BEIRUT: The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has confirmed that Israel killed a top commander after a rare strike in Beirut on Tuesday.
The Iran-backed group said earlier that Fouad Shukur was in the building during the attack, and they were searching for him in the rubble to determine his fate.
Hezbollah’s announcement comes after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel.
Israel said late Tuesday it had killed Shukur, who it said was behind the weekend rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths. The United States also blames Shukur for staging and planning a bombing of a Marine Corps barrack in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 American service members.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least five civilians — two children and three women — died in the strike in a busy neighborhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire since Oct. 8, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Israeli carried out a rare strike on Beirut, which it said killed a top Hezbollah commander who was allegedly behind a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Hezbollah didn’t immediately confirm the commander’s death. The strike came amid escalating hostilities with the Lebanese militant group. An Israeli official said the target was Shukur whom the US blames for planning and launching the deadly 1983 Marine bombing in the Lebanese capital.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details of the strike with the media. Shukur is also suspected in other strikes that killed Israeli civilians.
Though Hezbollah issued a rare denial of involvement in the rocket attack Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams, Israel is holding the militant group responsible. “Hezbollah crossed a red line,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on the platform X shortly after Tuesday’s strike.
The two sides have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that was unlikely to escalate into full-on war.
Lebanon’s public health ministry said Tuesday’s strike wounded 74 people, some of them seriously. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Bahman Hospital near the site of the blast called for blood donations.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike was carried out with a drone that launched three rockets.
“The Israeli enemy has committed a great stupid act in size, timing and circumstances by targeting an entirely civilian area,” Hezbollah official Ali Ammar told Al-Manar TV. “The Israeli enemy will pay a price for this sooner or later.”
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attack, saying it hit a few meters from one of the largest hospitals in the capital.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately release a statement, but minutes after the strike sent a photo of the prime minister with his national security adviser and other officials.
The airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik — a crowded urban neighborhood where Hezbollah has political and security operations but which is also full of small shops and apartment buildings — damaged several buildings.
It was not immediately clear if any Hezbollah official was hit, a Hezbollah official said. A Lebanese military intelligence official said they had no information when asked by The Associated Press whether a senior Hezbollah security official had escaped the airstrike.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.
The strike hit an apartment building near to a hospital, collapsing half of the targeted building and severely damaging one next to it. The hospital sustained minor damages, while the surrounding streets were littered with debris and broken glass.
A forklift was in the middle of the street, reaching to the top floors of the destroyed building, while utility crews removed fallen power lines. Crowds gathered to inspect the damage and check on their families. Some of them chanted in support of Hezbollah.
Paramedics could be seen carrying several wounded people out of the damaged buildings.
A resident of the suburb whose home is about 200 meters (yards) away said that dust from the explosion “covered everything,” and that the glass in his son’s apartment was broken.
“Then people went down on the streets,” he said. “Everyone has family. They went to check on them. It was a lot of destruction.” He spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern about his security at a tense moment.
Hassan Noureddine said he was riding his motorcycle near the building when he heard the sound of two explosions. “It looked like a strike from a drone and not a jet,” Noureddine told the AP near the site of the attack.
Despite fears of escalation and a strike in recent days, Noureddine said that he and other people he knows in the area are not fazed and that their spirits are high.
Talal Hatoum, a local official with the Shiite Amal Movement, Hezbollah’s key political ally in Lebanon, said Tuesday’s attack marked a shift in the rules of engagement in the conflict because it caused a significant number of civilian casualties.
The last time Israel targeted Beirut was in January, when an airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri. That strike was the first time Israel had hit Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
Israel had been expected to retaliate for the strike in Majdal Shams, but diplomats had said in recent days that they expected the response to stay within the boundaries of the ongoing low-level conflict between Hezbollah and Israel without provoking all-out war.
Many of them had not expected that Israel would hit Beirut, which might elicit a strike by Hezbollah on a major population center in Israel.
The United Nations’ special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said in a statement that she was “deeply concerned” by the strike and called for “calm to prevail.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris said Israel “has the right to defend itself against the terrorist organization,” referring to Hezbollah, but added, “We still must work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that work.”
