Famine is ‘imminent’ in northern Gaza, with many facing ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger: Report

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(NEW YORK) — Famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza, as the entire population of the strip experiences high levels of food insecurity amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to a report released Monday.

The report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative said a famine in the north of the strip may occur between mid-March and the end of May unless an immediate cease-fire occurs so that essential food and supplies can be delivered consistently to Gazans.

“The conditions necessary to prevent famine have not been met and the latest evidence confirms that famine is imminent in the northern governorates,” the report said.

The report projects that northern Gaza will be classified as Phase 5, the highest stage of food insecurity equivalent to famine levels of starvation, in the next month and a half. Additionally, 70% of the remaining population in the north, or about 210,000 Gazans, will experience “catastrophic” levels of hunger, according to the report.

“Continued conflict and the near-complete lack of access to the northern governorates for humanitarian organizations and commercial trucks will likely compound heightened vulnerabilities and extremely limited food availability, access and utilization, as well as access to health care, water and sanitation,” according to the report.

Currently, the IPC classifies governorates in the south of Gaza, including Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, in its Phase 4 category, meaning very high levels of malnutrition and only able to mitigate a lack of food through emergency strategies or a liquidation of assets.

However, the IPC says that in a worst-case scenario, the three governorates face a risk of famine through July 2024.

The report also found that the entire population of the Gaza Strip, about 2.23 million people, is facing high levels of food insecurity and, in the most likely scenario, an estimated 1.11 million people — half of the population — will be experiencing famine levels of hunger by mid-July. This is an increase from the 530,000 people who were predicted to experience this level of food insecurity in a previous IPC analysis, according to the report.

Multiple United Nations organizations have warned since January that more than half the population in Gaza faces “catastrophic hunger” — especially northern Gaza, which the U.N. says has been largely cut off for months now. Some people in the north of the strip said they have been forced to eat bird feed in place of flour to stave off starvation.

The IPC report comes on the heels of a statement from the nonprofit organization CARE released Friday stating babies and toddlers in northern Gaza are dying from starvation.

At least 27 individuals have died from severe acute malnutrition and dehydration in northern Gaza, according to CARE. Of those individuals, 23 were children and the youngest was just a few days old, the organization said.

An analysis from CARE and its partner organization Juzoor looking at data from 1,329 children aged 2 and younger in northern Gaza showed children categorized as having moderate or severe malnutrition nearly doubled in February compared to January, from 16% to 29%.

“No one is suffering more in this war than those who have yet to utter their first word,” Hiba Tibi, country director for CARE in the West Bank and Gaza, said in a press release.

“This war is causing an entire generation of children to lose their childhood and future. Imagine watching your baby perish in front of your eyes, simply because you cannot get her the food she needs? Imagine hearing your children’s cries for bread, but there is nothing you can give them? The situation is simply unbearable, unjustifiable and needs to stop immediately,” Tibi said.

Israel, with the support of Egypt, has restricted the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza since the terrorist group Hamas came to power in 2007.

Those restrictions tightened following Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented incursion from Gaza into southern Israel by air, land and sea. More than 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 253 others were taken hostage by Hamas, according to Israeli authorities.

The Israeli government, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has said it’s determined to destroy Hamas and plans to invade Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where it says Hamas leaders are hiding and where Israeli officials believe some of the hostages are being kept in tunnels.

More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 72,000 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, amid Israel’s ongoing ground operations and aerial bombardment of the strip, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has previously said Israel doesn’t provide enough authorization to deliver sufficient aid and, even when it does give authorization, the fighting makes it difficult to deliver that aid.

Israeli officials have said Hamas steals aid once it enters Gaza and claim looting is also a problem. Israel continues to deny all accusations that it isn’t letting enough aid into Gaza, and encourages other countries to send in aid, with Israeli officials saying the U.N., its partners and other aid agencies have created logistical challenges, resulting in a bottleneck. The U.N. disputes these claims.

