Australia’s prime minister has accused the Chinese navy of “dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional” conduct after an incident in international waters near Japan, marking a potential friction point with Beijing weeks after he visited the Chinese capital to stabilize relations.

Australian divers aboard the long-range frigate HMAS Toowoomba were trying to clear fishing nets from its propellers on November 14 when a Chinese destroyer approached, Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a statement Saturday.

Despite being warned that a diving operation was underway, the Chinese destroyer operated its sonar in a manner that “posed a risk to the safety of the Australian divers who were forced to exit the water,” the statement said.

Medical assessments found the divers had sustained minor injuries, the statement added.

Albanese refused to confirm whether he raised the incident with Chinese leader Xi Jinping when they met at the APEC summit in San Fransisco last Thursday.

“I can assure you that we raised these issues in the appropriate way and very clearly, unequivocally. And China, there’s no misunderstanding as to Australia’s view on this,” he said.

Asked about the incident at a regular news briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said the Chinese military had “always been highly disciplined” and had “always operated professionally on the basis of international law and international practices.”

“We hope relevant parties can stop causing troubles at China’s doorstep and work with China to jointly safeguard the momentum of improving China-Australia relations,” spokesperson Mao Ning said.

The incident took place a week after Albanese paid a landmark visit to Beijing – the first trip by an Australian leader in seven years – to stabilize rocky bilateral ties after years of economic tension.

In the Sky News interview, Albanese sidestepped a question on whether the incident will make bilateral relations “look shaky” now.

“Well, what I said when I was in China is that we will cooperate where we can but disagree where we must. And this is one of those times where we disagree with the action of China,” Albanese said.

“We’ve made it clear that we disagree with what occurred, that we have the strongest possible objection, and that this sort of event should not occur.”

‘Unsafe and unprofessional’ interaction

In his statement Saturday, Marles said the Australian government had expressed “serious concerns” to the Chinese government over what it called an “unsafe and unprofessional” interaction with a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy) destroyer.

Medical assessments found the divers had sustained minor injuries, “likely due to being subjected to the sonar pulses from the Chinese destroyer,” the statement said.

Military ships use sonar to detect and locate objects in the water. Divers exposed to high levels of underwater sound can suffer from “dizziness, hearing damage or other injuries to other sensitive organs,” depending on the frequency and intensity of the sound, according to the London-based Diving Medical Advisory Committee.

The HMAS Toowoomba had been in Japan’s exclusive economic zone conducting operations in support of United Nations sanctions enforcement and was enroute to commence a scheduled port visit to Japan, according to Marles’ statement.

“Australia expects all countries, including China, to operate their militaries in a professional and safe manner,” Marles said.

“Defense has for decades undertaken maritime surveillance activities in the region and does so in accordance with international law, exercising the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace.”

China’s navy and air forces have been accused of unsafe practices by US and Canadian militaries in multiple close encounters in the East and South China seas in recent months.

Earlier this month, the Canadian military said a Chinese warplane fired flares in front of its helicopter over international waters of the South China Sea on October 29, an operation it said was reckless and could have resulted in the downing of the aircraft.

In response, China blamed Canada for carrying out “malicious and provocative” actions in the South China Sea.

Ray Powell, director of SeaLight at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, said it will likely never be known if the order to use the sonar came from commanders in Beijing or at a lower level, maybe the Chinese destroyer captain himself.

“Either is disturbing, as the former would indicate mendacity at very senior levels, while the latter would demonstrate a mendacious military culture,” said Powell, a former US Air Force officer.

“Were the roles reversed, it seems clear to me that an Australian naval commander who did the same thing would be relieved of command, or worse. Yet nobody believes such action is even being considered by Beijing,” Powell said.

The world must “must act urgently” to stem the conflict in Gaza, China’s top diplomat said Monday during a meeting with officials from Arab and Muslim majority nations, as Beijing steps up its efforts to play a role in establishing ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority, and Indonesia, as well as the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for a two-day visit to the Chinese capital, the start of the delegation’s expected tour of several world capitals.

“The international community must act urgently, taking effective measures to prevent this tragedy from spreading. China firmly stands with justice and fairness in this conflict,” Wang told the visiting leaders in opening remarks ahead of talks, where he reiterated China’s call for an immediate ceasefire.

Visiting ministers voiced their own strong calls for an end to the conflict, with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud saying: “The message is clear: the war must stop immediately, we must move to a ceasefire immediately, and relief materials and aid must enter immediately.”

Countries represented in the delegation hoped to cooperate with China and “all countries” that are “responsible and appreciate the seriousness of the situation,” he said.

Israel has launched weeks of bombardment and ground operations in the Hamas-ruled enclave of Gaza following a deadly attack on its territory by the group on October 7. More than 200 hostages were taken in that attack, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Beijing has been at odds with Washington – an Israeli ally and long a major power broker in the region – over their approach to the conflict, including when it comes to an immediate ceasefire, which Washington does not support. Beijing has also criticized Israel’s retaliation and failed to condemn Hamas or name the group in its statements, sparking backlash from Israeli officials.

