Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • UN General Assembly 2026: ‘Do not allow another Nakba’, Mahmoud Abbas warns

    UN General Assembly 2026: ‘Do not allow another Nakba’, Mahmoud Abbas warns

    In a pre-recorded address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas issued a stark, urgent warning: the Palestinian people stand on the edge of a second Nakba unless the international community follows through on its repeated promises to support Palestinian self-determination. For the second year in a row, Abbas was unable to address the assembly in person, blocked by a visa ban imposed by the Trump administration on Palestinian officials and civil society groups that engage with UN-affiliated international judicial bodies, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

    Opening his remarks, the 90-year-old leader rejected the unlawful punitive measures targeting the PA, pushing back against the justifications used to impose them. “We affirm that we have fulfilled our obligations, carried out a comprehensive national reform programme and upheld our commitment to international law, to shunning violence and terrorism, and to the two-state solution and to peace on the basis of resolutions of international legitimacy,” Abbas stated. He emphasized that neither the Palestinian people nor their leadership deserve punishment for demanding an end to occupation and turning to legitimate international institutions to uphold their rights.

    While the Trump administration has effectively abandoned long-stated international support for a two-state solution, several key Western allies including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Spain formally recognized the State of Palestine last year and opened diplomatic missions for the PA. Abbas, however, slammed the gap between global rhetoric and tangible action: despite public statements of support and pledges of aid for PA security infrastructure and humanitarian work in Gaza, the international community has applied no meaningful pressure on Israel to halt its expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, end escalating settler attacks on Palestinian communities, or stop ongoing air strikes in Gaza that have killed a dozen children in just the past month.

    Abbas warned that the threat facing Palestinians extends far beyond the erosion of the two-state solution. “The danger is no longer limited to undermining the two-state solution and preventing the realisation of the Palestinian state. It has now come to threaten the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland,” he said. He framed ongoing violence and displacement across Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem not as isolated incidents, but as a deliberate colonial project designed to make life unlivable for Palestinians and force them out of their historic homeland.

    The dire humanitarian reality on the ground underscores Abbas’ warning. Two million Palestinians trapped in Gaza are currently crowded into just one-third of the small enclave, most sheltering in flimsy tents with no adequate supplies to withstand winter weather. Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza, nearly 74,000 Palestinian bodies have been recovered, a figure officials expect to surpass 100,000 as search and clearance of rubble continues. More than 1,400 of these deaths have occurred since a nominal ceasefire was declared in October 2025. UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently described repeated short-term ceasefires as futile, calling them merely “lesser fires” that do nothing to end the underlying conflict.

    In the occupied West Bank, where Israeli security crackdowns have intensified parallel to the assault on Gaza, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed so far this year, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

    Abbas expressed deep regret that the PA’s commitment to a peaceful, institutional path to secure Palestinian rights – including its willingness to engage with Trump’s controversial 20-point Gaza reconstruction plan – has failed to deliver any tangible improvement for his people. “This was to halt the aggression against our people and their humanitarian suffering, and secure the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, and begin rebuilding the Gaza Strip. However, regretfully, we have not seen any of this materialise on the ground,” he said. Israeli attacks and killing of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, continue unabated in Gaza nearly a year after the UN adopted Resolution 2803 and established the Board of Peace, the transitional body tasked with overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction and governance. Only one year remains in the designated transition period, which is scheduled to conclude by the end of 2027.

    Last week, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and the lead figure coordinating the reconstruction effort, acknowledged that the Board of Peace has faced significant “delays” in the 11 months since its formation. International aid agencies warned last month that the body is not just delayed, but actively failing the people of Gaza, saying it has only functioned “to further entrench Israel’s unlawful presence” in the territory.

    Abbas pushed the international community to answer a critical question: “What is the international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people, ensure their continued presence on their land, end the Israeli occupation, and implement the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy?” He stressed that the transitional period cannot be allowed to become an open-ended, permanent status quo with no clear, time-bound path to Palestinian statehood.

    The PA President reaffirmed that the Palestinian Authority has met all its commitments to domestic political reform, including strengthening institutional governance, improving public financial management, increasing transparency and accountability, enacting anti-corruption measures, and upholding the rule of law. To cement these reforms, Abbas confirmed that long-delayed Palestinian legislative elections are still scheduled for November 28, followed by a presidential election. This will be the first general Palestinian election held in two decades; Abbas has held the presidency since 2005.

