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[World] UN seeks top court opinion on Israeli occupation

December 31, 2022 Published by

BBC News world

Getty Images

Image caption,

The Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour addressing the press in a file photo from November

The UN General Assembly has asked the UN’s highest court to give a legal opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

The resolution was backed by 87 countries but opposed by 26 others, including the UK and US.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues binding rulings, but it cannot enforce them.

Friday’s vote came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn as prime minister of the most hard-line Israeli cabinet.

Israel occupies the West Bank, and although it pulled out of Gaza the UN still regards that piece of land as occupied territory.

Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The US is one of only a handful of countries to recognise the city as Israel’s capital.

Palestinians claim the West Bank, along with Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip for their hoped-for future state.

Palestinian officials hailed the UN vote as a victory. Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it was time for Israel to be “held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people”.

Israel’s new prime minister, for his part, described it as “despicable”.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers on their own land nor occupiers in our eternal capital Jerusalem and no UN resolution can warp that historical truth,” Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday evening.

On Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu returned as prime minister of Israel in a coalition with ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.

The first guiding principle of the new government, published on Wednesday, declares that “the Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the land of Israel”.

It says that includes the occupied West Bank and promises to “advance and develop” settlements there.

About 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

The new government has also promised to retroactively legalise some 100 outposts in the West Bank built without Israeli authorisation – and to annex the West Bank.

Israel’s hard-line new government takes office Palestinian fears heightened as Israeli far right heads to power

A spokesman for the UK’s UN delegation said it did not feel a referral to the ICJ was “helpful in bringing back the parties back to dialogue”.

He added it was “inappropriate without the consent of both parties” to ask the court to advise on “what is essentially a bilateral dispute”.

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa still on concussion protocol and will miss Sunday's game

December 31, 2022 Published by CNN

CNN
—

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel announced on Friday that quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will remain in the NFL’s concussion protocol and miss Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots.

McDaniel first announced on Monday that the player was in the league’s protocol after suffering a concussion during the Green Bay Packers game a day earlier. Tagovailoa played the entire game against the Packers and the coach could not pinpoint a moment where the 24-year-old might have been injured.

Tagovailoa seems to be showing signs of improvement, McDaniel told reporters on Friday.

“I would say that he’s better than the day before, but I’m also trying to get a team ready to play this game and it really doesn’t do anybody any service to overtalk in this scenario where he’s got to be focused on his health and nothing else,” the coach said.

This is the second time this season that the quarterback landed in the concussion protocol, which is the NFL’s policies for assessing and caring for players who sustain a concussion.

Veteran quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is expected to start in Tagovailoa’s place on Sunday.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association investigated the application of the league’s concussion protocol around Tagovailoa’s injury and found no violation of that protocol, the NFL and NFLPA said in a joint statement on Saturday.

“The review established that symptoms of a concussion were neither exhibited nor reported until the following day at which time the team medical personnel appropriately evaluated and placed Mr. Tagovailoa in the concussion protocol,” the statement said.

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Peruvian citizen, founder of violent gang, deported from US after entering illegally through California

December 31, 2022 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

A Peruvian man who founded a criminal gang known for abductions, killings and robberies was deported from the United States on Wednesday, immigration authorities said.

Giovani Danti Gamarra-Puertas, 63, was escorted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a flight to Lima, Peru. He was then handed over to Peruvian authorities at Jorge Chavez International Airport to face charges of crimes against public peace.

ICE DEPORTATIONS REMAINED WELL BELOW TRUMP-ERA LEVELS IN FY 2022 AMID HISTORIC BORDER CRISIS

“ERO San Diego deportation officers are committed to preventing dangerous individuals like Gamarra-Puertas from entering our communities through illegitimate claims to avoid prosecution from their home countries,” said Jamison Matuszewski, field office director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.

Gamarra-Puertas was initially arrested in June by Border Patrol agents after illegally entering the U.S. near Calexico, California. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of him at some point, ICE said. Authorities said Gamarra-Puertas was trying to evade prosecution by fleeing to the U.S.

An image released by ICE shows Peruvian authorities walking with Gamarra-Puertas on an airport tarmac.

A records check by U.S. authorities revealed he is the founder of the Los Destructores, a criminal gang. He was also affiliated with other Peruvian criminal organizations, including Los Injertos and Malditos de San Juan de Lurigancho.

