Sinn Féin says united Ireland 'within touching distance' as the party claim the post of Northern Ireland first minister for the first time.

Northern Ireland’s devolved government has reconvened and appointed Michelle O’Neill as first minister in a historic moment for Sinn Féin and Irish nationalism.

Mary Lou McDonald said last week that the expected restoration of power sharing in the wake of a deal between the Democratic Unionist party and the UK government came amid a “historical turning of the wheel” that would unite the island.

“In historic terms, it is within touching distance and I think that is a very exciting thing and I hope people will find that a very welcoming conversation,” the Sinn Féin leader said.

O’Neill became the region’s putative first minister when Sinn Féin overtook the DUP as the biggest party in the 2022 assembly election. But a DUP boycott to protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements mothballed Stormont.

The Stormont assembly nominated the County Tyrone republican as the region’s first nationalist first minister – and the first non-unionist executive leader since the partition of Ireland in 1921.

O’Neill avoided triumphalism and made no explicit mention of Irish unity in an inaugural address that focused on reconciliation and bread-and-butter issues.

“Wherever we come from, whatever our aspirations, we can and must build our future together,” she said. “We must make power sharing work because collectively, we are charged with leading and delivering for all our people, for every community.”

The appointment of a republican first minister represented “a new dawn” unimaginable to previous generations that grew up with discrimination against Catholics, said O’Neill. “That state is now gone.”

O’Neill will jointly lead the executive with Emma Little-Pengelly, a Democratic Unionist who was nominated deputy first minister, a post with equal power but less prestige.

Read more at the Guardian

Earlier this week the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, appealed for increased attention on Myanmar from the international community citing the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the country. 

Ahead of the third anniversary of the military coup, Türk stated “Amid all of the crises around the world, it is important no one is forgotten. The people of Myanmar have been suffering for too long."

The High Commissioner highlights that fighting between the military and opposition groups has resulted in mass civilian casualties and displacement. 

In 2023 the number of civilians reportedly killed by the military rose to over 1,600.

The Muslim Rohingya community occupies a space of heightened vulnerability as the Rakhine state has been heavily impacted by fighting that restarted in November.

Approximately 26,000 people have been arrested on political grounds, with the majority, 19,973, remaining in detention. 

There have been reports of torture and abuse of those who have been detained. Over the past three years, an estimated 1,576 individuals have died while in military custody. 

Türk has noted that “military tactics have consistently focused on the punishment of civilians who they view as supporting their enemies.” He continues, “as a result the military has routinely targeted civilians and protected objects under international humanitarian law, especially medical facilities and schools.” 

Senior Myanmar Adviser to Crisis Group, Richard Horsey, states "three years on from the Myanmar coup, the military’s hold on power is more uncertain than at any time in the last 60 years." However, Horsey notes that the military continues to maintain an enormous capacity for violence. 

On Wednesday, the junta head, Min Aung Hlaing, emphasized that the military will do "whatever it takes" to crush any opposition. 

Volker Türk urged all member states "to take appropriate measures to address this crisis, including to consider imposing further targeted sanctions on the military to constrain their ability to commit serious violations and disregard international law, limiting access to weapons, jet fuel and foreign currency."

Read more on UN News, and the Guardian. 

Britain will consider recognising a Palestinian state as part of concerted efforts to bring about an “irreversible” peace settlement, the foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said.

Palestinians must have “a political horizon so that they can see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution”, Lord Cameron said in a speech on Monday night at a reception in London.

he foreign secretary had pushed Netanyahu over a two-state solution to bring about peace for both Israeli and Palestinian people last week during a meeting in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has rebuffed efforts from allies, including the US, to win his support for the proposal, saying it would “endanger the state of Israel” as he criticised the “attempt to coerce us”.

But in his speech on Monday, Cameron spelled out how the UK and allies could add to pressure by considering recognising a Palestinian state at the United Nations.

“We should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like – what it would comprise, how it would work,” he said.

“As that happens, we, with allies, will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations. This could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”

The foreign secretary's comments come following the ICJ ruling last week in which they ordered provisional measures, following South Africa's case that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention. 

The court adopted “provisional measures,” or binding orders, that include requiring Israel to prevent genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.

Judges overwhelmingly voted in favour of adopting the six provisional measures in South Africa's genocide case against Israel.

