UN approves watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza without call for suspension of hostilities

The U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution Friday calling for immediately speeding aid deliveries to hungry and desperate civilians in Gaza but without the original plea for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas.

The long-delayed vote in the 15-member council was 13-0 with the United States and Russia abstaining. The U.S. abstention avoided a third American veto of a Gaza resolution following Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel. Russia wanted the stronger language restored; the U.S. did not.

Still, “It was the Christmas miracle we were all hoping for,” said United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, who sponsored the resolution. She said it would send a signal to the people in Gaza that the Security Council was working to alleviate their suffering.

The resolution culminated a week and a half of high-level diplomacy by the United States, the UAE on behalf of Arab nations and others. The vote, initially scheduled for Monday, was pushed back each day until Friday.

A relieved U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council, “This was tough, but we got there.”

She said the vote bolsters efforts “to alleviate this humanitarian crisis, to get life-saving assistance into Gaza and to get hostages out of Gaza, to push for the protection of innocent civilians and humanitarian workers, and to work towards a lasting peace.”

“It is hard to overstate how urgent this is,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “This resolution speaks to the severity of this crisis, and it calls on us all to do more.”

The vote came immediately after the United States vetoed a Russian amendment that would have restored the call to immediately suspend hostilities. That vote was 10 countries in favor, the U.S. against and four abstentions,

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the resolution “entirely toothless” and accused the United States of “shameful, cynical and irresponsible conduct” and resorting to tactics “of gross pressure, blackmail and twisting arms.”

He said the resolution “would essentially be giving the Israeli armed forces complete freedom of movement for the clearing of the Gaza Strip.” Russia would have vetoed it, he said, if it hadn’t been supported by a number of Arab countries.

Thus the resolution was stripped of its key provision with teeth — the call for “the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

Instead, it calls “for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” The steps are not defined, but diplomats said it was the council’s first reference to stopping fighting.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. envoy, said it took the Security Council 75 days “to finally utter the words ‘cessation of hostilities,‘” stressing that the Palestinians and Arab nations supported the Russian amendment.

“This resolution is a step in the right direction” because of its important humanitarian provisions, Mansour said. “It must be implemented and must be accompanied by massive pressure for an immediate cease-fire.”

Hamas called the resolution “an insufficient step” that “doesn’t meet the requirements of the catastrophic state caused by the terrorist military machine in Gaza.” The militant group accused the United States of defying the international community and blocking the council from demanding a halt to the war in the statement on its website.

Israel’s U.N. deputy ambassador Brett Jonathan Miller criticized the Security Council for not condemning Hamas for its Oct. 7 attacks in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 taken hostage.

The resolution more generally “deplores all attacks against civilians and civilian objects as well as all violence and hostilities against civilians, and all acts of terrorism.” It also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

On a key sticking point concerning aid deliveries, the resolution eliminated a previous request for the U.N. “to exclusively monitor all humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza provided through land, sea and air routes” by outside parties to confirm their humanitarian nature.

It substituted a request to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to quickly appoint a coordinator to monitor relief deliveries to Gaza that are not from the parties to the conflict — Israel and Hamas — to verify that they are humanitarian goods. It asks the coordinator to establish a “mechanism” to speed aid deliveries and demands that Israel and Hamas cooperate with the coordinator.

Miller said “humanitarian aid is pouring into Gaza every single day” and Israel is willing to increase the number of aid trucks entering the territory and the only roadblock is “the U.N.’s ability to accept them.” He stressed that “any enhancement of U.N. aid monitoring cannot be done at the expense of Israel’s security inspections.”

Guterres countered at a press conference that it’s a mistake to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza by the number of trucks.

“The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” the U.N. chief said. He said the four elements of an effective aid operation don’t exist — security, staff that can work in safety, logistical capacity especially trucks, and the resumption of commercial activity in the territory.

The secretary-general reiterated his longstanding call for a humanitarian cease-fire. He expressed hope that Friday’s resolution may help this happen but said “much more is needed immediately” to end the ongoing “nightmare” for the people in Gaza.

Guterres has said Gaza faces “a humanitarian catastrophe” and warned that a total collapse of the humanitarian support system would lead to “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt.”

According to a report released Thursday by 23 U.N. and humanitarian agencies, Gaza’s entire 2.2 million population is in a food crisis or worse and 576,600 are at the “catastrophic” starvation level. With supplies to Gaza cut off except for a small trickle, the U.N. World Food Program has said 90% of the population is regularly going without food for a full day — and Guterres said Friday that “four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza.”

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and its Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Thousands more Palestinians lie buried under the rubble of Gaza, the U.N. estimates.

The resolution reiterates the Security Council’s “unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,.” That stresses “the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

Security Council resolutions are important because they are legally binding, but in practice many parties choose to ignore the council’s requests for action. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they are a significant barometer of world opinion.

In its first unified action following the Hamas attacks, the Security Council adopted a resolution on Nov. 15 with the U.S. abstaining calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in the fighting, unhindered aid deliveries to civilians and the unconditional release of all hostages.

