Category: World

Which countries have stopped supplying arms to Israel? | Israel War on Gaza News

EXPLAINER

As civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza, global calls for countries to halt arms sales to Israel grow.

The United States Senate has approved a bill committing $14bn to support Israel’s war on Gaza this week.

Even before the start of the war last October, the US firmly supported Israel with the supply of military equipment, contributing $3bn annually in military aid. Many other countries provide military support to Israel via arms sales.

Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 dead with thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardment and ground invasions. The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation from humanitarian and civil society groups in the form of statements, protests and lawsuits filed against countries alleged to be providing military support to Israel. Some countries are responding to this pressure.

On Monday, the European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, commented on US President Joe Biden’s description of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks as “over the top”. “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters.

So which countries continue to send weapons to Israel and which are taking steps to suspend supply?

Who supplies arms to Israel?

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfers database, 68 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2013 and 2022 came from the US.

The US military also stockpiles weapons on the ground in Israel, presumably for use by the US army itself. However, the US has allowed Israel to make use of some of these supplies during the Gaza war.

Besides the US, Israel also receives military imports from other nations.

  • Weapons imported from Germany make up 28 percent of Israel’s military imports. Germany’s military exports rose nearly tenfold in 2023 compared with 2022 after it increased sales to Israel in November, according to figures from the German Economic Ministry. Germany primarily supplies Israel with components for air defence systems and communications equipment, according to the German press agency dpa.
  • The United Kingdom has licensed at least 474 million pounds ($594m) in military exports to Israel since 2015, Human Rights Watch reported in December 2023. These exports included aircraft, missiles, tanks, technology and ammunition, including components for the F-35 stealth bomber used in Gaza.
  • In Canada, dozens of civil society groups have recently urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to end arms exports to Israel. The government says it does not send full weapons systems to Israel, but these civil society groups claim it is downplaying the amount of military support it provides. “Canadian companies have exported over $84m [114 million Canadian dollars] in military goods to Israel since 2015,” said Michael Bueckert, vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an advocacy group, adding that the government has continued to approve arms exports since the start of the war.
  • Australia’s foreign affairs minister has said the country has not provided weapons to Israel since the start of the war. However, The Australian Greens party’s defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, has asked for the government to be more transparent about exactly what items have been exported to Israel, adding that the country has one of the most secretive weapons export systems in the world. Amnesty International has also called on Australia to halt arms sales to Israel and claims the country has approved 322 defence exports to Israel over the past six years.
  • In France, a pro-Palestine demonstration on February 7 called on French companies, including Dassault Aviation, to stop selling arms to Israel. Demonstrators said, according to the Anadolu news agency, “all French companies that sell arms to the Tel Aviv administration are complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
Demonstrators condemn Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, near the southern port city of Limassol, Cyprus, January 14, 2024. Lawyers say weapons sales to Israel could render other countries ‘complicit’ in war crimes in Gaza [Petros Karadjias/AP Photo]

Which countries are stopping arms supplies to Israel?

  • In the Netherlands, a court on Monday gave the government one week to block all exports of parts for the F-35 fighter jet, which Israel is using to bomb the Gaza Strip. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by Dutch humanitarian organisations Oxfam Novib, PAX Netherlands Peace Movement Foundation and The Rights Forum against the government. The concerns laid out in this lawsuit overlap with the issues the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is considering in South Africa’s apartheid case against Israel. “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” the court ruling stated.
  • In Belgium, a regional government said it suspended two licences for the export of gunpowder to Israel on February 6. It was reported that the regional government cited the ICJ interim ruling which found Israel may “plausibly” be committing genocide in Gaza.
  • Japanese company Itochu Corporation announced on February 5 that it will end its partnership with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems by the end of February. Itochu chief financial officer Tsuyoshi Hachimura told a news conference that the suspension of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Elbit Systems was based on a request from Japan’s Ministry of Defense and “not in any way related to the current conflict between Israel and Palestine”. However, he added: “Taking into consideration the International Court of Justice’s order on January 26, and that the Japanese government supports the role of the Court, we have already suspended new activities related to the MOU, and plan to end the MOU by the end of February.”
  • Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on January 20 that Italy had suspended all shipments of weapons systems or military material to Israel since the outbreak of the war on October 7. This was in response to Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein’s calls on the government to halt the supply of weapons to Israel.
  • Spain’s foreign minister said in January the country has not sold any arms to Israel since the start of the war and that there is now an embargo on weapon sales. However, on Monday, the Spanish daily El Diario released a report showing that Spain had exported ammunition worth about $1.1m to Israel in November. Spain’s secretary of state for trade justified selling the ammo, telling El Diario that the “material was for tests or demonstrations” and “corresponds to licences granted before October 7″.

What role has the ICJ ruling played in halting arms sales?

In its interim ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel on January 26, the ICJ stated that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide in Gaza and ordered it to take “all measures within its power” to prevent acts that could amount to genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. This has spurred humanitarian organisations around the world to pressure their governments to halt sales of arms and military aid.

