Gli aiuti a Gaza passeranno da un molo costruito dagli americani🗞️Rassegna del 17/05/2024

Israele

(AP News) Aid for Gaza will soon flow from pier project just finished by US military, Pentagon says

• Sabrina Singh, Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters that the U.S. believes there will be no backups in the distribution of the aid, which is being coordinated by the United Nations. (...) The U.N., however, said fuel imports have all but stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to deliver the aid to Gaza’s people, all 2.3 million of whom are in acute need of food and other supplies after seven months of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas.
• The U.S. military finished installing a floating pier off the Gaza Strip early Thursday, and officials were making final checks before trucks begin driving onto the shore to deliver pallets of aid.
• Fraught with logistical, weather and security challenges, the pier project is not considered a substitute for far cheaper deliveries by land that aid agencies say are much more sustainable.
• U.S. officials said Thursday as much as 500 tons of food will begin arriving on the Gaza shore within days and that the U.S. has closely coordinated with Israel on how to protect the ships and personnel working on the beach.
• Israeli forces will be in charge of security on shore, but there are also two U.S. Navy warships nearby, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Paul Ignatius. Both are destroyers equipped with a wide range of weapons and capabilities to protect American troops offshore and allies on the beach.

(Reuters) Israel moves into north Gaza Hamas stronghold, pounds Rafah without advancing

• Israel's tanks pushed into the heart of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Thursday, facing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs from militants concentrated there, while in the south, its forces pounded Rafah without advancing, Palestinian residents and militants said.
• Armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have been able to fight up and down the Gaza Strip, using heavily fortified tunnels to stage attacks in both the north - the focus of Israel's initial invasion - and new battlegrounds like Rafah.
• Israel says four Hamas battalions are now in Rafah along with hostages abducted during the Oct. 7 assault, but it faces international pressure not to invade the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians are sheltering.
• Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said its fighters in Jabalia had destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with a locally made Al-Yassin 105 anti-tank rocket, causing casualties. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the statement and there was no immediate comment from Israel.
• In the southern tip of Gaza, tanks held their positions in eastern neighborhoods and outskirts of Rafah while keeping up pressure with aerial and ground bombardments.

Ucraina

(BBC) Kharkiv fighting difficult but under control - Zelensky

• Moscow launched a major ground assault across the border into the Kharkiv region last week.
• Writing on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian soldiers were "inflicting significant losses on the occupier". He said: "However, the area remains extremely difficult. We are reinforcing our units."
• According to analysis by news agency AFP, Moscow seized 278 sq km (107 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory between 9 and 15 May - figures it based on data from the Institute for the Study of War.
• On Thursday, a top Nato commander said Russia did not have sufficient forces on the ground to make a major breakthrough in Ukraine. 
• "I've been in very close contact with our Ukrainian colleagues and I'm confident that they will hold the line," US General Christopher Cavoli told journalists, AFP reported.

(Kyiv Indipendent) Partisans: Ammunition depot hit at Belbek airfield in occupied Crimea

• The main missile and artillery depot of the Russian Belbek military airfield near occupied Sevastopol was damaged on the evening of May 15, according to the partisan group Atesh.
• The Crimean Wind Telegram channel claimed earlier that the Belbek airfield was attacked, and a fuel depot caught fire as a result of the strike, according to eyewitnesses. Explosions were reported in occupied Sevastopol, Simferopol, Dzhankoi, and Hvardiiske.
• The partisans claim that the damaged depot stored "most of the missiles" for Russian Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets as well as MiG-31 aircraft, a carrier of Kinzhal ballistic missiles that Russia uses to attack Ukraine. The partisans did not explicitly say whether the stored ammunition included Kinzhals.
• Russia's Defense Ministry alleged that five U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles were intercepted overnight by air defenses.

Russia

(Meduza) Taliban flight to Russia reportedly delayed by Ukrainian drone attack in Tatarstan

• Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency temporarily suspended all flights in and out of Tatarstan

• one flight affected by the delays contained a delegation of Taliban officials who were scheduled to take part in the KazanForum

RUSSIA-CINA:

(AP News) China and Russia reaffirm their close ties as Moscow presses its offensive in Ukraine

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday reaffirmed their “no-limits” partnership that has deepened as both countries face rising tensions with the West, and they criticized U.S. military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region.
• At their summit in Beijing, Putin thanked Xi for China’s proposals for ending the war in Ukraine, which have been rejected by Ukraine and its Western supporters as largely following the Kremlin’s line.
• The largely symbolic and ceremonial visit stressed partnership between two countries who both face challenges in their relationship with the U.S. and Europe.
• “China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this,” Xi said in prepared remarks to media in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. His words echoed what China said when it offered a broad plan for peace.
• China and Russia also accused the U.S. of deploying land-based intermediate range missile systems in the Asia-Pacific under the pretext of joint exercises with allies. They said that the U.S. actions in Asia were “changing the balance of power” and “endangering the security of all countries in the region.”

