#Gaza ministry: hospitals to cut or stop services 'within 48 hours' over fuel shortages

#Hong #Kong activist Jimmy Lai denies he asked a newspaper colleague to draft list of sanction targets.

Former publisher Jimmy Lai denied that he asked a colleague to draft a list of potential sanction targets in his second day of testimony Thursday at his landmark national security trial in Hong Kong.

The 77-year-old founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily pro-democracy newspaper is being tried on charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to issue seditious publications. He was arrested in 2020 in a political crackdown following massive anti-government protests in 2019. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

THE #HAGUE, #Netherlands -The world's top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas' military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the 13-month war in #Gaza.

The #warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have used "starvation as a method of warfare" by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians in Israel's campaign against #Hamas in #Gaza -- charges Israeli officials deny.

The action by the International Criminal Court came as the death toll from Israel's campaign in Gaza passed 44,000 people, according to local health authorities, who say more than half of those killed were women and children. Their count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Experts say hunger has become widespread across Gaza and may have reached famine levels in the north of the territory, which is under siege by Israeli troops.

Netanyahu condemned the warrant against him, saying Israel "rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions" by the court. In a statement released by his office, he said: "There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza."

Gallant, in a statement, said the decision "sets a dangerous precedent against the right to self-defense and moral warfare and encourages murderous terrorism."

The decision turns #Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and could further isolate them, putting them at risk of arrest when they travel abroad. Its practical implications could be limited since #Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court.

Still, the warrant marked the first time that a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court of justice. It put Israel's allies, including some of its closest #European friends, in an #awkward position. Several leaders, including France, welcomed the court's decision and signaled they might arrest #Netanyahu if he visited.

The move "represents the most dramatic step yet in the court's involvement in the conflict between Israel and Hamas," said Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at the #European Council on Foreign Relations.

#Israeli leaders, politicians and officials across the spectrum denounced the warrants and the #ICC. The new #defense minister, Israel Katz, who replaced #Gallant earlier this month, said Thursday's decision is "a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism, and drags the international #judicial system to an unprecedented low."

Son of Norway crown princess detained for one week in rape probe.
#OSLO, Norway -The son of #Norway's crown princess will be jailed for up to one week while police investigate accusations of rape made against him, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Police on Monday detained Marius Borg Hoiby, 27, son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson to Crown Prince Haakon, and said he was suspected of having had sexual encounters with two women who were either unconscious or incapacitated.

Each accusation of rape concerned a "sexual encounter without intercourse," a police spokesperson said without elaborating.

Hoiby's lawyer, Oeyvind Bratlien, said his client was innocent and was opposed to being held in preventive detention.

It was not immediately clear if Hoiby would appeal the court's decision to place him in preventive detention.

Investigators had sought permission to hold him for up to two weeks.

Hoiby does not have a royal title and is outside the line of royal succession.

Police have said Hoiby also faces accusations of having used violence against other women and drug use.

On Aug. 4 police named Hoiby as a suspect of physical assault against a woman with whom he had been in a relationship.

Hoiby in a later statement to the media admitted to causing her bodily harm while he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol and of damaging her apartment. Hoiby said he regretted his acts.

Crown Prince Haakon said on Tuesday the case had had an impact on everyone in the family.

KYIV, Ukraine -#Ukraine says Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight targeting Dnipro city in the central-east of the country, which, if confirmed, would be the first time Moscow has used such a missile in the war.

In a statement Thursday on the Telegram messaging app, Ukraine's air force did not specify the exact type of missile, but said it was launched from Russia’s Astrakhan region, which borders the Caspian Sea.

It said an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired at Dnipro city along with eight other missiles, and that the Ukrainian military shot down six of them.

Two people were wounded as a result of the attack, and an industrial facility and a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities were damaged, according to local officials.

While the range of an ICBM would seem excessive for use against Ukraine, such missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads, and the use of one would serve as a chilling reminder of Russia’s nuclear capability and a powerful message of potential escalation.

The attack comes two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine that formally lowers the threshold for the country's use of nuclear weapons. Ukraine on Tuesday fired several American-supplied longer-range missiles and reportedly fired U.K.-made Storm Shadows on Wednesday into Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday that its air defense systems shot down two British-made Storm Shadow missiles, six HIMARS rockets, and 67 drones. The announcement came in the ministry’s daily roundup regarding the military actions in Ukraine.

The statement didn’t say when or where exactly it happened or what the missiles were targeting. This is not Moscow's first public announcement of the shooting down of Storm Shadow missiles, as Russia earlier reported downing some over the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

U.S. will allow #Ukraine to use antipersonnel land mines against Russian forces. #Austin pointed out that Ukraine already makes its own antipersonnel mines, and that the U.S. has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines. He also tried to allay concerns about the new mines the U.S. is giving Kyiv, saying they are not persistent, meaning troops can control when they would self-detonate.

“That makes it far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own,” Austin said.

The mines are are electrically fused and powered by batteries so that when the battery runs out, they won’t detonate. They can become inert in anywhere from four hours to two weeks.

#Russia already uses land mines in Ukraine, but those don’t become inert over time.

The United States also sought commitments from the Ukrainians on the use of the mines to limit harm to innocent civilians, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Ukraine would use the mines in its own country and would not put them in civilian populated areas.

