WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Major Russian air strikes destroy Kyiv power plant, damage other stations

Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, officials said, ramping up pressure on the embattled energy system as Kyiv runs low on air defences.

The major attack more than two years since Russia's full-scale invasioncompletely destroyed the Trypilska coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital, a senior official at the company that runs the facility told Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had been obliged to launch the strikes in response to Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks on energy targets inside Russia.

Footage on social media showed a fire raging at the large Soviet-era facility and smoke belching from it. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video as the Trypilska station.

"We need air defence and other defence support, not eye-closing and long discussions," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram, condemning the attacks as "terror".

The Russian defence ministry said it hit fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine in what it described as a massive retaliatory strike using drones and high-precision, long-range weapons from air and sea.

The strikes were a response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's oil, gas and energy facilities, it said.

Putin told his ally, Belarusian Presudent Alexander Lukashenko that the attacks were a part of Russia's objective of the "demilitarisation" of Ukraine - one of the objectives of the Kremlin's 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

"Unfortunately, we observed a series of strikes on our energy sites recently and were obliged to respond," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling Lukashenko.

"The strikes on energy are linked in part with solving one of the tasks we set for ourselves, and that is demilitarisation. We believe above all that in this way we will affect Ukraine's military industrial complex and in a very direct way."

Russia, he said, had refrained from carrying out such attacks in winter "out of humanitarian considerations".

Kyiv's appeals for urgent air defence supplies from the West have grown increasingly desperate since Russia renewed its long-range aerial assaults on the Ukrainian energy system last month.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was blunt in repeating calls for more U.S.-made Patriot systems.

"What is there to discuss?" he told the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform during a visit to Slovakia. "There is only a single question: Give us Patriot systems! If we had Patriots, we would not have lost all of this today."

The attacks, which hammered thermal and hydroelectric power plants, sparked fears about the resilience of an energy system hobbled by a Russian air campaign in the war's first winter.

Ukraine's air force commander said air defences took down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 drones. The attack used 82 missiles and drones in total, the military said.

The destroyed power plant outside Kyiv, a major supplier for the capital and Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, is the third and last facility owned by state-owned energy company Centrenergo.

"Everything is destroyed," Andriy Gota, head of the supervisory board of the company, said when asked about the situation at Centrenergo.

BIGGEST ENERGY SUPPLIER NEAR THE CAPITAL

The Trypilska plant was the biggest energy facility near Kyiv and was built to have a capacity of 1,800 megawatts, more than the pre-war needs of Ukraine's biggest city.

The Ukrenergo grid operator said its substations and power generating facilities had been damaged in attacks on the regions of Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kyiv.

Ukraine's largest private electricity company DTEK, which lost 80% of its generating capacity in attacks on March 22 and March 29, said Russia's attacks hit two of its power stations.

On Thursday afternoon, Russian forces attacked a thermal power station in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine with guided bombs. The scale of damage was not immediately clear.

The strikes also attacked two underground storage facilities where Ukraine stores natural gas, including some owned by foreign companies, energy company Naftogaz said. The facilities continued to operate, it added.

"The situation in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to lose," said U.S. ambassador Bridget Brink, adding that 10 missiles struck infrastructure in the Kharkiv area alone.

The grid operator issued a statement urging Ukrainians to minimise their use of electricity in the peak evening hours.

The region of Kharkiv, which borders Russia and already has long, rolling blackouts in place, was forced to cut electricity for 200,000 people, presidential aide Oleksiy Kuleba said.

Ukraine has warned it could run out of air defence munitions if Russia keeps up the intensity of its strikes and that it is already having to make difficult decisions about what to defend.

There has been a slowdown in Western assistance and a major U.S. aid package has been blocked by Republicans in Congress.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine forcing troops to keep fighting

The Ukrainian parliament has voted against demobilizing the country’s longest-serving conscripts, forcing them to stay on the front indefinitely. The vote came as lawmakers passed a broad mobilization bill imposing new restrictions on draft-dodgers, and potentially drafting the handicapped.

The legislature voted on Thursday to pass a long-awaited bill aimed at replenishing the country’s beleaguered armed forces. The bill was expected to include a passage allowing troops who have served for 36 months to be demobilized, but a last-minute amendment removed this passage, effectively compelling these troops to keep fighting past February 2025.

