UN stops delivery of food and supplies to Gaza as communications blackout hinders aid coordination

The United Nations was forced Friday to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of lack of fuel.

Israel announced that it will allow two tanker trucks of fuel into Gaza each day for the U.N. and communication systems. That amount is half of what the U.N. said it needs for lifesaving functions for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, including powering water systems, hospitals, bakeries and the trucks delivering aid.

Israel has barred entry of fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military means. It has also blocked food, water and other supplies except for a trickle of aid from Egypt that aid workers say falls far short of what’s needed.

The communications blackout largely cut off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, couldn’t bring in its aid convoy Friday because of the communications cutoff, spokesperson Juliette Touma said.

“An extended blackout means an extended suspension of our humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip,” Touma told The Associated Press.

Phone and internet services in parts of the Gaza Strip were partially restored Friday night after a limited quantity of fuel for generators was provided, according to NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet outages.

Israeli forces have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza’s south while continuing operations in the north. Troops have been searching the territory’s biggest hospital, Shifa, for traces of a Hamas command center Israel alleges was located under the building — a claim Hamas and the hospital staff deny.

On Friday, the military said it found the body of another hostage, Noa Marciano, in a building adjacent to Shifa, like that of another hostage found Thursday, Yehudit Weiss. Hundreds of mourners, many carrying Israeli flags, attended Marciano’s funeral Friday in her hometown of Modi’in.

The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, in which the militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted some 240 men, women and children.

More than 11,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The count does not differentiate between civilians and militants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of militants.

AID DRIES UP

After an American request, Israel agreed to let a “very minimal” amount of fuel into Gaza each day, national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian affairs, said it would amount to 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons) a day for the U.N.

For the communications network, Israel also agreed on another 10,000 liters a day (2,640 gallons), a U.S. State Department official said.

UNRWA and other humanitarian groups need at least 120,000 liters (31,700 gallons) a day to run lifesaving functions, Touma said.

Gaza has received only 10% of its required food supplies each day in shipments from Egypt, according to the U.N., and the water system shutdown has left most of the population drinking contaminated water, causing an outbreak of disease.

Dehydration and malnutrition are growing, with nearly all residents in need of food, said Abeer Etefa, a Mideast regional spokeswoman for the U.N.’s World Food Program.

“People are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” she said Thursday from Cairo.

MARCH FOR HOSTAGES

Israeli officials previously vowed fuel would not be let in until Gaza militants release the hostages. The government has been under heavy public pressure to show it is doing all it can to bring back people abducted in Hamas’ attack.

Thousands of marchers — including families of over 50 hostages — embarked Friday on the fourth leg of a five-day walk from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, chanting, “Bring them home!” They are marching to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, calling on his war Cabinet to do more to rescue their loved ones. They have urged the cabinet to consider a cease-fire or prisoner swap in return for the hostages.

Hamas has offered to exchange all hostages for some 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, which the Cabinet has rejected.

CONDITIONS AT SHIFA

With Israeli troops fanned out around the Shifa hospital complex, doctors spoke of horrifying conditions inside. Electricity has been out for nearly a week, leaving incubators for infants and ventilators for ICU patients defunct. Nearly 7,000 people are trapped there with little food, including patients, staff and civilian families.

Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Selmia told Al Jazeera television that 52 patients have died since fuel ran out — up from 40 reported before Israeli troops stormed in on Wednesday. He said staff were amputating limbs of some patients to avoid infection spreading because of shortages in medicines.

More were on the verge of death as their wounds are “open with maggots coming out of them,” another doctor, Faisal Siyam, told Al Jazeera.

Ahmad Mukhalalti said most of the 36 premature infants suffer from severe diarrhea because there is no clean water. He said Israeli troops had taken away all the bodies from the morgue and from a mass grave that staff dug days earlier in the courtyard. The Israeli military had no comment on the report. The doctors’ accounts could not be independently verified.

Abu Selmia said Israeli troops should either bring them fuel to power equipment or allow an evacuation.

“The hospital has become a giant prison,” he said. “We are surrounded by death.”

Israel’s military said it delivered 4,000 liters of water and 1,500 ready-made meals to Shifa, but staff said it was too little for the numbers of people there.

Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht acknowledged that the troops’ search for traces of Hamas was going slowly. “It’s going to take time,” he said.

Israel faces pressure to prove its claim that Hamas set up its main command center in and under the hospital. So far, Israel has shown photos and video of weapons caches that it says were found inside as well as what it said was a tunnel entrance. The AP could not independently verify the Israeli claims.

The allegations are part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields across the Gaza Strip, contending that is the reason for the large numbers of civilian casualties during weeks of bombardment.

STRIKES IN THE SOUTH

Airstrikes continued to hammer the southern sector of Gaza, where most of the territory’s population is now sheltering. Among them are hundreds of thousands of people who heeded Israel’s calls to evacuate Gaza City and the north to get out of the way of its ground offensive.

In the Nusseirat refugee camp, a strike crushed a building to rubble killing at least 41 people, staff at the nearby hospital said. Residents said dozens more were buried in the wreckage.

Early morning strikes outside the city of Khan Younis killed 11 members of a family that evacuated from Gaza City. Dozens of wounded, including babies and young children, streamed into the nearby hospital.

