Category: FOREIGN

Foreign Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program.

  • Wildfires in south Lebanon after Israeli bombardment: media, rescuer

    Wildfires in south Lebanon after Israeli bombardment: media, rescuer

    Beirut, Lebanon: Israeli strikes Saturday on southern Lebanon sparked massive wildfires, state media and a first responder said, the latest fallout from escalating cross-border violence involving Hezbollah.

    Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in the nine months since the Gaza genocide began.

    Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday that “Israeli artillery bombarded today the outskirts of the town of Alma al-Shaab with incendiary phosphorus shells, causing fires in the forests that spread to the vicinity of some homes”.

    Fire sweeps over fields targeted by Israeli artillery on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Rmeish on June 4, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP.

    It added that the fire had reached “large areas of olive trees”.

    Lebanese authorities and several international rights groups have accused Israel of using white phosphorus rounds in its strikes on its northern neighbour.

    White phosphorus, a substance that ignites in contact with oxygen, can be used as an incendiary weapon.

    Its use as a chemical weapon is prohibited under international law, but it is allowed for illuminating battlefields and can be used as a smokescreen.

    Rescuer Ali Abbas of the Risala Scout association, affiliated with Hezbollah ally the Amal movement, told AFP that “Israel deliberately bombs forested areas with phosphorus with the aim of starting fires.”

    According to him, rescuers on the grounds have been struggling to extinguish the flames, while the Lebanese military avoids sending helicopters to assist for fear of more Israeli attacks.

    Further east, the NNA reported that “a large fire broke out at positions belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL”, the UN peacekeeping mission, in the area of the border village of Mais al-Jabal.

    It is located near the UN-demarcated Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel.

    A security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that fires broke out near military positions but have not reached them or caused any casualties.

    The UN peacekeepers in a statement reported a “bushfire near one of their positions in Hula”, which was put out with help from Lebanese troops and civil defence forces.

    “The fire didn’t cause any damage to UNIFIL assets or personnel,” it said.

    The NNA said, “Several landmines exploded, and firefighting operations are still continuing” in the area.

    The border violence, which began on October 8, has killed 456 people in Lebanon, primarily fighters but including about 90 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

    On the Israeli side of the border, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.

  • Nine months of genocide: Israel attacks UN school as US gives it ‘every right to attack’

    Nine months of genocide: Israel attacks UN school as US gives it ‘every right to attack’

    Israeli strikes hammered a Gaza refugee camp on Friday after a deadly strike on a UN-run school, as the genocide entered its ninth month. Meanwhile, the US White House spokesperson, Mathew Miller, in a slip of the tongue, said, “Israel has a right to try and target those civilians” in response to questions about an attack on a UN school in central Gaza that killed dozens of people. 

    Asked by Anadolu about the spokesperson’s remarks, the State Department said Miller misspoke and that he intended to say “Hamas” rather than “civilians.” A footnote with the correction is expected to be added to the official department transcript of Thursday’s briefing.

    Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza said at least 37 people were killed in Thursday’s Israeli strike on the UN-run school in Nuseirat camp.

    The Israeli army said its fighter jets killed nine “terrorists” in three classrooms where about 30 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad had been hiding.

    The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said hundreds of displaced Palestinians had been sheltering at the school which was “hit without prior warning”.

    UN Secretary-General chief Antonio Guterres described the strike as “another horrific example of the price that civilians are paying”.

    Strikes across Gaza

    The United States, which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid, urged its ally to be “fully” transparent about the strike.

    “The government of Israel has said that they are going to release more information about this strike, including the names of those who died in it. We expect them to be fully transparent in making that information public,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

    Journalist Hind Khoudary reported that Israel attacked the school late in the night when the people were asleep.

    On Friday, strikes targeted various areas across the Gaza Strip.

    A day after the school was hit, the Nuseirat refugee camp faced renewed Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes, reported AFP.

    A medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the Isa family home near a medical centre in the Bureij refugee camp was targeted, leaving several wounded.

    Witnesses also confirmed Israeli strikes in the east of Deir al-Balah, as well as intensive fire from Israeli army vehicles east of the Bureij camp, where a blaze raged at a roundabout.

    In Gaza City, casualties were reported from an Israeli missile strike on the Ashram family home near Al-Salam mosque, according to a medical source at Baptist Hospital.

    Six people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli strike on the Wafati home in Maghazi camp, said a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

    Air force jets also targeted the Al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah, sources in the city on the southern border with Egypt said.

    Gaza also came under fire from the sea, with Israeli warships bombarding homes in the fishermen’s port area, among others, west of Gaza City, an AFP correspondent said.

