While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 2
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Israel pulled tanks out of some Gaza City districts on Jan 1 as it announced plans to shift tactics and cut back on troop numbers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Israel troop pullback signals ‘gradual shift’ to lower intensity operations: US official
Israel’s decision to withdraw some troops from Gaza appears to signal the start of a shift to lower-intensity operations in the north of the Palestinian enclave, although there was still fighting going on there, a US official said on Jan 1.
Israel pulled tanks out of some Gaza City districts on Jan 1, residents said, as it announced plans to shift tactics and cut back on troop numbers. Still, fighting raged elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave along with intense bombardment.
“This appears to be the start of the gradual shift to lower-intensity operations in the north that we have been encouraging,” the official said, noting the change reflected the success of the Israeli military in dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities there.
Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russia is suffering major losses
REUTERS
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published by the Economist on Jan 1 that the notion that Russia was winning the nearly two-year-old war was only a “feeling” and that Moscow was still suffering heavy battlefield losses.
Zelensky also said there were no real signs that Russia was interested in peace and that any indication that Russia wanted talks signified that Russia was running out of weapons and soldiers.
“I see only the steps of a terrorist country,” he told the Economist.
Israel’s Supreme Court strikes down disputed law that limited court oversight
via REUTERS
Israel’s Supreme Court on Jan 1 struck down a highly disputed law passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that rolled back some of the high court’s power and sparked months of nationwide protests.
The law was part of a broader judicial overhaul proposed by Netanyahu and his coalition of religious and nationalist partners which caused a deep rift in Israel and concern over the country’s democratic principles among Western allies.
Jan 1’s court decision could test the cohesion of an emergency government formed to manage the war against Hamas, which includes hardline proponents like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and critics of the judicial overhaul such as centrist Benny Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Peter Magubane, South African photographer who documented apartheid, dies at 91
REUTERS/
Peter Magubane, the renowned artist-photographer who shed light on the everyday struggles of Black South Africans for decades under apartheid, died on Jan 1. He was 91.
After joining Drum magazine in 1955, Magubane gained prominence as one of the few Black photographers covering the repressive era.
One of his landmark images, taken a year later in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb, showed a white girl sitting on a bench with a sign reading “Europeans Only” while a Black worker sat behind her combing her hair.
Sixteen-year-old Littler into semi-finals of World Championship
EPA-EFE
Sixteen-year-old Luke Littler became the youngest-ever player to reach the semi-finals of the World Darts Championship with a 5-1 win over Brendan Dolan at Alexandra Palace on Jan 1.
Littler had a nervous start, losing the first two legs of the opening set, but the teenager soon found his stride to win that first set, and had little trouble in seeing off 50-year-old Dolan from Northern Ireland.
“Wow. I’m in the semi-final on my debut,” Littler told Sky Sports.