The ruling “goes beyond Israel” alone, said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Washington, DC-based think tank Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). The interim ruling highlights the legal and political obligations of countries to prevent genocide. Advocates say weapons sales and military aid could be deemed to amount to complicity in genocide and be in violation of international law.

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Panic as Kashmir ‘survey’ seeks personal details, links with alleged rebels | Police News

Muhammad Shadab had gone to pray in his neighbourhood mosque in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar when he was given a questionnaire by the mosque’s management.

The questionnaire was part of a so-called survey by the disputed region’s police, seeking his personal details, including phone numbers of family members, possible links to armed rebels, records of foreign visits or a member settled abroad, and even the number of CCTV cameras at home.

Other details the residents were asked to record in the survey last month included their Aadhaar – or unique identity card – number, the number of vehicles they owned, and specifics on the exact location of their house, including streets and landmarks.

Shadab, 55, told Al Jazeera he had been panicking since he was handed the questionnaire. “I couldn’t believe I had to provide such extensive details – even of my female family members,” said the former government employee now running his own business.

“It was intriguing for all, even for the mosque committee members. They were instructed [by the police] to distribute the forms, collect them from us, and submit the filled-in documents within a week.”

The questionnaire, accessed by Al Jazeera, was circulated in Srinagar and other areas of the region. Many other residents said officers in plain clothes came to their houses with the document, asking them to fill it and submit it to the nearest police station at the earliest opportunity.

Another layer of surveillance

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan, which rule over parts of the territory but claim it in its entirety. The two nuclear powers have fought three of their four wars over the territory.

After a popular anti-India rebellion broke out in Indian-administered Kashmir in the late 1980s, New Delhi deployed nearly 700,000 troops to suppress the movement, making the region one of the world’s most militarised conflict zones. The military-to-civilian ratio in the region stands at one soldier for 30 residents, according to a 2020 study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the decades-old conflict, most of them civilians, while there are widespread allegations of torture, arbitrary detentions and denial of basic rights by the Indian security forces.

Surveillance has been a major component of India’s strategy in Indian-administered Kashmir, which has only intensified, especially since 2019 when New Delhi scrapped the region’s partial autonomy and brought it under its direct control.

Hundreds of security checkpoints are spread across the region to monitor people’s movements. Technology has helped authorities widen the surveillance infrastructure, with hundreds of high-tech cameras with facial recognition features installed in several cities and even villages.

Security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, emboldened by laws such as the Armed Forced Special Powers Act (AFSPA) or the Public Safety Act, enjoy general impunity in the conflict zone as they carry out raids and arrests, or single out Kashmiris, mostly young men, on the streets for random checks.

Since India penalised dissent and cracked down on protests against its 2019 move, even critical social media posts have invoked scrutiny by security agencies.

Government employees have been instructed to desist from criticising the state on social media or risk dismissal. In 2022, police warned the region’s shopkeepers of penal action if they failed to install round-the-clock CCTV cameras outside their shops and share footage with police when demanded.

‘Psyops to create deliberate panic’

However, residents say the ongoing police survey adds another layer of surveillance by broadening the information demanded by the government.

Additionally, there is no clarity on how the police intend to store and process the collected personal data, exacerbating apprehensions of misuse and possible breaches.

Shadab’s 28-year-old daughter, a banker who “unwillingly” provided her details in the questionnaire, said she was in disbelief over the exercise.

“What details are left to be asked? It plays with your psychology. You feel helpless,” she told Al Jazeera.

The Peoples Democratic Party, a pro-India political party in the region, said it was concerned over the survey, calling it an “alarming development” and an “assault on the identity of ordinary Kashmiris”.

However, a senior police officer in Indian-administered Kashmir, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the survey was being misrepresented in the media.

“Police rules as enshrined in Jammu and Kashmir Police Rules Manual warrant this kind of census. This data compilation is not about terrorism but routine crime, too. This exercise was conducted in the past, too,” he told Al Jazeera.

Quoting government sources, some Indian media reports said the details of the residents were being collected to “minimise damages to property and protect the locals” in case of a gun battle with rebels.

“The form will ensure that the police and security forces have the precise details,” said a report in the Hindu newspaper, adding that the army also conducts such exercises.

Rights activist Ravi Nair, of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, told Al Jazeera the survey by the Kashmir police is a “dead giveaway”.

“The deep state is doing a mapping exercise for intrusive surveillance … The process violates the privacy rights of every Kashmiri citizen,” he said, adding that the move should be challenged in court.

Mohamad Junaid, who teaches anthropology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the United States, said the so-called census “acts as psyops to create deliberate panic” among the Kashmiris.

“No contextual information or reasons are provided by the agencies involved in it, or even whether they have any legal authority to carry out a census, especially since there is already an official census in place,” he told Al Jazeera.

Junaid said in a world where laws are meant to protect citizens, such a move would be considered illegal. “But, of course, Kashmiris have no such protections.”

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Two South African soldiers killed in DR Congo amid uptick in violence | Armed Groups News

The soldiers are part of a Southern African contingent deployed to fight the many armed groups roaming eastern DR Congo.

