MONEY

Israel’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has been condemned amid calls for Israel to release director Hussam Abu Safia, whose whereabouts are unknown. Medical staff have described abuse during Israel’s assault on north Gaza’s last-functioning health facility.

Mikheil Kavelashvili has been sworn in as Georgia’s new president in parliament, while his pro-EU predecessor Salome Zourabichvili told supporters she remains the legitimate officeholder.

I arrive in Hermanus, a picturesque South African coastal village an hour-and-a-half from Cape Town, at about 11am on a sunny October morning. Ignoring the restaurants and art galleries on the main drag and the throngs of tourists watching southern right whales from the cliff path, I drive straight to the harbour to meet Els Vermeulen, the Belgium-born scientist who heads up the whale unit for the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute.

She is waiting for her colleagues to return from the last whale-tagging sortie of the 2024 season. “I would normally be out on the boat with the team,” says Vermeulen, who is dressed in a bold geometric print dress and a denim jacket. “But I had to drop my kids at school and couldn’t get down here early enough.” The water next to the concrete pier is so clear that I can see a giant orange starfish inching its way along the rocky seabed.

While we wait for the tagging team to arrive, one boatload of whale-watching tourists departs the harbour and another returns. Hermanus, which is an important calving ground for southern right whales, and a good place to spot humpback and Bryde’s whales too, markets itself as the “land-based whale watching capital of the world”. It even has its own “whale crier” who uses a horn fashioned from kelp to announce sightings.

It wasn’t always this way: In the 1910s and 1920s, three separate whaling stations in the area killed hundreds of whales every year. By 1937, more than 80,000 southern right whales had been killed globally and the species teetered on the brink of extinction. In the second half of the 20th century, the focus turned to conservation, and the whales gradually made a comeback.

The southern right whale’s recovery – there are approximately 20,000 individuals today – is one of the world’s great conservation success stories. The two Northern Hemisphere right whale species have not been nearly as lucky, mainly because they live in a much busier ocean. Deaths from ship strikes and getting entangled in fishing gear have thwarted their recovery since the whaling ban, and both species remain Critically Endangered.

And the southern right whale isn’t guaranteed a happy ending, stresses Vermeulen: “The whales are still only at 20 percent of their pre-whaling numbers,” she says. “And now we are seeing all sorts of evidence that they are facing new, indirect threats related to climate change.”

Whales, which cover vast distances and can dive to great depths, are an indicator species for the entire marine ecosystem. And the indicators are not good: Vermeulen’s data shows that whales are much thinner than they used to be, they aren’t breeding as often, and they are changing their main prey.

“That’s them,” says Vermeulen, pointing to a speck on the horizon. About five minutes later, the Balaena – the Whale Unit’s six-metre (19.7-foot) inflatable research vessel – pulls alongside the quay to allow the researchers to disembark. While skipper Chris Wilkinson loads the boat onto its trailer, I chat to Amy Kennedy, a professional whale tagger with 20 years of experience who has flown out from Seattle, Washington to deploy a total of nine tags for the unit.

“It was very tricky today,” says Kennedy. Due to the big swells out at sea, she was only able to deploy one tag. The day before Al Jazeera visited, she managed a record of six tags. Kennedy and her modified line-throwing gun, which is normally used by big ships to throw ropes ashore, are in demand: Just this year she has tagged whales in South Georgia (in Antarctica), the Mediterranean, Tanzania and Mauritius.

“The hardest part is knowing when not to take the shot,” she says, explaining that she has a target area “the size of a desk” to aim at – and that both she and the whale are in constant motion. “I don’t miss any more. But I consider a bad shot a miss. The better your shot, the better the data the whale will transmit.” And the best spot is right behind the fat roll on the back of the whale’s head where the tag can lodge. “The tag only transmits when it’s out of the water, so you want it to be very high on the whale’s body.” The fact that each tag costs $4,000 only adds to the pressure.

“Getting a tag on is a great feeling,” she says, taking a sip on a can of soda. “No matter how many tags you deploy, it never gets old.”

Since 1969: Old data meets new methods

The Whale Unit is the brainchild of Peter Best, who started an annual aerial whale survey for South Africa’s fisheries department way back in 1969. In 1979 Best progressed from simply counting how many whales he saw, to photographing them and using their unique callosity (thickening of the skin) patterns to identify individual whales. When the government decided it no longer wanted to monitor whales, in 1985, Best persuaded the University of Pretoria to open the Whale Unit so he could continue his research.

The photo ID survey, which has been completed every year since 1979, has generated one of the world’s most comprehensive datasets for marine mammals. Vermeulen proudly shows me the boxes upon boxes containing Best’s photographs and handwritten notes. He completed the survey every year for 33 years, before briefly passing the responsibility on to his successor, Ken Findlay, another leading whale expert.

In 2017, Vermeulen arrived from Australia to take over: “It’s the highlight of my year,” she says. “I feel like GI Jane hanging out of a chopper with the most incredible views of these huge animals!”

The data from the aerial survey remains invaluable, especially because it goes back such a long way. But the use of modern technology allows for even deeper insights into these giants of the deep. Satellite tracking data transmitted by tagged whales, using regular SPOT tags, has allowed Vermeulen and her colleagues to figure out that climate change is forcing the whales to change their feeding habits and breeding patterns.

“They are adapting their behaviour and making a plan,” says Vermeulen. “But there’s been a 23 percent reduction in body weight since the 1980s. And they’re only having babies every 4-5 years, instead of every three years.” While their population is still increasing, the rate of increase is slowing – and this is a major cause for concern, says Vermeulen.

“Right whales have a much slower metabolism than species like humpbacks and Bryde’s whales. Everything is slower, they live longer, and they are not good at adapting … Because of all of this, they are much quicker to tell you something is wrong. That’s why we call them sentinels.”

Whales as citizen scientists

In addition to the 26 SPOT tags deployed by Kennedy since 2021, the Whale Unit has also deployed 13 CTD (Conductivity Temperature Depth) tags in 2023 and 2024 – putting it at the forefront of global whale research. While standard SPOT tags measure only location, CTD tags transform whales into citizen scientists by returning data about water salinity – the practical takeaway of conductivity readings – and temperature at different depths as they dive.

While CTD tags have been used widely on smaller animals like seals and turtles, their use on whales – which travel much further and dive much deeper than other creatures – is already proving to be a game-changer.

Until recently, for example, no one knew how deep the animals dove. But we now know that they can reach depths of at least 460 metres (1,509 feet). Whales are also travelling further than we realised: one individual travelled more than 15,000km (9,321 miles) in one year.

Interesting facts for sure. However, their value extends far beyond trivia game fodder.

PhD student Matthew Germishuizen – co-supervised by Vermeulen and University of Cape Town oceanographer Marcello Vichi – has just submitted a thesis that used the data gathered by these 23-tonne research assistants to try to determine why the whales are changing their feeding patterns, getting thinner and calving less often.

“It all seems to be related to the significant shift in sea ice conditions in the last 15 years,” he says, explaining that the marginal ice zone (where open ocean meets pack ice) has become much less stable. “This region is a crucial feeding habitat for Antarctic krill, their main prey further south.”

To understand how these changes are affecting whales, scientists are trying to find out more about where they feed, and what environmental conditions generate suitable feeding grounds.

Historically, knowledge of whales’ offshore feeding habitats was obtained from whaling data, where whalers recorded the location of their catches. Since the 1980s and 1990s, scientists have used skin samples to get a vague understanding of what whales are feeding on. “As they forage, their skin develops a signature [the ratio of nitrogen to carbon varies according to their diet] which is used to give a rough estimate of where they’ve been feeding for the previous three months or so,” says Germishuizen. By comparing the isotope signatures from different years, scientists can gain an understanding of how their feeding behaviour is changing.