  • A military threat from US? Canadians react to Carney’s concerns

    A military threat from US? Canadians react to Carney’s concerns

    A recent revelation from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has sent ripples across the nation, after he confirmed in an exclusive interview with *The New York Times* that Canadian officials have evaluated the distant, yet still plausible, scenario of military aggression from the United States against Canada. The unexpected confirmation of long-simmering speculative debates has sparked a wide range of reactions from Canadian politicians, policy analysts, and ordinary citizens alike, with many grappling to process the unprecedented idea that their closest neighbor and long-standing ally could pose a military threat.

    Many opposition lawmakers have seized on the revelation, arguing that the acknowledgment of even a remote military threat from the U.S. exposes gaps in Canada’s long-standing defense strategy that has long prioritized partnership with its southern neighbor. Critics of the current government have called for greater transparency around how often such contingency plans are updated, and what specific capabilities Canada is developing to respond to any unexpected shift in bilateral relations.

    On the other side of the debate, some foreign policy analysts have framed the consideration of this remote possibility as a responsible step for any national government, noting that military planners routinely assess a full spectrum of hypothetical risks, no matter how unlikely they may seem. They emphasize that the fact that this possibility is described as “remote” underscores that it is not a current or imminent threat, and should not be interpreted as a sign of a breakdown in bilateral relations between the two North American allies.

    Ordinary Canadians have also taken to social media and public forums to share their reactions, with many expressing surprise that such a scenario is even being discussed publicly. Some have voiced concern about shifting political dynamics in the U.S. that could eventually reshape cross-border relations, while others have dismissed the discussion as overblown, arguing that the deep economic and cultural ties between the two nations make any military conflict effectively unthinkable.

  • Yom Kippur shooting outside Canadian synagogue was ‘hate-motivated’, officials say

    Yom Kippur shooting outside Canadian synagogue was ‘hate-motivated’, officials say

    A brazen, hate-fueled attack targeting the Jewish community has been confirmed by Canadian law enforcement following a weekend shooting outside a Belleville, Ontario synagogue that left one officer critically wounded and the gunman dead.

    The violence unfolded Sunday evening outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, when hundreds of Jewish worshippers were observing Yom Kippur—the most sacred day in the Jewish religious calendar. At a Thursday press briefing, Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd publicly confirmed what investigators had uncovered in their days-long probe: the shooting was no random act of violence, but a deliberate, premeditated attack aimed at Jewish community members gathered for the holiday.

    The first responding officer, 49-year-old Constable Jeff Smith, encountered the armed suspect within moments of arriving at the scene. Rodd detailed that even after being shot multiple times in the head and torso from close range while still seated in his patrol vehicle, Smith did not retreat. Despite suffering life-threatening injuries, the officer exited his car, engaged the gunman, and continued to hold him off to protect the worshippers inside the synagogue until backup arrived approximately three minutes later.

    “Despite suffering life-threatening injuries, within moments of encountering the armed suspect, Constable Smith exited his vehicle and engaged the attacker,” Rodd said in the briefing. As of Thursday, Smith remains hospitalized in stable condition, and is scheduled to undergo multiple surgeries to address severe head trauma. Rodd added that the injured officer is “making progress every day” in his recovery.

    Second responding officer Constable Mike McCurdy arrived on scene shortly after, joining the active shootout and helping bring the attack to a swift close. McCurdy escaped the incident unharmed, and authorities confirmed both officers discharged their service weapons during the confrontation. Investigators later confirmed roughly 20 to 30 rounds were fired during the exchange.

    The gunman has been identified as 29-year-old Sean Ward, a resident of Quinte West, a small community located just outside Belleville and roughly 170 kilometers east of Toronto. Ward was rushed to a local hospital with critical injuries following the shootout and later succumbed to his wounds.

    In the wake of the confirmed antisemitic attack, law enforcement agencies across Ontario have heightened security measures. Toronto Police, in particular, has deployed increased patrols outside all synagogues and other houses of worship as a proactive precaution to protect community members.

    Political and Jewish community leaders across Canada have united to condemn the attack and the rising tide of antisemitic violence that has threatened Jewish communities across North America in recent years. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the incident on social media platform X earlier this week, emphasizing that “Jewish people must be able to worship safely. To live free, open, proud Jewish lives.”

    Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, praised Smith’s extraordinary courage in a Thursday statement, noting that the officer’s quick action prevented what could have been a catastrophic loss of life. “If not for the extraordinary bravery of Constable Jeff Smith, Canadians would have experienced the type of mass-casualty terror attack our security services have warned is a realistic possibility,” Shack said. He also called on national and provincial leaders to implement urgent, tangible measures to counter growing threats against Jewish communities across the country.

