Spain said Wednesday it's enacting a new ethics code to discourage toy manufacturers from using sexist stereotypes such as dolls for girls and action figures for boys in advertisements as the Christmas season kicks off.

A government statement said the new "self-regulatory" code urges companies to run adverts that engender an image of pluralism and equality, free from stereotypes.

"The characterization of girls with sexual connotations will be prohibited and the exclusive association of toys with roles such as caring, domestic work or beauty with them (girls), and action, physical activity or technology with boys will be avoided," the statement said.

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The idea is that companies will no longer use colors such as blue or pink to indicate products intended for boys or girls, the government said.

The code follows an agreement between the Consumer Affairs Ministry, toy manufacturers and publicity companies in April.

The code, which updates another from 2005, goes into effect Thursday. It's directed at advertising geared toward children under 15 and especially kids under seven.

Other European countries have similar codes.

An honorary member of the Buckingham Palace household has resigned after repeatedly asking a Black woman who runs a charity for survivors of domestic abuse what country she "came from,'' despite her insistence she was a British national.

The conversation was detailed on Twitter by Ngozi Fulani, chief executive of Sistah Space, an east London refuge that provides specialist support for women of African and Caribbean heritage.

The incident took place at a reception hosted by Camilla, the queen consort, for women working to fight domestic violence.

Fulani said that when she told a household member she was from east London, she was asked, "No, what part of Africa are YOU from?"

The palace said it took the incident extremely seriously and investigated the "unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments.’’

Britain’s Press Association and a number of other media outlets in Britain identified the woman who made the remarks as Lady Susan Hussey, who served as Queen Elizabeth II’s lady in waiting for more than 60 years. She is also a godmother to the Prince of Wales.

Fulani named the member of the palace household only as Lady SH. Buckingham Palace declined comment on the identity of the individual.

The incident will spark concern at the palace following allegations of racism by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, who is married to Prince Harry. Meghan, a biracial American, last year said a member of the royal household asked her what color skin her baby would have when she was pregnant with her first child.

New Zealand's government health service has applied to remove guardianship of a 4-month-old baby boy from his parents after they demanded that his life-saving surgery can proceed only with blood that does not contain the COVID-19 vaccine.

Health New Zealand, also known as Te Whatu Ora, made a court application Monday with the Auckland High Court to transfer guardianship under the Care of Children Act so the baby can receive the operation, according to court documents reported by the New Zealand Herald.

The baby's parents recently explained their position during an interview with Liz Gunn, a broadcaster from New Zealand who has raised concerns about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

Explaining how their son has severe pulmonary valve stenosis and needs surgery "almost immediately," the parents said they are "extremely concerned with the blood [the doctors] are going to use."

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"We don’t want blood that is tainted by vaccination," the father said. "That’s the end of the deal; we are fine with anything else these doctors want to do."

The parents maintained that more than 20 unvaccinated people were willing to donate the blood for their son's operation, but that had not been approved by the government's New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS), according to the New Zealand Herald.

Since they are trying to obtain medical care they believe is better than what the state is offering, attorney for the parents, Sue Grey, argued Wednesday in court that their case is unlike most guardianship cases in which parents refuse necessary medical care, according to the Guardian.

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"Because they label my clients as conspiracy theorists, [their position] is that anything my clients say can be ignored," Grey said.

Paul White, a lawyer for Te Whatu Ora, told the court that medical professionals have said that a child with such a serious heart condition would normally have been treated several weeks ago.

Dr. Mike Shepherd, who serves as interim director at Te Whatu Ora in Auckland, said in a statement that he understands how worrying it can be for parents who are dealing with a very sick child, according to the New Zealand Herald.

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"The decision to make an application to the court is always made with the best interests of the child in mind and following extensive conversations with whānau," Shepherd said, using a Māori word that means "extended family."

"As this matter is before the courts, we will not be commenting further," he added.

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Donated blood is not divided based on COVID-19 vaccination status, according to the NZBS website, which also claimed there is no evidence that using blood donated by someone who received the COVID-19 vaccine poses any risk.

"There is no evidence that previous vaccination affects the quality of blood for transfusion," NZBS said. "Any COVID-19 vaccine in the blood is broken down soon after the injection. All donated blood also gets filtered during processing, so any trace amounts that may still be present poses no risk to recipients."

NZBS requires that those who have received some versions of the COVID-19 vaccine refrain from donating blood for 28 days after getting vaccinated. Anyone who received the Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca or Novavax vaccines is not subject to the 28-day stand-down period.

The humble baguette — the crunchy ambassador for French baking around the world — is being added to the U.N.’s list of intangible cultural heritage as a cherished tradition to be preserved by humanity.

UNESCO experts gathering in Morocco this week decided that the simple French flute — made only of flour, water, salt, and yeast — deserved United Nations recognition, after France’s culture ministry warned of a "continuous decline" in the number of traditional bakeries, with some 400 closing every year over the past half-century.

The U.N. cultural agency’s chief, Audrey Azoulay, said the decision honors more than just bread; it recognizes the "savoir-faire of artisanal bakers" and "a daily ritual."

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"It is important that such craft knowledge and social practices can continue to exist in the future," added Azoulay, a former French culture minister.

The agency defines intangible cultural heritage as "traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants."

With the bread’s new status, the French government said it planned to create an artisanal baguette day, called the "Open Bakehouse Day," to connect the French better with their heritage.

Back in France, bakers seemed proud, if unsurprised.

"Of course, it should be on the list because the baguette symbolizes the world. It’s universal," said Asma Farhat, baker at Julien’s Bakery near Paris’ Champs-Elysees avenue.

"If there’s no baguette, you can't have a proper meal. In the morning you can toast it, for lunch it’s a sandwich, and then it accompanies dinner."

Although it seems like the quintessential French product, the baguette was said to have been invented by Vienna-born baker August Zang in 1839. Zang put in place France’s steam oven, making it possible to produce bread with a brittle crust yet fluffy interior.

