The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has alerted Nigerians to the recall of Nivea BLACK&WHITE Invisible Roll-on deodorant 50ml by the European Union’s (EU) rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products (RAPEX) in Brussels.

In a notice on Thursday, NAFDAC said the recalled Nivea product contains 2-(4-tert-Butylbenzyl propionaldehyde) (BMHCA), a chemical prohibited in cosmetics products due to its ability to harm the reproductive system, impair the health of an unborn child, cause skin irritation, and cause burns to users.

The agency said the product, produced in Germany, is marked ‘48H protection in African climate’, with batch number: 93529610 and bar code number: 42299882.

“Importers, distributors, retailers, and consumers are advised to exercise caution and vigilance within the supply chain to avoid the importation, distribution, sale, and use of the above-mentioned Nivea Roll-on with the affected batch,” the alert reads.

“Members of the public in possession of the affected batch of product should discontinue the sale or use and submit stock to the nearest NAFDAC office.

“Healthcare professionals and consumers are encouraged to report adverse events experienced with the use of regulated products to the nearest NAFDAC office, via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., E-reporting platforms available at www.nafdac.gov.ng or via the Med-safety application for download on android and iOS stores.”

The Cable

Taiwo Akinola, presiding Bishop of Rhema Christian Church & Towers announced the organization's upcoming 33rd World Convention, scheduled for November 3-10, 2024, while delivering a comprehensive address that touched on pressing national and global issues.

The convention, themed "Exceeding Grace," will bring together Christian leaders, gospel ministers, and participants from around the world at the church's headquarters in Ogun State. Notable attendees will include Francis Wale Oke, Joseph Ojo, and other prominent Christian leaders.

Convention Highlights

The week-long event will feature daily programs including:

- Prayer sessions

- Specialized seminars

- Ministers' conference

- Miracle services

- A high-praise night featuring gospel artists like Mike Abdul.

Notably, the convention will mark significant milestones for the church, including the consecration of two new Bishops and Bishop Akinola's formal installation as a Charismatic Archbishop.

Akinola used the press conference to address several critical national challenges, including:

Economic Struggles

- Nigeria's inflation rate reached 34.2% in June 2024

- Fuel price hikes causing significant economic strain

- Naira devaluation and its impact on citizens

Security Issues

- Ongoing challenges with banditry and kidnappings

- Average of 13 persons kidnapped daily

- Negative impact on food security and economic investment

Youth Unemployment

- Alarming unemployment rates

- Increasing brain drain

- Impact on national development and family structures

Infrastructure

- Insufficient road infrastructure

- Only 30% of national budget allocated to infrastructure

- Call for increased government investment

Global Perspective

The Bishop also commented on international conflicts, including:

- The ongoing Russian-Ukraine war

- Conflicts in the Middle East

- Calling for dialogue and peaceful resolution

Invitation and Hope

"We invite all to participate in this Convention of 'Exceeding Grace'," Akinola stated. "We believe God will bring dramatic solutions to life's challenges and usher in divine interventions."

The convention will offer additional community services, including:

- Food distribution to the needy

- Camping facilities

- Free medical consultations

The event runs from November 3-10, 2024, at the Rhema Christian Church headquarters in Sango-Ota, Ogun State.

Rocket fire from Lebanon kills 7 in Israel as US officials try to push for cease-fires

Rocket barrages from Lebanon into northern Israel killed four foreign workers and three Israelis on Thursday, Israeli medics said, the deadliest cross-border strikes in Israel since it invaded Lebanon. Israel kept up airstrikes it says targeted Hezbollah militants across Lebanon, where health authorities on Thursday reported 24 people killed.

U.S. diplomats were in the region pushing for cease-fires in both Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East as the Biden administration enters its final months. Pressure has been building ahead of the U.S. election next week.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces struck one of the last functioning hospitals, according to the World Heath Organization said, destroying much-needed supplies that the U.N. agency had delivered to the facility. The strikes set off a fire that affected the dialysis unit, destroyed water tanks, damaged the surgery building and injured four medics trying to extinguish the blaze, said the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about a strike on the hospital, which it stormed last week after alleging it was harboring Hamas militants. Gaza’s Health Ministry on Thursday condemned Israeli attacks on the hospital and called on the international community to safeguard medical facilities in Gaza.

Back-to-back deadly rocket attacks hit Israel

Projectiles from Lebanon crashed into an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer, local officials said Thursday.