  • Xi visit to Washington all pomp but little progress so far

    Xi visit to Washington all pomp but little progress so far

    When Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Washington for a high-stakes summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, the event kicked off with elaborate ceremony rather than immediate breakthroughs on the long list of tense bilateral and global issues dividing the two world powers.

    From a formal welcome ceremony at a U.S. military air base on Wednesday to an honor guard reception at the White House the following morning, Trump rolled out the full red-carpet treatment — both literally and symbolically — for his Chinese counterpart. Public statements from both leaders have been dominated by diplomatic courtesy and warm rhetoric, with Xi announcing two major goodwill gestures ahead of formal talks: a gift of giant pandas from China to the U.S., and the launch of a new bilateral student exchange initiative.

    “Let us keep advancing the cause of friendship between our two peoples and work together to build a better world,” Xi said in his public remarks.

    For his part, Trump laid out the core agenda for the closed-door discussions, highlighting that the two leaders would tackle what he called “pressing issues concerning security, technology, and superintelligence” — his preferred term for advanced artificial intelligence. “The decisions we make in these areas today can promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come,” he added.

    But analysts say the heavy focus on marching bands, military flyovers and grand pageantry serves a specific strategic purpose, particularly for the Trump administration. Jennifer Welch, chief economic analyst at Bloomberg Economics, told the BBC that the intentional display of ceremony is designed to highlight positive momentum around the summit, aligning with Trump’s framing of his own role in the U.S.-China relationship as a stabilizing force.

    Even amid the warm public rhetoric, however, undercurrents of tension remain visible in Xi’s messaging. Welch noted that the Chinese leader reiterated his reference to the so-called “Thucydides trap” — the academic theory that predicts conflict when a rising power challenges an existing dominant global power. Xi argued that open, sustained dialogue can help the two nations avoid this outcome, despite their starkly different national systems: “China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialogue, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust,” he said.

    Despite this rhetoric, substantial barriers to any meaningful substantive agreement remain deeply entrenched. When Trump and Xi met in Beijing earlier this year in May, the only major outcome was an agreement to establish joint trade and investment working groups, with little tangible progress delivered in the months since.

    On the economic front, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this week that a year-long trade truce that kept tariffs at reduced levels between the two nations will be extended for an additional two months. Financial analysts widely expect another extension before the summit concludes, as neither government is eager to reignite the full-scale trade war that roiled global markets last year.

    The outlook for progress on other high-stakes issues is far grimmer. Disputes remain intractable across a range of topics, from the U.S. posture toward Iran and the ongoing war in Ukraine to global rules for AI development. Adding to friction, China has yet to follow through on earlier commitments to increase purchases of U.S. agricultural goods and boost exports of rare earth minerals to the U.S. For China, a key point of tension remains the long-paused proposed U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, with Chinese officials watching closely to see if Trump will move forward with the deal.

    When it comes to artificial intelligence, one of the summit’s top agenda items, the two sides hold fundamentally conflicting goals, according to Robyn Klingler-Vidra, a professor of political economy at King’s College London. “On the US side, it’s about existential risk and slowing down AI potentially,” she explained. “Whereas in China, it’s about acceleration, maybe winning the AI tech race and the application of AI to the real economy.”

    A lineup of top American AI industry executives are set to attend the formal state dinner at the White House on Thursday night, a move widely interpreted as a deliberate show of force to highlight the U.S.’s current leading position in global AI innovation.

    Even with additional one-on-one meetings scheduled before Xi departs Washington on Friday afternoon, many analysts expect the summit will ultimately deliver little more than symbolic pageantry and a renewed commitment to maintaining tentative stability. Miles Yu, who served as principal China policy planner and strategist to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Trump’s first presidential term, told the BBC that the two nations approach negotiation from fundamentally different frameworks that make breakthroughs unlikely. “What China talks about is metaphysical and abstract. The United States wants to solve specific problems,” Yu said. “These different approaches are not going to lead to any result.”

