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Standing in a pool of rainwater that has engulfed her tent and destroyed its contents, the Palestinian Kifah al-Najjar desperately tries to salvage what remains — blankets, mattresses, and food supplies. But the fragile shelter, built from plastic sheets, nylon, and wooden poles atop the ruins of her home in Gaza’s Al Zaytoun neighbourhood, has collapsed under the weight of the storm. With six children and no protection, al-Najjar — whose husband was killed at the start of the war — watches helplessly as her belongings are soaked and scattered. She told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that she had feared this moment long before winter arrived. The tent could not shield them from the summer heat, and now it is drowning them in the cold. The first major weather system to hit Gaza this season brought heavy rain, strong winds, and plunging temperatures, flooding hundreds of tents and worsening the plight of thousands of displaced families. Entire neighbourhoods — Al Zaytoun, Al Daraj, Al Shati Camp, Deir Al Balah, Al Bureij, and Khan Younis’s Al Mawasi — saw shelters submerged, leaving families exposed and desperate. Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said teams are overwhelmed, receiving constant distress calls from camps and shelters but lacking the equipment to respond. Their vehicles and tools were destroyed in the war, leaving them unable to reach those in need. **media[382041]** Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, already dire after the destruction of 92% of its residential buildings, is now compounded by the weather. Thousands of families are living in tents or unstable homes at risk of collapse. Director General of Gaza’s Government Media Office, Dr Ismail al-Thawabta, stated that the Strip urgently needs at least 250,000 tents and 100,000 caravans to provide temporary shelter. After two years of war and suffering, he said, they had hoped a ceasefire would bring relief. However, the occupation’s refusal to allow aid, food, medicine, and shelter materials has kept Gaza trapped in tragedy. As heavy rain lashes Gaza, the suffering of displaced families and residents living among the ruins of destroyed homes deepens, according to municipal spokesperson Hosni Mehanna. He stressed that over 93% of the tents sheltering displaced people are now severely worn after enduring successive seasons of heat and cold. Rainwater has pooled between camps and flooded streets, with no functioning drainage systems to redirect it. Mehanna told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Gaza’s rainwater networks were systematically destroyed during two years of Israeli aggression, causing sewage to overflow and mix with stormwater sweeping through shelters, wreckage, and displacement camps. Despite having plans to mitigate the impact of winter storms, Gaza Municipality lacks the equipment to implement them due to the deliberate dismantling of its infrastructure, he affirmed. The crisis extends beyond shelter. Makeshift field hospitals and medical tents — set up to replace bombed-out facilities — have collapsed under the storm, halting services. Director of Medical Relief in Gaza, Dr Bassam Zaqout, confirmed that many health and social service points are tents without foundations, now rendered inoperable by the weather. Warning that the storm will have catastrophic consequences for Gaza’s displaced population, UNRWA said in a statement that families are seeking refuge wherever possible, including in temporary tents, and called for urgent permission to deliver shelter supplies already in its possession. Despite the formal end of Israeli aggression, which destroyed 92% of Gaza’s residential buildings, the blockade on essential shelter materials — such as tents and caravans — remains. This has forced families to live in unsafe, collapsing structures or deteriorated tents, risking their lives with every rainfall.

It’s a great time to be an oil refiner — but a less great time to be filling up at the pump.In Europe, the US and Asia, giant plants are making money by doing what they’ve always done: converting crude oil into vital fuels and selling them at a profit.What’s different today is the scale of the threat to global supplies: Relentless attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, outages at key plants in Asia and Africa and permanent closures across Europe and the US have removed millions of barrels of diesel and gasoline from the world market.On top of these real-world impacts are traders’ fears of what’s yet to come: imminent US sanctions on Lukoil PJSC and Rosneft PJSC and fresh European Union curbs on fuels made from Russian crude threaten already squeezed supply-chains.The result is ongoing pressure on costs at the pump despite a fall in global oil prices — something that’s unlikely to sit well with a US administration that sees “affordable energy” as essential.“Global refinery margins are astronomical,” said Eugene Lindell, head of refined products at consultancy FGE NexantECA. “The signal you’re giving the global refining system, no matter where the refinery is located, is to just run flat out.”In the US, Europe and Asia, margins are the highest they’ve been at this time of year since at least 2018, according to fair value data compiled by Bloomberg. The profits are so good that refiners’ stock prices are also surging: Processors including Valero Energy Corp and Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS have seen stellar rises, while Orlen SA gained more than 100% year-to-date.While expectations of a glut are dragging on crude prices, disruption to the global refining system is limiting how much oil can be turned into products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. While that benefits the processors still running, it also means the slump in headline oil prices isn’t being felt at the pump.A constant stream of attacks on Russia’s refineries — just this month, Ukraine claimed strikes on the Saratov, Orsk and Volgograd plants — is hampering fuel production. Last month, Russia’s huge oil product exports were on course to hit a multi-year low, and that was before drone attacks damaged key loading facilities in the port city of Tuapse.Product supplies are being further squeezed by outages elsewhere. In Kuwait, the giant 615,000 barrel-a-day Al-Zour refinery recently had only one of its three crude processing units operating, while a key gasoline-production unit at Nigeria’s huge Dangote refinery is reportedly scheduled to halt for about 50 days of maintenance in coming weeks, having only recently begun restarting.Meanwhile, US crude runs in recent weeks have been more than a million barrels a day lower than the same time last year, a huge drop from the peak summer demand months, when processing was at its highest seasonal level since 2019. The country has seen multiple refinery closures in recent years, as has western Europe, further pressuring fuel supplies.“Global refining activity has been challenged by a series of unplanned outages in October, further constraining product markets and pushing margins even higher,” the International Energy Agency said Thursday. Increased profits have prompted the watchdog to raise its estimates for runs at margin-sensitive refining assets in Europe and Asia this month and next.In the US, the upshot is a rise in the average price of diesel since President Trump took office, and little change in the cost of gasoline, which on Thursday stood at $3.08 a gallon. Benchmark crude futures have meanwhile come off about 20% since his second inauguration, amid forecasts of a large surplus.Supercharging these ongoing real-world supply pressures are traders’ fears over what’s on the horizon.“The current strength in refining margins is at least partially being driven by uncertainty around the upcoming US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as the EU’s January prohibitions on Russian products,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group.FGE’s Lindell estimates Lukoil and Rosneft’s combined Russia oil product exports are more than 800,000 barrels a day. The global seaborne trade in oil products is about 22mn barrels a day, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker.Any major disruption to those exports would be a shock to the global fuels market, though the extent to which those barrels would really disappear is unclear. Russia has shown that it often manages to work around sanctions.There are also questions about what comes next for refineries outside Russia in which Lukoil is involved, including Bulgaria’s Burgas facility, the Netherlands’ Zeeland plant and Romania’s Petrotel.Then there are the EU restrictions, coming into force January 21, which restrict the delivery of petroleum products made from Russian crude into the bloc. Precisely how these will end up impacting Europe’s diesel supplies from India and Turkey — both of which have also been key importers of Russian crude — remains to be seen.“The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, on top of the recent sanctions package out of the EU, tightened the noose around Russia’s neck,” said Carolyn Kissane, an associate dean at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, where she teaches about energy and climate change. “At the same time, you’re seeing more attacks driven by Ukraine against Russian infrastructure, which is a hit to the products market.”

