World News

Authorities in Belarus on Thursday announced raids and the seizure of property belonging to 104 opposition activists who have fled the country, the latest step in a crackdown on dissent that has continued unabated for nearly four years.

Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, unleashed the crackdown in August 2020, when mass protests erupted against his rule following his disputed reelection that the opposition and the West have denounced as rigged.

BELARUS RAIDS TARGET OPPOSITION-RUN 'PEOPLE'S EMBASSIES,' AUTHORITIES CONFIRM

More than 35,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been brutally beaten in custody, and dozens of independent news organizations and rights groups have been shut down, and journalists imprisoned.

About 500,000 people have since fled the country of 9.5 million, and the authorities this year began a campaign against Belarusians abroad who call for tougher sanctions against the country.

Belarus' Investigative Committee said Thursday the latest raids and seizures targeted activists who criticized Belarusian authorities abroad and rallied to mark the anniversary of Belarus' independence. The authorities launched a criminal probe on the charges of "forming an extremist group" and "discrediting Belarus," criminal offenses that can result in prison terms of up to seven years.

Officials said they tracked down participants of the rallies in Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, Georgia, the Czech Republic, the U.S. and other countries that took place on March 25 to mark the first time Belarus had been declared an independent state in 1918 — an anniversary the Belarusian opposition celebrates every year.

Investigative Committee spokesman Sergei Kabakovich said in a statement that the activists were "fugitive puppets," and he accused them of "calling for economic and political pressure on our country."

Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who in 2020 left the country under pressure from the authorities, said the raids and the seizures are "the authorities’ revenge on Belarusians who continue to fight the dictatorship."

"Lukashenko's regime tries to sow fear among Belarusians not just inside Belarus, but abroad, as well," Tsikhanouskaya said. "Belarusians are living in tough conditions that appear similar to Stalin times — toughening repressions, arbitrary arrests and constant instability."

Viasna, Belarus' oldest and most prominent rights group, has counted just under 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus, including the group's founder Ales Bialiatski, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

South Africa urged the United Nations’ top court on Thursday to order a cease-fire in Gaza during hearings over emergency measures to halt Israel’s military operation in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah.

It was the third time the International Court of Justice held hearings on the conflict in Gaza since South Africa filed proceedings in December at the court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, accusing Israel of genocide.

US CONCERNED OVER SOUTH AFRICA'S GROWING TIES WITH RUSSIA, IRAN AND HAMAS: 'FALLEN' FOR PROPAGANDA

The country’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, urged the panel of 15 international judges to order Israel to "totally and unconditionally withdraw" from the Gaza Strip.

The court has already found that there is a "real and imminent risk" to the Palestinian people in Gaza by Israel’s military operations. "This may well be the last chance for the court to act," said Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who is part of South Africa’s legal team.

Judges at the court have broad powers to order a cease-fire and other measures, although the court does not have its own enforcement apparatus. A 2022 order by the court demanding that Russia halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has so far gone unheeded.

During hearings earlier this year, Israel strongly denied committing genocide in Gaza, saying it does all it can to spare civilians and is only targeting Hamas militants. The country says Rafah is the last stronghold of the militant group.

The latest request focuses on the incursion into Rafah.

South Africa argues that the military operation has far surpassed justified self-defense. "Israel’s actions in Rafah are part of the end game. This is the last step in the destruction of Gaza," lawyer Vaughan Lowe said.

According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The Hague-based court were not sufficient to address "a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza." Israel will be allowed to answer the accusations on Friday.

In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave. In a second order in March, the court said Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation.

South Africa has to date submitted four requests for the international court to investigate Israel. It was granted a hearing three times.

Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since fighting began.

The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count.

South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 and sees the legal campaign as rooted in issues central to its identity. Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to "homelands." Apartheid ended in 1994.

On Sunday, Egypt announced it plans to join the case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Israeli military actions "constitute a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 regarding the protection of civilians during wartime."

Several countries have also indicated they plan to intervene, but so far only Libya, Nicaragua and Colombia have filed formal requests to do so.

A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced several pro-Kurdish politicians to between nine and 42 years in prison over deadly riots in 2014 by Kurds angered by what they perceived to be government inaction against Islamic State group militants who had besieged the Syrian border town of Kobani.

The three days of clashes that broke out in October 2014 resulted in 37 deaths and left hundreds of others — police and civilians — injured. The protests were called by leaders of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, who were frustrated by what they considered to be Turkish support for IS militants.

SYRIAN KURDISH OFFICIALS HAND OVER 50 WOMEN AND CHILDREN LINKED TO ISLAMIC STATE GROUP TO TAJIKISTAN

A total of 108 people were charged with various crimes, including the killings of the 37 victims and crimes against the integrity of the state. The defendants include HDP’s imprisoned former leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, who were accused of organizing the protests and inciting the violence.

Critics decried the trial as politically motivated and part of a wider government crackdown on the pro-Kurdish party.

Of the defendants, 18 were jailed, 18 others were freed pending the verdict and 72 remain at large.

The court in Ankara convicted Demirtas - who has run for president twice - of a total of 47 charges and sentenced him to 42 years in prison, state broadcaster TRT reported. Yuksekdag was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempts to challenge the unity of the state, of inciting criminal acts and of engaging in propaganda on behalf of a terror organization.

Twelve defendants were acquitted of all charges. Defendants still at large would be tried at a later date.

The politicians are expected to appeal the verdicts.

The hearing took place in a tense atmosphere with lawyers banging on desks and leaving the courtroom to protest the verdicts, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

The pro-Kurdish movement’s current co-leader, Tuncer Bakırhan, described the verdicts as a "black stain" on the Turkish justice system.

"The Selahattins, the Figens and others who were prosecuted in this Kobani conspiracy trial have been acquitted in the hearts and minds of the Kurds, the Turks, the workers, the women and the young," he said.

In anticipation of protests condemning the sentences, authorities imposed a four-day ban on demonstrations in the predominantly Kurdish provinces of Diyarbakir, Siirt, Tunceli and Batman.

The government accused the HDP of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. The group has led an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.

