Israel moves into Gaza's second-largest city and intensifies strikes in bloody new phase of the war

Israel said Tuesday that its troops had entered Gaza’s second-largest city as intensified bombardment sent streams of ambulances and cars racing to hospitals with wounded and dead Palestinians, including children, in a bloody new phase of the war.

The military said its forces were “in the heart” of Khan Younis, which has emerged as the first target in the expanded ground offensive into southern Gaza that Israel says aims to destroy Hamas. Military officials said they were engaged in the “most intense day” of battles since the ground offensive began more than five weeks ago, with heavy firefights also taking place in northern Gaza.

The assault into the south threatens to fuel a new wave of displaced Palestinians and a worsening of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe. The U.N. said 1.87 million people — more than 80% of Gaza’s population — have been driven from their homes, and that fighting is now preventing distribution of food, water and medicine outside a tiny sliver of southern Gaza. New military evacuation orders are squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the south.

Bombardment has grown fiercer across the territory, including areas where Palestinians are told to seek safety. In the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, just north of Khan Younis, a strike Tuesday destroyed a house where dozens of displaced people were sheltering. At least 34 people were killed, including at least six children, according to an Associated Press reporter at the hospital who counted the bodies.

Footage from the scene showed women screaming from an upper floor of a house shattered to a concrete shell. In the wreckage below, men pulled the limp body of a child from under a slab next to a burning car. At the nearby hospital, medics tried to resuscitate a young boy and girl, bloodied and unmoving on a stretcher.

Israel’s assault in retaliation for Hamas’s Oct 7 attack has killed more than 15,890 people in Gaza — 70% of them women and children — with more than 42,000 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. It says hundreds have been killed or wounded since a weeklong cease-fire ended Friday, and many still are trapped under rubble.

Israel says it must remove Hamas from power to prevent a repeat of the attack that ignited the war, when Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took captive some 240 men, women and children.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday the military would have to retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after the war ends. His comments suggested a renewed direct Israeli occupation of Gaza, something the United States says it opposes.

Netanyahu said only the Israeli military can ensure Gaza remains demilitarized. “No international force can be responsible for this,” he said at a news conference. “I’m not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.”

Under U.S. pressure to prevent further mass casualties, Israel says it is being more precise as it widens its offensive and is taking extra steps to urge civilians to evacuate out of its path. Weeks of bombardment and a ground offensive obliterated much of northern Gaza.

The military accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields when the militants operate in dense residential areas. But Israel has not provided accounting for targeting in individual strikes, some of which have leveled entire city blocks and complexes of dozens of multi-story apartment towers.

Military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi acknowledged that Israeli forces use heavy force against civilian structures, saying militants keep weapons in houses and buildings so fighters in civilian clothes can use them to fire on troops.

“Striking them requires significant use of fire, both to target the enemy but also to, of course, protect our forces,” he said. “Therefore the forces operate powerfully.”

BATTLES IN KHAN YOUNIS AND NORTH GAZA

Halevi said his forces had begun the “third phase of the ground operations,” moving against Hamas in the south after seizing much of the north. Israel has not given specific details on troop movements.

Residents said troops advanced to Bani Suheila, on Khan Younis’ eastern edge. Israeli forces also appear to be moving to partially cut across the strip between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Satellite photos from Sunday showed around 150 Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles on the main road between the two cities.

The past days brought some of the heaviest bombardment of the entire war, the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office OCHA said.

Witnesses said a strike Tuesday hit a school in Khan Younis where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering. Casualties overwhelmed the nearby Nasser Hospital, where wounded men and children were lain on a bloody floor amid a tangle of IV tubes. In the morgue, a woman draped herself over the stretcher where her dead husband and child lay among at least nine bodies.

“What’s happening here is unimaginable,” said Hamza al-Bursh, who lives near the school. “They strike indiscriminately.”

In northern Gaza, the military said its troops were battling Hamas militants in the Jabaliya refugee camp and the district of Shujaiya, capturing Hamas positions and destroying rocket launchers and underground infrastructure.

The battles in the north signaled the tough resistance from Hamas since Israeli forces moved in on Oct. 27. The military says 86 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza offensive and that thousands of Hamas fighters have been killed, though it has not produced evidence.

Even after weeks of bombardment, Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar — whose location is unknown — was able to conduct complex cease-fire negotiations and orchestrate the release of more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners last week. Palestinian militants have also kept up their rocket fire into Israel.

FEWER PLACES TO GO

After the full-scale evacuation of northern Gaza ordered by Israel early in the war, most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is squeezed into the 90 square miles of central and southern Gaza.

Since moving into the south, the Israeli military has ordered people out of nearly two dozen neighborhoods in and around Khan Younis. That further reduced the area where civilians can seek refuge by more than a quarter. It was not clear how many people followed the evacuation call.

“Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and there is nowhere left to go,” Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said Monday. “The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold.”

For the past two days, aid distribution — mainly just supplies of flour and water — has been possible only in the city of Rafah, at the far south by the border, the U.N. said. Locations deeper inside Gaza, including Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and northern Gaza, could not be reached because of fighting.

Nasser Bolbol, head of neonatal intensive care at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, said acute hunger was spreading, with some deaths of children from dehydration and undernourishment, after nearly two months with only limited aid entering the territory, under an Israeli seal.

“Gaza is entirely covered in death and darkness,” he said.

STILL HOSTAGE

Family members of hostages still held in Gaza held tense talks with Netanyahu and the war cabinet Tuesday. Observers present said more than 100 people attended the nearly three-hour meeting. Some relatives shouted at cabinet members, perceiving they did not have any immediate plans to rescue some 138 hostages still captive. Nearly half the room left in disappointment before the meeting ended.

During the gathering, five hostages released during the truce shared harrowing details of their experience. One spoke of Hamas fighters “touching” female hostages, and another said militants shaved off a male hostage’s body hair to humiliate him, according to a group representing the hostages’ families. Others said they were deprived of water.

