Yearly Archives: 2025

200 German celebrities, journalists call on chancellor to take tougher stance on Israel

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz holds a press conference in Berlin, Germany on July 18, 2025. [Halil Sağırkaya – Anadolu Agency]

More than 200 prominent German celebrities and journalists on Thursday urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz to stop arms deliveries to Israel and to impose further sanctions on Tel Aviv over its deadly military campaign in Gaza, Anadolu reports.

In an open letter, the group pointed to the suffering of children in the Gaza Strip and stressed: “We, too, condemn the horrific crimes of Hamas in the strongest possible terms. But no crime legitimizes the collective punishment of millions of innocent people in the most brutal way.”

The letter added that in the Gaza Strip, children who are not part of the war yet bear its burden are starving and dying.

“More than 17,000 have already been killed. Hundreds of thousands are injured, traumatized, displaced, and starving.

The signatories – including actors Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin), Katharina Thalbach (Miss Merkel), and Benno Furmann (North Face) – acknowledged Merz’s criticism of the Israeli government in recent days. However, they urged the chancellor to take further steps, including halting all German arms exports to Israel, supporting the suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel, and demanding an immediate ceasefire and unhindered access for humanitarian aid.

READ: Germany’s Merz says what’s happening in Gaza is ‘unacceptable’

“These steps are deeply aligned with European values and would make it unmistakably clear to the Israeli government that even its closest allies can no longer tolerate the suffering and that words are no longer enough,” the open letter said.

On Monday, Merz said his government is considering stepping up pressure on Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave.

The German government “reserves the right” to take concrete measures to increase pressure on Israel to improve “the catastrophic situation” in the Gaza Strip, he said.

He added that the Security Cabinet had not yet made any decisions on the matter but had discussed options.

“We reserve the right, however, to take such steps,” he stressed.

READ: Finland’s president signals readiness to recognize Palestinian state

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Continue Reading200 German celebrities, journalists call on chancellor to take tougher stance on Israel

Contrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback

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https://www.science.org/content/article/contrarian-climate-assessment-u-s-government-draws-swift-pushback

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright handpicked the five contrarian scientists who authored a controversial new climate report.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Researchers say DOE report cherry-picks data to downplay threat of greenhouse gases

The last assessment of the state of climate science from the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in its final form 2 years ago, was a monumental effort, with 721 volunteer scientists synthesizing all available published research. Yesterday, the Department of Energy (DOE) released its own climate assessment, as part of a campaign by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to overturn its landmark endangerment finding from 2009, which found that burning fossil fuels endangers public health and established carbon dioxide as a pollutant EPA could regulate. But the DOE report—called A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate—had fewer authors than IPCC’s: just five.

Handpicked by DOE Secretary Chris Wright, a fossil fuel entrepreneur, the authors are well known to climate scientists. Although the members of this Climate Working Group all hold scientific doctorates, they hold contrarian views on climate science that are out of step with the mainstream. The report, assembled in months, argues that some of the warming attributed to fossil fuel burning is instead driven by natural cycles or variability in the Sun, and that sea level rise has not been accelerating. Climate researchers say the authors cherry-picked evidence and highlighted uncertainties to achieve the net effect of downplaying the impacts of climate change. “This shows how far we have sunk,” says Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard University. “Climate denial is now the official policy of the U.S. government.”

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Article continues at https://www.science.org/content/article/contrarian-climate-assessment-u-s-government-draws-swift-pushback

Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Continue ReadingContrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback

Over 100 lawyers ask ICC to investigate Macron and French ministers for Gaza genocide complicity

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https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/over-100-french-lawyers-call-icc-investigate-france-complicity-genocide-gaza

French President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou (R) and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu (L) at a ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, in Paris on 8 May 2025 (Thomas Samson/AFP)

Legal complaint accuses President Emmanuel Macron, three key ministers and scores of MPs of facilitating Israeli crimes against Palestinians

French lawyers have submitted a request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an investigation into the role of French officials “in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide” by Israeli forces against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

In a 56-page communication made public by the French investigative media outlet Blast on Monday, the 114 lawyers named President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu and 19 lawmakers of the National Assembly’s European Affairs Committee.

A communication to the ICC is the equivalent of a criminal complaint to the court on an alleged crime falling under its jurisdiction. 

It is addressed to the Office of the ICC Prosecutor in accordance with Article 15 of the Rome Statute, which states that the prosecutor may open proprio motu investigations (i.e. on their own initiative) based on information relating to crimes within the court’s jurisdiction.

The lawyers, representing an NGO called Pour la Justice au Proche-Orient (“for justice in the Middle East”) note that: “Far from taking concrete measures to prevent the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians, the members of the French executive cited in this communication have continued to support the criminal actions of the government of Israel by providing military, political, economic, diplomatic and propaganda support to that state, including by providing the means to commit the crimes in question.”

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Article continues at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/over-100-french-lawyers-call-icc-investigate-france-complicity-genocide-gaza

Continue ReadingOver 100 lawyers ask ICC to investigate Macron and French ministers for Gaza genocide complicity