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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday (October 18, 2024) said it is difficult to specify a timeline for ending the prolonged war in Ukraine but asserted that his country will win, as he appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s concern over the situation.

Days ahead of the 16th BRICS Summit to be hosted by him, Mr. Putin also endorsed Mr. Modi’s description of the grouping, saying the Indian leader had “aptly” noted that it is “not an anti-western one but a non-western one”.

He also made it clear the grouping, which has since been expanded from five initial members to include five more countries, should not be seen as a “bloc style organisation”.

Mr. Modi is due to visit Kazan to attend the summit on October 22-23.

At an interaction with senior Editors from BRICS countries at his official residence Novo-Ogaryovo, about 50 km from Moscow, the Russian leader also indicated he could discuss giving Indian movies another boost when he meets Modi.

Asked by PTI whether he saw a role for India in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine, he referred to the concern expressed by Modi, whom he described as a “friend”. He said Russia was “grateful” for this.

Mr. Modi had told Putin on phone on August 27 that he backed an early, peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, days after he held talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. He had also visited Moscow in July.

In his remarks on September 5, Mr. Putin had identified India, China and Brazil as the countries with which Russia was in touch to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

Mr. Putin on Friday said setting a timeline on ending the war will be “counterproductive.” The Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in February 2022.

He blamed the U.S. and NATO for pushing Russia into the war, and said his country will prevail.

He added that the Ukraine army, on its own cannot handle precision weapon delivery systems.

“It is all done by NATO professionals. But you know what the difference is? NATO is waging a war against us….” He said the Russian army has become one of the most combat effective and high-tech armies in the world, and NATO will get tired of “waging this war against us”.

“We will have the upper hand. We’ll win. We’ll prevail,” he said through an interpreter at the media interaction.

The Russian leader expressed his willingness to negotiate peace and accused Ukraine of backing out from earlier efforts.

Besides India and Russia, the BRICS also has China, South Africa and Brazil. The grouping represents 24 per cent of the global GDP and 41 per cent of the world’s population and positions itself as an economic counterweight to the West.

The latest five entrants to the grouping are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mr. Putin said the doors of BRICS were not closed to new members, and as the grouping develops even the non-member countries will benefit economically.

The Russian leader said what sets this group apart from others is that BRICS was never meant to be against anyone.

On other issues, Mr. Putin accused the U.S. of trying to stem development in China. “It’s like telling the sun not to rise,” he said.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/no-timeline-on-ukraine-war-says-putin-appreciates-pm-modis-concern-endorses-description-of-brics/article68771679.ece

China’s economy grew at the slowest pace since early 2023 in the third quarter, and though consumption and industrial output figures for last month beat forecasts a tumbling property sector remains a big challenge for Beijing as it tries to boost growth.
The world’s second-largest economy grew 4.6% in July-September, official data showed, a touch above a 4.5% forecast in a Reuters poll but below the 4.7% pace in the second quarter.

Policymakers could find cause for optimism in forecast-topping industrial output and retail sales data for September, but the property sector continued to show sharp weakness and backs markets’ calls for more support steps.
“China’s Q3 2024 data is not a turn-up for the books,” said Bruce Pang, Chief Economist at JLL. “The performance aligns with market expectations, given the weak domestic demand, a still struggling housing market, and slowing export growth.”

“The stimulus package announced at the end of September will take time and patience to boost growth over the next several quarters,” he added.
The latest figures come as authorities have started to sharply increase stimulus measures in an effort to ensure the economy meets the government’s 2024 growth target of around 5%.
A Reuters poll showed China’s economy is likely to expand 4.8% in 2024, undershooting Beijing’s target, and growth could cool further to 4.5% in 2025.

The economy has stuttered through uneven growth this year, with industrial production outstripping domestic consumption, fanning deflationary risks amid the property downturn and mounting local government debt.
Policymakers, who have traditionally leaned on infrastructure and manufacturing investment to drive growth, have pledged to shift focus towards stimulating consumption, but markets are awaiting further details of a planned fiscal stimulus package.

On a quarterly basis, the economy expanded 0.9% in the third quarter, compared with 0.7% growth in April-June, and below forecast of 1.0%.
“While (the Q3 figure) is a marginal decline from the second quarter, it makes the official growth target of 5% difficult to achieve if this trend continues to year-end,” said Zhiwei Zhang, Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
“We are waiting for more clarity on the fiscal stimulus,” he added.
Recent data raised the risk of China sliding into an entrenched phase of deflationary pressures as prospects for exports, the economy’s lone bright spot this year, look to be dimming amid foreign trade curbs.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-economy-likely-have-slowed-q3-beijings-2024-target-risk-2024-10-17/

An Israeli drone captured Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s last minutes alive — as the Oct. 7 mastermind swung a piece of wood in a futile attempt to take out the device before he was killed, officials said.

Shocking footage shows the moment a drone is deployed to check a building in Rafah that a group of IDF soldiers hit on Thursday.

An injured Sinwar, who had his face covered and appeared be missing his right hand, could be seen sitting alone on a coach in the destroyed building, with the IDF soldiers unaware that they were seeing the very man they had been hunting for since he ordered the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on the Jewish state.

When Sinwar finally notices the drone hovering just a few feet from him, he struggles, using his left hand, to fling an object at the UAV in a last ditch effort to keep his whereabouts hidden.

The soldiers then ordered a second strike on the building, killing Sinwar and two other Hamas terrorists who were traveling with him.

After recovering the body and comparing it to the DNA samples the Israeli military retrieved from Sinwar during his time as a prisoner, officials confirmed the man killed in the strike was the terror chief.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters that Sinwar had likely been shot in his hand and taking refuge in the building when it was hit by the Israeli troops.

Hagari said Sinwar was likely on the move trying to escape north amid the Israeli military’s advancement in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fled to earlier this year.

Sinwar’s death has been hailed by US and Israeli officials as a major blow to Hamas with the potential of ending the war in Gaza and freeing the remaining 97 hostages who were abducted on Oct. 7.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/10/17/world-news/israeli-drone-captures-yahya-sinwars-last-moments-alive/

North Korea’s constitution now defines the South as a “hostile state”, according to state media, in the first mention of what Pyongyang’s recent constitutional revisions entailed.

State newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported the change as an “inevitable and legitimate measure”, at a time when tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years.

The North on Tuesday blew up roads and railways connecting it to South Korea – a move which state media described as “part of the step-by-step implementation to thoroughly separate [the Koreas]”.

Some observers see the constitutional amendment as a largely symbolic move, given North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renounced unification as early as December 2023.

At the time, state media reported Kim saying that inter-Korean relations had become “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war”.

Then, in January, he declared unification with South Korea as impossible, and hinted at constitutional changes to designate the South as the “principal enemy”.

A string of exchanges between the Koreas since then, particularly in the last few months, has seen tensions steadily rise.

The term “hostile states” has characterised North Korean communications for almost a year now, said Bruce Bennett, a defence analyst at Rand Corporation.

“It was a significant development when announced at the end of 2023, as it raised the risks of confrontation and the potential for an escalation spiral,” Mr Bennett told the BBC.

“Since then, Kim and his sister have made a number of nuclear weapon threats against [South Korea] and United States, and have escalated tensions with many actions. So the risks have grown.”

Many onlookers had expected Pyongyang to make constitutional amendments to unification and border policies at a Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) meeting last week – but no such changes were publicised until now.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wnxlxxwq2o

U.S. long-range B-2 stealth bombers launched airstrikes early Thursday morning targeting underground bunkers used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what damage was done in the strikes.

However, there are no previous reports of the B-2 Spirit being used in the strikes targeting the Houthis, who have been attacking ships for months in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported airstrikes around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which the group has held since 2014. They also reported strikes around the Houthi stronghold of Saada. They offered no immediate information on damage or casualties.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the B-2 bombers targeted “five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”

The strike also appeared to be an indirect warning to Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, which has targeted Israel with ballistic missile attacks twice over the past year. The B-2 would be used in any American attack on hardened Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz or Fordo given it is the only aircraft in service that can drop the GBU-57, known as the “Massive Ordnance Penetrator.”

“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said.

Austin and the U.S. military’s Central Command offered no immediate assessment on the damage done. However, Central Command said in a statement that initial assessments suggested no civilians had been killed.

The Red Sea has become a battlefield for shippers since the Houthis began their campaign targeting ships traveling through the waterway, which once saw $1 trillion of cargo pass through it yearly.

Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They have seized one vessel and sunk two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

The Houthis also continue to launch missiles targeting Israel and have shot down a number of U.S. military MQ-9 Reaper drones. The rebels have threatened new attacks in response to Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon and its killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The description and locations named by the Houthis on Thursday correspond to known underground bases operated by the rebels, who have been locked into a stalemated war with a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 that’s decimated the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/us-airstrikes-yemen-houthi-rebels-israel-hamas-war-99721f7f952d66d6da27e24dc3c189c3

A Russian man was rescued in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk after surviving for more than two months in a tiny inflatable boat that lost its engine, but his brother and nephew have died, officials said Tuesday.

The prosecutor’s office in the far east of Russia said that the man was rescued Monday by a fishing vessel off the Kamchatka Peninsula.

It didn’t name the survivor, but Russian news reports identified him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, who in early August set on a journey to watch whales in the Sea of Okhotsk together with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. Their bodies were reportedly found in the boat when the Angel fishing vessel rescued Pichugin.

Media reports said the three men traveled to the Shantar Islands off the northwestern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk in early August. They went missing after setting off for Sakhalin Island from Cape Perovsky in the Khabarovsk region on Aug. 9. A rescue effort was launched but failed to locate them.

Russian media reported that the trio had a small food ration and about 20 liters (5.2 gallons) of water when their engine failed and they found themselves adrift.

Pichugin weighed about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) when he was found, having lost half of his body weight, news reports said.

When the crew of the fishing vessel spotted the tiny inflatable boat on their radar, they initially thought it was a buoy or a piece of junk, news reports said, but they turned on the spotlight to make sure and were shocked to see Pichugin.

He didn’t immediately say how he managed to survive in the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest sea in East Asia and known for its gales, and how his brother and nephew died. The crew of the ship that rescued Pichugin found their bodies tied to the boat to prevent them from being washed away by the sea, news reports said.

When Pichugin was rescued, his boat was drifting about 11 nautical miles off Kamchatka’s shore, about 1,000 kilometers (about 540 nautical miles) from their departure point on the other side of the Sea of Okhotsk.

A video released by the prosecutor’s office showed an emaciated man in a life jacket desperately shouting “come here!” and the crew working to pull him back to safety.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-boat-adrift-rescue-sea-okhotsk-kamchatka-71722cac69b3f5bddb2e9d17cb9ff965

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to at least partially unveil a plan to win the war against Russia to his country’s Parliament on Wednesday after weeks of dropping hints about the blueprint to lukewarm Western allies, including U.S. President Joe Biden.

The plan — comprising military, political, diplomatic and economic elements — is considered by many as Ukraine’s last resort to strengthen its hand in any future cease-fire negotiations with Russia. Thus far, however, no country has publicly endorsed it or commented on its feasibility.

Zelenskyy is keen to get the “victory plan” in place before a new U.S. president is sworn in next year, though Ukrainian officials say neither presidential candidate will necessarily improve Kyiv’s standing in the war.

Zelenskyy’s presentation to Parliament, announced on Monday by presidential adviser Serhii Leshchenko, comes during a bleak moment in Ukraine. The country’s military is suffering losses along the eastern front as Russian forces inch closer to a strategically significant victory near the crucial logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

At every turn, Kyiv is outnumbered by Moscow: The country is struggling to replenish ranks with an unpopular mobilization drive; its ammunition stocks are limited; and Russia’s superiority in the skies is wreaking havoc for Ukrainian defensive lines.

It’s not clear how much of his victory plan Zelenskyy will reveal on Wednesday; Leshchenko indicated that it would be fully unveiled, while other officials suggested that the president would not divulge its most sensitive elements to all lawmakers.

Either way, the plan essentially puts Kyiv’s future in the hands of its allies. Without it, any deal with Russia would almost certainly be unfavorable for Ukraine, which has lost a fifth of its territory and tens of thousands of lives in the conflict. Kyiv would be unlikely to ever recover occupied territory, or receive reparations for widespread destruction across the country.

Several elements of the plan have already come to light: making Ukraine a member of NATO; allowing the country to use Western long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russia; providing resources to strengthen Ukraine’s air and other defenses, and intensifying sanctions against Russia.

Ukraine’s surprise military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August was also part of the plan, Zelenskyy told reporters. He said the 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory captured by Ukraine — along with other provisions of the plan — will likely serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia.

NATO’s Article 5 states that an attack against one member is considered an attack against all. Ukraine’s inclusion in the alliance would deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading again, Ukrainian officials argue. Western leaders have so far been reluctant to guarantee an invitation, fearing escalation from Putin.

Ukrainian officials were expecting feedback from Western allies at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, during which defense leaders from 50-plus partner nations gather to coordinate weapons aid for the war. Scheduled for this past weekend, the summit was postponed after Biden canceled his attendance in response to Hurricane Milton in the U.S.

Zelenskyy has since toured Western capitals to present other key allies an outline of his vision. But none so far have given any indication they will support the plan. Some expressed concerns over the tight deadline set by Zelenskyy, who gave allies just three months to adopt the blueprint’s main tenets in late September.

Thus far, the U.S. has been Kyiv’s main backer during the two-and-a-half-year war. But Biden has balked at the request to use long-range weapons to strike specific targets inside Russia, fearing a possible escalation in the war. Meanwhile, an intensifying conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hezbollah that risks embroiling Iran has diverted Washington’s attention.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-victory-plan-unveiled-zelenskyy-parliament-f3525550f6986f590777193a7385c0c5#

The United Nations Security Council on Monday expressed strong concern after several U.N. peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon came under fire amid clashes between the Israeli military and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
In a statement adopted by consensus, the 15-member council also urged all parties – without naming them – to respect the safety and se

curity of the personnel and premises of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL.

“U.N. peacekeepers and U.N. premises must never be the target of an attack,” said the council, reiterating its support for UNIFIL and the operation’s importance for regional stability.
The Security Council also called for the full implementation of its resolution 1701, which was adopted in 2006 with the aim of keeping peace on the border between Lebanon and Israel. The council “recognized the need for further practical measures to achieve that outcome,” but did not offer specifics.

