Judge rejects Ben & Jerry's bid to block ice cream sales in east Jerusalem and Israeli-occupied West Bank
CBSN
A federal judge on Monday rejected a request by Ben & Jerry's to block a plan by its corporate parent to allow its products to be sold in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank against the wishes of the Vermont ice cream maker's independent board of directors. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Carter said Ben & Jerry's failed to show that the decision by London-based consumer goods conglomerate Unilever would hurt Ben and Jerry's social mission or confuse its customers. In his three-page decision, Carter said that the harm Ben & Jerry's was claiming was "too speculative." "The products sold in Israel and the West Bank will use no English trademarks, instead displaying new Hebrew and Arabic language Ben & Jerry's trademarks," the decision said. "Thus, the products sold in Israel and the West Bank will be dissimilar from other Ben & Jerry's products, mitigating, if not eliminating, the possibility of reputational harm."
Ben & Jerry's spokesman Sean Greenwood said Monday that the company had "no new position for us to share at this time."
Ben & Jerry's complaint in the case filed last month outlined the company's tradition of social activism over its 44-year history, including opposition to U.S. nuclear weapons spending in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, supporting LGBTQ+ rights and farmers. That activism continued after it was purchased by Unilever in 2000 with the focus on, among other issues, migrant justice and climate change. In the aftermath of the 2020 death of George Floyd, Ben & Jerry's became an advocate for Black Lives Matter.
Collville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France — The word "hero" is overused. But if not for the courage of the few remaining D-Day survivors and their friends who fell as they launched the fight to oust Adolf Hitler's Nazi German forces from France 80 years ago, there would have been no celebrations this week in Normandy.
France's domestic intelligence agency has detained a 26-year-old Russian-Ukrainian man on suspicion of planning a violent act after he injured himself in an explosion, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The news came hours before world leaders gathered in the nation to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy.
A British-Mexican man who says he was targeted for being gay and arrested on false drug charges in Qatar has been given a suspended six-month jail sentence, a fine amounting to about $2,700, and a deportation order by a court in the Arab nation, which is a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East, according to his family and Mexican officials.
An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children, according to local health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. The hospital treating victims said it had received the bodies of at least "37 martyrs" from the strike, according to Agence France-Presse. But a U.N. official tells the Reuters news agency the death toll is between 35 and 45, though it still can't confirm any numbers.
Jerusalem — Thousands of Israeli nationalists marched Wednesday through east Jerusalem as authorities deployed police with tensions sky-high nearly eight months into the Gaza war. That war appeared to be intensifying in Gaza and the far-right nationalists staged their annual march – long deemed a provocation by Palestinians – in Jerusalem.
The world has now marked one full year of back-to-back monthly heat records, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday. It said last month was the hottest May in recorded history — the 12th consecutive month in which the monthly high temperature record was broken.
New Delhi — India's 2024 election results show Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to win his third term in office, with the political alliance led by his Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on track to win a solid majority of the seats up for grabs in India's Parliament. Final numbers were expected later Tuesday, but the results of the world's biggest democratic elections appeared clear: Modi will keep his job, but with a smaller mandate than was widely expected or promised by his party.
Seoul, South Korea — South Korea on Tuesday took steps to suspend a contentious military agreement with North Korea and resume front-line military activities, as tension between the rivals rises over the North's recent launch of trash-carrying balloons. North Korea didn't immediately respond, but South Korea's resumption of firing exercises or propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts will likely prompt North Korea to take similar or stronger steps along the rivals' heavily militarized border.