After deadly cross-border clashes with Cambodia forced over 130 000 civilians to flee, Thailand has declared martial law in eight districts. Since Thursday’s clashes involving a territorial dispute erupted, at least 16 people have died. Tony Cheng of Al Jazeera reports from northeast Thailand.
In response to the pressure mounting on Israeli Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take concrete steps in the wake of Israel’s ongoing conflict with Gaza, more than 200 British lawmakers have urged the British government to recognize a Palestinian state.
In advance of a UN conference on Palestine the following week, 221 MPs from all political parties sent an open letter to Starmer’s Labour government asking for recognition of a Palestinian state on Friday.
The UK Government will be the subject of the conference’s statement, outlining both how and when it will implement its long-standing commitment to a two-state solution and how it will collaborate with international partners to make this a reality.
We urge you to take the decision because we recognize that the UK does not have the resources to create a free and independent Palestine. However, due to our historical connections and membership in the UN Security Council, we do not think it is possible to do so.
According to Labour MP Sarah Champion, the signatories included members of the Greens, Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, and the Conservatives.
The Gaza Strip’s ongoing bombardment and blockade, which has caused a deadly starvation crisis, is raising public outcry in the UK and around the world.
The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have been urged to acknowledge Palestine as a state by 221 MPs from 9 different parties in a joint letter. twitter.com/b2hbX2XCGR
Additionally, it comes one day after French President Emmanuel Macron declared that France would recognize Palestine at the UN in September.
In a social media post on Thursday, Macron stated, “I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine in line with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
“This solemn announcement will be made in front of the UN General Assembly in September.” The need to put an end to the conflict in Gaza and provide relief for the country’s citizens is now top of mind.
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were upset about Macron’s announcement, which he claimed “rewards terror.”
However, Netanyahu has received a lot of negative feedback about Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 59, 000 Palestinians since it started in October 2023.
The UN and leading human rights organizations report that many Palestinian children are currently suffering from severe malnutrition and are at risk of dying as a result of Israel’s blockade of the enclave.
Starmer stated in a statement on Friday that “the horrifying scenes in Gaza are unrelenting.”
He claimed that Israel’s excessive military escalation in Gaza, the continued hostage-taking of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, and the rise in violent extremist settler groups are all indefensible.
Starmer instead stated that he was working “on a path to peace in the region” rather than announcing plans to recognize a Palestinian state.
According to him, “That path will provide the concrete steps needed to bring the ceasefire to a lasting resolution.”
One of those steps is the recognition of a Palestinian state. That is all I can say. However, it must be a component of a larger plan that Palestinians and Israelis can both benefit from fortifying a two-state solution.
In response to a protest outside Starmer’s London residence on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic reported that demonstrators “outraged” the British government’s response to the dire situation in Gaza.
One of the things that many of them feel powerless is gather here, make as much noise as possible, and hope that the people in power will notice,” she said.
They want Keir Starmer to use more of his influence and the power to put an end to this, according to them.
The British government has been receiving increasingly protracted calls to support Israel and impose an arms embargo against the nation in addition to recognizing a Palestinian state.
As Starmer prepares to meet with US President Donald Trump, who is visiting Scotland on Friday, Veselinovic described Starmer as being in “a difficult diplomatic situation.”
She noted that Trump has criticized the French president’s decision and added pressure on the UK, which is a close ally of both France and the US, to recognize a Palestinian state.
She said, “It does seem like a gulf is emerging here over what the overall European stance is, which is much more in line with what UN aid agencies are saying is happening on the ground in Gaza, and the American position, which seems almost 100 percent back whatever is the Israeli government’s version of events is,” she said.
Beginning in October, Meta will stop running political and social issue advertisements on its European Union platforms.
In response to legal uncertainty surrounding the new rules for political advertising, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company made the announcement on Friday.
The Silicon Valley-based social media giant is a step up from Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which made the same choice in November.
Concerns about disinformation and foreign interference in elections across the 27-country bloc led to the creation of the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which will take effect starting on October 10.
Big Tech companies must clearly label political advertising on their platforms, disclose who paid for it, and how much, and specify which elections are being targeted in accordance with the law, or face fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover.
In a blog post, Meta stated that “we will no longer allow political, electoral, and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU as of early October 2025.”
In response to the EU’s incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which poses significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties, the company said.
According to Meta, Europeans would ultimately suffer as a result of the EU regulations.
We think personalized advertisements are essential for a wide range of advertisers, including those running campaigns to inform voters about significant social issues that influence public discourse,” the statement read.
