Netanyahu says deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was the result of a 'tragic mistake'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people.

The strike only added to the surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas, with even its closest allies expressing outrage at civilian deaths. Israel insists it adheres to international law even as it faces scrutiny in the world’s top courts, one of which last week demanded that it halt the offensive in Rafah.

Netanyahu did not elaborate on the error. Israel’s military initially said it had carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing two senior militants. As details of the strike and fire emerged, the military said it had opened an investigation into the deaths of civilians.

Sunday night’s attack, which appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest, helped push the overall Palestinian death toll in the war above 36,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants in its tally.

“Despite our utmost efforts not to harm innocent civilians, last night there was a tragic mistake,” Netanyahu said Monday in an address to Israel’s parliament. “We are investigating the incident and will obtain a conclusion because this is our policy.”

Mohammed Abuassa, who rushed to the scene in the northwestern neighborhood of Tel al-Sultan, said rescuers “pulled out people who were in an unbearable state.”

“We pulled out children who were in pieces. We pulled out young and elderly people. The fire in the camp was unreal,” he said.

At least 45 people were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service. The ministry said the dead included at least 12 women, eight children and three older adults, with another three bodies burned beyond recognition.

In a separate development, Egypt’s military said one of its soldiers was shot dead during an exchange of fire in the Rafah area, without providing further details. Israel said it was in contact with Egyptian authorities, and both sides said they were investigating.

An initial investigation found that the soldier had responded to an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, Egypt’s state-owned Qahera TV reported. Egypt has warned that Israel’s incursion in Rafah could threaten the two countries’ decades-old peace treaty.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency closed meeting for Tuesday afternoon on the situation in Rafah at the request of Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, two council diplomats told The Associated Press.

Rafah, the southernmost Gaza city on the border with Egypt, had housed more than a million people — about half of Gaza’s population — displaced from other parts of the territory. Most have fled once again since Israel launched what it called a limited incursion there earlier this month. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps in and around the city.

Elsewhere in Rafah, the director of the Kuwait Hospital, one of the city’s last functioning medical centers, said it was shutting down and that staff members were relocating to a field hospital. Dr. Suhaib al-Hamas said the decision was made after a strike killed two health workers Monday at the entrance to the hospital.

Netanyahu says Israel must destroy what he says are Hamas’ last remaining battalions in Rafah. The militant group launched a barrage of rockets Sunday from the city toward heavily populated central Israel, setting off air raid sirens but causing no injuries.

The strike on Rafah brought a new wave of condemnation, even from Israel’s strongest supporters.

The U.S. National Security Council said in a statement that the “devastating images” from the strike on Rafah were “heartbreaking.” It said the U.S. was working with the Israeli military and others to assess what happened.

French President Emmanuel Macron was more blunt, saying “these operations must stop” in a post on X. “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote.

The Foreign Office of Germany, which has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, said “the images of charred bodies, including children, from the airstrike in Rafah are unbearable.”

“The exact circumstances must be clarified, and the investigation announced by the Israeli army must now come quickly,” the ministry added. ”The civilian population must finally be better protected.”

Qatar, a key mediator in attempts to secure a cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, said the Rafah strike could “complicate” talks. Negotiations, which appear to be restarting, have faltered repeatedly over Hamas’ demand for a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, terms Israeli leaders have publicly rejected.

The Israeli military’s top legal official, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, said authorities were examining the strike in Rafah and that the military regrets the loss of civilian life.

Speaking to an Israeli lawyers’ conference, Tomer-Yerushalmi said Israel has launched 70 criminal investigations into possible violations of international law, including the deaths of civilians, the conditions at a detention facility holding suspected militants and the deaths of some inmates in Israeli custody. She said incidents of property crimes and looting were also being examined.

Israel has long maintained it has an independent judiciary capable of investigating and prosecuting abuses. But rights groups say Israeli authorities routinely fail to fully investigate violence against Palestinians and that even when soldiers are held accountable, the punishment is usually light.

Israel has denied allegations of genocide brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Last week, the court ordered Israelto halt its Rafah offensive, a ruling it has no power to enforce.

Separately, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders, over alleged crimes linked to the war. The ICC only intervenes when it concludes that the state in question is unable or unwilling to properly prosecute such crimes.

Israel says it does its best to adhere to the laws of war. Israeli leaders also say they face an enemy that makes no such commitment, embeds itself in civilian areas and refuses to release Israeli hostages unconditionally.

Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages. Hamas still holds about 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Around 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes. Severe hunger is widespread, and U.N. officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine attacked twice in one night

The Russian-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine came under attack twice within three hours early on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a series of strikes near the city.

Fires appeared to have broken out in both strikes. Ukraine made no official comment on either incident.

Leonid Pasechnik, Russia-installed governor of Luhansk region, said the first attack at about 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) was made with cluster munitions.

"A fire has broken out as a result of the attack," Pasechnik said, noting that information on casualties was being clarified.

Russia's Tass news agency, quoting emergency services, cited injuries.

Ukrainian media and war bloggers posted a picture of what they described as a large fire in the city.

