US President Donald J Trump has tweeted in defence of alleged war criminal and former Navy Seal Edward Gallagher.

This statement follows senior defence officials statements that they would resign or be willingly fired if they were forced to keep Gallagher in his position.

Gallagher stands accused of a litany of human rights violations including capturing and torturing a teenager who had joined Isis; killing a school age girl and old man from a sniper’s roost; as well as, threatening to kill any colleagues who reported him. 

<p>The Palestinian Authority has welcomed a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly reaffirming Palestinian’s right to self-determination.</p> <p>This resolution was adopted during a session of the third committee of the UN General Assembly and is considered a rebuke of the US’s decision to accept the legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.</p> <p>In total, 165 states voted in favour of the resolution, five against, and nine abstained.</p>

<p>Britain has urged Israel to cease the expansion of settlements on the West Bank, stating that it was opposed to international law and “counterproductive”.</p> <p>This statement from the Foreign Office follows the defence of Israeli settlements by the United States on Monday.</p> <p>In their statement the Home Office stated;</p> <blockquote><p> “The position of the UK on settlements is clear […] They are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace, and threaten the viability of a two-state solution. We urge Israel to halt its counterproductive settlement expansion.” </p></blockquote>

<p>Leaked documents have revealed British commanders, as well as the British government, have attempted to conceal evidence that British soldiers were engaged in the murder of children and torture of civilians whilst in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p> <p>This information has been uncovered through a year-long investigation by The Sunday Times and the BBC Panorama programme. According to their reporting, there was evidence of “murders by an SAS soldier and deaths in custody, beatings, torture and degrading sexual abuse of detainees by members of the Black Watch”. There was further evidence of falsifying documents which could lead to the prosecution of senior officers.</p>

^{Photograph: @BehrouzBoochani}

Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish journalist who gained prominence for his correspondence from Manus Island, the Papua New Guinea immigration detention centre where he was incarcerated by Australia, has been released after six years, upon being granted asylum by New Zealand.

Shares in the British security firm G4S have been blacklisted by Norway’s sovereign wealth fund over concerns about the firm’s human rights violations against its workforce in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Norway’s Council of Ethics, which monitors investments in the country’s £860bn Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), said there was an “unacceptable risk of the company contributing to systematic human rights violations”. Up to 30,000 staff, mostly working in security and construction, could be affected.

G4S has come under fire in the UK for alleged abuses at an immigration detention centre it ran, over which a public inquiry was launched this month.

<p>Hamas has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel for committing a war crime in an airstrike that killed eight people.&nbsp;</p> <p>On Wednesday, a family of eight were killed in an Israeli airstrike which were aimed at ‘terror targets’. Israel has denied knowledge of any civilian presence.&nbsp;</p> <p>Ghazi Hamad, Hamas spokesperson said, “ the Israeli occupation forces attacked they house with previous knowledge that civilians are living there, even Israel did not alert them before attacking, so they could leave the house, in which caused the killing of innocent children and women.”</p>

 

Catalonia’s parliament has passed a non-binding motion expressing the will to exercise self-determination despite previously warning from Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Spain’s Constitutional Court had warned that there will be legal consequences if the motion passes. 

 

The United States has called for a de-escalation of violence in Hong Kong following a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

During the protests, a Hong Kong shot and critically wounded a protester and another man was set on fire. Carrie Lam, leader of Hong Kong, responded to this by denouncing protesters as “enemies of the people”.