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US authorizes Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russia: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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Biden Zelensky

The move comes after President-elect Donald Trump won the presidential election, claimed he would end the Russia-Ukraine war in one day and raised the question if his administration would be as supportive of Ukraine as Biden’s, The Associated Press reported.

An official and others familiar with the matter told the AP about Biden’s authorization but were not able to discuss the decision publicly, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Three sources, familiar with the matter, including two US officials, also told Reuters that Ukraine plans to carry out long-range attacks using the weapons in the coming days.

The White House has not commented on the reports, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the missiles would “speak for themselves”.

“Today, many in the media are saying that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,” Zelensky stated in his evening address to Ukrainians.

“But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.”

The move by Biden comes as he prepares to leave office in two months, with Trump taking office on January 20.

Ukraine is expected to use US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306km), the sources told Reuters, as Kyiv takes advantage of a still-friendly US administration.

Zelensky had been pressing for months for permission to use the weapons against targets deep inside Russian territory.

Moscow has previously warned that it would see any move by Washington to loosen restrictions on the use of US-supplied weapons as a major escalation.

Over 100 foreigners executed in Saudi Arabia this year

By
IFP Media Wire
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Saudi Execution

On Saturday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported the execution of a Yemeni national convicted of smuggling drugs into the kingdom.

According to the AFP tally – which the agency compiled from state media reports – that brought to 101 the number of foreigners executed so far in 2024, almost triple the figures for 2023 and 2022.

“This is the largest number of executions of foreigners in one year. Saudi Arabia has never executed 100 foreigners in a year,” said Taha al-Hajji, legal director for the Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR).

AFP added foreigners executed this year included 21 from Pakistan, 20 from Yemen, 14 from Syria, 10 from Nigeria, nine from Egypt, eight from Jordan and seven from Ethiopia.

There were also three each from Sudan, India and Afghanistan, and one each from Sri Lanka, Eritrea and the Philippines.

Saudi human rights defenders and lawyers have accused Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of overseeing a crackdown on freedom of expression since he came to power, including the introduction of a counterterrorism law that Human Rights Watch has criticised for its broad definition of terrorism.

Two new bodies used to suppress activists – the Presidency of State Security and the Public Prosecution Office – were established by royal decrees in the same year.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia ended a three-year moratorium on the execution of drug offenders, and executions for drug-related crimes have boosted this year’s numbers, with 92 such executions so far this year.

The kingdom remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners.

At least 1,115 executions have been carried out under bin Salman’s rule between 21 June 2017 and 9 October 2024.

Additionally, according to Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly lied to the UN about its use of the death penalty.

Israeli attack on Lebanon kills Hezbollah spokesperson

By
IFP Media Wire
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Three other people were injured in the raid in the densely populated Ras al-Nabaa district in the Lebanese capital, officials said on Sunday, adding that the building was targeted without warning. Many Lebanese displaced by Israel’s ongoing strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs had taken refuge in the neighbourhood.

Afif managed Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station for several years before taking over as the top media relations officer for the armed group.

He hosted several press conferences amid the rubble in the southern suburbs of the capital devastated by weeks of Israeli bombardment.

His killing is the latest in a string of assassinations of top Hezbollah leaders, including its chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, since Israel dramatically intensified its attacks across Lebanon in late September after one year of fire exchanges along the border.

Military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera that the killing of Afif is part of Israel’s strategy to disrupt Hezbollah’s leadership and its ability to communicate with the world.

It will also undermine Hezbollah’s ability to coordinate responses that counter Israel’s war narrative, which will force other officials in the group to be more visible, Magnier added

“And also, it is showing that high-profile people in Hezbollah, no matter if they are military or non-military personnel, they can be assassinated.”

Iranian defense minister meets Syrian president, talks regional security

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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The talks focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation to combat terrorism and dismantle its structures, aiming to promote stability and security across the region.

