Italy has been shaken by the alleged gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in front of her boyfriend in a public park in the Sicilian city of Catania, the latest in a string of shocking sexual attacks in the country.

The case is reminiscent of two alleged gang rapes last summer. A group of seven men and teenage boys between the ages of 15 and 18 are currently on trial for the alleged rape of a 19-year-old girl in Palermo in August.

Weeks later nine young men were arrested and charged with allegedly raping two cousins aged 10 and 12 near Naples and broadcasting the attack live on social media. They, too, are facing trial.

The case was soon seized upon as evidence that migrants should be blocked from entering the country.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, came to power in September 2022 on an anti-immigration platform, but her efforts to curb irregular migration into the country have so far been unsuccessful.

The men accused in the latest Sicilian case entered Italy by boat in 2021 and 2022 as unaccompanied minors, according to Catania police. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the country’s most visible far-right figures, said on X that they should not have been allowed to stay.

Meanwhile, during a visit to Catania, Meloni expressed her solidarity with the alleged rape victim and her family.

“The state will be there, and the state will guarantee that justice will be done,” she said.

The ways in which the cases between those with Italian suspects and those with Egyptian suspects are being handled are already drawing scrutiny.

Those who were now over the age of 18, and therefore not categorized as unaccompanied minors, no longer had the right to stay in the country because Egyptians do not qualify for asylum in Italy.

Italy’s interior ministry has called for a thorough review of all centers housing unaccompanied minors to see if similar cases exist.

Migration blamed

Italy has long struggled with the problem of gender-based violence.

In November, both houses of parliament unanimously passed a new measure strengthening punishments against perpetrators of gender-based violence and increasing protective measures for women who fear for their lives.

The legislation was inspired by the case of Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old woman murdered by an ex-boyfriend. She was one of 118 femicides in Italy last year. In 2022, women were the victims of 91% of homicides committed by family members, partners or former partners, according to the European Data Journalism Network.

“Violence against women is a phenomenon that’s more or less present in all countries, caused by structural causes like the disparity between men and women, stereotypes and prejudices,” Elena Biaggioni, vice president of D.i.Re, a national association that coordinates anti-violence centers and women’s shelters, said last June.

Speaking at a protest after a pregnant woman was allegedly stabbed to death by her partner, she added:  “But of course in countries where there’s a macho culture and sexism is stronger, like Italy, this violence is justified in a different way.”

Yet in the latest case, officials have centered their attention on the background of the alleged perpetrators.

The judge investigating the most recent case, Carlo Umberto Cannella, said the suspects were likely to reoffend because they were not “accustomed to civilization.”

He ruled that they should all remain in prison while the investigation is underway.

“It appears clear that there is a danger of repetition of the crime also in light of the fact that the horror only ended thanks to the girl’s attempt to free herself,” Cannella said  Wednesday as he ruled that the suspects should not be released on bail, according to a court spokesperson.

In a scathing op-ed in the right-leaning newspaper Il Giornale, which was founded by the family of the late former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the editors also blamed migration for the alleged Sicily rape.

“Why are these individuals, without any requirement to access international protection, still in Italy and have not been subject to expulsion?” the editors wrote.

“Because upon arrival in our country they declared themselves minors and the law prevents the rejection of irregular immigrants who have not yet reached the age of majority. Now they will go to trial for rape but, in the meantime, that little girl will forever carry with her the pain and trauma of rape, suffered at just 13 years old. This is not the first case of non-EU minors being welcomed into Italian facilities and then engaging in criminal activities.”

Italy has been shaken by the alleged gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in front of her boyfriend in a public park in the Sicilian city of Catania, the latest in a string of shocking sexual attacks in the country.

The case is reminiscent of two alleged gang rapes last summer. A group of seven men and teenage boys between the ages of 15 and 18 are currently on trial for the alleged rape of a 19-year-old girl in Palermo in August.

Weeks later nine young men were arrested and charged with allegedly raping two cousins aged 10 and 12 near Naples and broadcasting the attack live on social media. They, too, are facing trial.

The case was soon seized upon as evidence that migrants should be blocked from entering the country.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, came to power in September 2022 on an anti-immigration platform, but her efforts to curb irregular migration into the country have so far been unsuccessful.

The men accused in the latest Sicilian case entered Italy by boat in 2021 and 2022 as unaccompanied minors, according to Catania police. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the country’s most visible far-right figures, said on X that they should not have been allowed to stay.

Meanwhile, during a visit to Catania, Meloni expressed her solidarity with the alleged rape victim and her family.

“The state will be there, and the state will guarantee that justice will be done,” she said.

The ways in which the cases between those with Italian suspects and those with Egyptian suspects are being handled are already drawing scrutiny.

Those who were now over the age of 18, and therefore not categorized as unaccompanied minors, no longer had the right to stay in the country because Egyptians do not qualify for asylum in Italy.