Over the last 20 years, new technologies are allowing scientists to track whales in almost real-time as they migrate. The most recent development are CTD tags, which have proved especially handy in helping Germishuizen to understand what environmental conditions whales are foraging in. “Every time a whale dives down it collects temperature and salinity data,” he explains. This helped him to describe their foraging grounds based on environmental characteristics.

“Southern right whales have two main prey,” he explains: Antarctic krill, which live very far south in the seasonal sea ice zone, and copepods which live further north in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). This current system is one of the fastest and largest in the world, driven by persistent strong winds known as the Roaring Forties. “Declines in sea ice in the areas that are important for Antarctic krill have meant that whales are spending more time feeding in the ACC on copepods,” says Germishuizen.

When feeding on copepods in these mid-latitude zones, Germishuizen found that whales favour ocean fronts, where warmer, saltier waters meet colder fresher waters. “They were targeting a really narrow range of temperature [about 12 degrees Celsius; 54 degrees Fahrenheit] and salinity,” he says. When feeding on krill in Antarctic waters the whales can easily withstand sub-zero water temperatures.

The fronts do not occur uniformly across the ACC and they have shifted southwards about 80km (50 miles) in the last 20 years. “Now we know that these fronts are important,” says Germishuizen. “This is very helpful when projecting conditions into the future using climate change models.”

“The whales are telling us things we didn’t know about the environment,” he adds. “Now we know what the whales are looking for.” And it’s up to scientists, legislators and other role players to use this information to make decisions that increase their chance of surviving the Anthropocene – the epoch since the Industrial Revolution, during which humanity has begun to dramatically impact the natural environment.

Brave new world

None of the experts Al Jazeera spoke to doubted the magnitude of the task ahead. But they were all equally convinced that technology offers our best chance of making it happen.

As is true for most scientists, funding and capacity are the two biggest challenges facing Vermeulen and her team. Advances in technology have the potential to make both a little easier to deal with.

“The tags are getting better and cheaper every year,” says Vermeulen. “Imagine what we could do with CTD tags that lasted a year. Or if we could afford to deploy twice as many tags every season.”

But tags are not the only way technology can help the whales, says Vermeulen. Scientists have started training AI machine learning tools to identify individual whales on satellite images – and they are already showing a remarkable success rate – even when the images are partially obscured by cloud cover.

Vermeulen is also excited about harnessing the power of AI to create a digital catalogue of all the southern right whales in the world. The last time the Argentina and South Africa catalogues were matched was in the 1990s, says Vermeulen. “It would take a human six months of solid work to sort through everything, But AI could do it in seconds.”

“Having one digital catalogue would be a game-changer,” she adds — anyone who takes a photo of a right whale could upload an image and receive an instant match. “Tourists from Hermanus to Antarctica see loads of whales,” she enthuses. “And they all have cameras and drones.”

And this isn’t just a pipe dream. An app called Happy Whale has already revolutionised scientists’ understanding of humpback whales by using photos uploaded by members of the public to fill in the gaps about the whales’ behaviour. All that’s needed to make one for southern right whales is a new algorithm and about $60,000. “I’ve already raised $30,000,” says Vermeulen. “And I’m hoping to get the rest through a combination of crowdfunding and grants.”

Getting these things right won’t just be a “game-changer” for southern right whales. It will also help scientists to understand the impact climate change is having on entire ecosystems. And it will provide answers about how climate change is playing out differently in different places.

“The whales in New Zealand are doing better than other populations,” says Vermeulen. “Antarctica isn’t affected evenly by climate change. And right whales are helping us to understand why this is and what it looks like.”

Mikheil Kavelashvili sworn in as Georgia’s new president as pro-EU predecessor refuses to recognise his legitimacy.

Mikheil Kavelashvili has been sworn in as Georgian president in a ceremony in Parliament in the capital Tbilisi, amid weeks of protests and the refusal of his pro-Western predecessor to stand aside.

Outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili said on Sunday in a defiant speech to hundreds of supporters outside the presidential palace that she was leaving the residence but remained the legitimate officeholder.

“This parody, which is currently being played out in parliament, is a genuine parody that the country has not deserved,” Zourabichvili said.

She added that Kavelashvili was not duly picked, as the legislators who chose him were elected in an October parliamentary election that she says was marked by fraud.

The pro-European Union leader and protesters are demanding a new vote to replace the election in question.

The Georgian Dream governing party and the country’s election commission say the October election was free and fair.

Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former national footballer, took his oath on the Bible and the Georgian constitution, swearing to serve the country’s interests amid a political crisis.

According to local media reports, there were no significant protests outside the parliamentary buildings while Kavelashvili was being sworn in.

Duly elected president

The governing party, which controls the parliament, also says Kavelashvili is the duly elected president.

The Georgian Dream party had threatened Zourabichvili with prison if she refused to leave the presidential residence in the centre of Tbilisi.

The government led by Georgian Dream froze EU application talks in a move that prompted great protests.

Georgian Dream’s opponents accuse it of steering Tbilisi towards Moscow rather than towards the Caucasus country’s longstanding goal of joining the EU.

We examine the moments when young people advocating for causes that matter to them made headlines this year. The US and UK university protests, demonstrations in Kenya and youth rallies in Bangladesh all come under the spotlight.

Presenter: Anelise Borges

Guests:
Mahmoud Al Thabata – Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine
Kendall Gardner – Oxford University student
Wanjira Wanjiru – Mathare Social Justice Centre co-founder
Prapti Taposhi – Bangladeshi student activist

Chadians are voting in parliamentary, regional and municipal elections for the first time in more than a decade, continuing the former military-turned-civilian government’s push to put the Central African country on a democratic path. But opposition party members are sceptical.

Officials in N’djamena say Sunday’s vote will formally end a three-year “transitional period” that followed the 2021 death of longtime leader Idriss Deby Itno and the forceful takeover by his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, who was confirmed as the country’s president after an election in May.

However, many opposition parties are boycotting the polls, calling them a “masquerade” and accusing the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) government of trying to legitimise what they call a political dynasty.

Chad, one of Africa’s poorest countries, is the first in a string of coup-hit states in the Sahel to hold elections as promised, even if polls were severely delayed. The country is no stranger to coups or repressive governments and has been ruled by the Deby family since 1991.

Sunday’s vote comes amid a barrage of security challenges: Sudan’s war is raging along the eastern border; the Boko Haram armed group is attacking security locations around Lake Chad; and N’Djamena recently broke a military pact with former colonial master and strong ally, France.

Rights groups say without full opposition participation, the election is not likely to be fair.

“It will be difficult to have a credible election without inclusivity,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s country director in neighbouring Nigeria, told Al Jazeera. “That some are boycotting the election shows that there must be a review of the process and system to ensure that a level playing field is provided to accommodate all Chadians.”

Here’s what you need to know about the parliamentary elections and why the country’s fledgling steps towards democracy are controversial:

How will voters elect?

• Some 8.3 million registered voters of the country’s 18-million population will vote for legislators in the country’s 188-seat parliament. Parties need 95 seats for a majority.
• More than 100 political parties have put forward some 1,100 candidates for the parliamentary elections. Winners are elected by a first-past-the-post or a more-than-half majority method, depending on the constituency size.
• Voters will also choose regional and local governments across 22 regions and the capital, N’Djamena.
• The Transformers Party, as well as dozens of other opposition parties, are boycotting the elections, arguing that the vote will neither be free nor fair.

Why were there no parliamentary elections in more than a decade?

Parliamentary elections were last held in 2011. Although the term for the legislators was meant to end in 2015, the government indefinitely postponed polls, claiming there were no funds to organise elections.

Although the landlocked country is an oil producer, it ranks fourth from the bottom in the United Nations Human Development Index due to years of stagnant economic activity and harsh climate conditions.

Despite a clamour by opposition members to hold the elections promptly, former President Deby continued to postpone them. In 2019, the newly established National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) finally promised to hold elections in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted those plans.

