Waiting for Godot: Europe’s Quest to OK Gene Editing

By Alan Schulman

December 12, 2023

The European Union has some of the world’s strictest regulations on genetically modified crops. But now it is moving to go around them.

Two scientists, Vladimir and Estragon, chat every afternoon in the coffee room next to their lab, venting their frustration at the EU’s delay in unfettering gene editing of farm crops. Days and weeks and years fly by; nothing happens. Vladimir exclaims they must act, given the world’s need for drought and disease-tolerant crops. Echoing Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot, he shouts, “Let us make the most of it before it is too late!”

Vladimir’s cry of despair may finally be heard. Over the summer, the European Commission proposed to loosen rules on gene editing. Despite the catchy title of “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Plants Obtained by Certain New Genomic Techniques and Their Food and Feed, and Amending Regulation (EU) 2017/625,” the proposal represents a potential revolution – and a key test of Europe’s attitude to science.

Until now, EU regulations effectively banned genetically modified crops, with critics raising fears of Frankenstein foods. This opposition has become equated with mounting European resistance to science. In contrast, the US has moved fast ahead, even European companies such as Bayer and Syngenta develop much of the technology.

The new proposal keeps restrictions on genetically modified crops (GMO) – while creating a new category of permitted gene editing. Targeted gene-editing technologies such as the Nobel-prizing winning CRISPR-Cas9 allow scientists to develop plants that resist extreme weather and offer improved nutritional value. The new EU proposal would allow plants grown by CRISPR-Cas9 editing. Scientists, breeders, seed companies, bioeconomy stakeholders, and their organizations across Europe are delighted.

Under the EU proposal, crop varieties would be divided into two categories. So-called NGT1 crops would be quasi-equivalent to conventionally bred ones; gene-edited plants within the NGT1 category are anyway indistinguishable from those produced by intentional or natural random mutagenesis. NGT2 seeds with a higher degree of gene editing would face continued GMO-like tough standards.

The gene editing proposal is moving fast through the Brussels machinery and could become law before the upcoming European elections in June 2024. However, several obstacles must first be overcome.

One difficult issue is organic foods. Although gene editing could help European organic farmers fight fungi without nasties such as copper sulphate, as well as increase yield and improve quality, the current proposal forbids organic farmers from using the technique. Many organic farmers, on a grass-roots level (quite literally), wish to use genetic editing, even if the European Organic Food Association remains opposed.

Political divisions and polarization still could cause delays. Some coalition governments remain divided on the issue. Others use populist arguments for “protecting” their traditional agriculture from gene editing.

Another risk is that the new law will come into force but, but end up saddled with long, drawn-out approval process. Ponderous field trial processes as well as traceability and labelling requirements would undermine effectiveness. If this becomes the case, Europe will become not only the world’s largest importer of gene edited corn, soy, and rapeseed.

A disproportionate regulatory burden would slow or stop gene editing development and their introduction on the Continent, while the UK and US will go forward. Europe would then increasingly lose its farms and traditional landscapes, together with food sovereignty. And desperate European Vladimirs and Estragons will end up developing their innovations elsewhere in the world.

Alan H. Schulman is a Professor, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Head of Research, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, and a past president of the European Plant Science Organisation. 

Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.

South Africa to build new nuclear plants. The opposition attacked the plan over alleged Russia links

The South African government has announced plans to build new nuclear power stations to generate more electricity amid an energy crisis in the continent’s most advanced economy

By GERALD IMRAY 

Associated Press
December 12, 2023,

FILE - South Africa's Koeberg nuclear power station is seen on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- The South African government announced plans on Tuesday to build new nuclear power stations to generate more electricity amid an energy crisis and regular blackouts in the continent's most advanced economy.

The move to invite bids to build the stations — which will take at least a decade to be ready, according to officials — was immediately criticized by the main political opposition party, which said that Russian state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom was the South African government's “preferred partner.”

Government officials didn't name any potential bidders and only outlined the start of the process.

But the criticism by the opposition Democratic Alliance was linked to a major nuclear deal that South Africa signed with Russia in 2014 worth an estimated $76 billion that was shrouded in secrecy and canceled by a South African court in 2017 for being illegal and unconstitutional. It was tarnished with allegations of large-scale corruption and was signed under the leadership of former South African President Jacob Zuma, who is now on trial on unrelated corruption charges.