Elon Musk Revives Debate on the Legalization of Cocaine

December 31, 2022 Published by Luc Olinga

TheStreet

The billionaire believes there is a simple way to decide whether to legalize a drug.

The new year is often conducive to personal resolutions.

It is often a question of health but also of savings. In this period of economic uncertainty due to a possible recession on the horizon, it is not excluded that most of the resolutions for 2023 relate to the best way to preserve purchasing power.

Of course, you can expect the traditional resolutions such as playing the lotto, going back to the gym, working less, eating more balanced and healthy, stopping smoking, or reducing the use of your car.

On the side of the government, the question is often to know what will be the priority in the political agenda. Lobbies, associations and civil society take the opportunity to push for the adoption of laws on issues that are important to them.

The debates on the legalization and decriminalization of drugs often come up. For a long time, these debates often focused on the decriminalization of cannabis at both the local and federal levels. But since marijuana is no longer illegal in many states, some are beginning to push the idea of legalizing hard drugs like cocaine.

‘That Was Dumb’

We find this debate in particular on social networks. Elon Musk, who in 2022 became the most influential CEO in the world, did not hesitate to get involved.

For the Techno King, as he’s known at Tesla, banning drugs is not completely a good thing for society. He takes the example of alcohol. He believes that banning alcohol was a “dumb” decision and that it contributed to the rise in crime in America.

It all started with a message from a Twitter user, a fan of Tesla, with whom Musk regularly exchanges on the platform. The account in question indicates in their message that 2023 is going to be “Wild”, with a link to an article from The Economist advocating for the decriminalization of cocaine.

The article caused a sensation when it was published last October. The headline was very provocative: “Joe Biden is too timid: It is time to legalize cocaine. The costs of prohibition outweigh the benefits.”

“Banning alcohol caused the biggest rise in organized crime in American history,” Musk commented. “That was dumb. Same logic applies to other drugs. Alcohol is just a legacy drug.”

This comment pleased the Twitter user who saw it as a way for Musk to support the legalization of cocaine.

“We all doing lines at twitter hq if it happens?” the user said.

It was then that the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report and the founder of SpaceX made an important clarification.

“I am not endorsing drugs, but I am saying that the evidence suggests that banning them is a net societal negative,” Musk said.

‘Acid Test’

The billionaire insists that it is important to determine whether a drug is good or bad for society. To do this, he says, all you have to do is ask yourself if the drug in question makes you a better person once you’ve used it. He calls the tests, the “acid test.”

He adds that cocaine for him fails this test, meaning it is not in society’s interest to legalize it contrary to the Twitter user’s original post.

“To assess if a drug is good, whether legal or illegal, the acid test is being able to say: [blank] made me a better person,” Musk said. “Cocaine does not meet that test.”

Advocates of cocaine legalization want to ride the marijuana wave, especially after President Biden kept a campaign promise by announcing last October that he was pardoning all federal marijuana simple possession convictions.

They argue that former President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs, especially cocaine, has not really eliminated this problem. Global production hit a record of 1,982 tons in 2020, according to the latest data, cited by The Economist.

These poor figures were reached in spite of the fact that the United States disbursed large financial means to reduce the supply. Between 2000 and 2020 the federal injected billions of dollars into Colombia to suppress production.

Cocaine was made illegal after studies concluded that it was a drug that caused seizures, heart failure, respiratory failure, cerebral hemorrhage, and strokes. It is also addictive.

Pope Benedict left us a lot of thinking to do

December 31, 2022 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

When St. Pope John Paul II died in 2005, I was interviewed on the BBC in Rome moments before the Conclave that would elect Joseph Ratzinger his successor. When the veteran BBC reporter Brian Hanrahan asked me how I could possibly believe that Ratzinger would be elected pope after he just delivered his notable “Dictatorship of Relativism” speech insisting on objective moral truths against the dangers of the subjectivism of passing fads. Wasn’t this too extreme? I replied that it really wasn’t so shocking to think that the Cardinal-electors might actually choose a Catholic pope.

Despite the coverage of Pope Benedict’s passing painting him as “God’s Rottweiler,” an “iron fist in a white glove,” and a ‘far right’ representative of an antiquated and extreme form of Catholicism, I see Ratzinger as a liberal – in the truest and deepest meaning of the word.

Admittedly, it is difficult to sum up a life that spanned some of the most significant events of the Catholic world in the last 600 hundred years; and it is sad to think that he will be remembered mostly as the only pope in that timeframe to resign the pontificate.

POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI DEAD AT 95, VATICAN SAYS

Yet, even Benedict’s detractors will concede (even if only begrudgingly) that his was one of the great minds of our era, possessing a unique ability to articulate, as the phrase goes, simplicity on the other side of complexity – no mean feat for a German theologian.

Yet, given his role as John Paul’s doctrinal chief, he was seen as someone who was willing to use forceful methods to impose the truth. In revoking certain theologians’ mandates to teach at Catholic universities he was portrayed as the very caricature of the Inquisitor.

Yet, his actions were nor more illiberal or coercive than a Tesla salesman being fired for hawking a Lexus over a Tesla. It just makes things more honest and above board.

POPE BENEDICT’S VISION OF CATHOLICISM, VATICAN II, AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH ENDURE THROUGH HIS TEACHINGS

As theologian and later as pope, Benedict showed no affinity for the notion of the temporal power and was suspect of Church-State proximity, especially in his German homeland, which he saw weakened in its evangelical witness due to political entanglements.

A survey of his writings will show that he believed the Church’s most potent role as a cultural force whose truth-claims wield influence over hearts and minds. Much like the Second Vatican Council he attended he preferred the Church to propose and convince rather than coerce and impose its teaching on the human heart.

Following that Council, another form of liberalism would emerge within Catholicism that contrasted with an older view represented by figures like Antonio Rosmini, Cardinal John Henry Newman, Lord Acton and their generation of Catholic liberalism. Without dissenting from the core of Catholicism, they offered a complement to the old political liberalism which embraced freedom and truth, and saw freedom as the best means to seek and advance truth.

The new liberalism, in contrast, wanted to argue not about religious liberty but the liberty from moral constraint. It embraced not democracy, but democratic relativism that resented any truth claim which has brought us to the woke generation, calling into question the ability of the human mind to assert the truth of anything.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

The writings of Benedict on matters of politics and theology burn with a passion for a right understanding of liberty, anchored in the Christian tradition reaching back to Jesus’ startling declaration that God and Ceasar cannot be conflated.

Christianity is not and must not become a politicized faith; it may inform politics, but ultimately it transcends politics. It does not find its fulfillment in the power of kings, presidents, central plans, or sweeping revolutions for control by new regimes.

Benedict’s writings on the inviolability of conscience are at least as passionate and politically unyielding as anything written by the Lord Acton whose warning about the corruptive tendency of power applies as much to popes as it does to politicians.

Given the vast intellectual corpus Benedict leaves in his subtle wake, time is required to sort out what his legacy will be.

He has left the Church and the world a lot of thinking to do.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM FR. ROBERT SIRICO

iPhone accessories: Here are 5 of the best for 2023

December 31, 2022 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

Whether you received a new Apple iPhone 14 for the holidays or are considering upgrading, accessories can help make usage seamless.

For example, Apple’s iPhone 14 models don’t come with a charging adapter, so users may want to consider using other methods.

Here are five of the top iPhone accessories for 2023.

A portable power bank can help charge a phone and AirPods simultaneously. It’s easy to travel with and won’t weigh down an iPhone.

APPLE MESSAGES APP: 5 FEATURES TO REMEMBER

The third generation of AirPods have Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, adaptive EQ and longer battery life. Apple also boasts HD voice quality for FaceTime, and the AirPods and MagSafe charging case are sweat- and water-resistant.

6 AMAZING NEW THINGS AN IPHONE CAN DO WITH THIS IOS UPDATE

AirTag tracking devices can help keep track of a phone – especially older models that don’t support the FindMy app – and other accessories, as well as find bags at the airport. Some cases have pockets for AirTags.

A case with a charger ensures extra hours of charge without bring a power bank and Lightning cable. Consider this: the more powerful the battery, the heavier the case. There are different capacities available to purchase.

Phone grips like PopSockets are relatively cheap and customizable. Pick them up in stores like Target and Paper Source. Plus, they help steady a user’s grip on an iPhone and are especially useful for taking photos. But be warned that they leave a sticky residue!

Follow the New Year around the world

December 31, 2022 Published by CNN

CNN
—

Get out of your East Coast mentality, America. Not everyone starts their New Year when you do.

The Pacific Island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati were the first to see in the new year – when it was still 5 a.m. on December 31 on the East Coast of the United States and 11 a.m. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, the global standard). New Zealand was next, an hour later.

