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World Monthly Headline News September 2024
By Reuters and ToI Staff

Hezbollah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem says that the terror group has entered a new phase of its battle with Israel, speaking during a funeral for a top commander killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday.

The fight with Israel is now an “open-ended battle of reckoning,” he says.

Photos and videos from the funeral for Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s military operations and acting commander of the Radwan Force, show thousands of attendees, many wearing uniforms and carrying flags of the terror group.
By NATALIE MELZER and KAREEM CHEHAYEB

NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets early Sunday across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader declared an “open-ended battle” was underway as both sides appeared to be spiraling closer toward all-out war.

The overnight rocket barrage was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that have killed dozens, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group’s communications devices. Air raid sirens across northern Israel sent hundreds of thousands of people scrambling into shelters.

One struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars ablaze. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said four people were wounded.
By  JULIA FRANKEL and BASSEM MROUE

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the deadliest such strike on Lebanon’s capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 14 people killed and dozens more wounded in the attack.

The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the strike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district killed Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, as well as 10 other Hezbollah operatives.

“We will continue pursuing our enemies in order to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya, in Beirut,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the Israeli strike that targeted Akil as part of “a new phase of war.”

Several hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Akil’s death. In a statement, the Lebanese militant group described Akil as “a great jihadist leader” and said he had “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories.”
Story by Rebecca Robinson

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that the recent spate of electronic device explosions in Lebanon will be met with "just retribution."

On Tuesday, pager blasts resulted in 12 deaths and over 2,000 injuries. The following day, walkie-talkie detonations claimed 20 lives and injured at least 450 people.

These attacks were aimed at Hezbollah members, an Islamist group with ties to Tehran, and Israel has been implicated in the incidents.

Israel has yet to respond to these allegations, which have been linked to its Mossad spy agency. However, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Wednesday "a new phase in the war" in the Middle East.

Pezeshkian, without directly naming Israel, condemned "the treacherous mass assassination carried out by the terrorist entity through the bombing of communication devices."
Story by Housnia Shams & Rudi Kinsella

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has declared that the deadly attacks involving the detonation of communication devices used in Lebanon are tantamount to a "declaration of war", labeling the explosions as "a terrorist act" by Israel.

In his first public address following the blasts, Nasrallah accused Israel of crossing "all boundaries and red lines" by executing these sophisticated attacks.

He revealed that Israel was aware that more than 4,000 of these pagers were operational.
By  JOHNSON LAI and BASSEM MROUE

BEIRUT (AP) — Walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in a second wave of attacks targeting devices a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, state media and officials for the militant group said. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the second wave, the Health Ministry said.

The attacks — which were widely believed to be carried out by Israel targeting Hezbollah but have also killed civilians — have hiked fears that the two sides’ simmering conflict could escalate into all-out war.

Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”
Times of Israel

Israel hid explosive material inside pagers that Hezbollah recently ordered from a Taiwanese company, according to a New York Times report that follows the mass detonation of the beepers.

Citing American and other unidentified officials, the report says the explosives were placed in the made by Gold Apollo before they were delivered to Lebanon, along with a switch so they could be set off remotely.

Two of the officials say the blasts were triggered Tuesday afternoon by a message sent to the pagers that appeared to be from Hezbollah leaders, with the beepers meant to sound for several seconds before detonating.
By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Militant group Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel after accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least eight people and wounding nearly 3,000 others who included fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the late afternoon detonation of the pagers - handheld devices that Hezbollah and others in Lebanon use to send messages - as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.

The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war in October, declined to respond to questions about the detonations.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Tuesday that eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded in the pager explosions, 200 of them critically.

Hezbollah in an earlier statement confirmed the deaths included at least two of its fighters and a little girl.
By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT, Sept 17 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and more than 1,000 others including Hezbollah fighters, medics and Iran's envoy to Beirut were wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources told Reuters.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the "biggest security breach" the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

The Houthi group says it launched a new hypersonic ballistic missile that flew around 2,000km from Yemen to central Israel, evading air defence systems and sparking a fire not far from Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate.
Story by Oleksandra Bashchenko

Russian military launched a missile at a civilian vessel, targeting a wheat shipment bound for Egypt, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“A Russian missile struck a shipment of wheat for Egypt. Today’s attack in the Black Sea targeted a civilian vessel shortly after leaving Ukrainian territorial waters,” the president stated.

According to preliminary data, there were no human casualties.

Zelenskyy emphasizes that Ukraine is a key global donor to food security. The stability and survival of many countries worldwide depend on the smooth operation of Ukraine’s food export corridor.

"Our food supply to African and Middle East countries is critical. We will continue to do everything to protect our ports, the Black Sea, and our food exports to the global market. Protecting lives is Ukraine’s priority, and it must be a priority for every nation,” he noted.
By Christopher Bing, Katie Paul and Raphael Satter

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. officials and recently unveiled criminal charges.