The amendment passed by 227 votes to 21, with 97 lawmakers abstaining, according to the Kiev Post.

It was first seen in a final version of the bill published on Wednesday, and its inclusion angered service members who had been expecting some reprieve from combat.

“This is a disaster... How could it be possible to promise demobilization to soldiers…only to abandon them at the end?”Ukrainian State Border Guard Service officer Maxim Nesmaynov wrote on Facebook. “You can’t take away hope from soldiers that they will return home. Someone is trying to destroy the country from inside!”

Ukraine has been in a state of martial law since the conflict with Russia broke out in February 2022. Under martial law, Ukrainian conscripts are required to serve until the end of hostilities, with few exceptions. 

General Aleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, insisted to lawmakers that this requirement remain in place, the Kiev Post reported.

Thursday’s bill includes a raft of measures aimed at bolstering military recruitment. It requires all Ukrainian citizens living abroad to upload their personal information to a recruitment database, mandates that all citizens aged between 18 and 60 carry military registration documents, and bans military service evaders from driving. The bill also requires individuals previously deemed unfit for service due to disabilities to be re-evaluated for enlistment, and introduces a three-month period of mandatory military service for citizens under 24.

The bill will now be sent to the desk of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to be signed into law. Earlier this month, Zelensky – at the insistence of some of his Western backers – signed a controversial law lowering the military conscription age to 25 from 27.

Ukraine has lost more than 440,000 troops since February 2022, according to figures published last month by the Russian Defense Ministry. In an update last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu put the Ukrainian military’s losses since January at more than 80,000 men.

Reuters/RT

The words of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were honey to taste. Following the bitter ending of the 12-year rule of Macky Sall, highlighted by the widespread belief that France is at the heart of Senegal’s misery, a forlorn country enthusiastically lapped up Faye’s promise of a future untainted by French shenanigans.

At a stage, it was not clear who was the public enemy #1: Sall or France? 

Sall started well. He came to office in 2012 with solid credentials, looking every inch like what Senegal needed to break away from the incompetence and cronyism of Abdoulaye Wade under whom the country had lost its way. 

Sall was an elite with a strong connection to the grassroots. He rallied the opposition against Wade including committing the unthinkable sin of breaking off from the ruling Parti Democratique Senegalaise (PDS) under which he served as minister. He even dragged the president’s son to account before parliament. 

Senegalese applauded. After only a few years as president Sall offered to reduce his own term to set an example, but the country said over its dead body. If Senegal could not afford to crown him for life, he must complete his two-term limit of seven years each. 

It’s a decision it would later regret. The country had to drag Sall through an economy in a shambles, a country falling apart, and over one dozen dead in street protests to get him out of office. By this time, he had already exceeded his constitutional term limit. Sall, in short, became the very thing that he campaigned against.

France as dirty word

And France? That’s a different story. From Mali to Burkina Faso and from Guinea to Niger, France has become a dirty word, even though the elite in these countries are too ashamed to admit there’s nothing France has done without their helping hand. France is not just a metaphor for underdevelopment. You’ll be forgiven to think it’s probably also the reason some formerly virile folks in the former colonies have lost their libido. It’s not a laughing matter.

Faye’s inauguration address on April 2 was applauded because in a continent blighted by incompetent gerontocrats he is, at 44, the youngest president in Senegal’s 63-year history. But his speech was just as important. To say “enough” to France a fric – a perversion of France Afrique the harmless slogan of cooperation – that has made French West Africa France’s cash machine was a big deal. And Faye said it somewhat elegantly.

Sall is past tense. But promising Senegalese a future outside the grip of France, a grip forged decades before Faye was born, is where the tyre meets the road. It’s an ambitious promise made not based on where Senegal is today, but on where it wishes to be.

Dialing back to Senghor

Let’s dial back. Like a number of colonies, especially the French ones, Senegal was a part of France, in law and spirit. Senegal’s first President Leopold Sedar Senghor and an in-law of France, was one of the nine African deputies at the Constituent Assembly in Paris in 1945 that prepared the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which brought de Gaulle to power. 

That constitution according to Martin Meredith’s The Fortunes of Africa, “Endorsed the emphasis it placed on the ‘indivisible’ nature of the Union Francaise,” a union which of course included Francophone West Africa.

