Lebanese sources: Biden, Macron set to announce Israel-Hezbollah truce

U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to announce a ceasefire in Lebanon between armed group Hezbollah and Israel imminently, four senior Lebanese sources said on Monday.

In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said, "We're close" but "nothing is done until everything is done".

The French presidency said discussions on a ceasefire had made significant progress. In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said Israel's cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a truce deal with Hezbollah.

Signs of a diplomatic breakthrough were accompanied by heavy Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, as Israel pressed on with the offensive it launched in September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment on reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the text of a deal. But the senior Israeli official told Reuters that Tuesday's cabinet meeting was intended to approve the text.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Israel would maintain an ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously objected to wording that would grant Israel such a right.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said gaps between the two parties have narrowed significantly but there are still steps they need to take to reach an agreement.

"Oftentimes the very last stages of an agreement are the most difficult because the hardest issues are left to the end," he said. "We are pushing as hard as we can."

Diplomacy is aimed at getting Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel to end fighting that erupted in October 2023 in parallel with Israel's war against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza. The conflict in Lebanon has drastically escalated over the last two months.

In Beirut, Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker, told Reuters there were "no serious obstacles" left to start implementing a U.S.-proposed ceasefire with Israel, "unless Netanyahu changes his mind".

He said the proposal would entail an Israeli military withdrawal from south Lebanon and regular Lebanese army troops deploying in the border region, long a Hezbollah stronghold, within 60 days.

A sticking point over who would monitor compliance with the ceasefire was resolved in the last 24 hours with an agreement to set up a five-country committee, including France and chaired by the United States, he said.

STRIKES ON BEIRUT

Despite diplomatic progress, hostilities have intensified. Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 peoplein central Beirut, while Hezbollah unleashed one of its biggest rocketsalvoes yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles into Israel.

In Beirut, Israeli airstrikes levelled more of the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on Monday, sending clouds of debris billowing over the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli attacks killed 31 people and wounded 62 across the country on Monday. Over the past year, more than 3,750 people have been killed and over one million have been forced from their homes, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders, and inflicting massive destruction in Lebanon areas where the group holds sway.

Israel says its military offensive is aimed at enabling tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes they evacuated when Hezbollah began firing across the Lebanese border into Israel more than a year ago. Hezbollah's campaign followed the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that precipitated the Gaza war.

Hezbollah strikes have killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. At least 73 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Israel, the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.

MISTRUST OVER DEAL

Biden's administration, which leaves office in January, has emphasised diplomacy to end the Lebanon conflict, even as all negotiations to halt the parallel war in Gaza are frozen.

U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will be in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss using a potential Lebanon ceasefire as a catalyst for a deal ending hostilities in Gaza, the White House said.

Diplomacy over Lebanon has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (20 miles) from the Israeli border, behind the Litani River, and the regular Lebanese army to enter the frontier region.

Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of failing to implement it in the past; Israel says a new ceasefire must allow it to strike any Hezbollah fighters or weapons that remain south of the river.

An agreement could reveal rifts in Netanyahu's right-leaning government. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Israel must press on with the war until "absolute victory". Addressing Netanyahu on X, he said, "It is not too late to stop this agreement!"

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian drones, missiles attack Ukraine's east, south and capital

Russian missiles damaged residential buildings in Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv and Odesa in the south, and a blizzard of drones caused temporary power cuts in Mykolaiv region and targeted the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

Russia, which is making territorial gains in Ukraine's east, is conducting nightly attacks on faraway cities using missiles as well as cheaply produced "suicide" drones and low-cost "decoy" drones, which tie up Ukrainian air defences.

Of 145 drones used overnight, Ukraine shot down 71 and lost track of 71 more, likely due to electronic warfare measures used against them, the air force said.

Residents of the capital could hear the buzzing engines of attack drones flying over the city for several hours overnight. The sound of automatic gunfire erupted occasionally as air defences tried to shoot them down.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Kyiv's Western allies to step up pressure on Russia to prevent the components needed for the weapons systems reaching it.

"These Russian attacks on Ukrainian life can be stopped," he said. "With pressure, sanctions, blocking the occupiers' access to the components they use to create the tools of this terror, arms packages for Ukraine, and a resolve that must be unwavering."

A Russian missile attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv injured at least 23 people and damaged over 40 buildings on Monday morning, the regional governor and national police said.

Another missile attack on the southern city of Odesa also damaged residential buildings and injured 10 people, Ukraine's interior ministry said.

The overnight drone attack targeted energy infrastructure in southern region of Mykolaiv, causing power cuts while industrial facilities in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region were also struck, their authorities said on Monday.

Russia has continuously pummelled Ukraine's power grid and infrastructure since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Moscow says it does not target civilians but the U.N. has verified the deaths of almost 12,000 Ukrainian civilians and officials in Kyiv say the total is likely much higher.