South Africa said on Thursday that two of its soldiers had been killed by mortar fire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the first fatalities since it deployed troops there.

“As a result of this indirect fire, the SANDF suffered two fatalities and three members sustained injuries. The injured were taken to the nearest hospital in Goma for medical attention,” the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said.

The soldiers were sent to DRC as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to fight against armed rebel groups in the east.

South Africa announced this week it would be sending a new contingent of 2,900 soldiers to eastern Congo. It was not immediately clear if those killed and injured were part of that new deployment.

The base that was hit was in the North Kivu province, SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said. The injured were taken to a hospital in the regional capital Goma.

Violence has been on the rise in the conflict-hit region in recent weeks, with many blaming attacks on the M23 rebel group that has been fighting Congolese soldiers in the region for years.

Kinshasa says M23, one of more than 120 armed groups in the region, is receiving military support from neighbouring Rwanda. Experts from the United Nations and European Union have said there is evidence backing this but Rwanda denies the allegations.

But M23 has indicated in recent statements that it is amid an onslaught in eastern Congo, leading to fears the group is again targeting Goma, which it once seized 10 years ago.

More than one million people have been displaced by the conflict since November, aid groups say. That adds to the 6.9 million who already fled their homes in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises.

On Thursday, the Norwegian Refugee Council said the recent advance of armed groups toward the key town of Sake, near Goma, “poses an imminent threat to the entire aid system” in eastern Congo.

“The isolation of Goma, home to over 2 million people and hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals who have fled clashes with armed groups, would bring disastrous consequences to the region,” the NRC said.

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‘I want to be the best’: Hattan Alsaif, the Saudi woman making MMA history | Mental Health News

In late January, Hattan Alsaif became the first female fighter from Saudi Arabia to sign up with a major global mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, the Professional Fighters League (PFL).

Alsaif, 22, won gold at the 2023 International Federation of Muaythai Associations World Championships, where she was awarded Breakthrough Female Athlete. Last year she also took first place at the World Combat Games and the Saudi Games.

However, her journey outside the ring has also grabbed headlines.

Alsaif’s parents divorced right after she was born and she grew up at her grandmother’s house. When she was aged just 10, both of Alsaif’s parents died in the space of 10 months. She spent years living with depression and attempted suicide on several occasions.

In a conversation with Al Jazeera – has been edited for clarity and length – Alsaif shares her struggles, her hurt and pain while growing up, the loss of her parents, and how she found her calling in MMA.

Al Jazeera: You’re the first Saudi female fighter to sign with a major MMA promotion. Tell us just how big this is.

Hattan Alsaif: This is one of the greatest things to have happened in my life. It’s also a very big responsibility and I have to take it seriously and carefully. I’ll be representing my country, my family, my team and also every other Saudi female. It’s huge and I’m sure I’m the right person to do it.

Al Jazeera: What makes you say you’re the right person?

Alsaif: It’s because of the skills. I always tell myself I was born to fight, it’s my path, my career, my destiny, my hobby, my life, my everything. I’m always trying my best and killing myself to do the best.

Al Jazeera: You’ve said you were born to do this. How much does it mean to you?

Alsaif: It really means everything to me. Unlike other fighters, I found martial arts quite late. While others have been fighting for five to seven years, it has not even been three years for me. I’m so proud of all that I have achieved in that time.

Since the first day of my training, I felt at home in the gym. I felt so connected with the training, the gloves, the coach. I knew this was my calling and the right place for me.

Al Jazeera: You’ve had losses in the ring but bigger losses outside of it. How have those shaped the person you are today?

Alsaif: After I lost my parents, I told myself I have nothing more to lose. Parents guide you to heaven, help you in your life to become a good person and losing them is like losing your entire life. There’s nobody to guide you or pray for you. So I decided to take my chances in life. I was trying to be responsible for myself.

My parents divorced after I was born. They then had their own families. I was on my own. When I got sick, I had to take care of myself. When I was going to school, I was doing my own hair. It’s things like that. I think it’s that life that [helped me] to take this responsibility for myself.

Al Jazeera: You endured so much at such an early age: Loss of parents and depression among other things. How have sport and martial arts helped you?

Alsaif: After losing my parents, I was taking revenge on life. I was always angry, picking fights with everyone and taking my anger out everywhere because of what happened.

I tried a lot of other avenues: writing, drawing, skating, running, dancing, cooking and other things. But I never found myself. I just didn’t feel I was in the right place or could show how good I am.

But since I stepped into the world of martial arts, I realised that’s the place I can put my depression, anger, revenge, everything. And end up breathing normally.

Al Jazeera: You spoke a lot about hurt and pain. How much hurt and pain do you need to become a fighter and did you consider giving up at any point?

Alsaif: We don’t have a lot of girls taking up martial arts just yet in Saudi Arabia, so I have been training with guys in the gym. They not only have more experience than me but are also more powerful.

My coach would always tell them not to go easy on me and to punch me and hurt me. If they punch me hard, I’ll try my best to punch them harder. I’ve been crying twice a week from the pain. It’s immense.

