Corporate Lawyer and industrialist, Christopher Oladipo Ogunbajo, is dead. He was aged 99. The late Ogunbanjo was born in 1923. He would have been 100 years old in December.

Reputed for promoting and nurturing industrial ventures, the late industrialist, in the late 1960s, was among the group of businessmen who supported local equity participation in foreign firms operating in Nigeria. He was an early advocate of domiciliary accounts in Nigeria, which later came to existence through the promulgation of the Foreign Currency Decree 18 of 1985.

He began his education at St Phillips Primary School, Aiyetoro, Ile-Ife before proceeding to Oduduwa College, Ife for his secondary education in 1936. He later attended Igbobi College, where he passed his Cambridge School Certificate Examination. He obtained his Law degree from the University of London in 1949 and was called to the Bar in Lincoln’s Inn in 1950. That same year, he became a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Ogunbajo worked briefly at the Law firm of HO Davies before establishing his own private practice. His firm added two more partners, Samuel Ladoke Akintola and Michael Odesanya in 1952 to become Samuel, Chris and Michael Solicitors. The partnership was however dissolved in 1960 and his practice became Chris Ogunbanjo & Co., specializing in corporate law.

Ogunbanjo was one of the pioneer members of the American Chamber of Commerce established in 1960 and became the president of the Chamber in 1968, serving in that capacity till 1970.

Earlier in 1961, Ogunbanjo  

joined Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and became honourary Life Vice-President of the Chamber in 1979. He also served as chairman of the Centenary Foundation of the Chamber, a charity by the Chamber to raise money for the worthy cause of promoting development of Commerce and Industry in Nigeria.

The late Ogunbanjo was also honourary Life Vice President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and life Patron and merit Awardee of the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce and Industry which he helped to establish in 1977.

He was a significant shareholder in various Nigerian companies such as West African Batteries, Metal Box Toyo, Union Securities, 3M Nigeria, ABB Nigeria, Roche Nigeria and Chemical and Allied Products Ltd.

Ogunbanjo also served Nigeria in various other public capacities, which include: the first Chairman of the Nigerian Council for Management Education and Training; first Chairman of the governing body of the Centre for Management Development; Chairman of the Study Group on Industrial Policy set up by the Federal Government to examine industrial development in Nigeria in 1984 and Chairman of the Consultative Assembly on the Review of Company Law in Nigeria.

He was conferred with the award of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 1982 and Commander of the Niger (CON) in 2001.

Ogunbajo was married to Hilda Ladipo in 1953. His wife Hilda was editor of AMBER, a women’s lifestyle magazine established in the 1960s.

 

Thisday

The combined death toll from the Hamas attack on southern Israel has climbed to more than 1,100 as fighting entered a third day. Oil surged as the conflict threatened to inflame tensions in the Middle East, home to almost a third of global supply.

More than 700 Israelis, most of them civilians, were killed in the attacks which erupted outside the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning. Some 260 bodies were recovered at the site of a music festival that was taking place not far from Gaza’s northern border. About 400 Palestinians have died in fighting and retaliatory attacks, as the Israeli military regained control over most areas breached by militants.

The operation by Hamas — which included taking scores of Israeli hostages— was an unprecedented incursion that has shaken regional stability and markets. Israel officially declared war and says it won’t stop until Hamas’s military infrastructure is dismantled, a task that seems likely to include a ground invasion and take months.

All time stamps Israel.

Thai Air Force on Standby for Evacuations (5:28 a.m.)

Thailand’s air force is on standby to evacuate its citizens from the conflict areas in Israel, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, as the government confirmed that at least two nationals were killed, eight injured and 11 taken as hostages. The foreign ministry estimates there are about 30,000 Thai nationals in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Dimon Says JPM Employees in Region ‘Confirmed Safe’

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said the company’s employees in Israel and traveling in the region “have been confirmed safe.”

“We stand with our employees their families and the people of Israel during this time of great suffering and loss,” he wrote in a note to staff in the country. It wasn’t immediately clear how many staff the financial firm has in Israel.

Oil Soars on Middle East Tensions (4:08 a.m.)

Oil surged 5% as Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel threatened to inflame tensions in the Middle East, home to almost a third of global supply.

West Texas Intermediate traded near $87 a barrel as a war-risk premium returned to markets.

The latest events in Israel don’t pose an immediate threat to oil supply, but there’s a risk the conflict could spiral into a more devastating proxy war, embroiling the US and Iran. Any retaliation against Tehran amid reports it was involved in the attacks could endanger the passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit that Iran has previously threatened to close.

IDF Spokesperson Says About 1,000 Militants Involved in Attack (2:55 a.m.)

Approximately 1,000 militants participated in the attacks in Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson says in a live video on X, formerly known as Twitter.

More than 2,100 Israelis wounded. A high number of critically wounded “may not make it.”

Dollar Rises as Traders Seek Havens (2:07 a.m.)

The dollar strengthened against most of its major peers from the Asian open as currency traders got their first chance to react to a shock attack by Hamas within Israel.

The greenback — seen as a haven in times of trouble — advanced at least 0.2% versus the euro and pound, while risk currencies such as the Aussie and kiwi weakened.

Blinken, Saudi Foreign Minister Hold Talks (1:58 a.m.)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan discussed the most recent developments related to the Hamas “terrorist attacks” on Israel in a call, according to a readout from the State Department. Blinken encouraged Saudi Arabia’s continued engagement.

‘Not All’ UN Security Council Members Condemned Hamas, US Says (12:35 a.m.)

“A good number of countries” condemned the Hamas attacks during a closed session of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Robert Wood of the US said. “Obviously not all. I don’t really want to get into that. I think you could probably figure out one of them without me saying anything.”

Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the UAE said the immediate concern is the safe and unconditional return of hostages; broader political discussions aimed at a possible two-state solution can be addressed later.

Iran Aided Hamas Attack: WSJ (12:21 a.m.)

Iranian security officials helped Hamas plan its attack on Israel in a series of meetings over months, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon.

The Journal said Hamas was given the “green light” for the attack in Beirut last Monday.

US officials have noted Iran’s longstanding support for Hamas, with money and weapons. But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the US hasn’t “yet seen direct evidence that Iran was behind this particular attack.”