Hours later, the Israeli military reported another volley of some 25 rockets from Lebanon, striking an olive grove in a suburb of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. That strike killed a 30-year-old man and 60-year-old woman while wounding two others, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, Israel’s regional adversary. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for Thursday’s rocket fire. Israel’s military said 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon on Thursday.

Hezbollah has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles into Israel —and drawing fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes — over the past year since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered Israel’s devastating war in the Palestinian enclave.

The residents of Metula evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural workers remain. The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.

Agricultural areas near Israel’s border are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission. For the few remaining residents, the thump of interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and wailing air raid sirens punctuate daily life.

Nonetheless, local officials largely support continuing a ground operation in southern Lebanon.

“If the Israeli government accedes to an agreement brought by (the Biden administration) ... we will not have it because for us this is rehabilitating Hezbollah again on our borders,” said Eitan Davidi, the mayor of the northern town of Margaliot.

Israeli bombs across Lebanon after evacuation warnings

Israeli strikes killed 24 people in Lebanon on Thursday, among them 13 people in the country’s eastern Bekaa Valley, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News agency, a day after the Israel’s military warned residents there to evacuate.

The warnings sent thousands of people fleeing and spread panic across the city, known for its colossal Roman ruins.

The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that over the last 24 hours, Israeli bombardments killed 45 people and wounded 110 in various parts of the country.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir al-Ahmar region in the Bekaa Valley, said Israeli airstrikes pummeling the area turned the main highway “a parking lot” of fleeing cars stuck in traffic.

Around 12,000 displaced people are staying in the area, he said, with most taking refuge in private homes. At one of the shelters in Deir al-Ahmar, families with luggage were still arriving Thursday.

“Our homes were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing — no clothes or anything else.”

US officials are in the region seeking a cease-fire

Senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in Israel Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials about the conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah.

The meetings focused on efforts to secure a cease-fire deal in Lebanon and to assess new proposals floated by mediators to free Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official familiar with planning for the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The meetings were attended by Netanyahu as well as Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister; David Barnea, the director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency; and other officials.

But with the U.S. election on Tuesday, hopes for immediate progress appeared remote — particularly in Gaza where Israel has come under criticism for not letting more humanitarian aid into the besieged north.

The death toll from more than a year of war in Gaza passed 43,000 earlier this week, Palestinian health officials reported.

The Awda Hospital in central Gaza said late Thursday it had received 16 bodies of people killed by Israeli bombardment of two houses in Nuseirat refugee camp. The hospital said more than 30 others, including a medic and two journalists, were wounded.

Over the past year, the broadening Israeli campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah has killed 2,865 people there, wounded over 13,000 and devastated Lebanese towns near the border.

Some 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since Israel escalated the conflict into a full-blown war last month, when it launched a wave of heavy airstrikes that killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his deputies.

A year of Hezbollah rocket attacks have also forced 60,000 Israelis to evacuate from near the border.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy blasts allies for 'zero' response to North Korean deployment

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blasted what he called his allies' "zero" response to Russia's deployment of North Korean troops for the war in Ukraine,saying on Thursday a weak reaction would encourage Russia's Vladimir Putin to beef up the contingent.

The Ukrainian leader, in an interview with South Korea's KBS television channel, said he believed Moscow was already trying to agree for North Korea to send engineering troops and a "large number of civilians" to work at Russian military plants.

"Putin is checking the reaction of the West ... And I believe that after all these reactions, Putin will decide and increase the contingent ... The reaction that is there today is nothing, it is zero," Zelenskiy said.

He began publicly warning of North Korean involvement in the war on Oct. 13. Western allies have since described the move as a major escalation, but have not announced retaliatory measures or said they are preparing to implement any.

South Korea has offered intelligence assistance and wider cooperation on the matter, and it is considering sending a team of military monitors to Ukraine, according to South Korean officials.

In prepared remarks to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Ukraine's delegation named three North Korean generals it says are accompanying thousands of Korean People's Army troops deployed to Russia in aid of Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Russia has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops in the war. North Korea initially denied involvement, but has since defended the idea of deploying troops as being in line with international law.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood told the Security Council on Thursday that Washington had received information indicating that "right now" there are 8,000 North Korean troops in Russia's southern Kursk region, which borders on northeastern Ukraine.

In his interview comments, Zelenskiy said he was surprised by the "silence" out of China, the world's second economy, over the troop deployment.