Since the start of Israeli ground operation in Lebanon on Oct. 1, UNIFIL positions have been affected 20 times, including by direct fire and an incident on Sunday when two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a UNIFIL base, the U.N. said.
“Five peacekeepers have been injured during these incidents, including one peacekeeper who sustained a bullet wound,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday. “The source of that gunfire has yet to be confirmed by UNIFIL.”

For the past two weeks Israel has been telling U.N. peacekeepers to move 5 km (3 miles) back from the so-called Blue Line – a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights – for their own safety.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday in a statement addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL.”

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Monday that U.N. troops would not move. After briefing the Security Council behind closed doors, he told reporters that he would meet with Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon on Tuesday.
Lacroix added that the U.N. is “reviewing constantly the situation, and we have contingency planning for all scenarios.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-security-council-backs-lebanon-peacekeepers-after-israeli-attacks-2024-10-14/

The catching of the booster was not guaranteed. Both it and the launch tower had to be in good, stable conditions but the manoeuvre is considered a major breakthrough as, previously, early stages of rocket launch vehicles were regarded as expendable.

A SpaceX booster rocket has returned to earth and been caught by giant robotic arms – following a successful launch of the company’s reusable Starship spacecraft.

It was the first attempt to bring the rocket’s 232-foot (71 metre) Super Heavy booster back to the launch tower.

Three of its 33 Raptor engines were re-ignited to slow its speedy descent.

After separating from the Starship second stage at a height of 46 miles (74km), the booster returned to Boca Chica in Texas, where it was grabbed and clamped in place using what the company describes as “chopsticks”.

Arguably, they look more like massive pincers mounted on a huge steel tower.

The catching of the booster was not guaranteed. Both it and the launch tower had to be in good, stable conditions, SpaceX said.

But it settled into position in what appeared to be a calm, controlled manner.

The manoeuvre is considered a major breakthrough: previously, similar-sized rocket launch vehicles, like Saturn V, crashed back down to Earth and were regarded as expendable.

SpaceX tweeted that “Mechazilla” had caught the “Super Heavy booster!”

“Are you kidding me?” SpaceX’s Dan Huot said. “I am shaking right now.”

“This is a day for the engineering history books,” added SpaceX’s Kate Tice.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk said on X, which he also owns: “The tower has caught the rocket!!”

Space journalist Kate Arkless Gray said the booster was still travelling at a supersonic speed less than a minute before landing.

“The deceleration involved in that is wild,” she told Sky News.

She added: “SpaceX have really, really innovated. Even just a few years ago, the idea of bringing a booster back to land or a barge in the sea – no one was doing that.”

The Starship second stage, meanwhile, continued on into space before landing in the Indian Ocean, west of Australia, following its fifth test flight from the launch pad on the border with Mexico.

“Splashdown confirmed!”, SpaceX said on social media.

The Starship second stage and the Super Heavy booster are designed to carry crew and cargo to the moon and beyond – and be reusable.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the launch only yesterday, weeks earlier than expected.

Previously, the FAA said a decision on Starship 5 was not expected until late November.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/spacex-rocket-booster-makes-successful-landing-attempt-after-test-launch-as-it-is-caught-by-chopsticks-13232854

A man with a shotgun and a loaded handgun was arrested at a security checkpoint outside Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella Valley, California, on Saturday night.

Police officers in California arrested a man with weapons near a rally being held by Donald Trump, it has emerged.

The 49-year-old man was found in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun and high-capacity magazine on Saturday afternoon local time.

Officers stopped him at a checkpoint near the rally in Coachella in a black SUV before Donald Trump arrived.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told a press conference on Sunday his deputies probably “stopped the third assassination attempt”.

However, a federal law enforcement official said there is no indication at this time there was an assassination attempt on Mr Trump on Saturday, NBC reported.

The Secret Service and the FBI are investigating.

VIPs and the media were being sent through police checkpoints where drivers were asked to open the boots and car bonnets of their vehicles, which were then searched by an officer with a dog.

Sheriff Bianco said his deputies became suspicious when the man approached the perimeter.

“There were many irregularities that popped up,” said Sheriff Bianco at a press conference on Sunday.

His officers “noticed the interior of the vehicle was in disarray and had an obviously fake licence plate”.

The man was found with multiple passports and driving licences with different names, his vehicle was unregistered and his licence plate was homemade, according to Sheriff Bianco.

The Secret Service said in a statement: “We were contacted as it happened and Secret Service agents conducted a productive intelligence interview.

“It had no impact on the event and we are looking into the circumstances and the backgrounds of the individuals.”

The man was released from custody on the same day with a $5,000 (£3,800) bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on 2 January next year, according to online records.

He was charged with possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine, according to the sheriff’s office.

During the press conference, Sheriff Bianco was asked if he was being dramatic when he suggested his officers had stopped an assassination attempt.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/man-with-weapons-including-high-capacity-magazine-stopped-at-checkpoint-near-donald-trump-rally-13233134

Vice President Kamala Harris released a report on her medical history on Saturday in what her campaign hopes will spotlight former President Trump’s failure to do so, a senior aide said.

Why it matters: If he wins in November, Trump will be the oldest president in U.S. history by the end of his term. But he has yet to release basic health information.

• Harris’ two-page medical report concludes she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties” of the presidency, including those of commander-in-chief.

The latest: The letter from Col. Joshua Simmons of the White House Military Office says Harris is a “healthy 59-year-old female who has a medical history notable for seasonal allergies and urticaria,” a common skin condition.

• The physician adds Harris “has mild myopia (nearsightedness),” uses “corrective contact lenses with resultant 20/20 vision” and is “able to read comfortably without contacts or glasses.”
• Her family history “is notable for a maternal history of colon cancer,” Simmons writes.
• “She has no personal history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neurological disorders, cancer or osteoporosis.”

Source: https://www.axios.com/2024/10/12/harris-medical-records-release

After weeks of intensive diplomacy aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants, the United States has settled on an altogether different approach: let the unfolding conflict in Lebanon play out.
Just two weeks ago, the United States and France were demanding an immediate 21-day ceasefire to ward off an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. That effort was derailed by Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah, the Oct. 1 launch of Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon and Israeli airstrikes that have wiped out much of the group’s leadership.

Kenzie Lewellen, 22, made a perilous journey to hospital and needed an unplanned caesarean section as the baby was in the wrong position. “I was very scared,” the first-time mother said.

A woman has given birth to a “miracle baby” during Hurricane Milton after making a perilous journey to hospital while in labour.

Kenzie Lewellen, who was 39 weeks pregnant, witnessed the devastation from her hospital window, with a tree being ripped out of the ground as the massive storm pounded Florida earlier this week.

She also needed a caesarean section as the baby boy was in the wrong position. “I was very scared,” the first-time mother said.

Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm at about 8.30pm local time on Wednesday (1.30am UK time on Thursday), causing massive flooding and leaving millions of people without power.

At least 16 people have been confirmed dead in Florida in the hurricane’s aftermath, including at least five due to tornadoes in St Lucie County.

Ms Lewellen’s labour began at home in Port Charlotte at 4am on Wednesday, Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports.

At that time, the storm had not yet hit the state but Ms Lewellen and her boyfriend Dewey Bennett’s house already started taking in water before her contractions began.

“My mind was just running a million miles an hour, like, what am I going to do?” the 22-year-old woman said. “I was very nervous.”

Then, after she had been in labour for more than four hours at home, the couple started making their way to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Venice.

“My mom was driving us, and it was extremely windy, so we were trying to be as cautious as possible,” Ms Lewellen said.

“There was not really many people on the roads, because it was so windy outside and it was raining quite a bit.”

The couple were even more on edge during the medical emergency as Mr Bennett’s father, also named Dewey, had died when Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida in 2017.

“My dad had a massive heart attack because the ambulance could not come out to us during the storm,” the 24-year-old said.

“I just didn’t want to go through what I had to go through with the last hurricane back in 2017,” added Mr Bennett.

Watching a tree uproot during labour

When the trio arrived at hospital, only one person could be with her. So, Ms Lewellen had to say goodbye to her mother.

“I was very, very upset that my mom couldn’t stay, because she is my best friend and one of my biggest supporters,” she said. But “we were able to FaceTime pretty much the entire time”.

She then went through labour in a room with a window view of the destruction as the storm struck the area.

“I was telling him [Mr Bennett], I’m like, ‘Oh, that tree looks like it’s going to fly out of the ground!’ when I was labouring, because we were just watching the storm and the wind and the rain go crazy. It was definitely intense out there,” she said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/hurricane-milton-baby-born-during-massive-storm-is-a-miracle-says-mother-13232002

Boeing will cut 17,000 jobs — 10% of its global workforce — delay first deliveries of its 777X jet by a year and record $5 billion in losses in the third quarter, as the U.S. planemaker continues to spiral during a month-long strike.
CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees that the significant downsizing is necessary “to align with our financial reality” after an ongoing strike by 33,000 U.S. West Coast workers halted production of its 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets.

“We reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities. Over the coming months, we are planning to reduce the size of our total workforce by roughly 10%. These reductions will include executives, managers and employees,” Ortberg’s message said.
Boeing shares fell 1.1% in after-market trading.
The sweeping changes are a big move by Ortberg, who arrived in August at the helm of the beleaguered planemaker promising to reset relations with the union and its employees.

Boeing recorded pre-tax earnings charges totaling $5 billion for its defense business and two commercial plane programs. On Sept. 20, Boeing ousted the head of its troubled space and defense unit Ted Colbert.
Boeing, which reports third-quarter earnings on Oct. 23, said in a separate release it now expects revenue of $17.8 billion, a loss per share of $9.97, and a better-than-expected negative operating cash flow of $1.3 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting Boeing to generate quarterly cash burn of negative $3.8 billion, according to LSEG data.
Thomas Hayes, equity manager at Great Hill Capital, said the layoffs could put pressure on employees to end the strike.
“Striking workers who temporarily do not have a paycheck do not want to become unemployed workers who permanently do not have a paycheck,” Hayes said in an email. “I would estimate the strike will be resolved within a week as these workers do not want to find themselves in the next batch of 17,000 cuts.”

Reaching a deal to end the work stoppage is critical for Boeing, which filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday accusing the machinists union of failing to bargain in good faith. Ratings agency S&P estimated the strike is costing Boeing $1 billion a month and the company risks losing its prized investment-grade credit rating.
Ortberg also said Boeing has notified customers that it now expects first delivery of its 777X in 2026 due to challenges in development, the flight-test pause and the work stoppage. Boeing had already faced issues with certification of the 777X that had significantly delayed the plane’s launch.
“While our business is facing near-term challenges, we are making important strategic decisions for our future and have a clear view on the work we must do to restore our company,” Ortberg added.
Boeing will end its 767 freighter program in 2027 when it completes and delivers the remaining 29 planes ordered but said production for the KC-46A Tanker will continue.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union representing striking workers, said in a statement Boeing’s announcement regarding the 767 commercial freighter was troubling and that it would assess its implications.
IAM also described Boeing’s claims against the union with the National Labor Relations Board as groundless.
It said both those claims and the discontinuation of the 767 cargo plane seemed intended to distract from the group’s “failure to return to the negotiating table with their frontline workers”.
Jon Holden, President of IAM District 751, said in the statement Boeing’s attempt to bargain in the press “won’t work and it is detrimental to the bargaining process”.
He also said an unwillingness to negotiate would only prolong the strike.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-cut-17000-jobs-delay-first-777x-delivery-strike-hits-finances-2024-10-11/

Gunmen killed 20 miners and wounded another seven in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said Friday, drawing condemnation from authorities as a search was launched for the attackers.

The latest attack in restive Balochistan province came days ahead of a major security summit being hosted in the capital.

The gunmen stormed the accommodations at the coal mine in Duki district late Thursday night, rounded up the men and opened fire, police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said. He said the attackers also fired rockets and lobbed grenades at the coal mine and damaged the machinery used for the mining before fleeing.

Most of the men attacked were from Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were Afghan. Angered over the attack, local shop owners pulled their shutters down to observe a daylong strike against the killing.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, but the suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, which often targets civilians and security forces.

Authorities say police and paramilitary forces are searching for the attackers.

The group committed multiple attacks in August that killed more than 50 people, while authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province. Those killed included 23 passengers, mostly from eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail district in Baluchistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his deep sorrow over the killings and vowed to eliminate terrorism.

Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Balochistan said “terrorists have once again targeted poor laborers.” He said the attackers were cruel and had an agenda to destabilize Pakistan. “The killing of these innocent laborers would be avenged,” he said in a statement.

The group committed multiple attacks in August that killed more than 50 people, while authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province. Those killed included 23 passengers, mostly from eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail district in Baluchistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his deep sorrow over the killings and vowed to eliminate terrorism.

Sarfraz Bugti, the chief minister in Balochistan said “terrorists have once again targeted poor laborers.” He said the attackers were cruel and had an agenda to destabilize Pakistan. “The killing of these innocent laborers would be avenged,” he said in a statement.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-miners-killed-b4302a6af4888c009212bea622f76679#

The U.S. Department of Justice’s proposed remedies to break up Google’s search dominance could weaken its main profit engine and stall its advances in artificial intelligence, even though a final outcome may be years away, analysts said.
The DOJ said on Tuesday it may ask a judge to force Google to divest parts of its business such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that the Alphabet-owned company (GOOGL.O), opens new tab used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search.

It is only one of the many potential fixes prosecutors are considering.
Barring Google from collecting sensitive user data, requiring it to make search results and indexes available to rivals, letting websites opt out of their content being used to train AI products and making Google report to a “court-appointed technical committee” are also on the table.
Alphabet investors, who have seen several antitrust actions this year including a ruling on Monday ordering Google to open up its app store, sent shares 1.5% lower to $161.86 at Wednesday’s close, after the DOJ news.

The remedies strike at the heart of the internet empire that has made Google synonymous with search and can reduce its revenue while giving its rivals more room to grow.
“The DOJ has reverse engineered Google’s formula for success and is intent in dismantling it,” said Gil Luria, managing director and senior software analyst at D.A. Davidson.
“The proposed privacy and data accumulation remedies would give Google the choice to either share all the data it collects or stop gathering the data in the first place. As it will likely choose the former, that could strengthen its competitors and possibly create new competition,” Luria said.