President Assad emphasized that eradicating terrorism is a shared regional and international responsibility, as its dangers pose a threat to people worldwide.

Nasirzadeh arrived in Damascus on Saturday evening at the head of a high-ranking delegation.

Earlier on Sunday, he held separate meetings with General Ali Abbas, Syria’s Minister of Defense, and General Abdul Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim, Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces. They discussed military cooperation and strategic partnerships.

Iranian journalist Zeynab Alipour passes at 33

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iranian Reporters

After battling kidney failure for over two years, Zeynab was admitted to the hospital due to respiratory complication but she succumbed to cardiac arrest.

The news of the passing of Zeynab, 33, has left the media community in Iran in shock.

In a statement, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Peyman Jebelli, offered his sympathies to her family, friends, and colleagues at Jam-e Jam.

He praised Zeynab for being a passionate journalist who never wavered in her pursuit of truth and excellence.

Russia hits Ukraine’s power grid in biggest missile attack in months

By
IFP Media Wire
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Russia Ukraine War

Ukrainians have been bracing for a major attack on the hobbled power system for weeks, fearing crippling damage to the grid that would cause long blackouts and build psychological pressure at a critical moment in the war Russia launched in February 2022.

“Another massive attack on the power system is under way. The enemy is attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.

Air defences could be heard engaging drones over the capital in the night, and a series of powerful blasts rang out across the city centre as the missile attack was under way in the morning.

The scale of the damage was not immediately clear. Officials cut power supply to numerous city districts, including in Kyiv, the surrounding region and Dnipropetrovsk region, in what they said was a precaution to prevent a surge in case of damage.

Authorities in the Volyn region in northwestern Ukraine announced energy infrastructure had sustained damage but did not elaborate. Officials often withhold information on the state of the power system because of the war.

In Mykolaiv in the south, two people were killed in the overnight drone attack, the regional governor confirmed. Blasts shook the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia and the Black Sea port of Odesa too.

More explosions were reported in the regions of Kryvyi Rih in the south and Rivne in the west.

“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” said foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.

He described the strike as Moscow’s “true response” to leaders who had interacted with president Vladimir Putin, an apparent swipe at German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who placed a phone call to the Russian leader on Friday for the first time since late 2022.

NATO member Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, announced it had scrambled its air force within its airspace as a security precaution due to the Russian attack, which it said used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones.

Poland “activated all available forces and resources at his disposal, the on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled, and the ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness”, the operational command of its armed forces posted on X.

Ukraine’s air force urged residents to take cover, providing regular updates on the progress of Russian cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles it said were hurtling through Ukrainian airspace.

In Kyiv, the roof of a residential building caught fire due to falling debris and at least two people were hurt, city officials noted on the Telegram messaging app.

“Emergency services were dispatched to the scene,” Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko stated.

Russia last conducted a major missile strike on Kyiv on 26 August, when officials said it fired a salvo of more than 200 drones and missiles across the country in an attack that attack killed seven people.

At least 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid on northern Gaza

By
IFP Media Wire
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Gaza War

Medical sources told Anadolu news agency that about 50 people were killed, with several others still trapped under the rubble.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Gaza rescue organisation, says it cannot reach the site of an attack on Beit Lahiya, north Gaza.

“The department received appeals from residents of a house bombed by the Israeli occupation in Beit Lahiya, but we cannot move to rescue them,” he said.

Two bombs hit a five-storey residential tower in the northern Gaza city, killing “tens” of people, according to medics.

Since early October 2024, Israeli soldiers have laid siege in areas in northern Gaza, including Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, choking the entry of already scarce humanitarian supplies.

According to aid organizations, critical shortages of food, clean water and medical supplies have made survival increasingly dire for residents in the north.

International and United Nations agencies have warned that northern Gaza is on the verge of a famine due to relentless Israeli bombardments and fresh round of military onslaught.

The blockaded enclave’s media office has reported at least 2,000 civilians have been killed in northern Gaza amid a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing by Israel.