A second strike hit the city at midnight, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said, apparently in the same general area.

Rodion Miroshnik, a special ambassador for the ministry, said city residents had heard two explosions in the same district as the site of the first attack.

"It cannot be ruled out that the repeat strike occurred at the site where rescue teams are dealing with the aftermath of the previous missile attack," Miroshnik wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian news outlets said the target of the second strike was an airfield and posted a video of a fire spreading over a wide area.

Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield accounts or what weapon might have been used.

Ukraine's military has launched at least three attacks on Luhansk and nearby areas in recent weeks, targeting mainly fuel storage depots.

Russia annexed the Luhansk region several months after its February 2022 invasion, along with three other regions, though it does not fully control any of them.

Much of Luhansk has been occupied since 2014, when Russian-financed separatists took over swathes of territory in eastern Ukraine after large protests prompted Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country and Moscow's forces seized the Crimea peninsula.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian troops liberate two communities in Ukraine operation over past day — top brass

Russian troops liberated the settlement of Ivanovka in the Kharkov Region and the settlement of Netailovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

"Battlegroup West units liberated the settlement of Ivanovka in the Kharkov Region and gained more advantageous positions… Battlegroup Center units liberated the settlement of Netailovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic and improved their tactical position," the ministry said in a statement.

Russian troops inflict over 300 casualties on Ukrainian army in Kharkov area over past day

Russian troops inflicted more than 300 casualties on the Ukrainian army in the Kharkov area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup North units continue advancing deep into the enemy defenses. They inflicted casualties on manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 125th mechanized and 112th territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Konstantinovka and Granov in the Kharkov Region. They repulsed two counterattacks by enemy assault groups in areas near the settlements of Glubokoye and Volchansk in the Kharkov Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the Kharkov direction over the past 24 hours amounted to 318 personnel, a tank and two armored combat vehicles, it specified.

In counterbattery fire, Russian troops destroyed a US-made 155mm M777 howitzer, a UK-made 155mm FH70 howitzer, a 152mm D-20 howitzer, three 122mm D-30 howitzers, a US-manufactured 105mm M119 artillery gun and a 122mm Grad multiple rocket launcher of the Ukrainian army, the ministry said.

Ukrainian army loses 130 troops in south Donetsk area over past day

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 130 troops in battles with Russian forces in the south Donetsk area over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup East units took more advantageous positions and inflicted casualties on manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 128th territorial defense brigade near the settlement of Makarovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The Ukrainian army lost as many as 130 personnel, five motor vehicles, a 155mm M777 howitzer and a 155mm M198 howitzer of US manufacture," the ministry said.

Reuters/Tass

In a federal system of government, such as the one we claim to be running, granting autonomy to local governments undermines the principles of federalism. Successive military leaders from certain sections of Nigeria have used their power to create local government areas in their regions, giving them demographic and fiscal advantages over other sections, which provide the bulk of the fiscal resources that all tiers of government rely on. This autonomy is a subversion of federalism and should be rejected by all who value democracy within a federal system.

In a true federal system, regions, provinces, or states are the federating units that create a central authority to achieve specific mutual benefits. Local government areas, which are created for administrative convenience, do not qualify as federating units and should not draw administrative costs from the federation account. In principle, they are unknown to the central authority as established by the federating units.

While efforts should be focused on repairing our feudalistic unitary system disguised as federalism, we are instead dismantling the political architecture of the federal system by undermining the states' authority over local governments. The argument that governors are misappropriating local government funds from the federation account does not justify dismantling the federal system. The neglect of local roads and other responsibilities of local governments is not solely due to state governors controlling funds, but also due to politicians' general disregard for the welfare of the people and their tendency to prioritize personal gain.

Even if local government funds were distributed directly to them, there is no guarantee that local government chairmen would not emulate the governors' corrupt practices. This could lead to further fragmentation, with each political ward or village demanding direct allocations from the federation account.

The issue of underdevelopment in local government areas is more about the politicians' lack of accountability than the governors' control over funds. Constituents must mobilize to hold their local leaders accountable, regardless of political party affiliations. Furthermore, while state governors are criticized for mismanaging funds, there is little concern about the federal government's handling of its share of the federation account, which affects national infrastructure and services like policing.

As part of our journey towards a restructured federal system that allows states or geographical zones to flourish socio-economically, we should consider dissolving existing local government areas. States should delineate their own local-governing areas based on demographics, administrative needs, and available financial resources. The current proliferation of local government areas, driven by military rulers from the North, was primarily to receive funds from the federation account without considering viability.

Granting local government areas direct funding from the central purse has serious implications for rural lands. Local government chairmen in rural areas, dependent on federal allocations, may be pressured into relinquishing land for projects that serve political or personal interests of the central authority. The RUGA project under former President Muhammadu Buhari exemplifies the potential dangers of such autonomy, which could have led to significant land losses for communities if local governments had been autonomous.

