The Hague — The U.N.’s top court will hear submissions next week from South Africa and Israel after Pretoria opened a case for what it called Israel’s “genocidal” acts in Gaza.

South Africa wants to International Court of Justice to urgently order Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza, in a case which Israel rejected “with disgust.”

The ICJ “will hold public hearings at the Peace Palace in The Hague… in proceedings instituted by South Africa against Israel,” on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 January, the court said in a statement.

The South African application, filed last Friday, related to alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Genocide Convention, saying that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Israel rejected the charge, with Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel spread by South Africa and its application” to the ICJ.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added Israel displayed “unparalleled morality” in the Gaza war as he too dismissed South Africa’s charge.

South Africa, amongst other urgent measures, is asking the court to order that “Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza” and that both countries “take all reasonable measures within their power to prevent genocide.”

Israel launched a relentless military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militants carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The militants’ attack left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s ongoing Gaza offensive has killed more than 22,300 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

South Africa will present its arguments on Thursday of next week, while Israel is set to counter on Friday.

A ruling by the ICJ on the request for emergency measures is expected to follow within weeks, but the case proper could still take months, or even years.

Set up after World War II, the ICJ is the UN’s highest legal body and rules in disputes between countries.

Decisions are legally binding, but the court has little power to enforce them.
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OSLO, NORWAY — Denmark’s Maersk and German rival Hapag-Lloyd said on Tuesday their container ships would continue to avoid the Red Sea route that gives access to the Suez Canal following a weekend attack on one of Maersk’s vessels.  

Both shipping giants have been rerouting some sailings via Africa’s southern Cape of Good Hope as Yemen-based Houthi militants attack cargo vessels in the Red Sea. The disruption threatens to drive up delivery costs for goods, raising fears it could trigger a fresh bout of global inflation.  

Maersk had on Sunday paused all Red Sea sailings for 48 hours following attempts by Houthi militants to board the Maersk Hangzhou. U.S. military helicopters repelled the assault and killed 10 of the attackers. 

“An investigation into the incident is ongoing, and we will continue to pause all cargo movement through the area while we further assess the constantly evolving situation,” Maersk said in a statement.  

“In cases where it makes most sense for our customers, vessels will be rerouted and continue their journey around the Cape of Good Hope.” 

Maersk had more than 30 container vessels set to sail through Suez via the Red Sea, an advisory on Monday showed, while 17 other voyages were put on hold. 

Hapag-Lloyd said its vessels would continue to divert away from the Red Sea — sailing instead via Africa’s southern tip — until at least January 9, when it will decide whether to continue rerouting its ships. 

The Suez Canal is used by roughly one-third of global container ship cargo. Redirecting ships around the southern tip of Africa is expected to cost up to $1 million extra in fuel for every round trip between Asia and northern Europe. 

The Maersk Hangzhou, which was hit by an unknown object during the weekend attack, was able to continue on its way. 

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control parts of Yemen after years of war, started attacking international shipping in November in support of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. 

That prompted major shipping groups, including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, to stop using Red Sea routes, instead taking the longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope. 

But after the deployment of a U.S.-led military operation to protect ships, Maersk had said on December 24 that it would resume using the Red Sea. 
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lviv, ukraine — Russian drones attacked a university and a museum linked to two of the most prominent 20th-century defenders of Ukrainian national identity on Monday, leaving locals vowing to repair the damage.

The first smashed windows and much of the roof at the National Agrarian University, outside the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Stepan Bandera — a hero in Ukraine but a villain according to the Kremlin —studied.

It hit on what would have been Bandera’s 115th birthday.

The second ravaged a nearby museum devoted to Roman Shukhevych.

Both men were key figures in nationalist resistance to Soviet rule and were associated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought Soviet forces in World War II.

“This is the building in which Stepan Bandera attended classes. There’s a memorial plaque dedicated to Bandera, and the statue, too,” 82-year-old Sofia Zdorovyk said as people cleared up the rubble around her.