Anyone in doubt about the value of Union Francaise, need to be reminded that when de Gaulle died in 1970, Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic wept at the funeral of the man he fondly called “Papa.” Guinea’s Sekou Toure was the exception to Francophone West Africa’s mushy-mushy.

At independence, even though Senegal was better off than a number of other countries, it still relied heavily on French subsidies to pay its bills. Of course, things have changed somewhat in the last six decades, but only somewhat.

On the day that Faye took his oath of office, pledging to cut French wings to size, France remained the largest exporter to Senegal with goods such as medicines, wheat, and copper wire. In the last 27 years, France exports to Senegal have increased at an annual rate of 3.39 percent from $461 million in 1995 to $1.1 billion in 2022.

Of course, Nigeria, Morocco, and Ghana are also popping up on the radar, with Senegal’s intra-African trade growing by about eight percent but it would take more than a passionate inauguration speech to topple French interest, also deeply embedded in the oil and gas sectors by key businesses such as Total (formerly Elf), or BNP Paribas and Societe Generale in the financial services. 

Scapegoating France?

Is it even necessary to scapegoat France? Of course, it’s the popular thing and perennial French greed, not to mention the arrogance and condescension of its last two presidents, have not helped matters. But beyond red-meat politics, why should the average Senegalese be given the impression that once France – and all things French – is out of the way, the country would be on its way to a life of happily ever after?

Faye and those in his corner would soon find that the truth is more nuanced. In today’s world, capital or investment is not monolingual. Whether it’s French, English, Arabic or Mandarin capital, it finds a home wherever it is made welcome, wherever it can find value.

It's not a matter of patriotic convenience, for example, that Abu Dhabi has conquered 

European football clubs and real estate. Britain, France, Germany and other European countries where the Emirati kingdom is invested made them feel welcome, whatever the right-wing sentiments in these countries may be. 

Twenty-five years ago, this same kingdom, not far from the region where the West likes to call the Axis of Evil, bought the Chrysler Building, one of the most iconic features of the New York skyline, for $800 million! And surely, Faye knows that for all its sabre-rattling against China nearly three percent of US foreign debt is owed to China.

Even though Senegal’s intra-African trade profile is looking up, CFA franc, which is still tied to the French treasury, remains the currency of Francophone countries. Plans by the 15-member regional block, Ecowas, to adopt a single currency since 1987, have gone nowhere. Similarly, Kenyan President William Ruto’s call for a pan-African payment system that would settle intra-African trade outside the dollar has gone nowhere.

Faye’s homework

For Faye to promise freedom from French grip on French money, French medicines and French food, is wishful thinking. The work must start from home, from within. The country must heal after the roller-coaster transition and also take steps to restore tourists’ confidence. Faye’s government needs to tackle corruption, strengthen the justice system, and help farmers deal with the impact of climate change. 

There’s no need to demonise France. A strategic reset of Senegal’s relationship with Paris can begin with Dakar creating an environment that works for investment – wherever it is coming from – while the new government also leverages regional cooperation, especially with moderate Francophone countries in the region. 

And the country is not doing too badly in casting its net wide. China, Russia and India are following closely behind France as Senegal’s deep-pocket trading partners. Investments from these destinations may not speak French but they may just be as unserviceable as those from Paris or elsewhere if Faye does not create the right environment for them to thrive.

The political campaign is over: governance is where the tyre meets the road.

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

Apple sent threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries on Wednesday, warning them that may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.

The company said it sent the alerts to individuals in 92 nations at 12pm Pacific Time Wednesday. The notification, which TechCrunch has seen, did not disclose the attackers’ identities or the countries where users received notifications.

“Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-,” it wrote in the warning to affected customers.

“This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously,” Apple added in the text.

The iPhone-maker sends these kind of notifications multiple times a yearand has notified users to such threats in over 150 countries since 2021, per an updated Apple support page.

Apple also sent an identical warning to a number of journalists and politicians in India in October last year. Later, nonprofit advocacy group Amnesty International reported that it had found Israeli spyware maker NSO Group’s invasive spyware Pegasus on the iPhones of prominent journalists in India. (Users in India are among those who have received Apple’s latest threat notifications, according to people familiar with the matter.)

The spyware alerts arrive at a time when many nations are preparing for elections. In recent months, many tech firms have cautioned about rising state-sponsored efforts to sway certain electoral outcomes. Apple’s alerts, however, did not remark on their timing.