Italy’s interior ministry has called for a thorough review of all centers housing unaccompanied minors to see if similar cases exist.

Migration blamed

Italy has long struggled with the problem of gender-based violence.

In November, both houses of parliament unanimously passed a new measure strengthening punishments against perpetrators of gender-based violence and increasing protective measures for women who fear for their lives.

The legislation was inspired by the case of Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old woman murdered by an ex-boyfriend. She was one of 118 femicides in Italy last year. In 2022, women were the victims of 91% of homicides committed by family members, partners or former partners, according to the European Data Journalism Network.

“Violence against women is a phenomenon that’s more or less present in all countries, caused by structural causes like the disparity between men and women, stereotypes and prejudices,” Elena Biaggioni, vice president of D.i.Re, a national association that coordinates anti-violence centers and women’s shelters, said last June.

Speaking at a protest after a pregnant woman was allegedly stabbed to death by her partner, she added:  “But of course in countries where there’s a macho culture and sexism is stronger, like Italy, this violence is justified in a different way.”

Yet in the latest case, officials have centered their attention on the background of the alleged perpetrators.

The judge investigating the most recent case, Carlo Umberto Cannella, said the suspects were likely to reoffend because they were not “accustomed to civilization.”

He ruled that they should all remain in prison while the investigation is underway.

“It appears clear that there is a danger of repetition of the crime also in light of the fact that the horror only ended thanks to the girl’s attempt to free herself,” Cannella said  Wednesday as he ruled that the suspects should not be released on bail, according to a court spokesperson.

In a scathing op-ed in the right-leaning newspaper Il Giornale, which was founded by the family of the late former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the editors also blamed migration for the alleged Sicily rape.

“Why are these individuals, without any requirement to access international protection, still in Italy and have not been subject to expulsion?” the editors wrote.

“Because upon arrival in our country they declared themselves minors and the law prevents the rejection of irregular immigrants who have not yet reached the age of majority. Now they will go to trial for rape but, in the meantime, that little girl will forever carry with her the pain and trauma of rape, suffered at just 13 years old. This is not the first case of non-EU minors being welcomed into Italian facilities and then engaging in criminal activities.”

A crucial system of ocean currents may already be on course to collapse, according to a new report, with alarming implications for sea level rise and global weather — leading temperatures to plunge dramatically in some regions and rise in others.

Using exceptionally complex and expensive computing systems, scientists found a new way to detect an early warning signal for the collapse of these currents, according to the study published Friday in the journal Science Advances. And as the planet warms, there are already indications it is heading in this direction.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (the AMOC) — of which the Gulf Stream is part — works like a giant global conveyor belt, taking warm water from the tropics toward the far North Atlantic, where the water cools, becomes saltier and sinks deep into the ocean, before spreading southward.

The currents carry heat and nutrients to different areas of the globe and play a vital role in keeping the climate of large parts of the Northern Hemisphere relatively mild.

For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the circulation’s stability as climate change warms the ocean and melts ice, disrupting the balance of heat and salt that determines the currents’ strength.

While many scientists believe the AMOC will slow under climate change, and could even grind to a halt, there remains huge uncertainty over when and how fast this could happen. The AMOC has only been monitored continuously since 2004.

Scientists do know — from building a picture of the past using things like ice cores and ocean sediments — the AMOC shut down more than 12,000 years ago following rapid glacier melt.

Now they are scrambling to work out if it could happen again.

This new study provides an “important breakthrough,” said René van Westen, a marine and atmospheric researcher at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and study co-author.

The scientists used a supercomputer to run complex climate models over a period of three months, simulating a gradual increase of freshwater to the AMOC — representing ice melt as well as rainfall and river runoff, which can dilute the ocean’s salinity and weaken the currents.

As they slowly increased the freshwater in the model, they saw the AMOC gradually weaken until it abruptly collapsed. It’s the first time a collapse has been detectable using these complex models, representing “bad news for the climate system and humanity,” the report says.

“But we can at least say that we are heading in the direction of the tipping point under climate change,” van Westen said.

The impacts of the AMOC’s collapse could be catastrophic. Some parts of Europe might see temperatures plunge by up to 30 degrees Celsius over a century, the study finds, leading to a completely different climate over the course of just a decade or two.

“No realistic adaptation measures can deal with such rapid temperature changes,” the study authors write.

Countries in the Southern Hemisphere, on the other hand, could see increased warming, while the Amazon’s wet and dry seasons could flip, causing serious disruption to the ecosystem.

The AMOC’s collapse could also cause sea levels to surge by around 1 meter (3.3 feet), van Westen said.

Stefan Rahmstorf, a physical oceanographer at Potsdam University in Germany, who was not involved with the study, said it was “a major advance in AMOC stability science.”