A doctor who treated some of the 110 released hostages told the AP separately that at least 10 women and men among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused, but did not provide further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the hostages’ identities.

Noam Peri, whose 80-year-old father is still being held captive, said the meeting with Netanyahu and the war cabinet was not a relaxed discussion.

“After 60 days, people are tired and worried,” Peri said.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine sees 'big risk' of losing war if U.S. Congress postpones vital aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff said on Tuesday that the postponement of U.S. assistance for Kyiv being debated in Congress would create a "big risk" of Ukraine losing the war with Russia.

The remarks by Andriy Yermak were some of the frankest yet from a senior Kyiv official as uncertainty swirls over the future of vital U.S and European Union assistance packages as Ukraine's war with Russia rages on.

If the aid is postponed, "it gives the big risk that we can be in the same position to which we're located now," he said, addressing the audience in English.

"And of course, it makes this very high possibility impossible to continually liberate and give the big risk to lose this war."

On Monday, White House officials said the U.S. was running out of time and money to help Ukraine fight its war against Russia.

President Joe Biden's administration asked Congress in October for nearly $106 billion to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. border security but Republicans who control the House with a slim majority rejected the package.

U.S. officials hope they can still get a significant package approved.

Yermak singled out the threat of no more direct budgetary support as a problem. The Ukrainian government expects to have a $43 billion budget deficit next year.

"Of course, without this direct budget support, it will be difficult to keep … in (the) same positions and... for the people to really survive...during the situation when the war will continue," he said.

"That is why it is extremely critically important that this support will be voted and will be voted as soon as possible."

Yermak was making his second visit to Washington in a matter of weeks. He said he planned to press lawmakers and administration officials on the critical importance that Congress approve the new aid package.

Ukraine conducted a major counteroffensive push this year, but was unable to break through Russian defensive lines. Russia is now on the offensive in the east.

Yermak said that Kyiv had a plan for the next year.

"We really have a plan and this plan...includes the military operations...includes diplomatic activity and of course it includes our cooperation in the communications and information," he said.

** Russia presses on with drive on Ukrainian town of Avdiivka

Russian forces pressed on with a long-running drive to capture the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Tuesday and both sides said they had made gains.

Russian attacks killed four people in eastern and southern regions, including strikes on an aid centre and a medical building in the southern city of Kherson, the target of intensified Russian shelling in the 21-month-old war.

Ukraine said it had downed a Russian Su-24 fighter plane over the Black Sea near Snake Island as the aircraft was on its way to attack Odesa region.

Vitaliy Barabash, head of the military administration in Avdiivka, said Ukrainian forces had secured control of the village of Stepove on the northwestern approaches to the town.

"Yesterday and the day before yesterday, our side carried out very serious stabilisation actions," Barabash told U.S.-funded Radio Liberty. "Stepove is now fully controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

The popular Russian war blog Rybar said Russian forces had secured new areas around the village, 5 km (3 miles) north of Avdiivka. And the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, quoting geopolitical footage from Monday, said Russian forces were occupying improved positions.

Russian forces have been engaged in a slow-moving drive through eastern Ukraine since failing to advance on Kyiv in the early days of the February 2022 full-scale invasion. Since mid-October, they have focused on Avdiivka, a gateway to the Russian held regional centre of Donetsk and known for its vast coking plant.

HOLDING THE COKING PLANT

Barabash stood by his contention that Russian forces had been kept out of the plant, but acknowledged that fighting raged in the "industrial zone" outside the town centre.

Reuters could not confirm accounts from either side.

Fighting has also gripped two other largely devastated eastern towns, Ukrainian-held Maryinka and Russian-held Bakhmut.

Military analyst Serhiy Zgurets said Russian forces were trying to move on the northeastern town of Kupiansk, seized by Russian troops after the invasion, but later retaken by Ukraine.

Zgurets, writing on the website of media outlet Espreso TV, said fighting had been going on for several weeks near the village of Synkivka, 9 km from Kupiansk.

In Kherson, three people were killed and at least six injured in new Russian shelling.

"Today, the enemy destroyed one of the humanitarian centres," Yuri Sobolevskyi, deputy head of Kherson regional council, told national television. "One of our medical institutions was shelled. The shelling is continuing ...and the density is high."

Officials earlier said four doctors at the medical centre were injured. They said Russia fired two S-300 missiles, also damaging residential buildings nearby.

Russian forces used the "Grad" multiple launch rocket system for a two-hour-long attack on the eastern frontline city of Chasiv Yar, the General Prosecutor's Office said, killing one and injuring five. Residents, it said, were receiving water and bread from volunteers at the time of the attack.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in its invasion, although thousands have been killed in Russian air strikes.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US House Speaker issues Ukraine ultimatum to Biden

Getting the Republican-majority House of Representatives to approve additional funding for Ukraine would require first securing the US border with Mexico, Speaker Mike Johnson told the White House on Tuesday.

The Louisiana Republican was responding to Monday’s public letter from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young, who warned that the US was “out of money—and nearly out of time” in terms of aid to Ukraine and Israel. Young argued that cutting off US aid would “kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield” and increase the “likelihood of Russian military victories.”

Johnson first addressed Israel, noting that the House approved the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 6126) on November 2, but that Democrats who control the Senate “voted to block consideration of the bill.”

As for Ukraine, Johnson wrote, the Republican position has remained unchanged since his meeting with Young and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on October 26, when he laid out “two essential prerequisites: security at our border, and critical answers regarding the funds requested.”

Six days prior, President Joe Biden had announced the proposal to bundle the funding for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and immigration and border enforcement in a $106 billion package, of which about $60 billion would go to Kiev.

