JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
PRINCESS OF WALES OF CANADA KATE HAS CANCER.
Kate, Princess of Wales, says she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy-Announcement follows weeks of speculation about her health and whereabouts-By brian melley and Jill Lawless 22 March 2024, 9:54 pm
LONDON (AP) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy, she said Friday in an announcement that follows weeks of speculation about her health and whereabouts.Her condition was disclosed in a video message recorded Wednesday in Windsor and broadcast Friday, coming after relentless speculation on social media ever since she was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery.Kate asked for “time, space and privacy” while she is treated for an unspecified type of cancer, which was discovered after her surgery.“I am well,” she said. “I am getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal.”Kate, 42, hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas, until video surfaced this week of her with her husband, Prince William, heir to the throne, walking from a farm shop near their Windsor home.The news is another jolt for the royal family since the announcement last month that King Charles III was being treated for an unspecified type of cancer that was discovered while undergoing a procedure for a benign enlarged prostate.Charles said he is “so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did,” according to a statement released by Buckingham Palace. He had remained in the “closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law” in the past weeks.Kensington Palace had given little detail about Kate’s condition beyond saying it wasn’t cancer-related, the surgery was successful and recuperation would keep the princess away from public duties until April. Kate said it had been thought that her condition was non-cancerous until tests revealed the diagnosis.“This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,” she said.Kate said it had taken her time to recover from major surgery before starting preventative treatment, which she said was in the early stages.“Preventive chemotherapy after surgery is given to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back in the future — a bit like mopping a floor with bleach when you’ve spilt something on it, chemotherapy kills any spilt cells,” said Professor Andrew Beggs, a senior clinical fellow at the University of Birmingham.Kate said it has been “an incredibly tough couple of months” for her family. She said it had taken time to tell her three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in a way “appropriate for them” and reassure them she will be ok.The news comes after the start of the Easter holidays, which will shield the children from media coverage of the news.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement that Kate “has shown tremendous bravery.” He added: “In recent weeks she has been subjected to intense scrutiny and has been unfairly treated by certain sections of the media around the world and on social media.”Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, also sent his best wishes to the princess at this “distressing time.”“We are incredibly sad to hear of the news,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who opened her briefing with reporters moments after news of cancer treatment broke. “We are taking this in, this terrible news, as all of you are.”Charles, 75, has withdrawn from public duties while he has cancer treatment, though he’s appeared frequently in photos carrying on meetings with government officials and dignitaries and was even seen going to church.Kate, on the other hand, had been out of view instead of appearing at charity events and promoting causes such as early childhood, leading to weeks of speculation and gossip. Attempts to put rumors to bed by releasing a photo of her on Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom surrounded by her three smiling children backfired when The Associated Press and other news agencies retracted the image because it had been manipulated.Kate issued a statement the next day acknowledging she liked to “experiment with editing” and apologizing for “any confusion” the photo had caused. But that did little to quell the speculation.Even the footage published by The Sun and TMZ that appeared to show Kate and William shopping sparked a new flurry of rumor-mongering, with some armchair sleuths refusing to believe the video showed Kate at all.Earlier this week, a British privacy watchdog said it was investigating a report that staff at the private London hospital where she was treated tried to snoop on her medical records while she was a patient for abdominal surgery.The former Kate Middleton, who married William in a fairy-tale wedding in 2011, has boosted the popularity and appeal of the British monarchy worldwide more than any royal since Princess Diana.The princess is the oldest of three children brought up in a well-to-do neighborhood in Berkshire, west of London. The Middletons have no aristocratic background, and the British press often referred to Kate as a “commoner” marrying into royalty.Kate attended the private girls’ school Marlborough College and then the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she met William around 2001. Friends and housemates at first, their relationship came to be in the public eye when they were pictured together on a skiing holiday in Switzerland in 2004.Kate graduated in 2005 with a degree in art history and a budding relationship with the prince.
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.(IN 1 HR THE STOCK MARKETS WORLDWIDE WILL CRASH)
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed:(CONFISCATED) their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
MARK OF THE BEAST (engraved microchip in your hand or forehead)
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, (SLAVE) to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
REVELATION 16:1-2
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
I KNOW THIS MARK WILL BE A MICROCHIP IMPLANT UNDER THE SKIN. LETS LOOK UP WHAT THE WORD MARK SAYS IN REVELATION 13:16-18, 14:9,11, 15:2, 16:2, 19:20, 20:4-ALL THESE VERSES FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION SPEAK OF THIS DICTATORS MARK. NOW LETS SEE WHAT IT MEANS FROM STRONGS EXAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE. UNDER MARK PAGE 684.MARK UNDER MARK. THE OLD TESTAMENT IS UNDER HEBREW AND THE NEW TESTAMENT IS UNDER GREEK. SO WHEN WE LOOK UNDER REVELATION 13:16-17 WE SEE IT IS UNDER GREEK, SO WE GO TO GREEK IN THE BACK SECTION AND GO TO 5480 TO SEE WHAT IT SAYS THIS MARK WOULD BE. SO LETS GET TO IT.MARK IN STRONGS GREEK 5480 XAPAYUA CHARAGMA, KHAR-AG-MAH: FROM THE SAME AS 5482: A SCRATCH OR ETCHING, I.E STAMP (AS A BADGE OF SERVITUDE), OR SCULPTURED FIGURE-(STATUE):-GRAVEN, MARK FROM 5482 XAPAE CHARAX, KHAR-AX; FROM XAPAOOW CHARASSO (TO SHARPEN TO A POINT; AKIN TO 1125 THROUGH THE IDEA OF SCRATCHING); A STAKE, I.E (BYIMPL.) A PALISADE OR RAMPART (MILITARY MOUND FOR CIRCUM VALLATION IN A SIEGE): - TRENCH FROM 1125 YPAPOE GRAPHO, GRAF-0; A PRIM. VERB; TO "GRAVE", ESPEC. TO WRITE; FIG. TO DESCRIBE:-DESCRIBE, WRITE (-ING, -TEN).G5516-GO TO G4742-666 - STRONGS NT 4742: στίγμα - στίγμα, στιγματος, τό (from στίζω to prick; (cf. Latinstimulus, etc.; German stechen, English stick, sting, etc.; Curtius, § 226)), a mark pricked in or branded upon the body. According to ancient oriental usage, slaves and soldiers bore the name or stamp of their master or commander branded or pricked (cut) into their bodies to indicate what master or general they belonged to, and there were even some devotees who stamped themselves in this way with the token of their gods (cf. Deyling, Observations, iii., p. 423ff); hence, τά στίγματα τοῦ (κυρίου so Rec.) Ἰησοῦ, the marks of (the Lord) Jesus, which Paul in Galatians 6:17 says he bears branded on his body, are the traces left there by the perils, hardships, imprisonments, scourgings, endured by him for the cause of Christ, and which mark him as Christ's faithful and approved votary, servant, soldier (see Lightfoots Commentary on Galatians, the passage cited). (Herodotus 7, 233; Aristotle, Aelian, Plutarch, Lcian, others.)
THE INVENTOR OF THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT-CARL SANDERS MICROCHIP ENGINEER LEADER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgH9D6n4ZWo
THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT IN YOUR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD.
LEVETICUS 19.28
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Pakistan introduces chip-based biometric passport and updated fee structure-Mar 22, 2024, 10:55 am EDT | Ghulam Shabir Arain
E-passports, a travel document providing security enhancements over legacy machine-readable documents, are being issued to Pakistani nationals by the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports. A digital signature, a unique identification number, and personal information are just a few of the biometric details covered by an electronic chip integrated into one of the passport pages in these state-of-the-art documents. More than 150 nations worldwide have implemented chip-based passports, which mainly improve operational effectiveness and border security. Since its launch, Pakistani nationals have had access to e-gate facilities at airports throughout the world. In addition to this change, the application procedure will be more efficient and candidates will find it easier to apply online, removing some of the drawbacks of the previous manual method.New e-passport fee structure (March 2024)-The new e-passport fee system, which came into effect in March 2024, offers various categories like validity periods and page counts. Urgent processing incurs additional fees.Passports with embedded electronic chips and 36 pages cost 9,000 Pakistani rupees (US$32.25) for 5 years of validity and Rs 13,500 ($48.40) for 10 years. Urgent issuance increases the cost to Rs 15,500 ($55.57) and Rs 22,500 ($80.66) respectively, and the 72-page version costs more.Steps for new passport application-The new e-passport application process requires applicants to complete several steps at Pakistani Regional Passport Offices. When candidates reach the customer service counter, they are subjected to fee verification, image capturing, and token issuing. The office file conditions that subsequently, the capture of biometric data, such as fingerprints, data input, and verification. The decision is made whenever an assistant director of immigration conducts the applicant’s interview. The delivery or collection of the passport completes the procedure.The implementation of the chip passport on March 30, 2022, was a major step in improving Pakistan’s delivery of public services. The chip passport, inaugurated by the former Prime Minister, Mr. Imran Khan, consists of an integrated electronic chip storing biometric data to improve digital identification verification. Strong security features protect against the impersonation of travelers, including infrared radiation (IR) and ultraviolet radiation (UV) as well as compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations.Key salient features of e-passport-Pakistan introduced modern biometric passports in 2022, the “e-passports.” These contemporary travel documents have a data sheet with an embedded electronic chip made of robust polycarbonate. With the holder’s picture, biometric information, personal information, a unique identification number, and a digital signature, this chip secures biometric data and guarantees accurate identity verification. Following ICAO guidelines set by the United Nations, Pakistani nationals can travel more efficiently by using e-gates at international airports, thanks to the inclusion of a contactless, near-field communication (NFC) chip in their e-passports. The important aspects of e-passports are laser engraving for authenticity and anti-tampering, along with chip-based data storage. An e-gate facility also expedites immigration procedures, guaranteeing rapid and safe border crossings. At airports, real-time matching of individualized data improves security and ensures passport holders have a smooth travel experience.Benefits of Pakistan e-passport-The Pakistan e-passport provides accessibility and security to Pakistanis living abroad, in addition to its several advantages. Travelers can swiftly navigate airport procedures when they have access to e-gate facilities across the globe. Additionally, the switch from manual to computerized systems expedites procedures, which is advantageous to immigration authorities as well as applicants.
