*) Arab Group calls on UNSC to take action on besieged Gaza

The Arab Group in New York has urged the UN Security Council to take immediate action on besieged Gaza.

It said in a statement that “regrettably, the UN Security Council remains inert, unable to denounce the daily atrocities perpetrated by the occupying authorities.”

The group, which is a coalition of Arab states promoting common interests at the UN, called on the Security Council to take immediate action.

*) Israel declares Brazil’s Lula ‘persona non grata’ as Gaza row escalates

Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s comparison of Israel’s war in besieged Gaza to the Holocaust has unleashed a diplomatic firestorm.

Israel declared Lula “persona non grata” and Brazil recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv.

The row erupted the day before when Lula said the ongoing war on the blockaded enclave “isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” and compared it to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”

*) Ukraine faces ‘extremely difficult’ frontline battles: Zelenskyy

Ukrainian troops, reeling from losing a key town, now faced “extremely difficult” conditions all along the frontline with Russia because of delayed foreign aid, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian military said it was critically short of ammunition and shells, worsened by the holdup of a $60 billion US aid package.

After visiting frontline troops in the Kharkiv region, Zelenskyy said the situation was extremely difficult in several parts of the frontline, where “Russian troops have concentrated maximum reserves.”

*) Julian Assange begins last-ditch effort to block US extradition
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange began what could be his last chance to stop his extradition from Britain to the United States.
Assange has been battling the authorities in British courts for more than 13 years.
US prosecutors seek to put Assange on trial on 18 counts relating to WikiLeaks’ high-profile release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables.
And finally…
*) India’s centuries-old heritage hit by Delhi ‘development’ demolitions
For nine centuries, Indians prayed at the forest shrine of Baba Haji Rozbih, a revered Sufi master whose grave is one of the capital Delhi’s oldest Muslim sites.
Then, in early February, the Delhi Development Authority reduced the site to rubble, the latest victim of a “demolition programme” it says has cleared “illegal religious structures” including a mosque, tombs, shrines and Hindu temples.
The demolitions come at a sensitive time, as Hindu nationalists have been emboldened to claim ancient Muslim monuments for the country’s majority faith.