ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan has written to U.S. President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, and urged her to contact Israel's prime minister and raise the plight of children in Gaza, authorities in Ankara said on Saturday.
Emine Erdogan wrote that she had been inspired by the letter Melania Trump sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month about children in Ukraine and Russia.
By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) -Former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage set out plans on Saturday for "mass deportations" of migrants who have crossed the English Channel on small boats if his Reform UK party forms Britain's next government.
In an interview with Saturday's edition of The Times newspaper, Farage said he would withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights and sign deals with Afghanistan, Eritrea and other top countries of origin to repatriate illegal migrants.
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, part of a caretaker government, quit his cabinet post on Friday ahead of schedule over the government's position on Israel's war in Gaza, he told reporters.
He said the government did not support additional measures against Israel over Gaza and plans for the occupied West Bank.
"I have felt pushback in the cabinet for additional measures," he said, adding he would formally tender his resignation.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned on Friday after a cabinet meeting failed to agree to sanctions against Israel.
The centre-right New Social Contract Party, of which Veldkamp is a member, withdrew from the governing coalition after the resignation, adding to growing political chaos in the country.
Veldkamp had said on Thursday that he wanted new measures against Israel over its iron-fisted tactics in the Gaza war against Hamas.
Iran will meet next week with Britain, France and Germany for talks on its nuclear programme, the parties said Friday, as the European powers warned Tehran to engage swiftly to avoid snapback sanctions.
The Islamic republic suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in July in the wake of its 12-day war with Israel, citing the UN nuclear watchdog's failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.
(Reuters) -Foreign ministers from European countries, Australia and Britain on Friday jointly condemned Israel's plans to construct a settlement east of Jerusalem.
The approval of the "E1" project would bisect the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, fragmenting territory Palestinians seek for an independent state.
It was announced last week by far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and received the final go-ahead from a Defence Ministry planning commission on Wednesday.
By Gwladys Fouche
OSLO/ARENDAL, Norway (Reuters) -Investments in Israel have taken centre stage in Norway's election campaign, sparking an unusually public debate over how the world's largest sovereign wealth fund operates.
The row could help sway which political party leads Norway's next government as the Sept. 8 election race is tight.
(Reuters) -A global hunger monitor determined on Friday that famine is taking place in Gaza, nearly two years after Israel launched a military campaign in the tiny Palestinian territory in response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.
Here is an explanation of what the monitor is, how it assesses a hunger crisis, when it identifies famine and how it collects data.
WHO IS CONFIRMING FAMINE?
The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza, the first time it has done so in the Middle East, with experts warning 500,000 people face "catastrophic" hunger.
"It is a famine: the Gaza famine," said Tom Fletcher, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, as the IPC panel found famine was now present in and around Gaza City.
He blamed Israel, accusing it of "systematic obstruction" of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
BERLIN (Reuters) -A German government spokesman said on Friday that Berlin has current no plans to recognise a Palestinian state because that would undermine any efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution with Israel.
"A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today. ... The recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process and such decisions would now be rather counterproductive," the spokesperson said during a press conference.
