UN agency warns Gaza operation could end tomorrow without more fuel

‘Every day we say it can’t get worse, and then it does’

Deirdre Finnerty

BBC News

Earlier today, Ibrahim AlAgha, a 38-year-old Irish citizen in Khan Younis, Gaza, cycled past a shuttered supermarket and petrol station in the city – to get bread from a bakery he knew would be open.

He was able to buy some today, but not as much as other days. His household – which includes about 90 people – will eat it later with tomatoes and cucumber.

Ibrahim says the bread queues are getting longer and longer every day, stretching past the apartment blocks along the street to the pedestrian crossing. He has noticed that people who can’t find shelter are sleeping on mattresses on the streets of Khan Younis.

Earth’s “vital signs” are worse than at any time in human history, an international team of scientists has warned, meaning life on the planet is in peril.

Their report found that 20 of the 35 planetary vital signs they use to track the climate crisis are at record extremes. As well as greenhouse gas emissions, global temperature and sea level rise, the indicators also include human and livestock population numbers.

Many climate records were broken by enormous margins in 2023, including global air temperature, ocean temperature and Antarctic sea ice extent, the researchers said. The highest monthly surface temperature ever recorded was in July and was probably the hottest the planet has been in 100,000 years.

 

China removes defence minister, ousts former foreign minister from cabinet

China on Tuesday removed defence minister Li Shangfu and ousted former foreign minister Qin Gang from its cabinet, state media reported, as part of a major reshuffle of its top leadership.

The news comes after months of speculation about China‘s cabinet, after Qin was abruptly removed from office without explanation in July, and with Li not having been seen in public for months.

Both Qin and Li are believed by experts to have been personally selected for their roles by President Xi Jinping.

On Tuesday state broadcaster CCTV announced the removals in its regular evening bulletin, but did not give reasons for the ministers’ fall from grace.

No replacement for Li as defence minister was announced.

Sweden welcomes Turkey ratifying NATO membership bid

The Turkish parliament will take up Sweden’s NATO bid, bringing the Nordic nation a step closer to joining the military alliance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially submitted Sweden’s NATO membership application to parliament, with the legislature receiving the request on Monday.

“Sweden’s NATO membership protocol was signed on October 23, 2023, by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and sent to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey,” Erdogan’s government posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The move brings Sweden closer to entering the defense alliance and would mark the end of a 17-month diplomatic standoff with Turkey over the issue.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members who still have not ratified Sweden’s membership request.

Unification Church tells branches to manage assets based on law

The Unification Church’s headquarters in South Korea has told its branches worldwide to manage their assets in accordance with the laws of their respective countries amid speculation the Japan branch may transfer its assets overseas to avoid liquidation when it is issued a dissolution order, a church source said.

Japanese lawmakers are stepping up efforts to ensure the assets of the Japan affiliate will be used to help victims of the group’s aggressive donation solicitation tactics after the government filed a request with a court this month for an order to dissolve the branch, a move that would deprive the group of its tax-exempt status.

The notification from the church, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, said their assets “need to be managed according to respective country’s laws” and that each branch is run “independently and with self-reliance,” according to the source.

Nigeria escapes $11 billion bill after landmark UK court ruling over failed gas project

The West African nation was previously ordered by an arbitration tribunal in 2017 to pay $6.6 billion, plus interest in damages to a British Virgin Islands-based engineering firm, Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID).

The company had sued for compensation over lost profits following the collapse of a 20-year deal with Nigerian authorities in 2010 to build a gas processing facility.

The awarded sum and accumulated interest had now exceeded $11 billion, nearly half of Nigeria’s federal budget for this year.

 

 Hamas-run ministry says 436 killed in 24 hours as Israel says hundreds of targets hit

Israel says it has successfully ‘thwarted’ two Hamas drones

We’ve an update on those two drones, which Hamas said earlier it had fired at southern Israel.

The Israeli military says two drones were “identified crossing from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory” at Nir Oz and Ein HaBesor – areas near the border with Gaza – and both were “thwarted”.

It did not clarify how the drones had been intercepted, or whether they were shot down.

In a separate update, the Israel Defense Forces said its air defence also intercepted a drone that had “infiltrated from Lebanon into Israel”. Again there was little detail given.