Zelenskiy said that Ukraine had "clear information" that Russia had confirmed the deployment of the North Koreans directly to the West via intelligence channels.

"The Russian Federation discussed this issue with the West and confirmed that yes, there are military personnel from North Korea who will fight against Ukraine," he said.

The direct tone of Zelenskiy's rhetoric pointed to mounting Ukrainian frustration over the extent of Western support for Kyiv at a critical time in the war with Russia, with the clock counting down to Tuesday's U.S. presidential election.

Russian troops have been slowly advancing for months in eastern Ukraine and Kyiv's outgunned and outnumbered forces have struggled to find a way to hold them back.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian army banned from using word ‘retreat’ – US-run media

The Ukrainian military has reportedly instructed soldiers to avoid using the term “retreat” in communication with the press, according to a reporter from RFE/RL, the US state-run foreign media network.

In an interview with Kiev’s Radio NV, on Wednesday, Vlasta Lazur shared insights gathered from recent conversations with Ukrainian troops and their commanders.

“I spoke with a soldier on the Pokrovsk front,”Lazur said. “He said, ‘We received orders to use the words ‘offensive,’ ‘victory,’ ‘moving forward,’ and ‘driving out the enemy’ when communicating with journalists. But I can’t say the word ‘retreat’ or that the enemy has breached our defenses.’”

Pokrovsk, in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, has been a major scene of fighting in recent weeks.

Lazur noted that the restrictions reflect deeper communication issues within Ukraine’s military hierarchy. “Everyone lies to each other. Local commanders are afraid to report to generals or higher-ups any problems, or that they do not have enough people, or that they are not able to carry out a task,” she added.

According to her, reports based on reality are often withheld from the top command as commanders fear disciplinary actions or job loss.

One soldier reportedly joked about the situation: “Maybe we should say that we are advancing on the Dnieper?” The Dnieper River is located to the rear of Ukrainian forces, underscoring the irony felt by some on the ground who sense a disconnect between official statements and the realities of their positions.

These revelations coincide with comments by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who acknowledged that Ukrainian forces might need to “retreat” when significantly outnumbered. Despite mobilizing over a million people since the escalation of conflict in 2022, Ukraine’s government faces severe manpower and logistical challenges. Recent revelations from lawmakers highlight over 100,000 cases of desertion, and they expect to call up an additional 160,000 troops in the coming months.

As Kiev contends with battlefield pressures, the internal limitations on reporting may underscore an attempt to manage public perceptions about the conflict’s progress.

Russian forces have made major advances in Donbass over the past several months. One Ukrainian general has blamed shortages of munitions, battle fatigue, and poor command and control.

Reuters/RT

Dear former First Lady,

You asked the question that millions outside the US have been asking for weeks if not months: Why can’t America see former President Donald Trump for who he is – a congenital liar, a narcissist, a fascist, and a demagogue?

At a campaign rally in Michigan on October 26, you criticised those holding Democratic candidate Kamala Harris to a higher standard than they have held Donald Trump despite his four chaotic years as president and his even more crooked lifestyle, long before that.

“I’ve got to ask myself,” you said, “why on Earth is the race even close?” There are a few possible answers.

Crucify immigrants

Trump and his campaign have been telling Americans precisely what they want to hear: that their problems have been caused mainly by immigrants stealing their jobs.

And that under Joe Biden’s presidency, during which his deputy, Harris, has been the “border tzar,” illegal immigration has worsened to the point where a floating sea of rotten immigrants from Puerto Rico now threatens to submerge their country. They must take their country back.

He has been telling them that their country, once the beacon of exceptionalism, has been captured by the Deep State pursuing the vindictive and narrow agenda of a few. Trump has been telling Americans that fundamental values, such as freedom of expression and public trust, are under threat. Big media, he says, has been hijacked and can no longer be trusted as arbiters of the public good.

Socialism redux and victimhood

That’s not all. Trump is telling Americans that they’re currently in danger of something worse than the nanny state. Socialism and Marxism are in resurgence, and a country known for hard work, individualism, and limited state intervention is at the risk of being overrun by modern-day cousins of the Red Army.

In case they don’t believe him, Trump is telling Americans to look at his own life, his travails, as a living example of deep-state victimhood. He has been framed, lied against, prosecuted, persecuted and shot at for nothing other than mortal fear that he might indeed be the God-send to make America great again.