Additional funding for Ukraine is “dependent upon enactment of transformative change to our nation’s border security laws,” Johnson wrote on Tuesday. The House passed the Secure the Border Act of 2023 (HR 2), “more than six months ago,” he noted, but the Senate Democrats have “refused to act” on it.

Pointing to over 6.5 million “illegal alien encounters” along the southern US border since Biden took office, of which 294 involved people “on the terrorist watchlist,” Johnson called the situation “an unconscionable and unsustainable catastrophe.”

In addition to “madness” on the border, Johnson noted that the White House still owed Congress “a full accounting of how prior US military and humanitarian aid” to Ukraine was spent “and an explanation of the president’s strategy to ensure an accelerated path to victory.” He accused Biden of “failure thus far to present clearly defined objectives,” and to provide Kiev the weapons it needed on time.

“Rather than engaging with Congressional Republicans to discuss logical reforms, the Biden Administration has ignored reality, choosing instead to engage in political posturing,” the House speaker said.

Talks on a border security bill in the Senate collapsed earlier in the day, as Democrats denounced the Republican proposal as “extreme,” claiming it would “end asylum as we know it.”

** Russian forces wipe out Ukrainian arms depot near Kherson over past day

Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian arms depot near Kherson over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday.

"An arms depot of the 124th territorial defense brigade was destroyed near the city of Kherson," the ministry said in a statement.

Reuters/RT/Tass

Ukraine is battling more than the Russian army.

After more than 21 months of grueling war, it’s now grasping for the world’s attention in the shadows of the conflict in the Middle East. And with its much-vaunted counteroffensive fizzling into the snow, with little to show for months of planning and billions in allied military support, Kyiv is also beset by growing internal wrangling.

Staring down a long and difficult winter, Ukraine is fighting on multiple fronts.

“There is severe fatigue from the war,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst.

“Many Ukrainians are disappointed that a quick victory was not achieved,” he told NBC News. “But the vast majority of Ukrainians are united in the need to continue resisting Russian aggression.”

The counteroffensive

After successful campaigns to retake territory in eastern and southern Ukraine just over a year ago, Kyiv and its Western allies spent much of the first part of 2023 gearing up for a major counteroffensive.

It was touted by military observers as a potentially decisive campaign to return occupied Ukrainian territories that might even threaten the Kremlin’s hold on the prized Crimean Peninsula, which has been under Russian control since 2014. But since the counteroffensive was launched in June, Ukraine has made only modest gains against heavily fortified Russian defense lines, leaving the war largely deadlocked as the fighting season nears an end.

“We are in what’s called positional warfare, as opposed to maneuver warfare,” said Frank Ledwidge, a former British military intelligence officer and senior lecturer in war studies at England’s University of Portsmouth. “Basically, we are in the First World War situation, where you have two entrenched armies, neither of which is going to be able to break the other.”

Fighting is likely to grind to an even more definitive halt as bitter weather sets in, with a deadly winter storm wreaking havoc in the region last week.

Ukraine’s power grid also remains vulnerable — and Moscow signaled it will likely once again target the country’s energy infrastructure after launching the biggest drone attack on Kyiv since the war began.

Two focal points have emerged in recent weeks.

In the east, there is an ongoing battle for the small town of Avdiivka, which the Kremlin appears intent on capturing at a heavy cost as it pushes to expand its partial control over the industrial Donbas region.

On Friday, Ukraine said the Russians were trying to encircle the town, but its soldiers were “standing their ground.” In a sign of the intensifying battles that have Ukraine on the back foot in the region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for faster construction of fortifications in key sectors under pressure from Russian forces, particularly in eastern Ukraine, after he toured the front lines.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has attempted to establish a foothold on the left bank of the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region, occupied by Russia since the first days of the war.

Russian forces retreated to that side of the river after Ukraine seized back the city of Kherson last year.

The region’s Russian proxy governor said the landing operation has been met with “fiery hell,” but Kyiv has said its troops are maintaining their positions. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy visited troops in the region and received an update on their progress on the left bank, his office said, without elaborating.

Analysts say this latest apparent attempt to breathe life into Ukraine’s counteroffensive would only be likely to make a difference if Ukrainians manage to establish a bridgehead — a secure way across the river that could allow them to bring over armor and other support. “A Ukraine success could alter what’s now widely seen as a stalemate,” said Rajan Menon, an analyst with Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.

The war has reached a deadlock for several reasons, Menon said, including ambivalence and a lack of urgency from Kyiv’s allies, which meant some crucial supplies arrived too late for the counteroffensive to be effective.

But a lack of appropriate air cover has been the biggest stumbling block, Menon added, with Ukraine’s air force vastly outnumbered and overpowered by Russia’s.

“You can’t do it on flat terrain without your troops being covered from the air,” he said.

Sviatoslav Yurash, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament and a serving soldier, said that the counteroffensive is still achieving one important aim — exhausting Russia militarily.

He points to Ukraine’s success in effectively breaking Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea with attacks on its navy in southern Russia and occupied Crimea this summer.

“We understand the war won’t be easy or fast,” Yurash said at a coffee shop in the heart of the capital, Kyiv. “But we have shown the world that even the scary Russian war machine can be stopped and we can force it to suffer horrible losses.” (Both Russia and Ukraine claim high personnel losses on the other side, but have not reported their own casualties).

The latest Dnieper offensive was a surprise for the Russians, Yurash said, showcasing that Ukraine has not run out of “tricks and ideas” about how to defeat the Kremlin.

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‘Everyone talks more about Israel’

Through much of its war, Ukraine has been pushing its Western allies for expanded and accelerated supplies of military assistance, without which Kyiv’s fight against Russia would long be over.

But that aid — beset for months by concerns of growing war fatigue in Europe and political wrangling in Washington — now faces a more existential threat: another conflict to command global attention.

“The Gaza war comes at a terrible time for Ukraine,” Menon said. “It sucked a lot of the political oxygen out of the room. There’s a competition for resources no matter how you slice it.”