The head of the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs said last week there is “no limit on the amount of aid that can enter into Gaza.”

According to local media outlets, aid trucks reached areas of northern Gaza, including Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, over the weekend — the first time in four months.

However, several U.N. agencies, including UNRWA and UNICEF, have called for a cease-fire so more aid can be delivered.

“Children’s malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in #Gaza. Famine is looming. There is no time to waste,” the UNRWA wrote in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

ABC News’ Nasser Atta contributed to this report.

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Putin extends rule in state-managed election victory

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(LONDON) — President Vladimir Putin was handed a fifth term in Russia’s heavily stage-managed presidential election on Sunday in a vote where no real competition was permitted and with virtually all leading opposition figures jailed, in exile or dead.

The election, held over three days, gave Putin over 87% of the vote, extending his already 24-year rule until at least 2030 – a stratospheric result that recalled the illusionary elections of the Soviet Union or those of other dictatorships, such as North Korea or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

It was the highest result ever for Putin and underlined the extent that dissent is no longer acceptable to the Kremlin, amid Russia’s rapid turn deeper into dictatorship since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Election officials also claimed the turnout was 77%, the highest in modern Russian history.

Putin on Monday evening led a victory rally in Red Square timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. A crowd of several thousand cheered Putin as he walked on stage, waving Russian flags and chanting “Russia.” Putin congratulated them on the annexation and expressed satisfaction that Donbas and other areas of southeastern Ukraine were also now under Russian control.

“Hail Russia!” Putin shouted to the crowd.

Many who were present at similar previous rallies have described being bussed in and pressured by their state employers to attend. Parts of central Moscow were choked with lines of buses on Monday ahead of the rally, according to ABC reporters there.

Western countries denounced the election as neither free nor fair, with the European Union saying it had violated the basic rights of Russians.

“The result was clearly set beforehand,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s deputy spokeswoman, Christiane Hoffmann, reportedly told journalists in Berlin. “Russia is a dictatorship and is ruled by Putin in an authoritarian way.”

Similarly, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said “the elections are obviously not free nor fair, given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”

However, the leaders of several key non-Western countries and Russian allies, including India and China, quickly congratulated Putin.

The three candidates permitted to run against Putin, each of whom received less than 5% of the vote, were vetted by the Kremlin. Anti-war candidates were blocked from the ballot and the election was held amid a worsening crackdown that has seen even minor public expressions of dissent punished with fines and prison sentences.

Despite the Kremlin’s orchestrated efforts to present the appearance of near-total support for Putin, thousands of Russians appeared to heed a call from the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny to demonstrate around the elections. Navalny before his death in prison last month urged people to gather at the same time outside polling stations at midday on Sunday.

The protest action, called “High Noon Against Putin,” was intended to show that significant numbers of Russians still oppose Putin, regardless of the official result. People were told to vote for any candidate other than Putin, or to spoil their ballots.

Thousands of people did come out at noon, forming long lines in cities across Russia, as well as at embassies in foreign capitals where overseas voting was held.

Some of the longest lines formed in capitals where large numbers of Russians have emigrated since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In London, a line stretched roughly a mile from the Russian embassy, with some people holding placards condemning Putin and the war, and blasting protest songs at the embassy building.

In Berlin, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, joined the line outside the embassy, waiting approximately six hours to vote, meeting with and embracing supporters there. Afterward, she told reporters she had written her husband’s name on her ballot.

In Russia, authorities had warned people they could face arrest for taking part in the demonstrations. Russia’s government on Monday dismissed them, claiming implausibly that the unusually long lines were due to people waiting to vote for Putin. Appearing at a press conference on Sunday night after declaring victory, Putin himself appeared to troll the protestors, praising the opposition for telling people to vote.

“Well done,” Putin said. “But as far as I understand it didn’t have any effect.”