At the morgue, Alaa Abu Hasira wept over the bodies from the strike that were lined up side by side on the floor, including her son, daughter and several sisters. “All my loved ones are gone,” she sobbed.

So far, Israel’s ground assault has focused on northern Gaza as it vows to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities. If the assault moves into the south, it is not clear where Palestinians can go. Egypt has refused to allow a mass transfer onto its soil.

As the war continues to inflame tensions elsewhere, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian gunmen in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, killing at least three Palestinians. The fighting broke out late Thursday during an Israeli raid.

Israel’s military said five militants were killed. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people died. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed the three dead as members and identified one as a local commander.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine secures several bridgeheads into occupied Kherson region - military

Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian soldiers out of positions on the eastern bank of the River Dnipro in the occupied Kherson region and established several bridgeheads, Kyiv's military said on Friday.

Crossing the Dnipro and transporting heavy military equipment and supplies over the river could allow Ukrainian troops to open a new line of attack in the south on the most direct land route to Crimea, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Ukrainian Marines said on their Facebook page they had had a series of "successes", established several bridgeheads and conducted other operations on the river's eastern side. Russia conceded for the first time this week that Kyiv's troops had crossed the Dnipro.

"Units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to knock out the Russians from their positions on the left bank of the Dnipro and consolidate there," General Staff spokesperson Andriy Kovalyov said on a military channel on YouTube.

"One of the main goals of this combat work is to push the enemy as far as possible from the right bank to protect the Ukrainian civilian population, in particular Kherson, from constant Russian shelling," he added.

Kherson, once a bustling city of 300,000 that has emptied as it has found itself on the front line, has been pounded by Russian artillery for months and dozens of civilians have been killed.

The Ukrainian military retook the city and the area around it on the western bank of the Dnipro in November 2022. The river, a formidable natural barrier, became the dividing line on much of the southern front.

Russia made no immediate statement in reaction to the Ukrainian reports. Both Russia and Ukraine say they have inflicted heavy losses on the other side during operations in the area. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

MOVING FORWARD

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday posted images from the area showing the military using drones and operating on speedboats on the Dnipro.

"Our warriors. Thank you for your strength, for moving forward!" he said on Telegram messenger.

Kovalyov said Ukrainian troops were conducting sabotage and reconnaissance actions to discover and disrupt logistics for Russian ammunition and food supplies. He said the Russian military were mounting heavy resistance and had brought in reinforcements.

Very bad weather was another obstacle to Kyiv's operations, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the southern military command said.

"We must be aware that in very bad weather conditions, they are complicated. This not only complicates a physical advance but also aerial reconnaissance. Because there is a thunderstorm warning," she said in televised comments.

On the other hand, she added, the weather would not allow Russian troops to use their tactical aviation as much as earlier, something the Ukrainian military was using to "consolidate success".

According to Ukrainian military bloggers, Ukrainian forces crossed the Dnipro in small groups in the summer to create an initial foothold around a railway bridge near Kherson and then sought to expand their presence in nearby villages on the east bank, including Krynky.

The news comes months into Ukrainian counteroffensive operations in the southeast and east that have not produced a major breakthrough. Ukrainian officials have blamed extensive Russian minefields and defensive lines, and delays in supplies of weapons from the West.

Russian forces, which occupy around 17% of Ukraine, are now again on the offensive in the east in the Kyiv-held town of Avdiivka, near the Moscow-held city of Bakhmut, and in other areas.

The Ukrainian military said in its daily update that fighting was raging along the entire frontline from the south to the east, reporting 72 combat clashes in the last 24 hours.

The fiercest battles were around Avdiivka, Mariinka and Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, it said.

Vitalyi Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said on television that Russian forces were making a big push towards the town's industrial zone near a vast coke plant, and bringing in reinforcements.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces pummel Ukrainian army’s command centers over week — top brass

Russian forces delivered 24 precision strikes, targeting the Ukrainian army’s command centers over the week of November 11-17 in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"The Russian Armed Forces delivered 24 multiple-launch strikes by precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles, wiping out forward command posts and deployment sites of the command staff of the Liman battlegroup and the Khortitsa operational/strategic group, and also temporary deployment sites of militants from the Neo-Nazi Azov and Right Sector formations [outlawed in Russia]," the ministry said in a statement.

The strikes obliterated the Ukrainian army’s artillery arsenals, armament, military hardware and fuel depots, airfield infrastructure and a sniper and engineering personnel training center, the ministry reported.

Russian forces eliminate over 745 Ukrainian troops in south Donetsk area over past week

Russian forces inflicted damage on four Ukrainian army brigades in the south Donetsk area, eliminating more than 745 enemy troops over the past week, the ministry reported.

"In the south Donetsk direction, units of the battlegroup East gained more advantageous frontiers and positions and repelled two attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army’s 79th air assault brigade and 128th territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Novomikhailovka and Nikolskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

"In addition, air strikes and artillery fire inflicted damage on units of the Ukrainian army’s 72nd mechanized, 58th motorized infantry, 102nd and 127th territorial defense brigades near the settlements of Ugledar, Staromayorskoye and Urozhainoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," it said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the south Donetsk direction over the past week amounted to over 745 personnel, 12 armored combat vehicles, 15 motor vehicles, 20 field artillery guns and a Grad multiple rocket launcher, the ministry specified.