  • George Clooney called White House to blast Biden for calling wife’s work on Israel ‘outrageous’

    George Clooney called White House to blast Biden for calling wife’s work on Israel ‘outrageous’

    Hollywood superstar George Clooney reportedly rang up one of President Joe Biden’s top aides to complain about the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrants against Israeli leaders — a case his wife, Amal Clooney, worked on, Washington Post has reported after talking to three people familiar with the conversation.

    Clooney called Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, to blast Biden’s condemnation of arrest warrants sought by ICC prosecutors for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and especially his use of the word “outrageous” to criticise the court’s decision.

    His wife, Amal Clooney, is an International Human Rights Lawyer and runs the Clooney Foundation for Justice. She said in a statement that the prosecutor’s office had enlisted her to help with the investigation, asking her to review evidence of suspected war crimes and provide legal analysis. The Clooney Foundation for Justice published the statement, which said the team’s legal findings were “unanimous.” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on May 20 that he was seeking to charge Netanyahu, Gallant, Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, and two other top Hamas leaders with war crimes.

    “I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law,” Amal Clooney wrote in the statement. “So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,” she added.

    Washington Post revealed that the actor was “upset” about the administration’s initial openness to imposing sanctions on the ICC because his wife might be subjected to the penalties. Clooney has long been known for backing Democrats and is due to appear at a Biden campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles.

    The concerns expressed by the actor spread throughout Biden’s campaign as some officials were worried that he would withdraw from participating in the high-profile fundraiser, which will also feature former president Barack Obama, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, and actress Julia Roberts.
    However, both the White House and Clooney declined to comment on the matter.

    In 2020, George Clooney donated more than $500,000 to Biden’s campaign effort and co-hosted a virtual fundraiser for him that raised $7 million.

  • Tokyo govt to launch dating app to boost birth rate

    Tokyo govt to launch dating app to boost birth rate

    Japan’s capital will launch its own dating app as early as this summer as part of government efforts to boost the plunging national birth rate, a Tokyo official said Tuesday.

    Users will be required to submit documentation proving they are legally single and sign a letter stating they are willing to get married.

    Stating one’s income is common on Japanese dating apps, but Tokyo will require a tax certificate slip to prove the annual salary.

    “We learned that 70 percent of people who want to get married aren’t actively joining events or apps to look for a partner,” a Tokyo government official in charge of the new app told AFP.

    “We want to give them a gentle push to find one,” he said.

    It’s not unusual for municipalities to organise matchmaking events in Japan, where births dropped to a new low in 2023, but it is rare for a local government to develop an app.

    An interview will be required to confirm a user’s identity as part of the registration process for the Tokyo app, which has been on a test run for free since late last year.

    Many social media users expressed scepticism over the plans, with one saying, “is this something the government should be doing with our tax?”

    Others wrote they were interested as they would feel safer.

    Last year Japan recorded more than twice as many deaths as new babies.

    Births fell for the eighth consecutive year to 758,631, a drop of 5.1 percent, preliminary government data showed. The number of deaths stood at 1,590,503.

    The nation is facing growing labour shortages, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised policies including financial aid for families, easier childcare access and more parental leave.

  • Who are Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu? And why is Indian twitter teasing Modi about them?

    Who are Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu? And why is Indian twitter teasing Modi about them?

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, contrary to popular expectations, is seeing a major blow in the elections. The strongman of the right-wing Hindutva BJP, seeking a third term as Premier, could not get a clear majority. While his opponents are celebrating the unexpected result, Indian Twitter is having a riot about Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu, who have emerged as key players in the elections. The two politicians are popular for their secular leanings yet are known for changing their positions frequently.

    Indian publications like NDTV are making headlines, such as “Lok Sabha Election 2024 Result: India Congress may send feelers to Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar.”

    The leading coalitions- that of Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Rahul Gandhi’s Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)-are trying to include the two in their bloc.

    Kumar and Naidu have traditionally allied with the Congress and are meeting with them today. Meanwhile, Twitter users are having a riot with memes.

    A user posted a video of a movie scene in which a man is busy with several incoming calls, with the caption “Nitish Kumar right now.”

    Another netizen made fun by using a scene from Johny Lever’s movie where he could be seen telling another character that even though I am looking elsewhere, my heart belongs to you.

    An X user quoted the famous Shahrukh Khan reference of “Palat” as the voice of INDIA.

    Another account posted a video of a man lured by two ladies at the same time and suggested that this could be Nitish at the moment.