  • Russia ties Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine to halt in oil refinery strikes

    Russia ties Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine to halt in oil refinery strikes

    A months-long wave of targeted attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea has spurred Turkey to put forward a new proposal for a moratorium on hostile actions against vessels transiting the strategic waterway, with both Russia and Ukraine signaling initial positive reception, but Kyiv warns a breakthrough remains out of reach in the near term due to Moscow’s unrelated additional demands. Multiple regional diplomats with direct knowledge of the negotiations shared this assessment with Middle East Eye in recent briefings.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan first confirmed the proposal’s existence to local media over the weekend, acknowledging that the stark divergence between Moscow and Kyiv’s core positions on Black Sea security makes any immediate compromise a heavy lift. A senior Turkish official who spoke on background to MEE revealed that between the start of January and the first week of September alone, at least 72 commercial vessels have come under attack in the region, most of them hit by unmanned aerial drone strikes. Of those targeted vessels, nearly 70% have direct links to Turkey: they are either Turkish-owned, operated by Turkish management firms, or captained by Turkish nationals. Three Turkish citizens have been killed and another 18 wounded in these shipping attacks, which unfold in a waterway that shares borders with Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia and Bulgaria. Just weeks ago, Ankara summoned Ukraine’s top envoy to Turkey to formally protest what it called Ukrainian strikes on emergency response vessels that were conducting search-and-rescue operations for stranded sailors and rendering aid to damaged ships.

    The core framework of Turkey’s new proposal builds on the temporary Ukrainian shipping corridor that already operates along the coastlines of Romania and Bulgaria, the Turkish official told Agence France-Presse. Under the plan, a separate dedicated route for Russian commercial vessels would be established along the coasts of Georgia and Turkey, contingent on formal approval from all relevant coastal states to participate in the arrangement. The Turkish official also warned MEE that ongoing disruptions to Black Sea shipping have already created critical food security ramifications, with 13 African nations that rely on grain and fertilizer exports from both Ukraine and Russia already facing supply disruptions and rising commodity prices. Notably, earlier this month Turkey signed a bilateral agreement with Moscow to secure steady supplies of mineral fertilizers, strengthening Ankara’s access to key agricultural raw materials amid ongoing market volatility.

    For its part, Ukraine has indicated it is open to a deal structured along the lines of the 2022–2023 Black Sea Grain Initiative, the landmark agreement that allowed safe agricultural exports from both nations for nearly a year before Russia pulled out of the pact in 2023. Under a new modeled agreement, specific port areas in both Ukraine and Russia would be designated exclusively for grain and fertilizer exports, and a joint coordination center would monitor all transiting vessels and share real-time navigation data with both parties, a senior Ukrainian official told MEE. But the same official stressed that reaching a final agreement with Moscow remains extremely challenging, noting that it was Russia – not Ukraine – that walked away from the prior grain pact. “The problem with Russia is that they always ask for more,” the official said. “There are always additional demands in areas which aren’t connected to the grain whatsoever.” As a key example, the official explained that Moscow is currently conditioning any new shipping agreement on Ukraine halting all long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries – a demand that has nothing to do with commercial shipping or food security, making it an irrelevant and unacceptable precondition for Kyiv.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has struck a more optimistic tone, however, after holding bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this Wednesday. Zelensky noted that if Moscow agrees to halt all strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, Kyiv would reciprocate by pausing its own long-range attacks on Russian targets, opening a path for negotiation. During a concurrent press conference held the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the current cycle of attacks sees Ukraine targeting Russian oil infrastructure, while Russia strikes Ukraine’s national electricity grid and disrupts basic daily life for Ukrainian civilians, echoing the view that reaching a lasting solution to the Black Sea shipping crisis will be an uphill battle.

  • Canada, France, Italy and Greece allow Netanyahu’s overflight despite ICC warrant

    Canada, France, Italy and Greece allow Netanyahu’s overflight despite ICC warrant

    On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled through the airspace of four ICC member states — Greece, Italy, France, and Canada — en route to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, a journey that has reignited fierce global debate over compliance with an active International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against him. The ICC issued the warrant for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, after judges confirmed reasonable grounds to hold the pair accountable for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza starting from October 2023, including the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war.

    As a non-member of the International Criminal Court, the United States faces no legal obligation to enforce the warrant, but the issue has still sparked domestic friction. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani clarified in a July video address, following former U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that Netanyahu would not face arrest during his visit, that local authorities lack independent legal jurisdiction to execute the ICC warrant. Despite this lack of power, Mamdani has publicly urged the federal government to acknowledge the warrant’s legitimacy and take action to enforce it.

    Unlike the U.S., all four transited countries — as well as every European Union member state — are formal ICC parties bound by the Rome Statute to cooperate with the court’s arrest requests. This has left the four nations facing widespread criticism for repeatedly granting Netanyahu’s aircraft airspace access since the warrant was issued. Public flight trackers confirmed on Thursday that Netanyahu’s official aircraft, the Wing of Zion, successfully crossed all three EU nations before entering Canadian airspace, prompting fresh allegations that ICC member states are violating their binding international legal obligations.