The U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution on Oct. 18 to condemn all violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and to urge humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. On Dec. 8, the U.S. vetoed a second council resolution backed by almost all other council members and dozens of other nations, demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The 193-member General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution on Dec. 12 by a vote of 153-10, with 23 abstentions.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine claims to down three Russian fighter-bomber jets

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military officials said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war.

The Russian military made no mention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

"Today at noon in the southern sector -- minus three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers!" Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat described it on national television as a "brilliantly planned operation."

"There haven't been Su-34s for some time in our positive statistics," he said, citing the model as one of Russia's most modern aircraft for bombing and other assaults.

Zelenskiy in his nightly video address praised the Odesa region anti-aircraft unit for downing the planes in Kherson region.

The region was occupied in the first days of Moscow's February 2022 invasion. Ukrainian forces have sought to regain territory and in November established positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.

Eurasia Daily, a Russia-based journal, said the Ukrainian account was plausible. Kyiv could have launched Patriot missiles, which have a range of up to 160 km (100 miles) against high-altitude targets, from the western side of the Dnipro River, it said.

Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko told Ukrainian NV Radio he believed Patriot missiles most likely downed the Russian jets.

"This was a situation there the Russians were...dropping up to 100 bombs in the south. Three were flying together and got caught. They didn't quite take into account that the Patriot has a range of 160 km for aerodynamic targets," Romanenko said.

Ukrainian successes have become less frequent since its forces made lightning gains a year ago in retaking Russian-held territory in the northeast and in the south.

A counteroffensive launched in the east and south in June has had limited progress. Zelenskiy acknowledges that gains have been slower than hoped but has dismissed assertions by the military commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, that the war has entered a phase of "attrition" requiring a change in tactics.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian officials privately admit they’re losing – BILD editor

While the Ukrainian government paints a rosy picture of the conflict at press conferences, senior officials admit in private that the situation is grim, Paul Ronzheimer, a deputy editor-in-chief at the German outlet BILD, said on Friday.

Ronzheimer had just spent three days in Ukraine, meeting with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and other senior government and military officials, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“Their statements match less and less the picture that is officially painted in press conferences and interviews, most recently by [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky,” he wrote.

Those who spoke to him in private identified “very clearly” several major problems for Kiev and at this time “see little chance for Ukrainian offensive efforts,” Ronzheimer wrote.

Tempering his criticism with the claim that Russia has lost “tens of thousands of soldiers and many tanks,” the German journalist noted that everyone he spoke with said that time was on Moscow’s side and that “stories from the front are almost unbearable.”

Ukrainian officials should say these things in public because “nothing else will help,” said Ronzheimer, while arguing that Europe and especially Germany will have to do more in 2024, not less.

The German journalist’s revelations match the tone of several Ukrainian MPs who spoke to The Times of London. In an article published on Friday, Roman Kostenko – a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s committee for national security, defense and intelligence – said a victory on the battlefield was “extremely unlikely” and expressed doubt that any Western weapons could turn the tide.

Another MP, Svyatoslav Yurash, described the fighting as “painful” and said the Ukrainians should “hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” The only thing to hope for right now was for the Russians to rebel and topple their government, he added.

Kiev launched a major offensive in early June, aiming to reach Crimea within 60 to 90 days but failing to advance past the first Russian defense lines. Russian troops have since taken the initiative and are moving forward on almost every section of the frontline.

Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry made public its estimate that Ukraine has lost almost 400,000 troops since the hostilities escalated in February 2022, including those killed, wounded, captured or listed as missing. A prominent German military analyst has estimated Kiev’s losses at 800 troops a day.

Reuters/RT

Many users consider Android as an operating system for mobile devices that offers numerous features and extensive customization options. In a sense, this is indeed true; however, it's worth noting that despite its rich functionality, Android, as before, lacks some capabilities available in iOS.

RBC-Ukraine has compiled 10 iPhone features that should definitely appear on Android, making the use of the operating system much more convenient.

Face ID

Face ID is facial recognition technology created by Apple for its devices. To unlock the iPhone, you simply need to look at its screen.

Face ID sensors use infrared rays for precise facial scanning, reducing the possibility of false recognition. The collected data is stored in a secure chip inside the iPhone and never leaves the device.

While many Android devices also provide facial unlock features, their capabilities are far from Face ID. These gadgets lack infrared front cameras, making Face Unlock inefficient in the dark and less reliable in person recognition.

Moreover, locking on an Android device can be tricked, for example, with a clear photograph, whereas Face ID maintains a high level of security. Even with glasses and a mask, the iPhone continues to reliably recognize its owner.

Shake to Undo

Printing on iOS or Android devices is undoubtedly not as convenient as on a computer. This is not only due to the absence of a full-sized keyboard that can be used blindly with all ten fingers but also the lack of the familiar Ctrl+Z key combination, which allows undoing an action in case of an input mistake or accidental deletion of an important text fragment.