Hezbollah confirms that top commander was killed in Israeli strike in Beirut
https://arab.news/gte64
Hezbollah confirms that top commander was killed in Israeli strike in Beirut
- Hezbollah’s announcement comes after an overnight strike in Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Hamas and Iran blamed on Israel
3rd Global Conference for Giftedness and Creativity underway in Riyadh
- More than 300 talented individuals and local and international speakers from over 50 countries were attending the three-day conference
RIYADH: The third edition of the Global Conference for Giftedness and Creativity opened in Riyadh on Sunday, bringing together a select group of experts and talented individuals in science, technology, and innovation.
More than 300 talented individuals and local and international speakers from over 50 countries were attending the three-day conference, which was inaugurated by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, governor of Riyadh region, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Organized by the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, also known as "Mawhiba," the conference is being held at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) until Tuesday.
Themed "Beyond Creative Minds," the conference aims to showcase the potential of the gifted, develop a comprehensive care system to support them, bolster integration and strategic partnerships, and enhance opportunities for global exchange and cooperation.
An exhibition and various cultural visits are being held on the conference sidelines, the SPA report said.
According to the Mawhiba site, the conference reflects the success achieved in the two previous editions, and "provides an opportunity for partners to contribute to sponsoring the journey of talented people from different countries of the world."
Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports
- In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army
Russian forces captured a British mercenary fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia’s Kursk region, which is still partially controlled by Kyiv forces, a security source told Russia’s RIA state news agency.
“A mercenary from Great Britain, who called himself James Scott Rhys Anderson, was captured. He is now giving evidence,” the Russian source told RIA in remarks published on Sunday.
In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied in the back, says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army.
Reuters could not independently verify the video and the RIA and other media reports.
It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment on the reports outside office hours.
The BBC reported earlier that the Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
Ukraine forces, which staged a surprise incursion in the Russian border region of Kursk in August, still control parts of it. However, Kyiv said over the weekend that it has since lost over 40 percent of the territory that it had captured, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.
In South Korea, nations meet in final round to address global plastic crisis
Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.
It’s the fifth time the world’s nations convene to craft a legally binding plastic pollution accord. In addition to the national delegations, representatives from the plastics industry, scientists and environmentalists have come to shape how the world tackles the surging problem.
The planet is ” choking on plastic, ” according to the United Nations. It’s polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and people’s bodies.
“Don’t kick the can, or the plastic bottle, down the road,” UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a message aimed at negotiators.
This “is an issue about the intergenerational justice of those generations that will come after us and be living with all this garbage. We can solve this and we must get it done in Busan,” she said in an interview.
The previous four global meetings have revealed sharp differences in goals and interests. This week’s talks go through Saturday.
Led by Norway and Rwanda, 66 countries plus the European Union say they want to address the total amount of plastic on Earth by controlling design, production, consumption and where plastic ends up. The delegation from the hard-hit island nation of Micronesia helped lead an effort to call more attention to “unsustainable” plastic production, called the Bridge to Busan. Island nations are grappling with vast amounts of other countries’ plastic waste washing up on their shores.
“We think it’s the heart of the treaty, to go upstream and to get to the problem at its source,” said Dennis Clare, legal adviser and plastics negotiator for Micronesia. “There’s a tagline, ‘You can’t recycle your way out of this problem.’”
Some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, including Saudi Arabia, disagree. They vigorously oppose any limits on plastic manufacturing. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest exporter of primary polypropylene, a common type of plastic, accounting for an estimated 17 percent of exports last year, according to the Plastics Industry Association.
China, the United States and Germany led the global plastics trade by exports and imports in 2023, the association said.
The plastics industry has been advocating for a treaty focused on redesigning plastic products, recycling and reuse, sometimes referred to as “circularity.” Chris Jahn, International Council of Chemical Associations secretariat, said negotiators should focus on ending plastic waste in the environment, not plastic production, to get a deal. Many countries won’t join a treaty if it includes production caps, he said.
To continue to progress and grow as a global economy, there are going to be more plastics, Jahn added.
“So we should strive then to keep those plastics in the economy and out of the environment,” Jahn said.
The United States delegation at first said countries should develop their own plans to act, a position viewed as favoring industry. It changed its position this summer, saying the US is open to considering global targets for reductions in plastic production.
Environmental groups accused the US of backtracking as negotiations approached.
Center for Coalfield Justice executive director Sarah Martik said the United States is standing on the sidelines rather than leading, putting “their thumb on the scale throughout the entirety of the negotiations.” She hopes this does not derail other countries’ ambition.
