Aweis said they had been searching for the passengers since Wednesday night.

“They are doing a search in a very practical way because they have to engage the local people in the area to get information and gather intelligence to find where they are and so they can be quickly rescued,” he said, adding that the Somali government was still waiting for an update on the search.

Eight people were on board the helicopter when it was captured by al-Shabaab fighters in the Galmugud region, including foreigners and one Somali citizen, Aweis said. He was not able to confirm if anyone had died or escaped, saying that Somali forces were searching for all eight people.

The UN emergency assistance helicopter made an emergency landing likely due to a mechanical issue in Galmudug, which is controlled buy the al-Qaeda affiliated terror group, according to the state-run Somali National News Agency (SONNA).

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) said the helicopter “was conducting an air medical evacuation” and that more information would be released when it becomes available.

The helicopter was staffed by a crew from Iqarus, an organization that provides medical care in conflict situations around the world.

The incident comes weeks after Maalim Ayman, a senior leader of the al-Shabaab militant group operating in Somalia and Kenya, was killed on December 17 by a joint military operation between the Somali and US forces.

Aweis announced the death of Hyman on Friday.

“Ayman was accountable for planning multiple lethal terrorist attacks in Somalia and nearby countries,” Aweis said in a statement on social media at the time.

Ayman is responsible for a terrorist attack on US and Kenyan personnel at Kenya’s Manda Bay Airfield on January 5, 2020, US officials say.

All eyes will be on Taiwan this Saturday as voters choose a new leader under the shadow of an increasingly assertive China that has spent the past eight years ramping up its threats toward the self-ruled island.

The world will be watching to see not only who wins the election, but how democratic Taiwan’s authoritarian neighbor will respond. There, Xi Jinping – China’s most powerful leader in a generation – has called Taiwan’s unification with the mainland “a historical inevitability,” to be achieved by force if necessary.

The last time Taiwan had a change of government – when the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2016 – Beijing cut off most communications with Taipei and significantly increased economic, diplomatic and military pressure on the island in the ensuing years, turning the Taiwan Strait into one of the world’s major geopolitical flash points.

China’s ruling Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it. While successive Chinese Communist leaders have vowed to eventually achieve “reunification,” Xi has repeatedly said the Taiwan issue “should not be passed down generation after generation,” linking the mission to his mid-century goal of “national rejuvenation.”

“This election marks a change in leadership at a moment when cross-strait tensions are high, and preserving stability has become more of a challenge,” said Amanda Hsiao, senior China analyst for the International Crisis Group.

“A conflict involving Taiwan is unlikely in the near term. But if one were to break out, the ramifications would be globally felt,” Hsiao said.

All three candidates are selling themselves as the best choice for avoiding that doomsday scenario, pledging to maintain peace and the status quo – which polls have consistently shown is what most people in Taiwan want.

But the three men hold very different visions for how to achieve that goal. They all cite the need to boost Taiwan’s defense capabilities to deter China’s aggression but disagree on their policy priorities, particularly how to deal with Beijing.

Current DPP Vice President Lai Ching-te emphasizes bolstering Taiwan’s ties with like-minded democratic partners, such as the United States and Japan, while maintaining his administration’s stance that Tawain is already a de facto sovereign nation – a view Beijing deems unacceptable.

Hou Yu-ih, from the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT), places more weight on resuming dialogue and deescalating tension with China.

Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), meanwhile, has called for a more “pragmatic” approach to seek a “new way out in the US-China rivalry,” though he has been less clear about what that means in practice.

Beijing’s response may vary depending on the election results, but experts say tension could rise further down the road regardless of who takes office, as China’s “reunification” plan has become a nonstarter for the vast majority of Taiwan’s 24 million people.

In addition to the threat from Beijing, livelihood issues such as low wages, high property prices and Taiwan’s slowly growing economy are expected be key factors in how they vote.

Immediate pressure

China has made no secret of its preference in the tight race, framing the election as a choice between “peace and war, prosperity and decline.”

Beijing openly loathes the DPP and Lai, who once described himself as “a practical worker for Taiwan independence.” Although he has moderated his position to favor the status quo, Beijing has continued to denounce him as a dangerous separatist.

On Wednesday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office warned Taiwan’s voters to “recognize the extreme danger of Lai Ching-te’s triggering of cross-strait confrontation and conflict,” and “to make the right choice at the crossroads of cross-strait relations.”

A victory by Lai, who had been leading in the polls by a small margin, could be quickly met with an increase in economic or military pressure by China.

“In the near term, we’re likely to see Beijing trying to use maximum pressure to set the terms for the next four years of cross-strait negotiations,” said Wen-ti Sung, a Taiwan-based fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.

It could include “intense diplomatic rhetoric that criticizes the next DPP administration, economic sanctions against targeted exports, as well as greater use of military tools in gray-zone areas as a way to register Beijing’s dissatisfaction,” he said.

“Grey zone” tactics refers to aggressive state actions that stop short of open warfare, something China has used increasingly in recent years in both the South China Sea and toward Taiwan.