Read more here 

On Wednesday, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation said that all states should stop funding Israel's military actions in Gaza after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that those actions could amount to genocide. 

Naledi Pandor states that the ICJ ruling "makes it clear that it is plausible that genocide is taking place against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This necessarily imposes an obligation on all states to cease funding and facilitating Israel's military actions."

Last week the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately take steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza and take all measures to prevent its troops from committing genocide in the region.

Pandor, also stated that she met with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week to discuss a joint referral from five countries to investigate Israel's war against Palestine.

Speaking with reporters Pandor said, “What I felt he didn’t answer me sufficiently on was, I asked him why he was able to issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin while he is unable to do so for the Prime Minister of Israel. He couldn't answer and didn’t answer that question."

26,900 people have been killed and 65,949 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. 

Recently several countries have paused funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), after Israel alleged that UNRWA employees took part in the Hamas attack on 7 October. 

UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, highlights that “UNRWA is the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza." Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, emphasized that the decision to pause funding for UNRWA "collectively punishes over 2.2 million Palestinians."

The US was the first among twelve countries that decided to pause funding for the UNRWA.

By contrast, the US continues to be the largest funder of the Israeli military, contributing approximately $3.8 bn per year in military assistance. 

Read more on Reuters, Al Jazeera, UN News, and the Guardian. 

The International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures, in South Africa's case that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention. 

The court adopted “provisional measures,” or binding orders, that include requiring Israel to prevent genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza, enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.

Judges overwhelmingly voted in favour of adopting the six provisional measures in South Africa's genocide case against Israel.

1. The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular

(a) killing members of the group;

(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (

d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

2. The State of Israel shall ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts described in point 1 above

3. The State of Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip

4. The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip;

5. The State of Israel shall take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip

6. The State of Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order within one month as from the date of this Order

The ICJ rules that the accusation of genocide against Palestinians is plausible and the court has jurisdiction over the case. Following this the the UN human rights chief has urged Israel to abide by the interim decision taken by the ICJ.

Although orders issued by the ICJ are legally binding, it does not have the power to enforce them. Israel is not expected to commit itself to the orders. A ruling on whether genocide was committed could take years. 

The ruling comes as Israel continues to bomb Gaza, with the civilian death toll now surpassing 26,000. Heavy clashes have been reported near a number of hospitals in Gaza, with power outages impacting Nasser hospital in Kahni Younis, Southern Gaza.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has said that vital medical services “have collapsed” at Nasser Hospital, the largest functioning health facility in Gaza.

In a statement on Friday, MSF said that there is “no longer a healthcare system in Gaza” and reiterated calls for a ceasefire.

Read more here

In an interview with UN News, UNICEF representative in Sudan, Mandeep O'Brien, stated that the war in Sudan is a "living nightmare for children."

According to O'Brien the conflict has displaced more than 3.5 million girls and boys.

Further, nearly 2 million are in urgent need of lifesaving vaccines. And over 7.4 million do not have access to safe drinking water. 

The UN article also notes that Sudan has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. There are approximately 3 million children under the age of five who suffer from acute malnutrition. Without urgent medical treatment, an estimated 700,000 could die from hunger. 

O'Brien highlights that education for children is also at risk in Sudan. Currently, 19 million school-age children are not attending school.

The UNICEF representative emphasizes that education helps to foster peace, she states "when children are in classrooms, they feel safe, protected, and they can peacefully co-exist."

According to O'Brien, UNICEF is committed to staying and delivering on the ground alongside partners. In 2023 UNICEF was able to provide urgently needed health supplies to 6.4 million children and families.

O'Brien appealed for increased funding and for "all international and regional efforts to be joined up so that Sudan can find a political solution."

Read more on UN News. 

Sixty Syrian migrants have been rescued by Cypriot authorities on Wednesday after being lost at sea for 6 days. 

The migrants were spotted by a merchant vessel on a small wooden fishing boat about 30 nautical miles off Cape Greco. 

According to Cyprus’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, all migrants have been hospitalized, including three children and one man who were found unconscious. Officials stated that they were all dehydrated. 

The boat reportedly left from Lebanon on 18 January. 

A written statement from the Cypriot Interior Minister, Constantinos Ioannou, highlights that Wednesday's incident is "unfortunate proof" of how people-smuggling rings are endangering lives. 