Russian forces destroy over 425 Ukrainian troops in Zaporozhye area over week

Russian forces repelled three Ukrainian army attacks in the Zaporozhye area, destroying more than 425 enemy troops over the past week, the ministry reported.

"In the Zaporozhye direction, units of the Russian battlegroup repelled three enemy attacks near the settlement of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye Region. They also inflicted damage by firepower on the personnel and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 33rd, 117th and 118th mechanized brigades near the settlements of Uspenovka and Malaya Tokmachka in the Zaporozhye Region," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in the Zaporozhye direction over the past week amounted to more than 425 personnel, 2 tanks, 9 armored combat vehicles, 14 motor vehicles and 7 field artillery guns, the ministry specified.

Kiev loses over 460 troops in Kherson area over past week

The Ukrainian military lost over 460 troops on the right bank of the Dnieper River and in attempts to land on islands on the left bank in the Kherson Region over the past week, the ministry reported.

"In the Kherson direction, the enemy lost over 460 personnel killed and wounded, 2 tanks and 17 motor vehicles on the right bank of the Dnieper River and in attempts to land on islands," the ministry said.

In counter-battery fire, Russian forces destroyed 16 Ukrainian field artillery guns and a Grad multiple rocket launcher in the Kherson direction over the reporting period, it said.

Russian forces wipe out four Ukrainian army radars over past week

Russian forces destroyed four Ukrainian army radars, including three foreign-made systems over the past week, the ministry reported.

"Over the reporting period, operational/tactical aircraft and missile troops of the Russian groupings of forces destroyed a radar station of an S-300 surface-to-air missile system and three counter-battery radars, among them a Cobra station that the Federal Republic of Germany supplied to Ukraine and two US-made AN/TPQ-50 radar stations," the ministry said.

Russian forces down three Ukrainian MiG-29 warplanes over week

Russian forces shot down three Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets in aerial and air defense combats over the past week, the ministry reported.

"Three Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 planes were shot down in aerial and air defense combats," the ministry said.

Over the reporting period, Russian air defense capabilities "shot down 22 rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, 2 JDAM guided air bombs and 198 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry reported.

In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 536 Ukrainian warplanes, 254 helicopters, 8,989 unmanned aerial vehicles, 441 surface-to-air missile systems, 13,446 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,185 multiple rocket launchers, 7,123 field artillery guns and mortars and 15,342 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the ministry reported.

Reuters/Tass

Apple intends to adopt a popular encryption standard promoted by Google, which may finally eliminate green bubbles on the iPhone.

The company announced on Thursday that it will add support for Rich Communication Services, the preferred encryption standard used by Android devices, sometime in 2024. The difference in encryption limited functionality between iPhones and Androids and colors texts green and blue, a distinction that has held social notoriety for years.

"Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile," an Apple spokesperson told 9to5Mac. "We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users."

The change may be due to growing pressure from the European Union. The EU is investigating whether Apple's iMessage encryption can be regulated under the new law. Apple argued that the law does not apply to iMessage because it is not popular enough. Google argued that the European Commission needed to crack down on iMessage.

Google has spent years lobbying against iMessage's encryption, arguing that RCS was the replacement for SMS, the previous texting standard used by most mobile phones. Google maintains that iMessage limits what users can send over text messages and breaks most text messaging features.

Washington Examiner

An Italian man who was serving 30 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend was recently released from prison because judges ruled that prison food didn’t allow him to go on a diet behind bars.

In 2017, Dimitri Fricano was arrested for killing his girlfriend, Erika, during a heated argument, while they were vacationing in Sardinia. He originally told police that robbers had attacked and killed his partner, but as investigators found more and more holes in his story, he eventually admitted that he had been the one to stab her 57 times. Apparently, she had scolded him for leaving too many crumbs on the bed when eating, and he became so angry that he couldn’t control himself. Two years later, he was put on trial for murder, but he only got convicted to 30 years behind bars in 2022, due to pandemic-related delays, before being released this month for being dangerously obese and not being able to lose weight.

At the time of his conviction, Dimitri Fricano weighed 120 kgs (260 lbs), but over the next 12 months, he ballooned to 200 kgs (440 lbs), a weight that doctors say puts him at high risk of cardiovascular disease. He reportedly cannot even get around the prison building without crutches or a wheelchair, and a court has ruled that his condition is ‘incompatible with the prison regime’, because prison makes it impossible for him to follow a low-calorie diet.

“He needs assistance that cannot be provided in the institution,” a panel of judges ruled, adding that he cannot remain incarcerated because his obesity and chain-smoking habit put him at an imminent risk of dying.

Dmitri Fricano will now serve the rest of his time under house arrest in a town near Biella, a verdict that has infuriated his victim’s family. Although the law states that, should Fricano’s condition improve, he will return to prison, Erika’s parents believe that it is unlikely to happen.

