Civilians flee to southern Gaza after Israel warning

Summary

1. Civilians are fleeing northern Gaza by car, on the back of trucks and on foot after an Israeli warning that civilians should move south
2. About 1.1 million people living in northern areas have been told to leave in the next day
3. The Israeli military said it knew it would take longer than that to move everyone but blamed Hamas for telling people to ignore the call
4. The UN urged Israel to withdraw its order, warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”
5. Israel has massed soldiers near Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive into the densely populated enclave
6. Hamas fighters kidnapped at least 150 people and took them into Gaza during brutal attacks on Israel at the weekend that killed 1,300 people
7. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, which continue
8. A total blockade is being enforced with fuel, food and water running out. Israel says it won’t lift the restrictions unless Hamas frees all hostages

 

IMF should give poor countries $300bn a year to fight climate crisis, says Joseph Stiglitz

Developing nations need equivalent of US Inflation Reduction Act, says Nobel prize-winning economist

Poor countries should be provided with $300bn (£246bn) a year from the International Monetary Fund to finance their fight against the climate crisis, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said.

Speaking to the Guardian at the IMF’s annual meeting in Marrakech, Stiglitz said developing nations needed their equivalent of the US Inflation Reduction Act – a package of grants and subsidies designed to promote green growth and jobs.

Stiglitz said the battle against global heating would only be won if poor countries were onboard but there was no hope of them coming up with their equivalent of the act, which he said was expensive and flawed but working.

EU warns X, Meta and TikTok over Israel-Hamas disinformation

The European Union has voiced concerns over disinformation related to the Israel-Hamas conflict spreading in Europe. The EU Commission has put social media platforms X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok on notice.

In the beginning, it nearly seemed like a feud between two men. On the one side Thierry Breton, an EU commissioner in charge of the internal market and self-declared “digital enforcer.” On the other side, Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X and self-declared free speech “absolutist.” The stage and bone of contention: X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Following attacks carried out on Israel by the Islamist terror group Hamas, Breton wrote a letter to Musk. In Tuesday’s letter, also published on X, Breton spoke of indications that the platform was being “used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.”

One dead, two severely wounded in knife attack at French school

A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by the French security services over suspected radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and critically wounded two other people in northern France on Friday, authorities said.

The attack was being investigated as potential terrorism amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a radicalised Chechen near a Paris area school.

French anti-terror prosecutors were leading the investigation into the stabbings at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18 and is located in the city of Arras, some 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris.

A colleague and a fellow teacher identified the dead educator as Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher at the school.

Gov’t asks court to revoke legal religious status of Unification Church

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

Japan’s government asked a court Friday to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after an Education Ministry investigation concluded the group for decades has systematically manipulated its followers into donating money, sowing fear and harming their families.

The request submitted to the Tokyo District Court asks for it to issue a dissolution order revoking the church’s status as a religious organization. Education Ministry officials submitted 5,000 pieces of documents and evidence in cardboard boxes to the court to support its request.

The process involves hearings and appeals from both sides and would take a while. If the order is approved and its legal status is stripped, the church could still operate but would lose its tax exemption privilege as a religious organization and would face financial setbacks.

LIVE: Gaza skyline changes in real-time after Hamas launched attack on Israel

The United Nations says it has been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours.

“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” he said.

Dujarric said the order by the Israeli military also applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities, including schools, health centres and clinics.

 Gaza situation dire, UN says, as Israeli military admits security failures

Summary

1. The situation in Gaza is “dire”, says the UN’s World Food Programme – which has warned that food and water are running out during an Israeli siege
2. Earlier, Israel said the siege of Gaza would not end until Israeli hostages were released; the Palestinian enclave is currently reliant on generators after its only power station ran out of fuel
3. At least 150 hostages were taken into Gaza during Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israel at the weekend that killed 1,300 people
4. Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed unending US support for Israel during a visit to the country
5. He added that how Israel defended itself “matters” and “it is so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians”
6. More than 1,400 have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes

Philip Morris lobbying to stop WHO ‘attack’ on vapes and similar products

Exclusive: Leaked email shows firm behind Marlboro cigarettes critical of global ‘prohibitionist’ agenda

Philip Morris International (PMI), the tobacco and vaping company behind Marlboro cigarettes, is waging a big lobbying campaign to prevent countries from cracking down on vapes and similar products as part of a global treaty, a leaked email reveals.