Plans for the new nuclear stations came a day after the South African government approved an agreement with Russian bank Gazprombank to restart a gas-to-liquids oil refinery on South Africa's south coast, which has been out of operation since 2020. Gazprombank is among numerous Russian financial institutions sanctioned by the United States.


The South African government said that Gazprombank “would share in the risk and rewards of reinstatement of the refinery” once the details of the agreement were finalized, which was expected to be in April.

South Africa currently has one nuclear plant, the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, around 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Cape Town. It is the only one on the African continent.

Numerous other African countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Egypt have been linked with nuclear power agreements with Russia or have agreements to build nuclear power plants.

Many parts of Africa have unreliable electricity supplies, providing opportunities for Russia's nuclear business, but also giving it the chance to extend its political influence on the continent amid the collapse of its relationship with the West over the war in Ukraine.

Zizamele Mbambo, the deputy director-general of nuclear energy in the South African government's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, said the tender process for the new power stations would be open and transparent and had been approved by the energy regulator. The stations would be completed by 2032 or 2033 at the earliest, he said.

___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Is the South China Sea War of 2023 About to Begin?

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Territorial disputes in the South China Sea aren't new, and as early as the late 18th century, tensions have flared over the waters. Trouble could be brewing yet again as China's rise changes regional dynamics. 

Peter Suciu December 12, 2023 Follow PeterSuciu on Twitter

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea aren't new, and as early as the late 18th century tensions have flared over the waters. In the years leading up to the Second World War, there were competing claims to the Paracel and Spratly Islands – and the islands were occupied by the Japanese during the conflict.

The subsequent Treaty of San Francisco, signed in September 1951, failed to specify the new status of those islands, but both the Republic of China (RoC) – more commonly known as Taiwan – and the People's Republic of China (PRC) claim them. The islands are within the latter's current "ten-dash line" map, even as the Geneva Accords of 1954 gave South Vietnam control of the Paracels and Spratlys.

Of course, the disputes go far beyond the small patches of land – this is really about the control of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits. It is home to fishing grounds that provide the livelihoods of millions of people throughout the region, with more than half of the world's fishing vessels operating in the area.

Moreover, the waters continue to be a major shipping route, and in 2016, more than 40 percent of Beijing's total trade transited the South China Sea. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that over 21 percent of global trade, amounting to $3.37 trillion, also traveled through the waters.

As early as the 1970s, countries in the region began to claim the islands and various zones in the South China Sea.

Is a Sino-Filipino War Brewing in the South China Sea?

While there have been growing concerns that the United States and China could face off in the Indo-Pacific, it is increasingly possible that a flare-up could begin first between China and the Philippines, which have nearly come to blows over the waters.

The tensions began in February when Chinese personnel flashed a military-grade laser at a Philippine Coast Guard vessel approaching the Second Thomas Shoal, temporarily blinding its crew.

Multiple times this year, China has sent swarms of coast guard, navy, and militia vessels to block off Filipino fishing vessels, while in August Chinese first employed a water cannon against a Philippine ship that was resupplying marines onto the Sierra Madre, an outpost on a rusting ship that was run aground on the Second Thomas Shoal to support the Philippine claim. Just weeks after that water cannon incident, the Philippines cut a floating barrier that was blocking access to a traditional fishing ground.

Earlier this month, China reportedly employed water cannons eight times on a Filipino fishing vessel – which Manila said endangered the lives of the crew while it damaged the vessel.

On Sunday, a Philippine boat and a Chinese Coast Guard ship collided near a contested reef in the South China Sea, and both countries are placing the blame on each other.

Washington called for Beijing to halt its "dangerous and destabilizing" actions in the disputed South China Sea after a Philippine boat and a Chinese Coast Guard ship collided near a contested reef. The UK's government on Monday also condemned the "unsafe and escalatory tactics deployed by Chinese vessels" against the Philippines.

"The UK opposes any action which raises tensions, including harassment, unsafe conduct, and intimidation tactics which increase the risk of miscalculation and threaten regional peace and stability," the foreign office said in a statement.

South China Sea Crisis: More Than Just Fish and Oil

Though the resources are a crucial component of the competing claims, Beijing also maintains that under international law, foreign militaries are not able to conduct intelligence-gathering activities, such as reconnaissance flights, in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

At issue is that the claims to the Paracel and Spratly Islands – which China maintains have been part of its territory since the Middle Ages – would put nearly the entirety of the South China Sea under Beijing's control.

