WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian attacks on Ukraine kill six in second day of major strikes, Kyiv says

Russia launched missile and drone attacks targeting scores of Ukrainian regions and killing at least six people, officials said on Tuesday, a day after Moscow's biggest air attack of the war on its neighbour.

Three people were killed when a hotel was "wiped out" by a missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said. Five people were injured and one person was still missing after the strike, Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region that includes Kryvyi Rih, said on Telegram.

Separately, three people were killed in drone attacks on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

Three people were also injured in the Zaporizhzhia region and four were hurt in a missile strike on the northeastern region of Kharkiv overnight, local authorities said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine would retaliate against Russia for its attacks. He asked allies to consider joint air defence operations and provide long-range capabilities after Russia pummelled Ukrainian energy infrastructure with more than 200 missiles and drones on Monday.

During Tuesday's attack, Ukraine downed five out of 10 incoming missiles and 60 out of 81 drones, the air force said.

The Ukrainian air force lost track of 10 more drones that have likely come down somewhere on its territory, it said. One more crossed into Belarusian territory.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had carried out a high-precision weapon strike on Ukraine overnight, the Interfax news agency reported. Moscow denies targeting civilians since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although thousands have been killed.

Several Russian military bloggers said Moscow's attacks were an "act of retaliation" for Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's western Kursk region - the first such action since World War Two.

In the capital Kyiv, the military administration said air defences had shot down all incoming targets aimed at the city. There were no casualties and two small fires caused by debris were put out by the emergency services, local authorities said.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia targets ‘critical airfields’ in Ukraine – MOD

Russia has carried out precision strikes against air bases in four regions of Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Tuesday. Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were among the weapons used, Moscow confirmed.

Air raid alerts sounded across Ukraine overnight Monday into Tuesday, and the media in Kiev reported explosions in Khmelnytsky, Sumy, Krivoy Rog, and Rovno Regions.

The attack targeted “critical airfield infrastructure facilities in Ukraine,” using “long-range air-launched precision weapons, including Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles, and attack UAVs,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. 

“All designated targets were hit,” the military added, without elaborating.

Tuesday’s strike followed the “massive high-precision attack” on Ukrainian infrastructure supporting Kiev’s military industry, carried out overnight Sunday into Monday. Attack drones, ballistic and cruise missiles shut off electricity to much of Ukraine and targeted air bases in Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk Regions that were storing Western-supplied weapons and aircraft, Moscow said.

According to Ukrainian media, the strike was the biggest since the conflict began, involving over 230 missiles and drones hitting targets in 15 regions. 

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed on Tuesday that Kiev’s armed forces had used F-16 fighter jets to shoot down incoming missiles during the large infrastructure strike overnight on Sunday. 

“As part of this huge attack, we shot down some missiles and drones with the help of F-16s,” Zelensky told reporters, describing this as “a very good result.”

While thanking the US and its allies for sending Kiev the jets, Zelensky noted that “this is not enough, we don’t have many of them, and we still need to train pilots.”

Several NATO countries have promised up to 80 of the US-made fighters, but only about ten have been delivered so far, according to Ukrainian media. A handful of airfields in Ukraine can accommodate F-16s and Russia has been striking them repeatedly over the past month.

The Kremlin has said that the jets won’t make a difference on the battlefield and will be destroyed just like the other Western hardware provided to Ukraine since the start of the conflict.

Reuters/RT

Beyond the protests, there are a number of issues the government should pay attention to:

One, though the protesters might have different motives, they seem all united by alienation from the government and even the state system. Rather than use blackmail and strong arm tactics, the government should use credible opinion polls to articulate and aggregate the various grievances against it and the state – and then evolve sustainable strategies on how to address as many of them as it can. Boxing shadows or creating enemies where they do not exist will only exacerbate the legitimacy crisis around the government. It will be a mistake for the government to believe that it can successfully stifle speech using intimidation and blackmail. Our history shows that such a strategy has a very short shelf life – as Buhari in his first coming as a military dictator and Abacha – can testify to. In his second coming – as a civilian President- a coalition of those Buhari disdained as a dot in a circle and those Femi Adesina called ‘wailing wailers’, fought back in their own ways such that even before Buhari completed his eight year tenure, he openly complained that he was tired, and would, on leaving office, want to be as far away as possible from Abuja and politics. The truth is that citizens, in the face of oppression by those who wield state power, often adopt asymmetric strategies to fight back. This can range from misinformation, caricature and outright fake news. In this age of social media where anyone who owns a mobile phone can be a publisher, citizens are especially empowered to fight back oppression. I believe that for a government which currently has a low social capital owing to the harsh effects of its economic policies, its policy somersaults, propaganda and non-inclusive style of governance, what it needs is more friends and less enemies. It needs to find a way of winning over the hearts and minds of as many Nigerians as possible.

Two, while it is not unusual for a relatively new government to start on a wobbly note, the government, for now at least, seems confused on what it wants to achieve. For instance, while it said it wanted to implement the Orosoanya report (which recommended the merging of ministries and departments and abrogation of some) it also runs the largest cabinet of 48 Ministries and recently created another – the Ministry of Livestock Development. Similarly, while the Tinubu government initially seemed desirous of moving away from the cantankerous mode of public communication of the Buhari era, by appointing the very urbane and affable Mohamed Idris as the Minister of Information and Ajuri Ngelari as the government’s Spokesman, it also contradicted this by appointing the vile and self-confessed ethnic irredentist Bayo Onanuga as Special Adviser on information and strategy. By so doing, it negated  what would have been a new and courteous approach to public communication  to complement the commendable bridge-building efforts by the wife of the President, Remi Tinubu and a few others in the government. Similarly, some of the policies of the government raise confusion on whether Tinubu wants to be remembered as a great Nigerian President or simply wants to be more popular than the late Obafemi Awolowo in Yorubaland.

Three, Tinubu should be mindful of two key features of Nigeria’s democracy since 1999 which has always backfired but which our politicians remain funnily crazily attracted to: these are god-fatherism and clannishness. With the exception of Tinubu in Lagos, nearly all political godfathers invariably fall out with their political godsons, raising questions of why politicians remain fixated on selecting and bankrolling their successors. For clannishness and ethnocentrism which Buhari took to a previously unseen level, and which Tinubu seems eager to match, if not better in the negative, this also usually boomerangs. For instance, some of the most vicious critics of the Buhari government were Northern Muslims who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of his clannishness. Similarly, even before the protests started on August 1, many Yorubas, openly say the clannishness in Tinubu’s mode of appointments and governance “does not represent who we are”. In fact, that many of the faces of the protests are from the Yoruba ethnic extraction is enough to warn the government that Yorubanization of political life will not be enough to buy Yoruba adulation. If anything, it will likely backfire because there is a spark of the divine in all of us which makes most people to abhor injustice. Besides, clannishness attracts odium to innocent members of an ethnic in-group even when they are opposed to the leader’s nepotism.

Four, the protest has now shown that no part of this country has a monopoly of providing poor leadership to the country. In fact, that the protest was organized under the banner of #EndBadGovernance is instructive. At least for now, there seems to be a consensus that the Tinubu government is grossly underperforming. And since most Nigerians appear to believe that the fundamental problem of the country is “squarely that of leadership” (apologies to Achebe), the use of innuendo to blame the North (which has produced most of the country’s leaders), has now come under critical scrutiny. In this thinking, there is always the unproven assumption that the leadership problem of the country would be solved when the South, in particular, the “progressives” (a moniker appropriated by South-West politicians when they were in the opposition) come to power. So far it has not happened under the Tinubu presidency. Even the “reforms” embarked by the Tinubu government are mere uncritical rehash of the policies implemented by the Babangida government between 1986 and 1993 when the country adopted the IMF/World Bank supported structural Adjustment Programme, and which only succeeded in further impoverishing the country and emasculating the middle class. Alan Greenspan, who served for five terms as chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve Bank (August 11 1987 to January 31 2006)   – the equivalent of our Central Bank- was famously quoted as saying that he owed his success during his tenure to the fact that he always did the opposite of the advice he received from the two Bretton Woods institutions (i.e. the IMF and the World Bank). Tinubu should seriously consider that approach. It may amount to committing class suicide for him. But that would be the surest way of putting himself on the path of being a great Nigerian President.