AI for secure digital identity revolutionizing banking in Pakistan-Mar 21, 2024, 6:49 pm EDT-Ghulam Shabir Arain
Artificial Intelligence (AI), is revolutionizing the banking sector and presents unprecedented options for proficiency and innovation. The adoption of AI in the banking sector has stimulated globally, and it can potentially bring huge value to business. Academic research published by MDPI in 2023, however, indicates that this technological gyration has not secured Pakistan’s banking sector, which is a decisive component of the economy of the country. The banking sector has embraced AI technology at a 12.2 percent adoption growth rate to boost risk management procedures, improve customer service, and drive automation. AI has a wide range of applications in the banking industry in Pakistan, including digital identity management, biometric verification, and fraud detection mechanisms. However, the role of AI drives beyond simple automation, by using advanced data analytics to forecast market trends and enhance decision-making processes, the internalization of AI in banking operations has completely transformed the provision of financial services. AI technologies nowadays are widely used in everything from cash deposit machines to smartphone banking, enabling smooth transactions and client-specific services. It is critical to understand clients’ attitudes and level of awareness of AI technology as the banking sector in Pakistan addresses the challenges of the digital age.Understanding biometric verification and its banking significance-Biometric validation is vital in the banking industry because it enhances the safety level of the customer’s account details leading to client authentication as well as curbing fraud and identity theft. Pakistani banks have introduced complex AI-based biometric verification systems which have simplified authentication processes on one hand but strengthened security protocols simultaneously as well. Moreover, Anwaar Ahmed, an expert from Samba Bank Pakistan, tells Biometric Update that Pakistani Banks are utilizing the native functionality of mobile devices for logging into the bank App via iris or facial recognition. Currently, the industry is not using voice recognition or palm vein biometric modalities.Examples of AI-driven biometric verification systems implemented-The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) ensures the security of digital transactions by requiring financial institutions to use facial biometrics and selfie authorization procedures. The introduction of contactless biometric verification services by NADRA is now enabling banks to take and verify biometric data remotely using cell phones. Of all the available types of biometrics in Pakistan’s banking sector, facial and fingerprint recognition are the most uses for identification purposes. For instance, Al Habib Bank has just launched the Fingerprint Biometric Verification App as an easy replacement for in-branch verification processes.Navigating the evolving landscape of banking fraud-Modern technology has transformed financial fraud and created new global problems for Pakistan. By escaping traditional authentication systems with deepfakes and artificial identities, generative artificial intelligence enables complex fraud risks to increase due to cash mules, payment fraud money immediately, and APP fraud. Proactive solutions such as BPC’s Smart Vista Fraud Management, driven by state-of-the-art machine learning recently adopted by Askari Bank of Pakistan, provide real-time fraud detection and prevention.AI-based fraud detection systems in Pakistan-In Pakistan’s banking sector, AI plays a vital role in the detection and prevention of fraudulent activities as well as in safeguarding client funds from digital intrusion and cyber-attacks. Banks can protect customers’ cash and ensure digital transactions remain secure by employing real-time AI-driven fraud detection algorithms. Digital security technologies utilizing AI and machine learning can be leveraged by enterprising information technology initiatives to detect unusual patterns that indicate fraudulent activities. With simplified legacy systems and a shift to centralized platforms, banks can improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and streamline operations. By requiring stronger fraud detection methods to enhance protection against security risks, the guidelines and regulations of the State Bank of Pakistan have a significant impact on how the country’s banking industry is managed.Research context of Asian banking’s AI adoption-A research study conducted by Syed Ibrahim Ahmed and his associates (2024) on the adoption of AI in the banking sector of Pakistan outlined the specific areas within banking where the technology would be relevant such as personalization, process automation, risk management, and anti-fraud/AML systems. The research was necessary to understand how to use AI to fight fraud effectively and propose ways to enhance security measures in this industry.Another study by Nada Mallah Boustani (2021) examines the role of AI in the banking sectors among developing countries within Asia with emphasis on its effect on bank employees as well as customer behavior. In one instance, Boustani shows that even though artificial intelligence improves banking transactions it does not replace human interaction between clients and their employees in an organization. Hence, Boustani presents some important findings regarding the application of AI in developing Asian countries. The finding shows how employment is affected by these AI advancements.Mahfuzur Rahman and associates carried out a research study in 2023 that investigated the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology by banks in Asian countries. The results also emphasized that despite regulatory obligations and concerns about data privacy, it is paramount for effective fraud detection and prevention. Specifically, findings indicate attitudes towards artificial intelligence could change perceptions about its usefulness in detecting fraud; beliefs about riskiness may influence confidence in using this technology; while subjective norms will affect trust levels when dealing with majority decisions.Banking expert Anwaar Ahmed highlights that the implementation of an AI-powered biometric verification system can guide to increased security, improved efficiency, and better customer experiences. He suggests that emerging technologies like zero trust and blockchain, continuous authentication, and behavioral biometrics should be considered for enhanced security measures in the banking sector. Regulatory authorities like the State Bank of Pakistan have been a strong driving force in ensuring the banking industry adopts new AI technologies and emerging trends as the push for a cashless economy accelerated their framework and policy with compliance deadlines has worked as a strong catalyst to enable banks to embrace new security and technological advancement.The future of banking industry AI adoption in Pakistan-AI’s role in Pakistani Banks is developing rapidly, remodeling banking operations, and revitalizing protection protocols. AI’s characteristics have grown vital as the banking industry actions in the direction of digital banking under the guidance of the State Bank of Pakistan. AI is accurate at detecting fraud since it makes use of state-of-the-art algorithms to look at transactional statistics and prevent financial crimes. Furthermore, novel biometric verification systems driven through AI enhance authentication, ensuring harmless transactions and customer self-belief. These traits indicate a groundbreaking step toward more secure and more effective financial environments in Pakistan.
HID security report says mobile identity to be ‘ubiquitous’ in five years-Biometrics ‘continues its momentum’ among six key trends reshaping global security-Mar 21, 2024, 4:59 pm EDT-Joel R. McConvey
Mobile ID and multi-factor authentication join biometrics on the list of technologies headlining HID Global’s newly released 2024 State of the Security Industry Report, which a release says analyzes “underlying concerns driving upcoming innovations and the technologies that underpin them, helping security leaders to be proactive in adapting to evolving challenges.”As to be expected, AI makes an appearance among the six themes to emerge from HID’s survey of 2,600 partners, end users, and security and IT personnel across 11 industries worldwide. In particular, businesses see AI’s analytical capabilities as a have-now proposition for identity management and data security needs. “AI analytics tools are increasingly available right out of the box, through third-party as-a-service offerings,” says the report, “and 44 percent of survey respondents are already leveraging the power of such tools.”The strongest numbers and language are reserved for mobile identity, which “is expected to be ubiquitous in the next five years.” Per the report, “the incremental adoption of mobile ID continues, with 72 percent of respondents calling out mobile identity as a Top 3 trend. Organizations are steadily upgrading legacy hardware in favor of multi-tech readers that can handle both plastic and mobile device-based credentials.”“End users appreciate the convenience that comes with authenticating themselves via a device they already carry, and administrators find it easier to manage identity via software,” says the report.Biometrics continues upward trend in adoptionHID says biometrics “continues to be a driving force of change in the security industry, with the ongoing adoption of physical traits such as fingerprint, face or voice as a means to ensure security, while also streamlining and simplifying interactions.”In the survey, 39 percent of installers and integrators said some of their customers used fingerprint or palm biometrics, while 30 percent said some used facial recognition. “As organizations evolve away from more conventional means of validation for access control,” the report says, “we will likely see the continued rise of fingerprint, palm print, facial and voice recognition as a means to validate identity.”The numbers back up this claim: HID reports that the global market for biometrics is expected to grow from $47.8 billion in 2023 to $86.1 billion by 2028 – “a strong indication that businesses and end users alike are coming to accept physical traits as a safe and secure means of verifying identity.”With MFA widespread, “the eventual end of passwords is imminent”Multi-factor authentication is likewise making a strong push in 2024. Among survey respondents, 85 percent rated MFA as a key trend, as “an increasing level of end-user acceptance is driving rapid adoption of MFA across a broad range of industries, making it a top priority for many security professionals.”“Multi-factor authentication or MFA is relatively easy to implement and can be the first step toward a more comprehensive Zero Trust strategy,” says the report, noting that it is “easy to see why the security industry is moving toward the eventual end of passwords with the creation of new standards such as FIDO, or Fast Identity Online.”North America, in particular, has eyes on MFA, with 89 percent of respondents naming it the most important trend.IDaaS is in, while companies ‘pushed toward more climate friendly practices’Rounding out the top six trends are the increase in cloud-based identity delivered as a service (IDaaS), which respondents identified as being cost effective, helpful in maintaining regulatory compliance, and crucial for the development of mobile identity ecosystems – and, finally, sustainability, with businesses “feeling some outside pressure to build sustainability into their business decisions” from consumers and government mandates.