The product’s zenith did not come until the 1920s, with the advent of a French law preventing bakers from working before 4 a.m. The baguette’s long, thin shape meant it could be made more quickly than its stodgy cousins, so it was the only bread that bakers could make in time for breakfast.

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Despite the decline in traditional bakery numbers today, France’s 67 million people still remain voracious baguette consumers — purchased at a variety of sales points, including in supermarkets. The problem is, observers say, that they can often be poor in quality.

"It’s very easy to get bad baguette in France. It’s the traditional baguette from the traditional bakery that’s in danger. It’s about quality not quantity," said one Paris resident, Marine Fourchier, 52.

In January, French supermarket chain Leclerc was criticized by traditional bakers and farmers for its much publicized 29-cent baguette, accused of sacrificing the quality of the famed 26-inch loaf. A baguette normally costs just over $1, seen by some as an index on the health of the French economy.

The baguette is indeed serious business. France’s "Bread Observatory" — a venerable institution that closely follows the fortunes of the flute — notes that the French munch through 320 baguettes of one form or another every second. That’s an average of half a baguette per person per day, and 10 billion every year.

The "artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread" was inscribed at the Morocco meeting among other global cultural heritage items, including Japan’s Furyu-odori ritual dances, and Cuba's light rum masters.

Authorities in El Salvador on Monday warned residents near the Chaparrastique volcano in the country's east to be alert after it began to erupt.

The Environmental Ministry’s observatory reported explosions in the central crater of the volcano located about 83 miles east of the capital. It said the eruption’s intensity was a 1 on a scale from 0 to 8.

The eruption began Sunday when the volcano launched rock and ash to areas surrounding the crater. There were no reported injuries.

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Civil Defense Director Luis Alonso Amaya said three municipalities were on alert.

Authorities were preparing 26 shelters that could accommodate more than 10,000 people and installing a command post to provide the most current information on the volcano’s activity.

The safety zone was extended to a radius of 3.7 miles from the crater.

The Dutch government is planning to purchase and then close down up to 3,000 farms in an effort to comply with a European Union environmental mandate to slash emissions, according to reports. 

Farmers in the Netherlands will be offered "well over" the worth of their farm in an effort to take up the offer voluntarily, The Telegraph reported. The country is attempting to reduce its nitrogen pollution and will make the purchases if not enough farmers accept buyouts. 

"There is no better offer coming," Christianne van der Wal, nitrogen minister, told the Dutch parliament on Friday. 

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The farms targeted for compulsory purchase are located near environmentally sensitive areas, according to reports. 

Van der Wal said purchases would be made with "pain in the heart", if necessary. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Dutch embassy in Washington D.C., but has not heard back. 

The Netherlands is trying to reduce its emissions to comply with EU conservation rules and agriculture is responsible for nearly half of the nitrogen emitted in the nation, the report said. 

In 2019, the Dutch Council of State ruled that every new activity that emits nitrogen, including farming and building, is required to obtain a permit. That has prevented the expansion of dairy, pig and poultry farms, which are major sources of nitrogen, the Telegraph report said. 

Some farmers have voiced opposition to the new rules. In October, thousands of tractors jammed up traffic by up to 700 miles during rush hour in protest. 

Many feel their livelihoods are at stake and their industry is being unfairly targeted while other sectors like aviation are not. 

LTO Nederland, a farmers' lobby group, has accused the government of drafting "restrictions without perspective."

"Of course it is positive that a good voluntary stop scheme is being promised," LTO Chairman Sjaak van der Tak said. "But the stayers who are central to us will have many additional restrictions imposed."

The Netherlands is the world's second-largest farm exporter according to Investopedia. Top Dutch farm-based exports include flowers, dairy produces, eggs, meat, and vegetables. 

A Dutch court on Wednesday rejected a plan to control the country’s growing wolf population by shooting at the animals with paintball guns to scare them away from people.

A local court ruled that officials had not justified their decision to use the novel approach as a safe way to teach the wolves to stay out of populated areas. It said regional authorities had not done enough research into other possible solutions.

Nature conservation society Fauna Protection objected to the plan, arguing it was an untested approach and it was unclear if the paintballs could seriously harm the animals. The group was happy with the outcome. "The judge chose the wolf and not the humans," the organization’s chairperson, Harm Niesen, said in a statement.

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Two centuries after wolves were hunted to extinction in the Netherlands, the animals officially returned to the country in 2019 when a pair of wolves who crossed the border from Germany gave birth to three cubs on Dutch soil.

Initially, the return of the protected species was heralded as a success but as the population of wolves has grown, so has the opposition to them. Farmers claim that the wolves have killed dozens of livestock animals and earlier this month, a video of a wolf chasing a cyclist went viral on social media.

The eastern province of Gelderland issued a special exemption to regulations protecting the species to allow officials at the Hoge Veluwe National Park to shoot the wolves with paintball guns.

The country is now home to four packs of wolves, with the population totaling around 20, although some German wolves do regularly cross the border as well.

The debate over who owns ancient artifacts has been an increasing challenge to museums across Europe and America, and the spotlight has fallen on the most visited piece in the British Museum: The Rosetta stone.

The inscriptions on the dark grey granite slab became the seminal breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics after it was taken from Egypt by forces of the British empire in 1801.

Now, as Britain's largest museum marks the 200-year anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphics, thousands of Egyptians are demanding the stone’s return.

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‘’The British Museum’s holding of the stone is a symbol of Western cultural violence against Egypt," said Monica Hanna, dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, and organizer of one of two petitions calling for the stone's return.

The acquisition of the Rosetta Stone was tied up in the imperial battles between Britain and France. After Napoleon Bonaparte’s military occupation of Egypt, French scientists uncovered the stone in 1799 in the northern town of Rashid, known by the French as Rosetta. When British forces defeated the French in Egypt, the stone and over a dozen other antiquities were handed over to the British under the terms of an 1801 surrender deal between the generals of the two sides.