The latest Russian onslaught on energy infrastructure renewed Ukrainians' fears of long winter blackouts, although there were no casualties or significant damage reported in either Kyiv or the surrounding region.

Britain and France discussing deployment of troops to Ukraine – Le Monde

The UK and France have “reactivated” talks on sending troops to Ukraine, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday. The idea has already caused a rift among European NATO members.

Back in February, French President Emmanuel Macron caused controversy by declaring his willingness to send ground troops to Ukraine “to prevent Russia from winning this war.” The statement was quickly disavowed by NATO officials, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters that Ukraine’s Western backers were “unanimous” in their opposition to the idea.

The plan was seemingly shelved, Le Monde has reported, until British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Paris earlier this month. Citing anonymous sources, the French newspaper claimed that talks on a possible Franco-British deployment to Ukraine were “reactivated” by Starmer and Macron.

No further information was provided, and Le Monde speculated that this deployment could range from both nations sending private-sector technicians to repair military equipment (as Britain already does), to private military contractors (as Russia insists that France does), to flag-wearing personnel on the ground, either on the front line or to enforce an eventual ceasefire and peace deal.

British and French officials have both suggested that some sort of deployment could be in the works. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told British state broadcaster the BBC this weekend that Paris is “not ruling out any option” when asked directly about the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine.

A British military source told Le Monde that “discussions are underway between the United Kingdom and France regarding defense cooperation, particularly with the aim of creating a core group of allies in Europe, focused on Ukraine and broader European security.”

Russia has long claimed that Western special forces personnel are active in Ukraine, and Russian President Valdimir Putin has noted that Ukraine cannot fire long-range missiles into Russian territory without the assistance of Western experts.

When American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles were used in attacks on internationally-recognized Russian territory last week, Putin warned that the Ukraine conflict had “assumed elements of a global nature.”

Western media outlets have been reticent to mention the role of NATO personnel in assisting these attacks. However, Le Monde admitted that “it is not possible for the Ukrainians to use this type of missile without some form of Western support on the ground.” France has given Ukraine permission to use its Storm Shadow (called the SCALP-EG in France) cruise missiles in long-range strikes on Russia, but it is unclear if they have actually been used yet.

Russia reserves the right to strike the military facilities of countries that allow their weapons to be used against it, Putin continued, adding that “there will always be a response” to attacks on Russian soil.

The Russian military responded to the ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes by firing a new hypersonic ballistic missile – the nuclear-capable Oreshnik – at a Ukrainian military industrial facility in Dnepropetrovsk.

Reuters/RT

Nigerians are hungry. But who will tell our President? Who will dare convey such treasonable tale to President Bola Tinubu, especially when he is so busy seeking investors for us? Which of his throng of information couriers and propaganda merchants would jeopardise their juicy positions by bearing such information? Anyone who dares may in fact be an agent of the opposition.

I respect the Presidency. And fear his powers. Didn’t the African wise man counsel that we the commoners should be as close to the king as a thousand metres and be as far away from him as two thousand metres?

Count me out of those who will tell the President that the people he is presiding over have become dirt, poor and hungry.

Rather than engage in such misadventure and be accused of carrying Russian flags, I will confine myself to revealing a state secret. The National Bureau of Statistics has revealed this week that 62.4 per cent of us, or some 140 million Nigerians did not have enough food to eat in 2023. The figure is likely to be higher this year as the situation has gotten worse.

The crisis of poverty has resulted in the inability of the vast majority of the working people to make ends meet, take care of their traditional responsibilities to the extended family, or to be their neighbour’s keeper.

The truth, which we can only whisper is yes, we are facing hunger, the worst  type in our history.  Not even during slave trade or colonialism, during in the First and Second World Wars, or our Civil War, had our populace been subjected to this level of poverty, deprivation or hunger.

Many are simply unable to feed themselves and their families. We are suffering and in pain. All these are seriously revolting our body chemistry.

Skyrocketing inflation, especially in the prices of foodstuff and medicine, have rendered our income extremely insufficient, making them almost irrelevant. Marriages are increasingly coming under strain, and some are breaking down. Children are forced by hunger to work for their own survival.

Others have become like professional beggars. Youths are delaying marriage. Suicide rates are increasing as never before. People are just dying before their “time” due to wahala (problems), especially hunger.

The World Bank (WB), one of the forefront drivers of Nigeria’s multidimensional poverty, revealed that over 129 million Nigerians now live below the national poverty line.

Tinubu may after all not be unaware of our dilemma. This I assume is why he and his team are pleading with the people to bear any economic suffocation and hunger in the interest of  democracy and tomorrow’s prosperity.

But how can a man, a Nigerian for that matter, tell his wife and children to tolerate hunger for democracy and tomorrow’s greatness? If the wife understands, definitely the children will not.

For those in power, at the Federal, State and Local levels, at the civil and customary levels, in the executive and legislature, in elected and appointed positions, let them know nobody has successfully preached tolerance and patience to the hungry. Hunger knows no sex, ethnicity, religion, or ism. It knows not, and respects no, geopolitical divide. It humbles the religious, the bravest and the strictest.

