International
37 people killed in Gaza in Israel’s attacks in the last 24 hours
At least 37 people died and 68 were injured in the Israeli attacks of the last 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, according to the count of the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas.
In its daily report on the data collected by the hospitals of the Strip, the ministry reported “four massacres against families” in the Palestinian enclave.
At least nine people from the same family, six of them children, died in one of the attacks that hit a residential building in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, in the west of the southern city of Rafah.
The dead are Abdel Fatah Sobhi, 42 years old; Majla Ahmed, 37; Rawan Sobhi, 26; Sama Ibrahim, 16 years old; Hamza Ibrahim, 7 years old; Alaa Ahmed Hassan and Lin Abdel Fatah, 5 years old each; Amer Abdel Fatah, two years old and Naya Abdel Fatah, one year old.
Their bodies were taken to the morgue of the Abu Yusef al Nayar hospital, where family and friends gave them the last goodbye between moments of anguish and despair, as EFE could see.
Thus, since the war between Israel and Hamas began, on October 7, 34,049 people have died and 76,901 have been injured in the Israeli offensive.
According to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, in the last morning alone at least ten people lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the south of the enclave: nine in the bombing in the city of Rafah and one in an attack on a house near the cemetery east of the same town.
For its part, the Israeli Army said today that it had destroyed a rocket launch site in the Beit Hanoun area, in northern Gaza, from where attacks on the Israeli town of Sderot had been detected.
Most of the victims were women and children, according to the media, which cites correspondents on the ground.
They also detailed that their troops slated down an alleged militiaman in a confrontation in the center of the enclave.
More than one and a half million people have been forced to leave their homes since the Israeli offensive began, most of whom are in the town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
Israel has announced that it plans to invade Rafah to eliminate four Hamas battalions that are allegedly hiding in the area, but a large part of the international community – including the United States, Israel’s main military ally – has warned that a land invasion in the south would cause an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel has announced that it plans to invade Rafah to eliminate four Hamas battalions that are allegedly hiding in the area, but a large part of the international community – including the United States, Israel’s main military ally – has warned that a land invasion in the south would cause an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.
Likewise, the Israeli Army said that it has killed “ten terrorists” during a raid that began on Thursday night in the Nur Shams refugee camp, in the town of Tulkarem, in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces also arrested eight people, destroyed an explosives laboratory and confiscated numerous weapons and military material, according to a military statement.
Eight soldiers and a border police officer were injured during the operation.
The Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas, on Saturday described the United States’ veto in the UN Security Council to prevent Palestine’s entry into the United Nations as a full member of “flagrant aggression” against the rights of the Palestinian people and “challenge to the will of the international community.”
Abás also stressed that after this blockade he will reconsider bilateral relations with the United States, to ensure the protection of the interests of the Palestinians, their rights and their cause.
“We will reconsider bilateral relations with the United States to ensure the protection of the interests of our people, our cause and our rights,” said the president of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), in an interview with the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
On Thursday, the US vetoed the resolution, which received the support of 12 members, the abstention of two (United Kingdom and Switzerland) and only Washington’s vote against.
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met this Saturday in Istanbul with the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniye, assuring him of his support to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and finally a Palestinian state, the Turkish Presidency said in a statement.
The Turkish president received Haniye in the Dolmabahçe palace on the banks of the Bosphorus, the usual place of work meetings with foreign dignitaries, around 2.30 p.m. local time (11.00 gmt) and the meeting lasted about two and a half hours.
The conversation focused on the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the need to send an uninterrupted amount of humanitarian aid to the Strip and the process to achieve a just and lasting peace, the Turkish statement says.
Erdogan assured his guest that Turkey is making all possible diplomatic efforts to emphasize the need for an urgent ceasefire that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian State, “a condition for a lasting peace in the region,” according to the note.
International
Indonesia remembers 2004 tsunami from mosque that stood at ground zero
Indonesia commemorated the 167,000 victims of the 2004 tsunami in this country from the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in the city of Banda Aceh, which stood firm against the waves at ground zero of one of the greatest natural disasters of the modern era.
Acting Aceh provincial governor Safrizal Zakaria Ali and popular cleric Abdullah Gymnastiar led the rituals, which drew hundreds of white-clad worshippers to join in prayers along the grounds of the compound.
The hosts throw water and flowers on a grave, as a sign of mourning and remembrance for the deceased.
The tsunami “changed the lives of millions”
“That day, the disaster changed the lives of millions. Mothers, fathers, children lost their lives. Cities were devastated,” the politician recalled during his speech at the memorial service, which was broadcast live on social media.
A magnitude 9.1 earthquake recorded at 7:58 a.m. local time about 120 kilometers west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 26, 2004, created waves up to 30 meters high that hit Banda Aceh about 20 minutes after the initial tremor.
Some 61,000 people have died in this town, around 25% of its inhabitants, located in the far north of Sumatra and considered the epicentre of the tragedy.
The image of the solitary mosque standing a few hundred metres from the coast, while the houses around it had been washed away by the waters, became one of the most iconic images of this natural disaster.
Indonesia, hit by 167,000 deaths
Other coastal towns in Sumatra, such as Calang and Meulaboh, were also affected by the tsunami, which left some 167,000 people dead in the country, according to official figures.