“The house arrest for Dimitri? It’s a shameful decision,” Erika’s father told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. “When some friends let me know, after reading it online, that Dimitri had been placed under house arrest, a wound reopened. It was like receiving a stab to the heart. His is a rare case. To think that not even the mafiosi [Mafia] receive this treatment.”

Oddity Central

Twenty-two Justices of the Court of Appeal have been nominated by the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), for elevation to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Consequently, FJSC has sent the list of the 22 nominees to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for ratification and onward recommendation to President Bola Tinubu.

The names of the nominees were revealed in an FJSC document released on Thursday.

The nominees include the chairman of the defunct Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), Haruna Tsammani, who hails from Bauchi State.

The North-Central region has six nominees, while the South-West and South-South regions have two nominees each. The South-East region also has six nominees, and the North-East has two nominees.

The development is coming after the retirement of Amina Augie and Mohammed Dattijo, which left the Supreme Court with only 10 serving Justices.

While some of the nominees were tagged ‘Priority’, others were tagged ‘Reserve’. By implication, the ‘reserve’ nominees are alternate nominees in case of any eventuality.

See the full list of the 22 nominated Justices below:

SOUTH-EAST:

1. Nwaoma Uwa (Abia State) – Priority

1A. Onyekachi Otisi (Abia State) – Reserve

2. Obande Ogbuinya (Ebonyi State) – Priority

2A. Theresa Orji-Abadua (Imo State) – Reserve

3. Anthony Ogakwu (Enugu State) – Priority

3A. Chioma Nwosu-lheme (Imo State) – Reserve

SOUTH-SOUTH:

1. Moore Adumein (Bayelsa State) – Priority

1A. Biobele Georgewill (Rivers State) – Reserve

SOUTH-WEST:

1. Adewale Abiru (Lagos State) – Priority

1A. Olubunmi Oyewole (Osun State) – Reserve

NORTH-CENTRAL:

1. Jummai Sankey (Plateau State) – Priority

1A. Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Sirajo (Plateau) – Reserve

2. Stephen Adah (Kogi State) – Priority

2A. Ridman Maiwada Abdullahi (Nassarawa State) – Reserve

3. Baba Idris (Niger State) – Priority

3A. Joseph Ikyegh (Benue State) – Reserve

NORTH-EAST:

1. Haruna Tsammani (Bauchi State) – Priority

1A. Abubakar Talba (Adamawa State) – Reserve

NORTH-WEST:

1. Muhammad Lawal Shuaibu (Jigawa State) – Priority

1A. Bello Aliyu (Zamfara State) – Reserve

2. Abubakar Sadiq Umar (Kebbi State) – Priority

2A. Abdullahi Mahmud Bayero (Kano State) – Reserve

Leadership

Nigeria is withdrawing civil claims totaling $1.1 billion against energy giant Eni SpA, ending a long battle in Italian courts over allegations of corruption in an oil-field deal.

The West African country’s justice ministry will waive the claims before Italy’s highest court “unconditionally” and “with immediate effect” no later than Nov. 17, according to a letter seen by Bloomberg. The nation will also “irrevocably” waive the right to any further legal action in Italy against Eni, its affiliates, and current and past officers in regard to rights for the field, known as Oil Prospecting License 245, or OPL 245.

Eni confirmed receipt of the letter and said in a statement that it is ready to consider, together with the government of Nigeria, the necessary steps for conversion of the prospective license to one that will allow the development of the oil block. Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice wasn’t immediately able to respond to a request for comment.

Operations at the Nigerian oil block have been halted for more than a decade by a series of trials and competing legal claims. The area is considered to be potentially one of the richest concessions in the country, with recoverable reserves of 560 million barrels, according to Eni’s estimates.

Whether Eni and its partner Shell Plc could finally begin to develop OPL 245 may depend on the resolution of other claims, including arbitration proceedings filed by Eni at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and litigation within Nigeria.

Eni, Shell and some of their former and current managers had already been definitively acquitted last year in a criminal case in Milan, in which they were accused of knowing that much of the $1.1 billion they paid to acquire OPL 245 would be distributed as bribes. Even after that verdict a civil suit continued, with Nigeria seeking combined compensation of $3.5 billion from Eni and Shell, claiming the amount reflected the real value of the license purchased in 2011 by the two companies.

Bloomberg

Banks now owe telecommunication firms N200bn for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data services.

Telecom operators disclosed this on Thursday at the Nigerian Communications Commission industry interactive session with the new Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Aminu Maida.

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, on behalf of telcos, stressed that the debt will not be forgiven.

ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo in his goodwill address to the EVC said, “The banks owe us money. The debt is now over N200bn. It won’t go away, no one will forget the debt if the money is not paid.”

He highlighted that the debt is negatively impacting the financial technology economy. He continued, “If that problem is not solved, it will continue to haunt progress in the sector. I ask you today to please look at this issue on the debt owed to us by the banks. There is no discussion about forgiving the debt, payment needs to be made.”

Adebayo further clarified that while telcos and banks are still engaged in ongoing discussions concerning the matter, it is slow-paced and may not have the required effect when done.

Adebayo’s new revelation indicates that USSD debt has jumped by about 66.67 per cent from the N120bn it was earlier in the year. Since 2019, banks and telcos have been at loggerheads over the repayment of USSD debt. As of 2020, the debt was N17bn, but since then its resolution has been besieged by many twists.

