Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli settlements in the West Bank, legal upsets for the U.S. trade war, and the Trump administration’s crackdown on elite universities.
‘De Facto Annexation’
Israel approved a massive expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, marking a major win for the far-right lawmakers who back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition. The decision sparked international concern that ongoing efforts to secure a cease-fire deal in Gaza could be undermined as a result.
“All the new communities are being established with a long-term strategic vision, aimed at reinforcing Israeli control of the territory, preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, and securing development reserves for settlement in the coming decades,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The decision will establish 22 settlements across the occupied West Bank. Of those, 12 will be the legalization of outposts previously built without government authorization. This is Israel’s largest such expansion since it signed the 1993 Oslo Accords, which aimed to create a pathway to Palestinian statehood.
More than 100 settlements, home to some 500,000 Israeli settlers, exist in the West Bank. Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights are considered illegal under international law. Last July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s presence in the occupied territories is unlawful and demanded that all settlement construction halt immediately. Israel denounced the ruling.
The expansion is a “dangerous escalation and a challenge to international legitimacy and international law,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Earlier this week, Abu Rudeineh warned that the move would “perpetuate regional violence and instability.”
Deadly assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank have surged since Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Despite international sanctions against some settlers and internal warnings that Jewish terrorism in the West Bank is out of control, Smotrich and other ultra-nationalist parliamentarians have pushed Netanyahu to expand Israel’s grip on the territory, with the ultimate goal of securing full sovereignty.
“The government is making clear—again and without restraint—that it prefers deepening the occupation and advancing de facto annexation over pursuing peace,” said Peace Now, an Israeli nongovernment organization. “The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the Occupied Territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal.”
In February, Katz warned the Israeli military to “prepare for a prolonged presence” in the area, as Israel deployed tanks to the territory for the first time in decades as part of an ongoing operation targeting militant groups in Palestinian refugee camps. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced in recent weeks alone.
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What We’re Following
Trade war setbacks. Two U.S. federal courts ruled this week that U.S. President Donald Trump overstepped his authority when he used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in April to impose sweeping tariffs on virtually every country in the world.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade blocked Trump from imposing duties under the IEEPA, though the president still remains able to temporarily launch some import taxes under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. However, on Thursday, a U.S. federal appeals court temporarily paused the ruling. Also on Thursday, a D.C. District Court judge ordered a preliminary injunction against the administration’s collection of duties on the two plaintiff companies in a separate but related case.
Even with an ordered suspension on one of the cases, the rulings marked a major defeat for a White House that has pushed through its “Liberation Day” trade policies largely unchecked. “[T]here are positives to finally testing the limits of IEEPA, which has always been seen as potentially open to abuse from the executive branch, whether related to economic sanctions or trade barriers,” FP’s Keith Johnson wrote.
Some countries welcomed the decisions, but many foreign leaders, particularly in Europe, were careful to limit their responses or remain silent so as not to jeopardize ongoing trade negotiations with the United States.
College admissions. A U.S. federal judge extended a temporary order on Thursday blocking the Trump administration from preventing Harvard University from enrolling international students. The decision comes a day after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students with “connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” as part of the White House’s larger crackdown on elite universities and its ongoing trade war with Beijing.
“We continue to reject Harvard’s repeated pattern of endangering its students and spreading American hate—it must change its ways in order to participate in American programs,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X on Thursday.
Since taking office, Trump has threatened to or pulled federal funding from elite universities that he claims foster antisemitism or advocate a “woke” liberal agenda, such as by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports. Now, his target is international students, roughly a quarter (or more than 270,000) of whom came from China during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Many universities rely on foreign students for revenue—the cost of tuition for international students is usually much steeper than for those from the United States—and for research work. FP’s Christina Lu reported earlier this month that Trump’s crusade against elite universities could leave an opening for other countries to poach top U.S. researchers and prospective students.
New COVID threat. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday of a new COVID-19 “variant under monitoring” that is popping up around the world. Cases have been reported in 22 countries, including across the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, the western Pacific, and several U.S. states. Called NB.1.8.1, the new strain reached nearly 11 percent of samples reported by mid-May. However, the WHO maintains that the variant’s public health risk is low, as current vaccines are expected to remain effective against it.
Yet that could change with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unilaterally announcing on Tuesday that annual COVID-19 shots are no longer recommended for healthy people aged 6 months and older, including pregnant women. The ruling blindsided the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it contradicted the advice of many health experts, who argue that regular immunization is the best way to protect against the disease.
Odds and Ends
It might nacho be your thing, but dozens of competitors at Cooper’s Hill risked life and limb on Monday to outrace a wheel of Double Gloucester cheese in the United Kingdom’s annual cheese-rolling competition. It was a gouda day for the cheese, which beat the humans down the 200-yard hill once again. But Tom Kopke of Germany still got a chance to celebrate the centuries-old tradition as the first person to reach the bottom of the hill for a second year in a row. It is unclear if Kopke will brie back for next year’s race.
The post Israel Approves New West Bank Settlements appeared first on Foreign Policy.