Analysts warned that the AI-related remedies could disrupt Google’s business when it is already under pressure from startups such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI and AI-powered search engine operator Perplexity.

‘REMEDY SPAGHETTI’

Hurricane Milton is expected to be so ferocious, it will cover nearly every beach on Florida’s west coast — and forever change the Sunshine State’s coastline, experts have warned.

At least 95% of Florida’s west coast beaches are forecast to be inundated — or continuously covered by ocean water — when the hurricane, predicted to be one of the strongest ever, is expected to make landfall Wednesday as many still recover from Helene, the US Geological Survey.

“This is the most severe level of coastal change,” the federal agency warned — while saying that “Milton’s waves and surge” could cause “erosion and overwash” to 100% of the state’s beaches.

“The significance of the coastal change forecast for Milton’s impact to the Florida west coast cannot be overstated,” USGS scientist Kara Doran said.

The damage is even worse because “communities are more vulnerable to this storm’s impacts due to the erosion that occurred recently from Helene,” Doran stressed.

Imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after Helene showed Florida’s west coast already experienced “overwash or inundation and complete erosion of those dunes,” meaning protective banks of sand usually along the shoreline no longer exist in many locations, the expert noted.

USGS experts forecast a “severe” level of coastal change that will likely cause flooding behind sand dunes, and endanger coastal communities.

While the USGS forecast is a “worst-case scenario,” the agency wrote, the National Hurricane Center has also warned that Milton may bring life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds and heavy rain, specifically to the Tampa Bay region.

During an overnight update going into Wednesday, the center noted Milton was a “Catastrophic Category 5” storm expected to make landfall later that night.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/10/09/us-news/hurricane-milton-expected-to-be-so-powerful-it-could-forever-change-floridas-coastline/

The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who arrived in the U.S. in September 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan, officials said.

The arrest comes as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over the possibility of extremist violence on U.S. soil, with Director Christopher Wray telling The Associated Press in August that he was “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”

“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” Wray said in a statement Tuesday.

An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack. A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, “a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.”

Officials say Tawhedi also consumed Islamic State propaganda, contributed to a charity that functions as a front for the militant group and communicated with a person who the FBI determined from a prior investigation was involved in recruitment and indoctrination of people interested in extremism. He also viewed webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument in July.

Tawhedi’s alleged co-conspirator was not identified by the Justice Department, which described him only as a juvenile, a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife.

After the two advertised the sale of personal property on Facebook, the FBI enlisted an informant last month to respond to the offer and strike up a relationship. The informant later invited them to a gun range, where they ordered weapons from an undercover FBI official who was posing as a business partner of the informant, according to court papers.

Tawhedi was arrested Monday after taking possession of two AK-47 rifles and ammunition he had ordered, officials said. The unidentified co-conspirator was also arrested but the Justice Department did not provide details because he is a juvenile.

After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people.

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

MI5 director general Ken McCallum says the UK faces an increased threat from “Putin’s henchmen” and “plot after plot” from Iran.

Russia is trying to create “mayhem” on the UK’s streets, the head of the MI5 has warned.

In a wide-ranging speech, the organisation’s director general Ken McCallum said Britain faces an increased threat from “Putin’s henchmen” and “plot after plot” from Iran.

He also revealed a growing number of children are being investigated for terrorism in the UK.

It comes as Islamic terrorism is also re-emerging, with Mr McCallum saying “the trend that concerns me most [is] the worsening threat from Al Qaeda and in particular from Islamic State”.

“After a few years of being pinned well back, they’ve resumed efforts to export terrorism,” he added.

Over the last month, more than a third of MI5’s top priority investigations have had links to organised overseas terrorist groups.

Mr McCallum revealed that, overall, MI5 and the police have disrupted 43 “late-stage” terrorist plots since March 2017.

He said some plotters planned mass murder through the use of firearms and explosives.

The split of MI5’s counter-terrorism work is roughly 75% Islamist and 25% extreme right-wing, although Mr McCallum described a “dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies” as people access a range of online hatred, conspiracy theories and disinformation.

In his first speech of its kind in two years, Mr McCallum said his team had “a hell of a job on its hands” and painted a picture of a multifaceted threat facing the UK, with resurgent terrorist organisations such as Al Qaeda and IS, in addition to state terrorism from countries such as Iran and Russia.

Mr McCallum said state threat work has risen 48% in a year, revealing that since January 2022, MI5 and the police have responded to 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots.

He said the threat from Iran has increased “at an unprecedented scale”, warning that it – along with Russia – were “using proxies” such as organised criminals to “do their dirty work”.

More than 750 Russian diplomats, many of them spies, have been expelled from Europe since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

While this has dented Russian intelligence services, Mr McCallum said they are on a “sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets” with “arson, sabotage and more”.

He had a message to criminals considering taking on work for hostile states, saying: “If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the UK, you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you. It’s a choice you’ll regret.”

Mr McCallum also offered counter-sabotage support to businesses through MI5’s protective security arm, the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA).

But the statistic that 13% of people under investigation were children was one of the most unexpected developments – it is a three-fold increase in three years.

Mr McCallum said MI5 is seeing “far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/growing-number-of-children-involved-in-uk-terrorism-head-of-mi5-warns-13230236

Israel’s prime minister has urged the Lebanese people to throw out Hezbollah and avoid “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza”.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s appeal on Tuesday came as Israel expanded its invasion against Hezbollah by sending thousands more troops into a new zone in south-west Lebanon. Its military said 50 Hezbollah members were killed in air strikes on Monday.

The Lebanese health ministry said 36 people were killed and 150 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched barrages of rockets towards the Israeli port of Haifa for the third consecutive day, injuring 12 people.

During a video address directed at the people of Lebanon, Netanyahu said: “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.

“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”

Netanyahu also claimed the Israel Defense Forces had killed the successor to Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but the IDF later said it could not confirm Hashem Safieddine’s death.

Hezbollah has remained defiant despite three weeks of intense Israeli strikes and other attacks that Lebanese officials say have killed more than 1,400 people and displaced another 1.2 million.

Earlier on Tuesday, Nasrallah’s former deputy, Naim Qassem, insisted Hezbollah had overcome the recent “painful blows” from Israel and that its capabilities were “fine”.

Israel has gone on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

The hostilities have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.

On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced that reservists from its 146th Division had begun “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” in south-western Lebanon.

It joined three standing army divisions which have been operating in central and eastern areas of southern Lebanon since the invasion began on 30 September – reportedly bringing the total number of soldiers deployed to over 15,000.

The IDF said troops had taken control of what it called a Hezbollah “combat compound” in the border village of Maroun al-Ras and published photos showing what it said was a loaded rocket launcher in an olive grove, as well as weapons and equipment inside a residential building.

Drone footage meanwhile showed widespread destruction in the nearby village of Yaroun, which was an initial target of the invasion.

Meanwhile, the UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeeping force warned in a joint statement that the humanitarian impact of the conflict was “nothing short of catastrophic”.

Lebanon’s government says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes over the past year. Almost 180,000 people are in approved centres for the displaced.

In addition, more than 400,000 people have fled into war-torn Syria, including more than 200,000 Syrian refugees – a situation that the head of the UN’s refugee agency described as one of “tragic absurdity”.

The World Food Programme said there was “extraordinary concern for Lebanon’s ability to continue to feed itself” because thousands of hectares of farmland had been burned or abandoned.

The IDF also said its aircraft had carried out a new round of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the group has a strong presence, and other areas of Lebanon on Tuesday.

Earlier, it announced that a strike in the capital on Monday had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters, Suhail Husseini.

Hezbollah did not comment on the claim. But if confirmed, it would be the latest in a series of severe blows Israel has dealt to the group, with Hassan Nasrallah and most of its military commanders having been killed in similar recent strikes.

Hashem Safieddine, a top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed his cousin Nasrallah as leader, has not been heard from publicly since an Israeli air strike reportedly targeted him in Beirut last Thursday.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday evening the military could not confirm claims by Netanyahu and Israel’s defence minister that Safieddine was killed in the attack, adding that the IDF was examining the results of the operation.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader said in a defiant televised address from an undisclosed location on Tuesday that its command and control was “solid” and had “no vacant positions”, citing its attacks on Israel in recent days.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly3x1w0595o

NASA’s DART mission deliberately crashed into the Dimorphos asteroid in 2022 as scientists test whether space objects can be deflected from a collision course with our planet.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully launched Hera, its first planetary defence mission designed to assess whether future asteroids can be deflected from a collision course with Earth.

The probe, which is about the size of a small car, is on its way to a pair of asteroids 195 million kilometres away from Earth, one of which NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into two years ago.

It is ESA’s part of a collaboration with NASA to develop future technologies to protect the Earth from a catastrophic asteroid impact.

“The risk of an asteroid hitting our planet affects everyone everywhere, making planetary defence an inherently international endeavour,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA.

In September 2022, NASA’s DART mission deliberately crashed into the 151m-wide asteroid Dimorphos.

Its goal was to see if smashing a vending machine-sized space probe into an asteroid could nudge it enough to deflect it from a direct hit with Earth.

Dimorphos is a moon of a larger asteroid, Didymos – the binary asteroid chosen as a target.

It was thought the smaller asteroid would remain in its parent’s gravitational pull, eliminating the risk of a future collision with Earth even if the prang with DART proved unpredictable.

Observations of the DART impact revealed it shifted Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos by around 32 minutes – 26 times greater than the minimum deflection predicted by NASA scientists.

Hera is designed to provide a detailed post-match analysis of the DART-Dimorphos encounter so it can be developed into a strategy for planetary defence.

As well as studying Dimorphos and Didymos in detail using 11 on-board instruments, it will deploy two micro-satellites that will go into orbit around the asteroid system.

Their missions will end with the two probes landing on Dimorphos’s rubble-like surface, hopefully providing new details about its composition.

“Hera will gather the data we need to turn kinetic impact into a well understood and repeatable technique on which all of us may rely on one day,” said Mr Aschbacher.

While most of us think of civilisation-ending asteroid impacts as the stuff of Hollywood movies, they remain a genuine, albeit low, risk.

Over our 4.5 billion year history, Earth has suffered more than three million impacts from various bits of space rock.

Perhaps the most famous was the impact 66 million years ago of a 180km-wide asteroid in what is now Chicxulub, Mexico.

The resulting planetary-scale extinction event helped consign dinosaurs to the natural history books.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/hera-spacecraft-launched-to-investigate-asteroid-that-was-deliberately-hit-by-nasa-mission-13229937

‘The Big One’ at Talladega Superspeedway made its presence felt during Sunday’s YellaWood 500, claiming nearly entire field in a historically large crash.

The YellaWood 500 devolved into chaos after “The Big One” claimed nearly the entire field. The massive crash involved 28 cars, marking the most drivers ever wiped out in a single crash in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.

With just five laps remaining in the playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski got shoved into the bumper of race-leader Austin Cindric while running in the bottom line. The No. 2 Ford went flying up the track following the bump, collecting a plethora of other cars running behind him.

When the dust had finally settled on the massive crash, a record-breaking 28 drivers were affected – including postseason contenders Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman. Cindric, Michael McDowell and Daniel Hemric, meanwhile, were taken to the infield care center to be assessed for injuries but were soon after released.

When asked to recall what caused the harrowing incident, McDowell told reporters: “I’m not really sure, to be honest with you. I came down the back straightaway and saw one car get turned – I don’t even know what car it was – and everybody just [ran] right into each other. So I didn’t have a whole lot of time to react, I was kind of in the middle of it before it even started.

“It’s unfortunate, it’s part of speedway racing. I mean, you know when you get down to that five [laps] to go the intensity ratchets up. To be honest with you, we didn’t do a good job of controlling our own destiny. You need to be in that top four when you cycle out of that last pit stop to not ensure that you won’t be in it, but it gives you a lot better fighting chance. Because when you’re running 12-15 you’re gonna be in it, it’s just whether or not you can drive away from it.”

Logano – who suffered a DNF and placed 33rd – expressed a similar sentiment. “Everyone just gets more aggressive at the end of the races,” he said. “I mean, it’s nobody’s fault. It’s not Brad’s fault. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the product of the races we got. Everyone’s getting more and more aggressive as the laps wind down. It happens. It happens a lot.”

Source: https://www.the-express.com/sport/motorsport/150835/nascar-biggest-crash-YellaWood-500

Mohamed Muizzu, whose government is staring at an economic crisis in the island nation, is visiting New Delhi to reset his country’s ties with India.

Mohamed Muizzu’s India visit: Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for a four-day state visit, has assured that his country would never do anything that undermines the security of India.

Muizzu, whose government is staring at an economic crisis in the island nation, is visiting India to reset his country’s ties with New Delhi.

The Maldives-India ties had been strained since the former asked Indian troops to withdraw from the island nation. The Maldives’ ministers’ objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi further strained the bilateral relations.

Muizzu, who is known to be close to the Chinese administration, said on Sunday that the country’s relations with China will not jeopardise India’s security.

“Maldives would never do anything that undermines the security of India. India is a valued partner and friend of the Maldives, and our relationship is built on mutual respect and shared interests. While we enhance our cooperation with other countries in various sectors, we remain committed to ensuring that our actions don’t compromise the security and stability of our region,” he told The Times of India in an interview.

When asked about his decision on Indian troops withdrawal, Muizzu said he was addressing what he called domestic priorities.

“Maldives and India now have a better understanding of each other’s priorities and concerns. What I did is what the people of Maldives asked of me. The recent changes reflect our efforts to address domestic priorities. Our review of past agreements is aimed at ensuring they align with our national interests and contribute positively to regional stability,” he said.

He said the relationship between India and the Maldives has been strong and his visit will further strengthen it.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mohamed-muizzu-on-china-maldives-would-never-do-anything-that-undermines-indias-security-101728263585090.html

Police in Pakistan’s capital fired teargas on Friday as they clashed with supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan who were holding an anti-government rally in defiance of a ban on congregating in the city.
Authorities had sealed off Islamabad, and blocked cellphone services to prevent the gathering, with the city on high alert in the lead-up to a series of high-level diplomatic events, including a visit from the India foreign minister, scheduled over the next two weeks.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives his first address at Friday prayers in five years after Iran fired a barrage of at least 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday night.