“Israel should stop its collective punishment on the people of Gaza, and open up a humanitarian corridor as soon as possible to prevent a humanitarian crisis of a larger scale from taking place,” Wang was cited as telling the delegation during the talks, according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry.

Israel has staunchly defended its actions as rooting out terrorism following a “barbaric invasion” and has rejected any ceasefire without the return of hostages.

China’s push for peace

China has been attempting to play an active role in finding a solution to the conflict as it seeks to expand its position as a major global power.

Beijing dispatched a peace envoy for a multi-country tour of the region last month and has acted as a strong voice pushing for an immediate ceasefire at the United Nations, including the Security Council, where China now holds the rotating presidency.

Last week the UN body passed its first resolution on the conflict, which called for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and for extended humanitarian corridors throughout the enclave to protect civilians. The US and the United Kingdom abstained, citing the resolution’s failure to condemn Hamas.

“For reasons known to all, in particular, the repeated and persistent obstruction of a permanent member of the Council, this resolution at present can only serve as a first step based on minimum consensus,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said following the vote, in an apparent veiled jab at the US. 

In his comments Monday in Beijing, Saudi Arabia’s minister commended the Security Council’s decision, under China’s leadership.

The conflict has also given China an opportunity to bolster its already strengthening ties with a number of countries across the Arab world — a region where observers say it hopes to drive a wedge between the US and the countries with which it has long-standing ties.

“We have always firmly defended the legitimate rights and interests of Arab and Muslim countries, and have always firmly supported the Palestinian people’s efforts to restore their legitimate national rights and interests,” Wang told the visiting delegation.

Engaging major players?

Immediate ceasefire and longer-term peace were also key topics during a roughly 10-day tour in the Middle East last month from China’s special envoy for the region, Zhai Jun, who visited Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

Last week the envoy visited and met with officials in Turkey and Bahrain, where Zhai also discussed the “regional situation” with representatives from Singapore, the US and Europe on the sidelines of an international conference.

So far there have been no apparent concrete outcomes from the diplomacy.

Zhai’s itinerary thus far has also not included stops in Israel, Palestinian-controlled territories, or Iran, per information released by China’s Foreign Ministry. Wang spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on the phone last month. It’s not clear if China has been in contact with Hamas officials during the latest conflict.

Visiting officials in Beijing this week include Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki of the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority.

China earlier this month dispatched the head of its Foreign Ministry’s West Asian and North African affairs department to Iran, where the conflict was part of discussions, according to a post on the department’s WeChat social media account.

Iran is a longtime backer of both Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

In the talks, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said they’d already held discussions with the Iranians on the topic, the senior official said.

Biden also made clear to Xi that he viewed Hamas as separate from the Palestinians. The US views Hamas as a terrorist organization that has perpetuated the suffering of Palestinian people, and has upheld Israel’s right to retaliate against the group.

Beijing has not referred to Hamas in its statements, but instead frames the current situation as a Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Even in the darkness, the utter devastation in northern Gaza is clear as day. The empty shells of buildings, illuminated by the last shreds of light, lurch out of the landscape on the dirt roads across the Gaza Strip. At night, the only signs of life are the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicles that rumble the landscape, tightening the military’s grip on the northern sector.

On Saturday night, we traveled with the IDF into Gaza to see the newly exposed tunnel shaft discovered at the compound of Al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest medical facility.

After crossing the border fence at around 9:00 in the evening, our convoy of Humvees turned off its lights, relying on night vision goggles to traverse the Gaza Strip. We would spend the next six hours inside Gaza, much of that time spent getting back and forth from the tunnel shaft.

Along our path, virtually every building bore the scars of wartime damage. Many structures were destroyed entirely, while others were hardly recognizable as anything more than twisted metal. If there was life here, it had long since departed. Residents had either moved south or been killed during six weeks of war.

Our first stop was a location on the beach where the IDF had set up a staging area. From there, we moved into armored personnel carriers with several other reporters for the last kilometer to the hospital. The only view outside came through a night-vision screen. But even in black and white, the level of destruction was shocking.

Inside Gaza City, the skeletal remains of apartment towers and high-rise buildings packed the otherwise vacant city streets. Even if we could speak to Palestinians while embedded with the IDF, there was no one around to talk to.

As we stepped out of the armored vehicle, we were enveloped by utter darkness. We were only allowed to use our red lights to navigate to a nearby building, where we waited until Israeli forces already on the ground secured the area. The tunnel shaft was very close by, but it was entirely exposed.

The commander in charge of our group, Lt. Col. Tom said this tunnel is significantly larger than others he had seen before. “This is a big tunnel,” he said. “I have encountered tunnels — in 2014 in [Operation] Protective Edge, I was a company commander — and this tunnel is an order of magnitude bigger than a standard tunnel.”

We had expected to hear fighting once we entered Gaza City itself. Instead, we heard almost complete silence. Only once during our roughly 45 minutes at the hospital did we hear the distant sound of small arms fire, and it was impossible to tell how far away it was in the midst of an urban environment. The rest of the time, the silence made the darkness feel even more oppressive.

It was nearing midnight as we walked the last few feet to the exposed tunnel shaft. The IDF had promised “concrete evidence” that Hamas was using the hospital complex above ground as cover for what it called terror infrastructure underneath, including a command and control hub.