Killings at Music Festival, AP Says (10:28 p.m.)

About 260 people were killed after Hamas militants stormed an Israel music festival in the desert, the Associated Press reported, citing the Israeli rescue service Zaka.

Social media videos broadcast by Israeli news outlets showed festival goers fleeing in an open field as gunshots were heard. The New York Times posted footage showing rockets streaking across the sky as the dance party was ongoing, and a video clip showing at least two people being taken away by militants on foot and by motorcycle. Paramedics later responded to the scene, AP reported.

Idor Nagar, husband of one of the festival goers, appeared on BFM-TV saying his French-Israeli wife messaged at 7:11 a.m. on Saturday, shortly after the attack began, to say “All is well.” Minutes later, she reportedly texted him: “Soldiers are coming.” Nagar said she remained missing.

Palestinian Observer at UN Defiant Ahead of Security Council (10:28 p.m.)

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations, took a defiant tone in comments to reporters ahead of a special Security Council session, saying his people had repeatedly warned the Security Council about “the consequences of Israeli impunity and international inaction.”

“We know only too well that the messages about Israel’s right to defend itself will be interpreted by Israel as license to kill, to pursue on the very path that led us here,” Mansour said.

Islamic Jihad Says 30 Hostages Held (9:25 a.m.)

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is holding more than 30 Israeli hostages that will not be freed until all Islamic Jihad prisoners in Israel are also freed, the group’s leader, Ziad Al-Nakhala, said in a televised address.

Israel Says ‘Every Inch of Gaza’ Is Part of Hamas ‘War Machine’ (9:21 p.m.)

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said “every inch of Gaza has become part of Hamas’ war machine,” vowing that his country would “obliterate” all of the group’s terror infrastructure.

Despite the violence, Israel is sticking to efforts to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, he said, charging that suspending that bid would only benefit Iran.

“There are moderate countries in our region that want to normalize relations and live in peace and coexistence, and definitely Saudi Arabia is part of them,” he said, speaking to reporters before a closed-door session of the UN Security Council on the issue.

Four US Citizens Believed Dead: AP (8:57 p.m.)

At least four American citizens were killed in the attacks on Israel, the Associated Press reported, citing preliminary reports from an unnamed US official.

US Sends Warships, Munitions in Show of Force (8:35 p.m.)

A six-vessel US naval group including the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is headed to the eastern Mediterranean to “bolster regional deterrence efforts,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. Additional US equipment and resources, including munitions, will arrive in the coming days, he said.

President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone for the second time in two days. Biden told Netanyahu during the call that additional military assistance for Israel “is now on its way,” according to a White House statement.

 

Bloomberg

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine expects 'record' number of drone attacks this winter, air force says

Ukraine's air force expects a record number of Russian drone attacks on its soil this winter, its spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on Sunday, as Kyiv girds for a second winter of mass bombardment of its energy facilities.

Ihnat said that data for September showed the use by Russia of Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones would smash last year's figure.

"This autumn and winter ... is already a record in terms of the number of Shahed drones. Over 500 (were used) in September," Ihnat said in an interview on national television.

He contrasted this number with Russia's air strike campaign on Ukraine last winter, when he said about 1,000 Shahed drones were used in six months.

Attacks on energy facilites last winter damaged a significant chunk of Ukraine's power system and forced most cities to ration electricity and hot water.

Despite Ukraine bolstering its air defences, officials have warned of the risk of a repeat this winter, with the power grid still far from rebuilt after the last campaign of bombardment.

** Russian shelling kills at least two in Ukraine, say Ukraine officials

Russian forces shelled southern Kherson region and other parts of Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least two people and injuring a dozen more, Ukrainian officials said.

The general in charge of Ukraine's ground forces said troops were advancing on the eastern front in Kyiv's counteroffensive to evict Russian invaders.

The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said troops had beaten back attacks on five sectors of the 1,000-km long (600-mile) front.

Russian accounts said its forces had repelled attacks near the eastern front's focal point, Bakhmut, and farther north.

Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of Kherson region, said a man had died in Russian shelling in the northern part of the region. Prokudin had earlier reported that a dozen people were wounded in attacks on different localities.

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

In northeastern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Synehubov said a man had died in shelling near the Russian border.

Reuters could not verify reports from either side.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of Ukraine's ground forces, said he had met troops and commanders engaged in offensive operations near Bakhmut, taken by Russian forces in May after months of battles.

"The enemy is continuing to mass its reserves," Syrskyi wrote on Telegram. "Our troops are performing their assignments with the aim of proceeding with our advance."

The General Staff, in its evening report, said Ukrainian troops had repulsed Russian attacks in five areas of the eastern front, including Bakhmut.

In the south, Ukrainian troops have been capturing clusters of villages as they drive toward the Sea of Azov to sever a land bridge created by Russian forces occupying areas of southern and eastern Ukraine.

Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesperson for troops in the south, told national television that Russian troops had started using older weaponry, howitzers and cannons, evidence that Ukrainian forces had been successful in knocking out enemy equipment.

"Sadly, the Russians have plenty of equipment," he said.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Military solution to Ukraine conflict unlikely – Italian defense minister

It is unlikely that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will be resolved on the battlefield, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has predicted. He also revealed that Rome is considering ways to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, while continuing to arm Kiev.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera published on Sunday, Crosetto acknowledged that no matter how much Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government wants to support Ukraine indefinitely, the policy is simply not realistic. He pointed out that the hostilities there have dragged on for over a year and a half, adding that the “more time passes, the more the possibility of helping Ukraine with resources that are not unlimited decreases.” The official emphasized that this does not indicate a change in Italy’s policies but rather the finite nature of the country’s stocks.

According to the official, the “situation in Ukraine is getting worse,” with Kiev having “great difficulty in regaining lost ground,” and Moscow being unable to “conquer” the nation.

“We are witnessing the impossibility of resolving the conflict on the field,”Crosetto argued, adding that Italy was busy looking for ways to “build dialogue tables, achieve peace.” 

He concluded by claiming that if Russia prevails in Ukraine, its tanks will be rolling toward European borders, making the prospect of World War III more likely.