But to be fair to Tinubu, hunger has been part of our history. In his book, Silent Violence: Food, Famine & Peasantry in Northern Nigeria, Michael Watts gave a detailed account and analysis of hunger during World War II, particularly in Hausa land. The Talakawa or commoners called the hunger of the era as: “Baban Yunwa” (Great Hunger), which they attributed to “akin mutum” – as the handiwork of (government) people.

Just as today’s hunger is compounded by external forces like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) – in collaboration with their Nigerian allies, so was the Great Hunger of the 1940s caused by the British imperialist forces working hand-in-hand with the traditional rulers.

The Great Hunger was triggered by government’s war time policies of excessive increase in taxation and tariffs, compulsory production of export crops, forceful conscription of people into army and mines, and obligatory grains requisitioning.

Today’s hunger is triggered by the IMF-WB dictated policies, implemented by this not too reflective administration. Policies which included excessive increase in petroleum product prices, high increase in electricity tariffs, unwarranted increases in taxation, huge devaluation of the naira, and the refusal to make salary and wage increases to correspond with the cost of living.

Just as the Great Hunger deepened the antagonism between the state and society, so does today’s hunger. But while the civil society groups in the 1940s were well organised, vibrant, critical and supported by the nationalist politicians, the reverse is the case today. Besides, liberal democracy flourished and flowered from the late 1940s to January 15,1966, when the degenerate military adventurists began to starve and empty it of its content.

All the major political parties today are fixated on power not the people. They concentrate on 

primitive accumulation and monopolistic acquisition, not in democracy and development.

Yesterday, political parties offered the populace 

alternatives. Today, there are none as all the major parties are neoliberal-driven and anti-people. This is the problem. But the problem is a big challenge. It is a crisis.

Crisis is a critical state; a turning point; a crucial and decisive moment; a difficult and distress period; a period in-between life and death; an era in-between of decomposition and regeneration. Which is why the German-American sociologist, economic historian and Latin Americanist, Andrea Gunder Frank, argued that crisis: “is a decisive turning point, filled with danger and anxiety, possibly meaning life or death for a diseased person, a social system or historical process. The outcome need to necessarily be death but, could be a new life, if in our case the economic, social and political body is able to adopt and to undergo a regenerative transformation during the crisis.”

If the hunger of the 1940s and the struggles against it is anything to go by, it means civil society groups have to organise against poverty and hunger. It means that the present race of politicians cannot be relied upon, as their agenda is power, not the people; and in primitive accumulation and monopolistic acquisition.

The situation in the country does not call for lamentation, rather, it demands action, or what the anti-colonialist nationalists used to call ‘Positive Action.’ That was also what Fela Anikulapo-Kuti meant in his ‘Army Arrangement’ album when he sang: “My condition don reach make I act.”

Therefore, in the same way the Great Hunger of the 1940s contributed immensely in paving the way for the attainment of the first independence, so today’s hunger is crying for the emergence of a Second Independence Movement (SIM), which will usher in a new Nigeria built on human rights, equality of all ethnic nationalities and religious groups, democracy, development, and a just federal system.

History and posterity have assigned this task of ushering a Second Independence Movement, and attaining the Second Independence on to the labour, professional, trader, farmer, student and  youth  movements, and other forces committed to emancipatory politics. If we are united, we can never be defeated.

I love WhatsApp but I’ve never been fond of voice messages, leaving them or retrieving them. Now, WhatsApp has revealed an update which will overcome at least the second problem: voice message transcripts.

I get self-conscious as I leave a voice message, thinking about how the words will sound. So, I mostly dictate messages so the phone transcribes it and I send it as a regular message.

And when I see a voice message waiting for me, I slightly dread it. If I’m in a noisy environment, I may not hear it well. If I’m in a quiet place, everyone else will be bothered by it, perhaps.

So, this is a great solution. It’s been in beta for a while now, but WhatsApp has just announced that it’s rolling the feature out globally right now, which will take a few weeks.

It’s starting with just a few languages, WhatsApp says, and these turn out to be English, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian, with more languages to be supported in the future.

The company has stressed that the transcriptions are done without sacrificing privacy, saying, “Voice message transcripts are generated on your device, and your personal voice messages remain protected by end-to-end encryption. No one, including WhatsApp, can listen to your voice messages or see the content of your voice message transcripts.”

You need to set it up, please note. Here’s how.

Within WhatsApp, go to Settings, then Chats and choose Voice message transcripts. Here you can turn transcriptions on or off and select your transcript language. WhatsApp says, “You can transcribe a voice message by long pressing on the message and tapping on ‘transcribe’.”

This is the best of both worlds. You get to hear the voice of the person leaving the message, which has a special intimacy, but you can also choose to just read rather than listen.