“We are unable to provide more information about what caused us to send you this notification, as that may help mercenary spyware attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future,” Apple told affected customers.

Apple previously described the attackers as “state-sponsored” but has replaced all such references with “mercenary spyware attacks.”

The warning to customers adds: “Mercenary spyware attacks, such as those using Pegasus from the NSO Group, are exceptionally rare and vastly more sophisticated than regular cybercriminal activity or consumer malware.”

Apple said it relies solely on “internal threat-intelligence information and investigations to detect such attacks.” “Although our investigations can never achieve absolute certainty, Apple threat notifications are high-confidence alerts that a user has been individually targeted by a mercenary spyware attack and should be taken very seriously,” it added.

Tech Crunch

Attaining business growth on a shoestring budget can be a daunting task, but it is by no means impossible. Over the past few years, we have seen some compelling stories across industries, but one of the strong use cases is playing out in the entertainment and film industry, revolutionized by the growth of streaming platforms.

The recent changes in the industry have seen a steady growth in independent film studios, which are beginning to take their slice of the pie in the industry where major studios have monopolized for over a century. 

To glean some industry insight, I had a chat with Kareem Davis, the founder of Imperium Features and an indie filmmaker who has built an impressive company starting from a low-to-no budget and made quite a splash in the industry in recent times. 

The Power of Exploration and Education

Working on a shoestring budget requires exactitude, because smaller budgets can afford few mistakes. Exploration and education are tools that enable a dreamer to immerse themself in the rhythm of their dream before investing directly in it.

It may come in the form of taking a job in your industry of choice, interning in a company or undergoing an apprenticeship. The idea is to study the industry from within to understand what is required.

"I started as a self-taught filmmaker in Atlanta," says Davis. "I learned the ropes of filmmaking through trial and error and finally established my first film studio in 2017 and began a journey of explorative moviemaking on a shoestring budget. When I look back, my season of exploration was crucial to the success I am now receiving."

Whether you choose the self-funding route or you choose to raise capital, the benefit of hands-on experience in your industry of choice cannot be overstated.

Working with a shoestring budget will demand that you be as accurate as possible and spot-on in your decision-making, or you could be out of business in no time. 

Take Advantage of Available Innovation

Over the past two decades, streaming has gradually risen to the fore in the movie and entertainment industry, with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube taking the lion's share of international entertainment distribution.

These platforms have disrupted the industry and opened up doors for independent studios to at least compete with major studios. 

With streaming, reach and access are just a click away, enabling viewers to consume entire seasons in a day. This constant demand for fresh ideas presents challenges and opportunities in the industry, creating more work and possibilities for young and upcoming filmmakers.

The lesson for shoestring entrepreneurs is this: Take advantage of what is readily available while working toward your loftier goals and sell to the customer base that is available now while working toward expansion. How you do anything is how you do everything. 

Distribution Is King, and It Doesn't Have to Be Expensive

The marketing budget often has one of the largest numbers of zeros assigned to it for a reason: Everything done in-house is for consumption by those outside and a brilliant idea is useless if no one experiences it.

In the current streaming era, independent film studios have to work smarter to get their work seen, but there are many ways to be seen without spending much money. 

"In the past, I have utilized the immediate people around me," Davis says.

"Your cast and crew are more than just that, they are essentially your first street team. Having them be so proud of the project they do curated social media posts (preapproved by you) is a great way to begin to build anticipation for your film. Marketing is key and not just any type of marketing. Spectacle marketing is wild and an attention grabber. Take your film to the streets!"

From social media to local PR, there are loads of ways to get your work seen without spending so much cash. Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of waiting to have enough money to do proper marketing, but in reality, proper marketing is not defined by the amount of money spent, although it certainly helps.

Many of the biggest indies have used local publications that may be willing to feature their story; they also use location-based marketing to extend their paid ads. 

Research shows the success rate of targeted marketing supersedes market reach. Indie filmmakers may target their hometown, actors or alma mater if they are film school alumni.

Still, these lessons transcend the film industry and apply to every other entrepreneur looking to make a name for themself in an industry led by many big players.

Creativity and speed are some of the biggest advantages that smaller businesses have over big businesses. Any business can get the attention it needs by leveraging these two assets, combined with today's modern tools.