Iran’s supreme leader has claimed its missile attack on Israel was “fully legal and legitimate” – as he warned “it will be done in the future again if it becomes necessary”.

In a rare speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also described the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October as a “legitimate” act – and he urged Tehran’s allies to “double your efforts and capabilities” against a “common enemy”.

Mr Khamenei had a rifle by his side as he gave his first address at Friday prayers in five years after Iran fired a barrage of at least 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday night.

The strikes were in retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on Lebanon which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other members of the militant group’s top command.

Hezbollah is designated a terror group by the UK, the US and other Western nations.

Mr Khamenei praised the Iranian retaliation in his address on Friday, telling those gathered at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran: “The shining job by our armed forces two or three nights ago was fully legal and legitimate.”

“It will be done in the future again if it becomes necessary,” he added.

The 85-year-old’s hand occasionally grasped the barrel of a rifle that stood to his left, a custom that has been followed by Friday prayer leaders across the country for decades.

Iran said it hit most of its targets on Tuesday but there have been no reports of casualties and Israel claimed it intercepted many of the missiles.

The Iran attack was the latest escalation as fears have grown of an all-out war in the region since Hamas carried out an attack on Israel in October last year – killing around 1,200 people and taking a further 250 hostage.

Israel has responded by launching air and ground attacks in Gaza – with the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory saying so far more than 41,000 people have been killed. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and fighters.

In his 40-minute speech just days away from the anniversary of the Hamas attack, Mr Khamenei said the Palestinian militant group’s incursion was a “legitimate” action and that “every country has the right to defend itself from aggressors”.

It is not the first time Mr Khamenei has praised the Hamas incursion, as shortly after the attack he said Israel’s “own actions are to blame for this disaster”.

In his speech on Friday, Iran’s supreme leader urged nations from “Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Yemen” to be ready to take action against Israel and praised those who had died doing so.

“Our resisting people in Lebanon and Palestine, you brave fighters, you loyal and patient people, these martyrdoms and the blood that was shed shouldn’t shake your determination but make you more persistent,” he said.

Reflecting on the Iranian strikes on Israel, Mr Khamenei told Tehran’s allies in region: “We’re defending ourselves but we’re also defending you against a common enemy that through violence and terror seeks to destroy our way of life.”

Mr Khamenei also told Israel adversaries to “double your efforts and capabilities… and resist the aggressive enemy”.

A ceremony commemorating the death of Nasrallah was held before the supreme leader’s speech.

Most high-ranking Iranian officials, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and top Revolutionary Guard generals, attended the ceremony.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/irans-supreme-leader-warns-missile-attack-on-israel-will-be-done-again-if-necessary-13227764

Trump and Harris are in swing states today, with the vice president heading to the “birthplace of the Republican Party”. Ask a question for our experts in the comments box at the top of this page.

Bruce Springsteen backs Harris in latest celebrity endorsement
Bruce Springsteen endorsed Kamala Harris for president today, calling her opponent Donald Trump the “most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”

In a three-minute video published on social media, Mr Springsteen spent much of his endorsement attacking Mr Trump, saying that the former president “doesn’t understand the meaning of this country” and has displayed a “disdain” for America’s democratic system.

Mr Springsteen said, by comparison, Ms Harris has a “vision of this country that respects and includes everyone — regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view or sexual identity.”

He added that he believed her platform centred on growing the economy for everyone, and that her approach aligned with “the vision of America I have been consistently writing about for 55 years.”

‘I’ll always stand with Ukraine’

An Israeli strike on Friday morning near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.
Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater.
An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.

“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people – a vast majority of them Syrian – had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.
The escalating fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into the Middle East conflict raging on several fronts.

However, Biden said more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war, as Israel’s military hit Beirut with new air strikes in its battle against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.
“But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet.”
While the United States, the European Union, and other allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Biden said the U.S. was discussing with Israel its options for responding to Tehran’s assault, which included Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities.
“We’re discussing that,” Biden told reporters.
His comments contributed to a surge in global oil prices, and rising Middle East tension has made traders worry about potential supply disruptions.
However, Biden added: “There is nothing going to happen today.” Asked later if he was urging Israel not to attack Iran’s oil installations, Biden said he would not negotiate in public.
On Wednesday, the president said he would not support any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
On Thursday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told CNN his country had “a lot of options” for retaliation and would show Tehran its strength “soon”.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-strikes-heart-beirut-killing-six-2024-10-02/

A US bomb buried at a Japanese airport exploded on Wednesday, causing a crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights.

The minor blast left a hole about seven meters (23 feet) wide but no casualties were reported and no aircraft were nearby at the time.

The bomb, which exploded at Miyazaki Airport in south-west Japan, is thought to have been dropped during World War Two to stem “kamikaze” planes on suicide missions.

“There is no threat of a second explosion, and police and firefighters are currently examining the scene,” chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said, adding that the airport aimed to reopen on Thursday.

A bomb disposal team from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces confirmed a 500lb US bomb had been the source of the blast.

While a transport minister said they could not confirm when the bomb was dropped, local media reported it was likely during World War Two.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly5l4nxgg9o

A Russian guided bomb struck a five-storey apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, late on Wednesday, starting fires and injuring at least 10 people, local officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the strike, the latest in a long series of attacks on the city, underscored the need for more help from Ukraine’s Western backers. He pointed to Iran’s strike on Israel as an example of allies working together.

He said that in order to stop Russian strikes, “Ukraine must receive the necessary, and most importantly, sufficient help from the world, from our partners.
“Every leader knows exactly what needs to be done. It’s important to be decisive,” Zelenskiy said in a posting on the Telegram messaging app.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said the bomb hit between the third and fourth floors of the building in the city’s Saltivka district.

Israeli strikes killed at least 32 people in southern Gaza overnight, mostly women and children, as the military launched ground operations in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war, even as attention has shifted to Lebanon, where Israel has launched ground operations against Hezbollah, and to Iran, which launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel late Tuesday.

In a separate development, Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the Lebanese border town of Odaisseh, forcing them to retreat.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or independent confirmation of the incident, which would mark the first ground combat since Israeli troops crossed the border this week. Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.

The military warned residents to evacuate another 24 villages in southern Lebanon after making a similar announcement the day before. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.

It’s been four months since Sifa Kunguja recovered from mpox, but as a sex worker, she said, she’s still struggling to regain clients, with fear and stigma driving away people who’ve heard she had the virus.

“It’s risky work,” Kunguja, 40, said from her small home in eastern Congo. “But if I don’t work, I won’t have money for my children.”

Sex workers are among those hardest-hit by the mpox outbreak in Kamituga, where some 40,000 of them are estimated to reside — many single mothers driven by poverty to this mineral-rich commercial hub where gold miners comprise the majority of the clientele. Doctors estimate 80% of cases here have been contracted sexually, though the virus also spreads through other kinds of skin-to-skin contact.

Sex workers say the situation threatens their health and livelihoods. Health officials warn that more must be done to stem the spread — with a focus on sex workers — or mpox will creep deeper through eastern Congo and the region.

Mpox causes mostly mild symptoms such as fever and body aches, but serious cases can mean prominent, painful blisters on the face, hands, chest and genitals.

Kunguja and other sex workers insist that despite risks of reinfection or spreading the virus, they have no choice but to keep working. Sex work isn’t illegal in Congo, though related activities such as solicitation are. Rights groups say possible legal consequences and fear of retribution — sex workers are subject to high rates of violence including rape and abuse — prevent women from seeking medical care. That can be especially detrimental during a public health emergency, according to experts.

Health officials in Kamituga are advocating for the government to shutter nightclubs and mines and compensate sex workers for lost business.

Not everyone agrees. Local officials say they don’t have resources to do more than care for those who are sick, and insist it’s sex workers’ responsibility to protect themselves.

Kamituga Mayor Alexandre Bundya M’pila told The Associated Press that the government is creating awareness campaigns but lacks money to reach everyone. He also said sex workers should look for other jobs, without providing examples of what might be available.

Sex work is a big part of the economy
Miners stream into Kamituga by the tens of thousands. The economy is centered on the mines: Buyers line streets, traders travel to sell gold, small businesses and individuals provide food and lodging, and the sex industry flourishes.

Nearly a dozen sex workers spoke to AP. They said well over half their clients are miners.

The industry is well organized, according to the Kenyan-based African Sex Workers Alliance, composed of sex worker-led groups. The alliance estimates that 13% of Kamituga’s 300,000 residents are sex workers.

The town has 18 sex-worker committees, the alliance said, with a leadership that tries to work with government officials, protect and support colleagues, and advocate for their rights.

But sex work in Congo is dangerous. Women face systematic violence that’s tolerated by society, according to a report by UMANDE, a local sex-worker rights group.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/mpox-outbreak-sex-workers-miners-kamituga-congo-5f6f3c7e9f0abd1917f8daf41678ea2b#

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47% to 40% in the race to win the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, as she appeared to blunt Trump’s edge on the economy and jobs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found.
Harris had a lead of six percentage points based on unrounded figures – which showed her with support from 46.61% of registered voters while Trump was backed by 40.48%, according to the three-day poll that closed on Monday. The Democrat’s lead was slightly higher than her five-point advantage over Trump in a Sept 11-12 Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The latest poll had a margin of error of about four percentage points.
While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos polls give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with seven battleground states likely to be decisive.
Polls have shown Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in those battleground states, with many results within the polls’ margins of error. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed Trump with marginal leads in three of these states – Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

Asked which candidate had the better approach on the “economy, unemployment and jobs,” some 43% of voters responding to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll picked Trump and 41% selected Harris. Trump’s two-point advantage on the topic compares to his three-point lead in an August Reuters/Ipsos poll and an 11 point lead over Harris in late July shortly after she launched her campaign.

Harris entered the race after President Joe Biden folded his reelection effort following a poor debate performance against Trump in June. Trump at the time was widely seen as the frontrunner, partly based on his perceived strength on the economy after several years of high inflation under the Biden administration.Reuters/Ipsos polling between April and June also showed voters picked Trump over Biden on the economy, unemployment and jobs by between five and eight points.
Trump has still had wide leads in some measures of confidence in his economic stewardship. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from August asked voters which candidate had a better approach on the “the U.S. economy” – without specific reference to jobs or unemployment – and Trump led Harris by 11 points, 45% to 36%.
Both candidates are focusing campaign pledges on the economy, which the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed was the No. 1 issue for voters. Trump on Tuesday said he would create special manufacturing zones on federal lands. He has also promised to raise tariffs on imported goods.
Harris has pledged tax breaks for families with children as well as higher taxes for corporations. She is expected to unveil new economic proposals this week, even though some advisers acknowledge time is running out to convince voters with pitches on policy.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harris-builds-lead-over-trump-voters-see-her-debate-winner-reutersipsos-poll-2024-09-12/

At a condolence meeting held for slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in New Delhi’s India Islamic Cultural Centre, attendees were heard chanting slogans like ‘America Murdabad’ along with slogans commemorating the slain Lebanese militant group chief.

US President Joe Biden had described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the United States fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.

The event was also attended by Iranian ambassador to India, Dr Iraj Elahi, and Palestinian envoy to India. Adnan Al-Hija.

The videos, accessed by News18 and also going viral on social media, show a speaker criticising the US and Israel for the ongoing conflicts in West Asia.

In one of the videos, one man from the audience is seen rallying the rest into cries of ‘America Murdabad’ (Death to the US). People are heard joining in and chanting the slogans as the prayer meeting proceeds.

“Hezbollah is not a terrorist group. Hezbollah is a political party. Hezbollah is strong enough to defend itself. We have never denied the support of Iran for Hezbollah,” the Iranian envoy, Elahi, told News18.

While talking to News18, on the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Ambassador of Iran to India Dr Iraj Elahi says: “The martyrdom of Hassan Nasrullah as a great leader, great politician of Lebanon and well-known man in the world is not a small thing. It’s a big loss for all human beings…, not just for Muslims, not just for Shias, not just for Lebanese, for all our Arabs.”

Israel killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a powerful airstrike in Beirut, dealing a heavy blow to the Iran-backed group as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had eliminated Nasrallah in the strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday. Hezbollah confirmed he had been killed, without saying how.

The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal – ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel.

The country’s last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967.

This marks a major milestone in the country’s ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.

Minister for Energy Michael Shanks said: “We owe generations a debt of gratitude as a country.”

The UK was the birthplace of coal power, and from tomorrow it becomes the first major economy to give it up.

“It’s a really remarkable day, because Britain, after all, built her whole strength on coal, that is the industrial revolution,” said Lord Deben – the longest serving environment secretary.

The first coal-fired power station in the world, the Holborn Viaduct power station, was built in 1882 in London by the inventor Thomas Edison – bringing light to the streets of the capital.

From that point through the first half of the twentieth century, coal provided pretty much all of the UK’s electricity, powering homes and businesses.

In the early 1990s, coal began to be forced out of the electricity mix by gas, but coal still remained a crucial component of the UK grid for the next two decades.

In 2012, it still generated 39% of the UK’s power.

In just over a week, intensified Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed seven high-ranking commanders and officials from the powerful Hezbollah militant group, including the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The move left Lebanon and much of the Mideast in shock as Israeli officials celebrated major military and intelligence breakthroughs.

Hezbollah had opened a front to support its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip a day after the Palestinian group’s surprise attack into southern Israel.

The recent strikes in Lebanon and the assassination of Nasrallah are a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force now finds itself trying to recuperate from severe blows, having lost key members who have been part of Hezbollah since its establishment in the early 1980s.

Chief among them was Nasrallah, who was killed in a series of airstrikes that leveled several buildings in southern Beirut. Others were lesser-known in the outside world, but still key to Hezbollah’s operations.

Hassan Nasrallah
Since 1992, Nasrallah had led the group through several wars with Israel, and oversaw the party’s transformation into a powerful player in Lebanon. Hezbollah entered Lebanon’s political arena while also taking part in regional conflicts that made it the most powerful paramilitary force. After Syria’s uprising 2011 spiraled into civil war, Hezbollah played a pivotal role in keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power. Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah also helped develop the capabilities of fellow Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Yemen.

