USA – The US has written to Israel, giving it 30 days to boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or risk having some US military assistance cut off. The letter, sent on Sunday, amounts to the strongest known written warning from the US to its ally and comes amid a new Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, that has reportedly caused a large number of civilian casualties.

It says the US has deep concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation, adding that Israel denied or impeded nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between the north and south last month. Israel is reviewing the letter, an Israeli official was reported as saying, adding the country “takes this matter seriously” and intends to “address the concerns raised” with US counterparts.

Israel has previously said it is targeting Hamas operatives in the north and not stopping the entry of humanitarian aid. On Monday, the Israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza, Cogat, said 30 lorries carrying aid from the World Food Programme had entered northern Gaza through the Erez crossing. That ended a two-week period during which the UN said no food aid was delivered to the north, and supplies essential for survival were running out for the 400,000 Palestinians there.

A UN official has said that Gaza is in a state of “constant peak emergency”. Antoine Renard, head of the World Food Programme (WFP) in the occupied Palestinian territories, told the AFP news agency people in the north of the territory were “relying solely on assistance” with practically no access to fresh food other than that provided by UN agencies. (BBC)…[+]

AFRIKA – Striking images from the Sahara Desert show large lakes etched into rolling sand dunes after one of the most arid, barren places in the world was hit with its first floods in decades. The Sahara does experience rain, but usually just a few inches a year and rarely in late summer. Over two days in September, however, intense rain fell in parts of the desert in southeast Morocco, after a low pressure system pushed across northwestern Sahara. Preliminary NASA satellite data showed nearly 8 inches of rain in some parts of the region.

Errachidia, a desert city in southeast Morocco, recorded nearly 3 inches of rainfall, most of it across just two days last month. That’s more than four times the normal rainfall for the whole month of September, and equates to more than half a year’s worth for this area. “It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this much rain in such a short space of time,’ Houssine Youabeb from Morocco’s meteorology agency told AP last week.

As the rain flowed over the desert terrain, it created a new, watery landscape amid the palm trees and scrubby flora. Some of the most dramatic images are from the desert town of Merzouga, where the rare deluge carved new lakes into the sand dunes.

The reflections of the town’s palm trees now shimmer across the expanse of a new lagoon, framed by steep sand dunes. The rain also filled lakes that are normally dry, such as one in Iriqui National Park, Morocco’s largest national park. NASA satellite images from the region, using false color to better highlight the floodwaters, show newly-formed lakes across swaths of the northwest Sahara.

While much of the rain fell on sparsely-populated remote areas, some fell on Morocco’s towns and villages causing deadly flooding last month, which killed more than a dozen people. More extreme rainfall events could be expected in the Sahara in the future, according to recent research, as fossil fuel pollution continues to heat up the planet and disrupt the water cycle. (CNN)…[+]

Photo: A view of lakes caused by heavy rainfall between sand dunes in the desert town of Merzouga, near Rachidia, southeastern Morocco on October 2, 2024. (AP)

Hunger caused by conflicts around the world has reached record high levels, a new report by Oxfam has found, which accuses warring parties of weaponising food and blocking aid. Between 7,000 to as many as 21,000 people are likely dying each day from hunger in countries affected by conflict, according to the report, published by the United Kingdom-based charity on World Food Day on Wednesday.

Titled Food Wars, it examined 54 countries experiencing conflict, revealing that they account for nearly all of the 281.6 million people facing acute hunger today. Conflict has also been a major driver of forced displacement in these countries, which has now reached a record 117 million people. Oxfam emphasised that conflict not only fuels hunger, but that warring parties are actively using food as a weapon by targeting food, water and energy infrastructure, as well as blocking food aid.

In September, three humanitarian agencies warned of “a starvation crisis of historic proportions” amid Sudan’s civil war, while the proportion of households affected by high levels of acute food insecurity in Gaza has been the largest ever recorded globally since the end of last year. “As conflict rages around the world, starvation has become a lethal weapon wielded by warring parties against international laws,” said Oxfam’s Emily Farr, who works in the area of food and economic security.

“Today’s food crises are largely manufactured. Nearly half a million people in Gaza – where 83 percent of needed food aid is currently not reaching them – and over three-quarters of a million in Sudan are starving as the devastating effects of wars on food are likely to persist for generations.” (Aljazeera)…[+]

UKRAINE – The spluttering roar of a propeller punctuates the perfect silence. Car headlights flick on, splitting the darkness. Their beams reveal not just a section of tarmac ahead, but one of Ukraine’s most top-secret weapons, controlled by its most clandestine agency. Stuck to the nose of the gray machine is a yellow emblem of an owl, wings spread and grasping a sword – the unmistakable logo of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, the GUR. Two pilots sporting the same owl patches on their fatigues make their final checks inside the car before a thumbs up: “Let’s go!”

A high-speed, 50-second chase ensues, before the 13-foot long, 23-foot wingspan AN-196 Liutyi drone disappears in an instant into the inky-black Ukrainian night. The drone’s destination is a target deep inside Russian territory. CNN was granted unprecedented exclusive access to one of Ukraine’s long-range drone units, part of the GUR. Its members call themselves the Long-Range UAV Unit.

Only two people were authorized to speak on the record, and then only using their callsigns: Serge, the long-range drone operations commander of GUR, and Vector, unit commander. Serge said he had personally overseen more than 500 long-range drone attacks into Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

CNN spent two days traveling across the country with the drone unit as it prepared to launch more than 100 drones overnight into September 29 on a mission into Russia. CNN is not disclosing the location of the sites visited for operational security reasons.

Their target: an ammunition facility, specifically train carriages sitting inside the depot loaded with recently delivered Iranian missiles, according to the Ukrainians. Sources told CNN in September that Tehran had recently completed the delivery of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. Iran has vehemently denied supplying any. “Iran has NOT delivered ballistic missiles to Russia. Period!” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently stated on his X account.

The facility sits on the outskirts of the tiny village of Kotluban, in the Volgograd region of southwestern Russia. Long-range drone attacks have become an increasingly prominent part of the Russia-Ukraine war. As the land war has become more attritional, the air war has gathered speed, with the major development being in drone warfare. (CNN)…[+]

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) is continuing to monitor a weather disturbance in the Central Tropical Atlantic, which now has a 40 per cent chance of formation in seven days. The NHC in its 8 am update says a tropical depression could form as the system moves near the Leeward and Virgin Islands late this week. It notes that the broad area of low pressure located over the central tropical Atlantic is producing disorganised showers and thunderstorms.

Forecasters state this system is forecast to move generally westward to west-northwestward, and environmental conditions appear marginally conducive for gradual development during the latter part of this week. The disturbance has a 30 per cent (low) formation chance through 48 hours and a 40 per cent (medium) formation chance through seven days.  Regionally, the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service says it is also monitoring the progress of Tropical disturbance AL94. (jamaica.loopnews)…[+]