Over the last year, the Israeli military has received at least 100 of Oshkosh armored vehicles like the one in the video. They arrived on vessels operated by the commercial shipping and logistics giant A.P. Moller Maersk.

Israel has long used armored vehicles as killing machines throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. Images of Palestinians crushed by Israeli tanks and trucks are now grimly familiar to anyone paying attention to the ongoing Israeli onslaught in Gaza.

Analyzing shipment export data from over 2,000 shipments over the last year, the researchers report that they were able to reveal a commercial supply chain rife with materiel bound for use in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The researchers said the available shipping data suggests that Maersk ships violated a Spanish embargo policy by transiting through the port of Algeciras.

The Spanish embargo bars cargo ships carrying weapons that could be used for war crimes from making calls in Spanish ports; in May, the foreign ministry said the rule would apply to military goods bound for Israel. Since then, Maersk ships with military goods headed for Israel, including equipment for putting bombs on aircraft, frequently transited through Algeciras, one of the largest ports in Europe, said Palestinian Youth Movement and Progressive International researchers. (Maersk did not respond to a request for comment.)

“We can clearly state that Spain is violating the law,” said Irene Montero, a member of European Parliament from the Spanish left party Podemos. “Article 8.1 of Law 53/2007 on the Foreign Trade of Arms states that the authorization for the transit of military material must be suspended when there are ‘rational indications’ that the material will be used to exacerbate conflicts, in a manner contrary to human dignity, or in a human rights violation.”

Nov 4 (Reuters) - Some of the biggest Chinese-owned solar factories in Vietnam are cutting production and laying off workers, spurred on by the expansion of U.S. trade tariffs targeting it and three other Southeast Asian countries.

Meanwhile, in nearby Indonesia and Laos, a slew of new Chinese-owned solar plants are popping up, out of the reach of Washington's trade protections. Their planned capacity is enough to supply about half the panels installed in the U.S. last year, Reuters reporting shows.

Chinese solar firms have repeatedly shrunk output in existing hubs while building new factories in other countries, allowing them to sidestep tariffs and dominate the U.S. and global markets despite successive waves of U.S. tariffs over more than a decade designed to rein them in.

"It's a huge cat and mouse game," said William A. Reinsch, a former trade official in the Clinton administration and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It's not that hard to move. You set up and you play the game again. The design of the rules is such that the U.S. is usually one step behind."

China accounts for about 80% of the world's solar shipments, while its export hubs elsewhere in Asia make up much of the rest, according to SPV Market Research. That's a sharp contrast to two decades ago when the U.S. was a global leader in the industry.

America's imports of solar supplies, meanwhile, have tripled since Washington began imposing its tariffs in 2012, hitting a record $15 billion last year, according to federal data. While almost none came directly from China in 2023, some 80% came from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia – home to factories owned by Chinese firms. Washington slapped tariffs on solar exports from those four Southeast Asia nations last year and expanded them in October following complaints from manufacturers in the United States.

Ten-year-old children are supposed to be busy playing with toys, doodling and hanging out with their friends, not writing a will in case they die.

“My will, if I become a martyr or pass away: Please do not cry for me, because your tears cause me pain. I hope my clothes will be given to those in need.

My accessories should be shared between Rahaf, Sara, Judy, Lana, and Batool. My bead kits should go to Ahmed and Rahaf. My monthly allowance, 50 shekels, 25 to Rahaf and 25 to Ahmed. My stories and notebooks to Rahaf. My toys to Batool. And please, do not yell at my brother Ahmed, please follow these wishes.”

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In a seven-page memo, Frank Hoffmeister, the director of the EU foreign service’s legal department, argued that while European law required the labeling of settlement products, a ban on their import and sale was still up for debate.

Hoffmeister, the EU legal note’s author, is also the Brussels-based director for the foreign and security policy working group of Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party, which is a strong supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza. The FDP, for which Hoffmeister previously served as Brussels vice chair, has called for a freeze on EU and German payments to Palestinian institutions and programs until a special audit has ensured that no cash goes “to finance Islamist terror.”

Between 2020 and August 2023, European investors put up an estimated $164.2 billion of loans and guarantees for businesses “actively involved” in Israeli settlements — and held $144.7 billion of shares and bonds in the same firms, according to an estimate from a coalition of groups opposing European investment in settlements.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, told The Intercept that the EU’s attitude to the ICJ opinion was “legally flawed, politically damaging, and morally compromised.”

UNICEF says more than 50 children have been killed in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp in the past 48 hours, with the Save the Children charity saying the high number shows “the intensity of this conflict and this war on children”.