Late last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that Moscow is ready for peace talks with Kiev in principle, adding, however, that it has yet to see any “serious proposal.” The diplomat dismissed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s peace formula as a “pure ultimatum,” which Russia would never accept.

Russian officials have previously pointed out that President Zelensky effectively ruled out negotiations when he signed a decree last October prohibiting dialogue with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this month, Politico reported, citing a European official, that EU member states have reached their limit in terms of weaponry they can provide to Ukraine, without compromising their own defenses.

“We cannot keep on giving from our own stockpiles,” the anonymous official told reporters.

In a separate story around the same time, the media outlet claimed that support for funding the Ukrainian government was “showing more cracks than ever,” citing the recent failure of the US Congress to allocate more aid money in its stopgap budget, as well as the election victory of former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who vowed when he was campaigning that he’d stop assistance to Kiev.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Politico alleged that the Biden administration is looking for “creative” ways to secure further military aid for Ukraine, amid mounting opposition at home. The supposed workarounds under consideration include using the State Department’s foreign military financing program as well as a three-way swap of air-defense systems involving Poland, the media outlet claimed.

 

Reuters/RT

What could be more delightful than a trip to Greece to meet Yanis Varoufakis, the charismatic leftwing firebrand who tried to stick it to the man, AKA the IMF, EU and entire global financial order? The mental imagery I have before the visit is roughly two parts Zorba the Greek to one part an episode of BBC series Holiday from the Jill Dando era: blue skies, blue sea, maybe some plate breaking in a jolly taverna. What I’m not expecting is a wall of flames rippling across a hillside next to the highway from the airport and a plume of black smoke billowing across the carriageway.

Because even a modernist villa on a hillside on the island of Aegina – a fast ferry ride from the port of Piraeus and the summer bolthole of chic Athenians – is not the sanctuary from the modern world that it might once have been. The house is where Varoufakis and his wife, landscape artist Danae Stratou, live, year round since the pandemic, but in August 2023 at the end of a summer of heatwaves and extreme weather conditions across the world, it feels more than a little apocalyptic. The sun is a dim orange orb struggling to shine through a haze of smoke while a shower of fine ash falls invisibly from the sky. A month later, two years’ worth of rain will fall in a single day in northern Greece, causing a biblical deluge and never-before-seen levels of flooding.

That the end of the world feels just a little bit nearer here than it does in some places may not be coincidental to Varoufakis’s having written a new book called Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. Nor that the book comes to the conclusion that capitalism has been replaced with something even worse. Not the glorious socialist revolution that his hero Marx foresaw. Nor some new mutation of capitalism such as the one detailed by Shoshana Zuboff in her surprise 2019 bestseller, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. We’re now in servitude, Varoufakis argues, to the fiefdoms of our new global masters, Lord Zuckerberg of Facelandia and Sir Musk of the rotten borough of X.

When I arrive by taxi at the bottom of the dirt track up to his house, Varoufakis is there to meet me, folded inside a zippy red Mini. “I’m usually on my motorbike,” he says, and describes his “pristine commute” at speed via land and sea that gets him to the Greek parliament in just over an hour. It should also be mentioned that the motorbike and leather jacket didn’t hurt his image as a lefty bad boy, taking on the grey men of global capitalism. To put Varoufakis into context, he was the Greek equivalent of John McDonnell (a close friend) if Jeremy Corbyn (another close friend) had actually been voted into power and if John McDonnell had, in this scenario, been played by George Clooney.

Because in 2015, at the height of the Greek debt crisis, Varoufakis was catapulted from academic obscurity to minister of finance. He said – loudly and repeatedly – that the punitive terms the banks wanted to impose on Greece would lead to catastrophic austerity. A majority of Greeks voted to back him, and for a short time his strategy of simply refusing to agree to the IMF and EU’s terms led to a tense standoff. Right until the moment prime minister Aléxis Tsípras, the man who appointed him, accepted them. Either the only possible action to prevent the country going bankrupt, or a treacherous betrayal, depending on who you choose to believe.

The Financial Times labelled Varoufakis “the most irritating man in the room” during the negotiations, so it’s not exactly a surprise to learn that Technofeudalism is a polemic, a controversialist’s take. And although in 2023 there’s nothing particularly novel or special about hating on tech – hating on Elon Musk is the only rational response to the situation in which we’ve found ourselves – nevertheless, Technofeudalism feels like an important new book.

It’s a big-picture hypothesis rooted in a historical account of how capitalism came into being that describes what is happening in terms of an epochal, once-in-a-millennium shift. In some ways, it’s a relief to have a politician – any politician – talking about this stuff. Because in Varoufakis’s telling, this isn’t just new technology. This is the world grappling with an entirely new economic system and therefore political power.

“Imagine the following scene straight out of the science fiction storybook,” he writes. “You are beamed into a town full of people going about their business, trading in gadgets, clothes, shoes, books, songs, games and movies. At first everything looks normal. Until you begin to notice something odd. It turns out all the shops, indeed every building, belongs to a chap called Jeff. What’s more, everyone walks down different streets, and sees different stores because everything is intermediated by his algorithm… an algorithm that dances to Jeff’s tune.”

It might look like a market, but Varoufakis says it’s anything but. Jeff (Bezos, the owner of Amazon) doesn’t produce capital, he argues. He charges rent. Which isn’t capitalism, it’s feudalism. And us? We’re the serfs. “Cloud serfs”, so lacking in class consciousness that we don’t even realise that the tweeting and posting that we’re doing is actually building value in these companies.

We’re in his airy open-plan living room where his wife intermittently appears offering water, coffee and snacks and shooing away a large, enthusiastically affectionate labrador. “He’s totally in love with Yanis,” she says. Stratou and Varoufakis are a striking couple, as glamorous as their house, a cool, luminous space featuring poured concrete and big glass windows overlooking a perfect rectangle of blue pool.

“I have no issues with luxury,” he says at one point, which is just as well because the entire scene would give the Daily Mail a conniption, especially since Aegina seems to be Greece’s equivalent of Martha’s Vineyard, home to a highly networked artistic and political elite. Tsípras, the former prime minister and Varoufakis’s nemesis, used to live next door. “He was on the next hill. There’s a symbolically important ravine between us,” he says.

