Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday dismissed reports alleging that some licensed commercial banks in the country failed to meet the Capital Adequacy Ratio, (CAR).

A statement by the bank’s spokesperson, Sidi Hakama, said that key financial soundness indicators which reflect the stability and resilience of the sector, as detailed in its most recent Economic Report of 2023, remain well within the regulatory thresholds.

The adequacy ratio offers a swift assessment of whether a bank holds sufficient funds to offset potential losses and maintain solvency amid challenging financial conditions.

“We wish to clarify that the Nigerian banking industry remains resilient as key financial soundness indicators were within the regulatory thresholds as captured in the CBN’s most recent Economic Report of 2023,” the CBN said.

The apex bank added that it is actively collaborating with various critical stakeholders to sustain the level of confidence in the Nigerian financial sector.

The CBN reassured Nigerians of the strength and reliability of the banking industry, urging them to rely on official communications from the CBN for accurate information.

Cash deposit

Meanwhile, the bank also on Monday announced the suspension of cash deposit processing fees above N500,000 until April 2024.

This was disclosed in a circular signed by Adetona Adedeji, CBN acting director of banking supervision.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria hereby suspends the charging of processing fees of 2 percent and 3 percent previously charged on all cash deposits above these thresholds with immediate effect. This suspension shall remain in effect until April 30, 2024,” the circular reads.

The CBN had on 18 September 2019 introduced a 3 per cent processing fee for withdrawals and 2 per cent for deposits of amounts above N500,000 for individual accounts to promote cashless transactions.

PT

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the seats of the 27 lawmakers at the River House Assembly vacant, for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja on Monday.

Ologunagba said that by leaving the PDP, on which platform they were elected, their seats had become vacant.

He said this was by virtue of the provision of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“For the avoidance of doubt, Section 109 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that “a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if …

“(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political Party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected…”

“By reason of the above Constitutional provision and its clear interpretation by the Supreme Court, the 27 defected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly have vacated

“They have lost their seats, rights, privileges, recognition and obligations accruable to members of the Rivers State House of Assembly,” he said.

Ologunagba added, “The PDP therefore demands that the Speaker of the Rivers State House Assembly immediately comply with the provision of the Constitution by declaring the seats of the 27 former lawmakers vacant.

“In view of the vacancy now exiting in the 27 State Constituencies in Rivers State, the PDP demands that INEC should within the stipulated period under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) conduct fresh election to fill the vacancies.”

He also cautioned the defectors from parading themselves as members of the House of Assembly as that would amount to impersonation.

Twenty-seven out of the 31 PDP members of the House defected to the APC on Monday.

NAN

Israeli defense chief resists pressure to halt Gaza offensive, says campaign will 'take time'

Israel’s defense minister on Monday pushed back against international calls to wrap up the country’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas militant group will “take time.”

Yoav Gallant, a member of Israel’s three-man war cabinet, remained unswayed by a growing chorus of criticism over the widespread damage and heavy civilian death toll caused by the two-month military campaign. The U.N. secretary-general and leading Arab states have called for an immediate cease-fire. The United States has urged Israel to reduce civilian casualties, though it has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support.

Israel launched the campaign after Hamas militants stormed across its southern border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping about 240 others.

Two months of airstrikes, coupled with a fierce ground invasion, have resulted in the deaths of over 17,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory. They do not give a breakdown between civilians and combatants but say that roughly two-thirds of the dead have been women and minors. Nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.

In a briefing with The Associated Press, Gallant refused to commit to any firm deadlines, but he signaled that the current phase, characterized by heavy ground fighting backed up by air power, could stretch on for weeks and that further military activity could continue for months.

“We are going to defend ourselves. I am fighting for Israel’s future,” he said.

Gallant said the next phase would be lower-intensity fighting against “pockets of resistance” and would require Israeli troops to maintain their freedom of operation. “That’s a sign the next phase has begun,” he said.

Gallant spoke as Israeli forces battled militants in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, where the military opened a new line of attack last week. Battles were also still underway in parts of Gaza City and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where large areas have been reduced to rubble and many thousands of civilians are still trapped by the fighting.