“Children are under constant bombardment, in constant fear,” Rachel Cummings, Save the Children International’s Humanitarian Director and Team Lead in Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

Last month Channel 14, also known as Now 14, beat Israel’s principal mainstream news outlet, Channel 12, in viewer ratings when 343,000 Israelis watched Channel 14’s “Patriots” talkshow, known for its virulent rhetoric on Gaza.

Channel 14 has even questioned the loyalty of the Israeli army because of its perceived lack of ideological zeal. Last week, the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), R Adm Daniel Hagari, wrote a formal complaint to the broadcasting authority and the ministry of defence accusing Channel 14 of incitement against its leadership.

Just over a month earlier, three Israeli civil society groups formally demanded that the country’s attorney general launch a criminal investigation into the channel, accusing it of broadcasting material that incited war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.

The remarks included guests or presenters using phrases such as “total annihilation” and “exterminate” in reference to people in Gaza. The legal complaint alleged at least 50 of the quotes on the list “call for or support the commission of genocide”.

There are a few ways to understand the political influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

You can look at the big picture to grasp the immense sums of money spent by AIPAC on lobbying. You can study it more granularly, looking at specific races where the pro-Israel group has recruited and funded winning candidates.

“I interviewed Rep. Delia Ramirez at the DNC who said to me that she has had conversations with multiple people in Congress — other members — who have said, ‘I don’t want them to Jamaal me,’ referring to what happened to Bowman in his race,” says The Intercept’s Akela Lacy in this episode of The Intercept Briefing.

“Not only are they concerned about what AIPAC could do to them if they come out against Israel,” Lacy says in a conversation with The Intercept’s Jessica Washington, “but what will AIPAC do to them if they stay silent?”

Brian MacSharry, the head of the nature and biodiversity group at the European Environment Agency, says: “The habitat situation is pretty bad, the species little better, and there is a time lag between [the destruction of habitats and decline in] species. Overall, we know it is bad and that the trend is deteriorating. Agriculture is by far the biggest pressure.”

It was not supposed to be this way. Since the early 2000s, changes to Europe’s farming practices and subsidy regime – the common agricultural policy (CAP) – have been geared explicitly towards protecting the environment, as well as supporting farmers and food production. The CAP represents a third of the EU budget, coming to about €55bn (£46bn) a year and in return for that largesse, farmers are supposed to meet a minimum level of environmental protection. Taking additional measures such as growing more trees or conserving wetlands can net them extra support.

But so far at least, the environmental aspects of the CAP changes have not worked. The European court of auditors in 2020 found little evidence of a positive impact on biodiversity from the CAP. The European Environment Agency, in its State of Nature report in 2023, found that the EU’s farmed environment had continued to decline, with the health of only 14% of habitats and about a quarter of non-bird species classed as “good”. The CAP is also making the climate worse: about 80% of the budget goes to support carbon-intensive animal food products, according to a paper published this month in Nature.

“The CAP has become a monster,” says Faustine Bas-Defossez, the director of nature, health and environment at the European Environmental Bureau, a network of citizens’ organisations. “It is not helping farmers in the mainstream to adopt more sustainable practices. It’s driving the intensification of farming, and increasing the pressure on natural resources. Instead of the polluter pays principle, it’s turning into a system of the polluter gets paid.”

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has ordered the country’s largest peacetime military deployment, announcing that 10,000 troops and police officers will be drafted in to help deal with the aftermath of this week’s devastating floods, which have killed at least 211 people in eastern, southern and central regions.

Speaking after chairing a meeting of the flood crisis committee, Sánchez said the government was mobilising all the resources at its disposal to deal with the “terrible tragedy”, which stuck hardest in the eastern region of Valencia. He also acknowledged that much of the help still wasn’t getting through and called for unity and an end to political bickering and blame games.

“There are still dozens of people looking for their loved ones and hundreds of households mourning the loss of a relative, a friend or a neighbour,” he said in a televised address on Saturday morning. “I want to express our deepest love to them and assure them that the government of Spain and the entire state, at all its different administrative levels, is with all of them.”

Israeli foreign intelligence agency Mossad has reportedly been implicated in an espionage scandal targeting Italian prime minister and senior officials, Yedioth Ahronoth reported yesterday.

According to the paper, Mossad has been involved in deals with the Milan-based private investigation firm which is made up of current and former senior members of the security services and who have stolen personal information on politicians, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and public figures, to be used for extortion.

The paper said at least four people are under arrest and dozens more under investigation, adding that cyber security experts and hackers may have breached the servers of Italy’s Interior Ministry.