And if they don’t believe him, they can look at their own lives. In his classic Trumpian way, he has reminded them that they were better off under him, with less inflation and more money in their pockets for groceries. He even said on Tuesday that the stock market was rallying on the expectation of his victory.

It's a woke country

Trump is telling Americans – at least the conservatives –that a wave of wokeism and post-modernism on sexual orientation and preferences has seized America driving it down a depraved slope where gender pronouns will mean nothing anymore. This is the kind of thing that many evangelicals can’t say publicly but are pleased to hear amplified by Trump and his campaign.

Trump has also been discussing America’s place in the world. He has been saying the world was far more peaceful before Biden, that the war between Russia and Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, which has become a meatgrinder, were enabled by weak US leadership, epitomised by the disorderly and humiliating US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

You might argue, dear former First Lady, that Americans should know better and that the facts, for voters who care, contradict Trump on almost every count.

Killing facts

For example, there’s hardly any evidence for the anti-immigrant rhetoric of job stealing. According to a Brookings Senior Fellow, Vanda Felbab-Brown, “The impact of immigrant labour on the wages of native-born workers is low…undocumented workers often work the unpleasant, back-breaking jobs that native-born workers are not willing to do.”

Though Biden said three years ago that Harris was the most qualified to lead the administration’s efforts to manage the border with Mexico, she was never “border tzar,” as Trump has successfully branded her. It was another Trump lie. But all is fair in politics as in war.

Is the Deep State after Trump, making his life a misery for leading the Salvation Army? This claim of a deep-state offensive is at least four years old. It started with claims in 2020 that the “deep state” was slowing-walking vaccine treatment for Covid-19 so that he could lose re-election.

Scapegoating as art

Then, when he lost, he blamed the deep state for rigging him out and has doubled down on his anti-deep state rhetoric since, blaming everyone from civil servants in Washington to the FBI and the State Department for all his self-inflicted legal problems.

Dear First Lady, the race is tight because voters won’t have facts for dinner. The facts show that inflation, worsened by post-Covid-19 supply chain problems, is cooling, but voters feel poorer than before. They are clinging to the false nostalgia that Trump would bring back the old times, despite the forecast by 16 Nobel prize winners in Economics that the US economy will be worse off in a Trump second term.

Also, an inconvenient point, dear former First Lady, is that Kamala Harris is part-paying a backlash from Barack Obama’s era that your husband didn’t do enough for people of colour, especially blacks. This is a race of margins, and despite his charm and eloquence, your husband and former president has struggled to convince black male voters that Harris will serve them well.

Just as misery loves company, nothing makes greater company for voters than a scapegoat. Trump has scapegoated immigrants, the deep state, China, UK’s Labour Party, and virtually everyone in sight. And the biggest scapegoat of them all is Biden.

Unfortunately for him even the best presidents fall out of favour with voters by the end of their first term. Their achievements are often dwarfed by their flaws and demagogues whose mess they came to clean up begin to look like saints. Like Trump. That’s why the race is tight.

Double-edge sword

The false start by the Democratic Party after the catastrophic presidential debate didn’t help matters. Whatever advantage it may have conferred on Trump initially, the party lost time healing the wounds created by Biden’s preemptory removal.

Tight races are not new in US elections, but this one feels peculiarly tight because even though facts and decency suggest that it should have been a mismatch, America is being seduced by its worst self.

It’s a measure of the state of US politics today that even after the results have been announced and the winner declared, except if that winner is Trump, the former First Lady may find herself asking, why has US politics gone so low?

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book Writing for Media and Monetising It

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) says its members were unable to load petrol from the Dangote refinery for days.

Abubakar Garima, IPMAN’s president, spoke on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme on Wednesday.

Garima expressed surprise at the comments of Aliko Dangote, founder of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, that marketers were bypassing his company to purchase imported petrol.

On October 29, Dangote had said his refinery had over 500 million litres of petrol available for sale.

The billionaire said retailers were not collecting available products to ease petrol queues, resulting in financial losses for the company.

In response, however, Garima said IPMAN members were not importing petrol, as claimed by Dangote.

The IPMAN president said the refinery should allow independent petrol marketers to register directly to facilitate access to the product, rather than require them to go through the NNPC.

“If he (Dangote) can be able to sell the product to us directly, we can buy the product, because we have to pay before we pick. Presently, we have N40 billion with the NNPC but we cannot source the product,” Garima said.