There’s mental as well as physical damage. I cry but then I wipe my tears with the gloves and I complete my training. There is no stopping. I will cry and I’ll keep training. I’ll get hurt, my eyes will go blue, my body will have a lot of scars but I’ll keep going. This makes me feel who I am.

Al Jazeera: What then would you say to people who’ve been through a lot and are close to giving up?

Alsaif: I’ve been through depression for nearly three years. I was drowning in it. On my body, there are a lot of scars from self-hurt. I tried suicide. Just anything that would take me away from depression. It was controlling me way too much. I was giving up. I wanted to stop and for it to end. I thought there was no point being alive when you have no parents and nothing is going your way.

That moment, when I was so scared, I took a leap of faith and jumped to the other side. The moment you feel like you’re at your lowest, when you’re giving up, this is the moment you have to jump. That’s when I took up martial arts despite the fear.

The thought of going to the gym for training helped. I knew it would help me sleep well. I go to training, I put everything else in my mind and life aside. I knew that if I didn’t do that and jump, I’d be stuck in the dark with my depression and demons until I died.

Al Jazeera: So what then is the dream now? Where do you see yourself going from here?

Alsaif: I want to be the best. Anyone can say that but, for me, it’s a deep, deep word. I am obsessive. I admire perfection. I want to reach the top in everything. I don’t want to have 15 percent of anything. I want 100 percent.

I know the journey won’t be easy from here and I’ll cry and get hurt along the way but that’s the path I want to take.

Resources:



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Could a Southern African military force help bring stability to DRC? | News

South Africa is deploying thousands of troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help the country resist rebel attacks which are driving one of Africa’s most serious humanitarian crises. On Thursday, the South African military said two of its soldiers had been killed and three wounded by a mortar bomb that landed inside a military base.

“As a result of this indirect fire, the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] suffered two fatalities and three members sustained injuries. The injured were taken to the nearest hospital in Goma for medical attention,” it said in a statement.

In the past week, fighting between DRC armed forces and the M23 rebel group has forced thousands of people to pack up what belongings they can carry and flee – often on foot – to safer areas such as the regional capital, Goma, even though the rebels are closing in on the city.

On Wednesday, the South African government said that 2,900 SANDF soldiers were being mobilised for its part in a regional push by the South African Development Community (SADC) to support DRC’s forces against the armed group.

The new effort comes after a separate regional military mission to combat the M23 by East African countries, which the DRC government perceived as a failure and which ended last year. However, speculation remains as to whether the South African soldiers will be able to make any more progress than their East African counterparts did.

People fleeing the ongoing conflict between DRC government forces and M23 rebels reach the outskirts of the eastern city of Goma on February 7, 2024 [Moses Sawasawa/AP]

Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening in DRC and how SADC might perform.

What is the conflict in the DRC over?

The DRC has been fighting a host of rebel groups in its resource-rich eastern region – around 100 of them in all – for decades, following regional wars in the 1990s that erupted as Rwanda pursued genocidaires responsible for the 1994 mass killings of Tutsis into Congolese territory. Most of the groups are seeking control over natural resources like cobalt and copper, both of which are materials crucial for manufacturing electronics.

Among them is the fearsome M23 group – or the March 23 Movement, named after a March 23, 2009 peace treaty that integrated a precursor armed group (the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP) into the Congolese army. M23 rebels broke away from the army in 2012. It operates in the hills close to the Rwandan border and says it is fighting in defence of ethnic Congolese Tutsis who, it claims, face tribal discrimination in the DRC. The United Nations and the DRC, however, say the group is being funded by Rwanda to control Kinshasa’s minerals, causing a serious diplomatic rift in the region. The armed group went quiet after it was pushed out of DRC in 2013, but resurfaced again in 2021, possibly because of renewed Rwandan support.

In March 2022, M23 launched a major bombing and heavy artillery offensive against army forces and any civilians caught in their way. Since then, the violence in the volatile eastern DRC has only worsened, with fighting continuing through general elections in December which saw President Felix Tshisekedi sworn in for a second term. M23 fighters have also seized at least four towns in the eastern North Kivu province, and are advancing towards Goma, the provincial capital which is home to two million people.

Last week, M23 fighters attempted to take Sake, a strategic town 25km (16 miles) from Goma. On Tuesday, a local official told AFP that the rebels are now occupying a part of Sake, while government forces remain in the other areas of the town.

The humanitarian toll of the fighting has been severe: Dozens have died and thousands have been displaced by the violence this year alone, adding to a previously displaced population of 2.4 million in North Kivu, and a combined seven million uprooted during various conflicts across the DRC. Many of the displaced are living in informal, makeshift camps where there is little food or protection. Many say they suffer from hunger and aid organisations are struggling to reach those in need. “Just getting sufficient food to eat is a major challenge for people with all roads to Goma having been cut off by the fighting,” Eric Batonon of the Norwegian Refugee Council told reporters on Thursday.

Why have military interventions failed to reign in the rebels?

Two separate military missions have attempted to support the Congolese forces, but have now pulled out of the country or are in the process of doing so, seen as failures by the government and the Congolese people.

