February 28, 2024

The Balochistan Assembly will convene its maiden session on Wednesday (today) with the newly-elected members of the provincial legislature set to take oath when the House meets at 3pm. The authorities have barred the entry of guests in light of the expected protests and the prevailing law and order situation in the province. Moreover, as per the assembly’s secretariat, Zamrak Khan Achakzai has been appointed as the presiding officer for the session. The 51 members, elected on general seats, who will be taking their oath today include members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers. The members of these two major parties, who are expected to form a coalition government in the centre, emerged victorious in the 65-member House which includes 11 reserved seats for women and three for minorities. The Bilawal-led party has 11 seats in the assembly and PML-N has 10 seats. Meanwhile, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) have 10 and five seats, respectively. Furthermore, as many as six independent candidates have also made it to the Balochistan Assembly along with the National Party (NP) and Balochistan National Party (BNP) who have secured three and one seats, respectively. Following their oaths, the legislators, in the session that will continue in the coming days, will vote for the election of the House’s speaker and deputy speaker followed by the election of the chief minister. With a divided provincial assembly where no political party managed to secure a simple majority in the February 8 polls, the PPP and the PML-N might join hands to form their government as they already have agreed to form a coalition government in the Centre. Balochistan Assembly’s inaugural session comes as newly-elected members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly will also be taking their oath today. Sindh and Punjab Assemblies have already administered the oath of their members who have elected their speakers, deputy speakers and chief ministers. Source:https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1162402-newly-elected-members-of-balochistan-assembly-to-take-oath-today

Ukraine says it destroyed 10 Russia drones launched overnight. Ukraine’s president is co-hosting a summit in Albania with the stated goals of “peace, security, cooperation”. G20 finance ministers are meeting in Brazil on Wednesday with the Russia-Ukraine war expected to take centre stage. Yulia Navalnaya, wife of activist Alexey Navalny who died earlier this month, will address the European Parliament on Wednesday. Fishy business: After Russia invaded Ukraine, its seafood industry thrived Regin Winther Poulsen Agostino Petroni Dominika Perlínová After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the West’s reaction was swift and decisive, with unanimous decisions by the EU and the US to support Ukraine and punish Russia with economic sanctions. Two years on, the war continues while Russia’s economy remains resilient. While parts of the Russian industry were sanctioned immediately, some important industries were not. The Russian fishing industry was only partially blocked by Washington and marginally by the European bloc, which continues to import about $1bn worth of seafood from its aggressive neighbour. Read the full article here. Russian salmon are displayed at a fish store amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Nemuro on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, April 11, 2022 [Daniel Leussink/Reuters] Click here to share on China lauds relations with Russia, calls for strengthened Asia Pacific role China has heralded historically strong relations with Russia as it called for the pair to coordinate on security, stability and development in the Asia Pacific region. China and Russia should play a “better role as an anchor of stability in the changing circumstances of the century”, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said in a statement issued on Wednesday following a visit to Moscow by Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong. Although wary of damaging ties with the West, Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and relations between the two BRICS members have remained warm amid the war. Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, gestures while speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on March 20, 2023 [Sergei Karpukhin/Sputnik via AP] Click here to share on Russia jails Ukrainian man for attempting to buy secret missile parts Russian news agencies are reporting that a court in southern Russia has jailed a Ukrainian man for more than 11 years after convicting him of espionage for trying to procure secret missile components for Ukraine. The agencies cited Russia’s internal security and intelligence agency FSB as saying that the man, who it named as 57-year-old Sergei Krivitsky, was an agent for Ukrainian military intelligence. They did not say whether he pleaded guilty or not. The FSB said Krivitsky was a resident of Melitopol, a Ukrainian city taken by Russian forces in early 2022. In 2023, Russia opened 31 espionage cases and 98 treason cases, the highest number since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Cars drive past the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in central Moscow, Russia [Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters] Click here to share on social ‘EU should consider using profits from frozen Russian assets to buy supplies for Ukraine’ We can now bring you more from the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She tells the European Parliament that it was “time to start a conversation about using the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine”. “There could be no stronger and no greater use for that money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live.” Ursula von der Leyen gestures as she arrives at the European Parliament [Jean-Francois Badias/AP Photo] Click here to share on Europe will support Ukraine for as long as it takes: Von der Leyen European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is speaking at the European Parliament. “Over the last two years, Europe has shown and proven that it will support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” she says. “The threat of war may not be imminent, but it is not impossible”. In preparing for such an eventuality, it means “turbocharging our defence industrial capacity in the next five years”, she says. Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/28/russia-ukraine-war-live-navalny-widow-address-eu-parliament

