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NATO’s chief urges allies to continue supporting Ukraine amid funding hold-ups in the US and Europe.

Foreign ministers of NATO countries have assembled in Brussels for security talks as Russia presses ahead in its war against Ukraine and Israel enters the fifth day of a fragile truce with Palestinian group Hamas.

The Russia-Ukraine war appeared to top the agenda of the two-day summit which began on Tuesday, as NATO’s chief urged allies to continue supporting the war-wracked country amid funding hold-ups in Washington and Europe.

“I’m confident that the United States will continue to provide support because it is in the security interest of the United States to do so and it’s also in line with what we have agreed,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

“I urge allies, and allies are also committed to continue to deliver support,” he added.

Some $61bn in proposed US aid to Ukraine is being held up by the US Congress, while another $50bn package from the European Union is struggling to pass due to opposition from Hungary.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Brussels, said the funding delays show indications of “fatigue” from some NATO members 21 months into the war.

Ukraine’s top diplomat Dmytro Kuleba will try to overcome such fatigue and lobby for continued NATO backing when he joins the summit on Wednesday.

Kuleba will also work with NATO ministers to outline a plan for reforms aimed at helping Ukraine gain eventual membership in the security alliance.

Russia has said NATO expansionism is at the core of its grudge against bordering Ukraine, which it has repeatedly warned not to join the alliance.

More than 500,000 troops from Russia and Ukraine are estimated to have been killed or wounded since Moscow marched troops across its neighbour’s border in February 2022.

At least 10,000 civilians have also been killed in the conflict, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has said.

Broader regional security

Apart from the Russia-Ukraine war, NATO ministers also planned to discuss Russia’s “destabilising actions” throughout the region, including allegations it has been enabling undocumented migrants to reach neighbouring Finland.

Finland last week closed nearly all its border crossings with Russia after it said an influx of migrants arrived at its border with Russia.

Another topic on the agenda will be unrest between Serbia and Kosovo, where NATO has in recent months deployed more troops to reinforce its peacekeeping force following an attack on Kosovo police.

The ministers are also likely to address the seven-week war between Israel and Hamas, though it is not officially on the agenda.

Al Jazeera’s Vaessen said the ministers would discuss “not only the extension of the ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas] but a future for Gaza after the war is finished”.

Sweden’s membership bid

Hanging in the background of the summit is the membership status of Sweden, which has been awaiting ratification from Turkey and Hungary for 18 months.

Stoltenberg on Tuesday told Hungarian media he expected the two countries to approve Sweden’s membership bid without further delay, but gave no precise timeline.

The Turkish parliament started this month to debate Sweden’s bid to join after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the process following a deal at a NATO summit in July.

Erdogan had delayed the ratification process over longstanding complaints Sweden is failing to act against Kurdish armed groups in its country that Turkey considers “terrorist” groups.

NATO’s other allies had hoped to formally welcome Sweden into the alliance at its Brussels summit, but Turkey’s ratification process is still at the committee level in parliament.

Yemeni social media influencers have been sharing videos of themselves on the cargo ship which was seized by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea – with one clip showing a group of men dancing on the top deck.

The clips have been shared on YouTube and TikTok by Mustafa al-Mumari and Abdul Rahman al-Joubi, who describe themselves as comedians.

In one video, al-Joubi, who has more than 42,000 YouTube followers, is seen inside a lift on the Israeli-linked Galaxy Leader ship with a group of young men.

Read more: Follow the latest from the Israel-Hamas war here

Al-Joubi then puts what appears to be an emergency phone to his ear as he talks into the camera.

The men then step out of the lift before they walk up some stairs to the top deck and begin laughing and joking together.

In a separate clip which has surfaced on X, formerly known as Twitter, a line of men are seen dancing on the top deck of the ship.

Three of the men are carrying a Yemen flag while some of the others are clutching rifles.

Al-Joubi and al-Mumari do not feature in the clip and it is unclear who originally posted it.

Al-Mumari, who was detained by members of the Houthi group in December last year on charges related to freedom of expression, is seen talking on a beach with the ship in the background in a clip he posted on YouTube.

The influencer then travels to the Galaxy Leader in a smaller boat before he is seen on the deck of the enormous vessel.

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Speaking in Arabic, he jokingly says the ship will be sold to make money for Yemen.

He also calls on Israel to stop bombing Gaza and suggests people should expect to have their ships taken if they keep “killing our brothers”.

The comedian later stands next to a swimming pool and asks “is the whole sea not enough?”.

Al-Mumari and two other men are seen smoking shisha on the ship towards the end of the video.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels released a video last week showing armed men descend onto the Galaxy Leader before seizing the ship in the Red Sea.

The video from Yemeni Military Media shows at least seven masked men, carrying what appears to be AK-47s, drop from a helicopter and land on the top deck of the ship.

The ship was hijacked by the Iran-backed group on Sunday 19 November.

Shattered healthcare and sanitation systems must be restored in Gaza, says World Health Organization.