Inc

As a result of insecurity, higher transportation costs, poor topography and bad roads, the cost of trade in Nigeria is four to five times higher than what is obtained in the United States, the World Bank has revealed.

In its latest Africa Pulse released, the global bank said market distortions across Africa result in high price differentials in imported food and non-food products, indicating a lack of integration across African markets.

“Similarly, access to product markets is constrained, which prevents firms and farms from scaling up production. In particular, the lack of connectivity and market integration means that markets are segmented, allowing firms or farms with market power to capture benefits, contributing to income inequality,” it stated.

It added that studies from the African region consistently find spatial differences in prices of imported goods (food and non-food) as well as non-traded agricultural staples, indicating that markets are not well-integrated and that retail prices of products are affected by distance.

It noted that food inflation and the weakening of domestic currencies are still major
drivers of inflation in Nigeria and other countries in the region.

According to the report, by February 2024, about one-third of the Sub-Saharan African countries with monthly available food price information (14 of 40 countries) had double-digit year-on-year rates of food inflation, with the fastest increases experienced in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.

For instance, trade costs more in Nigeria than in the United States, due to poor road infrastructure, low competition in the transportation sector and poor topography.

The report concluded that the consequences of these distortions include the preference of African producers to sell locally rather than export. Furthermore, it noted that frictions in the labour markets across Africa are a result of high transport cost, elevated cost of screening workers and lack of information on labour opportunities.

The bank said the state involvement through regulation in markets across Africa also creates barriers to trade competition and investment. It also noted the tendency for big players in such environments to set prices above market rate to the disadvantage of consumers, small competitors and workers.

“Global analysis of World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indicators of product market regulations suggest that barriers to competition in product markets tend to be higher in African countries, due to a high degree of state involvement in markets, legal and administrative barriers to entrepreneurship, as well as barriers to trade and investment,” it noted.

It concluded by saying that such an anti-competitive market environment stifles innovation and further inhibits the growth trajectory of the economy.

The Guardian

Cocoa gained in New York, with prices heading back toward a record high amid lingering fears about global shortages.

Futures climbed as much as 4% to head for a fourth straight increase. Prices have surged this year — recently exceeding $10,000 a ton — as poor West African harvests put the world on course for another annual deficit, threatening to further raise chocolate prices.

“West African near-term supply remains very tight at the start of the mid-crop harvest, and that has provided underlying support to the cocoa market,” the Hightower Report said.

The crunch is making it harder and more expensive for the world’s chocolate makers to secure beans, with the parent of Godiva signaling it will raise prices due to soaring costs. Still, Barry Callebaut AG, which supplies some of the biggest consumer chocolate brands, on Wednesday indicated that it’s managing to weather the crisis and is so far “well covered” for supplies.

During a Wednesday conference call, Barry Callebaut’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Feldsaid the company is being cautious amid the uncertainty in cocoa markets. “We believe that what goes up fast, comes down fast at one point in time. And we’re preparing for that,” he said.

Bloomberg

Nigeria's health regulator is recalling a batch of Johnson & Johnson children's cough syrup after finding an unacceptably high level of a potentially fatal toxic substance, it said on Wednesday.

Laboratory tests on Benylin Paediatric showed a high level of diethylene glycol, which has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since 2022 in one of the world's worst waves of poisoning from oral medication.

The syrup is used to treat cough and congestion-related symptoms, hay fever and other allergic reactions in children aged two to 12, Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said in a notice on its website.

"Laboratory analysis conducted on the product showed that it contains an unacceptable high level of Diethylene glycol and was found to cause acute oral toxicity in laboratory animals," NAFDAC said.

Human consumption of the substance could cause symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches and acute kidney injury that may result in death, the regulator added.

J&J referred a request for comment to Kenvue, which now owns the Benylin brand after a spin-off last year. Kenvue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The batch being recalled was made in South Africa in May 2021 with an expiration date of April 2024. The regulator urged those with bottles from the batch to discontinue use or sale and submit them to its nearest office.

Reuters

Voters in many countries are suffering a crisis of faith in their democracies and institutions, a survey by a governance watchdog showed, painting a bleak picture in a year in which more than half of the world's population holds elections.

With the United States, India, Britain and the European Union going to the polls in 2024, the report published on Thursday by the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) offers a sombre snapshot of the perceived health of many democracies.