Israel has pledged to keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, dismantles its military capabilities and gets back all of the hostages. It says Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people who died in captivity or during the initial attack. More than 100 captives were freed last month during a weeklong truce.

Gallant keeps a framed picture on the desk of his spacious office with pictures of all the children taken hostage. All but two are marked with small hearts, signaling their release from captivity.

HEAVY FIGHTING

In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike overnight flattened a residential building where some 80 people were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp, residents said.

Ahmed al-Qarah, a neighbor who was digging through the rubble for survivors, said he knew of only six people who made it out. “The rest are under the building,” he said. At a nearby hospital, family members sobbed over the bodies of several of the dead from the strike.

In Khan Younis, Radwa Abu Frayeh saw heavy Israeli strikes overnight around the European Hospital, where the U.N. humanitarian office says tens of thousands of people have sought shelter. She said one strike hit a home close to hers late Sunday.

“The building shook,” she said. “We thought it was the end and we would die.”

Gallant blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll, saying that the militant group maintains a network of tunnels underneath schools, streets and hospitals.

He claimed that Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hamas, killing half of the group’s battalion commanders and destroying many tunnels, command centers and weapons facilities.

Israeli officials have said some 7,000 Hamas militants — roughly one-quarter of the group’s fighting force — have been killed throughout the war and that 500 militants have been detained in Gaza the past month. The claims could not be independently verified. Israel says 104 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive.

The result, he said, is that in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas has been reduced to “islands of resistance” acting on the whims of local commanders.

In southern Gaza, he said the situation is different. “They are still organized militarily,” he said.

Gallant also said Israel has recovered “hundreds of terabytes” of information about Hamas from computers its troops have seized.

Despite the reported battlefield setbacks, Hamas on Monday fired a barrage of rockets that set off sirens in Tel Aviv, where Gallant’s office and Israeli military headquarters are located.

One person was lightly wounded, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. Israel’s Channel 12 television broadcast footage of a cratered road and damage to cars and buildings in a suburb.

HARROWING JOURNEY

The U.N. humanitarian office, known as OCHA, described a harrowing journey through the battle zone in northern Gaza by a U.N. and Red Crescent convoy over the weekend that made the first delivery of medical supplies to the north in more than a week. It said an ambulance and U.N. truck were hit by gunfire on the way to Al-Ahly Hospital to drop off the supplies.

The convoy then evacuated 19 patients but was delayed for inspections by Israeli forces on the way south. OCHA said one patient died, and a paramedic was detained for hours, interrogated and reportedly beaten.

The fighting in Jabaliya has trapped hundreds of staff, patients and displaced people inside hospitals, most of which are unable to function.

Two staff members were killed over the weekend by clashes outside Al-Awda Hospital, OCHA said. Shelling and live ammunition hit Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, killing an unknown number of displaced people sheltering inside, it said. It did not say which side was behind the fire.

HARSH CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH

With Israel allowing little aid into Gaza and the U.N. largely unable to distribute it amid the fighting, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods.

Israel said it will start conducting inspections of aid trucks Tuesday at its Kerem Shalom crossing, a step meant to increase the amount of relief entering Gaza. Currently, Israel’s Nitzana crossing is the only inspection point in operation. All trucks then enter from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. Aid workers, however, say they are largely unable to distribute aid beyond the Rafah area because of the fighting elsewhere.

Israel has urged people to flee to what it says are safe areas in the south. The fighting in and around Khan Younis has pushed tens of thousands toward the town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt.

Still, airstrikes have continued even in areas to which Palestinians are told to flee.

A strike in Rafah early Monday heavily damaged a residential building, killing at least nine people, all but one of them women, according to Associated Press reporters who saw the bodies at the hospital.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said people in the south are also falling ill as they pack into crowded shelters or sleep in tents in open areas.

Nicholas Papachrysostomou, the group’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said “every other patient” at a clinic in Rafah has a respiratory infection after prolonged exposure to cold and rain. In shelters where hundreds share a single toilet, diarrhea is widespread, particularly among children, he said.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy, in Washington, urges Congress not to play into Putin's hands

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a U.S. military audience on Monday that he hoped he can still count on the United States and urged Congress not play into Russian President Vladimir Putin's hands, as he started a critical visit to Washington to shore up security assistance.