Following his father’s death at the hands of rebels in May 2021, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, 40, seized power, despite loud calls for elections from opposition parties. The military disbanded parliament and put a one-year Transitional Military Council in place, headed by Deby. In October 2022, the leader disappointed many Chadians when he extended the transition period to 2024. Thousands, especially youth, took to the streets in protest, but security forces opened fire on them, killing more than 100 people.

Succes Masra, the young leader of the opposition Transformers Party, was at the forefront of the protests. Masra fled to the United States following the killings.

Have there been other elections?

Yes, authorities held a successful referendum in December 2023 that supported a new constitution and, in effect, new elections.

In May this year, Deby swept to victory in controversial presidential elections, amid claims his party rigged the vote with the help of the National Election Management Agency (ANGE).

Critics also accused Deby of murdering opposition candidates before the elections. Chadian security forces killed Yaya Dillo, Deby’s cousin and a leading opposition member of the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) in February. He was widely seen as the president’s biggest challenger at the time.

Officials claimed Dillo led a deadly attack on the headquarters of the country’s intelligence agency on February 28, but Dillo denied the allegations. Dillo was killed in a shootout the following day, along with several other PSF members. Many members are still detained in the notorious Koro Toro maximum security prison, according to Amnesty International. Organisations like Human Rights Watch in 2022 documented how prison officials tortured and murdered detained protesters in the facility. 

Deby won 61.3 percent of the vote to the anger of opposition groups who claimed the elections were rigged. International rights groups, such as the International Federation for Human Rights, said the presidential elections were “neither credible, free, nor democratic”.

The president placed well ahead of his biggest opponent, candidate Masra of the Transformers Party, who came second with 18.5 percent of the vote. Masra had returned to the country in January this year following a peace agreement and was named prime minister in what many saw as Deby’s attempt to win over opposition members. Tensions returned, however, when the two faced each other in the elections. Masra resigned as prime minister and has since returned to leading the opposition.

Which parties are running in this election?

Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS): Led by agricultural expert and former Prime Minister Haroun Kabadi, who currently heads the Transitional Council, the MPS is the governing party. It was founded by former President Deby Itno and current President Deny is a “honorary president”. MPS has controlled parliament since 1996. Before the Transitional Council was put in place in 2021, the party was in a coalition government with the allied Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) and National Rally for Democracy and Progress (RNDP) and controlled 134 parliament seats.

National Union for Democracy and Renewal (UNDR): Led by politician Saleh Kebzabo, it was one of the main opposition coalitions against the rule of former President Deby Itno. The current president appointed Kebzabo as prime minister from 2022-2024. The party controlled 10 seats until 2021.

National Rally of Chadian Democrats (RNDT): Once allied in a ruling coalition with the MPS, RNDT is largely seen as a “semi-opposition” group. It’s led by former Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke (2021- 2022). Padacke competed in the May presidential elections and won 16.9 percent of the votes. RNDT controlled eight seats in parliament until 2021.

Why are some opposition parties boycotting the parliamentary elections?

Some opposition parties, including Masra’s Transformers, Group of the Cooperation of Political Actors (GCAP), and more than 10 others, are not participating in the vote in protest, and have been distributing flyers to people to encourage them not to vote.

The parties accuse Deby’s government of repression and autocracy and say opposition members have already “lost in advance”.

Masra, who came second in the presidential vote, told the AFP news agency that “participating in the legislative elections under the current conditions is participating in legislative apartheid.”

Some parties, like Chad’s Party of Democrats, claimed to be blocking MPS members from holding campaigns by setting roadblocks in their strongholds.

Authorities have rejected the claims. Minister of Infrastructure Aziz Mahamat Saleh told reporters the elections will enable the ruling MPS and President Deby to attain the majority needed “to translate his political programme into reality”.

Why are Chadian journalists protesting?

Meanwhile, online journalists this week decried a December 4 ban that prevents online newspapers from broadcasting audiovisual content related to the elections, and in general. Authorities also suspended interactive broadcasts that involved phone-ins.

The country’s High Media and Audiovisual Authority (HAMA), which issued the restrictions, alleges that online publications repost videos without content producers’ permission, in violation of content laws. In the past, HAMA accused online journalists of publishing “unverifiable” information about President Deby.

A Supreme Court decision on December 20 ordered the content ban be lifted immediately. However, HAMA has not yet implemented the ruling. Speaking on state television on Tuesday, HAMA President Abderrahmane Barka said the order was in line with Chadian law on sharing content but did not state whether the agency would respect the judgement.

Some 40 media publications have been on strike. On Tuesday, many reporters took to the streets in N’djamena to protest the decision, accusing HAMA and the MPS government of trying to silence online media before the elections. The restrictions, they said, also prevent them from publishing locally created audiovisual content.

Rights groups criticised the ban. “As a regulatory body, HAMA’s mission is to regulate the media space, not to restrict it preventively,” Sadibou Marong, sub-Saharan Africa director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said in a statement.

“The difference is thin, but essential to guarantee freedom of the press in Chad. If the distribution of content without the consent of their producer is to be prohibited, RSF asks HAMA to amend its decision by not prohibiting online media from broadcasting and producing their own audiovisual content.”

What’s next?

Analysts say the MPS appears set to win a majority in parliament, essentially cementing the party’s decades-long dominance, as well as strengthening the Deby family’s grip on power.

In huge rallies in N’Djamena over the weekend, MPS politicians distributed caps, key chains, and other mementoes painted in the party’s blue and yellow colours to thousands of supporters.

Rights groups are calling on authorities to ensure an inclusive vote, however. “Authorities in Chad have a duty to not only ensure that the election is free and fair but also to ensure that it is inclusive,” said Sanusi of Amnesty International.

Opposition boycotters meanwhile have pledged to independently monitor the vote and to report evidence of violations to the Tanzania-based African Court, which has jurisdiction in African Union member states, in order to get the court to annul the vote.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

The crash occurred as the Jeju Air plane was landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea.

A passenger plane has veered off the runway and crashed at an airport in the South Korean city of Muan, killing at least 29 people, according to the Yonhap and AFP news agencies.

The accident took place on Sunday as the Jeju Air plane was landing at Muan International Airport, Yonhap reported.

It was carrying 175 passengers and six flight attendants and was flying back from Thailand.

“We have so far confirmed 29 deaths from the crash,” Lee Hyeon-ji, a response team officer at the local fire department, told AFP.

“But the tally could rise due to the critically injured,” she said.

One photo shared by local media showed thick clouds of black smoke coming out of the plane. Another showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.

Lee said rescue authorities were evacuating passengers from the rear section of the jet.

At least two people have been found alive so far, Yonhap reported, adding that the rescue mission is continuing.

South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok meanwhile ordered “all-out-efforts for rescue operations” at Muan.

“All related agencies… must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel,” he told officials in a statement.

The crash is believed to have been caused by “contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear” as the plane attempted to land at the airport in the country’s southwest, Yonhap reported.

The political crisis in South Korea is deepening.

Two presidents have been impeached within weeks, and their stand-in replacement has come under immediate pressure. The instability is creating serious concern internationally.

So what has gone wrong – and what’s next?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Youngshik Bong – Research fellow at Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies

Jeeyang Rhee Baum – Adjunct fellow in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School

In-Bum Chun – Retired South Korean army lieutenant-general

Who: Leicester City vs Manchester City
What: English Premier League
Where: King Power Stadium, Leicester, United Kingdom
When: 12:30pm (12:30 GMT) on Sunday
Follow Al Jazeera’s live text and photo build-up and commentary stream.

Pep Guardiola insists he will not walk out on troubled Manchester City as he strives to stop the champions’ stunning decline.

The Spaniard, whose side visit Leicester City on Sunday, only recently signed a two-year contract extension but City’s dismal form has raised questions about his future. A nightmare run of nine defeats in 13 games, with just one win in that woeful spell, triggered suggestions the City boss could decide to quit if he cannot find an answer to his team’s problems.

