Israeli forces continue to carry out attacks despite the ceasefire in Gaza, where hundreds of people have been killed since a deal was agreed. Here’s what the numbers tell us.
How many times has Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire?
Epstein emails with author Wolff raise journalism ethics questions: Experts
A newly released batch of correspondence involving disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has prompted new speculation about ties between the deceased financier and United States President Donald Trump, but experts say its significance stretches beyond the White House.
The never-before-seen emails have added to pressure on the Trump administration to release files about Epstein in the US government’s possession, with a vote in Congress now expected as early as next week. Trump has rejected suggestions that he has anything to hide, and insists that while he knew Epstein, they broke ties in the early 2000s.
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But the newly released emails also raise ethical questions about the role played by acclaimed author Michael Wolff as he appeared to provide advice to Epstein on how to handle his dealings with Trump.
In the exchanges published by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Wolff – best known for his bestselling books on the first Trump presidency – appeared to share confidential information before a presidential debate on CNN in December 2015 with Epstein, advising him on how to exploit his connection with Trump.
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you – either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote.
“If we were to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Epstein replied.
“I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency,” Wolff told Epstein.
“You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime,” Wolff added, in his response to Epstein.
Al Jazeera reached out to Wolff for comment, but has not received a response.
In a conversation on a podcast with the news outlet The Daily Beast, Wolff said he was seeking to build a relationship with Epstein at the time to better understand Trump, but acknowledged that in “hindsight”, his comments could be seen as “embarrassing”.
Wolff, 72, is best known for his four books exposing the inner workings of the first Trump presidency, including Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, said any judgement on whether behaviour like Wolff’s with Epstein was appropriate would depend on how the writer’s role is understood.
“Some people are reporters, some are commentators, and some are book authors, and there are some differences in the way that those different people operate,” Kirtley told Al Jazeera.
“If you want to be a public relations person, or if you want to be an agent, those are perfectly valid career choices. But I think that they are unfortunately incompatible with journalism because the public has a right to assume and to believe that you are acting independently,” she continued.
“You can’t serve two masters, as the saying goes, and your interest has to either be the public interest or serving some other interests.”
Insider reporting
Experts note that reporters often face ethical and professional dilemmas while cultivating relationships with sources, especially in areas where insider information is highly sought after, such as Wolff’s research on relations between various figures in the first Trump administration.
But the prerogative to build rapport with sources, especially those with influence, can also raise difficult questions about a reporter’s proximity to the very centres of power they are supposed to be scrutinising.
Edward Wasserman, a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, said such relationships have to maintain certain boundaries and be balanced with the usefulness of the information being brought to the public’s attention.
“I think that the public has the right to be sceptical of this kind of cosy relationship with sources,” Wasserman told Al Jazeera. “But the answer the journalist has is that this is in the interest of the public, that there’s a redemptive dimension to this. It enables the kind of relationships that will allow people to confide in a reporter, who can then share that information with the public.”
Still, such relationships can also have a troubling inversion, where a journalist might be tempted to offer a source preferential treatment if they believe they might be rewarded with information.
Another journalist who corresponded with Epstein in emails released on Wednesday, a former New York Times finance reporter named Landon Thomas Jr, also appeared to have a close relationship with the convicted sex offender, whom he informed about a writer named John Connelly who was researching him.
“Keep getting calls from that guy doing a book on you – John Connolly. He seems very interested in your relationship with the news media. I told him you were a hell of a guy :)” Thomas Jr said in an email dated June 1, 2016.
“He is digging around again,” Thomas Jr said in another email to Epstein on September 27, 2017. “I think he is doing some Trump-related digging too. Anyway, for what it’s worth…” he added.
The public broadcaster NPR reported that Thomas Jr was no longer working for the Times by January 2019, and it had come to light that the reporter had asked Epstein for a $30,000 donation to a cultural centre in New York City. The New York Times has previously stated that the behaviour was a clear violation of its ethics policies and that it took action as soon as it learned of the incident.
In the case of Wolff, Wasserman also noted that his direct participation in matters relating to Trump, Epstein, and the media raised doubts about the writer’s ability to credibly report on those issues. Those questions may be especially poignant in a scandal that, for many people in the US, has become a symbol of close relationships among figures at the highest levels of power.