Previous studies finding the AMOC’s tipping point used much simpler models, he said, giving hope to some scientists that it might not be found under more complex models.

This study crushes those hopes, Rahmstorf said.

Joel Hirschi, associate head of marine systems modeling at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK, said the study was the first to use complex climate models to show the AMOC can flip from “on” to “off” in response to relatively small amounts of freshwater entering the ocean.

But there are reasons to be cautious, he added. Even though the study used a complex model, it still has a low resolution, he said, meaning there could be limitations in representing some parts of the currents.

This study adds to the growing body of evidence that the AMOC may be approaching a tipping point — and that it could even be close.

A 2021 study found that the AMOC was weaker than any other time in the past 1,000 years. And a particularly alarming — and somewhat controversial — report published in July last year, concluded that the AMOC could be on course to collapse potentially as early as 2025.

Yet huge uncertainties remain. Jeffrey Kargel, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, said he suspected the theory of a potentially imminent shutdown of the AMOC “will remain somewhat controversial until, one year, we know that it is happening.”

He likened its potential collapse to the “wild gyrations of a stock market that precede a major crash” — it’s nearly impossible to unpick which changes are reversible, and which are a precursor to a disaster.

Modern data shows the AMOC’s strength fluctuates, but there is no observed evidence yet of a decline, Hirschi said. “Whether abrupt changes in the AMOC similar to those seen in the past will occur as our climate continues to warm is an important open question.”

This study is a piece of that puzzle, Rahmstorf said. “(It) adds significantly to the rising concern about an AMOC collapse in the not too distant future,” he said. “We will ignore this risk at our peril.”

The worst kept secret in Kyiv has finally been confirmed: the man who led Ukraine’s armed forces for two years is out of his job.

President Volodymyr Zelensky replaced General Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Thursday, after 10 days of rumor and speculation – and months of a fraying relationship.

The announcement comes at a critical moment in the war with Russia and is likely to herald a change in Ukrainian strategy. But it is also hazardous.

The removal of Zaluzhnyi from his position as commander-in-chief comes as Ukrainian units are on the backfoot in several parts of the long front line, especially in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. They are desperately short of shells and other munitions and running short of experienced soldiers.

The Russian war machine is running at full tilt and has a much larger pool of men to draw from than Ukraine to replenish its ranks. Russia is skirting international sanctions and its oil revenues help fund plentiful war spending.

Zelensky said he and Zaluzhnyi had a “frank discussion about what needs to be changed in the army. Urgent changes.” He added that “the feeling of stagnation in the southern areas and the difficulties in the fighting in Donetsk region have affected the public mood.”

The public mood is indeed gloomier. According to a recent survey in Ukraine, those who believe that events are going in the wrong direction increased from 16% in May 2022 to 33% in December 2023.

It’s unlikely that Zaluzhnyi’s replacement, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, will offer a radical change of style but he is thought to be closer to Zelensky.

Syrskyi has been in command of land forces since the Russian invasion but was criticized for extending the defense of Bakhmut at great human cost. Subordinates have described him as lacking empathy and some soldiers took to calling him “General 200” (200 is the military code for killed-in-action.)

“Syrskyi is seen a consensus choice,” says Matthew Schmidt, director of the International Affairs program at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

“Some say he’s too Soviet, meaning unimaginative but capable, some say he doesn’t take uncomfortable truths well – something Zaluzhnyi did – and some say he’s the best of the worst kind of general.”

Schmidt says there are few options right now. “Maybe it’s a phase in the war where a safe choice is the right move.”

Syrskyi’s most urgent task will be to stabilize the front lines. Also in his inbox: how to replenish the depleted ranks of some of Ukraine’s best brigades and how to expedite the arrival of Western munitions at the front lines – and how to cope until that happens.

Other priorities include: what stress to place on longer-range strikes against Russian infrastructure such as fuel depots and military bases, integrating F-16 combat aircraft into battle plans, and the rapid development of the next generation of unmanned systems.

Shortages on the frontlines

Amid persistent Russian attacks around Avdiivka and Kupyansk, “the first priority is make sure you can hold the current line of contact,” Schmidt says.

“Putin’s tactical weakness doesn’t mean he can’t kill thousands of his soldiers in an attempt to take significant chunks of territory. Any new chief of staff has to respect that risk,” he adds.

“It’s better than no shells,” one soldier said.

With the Biden administration’s package of $61 billion in military aid blocked in Congress, the US has been sending smaller packages for several months, and the slowdown has already begun affecting the Ukrainian military’s planning and operations, according to US officials.

Schmidt says “the immediate priority is to get enough artillery shells to the front to keep the Russians from exploiting the pause in US aid. Each artillery shell that’s available to fire equates to needing fewer infantry to hold the line.”