Government officials accused the HDP leaders of taking instructions from the PKK to stage the riots.

The government has frequently cracked down on the pro-Kurdish political movement by stripping legislators of their parliamentary seats and removing elected mayors from office. Several HDP lawmakers have been jailed alongside Demirtas and Yuksekdag, on terror-related charges.

The party has since changed its name to the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, and is the third-largest grouping in Turkey’s parliament.

Peeking out from under a hat and with his face covered, the Russian fighting for Kyiv described unrelenting battles in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv where Moscow's forces opened a new front last week.

"The situation is difficult, the intensity is very high, there is fighting almost every ten minutes," said the mortarman, who identified himself only by his callsign, Winnie.

The soldier is part of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a group of Russians opposed to President Vladimir Putin who are fighting for Ukraine.

RUSSIA SAYS IT KILLED 234 FIGHTERS WHILE THWARTING AN INCURSION FROM UKRAINE

Ukraine has sent reinforcements, including the legion and two other units made up of Russian nationals, to shore up its defense against a Russian ground incursion into the northern reaches of the Kharkiv region that began nearly a week ago.

"It's an unbelievable meat grinder that they're still (sending) their people into," Winnie said, describing Russian losses as Moscow's infantry tries to storm deeper into Ukraine. Both sides say that the other is suffering heavy casualties in the war, claims that cannot be independently verified.

The Freedom of Russia Legion's deputy commander Maksimilian Andronikov, who is also known by his callsign Caesar, said Russia's fighters have become more innovative.

"They've learnt the lessons of the war, they're using rather intelligent tactics," he said.

One particularly grim innovation has been the expansion in the use of aerial bombs, which are dropped from planes and usually pack several hundred kilograms of explosives or more. Russia has vast Soviet-era stocks of the relatively cheap bombs.

Over the past several months, Russia has been able to grind out battlefield gains by hammering frontline towns and infantry positions with aerial bombs.

"Today, four guided aerial bombs came in, about 500 meters away. I was on the ground, and it started vibrating, I was thrown upwards - and I'm not small," Winnie said.

The Russian assault, which is driving towards the towns of Lyptsi and Vovchansk north of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, began last Friday.

The Russians appear to have been able to advance by at least several kilometers in some places, one of the fastest advances either side has seen since 2022, the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion.

"The enemy has the advantage in manpower, although they do not have as many vehicles as before," Andronikov said about the Kharkiv front.

The Russians, he said, were sending in noticeably fewer armored vehicles, but even so were able to launch several times more artillery shells and FPV drones than Ukraine.

"We feel the deficit. We understand well that if it didn't exist, the enemy wouldn't have these successes here or in the Donbas," he said of the artillery imbalance, a problem felt acutely by Ukraine over the past six months.

He blasted the limits placed by some Ukrainian allies on the use of their weapons to strike Russia, saying the restriction handicapped Kyiv's ability to fight back on the northern front where the lines are a few kilometers from Russian territory.

Ukrainian soldiers have long complained the restriction gives Russia a shield, enabling its forces to launch attacks from across the border without putting their logistics at risk.

"It's a problem. There is a whole list of weapons which we receive, but until recently we didn't have the right to use them on the territory of Russia… with impunity, the enemy is using the fact that Russian territory can't be hit."

Lawyers in Tunisia took to the streets on Thursday to protest a string of recent arrests that have convulsed the country over the past week and provoked international outcry.

The demonstration in the North African country's capital came days after two lawyers were arrested — one brusquely extracted from the bar association headquarters and the other needing to be hospitalized after sustaining injuries while being apprehended by security forces.

Both were charged with violating a cybercrime statute outlawing fake news that authorities have increasingly used to target critics.

TENT CAMPS RAZED AND ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AS TUNISIA CLAMPS DOWN ON MIGRANTS

The National Bar Association called for nationwide strikes on Monday and staged a "day of anger" on Thursday that included protests and a second day of striking.

Along with activists and civil society groups, they gathered in front of the capital's courthouse chanting for freedom, in support of their colleagues and against what they called "a police state."

"We demand an apology from the authorities for the enormous blunders committed," Bar Association President Hatem Mziou said, referring to the two arrests.

"We are fighting for a democratic climate and respect for freedoms," Mziou added, threatening further action if authorities do not change course.

Protests about civil rights have been routine since President Kais Saied froze Tunisia's parliament, consolidated his own power and fired top ministers in July 2021. But the speed and number of arrests this week — of the lawyers as well as journalists and prominent activists — have marked a new phase in his crackdown against dissidents.

The Bar Association said in a statement that Mehdi Zaghrouba, one of the lawyers arrested, was tortured and lost consciousness after being apprehended, leaving visible injuries throughout his body.

The government denied Zaghrouba had been tortured and said that the arrest had been carried out legally and without issue.

"Claiming torture is a way of evading justice" Interior Ministry spokesperson Faker Bouzghaya told IFM radio, a station where a journalist was also arrested this week.

The legal defense team for nine Egyptian men due to go on trial in southern Greece next week accused of causing one of the Mediterranean's deadliest shipwrecks said Thursday they will argue that Greece has no jurisdiction in the case, and insisted their clients were innocent survivors who have been unjustly prosecuted.

The nine, whose ages range from early 20s to early 40s, are due to go on trial in the southern city of Kalamata on May 21 on a series of charges, including migrant smuggling, participation in a criminal organization and causing a deadly shipwreck. They face multiple life sentences if convicted.

The Adriana, an overcrowded fishing trawler, had been sailing from Libya to Italy with hundreds of asylum-seekers on board when it sank on June 14 in international waters off the southwestern coast of Greece.

52 US-BOUND MIGRANTS APPREHENDED OFF PUERTO RICO PACKED INSIDE RICKETY BOAT

The exact number of people on board has never been established, but estimates range from around 500 to more than 700. Only 104 people survived — all men and boys from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and two Palestinians — and about 80 bodies were recovered. The vessel sank in one of the Mediterranean's deepest areas, making recovery efforts all but impossible.

The Greek lawyers who make up the defense team spoke during a news conference in Athens on Thursday. They maintained their clients’ innocence, saying all nine defendants had been paying passengers who had been misidentified as crew members by other survivors who gave testimonies under duress just hours after having been rescued.