However, on the iPhone, there is a similar function known as "Shake to Undo." If you make a mistake, simply shake the phone, and it will undo the last action. This is genuinely convenient.

In contrast, Android devices lack a similar feature. Although undoing actions is available in most text editors, it is absent in messengers and similar apps, where it would be particularly useful.

Drag and drop of objects

On iPhone and iPad devices, there is the ability to drag various objects within apps, similar to how you do it on a computer with a mouse. You simply hold your finger on an image, text fragment, or attachment, move it to the bottom of the screen on the iPhone or in Split View mode on the iPad, and easily paste it into another program. This is truly convenient.

Unfortunately, such a feature is not present on Android, even on tablets.

Universal communication apps

iMessage and FaceTime on the iPhone stand out from other messengers and video calls. They not only have a user-friendly interface and diverse features but also stand out for their universality. Apple users can easily communicate with each other, regardless of whether they use a Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

In contrast, Android lacks such a universal means of communication. While the standard Messages and Google Meet are decent, they cannot compare with the functionality and ease of use of Apple's counterparts.

Moreover, not every Android smartphone has these apps by default. As a result, many manufacturers create their own messaging and calling apps.

Before contacting someone on Android, you have to find out whether the conversation partner uses Telegram, WhatsApp, or Viber, install the respective app, and go through the registration process. If Google had a universal communication app for all Android devices, it would make life much simpler.

App Offloading

iPhone has a convenient feature capable of saving space on the smartphone's memory. It's called "App Offloading."

By enabling it in storage settings, you allow iOS to automatically free up space occupied by infrequently used apps. During this process, neither the app icon, nor the data, nor the documents are deleted, and you only need to tap on it to restore.

Unfortunately, this convenient feature is absent on Android. In case of insufficient space, you have to completely uninstall apps along with all settings. Upon reinstalling the apps, you'll have to restore all memory settings, which is also an inconvenient process.

Quick Switching Between Devices

The "Universal Clipboard" feature on iPhone allows copying text and images and transferring them between the iPhone and the nearest Mac without the need for cables or additional software. Thanks to the Handoff option, you can start working on a note, document, or email on an iPhone and continue on a Mac.

In contrast, Android phones are less integrated with Windows devices, despite Microsoft's efforts to address this situation. While there are various apps that allow phone calls from a computer, copying text, and transferring photos, they don't work as seamlessly as Apple's solutions.

The official Windows companion app for Android is unfortunately not the most stable solution, often losing connection with the computer and draining the battery.

AirPlay and AirDrop

AirPlay is Apple's wireless technology for transmitting audio, video, photos, and other data between iOS devices like iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac computers. It is also compatible with other devices, such as TVs or audio systems that support this feature.

AirDrop, on the other hand, is a tool for instant wireless file and document transfer between Apple devices via Wi-Fi.

In contrast, Android lacks such an advanced tool for data exchange between devices. Although there is the Nearby Share feature positioned as an alternative to AirDrop and some apps on Google Play can wirelessly transfer audio and video content from Android devices, none of them can currently match the built-in AirPlay feature on iOS devices.

AirDrop and other functions on iPhone (photo: Unsplash)

Separated notifications and settings

If you swipe down from the central or left upper part of the iPhone screen, you open the "Notification Center." Swiping down from the right upper part takes you to the "Control Center," where you can easily adjust system settings, sound, brightness, enable focus mode, and much more. This is convenient and logical.

In Android, notifications and settings are not separated. When you open the "shade," if you need to change some parameters that are not immediately visible, you'll have to swipe down again. This might seem like a minor detail, but it eventually takes time.

Universal updates

Currently, there are slightly fewer than one and a half billion iPhone users worldwide. When it comes to updates for these smartphones, almost all of these people, at least those connected to the internet, receive updates and security patches practically simultaneously.

Moreover, iPhones are supported for a long time. The system continues to receive updates for a minimum of five years after the release of the device on which it was installed.

Android updates don't paint as rosy a picture. In most cases, manufacturers release one, two, or three major updates, after which they stop supporting their devices. If you need a new system version, it may mean having to purchase a new phone.

Camera continuity

The feature known as "Camera Continuity" allows scanning documents and capturing photos that instantly appear on a Mac computer. If you need to insert, for example, text from a paper in front of you, you can simply choose the "Import from iPhone or iPad" option in the Mac editor, press "Take Photo," and the "Camera" app on your smartphone will automatically open.

Android lacks a similar function. While apps like DroidCam or Camo allow streaming video from a smartphone to a PC, they are not as convenient as "Camera Continuity." Additionally, they require extra time for installation and setup, sometimes suggesting purchasing a Pro version to unlock high-quality image transmission.

It's worth noting that Android users will receive a feature that iPhone owners can only dream of.

We also wrote about 10 tips that can help extend the battery life of your Android smartphone.

RBC Ukraine

An artificial intelligence model developed by an international team of researchers has demonstrated the ability to predict future events in people’s lives, including the time of their death.