Unclogging the pipeline of US military aid and boosting European production of munitions are critical priorities if Ukraine is to move from hanging on to fighting back. The EU has acknowledged it will fall far short of its goal of producing one million artillery shells for Ukraine in the year to March, estimating the number will be roughly half of that.

This week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “If you ask a soldier at the front what he needs most right now, he will say shells. This answer was the same yesterday, a month ago, six months ago and a year ago.”

“The main goal is to ensure that the shell shortage never turns into a shell famine,” he added.

Outnumbered

Ukraine’s more professional units are exhausted by two years of non-stop combat, their ranks thinned by casualties. Ukraine does not publish figures, but US officials estimate that as many as 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and nearly twice that number injured.

The scale and speed of additional mobilization in Ukraine is a thorny political question, and one source of the rift between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi, who said the military needed another half-million soldiers and criticized “gaps in our legislation that allow citizens to evade their responsibilities.”

A bill passing through the Ukrainian parliament would lower the minimum age for the draft to 25 from 27 (a provision Zelensky did not sign last year) and introduce harsh punishments for people who flout mobilization rules. Citizens of military age would be obliged to carry military registration documents with them.

A more ambitious version of the bill was withdrawn amid public criticism, and it remains to be seen how effective the new measure is in addressing serious shortfalls. Zelensky is concerned about the government’s ability to pay for a larger standing army (frontline pay is six times the average Ukrainian wage at $3000 per month) and about the political risk.

“The population is still committed to the fight, we see that in opinion surveys, but they’re exhausted,” Schmidt says.

Unmanned systems

Zaluzhnyi has persistently argued that given Russia’s higher pool of manpower and armor, Ukraine needs a step-change in its battlefield technology: more sophisticated drones and other unmanned systems would provide real-time intelligence and accurate targeting information, for example.

In his recent essay Zaluzhnyi suggested that turbo-charging such investment, as well as embracing cyber technology, could produce results within five months.

Time is of the essence. The Russian military continues to make mistakes, but it is learning and adapting, especially in the exploitation of attack and reconnaissance drones and electronic warfare.

The Russian military has also exploited glide technology to deliver aerial bombs more accurately, one reason that the Ukrainian offensive in the south faltered last summer.

Put simply, Ukraine needs to widen the technological gap, as Zelensky acknowledged in his address announcing the leadership shake-up. Its rapidly expanding domestic drone industry will be critical in that effort and is already showing results.

First person, or ‘FPV’ drones deployed in the Avdiivka area have had a devastating effect on Russian attempts to encircle the town, inflicting heavy losses on tanks and munitions vehicles. Lt. Gen. Serhii Naiev, Commander of Ukraine’s Joint Forces, says they are a “much cheaper but no less effective means of destroying enemy equipment and manpower than anti-tank missile systems and artillery ammunition.”

The introduction of F-16s, expected at the earliest this spring, should erode the Russians’ edge in the skies, but Zaluzhnyi’s stated goal of achieving absolute air superiority to enable Ukraine to go on the offensive seems a distant prospect. Meshing the new combat planes into an overall battle strategy will be a critical task for Syrskyi.

One area where the Ukrainians have been successful in recent months is in extending their attacks against Russian military infrastructure, transport links and refineries, as far away as St Petersburg and the Russian Far East.

The recent drone or UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) strike on a refinery in Volgograd was the latest win in a series of targeted strikes.

More significant still, and despite having virtually no navy of its own, the special operations run by Budanov and the Security Service (SBU) have “allowed Ukraine to bottle up the Russian Black Sea Fleet in port…while also destroying multiple air-defense and ammunition sites in Crimea,” according to the US Naval Institute.

Ukraine has pioneered the development of maritime drones to take out several of the Black Sea Fleet’s warships. Aerial drones, missiles and sabotage operations have at least disrupted Russian logistics.

“They need to interdict Russia supply lines in Ukraine and make the Russian public feel the war in their daily lives. If Putin has to move resources to protect his rear, that means less to go on the attack with,” in Schmidt’s view.

Big shoes to fill

Over the past year, a sense of optimism among Ukraine’s allies and frontline commanders alike has given way to a darker mood, as Zelensky has acknowledged. Zaluzhnyi’s gloomy assessment in December was that “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,” a comment that did not endear him to the presidency.

Exhaustion at home, squabbles among allies (the EU versus Hungary) and the paralysis in Congress have added to what is a bleak outlook. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been buoyed by the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House.

Filling Zaluzhnyi’s shoes won’t be easy.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian general who has visited Ukraine and met with senior officials, describes him as a “charismatic and popular military leader who anticipated and prepared in the weeks before the Russian large-scale invasion.”

Syrskyi has his own achievements, especially the defense of Kyiv in the early days and the lightning offensive that recovered swathes of Kharkiv in September 2022.

But the conflict has changed vastly since then.