    Another meme that is gaining a lot of traction is of Gandhi smiling, quoting, “Aa gaya sawaad.”

  • Top UK universities face funding and foreign student shortage

    Top UK universities face funding and foreign student shortage

    Some of UK’s top universities could see their attractiveness decline due to hits to funding and tighter regulations on overseas students, the annual QS 2025 university rankings warned on Tuesday.

    Four British universities retained their spots in the top 10 of more than 1,000 universities ranked by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a benchmark ranking alongside the Times and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

    Imperial College London, renowned for its science teaching, shot up from sixth to second place, dethroning for the first time the historically dominant “Oxbridge” duo, with Oxford and Cambridge ranking third and fifth respectively.

    More than half (52) of the UK’s universities were bumped down on the list, out of the 90 that were part of the ranking.

    “This year’s results suggest that British higher education has limited capacity remaining to continue excelling in the face of funding shortages, drops in student applications,” and restrictions affecting the intake of international students, said head of QS Jessica Turner.

    In the last few months, the Conservative government has introduced several measures to reduce regular migration which it judges to be too high.

    These including barring overseas students from bringing dependents and hiking the minimum salary needed for skilled workers visas.

    The policies have been criticised by universities, whose budgets are heavily dependent on the higher fees paid by international students.

    In the first four months of the year, 30,000 fewer student visa applications were made than in the same period in 2023, according to government statistics.

  • Mexican mayor killed day after Sheinbaum presidential win: regional govt

    Mexican mayor killed day after Sheinbaum presidential win: regional govt

    The mayor of a town in western Mexico was killed on Monday, the regional government said, barely 24 hours after Claudia Sheinbaum was elected the Latin American country’s first woman president.

    The Michoacan state government condemned “the murder of the municipal president (mayor) of Cotija, Yolanda Sanchez Figueroa”, the regional interior ministry said in a post on the social media platform X.

    The murder of the woman mayor comes after Sheinbaum’s landslide victory injected hope for change in a country riven by rampant gender-based violence.

    Sanchez, who was elected mayor in 2021 elections, was gunned down on a public road, according to local media.

    Authorities have not given details on the murder, but said a security operation had been launched to arrest the killers.

    The politician was previously kidnapped in September last year while leaving a shopping mall in the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, which neighbors Michoacan.

    Three days later the federal government said she had been found alive.

    According to local media reports at the time, the kidnappers belonged to the powerful Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), who allegedly threatened the mayor for opposing the criminal group’s takeover of her municipality’s police force.

    Michoacan is renowned for its tourist destinations and a thriving agro-export industry, but is also one of the most violent states in the country due to the presence of extortion and drug trafficking gangs.

  • Japan’s Nagasaki holds off inviting Israel to peace ceremony

    Japan’s Nagasaki holds off inviting Israel to peace ceremony

    The Israeli ambassador to Japan has not yet been invited to Nagasaki’s annual peace ceremony, said city officials who instead sent the embassy a letter calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

    The city in southern Japan this week invited dozens of countries and territories to the August 9 event on the anniversary of the US nuclear attack in 1945 that killed 74,000 people.

    But “as for Israel, the situation is changing day by day… so we have put sending an invitation letter on hold,” mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters on Monday.

    Israel launched a blistering military offensive in Gaza nearly eight months ago, following an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on the country.

    Worries that protests could disrupt the memorial for atomic bomb victims are partly behind the decision, said Suzuki.

    “Given the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, and public opinion in the international community, there are concerns about the risk of unexpected incidents during the ceremony,” which should be “safe and smooth”.

    “As the Ukraine situation has not changed, we are not inviting Russia or Belarus” either, Suzuki added.

    The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the death of 1,194 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

    More than 36,470 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza.

    The Palestinian envoy has been invited to the ceremony in Nagasaki, local officials told AFP on Tuesday. Japanese media said that both sides are usually invited.

    Nagasaki, Hiroshima ceasefire push

    Nagasaki has instead sent a letter to the Israeli embassy in which “we call for an immediate ceasefire”, Suzuki said.

    Its letter said that if city officials decide in the coming months that there is no problem in inviting Israel, “we will issue an invitation swiftly”, according to the mayor.

    The Israeli embassy did not immediately issue a comment.

    The sombre memorial at Nagasaki’s Peace Park has in the past included ringing bells, a release of doves, and a prayer ceremony for the bombing victims.

    Hiroshima also holds a yearly ceremony in memory of the 140,000 people killed there after the United States dropped the first nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945.