Nasrallah is a divisive figure in Lebanon, with his supporters hailing him for ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, and his opponents decrying him for the group’s weapons stockpile and making unilateral decisions that they say serves an agenda for Tehran and allies.

Nabil Kaouk

Kaouk, who was killed in an airstrike Saturday, was the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council. He joined the militant group in its early days in the 1980s. Kaouk also served as Hezbollah’s military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010. He made several media appearances and gave speeches to supporters, including in funerals for killed Hezbollah militants. He had been seen as a potential successor to Nasrallah.

Ibrahim Akil
Akil was a top commander and led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, which Israel has been trying to push further away from its border with Lebanon. He was also a member of its highest military body, the Jihad Council, and for years had been on the United States’ wanted list. The U.S. State Department says Akil was part of the group that carried out the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and orchestrated the taking of German and American hostages.

Ahmad Wehbe
Wehbe was a commander of the Radwan Forces and played a crucial role in developing the group since its formation almost two decades ago. He was killed alongside Akil in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs that struck and leveled a building.

Ali Karaki
Karaki led Hezbollah’s southern front, playing a key role in the ongoing conflict. The U.S. described him as a significant figure in the militant group’s leadership. Little is known about Karaki, who was killed alongside Nasrallah.

Mohammad Surour
Surour was the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, which was used for the first time in this current conflict with Israel. Under his leadership, Hezbollah launched exploding and reconnaissance drones deep into Israel, penetrating its defense systems which had mostly focused on the group’s rockets and missiles.

Ibrahim Kobeissi
Kobeissi led Hezbollah’s missile unit. The Israeli military says Kobeissi planned the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers at the northern border in 2000, whose bodies were returned in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah four years later.

Other senior commanders killed in action
Even in the months before the recent escalation of the war with Hezbollah, Israel’s military had targeted top commanders, most notably Fuad Shukur in late July, hours before an explosion in Iran widely blamed on Israel killed the leader of the Palestinian Hamas militant group Ismail Haniyeh. The U.S. accuses Fuad Shukur of orchestrating the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/hezbollah-lebanon-nasrallah-israel-8b2ae56a54d641c6910a79e9e5699824

There is a young woman sheltering under a tree between two busy roads clutching a pile of documents to her chest.

These pieces of paper are more important to Bibi Nazdana than anything in the world: they are the divorce granted to her after a two-year court battle to free herself from life as a child bride.

They are the same papers a Taliban court has invalidated – a victim of the group’s hardline interpretation on Sharia (religious law) which has seen women effectively silenced in Afghanistan’s legal system.

Nazdana’s divorce is one of tens of thousands of court rulings revoked since the Taliban took control of the country three years ago this month.

It took just 10 days from them sweeping into the capital, Kabul, for the man she was promised to at seven to ask the courts to overturn the divorce ruling she had fought so hard for.

Hekmatullah had initially appeared to demand his wife when Nazdana was 15. It was eight years since her father had agreed to what is known as a ‘bad marriage’, which seeks to turn a family “enemy” into a “friend”.

She immediately approached the court – then operating under the US-backed Afghan government – for a separation, repeatedly telling them she could not marry the farmer, now in his 20s. It took two years, but finally a ruling was made in her favour: “The court congratulated me and said, ‘You are now separated and free to marry whomever you want.'”

But after Hekmatullah appealed the ruling in 2021, Nazdana was told she would not be allowed to plead her own case in person.

“At the court, the Taliban told me I shouldn’t return to court because it was against Sharia. They said my brother should represent me instead,” says Nazdana.

“They told us if we didn’t comply,” says Shams, Nazdana’s 28-year-old brother, “they would hand my sister over to him (Hekmatullah) by force.”

Her former husband, and now a newly signed up member of the Taliban, won the case. Shams’ attempts to explain to the court in their home province of Uruzgan that her life would be in danger fell on deaf ears.

The siblings decided they had been left with no choice but to flee.

When the Taliban returned to power three years ago, they promised to do away with the corruption of the past and deliver “justice” under Sharia, a version of Islamic law.

Since then, the Taliban say they have looked at some 355,000 cases.

Most were criminal cases – an estimated 40% are disputes over land and a further 30% are family issues including divorce, like Nazdana’s.

Nazdana’s divorce ruling was dug out after the BBC got exclusive access to the back offices of the Supreme Court in the capital, Kabul.

Abdulwahid Haqani – media officer for Afghanistan’s Supreme Court – confirms the ruling in favour of Hekmatullah, saying it was not valid because he “wasn’t present”.

“The previous corrupt administration’s decision to cancel Hekmatullah and Nazdana’s marriage was against the Sharia and rules of marriage,” he explains.

But the promises to reform the justice system have gone further than simply reopening settled cases.

The Taliban have also systematically removed all judges – both male and female – and replaced them with people who supported their hardline views.

Women were also declared unfit to participate in the judicial system.

“Women aren’t qualified or able to judge because in our Sharia principles the judiciary work requires people with high intelligence,” says Abdulrahim Rashid, director of foreign relations and communications at Taliban’s Supreme Court.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx24evnk5d2o

ISRAEL has ruthlessly eliminated Hezbollah’s chain of command one after the other as the Middle East threatens to explode into chaos.

The biggest blow to the terror group came after a pinpoint airstrike blitz targeted General-Secretary Hassan Nasrallah in his underground bunker on Friday.

Nasrallah, 64, was killed in the deadly missile barrage in Beirut, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Confirmation of Nasrallah’s death would mark a pivotal night for Israel after his 32-year reign as boss where he built up the group as a formidable force in the Middle East.

No official statement has been released by Hezbollah as of yet.

The fighter jet blitz also wiped out several other commanders and officials including Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, the IDF claim.

Muhammad Ali Ismail, the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, his deputy and “other senior officials” were also taken out.

Israel has wiped out a number of top Hezbollah commanders in airstrikes as they look to continue destroying the para-militant group.

Over the past 11 months, Israel has eliminated nearly all of the terrorist top brass.

Leading many to believe replacing Nasrallah will be a tricky task with a natural predecessor yet to be lined.

The IDF appears to have been tactically hitting Hezbollah chiefs from the ground up in order to prevent them from building back up from a place of stability.

The man potentially poised to take over from Nasrallah was killed at the end of July.

Fuad Shukr, who Israel said was responsible for a deadly rocket attack on Golan Heights that killed 12 children, was assassinated by the IDF on July 30.

Shukr was identified as Nasrallah’s right-hand man and was one of Hezbollah’s key military officials since the organisation was founded over four decades ago.

The United States sanctioned Shukr in 2015, accusing him of playing a key part in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut.

Last Friday, Hezbollah was again plunged into chaos after losing two kingpins and 14 commanders in a fierce strike.

Ibrahim Aqil – a terror master on the US most wanted list for 40 years – was the biggest scalp claimed in the IDF blast on southern Beirut.

Aqil, who had a $7 million bounty on his head, was regarded as the second in command of the Lebanese terror group.

Hezbollah later confirmed Ahmed Wahabi, commander of its elite Radwan Force, had also been killed.

Wahabi was the head of the terror group’s “central training unit,” and was previously top brass in the elite Radwan Force which fought in Syria.

Senior officer Talal Hamiya was named to takeover from Aqil alongside Karaki – the commander who was also eliminated alongside Nasrallah, according to the IDF.

Israel’s attacks have followed a pattern of slowly advancing up the chain of command with several men who worked under Karaki being taken out in the months prior.

Taleb Abdullah, the commander of the Nasr regional division, and Muhammad Nasser, the commander of the Aziz regional division were killed in airstrikes in Lebanon, on June 11 and July 3.

The ‘death of Hassan Nasrallah’
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is believed to have personally signed off Friday’s attack after learning about Nasrallah’s secret hideout.

His spies are said to have discovered the General-Secretary was set to convene a meeting of his surviving leaders at the underground HQ.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi hit back and accused Israel of using US “bunker buster” bombs in the attack on Beirut.

Huge 4,000lb laser and GPS-guided GBU-28 and 2,000lb Blu-109 bunker buster bombs are believed to have been deployed – burrowing up to 200ft below ground before exploding.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halev said “a lot of preparation” was behind the strike.

He said: “It was the right time, [we] did it in a very precise way.”

Before warning Israel was set to continue with their targeted assaults across the border.

“This is not the end of our toolbox, we have to be very clear. We have more capacity going forward,” Halev added.

Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy research director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut labelled Nasrallah as a “legendary figure” for many in Lebanon.

He told Reuters how his death would be a huge issue for Hezbollah: “The whole landscape would change big time.

“He has been the glue that has held together an expanding organisation.”

Nasrallah led Iran-backed Hezbollah during the last war with Israel in 2006 and has been a thorn in his enemies side ever since.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/12558152/how-israel-wiped-out-hezbollah-chiefs-nasrallah-killed/

Emergency crews are racing to rescue people trapped in flooded homes after Hurricane Helene struck the coast of Florida as a highly destructive Category 4 storm.

At least 43 people have been killed across four states after Hurricane Helene barrelled its way across southeastern US.

Emergency crews are racing to rescue people trapped in flooded homes after Helene struck the coast of Florida as a highly destructive Category 4 storm.

It generated a massive storm surge, wreaking a trail of destruction extending hundreds of miles north.

Millions are without power in Florida and neighbouring states.

Meanwhile, dozens of patients and staff have been rescued from the roof of a flooded Tennessee hospital following a “dangerous rescue operation”.

Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty said more than 50 people are now safe after becoming stranded on the Unicoi County Hospital.

The hospital was engulfed in “extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water”, according to Tennessee’s Ballad Health, making a boat rescue too treacherous.

A police helicopter was ultimately able to land on the roof after other helicopters failed to reach the hospital due to the storm’s winds.

Local official Michael Baker told Sky News the flooding was “unprecedented”.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

As of early afternoon, Helene, which has been downgraded to a tropical depression, was packing maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) as it slowed over Tennessee and Kentucky, the National Hurricane Center said.

It struck overnight with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) in the rural Big Bend area, the northwestern part of Florida.

The National Hurricane Center said preliminary information shows water levels reached more than 15ft above ground in that region.

US President Joe Biden has approved emergency declaration requests from the governors of several southern states affected by Helene.

Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina are being supported by emergency response personnel including search and rescue teams, medical support staff and engineering experts.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has said dozens of people are trapped in buildings damaged by the storm, with multiple hospitals in southern Georgia without power.

In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials have told residents near the Lake Lure Dam to immediately evacuate to higher ground, warning “Dam failure imminent”.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the damage from Helene in the area appears to be greater than the combined damage of Idalia and Hurricane Debby in August. “It’s demoralizing,” he said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/hurricane-helene-at-least-30-dead-as-us-president-approves-emergency-support-13223131

A wave of air raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday as Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah, after a massive strike on the Iran-backed movement’s command centre that apparently targeted leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters witnesses heard more than 20 airstrikes before dawn on Saturday. Abandoning their homes in the southern suburbs, thousands of Lebanese congregated in squares, parks and sidewalks in downtown Beirut and seaside areas.”They want to destroy Dahiye, they want to destroy all of us,” said Sari, a man in his 30s who gave only his first name, referring to the suburb he had fled after an Israeli evacuation order. Nearby, the newly displaced in Beirut’s Martyrs Square rolled mats onto the ground to tried to sleep.
Israel’s military said early on Saturday that about 10 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that “some” had been intercepted. A statement from the military did not identify the projectiles, which it said were detected after sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee area.

There was no immediate confirmation of Nasrallah’s fate after Friday’s heavy strikes, but a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was not reachable. The Lebanese armed group has not made a statement.
Israel has not said whether it tried to hit Nasrallah, but a senior Israeli official said top Hezbollah commanders were targeted.
“I think it’s too early to say… Sometimes they hide the fact when we succeed,” the Israeli official told reporters when asked if the strike on Friday had killed Nasrallah.
Earlier, a source close to Hezbollah told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive. Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Tehran was checking his status.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy Hossein Ahmed Ismail.
DEATH TOLL RISES
Hours before the latest barrage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that his country had a right to continue the campaign.
“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely,” he said.
Several delegations walked out as Netanyahu approached the lectern. He later cut short his New York trip to return to Israel.
Lebanese health authorities confirmed six dead and 91 wounded in the initial attack on Friday – the fourth on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs in a week and the heaviest since a 2006 war.
The toll appeared likely to rise much higher. There was no word on casualties from the later strikes. More than 700 people were killed in strikes over the past week, authorities said.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported seven buildings were destroyed. Security sources in Lebanon said the target was an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.

Hours later, the Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate as it targeted missile launchers and weapons storage sites it said were under civilian housing.

Hezbollah denied any weapons or arms depots were located in buildings that were hit in the Beirut suburbs, the Lebanese armed group’s media office said in a statement.

Alaa al-Din Saeed, a resident of a neighbourhood Israel identified as a target, told Reuters he was fleeing with his wife and three children.

“We found out on the television. There was a huge commotion in the neighbourhood,” he said. The family grabbed clothes, identification papers and some cash but were stuck in traffic with others trying to flee.

“We’re going to the mountains. We’ll see how to spend the night – and tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”

Around 100,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced this week, increasing the number uprooted in the country to well over 200,000.

Israel’s government has said that returning some 70,000 Israeli evacuees to their homes is a war aim.

FEAR THE FIGHTING WILL SPREAD

Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and missiles against targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. The group said it fired rockets on Friday at the northern Israeli city of Safed, where a woman was treated for minor injuries.

Israel’s air defence systems have ensured the damage has so far been minimal.

Iran, which said Friday’s attack crossed “red lines”, accused Israel of using U.S.-made “bunker-busting” bombs.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-airstrikes-rock-beirut-hezbollah-command-centre-hit-2024-09-28/

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday as one of the most powerful storms to hit the state, raising fears of deaths, widespread damage and even worse floods than the severe deluge which had preceded its arrival.
Helene hit Florida packing sustained winds of around 130 mph (209 kph), the National Hurricane Center said, making it a powerful Category 4 storm. Even before it made landfall, the storm had flooded the Gulf Coast and knocked out power for at least 1 million customers in the state.