In the immediate future, the Ukrainian leadership must show unity after what has been a messy changeover. Myhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of the President, said that “during a war, political competition, especially at the level of the army, generals, and politicians, doesn’t look so good.”

Instilling a new sense of purpose is all the more important as Ukraine faces a window of vulnerability.

As Matthew Schmidt puts it, Putin “can throw bodies at the enemy, using Russian quantity to overcome Ukrainian quality. It’s a very Stalinist approach to the battlefield, and it’s built into Russian strategic culture.”

The worst kept secret in Kyiv has finally been confirmed: the man who led Ukraine’s armed forces for two years is out of his job.

President Volodymyr Zelensky replaced General Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Thursday, after 10 days of rumor and speculation – and months of a fraying relationship.

The announcement comes at a critical moment in the war with Russia and is likely to herald a change in Ukrainian strategy. But it is also hazardous.

The removal of Zaluzhnyi from his position as commander-in-chief comes as Ukrainian units are on the backfoot in several parts of the long front line, especially in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. They are desperately short of shells and other munitions and running short of experienced soldiers.

The Russian war machine is running at full tilt and has a much larger pool of men to draw from than Ukraine to replenish its ranks. Russia is skirting international sanctions and its oil revenues help fund plentiful war spending.

Zelensky said he and Zaluzhnyi had a “frank discussion about what needs to be changed in the army. Urgent changes.” He added that “the feeling of stagnation in the southern areas and the difficulties in the fighting in Donetsk region have affected the public mood.”

The public mood is indeed gloomier. According to a recent survey in Ukraine, those who believe that events are going in the wrong direction increased from 16% in May 2022 to 33% in December 2023.

It’s unlikely that Zaluzhnyi’s replacement, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, will offer a radical change of style but he is thought to be closer to Zelensky.

Syrskyi has been in command of land forces since the Russian invasion but was criticized for extending the defense of Bakhmut at great human cost. Subordinates have described him as lacking empathy and some soldiers took to calling him “General 200” (200 is the military code for killed-in-action.)

“Syrskyi is seen a consensus choice,” says Matthew Schmidt, director of the International Affairs program at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

“Some say he’s too Soviet, meaning unimaginative but capable, some say he doesn’t take uncomfortable truths well – something Zaluzhnyi did – and some say he’s the best of the worst kind of general.”

Schmidt says there are few options right now. “Maybe it’s a phase in the war where a safe choice is the right move.”

Syrskyi’s most urgent task will be to stabilize the front lines. Also in his inbox: how to replenish the depleted ranks of some of Ukraine’s best brigades and how to expedite the arrival of Western munitions at the front lines – and how to cope until that happens.

Other priorities include: what stress to place on longer-range strikes against Russian infrastructure such as fuel depots and military bases, integrating F-16 combat aircraft into battle plans, and the rapid development of the next generation of unmanned systems.

Shortages on the frontlines

Amid persistent Russian attacks around Avdiivka and Kupyansk, “the first priority is make sure you can hold the current line of contact,” Schmidt says.

“Putin’s tactical weakness doesn’t mean he can’t kill thousands of his soldiers in an attempt to take significant chunks of territory. Any new chief of staff has to respect that risk,” he adds.

“It’s better than no shells,” one soldier said.

With the Biden administration’s package of $61 billion in military aid blocked in Congress, the US has been sending smaller packages for several months, and the slowdown has already begun affecting the Ukrainian military’s planning and operations, according to US officials.

Schmidt says “the immediate priority is to get enough artillery shells to the front to keep the Russians from exploiting the pause in US aid. Each artillery shell that’s available to fire equates to needing fewer infantry to hold the line.”

Unclogging the pipeline of US military aid and boosting European production of munitions are critical priorities if Ukraine is to move from hanging on to fighting back. The EU has acknowledged it will fall far short of its goal of producing one million artillery shells for Ukraine in the year to March, estimating the number will be roughly half of that.

This week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “If you ask a soldier at the front what he needs most right now, he will say shells. This answer was the same yesterday, a month ago, six months ago and a year ago.”

“The main goal is to ensure that the shell shortage never turns into a shell famine,” he added.

Outnumbered

Ukraine’s more professional units are exhausted by two years of non-stop combat, their ranks thinned by casualties. Ukraine does not publish figures, but US officials estimate that as many as 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and nearly twice that number injured.

The scale and speed of additional mobilization in Ukraine is a thorny political question, and one source of the rift between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi, who said the military needed another half-million soldiers and criticized “gaps in our legislation that allow citizens to evade their responsibilities.”

A bill passing through the Ukrainian parliament would lower the minimum age for the draft to 25 from 27 (a provision Zelensky did not sign last year) and introduce harsh punishments for people who flout mobilization rules. Citizens of military age would be obliged to carry military registration documents with them.