The nine "are random people, smuggled people who paid the same amounts as all the others to take this trip to Italy aiming for a better life, and they are accused of being part of the smuggling team," lawyer and defense team member Vicky Aggelidou said.

Dimitris Choulis, another lawyer and member of the legal team, said that Greek authorities named the defendants as crew members following testimonies by nine other survivors who identified them for having done things as simple as handing bottles of water or pieces of fruit to other passengers.

"For nearly a year now, nine people have been in prison without knowing what they are in prison for," Choulis said.

"For me, it is very sad to visit and see people in prison who do not understand why they are there," he added.

While the Adriana was sailing in international waters, the area was within Greece's search and rescue zone of responsibility. Greece's coast guard had been shadowing the vessel for a full day without attempting a rescue of those on board. A patrol boat and at least two merchant ships were in the vicinity when the trawler capsized and sank.

In the aftermath of the sinking, some survivors said the coast guard had been attempting to tow the boat when it sank, and rights activists have accused Greek authorities of triggering the shipwreck while attempting to tow the boat out of Greece's zone of responsibility.

Greek authorities have rejected accusations of triggering the shipwreck and have insisted the trawler's crew members had refused to accept help from the nearby merchant ships and from the Greek coast guard.

A separate investigation being carried out by Greece's naval court hasn't yet reached any conclusion, and the defense team hasn't been given any access to any part of it.

The Egyptians' defense team also argues that because the shipwreck occurred in international waters, Greek courts don't have jurisdiction to try the case, and the defense will move to have the case dismissed on those grounds when the trial opens in Kalamata next week.

Greece lies along one of the most popular routes into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. While most of those cross into the country’s eastern Aegean Sea islands from the nearby Turkish coast, others try to skirt Greece altogether and head from north Africa to Italy across the longer and more dangerous Mediterranean route.

On Thursday, Greece's coast guard said that 42 people had been rescued and another three were believed to be missing after a boat carrying migrants sent out a distress call while sailing south of the Greek island of Crete.

Officials said they were alerted by the Italian coast guard overnight about a boat in distress 27 nautical miles south of Crete. Greece's coast guard said that 40 people were rescued by nearby ships, and another two were rescued by a Greek navy helicopter.

A search and rescue operation was underway for three people reported by survivors as still missing. It wasn't immediately clear what kind of vessel the passengers had been on, or why the boat sent out a distress call.

Israel plans to deploy additional troops to assist with operations against Hamas in Rafah, Israeli Foreign Minister Yoav Gallant announced Thursday.

Gallant said Israeli operations have already successfully destroyed multiple Hamas tunnels in the area. The deployment of troops comes as President Biden has warned that the U.S. will pause military aid if Israel moves forward with a full-scale operation in Gaza.

"This operation will continue as additional forces [arrive]. Several tunnels in the area have been destroyed by our troops and additional tunnels will be destroyed soon. This activity will intensify," Gallant said. "Hamas is not an organization that can reorganize, it does not have reserve troops, it has no supply stocks and no ability to treat the terrorists that we target. The result is that we are wearing Hamas down."

Israel began ramping up its attacks in both Rafah and northern Gaza earlier this week. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops secured a Hamas training ground in eastern Rafah on Wednesday, recovering troves of equipment and vehicles that Hamas had used to simulate combat with Israeli forces.

US MILITARY CONSTRUCTS HULKING METAL PIER AMID BIDEN'S $320 MILLION GAMBLE TO GET AID INTO GAZA

Biden issued the ultimatum regarding Rafah operations last week, but he also approved $18 billion in funding for Israel.

Israel has so far backed off from an all-out assault, resorting to more precise strikes. Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that the IDF will root out Hamas from Rafah.

REPORTS OF BIDEN WHITE HOUSE KEEPING ‘SENSITIVE’ HAMAS INTEL FROM ISRAEL DRAWS OUTRAGE

Rafah plays host to roughly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians, most of whom fled northern Gaza. Israel, however, says the city is also the final major stronghold for Hamas in the region.

BIDEN MOVING FORWARD ON $1B IN WEAPONS FOR ISRAEL AFTER PREVIOUS SHIPMENT PAUSED OVER RAFAH CONCERNS: REPORT

Biden's administration offered to share intelligence on Hamas leadership with Israel in exchange for restraint in Rafah earlier this week, according to a Washington Post report.

The intelligence the U.S. offered reportedly would allow Israel to better pinpoint Hamas leaders hidden in tunnels around the city, making it possible for the Israeli military to engage in a more precise campaign that could avoid the devastation seen in other areas of Gaza throughout the conflict.

A U.S. Navy strike group's flagship aircraft carrier left its Japanese home port on Thursday, wrapping up nearly nine years of deployment in the Indo-Pacific, where it served a key role in the U.S. effort to bolster defense ties with Japan and other partners in the region.

The departure of USS Ronald Reagan — one of America’s largest warships and a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier — comes at a time of growing tension in the face of increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.

It will be replaced later this year by USS George Washington, another Nimitz-class carrier. Japan has been accelerating the buildup of its military capability and significantly increased joint naval operations with the United States.

NAVY LOWERS BAR TO ENLIST AGAIN AMID CONTINUED RECRUITING WOES

Family members and friends of the crew were on hand to wave the carrier off from Yokosuka Naval Base after its final patrolling mission earlier in the day.

Hundreds of sailors stood along the rails while others on the flight deck stood forming the Japanese saying "dewa mata," or "see you." The carrier was accompanied by two guided-missile destroyers, USS Robert Smalls and USS Howard.

Speaking at the ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel ensured a "seamless transition."

"The USS Ronald Reagan and her crew have ensured that millions of people across the Indo-Pacific have been able to live their lives free of coercion, aggression and suppression," Emanuel later told reporters.

NAVY EXPECTS TO MISS RECRUITING GOAL BY MORE THAN 6,000 AMID WORLDWIDE THREATS FROM CHINA, RUSSIA

USS Ronald Reagan first arrived in Yokosuka in 2015. Earlier, during its deployment near the Korean Peninsula, the carrier contributed in Operation Tomodachi, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.

