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Displaced people ride an animal-drawn cart after Rapid Support Forces attacks on Zamzam displacement camp, in the town of Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, on April 15, 2025.
UN’s highest court dismisses Sudan’s claims of Emirati role in Darfur genocide
The International Court of Justice on Monday rejected Sudan’s claims that the United Arab Emirates had violated the Genocide Conventions by allegedly supplying arms to the Rapid Support Forces, a rebel paramilitary group involved in ethnic violence in Darfur.
What’s happening in Darfur? A vicious civil war, one that reached the two-year mark last month, has ripped Sudan to shreds. Darfur has seen the worst of the war, with the RSF allegedly committing genocide there. This latest ethnic-cleansing effort is separate from the one that took place in the region between 2003 and 2005, but RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed “Hemeti,” has been involved in both.
As for the legal case. The Sudanese government claimed that the UAE helped supply weapons to the RSF in Darfur, but the court rejected this. Some UN experts and US lawmakers believe there is evidence, though, that the Emirati nation has played a role.
Nowhere is safe. Sudan’s civil war keeps chugging along. The RSF launched strikes on a military airport near Port Sudan on Sunday, according to the Sudanese army. The rebel group didn’t confirm the attack. Prior to the strikes, Port Sudan had been considered one of the safest places in the country.
What’s next? A slew of world leaders gathered in London three weeks ago to discuss the war and renew calls for peace, yet there continues to be a stalemate as each side trades blows. The government army seized control of the capital Khartoum in late March, but the RSF snatched Al Nahud, a strategic town in west Sudan, last week. In retrospect, the calls for peace in the UK capital were in hope rather than expectation. The question now is whether either side can gain enough ground to force negotiations — or whether the international community will apply pressure to bring them to the table.President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, on Feb. 5, 2025.
Trump freezes aid to South Africa, offers to resettle “refugees”
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday halting all “non-essential” assistance to South Africa. He also ordered American agencies to assist white South Africans fleeing racial discrimination and resettle them as refugees in the US.
What is the basis for these orders? Trump cited Pretoria’s new expropriation policies as well as its anti-Israel stance at the International Court of Justice.
In January, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act, a law authorizing expropriation with “just and equitable compensation” in most cases but “nil compensation” under special circumstances. The law seeks to reversehistorical land inequality, namely that white Afrikaners, representing 7% of the population, still own 50% of the country’s farmland.
In December 2023, South Africa launched a legal challenge against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide in Gaza.
How has the world responded to Trump’s orders? Ramaphosa blasted them as “propaganda,” saying “We will not be bullied.”As for white South Africans, they appear to be staying put. Trade union chief Dirk Hermann, representing some two million Afrikaners, said “We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.”A satellite image shows smoke rising from the Park Fire in Chico, California, U.S., July 26, 2024.
Hard Numbers: California burns, Countries push for cease-fire, Meloni makes nice, Japan basks in Olympic glory
350,000: The Park fire in northern California has burned through over 350,000 acres of land — an area larger than New York City — and was just 10% contained as of Sunday. Authorities said the fire was spreading at a rate of 5,000 acres per hour, and police arrested a man who they suspect of having deliberately set the blaze in an act of arson.
3: On Friday, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada jointly called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and for Israel to respond “substantively” to a July 19 ruling from the International Court of Justice about the illegality of Israeli settlements and military occupation in the West Bank. The statement came a day after US Vice President Kamala Harris urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a Gaza deal.
3: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melonisigned a three-year deal with China while visiting Beijing on Saturday. She also promised to implement earlier bilateral agreements derailed by shifting geopolitics and to try new forms of cooperation. Meloni won praise from the US for officially pulling out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative last year, but with a possible Sino-European trade war looming – aggravated by China dumping its production overcapacity on world markets – she seems to be more conciliatory these days.
7: As of Sunday afternoon, Japan was leading the Olympic medal count with 7 podium finishes, including two golds in Judo. The lesson here is clear: Don’t wrestle with Japanese athletes. There will be more Judo finals on Monday, with a total of 19 gold medals to be awarded in finals across events in artistic gymnastics, swimming, shooting, diving, equestrian, mountain biking, skateboarding, archery, fencing, and canoe slalom (yep, that last one threw us too – here’s a primer).Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the day of a public hearing to allow parties to give their views on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories before eventually issuing a non-binding legal opinion, in The Hague, Netherlands, February 19, 2024.
