USA – The administration of President Joe Biden has notified Congress of a proposed  USD 8 billion arms sale to Israel, a U.S. official said on Friday, with Washington maintaining support for its ally whose war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands. The deal would need approval from the House of Representatives and Senate committees and includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells, Axios reported earlier. The package also includes small-diameter bombs and warheads, according to Axios. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Protesters have for months demanded an arms embargo against Israel, but U.S. policy has largely remained unchanged. In August, the United States approved the sale of USD 20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel. The Biden administration says it is helping its ally defend against Iran-backed militant groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. (Reuters)

Photo: An Israeli soldier holds a weapon in a military vehicle, during an Israeli raid in Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Reuters)

• One person was killed and five injured in a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
• A separate Russian bombardment killed a pensioner in the southern Zaporizhia region.
• Ukrainian attacks on Russian border areas killed two, according to local governors. One was killed by a mortar strike on a village in the Bryansk region. Another died in a drone attack near the front lines in the Kursk region.
• Ukrainian air defences downed 34 out of 81 drones launched by Russia overnight, the air force said on Saturday. It said that 47 drones were “lost”.
• Temporary flight restrictions imposed at Russia’s Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg on Saturday were lifted at 07:15 GMT, a representative of Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said.
• Three missiles struck a residential area near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing one, injuring five others and destroying two homes.
• Four people were hurt when the town of Sloviansk was shelled near the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 300 attack drones and 20 missiles at Ukrainian targets in the first three days of 2025.
• Russia’s creeping advance in Donetsk has captured 4,168 square kilometres (1,609sq miles) of territory at the cost of 430,000 soldiers, according to a new analysis.
• Ukraine will reportedly receive its first French Mirage 2000-5F multirole fighters this month, according to French magazine Avions Legendaires.
• A Russian court has ordered the largest search engine in Russia, Yandex, to hide maps and photos of one of the country’s biggest oil refineries after repeated attacks by Ukrainian drones, state news agency TASS reports.
• United States President Joe Biden is expected to announce additional security assistance for Ukraine in the coming days, according to White House spokesperson John Kirby.

Foto: Fire engulfs a ​​​​​​residential building in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, after it was hit by a Russian drone.

YEMEN – Family members of an Indian nurse who is on death row in war-torn Yemen say they are pinning their hopes on a last-ditch effort to save her. Nimisha Priya, 34, was sentenced to death for the murder of a local man – her former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose chopped-up body was discovered in a water tank in 2017.

Lodged in the central jail of capital Sanaa, she is set to be executed soon, with Mahdi al-Mashat, president of the rebel Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, approving her punishment this week. Under the Islamic judicial system, known as Sharia, the only way to stop the execution now is securing a pardon from the victim’s family. For months, Nimisha’s relatives and supporters have been trying to do this by raising diyah, or blood money, to be paid to Mahdi’s family, and negotiations have been going on.

But with time running out, supporters say their hopes rest entirely on the family’s decision. With the presidential sanction coming in, the public prosecutor’s office will once again seek consent from Mahdi’s family and ask if they have any objections to the execution, said Samuel Jerome, a Yemen-based social worker who holds a power of attorney on behalf of Nimisha’s mother. “If they say they do not want to or can pardon her, the sentence would be immediately stopped,” he said.

“Forgiveness is the first step. Whether the family accepts the blood money comes only after that.” Under Yemen’s laws, Nimisha’s family cannot directly contact the family of the victim and must hire negotiators. Subhash Chandran, a lawyer who has represented Nimisha’s family in India in the past, told the BBC that the family had already crowdfunded USD 40,000 (£32,268) for the victim’s family. The money has been given in two tranches to the lawyers hired by the Indian government to negotiate the case (a delay in sending the second tranche affected the negotiations, Mr Jerome says).

“We now need to explore the scope for discussions with the [victim’s] family, which is possible only with the Indian government’s support,” Mr Chandran said. India’s foreign ministry has said they are aware of Nimisha’s situation and are extending all possible help to the family. Her family is anxious but also hopeful. (BBC)

Photo: Nimisha Priya is currently lodged in the central jail of Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

ISRAEL – Israeli forces have ordered the immediate evacuation of staff and patients from two of northern Gaza’s most critical hospitals under the threat of attack, as the United Nations pleaded with Israel to halt its attacks on medical facilities in the besieged territory. On Friday, Israeli soldiers surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, where many displaced Palestinians have sought shelter.

A separate evacuation order was also issued to the al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, who was reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Healthcare in the Gaza Strip has been pushed to the brink of collapse amid repeated attacks by Israeli forces, including last week’s destruction of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Both the Indonesian and al-Awda Hospitals have been damaged due to repeated Israeli attacks since October 2023.

Mahmoud said that many of those being treated or seeking shelter at the two hospitals had come from the destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital. “We are talking about people in very critical condition,” he said. “They need to be attached to medical equipment, and some of them have sustained severe injuries.” (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A severely injured child is being treated at northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital.

LONDON – The British victim killed in the New Orleans terror attack has been revealed to be the stepson of Prince William and Harry’s former nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke. Edward Pettifer, 31, was confirmed as one of the 14 people killed in the chilling New Year terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. The 31-year-old’s cause of death was concluded by the New Orleans coroner as blunt force injuries following the attack on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.

Edward from Chelsea, London was the eldest son of Charles Pettifer, who was an ex-Coldstream Guards Officer and Camilla Wyatt, 58. The couple went on to have another son, named Harry, 29, before parting ways in the 1990s.  Following his split from the mother of his children, Charles Pettifer wed Tiggy Legge-Bourke, 59, who was the nanny to Prince William and Harry between 1993 and 1999.  The duo had known each other since they were teenagers, with Ms Legge-Bourke also being Edward’s godmother.  Mr Pettifer and Ms Legge-Bourke went on to welcome two sons, 22-year-old Tom, who is the future monarch’s godson as well as Fred, 23, who is Prince Harry’s godson. (Dailymail)

Photo: Edward Pettifer, 31, from Chelsea, London, has been named as the British national killed in the New Year terror attack in New Orleans.