    Ahead of the flight, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand announced that officials had launched a review of the submitted flight route, but she declined to directly answer questions on whether Ottawa recognizes Netanyahu as a war criminal. Anand only stated that Canada remains committed to respecting decisions of international courts, acknowledging the widespread suffering in Gaza, Palestine, and the West Bank, and upholding accountability for crimes against humanity. This marks a shift from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s clear statement last year that Netanyahu would be arrested if he entered Canadian territory.

    Parallel to Netanyahu’s visit, the U.S. has once again drawn condemnation for denying entry visas to a high-level Palestinian delegation led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, marking the second consecutive year Washington has blocked Abbas from attending the General Assembly in person. The Biden administration cited Palestinian efforts to pursue legal cases against Israel at both the ICC and the International Court of Justice as a core reason for the visa ban. In response, the General Assembly passed a vote allowing Abbas to deliver his address to the body remotely via video. Palestinian UN representatives have since called on all diplomatic missions to stage a coordinated walkout during Netanyahu’s speech, in protest of Israel’s military and governance actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    This week’s overflight controversy is not the first time ICC member states have faced scrutiny over their handling of Netanyahu’s travel. Last year, Netanyahu avoided French airspace on his trip to the General Assembly even after Paris granted permission, but his plane has since been allowed to cross French territory multiple times, including December 2025, February 2026, July 2026, and again this week. Canada, Greece, and Italy have also regularly appeared on Netanyahu’s flight routes to the U.S.

    A clear precedent for the standoff emerged in 2025, when Hungary hosted Netanyahu for an official visit from April 3 to 6. ICC judges later ruled that Hungary had failed to meet its legal obligation to cooperate with the court and referred the non-compliance case to the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties. In response, Hungary initiated a full withdrawal from the court, but the process was reversed by the country’s new government before it could take legal effect.

    Legal experts remain divided on the specifics of how the Rome Statute applies to overflights. The statute explicitly requires all member states to cooperate with arrest and surrender requests for ICC suspects, but it does not directly address the scenario of a suspect’s aircraft passing through a state’s airspace without landing. France has long taken the narrow legal position that it has no obligation under the Rome Statute to bar a state aircraft carrying an ICC suspect from crossing its airspace.

    However, this interpretation has been widely challenged by independent legal experts. UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul has argued that existing international law creates a clear path for enforcement. Under the 1963 Tokyo Convention, states are generally barred from interfering with in-flight aircraft to exercise criminal jurisdiction, but the treaty includes an explicit exception for cases where such intervention is necessary to uphold a state’s obligations under a multilateral international agreement. Saul notes that the Rome Statute qualifies as such an agreement, allowing ICC member states to compel an overflying aircraft carrying a wanted suspect to land for arrest. He further emphasizes that under general international law and the Convention on International Civil Aviation — which all four states in question have ratified — a state’s territorial airspace is considered full sovereign territory, just like its land or territorial sea, giving authorities full legal power to grant or deny access.

    Other legal analysts have echoed this position, noting that even if there is debate over the obligation to force a landing, member states retain the clear right to refuse entry to their airspace for an aircraft carrying an ICC suspect. The ongoing controversy surrounding this week’s flight underscores deep divisions between international legal obligations and political realities, as major ICC member states balance their formal commitments to the court against geopolitical priorities tied to their relationships with Israel and the United States.

  • Italy ministers agree to ban burqa and niqab in school and cap foreigners in class

    Italy ministers agree to ban burqa and niqab in school and cap foreigners in class

    Italy’s conservative-led government has greenlit two divisive new education policies: a ban on full-face Islamic veils in all school settings, and a legal cap on the share of students with limited Italian language proficiency in any single classroom. The new rules, which were formally approved during a cabinet meeting on Thursday, impose a 30% maximum limit for students with poor Italian language skills or non-Italian citizenship in the first year of primary, middle, and high school respectively.

    Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni framed these measures as common-sense policies designed to facilitate integration rather than divide communities. In an announcement Sunday, Meloni emphasized that students must attend school with their faces fully visible, arguing that no person should mandate that a young woman hide her identity in the name of cultural or religious tradition. The ban specifically targets burqas, which are full-body veils that cover the entire face with only a mesh screen for vision, and niqabs, which are face veils that leave only the area around the eyes exposed. The regulation does not extend to hijabs, which leave the face uncovered.

    Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara has defended the 30% cap, clarifying that it is rooted in linguistic need rather than a ban on citizenship, while framing the full-face veil ban as a step forward for gender equality. According to Valditara, the cap is intended to prevent the formation of so-called “ghetto classes” where students with limited Italian are concentrated in a small number of classrooms, slowing their language acquisition and social integration. Local education authorities will be required to redistribute students with limited Italian evenly across neighboring schools; when redistribution is not feasible, exemptions will be granted alongside additional targeted Italian language instruction. The new decree also requires schools to report cases where persistent language barriers among parents hinder a child’s integration to social services, who will then offer free Italian language courses to parents.

    Data from research institute Fondazione ISMU shows that non-Italian citizens currently make up around 11.6% of Italy’s total student population. The 30% cap applies differently across education levels: for primary school, it covers non-citizen students not born in Italy or those who have not completed at least two years of nursery school in Italy. For lower and upper secondary school, the cap applies to non-citizen students who have not successfully completed at least three years of the Italian education system.

    This policy is not entirely new ground for Italy. A 2010 ministerial guidance introduced during the tenure of former Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini already set a 30% “rule of thumb” cap for non-Italian citizen students. What this new decree does is codify that existing guidance into binding law, and expand the scope to include the veil ban. As a decree law, the measures take effect immediately, but they must receive formal ratification from the Italian parliament within 60 days to remain in force.

    Opposition parties have harshly criticized the new policies, arguing that the government is prioritizing political gain over student welfare, and accusing Meloni of pandering to hard-right factions ahead of next year’s general election. Critics specifically point to the hard-right party Futuro Nazionale, led by retired military general Roberto Vannacci, who has positioned himself as a more extreme alternative to the current ruling coalition from the right. Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, has dismissed the plan as nothing more than political propaganda that is impossible to implement. Anna Ascani, deputy leader of the Democratic Party and vice-president of the lower chamber of parliament, went further, accusing the government of spreading propaganda at the expense of Italian schoolchildren.

    Valditara rejected these accusations during a video press conference from New York, telling reporters “We are not chasing Vannacci; if anything, he is chasing us.” Vannacci himself has stated that he supports the measures, but argues they should have been implemented years ago. Matteo Salvini, leader of the League party which is part of the ruling coalition, recently introduced a separate package of policies targeting what he calls “political Islam,” and has accused Vannacci of consistently voting against the current government. Salvini also stated that he hopes Futuro Nazionale will support his party’s new proposals, adding another layer of tension to intra-coalition politics on the Italian right.

  • Israel displaces hundreds of Palestinians amid wave of demolitions in West Bank

    Israel displaces hundreds of Palestinians amid wave of demolitions in West Bank

    On Wednesday, Israeli military forces launched a large-scale demolition operation targeting residential and infrastructure in the village of Janba, located in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied southern West Bank, leaving more than 170 Palestinians homeless, including 85 children.

    According to documentation from leading Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, military personnel and armored bulldozers entered the village before dawn on September 23, 2026. By the end of the operation, crews had destroyed 24 residential buildings, 16 agricultural outbuildings, 16 residential solar energy units, and 14 communal and residential water storage tanks. Beyond destroying standing structures, forces also sealed off natural caves that local residents had used for generations to store supplies, shelter livestock, and even as permanent family homes.

    For residents like Najah Jabarin, the operation erased nearly every asset her family relied on. “We lost our home; we lost three rooms – the kitchen, the sheep shed and the bread oven,” Jabarin told Middle East Eye in an on-site interview. “We have nothing left.” Like dozens of other displaced families in Janba, Jabarin’s 11-member household currently has no alternative permanent housing, but she says the family remains committed to rebuilding on their ancestral land and refusing to leave the area.

    This latest demolition is part of a sharp upward trend in forced displacement and home destruction across Masafer Yatta that has accelerated dramatically since October 2023. Just weeks earlier, Israeli forces carried out two large-scale demolition operations in neighboring communities in the region. On September 2, the military demolished almost the entire hamlet of Khirbet al-Taban, leveling 12 homes that held 70 residents, 28 of whom were children. One week after that, all five homes in Khirbet al-Fakhit were destroyed, displacing 32 additional people, alongside the loss of all local livestock pens, water access infrastructure, and off-grid solar energy systems that sustained the community.

    Janba resident Nu’man Jabarin, a 57-year-old who was born in the village and has lived in the same cave compound his family has occupied for three generations, described the operation as a total erasure of his life’s holdings. “Today, they wiped out everything I owned,” he said. “I have no bathroom, no kitchen, no room and no cave left.”