China could also save a more forceful response for a later date, if a victorious Lai delivers an inauguration speech in May that doesn’t meet Beijing’s demands, according to Hsiao.

The world will be watching the level of escalation.

In August 2022, China staged massive war games around Taiwan to show its displeasure with then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. Beijing fired missiles into waters surrounding the island and simulated a blockade with fighter jets and warships, in its largest show of force in years.

If Lai wins, it will be the first time in Taiwan’s democratic history for a political party to be elected to a third term in power – and serve as a potent sign that China’s strongarm tactics under Xi are not working to persuade Taiwanese voters to abandon the DPP.

But analysts say the DPP is less likely to secure a majority in the new legislature, which will also be elected Saturday, and that could lead to significant deadlocks in policy making, especially on contentious issues.

“The check that the Legislative Yuan would likely impose on a new DPP presidency should offer some degree of reassurance to Beijing on what the Lai administration can do,” Hsiao said.

Tension down the road

Beijing’s preferred candidate is Hou from the KMT, which traditionally favors closer ties with China.

Hou has blamed the DPP for provoking China and vowed to restart dialogue and repair economic ties with Beijing.

He has pledged to revive a controversial trade deal with China, which sparked huge student-led protests in 2014 during the previous KMT administration.

His election could lead to a temporary ease in tensions, but experts say it won’t last.

“After an initial period where relations improve, Beijing will still try to seek more progress in the relationship – that could be in the form of new economic agreements or more political accommodation from a KMT government,” Hsiao said.

“And at that point, I think a Hou administration would have a lot of difficulty selling that to Taiwanese voters. And that may well see tensions rise again.”

While Hou has clearly opposed Taiwan independence, he has also rejected the “one country, two systems” model proposed by China for unification. That offer has lost all appeal in Taiwan after Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, which former colonial ruler Britain handed over to China in 1997 under the same framework.

He described his stance of rejecting both Taiwan independence and Beijing’s “one country, two systems” model as “the ‘middle way’ Taiwan should take.”

Even if Hou wins, cross-strait relations are unlikely to return to their friendlier years under former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, when the KMT was last in power, experts say.

Much has changed since the Ma years.

Amid Chinese threats, Taiwan’s public has shifted determinedly away from China. Less than 10% now support an immediate or eventual unification, and less than 3% identify primarily as Chinese. The geopolitical backdrop has also changed dramatically, with China and the US locked in an escalating strategic competition.

Ko from the TPP, meanwhile, has been advocating another “middle way” – painting himself as a political outsider and sensible alternative to the two established parties.

As the former mayor of Taipei, Ko promoted local ties with China, especially the city of Shanghai, and stated “two sides of the Strait are one family.”

But Ko is a “new face” to the US-China great power competition, Sung noted.

Were he to win the presidency, it would take Taiwan’s relations with both China and the wider world into uncharted waters.

“Ko has a record of strategic ambiguity for his US-China policy, that will translate into goodwill from both sides,” Sung said.

“Both Beijing and Washington may give the next Ko Wen-je administration an initial grace period where they’re giving it significant benefit of the doubt. Whatever happens from there is up to how the Ko administration handles its own foreign policy and cross-strait policy.”

Astronomers have traced one of the most powerful and distant fast radio bursts ever detected back to its unusual cosmic home: a rare “blob-like” group of galaxies. The unexpected discovery could shed more light on what causes the mysterious radio wave bursts, which have puzzled scientists for years.

The intense signal, named FRB 20220610A, was first detected on June 10, 2022, and it traveled 8 billion light-years to reach Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are intense, millisecond-long bursts of radio waves with unknown origins. The first FRB was discovered in 2007, and since then, hundreds of these quick, cosmic flashes have been detected coming from distant points across the universe.

This particular fast radio burst lasted less than a millisecond, but it was four times more energetic than previously detected FRBs. The burst released the equivalent of our sun’s energetic emissions over the course of 30 years, according to an initial study published in October.

Many FRBs release superbright radio waves lasting only a few milliseconds at most before disappearing, which makes them difficult to observe.

Radio telescopes have proved helpful in tracing the paths of the quick cosmic flashes, so researchers used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, radio telescope in Western Australia and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to determine where the enigmatic burst originated.

The observations led scientists to a giant celestial blob, which initially was thought to be a single irregular galaxy or a group of three interacting galaxies.

Now, astronomers have used images from the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal that the fast radio burst came from a group of at least seven galaxies that are so close to one another that they could all fit inside the Milky Way galaxy.

The findings were presented Tuesday at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.

An unusual galactic group

The galaxies in the group seem to be interacting and could even be in the process of merging, which might have triggered the fast radio burst, according to the researchers.

“Without the Hubble’s imaging, it would still remain a mystery as to whether this FRB originated from one monolithic galaxy or from some type of interacting system,” said lead study author Alexa Gordon, a doctoral student in astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement.

“It’s these types of environments — these weird ones — that drive us toward a better understanding of the mystery of FRBs.”

