Hurricane Lee unleashed strong winds on Bermuda ahead of a track that will bring heavy rain, wind and coastal flooding to coastal New England and Atlantic Canada on Friday and through the weekend.

After days of uncertainty, there’s little time left for Lee’s track to change considerably, and confidence has grown now that the massive storm has completed its long-awaited northward turn and begun to pick up its pace.

Lee is expected to track far enough away from the East Coast to avoid delivering a substantial blow to a more widespread and inland area of New England, but will still affect the coast ahead of a weekend landfall somewhere between northeast Maine and the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

Parts of the East Coast were already feeling the storm’s effects, including “dangerous surf and rip current conditions,” according to the National Hurricane Center.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills declared a state of emergency Thursday afternoon and requested federal assistance in preparation for Lee’s arrival.

Lee was about 210 miles west of Bermuda as of Thursday afternoon and was churning with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph – a Category 1 hurricane – according to the hurricane center. An island-wide tropical storm warning is in effect for Bermuda as Lee tracks west of the island.

Power outages mounted across Bermuda on Thursday afternoon as Lee’s winds battered the island, according to the island’s utility provider. Winds gusted up to 51 mph at Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport.

Hurricane and tropical storm watches have been issued for many of New England’s coastal residents in anticipation of the colossal storm’s impact on Friday and through the weekend.

A tropical storm warning issued along New England’s coast was extended northward to the US and Canada border, the hurricane center said in a 5 p.m. advisory. And a tropical storm warning in effect for the coast of Massachusetts was extended westward to Westport, according to the advisory.

Though the storm is expected to weaken as it approaches land, it will still have a massive radius of damaging winds that could pound coastal New England and Canada’s Atlantic provinces. As of Thursday evening, hurricane-force winds extended up to 105 miles from its center and tropical storm-force winds stretched for up to 345 miles, according to the hurricane center.

Hurricane-strength winds are possible from the northern coast of Maine into portions of the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Saturday. Tropical storm-force wind gusts are possible across a much larger area of New England and Atlantic Canada.

These strong winds will contribute to storm surge flooding up to 3 feet that could inundate parts of the southeast Massachusetts coast late Friday and Saturday.

Heavy rainfall could pose a flood threat to some already rain-drenched areas of the Northeast, where saturated ground may be particularly susceptible to flash flooding. Lee’s heaviest rain will fall over portions of Maine Saturday, but states like New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are not completely in the clear.

Lee could deliver 1 to 2 inches of rain from Rhode Island to northern Maine, while 2 to 4 inches of rain can fall across the Massachusetts Cape and much of Maine. Repeated downpours may bring up to 6 inches of rain to southeastern Maine.

The softened soil combined with stiff wind gusts will also increase the likelihood of downed trees, which in turn could knock out essential power lines and cause outages. Areas at and near the coast, which will feel the strongest of Lee’s winds, will be the most at risk of wind damage and power outages.

A luxury cruise ship that ran aground off Greenland’s eastern coastline earlier this week has been successfully freed, Denmark’s military Joint Arctic Command said on Thursday.

The Ocean Explorer – carrying 206 passengers and crew – ran aground in Alpefjord on Monday. The JAC said the cruise ship had been pulled free by a fishing research vessel on Thursday morning.

The vessel had failed in several earlier attempts to refloat, raising concerns it would be stuck for days awaiting the arrival of a larger Danish naval ship which was en route to assist.

Earlier, three passengers on board were placed in isolation after contracting Covid-19, tour agency Aurora Expeditions, the ship’s operator, announced Thursday. All others aboard were said to be healthy and safe. It said neither the ship, its passengers, nor the surrounding water had been in danger due to the incident.

SunStone, the ship’s Florida-based owner, said Ocean Explorer had been successfully assisted off its grounding by Tarajoq, a Greenland research vessel that been involved in several earlier attempts to refloat the cruise ship.

“There have not been any injuries to any person on board, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull,” SunStone said in a press release.

The company said it had “arranged additional tug assistance in case it was needed,” but that it has now stood down on this.

“We would like to thank our charterer Aurora Expeditions as well as all their passengers for an excellent cooperation in this unexpected and difficult circumstance,” SunStone added.

“The vessel and its passengers will now be positioned to a port where the vessel’s bottom damages can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a port from which they can be flown back home.”

The company did not specify what that port would be.

‘No panic’

While the ship was awaiting help, one passenger, named only as Lis, had joked that the main fear on board was running out of alcohol.

“I had swimming lessons before I came and I’m a good swimmer. So look out: I could be swimming back to Iceland.”

There was no panic amongst passengers, Varga said.

She said staff had been doing a good job at trying to keep passengers entertained. “Today they’re offering a towel-folding workshop to learn some towel origami,” she said.

The Ocean Explorer had made several unsuccessful attempts to free itself on tidal currents in the past few days, according to a statement from Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC).

A larger Danish naval vessel, the Knud Rasmussen, was dispatched to assist, according to the JAC, but faced a journey of 1,200 nautical miles (around 2,222 kilometers) to reach the cruise ship. It wasn’t due to arrive until late Friday.

