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Irish University to Cut Links with Israel Over Gaza War

A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Irish University to Cut Links with Israel Over Gaza War

A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A picture taken from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli tank rolling along the border fence on June 4, 2025. (AFP)

Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law".

The university's board informed students by email on Wednesday that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel".

The recommendations would be "enacted for the duration of the ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law", said the email sent by the board's chairman Paul Farrell, and seen by AFP.

The taskforce was set up after part of the university's campus in central Dublin was blockaded by students for five days last year in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza.

Among the taskforce's recommendations approved by the board were pledges to divest "from all companies headquartered in Israel" and to "enter into no future supply contracts with Israeli firms" and "no new commercial relationships with Israeli entities".

The university also said that it would "enter into no further mobility agreements with Israeli universities".

Trinity has two current Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities: Bar Ilan University, an agreement that ends in July 2026, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which ends in July 2025, the university told AFP in an email.

The board also said that the university "should not submit for approval or agree to participate in any new institutional research agreements involving Israeli participation".

It "should seek to align itself with like-minded universities and bodies in an effort to influence EU policy concerning Israel's participation in such collaborations," it added.

Ireland has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel's response to the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.

Polls since the start of the war have shown overwhelming pro-Palestinian sympathy in Ireland.

In May 2024, Dublin joined several other European countries in recognizing Palestine as a "sovereign and independent state".

It then joined South Africa in bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in the Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza -- charges angrily denied by Israeli leaders.

In December, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar ordered the closure of the country's embassy in Dublin, blaming Ireland's "extreme anti-Israel policies".

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World

US Lawmaker Says He Was ‘Detained’ by Israeli Settlers in West Bank

US Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks with a Palestinian resident of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, during a visit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 9, 2026. (Reuters)
US Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks with a Palestinian resident of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, during a visit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 9, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Lawmaker Says He Was ‘Detained’ by Israeli Settlers in West Bank

US Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks with a Palestinian resident of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, during a visit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 9, 2026. (Reuters)
US Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks with a Palestinian resident of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, during a visit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 9, 2026. (Reuters)

A prominent Democratic US lawmaker from California, Ro Khanna, said Saturday he was "detained" by armed Israeli settlers along with other Americans during a visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and said the military was complicit in the incident.

"Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine," Khanna said in a post on X.

When the Israeli military arrived at the scene, he added, "they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake."

Footage and accounts provided to The New York Times by Khanna and his team shows a group of armed men blocking the road outside a small village in the southern West Bank and swearing at them in Hebrew and Arabic.

Khanna told the Times that when the Israeli troops arrived at the scene, the soldiers spoke to the settlers and subsequently blocked the road themselves when the settlers left.

After calls to the US embassy and Israeli police, Khanna said he was allowed to pass.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The United States is a staunch ally of Israel, but some lawmakers, especially Democrats, have vehemently criticized Israel's military offensive in Gaza, and more generally the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

World

Floods in Bangladesh Kill 44, Leave Over a Million Stranded

11 July 2026, Bangladesh, Dhaka: People wade through floodwaters in Dhaka, after torrential rain caused severe flooding and waterlogging across parts of the country. (dpa)
11 July 2026, Bangladesh, Dhaka: People wade through floodwaters in Dhaka, after torrential rain caused severe flooding and waterlogging across parts of the country. (dpa)
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Floods in Bangladesh Kill 44, Leave Over a Million Stranded

11 July 2026, Bangladesh, Dhaka: People wade through floodwaters in Dhaka, after torrential rain caused severe flooding and waterlogging across parts of the country. (dpa)
11 July 2026, Bangladesh, Dhaka: People wade through floodwaters in Dhaka, after torrential rain caused severe flooding and waterlogging across parts of the country. (dpa)

Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential monsoon rain have killed at least 44 people in southeastern Bangladesh and left over a million stranded as authorities raced on Saturday to deliver aid to devastated communities.

The disaster management ministry said on Saturday that flooding across seven districts — Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Moulvibazar and Habiganj — has disrupted daily life, isolated thousands of families, and stranded 267,918 households.

Power outages, damaged roads and broken communication ‌links have slowed ‌rescue and relief efforts. Many residents have been unable ‌to ⁠cook for days ⁠as flood waters submerged their homes, while others are struggling after thick layers of mud covered kitchens and living spaces.

“There is still water inside our home and we have no way to cook. The dry food we had has run out, and we spend the nights in the dark with our children because there is no ⁠electricity,” said Nurul Islam, a resident of a flood-hit ‌area in Chattogram.

Thousands of families are ‌relying on dry food — flattened rice, puffed rice or biscuits that do ‌not require cooking — and emergency relief. Washed-out roads and damaged bridges, ‌however, have made it difficult for aid workers to reach some of the hardest-hit communities.

Army and navy personnel are ferrying food, drinking water, medicines and other essential supplies by boat to isolated communities, as authorities step up relief ‌efforts.

"The government is doing everything possible to support flood victims. Relief, safe drinking water and medical supplies are ⁠being distributed, ⁠and we urge people whose homes have been inundated to move to the nearest shelter," Disaster Management and Relief Minister Iqbal Hossain said during a visit to affected areas in Chattogram.

The heavy rain also triggered landslides in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar earlier this week, killing 16 refugees, including women and children. More than one million Rohingya refugees live in the camps, where makeshift shelters on steep, deforested hillsides are especially vulnerable during the monsoon season.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, with seasonal monsoon rains regularly causing floods, river erosion and landslides. Scientists say climate change is making extreme rainfall more frequent and intense, increasing the scale and severity of such disasters.

World

Iran Warns It Will Not Be Bound by Deal with US if Violations Continue

An Iranian woman walks near an anti-US mural in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian woman walks near an anti-US mural in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)
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Iran Warns It Will Not Be Bound by Deal with US if Violations Continue

An Iranian woman walks near an anti-US mural in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian woman walks near an anti-US mural in a street in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)

Iran warned that it would no longer be bound by a deal with the US aimed at ending the Middle East war if Washington's violations of the agreement continued, state TV reported on Saturday.

Referring to the deal struck with the help of Pakistani mediation, Tehran's UN ambassador said in remarks in New York on Friday "that if the United States continues to violate its obligations under the Islamabad Understanding, Iran will no longer consider itself bound by its commitments under that understanding", according to a statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB.

The Iran-US deal was preceded by an April ceasefire, but the two sides have exchanged significant fire in recent days over the Strait of Hormuz, threatening talks laid out under the deal aimed at finding a permanent resolution to the war.

Following the exchanges, US President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over, but said talks with Iran would continue.

In his remarks to reporters on Friday, Iranian UN representative Amir Saeid Iravani said Washington had "violated its obligation by launching and continuing large-scale military attacks against Iran's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

"Iran remains committed to the faithful implementation of (the) Memorandum of Understanding provided that the United States fully and faithfully complies with its own obligations," he added.