The discovery of the tunnel shaft the next day was more compelling, showing an entrance to something underground. But even then, it was unclear what it was or how far down it went. This is what everyone has been trying to understand.

Standing on the edge of the tunnel shaft, it was apparent that the structure itself was substantial. At the top, the remains of a ladder hung over the lip of the opening. In the center of the round shaft, a center pole looked like a hub for a spiral staircase. The shaft itself extended down farther than we could see, especially in the meager light of our headlamps.

Video released by the IDF from inside the shaft showed what we could not see from the top of the opening. The video shows a spiral staircase leading down into a concrete tunnel. The IDF said the tunnel shaft extends downwards approximately 10 meters and the tunnel runs for 55 meters. At its end stands a metal door with a small window.

“We need to demolish the underground facility that we found,” said IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “I think the leadership of Hamas is in great pressure because we found this facility, and we are now going to demolish it. It’s going to take us time. We’re going to do it safely, but we’re going to do it.”

It is arguably the most compelling evidence thus far that the IDF has offered that there may be a network of tunnels below the hospital. It does not establish without a doubt that there is a command center under Gaza’s largest hospital, but it is clear that there is a tunnel down below. Seeing what connects to that tunnel is absolutely critical.

For Israel, the stakes could not be higher. Israel has publicly asserted for weeks, if not years, that Hamas has built terror infrastructure below the hospital. The ability to continue to prosecute the war in the face of mounting international criticism depends to a large extent on Israel being able to prove this point.

As is so rarely the case in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this answer truly is black and white. Either there is an underground series of tunnels below the hospital. Or there is not.

Death in the wild is often brutal and violent. But for one small, birdlike dinosaur in the late Cretaceous Period, the end of its life was relatively peaceful — it curled up to take a nap and never woke up.

That’s what scientists have interpreted from the pose of the dinosaur’s fossil skeleton. With the creature’s head tucked over its limbs and tail snugly wrapped around its body, its cozy posture resembled those of modern birds at rest, hinting that these dinosaurs didn’t just look like birds — they may have behaved like them, too.

Paleontologists excavated the dinosaur’s skull and nearly complete skeleton in the Gobi Desert at the Barun Goyot Formation in Mongolia, and most of the bones were still arranged in the animal’s original death pose, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

The animal’s long neck wrapped around the right side of its trunk, and its head was tucked close to its side, resting atop the right knee. The hind limbs were folded underneath it, and most of the tail curved around the body’s left side.

The study authors identified it as an alvarezsaurid, a type of small theropod (bipedal meat-eating dinosaur) with a long tail and legs and short front limbs. Alvarezsaurids are part of a larger dinosaur group called maniraptorans, which includes birds and birdlike dinosaurs that were their closest relatives.

The small alvarezsaur’s posture emulated that of two other dinosaur fossils found in Mongolia that were also curled up in birdlike sleeping poses: Sinornithoides youngi and Mei long. Those two are troodontids, another type of dinosaur in the maniraptoran group, and one that’s more closely related to birds than alvarezsaurs were.

The new fossil suggests that this sleeping behavior may have been more common than expected among the non-avian relatives of the earliest birds, the researchers reported.

“We’ve all seen ducks sleeping with their heads tucked under their wings. And then you see this little dinosaur with the exact same sleeping posture,” said paleontologist Dr. Jingmai O’Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Nearly intact fossil specimen

The scientists who examined the fossil determined it was a species new to science and gave it a fierce name: Jaculinykus yaruui. The genus name comes from Jaculus, a mythical dragon, and onykus, which means claw in ancient Greek, while its species name originates from yaruu, the Mongolian word for hasty or speedy.

Jaculinykus yaruui lived around 70 million years ago toward the end of the Cretaceous Period (about 145 million to 66 million years ago) and would have measured just over 3 feet (1 meter) long from nose to tail tip, said lead study author and paleontologist Kohta Kubo, a doctoral candidate in the Paleobiology Research Group at Hokkaido University in Japan.

Jaculinykus yaruui’s closest relative is a tiny alvarezsaurid named Shuvuuia deserti, Kubo said. Among the features that set it apart are the shape of its nostrils, the attachment of jaw muscles in the skull, and the shapes of its limb bones.

“It’s a nice specimen, and it’s always exciting to have new dinosaur diversity, especially in the alvarezsaurids,” O’Connor said.

Birdlike behaviors in dinosaurs

Alvarezsaurids aren’t the best-known dinosaur group, but they have long fascinated scientists with their drastically shortened forearms and hands, which in some species terminate in a single massive finger sprouting a claw like a spike.

“These types of fossils that are so well-preserved that they record behaviors are incredibly rare,” O’Connor said. “It’s great to have some additional evidence that definitely shows that this sleeping posture was more widespread.”

In modern birds, such behavior helps them to conserve body heat; it likely served a similar purpose for maniraptoran dinosaurs that also curled up at bedtime, according to the study. Over the course of their evolution, alvarezsaurs shrank in size. This “drastic miniaturization” may have led the non-avian dinosaurs to adopt the same thermoregulatory strategy used by their avian cousins, Kobu said.