“As soon as we realized that the Ocean Explorer could not get free on its own, we sent a ship towards the wreck,” Arctic Commander Brian Jensen said.

Danish military personnel boarded the cruise ship on Tuesday and said all 206 people aboard were “doing well,” according to the Danish Armed Forces on Wednesday.

The ship was “purpose-built for expedition travel to the world’s most remote destinations,” according to the official website for Aurora Expeditions.

One day in 2021, Megan Clawson was walking home from a night out when she was inspired to record a video on her phone.

“Yo, can you imagine that Henry VIII used to come home steaming to this, and I come home steaming to this?” she said to the camera, eyes wide, laughing.

Then, Clawson turned around her cell phone to show what “this” was: the imposing stone turrets of the Tower of London, bathed in an eerie darkness.

Later, she posted the video on her TikTok: “Walking on the cobbles sober is hard enough; when you’re drunk it’s an Olympic sport,” Clawson wrote.

The Tower of London is located on the banks of London’s River Thames. Once a royal palace for infamous Tudor King Henry VIII, the fortress has also acted as a prison and played host to 900 years of British history, from the grisly and dramatic to the romantic.

Today, it’s a tourist attraction and most people only cross the waterless moat and walk through the gated archway during the daytime – tickets in hand, on their way to see the Crown Jewels or the Tower’s famous ravens.

But around 150 Londoners call the Tower home. And midway through 2020, Clawson became one of them.

Moving into a London landmark

Clawson’s father was a Yeoman Warder or “Beefeater” – one of the ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. He moved into the Tower several years ago and when Clawson started studying at Kings College London, she’d pay him regular visits – often rocking up, laundry in hand, and staying for a cup of tea.

Then, in the wake of the Covid pandemic, Clawson decided to move in with her father permanently.

When she first hauled a suitcase over the cobbles, ready to make the Tower home, Clawson wasn’t sure how to feel. Her college experience had been upended by the pandemic. Everything felt scary and miserable. She didn’t know what the future held. And while Clawson was grateful for his love and support, living with her dad at the age of 20 had never been the plan.

Instead, London was quiet. All the pubs, clubs, restaurants and museums were closed. The Tower of London, usually humming with tourists, was shuttered to everyone but its inhabitants.

Clawson’s early days in the Tower were defined by complicated emotions.

“It was both amazing and exciting. But it was still underpinned by this idea of, ‘Oh, it’s because I needed more help in a global crisis,’ more than just ‘Oh, this is my new fairytale adventure.’”

But, slowly and surely Clawson got used to life in the Tower, and London gradually woke up from its Covid hibernation.

Life in the Tower

Clawson made her bedroom in the Tower her own, putting up photographs and posters.

The cottage Clawson lived in with her father – and their dog Ethel – dated back to the 13th century. There were certain quirks – think arrow-slit windows and four flights of steep stairs – and certain rules and regulations when it came to decorating, but “it was how you would decorate any rental, really,” says Clawson.

Early on, Clawson realized the blinds to her bedroom didn’t work, so she took them down: “It was all fine because that window, there was nobody walking past there during the pandemic because the walkway was closed,” explains Clawson.

“It wasn’t until they reopened the wall without telling me that I realized I need a very, very quick solution to my non-curtain problem.”

Clawson woke up one morning to a bunch of tourists peering into her bedroom. Some were snapping photos as though she was part of the visitor attraction.

Panicking, Clawson glanced around her bedroom, looking for something she could use as a makeshift curtain. The only viable option was an old One Direction beach towel, depicting the smiling faces of Harry Styles and co.

“That was where the One Direction towel came in and lasted for far too long,” says Clawson, laughing. “It was meant to be a temporary solution that went on for a while and became a little bit of a joke after that.”

Clawson eventually took the towel down when she realized it made her bedroom more, rather than less, noticeable.

“I just used to hear people going, ‘Oh my god, is that a One Direction poster in the Tower of London?’”

Clawson’s home had a balcony with a picturesque view – the perfect place to while away an afternoon, only sometimes hampered by kids on school trips, who’d notice Clawson and start shouting to get her attention.

As well as nosy tourists, there were a few other logistical elements to living in the Tower of London.

Clawson realized she had to time her evening returns to the Tower before or after the Ceremony of the Keys – a 700-year-old tradition that plays out every night at 9:30 p.m. forming part of the ceremonial “locking up” of the Tower for the night – otherwise she’d be locked out for 30 minutes.

I just used to hear people going, ‘Oh my God, is that a One Direction poster in the Tower of London?’

Megan Clawson, former resident of the Tower of London

Clawson also figured out the best routes around the Tower to avoid “getting stuck behind loads of tourists.”

And she realized that typing in “Tower of London” into food delivery apps would result in her takeaway pizza never showing up. Sure, she was living in one of London’s most famous landmarks, but delivery drivers never seemed to be able to find it – or they just didn’t believe anyone lived there. Clawson started getting deliveries to the Starbucks across the road instead.

