Queen Rania of Jordan has accused Western countries of “aiding and abetting” the killing of Palestinians by supporting Israel’s war against Hamas.

The monarch also accused those backing Israel’s bombing of Gaza in response to Hamas’s terror attack as an example of Western “double standards”.

“The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding,” she told CNN.

“In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world.”

The monarch added: “When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened … but what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.

“Many in the Arab world are looking at the Western world as not just tolerating this…but aiding and abetting it.”

Queen Rania’s comments came as Israel and Hamas continued bombing each other, with airstrikes in Gaza killing more than 750 people between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The Israeli military said its strikes had killed militants and destroyed tunnels, command centers, weapons storehouses and other military targets, which it has accused Hamas of hiding among Gaza’s civilian population.

Gaza-based militants have also been launching unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started.

The death toll, following a reported 704 killed the day before, was unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even greater loss of life could come when Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.

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By-elections latest: Boris Johnson blamed for Sunak’s ‘armageddon’ defeat in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire

Sir Keir Starmer has cast himself the heir to Blair after a historic Tory by-election drubbing in which he jubilantly declared Labour was “redrawing the political map”.

The Labour leader said that Tory voters were turning to them because they were “fed up with the decline and despairing of the party they used to vote for”.

The Tories are now staring down the barrel of an unprecedented wipeout after suffering defeats in two fiercely contested by-elections, with huge majorities evaporating overnight following a disastrous few years in which the party has seemingly stumbled from one crisis to another.

Starmers remarks came as polling guru John Curtice said Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were largely to blame for the crushing defeat.

Overturning the biggest majority in British by-election history, Labour took Mid Bedfordshire from the Tories for the first time.

While in Tamworth, the party saw the second biggest swing from the Tories to Labour in a by-election in post-war history.

Meanwhile, former chancellor George Osborne warned the record defeats spell “armageddon” for the Conservatives at the general election.

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Russia’s military has conducted a simulated nuclear strike in a drill overseen by President Vladimir Putin, hours after the upper house of parliament voted to rescind the country’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

The bill to end ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, approved in the lower house last week, will now be sent to Putin for final approval. Putin has said that revoking Russia’s 2000 ratification would “mirror” the stance of the US, which signed but did not ratify the nuclear test ban.

State television showed Putin directing the exercise via video call with top military officials.

Russia’s minister of defence, Sergei Shoigu, said the purpose of the drills is to practise “dealing a massive nuclear strike with strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy”.

While similar drills are held every autumn, Shoigu’s pointed comments came amid soaring tensions between Russia and the west over the fighting in Ukraine.

The test ban treaty, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, but the treaty was never fully implemented. The treaty is yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt.

There are widespread concerns that Russia could move to resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the west from continuing to offer military support to Ukraine. Many Russian hawks have spoken in favour of a resumption of the tests.

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President says Ukraine will not only defend its infrastructure but will also respond, as it prepares for attacks this winter.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is preparing for renewed Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure ahead of the second winter of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of the country – and that the country is ready to counterattack if targeted.

“We are preparing for terrorist attacks on our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said. “This year we will not only defend ourselves, but also respond.”

The warning came as Russia looks for new tools to win dominance over Ukraine in its war, which has lasted more than 20 months along frontlines that have grown increasingly static.

Russia has launched assaults on the cities of Kupiansk in northern Ukraine and of Avdiivka, where commanders said they were worried that Russia was seeking to surround and besiege the well-defended city.

Footage posted on Wednesday showed the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, visiting a command post near the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, where he received a briefing on combat operations planned for the winter months and on training for drone operators, who have become crucial to the war effort on both sides.

Shoigu claimed that the Ukrainian army had “reduced capacity” due to the Russian attack. Meanwhile, footage of the Russian assault indicates high numbers of dead and wounded. British defence intelligence have claimed that Russian casualties have grown by 90% since it began the offensive in Avdiivka and Kupiansk. Little territory has changed hands as a result.