The galactic group, known as a compact group, is exceptional and an example of the “densest galaxy-scale structures we know of,” said study coauthor Wen-fai Fong, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern and Gordon’s adviser.

As the galaxies interact, they could trigger bursts of star formation, which could be linked to the burst, Gordon said.

Fast radio bursts have largely been traced back to isolated galaxies, but astronomers have also found them in globular clusters, and now, a compact group, Gordon said.

“We just need to keep finding more of these FRBs, both nearby and far away, and in all these different types of environments,” she said.

Investigating the origins of fast radio bursts

Nearly 1,000 fast radio bursts have been detected since their initial discovery about two decades ago, but astronomers remain unclear on what causes the bursts.

But many agree that compact objects, such as black holes or neutron stars, the dense remnants of exploded stars, are likely involved. Magnetars, or highly magnetized stars, may be the root cause of fast radio bursts, according to recent research.

Understanding where fast radio bursts originate from could help astronomers determine more about the underlying cause that sends them streaming across the universe.

“Despite hundreds of FRB events discovered to date, only a fraction of those have been pinpointed to their host galaxies,” said study coauthor Yuxin Vic Dong in a statement. “Within that small fraction, only a few came from a dense galactic environment, but none have ever been seen in such a compact group. So, its birthplace is truly rare.” Dong is a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow and doctoral student of astronomy in Fong’s lab at Northwestern.

More insights about fast radio bursts could also lead to revelations about the nature of the universe. As the bursts travel through space for billions of years, they interact with cosmic material.

“Radio waves, in particular, are sensitive to any intervening material along the line of sight — from the FRB location to us,” Fong said. “That means the waves have to travel through any cloud of material around the FRB site, through its host galaxy, across the universe and finally through the Milky Way. From a time delay in the FRB signal itself, we can measure the sum of all of these contributions.”

Astronomers are anticipating increasingly sensitive methods of detecting fast radio bursts in the future that could lead to discovering more of them at greater distances, Gordon said.

“We are ultimately trying to answer the questions: What causes them? What are their progenitors and what are their origins? The Hubble observations provide a spectacular view of the surprising types of environments that give rise to these mysterious events,” Fong said.

Even as winter arrived in the East this week, with treacherous snow and an impending Arctic cold snap, much of the West and its major river basins are still entrenched in warm and dry conditions. It’s a sluggish and concerning start to what should be the region’s wet season and is raising concerns about the future of the water supplies that depend on it.

Although meteorologists and Western water experts caution it’s still early in the winter and a lot can change between now and April, the warm, dry weather is notable for how far-reaching it has been.

This year’s weather and precipitation pattern so far stands in stark contrast to last winter – a blockbuster year for snow that filled reservoirs across the West. If 2023 was a “gamechanger” for the West’s water supplies, 2024 could be shaping up to be an anxiety-inducing pivot back to drought.

Several atmospheric rivers last winter dumped snow across the West by the start of January. But that stormy pattern hasn’t shown up yet this year, said Paul Miller, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

Snowpack conditions as of early January were 40% to 70% below normal in the upper Colorado River basin, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday, and there’s “little to no snow” in the lower basin.

But they also noted January temperatures are dipping, and more precipitation is starting to fall in the region, and a midweek storm slammed the Northwest and Northern California with heavy snow and rain. Still, NOAA experts noted Wednesday that these storms were “unlikely to completely erase existing deficits.”

There was some hope this year that El Nino – a Pacific Ocean phenomenon that influences weather around the world – would bring more storms to the West. But NOAA scientists cautioned on Monday that its impact is not as far-reaching; it could bring wetter conditions to the Southwest but drier-than-normal weather to southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. And Northern California is unlikely to be impacted by a typical El Nino, NOAA scientists said.

The region is no stranger to variability of a record wet winter followed by several drier ones, Miller said. But human-caused climate change is making drought longer and more persistent, making each wet year more important, he added.

“It’s very difficult to pinpoint single years or events to climate change,” Miller said. “But this current pattern we’re in over the last 20 to 30 years is very symptomatic of climate change impacts.”

Largest reservoirs are far below normal

In California, the first survey of the year revealed a miniscule snowpack, with about 7.5 inches of snow equivalent to about 3 inches of melted water.

It’s a “pretty modest” showing, said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, especially considering last year at this time California was measuring 55.5 inches of snow.

The good news for California, however, is its reservoirs are full for the first time in years – meaning there is ample water to help get through the year.

“Our reservoirs are in much better condition because last year was so incredibly wet,” Nemeth said.

If the state does get a big storm, she said, some dams are already so full they may activate their flood spillways much earlier in the year than is typical. The state would also try to direct extra water that can’t fit in the reservoir into groundwater recharge ponds – attempting to raise depleted groundwater levels, Nemeth said.

“It’s good news for water supply that our reservoir conditions are orders of magnitude much healthier than they were a year ago,” Nemeth said.

Even though California’s dams are full, the nation’s largest reservoirs still have a long way to go. Water levels in lakes Mead and Powell – fed by the Colorado River – are far below average.