Clawson also started regularly hosting friends in the Tower. Guests were permitted to stay over, and Clawson could host parties – she’d usually opt for the Tower’s onsite residents’ pub, called The Keys, as the venue.

The Keys has two areas – one is more formal, and requires black tie attire. The other side’s “like any other village pub,” as Clawson puts it. Think cozy surroundings and plenty of beer, but only open to Tower residents and their friends and family.

“It was just really chilled out,” says Clawson.

Unsurprisingly, Clawson’s college classmates loved visiting. “Except, obviously, I’d have to tell them, ‘Hey, if you don’t leave by midnight, then you’re locked in here until the morning.’”

The community atmosphere of the Tower quickly became one of Clawson’s favorite parts of living there. She’d grown up in a small town in Lincolnshire, northeast of London, and appreciated how the Tower of London felt like “a village” in the middle of the busy capital city.

The Tower spans 12 acres of the city, a maze of cobbled streets and imposing stone buildings, with London skyscrapers in the distance, poking out behind the Tower’s medieval buildings.

Tower residents would come together for drinks and catch-ups in the evenings, and to enjoy events like the annual dress up Halloween party.

Clawson always felt comfortable wandering the Tower – and tried not to let rumors of potential ghostly inhabitants play on her mind.

“Some days you can be walking around and you feel completely fine, and at ease. And then there are other times where you feel like, when you walk around, somebody’s watching you,” she says.

“I do believe in the supernatural and the paranormal and things like that. And I think if there was ever going to be a place where there was a ghost, it would definitely be the Tower.”

Sharing stories

In 2021, Clawson finished her English literature degree. With more time to spare, Clawson started sharing more dispatches from the Tower of London via her TikTok and Instagram.

“As more and more people got interested, the more videos I did, the different kinds of videos I did,” she says.

From summing up the Tower’s ghost stories in bitesize videos to house tours to fun history lessons, Clawson’s videos provide a fascinating insight into an often unseen side of the Tower.

She’d directly respond to commentators’ requests too – if someone asked her a specific question about life in the Tower, Clawson would make a video response.

“It was very much just ‘What do I want to share with the world this week? What do I want to tell people? What do I want people to know?’” she says.

I think if there was ever going to be a place where there was a ghost, it would definitely be the Tower.

Megan Clawson, former resident of the Tower of London

Around this time, Clawson also started jotting down ideas for a novel – a modern day romance about a woman who lived in the Tower of London.

The story wasn’t autobiographical, but there were aspects, beyond the setting, lifted directly from her life. Clawson decided her main character would fall in love with a Royal Guard – a British military soldier posted at one of the royal residences. Her own boyfriend is also a Royal Guard who, by coincidence, often works at the Tower of London.

“I met him online, but a lot of his job was inside the Tower,” explains Clawson. There was a shorthand between the two of them right away.

“It was kind of this funny conversation of, ‘Hey, like, you’re in my house.’”

Clawson fed all these experiences into her novel and started writing in earnest, discovering plenty of atmospheric writing spots in and around her historic home.

“I would write in my bedroom,” she recalls. “And then there’s cafes that overlook the Tower outside. So I would often go and sit there and look out on it from the outside looking in.”

Clawson’s novel, “Falling Hard for the Royal Guard,” was published in spring 2023 in the UK and the US via Harper Collins. A second novel, “Love at First Knight” – which also has a Tower of London backdrop – is in the works and set to publish next year.

Saying farewell to the Tower

This summer, Clawson’s father left his job as a Yeoman Warder. He told his daughter that he felt as though he’d reached “the pinnacle of his career” and the passing of the late Queen Elizabeth II was the end of an era and the right time to move on.

“He worked for the Queen for 30 years in the military, and then was able to guard her in her final moments,” says Clawson. Before leaving, Clawson’s father worked at the Queen’s official lying in state, the Queen’s funeral and the coronation of King Charles III.

In July 2023 Clawson and her father packed up their home in the Tower of London and moved out for good. Since then, Clawson says adjusting to life outside the Tower has “been very hard.”

She misses the excitement of waking up to stone turrets that have witnessed years of history, but most of all, she misses the other residents.

“They very much became my family and my friends,” she says. “They really got me to the place that I am today.”

She often reflects on “how all of the people that lived in the Tower had very similar but incredibly different lives to get them to that point.”

It was her interactions with the other residents that taught Clawson that “everybody’s got a story to tell.”

Right now, Clawson’s figuring out what comes next. She plans to continue sharing tales from the Tower on her social media, while also expanding to spotlight other UK landmarks and highlight other tales from British history.

“I’d love to take this different approach and kind of build outwards from what I’ve achieved living in the Tower – showing my followers and the world that these are these other amazing things that are in Great Britain that not very many people know about,” says Clawson.

She’s also keen to continue novel writing and would love to turn one of her books into a movie one day, creating a “British rom-com that’s completely filled with all of this British history” with the Tower as the spectacular backdrop.