The Yoruba people in the South-West are still not free from the threat of land subjugation, even with their son in power. It is important to avoid supporting policies simply because they are pushed by someone from one's own group. While Bola President Tinubu may have good intentions for local government administration, we must be wary of the potential misuse of rural lands by future presidents from other geopolitical zones. The idea of RUGA remains alive in the consciousness of herdsmen in Nigeria, and local government autonomy could provide a legal basis for similar projects in the future.

The trick to getting ahead at work isn’t being the fastest learner or the smartest in the room — it’s having a positive attitude, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Jassy, who took the top job at Amazon after Jeff Bezos stepped down in 2021, shared his “best career advice” in a new interview with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. 

“I think an embarrassing amount of how well you do, particularly in your 20s, has to do with attitude,” Jassy, 56, said. 

It’s not just about being cheerful, he explained. Having a positive attitude means you work well on a team and honor deadlines, among other strengths. 

If you have the right mindset, Jassy said you should be able to confidently answer “yes” to the following questions: 

• Do you work hard? 
• Are you more can-do than naysaying? 
• Do you do what you said you were going to do? 
• Can you work in a team? 

These strategies are “so simple” and yet often overlooked, he said. 

“People would be surprised [at] how infrequently people have great attitudes,” he added. “I think it makes a big difference.”

Enthusiasm can enable you to take advantage of opportunities like stretch assignments and training programs because you’ll feel more confident stepping out of your comfort zone and trust that you can tackle any challenges that arise.

Jassy was just 29 when he joined Amazon as a marketing manager in 1997. Five years into his career there, he was invited to be Bezos’s first “shadow” advisor, a quasi-chief of staff who joins all of the CEO’s meetings. 

Several of his colleagues at Amazon told him not to accept the offer, but Jassy said he chose to focus on the positive aspects of the job — and by taking it, he was able to strengthen his leadership skills. 

“I just figured if it wasn’t something that worked out either for Jeff or for me if I tried it a few months, I could always try something else, but if it did work out, I hadn’t ever heard of another job like this,” he said. “And it was just an incredible experience.” 

It’s important to note that Amazon’s leadership has come under fire for its treatment of warehouse employees during the Covid-19 pandemic and for allegedly fostering a harsh workplace culture.

Jassy has previously acknowledged that the company could improve its treatment of employees. “I think if you have a large group of people like we do … it’s almost like a small country,” he said during the GeekWire Summit in 2021. “There are lots of things you could do better.”

Regardless of where you’re at in your career, having a positive attitude can help you build stronger relationships in the workplace. “You pick up advocates and mentors much more quickly,” Jassy said. “People want those people to succeed.”

Research has affirmed the benefits of a positive attitude in the workplace — that it can make you more productive, boost creativity and prevent burnout, among other advantages.

“There’s so many things that you can’t control in your work life,” Jassy said. “But you can control your attitude.”

CNBC

The Federal Government has asked the Supreme Court to nullify the actions of 36 states accused of withholding local government funds. The lawsuit, filed by Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, seeks to prevent state governments from disbanding elected local government chairmen and replacing them with caretaker committees.

The suit, dated May 20, 2024, calls for a declaration that, under Section 162(5) of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999, state governments are merely agents of local governments in collecting funds from the federation account. These funds, once received, must be paid directly into the state joint local government account and subsequently distributed to each local government.

In the suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, comprising 27 grounds, the Federal Government also seeks to invoke Sections 1, 4, 5, 7, and 14 of the Constitution to mandate governors and state houses of assembly to uphold a democratically elected system at the local government level.

A 13-paragraph affidavit supporting the originating summons was filed by Kelechi Ohaeri of the Federal Ministry of Justice. The affidavit includes publications from national newspapers and broadcast media from 2023 to 2024, highlighting the public interest in this litigation.

The AGF's suit demands a declaration that the dissolution of democratically elected local government councils by governors or state powers is unlawful, unconstitutional, null, and void. It further asserts that states failing to establish a democratically elected local government system are in breach of the 1999 Constitution and should not be entitled to receive and spend funds meant for local governments.

Among the reliefs sought are:

- A declaration that local government councils are entitled to direct payments from the federation account for funds standing to their credit when state governments fail to transfer these funds.

- An injunction preventing states from receiving or tampering with local government funds if no democratically elected local government system is in place.

- An order for the federal government to pay local governments directly from the federation account when states fail to do so.

- Immediate and successive compliance by state officials with the terms of the court's judgment and orders.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for May 30. The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has not yet responded to the suit. When contacted, the acting Head of Media for the NGF, Halimah Salihu Ahmed, declined to comment.

Despite a Supreme Court ruling on December 9, 2016, voiding laws that allowed governors to appoint caretaker chairmen for local governments, many states have continued to violate this ruling. State governments have historically resisted local government autonomy. On January 24, 2023, the Senate revealed that among the 35 constitutional amendment bills rejected by state assemblies were those seeking financial and legislative autonomy for local governments.

Supporters of Aminu Bayero, the dethroned Emir of Kano, have taken to the streets in protest across the five emirates of Bichi, Rano, Karaye, Kano, and Gaya. Bayero was deposed on Thursday after Kano Governor Abba Yusuf signed a new law repealing the Emirate Council Law of 2019, which had previously divided the Kano emirate into five jurisdictions and provided the grounds for the dethronement of Muhammadu Sanusi in 2020.