“Even though conditions definitely improved there, they’re such massive reservoirs that they’re at critically low levels,” Miller said.

While last winter bolstered water supplies across the West after several perilously dry years, several experts said it’s unlikely a historic water year of that magnitude will happen twice in a row.

“You tend to get wet years followed by several dry years,” Hasencamp said. “We shouldn’t expect every year to be dry, but we should expect more dry years than wet years.”

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny told a Moscow court of “freezing” conditions inside his prison, as he appeared via video link to outline his case against the authorities at the Siberian penal colony in which he is being held.

Addressing the Supreme Court in Moscow, the opposition figure described the harsh conditions he is enduring in Artic prison, where he was transferred to last month, alleging freezing temperatures and a 10-minute limit on eating food.

“It is impossible to eat in 10 minutes,” he told the supreme court judge in Moscow. “If you eat every day within 10 minutes, then this meal turns into a rather complex process.”

“The punishment cell is often a very cold place,” he continued. “Do you know why people choose a newspaper there? To cover themselves. Because with a newspaper, I can tell you judges, it is much warmer to sleep for example than without one. And so you need a newspaper so as not to freeze.”

The opposition figure is suing the prison authorities over the conditions of his detention.

Fears for Navalny’s wellbeing mounted last month after his team could not reach him for a fortnight in December. On December 25, his team said that they had finally managed to locate him at the Siberian penal colony in Kharp, to which he had been transferred.

Navalny alleged that authorities are limiting the number of religious texts he can have, saying: “[The regulations] say that I am allowed to have 10 books. I need 2 books to practice my religion. One book is not enough for me, it directly violates my religious rights.”

“I want to have in my cell 10 books. I need them for education, I need them for religious practice.”

The reason for the limit, Navalny alleges, is to prevent the study of Islam and that “some restrictions are constantly being invented,” such as a ban on Muslim rosary beads, while he says a Christian cross is allowed.

Countering the allegation that there are specific restrictions for Muslim inmates, the court’s Justice Ministry representative called Navalny’s allegations “political statements.”

The representative also told the judge that prison officers can bring Navalny up to 10 books during the day; there are no prohibitions, but he can only keep one in his cell overnight.

Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison in August last year after being found guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activities and numerous other crimes. He was already serving sentences of 11-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility on fraud and other charges he denies.

Supporters of Navalny claim his arrest and incarceration are a politically motivated attempt to stifle his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the towns surrounding Kruger National Park, in northeast South Africa, many Black residents have gone their entire lives without seeing some of the country’s most famous wildlife.

Despite living a stone’s throw from one of South Africa’s largest natural reserves, home to elephants, lions and more, seeing these animals face-to-face seems to be a luxury reserved for others.

Award-winning, Black-run program Wild Shots Outreach (WSO) has spent the last eight years attempting to change that. Connecting with local schools, the organization is introducing young Black South Africans to photography and conservation through workshops and game drives – taking students through Kruger National Park and surrounding areas to see encounter wildlife – and it has proved so successful that one of its alumni now runs the program.

Empowering local communities

Founder Mike Kendrick worked as an assistant headteacher at a school in Bristol, England, before starting WSO. The idea for the program came to him during a trip to South Africa in 2015, when his wife, zoologist Harriet Nimmo, organized a symposium to celebrate wildlife photography in Africa.

“We had world-standard keynote speakers, but we couldn’t find Black photographers from South Africa to speak and we thought, ‘well, something’s not quite right here,’” he says.

Later that year, Kendrick and his wife moved to Hoedspruit, just outside of Kruger. “We realized that none of the young Black people from the local community had ever been into Kruger Park or any of the other reserves,” he says. “It was really, really shocking.”

It was these observations that pushed Kendrick to set up WSO and begin reaching out to local schools and youth centers to engage with the next generation of Black photographers and conservationists.

Vusi Mathe is one of over 1,300 local residents who have taken part in the program. Mathe initially wanted to be a car designer, but WSO’s visit to his high school sparked a career in photography. He says this engagement has been crucial for further encouraging locals to get involved with conservation.

“How can you love something that you’ve never seen?” Mathe asks. “Getting local people involved has a significant impact.” With this exposure to wildlife, he believes local communities are better equipped to join supportive wildlife efforts.

“For me, being part of conservation (is important) because I’m breaking the barriers and that notion that you can’t making a living out of photography,” he adds. “I think having Black people run the program and be role models is so important. In my community, there is the idea that photography and conservation aren’t things you can carry on doing as an adult … but now I’m seeing my community understand this career more.”

With his skills gained from WSO workshops, Mathe has become a professional photographer for organizations such as Global Conservation Corps and worked as an ambassador at media network Sunshine Cinema, screening films to local communities addressing issues such as conservation.

Another WSO success story is Melody Mnisi, who now works as a nature guide in the greater Kruger Park area. Her aptitude for working with animals was first picked up at school, but she was unaware that careers in the field were possible. Having been introduced to wildlife through WSO, Mnisi is now passing on skills to fellow young South Africans as a guide for Koru Camp, a non-profit educational organization. “We take local people on game drives (in nearby parks) to teach them about wildlife. Back at the camp, we offer environmental education, and how they can keep the environment clean,” she says.