Whatever comes next, Clawson says she’ll always be grateful for the three years she spent in the Tower of London.

“I always can say that I have lived there. And obviously, with my book and everything, it’s written in black and white that this was my life, and this was this period of time and it’s there on paper, that I’ll be able to share with my children and my grandchildren.”

US President Joe Biden, along with leaders of India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, announced on Saturday the launch of a new trade route connecting India to the Middle East and Europe through railways and ports. The White House said the project would usher in a “new era of connectivity.”

Some analysts are saying it will be a direct challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure project launched a decade ago by Beijing with the aim of connecting China to the rest of the world.

Announced at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in India, Biden’s plan also includes the European Union, France, Italy and Germany. It is comprised of two separate routes – an east corridor linking India to the Gulf Arab states and a northern corridor connecting the Gulf states to Europe.

The ambitious plan shows that the US can count on its Middle East allies in its efforts to contain China’s rise, but also how the Gulf states try to find a balance between traditional allies like the US and emerging partners like China in what they see as a world order that is no longer unipolar.

At the same time, they are positioning themselves as essential economic and political partners to the world’s most powerful states.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Biden told UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ). “I don’t think we would be here without you.”

Goods and services would transit through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Europe. The route will also enable electricity and digital connectivity, as well as pipes for clean hydrogen export.

Seated between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and MBZ, Biden said the agreement announced at the summit was “a big deal.”

“The world stands at an inflection point in history,” Biden said, adding that investment in the plan today is more critical than ever.

Israel, which has made it a priority to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, also hailed the project, saying it “changes our global and historical situation” and advances the vision of “joining Israel to the world.”

Notably absent from the summit was China’s Xi Jinping, who has never missed a G20 summit since taking power in 2012, and whose country has been strengthening ties with Gulf Arab states.

An alternative to a ‘debt and noose’ agreement

Some analysts say the corridor intends to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Beijing launched the massive infrastructure project in 2013 and has poured around $1 trillion into its projects so far. Beijing last month said that, over the years, it signed BRI cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations.

However, the plan has faced problems, including funding shortfalls and some political pushback, which have stalled certain projects. China has pushed back on assertions of risky lending when it comes to BRI, saying “such allegations do not reflect the whole picture.”

Biden last month called China’s BRI a “debt and noose agreement,” which the US and Group of Seven (G7) nations hope to counter with alternatives.

“We got together literally billions of dollars in the G7 nations to provide for alternatives to China’s – what they call Belt and Road Initiative, which is basically a debt and noose agreement that they have,” Biden told donors in August at a campaign reception in Salt Lake City, Utah.

But on Sunday, Biden said he was “sincere” about improving the US-China relationship, pushing back against comments out of Beijing that the president’s trip to India and Vietnam seemed focused on containing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.

“I don’t want to contain China, I just want to make sure we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up squared away, and everyone knows what it’s all about,” Biden told reporters traveling with him in Vietnam, adding that he wants to see China succeed as long as it succeeds “by the rules.”

The question remains whether a new trade route in the region would complement China’s BRI or compete with it.

Cinzia Bianco, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Berlin, said that there likely isn’t enough trade volume in the region to make both Biden’s project and China’s viable at the same time. “The heart of the matter is that it is an alternative (to China’s BRI),” she said.

The partners in the new trade route also have both the funds and the political will to bring the project to fruition in a sufficient enough time to be able to challenge the BRI, Bianco added.

But three of the nations in the new corridor are already members of China’s BRI, and may find themselves in an awkward position for having joined a project that is widely seen as being designed to undermine Beijing’s plans. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are already members of China’s BRI, along with Italy, the only G7 nation to have joined.

Italian media however reported Sunday that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was looking to bolster ties with China whilst seeking a “soft” exit of China’s BRI, which Rome joined in 2019.

Bianco said Italy’s BRI membership is an “anomaly,” and that Meloni was bound to withdraw.

Gulf states ‘not taking sides’

For the UAE and Saudi Arabia, however, the India-Middle East-Europe corridor isn’t necessarily a replacement to the BRI, experts say.

Baharoon added that the project, if perceived as a “replacement” or “competitor” to China’s BRI, would fail to realize its potential.

Bianco said that the Gulf states’ decision to join the new project may also be driven by the slowing of China’s economy, prompting them to “put their chips in different games and see what happens first.”

The G20 summit and Biden’s economic corridor come just weeks after oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the UAE were invited to become members of the BRICS group of developing nations.

The group currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and its first-ever potential expansion in a decade has been seen by some as a challenge to the US’ global influence.

Despite pressure to choose sides, Gulf states have insisted that they maintain a balanced position that involves political and economic cooperation across the board, something that analysts say makes Gulf states strategically vital.

“We look at BRICS from a geo-economic not a geo-political perspective, with the aim of strengthening our economic competitiveness,” the official said, against the backdrop of pouring commentary about Gulf states siding with the East.

Meanwhile, Gulf states aim to continue to remain relevant to all sides.

