Suicide rate in Israeli army hits 13-year high amid ongoing war


The Israeli army has reported a sharp increase in the number of suicides since the start of the war in Gaza, adding that thousands of soldiers have stopped serving in combat roles due to mental distress. The trend has led the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to adopt new preventive measures 15 months into a conflict that has mobilised hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Issued on: 03/01/2025 - 
FRANCE24
By: Anaelle JONAH

Israeli army soldiers stand guard as Israeli Jewish settlers tour the old market in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on December 28, 2024. © Hazem Bader, AFP

The Israeli army said Thursday that 28 soldiers had taken their own lives since the start of the war, marking the highest toll in 13 years and raising concerns about a potential mental health crisis in the army. The IDF noted that these are "suspected" suicides, as all cases remain under investigation to this day.

In a casualty report for the past two years, the IDF said it recorded 21 suicides in 2024, up from 17 the year before – including 10 that occurred before the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants that triggered the war.

The increase was most notable when compared to previous years, with 14 suspected suicides in 2022 and 11 in 2021.

More than half of suicide cases last year involved reservists, a figure attributed to the surge in the number of reservists called up since the war began 15 months ago.

The IDF also reported that thousands of reservist soldiers had stopped serving in combat roles due to mental distress.

Read more  Israeli military recruits African asylum-seekers for war in Gaza

'Each loss is one too many'

Overall fatalities seemingly decreased in 2024 compared to the previous year, with 363 soldiers killed compared to 558 in 2023.

Operational activities accounted for 295 deaths in 2024. Additionally, 23 soldiers died in various accidents, including road incidents, and 11 were killed in terrorist attacks or enemy assaults.

“The State of Israel has experienced great loss. Each person is a world unto themselves, and each loss is one too many. (...) We will do everything possible to minimise these painful cases,” said Brigadier-General Amir Vadmani, from the military's human resources department, in a press release.

In response to the rising suicide rates, the IDF said it adopted several measures aimed at prevention and support.

A 24/7 mental health support hotline has been established, alongside an increase in the number of mental health officers and their availability. The army said it also opened a dedicated clinic for regular service members and expended care for combat trauma responses to discharged soldiers.

Read more Israeli army in urgent need of troops amid rising casualties in Gaza

Growing distrust

In 2021, the IDF claimed to have reduced suicides by 75 percent through prevention programs, though the accuracy of such figures has been questioned before.

That same year, Professor Tamar Hermann of the Israel Democracy Institute told the Knesset Subcommittee for Personnel in the IDF she was “surprised by the information presented concerning prevention and response efforts on the part of the IDF, considering the lack of public trust in the IDF on the issue”.

Surveys conducted by the institute revealed that public trust in the IDF's suicide reporting dropped from 46 percent in 2020 to 38 percent in 2021. Distrust was particularly pronounced among younger Israelis, with only 29 percent of those aged 18–24 expressing trust in the IDF on the issue, compared to 44 percent of those aged 55 and older.

The IDF has historically reported lower suicide rates compared to the general population in Israel and other militaries globally.

The US military has seen more than four times as many deaths by suicide as in combat in post-9/11 operations, according to a study by Brown University's Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs. A 2024 report by the Pentagon showed that American soldiers are nearly nine times more likely to die by suicide than they are in combat.

In total, the IDF has reported the deaths of 891 soldiers across regular, permanent and reserve service, with 5,569 others injured since the start of the ongoing war, which was sparked by Hamas-led militants’ October 7, 2023 attack into Israel.

The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted approximately 250. Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, with at least a third believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has resulted in the deaths of more than 45,500 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Half of the casualties are reported to be women and children.

Israeli Strikes Kill At Least 76 In Gaza In The First Three Days Of 2025

On New Year’s day, an Israeli attack killed at least 26 Palestinians and on the next day, multiple airstrikes by Israeli forces killed 50 people across Gaza.

Outlook Web Desk
Updated on: 3 January 2025 


Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,553 Palestinians and wounded 108,379 since October 7, 2023, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on January 2. Photo: AP


In the first three days of 2025, Israeli strikes killed at least 76 people across Gaza. The first of these attacks was on New Year’s Day when Israeli forces attacked Jabalia in northern Gaza, the Bureij refugee camp and Gaza City in central Gaza, and the southern city of Khan Younis killing 26 people, Al-Jazeera reported. The other airstrikes killed at least 50 people, including several children, across the Gaza Strip, hitting Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, reports showed. This attack came in when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had authorised a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military to continue negotiations in Qatar toward a ceasefire deal.