The US Environmental Protection Agency released a national strategy to prevent plastic pollution Thursday, but Martik said she thinks too many of the measures are voluntary to make a difference.
Democratic US Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, said it’s a mistake for the United States to settle for the lowest common denominator proposals, just to get some kind of agreement.
Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the committee chair from Ecuador, recently proposed text for sections where he thinks the delegations could agree.
The production and use of plastics globally is set to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70 percent from 2020, without policy changes, according to the intergovernmental Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Research published in Science this month found it is still possible to nearly end plastic pollution. The policies that make the most difference are: mandating new products be made with 40 percent post-consumer recycled plastic; limiting new plastic production to 2020 levels; investing significantly in plastic waste management, such as landfills and waste collection services and implementing a small fee on plastic packaging.
The treaty is the only way to solve plastic pollution at this scale, said Douglas McCauley, professor at UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. McCauley co-led the research.
Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer for Monterey Bay Aquarium, said plastic pollution used to be considered largely a waste problem. Now it is widely viewed as an existential crisis that must be addressed, said Spring, who represents the International Science Council at the negotiations.
“I’ve never seen people’s understanding of this issue move as fast, given how complex the topic is,” she said. “It gives me hope that we can actually start moving the dial.”
Republicans push back against Democrats' claims that Trump intelligence pick Gabbard is compromised
- Democrats have cast doubts on Gabbard for her comments supportive of Russia and secret meetings, as a congresswoman, with Syria’s president, a close ally of the Kremlin and Iran
- Gabbard, a former US ational Guard officer and a former Democrat, also has suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine, given its desire to join NATO
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: Republican senators pushed back on Sunday against criticism from Democrats that Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to lead US intelligence services, is “compromised” by her comments supportive of Russia and secret meetings, as a congresswoman, with Syria’s president, a close ally of the Kremlin and Iran.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and veteran of combat missions in Iraq, said she had concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choice to be director of national intelligence.
“I think she’s compromised,” Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” citing Gabbard’s 2017 trip to Syria, where she held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Gabbard was a Democratic House member from Hawaii at the time.
“The US intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. And so my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check,” Duckworth said.
Gabbard, who said last month she is joining the Republican Party, has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades. She was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and, according to the Hawaii National Guard, received a Combat Medical Badge in 2005 for “participation in combat operations under enemy hostile fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III.”
Duckworth’s comments drew immediate backlash from Republicans.
“For her to say ridiculous and outright dangerous words like that is wrong,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, said on CNN, challenging Duckworth to retract her words. “That’s the most dangerous thing she could say — is that a United States lieutenant colonel in the United States Army is compromised and is an asset of Russia.”
In recent days, other Democrats have accused Gabbard without evidence of being a “Russian asset.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has claimed, without offering details, that Gabbard is in Russian President Vladimir “Putin’s pocket.”
Mullin and others say the criticism from Democrats is rooted in the fact that Gabbard left their party and has become a Trump ally. Democrats say they worry that Gabbard’s selection as national intelligence chief endangers ties with allies and gives Russia a win.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat just elected to the Senate, said he would not describe Gabbard as a Russian asset, but said she had “very questionable judgment.”
“The problem is if our foreign allies don’t trust the head of our intelligence agencies, they’ll stop sharing information with us,” Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Gabbard in 2022 endorsed one of Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine: the existence of dozens of US-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s nastiest pathogens. The labs are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons, but Moscow claimed Ukraine was using them to create deadly bioweapons. Gabbard said she just voiced concerns about protecting the labs.
Gabbard also has suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine, given its desire to join NATO.
Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said he thought it was “totally ridiculous” that Gabbard was being cast as a Russian asset for having different political views.
“It’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly. There’s no evidence that she’s a asset of another country,” he said on NBC.
Sen. James Lankford, another Oklahoma Republican, acknowledged having “lots of questions” for Gabbard as the Senate considers her nomination to lead the intelligence services. Lankford said on NBC that he wants to ask Gabbard about her meeting with Assad and some of her past comments about Russia.
“We want to know what the purpose was and what the direction for that was. As a member of Congress, we want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context,” Lankford said.
Uruguay’s conservative candidate concedes hard-fought presidential runoff to left-wing challenger
- With more than 91 percent of the votes counted, Orsi had 49.56 percent support compared to Delgado’s 46.17 percent
- Delgado’s concession ushers in Orsi as Uruguay’s new leader and spells an end to a short stint by the center-right party in Uruguay
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay: The presidential candidate of the conservative coalition that has governed Uruguay for the past five years conceded defeat on Sunday after a tight runoff election, as the South American nation joined others around the world in rebuking the incumbent party in a year of landmark elections.