Life2vec, a so-called transformer model trained on a massive volume of data to predict various aspects of a person’s life, was created by scientists in Denmark and the United States. After being fed data from Danish health and demographic records for six million people, like time of birth, schooling, education, salary, housing, and health, the AI model was trained to predict what would come next. According to its creators, Life2vec demonstrated an eerie ability to predict when people would die based on data analysis. For example, when tested on a group of people between the ages of 35 and 65, half of whom died between 2016 and 2020, it was able to predict who would die and who would live, with 78% accuracy.

The research team led by Sune Lehmann Jørgensen at the Technical University of Denmark pointed out that Life2vec was trained exclusively on data from Denmark, so the results may not be quite the same for people in other countries. However, Jørgensen also stressed that models like this one should not fall into the hands of corporations, although they are probably using such technology on us.

“Clearly, our model should not be used by an insurance company, because the whole idea of insurance is that, by sharing the lack of knowledge of who is going to be the unlucky person struck by some incident, or death, or losing your backpack, we can kind of share this burden,” Jørgensen said.

Life2vec is currently not available for use by the public, but its creators suspect that similar models have already been developed and are being used by big tech companies with massive amounts of data to train them on.

Despite the ethical implications of using an AI model capable of estimating how much you have to live with startling accuracy, there is one undeniable upside – such a prediction can help you prevent your untimely death.

“Our framework allows researchers to discover potential mechanisms that impact life outcomes as well as the associated possibilities for personalized interventions, the team behind Life2vec wrote.

Oddity Central

Nigeria is off the hook for an $11 billion damages bill over a collapsed gas processing project that was procured by bribery after the award was thrown out by London's High Court.

The West African country faced having to pay the sum – representing around a third of its foreign exchange reserves – to Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

But the High Court ruled in October that P&ID paid bribes to a Nigerian oil ministry official in connection with the gas contract signed in 2010, and failed to disclose this when it took Nigeria to arbitration over the collapse of the deal.

The ruling was a major boost for Africa's biggest economy, which is saddled with mounting debt, high inflation and unemployment, and was described by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu as a blow against economic malpractice and the exploitation of Africa.

P&ID argued that the case should be sent back to arbitration, but Judge Robin Knowles ruled on Thursday that the award should be thrown out immediately.

The judge also refused P&ID permission to appeal, effectively ending the case as the company cannot apply for permission from the Court of Appeal.

A London-based spokesperson for the Nigerian government said the decision "marks the conclusion of a historic victory for the people of Nigeria".

P&ID's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters

Nigerians are hoarding cash again amid memories of a failed official campaign around this time last year to demonetize high-value naira notes.

Most ATMs have been unable to dispense cash and bank branches have cut daily cash payment limits to either 5,000 or 10,000 naira ($11.24) from 20,000 naira to deal with the shortages that first emerged in October but have worsened this month ahead of the festive season. Point-of-sale operators have increased charges for dispensing cash by as much as three times this month, citing an inability to access banknotes.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, the country’s largest workers’ union, said in a statement earlier this week that the shortages are “undermining confidence of the public in the banks and may discourage the citizenry from participating actively in banking.” It also urged the government to take steps to ameliorate the cash crunch and avoid a repeat of the economic hardships caused by shortages from the botched demonetization program, or face protests.

‘Excruciating conditions’

“Fresh in the minds of every Nigerian is the excruciating conditions that we were all subjugated to as a result of the last cash crunch,” Joe Ajaero, the union’s president, said in the statement.

“The sorrow that botched exercise foisted on us is not what Nigerians wish to witness again in one year.”

CBN began replacing old high-denomination naira notes with redesigned ones in December 2022. It had planned to end their use from Feb. 10 until a court ruled that the bills should remain in circulation until Dec. 31 after the program was challenged by state governors.

Last month the bank said it would allow the old banknotes to remain legal tender indefinitely, days after finding that the seeming cash scarcity in some locations was “due largely to high volume withdrawals from the CBN branches by deposit money banks and panic withdrawals by customers from the ATMs.”

The demonetization program introduced by former Governor Godwin Emefiele to mop up excess liquidity, stymie illegal activity and promote electronic payments imposed significant negative shocks on the economy in which about 90% of all transactions are done in cash. Snaking queues outside ATMs and bank branches became a common sight, while tasks such as riding the bus or buying food became an ordeal. Private-sector activity in February and March contracted as companies reduced output and cut jobs.

It also led to an increase in the use of Nigeria’s digital currency, the eNaira. The digital currency in circulation rose more than threefold to 10.26 billion naira in the third quarter from 2.55 billion end-2022, while physical notes and coins declined 9% to 2.75 trillion naira, the regulator said in a report on Thursday.

Bloomberg

Senate has confirmed the appointment of 11 Supreme Court justices appointed by President Bola Tinubu to fill the vacancies on the apex court bench. 

The confirmation followed the consideration and adoption of a report by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, during Thursday’s plenary.

Tinubu had asked the Senate to confirmed the nominees, who were recommended by the National Judicial Council to fill the vacant positions following death and resignation of some justices.