On the New Year’ Day attack, Gaza’s Health Ministry said four children and one woman were among the dead. At least 10 other Palestinians were missing and believed to be under the rubble. “Fifteen people were martyred and more than 20 were injured in a massacre after midnight in a house where displaced people were living in the town of Jabalia,” Al-Jazeera quoted Gaza civil defence agency’s spokesperson.

An overnight attack in the Bureij refugee camp killed a woman and a child, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received their bodies. In Gaza City's Shujaiya neighborhood, a strike on a residential home belonging to the al-Suweirki family killed six people, including two children and a woman, the civil defense reported. Another strike in Khan Younis killed three people, according to the Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies.

The other attacks happened when the Israeli strike in the Muwasi seaside humanitarian zone occurred as hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sought shelter from the cold winter weather, media reports showed. "Everyone was taking shelter in their tents from the cold, and suddenly we found the world turning upside down. Why, and for what?" said Ziyad Abu Jabal, who was displaced from Gaza City.

The early morning strike killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior Hamas police officers. Israel's military stated that it targeted a senior police officer involved in gathering intelligence for Hamas' armed wing, which was used in attacks on Israeli forces, media reports said. Another Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed at least eight people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The victims were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,553 Palestinians and wounded 108,379 since October 7, 2023, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on January 2.

7 Palestinians injured in assault by illegal Israeli settlers in West Bank

40 armed settlers raid Silwad, burn cars, according to town's mayor

Aysar Al-Ayas |03.01.2025 - TRT/AA


RAMALLAH, Palestine

Seven Palestinians sustained injuries in an assault on Friday by illegal Israeli settlers on the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, central occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians sustained injuries as the settlers beat them using batons and hurled stones, the Health Ministry said. Their condition, however, is stable.

Silwad's mayor Raed Hamed told Anadolu that 40 armed settlers raided the town's Nasiba area, assaulted the people, and set fire to at least five cars.

Over the past few years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal settlers.

At least 835 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 6,700 injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful, and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.


*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara

UNHCR chief warns of ‘human rights catastrophe’ as Israel attacks Gaza hospitals and healthcare facilities

Volker Turk called Israel's attacks on Gaza's medical facilities a 'catastrophe unfolding before the eyes of the world'

The New Arab Staff
03 January, 2025


UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has condemned Israel's military actions in Gaza [Getty]

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has condemned Israel’s relentless targeting of Gaza’s healthcare facilities describing the situation as a "human rights catastrophe unfolding before the eyes of the world."

During the a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the enclave, Turk warned about the devastating consequences of Israel’s destruction of hospitals, which not only denies Palestinians access to healthcare but also removes critical sanctuaries for civilians seeking safety.

"The destruction of hospitals across Gaza goes beyond depriving Palestinians of their right to access adequate health care. Those hospitals provided sanctuary for thousands of people with nowhere else to go," he added.

Turk cited examples such as Kamal Adwan Hospital, rendered inoperable after Israeli forces raided and burned the building, and Al-Awda Hospital, which is struggling to function under relentless attacks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has echoed Turk’s concerns. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the West Bank and Gaza, described how hospitals in Gaza have turned into battlegrounds, depriving patients of lifesaving care.

Despite these dire conditions, Peeperkorn commended health workers and aid organisations for maintaining services under impossible circumstances.

The UN has repeatedly warned that Israel’s military operations place the entire Palestinian population in jeopardy. Calls for an independent and transparent investigation into attacks on hospitals and healthcare personnel remain unanswered.

Turk also urged Israel to ensure unrestricted humanitarian aid and to fulfil its obligations under international law by ending its occupation of Palestinian territories.

The UN and international organizations have called on global powers to intervene and protect civilians in Gaza. Turk warned that the “atrocity crimes” could escalate further unless immediate action is taken.

"I once more, warn in the strongest terms about the risk of atrocity crimes being committed in the occupied Palestinian territory. I urge all those with influence to take action accordingly and to protect civilians as a matter of absolute priority. It is essential that there is full accountability for all violations of international humanitarian and human rights," he said.