And although Stratou is an accomplished artist, she’s also cursed with some niche internet fame. At the height of Varoufakis’s notoriety, a newspaper report claimed that she was the inspiration behind Pulp’s hit song Common People. “She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge,” runs the first line; “She studied sculpture at St Martin’s College,” is the second. As Stratou did, at the same time as Jarvis Cocker was there, though she gives me a “No comment!” when I inevitably bring it up. “It’s the first thing you see when you Google my name,” she says, with irritation, and “who knows where artists find their inspiration?” though Varoufakis seems to be enjoying my line of questioning just a little too much.

Technofeudalism takes the form of a letter addressed to Varoufakis’s recently deceased father, Georgios. A Greek-Egyptian communist, he emigrated to Greece in the 1940s, in the middle of the country’s civil war, and was sentenced to five years’ “political re-education” for refusing to denounce his communism. He rose to become chairman of Greece’s biggest steel company. What Varoufakis valued most about him, he says in the book, was his father’s ability to see the “dual nature” of things.

Technofeudalism is also partly a sequel to his previous book, Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, addressed to his then 11-year-old daughter Xenia, in which he tried to answer the question of why there’s so much inequality. Though even as he was writing it, he says, he felt end-of-an-era qualms about the future prospects of capitalism.

“Even before it was published in 2017, I was feeling uneasy,” he says in the first chapter of Technofeudalism. “Between finishing the manuscript and holding the published book in my hands, it felt as if it were the 1840s and I was about to publish a book on feudalism; or, even worse, like waiting for a book on Soviet central planning to see the light of day in late 1989.” Was the entire concept of capitalism already out of date, he wondered?

On the living room bookshelf, I spot a copy of Zucked by businessman Roger McNamee, one of the first investors in Facebook, who was responsible for introducing Mark Zuckerberg to Sheryl Sandberg. “That’s a great book,” says Varoufakis. I tell him that McNamee broadly agrees with his new ideas. I’d messaged a bunch of people to ask them what they would ask Varoufakis, including McNamee, and precised the book to him – that two pivotal events have transformed the global economy: 1) the privatisation of the internet by America and China’s big tech companies; and 2) western governments’ and central banks’ responses to the 2008 great financial crisis, when they unleashed a tidal wave of cash.

I read him McNamee’s reply: “I buy the basic thesis. The US kept interest rates at near zero from 2009 to 2022. This encouraged business models that promised world-changing outcomes, even if they were completely unrealistic and/or hostile to the public interest (eg the gig economy, self-driving cars, crypto, metaverse, AI). This came at a time of no regulation of tech and an accepted culture in business that said executives should maximise shareholder value at expense of everything else (eg democracy, public health, public safety)… had rates been at 5% the past 14 years, I doubt very much that the gig economy, self-driving cars, crypto, metaverse or AI would have gotten even 10% as much funding.”

It’s pretty remarkable, I point out, that a Marxist and a venture capitalist have reached the same economic conclusions. But then there are more and more people – outside politics – trying to understand these new power structures. Shoshana Zuboff tells me that she “explicitly rejects labels like technofeudalism because technology is not the independent variable nor are we feudal serfs”. But she also says that the argument has some similarities to one of her latest papers: “In big tech we face a totalising power that in key respects disqualifies itself from being understood as capitalism, but rather as a wholly new form of governance by the few over the many.”

I ask him what his advice would be to Keir Starmer, he says: ‘He should try being honest. He should say: “You know what? Brexit was a disaster”’

When I message Mariana Mazzucato, another charismatic and influential economist, but one who, unlike Varoufakis, has been embraced by governments and financial institutions, her response suggests that some of Varoufakis’s ideas are not that new. She herself published on an adjacent concept, “algorithmic rents” (the idea that tech companies capture attention and resell it rather than creating long-term value) in 2018.

But perhaps traditional distinctions between left and right don’t make sense any more. The right, Varoufakis says, “thinks of capitalism as like a natural system, a bit like the atmosphere”. Whereas the left “think of themselves as people created by the universe in order to bring socialism over capitalism. I am telling you: you know what, you missed it. You missed it. Somebody killed capitalism. We have something worse.”

The early internet, he says, has given way to a privatised digital landscape in which gatekeepers “charge rent… The people we think of as capitalists are just a vassal class now. If you’re producing stuff now, you’re done. You’re finished. You cannot become the ruler of the world any more.”

I wonder aloud if Varoufakis’s big-picture approach stems from the fact that authoritarianism – and the radical politics it produced in his own family – is still near-history in Greece. When he was six, the secret police raided his house and arrested his father. Do you remember it, I ask. “My God, yes, you don’t forget a thing like that. For two weeks, we didn’t know where he was.” And when Varoufakis started becoming interested in politics – this was when a military junta still ruled Greece – and he was picked up by the police as a teenager, his parents were adamant: he was going to Britain.

As well as being a passionate European and an internationalist, he’s also an anglophile who writes in English and studied at Essex University, where he joined the Communist party of Great Britain. He is credited with persuading Jeremy Corbyn to back remain in the referendum and campaigned around the country for it. And when I ask him what his advice would be to Keir Starmer, he says: “He should try to do something he’s incapable of: being honest. He should say: ‘You know what? Brexit was a disaster. I want to bring back the UK into the EU. I’m not saying that I’m going to do it any time soon. But I’m going to work toward it. In the meantime, I will make Brexit work by doing A B C and D.’” (Coincidentally, Starmer said last week that he will seek to remake the deal with the EU for closer trade ties.)

“He’s now adopting austerity. There’s no plan for the NHS to reverse the privatisation from within. You know, this is the one thing I miss about Thatcher. She was a conviction politician, right?”

I say that the closest political analogues to Varoufakis in the UK might be Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. “What?” he says.

“You’re all anti-politicians,” I say.

“The fact you have a point is a source of sorrow,” he says. “Because I’m anti-establishment. But it’s true, you have these people taking over the anti-establishment mantle in a way that is functional to the interests of the establishment. I see no difference between Orbán, the Polish government, Trump, Farage, Johnson, Mussolini.”