“Regulations, like the TTPA, significantly impair our ability to provide these services, affecting both the ability of voters to access comprehensive information as well as the effectiveness of the outreach of advertisers.”
The European Commission is currently looking into Meta’s Facebook and Instagram because they allegedly failed to combat deceptive advertising and disinformation in the lead-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections.
The Digital Services Act, which places a greater emphasis on fighting illegal and harmful content on platforms than it does for Big Tech, could result in fines of up to 6% of their global annual revenue.
TikTok, a ByteDance company, is also in the EU’s crosshairs because of its alleged failure to stop election interference, most notably in the Romanian presidential election in November.
In the United States, political advertising by Meta has long been a problem. CEO Mark Zuckerberg settled a lawsuit brought by shareholders last week over alleged privacy breaches.
FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, have been criticized for their autocratic way of leading, according to the global football players’ union, who claim that their members’ rights are being violated.
Following a meeting of 58 national player unions, the FIFPRO network said on Friday that “football needs responsible leadership, not emperors.”
More genuine, inclusive, and transparent dialogue is needed, the union added.
After Infantino hosted a group of largely unrecognised officials in New York before the Club World Cup final, FIFA announced two weeks ago that it had reached a consensus on crucial issues.
While the European Commission in Brussels is considering a formal complaint against FIFA, a rift recently developed between the governing body of soccer and its players’ unions. The European division of FIFPRO and the national leagues in Europe filed a complaint about FIFA’s governance and decision-making.
FIFPRO claimed that the main priorities of FIFA were an overloaded global match schedule, too many games for elite players, a lack of physical and mental recovery periods, and extreme playing conditions.
Players at the month-long Club World Cup in the United States reported feeling ill and sluggish during the heat of daytime competitions.
FIFA added the 63-game event to the schedule without formally consulting players, but it was profitable for clubs, especially in Europe, with Saudi Arabian funding.
According to FIFPRO, President Infantino “celebrated” the event despite it being held in unfavorable circumstances, which demonstrates a troubling disregard for human rights, even when it concerns elite athletes.
The Netherlands-based union praised FIFA for “reaffirming its unwavering commitment to protecting the rights of men and women players,” which are being seriously hampered by commercial policies imposed by its autocratic system of governance.
According to FIFA, “This is a model that puts the health of players at risk and sidelines those at the heart of the game,” adding that it was unacceptable for an organization that claims global leadership to ignore the players’ fundamental needs.
FIFA had a comment request.
Every branch of the military is a part of the United States’ border with Mexico, despite the decline in attempted illegal crossings, to 7,600 deployments of troops.
Additionally, President Donald Trump authorized funding for an additional 3, 000 Border Patrol agents and provided bonuses totaling $10,000.
A new command center at a far-off Army intelligence training facility, which is located along southern Arizona’s Huachuca Mountains, serves as the guide for the military mission at the border. Battalion commanders and staff there use digital maps to map military locations and movements along the nearly 3,200-kilometer (2, 000-mile) border, making a community hall into a bustling war room.
The military had previously been tasked with border enforcement, but the military had only recently intervened.
However, large swaths of the border were designated militarised zones in April, allowing US troops to apprehend trespassers and grant permission for additional criminal offenses that could lead to prison sentences.
The two-star general leading the mission claims that troops are being let go of maintenance and warehouse duties so they can work with US Border Patrol agents in high-traffic areas for illegal crossings quickly and on remote, unprotected terrain.
“We don’t have a union for labor,” he said. There is no cap on how many shifts and hours we can work, according to Army Major-General Scott Naumann.
“We can leave soldiers out for days at a time whenever we need to to get over the problem,” he said. Now that the cartels are shifting, we can fly people into extremely remote areas.
The Trump administration broadly uses the military to boost its immigration operations, from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida to protecting federal buildings in Los Angeles from protests.
Additionally, it is planned to place detained people on Texas, Indiana, and New Jersey military bases.
Trump is aiming to fulfill his campaign promise to stop illegal immigration to the border, according to Dan Maurer, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and a retired US Army judge advocate.
It all fits into a very muscular, robust, intimidating, and aggressive response to this, according to Maurer, to demonstrate to his supporters that he was serious about a campaign promise to fix immigration.
Adam Abu Harbid, a journalist, was among the dead after an Israeli attack on a tent that sheltered displaced Palestinians overnight. Major international news organizations issued a statement advising journalists in Gaza to work in bleak conditions.