Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was arrested by Israel when they intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, called out world governments for continuing to enable Tel Aviv’s genocide in the Gaza Strip after she arrived in Greece on Monday.

The 45-vessel flotilla, with activists and politicians on board, left Spain last month to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of famine.

The flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy, with commandos boarding the boats and arresting participants. Former Pakistani senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was also on board and is currently in Israeli custody.

In her first public comments since her release by Israeli authorities, Greta emphasised that the real story is not the interception of the flotilla, but the genocide being carried out in the Gaza Strip.

“The Global Sumud Flotilla was the biggest-ever attempt to break Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege by sea,” the Swedish activist said. “It is a story of global, international solidarity, of people stepping up when our governments fail to do so and people are saying ‘my leaders … who are supposed to represent me continue to fuel a genocide … they do not represent me’.“

She added that the mission even existing was “a shame”, condemning Israel’s “illegal and inhumane” siege of the enclave, as well as blocking routes for humanitarian aid.

“Under international law, states have a legal obligation to act to prevent … to stop a genocide, including ending complicity, applying real pressure and ending arms transfers,” Thunberg said.

“We are not even seeing the bare minimum from our governments,” she lamented. “Our international systems are betraying Palestinians. They are not even able to stop the worst war crimes from happening.“

Thunberg said she could “talk for a very, very long time” about her imprisonment and abuse at the hands of Israeli jailers, but insisted that it was not the story.

She said the story was “Israel … continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent; attempting to erase an entire population in front of our very eyes”.

The Israeli onslaught in Gaza began in October 2023 following an attack by Hamas in Israel. Since then, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, thousands injured and millions displaced.

Last month, UN investigators said that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza in a bid to “destroy the Palestinians”, accusing Israel’s prime minister and other top officials of incitement.

A US-Japanese trio on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for research into how the immune system is kept in check by identifying its “security guards”, the Nobel jury said.

The discoveries by Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Japan’s Shimon Sakaguchi have been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases.

Sakaguchi, a professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Centre in Osaka, told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio: “It’s an honour for me. I’m looking forward to visiting Stockholm in December” to receive the award in person.

The Nobel committee was however unable to reach the two US-based laureates to break the news to them in person.

“If you hear this, call me,” the head of the Nobel Assembly, Thomas Perlmann, joked at the press conference announcing the winners.

The three won the prize for research that identified the immune system’s “security guards”, called regulatory T-cells.

Their work concerns “peripheral immune tolerance” that prevents the immune system from harming the body, and has led to a new field of research and the development of potential medical treatments now being evaluated in clinical trials.

“The hope is to be able to treat or cure autoimmune diseases, provide more effective cancer treatments and prevent serious complications after stem cell transplants,” the jury said.

Protecting the body

Sakaguchi made the first key discovery in 1995.

At the time, many researchers were convinced that immune tolerance only developed due to potentially harmful immune cells being eliminated in the thymus, through a process called “central tolerance”.

Sakaguchi, 74, showed that the immune system is more complex and discovered a previously unknown class of immune cells, which protect the body from autoimmune diseases.

Brunkow, born in 1961 and a senior project manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Ramsdell, a 64-year-old senior advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, made the other key discovery in 2001, when they were able to explain why certain mice were particularly vulnerable to autoimmune diseases.

“They had discovered that mice have a mutation in a gene that they named Foxp3,” the jury said.

“They also showed that mutations in the human equivalent of this gene cause a serious autoimmune disease, IPEX.”

Two years later, Sakaguchi was able to link these discoveries.

The trio will receive their prize—a diploma, a gold medal and $1.2 million split three ways— at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

Researchers from major US institutions typically dominate the Nobel science prizes, due largely to the US’ longstanding investment in basic science and academic freedoms.

But that could change down the line following massive US budget cuts to science programmes announced by President Donald Trump.

Since January, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated 2,100 research grants totalling around $9.5 billion and $2.6 billion in contracts, according to an independent database called Grant Watch.

Trump eyeing Peace Prize

Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize for Medicine, told AFP it was “no coincidence that the US has by far the most Nobel laureates”.

“But there is now a creeping sense of uncertainty about the US’ willingness to maintain their leading position in research,” he said.

Trump has meanwhile made no secret of the fact that he wants to win a Nobel himself— the Peace Prize.

Nobel experts have however said his “America First” policies and divisive style give him little chance.

“It’s completely unthinkable,” Oeivind Stenersen, a historian who has conducted research and co-written a book on the prize, told AFP.

“(Trump) is in many ways the opposite of the ideals that the Nobel Prize represents,” he said, citing “multilateral cooperation” as an example.

Trump “follows his own path, unilaterally,” Stenersen added.

Sudan’s networks of volunteers Emergency Response Rooms (ERR) helping people survive war and famine— are seen as a possible contender this year, as are media watchdogs the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

• Denmark ambassador introduces resolution on behalf of the EU.
• Probe to prepare files to facilitate independent criminal proceedings.
• Draft resolution ‘deplores Taliban’ over exclusion of women and girls.
  

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council on Monday decided to launch a probe into serious rights violations in Afghanistan, amid growing alarm over the Taliban´s measures targeting women and girls.

The United Nations’ top rights body decided to set up an investigation to gather and preserve evidence of international crimes.

A draft resolution brought forward by the European Union was adopted without a vote by the 47-country council in Geneva.

“Four years since the Taliban takeover by force, the human rights situation has only deteriorated amidst a deepening humanitarian crisis,” said Denmark’s ambassador Ib Petersen, introducing the resolution on behalf of the EU.

The Taliban has “entrenched repression” and laid waste to civic space in Afghanistan, he said.

“This council has a duty to react and stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan,” said Petersen, stressing that the probe would address long-standing impunity.

The resolution sets up an ongoing independent investigation “to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of international crimes and the most serious violations of international law”.

Its scope notably includes violations and abuses against women and girls.

It will also prepare files to facilitate independent criminal proceedings.

“The mechanism will be able to preserve testimonies and stories of victims,” an EU spokesperson told AFP.

‘Segregation, domination, disrespect’

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 and has since imposed strict laws.

The Taliban government remains largely excluded from the international community, which criticises it for its repressive measures, particularly those targeting women.

Afghan women can no longer practise many professions or travel without a male chaperone, and are banned from studying after the age of 12, walking in parks, or going to gyms.

The resolution “deplores the Taliban’s institutionalisation of its system of discrimination, segregation, domination, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls”.

Colombia’s ambassador Gustavo Gallon said Afghan women and girls were facing institutionalised repression “which simply aims to delete them from public life”.

“All of the Afghan population are suffering in a climate of hunger, displacement and repression,” its representative said.

While it did not call for a vote, council member China disassociated itself from the consensus, saying the resolution “fails to acknowledge the positive progress achieved” in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan has taken various measures for stability, economic growth and improvement of people’s livelihood,” the Chinese representative insisted.

Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher for the NGO Human Rights Watch, told AFP that the investigation “puts the Taliban and all others responsible for past and ongoing serious crimes in Afghanistan on notice that evidence is being collected and prepared so they may someday face justice”.