World News

Japan is finalizing plans not to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state for the time being, following the lead of the United States, a staunch ally of Israel, government sources said.

The move is believed to stem from concerns that such recognition could negatively affect the situation in the Middle East, as well as Japan’s relationship with the United States, the sources said.

The United Kingdom shamelessly prostrated itself at the feet of Donald Trump on Wednesday, throwing a lavish welcoming party for his state visit to Windsor that resembled less diplomacy and more fealty.

In doing so, the U.K. has revealed something deeply unflattering about itself—in the scramble to keep America close, it will debase itself and its values completely.

It will silence dissent, empty out its traditions, and rent out its monarch like a sex worker, deployed to flatter the ego of a man who has spent much of his political life suggesting he should be treated like one, a monarch, not a sex worker, that is.

As stage props go, the monarchy is unbeatable. But if this is what the “special relationship” between the U.S and the U.K. now means, it looks to many in Britain less like a partnership and more like groveling, feudal servitude.

archive article: https://archive.is/DxOAv

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine expects there will be around $3.5 billion by next month in a fund to buy weapons from the United States and help sustain its more than three-year fight against Russia’s all-out invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

The financial arrangement known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment.

“We received more than $2 billion from our partners specifically for the PURL program,” Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with visiting European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “We will receive additional money in October. I think we will have somewhere around $3.5-3.6 billion.”

Zelenskyy declined to provide details of what weapons the first shipments would include, but said that they would definitely contain missiles for Patriot air defense missile systems and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

An end to the war appears no closer, despite months of U.S.-led peace efforts.

UN commission of inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and accused senior Israeli officials including Benjamin Netanyahu of inciting it.

The United Nations independent international commission of inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the UN and has been criticised strongly by Israel, cited the scale of the killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic in the territory to support its genocide finding.

Nuclear energy and natural gas will still be considered environmentally sustainable investments in the European Union following a court ruling Wednesday, potentially driving massive amounts of financing toward projects that are not widely considered “green.”

Austria had sued the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, over the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU’s classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities. The system helps direct investments to the projects that are most needed to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The General Court at the European Court of Justice on Thursday ruled in favor of the commission, dismissing Austria’s action.

Nuclear power is a carbon-free source of electricity but it is not typically labeled as green energy, like solar, wind and other renewables. Generating power this way requires mining and processing uranium to create nuclear fuel, an energy-intensive process that produces emissions. Nuclear reactors generate radioactive waste and there’s a risk of accidents.

Natural, or fossil, gas has lower carbon emissions than coal, but it still warms the planet when burned to produce electricity.

Man… Gaza is burning. Right now, people I know, families like mine, are trapped, scared, and running for their lives. Israel says it’s targeting Hamas, but it’s us, the civilians, paying the price. Homes are being destroyed, kids are terrified, and the streets are chaos.

This isn’t just news to me, it’s my reality. Every explosion, every death, every piece of rubble is part of our lives right now. People are fleeing south with whatever they can carry, selling what little they have just to survive. And the world… it’s mostly watching.

I’m from Gaza. This is my home, my people, my life—and seeing it called a “military operation” while families suffer breaks something inside me.

The long-frozen settlement project would sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank, fragment Palestinian communities, and advance permanent annexation.

NUUK, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Denmark did not invite the U.S. military to take part in Arctic Light 2025, the largest military exercise in Greenland's modern history, as NATO allies step up defence cooperation in the Arctic amid U.S. interest in the island.

Denmark's Arctic commander, Soren Andersen, confirmed that, while U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been invited, no U.S. military units were asked to participate.

An Israeli air strike hit a car carrying displaced civilians fleeing Gaza City on Tuesday, killing at least five Palestinians and wounding several others.

The strike hit the vehicle near al-Katiba Mosque in the Old City, west of Gaza, leaving it engulfed in flames.

Footage from the scene shows plumes of smoke rising from the car as civilians scream and rush to help the victims.

Several people lie motionless on the ground, bloodied and wounded from the blast, while others scramble to extinguish the fire.

In another video, bystanders gather around the smouldering remains of the vehicle, reduced to charred metal in the aftermath of the strike.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/48863264

SAO PAULO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Metalworkers at Brazilian planemaker Embraer went on strike on Wednesday for an indefinite time, demanding wage increases and the signing of a collective labor agreement, the Metal Workers Union from Sao Jose dos Campos said in a statement.

Embraer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/18956969

The proposal would suspend the central plank of a decades-old free trade deal that removed tariffs on imports of goods between Europe and Israel.

However, suspension of the agreement requires the backing of a weighted majority of EU capitals, meaning Germany or Italy would first need to lift their opposition to the 27-state union sanctioning Israel.

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/50159054

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/48819026

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/48861990

King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle for a lavish banquet and carriage ride on Wednesday, before Trump meets Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his country residence on Thursday.

In a sign of the pomp and pageantry to come, a guard of honour greeted the Trumps as they stepped off Air Force One at Stansted Airport near London.

The British government has been unapologetic about its efforts to get on the right side of Trump, whose mother was Scottish and who owns a number of golf courses in the UK.

But the British public will be kept far away from Trump, with the visit taking place entirely behind closed doors and heavy security.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36060419

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The Trump administration's first U.S. weapons aid packages for Ukraine have been approved and could soon ship as Washington resumes sending arms to Kyiv - this time under a new financial agreement with allies - two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

This is the first use of a new mechanism developed by the U.S. and allies to supply Ukraine with weapons from U.S. stocks using funds from NATO countries.

Thieves have broken into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples worth $700,000 in the latest of a worrying series of robberies from cultural institutions, according to the museum.

Famed for its dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animals, the National Natural History Museum in the chic 5th district of the French capital also houses a geology and mineralogy gallery.

A break-in was detected on Tuesday morning, with the intruders reportedly using an angle grinder and a blow torch to force their way into the river-side complex that is popular with Parisians and tourists.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36060171

• Mao's exit ban lifted after U.S.-China negotiations
• China had cited criminal case for Mao's exit ban
• Mao leads Wells Fargo's international factoring and cross-border strategies
• Wells Fargo's China presence smaller than Wall Street peers
• Foreign executives' exit bans in China raise business concerns

BEIJING, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab banker, Chenyue Mao, who had been barred from leaving China for several months, has been allowed to return to the United States following negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials, according to two people with knowledge of the case.

Two teenagers who peed into a pot of broth at a hotpot restaurant have been ordered to pay 2.2m yuan ($309,000; £227,000) to two catering companies in China.

The incident, which happened in February at a Shanghai branch of China's biggest hotpot chain Haidilao, sparked widespread criticism after the 17-year-olds posted a video of their drunken act online.

Rather than act to end Israel's genocide in Gaza, western leaders rally behind a French-Saudi scheme for fictive statehood that entrenches Israeli supremacy and props up the PA

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/post/225382