The results show that voters in 11 of the 19 countries surveyed, which included the U.S. and India, fewer than half of the people believed the most recent election was free and fair.

Only voters in Denmark believed courts 'always' or 'often' provide access to justice, while in 8 of 19 countries, more people had favourable views of "a strong leader who doesn't have to bother with parliament or elections" than had unfavourable views.

"Democracies must respond to the scepticism of their public, both by improving governance and by combating the growing culture of disinformation that has fostered false accusations against credible elections," International IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said in a statement.

This year's presidential election in the United States is likely to see incumbent Democrat Joe Biden face off again against ex-president Donald Trump.

The survey showed that only 47 per cent of respondents in the United States expressed faith that the country had credible electoral processes.

Elections for Europe's parliament which take place in June could see big gains for the far-right and impact policy from support for Ukraine in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion to measures to address climate change.

In February, the parliament condemned what it called Russian attempts to undermine European democracy.

The survey, conducted between July 2023 and January 2024, polled about 1,500 people in each of 19 countries including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, The Gambia, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Pakistan, Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Korea and Tanzania.

Reuters

ISRAELI REPORTS

Three sons of Hamas leader Haniyeh killed in Israeli airstrike

Three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an IAF airstrike in Gaza on Wednesday, an anonymous senior Israeli diplomatic official said, while at the same time there were widespread denials that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz knew about the attack. 

It was unclear if the later denial was legitimate or if Netanyahu or some other officials may have known about it, but decided afterward that the cost of the attack to the hostage negotiations or with being rebuked by the US was too high to take credit. In general, the IDF has been careful in such situations, especially with hostage talks ongoing, to clear top level of attacks with the political echelon. 

All three sons were part of Hamas’s so-called military wing, Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, and Israel is ready to go after any member of Hamas involved in violence, the official said.

** Gallant: We’ll flood Gaza with far more than 500 trucks of aid per day

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday announced what he called “new major breakthroughs” that would jump the humanitarian aid going into Gaza from around 200 trucks per day last week to well over 500 trucks per day.

The increase in aid would come as part of five new initiatives, Gallant said.

The new initiatives include:

1. Implementing last Thursday’s government decision to open up Ashdod Port to increase the entry of goods and streamline security checks.
2. Implementing last Thursday’s government decision to open up a new northern crossing (reportedly Erez), which would provide a route to bring aid directly to northern Gaza and reduce pressure on the Kerem Shalom crossing.
3. Boosting aid through Jordan with two routes, including cooperation with the Jordanian Air Force, for a total of 150 trucks). This will set the foundation for future hubs.
4. Establishing the coordination and deconfliction mechanism, which is part of a wider effort to increase cooperation with international organizations, implement lessons learned, such as the World Central Kitchen incident, and work with new partners.
5. Other major projects, including working with the US on the JLOTS artificial island for absorbing and distributing maritime aid, COGAT working on infrastructure projects, such as water lines, and other meetings with new aid organizations.

“These breakthroughs have a direct impact on the flow of aid,” Gallant said. “We plan to flood Gaza with aid, and we are expecting to reach 500 trucks per day” very soon. “It will also streamline security checks and strengthen our work with international partners.”

He also discussed how humanitarian aid has already spiked dramatically since last week.

On Tuesday, “we saw a record number of 467 trucks, and air-dropped 303 packages,” Gallant said. “Last month, the daily average was 213, and before that it was 170.”

“Our policy has evolved to facilitate more and more aid, as we improved work with partners and created the operational conditions to enable such work,” he said.

Although Gallant said he was pushing for many of these new initiatives since his meetings in Washington on March 25-26, he has received much stronger backing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since US President Joe Biden threatened the prime minister last Thursday.

Future crossings into Gaza 

Going forward, there will be four land crossings for aid: Nitzana, Kerem Shalom, Crossing 96, and the “northern crossing,” which is said to be Erez.

Israel has already facilitated the delivery of 407,400 tons of humanitarian aid on over 21,638 trucks, Gallant said.

There have been 62 air-drop missions that delivered 3,608 packages, he said.

There are seven working field hospitals and two in the planning stages (IMC and Red Cross), Gallant said.