It formed part of his pitch to the EU at the height of the Greek debt crisis. “I told Wolfgang Schäuble [the former German finance minister]: ‘We’re both democrats. We believe in the Enlightenment.’ I said: ‘Give us austerity and we’ll turn to fascism.’ And I very much fear that is turning out to be the case.” The big winners in this year’s Greek elections were “The Spartans, they are the mutation of Golden Dawn [a banned Greek neo-Nazi party]. The Greek Solution. You only have to hear the names, right? And Niki, or Victory.”

It’s a particularly sore point. Because these parties’ gains came at the expense of Varoufakis. After his stint as finance minister, he’d set up his own party, which won nine seats in the 2019 election. This year, it lost them all. “We don’t really know what happened. We were polling at 21% among young people.” The spring has gone out of his step, he admits. He’s been holed up in Aegina since, pondering his next move. Still, even with the ash raining from the skies, it’s not a bad place to be.

This is a bracing conversation, which includes half an hour on Russia and Ukraine during which I politely disagree with everything he says. His views on the conflict are practically indistinguishable from Nigel Farage’s, rehearsing the same far right-meets-far left “horseshoe” rhetoric about doing a deal with Putin, and Crimea not really being Ukraine. But on the subject of technofeudalism, I could listen to him all day.

Xenia, his daughter, wanders in. “Are you guys still going? I’ve had three naps since you got here.” A student in Australia, she’s been taking her classes online from Aegina and has been up half the night. The breakdown of his relationship with his first wife, Australian academic Margarite Poulos, and her decision to return to Australia with Xenia was, Varoufakis has written, one of the darkest periods of his life. Meeting Stratou is what saved him from “near oblivion”.

In Technofeudalism, Varoufakis retells the story of the minotaur. It’s a myth that he returns to often. In his prescription, the minotaur is the global financial system. In the myth, the beast is eventually slain by an Athenian prince. This prince of Athens didn’t manage to bring down capitalism. But as he and Stratou walk me down to the taxi under an unnatural orange sunset, it strikes me that the beast may yet turn out to have mortally wounded itself, all on its own.

• Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis is published by Bodley Head (£22). To support the Guardian and Observerorder your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
• Yanis Varoufakis discusses Technofeudalism at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London SE1, 28 September, tickets from £15

 

The Guardian, UK

Matt O’Hayer estimates he’s started “about 50 businesses,” from carpet cleaning to chartering sailboats.

His biggest success came when he stopped “trying to get rich” and started a company he believed in — one with a “deeper purpose,” he says. That’s Vital Farms, which says it’s the nation’s largest producer of pasture-raised eggs.

The business works with more than 300 family farms across the country, and can process up to six million eggs per day. It brought in $362.1 million in net revenue last year, marketing itself to customers willing to pay $6 to $10— multiple times the current national average of $2.04 — for a carton of a dozen ethically produced eggs.

O’Hayer launched Vital Farms in 2007 with 20 Rhode Island Red hens on a 27-acre farm near Austin, Texas. His goal was twofold: Raise egg-laying hens in a more humane environment than was typical in the U.S., and teach other farmers to do the same.

Vital Farms, which also sells butter, is now valued at $452.17 million, after going public in 2020, and is on track to bring in $465 million in revenue this year, according to company projections.

“I think we’ve shocked a lot of the marketplace, to think that people would be willing to pay extra for eggs,” O’Hayer, 68, says, adding: “It shows that ... people really care about what they eat and where it comes from.”

Inspired by ‘conscious capitalism’

O’Hayer’s first “sizable” business, which he began at age 20, was a carpet cleaning and janitorial services company in Houston. Other ventures have included a barter exchange service, travel company and sailboat vacation charter service.

In the 1980s, he and his ex-wife bought and tried to run a small farm. Their hens, which used to live in cages, “wouldn’t move,” O’Hayer says. “They just sat around, and I had to bring food to them.”

Somewhere around the same time, in 1984, O’Hayer met Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey. The two businessmen hit it off, sparking a long friendship, says O’Hayer. And when Mackey wrote a blog post in 2006 about “conscious capitalism,” which seeks a balance between profitability and social responsibility, O’Hayer felt inspired.

He started researching business ideas with a “deeper purpose,” and found himself returning to the egg industry, where an estimated 90% of the world’s egg-producing chickens live in cages. Those are “the most tortured farm animal in the world,” O’Hayer says.

He bought the 27-acre farm in Austin for $250,000, and got to work.

From Whole Foods to 24,000 stores

It took two years for Vital Farms to turn its first operating profit. O’Hayer spent most of that time overcoming the mistakes of a novice farmer.

The company’s chickens roam across a minimum of 108 square feet of farmland each day, foraging for natural grasses and insects. That’s not enough, O’Hayer discovered: The hens required additional feed, made from corn and unprocessed soybean meal, to ensure high egg production rates.

Once you get eggs, you need to sell them. Without a customer base, Vital Farms ended up donating its eggs to a local food bank multiple times, says O’Hayer.

In 2009, the company landed its “first big customer” — Whole Foods. Over eight slow years, the grocer expanded Vital Farms from Midwest stores to the rest of the country, which O’Hayer calls a “slog.”

“The way we expanded was not through relationships, necessarily, but through the fact that our eggs were selling,” he says.

Part of the popularity stems from Vital Farms’ mission. More than three-quarters of consumers say they care about the welfare of animals raised for food, according to a 2018 survey by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

But that wasn’t the only reason consumers bought in, O’Hayer says.

“It was really the taste and flavor of the egg that really drove our sales early on,” he says. “It’s a fortunate coincidence in laying hens that when you treat them right ... it actually turns out that they lay a much better egg.”

As sales picked up, Vital Farms expanded to retailers including Albertsons, Kroger, Publix, Target and Walmart. Today, the brand appears in more than 24,000 stores nationwide.

Maintaining standards

O’Hayer’s goal was always to partner with other farms: More eggs means higher sales.

It also creates a challenge. A lot of farms don’t meet Vital Farms’ specifications for humane conditions, from animal welfare and safety requirements to geographical features like tree coverage, a lack of standing water and outdoor grazing space.

Those factors are expensive, and Vital Farms has to convince farmers that the costs are worthwhile.

