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World Monthly Headline News December 2023
NBC News

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has confirmed his arrival at an Arctic prison and said he is in good spirits. His team had had no contact with him since 6 December, after he was moved from another jail to the east of Moscow.

But on 25 December Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh said that he had been found. Considered Vladimir Putin's most vocal opponent, he has been imprisoned since 2021. Navalny confirmed on Tuesday that he had been moved to the IK-3 penal colony, nicknamed "Polar Wolf", in the northern town of Kharp, some 1,900km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
Call to protect civilians and humanitarian staff after UNDP’s Issam al-Mughrabi, his wife, children and scores of relatives killed
Emma Graham-Harrison

An Israeli military airstrike killed more than 70 members of an extended family, including a veteran UN aid worker, as the UN secretary general warned that the scale of death and destruction inside Gaza is blocking delivery of desperately needed aid.

Issam al-Mughrabi, 56, was killed with his wife, five children and dozens of other relatives in a bombing near Gaza City, said the head of the UN development programme (UNDP) in a statement that also called for an urgent ceasefire.

“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said. “The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target. This war must end. No more families should endure the pain and suffering that Issam’s family and countless others are experiencing.”
By NAJIB JOBAIN and SAM MAGDY

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 20,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas, health officials said Friday, the latest indication of the staggering cost of the conflict as Israel expands its ground offensive and orders tens of thousands more people to leave their homes.

The deaths, amounting to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population, are just one measure of the devastation wrought by the conflict that over 11 weeks has displaced nearly 85% of Gaza’s people and leveled wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave.

More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report Thursday from the United Nations and other agencies describing the crisis caused by Israel’s bombardment and siege of the territory in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Reuters

DUBAI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The leader of Yemen's Houthis warned on Wednesday they would strike U.S. warships if the Iranian-backed militia was targeted by Washington, which this week set up a multinational force to counter Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The Houthis, which control vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, have since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea, attacks it says respond to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
Story by Joyce Sundy

Astronomer Clifford Stoll was working as a systems manager at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California when he noticed a minor discrepancy in the shared-time computer system accounts. This seemingly insignificant error sparked a ten-month investigation that would eventually expose a German hacker selling defense secrets to the KGB.

Stoll’s story reads like a gripping spy thriller, full of twists and turns, suspense and intrigue, and a surprising finale. It’s a tale of how curiosity and determination can lead to unexpected discoveries and revelations, even in the seemingly innocuous corners of a computer system.

The story begins in 1986, when Stoll was asked to find out why the computer system accounts were off by 75 cents. He expected to find a simple explanation, such as a rounding error or a misplaced decimal point. Instead, he found evidence of a computer break-in.
By Charlie D'Agata, Steve Berriman

Tel Aviv — Throughout the war in Gaza, Israel's military has spoken frequently of the challenges presented by the vast tunnel network the Hamas militant group built underneath the Palestinian territory. Israel says Hamas, long designated a terror group by the U.S., Israel and many other nations, has used the tunnels to transport supplies and carry out attacks — including its unprecedented Oct. 7 assault, which sparked the current war.

On Friday, CBS News was escorted by Israel Defense Forces troops through the gap blasted by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 in the wall protecting the Erez border crossing into Gaza. All along the road was destruction wrought by the Hamas militants as they went to carry out their murderous rampage.
By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces had been holding up a white flag, a military official said on Saturday, citing an initial inquiry into the incident that has shaken the country.

A soldier saw the hostages emerging tens of metres from Israeli forces on Friday in Shejaiya, an area of intense combat in northern Gaza where Hamas militants operate in civilian attire and use deception tactics, the official said.

"They're all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they're terrorists. They (the Israeli forces) open fire. Two (hostages) are killed immediately," the official told reporters in a phone briefing.

The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew, the official said.
Orban and Republicans are supporting and protecting Putin and Russia by blocking aid for Ukraine

By Jaroslav Lukiv in London & Jessica Parker in KyivBBC News

Hungary has blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine - just hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks. "Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after Thursday's talks in Brussels.

EU leaders said Ukraine would not be left without support. Ukraine is critically dependent on EU and US funding as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces. The aid blocking was announced by Mr Orban shortly after the EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.
By The Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck Saturday off the southern Philippine coast, prompting many villagers to flee their homes in panic around midnight after Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning. The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. at a depth of 32 kilometers (20 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially said that based on the magnitude and location, it expected tsunami waves to hit the southern Philippines and parts of Indonesia, Palau and Malaysia. But the center later dropped its tsunami warning. In Japan, authorities evacuation orders were issued in various parts of Okinawa Prefecture, including for the entire coastal area, affecting thousands of people.
Story by Jared Malsin

Israel’s military intensified attacks on the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered his negotiators to leave Qatar after talks to reinstate a cease-fire unraveled.