The United States provides both Israel and Ukraine with military aid, and the breakout of a new war has raised fears about whether artillery shells and air defense missiles, once intended for Kyiv and already in short supply, would be diverted to Israel. Aid for both countries faces an uncertain path in the deeply divided Congress, and Ukraine was already facing a shortfall on what it was promised by the European Union.

In an apparent effort to signal that Ukraine was still a priority for Washinton, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a surprise visit to Kyiv last month, saying Ukraine’s fight is “a marathon — not a sprint” and announcing $100 million in new military aid.

But Ukrainian officials are under no illusions.

“Tactically, the shift in attention from Ukraine to Israel made our situation somewhat more difficult, since our war ceased to be the single hottest point on the planet,” Yehor Chernev, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament and deputy chairman of its national security, defense and intelligence committee, told NBC News.

“Everyone talks more about Israel, and that is where the priority aid from the U.S. goes,” he said.

In a briefing with reporters last month, Zelenskyy acknowledged the shift in the world’s attention to the Middle East, and said Ukraine has no room for error in losing its place on the international agenda, which could prove “lethal” for the country. “We must not allow people to forget about the war here,” Zelenskyy told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “Attention equals help,” he said.

Internal tensions

Adding to Ukraine’s troubles, Zelenskyy appears to be at odds with his top general, Valeriy Zaluzhny.

In an essay published by The Economist last month, Zaluzhny gave voice to a sense shared by many in Ukraine and the West — the war is at a stalemate, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces said, and “there will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Zelenskyy rushed to reject his general’s absolutism, denying that the war had reached such a definitive impasse.

This public airing of grievances has raised concerns at home and abroad about the unity of Ukraine’s leadership.

Zelenskyy brushed off a conflict with Zaluzhny in the meeting with reporters last month, saying that wartime means “common interests” and no room for “personal politics” that play into Russia’s interests.

But Zelenskyy allies have publicly chided Zaluzhny for his leadership of the war, with one lawmaker launching a scathing tirade on social media accusing him of not having a solid plan for how to win and demanding his resignation.

The president is also facing criticism in some circles for signaling that he opposes holding next year’s scheduled presidential election amid the war, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said last week that the country was moving toward authoritarianism.

“At some point we will no longer be any different from Russia,” Klitschko told German news outlet Der Spiegel.

So removing Zaluzhny would likely create tremendous blowback for Zelenskyy.

“Zaluzhny is the second most popular person in Ukraine, and the presidential team sees him as a potential competitor,” Fesenko, the Ukrainian analyst, said. “And now, it seems, they want to blame Zaluzhny for the problems at the front. However, given Zaluzhny’s popularity both in the army and in society, his dismissal or resignation could have very ambiguous consequences, including weakening the position of Zelenskyy himself.”

The general’s “realistic diagnosis” of the situation on the front lines caused a spectrum of emotions in Ukraine, according to Fesenko. Zelenskyy’s office issued rare public criticism, he added, because the comments were taken “too dramatically” in the West and this could create problems for Ukraine.

And they had the effect of a “cold shower” for many in Ukraine, Fesenko said.

“It helped many Ukrainians get rid of inflated and inadequate expectations about the imminent end of the war,” he said.

NBC News

Nigeria’s Supreme Court held a special session on November 27, 2023 to formally usher in a new legal year. It provided an occasion for a retrospective on the performance of Nigeria’s judiciary by its leaders in a season of unprecedented levels of public angst over the political weaponisation of judges and a set piece moment to compare notes on the dysfunctions that afflict the judicial system. The outcome was interesting to the point of anti-climactic.

At that occasion, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, also administered the oath on 57 new entrants into the coven of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN. One of the new SANs was born in 1981. Two years later, in 1983, his dad, a lawyer, began proceedings against Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, Ltd, a multi-national in the hydrocarbons sector, in Warri. At the time, Warri was part of Bendel State, created by the military a mere seven years earlier in 1976.

After 14 years, the High Court delivered judgement in 1997. By this time, Bendel State had ceased to exist. In its place, the military had on August 27, 1991 created two successors in Delta and Edo states and what used to be the High Court of Bendel State sitting in Warri (Division) had become the Warri Division of the High Court of Delta State. The Court of Appeal dismissed SPDC’s appeal in 2000. The company then proceeded up to the Supreme Court which took 15 years to reach a judgement in 2015, 32 years after the case began. By this time, the boy who was two years old when the case began had become a man and a lawyer, even accompanying his dad to the proceedings at the Supreme Court.

Ebun Sofunde, the Senior Advocate who related this story addressed the special session on behalf of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, BOSAN. He also told the story of another case filed by Lagos State against the National Sports Lottery, NSL, which began on February 5, 2005. A little over 18 years later, on March 31, 2023, the Supreme Court decided the appeal on the jurisdictional objection of the NSL to the original proceedings and remitted the substantive case back to the High Court of Lagos State for trial. Naturally, Sofunde wondered aloud about the fate of ordinary litigants if a powerful state like Lagos has no sensible pathway to a timely exit from the courts.

Sofunde is characteristically parsimonious with words and is not given to hyperbole or oratorical flourish. So, when he says – as he did in his address to the Supreme Court – that public confidence in the judicial system “is at an all-time low… to a point where it may no longer be redeemable”, you would think that those with responsibility to run the legal and judicial systems of the country would pay heed. He also told the Supreme Court, rather charitably, that its judgments were becoming mostly “perfunctory”.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, a prince and a Senior Advocate, chose to take the Fifth Amendment. Treating the occasion mostly as a social call, he congratulated the new SANs; told them how elevated and special they had suddenly become; warned them to avoid speaking to the media and wished everyone “good health in body, spirit, and soul”. If he had continued, he may even have found time to tell the new SANs that they have become a new species that have no need for urinals or toilets!