USS Ronald Reagan was the only American aircraft carrier deployed as a flagship of the Carrier Strike Group 5 under the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, to a home port outside the U.S.

During its tenure, it participated in dozens of multilateral exercises and visited more than a dozen foreign ports, including its historic port call to Da Nang, Vietnam, last year.

While tensions have escalated in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines and a number of other countries over maritime and territorial disputes, Japan is concerned about its dispute with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Japanese and Chinese coast guard ships repeatedly face off in the waters there.

Former Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, who recently joined an environmental survey trip near the disputed Senkaku islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu, said Thursday that cooperation with the U.S. and other like-minded countries is key to defending the international order.

"We have a sense of urgency that we must not let the East China Sea become another South China Sea," she said.

Landing on the islands is not permitted, so Inada's group flew drones for land and vegetation survey of the area. China protested the trip.

Inada said experts should be able to land on Japan's territory for research, calling for a parliamentary debate.

Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska dismissed the latest U.S. sanctions on a series of companies that the U.S. Treasury said were connected to a scheme to evade sanctions and unlock frozen shares as nonsense.

"This balderdash isn’t worth the time," Deripaska said by message via a spokesperson in response to a Reuters request for comment about the latest U.S. sanctions.

"While the horrific war in Europe claims hundreds of thousands of lives every year, politicians continue to engage in their dirty games. I strongly believe that we need to do everything we can to establish peace, not serve the interests of warmongers," he said.

NEW US SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA TARGET WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT, BAN URANIUM IMPORTS FOR NUCLEAR POWER

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday announced it had sanctioned a web of Russian companies it said were being used to disguise ownership of a $1.6 billion industrial stake controlled by Deripaska.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International was planning to buy the stake and dropped the transaction following mounting U.S. pressure to abort the bid.

In its sanctions announcement, the U.S. Treasury alleged it was an "attempted sanctions evasion scheme" to unfreeze a stake using "an opaque and complex supposed divestment."

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Deripaska has been sanctioned by Britain for his alleged ties to Putin. He has mounted a legal challenge against the sanctions which he says are based on false information and ride roughshod over the basic principles of law and justice.

Deripaska, who made his fortune by buying up stakes in aluminum factories, has also been subjected to sanctions by the United States, which in 2018 took measures against him and other influential Russians.

Those sanctions were "groundless, ridiculous and absurd", Deripaska has previously said.

JERUSALEM — A leading expert of the United Nations blasted the world body for failing to have its lead official on sexual violence in conflict address Security Council members at a meeting to discuss the hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza on Thursday.

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital that "It is astonishing that the U.N. cannot come up with a single official prepared to address even an unofficial Security Council meeting and attest to mass sexual atrocities done by Palestinians to Jews."

According to a Tuesday report in the Times of Israel, Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten withdrew from a slated appearance before the informal Security Council meeting about the sexual crimes committed against hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

UN FINALLY RECOGNIZES THAT ISRAELI WOMEN WERE RAPED, SEXUALLY ATTACKED BY HAMAS TERRORISTS

The planned Thursday session is titled "Condemning hostage-taking in Israel on October 7 as a psychological tool of terrorism."

According to the Times of Israel, a diplomat suggested that the "decision was politically motivated, as her office has faced pressure not to be seen as prioritizing the plight of the Israeli hostages over that of the Palestinians caught in the middle of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza."

Fox News Digital has independently confirmed the Times of Israel account. Hamas murdered nearly 1,200 people during its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 and abducted over 250 people. Hamas committed sustained sexual violence on many people during the massacre.

The meeting organized by the U.S. mission to the U.N. is the first to be held on the topic. A statement from the Israeli mission to the U.N. said the "meeting will focus on, among other things, the actions that the U.N. agencies and the Security Council can take to speed up the release of the hostages and how pressure can be put on Hamas for this purpose."

Israel's Ambassador Gilad Erdan stated that "Following an unceasing diplomatic effort, we brought about the Security Council meeting for the first time to focus exclusively on the situation of our hostages and to discuss ways of exerting pressure to release them."

Geraldine Boezio, a spokeswoman for Patten, told Fox News Digital, "Although regretfully she cannot participate in the Arria formula meeting [informal meeting of members of UNSC], the Special Representative supports any process that leads towards the release of the hostages. Crucially, the public should be aware that the Office of the UN Special Representative and the Government of Israel are continuing to have productive bilateral discussions on how to address sexual violence in conflict given the importance of this issue. These discussions are presently ongoing."

HAMAS TERRORISTS ‘SYSTEMATICALLY AND INTENTIONALLY’ COMMITTED SEXUAL VIOLENCE DURING OCT. 7 ATTACK: REPORT

The spokeswoman added "Special Representative Patten has repeatedly called for the release of all hostages in captivity in Gaza in multiple public statements since December 2023. Her Office’s report on its mission to Israel and the occupied West Bank released in March 2024 had clear and unequivocal findings and recommendations with respect to the hostages, and these were a key aspect of her statement to the U.N. Security Council’s special session on the report held on 11 Mach 2024. Once again, Special Representative Patten reiterated these findings and recommendations in her public remarks to the U.N. Security Council at its Open Debate on the Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence as recently as 23 April 2024."

Bayefsky said "Starting with the U.N. Secretary-General himself, who in April refused to put Hamas, or any other Palestinian rapist or violent sexual degenerate, on his annual ‘list of parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict on the agenda of the Security Council."

"Other U.N. officials, such as U.N. Special Rapporteurs Francesca Albanese and Reem Alsalem, have been actively pushing the obscene lie that Israelis did the same thing to Palestinians that Palestinians were ‘alleged’ or ‘reported’ to have done to Israelis. Evidently the truth in U.N. circles is unfashionable and not on message."

Fox News Digital reported in December that the Jordanian Alsalem issued a statement Nov. 20 on the U.N. website but did not explicitly condemn Hamas for carrying out rapes and sexual assaults against Israeli women and girls. The bulk of Alsalem’s press release was devoted to blaming Israel for alleged violence against Palestinian women. Alsalem declined to comment at the time.