"We won't give up. We know what to do and you can count on Ukraine. And we hope just as much to be able to count on you," Zelenskiy said in an address to the National Defense University.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has warned Congress that a failure to renew military assistance to Ukraine could tip the nearly two-year-old war in Russia's favor, creating national security threats for the West.

Zelenskiy, in an oblique reference to disputes in Congress over allocating aid, said it was "crucial that politics ... not betray the soldiers."

"Let me be frank with you, friends. If there's anyone inspired by unresolved issues on Capital Hill, it's just Putin and his sick clique," Zelenskiy added.

Zelenskiy has been invited to meetings at the White House and with members of Congress on Tuesday. Many Republican lawmakers have questioned continued aid to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine early last year, triggering a war that has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands and led to the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West in six decades.

Bolstered by billions of U.S. military aid, as well as U.S. intelligence, Ukraine was able to fend off Russia's initial attempt to sweep the country and roll Russian forces back in key towns. But Kyiv failed to break through Russian defensive lines in a major counteroffensive push this year and Russia is now on the offensive in the east.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that Putin still hoped to achieve victory in Ukraine, even as he offered assurances of "unshakable" U.S. support to the country.

"Despite his crimes and despite his isolation, Putin still believes that he can outlast Ukraine and that he can outlast America. But he is wrong," Austin said to applause.

He added, in apparent reference to Congress: "America's commitments must be honored."

Congress has approved more than $110 billion for Ukraine since Russia's February 2022 invasion but it has not approved any funds since Republicans took over the House from Democrats in January.

By mid-November, the U.S. Defense Department had used 97% of $62.3 billion in supplemental funding and the State Department had used all of the $4.7 billion in military assistance funding for Ukraine it had been allocated, U.S. budget director Shalanda Young said last week.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

West wants to replace Zelensky – Russia’s top spy

Western officials are discussing the potential removal of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky from power, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, claimed on Monday. The spy chief outlined there are numerous reasons why Zelensky is seen as undesirable, the most significant being his lack of flexibility regarding the interests of the West.

According to the SVR chief, the West believes the Ukrainian president has gone too far in fostering his image of an uncompromising hawk in the conflict with Russia. In the event of the need to “freeze” the hostilities, this would mean Zelensky is no longer useful in any potential negotiations, Naryshkin claimed.

“According to the US intelligence services, with the way the situation in the Ukrainian theater of war is developing, the need [to freeze the conflict] may come soon,” the spy chief stated.

Naryshkin further claimed that a replacement for Zelensky was being considered due to his unfulfilled promises to defeat Russia on the battlefield, widespread corruption in Ukraine, and the leader’s disrespect when dealing with foreign sponsors. Zelensky has officially decreed that any negotiations with Moscow are impossible as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in power.

Alternatives to Zelensky were discussed on the sidelines of November’s meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, according to Naryshkin. Potential options purportedly include the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, the head of the president’s office, Andrey Ermak, or even Kiev mayor and ex-boxer Vitaly Klitschko.

Following Kiev’s failed summer counteroffensive, Ukrainian Colonel General Aleksandr Syrsky said on Sunday that the Russian army is constantly “conducting offensive operations along the entire front.”

Zaluzhny last month referred to the situation on the front lines as a “stalemate,” admitting there was no hope for a breakthrough. Those comments reportedly fueled a growing rift between the general and the Ukrainian president.

According to the Ukrainskaya Pravda news outlet, Zelensky has resorted to creating alternative lines of command to give orders directly to officers such as Syrsky, thus bypassing Zaluzhny. “It seems that Zelensky has two kinds of the ZSU (Ukrainian armed forces): the ‘good’ guys commanded by Syrsky and other favorites, and the ‘bad’ guys who answer to Zaluzhny,”the outlet quoted a source close to the presidential administration as saying.

Ukrainians’ trust in Zaluzhny surpassed that of Zelensky even last year, the report claimed, while polls showed that the army general would beat the incumbent leader in a hypothetical presidential election. Earlier this year, Zelensky dismissed the idea of holding elections in 2024 as irresponsible at a time of war.