Sanusi was reinstated as the 16th Emir of Kano on Thursday during a colorful ceremony at the government house and has since moved into the palace. In response, Bayero returned to Kano early Saturday morning and moved into the mini palace in Nassarawa area of Kano, only to be subsequently ordered arrested by the governor. Soldiers are currently stationed to guard the dethroned monarch.

Protesters carrying banners and placards called for Bayero's reinstatement, chanting anti-government slogans and setting up bonfires on major roads. They claim the emirship dispute is politically motivated. The state has been in turmoil since Muhammadu Sanusi II's return as the Kano emir, four years after his own dethronement, leading to a royal power struggle with Aminu Ado Bayero.

Governor Yusuf, after signing the Kano State Emirates Council Law on Thursday, issued a reappointment letter to Sanusi on Friday and demanded that the emirs affected by the law vacate their palaces within 48 hours. Despite this, the state police command announced on Saturday their intent to enforce a court order against Sanusi's reinstatement.

While Bayero remains in the Nassarawa mini palace under heavy security, Sanusi operates from the Gidan Rumfa palace, protected by vigilantes and local hunters.

Protests continued yesterday, with Bayero's supporters lighting bonfires and chanting anti-government slogans. In Rano Emirate, youths protested the dethronement of Kabiru Muhammad Inuwa, known as 'Autan Bawo,' as the first-class emir of the area.

Protest leader Aliyu Harazimi Rano expressed their discontent with the state government's new law, highlighting the developmental benefits the establishment of the Rano Emirate had brought to the area.

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 35 in Rafah, Gaza authorities say

Israeli air strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians and wounded dozens in an area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah designated for the displaced, Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said.

The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the strike was carried out with "precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence." It took out Hamas' chief of staff for the West Bank and another senior official behind deadly attacks on Israelis, it said.

"The IDF is aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review."

The spokesman for the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qidra, said 35 people were killed and dozens others, most of them women and children, were wounded in the attack.

The strike took place in Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah, where thousands of people were taking shelter after many fled the eastern areas of the city where Israeli forces began a ground offensive over two weeks ago.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah was receiving an influx of casualties, and that other hospitals also were taking in a large number of patients.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri described the attack in Rafah as a "massacre", holding the United States responsible for aiding Israel with weapons and money.

"The air strikes burnt the tents, the tents are melting and the people's bodies are also melting," said one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military said eight projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Rafah, the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where Israel kept up operations despite a ruling by the top U.N. court on Friday ordering it to stop attacking the city.

A number of the projectiles were intercepted, it said. There were no reports of casualties.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was convening his war cabinet later on Sunday to discuss continued operations in Rafah. Israel argues that the U.N. court's ruling allows room for some military action there.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to "Zionist massacres against civilians".

Rafah is located about 100 km (60 miles) south of Tel Aviv.

Israel says it wants to root out Hamas fighters holed up in Rafah and rescue hostages it says are being held in the area, but its assault has worsened the plight of civilians and caused an international outcry.

On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah, according to local medical services. The Gaza health ministry identified the dead as civilians.

Israeli tanks have probed around the edges of Rafah, near the crossing point from Gaza into Egypt, and have entered some of its eastern districts, residents say, but have not yet entered the city in force since the start of operations in the city earlier this month.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said the rockets fired from Rafah "prove that the (Israel Defense Forces) must operate in every place Hamas still operates from".

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant held an operational assessment in Rafah where he was briefed on "troops’ operations above and below the ground, as well as the deepening of operations in additional areas with the aim of dismantling Hamas battalions", his office said in a statement.

Itamar Ben Gvir, a hardline public security minister who is not part of Israel's war cabinet, urged the army to hit Rafah harder. "Rafah with full force," he posted on X.

Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Fighting also continued in the northern Gaza area of Jabaliya, the scene of intense combat earlier in the war. During one raid, the military said it found a weapons storage site with dozens of rocket parts and weapons at a school.

It denied Hamas statements that Palestinian fighters had abducted an Israeli soldier.

Hamas media said an Israeli airstrike on a house in a neighborhood near Jabaliya killed 10 people and wounded others.

TRUCE TALKS

Efforts to agree a halt to the fighting and return more than 120 hostages have been blocked for weeks but there were some signs of movement this weekend following meetings between Israeli and U.S. intelligence officials and Qatar's prime minister.

An official with knowledge of the matter said a decision had been taken to resume the talks this week based on new proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and with "active U.S. involvement."

However, a Hamas official played down the report, telling Reuters: "It is not true."

Netanyahu's war cabinet would discuss the new proposals, his office said.

A second Hamas official, Izzat El-Reshiq, said the group had not received anything from the mediators on new dates for resuming talks as had been reported by Israeli media.

Reshiq restated Hamas's demands, which include: "Ending the aggression completely and permanently, in all of Gaza Strip, not only Rafah".

While Israel is seeking the return of hostages, Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, is eliminated.