Female nature guides are in the minority in South Africa, and Mnisi adds that her work includes empowering women. 

Giving people a voice

Rifumo Mathebula was one of WSO’s first students, in 2016. In 2020, he became its program director, taking the reins from Kendrick, and in 2022 won the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management Young Environmentalist of the Year Award for his work as an environmental educator, photojournalist and filmmaker.

Mathebula says his presence as a Black photographer is crucial in passing on his experience to the next cohort. “Through having me there to teach with Wild Shots Outreach, it gives people an idea that they can be more comfortable when they talk with me, especially when you talk with them in their own language,” he adds.

The program is starting to look beyond South Africa as well, partnering with schools and youth centers in Kenya, Namibia and Botswana.

Despite the strides made in local engagement and education, Mathebula says more work still needs to be done to further involve people in the area. “I think we still need to do a lot of conservation awareness to local communities, because there’s still a lot of people that don’t know anything about it. There’s still a huge gap … it can really affect conserving nature,” he says.

For Kendrick, it’s rewarding to see WSO’s alumni taking the reins and making their mark on conservation.

“Seeing somebody like Rifumo generate his own momentum and to see his passion for working with his own community is fantastic,” Kendrick says. “Seeing Melody work in a camp set up for people from local communities and sharing her passion … to have been part of facilitating that feels very, very special.”

“Young Black Africans now have a voice (in conservation) when they haven’t really had one in the past,” he adds. “Hopefully we’re starting to add more Black voices and Black photographers to that.”

This story has been updated to clarify Vusi Mathe’s role with Sunshine Cinema.

In the snow-filled skies above Ukraine, a deadly game is playing out.

Russia began the new year with a barrage of air attacks, including the heaviest night of missile strikes since the war began, as Ukraine battles to meet an evolving threat with its limited supply of Western defense systems.

International analysts say the onslaught of Russian missiles, stockpiled for months, aims to overwhelm Ukraine’s limited missile defense.

This approach has had some success. According to the Ukrainian authorities, Ukraine only managed to shoot down 18 of the 51 missiles fired at the country on January 8.

New tactics have also come into play.

Some changes are simple: Russia has started painting its Iranian-made drones black, camouflaging them against the night sky.

With Ukrainian media reports of jet-powered drones replacing Russia’s slower propeller-powered models, officials have acknowledged it’s a threat that’s on their radar.

Speaking on national TV, Ukrainian air force command spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said a jet-powered version of the Iranian Shahed drones favored by Moscow would function “like a mini cruise missile.”

They are likely to have a smaller payload but much faster cruising speeds, perhaps more than 500 kilometers per hour (311 miles per hour), he said, making them harder to shoot down. Ukrainian officials haven’t yet confirmed if these drones have been used in Ukraine.

Every shoot-down is a victory

In a frozen field outside Kyiv, soldiers conducted drills with a mobile air defense truck, ready to fire within minutes of pulling up.

“They used to fly in a single trajectory, but now they zigzag. A drone can fly, then circle, hover, go down completely, then rise about half a kilometer, then fly sharply down. They are now very maneuverable and must be seen and destroyed,” Yasinsky said of the Iranian Shaheds.

On cloudy nights, the defenders can be forced to use their ears more than their eyes to aim, listening out for the tell-tale whine of the Shahed’s motor engine.

But it’s small, mobile units like Yasinsky’s that Ukraine is counting on to protect civilians and key infrastructure, especially from the slow-flying drones.

Sited within a network of advanced Western missile defense systems, like the American Patriot or German IRIS-T batteries – best suited to deal with the fastest Russian missiles – these small teams provide cheaper, more plentiful muscle to the defense of Ukraine’s skies.

But they’re still grateful for the weapons.

In videos of Ukrainian air defense units downing drones or missiles, the joy in the soldiers’ voices is almost child-like.

Every hit likely saves Ukrainian lives or infrastructure and helps to chip away at Russia’s resources.

In January, US officials revealed Russia’s use of North Korean ballistic missiles in attacks on Ukrainian cities, likely a sign of the pressure on Moscow’s stockpiles and domestic production of long-range weaponry.

Ukrainian authorities are still analyzing debris from the latest strikes to discern the missiles’ origin.

Defenses stretched to the limit

The deadly strikes were preceded by flocks of drones and individual missiles along different routes, pawns sacrificed to map Ukrainian defenses and weak spots, he said.

“It is defense industry facilities that are targeted now. And though it is not officially admitted, a substantial share of these missiles reached their targets,” he said, also noting that the effectiveness of each interceptor missile fired at incoming Russian projectiles is high.

The Ukrainian air defense is working “at the edge of its capacity,” Melnyk said, often hitting more than 70% of its targets and sometimes all of them.

Stopping more missiles would require more interceptor missile batteries, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday his country is “sorely lacking.” Ukraine is currently unable to produce modern air defense systems with its partners, he said.