    In the days since the demolition, Jabarin’s two-month-old grandson has been forced to sleep in the open, with no shelter to protect him from the elements. “If you came to us at midnight, you would find our children out in the open, with no shelter,” he added. When Jabarin attempted to present Israeli military crews with official documents proving his family’s ownership of the land, he said soldiers dismissed the papers, declaring the entire area a closed military training zone. Soldiers explicitly ordered him to relocate elsewhere after destroying his home, but the lifelong resident says he has no intention of complying. “There is no alternative; this is my land. I was born here, and my father was born here. I have the documents and proof to show for it,” Jabarin said. “They don’t care about Palestinians anywhere. They want to displace us to Jordan, but I will not leave. I will die with my children in my village.”

    Another Janba local, Nidal Jabarin, argues that the escalating demolitions are a deliberate strategy to make daily life unbearable for Palestinian residents, with the ultimate goal of forcing mass out-migration. He noted that these campaigns often intensify ahead of Israeli national elections, when the lives and rights of Palestinians become political collateral. Israeli political parties across the spectrum, he claimed, are competing to demonstrate increasingly harsh repression against Palestinians to win voter support. “They race to make people’s lives extremely difficult, to harm and destroy them, and to ruin everything in this village,” he said, adding that the demolitions target not just current residents, but the centuries-long historical and geographic connection Palestinians have to the land.

    Janba is one of 13 small Palestinian communities that fall within the boundaries of “Firing Zone 918,” a 30,000-hectare area Israel designated as an exclusive military training zone back in the 1980s. This designation placed all Palestinian structures in the entire area under permanent demolition orders, leaving residents with no legal protection for their homes or infrastructure. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that roughly 1,200 Palestinians currently live in these 13 isolated communities. In May 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the military’s authority over the zone, removing the last legal barrier to large-scale demolitions and mass displacement of the area’s Palestinian population.

    Nasr Nawajaa, a local human rights activist based in Masafer Yatta, called the Janba demolitions a clear case of ethnic cleansing. He emphasized that the current wave of destruction is timed ahead of Israel’s national election scheduled for October 27, with the military ramping up pressure on Palestinians through road blocks, infrastructure destruction, and home demolitions to appeal to right-wing voters. “The entire goal is displacement; dozens of homes have been demolished or damaged, and more than 180 Palestinians have been displaced, all for the sake of election campaigning,” Nawajaa said. “Even without the elections, the village is being subjected to ethnic cleansing.”

    B’Tselem echoed this assessment, stating that the latest demolitions are part of what the group terms an “Elimination Project” Israel is implementing across the occupied West Bank to remove Palestinian presence from strategic areas. The organization reports that since October 2023 alone, Israeli forces and Jewish settlers have violently expelled more than 4,800 Palestinians from their home communities across the West Bank. “The demolitions and the expulsion of communities are part of a mechanism of ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover that Israel is using to dismantle the conditions that enable Palestinians to continue living on their land, while clearing the way for expanding Jewish-Israeli presence and control,” the group said in a statement.

    Official data bears out the scale of the ongoing displacement crisis. Data collected by the Commission Against the Wall and Settlements shows that between January and August 2026 alone, Israeli forces carried out 492 separate demolition operations across the West Bank, destroying a total of 1,060 Palestinian structures. As of September 23, UN data confirms that more than 1,600 Palestinians have been displaced by these demolition operations across the occupied territory this year.

  • Priest killed and four injured in knife attack at Polish abbey

    Priest killed and four injured in knife attack at Polish abbey

    A brutal knife attack at a Catholic abbey in the southeastern Polish town of Jarosław has left one priest dead and four other people wounded, according to Polish law enforcement and government officials. A 31-year-old Ukrainian national has been taken into police custody following Thursday morning’s stabbing incident on the abbey grounds, authorities confirmed.

    Local law enforcement agencies have sealed off the perimeter of the abbey to preserve evidence for the ongoing investigation. Initial reports from Polish media outline that the attacker first stabbed a priest at a nearby cafe before moving into the abbey compound and attacking four additional people. Police have confirmed that the victims of the attack include four men and one woman, though the name of the deceased priest has not been made public to protect the privacy of his family.

    The attack has drawn swift condemnation and response from senior officials on both sides of the Poland-Ukraine border. Polish President Karol Nawrocki released a statement Thursday noting that the violence “has shaken us all and demands a firm response from the state.” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk added that the perpetrator “will be punished with the full severity of Polish law,” while Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński announced that psychological support services have been activated for all people impacted by the traumatic incident.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also released a statement expressing his country’s shock at the violence, saying “we are shocked by this evil.” He echoed Polish officials in calling for full legal accountability, adding that “the perpetrator of this evil must bear full responsibility according to the law” and that Ukraine is anticipating “a quick and thorough investigation of all circumstances.” The Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw also issued a formal condemnation of the attack, noting in a statement: “In such difficult moments, it is especially important to support each other, remain steadfast in respect for human life, and not allow pain to escalate into hatred or new violence. Responsibility for a crime must be based solely on the law.”