What’s more, sleepy little Jaculinykus yaruui “highlights that this avian-like thermoregulatory behavior evolved prior to the origin of powered flight,” he added. “Jaculinykus is an important example that alvarezsaurids possess more similarities with living birds — not only in osteological features but also behavioral traits.”

Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine.

The Earth’s temperature briefly rose above a crucial threshold that scientists have been warning for decades could have catastrophic and irreversible impacts on the planet and its ecosystems, data shared by a prominent climate scientist shows.

The global average temperature on Friday last week was more than 2 degrees Celsius hotter than levels before industrialization, according to preliminary data shared on X by Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, based in Europe.

The threshold was crossed just temporarily and does not mean that the world is at a permanent state of warming above 2 degrees, but it is a symptom of a planet getting steadily hotter and hotter, and moving towards a longer-term situation where climate crisis impacts will be difficult — in some cases impossible — to reverse.

Provisional ERA5 global temperature for 17th November from @CopernicusECMWF was 1.17°C above 1991-2020 – the warmest on record.

Our best estimate is that this was the first day when global temperature was more than 2°C above 1850-1900 (or pre-industrial) levels, at 2.06°C. pic.twitter.com/jXF8oRZeip

— Dr Sam Burgess (@OceanTerra) November 19, 2023

“Our best estimate is that this was the first day when global temperature was more than 2°C above 1850-1900 (or pre-industrial) levels, at 2.06°C,” she wrote.

Burgess said in her post that global temperatures on Friday averaged 1.17 degrees above 1991-2020 levels, making it the warmest November 17 on record. But compared to pre-industrial times, before humans began burning fossil fuels on a large scale and altering the Earth’s natural climate, the temperature was 2.06 degrees warmer.

The breach of 2 degrees on Friday came two weeks before the start of the UN COP28 climate conference in Dubai, where countries will take stock of their progress towards the Paris Climate Agreement pledge to limit global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, with an ambition of limiting it to 1.5 degrees.

Copernicus’ data is preliminary and will require weeks to be confirmed with real-life observations.

The world already looks on track to breach 1.5 degrees of warming on a longer-term basis in the next few years, a threshold beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.

But 1.5 is not a cliff edge for the Earth — every fraction of a degree it warms above that, the worse the impacts will be. Warming to 2 degrees puts far more of the population at risk of deadly extreme weather and increases the likelihood of the planet reaching irreversible tipping points, such as the collapse of the polar ice sheets and the mass death of coral reefs.

Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading in the UK, called the breach a “canary in the coalmine” which “underscores the urgency of tackling greenhouse gas emissions.”

But he added that it was “entirely expected that single days will surpass 2 degrees above pre-industrial well before the actual 2 degrees Celsius target is breached over many years.”

The data comes on heels of the hottest 12 months on record, and after a year of extreme weather events, supercharged by the climate crisis, including fires in Hawaii, floods in northern Africa and storms in the Mediterranean, all of which have claimed lives.

Scientists are increasingly expressing alarm that data on temperatures are exceeding their predictions.

A string of reports checking the health of the Earth’s climate and humans’ actions to combat it in recent weeks show that the planet is careening toward a dangerous level of warming, and not doing enough to mitigate or adapt to its impacts.

A UN report last week found that even if countries enact all of their current climate pledges, planet-heating pollution in 2030 will still be 9% higher than it was in 2010. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world needs to decrease emissions by 45% by the end of this decade compared to 2010 to have any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. An increase of 9% means that target is way off.

Another UN report also found that the world is planning to blow the fossil fuels production limit that would keep a lid on global heating. By 2030, countries plan to produce more than twice the limit of fossil fuels that would cap warming at 1.5 degrees.

Ambulances carrying premature, sick babies crossed the Rafah border crossing into Egypt for life-saving treatment on Monday, according to live video broadcast on Egyptian state TV, after the infants were evacuated from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza.

Earlier, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said 28 babies were due to cross the border, but it’s unclear how many were in the ambulances. The babies were greeted by hordes of medical professionals waiting with incubators to take them into care.

The infants were earlier sent to the Emirati Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, in an operation marshaled by the PRCS and several other organizations. Citing doctors at the Rafah hospital, the World Health Organization said earlier the babies were fighting serious infections and 11 were in “critical condition,” due to a lack of medical supplies at Al-Shifa.

UNICEF, which worked with UN agencies and PCRS to carry out the evacuation, warned Sunday that the babies’ condition was “rapidly deteriorating.” It said the evacuation took place in “extremely dangerous conditions” and followed the “tragic death of several other babies, and total collapse of all medical services at Al-Shifa.”

Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, has become a flashpoint in Israel’s war in the besieged enclave. The Israeli military alleges the facility is being used by Hamas as a shield for its operations and raided the hospital last Wednesday. Hamas and hospital officials have denied Israel’s claims.

For days, relentless bombardment near the hospital trapped thousands of staff, patients and civilians sheltering inside, prompting public outcry, fueled by the details of the plight of newborn babies fighting for their lives.