It has remained in the British Museum since.

Hanna’s petition, with 4,200 signatures, says the stone was seized illegally and constitutes a "spoil of war." The claim is echoed in a near identical petition by Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister for antiquities affairs, which has more than 100,000 signatures. Hawass argues that Egypt had no say in the 1801 agreement.

The British Museum refutes this. In a statement, the Museum said the 1801 treaty includes the signature of a representative of Egypt. It refers to an Ottoman admiral who fought alongside the British against the French. The Ottoman sultan in Istanbul was nominally the ruler of Egypt at the time of Napoleon’s invasion.

The Museum also said Egypt’s government has not submitted a request for its return. It added that there are 28 known copies of the same engraved decree and 21 of them remain in Egypt.

The contention over the original stone copy stems from its unrivaled significance to Egyptology. Carved in the 2nd century B.C., the slab contains three translations of a decree relating to a settlement between the then-ruling Ptolemies and a sect of Egyptian priests. The first inscription is in classic hieroglyphics, the next is in a simplified hieroglyphic script known as Demotic, and the third is in Ancient Greek.

Through knowledge of the latter, academics were able to decipher the hieroglyphic symbols, with French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion eventually cracking the language in 1822.

‘‘Scholars from the previous 18th century had been longing to find a bilingual text written in a known language,’’ said Ilona Regulski, the head of Egyptian Written Culture at the British Museum. Regulski is the lead curator of the museum’s winter exhibition, "Hieroglyphs Unlocking Ancient Egypt," celebrating the 200th anniversary of Champollion’s breakthrough.

The stone is one of more than 100,000 Egyptian and Sudanese relics housed in the British Museum. A large percentage were obtained during Britain’s colonial rule over the region from 1883 to 1953.

It has grown increasingly common for museums and collectors to return artifacts to their country of origin, with new instances reported nearly monthly. Often, it’s the result of a court ruling, while some cases are voluntary, symbolizing an act of atonement for historical wrongs.

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New York’s Metropolitan Museum returned 16 antiquities to Egypt in September after a U.S. investigation concluded they had been illegally trafficked. On Monday, London’s Horniman Museum signed over 72 objects, including 12 Benin Bronzes, to Nigeria following a request from its government.

Nicholas Donnell, a Boston-based attorney specializing in cases concerning art and artifacts, said no common international legal framework exists for such disputes. Unless there is clear evidence an artifact was acquired illegally, repatriation is largely at the discretion of the museum.

‘‘Given the treaty and the timeframe, the Rosetta stone is a hard legal battle to win,’’ said Donnell.

The British Museum has acknowledged that several repatriation requests have been made to it from various countries for artifacts, but it did not provide The Associated Press with any details on their status or number. It also did not confirm whether it has ever repatriated an artifact from its collection.

For Nigel Hetherington, an archaeologist and CEO of the online academic forum Past Preserves, the museum’s lack of transparency suggests other motives.

‘‘It’s about money, maintaining relevance and a fear that in returning certain items people will stop coming,’’ he said.

Western museums have long pointed to superior facilities and larger crowd draws to justify their holding of world treasures. Amid turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Egypt saw an uptick in artifact smuggling, which cost the country an estimated $3 billion between 2011 and 2013, according to the U.S.-based Antiquities Coalition. In 2015, it was discovered that cleaners at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum had damaged the burial mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun by attempting to re-attach the beard with super glue.

But President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government has since invested heavily in its antiquities. Egypt has successfully reclaimed thousands of internationally smuggled artifacts and plans to open a newly built, state-of-the-art museum where tens of thousands of objects can be housed. The Grand Egyptian Museum has been under construction for well over a decade and there have been repeated delays to its opening.

Egypt’s plethora of ancient monuments, from the pyramids of Giza to the towering statues of Abu Simbel at the Sudanese border, are the magnet for a tourism industry that drew in $13 billion in 2021.

For Hanna, Egyptians’ right to access their own history should remain the priority. "How many Egyptians can travel to London or New York?" she said.

Egyptian authorities did not respond to a request for comment regarding Egypt's policy toward the Rosetta stone or other Egyptian artifacts displayed abroad. Hawass and Hanna said they are not pinning hopes on the government to secure its return.

‘‘The Rosetta stone is the icon of Egyptian identity,’’ said Hawass. ‘‘I will use the media and the intellectuals to tell the (British) museum they have no right.’’

Australia’s environment minister said Tuesday her government will lobby against UNESCO adding the Great Barrier Reef to a list of endangered World Heritage sites, arguing that criticisms of government inaction on climate change were outdated.

Officials from the U.N. cultural agency and the International Union for Conservation of Nature released a report on Monday warning that without "ambitious, rapid and sustained" climate action, the world’s largest coral reef is in peril.

The report, which recommended shifting the Great Barrier Reef to endangered status, followed a 10-day mission in March to the famed reef system off Australia’s northeast coast that was added to the World Heritage list in 1981.

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Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the report was a reflection on Australia’s previous conservative government, which was voted out of office in May elections after nine years in power.

She said the new center-left Labor Party government has already addressed several of the report’s concerns, including action on climate change.

"We’ll very clearly make the point to UNESCO that there is no need to single the Great Barrier Reef out in this way" with an endangered listing, Plibersek told reporters.

"The reason that UNESCO in the past has singled out a place as at risk is because they wanted to see greater government investment or greater government action and, since the change of government, both of those things have happened," she added.

The new government has legislated to commit Australia to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below the 2005 level by 2030.

The previous government only committed to a reduction of 26% to 28% by the end of the decade.

Plibersek said her government has also committed $798 millio to caring for the reef and has canceled the previous government’s plans to build two major dams in Queensland state that would have affected the reef’s water quality.

