The Syrian Druze community rejects Israel’s claim that it has bombed Syria on purpose to protect the country from pro-government forces. To put an end to days of fighting, Syrian forces and Druze leaders have reached an agreement to improve security.
The UN special rapporteur discusses the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza, threats of arrest in Germany, and pressure to resign from her position.
A Palestinian activist featured in a recent BBC documentary, which was praised for bringing attention to the plight of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, has been harassed by Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Israeli settlement attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem have soared, forcing Palestinians to flee their homes as the world’s attention has been drawn to Israel’s 18-month conflict there. Israeli settlers, who cite the Torah to assert their rights over Palestinian lands, are further encouraged by the lack of Israeli police action.
Issa Amro, who was featured in the documentary The Settlers, released video online showing how armed soldiers and settlers stormed his home in Hebron, West Bank, during the time that Louis Theroux, a British-American journalist and broadcaster, had been featured in.
Amro claimed that the police threatened him with arrest and told him not to file a complaint in an instance of apartheid that Israel had imposed in the West Bank. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are two organizations that accuse Israel of operating in occupied areas.
Amro added that Donald Trump, the president of the United States, was backing them when Israeli settlers attacked him on Sunday. The activist claimed that the settlers were “emboldened by the Trump administration’s blind support.”
Theroux claimed that he and his team have kept in touch with Amro frequently.
. The Settlers star ISsaamro has posted videos of his most recent harassment of settlers and soldiers. Since the documentary and the past 24 hours, our team has maintained contact with him. The situation is still being closely watched. https://t.co/asEWKkVX5h
The documentary, which is a follow-up to Theroux’s 2012 film The Ultra Zionists, examines how the situation in occupied Palestinian territory has changed.
The documentary examined the significant growth of the settler population and how new military installations and Israeli infrastructure have spread across Palestinian territory, frequently with direct state support, while conducting interviews with Palestinian and Israeli figures.
It examines the religious and ideological motivations behind the Israeli expansion, which has caused numerous Palestinians to flee and engage in bloody hostility, and raises questions about the legality and morality of the occupation as judges rule that it violates international laws and standards.
You bring Jewish families [to the occupied West Bank], you lead a Jewish life, and you will experience light instead of darkness. In the documentary, Daniella Weiss, a key figure in the Israeli settler movement for decades, describes how the state of Israel was established and how we want to proceed in Gaza.
Weiss, who has received the support of a number of Israeli rabbis, claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “happy” about the settlement expansion. The West Bank and East Jerusalem have been occupied by Netanyahu, who opposes Palestinian control of Gaza.
Israeli nationals who reside on private Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are the settlers. They now number more than 700, 000. International law specifically prohibits all Israeli settlements.
The biggest obstacle to the establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state living alongside Israel is seen as settlements and their expansions.
Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory was called upon by the UN General Assembly last year. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that Israel’s presence in Palestinian territory was “unlawful” several months prior.
When Israeli soldiers approached and attempted to force him to leave the area while filming a documentary in Hebron, Theroux himself was subject to harassment as well.
Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, was attacked by Israeli settlers in his home in Susya, West Bank, shortly after his harassment by Amro.
Late in March, armed and masked settlers attacked Ballal’s home and car, injuring him. The filmmaker was blindfolded and detained by Israeli soldiers while they were receiving medical in an ambulance. He was later unharmed and released.
Similar to Amro’s harassment on Saturday, the attack was also seen as reprisal for the documentary’s international success and its efforts to depict Palestinian struggles in the West Bank.
A community in the southern US state of Texas that is home to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX will be renamed Starbase after residents – nearly all employees of the firm – backed the move to formally organise it into a city.
In a vote on Saturday, 212 of the almost 300 residents eligible to cast ballots were in favour of the change at the site on Boca Chica Bay bordering Mexico, with only six against.
Bobby Peden, who is vice president of testing and launches at SpaceX, was also confirmed as mayor. He was the only name on the ballot.
Official documents show nearly 500 people live around the base in Cameron County, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees.
“Starbase, Texas”, Musk wrote on X, a social media platform he owns, “Is now a real city”!
The vote came at a difficult time for Musk, a major donor to US President Donald Trump and a backer of European far-right groups. The South African-born entrepreneur is expected to reduce his role as the unofficial head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to instead focus more on his troubled electric car company, Tesla.
It was Musk who proposed the name Starbase in a social media post during a visit to the facility – a key testing location for the company’s rocket launches – four years ago. Then, last December, general manager of SpaceX Kathryn Lueders appealed to local authorities to grant municipality status to the site.
