The US has threatened sanctions against the International Criminal Court if it goes ahead with prosecutions against Americans.
The court is currently considering prosecuting US servicemen over alleged detainee abuse in Afghanistan.
National Security Adviser John Bolton called the court “illegitimate” and vowed the US would do everything “to protect our citizens.”
The US is among dozens of nations not to have joined the 2002-founded court.
Mr. Bolton has long been an outspoken critic of the court but Monday’s hard-hitting speech in Washington focused on two areas.
The first was ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s request last year for a full investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, which would include any committed by US military and intelligence officials.
On this issue, Mr. Bolton said neither Afghanistan nor any government signatory to the ICC’s Rome Statute had made such a request.
The second was the Palestinian move to bring Israel before the ICC over allegations of human rights abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank – a move dismissed by Israel as politicised.
Mr. Bolton said the Palestinian move was one of the reasons the US administration had decided to close the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission in Washington.
In his tirade against the court, Mr. Bolton said it:
*Was a threat to “American sovereignty and US national security”
*Lacked checks and balances, claimed “jurisdiction over crimes that have disputed and ambiguous definitions” and failed to “deter and punish atrocity crimes”
*Was “superfluous” as the US administration did “not recognise any higher authority than the US Constitution.”
Mr. Bolton said: “We will not co-operate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.”
White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, backed Mr. Bolton, saying President Donald Trump would use “any means necessary to protect our citizens [and] those of our allies from unjust prosecution from the ICC.”
ICC judges and prosecutors would be barred from entering the US and their funds in the US would be sanctioned.
“We will prosecute them in the US criminal system. We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans,” Mr. Bolton said.
More “binding, bilateral agreements” would be signed to stop countries submitting US citizens to the court’s jurisdiction.
The ICC said it had the support of 123 member states, adding in a statement: “The ICC, as a judicial institution, acts strictly within the legal framework of the Rome Statute and is committed to the independent and impartial exercise of its mandate.”
Liz Evenson, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, told AFP news agency that Mr. Bolton had shown “callous disregard for victims of atrocity crimes” and that the US was “more concerned with coddling serial rights abusers… than supporting impartial justice.”
The court investigates and brings to justice people responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.
Hurricane Florence: Trump issues warning as storm strengthens
US President Donald Trump has issued a series of warnings to prepare for Hurricane Florence, which is gathering power as it approaches the Carolinas.
Mr. Trump tweeted that this was “one of the worst storms to hit the East Coast in many years.”
Florence is at present a Category Four storm, with sustained winds of about 140mph (220km/h).
On its current track it is predicted to make landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, late on Thursday.
A number of mandatory evacuations have been ordered in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, affecting more than a million people.
South Carolina’s Governor Henry McMaster has given the entire coastline until noon on Tuesday to leave.
The University of North Carolina at Wilmington has also ordered a mandatory evacuation of students.
In its latest advisory at 23:00 eastern time (0300 GMT). the National Hurricane Center said of Florence: “Some strengthening is expected during the next 36 hours, and Florence is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane through Thursday.”
It said hurricane-force winds would “extend outward up to 40 miles (65km) from the centre and tropical-storm-force winds [would] extend outward up to 150 miles (240km).”
The 23:00 report placed Florence about 465 miles south-east of Bermuda, moving west-north-west at about 13mph.
European Parliament to debate disciplining Hungary
The European Parliament is to discuss whether to launch disciplinary proceedings against Hungary.
MEPs will debate whether the right-wing government poses a serious risk to the EU’s values due to its policies on issues like migrants.
It comes just months after the European Commission took the step of launching similar proceedings against Poland.
However, this is the first time the parliament has tried to use the power, known as Article 7.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to fight the claims personally in the chamber, brandishing a dossier of counter-arguments more than 100 pages long.
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Mr. Orban and his Fidesz party say many of the accusations against them on issues over rule of law were solved long ago.
The BBC’s Nick Thorpe in Hungary says the country’s ministers, along with its vocal pro-government media, speak of a witch hunt against Fidesz, for standing up for national sovereignty against what they call the liberal elite.
Eurosceptic Mr. Orban was re-elected earlier this year after campaigning on an anti-immigration platform, with Fidesz winning two-thirds of parliamentary seats.
But while he has support at home, critics in the European Parliament say his policies are evidence he does not respect the values of the EU.
A committee of MEPs points to the Hungarian government’s approach to migration – including a new law which criminalises lawyers and activists who help asylum seekers – as well as media, the courts and universities as proof.
However, in order for any sort of disciplinary proceedings to go ahead, it needs the backing of two-thirds of MEPs – and it is not clear which way the vote, due to take place on Wednesday, will fall.
Russia gears up for biggest war games since Cold War
Preparations are under way for Russia’s biggest military exercise since the Cold War, involving about 300,000 service personnel, in eastern Siberia.
China is sending 3,200 troops to take part in “Vostok-2018,” with many Chinese armoured vehicles and aircraft.
Mongolia is also sending some units.
The last Russian exercise of similar scale was in 1981, during the Cold War but Vostok-2018 involves more troops.
It comes at a time of heightened Nato-Russia tensions.
Relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) – a 29-member defence alliance dominated by the US – have worsened since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the drills were justified given “aggressive and unfriendly” attitudes towards Russia.
Tuesday and Wednesday will see planning and preparation while actual operations will start on Thursday and last five days, the head of the Russian general staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
The Russian defence ministry says 36,000 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and armoured infantry vehicles will take part in Vostok-2018, from 11 to 17 September, along with more than 1,000 aircraft.
Vostok is Russian for east.
The exercise will be spread across five army training grounds, four airbases and areas in the Sea of Japan, Bering Straits and Sea of Okhotsk.
Up to 80 naval vessels will take part from two Russian fleets.
The drills will not be near the disputed Kuril islands north of Japan, Russia says.
The ministry’s TV channel Zvezda says three brigades of Russian paratroops will play a key role, during drills at the Tsugol military range, near Russia’s borders with China and Mongolia.
A key aim is to practise the rapid deployment of thousands of troops, as well as aircraft and vehicles, from western Russia to eastern regions, across thousands of miles, TV Zvezda reports.
That involves in-flight refuelling of fighter jets.
Trump receives ‘warm’ letter from Kim about new summit
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has written to US President Donald Trump asking for a follow-up to their historic summit, the White House says.
The US says it is already looking at scheduling a new meeting.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the “very warm” letter showed Pyongyang’s “continued commitment to focus on denuclearization.”
Negotiations on the topic appeared to have stalled after the two leaders’ historic summit in Singapore in June.
“The primary purpose of the letter was to request and look to schedule another meeting with the president, which we are open to and are already in the process of co-ordinating that,” Ms. Sanders said.
She gave no indication of when a second meeting between the two leaders could potentially take place.
But she praised the letter as “very warm, very positive” and praised North Korea’s military parade last weekend, saying that “for once was not about their nuclear arsenal.”
She attributed that to the “tremendous success” of Mr. Trump’s policies.
While North Korea did roll out soldiers, tanks and other weaponry, the parade did not display any intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at the parade marking its 70th anniversary, reports say.
A display of ICBMs – which can reach the US mainland, potentially carrying a nuclear warhead – would have been seen as provocative.