“Gulf countries are using this multipolarity and this new world (order) to try to put themselves at the heart of global trade, trying to invest even more in connectivity and globalization,” Bianco said.

Israel’s Supreme Court held hearings Tuesday on a law to curb its powers, in a case that could set the judiciary on a collision course with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government after months of mass protests over the controversial legislation.

The court heard arguments for and against the first part of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan to pass parliament – a law that restricts the court’s ability to nullify government actions it deems “unreasonable.”

Beyond the legal questions surrounding the law and the justices ruling on their own powers remains the question of whether Netanyahu’s government would even abide by a court ruling – possibly months away if it comes – striking down the law. That would set Israel up for an unprecedented judicial and political crisis.

Netanyahu has always claimed that he is in full control of this government – no matter who his ministers are. But the next few weeks could be critical to his own future.

“If Netanyahu wants to survive as prime minister, he must have his hands on the steering wheel, otherwise he will fall apart,” said Amit Segal, chief political correspondent for Israel’s Channel 12. “The Supreme Court and the government alike possess a credible nuclear threat against the other side … if both sides are rational actors, they will … disarm themselves. Problem is, we’re in a crisis that is not very rational anymore.”

Netanyahu’s proposals to weaken the courts have divided Israeli society, with critics describing them as a threat to the country’s democracy. Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets outside of the Supreme Court on Monday evening, part of the 36-week long protest movement against the overhaul, to show support for the justices ahead of the hearing. Some of the demonstrators later marched to the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem.

What happened on Tuesday

The Supreme Court listened to arguments from 14 lawyers over the course of about 13 and a half hours – including questioning lawyers for the government a second time in the evening session after they first presented their arguments in the morning.

At the conclusion of the hearing, two of the lawyers defending the law asked permission to file further written submissions. The court gave them each 21 days to file submissions not more than 15 pages long.

Perhaps the most memorable moment in the hearing came in the morning session, when Justice Isaac Amit told lawyer Ilan Bombach, representing the Netanyahu government, that “democracy dies in a series of small steps.”

Amit and Bombach were also involved in the exchange that drew the biggest laugh of the day, when Amit told Bombach that he was not worried about “horror scenarios such as the Knesset banning redheads from voting.”

“I am!” piped up redhead Eliad Schraga, the lawyer for the Movement for Quality Government, who was sitting behind Bombach. Everyone in court burst out laughing.

Bombach turned to Schraga and said an individual exception could be legislated for him, prompting more laughter.

During the afternoon session, lawyers for the Attorney General – who believes the reasonableness law should be struck down – and eight plaintiffs argued that stripping the court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable would weaken Israel’s democracy.

Justices grilled lawyers from both sides rigorously, giving little indication which way they would rule.

Bombach, representing Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, spoke for the longest – nearly twice his allotted time – while some other lawyers were allotted only 10 minutes.

The so-called “reasonableness law” is the first aspect of the judicial overhaul passed in July by Netanyahu’s government despite months of street demonstrations, warnings from the Biden administration and a boycott by all opposition lawmakers of the final vote on the bill.

The measure, which amended one of Israel’s Basic Laws, came into effect two days after it was passed and strips the Supreme Court of the power to strike down government decisions it finds to be unreasonable.

Like the United Kingdom, Israel doesn’t have a written constitution. Instead, it relies on 13 Basic Laws, as well as court ruling precedents that could one day become a constitution. That leaves the Supreme Court as the only check on the executive and legislative branches of government. Striking down a Basic Law would be uncharted territory for the Supreme Court, although it has examined and commented on Basic Laws before.

In 2021, the court outlined very narrow circumstances under which a Basic Law can be annulled. Supreme Court President Esther Hayut said a Basic Law could be struck down if it endangers democratic principles such as those that deal “a mortal blow to free and fair elections, core human rights, the separation of powers, the rule of law and an independent judiciary.”

That standard was then used this year when Netanyahu dismissed key ally Aryeh Deri from all ministerial posts, in compliance with a Supreme Court ruling that it was unreasonable to appoint him to positions in government due to his criminal convictions and because he had said in court last year that he would retire from public life.

In a historic first, all 15 judges on the court have been convened to hear the challenge to the controversial law, which is expected to last no longer than a couple of days. The court must issue its ruling by January 12, 2024, because of a retirement coming up on the bench.

How did Israel get here?

The anti-judicial overhaul demonstrations are now the longest and largest protest movement in Israeli history.

It started when Netanyahu took back power late last year – leading the most right-wing and religious coalition ever to hold power.

And though judicial reform was barely, if ever, mentioned during Netanyahu’s election campaign, it quickly became the main issue when Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced the sweeping plans days after being sworn in.

The original proposals included reshaping how Supreme Court justices are selected, taking away some of its powers to nullify government actions, significantly limiting the authority of government legal advisers, and even giving parliament the power in certain cases to overturn Supreme Court rulings with a simple majority.