Jideofor Adibe is a professor of Political Science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

The world is running out of sand.

About 50 billion tons of sand and gravel are extracted annually, most of which is used for construction activities. This is a problem for two reasons. First of all, it’s not sustainable. Secondly, if we continue to extract sand at this rate, it will end up causing irreversible damage to the environment. 

For instance, loss of sand from oceans, rivers, and beaches can lead to excessive flooding and degradation of marine ecosystems. It threatens coastal communities, and infrastructure. Plus, sand mining near aquifers can lower water tables, affecting water availability for humans, land animals, and agriculture.

“The issue of sand comes as a surprise to many, but it shouldn’t. We cannot extract 50 billion tonnes per year of any material without leading to massive impacts on the planet and thus on people’s lives.” Pascal Peduzzi, a researcher at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), toldBBC.

A new study suggests China may have found a solution to the sand mining problem. The Chinese have been using artificial sand made by crushing rocks and leftover materials from mining for many of their construction projects. This simple technique has allowed them to drastically reduce their dependence on natural sand without slowing down their massive construction projects.

China’s shift from natural to artificial sand

In the last 40 years, China turned itself from a developing country to an economic superpower, and rapid urbanization has played a key role in its development. However, the fast-paced urbanization has caused massive depletion of its natural construction material reserves — including sand.
For instance, some reports suggest that over 40 percent of cultivable land in China is degraded because of uncontrolled sand mining, pollution, and erosion. This problem was first realized in 2010 when the country witnessed the dwindling of many of its natural sand reserves. It caused a sharp rise in the prices of sand used for construction purposes.

In the following years, the Chinese government also began to take action on illegal sand mining activities to prevent the exploitation of sand reserves. This further increased the price of sand and forced the construction industry to look for budget-friendly alternatives, and this is when some of them adopted manufactured sand (also called, artificial sand).

This technique involved using machines to crush and sift rocks or mine tailings (mining waste) into smaller particles with properties similar to that of natural sand. Since this process doesn’t involve mining or extracting sand from rivers and beaches, it is both cheaper and more eco-friendly.

Rise of manufactured sand in China  

The study authors developed a monitoring system that allowed them to examine the sand use pattern in China from 1995 to 2020. Their analysis revealed many surprising facts. For example, the Chinese have been producing artificial sand since the early 2000s, but it became popular in 2010.

2010 was also the year when the supply of natural sand in China reached its highest level. However, the next year’s supply of manufactured sand overtook that of natural sand, becoming the primary sand type used for construction activities.

In the following years, production of artificial sand continued to increase by 13 percent annually. In 2020, the use of natural sand reduced to the extent that it accounted for only 21 percent of the total sand supply, witnessing an 80 percent downfall, compared to 2010. 

“China’s overall sand supply surged by approximately 400% over the study period, yet the proportion of natural sand dropped from ≈80% to ≈21% due to the increasing use of manufactured sand,” the study authors note.

“The percentage of manufactured sand in the Chinese market could now be close to 90 percent. The shift from natural sand to manufactured sand is a miracle for a country that has completed such massive infrastructure construction,” Song Shaomin, a professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, toldSCMP.

We don’t know how accurate these claims are, but the use of artificial sand in China proves that it’s a promising solution for reducing dependence on natural sand. Other countries can also consider this approach to protect their natural sand reserves from degradation. 

However, further research is required to understand whether artificial sand production can work in other geographies. Also, it’s important to know its limitations and effects on the environment as it relies on waste products from mining activities.

This study is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

ZME Science

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew while oil production dropped between the first and second quarters of 2024, according to official data.

The GDP grew by 3.19 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the second quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics has said.

The NBS said this growth rate is higher than the 2.51 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2023 and higher than the 2.98 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2024.