Golos, an independent Russian NGO that for years has sought to monitor elections and that has been banned for its efforts, denounced the election as an “imitation,” saying every basic element of a free vote had been violated.

“We have never seen a presidential campaign that so much didn’t correspondent to constitutional standards,” the group said in a statement. “In essence the basic articles of Russia’s constitution guaranteeing political rights and freedoms were not operating.”

Authorities made it impossible to monitor voting, Golos wrote, and also had full control over ballot counting. Even to run again, Putin had changed Russia’s constitution in 2020 to circumvent a two-term limit, it noted.

Golos’ chairman, Grigory Melkonyants, remains in jail in Russia after being arrested last August for allegedly associating with what the government calls an “undesirable” organization.

The head of Russia’s elections commission, Ella Pamfilova, claimed Sunday there had been virtually no irregularities in Sunday’s polling and that none of the total results from 90,000 polling stations had been disqualified, which she called “unprecedented.”

Voting was also held in occupied areas of Ukraine, in violation of international law, with videos showing voting taking place in the presence of armed Russian troops.

Putin has hailed the election as demonstrating a clear mandate for his war in Ukraine. In his victory speech on Sunday, he said that he did not exclude that Russia would need to create a “sanitary cordon” on Ukrainian territory, perhaps even including the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, that borders Russia.

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Monolith mystery reemerges in Wales, prompting speculation of space aliens

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(NEW YORK) — A newly discovered 10-foot-tall silver monolith on a muddy bluff in Wales has reignited wild speculation on its origin after similar obelisks appeared in Utah, California, England and Romania.

The shiny spear impaled in the ground near Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, was discovered this month by construction worker Craig Muir while he was out for his regular hike.

Muir posted a video of the bizarre find on TikTok, saying, “I come up here most days, and I’ve never seen this before. Almost looks like a UFO just put it on the ground.”

He said that when he first discovered the object atop the roadless 2,221-foot Hay Bluff, he found no tire tracks or footprints around it that could explain a human connection.

Since word of the anomalous monolith spread through Wales and England, tourists and news crews have flocked to the bluff to get a look. Muir noted in a March 15 social media video that someone appeared to have hammer dents into what he said had initially been a polished silver facade.

Like others that have been discovered, the monolith harkens to those in the plot of moviemaker Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction classic ,”2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Muir described the statue as appearing to be made of steel, roughly 10-foot-tall by a foot-and-a-half wide, and hollow inside. He also noted it appears quite hefty, adding to the riddle of how it got there.

While some observers of the monolith chalked it up as an elaborate prank, others found the extraterrestrial angle plausible.

After posting his videos on the Hay-on-Wye Community Notice Board Facebook page, one person quipped, “I quite like the monolith, hope the aliens don’t come and get it too soon.”

No one has claimed responsibility for placing the monolith on the bluff.

The discovery was one of several that have occurred since 2016 around the world.

In November 2020, one was found in Utah’s remote Red Rock desert, attracting spectators before a group of unidentified men removed it to parts unknown, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which denied any involvement in taking down the beam.

“We recognize the incredible interest the ‘monolith’ has generated worldwide. Many people have been enjoying the mystery and view it as a welcome distraction from the 2020 news cycle,” the Bureau of Land Management said in a Nov. 29, 2020, statement. “Even so, it was installed without authorization on public lands and the site is in a remote area without services for the large number of people who now want to see it.”

An artist collective calling itself “The Most Famous Artist” claimed responsibility for planting the Utah monolith and a replica beam that appeared around the same time near Atascadero, California.

The group, however, did not claim it was behind a monolith that appeared in northeastern Romania, whose origins remain unsolved.

A British designer claimed responsibility for a monolith that appeared on a beach in the Isle of Wight on the south coast of England in December 2020. Tom Dunford told the BBC he designed the piece “purely for fun.”

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State Department helps more than 30 US citizens leave Haiti on charter flight

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More than 30 U.S. citizens were returned to the United States from Haiti on a flight chartered by the U.S. State Department Sunday, a department spokesperson said.