Since October, Israel’s military operations in Gaza have killed over 45,550 people, predominantly women and children, and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families.

These actions have drawn international condemnation, with the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Palestinian envoy urges UN Security Council to end Gaza genocide, 'Israeli impunity'

Palestinian doctors, medical personnel fighting to save human lives and losing their own while hospitals are under attack, Riyad Mansour says

Diyar Guldogan |03.01.2025 -  TRT/AA



WASHINGTON

Palestinian envoy to the UN on Friday urged the Security Council to end the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.

"It is our collective responsibility to bring this hell to an end. It is our collective responsibility to bring this genocide to an end," Riyad Mansour told a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

The meeting came following last week’s raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arbitrary arrest and detention of its director, Hussam Abu Safiya.

"You have an obligation to save lives. Palestinian doctors and medical personnel took that mission to heart at the peril of their lives. They did not abandon the victims. Do not abandon them. End Israeli impunity. End the genocide. End this aggression immediately and unconditionally, now," Mansour told the council.

Palestinian doctors and medical personnel are fighting to save human lives and losing their own while hospitals are under attack, he added.

"They are fighting a battle they cannot win, and yet they are unwilling to surrender and to betray the oath they took," he said.

Israel has killed more than 45,550 victims, mostly women and children, in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

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

Germany's uranium imports from Russia surge by 70% despite energy sanctions

 Friday, January 3, 2025 

Germany imported at least 68.6 tons of uranium from Russia in 2024, according to data from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Climate Protection, as reported by Spiegel. This marks a 70% increase in imports of this resource compared to 2023.

The uranium suppliers were two subsidiaries of the Russian state corporation Rosatom. The material, slated for use in nuclear power plants, was delivered to the Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF) plant in Lingen, which manufactures fuel assemblies. ANF is a subsidiary of Framatome, a French manufacturer of nuclear plant equipment. Notably, Germany has phased out nuclear energy.

Despite the EU sanctions against Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, uranium imports from Russia have not been affected. The EU "does not impose an embargo on the import or export of nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes," explained the federal ministry responsible for the environment, nature conservation, nuclear safety, and consumer protection, confirming the shipments.

ANF has submitted an application to the Lower Saxony authorities to operate a new production line. The plant aims to produce fuel assemblies for Russian-type water-water reactors (VVER), used in five EU countries. The new fuel assemblies are to be manufactured under a license from the Russian company TVEL, a Rosatom subsidiary. By late November 2024, Framatome had acknowledged the necessity of importing not only uranium but also other components required for producing fuel assemblies from Russia.

A decision on the application is still pending, and federal authorities have not specified a timeline for completing the mandatory review. In 2023, German authorities had warned that such cooperation might threaten the country's security, particularly in the event of "immediate disruptive intervention" at the facility.

In light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU has prioritized reducing energy dependency on Russia. Consequently, Framatome's plans have sparked outrage among environmentalists and civil rights activists.

Generation P

What we know about the Russians who came of age under Vladimir Putin

 January 3, 2025
Source: Signal

Toma Gerzha / Control Refresh

“Generation Putin” is the name sometimes given to people who have lived their entire lives under Vladimir Putin’s rule in Russia. In the past decade, these people have come of age, and now make up the cohort of young adults who will inherit whatever follows Putin in Russia. It’s never easy to characterize generational cohorts, and in the tumult of Putin’s escalating domestic repression and outright military aggression in Ukraine, it’s even more difficult to paint a clear picture of Generation Putin. Meduza explains what Russia’s young adults believe, and what they might do once Putin’s gone.

This essay is adapted from an issue of Signal, a Russian-language email newsletter from Meduza. If you enjoyed this piece, stay tuned. We’ve got a book coming in early 2025!

By the end of the 2010s in Russia, a generation of people were coming of age who had lived their entire lives under Vladimir Putin. They soon acquired a collective name: Generation Putin.

Some Russian scholars used to say that around half of Generation Putin believes in the possibility of positive Russian relations with the West and that their own futures will be happy. Many members of this cohort also hold democratic values and don’t trust the current regime.

But now, three years into Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Generation Putin has taken on a different meaning entirely. Russia’s youth are now said, in the global mainstream media, to resemble the majority of Russians: they’re politically apathetic, tacitly supporting the war. Sociological studies continue to refute this idea, calling Generation Putin a weak point in the Russian authorities’ various propaganda campaigns. But the notion that they’re apathetic has stuck.