Venezuela: Machado takes big early lead in presidential primary vote

Challenger to crisis-ridden presidency of Nicolás Maduro claims victory after Venezuelans queue for hours in rainstorm to vote

• Maria Machado: can challenger pull Venezuela out of chaos?

 

Early returns in the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential primary have given a big lead to former legislator María Corina Machado, who quickly claimed victory as the candidate to end the decade-long, crisis-ridden presidency of Nicolás Maduro.

The independent National Primary Commission, which organised the vote, said about 93% of the first 601,110 ballots counted went to Machado, who entered the contest as a strong frontrunner. The rest of the votes were scattered among the other nine candidates. There was no indication of how many people had voted, and organisers were expected to release additional results throughout Monday.

Germany: ZDF broadcaster building evacuated amid bomb threat

Police evacuated several buildings after a bomb threat against German public broadcaster ZDF. Police said in a statement they were currently inspecting the scene.

German police evacuated several buildings in the western city of Mainz on Monday, after receiving a bomb threat against German public broadcaster ZDF, which is headquartered there.

Police said it received the threat at around 08:20 a.m. (0620 GMT) against the ZDF studio in Mainz.

“In order to ensure the safety of the staff and other people on the premises, several buildings were evacuated,” the police said in a statement.

It added that police officers were inspecting the scene, aided by service dogs trained to detect explosives.

Iran sentences journalists who covered Amini death to jail on propaganda charges

Two female Iranian journalists arrested for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests last year, have been sentenced for up to seven years in prison, the judiciary said Sunday.

Amini’s death in custody on September 16, 2022 after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict dress rules for women led to mass protests across the country.

The journalists Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi were both found guilty of collaboration with the United States, conspiring against state security and propaganda against the Islamic republic, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

Mohammadi, 36, was given six years in prison for collaboration with the United States and Hamedi, 31, was handed a seven-year term for the same offence, said Mizan.

Indigenous Australians end week of silence; denounce ‘shameful’ referendum result

By Sharon MARRIS

Aboriginal Australian leaders ended their vow of silence on Monday to denounce millions of their compatriots for rejecting a landmark push for Indigenous rights, saying that the referendum result would be “etched into Australia’s history forever”.

Simmering racial divisions were exposed earlier this month when just over 60 percent of Australians voted against a referendum to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders within the 1901 constitution.

In the wake of the result, many Indigenous leaders embarked on a “week of silence”, asking for time to grieve what they saw as a crushing rejection at the hands of Australia’s white majority.

House GOP circus embarrasses senior party leaders as the country and the world wait for Republicans to pick a speaker

House Republicans on Monday open the next act of their Washington farce, desperately searching for a speaker after ousting the incumbent and rejecting two would-be replacements while still clueless about how to dig out of the crisis.

Congress has seen impeachments, fiscal cliffs, government shutdowns and even an insurrection, but the modern Republican Party is surpassing itself with a debacle that is embarrassing senior party leaders and threatens to damage the House GOP’s hopes of saving and expanding upon its tiny majority in 2024. Far from tackling critical bills needed to fund the government, the leaderless House can’t do the basics, like pass a resolution condemning the Hamas attacks in Israel.

Gaza hospital images show rows of dead bodies as Israel steps up bombing

Lyse Doucet

Chief International Correspondent, in Ashkelon

“We have never announced there is going to be a ground operation,” insisted Israeli Defence Forces spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, to the World Service’s Newshour programme earlier.

As for the hundreds of thousands of IDF reservists along the Gaza border, Lerner said they were “currently being trained, equipped, and also tasked if they need to mobilise with specific tasks that will help us achieve our goal to destroy Hamas once and for all”.

In recent days, IDF spokesmen have emphasised the current focus is intensifying airstrikes before “the next stage of the war”.

There seemed to be the clearest signal yet yesterday from the IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi: “We’ll enter Gaza, we’ll enter for an operational mission.” Observers say that could first involve limited raids.

Israel is coming under intense pressure from allies and Israeli families to delay a ground attack until hostages are freed, including foreign nationals.

It’s clearly a consideration, although Israeli officials also accuse Hamas of trying to buy time.