The nominees confirmed are Haruna Tsammani (North East) who chaired the Presidential Election Petition Court, Moore Adumein (South South), Jummai Sankey (North Central), Chidiebere Uwa (South East) and Chioma Nwosu-Iheme (South East)

Others are Obande Ogbuinya (South-East), Stephen Adah (North Central), Habeeb Abiru (South West), Jamilu Tukur (North West), Abubakar Umar (North West), and Mohammed Idris (North Central).

Chairman of the committee, Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno), while presenting his panel report, said the nominees possesed the requisite qualifications and experience to occupy the position and that there was no petition against them.

He, therefore, recommended their confirmation.

With the confirmation of the 11 justices, the Supreme Court now has the complete statutory requirement of 21 justices on its bench.

Senators, who spoke before the confirmation, had expressed concern over the delay in the appointment of justices for the Supreme Court bench.

Seriake Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa) urged that in the event of subsequent vacancies, a provision for their immediate replacement should be made.

He said, “Anytime these vacancies occur, they should be filled immediately. I want to draw that to the attention of the President; there shouldn’t be delay so that we don’t become a laughing stock.”

Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti), said it was important that those who are next in line be screened and appointed immediately as the vacancies occur at the apex court.

Orji Uzor Kalu (APC, Abia) stressed that the funds allocated to the Supreme Court in the 2024 budget should be reviewed upwards to ensure its effectiveness.

He said, “The Senate should look at the budget of the judiciary because even the state courts are in a mess. How can they give good justice? This is not the way it was before; we were doing better.”

Daily Trust

Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, Hamas fires rockets amid truce talks

Fighting in the Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday with some of the most intense Israeli bombardment of the war and Hamas demonstrated its ability to rocket Tel Aviv, even as the foes engaged in the most serious talks for weeks on a new truce.

Israeli bombing was at its most intense over northern Gaza, where orange flashes of explosions could be seen from across the fence in Israel in the morning hours. Later, Israeli planes roared over central and southern areas, dropping bombs that sent up plumes of smoke, residents said.

In Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, sirens wailed and rockets exploded overhead, intercepted by Israeli defences. Shrapnel fell on a school but the children were in shelters and there were no reported casualties, Israel's Ynet news site said.

The armed wing of Hamas said it had fired the salvo in response to Israeli killing of civilians. But with the group's leader in Cairo for truce talks, the attack seemed timed to send a message that nearly 11 weeks of war had failed to destroy the militants' strike capability.

Both sides remained far apart in public. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed again to fight on until the eradication of Hamas, the Islamist group that sent fighters over the border into southern Israel on Oct. 7, taking some 240 hostages and killing 1,200 people.

"Surrender or die," he told Hamas in a video address.

Hamas said Palestinian factions had taken a united position that there should be "no talk about prisoners or exchange deals, except after a full cessation of (Israeli) aggression".

Residents in Jabalia in the north of the Strip close to the Israeli border said the area was completely cut off, with Israeli snipers now firing on anyone trying to escape.

"It was one of the worst nights in terms of the occupation bombings," said one Jabalia resident who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.

Nearly 20,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed since the start of the conflict, according to the Palestinian health ministry, with several thousand more bodies believed trapped under rubble. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.

A report by a UN-backed body said the entire population of Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger. The risk of famine is increasing each day, added the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

"This report sort of confirms our worst fears," said Arif Husain, chief economist and director of research at the U.N. World Food Programme.

"I've been doing this for the last 20 plus years. I've been to Afghanistan, I've been to Yemen, to Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, northeast Nigeria. But I've never seen something this bad happening this quickly," he told Reuters in an interview.

By the afternoon, Israel intensified bombing of the Gaza City suburb of Sheikh Radwan, residents said. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group said they fired rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli forces massing on the Gaza side of the border. Reuters could not confirm the battlefield reports.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had reports Israeli forces had stormed an ambulance centre in Jabalia and arrested paramedics. The Israeli military said it needed more details on the report to comment and was following international law and taking "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

The World Health Organization said the last hospital in the northern half of the Gaza Strip had effectively ceased functioning over the past two days, leaving no place left to take the wounded.

TALKS SERIOUS, SIDES PUBLICLY FAR APART

As clashes raged, diplomatic efforts ramped up in the final days of the year to stave off humanitarian catastrophe and agree a new truce to release some of the hostages taken by Hamas, the group that runs the Gaza Strip and has vowed to destroy Israel.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Egypt for a second day for negotiations, a rare personal intervention that in the past has signalled important stages in diplomacy. Islamic Jihad said its leader was also headed there.

"These are very serious discussions and negotiations, and we hope that they lead somewhere," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday. U.S. President Joe Biden said: "We're pushing."

In the past, mediating countries including Egypt and Qatar have met separately with Israel, Hamas and other groups, though there were no details on who might be engaged with any Israeli party on Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen confirmed negotiations on a hostage release were ongoing but declined to provide details.

Taher Al-Nono, Haniyeh's media adviser, told Reuters: "We cannot talk about negotiations while Israel continues its aggression."