Netanyahu’s coalition said the changes were necessary to rebalance the branches of government, claiming that the Supreme Court had become insular and elitist, and held too much power over the democratically elected legislators. Opponents saw the reforms as a power grab for the ultra-Orthodox and settler movements and as a way to help Netanyahu as he faces an ongoing corruption case – charges he has vehemently denied.

Although aspects of the reforms have been dropped or softened since their initial rollout, the demonstrations have grown and morphed into a wider protest movement against the government, whose far-right ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir have made controversial statements about Israeli society and about Palestinians that have raised concerns from international allies.

What’s at risk?

Many Israelis, both those for and against the judicial changes, say Israel is risking tearing itself apart, and that the judicial overhaul is just one aspect of what’s really fueling the divide – the battle between secular and religious, settler and not.

“Every single Western democracy experiences an identity crisis in its third or fourth generation. Who are we?… What are we here for? And in Israel? The crisis is whether we are Jewish and democratic state, or a democratic and Jewish state. What is the 51%? And what is the 49%? Is it a strawberry banana yogurt, or a banana strawberry yogurt?” Segal said.

The judicial overhaul and the government’s actions have not only sparked the massive protest movement that has regularly shut down some of Israel’s busiest roads and highways, but it’s also affected everything from Israel’s military, to its economy, and its international relations.

Thousands of military reservists and even some active duty soldiers have vowed not to serve if the judicial overhaul went into effect. Banks and credit ratings agencies warned about the stability of Israel’s business climate as a result of the reforms. Israel’s famous high-tech community has been unanimous in expressing deep concern over the plans, and Israel’s security establishment, including former military generals, chiefs of staff, Ministers of Defense, and chiefs of Israel’s security and intelligence agencies have said such changes would or have already weakened Israel’s security.

“The pro-Iran camp, Iraq, Lebanon, and other Shiite forces that actually are following what’s going on see it as a kind of opportunity. (Hezbollah leader) Hassan Nasrallah has said it in his own, I would say very clear-cut phrases, he said, ‘I see that the collapse of Israel has already started. We should wait on the sidelines and see how Israel is ruining itself,’” Tomer said. “So they are looking for an opportunity to help us to give us a little push to this collapse.”

Allies, most notably the United States, have expressed deep concern over the overhaul with President Joe Biden urging Netanyahu only to pass such changes under a broad compromise agreement with opposition parties. A meeting between Netanyahu and Biden in the US has been publicly mooted, though has notably not happened yet as a result of the legislation – highly unusual for two countries that claim to be such stalwart allies.

And Tomer said regional and newer allies, like the United Arab Emirates are also expressing concern.

“The need for unity is not only to be strong, vis a vis our enemies,” Tomer said. “But the need for unity is very much requested to keep up the relations or even to develop relationships with our partners in the region.”

What happens next

There are reports in Israeli media that Netanyahu is considering announcing he’s agreeing to Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s compromise plan on judicial reform. But until legislation is credibly on the table or passed regarding the law the Supreme Court is weighing this week, the hearings will move forward.

Tomer says a move by the court to strike down the legislation could lead to some major dilemmas for Israel’s security leadership.

“It means that there is a question for the chief of police. Who should he – so to speak – obey? (National Security Minister) Ben Gvir that might ask him in two weeks to stop all licenses for demonstrating on the streets, because he’s against that? Or for the Supreme Court that might say we have a right to demonstrate, the right to strike by our so to speak legal system,” Tomer said.

Meanwhile Netanyahu is heading to the US to speak at the United Nations General Assembly next week as a Biden invitation remains unfulfilled, all the while a possible peace accord between Israel and Saudi Arabia is being hammered out, according to reports.

If Netanyahu wants such achievements, he must do so while also balancing the desires of his coalition partners, whom he needs to remain in power. A deal with Saudi Arabia would likely require serious concession to the Palestinians, which may be a step too far for some of his more ultra-nationalist partners.

“(Netanyahu) lacks the power to actually lead this coalition boat to the destination that he seeks, because he is fully dependent on his far-right partners, so Netanyahu that we know, wants to promote the peace accords with Saudi Arabia and to promote the economy. And yes, to have some judicial reform, but not the full monty,” Segal said. “So what I really think is that unless Netanyahu wakes up and tells his tells his partners that they must go to the direction that he wants to, his government is in danger of falling apart.”

As the dust began to settle, panic set in.

Screams echoed through the narrow streets of Marrakech’s old city as the extent of injuries and damage became apparent.

Just seconds before the magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook the Moroccan city, scores of people had been enjoying their Friday evening in the crowded alleys and on the city’s bustling Jemaa el-Fnaa square.

Others had been asleep when the ground began to violently shake just after 11 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET).

When the magnitude of this natural disaster slowly began to show, many made their way for wide, open spaces, as far away as possible from tall buildings, lampposts and electricity cables.

Severely injured people were carried out of destroyed homes on stretchers, or even wrapped in carpet, and the cries for help grew louder and louder. In some cases, they fell on deaf ears an ambulance crew turned away an elderly woman. With the vehicle full of injured people, the crew – visibly shaken by the scenes – explained that they simply did not have enough space to take her to hospital.