"If the Great Barrier Reef is in danger, then every coral reef in the world is in danger," Plibersek said. "If this World Heritage site is in danger, then most World Heritage sites around the world are in danger from climate change."

The report said Australia’s federal government and Queensland authorities should adopt more ambitious emission reduction targets in line with international efforts to limit future warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit since pre-industrial times.

The minor Greens party, which wants Australia to slash its emissions by 75% by the end of the decade, called for the government to do more to fight climate change in light of the report.

Jodie Rummer, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townville who has worked on the reef for more than a decade, supported calls for Australia to aim for a 75% emissions reduction.

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"We are taking action, but that action needs to be much more rapid and much more urgent," Rummer told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We cannot claim to be doing all we can for the reef at this point. We aren’t. We need to be sending that message to the rest of the world that we are doing everything that we possibly can for the reef and that means we need to take urgent action on emissions immediately," she added.

Feedback from Australian officials, both at the federal and state level, will be reviewed before Paris-based UNESCO makes any official proposal to the World Heritage committee.

In July last year, the previous Australian government garnered enough international support to defer an attempt by UNESCO to downgrade the reef’s status to "in danger" because of damage caused by climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef accounts for around 10% of the world’s coral reef ecosystems. The network of more than 2,500 reefs covers 134,000 square miles.

Australian government scientists reported in May that more than 90% of Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed in the latest year was bleached, in the fourth such mass event in seven years.

Bleaching is caused by global warming, but this is the reef’s first bleaching event during a La Niña weather pattern, which is associated with cooler Pacific Ocean temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority said in its annual report.

Bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020 damaged two-thirds of the coral.

Coral bleaches as a response to heat stress and scientists hope most of the coral will recover from the latest event.

The jury in the ongoing murder trial of Lucy Letby in the U.K. recently heard evidence indicating that two parents had requested their newborn be transferred shortly before the alleged killer neonatal nurse poisoned him.

Letby, 32, allegedly attempted to murder the unidentified baby boy, referred to as Child F, by intentionally adding insulin to his feeding bag at the Countess of Chester Hospital in August 2015, jurors were told earlier this week, according to the BBC.

She is also alleged to have killed Child F's twin brother, Child E, in the hospital's neonatal unit less than 24 hours earlier. Both boys were born prematurely.

Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at the Countess of Chester Hospital during a year-long killing spree between 2015 and 2016.

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Jurors were also shown nursing notes from one of Letby's colleagues, who remained unidentified for legal reasons, that showed Child F's parents had requested to move the boy to another hospital after his brother had died.

"Parents supported throughout the day by myself following the death of sibling," the note said. "Parents would like to transfer ... transport team unavailable today due to emergency. Sincere apologies given to parents."

"Provisionally booked for tomorrow morning," the noted added.

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When asked Aug. 4, 2015, about Child F's condition, the nurse said he was "stable" and that there was "no sign of any issues." But the baby's heart rate skyrocketed to more than 200 beats per minute and his blood sugar plummeted shortly after midnight, jurors were told.

The young baby boy then "became quieter" and was "slightly jaundiced," Letby's former colleague said, adding that he had been "nice and stable" when her shift started but that his condition deteriorated "suddenly."

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When he was administered extra sugar, Child F's blood glucose returned to normal levels, and he was ultimately discharged upon making a recovery.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson told the jury at the start of the trial that Letby was a "constant, malevolent presence" at the hospital’s neonatal unit.

Letby was allegedly the "common denominator," and the babies' deaths coincided with her shifts.

Letby denies all 22 charges against her, and the trial is expected to last up to six months.

Fox News' Ian Leonard contributed reporting.

The Kurdish people face assaults from both sides as Turkey prepares to invade Syria and Iran runs an air campaign against Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkish authorities arrested a Syrian Arab woman whom they claim confessed to a deadly bombing in an Istanbul market that killed six people and injured dozens of others. The authorities determined that she had entered the country on orders of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), but the group denied involvement. 

Erdogan used the attack to authorize the start of "Operation Sword-Claw," which started with targeted air strikes aimed to take out the People’s Defense Units (YPG), whom he also blamed for the bombing. 

A Kurdish general told Fox News last week that NATO ally Turkey is planning to carry out a massive ground invasion of Syria in an effort to target the same Kurdish groups that partnered with the U.S. military in its campaign against ISIS. 

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All countries surrounding Turkey have Kurds of some sort in them since the Kurdish people have no designated homeland. About 10% of Turkey's population is itself Kurdish, and some 40 million Kurds lived throughout the region as of 2019. 

As Turkey gets its wider offensive underway, the Kurdish people also face an offensive from Iran in northern Iraq. 

Iran has faced protests over the past three months following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Police allegedly beat and hospitalized the girl after determining she breached the country’s hijab (headscarf) laws. 

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Amini herself was Kurdish and lived in a Kurdish area of the country. Iran’s government has blamed the Kurdish movements for stoking the protests, which have spread to over 140 cities and towns across Iran.

Adel Bakawan, director of the French Research Centre on Iraq, argued that Iran has tried to turn the protests into a "divisive ethnic force," but failing to stop the protests from reaching a nationwide level, the government has turned towards a foreign enemy to blame for the protests. 

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"In recent days, Tehran has been lobbying the new government in Baghdad, which is dominated by pro-Iranian factions, to put pressure on the Kurdistan Regional Government to expel the KDPI and the Komala Party from Iraq," Bakawan told FRANCE 24.

He also noted that Erdogan’s offensive in Syria could serve to help the Turkish president unite his supporters ahead of a vital election to retain power, "distracting attention from his shoddy economic record." 

"Erdogan is also keen to make use of growing discontent with the presence of 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, which people are expressing increasingly vociferously," Bakawan explained. "The Turkish president is trying to turn this issue to his electoral advantage."

Fox News' Matt London contributed to this report. 