Reuters/RT

Twenty-Four years after Nwankwo Kanu’s triumph as the continent’s best soccer star, Victor Osimhen, was, yesterday, in Marrakech, Morocco, named African Footballer of the Year for his exploits for his club, Napoli and country, Nigeria, in the 2022/23 season.

Osimhen, who led Napoli to their first Italian title 33 years after the great Diego Amando Maradona achieved that feat for the Italian side, beat Morocco’s Achraf Hakim and Egypt’s Mohammed Salah to take the crown.

To make it a double sweep for Nigeria, Super Falcons’ Asisat Oshoala, a serial winner of the award, was once again declared the African Women’s Footballer of the Year.

Nigeria’s night of glory started with the Super Falcons, who defeated Morocco and South Africa to win the Women’s National Team of the Year. The team’s goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie, soon followed with the Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year diadem, with the Women’s Club of the Year Award going to Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa. The men’s category went to Al Ahli of Egypt.

Fittingly, Nnadozie’s award was announced by former Super Falcons’ goalkeeper, Precious Dede. But it was not so sweet for Super Falcons star, Deborah Abiodun, who had a sterling performance at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, as she was beaten to the Young Player of the Year Award (women) by Morocco’s Nesryne El Chad, while Senegal’s Lamine Camara won the men’s category.

The Goal of the Year award went to Mahmoud Kahraba of Al Ahli, Egypt, As expected, Morocco, who went all the way to the Qatar 2022 World Cup semifinal, won the Men’s National Team of the Year Award. They defeated Senegal and The Gambia to the crown.

Their goalkeeper, Yassin Bounou, capped Morocco’s joy with the Goalkeeper of the Year crown, just at the Atlas Lions’ coach, Walid Regragui, won the Coach of the Year Award. The women’s Coach of the Year crown went to South Africa’s Desiree Ellis.

Earlier, guests at the award gala were jolted by the news that Algeria would not be part of the event because they were protesting the exclusion of their star player, Riyad Mahrez, from the final list of nominees for the men’s Footballer of the Year Award.

According to the Algerian argument, Mahrez, who won the UEFA Champions League and the Premiership during the period under review, did more than Mohammed Salah, whose club, Liverpool, could not finish among the top four sides in the English Premier League.

President of Algerian Football Federation (FAF), Walid Sadi, had on Sunday revealed that he would boycott the ceremony in solidarity with Riyad Mahrez.
Algerian coach Abdelhak Benchikha wason the list of finalists for the best African coach award, alongside Moroccan coach, Walid Regragui, and his Senegalese counterpart, Aliou Cissé.

The Algerian decision to boycott the CAF Awards did not come as a surprise to many, though, as Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi, two former Algerian football stars, had declined CAF’s invitation to attend the previous ceremony in Rabat on the sidelines of the women’s CAN.

Some Algerian media outlets accuse president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Fouzi Lekjaa, of having orchestrated the exclusion of Mahrez from the list of the three nominees for the title of best African footballer 2022-2023.

The Guardian

In-person job interviews typically last between 45 and 90 minutes, according to job search site Indeed. In that time, you'll probably be asked about your work history and be told about the role you're interviewing for.

When the interview's over, It's customary to send a thank you email to everyone who interviewed you within 24 to 48 hours — but if you want to go that extra mile, send a physical thank you note as well.

"Hardly anyone does that ever," says Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster. But it can pay off — here's why.

It shows you 'really put in the effort'

Interviewers likely speak with many candidates, many of whom will remember to sent over a thank you email after they meet. But most probably won't send anything by snail mail.

"A handwritten thank you note can help you stand out in the job interview process," says Angelina Darrisaw, a former manager at Viacom and CEO of C-Suite Coach. "It can signal that you are willing to go the extra mile, which can be very attractive to potential employers."

When you see someone's handwriting, it feels like you "really put in the effort," says Salemi.

Not only will they remember that you were willing to go a little further to show your gratitude about the interview and excitement about the role, but they'll have a physical reminder of it sitting right in front of them.

Salemi remembers the effect these notes had when she was a recruiter herself. "As we were determining who was going to get the job offer, I had that thank you note on my desk for at least a week," she says. "And I always thought of that person."

'It's a nice touch'

Your thank you note does not need to have any particular flair. "You can get boxes of note cards that just say 'thank you,'" says Salemi.