In reality, the truth about Russia’s young adults is hard to discern.

The bitter truth is that events in Russia affect your life, too. Help Meduza continue to bring news from Russia to readers around the world by setting up a monthly donation.
Defining a generation

The phrase “Generation Putin” on its own barely has meaning, because it can mean practically anything. If you hear that Generation Putin is apolitical or politicized, conformist or rebellious, or anything else, it’s likely just content for clicks.

The generational breakdown that has become conventional (from boomers to zoomers) isn’t really scientific, it’s more like a marketing ploy.

It does rest on real scholarly work, though, most importantly on the theory of generations developed by sociologist Karl Mannheim in the early 20th century. Mannheim argued that people between the ages of 17 and 25 are particularly impressionable. When major historical events (war, revolution, or other tears in the fabric of life) happen, they have a particularly significant social impact on people in this age group. Thus, a generation is formed, for example the “Lost Generation” (who were young during World War I), the “Silent Generation” (who were young during World War II), and so on.

For Mannheim, this was simply an observation; he never claimed to have come up with a fully-fledged theory. However, his work formed the basis for a 1990s book by William Strauss and Neil Howe called, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069.

Strauss and Howe’s work is the origin of the most popular organization scheme for American 20th century generations: Baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, etc. Most scholars consider this delineation of generations artificial and unproductive, because it assumes that large groups of people will share common traits simply because they are of a similar age. It takes social class, education, gender identity, and many other important factors out of the equation.

This generational breakdown did, however, turn out to be a very convenient way for companies to position brands and plan advertising campaigns.

In Russia in the early aughts, sociologist Yury Levada delineated six Soviet generations, also according to the historical setting of their “impressionable years.” His generations were defined by the revolution and Civil War; the Stalin era social mobilization; World War II; the Thaw; and the Era of Stagnation and Perestroika.

Putin and ‘Generation P’

The Kremlin wants Generation Putin’s loyalty.

Sociologist Iskender Yasaveyev told Signal that scholars approach studying Generation Putin with great caution. He points out that a united youth politics did not immediately emerge when Putin took power in Russia. Moreover, the concept of “youth,” including its legal definition, has changed several times under Putin. It originally signified people between 14 and 30 years old, then it was expanded to 35, and in the future the upper limit of “youth” may be raised to 38.

Since the mid-aughts, Russian authorities have been trying to control young Russians’ political activity. They have not been especially successful, however. The protests of the winter of 2011–2012 changed the country’s entire political situation dramatically. Since then, the authorities have markedly increased the amount of “patriotic programming” in educational curricula, and have also made more active attempts to influence young people on the Internet.

With Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2014, these programs have taken on an increasingly militaristic character, Yasaveyev noted. The youth policy program for the years 2016–2020 saw the first instance of the phrase “in peacetime and in wartime,” for example.


Other scholars researching Russian youth have told Signal that it’s difficult to measure the influence of Russia’s new “patriotic education.” One Levada Center sociologist, who requested anonymity, says that opinion polls do not show that young Russians are supporters of the current government. “Surveys do not show people’s privately held opinions,” the researcher says, “but rather how prepared they are to share the opinions that dominate the public sphere.”

Support for Putin among Russia’s youth is a direct result of the war in Ukraine. Since 2022, it has become abundantly clear to everyone what can and cannot be said in public. Young people’s answers to opinion polls show not what they themselves really believe, but what they currently understand to be acceptable to believe and to say. External pressure on Russia also plays a role. “Many people who are growing up now have never been outside of Russia,” the Levada Center researcher said. “In addition, the war [against Ukraine] has seriously changed the Western world’s relationship to Russia, and the media and culture reflect this. It has an effect on the mood of the youth. The authorities’ ideological work only intensifies these processes.”

More on Russia’s patriotic curriculum


The Kremlin’s campaign to make education more ‘patriotic’ reaches English language classes with new ‘Glorious Russia’ textbook
3 months ago

Iskender Yasaveyev is certain that the main result of Russia’s current patriotic education and repressive political climate will be the formation of double consciousness, similar to the late Soviet era. “In that period, [the official] values being broadcast were assimilated at the level of rhetoric — but the backdrop was a widespread detachment from those values in everyday life. The problem with today’s patriotic education is that it is lackluster, if not entirely meaningless. Its essence is anti-Westernization, traditionalism, and loyalty to the authorities. But this is unlikely to seriously capture anyone.”