The Israeli military said Wednesday it is temporarily removing a unit of ultra-Orthodox soldiers out of the occupied West Bank after a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man died following an arrest by its soldiers early this year.

The army said the "Netzah Yehuda" Battalion will be moved to the Golan Heights, along Israel’s northern front with Syria, by the end of the year.

The announcement made no mention of the death of Omar Assad, who died after being detained, handcuffed and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers.

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Instead, it said the decision "was made out of a desire to diversify their operational deployment in multiple areas, in addition to accumulating more operational experience." It said the unit would return to the West Bank at the end of next year.

Netzah Yehuda, or "Judea Forever," is a special unit for ultra-Orthodox Jewish soldiers. The unit was formed to encourage religious men, who often receive special exemptions from compulsory military service, to join the army. But its members have been implicated in past cases of abuse.

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Last January, troops from Netzah Yehuda detained Asaad at a checkpoint, binding his hands and blindfolding him. Troops then unbound his hands and left him face-down in an abandoned building.

Assad, who had lived in the U.S. for four decades, was pronounced dead at a hospital after other Palestinians found him unconscious. It was unclear when exactly he died. An autopsy undertaken by Palestinian doctors found Asaad suffered from underlying health conditions, but also found bruises on his head, redness on his wrists from being bound and bleeding in his eyelids from being tightly blindfolded.

After an outcry from the U.S. government, the Israeli military said the incident "was a grave and unfortunate event, resulting from moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers." It said one officer was reprimanded and two other officers reassigned to non-commanding roles, over the incident.

The European Union proposed a plan on Wednesday to set up a specialized court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes committed not only in Ukraine, but against it as a "sovereign state."

Thousands of investigations have been opened into allegations of war crimes by Western nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC), though not all nations, including the U.S. and Russia, recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

However, head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, President Ursula von der Leyen said a "specialized" tribunal with the backing of the U.N. should be established.

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"Russian must pay for its horrific crimes, including for its crime of aggression against a sovereign state," she said. "Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought death, devastation and unspeakable suffering." 

"This is why, while continuing to support the International Criminal Court, we are proposing to set up a specialized court, backed by the United Nations, to investigate and prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression," von der Leyen added.

The details of the tribunal have not been announced, but reporting Wednesday suggested the specialized court could be based on an international treaty or could reflect a hybrid court that relies on a nation-based legal system that encompasses international justices.

Von der Leyen argued that the tribunal would be able to more efficiently hold the Kremlin accountable and had "the means to make Russia pay" reparations for damages incurred in Ukraine. 

However, a mishap by the commission’s president Wednesday pulled some attention from the proposed tribunal when she claimed that "more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far." 

Civilian casualties in Ukraine remain largely unknown with the U.N. reporting roughly 17,000 casualties since the war began. Though the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned in its latest update Monday that it "believes that the actual figures are considerably higher," noting that information on such data has been largely incomplete as fighting and investigations continue.

Civilian deaths from Mariupol alone have been estimated between 10,000 to 21,000 by Ukrainian officials. 

ZELENSKYY WARNS RUSSIA IS 'PLANNING SOMETHING' IN SOUTH WHILE UPPING AGGRESSION IN NORTHERN UKRAINE

However, it was von der Leyen’s suggestion that 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the fighting that caused a stir. 

Head of the Press Service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Bohdan Senyk told Ukrainian news outlet Pravda that he could not confirm the statistic provided by the commission’s president.

"We emphasize that the losses of the Ukrainian army are classified information," he said, though he added that the armed services supports EU action to hold Russia accountable.

The deputy chief spokeman for the European Commission later clarified that von der Leyen was referring to the casualty count, not solely those killed in action. 

"The estimation used, from external sources, should have referred to casualties, i.e. both killed and injured, and was meant to show Russia‘s brutality," Dana Spinant said in post to Twitter.

Von der Leyen’s statement posted to the EU website was edited to remove the line referring to the 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed, and the statement was edited from the video posted to social media.

A U.K.-based charity apologized "unreservedly" to a Christian chaplain after he fought back when he was threatened with "consequences" and "re-training" if he did not stop wearing a small, half-inch gold cross pin.

Derek Timms, a 73-year-old former businessman who became a chaplain, received the apology from the Solihull, England, branch of Marie Curie, a charitable organization that provides care and support to terminal patients and their families, according to the London-based Christian Legal Centre (CLC).

After the Solihull branch changed the job titles of its chaplains to "spiritual advisors" as part of a new "interfaith" approach, the Methodist minister who headed the program raised Timms' tiny cross pin as an issue in September, according to the CLC, which represented Timms.

The minister reportedly told Timms she was "surprised" that he would wear a cross and that he should stop doing so to avoid presenting potential "barriers" by offending someone.

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"In line with the ethos of hospice and healthcare chaplaincy, no religious symbols should be worn by those engaged in spiritual care," read the email to Timms. "We need to be there for people of all faiths and none. Whilst I [recognized] you shared a story about one patient liking the cross you wore, it can create a barrier to others. The idea is that we should be appear [sic] neutral and that enables a spiritual encounter that is about what the person we are visiting needs."

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Timms wears the cross not only as a symbol of his Christian faith but also in memory of his late wife, who died earlier this year, according to the CLC. He also wears a discreet cross necklace containing some of her ashes.

Timms responded to the email by maintaining that his cross pin indicates he is a Christian chaplain, and wondered whether the charity would demand a Sikh stop wearing a turban or a Muslim stop wearing a burka.

"My faith helps me to help the patients and staff whether they have faith or not," he replied.

Timms was subsequently summoned to an in-person meeting on Sept. 20 with the Methodist minister to decide "if you are suitable to continue providing spiritual care for us here." He remained adamant during the meeting that he had done nothing wrong, illegal or in violation of the charity's policies, but was reportedly told that he might require some "re-training" because of his refusal to comply.