    The two strikes led to the end of World War II, and to this day Japan remains the only country to be hit by atomic weapons in wartime.

    Hiroshima has invited Israel to this year’s ceremony, but in its letter called for a “ceasefire as soon as possible and resolution through dialogue”, a city official said.

    According to local media, Hiroshima has never invited a Palestinian representative to its ceremony.

  • Claudia Sheinbaum makes history as Mexico’s first woman president

    Claudia Sheinbaum makes history as Mexico’s first woman president

    Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first woman president by a landslide Sunday, making history in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence.

    Crowds of flag-waving supporters sang and danced to mariachi music in Mexico City’s main square celebrating the ruling party candidate’s victory.

    “I want to thank millions of Mexican women and men who decided to vote for us on this historic day,” Sheinbaum said in a victory speech to the cheering crowd.

    “I won’t fail you,” the 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor vowed.

    She thanked her main opposition rival Xochitl Galvez, who conceded defeat.

    Sheinbaum, a scientist by training, won around 58-60 percent of votes, according to preliminary official results from the National Electoral Institute.

    That was more than 30 percentage points ahead of Galvez, and some 50 percentage points ahead of the only man running, long-shot centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez.

    Voters had flocked to polling stations across the Latin American nation, despite sporadic violence in areas terrorized by ultra-violent drug cartels.

    Thousands of troops were deployed to protect voters, following a particularly bloody electoral process that has seen more than two dozen aspiring local politicians murdered.

    ‘Transformation’

    Mexican women going to the polls had cheered the prospect of a woman breaking the highest political glass ceiling in a country where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.

    “A female president will be a transformation for this country, and we hope that she does more for women,” said Clemencia Hernandez, a 55-year-old cleaner in Mexico City.

    “Many women are subjugated by their partners. They’re not allowed to leave home to work,” she said.

    Daniela Perez, 30, said that having a woman president would be “something historic,” even though neither of the two main candidates was “totally feminist” in her view.

    “We’ll have to see their positions on improving women’s rights, resolving the issue of femicides — which have gone crazy — supporting women more,” added the logistics company manager.

    Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people.

    Sheinbaum owes much of her popularity to outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.

    Lopez Obrador congratulated his ally with “all my affection and respect.” As well as being the first woman to lead Mexico, “she is also the president with possibly the most votes obtained in the history of our country,” he said.

    After casting her ballot, Sheinbaum revealed she had not voted for herself but for a 93-year-old veteran leftist, Ifigenia Martinez, in recognition of her struggle.

    ‘Hugs not bullets’

    In a nation where politics, crime and corruption are closely entangled, drug cartels went to extreme lengths to ensure that their preferred candidates win.

    Hours before polls opened, a local candidate was murdered in a violent western state, authorities said, joining at least 25 other political hopefuls killed this election season, according to official figures.

    In the central Mexican state of Puebla, two people died after unknown persons attacked polling stations to steal papers, a local government security source told AFP.

    Voting was suspended in two municipalities in the southern state of Chiapas because of violence.

    Sheinbaum has pledged to continue the outgoing president’s controversial “hugs not bullets” strategy of tackling crime at its roots.

    Galvez vowed a tougher approach to cartel-related violence, declaring “hugs for criminals are over.”

    More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.

    The next president will also have to manage delicate relations with the neighboring United States, in particular the vexed issues of cross-border drug smuggling and migration.

    As well as choosing a new president, Mexicans voted for members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials — a total of more than 20,000 positions.

  • India Commission says 642 million voted in election

    India Commission says 642 million voted in election

    A total of 642 million Indians voted in the just-concluded six-week-long polls, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters on Monday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi widely expected to win a third term.

    “We have created a world record of 642 million Indian voters, it is a historic moment for all of us,” Kumar said, adding that nearly half of those — 312 million — were women voters.

    “It shows the incredible power of voters of India,” he said.

    “People should know about the strength of Indian democracy.”

    Based on the commission’s figure of an electorate of 968 million, 66.3 percent of eligible voters turned out, slightly down on the last general election in 2019.

    Kumar said that “642 million voters chose action over apathy, belief over cynicism and in some cases, the ballot over the bullet”, the commission said, with the commissioner adding that there were “no major incidents of violence”.

    Voting in the seventh and final staggered round ended on Saturday, and counting and results are due on Tuesday.

    Exit polls show Modi is well on track to triumph, with the premier saying he was confident that “the people of India have voted in record numbers” to re-elect his government.

    India uses electronic voting machines that allow for faster counting of ballots.

    “We have a robust counting process in place,” Kumar said.