Opening what could be the next phase of its war against Hamas militants, Israel’s air force said it carried out an “extensive attack” against militants overnight in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza crowded with displaced people who fled prior weeks of Israeli bombing.

The air force said it carried out 400 strikes over the past day. Palestinians in the area said explosions shook buildings throughout the night, while the director of a large hospital in the city said the emergency room was flooded with casualties.

The renewed fighting came a day after talks to extend the cease-fire collapsed. The truce agreement resulted in the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas since its Oct. 7 attack on Israel in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Officials from Egypt and Qatar mediating in talks between Israel and Hamas have scrambled to renew the cease-fire after the violence resumed.
By Luc Cohen and Krishn Kaushik

NEW YORK/NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The alleged plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil began in May, with a text message between what the American indictment says was an Indian security official and an alleged drugs trafficker.

"Save my name," the official wrote to a man named Nikhil Gupta over an encrypted messaging application on May 6, according to U.S. prosecutors.

The official told Gupta - who the prosecutors described as an Indian national involved in drugs and weapons trafficking - about a "target" in New York. The official wanted Gupta to orchestrate the target's murder, in exchange for getting criminal charges against him in India dropped.
MIKE CORDER and REGINA GARCIA CANO

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court on Friday ordered Venezuela not to take any action that would alter Guyana’s control over a disputed territory, but did not specifically ban Venezuela from holding its planned referendum Sunday on the territory’s future.

Guyana had asked the International Court of Justice to order a halt to parts of the vote, saying it was aimed at paving the way for Venezuela to annex the disputed Essequibo region, which makes up some two-thirds of Guyana.

Both countries interpreted Friday's ruling as largely backing their own positions on the territory, which is larger than Greece and is rich in oil and minerals.

The court order falls short of any explicit mention of the referendum, but says that Venezuela must “refrain from taking any action which would modify that situation that currently prevails” in Essequibo. The legally binding ruling remains in place until a case brought by Guyana against Venezuela on the region's future is considered by the court, which could take years.
By Jessica Parker in Kyiv

Ukraine's security service has blown up a rail connection deep inside Russia, a senior official has told the BBC. Successive explosions are said to have happened on trains running first through a tunnel and then on a bridge in Russia's far east.

Russia has reportedly begun an inquiry into a "criminal case of terrorism" after the attacks on the Baikal Amur line running to the border with China. The extent of the damage has not been verified by the BBC. Ukrainian sources said that the intention was to "disable" an important piece of infrastructure that the Russians sometimes use for military purposes.
By Helen Regan, Michael Callahan, Jerome Taylor and Christian Edwards, CNN

CNN — Israel’s military restarted fighting against Hamas in Gaza after a week-long truce to allow hostages to be released broke down on Friday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had “resumed combat operations” and accused Hamas of violating the truce first by firing rockets toward Israeli territory. Smoke could be seen billowing across parts of the densely populated enclave as the IDF declared it was once again “out to destroy” Hamas.

A total of 109 people have been killed, with hundreds more wounded, since military operations were resumed early Friday, according to a spokesman from Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health. The resumption of fighting marks the end of a brittle truce between the warring parties that allowed for the release of 110 Israeli women and children, as well as foreign nationals, who had been taken hostage by Hamas during its October 7 attack, and for the release of about 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas “didn’t respect its obligation to release today all the abducted women and launched rockets towards the citizens of Israel.”
By Valerie Volcovici

DUBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A member of the main advisory board of the COP28 climate summit resigned on Friday over reports the UAE presidency planned to use the meeting to secure oil, gas deals, according to her resignation letter seen by Reuters.

Hilda Heine, former president of the low-lying, climate vulnerable Marshall Islands, said reports that the UAE planned to discuss possible natural gas and other commercial deals ahead of U.N. climate talks were "deeply disappointing" and threatened to undermine the credibility of the multilateral negotiation process.

"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole," Heine wrote in the letter she sent to COP President Sultan al-Jaber.
BBC News

School closures in January 2021 could have been avoided if ministers had taken action earlier the previous autumn, Matt Hancock has said. The former health secretary told the Covid inquiry that avoiding a lockdown led to tougher measures later on. WhatsApp messages from October 2020 showed he was worried then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak was putting "pressure" on Boris Johnson "not to do enough again".

He also accused local leaders of putting "politics over public health". The West Suffolk MP suggested that politicians in Greater Manchester such as the mayor, Andy Burnham, had been "actively unhelpful" when the government tried to put local restrictions in place.
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