Earlier in the year, telcos issued disconnection notices to banks after getting approval from the NCC to stop banks from accessing USSD services. Later the NCC through the immediate past EVC of NCC, Umar Danbatta, noted that banks had agreed to pay telcos following the actions of regulators and stakeholders.

Industry insiders, however, said that conversations pertaining to repayment plans were still ongoing. In October, telcos threatened to seek redress in court since there was no resolution in sight. At the time, Adebayo, declared, “I think is just best to withdraw the services. On this issue of USSD debt, if parties have to go to court to get a final resolution, so be it.

“This is because every effort that is being made by everyone, where we move one step forward, several steps backward, is not going to work.”

USSD is crucial to improving financial inclusion in the country because of the high population of feature phones in the country. The continued quagmire surrounding the payment for this service will threaten digital financial inclusion, the NCC once stated.

Meanwhile, Adebayo also revealed that telcos now pay 52 different taxes and levies, making them one of the most taxed in the country. He highlighted that these taxes are impacting how they operate and impeding growth in the sub-sector.

Prior to now, telcos paid a little over 41 different taxes. He said, “Today we checked the number of taxes and levies that we face across the country, it is now 52. We are one of the highly taxed sectors of the economy. And it is not just these taxes that are the issue; it is the behaviour of public actors when collecting them. These things have a ripple effect on the things that we want to do. Quality of service and co are all interlinked here too.”

While charging the telcos on Thursday, Maida, declared that quality of service and quality of experience must improve in the sector. He noted that telecoms consumers must begin to enjoy the services they pay for.

He tasked telcos to be more innovative despite the challenges in their operating environment and hinted that the commission was in talks with Original Equipment Manufacturers to boost job creation in the country.

Punch

Hamas tunnel found at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, says Israel; UN aid halted

Israeli soldiers found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas militants at Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, the army said, while the U.N. voiced concern no aid would be delivered to Palestinians on Friday via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The army released a video it said showed a tunnel entrance in an outdoor area of Al Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital.

The video, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a deep hole in the ground, littered with and surrounded by concrete and wood rubble and sand. It appeared the area had been excavated; a bulldozer appeared in the background.

The army said its troops also found a vehicle in the hospital containing a large number of weapons.

Hamas said in a statement late on Thursday that claims by the Pentagon and U.S. State Department that the group uses Al Shifa for military purposes "is a repetition of a blatantly false narrative, demonstrated by the weak and ridiculous performances of the occupation army spokesman."

The United States is confident in an assessment from its own intelligence agencies on Hamas activities in Al Shifa hospital and will neither share nor elaborate on it, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

The two telecoms companies in Gaza said all energy sources supplying the network had run out and therefore all services in the territory were down. Israel refuses fuel imports, saying Hamas could use them for military purposes.

With communications out and in the absence of fuel, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it was impossible to coordinate humanitarian aid truck convoys.

"If the fuel does not come in, people will start to die because of the lack of fuel. Exactly as from when, I don’t know. But it will be sooner rather than later," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

As of late Thursday night, there was no further word from the companies, Paltel and Jawwal, whose internet, mobile phone and landline networks remained inoperable.

Palestinian civilians have borne the brunt of Israel's weeks-long military campaign in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Gaza health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say at least 11,500 people have been confirmed killed in an Israeli bombardment and ground invasion - more than 4,700 of them children.

The Israeli military's chief of staff said Israel was close to destroying Hamas' military system in the northern Gaza Strip and there were signs the army was taking its campaign to other parts of the enclave of 2.3 million people.

Israel distributed pamphlets telling civilians to leave four towns in southern Gaza, areas Gazans had been previously told would be safe.

GAZA HOSPITALS AT CRUX OF GLOBAL DEBATE

Israeli officials said Hamas held some of the 240 hostages taken by gunmen on Oct. 7 in the hospital complex. The body of a woman hostage was recovered by troops in a building near Al Shifa on Thursday, the army said.

Military equipment including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found in the building, it said.

Human Rights Watch said hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law.

"Hospitals only lose those protections if it can be shown that harmful acts have been carried out from the premises," the watchdog's U.N. Director Louis Charbonneau said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, on his first visit to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.

"I understand your rage but let me ask you not to be consumed by rage," Borrell said. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Hamas was to blame not only for the Oct. 7 attack but also for the current plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US support for Ukraine is 'nearing inevitable end,' Medvedev says

Washington will soon stop providing support to Kiev, as it spends too much on it to little or no avail on the battlefield, the Russian Security Council’s Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has said.

"US lawmakers are derailing the funding of Israeli and Ukrainian military spending for this year. The reasons are technical and… not quite technical," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

"While in Israel’s case the reason is obviously technical, for that country is more important to the US Congress than its own, everything is more complicated as far as the Ukrainian regime is concerned," Medvedev said, drawing attention to the fact that "the United States easily writes off its minions when they become useless."

Medvedev forecasts that this is exactly what will happen to Ukraine.

"The reason is not just the Republicans and Democrats are at odds on the eve of the US presidential election. They're just fed up: these minions devour mammoth funds, theft thrives and nothing has been achieved on the battlefield," he explained. "Also, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis has erupted. To put it in a nutshell, the support for this scoundrel on the loose is nearing its inevitable end," Medvedev concluded.

