State Department rushes to respond to internal outcry over Israel-Hamas war
CBSN
Senior State Department officials have held listening sessions for diplomats serving in six U.S. embassies in the Middle East and North Africa amid a persistent outcry over the Biden administration's approach to the war in Gaza, officials told CBS News, as the department rushes to address criticism from its workforce in both Washington and abroad.
The sessions come amid a swell of protest from diplomats, civil servants and other department employees as the conflict enters its second month and civilian casualties in Gaza resulting from Israel's retaliatory military operations mount.
At least one cable has been submitted to the department's Dissent Channel, CBS News has learned, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met personally with its authors. A source familiar with Blinken's engagements said he regularly solicits differing viewpoints from diplomatic colleagues.
A major outage of Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) on Saturday has left tens of thousands of gamers unable to access online services, stores and multimedia apps.
Three more Israeli hostages were released Saturday in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners as the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas continued to hold. It was the fifth hostage and prisoner exchange to occur as part of the first phase of the deal, which began on Jan. 19.
London — The International Criminal Court on Friday condemned sanctions imposed on its officials by President Trump. The United Nations court, which is in the Hague, Netherlands, said the U.S. measures were intended to "harm (the Court's) independent and impartial judicial work."
Washington — President Trump is holding a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba Friday, as Japan's Nippon Steel hopes the Trump administration will allow a $14.1 billion bid for U.S. Steel to move forward, despite Mr. Trump's previous pledge to block the deal.
Beijing — China on Friday lashed out at what it called U.S. "coercion" after Panama declined to renew a key infrastructure agreement with Beijing following Washington's threat to take back the Panama Canal. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a briefing that China "firmly opposes the U.S. smearing and undermining the Belt and Road cooperation through means of pressure and coercion."
The man is insistent: Our ship is in difficulty, so keep your distance, he instructs another vessel over the radio.
Abdul Fatorma, chief executive of the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International, had been working on expanding democracy in Sierra Leone for seven years.
A semi-submersible vessel loaded with over 5,000 pounds of cocaine was intercepted off the Pacific coast of Colombia, the country's navy said Wednesday. Officials said it marked the nation's first seizure of a so-called "narco sub" this year.
Bogota — Cocaine "is no worse than whiskey" and is only illegal because it comes from Latin America, said Colombian President Gustavo Petro during a live broadcast of a government meeting.
Australia-based scientists said Thursday they had produced the world's first kangaroo embryo through in vitro fertilization and hailed it as a key step towards saving endangered marsupials.
London — The Herculaneum scrolls have remained one of the many tantalizing mysteries of the ancient world for almost 2,000 years. Burnt to a crisp by lava from Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the reams of rolled-up papyrus were discovered in a mansion in Herculaneum — an ancient Roman town near Pompeii — in the mid-18th century. Both towns were decimated by the Vesuvius eruption, and most of the scrolls were so badly charred they were impossible to open.
London — Tourists continued to flee the Greek island of Santorini on Wednesday — a fourth consecutive day of exodus sparked by a series of earthquakes that have rattled the incredibly popular European vacation destination. Around 7,000 people have left the island, which sits southeast of Greece's mainland, since the quakes began last week, according to the AFP news agency.
The United States Postal Service announced Tuesday night that it is temporarily suspending accepting packages sent from China and Hong Kong until further notice.