Troops from the regional economic bloc, the East African Community (EAC) which the DRC is part of, were deployed in July 2022. The aim of the 12,000-strong force, led by Kenya, was to see a 2022 ceasefire arrangement through and ensure the withdrawal of multiple rebel groups from eastern DRC, including M23.

However, the mandate was interpreted differently by both sides. While the Congolese government pressed for more offensive action from the troops, and demanded that EAC troops attack and push back M23 rebels, the soldiers mostly operated defensively.

In the early days of their deployment, the troops did force some militia groups out of the area, but new offensives since then by M23 fighters have seen those gains reversed. When the EAC forces mandate expired in December 2023, Kinshasa refused to renew it.

Separately, a UN peacekeeping force, MONUSCO (the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), has been present in the DRC for more than 25 years. Its 13,500-strong force was supposed to help quell insecurity in the region but has become deeply unpopular in recent years due to its inability to hold back rebel groups.

Congolese have questioned why the force has not protected them from the M23 and other violent rebel groups, and those frustrations have spurred violent protests and riots in the past year. The Congolese government itself has also called for UN forces to leave the country. In December, a UN Security Council vote dissolved MONUSCO. Those troops have now started to withdraw in phases, and would completely exit the DRC by April.

Could the SADC intervention go differently?

On December 15, the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC) was officially deployed to take over from the EAC’s mission in eastern DRC. It includes troops from Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa. Although geographically in Central Africa, the DRC is also a member of SADC.

Experts say the force has been frugal with information, but reports confirm that SAMIDRC troops are already present in areas around Sake – the last major town on M23’s push for Goma, fighting alongside Congolese forces.

There are concerns about how effective SADC troops will be against M23 in terms of skill and firepower, although this is not the first time that Southern African troops will face the rebels. In 2013, the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) was established, specifically to target and neutralise M23. The FIB largely helped push M23 out that year, leading to its decade-long silence.

Troops from Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa formed that intervention force, but experts say that M23 has since grown more formidable and commands a great deal more firepower than in 2013, while the South African army forming the core of the mission has suffered from years of underfunding.

According to the authorities, deploying to DRC will cost South Africa 2 billion rand ($105m). Last year, South Africa slightly reduced its military budget from 51.6 billion rand ($2.71bn) to 51.12 billion rand ($2.68bn).

Furthermore, SADC troops are also fighting another battle that may have to be cut short in favour of the DRC mission, experts say. In 2021, the troops were deployed to help tackle ISIL-linked fighters in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province alongside Rwandan forces. Much of the region is now back under government control and, although SADC troops are still on the ground, experts fear they will exit prematurely to avoid overstretching the force. This might allow ISIL-linked fighters, who still launch sporadic attacks and control a small area of Cabo Delgado, to resurface and seize more territory.

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Private company shoots for first US moon landing in more than 50 years | Space News

NASA, the main sponsor with experiments on board, hopes to jumpstart lunar economy ahead of astronaut missions.

A lunar lander has taken off for the moon in a bid to make the first United States landing since the Apollo missions more than half a century ago and the first achieved by a privately owned spacecraft.

A Falcon 9 rocket flown by Elon Musk’s SpaceX lifted off after 1am (06:00 GMT) on Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, launching a moon lander made by Intuitive Machines towards its destination 370,000km (230,000 miles) away.

If all goes well, a touchdown attempt is expected on February 22 after a day in lunar orbit.

Intuitive Machines, a Houston-based aerospace company, launched mission “IM-1” a month after a rival lunar lander made by Astrobotic Technology crashed back to Earth, burning up over the Pacific 10 days after takeoff.

“There have been a lot of sleepless nights getting ready for this,” said Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines.

The lander resembled a six-pointed star jewel – each point a leg – as it successfully separated from the upper stage and drifted off into the black void.

Intuitive Machines named its lander after Homer’s hero in The Odyssey.

“Godspeed, Odysseus. Now let’s go make history,” said Trent Martin, vice president of space systems at Intuitive Machines.

NASA aims

Only five countries – the US, Russia, China, India and Japan – have scored a lunar landing and no private business has yet done so.

The US is the only country to have sent astronauts to the moon with Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closing out the programme in December 1972. That was it for US moon landings until Astrobotic’s short-lived attempt last month.

NASA, the main sponsor with experiments on board, is hoping to jumpstart the lunar economy ahead of astronaut missions.

It hopes to operate near the moon’s south pole where Intuitive Machines is aiming for its 14-foot (4.3-m) tall, six-legged lander to touch down – a region full of treacherous craters and cliffs, yet potentially rich with frozen water.

This area is where NASA plans to land astronauts later this decade. The space agency said its six navigation and tech experiments on the lander can help smooth the way.

NASA is paying Intuitive Machines $118m to get its latest set of experiments to the moon.

The company also drummed up its own customers, including sculptor Jeff Koons, who is sending up 125-inch (317.5cm) moon figurines in a see-through cube.

The lander is carrying Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s EagleCam, which will snap pictures of the lander as they both descend.

The spacecraft is set to cease operations after a week on the surface.



