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UNITED NATIONS, United States: A ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday, calling on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a ceasefire deal.
“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilizing impact in the region,” Guterres said as he received Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
MINKOWCE: An impenetrable barrier against irregular migration for some, a deadly trap for others: a metal fence erected on the Polish-Belarusian border is dividing Poland’s authorities and human rights groups.
At its foot, Polish soldiers, hooded and carrying machine guns, patrol the border — a flashpoint between Warsaw and Minsk whom Poland had blamed for orchestrating the influx of migrants.
“Migration is artificially directed here,” said Michal Bura, a spokesman for the Podlasie region border guards, joining the patrol in his four-wheel drive.
“The Belarusian services help the migrants, transport them from one place to another, and equip them with tools they need to cross this barrier, such as pliers, hacksaws, and ladders,” he added.
This month, the 5-meter-high metal barrier along the border built in 2022 has been reinforced with metal bars and another layer of barbed wire.
Warsaw has also installed new cameras every 200 meters along the fence to detect migrants before they even attempt to cross it.
This month, the 5-meter-high metal barrier along the border built in 2022 has been reinforced with metal bars and another layer of barbed wire.
Since 2021, Poland has seen thousands of migrants and refugees, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, attempting to enter the EU and NATO country through Belarus.
Warsaw has called it a hybrid operation by Belarus and its ally Russia to increase migratory pressure and thereby destabilize the EU.
Bura said the modernization of the fence, due to be completed by the end of the year, was already having an effect.
“Crossings have decreased significantly” along the reinforced stretches, he said.
Fearing Russia, Poland has also announced it would spend over €2.3 billion on an “eastern shield” — a system of military fortifications along the border, which will make it even more difficult for migrants to cross.
But, according to border guards, while the overall number of crossings fell as winter arrived, it had already reached 28,500 by mid-November compared with 26,000 in total last year.
Right in the middle of the Europe’s largest primeval forest of Bialowieza, Aleksandra Chrzanowska packed into plastic bags what remained of a former makeshift migrant camp — a torn emergency blanket, medicines, shoes hidden under leaves wet from the snow.
“The border is about 20 kilometers away,” she said, pointing to the east and the thick forest.
“It takes migrants between 30 hours and a week to get here. It all depends on their physical condition, whether they have children with them, and what the weather is like,” said
Chrzanowska, a member of Grupa Granica, a nonprofit helping migrants in distress.
Its volunteers bring them water, food, dry clothes, and medicine.
In case of emergency or threat to life, they administer first aid, help migrants fill out asylum application forms or serve as translators in communication with the authorities.
“In the long term, this barrier, these electronic installations, do not change anything,” said Chrzanowska, who added no real migration policy was implemented by the government.
According to rights groups, migrants at the border are increasingly subjected to police violence, with some suffering injuries inflicted by dog bites or rubber bullets.
Some migrants have also injured themselves by jumping from the top of the fence.
“Half of the patients we treat have physical injuries and mental trauma resulting from crossing the border,” Uriel Mazzoli, head of Doctors Without Borders Mission in Poland, said.
KUALA LUMPUR: More than 150,000 people were sheltering in evacuation centers throughout Malaysia on Sunday after flooding forced them out of their homes as the Southeast Asian country faced its worst floods in a decade.
Torrential rain in the past week inundated areas on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, with at least three people dead in the worst-hit northeastern state of Kelantan and neighboring Terengganu, according to data from the National Disaster Management Agency.
The government has set up at least 686 relief centers and used more than 82,000 officers in rescue and relief efforts, as the number of people affected grew from about 37,000 people on Thursday.
“Areas where the locals typically encounter waters that are a foot, maybe two-feet deep, now have chest-deep waters. They were not prepared for this,” Mohd Zulkifli Osman, chief of the fire and rescue department in Kelantan district of Tanah Merah, told Arab News in a phone interview.
Osman said the situation was worse than during the 2014 floods, when more than 118,000 people were displaced.
“Overall though, it’s worse,” he said. “(There are) areas that typically do not get affected by flooding, but this time it is badly hit.”
Videos posted on social media platforms showed overflowing rivers, submerged cars and houses.
But compared with 10 years ago, disaster management officials are more prepared to handle the floods, Osman said.
“Back in 2014, there were shortages of boats and even life jackets. At the time we had not encountered such flooding. But since then, they’re much better prepared and that is why the situation is so much better handled despite the flooding itself being much worse.”
Although weather authorities are expecting a possible ease in rainfall during the night, Malaysia’s Meteorological Department on Sunday afternoon maintained its red alert warning for continuous heavy downpours — indicating dangerous levels of rainfall.