This is useful not just for noisy situations or other inappropriate environments, it means that if you get yet another really long voice message from your eternally long-winded friend, relative or boss that you can save yourself time by reading instead of listening.

Forbes

The latest data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) on Nigeria’s daily crude oil production has contradicted the claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) that the country was producing 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensate.
A THISDAY review of the delayed October production figures by the NUPRC, which is the oil and gas sector upstream regulator, indicated that Nigeria produced 1.538 million bpd of crude oil and condensate.
The three-month low production data released by the NUPRC contradicted the report announced by the national oil company and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (Oil), which specifically put production at 1.808 million bpd.
while NNPC also said that oil and condensate production in August was 1.7 million bpd, the report by the sector regulator indicated that the country only produced 1.57 million bpd for that month.
This showed a whopping difference of 130,000 bpd during the month.
Also, the disparity between the 1.808 million bpd celebrated by the NNPC was about 270,000 bpd less than the volume released by the NUPRC.

On November 14, the NNPC and the petroleum ministry announced that Nigeria had hit the 1.808 million bpd mark and was on its way to achieving two million bpd by this December.

The national oil company said that along with its partners, it had revved up crude oil and gas production to 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) and 7.4 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd).

“The team has done a great job in driving this project of not just production recovery but also escalating production to expected levels that are in the short and long terms acceptable to our shareholders based on the mandates that we have from the President, the Minister, and the Board,” the NNPC’s Chief Executive, Mele Kyari had explained.  

Also, the ‘Chief War Room Coordinator’ and Senior Business Adviser to Kyari, Lawal Musa, disclosed that when the team was inaugurated on June 25, 2024, production was at 1.430 million bpd.

According to him, the team swung into action, culminating in “sustaining the production recovery to 1.7 million bpd in August and hitting the current 1.808 million bpd in November.”

He added: “We are confident that with this same momentum and with the active collaboration of all stakeholders, especially on the security front, we can see the possibility of getting to 2 million bpd by the end of the year.”

However, the information released by the NUPRC showed that Nigeria’s oil output for last month was the lowest in the last three months.

In January, oil and condensate production was 1.64 million bpd; it was 1.539 million bpd in February; 1.43 million bpd in March; 1.44 million bpd in April, and 1.46 million bpd in May.

In June, it was 1.50 million bpd; 1.533 million bpd in July; 1.57 million bpd in August; 1.54 million bpd in September, and 1.538 million bpd in October.

Statutorily, it is the function of the NUPRC as the upstream regulator to: “Maintain records on upstream petroleum operations, particularly on matters relating to petroleum reserves, production/exports, licenses, and leases.”

Normally, the commission releases Nigeria’s production data every second week of the month, while typically, production computation is done monthly and not weekly.

NUPRC data showed that oil and condensate production slowed in Forcados from 7.29 million barrels in September down to 5 million barrels in October, while it rose marginally from 6.1 million barrels to 6.2 million in Bonny terminal.
Also, for the month, Nigeria produced 1.33 million bpd of its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota out of the 1.58 million bpd allocated to it by the international oil cartel.
Last year, OPEC cut Nigeria’s oil production quota, which was initially 1.8 million bpd, to 1.58 million bpd after years of the country’s inability to meet its target.
Nigeria blames massive oil theft, pipeline vandalism, ageing infrastructure as well as waning investment for the prolonged oil production deficit.

Thisday

Some commercial drivers operating within the Enugu metropolis, Enugu State, have decried low patronage by residents, attributing it to the economic challenges in the country.

They said this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Enugu.

According to them, the recent increase in the pump price of petrol by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had worsened the situation.

A commercial driver, Okwy Ozor, said the profit he got from the transport business had reduced since the federal government announced the removal of fuel subsidy and subsequent increase in the pump price of the product.

“Driving business has not been moving fine since the removal of fuel subsidy and the subsequent increase in the price of fuel,” he said.

A tricycle rider, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the increase in fuel price caused him to increase his transportation fare.

“When we started buying petrol for N650, 00, we only increased transport fare a little and passengers were finding it difficult to pay.

“Where we used to collect N100, we increased it to N150 or N200, depending on the distance, but passengers still wanted to pay the old fare.

“That is why these days many people prefer to enter the big commercial buses, popularly called 911, which is cheaper than the tricycle, while many have resorted to trekking,” he lamented.

Felix Ujah, a mini-bus driver, said that the increased transportation fare was not the fault of the commercial drivers.

“It is not that we do not understand the plight of the passengers, but because sometimes, if you buy N7,000 worth of fuel, it will not take you for more than one or two days.

“So business has been bad for us since they increased fuel price.

“Sometimes you will only go two rounds in the morning due to school hours, and after that, one can only pick a few passengers until closing school hours,” he said.

Caleb Onyema, a bus conductor, said he had observed that many residents, especially civil servants and students had resorted to trekking since the petrol pump price increased to N1,150 as against its previous price of N980,00

Also, another commercial driver, Osita Ugwu, said he hardly makes enough gain these days.