He acknowledged that Washington's support would not run dry overnight.

"More money will be squandered, there will follow more schizoid rhetoric about democracy, bombastic assurances of a coming victory, false promises of allied relations for all time, and so on and so forth. But the situation is clear: the moment when another US puppet will sink into oblivion is drawing near,'" he emphasized.

"The problem is that this Banderovite has not yet realized who he really is," Medvedev added.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian shelling kills two, wounds 12, in Ukraine's Kherson region

Russian shelling killed two people and injured at least 12 on Thursday in different areas of southern Ukraine's Kherson region, local officials said.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said a 75-year-old woman had died in the evening in her apartment in Kherson, the region's largest town, as Russian forces shelled from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that they largely occupy.

Eight people were injured, he wrote on Telegram.

Prokudin had earlier reported an afternoon attack in the village of Bilozerka on the Dnipro's west bank. The body of a man was found under rubble and a man and three women were being treated in hospital.

"A critical infrastructure object was also destroyed. Now Bilozerka and surrounding villages are without electricity," Prokudin said on Telegram.

A grocery store and houses were also damaged, he said. Images from the site shared by Prokudin showed a one-storey building with shattered windows and damage to the walls, as well as several cars covered with traces of shelling.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Russian troops abandoned Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River late last year, but now regularly shell those areas from positions on the eastern bank.

Ukrainian officials this week said their forces had crossed the river and were operating on the eastern bank.

“Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death…It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, you better be running.”

First attributed to Dan Montano in The Economist, but popularised by Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat.

If, 20 years ago, you asked me whether big technology (or big tech) companies were a threat to journalism, my answer would have been an emphatic yes. After all, these companies do our job without our job description. They also disrupt the media space while taking little responsibility for content.

Perhaps I should explain that there is a slight difference in form, but not always in substance, between big tech and big search engines.

While big tech could sometimes be a dominant player in information technology hardware, like Samsung, or in e-commerce, like Amazon, search engines are software monsters although both core hardware and software providers in this field have the capacity as we have seen, for forward or backward linkages. I will focus more on search engines, at least a few in the big league that have significantly disrupted our work, for good or ill.

I’m sure you know them – Google, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Yahoo, YouTube, Baidu and so on. Please don’t add MySpace to this list; it died before they could write our obituary.

The buzz-word these days, is “sustainability.” What does it mean? One of the most practical definitions I have seen is, “sustainability consists of fulfilling the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations.”

As to whether big tech poses an existential threat to the survival of the Nigerian media and the way out, if indeed such a threat exists, we shall see soon enough.

How media earns

Traditional media’s two basic sources of revenue are advertising and circulation or subscription sales. On the face of it, the fear of a journalistic doomsday appears justified in light of catastrophic declines in revenues from these two major sources of media income.

The relationship between big tech and traditional news media is already complex enough. But I can assure you that the impact of big tech on the media as we know it is just beginning. The Reuters Institute has already predicted this year to be the breakthrough year for artificial intelligence and its application for journalism.

The institute rightly said the arrival of ChatGPT has transformed the debate over whether AI is here to stay or not. In its journal, Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2023, the Institute said about ChatGPT, “Its speed and capabilities are awe-inspiring and frightening at the same time. While the underlying models have been around for some time, ChatGPT has turned these into an accessible prototype that gives a real sense of where AI may be heading. It can tell jokes (but has been trained not to tell racist or sexist ones), come up with plots for a film or book, write computer code.”

In case you missed it, AI even mocked our industry in the report by summarising the challenges facing local news media in 50 words!  Here’s the Q&A:

“NI: Can you summarise the challenges facing local media in 50 words.

ChatGPT: The challenges facing local media include the decline of print media and advertising revenues, competition from online news sources, and the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on local businesses, which are the major sources of advertising revenue. These challenges have made it difficult for local news outlets to sustain their operations and continue to provide important coverage and information to their communities.”

More news outlets, including News24 of South Africa, are training their systems with the voices of their popular anchors with astonishing accuracy.

Big Tech: Archenemy, Frenemy, or Friend?

Big tech may be playing more actively in our industry than us, taking an increasing share of our money and maybe our jobs without being responsible – both in proprietorship and accountability – for the information it disseminates. It has exploited its unmatched reach, ability to use algorithms to tailor content to suit consumers, and real-time engagement advantage to retain consumers. But as they say, there are two sides to a coin.

Positive Impact:

1. Increased Exposure:

• Big tech platforms provide news media companies with a vast audience. Articles and videos can be shared and spread rapidly on these platforms, leading to increased visibility and traffic for news outlets.

2. New Revenue Streams:

• Some tech platforms have revenue-sharing agreements with news media companies. For example, YouTube shares ad revenue with news organisations that post videos on its platform, once you reach a certain threshold.

3. Better Analytics:

• Tech platforms provide news media companies with sophisticated analytic tools that allow them to better understand their audiences and tailor content to user preferences.

4. Engagement Opportunities:

• Social media platforms allow news outlets to interact with their audience in a way that wasn’t possible before. They can receive immediate feedback, address concerns, and build communities around their content.