Israel's military said it destroyed a network of tunnels in Gaza City, which it found in recent days and said served senior Hamas leaders. It released a video that appeared to show a long line of fire erupting through the centre of Gaza City.

Hamas officials said an Israeli air strike at the Rafah crossing to Egypt on Thursday morning killed four people including the Gaza director of another border crossing, Kerem Shalom. Israel's military appeared to deny involvement, saying it was not familiar with the incident.

Israel allowed Kerem Shalom to open this week, increasing the amount of aid getting into the Strip, though U.N. agencies say it remains a trickle compared to the vast needs.

The U.N. Security Council was due to vote on Thursday on a resolution to boost aid after a delay at the request of the United States. The draft would give the U.N. a wider role overseeing aid shipments, seen as diluting Israel's control.

Washington said there were concerns that in its current form the resolution "could actually slow down" deliveries.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia has fired 7,400 missiles, 3,700 Shahed drones in war so far, Kyiv says

Russia has launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,700 Shahed attack drones at targets in Ukraine during its 22-month-old invasion, Kyiv said on Thursday, illustrating the vast scale of Moscow's aerial assaults.

Ukrainian air defences were able to shoot down 1,600 of the missiles and 2,900 of the drones, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments. "We are faced with an enormous aggressor, and we are fighting back," he said.

He said the lower missile downing rate was due to the use of supersonic ballistic missiles, which are much harder to hit, as well as the fact that the West supplied Ukraine with advanced Patriot air defence systems only well into the war.

Ukraine has received advanced air defence systems, including several Patriots, from Western allies throughout the invasion, allowing it to shoot down more missiles.

Meanwhile the cheaply-produced, Iranian-made Shahed drones, known in Ukraine for their noisy petrol engines, have been used more and more frequently in Russia's aerial assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure far behind the war's front lines in the east and south of the country.

"Ten to 15 regions are involved in shooting down Shaheds every night," Ihnat said.

Russia says it only fires on military targets though Moscow has also admitted to targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Russia says it does not target civilians, despite thousands of documented civilian deaths throughout the war.

Russia began launching the drones at infrastructure facilities in September 2022. They initially confused Ukraine's air defences, as they were harder for standard air defence radars to detect than missiles, which forced Kyiv to adapt.

The use of the drones in massed attacks then created a dilemma for Ukraine as they were so cheap to produce it was not cost-effective to down them with expensive air defence missiles.

Ukraine now uses vehicles with mounted machine guns to shoot down drones.

"We were shooting at them with everything we could find, with pistols, submachine guns," Ihnat said, recalling the early attempts to down the drones. "Well, even then it became clear that the target is not simple, there are many complications, mistakes. You need to prepare."

Western media outlets and analysts have produced evidence, including satellite imagery, of Russia setting up its own Shahed production facilities.

** Mass drone attack hits several Kyiv districts

Russian drones bore down on the city of Kyiv early on Friday, with Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other officials reporting strikes on widely separated residential districts.

It was the sixth drone attack on the capital this month. Two people were injured.

Klitschko, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said a drone had hit a block of flats in the Solomyanskyi district, south of the city centre, triggering a fire on the upper floors that was quickly brought under control.

Emergency services, also writing on Telegram, said several apartments were damaged on the 24th, 25th and 26th storeys of the building. Two people were injured, including one being treated in hospital.

The incident occurred a few hundred metres from a maternity hospital.

Air raid alerts were later lifted in almost all regions.

A video posted on social media showed a giant orange flame going skyward in the night.

Klitschko also said drone fragments had set fire to a house under construction in Darnytskyi district on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that runs through the city.

He said there were no injuries. Pictures posted online showed construction materials strewn about the site.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, reported fragments from a downed drone had struck an apartment building in a third area - Holosiivskyi district - also south of the city centre.

Popko posted pictures showing smashed windows and heavy damage to apartments.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Top Russian general reveals details of Kiev's failed counteroffensive

Ukrainian military planners expected swift progress in their summer counteroffensive, which was to culminate in Moscow's so-called “land bridge to Crimea” being cut off, General Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian general staff, said on Thursday. He added that the attempt was thwarted by his forces.

The senior official briefed foreign military attaches on various aspects of Russia's military strategy, including steps taken to prevent a Ukrainian counteroffensive, which he said was the top priority for the country this year.

“The enemy plan was to blockade Melitopol by the end of the 15th day of the offensive,” Gerasimov said. The Ukrainians then planned to advance towards the Sea of Azov, the city of Mariupol, and the border of Crimea, he added.

Melitopol is a large city in Zaporozhye Region, located some 40 km away from the coast of the Azov Sea and about 15 km away from Molochnyi Lyman, a large coastal estuary connected with it.

Gerasimov noted that the core of the Ukrainian force used in the counteroffensive consisted of brigades trained and armed by Western nations. The grouping that was supposed to reach the Azov Sea initially included 50 battalions armed with over 230 tanks and more than 1,000 infantry fighting vehicles, half of them Western-made, he reported. The force was later boosted to 80 battalions, according to the general.