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‘He was nameless’: Orphaned children lose family, identity in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza

Khan Younis, Gaza – Lying on a bed at the European Hospital in southern Gaza, hidden behind bandages that enveloped his disfigured face, five-year-old Ahmed Abu Zariaan remained unidentified for more than a week.

The injured boy was one of a growing number of children in the war-torn enclave to be registered as “unknown”, or under the acronym WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family.

Ahmed’s family was wiped out in an Israeli air raid as they travelled southwards along Salah al-Din Street, a route Israel designated for safe passage from northern Gaza, in early November.

Heeding the Israeli army’s order for residents in the northern part of the enclave to evacuate to the south, the family of five left Beit Hanoon on a donkey cart and headed for Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

A strike targeting a nearby house along the way killed the whole family but spared the five-year-old. Nour Lafi, a 28-year-old nurse at the European Hospital, said the boy was in intensive care for two weeks after sustaining severe injuries and burns.

“His face was not visible at all and no one recognised him. He was nameless,” she said. “None of his family were there. I could hear him moaning in pain. We tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t say a word.”

Doctors examine an injured child brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp in Deir el-Balah on December 6, 2023 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images]

The boy was recognised 10 days later by his grandmother.

UNICEF, the UN agency for the protection of children, estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or have been separated from their immediate relatives since the beginning of the conflict on October 7 – about 1 percent of the overall displaced population of 1.7 million people.

In Gaza, where Israel’s brutal war has passed the four-month mark, parents have long resorted to writing their children’s names on their bodies so they can be identified if killed or injured. When no indication of their identity is immediately available, hospitals send out alerts on social media networks in the hope that relatives come forward.

Yet, sometimes a child’s injuries are so severe that their own families would struggle to recognise them.

In the course of the conflict, NGO Save the Children found, more than 10 children a day lose one or both of their legs.

‘Missiles destroy people outside and inside’

Samira Abu Zariaan, 60, is still in shock that her daughter was killed but she has taken on caring for her grandson, whose physical and psychological wounds are life-altering.

“His emotional state is still very difficult,” Samira told Al Jazeera. “He hasn’t talked much. His voice trembles with fear. He’s scared of any sounds near him.”

Ahmed has asked about his mother, but Samira could not bring herself to tell him the truth. “He doesn’t know she was killed. I told him she’s injured and needs to rest.”

“I don’t know how Ahmed will overcome his shock. These missiles destroy people outside and inside,” she said. “He turned from a cheerful, impish, chattering child to a silent, still child.”

The UN estimates that some 40 percent of the people in Gaza have lost their identification cards and other documents, making it harder to identify unaccompanied children and reunite them with their families.

“Forced separation exposes children to various dangers and heightened risks of exploitation, neglect, and abuse,” Ammar Ammar, spokesperson for UNICEF, told Al Jazeera.

A 2022 assessment by Save the Children found that the psychosocial well-being of children in Gaza had reached alarming levels due to protracted conflicts, a global pandemic and a crippling blockade.

The needs are now “unimaginable”, Soraya Ali, a regional spokesperson at Save the Children, told Al Jazeera. “Children have an increased sense of anxiety and depression after going through conflict and this leads to long-term consequences.”

Injured children often have to deal with the loss of their families as well as the pain of their wounds. Pictured here is a child at the Kuwaiti Hospital after an Israeli attack on al-Ghoul family home in Tal as-Sultan, Rafah on January 25, 2024 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu]

By UNICEF’s estimate, about 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza before the assault began.

Today, it estimates that the number has doubled to more than one million children – as a result of what it describes as “a war on children” that has made the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.

More than 28,000 people have been killed, including more than 12,000 children, during Israel’s war on Gaza.

Life-threatening shortages

As children face a mental health crisis, critical medical and food supplies remain largely unable to enter Gaza. Aid convoys carrying lifesaving supplies have come under fire from Israeli forces, despite being clearly labelled.

According to the latest UN assessments, 13 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, operating at several times their capacity while facing critical shortages of basic supplies and fuel.

Humanitarian organisations have called for an end to the hostilities to allow the humanitarian aid trickling in to be scaled up.

“UNICEF can scale up its support, but we urgently need full access to communities and families to properly identify, register, provide temporary care arrangements and conduct family tracing and reunification services for children,” Ammar said.

“An immediate and long-lasting ceasefire is the only way to end the killing, injuring and separation of children and their families.”

Save the Children has also been calling for a permanent ceasefire, Ali said, “so that we can go into Gaza and start providing the mental and psychosocial support that is desperately needed”.

(Federica Marsi reported from Italy for this article.)  

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One person killed in shooting at Kansas City Super Bowl victory parade | Gun Violence News

One person was killed and children were among the 21 injured after a mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade triggered panic among huge crowds of fans.

Shots rang out on Wednesday in Kansas City in the United States moments after jubilant Chiefs players addressed a vast, cheering crowd, sending shocked fans fleeing in a tragic end to what had been a joyous morning of celebrating the NFL champions.

Police said three people had been taken into custody after the attack near Union Station, but the motive behind the shooting was still under investigation.

Fire department chief Ross Grundyson told a news conference that many of the victims had suffered “life-threatening injuries”.