A more ambitious version of the bill was withdrawn amid public criticism, and it remains to be seen how effective the new measure is in addressing serious shortfalls. Zelensky is concerned about the government’s ability to pay for a larger standing army (frontline pay is six times the average Ukrainian wage at $3000 per month) and about the political risk.

“The population is still committed to the fight, we see that in opinion surveys, but they’re exhausted,” Schmidt says.

Unmanned systems

Zaluzhnyi has persistently argued that given Russia’s higher pool of manpower and armor, Ukraine needs a step-change in its battlefield technology: more sophisticated drones and other unmanned systems would provide real-time intelligence and accurate targeting information, for example.

In his recent essay Zaluzhnyi suggested that turbo-charging such investment, as well as embracing cyber technology, could produce results within five months.

Time is of the essence. The Russian military continues to make mistakes, but it is learning and adapting, especially in the exploitation of attack and reconnaissance drones and electronic warfare.

The Russian military has also exploited glide technology to deliver aerial bombs more accurately, one reason that the Ukrainian offensive in the south faltered last summer.

Put simply, Ukraine needs to widen the technological gap, as Zelensky acknowledged in his address announcing the leadership shake-up. Its rapidly expanding domestic drone industry will be critical in that effort and is already showing results.

First person, or ‘FPV’ drones deployed in the Avdiivka area have had a devastating effect on Russian attempts to encircle the town, inflicting heavy losses on tanks and munitions vehicles. Lt. Gen. Serhii Naiev, Commander of Ukraine’s Joint Forces, says they are a “much cheaper but no less effective means of destroying enemy equipment and manpower than anti-tank missile systems and artillery ammunition.”

The introduction of F-16s, expected at the earliest this spring, should erode the Russians’ edge in the skies, but Zaluzhnyi’s stated goal of achieving absolute air superiority to enable Ukraine to go on the offensive seems a distant prospect. Meshing the new combat planes into an overall battle strategy will be a critical task for Syrskyi.

One area where the Ukrainians have been successful in recent months is in extending their attacks against Russian military infrastructure, transport links and refineries, as far away as St Petersburg and the Russian Far East.

The recent drone or UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) strike on a refinery in Volgograd was the latest win in a series of targeted strikes.

More significant still, and despite having virtually no navy of its own, the special operations run by Budanov and the Security Service (SBU) have “allowed Ukraine to bottle up the Russian Black Sea Fleet in port…while also destroying multiple air-defense and ammunition sites in Crimea,” according to the US Naval Institute.

Ukraine has pioneered the development of maritime drones to take out several of the Black Sea Fleet’s warships. Aerial drones, missiles and sabotage operations have at least disrupted Russian logistics.

“They need to interdict Russia supply lines in Ukraine and make the Russian public feel the war in their daily lives. If Putin has to move resources to protect his rear, that means less to go on the attack with,” in Schmidt’s view.

Big shoes to fill

Over the past year, a sense of optimism among Ukraine’s allies and frontline commanders alike has given way to a darker mood, as Zelensky has acknowledged. Zaluzhnyi’s gloomy assessment in December was that “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,” a comment that did not endear him to the presidency.

Exhaustion at home, squabbles among allies (the EU versus Hungary) and the paralysis in Congress have added to what is a bleak outlook. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been buoyed by the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House.

Filling Zaluzhnyi’s shoes won’t be easy.

Mick Ryan, a retired Australian general who has visited Ukraine and met with senior officials, describes him as a “charismatic and popular military leader who anticipated and prepared in the weeks before the Russian large-scale invasion.”

Syrskyi has his own achievements, especially the defense of Kyiv in the early days and the lightning offensive that recovered swathes of Kharkiv in September 2022.

But the conflict has changed vastly since then.

In the immediate future, the Ukrainian leadership must show unity after what has been a messy changeover. Myhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of the President, said that “during a war, political competition, especially at the level of the army, generals, and politicians, doesn’t look so good.”

Instilling a new sense of purpose is all the more important as Ukraine faces a window of vulnerability.

As Matthew Schmidt puts it, Putin “can throw bodies at the enemy, using Russian quantity to overcome Ukrainian quality. It’s a very Stalinist approach to the battlefield, and it’s built into Russian strategic culture.”

In his first public comments since his cancer diagnosis, King Charles III expressed gratitude to the public for their support, saying it brought him “the greatest comfort and encouragement,” according to a statement.

“I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks for the many messages of support and good wishes I have received in recent days. As all those who have been affected by cancer will know, such kind thoughts are the greatest comfort and encouragement,” the statement read.

The King added his diagnosis has strengthened his admiration for organizations helping cancer patients. “My lifelong admiration for their tireless care and dedication is all the greater as a result of my own personal experience,” the statement added.

On Monday, Buckingham Palace announced Charles, 75, had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer and will step back from public-facing duties while he undergoes treatment.