The WHO described Al-Shifa as a “death zone” with corridors “filled with medical and solid waste,” after a United Nations team visited the hospital for an hour on Saturday to assess the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Palestinian authorities said several newborns have died due to power outages and a shortage of medical supplies; hospital staff described having to move babies by hand from incubators after running out of fuel and wrapping them in foil to keep them warm.

Under growing pressure to provide evidence for its claim that Hamas is using Al-Shifa for military purposes, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday released CCTV videos and still images it says show Hamas fighters bringing hostages into Al-Shifa on October 7, when Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking some 240 people into Gaza as hostages.

Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, the head of the hospital’s burns unit, accused Israeli forces of pushing around staff, questioning them about Hamas and restricting staff movements after the raid last week.

“The common question (staff keep being asked): Do you know anything about the Hamas groups? Do you know anything about the tunnels within the hospital?” the doctor said.

Egyptian health workers were photographed on Monday standing beside ambulances and incubators, waiting for the babies to arrive at the Rafah border, which has been used to bring in limited aid and evacuate foreign nationals.

It was hoped that the parents of the newborns would be able to travel to safety with their children, but the WHO said very few of the infants were accompanied by family members.

Gazan officials had “limited information” and were not able to find close family members, the WHO said.

One father, Ali Sbeiti, was reunited with his young son Anas, who was born three days before the war began.

The intense fighting between Israel and Hamas, and a communications blackout across the enclave due to a lack of fuel, has complicated aid delivery efforts and made it more difficult for Palestinians to reach relief services.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday further missions were being planned to evacuate the remaining patients and staff from Al-Shifa, “pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Javier Milei has won Argentina’s presidential elections in provisional results, wrenching his country to the right with a bombastic anti-establishment campaign, against the backdrop of one of the world’s highest inflation rates.

His rival Sergio Massa conceded the run-off vote on Sunday evening in a brief speech even before official results were announced.

“Milei is the president elected for the next 4 years,” said Massa, adding that he had already called Milei to congratulate him.

Milei’s victory marks an extraordinary rise for the former TV pundit, who entered the race as a political outsider on a promise to “break up with the status quo” – exemplified by Sergio Massa.

His campaign promise to dollarize Argentina, if enacted, is expected to thrust the country into new territory: no country of Argentina’s size has previously turned over the reins of its own monetary policy to Washington decisionmakers.

Milei has also said he would slash government spending by closing Argentina’s ministries of culture, education, and diversity, and by eliminating public subsidies. He is a social conservative with ties to the American right; he opposes abortion rights and has called climate change a “lie of socialism.”

Milei’s victory will be closely scrutinized around the world as a potential sign of a resurgence of far-right populism. Milei has ties to the American right, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had endorsed Milei’s candidacy

Public opinion polls had shown the two candidates neck-and-neck in recent weeks.

Massa is a lifelong politician whose candidacy in contrast with Milei’s had come to represent Argentina’s political establishment. While inflation has reached painful heights – 142% year on year – during his tenure, Massa sought to argue that the government’s current actions are already paying dividends, with inflation for the month of October 35% lower than in September.

Renewed hostilities between the Myanmar military and ethnic minority armed group the Arakan Army (AA) have spread to various townships in western Myanmar, including Pauktaw, where civilians have been caught in the crossfire as fighting escalates.

“I left the town the day the fighting broke out. But there are elderly people, sick people and families with young children left as they could not make haste,” he said.

“It’s raining and a storm is coming too. It’s a devastating situation. It breaks my heart to see people in such a situation.”

Ongoing clashes between the Arakan Army and the military began in the Rathedaung township on November 13 and have since spread to the townships of Maungdaw, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, and Paletwa, according to a statement from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) on Friday.

The renewed fighting has displaced more than 26,000 people in the country’s western Rakhine state since Monday, according to UNOCHA.

The two parties had previously established an informal ceasefire in November 2022, according to the UN, but fighting broke out after the Arakan Army reportedly attacked two border posts.

In a statement released on Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said the latest figures brought the total number of internally displaced people due to the conflict between the two sides to approximately 90,000. It added that there had been reports of military shelling in Arakan Army-controlled areas.

Myanmar’s military had also conducted at least one operation backed by air and naval support, UNOCHA said.

Myanmar military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said during a briefing Friday that the Myanmar army and police force had retaken the Pauktaw police station and that the town “was already under control” of the military.

Most humanitarian activities have been suspended due to the resurgence of the conflict and “virtually all roads and waterways” between townships in Rakhine have been blocked, according to OCHA.

Battles between the military and resistance groups have unfolded almost daily across Myanmar since army general Min Aung Hlaing seized power in February 2021, plunging the country into economic chaos and fresh civil war.

Airstrikes and ground attacks on what the Myanmar military calls “terrorist” targets have been occurred regularly since 2021 and have killed thousands of civilians to date, including children, according to monitoring groups.

Whole villages have been burned down by junta soldiers and schools, clinics and hospitals destroyed.

“I was told he was crying out of pain, I can’t imagine how he would be suffering in a pool of blood. The next morning, I got a call that he passed away at night,” the man said.

A family’s plight

Despite the family reaching a hospital two days before hostilities resumed, they remained stranded in a house in Pauktaw after the town “turned into a war zone,” U Nan Diya said.