“Everything that’s been going on in our country, for so many years, do they [Russia] feel better because of it? Don’t they have enough land? Natural resources? What is it that they need?”

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike on the museum as a symbolic act.

“We will restore it after our victory,” he said.

Bandera was the most prominent figure in a group associated with the UPA, whose ranks swelled to 100,000 by 1944, according to historical accounts, and continued fighting Moscow’s rule until the mid-1950s. Shukhevych was the UPA’s supreme commander.

Moscow still invokes Bandera’s name to underpin its assertions that it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to “denazify” the country, pointing to the fact that some nationalists initially cooperated with German forces in their battle against the Russians — though they later also fought the Nazis.

“Just hearing the name Bandera scares them [the Russians]. It causes rage and hatred,” Vasyl Lapushniak, president of the Lviv National Agrarian University, said. “They did not scare us with this. It only united us once more and showed our strength.”

The honor of “Hero of Ukraine” was bestowed on both men in the post-Soviet period. Soldiers from the UPA’s ranks were declared “veterans” alongside Soviet Red Army soldiers.

The nationalist army’s activity has long been clouded by allegations that it carried out massacres of tens of thousands of ethnic Poles in western Ukraine’s Volyn region — part of an area that was under Polish rule between the two world wars.

Poland and Ukraine have taken measures to honor those deaths and seal a reconciliation between the two neighbors.
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London — Nearly 30,000 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain from mainland Europe in small boats in 2023, an annual drop of more than a third, government figures released Monday showed.

However, the unauthorized arrivals of 29,437 people on the southeast English coast remains the second largest yearly tally since officials began publishing the numbers in 2018.

The perilous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes have become a huge political problem for the Conservative government, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledging last year to “stop the boats.”

One of five key promises he made for 2023, the persistently high number of arrivals could haunt the Tory leader as he bids to win a general election due this year.

Sunak said last month there was no “firm date” for meeting his pledge.

The beleaguered leader will likely point to a 36 percent reduction in small-boat arrivals last year, after a record 45,000 migrants made the journey in 2022.

His ministers have claimed Britain’s £480 million ($610 million) agreement with France to increase efforts to stop the migrants is starting to pay off, alongside fast-track return deals struck with countries such as Albania.

But the main Labour opposition — which has enjoyed double-digit poll leads for the duration of Sunak’s nearly 15 months in power — says he has failed to keep his promise and his immigration policy is in chaos.

The ruling Conservatives had hoped to deter the crossings by preventing all migrants arriving without prior authorization from applying for asylum and sending some to Rwanda.

But the policy remains stalled after the UK Supreme Court ruled that deporting them to the east African country is illegal under international law.

The cross-Channel journeys on small inflatable vessels, which are often overloaded and unseaworthy, has repeatedly proved deadly.

In one of the latest tragedies, at least six men died and dozens more required rescuing in August after a small vessel bound for the southeast English coast from France sank.

In November 2021, at least 27 people drowned when their dinghy capsized. 
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London — John Pilger, an Australia-born journalist and documentary filmmaker known for his coverage of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 84.

A statement from his family, posted on X, formerly Twitter, said Pilger died Saturday in London.

“His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved dad, grandad and partner,” the statement said.

Pilger, who had been based in Britain since 1962, worked for Britain’s left-leaning Daily Mirror newspaper, broadcaster ITV’s investigative program “World In Action” and for the Reuters news agency.

He won an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for his 1979 film “Year Zero: The Silent Death Of Cambodia,” which revealed the extent of the Khmer Rouge’s atrocities. He followed that with a 1990 documentary titled “Cambodia: The Betrayal,” which examined international complicity in the Khmer Rouge remaining a threat.

He also won acclaim for a 1974 documentary looking into the campaign for compensation for children after concerns were raised about birth defects when expectant mothers took the drug Thalidomide.