And there’s a chorus of voices urging Israel to allow more desperately needed aid to enter Gaza, even to agree a humanitarian ceasefire. That’s not on Israel’s agenda after the Hamas attacks of 7 October.

Iranian teenager ‘brain dead’ after alleged metro encounter with police

Update on condition of Armita Geravand, 16, could revive protests that followed death last year of Mahsa Amini

An Iranian teenager who fell into a coma this month after an alleged encounter with officers over violating the country’s hijab law is said to be brain dead, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.

“Follow-ups on the latest health condition of Armita Geravand indicate that her health condition as brain dead seems certain despite the efforts of the medical staff,” the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network said.

Iranian authorities have denied claims by rights groups that the 16-year-old was hurt in a confrontation on 1 October with officers enforcing the mandatory Islamic dress code on the Tehran metro.

 

The Crisis in the Middle EastDiplomacy on the Precipice

The war in Gaza could send shock waves around the world. A deep rift already runs between the West and the axis of dictatorships led by Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi. And both stand to profit from the chaos in the Middle East.

By Francesco Collini, Christian Esch, Susanne Koelbl, René Pfister, Christoph Reuter und Bernhard Zand

Few events have made the world’s divisions as clear as the trips taken this week by Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. While the American president arrived in Israel on Wednesday to assure the country it would have the assistance of the United States in the wake of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the Kremlin leader met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. It was a meeting of the like-minded – and a welcome opportunity to demonstrate how united they are.

The rift between the West, on the one hand, and Russia and China, on the other, had already begun widening as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two countries are seeking to build a new axis of autocracies stretching from Tehran to Pyongyang in North Korea and including as many countries from the Global South as possible.

Avaaz campaigner: ‘Neither Hamas nor Fatah can claim to represent the Palestinian people’

from our special correspondent in Ramallah – Two weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, Fadi Quran, campaigns director for Avaaz, an NGO coordinating activists worldwide, is calling for a ceasefire in the interest of children on both sides.

More than 4,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis have died since the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, and at least 212 people are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. As the death toll climbs on both sides, UN agencies and other NGOs are calling for a ceasefire.

Quran speaks to FRANCE 24 in his residence in Ramallah about the despair of the Palestinian people caught in the conflict, and implores civil societies on both sides to pressure their governments to work for peace and spare the lives of children.

Populist right grows as counting underway for Swiss election

Switzerland’s largest party, the Swiss People’s Party, is accused of running a xenophobic ad campaign that spotlighted crimes committed by foreigners.

Switzerland’s right-wing populists are expected to make gains after polls closed at the general election on Sunday.

Concerns about immigration are among voters’ top concerns, according to surveys, as are climate change and rising fees for the country’s obligatory, free-market-based health insurance system.

Initial projections of the results suggest the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) — which has already been the strongest party in the country for 20 years — has increased its share to win 29% of the vote.

Philippines, China trade blame over collisions in disputed sea

By Cecil Morella and Sebastien Ricci

Beijing and Manila traded blame on Sunday for two collisions between Chinese vessels and Philippine boats on a resupply mission to Filipino troops on a remote outpost in the disputed South China Sea.

The incidents happened near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, a hotly contested region where Beijing deploys ships to assert its claims over almost the entire sea.

A Philippine government task force said the “dangerous blocking maneuvers of China Coast Guard vessel 5203 caused it to collide with the Armed Forces of the Philippines-contracted indigenous resupply boat” about 25 kilometers from Second Thomas Shoal.

Trucks carry aid and coffins into Gaza – but UN calls it ‘drop in the ocean’

Summary

• Trucks carrying aid, and one loaded with coffins, have entered Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted
• The BBC counted 20 vehicles with white flags moving through the Rafah crossing into Gaza from Egypt – the UN called it a “drop in the ocean” of what’s needed
• Yesterday, Hamas released its first hostages since its major surprise attack on Israel two weeks ago
• Mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan were among about 200 people abducted; Natalie’s half-brother has told the BBC of his “overwhelming” joy at their release
• Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is trying to free more hostages, though his forces will also “fight till victory”. Israel continues to bombard Gaza
• It’s two weeks since Hamas launched its assault on Israel, killing more than 1,400 people. Palestinian officials say more than 4,000 people have died in Gaza since then
• And the leaders of Arab and European countries are meeting in Egypt to discuss the crisis, but expectations are low because key players like Iran – and Israel itself – aren’t attending

UK foreign secretary calls for Israel to act with ‘discipline’

The grandly named Cairo Peace Summit is a hastily arranged affair. As such, the chances of any kind of meaningful breakthrough seem remote.