More people could die from disease than from bombings in the Gaza Strip if the health and sanitation systems are not repaired, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Critical infrastructure in the besieged territory has been crippled by fuel and supply shortages and targeted attacks on hospitals and United Nations facilities since Israel launched strikes on Gaza on October 7.

“Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” said Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the WHO, speaking at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

She described the collapse of al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza as a “tragedy” and voiced concern about the detention of some of its medical staff by Israeli forces who took over the complex earlier this month.

She also repeated concerns about a rise in outbreaks of infectious diseases in Gaza, particularly diarrhoeal diseases.

Citing a United Nations report on the living conditions of displaced residents in northern Gaza, she said: “[There are] no medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food.”

‘Risk of major outbreaks’

All key sanitation services have ceased operating in Gaza, which raises the prospect of an enormous surge of gastrointestinal and infectious diseases among the local populations – including cholera.

For Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, half of whom are children, finding drinkable water has become close to impossible.

The WHO has recorded more than 44,000 cases of diarrhoea and 70,000 acute respiratory infections, but real numbers may be significantly higher.

The UN health agency said it was extremely concerned that rains and floods during the approaching winter season will make an already dire situation even worse.

James Elder, a spokesperson from the UN children’s agency in Gaza, told reporters by video link that hospitals were full of children with war wounds and gastroenteritis from drinking dirty water. “They don’t have access to safe water and it’s crippling them,” he said.

If nothing changes, “there will be more and more people falling sick and the risk of major outbreaks will increase dramatically”, Richard Brennan, the regional emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean region at WHO, told Al Jazeera earlier this month.

Truce is not enough

Despite the temporary truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, which was extended by two days just as it was set to expire on Tuesday morning, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said no fuel had arrived for generators at hospitals in the territory’s north.

UN official Tor Wennesland warned the humanitarian situation “remains catastrophic”.

It “requires the urgent entry of additional aid and supplies in a smooth, predictable, and continuous manner to alleviate the unbearable suffering of Palestinians in Gaza,” the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said.

Gaza City Mayor Yahya al-Siraj said that without fuel, the territory could not pump clean water or clear waste accumulating in the streets, warning of a potential public health “catastrophe”.

Clean-up was under way at al-Shifa, which is Gaza’s largest hospital. “We hope it can soon resume its activities,” said Gaza health ministry spokesman Mahmud Hammad.

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 14,800 Palestinians, including 6,150 children and more than 4,000 women, according to health authorities in the enclave.

World leaders, government representatives and delegates are set to gather for the annual United Nations climate change summit, known as the Conference of the Parties or COP28, in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Reining in fossil fuels and carbon emissions are expected to be topping the agenda of the 13-day summit (November 30 to December 12). International funding to help countries adapt to climate change will also be hotly debated as developing countries have been demanding more contributions from the industrialised nations.

An ambitious loss and damages fund agreed last year to support poorer nations to help manage the negative effects of climate change has yet to be put into place. World leaders agreed to the fund after COP27 last year, but they have failed to reach consensus on the most important questions of all – which states will pay into it and how much.

Countries will also face the first review of their progress towards the Paris Agreement, a landmark international treaty on limiting carbon emissions that was signed at the COP21, almost eight years ago.

Although the UAE was the first Middle Eastern country to ratify the agreement, people are deeply divided over hosting the summit in a nation that has been termed as part of the problem for its reliance on fossil fuels, which account for more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Some are now also criticising the inclusion of oil and gas-linked representatives in such summits at all.

As the debate around COP28 and its impact continues, here’s what to know about this year’s conference and what makes it significant.

What, when, where is COP28?

COP is the primary decision-making body of The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), established in 1992.

Representatives of 197 countries who have signed or are “parties” to the UNFCCC will participate primarily through debates and negotiations.

COP28 will begin on November 30 and continue for almost two weeks, while the exact schedule for each day will be published a night prior. Pre-sessions for the conference began on November 24.

The conference will be held at Expo City in Dubai, UAE.

Why is COP28 important?

The COP28 will take place in the backdrop of devastating floods and heatwaves, fierce wildfires and the Earth’s hottest summer on record this year.

The event is considered an opportunity for countries to better rein in climate change by devising improved targets and measures through tools such as finance, technology and capacity-building.

The conference comes weeks after a UN report said greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a record high in 2022. Based on countries’ current climate plans, the report says, global carbon emissions by 2030 will be cut by only two percent compared with 2019 levels, far short of the 43 percent fall needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial levels.

Although the 1.5 degree Celsius target became binding in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the goal was first adopted after COP16, more than a decade ago.

A report from the World Meteorological Organization in May also found that with current trends, the world may temporarily breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius target in 2027.

As states scramble to catch up before climate change risks spike further, they will not be immune to crises around the world.

“For years parties have been struggling to agree to a fossil fuel phase-out, and the challenge to reach an agreement was made worse by the fiscal crises precipitated by the pandemic and energy crisis following the war in Ukraine,” said Olivia Rumble, director of Climate Legal in South Africa.

What is the agenda and theme for COP28 in Dubai?