To get a physical mailing address, ask for a business card or see if there's an address in the interviewer's email signature. There might be an address on the company website as well, but be sure to include the name of their department on the envelope.

When it comes to what to write, keep it simple and include variations of the following:

• "Thank you for the opportunity to meet you"
• "I'm excited about this role"
• Something specific you talked about in the interview

Always double check your writing before you put it in an envelope to make sure there aren't grammatical or spelling errors.

Salemi recommends writing the note directly after the interview, once you've left the building — maybe in a nearby coffee shop — then dropping it off in the mail as soon as you're done.

"It's a nice touch because then a few days later, the interviewers are busy with their normal work lives and they get this on their desk," says Salemi. When it comes time to decide who's right for the role, you will be top of mind.

CNBC

The country’s external reserves fell by $520.22 in five weeks, figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed.

According to CBN’s data on movement in reserves, the figures which stood at $33.396bn as of October 31, 2023 fell to $33.004bn as of December 7, 2023.

The CBN had earlier revealed that the reserves which commenced January 3, 2023, at $37.07bn fell to $33.237bn as of September 29, 2023.

Speaking recently at the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria’s 58th Annual Bankers’ Dinner and Grand Finale of the Institute’s 60th anniversary in Lagos, the Governor, CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, said, in recent years, the continuous decline in Nigeria’s crude oil production had further weakened the already inadequate economic diversification.

He said, “This has led to a decline in government revenue and foreign exchange inflows, while simultaneously witnessing a growth in public expenditures and a deterioration in macroeconomic indicators, which has constrained our policy options. Consequently, we have seen the fiscal deficit and public debt increase, placing additional strain on external reserves and contributing to exchange rate instability.”

A thorough assessment of the economy revealed significant challenges, including high and rising inflation, inadequate foreign exchange supply, depreciation of the exchange rate, limited external reserves, weakened output, and high unemployment, he said.

These challenges, he added, had led to increased interest rates, discouraging investments in productive activities.

Within the banking system, he said, high inflation had affected asset quality and solvency ratios.

Additionally, the persistent depreciation of the naira poses a significant risk for domestic banks with foreign exchange exposures, Cardoso said.

However, he added, “The removal of petrol subsidy and the adoption of a floating exchange rate, among other government policies, are anticipated to have positive effects on the economy in the medium-term.

“These measures are expected to enhance investor confidence, attract capital inflows, stimulate domestic investment, and ultimately improve the level of external reserves.”

Punch

Pension Fund Administrators have recorded N7.98tn profit from investing contributions made by workers into their Retirement Savings Accounts under the Contributory Pension Scheme, according to a new report.

The report, obtained from the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, revealed that the total funds under the CPS was 17.37tn as of the end of second quarter of 2023.

Contributions made by the workers from both private and public sectors totaled N9.37tn in the period under review.

The report titled, ‘At the dawn of 20 years of pension reform, what are the gains?’ and released by the Chief Executive Officer, PenOp, Oguche Agudah, showed that workers’ contributions accounted for 54 percent, while the return on investment accounted for 46 percent of the entire pension funds as of the end of June 2023 from the beginning of the CPS in 2004.

The pension operators disclosed that workers’ contributions were judiciously invested, and the returns were added to the workers’ pension savings, to reduce the effect of inflation on the funds.

Further figures showed that as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the PFAs had recovered N24.8bn from defaulting employers,

PenOp revealed in the report that in Q2, 2023, N665.13bn had been paid as a lump sum to annuity retirees; and N964.24bn to programmed withdrawal retirees, making a total of N1.64tn to 442,000 retirees.

It added that N208.86bn was paid to 475,235 workers who lost their jobs before getting to the official retirement age and were unable to get another job after four months.

Total death benefits paid to 91,214 beneficiaries amounted to N356.32bn in the second quarter of 2023.

The report showed that 649 contributors got approval to access N7.89bn from their RSAs for residential mortgages.

While highlighting the expectations of the operators in 2024 and beyond, Agudah said, it was expecting to celebrate 20 years of the Pension Reform Act, show greater focus on micro pensions, and also look into the revision of investment guidelines.