UNITED NATIONS SLAMMED FOR SILENCE OVER HAMAS RAPES, MUTILATION AND MURDER OF ISRAELI WOMEN, CRITICS SAY

Israel’s government has repeatedly called for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to resign for his alleged failures to confront Hamas terrorism and the organization’s sexual crimes. Last month, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Guterres of standing "shoulder to shoulder with the rapists and murderers of Hamas" for omitting mention of Hamas’ sexual violence crimes in in a report "Conflict-related sexual violence." 

Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for Guterres, flatly rejected the criticism leveled against Guterres. He told Fox News Digital about the allegations, stating, "That’s completely false. The Secretary-General made clear his horror at all the killings, rapes and abductions that took place on October 7 from the first hours of the attack, and he has repeatedly called for all reports of sexual violence to be investigated."

Aziz Haq added "Pramila Patten, as you know, has visited Israel and has briefed the Security Council and the media on her findings. We continue to place a high priority in making sure that rape victims are heard and that they receive support."

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When approached by Fox News Digital, a spokesman for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, declined to comment on Patten's attendance. 

The government of the United Kingdom is instructing schools not to teach children about concepts of gender theory as part of an overhaul to sex education. 

The Department of Education's guidance for Relationships, Sex and Health Education is being changed to exclude controversial viewpoints and inappropriate content.

"Following multiple reports of disturbing materials being used in Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) lessons, the Department for Education has published updated guidance that will ensure content is factual, appropriate and that children have the capacity to fully understand everything they are being taught," a report from the department published Wednesday reads.

'GENDER-AFFIRMING' TREATMENTS DON'T BENEFIT YOUTH, SAYS PEDIATRICIANS GROUP: 'IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES'

The new guidance will limit all sex education lessons to students aged 9 and above. It will also bolster parental rights to stay informed on all materials being presented to their children to ensure age appropriateness. 

Most notably, the government is explicitly instructing teachers not to teach "the contested theory of gender identity" or the idea of a gender "spectrum."

"At secondary school pupils will learn about legally ‘protected’ characteristics, such as sexual orientation and gender reassignment, but the updated guidance is clear that schools should not teach about the concept of gender identity," the report states.

ENGLAND'S NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE BANS PUBERTY BLOCKERS FOR KIDS

"In light of the Cass Review, it is important that schools take a cautious approach to teaching about this sensitive topic, and do not use any materials that present contested views as fact, including the view that gender is a spectrum," the report continues. 

The Cass Review is an independent report commissioned by the National Health Service that documented practices and care for children reporting gender identity disorders.

Named for its primary author, Dr. Hilary Cass, the review found medical professionals reported "no guidance, no evidence, no training" regarding gender disorders and were "afraid" to discuss the topic. 

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"Parents rightly trust that when they send their children to school, they are kept safe and will not be exposed to disturbing content that is inappropriate for their age," said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. "That’s why I was horrified to hear reports of this happening in our classrooms last year."

The guidance is open to public consultation for nine weeks. Following this period, it will become statutory, and school officials will be required to comply.

A leading international human rights organization on Thursday urged the Thai government to stop forcing political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety to return to authoritarian home countries, where they may face torture, persecution or death.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch said Thai authorities repeatedly violated international law by expelling the dissidents, many of whom were registered with the United Nations as refugees and were awaiting resettlement in third countries.

The report, titled "We Thought We Were Safe," analyzed 25 cases that took place in Thailand between 2014 and 2023.

THAI PM ORDERS INVESTIGATION AFTER MONARCHY REFORM ACTIVIST DIED IN PRISON

Many of the cases involved the forcible repatriation of Cambodians, with the suspected involvement of Cambodian security personnel. But the group also listed cases where dissidents from Vietnam, Laos and China were "tracked down and abducted," or "forcibly disappeared or killed."

The report said that in return for tracking down and returning the dissidents, the Thai government received cooperation from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to spy on Thai dissidents who had fled their own homeland to escape political repression.

Human Rights Watch called this a quid-pro-quo form of transnational repression "in which foreign dissidents are effectively traded for critics of the Thai government living abroad."

The group said such arrangements, informally known as "swap mart," became increasingly frequent after the Thai army staged a coup in 2024 ousting an elected government. Military and military-backed rule lasted 10 years, until an elected civilian government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin took office last year.

"The Srettha administration should launch an investigation into these allegations of harassment, surveillance and forced returns of asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand. It should investigate the disappearance of Thai anti-junta activists in other Southeast Asian countries," Elaine Pearson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, told The Associated Press.

"I think there is an opportunity to end this practice and for the Srettha administration to show it is different from the previous military-led government," she added.

She noted that the Thai government is currently seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council "and that comes with responsibilities to protect human rights."

The report cited nine cases of Thai activists in Laos and Cambodia who were disappeared or killed in mysterious circumstances.

The mutilated bodies of two missing activists were found in late 2018 floating in the Mekong River. In 2020, a young Thai activist, Wanchalearm Satsaksit, was snatched off the street in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and never heard from again.

Thai authorities have repeatedly denied any connection with such events.

Dr. Francesca Lessa, an associate professor in International Relations at University College London, said there were some parallels with the way autocratic governments in Latin America made agreements to work together to eliminate their political opponents on each other's soil in the late 1970s to 1980s.

"Whether they follow right or left ideologies, these autocratic governments consider opposition and dissent as constituting a threat to their survival in power and, thus, to be eliminated, whatever the means required," Lessa told the AP.

Dozens of pro-cannabis advocates gathered Thursday at the health ministry on the outskirts of the Thai capital, Bangkok, to oppose the government’s plan to relist the plant as a narcotic, two years after it was decriminalized.

The rally came after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin last week said he would like the plant to be relisted as a narcotic again by the end of this year. Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize it in 2022 for medical purposes, but in practice the market appears virtually unregulated, leading to public backlash and concerns over misuse and crime.

About 30 people came to the health ministry in Nonthaburi, just north of the Thai capital Bangkok, to petition minister Somsak Thepsuthin.