The company, which has been increasingly focusing on smoke-free products as governments tighten regulations on cigarettes, made $10.19bn (£8.3bn) in revenues from products such as heated tobacco and electronic cigarettes in 2022.

Argentina: Presidential front-runner charged over peso panic

Argentina’s struggling currency has gone into a tailspin since the election front-runner said it was worthless, vowing to make the economy dollar-driven. Now the president has laid criminal charges against Javier Milei.

The temperature rose in Argentina’s already-heated election campaign on Wednesday, as the outgoing president laid criminal charges against the current favorite to take over as leader at the polls this month.

President Alberto Fernandez said he had reported populist candidate Javier Milei for “public intimidation” after his potential successor said on Monday that the Argentine peso “isn’t worth excrement.”

Milei, meanwhile, retorted that Fernandez and the ruling party were “dirtying the electoral process.”

Armenia, Azerbaijan trade barbs at World Court over ‘ethnic cleansing’

 Foes Armenia and Azerbaijan crossed swords at the UN’s top court Thursday, as Yerevan accused Baku of “ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking a furious response from the Azerbaijani side over the “unfounded” charges.

The clash at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) came only weeks after Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive to take control of the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time in three decades.

The one-day operation sparked a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians, with the vast majority of the estimated 120,000 who had been living in the territory fleeing into Armenia.

“Despite comprising for millennia the great majority of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, almost no ethnic Armenians remain in Nagorno-Karabakh today,” said Armenia’s ICJ representative Yeghishe Kirakosyan.

“If this is not ethnic cleansing, I do not know what is.”

Responding for Azerbaijan, representative Elnur Mammadov said Armenia had repeated its accusations of ethnic cleansing so often that the claims “have taken on a life of their own.”

Japan decides to strip Unification Church’s religious corporation status

The Japanese government decided Thursday to seek a court order to dissolve the Unification Church after a nearly yearlong probe into the controversial group over its history of coercing members into making large donations, culture minister Masahito Moriyama said.

With the order, the church will be stripped of its religious corporation status and associated tax benefits, but can continue to exist as a group and conduct activities in Japan.

The government has judged the church has engaged in financially damaging donation solicitation, Moriyama told reporters, adding the group has been ordered by the courts to pay as much as 20 billion yen in compensation to around 1,550 victims.

Under Israeli bombs, Gaza’s Palestinians worry they may die of hunger

‘Is there enough food for the day? Can we drink or wash? Will we be able to reach our loved ones?’ Palestinians in Gaza wonder every day.

 Gaza’s only power plant runs out of fuel during Israeli siege

Paul Adams

Diplomatic correspondent

Another powerful earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Wednesday morning, days after a series of quakes in the same region killed thousands of people.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit an area 28km (17 miles) south of Herat’s regional capital at 5.11am local time, killing one person and injuring at least 150 people.

Several additional aftershocks were reported in Herat city. Medics at the regional hospital said that “injured people keep arriving”. The 600-bed facility reached full capacity on Saturday afternoon after the earlier quakes.

German anti-racism body leaves X over ‘rise in hate speech’

A German agency that tackles discrimination and racism says it is quitting the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. It cited a rise in hate speech since owner Elon Musk took over last year.

Germany’s Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (FADA) on Wednesday said it was leaving X because of “an enormous rise” in hate speech.

FADA said hateful comments and disinformation had “increased particularly” since Tesla tycoon Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter last year.

What the agency said

In a statement, FADA said there had been an “enormous increase” in anti-trans and homophobic hostility, racism, misogyny, anti-semitism and other misanthropic content. “In our opinion, X is no longer an acceptable environment” for a public body, it said.

From 1947 to 2023: Retracing the complex, tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was reignited once again on October 7 after a surprise offensive launched by Hamas against Israel. In retaliation, Israel ordered air strikes and a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave. This is a new deadly episode in a conflict that has its roots deep in the mid-20th century. FRANCE 24 traces its history.

