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Is the ICC right to go after Netanyahu?
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In the headlines
The government has announced that victims of the infected blood scandal who may not live to see the full compensation scheme rolled out will be given interim payments of ÂŁ210,000 each. Rishi Sunak said it was a âday of shame for the British stateâ when the public inquiry released its findings yesterday; cabinet minister Mel Stride has said politicians and civil servants could face prosecution for their role in the cover-up. Joe Biden has condemned the International Criminal Courtâs chief prosecutor for seeking an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it falsely implies equivalence between Israel and Hamas. In his own rejection of the motion, Netanyahu accused the ICCâs Karim Khan of anti-Semitism. The worldâs most expensive feather has sold at auction. The pricey plume (pictured), from the extinct New Zealand huia bird, went for $28,000, making it 40 times more expensive per gram than gold.
Webbâs
Comment
Yahya Sinwar and Benjamin Netanyahu. Getty
Is the ICC right to go after Netanyahu?
The International Criminal Courtâs suggestion of moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas is âgrotesqueâ, says The Wall Street Journal. Israel is waging a war to reclaim hostages and root out terrorists hiding among civilians; Hamas started the war with mass murder, rape and kidnapping, and vows to do it âagain and againâ. And the charges against Israel are bunk. The ICC alleges âstarvation of civilians as a method of warfareâ, but the Israeli government has facilitated the entry of more than half a million tons of aid â an âunprecedented effort to supply an enemyâs civiliansâ â and âbegged Egyptâ to open its border with Gaza to let aid in and starving people out. The ICC also claims Israel has targeted civilians, âanother allegation thatâs upside-downâ. John Spencer, chair of urban warfare at West Point military academy, says the IDF has âdone more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any military in historyâ.
Whatever you think of it, says Gideon Rachman in the FT, thereâs no denying this is a âhuge setback for Israelâ. Netanyahu is already under intense domestic pressure â Benny Gantz, a leading member of his war cabinet, says he will quit unless the PM comes up with a clear strategy for the war and its aftermath. And the ICC announcement will leave many Israelis dismayed that their country is âturning into a pariah stateâ, making it all the more attractive to replace Netanyahu. Optimists will hope all this will convince the Israeli government that its Gaza strategy is âtaking Israel into a wallâ, as Gantz has put it. That might persuade future leaders to take the idea of a two-state solution more seriously. Israelis now know that the path back to international acceptance must involve a new peace process â âand the marginalisation of Netanyahuâ.
Art
A largely forgotten surrealist painter from Lancashire has unexpectedly become the most valuable British-born female artist at auction, says Artsy. Leonora Carrington, who died in 2011 aged 94, was relatively unknown until last week, when a fierce bidding war at Sothebyâs in New York saw her work Les Distractions de Dagobert (pictured) go for a cool ÂŁ22m. The sale to Argentine billionaire Eduardo Costantini makes Carrington the fourth highest-selling surrealist of all time, and the fifth highest-selling Âfemale artist ever.
Inside politics
If thereâs one thing that defines the EUâs big foreign policy decisions, says Wolfgang MĂŒnchau in Eurointelligence, itâs fear. The bloc steps up support for Ukraine when Kyivâs troops âare about to loseâ, but gets uncomfortable when they win back territory, fearing Russian nuclear retaliation. Europe has ample leverage on the Israel-Palestine conflict â Germany is the second-largest military exporter to Israel; the EU is the biggest donor of Palestinian aid â but âfear of being called anti-Semiticâ stops the bloc acting decisively. And while Europeâs leaders accept that Donald Trump may well return to the White House, theyâre doing nothing whatsoever to prepare for it. In a fast-changing world, this fear-driven approach ârisks paralysisâ.
Quirk of history
On 17 November 1970, The Sun printed a photograph of 20-year-old model Stephanie Marrian sitting in a field, âone breast fully visibleâ, on page 3 of its daily paper, says The Guardian. It was a hit: The Sunâs circulation nearly doubled in a year, prompting the other tabloids to follow suit. The tradition continued for almost 50 years until, after much noisy protesting, the newspaper replaced topless women with âclothed glamour modelsâ in 2015. The last holdout was the Daily Star, which featured its last bare-breasted page 3 model in April 2019.
Comment
Raisi shortly before his death. Getty
Few Iranians will mourn the âButcher of Tehranâ
Itâs no surprise that news of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisiâs death in a helicopter crash was greeted with âfireworks in the streets of Tehranâ, says Marc Champion in Bloomberg. Shortly after coming to power in 2021, the hardliner imposed a crackdown on female dress codes that led to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the countryâs morality police. The resulting protests were âthe largest in the history of the Islamic Republicâ, and were put down only with âbrutal repressionâ that left hundreds dead. Raisi did no better on the economy. Despite a big rise in oil exports, growth has been sluggish and inflation has skyrocketed: consumer prices rose 42.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. Itâs impossible to know who will replace the so-called âButcher of Tehranâ, as Raisi became known after ordering the mass executions of regime opponents in 1988. But few in Iran will mourn his demise.
The more important succession story âlies a bit further in the futureâ, says The Economist. Iranâs âailingâ supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, turned 85 last month, and Raisi â despite his domestic policy missteps â was considered one of the two leading candidates to succeed him. The other candidate is Khameneiâs second son, Mojtaba. But âa hereditary transfer of power in a regime that came to power by overthrowing a hereditary monarchyâ may not go down well with the people. If he gets the top job, Mojtaba would probably have to rely on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to âweather any backlashâ â which would likely strengthen the IRGCâs role and influence in the regime. âThat could mean less religious conservatism at home but even more antagonism abroad.â
Gone viral
This video of the âbabies raceâ held between innings at a baseball ground in Savannah, Georgia has racked up nearly four million views on X. âBest thing on the internet today,â says one commenter, while another asks: âHOW DO I BET ON THIS?â Watch to see which babe wins here.
Letters
To The Times:
Your correspondence on the subject of attaching warning bells to both cats and bicycles reminded me of the advice given to hikers in the wilds of America to carry pepper spray and attach small bells to their clothing to alert grizzly bears to their approach. Another suggestion is to be on the lookout for the bearsâ droppings, which typically smell of pepper and contain small bells.
John Burscough
Brigg, Lincs
Snapshot
Snapshot answer
Itâs a dog that has been dyed to look like a panda, says Sky News. The new panda exhibition at Taizhou Zoo in eastern China was unveiled earlier this month, but visitors were surprised to discover that the animals were in fact chow chows painted black and white. Staff have defended the exhibit, saying they made it clear the animals were âpanda dogsâ, and that it was the visitorsâ fault they were taken in by the disguise.
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Quoted
âNo coffee is ever quite as good as it smells.â
Crime writer Ngaio Marsh