US cyber agency offers guidance on cloud-based hybrid identity management models-Mar 21, 2024, 4:54 pm EDT-Joel R. McConvey
As organizations move biometric and identity data management to cloud-based services to maintain optimal protection against cybersecurity threats, there are inevitable pain points when cloud systems collide with legacy on-premises digital ID management models to create what the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) calls “hybrid identity solutions.” To minimize disruption and ensure interoperability between systems facing integration, the agency has published guidance on secure cloud business applications. “CISA developed this Hybrid Identity Solutions Guidance to help readers better understand identity management capabilities, the tradeoffs that exist in various implementation options, and factors that should be considered when making implementation decisions,” says the document. While on-premises systems are certain to linger, secure integration is possible. “However,” says the report, efforts must be “tightly coupled with broader plans to adopt zero trust architectures.”CISA specifies that the document is not intended to be a comprehensive discussion of hybrid models, but rather a “basic toolset” motivated by “the need for agencies to authenticate and authorize users and entities to access business applications hosted in the cloud.”The toolset includes two primary recommendations regarding cloud-based systems. First, “CISA recommends that agencies plan to migrate to cloud-based, passwordless authentication via either (1) their existing investments in public key infrastructure (PKI) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) or Common Access Card (CAC) to authenticate to the identity services, or (2) by leveraging FIDO2 and the Web Authentication standard.”Moreover, “CISA also recommends that agencies transition from traditional on-premises-based federation approaches to a cloud-primary authentication (italics in original) approach using modern authenticators and open standards-based protocols and relying on cloud services for their primary source of identity when authenticating users and entities for most access needs.”In urging organizations to put the emphasis on cloud-based authentication and identity management, “CISA recognizes that this identity transition is a journey” that “can require a great deal of planning, resources, and effort.” But, says the agency, “agencies will find that achieving this mature hybrid identity model is well worth the time and effort required.”Hybrid models for identity architecture-The document outlines several hybrid solution models that agencies can review to select the hybrid identity architecture that best suits their specific needs and risk tolerances. These include, in the order listed in the guidelines: federated authentication, pass-through authentication, password synchronization, cloud primary authentication; multi-factor authentication (MFA) including knowledge, possession and inherence such as biometric indicators; single sign-on options; FIDO2; password managers; and context-based access control.Each option is covered with a diagram and description of its architecture, a review of security and implementation considerations, and advice for deployment. Regarding inherence and the question of biometric authenticators, CISA says “biometric authentication can be resistant to phishing when used locally to unlock a cryptographic key. However, depending on the quality of the scanner and algorithm, impersonating someone’s biometric data is possible. Another issue with biometrics is the inability to reset or disable a human’s biometrics.”“Agencies should be selective in the quality of biometric sensors and algorithms implemented. Some biometrics, such as voice recognition, should be avoided as they are not secure due to the potential for impersonation.” That said, the report concedes that MFA is a powerful security tool, and that “agencies can move into passwordless MFA options, such as FIDO2, to achieve stronger security while easing the authentication experience for their users.”
Worldcoin makes core components of iris biometric imaging software open source-Mar 22, 2024, 5:03 pm EDT-| Abhishek Jadhav
Worldcoin has taken a step towards transparency by open-sourcing the software component of its Orb biometric device. This move allows for external verification of the company’s data privacy claims and provides experts with the ability to examine how the Orb captures images, processes biometric data, and transfers it to the World App.Such an infrastructure will promote a community-driven audit process, wherein an independent verification and public reporting of findings will contribute to the assurance of Orb’s adherence to the protocols governing data privacy and security.An important component of the Orb’s software, the do_signup function within the orb-core repository, is now available for study. This function outlines the technological mechanisms behind each World ID verification process, including image capture, biometric processing, and secure data submission.Although the software can generate high-quality eye and face images, the company admits to encountering challenges when integrating the autofocus system. Their Rust-based software uses a feedback controller, which has a neural network to determine real-time sharpness estimates.During the subsequent biometric stage of image processing, custom neural networks and Gabor filter implementation are accessed through Python interfaces. The software initially verifies that the images have not been tampered with or artificially developed.Next, the Iris Recognition System (IRIS), a software created by Tools for Humanity and subsequently released as open source by Worldcoin, is employed to analyze the eye images.The Rust programming language has been optimized to minimize the negative impact of frequent reloading of components such as IRIS and other models. This is achieved through a design, inspired by the Android Zygote process.Worldcoin says that the software’s implementation on the Orb protects users’ control over their data through advanced security mechanisms. These mechanisms include signing with Orb’s private key and encrypting with the user’s public key.A dedicated secure element within the Orb carries out the signing process, which is cryptographically paired with the Nvidia Jetson platform during manufacturing. The encryption process uses a sealed box to guarantee that only the intended recipient can decrypt the transmitted biometric data, the company says in a blog post.The privacy claims of the Orb’s architecture were audited by Trail of Bits, a security research firm.According to Worldcoin, certain aspects of the orb-core and orb-secure-element contain sensitive code that has been forked for public use. Their strategy for reducing the necessity of these forks is to gradually open-source the software components, which will enable them to develop all non-sensitive parts of the software in an open manner.Efforts like these, the company says, contribute to the larger goal of prioritizing user privacy, data security, and transparent governance.
Corsound introduces voice biometrics for face matching and generation-Mar 22, 2024, 3:29 pm EDT-| Chris Burt
Corsound AI writes software capable of generating what the executives say is an accurate rendering of the face issuing the voice. The company’s AI algorithms are also said to accurately match a voice with a face.To the extent that the private Tel Aviv startup can pull this off reliably and with low error rates, it would be helping to create a new biometric surveillance tactic and to add a new option for remote authentication in onboarding.Corsound says it can also detect deepfakes, and among its promoted use cases is identifying the people who harass someone by summoning law enforcement to their home with dangerous claims (swatting).Company policy is to refrain from naming customers, but it is focused on law enforcement, banking and finance.The company is a subsidiary of Cortica, parent company of facial recognition and analysis developer Corsight AI. It was founded in 2021, according to StartupHub.ai.Corsound, with a patent count of one, claims to be revenue-producing. The patent protects the four-year-old company’s idea for matching voice samples to face images. Corsound’s website refers to “200+ Autonomous AI patents,” which appear to come from Cortica. The parent company claims to have 300 patents protecting its “vast portfolio of Autonomous AI technologies.”Gal Haselkorn is CEO. He came from Dot Compliance, which had its own AI place and where he served as vice president of sales and business development.Corsound has its monied fans – not many, but they are ardent. Canadian venture capital fund Awz is invested, as it is in Corsight. The company’s board of directors is made up of two representatives from Awz and one from Cortica.Awz’s founder, Yaron Ashkenazi, and general partner, Ofer Kotler, sit on Corsound’s board as does Igal Raichelgauz, chairman of Cortica.Barak Deri is the company’s founder and COO, and he works for Awz, too. (As does former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He’s part of a profile of Awz in the independent news publisher The Breach, which has a political slant.)-The bunch could be sitting on something big.Mutare, a software company creating bulwarks against unwanted telephone traffic, says its proprietary (and, thus, unexplained) database indicates that 9.78 percent of calls are “bad traffic.”That figure is 14 percent for legal firms, 13 percent for tech companies, 14 percent for higher education and 10 percent for financial services.Those are going to be some aggrieved parties, especially because all of them are still suffering through the ignominious headache of password-caused breaches and fraud.
Launch of NFID Foundation puts focus on SSI in the security industry-Mar 22, 2024, 11:05 am EDT- Joel R. McConvey
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) has a new advocacy group, with the launch of the NFID Foundation, a non-profit consortium that promotes SSI within the security industry. A press release from ZKTeco says a diverse array of founding members came together for the initiative, including representatives from companies in the semiconductor, physical access control, biometrics, and lock manufacturing sectors. The stated goal is to “revolutionize the ways we perceive and manage digital identities,” in part by establishing and maintaining a verifiable data registry tailored for the security industry and to facilitate the broad adoption and standardization of SSI.In enabling decentralized, SSI-style credentials that avoid the need for a company-held database, NFID helps organizations navigate data privacy laws and reduce cost and regulatory risk. With a membership that includes ZKTeco, Tech5, LEGIC, PassiveBolta and many others, the organization positions as working in the wake of SSI identity standards bodies such as W3C, DIF, ToIP and the OpenWallet Foundation.“We at Tech5 are thrilled to be a part of the NFID Foundation, as it enables us to create an all-inclusive digital ID ecosystem,” says Rahul Parthe, Chairman and CTO at Tech5. “The widespread adoption of digital IDs is essential, and having a platform that bridges the gap between physical and logical access makes it possible. We will collaborate closely with NFID to unlock its potential in the civil ID industry and beyond.”Zachary Klares, VP at PDQ, an IT security firm and founding member, says the NFID Foundation’s launch sets “a new standard in digital identity management.” Founding members are extending an enthusiastic invitation to companies in the security industry to join the Foundation, with benefits that include access to exclusive resources, tools, and certifications; collaboration on standardization; and the NFID Blockchain itself. A launch event on April 2 is open to all security industry professionals; more info can be found on the NFID Foundation’s website.