The statistics bureau said this in its “Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Report Q2 2024” released on Monday.

The report said the GDP’s performance in the second quarter of 2024 was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded a growth of 3.79 per cent and contributed 58.76 per cent to the aggregate GDP.

It said the agriculture sector grew by 1.41 per cent, from the 1.50 per cent growth recorded in the second quarter of 2023.

It added that the growth of the Industry sector was 3.53 per cent, an improvement from -1.94 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2023.

In terms of share of the GDP, the bureau said the Industry and Services sectors contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023.

“In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N60,930,000.58 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the second quarter of 2023 which recorded aggregate GDP of N52,103,927.13 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 16.94 per cent,” the report said.

Oil sector

The bureau noted that the nation in the second quarter of 2024 recorded an average daily oil production of 1.41 million barrels per day (mbpd), higher than the daily average production of 1.22 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2023 by 0.19 mbpd and lower than the first quarter of 2024 production volume of 1.57 mbpd by 0.16 mbpd.

It said the real growth of the oil sector was 10.15 per cent (year-on-year) in Q2 2024, indicating an increase of 23.58 per cent points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023 (-13.43 per cent).

The NBS explained that the growth increased by 4.45 per cent points when compared to Q1 2024, which was 5.70 per cent.

“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of -10.51 per cent in Q2 2024.

“The oil sector contributed 5.70 per cent to the total real GDP in Q2 2024, up from the figure recorded in the corresponding period of 2023 and down from the preceding quarter, where it contributed 5.34 per cent and 6.38 per cent respectively,” the report said.

Non-oil sector

The non-oil sector grew by 2.80 per cent in real terms during the reference quarter (Q2 2024).

The NBS said this rate was lower by 0.78 per cent points compared to the rate recorded in the same quarter of 2023 which was 3.58 per cent and relatively same with the 2.80 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2024.

“This sector was driven in the second quarter of 2024 mainly by financial and insurance (financial institutions); information and communication (telecommunications); agriculture (crop production); trade; and manufacturing (food, beverage, and tobacco), accounting for positive GDP growth,” it said.

In real terms, the bureau said the non-oil sector contributed 94.30 per cent to the nation’s GDP in the second quarter of 2024, lower than the share recorded in the second quarter of 2023 which was 94.66 per cent and higher than the first quarter of 2024 recorded as 93.62 per cent.

PT

The Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has observed that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate on average has been steadily declining since 2014, signalling a downturn in the economic well-being of the average Nigerian.

Okonjo-Iweala, speaking at the annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Sunday, noted that the country’s economic fortunes experienced a reversal following the decade between 2000 and 2014, during which the average GDP growth rate was approximately 3.8%.

According to the Director-General of the WTO, this consistent GDP growth outpaced the nation’s population growth, which was only around 2.6% annually.

However, she pointed out that since 2014, the situation has reversed, with GDP showing a negative growth rate of 0.9%, as the government has been unable to sustain the positive growth achieved by previous administrations.

“Many of the big problems the NBA is grappling with today has its root in Nigeria’s failure to sustain rate of economic growth and development that consistently outpaced the growth of our population.  

“We have had episodes of reforms and faster economic growth that was not merely a function of the price of oil. But we have been unable to consolidate and build on them and millions of our compatriots have paid the price in terms of diminished job prospects and human well-being.  

“For example, in the decade between 2000 and 2014, we had an average GDP growth rate of 3.8% well above our population growth rate of 2.6% per annum, meaning that people were on average truly improving their standard of living.  

“During the following decade, average annual GDP per capita has been negative around minus 0.9% meaning people were worse off because we were not able to sustain prior positive growth momentum,” Okonjo-Iweala added. 

Nigeria must sustain good economic policies 

Speaking further, Okonjo-Iweala said the country needs to sustain good economic policies irrespective of the administration or political party in power in order to foster development in the country.

• The former Finance Minister said policy inconsistencies have accounted for the reversal in the fortune of the nation’s economic development.
• Furthermore, she advocated for a social contract between the government and the people which will go beyond the political party in power.
• According to her, this social contract must be generally accepted on what economic policies should be followed regardless of who is in power.