According to the United States, claimant countries, under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), should have freedom of navigation through EEZs in the sea and therefore are not required to notify claimants of military activities.

As the Council of Foreign Relations warned in June, "Washington's defense treaty with Manila could draw the United States into a potential China-Philippines conflict over the substantial natural gas deposits or lucrative fishing grounds in disputed territory. The failure of Chinese and Southeast Asian leaders to resolve the disputes by diplomatic means could also undermine international laws governing maritime disputes and encourage destabilizing arms buildups."

And Then There is Taiwan

The other part of the equation is that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing maintains that the self-governing island of Taiwan is a breakaway province that will be returned to mainland control and by force if necessary. However, the CCP has never actually ruled over the island since coming to power in 1949 at the end of the Chinese Civil War when the Nationalist forces fled to the island.

The United States does have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but it has a robust unofficial relationship. Taiwan-US relations are also formally guided by the service of enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act by the U.S. Congress for the continuation of Taiwan-U.S. relations after 1979.

Beijing has steadily increased its saber-rattling in regards to its claims on Taiwan, and some U.S. military officials have expressed an opinion that China will launch an invasion to "regain" control by the end of the decade. There have been three so-called "Taiwan Strait Crises," with the most recent occurring in 1996. In each case, cooler heads prevailed, but a fourth crisis, which already seems to be brewing could be a tipping point.

China is facing an economic decline, a population implosion, and a demographic dilemma where its gender balance is skewed with more men than women.

It is also a nation constrained by resource scarcity, and it may see a regional conflict as its only hope to maintain its standing, or else its goal to become a major world power will fade. Instead of being a sleeping dragon ready to awaken, it could be a behemoth whose time simply came and went.

Author Experience and Expertise

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.

All images are Shutterstock. 

 

Letter to the UK Government Calling for an Immediate Halt to UK Arms Transfers to the Government of Israel

Human Rights Watch, alongside a group of UK-based civil society groups working in and on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, have written to the UK Government calling for an immediate halt to UK arms transfers to the government of Israel. The letter makes clear that there is a clear risk that arms and military equipment transferred to Israel might be used to facilitate or commit serious violations of international law, including attacks that may amount to war crimes. 

Accordingly, the UK Government should immediately suspend arms transfers while the Israel Defense Forces continue to carry out widespread serious violations including war crimes, with impunity. Failure to do so risks the UK Government breaching its own laws and international obligations and being complicit in grave abuses.

Rt Hon Lord David Cameron,
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office,
London SW1A 2AH

CC: Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch, and Minister of State for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell

December 8, 2023

 js.2023.12.12.Joint Statement on UK Arms Transfers to Israel

Dear Foreign Secretary,

We write in the context of the ongoing hostilities in Israel and Palestine, in which many thousands of civilians have been killed and more than 1.9 million people have been displaced from their homes, to call on the UK Government to immediately halt arms transfers to the Government of Israel.

There is a clear risk that arms and military equipment transferred to Israel might be used to facilitate or commit serious violations of international law, including attacks that may amount to war crimes. Accordingly, the UK Government should immediately suspend both extant licenses for military equipment and technology and the issuing of new licenses while the Israel Defense Forces continue to carry out widespread serious violations including war crimes, with impunity. Failure to do so risks the Government breaching its own laws and international obligations and being complicit in grave abuses.

Under both relevant international and domestic law, the UK is required to prevent the transfer of military equipment and technology, including parts and components, where there is a clear or overriding risk that such equipment and technology might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. These binding obligations are contained within Articles 6 and 7 of the International Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) as well as criteria one and two of the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (SELC). Criteria three and four of the SELC also prohibits the granting of a license when there is a clear risk that the items would, overall, undermine peace and security. International law also prohibits the UK from providing weapons with the knowledge that they would significantly contribute to unlawful attacks.

Since 2015, the UK has licensed at least £474 million worth of military exports to Israel, including components for combat aircrafts, missiles, tanks, technology, small arms, and ammunition. The UK provides approximately 15 percent of the components in the F-35 stealth bomber aircraft currently being used in Gaza, including the rear fuselage and active interceptor system, ejector seats, aircraft tires, refueling probe, laser targeting system, and the fan propulsion system. Durability testing for the F-35 is also undertaken in the UK. Notably, the UK Government admitted that British supplied components were used in the 2008-2009 hostilities in Gaza. Furthermore, during the 2014 Gaza hostilities, when Lord Cameron was Prime Minister, the Government undertook a review of licensed exports to Israel. In announcing the findings of its review, it warned that it would suspend extant licenses for components which could be part of equipment used by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza if significant hostilities resumed, as it would not be able to clarify if its export criteria were being met. As a precautionary measure, the government also stated that no new licenses had been issued during the review period (August 4, 2014, to August 12, 2014).