Floods are common in Malaysia during the annual monsoon season from October to March, with thousands of people displaced each year.
In 2021, floods displaced more than 71,000 people across the country and killed at least 54 people.
MANILA: The Philippines aims to create jobs and improve local expertise through a new energy partnership with the UAE, Manila’s energy secretary said on Sunday as he announced the signing of a preliminary agreement between the two countries.
The Philippines and the UAE agreed to strengthen ties during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first visit to the Gulf state on Tuesday, with the two countries signing new agreements in various areas, including investment, culture, artificial intelligence and digital economy.
Energy transition was one of the key agreements signed during that trip, Philippines Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said in a statement.
“At its core this partnership reflects the mutual recognition that energy lies at the heart of development,” Lotilla said.
The cooperation will combine the UAE’s leadership in innovative energy solutions with the Philippines’ ambitious drive for energy security and sustainability, he added.
“By attracting investments in energy infrastructure, the partnership will generate new jobs, enhance local expertise through technology transfer and capacity building, and support the development of a robust energy ecosystem.”
Under the new agreement, the Philippines and the UAE plan to collaborate in areas such as renewable energy, nuclear energy and emerging technologies.
“To operationalize this MoU (memorandum of understanding), an implementation agreement with a UAE state-owned company is expected by January next year,” Lotilla said, but provided no specific details.
In earlier discussions with his Emirati counterpart, Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al-Mazrouei, Lotilla said they agreed to foster business partnerships between their two countries and to position the Philippines as a “prime destination for Emirati investments in critical energy sectors,” which includes developing new energy infrastructure and renewable energy projects.
Manila has been exploring clean and sustainable options to generate power because the country regularly suffers outages and faces high tariffs. Coal is the main source of electricity in the Southeast Asian state, accounting for more than half of its power generation.
Under the Philippine Energy Plan, the government aims to increase the share of renewable sources in the energy mix from 22 percent currently to 50 percent by 2040.
KYIV: Russian President Vladimir Putin approved budget plans, raising 2025 military spending to record levels as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine.
Around 32.5 percent of the budget posted on a government website Sunday has been allocated for national defense, amounting to 13.5 trillion rubles (over $145 billion), up from a reported 28.3 percent this year.
Lawmakers in both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and Federation Council had already approved the plans in the past 10 days.
Russia’s war on Ukraine, which started in Feb. 2022, is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has drained the resources of both sides.
Kyiv has been getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies, but Russia’s forces are bigger and better equipped, and in recent months the Russian army has gradually been pushing Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas.
On the ground in Ukraine, three people died in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson when a Russian drone struck a minibus on Sunday morning, Kherson regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. Seven others were wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, the number of wounded in Saturday’s missile strike in Dnipro in central Ukraine rose to 24, with seven in serious condition, Dnipropetrovsk regional Gov. Serhiy Lysak said. Four people were killed in the attack.
Moscow sent 78 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 32 drones were destroyed during the overnight attacks. A further 45 drones were “lost” over various areas, likely having been electronically jammed.
In Russia, a child was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, according to regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 29 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia: 20 over the Bryansk region, seven over the Kaluga region, and one each over the Smolensk and Kursk regions.
BANGKOK: Thailand protested an incident involving Myanmar’s navy firing on Thai fishing vessels, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Sunday, after one fisherman drowned, two were injured and dozens were detained from one of the boats.
Shinawatra questioned claims that the fishing boats had intruded into Myanmar’s territorial waters when Myanmar’s navy opened fire on the vessels on Saturday.
The Thai defense ministry earlier said two of 15 Thai fishing vessels were fired on when they were 4-5.7 nautical miles (7.4-10.6 km) inside Myanmar’s territorial waters near the southern Thai province of Ranong.
“It is inconclusive,” Shinawatra said, when asked by reporters whether Thai fishing boats encroached on Myanmar’s territorial waters.
“We don’t support violence whatever the circumstances,” she said, adding that Thailand was seeking more details on the incident and a quick release of four Thai nationals who were among the 31 fishermen detained.
Myanmar’s ruling junta did not immediately respond to a telephone request for comment.
Thai Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said a letter protesting the use of force was sent to Myanmar through a local border mechanism, demanding clear details about what happened and a quick return of the Thai boat and crew detained.
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa also issued a letter of concern over the incident to the Myanmar government and summoned the Myanmar ambassador for a meeting on Monday, seeking clarification about what happened and a quick release of the four Thai nationals.
Myanmar has been in crisis since 2021 when the military seized power, toppling an elected government and sparking an armed rebellion by crushing protests with lethal force.