Officials pleaded with residents in the path of the storm to heed mandatory evacuation orders or face life-threatening conditions. Helene’s surge – the wall of seawater pushed on land by hurricane-force winds – could rise to as much as 20 feet (6.1 meters) in some spots, as tall as a two-story house, the center’s director, Michael Brennan, said in a video briefing.
“A really unsurvivable scenario is going to play out” in the coastal area, Brennan said, with water capable of destroying buildings and carrying cars pushing inland.

Strong rain bands were whipping parts of coastal Florida, and rainfall had already lashed Georgia, South Carolina, central and western North Carolina and portions of Tennessee. Atlanta, hundreds of miles north of Florida’s Big Bend, was under a tropical storm warning.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters late Thursday the hurricane had already caused one fatality. He gave no details.
In Pinellas County, which sits on a peninsula surrounded by Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, roads were already filling with water before noon. Officials warned the storm’s impact could be as severe as last year’s Hurricane Idalia, which flooded 1,500 homes in the low-lying coastal county.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hurricane-helene-barrels-toward-florida-with-fierce-winds-storm-surge-2024-09-26/

The Internet can be a dangerous place, and a new global survey is revealing that billions of people have likely been the target of cybercriminals at some point in time. The survey found that nearly half of all respondents have fallen victim to a cyberattack or scam.

In a poll of 20,000 employed adults from around the world, 45% reported that their personal data, such as banking or email account information, has been compromised by a hacking attempt or scam. In fact, almost half admitted that they’re reactive to cyber threats, rather than proactively protecting against them, in their personal lives (45%) and at work (44%).

According to respondents, online scams and phishing attempts have become more sophisticated (72%) and successful (66%) due to artificial intelligence. In time for Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, Yubico commissioned this global survey, with respondents from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Japan, Poland, Singapore, France, Germany, and Sweden, to investigate the global impact of cyber insecurity, both personally and in the corporate realm.

Half of respondents (50%) disclosed that they’ve been exposed to a cyberattack at work in the last year. Of those, not even a quarter (23%) said the company they work for responded by requiring cybersecurity training going forward. Of those whose personal data has been hacked, 20% reported that a cyberattacker successfully hacked one or more of their personal accounts, including bank or email accounts.

Delving into the layered side-effects of successful hacks and scams, 22% lost money as a result and 30% said they have doubts that their personal information will ever be safe again. For the 50% of respondents whose personal passwords have been exposed by a hack or data leak, the most common compromised passwords were those securing social media accounts (44%).

Why are these hacking attempts so successful?

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a move that will make the company more attractive to investors.
The OpenAI non-profit will continue to exist and own a minority stake in the for-profit company, the sources said. The move could also have implications for how the company manages AI risks in a new governance structure.

Chief executive Sam Altman will also receive equity for the first time in the for-profit company, which could be worth $150 billion after the restructuring as it also tries to remove the cap on returns for investors, sources added. The sources requested anonymity to discuss private matters.
“We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone, and we’re working with our board to ensure that we’re best positioned to succeed in our mission. The non-profit is core to our mission and will continue to exist,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

The details of the proposed corporate structure, first reported by Reuters, highlight significant governance changes happening behind the scenes at one of the most important AI companies. The plan is still being hashed out with lawyers and shareholders and the timeline for completing the restructuring remains uncertain, the sources said.
The restructuring also comes amid a series of leadership changes at the startup. OpenAI’s longtime chief technology officer Mira Murati abruptly announced her departure from the company on Wednesday. Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, has also been on leave.

Founded in 2015 as a non-profit AI research organization, OpenAI added the for-profit OpenAI LP entity in 2019 as a subsidiary of its non-profit, securing capital from Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab to fund its research.
The company captured global attention with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, a generative AI app that spit out human-like responses to text queries, which has become one of the fastest-growing applications in history with over 200 million weekly active users, igniting a global race to invest in AI.

Along with ChatGPT’s success, OpenAI’s valuation has skyrocketed from $14 billion in 2021 to $150 billion in the new convertible debt round under discussion, attracting investors such as Thrive Capital and Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab.
AI SAFETY
The company’s unusual structure, which gives full control of the for-profit subsidiary to the OpenAI nonprofit, was originally set to ensure the mission of creating “safe AGI that is broadly beneficial,” referring to artificial general intelligence that is at or exceeding human intelligence.
The structure came into focus last November during one of the biggest boardroom dramas in Silicon Valley, where members of the non-profit board ousted Altman over a breakdown in communication and loss of trust. He was reinstated after five days with overwhelming support from employees and investors.
Since then, OpenAI’s board has been refreshed with more tech executives, chaired by Bret Taylor, former Salesforce co-CEO who now runs his own AI startup. Any corporate changes need approval from its nine-person non-profit board.
The removal of non-profit control could make OpenAI operate more like a typical startup, a move generally welcomed by its investors who have poured billions into the company.
However, it could also raise concerns from the AI safety community about whether the lab still has enough governance to hold itself accountable in its pursuit of AGI, as it has dissolved the superalignment team that focuses on the long-term risks of AI earlier this year.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-remove-non-profit-control-give-sam-altman-equity-sources-say-2024-09-25/

An enormous Hurricane Helene swamped parts of Mexico on Wednesday as it churned on a path forecasters said would take it to Florida as a potentially catastrophic storm with a surge that could swallow entire homes, a chilling warning that sent residents scrambling for higher ground, closed schools, and led to states of emergency throughout the Southeast.

Helene’s center was about 430 miles (735 kilometers) southwest of Tampa, Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and the hurricane was expected to intensify and accelerate as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico toward the Big Bend area of Florida’s northwestern coast. Landfall was expected sometime Thursday evening, and the hurricane center said by then it could be a major Category 4 storm with winds above 129 mph (208 kph).

Tropical storm conditions were expected in southern Florida Wednesday night, spreading northward and encompassing the rest of Florida as well as Georgia and South Carolina through Thursday night. The storm was moving north at 12 mph (19 kph) with top sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) Wednesday evening.

Helene could create a life-threatening storm surge as high as 20 feet (6.1 meters) in parts of the Big Bend region, forecasters said. Its tropical storm-force winds extended as far as 345 miles (555 kilometers) from its center.

The United States, France and several allies called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border while also expressing support for a ceasefire in Gaza following intense discussions at the United Nations on Wednesday.
The ceasefire would apply to the Israel-Lebanon “Blue Line,” the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, and would allow the parties to negotiate towards a potential diplomatic resolution of the conflict, a senior Biden administration official said.

Israel’s military chief said a ground assault was possible, raising fears the conflict could spark a wider Middle East war.

Over the last several months, Washington has been engaging with officials in Israel and Lebanon to reduce hostilities, the senior White House official said.

“We have had those discussions for quite some time,” the official said, adding Washington and its allies were aiming to convert those discussions into a broader agreement during this 21-day ceasefire period.

The official said Biden had been focused on the possibility of a ceasefire “in almost every conversation he had with world leaders” at the United Nations General Assembly this week.
Based on discussions with Israelis and Lebanese, the U.S. and its allies felt this was the right time for a call for a ceasefire, the official added.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters before a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that Israel would welcome a ceasefire and preferred a diplomatic solution. He then told the Security Council that Iran was the nexus of violence in the region and peace required dismantling the threat.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters before the council meeting that his country supported Hezbollah and would not remain indifferent if the conflict in Lebanon spiraled.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the call for a ceasefire, saying the key to its implementation is whether Israel is committed to enforcing international resolutions. Asked earlier if a ceasefire could be reached soon, Mikati told Reuters: “Hopefully, yes.”
World leaders voiced concern that the conflict – running in parallel to Israel’s war in Gaza against Palestinian Hamas militants also backed by Iran – was escalating rapidly as the death toll rose in Lebanon and thousands fled their homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to arrive in New York on Thursday and address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

LEBANON CONFLICT PUTS PRESSURE ON BIDEN, HARRIS

The U.S. administration has for nearly a year sought unsuccessfully to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

The conflict has been costly politically for U.S. President Joe Biden and by extension Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign with the violence in Lebanon increasing pressure on his administration to find a diplomatic solution.

Earlier on Wednesday Israel shot down a missile that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement said it had aimed at the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency near Israel’s biggest city, Tel Aviv.

Israeli officials said a heavy missile had headed towards civilian areas in Tel Aviv, not the Mossad HQ, before being shot down.

“You hear the jets overhead; we have been striking all day,” General Herzi Halevi told Israeli troops on the border with Lebanon, according to a military statement.

“This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.” A Pentagon spokesperson said an Israeli ground incursion did not appear imminent.

As many as half a million people may have been displaced in Lebanon, its foreign minister said. In Beirut, thousands of people displaced from southern Lebanon were sheltering in schools and other buildings.

ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES TARGET HEZBOLLAH LEADERS

Israeli airstrikes this week have targeted Hezbollah leaders and hit hundreds of sites deep inside Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands have fled the border region, while the group has fired barrages of rockets into Israel.

Mourners thronged a funeral on Wednesday in Beirut’s suburbs for two senior Hezbollah commanders killed in Israeli strikes the day before. Fighters in fatigues carried the flag-covered coffins as a band played. The crowd chanted Hezbollah slogans and some wept.

Israel said its warplanes were hitting south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold further north, and that it was calling up two more reserve brigades for operations on Israel’s northern border.

In a video message that made no comment on diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, Netanyahu said Hezbollah was being hit harder than it could ever have imagined.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanons-hezbollah-says-it-launched-rocket-targeting-mossad-base-near-tel-aviv-2024-09-25/

The man accused of staking out Donald Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle was indicted on Tuesday on a charge of attempted assassination of a political candidate, federal prosecutors said.
Ryan Routh, 58, was already facing two gun-related charges after authorities said he pointed a rifle through a fence at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sept. 15 while the Republican presidential candidate was golfing there. He has been ordered to remain in jail to await trial.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The Department of Justice said a federal grand jury in Miami returned the indictment late Tuesday afternoon. The attempted assassination charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed a criminal case in July accusing Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office.
Routh has not yet entered a plea. His lawyers unsuccessfully sought to have him released on bond.
Prosecutors have in recent days revealed evidence they said pointed toward a plan to kill Trump. They alleged that months before the incident, Routh dropped off a letter to an unidentified person alluding to “an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ryan-routh-charged-with-attempted-assassination-trump-cnn-reports-2024-09-24/

An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Tuesday as cross-border rocket attacks by both sides increased fears of a full-fledged war in the Middle East and Lebanon said only Washington could help end the fighting.
Hezbollah early on Wednesday confirmed senior commander Ibrahim Qubaisi was killed by Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday on the Lebanese capital as Israel announced earlier. Israel said Qubaisi headed the group’s missile and rocket force.

Nearly 30,000 suspected mpox cases have been reported in Africa so far this year, most of them in Democratic Republic of Congo where tests have run out, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
More than 800 people died of suspected mpox across the continent in that time, the U.N. health body said in its report. Congo’s central African neighbour Burundi has also been hit by a growing outbreak, it added.

Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
The WHO statement did not give comparative figures from previous years. The African Union’s public health agency has said 14,957 cases and 739 deaths were reported from seven affected states in 2023 – a 78.5% increase in new cases from 2022.
There were 29,342 suspected cases and 812 deaths across Africa from January to Sept. 15 this year, according to the WHO report.

Israeli strikes Monday on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.

Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.

In a recorded message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate, saying “take this warning seriously.”

“Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the army will do “whatever is necessary” to push Hezbollah from Lebanon’s border with Israel.

Hagari claimed Monday’s widespread airstrikes had inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah. But he would not give a timeline for the operation and said Israel was prepared to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon if needed.

“We are not looking for wars. We are looking to take down the threats,” he said. “We will do whatever is necessary to do to achieve this mission.”

Hagari said Hezbollah has launched some 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since last October, including 250 on Monday alone.

The military said Israeli warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets Monday, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range rockets and attack drones. The spokesman said many were hidden in residential areas, showing photos of what he said were weapons concealed in private homes.

“Hezbollah has turned southern Lebanon into a war zone,” he told a news conference.

Israel estimates Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including guided missiles and long-range projectiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.

Earlier Monday evening, the Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. It did not give details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported three missiles hit southern Beirut’s Beir al-Abed neighborhood. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said six people were wounded.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for the displaced.

Some strikes hit residential areas in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the border north of Beirut.

Israel said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the wake of Israel’s invasion and occupation of Lebanon.

Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Israel was preparing its “next phases” of operations against Hezbollah, and that its airstrikes were “proactive,” targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.

Halevi said the goal was to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including at military bases. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.

The evacuation warnings were the first of their kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire Sunday. Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed a top commander and dozens of fighters.

The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of all-out war, even as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza and tries to negotiate the release of scores of hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Hezbollah has vowed to continue its strikes in solidarity with Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.

A spokeswoman for President Joe Biden said the administration was concerned about what’s happening between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and insisted that getting a cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza was key to easing tensions in the region.

“It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with Biden to New York, where he is to deliver his final address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

A State Department official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic efforts, said the U.S. and numerous other countries were keen to present an “off-ramp” for both Israel and Hezbollah to reduce tensions and prevent an all-out war.

The U.S. has “concrete ideas” for restoring calm that it will present to allies and partners at this week’s U.N. General Assembly, the official said. He wouldn’t detail what the “concrete ideas” were because he said they had yet to be presented to allies and partners for what he termed a “stress test” for their likelihood of success.

U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, meanwhile, have stopped their patrols and are staying in their bases “given the volume of exchange of fire,” a U.N. spokesman said. Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was “alarmed” at the escalating violence and large number of civilian casualties reported in Lebanon.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-lebanon-hezbollah-e3ca9c83642056f962fdf76319e3b8de

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a leftist politician, is leading Sri Lanka’s presidential election.

The election on Saturday is the first to be held since mass protests unseated the country’s leader, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in 2022 after the country suffered its worst economic crisis.

Dissanayake promised voters tough anti-corruption measures and good governance – messages that have resonated strongly with voters who have been clamouring for systematic change since the crisis.

The latest results on Sunday morning showed Dissanayake had won 42% of the votes counted. A candidate needs 51% to be declared the winner.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa is in second place with nearly 32% of the total vote. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is seeking a second term, has so far received 16% while Namal Rajapaksa, the nephew of the ousted president has got close to 3%.

If a candidate fails to secure 51% of the votes in the first round of counting, a second round will be held to include voters’ second and third choice for president.

