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This is the first summit since the accession of five new members, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE earlier this year. It is expected that yet another set of countries may join the grouping this year.

During his speech at the ongoing BRICS summit on Wednesday, October 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his desire to see the grouping play a greater role in global affairs and in resolving regional and international challenges.

The 16th summit of the 10-member grouping is being held in Russia’s fifth largest city of Kazan from October 22 to October 24. Apart from the full members, over 30 other countries are participating in the meeting which has the theme of “strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security”.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, the BRICS countries passed a resolution condemning Israel and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “We stress the urgent need for an immediate comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and detainees from both sides who are being held illegally, and the unimpeded, sustained and large-scale flow of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, as well as an end to all aggressive actions,” reads the Kazan declaration.

On Tuesday, most of the member countries held bilateral meetings. Putin held meetings with President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi from India, and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. More bilateral talks are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Founded in 2006, BRICS has expanded from its original four members (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) to 10 members now. South Africa joined in 2010 and on January 1, 2024, five new members, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined as full members.

Today, the countries in the grouping together represent 46% of the world’s total population and around 36% of global GDP on the basis of PPP.

Apart from the heads of its member states, leaders from several countries, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Venezuelan President Nicólas Maduro, and leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas are also participating. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel could not join the meeting in person due to the situation in Cuba in the wake of both the national grid failure and Tropical Storm Oscar. Cuba was represented in the meeting by its Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.

For his part, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva could not participate in the meeting physically due to recent health complications. However, he addressed the meeting through video conference on Wednesday.

Like several other countries participating in the summit, both Russia and Iran have been subjected to unilateral sanctions by the west. China and other BRICS members and some of the non-member countries such as Cuba and Venezuela have been campaigning against such unilateral sanctions, calling them illegal and detrimental to nations’ right to development.

On Tuesday, China raised the issue in the UN again, claiming that unilateral coercive measures “violate the principle of sovereign equality and cooperation, intervene in other countries’ internal affairs and disregard the purposes of the UN charter and international law,” Xinhua reported.

In light of this, the BRICS nations have been pushing for greater financial independence from the Western financial systems and the dominance of the dollar. The New Development Bank, formerly the BRICS Bank, was founded in 2015 in order to advance these efforts of financial independence and serve as a “multilateral development bank aimed at mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other EMDC.” It is currently headed by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

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Brazil's Supreme Court cleared X to resume service in the country on Tuesday, after the social media platform reversed course and started complying with court rulings billionaire owner Elon Musk had previously vowed to resist.

In the decision, Moraes said X had met all the necessary requirements to start operating again in the country.

Musk, who had denounced the orders as censorship and called Moraes a "dictator," started to reverse his position in recent weeks, with his social media network blocking accounts flagged by the court, tapping a local representative and paying pending fines.

"We showed the world that here our laws should be respected, by whomever it may be," Filho said in a statement.

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Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi has been injured by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza, becoming the second Al Jazeera cameraman to be injured in an Israeli attack this week.

A new documentary from Al Jazeera takes a look at evidence of war crimes in Gaza in the form of social media posted by Israeli soldiers recording and celebrating their own attacks on Palestinians. We play excerpts from the film Investigating War Crimes in Gaza, now available online, and speak to two of the journalists involved in its production, director Richard Sanders and Gaza-based correspondent Youmna ElSayed. “Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they were doing it,” says Sanders about the evidence the team reviewed. “They don’t think it’s complicated. They don’t think it’s nuanced. Their rhetoric is often overtly genocidal.” ElSayed adds, “They’ve had all the courage to do that because they know that they are not even going to be condemned.”

The entire staff of Marjayoun public hospital in south Lebanon were evacuated on Friday morning after an Israeli drone strike killed four paramedics, putting the hospital out of service, Lebanon’s national news agency reported.

The hospital was one of the major medical providers in south Lebanon, particularly as Israel’s intensified aerial campaign which started on 23 September displaced many medical staff from the region.

Israel also carried out a strike on the Islamic health organisation’s center in Khirbet Selem, causing injuries on Friday afternoon, according to Lebanon’s national news agency.

An additional member of the ambulance service was killed and one injured while carrying out rescue services in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which was intensely bombed the night prior, according to Hezbollah-affiliated media.

At least 102 Lebanese paramedics have been killed since the beginning of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah a year prior.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has told Ireland to remove its peacekeepers from an outpost on the border with Lebanon as its invasion of the country continues.

Sources confirmed the request was made to the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and individual countries contributing troops, including Ireland. Israel has been told the troops will remain in place.

There is one Irish outpost on the Lebanese-Israeli border, which is known as the Blue Line. This outpost, designated post 6-52, is manned by a single Irish platoon who are responsible for observing the border and reporting on incursions.

The area was the scene of intense fighting between the IDF and the militant Lebanese group Hizbullah earlier in the week, during which Israel suffered heavy casualties. Some of the fighting took place less than 2km from the Irish outpost.

The warning to remove peacekeepers from the border raises the prospect of Israel launching a full-scale invasion across the extent of the border. Incursions to date have been more limited in scale.

It is understood the Irish Government has informed Israeli officials that Unifil troop movements are a matter for the UN and its force commander on the ground. Unifil has told Israel it will not be removing the troops.

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According to a senior Teledyne manager, contamination of their clean rooms could stop production for up to 12 months.

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Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.

Not everyone in the administration was on board with Israel’s shift, despite support inside the White House, the officials said. The decision to focus on Hezbollah sparked division within the U.S. government, drawing opposition from people inside the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community who believed Israel’s move against the Iran-backed militia could drag American forces into yet another Middle East conflict.

Officials in the intelligence community, in briefings and talks with members of Congress last week, had said they were increasingly worried about the potential for a direct ground confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah. Similar conversations were occurring in the State Department, where officials were concerned about the mounting civilian death toll in Lebanon.

The internal administration division seems to have dissipated somewhat in recent days, with top U.S. officials convening Monday at the White House with President Joe Biden to discuss the situation on the ground. Most agreed that the conflict, while fragile, could offer an opportunity to reduce Iran’s influence in Lebanon and the region.

Still, the White House is walking a fine line, U.S. and Israeli officials said. The Biden administration wants to support Israel’s actions against a U.S.-designated terrorist group that has killed Americans and threatens the region. But it is not comfortable endorsing Israel’s campaign completely — or publicly — because it is worried it will creep too far into Lebanese territory, instigating an all-out war, one of the U.S. officials said.

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