The mines are contained in a US$275 million package of new military assistance from the Biden administration, according to a different U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the aid package hasn't been formerly announced. Also included in the package are High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as well as 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds, Javelin anti-armor munitions, and other equipment and spare parts.

The war has taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to help Russia on the battlefield — a development that U.S. officials said prompted Biden’s policy shift on allowing Ukraine to fire longer-range U.S. missiles into Russia and that angered the Kremlin.

Britain had been quietly pressing the U.S. to ease restrictions on how Western-supplied missiles are used, and unconfirmed news reports Wednesday said Ukraine had fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles at Russia for the first time. British and Ukrainian officials didn't confirm the reports.

#Creator of 'suicide capsule' rejects #Swiss allegation that its first user may have been strangled.

The right-to-die activist behind a new “suicide capsule” says he rejects “absurd” allegations that the U.S. #woman who was said to be its first user may have actually been strangled.

Philip Nitschke of advocacy group Exit International said Wednesday he wasn't on hand for the woman's death on Sept. 23 involving the “Sarco” capsule in a forest in northern Switzerland, but saw it live by video transmission.

The device worked as planned, he said, in the first and only time it has been used.

The head of a Swiss affiliate of Exit International known as The Last Resort, Florian Willet, was present at the woman's death and was immediately taken into police custody, where he remains.

Several other people who were initially taken into custody — including a journalist for Volkskrant newspaper in the Netherlands, where Nitschke lives — were later released.

The Australian-born Nitschke broke weeks of silence through an interview with respected Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, which was published Wednesday.

Speaking to The Associated Press by phone, he said he felt compelled to speak out because Exit International was “desperate” about the plight of Willet, who could remain behind bars for weeks or months until a possible trial.

The “Sarco,” which Nitschke has said cost US$1 million to develop and build, was designed to allow a person sitting in its reclining seat to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall unconscious and die by suffocation in a few minutes.

The 64-year-old woman was not identified. Nitschke, a trained medical doctor, said she had “compromised immune function” that made her “subject to chronic infection.”

On Oct. 26, Volkskrant reported the Swiss prosecutor had indicated in court that the woman may have been strangled.

“It is absurd because we’ve got film that the capsule wasn’t opened. She got in herself, pressed the button herself — and Florian rang the police” after she died, Nitschke said.

#Russian lawmakers endorse bill to ban adoptions by countries that allow gender transition.

#MOSCOW, Russia -Russia’s upper house of parliament on Wednesday endorsed a bill banning adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal.

The Federation Council also approved bills that outlaw the spread of material that encourages people not to have children.

The bills, which have previously been approved by the lower house, will now go to President Vladimir Putin for signing into law. They follow a series of laws that have suppressed sexual minorities and bolstered longstanding conventional values.

The lower house speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, who was among the new bill's authors, has noted that “it is extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries.”

The adoption ban would apply to at least 15 countries, most of them in Europe but including Australia, Argentina and Canada. Adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens was banned in 2012.

Other bills approved by lawmakers on Wednesday outlaw what is described as propaganda for remaining child-free and impose fines of up to five million rubles (about US$50,000). Its proponents contended that public arguments against having children are part of purported Western efforts to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.

Putin and other top officials in recent years have increasingly called for observing so-called traditional values as a counter to Western liberalism. As Russia’s population declines, Putin has made statements advocating large families and last year urged women to have as many as eight children.

Russia last year banned gender-transition medical procedures and its Supreme Court declared the #LGBTQ2S+ “movement” to be extremist.

In 2022, #Putin signed a law prohibiting the distribution of LGBTQ2S+ information to people of all ages, expanding a ban issued in 2013 on disseminating the material to minors.

Since he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin leader has repeatedly characterized the West as “satanic” and accused it of trying to undermine Russia by exporting liberal ideologies.

'Bomb cyclone' kills 2 and knocks out power to over half a million homes across the northwest U.S.

-A major storm swept across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain, causing widespread power outages and downing trees that killed at least two people.

The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture — that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season overwhelmed the region. The storm system that hit starting Tuesday is considered a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.

#Ford says there is 'clear consensus' among premiers for separate trade deal with Mexico.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says there is “clear consensus” among premiers for separate bilateral trade deals with the U.S. and Mexico, following a phone call with all the leaders on Wednesday.

“Most important thing with all the premiers, we put all political stripes aside. We're speaking as Team #Canada, and we feel the same way,” Ford said, who is also the chair of Canada’s Premiers.

Ford first floated the idea to oust Mexico last week in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House earlier this month. Trump has vowed to reopen the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, which is due for a review in 2026.

Ford argues Mexico has become a back door for China to circumvent tariffs from the U.S. and Canada.

“We know Mexico is bringing in cheap Chinese parts, slapping ‘made in Mexico’ stickers on, shipping it up through the U.S. and Canada, causing American jobs to be lost, and Canadian jobs. We want fair trade,” Ford said.

The premier also said he will be asking for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the issue to “make sure we’re all on side,” but says he already spoke to Trudeau, calling him “very supportive.”

This week at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Trudeau met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and said he raised “concerns that have been expressed publicly by a number of people around some of the investments in Mexico.”

“I think the Mexican administration is looking at ways of either adjusting or sharing why people shouldn't be worried about these investments,” Trudeau said Tuesday at the conclusion of the summit.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is leading the revived cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, said on Tuesday she has also heard “grave concerns” about Mexico from members of both the Biden administration and Trump team.