“Just of recent, there are some of our marketers that NNPC sent to load in Dangote refinery and those marketers stayed with their trucks for four days, and they couldn’t load.”

Garima said allowing independent marketers to load directly from the Dangote refinery — as NNPC does — could lead to a reduction in petrol prices.

The IPMAN president also urged Dangote to review his prices if marketers are opting to import petrol instead.

“Since he (Dangote) says marketers are not buying his product, he should check his price properly. Is it higher than what they are obtaining outside or is it the same rate?”

Garima said although some marketers might opt to sell imported petrol, Dangote should evaluate external market prices and consider the delivery timelines for marketers to stay competitive.

A Federal High Court in Abuja has barred the Central Bank of Nigeria from disbursing further monthly allocations to the Rivers State Government, citing alleged constitutional violations by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

In her ruling on Wednesday, Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, found that Governor Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 budget to a four-member House of Assembly breached constitutional protocol.

Abdulmalik highlighted that since January, Rivers State has received and spent allocations based on an “illegitimate” budget, describing this as a “constitutional aberration.”

The court order further restricts the CBN, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the state’s accounts at Zenith Bank and Access Bank from releasing any funds to Fubara.

The judge contended that the governor’s actions ignored constitutional requirements for budget approval by a fully constituted House of Assembly.

Delivering judgment in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/984/2024, Abdulmalik declared that decisions made by the four-member Fubara-backed assembly were void, referencing prior rulings by the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal that had annulled its authority.

Abdulmalik stressed the CBN’s responsibility to ensure that state budgets are approved by a constitutionally recognised House of Assembly before releasing funds.

“Any appropriation bill must pass through the constitutionally recognised House of Assembly,” she stated, “without which any budget implementation is unlawful.”

The ruling also held that Fubara’s actions violated Sections 91 and 96 of the 1999 Constitution, and warned that any continued bypassing of legislative processes constituted an affront to the rule of law.

The court’s decision followed a suit filed by the Rivers House of Assembly faction led by Martin Amaewhule, challenging the legitimacy of the four-member faction loyal to Fubara.

The Amaewhule-led Assembly had earlier declared in July that all state expenditures would be halted until the governor resubmitted his budget to the legitimate legislative body.

Abdulmalik denied a request to stay the proceedings, dismissing the application as “frivolous and vexatious.” She also refused to recuse herself from the case, rejecting the defence’s allegations of bias.

Punch

As reactions continue to trill the judgement of a Federal High Court in Abuja on the Rivers State fund, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has cautioned the judiciary against acts capable of setting the state on fire. 

Atiku, while expressing dissatisfaction over the ruling, lamented that Nigerian courts are playing a more ignoble role in fostering political crises across the country.

The court on Wednesday barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from disbursing further monthly allocations to the Rivers State Government, citing alleged constitutional violations by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

In her ruling, Joyce Abdulmalik found that Governor Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 budget to a four-member House of Assembly breached constitutional protocol.

The court order further restricts the CBN, the Accountant General of the Federation, and the state’s accounts at Zenith Bank and Access Bank from releasing any funds to Fubara.

Reacting, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in a statement by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, said it was appalling that “some elements loyal to the Federal Government were pulling the strings from behind” the scenes.

He wondered why Abdulmalik issued the order when it was public knowledge that Rivers State had already challenged the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the legality of Rivers State’s 2024 budget.

“Last week, the Court of Appeal declared that the Rivers State budget was illegal because it was passed by an inchoate assembly. The court ordered Fubara to present the budget afresh.

“The Rivers State Government has already filed a notice of appeal so that the Supreme Court can hear the matter.

“However, some elements in the Bola Tinubu administration have procured a judgement intended to undermine the Supreme Court.

“Even before the judgment was delivered, legal luminary, Femi Falana, had alerted the Chief Justice of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho of possible compromise after house gifts had been presented to judges in Abuja. Sadly, Falana’s warning was ignored,” the statement quoted Atiku as saying.

Atiku also praised the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, for summoning the judges involved in the Rivers State cases.

He, however, appealed to the nation’s top judge to ensure that those found wanting are disciplined in order to restore the fading glory of the judiciary.

The statement continued “The former Vice President said Nigeria has descended into the theatre of the absurd since the Tinubu administration took office.

“Courts are playing a more ignoble role in fostering political crises within political parties and even in states. From the emirship tussle in Kano State to the Rivers imbroglio where courts are going as far as preventing elections from holding, taking Nigeria back to the dark days of June 12, 1993, when polls were annulled.