Many of those who were lucky enough to escape the earthquake unharmed stayed in the street until the early hours of the morning. With homes destroyed and rumors of an even stronger aftershock circling, makeshift beds were erected as people decided to camp out on the streets. The morning after, some of them were still there, many of the city’s parks, plazas and parking lots transformed into tragic impromptu campsites.

They left behind them a historic city badly damaged. Marrakech’s Medina and city walls, adored by tourists, were hit particularly heavily, their century-old structures unable to withstand the violent shake.

While Marrakech suffered, the epicenter of the earthquake was around 50km away, in the rural, mountainous Al Haouz region.

It was from these rural areas dozens if not hundreds of injured were brought to the city’s CHU Mohammed VI hospital’s emergency department.

There were scenes of desperation in the hospital courtyard.

With the hospital at full capacity, medics performed open-air triage with many patients, including some appearing to be severely injured, being treated outside the hospital in a row of hospital beds.

While most patients from Marrakech had been seen to by the morning, those from rural areas continued their painful wait.

France’s Foreign ministry on Thursday announced the release of Stephane Jullien, a French official who had been held by security forces in Niger.

The man, an adviser to French nationals in Niger, had been arrested by Niger security forces on September 8, according to the foreign ministry in Paris.

The ministry had called for his immediate release on Tuesday but did not provide details on his arrest.

Jullien is an elected official who represents French expatriates and works closely with the country’s embassies and consulates.

According to the foreign ministry website, there are 442 such advisers worldwide. Their role is to help French expats with issues relating to work, schools, social security and other issues. They are elected for six-year terms.

Niger’s ruling junta last month ordered police to expel France’s ambassador, in a move marking a further downturn in relations between France and its former colony.

Paris had said that the army officers who seized power in Niamey in late July had no authority to expel the French ambassador.

Following the coup, France said it would end military cooperation and cut all development aid to the country. But Paris had so far rejected calls by the putsch leaders to withdraw the 1,500 French troops currently in Niger, saying it still regards democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, currently held prisoner, as the country’s legitimate leader.

Malakai Fekitoa may have been born and raised on the small island nation of Tonga, but his goal as a promising young rugby player was always to represent a country thousands of miles across the ocean.

Long before he had the chance to travel to New Zealand, Fekitoa set his sights on competing for the All Blacks – undoubtedly the most famous rugby team on the planet.

“Every young kid there either wanted to play for Australia or New Zealand. We always wanted to be like those boys on TV and we all wanted to leave straight after school or during our school years to find an opportunity to play rugby.”

Despite being Tonga’s national sport, opportunities to pursue a career as a rugby player in the country are limited compared to those in Australia and New Zealand, where there are clear pathways for young players to reach the top of the sport.

It was after playing for Tonga at the Wellington Sevens as a 16-year-old that Fekitoa was offered a place at Wesley College in Auckland, a high school that counts Jonah Lomu and numerous other current and former international rugby players among its former pupils.

For Fekitoa, it would be a launchpad for his successful career. After becoming eligible to play for New Zealand under a three-year residency rule, the hard-running, big-tackling center went on to play 24 times for the All Blacks and was part of the team’s Rugby World Cup triumph in 2015.

“It was an experience of a lifetime, nothing like it will ever compare,” Fekitoa says about playing for the three-time world champions.

These days, however, he can be seen wearing the red jersey of Tonga, rather than New Zealand’s iconic black kit. His decision to play club rugby in Europe prevented Fekitoa from being selected for the All Blacks, but now the chance to compete internationally with the country of his birth has returned.

A rule permitting players to switch allegiances if they compete in an Olympic qualifying competition for rugby sevens – a shortened, seven-a-side format of the sport – enabled Fekitoa to represent Tonga in Monaco two years ago.

In some instances, rugby’s eligibility rules – as the 31-year-old’s international career testifies – allow a degree of flexibility over which country a player represents. In 2017, it was announced that players had to have residency in a country for five years, increased from three, in order to play for that nation.

Then from January 2022, a rule came into force enabling players to transfer to a country they – or a parent or grandparent – were born in, as long as they haven’t played an international game for three years.

The change has proved particularly beneficial for Tonga, which, as well as Fekitoa, has named former All Blacks Vaea Fifita, George Moala and Charles Piutau in its squad for the ongoing Rugby World Cup in France.

Adam Coleman, a former Australia international, is in line to make his debut for Tonga during the tournament, although another ex-Wallaby, controversial full-back Israel Folau, misses out due to injury.

Tonga begins its World Cup campaign against Ireland, the world’s top-ranked team, on Saturday, hoping to progress beyond the group stages for the first time.

“It’s different emotions and it’s a different feeling, playing for my own country where I was born and where most of my family are still,” says Fekitoa.

“It’s kind of a different drive as well. You always wanted to play at the time with New Zealand, the best team in the world … Once you achieve that, you want to be something different. And for me, this is a new purpose.”