We digress though because everyone waited to listen to the CJN. Born on August 22, 1954, Olukayode Ariwoola will retire from office when he turns 70 in August 2024. As he acknowledged in his address, this was his last opportunity to report as the leader of the judicial system. It was also opportunity to begin framing his legacy in the public imagination. He grappled valiantly with the former task but appeared to have missed the memo on the latter. In particular, his address needlessly concatenated contradictions, defensiveness, and avoidance. It read like an ode to an institution incapable of introspection or too immersed in impunity to understand the vice in arrogance.

The CJN claimed that the Nigerian judiciary had “fared well in the out-gone legal year” and is now “more deserving of public trust and confidence than ever before”. But he immediately followed this up with the promise that “we are poised to reposition it (the judiciary) for effective justice delivery”, which begs the question why anyone would want to reposition an institution that is faring so well as to be deserving of public trust and confidence.

In a rallying cry to judges everywhere in Nigeria, the CJN invited them to “never be overwhelmed by the actions or loud voices of the mob or crowd”. The paragraph before this contained the telling admission that “the true touch-stone for measuring the success of a judicial institution is the degree of confidence reposed in it by the public”, even going as far as warning judges that they “are definitely going to work more assiduously and tirelessly to make our country earn for itself the fullest respect and confidence of both the citizens and the international community”.

The CJN, it seemed, could not quite make up his mind about the state or public standing of the institution he leads. Even worse, his use of the word “mob” in the address was a piece of inspired own-goal because it appeared to fit much better as a description of an organised crime ring, which is what a mention of the judiciary reminds many people in Nigeria of these days.

Evidence in support of this perception lay in the numbers he reeled out. First, the CJN delivered a report on judicial vacancies, congratulating himself for appointing nine new Justices of Appeal in September and 23 new judges of the Federal High Court in October 2023. He failed to disclose that among the new appointments, one of the 23 new judges was his own son (appointed with the most scandalously scanty credentials), or that among the new Justices one was his nephew and another was the son-in-law of the President of the Court of Appeal. He also had “the cherry (sic) news”, that soon the Supreme Court will recruit 10 more Justices to bring it up to the full complement of 22. If he brings to that process the kind of blinkers that ruled the filling of the vacancies in the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, then most people have a right to be worried.

Departing from judicial vacancies, the CJN proceeded to report that from September 12, 2022 to July 11, 2023, his Supreme Court registered 1,271 motions and appeals out of which it “heard 388 political appeals, 215 criminal appeals and 464 civil appeals”. At a similar occasion only two years ago, Ariwoola’s predecessor, Tanko Muhammad, reported that the court’s portfolio of 269 appeals disposed of included 139 civil appeals, 102 criminal appeals, and 28 “political cases”. So, two years ago, “political cases” were 10.67% of the appeals heard by the Supreme Court.

According to CJN Ariwoola’s report, the same court in the past year “delivered a total number of 251 judgements, of which 125 were political appeals, 81 were civil appeals, and 45 were criminal appeals”. In just two years, the output of the court had fallen by 6.69% and political cases have risen from 10.67% to 50% (49.8% to be exact). Meanwhile, in the law faculties, professors still teach students that there is a “Political Questions Doctrine” which is a rule for denial rather than acceptance of cases.

These numbers dramatise the extent to which the Supreme Court has become captured by politicians and explain the crisis of lack of exit from courts that Ebun Sofunde complained bitterly about. It is little wonder that the only people who can dispense any form of kindness towards the CJN and his “mob” of exponents in the jurisprudence of the Italian Job are exclusively politicians. The misfortune is that rather than see an opportunity, this CJN can only see enemies. Who will tell the Chief Justice?

Charlie Munger died on Nov. 28 at age 99. These reflections on his life and career, which he wrote for CNBC Make It, are among his final writings.

My children and grandchildren might not think exactly the way I do, but I hope they can observe my life as an example of how to be successful in their careers and relationships — just as I did with the generations before me. 

When I was very young, my father practiced law. One of his best friends, Grant McFayden, Omaha's Pioneer Ford dealer, was a client. He was a brilliant and self-made man, with enormous charm and integrity.

In contrast, my father had another client who was pompous, unfair and difficult. One day, I asked my dad, "Why do you do so much work for Mr. X, this overreaching blowhard, instead of working more for wonderful men like Grant?" 

"Grant treats his employees right, his customers right, and his problems right," my father said. "He doesn't have enough remunerative law business to keep you in Coca-Cola. But Mr. X is a walking minefield of wonderful legal business."

This conversation taught me that sometimes, you may have to sell your services to an unreasonable blowhard, especially if that's what you must do to feed your family. But you want to run your own life like Grant McFayden. 

That was a great lesson that my father shared in a very clever way. Instead of just pounding it in, he told it to me in a way that required a slight mental reach. Since I had to reach for it, I've never forgotten it. And I've used his teaching method with my own children and grandchildren.

Here, two of my kids Charles and Wendy share key lessons they've learned from me over the years. My hope is that they'll hold onto all of these until their 100th birthdays. 

Always return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.

"On the last day of a family ski vacation in Sun Valley, when I was about 15, my dad and I were driving back in the snow when he took a 10-minute detour to gas up the red Jeep we were driving.

He was pressed for time to have our family catch the plane home, so I was surprised to notice as he pulled into the station that the tank was still half full. I asked my dad why we had stopped when we had plenty of gas, and he admonished me, "Charlie, when you borrow a man's car, you always return it with a full tank of gas."

My freshman year at Stanford, an acquaintance lent me his car. The favor was more because friends we had in common twisted his arm, than because he knew me all that well. The tank was half full, and the Audi Fox was red, which reminded me of that Jeep.

So I topped up the tank before I brought the car back. He noticed. We've had many good times since, and he was a groomsman in my wedding.