“Sadly, under the leadership of those who claim to have fought for Nigeria’s democracy, the country is descending into chaos with conflicting orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction flying all over the place while judges are being induced in the name of empowerment and provision of houses.

“The result is that Nigerians are gradually losing confidence in an institution which prides itself as the last hope of the common man. Foreign investors will avoid any place where judgments can be bought by the highest bidder.

“Nigeria should not descend to the Hobessian state of nature where life is short, nasty, and brutish, where citizens opt for self-help. Rivers State accounts for almost 25 per cent of Nigeria’s oil assets. For a country facing an economic crisis worsened by vandalism and banditry, Tinubu should put his 2027 ambition aside and put Nigeria’s interest first.

“We call on the Nigerian judiciary to restore its image before it gets too late.”

Daily Trust

Lebanon, Israel could agree to ceasefire within days, Lebanese prime minister says

Lebanon's prime minister expressed hope on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal with Israel would be announced within days as Israel's public broadcaster published what it said was a draft agreement providing for an initial 60-day truce.

The document, which broadcaster Kan said was a leaked proposal written by Washington, said Israel would withdraw its forces from Lebanon within the first week of the 60-day ceasefire. It largely aligned with details reported earlier by Reuters based on two sources familiar with the matter.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he had not believed a deal would be possible until after Tuesday's U.S. presidential election. But he said he became more optimistic after speaking on Wednesday with U.S. envoy for the Middle East Amos Hochstein, who was due to travel to Israel on Thursday.

"Hochstein, during his call with me, suggested to me that we could reach an agreement before the end of the month and before Nov. 5th," Mikati told Lebanon's Al Jadeed television.

"We are doing everything we can and we should remain optimistic that in the coming hours or days, we will have a ceasefire," Mikati said.

The draft published by Kan was dated Saturday. When asked to comment, White House national security spokesperson Sean Savett said: "There are many reports and drafts circulating. They do not reflect the current state of negotiations.”

But Savett did not respond to a query on whether the version published by Kan was at least the basis for further negotiations.

The Israeli network said the draft had been presented to Israel's leaders. Israeli officials did not immediately comment.

Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been fighting for the past year in parallel with Israel's war in Gaza after Hezbollah struck Israeli targets in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza.

The conflict in Lebanon has dramatically escalated over the last five weeks, with most of the 2,800 deaths reported by the Lebanese health ministry for the past 12 months occurring in that period.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the leaked ceasefire proposal.

Earlier on Wednesday, the group's new leader, Naim Qassem, said the Iran-backed armed group would agree to a ceasefire within certain parameters if Israel wanted to stop the war, but that Israel had so far not agreed to any proposal that could be discussed.

It was Qassem's first speech as secretary-general, a day after Hezbollah announced his election to the post after Israel assassinated the group's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

ISRAEL STRIKES HISTORIC CITY

Israel's operation against heavily armed Hezbollah in Lebanon continued to expand on Wednesday as the Israeli army launched heavy airstrikes on the eastern city of Baalbek, famed for its Roman temples, and nearby villages, security sources told Reuters.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese, including many who sought shelter in Baalbek from other areas, fled after an Israeli evacuation warning.

Bilal Raad, regional head of the Lebanese civil defence, said the scene was chaotic. "The whole city is in a panic trying to figure out where to go, there's a huge traffic jam," he said ahead of the bombardment.

Lebanon's health ministry said 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes on two towns in the Baalbek area on Wednesday.

It said 2,822 people have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Lebanon since October 2023. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced.

Following the airstrikes, the Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah fuel reservoirs in the Bekaa Valley region.

Responding to a question about Israel's bombardment of Baalbek, the U.S. State Department reiterated on Wednesday that Washington supports Israel's right to go after legitimate Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. But it said Israel must do so in a way that does not threaten civilians, critical civilian infrastructure and significant cultural heritage sites.

For a third straight day, Hezbollah reported intense fighting with Israeli forces in or around the southern town of Khiyam - the deepest Israel's troops are reported to have penetrated into Lebanon since fighting escalated five weeks ago.

Hezbollah also said it had targeted a military camp southeast of Tel Aviv in Israel with missiles.

PLAN FOR PERMANENT CEASEFIRE

The White House said U.S. security official Brett McGurk would visit Israel on Thursday along with Hochstein. A U.S. official had said they would be there to discuss a range of issues "including Gaza, Lebanon, hostages, Iran and broader regional matters".