A primary objective of COP each year is to review and calibrate the implementation of the UNFCCC terms, Paris Agreement, and Kyoto Protocol, a binding treaty agreed in 1997 for industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This year, member states will negotiate while facing their first Global Stocktake (GST) – a scorecard analysing countries’ progress towards the Paris Agreement – so they can adapt their next climate action plans which are due in 2025.

“Countries will be hard-pressed to make concessions to agree on the principal reasons for historic failures and what they believe needs to be done going forward to make meaningful progress on the agreement’s goals,” said Rumble.

Parties will also seek to operationalise the loss and damages fund after developing nations proposed in September that developed countries should disperse at least $100bn to them by 2030.

Additionally, this year’s presidency has set four themes to be at the forefront of the summit:

• Fast-tracking the energy transition: revolves around renewable energy, and food and agricultural systems.
• Fixing climate finance: aims to prioritise the Global South in adaptation finance and help vulnerable communities rebuild after climate disasters, among other targets.
• Nature, people, lives, and livelihoods: geared towards food systems, nature-based solutions, and protecting against extreme weather events and biodiversity loss.
• Inclusivity in climate management: includes youth involvement and improved communication between different sectors and agencies.

However, focusing on specific themes such as financing strategies must also be accompanied by a revamping of global structures to be effective across the world.

While this year’s climate financing agenda aims to better support developing nations with emergency funding, such mechanisms currently lack effective needs analysis and involve the inefficient distribution of funds. High debts imposed on such countries through global financing structures also reduce their ability to invest in the maintenance of climate projects.

“They [renewable energy and energy efficiency] will mean little to African countries without significant reforms to the global financial architecture to make these targets achievable. This includes revising risk ratings and perception of investment risk in Africa,” said Rumble.

Who will and will not attend COP28 in Dubai?

More than 140 heads of state, senior government leaders and at least 70,000 participants are expected to attend COP28.

Some of the notable figures who have confirmed their attendance so far include:

• Britain’s King Charles III, who will also deliver an address at the opening ceremony
• Rishi Sunak, prime minister of the United Kingdom
• Pope Francis of the Catholic Church
• Humza Yousaf, first minister of Scotland
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

US President Joe Biden is not expected to attend but the country will be represented by top officials such as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

The summit will be divided into a “blue zone” with sessions for UN-accredited participants such as state representatives only, and a “green zone” with events and exhibits for registered participants from the public and civil society.

What are the controversies around COP28?

Many environmentalists and other analysts have raised concerns about COP28’s choice of president.

Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, has been tasked with changing the world’s climate course while the company he heads is one of the world’s largest oil producers. The UAE is the world’s seventh-largest liquid fuel producer.

In May, al-Jaber faced criticism for referring to the need to phase out “fossil fuel emissions” — using techniques such as carbon capture — instead of phasing out fossil fuels themselves.

Others have questioned the UNFCCC for involving the fossil fuel industry in its discussions and failing to generate sufficient progress towards the 1.5-degree goal.

In September, more than 200 civil society organisations, including Amnesty International, wrote an open letter to the UAE government to follow certain demands in the lead-up to COP28. On top of calling for labour reforms, and abandoning plans to step up oil and gas production, the letter demanded that the UAE refrain from surveilling COP28 attendees.

The country has said it will allow environmental activists to “assemble peacefully” for protest acts during the summit.

If negotiations succeed, the rebels will end their 50-year armed struggle and transform into a political movement.

The Philippine government will resume peace talks with the country’s communist rebels, in a bid to end decades of civil strife.

Authorities will re-engage with the New People’s Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), for the first time in six years, both parties and facilitator Norway announced on Tuesday.

“The parties agree to a principled and peaceful resolution of the armed conflict,” the two sides said in a joint statement, adding that the peace talks will address “deep-rooted socioeconomic and political grievances”.

If negotiations succeed, the rebels will end their armed struggle and transform into a political movement, according to Norway, which has mediated the island nation’s peace process for around 20 years.

Despite the progress, the government announced no immediate ceasefire and said operations against the armed group would continue.

However, military chief Romeo Brawner was hopeful an eventual peace deal would enable the armed forces to fully focus on “external or territorial defence”, rather than domestic conflict.

Fifty years of conflict

The Philippine government’s conflict with the NPA has raged for over 50 years, peaking in the 1980s, and killed more than 40,000 people.

Today, the NPA has only a few thousand fighters, compared to some 26,000 at its height, with many rebels surrendering in exchange for financial assistance and livelihood opportunities, according to the government.

However, NPA rebels continue to engage in deadly clashes in some parts of the Philippines, staging ambushes against those perceived as state collaborators.

Successive Philippine administrations have held talks with the communists aimed at ending the violence since 1986, negotiating with their Netherlands-based political arm, the NDF.

Formal talks were last held in 2017 when they were acrimoniously terminated by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte left office in mid-2022 and was replaced by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The announcement of renewed peace talks comes less than a week after Marcos Jr issued an order granting amnesty to several rebel groups, including former members of the communist movement.

Under the amnesty order, former CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) members would be absolved of crimes they committed “in pursuit of political beliefs”.