Good morning.
Israel continued with its intense bombing campaign across the north and south of Gaza for a third day since the end of the truce with Hamas, killing hundreds of Palestinians in a 24-hour period, according to local officials.
On Sunday night, the Israeli military also said it had expanded its ground operation to all of Gaza. “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip,” its spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters in Tel Aviv. “The forces are coming face-to-face with terrorists and killing them.”
Earlier the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north was hit, with initial reports saying tens of people were killed and at least one residential block destroyed. Video footage showed people searching for bodies under the rubble.
About 300 people were reported to be sheltering in the vicinity of the latest strike, in a camp area that has been targeted repeatedly by Israel over the past month. It was not possible to verify exact casualty numbers.
What has Israel said about the campaign? Israel’s government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the military had struck more than 400 targets over the weekend “including extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area” and had also killed Hamas militants and destroyed their infrastructure in Beit Lahiya in the north.
How many people have died in Gaza? Ismael al-Thawabteh, the director general of the government media office in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that more than 700 Palestinians had been killed in a 24-hour period to noon. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said later that 15,523 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the war, including 316 dead and 664 wounded “in the past hours” – 70% of the dead were women and children, it said.
Summit head Al Jaber claims ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels
Over the weekend, the president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, caused uproar when he claimed there was “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels was needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres. Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.
The fallout has continued this morning. Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi, who is director general of the summit, was put under pressure to respond to Al Jaber’s comments at the Cop28 presidency press conference earlier.
Al Suwaidi did not initially want to answer questions about Al Jaber’s comments, which were revealed by the Guardian. But reporters crowded around him as he left, and he said: “There are those out there who are consistently trying to undermine our presidency from day one. The Cop presidency has been very clear that 1.5C is the North Star. [Al Jaber] has also been very clear about how fossil fuels are on the agenda. What he was talking about was, of course, net zero 2050. It’s very clear in all of the scientific reports that fossil fuels are going to be part of that mix.”
What has Al Jaber said since his comments rocked the summit? He held a surprise press conference on Monday morning and insisted that he respects the science. He said “everything has been focused around and centred around the science”, repeating he has been “crystal clear on that”.
‘Absurd’ conflict of interest. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, former US vice-president Al Gore said an agreement by countries to phase out fossil fuels would be “one of the most significant events in the history of humanity”. He added that it was “absurd” to put a fossil fuel company CEO in charge of Cop28.
Three commercial vessels attacked in Red Sea by Houthi rebels, says US
Three commercial vessels came under attack in international waters in the southern Red Sea, the US military said yesterday, as Yemen’s Houthi group claimed drone and missile attacks on two Israeli vessels in the area.
“Today there were four attacks against three separate commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern Red Sea,” the statement from the US Central Command reads. “We have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran.”
The Carney, a US destroyer, responded to distress calls and provided assistance following missile and drone launches from Houthi-controlled territory, according to US Central Command. It named the vessels attacked as Unity Explorer, Number 9 and Sophie II.
Yemen’s Houthi movement said its navy had attacked two ships, Unity Explorer and Number 9, with an armed drone and a naval missile and claimed the vessels were Israeli. A spokesperson for the group’s military said the two ships were targeted after they rejected warnings, without elaborating.
What did the Carney do? The US military said the Carney shot down two drones as it helped the commercial vessels. It was not clear if the warship was a target. It said the attacks were a threat to international commerce.
What has Israel said? Israeli military spokesperson R Ad Daniel Hagari said the ships had “no connection to the state of Israel”. Hagari said: “One ship was significantly damaged and it is in distress and apparently is in danger of sinking and another ship was lightly damaged.”
In other news …
At the 46th annual Kennedy Center Honors last night actor Billy Crystal, as well as singer Dionne Warwick, British singer and songwriter Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, rapper and actor Queen Latifah and opera star Renée Fleming were all honoured, while positive jokes were made about Joe Biden’s age.
Spotify is cutting almost 1,600 jobs as the music streaming service blamed a slowing economy and higher borrowing costs in the latest round of redundancies at big tech companies. Daniel Ek, Spotify’s billionaire founder and chief executive, revealed that the company had decided to cut 17% of its workforce.
Beyoncé ruled the box office this weekend, her film defying the notorious post-Thanksgiving box office slump. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé opened in first place with $21m in North American ticket sales, according to estimates from AMC Theatres yesterday.
Deputy commander of Russia’s 14th Army Corps has been confirmed killed in Ukraine, said the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev. Details on how Maj Gen Vladimir Zavadsky died have not yet been released, Reuters reports.
The number of people injured or killed in bear attacks in Japan this year exceeded 200 for the first time, as experts warned of more encounters during the winter. While bears generally hibernate from late November until the spring, the scarcity of food this year means that some hungry animals will continue to forage, amid media reports of sightings in late November – once a rarity.
Stat of the day: US prison deaths soared by 77% during pandemic
A study of US prison deaths at the height of the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 has found that mortality rates soared by 77% relative to 2019, or more than three times the increase in the general population. The study, published by Science Advances last week, is the most comprehensive analysis of in-custody deaths since 2020. The report found that “Covid-19 was the primary driver for increases in mortality due to natural causes; some states also experienced substantial increases due to unnatural causes”. The report was compiled using data from record requests and some publicly available data, when necessary, from 49 state and federal departments of corrections.
Don’t miss this: I lost my husband, spoke my mind – and became an Instagram star at 97
In 2020, three months after his 100th birthday, Dorothy Wiggins’ husband, Guy, died. They had been married for 61 years. After a journalist friend started filming her escapades in New York as a way to take her mind off her grief and posting the videos to Instagram and TikTok, she quickly found fame.
Petite, armed with a wooden staff and always dressed to the nines, Wiggins now has close to 100,000 followers on Instagram thanks to the uncompromising takes she came out with while marching about town. She expounds on everything from local dining hotspots to theatrical adaptations of classic musicals and the art of seduction. In one clip, she passionately explains the supposed health benefits of drinking wine with every meal.
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Last Thing: Welsh couple bereft after bomb squad detonate ornamental garden missile
A couple who kept a live bomb as a garden ornament have said they were sorry that their “old friend” had been detonated by a disposal unit. The missile, which had been outside the home of Sian and Jeffrey Edwards, is thought to date back to the late 19th century. The couple from Wales had thought it was a “dummy” bomb with no charge. Sian Edwards said she used to bang her trowel on the bomb to remove earth after gardening.
On Wednesday, a police officer informed the couple he had spotted the bomb and would need to alert the Ministry of Defence. The bomb squad arrived the next day, took the bomb and safely detonated it. Edwards, who has lived in the street since he was three years old, added: “It was an old friend. I’m so sorry that the poor old thing was blown to pieces.”
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