our finances remain sustainable,” he added.United expect revenue of between 740 million pounds ($980m) and 760 million pounds ($1bn) in the current financial year.Carrick’s team has started the new season poorly despite signing a clutch of new players in the summer transfer window.United have taken only five points from their five Premier League games – equalling the club’s worst-ever start to a season – and last week crashed out of the English League Cup.
Read briefing US President Donald Trump says he had a ‘very good’ three-hour meeting with Iranian officials at the UN as the White House and Tehran explore a possible deal to end the monthslong conflict. Trump described the choice for Iran as “potential greatness” or “obliteration”.
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