London: The UK government is expected to present a bill this week banning local councils from launching boycotts of Israeli products, The Guardian reported.

The proposed law would forbid councils from taking part in the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to pressure Israel through economic activism.

Michael Gove, the minister overseeing local government, is introducing the legislation on the grounds that boycotting Israeli goods leads to “appalling antisemitic rhetoric and abuse.”

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s top Maronite Christian cleric said on Sunday the country’s constitution and democratic system had been violated in “cold blood” during a failed attempt to elect a new president last week, and warned that divisions in the nation had widened.
Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai spoke in his first sermon since the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah and its closest allies thwarted an attempt by factions including the main Christian parties to elect an IMF official as president.

LOD: A relentless wave of violent crime within Israel’s Palestinian minority is turning cities and towns into bloody battlefields, exasperating a community feeling increasingly forsaken by Israeli authorities.
Anger over the mounting insecurity is directed at Israel’s government and its ultranationalist minister in charge of police, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Critics say that with his history of anti-Arab rhetoric, he cannot be trusted to combat the rising scourge.

JUBA, South Sudan: Plagued by continuing conflict despite the calls for a ceasefire, Sudan finds itself grappling with a new and controversial weapon on its battlefield: drones. These unmanned aerial vehicles have sparked intense debate among experts, who question whether they hold the power to reshape the ongoing war.

KHARTOUM: Air strikes killed civilians and pummeled multiple parts of the Sudanese capital on Saturday, residents said, as mediators pushed the warring factions toward a new cease-fire.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is entering its third month with neither side gaining a clear advantage.
The war has displaced 2.2 million Sudanese and killed hundreds, and has sent the war-weary Darfur region into a “humanitarian calamity,” the United Nations has said.