POLICE BUST FINDS OVER 700 POUNDS OF DRUGS INSIDE TRANSFORMERS STATUES

The group's representative, Prasitchai Nunuan, said they all agreed that cannabis should be properly regulated, but that doesn't require the rescheduling of the plant as a narcotic, noting possible economic impacts on a budding industry.

"Whenever it is relisted as a narcotic, cannabis will be put in jail again," Prasitchai said as health minister Somsak stood listening to the group's demands.

Decriminalization of cannabis in 2022 was spearheaded by the Bhumjaithai Party, whose stronghold is in the impoverished northeast where it promised farmers cannabis would be a new cash crop.

Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul became health minister of the previous government, pushing through an amendment to the Narcotics Law, dropping cannabis from the list of controlled substances.

Somsak, who was appointed as health minister in last month's cabinet reshuffle, responded that he would take the demands into consideration. The minister said that his standpoint has always been that cannabis should be used for medical purposes only, not recreational.

Chokwan "Kitty" Chopaka, a cannabis shop owner and activist, said that the government’s U-turn on the policy appears to be more political than scientific.

"I think the word stigma hasn’t actually been erased out of cannabis, even with the legalization," she said.

A controversial media bill passed this week by Georgia's parliament is "unacceptable" and will be vetoed, President Salome Zourabichvili said Thursday, reaffirming her opposition to a measure that critics say is a threat to free speech.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Zourabichvili harshly criticized the ruling Georgian Dream party for pushing the bill that also is widely seen as a threat to Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union.

The bill, passed Tuesday, requires media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofit groups to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. The government says the bill is needed to stem what it deems to be harmful foreign actors trying to destabilize politics in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people.

GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES 'RUSSIA LAW' AIMED AT CURBING FOREIGN INFLUENCE AFTER WEEKS OF MASS PROTESTS

"It’s unacceptable because it reflects a turn of the Georgian attitudes towards the civil society, towards the media and towards the recommendations of the European Commission that are not consistent with what is our declared policy of going towards a European integration," Zourabichvili told the AP.

She reaffirmed her intention to veto it because it "goes directly against the spirit or the letter of EU recommendations."

Zourabichvili is increasingly at odds with the Georgian Dream party, which has a majority sufficient to override her veto. She has until May 28 — 14 days after its passage — to act.

She emphasized it’s her "duty under the constitution to make everything in my capacity possible to support the European integration and to consolidate it."

GEORGIA'S CAPITAL ROILS WITH PROTESTERS AFTER PARLIAMENT PASSES 'RUSSIAN LAW' AGAINST FOREIGN MEDIA INFLUENCE

Huge crowds of protesters have blocked streets in the capital of Tbilisi and milled angrily outside the parliament building after lawmakers approved the measure 84-30 despite strong criticism from the U.S and the EU.

"The authorities are not doing what the country expects, and the country is reacting because the country wants Europe and wants not to lose the possibility at the end of the year of seeing the opening of these accession negotiations," Zourabichvili said.

The bill is nearly identical to one that the Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests. Renewed demonstrations have rocked Georgia for weeks, with demonstrators scuffling with police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.

The opposition has denounced the bill as "the Russian law" because Moscow uses similar legislation to crack down on independent news media, nonprofits and activists critical of the Kremlin.

European Council President Charles Michel said Tuesday that if Georgians "want to join the EU, they have to respect the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the democratic principles."

Zourabichvili emphasized that after Georgia received the status of a candidate last fall to join the EU, the government should have focused on passing the necessary laws to qualify for the launch of accession talks at the end of the year.

"The parliament should be working day and night to satisfy the recommendations that we have on the table on the justice reform, on the corruption agency’s independence and things like that," she told AP. "And instead of that, instead of doing what is expected from us, the parliament is working on a law that was rejected last year that all our partners, European partners, have said that it’s not consistent with the European values and the European objectives."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. was "deeply troubled" by the legislation, which she said "runs counter to democratic values and would move Georgia further away from the values of the European Union. And let’s not forget also NATO."

Enacting it "will compel us to fundamentally reassess our relationship with Georgia," Jean-Pierre added.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Affairs James O’Brien met Tuesday with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and told journalists that "if the law goes forward out of conformity with EU norms, and there’s undermining of democracy here and there’s violence against peaceful protesters, then we will see restrictions coming from the United States."

France hopes to regain full control of events in New Caledonia "in the coming hours", Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Thursday, after a third night of riots that have killed four people amid anger over a contested electoral reform.

Rioters have burnt businesses, torched cars and looted shops, and road barricades put up by protesters were causing a "dire situation" for access to medicine and food in the French-ruled Pacific island, authorities said.

France declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia that came into force on Wednesday, and went on to put at least 10 people under house arrest and ban TikTok.

CURFEW IMPOSED IN NEW CALEDONIA FOLLOWING 'HIGH-INTENSITY' VIOLENT UNREST TRIGGERED BY VOTING REFORMS

"Sending significant reinforcements, via airlift, will allow for a return to order and guarantee the availability of essential goods on the island," Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said.

Rioting erupted over a new bill, adopted by lawmakers in Paris on Tuesday, that will let French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years vote in provincial elections - a move some local leaders fear will dilute the indigenous Kanak vote.

"Everything's burning, people have literally no limits, because they are literally shooting at each other, I've never seen this much violence," said New Caledonia student Olivia Iloa.

Electoral reform is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long tussle over France's role in the mineral-rich southwest Pacific island, which lies some 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Australia.

FRANCE'S MACRON CONSIDERS IMPOSING STATE OF EMERGENCY IN NEW CALEDONIA OVER VIOLENT UNREST

French President Emmanuel Macron's government has come under harsh criticism from the opposition and past prime ministers, who say they should not have pressed ahead with the reform.

New Caledonia's Pacific neighbors also called for a return to dialogue and for the reform to be canceled.

"These events could have been avoided if the French government had listened," said Vanuatu's prime minister, Charlot Salwai, chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which also includes Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the situation was "of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region".

The French government says it has always been open to dialogue and wants to meet pro- and anti-independence leaders soon in Paris. It has opened the door to suspending the reform bill if there is a new deal soon on the future of the island.

