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The United Arab Emirates likes to think of itself as a sort of Switzerland of the Gulf. Microsoft’s (MSFT.O), opens new tab $1.5 billion stake in Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company G42, announced opens new tab on Tuesday, shows the limits of remaining a neutral counterparty of the United States and China, especially when it comes to AI. While nominally a private sector deal, the main upshot is to shove the UAE firmly into the U.S. camp.

As part of Tuesday’s deal, Microsoft President Brad Smith will join the board of G42, and the $3 trillion group will get to sell a set proportion of cloud capacity to G42, a person familiar with the matter told Breakingviews. G42 in return can use its AI models on Microsoft’s platforms. But there’s an additional, political condition: G42 has to stop using Huawei telecom equipment, which the United States reckons the Chinese government employs for intelligence.

In some ways, China and the UAE have a close relationship – not least because the Middle Kingdom buys lots of Abu Dhabi oil. (...)

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Why are Israeli soldiers uploading photos of themselves inside Gazan homes or with Palestinian detainees to their dating profiles? Beyond the 'uniform effect' which turned U.S. firefighters into heroes after September 11, some experts say the violent militarism seen on dating apps is leading to disturbing trends in Israeli society – online and off

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Far-right pro-Russian party Vazrazhdane has joined the far-right Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament, deputies from the Eurosceptic Bulgarian party announced on Wednesday after visiting Moscow at the invitation of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party.

In Bulgaria, Vazrazhdane is the third-largest political force in the national parliament, which gives them the potential to have up to four out of a total of 17 Bulgarian MEPs in the European Parliament – which would undoubtedly help ID, currently the sixth largest group in the EU Parliament with 59 members.

According to the latest EU elections projections, the ID group is estimated to rank third, winning 92 seats in the new EU House.
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Satellite imagery and video footage have emerged suggesting that Egypt is building what appears to be a large, concrete-walled enclosure which observers believe will be used to manage a major influx of Palestinian refugees flooding out of Gaza via the Rafah crossng on its eastern border.

Yet, with the Palestinian death toll now approaching 30,000 – approximately 70% of whom are reported to be women and children – and Israel planning on invading Rafah, where upwards of a million Palestinians are huddled, the prospect of refugees spilling into the Sinai looks more and more likely.

Sisi has roundly condemned Israel’s military assault on Gaza, and is fully aware of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding just across the border. But (...)

For a start, Egypt is in no position to absorb large numbers of Palestinian refugees.
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Compounding this is Egypt’s broken economic model.
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Brazil criticized the "paralysis" of the UN Security Council on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as it opened a G20 meeting Wednesday where the international community's deep divisions were on display.

The outlook is bleak for progress on the thorny agenda of conflicts and crises gripping the planet as foreign ministers from the world's biggest economies gather in Rio de Janeiro for the Group of 20's first high-level meeting of the year.

Opening the two-day meeting, which featured US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Brazil's top diplomat, Mauro Vieira, said the explosion of global conflicts shows international institutions like the United Nations are not working.

"Multilateral institutions are not properly equipped to deal with the current challenges, as has been demonstrated by the Security Council's unacceptable paralysis on the ongoing conflicts" in Gaza and Ukraine, Vieira said, adding the situation was costing "innocent lives."
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Founded in 1999, the G20 brings together most of the world's biggest economies.

Originally an economic forum, it has grown increasingly involved in international politics.

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SANA, the state news agency, quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the missiles were fired from the direction of Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and hit a building, killing two civilians and wounding another.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years. It rarely acknowledges its actions in Syria but has previously said it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

On Wednesday as well, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib held a meeting in Beirut with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware. He said: "We ask that Israel gives peace a chance rather than going on with the policy of war.”

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said he didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter, but he still offered harsh criticism of the administration and said Israel’s actions may amount to genocide.

White declined to issue a preliminary injunction and dismissed the case. But he was critical of the administration, writing, “There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the Court. This is one of those cases.”

He conceded the plaintiffs’ point that “it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide,” and he implored the White House “to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

As fate would have it, in order to halt the discussion over the justification for Israel's right to exist, Israel has to approach the dustbin of history and pull out the "occupation," the "two-state solution," "peace in exchange for territories" – all those terms his royal genius threw away in his megalomaniac hubris. We need to shake off the dust and place these terms at the top of our agenda. We need to relinquish the lies we wanted to believe in.

This is necessary not just for getting rid of Netanyahu, but in order to overcome Hamas. We will need to pursue the two-state option in order to obtain the support of the world, mainly of the United States. We will have to strive for peace with the Palestinians, present a diplomatic path for ending the occupation and evacuating the settlements, saying clearly and openly, from every diplomatic platform: here is the Israeli initiative.

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Chicago is latest U.S. city to approve such a non-binding resolution, following Atlanta, Detroit and San Francisco in recent months.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman has said that a meeting that took place in Paris "succeeded in consolidating the proposals" for a ceasefire.

"The meeting in Paris succeeded in consolidating the proposals... That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas' side," Majed al-Ansari said referring to meetings between Qatari, US, Israeli and Egyptian officials in the French capital on Sunday.