“We work really hard on the front end of a relationship with a farmer to help make sure that that farmer ... is going to be less prone to maybe taking the kind of shortcut that results in an animal not being treated as as we would like it to be,” says Russell Diez-Canseco, who took over as Vital Farms CEO from O’Hayer in 2019.

Vital Farms’ eggs are labeled “Certified Humane” by animal welfare nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care, and it’s among the brands recommended by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

It’s also being sued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and a group of consumers, who say Vital Farms’ ethical and humane branding is misleading. The lawsuit centers around industry-standard practices like trimming chickens’ beaks to ensure they don’t harm one another, and obtaining chicks from hatcheries that kill male chicks because they don’t lay eggs.

“The truth is that no matter what eggs you’re buying, [there] are some ways in which we would like to see producing those products be made better in some way,” Diez-Canseco says. “We face the same dilemma as any other egg producer does. Those are certainly not things we shy away from talking about, but they’re not things that the industry has come up with a very different alternative for today.”

Room to grow in a $14 billion market

Vital Farms’ annual sales have nearly quadrupled since first topping $100 million in 2018, outpacing every other pasture-raised egg brand in the country, according to the company.

That still only accounts for “maybe, 5% or 6% of U.S. retail sales of eggs,” Diez-Canseco says. The market’s biggest competitor, Cal-Maine — which sells under brands like Eggland’s Best and Land O’Lakes — brought in more than $3.1 billion in 2022 sales.

In total, the U.S. eggs market is valued at nearly $14 billion, according to a Research and Markets report published in July. Nearly 40% of egg production in the U.S. is controlled by a small group of large competitors, with Vital Farms not even among the top five.

That makes Vital Farms “still very much the startup in that space,” says Diez-Canseco. Still, his company’s internal projections say it’ll bring in more than $1 billion in annual net revenue by 2027.

That’ll depend on convincing more farmers to spend on humane conditions, and more people to buy relatively expensive eggs.

“Our purpose is to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food,” says Diez-Canseco. “And there are a lot more people and a lot more animals and a lot more land in this country in front of us.”

 

CNBC

Proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) says it is ready to negotiate with the federal government over a peaceful separation of Biafra from Nigeria.

IPOB is asking for a United Nations supervised referendum to extricate Biafra from Nigeria.

Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesperson, announced the development in a statement on Saturday.

Powerful said the agitation for a Biafra nation under IPOB began in 2012 without violence or criminality.

He said IPOB has lost over 5,000 members and property worth over $1 billion as a result of the extreme use of force by Nigeria’s security agencies.

“We the global family and movement of IPOB wish to reiterate once again that IPOB remains peaceful and open for negotiations and dialogue on peaceful exit of Biafra from Nigeria through a UN supervised Referendum,” the statement reads.

“IPOB’s peaceful agitation for Biafra Independence started in 2012. Never has IPOB been associated with violence or criminality in all our years of rallies and protests.

“Nevertheless, Federal Government, through its security forces, has levied war against IPOB.

“Our members have been brutally attacked while on peaceful protest by the Nigeria security forces at many locations in Biafra Land.

“As a result of these unwarranted attacks, many IPOB members have been murdered in cold blood, some have been permanently handicapped, some forcefully taken away by the security forces whereas some are still illegally detained in various detention facilities across Nigeria.

“Many IPOB members and sympathisers have had their houses and businesses burnt by the Nigeria security forces.

“IPOB has lost over 5,000 members with properties worth over $1bn as a result of the extreme use of force from the Nigeria Security Forces.

“Irrespective of all the provocations, IPOB has never retaliated nor have we taken up arms against the Nigerian State.”

Powerful added that IPOB has always advocated for a peaceful separation through dialogue.

“IPOB stands for peace. We stand for dialogue, and we stand for discussions. The cardinal rule under which IPOB was formed is to lead the way to a peaceful separation of Biafra from Nigeria,” the statement reads.

“Biafra and Nigeria are two different nations.

“The events from 1948 to 2023 have shown that it is practically impossible for Biafra and Nigeria to coexist as one nation.

“IPOB has been calling on the Nigeria State for discussions on a peaceful referendum date, but the Nigeria State always returns the peaceful call with violent suppression.

“We have always maintained that self-determination is our inalienable right according to the UN laws.”

 

The Cable

Nigeria’s available power generation capacity has plunged by 2,324 megawatts due to deteriorating plants/units’ capacities and poor maintenance caused by liquidity challenges, among others, the Federal Government has said.

It stated that though the country’s installed power generation capacity increased marginally, the quantum of available power crashed by over 2,300MW between 2015 and 2022.

Muhammadu Buhari was Nigeria’s president during the period under review. Former President Buhari took over from Goodluck Jonathan who built the power capacity to the level bequeathed in 2015.

An analysis of the latest 2022 Electricity Market Competition Report by The PUNCH on Friday, showed that the country’s available power capacity dropped from 6,401MW in 2015 to 4,059MW in 2022.

The report, which was put together by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Federal Government, read in part, “The installed capacity in NESI (Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry) grew by 7.95 per cent, from 12,132MW as of December 2015 to 13,097MW as at December 2022.

“During the same period, however, the average available capacity decreased by 2,324MW, from 6,401MW recorded in 2015 to 4,059MW in 2022.

“This is due to deteriorating plants/units’ capacities, poor maintenance due to liquidity challenge and access to forex (foreign exchange), non-binding contracts and delay payment, and introduction of stringent regulatory measure against wrong declaration.”

The power sector regulator, however, stated that “it is also noteworthy to mention that during the period, Gbarain National Integrated Power Project was out of operation till date. The non-availability of this plant may have also overstated the reduction in available capacity linked to the old plants.”

Meanwhile, the report stated that the installed and generation capacities of the power plants connected to the grid had continued to increase from 2015 when the power generation companies were handed over to private investors.

The NERC stated, “As at December 2022, 28 power plants were operational in NESI. The high number of generation plants and the opportunities created by various regulations allowing Discos (distribution companies) and large consumers to contract bilaterally and supported by the proposed exit of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company from the market, have somewhat improved the level of competition in that segment of the value chain.”

A total of 28 private and government-owned power generation plants were operational and on the grid as of December 2022, it stated.

It added that “This does not include several embedded generators licensed by the commission and currently operating in NESI. Only eight of the grid-connected generation plants owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited are yet to be privatized.”