Australia’s national digital identity receives new name and logo-Mar 22, 2024, 10:54 am EDT- Masha Borak
Australia’s long-planned, US$519 million-worth national digital identification system has finally received its brand and logo. The Australian Tax Office has applied to trademark the name myID.The government expects that the myID platform will be used by Australian citizens to access government and private services, confirm their age, show their driver’s license and much more. A tentative rollout date was set for July 1st, 2024.The initial suggestion for its name was myGovID, which was established four years ago. Consumer research performed by the national tax authority, however, found that most citizens were confusing the platform with the federal government website myGov, the Australian Financial Review reports. There is a biometrics provider based in Uzbekistan called MyID, and an authentication software suite from Intercede called MyID, but these are likely unfamiliar to most Australians.“The updated name and visual identity are the result of extensive research, and an updated user interface will be piloted with end users for feedback prior to the re-launch [in late 2024],” an Australian Tax Office spokesperson told the outlet.The application for the new name and brand should be finalized by June. Other work on the digital ID system, however, is still ongoing.As early as next week, the Australian Senate is expected to begin its debate on formalizing the legislation governing the system, the Digital ID Bill 2023. According to the legislation, the digital ID system will be overseen by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
EZEKIEL 39:1-29
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(RUSSIAN LEADER PUTIN) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:(RUSSIA)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee,(300 MILIION RUSSIA-ARAB-MUSLIMS GET NUKED BY ISRAEL) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou,(RUSSIA) and all thy bands,(RUSSIA SUPPORTED WITH WEAPONS-ARAB/MUSLIM COUNTRIES) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire (ATOMIC BOMB) on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY) and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; (ALL AVAILABLE ISRAELS WILL BURY THE RUSSIA,MUSLIM HORDE) and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, (NUCLEAR PROFFESIONALS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.(SO BY THE SOUNDS OF IT AFTER 7 MONTHS THE NUKED RUSSIA,MUSLIM HOARDES BONES WILL STILL BE FULL OF RADIATION, SO VISITERS TO ISRAEL WILL JUST PUT A SIGN BY THE BONES.NOT TOUCH THEM.OR THEY WOULD STILL GET RADIATION POISONING FROM ISRAEL NUKING THEM 7 MONTHS EARLIER.SO THE SIGN GOES BY THE BONES.THE NUCLEAR PROFFESIONALS WILL PICK UP AND TAKE THE BONES TO THE JORDAN VALLEY BURIAL SITE.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.(VALLEY OF GOGS HORDES)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah.(MEANING HORADE) Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
Israel appropriates 1,976 acres of land in Jordan Valley, declaring it state land-nnouncement follows West Bank settlement expansion earlier in March; new status will allow for hundreds of housing units to be constructed in addition to commerce zones-By ToI Staff and AFP Today, 4:17 pm-MAR 22,24
Israel on Friday declared the appropriation of some 8,000 dunams, or 1,976 acres, of land in the Jordan Valley and declared it state land, (THIS IS INTERESTING-THE RUSSIA,MUSLIM HOARDE IS GOING TO BE BURIED IN THE JORDAN VALLEY AFTER BEING NUKED BY ISRAEL. AND THE CEMETERY IS GOING TO BE NEAR A CITY CALLED HAMONAH (VALLEY OF THE HOARDES). AND IF YOU MAKE THIS PLACE A CITY. OVIOUSSLY YOU WILL NEED HOUSES IN A CITY. BETWEEN THE CEMETERY AND THE CITY I THINK 1,976 ACRES WILL HOLD THE RUSSIA, MUSLIM HOARDES OF BONES NO PROBLEM) meaning it can now be used for development projects.The declaration of the land as Israeli-owned will allow for the construction of hundreds of settlement housing units, as well as an area designated for industry and commerce.Activists called the move the largest action of its kind in decades.Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, oversaw the move. He said the declaration of the land as state-owned was “an important and strategic issue.“While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right to Judea and Samaria and the country in general, we promote the settlement movement with hard work and in a strategic manner across the country,” he added, using the biblical name for the West Bank.Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993’s Oslo Accords, and that “2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land.”The move came nearly three weeks after the Defense Ministry body that authorizes settlement construction advanced plans for 3,426 new Israeli homes to be built beyond the Green Line.Settlements Minister Orit Strock said at the time that after a months-long lull in West Bank construction approvals, the Civil Administration’s High Planning Subcommittee had advanced projects to build 2,402 new homes in Ma’ale Adumim, 694 homes in Efrat and 330 homes in Keidar.The projects in Ma’ale Adumim and Keidar were approved through an early planning stage known as deposit, while the homes for Efrat received a more advanced planning approval before construction.Smotrich, under whose aegis the subcommittee falls, called that latest expansion an “appropriate Zionist response” to a terror attack outside Ma’ale Adumim, in which one man was killed and 11 were injured, including a pregnant woman.“The enemies try to harm and weaken us, but we will continue to build and be built up in this land,” Smotrich wrote on X.In response to the early March announcement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state.“Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state,” Turk said in a statement accompanying the report that will be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in late March.Despite opposition abroad, Israel has in recent decades built dozens of settlements across the West Bank. They are now home to more than 490,000 Israelis, who live alongside around three million Palestinians in the territory.The Biden administration said last month the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans.Jacob Magid and Reuters contributed to this report.
120,000 Muslims worship at Al-Aqsa as 2nd Friday Ramadan prayers pass peacefully-Police deploy thousands of officers in Jerusalem’s Old City and around Temple Mount, say no ‘unusual disturbances,’ despite seeing attempts to incite violence on social media-By ToI Staff Today, 3:13 pm-MAR 22,24
Some 120,000 people attended the second Friday prayers of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa-Mosque on the Temple Mount, which ended peacefully and without any disturbances, police and religious authorities said.The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque compound, estimated that around 120,000 people took part in the prayers, up from an estimated 80,000 last week.Police in a statement said that they had deployed thousands of officers in Jerusalem’s Old City and around the Temple Mount to ensure that the event passed peacefully. Police did not give a specific number, saying only that “tens of thousands took part.”Police said there were “no unusual disturbances,” however, they noted that there had been attempts to “spread fake news and false stories on Arabic social media” in an attempt to incite violence.The Haaretz daily reported that around 10,000 of the worshippers traveled from the West Bank to attend the prayers.This marked the second successive Friday prayers to pass without incident in the Muslim holy month despite fears of disturbances after the Hamas terror group had called on Palestinian worshipers to barricade themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.In a statement last week, Hamas had called on followers to “participate urgently in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque against the aggression that lurks in these critical times.”In past years during Ramadan, Palestinians have at times barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is situated on the Temple Mount, some with explosives and rocks. Police operations to clear them out have often resulted in violence.This year’s Ramadan comes amid tinderbox tensions stemming from the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the group’s shock October 7 attack, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.Terror groups have called on Palestinians to come to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to confront Israel over the war in Gaza.Police officers scuffled with some attendees at the Temple Mount entrance on the first night of Ramadan, but the holy site has been relatively peaceful since.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged ahead of Ramadan that the number of worshipers allowed to pray on the Temple Mount would be the same as in previous years and that no restrictions would be imposed on Arab Israelis, overruling the wishes of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultranationalist firebrand who oversees the Israel Police.COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, has ruled that Palestinian residents’ access to the site for Friday’s prayers will be limited to men over 55, women over 50, and children under 10.The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest shrine in Islam, making the site a central flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Spain, Ireland, Malta, Slovenia agree to work towards Palestinian state recognition-Joint statement on sidelines of European Council summit calls for ‘two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side’By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 8:06 pm-MAR 22,24
Spain has agreed with the leaders of Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to take the first steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday following a meeting of the European Council in Brussels.Speaking for Spain, Sanchez expected the recognition to happen during the current four-year legislature that began last year.He told reporters the agreement was reached after meeting with his Irish, Maltese and Slovenian counterparts on the sidelines of the Council gathering on Friday morning.“We are agreed that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region is through implementation of a two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side, in peace and security,” read a joint statement issued by Ireland after the meeting.In February, the Knesset voted to back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration opposing any “unilateral” recognition of a Palestinian state, as international calls grow for the revival of efforts to reach a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict.Issued amid the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the Israeli position states that any permanent accord with the Palestinians must be reached through direct negotiations between the sides and not by international dictates.Netanyahu brought the vote to the Knesset in the wake of reports that the United States and several Arab partners were preparing a detailed plan for a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians that includes a “firm timeline” for a Palestinian state.Arab states and the European Union agreed at a meeting in Spain in November that a two-state solution was the answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.Since 1988, 139 out of 193 United Nations member states have recognized Palestinian statehood.Netanyahu has in the past spoken out against the creation of a Palestinian state and others have also pushed back against comments from Washington and elsewhere suggesting that talks on ending fighting in Gaza be used to jumpstart long-moribund efforts to reach a two-state solution.While some international actors believe the violence only underlines the need for a peace deal, Israeli leaders argue the attack highlighted the extreme danger of an autonomous Palestinian entity near its population centers. And amid soaring support among Palestinians for the October 7 atrocities, there appears to be little appetite in the Israeli public for peace efforts.
Shipping giant Maersk says it will avoid Red Sea despite EU security operation-‘We still believe that sailing via the Cape of Good Hope and around Africa is the most reasonable solution at the moment,’ company says-By Reuters and ToI Staff Today, 8:24 pm-MAR 22,24
COPENHAGEN — Shipping company Maersk said on Friday it was too early to resume sailings through the Red Sea due to a continued elevated risk level, despite an initiative by the European Union to increase safety in the region.Maersk, one of the world’s biggest container shipping companies, suspended Red Sea traffic on January 5 and has since redirected ships via the Cape of Good Hope.The EU’s naval mission in the southern Red Sea was launched in February to help protect the key maritime trade route from drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia, who say they are retaliating against Israel’s war on Gaza.Maersk said in a statement on its website that it was aware that other shipping companies had continued sailing through the Red Sea or announced plans to resume sailing.“We continue with our own assessment that the current situation does not allow us to make a similar decision,” it said.“We still believe that sailing via the Cape of Good Hope and around Africa is the most reasonable solution at the moment and the one that currently allows the best supply chain stability,” it added.The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Tuesday evening that a “suspicious aerial target” that struck an open area near Eilat early Monday morning was a cruise missile.Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for the missile, which crossed into Israeli airspace from the direction of the Red Sea.No damage or injuries were caused, and according to the IDF, the missile was tracked by the Air Force throughout the incident.It marks the first time a Houthi projectile hit Israeli territory. In previous attacks, missiles and drones launched from Yemen struck neighboring countries or were intercepted by air defenses.The IDF said it is further investigating the incident.Yemen’s Houthi rebels began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea last November, a campaign they say is intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid the war between Israel and Hamas, which began with the terror group’s devastating October 7 assault on southern Israel.The Houthi attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa. The cost of insuring a seven-day voyage through the Red Sea has risen by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Beyond economic damage, the attacks have also served to stoke fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.While the group has claimed it only targets vessels owned by or connected to Israel, it has frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to the country, imperiling shipping in a key route for trade among Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor.The United States and the United Kingdom began striking Houthi targets in Yemen in January, but despite this, the rebel group remains undeterred and capable of launching significant attacks.
