Category World News

In light of rumor that Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to Australia early this month, three Australian and Palestinian legal organizations have officially requested that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigate him for his role in alleged war crimes.

The organizations announced on Friday that they had written to the AFP to “urgently alert” them about their concerns in light of President Isaac Herzog’s “military onslaught” in Gaza since October 7, 2023, “in light of serious and credible criminal allegations of incitement to genocide and advocating genocide.”

A 10-page submission from the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), Al-Haq, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights contained both the allegations made against Herzog and Australia’s obligations under international law and its own domestic law.

Australia has both the legal authority and the duty to act, according to Rawan Arraf, executive director of the ACIJ, in a statement.

By allowing Herzog to enter Australia without an AFP investigation, Arraf added that the Australian government would be “blatant disregarding” its international legal obligations.

Herzog, the head of state, was the country’s general director, Shawan Jabarin, who pointed out that Israel killed 23, 000 children and 1, 000 babies in Gaza “before their first birthday,” according to Jabarin, the general director of Al-Haq.

4, 000 human embryos and the hope of a future life were destroyed by bombings, according to Jabarin.

In response to last month’s mass shooting that targeted a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach and left 15 people dead, Herzog is scheduled to visit Sydney on February 7, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.

In December, Albanese informed reporters that the Australian government had invited Herzog to “honor and remember the victims of the Bondi anti-Semitic terrorist attack and offer support for Jewish Australians and the Australian Jewish community at this time.”

Ohad Kozminsky, an executive member of the Jewish Council of Australia, stated last month that Herzog’s visit would only “increase tensions and exacerbate division in our community” because he is “head of a foreign country that has been committing genocide.”

In the wake of the attack, the federal parliament of Australia passed stringent new gun reform laws as well as hate speech reforms, which have sparked concerns from opponents of some deeply sweeping reforms.

While “some of the most contentious provisions” were removed before the legislation was quickly passed earlier this week, according to the Jewish Council of Australia, others remained, including “enhanced ministerial powers to deport migrants based on arbitrary decision-making.”

In response to the antisemitic attack at Bondi, the council announced on Wednesday that 60, 000 people had signed its petition. It urged Australian “leaders to reject attempts to erode Jewish grief, erode civil liberties, or pit communities against one another.”

We are watching our grief and rage being used as a political tool to demonize Palestinians, Muslims, migrants, and the anti-genocide protest movement, according to Kozminsky in a statement.

According to Kozminsky, “parliamentary chaos and political whimsy do not strengthen Jewish safety.”

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Before a snap election is set for February 8, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hasdissolved parliament.

As lawmakers chanted the traditional “banzai” rallying cry on Friday, the speaker of Japan’s parliament read out a letter formally dissolving the lower house.

A 12-day election campaign that officially begins on Tuesday thanks to the 465-member lower house’s dissolution.

On Monday, Takaichi, the nation’s first female premier, made her intentions known.

Although Takaichi has only been in office for three months and received strong approval ratings of about 70%, she was elected as Japan’s first female leader in October.

After experiencing significant declines in public support in recent years, she hopes to capitalize on her personal popularity to help the ruling party regain momentum.

In the powerful lower chamber, Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party (JIP) have a sizable majority.

In response to rising tensions with China, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK stated that important election-related issues will be addressing rising consumer prices as well as security concerns.

As he flew back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, Trump declared to reporters on Air Force One, “We’re watching Iran.”

Trump remarked, “We have a big force going toward Iran.”

He said, “We’re watching them very closely, but I prefer not to see anything happen.”

We have a lot of ships going that way, he said, and maybe we won’t need to use it. “Just in case a big flotilla goes that way,” he continued.

Trump made the announcement regarding the US naval construction after he made threats of military action against Iran last week, he said after receiving assurances that Tehran would not execute protesters.

Following US media reports last week that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group of vessels were given the order to divert from maneuvers in the South China Sea to the Middle East, Trump confirmed that the region is still under military preparation.

Trump reiterated on Thursday that his earlier threats to use force against Tehran had prevented Tehran’s top Iranian authorities from carrying out the execution of more than 800 protesters, and he once more said he was willing to speak with the country’s leadership.

Iranian officials have denied plans to execute those who participated in the widespread anti-government demonstrations that started in late December and that, according to Iranian state media, left 2,427 civilians and members of the security forces dead.

Trump stated on Wednesday that he hoped Iran would stop US military action against Iran and that the US would intervene if Tehran resumed its nuclear program.

Trump remarked to CNBC in a Davos interview that “they can’t do the nuclear.”

The president referred to US air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025, when Washington joined Israel in its 12-day occupation of the nation. “If they do it, it will happen again,” the president said.