“Maintaining good economic and social policies; maintaining policy consistency and adding more reforms on top of that will lead us along the path of good progress that we all desire,” she added.  

What you should know 

• Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth declined to 2.98%, lower than the rate recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023 which was 3.46%, according to a report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
• However, the GDP growth rate in the quarter is higher than the figure recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2023 which was 2.31%.

GDP measures the economic activities of a country.  

• In the past decades, Nigeria’s economic growth has been moderate as a result of low exports, a reduction in the sales of oil which accounts for about 90% of our revenue as well as other economic challenges in the country.
• Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has continuously said he would increase Nigeria’s GDP to a $1 trillion economy, but many analysts believe such a goal may not the feasible amid growing concerns of high inflation, low employment rate as well and rising national debt.

Nairametrics

In a bewildering turn of events that defies logic and business sense, Nigeria's national oil company, NNPC, has managed to orchestrate what can only be described as the most absurd corporate acquisition in modern history. The saga of NNPC Retail's purchase of OVH Energy Marketing Limited has morphed into a Kafkaesque nightmare where the acquired entity now controls the acquirer, raising serious questions about the competence, integrity, and motives of those at the helm of Nigeria’s national oil company.

This farcical transaction, shrouded in secrecy and mired in controversy, represents a gross betrayal of public trust and a blatant disregard for corporate governance principles. How does a profit-making state-owned enterprise end up being swallowed by the very company it purportedly acquired? The convoluted web of dealings involving NNPC Retail, OVH Energy, and Nueoil Energy reeks of backroom deals and possible corruption at the highest levels.

The recent court order dissolving NNPC Retail without winding it up and transferring its assets to OVH Energy is nothing short of scandalous. It effectively hands over a critical national asset to private hands through a legal sleight of hand. This maneuver not only undermines Nigeria's energy security but also raises alarming questions about the protection of public interests in the country’s judicial system.

The silence and apparent complicity of regulatory bodies in this matter are deafening. Where are the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Corporate Affairs Commission, and other watchdogs tasked with ensuring transparency and fairness in corporate dealings? Their inaction in the face of such a glaring anomaly is a damning indictment of Nigeria’s regulatory framework.

Most troubling is the impact on NNPC Retail's workforce, now left in limbo, unsure of their future in an organization that has been essentially hijacked. The installation of OVH's former CEO as the new head of NNPC Retail adds insult to injury, signaling a complete takeover masked as an acquisition.

This debacle demands immediate and thorough investigation by anti-corruption agencies. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) must swing into action to unravel this mystery. How did a struggling company manage to turn the tables on its buyer, effectively gaining control of a profitable state enterprise?

The House of Representatives' initial investigation, marred by controversy and eventually dissolved, points to possible high-level interference. The transfer of the probe to another committee must not be allowed to become a means of burying this scandal. Nigerians deserve answers and accountability.

This "acquisition" is not just a business transaction gone wrong; it is a national security issue. With NNPC Retail responsible for importing virtually all of Nigeria's petrol, its transfer to private hands through such dubious means puts the entire nation at risk.

The NNPC leadership's defense that they now operate as a private entity rings hollow. A company wholly owned by the Nigerian people cannot simply be handed over to private interests through corporate gymnastics without proper scrutiny and safeguards.

This editorial calls for immediate action:

1. A freeze on all aspects of this transaction pending a comprehensive, independent investigation.

2. Full disclosure of all documents and decisions related to this deal.

3. A public inquiry into the roles played by all parties involved, including government officials and judiciary members.

4. Immediate intervention by anti-corruption agencies to probe possible criminal aspects of this deal.

5. A review of the legal framework governing the privatization of state assets to prevent future abuses.

The NNPC-OVH saga is more than a corporate scandal; it is a litmus test for Nigeria's commitment to transparency, accountability, and the rule of law. The eyes of the nation and the international community are watching. It's time to unravel this riddle and hold those responsible to account. Anything less would be a betrayal of the Nigerian people and a green light for further plunder of the country’s national resources.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the rates for the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) as part of its ongoing efforts to manage liquidity in the financial system.

