The EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has privately compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid-era South Africa, exposing a sharp contrast between her closed-door remarks and her public support for Israel.
Euractiv reported that the EU foreign policy chief made the comparison during confidential talks with Mexican officials in Mexico City, where she travelled from May 20 to 22 as part of a senior EU delegation.
Officials and diplomats, including people present at the meeting, told Euractiv that Kallas spoke about a visit last year to South Africa and its apartheid museum in Johannesburg.
She reportedly linked Israel’s rule over Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to South Africa’s system of racial segregation, which lasted from 1948 until the early 1990s.
EU foreign policy chief compares Israel to apartheid South Africa: Report
Nearly 100 UK MPs and peers urge cancellation of Israeli settlement event
Nearly 100 British MPs and peers have signed a letter calling for an upcoming London event advertising the sale of land in illegal Israeli settlements to be cancelled, warning that it could implicate the UK in international war crimes.
The Great Israeli Real Estate Event is scheduled to be held in London this Sunday, but its location is being kept secret.
Andy McDonald, an MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, published the statement on X on Friday, urging the UK government to prevent the Great Israeli Real Estate Event from taking place.
"The govt has an opportunity to uphold obligations under international law and take action against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine," McDonald wrote.
The letter, sent to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, described the event as "firmly embedded in Israel's project of colonial expansion" as it facilitates the sale of land seized from displaced Palestinians.
Former San Francisco 49ers star Aldon Smith dies at 36: ‘His smile lit up every room’
Former NFL defensive end Aldon Smith died Saturday at the age of 36, the San Francisco 49ers said. The team did not disclose the cause of death.
Smith played six seasons in the NFL for the 49ers, the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys.
The 49ers, who selected him with the seventh overall selection in the 2011 NFL draft, confirmed Smith’s death in a statement. Smith helped the team to three consecutive NFC championship games.
“We are devastated by the sudden and tragic passing of Aldon Smith,” the 49ers said. “Aldon’s undeniable talent and sheer dominance on the field were on display from the moment he joined our organization, having recorded one of the best rookie seasons the National Football League has seen. Beyond his excellence as a player, Aldon will be remembered for his infectious smile that lit up every room he walked into. Our entire organization sends its deepest condolences to the Smith family and all who knew and loved Aldon.”
Palestinian American woman held without charge by Israeli military
A 20-year-old Palestinian American woman has been held in Israeli military detention for nearly two weeks after Israeli soldiers stormed her family home in a pre-dawn raid on 2 June.
Sama Safi, a psychology student at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, has not been charged with any crimes. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said she and three other women detained around the same time were arrested “after promoting hostile terrorist activity and additional terrorist-related activities”.
Several US legislators have called for Safi’s release and her family has warned that she has a chronic medical condition that requires regular treatment.
One of the other detained Birzeit University students is a member of the Palestinian women’s national soccer team; another player from the team was also detained before being released earlier this week. The four students are being held at an Israeli detention and interrogation center in Jerusalem notorious for its record of abuse.
New York Knicks win NBA championship for first time in over 50 years
It’s no longer a dream.
This will really still be there when Knicks fans wake up. This is actually reality. This is forever.
For multiple generations, this was only something Knicks fans could see when they closed their eyes and let their minds wander. It was a ghost of the past – 53 years to be exact. It was a hypothetical.
Jalen Brunson had a look in his eye that was visible even from the stands.
It was noticeable everywhere in the arena.
He was in the middle of one of the great Finals performances in NBA history. He knew it. His teammates knew it. The Spurs knew it.
Everyone knew it. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it until it was over. Until the final score read Knicks 94, Spurs 90 and the celebrations began Saturday night at the Frost Bank Center.
Until the Knicks were officially champions.
A Woman's Hypothermia Death In Pittsburgh After Her Release From ICE Custody Is Ruled A Homicide
A medical examiner has ruled the death of a Haitian asylum seeker after being released from federal custody a homicide. An attorney representing her family said he expects her relatives to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement in connection with her death.
Daphy Michel, 31, died March 2. She was found at a bus shelter in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office found her cause of death to be hypothermia and ruled the manner a homicide, “indicating the death was caused by the actions of another individual” and should not be interpreted as a declaration of criminal guilt, the office said in a statement. The office released its findings Friday.
Michel was a native of Haiti who was seeking asylum in the U.S. after arriving at the southern border in 2022, said Joseph Patrick Murphy, her family’s attorney. She was granted humanitarian parole based on urgent humanitarian need, but she did not live to see a hearing scheduled for two weeks after she died, he said.
Iranian envoy in Mexico signals US, Tehran could be ‘friends’ if Israel sidelined
The Iranian ambassador to Mexico signaled on Friday that his country and the U.S. could have a good relationship in the future, so long as President Trump does not take foreign policy cues from Israel.
“If the U.S. closes its eyes to Israel’s interest, Iran and the U.S. can be very good friends,” Abolfazl Pasandjdeh told Politico via a Spanish translator at a World Cup fan expo in Mexico City, urging Trump to prioritize U.S. interests.
“I also believe that if he puts the interests of the U.S. first, it will yield good results,” he said. “The most important thing is that the Israeli regime does not seek what is good for the U.S.”
Israel has emerged as somewhat of a wildcard as Trump pushes for a peace deal with Tehran. Its military campaign against Iranian proxy group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon has risked upending the negotiations several times, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have a different end goal than his U.S. counterpart.
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro described a rift between the U.S. and Israeli perspectives during a recent interview with NPR, wherein he said Israel’s main objective is eliminating Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat while the U.S. is largely focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
“So that’s a divergence between U.S. and Israeli interests, which you can see playing out now in the way the prime minister talks about what he wants to achieve – tried to do some additional strikes just over the weekend – and President Trump’s desire to wind this down,” Shapiro said, suggesting Israel’s preference would be to continue the war.
Could Trump 'take back' Washington, DC, if he doesn't like new mayor?
With Washington, D.C.’s mayoral primary days away, President Donald Trump suggested that the federal government could “take back” the nation’s capital if a progressive candidate wins.
Trump did not name a candidate, but appeared to be referencing D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George, a self-described democratic socialist leading recent polls ahead of the June 16 Democratic primary to replace outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“I wouldn’t like it – and maybe we take back Washington, run it on the federal basis,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses.”
Lewis George has emerged as a front-runner in the race, leading former D.C. Council member at-large Kenyan McDuffie by 11 points in a recent Washington Post–George Mason University Schar School poll.
San Andreas Fault stress hits 1,000-year high, raising quake risk
Tectonic stress along Southern California’s San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems has reached — and in some areas exceeded — the highest levels seen in the past 1,000 years, according to new research led by Earth scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Researchers say the system is not showing signs of an imminent rupture, but is operating under unusually high stress in a long-term seismic cycle that could support large earthquakes, including multi-fault events.
The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, suggests the region is in a “critically loaded state,” with stress building across multiple fault segments. One key area of focus is Cajon Pass, a junction between the two fault systems that may act as an “earthquake gate,” either blocking ruptures from crossing between faults or allowing them to link into a single larger event.
Lead author Liliane Burkhard, a research affiliate at the University of Hawaiʻi’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology and scientist at the University of Bern, said the system is highly stressed after more than 160 years since the last major rupture.
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