One day after the State Department posted its plans for the flight on X, asking interested U.S. passport holders to register on an intake form, the flight departed from the northern port city of Cap-Haitien, and landed in Miami, Florida, according to the spokesperson.

As of Sunday night, it was unclear how many U.S. citizens stranded in Haiti have requested a charter flight, and how many Americans total remain on the ground.

The spokesperson pointed to the “fluid and quickly evolving situation” in the country, saying, “U.S. citizens are not required to register their travel to a foreign country with us, so we cannot track with fidelity how many U.S. citizens are in any particular country.”

The State Department is currently considering additional options to help get stranded Americans out of the country, including keeping a close watch on the availability of commercial flights.

U.S. citizens who want to leave Haiti have been asked to contact the Department of State via its website.

The U.S. State Department has been encouraging American citizens to leave Haiti following the recent spate of gang violence.

Haiti has been in open rebellion since earlier this month, with Haiti’s most powerful gangs unifying and launching a series of attacks against government institutions. Haiti’s acting Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, was out of the country when the attacks began. He has since resigned.

A state of emergency was declared by the government.

The U.S. State Department is encouraging American citizens to leave Haiti following the gang violence.

ABC News’ Matt Rivers contributed to this report

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Putin clinches Russian presidency, says there was proposed agreement to free Navalny before death

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Vladimir Putin has thanked the Russian citizens after early election results showed him winning his country’s presidency in a landslide.

In his victory speech, delivered after results showed him winning with 87% of the vote, Putin called his win an example of the trust of Russian citizens.

Among the tasks he said his administration would tackle in the coming term are strengthening the Russian Federation’s defense capabilities and issues of special operations. He went on in his speech to call the election results a manifestation of trust on the part of citizens.

He also said Russians in border areas — a reference to Ukraine — are showing courage and no one has intimidated them and will not be able to do so. Law enforcement officers, he said, will identify and take measures against those who are fighting against Russia.

Putin went on to thank all Russian citizens for their support and trust.

While taking reporters’ questions following his victory speech, Putin claimed a deal to release imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, prior to his death, had been proposed.

“A few days before Navalny passed away, I was told that there was an idea to exchange him for people in prison in Western countries,” Putin said.

The Russian President said he agreed, with one condition — “so that he does not return,” he said.

Reflecting on the incident, Putin said, “Unfortunately, what happened had happened.”

Voting in the Russian presidential election ended Sunday. Putin faced no real challengers in the election.

Voter turnout for the election across Russia was 74.22%, according to the commission. Huge lines of voters appeared at embassies throughout Russia and abroad in the hours before the polling stations closed.

The final day of voting came amid protests by thousands of Russians who took part in “Noon against Putin” demonstrations in Russia and abroad. Many protesters held signs demanding the war in Ukraine be stopped.

More than 75 people in 17 Russian cities were detained on the last day of voting in the presidential election, officials said.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in a Russian prison last month, supported the protests and cast her vote at the Russian embassy in Berlin.

“Putin is not a politician, he’s a gangster. Alexei Navalny became famous in Russia and hated by Putin precisely because, from the beginning of his fight, he openly described Putin and his allies as gangsters who had seized and used power only for their own enrichment and to fulfill their personal ambitions,” Navalnaya wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the Washington Post.

She claimed her husband was “murdered in prison on Vladimir Putin’s direct order.”

An independent election monitor, Golos, received 1,580 reports of possible violations at the polling stations.

By the end of the third day of voting, the number of Russians detained for arson at polling stations and spoiling ballots with paint had reached at least 35 people. The most notorious case occurred in Perm, where a 64-year-old woman detonated a powerful firecracker, investigators said. According to preliminary data, her arm was torn off.

Putin won the elections in 2018 with 76.69% of the votes from those who took part in the election. Voter turnout of the 2018 presidential elections was about 68%.

