French President Emmanuel Macron has suspended controversial voting reforms in New Caledonia after an outbreak of deadly unrest in the French island territory. 

The unrest which flared up in New Caledonia on 13 May led to the deaths of 9 people. 

“The constitutional bill regarding New Caledonia… I have decided to suspend,” Macron said on Wednesday. 

In a statement released last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep concern over the escalating violence in Myanmar.

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the Secretary-General “calls on all parties to the conflict to exercise maximum restraint, prioritize protection of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law, and prevent further incitement of communal tension and violence.”

Myanmar’s Rakhine State has seen an increase in violence between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. 

Narendra Modi has been sworn in as India's prime minister for a third term in a ceremony held at the presidential palace in Delhi.

A protest against "Tigray Genocide" on March 26, 2021, in New York, NY.

A report published by the New Lines Institute on 3 June has concluded that there is compelling evidence that Ethiopian forces and its allies committed genocidal acts during the Tigray war.

The Arakan army is accused of persecuting Rhogingya in parts of the Rakhine state as the armed group has won control of large swathes of land in the region from the military junta. 

The Arakan Army, has won control of large parts of Rakhine State in Myanmar over the past few months, most recently the northern section where many Rohingya still live. In recent days, rights groups have accused the rebels of expelling the minority from their homes and destroying their property, in many cases by arson. The Arakan Army has rejected these allegations.

On 24 May the Paris Criminal Court convicted three high-ranking Syrian senior officials for their role in the imprisonment, enforced disappearance, and torture of two dual Syrian-French Citizens, Patrick Dabbagh and his Father Mazzen. 

In 2013, Mazzen and Patrick Dabbagh were arbitrarily arrested by the Syrian authorities and taken to the Mezzeh military airport detention center. After five years, their family received two death certificates stating their deaths in 2014 and 2017.

The leaders of Norway, Ireland, and Spain have announced that they will formally recognize a Palestinian state on 28 May.

On Wednesday, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said a two-state solution was in Israel’s best interest. He adds “There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition.”

Gahr Store added, “Recognition of Palestine is a means of supporting the moderate forces which have been losing ground in this protracted and brutal conflict.”

The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Karim Khan said his office had applied to the World Court’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for the military and political leaders on both sides for crimes committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen convoy, April 1, 2024

In a press release from 14 May Human Rights Watch said that Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October 2023, despite aid groups having provided their coordinates to Israeli authorities to ensure their protection. 

President Joe Biden has warned Israel that the US will stop supplying some weapons if it launches a major ground operation in the Gaza city of Rafah.

The comments amount to the president's strongest warning yet over a potential ground invasion of Rafah, and mark the first time he has said the US could stop shipments of American weapons to Israel.

The weapons being held back by the US are related to a future delivery, so the move is unlikely to have an immediate impact. But given the rate at which Israel is bombing it will probably affect future strikes fairly soon.