“I spend so much, but at the end of the day, l cannot even realise the amount I used in fueling my vehicle.

“It is a sad situation. I call on the government to quickly resolve the issue of an increase in the price of fuel so that prices of foodstuffs and other things will come down,” he said.

NAN

Hezbollah rockets land near Tel Aviv after large Israeli strike on Beirut

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement fired heavy rocket barrages at Israel on Sunday, and the Israeli military said houses had been destroyed or set alight near Tel Aviv, after a powerful Israeli airstrike killed at least 29 people in Beirut the day before.

Israel also struck Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where intensified bombardment over the last two weeks has coincided with signs of progress in U.S.-led ceasefire talks.

Hezbollah, which has previously vowed to respond to attacks on Beirut by targeting Tel Aviv, said it had launched precision missiles at two military sites in Tel Aviv and nearby.

Police said there were multiple impact sites in the area of Petah Tikvah, on the eastern side of Tel Aviv, and that several people had minor injuries.

The Israel Defense Forces said a direct hit on a neighbourhood had left "houses in flames and ruins". Television footage showed an apartment damaged by rocket fire.

Israel's military said Hezbollah had fired 250 rockets at Israel, of which many were intercepted, with sirens sounding across most of the country. At least four people had been injured by shrapnel.

Video obtained by Reuters showed a projectile exploding as it smashed into the roof of a building in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.

Israel's military warned on social media that it planned to target Hezbollah facilities in southern Beirut before strikes that demolished two apartment blocks, according to security sources in Lebanon. Afterwards, the IDF said it had hit command centres "deliberately embedded between civilian buildings".

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it carried out strikes against 12 Hezbollah command centers in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.

On Saturday, it had carried out one of its deadliest and most powerful strikes on the centre of Beirut.

Lebanon's health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll from 20 to 29. It said a total of 84 people had been killed on Saturday, taking the death toll to 3,754 since October 2023.

The IDF did not comment on Saturday's strike in the Lebanese capital or say what it had attacked.

Israel went on the offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in September, pounding the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs with airstrikes after nearly a year of hostilities ignited by the Gaza war.

CEASEFIRE PROPOSAL AWAITS ISRAEL'S RESPONSE

The Israeli offensive has uprooted more than 1 million people in Lebanon.

Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein highlighted progress in negotiations during a visit to Beirut last week, before travelling to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, and then returning to Washington.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said a U.S. ceasefire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.

"We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire," he said in Beirut after meeting Lebanese officials.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had convened a meeting of his security cabinet for 5 p.m. (1500 GMT).

Axios reporter Barak Ravid in a post on social media cited an unnamed Israeli official saying that Israel is moving towards a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.

But a separate report from Israel's public broadcaster Kan said there was no green light given on an agreement in Lebanon, with issues still yet to be resolved.

Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (19 miles) from the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army to deploy in the buffer zone.

The Lebanese army said on Sunday at least one soldier had been killed and 18 more injured in an Israeli strike that caused severe damage at an army centre in Al-Amiriya near the southern city of Tyre.

The Israeli military said it regretted the incident and was investigating, and that it was fighting against Hezbollah, not the Lebanese Army.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack "represents a direct bloody message rejecting all efforts to reach a ceasefire, strengthen the army's presence in the south, and implement ... 1701".

Borrell said the EU was ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208 million) to support the Lebanese army.

($1 = 0.9600 euros)

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Medvedev outlines roadmap to ending Ukraine conflict

The conflict between Moscow and Kiev could be swiftly ended with no additional loss of lives if only NATO came to its senses and abandoned its belligerent policy towards Russia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Al Arabiya in an interview published on Friday.

Allowing Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons for strikes into internationally-recognized Russian territory has made the US-led bloc a direct party to the conflict, said Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. Kiev has launched several strikes using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles.

Moscow responded by striking a military industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnipro in Ukraine) with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile equipped with a conventional warhead. On Saturday, Paris officially confirmed that it had given Kiev the green light to use French-made SCALP-EG cruise missiles in long-range strikes against Russian territory.

“The NATO member states have essentially got fully engaged in this conflict,” Medvedev said, commenting on the developments. The former president said these nations should understand that they are currently at war on the Ukrainian side. “They are at war with the Russian Federation.”

Not only do Western nations supply Kiev with weapons and financial aid, but they also provide targeting for Western-made missiles, Medvedev stated. Moscow has insisted that these systems cannot be successfully operated without the involvement of specialists from the nations that produced them.

Under these circumstances, no developments can be ruled out, Medvedev warned, pointing to Russia’s recently updated nuclear doctrine that allows a nuclear response to a conventional attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear power, including a missile strike against Russian territory.

“Everyone who is currently stirring up the war hysteria, primarily within NATO, the US, and other states, should think about it,” the former president warned. Asked to elaborate on the potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia, he described it as a “realistic” possibility. He added, however, that Moscow would very much like to avoid that option.