Overall, migrant arrivals to Cyprus have significantly declined. However, according to official interior ministry numbers, arrivals by sea have almost quadrupled from 937 in 2022 to 3,889 in 2023. 

The Cypriot government has been taking a tougher approach to migration which according to Ioannou has made the island a "less attractive economic destination" for migrants who don't qualify for asylum or international protection status. 

Ioannou has also previously stated that Cyprus is trying to get the EU to designate some parts of Syria as "safe zones" so that the repatriation of Syrian migrants would be more feasible. 

Read more on the Toronto Star, the Middle East Monitor, and AP. 

A recent article published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlights the Bangladeshi police abuse occurring in Rohingya camps. 

In the past decade, nearly a million Rohingya have fled persecution by the Myanmar military. Those who have fled currently live in refugee settlements in Bangladesh. 

The Bangladesh Armed Battalion (APBn) has been deployed in refugee settlements to provide security for refugees. However, HRW has reported allegations of extortion, arbitrary arrests, torture, and sexual harassment of refugees at the hands of the APBn police force. 

Earlier this month, a Rohingya woman reported that a Bangladeshi officer had been stalking her for a year. She alleges that on 7 January the same officer entered her home under the pretext of a search operation and attempted to rape her. 

Activists have stated that the Bangladeshi authorities rarely hold police in the Rohingya refugee camps accountable for human rights violations. 

Speaking with HRW one activist alleges that, “The APBn police force has been targeting the Rohingya girls and women that they find attractive, threatening to arrest male family members if they refuse to cooperate.” 

HRW has recommended that the Bangladesh authorities investigate and take seriously refugees' accusations of police violence. Only in doing so will they be able to foster a secure and safe environment at the camps. 

Read the full article on Human Rights Watch. 

Tens of thousands of Argentines took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Wednesday to protest economic and labor reforms proposed by President Javier Milei.

The 12-hour strike coordinated by Argentina's largest union, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), is the most significant opposition to Milei's proposed austerity measures since he took office in December 2023. 

Milei has pledged to free Argentina from decades of "decadence and decline" with his libertarian ideals. Argentina's economy is currently struggling with 211 percent inflation. 

The two proposed reforms under scrutiny include the "omnibus" bill currently going through Congress, and a "mega-decree" deregulating the economy. 

Speaking on local radio station Radio Con Vos, union member and opposition deputy, Hugo Yasky, stated "Milei wants a country where poverty and informal work reaches 90 percent."

Yasky continues, "Now there is no job creation. What there is now is widespread misery, and people’s desperation, there are no measures to mitigate the damage they are causing."

Milei's proposed reforms include major spending cuts, expansion of presidential powers, sweeping privatizations, and a scaling back of workers' rights and the right to protest. 

Earlier this month, Argentina and the IMF finalized an agreement to release $4.7 billion as a part of a debt restructuring plan.

Read more on Al Jazeera and the Guardian. 

Turkey’s parliament has voted in favour of Sweden joining Nato, leaving Hungary the sole Nato member yet to ratify Sweden's accession.

The vote late on Tuesday paves the way for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to give Turkey’s seal of approval on Nato membership for Sweden, which dropped its centuries-old policy of military non-alignment after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

After a four-hour debate, 287 of 346 MPs voted yes, 35 against and the rest abstained. Erdogan is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days.

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, reacted quickly to the news, saying: “Today we are one step closer to becoming a full member of Nato. Positive that the Grand General Assembly of Türkiye has voted in favour of Sweden’s Nato accession.”

Turkey had been blocking Sweden's application until July, when an agreement was reached. Turkey had argued Sweden was giving refuge to Kurdish militants, and needed to do more to crack down on groups like the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Sweden has already signed a deal with the US giving full access to 17 of its military bases and started the Nato integration process.

Finland, which shares a 1,340km border with Russia, joined Nato last April as the group’s 31st member. 

Read more here

The president of Egypt, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has expressed his support for Somalia in a dispute over an offer by Somaliland to give land-locked Ethiopia access to its coast in exchange for recognition of its independence.

In a press conference in Cairo alongside the president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Sisi said: “My message to Ethiopia is that trying to seize a piece of land to control it is something no one will agree to.”

