Our daily trip around the world

🇮🇱🇵🇸🇿🇦 The UN’s top court began hearing a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians. South Africa’s justice minister portrayed Israel’s military operation in Gaza as an escalation of a campaign beginning in 1948, with Israel’s founding, to dispossess the Palestinians. Israeli officials have called South Africa’s claims false and baseless, saying Hamas has exacerbated casualties by embedding its personnel in civilian areas, and by turning protected places like hospitals and religious institutions into legitimate military targets. Israel is scheduled to deliver its defense in testimony later today.

🇪🇺 Microsoft will let EU users store all personal data within the bloc, instead of the US. The tech giant will also offer a paid option for tech support within the EU later this year. The changes apply to Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365. The move comes in response to stricter EU privacy laws in recent years, as well as decade-old leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showing that the US government eavesdrops on online data stored domestically.

🇮🇷 Iran seized an oil tanker that was at the center of a standoff with the US. The Iranian navy yesterday commandeered an oil tanker called St. Nikolas that was en route to Turkey via the Gulf of Oman, and redirected its course to Iran with a court order. Iranian officials say the move was in retaliation for the US previously seizing St. Nikolas in April, as part of its oil export sanctions against the Iranian government.