My dad never skipped a point of fairness and consideration. His example taught me how to get a good friend — and how to keep one."

—Charles T. Munger, Jr.

Never try to hide your mistakes.

"My dad often used the family dinner table as a forum to try to educate his children. One of his favorite educational tools was the 'Morality Tale,' in which someone faced an ethical problem and had to choose the correct path.

I remember a story he told us about a financial officer at one of his companies who made a mistake that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the business. Once he realized his mistake, he went directly to the president of the company and told him about it.

The president said, 'This was a terrible mistake, and we don't want you ever to make another one like it. But people make mistakes, and we can forgive that. You did the right thing, which was to admit your mistake. If you had tried to hide it or cover it up for even a short time, you would be out of this company. As it is, we'd like you to stay.'

I always remember this story every time I hear of yet another government official who chose to cover up their mistake, instead of being honest and leading with integrity."

—Wendy Munger

Charlie Munger was Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and Warren Buffett's closest business partner and right-hand man. As a legendary and pragmatic investor and active philanthropist, Munger was a Harvard Law graduate and was known for his wide-ranging wisdom across a multitude of disciplines — including psychology, economics, biology, history and physics. Munger served as a director of Costco Wholesale Corporation and as chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation.

CNBC

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigeria recorded a N3.5 trillion trade surplus between January and September of 2023.

NBS made this known in its foreign trade report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2023 on Monday.

In the nine months of the year, according to the bureau, Nigeria’s exports totalled N23.3 trillion and total imports N19.7 trillion — which gives a trade surplus of N3.5 trillion.

A trade surplus is an economic indicator of a positive trade balance in which the exports of a nation outweigh its imports.

On foreign trade for Q1 2023, NBS said total exports were N6.49 trillion, and imports value was N5.56 trillion.

The nation’s total trade was N12.05 trillion in Q1 — higher than the value (N7.86 trillion) recorded in the corresponding period (Q1) of 2022.

In Q2 2023, the country’s entire trade was N12.16 trillion, with total exports at N6.44 trillion and imports amounting to N5.73 trillion.

In Q3 2023, there was an improvement as the total trade was N18.80 trillion, with exports and imports totalling N10.35 trillion and N8.46 trillion respectively.

“Nigeria’s total trade in the third quarter of 2023 was ₦18,804.29 billion. Exports were valued at ₦10,346.60 billion while total imports was ₦8,457.68 billion,” the report reads.

“Total exports increased by 60.78% compared to the amount recorded in the second quarter of 2023 (₦6,435.13 billion) as well as by 74.36% compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022 (₦5,934.15 billion).

“Similarly, total imports increased by 47.70% compared to the value recorded in the second quarter of 2023 (₦5,726.25billion) and by 33.33% when compared to the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022 (₦6,343.53 billion).”

SPAIN TOPS NIGERIA’S EXPORT DESTINATIONS IN Q3

Nigeria’s export landscape underwent a significant shift in the third quarter of 2023, with Spain emerging as the country’s top export destination, accounting for a remarkable 12.31 percent of total exports, valued at N1.27 trillion.

This was followed by India with N1.02 billion (9.81 percent), Netherlands with N988.66 billion (9.56 percent), Indonesia with N758.59 billion (7.33 percent) and France with N720.45 billion (6.96 percent) of total exports.

These five countries collectively accounted for 45.98 percent of Nigeria’s total exports, demonstrating the country’s growing presence in diverse global markets.

Analysis by TheCable Index shows that despite the diversification of export destinations, petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude, remained Nigeria’s primary export product, accounting for an impressive 82.50 percent (N8.54 trillion) of total exports.

However, natural gas, liquefied, and urea, whether or not in aqueous solution, also emerged as significant export earners, contributing 9.82 percent (N1.02 trillion) and 1.06 percent (N109.68 billion), respectively, to the overall export value.

CHINA DOMINATES NIGERIA’S IMPORT LANDSCAPE IN Q3

The NBS report shows that China maintained its position as Nigeria’s top import partner in the third quarter of 2023, accounting for a significant 23.33 percent of total imports.

“Data on Imports in the third quarter of 2023 reveals that the top five partner countries of origin for imports to Nigeria was China (₦1,973.34 billion or 23.33%), this was followed by imports from Belgium with ₦996.65 billion or 11.78%, India with ₦802.07 billion or 9.48%, Malta with ₦561.37 billion or 6.64% and the United States of America with ₦502.92 billion or 5.95% of total imports,” NBS said.

“The values of imports from the top five countries amounted to ₦4,836.36 billion representing a share of 57.18% of total imports.

“The commodities with the largest values of imported products were ‘Motor Spirit Ordinary’ valued at ₦1,921.03 billion or 22.71%.”

Also included are gas oil worth N736.66 billion or 8.71 percent and durum wheat (not in seeds), valued at N331.76 billion or 3.92 percent of total imports.

The Cable

Amid raging criticism over Nigeria’s large delegation to Dubai for the COP28 climate summit, the Federal Government said it only sponsored 422 delegates out of the 1,411 Nigerians reported to be at the conference.

A source in the Presidency had on Sunday night disclosed that the number of delegates sponsored by the government was less than 100.

But the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, in a statement on Monday said 422 delegates were chosen from the Presidency, National Council on Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, All Ministries, Office of the Vice President, National Assembly, and federal parastatals and agencies.

The statement, titled ‘Re: Nigeria At Cop-28’ noted, “It is imperative to point out that the overall Nigerian delegation to COP28 comprises government-sponsored (Federal and State Governments) and non-government-sponsored participants (from private companies to NGOs, CSOs, Media, academia, etc).

“The Federal Government-funded delegation is made up of a total of 422 persons: National Council on Climate Change (32); Federal Ministry of Environment (34); All Ministries (167); Presidency (67); Office of the Vice President (9); National Assembly (40); and Federal Parastatals/Agencies (73).

