World News

A decision by Spain's Socialist government to backtrack on a promise to cancel a contract to buy bullets from an Israeli firm drew a rebuke on Wednesday from its junior coalition partners, with some allies threatening to withdraw support.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's minority government has struggled to pass legislation since securing a new term by cobbling together an alliance of left-wing and regional separatist parties in 2023.

An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France's decision to cut government funding to the country's biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools.

Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes.

U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week indicated that there might be an easing in tensions with China.

Archived link of the article

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/42805711

Rwanda

China is preparing to lift sanctions on European lawmakers as it tries to revive an investment deal with the EU after losing most of its access to the US market in Donald Trump’s trade war.

A spokesperson for Roberta Metsola, president of the European parliament, confirmed the move, first reported by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Beijing took the measures against several MEPs in 2021 after the EU placed sanctions on some Chinese entities because of alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim minority in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

The European parliament then refused to ratify an EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment that would have deepened trade ties between the two.

“The president will first inform group leaders once the Chinese authorities officially confirm that sanctions have been lifted. It has always been the European parliament’s intention to have the sanctions lifted and resume relations with China.”

Archive link

China’s Xi Jinping and the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen were among the leaders on a private video call organized by the United Nations.

"Hamas—one day offering condolences for the Rafidi who kills Sunnis, and another day for the Pope—and then they expect victory from God...," wrote one user on X. The term "Rafidi" is a derogatory label used by hardline Sunnis to refer to Shia Muslims.

In a comment on Hezbollah's statement, one user wrote on Facebook: "The Party of Satan mourns the leader of the polytheists out of hypocrisy and flattery toward the Crusaders."

"Praying for mercy for a non-Muslim after their death contradicts many verses of the Holy Quran, which state that the fate of those who disbelieve in Islam is the Hellfire," wrote one Facebook user in response to the mourning message from Iranian-born Iraqi Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Similarly, some hardliners mocked Egypt's Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb for referring to the pope as a "brother in humanity" in his condolence statement. Radical comments also attacked Pope Francis for his support for same-sex marriages.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29055663

By Simon Hooper
Published date: 23 April 2025 13:51 BST

"Mark Etkind, co-organiser of a network of “#Holocaust survivors and descendants against the Gaza genocide”, whose members have regularly attended pro-#Palestinian protests in London, said it was imperative too for campaigners in the #UK to keep up pressure on the #British government to end its support for Israel and to halt arms exports to the country.

“There’s just an absolutely massive burden of responsibility on everyone, especially those of us with a Holocaust survivor background, to speak out. I can’t think of a better commemoration for the six million,” said Etkind."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/28999448

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Updated 11:37 AM EDT, April 22, 2025

"DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 17 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and destroyed bulldozers and other heavy equipment that had been supplied by mediators to clear rubble. Separate strikes killed two people in Lebanon."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/36992556

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem appeared in commercials aired on Mexican TV warning that anyone crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted and deported.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.semafor.com/article/04/22/2025/sheinbaum-bans-us-propaganda

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Every accusation is a confession.

Why Israel Fears the Faces of Dead Palestinian Children on Its Streets (David Issacharoff | Haaretz, 2025-04-21)

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2025-04-21/ty-article/.highlight/why-israel-fears-the-faces-of-dead-palestinian-children-on-its-streets/00000196-5985-d99b-a5ff-d9d7fa560000

archived:
https://archive.is/2025.04.21-202552/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2025-04-21/ty-article/.highlight/why-israel-fears-the-faces-of-dead-palestinian-children-on-its-streets/00000196-5985-d99b-a5ff-d9d7fa560000
———

“Ahead of an anti-war demonstration scheduled for Thursday in Tel Aviv – organized by the Jewish-Arab movement Standing Together – the Israeli police said they would not allow the protest to take place unless organizers agreed to a ban on signs displaying images of ‘kids or babies from Gaza’ or bearing references to ‘genocide and ethnic cleansing.’

“The document outlining these conditions was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, perfectly reflecting the heavy-handed police, who are acting without any clear guidelines or legal basis.

“Even in death, Palestinian children killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza are treated as a threat in Israel…”

#StandingTogether #IsraeliOpposition
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe @israel

Sharon Osbourne has urged US authorities to revoke work visas for Kneecap after the Irish language rap group used a performance at Coachella to denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The TV presenter accused the band of hate speech and supporting terrorist organisations and said it should not be allowed to perform in the US. “I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa,” she exhorted followers on X on Tuesday.

Fox News commentators also condemned the band and accused it of bringing “Nazi Germany” sentiments to America.

Kneecap scorned the Fox News comments and posted supportive messages from fans, saying it had received thousands of such endorsements as well as “hundreds of violent Zionist threats”. Almost all the concerts of a US tour scheduled for October have sold out, it added.

The trio, Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara from Belfast and DJ Próvaí from Derry, have built a following in the US with a mix of Irish republican totems, punk spirit and a film that stormed last year’s Utah film festival.

During their set last weekend at Coachella, the California desert music festival, Mo Chara said Britain had persecuted Irish people but not bombed them from the skies. “The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”

The performers led the audience in chants of “free, free Palestine” and screened pro-Palestinian messages on to screens. “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” said one. “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes,” said another. The last used an expletive against Israel.

Osbourne, a judge on the TV show America’s Got Talent, said the festival had “compromised its moral and spiritual integrity” by allowing Kneecap and Green Day to denounce Israel over the 18-month war.

“Music’s primary purpose is to unite people. It should not be a venue for promoting terrorist organisations or spreading hate”, she said, singling out Kneecap’s “aggressive” political statements.

“This band openly support terrorist organisations. This behaviour raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA.”

Fox News commentators compared the band’s comments to Nazi Germany, with one saying the band should be removed from “authority positions” and that the “values of education” should be re-instilled.

Kneecap posted a clip of the segment and said the commentator’s admission that she had not previously heard of the band was the “only part of this shite that made any sense”.

The group said they had planned to denounce “US-backed genocide in Gaza” at an earlier performance in Coachella, on 11 April, but that the comments did not appear on the screen. The band also complained that the festival’s livestream did not carry a chant celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher.

An unprecedented coral bleaching episode has spread to 84% of the world's reefs in an unfolding human-caused crisis that could kill off swathes of the essential ecosystems, scientists warned Wednesday.

The European Commission has fined US companies Apple and Meta millions for violations of the Digital Markets Act.

The European Commission on Wednesday found tech giants Apple and Meta in breach of obligations under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), fining the two US companies €500 million ($572 million) and €200 million respectively.

Apple was found to have breached its "anti-steering" obligation under the DMA, while Meta was considered not to have given consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data, another stipulation of the DMA.

However, the EU also closed an investigation of Apple over its user choice obligations after the tech giant complied with the DMA by making it easy to select a default browser and for users to remove pre-installed apps such as Safari.