The sick man’s daughter had attempted to look for a boat to return to their village but was arrested by soldiers on Friday, he added.

U Nan Diya said the 60-year-old man with heart disease was getting worse without medication. “(His) family wants him at their home instead of letting him die at a stranger’s house but nobody can go out or use the water route because the military navy is stationed in the sea, shooting everyone they see,” he said.

“The sick man can’t die peacefully.”

On the global stage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been consistently on message: In visits to Washington and other Western capitals, he has focused on keeping Kyiv supplied with more advanced arms, ammunition and financing.

At home, however, he faces a human resources problem. The war is approaching the end of its second year, and Ukraine’s military needs more manpower to sustain a bloody war of attrition against Russia, a country with more than three times the population of Ukraine.

In a recent essay, Ukraine’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny acknowledged that training and recruiting troops was becoming a serious challenge.

“The prolonged nature of the war, limited opportunities for the rotation of soldiers on the line of contact, gaps in legislation that seem to legally evade mobilization, significantly reduce the motivation of citizens to serve with the military,” he said.

The essay acknowledged a bleak reality: Ukraine needs more people in uniform, and it needs them now.

So, how serious is Ukraine’s mobilization challenge? The issue is clouded, in part, by official secrecy. Kyiv does not publicly disclose its manpower targets; nor does it reveal the total number of dead and wounded, although casualties on both sides since February 2022 are estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

Ukraine fills its ranks with volunteers but also has a system of conscription that allows the state to draft men of military age.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine imposed martial law, under which all males between the ages of 18 and 60 were considered liable for military service and could be mobilized unless they were eligible for a deferment. In 2023, the rules of military registration were updated to include women. But the measures stopped short of full conscription.

Martial law introduced draconian travel restrictions. Men between 18 and 60 are generally barred from exiting the country, although there are a wide range of exemptions, covering everything from single parents of young children to professional athletes.

While it is difficult to get an exact portrait of how far Ukrainians are responding to the call to serve in the military, officials have acknowledged publicly that evading military service and enforcing mobilization rules are an issue.

At a briefing on November 9, State Border Service of Ukraine spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said that over the last 10 months, 43,000 citizens of Ukraine were refused exit at the border.

“The reasons were different, but mostly because they did not qualify,” he said.

The war is sometimes simplified as an industrial contest: Ukraine’s Western backers are racing to produce ammunition for Kyiv, as Moscow ramps up domestic production of artillery shells and seeks fresh supplies from North Korea. But it’s also a recruitment contest against Russia.

Mobilization is a matter of survival for Ukraine. A long-awaited counteroffensive across a broad front has failed to yield any major breakthroughs on the battlefield, and Western support is at risk of wavering, especially as events in Israel and Gaza in the last month divert attention from the prolonged conflict in Europe.

Interviews are condensed and edited for length and clarity. Some of those interviewed did not want to give their full names.

“If the war continues… as it is today, there is no way to avoid conscription.”

Maj. Viktor Kysil serves with the “Khartiia” brigade. Until recently, he was involved in recruiting for his unit.

All those who wanted to serve voluntarily have already served somewhere. There are still people who do not want to serve of their own free will. If a person hasn’t come under the attention of the military enlistment office by 16-18 months into the war, then he or she obviously hopes that he or she won’t be drafted into the army for the next 18 months.

From what I can see, there is a shortage of military personnel, sometimes a critical shortage. Besides, a variety of military positions require different skills – some require physical training, some require intellectual skills. Everybody has different skills.

As a military man, I was served with a (draft) summons in the street several times. I have encountered people who were recruited online. When a person learns that he or she has a chance to go to the war zone, the desire to earn (a monthly army salary of) UAH 20-30,000 ($550-$830 per month) or even UAH 100,000 ($2,750) immediately disappears.

If the war continues with the same intensity as it is today, there is no way to avoid conscription.

“Civilians have become too relaxed.”

Mark Holovei, 29, works as a civilian volunteer supporting the military. He is willing to be mobilized.

In general, I cannot be drafted due to my health problems. I have chronic polycystic kidney disease. It is not treatable. I’m on a special diet and have to be admitted to the hospital every six months as a preventive measure. I also have type 2 diabetes. I have to take medication all the time.

But I think that now if someone gets a draft notice, then no one will consider the health problems, for the purpose of filling the ranks. Anyway, I’m not afraid of it. If I get a draft notice, I am ok with being mobilized. It’s just that now I actually know where I want to be mobilized. I want to join the brigade of my boys, who I’ve been volunteering for.

In the very beginning of the full-scale invasion a friend of mine asked to help and bring something to the military. At first, I was mainly bringing food, drinks, some cookies, cigarettes, etc. And I mainly helped my friends and friends of friends. Later I started helping with the medicine – I was gathering the first aid kits and the tourniquets. At first I was coming to the units 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from the front line, then I was getting closer and closer to the front line.

Civilians have become too relaxed. The dance clubs are working, night taxis are working. Until there’s a missile attack on their city, people tend to forget that we’re actually in the middle of the war.

‘The rate of sexism is pretty high in the army’

Maria Zaika, 31, is the marketing manager of a pharmacy network. She is ready to register for service.