This decision was detailed in a circular issued on August 26, 2024, following the 296th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, where key adjustments to interest rate policies were approved.

The CBN revised the Asymmetric Corridor around the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from +100/-300 basis points (bps) to +500/-100 bps. This significant shift aims to discourage banks from holding excess liquidity at the central bank and to promote increased lending activities.

New Operational Rates for Banks 

The Standing Lending Facility (SLF) rate, which banks use to borrow short-term funds from the CBN, has been raised to 31.75%.

The SDF rate, applicable to deposits made by banks at the CBN, has been increased to 25.75%. The circular also specifies that:

• Commercial and Merchant Banks will receive 25.75% on deposits up to ₦3.00 billion, while deposits exceeding this amount will attract a lower rate of 19.00%.
• Payment Service Banks will receive 25.75% on deposits up to ₦1.50 billion, with amounts above this threshold earning 19.00%.

These new rates are effective immediately, with all authorized dealers expected to adhere to the updated guidelines.

What this means 

The CBN’s latest adjustments are expected to have broad implications for the banking sector. By raising both SLF and SDF rates, the central bank aims to curb excess liquidity, which is often a precursor to inflation.

• The reduction in interest rates for excess deposits is also intended to push banks toward more active lending rather than merely holding funds at the CBN.
• The changes are likely to impact the cost of funds for banks, influencing the interest rates offered to customers for both loans and deposits.
• While tighter liquidity conditions may lead to higher lending rates and potentially slower credit growth in the short term, the move could help stabilize inflation over time.
• The increase in the SLF rate means that banks looking to borrow money from the central bank to cover short-term liquidity positions will now face higher interest costs.

Sector analysts often interpret reliance on the SLF as a sign of liquidity challenges, indicating that banks tapping into this facility may be under financial strain.

Backstory: The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at its 296th MPC meeting had retained the liquidity ratio at 30% with the MPC emphasizing its commitment to stay on course with its tightening cycle in view of the urgent need to address inflationary pressures.

The bank during its MPC meeting continued its monetary policy tightening spree by raising interest rates by 50 basis points to 26.75%.

Nairametrics

Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo continue to iron out details, White House says

Negotiations in Cairo to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage deal are still pressing ahead, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said, adding that the discussions will continue on the working-group level for the next few days to iron out specific issues.

Speaking to reporters in a virtual briefing, Kirby pushed back on suggestions that the talks have broken down, and said, on the contrary, that they were "constructive".

"The talks actually progressed to a point where they felt like the next logical step was to have working groups at lower levels to sit down to hammer out these finer details," Kirby said.

Brett McGurk, U.S. President Joe Biden's top Middle East aide at the White House who has been participating in the talks, will soon leave Cairo after staying an extra day to start the working-group talks, Kirby said.

One of the issues to be tackled by the working groups will be the exchange of hostages Hamas is holding and Palestinian prisoners that Israel is holding, Kirby said.

He said the details to be settled included how many hostages may be exchanged, their identities, and the pace of their potential release.

Months of on-off talks have failed to produce an agreement to end Israel's military campaign in Gaza or free the remaining hostages seized by Hamas in the militant group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.

The latest round of negotiations came under the threat of a regional escalation. Over the weekend, Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel as Israel's military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a larger attack.

But Kirby said the cross-border warfare over the weekend has not had an impact on the talks.

Key sticking points in ongoing talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar include an Israeli presence in the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 14.5-km-long (9-mile-long) stretch of land along Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

"There continues to be progress and our team on the ground continues to describe the talks as constructive," Kirby said.

Hamas official Taher Al-Nono reiterated to Qatar’s flagship Al Jazeera Mubasher on Monday that remarks made by the U.S. regarding the status of the ceasefire talks are “inconsistent with the truth and their objective is to support the positions of the occupation.”

In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian group said that talk of an imminent deal is false.

Two Egyptian sources on Sunday said Israel expressed reservations about several of the Palestinian detainees Hamas is demanding be released, and Israel demanded their exit of Gaza if they are released.