Even as the vote count continued, Álvaro Delgado, the center-right government’s candidate, told supporters at his campaign headquarters in the capital of Montevideo that “with sadness, but without guilt, we can congratulate the winner,” referring to left-wing challenger Yamandú Orsi.
Fireworks erupted over the stage where Orsi, 57, a working-class former history teacher and two-time mayor from Uruguay’s center-left coalition known as the Broad Front, claimed victory as crowds flocked to greet him.
“The country of liberty, equality and fraternity has triumphed once again,” he said, vowing to unite the nation of 3.4 million people after such a tight vote.
“Let’s understand that there is another part of our country who have different feelings today,” he said. “These people will also have to help build a better country. We need them too.”
With more than 91 percent of the votes counted, Orsi had 49.56 percent support compared to Delgado’s 46.17 percent in an election in which nearly 90 percent of voters turned out, according to preliminary data released by the Electoral Court. The rest were blank votes or non-voters.
While failing to entice apathetic young voters and generating extraordinary indecision, Uruguay’s lackluster electoral campaigns steered clear of the anti-establishment fury that has vaulted populist outsiders to power elsewhere in the world, like in the United States and neighboring Argentina.
Delgado’s concession ushers in Orsi as Uruguay’s new leader and spells an end to a short stint by the center-right party in Uruguay. The 2019 election of President Luis Lacalle Pou interrupted 15 consecutive years of rule by the Broad Front.
“I called Yamandú Orsi to congratulate him as President-elect of our country,” Lacalle Pou wrote on social media platform X, adding that he would “put myself at his service and begin the transition as soon as I deem it appropriate.”
Orsi’s victory was the latest sign that simmering discontent over post-pandemic economic malaise favors anti-incumbent candidates. In the many elections that took place during 2024, voters frustrated with the status quo have punished ruling parties from the US and Britain to South Korea and Japan.
But unlike elsewhere in the world, Orsi is a moderate who plans no radical changes and agrees with his opponent on key issues like combating childhood poverty and cracking down on organized crime.
Despite his promise to lead a “new left” in Uruguay, his platform resembles the mix of market-friendly policies and welfare programs that characterized the Broad Front’s tenure from 2005-2020. The coalition of leftist and center-left parties presided over a period of economic growth and pioneering social reforms that won widespread international acclaim.
Behind Uruguay’s legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and sale of marijuana was former President José “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-Marxist guerilla who became a global icon and mentor to Orsi.
Mujica, now 89 and recovering from esophageal cancer, turned up at his local polling station before balloting even began, praising Orsi’s humility and Uruguay’s famous stability.
“This is no small feat,” he said of Uruguay’s “citizenry that respects formal institutions.”
Orsi proposes tax incentives to lure investment and social security reforms that would lower the retirement age but fall short of a radical overhaul sought by Uruguay’s unions that failed to pass in October, with Uruguayans rejecting generous pensions in favor of fiscal constraint.
“He’s my candidate, not only for my sake but also for my children’s,” Yeny Varone, a nurse at a polling station, said of Orsi. “In the future they’ll have better working conditions, health and salaries.”
Delgado, 55, a rural veterinarian with a long career in the National Party, served most recently as Secretary of the Presidency for Lacalle Pou and campaigned under the slogan “re-elect a good government.”
With inflation easing and the economy expected to expand by some 3.2 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, Delgado has promised to continue pursuing his predecessor’s pro-business policies. Lacalle Pou, who constitutionally cannot run for a second consecutive term, has enjoyed high approval ratings.
But the official results trickling in Sunday showed that mounting complaints in Uruguay about years of sluggish economic growth, stagnant wages and the government’s struggle to stem an upsurge in violent crime helped to swing the election against Delgado’s party.
In the weeks after the Oct. 27 general election — in which neither front-runner secured an outright majority — most polls had showed a virtual tie between Delgado and Orsi.
Turnout on Sunday stood at 89.4 percent in the nation where voting is compulsory, with over 2.7 million citizens registered.
In his victory speech, Orsi struck a conciliatory tone.
“I will be the president who calls for national dialogue again and again, who builds a more integrated society and country,” he said, adding that he would get to work “starting tomorrow.”