“I went to my local military enlistment office to find out more (about mobilization). I wanted to register. I asked the recruitment officer whether it was voluntary for women, to which he replied it was ‘voluntary-compulsory.’

“I am ready to register for service, I am not afraid. Now women are starting to be recruited. In general, a lot of female pharmacists voluntarily join the army.

“I’ve talked with my husband about me registering in the military enlistment office. He supported me.

“In general, military men are not being very supportive of their girlfriends or wives joining the army, as the level of sexism is still pretty high in the army.

“In general, I’m sure we have problems with reserves. My (military) husband tells me about the situation on the front line and I understand that we’re running out of people. A lot of Russians (are) getting killed, yes, but their numbers don’t seem to run out.”

‘What has this country given me?’

Yevhen, 32, is an IT specialist. He plans to challenge any draft summons.

“I think that everything that happens with mobilization is illegal and unfair. Legally, there are no grounds for many actions in the recruitment centers. Therefore, I have a negative attitude to everything that is happening. Of course, it is not about supporting Russia, it is clear that they attacked us. But… if I get a draft notice tomorrow, I will consult a lawyer and challenge it.

“Everyone talks about responsibilities. But I have a question: What has this country given me that I owe it anything? My parents paid for my education, although I was an excellent student and had to study on a budget. It turns out that no one adheres to the law, but everyone talks about obligations.

“What good am I at the front if I have no military training? I will either be killed in two minutes, or I will work here and pay taxes and support the economy.”

‘It is not the steel that wins, it is the spirit’

Oleksandr Dyadyushkin, 36, an HR consultant before the full-scale war and a lecturer in philosophy and the history of religion, volunteered for this year’s counteroffensive last month.

“I understood that (this) would be a rather protracted conflict, with guys coming to the front, gaining experience, but the enemy would work in the same way. That is why the number of professional troops participating in the fighting will be constantly growing, both on our side and on the enemy’s side.

“We need to focus on the long game. Not in the sense that I am ready to lay down my life, but in the sense that I will improve my skills from month to month, year to year. That’s why I don’t regret coming here now. I see a job for me.

“The role of people in this war is crucial. As you know, it is not steel that wins, it is the spirit that wins. The spirit, the intellect.”

‘I strengthen the GDP of this country’

Vlad, 30, an IT worker, wants to avoid conscription.

I think that Ukraine, unfortunately, is not ready to fight Russia. We do not have the strength, money or weapons to do so. We were not prepared for it at all. Who is to blame for this is another question. Russia has strengthened its position in the east, so it is a senseless killing of our citizens.

I don’t want to go to fight. I am neither morally nor physically ready. I’ll try to avoid getting a draft notice. If I get it, the company will try to organize that I will be in the rear.

I believe that I help the country, I get my salary from outside and bring foreign currency to the territory of Ukraine. So I strengthen the GDP of the country. I am more useful in this than in the war.

‘They do not realize what they are getting into’

Dmytro Kostyuk, an army lieutenant is currently undergoing rehabilitation after being wounded in July. He is willing to return to active service.

I went to serve from the very beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 (2022). At that time there was no mobilization as such, many guys rushed to the military commissariats, and I did the same. But they only accepted people if they had draft notices. I didn’t have one. However, later I found out that they were accepting people for the territorial defense, and I went there.

We were in the area between Bakhmut and Klishchiivka. We were attached to the 5th Assault Brigade. The brigade was storming the Russian positions, and we went in and held those positions. That’s where I got wounded.

My platoon was short of people, so we were replenished with foreign fighters, 12 in total. For some it was the romance of war, for others it was a professional activity. Many of such people are now coming to Ukraine because it is a good line in their resume. As a rule, they do not realize what they are getting into. Many people imagine our war as a gunfight with the enemy, but they don’t realize how much artillery there is, and that you sit under fire all day, every day, and may not see the enemy at all.

Foreigners are a different story, because they can easily terminate a contract, unlike Ukrainians. It happened to me – almost half of the people saw everything and said, “No, no, this is too much. This is not the kind of war we signed up for.”

The way it (mobilization) is done now – when they try to force someone to join, the way they hand out draft notices is very bad. For example, I am a platoon commander, why do I need a person who does not want to join the army?

I don’t think very highly of such people (draft evaders), but everyone has their own way. It’s hard to judge someone without knowing their situation.

Not everyone can serve, someone has to hold the notorious ‘economic front.’ We are stuck in this war and we need to replace people.

When Racha Mousdikoudine opens her kitchen faucet, she never knows what will happen.

For the last four months, Mousdikoudine and her two children have had little or no running water in their home on the French territory of Mayotte, and island of around 310,000 people in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa, between Mozambique and the island of Madagascar.

Mayotte is facing an unprecedented water crisis amid one of the worst droughts in its history, as the impacts of the human-caused climate crisis collide with a chronic lack of investment in the water system.

The island is grappling with its worst drought since 1997. Its two water reservoirs have reached a “critical level of decline” – one is at 7% of capacity and the other at 6%, according to the most recent estimates, and they are on the verge of drying up.

It has led to drastic water cuts. Residents only have access to water for around 18 hours at a time every couple of days, according to a schedule published by the Prefecture, the local subdivision of the French government. Many say what little water they have is often contaminated and undrinkable.