Despite these improvements, increasing aid will face challenges “in terms of securing and distributing aid,” he said. “This is the result of Hamas threats and also the issue of planning for the day after Hamas.”

“There are three bad options for the day after: Hamas controlling Gaza, Israel controlling Gaza, and total anarchy,” Gallant said. “We need to create another option: to empower a local alternative. The humanitarian effort is key in empowering a local alternative.”

Defense sources have in the past accused Netanyahu of blocking initiatives to build local alternatives based on forces affiliated with Fatah in Gaza, including having the US train them in Jordan.

There was still no confirmation that Netanyahu has reversed himself on this issue given his general preference to weaken, or at least not strengthen, the Palestinian Authority. 

** IDF: The IDF eliminated the Head of Hamas' Emergency Bureau in the Central Camps

on Monday, directed by IDF intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck and eliminated the terrorist Hatem Alramery, Head of Hamas' Emergency Bureau in the Gaza Central Camps.

Alramery was a Hamas military wing operative in the field of projectile launches within the Maghazi Battalion of the Central Camps.

Attached is the profile of Hatem Alramery, Head of Hamas' Emergency Bureau in the Gaza Central Camps: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/anc09042024685464545

** IDF: Overnight, two launches from Lebanon toward the area of Misgav Am in northern Israel which fell in open areas were identified. No injuries were reported.

On Monday, one launch from Syria toward the area of Yonatan in the Golan Heights was identified. No injuries were reported. IDF artillery struck the sources of the fire.

Overnight on Tuesday, IDF fighter jets struck terrorist infrastructure belonging to the Syrian army in the area of Mhajjah. In addition, IDF artillery struck a Syrian military post in southern Syria last night.

** IDF: Terrorists eliminated and terrorist infrastructure destroyed; A terrorist who participated in the October 7th massacre was eliminated

On Monday, several launches from the Gaza Strip were fired toward the area of Re'im in southern Israel. Shortly after, IDF fighter jets struck a launch position, military compound, and underground tunnel shafts in the area from which the launch attack was carried out.

Throughout the past day, the IAF also struck and destroyed military compounds, launch posts, and numerous terrorist infrastructure sites throughout the Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, an IAF aircraft eliminated a terrorist in Khan Yunis who participated in the October 7th massacre.

IDF troops are continuing to operate in the central Gaza Strip. Over the past day, the troops eliminated a number of terrorists in close-quarter combat. Several additional terrorists who posed a threat to the troops were eliminated by aircraft strikes and precise sniper fire.

Attached are photos of IDF operational activity in the Gaza Strip: https://IDFANC.activetrail.biz/anc090420246854154162531

Attached is a video of IDF strikes in the Gaza Strip: https://bit.ly/3JdGr3s

** IDF: First operational interception by the "C-Dome" Defense System from a Sa'ar 6-class corvette

Overnight, for the first time ever, an IDF Sa'ar 6-class corvette missile ship successfully intercepted a UAV that had approached from the east and had crossed into the area of the Gulf of Eilat.

IDF troops in the area operated in cooperation with the IAF Aerial Control Unit and the Sa'ar 6-class corvette.

In accordance with the situational assessment since the beginning of the war, IDF missile boats including Sa'ar 6-class corvettes were positioned in the Red Sea.

The Israeli Navy is deployed in the area of the Red Sea and has both the defensive and offensive capabilities to engage with regional threats.

Attached is a video of the interception: https://bit.ly/4aO0NMc

Attached is IDF archive footage of the "C-Dome" Defense System: https://bit.ly/4aP9BBp

HAMAS’ REPORTS

Family sources: Hazem, Amir, and Muhammad Haniyeh, sons of the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, were martyred, along with a number of their children, in a bombing carried out by the occupation aircraft on the Beach camp, west of Gaza.

** A statement issued by the Yemeni Armed Forces

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

God Almighty said: {And God will surely help whoever helps him. Indeed, God is Powerful, Mighty} God Almighty has spoken the truth.

A victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people and a response to the American-British aggression against our country

With the help of God Almighty, the naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out four military operations this morning, as follows:

Targeting two Israeli ships, the first a ship (MSC Darwin) and the other, a ship (MSC GINA), which was targeted again in the Gulf of Aden.

Targeting the American ship MAERSK YORKTOWN in the Gulf of Aden.

Targeting an American warship in the Gulf of Aden with a number of drones.