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups from Gaza carried out attacks in which some 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, were killed and about 200 taken hostage. These intentional attacks on civilians and hostage-taking are war crimes and cannot be justified under any circumstances. Since then, Israeli forces have carried out massive airstrikes, including using explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas of Gaza, as well as an intense ground offensive in Gaza which has caused widespread civilian casualties and what the UN has called unprecedented destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

In eight weeks, according to Gaza’s government media office, more than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them children and women, and the hostilities and casualties have spread to neighboring countries. Since October 7, Israeli forces have carried out unlawful and apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel and transport and a civilian vehicle, and have struck multi-story residential buildings, evacuation convoys, bakeries, water pipes and electricity networks, schools and facilities of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) that are sheltering displaced people. According to the UN, more than 52,000 homes have been destroyed and more than 1.9 million people are internally displaced within Gaza. If carried out intentionally or recklessly, attacks directed against the civilian population and civilian objects are war crimes. The Israeli military have also used white phosphorus munitions in Gaza, a densely populated area, which puts civilians at unnecessary risk and is unlawful.

Israeli authorities have also imposed a near complete blockade which is a tightening of the unlawful blockade that has been imposed for the last 16 years on the enclave. Other than a trickle of aid, which is a much smaller fraction than was allowed in before October 7 and is totally inadequate to meet the subsequent escalating needs, the Israeli authorities have cut off water, food, fuel, and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million population. This is a form of collective punishment of the population, which is a war crime. The UN has stated the humanitarian situation is “intolerable” and “beyond dire.”

UNRWA has at times been unable to distribute the trickle of aid that has been allowed in via the Rafah crossing due to lack of fuel, and the fuel that has since been allowed in is well below minimum requirements. The WHO has documented 212 attacks on healthcare in the Gaza Strip from October 7, 2023, to December 5, 2023, and reports that 34 out of 39 hospitals and primary healthcare centers are out of service. Many bakeries in Gaza have closed because of lack of fuel, water, wheat flour and structural damage, and food supplies are dangerously low. The UN has warned of the immediate risk of starvation. Intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare is a war crime. Around 70 percent of the population in Gaza lack access to clean water, which risks dehydration, and public health experts have expressed grave concerns of an imminent infectious disease outbreak in Gaza, including waterborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid.

In the context of the current hostilities, serious violations of international law have been committed by all parties to the armed conflict, some of which amount to war crimes. The UK risks being complicit in and facilitating serious violations of international humanitarian law if it fails to halt arms exports to Israel immediately. This risk is further heightened by statements of high-level Israeli officials that have sought to hold Gaza’s entire population responsible for the October 7 attacks, appear to disregard the principle of distinction and the protected status of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and risks mass intentional forced displacement of the civilian population in Gaza which if carried out would amount to a war crime.

Prime Minister Netanyahu invoked Amalek in a speech about intensifying Israel’s operations in Gaza.[1] Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Security Cabinet Member and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said, “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba”. President Herzog said, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” while one minister remarked that “there is no reason” to provide humanitarian aid to the population until Israeli forces “eliminate” Hamas. The Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has boasted that, “Gaza will eventually turn into a city of tents. There will be no buildings,” adding “the emphasis” is “on damage and not on accuracy.”

Hostilities between the Israeli military and armed groups in Gaza have occurred in 2008/9, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, and 2022. UK-based charities have witnessed, documented, and sought to alleviate the destruction, hardship and impoverishment generated by conflict and blockade. In hostilities prior to 2023, Israeli forces carried out unlawful airstrikes that killed scores of civilians at a time, wiping out entire families, and targeted civilian infrastructure, destroying high-rise buildings in Gaza full of homes and businesses, with no evident military targets in the vicinity —acts that violate the laws of war. Palestinian armed groups have fired rockets indiscriminately at Israeli communities. However, the number of civilian deaths happening now is significantly higher than in recent hostilities. These acts have been carried out by all parties to the conflict with impunity.