Before the voting ended Sunday, Anatoly Antonov, the Russian Ambassador to the United States, told the state news agency TASS that Moscow does not attach importance to Washington’s opinion on the results of the current presidential elections in Russia.

Antonov stressed that Russia has already rejected the position of the United States, which has stated that it does not intend to recognize the results of the vote in new Russian regions.

“We don’t give a damn about you a hundred times,” Antonov said.

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Volcano erupts in Iceland for 4th time since December

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A volcano on Iceland’s southwestern coast erupted on Saturday for the fourth time since December, prompting an evacuation, officials said.

The eruption began between Mt. Hagafell and Mt. Stóra Skógfell at 20:23 UTC, with a “2.9-km-long fissure forming quickly,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.

“The lead-up to the eruption was short,” Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said in a statement, noting that a state of emergency has been declared due to the eruption.

The first warning to Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management was at 19:43 UTC, with the onset of the eruption confirmed via web cameras 40 minutes later, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

“The eruption is effusive in nature, so the eruption plume consists mainly of steam and gas,” the office said.

Based on initial assessments from aerial photographs and web camera imagery, the eruption is believed to be the largest in terms of magma discharge compared to the previous three eruptions from the Sundhnúkur crater row, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.

Lava was flowing westwards in the direction of protection barriers for the Svartsengi region and southeast toward the protection barriers for Grindavík, the office said.

Grindavik, a fishing town home to 4,000 residents, was being evacuated, according to Gisli Olafsson, an MP.

The nearby geothermal spa Blue Lagoon was also evacuated, Olafsson said on social media. The spa said it will be closed through at least Sunday due to the eruption.

The location of the latest fissure is similar to the previous eruption that occurred on Feb. 8, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.

Another eruption nearby on Jan. 14 sent lava flowing into Grindavik, destroying several homes.

An eruption on Dec. 18 was accompanied by hundreds of earthquakes across the magma flow.

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Israeli forces deny opening fire at Gaza aid drop-off site

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(GAZA) — The Israel Defense Forces denied accusations that its troops opened fire on a group of Gazan civilians who were waiting for aid Thursday.

At least 20 people were killed and 155 were injured in a shooting at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City, which is used by aid groups to distribute goods, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

The IDF said its preliminary investigation shows that an hour before a convoy of 31 humanitarian aid trucks arrived at the roundabout, “armed Palestinians” opened fire on the civilians.

“As aid trucks were entering, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks. Additionally, a number of Gazan civilians were run over by the trucks,” the IDF said in a statement.

The IDF said its current review of the incident shows no evidence of its members opening fire on the civilians. Additionally, the IDF said their investigation shows there was “no tank fire [or] air-strike,” on the site.

The investigation is ongoing, the IDF says.

The IDF claimed Hamas has been blaming Israel for the violence that has taken place at aid drop off spots in Gaza over the last couple of weeks, including when more than 100 were killed last month waiting for aid in Gaza City.

More aid to Gaza has been arriving in the territory from various nations and groups in recent days.

Roughly 200 tons of food and water provided by the World Central Kitchen (WCK) arrived in Gaza Friday from a rescue vessel, according to the NGO.

“The shipment contains enough food for almost half a million meals,” WCK said in a statement.

Another boat with 300 tons of food is being prepared for delivery, according to the NGO.

Hamas fighters carried out a terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 72,000 others have been injured in fighting in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
 

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As Russia holds elections, Putin opposition fights to survive and adjust to life after Navalny

In this pool photograph distributed by Russia’s state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to TV host and Director General of Rossiya Segodnya (RIA Novosti) news agency Dmitry Kiselyov (not pictured) at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 12, 2024. — (Photo by GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

(MOSCOW) — For days after the funeral of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, thousands of people continued to line up outside the cemetery in southern Moscow waiting to lay flowers at his grave.