Negative Impact:

1. Ad Revenue Competition:

• Big tech companies have diverted advertising revenues away from traditional media outlets. They offer targeted advertising based on vast amounts of data, which is often more appealing to advertisers. I was scandalised during the recent general elections in Nigeria that folks who had built their careers in the mainstream and whom we were banking on left us high and dry, with the excuse that their principals wanted minimum use of legacy media platforms! But I understood, even if I did so with a heavy heart! Why? A BBC online report www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zd9bd6f/revision/7 said, “Politicians are investing heavily in the use of websites, blogs, podcasts and social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter as a way of reaching voters.”

“During the 2019 election campaign,” the BBC report continued, “the Conservatives spent one million pounds on Facebook alone, at a point, running 2,500 adverts.”

Let’s look at some more numbers: Google earned about $3bn from sales to China-based advertisers in 2018; Google UK earned £3.34bn in 18 months ending December 2021 as total revenue in the UK market; in 2022 Google’s share of UK digital advert market was 38 percent of all adverts valued at £5.72bn.

If the UK media is complaining, I’ll advise they should not do so as loudly as us. Why?  I’m sure most of you already know that on revenue from traffic, for example, while you can get as much as $2 in CPM from traffic from the UK or the US, the best you can hope to get from local traffic, that is, traffic from Nigeria regardless of the size, is probably 80cents per 1000! Sure, this example is related to revenue from traffic; but the ratio, even for advertising is not significantly different.

2. Spread of Misinformation:

• The ease of sharing on social media platforms can contribute to the spread of misinformation. This not only misleads the public but also undermines trust in news media.

3. Algorithmic Control:

• The algorithms used by tech platforms control what content is seen and what is buried. This can lead to a loss of control for news media over how and to whom their content is distributed. In an article by Kanchan Srivastava, published on February 27, 2023, entitled, “Surviving the algorithm: News publishers walk the tightrope as Google ‘updates’ hit hard,” the author quoted a respondent as saying, “Google has released major algo updates in 2022, which impacted search traffic across publishers.” Publishers didn’t find two major updates last year by the big tech funny at all.

4. Dependency:

• News media companies may become dependent on these platforms for traffic and revenue, which can be risky given the changing algorithms and policies.

5. Potential for Censorship:

• Big tech companies have the power to censor or prioritise certain types of news content based on their own policies or external pressures, which can impact the democratic discourse.

6. Data Privacy Concerns:

• There are concerns about how big tech companies handle user data, and these concerns extend to the partnerships between tech platforms and news media companies.

7. Dilution of Brand Identity:

• Being lumped together with a multitude of other content producers on a single platform can dilute a news outlet’s brand identity.

    8. Room for redress

    • Complaints about discriminatory business or editorial practices from Nigeria and a number other developing countries are hardly treated with seriousness

All About Algorithm, the Devil?

Not all the challenges summarised by AI were brought upon the traditional media by big tech. Nor are we here solely because of Google’s malicious fiddling with its algo. We in the traditional media space share in the blame for what took our industry from distress to life support.

I will tweak HBS Clayton Christensen a bit by saying for a long time, we were innovating our products in response to technological shifts, with very little attention to our business models, or if you’ll pardon my drift, what E. Jerome McCarthy described in his book, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach,as the 7Ps of marketing – Product, Promotion, Price, Place, People, Process and Physical Evidence.

Nothing depicts this more tellingly than media organisations’ need to reconsider obsolete editorial culture and imbibe new ones, especially in the areas of collaboration, audience-centered production, and creating an audience community.

To be able to compete favourably, media houses may have to take another look at the redundancy levels in-house. Reuters Institute predicted that more newspapers would stop daily print production due to rising print costs and the weakening of distribution networks. It also predicted a further spate of venerable titles switching to an online-only model. They are happening before our own eyes.

Let me be local. In LEADERSHIP the average production costs of our major consumables – newsprint, plates, ink, energy – have risen, with the most significant rise being in energy cost, which increased by 40 percent in one year, while our advert rates have remained largely constant.

Survival in the media industry used to depend on rivalry in the media; now it depends on collaboration. Recent collaborative works on the Pandora Papers, BureauLocal, and the #CoronaVirusFacts have shown that media organisations can work with colleagues across boundaries to share resources for the common good.

In 2020, Aliaa El-Shabassy, a teaching assistant at Cairo University, listed six reader needs outlined by the BBC for media organisations that want to stay ahead and compete with tech platforms. Why should other media companies listen to the BBC’s advice? Well, its global reach in 2020 was 468.2m people a week!

El-Shabassy wrote, “During Corona's peak when audiences needed a trustworthy source to rely on, BBC News scored the highest reach among other international media organisations. Moreover, according to the annual Global Audience Measure, a total of 151 million users per week are accessing BBC's news and entertainment content digitally.”

Six reader needs that any Media Practitioner must be aware of, according to the BBC are:

Update me – which means in the era of information overload, your audience should know in a new light what they already know about.  

Give me perspective – it is a newsroom's own goal to believe that perspective can only be shaped by the newsroom. Your audience can provide perspective.    