Prior to the attacks in June, Washington had previously ordered a significant military deployment in the Middle East, and officials later bragged about how Tehran’s nuclear program had been kept a secret.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned the US that if attacked, Tehran would “fir back with everything we have.” He wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

The minister wrote that “our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have” when faced with renewed threat.

Araghchi said that while his warning was not a threat, “but a reality I feel I need to express explicitly because I dislike war as a diplomat and veteran.”

He predicted that an “all-out confrontation will be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to sell to the White House.”

A five-year-old boy who was arriving home from preschool in Minnesota was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after allegedly using him as “bait” to apprehend his father, who is seeking asylum.

According to Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik during a news conference on Wednesday, federal agents removed the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, from the running car while it was in the family’s driveway on Tuesday afternoon.

The officers then instructed the child to knock on his home’s door to check if anyone else was inside, “essentially using a five-year-old as bait,” Stenvik said.

Stenvik claimed that the family, who immigrated to the United States in 2024, is still receiving asylum and has not received an exit order.

Why is a five-year-old held in custody? she inquired. You can’t tell me that this kid will be a violent criminal, he said.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, stated in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child.”

She claimed that ICE was detaining Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, the child’s father, who McLaughlin claimed is an émigré from Ecuador.

One of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias, according to McLaughlin, adding that parents have the option of having their children placed with a person of their choosing for their safety.

According to Stenvik, Liam is the fourth student from Columbia Heights Public Schools to have been detained by ICE recently. A 10-year-old and a 17-year-old were both taken on Tuesday while a 17-year-old was heading to school, according to the woman.

The family’s attorney, Marc Prokosch, claimed on Thursday that Liam and his father were being held in a family holding cell and that they had been placed in a family holding cell.

At a press conference, he said, “We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or moral pressure.”

In accordance with an attorney who went to the Dilley detention facility last week to see how things were going, according to a lawyer who is currently fighting to ensure the safekeeping of immigrant children held in federal custody.

The legal counsel for Children’s Rights, Leecia Welch, said, “The conditions were worse than ever.”

Welch claimed that “significant numbers of children had been detained for more than 100 days” and that the number of children had skyrocketed.

“Almost every child we spoke to was sick, and it appeared to be a disease epidemic.” Families reported that their children had been languished, severely ill, and in severe need of prolonged detention, according to Welch.

US Vice President JD Vance claimed he had heard the “terrible story” about Liam during a trip to Minneapolis on Thursday, but that he had no idea what the federal agents could have done differently.

What are they supposed to do, then? A five-year-old child should not be allowed to freeze until they die. Are illegal aliens not supposed to be detained in the United States of America? Vance noted that he was the father of a five-year-old while also mentioning his own.

According to US Customs and Border Protection official Greg Bovino, there have been about 3, 000 arrests in recent weeks in immigration raids across Minnesota.

Advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest statistics or person descriptions are accurate, according to Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

Three people were detained in Minneapolis on Thursday after they staged a protest at Cities Church in St Paul, where they claimed one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the St Paul ICE field office’s acting field director, according to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and Minneapolis activist Nekima Levy Armstrong were among those detained.

On Friday, January 23, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• Vyacheslav Zadorenko, the head of the regional military administration, reported on the Telegram messaging app that two bread-delivering volunteers were killed in a Russian drone attack on their car in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
• At least seven people were hurt when Russian forces launched a drone attack on a high-rise residential building in Dnipro, according to the city’s mayor Borys Filatov.
• In the disputed Komyshuvakha area of Ukraine, four people were killed and four were hurt as a result of Russian glide bombings, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.
• Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the regional military administration, reported that 12 people were hurt in a Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih city in the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk region, including four children.
• According to a report from Russia’s TASS state news agency, Russian forces shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight and into the early hours of Thursday.

Sanctions

An oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, according to officials, belongs to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” which was meant to evade international sanctions, was intercepted by the French navy.
• The oil tanker, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, was “coming from Russia, subject to international sanctions, and suspected of flying a false flag.” He added that allies and allies participated in the operation “in strict accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

Energy crisis

• The situation is still “extremely difficult,” according to Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, which came on Thursday during its most troubled day since a widespread blackout hit the network in November 2022.
• As nighttime temperatures dropped to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), conditions were the most challenging in the capital Kyiv and the surrounding area, according to Shmyhal, as well as in the southeast of Dnipropetrovsk.
• Two days after the most recent overnight Russian attacks, Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that 600 apartment buildings had their heating restored, while 2,600 were still without heat.

diplomacy and politics

• Two Russian soldiers who were taken into custody in May 2025 were alive and unharmed, according to Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, who later disclosed their bodies to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange agreement late last year. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the report.

military assistance

Tore O Sandvik, the country’s defense minister, stated in “cooperation with the United States and others” that “his country has quickly delivered air defense missiles to Ukraine at a crucial stage so that the NASAMS system can continue to protect Ukrainian citizens from deadly air strikes.