More than 40,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza's health ministry. Most of its 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia pounds Ukraine with missiles, drones for second day in row, Kyiv says

Russia launched several waves of missile and drone attacks overnight targeting Kyiv and other regions, Ukraine's military said early on Tuesday, a day after Moscow's biggest such attack of the war.

At least one person was killed when a civilian object was "wiped out" in the central Ukraine city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said.

Kyiv region's air defence systems were deployed several times overnight to repel missiles and drones targeting the Ukrainian capital, the region's military administration said on Telegram.

Reuters' witnesses reported at least three rounds of explosions overnight in Kyiv.

On Monday, Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones, killing at least seven and damaging energy infrastructure in an attack condemned by U.S. President Joe Biden as "outrageous."

The size of the Tuesday attacks was not immediately known, but Ukraine's air force said it recorded the launch of several groups of drones and the take-off from Russian airfields of strategic Tu-85 strategic bombers and MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

The Kremlin denies targeting civilians in the war that President Vladimir Putin launched against Russia's smaller neighbour with a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Russian defence ministry said that its strikes on Monday hit "all designated targets" in Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.

Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and central and eastern regions of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for most of the night, starting at around 2000 GMT on Monday.

Five civilians may be still under the rubble and four were injured as a result of the Russian attack, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih's military administration, said on Telegram.

"The news is bad," Vilkul said.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

What we know about massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

The Russian Armed Forces carried out a massive strike on the critical facilities of Ukraine's energy infrastructure that ensure the operation of the country’s defense industry, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

According to the ministry, all designated targets were hit.

TASS has put together the key facts we currently know.

Targets of the strike

- The Russian Armed Forces on Monday morning fired high-precision, long-range, air-launched and sea-launched weapons, used tactical aircraft and launched attack drones to carry out a massive strike on the critical facilities of Ukraine's energy infrastructure that ensure the operation of the country’s defense industry.

- The targets were electric substations in the Kiev, Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Khmelnitsky, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Nikolayev, Kirovograd and Odessa regions.

- The strikes also hit storage sites of Ukraine’s West-provided air-launched weapons at airfields in the Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk regions.

- Also struck were gas compressor stations in the Ivano-Frankovsk, Lvov and Kharkov regions.

Consequences

- According to the Russian Defense Ministry, all designated targets were hit.

- There are disruptions in energy supply across Ukraine.

- Deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the engagement line by rail were disrupted.

- The Ukrainian energy company DTEK announced emergency power cuts across Ukraine.

- The Ukrainian national railway company said on Telegram it was shifting to diesel locomotives due to power outages.

Reuters/Tass

Pavel Durov is a lot of things to a lot of people. Programming prodigy. Billionaire entrepreneur. Kremlin stooge. Free-speech fighter. Biological father to at least 100 kids.

Durov, the elusive founder of Telegram who was detained in France over the weekend, cuts the figure of a mysterious, globe-trotting tech bro with Mark Zuckerberg’s prodigiousness, Jack Dorsey’s bizarre lifestyle habits and Elon Musk’s libertarian streak – plus a similar obsession with pronatalism and fathering children. Durov said in July that he had fathered more than 100 children thanks to sperm donations he had made over the past 15 years.

Worth an estimated $9.15 billion according to Bloomberg and armed with an array of passports and residences, Durov has for a decade lived a life without borders, a man on an often-shirtless journey to secure the freedom of communication from the prying eyes of governments, democratically elected or otherwise.

Now, Durov’s legal trouble is drudging up an old debate, pitting Telegram’s end-to-end encryption, which keeps communications between users secure even from the company’s employees, against the security concerns of various governments and the European Union’s campaign to rein in big tech.

A pair of prodigies

Durov was born in 1984 in the Soviet Union but moved to Italy when he was a 4-year-old, the tech entrepreneur told right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson in a rare interview earlier this year. The family moved back to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, after Durov’s father received an offer to work at St. Petersburg State University.

