• Human Rights

July 22, 2025, 5:24 PM View Comments ()

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at global criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, a new trade deal between the United States and the Philippines, and the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

Weaponizing Aid

Foreign ministers from 28 countries issued a joint statement on Monday condemning Israel’s military actions against Palestinians and calling for an end to the war in Gaza. “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the statement said. “We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.”

The letter—signed by 24 European governments as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand—demanded that Israel lift its restrictions on the flow of aid into the territory and allow the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to deliver basic supplies unimpeded.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries added, likely referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli- and U.S.-backed distribution system that has forced Palestinians to travel long distances to access a limited amount of food at just four distribution sites across Gaza. The U.N. human rights office said in a new report on Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians seeking food aid since late May, mostly at or near GHF locations.

Rights organizations have previously accused Israel of weaponizing aid in Gaza. According to the U.N. report, the Gaza Health Ministry has recorded at least 101 Palestinian deaths due to malnutrition in the past few days, including around 15 deaths within a 24-hour period. And U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Monday that “the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing” in Gaza as the territory barrels toward levels of mass starvation.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed the foreign ministers’ joint statement as “disconnected from reality,” adding that it “fails to focus the pressure on Hamas and fails to recognize Hamas’s role and responsibility for the situation.” Instead, Israel accused the militant group of prolonging the war by refusing to accept an Israeli-backed cease-fire and hostage release deal. “Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein posted on X.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemned the letter as “disgusting” and said the international community must instead pressure Hamas to end the war. Germany—which, due in part to its history, has strongly supported Israel since the war in Gaza began—remained silent on the statement, though German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul wrote on X that he had spoken with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to express concern about Gaza’s “catastrophic humanitarian situation.”

Past joint efforts to pressure Israel to stop its military actions in Gaza have largely failed. In May, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom threatened “concrete actions” if Israel did not stop its offensive in the territory, but as FP columnist Steven A. Cook argued at the time, Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage has not forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change course.

Today’s Most Read

• Why Trump Keeps Betraying His Base by Stephen M. Walt
• Biden’s Team Lied About Gaza. It’s Time to Hold Them Accountable. by Matthew Duss
• The U.S. Can No Longer Stave Off Competition From China by Howard W. French

What We’re Following

1 percent less. U.S. President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the Philippines on Tuesday following a White House meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Under the terms of the deal, the United States will impose a 19 percent tariff on goods from the Philippines—down just 1 percent from the original rate that the White House threatened to impose on Manila come Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline. U.S. goods will face zero tariffs in the Philippines. 

Efforts to secure a trade deal were challenging, with Trump implying earlier in the day that Marcos’s negotiating style was hindering talks. “[W]e’re not there because he’s negotiating too tough,” Trump said of Marcos. “In fact, I used to like him better than I do now. He’s too tough, but we’ll probably agree to something.”

But behind closed doors, the two leaders were able to cement a trade agreement similar to that between the United States and Indonesia, which also faces a 19 percent U.S. tariff under a recently negotiated deal. This makes the Philippines the fifth country to secure a new trade arrangement with the United States since Trump announced his proposed tariffs in April (the other four being China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom).

“Our strongest partner has always been the United States,” Marcos said.

Nuclear talks. Iranian officials met with officials from Russia and China on Tuesday to discuss the possible return of U.N. sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. The talks came just days before Tehran is set to meet with representatives from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in Istanbul on Friday to discuss a potential nuclear deal. The three European countries have vowed to reimpose so-called snapback sanctions on Iran if no progress toward a nuclear agreement has been made by the end of August. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi warned on Tuesday that such sanctions would only further complicate the situation.

One of the biggest points of contention remains Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities, which Israel and the United States say are a threat to the Middle East but Tehran maintains are vital for civilian purposes. The White House has previously said it will not accept any nuclear deal that allows Iran to continue uranium enrichment. But Iran appears unwilling to concede.

Tehran’s uranium enrichment program “is now stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday, referring to Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure last month. “But obviously, we cannot give up our enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists, and now, more than that, it is a question of national pride.”

Increasing authority. Ukrainian lawmakers passed legislation on Tuesday that would give President Volodymyr Zelensky greater influence over the country’s independent anti-corruption bodies by effectively eliminating the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and its partner organization, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Under the bill—passed with 263 votes and fast-tracked to Zelensky’s desk for final approval—both agencies would be placed under the authority of Kyiv’s prosecutor general.

Supporters framed the move as a vital wartime measure to help investigate reports of missing people. But critics warned that the bill would concentrate authority within Zelensky’s administration and silence his opponents. “What’s happening is the demolition of the anticorruption infrastructure in Ukraine,” said Daria Kaleniuk, the co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, which helped establish NABU after Ukraine’s 2014 revolution.

Experts suggest that the legislation could hamper Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union, as independent anti-corruption mechanisms and government transparency are key considerations for accession. Ambassadors from the G-7 told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that they “have serious concerns and intend to discuss these developments with government leaders.”

Odds and Ends

The alleged cheating scandal at a Coldplay concert, in which the married CEO of U.S. tech company Astronomer was caught on a “kiss cam” in a romantic embrace with another of the company’s senior employees, has taken the world by storm. Now, even Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is offering his two cents on the matter.

On Sunday, Pashinyan suggested that the kiss cam canoodlers have more integrity than Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, because the CEO of Astronomer resigned over the incident, whereas Karekin has not stepped down following accusations by Pashinyan that the church leader broke his vow of celibacy. Pashinyan and Karekin have long feuded over allegations that Pashinyan is uncircumcised and therefore not Christian—a scathing accusation in a country where around 94 percent of the population identifies as Armenian Orthodox.