1947: Thousands of European Jewish emigrants, many of them Holocaust survivors, board a ship – which came to be called Exodus 1947 – bound for then British-controlled Palestine. Heading for the “promised land”, they are intercepted by British naval ships and sent back to Europe. Widely covered by the media, the incident sparks international outrage and plays a critical role in convincing the UK that a UN-brokered solution is necessary to solve the Palestine crisis.

A UN special committee proposes a partition plan giving 56.47 percent of Palestine for a Jewish state and 44.53 percent for an Arab state. Palestinian representatives reject the plan, but their Jewish counterparts accept it.

On November 29, the UN General Assembly approves the plan, with 33 countries voting for partition, 13 voting against it and 10 abstentions.

Nearly a quarter of a million former paramilitaries on Iraqi government payroll

In Iraq, the Hashd calls the shots

by Adel Bakawan

When ISIS fighters took Mosul, Iraq’s second city, on 10 June 2014, the nation suffered a collective shock. The army, anti-terrorism forces, police and other national security bodies had proved unable to defeat a few hundred jihadists and, as state forces retreated, they left behind tonnes of military equipment that was picked up by the Sunni-affiliated Daesh (ISIS) fighters. It was experienced as a national disaster, creating a widespread sense of panic and humiliation.

Three days after Mosul fell, Ali al-Sistani, the highest religious authority in Najaf — the heart of Iraqi Shiism — issued a fatwa calling for a popular military mobilisation against ISIS.

‘We live in different worlds’: Poland’s toxic politics is splitting the country in two, one family at a time

The front door to the Martynowska residence is a point of no return. Every week, as Karolina prepares to cross it, she steels herself.

Hamas fires rockets at southern Israeli city of Ashkelon

What’s been going on?

It’s been another day with updates coming in very quickly. Here are the key things you need to know to get up to speed…

• Hamas militants warned Israeli residents to leave the city of Ashkelon by 17:00 local time (15:00 BST), and shortly after that time passed, rocket fire was heard in the city
• Relatives of missing US nationals have given a press conference in Tel Aviv detailing the harrowing moments they last heard from their family members
• The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes since Saturday has risen to 830 people
• Israel’s embassy to the US says the death toll on the Israeli side has now risen to at least 1,008 people
• Hamas said it would not negotiate on hostages until the “end of the battle”. Between 100-150 Israelis are currently believed to be hostages, according to Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations

Air strikes are continuing both in Gaza and Israel, and we’ll continue bringing you the latest right here.

Syria accused of ‘pervasive’ torture in first global case over civil war

International court of justice asked to make urgent ruling against regime for ‘abhorrent treatment’ of its people

Syria has tortured tens of thousands of its people and maintains a “widespread and pervasive” system of “abhorrent treatment”, world court judges have heard at the first international case related to the civil war in the country.

Canada and the Netherlands have brought Syria before the international court of justice (ICJ), seeking urgent measures to stop the mistreatment of thousands of people still in detention.

“Every day counts,” René Lefeber, the top representative for the Netherlands, told the court. “Persons in Syria who are currently detained or at risk of being detained cannot afford to wait any longer.”

 

Myanmar junta accused of deadly attack on refugee camp

The attack in Myanmar’s Kachin state is one of the deadliest attacks targeting civilians since 2021’s military takeover. It has claimed the lives of at least 29 people, including women and children.

Myanmar’s junta has been accused of launching an attack on a refugee camp in which at least 29 people were killed, according to local media reports.

The alleged artillery strike, which hit a refugee camp in the northern state of Kachin late Monday, is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the military coup of 2021.

“We found 29 dead bodies including children and older people… 56 people were wounded,” Colonel Naw Bu of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) told French news agency AFP.

France turns a page as troops begin leaving coup-hit Niger

The French army said Tuesday it had begun withdrawing troops from Niger after being ordered out by the leaders of a coup that ousted the president and Paris ally.

The move kicks off a complex and fraught process that Paris expects to be completed by the end of the year, drawing the curtain on another French anti-jihadist operation in Africa.