Durov said he and his older brother, Nikolai, were math prodigies from an early age. The elder Durov was the bigger star when the duo were children. Durov said his brother went on Italian TV to solve cubic equations in real time as a child and won repeated gold medals at the International Math Olympiad. The younger Durov was the best student at his school and competed locally.

“We were both very passionate about coding and designing stuff,” Durov said.

He said that when the family returned to Russia, they brought back from Italy an IBM PC XT computer, meaning they were “in the early 90s, one of the few families in Russia who could actually teach ourselves how to program.”

Russia’s Zuck

Durov’s coding prowess and entrepreneurial spirit led him to build Vkontakte (VK), a social media site, in 2006, when he was a 21-year-old fresh out of university. VK quickly became known as the Facebook of Russia, and Durov the country’s answer to Mark Zuckerberg.

But Durov’s relationship with the Kremlin turned adversarial much quicker than Zuckerberg’s did with Washington.

When protesters began using VK to organize demonstrations in Kyiv against Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2013, Durov said the Kremlin asked the site to hand over private data of Ukrainian users.

“We decided to refuse, and that didn’t go too well with the Russian government,” Durov told Carlson.

That decision sealed Durov’s fate at the company. Durov would later resign as CEO, opening the door for people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to take over. The entrepreneur sold all his shares for millions and then left Russia. Today, VK is under state control.

“For me, it was never about becoming rich. Everything in my life was about becoming free. To the extent that is possible, my mission in life is to allow other people to become free,” Durov said.

“I don’t want to take orders from anyone.”

‘All of them suck’

While Zuckerberg bought WhatsApp in his bid to build the social media empire now known as Meta, Durov chose to build his own messaging app despite an already crowded marketplace for such platforms.

He didn’t think anything out there was good enough.

“It doesn’t matter how many messaging apps are out there if all of them suck,” Durov told TechCrunch in 2015.

Durov said that his experience with the Kremlin was a key motivator in creating Telegram, which is now based in Dubai. He and his brother wanted to build something that would be free from the prying eyes of government.

The company’s strong end-to-end encryption and much-hyped commitment to privacy proved attractive to the hundreds of millions of users who flocked to Telegram – including, eventually, the terrorists who planned the Paris terror attacks in November 2015.

The revelation prompted the normally private Durov to go on a public relations blitz, conducting a bevy of interviews, including one with CNN, to assure a wary public that Telegram was not becoming WhatsApp for terrorists.

Telegram, according to Durov, was simply the most secure messaging platform on the market – and compromising by creating a back door for governments would undermine the app’s appeal and the company’s commitment to privacy.

“You cannot make it safe against criminals and open for governments,” Durov told CNN in 2016. “It’s either secure or not secure.”

Kremlin questions

Telegram’s refusal to budge on decryption put it at loggerheads with governments around the world – including Russia, at least initially.

Moscow in 2018 attempted to ban Telegram for refusing to supply Russian security services with decryption keys. Durov vowed to defy the ban.

Another showdown between the tech entrepreneur and the Kremlin appeared to be on the horizon, but nothing came of it. The ban was lifted in 2020.

In the years that followed, Telegram became one of the few foreign social media platforms operating in Russia without restrictions. It is now the preferred means of official communication for many officials in the Russian government.

Durov’s critics have long questioned whether Telegram could operate so freely in Russia without having made some sort of concession to the Kremlin, allegations Durov has repeatedly batted down – often pointing to his spat in the early 2010s that led him to leave Russia.

Before he was detained in Paris, Durov was in Azerbaijan at the same time as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in the country on an official two-day visit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the two did not meet.

And though Durov has publicly turned his back on Russia, the government was quick to begin working on Durov’s behalf after his detention. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Russian Embassy in Paris “immediately got down to work” after getting word of Durov’s legal troubles.

The issue of Telegram’s abuse by money launderers, drug traffickers and people spreading pedophilia has continued to unsettle Western governments. Durov’s detention in France was connected to a warrant related to Telegram’s lack of moderation, according to CNN-affiliate BFMTV.

Telegram responded in a statement that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.” The statement added that Telegram abides by EU laws and that Durov had nothing to hide.

CNN