Netanyahu al Congresso USA🗞️ Rassegna del 26/07/2024

Israele

(Reuters) Israeli forces retrieve bodies of five hostages from Gaza, military says

• Israeli forces recovered on Wednesday the bodies of five hostages killed in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and held in Gaza since, the Israeli military said.
• Their bodies were retrieved from the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where Israeli forces launched new raids this week.
• The five had been listed among 120 hostages still in Gaza, about a third of whom Israel has declared dead in absentia.
• An Israeli delegation would participate in talks to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release - mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar - next week, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.
• Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza, but Netanyahu says the war cannot end before Hamas is defeated. 

(Reuters) Netanyahu sketches vague outline for post-war Gaza

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sketched a vague outline of a plan for a "deradicalized" post-war Gaza in a speech to Congress on Wednesday and touted a potential future alliance between Israel and America's Arab allies
• Dozens of Democratic lawmakers skipped his speech, expressing dismay over the thousands of civilian deaths and the humanitarian crisis from Israel's campaign in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave of Gaza
• "Fast-tracking U.S. military aid could dramatically expedite an end to the war in Gaza and help prevent a broader war in the Middle East," Netanyahu said.
• He said Israel was actively engaged in intensive efforts to secure the hostages' release. He said his post-war vision was of a "demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza" led by Palestinians who do not seek to destroy Israel.
• Netanyahu has said Israel would not allow Hamas to return to power but would also not accept the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, having a role.
• Netanyahu also spoke about the prospects for a broad Middle East security alliance between Israel and its Arab neighbors, something the U.S. has sought, as a bulwark against Iran.
• Netanyahu made no mention of creating a pathway to Palestinian statehood. That is something he and his far-right coalition partners have staunchly opposed even as the Biden administration has pushed Israel to give ground on the issue.

(The Guardian) Israel tried to frustrate US lawsuit over Pegasus spyware, leak suggests

• The Israeli government took extraordinary measures to frustrate a high-stakes US lawsuit that threatened to reveal closely guarded secrets about one of the world’s most notorious hacking tools, leaked files suggest.
• Pegasus allows NSO clients to infect smartphones with hidden software that can extract messages and photos, record calls and secretly activate microphones. NSO’s clients have included both authoritarian regimes and democratic countries and the technology has been linked to human rights abuses around the world
• Israeli officials seized documents about Pegasus spyware from its manufacturer, NSO Group, in an effort to prevent the company from being able to comply with demands made by WhatsApp in a US court to hand over information about the invasive technology.
• Earlier this month, WhatsApp accused NSO of resisting its obligations to share internal files as part of a legal process, known as discovery, that would allow WhatsApp to gather information to help build its case and shed unprecedented light on how Pegasus has been used by NSO’s government clients.
• However, the Israeli government’s hidden intervention has hindered WhatsApp’s ability to compel NSO to hand over crucial information. Lawyers for WhatsApp recently told the US court that NSO has “only produced 17 internal documents of its own”

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

(Reuters) North Korean hackers are stealing military secrets, say U.S. and allies

• North Korean hackers have conducted a global cyber espionage campaign to try to steal classified military secrets to support Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons programme, the United States, Britain and South Korea said in a joint advisory on Thursday
• The hackers, dubbed Anadriel or APT45 by cybersecurity researchers, have targeted or breached computer systems at a broad variety of defence or engineering firms, including manufacturers of tanks, submarines, naval vessels, fighter aircraft, and missile and radar systems
• The FBI also issued an arrest warrant for one of the alleged North Korean hackers, and offered a reward of up to $10 million for information that would lead to his arrest. He was charged with hacking and money laundering, according to a poster uploaded to the FBI's Most Wanted website on Thursday
• Internationally isolated North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has a long history of using covert hacking teams to steal sensitive military information

Philippines

(The Guardian) Typhoon Gaemi: ‘race against time’ to contain massive oil spill in Philippines

• The MT Terra Nova, a Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4m litres of oil, capsized in Manila Bay in the early hours of Thursday, as Typhoon Gaemi charged through the busy shipping route, whipping up aggressive winds and leaving 25 people dead in Taiwan and the Philippines.
• By Thursday evening the Philippine coastguard said that an oil slick 4km long had been detected, with efforts under way to contain the damage. There are fears that the oil slick could reach the coastline of the Philippines’ bustling capital, Manila. The rough waters and high waves caused by Typhoon Gaemi have hampered cleanup efforts.
• The authorities have not directly linked the capsizing to the typhoon, which passed through the area on Wednesday and brought torrential rain and high seas, but were investigating “if there was an existing weather disturbance in the vicinity waters”
• The Philippines coastguard said it was “racing against time” to contain a massive oil spill that was at risk of becoming the biggest in the country’s history