At least the tsunami and the scale of the human tragedy it caused led the Islamic separatist guerrillas operating in Aceh and the Indonesian government to reach a peace agreement and put an end to more than three decades of fratricidal fighting.
“The tsunami opened the doors to peace in Aceh. The disaster helped people realize that peace was the best solution,” the governor said.
In addition to the events scheduled in Indonesia, other countries, such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, have organised ceremonies to commemorate the natural disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 228,000 people in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
The waves even hit the east coast of Africa, with the South African town of Rooi-Els, more than 8,000 kilometres from the epicentre of the quake, being the furthest away from the loss of life.
International
Javier Milei: the eccentric far-right economist who shook up Argentine politics
Javier Milei, the economist who burst into Argentine politics with an incendiary speech and an irreverent attitude, has advanced in 2024 in his offensive against the State and has become an emblematic figure of the regional and even global far right.
Aged 54 and a native of the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, Milei had a meteoric rise in Argentine politics thanks to his bizarre television appearances, in which he presented himself as a loud and combative libertarian economist.
His emergence was marked by a visceral rejection of the “political caste,” a term he frequently uses to disqualify traditional political actors, although he has adapted it over time to suit his current adversary.
The owner of the chainsaw
Milei ‘s electoral victory , first in the legislative elections that made him a deputy in 2021 and then in the 2023 presidential elections that took him to the Casa Rosada, was due in part to his image as an outsider politician who promoted novel and different ideas than those of his opponents.
After winning the general elections in November with 55.65% of the votes against the official candidate Sergio Massa, he took office on December 10 and in his first speech he anticipated that the only way to solve the country’s economic difficulties was through a severe adjustment.
This adjustment has advanced with ferocity over the last 12 months with a drastic cut in public spending and a dismantling of the State that has resulted in the closure of more than a dozen ministries, the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, the disappearance of social aid and organisations, the fall in funding for public education and health and an increase in poverty and destitution.
Popularity and support
These effects, although presented as the flip side of a successful and rapid stabilization of the macroeconomy, have been openly promoted – and even proudly celebrated – by a Milei who has not only not moderated his violent rhetoric but has accused those who demand that he tone down his speech of being “lukewarm.”
Despite this, the president’s popularity remains above 50%, his followers have shown absolute loyalty and his party’s projections for the legislative elections scheduled for October 2025 are increasingly better.
This support, combined with the political skill of some of his close associates in the Government , has allowed him to successfully negotiate some of his initiatives in Congress, where he still has a narrow minority.
Reference of the extreme right
One of the main focuses of Milei’s administration has been international politics, with more than a dozen trips abroad in which he dedicated himself to weaving a network of alliances with far-right leaders.
Beyond his unconditional alignment with Israel and the United States, which he has strictly respected this year, the Argentine president has attended numerous summits promoted by conservative organizations or leaders and even hosted an edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Buenos Aires.
At that meeting, he repeated some of the warnings he had issued in Davos and at the UN about the advance of socialism and the dangers facing the West, and advocated a “right-wing international” with Argentina as a “beacon to the world” alongside governments such as those of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Donald Trump in the United States.
Intensify policies
In parallel, Milei has insisted this year on the need to move forward with a moral change in Argentine society, abandoning “the impoverishing ideas of collectivism” to replace them with the extreme individualism advocated by his “anarcho-capitalist” model.
To fight this “cultural battle,” he has recruited some of the country’s most conservative thinkers and influencers, who are accompanying him in his offensive against “the human rights scam,” “radical feminism,” and the “aberration” of social justice, among other causes of “stupid progressivism.”
Looking ahead to next year, Milei has anticipated that he will not moderate but rather intensify the policies he has implemented in 2024, has promised a “deep chainsaw” and has anticipated major reforms in tax, pension, labor, criminal, political and national security matters.
“If we could do so much with the whole world against us, imagine what we can do with the wind in our favor. We could go twice as far, twice as fast,” he said this month in his speech marking his first anniversary in power, and declared: “The smaller the State, the greater the freedom.”
International
Russia claims to have foiled a series of attacks against top military leaders
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had foiled a series of attacks against top military officials in the country and announced the arrest of four Russian citizens as part of the investigation.
“The Russian Federal Security Service has thwarted a series of attacks against high-ranking military personnel of the Ministry of Defense participating in the special military operation (in Ukraine), as well as members of their families,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the attacks were being planned by “Ukrainian secret service agents.”
Putin admits security failures
According to the FSB, the bombs used to kill high-ranking military personnel in Moscow were camouflaged as an external battery and a folder with documents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week described the recent assassination in Moscow of Lieutenant General Igor Kirilov , head of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defence, as a “serious failure” by the security services.
“This (Kirilov’s murder) of course means that our law enforcement officers and special services are letting such attacks go by. We need to improve our work and avoid such serious failures,” Putin said during his big end-of-year press conference.
According to Moscow, the perpetrator of the crime is an Uzbek, who was promised $100,000 and the chance to settle in an EU country by the Ukrainian secret services for killing the Russian general.
The suspect was arrested and admitted his guilt during an interrogation broadcast by the security services.
Indonesia remembers 2004 tsunami from mosque that stood at ground zero
Javier Milei: the eccentric far-right economist who shook up Argentine politics
Russia claims to have foiled a series of attacks against top military leaders
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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