PM tells Blinken Rafah op is inevitable; secretary warns him Israel risks isolation-Top US diplomat meets with Netanyahu, Gantz, reportedly tells war cabinet Israel’s security, international standing also in danger without a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza-By Lazar Berman,Jacob Magid and ToI Staff Today, 6:52 pm-MAR 22,24
After meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on the message he has expressed in recent days — that while Israel will happily work with the US on improving the humanitarian situation and evacuating civilians from Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, a military operation there is inevitable.In a video statement after meeting with Blinken, Netanyahu said, “I told him that I deeply appreciate the fact that for more than five months, we have stood together in the war against Hamas.”“I told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population for the war zone and of course to take care of humanitarian needs, and we are working on that,” he continued.“But I also told him that we don’t have a way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah, and eliminating the remaining battalions there. And I told him that I hope that we will do it with America’s support, but if we need, we will do it alone,” he said.Blinken was in Israel on the last stop of his sixth diplomatic swing through the region since war erupted on October 7, amid tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over the management of the conflict. He held one-on-one meetings with both Netanyahu and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on Friday, along with the war cabinet.Blinken told reporters after the meeting that the US shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas and ensuring its long-term security, but that a Rafah operation “is not the way to do it.”“It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing,” Blinken said on the Ben Gurion Airport tarmac just before boarding a plane to depart.According to the Walla news site, in his meeting with Netanyahu and his war cabinet, Blinken also warned that if Israel does not come up with a plan for the “day after” Hamas, it will be stuck in Gaza for years and will see its international standing undermined and national security endangered.“You don’t understand this,“ Blinken reportedly said, “and when you do, it might be too late.”He said that if current trends continue, the only possible results are Hamas remaining in power or anarchy in Gaza.The US has been pushing for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take over the governance of Gaza the day after the war, which Israel under the leadership of Netanyahu has rejected outright.With both Netanyahu and Gantz, Blinken discussed ensuring that more aid flows into Gaza.On Thursday, Blinken said a major military operation in Rafah would be “a mistake.” In a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, he called the looming ground offensive “unnecessary,” adding “there is a better way to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Hamas.”More than 1.3 million Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering in the Rafah area, after the IDF issued evacuation warnings from northern Gaza and other areas in the Strip amid its ground offensive against Hamas. Unable to leave the tiny Palestinian territory, many are living in makeshift tent camps or overflowing UN-run shelters.Netanyahu has said the IDF will evacuate the civilians to areas north of Rafah before beginning the operation and has approved the military’s plans for the offensive.The meetings came as Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored UN Security Council resolution that called for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” as part of a deal to release hostages held by terror groups in Gaza.Blinken said on Thursday he believed talks currently taking place in Qatar, which are focused on a six-week truce and the release of about 40 female, elderly and wounded hostages and hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, could still forge an agreement.The US resolution had backed the ongoing talks brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar.The hostages — half of whom remain captive in Gaza — were taken during Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians.In response, Israel launched a wide-scale air and ground campaign aiming to eliminate Hamas and return the hostages, which has come under mounting international rebuke as the death toll rises and a humanitarian crisis builds in the densely populated enclave.US officials say the number of aid deliveries via land needs to increase fast and that aid needs to be sustained over a long period. Israel says it is not restricting aid.“A hundred percent of the population of Gaza is experiencing severe levels of acute food insecurity. We cannot, we must not allow that to continue,” Blinken told a news conference late on Thursday.Agencies contributed to this report.
Russia, China veto US resolution at UN calling for Gaza ceasefire tied to hostage deal-Motion at Security Council sought truce lasting six weeks to allow humanitarian assistance; draft stopped short of explicitly demanding immediate end to Israeli campaign-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 5:21 pm-MAR 22,24
The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal after Russia and China vetoed the measure proposed by the United States.The resolution, which Guyana also abstained from voting for, called for an immediate and sustained ceasefire lasting roughly six weeks that would protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.It marked a further toughening of Washington’s stance toward Israel. Earlier in the five-month-long war, the US was averse to the word ceasefire and vetoed measures that included calls for an immediate ceasefire.“The vast majority of this council voted in favor of this resolution, but unfortunately Russia and China decided to exercise its veto,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council.Before the vote, she said it would be a “historic mistake” for the council not to adopt the resolution.The draft had stopped short of explicitly demanding that Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza. In the delicate language of Security Council resolutions, the draft “determines” the “imperative” of an “immediate and sustained” ceasefire.The draft linked a ceasefire to ongoing talks, led by Qatar with support from the US and Egypt, to halt the war in return for Hamas releasing hostages. China’s representative, Zhang Jun, said the draft “dodged the most central issue, that of a ceasefire” through its “ambiguous” language.“Nor does it even provide an answer to the question of realizing a ceasefire in the short term,” he said.Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, also speaking before the vote, called on members not to vote in favor of the resolution.He said the resolution was “exceedingly politicized” and contained an effective green light for Israel to mount a military operation in Rafah, a city on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where more than half of its 2.3 million residents have been sheltering in makeshift tents to escape the Israeli assault farther north.“This would free the hands of Israel and it would result in all of Gaza and its entire population having to face destruction, devastation or expulsion,” Nebenzia told the meeting.During the five-month-long war, Washington has vetoed three draft resolutions at the UNSC, two of which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire. Most recently, the US justified its veto by saying such council action could jeopardize efforts by the US, Egypt and Qatar to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages.Push on alternative resolution-French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Brussels immediately after the vetoes, said France would keep pushing an alternative resolution for a ceasefire.The Security Council may later Friday consider another resolution with a more explicit call for an immediate ceasefire.The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, indicated opposition, saying it would jeopardize the ongoing talks for the release of hostages.Speaking before the vote on the US draft, Thomas-Greenfield said, “By adopting the resolution before us, we can put pressure on Hamas to accept the deal on the table.”She later called the Russian and Chinese vetoes “not just cynical,” but also “petty.”“Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States,” she said.“Let’s be honest — for all the fiery rhetoric, we all know that Russia and China are not doing anything diplomatically to advance a lasting peace or to meaningfully contribute to the humanitarian response effort,” she said.Russia, China and Algeria said that the resolution should stop Israel from a threatened offensive in Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sheltered.The US has publicly opposed the operation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday to go into Rafah even without US support after he met Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who promoted the now-vetoed resolution on his latest regional tour.Israel has said the Rafah operation must go forward in order to achieve the war goal of toppling Hamas. It has said it is working on plans to evacuate civilians from the area.European Union leaders called on Thursday for an “immediate” humanitarian pause in Gaza that would lead to a ceasefire.
Over 170 gunmen killed, 800 suspects captured in ongoing Shifa Hospital raid — IDF-Troops locate terror infrastructure, weapons at medical center; WHO chair says facility has become inaccessible; IAF strikes 35 sites across Strip over past day-By Emanuel Fabian and Agencies Today, 12:53 pm-MAR 23,24
The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it had killed more than 170 gunmen and captured 800 terror suspects during its ongoing operation against Hamas at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.In the raid, which began early Monday and is being led by the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit and the 401st Armored Brigade, the IDF said troops located infrastructure belonging to terror groups and caches of weapons. According to World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the medical site has become inaccessible due to the fighting.On social media, he shared a harrowing account from a doctor there, who said two patients on life support had died from lack of electricity, while others in critical condition were lying on the floor.“These conditions are utterly inhumane,” Tedros wrote. “We call for an immediate end to the siege.”International law stipulates that while a medical facility is a protected site, it loses that status if it is used for military activity, as Israel alleges Hamas has done on a large scale.Meanwhile, the IDF said that over the past day, the Israeli Air Force struck some 35 sites across the Gaza Strip, including command rooms and other infrastructure belonging to terror groups.In central Gaza, the IDF said troops of the Nahal Brigade killed some 15 terror operatives during “intense fighting.”In southern Gaza’s al-Qarara, the IDF said the 7th Armored Brigade directed airstrikes on two operatives and a building used by Hamas amid its ongoing operations in the area close to Khan Younis.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry reported in a preliminary tally early Saturday morning that another 67 people had been killed overnight, including 10 in a strike on a home north of Gaza City. The figures cannot be independently verified.At a funeral for the Barbakh family in the southern city of Khan Younis on Friday, relatives lamented seemingly endless losses.“At the beginning of the war, I lost my nephew, and now my sister, her husband and her children. Almost the entire family has perished,” said Turkiya Barbakh.“How long are we supposed to endure this?”On Saturday, UN chief Antonio Guterres arrived in Egypt, where he plans to meet with aid workers on the Egyptian side of Rafah, just across the border from the Gazan city where around 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.The question of a ground offensive on the city has become a matter of dispute between Israel and Washington.“We have no way to defeat Hamas without getting into Rafah and eliminating the battalions that are left there,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.Netanyahu has said the IDF will evacuate the civilians to areas north of Rafah before beginning the operation and has approved the military’s plans for the offensive.But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued an invasion of Rafah was “not the way to achieve” that aim, and warned starkly that it would risk more civilian fatalities, undermine aid assistance, risk greater isolation for Israel and endanger its security and international standing.US officials say the number of aid deliveries via land needs to increase fast and that aid needs to be sustained over a long period. Israel says it is not restricting aid, and has blamed the deteriorating humanitarian situation on aid agencies’ failure to distribute supplies.“We have the same goals as Israel: the defeat of Hamas,” the top American diplomat wrote on X, after meeting with Netanyahu on Friday. “Next week I will meet again with Israeli officials in Washington to discuss a different way we can achieve this objective.”“Hard disagree,” wrote Democratic Senator John Fetterman on X, in response to Blinken’s charge that Israel would become isolated. “Israel shouldn’t face isolation when Hamas terrorists are still present and hiding behind civilians.“Hamas owns this humanitarian catastrophe and must surrender, release the hostages NOW, or be eliminated,” added Fetterman, who has been a vocal supporter of Israel since the war erupted.Meanwhile, Mossad chief David Barnea headed to Qatar for negotiations with CIA chief William Burns and Qatari and Egyptian officials on Friday.The mediators are aiming to secure the release of Israeli hostages still held by terrorists in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and the delivery of more relief supplies.The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians.Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza, aiming to destroy the terror group and return the hostages. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says over 32,000 have been killed. The unverified figure does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and is believed to include Palestinians killed by terror groups’ rocket misfires and at least 13,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.Over half of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November. Several others were released in other circumstances and the bodies of some have also been recovered. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 33 of those still held by Hamas, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza
The EU’s 27 leaders also called for “the unconditional release of all hostages.” The European Council “urges the Israeli government not to undertake a ground operation in Rafah,” they added in their conclusions.
The war broke out after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7 and abducted 253 — half of whom are still held captive in Gaza. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities. Hamas says some 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza — an unverifiable toll that does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel says the IDF has killed over 13,000 gunmen from Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza, as well as 1,000 inside Israel on October 7. Some 250 IDF soldiers have been killed in the Gaza fighting.The US traditionally shields Israel at the UN, but it has also abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.