But in order to stem the tide of Russian fire, Ukraine needs to target Moscow’s batteries across the border – a tough challenge, given Kyiv’s limited access to long-range missiles or artillery systems of its own.

“Russia is learning its lessons,” Melnyk said, sending missiles to where it knew they could not be intercepted.

Civilian deaths

Images of Kyiv commuters crowded into the city’s subway system during the early January air raids evoked painful memories of last winter’s onslaught by Russia from the air.

A small number of Ukrainians have died in January’s attacks, but the country is still smarting from the 33 people killed in Kyiv on December 29 in strikes that destroyed 100 houses and 45 high-rise buildings, according to Ukraine’s president.

In response, Zelensky vowed to “bring the war” back to Russia.

Despite the joy in blunting Russia’s attacks in the air when his comrades score hits, “Smeta,” a soldier in an air defense unit outside Kyiv, still feels the pain of each missile they can’t bring down to earth.

Israel is appearing before the International Court of Justice in a high stakes case that could determine the course of the brutal war in Gaza.

It is an unprecedented case. Experts say it is the first time that the Jewish state is being tried under the United Nations’ Genocide Convention, which was drawn up after the Second World War in light of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

The South African government, a successor to the apartheid regime that was made a pariah on the international stage three decades ago, brought the case against Israel, accusing it of being in breach of its obligations under the convention in its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has firmly rejected the accusation, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a “false accusation.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday that his country will present a case “using self-defense” to show that it is doing its “utmost” under “extremely complicated circumstances” to avert civilian casualties in Gaza.

Here’s what we know about this case.

What is South Africa saying?

South Africa is taking Israel to the ICJ, also known as the World Court, on claims that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and failing to prevent genocide.

“More gravely still, Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” South Africa said in its 84-page filing to the court.

South Africa says Israel’s acts in Gaza are genocidal “because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”

“The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” the filing says.

More than 23,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The United Nations defines genocide as an act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

The UN says that it was developed “partly in response to the Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust.”

In eight pages, the filing at the ICJ details what South Africa describes as “expressions of genocidal intent” by Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet.

South Africa has also asked the court to issue “provisional measures” ordering Israel to stop its war in Gaza, which it said was “necessary in this case to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people.” A provisional measure is a temporary order to halt actions, or an injunction, pending a final ruling.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a grouping of 57 Muslim countries, as well as Jordan, Turkey and Malaysia have so far backed the case.

What is the International Court of Justice?

The ICJ is based in The Hague in the Netherlands and was set up in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations.

The court tries governments while the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague, prosecutes individuals. Israel doesn’t recognize the ICC so the court has no jurisdiction over it. Israel however is a signatory to the Genocide Convention, which gives the ICJ jurisdiction over it.

Member states of the UN and those who have accepted the ICJ’s jurisdiction can present cases. The court accepts cases in which the states involved have each accepted its jurisdiction. The ICJ is composed of 15 judges who serve nine-year terms. Current judges are from the US, Russia, China, Slovakia, Morocco, Lebanon, India, France, Somalia, Jamaica, Japan, Germany, Australia, Uganda and Brazil. Five seats come up for election every three years, with no consecutive term limit.

Four new judges will take their seats in February, one of whom is South Africa’s Dire Tladi.

Ad-hoc judges can be appointed by parties in contentious cases (between two states) – in this instance Israel and South Africa – bringing the number of judges in the case to 17. South Africa has appointed Dikgang Moseneke, the country’s former deputy chief justice, and Israel has named Aharon Barak, ex-president of the country’s Supreme Court.

Experts say a final ruling could take years.

How has Israel responded?

Israel has called the case a “blood libel” by South Africa, a thinly veiled accusation of antisemitism, and Netanyahu has in turn said that it is Hamas that has committed genocide, adding the Israeli military is acting in “the most moral way” and “does everything to avoid harming civilians.”

“And I ask: where were you, South Africa, and the rest of those who slander us, where were you when millions were murdered and displaced from their homes in Syria, Yemen and other arenas. You weren’t there,” the prime minister said.

Israel will nonetheless appear before the court.

That’s because it is a signatory to the UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The treaty gives the ICJ the authority to adjudicate in cases, which can be brought by parties not directly affected by the alleged genocide in question.

“Since the court clearly has jurisdiction, it would be strange if Israel would simply not appear,” said Lieblich. “Also, genocide is a grave allegation, and states usually want to make their case.”

The Israeli public’s view of the case reflects the political disagreements in the country, Lieblich said. “Some view the proceedings as just another case of international bias against Israel. Many others are angry because they think that the case was only made possible because of irresponsible statements by far-right politicians, that in their views don’t represent actual policy.”

But he said that few in the Israeli mainstream are willing to accept the genocide allegations. “They mostly view the war as one of self-defense against Hamas, which due to the latter’s tactics result in wide but unintended harm to civilians.”

Polls show that Israelis overwhelmingly support the war.