AID TRUCKS ENTER GAZA

Israel has faced calls to get more aid into Gaza after more than seven months of a war that has caused widespread destruction and hunger in the enclave.

Khaled Zayed of the Egyptian Red Crescent told Reuters 200 trucks of aid, including four fuel trucks, were expected to enter Gaza on Sunday through Kerem Shalom.

It follows an agreement between U.S. President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Friday to temporarily send aid via the Kerem Shalom crossing, bypassing the Rafah crossing that has been blocked for weeks.

Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV shared a video on social media platform X, showing what it said were aid trucks as they entered Kerem Shalom, which before the conflict was the main commercial crossing station between Israel, Egypt and Gaza.

The Rafah crossing has been shut for almost three weeks, since Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing as it stepped up its offensive.

Egypt has been increasingly alarmed at the prospect of large numbers of Palestinians entering its territory from Gaza and has refused to open its side of the Rafah crossing.

Israel has said it is not restricting aid flows and has opened up new crossing points in the north as well as cooperating with the United States, which has built a temporary floating pier for aid deliveries.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian jamming rendering much US-supplied weaponry ineffective – WaPo

Many US-made munitions that rely on satellite guidance have failed to withstand Russia’s jamming technology after being supplied to Kiev, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The Ukrainian armed forces have had to stop using some of those armaments altogether because of Russia’s extensive electronic warfare capabilities, the paper said.

The affected munitions include Excalibur GPS-guided artillery shells, rockets for HIMARS multiple rocket launch systems and JDAM aircraft-dropped bombs, the report read.

The US completely ceased deliveries of Excalibur shells half a year ago after Ukraine reported that they had been rendered ineffective, unnamed Ukrainian officials told WaPo.

The paper said that it had also reviewed an internal assessment by Kiev, according to which the success rate of the munitions fell to just 10% within several months. “The Excalibur technology in existing versions has lost its potential,” the document read, adding that the encounter with Russian jamming has disproved its reputation as a “one shot, one target” weapon.

The HIMARS system used to make headlines after being provided to Kiev in 2022, but the next year “everything ended: the Russians deployed electronic warfare, disabled satellite signals, and HIMARS became completely ineffective,” a senior Ukrainian military official complained. Because of this, Kiev had to resort to deploying the “very expensive shell” against lower-priority targets, he said.

The success rate of JDAMs also dropped significantly just weeks after they were first provided to Kiev in February 2023 as their “non-resistance” to jamming was revealed, the Ukrainian assessment stressed. During that period, the US-made bombs were missing their targets by between 200 meters and 1.2km, it said.

The Ukrainian officials told WaPo that getting the needed adjustments to the “failing weaponry” has been difficult due to “an overly bureaucratic process” in Washington. However, in the case of JDAMs, the manufacturer was able to provide a patch and the munitions are still being used by Kiev, according to the sources.

On Saturday, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, the production of electronic warfare equipment has increased 15-fold in the country.

Russia has warned repeatedly that deliveries of weapons systems to Kiev by the US and its allies will not prevent Moscow from achieving its military goals, adding that it will merely prolong the fighting and could increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. According to officials in Moscow, the provision of arms, the sharing of intelligence, and the training of Ukrainian troops means that Western nations have already become de-facto parties to the conflict.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian attack on Ukraine's Kharkiv kills 14, injures dozens

A Russian strike on a crowded DIY hardware store in Kharkiv killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday, the death toll rising as the country's second-largest city reeled from two attacks a day earlier.

Two guided bombs hit the Epicentr DIY hypermarket in a residential area of the city on Saturday afternoon, Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on national television.

The strikes caused a massive fire which sent a column of thick, black smoke billowing hundreds of metres into the air.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the local prosecutors' office said 14 people died, with 44 injured. Prosecutors said 11 of the dead had been identified and seven people were missing.

Syniehubov, in a late-afternoon post on social media, put the death toll at 16.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said about 120 people had been in the hardware store when the bombs struck.

The past week has seen an uptick in strikes on the city after Russian troops stormed across the border, opening a new front north of the city.

Russia has bombarded Kharkiv, which lies less than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from its border, throughout the war, having reached its outskirts in a failed bid to capture it in 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a plea to Ukraine's Western allies to help boost air defences to keep the country's cities safe. French President Emmanuel Macron, writing on social media platform X, denounced the attack on the store as "unacceptable."

A separate early evening missile strike hit a residential building in the centre of the city of 1.3 million. The number of people wounded by that strike had climbed to 25 by Sunday morning.

The missile left a crater several metres deep in the pavement at the foot of the building, which also housed a post office, a beauty salon and a cafe.

Emergency workers ushered away residents of nearby apartment buildings. Some of the injured had blood on their faces.

Just over the border, in Russia's Belgorod region, the regional governor said four residents died in Ukrainian attacks on Saturday.

FIREFIGHTERS BATTLE BLAZE

Andriy Kudinov, director of the suburban shopping centre, told local media the hardware store was full of shoppers buying items for their summer cottages.