“There are no madmen in the Russian leadership,” he stated, explaining that the nation’s nuclear doctrine was updated in accordance with modern deterrence needs.

According to Medvedev, the Ukraine conflict could be swiftly and easily ended with no need for any additional losses. If NATO merely “stops fanning the flames of war in Ukraine, this conflict can be ended with no expenses for humanity. No new expenses, at least,” he said.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports

Russian forces captured a British mercenary fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia's Kursk region, which is still partially controlled by Kyiv forces, a security source told Russia's RIA state news agency.

"A mercenary from Great Britain, who called himself James Scott Rhys Anderson, was captured. He is now giving evidence," the Russian source told RIA in remarks published on Sunday.

In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied in the back, says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army.

Reuters could not independently verify the video and the RIA and other media reports.

It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment on the reports outside office hours.

The BBC reported earlier that the Foreign Office said it was "supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention".

Ukraine forces, which staged a surprise incursion in the Russian border region of Kursk in August, still control parts of it. However, Kyiv said over the weekend that it has since lost over 40% of the territory that it had captured, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.

RT/Reuters

Described by one scholar on its centenary as “perhaps the greatest historical movement of modern times”, the Berlin Conference West Africa Conference began shortly after noon on 15 November 1884. Interrupted only by a short break at the end of the year and the beginning of the next, historian, Adu Boahen, records that the conference ended on 31 January 1884.

On 26 February 1885, the powers gathered at the conference ratified the General Act of the Berlin Conference, which embodied their agreements. The week before the ratification of the General Act, according to historian, Godfrey Uzoigwe, the Lagos Observer newspaper lamented that “the world had, perhaps, never witnessed a robbery on so large a scale.”

Among the six goals identified by the General Act, the over-arching provisions set out “rules for future occupation of the coast of the African continent.”

Of the 15 countries that attended the conference, 14 were European: United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden-Norway, and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). All the European powers signed on to the General Act. The United States of America was the only non-European country at the table and also the only participating country that did not officially ratify the resulting treaty.

From Africa, the Sultan of Zanzibar had equally sought representation at the conference but had his ambition derisorily blocked by the United Kingdom.

Otto von Bismark, Chancellor of Germany which attained unification only 13 years earlier in 1871, hosted the Berlin Conference. Six years earlier, he had similarly played host to the Congress of Berlin called to stabilize the Balkan Peninsula at the end of the Russo-Turkish War in 1878. There was an irony to the fact that the same venue was to serve as the site of a conference to Balkanise a distant continent of about 30,302,861 square kilometres. For context, this is territory big enough to contain all of the USA, India, Europe, Argentina and New Zealand combined with some room to spare.

The Scramble for Africa preceded the Berlin Conference but the conference crystallised rules and doctrines that would govern the colonial occupation of Africa in its wake. In opening the conference, Bismark hoped that it would agree rules to regulate “the terms for the development of trade and civilization in certain regions of Africa”; assure free navigation of the Rivers Congo and the Niger; anticipate and avoid disputes as to new acts of territorial occupation in Africa and “further the moral and material wellbeing of the native population.”

The aftermath is controversial for predictable reasons. The continent lives with the consequences of decisions in which it did not participate and whose records are also outside its control. While the lingering consequences of Berlin continue to be debated, a few deserve to be highlighted.

First, as is evident from Bismark’s stipulations, the conference objectives and outcomes infantilized Africa and its peoples and habituated the world to the continent as lacking in agency and its territories as lacking in history or civilisation prior to the occupation that followed in the wake of Berlin. These ideas were to be subsequently embodied in doctrine, jurisprudence and treaty law. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in 1918 that African territories were “so low in the scale of social organization that their usages and conceptions of rights and duties are not to be reconciled with the institutions or the legal ideas of civilized society.” The court offered no authority or support for this decision; there was none. This jurisprudence made its way into the provisions of Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant which referred to these territories as being “inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world.”

Second, the logic of colonial occupation made atrocity inevitable and the traumas from that has assumed an inter-generational dimensions. Looking back at the period preceding the conference, however, Adu Boahen recalls that Africa “was far from being primitive, static, and asleep or in a Hobbesian state of nature.” The rules of the conference precluded any items on sovereignty whether of the European states or of the African territories. Yet the outcome created a logic that encouraged adverse assertions of sovereignty over African lands and peoples. John Kasson, the lead US delegate to the conference had argued that the establishment of “productive labour” in African territories “can only be arrived at through the permanent establishment of a peaceful regime.” The idea of permanent establishment of a peaceful regime over other peoples’ lands could only occur through occupation and rapine.