Educate me – everyone wants to learn about an exciting new thing. Once you provide diverse content with curiosity value, your audience will be eager to find more from you.

Keep me on trend – audiences want to be kept trending. Perhaps that was why the BBC reached a record number of people during Covid-19.

Amuse me – one of the reasons tech platforms prioritise user-generated content (remember Facebook’s pivot to video) over professionally produced content is that they have better entertainment value to attract adverts. The simple truth is that if you make your audience smile, they will most likely come back. It doesn’t always have to be serious! The more entertaining yet informative your content is, the more your institution is likely to grow.

Inspire me – inspiring stories attract younger audiences more than others and younger audiences source content through tech platforms more. Do the math!

Big Stick for Big Tech

Yet, big tech can’t get off lightly. In 2021, and despite heavy criticism, the Australian government pioneered a new media bargaining code that compels tech platforms to negotiate payment to local news media outlets for using their content.

Initially criticised as a form of subsidy from big tech to big media, significantly because of the role played by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the law has been hugely successful. Both big and small media outlets have benefitted from the law while the country’s journalism practice has also been revitalised, leading to the creation of new journalism jobs.

In an article published in 2022 by Brookings, Courtney Radsch, Fellow, Institute for Technology, Law and Policy, UCLA, wrote that Australia’s big tech regulatory efforts were developed around three thrusts: taxation, competition/antitrust, and intellectual property.

The bargaining code therefore allows publishers to collectively bargain without violating antitrust laws; requires tech platforms to negotiate with publishers for the use of news snippets; also requires them to pay licensing fees to publishers; and taxes digital advertising and uses the revenue to subsidise news outlets.    

The EU, US and India have since adopted their own media bargaining code and the idea of compelling big tech to pay for news they don’t produce but use and sell is gaining momentum, has been gaining global support since Australia took the bull by the horns.

I’m aware that the Newspaper Proprietor’s Association of Nigeria (NPAN) set up a committee in July to examine the possibility of collective bargaining with big tech.

Staying in business

Understanding that consumers hold all – or most – of the aces, is the first step towards sustainability. For perspective, a paper entitled, “The Newspaper: Emerging Trends, Opportunities, and Strategies for Survival and Sustainability,” by Frank Aigbogun presented at a retreat for NPAN on July 18, 2023, said between 2010 and 2015, audience time spent spend on online media consumption soared to 150%. In that time, audience time spent on television decreased to -8%; radio, -15%; magazine, -23%; and newspaper, -31%.

The reality of digital media is that evolution has brought about new competition and fresh opportunities. Solutions journalism, citizens journalism, and a deeper interface between journalism and technology are the order of the day. There was a time when we consumed music via turntables, stereos with records, and then cassettes and then compact discs. Album sales are no longer used to measure the success of a body of work.

Now it is streaming, the playground of big tech companies such as Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, TIDAL, Pandora, etc. If technology did not pose an existential threat to the music industry, I do not think big tech would end journalism.

Reuters Institute said, “Better data connections have opened up possibilities beyond just text and pictures and smartphone adoption has accelerated the use of visual journalism, vertical video, and podcasts.”

Good content should not be free. What technology is doing, therefore, is to offer traditional media the opportunity to reach more people and make a profit.

Through the use of content and tech-led innovation, a growing list of brands are expanding into broadcast and streaming TV to grow and engage their audiences, and bring in new revenue streams. This involves the use of new formats, new technology, and new products to broaden and retain the audience base.

In addition, feedback tools, such as engagement matrices, are being used to “galvanise the industry on loyalty” (according to the Financial Times, which now uses the RFV – Recency, Frequency, and Volume of reading its digital content).

Traditional media organisations in Nigeria also need to rethink their business models, from content to distribution and personnel costs. One of the ways some media organisations are going about change in business model is by targeting niche markets, while others invest in research, education and learning.

Other ideas you may find useful in turning an existential threat to an opportunity for sustainable growth, are:

● Diversify: Think about Julius Berger now into massive production and export of cashew nuts! Think about games, films, books, special events & publications, etc

● Preserve your candle: Don’t give content free and still not collect and deploy customer data. Know your audiences and cultivate them

● Re-purpose content

● Review your systems and processes regularly and take tough decisions

● Be ethical

● Invest in talent

Keep running!

Let me return to the first sentence of this presentation. Yes, big tech poses a threat because of the opaque relationship it has with traditional media. However, is this threat going to pull the plug on journalism? I’ll say no. I’ll be the first to admit that the prevailing mood in the media industry is one of uncertainty.

To be certain, nothing will bring back the days when advertisement and circulation were enough to successfully run a media organisation. Also, because the media is a kind of cultural sector that does not necessarily respond to the principles of demand and supply, media organisations that fail to swim with the tide will continue to struggle or pack up altogether. If we invest in what feels relevant and useful to consumers, then we have nothing to worry about because technology will help us know exactly how to adapt and reach our target audience.

What we should worry about instead is how to retain the ethics of our practice in the face of robotic and artificial media which might just overpower the audiences we share.

Remember: whether you’re a lion or a gazelle, you better be running!

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP. This is a slightly modified version of the paper he presented at the 19th All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) at the Akwa Ibom Hotel & Gold Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on Wednesday, November 15, 2023