Samoa is always the first country to ring in the New Year. American Samoa, its neighbor just 101 miles away, has to watch in envy and wait a full day.

There are 39 different local times in use – including two which are more than 12 hours ahead of UTC – which means it takes 26 hours for the entire world to enter the New Year.

So, if you really, really, really love to hum “Auld Lang Syne,” the list below will get you in the spirit – over and over and over again.

Here’s when the world will be ringing in the New Year, relative to East Coast time.

5 a.m. ET Samoa, Tonga and Christmas Island/Kiribati

5:15 a.m. Chatham Islands/New Zealand

6 a.m. New Zealand (with a few exceptions) and five more locations/islands

Fireworks explode over Sky Tower in central Auckland as New Year celebrations begin in New Zealand, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023.

7 a.m. Small region of Russia and seven more locations

8 a.m. Much of Australia and seven more (including Melbourne and Sydney)

People watch fireworks on December 31, 2022, in Sydney, Australia.

8:30 a.m. Small region of Australia (including Adelaide)

9 a.m. Queensland/Australia and six more (including Brisbane)

9:30 a.m. Northern Territory/Australia (including Alice Springs)

10 a.m. Japan, South Korea and four more

10:15 a.m. Western Australia/Australia

11 a.m. China, Philippines and 10 more

A New Year's Eve fireworks and light show attracts thousands of visitors to the West Tour Park in Huai 'an, East China's Jiangsu province, on December 31, 2022.

Noon Much of Indonesia, Thailand and seven more

12:30 p.m. Myanmar and Cocos Islands

1 p.m. Bangladesh and six more

1:15 p.m. Nepal

1:30 p.m. India and Sri Lanka

2 p.m. Pakistan and eight more

2:30 p.m. Afghanistan

3 p.m. Azerbaijan and eight more

3:30 p.m. Iran

4 p.m. Moscow/Russia and 22 more

5 p.m. Greece and 31 more (including Egypt, South Africa and Romania)

6 p.m. Germany and 45 more (including Algeria, Italy, Belgium and France)

7 p.m. United Kingdom and 24 more (including Portugal and Iceland)

8 p.m. Cabo Verde and two more

9 p.m. Regions of Brazil and South Georgia/Sandwich Islands

10 p.m. Most of Brazil, Angetina and nine more

10:30 p.m. Newfoundland and Labrador/Canada

11 p.m. Some regions of Canada and 28 more

Midnight US (East Coast) and Cuba

1 a.m. US (Central), Mexico and nine more

2 a.m. US (Mountain) and two more

3 a.m. US (Pacific) and four more

4 a.m. US (Alaska) and regions of French Polynesia

4:30 a.m. Marquesas Islands/French Polynesia

5 a.m. US (Hawaii) and two more

6 a.m. American Samoa and two more

7 a.m. Much of US minor outlying islands (unincorporated US territories in the Pacific)

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What If Tesla Had Been Founded In The ’50s?

December 31, 2022 Published by Sebastien Bell

Carscoops

With all due respect to Tesla, the electric-vehicle startup is noted for its blind optimism and exuberance. These (including their dark consequences) are qualities that defined American industry in the 1950s and ’60s.

And that made us wonder; what would a Tesla Model S have looked like if it had been designed in the era that believed the future was so bright that everyone would need sunglasses? To find out, we asked and fed an AI generator with information to design the electric vehicle as if it had been made in the ’50s and the ’60s.

The results were a little surprising to me, but they do work quite well. Starting with what I believe to be the design that looks older, the red, jet-age-and-chromium design of this sleek Model S looks like something straight off the concept car turntable of a 1950s auto show.

Read: Tesla Model X Off-Roader Looks Dakar Ready

Somewhere between the flying saucer spaciness of the Citroën DS and the big-winged designs indicative of GM’s thinking at the time, this ’50s Model S looks pretty good. The wings remind me of a Cadillac, but there’s something of the C1 Corvette’s spirit in the design, too, which makes sense given the performance of the modern car.

The bubbly canopy, meanwhile, does a pretty good job of combining the design of the times with the distinctive window lines of a modern Tesla. And while the renderings seem to incorporate the automaker’s lack of grille, they’re also seemingly bereft of headlights, which feels like a problem.