Europa

ITALIA:

(REUTERS) G7 to back EU line on frozen Russian assets, Italian official says

• Finance ministers from the Group of Seven major democracies meeting in Italy next week will back a European Union plan to use the income from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine's war effort, an Italian Treasury official said on Thursday.
• Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7, will also try to revive an international deal on how to share taxing rights on large corporations which the United States is struggling to ratify in Congress, the official, who declined to be identified by name, told a media briefing.
• The G7 froze around $300 billion worth of financial assets soon after Moscow's attack on its neighbour in February 2022. Since then, the European Union and other G7 countries have debated whether and how to use the funds to help Ukraine.
• The United States has proposed seizing the assets in their entirety, but Europe has balked, citing risks to the euro and legal repercussions.

SLOVACCHIA:

(Euronews) Attentato a Robert Fico: premier slovacco in condizioni "gravi ma stabili"

• Il primo ministro slovacco Robert Fico è stato sottoposto a un intervento chirurgico di cinque ore mercoledì dopo essere stato ferito da colpi di arma da fuoco a Handlova, a circa 150 chilometri a nord-est della capitale Bratislava. 
• Il ministro dell'Interno slovacco, Matúš Šutaj-Eštok, ha dichiarato che l'autore dell'attacco ha sparato cinque volte a Robert Fico. Šutaj-Eštok ha aggiunto che le prime informazioni "indicano chiaramente una motivazione politica" dopo le elezioni presidenziali in Slovacchia.
• Un sospetto è stato arrestato dalla polizia slovacca: si tratta di Juraj Cintula, un uomo di 71 anni di Levice. Il ministro degli Interni slovacco ha dichiarato che l'aggressore è un “lupo solitario".
• "L'ho fatto perché sono in disaccordo con le politiche del governo": sarebbero queste le prime parole dell'uomo che ha sparato al premier slovacco Robert Fico, durante l'interrogatorio con la polizia secondo alcuni media locali.

Politica internazionale

Nord America

USA:

(BBC) Trump lawyer takes aim at Cohen trying to paint him as liar

• On the most tense day yet of cross-examination, Michael Cohen, Mr Trump's former fixer, described talking to the former president directly about a hush-money payment to an adult-film star. But attorney Todd Blanche all but shouted Cohen's testimony was "a lie."
• He offered evidence he said showed they really talked about some prank calls. Mr Blanche's alternate theory of the phone call was designed to sow doubt on Cohen's third day on the stand, as the jury watched the furious exchange with intense focus.
• On the stand Thursday under pressure, Cohen maintained that his previous testimony was true, and that he spoke to Mr Trump about the payout to Stormy Daniels on a call in October 2016.
• Mr Trump's teams seized on Cohen's credibility issues for nearly two days and sought to paint him as a liar with a vendetta against Mr Trump.
• The president's attorney pressed Cohen repeatedly about his guilty plea for lying to Congress, and aggressively questioned Cohen about previous statements that he did not believe prior tax evasion charges he pleaded guilty to were fair.

Africa

Chad:

(Al-Jazeera) Chad’s Mahamat Deby confirmed as winner of disputed presidential election

• Chad’s constitutional council has confirmed Mahamat Idriss Deby as the winner of the May 6 presidential election after dismissing challenges by two losing candidates – cementing a victory that extended his family’s decades-long rule.
• Deby, who seized power the day rebels killed his father President Idriss Deby in 2021 and declared himself interim leader, got 61 percent of the vote, well ahead of second-placed candidate Succes Masra with 18.54 percent, the council said on Thursday.
• The oil-producing country is the first of a string of coup-hit states in West and Central Africa’s Sahel region to attempt a return to constitutional rule by holding elections.
• Masra claimed victory before the official announcement of preliminary results, alleging that an electoral fraud was being planned. He said he would give a live address later on Thursday.
• The International Federation for Human Rights had warned that the election appeared “neither credible, free nor democratic”.

South Africa:

(The Guardian) South Africa calls on ICJ to order Israel to end Rafah offensive

• South Africa has asked the international court of justice (ICJ) to urgently order Israel to end its assault on Rafah, halt its military campaign across Gaza, and allow international investigators and journalists into the territory.
• South Africa also demanded access for reporters and war crimes investigators to Gaza, to collect and preserve evidence of potential war crimes.
• Israel’s foreign ministry said in response that South Africa was “presenting biased and false claims” which “rely on unreliable Hamas sources” and called on the court to reject the appeal.
• On Thursday South Africa’s representatives repeatedly referred to those rulings, which it said Israel had failed to comply with, and argued that the international community’s failure to enforce the rulings had given Israel a sense that it could act with impunity.