
Can BRICS challenge the US-led world order?
The BRICS bloc of developing nations aims to challenge the US-led economic order. In theory, it has the clout to push through reforms to global governance. But critics say the expanded group faces rifts among its members.
BRICS leaders have criticised US policies, including trade tariffs, during the gathering in Brazil's Rio de Janiero, but they shied away from naming Washington directly.
President Donald Trump responded by threatening a 10% levy on any country that aligns itself with BRICS policies.
And the UN special rapporteur says global companies should be held accountable for profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
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Al Jazeera
7 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Threats and intimidation stalling top ICC prosecutor's Israel case: Report
New details have emerged about a series of intimidation campaigns, including threats to safety as well as possible sanctions, directed at the British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he pursues an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israeli officials in Gaza. Karim Khan has also been subjected to intense pressure from top British and United States public officials for The Hague court to withdraw the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news website reported. The latest report followed an earlier revelation by the London-based online publication in July that Khan and the ICC were threatened with being 'destroyed' if they pursued the case against Israel. According to the MEE report published on Friday, Khan was 'privately threatened' by then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in April 2024 that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants against the Israeli leaders, which it did so in November. In May 2024, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also 'threatened' Khan with sanctions if he applied for the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the MEE reported. Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Khan and four ICC judges. Khan also received a security briefing warning him that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency 'was active in The Hague and posed a potential threat' to him, the MEE reported. Khan, who is currently on indefinite leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct, was also reportedly told by his female accuser in text messages that there were 'games being played' and attempts to make her a 'pawn in some game I don't want to play', according to the MEE. The ICC investigations into Khan's alleged behaviour were later closed after the female witness refused to cooperate with them, but a separate United Nations probe remains. Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him. Two weeks before he was forced to go on leave in May 2025, Khan also reportedly met with Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the ICC, to discuss the Israel investigation, the MEE report said. In a note of the meeting on file at the ICC, Kaufman reportedly told Khan that if the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were not dropped, 'they will destroy you, and they will destroy the court.' The report said some ICC lawyers have privately 'expressed doubts' about the allegations against Khan, which emerged after the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued. The ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and Israel's subsequent war in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed killed in an Israeli attack. The Israeli defendants remain internationally wanted suspects, and ICC member states are under a legal obligation to arrest them. Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 60,430 Palestinians and wounded 148,722. In recent months, Israel has been accused of committing new war crimes after reports that Israeli forces intentionally shot and killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting to collect humanitarian aid from GHF food distribution points.


Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US museum denies political pressure in removal of Trump impeachment display
The parent organisation of a top-visited history museum in the United States has denied that political pressure played a role in the removal of a display about the impeachments of US President Donald Trump. The Smithsonian Institution, which runs the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, said on Saturday that it removed the 'temporary' placard for failing to meet the museum's standards in 'appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation'. 'It was not consistent with other sections in the exhibit and moreover blocked the view of the objects inside its case. For these reasons, we removed the placard,' the institution said in a statement. 'We were not asked by any Administration or other government officials to remove content from the exhibit.' The Smithsonian Institution, which runs 21 museums and the National Zoo, said the impeachment section of the museum would be updated in the coming weeks to 'reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation's history'. The statement comes after The Washington Post on Thursday reported that the museum removed an explicit reference to Trump's impeachments last month, resulting in its exhibit about impeachment incorrectly stating that 'only three presidents have seriously faced removal'. The Post, citing an unnamed person familiar with the exhibit plans, said the display was taken down following a 'content review that the Smithsonian agreed to undertake following pressure from the White House to remove an art museum director'. The museum's removal of the display drew swift backlash, with critics of Trump casting the development as the latest capitulation to the whims of an authoritarian president. 'You can run, but you cannot hide from the judgment of history,' Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Friday. 'So, here's my message to the president: no matter what exhibits you try to distort, the American people will never forget that you were impeached – not once, but twice.' Trump has, with lightning speed, moved to exert greater control over political, cultural and media institutions as part of his transformative 'Make America Great Again' agenda. In March, the US president signed an executive order to remove 'improper ideology' from the Smithsonian Institution's properties and deny funding for exhibits that 'degrade shared American values' or 'divide Americans based on race'. During his first term, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives twice, in 2019 and 2021, but the Senate failed to convict him on both occasions. He was the third US president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and the only US president to be impeached twice. Former President Richard Nixon faced near-certain impeachment before his resignation in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal.


Al Jazeera
17 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as DC top prosecutor
The United States Senate has confirmed former Fox News television personality Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor in the nation's capital, Washington, DC, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Edward Martin Jr. Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed on Saturday, with a vote of 50-45. Before becoming the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show The Five on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump. Trump yanked Martin's nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin's outspoken support for rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department's pardon attorney. Other hires from cable news include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, a former reality TV show competitor and Fox Business co-host. Pirro briefly entered politics in ill-fated attempts to run for the US Senate and for the New York attorney general, losing the latter race to Democrat Andrew Cuomo. She began earning wider public exposure by hosting a weekday television show, Judge Jeanine Pirro, from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, she joined Fox News Channel to host Justice with Judge Jeanine, which ran for 11 years, and today, she is a co-host of the network's show, The Five. Pirro has also authored several books, including Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy, which was published in 2018. The Washington Post described the book as 'sycophantic' in its support for Trump. After promoting unfounded conspiracy theories alleging election fraud in 2020, Pirro was named a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which said that Fox had broadcast false statements about the company. Fox News settled the case for nearly $800m. Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro's nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove's nomination to become a federal appeals court judge. Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York's Westchester County Court in 1990, before serving three terms as the county's elected district attorney. In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro's ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.