Having led City to six Premier League titles in the past seven seasons, however, Guardiola is adamant he still has the hunger to turn the situation around.

“I will try, I will keep going. Sometimes you think the bad run will be ended earlier or it would be easier to fix it, but it takes more time,” he told reporters in the run-up to Sunday’s match. “I will not give up. I want to be here. I want to do it and, with the situation that we have, we have to do it.

“Of course, I want it, everyone wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people in terms of the club, the fans, the people who love this club. I think all of us in our job want to do it well and please the people. That is undeniable, not a question mark.

“The biggest test is to come back again, but we have done that before.”

Guardiola won’t criticise in City crisis

Injuries have been a major factor in City’s decline, leaving them languishing in seventh place in the Premier League.

Most especially, the gaping hole left by Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, as he recovers from a long-term knee injury. Nor have matters been helped by the erratic form in an inconsistent season by the usually prolific Erling Haaland, who missed a penalty that could have sealed a City win against Everton in their last match.

Haaland has scored just once in his last seven games, but Guardiola refused to blame the Norway striker or any of his teammates.

“I don’t have it in my education to start complaining, to point at people. It’s happened, it’s life, it’s football, so let’s try it again,” he said.

“That’s why we have had success, because always it is never enough, we will try it again and again and again. That’s why we won a lot of titles.

“Every three days it was a game and win, win, win for many, many months and years. Now, we have to do the same when results are not good.”

Plenty of movement ⬆️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/yumQgXPdfA

— Premier League (@premierleague) December 28, 2024

City still have doubts about the fitness of several players as they bid to get back to winning ways at struggling Leicester, who have won only one of their last 11

“Sometimes you have injuries,” Guardiola said. “For how many years we were incredibly consistent but now, yes, we’re a little bit down and the main reason is having so many important players injured.

“But I saw the team spirit, how we trained this week, how focused they are, how they try to practise.”

Leicester City team news

Jordan Ayew, who is suspended after the forward was booked for the fifth time this season during the defeat by Liverpool in Leicester’s last outing.

Captain Jamie Vardy should be fit to return from a minor knock, but Wout Faes misses out again in defence.

Man City team news

Long-term absentee Rodri was joined on the sidelines by Ruben Dias, John Stones, Ederson, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish and Matheus Nunes for the 1-1 draw with Everton.

Head-to-head

This is the 128th meeting between the clubs, of which City have won on 64 occasions, while Leicester have come away the spoils following 32 of the encounters.

City have won the last five league meetings, scoring 10 goals in the last three of those, while Leicester could only break up that run with a Community Shield victory following the 2020-21 title-winning season.

Leicester’s last league win came in that campaign with a 5-2 victory at City, and included a hat-trick from Vardy. The reverse game at King Power Stadium resulted in a 2-0 scoreline that gave City the three points and began their current dominant streak over the Foxes in the league.

Where do your side currently sit?#FestiveFixtures pic.twitter.com/AT9MZPPnz2

— Premier League (@premierleague) December 28, 2024

This morning, I opened social media to search for Gaza news. I had to scroll for a while through my newsfeed before seeing the first mention of my homeland.

Yet, the news we receive from Gaza through friends, family and social media is no less grim than it was a year ago. Its people continue to cry out for help, hoping the world would hear them.

For three months, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, sent appeals for help to the world, as the Israeli army besieged the hospital, cut off supplies, bombarded it, slaughtered people in its vicinity and injured some of the medical staff and patients inside.

In a video appeal posted on December 12, Dr Abu Safia lamented: “We are now without any capacity and providing a low-level service. I hope that there are listening ears. We hope that there is a living conscience that hears our plea and facilitates a humanitarian corridor to the hospital so that Kamal Adwan Hospital continues its work to provide services.”

But his cries for help fell on deaf ears. The day after Christmas, Israeli bombardment killed a woman at the hospital’s front gate and five medical workers: Dr Ahmed Samour, a paediatrician; Esraa Abu Zaidah, a laboratory technician; Abdul Majid Abu al-Eish and Maher al-Ajrami, paramedics; and Fares al-Houdali, a maintenance technician. Shrapnel shattered the skull of nurse Hassan Dabous inside the hospital, putting his life in danger.

Yesterday, Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital and set it on fire, expelling 350 patients and kidnapping Dr Abu Safia and other medical staff.

This horrific news barely made a blip in international media; there were no reactions from foreign governments or leading institutions, except a few Middle Eastern states and the WHO. Israel has clearly been successful in normalising its brutal attacks, destruction of Palestinian hospitals, and killing of Palestinian patients and medical staff.

There was also no reaction from the world when earlier this month, Dr Said Joudeh, the last remaining orthopaedic surgeon in north Gaza, was assassinated on his way to work at the barely functioning al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp. Dr Joudeh was a retired surgeon who felt compelled to return to work because of the desperate shortage of doctors caused by Israel’s targeted killings.

Just a week before his murder, he had learned that his son, Majd, had been killed. Despite his grief, Dr Joudeh continued his work.

Israel is seeking to eliminate all aspects of civilian life in northern Gaza as part of a policy to depopulate it. For this reason, it is targeting civilian infrastructure across the north and obstructing its functioning. The few medical facilities were the last remaining vestiges of civilian life.

Apart from trying to exterminate medical workers, the Israeli army is also systematically blocking civil defence teams and ambulances from saving lives in the north, often hitting and killing them when they try to do so.

And it is not just appeals from the north that are being ignored.

The whole of Gaza has been stricken by famine as Israel has dramatically decreased the number of humanitarian and commercial trucks entering the Gaza Strip. Hunger is omnipresent and is affecting even those who may have some means to buy food but cannot find any.

My cousin, an UNRWA teacher, recently told me about his visit to his sister, who was ill and displaced in Deir el-Balah. While he was visiting, he could not sleep. He had not eaten bread for 15 days, but it was not his own gnawing hunger as a diabetic that kept him up. It was the cries of his sister’s children who begged for just a piece of bread. Desperate to comfort them, my cousin told them story after story until they drifted to sleep. But he remained awake, haunted by their hunger and his own.

Apart from food, Israel is also blocking the delivery of much-needed materials to build shelters. Four babies have already frozen to death since the start of this month.

Amid the famine and harsh winter, Israeli bombardment of homes and tents of the displaced has not stopped.

On December 7, a distant relative, Dr Muhammad al-Nairab, lost his wife and three daughters when the Israeli army hit their home in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, west of Gaza City. Two of his daughters, Sally and Sahar, were doctors, helping save lives. They no longer can.

When my niece, Nour, a mother of two, reached out to her uncle, Dr Muhammad, to extend her condolences, she found the pain of his loss intolerable. I spoke to her shortly after. Her words pierced through the despair like a scream: “When will the world hear us and see us? When will these massacres matter? Are we not human?”

On December 11, another family was hit not far from Dr Muhammad’s home in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. That Israeli attack killed Palestinian journalist Iman al-Shanti, along with her husband and three children.

Days before her murder, Iman shared a video of herself reflecting on the reality of genocide. “Is it possible for this level of failure to exist? Is the blood of the people of Gaza so cheap to you?” she asked the world.

There was no answer. Just like war crimes against Palestinians have been normalised, so has Palestinian death and pain. This normalisation not only silences their suffering but also denies their humanity.

Yet for Palestinians, the pain of loss is anything but normal – it lingers, sinking into the soul, raw and unrelenting, carried in the echoes of those they have lost, both inside and outside Gaza. It is a transnational pain, a grief that crosses borders and defies boundaries, binding Palestinians in exile to those enduring the horrors of genocide.