Citing an Israeli diplomatic cable, Axios reported that Israel has mobilized its diplomats to lobby host nations to back its position and create international pressure against the case. Its “strategic goal,” it said, is for the court to reject the request for an injunction, refrain from accusing Israel of committing genocide, and acknowledge that it is operating according to international law.

“A ruling by the court could have significant potential implications that are not only in the legal world but have practical bilateral, multilateral, economic, security ramifications,” Axios cited the cable as saying.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said Pretoria is “criminally complicit with Hamas’ campaign of genocide against our people.”

He also accused it of double standards, and backing former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces a warrant issued by the ICC.

“How tragic that the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro bono for anti-Jewish racists,” he said in a January 2 speech posted on X. “We assure South Africa’s leaders: History will judge you. And it will judge you without mercy.”

Lieblich said South Africa appears to be positioning itself in opposition to the US’ dominance in the international order.

“While it pursues the case against Israel, South Africa has criticized the ICC’s arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin, and has also refrained in the past from arresting Omar al-Bashir,” he said. “So, there is a clear international statement here. South Africa has been very vocal about what it views (as) Western ‘double standards’ and this case is a part of that campaign.”

Why is this case significant?

While the ICJ has ruled against Israel in the past, it did so through non-binding “advisory opinions” that are requested by UN bodies such as the General Assembly.

This is the first time Israel is being sued in the ICJ in what is known as a “contentious case,” where states directly raise cases against each other.

In 2004, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion declaring Israel’s separation barrier in the occupied West Bank to be in violation of international law, and called for it to be torn down. Israel ignored that decision.

If the ICJ eventually rules that Israel is directly responsible for genocide, it will be the first time it has found a state has commited genocide, experts said.

“This would be a significant precedent first and foremost because the ICJ never ruled, so far, that a state actually committed genocide,” Lieblich said. “The farthest it went was to rule that Serbia failed to prevent genocide by militias in Srebrenica. In this sense, such a ruling would be legally uncharted territory.”

While no state has been found to be directly responsible for genocide by the court, both Myanmar and Russia have faced provisional measures in genocide cases in recent years.

All ICJ judgements are final, without appeal and binding.

But the ICJ can’t guarantee compliance. In March 2022, for example, the court ordered Russia to immediately halt its military campaign in Ukraine. Kyiv, which brought the case, disputed the grounds for Russia’s invasion, and asked for emergency measures against Russia to halt the violence before the case was heard in full.

What happens if the court orders Israel to halt the war?

Israel is set to appear in public hearings before the court on Friday to contest South Africa’s genocide accusations.

A ruling on genocide could take years to prove, but the injunction on the Gaza war that Pretoria has asked the ICJ for could come much sooner.

South Africa, he said, only needs to demonstrate that it has standing to bring the case, has acted on its duty to prevent genocide, that there is a “plausible legal argument” that violations of the Genocide Convention are or may be taking place, and that there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to Gaza residents before the court gives its final decision, such that the court needs to order Israel to stop the war.

Francis Boyle, an American human rights lawyer who won two requests at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention against Yugoslavia on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Democracy Now that based on his review of the documents submitted by South Africa, he believes Pretoria will indeed win “an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians.”

Boyle, based on his experience in the Bosnian case, said the order could come within a week of this week’s hearings.

Lieblich doubts that Israel would cease the fighting altogether should the court issue an injunction on the war. Instead, it could attack the legitimacy of the court and its judges, “considering that some of them are from states that don’t recognize Israel.” It would also matter whether the decision is unanimous, he added.

“The consequences of non-compliance might range from reputational harm and political pressure to sanctions and other measures by third states or further resolutions in the UN,” he said. “The key for Israel would probably be how its key allies would act in such a case.”

He added that while the threshold for an injunction is relatively low, in the main case, proving genocide requires two elements: proof that certain unlawful acts were committed, and that these acts were committed with specific intent to destroy a certain group.

“In past ICJ cases the court required a high threshold to prove such allegations,” he said. “Here the challenge for South Africa would be to prove that statements by some Israeli officials actually reflect the state’s ‘intent’ as a whole, and also that Israel’s actions on the ground were both unlawful and actually tied to an intent to destroy the group as such.”

Could a ruling have implications outside Israel?

The fallout of an ICJ ruling could spread beyond Israel, according to experts. It would not only embarrass Israel’s closest ally, the US, but could also deem Washington complicit in the alleged violation of the Genocide Convention.

“Even though the South African application focuses on Israel, it has huge implications for the United States, especially President Joe Biden and his principal lieutenants,” wrote John Mearsheimer, an American political scientist.

“Why? Because there is little doubt that the Biden administration is complicitous” in Israel’s war, he said.

Biden has acknowledged that Israel is carrying out “indiscriminate” bombing in Gaza, but he has also vowed to protect the country. The US has bypassed Congress twice to sell military equipment to Israel during the war.

“Leaving aside the legal implications of his behavior, Biden’s name – and America’s name – will be forever associated with what is likely to become one of the textbook cases of attempted genocide,” Mearsheimer wrote.