Representing Tonga at the World Cup is the latest chapter in Fekitoa’s itinerant rugby career, which so far has taken him from New Zealand to club teams in France, England, Ireland, and soon, Italy.

“I’m still very, very young and I’ve got a lot to offer to the game, especially at the highest level,” he says. “With the rule change and everything that happened, I felt, why not give back, why not share my experience, and why not represent my family?”

With no chance of being selected for the All Blacks while playing in Europe, the decision to represent Tonga was perhaps an obvious one for Fekitoa. But the choice to move away from New Zealand in the first instance, he says, was “probably the hardest of my life” – particularly as he was only 25 at the time.

“That’s all I knew – my life based on rugby and the All Blacks in New Zealand, in your little bubble,” Fekitoa explains.

“Everybody knows you get everything or anything you want and you’re living your dream and you’re playing for the best team in the world at the time. I thought I would make a decision that will help me better my life and my family and support my kids when I retire.”

He adds: “I look back now and I wouldn’t change anything, to be honest. I’ve got to travel the world and meet a lot of great people; I met my wife, [I have] two beautiful kids now. I think probably that’s the best part of the decision I made.”

And Fekitoa’s family will be on the sidelines in France to watch him make his first appearance at a Rugby World Cup in eight years.

Representing Tonga – a so-called “tier two” nation because it doesn’t compete in top-level annual tournaments like the Rugby Championship or the Six Nations – means preparing for the sport’s showpiece event comes with challenges.

Budgets are smaller compared to “tier one” nations, teams like Tonga are assembled from players at clubs scattered across the globe and opportunities to play against the world’s best teams are scarce.

“For us, it could be something like there’s not many rugby balls,” says Fekitoa, “or deliveries don’t get in until two weeks later … Or they say a pitch is available now and then, tomorrow, we’re about to train there and they say, ‘No, it’s not available now. It’s been taken by someone else.’ Those little things kind of affect the preparation at times.”

Adding to the challenge, Tonga has been drawn in what can safely be called the “pool of death” at this year’s World Cup alongside Ireland, one of the pre-tournament favorites, South Africa, the defending champion and another favorite, and Scotland, now ranked fifth in the world.

Only against Romania will Tonga start a game as the higher-ranked team, though the inclusion of former All Blacks like Fekitoa has only increased the likelihood of the Pacific Island nation reaching the knockout rounds for the first time ever.

“It’s going to be very difficult,” says Fekitoa. “We spoke about coming out and doing well for us and, hopefully, upsetting a few teams. We wanted to obviously finish as high as we can. Playoffs would be pretty special for our little country and it’s doable.”

For Fekitoa, the World Cup will be a chance to watch his career come full circle, some 16 years after he first played for Tonga’s sevens team as a teenager desperate to make his way in the professional game.

Back then, Fekitoa was brought along to training by his cousin, initially to carry water and experience the atmosphere of the team. When an extra player was needed, he ended up taking part in a fitness test, beating everyone, and eventually earning a call-up to playing at a tournament in Samoa.

Fast-forward to the present day and Fekitoa is once again wearing the Tongan jersey, this time on the sport’s biggest stage. After the rule change, he thinks more All Blacks players will follow his lead by swapping allegiances.

“The Kiwi boys, some of them are really Tonga in their heart,” he says. “Most of them are born and raised in Tonga, or their parents are still there even though they play for New Zealand now.

“I believe those boys will switch at some point. It’s a matter of when they will, but they will one day.”

Nigeria international Ashleigh Plumptre is set to join the Saudi Women’s Premier League after signing for Al-Ittihad.

The 25-year-old defender, who previously spent three years with English team Leicester City, joins the Saudi league in its second season having just represented Nigeria at the Women’s World Cup.

“Joining Al-Ittihad, I feel as if I’m going to have so many opportunities both on and off the pitch to be able to learn about football here,” Plumptre said in a video on X, formerly Twitter, released by Al-Ittihad Ladies on Wednesday.

“For me, I don’t come here with any expectations, I come here being myself and I hope that I can learn and take so much from the environment both as a football player but more importantly as a human being.”

The Saudi Pro League has attracted some of the biggest names in the men’s game over the past year, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Sadio Mané, and current Ballon d’Or holder Karim Benzema.

With huge salaries reportedly being offered to players, the league has disrupted the transfer market, though some critics say Saudi Arabia is using the sport to improve its global reputation and distract from its human rights record.

The eight-team Saudi Women’s Premier League is about to embark on its second season, just five years after women first attended games in the Kingdom.

Plumptre previously represented England at youth international level before switching allegiances to Nigeria, for whom she has made 15 appearances, including four at the recent Women’s World Cup.

“Football for me has always been about connecting with not only more of myself, but with the people that I’m surrounded by, whether that’s my teammates [or] staff,” she said in Al-Ittihad’s announcement video.

“Throughout everything that I’ve done in my career so far, it’s always been about representing something bigger than myself.”