France annexed New Caledonia in 1853 and gave the colony the status of overseas territory in 1946. New Caledonia is the world's No. 3 nickel miner, but one in five residents live under the poverty threshold.

The protests were organized by Field Action Co-ordination Cell (CCAT), which was condemned on Thursday by France's High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, who drew a distinction between the organization and the major pro-independence political party, FLNKS, which has called for calm.

Armed forces were protecting New Caledonia's two airports and port, he said, adding that main and secondary roads in Noumea were blocked by barricades of burning cars and car carcasses, some rigged with booby traps.

There were also confrontations overnight between CCAT members and self-defense groups who are also in breach of the curfew and a weapons ban, he said.

Darmanin said numbers of police and gendarmes in New Caledonia would rise from 1,700 to 2,700 by Friday evening, with a small number of soldiers assisting.

A representative of CCAT said they did not know who was under house arrest.

Three young Kanak have died in the riots, and a 22-year-old police official died after being shot in the head as he was talking to protesters, Darmanin said. Another gendarme died in an accidental shooting while preparing to deploy, the interior ministry said.

Noumea resident Yoan Fleurot said he has seen looting and destruction of property. Some store owners willingly let their shelves be raided, pleading that their shops not be destroyed.

"The truth is that at night you can't even try to go out," he said. "Caledonia will have a hard time recovering from this crisis."

Ukrainian units locked in street battles with the Kremlin’s forces in a key northeastern Ukraine town have halted the Russian advance, military officials in Kyiv claimed Thursday, though a senior Moscow official said the frontline push had enough resources to keep going.

Russian attempts to establish a foothold in the town of Vovchansk, which is among the largest towns in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region with a prewar population of 17,000, "have been foiled," Ukraine’s general staff said in a midday report.

It was not possible to independently verify the claim.

PUTIN AND XI REAFFIRM 'NO-LIMITS' PARTNERSHIP AS MOSCOW INTENSIFIES OFFENSIVE IN UKRAINE

Vovchansk, located just 3 miles from the Russian border, has been a hotspot in the fighting in recent days. Russia launched an offensive in the Kharkiv area late last week, significantly adding to the pressure on Ukraine’s outnumbered and outgunned forces which are waiting for delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners.

Russia has also been testing defenses at other points along the roughly 620-mile front line snaking from north to south through eastern Ukraine. That line has barely changed over the past 18 months in what became a war of attrition. Recent Russian attacks have come in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north and in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. The apparent aim is to stretch depleted Ukrainian resources and exploit weaknesses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his top military commanders in Kharkiv on Thursday and said the region "is generally under control." However, he acknowledged on social media that the situation is "extremely difficult" and said Ukraine was again strengthening its units in Kharkiv.

"We clearly see how the occupier is trying to distract our forces and make our combat work less concentrated," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Wednesday.

RUSSIA'S MILITARY CLAIMS TO HAVE SHOT DOWN 10 US-SUPPLIED MISSILES OVER CRIMEA AS BLINKEN VISITS UKRAINE

Ukrainian authorities have evacuated some 8,000 civilians from Vovchansk. The Russian army’s usual tactic is to reduce towns and villages to ruins with aerial strikes before its units move in.

Former Russian defense minister and now the head of the presidential Security Council Sergei Shoigu insisted Russian troops are pushing the offensive in many directions and that "it’s going quite well."

"I hope we will keep advancing. We have certain reserves for the purpose, in personnel, equipment and munitions," he said in televised remarks.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, calculated that Russian forces attacking in Kharkiv have advanced no more than 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the shared border.

It reckons Moscow’s main aim in Kharkiv is to create a "buffer zone" that will prevent Ukrainian cross-border strikes on Russia’s neighboring Belgorod region.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a two-day visit to Kyiv this week, sought to reassure Ukraine of continuing American support. He announced a $2 billion arms deal, with most of the money coming from a package approved last month.

Ukrainian officials say their needs are urgent, and Western partners have vowed to expedite deliveries of military hardware.

NATO Military Committee Chair Rob Bauer on Thursday urged senior officers from the 32-nation alliance to send more arms and ammunition to Ukraine, even if that means ignoring weapons stock guidelines.

"If faced with a choice between meeting the NATO capability targets or supporting Ukraine, you should support Ukraine," he told a meeting of top defense brass in Brussels. "Stocks can and will be replenished. Lives lost are lost forever."

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to consolidate ties with China with an official visit to Beijing.

China has backed Russia diplomatically over its invasion of Ukraine and is now an important export market for Russian oil and gas. Russia also has turned to China for high-tech products.

The threat from a wildfire near Canada's oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, appeared to be easing on Wednesday, a day after it forced thousands of residents to evacuate and stirred memories of a damaging blaze nearly a decade earlier.

Favorable winds were expected to push the fire away from the city of about 68,000 in northwest Canada, where many residents earn a paycheck from the nearby oil industry. The Fort McMurray fire comes as Canada is just entering a new fire season after last year’s record number of wildfires sent choking smoke across parts of the U.S. and forced more than 235,000 Canadians to evacuate their communities.

But scientists have said it's not clear that wildfire smoke will be the same problem it was last year, when unusual weather patterns drove the haze southward.

TRUDEAU'S BUNGLED WILDFIRE RESPONSE MADE CANADA MOST POLLUTED COUNTRY ON CONTINENT: CRITICS

In Fort McMurray, about 6,600 residents fled parts of the city's southern end while others were on alert. It was familiar terrain for the Albertan city, which survived a catastrophic blaze in 2016 that destroyed 2,400 homes and forced more than 80,000 people to flee.

Jay Telegdi, who lost his home to that wildfire, watched from his balcony on Tuesday as the sky over downtown turned orange and black. It "burned your eyes" to walk outside, Telegdi said in a phone interview, adding that it was slightly easier to breathe on Wednesday.

"You can grow accustomed to it," said Telegdi, who works for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. "We’ve come to accept columns of smoke blocking out the whole sky and yet we’re still drilling for oil."