In a December 3 social media post, journalist Dayana al-Mughrabi, who is currently displaced in Egypt, captured the unending grief of Gaza’s people: “Our loved ones don’t die once, they die many times after their actual death. A person died the day he died, then he died again the day his watch that I kept on my wrist for years was broken. He died again when the teacup he used to drink from shattered. That person died yet again on the day that reminds us of their actual date of death, and after their burial, when the coffee residue was washed from his last cup, and when I saw someone collecting the rest of his medicine to get rid of it. Those we love continue to die many times – they never stop dying – not a single day.”

While this replaying of death happens more than 45,000 times, the world seems ready to move on from Gaza. Fifteen months into this genocide, advocates and activists across the globe are devastated and exhausted by the endless destruction in Gaza and the overwhelming silence and acceptance of it.

As a native Palestinian and third-generation Palestinian refugee, despite the indelible marks left on the soul by genocide – marks that time cannot erase – I refuse to lose hope. I am reminded of the words of Czech dissident Vaclav Havel: “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

The South Africa case against the apartheid regime at the International Court of Justice and the work of the International Criminal Court are not just significant – they are crucial in establishing Israel’s status as a pariah, one among nations that have sought the eradication of entire peoples. The world must not forget Gaza. Now, more than ever, its cries must be heard and the call for justice must be answered.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. 

Israeli soldiers have stormed, raided and burned down Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcing everyone inside to evacuate and detaining dozens of the medical staff, including the director, Dr Hussam Abu Safia.

The sick and injured people there have no other medical facility to go to, because Israel has destroyed all the other hospitals in the north, and they cannot leave the north.

Northern Gaza is under a “siege within a siege” imposed by Israel since October this year, trapping tens of thousands of people there with no food, services, or adequate shelter and, now, no hospitals.

Israel besieged Gaza in October 2023 and launched a war on its trapped population, killing 45,399 people and injuring more than 107,000 to date.

Most of these people are civilians. Tens of thousands of children have lost at least one limb in Israeli bombing and tens of thousands are orphaned.

Throughout, Israel has attacked hospitals and schools where people whose homes were bombed were sheltering.

Most of the internal opposition to the continuation of Israel’s war on Gaza centres around demanding the release of approximately 100 captives taken from Israel in a Hamas-led operation in October 2023.

However, awareness among many Israelis of the extent of their country’s actions in Gaza appears minimal.

The consequence, analysts say, of a pliant media that – with a few notable exceptions – appears ready to parrot the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his increasingly far-right government.

At war with reality

In February, reports surfaced that Netanyahu was attempting to shut down public broadcaster Kan because it was resisting political pressure to alter its editorial line.

Three months later, the Israeli government passed a bill banning Al Jazeera from operating within its territory.

In November, it passed a bill severing ties with liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which has proven a consistent critic of the Netanyahu government and its war on Gaza.

In December, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 75 reporters have been arrested by Israel in its territory, the occupied West Bank and Gaza since its war on Gaza began, with others assaulted, threatened and censored.

Israel has also killed nearly 200 journalists and media workers.

“Israelis have the right to know what is being done in their name, not least in the war in Gaza,” Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) told Al Jazeera.

“Netanyahu’s government is deliberately working not only to portray a distorted narrative of the war in Gaza, but to tighten state controls on media … This will have devastating longer-term consequences for press freedom in Israel, but also for Israeli democracy,” she said.

Many humanitarian and rights organisations operating in Israel to defend Palestinian rights feel their voices are being silenced amid increased hostility to their mission.

“There is zero room for our work,” says Dr Guy Shalev, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) which campaigns for Palestinians’ right to healthcare.

“There’s only one platform available to PHRI and that’s Haaretz … the only platform featuring news on Palestinians, the occupation and Gaza that isn’t guided by the security apparatus,” he said.

“There are others (outside the country), but they’re small and, if you want to speak to Israelis in Hebrew, they may as well not exist,” he said of the information vacuum many in Israel operate within.

Framing genocide

For Shalev, the issue is primarily one of framing, with news stories that reinforce the government’s war aims, rather than presenting facts.

On Thursday, Israel bombed Yemen, hitting the international airport in Sanaa where World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was about to board a departing flight.

International media reported the danger to Ghebreyesus, who posted on social media that one of the flight’s crew had been injured and two people at the airport killed.

Our mission to negotiate the release of @UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in #Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees’ immediate release.

As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport… pic.twitter.com/riZayWHkvf

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 26, 2024

In contrast, Israel’s most widely read newspaper, the free Israel Hayom, boasted of a strike during a “rebel news conference”, making no mention of the international diplomat’s near-killing.

Likewise, Israel’s second-most widely read newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, trumpeted details of the strike, with no mention of the condemnation, including by the UN.

When matters such as the near-total lack of humanitarian aid entering Gaza are mentioned at all, “the emphasis will be on Hamas, or armed gangs, robbing it,” Shalev said.

This, he said, allows the growth of an Israeli narrative that there is no famine in Gaza, and that even if there was one, “it’s Hamas who is to blame for the famine and not Israel”.

Isolation in an echo chamber

“The public is mostly UNAWARE of what happened in Gaza in the last year plus,” Haaretz columnist and former Israeli Ambassador Alon Pinkas told Al Jazeera by WhatsApp.

“⁠Much of it is deliberate denial. It was understandable in the immediate aftermath of October 7, 2023, when people were devastated and wanted revenge.”

However, Pinkas continued: “⁠It is inexcusable now. The information is there, whether (in) Haaretz, foreign media covering it extensively, the US administration and various humanitarian agencies. People consciously choose to ignore.”

According to Shalev, the outcome of the information vacuum is the increase of paranoia in a society that has been told to see itself as under siege by the international community, its courts, institutions and rights organisations for a war that – according to much of its media – is “legitimate”.

Referencing the two far-right ministers often credited as exemplars of growing Israeli hardliners, Shalev continued: “It’s more widespread than just [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir or [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich.

“It’s a far wider sense of Jewish supremacy. People just take that as a given. It goes beyond right wing, left wing or settlers. It’s everyone,” he said.

The Israeli media’s presentation of the war on Gaza, Shalev continued, is “just for the 30 to 50 percent of the population who need it. The others have already made their mind up. They don’t want to see any aid getting into Gaza, they want to see hospitals attacked.

“Growing up as a Jewish Israeli, all my schooling was about the Holocaust and how people at the time all said they didn’t know,” he continued, “I could never understand that.

“Now we’re seeing it happen again in a horrific way and we’re all watching.”

While serving as a contractor and senior adviser for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Alex Smith had a broad mandate.

He was tasked with offering insight on issues concerning gender, infectious disease, nutrition, and the health of mothers and children.

And all of those issues converged in Gaza, as Israel’s siege unfolded. The siege limited access to food, water and medicine, forcing the closure of hospitals and medical units. The United Nations has also repeatedly warned that northern Gaza is at “imminent” risk of famine.

According to the nonprofit Save the Children, at least 3,100 children under age five had been killed in Gaza as of October. In a survey of children in that age group, the nonprofit found nearly 20 percent were suffering from acute malnutrition. A further 4 percent faced severe acute malnutrition.

The UN likewise found that an estimated 46,300 pregnant women in Gaza were grappling with “crisis levels” of hunger.

Smith decided to raise the alarm within his agency. He said he wrote emails to his higher-ups, including Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID — all to no avail.

The final straw, Smith said, was when senior leadership pulled his presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, despite initially agreeing to let him speak.

In the lead-up to the presentation, he said his slides were scrutinised, and he was given detailed instructions on what language to use.

He recalled being told not to refer to Arab Israeli citizens as “Palestinians”, even if they identified as such, and to avoid phrases like “at the border of Gaza”. Even a map of Gaza was deemed “unacceptable”.

“It was all very Orwellian,” Smith said, referencing the British dystopian novelist George Orwell. “It’s pretty much straight out of the pages of 1984.”

After the presentation’s cancellation, Smith said he was made to choose: either resign or face dismissal. He chose the former.

Currently, he works for a think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, collecting evidence for tribunals.

