World Briefing: October 17, 2024

Stray dogs are eating the dead in the streets of northern Gaza, an emergency services chief says. “You can see the signs of hunger on the people in northern Gaza,” Fares Afana, the head of emergency services in northern Gaza, told CNN by phone on Monday. “Israeli forces are destroying everything that represents life or signs of life.” Afana told CNN that he and his colleagues have received the bodies of Palestinians killed in northern Gaza, with some showing signs of scavenging by animals, which has stifled efforts to identify the deceased. “Stray dogs who are hungry are eating these bodies in the street… It makes it difficult for us to identify the bodies,” he said. He shared a photo with CNN showing the remains of a young boy whose body he said was fed on by stray dogs - CNN

U.S. long-range B-2 stealth bombers launched airstrikes early Thursday morning targeting underground bunkers used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear what damage was done in the strikes. However, there are no previous reports of the B-2 Spirit being used in the strikes targeting the Houthis, who have been attacking ships for months in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported airstrikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014. They also reported strikes around the Houthi stronghold of Saada. They offered no immediate information on damage or casualties. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the B-2 bombers targeted “five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.” - AP

The UK’s counterterrorism police are investigating the origins of a package that caught fire at a DHL depot in Birmingham in July, amid heightened fears that Russian agents are intent on causing “mayhem” on Britain’s streets. The incendiary device, which caught alight at a DHL depot at Midpoint Way in the Minworth suburb of Birmingham, caused no significant damage or injuries, London’s Metropolitan police said on Wednesday. The fire was dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade at the time, it added. A similar incident happened in Germany in July, when a parcel destined for an aircraft’s hold burst into flames at a DHL logistics centre in Leipzig before the flight. Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, said this week that there had been a dramatic increase in “aggressive behaviour” by Russian agents, and that the explosion would have resulted in a crash if it had gone off during a flight. The Met, which is taking the lead in the UK investigation, did not specify whether Russian involvement was suspected in the Birmingham incident. - FT

Temperatures in some regions of western Ukraine plummeted to below zero Celsius overnight in what’s an early test of the country’s damaged power grid. With some 80 percent of generating capacity destroyed its fear the coming winter could trigger a humanitarian catastrophe and fresh flow of asylum seekers out of the country. In most of the nation, temperatures will remain unseasonably cool for the next days

There are growing signs that Russian troops have arrived in the secretive oil-rich country of Equatorial Guinea, the latest in a series of authoritarian African states that have turned to Moscow for reinforcements to tighten their internal security. Photos of Russian troops have begun trickling out of the Central African country in recent weeks, in social-media posts and in reports from a pro-opposition website that operates beyond the local regime’s reach in Spain. Independent analysts are increasingly concluding that the reports are correct. According to some analysts, more than 100 Russian soldiers are now deployed in Equatorial Guinea to protect the world’s longest-ruling dictator, President Teodoro Obiang, who has dominated the country for the past 45 years after overthrowing his uncle in a military coup. The Russian military deployment is probably aimed at “anti-coup protection” to ensure the transition from Mr. Obiang to his son, according to Jedrzej Czerep, an Africa analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs - Globe and Mail

China is preparing to welcome Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in the near future, a move that could be seen not only as a major policy shift on the part of Beijing toward the regime, but also as giving some much-desired legitimacy to the junta, which is reeling from a nationwide armed resistance movement. Despite its support for the regime, Beijing has so far not invited Min Aung Hlaing to visit. The trip comes at a time when the regime is struggling to quell an armed resistance across the country. Most of the major trade routes with China, as well as the northern Shan State capital Lashio, and areas where Chinese investments related to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative are located, have fallen under the control of ethnic armed groups and their allied resistance forces. More importantly, the trip would augment Beijing’s support for the regime, which it sees as “the most important political force in Myanmar’s political structure”, in the words of its special envoy for Myanmar, Deng Xijun - Irrawaddy.com

Malaysian police detained another 155 suspects in the investigation into alleged child abuse at care homes linked to a Muslim conglomerate. A total of 77 women were among those arrested on Saturday during raids on 82 welfare homes, clinics and businesses, reported local media. This brings the total number of arrests to 355, after the Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain announced earlier on Saturday that 200 had been detained so far in the ongoing probe known as Ops Global. The 200 included 31 members of Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISB). Seventeen of them are key figures of the organisation. Police have said GISB is linked to a banned religious sect. Established in 2010, the conglomerate owns bakeries, minimarts and other businesses in Malaysia and elsewhere, with assets totalling around RM325 million (US$75.6 million) globally - Channel News Asia

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