He was advised by doctors to step away from public-facing duties, but the palace stressed he would continue state duties and paperwork.

On Tuesday afternoon the King was seen leaving the capital by helicopter from Buckingham Palace. A short time before, Prince Harry was seen arriving at Charles’ London home.

Though all the signals coming from the palace have been positive so far, the news is disconcerting. It has been only about 17 months since Charles acceded to the throne following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince William, Charles’ son and the heir to the throne, and Queen Camilla are expected to take on more public engagements to account for Charles’ absence.

Scattered around a huge crater are the remnants of a life that is gone. Random pieces of clothing and a red makeup bag lie in the mud. Nearby, an English language textbook, bits of broken furniture and a pillow with floral embroidery are jumbled together in one large pile.

The crater sits right in the middle of a residential neighborhood in central Khan Younis, the besieged city in southern Gaza that is the current epicenter of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The city is the hometown of Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a major Hamas stronghold. It’s also an area to which the Israeli military urged large numbers of civilians to flee in the early days of the war, when northern Gaza was the focus of Israel’s operations.

Looking around, it’s clear that the IDF went into Khan Younis with full force.

According to the IDF, the crater is all that is left of a building similar to the others in the area. The military said it was flattened because it sat on top of an entrance to a vast underground tunnel complex.

The IDF says the complex has been used by Sinwar and other Hamas officials to hide since the war began and some of the hostages kidnapped from Israel by Hamas on October 7 were held there. It’s not clear for how long.

Being accompanied by the IDF meant the journalists were only able to see what it allowed them to see.

Driving from the border fence to the heart of Khan Younis in a military vehicle offered a limited vantage point, but there didn’t seem to be a single building that was untouched by the war.

Many buildings have been completely destroyed and the rubble bulldozed away. The ones that are left standing appear damaged beyond any chance of repair. Some look like the ruins of medieval castles – lone walls with holes where windows used to be.

The scale of the bulldozing is apparent when driving through. In some areas, the roads are lined with banks of rubble that are so high that the military vehicle is completely boxed in, driving below the “street level.”

Heavy price

Early in the war, the Israeli military designated Khan Younis as a safer zone and told residents from northern Gaza to seek shelter there. But as the IDF pushed to the south, the city became its next focus. The IDF says Khan Younis is a Hamas stronghold, adding that the tunnel network underneath civilian buildings in the city was likely where Hamas planned the October 7 attacks from.

Many had nowhere else to go and remained sheltering in medical centers and UN facilities in Khan Younis, including the Nasser Medical Complex, Al Amal Hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters. The UN said thousands are still there, and those facilities have also come under attack, according to Hamas-run Palestinian health officials.

The IDF has repeatedly asserted that it seeks to minimize harm to civilians but has come under pressure from the United States and others to do more.

Standing inside the massive crater in Khan Younis on Sunday, Goldfuss admitted the destruction was significant. But he blamed it on Hamas.

Goldfuss said the tunnel network was used by the Hamas leadership to plan the attacks in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad killed more than 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 others to Gaza. Some of the hostages are still likely being held inside the tunnels, he said.

“I’ve (been) asked many questions about the price that Gaza, Khan Younis pays, the houses… yes, definitely, there is a price that has been paid,” Goldfuss said.

“But look around. We are in an ordinary neighborhood and there is a shaft in every place you can find. There’s a shaft in the kindergarten, there’s a shaft in the school, there’s a shaft in the mosques, there’s a shaft in the supermarket, everywhere you go,” he said.

Even this limited glimpse of Gaza makes it clear that four months of Israeli military operations have completely transformed the enclave.

Seen from above, Gaza used to be green and gray: large swaths of fields alternating with densely populated cities. Now, satellite images show a land that’s mostly brown – bombed out and bulldozed over.

A 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped in a car with her dead relatives after it came under Israeli fire in Gaza last month has been found dead.

On January 29, Hind Rajab had been traveling in a car with her uncle, his wife and their four children, fleeing fighting in northern Gaza, when they came under Israeli fire, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The PRCS also confirmed the death of two ambulance workers dispatched to rescue the girl.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to reach the location to rescue the girl Hind,” read the statement.

Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh, made a desperate call for help to emergency services that was recorded by the PRCS and shared on social media. Audio of gunshots heard during the call revealed that Hamadeh was killed while making the call.

“They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We’re in the car, the tank is right next to us,” Layan screams, amid intense gunfire in the background.

Layan then goes quiet, and the rounds of fire stop.

The paramedic on the phone tries to speak to her, repeatedly saying, “Hello? Hello?” but there is no response.

Alone, terrified and trapped in the car with the bodies of her relatives around her, Hind made a desperate call for help.

“Come take me. Will you come and take me? I’m so scared, please come!” Hind can be heard saying in a recording of the call to responders, released by the PRCS.