Tel Aviv launched the war on Gaza in October 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise military operation against the Israeli regime in response to the occupying entity’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Nearly 43,700 people have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and over 103,000 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

Biden meets Xi, condemns North Korean soldiers dispatch to Russia for fight against Ukraine

By
IFP Media Wire
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Biden and Xi

Biden met the Chinese leader on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, marking his last meeting with Xi before leaving office in January 2025.

“President Biden condemned the deployment of thousands of (North Korean) troops to Russia, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s unlawful war against Ukraine with serious consequences for both European and Indo-Pacific peace and security,” the White House statement read.

Pyongyang has deployed around 11,000 troops to reinforce Moscow’s troops in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, in addition to already provided artillery and missiles.

China, a close partner to both Russia and North Korea, has claimed it had no knowledge of the troop transfer, though some experts disputed this statement.

Biden also “expressed deep concern over (China’s) continued support for Russia’s defense industrial base”.

While claiming neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine war, China has become Russia’s leading source of dual-use goods, helping to sustain the Russian defense industry amid the invasion.

The German media outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) recently reported that the EU obtained evidence that this support has expanded to “lethal aid”, specifically the production of attack drones.

During the meeting, Xi stated that China’s position regarding the war has “always been fair and square”, the Xinhua state news agency reported.

The Chinese president also added his country would “not allow conflict and turmoil to happen on the Korean Peninsula” and that Beijing would “not sit idly by” while its strategic interests are endangered.

Biden is concluding his term before the inauguration of his political rival and former president, Donald Trump, whose return to the White House may significantly impact Russia’s war in Ukraine and security worldwide.

Human rights group documents Israel’s murders, extrajudicial executions of Gazans

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said Saturday that among the many crimes committed by the regime’s forces, it has documented cases of direct killing and extrajudicial executions “without any justification”.

The monitor noted it documented the killing of Khaled Mustafa Ismail al-Shafei, 58, and his eldest son Ibrahim, 21 in Beit Lahiya on Wednesday.

They two were shot by Israeli forces in front of their family in their house, it added.

Euro-Med urged the United Nations and the international community to intervene and stop the “genocide” in the Palestinian territory.

In a report released Thursday, Human Rights Watch announced the Tel Aviv regime is carrying out ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.

In northern Gaza, Israel’s military has razed swaths of homes and other civilian infrastructure to make way for “buffer zones” and “security corridors” throughout the besieged enclave, it said.

According to reports from northern Gaza, Israeli troops burned schools and attacked hospitals and medical staff. They have killed scores of people and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Israel has continued its devastating offensive against Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The onslaught has killed nearly 43,800 people and rendered the enclave almost uninhabitable.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid a blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

Iran says daily gas output from South Pars hit all-time high

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Iran South Pars

The company said on Saturday that combined production from 28 phases of South Pars had hit a record of 711 million cubic meters (mcm) on November 13.

South Pars is the world’s largest gas field which straddles the Iran-Qatar maritime border in the Persian Gulf and is known in Qatar as North Dome.

It is responsible for more than 70% of Iran’s total gas production. The Pars Oil and Gas Company operates some 40 offshore drilling rigs, hundreds of wells, and thousands of kilometers of underwater pipelines to be able to produce gas from the field.

A previous production record of 706 mcm per day from the Iranian side of South Pars had been recorded in 2023, added the company.

The announcement comes as Iranian power plants are struggling with a shortage of natural gas supplies because demand for heating has increased significantly in the country’s households sector.

Repair programs at some gas refineries have also affected supplies to Iranian power plants, leading to brief power cuts in large cities in recent days.

Iran’s Oil Ministry’s news website noted in a report on Saturday that daily production from Phase 11 of South Pars had increased from 15 mcm to 18 mcm in recent days and will further increase to 20 mcm in the days to come.

Phase 11 of South Pars is located near Qatar’s maritime border and is the most technologically complicated of all 28 phases in the field.

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