A local DJ, Lisa Lopez, was killed in the assault, her radio station said.

The authorities said more than one million people were expected for the parade, which was held in unseasonably sunny, warm conditions in central Kansas City.

Mass shootings are common in the US, where there are more guns than people and about a third of adults own a firearm.

The attack in Kansas City was not the only shooting to grab national headlines on Wednesday. Four students were also shot outside a high school in Atlanta, while three police officers were shot during a standoff in the national capital Washington, DC. All are expected to survive, according to media reports.

The shootings came six years to the day after 17 people were killed in an attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Polls show a majority of Americans favour stricter gun regulations, but the powerful firearms lobby and mobilised voters supporting the country’s culture of strong gun rights have repeatedly stymied lawmakers from acting.

The Chiefs were celebrating their third Super Bowl title in five seasons after beating the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas on Sunday.

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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un oversees test of new surface-to-sea missiles | Nuclear Weapons News

Kim also ordered the North Korean military to boost its readiness near the western maritime border with South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the test of new surface-to-sea missiles, according to state media, while ordering his military to strengthen its readiness in disputed waters north of the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong.

The report on the launches by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday came a day after South Korea’s military said North Korea had fired multiple cruise missiles in waters off its eastern port of Wonsan. The test was Pyongyang’s sixth missile launch event of the year.

The KCNA report said Kim supervised the “evaluation test-fire of new-type surface-to-sea missile Padasuri-6 to be equipped by the navy”, and expressed “great satisfaction over the results of the test-fire”.

The missiles hit their intended targets after flying over the East Sea for 1,400 seconds, it said. The East Sea is known as the Sea of Japan internationally.

Kim also accused South Korea of frequently violating his country’s sovereignty by insisting on a “Northern Limit Line” (NLL), the maritime demarcation line between the two Koreas, and conducting maritime patrols and inter-diction of third-party ships, according to the KCNA. The North Korean leader also gave orders to his military to strengthen its readiness in the waters north of Yeonpyeong Island and to the west of the Korean peninsula, in the region of the NLL.

Waters near the NLL, which was drawn up by the United States-led United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War in 1953, have been the site of previous clashes between the two Koreas. In 2010, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 Sailors, and fired a barrage of artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island, killing four others.

According to the KCNA, Kim referred to the de facto border as a “ghost one without any ground in the light of international law”.

“It doesn’t matter how many lines exist in [North Korea’s] western sea, and what’s clear is that if the enemy violates what we consider as our maritime border lines, we will take that as a violation of our sovereignty and an armed provocation,” he was quoted as saying.

Kim also pledged that Pyongyang would “thoroughly defend our maritime sovereignty by force of arms and actions, not by any rhetoric”.

The Padasuri-6 missile being fired towards the Sea of Japan [KCNA via KNS and AFP]

Earlier this year, the North Korean leader told his country’s rubber-stamp parliament that he would no longer recognise the NLL, and declared that Pyongyang was abandoning its longstanding goal of reconciliation with Seoul. He also said that if South Korea “violates even 0.001 millimetre of our territorial land, air and waters, it will be considered a war provocation”.

In a separate report, KCNA said Kim also inspected a “major” munitions factory and learned in detail about the modernisation of production.

During the visit, he stressed the factory’s role in bolstering North Korea’s armed forces and laid out tasks to improve the quality of munitions and increase production as “required by the prevailing situation and the developing revolution”, KCNA said.

Kim’s visit to the munitions factory comes as the US and its allies have accused North Korea of trading arms with Russia.

The White House said last month that Russia had recently used short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) sourced from North Korea to conduct strikes against Ukraine, citing newly declassified intelligence.

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What are India’s electoral bonds, the secret donations powering Modi’s BJP? | Narendra Modi News

A mysterious source of electoral funding, which has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is under scrutiny in India after the country’s top court found in November that they “put a premium on opacity” and can be “misused for money laundering”.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court will announce its verdict on an ongoing petition calling for electoral bonds, which have become a major source of funding for political parties in India – and especially the BJP – to be banned.

What the court rules could fundamentally determine how India’s coming general elections, between March and May, are fought; how much of a role untraced money plays in it; and who has the resources to dominate the political landscape.

Under the electoral bond system introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2018, these bonds must be bought from the State Bank of India but can be donated to parties anonymously.

While donors using electoral bonds are technically anonymous, however, the State Bank of India is publicly owned, meaning the ruling party has access to its data. This is likely to dissuade large donors from using electoral bonds to donate to opposition parties, critics have said.

Furthermore, in 2017, India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, cautioned the Modi government that the bonds could be misused by shell companies to “facilitate money laundering”. In 2019, the country’s Election Commission described the system as “a retrograde step as far as transparency of donations is concerned”.

Since 2018, secret donors have given nearly 16,000 crore Indian rupees (more than $1.9bn) to political parties through these bonds. Between 2018 and March 2022 – the period analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a nongovernment organisation – 57 percent of donations via electoral bonds (about $600m) went to Modi’s BJP.

