World


BATTLE Israeli soldiers take cover on a hill overlooking northern Gaza as the war against Hamas enters its fourth month.


I


Top Court Blocks Bibi


srael’s supreme court struck down a key com- ponent of Prime Minister


Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, reopening an issue that split Israeli soci- ety before the Hamas war. The law would have pre-


vented judges from striking down government decisions they deemed “unreasonable.” Opponents argued it would open the door to corruption and permit the appointment of unqualified cronies.


KIM CRANKS UP THREATS


N


orth Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered


his military to “thoroughly annihilate” the United States and South Korea if provoked after he vowed to boost national defenses to cope with what he called an unprecedented U.S.-led confrontation. Kim is expected to ramp


up weapons tests in 2024 ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Many experts say he likely believes his expanded nuclear arsenal would allow him to wrest


52 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2024 The law was the first in


a planned overhaul of the Israeli justice system. It was put on hold after Hamas mil- itants carried out their Oct. 7 attack, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others. It was a significant blow


to Netanyahu and his allies, who claimed the national leg- islature, not the high court, should have the final word over the legality of legislation and other key decisions.


U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump is reelected.


QUEEN CALLS IT QUITS D


enmark’s Queen Margrethe II abdicated


after 52 years and handed over the throne to her son, Crown Prince Frederik.


The queen, who was


Europe’s longest-reigning living monarch, stepped down on Jan. 14, the anniversary of her own accession to the throne at age 31. Margrethe, now


83, said recent back surgery led to “thoughts about the


Spy Legend Dies Z


vi zamir, a former head of israeli intel- ligence agency Mossad whose warning that


Egypt and Syria were about to attack Israel in 1973 was ignored by the government, died at 98. Zamir’s death was announced by Mossad, which


he led from 1968 to 1974. He oversaw Israel’s cam- paign of assassinating Palestinian commanders blamed for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Within hours of Zamir receiving an informant’s


tipoff in 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces overran Israeli lines. They were eventually repelled in an Israeli counteroffensive.


future” and when to pass on the responsibilities of the crown to her son. “I have decided that now is the right time,” she said. The 6-foot-tall, chain- smoking Margrethe, a keen skier, has been one of the most popular public figures in Denmark, where the monarch’s role is largely ceremonial. She walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN L


ondon’s Big Ben marked the 100th


anniversary of its “bongs.”


Ever since New Year’s Eve 1923, when BBC engineer A.G. Dryland clambered onto a roof opposite the British parliament to record the strikes, live transmission has become an annual tradition. The bongs are broadcast


twice daily — at 6 p.m. and midnight and three times on Sunday — on radio, and at the start of the 10 p.m. TV news. The clock is calibrated by GPS, but its timing mechanism is adjusted the old-fashioned way — pennies are added or removed from weights attached to two giant coiled springs, to make or lose a second.


MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES / QUEEN MARGRETHE II/AP IMAGES / BIG BEN/AP IMAGES


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