Relations between Somalia and Ethiopia have deteriorated since early January, when Somaliland and Ethiopia announced a memorandum of understanding that bypassed the Somali government, which has not exercised control over the self-declared republic since 1991

Officials from Somaliland have claimed that the prospective agreement would involve Ethiopia gaining a naval base along its Gulf of Aden coastline in exchange full recognition. Ethiopia has remained tight-lipped on this aspect of the deal amid growing international pressure, though several officials have hinted at their support for Somaliland’s independence.

Somaliland was a British colony until 1960. The territory enjoyed five days of independence before voluntarily uniting with Somalia, a former Italian colony. It was a bumpy union that ended with Somaliland breaking away in 1991, after a decade-long liberation struggle against a Soviet-backed military regime. Today, Somaliland is a de facto independent state, with its own currency, a parliament and overseas diplomatic missions.

However, it is still not recognised by any country. Western governments will not recognise it until African countries do, but the continent’s leaders have held off, following the African Union’s longstanding policy against redrawing national boundaries inherited from colonialists.

Without recognition, Somaliland struggles to attract investment and is cut off from international finance, which is mostly channelled through Mogadishu. In an interview with the Observer, Somaliland’s foreign minister, Essa Kayd, said the port deal with Ethiopia will “legitimise our self-determination” and could spark a “domino effect” of other countries recognising the territory.

“Recognition is what we have been fighting for all this time and it is the most important thing we can offer to the people of Somaliland,” Kayd said.

When it was struck, Somaliland’s president, Muse Bihi Abdi, said Ethiopia had agreed to grant official recognition in return for a 50-year lease of a stretch of coastline, which it will develop for “naval and commercial” purposes. However, Ethiopia said it had only agreed to “make an in-depth assessment towards taking a position regarding the efforts of Somaliland to gain recognition”.

A western diplomat briefed on the deal described it as a “memorandum of misunderstanding”. “Ethiopia insists they did not agree to recognise Somaliland,” the diplomat said.

Kayd said the deal is based on Ethiopia granting recognition to Somaliland: “Without that, nothing is going to happen.” He added that discussions had been progressing “for years”. “Ethiopia needs sea access and we need recognition, so you can see how these needs can be dealt with.”

Read more here

Sudan suspended its involvement in mediation efforts with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) after it invited the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to a meeting in Uganda. 

For nine months, the Sudanese military and the RSF have been engaged in a brutal conflict that has displaced over 7 million people and has left nearly half of Sudan's population in need of aid. 

IGAD has taken on the role of mediator, attempting to broker talks between the state military and the RSF.

On Tuesday, Sudan suspended ties with IGAD after the East African regional bloc invited the RSF's leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to a meeting with Sudan on 18 January.

Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that claims the invitation of Daglo is a "violation of Sudan's sovereignty." 

The statement accused IGAD of legitimizing the RSF by extending an invite to its leader, the Ministry continues by emphasizing that the IGAD is setting a "dangerous precedent."

Read more on Al Jazeera.

China has brokered a "formal ceasefire" between a rebel guerrilla alliance and Myanmar's military.

Myanmar's military took power in a coup in February 2021. The military regime, the State Administration Council, has been under pressure due to attacks from the "Three Brotherhood Alliance".

The "Three Brotherhood Alliance" consisting of ethnic rebel groups has claimed they have taken over dozens of towns, including border crossings crucial for trade with China. 

According to Beijing's foreign ministry, representatives from the Myanmar military and the rebel alliance have agreed to "an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of military personnel."

The Chinese foreign ministry stated that the military and the rebel alliance have "committed to not harming the safety of Chinese border residents and personnel involved in projects in Myanmar."

Beijing has claimed that the civil conflict in Myanmar is spilling over into Chinese territory with the foreign ministry reporting that a shell landed on the Chinese side of the border on 4 January. 

Read more on the Financial Times 

The Chinese military has stated that it will "crush" any efforts to promote Taiwan's independence.

On Friday, hundreds and thousands of people attended pre-election rallies in Taiwan in preparation for Saturday's critical presidential and parliamentary polls.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson, Zhang Xiaogang, stated, "The Chinese People's Liberation Army maintains high vigilance at all times and will take all necessary measures to firmly crush 'Taiwan independence' attempts of all forms."

 In response to a question about Taiwan's Air Force upgrading F-16 fighter jets and purchasing more from the US, Xiaogang emphasized that even with purchases of US weapons the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) "cannot stop the trend of complete reunification of the motherland."

The DPP has rejected China's territorial claims, championing Taiwan's separate identity. 

Read more on Al Jazeera