All of Sri Lanka’s eight presidential elections since 1982 have seen the winner emerge during the first round of counting. This election has been described as one of the closest in the country’s history.

Seventeen million Sri Lankans were eligible to vote on Saturday and the country’s elections commission said it was the most peaceful in the country’s history.

Still, police announced a curfew late Saturday night citing “public safety. It was extended until noon local time (06:30 GMT).

Although he has not yet received the required number of votes to win, Dissanayake has received messages of congratulations from supporters of his two main rivals, Wickremesinghe and Premadasa.

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on X that early results clearly pointed to a victory by Dissanayake.

“Though I heavily campaigned for President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision, and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayake,” he said.

MP Harsha de Silva, who supported Premadasa, said he called Dissanayake to offer his congratulations.

“We campaigned hard for @sajithpremadasa but it was not to be. It is now clear @anuradisanayake will be the new President of #SriLanka,” said de Silva, who represents Colombo in parliament.

Another Premadasa supporter, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) spokesman MA Sumanthiran, said Dissanayake delivered an “impressive win” without relying on “racial or religious chauvinism”.

Economic meltdown
The country’s new president will be faced with the twin tasks of reviving the economy and lifting millions from crushing poverty.

An economic meltdown fueled the “Aragalaya” (struggle) uprising that unseated Rajapaksa from the presidential palace in 2022.

At that time, Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserves had dried up, leaving the country unable to import essentials such as fuel. Public debt had ballooned to $83bn while inflation zoomed to 70%.

This made basics like food and medicine unaffordable to to ordinary people.

The country’s economic misery has been blamed on major policy errors, weak exports and years of under-taxation. This was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which choked tourism, a key economic driver.

But many people have also blamed corruption and mismanagement, fuelling anger against Rajapaksa and his family, who collectively ruled Sri Lanka for more than 10 years.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyznjz3d78o

Vice President Kamala Harris substantially outraised and outspent former President Donald Trump in August, ending the month with more cash to fund her final sprint to the November election, according to new filings from the Federal Election Commission.

The Harris campaign raised over $189 million in August, more than quadruple the $44 million sum that the Trump campaign brought in.

Those figures reflect fundraising specifically for the candidate’s main campaign accounts and do not include donations to the other branches of their political operations.

The Harris campaign announced earlier this month a total $361 million August haul from campaign donations joint with the Democratic National Committee and fundraising committees. That dwarfed the $130 million raised between the Trump campaign and its joint fundraising committees.

These figures do not factor in September donations, including the Harris campaign’s $47 million cash bump from nearly 600,000 donors in the 24 hours following the first and possibly only Harris-Trump debate.

The Harris campaign on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to hold a second debate on Oct. 23, but Trump has so far staunchly maintained that he will not do a rematch.

The new FEC filings depict a steady surge of donor enthusiasm for Harris, even as the initial hype of Democrats’ July candidate swap tempered. The entire Harris political operation raised $310 million in July after President Joe Biden ended his candidacy and endorsed her to take over the Democratic ticket.

Harris has also flipped the donation gap to Democrats’ favor, erasing the fundraising lead Trump and Republicans had before Biden dropped out.

Since then, the Harris campaign has been outspending Trump with an advertising blitz across television and digital platforms, along with along with other campaign expenses.

Harris and the DNC jointly spent $258 million in August, well above the $121 million that Trump and the RNC disbursed, according to FEC filings.

“As we enter the final stretch of this election, we’re making sure every hard-earned dollar goes to winning over the voters who will decide this election,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a press release earlier this month.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/21/harris-trump-democrats-republicans-august-fundraising.html

Millions of Sri Lankans cast their votes on Saturday to select a new president who will face the task of cementing the South Asian country’s fragile economic recovery following its worst financial crisis in decades.
More than 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote at the presidential election that has shaped up to be a close contest between incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist-leaning challenger Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Senior U.S. officials met with Sikh advocates on Thursday to discuss threats facing Sikhs in the United States, including a foiled murder plot against a prominent activist last year, several attendees told Reuters.
The meeting with senior White House and U.S. intelligence officials came two days before President Joe Biden is to meet India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The United States has been pushing India to investigate the murder plot against dual U.S.-Canada citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, as it continues its own criminal investigation into India’s possible involvement.

Indian Army soldiers participate in a mock drill exercise during the Army Day parade in New Delhi, India, January 15, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File Photo Purchase Licensing RightsThe Kremlin has raised the issue on at least two occasions, including during a July meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart, three Indian officials said.
Details of the ammunition transfers are reported by Reuters for the first time.
Following the publication of this report, India’s foreign ministry described it as “speculative and misleading”.
“It implies violations by India where none exist and, hence, is inaccurate and mischievous,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday.

An international team of astronomers reported in a study Wednesday that the second generation model of Starlink satellites is hampering radio astronomy, which is essential for the study of the non-visible universe, like black holes, for example. The satellites, which are part of SpaceX’s internet constellation, were found to have interference 32 times stronger than the first generation.

The number of satellites in orbit around Earth is rapidly increasing, with some 100,000 expected to be in place by 2030. And as their numbers grow, so does the difficulty of observing the universe from Earth. In some cases, satellites, such as those of Texas company AST Spacemobile, are so big and bright that they appear more luminous all but the brightest objects in the night sky.

Satellites could hamper observations of the ‘invisible’ universe…

Radio telescopes have helped to answer some of the trickiest questions about our universe, illuminating “the most mysterious objects in all of physics.” They “see” distant objects in the electromagnetic spectrum, including galaxies from the universe’s infancy, and electromagnetic radiation from satellites makes detecting these signals harder, like dialing up the static on a car radio trying to pick up a station in a desert. While such discoveries may seem like science for science’s sake, scientists cautioned that is not the case: “It’s wrong to say that there is some science that you can simply dismiss. The applications may be decades or even longer in the future but they can be very fundamental and very important,” one of the UK’s top astronomers told the BBC.

…They also affect the study of the visible, too
Starlink’s satellites are bright enough that astronomers have decried them as an existential threat for as long as SpaceX has been launching them into orbit. While the company has taken some measures to mitigate how shiny they appear from Earth, their increased number and the many other satellites being launched means that their light pollution is “threatening the entirety of ground-based astronomy in every wavelength and in different ways,” astronomers told the BBC. There is a fear that soon, space observation might begin to look like a “windshield of bugs,” and become unfeasible, a researcher at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile told The New York Times.

Source: https://www.semafor.com/article/09/18/2024/elon-musk-starlink-space-science-astronomy-study

Just as crowds had gathered to mourn some of those killed in Tuesday’s wave of pager-bomb attacks, an explosion sparked chaos in Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut.
A video captured the blast, showing a man lying on the ground and panicked people, some screaming, running away.
All this, moments before funerals were due to start for an 11-year-old boy and three Hezbollah members killed the previous day.
In the surrounding area there was bedlam as the sound of the explosion echoed through the streets. The chants stopped. Those gathered looked at each other, some incredulous.

As reports spread that this was part of a second wave of explosions now targeting walkie-talkies, no electronic equipment was considered safe.
Hezbollah supporters stopped our team several times, demanding we did not use our phones or our camera.
Lebanese officials said at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded across the the country, with fires said to have broken out in dozens of homes, shops, and vehicles.
Already, the latest attacks are being seen as another humiliation for the Iranian-backed group, and a possible indication that its entire communication network may have been infiltrated by Israel.

HEZBOLLAH terrorists and the Iranian ambassador are among thousands injured after “brand new” pagers exploded across Lebanon, killing at least nine people.

The booby-trapped devices blew up simultaneously across the Middle Eastern country yesterday afternoon wreaking havoc.

At about 3:30pm local time, the pagers started heating up and then exploding in people’s hands or pockets – leaving blood-splattered scenes.

Lebanon’s Information Minister pinned the shock James Bond-style sabotage on “Israeli aggression”.

Israel’s Mossad spy agency allegedly planted a small amount of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by Hezbollah months earlier, a Lebanese security source and a second source told Reuters.

The pagers were said to be a “new brand” that the terrorists had not used before.

Hezbollah reportedly acquired the pagers after the group’s leadership ordered members to stop using phones.

The leadership warned phones could be tracked by Israeli spies – and believed pagers were safer.

Nearly 3,000 people have so far been injured including hundreds of fighters, senior commanders in the terror group, and the Iranian ambassador in Beirut.

Hezbollah received a new shipment of pagers in the last few days with hundreds of their terror troops having the devices, the Wall Street Journal reported.

It is not yet clear what caused the pagers to blow, with some experts saying explosives were inside them and others saying malware could have caused the batteries to overheat and then erupt.

Lebanon’s health minister reported nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 were wounded with 200 of those in a serious condition.

Shocking videos circulating on social media show the wave of blasts striking across the country.

Some pagers rang before exploding – causing the fighter to put their hands on them or bring them up to their faces to check the screen.

In-store CCTV footage caught people struck down in the middle of their shopping as people fled around them.

One shows a man’s bag exploding in a grocer with other shoppers sprinting for their lives away from the man as he is knocked to the ground by the detonation.

Another shows a man paying for items at a till before he checks the pager on his hip and it explodes in his hands.

Other footage showed maimed targets lying on the ground missing hands or fingers and having large wounds on their hips and legs.

Beirut’s street turned to chaos as people fled buildings for safety and the city’s hospitals treated the bloodied survivors.

The sons of Hezbollah lawmakers Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah were among the dead, a source close to the group said.

The blasts “killed nine people, including a girl”, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.

The 8-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, their family said.

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30487383/hezbollah-fighters-injured-walkie-talkies-explode/

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has lost a Parliament seat it had held for decades in a special election in Montreal, a devastating defeat that is likely to increase pressure on Canada’s deeply unpopular leader to resign.

The Bloc Québécois, a national party that supports independence for Quebec, narrowly won the race that was held on Monday, according to final results released early on Tuesday morning. It was the Liberals’ second stunning election loss in three months.

The result underscored how support for the Liberals has evaporated, even in their last few strongholds, ahead of the next general election, which must be held by the fall of 2025 but is likely to take place in the spring. Mr. Trudeau has pledged to lead his party in that election, saying over the weekend that he would not quit even if the Liberals lost on Monday.

The defeat could set up an endgame for Mr. Trudeau’s third term in office. The main opposition Conservative Party is likely to redouble its efforts to quickly bring down his government, as polls predict the Conservatives cruising to a landslide in the next election. For the past year, Mr. Trudeau’s approval ratings have stagnated just above 20 percent and trailed those of Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, by double digits.

To survive, Mr. Trudeau could increasingly call on the Bloc Québécois and another small opposition party, the New Democrats. Both might prefer dealing with the Liberals to eke out victories for themselves, rather than face a potential Conservative majority that could easily pass legislation on its own.

The election in Montreal, held to fill a single vacant seat in Parliament’s House of Commons, assumed outsize significance because it was seen as a referendum on Mr. Trudeau.

After his party unexpectedly lost a special election in June — in Toronto, another Liberal redoubt — the prime minister faced calls from within his own party to step aside. Mr. Trudeau rejected the criticism, instead using his powers as party leader to quash internal dissent.

The Conservatives now enjoy an overwhelming lead in the polls across Canada — except in the French-speaking province of Quebec, which amplified the importance of Monday’s special election.

Mr. Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted as his government has seemed increasingly out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Canadians. On issue after issue — the high cost of living, a housing shortage, problems stemming from the record number of temporary workers or foreign students — his government has reacted with policy changes only after being pummeled by the opposition.

The government has also been accused of minimizing the threat of foreign interference in Canadian politics. It long opposed a public inquiry into the issue, which is now underway and has uncovered attempts by China and India to meddle in Canadian elections.

In the weeks leading up to Monday’s vote, the Liberal candidate had been locked in a tight three-way race against Louis-Philippe Sauvé of the Bloc Québécois and Craig Sauvé of the left-leaning New Democratic Party, who came in third on Monday. (The two are not related.)

The district, called LaSalle–Émard–Verdun, had been considered a reliable Liberal seat: in the party’s grip almost continuously for more than half a century, and the base for a former Liberal prime minister and a former Liberal justice minister.

In the last election, in 2021, Mr. Trudeau’s party won the district — made up working-class and gentrifying neighborhoods, with linguistically and culturally diverse residents — by more than 20 percentage points.

This time, things went very differently.

After the seat suddenly became vacant early this year, three competitors launched campaigns to become the Liberal candidate. They said senior party officials had assured them that it would be an open nomination, and they were angered when Mr. Trudeau abruptly handpicked a city councilor named Laura Palestini to run.

With many voters expressing fatigue over Mr. Trudeau’s leadership, the prime minister was conspicuously absent from the local campaign, even though his own electoral district lies a short drive away.

Mr. Trudeau’s face was nowhere to be seen on Liberal Party campaign posters, though other parties featured their leaders. The prime minister made only two low-key campaign stops, including one over the weekend to a senior home. That appearance was closed to the news media.

Ms. Palestini refused nearly all interview requests, and her staff declined to let journalists accompany her on the campaign trail.

In one rare interview, she tried to distance herself from Mr. Trudeau. “It’s about me. It’s not about the P.M.,” she told the Canadian Press, referring to the election and to the prime minister.

By contrast, the candidates for the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois ran energetic campaigns. Leaders for both parties showed up frequently in the district, at the southern point of the island of Montreal, to back their candidates.

For Catherine Auclair, meeting the New Democratic leader, Jagmeet Singh, in person was the clincher. Ms. Auclair, 27, had been hesitating between the New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois, but said she was won over after hearing Mr. Singh speak on the housing crisis and other issues.

“I found Jagmeet Singh close to the people, and seeing him more than once here made me feel that he cared about our issues,’’ Ms. Auclair said after voting on Monday.

Source: https://dnyuz.com/2024/09/17/another-blow-to-trudeau-liberals-lose-a-long-held-seat/

Medics at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust have launched a pilot scheme where drones will be used to courier blood samples between its hospitals.

The NHS is going to use drones to fly blood samples across London to avoid the traffic.

Drone flights will mean the samples can be transported in a fraction of the time it currently takes couriers via road, officials said.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has launched a pilot scheme that intends to drastically speed up the time taken to move blood from major hospitals in the capital to labs for analysis.

Usually, moving samples between Guy’s Hospital and the lab at St Thomas’ Hospital takes more than half an hour on the road.