Iran was laying plans Saturday to cut off water supplies periodically to Tehran's 10mn-strong population as it battles its worst drought in many decades.Rainfall in the capital has this year been at its lowest level in a century, local officials say, and half of Iran's provinces have not seen a drop fall in months.Now, to save water, the government is planning water cuts in Tehran -- and several local news outlets have already reported pipes running dry overnight in some areas."This will help avoid waste even though it may cause inconvenience," Iran's Energy Minister Abbas Ali Abadi said on state television.In a speech broadcast on Friday, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian had warned that Tehran might have to be evacuated if no rain falls before the end of the year.But he gave no details about how such a vast operation would be conducted.Tehran nestles on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountains and has hot dry summers usually relieved by autumn rains and winter snowfall.Tehran is by far the country's biggest city and its inhabitants use three million cubic metres of water per day, according to local media.The main Amir Kabir dam on the Karaj river, one of five reservoirs serving the capital, is running dry and holds only 14mn cubic litres, according to Behzad Parsa, director general of the Tehran water company, cited by the official news agency IRNA.During the same period last year, the reservoir held 86mn cubic metres, he added, but now it only has enough to maintain supplies to the Tehran region for less than two weeks.Saturday, state television broadcast images of several dams, serving the central city of Isfahan and Tabriz in the northwest, showing significantly lower water levels compared to previous years.Hassan Hosseini, the deputy Iran's second-largest city Mashhad, told IRNA agency on Thursday that night-time water cuts were being considered to address the water shortage.And over the summer on July and August, two public holidays were declared in Tehran to save water and energy, at a time when power outages were almost daily during the intense heatwave.

The State of Qatar has dispatched urgent relief and humanitarian aid to the city of Al Dabbah in the Northern State of the Republic of the Sudan, as part of its firm commitment to supporting the Sudanese people, particularly amid the difficult humanitarian conditions faced by civilians, including severe food shortages and an increasing need for shelter and essential supplies.**media[376433]**The aid includes approximately 3,000 food baskets, 1,650 shelter tents, and other essential items, provided by the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and Qatar Charity, to support displaced persons from the city of Al-Fashir and nearby areas.The assistance is expected to benefit more than 50,000 people and includes the establishment of a special camp for Qatari aid under the name “Qatar Al-Khair.”This initiative comes as part of Qatar’s ongoing efforts to stand by the people of Sudan and alleviate their suffering caused by the armed conflict.It also reflects Qatar’s leading humanitarian role in strengthening global response efforts and fostering solidarity with affected communities around the world.**media[376432]**

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna said that UNRWA has been unable to bring in any of the humanitarian supplies allocated to the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire coming into effect days before. Abu Hasna stressed that UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian work within the Gaza Strip and must lead the response there. He added that excluding UNRWA from humanitarian efforts in Gaza means the collapse of this process, as well as people's lack of trust in it. He explained that UNRWA employees continue to carry out their work despite the difficulties, but they have been prevented by the Israeli occupation from distributing food aid. Until now, Israel has not allowed UNRWA to bring in food and non-food aid, which is contained in 6,000 trucks waiting at the gates of the Gaza Strip. These trucks contain food supplies sufficient for the residents of the Gaza Strip for three months, he added. UNRWA also has hundreds of thousands of blankets, tents and clothes, as well as large quantities of medicine, Abu Hasna added. He stressed that these items must enter so that the agency can truly confront the harsh and dangerous conditions in the Strip, which are still deteriorating now. The war has stopped, the shooting has stopped, but unfortunately there are new aspects to this war, which is the continuation of the suffering, Abu Hasna stressed.