On Wednesday, the Russian parliament approved Moscow’s withdrawal from a global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, in what Kyiv has called an attempt at “nuclear blackmail”.

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Japan’s top court has ruled that a legal clause requiring people to undergo sterilisation surgery if they want to legally change their gender is unconstitutional.

Several international organisations including the European court of human rights, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and UN had said the requirement was discriminatory and infringed on human rights.

While rights group welcomed the verdict, a decision by the judges to ask a lower court to deliberate on a separate clause, requiring that the genital organs of people who want to change their gender resemble those of the opposite gender, was met with disappointment.

“This decision was very unexpected and I’m very surprised,” the plaintiff, identified only as a transgender woman under the age of 50, said in a statement read out by her lawyers. She added, however, that she was “disappointed” that a decision on the other clause had been postponed.

Some lawmakers and women’s groups in socially conservative Japan had said a ruling that challenged the existing law would sow confusion and undermine women’s rights. The supreme court threw out a similar attempt to scrap the sterilisation requirement in 2019.

Human Rights Watch said Wednesday’s ruling meant the government must follow up. “The government is under the obligation to make any laws constitutional so the government now needs to act quickly to remove the clause,” Kanae Doi, its Japan director, said. “It’s late, but never too late.”

Japanese law states that people who want to change gender must present a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and meet five requirements. These are: being at least 18 years old; not being married; not having underage children; having genital organs that resemble those of the opposite gender; and having no reproductive glands or ones that have permanently lost their function.

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US president calls for end to attacks by West Bank settlers and accuses Hamas of hiding behind civilians in Gaza, but that Israel also must follow the ‘laws of war’

US President Joe Biden has called for an immediate end to Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, as Israel kept up its strikes on Gaza in preparation for a long promised ground invasion.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, Biden said US support for Israel’s defense was ironclad, but added that the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank by some Israelis was “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

“They’re attacking Palestinians in places that they’re entitled, and … it has to stop now,” the president said.

Biden accused Hamas of “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but said Israel must follow the “laws of war,” in its strikes on the besieged enclave.

Israel has been bombarding Gaza since 7 October when Hamas gunmen poured across the border killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 222 others.

More than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas run health ministry, and there are fears the toll could further soar if Israel pushes ahead with a widely expected ground invasion.

Biden however cast doubt on civilian casualty figures put forward by the Palestinians.

“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war,” he said.

“But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”

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The House elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) to be the 56th Speaker on Wednesday, capping off a chaotic three weeks that paralyzed the lower chamber in stunning fashion.

In finally coalescing around a new leader, House Republicans hope that Johnson can steer them around a series of legislative and political landmines in the weeks and months to come — an objective that is poised to be a heavy lift in the fractured GOP conference.

Johnson, who was in his second term as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, won the Speaker’s gavel in a 220-209 vote over Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), officially cementing himself as successor to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) following McCarthy’s unprecedented removal earlier this month.

Republicans unanimously supported his election on the House floor.

Johnson’s ascension marks the end of a nasty and tumultuous period for the House GOP conference, which witnessed McCarthy’s ouster, cycled through four Speaker nominees and saw tensions reach a boiling point before settling on Johnson as its next leader.

“We’re in the majority right now,” Johnson said in a news conference on the House steps following his swearing-in as Speaker. “We’ve gone through a little bit of character building, and you know what it’s produced, more strength, more perseverance, and a lot of hope.”

“And that’s what we’re about to deliver to the American people,” he added.

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The Kremlin has dismissed the claim Vladimir Putin is unwell as an “absurd hoax” and said “everything is fine” with the dictator.

“This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity. This evokes nothing but a smile,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

On Sunday, posts emerged on the Telegram messaging app claiming Putin had suffered a cardiac arrest. The channel said the Russian president was “very ill” and unlikely to live until the end of autumn, with all official meetings conducted by a body double.

It comes after Ukraine launched an “underwater sabotage” attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet near Sevastopol, Crimea, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the region.

Soon after, Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed three unmanned Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea off the Crimean peninsula.