As India prepares for more than 900 million voters to go to the polls to elect a new government between March and May, these funds have allowed the BJP to transform itself into a dominant electoral machine. From financing tens of thousands of WhatsApp groups promoting its agenda to paying for the block-booking of private jets, electoral bonds have provided the BJP with a massive injection of resources, which give it a clear edge over its rivals.

How do electoral bonds work and why are they being criticised as “undemocratic”?

What are electoral bonds?

Electoral bonds (EBs) are “bearer” instruments, like currency notes. They are sold in denominations of 1,000 rupees ($12), 10,000 rupees ($120), 100,000 rupees ($1,200), one million rupees ($12,000) and 10 million rupees ($120,000). They can be purchased by individuals, groups or corporate organisations and donated to the political party of their choice, which can then redeem them, free of interest, after 15 days.

While political parties are required to reveal the identities of all donors who donate more than 20,000 rupees ($240) in cash, the names of those donating via electoral bonds never have to be revealed, no matter how large the sum.

Since their introduction, EBs have become the primary method of political funding – 56 percent of all funding in Indian politics comes from EBs, according to a report by the ADR. The ability to donate money anonymously has made them extremely popular but is also shrouded in secrecy, which many argue is undemocratic and could provide cover for corruption.

When it brought in the new law allowing this type of funding, the Modi government also did away with a number of requirements meant to improve transparency in political funding: A previous law capping corporate donations was abolished, companies were no longer required to disclose their donations in their statements, and foreign companies, hitherto not allowed to fund Indian parties, could now do so through their Indian subsidiaries.

“The EB legalises backroom lobbying and unlimited anonymous donations,” said Major General Anil Verma (retired), head of the ADR. The secrecy around the donors’ identity, Verma said, was problematic. “It could be big-time corporations or it could be players funnelling illicit money through shell companies – we don’t know who is donating. This has become what many call legalised and institutionalised corruption.”

How do electoral bonds benefit the BJP?

The BJP is the single biggest beneficiary of electoral bond donations. Data from the Election Commission of India show that 57 percent of total donations between 2018 and March 2022 through EBs went to the BJP, amounting to 5,271 crore rupees (about $635m). By comparison, the next largest party, the Indian National Congress, received 952 crore rupees (about $115m).

EB rules specify that only the publicly owned State Bank of India can sell these bonds. This, many argue, ultimately gives the government of the day unchecked power.

“Since the bond is issued by a public sector bank, an unprincipled government might get to know the list of donors and recipients,” former Reserve Bank of India governor and economist Raghuram Rajan wrote in an article for the Times of India last year. “Given the carrots and sticks at the government’s disposal, few individuals or corporations would chance donating large sums to the opposition through these bonds,” Rajan added.

EBs have also contributed to the BJP’s electoral dominance. “They might be called electoral bonds, but the rules don’t say that the money must be used only for elections,” said retired Indian Navy commodore Lokesh Batra, who has been spearheading a campaign calling for greater transparency in electoral funding. “So, whoever gets more money, the money can be used to buy up media space, boost advertising. Once you have the money, you can use it anywhere,” he added.

The mismatch between the funds received by the BJP and its nearest rival, the Congress, serves to illustrate the unequal playing field that EBs have created, critics say. For instance, in May 2023, the Congress and the BJP squared off against each other in state assembly polls in the southern state of Karnataka. Affidavits filed by both parties with the Election Commission show that the BJP was able to spend 197 crore ($24m) while the Congress spent 136 crore ($16m).

The Modi government also holds the power to time the sales of these bonds. While EB rules technically permit the sale of bonds only in the first 10 days of every new quarter – in January, April, July and October – the government broke its rules and allowed donors to buy these bonds on the eve of two crucial elections in May and November 2018. This forms part of the case currently going through the Supreme Court.  

Why else have electoral bonds been criticised?

Critics say that by permitting uncapped, anonymous donations from any source, electoral bonds open the doors to “legalised corruption”, allowing corporate donors to effectively sponsor the ruling party and influence government decisions.

“Donors, obviously, look at these anonymous donations as an “investment”, said Verma.

He added that the introduction of electoral bonds has also caused doubts to arise over how free and fair elections really are. “Electoral bonds have corroded the concept of equality in electoral politics. Most donations go to the ruling party, no matter who is in power,” he said.

“From the day it was introduced, it seems like the government’s priority was to keep the identities of the donors and parties secret,” said Batra.

Who is challenging EBs in the Supreme Court?

In 2017, and later in 2018, two NGOs – ADR and Common Cause – and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) filed two separate petitions in the Supreme Court, urging the court to put an end to the electoral bonds system.

Now, six years later, the court is set to finally pronounce a ruling in these cases. In November 2023, the court had announced that it had concluded hearings in the petitions challenging the bond system

It said at the time that the EB scheme had “serious deficiencies”, had created an “information blackhole” and “has to be removed” since it puts “a premium on opacity”.

This has not stopped widespread sales of these bonds. The latest tranche of EBs was being sold from January 2 to January 11 at 29 locations across the country. This money is likely to form the bulk of funding for the political campaigns of parties in the run-up to this year’s general elections.

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