Israeli occupation on trial at ICJ
Palestinian Authority Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki on Monday delivered an opening statement before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in a case about Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories since 1967. The UN-backed court will hear from more than 50 countries and three multinational organizations – the largest case in the ICJ’s history – but a decision could take months, and it would be non-binding.
This is separate from South Africa’s case alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Quick history: In the aftermath of Israel’s war of independence in 1948, Egypt occupied Gaza while the West Bank and East Jerusalem fell under Jordanian control. However, when Israel launched preemptive strikes against an imminent Egyptian invasion in 1967, it responded to Jordanian shelling by pushing Amman’s forces back across the Jordan River. Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem ever since, while Israeli settlers have inhabited large portions of each territory (see our explainer here). Israel also captured Gaza and the Sinai desert from Egypt but withdrew all troops and settlers first from Sinai by 1982 and then from Gaza in 2005.
The arguments? Palestinians argue that the occupation undermines their self-determination, that Israeli policy amounts to apartheid, and that the occupation is illegal. Tuesday’s session will be opened by South Africa, a strong Palestinian advocate, followed by delegates from nine other countries including Chile, which has the largest Palestinian population outside the Middle East.
Israel said in a written argument that the question before the court is prejudiced and an opinion would be “harmful” to a resolution, but it will not directly participate in the proceedings. Its strongest ally, the United States, is slated to speak on Wednesday.
Will anything come of it? The short answer is no. Israel will be free to ignore any ICJ decision. That said, the exercise is already illustrating Israel’s near-total isolation on the global stage – and we’re watching for how the Biden administration threads a tricky needle of public opinion at home. The president is facing opposition from the left wing of his own party as well as Muslim voters in the key swing state of Michigan for what they see as an overly deferential position toward Israel’s war in Gaza.Venezuelan migrants are pat-down before boarding a repatriation flight as a part of an immigration enforcement process, at the Valley International Airport, in Harlingen, Texas, U.S. October 18, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Venezuela grabs Biden by the border, EU reaches deal on Ukraine aid, US strike on Houthi drones, Professional trust crisis, ICJ rules on Russia, Amelia Earhart found at last?
14: Venezuela has given the US 14 days to back off its “economic aggression,” or it will stop accepting deportation flights from the US carrying undocumented Venezuelan migrants. Washington has threatened to re-impose oil sanctions on Caracas after Venezuela banned the leading opposition candidate from running for president. But Venezuela is hitting Biden where it hurts: The migration crisis at the US southern border is becoming a major political liability for him, and Venezuelans are the third most common nationality of undocumented migrants apprehended.
50: The EU on Thursday reached a deal on an additional €50 billion in aid for Ukraine, breaking through a deadlock caused by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. "All 27 leaders agreed" on the support package, tweeted Charles Michel, the European Council president. Though Orbán is finally on board, it was not immediately clear what the Hungarian leader gained in exchange for abandoning his objections.
10: A US strike destroyed 10 Houthi drones in Yemen on Thursday, as Washington prepares to retaliate over a deadly attack on US forces in Jordan that the White House blamed on an Iran-backed coalition of militias. The US has repeatedly targeted the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in recent days in response to attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
78: Who do Americans trust? Nurses, that’s who. A whopping 78% of respondents polled said nurses are honest and ethical, the highest of nearly two dozen professions. The bad news? That’s still down 7 points since 2019, amid a wider collapse of trust in all trades. The least trusted? No surprises here: members of Congress, with just 6% – lower than car salespeople! And just one profession is seen as more trustworthy than it was four years ago: Labor union leaders, who rose by one mere percentage point to 25% during that period.
7: After seven years, the International Court of Justice (yes the same court that is handling the Gaza genocide case) on Wednesday ruled that Russia violated a UN anti-terrorism treaty by supporting separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and a minority rights treaty by suppressing the Ukrainian language in Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. But in a setback for Ukraine, which brought the case, the court declined to rule on Russian responsibility for downing the MH17 commercial airliner in 2014.
87: Here’s some good news about America’s most famous missing aviatrix: An explorer claims his sonar imaging technology has found and photographed the remains of Amelia Earhart’s plane, which went missing over the Pacific Ocean 87 years ago as she attempted to become the first female pilot to fly around the world. Not bad. Next up, we’d like to ask this explorer to find us Jimmy Hoffa.