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Vanuatu has filed an application with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against France over the disputed Matthew and Hunter Islands. Paris, however, has said it will not relinquish its sovereignty over the territories and will respond to the court’s application “in due course.”

France has reiterated that it will not give up its sovereignty over the Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are also claimed by Vanuatu. French Minister Delegate for Francophonie and International Partnerships Eléonore Caroit made the statement during the 55th meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum.

In its application to the ICJ, Vanuatu is seeking recognition of its sovereignty over the islands, known as Umaenupne (Matthew) and Umaeneg/Leka (Hunter), as well as the establishment of a single maritime boundary between the exclusive economic zones and continental shelves of Vanuatu and France.

The case has also attracted attention from the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), an international non-governmental organization based in Azerbaijan that has expressed support for Vanuatu’s position in the dispute. BIG has said it stands ready to facilitate dialogue between the parties and provide an impartial platform for consultations over the maritime border issue.

The application is based on Article 38, paragraph 5, of the ICJ Rules. This mechanism allows a state to bring a case before the court even when the other party has not previously consented to the court’s jurisdiction.

However, the ICJ has indicated that no procedural steps will be taken and the case will not be entered on the court’s General List unless France accepts the court’s jurisdiction in the matter.

Thus, while Vanuatu’s application has brought the long-standing diplomatic and legal dispute back into the spotlight, whether the case will actually be heard by the ICJ currently depends on France’s decision on whether to accept the court’s jurisdiction.

Norway’s hydroelectric power plants are facing an unprecedented shortage of water. The water level in reservoirs in one of the country’s key energy regions has fallen to a record low for this time of year.

According to Europower, citing data from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the amount of water stored in reservoirs stood at 15.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) last week. This was 0.1 TWh below the previous record low, which was recorded in 1996.

Analysts attribute the situation to several months of unusually dry weather, combined with limited snowfall during the previous winter. With less snow available to melt in the warmer months, reservoirs have received significantly less water than usual.

If sufficient rainfall does not arrive in the coming weeks, Norway’s energy system could come under serious pressure, potentially leading to higher electricity prices. The situation is particularly concerning because energy prices in Europe have already been rising amid geopolitical tensions and uncertainty in global energy markets.

The problem is especially important for Norway because hydropower plays a crucial role in the country’s electricity system. Unlike many European countries, Norway relies heavily on water reservoirs to generate electricity, making its energy supply particularly sensitive to changes in rainfall and snowfall.

Norway has also become one of the European Union’s most important energy partners, supplying large amounts of natural gas and electricity to the bloc. However, if the domestic water shortage continues, Norway may have to rely more heavily on electricity imports from neighboring European countries – some of which are also experiencing the effects of an unusually dry summer.

Interestingly, Norway’s huge hydropower reservoirs normally function almost like giant natural batteries. They store water during wet periods and release it when electricity demand is high. This allows the country to adjust electricity production depending on demand. But when rainfall and snowfall are insufficient, even this enormous energy reserve can begin to run dangerously low.

The situation also highlights the growing connection between weather, climate, and energy security. A prolonged dry period can reduce hydropower production, increase electricity prices, and force countries to look for alternative sources of energy.

For Norway, the coming weeks could therefore be crucial. Much will depend on whether enough rain arrives to replenish the reservoirs before the colder months begin. If the dry conditions continue, the impact could extend beyond Norway and put additional pressure on Europe’s already sensitive energy market.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Syria attempted to construct a nuclear reactor at a site in the eastern province of Deir Az Zor under ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

In a confidential report circulated to member states and seen by news agencies on Tuesday, the UN nuclear watchdog said its inspectors visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification activities.

Based on observations at the Deir Az Zor site, the IAEA said it had confirmed that ‘the cooling infrastructure which has now been uncovered is consistent with that of a nuclear reactor.’

The agency said it would continue monitoring activities at the site as excavation work progresses.