A senior member of Hamas’s political wing has told Al Jazeera the group has still not received an official proposal for a truce deal, downplaying optimism by the US president that an announcement was imminent. UN humanitarian agency says humanitarian organisations “systemically denied access” to Gaza and that humanitarian aid convoys are coming under fire. A senior UN humanitarian aid official has said that one-quarter of Gaza’s population – estimated to be at least 576,000 people – is a step away from famine. Gaza’s Health Ministry says children are dying due to dehydration and “escalating famine” could “kill thousands” in days if more aid does not enter the Gaza Strip. At least 29,878 people have been killed and 70,215 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139. Hamas fires missiles at Israel from southern Lebanon The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, says it launched multiple missiles at northern Israel from southern Lebanon. The strikes targeted the headquarters of Israel’s 769th Eastern Brigade and its airport barracks in Beit Hilal, the Qassam Brigades said on its Telegram account. Clashes around the Israel-Lebanon border have been frequent amid the Gaza war, but Israeli forces have recently struck deeper into Lebanese territory, targeting what they claim are positions of Hezbollah, which is a staunch ally of Hamas. Click New technocratic government needed to ‘unify Palestinians’ Husam Zomlot, Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, said Qatar and Egypt could help form a technocratic Palestinian government to take over governance of the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Zomlot said all Palestinian political factions, including Hamas, would be consulted in the new government’s formation, but that it would be strictly technocratic. “It is designed to unify the Palestinians, their geography and polity,” Zomlot said. “The political landscape has changed. This is the time to hear our people and not the time for political factions. We have a responsibility to provide a government that can provide for its people, unite our people and political system.” On Monday, Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh and his government resigned amid reform pressures, in a move that was seen as paving the way for a potential national unity government. Click here to share on social media Three more Palestinians killed in Gaza City In addition to the Palestinians killed while waiting for food, Wafa news agency is reporting that Israeli shelling has killed another three people and wounded six others in the Sheikh Ijlin neighbourhood in southern Gaza City. Israeli strikes have also targeted other neighbourhoods in Gaza City, resulting in numerous other casualties. The targeted neighbourhoods include Tal al-Hawa, Zeitoun, and Sabra, according to Wafa. Click Three Palestinians killed while waiting for food aid near Gaza City Three Palestinians, who were waiting for aid near Gaza City, were killed after being hit by Israeli artillery fire on the coastal al-Rashid Street, reports the Wafa news agency, quoting local medical sources. Palestinians in the north have been gathering on that coastal road as they desperately wait for food, amid reports residents there face starvation. Click here to share on social media North Gaza hospital shuts down surgery department Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital, one of the few partially functioning health facilities left in the north, has had to cancel all surgical operations after two of its operating rooms were “targeted and destroyed”, according to its acting director Mohamed Salha. “This means that all medical services related to obstetrics and gynaecology have stopped completely,” Salha told Al Jazeera. The closure also means the hospital must cancel all orthopaedic and plastic surgeries, which can help save the limbs of wounded Palestinians, Salha said. “We were the only hospital in northern Gaza for orthopaedic surgeries … There is no other alternative place in northern Gaza or Gaza City because the health ministry’s hospitals are out of service completely,” he said. Click here to share on social media Latest from Gaza Our correspondent in Gaza, Hani Mahmoud, has sent us these updates: Intense artillery shelling on Zeitoun neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City A drone fired a missile on a group of people in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. Eighteen bodies were retrieved from the vicinity of Nasser Hospital after Israeli tanks withdrew from the area. Snipers are still taking up positions on the rooftops of surrounding buildings Bodies collected from eastern Khan Younis are sent to the European Gaza Hospital in Rafah due to difficulties in getting them to Nasser Hospital Click What’s happening with the Gaza ceasefire plan that Biden mentioned? Earlier this week, President Biden said he hoped a ceasefire deal would come into effect between Israel and Hamas by Monday. However, both sides have come out with statements which have cast a shadow over a possible stop in Israeli attacks. According to a senior Egyptian official quoted by the Associated Press, a truce could last six weeks and would allow the return of displaced Palestinians to some parts of northern Gaza and a significant increase in aid delivery. A Hamas source also told Al Jazeera earlier that the deal could involve the exchange of 400 Palestinian prisoners for 40 captives held in Gaza. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, said Doha was “hopeful” but  “not necessarily optimistic” a deal could be announced in the coming days, adding that “the situation is still fluid on the ground”. A Hamas official told Al Jazeera on Tuesday evening that the group has not yet received a formal proposal for a ceasefire. Israeli PM Netanyahu also said on Tuesday that he will not be pressured to “prematurely” end Israel’s offensive. Click here to share on social media Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/28/israels-war-on-gaza-live-thousands-could-die-in-days-as-israel-blocks-aid