The US House of Representatives passed a mammoth US$858 billion military spending bill, putting the US budget for weapons and war-making higher than the next nine countries combined. Also attached to the bill was unprecedented US taxpayer funding for Taiwan’s military.
France and the United Kingdom have ceased support for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, the deadliest currently in operation. These withdrawals followed a decade of fruitless attempts to end hostilities between the West African nation’s government and its rebel Islamists.
Following an investigation that Al Jazeera claims has uncovered new evidence regarding the fatal shooting of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the international news network announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Israeli military forces at the International Criminal Court.
Human Rights Watch issued a report earlier this month urging world leaders to move forward with a ban on autonomous weapons systems. This latest plea comes nearly a decade after the organization co-founded the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, and as advanced military drones are operating in the skies over Ukraine.
The family of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh expressed hope that the FBI’s newly announced investigation into her death will bring them “closer to justice,” as Israeli officials declared that they will not cooperate, and even condemned the United States for opening a probe at all.
The South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu promoted a proposal for a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty to COP27, the United Nations’ annual climate change conference.
In a move that critics are calling a “dangerous escalation,” the United States is reportedly preparing to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to northern Australia, where they would be close enough to strike China.
Ethiopia’s northern province of Tigray is losing ground in its brutal conflict with the central government, placing both the rebel region’s administration and its civilian population in severe jeopardy.
Although the government is introducing plans to address the climate crisis, concrete measures are proving slow to appear as a consequence of corporate lobbying, according to some nongovernmental organizations.
Due to rising inflation, the recent decision to hike the average minimum wage appears set to offer little or no advance to the real quality of life for low-income Japanese. This comes in spite of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s economic policy theme of “New Capitalism,” which is supposed to create a fairer society by enhancing the living standards of ordinary citizens.