“As the biggest economy and most populous country in Africa, with a substantial extractive economy and extensive vulnerability to climate change, Nigeria has a significant stake in climate action, and our active and robust participation at COP is therefore not unwarranted.”

Meanwhile, the clarification by the minister came after the outrage that greeted the revelation that Nigeria had one of the highest delegations to the conference, despite the rising poverty and hunger across the country.

Daily Trust

Civilians were killed in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state following a military drone attack targeting insurgents and bandits on Sunday night, the state governor, a religious leader and witnesses said on Monday.

Nigeria's military, which is backed by the United States, Britain and other non-Western allies in a long war against Islamist insurgents in the northeast, has also been unleashing deadly aerial assaults for years in other parts of the country.

Kaduna governor Uba Sani said Muslims taking part in Maulud celebrations in Tudun Biri village "were mistakenly killed and many others injured following a military drone attack targeting terrorists and bandits".

Sani gave no indication of the numbers involved, but a religious leader put it at 50 dead and two witnesses said 80 had been killed. Reuters could not independently confirm the numbers due to the security challenges in the region.

Sani's deputy had earlier called a security meeting that was attended by heads of security agencies, religious and traditional leaders to review the incident.

"The General Officer Commanding One Division Nigerian Army, VU Okoro explained that the Nigerian Army was on a routine mission against terrorists but inadvertently affected members of the community," Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna's internal affairs commissioner said in a statement after the meeting.

He did not provide further details when asked by reporters.

Army spokesman Onyeama Nwachukwu did not respond to a request for comment.

The Air Force said it was not involved in the operation.

Rabiu Abdullahi, a religious leader who attended Monday's meeting told reporters that a suspected air strike had killed at least 50 people during a religious celebration.

"Over 50 innocent people who gathered for the Maulud (celebration) lost their lives in the bombing," he said, adding that this was disclosed during the security briefing.

Danjuma Salisu, a survivor, said villagers first heard the sound of an approaching aeroplane, which was followed by a large blast.

"We couldn't even run. It was a loud bang that left over 80 people dead and many of us injured," he said from a hospital bed, where he was being treated for hand and leg injuries.

Abubakar Inua, a villager from Tudun Biri, told Reuters on the phone: "We have counted over 80 corpses who were buried."

Beyond the war zone in the northeast, the army and air force have been called on to tackle the growing threat in Nigeria's northwest and central region, including in Kaduna state, posed by armed criminal gangs that spray villages with bullets and carry out mass kidnappings.

The government has labelled the gangs "terrorists".

Reuters

Britain announced plans to slash the number of migrants arriving by legal routes on Monday, raising the minimum salary they must earn in a skilled job by a third, amid pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to tackle record net migration figures.

High levels of legal migration have dominated Britain's political landscape for more than a decade and were a key factor in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Sunak has promised to gain more control after lawmakers in his Conservative Party criticised his record ahead of an election expected next year, with the opposition Labour Party far ahead in opinion polls.

But businesses and trade unions both attacked the measures as counterproductive and challenging for the private sector and state-run health service, both dogged by labour shortages.

Figures last month showed annual net migration to the United Kingdom hit a record of 745,000 in 2022 and has stayed at high levels since, with many migrants now coming from places like India, Nigeria and China instead of the EU.

Home Secretary (interior minister) James Cleverly said the new measures could reduce that number by 300,000.

"Immigration is too high. Today we’re taking radical action to bring it down," said Sunak, who is also trying to deport migrants who arrive illegally to Rwanda.

Cleverly said the government would raise the minimum salary threshold for foreign skilled workers to 38,700 pounds ($48,900), from its current level of 26,200 pounds, though health and social workers would be exempt.

Other measures included stopping foreign health workers bringing in family members on their visas, increasing a surcharge migrants have to pay to use the health service by 66%, and raising the minimum income for family visas.

TIGHT LABOUR MARKET

The measures could spark new disputes with business owners who have struggled to hire workers in recent years given Britain's persistently tight labour market and the end of free movement from the EU since Britain's 2020 exit from the bloc.

In October, the government's independent migration adviser recommended abolishing the so-called shortage occupations list, one of the main routes for businesses to hire migrant workers in sectors where there are severe staff shortages.

Cleverly said the government would end the current system that lets employers pay migrants only 80% of the going rate to do jobs where there is a worker shortage, and that the list of shortage occupations would be reviewed.

"We will stop immigration undercutting the salary of British workers," Cleverly told lawmakers. "We will create a new immigration salary list with a reduced number of occupations."

However, some studies have shown foreign workers have little or no impact on overall wage or employment levels, and Britain's acute shortage of candidates to fill vacancies remains a problem for many company bosses.

"These changes will further shrink the talent pool that the entire economy will be recruiting from, and only worsen the shortages hospitality businesses are facing," said Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UKHospitality.

"We urgently need to see an immigration system that is fit-for-purpose and reflects both the needs of business and the labour market. The system at the moment does none of that."

The Bank of England said last month that businesses were finding it a bit easier to hire but persistent skills shortages remained in some sectors.

Trade unions also voiced concerns at Cleverly's plan. Christina McAnea, the general secretary of UNISON, the main union in the health sector, saying it spelled "total disaster" for the health service.

"Migrants will now head to more welcoming countries, rather than be forced to live without their families," she said.

($1 = 0.7921 pounds)

Reuters

Israel orders evacuations as it widens offensive, but Palestinians are running out of places to go

Israeli warplanes heavily bombarded an area around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday as the military ordered mass evacuations from the town in the face of a widening ground offensive that is pushing Palestinians into a progressively shrinking portion of the besieged territory.

The expanded assault posed a deadly choice for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians — either stay in the path of Israeli forces or flee within the confines of southern Gaza with no guarantee of safety. Aid workers warned that the mass movement would worsen the already dire humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.