The agenda is hazy and it seems differences over a final declaration may mean no text emerges, as is customary for such events.

The US is barely there, represented only by its chargé d’affaires in Cairo.

There’s a smattering of European leaders, while others (including the UK) have chosen to send foreign ministers.

Nawaz Sharif, the three-time prime minister of Pakistan, arrived back in the country on Saturday after four years of self-imposed exile, poised to make a political comeback before the general election in January.

Sharif spent the past few days in Dubai and left on a chartered flight packed with journalists, touching down in the cap

 

Belgian minister quits over failure to extradite gunman

Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne admitted a “monumental error” after reports surfaced that Tunisia, in 2022, requested extradition of the man who allegedly killed two people in Brussels this week.

Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne announced his resignation on Friday after revealing that authorities failed to extradite a Tunisian national who killed two football fans on Monday.

Van Quickenborne told a press conference that Tunisia had sought the extradition of the suspected shooter in August last year but Belgian authorities did not act. The shooter had already spent time in prison in Sweden and his asylum claim was rejected by Belgian authorities in 2020.

“It’s an individual, monumental and unacceptable error with dramatic consequences,” Van Quickenborne said. “The magistrate in question did not follow up this demand and the dossier was not handled.”

“I am not looking for any excuses. I think it’s my duty” to resign, he added.

The eccentric ‘anarcho-capitalist’ who would be president

Which right will be right for Argentine voters?

Far-right maverick Javier Milei has promised to ‘take a chainsaw’ to public spending if he wins the presidency in October. With the vote a competition between different flavours of the right, Milei’s popularity with the young could be decisive.

Aman with rockstar sideburns and a piercing blue gaze walked up to the whiteboard with a row of stickers across the middle, one for each of Argentina’s ministries. His hair was tousled (he prides himself on not having combed it in three years). At the board, he gruffly read out the name of the ministry on each small strip before tearing it off: ‘Tourism and Sports, out! Culture, out! Environment and Sustainable Development, out! Women, Genders and Diversity, out! Public Works, out! Science, Technology and Innovation, out! Labour, Employment and Social Security, out! Education, out! Transport, out! Health, out! Social Development, out!’

Japan to begin living support program for war zone evacuees in April

Japan’s immigration agency said Friday that it will begin a program in April to help foreigners fleeing conflict zones such as war-hit Ukraine to adjust to living in Japan.

Under revisions to the immigration law, individuals from conflict zones whose circumstances do not qualify them for refugee status will be eligible for the six-month or one-year program to study Japanese and learn about the country’s laws and customs. The scheme also includes financial aid.

The scheme was designed mainly to help Ukrainian evacuees living in Japan, whose numbers top 2,500.

Opinion: Paris continues a shameful Olympic tradition

The breathless mission statement of the Paris 2024 Olympics tells us that, “Sport has the power to change everything, improving education, health, and social inclusion.” Sport’s potency does not, however, seem to stretch to problems of housing and homelessness.

This September, city authorities and police have been busy closing down homeless camps across Paris and moving unhoused people out of the French capital, while the first luxury apartments in the Olympic Village have already gone on sale.

The government housing department says the relocation plan is aimed at decreasing the burden in this urban area and ensuring the homeless have greater support in the provinces. Both it and Paris 2024 organizers say the scheme has nothing to do with the upcoming Games.

