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Fate of ICC chief prosecutor heads to unprecedented vote as US sanctions keep him out of New York

Diplomats from around the world are gathering at United Nations headquarters in New York on Friday to decide whether to permanently remove the embattled chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

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'No enrichment!': Saudi deal reportedly threatened by Trump's sudden Truth Social demand

President Donald Trump's controversial nuclear deal with the leadership of Saudi Arabia is now in doubt after the president threw the Middle Eastern nation a curve on Thursday morning.Trump abruptly inserted a bombshell condition into a nuclear agreement that was supposedly finalized just 24 hours earlier: Saudi Arabia must normalize relations with Israel to receive U.S. nuclear technology, The Washington Post is reporting.The move has thrown the entire agreement into chaos, according to the report. Trump announced via Truth Social that the civil nuclear deal—which would allow Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear power plants and pursue enrichment programs—is "totally subject" to Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, the initiative from his first term designed to normalize Israeli-Arab relations.“The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “But is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.”The problem is monumental: Saudi Arabia has consistently refused to join the Abraham Accords and shows no signs of capitulating now.According to the Post, "That attaches a major string to the deal. Saudi leaders were nearing a normalization agreement with Israel in 2023, just before the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 of that year. Since then, however, talks have been paused. Saudi leaders have said they would want guarantees of an eventual Palestinian state, and Saudi public opinion has soured toward Israel because of its handling of Gaza. Any nuclear deal tied to Saudi-Israel diplomatic breakthroughs has seemed remote."The nuclear technology deal itself has generated controversy in Congress. Lawmakers worry that expanding enrichment programs across multiple nations increases proliferation risks and could eventually result in more countries possessing nuclear weapons capabilities.Trump's sudden new condition transforms an already contentious agreement into a political landmine—potentially derailing both the nuclear deal and his broader Middle East diplomatic agenda.

Kozo Okamoto, Japanese militant who took part in a 1972 Tel Aviv airport attack, dies in Beirut

Kozo Okamoto, the Japanese militant who took part in a deadly attack on Tel Aviv's airport more than five decades ago, died Thursday in Beirut, the Palestinian group that had been protecting him said. He was 78.

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U.S. Virgin Islands faces second lawsuit over right to bear arms as Florida resident seeks license

Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation are suing the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and its police commissioner as a fight over the Second Amendment deepens.

Oil passes $100 a barrel again and shares slide as Middle East conflict escalates

Sharp rise in oil price reflects fears Houthi militias could strangle Saudi exports as US-Iran fighting intensifiesHow the Bab al-Mandab blockade threat pushed oil back above $100The oil price broke above $100 a barrel for the first time in two months as a fresh escalation of the Middle East conflict threatens to compound disruption to global oil supplies.The benchmark oil price rose sharply on Thursday, from $95 the day before, amid fears that Yemen’s Houthi militia could strangle Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea while US-Iran tensions over oil flows through the strait of Hormuz intensify. Continue reading...