Russian troops prepared deep defensive lines to prepare for the planned attack. When Ukraine launched it on June 4, it “achieved minor advancement at the cost of colossal losses,” failing to breach “even the tactical zone of our defenses,” he stressed.

Additional supplies of Western weapons and the deployment of strategic reserves by Kiev failed to turn the tide, Gerasimov added. “Hence, the counteroffensive, which Ukraine and its NATO allies had touted widely, failed,” the general stated. The Russian official reiterated that the Ukraine conflict was a “hybrid proxy war against Russia by the US and its allies,”waged with Ukrainian hands. Washington wants to prolong the conflict by providing military assistance to Kiev, he claimed.

In addition to conducting active defense on the front line, Russian forces are using long-range precision weapons to attack Ukrainian “command sites, defense factories and critical objects with a military purpose,” Gerasimov said, adding that over 1,500 such targets have been hit. Degrading the Ukrainian military industrial capacity has been a major achievement, he noted.

Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Gerasimov’s counterpart in the Ukrainian military leadership, acknowledged in early November that the frontline situation had turned into a “stalemate.” Senior civilian officials, including President Vladimir Zelensky, disputed his assessment for weeks before finally admitting that the push against Russia was over. The president claimed that the new phase was necessitated by cold weather when he conceded in early December.

** Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed – ex-NATO general

Kiev’s much-touted summer counteroffensive operation has failed to produce “expected” results, and instead resulted in heavy casualties for the Ukrainian side, Czech President Petr Pavel admitted in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday.

Launched back in June, the Ukrainian counteroffensive was hyped up as a turning point for Kiev’s forces which would push Russian troops out of former Ukrainian territories. However, six months after the start of the operation, the Ukrainian side has yet to achieve any significant territorial gains and has instead suffered extremely heavy casualties. 

Pavel, who previously served as the chief of the general staff of the Czech Army and chairman of the NATO Military Committee, suggested that the main reason for Ukraine’s failure was that the West did not provide it with enough modern weaponry.

“Supporting countries were reluctant to deliver modern equipment, some elements arrived later, and when Ukraine launched its counteroffensive, the ratio of forces did not allow for rapid success,” he told Le Monde.

Before Kiev had even launched its summer offensive in June, Pavel says he had also warned that it would be a difficult operation because he “didn’t want to create excessive expectations.”

“Painting a picture of quick success is dangerous, especially with an enemy like Russia, whose capabilities and resources should never be underestimated,” he said.

The Czech president went on to suggest that Kiev should now try to change its tactics and switch to consolidating its defense lines instead of launching offensive operations that are only resulting in heavy casualties but no territorial gains.

“They could thus save their forces in anticipation of a resumption of these operations in the spring,” Pavel said.

On Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry estimated that the Ukrainian military had suffered nearly 400,000 casualties since February 2022, losing nearly half of its military personnel over the course of the counteroffensive. Ralph D. Thiele, a retired German Air Force colonel and NATO staffer, also claimed on Thursday that some 800 Ukrainian troops were being killed or wounded every day.

Last week, German news outlets Die Welt and Bild also reported that Ukraine may be gathering forces and drawing up new war plans for a fresh counteroffensive in 2024, while changing its tactics in the meantime to inflict maximum losses on Moscow.

Russia, meanwhile, has repeatedly pointed out the Kiev was essentially sending its soldiers on suicide missions, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the Ukrainian leadership had grown desperate after failing to achieve anything in its counteroffensive.

Reuters/RT

In the last one and a half decades, Rabiu Kwankwaso has been the most charismatic politician out of Kano after the passing of Abubakar Rimi. Kwankwaso is not just charismatic; he is consequential, with a cult-like following that responds twice, even when he calls once.

He is facing yet another defining moment in his political career. The outcome of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case between the Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and his rival, Nasiru Gawuna, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), could well determine if the sun has finally set on Kwankwaso’s reign or whether he would get a new lease of life.

Kwankwaso’s protegee, Yusuf, lost at the election petition tribunal and also at the court of appeal, where Gawuna had challenged his election on three main grounds: 1) That Yusuf is not a registered member of the NNPP; 2) That 165,663 out of the 1,019,602 votes scored by the NNPP were invalid because the ballots were neither stamped nor signed, therefore reducing his total valid votes to 853,939, and 3) That he, Gawuna having scored 890,705 votes with margin of nearly 130k, won the governorship election and should be declared governor.

The lower courts agreed with his submissions in rulings – one from an undisclosed location and the other from cyberspace – that sparked widespread protests in the state, not to mention accusations of compromise. Even though a member of the tribunal raised the alarm that some persons were trying to lean on her by offering financial gifts through a proxy, all allegations of wrongdoing have been denied by the judiciary. All eyes are now on the Supreme Court.

Nigeria’s courts have been swamped with election petitions, making election litigation one of the fastest growing industries. Voters vote, but judges choose the winners.