Canada is the world’s fourth-largest producer of oil and fifth-largest producer of gas, a reality that sits uncomfortably with the nation’s pledges to protect biodiversity and lead the global fight against climate change. When burned, oil and gas release heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, intensifying the very conditions that help wildfires scorch millions of acres.

In Canada last year, they burned an area larger than New York state, releasing nearly three times the emissions produced by the country's entire economy in a year, and sending hazardous air to U.S. cities thousands of miles away. No civilians died, but at least four firefighters died.

Dave Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada, a government agency, said the smoke that reached the U.S. East Coast last year largely came from Eastern Canada.

"That was odd in the sense most wildfires in Canada are in British Columbia and Alberta. You rarely see a fire in Quebec and the smoke travels to the United States," Phillips said, adding that Eastern Canada has seen a lot more rain this spring and has been much cooler.

Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, said "legacy effects" of last year's season are spilling over to 2024. Ongoing drought in Western Canada, higher temperatures due to El Nino and so-called "zombie fires" that burn underground through the winter in organic matter and reappear once the snow melts in the spring are factors driving wildfires in some parts of the country.

Alberta, the province that includes Fort McMurray, draws significant revenue from the fossil fuel industry. Suncor Energy said Wednesday its operations outside the city were not affected by the fires, but that some of its employees and contractors were. Fire officials said evacuation orders would likely be in place in Fort McMurray until Tuesday.

Charlie Angus, a member of Parliament from the leftist New Democrats party, said on X that oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Shell "predicted the climate catastrophe that is upending life today," which studies from journalists, scientists and advocacy groups have confirmed in subsequent years.

"They just never bothered to tell the people in Fort McMurray who are living with the consequences of peak C02," Angus wrote.

In the neighboring province of British Columbia, a low-pressure system moving into the northern part of the province was expected to dampen activity at a blaze that has forced several thousand people to flee their homes in and around Fort Nelson, a town of about 4,700, the province's wildfire service said.

In Manitoba, about 500 people have been forced out of their homes in the remote northwestern community of Cranberry Portage ahead of a fire measuring more than 300 square kilometers. Officials said Wednesday the fire was about 80% contained and residents might be allowed to return to their homes this weekend.

A fire at a residential building in western Germany left three people dead and two others with life-threatening injuries Thursday, authorities said.

The blaze broke out during the night in a kiosk that was part of the building in Duesseldorf. 

It spread to the entrance and second floor, the fire service said in a statement.

2 DEAD IN GERMAN CAPITAL AFTER 12-STORY JUMPS FROM BURNING APARTMENT BUILDING

Firefighters used ladders to rescue several people from balconies.

Sixteen people were taken to hospitals, the fire service said.

The cause of the fire was unclear, according to police.

A South Korean court ruled in favor of the government’s contentious plan to drastically boost medical school admissions on Thursday.

A standoff between the government and doctors opposed to the plan has shaken the country’s medical system for months. More than 10,000 junior doctors have been on strike since February in protest.

The Seoul High Court rejected a request from striking doctors and other opponents for an injunction to block the plan, which would raise the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 next year, from the current cap of 3,058.

SOUTH KOREA DOCTORS' STRIKE ESCALATES AS SENIOR DOCTORS RESIGN

Lee Byung-chul, a lawyer for the doctors, said he will prepare to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, the country’s top court. He said he will issue an official statement on Thursday's ruling after reviewing details of the verdict.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo welcomed the decision, saying the government appreciates "the wise ruling by the judicial branch." He said the government will take steps to finalize medical school admission plans for the 2025 academic year.

The striking doctors represent a fraction of all doctors in South Korea, estimated to number between 115,000 and 140,000. But in some major hospitals, they account for about 30% to 40% of doctors, assisting fully qualified doctors and department chiefs during surgeries and other treatments while training. Their walkouts have caused cancellations to numerous surgeries and other treatments at their hospitals.

Officials say the plan is aimed at adding more doctors, because South Korea has one of the world’s fastest-aging populations and its doctor-to-population ratio is among the lowest in the developed world.

Doctors say schools aren’t ready to handle an abrupt increase in students and that it would ultimately undermine the country’s medical services. They say the government plan would also result in doctors performing unnecessary treatments because of greater competition. But critics argue that many doctors are mainly worried that more competition would lower their incomes.

Government officials earlier threatened to suspend the licenses of the striking doctors but later halted related administrative steps to facilitate dialogue with the strikers.

The 71-year-old suspect who allegedly shot Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico has appeared in an undated Facebook video that may offer clues into his motive, in which he is heard saying "I do not agree with government policy," reports say. 

Fico, 59, is expected to survive after being shot multiple times Wednesday while he was greeting supporters at an event outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, Defense Minister Robert Kalina says. 

A suspect was swiftly arrested following the attack and an initial investigation found "a clear political motivation," Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok added. 

In a video that has surfaced on Facebook, a person who matched images of the man taken into custody Wednesday was heard saying "I do not agree with government policy," according to Reuters. 

SLOVAKIA’S PRIME MINISTER EXPECTED TO SURVIVE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AS SHOCK REVERBERATES ACROSS EUROPE 

"Liquidated mass media. Why is [public broadcaster] RTVS being attacked?" the man reportedly continued, while also questioning the removal of the chairman of a state judicial council. 

Slovakia’s government in late April had approved a controversial overhaul of the country's public radio and television services, a move that critics say would result in the government taking full control of the media. 

Fico said the changes are needed because RTVS is politically biased and "is in conflict with the Slovak government." The proposed changes would mean it is replaced by a new organization. 

But thousands rallied in Slovakia’s capital in March to condemn the plan, which was widely criticized by local journalists, the opposition, international media organizations and the European Commission, The Associated Press reports. 

SLOVAKIA PRIME MINISTER IS SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES 

Media in Slovakia say the suspect is a former shopping mall security guard and a member of a Slovak Society of Writers, according to Reuters. 

He reportedly has been charged with attempted murder and could face 25 years to life if convicted. 

President Biden and other international leaders have condemned the shooting, with Slovakia President-elect Peter Pellegrini calling it an "assassination attempt." 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.