Skipping forward a few years, the AI bot has created something that looks like it belongs in an early ’60s showroom. Unable to avoid the grille here, this—let’s call it “second-generation”—Model S borrows some cues from Aston Martin, while also incorporating some Maserati 5000 GT lines, and there’s something almost Ford Anglia-esque about the roofline.

The doubled headlights do share something in common, again, with later C1 Corvettes, though their small size makes them feel a little anachronistic. Additionally, the massive wire rims are another hint that these images combine classic and modern designs in a manner that isn’t always perfect.

Although there’s something a little uncanny about both of these designs, they do kind of work. While it’s unlikely that an electric car could have taken on the automotive industry in the late ’50s and early ’60s the way Tesla did in the 2010s, it’s still fun to think what it might have looked like if it had tried.

Zelensky addresses Russians after New Year’s Eve strikes: ‘No one will ever forgive you’

December 31, 2022 Published by Jared Gans

Just In | The Hill

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Russia that “no one will ever forgive you” for spreading terror following a series of missile attacks on New Year’s Eve.

Zelensky said in an address on Saturday that the missile attacks will not mark the end of the year but the outcome of Russia’s fate in that it will not be forgiven. He mentioned that Russia launched missile attacks during the war at other holidays such as Easter and Christmas.

“They call themselves Christians. They are very proud of their orthodoxy. But they are following the devil. They support him and are together with him,” he said.

Zelensky said Russia is not at war with NATO, as Russian “propagandists” lie about, but for Russian President Vladimir Putin to remain in power for life.

“And what will be with all of you, citizens of Russia, does not concern him,” he said. “Your leader wants to show that he has the troops behind him and that he is ahead. But he is just hiding. He hides behind the troops, behind missiles, behind the walls of his residences and palaces.”

Zelensky said the missile strikes caused casualties but Ukrainian officials will aid those affected. He said Ukrainian air defenses intercepted most missiles, saving lives, which demonstrates that the world must provide more help to Ukraine.

International, Russia-Ukraine war, Russian missile strikes, Volodymyr Zelensky Read More

NFL, players association determine no concussion protocols were violated in latest Tua Tagovailoa injury

December 31, 2022 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

An investigation by the NFL and NFLPA determined that Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa did not show concussion symptoms during last Sunday’s game.

Tagovailoa was able to finish the Christmas Day game against the Packers. On Monday, he was placed in concussion protocol after reporting symptoms to the team. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel later confirmed that the quarterback was in the protocol for the second time this season.

The league and players association’s joint review concluded that there were no violations of the concussion protocol during the game.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

The NFL and NFLPA previously performed a joint review of the Dolphins’ handling of a Tagovailoa concussion. The first came after a Week 4 game against the Bengals, when Tagovailoa was knocked unconscious after a sack by the Cincinnati Bengals. He was carted off the field and was later briefly hospitalized.

AARON RODGERS THINKS DOLPHINS SHOULD CONSIDER SHUTTING TUA TAGOVAILOA DOWN FOR REST OF SEASON

“Yeah, I remember the entire night up until the point I got tackled,” he said about that hit against the Bengals via Yahoo Sports. “After I got tackled, I don’t remember much from there. Getting carted off, I don’t remember that. But I do remember things that were going on when I was in the ambulance and when I arrived at the hospital.”

That investigation found that the team had followed protocol, but it also determined that the protocol itself needed to be amended. The unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant involved in Tagovailoa’s evaluation earlier in the season was also terminated by the players association.

Tagovailoa would miss the next two games against the Jets and the Vikings after he suffered the head injury in Cincinnati. He returned to the field against the Steelers on Oct. 23.

TUA TAGOVAILOA’S TRAINER SPEAKS ABOUT QUARTERBACK’S FUTURE AFTER CONCUSSION SCARE: ‘UNO AIN’T GOING ANYWHERE’

In a joint statement released on Saturday, the NFL and NFLPA said, “The protocol is initiated when a player receives an impact to the head and exhibits or reports signs or symptoms suggestive of a concussion. The review established that symptoms of a concussion were neither exhibited nor reported until the following day at which time the team medical personnel appropriately evaluated and placed Mr. Tagovailoa in the concussion protocol.”

During the second quarter of the Dolphins’ loss to the Green Bay Packers, Tagovailoa’s head hit the turf after he was tackled from behind. He did remain in the game, but he proceeded to throw three interceptions on three consecutive drives.

The Dolphins have already ruled Tagovailoa out for Sunday’s game against New England.