It took 16 hours to fully extinguish the fire at the centre, which had raged over an area of 13,000 square metres (15,548 square yards), Interior Minister Klymenko said.

Rescuers, medics and journalists occasionally had to rush away from the scene of both strikes on the city and take cover on the ground, fearing another strike, as has occurred during several recent Russian attacks.

Dmytro Syrotenko, a 26-year-old employee of the DIY centre, described panicked scenes.

"I was at my workplace. I heard the first hit and ... with my colleague, we fell to the ground. There was the second hit and we were covered with debris. Then we started to crawl to the higher ground," said Syrotenko, who had a large gash on his face.

Syrotenko told Reuters he was taken to safety by a rescue worker who helped him, several colleagues, and shoppers.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address on Sunday, said the strike and carnage prompted widespread condemnation that should lead to "absolutely just consequences" and again underscore the need for Ukraine to secure sufficient air defences.

"This, in order for us to have enough air defence systems at least to defend Ukraine, our cities," he said. "And so that our partners muster the resolve for preventive defensive actions against Russian terrorists."

Ukraine, he said, would keep pressing its partners to speed up deliveries of F-16 fighter aircraft "to strengthen our defences against terrorist attacks on our cities and pressure from the Russian army on the front line."

Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and injured during its 27-month invasion of Ukraine.

RT/Reuters

Kano’s Muhammad Sanusi II has been rethroned the exact way he was initially enthroned and dethroned: in the melting pot of the politics of vengeance and recrimination.

And he just might be dethroned yet again by this, or another subsequent partisan government, given Sanusi’s infamous incapacity to rein in his tongue and to understand the wisdom in restraint and tact, which his position requires of him—and, of course, the juddering, hypocritical contradictions between what he says and what he does.

Recall that when he worked at the UBA, Sanusi had derided then Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as a scorn-worthy “rural aristocrat” who “surrounds himself with provincials and places key posts in the hands of rural elite.” He characterized the Kwankwaso administration as “the classic comedy of the Village Headmaster in a village council.”

Kwankwaso was so incensed by Sanusi’s boorishness and Kano urban condescension that he threatened to pull out the Kano State Government’s money in UBA if Sanusi wasn’t fired from his job. Yet it was the same Kwankwaso who, for partisan, anti-Goodluck Jonathan political considerations, enthroned Sanusi as the emir of Kano even when he wasn’t the choice of the kingmakers.

And let’s not forget that Sanusi is a vicious, unashamed enemy of common people. His entire economic philosophy revolves around sheepishly advancing the annihilating policies of the IMF/World Bank, such as removal of every kind of subsidy for the poor while leaving intact the subsidies that sustain the sybaritic extravagance of indolent but overprotected elites like him.

Well, after destroying properties worth billions of naira and restoring Sanusi as emir all in the bid to get even with Ganduje, I hope the government will now get down to actually governing and improving the lives of the people who elected it.

The sense I get from people in Kano (many of whom are supporters of the government) is that governance has been on hold in Kano in the last one year in the service of retaliation. Not even the dirty water that Ganduje’s government caused to be distributed to homes is available now, Kano people tell me.

Anyway, when Ganduje dethroned Sanusi in March 2020, I wrote a column titled, “Ganduje is a Monster, But Sanusi Is Not a Victim.” On the occasion of his rethronement, I reproduce portions of it below:

Governor Abdullahi “Gandollar” Ganduje is no doubt a contemptibly philistine monster of avarice and debauchery who dethroned Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir of Kano because he couldn’t stomach the former emir’s disapproval of the electoral fraud that brought him to power.

There is also no doubt that Sanusi’s unrelenting public censures of the rotten, if time-honored, cultural quiddities of the Muslim North discomfited many people who are invested in the status quo, and this became one of the convenient bases for his ouster.

But Sanusi isn’t nearly the victim he has been cracked up to be by his admirers and defenders. First, he rode to the Kano emirship in 2014 on the crest of a wave of emotions stirred by partisan politics and came down from it the same way.

Even though he wasn’t initially on the shortlist of Kano’s kingmakers, APC's Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso (who is now in PDP) made Sanusi emir in 2014 to spite PDP’s President Goodluck Jonathan and shield Sanusi from the consequences of his [false] unmasking of multi-billion-dollar corruption at the NNPC. Apart from his unceremonious removal as CBN governor for his [false] whistle blowing, he was going to face other untoward retributions from the Jonathan administration, but his appointment as emir put paid to it.

Now, Sanusi lost his emirship to the same partisan politics that got it for him in the first place. In an ironic twist, he was made emir by an APC government for making privileged [if false] revelations that disadvantaged a PDP government and was removed as an emir by an APC government for his overt and covert acts that could have benefited the PDP in 2019.

In other words, Sanusi’s emirship was molded in the crucible of partisan politics and was dissolved in it.

Nonetheless, Sanusi, given his intellectual sophistication and pretenses to being an advocate of egalitarianism, had no business being an emir. Monarchy is way past its sell-by date not just in Nigeria but everywhere. It’s an anachronistic, vestigial remnant of a primitive past that invests authority on people by mere accident of heredity. Any authority that is inherited and not earned, in my opinion, is beneath contempt.