However, the same journey can be done in less than two minutes by drone, officials said.

The research team also said there were environmental benefits to the switch in transport methods.

The new project will last six months and is expected to start this autumn.

It will involve the blood samples of patients undergoing surgery who are at high risk of complications from bleeding disorders.

The move could also pave the way for other types of drone deliveries between the trust’s hospitals and others in the capital.

“The drone pilot combines two of our key priorities – providing the best possible patient care and improving sustainability,” said Professor Ian Abbs, chief executive at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust.

“We are proud to be the first trust in London to trial this innovative approach to help speed up blood sample analysis for our most urgent cases.”

The scheme is being done in conjunction with healthcare logistics company Apian and drone delivery company Wing and is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority.

This isn’t the first time that drones have been used to transport medical products in NHS trials.

A recent research project by NHS Blood and Transplant found that drones can be used to safely deliver blood stocks between hospitals in Northumberland.

Packs of “red blood cell components” were ferried through the skies and along the roads between Wansbeck Hospital and Alnwick Infirmary, and back again.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/nhs-to-use-drones-to-fly-blood-samples-around-london-to-avoid-traffic-in-new-trial-13216420

Residents of several areas of Poland and the Czech Republic rushed to evacuate on Monday as others in central Europe began cleaning up after the worst flooding in over two decades left a trail of destruction and a rising number of deaths.
Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit hard over the weekend as heavy rain that has fallen since last week and surging water levels collapsed some bridges, forced evacuations and damaged cars and houses.

In the northeastern Czech city of Ostrava, a broken barrier on the Odra river at its confluence with the Opava river caused flooding of the city’s industrial area including the BorsodChem chemical plant, coking plant OKK Koksovny and others. Hundreds of people were being evacuated from more residential areas as well.

In the Czech town of Litovel, 70% of which was submerged by water up to a metre deep (3.2 feet) on Monday, residents described their fear as waters rose quickly over the weekend.

“I was just very, very afraid… I ran away because the water was rising very quickly near the house,” said Renata Gaborova, 39.

‘APOCALYPSE’

Poland’s government announced a state of natural disaster in affected areas and said that it had set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260 million) to help victims.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was in touch with the leaders of other affected countries and that they would ask the European Union for financial aid.
Szymon Krzysztan, 16, standing in the town square of Ladek Zdroj, described losses from the floods as “unimaginable”.
“It’s a city like in an apocalypse… It’s a ghost town,” he said.
Reuters footage showed the town strewn with debris and mud.

“Armageddon… It literally ripped out everything because we don’t have a single bridge. In Ladek, all bridges have disappeared. We are practically cut off from the world,” Jerzy Adamczyk, 70, told Reuters.

In Jesenik, a Czech town across the border that was inundated on Sunday, a clean-up was starting after waters receded to show damaged cars and debris on the streets.

“There were two metres of water that ran through the street… There are many, many destroyed cars,” said resident Zdenek Kuzilek. “Telephones are not working, there is no water, no electricity.”

In eastern Romania, where villages and towns were submerged over the weekend, Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, told Romanian television some people had been left with just the clothes they had on.

PREPARATION

While water was receding in some areas, others, including Wroclaw, a Polish city of some 600,000 people, were shoring up defences for floodwaters heading their way.

In Romania, the flooding killed seven people over the last few days. An Austrian firefighter died on Sunday. In the state of Lower Austria that surrounds Vienna, two men aged 70 and 80 were found drowned in their homes, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/more-rivers-spill-banks-central-european-floods-death-toll-rises-2024-09-16/

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Yemen’s Houthis will pay a “heavy price” after a missile fired by the group landed in central Israel.
The Israeli military said the missile landed in an uninhabited area early on Sunday, but that shrapnel indicated air defence systems had failed to destroy it before it entered Israeli airspace.
It added that it was investigating how the missile was able to reach so far into Israeli territory.
The strike marks the first time a missile fired by the group has reached central Israel, which is around 2,000km (1,240 miles) from Yemen.

Around 700 people, mostly women, gathered at the Place de la Republique in Paris, some carrying placards in support of Gisele Pelicot, and all rape victims.

Hundreds of people in France have joined protests in support of a woman whose ex-husband allegedly drugged her and invited strangers to rape her.

Warning: This story contains details of rape and sexual abuse

A crowd of around 700, mostly women, gathered at the Place de la Republique in Paris, some carrying placards in support of Gisele Pelicot, and all rape victims.

One sign read: “Victims, we believe you. Rapists, we see you.”

Campaigners, who had called for protests in other French cities, believe much of the violence remains unreported and often goes unpunished in the country.

Activist Anna Toumazoff, one of the organisers of the Paris protest, said: “We need to talk about the rape culture. After seven years of MeToo, we know that there is not a special type of victim… no special type of a rapist.”

In Marseille, where about 200 protesters gathered in front of the Palais de Justice, Lou Salome Patouillard, a 41-year-old artist, said: “I am here to support Gisele and all women as there are many Giseles, too many Giseles.”

Ms Pelicot, 71, was allegedly drugged by her now ex-husband over the course of a decade so that she could be raped by dozens of men while unconscious.

In 2020, she was told by police of the accusations against her husband – that her then-spouse had been sedating her and invited at least 72 strangers into their house in Provence in southeastern France to have sex with her.

Instead of remaining anonymous, Ms Pelicot chose a public trial, allowing the media to publish her full name, and the court to show explicit videos of the suspected rapes recorded by her husband.

She opted for openness, she said, in solidarity with other women who are victims of sexual crimes but go unrecognised. She has since become a symbol of France’s fight against sexual violence.

Giving evidence for the first time earlier this month, Ms Pelicot said the men “regarded me like a rag doll, like a garbage bag”.

When police informed her about the alleged rapes by dozens of men, she said: “For me, everything collapses. These are scenes of barbarity, of rape.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/protests-in-france-to-support-woman-allegedly-drugged-by-husband-and-raped-by-strangers-13214824

As news of the prisoner swap was announced, Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev threatened that Ukraine’s ongoing incursion of Kursk had given Russia formal grounds to use nuclear weapons.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more than 200 prisoners of war, officials have announced.

In a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates, each side released 103 prisoners – including Russians captured since Ukraine’s incursion in the Kursk region began in August.

Both sides released images of soldiers being released, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying: “Our people are home.”

However, as news of the swap was announced, Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev threatened that Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk had given Russia formal grounds to use nuclear weapons.

Kyiv claims to now control almost 500 square miles (around 1,300 square km) of the border region following the launch of its surprise attack.

Moscow could either resort to nuclear weapons in the end, or use some of its non-nuclear but still deadly novel weapons for a large-scale attack, Mr Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.

“And that would be it. A giant, grey, melted spot instead of ‘the mother of Russian cities’,” he said, referring to Kyiv.

Responding, Mr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Loud threats of Putin’s regime testify only to his fear that terror may come to an end.”

The prisoner swap is the eighth of its kind since the beginning of the year, putting the total number of POWs exchanged at 1,994. Previous exchanges were also brokered by the UAE.

All 103 Ukrainians returned were from the military – 82 soldiers and privates and 21 officers – Mr Zelenskyy said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-and-russia-exchange-more-than-200-prisoners-of-war-13214846

Meanwhile Putin’s chief lapdog Dmitry Medvedev yesterday threatened to ‘sink’ the UK with hypersonic missiles

VLADIMIR Putin’s chief lapdog Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to turn Kyiv into a “giant melted spot” in a disturbing threat.

Russia is ramping up its threats after Keir Starmer and Joe Biden met to talk about giving Ukraine the green light to fire Western long-range missiles inside Russia.

Speaking today the former Russian prime minister and close Putin ally said permission for Ukraine to fire the rockets over enemy lines would spark a fierce response on its capital.

Referring to Kyiv he wrote in a Telegram post: “And that would be it. A giant, grey, melted spot instead of ‘the mother of Russian cities’.”

He also ranted about how “Russia is showing patience” but that the West should not assume Putin would balk at “crossing the line” or triggering an “apocalypse” with nuclear weapons.

Medvedev just this week threatened to use hypersonic missiles to sink Britain if Zelensky’s armies were granted the go-ahead with UK Storm Shadow missiles.

Starmer left DC on Friday after the crunch talks – with no conclusive decision reached on the rockets.

A Western official has said no announcement will be made until the “first missile lands”, according to The Telegraph.

Starmer said the meeting was “long and productive” but failed to directly address questions on long-range missiles.

The most recent threat comes as Putin is being pushed to green light a nuclear bomb test as a wider warning to the West.

A leading Kremlin MP with links to the Russian army urged the delusional tyrant to carry out an atomic explosion at a test site.

“We need to carry out a nuclear explosion somewhere, at some testing ground,” demanded Andrei Kolesnik, who leads the ruling United Russia party.

He said: “Nuclear tests are currently prohibited in our country.

“But maybe people should see what all this actually leads to, they should hear.

“If we lift the moratorium, maybe humanity will think twice.”

Such a test could be seen as a renewed warning against Nato over the possibility that the US and UK could allow Ukraine to fire their long-range missiles at targets deep inside Russia.

Putin warned this week that the shift in policy would mean war.

He said: “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict… It would mean that Nato countries are at war with Russia.”

Britain and America have previously held back on loosening permissions because of a fear of Russian retaliation.

There are concerns that Putin’s so far empty threats over nuclear revenge could be realised if Western weapons struck targets on his soil.

Kremlin hardliners could also push for attacks against missile strongholds in Nato countries – such as an airbase in Poland.

This would invoke Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence clause – triggering a wider war with Russia.

Putin last year sent then defence minister Sergei Shoigu, now his top security aide, to Novaya Zemlya, a remote Arctic archipelago where Soviet nuclear tests were conducted in the Cold War.

This was meant to indicate that the Kremlin is ready “if necessary” to conduct new nuclear tests for the first time since 1990.

Putin’s former space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin has also demanded tests are carried out at Novaya Zemlya.

The Tsar Bomba – the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated – was tested there in October 1961.

The explosion was so large that it caused shock waves which circled the Earth multiple times, and its mushroom cloud rocketed more than 37 miles into the sky.

“We must make sure that [the West’s] buttocks begin to shake with fear,” he said.

The White House summit came as Russia kicked out six British diplomats over claims of “spying”.

The Foreign Office slammed the accusations as “completely baseless”.

Russia sees Britain as leading the Western charge demanding the use of long-range weapons, with other countries far more reluctant.

Speaking after the DC meeting, Starmer said: “We’ve had a long and productive discussion on a number of problems, including Ukraine, as you’d expect, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, talking strategically about tactical decisions.

“This isn’t about a particular decision but we’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA (UN General Assembly) in just a few days’ time with a wider group of individuals, but this was a really important invitation from the president to have this level of discussion about those critical issues.”

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/12457289/russia-ukraine-nuclear-weapon-test-war-putin/

The pair also said they do not feel let down by Boeing – the maker of their problem-plagued capsule – and also revealed they will vote in November’s US elections.

Two astronauts who are set to be stuck in space for eight months have said the International Space Station is now their “happy place” but admitted to “tough times”.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said in a press conference on Friday that it was hard to watch their Boeing Starliner capsule return to Earth without them last week – but said they do not feel let down by the company.

The pair expected to be in space for eight days but will remain there until 2025 after NASA determined the problem-plagued capsule posed too much risk for them to return to Earth.

The two Starliner test pilots – both retired Navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts – will now be staying at the space station until late February.

“That’s how it goes in this business,” said Ms Williams, adding that “you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity”.

Mr Wilmore said: “It’s been quite an evolution over the last three months, we’ve been involved from the beginning through all the processes of assessing our spacecraft.

“And it was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through.”

Ms Williams said that the transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had completed previous stints there.

“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said.

Mr Wilmore said he was “on board” with “changes that need to be made” at Boeing.

“Obviously, when you have issues like we’ve had, there’s some changes that need to be made.

“Boeing’s on board with that. We’re all on board with that.”

He added: “When you push the edge of the envelope again and you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, just like Starliner, you’re going to find some things.”

The pair also said they will vote in November’s US elections.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams are now fully-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine maintenance and experiments.

They, along with seven others on board, welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, raising the station population to 12 – a near record.

Ms Williams will soon take over as station commander.

The pair will have to wait until next year for a SpaceX capsule to bring them back to Earth. That spacecraft is due to launch later this month with a reduced crew of two, with two empty seats for the stranded astronauts for the return leg.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams also said they appreciated all the prayers and well wishes from Earth.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/stranded-astronauts-say-space-is-happy-place-but-admit-tough-times-13214249

The Canadian government will not intervene to end a dispute between Air Canada and its pilots and intends instead to pressure both sides to avert a strike, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.
A stoppage could start as soon as Sept. 18. Air Canada and its low-cost subsidiary Air Canada Rouge together operate nearly 670 flights per day, and a shutdown could affect 110,000 passengers daily as well as freight carriage.

Airline and business groups want the Liberal government to force the two sides into binding arbitration before a strike starts, an idea that Trudeau dismissed.
“I’m not going to put my thumb on the scale on either side. It is up to Air Canada and the pilots’ union to do the work to figure out how to make sure that they are not hurting millions of Canadians,” he told reporters in Quebec.
“Every time there’s a strike, people say ‘Oh, you’ll get the government to come in and fix it’ – we’re not going to do that. We believe in collective bargaining, and we’re going to keep pushing people to do it.”

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon met both the company and the union on Thursday. Both sides are still far apart on the question of wages.
MacKinnon has broad powers to tackle disputes and last month intervened within 24 hours to end a stoppage at the country’s two largest railway companies, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO), opens new tab and Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO), opens new tab.
Air Canada says this set a precedent. But while Ottawa has intervened several times in labor disputes over the last few decades, it has only done so after stoppages have begun, not before.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trudeau-says-govt-pressuring-air-canada-pilots-avert-strike-2024-09-13/

While the network could be improved if the providers formed one company, the competition watchdog said their claims of rolling out speedy 5G connectivity are “overstated”. The businesses may not have the incentive to follow through post-merger, it added.

Tens of millions of mobile phone users could end up paying more if the merger between Vodafone and Three goes ahead, the competition watchdog has warned.

The deal would create the UK’s biggest mobile network and could also improve network quality, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.