| | | | | | | Hello. The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, but issued six measures for Israel to follow to prevent genocidal acts. Diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams analyses the ruling. In New York City, reporters Brandon Livesay and Madeline Halpert are following closing arguments in the Donald Trump trial dealing with compensation for defaming E J Carroll. We also have pictures from India’s Republic Day military parade and footage of Cameroon’s pioneering malaria vaccine rollout. To wrap up the week, test your knowledge of recent news events in our quiz, I got 4/7. |
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| | | | | | Questions Answered | | ICJ's measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza | | | | The ICJ said Israel must report on its compliance to the court within one month. Credit: AFP |
| | Friday’s hearing at the ICJ in The Hague was the judges’ first ruling as part of a controversial case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. The court’s final ruling on genocide is likely to take several years. One of South Africa’s demands was that the UN court ordered a ceasefire in Gaza in the meantime. Israel has vehemently rejected the accusation as "wholly unfounded". | | | | Paul Adams, Diplomatic correspondent |
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| | What did the court rule? | | The ICJ did not order Israel to halt its military campaign, but it recognised that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic and "at serious risk of deteriorating further". As a result, it made several demands of Israel, broadly in line with most of the nine "provisional measures" demanded by South Africa. | | What are these conditions? | | The court ruled that Israel should do everything in its power to avoid killing Palestinians, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, creating intolerable living conditions in Gaza, or deliberately preventing Palestinian births. It also said Israel should do more to "prevent and punish" public incitement to genocide. And there was a call for "immediate and effective measures" to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. It’s a series of demands that, if implemented, would drastically change the nature of Israel's military campaign in Gaza. | | How will Israel respond? | | The ICJ’s rulings are binding, but there’s no enforcement mechanism. Israel could choose to ignore the judges altogether. But with diplomatic efforts now apparently concentrating on the possibility of a two-month ceasefire, and efforts still being made to improve the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip, Israel may argue that it’s already taking steps to meet the court’s demands. | | | | | | |
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| AT THE SCENE | New York City, USA | | Trump storms out of courtroom | | | | The jury in this case will decide how much Mr Trump must pay Ms Carroll for his comments. Credit: Reuters | | The trial seeking to assess the amount of compensation author E J Carroll is entitled to after being defamed by Donald Trump is coming to a close. Mr Trump was due to attend proceedings, but left abruptly during Ms Carroll’s lawyer’s closing arguments. | | | | Brandon Livesay and Madeline Halpert, BBC News |
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| Prior to his swift departure, Donald Trump was seen shaking his head as lawyer Roberta Kaplan repeatedly brought up that Mr Trump had sexually assaulted Ms Carroll. Mr Trump was found liable for the sexual assault in a separate civil trial last year. During Ms Kaplan's closing arguments, she told the court that Ms Carroll's reputation had been severely harmed by the former president's comments denying he sexually assaulted her. "This case is also about punishing Donald Trump," Ms Kaplan said, adding: "This trial is about getting him to stop once and for all".
In her closing arguments, Mr Trump's lawyer Alina Habba argued the jury should award Ms Carroll no damages, saying her arguments have "more holes than Swiss cheese". Before starting her final arguments, Ms Habba tried to introduce social media tweets that were not already in evidence, but the judge would not allow it. After a fiery back-and-forth, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to Ms Carroll's lawyer, said: "Ms Habba, you are on the verge of spending some time in the lock-up, now sit down". |
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| | The big picture | | India’s colourful military parade | | | | The day marks the anniversary of India officially adopting its constitution. Credit: Getty Images |
| | Women have taken part in India’s military parade marking its Republic Day for the first time. Also in a first, the parade included a French army contingent. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | Capote vs The Swans | | A new miniseries looks at how Truman Capote betrayed his high-society friends. | | |
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| | | | | | | | | | US Election Unspun newsletter | | Cut through the noise in the race for the White House, every Wednesday to your inbox. | | |
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