Israel military says 20 children among hostages held in Gaza

Summary

1. Israel’s military says more than 20 children under 18 are among 200 hostages being held in Gaza after the Hamas attacks on 7 October
2. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces says between 10 and 20 are over 60, and the majority of those being held are alive
3. Gaza is now a “hellhole” for civilians and time is running out to get aid into the territory, says the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees
4. UN chief Antonio Gutteres has visited the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, saying he expects the first shipment of aid to enter Gaza in “the next day or so”
5. Palestinian officials say more than 4,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people
6. On Thursday, an Orthodox Christian church compound in Gaza City where church authorities say hundreds of people were sheltering was hit
7. Israel says its jets had targeted a nearby Hamas base used to fire rockets at its territory and it was reviewing the incident

Israeli official says ‘good chance’ aid trucks will enter Gaza tomorrow

Paul Adams

Diplomatic correspondent, in Jerusalem

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sounded extremely frustrated when he spoke in front of the still-blocked Rafah crossing earlier.

It’s not clear why today’s experimental aid convoy – just 20 trucks – has still not crossed into the Gaza Strip.

Guterres spoke of “conditions and restrictions” which needed to be addressed, but didn’t elaborate.

Despite the deal between Israel and Egypt, brokered by US President Joe Biden, it seems there are still issues to be resolved.

Israel insists that the trucks only carry food, water and medicine, and that none of it reaches Hamas.

Former officials in the UN’s farming wing have said they were censored, sabotaged, undermined and victimised for more than a decade after they wrote about the hugely damaging contribution of methane emissions from livestock to global heating.

Team members at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tasked with estimating cattle’s contribution to soaring temperatures said that pressure from farm-friendly funding states was felt throughout the FAO’s Rome headquarters

Niger: Captive President Bazoum attempted escape, junta says

Niger’s former President Mohamed Bazoum is currently being held by the country’s military junta. He was ousted by the army in July amid a series of coups in West Africa.

Lawyers for Niger’s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum have rejected claims by the country’s military junta that he attempted to escape custody.

“We strongly reject these fabricated accusations against president Bazoum,” Mohamed Seydou Diagne, coordinator of a lawyers’ collective, said in a statement on Friday.

The lawyer said Bazoum was being held “incommunicado” which was “a new red line which has been crossed by a junta which continues to violate the fundamental rights of our client.”

Earlier, Niger’s military rulers said they had thwarted an attempt by former President Mohamed Bazoum to escape their custody on Thursday.

How Indian authorities ‘weaponised’ a New York Times report to target the press

NewsClick, a defiantly critical news site, has been in the Indian government’s sights over the past few years. But there was little to show after extensive financial probes – until the New York Times published a report which enabled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to use the press to attack the press.

Shortly after breakfast time on Tuesday, October 3, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta was outside his home in Gurgaon, a suburb of the Indian capital New Delhi, seeing his son off for the day when the police showed up at his place.

“Nine cops arrived at 6:30 in the morning,” recounted the renowned investigative journalist and writer in a phone interview with FRANCE 24. “I was surprised. I asked them, why have you come? They said, we want to ask you a few questions.”

True to their word, the police did have relatively few questions. But they were repeated over 12 hours at two venues, according to Guha Thakurta.

IAEA team gathers marine samples near Fukushima

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

A member of the International Atomic Energy Agency team visiting Fukushima for its first marine sampling since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea said Thursday he does not expect any rise in radiation levels in the fish caught in the regional seas.

The IAEA team watched flounder and other popular kinds of fish being caught off the coast earlier Thursday and brought on boats to the Hisanohama port in southern Fukushima for an auction.

“I can say that we don’t expect to see any change starting in the fish,” said Paul McGinnity, an IAEA marine radiology scientist.

Musk’s X cashes in on ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas misinformation, new report finds

 

Some of the biggest peddlers of misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war on Elon Musk’s X platform are premium, so-called “verified” accounts that pay the social media company formerly known as Twitter to promote their posts to boost visibility, a report released Thursday found.

Establishing the truth in any conflict can be difficult as competing sides push contradictory narratives — but some claims that are objectively and clearly false are still going viral and being seen millions of times by users of X, due in part to changes made to the platform by Musk, NewsGuard, an information analysis company, found.

NewsGuard identified seven accounts it describes as “misinformation superspreaders,” which have shared widely debunked claims about the conflict. All of the accounts, NewsGuard said, are taking advantage of changes made to X’s verification policy, which promotes posts from users who pay the company $8 a month. Verified users are also eligible to receive payments from the platform, financially incentivizing posts from the users who are actively spreading misinformation.