Emirship isn’t only a primeval anomaly in a modern world, it is, in fact, un-Islamic. In Islam, leadership is derived from knowledge and the consensus of consultative assemblies of communities called the Shura, not from heredity.

Monarchies in the Muslim North, which have constituted themselves into parasitic, decadent drains on society, but which pretend to be Islamic, are grotesque perversions of the religion they purport to represent. Anyone, not least one who makes pious noises about equality, that is denied the unfair privileges of monarchy is no victim.

Most importantly, though, Sanusi embodies a jarring disconnect between high-minded ideals and lived reality. He rails against child marriage in public but married a teenager upon becoming an emir. When the late Pius Adesanmi called him out, he told him to “grow a brain.” He suddenly became the patron saint of conservative Muslim cultural values.

He expended considerable intellectual energies critiquing polygamy among poor Muslim men, but he is married to four wives. His defense, of course, would be that he can afford it, and poor Muslim men can’t. Fair enough. But transaction-oriented reformists lead by example.

Fidel Castro, for example, stopped smoking when he campaigned against it. It would be nice to say to poor, polygamous Muslim men, “Why are you, a poor man, married to four wives when Sanusi, a wealthy man and an emir, is married to just one wife?”

That would have had a much higher impact than his preachments. In spite of their moral failings, Buhari, Abba Kyari, and Mamman Daura would be much more effective campaigners against disabling polygamy by poor Muslim men than Sanusi can ever be because they are monogamists even when they can afford to marry four wives.

This is a legitimate critique since Sanusi has a choice to not call out poor Muslim men who marry more wives than they can afford since polygamy is animated by libidinal greed, which is insensitive to financial means.

Sanusi habitually fulminates against the enormous and inexorably escalating poverty in the north, but even though he is an immensely affluent person, he has not instituted any systematic mechanism to tackle the scourge of poverty in the region in his own little way.

Instead, he spends hundreds of billions of naira to decorate the emir’s palace, buy exotic horses, and luxuriate in opulent sartorial regality.

And, although, he exposed [what he thought was] humongous corruption during Jonathan’s administration and dollar racketeering during Buhari’s regime, he is himself an indefensibly corrupt and profligate person. In two well-researched investigative pieces in 2017, Daily Nigeria’s Jaafar Jaafar chronicled Sanusi’s mind-boggling corruption as emir of Kano, which apparently didn’t abate until he was dethroned.

Sanusi was ostensibly a Marxist when he studied economics at ABU, which explains why he exhibits flashes of radicalism in his public oratory, but he is, in reality, an out-of-touch, unfeeling, feudal, neoliberal elitist who is contemptuous, and insensitive to the suffering, of poor people.

He supported Jonathan’s petrol price hike in 2012 and even wondered why poor people were protesting since they had no cars, and generators, according to him, were powered by diesel, not petrol!

When his attention was brought to the fact that only “subsidized” and privileged “big men” like him use diesel-powered generators, he backed down and apologized. But I found it remarkably telling that until 2012 Sanusi had no clue that the majority of Nigerians used petrol-powered generators to get electricity.

In a September 1, 2012, column titled, "Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s Unwanted 5,000 Naira Notes," I noted that Sanusi was "one of the most insensitive, out-of-touch bureaucrats to ever walk Nigeria’s corridors of power."

Again, in my December 10, 2016, article titled, "Dangerous Fine Print in Emir Sanusi's Prescription for Buhari," I wrote: "If you are a poor or economically insecure middle-class person who is writhing in pain amid this economic downturn, don’t be deceived into thinking that Emir Sanusi is on your side. He is not. His disagreements with Buhari have nothing to do with you or your plight. If he has his way, you would be dead by now because the IMF/World Bank neoliberal theology he evangelizes has no care for poor, vulnerable people."

What is happening in Kano should be of concern to not only the Kanawa or Northerners but to all Nigerians. Kano, as we all know, is the heartbeat of the North. If Kano is economically buoyant, it cascades down to the rest of the North and reflects on the nation’s GDP.

Conversely, any chaos or breach in security will affect other parts of the North, thereby stretching the capacity of our security agencies with all the attendant consequences.

This is why the ongoing ”Game of Thrones” in the ancient city of Kano should concern every Nigerian.

There were some misgivings in some quarters when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, popularly called SLS - fresh from a controversial sacking from the office of the governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank by then President Goodluck Jonathan - was made the Emir of Kano, against all odds, by Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso on 8th June 2014, in a move that lends credence to the saying that there is no permanent friend or enemy in politics but permanent interests.

In Kwankwaso’s first tenure as governor, he and SLS, then with the First Bank, were more like “enemies”, which made the government of Kano State close its account with the bank as its request for Sanusi’s sack was not acceded to.

Yet there were misgivings too when, again against all odds, he was dethroned by former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje on 9th March 2020. To get at him, Ganduje “shattered” the revered Kano Emirate into five pieces.

Now there are more misgivings after the current governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf, himself a Prince, dethroned the five Emirs created by Ganduje and reinstated SLS and returned the emirate to its former status.