CHRISTIAN NURSE HARASSED BY HOSPITAL FOR YEARS OVER CROSS NECKLACE WINS LAWSUIT

Declining a "compromise" that would have him hide his cross pin in his pocket unless he were with a Christian patient, Timms was informed that he would no longer be able to work at Marie Curie if he continued to disregard the Methodist minister's demand.

With the aid of the CLC, Timms later fired off a letter to Marie Curie explaining how the controversy over his cross pin had led to "a crisis of conscience," given that he believes he has "serious and cogent reasons for wearing it."

"I have searched the Marie Curie Solihull website, policy documents, the NHS website and nowhere can I find where there is a written policy which prohibits the wearing of crosses in my specific situation or why it is prohibited," he wrote.

Timms' letter ended up at Marie Curie's regional head office, which earlier this month wrote in response: "I can confirm that currently we have neither an [organizational] or uniform policy that would support our recent request to remove your cross while supporting patients and families in the Hospice. I [apologize] unreservedly for the distress that we have caused."

CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT SUES MICHIGAN HEALTH FOR BEING FIRED AFTER OBJECTING TO TRANS PROCEDURES

Timms expressed appreciation for the apology, but has since determined that his work as a chaplain "now lies elsewhere."

"I was shocked and hurt by how I was treated," he said in a statement. "There was and is no need to suppress the symbol of the cross and in so doing send a message that the Christian faith needs to be [neutralized] or removed entirely from a chaplaincy front line service."

"Interfaith ideology is becoming so firmly embedded throughout the Christian faith that it is essentially [canceling] itself," he added.

Andrea Williams, executive director of the CLC, said Timms "showed great courage by refusing to cave into the significant pressure to remove what mattered so much to him."

CHRISTIAN CHILD CARE TEACHER WHO REFUSED TO READ LGBT BOOKS TO KIDS SUES AFTER BEING FIRED: ‘BLATANTLY ILLEGAL’

Earlier this year, an employment tribunal judge in the U.K. ruled in favor of Mary Onuoha, a Christian nurse who said she was forced into resigning from her job at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust in London after being harassed over her cross necklace for years.

The judge ruled that her human rights had been violated and that her treatment over her cross necklace had created a "humiliating, hostile and threatening environment."

Onuoha, who grew up in Nigeria and worked for Croydon University Hospital for nearly 20 years after immigrating to the U.K. in 1988, said in a statement that the controversy over her necklace "has always been an attack on my faith."

Like Timms, Onuoha had also been provided a compromise to keep her cross necklace hidden, which she refused.

Leader of the Islamic State, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was recently killed in battle, the terrorist group said an audio recording released Wednesday.

Details on the ISIS leader’s death including how, when or where were not reportedly released by the group, and the White House has yet to independently confirm al-Qurayshi’s death. 

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"We certainly welcome the news of the death of another ISIS leader," National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters Wednesday. "I don't have any additional operational details to provide at this time. We're still working our way through that."

But when pressed on whether the U.S. has been able to confirm what would be the second ISIS leader death in a year he said, "We welcome the announcement that another leader from ISIS is no longer walking the face of the earth."

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The death of al-Qurayshi marks the second death of an ISIS leader this year after his predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in a U.S. raid in February, and the third since ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by U.S. forces in 2019. 

The death of the ISIS leader earlier this year came as a blow to the terrorist group that had been attempting to carry out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria after having been largely ousted from both nations in 2017 and 2019. 

"He died fighting the enemies of God killing some of them before being killed like a man on the battlefield," IS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer said regarding the latest ISIS leader’s death. 

Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi has been named the group’s newest leader though little appears to be known about him.

"He is one of the veteran warriors and one of the loyal sons of the Islamic State," al-Muhajer said.

No one has publicly claimed responsibility for al-Qurayshi’s death. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Zambian student who had been serving a prison sentence in Russia and died fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine had been employed by Russian mercenary group Wagner, its leader said.

Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said on the Russian social media app VKontake on Tuesday that the student, 23 year-old Lemekhane Nyireda, "died a hero."

Zambian Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo said earlier this month that Russian officials had informed the Zambian government of the death of Nyireda, who was a government-sponsored student before he was sentenced in Russia for unspecified crimes in April 2020.

ZAMBIAN STUDENT DIES WHILE FIGHTING ALONGSIDE RUSSIAN TROOPS, ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT WANTS ANSWERS

He said the Zambian Embassy in the Russian capital of Moscow had established that Nyirenda died Sept. 22 and that his remains were transported to the Russian border town of Rostov ahead of repatriation to Zambia.

Before his prison sentence, Nyirenda was studying nuclear engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. He was serving his approximately nine-year sentence at a prison on the outskirts of Moscow, according to the Zambian government.

Reports have circulated that Russia — desperate for more manpower to support what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine — has offered freedom to convicts if they join the fight. Russia has employed the Wagner Group, whose head Prigozhin is said to be a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and has admitted meddling in U.S. elections — in several armed conflicts worldwide.

Prigozhin said he had asked the jailed student why he wanted to join the fight, given a high chance he would be killed, and that the Zambian citizen responded: "You Russians helped us Africans gain independence for many years. When it was difficult for us, you extended your hand to us and continue to do so now ... The least I could do, probably, to pay our debts is go to war with you."

Recent actions from the Iranian government have been very telling about the state of the country's leadership and may have ended the possibility of a new nuclear deal, according to former and likely future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Following the release of his new memoir, "Bibi: My Story," Netanyahu sat down with Fox News Digital in a wide-ranging interview. A few weeks after his Likud Party was victorious in Israel's election, Netanyahu was skeptical about the future of the Iran nuclear deal in light of their continued nuclear-related activity – and how the world is seeing Iran use deadly force to crack down on anti-government protests.