Will they miss Putin when he’s gone?

If we construct a generation the way Mannheim would, the first Putin generation would be comprised of people born right around 1980 — they were in their early 20s in the 2000s, when he first took power. Today’s 24-year-olds (who are currently in their “impressionable years”) haven’t lived under any authority but Putin’s. They’re the ones people most often call Generation Putin.

In 2021, scholar Grigory Yudin said that Generation Putin was actually made of people born around the turn of the millennium, who live in anticipation of “an event that will make them a generation.” That’s the same shock, the same tear in social fabric, that Mannheim wrote about.

This event occurred on February 24, 2022 — when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A number of studies continue, to this day, to show that Russian youth are distrustful of and indifferent to politics. Researchers attribute this to the fact that this generation grew up during a general “cleansing” of the political field by Putin and his allies. It’s also true, though, that people this age willingly volunteer and donate money to charity.

In 2024, the Kremlin-connected Expert Institute for Social Research put out a monograph on Russian youth. It argues that young people have “vague and fragmented ideas about Russia.” Put simply, this generation’s values and views appear so complex and contradictory that, that it’s impossible to paint a portrait that fully characterizes the whole group.

Toma Gerzha / Control Refresh

There are, however, several features that do really characterize the Putin generation, the Levada Center researcher told Signal. Young Russians are the country’s most culturally westernized group. This is primarily true because they consume the most foreign popular culture — even aggressively anti-Western domestic politics and state propaganda have been unable to slow that trend.

Russian youth also remain the country’s most tolerant demographic, despite bans on “gay propaganda” and the Russian authorities’ move to label all LGBTQ-focused groups as “extremist organizations.” They’re also progressive despite the state’s efforts — for example, though domestic policy in Russian currently aims at increasing the birth rate and upholding “traditional values,” the age at which Russians first marry continues to increase.

Generation Putin is also still young, and just beginning to come into its own. It’s impossible to predict what will ultimately happen to the young people who stayed in Russia, but many still try. The usual method is by drawing historical parallels to the people who came of age in Spain under Francisco Franco.

The Franco generation grew up in the political and economic turmoil of the 1930s, which would devolve into the Spanish Civil War. Its members were indoctrinated with a nationalist and Catholic ideology during the rise of Franco’s regime. The civil war polarized society in a way that left a permanent division within this generation. Some of its members ended up with official positions in Franco’s government, while others organized underground movements against his dictatorship.


Franco’s reign ended when he died, and the generation whose lives had been lived entirely under his rule were the ones who ushered their country into a new democratic age. Spain largely avoided mass nostalgia for the Franco regime by conducting wide-scale social research into that era’s repressions. It’s a curious but readily observed fact that nostalgia for Franco’s dictatorship is more likely among generations of people who didn’t actually live through it.

It’s possible that some future generations will miss Putin, but it’s likely that they haven’t been born yet.


Mikita Kuchinski for Signal

Nippon Steel to sue US govt as Biden blocks $14.9B acquisition deal

President Biden blocked the $14.9 billion sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel, citing the need to protect domestic industry, after a panel failed to reach a decision on whether the deal threatened US national security.



Biden's decision, less than three weeks before he leaves office, follows extended wrangling over competing domestic political, economic and trade demands. 

/ Photo: AP Archive

Nippon Steel has decided to file a lawsuit against the US government to challenge the appropriateness of the procedures by which President Joe Biden issued an order to block its acquisition of US Steel, the Nikkei Business reported.

US Steel and Nippon Steel said on Friday they would take all "appropriate action to protect their legal rights" after Biden's move.

Both firms called the decision "a clear violation of due process and the law."

"The President's statement and order do not present any credible evidence of a national security issue, making clear that this was a political decision," the companies said in a joint statement.

Biden blocked the $14.9 billion sale, citing a strategic need to protect domestic industry.

The move came after a government panel failed to reach consensus last month on whether the acquisition threatened US national security, shifting the decision to the Democrat in the waning days of his presidency.

"This acquisition would place one of America's largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains," Biden said in a statement.

"That is why I am taking action to block this deal."