The NDPHC is a special-purpose vehicle owned by the three tiers of government and created for the implementation of the National Integrated Power Projects.

The NERC further stated that while it had continued to provide direction and regulatory guidance to address the challenges in NESI, the daily average generation had continued to grow.

“The daily average generation of 3,892MWh/h recorded in 2022 was 9.42 per cent more than the daily average generation of 3,557MWh/h recorded in 2015,” it stated.

But electricity consumers condemned the 9.42 per cent rise in average power generation recorded during the period of seven years, describing it as abysmally low.

The National Secretary, Nigeria Electricity Consumer Advocacy Network, Uket Obonga, said, “Can you say that is an improvement? If you had that kind of growth for seven years, which on average is about 1.3 per cent annual growth, would you say it is good? It is abysmally low!”

He added, “There is no serious growth there. It is about 1.3 per cent annual growth and this has been so for the past 10 years. In fact, since 2010 till about February or March this year, the annual growth in the power sector is about 1.1 per cent.

“So there is nothing to celebrate about that. It is not something remarkable. Our demand for electricity far outweighs that quantum of power generated during the period that was reviewed by NERC.”

 

Punch/NewsScroll

Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Ahmed, has said that the recent release of water from the Cameroon Lagdo dam will cause more flood disasters downstream Nigerian states.

The states to be affected are Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Anambra, Edo, Delta and Bayelsa, with Adamawa already affected.

Speaking on Saturday in Abuja during an emergency meeting with stakeholders in reaction to the flood disaster that affected Adamawa State from October 4, he said NEMA was alerted to the sudden increased inundation of riparian communities and farmlands along the banks of River Niger in Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states in the past 48 hours.

“Situation reports from Adamawa State confirms the upsurge of floodwaters along the flood plains of River Benue. The situation is expected to be replicated in downstream states of Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa Kogi, Anambra, Edo. Delta and Bayelsa as the River Benue joins River Niger and flows to the Atlantic Ocean through the Niger Delta,” he said.

He said the sudden situation was attributed to the rapid release of waters from Lagdo Dam in the Republic of Cameroon, adding that it had resulted in the displacement of residents of the affected communities.

He said croplands and valuable infrastructure were at risk of getting washed away by flood waters.

Ahmed said, “As a result of the unfolding situation, I want to use this opportunity to alert authorities of state and local governments along rivers Niger and Benue basin areas to immediately activate their emergency response plans to avert potential damage and losses that will arise due to inundation of communities by flood waters.”

“Furthermore, we are expecting to receive updates from the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) NIMET, NEMA Operations Office in Yola Adamawa state and from State Emergency Agencies of the frontline states to keep on updating you on the situation as it unfolds.”

He said the dashboard of the agency indicated that this year’s flood scenario had affected 159,157 persons, resulted in the loss of 28 persons and the displacement of 48,168 individuals across 13 states int the country.

 

Daily Trust

Over one million Nigerians have lost their jobs under the N-Power programme of the Federal Government following the indefinite suspension of the scheme by the government.

The N-Power programme was established by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari to address youth unemployment as beneficiaries were paid N30,000 monthly stipend.

It is a component of the National Social Investment Programme put in place by the previous administration through the on-boarding of 1.5 million unemployed Nigerian youths (mostly graduates), providing capacity building, targeted tenured employment and structured of-boarding unto various career paths.

In February this year, figures obtained from the Humanitarian ministry in Abuja indicated that the programme had enrolled 200,000 youths in Batch A; 300,000 in Batch B; 510,000 in Batch C1; and 490,000 in Batch C2.

Although the number of beneficiaries who had exited the scheme could not be confirmed at the time of filing this report, it was gathered that virtually all enrolees in batches C1 and C2 were still enrolled in the scheme, representing about one million persons.

Many N-Power beneficiaries teach in primary schools across the country.

But on Saturday, the Federal Government announced the indefinite suspension of the programme and vowed to investigate the funds spent on the scheme.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, announced the indefinite suspension of the programme during a live interview on TVC News.

Edu said the programme had been marred by irregularities, adding that the government had launched an investigation into the utilisation of funds since the inception of the scheme.

She added that some of the beneficiaries of the programme were not found in their places of assignment, yet they were receiving monthly stipends.

Edu also stated that some of the N-Power beneficiaries ought to have exited the programme in 2022, but were still on the payroll.

She said, “We must go back to look into N-Power and understand what the problems are; so we will basically suspend the programme for now until we are done with proper investigation into the utilisation of funds by the N-Power programme.

“We want to know how many people are basically on the programme right now; how many people are owed and the amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring N-Power and expanding it.

“There are lots going on. We met people who were supposed to have exited the programme since last year and they are still claiming that they are teaching.

“Sometimes, we contact the schools or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working, yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine months’ stipends. About 80 per cent of them are not working, yet they are claiming salaries.”

Previous investigations

The N-Power scheme has been marred by irregularities as the humanitarian ministry had in a response to an enquiry by The PUNCH in December 2022 detailed how some of its officials were being investigated.

In the response, which was signed by the immediate past Permanent Secretary, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, the ministry said it was aware of publications regarding ongoing investigations in relation to fraud allegations in the programme.

It said, “We wish to state as follows: the ministry has deployed a well-rounded mechanism for the selection of eligible beneficiaries from across the country and this has been in place since the inception of the programme.

“Working with our service provider, programme beneficiaries are on-boarded, trained and deployed to pre-selected places of primary assignment.

“When it came to our notice that there might have been sharp practices by some personnel of the payment service provider involved in the payment processes of the beneficiaries, the matter was immediately referred to the ICPC for a thorough investigation.

“We are aware that certain persons have consequently been invited for interrogation as part of the ongoing investigations.”

The former permanent secretary said the ministry had carried out thorough reinforcement of its systems to eliminate all anomalies and prevent similar occurrences in the future.

He added, “To this end, we are in close collaboration with the ICPC to support the successful determination of the investigation.

“The public may wish to note that in a bid to ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of the N-Power and other National Social Investment Programmes, namely the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and the Conditional Cash Transfer, the ministry has over time involved other government MDAs, security agencies and Civil Society Organisations in monitoring and compliance checks across the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory.