They came to honor the Kremlin’s most formidable critic, defying the intimidating presence of police and fears of arrest. Navalny’s grave eventually disappeared under a 6-foot mound of thousands of carnations and roses.

The funeral became the largest public expression of dissent in Russia in the two years since President Vladimir Putin launched a suffocating crackdown following his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In Moscow, large crowds chanted slogans against Putin and the war, unheard since the first days of the invasion.

The lines of mourners in the days after — that sometimes stretched for more than a mile — were also quiet expressions of defiance in a country where support for Navalny has been outlawed as “extremist.”

But while the funeral showed dissent still exists in Russia, it also underlined how much control the Kremlin now has. Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison colony last month has blown an enormous hole in Russia’s democracy movement and opposition to Putin appears to have never been more dangerous.

This weekend, Russia will hold elections that will hand Putin a fifth term as president, extending his already 24-year rule by another six years.

Putin faces no real challengers, with anti-war candidates blocked from the ballot and virtually all leading opposition figures either in jail, exile or dead. Most independent media are shut down or driven abroad and criticism of the authorities is now effectively criminalized.

Confronted with that bleak landscape, Russia’s democratic opposition and Navalny’s team are trying to find a way forward, saying they are determined to continue their struggle but acknowledging it has never been so difficult.

“We have no choice but to continue,” Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s longtime chief of staff, told ABC News in an interview this month.

Navalny “was, like, a never-give-up person. And, if we would stop now, it would be like a betrayal of his legacy. But he is not replaceable,” Volkov said.

Volkov, like most of Navalny’s team, lives in exile, in his case in Lithuania, and would face arrest if he returned to Russia. He, like the rest of Navalny’s former colleagues, is now supporting Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to step in to lead the movement her husband built.

Navalny’s team is accusing the Kremlin of murdering him in prison, and Volkov said he and the movement’s other leaders understood the risks to themselves now were also very high.

“We are well aware of these personal risks, but it’s our choice to keep going,” he said.

A week after ABC News spoke to Volkov, he was attacked outside his home in Vilnius by an assailant with a hammer. In a video posted afterward, Volkov said the attacker struck him 15 times, injuring his leg and breaking his arm.

Volkov blamed the assault on Putin. “This is obviously a typical, characteristically gangster-ish hello from Putin,” Volkov said in the video posted after the attack.

Lithuania’s authorities also blamed Putin’s regime, with its counter-intelligence service saying the attack on Volkov was likely an attempt to damage the opposition ahead of the presidential election.

Volkov, though, has said he is undeterred.

Navalny’s team has called for a guerrilla protest on election day, telling people to gather quietly at midday on Sunday outside polling stations and encouraging them to vote for any candidate except Putin or to spoil their ballots. They have told people not to chant slogans or openly protest, saying such actions are too dangerous.

Yulia Navalnaya on Thursday also called for Western countries not to recognize the results of the election as legitimate.

Buttressed by his near-total control of the media, Putin does still have substantial support in Russia, and many accept his framing of the war, although apathy toward politics is also widespread. Polling in February by the Levada Center, one of Russia’s only independent pollsters, showed an approval rating for Putin of over 80%, although fear of retaliation makes polling in Russia unreliable.

In the run-up to the election, there were still glimpses of anti-war sentiment that exists below the surface.

Boris Nadezhdin was a little-known, veteran liberal politician until December when he announced he would run against Putin on a moderate platform calling for an end to the war. Nadezhdin quickly became an unlikely lightning rod for dissent. Long lines of people began appearing outside his campaign headquarters to give their signatures to back his candidacy.

Nadezhdin said he had gathered around 200,000 signatures. But, in the end, he was kept off the ballot by authorities, who declared his signatures invalid, a tactic frequently used to block Kremlin critics from running, according to experts.

Nadezhdin, in an interview with ABC News in February, said he was blocked from running because the Kremlin had seen his candidacy was rising in the polls.