This is exactly what ensued in the aftermath of the doctrine of effective occupation consecrated by the General Act of the Berlin Conference embodied in the obligation assumed by the parties in Article 35 of the General Act “to insure the establishment of authority in the regions occupied by them on the coasts of the African continent sufficient to protect existing rights, and, as the case may be, freedom of trade and of transit.” Seven of the 14 countries present at the Berlin Conference went on to become occupying powers in Africa, namely: France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Spain. Their campaigns of occupation were accompanied by violence which has been described as “brutal and deadly.”

In the quarter century from the end of the conference to 1910 when the period of active territorial occupation occurred, nearly every affected African country experienced a fall in population. The signal case was King Leopold’s Congo Free State about whom it has been said that the population crashed from “20 million in 1891 to only 8,500,000 in 1911. In other words, the King’s system resulted in the death of between 10 and 11.5 million Congolese as ‘a very conservative estimate.’” Contemporary movements for acknowledgement and reparations barely scratch the surface.

Third, as Ali Mazrui points out, the Berlin Conference ultimately saddled Africa with twin crises of both state legitimacy and governmental legitimacy. Governed as they were by logics of arbitrary and convenient externalities, colonial territorialization made no effort to foster legitimate political communities. The methods of divide and rule and of Indirect Rulewhich defined colonial administration, instead encouraged adversiarialism instead of coexistence within countries. As colony yielded to post-colony, these left legacies of political unrest, regime instability, and conflict.

Fourth, the boundaries created in Berlin have proved durable but not necessarily stable. To head off this problem, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at its second Summit in Cairo, Egypt, in 1964, pronounced the continent’s borders at independence as a “tangible reality” to be respected by all member states. The reality has been a lot less sanguine. The continent’s borders are notoriously arbitrary and porous and many are disputed. One scholar has counted over 100 border disputes in the continent as well as “approximately 58 potential secessionist territories in 29” African countries championed by “at least 83 political associations and pressure groups.” A cottage industry in territorial dispute resolution exists, with 13 of 18 contentious cases submitted to the International Court of Justice from Africa being about inter-state boundaries.

The legacies of the Berlin Conference in and on Africa endure. The response of the continent’s leadership has until recently been lacking in coherence and urgency. The deepening of regional integration in the African Union which was supposed to address the colonial atomization of the continent has stalled. In parts of the continent, it is experiencing reversal or now confined only to trade in goods. Similarly efforts to address atrocity violence through transitional justice around Africa confine themselves to post-colonial violence, without recognizing or addressing the lingering traumas from colonial era violence. While the movement for reparations for colonial atrocities, including the repatriation of pillaged African arts gathers pace, it faces renewed resistance from the emergence of illiberal governments in the capitals of perpetrator states who were at the Berlin Conference. On the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference, these trends underscore the need for renewed attention to an event whose consequences for both Africa and international law were seminal but not always constructive.

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Medford, MA, while Chepkorir Sambuis a lawyer and researcher focusing on conflicts and peace processes in Eastern Africa.

When Jiji launched in 2014, it entered a competitive e-commerce market in Nigeria, joining the likes of Konga, Jumia, and OLX, which had a two-year head start. But  Jiji soon positioned itself as a serious market player. It started by offering free listings for first-time users and partnered with phone manufacturers to ensure its app came preinstalled on affordable smartphones. In 2016, it inked a partnership with Airtel allowing users to access the platform without using mobile data.

Jiji’s ambitions grew beyond Nigeria. In 2019, it acquired OLX Africa and took over its operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania. This move helped JIji reach 300 million people across five countries, firmly establishing the company as a major online marketplace in Africa’s e-commerce space with a string of strategic acquisitions. 

In 2021, Jiji acquired Cars45, a platform that buys, sells, and trades used cars in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. In 2022, the company acquired Tonaton, its main competitor in Ghana.

TechCabal spoke to Anton Volianskyi, Jiji’s co-founder and CEO about the company’s journey and the challenges of scaling in different markets.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TC:  What problem did Jiji aim to solve in Nigeria’s e-commerce market, and how did this shape the platform’s early offerings?

We identified a need for a platform where people could connect directly to buy and sell everything, from products to services. At the time, the market faced pressing issues around accessibility, affordability, and trust, with scams creating distrust in online transactions. To address this, we built Jiji to minimise the risks by facilitating direct transactions with no intermediaries. 

Our early offerings were shaped with this mission in mind: free listings, rigorous ad moderation, an AI-based security system, and an integrated chat feature enabling users to interact directly with sellers, all of which enhanced safety and user confidence on the platform. 

TC: What strategies and localised features contributed to Jiji’s growth and user adoption in Nigeria?

We introduced free listings for first-time sellers, localised content in languages like Hausa, and search filters tailored to Nigerian shopping habits. Partnering with phone manufacturers, we partnered with phone manufacturers to provide affordable Android phones preinstalled with the Jiji app, eliminating the need for downloads. Optimised for low-data usage, Jiji ensures accessibility for users across diverse demographics.

TC: What key challenges did Jiji face while scaling, and what measures were taken to overcome them?

