News

Belgium joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ

Belgium has officially joined the international court of justice (ICJ) case involving Israel’s claim that the Gaza Strip is the site of a genocide.

Belgium filed a declaration of intervention in the case, according to the Hague-based highest court of the United Nations in a statement on Tuesday.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

Other nations have already joined the process, including Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, and Turkiye.

Israel’s occupation of Gaza is in violation of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, according to South Africa, in December 2023.

Israel has refuted the allegations and expressed its disapproval.

The ICJ issued interim measures in January 2024, which would have required Israel to take steps to stop genocides in Gaza and grant unhinged access to humanitarian aid, despite the possibility of a final decision.

Although the court has no concrete mechanism for enforcing them, its orders are legally binding.

Israel’s policies amount to annexation, according to the ICJ, and its presence in occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful.

Despite the rulings and growing international criticism, Israel has continued to attack Gaza and the West Bank while advancing plans to seize significant amounts of Palestinian territory.

In the meantime, Israel continues to receive military and financial assistance from the United States and a number of of its European allies.

South Africa’s case’s merits have been refuted by Washington, and US lawmakers have threatened to sue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant have been subject to arrest warrants from members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has also imposed sanctions on them.

In September, Belgium was also recognized as the State of Palestine by a group of nations. Nearly 80% of the UN’s member states now acknowledge Palestine.

TikTok star Epic Gamer Grandma dies as heartbroken fans pay tribute

https://i2-prod.ok.co.uk/incoming/article36449631.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/0_epicgamergrandma_1753123865_3681792291927947807_9133610616.jpg

The star, who was born in 1948 and is now known as Agnes, demonstrated that learning a new skill is never too late and gained notoriety.

Epic Gamer Grandma, a 78-year-old Scottish TikTok sensation, passed away after accumulating more than 3 million followers. The late social media star, known as Agnes, passed away holding Pauline’s hand.

Born in 1948, she proved it’s never too late to learn a new skill and gained a legion of fans thanks to her jokes, Minecraft videos and glimpses into her amusing life. Updates on her declining health had been posted in recent weeks by her grandson, Culsans.

She frequently visits for extra medical care, but this time she is quite seriously ill, he explained in October. He later said, “Rest in peace, grandma,” in an update announcing the sad news that she had passed away. the blog I never intended to create. “

He wrote: “It is with an incredible amount of pain that tonight i must announce that Agnes, our epic gamer grandma, passed away peacefully at 9:20pm on Sunday 21st December 2025, holding the hand of her daughter Pauline. She left this world the way she lived in it: surrounded by love.

We watched the most powerful woman lose her words, and now that she’s gone, we are drowning in everything we never said we would. We are utterly devastated, but we are also incredibly proud.

She was a woman who was “proud of the woman” before anyone online could identify her. proud of her later years, showing how life does not end at a certain point, but rather that it only changes in shape, and proud of her mother and grandma who kept our family together. “

He continued, “Agnes was not an influencer for the majority of her life; she was a daughter, a sister, a mother, a grandma, a neighbor, and a friend.” Before she even considered herself, she ensured that everyone else was fed.

She was the one who remembered birthdays, made phone calls to check in, and quietly carried more than she ever let on. She was at home. And then, in the middle of all that, she unexpectedly emerged as Scotland’s biggest elderly creator.

She was just Nana, making us tea, telling us stories, and laughing at the absurdity of it all, but to us, she was just Nana. People from all over the world started calling her Epic Gamer Grandma. “

Grandma continued, “Grandma showed that the internet doesn’t only belong to the young; it can be in your seventies and still find new friends, new ways to express yourself,” he continued.

Continue reading the article below.

She emphasized that our elders are not merely invisible. that they still have a lot of love to give and stories to tell. “

How will Syria deal with its growing security challenges?

Conflict between the army and SDF is getting worse.

A deal between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces was anticipated to take effect as the year came to an end.

Instead, fighting has broken out between the two sides in Aleppo, in the city’s northern part.

Later, they both agreed to end the fighting and blamed one another for it.

The SDF’s integration with the army was supposed to be the result of that agreement, but it is stalled in terms of how it should be implemented.

This new hostility comes as Damascus is confronted with additional threats, including ISIL (ISIS), recurrent conflicts with the Druze community, and ongoing Israeli attacks.

What does Syria’s complex security situation, which came a year after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, mean?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests

Researcher at Chatham House, Haid Haid

Steven Heydemann, Smith College’s director of Middle East Studies and Professor,

Venezuela passes law enacting harsh penalties for supporters of US blockade

Trump administration to resume wage garnishment for student loan defaulters

The administration of US President Donald Trump announced that some borrowers who have defaulted on their student loans will begin receiving wages garnishes. This is the first time the government has done this since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

A Department of Education spokesman told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that affected borrowers would start receiving notices on January 7.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

Around 1, 000 borrowers are anticipated to be affected by the policy initially, and this number will increase over time.

The spokesperson stated that “the notices will grow in size from month to month.”

Al Jazeera contacted the department for clarification on the selection of borrowers for the initial round of garnishments, the number of potential victims, and the justification behind those choices.

The organization did not provide more details, but it stated that collections are only conducted after student and parent borrowers have been given enough time to pay their loans.

As long as the borrower is paid at least 30 times the weekly minimum wage, the government is permitted to garnish up to 15% of the borrower’s take-home pay. The hourly rate has remained constant since July 2009, and the federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour.

Student loan debt totaling about $1.6 trillion is held by roughly one in six Americans. More than 5 million borrowers, according to the Education Department, had not made a payment in at least a year as of April.

The garnishments are intended to relieve many Americans’ economic strain from rising prices and a sluggish labor market. More than 1.1 million people lost their jobs in 2025 as job growth slowed, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray &amp, Christmas. Employment trends in recent months were mixed, according to federal data, with modest increases in November and job losses reported in October.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor, the unemployment rate increased to 4.6% in the months of October and November, which is the highest rate since 2021.

Families are being forced to choose between putting food on the table or paying their bills. According to Julie Margetta Morgan, a former deputy undersecretary at the Education Department under former President Joe Biden, the Trump administration’s decision to begin garnishing wages, “the Trump administration has taken even that meager decision away from student loan borrowers who are living on the brink.”

The president is further punishing families and making them resent the very basics, in addition to addressing the affordability crisis that is making Americans incapable of making student loans payments.

Hindutva protest at Bangladesh High Commission over lynching of Hindu man

NewsFeed

As they staged a demonstration against the neighboring country for failing to protect its Hindu minorities, Hindutva activists attempted to storm the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, India. A 25-year-old Hindu man was publicly burned and lynched following accusations of blasphemy during the demonstration.