“We want to assure all N-Power beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s continued commitment to the programme and the subsequent exit/of-boarding channels activated.”

The ministry had also urged all programme beneficiaries to continue to apply themselves to their utmost at their places of primary assignment.

“All monthly stipends will continue to be paid in line with programme expectations,” the ministry had stated.

It also called “on members of the public to come forward with information on any irregularities noticed in the implementation of the National Social Investment programme” through some email channels and phone numbers at the time.

 

Punch

Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and rampaged through nearby Israeli communities, killing at least 250 people and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise attack during a major Jewish holiday Saturday. Israel responded with strikes in Gaza that killed 232 and signaled more as its prime minister said the country is at war and vowed to inflict an “unprecedented price.”

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response.

Gun battles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns. Militants occupied a police station in a third town, where Israeli forces struggled until Sunday morning to finally reclaim the building. An Israeli military spokesperson said Sunday morning that the hostage situations had been “resolved,” but did not say whether all the hostages had been rescued alive.

Twenty-four hours after the start of the Hamas attack, the Israeli military had still not given an all-clear. In some towns, civilians’ bodies lay where they had encountered advancing gunmen. At least nine people gunned down at a bus shelter in the town of Sderot were laid out on stretchers on the street, their bags still on the curb nearby. One woman, screaming, embraced the body of a family member sprawled under a sheet next to a toppled motorcycle.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza intensified after nightfall, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions, including a 14-story tower that held dozens of apartments as well as Hamas offices in central Gaza City. Israeli forces fired a warning just before.

At least 232 people in the Gaza Strip were killed and 1,700 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Israeli media, citing rescue service officials, said at least 250 people were killed and 1,500 wounded in Saturday’s attack, making it the deadliest in Israel in decades. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive into Gaza.

The conflict threatened to escalate with Israel’s vows of retaliation.

In a televised address Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will use all of its strength to destroy Hamas’ capabilities. “All the places that Hamas hides in, operates from, we will turn them into ruins,” he added.

“Get out of there now,” he told Gaza residents, who have no way to leave the tiny, overcrowded Mediterranean territory.

Overnight, the Israeli military issued warnings in Arabic to communities near the border with Israel to leave their homes for areas deeper inside the tiny enclave.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have endured a border blockade, enforced to varying degrees by Israel and Egypt, since Hamas militants seized control in 2007.

Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers brought widespread death and destruction in Gaza and days of rocket fire on Israeli towns. The situation is potentially more volatile now, with Israel’s far-right government stung by the security breach and with Palestinians in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza.

The strength, sophistication and timing of the Saturday morning attack shocked Israelis. Hamas fighters used explosives to break through the border fence enclosing Gaza, then crossed with motorcycles, pickup trucks, paragliders and speed boats on the coast.

In an amateur video, hundreds of terrified young people who had been dancing at a rave fled for their lives after Hamas militants entered the area and began firing at them.

Among those killed Saturday was Col. Jonathan Steinberg, a senior officer who commanded the Israeli military’s Nahal Brigade, a prominent infantry unit.

Before daybreak Sunday, militants fired more rockets from Gaza, hitting a hospital in the Israeli coastal town of Ashkelon, said senior hospital official Tal Bergman. Video provided by Barzilai Medical Center showed a large hole punched into a wall and chunks of debris scattered on the ground of what appeared to be an empty room and a hallway. The military said patients had been evacuated from Barzilai before the strike.

School was canceled across Israel.

Around 3 a.m., a loudspeaker atop a mosque in Gaza City blared a stark warning to residents of nearby apartment buildings: Evacuate immediately. Just minutes later, an Israeli airstrike reduced one nearby five-story building to ashes.

After one Israeli strike, a Hamas rocket barrage hit four cities, including Tel Aviv and a nearby suburb. Throughout the day, Hamas fired more than 3,500 rockets, the Israeli military said.

The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, and a series of recent incidents that have brought Israeli-Palestinian tensions to a fever pitch.

Over the past year, Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around the Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight.

The Hamas incursion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, aiming to take back Israeli-occupied territories.

Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government and military over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.

Asked by reporters how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, replied, “That’s a good question.”

The abduction of Israeli civilians and soldiers also raised a particularly thorny issue for Israel, which has a history of making heavily lopsided exchanges to bring captive Israelis home. Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons. Hecht confirmed that a “substantial” number of Israelis were abducted Saturday.

Associated Press photos showed an elderly Israeli woman being brought into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas gunmen and another woman squeezed between two fighters on a motorcycle. AP journalists saw four people taken from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, including two women.

In Gaza, a black jeep pulled to a stop and, when the rear door opened, a young woman stumbled out, bleeding from the head and with her hands tied behind her back. A man waving a gun in the air grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into the vehicle’s back seat.

Thailand’s government said that two of its citizens may have been abducted, though the Israeli government could not immediately confirm the details.

Thousands of Thai citizens work in Israel, many of them in the agriculture sector. Israeli TV reported that workers from the Philippines were also among the captives.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has put the country’s air force on standby to evacuate its citizens if needed.

A major question now was whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought intensified casualties. Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “will pay an unprecedented price.” But, he warned, “This war will take time. It will be difficult.”

Israel’s military was bringing four divisions of troops as well as tanks to the Gaza border, joining 31 battalions already in the area, a spokesperson said.

Hamas said it had planned for a potentially long fight. “We are prepared for all options, including all-out war,” the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, told Al-Jazeera TV. “We are ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”

In Gaza, much of the population was thrown into darkness after nightfall as electrical supplies from Israel — which supplies almost all the territories’ power — were cut off. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel would stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden said from the White House that he had spoken with Netanyahu to say the United States “stands with the people of Israel in the face of these terrorist assaults. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop.”

Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, called on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about the danger of “the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group congratulated Hamas, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.

The attack comes at a time of historic division within Israel over Netanyahu’s proposal to overhaul the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators into the streets and prompted hundreds of military reservists to avoid volunteer duty — turmoil that has raised fears over the military’s battlefield readiness.

Palestinians demonstrated in towns and cities around the West Bank on Saturday night. Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed five there, but gave few details.

 

AP