    At present, Polish law enforcement is still working to establish a clear motive for the attack. The incident comes amid a period of increased tension between Polish citizens and the more than one million Ukrainian refugees who have settled in Poland following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Over recent months, Poland has recorded multiple violent incidents involving locals and Ukrainian refugees, prompting officials on both sides to call for calm and due process in the wake of this latest attack.

  • ‘People are destitute’: Lebanon’s spiralling prices fuel fears of social unrest

    ‘People are destitute’: Lebanon’s spiralling prices fuel fears of social unrest

    In the wake of the escalating US-Israel-Iran regional conflict, Lebanon has been hit by a crippling new shock: fuel prices have doubled in a matter of weeks, sending already catastrophic living costs soaring even higher and pushing a population worn down by decades of crisis to the edge of survival.

    This week, local fuel prices jumped to nearly $1.60 per liter, a surge that aligns with a global uptick in energy costs that has already sparked mass demonstrations across neighboring Syria. For Lebanon, this new price shock does not exist in a vacuum — three years of open conflict with Israel, layered on top of ongoing regional military tensions, has already gutted an economy that was on its knees long before the latest crisis.

    The Lebanese Trade Union Federation has issued an urgent ultimatum to the national government: declare a formal state of economic emergency by next week, or face an open-ended general strike across the country. While newly seated President Joseph Aoun has publicly pledged to address the unions’ demands, decades of financial collapse have left the cash-strapped state with almost no fiscal room to cushion the blow of rising prices for essential goods that Lebanese residents already struggle to afford.

    Fears of widespread social unrest have been amplified by the recent wave of protests across Syria, where demonstrations erupted immediately after the government enforced sharp fuel price hikes of its own. For ordinary Lebanese citizens, the pain of the current crisis is not an abstract economic statistic — it is a daily reality of hunger and financial ruin.

    Bassam, a furniture moving truck driver based in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area that bore the full force of Israel’s intense bombardment during the most recent conflict, described the situation as unlivable. “It’s really difficult for everyone,” he told Middle East Eye. “The cost of living is so high, there are people who can’t afford to eat. There are people who seriously can’t even afford a loaf of bread anymore, especially after going through the war and being out of work, and now this petrol crisis. By God, it’s a disaster.”

    The latest World Bank analysis underscores the severity of Lebanon’s economic trajectory. After a fragile, modest economic recovery followed a 2024 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, renewed fighting in March shattered that progress. The bank now projects that Lebanon’s economy will contract by 6.4% in 2026.

    The country’s current crisis stretches back to 2019, when a catastrophic financial collapse unfolded after Lebanese banks defaulted on their obligations, locking millions of ordinary depositors out of their life savings. Today, the domestic banking sector carries more than $72 billion in accumulated losses, and the country’s public debt has ballooned to 176.5% of GDP. Inflation has remained in double digits for five consecutive years, and since the 2019 crash, the Lebanese pound has lost more than 98% of its value against the U.S. dollar, wiping out nearly all purchasing power for ordinary households.

    Ihab Abou Zeineddine, a father of two who earns $600 a month working as a private driver, said his income is barely enough to cover basic household needs. “You’re too embarrassed to go into a shop with $20, you can’t buy anything with that,” he said. “People are destitute.”

    Even the most basic staple, bread, has become out of reach for many Lebanese. For years, the government subsidized and regulated wheat markets to keep bread affordable, but rising fuel-driven production costs forced the Ministry of Economy to raise bread prices for the second time this year just last week.

    In response, the Federation of Bakery and Oven Trade Unions issued a warning that continuous price hikes have “placed the bakery sector and the Lebanese people, particularly the working classes, in an extremely precarious situation.”

    More than five months after the most recent ceasefire with Israel went into effect, Lebanon is now bracing for widespread collective action. Transport sector unions and national labor federations have called for a nationwide mobilization next Wednesday, raising the prospect of large-scale unrest as public anger simmers. Some ordinary residents are already questioning why mass action has not erupted sooner.

    Ibtissam, an aesthetician who lives roughly 20 kilometers southeast of Beirut, told reporters she has started carpooling to work appointments in the capital just to cut down on fuel costs. “People are angry. Why are they not going on strike or protesting? I don’t know. I don’t know why people are staying silent like this,” she said.