Italian media outlets described the case as a “conspiracy of the highest level that involves members of the mafia and officials in the intelligence services, along with foreign intelligence services including the Mossad.”

Meloni described the plot as “unacceptable” and a “threat to democracy.”

ILGA World said The Aguda’s proposal to hold the group’s next world conference in Tel Aviv had violated its aims and objectives, and it is now reviewing The Aguda’s larger compliance with the ILGA World constitution.

The Aguda’s bid had been due to be voted on at ILGA World’s conference this month in Cape Town, South Africa.

“We recognise the historical experience with apartheid and colonialism in South Africa: even the possibility of voting on such a bid in their home country would have been at odds with the unequivocal solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

The move follows an open letter by three Palestinian LGBTQ+ organisations to ILGA World last month, raising major concerns about how Israeli LGBTQ+ groups have historically helped “pinkwash” and divert attention from Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

BEIJING/SINGAPORE, Nov 1 (Reuters) - China's push to shift its food import sources since 2018 has put it in a better position to impose tit-for-tat tariffs on U.S. farm goods with less harm to its food security if trade friction with Washington flares after the U.S. presidential election.

The threat of a trade war looms for China, the world's top importer of farm products such as soybeans and corn, with Republican candidate Donald Trump floating blanket 60% tariffs on Chinese goods in a bid to boost U.S. manufacturing.

His opponent Kamala Harris, a Democrat, is also expected to confront China on trade.

Since Trump was in the White House, China has slashed its dependence on U.S. farm goods in a concerted effort to beef up national security, including food self-sufficiency.

KYIV, Nov 1 (Reuters) - For many Ukrainians, the outcome of the U.S. election next week and its impact on the war with Russia feels less likely to be pivotal than it once did.

Even with the Democrats' unprecedented military and financial aid, battlefield losses have accelerated in the east and Ukraine has grown impatient with President Joe Biden's reluctance to let it unleash Western weapons on targets deep inside Russia.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, meanwhile, has criticised the level of U.S. support for Kyiv, refused to say he wants Ukraine to win the war and promised, if elected, to end the conflict before he takes office in January, without explaining how.

That has led some ordinary Ukrainians and officials to be less categorical about who they want to win the White House - Trump or Democratic contender Kamala Harris.

"I was just dumbstruck," he told MEE when describing his May 2023 visit to the occupied West Bank. "I couldn’t believe what I was seeing."

Coates said that he was shocked by seeing enforced segregation and hearing testimonies from Israeli soldiers about the violence they perpetrated against Palestinians. He recalled that he was even stopped by a soldier who demanded to know if he was Muslim.

But the 49-year-old said that what shocked him the most was the tomb of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli settler who gunned down between 30 and 54 Muslim worshippers in Hebron in 1994.

Coates said that he was stunned to see that Israelis visit the tomb "and they honour him for murdering Palestinians while they prayed."

Former United States President Bill Clinton is facing backlash from US Muslim and Arab Americans after saying Israel has been “forced” to kill civilians in Gaza and suggesting the country was in the Holy Land “first” – before the Palestinians.

Speaking at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Michigan, a crucial swing US state with large Arab and Muslim populations who the Democrats are trying to win over, Clinton said he understood people’s concerns about the bloodshed in Gaza, but said Israel had no choice but to inflict large civilian losses, even as it is accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice.

When Israel re-arrested Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank town of Dura, the detainees faced familiar treatment.

They were blindfolded, handcuffed, insulted and kept in inhumane conditions. More unusual was that each man had a number written on his forehead.

Osama Shaheen, who was released in August after 10 months of administrative detention, told Middle East Eye that soldiers brutally stormed his house, smashing his furniture.

"The soldiers turned us from names into numbers, and every detainee had a number that they used to provoke him during his arrest and call him by number instead of name. To them, we are just numbers."

Spain’s Interior Ministry said, on Tuesday, it was cancelling a contract to buy ammunition from an Israeli firm, widening a Spanish pledge not to sell weapons to Israel to include purchases, too, Reuters reports.

Cadena Ser radio earlier reported that the Guardia Civil police force had agreed to buy more than 15 million 9-mm rounds for six million Euros ($6.48 million) from Guardian Ltd Israel.

Spain said it would stop arms sales to Israel in October 2023 when Israel’s war with Hamas started in Gaza.

“The Spanish government maintains the commitment not to sell weapons to the Israeli state since the armed conflict broke out in the Territory of Gaza,” it said in a statement. “Although in this case it is an acquisition of ammunition, the Interior Ministry has initiated the administrative procedure to cancel the purchase,” it said.

The Ministry said that Israeli companies would also be excluded from any outstanding tenders.