As he reflects upon his time in the Biden government, Smith notes a stark contrast between Biden’s support for war-torn Ukraine and his lack of support for Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been levelled.

“When we talk about Ukraine, we can condemn the bombing of hospitals. We can talk about the resilience of the people who are being attacked. We can talk about the perpetrators who are attacking them,” Smith said.

“But when it comes to Gaza, we don’t talk about those people. We don’t plan for their health systems to be rebuilt.”

When he voted in the 2024 presidential race, Smith knew he could not back Biden’s vice president, Harris, fearing a continuation of the president’s policies.

His home state of Maine employs a ranked-choice system, allowing residents to offer support to multiple candidates. Smith used his ballot to rank Harris as his last choice, behind the third-party candidates Cornel West and Jill Stein.

Smith explained he has a grim view of Biden’s legacy will be perceived in the years to come. “He will be remembered as the US president who manufactured a genocide against children in Gaza.”

The attacks come days after the Taliban pledged retaliation for Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan.

Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points” in neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense has said, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardments inside the country.

The statement from the defence ministry on Saturday did not directly specify that Pakistan was hit, but said the attacks were conducted “beyond the ‘hypothetical line’” – an expression used by Afghan authorities to refer to a border with Pakistan that they have long disputed.

“Several points beyond the hypothetical line, serving as centres and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organised and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan, were targeted in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country,” the ministry said.

Asked whether the statement referred to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi said: “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan, therefore, we cannot confirm the territory, but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”

Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and often lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No details of casualties or specific areas targeted were provided. The Pakistani military’s public relations wing and a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a security source told the AFP news agency on Saturday that at least one Pakistani paramilitary soldier was killed and seven others wounded in cross-border exchanges of fire with Afghan forces.

Sporadic clashes, including with heavy weaponry, erupted overnight between border forces on the frontier between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan and Khost province in Afghanistan, officials from both countries said.

The incidents come after Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities accused Pakistan of killing 46 people, mainly women and children, in air strikes near the border this week.

Islamabad said it had targeted hideouts of fighters along the border, while Afghan authorities warned on Wednesday they would retaliate.

The neighbours have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several attacks on its territory have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – which shares a common ideology with its Afghan counterparts – last week claimed a raid on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan, which Pakistan said killed 16 soldiers.

“We desire good ties with them [Afghanistan] but TTP should be stopped from killing our innocent people,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a cabinet address on Friday.

“This is our red line.”

Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister widely regarded as the architect of the country’s economic reform program, was cremated after a state funeral on Saturday as politicians and the public mourned his death.

The veteran leader, who was also credited for a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, died late on Thursday, aged 92.

Singh’s body was taken on Saturday morning to the headquarters of his Congress party in New Delhi, where party leaders and activists paid tribute to him and chanted “Manmohan Singh lives forever”.

Abhishek Bishnoi, a party leader, said Singh’s death was a big loss for the country. “He used to speak little, but his talent and his actions spoke louder than his words,” he said.

Later, Singh’s body was transported to a crematorium ground for his last rites as soldiers beat drums.

Government officials, politicians and family members paid their last respects to Singh, whose coffin was adorned with flowers and wrapped in the Indian flag. Security personnel honoured him with a ceremonial gun salute.

Indian President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called Singh one of the country’s “most distinguished leaders”, as well as several cabinet ministers participated in the funeral.

Singh’s body was then transferred to a pyre to the tune of religious hymns and cremated.

Authorities declared a seven-day mourning period and cancelled all cultural and entertainment events during that time. Government buildings across India are flying the national flag at half-mast.

Indian youngster hits maiden Test century to bring balance to the third Test in Australia.

India appear to have unearthed a new gem in Nitish Kumar Reddy, who conjured up a sensational maiden Test hundred to keep his team alive in the fourth Test against Australia.

The number eight batter’s sparkling 105 not out was the bedrock of India’s first innings 358-9 in reply to Australia’s 445 in front of a sellout crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, including his teary-eyed father.

At 221-7, the risk of follow-on loomed large on India but the seam-bowling all-rounder forged a 127-run partnership with Washington Sundar (50) in a spectacular rear guard to rescue the tourists.

With the last Indian batter Mohammed Siraj at the other end, Reddy went on to bring up his maiden Test hundred with a four off Scott Boland.

The 21-year old knelt down, perched the helmet on top of his bat handle, and pointed towards the sky while his father wiped tears of joy in the stands.

“It’s a special day for the family. We are never going to forget this day,” Reddy senior, who quit his job to help shape his son’s career, told Fox Cricket.

“With only Siraj left, we were very, very tense. I was praying for him.”

Reddy has made strong impressions on his maiden tour. He scored 41 and 38 not out in his debut Test in the series opener in Perth and his 42 in the drawn second Test in Adelaide were the highest by an Indian batter in either innings.

India were in dire straits when Reddy walked out to bat at the MCG on Saturday and once again he responded with a counterattacking knock that neutralised much of Australia’s advantage.

Reddy has fulfilled his dreams of playing alongside Virat Kohli and received his maiden Test cap from his idol.

“I used to calculate my age so as to see if he doesn’t retire when I make my debut for India,” the all-rounder said ahead of his Test debut.

Reddy is now India’s most prolific batter, second overall behind Australia’s Travis Head, despite playing as a lower middle-order batter.

Reddy’s eight sixes in the series so far are the joint-most by a touring batter in Australia, equalling Englishman Michael Vaughan and West Indian Chris Gayle.

The tidy seamer has also claimed three wickets but former India coach Ravi Shastri said Reddy deserved to bat higher up the order.

“I would like to bat him in the top six,” Shastri told Star Sports. “Then you (India) can play five bowler and get the team balance right.

“The team management must have faith in him. Put him in the top six, he’s as good as anyone with his technique, with his ability to play the quicks and the spinners.”

Here are the key developments on the 1,038th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here is the situation on Saturday, December 28:

Fighting:

• Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday it had foiled a plot by Ukrainian intelligence services to kill a high-ranking Russian officer and a war blogger, the Interfax news agency reported.
• Ukrainian forces have killed or wounded more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers Russia has sent to fight them, according to Ukraine and South Korea. “Their losses are significant, very significant. We see that neither the Russian military nor their North Korean overseers have any interest in ensuring the survival of these North Koreans,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Friday. United States National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, meanwhile, said a “human wave” of North Korean troops was being sent to their deaths in “hopeless” attacks by generals who saw them as expendable.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Friday that its forces had taken control of two eastern Ukrainian villages, Ivanivka in the Donetsk region and Zahryzove in the Kharkiv region, the RIA state news agency reported.
• RIA also cited the ministry as claiming it had downed four British-made Storm Shadow missiles in the past week.
• A North Korean soldier, who was fighting for Russia, has died in Ukrainian captivity due to severe wounds, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
• Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 out of 24 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, the air force said on Friday. The air force said the other 11 Russian drones were “lost” without causing damage.

Deals and diplomacy:

• The administration of US President Joe Biden pledged to approve fresh military aid to Ukraine, including air defence systems. Kirby said the US security assistance package was expected to be announced “in the next couple of days”.
• “If someone wants to organise peace talks in Slovakia, we will be ready and hospitable,” said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in a post on Facebook late on Friday. His remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was open to a Slovakian proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine.
• Ukraine received its first batch of liquefied natural gas from the US, a deal that Kyiv says is key to boost Ukrainian and European energy security as a major gas transit deal with Russia ends. “Dtek, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, has today taken delivery of its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States,” the company said on Friday.

Dissent:

• A Russian court sentenced Eduard Sharlot, 26, a singer who burned his passport in protest against Russia’s Ukraine war, to five and a half years in prison, according to Russian news agencies. Sharlot was found guilty of “publicly insulting” the religious feelings of believers and “rehabilitating Nazism” by a court in the Volga city of Samara in a case over videos he published online, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

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January kicks off the trading year with a mix of anticipation and repositioning in financial markets.

