https://www.scmp.com/rss/522732/feed The latest news and top stories on Yoav Gallant, former Israeli Defence Minister. Known for a 35-year military career, he rose to Major General, commanding elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13 and the Southern Command, playing a key role in Operation Cast Lead. Entering politics in 2015, he held ministerial portfolios including Construction and Education before serving as Defence Minister from 2022 to 2024. His tenure involved leading Israel’s Gaza operations and a public disagreement with... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Alex Lo Alex Lo US ambassador to Nato Matthew Whitaker must have mistaken China for his boss, Donald Trump. After all, it was the US president who kept saying he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference last week, Whitaker claimed Beijing could stop Russia’s war in Ukraine in a day if it wanted to. “China could call Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” he said. “China could stop buying Russian oil... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3343643/china-and-un-are-not-problem-ukraine-and-palestine-west?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3343643/china-and-un-are-not-problem-ukraine-and-palestine-west?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:34:58 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo It’s not for nothing that John Locke famously wrote that “life, liberty and property” are inalienable rights. The West, after all, has taught the world that property ownership, legally obtained, is sacrosanct. But what the West has imposed, it can also break. That is the real meaning of the rules-based international order, as opposed to international law: do what I say, not as I do. So the hardline European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been pressuring member states to support... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3336405/emerging-axis-lawlessness-european-union-united-states-and-israel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3336405/emerging-axis-lawlessness-european-union-united-states-and-israel?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Dec 2025 14:15:09 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press The International Court of Justice said on Wednesday that Israel must allow the UN aid agency in Gaza, known as UNRWA, to provide humanitarian help to the Palestinian territory. The Hague-based court was asked last year by the UN General Assembly to determine Israel’s legal obligations after the country effectively banned the agency, the main provider of aid to Gaza, from operating there. Israel “is under the obligation to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by the United Nations and... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3329980/icj-orders-israel-allow-unrwa-aid-gaza-amid-ceasefire-and-famine-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3329980/icj-orders-israel-allow-unrwa-aid-gaza-amid-ceasefire-and-famine-crisis?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:37:39 +0000 Reuters Reuters A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited these acts – accusations that Israel called scandalous. The report came on the same day Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said “Gaza is burning” as a major new ground offensive began. Israel started its long-threatened push into the heart of Gaza City after weeks of fatal air strikes and incursions into... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3325711/un-report-finds-israel-committed-genocide-gaza-you-dehumanise-your-victims?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3325711/un-report-finds-israel-committed-genocide-gaza-you-dehumanise-your-victims?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Sep 2025 08:00:14 +0000 Agencies Agencies The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for pursuing investigations into US and Israeli officials for alleged war crimes. The State Department on Wednesday announced new sanctions on four ICC officials, including two judges and two prosecutors, who it said had been instrumental in efforts to prosecute Americans and Israelis. As a result of the sanctions, any assets the targets hold in US jurisdictions are frozen. The sanctions are just the latest... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3322575/us-sanctions-icc-judges-prosecutors-probes-alleged-american-israeli-war-crimes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3322575/us-sanctions-icc-judges-prosecutors-probes-alleged-american-israeli-war-crimes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Aug 2025 18:52:41 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo International human rights lawyers and prosecutors are supposed to go after enemies of the West. Though unwritten, their job is understood to uphold double, not universal, standards. Unfortunately, some braver ones sometimes forget their place. When powerful Western leaders or their friends are investigated for things like war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing, things won’t go well at The Hague. Recent news reports have exposed a clandestine campaign against the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3321129/how-clandestine-campaign-undercut-iccs-case-against-israel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3321129/how-clandestine-campaign-undercut-iccs-case-against-israel?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Aug 2025 13:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Tony Soprano would have been proud. Sitting as an observer, a legal adviser of the US State Department threatened the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) oversight body that “all options are on the table” against the court. “To be clear, we expect all ICC actions against the United States and our ally Israel – that is, all investigations and all arrest warrants – to be terminated,” Reed Rubinstein told the Assembly of State Parties in New York last week. “We will use all appropriate and... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3318456/end-international-law-and-law-war-we-know-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/article/3318456/end-international-law-and-law-war-we-know-it?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:00:09 +0000