Pursuant to criteria 2(b) of the SELC, the UK Government must also exercise special caution and vigilance in granting licenses to countries where serious violations have been established by the competent bodies of the UN, and certainly such findings of violations are relevant to the determination of ‘risk’ under international and domestic law. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, has made findings of the use of excessive force, violations of rights to freedom of association, expression and opinion, rights to privacy, economic, social, and cultural rights, forcible deportation of individuals and entire communities by Israel. In the context of hostilities in Gaza in 2008 and 2009, the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict found Israel carried out collective punishment, disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks resulting in deaths, serious injuries, and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure, and failed to take feasible precautions to avoid or minimize incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, and failed to hold those responsible to account.

In the context of the current hostilities, there is a clear and overriding risk that UK licensed military equipment could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international law, including unlawful attacks that may amount to war crimes. Our organizations demand an immediate suspension of arms transfers to all parties to the current conflict. For the UK government, this requires a halt to the arming of Israel. Failure to do so risks the Government breaching its own laws and being complicit in grave abuses.

Signatories:
Asad Rehman, Chief Executive, War on Want
Katie Fallon, Director of Advocacy, Campaign Against the Arms Trade
Sacha Deshmukh, Chief Executive, Amnesty International UK
Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director, Human Rights Watch

Additional signatories:
Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, Quakers in Britain
Caroline Qutteneh, Director, Welfare Association
Charlotte Marshall, Director, Sabeel-Kairos UK
Tayab Ali, Director, International Centre of Justice for Palestinians

 

[1] Prime Minister Netanyahu refers to a verse of the Old Testament where God commands King Saul in the first Book of Samuel to kill every person in Amalek, a rival nation to ancient Israel. “This is what the Lord Almighty says,” the prophet Samuel tells Saul. “‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites, and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels, and donkeys.

Palestinian Minister Accuses Israel of Starving Gazans

People search through the rubble of damaged buildings following an Israeli air strike on Palestinian houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 12, 2023. (Reuters)

12 December 2023 AD ـ 28 Jumada Al-Ula 1445 AH

The Palestinian foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against around 1 million Gazans, a charge an Israeli official rejected as "obscene".

The UN World Food Program says half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million is starving as the expansion of Israel's military assault into the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in response to October's bloody cross-border rampage by Hamas militants, has cut people off from food, medicine and fuel.

Israel has said it allows aid into Gaza via the Rafah crossing and has signaled that the Kerem Shalom crossing could soon reopen to help process aid deliveries.

"As we speak, at least 1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving, not because of a natural disaster or because of lack of generous assistance waiting at the border," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a UN event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"No, they are starving because of Israel's deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against the people it occupied".

In response, an Israeli official told Reuters in Jerusalem: "This is, of course, obscene ... (a) blood-libelous, delusional level of allegations."

Israel was encouraging increased shipments of food into Gaza from Egypt, which also borders the Palestinian enclave, the official added, blaming lags on a "bottle neck" at that border.

In Geneva, Al-Maliki said: "We are living through this dystopian reality that excludes Palestinians from the basic, most basic rights afforded to all human beings".

He described this as an "utter international failure" to protect Palestinians.

Israel says its instructions to people to move to areas it says are safer are among measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in its Oct. 7 attack.

In remarks to reporters, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, criticized al-Maliki's address for making no mention Hamas and its deadly attacks on Israel.

"Nothing about Oct. 7, nothing about the atrocities that were committed by Hamas," she said, speaking alongside the mother of US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin.

Israel's retaliatory assault has killed at least 18,205 people and wounded nearly 50,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, which says many thousands

Palestinians blame U.S. as Israel-Hamas war takes a soaring toll on civilians in the Gaza Strip


BY CHARLIE D'AGATA, FRANK ANDREWS
UPDATED ON: DECEMBER 12, 2023 / CBS NEWS

The Israeli military continued pounding the Gaza Strip Tuesday, determined to carry on with its stated mission of destroying the Palestinian militant group Hamas despite rising calls for a cease-fire and its most valuable ally, the United States, urging Israel to "put a premium on human life."

Israel insists it is only targeting terrorists and terror infrastructure, but pressure to halt the ceaseless bombing was mounting fast as Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said the war had killed more than 18,000 people. The war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas, which has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and many other nations.

Israel's military says about 1,200 people were killed during Hamas' initial attack and that more than 100 soldiers have been killed in the war in Gaza since then. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson was quoted by the AFP news agency Tuesday as saying 105 troops had been killed since the start of ground operations in Gaza, including 13 killed in friendly fire incidents.