In spite of the large number of decided election petition cases in the last over 20 years, however, there have been only a few where the two lower courts ruled in one way, only to have their rulings overturned by the Supreme Court. Governorship election petitions used to end at the Court of Appeal. Even after the law was amended to take governorship election disputes up to the Supreme Court, the norm was a split decision between the lower courts, before the final ruling by the Supreme Court.

From the case involving Rotimi Amaechi and Celestine Omehia in 2007, to the ruling in 2016 where the Supreme Court set aside the ruling of the two lower courts and declared Nyesom Wike as the validly elected governor of Rivers State (without giving reasons for its decision), perhaps the most dramatic of the three or four exceptional cases was the one in 2019 involving the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma.

Apart from Ejike Mbaka whose extraordinary gift enabled him to foretell the outcome of the Uzodimma case in his famous “I see hope” speech, most normal, reasonable people could not fathom how a man who came fourth place in an election could become first. Yet, in a landmark decision wonderful beyond understanding, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the two lower courts and ruled that Uzodimma won the election.

Kwankwaso and his supporters obviously hope to beat the odds, which in any case, are perhaps not as formidable as those of Uzodimma. But Gawuna’s backers appear to have gone even one step further to secure their current juridical advantage. On the state’s Wikipedia page, for example, some folks terminated the tenure of Yusuf in November when the Court of Appeal gave its ruling. Gawuna is described on that page as “incumbent governor” from November!

Kwankwaso has fought many wars but this battle may redefine the rest of his political days, and those of the Kwankwasiyya movement. His first significant defeat was 20 years ago, when he failed his second term bid for governorship. In the wave of political sharia sweeping the North at the time, Kwankwaso had positioned himself as a moderate.

His opponent, Ibrahim Shekarau, did two things: he latched onto the Muhammadu Buhari bandwagon, under the flag of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP); and more important, played the sharia card. He succeeded big, not only in dislodging Kwankwaso, but also becoming the first two-term governor in Kano.

Shekarau defeated Kwankwaso again in the contest for a senatorial seat in 2019, after latter’s first tenure as senator. The leader of the Kwankwasiyya

movement was caught in the maelstrom of the APC presidential primaries, but in the run-up to the 2019 elections, he decamped back to the PDP. To be fair, during APC’s 2015 presidential primaries, Kwankwaso was the preferred candidate of the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, at the time, before a strong Northern lobby pressed Buhari into the race.

Shekarau exploited the accumulated rage of the pro-Buhari crowd, kindled against the leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement for daring to challenge Buhari’s talismanic hold on Kano.

But Kwankwaso has matured since, especially after his eventful second term as governor, during which he was widely acclaimed for paying serious attention to education, health and infrastructure. Also, leveraging the crucial place of Kano as the Nigeria’s largest political vote bank, he played a decisive role, along with four other governors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, that led to the fall of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

Perhaps the most significant marker of his political maturity was the formation of the NNPP only months to the last general elections and yet carrying one state – the most politically significant in the North West – and coming fourth in an election contested by 18 political parties. This legacy is now threatened.

If Shekarau was his nemesis in the past, his nemesis for the last eight years has been his former deputy and Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje. In the battle at the Supreme Court, Yusuf and Gawuna are, in a manner of speaking, pawns. The chess masters are Kwankwaso and Ganduje.

After the last general elections, Kwankwaso seemed to have the aces. He had literally secured a third term in Kano and Tinubu, the winner of the presidential election, needed to court him. Not just because he proved himself in present reckoning, but also because anyone in charge of Kano would be indispensable in future political calculations.

After the elections, while Ganduje was still looking for a second address, Kwankwaso was already on Tinubu’s speed dial. He held several exploratory meetings with the President both in the country and in Paris for a potential role in the new government. I’m told that he was, in fact, considered for either the Ministry of Education or FCT.

Ganduje and a few other influential politicians close to Tinubu panicked. But Ganduje, a man who looks incapable of hurting a fly, but doesn’t mind hunting a lion for game, waited for his time to pounce. Once he was appointed APC chairman, in spite of Kwankwaso, he slowly clawed himself back and swung the wrecking ball in cahoots with a few insiders who were also uncomfortable with Kwankwaso.

Ganduje also consolidated his hold on the President after Gawuna won the first round of victory at the tribunal. Then Kwankwaso, whether out of frustration or defiance, made what was potentially a serious mistake. He held a closed-door meeting with Atiku in Abuja and left the press and politicians to pour petrol into the fire by making wild guesses about the motive for the meeting.

The battle has now entered its final phase. If the Supreme Court bucks the trend and rules in favour of Yusuf, Kwankwaso would have used one judicial stone to vanquish Shekarau and Ganduje, two of his most potent longstanding enemies. If, on the other hand, the Supreme Court upholds the ruling of the lower courts, Kwankwaso’s decline will start in earnest, sucking his cult and scattering his sheepfold.

Inconclusive is an unlikely outcome. But who knows?

** Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP. More: www.azuishiekwene.com