US set to place one-year ban on UNRWA funds, while leaving door open to future-Spending bill Congress slated to pass redirects $175 million to other West Bank, Gaza projects amid allegations that some of UN agency’s staffers participated in Oct. 7 attacks-By Jacob Magid-Today, 7:01 pm-MAR 22,24
The massive appropriations package Congress is set to pass on Friday will include a one-year ban on US funding to UNRWA, in the latest blow to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees following allegations earlier this year that 12 of its employees actively participated in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught and that many others have ties to terror groups.The text of the legislation states that UNRWA funding will be banned “for any amounts provided in prior fiscal years or in fiscal year 2024 or for amounts provided in fiscal year 2025, until March 25, 2025.”The clause is separated from the rest of the appropriations package and is stipulated as a calendar-year ban, which leaves open the potential for allocating any leftover funds to UNRWA after March 2025. Had it been a fiscal-year ban, there would not be any opportunity to fund UNRWA before October 2025. Moreover, it would’ve set a precedent much harder for Congress to overcome in subsequent spending packages.“The UNRWA ban punted the decision to whoever is in power in March 2025 to either fund or not fund the agency,” said Joel Braunold, managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.“The legislative ban is an irregular one because it extends beyond the annual appropriations cycle into only half of the next year. Practically, this means that an administration could decide to fund UNRWA if Congress can’t agree on a budget next year,” he added.In Congress, though, resuming UNRWA funding in subsequent spending bills will likely be much more difficult, given that a growing number of moderate Democrats have joined Republicans in souring on the agency since the latest allegations against its staffers came out.Instead of funding UNRWA, the appropriations bills set to be passed Friday earmarks $175 million in funds for other humanitarian projects in the West Bank and Gaza, which will go through the US Agency for International Development.The figure is a $50 million slash from last year, as part of a package that saw cuts across the board.Some Democrats sought to block the UNRWA ban, arguing that it is currently the primary agency providing aid to Palestinians in war-torn Gaza. But the progressives were vastly outnumbered in negotiations and will be outnumbered in Friday’s vote as well.“This will undermine the effort to assist starving Gazans and potentially further weaken regional stability,” UNRWA said in a statement earlier this week.The US froze its funding immediately after the Israeli allegations emerged against UNRWA staffers, all of whom were quickly fired by the agency.The US has historically been the leading donor to UNRWA, giving between $300 and $400 million a year — save for a three-year period during the Trump administration when all funding was cut.Gaza is starving. The UN is trying to feed them.Yet many in Congress seem happy to be part of the starvation caucus – more focused on attacking the UN than getting desperately-needed aid to suffering Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/yXw9Jyso1r— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 22, 2024-From the start of the latest fiscal year in October until the January freeze, the Biden administration gave $121 million to UNRWA.US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in January that roughly $300,000 earmarked for UNRWA had been withheld as a result of the freeze, adding that Washington was looking to divert the funds to other agencies such as the World Food Program and UNICEF, the relief agency for children.Neither is believed to be equipped to distribute funds at the scale UNRWA can, given the massive discrepancies in local Gaza staff.UNRWA was established in 1949 by a UN General Assembly resolution after Israel’s War of Independence, when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.Today, it directly employs 30,000 Palestinians, serving the civic and humanitarian needs of 5.9 million descendants of those refugees, in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and in vast camps in neighboring Arab countries.In Gaza, UNRWA runs the enclave’s schools, primary healthcare clinics and other social services, and distributes humanitarian aid.US support is believed to account for one-third of UNRWA’s budget, raising questions as to whether the agency will be able to overcome the cut in the long term.The US led 14 countries that announced the January freeze on funding to UNRWA, which employs roughly 13,000 people in Gaza and is the main supplier of food, water and shelter there.A handful of those countries, including Canada, Finland and Australia, have since announced resumptions to their funding amid growing fears of imminent famine in Gaza.The US said it would wait until a UN independent review panel concluded its probe into UNRWA before resuming its already-allocated donations.On Tuesday, that panel issued an interim report determining that UNRWA has mechanisms in place to ensure its neutrality, but also has deficiencies that must be addressed.Next, the review board will develop its final report with recommendations for how UNRWA should address neutrality concerns going forward and present it to the public on April 20.Israel has long pushed for UNRWA’s closure, arguing that it helps perpetuate the conflict with the Palestinians since it confers refugee status upon descendants of those originally displaced around the time of Israel’s War of Independence, unlike other refugee groups around the world.The agency has also been found to employ antisemitic staffers and use textbooks Israel deemed antisemitic and inciteful.UNRWA fired 12 of its employees in January after it received evidence from Israel that they participated in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. But Israel has since offered what it says is intelligence to stakeholders showing that some 1,200 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staffers have ties to Gaza terrorists.A senior European diplomat said on condition of anonymity that Jerusalem is “cynically” making such allegations in order to force UNRWA’s dissolution, after never taking issue with the employee lists it received from the agency in previous years.An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman dismissed this account, telling The Times of Israel that the lists it received from UNRWA were partial, did not contain ID numbers necessary for vetting the employees and were sometimes sent a full year after staffers began working for the agency.Nonetheless, Israel identified Hamas activists on UNRWA’s payroll on several occasions. In 2012, Israel alerted UNRWA that one of its principals, Sohail al-Hindi, was a Hamas activist, but it took until after Hindi’s election to Hamas’s politburo in 2017 for UNRWA to fire him, according to the Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Toll in Moscow terror attack up to 133; US intel official: We warned Russia of a plot-American source tells AP Washington knew of ISIS plans to strike country and had shared intel; authorities arrest 11 suspects in deadly assault on concert hall-By AP Today, 1:22 pm
MOSCOW — Eleven people have been detained after gunmen stormed a concert hall in Moscow and opened fire on the crowd, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service told President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.Four suspected perpetrators of the deadly attack near Moscow on Friday were heading towards Russia’s border with Ukraine when they were apprehended early on Saturday, and had contacts on the Ukrainian side, the Interfax news agency quoted the FSB security service as saying.Four of those detained were directly involved in the attack, Tass said.The FSB said the attack had been carefully planned.At least 133 people were killed in Friday’s attack, including three children, authorities said.The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated social media channels, although neither the Kremlin nor Russian security services have officially assigned blame for the attack.The Crocus city Hall #Moscow-It's Horrible. ????#Russia #MoscowAttack#MoscowTerrorAttack #MoscowUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/QcbEv1PAGq— Farmers_Protest 2.0 (@FarmersProtest_) March 23, 2024-In a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency, the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan said it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.However, a US intelligence official told The Associated Press that US intelligence agencies had confirmed that ISIS was responsible for the attack.The official said US intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that the ISIS branch was planning an attack in Moscow, and that US officials had privately shared the intelligence earlier this month with Russian officials. The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence information and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.Images shared by Russian state media Saturday showed a fleet of emergency vehicles still gathered outside the ruins of Crocus City Hall, a shopping mall and music venue with a capacity of more than 6,000 people in Krasnogorsk, on Moscow’s western edge.The attack came just days after Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide. The attack was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country’s fight in Ukraine dragged into a third year.Videos posted online showed gunmen in the venue shooting civilians at point-blank range. The roof of the theatre, where crowds had gathered Friday for a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic, collapsed in the early hours of Saturday morning as firefighters spent hours fighting a fire that erupted during the attack.In the aftermath of the attack, some Russian lawmakers were quick to accuse Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied any involvement.“Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.”Messages of outrage, shock and support for those affected have since streamed in from around the world.On Friday, the UN Security Council condemned “the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” and underlined the need for the perpetrators to be held accountable. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” his spokesman said.Meanwhile, in Moscow itself, hundreds of people stood in line Saturday morning to donate blood and plasma, Russia’s health ministry said.Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in this week’s presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, had publicly denounced the Western warnings of a potential terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. “All that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society,” he said earlier this week.In October 2015, a bomb planted by the Islamic State downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacation-goers returning from Egypt. The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, has claimed several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in the past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.Reuters contributed to this report.
US fighter jets strike underground Houthi storage sites in Yemen-CENTCOM says American forces also destroyed UAVs in areas controlled by the Iran-backed rebels, intercepted missiles fired toward Red Sea-By Agencies Today, 6:05 am-MAR 23,24
The US military said Friday it had struck three underground storage facilities used by Yemen’s Houthis, as the Iran-backed rebels continue to launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.According to a US official, the strikes were carried out by fighter jets that took off from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea.Strikes and explosions were seen and heard in Sanaa on Friday night, according to witnesses and videos, some circulating on social media. Footage showed explosions and smoke rising over the Houthi-controlled capital.There was no official confirmation of the injured or the origin of the explosions. Yemeni TV station Al-Masirah, which is linked to the Houthis, reported strikes hitting the city.In a statement late Friday, US Central Command said its forces also destroyed four unmanned aerial vehicles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.Central Command also said Houthis fired four anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the Red Sea, but no injuries or damage were reported by US, coalition or commercial ships.The head of the Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, said earlier there had been “reckless” US-British attacks on Yemen. The Houthi-run Saba News Agency said US and British aircraft had launched five raids on Hodeidah, the area where Yemen’s main port is located.The Houthis, who are allied with Iran and control much of the country’s north and west, have launched a campaign of drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.The Houthis have kept up their campaign of attacks despite two months of US-led airstrikes. The attacks have sent insurance costs spiraling for vessels transiting the Red Sea and prompted many shipping firms to take the far longer passage around the southern tip of Africa instead.