'Bold action'

The United Steelworkers union quickly welcomed the announcement.

"We're grateful for President Biden's willingness to take bold action to maintain a strong domestic steel industry and for his lifelong commitment to American workers," USW International President David McCall said.

US Steel's shares slumped more than five percent in early trading.

Biden's decision, less than three weeks before he leaves office, follows extended wrangling over competing domestic political, economic and trade demands.

The veteran Democrat, who made the rebuilding of the US manufacturing base a major goal of his administration, had criticised the deal for months, while holding off on a move that could risk damaging relations with Tokyo.

There was rare bipartisan agreement on the issue, with Republican president-elect Donald Trump and incoming vice president JD Vance also campaigning against the sale.

Nippon Steel had touted the takeover as a lifeline for a US company that is long past its heyday, but opponents warned that the Japanese owners would slash jobs.

Biden to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of US Steel, reports say

US president expected to announce decision to block proposed sale of Pittsburgh-based steelmaker as early as Friday.

A United Steelworkers sign is seen outside the Great Lakes Works United States Steel plant in River Rouge, Michigan, the United States, on September 16, 2024 [Rebecca Cook/Reuters]

Published On 3 Jan 2025

United States President Joe Biden has decided to block the proposed takeover of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, US media has reported.

Biden is expected to announce his decision to scuttle the $14.9bn sale on national security grounds as early as Friday, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Keep readinglist of 4 itemslist 1 of 4
Record number of migrants, refugees reached Canary Islands by sea in 2024list 2 of 4
Maduro government offers reward for location of exiled opposition candidatelist 3 of 4
US President Biden awards presidential medal to Trump critic Liz Cheneylist 4 of 4
South Korean authorities halt bid to arrest Yoon after hours-long standoffend of list

Biden’s decision comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States last month failed to reach a consensus on the possible national security risks of the deal, and just weeks before he hands control of the White House to US President-elect Donald Trump.

Biden had been widely expected to block the sale of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker to Japan’s largest steel producer after opposing the proposal during his ill-fated re-election campaign.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, also opposed the deal, describing the proposed sale as “a horrible thing”.

The proposed sale was seen as an important election issue in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, which flipped from Trump to Biden in 2020 and back to Trump in November.

The United Steelworkers labour union (USW) lobbied strongly against the sale, describing it as “nothing more than corporate greed, selling out American workers and jeopardising the long-term future of the domestic steel industry and our national security”.

Under the proposed sale, which was overwhelmingly backed by shareholders of US Steel, the combined company would have become one of the world’s largest steel producers.

US Steel would have become a subsidiary of Nippon Steel but kept its name and its headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Biden’s decision could strain relations with Japan, one of the closest US allies in Asia and a key partner in Washington’s efforts to counter China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in November wrote to Biden asking him to approve the deal to avoid damage to ties between the sides, the Reuters news agency reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Beijing slams US over potential Chinese drone ban

The decision on banning commercial Chinese drones will fall to the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump

.PHOTO: REUTERS

UPDATED Jan 03, 2025

BEIJING – China said on Jan 3 it would take “all necessary measures” in response to the United States announcing it was considering restrictions on commercial Chinese drones for national security reasons.

On Jan 2, the US Commerce Department said it was considering new rules to address risks posed by drones made with technology from foreign adversaries such as China and Russia.

The efforts could lead to regulations or bans on Chinese drones, which dominate the global market.

Responding to a question about the potential restrictions on Jan 3, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused the US of “generalising the concept of national security, interfering (with) and restricting normal economic and trade exchanges, and undermining the security and stability of global production and supply chains”.

“We will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard our legitimate rights and interests,” she added.

The US Commerce Department is seeking public feedback on the potential new rules until March 4, meaning the decision will fall to the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

The department suggested the technology designed by China may give it “the ability to remotely access and manipulate” the drones, which could “present undue or unacceptable risks to US national security”.
 Media's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy as amended from time to time.

In October 2024, Chinese drone maker DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer, said it was suing the US Department of Defence after Washington designated it a “Chinese military company” in 2022.

“DJI is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military... (It) is a private company and should not be misclassified as a military company,” the firm said at the time.

DJI has attracted Washington’s scrutiny in recent years, including for its alleged role in surveilling ethnic minorities in China.