Syria had previously been suspected of operating an undeclared nuclear programme under al-Assad, including a reactor reportedly constructed with North Korean assistance at Deir Az Zor.

The facility became publicly known after Israel carried out an air strike against the site in 2007, destroying the suspected reactor. Syria subsequently levelled the site and did not provide full answers to the IAEA regarding the facility and the wider questions surrounding its nuclear activities.

The IAEA has for years sought clarification from Damascus over the nature and purpose of the Deir Az Zor facility as part of its investigation into Syria’s undeclared nuclear activities.

Following al-Assad’s removal from power in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities agreed to allow IAEA inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites, opening the way for renewed verification efforts.

The latest findings could provide further evidence for the IAEA’s long-running assessment of Syria’s nuclear activities under the previous government.

Israel, meanwhile, is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, although it maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity and neither confirms nor denies having an atomic arsenal. It is generally regarded as the only state in the Middle East believed to possess nuclear weapons.

Azerbaijan’s AzerEnerji OJSC and China’s Universal Energy have discussed opportunities for cooperation in the energy sector.

A meeting was held between Baba Rzayev, Chairman of the AzerEnerji Board, and Yi Nan, CEO of Universal Energy.

The talks focused on cooperation in renewable energy, the activities of Chinese energy companies in Azerbaijan, and prospects for further partnership.

The sides also exchanged views on issues of mutual interest in the energy sector and explored opportunities to expand cooperation.

Azerbaijan and China are steadily expanding cooperation in the energy sector, with renewable power, electricity infrastructure and green energy corridors becoming increasingly important areas of the partnership.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly pressured the Palestinian Authority to remove references to ‘Palestine’ from school curricula and replace them with the biblical term ‘Samaria,’ according to former UK Ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock.

Speaking to Middle East Eye, Greenstock said Blair, who has been involved with US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, traveled to Ramallah and conveyed the demand to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Greenstock said a ministerial-level source told him that Blair presented the removal of the term ‘Palestine’ from Palestinian textbooks as a condition for the Board of Peace to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a viable negotiating partner.

According to Greenstock, Abbas rejected the demand outright, saying he would not agree to such a change.

Greenstock criticized the reported request, saying it raised questions about the principles guiding the Board of Peace.

The claim has been disputed by Blair’s Institute for Global Change, which denied that such a request was made.

The reported episode comes amid wider disputes over how Palestinian history, identity and terminology are represented in educational and cultural institutions. Palestinian and Israeli authorities have repeatedly clashed over the portrayal of history and national identity in textbooks, museums and public institutions.

The controversy also comes as international efforts surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue to focus on the future political status of the Palestinian territories and the possibility of renewed negotiations.

A unique ‘kindergarten’ for robots has been opened in China, where researchers are testing a new approach to machine learning. Instead of teaching robots every action in advance, scientists want them to learn independently through experiments, mistakes, and repeated attempts.

The training center was created by the Chinese company Tashan Technology. Researchers believe that this method could allow robots to continue adapting even after they are deployed in the real world, including in situations they were never specifically trained for.

For example, if a robot crashes into a wall during training, it can analyze the failure, change its route, and try again. In this way, mistakes become useful learning data rather than simply being treated as failures.

Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said that independent exploration of the environment could help robots move beyond narrow training for specific tasks. Instead, they may gradually develop a more fundamental understanding of the physical world and how objects around them behave.

However, this type of learning requires much more time. Robots may need to make hundreds or even thousands of attempts before they learn how to deal with a new situation. Still, researchers believe that the ability to make mistakes and learn from them could become an important part of the future of robotics.

In the long term, scientists also hope that robots will be able to share their experiences with one another. If one robot learns how to overcome a particular obstacle or complete a new task, other robots could potentially use that knowledge instead of learning everything from scratch.

Interestingly, this approach is similar to the way young children learn. They do not simply follow instructions – they explore, make mistakes, and gradually understand how the world works. Perhaps the idea of a ‘kindergarten’ is therefore more than just a funny name: it reflects a completely different way of teaching machines.