The Associated Press said hospital records showed an Israeli airstrike killed at least 23 people overnight in the city of Rafah, right on Gaza's southern border with Egypt — an area in which civilians had been directed by Israel to seek shelter.

Children react following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 12, 2023.

REUTERS/FADI SHANA

CBS News producer Marwan al-Ghoul was lucky to survive another strike in the area. Early Monday, he visited the scene of a bombardment that he said had killed at least 10 people not more than 500 yards from his home.

"These children are not Hamas"

The soaring number of dead and wounded in Gaza has fueled rising anger around the world, but perhaps nowhere more intensely than in the other Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Protesters marched Monday in the West Bank city of Ramallah carrying a 40-foot banner bearing the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza. "We are not numbers," it read.

That message, in English, was likely aimed at the only nation many people in the region deem capable of restraining Israel's military.

"We are against the position of the United States of America when they use the veto two times against Palestinian people," one man at the rally told CBS News.

The U.S. has blocked the passage of legally binding United Nations security resolutions that would have called for a new cease-fire, and both Washington and Israel argue that any pause in the fighting would allow Hamas militants to regroup.

But Palestinians and their supporters say those suffering most under Israel's blistering offensive in Gaza are not terrorists.

"These are not Hamas," Lubna Kharouf, a local city council official in the West Bank, said as she pointed to Palestinians at the protest in Ramallah. "These children are not Hamas… and the people who are bombarded in Gaza are mainly the women and civilians and children — and these are not Hamas."

The head of the U.N.'s World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said Tuesday that prolonged Israeli checks and the "detention of health workers" were putting "lives of already fragile patients at risk" in Gaza.

"In just 66 days the health system [in Gaza] has gone from 36 functional hospitals to 11 partially functional hospitals — one in the north and 10 in the south," the Reuters news agency quoted the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, Richard Peeperkorn, as saying during a Tuesday briefing.

Calls for humanitarian aid and a "premium on civilian life"

One of the biggest factors behind the dire humanitarian circumstances in Gaza since Oct. 7 has been Israel's military sealing the territory's borders. Gaza has relied for years on hundreds of trucks crossing daily from Egypt and Israel carrying supplies of virtually everything essential, from medicine to food and fuel. Only one border gate, the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, has been reopened, but aid agencies say the flow of supplies through it has been miniscule in comparison to the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million people.

Hours after U.N. aid agency officials speaking with CBS News renewed their plea for Israel to open the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Monday, to increase the flow of aid into the besieged enclave, Israeli authorities indicated that the country's border checkpoint there would be opened, but to add "security screening" capacity, not for additional trucks to cross into Gaza.

It was not clear how much more aid the additional screening might enable or expedite, as the materials would still need to return to the Rafah crossing to enter Gaza.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Nathaniel Tek, meanwhile, echoed remarks made last week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, telling BBC News on Tuesday that the Biden administration believes it's "critical that Israel places a premium on the protection of human life, and for the ability of aid organizations to access civilians."

"There certainly is more that can be done," Tek said, "and more precise and clear directions can be given to civilians to ensure they can reach safety. We believe that while Israel's intent is there to ensure the protection of civilians, the results also matter, and we are working and pressing the government of Israel to make sure they are putting a premium on civilian life."

He stressed that Hamas, which both Israel and the U.S. accuse of using Palestinians as human shields, also had a responsibility to protect civilians, and he added that the group had "not shown any interest or inclination to do so."

But with both sides seemingly entrenched and little hope for a new cease-fire in the near term, there was instead rising concern that the conflict could spread beyond Gaza.
U.S. "concerned" by reports Israel used white phosphorous in Lebanon

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told journalists Monday that the U.S. was "concerned" by reports that Israel may have used U.S.-provided white phosphorus munitions as it carried out strikes in October in southern Lebanon, where the Hezbollah militant group is based.

"We've seen the reports — certainly concerned about that," Kirby said, referring to a story published by the Washington Post.

"We'll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more," Kirby said, adding that white phosphorus, a highly incendiary material that is difficult to extinguish and can burn through human bone, does have a "legitimate military utility" for illumination and concealing troop movements with smoke.

"Obviously, anytime that we provide items like white phosphorus to another military, it is with a full expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes and in keeping with the law of armed conflict."

Hezbollah, a powerful regional force that, like Hamas, is backed by Iran, has warned repeatedly that it would join Hamas in the war with Israel if called on to do so. Already Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israeli troops across Israel's northern border.