The Lebanese prime minister did not comment on the draft proposal published by the Israeli network, which called for a permanent ceasefire to take effect after the initial 60-day period based on implementation of United Nations resolutions 1701 and 1559.

Mikati said Lebanon was ready to fully implement 1701, passed in 2006, which directed the demilitarisation of southern Lebanon and established a U.N. peacekeeping mission there.

Earlier this month, Hochstein told reporters in Beirut that better mechanisms for enforcement were needed as neither Israel nor Lebanon had fully implemented the 18-year-old resolution. The draft leaked on Wednesday called for creating an independent, international arrangement to oversee the ceasefire.

Resolution 1559 was adopted in 2004 and called for disbanding and disarming all militias in Lebanon.

The push for a ceasefire for Lebanon is taking place alongside a similar diplomatic drive to end hostilities in Gaza.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia asks at UN: If West aids Ukraine, why can't North Korea help us?

Russia's envoy to the United Nations on Wednesday questioned why its allies like North Korea could not help Moscow in its war against Ukraine given Western countries claim to the right to help Kyiv.

Vassily Nebenzia faced a blunt argument at a Security Council meeting from the United States, Britain, South Korea, Ukraine and others, who all accused Russia of violating U.N. resolutions and the founding U.N. Charter with the deployment of troops from North Korea (DPRK) to help Moscow.

"Supporting an act of aggression, which completely violates the principles of the U.N. Charter, is illegal," South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang said. "Any activities that are entailed with the DPRK's dispatch of troops to Russia are clear violations of multiple U.N. Security Council Resolutions."

Some 10,000 North Korean troops were already in eastern Russia and it appeared likely that they would be used to support combat operations in Russia's Kursk region, near the border with Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.

Nebenzia said Russia's military interaction with North Korea does not violate international law. Russia has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops in the war, which it has been waging in Ukraine since February 2022.

"Even if everything that's being said about the cooperation between Russia and North Korea by our Western colleagues is true, why is it that the United States and allies are trying to impose on everyone the flawed logic that they have the right to help the Zelenskiy regime ... and Russian allies have no right to do a similar thing," Nebenzia said.

Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya responded: "None of the countries that provide assistance to Ukraine is under Security Council sanctions."

"Receiving assistance from the fully-sanctioned North Korea is a brazen violation of the U.N. Charter," he added. "Sending the DPRK troops to support Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law."

North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006 and the measures have been steadily strengthened over the years with the aim of halting Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

North Korea has not acknowledged the deployment of troops to Russia, but said any such move would be compliance with international law.

"If Russia's sovereignty and security interests are exposed to and threatened by continued dangerous attempts of the United States and the West, and if it is judged that we should respond to them with something, we will make a necessary decision," North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Song Kim told the council.

"Pyongyang and Moscow maintain close contact with each other on mutual security and development of the situation," he said.

However, deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Woodward warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: "Should DPRK's troops enter Ukraine in support of Russia, they will surely return in body bags. So I would advise Chairman Kim to think twice about engaging in such reckless and dangerous behavior."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kremlin reveals key condition for Ukraine peace talks

No negotiations with Ukraine can take place unless Kiev gives up its attempts to join NATO and its troops withdraw from Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary was commenting on speculation by the British outlet Financial Times about 'secret' peace between Russia and Ukraine talks, branding the story fake news.

Citing anonymous sources, the FT has claimed that Moscow and Kiev are “in preliminary discussions” to resume peace talks. According to the outlet, Ukraine is interested in restarting Qatar-mediated negotiations “that came close to an agreement in August before being derailed by Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk.”

“The basic conditions [for talks] were in the president’s peace initiative,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, referring to terms Putin outlined earlier this year, including the removal of all Ukrainian troops from Russian territory, Peskov said, referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the full administrative boundaries of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions.

The outlet also claimed that the Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services have reached a mutual understanding to stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure, calling it “the most significant de-escalation” of the conflict to date.

Peskov responded by saying that “nowadays there are a lot of bogus stories that have nothing to do with reality,” adding that “even the most respectable publications do not shy away from planting this misleading information.”

Russia received a Turkish request to discuss energy infrastructure strikes last month, according to former Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who now serves as the secretary of the Security Council. According to Shoigu, Russia was willing to consider a potential deal, but the Ukrainian side rejected it.

Reuters/RT