“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said in a briefing on Friday. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”

The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle in order to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic. Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the U.S. government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say.
A damning final report into Britain’s worst residential fire since World War II blamed a litany of cost-cutting, dishonest sales practices and lax regulation for the blaze that killed 72 people.
By Mark Landler

Seven years after flames engulfed Grenfell Tower, a public housing block in West London, killing 72 people, a public inquiry on Wednesday blamed unscrupulous manufacturers, a cost-cutting government and reckless deregulation for the disaster, Britain’s worst residential fire since World War II.

The 1,671-page final report laid out a litany of corner-cutting, dishonest sales practices, incompetence and lax regulation that led to the tower being wrapped in low-cost flammable cladding, which, after it caught fire in the early hours of June 14, 2017, quickly turned the building into an inferno.

Many of the causes laid out in the report were documented in months of testimony before the inquiry, which was called by the prime minister at the time, Theresa May, and chaired over a seven-year period by a retired judge, Martin Moore-Bick.

But the report painted a damning picture of a Conservative-run local council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, eager to reduce costs, working with contractors who installed combustible cladding panels, purchased from suppliers who knew that they should never have been used in a high-rise building.
By TIA GOLDENBERG

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pushed back against a new wave of pressure to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza after hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested and went on strike and U.S. President Joe Biden said he needed to do more after nearly 11 months of fighting.

In his first public address since Sunday’s mass protests showed many Israelis’ furious response to the discovery of six more dead hostages, Netanyahu said he will continue to insist on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks — continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it.

Netanyahu called the corridor vital to ensuring Hamas cannot rearm via tunnels. “This is the oxygen of Hamas,” he said.
By Kathleen Magramo and Rob Picheta, CNN

A nationwide strike is underway in Israel after its largest labor union called for the action to push for a hostage deal, saying the “entire Israeli economy will shut down.” Some government ministries, municipalities, universities, hospitals, and schools are expected to be disrupted. Flights were halted at Tel Aviv’s international airport.
Alternative for Germany's success in Thuringia is a huge win for a party that was launched in 2013.
By Freddie Clayton

Germany’s far right has won the most votes in a state election for the first time since the Nazi era, in a major rebuke of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling center-left coalition.
Projections  from public broadcasters ARD and ZDF based on exit polls suggest  that the anti-immigration, nationalist party Alternative for Germany, or  AfD, has finished first in the east German state of Thuringia, securing about 31% to 33% of the vote.

The  Christian Democratic Union, Germany’s second-largest party, finished  second with 24.5% of the votes in Thuringia. Scholz's Social Democratic  Party appears to have cleared the 5% threshold needed to make it into  the state parliaments.

In Saxony, another east German  state in the heart of what was once communist East Germany, the AfD has  30% to 31% of the vote, putting it neck-and-neck with the CDU, which has  31.5% to 32% of the vote, according to projection polls.
By ILLIA NOVIKOV and VASILISA STEPANENKO

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched an overnight barrage of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv, officials said Monday, as children prepared their return to school across the country after the summer vacation and some found classes canceled due to damage from the attack.

Several series of explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours. Debris from intercepted missiles and drones fell in every district of Kyiv, injuring three people and damaging two kindergartens, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. City authorities reported multiple fires.

After more than 900 days of war, the two sides show no sign of letting up in the fight or moving closer to the negotiating table. The two sides are pursuing ambitious ground offensives, with the Ukrainians driving into Russia’s Kursk region and the Russian army pushing deeper into the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine that is part of the industrial Donbas region.
By Brad Lendon and Isaac Yee, CNN

CNN — Ukraine launched one of its biggest-ever drone attacks on Russia over the weekend, hitting a refinery and power station deep inside the country, according to videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN.

The short videos show plumes of smoke rising from targets in Moscow and the neighboring Tver region.

The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the size of the Ukrainian attack, but downplayed its effectiveness, saying Sunday that 158 Ukrainian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) “were destroyed and intercepted by on-duty air defense” overnight in 15 regions, including over the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said two drones were shot down in the area of the Moscow Oil Refinery. No casualties were reported, but the second downed drone damaged a technical building at the refinery and caused a fire, which the mayor said had been localized and did not affect the plant’s operation.
João da Silva

Brazil's Supreme Court will vote on Monday on whether or not to uphold a ruling to ban social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Justice Alexandre Moraes called for the vote after the platform was suspended in the country in the early hours of Saturday.

It came after X failed to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil before a court-imposed deadline.

A feud between Justice Moraes and X's owner Elon Musk began in April when the judge ordered the suspension of dozens of accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.
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