Pilger was known for his opposition to American and British foreign policy, and he was also highly critical of Australia’s treatment of its Indigenous population.

In more recent years, he campaigned for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has fought a lengthy battle against extradition to the United States.

Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, described Pilger as “a giant of campaigning journalism” who offered viewers a level of analysis and opinion that was rare in mainstream television.

“He had a clear, distinctive editorial voice which he used to great effect throughout his distinguished filmmaking career. His documentaries were engaging, challenging and always very watchable,” Lygo said.

“He eschewed comfortable consensus and instead offered a radical, alternative approach on current affairs and a platform for dissenting voices over 50 years,” he added.
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Vatican City — Tributes were paid Sunday on the first anniversary of the death of Pope Benedict XVI, with Pope Francis praising his love and wisdom and Benedict’s private secretary expressing hope he might one day be declared a saint. 

Benedict, the first pope to retire in six centuries, died last Dec. 31 at the age of 95 in the Vatican monastery where he spent 10 years as a pope emeritus. He is buried in the grottoes underneath St. Peter’s Basilica. 

Speaking at the end of his weekly noon blessing, Francis said the faithful feel “so much love, so much gratitude, so much admiration” for Benedict. He praised the “love and wisdom” with which Benedict guided the church and asked for a round of applause from the pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square. 

Earlier in the day, Benedict’s longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, celebrated a special Mass in the basilica and then participated in an anniversary event to reflect on Benedict’s legacy. 

Speaking on the sidelines, Gaenswein acknowledged some of the polemics that surrounded Benedict’s decade-long retirement alongside Francis in the Vatican but said they would be forgotten in favor of the substance of his ministry and his final words: “Lord, I love you.” 

History, Gaenswein said, would judge Benedict as a “great theologian, a very simple person and a man of deep faith.” 

Francis frequently praised Benedict’s decision to retire as courageous and said he, too, might follow in his footsteps. But now that Benedict has died, Francis has reaffirmed the papacy is generally a job for life, and a consensus has emerged that the unprecedented reality of having two popes living side by side in the Vatican created problems that must be addressed before any future pope decides to step down. 

Benedict, a noted conservative theologian who spent a quarter-century as the Vatican’s doctrine chief, remained a point of reference for conservatives and traditionalists, who have only increased their criticism of Francis in the year since he died. Francis, for his part, has appeared now to feel freer to impose his progressive vision of a reformed church now he is no longer under Benedict’s shadow. 

Gaenswein, whom Francis exiled to his native Germany soon after the death, recalled that Benedict had only expected to live a few months, maybe a year, after his 2013 resignation. Despite his longer-than-expected retirement, Benedict stayed true to his pledge to pray for the church and for his successor, he said. 

“I pray that he will be a saint,” Gaenswein said. “I wish he would be a saint, and I’m convinced he will be a saint.” 

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni also praised Benedict as “a great man of history and a giant of reason, faith and the positive synthesis between the two.” In a statement, she said his spiritual and intellectual legacy would live on even among nonbelievers because of its “profound civic value” and ability to speak to people’s minds and hearts. 
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London — Eurostar warned customers travelling from London on Sunday of potential delays after flooding forced the cancelation all Saturday trains.

The first Eurostar train left London St Pancras International shortly after 8:00 am (0800 GMT).

Engineers had brought water in two tunnels in Kent in southern England under control meaning that at least one tunnel was useable, it said.

But Eurostar cautioned that “there will be some speed restrictions in place in the morning which may lead to delays and stations are expected to be very busy.” 

The company operates services from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

It announced late Saturday that all scheduled trains would run on Sunday after an estimated over 30,000 people were impacted by the last-minute cancellations.

Travelers were left stranded on mainland Europe while those at St Pancras scrambled to find hotel rooms or make alternative travel arrangements.

Some tourists said their New Year holiday plans had been “ruined.”

