In Abuja on Friday, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar welcomed Paris' actions for a more inclusive reform of the UN Security Council, still in the hands of five powers.
He called for the admission of Nigeria - the continent's leading economic power - into the very closed circle of world decision-making bodies.
France, as you can see, has always supported reform aimed at democratizing the United Nations Security Council, where Nigeria aspires to become a permanent member in the future and we thank France for its support. We also want to be part of the G20, explained Minister Yusuf Tuggar.
The Security Council has five permanent seats since the end of World War II, occupied by the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. Africa, which has 54 States or 28% of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, has claimed two permanent seats on the Security Council and five non-permanent members for 25 years now.
An Egyptian expert draws scenarios for the ground war in Gaza and expects a “cemetery” for the Israeli army in its war in the cities of the Gaza Strip.
The strategic expert, Major General Muhammad Al-Ghobashi, confirmed that Hamas possesses the tools of war and surprise, which makes the Beirut siege scenario difficult to repeat with it, and that it is well positioned in the Gaza Strip with engineering equipment in preparation for the enemy.
Major General Al-Ghobashi said in a statement to RT, “The talk about the city of Beirut is completely different, because Beirut is a populated city. It has the Lebanese Army’s resistance forces, in addition to elements from the camps in southern Lebanon before the emergence of Hezbollah, and they were present in residential areas. Therefore, "This is different from Israel's aggression against Gaza."
Regarding the capabilities of the Hamas movement, Al-Ghobashi explained that it is “ largely stationed in the Gaza Strip, where it has made engineering preparations in preparation for military operations against the occupying enemy.”
Hamas equipment
The expert added: Hamas has a tunnel network estimated at about 500 kilometers, divided into two levels in the Gaza Strip. He pointed out that Hamas has prepared places to stay in order to transition into defense mode, places for fighters to go out to fire rockets, and also places to go out with light weapons and machine guns, in addition to places for anti-tank weapons and armored vehicles.
He continued: "It has designated places for stores, weapons, ammunition, and accommodation to provide living space in the event of a siege and to spend a period without seeking help from outside."
Al-Ghobashi also explained Hamas’ great use of entry and exit openings, in order to carry out surprise operations against the enemy stationed around and inside the Gaza Strip, noting the extreme difficulty following every bombardment it encountered, but there is containment on the part of Hamas fighters and resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.
He added, "The matter is completely different, and we must not consider what happened in Lebanon 1982 as an example of what is happening now in the Gaza Strip. There was more than one experience of the advance of armored elements a week ago, where they were destroyed, and they were dealt with severely. As for the operations that took place, we call them in the military combat law." Reconnaissance in force: “This operation in which the commander of the occupation forces, Colonel Yerushal, was captured, in addition to the failure of a military operation in which a number of Marines participated, and a number of them were captured and photographed, which represents a success for the resistance.”
Victory over one of the strongest armies
The expert, Al-Ghobashi, expressed to RT his perception that “this matter represents a great success and victory for the “resistance” over the Israeli enemy, despite the intense bombardment, with all the weapons and technology the enemy possesses, and support from the United States, including the “Delta” forces, the elite, modern electronic devices, and the British special forces that participate. In the military operation on the Gaza Strip.
He continued: "All the victories achieved by the Hamas resistance elements and the Palestinian factions are great victories over one of the strongest armies recorded in history, in terms of armament, tactics, capabilities, and high capabilities with the latest weapons, in addition to American and British support."
While America announced its members who are not participating and are present in the Gaza Strip for planning and follow-up, “Delta” members and leaders of the American Army from the Special Forces, but a number of them were captured while participating and being present in real clashes with resistance elements, and this matter is considered the full involvement of the American Army in These military operations take place against members of the resistance and the defenseless Palestinian people, and from here we know that there is the participation of British Special Forces that has been announced, but it is carried out in secret.
He concluded by saying that this confirms what we mentioned previously and announced repeatedly, that fighting in cities and residential areas is one of the most difficult types of fighting and is said to be a graveyard for invading regular armies.
A solar storm causes a "rare" aurora to appear in the skies of Canada
A solar storm recently struck Earth, creating what appear to be bright, pumpkin-colored plumes dancing in the night sky over Canada, but such orange-hued aurora are rare.
Experts say the image captured a rare combination of red and green lights that had not been visible to this extent since a powerful solar storm on Halloween hit the Earth 20 years ago.
“The orange color was amazing, incredible,” Aurora photographer Harlan Thomas explained to Spaceweather.com. “The pillars in the center stayed glowing there for more than 20 minutes.”
Thomas took this image on October 19 over a pond west of Calgary, Alberta, about three days after the Sun released a massive, slow coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth.
Auroras form when high-energy particles from the coronal mass ejection (CME) or solar wind bypass the Earth's magnetic shield, or magnetosphere, and heat gas molecules in the upper atmosphere.
The excited particles release energy in the form of light, and the color of this light depends on the excited element. The two most common colors of aurora borealis are red and green, both of which are produced by oxygen molecules at different altitudes (red aurora are produced at higher altitudes than green variants). But when solar particles penetrate deep into the atmosphere, they can also trigger rare pink aurora when they excite nitrogen molecules.
In theory, oxygen and nitrogen molecules can give off orange wavelengths under specific conditions.
However, even when this happens, the orange color is drowned out by other colors emitted by the surrounding particles, making it virtually impossible to see these wavelengths, Spaceweather.com reported.
“It is possible that there is a confusion between the two processes (red and green aurora), which tricks the camera and eye into thinking it is orange. In fact, it is red and green at the same time,” explains Kjellmar Oksavik, a space weather scientist and aurora expert at the University of Bergen in Norway.
Although red and green aurorae frequently occur together in the sky, "orange" aurora is very rare.
Oksavik points out that the orange color is most noticeable at the center of large auroral rays — vertical columns of light lined up along invisible magnetic field lines — which are made up of red and green light, which is very uncommon.
The last time these vibrant, pumpkin-like colors were seen was the Great Halloween Storm of 2003, the most powerful solar storm on modern records, according to Spaceweather.com. During this epic event, orange lights were spotted across North America and Northern Europe.