Netanyahu Appoints Top Jobs after Resigning Ministries

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Reuters)
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Netanyahu Appoints Top Jobs after Resigning Ministries

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday he would appoint three ministers in portfolios he previously held but was forced to resign from following criminal charges.

He named three members of his conservative Likud party to head the welfare, agriculture and diaspora ministries.

Netanyahu was charged in November in three separate corruption cases and subsequently announced he would step down from the three ministerial posts he held besides serving as prime minister.

Israeli law stipulates that ministers facing criminal charges resign, but there is no such provision for the premiership.

Netanyahu had named lawmakers to the vacant posts earlier in January, but his plan was scuppered when the supreme court said a transitional government should "refrain from making changes in its composition".

As a result, the appointments announced Monday go to one deputy minister and two lawmakers who are already cabinet members.

Deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely will take on the diaspora portfolio, a statement from Netanayahu's office said.

And Tzachi Hanegbi, in addition to his duties as regional cooperation minister, will head the agriculture ministry.

Ofir Akunis will take on the welfare ministry in addition to his science portfolio, the statement said.

The prime minister's office did not detail when the appointees would formally start their additional roles.

Israelis will go to the polls on March 2 for the third time in less than a year, after neither Netanyahu nor his centrist rival Benny Gantz managed to form a majority coalition following the September vote.

A statement from Likud's electoral campaign voiced hope the new agriculture minister would "bring back to the Likud farmers who didn't vote for the Likud in the last elections".

But the campaign risks being overshadowed by Netanyahu's legal woes, after the premier requested parliamentary immunity.

On Sunday, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein said lawmakers would meet on January 28 to discuss forming a committee which has the power to examine the premier's request.

Netanyahu protests his innocence and has accused the state prosecution of a witch hunt.



Strikes Near Iran, Israel Nuclear Sites Risk ‘Unmitigated Catastrophe’, Says UN

 A drone view shows a damage in a residential neighborhood, following a night of Iranian missile strikes which injured dozens of Israelis, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Dimona, southern Israel March 22, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view shows a damage in a residential neighborhood, following a night of Iranian missile strikes which injured dozens of Israelis, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Dimona, southern Israel March 22, 2026. (Reuters)
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Strikes Near Iran, Israel Nuclear Sites Risk ‘Unmitigated Catastrophe’, Says UN

 A drone view shows a damage in a residential neighborhood, following a night of Iranian missile strikes which injured dozens of Israelis, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Dimona, southern Israel March 22, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view shows a damage in a residential neighborhood, following a night of Iranian missile strikes which injured dozens of Israelis, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Dimona, southern Israel March 22, 2026. (Reuters)

Strikes around Iran and Israel's nuclear sites risk unleashing an "unmitigated catastrophe", the United Nations rights chief said Wednesday, warning that the Middle East war had created an "extremely dangerous" situation.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, where countries were holding an urgent debate on Tehran's attacks across the Gulf, Volker Turk warned that many of the strikes in the weeks-long war "raise serious concerns under international law".

In particular, Turk cautioned that "recent missile strikes near nuclear sites in both Israel and Iran underscore the immense danger of further escalation".

"States are flirting with unmitigated catastrophe."

His comments came after the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had informed it that "another projectile hit the premises" of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday, without damaging it.

Over the weekend, an Iranian strike hit the southern Israeli town of Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, in what Tehran said was in response to an earlier attack on its nuclear site at Natanz.

"The situation is extremely dangerous and unpredictable, and has created chaos across the region," Turk said, insisting that "we cannot go back to war as a tool of international relations".

The UN rights chief also warned that "this conflict has an unprecedented power to ensnare countries across borders and around the world".

"The complex dynamics could ignite further national, regional or global crises at any moment, with an appalling impact on civilians and people everywhere."


Hungary Says Will ‘Progressively’ Stop Gas Deliveries to Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during an assembly of European far-right parties with Orban’s Patriots for Europe group, in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during an assembly of European far-right parties with Orban’s Patriots for Europe group, in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)
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Hungary Says Will ‘Progressively’ Stop Gas Deliveries to Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during an assembly of European far-right parties with Orban’s Patriots for Europe group, in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during an assembly of European far-right parties with Orban’s Patriots for Europe group, in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)

Hungary's prime minister said on Wednesday that Budapest would phase out gas deliveries to Ukraine, the latest salvo in a feud between the two countries over a damaged oil pipeline.

"To break the oil blockade and guarantee the security of Hungary's energy supply, new measures are now necessary," Viktor Orban said in a video posted on Facebook.

Hungary has locked horns with Ukraine over damage to the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline through Ukraine, which has choked the flow of cheap Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia.


Iran Speaker Warns US Not to Test 'Resolve to Defend Our Land'

FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
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Iran Speaker Warns US Not to Test 'Resolve to Defend Our Land'

FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa
FILED - 12 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Beirut. Photo: Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament/dpa

Iran's parliament speaker on Wednesday warned Washington not to test Tehran’s determination to defend its territory after the United States was reported to be sending more troops to the Middle East.

"We are closely monitoring all US movements in the region, especially troop deployments.

What the generals have broke, the soldiers can't fix; instead, they will fall victim to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's delusions," said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in an X post in English.

"Do not test our resolve to defend our land."

At least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to the Mideast in the coming days, three people with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

The Pentagon is also in the process of deploying two Marine units that will add about 5,000 Marines and thousands of sailors to the region.