While European equity indexes often tread water during this month, a select group of stocks has a history of delivering standout gains, making January a compelling period for spotting seasonal winners.

A modest start for European indices with some recent standouts

 Data from Seasonax, a platform that analyses seasonal patterns in equities, reveals that January has delivered muted results for European stock benchmarks over the past decades.

The Euro STOXX 50, a widely followed benchmark of blue-chip eurozone equities, posted an average return of just 0.1% in January, with a 54% winning ratio.

The index ended the month in positive territory 20 times and in the red 17 times.

Yet, the Euro STOXX 50 has also shown renewed January strength, ending the last two Januarys firmly in the green. The index climbed 3% in January 2024 and an eye-popping 8% in January 2023, with the latter marking the second-strongest January performance on record, surpassed only by January 1997.

Over the past 44 years, the DAX – Germany’s flagship stock index – has delivered an average January return of -0.06%, closing in the green 24 times and in the red 20 times.

However, recent years have painted a brighter picture. In January 2024, the DAX rose by 0.8%, while a stellar 7.5% rally in January 2023 marked one of its best starts to the year,

Similarly, the broader Euro STOXX 600—which offers a wider representation of the European equity market—has recorded an average January gain of 0.1%, with a slightly lower winning ratio of 52%.

Yet, like the DAX and Euro STOXX 50, the STOXX 600 has shown signs of renewed strength in recent years, rallying by 6.7% in January 2023 and delivering a more modest 1.4% gain in January 2024.

Euro STOXX 500’s January winners

Among the components of the Euro STOXX 50, several stocks stand out for their consistent January rallies.

These top performers, as highlighted by data from Seasonax, demonstrate strong average returns, high median performance, and notable individual gains over the years.

Here’s a closer look:

1.    Vinci SA

o   Average Return: +2.92%

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o   Median Return: +3.35%

o   Maximum Profit: +12.81%

o   Maximum Loss: -14.53%

o   Winning Trades: 75% (15 out of 20) The French construction and infrastructure giant has been a standout performer, with an average return of nearly 3% and a robust median performance of 3.35%.

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2.    Deutsche Börse AG

o   Average Return: +2.24%

o   Median Return: +6.23%

o   Maximum Profit: +20.16%

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o   Maximum Loss: -31.53%

o   Winning Trades: 75% (15 out of 20) The German stock exchange operator boasts a solid average January gain of 2.24%, with a much stronger median return of 6.23%, reflecting its ability to post significant gains in its best years. Yet, its worst performance saw a steep loss of -31.53%, emphasising the stock’s occasional volatility.

3.    SAP SE

o   Average Return: +1.50%

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o   Median Return: +1.80%

o   Maximum Profit: +18.36%

o   Maximum Loss: -12.03%

o   Winning Trades: 75% (15 out of 20) Europe’s largest software company has delivered steady, though more modest, January results. Its average return of 1.5% and median gain of 1.8% reflect a reliable performance, with a notable best-year gain of 18.36%.

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4.    Airbus SE

o   Average Return: +2.50%

o   Median Return: +1.15%

o   Maximum Profit: +23.41%

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o   Maximum Loss: -19.89%

o   Winning Trades: 60% (12 out of 20) The European aerospace giant has been more variable in its January outcomes. While its average return of 2.5% is strong, its median performance of just 1.15% points to less consistency as it notched only 12 positive trades in 20 years.

5.    Kering SA

o   Average Return: +1.27%

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o   Median Return: +1.99%

o   Maximum Profit: +17.58%

o   Maximum Loss: -21.31%

o   Winning Trades: 60% (12 out of 20) The French luxury conglomerate has seen more modest January results compared to others on this list. Its average return of 1.27% is complemented by a higher median return of 1.99%, with occasional strong rallies, such as its 17.58% gain in the best-performing January.

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Euro STOXX 600’s January winners

Zooming out to the Euro STOXX 600, which covers mid- and small-cap stocks, reveals even more striking performances, with some stocks posting exceptional average and median returns:

1.    JD Sports Fashion plc

o   Average Return: +8.06%

o   Median Return: +9.01%

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o   Maximum Profit: +39.94%

o   Maximum Loss: -27.31%

o   Winning Ratio: 80% (16 out of 20) The UK-based sportswear retailer is a clear standout, boasting an impressive average return of 8.06% and a median return of 9.01%, indicating a consistent ability to deliver strong January gains. Its best year saw a rally of nearly 40%, though its worst loss of -27.31%.

2.    Sopra Steria Group

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o   Average Return: +6.87%

o   Median Return: +7.14%

o   Maximum Profit: +24.38%

o   Maximum Loss: -14.03%

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o   Winning Ratio: 90% (18 out of 20) The French IT services firm has one of the highest winning ratios in the Euro STOXX 600, with gains in 90% of the Januarys analysed. Its average and median returns are similarly strong, making it a favourite among investors watching seasonal trends.

3.    Rheinmetall AG

o   Average Return: +6.38%

o   Median Return: +6.20%

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o   Maximum Profit: +17.81%

o   Maximum Loss: -5.08%

o   Winning Ratio: 90% (18 out of 20) The German defence contractor combines high consistency with limited downside risk, as evidenced by its worst January loss of just -5.08%. Its average return was 6.38% with a 90% of positive trades.

4.    Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A.

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o   Average Return: +6.35%

o   Median Return: +8.39%

o   Maximum Profit: +21.02%

o   Maximum Loss: -18.97%

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o   Winning Ratio: 85% (17 out of 20) The French life sciences company has consistently benefited from strong demand for its bioprocessing technologies, delivering robust January returns. Its median return of 8.39% is particularly strong, though investors should note its potential for sharp declines.

5.    CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA

o   Average Return: +4.12%

o   Median Return: +4.46%

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o   Maximum Profit: +16.51%

o   Maximum Loss: -7.20%

o   Winning Ratio: 75% (15 out of 20) Germany’s leading ticketing and live entertainment firm rounds out the list with reliable returns and limited downside. Its average return of 4.12% and median return of 4.46% reflect steady performance during January, with a strong maximum gain of 16.51%.

Ukrainian forces have killed or wounded more than 1,000 North Korean troops Russia has sent to fight them, according to Kyiv and officials in South Korea.

“According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address on December 23.

South Korean intelligence put the North Korean dead and wounded at 1,100, and said the North was preparing to send more troops. North Korea sent 11,000 troops to fight in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine counter-invaded in August.

North Korean troops were evidently untrained in dealing with Ukrainian drones, which took a high toll. In one instance, Ukrainian drone operators recorded how a North Korean soldier accidentally shot his comrade as they tried to shoot down the drone that was filming them.

They may have been trying to execute a tactic described in a notebook recovered from the body of a North Korean soldier.

“When detecting a drone, you need to create a trio, where the one who lures the drone keeps a distance of seven metres, and those who shoot it, 10-12 metres,” it read. “If the one who is luring stands still, the drone will also stop its movement. At this moment, the one who is shooting will eliminate the drone.”

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said on Telegram their 8th regiment had killed 77 North Koreans in Kursk and wounded 40 over three days, without specifying the location. A video collage released by the regiment showed drones bearing down on individual enemy troops. Their signal cuts out at point-blank range, indicating the moment when the drones detonate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been embarrassed by the first capture of Russian land since World War II and had initially pledged to push Ukrainian forces out by October 1.

As the deadline drew near, his spokesman changed the Kremlin position, saying Ukraine’s forces would be ejected “in a timely manner”.  Putin reinforced that vagueness in an annual news conference on December 19. “I cannot and do not want to name a specific date when they will be knocked out,” he said.

Some analysts suggested this could indicate a change in the Kremlin’s priorities, but Russia also seemed to make a concerted effort to improve its tactics on Christmas Eve.