A spokesman for HS1, which runs the route between London and the Channel Tunnel, said flooding was being resolved and “the HS1 line will be operational in the morning.”

“We understand how frustrating this has been for passengers and apologize for the inconvenience caused at such an important time of the year.”

The company has not revealed what initially caused the flooding which began Friday night when water filled tunnels near Ebbsfleet International in Kent, blocking the high-speed rail line.

The spokesman said the cause of the flooding will be investigated, but added that there was no evidence to suggest it was caused by a burst pipe feeding the tunnel’s fire safety system as had previously been suggested by a water company. 

Footage shot in the tunnel had shown water gushing from a pipe and submerging the tracks. 
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london — Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, who starred in “The Full Monty” — a movie about a group of unemployed steel workers who launched new careers as strippers — died suddenly on Saturday. 

The British actor’s death was confirmed in a statement released by his agent on behalf of his family. He was 75. 

“It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His wife and family were with him.” 

Wilkinson was nominated for Academy Awards for actor in a leading role for “In The Bedroom” in 2001, and for a supporting role in “Michael Clayton” in 2007. 

He most recently reunited with his “Full Monty” co-stars, Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, in a Disney+ series of the same name. 

The original 1997 smash hit about an unlikely group of men stripping won an Oscar for best original musical or comedy score and was nominated for three others, including best picture and best director. 

Wilkinson played ex-foreman Gerald Cooper who was recruited to help the unemployed men dance. 

The actor also took home the best supporting actor Bafta for the role. 

Wilkinson won a 2009 Golden Globe and 2008 Emmy for his role as American political figure Benjamin Franklin in the HBO series “John Adams,” opposite Paul Giamatti. 

He was also known for his roles in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens novel “Martin Chuzzlewit,” the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” the 2014 Wes Anderson comedy drama “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and 2011 ensemble comedy “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” 
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United Nations — Russia accused Ukraine of conducting a “terrorist attack” on civilians in Belgorod during an emergency meeting on Saturday of the U.N. Security Council requested by Moscow.  

Russia said Ukraine attacked the city of Belgorod with missiles and rockets, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens more, including 17 children, according to local authorities. 

It was “a terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime against a civilian city,” Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. Vasily Nebenzya said. 

“In order to increase the number of casualties of the terrorist attack they used cluster munitions,” he continued, claiming that Kyiv targeted a sports center, an ice rink and a university. 

“(It was a) deliberate, indiscriminate attack against a civilian target,” he said.  

Ukrainian allies quickly retorted, saying Russia had started the war. 

Serhii Dvornyk, counsellor of Ukrainian Mission to U.N. said that “as long as this war, unleashed by the Kremlin dictator endures, the toll of death and suffering will continue to grow.” 

The U.S. Representative John Kelley also put the blame squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“This is (Putin’s) war, it is his choice,” he said. “Russia could end this war today. … We call for the protection of all civilians on all sides of every conflict.” 

The British envoy Thomas Phipps said London deeply regrets any civilian losses but called out Moscow for starting the war with an invasion two years ago.  

“There are hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There is not a single Ukrainian soldier in Russia,” he said. 

“If Russia wants someone to blame for the deaths of Russians in this war, it should start with President Putin,” he said. 

Phipps likewise said that Russia was to blame for targeting civilians. 

The French envoy Nicolas de Riviere said Ukraine was simply defending itself under U.N. laws, while Moscow was “trampling” the U.N. Charter. 

Ukraine, which has been resisting a Russian invasion for nearly two years and earlier this week came under a huge Russian missile and drone assault, has not officially commented on the strike against Belgorod. 

Belgorod lies about 30 kilometers from the border with Ukraine and has been repeatedly struck by what Moscow says is indiscriminate shelling by Kyiv’s forces. 

AFP was not able to independently verify the circumstances of the strike, one of the deadliest on Russian soil since Moscow launched hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022. 
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