“It’s the only reason. If my rating was 1% or 2%, no problem to register me,” he told ABC News.

“I am sure that the majority of people in Russia want the Special Military Operation be stopped as soon as possible,” he said, using the Kremlin’s term for the war.

Asked why he was able to criticize the war and campaign when others face arrest and persecution, Nadezhdin said it was primarily because, unlike Navalny, he never criticized Putin personally. He said it is also because he has personally known some Kremlin senior officials for more than two decades.

In the 1990s, Nadezhdin worked with Sergey Kiriyenko, who now oversees domestic politics for the Kremlin. Nadezhdin served as an aide to Kiriyenko when he was briefly prime minister before Kiriyenko turned away from liberal politics.

“I am familiar with the leaders of Kremlin administration, and I am the same generation, they know me personally. It works in Russia,” said Nadezhdin. He insists, however, he never sought the Kremlin’s blessing before running.

Despite his hopes that his relationship with the Kremlin might shield his campaign, this week Nadezhdin’s local campaign manager was beaten up by unknown attackers in Vladivostok.

Nadezhdin has not called on his supporters to take part in the election day demonstrations called by Navalny, only calling for people to vote against Putin.

Volkov said the election day actions won’t stop the Kremlin producing a rigged result, but will undercut its claims there is near universal support for Putin.

“We don’t expect that those votes be counted. They will not,” he said. “But people will come together. They’ll see each other. And they’ll have this feeling that they actually exist. They’re actually not the marginal minority as the propaganda pretends they are.”

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Senior Israeli official says US slow-walking aid, which US disputes

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(WASHINGTON) — A senior Israeli official says the United States has begun slow-walking some military aid to Israel — an assertion senior U.S. officials denied was the case, in what’s perhaps more evidence that the relationship between the two allies is growing increasingly strained.

The conflicting account came as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. — said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost his way” and should hold an election for a potential replacement.

“I believe that to achieve that lasting peace — which we so long for — Israel must make some significant course corrections,” Schumer said Thursday.

According to a senior Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the U.S. military aid shipments at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war “were coming very fast,” but “we are now finding that it’s very slow,” which has put pressure on Israel as it attempts to destroy the terrorist Hamas organization in Gaza.
Schumer calls for new elections in Israel, warns Netanyahu has ‘lost his way’

The official said he was not sure what the cause was, but that Israel was fully aware of the United States’ frustration with the war, and that Israel needed to do more to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

When asked about the allegation, several U.S. officials said there was no change in U.S. policy or any deliberate delay in delivering previously promised aid or weapons sales to Israel.

Under a 10-year agreement negotiated by then-President Barack Obama, the U.S. provides about $3.8 billion in military and missile defense systems every year.

U.S. officials say there have been discussions on what kind of leverage the U.S. might have with Israel to pressure Netanyahu to do more to protect civilians, particularly as it considers expanding its military operations by invading Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. But the U.S. officials also noted that no decisions have been made on whether to use any leverage and said it’s possible additional aid — not less — would be offered as an incentive.

When asked about a potential slow walk in weapons aid or sales, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the U.S. is continuing to provide Israel with what it needs.

“I’m not gonna get into the timeline for every individual system that’s being provided,” he told ABC News. “We continue to support Israel with their self-defense needs. That’s not going to change, and we have been very, very direct about that.”

Also on Thursday, the U.S. government announced sanctions against three Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank and two settlements for violence they allegedly committed against Palestinians, including the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and land.

According to the senior Israeli official, in increasingly short supply are 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells. The U.S. had been supplying similar munitions to Ukraine, which also reports specifically running low on 155 mm artillery shells.

The senior Israeli official said some sensitive guidance equipment was also needed, but declined to elaborate. The person said any delays are particularly worrisome because European states are also now reluctant to sell arms to Israel.

The official added that Israel “might lose this war” because in order to win, Israel needs ammunition and legitimacy, and both are starting to run out, he said.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment to ABC News.