"It's probably dead because the entire world saw what the true face of this regime is," Netanyahu said. "That's thanks to the extraordinarily brave Iranian women and men who took to the streets – who take to the streets – against this vicious, murderous and brutal regime. And I think people ask themselves, ‘Do we want the ayatollahs, who chant death to America, to have the weapons of mass death and the ballistic missiles to deliver them to any part on Earth?’ and the answer is of course not."

As the protests calling for an end to the Islamic regime have gone on, news came out that Iran was enriching uranium at an underground facility at a level approaching what is needed for a nuclear weapon. Asked if he is concerned that continued pressure from the demonstrations could make Iran more erratic, Netanyahu did not dismiss the idea but said the protests are exposing Tehran and showing the leadership's vulnerability.

IRANIAN GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGES 300 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED IN UNREST DURING NATIONWIDE PROTESTS

"I suppose so, but I think that it also highlights the fact that they’re really weak – that they govern only with basically the threat of murder," he said. "And the people are showing remarkable resilience."

As an example of the resolve of the Iranian people, Netanyahu referenced the Iranian World Cup soccer team remaining silent during their national anthem before their first game of the tournament.

WATCH MORE OF FOX NEWS DIGITAL'S INTERVIEW WITH BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: ON HIS NEW BOOK, RISING ANTISEMITISM, AND CRITICISM OF HIS COALITION PARTNERS

"The whole world is watching, and the entire team refused to sing the anthem, not because they’re not Iranian patriots, because they are," he said. "Because they know their country has been hijacked by this gang of theological thugs who govern simply by terror. And the fact that the entire world sees that I think has made the possibility of stopping Iran’s nuclear program and rolling back the tide of this horribly aggressive regime possible."

Netanyahu observed that both sides of the political spectrum are more united against Iran now than they had been before. Whether or not this results in actually stopping Iran, he said, "depends on how much the community of like-minded nations unites" to keep them from getting a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu said that in order to do this, both "crippling sanctions" and a military threat are needed. Regarding the latter, he said Israel is prepared to act regardless of U.S. approval, although he believes that there may now be a more "forward-leaning American position on this matter."

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Netanyahu angered many American officials in 2015 when he accepted an invitation to appear before a joint session of Congress and speak against the Iran nuclear deal – against the position of then-President Barack Obama. Netanyahu said he respected Obama but disagreed with him on this issue. Going against the president at that time "wasn’t an easy decision," Netanyahu said, but it was a decision he made out of concern for Israel’s survival.

As it turned out, that speech may have helped lead to the one of the most remarkable regional developments in recent memory: emerging peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

"In the course of giving that speech in Congress, our delegation received calls from Gulf governments – Arab governments in the Gulf – who said, ‘We don’t believe what we’re seeing. We don’t believe that your prime minister is willing to take this stand against an American president. It’s very hard,'" Netanyahu recalled. "And that’s what led to meetings in 2015, clandestine meetings with Gulf Arab leaders … and that created the foundations for the Abraham Accords."

The Abraham Accords are the peace agreements Israel made with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Netanyahu hinted that more countries could join in the future, predicting that "the best is yet to come."

WATCH MORE OF FOX NEWS DIGITAL'S INTERVIEW WITH BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: ON THE DOJ'S PROBE OF SHIREEN ABU AKLEH'S DEATH, AND HIS OWN POLITICAL COMEBACK

Netanyahu said that the developing peace with Arab nations debunked the long-standing myth that regional stability would not come until after Israel made peace with the Palestinians.

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"That’s inside out. My argument is the exact opposite: it’s outside in. Complete the circle of peace with the entire Arab world and then get to the Palestinians," Netanyahu said. "And perhaps then we could have them abandon their idea that they’ll do away with the Jewish State once they recognize the right – not merely the fact, but the right – of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, then I think we’ll be well on the way to a solution with them as well."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict had long been emblematic of a greater conflict between Israel and the Arab world, but that no longer seems to be the case as the local conflict continues despite Arab countries improving relations with the Jewish state. Most recently, Israel was hit by two explosions at Jerusalem bus stops, attacks that Hamas, the group in control of the Gaza Strip that the U.S. has on its list of designated terror organizations, praised, according to Reuters.

Hamas is backed by Iran, setting it apart from much of the Arab world. Netanyahu noted that "the rise of Iran's threat" was one of "the foundations" of the Abraham Accords, along with Israel's growing military and technological power.

Another recent point of conflict between Israel and Palestinians involved the death of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Palestinians quickly blamed Israel, and Israel later stated that Abu Akleh was likely accidentally killed by gunfire from Israeli Defense Forces. 

The U.S. Department of Justice said they were going to investigate the matter. Current Prime Minister Yair Lapid came out against this, and Netanyahu echoed that sentiment.

"Israel has its own investigatory powers," Netanyahu said, adding that the IDF has "really meticulous internal mechanisms" to handle such situations.

"You would not want us to investigate an event in America if you had something happen, a similar tragedy happening in our military," Netanyahu said, adding that Israel has investigated and will continue to investigate Abu Akleh's death.

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Netanyahu himself has also drawn criticism from U.S. officials, including longtime supporter of Israel Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., over far-right members of the coalition that Netanyahu is looking to form to set up a new government that he would lead as prime minister. In particular, Menendez reportedly referenced the inclusion of individuals like Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Critics have painted Ben-Gvir as a right-wing extremist for his connections and support of far right-wing elements in Israel, including the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose ultra-nationalist party was outlawed from running in subsequent elections for inciting racism against Arabs. Kahane was assassinated by a terrorist in Manhattan in 1990. Ben-Gvir said that Menendez's criticism was "incorrect and mistaken."

Netanyahu said the criticism was not "morally or logically consistent," calling out Menendez and others for being silent when his opposition aligned themselves with supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Netanyahu accused that group of supporting terror while his partners "support the Jewish State."