New York City plans to introduce a ban on the use of artificial intelligence by students in public schools through the eighth grade. The new rules are expected to be announced today and will take effect next week.

The measure is part of a major reform of technology use in the largest public school system in the United States, which serves around 900,000 students each year. Under the new policy, younger students will also face restrictions on the use of personal technology in classrooms. Children will not be allowed to use laptops or tablets during lessons until the third grade, when they are usually around nine or ten years old.

The changes are being closely watched by other school districts and states across the US, as many educators are still trying to determine how much technology should be used in classrooms.

Teachers and parents have raised concerns about AI-powered educational software, arguing that excessive reliance on such tools could affect children’s mental development and reduce their ability to think independently. Some educators are particularly worried that students may begin using AI to solve problems instead of developing their own reasoning and critical-thinking skills.

Under the new rules, students will be allowed to use AI only in high school, which begins in the ninth grade in the American education system. Even then, its use will be restricted to specific educational purposes, including learning about AI itself.

AI-powered chatbots designed to provide psychological or emotional support will also be prohibited in schools. Teachers, however, will still be allowed to use AI for certain administrative tasks, such as preparing lesson materials or drafting messages. They will not be allowed to use AI to grade or evaluate students’ assignments.

The city’s Department of Education also recommends limiting screen time during lessons to about 45 minutes for middle school students in grades 6-8 and 30 minutes for elementary school students. However, one major challenge remains: it is difficult to control how students use AI outside the classroom, especially on their personal smartphones and computers.

The new policy is based on an earlier proposal published in March that introduced a ‘traffic light’ system for AI use. Under that approach, different activities were classified as green, yellow, or red depending on whether AI was considered appropriate.

Interestingly, New York City’s approach to AI has already changed once. In 2023, the school system banned students from using ChatGPT, but the restriction was lifted less than a year later. The latest rules suggest that officials are now trying to take a more structured approach rather than simply banning technology altogether.

The debate reflects a much bigger question facing schools around the world: should children learn to work without AI first, or should they learn how to use it responsibly from an early age? New York’s experiment could provide an important answer as education systems try to adapt to the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

The issue of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Armenia was not discussed during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bishkek, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

“There were no discussions about the military base. We have never raised this issue during this period. It is not the case that we consider the presence of the 102nd Military Base in Armenia a vital necessity,” Pashinyan noted during a briefing with journalists.

According to him, Armenia would not object if Russia decided to withdraw the base from the country.

“If Russia decides to withdraw the base from Armenia, we will not object. If they express a desire to remain, we are also ready to discuss that. But we have never raised this issue,” Pashinyan added.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in turn, said that Russia would leave Armenia “as early as tomorrow” if Yerevan decides that the military infrastructure is no longer needed.

“We are not going to impose anything on anyone. If the Armenian people want there to be some kind of Russian military presence nearby, we will stay, work and cooperate,” Putin emphasized at a press conference in Bishkek.

The 102nd Russian Military Base has been stationed in Gyumri, northern Armenia, since 1995.

Azerbaijan has called for greater international support for mine action, arguing that demining should be treated not only as a humanitarian responsibility but also as an essential component of peacebuilding and the long-term normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Addressing the second day of the 4th International Mine Action Conference in Baku on Thursday, Elchin Amirbayov, Representative of the President of Azerbaijan on special assignments, said peace could not be considered complete while landmines continued to threaten lives, obstruct the return of internally displaced persons and hinder economic recovery.

‘The shooting has stopped. But the mines have not,’ Amirbayov said.

He stressed that the physical consequences of war continue to affect the prospects for sustainable peace.

‘Peace cannot be considered complete while the physical consequences of war continue to threaten lives, block movement, limit economic activity, slow down return of IDPs and stand in the way of normalization of inter-state relations,’ Amirbayov said.