Saturday’s vote was never in doubt, but the change allows Starbase to control building and permitting and avoid other regulatory hurdles, while collecting taxes and writing local law.
However, not everyone has been upbeat about the prospect of a SpaceX town.
Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, was among those voicing concern over the environmental impact, warning of more “destruction”.
“They would attempt more illegal dumping, they would build up their dangerous rocket operations and cause more seismic activity, cause our homes to shake, and that they would destroy more of the wildlife habitat in the region”, she told the AFP news agency before election day.
Some reports in 2024 had also said SpaceX’s rockets had caused damage to wild bird nests. In response, Musk had said on social media at the time: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week”.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas authorities also found that SpaceX was responsible for repeated spills and the release of pollutants into Texas waterways.
Lueders argued in her letter in December that SpaceX already maintained infrastructure such as roads, education services and medical care at the site.
In Old Fangak, South Sudan, a Doctors Without Borders hospital was bombed, killing at least seven people and injuring 20 others. As fears of a return to civil war grow, MSF called the attack “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.”
United States President Donald Trump on Thursday removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser (NSA), a key policy-shaping role, and tapped Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take over the role in the interim.
Trump announced that he was nominating Waltz to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations. “Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz posted on X Thursday.
The senior official’s reassignment comes in the aftermath of the so-called “Signalgate” incident and his leaning towards aggressive military action against arch foe Iran.
The army veteran came under heavy criticism after creating a group on the Signal messaging app with other top officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to discuss military attack plans on Yemen.
The group’s chat became public after the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the group mistakenly. After Goldberg published extracts from the chat, Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for the mistake.
The scandal cast a doubt on Trump’s national security team, with both Waltz and Hegseth coming under fire. Several Democrats called for their resignation in the immediate aftermath of the scandal.
While attending a cabinet meeting held by Trump last week, Waltz was also photographed using a modified and less secure version of Signal to text top officials.
According to The Washington Post, he also upset Trump after engaging in “intense coordination” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the possibility of launching military strikes on Iran.
As the Trump administration continues to pursue Omani-mediated talks with Tehran, Waltz reportedly frustrated the president by adopting an increasingly hawkish stance that favoured military aggression.
Netanyahu’s office, however, denied the daily’s report that claimed he had “intensive contact” with Waltz.
Moreover, he was reported to have built up tensions with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who increasingly felt he was not fit for the Trump team.
Along with Waltz, the president is kicking out his deputy, Alex Wong, according to US media reports, becoming the first senior White House officials to be fired from the second Trump presidency.
A number of inspectors general, federal workers, and senior military officials, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Commander of Air Force Special Operations Command General James Slife, have also been fired.
During his first term, Trump sacked a large number of senior officials, including FBI Director James Comey, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, and NSAs John Bolton and Michael Flynn.
Waltz has come under fire from some recognised figures in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) camp backing Trump, mainly for a perceived lack of loyalty to the president and a difference in policy approach.
Steve Bannon, a former chief White House strategist and influential figure, criticised Waltz for his hawkish foreign policy stance, particularly his support for military interventions.
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist, highlighted a 2016 video in which Waltz criticised Trump’s remarks about military service members as a sign of his disloyalty.
She also accused Waltz of appointing staffers with anti-Trump sentiments and targeted his deputy, Wong, for alleged ties to Chinese interests.
But JD Vance backed him, arguing that his reassignment was not a demotion but a strategic move that would allow Waltz to better serve the administration in a new diplomatic role.
Waltz will now have to secure confirmation from the Senate to become the new US envoy to the UN, in what is expected to be a challenging path.
Waltz is a former army green beret with deployments to Afghanistan that earned him a bronze star for valour. He has written extensively about military strategy and robustly supports national defence.
The Republican is also a former member of the US House of Representatives and used to work as a counterterrorism adviser in the Pentagon during the George W Bush administration.
But the Signalgate controversy, his reported unauthorised communications with Israeli leaders, and opposition by Democrats in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could work against him.
For now, and without any specific time period announced, Rubio is taking over as NSA.
Rubio, himself one of the more hawkish figures in the White House, is assuming more responsibility in a move that could be aimed at consolidating foreign policy leadership and streamlining the decision-making process.
This is the first time since the 1970s that the secretary of state is also acting as NSA.
Trump has not confirmed any potential replacements for Waltz in the future, but Stephen Miller, Steve Witkoff and Ric Grenell are some of the top figures in his circle.
Miller is a senior policy and homeland security adviser known for his hardline immigration and foreign policy stances. Witkoff is serving as special envoy, leading the talks with Russia, Iran, and the Palestinian group Hamas. Grenell is the acting director of national intelligence and a former ambassador to Germany.