He added that the operators looked forward to more applicants and approvals for RSA mortgage, possible kick-off of offshore investment, and infrastructure consortium.

The report stated that the PRA was established as an Act to establish CPS for employers in the public, Federal Capital Territory, and private sectors in the country.

Between 2007 and July 2023, it added, the contributors under the CPS rose from 2,543,178 to 10,023,314.

Punch

Battles rage across Gaza as Israel indicates it's willing to fight for months or more to beat Hamas

Battles raged across Gaza on Sunday as Israel indicated it was prepared to fight for months or longer to defeat the territory’s Hamas rulers, and a key mediator said willingness to discuss a cease-fire was fading.

Israel faces international outrage after its military offensive, with diplomatic support and arms from close ally the United States, has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where U.N. agencies say there is no safe place to flee.

The United States has lent vital support in recent days by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution to end the fighting and pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.

Russia backed the resolution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed dissatisfaction with “anti-Israel positions” taken by Moscow’s envoys at the U.N. and elsewhere, an Israeli statement said.

Netanyahu told Putin that any country assaulted the way Israel was “would have reacted with no less force than Israel is using,” the statement added.

The U.N. General Assembly scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday to vote on a draft resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., told The Associated Press that it’s similar to the Security Council resolution the U.S. vetoed Friday.

There are no vetoes in the General Assembly but unlike the Security Council its resolutions are not legally binding. They are important nonetheless as a barometer of global opinion.

Israel’s air and ground war has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants killed 1,200 people and captured around 240. Over 100 of them were released during a weeklong cease-fire last month.

With very little aid allowed in, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Some observers openly worry that Palestinians will be forced out of Gaza altogether.

“Expect public order to completely break down soon, and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a forum in Qatar, a key intermediary.

Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, called allegations of mass displacement from Gaza “outrageous and false.”

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, told the forum that mediation efforts seeking to stop the war and have all hostages released will continue, but “unfortunately, we are not seeing the same willingness that we had seen in the weeks before.”

Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV that the U.S. has set no deadline for Israel to achieve its goals. “The evaluation that this can’t be measured in weeks is correct, and I’m not sure it can be measured in months,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that as far as the duration and the conduct of the fighting, “these are decisions for Israel to make.”

This is a war that cannot be won, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, asserted to the Qatar forum, warning that “Israel has created an amount of hatred that will haunt this region that will define generations to come.”

FIGHTING AND ARRESTS IN THE NORTH

Israeli forces face heavy resistance, including in northern Gaza, where neighborhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where ground troops have operated for over six weeks.

Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear, hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man walked forward and placed a gun on the ground.

Other videos have shown groups of unarmed men held in similar conditions, without clothes, bound and blindfolded. Detainees from a group released Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said dozens of arrests took place in two Hamas strongholds and that people are undressed to make sure they are not hiding explosives.

Residents said there was still heavy fighting in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah and the Jabaliya refugee camp, a dense urban area housing Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war.

“They are attacking anything that moves,” said Hamza Abu Fatouh, a Shijaiyah resident. He said the dead and wounded were left in the streets as ambulances could not reach the area.

Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people have remained.

Heavy fighting also was underway in and around the southern city of Khan Younis.

WAITING DAYS FOR FOOD

The price of dwindling food in Gaza has soared. Abdulsalam al-Majdalawi said he had come every day for nearly two weeks to a U.N. distribution center, hoping to get supplies for his family of seven.

“Thank God, today they drew our name,” he said.

One hundred trucks with humanitarian aid entered Sunday, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority. That’s far short of what’s needed.

With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,900, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying the militants put civilians in danger by fighting in residential neighborhoods. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the offensive. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel.

Netanyahu’s office said Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during the Oct. 7 attack. The militants hope to exchange them for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it strikes what it says are militant targets. Thousands have fled to areas along the border with Egypt — one of the last places where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water.

Demonstrations were again held in several cities in support of the Palestinians and calling for an end to the war, while thousands marched in Europe against antisemitism.

The war has raised tensions across the Middle East, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah trading fire with Israel along the border and other Iran-backed militant groups targeting the U.S. in Syria and Iraq. Israeli artillery, drone, and airstrikes over Lebanon border towns intensified.

