Aiuti per Gaza, munizioni per Київ, ban per TikTok 🗞️ Rassegna del 14/3/2024

Israele

(New York Times) Trucks enter northern Gaza as pressure grows on Israel to allow more food aid.
 

• Israel has allowed a convoy carrying food aid to enter northern Gaza directly from an Israeli crossing for the first time since the war began, as global pressure intensifies to let more desperately needed aid into the territory.
   
• The United Nations’ World Food Program said on Tuesday that it had delivered food for 25,000 people to Gaza City in its first successful convoy since Feb. 20 to the northern part of the enclave. Warning that northern Gaza was “on the brink of famine,” the agency called for “deliveries every day” and “entry points directly into the north,” in a signal that the convoy would provide only limited relief for hundreds of thousands of people facing extreme hunger.

(Al Jazeera) Israel’s defence minister hints to imminent Rafah ground operation

• Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has hinted the Israeli army is imminently preparing to launch its ground operation in Rafah, according to media reports.

• Speaking during a visit to Israeli army officers in Gaza City, Gallant warned “those who think we are delaying [the invasion of Rafah] will soon see there is no place we cannot reach.”

• The Jerusalem Post also quoted him as saying, “We will bring every single person involved in the October 7 massacre to justice, we will either kill them or try them in Israel.” “There is no safe space, not here, not outside Gaza, not across the entire Middle East,” Gallant added.

Ucraina

(Kyiv Independent) Putin dismisses peace talks 'just because (Ukraine) is running out of ammunition'

• Russian dictator Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea of starting negotiations with Ukraine just because its ammunition stocks are dwindling, calling the notion "ridiculous."
   
• Speaking in an interview with Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti and Russia-1 TV channel published on March 13, Putin said that Moscow is ready to negotiate only "based on the reality on the ground."
   
• The Russian leader accused Kyiv and its Western partners of repeatedly "breaking promises" allegedly made to Russia in the past, adding that "to start negotiating just because they (Ukraine) are running out of ammunition would be ridiculous."

(Euractiv) Kuleba: Ukraine may get first shells under Czech-led initiative in 'foreseeable future'

• The purchase of 300,000 rounds has been confirmed and a further 200,000 have been pledged. The aim is to deliver the ammunition to Ukraine this year.
   
• Tomáš Pojar, the Czech national security adviser and the prime minister’s advisor, revealed the details in an interview. “The promised money has to come, and the contracts must be made,” Pojar said. “At the point when the contract is concluded, it will take several weeks to get it (the ammunition) to Ukraine.” “From June onwards, supplies could flow,” he added.
   
• Pojar refused to reveal the origin of the ammunition, saying that the initiative was looking for ammunition worldwide “wherever it is available at a reasonable price and of reasonable quality.” Coordinators of the initiative expect Russia to try to disrupt the ammunition deliveries to Ukraine, so they try to keep all other details classified.

Russia

(Meduza) Police search the homes of artists and activists across Russia

• On March 12, Russian Federal Security (FSB) agents and police officers raided the homes of artists and activists across the country. Many of the artists were subsequently taken in for questioning.
   
• According to the human rights project Network Freedoms, the FSB’s interest may be linked to a treason case against Pyotr Verzilov, a Pussy Riot member and former Mediazona publisher, who says he’s joined the Ukrainian army.
   
• The human rights project Department One, however, thinks the Russian authorities are taking proactive measures as they’re afraid these “unpredictable” artists might make a scene during the country’s upcoming presidential elections.

Appello di Yulia Navalnaya a non riconoscere l´esito delle elezioni in Russia

Si rifa' anche alla deliberazione del Consiglio d´Europa dell´ottobre 2023

Look at Putin as a mafia boss and you will understand how to punish him and hasten his end. Status is very important to criminal leaders — both within their gangs and in the outside world. Putin seized power in Russia, where he can declare himself the legitimate president or even crown himself as heir to the Russian czars. But why do democratic countries continue to recognize his criminal authority as legitimate? Why do fairly elected world leaders put themselves on the same level as a criminal who has for decades falsified elections, killed, imprisoned or forced out of the country all his critics, and now has unleashed a bloody war in Europe by attacking Ukraine?

I’m not promising that refusing to recognize the results of the Russian presidential elections this weekend would lead to the instant collapse of the Putin government. But it would be an important signal to civil society in Russia and the elites still loyal to Putin, as well as to the world, that Russia is ruled not by a president recognized by all, but by someone who is despised and publicly condemned. Only then will those who remain loyal to Putin start to see that the one way to return to normal economic and political life is to get rid of him.

Europa

Lituania: (New York Times) Top Navalny Aide Attacked With Hammer Outside Home in Lithuania

• The chief of staff to Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died last month in an Arctic penal colony, was attacked with a hammer and tear gas outside his home in Lithuania’s capital late Tuesday, according to Mr. Navalny’s press secretary, who said the police and an ambulance had been called to the scene.

• Leonid Volkov, who served as one of Mr. Navalny’s top organizers, was pulling up to his house in Vilnius when the attack happened. At least one assailant smashed his car window, sprayed him with tear gas and began beating him with a hammer, Mr. Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, said in a statement released on X and in other comments she gave to Russian media. Mr. Volkov survived the attack.

Politica internazionale

Nord America

(Stati Uniti) House passes TikTok crackdown that could ban app in U.S.

• The House overwhelmingly passed a measure Wednesday to force TikTok to split from its parent company or face a national ban, a lightning offensive that materialized abruptly after years of unsuccessful negotiations over the platform’s fate.
   
• The legislation, approved 352 to 65 with 1 voting present, is a sweeping bipartisan rebuke of the popular video-sharing app — and an attempt to grapple with allegations that its China-based parent, ByteDance, presents national security risks. The House effort gained momentum last week after President Biden said he would sign the bill if Congress passed it.
   
• But its fate now rests in the Senate, where some lawmakers have expressed concern it may run afoul of the Constitution by infringing on millions of Americans’ rights to free expression and by explicitly targeting a business operating in the United States.
   
• “Today we send a clear message that we will not tolerate our adversaries weaponizing our freedoms against us,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), whose committee advanced the TikTok bill just days prior, said ahead of the vote.

Asia e Pacifico

(India) Citizenship Law That Excludes Muslims Takes Effect, India Says

• Weeks before a national election, the Indian government has abruptly announced that it will begin enforcing a citizenship law that had remained dormant since late 2019 after inciting deadly riots by opponents who called it anti-Muslim.

• The incendiary law grants Indian citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and Christians from a few nearby countries. Muslims are pointedly excluded.

• With a characteristic thunderclap, the government of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a short declaration on Monday night that it had finalized the details that would bring the law, known as the Citizenship Amendment Act, into force.

• The government’s action, coming just before India announces the dates for an election expected in April and May, shows Mr. Modi delivering on a promise, and could change the electoral math in districts with Hindu refugees who stand to benefit from the law.

Africa

Nigeria: (Guardian) 15 children kidnapped in another school raid
 

• Gunmen kidnapped at least 15 pupils from a school in Nigeria in a dawn raid on Saturday, days after about 300 children were abducted in another armed raid.
   
• The gunmen forced their way into the school premises in the Sokoto village of Gidan Bakuso, in the country’s north-west, and started firing shots sporadically, waking and causing panic among the pupils, said the school’s owner, Liman Abubakar Bakuso.
   
• “They succeeded in abducting 15 of my students, the oldest being 20 and 15, but all the others are below 13,” said Bakuso by phone, adding that a woman had also been kidnapped. “We are in a state of panic and have been praying hard for their safe release,” he told Reuters.
   
• Police did not respond to requests for comment.