Kirby stressed Monday that the White House does not want to see a second front open up in the war.

"We absolutely don't want to see this conflict spill over into Lebanon," he said. "So it is also in the context of that we're concerned about these reports."
Houthis attack European oil tanker near Yemen

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement said Monday that it had attacked a Norwegian-flagged oil tanker off the country's coast, calling it the latest military operation carried out in protest of the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

The U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said an American warship, the USS Mason, "responded to the M/T STRINDA's mayday call" after what it said appeared to have been a strike with an anti-ship cruise missile. CENTCOM said the Strinda "reported damage causing a fire on-board, but no casualties at this time," and that the Mason had provided unspecified assistance.


The Houthis, a formidable fighting force that captured more than half of Yemen, igniting a civil war in 2014 that continues today, have fired a series of missiles and drones in the direction of U.S. military vessels and other ships in the region since the Israel-Hamas war began.

A French naval frigate, meanwhile, reportedly destroyed a Houthi drone that was threatening the same Norwegian tanker.

 

'Scandalous and misleading': Věra Jourová excoriates Hungary's anti-EU campaign

Sandor Zsiros& Jorge LiboreiroPublished on 12/12/2023

Věra Jourová, the vice president of the European Commission in charge of values of transparency, publicly excoriated Hungary's anti-EU campaign, calling it misleading and replete with "verifiable lies."

"This billboard campaign is outrageous and scandalous. And this campaign is offending my boss Ursula von der Leyen, it's offending me as well, and I think most, if not all, the members of the College" of Commissioners, Jourová said on Tuesday afternoon, in reply to a question from Euronews.

"It does not show something which we call in European diplomatic jargon sincere cooperation."

The billboards, which began appearing on the streets of Hungary in mid-November, feature von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, standing next to Alexander Soros, the 38-year-old son of billionaire George Soros and current chair of the Open Society Foundations (OSF).

A capitalised text reads: "Let's not dance to the tune they whistle!"

Although the Soros family and the OSF, which supports civil society organisations around the world through grants, have been maligned by the Hungarian government in the past, the state-led campaign is the first time von der Leyen has been personally targeted.

The billboards are meant to promote a non-binding national consultation that asks Hungarian citizens for their opinion on a selection of EU policies. Participants are asked to choose between two possible responses, one against and one in favour.

The survey, whose language is heavily incendiary and deceptive, has been mailed to Hungarian households with a 10 January deadline. An online version is also available.

Asked about the content of the consultation, Věra Jourová described the questions and answers as "verifiable lies."

"For instance, Brussels wanting to 'abolish public support for utility costs.' It’s a lie. Brussels wanting to 'abolish the Hungarian windfall tax.' It’s a lie, it's for member states to decide," Jourová said, debunking the questionnaire.

"For instance, something juicy: Brussels' 'alleged support for Palestinian organisations (is) reaching Hamas.' It’s (a) pure lie. We have clarified exactly what we are doing, what kind of control we are undertaking to be absolutely sure that our money does not go into (the) hands of Hamas," she added, referring to the Commission's urgent review into development funds for the Palestinian territories that found no leakage.

"I could continue. Yes, there are lies. The campaign is trying to mislead the Hungarian citizens and we have to sharply disagree with that."

Jourová's comments represent the fiercest denunciation to date of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's latest attempt to undermine the EU's decision-making.

Last month, a spokesperson from the Commission said that President von der Leyen, upon being shown the billboards, had been left "unfazed."

The president "has full trust in the capacity of the Hungarian public to make up its own mind based on objective, factual information as to what we do," the spokesperson said.

"Let's be clear. We know this is not the first time. It's probably not the last time. We have business to do. We have crises to manage. We have policies to implement."

Nevertheless, the billboards and the consultation have raised the temperature of the showdown between Brussels and Budapest at a critical time as Viktor Orbán is threatening to halt the bloc's support for Ukraine and prevent accession talks.

Orbán's opposition push has seen multiple attacks against the Commission's credibility and von der Leyen's authority, with increasing ferocity.

"Rather than analysing the European structures at length, just think about your daily experience of the press – of how often it seems to the public that Europe is being run by the Commission and its President," the PM said in a recent speech.

"We think of her and we read her words as if a leader of Europe was speaking – when in fact she is our employee, our paid employee, whose job it is to carry out what we decide."

The tensions are set to come to a boil later this week during a two-day EU summit.