In September, Washington moved to ban the sale of connected vehicles incorporating Chinese and Russian technology, citing national security risks. AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

The independent public prosecution office of the EU

Italy: EPPO charges nine suspects and five companies with fraud to obtain €4 million for aquaculture

Published on 3 January 2025



(Luxembourg, 3 January 2025) – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Rome (Italy) has charged nine individuals and five companies with aggravated fraud to obtain €4 million for the aquaculture sector, funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

At issue are five cooperative societies, suspected of submitting false documentation and fictitious insurance policies, in order to obtain €4 million for the construction of new fish tanks and a fish boat for the aquaculture sector. During the application procedure, one of the companies was barred from receiving any funds, after it was sanctioned with an anti-mafia preventive measure.

Four companies received an advance payment of €1.4 million from the EMFF. The beneficiaries informed the paying agency that the works on the new tanks had started, but later checks showed that this was not true.

An additional request for €2.6 million was submitted to the paying agency, but the funds were not disbursed, thanks to the timely investigation of the EPPO.

The evidence gathered points to criminal responsibility of the suspects for aggravated fraud to obtain public funds, as well as embezzlement and money laundering.

Overall, four of the five companies were affected by an anti-mafia preventive measure: one during the application procedure, for another investigation, and the remaining after this investigation started.

The investigation counted on the support of the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza – Comando Provinciale Foggia) and with the cooperation of the local Port Authority.

All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.

More than a tourist attraction: Tokyo Skytree jolts research as a lightning rod

The Tokyo Skytree’s height of 634m makes it a literal lightning rod, with at least 10 strikes a year.

PHOTO: TOKYO SKYTREE

Walter Sim
 Jan 03, 2025
THE STRAITS TIMES

TOKYO – The Tokyo Skytree, the world’s tallest freestanding tower, is more than just one of the city’s top tourist attractions: It is also a science laboratory for lightning and other research, and a disaster mitigation hub.

The 634m-tall structure – more than twice the height of Singapore’s tallest building, the 290m-high Guoco Tower – towers over the bustling Japanese capital and has welcomed more than 50 million visitors since it opened in May 2012.

The main role of the Tokyo Skytree is to transmit digital terrestrial broadcasting for the Greater Tokyo region. Since 2012, it has taken over the transmission role from the 333m-tall Tokyo Tower, which was completed in 1958 and was increasingly unable to provide complete coverage as it came to be surrounded by high-rise buildings.

The Tokyo Skytree’s height makes it a literal lightning rod, with at least 10 strikes a year – not a surprise considering the relatively flat terrain around it – effectively debunking the old saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice.

This makes the structure ripe for lightning research, and the world’s scientists are taking notice – no other lightning measuring devices are installed on buildings at such heights anywhere else in the world

.
A view of Tokyo, as taken from an outdoor platform 497m above ground at the Tokyo Skytree.

ST PHOTO: WALTER SIM

The Straits Times was among a few media outlets to recently get a look at the lightning research apparatus located outdoors at 497m above ground. This is higher than the 450m-high observation deck accessible to the public.


Getting there required donning a helmet and a safety vest, before taking the service lift and navigating a labyrinth of steep staircases and ladders while facing strong winds. Reporters had to secure their belongings, including smartphones, pens and notebooks, to their bodies with string so that nothing fell through the steel gratings or was blown off.


ST Asian Insider: Malaysia Edition
Get exclusive insights into Malaysia in weekly round-up

Sign up

By signing up, I accept SPH Media's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy as amended from time to time.

Yes, I would also like to receive SPH Media Group's
SPH Media Limited, its related corporations and affiliates as well as their agents and authorised service providers. marketing and promotions.

While it has been more than 270 years since Benjamin Franklin, one of the US’ founding fathers, realised that lightning was a form of electricity, mysteries still persist over the natural phenomenon today.

Many contemporary lightning countermeasures being taken worldwide are based on data derived more than 50 years ago from measurements taken on a Swiss mountain.


This presents a knowledge gap that the Tokyo Skytree aims to bridge by offering an urban counterpoint, especially during severely humid Japanese summers, as climate change brings on more instances of what Japan calls “guerilla rainstorms” – short, localised deluges with more than 100mm of rain per hour.

“Many aspects of lightning are still unknown today, given how difficult it is to measure and study,” said senior researcher Mikihisa Saito of the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI).