Regarding Schumer’s comment, Netanyahu’s Likud party said in a statement that “Israel is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy” that elected the prime minister.

“Contrary to Schumer’s words, the Israeli public supports a complete victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictate to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” the statement read. The senator “is expected to respect Israel’s elected government and not undermine it,” the party said. “This is always true, and even more so in wartime.”

The dispute over whether the U.S. is pulling support for Israel comes about five months into Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, where it is attempting to destroy the Hamas network and free Israeli and international hostages.

Palestinian Islamist militants carried out an unprecedented incursion from Gaza into southern Israel by air, land and sea on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 72,000 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Rising international pressure on Israel over some of its tactics in accomplishing its military goals means a hostage or cease-fire deal is less likely in the near future, the senior Israeli official told ABC News. But the official said a positive international perception in general has become more important than ammunition because, he said, Israel can defeat its enemies on the battlefield but would lose the war if it becomes a pariah state.

The United Nations and other organizations have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine due to the limited amount of food and humanitarian aid entering the coastal enclave, particularly in the north, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and largely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the U.N.

Hunger in Gaza is at a “catastrophic level” and more than 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people faces acute food insecurity, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Tuesday.

The U.S. Central Command announced over the weekend that it had begun dropping water and meals into northern Gaza, while also deploying the first of some 1,000 U.S. troops to the coast to build a pier that will be able to facilitate more aid.

Col. Elad Goren, head of Israel’s Civil Department of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), told ABC News on Thursday that Israeli officials are listening to U.S. criticism that more aid is needed.

“Yes, of course,” Goren said.

The maritime corridors, airdrops and truck convoys supplying aid are also running into the headwinds of Israeli politics. A significant proportion of the country supports blocking aid to Gaza, the senior Israeli official said.

That position puts those factions in Israel at direct odds with top Biden aides and Schumer, who argue increased humanitarian aid is not in conflict with Israeli security.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog on Thursday called Schumer’s comments calling for a new election in Israel “counterproductive.”

“Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is unhelpful, all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals,” Herzog said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks, Nadine El-Bawab and Mary Kekatos contributed to this story.

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Tropical Storm Filipo makes landfall in Mozambique

NASA

(LONDON) — At least two people have been killed and thousands have been displaced as Tropical Storm Filipo made landfall in Mozambique, the country’s National Institute for Disaster Management said.

The tropical storm made landfall in Mozambique on the March 12 after strengthening off the coast of southeast Africa, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to Mozambique’s Inhambane and Gaza provinces.

At least 2,780 people have been affected by Filipo, which has damaged roads and at least 510 homes, disaster management officials said. At least least 43 families have been displaced, they said.

MIDA estimates over 500,000 people are to be affected by the storm, which arrived a year after Cyclone Freddy, the the devastating storm that killed at least 522 people across Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar.

“The Mozambique Red Cross is on the ground, working alongside local authorities to assess the situation,” said the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), “All our thoughts and solidarity are with the people impacted by this disaster.”

South Africa’s weather service (SAWS) said the tropical storm is expected to mostly affect southern Mozambique, but its effect “will also be felt over the extreme north-eastern parts of South Africa.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said over 1,000 people from about 200 families have taken shelter across four active accommodation centers in the southern Mozambique city of Inhambane as of March 13.

“Consecutive disasters have made it almost impossible for affected communities to recover and rebuild their lives,” says Oxfam Southern Africa Programme Director Machinda Marongwe. “Whatever little crops people have tried planting in this growing season have been damaged either due to El Nino-induced six weeks of dry spells or by flash floods.”

The World Bank in 2023 mobilized $150 million to Mozambique to help the southern African nation recover from Cyclone Freddy, the tropical cyclone – one of the strongest ever recorded in the southern hemisphere – battering Mozambique twice in late February and early March of 2023.

Agencies say they are continuing to monitor the storm as it passes through Mozambique.

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