Netanyahu's likely return to the prime minister's office comes nearly a year and a half after he was voted out. During his time away from office, he wrote a memoir, "Bibi: My Story," in which he discusses his military and political career as well as his family, which includes Israeli hero Yoni Netanyahu, who died during a daring hostage rescue mission in Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976.

Netanyahu said that having time away from the prime minister's office "renewed" his energy to reenter the "cruel" world of politics.

"The reason I came back to power is because I live a life of purpose. And my purpose is to protect the Jewish state and make sure that Israel has a … secure and prosperous existence for the decades to come," he said.

Netanyahu also addressed a problem facing Jews worldwide: rising antisemitism. The issue has especially been impacting Jews in the U.S. in recent weeks following the spread of antisemitic comments and tropes by notable figures such as Kanye "Ye" West and NBA player Kyrie Irving.

Asked about whether influential figures such as Ye and Irving could empower other antisemites, Netanyahu agreed that this is a concern.

"Yes, I think that's clear," he said, calling antisemitism "a chronic disease" that "changes its form" over the 2,500 years that it has existed.

"People look for a scapegoat," he said. "You're a capitalist, you blame the Jews who are the communists. You're a communist, the Jews are the capitalists. You have a problem, blame the Jews."

Netanyahu said the only real defense against antisemitism is to "take a strong stance against it." He also pointed out that the existence of the state of Israel gives Jews a means of defense, be it militarily, morally, politically or otherwise.

"The rebirth of Israel was meant to give a defense against antisemitism," he said.

Fox News's Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.

An explosion in northern Afghanistan killed 15 people at a religious school in an alleged attack that the Taliban have labeled as an "unforgivable crime." 

"This is the handiwork of the enemies of the people of Afghanistan who target innocent people and children," Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban's permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital. "No doubt, their true nature is revealed to the world and to the Afghan people through their gruesome and horrendous acts."

"All those individuals or entities who help them carry out such tragic incidents are complicit in this crime," he added, saying that "in retrospect, ISIS is behind such tragic incidents."

The blast occurred at around 12:45 p.m. – the time of afternoon prayers. Initial reports indicated that 10 people had died, but the number rose to 15 within a few hours, with at least 20 others injured in Wednesday’s blast, Al Jazeera reported. 

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Video distributed by the Taliban to media outlets in the country showed the aftermath of the explosion, which included shots of dead bodies, bloodstains on the floor and scattered debris of prayer mats and shoes. 

"Our detective and security forces are working to identify the perpetrators of this unforgivable crime and bring them to justice," federal Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Nafi Takor told reporters. 

UNITED NATIONS EXPERTS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION INTO TALIBAN'S TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN

Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai wrote in a tweet that he strongly condemned the "terrorist act" and called it a "crime against humanity." 

"The work of enemies of the people and all human and Islamic values calls the opposite action," he wrote, offering deep condolences to the families of the victims. 

AL QAEDA AND ISIS REGROUP TO AFGHANISTAN AFTER US WITHDRAWAL

A doctor, who spoke with the AFP anonymously, said that "All of them are children and ordinary people," but that most of the casualties were youngsters. The city also hosts a majority population of ethnic Uzbeks. 

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by time of publication. 

No one has claimed responsibility yet for the attack on the school in Afghanistan’s Samangan province, but an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State has waged a campaign of violence against the new government since its takeover in Aug. 2021. 

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Another explosion in August at a mosque in the capital city of Kabul killed 21 people and injured another 33 people. A car bomb in September killed seven people and wounded 41 others. In each case, no one took responsibility in the immediate aftermath.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

German police searched homes and questioned suspects as part of an annual nationwide crackdown against online hate speech, authorities said Wednesday.

Police carried out 91 operations in 14 German states.

In the central state of Hesse, officers investigated three women and six men, ages 17 to 72, prosecutors said. The allegations against them include incitement to hatred, defamation and libel.

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Germany has staged annual police raids against online hate speech since 2016.

The country's top security official, Nancy Faeser, said in a statement that crimes committed on social media, messaging apps and Internet forums provide "fertile ground for extremist violence."

"We need to draw clear lines here and get the culprits out of their supposed anonymity," she said.

Federal police say more than 2,000 politically motivated crimes committed online are recorded each year in Germany, but the actual figure is likely to be much higher because many illegal postings aren't reported to authorities or take place in closed groups.

Russian and Chinese strategic bombers on Wednesday flew a joint patrol over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close defense ties between the two countries.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Tu-95 bombers of the Russian air force and the Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea during an eight-hour mission.

As part of the drills, the Russian bombers for the first time landed in China and the Chinese bombers flew to an air base in Russia, the ministry said in a statement. It noted that the joint patrols weren't directed against any other country.

China’s Defense Ministry described Wednesday’s patrols as a "routine" part of an annual cooperation plan between the two militaries.

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The exercise follows a series of joint drills intended to showcase a growing military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing as they both face tensions with the United States.

In September, Beijing sent more than 2,000 troops along with more than 300 military vehicles, 21 combat aircraft and three warships to take part in a sweeping joint exercise with Russia. The maneuvers marked the first time that China has sent forces from three branches of its military to take part in a single Russian drill, in what was described as a show of the breadth and depth of China-Russia military cooperation and mutual trust.

Defense cooperation between Moscow and Beijing has grown stronger since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

China, which has declared a "no limits" friendship with Russia, has pointedly refused to criticize Moscow’s actions, blaming the U.S. and NATO for provoking the Kremlin, and has blasted the punishing sanctions imposed on Russia.

Russia, in turn, has strongly backed China amid the tensions with the U.S. that followed a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Washington has warned Beijing against offering Russia direct military or economic assistance, although China’s energy-hungry economy is one of the biggest customers for Russian oil and gas. Its purchases more than doubled compared with a year ago, to $10.2 billion in October, as Chinese importers took advantage of discounts offered by Moscow.

In a letter Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing was ready to "forge closer partnership" with Russia in energy, potentially expanding ties.