“The problem is that Wolff was offering advice on how to engineer, how to play this situation, in a way that’s advantageous to Epstein. And the problem that I have with that is that he then would presumably preserve the right to report on the consequences,” he said.
It also remains unclear whether Wolff’s relationship with Epstein resulted in the kind of public revelations that journalists typically point to when justifying close ties with sources.
“It occurs to me as important that in this exchange, Wolff doesn’t do anything to illuminate the core mystery, which is whether Trump was a sexual participant in what was going on with Epstein and these young women,” said Wasserman.
At least 2 dead, 21 missing in landslides in Indonesia’s Java island
At least two people have been killed and 21 remain unaccounted for following a landslide in Indonesia, according to officials, as rescuers continue to search for the missing.
Several days of heavy rainfall in the region led to landslides that hit dozens of houses in three villages in the Cilacap district, Central Java province, on Thursday evening, officials said in a statement released on Friday.
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“As of Friday morning, the joint team has rescued 23 people alive. Two people were found deceased, and 21 others are still being searched for,” Abdul Muhari, spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency, said in a statement.
A search and rescue operation was under way to look for the missing victims, Muhari said.
He added that unstable terrain had hindered rescue efforts, and heavy equipment had been deployed to assist the operation.
Footage released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed rescuers searching for victims buried under the rubble of the houses.
Rescuers are using heavy equipment, extraction tools and manual tools to reach difficult areas.
An extreme weather warning was issued earlier this week by the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency.
The agency warned it could cause hydrometeorological disasters and that several regions of Indonesia could experience high rainfall over the coming weeks.
The annual monsoon season from about October to March frequently causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.
Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the length and severity of the season, leading to heavier rain, flash flooding, and stronger wind gusts.
Earlier in November, flash floods and landslides in a remote area of the restive region, Papua, killed at least 15 people and left eight missing.
‘Massive enemy attack’: Russia pounds Ukraine’s Kyiv, killing one
A “massive” Russian attack on Kyiv has killed one person and wounded at least 24, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
More than 40 people also had to be rescued as a result of the overnight assault into Friday, it added, with fires or damage to residential buildings reported in most of the Ukrainian capital’s 10 districts.
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An elderly woman was killed, while a 10-year-old boy was among the injured, Kyiv police said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko described it as a “massive enemy attack”, saying a pregnant woman and a man in an “extremely serious condition” were among the hospitalised.
A 55-year-old man in Bila Tserkva who suffered thermal burns was rushed to hospital, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, the head of the Kyiv region, who said Russian missiles and drones had targeted critical infrastructure in Kyiv.
Klitschko confirmed that the Russian attack had damaged part of the city’s heating networks, noting that some buildings in the northeastern Desnianskyi district were temporarily left without heat.
Before another punishing winter of war, Moscow has intensified its attacks on targets including Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, increasing the risk of heating outages.
Friday morning’s attack also struck residential buildings throughout the Ukrainian capital.
“Russians are hitting residential buildings. There are a lot of damaged high-rise buildings throughout Kyiv, almost in every district,” said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had shot down more than 200 Ukrainian drones overnight.
“During the past night, air-defence assets intercepted and destroyed 216 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles,” it wrote on Telegram.
The latest attack on Kyiv comes two days after G7 foreign ministers reiterated their “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and demanded an immediate ceasefire.
As part of international efforts to hold Russia to account for its actions since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Canada unveiled new sanctions against Moscow on Wednesday.
South Africa lets 153 Palestinians disembark following 12-hour plane ordeal
South Africa has allowed more than 150 Palestinian airline passengers to disembark, after they were kept on a plane for almost 12 hours by the country’s border police, authorities said.
South Africa’s Ministry of Home Affairs authorised the passengers to get off the plane on Thursday night after a local humanitarian organisation guaranteed to provide the passengers with accommodation during their stay in South Africa if needed.
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“Given that Palestinians are eligible for 90-day visa-exempt travel to South Africa, they have been processed as per normal and will be required to adhere to all conditions of entry,” South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) said in a statement late on Thursday.
The chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians landed shortly after 8am (06:00 GMT) on Thursday morning at OR Tambo International Airport, which serves the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
According to the BMA, the Palestinian passengers were not allowed to disembark from the aircraft after it was discovered they “did not have the customary departure stamps in their passports”. The passengers also did not indicate how long they intended to stay in South Africa or the address of their accommodation, the BMA said.
“Following their failure to pass the immigration test and given that none of the travellers expressed an intention to apply for asylum, they were initially denied entry,” it added.
News that the Palestinians were forced to wait on the tarmac at the airport for hours reportedly caused outrage among the public in South Africa, which is a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause and has led the charge at the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel for perpetrating genocide in Gaza.
pic.twitter.com/2YEQG4W0Kh
The order to finally allow the Palestinian passengers to leave the plane came after the country’s Home Affairs Ministry received a commitment from a humanitarian aid organisation – Gift of the Givers – to accommodate the visitors during their stay.
A total of 130 Palestinians subsequently entered the country, while 23 transferred from South Africa to other destinations, from the airport, according to the BMA.
The AFP news agency said the plane was a charter flight operated by South African airline Global Airways and had travelled from Kenya.
Founder of Gift of the Givers, Imtiaz Sooliman, told public broadcaster SABC that he did not know who had chartered the aircraft and that a first plane carrying 176 Palestinians had landed in Johannesburg on October 28, with some of the passengers departing for other countries.
“The families of this first group told us yesterday their family members are coming on a second plane, and nobody knew about that plane,” Sooliman said.
“Those people are really distraught coming from two years of genocide,” Sooliman said of the passengers.
Based on “feedback” from those who have arrived already in South Africa, Sooliman said Israel appears to be “removing people from Gaza … and sending them on chartered planes” without stamping their passports.
“Israel deliberately did not stamp the passports of these poor people to exacerbate their suffering in a foreign country,” he added in a post on social media.
Other humanitarian groups are also now offering to provide support for the Palestinian visitors, he added.
Nigel Branken, a South African social worker who assisted those held on the plane, said the passengers from Gaza had told him of being ordered by Israeli authorities to leave all their belongings behind before boarding an unmarked plane at an Israeli air force base.
“Very clearly all the marks of Israel involved in this operation to take people…to displace them,” Branken told Al Jazeera.
BREAKING NEWS | About 160 Palestinian refugees have landed at OR Tambo International Airport this morning. The Gift of the Givers’ Imtiaz Sooliman says their passports don’t have stamps, and among them are children and pregnant women. pic.twitter.com/X68TXjGpgn
Ivory Coast boosts border defence due to ‘unusual flow’ of Malian refugees
Ivory Coast has reinforced its border security after the arrival of “several unusual flows of refugees” from neighbouring Mali, officials in the West African country have said.
Ivory Coast’s National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement on Thursday that the “influx appears to be due to attacks against civilians by armed terrorist groups in several areas of southern Mali”.
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“The National Security Council has instructed its Executive Secretary to take all necessary steps to register these asylum seekers,” the statement said.
“Furthermore, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces has been instructed to take appropriate measures to strengthen security at our country’s northern borders,” it added.
The al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has waged an almost decade-long rebellion in Mali.
The armed group, the most active in West Africa according to conflict monitor ACLED, was formed in 2017 as a result of a merger with al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front and al-Mourabitoun.
JNIM’s operations started in Mali, but they have since expanded to nearby countries of Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo.
Most recently, in late October, the militant group launched its first attack in Nigeria, killing a soldier and seizing ammunition and cash.
The group has killed thousands of people since 2017, though the overall death toll is unclear.
The group also seeks regime change in Mali, and JNIM has warned foreigners against doing business with the ruling military government – in power since it overthrew the country’s democratically elected government in a 2020 coup d’etat – without its “authorisation”.
Seeking to pressure the military government to negotiate, in September, JNIM sealed off major highways used by tankers and targeted fuel trucks attempting to reach the landlocked Sahel country from Ivory Coast and Senegal.
The move has effectively created an economic and fuel blockade on the capital, Bamako, bringing the city to breaking point and causing desperation among residents, many of whom have fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast.
On Wednesday, JNIM militants attacked the town of Loulouni, about 50km (30 miles) from the Ivory Coast border, causing hundreds more people to flee.