Residents have had to cope with school closures and a growing health crisis, all while water bottles become a rare – and expensive – commodity on supermarket shelves.

In a country like France this is ‘unimaginable’

Though 5,000 miles away from mainland France, under French law, Mayotte is as French as the suburbs of Paris.

Colonized by France in 1841, the island was formally recognized as a French department in 2011, meaning it has the same legal status as the 96 departments that make up mainland France.

The French government has responded to the crisis. In September, it shipped 600,000 liters of bottled water to the island for its most vulnerable residents and has deployed soldiers and civil servants to help with water distribution. The government has also suspended water bills for all residents.

But many Mahorais – the term used to refer to people from Mayotte – still feel abandoned.

“The authorities seem absent in our daily suffering,” she said, adding, “when we have no water, what are we actually going to do? We’re going to die of thirst.”

Many, like Mousdikoudine, are angry.

“I’m a French woman, but one without any autonomy, because I have no water,” she said. “I have to choose between going to look for water for my family and going to work. In a country like France, having to make these kinds of decisions, it’s unimaginable.”

The simple acts of washing or pouring glasses of water for her daughters, ages 7 and 9, became such a huge challenge she and her husband decided to send the children to live with their grandmother in the French territory of La Réunion, about a two-hour flight from Mayotte.

The decision was extremely difficult, Mousdikoudine said, but she felt she had no choice.

“It got to the point where I could no longer ensure the safety of my children. Cook them proper meals, take care of their hygiene, things like going to the toilet, washing.”

‘At any moment things can get out of hand’

Water in Mayotte is not only scarce, but what’s available is often contaminated.

Online, residents use the hashtag #MayotteASoif (Mayotte is thirsty) to share videos of the brown, sediment-filled liquid that emerges from their taps. Some, including Mousdikoudine, have taken to the streets in protest.

Many residents, however, believe the water quality issue to be a much bigger problem.

Mousdikoudine and Attoumani both said that after a cut, the water only starts to flow clear after it’s been running for hours. But most residents can’t forgo water during that time when it is rationed.

As the water crisis continues, so do the health risks. The island has been experiencing an acute gastroenteritis epidemic, according to Dr. Soumeth Abasse, president of the medical committee of Mayotte’s Hospital.

Gastroenteritis epidemics are not unusual in the summer months, Abasse said, but this one is extending well into the fall. “We’ve also had a worsening of cases,” he added. “Some cases were a little more difficult, more complicated, with a lot of cases ending up in intensive care.”

He said the causes of the epidemic are both contaminated water and lower hygiene standards resulting from people having less access to water, which affects their ability to wash their hands, shower, flush their toilets and clean their homes.

“We’re always afraid of a possible explosion of these water-borne diseases,” Abasse said. “At any moment, things can get out of hand, and we don’t have enough staff to deal with it.”

Mayotte’s understaffed hospital is only one of many infrastructural issues the French department is facing.

Mayotte’s population has nearly doubled since 2007, and infrastructure improvements haven’t kept pace, Youssouffa said.

Even outside periods of drought, water production on the territory is insufficient, according to the Prefecture, with water cuts a regular occurrence on the island, long before this year’s exceptionally low rainfall.

The increased demands of a larger population coupled with the impacts of climate change, which is making droughts both more frequent and more severe, has put a huge amount of pressure on the island’s water resources.

“The rains have been diminishing for years,” said Youssouffa. “We’ve seen the path of cyclones and the path of rains changing in the region … and that’s directly the impact of climate change.”

For years, talks have been underway to build a third water reservoir and a second desalination plant to increase Mayotte’s drinking water production capabilities. But neither project has begun, according to the Prefecture.

Mayotte has received funding to help with its dire water situation. In 2014, the European Commission allocated 22 million euros ($24 million) to Mayotte for its water supply, as part of a larger funding package.

‘It’s not a normal life’

Mahorais continue to struggle with the financial repercussions of the dire water crisis.

Elsa Leduc, a humanitarian worker who moved to Mayotte from Paris in September, said trying to find bottled water has become a daily chore. “Every time I go to the supermarket, there’s no water,” she said. “I have to go to smaller shops that are a lot more expensive.”

Leduc is lucky that she is able to afford the high prices, but most on the island can’t. According to INSEE, 77% of Mayotte’s inhabitants live below the national poverty line, a figure that is five times higher than in the rest of France.

“The difficulty with the water crisis is that it’s making Mayotte unlivable,” said Youssouffa. “The crisis is so bad that it’s interrupting public services. It’s interrupting schooling. It’s interrupting businesses. It’s not a normal life.”

Mousdikoudine and Attoumani, like many Mahorais, wonder why authorities failed to prepare for it.

“Since 2018, we’ve had small (water) cuts and we could see that there wasn’t any rain,” said Attoumani, “so they should have anticipated, found solutions.”

“The whole system is falling apart literally before our eyes, because it’s shutting down,” said Youssouffa. “You cannot function without water.”

All hopes are on the rainy season, which starts in December. But Mousdikoudine worries it won’t be enough. “I know things are going to get worse.”