After Russia and China vetoed US resolution on Friday-UNSC vote set for Monday on new Gaza ceasefire resolution; US unlikely to back it-Council to vote on Russia and China-backed measure that Washington warns may give Hamas excuse to back out of ongoing hostage deal talks with Israel-By AP and ToI Staff Today, 10:25 am-MAR 23,24
The UN Security Council is set to vote on Monday on a resolution demanding a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but the United States warned the measure could hurt negotiations to pause the Israel-Hamas war, and is unlikely to back it.The resolution, put forward by the 10 elected council members, is backed by Russia and China, who vetoed a US-sponsored resolution Friday that supported “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.The 22-nation Arab Group at the UN issued a statement on Friday night appealing to all 15 council members “to act with unity and urgency” and vote for the resolution “to halt the bloodshed, preserve human lives and avert further human suffering and destruction.”“It is long past time for a ceasefire,” the Arab Group said. Ramadan began March 10 and ends April 9.The council is expected to vote on the resolution on Monday morning. The vote was earlier scheduled for Saturday morning, but was delayed early Saturday, according to a UN diplomat.Many members are hoping that the UN’s most powerful body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, will demand an end to the war that began after Hamas launched its devastating onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 253 others hostage.Since then, the Security Council has adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none has called for a ceasefire.More than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed during the fighting, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The unverified figure does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and is believed to include Palestinians killed by terror groups’ rocket misfires and at least 13,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.Gaza also faces a dire humanitarian emergency, with a report from an international authority on hunger warning this week that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza and that escalation of the war could push half of the territory’s 2.3 million people to the brink of starvation.The brief resolution scheduled for a vote Monday demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for Ramadan “leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire.” It also demands “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and emphasizes the urgent need to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza Strip.The draft does not include provisions supporting ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire — an element that was highlighted in the US resolution.US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after Friday’s vote that the new resolution’s text “fails to support sensitive diplomacy in the region. Worse, it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table.”“We should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardizes the ongoing negotiations” being carried out by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, she said, warning that if the diplomacy isn’t supported “we may once again find this council deadlocked.”“I truly hope that that does not come about,” Thomas-Greenfield said.The United States has vetoed three resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, the most recent an Arab-backed measure. That measure was supported by 13 members with one abstention in a February 20 vote.Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in late October calling for pauses in the fighting to deliver aid, the protection of civilians and a halt to arming Hamas. They said it did not reflect global calls for a ceasefire.They again vetoed the US resolution on Friday, calling it ambiguous and saying it was not the direct demand to end the fighting that much of the world seeks.A key issue was the unusual language that said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire.” The phrasing was not a straightforward “demand” or “call” to halt hostilities.Hamas on Friday voiced “appreciation” after Russia and China vetoed the “biased” US-led draft resolution. It said the draft contained “misleading wording that is complicit” with Israel and “grants it cover and legitimacy to commit a genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”The vote in the Security Council became another showdown involving world powers that are locked in tense disputes elsewhere, with the United States taking criticism for not being tough enough against its ally Israel, even as tensions between the two countries rise.Before the vote, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow supports an immediate ceasefire, but he criticized the diluted language, which he called philosophical wording that does not belong in a UN resolution.He accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the US ambassador to the UN of “deliberately misleading the international community” about calling for a ceasefire.“This was some kind of an empty rhetorical exercise,” Nebenzia said. “The American product is exceedingly politicized, the sole purpose of which is to help to play to the voters, to throw them a bone in the form of some kind of a mention of a ceasefire in Gaza … and to ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes in the draft are not even assessed.”China’s UN ambassador, Zhang Jun, said the US proposal set preconditions and fell far short of the expectations of council members and the broader international community.“If the US was serious about a ceasefire, it wouldn’t have vetoed time and again multiple council resolutions,” he said. “It wouldn’t have taken such a detour and played a game of words while being ambiguous and evasive on critical issues.”The vote in the 15-member council was 11 members in favor and three against, including Algeria, the Arab representative on the council. There was one abstention, from Guyana.After the vote, Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China of vetoing the resolution for “deeply cynical reasons,” saying they could not bring themselves to condemn Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel on October 7, which the resolution would have done for the first time.A second “petty” reason, she said, is that “Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States because it would rather see us fail than to see this council succeed.” She accused Russia of again putting “politics over progress” and having “the audacity and hypocrisy to throw stones” after launching an unwarranted invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.The resolution did reflect a shift by the United States, which has found itself at odds with much of the world as even allies of Israel push for an unconditional end to fighting.In previous resolutions, the US has closely intertwined calls for a ceasefire with demands for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. This resolution, using wording that’s open to interpretation, continued to link the two issues, but not as firmly.
Blinken: Last items in negotiations 'tend to be the hardest'Intel chiefs were unwilling to go to Doha without broader mandate in talks — report-TV says Netanyahu agreed to grant Mossad and Shin Bet heads more room to negotiate after facing pressure from fellow war cabinet members, who enlisted Deri to get’s PM consent-By ToI Staff Today, 5:15 am-MAR 23,24
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pressured by war cabinet members and senior defense establishment officials to expand the mandate of the negotiating team that traveled Friday to Doha for talks on a hostage deal and truce, Israeli television reported.According to Channel 12 news, which described the meeting before the delegation’s departure as “dramatic,” Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon — who is commanding intelligence efforts to find the abductees — were unwilling to go Qatar to unless there was more room for maneuver in the discussions. It said that Bar explicitly threatened he would not fly to the Qatari capital.The three reportedly felt that with the instructions that Netanyahu gave them, they did not have a real shot at reaching an agreement to free hostages taken in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.The network said that war cabinet members Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz, along with observer Gadi Eisenkot of the latter’s National Unity party, pushed for Netanyahu to give the officials greater flexibility in the negotiations.The war cabinet members enlisted Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, a close political ally of Netanyahu who is also an observer in the war cabinet, to help pressure the premier, the report said, adding that the prime minister ultimately relented and granted the negotiators a broader mandate.The team later departed for Qatar, where they were due to meet CIA director William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt’s intelligence head Abbas Kamel.Israel agreed to send the delegation following some reported pressure on Hamas by Qatar and Egypt to soften its demands. The talks will focus on efforts to finalize an agreement for a six-week truce in Gaza — based on a framework reached in Paris last month — and the release of some 40 children, women, elderly and sick hostages in the first phase, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and an increase of humanitarian aid to the Strip. Of 253 hostages abducted by Hamas and other terrorists from Israel on October 7, 2023, some 130 are still held captive in Gaza, though not all are alive.Hamas has to date conditioned any further hostage releases on an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire, a demand Israel has rejected outright, vowing to resume its military campaign after any hostage-truce deal has been implemented and to complete its goal of destroying the terror group.As Barnea and the other officials left for Qatar, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that “there has been no real progress” in negotiations with Hamas.“The Americans are dressing it up as progress,” said the source. “The pressure to move forward is coming from them.”Echoing that assessment, Channel 12 quoted an Israeli source saying the families of hostages should not get the impression that a breakthrough was likely, but also said the talks were progressing.It also reported, without citing a source, that there was a direct link between Hamas’s purported softening stance and the military’s ongoing operation at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. The Israel Defense Forces says the raid has resulted in the arrests of hundreds of terror operatives, including senior figures in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Commenting Friday on the hostage talks before leaving Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said negotiators have made progress in recent weeks, “closing gaps” between Israel and Hamas, but acknowledged a lot more work still needs to be done.“Almost by definition, when you get down to the last items, they tend to be the hardest,” he told reporters at Ben Gurion Airport, “but we’re determined to try to get it done.”Blinken was in Israel on the last stop of his sixth diplomatic swing through the region since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, following Hamas’s slaughter that day of 1,200 people in southern Israel, amid tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over the management of the conflict. He held one-on-one meetings with both Netanyahu and Gantz, along with the war cabinet.Agencies contributed to this report.
Australia says BAE to build fleet of nuclear-powered submarines-By Max Blenkin Canberra (AFP) Mar 21, 2024
Australia said Thursday the UK's BAE Systems would build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, a key step in fulfilling the landmark AUKUS security pact between Canberra, London and Washington.Australia's Submarine Agency said BAE would produce the state-of-the-art vessels, which will be delivered from the early 2040s.The agency didn't reveal the exact number of submarines that will be built or financial details of the deal, but Australian defence officials have said the country would get at least five of the SNN-AUKUS class subs at a cost of billions of dollars.The first of the vessels are expected to be built in Britain, and later ones at a shipyard in Adelaide, South Australia.The deal is central to an effort to overhaul Australia's military, as AUKUS members seek to check Chinese military expansion in the Asia-Pacific.The subs will be quieter and stealthier than Australia's existing fleet, and capable of deploying over vast distances without surfacing, posing a potent threat to any foe.Although the subs will not carry nuclear weapons, the technology underpinning their nuclear-propelled engines has been a tightly held secret between the United States and Britain for more than 60 years.More details are expected when Australian and British defence and foreign ministers meet jointly in Adelaide on Friday.- AUKUS doubts -But the scale of the project is vast, and questions have been growing about whether Australia -- with limited nuclear experience and a relatively small navy -- can pull it off.Australian officials believe some 20,000 workers will be needed for the homegrown nuclear industry -- among them an army of technicians, metal workers, electricians and welders.Australia has struggled to maintain a fleet of ageing diesel-electric subs plagued by design flaws and cost blowouts.Successive Australian governments on both sides of the political spectrum have torn up their predecessor's defence plans and started again, at enormous cost.Because the submarines will take more than a decade to design and build, there is an added complication, with Australia expected to get at least three Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines from the United States in the interim.In total, the AUKUS submarine project could cost up to Aus$368 billion (US$240 billion) over the next 30 years.Some fear Donald Trump could scrap it completely if he returns to power next year.In a joint statement AUKUS defence ministers tried to swat aside concerns that the project is dead before it hits the water."Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States remain fully committed to this shared endeavour," said US defence chief Lloyd Austin, UK defence secretary Grant Shapps, and Australian defence minister Richard Marles."These steps to grow Australia's submarine construction and maintenance capability are critical to the AUKUS partnership."BAE Systems already has a close relationship with the UK navy, and is responsible for building its Astute-class and Dreadnought-class nuclear-powered vessels.It will also develop SNN-AUKUS class submarines for the UK's Royal Navy and a Rolls Royce plant in the UK will produce the nuclear reactors that are eventually installed in both the UK's and Australia's submarines.Earlier on Thursday, UK and Australian defence ministers inked a new defence agreement in Canberra.The agreement stops short of a full mutual defence pact, which would bind one side to intervene if the other was attacked.But it does include a "commitment to consult" about emerging threats and establishes a "status of forces agreement", which makes it easier to host soldiers from the other nation.The "status of forces" agreement makes it easier for Australian sailors to train on the UK's nuclear subs, and for British crew to be based in Australia.str-sft-arb/mca-BAE SYSTEMS-ROLLS-ROYCE HOLDINGS.
North Korea tests engine for new hypersonic missile-by Thomas Maresca
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 20, 2024-North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test of a solid-fuel engine for a new intermediate-range hypersonic missile, state media reported Wednesday, one day after observing the launch of short-range ballistic missiles.The test was conducted at the Sohae Satellite Launching Facility on the country's west coast Tuesday, state-run Korean Central News Agency said."The military strategic value of this weapon system is appreciated as important as ICBM from the security environment of our state and the operational demand of the People's Army and enemies know better about it," Kim said, according to KCNA.The report added that a timetable for completing the development of the new weapons system was "set through the great success in the important test."In January, Pyongyang said it test-fired a new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile with a hypersonic warhead, which could place U.S. military installations in Guam -- around 2,100 miles away -- within reach. Hypersonic weapons travel at least five times the speed of sound and are designed to be maneuverable, making them difficult to intercept.A hypersonic missile was among the laundry list of weapons to be developed that Kim Jong Un laid out at a party congress in January 2021, alongside nuclear-powered submarines, submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, "ultramodern tactical nuclear weapons" and military satellites.Kim "expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the development projects have been successfully completed in the strategic weapon sector during the period of the five-year plan," Wednesday's KCNA report said.The engine test came one day after Kim oversaw firing drills of the North's KN-25 super-large multiple rocket launcher system. Seoul and Washington categorize the system's nuclear-capable 600mm artillery as a short-range ballistic missile.Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain at their highest in years, as Pyongyang has kept up a steady stream of threats, weapons tests and military exercises. In January, Kim declared South Korea the "most harmful and primary enemy of our country" and said the North had the "legality to attack and destroy at any time."The United States and South Korea have increased their military cooperation in response to the North's s provocations, with expanded drills and the deployment of U.S. assets to the Peninsula. The allies completed their annual Freedom Shield springtime joint military exercise last week, which Pyongyang condemned as preparation for an invasion.