The issue, ordinarily a state affair within the governor’s authority, is threatening to escalate and burst onto the national landscape. That is, if it has not already,  what with the National Security Adviser (NSA) weighing in.

The thing is, the princes’ insatiable greed for power, influence, relevance and wealth has made them rush open-eyed into the crossfires of ambitious and unscrupulous politicians who keep no captives. To quote from 'Macbeth', the Kano princes have “murdered sleep and so shall sleep no more.”

However, the most pitiable here is the common man who whatever is happening in Kano will neither put garri on his table nor solve any of his mammoth and growing problems. It is the common man who would be used as a foot soldier to disrupt the peace of the community.

Welcome back, “Nigeria We Hail Thee!”

It is no longer news that the National Assembly will bring back our National Anthem at the birth of our nation. It is a welcome development.

On 10 August 2020, I wrote a piece entitled “Pray, who wants Zulum dead?” and I said, “Anybody who chooses to write the truth about our dear country, Nigeria, does so with a heavy heart. You cannot write about your beloved with no degree of passion. The love for it, the sadness at its travails, the fear for its future, and the cry for its affairs to be done right cannot be written dispassionately. Bewildered many a time, you just write for record purposes, knowing that it may change nothing.

"We grew up with the national anthem, 'Nigeria We Hail Thee', which was adopted on October 1, 1960. It was our anthem until 1978. The anthem was written by Lillian Jean Williams, a Briton who lived here at the time of our independence, while the music for it was composed by Francis Berda. In the first stanza, there was a rallying exhortation. After saluting the great mother country – 'Nigeria we hail thee', it went on to call us to unity and oneness – 'Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand…'

“A three-stanza anthem designed to whip up our patriotism, the third stanza struck a chord with me. In it, we supposedly beseech the Creator to help us build a nation where no man is left behind. “O God of creation, grant us this our one request, help us build a nation where no man is oppressed…” In my childish imagination in the early 70s (I was barely ten) I always romanticised that to mean we were imploring God to help us build a real wall of steel, mortar and cement strong enough to withstand external enemies and tall enough that no Nigerian can be thrown over it to the wolves.

“Now, while the first national anthem spoke of Nigeria as a mother, the second spoke of it as a father. The last verse in the first stanza of the earlier anthem was “Nigerians all and proud to serve our sovereign motherland” while the second verse in the first stanza of the later anthem said, “To serve our fatherland”.

“While the mother fiercely loves her brood and can stake her life for them, the father’s love is less sentimental but intense. By nature, he provides for both the mother and the kids and can break his back so that they can have something. He can move mountains to protect and preserve him. And so the child sees its father as stronger than Hercules and richer than Mansa Musa.

“There may be many reasons why General Olusegun Obasanjo's regime decided to change the anthem to the current one. Chief among them could be nationalism; after all, why should foreigners decide our national anthem, they might have reasoned. But did they put side-by-side the meanings, imports and differences between “motherhood” and “fatherhood” in their decision to adopt the current anthem? Or perhaps they felt that likening Nigeria to a father would make its children revere and work to make it proud of them while in return giving them the love, support and protection only a father can?

“You see, a citizen sees his country in the image of a father. Children begin to lose hope in a father who shirks his responsibilities. They begin to see him as the anonymous lover who, heartbroken, wrote: 'I am afraid to love you again. But whenever I see you, I just want to hold you in my arms forever. You had promised to protect me forever and never to hurt me for once, but you have broken that promise, just the way you have shattered my heart, too.'

“The yet-to-be-found Chibok girls and all their loved ones can say these words about their fatherland. All Nigerian children and their loved ones kidnapped or killed by Boko Haram in the North-East or its other arm, the bandits in the North West and North Central, can borrow these words too. Even those released after their people have paid their ransom can adopt these words. All Nigerians who believe more could have been done will be at home with these words. Do you think those appalled at how Boko Haram terrorists who were “rehabilitated” and released into society disappear will not see these words as apt?”

On 12 December 2022, writing on “CBN, Qatar 2023 and time to rekindle our patriotism (1)”, I said, “There is nothing more touching than watching fans at the ongoing World Cup shed tears when their national anthem is being sung, or crying when their national team loses a game or even wins. Such a show of intense emotion comes as a result of substantial love for one’s country. It is a sign of unbridled patriotism. You begin to wonder if a Nigerian would cry on hearing our national anthem or cry if we win or lose a game.

“But you must ask yourself whether such love for the country has something to do with the anthem or with how a country’s managers manage it.

Now, many things have happened that have made a lot of Nigerians want to give up because, sadly, the managers of our country have so bastardised our psyche that many of us are afraid to cry for a country those milking it have no sympathy for. Last week, I saw a video clip of a serving minister boasting to his audience that he cannot be defeated in an election because he had “amassed money”! How insensitive can one be!

We all had hopes for this nation. We still have, and we all want it to be the greatest in the world. However, this hope is fading for some, even as many of us still hold on to the dream of a greater Nigeria because we have no other country to call ours.

** Hassan Gimba is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Neptune Prime.