One of the major issues was preventing scams on the platform. To address this, we invested heavily in AI-driven tools that detect and prevent fraudulent activity, instantly blocking suspicious users. Another challenge was stiff competition from global players like Ringier and OLX (Naspers) who had huge budgets. Unlike our competitors, we focused on cost-effective performance marketing and meticulously analysed the return on every dollar spent. This approach enabled us to compete favourably and helped us achieve market leadership while staying financially agile.

The COVID-19 pandemic also presented unforeseen hurdles. We had to rapidly reorganise our business to adapt to new market demands. Although the first quarter was challenging, the surge in online trading during the pandemic eventually sped up our growth. 

Finally, the naira devaluation had us rethinking and restructuring our financial strategy to align with new economic realities. Our commitment to cost-efficiency helped us avoid large-scale layoffs, further making Jiji a resilient and resourceful market leader.

TC: With the acquisitions of Cars45 and Tonaton, how has Jiji integrated these businesses and what unique value have they added to the platform?

Cars45 and Tonaton have complemented Jiji’s growth and diversified our offerings. For instance, Cars45 has helped simplify automotive transactions. For our buying customers,  they can browse a wide selection of vehicles, access detailed inspection reports covering over 200 checkpoints, and schedule physical inspections. 

For selling customers, we can now provide a platform that offers insights into potential selling prices backed by over 8 years of market data. Sellers can book appointments at any of our 70+ experience centres for quick, efficient inspections and sales. Dealers benefit from an online onboarding process, complete with free product training. 

Tonaton, on the other hand, has reinforced our foothold in Ghana, helped to expand our user base and consolidated our market position. With Tonaton and Cars45 under Jiji’s umbrella, we are getting closer to becoming a regional leader in classifieds. These acquisitions have enriched our marketplace by providing niche expertise and extending our service range.

TC: How does Jiji ensure operational efficiency across logistics, payments, and customer support in its various markets?

We achieve operational efficiency at Jiji by leveraging technology and a customer-led approach. While Jiji doesn’t handle logistics or payment services directly, we empower buyers and sellers to connect and manage transactions independently. This way, we ensure a flexible and user-driven marketplace experience for our users. We also have a customer support system, which includes managers who are just a call away, an AI chatbot system, and a support team ready to assist both buyers and sellers across our markets. 

TC: How is Jiji’s platform monetised across different regions, and have recent acquisitions and job listings diversified its revenue streams?

Jiji has a couple of revenue streams that support our growth across markets. Primarily, sellers pay for Premium Services, which allow them to have more listings and reach more clients, resulting in more leads and sales. We also tap into additional digital advertising income by generating ad revenue from Google through banner ads.

Recent acquisitions, such as Cars45, have diversified Jiji’s revenue streams even further. Through Cars45, we facilitate verified car sales and optimise our automotive offerings while adding another revenue channel. 

TC: What systems and processes are in place to maintain quality control and ensure a safe experience for users?

We prioritise quality control and user safety. We have moderation teams localised across our markets. They review ads and ensure compliance with our policies, and those of our host countries. Additionally, through our security systems, our AI-driven algorithms detect and flag suspicious activity on the platform, automatically blocking erring users. We also offer safety tips on our website and other verified official communication channels. This rigorous approach has helped build trust amongst our users and reduce fraud incidents to below 1%.

TC: Can you share insights into Jiji’s growth metrics and financial outlook, including its profitability?

Starting in 2014 when our Director of African Operations, Yuliy Shenfeld, visited Nigeria to hire our first staff, our growth has been remarkable ever since. We have expanded to have a staff base of over 1000 members. In 2023, Jiji attracted 65 million unique visitors, meaning that every fourth internet user in our markets engaged with our services. We have grown to have over 6 million active listings with a combined estimated value exceeding $10 billion. Jiji currently drives annual transaction volumes in the range of $10-20 billion.

We have also expanded to 8 African countries, supported by a team of 1,000+ dedicated members. Jiji now serves over 200,000 active sellers and SMEs, showcasing the wide appeal of our offerings. Our platform is highly rated on the Play Market with more than 200,000 reviews across our countries, averaging 4.7 stars in Nigeria, and welcomes over 12 million unique visitors monthly. 

TC: What are Jiji’s plans for future expansion within Nigeria and other African countries?

We are currently present across 8 countries – Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire. We recently launched Premium Services in Ethiopia. In terms of regional expansion, we’re exploring further growth in East and West Africa while also being committed to deepening our presence in Nigeria.

TC: Given that Jiji is ranked as the 42nd most-visited site in Nigeria, how does it plan to maintain or even improve its standing amid growing competition in e-commerce and classifieds?

To maintain our standing, we’re focusing on improving user experience on the platform. We will keep exploring partnerships to meet the ever-changing needs of our users and provide localised solutions, features, and promotional tools to help businesses grow. We aim to keep pace with user expectations.

Techcabal