Hind’s mother Wissam Hamada said her daughter dreamed of becoming a doctor.

Australian police are combing a large swathe of bushland in the state of Victoria for a woman who has been missing without a trace since going for a run six days ago.

Samantha Murphy left her Ballarat home for a run in the Woowookarung Regional Park at 7am on Sunday, according to Victorian police.

Her family raised the alarm when the 51-year-old mother failed to return, and no sign of her or her belongings have been found despite an extensive search by police and community members.

Detectives from the Missing Persons Squad took control of the operation on Friday, coordinating local police, search and rescue services, police dogs and mounted officers who are scouring the area.

“I want to be clear that at this time, we have nothing immediate to indicate there is anything sinister behind Samantha’s disappearance,” detective acting superintendent Mark Hatt said on Friday.

But high temperatures over recent days – sometimes reaching 37 degrees Celsius (98 Fahrenheit) – and the length of time she’s been missing have fueled concerns for her safety.

Hatt confirmed that Murphy had her phone with her and that police had been working with communication technicians throughout the investigation.

Murphy was last seen wearing black half-length leggings and a maroon singlet, according to Victoria Police, who have circulated an image of her taken by the family’s security cameras on Sunday.

Her daughter, Jess, made an emotional plea on Thursday, saying how much she wants her mother to “come home soon” and can’t wait to give her “the biggest hug.”

“I know she’s out there somewhere, so if you could please continue to search for her to give us something to work with,” she said.

Woowookarung Regional Park spans 641 hectares, about twice the size of the Central Park in New York City and is popular among local joggers and cyclists for its scenic trails.

Inspector Bob Heaney said the terrain involved in the search had been “challenging,” with many unused mines, waterways and thick scrub.

But a local resident later came forward to identify herself in the footage, dashing hopes for a potential lead, the news network said.

A Facebook group called Find Samantha Murphy has been created with almost 14,000 followers as of Friday. Users discussed the search operation and shared their good wishes.

Speaking alongside his daughter on Thursday, her husband, Michael, urged local residents to report every “little thing” they find relevant.

“It’ll give us a bit of peace of mind if we get some hope,” he said.

Internet connectivity was shut down for a third day in Sudan amid ongoing clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that have left thousands killed and millions displaced in nearly 10 months of fighting.

Internet monitoring firm, Netblocks confirmed the outage Friday, saying that “a near-total telecoms blackout” has limited communication in the country and prevented the Sudanese people from seeking safe zones and accessing healthcare and banking services.

The Sudanese foreign ministry blamed the RSF for the blackout which further complicates the dilemma of millions of locals unable to flee the conflict and who the UN says are in dire need of humanitarian aid. The RSF has yet to publicly deny responsibility for the blackout.

The UN on Wednesday appealed for $4.1 billion to meet the “most urgent humanitarian needs” amidst “epic suffering” in Sudan, adding that half of its population – some 25 million people need support and protection, with millions hungry and displaced by the war.

Citizens facing acute hunger

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) launched the joint appeal, seeking $2.7 billion for humanitarian aid to 14.7 million people, and $1.4 billion to support nearly 2.7 million refugees in five countries neighboring Sudan.

“Ten months of conflict have robbed the people of Sudan of nearly everything – their safety, their homes and their livelihoods,” said the UN’s emergency aid chief Martin Griffiths, adding that last year’s appeal was less than half funded.

While the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF have both failed to honor their previous commitments to facilitate humanitarian aid for civilians, attacks on humanitarian workers, facilities and supply convoys have taken place since the war’s outset. Humanitarian aid has been severely hampered by the fighting and lack of access.

The RSF on Thursday, in an apparent effort to deflect responsibility for the large scale civilian suffering in Sudan called for “prompt action from regional and international organizations and agencies to provide urgent relief, adding that Sudanese civilians were “facing the real possibility of starvation.”

The organization’s head, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, in a post on X, wrote that the crisis is “largely due to the obstruction of humanitarian aid by the opposing forces”.

Nearly 18 million people are facing acute hunger, according to OCHA, with civilian infrastructure like water supplies damaged by the fighting, and three-quarters of health facilities not functioning in conflict areas.

Some 19 million children not attending school, continued widespread human rights violations, and gender-based violence are among the challenges cited in the UN’s funding appeal.

The war that erupted in April 2023 between Sudan’s Armed forces and the paramilitary RSF has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with children making up nearly 4 million of those fleeing their homes.

In Sudan’s North Darfur Zamzam camp for displaced people, at least one child dies every two hours from malnutrition, according to estimates by the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders.

Sudan’s two warring factions have been accused of gross human rights violations.

The US determined that both SAF and RSF members have committed war crimes, holding the latter responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Sudan.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said “there are grounds to believe” genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – are being committed in Sudan’s Darfur region by both SAF and RSF, and their affiliated groups.