“Another wave of displacement is underway, and the humanitarian situation worsens by the hour,” the Gaza chief of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, Thomas White, said in a post on X.

Adding to the chaos, phone and internet networks across Gaza collapsed again Monday evening, the Palestinian telecom provider PalTel reported. The network has broken down multiple times during the war, making it largely impossible for residents to communicate with each other or the outside world for hours or sometimes several days until it is repaired.

Israel has vowed to eliminate Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose Oct. 7 attack into Israel killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and triggered the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades. The war has already killed thousands of Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of the territory’s population of 2.3 million people. Palestinian health officials say bombardment has killed several hundred civilians since a weeklong truce ended Friday.

Already under mounting pressure from its top ally, the United States, Israel appears to be racing to strike a death blow against Hamas — if that’s possible, given the group’s deep roots in Palestinian society — before any new cease-fire. But the mounting toll is likely to further increase international pressure to return to the negotiating table.

Airstrikes and the ground offensive in northern Gaza have reduced large swaths of Gaza City and nearby areas to a rubble-filled wasteland. Hundreds of thousands of residents fled south during the assault.

Now around 2 million people — most of the territory’s population — are crowded into the 230 square kilometers (90 square miles) of southern and central Gaza, where Israel’s ground offensive is now moving, threatening to render even larger areas uninhabitable.

Since the truce’s collapse, the military has ordered the population out of an area of about 62 square kilometers (24 square miles) in and near Khan Younis, according to the evacuation maps issued by the Israeli military. That further reduces the space available for Palestinians by more than a quarter.

FIGHTING IN CENTRAL GAZA

Constant bombardment on the edges of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, lit up the sky over the town Monday evening, and a stream of ambulances carrying wounded, including several women and children, flowed to the main hospital.

Over the past few days, Israeli strikes have been “on a ferocious scale,” said Mohammed Aghaalkurdi, an aid worker with the group Medical Aid for Palestinians in Khan Younis. “Barely has any kind of aid been delivered to the people, nor is there any food left in shops.”

He said neighborhoods and shelters were emptying as people fled. Leaflets dropped by the Israeli military warn people to go south toward the border with Egypt, but they are unable to leave Gaza, as both Israel and neighboring Egypt have refused to accept any refugees.

The area that Israel ordered evacuated covers about a fifth of Khan Younis. Before the war, that area was home to some 117,000 people, and now it also houses more than 50,000 people displaced from the north, living in 21 shelters, the U.N. said.

It was not known how many were fleeing. Some Palestinians have ignored past evacuation orders, saying they do not feel any safer since areas where they are told to flee have also been bombed. Many also fear they will never be allowed back to their homes.

It was not clear where Israeli troops have moved into southern Gaza, but the military told people to stay off the main road between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, suggesting forces were moving between the two towns.

Israeli media also reported intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants in northern Gaza — in the Jabaliya refugee camp and the Gaza City district of Shijaiya, both scenes of intense bombardment and battles in recent weeks.

Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said the army is pursuing Hamas with “maximum force” in the north and south while trying to minimize harm to civilians.

He pointed to a map that divides southern Gaza into dozens of blocks in order to give “precise instructions” to residents on where to evacuate. Most are urged to flee south, but, confusingly, a map posted on X by the military Monday urged people to flee into Fakhari, a district east of Khan Younis that the military ordered evacuated a day before.

“The level of human suffering is intolerable,” Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said during a rare visit to Gaza. “It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza, and with a military siege in place, there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible.”

The World Health Organization said it was told by Israel to empty its medical supplies warehouse in southern Gaza within 24 hours ahead of an advancing ground operation. The agency appealed to Israel to withdraw the order.

Spoljaric, the Red Cross president, called for the immediate release of scores of hostages still held by Palestinian militants since the Oct. 7 attack.

In a letter to the Red Cross chief, a group of released Israeli hostages asked to meet her while she is visiting the region and called for more help from the organization to free the remaining 137 captives.

“Every day that passes could be their last, and the suffering they endure is inhuman,” wrote the eight freed captives and 102 relatives of hostages still in captivity.

RISING TOLL

The Health Ministry in Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,890 people – 70% of them women and children — with more than 42,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said hundreds have been killed or wounded since the cease-fire’s end, with many still trapped under rubble.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received 32 bodies overnight after Israeli strikes across central Gaza, said Omar al-Darawi, an administrative employee. Associated Press footage showed women in tears, kneeling over the bodies of loved ones and kissing them.

The Israeli military said aircraft struck some 200 Hamas targets overnight, with ground troops operating “in parallel,” without elaborating. It said troops in northern Gaza uncovered two militant tunnel shafts that held explosives and weapons in a school after coming under attack.

It is not possible to independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.

Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. Still, it does not provide accounting for its targets in individual strikes.

Israel claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. The military says at least 81 of its soldiers have been killed.

U.S. PRESSURE

The U.S. is pressing Israel to avoid more mass displacements and civilian deaths, a message underscored by Vice President Kamala Harris during a visit to the region. She also said the U.S. would not allow the forced relocation of Palestinians out of Gaza or the occupied West Bank, or the redrawing of Gaza’s borders.

But it’s unclear how far the Biden administration is willing or able to go in pressing Israel to rein in the offensive, even as the White House faces growing pressure from its allies in Congress.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that it was too soon to pass judgment on Israeli operations, but that it was unusual for a modern military to identify precise areas of expected ground maneuvers and ask people to move out.

“These are the kinds of steps that we have asked them to undertake.” he said. “These are the conversations we’re having day in, day out.”

The U.S. has pledged unwavering support to Israel since the Oct. 7 attack, including rushing munitions and other aid to the country.

Israel has rejected U.S. suggestions that control over postwar Gaza be handed over to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority as part of a renewed effort to resolve the overall conflict by establishing a Palestinian state.

AP