Oleg Chaus, a Ukrainian sergeant fighting in Kursk, said that whereas for the past month, the Russian assaults were “chaotic” and “disorganised”, three units attacked in an organised manner and with air support on December 24.

“All the servicemen of these three groups had very high-quality ammunition. Each of them had disposable grenade launchers, they had night vision devices, they had small assault backpacks with them,” said the sergeant of Ukraine’s 17th Heavy Mechanised Brigade. “If one of those three groups had not been destroyed, they would have continued moving.”

It appeared that these units included North Korean troops.

Russia creeps forward in Donetsk

Ukraine’s other hot front – its eastern region of Donetsk – saw intensified fighting during the Christmas holiday.

Russia launched 248 assaults on Ukrainian positions on December 24, said Ukraine’s general staff, an unusually high number, followed by more than 200 assaults on Christmas day.

During this time, geolocated footage suggested Russian forces broke through to the western part of the city of Kurakhove, which they had first entered in late October, completing its conquest.

Anastasia Bobovnikova, spokesperson for Luhansk Technical University, said fierce battles were also ongoing for the Central Mine in the city of Toretsk.

The most intense fighting, however, appeared to take place around the town of Pokrovsk, where a quarter to a fifth of the Russian assaults took place.

“Pokrovsk is a vital road and rail hub, facilitating the movement of troops and supplies across eastern Ukraine,” Demetries Andrew Grimes, a former US naval officer, aviator and diplomat, told Al Jazeera.

“Capturing Pokrovsk would disrupt Ukrainian supply lines and enhance Russian operational capabilities in the transportation and distribution of supplies across the entire front line,” he said.

“The objective is likely to secure the rest of the Donbas and Zaporizhia,” said Michael Gjerstad, a land warfare research analyst for the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“This means possibly capturing Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which have industrial and economic sites that are important for Ukraine, possibly moving towards Zaporizhia along the N15 road from the Kurakhove pocket, which would also bypass a lot of the Ukrainian defences, which face south,” he told Al Jazeera.

These assaults, while clawing away land, were also costly. Bobovnikova said Russian forces were losing a mechanised battalion a week and a brigade a month in Toretsk.

In the 10 days between December 17 and December 26, Ukraine’s general staff estimates Russia lost 17,400 soldiers, which translates to 52,200 a month. Russian recruitment capacity is considered to be not more than 30,000 a month.

Nonetheless, Putin sounded bullish in his news conference. “We are not talking about advancing 100, 200, 300 metres; our fighters are reclaiming territory in square kilometres,” he said.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed that Russia had captured 3,306sq kilometres (1,276sq miles) of Ukrainian land during 2024.

“The position of the front line is not going to be what determines this war,” said Keir Giles, a Eurasia expert for Chatham House.

“In the economic and political domains, in Russia’s campaign against Ukrainian critical infrastructure and the systems for keeping people alive through the winter, it is also a picture of Russia holding an advantage, particularly after the arrival of Donald Trump,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to Trump’s win in the US presidential election in November. Trump has said that he wants to end the war immediately, and senior members of his team, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, have suggested that Ukraine would need to concede territory currently held by Russia as part of a ceasefire.

Russia demonstrated its command of the air on December 25, with a massive air attack involving 78 missiles of various types and 106 Shahed kamikaze drones. Ukraine’s defences shot down 113 of the 184 targets, but many hit energy infrastructure.

“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhuman?” Zelenskyy said in his evening address on the same day.

“The targets are our energy sector. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.”

Five days earlier, on December 20, Russia launched five ballistic missiles at Kyiv. Ukraine said it downed all five, but falling debris hit a building that housed several embassies. It was part of a broader overnight attack that involved a sixth missile and 65 drones.

Zelenskyy has been asking for ever-higher numbers of defence systems from his NATO allies. On December 19, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance would discuss how to provide the systems Zelenskyy has sought.

Four days later, Germany announced a massive new military aid package, including two Patriot air defence launchers – each carrying four missiles, two short-range IRIS-T SLS launchers and one medium-range IRIS-T SLM launcher, each carrying eight missiles.

Also included in the announced package were two Skynex 35mm air defence batteries, and ammunition for all these air defence systems.

Next year, Ukraine is expected to receive four more IRIS-T SLM batteries of three launchers each, and three IRIS-T SLS launchers.

During his news conference, Putin challenged the West to a contest between his new Oreshnik ballistic missile – test-fired at Ukraine for the first time on November 21 – and Western air defence systems.

“Let Western experts propose to us … to conduct some kind of technological experiment, say, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them determine some target for destruction, say in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defence and missile defence forces there, and we will strike there with Oreshnik and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment, but is the other side ready?”

Ukraine’s deep strikes

Ukraine also struck at Russian energy and defence sites.

On December 19, Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) said its saboteurs set “several” military refuelling stations alight in Novosibirsk, destroying them.

On the same day, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, the largest refinery in southern Russia, forced the plant to halt operations, The Moscow Times reported.

GUR also revealed its saboteurs had been responsible for destroying an Antonov-72 military transport plane on the tarmac of Ostafievo airfield near Moscow on December 12. Footage published on December 22 purportedly showed a drone strike at the Steel Horse oil depot near the city of Oryol.

The GUR said it had struck a warehouse in the Alabuga economic zone in Russia on December 23, where parts for Shahed-136 UAVs were stored. It claimed to have destroyed 65 fuselages of attack drones, as well as engines, navigation systems, and thermal imaging cameras for the production of 400 Shahed units.

On December 26, Ukraine’s air force said it had struck an industrial facility in Russia’s Rostov region that produced fuel for solid-state rockets. The fuel from the factory at Kamensk-Shakhtinsky was used in ballistic missiles, including those fired into Ukraine’s civilian areas and power plants, Ukraine said.

Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service estimated that Russian refineries’ downtime increased partly due to Ukrainian air strikes in 2024 to 41million tonnes from 36million tonnes last year.

Zelenskyy told Ukrainians the armed forces would continue this policy.

“We will definitely continue to strike Russian military targets – with drones and missiles, increasingly with Ukrainian-made ones, specifically targeting military bases and Russian military infrastructure used in this terror against our people,” he said in his evening address on December 21. “Our defence is entirely just.”

The drone war

Ukraine has prioritised the development of unmanned systems during the war to save manpower.

On December 20, Ukraine’s national guard said it had successfully conducted a ground operation in Kharkiv using exclusively ground and aerial robotic systems.

The assault included assault drones with mounted machineguns, kamikaze ground drones and drones capable of mining and demining. A spokesman who described the operation in a telethon also spoke of “large multi-rotor copters that can carry a large charge, for example, an antitank mine, and FPV drones. All this is supported and controlled by many carousels of surveillance drones. That is, we are talking about dozens of units of robotic and unmanned equipment simultaneously on a small section of the front.”

Russia, too, has tried to keep up. Ukraine’s armed forces said they were facing a new threat in the form of Russian drones guided by fibre optics. The drones are immune to jamming by electronic warfare means and have proven successful on the battlefield – including in Pokrovsk.

“We missed this moment with fibre optics and, frankly, we don’t know how to deal with it,” said Ivan Sekach, a spokesman for the 110th Mechanised Brigade.

A special forces spokesman told ArmyTV that Ukraine was coming to grips with the new drones by shooting them down with Mavic drones or using their propellers to cut their fibre optics, rendering them uncontrollable.

Ukraine is developing its own fibre optic drone, the Black Widow Web 10, which its general staff said is in the final stages of approval for use.

Ukraine has been developing robotic and drone systems at a furious pace. Its armed forces introduced a new high-altitude battlefield surveillance drone during the past week. The Shchedryk can fly out of the range of most Russian air defence weapons and operates day and night.

Autonomy is also a top priority for Ukraine, and a Ukrainian drone company recently reported that it had assembled a prototype of the first FPV drone made exclusively from components manufactured in Ukraine.