According to him, humanitarian demining has therefore become ‘much more than a humanitarian task’ and should increasingly be viewed as a peacebuilding effort.

‘You cannot build peace on unsafe ground,’ he said, noting that the UN Peacebuilding Commission had also recognized mine action as an enabler of peacebuilding, reconciliation and recovery.

Amirbayov recalled the August 8, 2025 Washington process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, when the text of the peace agreement was initialled and the two countries’ leaders signed a joint declaration outlining a vision for relations beyond their decades-long conflict.

He said that since the Washington meeting, Azerbaijan and Armenia had experienced de facto peace, with no military escalation between the two countries, while government and civil-society dialogue, trade, economic interaction and connectivity initiatives had continued.

‘We hope that very soon the remaining obstacle will be removed to enable the parties to sign the peace agreement and to codify peace,’ Amirbayov said.

However, he argued that political agreements alone were insufficient to make peace tangible for communities.

‘Peace has to be made visible on the ground,’ he said, pointing to landmines as one of the major obstacles to this process in Azerbaijan.

Since the end of the 2020 war, 437 people in Azerbaijan have been killed or injured by landmines, according to Amirbayov. He said each new casualty not only represents a humanitarian tragedy but also affects public confidence in the normalization process.

‘Every mine explosion today has consequences far beyond the immediate victim. It hampers the atmosphere in which peace is being built,’ he said.

Amirbayov also highlighted the scale of the contamination, saying more than 13 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory had been affected by mines and unexploded ordnance, while 75 percent of mine-contaminated territory remained affected by the threat.

The issue has become particularly significant as Azerbaijan continues its large-scale reconstruction and Great Return process in the territories previously affected by the conflict.

Former internally displaced persons are returning, while residential areas, roads, schools, hospitals and economic infrastructure are being reconstructed.

‘You cannot rebuild a community before you can safely clear the ground beneath it,’ Amirbayov said.

Against this backdrop, he called for a stronger and more predictable international role in Azerbaijan’s mine-action efforts.

According to Amirbayov, approximately 95 percent of financing for mine action in Azerbaijan currently comes from the country’s own state resources, while only around 5 percent comes from international sources.

‘We believe that this imbalance can and needs to change,’ he said.

Amirbayov proposed the creation of a long-term international funding mechanism for Azerbaijan’s mine action, emphasizing the need for predictable, multi-year financing rather than relying primarily on emergency contributions and individual projects.

Such funding, he said, would allow Azerbaijan to plan operations, recruit and train personnel, invest in equipment and accelerate the clearance of contaminated areas.

‘We need to finance the solution, not simply manage the problem,’ Amirbayov said.

He also called for stronger international cooperation on mine-action technologies, including artificial intelligence, drones, satellite imagery, advanced surveying, mechanical demining and data technologies.

‘Azerbaijan has the ambition to become a regional centre of excellence in mine action and is open to such cooperation,’ he said.

Amirbayov further proposed making mine action part of confidence-building efforts in the South Caucasus, arguing that humanitarian issues can create opportunities for practical cooperation even when political questions remain sensitive.

He described mine clearance as the opposite of the purpose of mines, which he said are designed to stop movement, prevent people from returning, keep land unproductive and preserve fear.

‘Demining does exactly the opposite. It opens roads, reconnects communities, restores livelihoods and enables return. It also creates confidence in the future,’ Amirbayov said.

He urged the international community to view each cleared area as part of the infrastructure of peace.

‘Perhaps we should begin to think of every mine clearance not simply as a humanitarian operation, but as a small part of peace infrastructure,’ he said.

Concluding his remarks, Amirbayov said Azerbaijan and Armenia had a ‘unique opportunity to turn a page’ and build a South Caucasus based on peace, connectivity, economic cooperation and good-neighbourly relations.

‘If we want peace to be sustainable, durable and irreversible, we must remove the remnants of war both from the ground and from existing political and legal framework,’ he said.

‘Let us make peace something people can walk on, live on, build on – and pass on to their children.’