DARPA's Rubble to Rockets Program Pioneers New Manufacturing Frontiers-by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 19, 2024-The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) introduces the Rubble to Rockets (R2) program, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at revolutionizing manufacturing in environments where supply chains are compromised. The Department of Defense (DOD) has identified an urgent need for the capability to produce critical structures on-demand using locally sourced materials, challenging the traditional dependency on pristine raw materials for manufacturing.R2 is set to redefine the paradigms of design and production by developing methodologies that can adapt to variable input materials, enabling the creation of structures from an expansive range of raw resources. This initiative not only seeks to build a cost-effective, flexible, and robust platform for the production and characterization of raw materials for structural fabrication but also to adapt these innovations to the specific context of sounding rockets. These rockets will serve as a proof of concept for the feasibility and wide applicability of the R2 program's objectives.Hunter Martin, the program manager for R2 at DARPA, emphasized the transformative potential of the program: "By establishing a framework that enables manufacturing with diverse materials under various conditions, we challenge conventional manufacturing limits in resource-scarce settings. Although sounding rockets are our initial focus, we envision this technology having broad implications across numerous domains, including spare parts fabrication, infrastructure repair, and even complete system production."The R2 program plans to exploit advances in material informatics alongside novel processing and manufacturing techniques to significantly reduce the time and scale required for production. It aims to establish an analytical framework capable of incorporating new material discoveries and fabrication methods swiftly, mitigating the traditionally long adoption risks.Anticipating a future where material conversion and insights gleaned from R2 could herald new avenues for materials with sustainable supply chains and energy footprints, DARPA is poised to unveil more details about the program in an upcoming Program Solicitation (PS). Furthermore, an R2 Industry Day scheduled for March 18, 2024, will offer potential proposers comprehensive insights into the program's goals. For more information and to register for the Industry Day, interested parties are directed to visit sam.gov.
Advanced robots perceived as more blameworthy for civilian casualties 'Chucky' did it.by Sophie Jenkins
Colchester UK (SPX) Mar 18, 2024-A recent study conducted by the University of Essex has unveiled a noteworthy tendency to attribute greater blame to advanced robots for civilian casualties in comparison to their less sophisticated counterparts. Spearheaded by Dr. Rael Dawtry of the Department of Psychology, this research underscores the significant role of autonomy and perceived agency in shaping public perceptions of culpability.The investigation, documented in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, aims to guide legislative discourse as robotic technologies evolve. "With robots increasingly taking on complex roles with minimal human oversight, their involvement in activities posing a risk to human safety, such as autonomous driving or military applications, prompts a crucial debate on accountability for harm caused by such autonomous entities," Dr. Dawtry remarked.This exploration into the psychology of blame allocation is timely, considering the expanding capabilities of robots and their integration into areas fraught with ethical and legal complexities, like autonomous weaponry and human rights considerations. The study delves into how the framing of robots' capabilities influences perceptions of their blameworthiness in harmful incidents.In one segment of the study involving over 400 participants, a scenario was presented where an armed humanoid robot, engaged in a counter-terrorism operation, accidentally causes the death of a teenager. The findings revealed a propensity to assign more blame to the robot when it was described using terms that emphasized its advanced features, despite identical outcomes.Furthermore, the research highlighted that the mere designation of a device as an 'autonomous robot', as opposed to a 'machine', significantly impacts the assignment of agency and blame. "Our findings illuminate the subtle yet profound impact of linguistic framing on the attribution of autonomy and blame to robots. This could have far-reaching implications as robots gain actual sophistication or are portrayed as more advanced than they are," Dr. Dawtry concluded.
Al-Shabaab fighters storm Somali military base
Mogadishu, March 23 (AFP) Mar 23, 2024-Fighters from the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab stormed a military base outside Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, with casualties reported, military officers and witnesses said.The early-morning raid occurred in Busley, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Mogadishu, where Somali security forces have set up temporary bases for operations against Al-Shabaab dominated villages in the region, according to security sources.The assault comes after Al-Shabaab gunmen attacked a hotel near the presidential palace in Mogadishu on March 14, killing three people and demonstrating the group's continued ability to strike despite a major military offensive against the jihadists.Mohamed Adan, a military officer in the nearby district of Afgoye, said heavy fighting had erupted after "terrorists" attacked the Busley base."They blew up a vehicle loaded with explosives in the early morning before the gunmen engaged in a face-to-face armed confrontation with security forces," Adan told AFP."The Somali army defended their position and several soldiers including a commander were confirmed dead," he added."The desperate terrorists also ambushed a reinforcement military convoy along the road near Dhanaane but they lost a dozen fighters" in the incident, Adan said, adding that Somali forces were now back in control of the area.The Al-Qaeda affiliated group claimed in a statement its fighters had overrun the Busley base and that among those killed was the base commander.The claims could not be independently verified and the Somali government has made no official comment on the attack.- 'Heavy explosions' -"We heard heavy explosions and gunfire this morning," said Hassan Nur, a resident of Jazeera village near Busley, adding that he saw a military convoy pass on the road heading towards the area of the fighting.Al-Shabaab has been waging a deadly insurgency against the fragile central government in Mogadishu for more than 16 years.Although the militants were driven out of the capital by an African Union force in 2011, they still have a strong presence in rural Somalia and have carried out numerous attacks against political, security and civilian targets mostly in Somalia but also in neighbouring countries including Kenya.Somalia's beleaguered federal government launched a major offensive against the Islamists in August 2022, joining forces with local clan militias.The army and militias known as "macawisley" have retaken swathes of territory in central Somalia in an operation backed by an AU mission known as ATMIS and US air strikes.But the offensive has suffered setbacks, with Al-Shabaab earlier this month claiming it had taken multiple locations in the centre of the country.
French lawmakers to probe Polynesia nuclear tests
Paris, March 19 (AFP) Mar 19, 2024-French lawmakers are expected to launch a probe into the impact of the country's nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia over three decades.France detonated almost 200 bombs from the 1960s to the 1990s in French Polynesia -- a scattered Pacific island territory thousands of kilometres east of Australia -- including 41 atmospheric tests between 1966 and 1974."We need to ask ourselves what the French government knew about the impact of the tests before they were carried out, as they occurred and up to today," the largely communist GDR group in the National Assembly said in a written request for an investigation.The GDR used its right to request one parliamentary investigation per session to demand the probe, which must be formally approved by the defence committee.The blasts "had numerous consequences: They relate to health, the economy, society and the environment," GDR said in the text written by Mereana Reid Arbelot, a French Polynesian member of parliament.She called for a "full accounting" of the consequences and added that the group wanted to "shed light" on how testing sites were first chosen during the 1950s.Reid Arbelot said those decisions inflicted "trauma on the civilian and military populations".GDR said that Paris' claims about how much radiation people were exposed to at the time of the tests are contested among scientists and should be revised.Paris first opened a path to compensation in 2010 when it acknowledged health and environmental impacts.A study published by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) last year found that the nuclear tests slightly increased the risk of thyroid cancer for local people.But campaigners at the time said that it should have looked at a larger segment of the population and called for more reparations.On a 2021 visit, President Emmanuel Macron said the nation owed French Polynesia "a debt" for the nuclear tests, the last as recently as 1996.He called for archives on the testing to be opened, save only the most sensitive military information.France's independent nuclear programme was launched in the wake of World War II and pushed by Fifth Republic founder Charles de Gaulle.One of nine nuclear powers in the world, it maintains a stock of around 300 warheads -- a similar level to China or Britain, but far short of heavyweights Russia and the United States.French nuclear doctrine calls for the bombs to be used only if the country's "vital interests" are under threat -- a relatively vague term leaving the president wide leeway to decide on their use.
Russian strike severs power line to Ukraine nuclear plant
Kyiv, Ukraine, March 22 (AFP) Mar 22, 2024-A Russian strike Friday severed one of two power lines supplying Europe's largest nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine as Moscow launched a major assault on energy infrastructure."The enemy is now carrying out the largest attack on the Ukrainian energy industry in recent times," Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook, adding that shelling had knocked out "one of the power transmission lines feeding" the Zaporizhzhia power plant.The facility, Europe's largest nuclear energy site, was seized by Russian troops in the first days of the war but is powered by Ukrainian lines."This situation is extremely dangerous and risks sparking an emergency situation", said Ukraine's atomic energy operator Energoatom.In the event that the final power line is cut, it said the plant will be "on the verge of another blackout, which is a serious violation of the conditions of safe operation of the plant".Since the beginning of the war, the Zaporizhzhia power plant has suffered multiple blackouts, falling back on emergency diesel generators and safety systems."In case of their failure, a threat of a nuclear and radiation accident will emerge," said Energoatom.According to Zaporizhzhia's governor, 12 Russian missiles hit the region early Friday, destroying several houses and injuring an unknown number of people."According to initial reports, seven houses were destroyed, 35 were damaged," Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram, adding that people had been injured.Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of the city of Mariupol, under Russian control since 2022, said on Telegram that a Russian missile had hit a trolley in the Dnipro hydroelectric station, also in Zaporizhzhia, killing civilians travelling on it.Oleksandr Symchyshyn, mayor of the western city of Khmelnytskyi, described "a horrible morning" with damage to infrastructure and residential buildings."There are victims and casualties among civilians," he wrote on Telegram.Energy facilities were targeted by Russian missile, drone, and artillery strikes in multiple cities across Ukraine on Friday, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi,and Kryvyi Rig."The goal is not just to damage, but to try again, like last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country's energy system," said energy minister Galushchenko.bur-roc/am/tym/ach
