Palestinian casualties have sharply increased as Israel stepped up its bombardment of Gaza early on Friday as tanks and artillery massed at the border and joined aerial attacks.

The Taliban has announced a three-day ceasefire to mark Eid al-Fitr following the bombing of a girls’ school in Dasht-e-Barchi, in which over 50 people, mostly young girls, were killed and over 100 were injured.

Afghanistan’s President, Ashraf Ghani, accused the Taliban of conducting the attack and declared Tuesday a day of national morning. It was the deadliest attack in over a year. In a statement Ghani said;

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that Israel’s policies constitute apartheid; with the intention to “maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem.

Over 100 Palestinians and 20 Israeli police were injured in a far-right Israeli protest in occupied East Jerusalem.

A group of UK charities and Human Rights Watch joined Palestine in condemning British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel, in which he expressed the UK’s opposition to the ICC decision to investigate alleged war crimes in Palestine since June 2014.

In the letter sent on 9 April, Britain's Prime Minister undermined the international court’s independence and jurisdiction to hold the relevant and alleged Israeli perpetrators liable. 

Joe Biden is the first US President to formally recognise the systematic killing of over a million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, as genocide. 

In a statement marking Armenian Remembrance Day, Biden wrote:

"We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring."

The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on eight Iranian militia officers and police chiefs over a deadly crackdown of protests in November 2019 by the Islamic Republic. 

Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was amongst those who were sanctioned. 

“Hossein Salami took part in the sessions that resulted in the orders to use lethal force to suppress the November 2019 protests. Hossein Salami therefore bears responsibility for serious human rights violations in Iran,” the EU said.

Photo of US troop in Afghanistan

Following the announcement of US President, Joe Biden, that America would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 11^th September, Britain has similarly stated that it will withdraw nearly all of its approximately 750 soldiers.

The withdrawal of US forces would mark the end to a 20-year conflict that followed the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Under the Doha Agreement, US troops were set to have left Afghanistan by 1 May.

The British House of Lords has voted down the government’s proposed overseas operation bill which would establish “a presumption against prosecution” for service personnel accused of committing crimes overseas, except for sexual offences, if more than five years had passed since the alleged offence took place.

A Turkish court has jailed for life 22 former soldiers for their involvement in a coup attempt that sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

A mass trial which concluded on Wednesday investigated nearly 500 soldiers and identified the ex-military personnel as guilty.

The putsch attempt in 2016 involved a raid on the chief state media broadcaster in which the newscaster was forced to read out a statement from the military junta leaders.