Even if Israel ignores an order by the ICJ, there will be a legal obligation among other signatories to comply, said Machover. “So, anyone assisting Israel at that point will be in breach of that order.”

“We could have worldwide litigation if states don’t stop assisting Israel… there will be legal ripples across the world” he said.

The case could also have an impact on the Israeli public, Machover said. He believes that a significant number of Israelis “have not looked in the mirror” and lack awareness of the real impact of the war on Palestinians in Gaza.

The ICJ case, he hopes, would prompt the Israeli public to engage in “some sort of self-reflection.”

Thailand’s new government is moving ahead to pass new legisalation banning cannabis for recreational use in a major reversal 18 months after the country became the first in Asia to decriminalize the plant.

The relaxed laws saw a lucrative cannabis industry catering to locals and foreigners alike boom across the Southeast Asian nation, but a new conservative coalition government came to power late last year vowing to tighten the rules and only allow medical use.

A draft bill was released on Tuesday by Thailand’s health ministry outlining hefty fines or prison sentences of up to one year for offenders – or both.

Cannabis and cannabis-related products will be limited to medical and health purposes only, the bill states, echoing Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s pledge in September that his new government will “rectify” laws on cannabis within the next six months.

Smoking marijuana in public remained illegal even under the relaxed laws, but the proposed new laws will ban advertising and marketing campaigns for cannabis buds and extracts, and other cannabis products.

An earlier draft bill failed to win parliamentary approval in November.

Thavisin has been vocal about banning recreational cannabis and stated in several media interviews that drug abuse is “a big problem for Thailand.”

Thailand became the first country in Asia to fully decriminalize cannabis in June 2022, a move years in the making and a rarity in a region where many countries give long jail terms and even death sentences for people convicted of marijuana possession, consumption or trafficking.

In nearby Hong Kong, even non-psychoactive cannabidoil (CBD) is outlawed.

Singapore maintains the death penalty for trafficking drugs, and residents traveling to Thailand are warned they could still be prosecuted on return if they smoke weed overseas.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Thailand since 2018, but decriminalization in 2022 took things a step further, making it no longer a crime to grow and trade marijuana and hemp products, or to use any parts of the plant to treat illnesses.

Since then, thousands of cannabis dispensaries have sprung up across Thailand, as well as other cannabis-themed businesses like weed cafes and hemp spas and beauty treatment. Cities like Chiang Mai and the capital Bangkok have even held weed festivals, and decriminalization has been a major draw for tourists.

“Thailand will promote cannabis policies for medical purposes. There has never once been a moment that we would think about advocating people to use cannabis in terms of recreation – or use it in a way that it could irritate others,” Anutin said.

“We [have always] emphasized using cannabis extractions and raw materials for medical purposes and for health.”

Pro-legislation advocates have argued that the cannabis boom across Thailand has helped many Thais, from farmers to small business owners and workers behind the counter.

The Future Cannabis Network, an advocacy group in Thailand, expressed disappointment at the government’s actions and stressed the importance of “public involvement.”

Kitty Chopaka, a Bangkok-based cannabis entrepreneur who has pushed for cannabis legalization for years, called it a knee jerk reaction from the government and said that it was “not unexpected.”

“But no matter what happens with the incoming cannabis regulations, it is now too late for cannabis to go back to being classified as narcotics.”

Planet-warming pollution in the US decreased nearly 2% in 2023 even as the economy grew, according to new data from the nonpartisan Rhodium Group.

In order to achieve Biden’s goal of cutting emissions in half by the end of the decade, King said the current reductions would have to triple to around 7% reductions per year. That would take much more wind, solar, nuclear and other zero-emissions energy providing electricity to the grid, more vehicles on the road powered by electricity or zero-emission fuels, and heavy industry like steel, cement and chemical manufacturers slashing their emissions.

“It’s good to see emissions moving in this direction, but more work is needed to keep the US on track for its Paris goals,” King said. It remains to be seen whether the US can keep its promise to steeply cut its emissions, and the US will have to update its targets next year – a step that will be shaped by the outcome of the 2024 election.

The data shows continued cutbacks on coal energy have a big impact on US climate pollution. Unlike in China, no new coal plants are being built in the US, and many utilities are retiring aging and costly power plants that were built in the 1970s and 1980s.

“We do see coal … is back to where it was in the Nixon administration,” King said. “We’ve resumed a structural decline in coal in the power sector which has been going on in the (natural gas) fracking revolution.”

The Rhodium data underscores cutting emissions and growing the economy can be done at the same time, King noted, especially given the massive amount of tax subsidies for clean energy in the Inflation Reduction Act. Rhodium’s numbers weren’t able to take much of the IRA’s impacts on the EV and clean energy industries into account, as 2023 was a year that the Biden administration spent issuing guidance around the law.

“Increasing deployment of these clean energy technologies, the IRA helps make the economic case for that,” King said. Other barriers remain, such as fast energy permitting to get more clean energy on the grid, and getting more EV charging stations built, but “if you can make it so darn cheap,” the ingredients for deep decarbonization are there, King said.