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's leaders have gone 'totally crazy' – Putin

Persistent persecution of ethnic Russians in Ukraine was one of the key reasons behind the decision to launch the military offensive of February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has explained. He added that he believes the authorities in Kiev have since gone completely “crazy”.

The president made the remarks earlier this week when he hosted distinguished servicemen at the Kremlin to award them "Hero of Russia" medals. Excerpts from Putin’s speech on the sidelines of the event were published by Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.

“We would never have done anything like [the military operation] if they had not started to destroy Russia in our historical territories, expel people from there, declared Russians a non-indigenous ethnic group in Ukraine. Have they gone completely crazy? Are they completely – how can I put it more bluntly – nuts?” Putin told the medal recipients.

The president was apparently referring to Ukraine’s Law On Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2021. The legislation recognized only three ethnic groups – Crimean Tatars, Crimean Karaites and Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) – as the country’s indigenous peoples.

The legislation denied indigenous designations to Russians, which amounted to at least one fifth of Ukraine’s population, according to various estimates, and to other minorities, such as the ethnic Hungarians and Belarusians who reside in the country’s west and north, respectively. Moreover, all three ethnic groups recognized by the ‘indigenous peoples’ law predominantly live in Crimea, which split from Ukraine in 2014 and joined Russia after a peninsula-wide referendum.

In addition to questionable ethnic policies, the Ukrainian leadership has been openly courting and honoring Nazis, Putin said, invoking a recent scandal in Canada’s House of Commons. The legislature celebrated Ukrainian-Canadian Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Waffen SS veteran, hailing him as a “Canadian hero” who’d “fought the Russians” during World War II. The whole body, with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in attendance, engaged in a standing ovation to honor Hunka.

“And who exactly fought Russians during the war? Nazis. Everyone knows that and the Ukrainian president knows that. The entire parliament stood up and applauded him. What is it, if not a manifestation of Nazism?” Putin asked, adding that a large proportion of Nazi atrocities were committed by Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with them.

“They are not just fools, they are also neo-Nazis. It’s an obvious fact. They are ready to cooperate with just anyone to try and hurt Russia,” the president noted.

The Hunka affair triggered a major international scandal, which led to the downfall of the House Speaker Anthony Rota, who accepted entire responsibility for inviting the Waffen SS veteran to the legislature. Russia has charged Hunka in absentia with genocide, claiming that archive documents serve as evidence that he and fellow SS Galicia members had killed at least 500 civilians in late February 1944, and Moscow is now seeking the extradition of the Nazi veteran.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's Zelenskiy says had 'frank' talk with Hungary's Orban

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a "frank" conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the sidelines of the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday.

"It was as frank as possible - and obviously, it was about our European affairs," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address posted on the Telegram channel early on Monday.

The meeting took place against a backdrop of Orban's threatening to blockmore European Union financial support to Kyiv, his opposition of Ukraine's entry to the bloc and the White House intensifying its push for Kyiv aid after Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war.

Orban's press chief Bertalan Havasi confirmed the meeting in an email that did not address whether the Hungarian leader would continue to oppose Ukraine's entry to the European Union.

"With regards to Ukraine's EU accession, Viktor Orban signalled that the member states of the European Union were continuously discussing the issue," Havasi said in the email.

A video on the Argentine Senate's YouTube channel showed Zelenskiy and Orban conversing for about 20 seconds as they mingled with other guests in the Argentine parliament, ahead of an EU summit on Dec. 14-15, set to decide whether to start membership talks with Ukraine.

Orban has repeatedly said he opposes starting talks now. Any decision to proceed has to be unanimous.

Orban has also threatened to block moves to give Kyiv 50 billion euros ($53.80 billion) in budget support through 2027, though a senior official said on Friday the EU would find ways to support Ukraine financially even if Hungary vetoed the move.

Zelenskiy said earlier he had spoken by telephone with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to coordinate their positions.

"We are counting on a positive decision regarding the allocation of 50 billion euros and the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU," he said in a post on Telegram.

"Europe must decisively defend its values and unity. I know that we can rely on the support of Madam President in this matter," he added.

Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Washington on Monday for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson about the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and the "vital importance" of continued U.S. aid to Kyiv.

($1 = 0.9294 euros)

RT/Reuters