The ships were targeted with a number of suitable naval missiles and drones.

The Yemeni armed forces continue to perform their religious, moral and humanitarian duty towards the oppressed Palestinian people and in defense of dear Yemen, and their operations in the Red and Arab Bahrain and in the Indian Ocean will continue until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.

God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs, the best protector, and the best helper

Long live Yemen, free, dear and independent

Victory belongs to Yemen and to all the free people of the nation

Sanaa, Shawwal 1, 1445 AH

Corresponding to April 10, 2024 AD

Issued by the Yemeni Armed Forces

#War_Media

The Jerusalem Post/Israel Defense Forces/Hamas Brigade al-Qassam

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces stage deadly attacks in southern, northern Ukraine

Russian forces launched deadly attacks on Wednesday on frequent targets in the south and north of Ukraine, in Kharkiv and Odesa regions, killing seven people and injuring many more, officials said.

In Odesa district in the south, an early evening missile attack killed four people, including a 10-year-old girl, and injured 14 more, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Kiper said four of the injured were in serious condition with doctors "fighting to save their lives". One man had had his legs amputated.

In northeastern Kharkiv region, which has been subjected to intensified Russian attacks on cities and energy sites in recent weeks, a strike on a pharmacy killed a 14-year-old girl and two women in the village of Lyptsi, regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Two people were injured and rescuers combed rubble for other possible victims.

Two guided bombs destroyed a clinic in the village of Vovchansk, injuring one person, Synehubov said. Separately, Russian troops dropped an explosive on a bus, wounding a man, according to the interior ministry.

On the Russian side of the border, Roman Starovoyt, governor of Kursk region, said three people, two of them children, were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a car.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.

In Odesa, Kiper said missiles, presumed to be Iskander-M ballistic missiles, struck between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (1500-1530 GMT) and also damaged transport infrastructure, including nearby trucks.

"People in cars and on foot were heading home at the end of the work day and became victims of a treacherous double strike," the Ukrainian military said on Telegram.

A petrol station had been hit and was still burning late in the evening, it said. Shops, warehouses and administrative buildings all sustained damage.

Odesa, one of Ukraine's busiest ports, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the 25-month-old war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the deaths in his nightly video address, saying, "Russian terror persists day and night at our border and in frontline areas".

Zelenskiy said he had discussed Ukraine's domestic production of missiles at a meeting of top commanders and military industry officials and said Ukrainian industry had achieved "the necessary results".

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US drones faring poorly in Ukraine conflict – WSJ

Small drones sent to Ukraine by US manufacturers have largely proved ineffective on the battlefield due to Russian electronic countermeasures, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The Ukraine conflict has seen the widespread use of small expandable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for reconnaissance, as well as for dropping small explosives and serving as loitering munitions. US products have proved unsatisfactory, however, forcing Kiev to rely on Chinese models instead, the WSJ reported on Tuesday. 

“The general reputation for every class of US drone in Ukraine is that they don’t work as well as other systems,” Adam Bry, CEO of drone maker Skydio, told the newspaper. He admitted his own company’s products are “not a very successful platform on the front lines.” 

Even some of the drones that the Pentagon has deemed fit for American soldiers have not fared well in the conflict, according to the report. The list of problematic weapons mentioned by the WSJ included AeroVironment Switchblade 300 loitering munitions, Velos Rotors V3 helicopter drones, and UAVs made by Cyberlux.

Ukrainian troops are burning through some 10,000 small drones a month, the report added. Many of them are off-the-shelf models produced by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology, or are assembled from Chinese components on Ukrainian soil. 

The Chinese firm, which has been banned from US military use for supposedly posing a national security risk, told the newspaper that it “absolutely deplores and condemns the use of its products to cause harm anywhere in the world.” 

Many American commercial drones cost tens of thousands of dollars more per piece than their Chinese competitors, the WSJ noted. US producers aiming to sell their UAVs to the Pentagon must meet its regulations, including restrictions on using Chinese parts and software updates.  

Russia has significantly increased domestic production of military drones amid the hostilities with Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported last November that the country was supplying 16 times more drones compared to January 2023.

Forbes suggested in December that Ukrainian assessments that Russia makes as many as 40,000 smaller first-person-view kamikaze quadcopters per month may be too conservative.  

Reuters/RT