Briefly

MIDDLE EAST

Washington backs Israel on settlements

The administration of US President Donald Tump on Monday said it no longer considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be a violation of international law, reversing four decades of Washington's policy and further undermining the Palestinians' effort to gain statehood. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US is repudiating the 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the occupied territories were "inconsistent with international law". Israeli leaders welcomed the decision, while Palestinians and leaders in other nations warned that it undercut any chance of a broader peace deal. The change reflects the administration's embrace of a hard-line Israeli view at the expense of the Palestinian quest for statehood. Similar actions have included Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the movement of the US embassy to that city and the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington.

UNITED STATES

Migration crackdown nets 100,000 minors

The United States has the world's highest rate of children in detention, including more than 100,000 in immigration-related custody that violates international law, the author of a United Nations study said on Monday. Worldwide, more than 7 million people under age 18 are held in jails and police custody, including 330,000 in immigration detention centers, independent expert Manfred Nowak said. Children should be detained only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest time possible, according to the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty. "The US is one of the countries with the highest numbers－we still have more than 100,000 children in migration-related detention in the (US)," Nowak told a news conference.

JAPAN

Abe ties record for longest-serving PM

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tied Japan's record for longest-serving prime minister on Tuesday－a remarkable feat for a leader who once quit in humiliation. Abe, 65, has now served a total 2,886 days in office, tying the record set by Taro Katsura more than a century ago. Abe served a troubled one-year term before quitting in 2007 and made a comeback in December 2012, promising a stronger military and a revamped economy while aiming to revise Japan's post-war constitution.

AUSTRALIA

Haze blankets Sydney as bushfires rage

Sydney was shrouded in dangerous haze on Tuesday as smoke from bushfires blazing along Australia's eastern seaboard sent pollution levels soaring in the country's biggest city. Official data showed that pollution had reached "hazardous" levels across Sydney, with the highest readings of PM 2.5 particulates in the city's northwest reaching 186 parts per million on the air quality index－comparable to New Delhi's. Residents were warned to avoid outdoor exercise. The blazes, which have been raging for several days, have burned through almost 140,000 hectares of bushland.

BRAZIL

Amazon deforestation is worst since 2008

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest is at its worst in more than a decade, a government report said on Monday, undermining officials' claims that concerns by environmentalists have been overblown. Deforestation between August 2018 and July 2019 reached 9,762 square kilometers, a 30 percent increase over the previous year, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research said. The area of deforestation is the largest recorded since 2008 and is about the size of the US states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.