“The first troops have left,” the spokesman for the French chief of staff told AFP, confirming an announcement Monday by Niger’s military leadership, which said the 1,400-strong French contingent would start leaving Tuesday.

A convoy of soldiers with trucks transporting equipment and armoured vehicles from western Niger arrived in the capital Niamey around midday on Tuesday, an AFP journalist saw.

A French defence source said a first group of soldiers considered a priority for evacuation for health or humanitarian reasons flew out of Niger on Monday

Seoul urged to boost readiness against Hamas-like NK ambush

S. Korean defense minister seeks to ditch inter-Korean military accord

By Lee Hyo-jin

The recent surprise attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel has prompted South Korea to reassess its deterrence strategy against a potential North Korean invasion. Analysts highlighted the need for Seoul to prepare for multi-front attacks by Pyongyang, a tactic used by the Hamas militant group.

Hamas launched thousands of rockets from the blockaded Gaza Strip into Israel, Saturday, while employing guerrilla tactics that involved hundreds of gunmen infiltrating the country via land, sea, and air, some using paragliders. The unprecedented scale of attacks, which caught Israeli security forces off guard, has raised concerns of simliar assaults by North Korea against the South.

“The Hamas attack showed that a country relying heavily on advanced military hardware could fail to defend itself in the case of sudden attacks,” said Yang Uk, a senior fellow at the Asan Insitute for Policy Studies, pointing to the failure of Israel’s Iron Dome, which is regarded as the world’s leading air defense system.

Israel’s war with Hamas will cause deep and wide political shockwaves

Cataclysmic events like the Hamas onslaught on Israel trigger profound political shocks and strategic transformations that no one could predict at the time.

The rocket attacks, hostage takings and mass killings inside Israel came as the global order was already at a pivot point, with the post-Cold War era swept away by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s superpower ascent.

Retaliation against Hamas has only just begun, says Israel’s Netanyahu

Summary

• Israel will use “enormous forces” against the Hamas militant group, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned
• He says the Israel Defense Forces’ retaliation for the worst attack on Israeli soil in decades has only just begin
• More than 700 people have been killed in Israel since Saturday’s surprise attack, including 260 people massacred by Hamas gunmen at a music festival
• Since Israel began striking Gaza in response, nearly 600 people have died
• Israel’s defence minister earlier ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, cutting off food, fuel, electricity and water supplies
• Nine US citizens are now confirmed dead in Israel, while more than 10 British citizens are feared dead, or missing

1. Dozens of people remain kidnapped by Hamas and their families are desperately searching for information

More from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been speaking about his country’s response to the worst attack on its soil in decades.

He told visiting officials from southern Israel, according to the AFP news agency, that “what Hamas will experience will be difficult and terrible”.

Netanyahu went on to say that “this is only the beginning… we are all with you and we will defeat them with force, enormous force”.

More than 700 people have been killed in Israel since Hamas launched its incursion into Israel on Saturday. At least 560 have been killed in Gaza after Israel launched strikes in response to the attacks by Palestinian militants.

Climate crisis costing $16m an hour in extreme weather damage, study estimates

Analysis shows at least $2.8tn in damage from 2000 to 2019 through worsened storms, floods and heatwaves

Saturation, cyber attacks? How did Hamas get past Israel’s Iron Dome

 Our peaceful Gaza morning was abruptly shattered by relentless streaks of fire and thunderous explosions, enveloping more than 2.3 million residents in a cloud of distress and bewilderment.

As the sound of hovering warplanes grew louder, my anxious family and I sought refuge, huddled together in a dimly lit room, hoping – foolishly perhaps – that it was the safest place in our home.

Beside me, my wife, wide-eyed and trembling, held onto my side as we descended the stairs to the room. She repeatedly reassured us that we were safe but the tremor in her voice betrayed the anxiety gripping her.

How does the war in Ukraine end? Earlier this year, former President Donald Trump boasted that if he were re-elected, he’d “have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is making a slightly less ambitious forecast: If things go his way, the war can be over in a week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is making a slightly less ambitious forecast: If things go his way, the war can be over in a week.

In remarks Thursday at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, a Kremlin-friendly confab on global issues,