Other than lightning studies, the Tokyo Skytree also serves as a research laboratory for the heat island effect (where urban areas are warmer due to the absorption of heat by pavements, buildings or other surfaces), airborne PM2.5 particles and levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

For the lightning research, the structure’s operator, affiliated with railway giant Tobu, gave CRIEPI permission to install what are known as “Rogowski coils” to monitor strikes round the clock.

Senior researcher Mikihisa Saito of the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry showing the lightning measurement apparatus on an outdoor platform located 497m above ground at the Tokyo Skytree. 

ST PHOTO: WALTER SIM

Data – including the current and direction of the lightning strike – is fed to an indoor observation room located 300m above ground, and stored in a recording device.

Mr Saito’s team gets smartphone alerts every time the Tokyo Skytree is struck. While the observation is fully automated, his team manually collects data and inspects the coil for any damage.

Numerous studies have been published in scientific journals through the years, but Mr Saito said the data collected so far is not enough: “We obviously want to gather more data, but this is difficult since it depends on natural conditions.”

His team hopes to study different types of lightning, what kinds of conditions lead to them being induced and the amount of current produced, whether it is possible to create devices that can accurately pinpoint the location of lightning strikes, and if there are efficient ways of preventing lightning damage.

He hopes the work can benefit weather scientists and agencies, as well as utilities companies that oversee the maintenance of power cables and protection of high-rise buildings from lightning damage.

This is becoming increasingly urgent as Tokyo faces a surge in lightning strikes, which have been hypothesised to be due to more violent storms triggered by climate change. Tokyo registered 60,741 lightning strikes from July to September 2024, which was 3.9 times that of the same period in 2023.

Additionally, Japan is naturally prone to disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, which makes it necessary for the Tokyo Skytree to continue its role as a broadcasting tower even during crises.

Structural engineer Atsuo Konishi from engineering firm Nikken Sekkei, who was involved in the construction of the 36,000-tonne tower, said two key features make the tower resilient to disasters.

The first is a central pillar, which is a reinforced concrete core column built in the centre of the Tokyo Skytree. This is separate from another steel-framed tower, which allows both components to vibrate at different frequencies, thus reducing vibrations by up to 50 per cent during earthquakes

.
The Tokyo Skytree, which towers 634m above ground, is the tallest freestanding tower in the world.

ST PHOTO: WALTER SIM

The structure was inspired by five-storey pagodas such as the Horyuji Temple in Nara prefecture, which, at more than 1,600 years old, is among the oldest surviving wooden structures in the world. There are no records in Japan of such pagodas ever collapsing in a quake, and this is thought to be due to the existence of a central pillar.

The second feature is the truss structure, which is formed by interconnecting triangles made with high-strength steel pipes. This allows the tower to withstand maximum instantaneous wind speeds of up to 110m per second.

“The tower has been built to withstand the strongest envisioned earthquake that may hit Tokyo, based on government research of all the fault lines and activity beneath the city,” Mr Konishi said, while wind velocity of such strengths is regarded as an at least once-in-2,000-year event

.
One of two disaster monitoring cameras installed by the Sumida Ward Office at 260m above ground at the Tokyo Skytree.

ST PHOTO: WALTER SIM

The Tokyo Skytree’s durability during disasters is why the local Sumida ward is using it as a backup disaster response headquarters if the ward office cannot be used. There are emergency rations as well as equipment such as monitors and microphones that can broadcast announcements to public speakers throughout the ward.

The ward office has also installed two disaster monitoring cameras at 260m above ground, with zoom functions of up to 100 times, providing a 360-degree bird’s eye view of the area for the monitoring of threats, from fires to flooding.

That the Tokyo Skytree was built to its full height of 634m just seven days after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, was symbolic of Japan’s recovery and resilience, said Mr Kenichiro Iwamoto, a disaster prevention manager at Sumida Ward Office.

“Even 300 years ago, when Tokyo was called Edo, it was one of the largest cities in the world with more than one million people,” he said.

“Much like the fire watchtowers of the era that helped prevent fires from engulfing wooden homes of the time, the Tokyo Skytree plays a similar disaster prevention role today.”Walter Sim is Japan correspondent at The Straits Times. Based in Tokyo, he writes about political, economic and socio-cultural issues.