“Anti-sabotage missiles and bombs hit the area where the unmanned boats were detected,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Putin has pushed more troops to the frontline in Avdiivka, Ukraine, despite a failing offensive which has incurred heavy losses.

Kremlin rejects claims about Putin’s ill health

Holding together an unruly Conservative party ultimately proved an impossible task for Boris Johnson and for Liz Truss – and now risks looking insurmountable for Rishi Sunak.

The prime minister is increasingly criticised privately by Tory MPs for being too “weak” to stand up to warring backbenchers, amid a host of briefings about him backtracking on key policies.

A bill on conversion practices was said to be in the upcoming king’s speech, before a campaign by a leading figure on the Tory right, Miriam Cates, sparked an apparent reverse ferret by the government.

Plans to boost housebuilding by axing nutrient neutrality rules have also reportedly been axed, because of the challenge of getting the legislation through parliament.

And a promise to end “no-fault evictions” also looks set to be kicked into the political long grass, in part because of widespread hostility by Tory MPs – a fifth of whom are said to be landlords.

U-turns are not necessarily more common now than under previous prime ministers, or compared with when Sunak took office.

Johnson was often criticised by colleagues for marching them all up to the top of the hill to defend a decision – before retreating. And Truss was forced to tear apart her agenda in the face of market instability and threats by MPs to vote against elements of the mini-budget.

Indeed, in the opening weeks of his premiership, Sunak backtracked on housing targets and a ban on new onshore windfarms.

The moves were designed to neutralise Tory infighting and restore some stability to the party, after its disunity contributed to toxifying the Conservative brand.

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Multiple Democrat House members dug into their Republican counterparts on Tuesday as the GOP conference finds itself back at square one following the collapse of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (R-Minn.) Speakership nomination.

House Democrats took to social media to call out the chaos within the GOP conference and urge lawmakers to find a solution — potentially a bipartisan one — to resume the functions of the lower chamber.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) posted a video of herself crossing out former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) name along with the 10 Republican lawmakers who have run for Speaker in the past three weeks. The California Democrat said “nope,” after crossing off each name and attached the text, “An update – the #GOPChaosContinues!”

Reposting a video of GOP Rep. Andy Barr (Ky.) who said, “We might as well have Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats control the Congress,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote “Agreed,” in a post on X.

In another post on X, Rep. Steven Hosford (D-Nev.) posted a meme that said, “I would like to see the chaos,” with the words “House Republicans,” below.

“I’m convinced some of my colleagues are enjoying this crisis. “We must end the chaos,” Hosford wrote. “End the dysfunction. End the extremism. Let’s reopen the house. A bipartisan agreement appears to be the only clear path.”

Some lawmakers have argued a bipartisan solution may be the only path to a Speakership in the wake of intense GOP division.

Pushing for the election of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Penn.) wrote on X, “It’s been 21 days & the Republicans still can’t get it together and elect a House Speaker. I believe Democratic Leader [Jeffries] is the best person to lead the House in a bipartisan manner to get things done for the American people. Republicans, work with us already!”

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U.S. forces based in the Middle East have been attacked at least 13 times in the past week, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson revealed Tuesday.

Between Oct. 17-24, American troops were targeted 10 times in Iraq and three times in Syria “via a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets,” press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.

While there is no evidence that Iran has ordered the attacks, Defense Department officials said Monday that all recent targeting of U.S. troops had “Iranian fingerprints all over it.”

“It’s been well-documented and you’ve heard U.S. officials across the podiums as well as policy leaders for years talk about Iran’s funding, equipping, guidance and direction, to partners and proxies across the region,” a senior defense official told reporters. 

“That includes Lebanese Hezbollah, militia groups in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Houthis in Yemen. So I think it’s fair to say when you see this uptick in activity and attacks by many of these groups, there’s Iranian fingerprints all over it,” they added.

Ryder did not have the exact number of U.S. troops injured during the attacks, but the Pentagon earlier revealed that an American contractor died of a heart attack during a false alarm at al Asad air base in Iraq. 

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