Israel carries out deadly airstrikes against suspected Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon
A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon have killed at one person and wounded eight others. The Israeli military said it bombed infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah militant group that included weapons and tunnel shafts as part of an underground network. AP video shot by Ali Sharafeddine and Fadi Tawil
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San Francisco Chronicle
8 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Donald Tusk makes his case before a confidence vote in Poland
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Prime Minister Donald Tusk made the case Wednesday to parliament that his centrist, pro-European coalition has brought progress to Poland as he seeks to regain political momentum after his camp's stinging loss in the recent presidential election. Tusk also acknowledged the new difficulties that he faces in a speech before a vote of confidence which he requested seeking to reaffirm the mandate of his coalition government. The vote in parliament follows the narrow June 1 defeat of Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski to Karol Nawrocki, a right-wing nationalist backed by U.S. President Donald Trump. 'I am asking for a vote of confidence with full conviction that we have a mandate to govern, to take full responsibility for what is happening in Poland," Tusk said. He said that his coalition's challenges are greater as a result of the presidential election. But he also argued that the narrow defeat of Trzaskowski indicates that support remains strong for his political camp. Tusk is expected to survive the vote in the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. He remains the most powerful person in the Central European nation, and his government coalition has a parliamentary majority, with 242 seats in the 460-seat body. Still, the close presidential race has rattled his coalition, an uneasy alliance of his centrist Civic Coalition, the Left party and the center-right Polish People's Party. Many have started blaming Tusk for Trzaskowski's defeat, and his coalition partners have begun reevaluating the benefits and costs of sticking it out with him. There are questions about what Tusk can realistically achieve before the next parliamentary election, scheduled for late 2027, and whether it will even survive that long in a new political environment in which the far right has seen an surge in popularity. Polish media and political analysts are debating whether this might be the 68-year-old Tusk's political twilight. 'I know the bitterness of defeat, but I do not know such a word as 'capitulation,' Tusk told lawmakers. Tusk served as Polish prime minister from 2007-2014 and then as president of the European Council from 2014–2019. He resumed his leadership of the country as prime minister again in December 2023 in a country exhausted by the pandemic and inflation, and with political divisions deep and bitter. In a sign of those divisions, half of the parliament hall was empty, with right-wing lawmakers boycotting his speech on Wednesday. Tusk criticized them for that, suggesting that they were showing disrespect to the nation by being absent. For Tusk, the challenge is keeping his fractious coalition intact. A failure would trigger the formation of a caretaker government and possibly an early election — a scenario that could return power to the national conservative Law and Justice party, likely in coalition with the the far-right anti-Ukraine Confederation party, whose candidate placed third in the presidential race. Tusk had long counted on a Trzaskowski victory to end months of gridlock under President Andrzej Duda, who repeatedly blocked his reform agenda. Instead, Nawrocki is now poised to take office, promising strong resistance to Tusk's plans. In his speech, Tusk acknowledged that that his coalition was already facing challenges that have only grown more difficult. 'We cannot close our eyes to reality. These challenges are greater than we anticipated as a result of the presidential election,' he said. Following the presidential election, criticism has grown that Tusk's government has underdelivered on its campaign promises. Many blame him for contributing to Trzaskowski's loss. Much of the criticism comes from within his coalition. Joanna Mucha, a deputy education minister from the centrist Third Way alliance, posted a blistering Facebook analysis blaming the defeat on Tusk's party. She argued that Law and Justice, which backed Nawrocki, ran a focused, data-driven campaign with a fresh face, and she accused Tusk's party of ignoring polling data, relying on campaign consultants who had lost previous elections, and failing to build support beyond its liberal base.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel's Smotrich could collapse Palestinian economy by ending bank waiver
Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has cancelled a waiver that Palestinian banks rely on to operate hours after five Western governments announced he faced sanctions, along with fellow ultra-nationalist Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for inciting violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Warnings have previously been raised that Israel's ending of the waiver could have devastating consequences for the Palestinian economy, which is dependent on the Israeli banking system as the Palestinian Authority (PA) does not have its own central bank or currency. 'Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has instructed Accountant General CPA Yali Rothenberg to cancel the indemnity provided to correspondent banks dealing with banks operating in Palestinian Authority territories,' Smotrich's office said in a statement on Tuesday, announcing the changes. The statement also directly linked Smotrich's decision to the PA's international advocacy against the establishment of illegal settlements in the occupied territories, which the minister's office described as the 'delegitimisation campaign against the State of Israel internationally'. Smotrich's decision to end the waiver came hours after Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom announced sanctions against him, as well as against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for their 'incitement of violence' against sanctions were not publicly linked to Smotrich's targeting of the PA, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank and represents Palestine at international forums, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). However, Smotrich has a history of blaming the PA and punishing the 2.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for international condemnation of Israel's illegal occupation. 'For every country that unilaterally recognises a Palestinian state, we will establish a settlement,' Smotrich said in July 2024, as he announced that Israel was 'recognising' five illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank after five more countries – Norway, Spain, Ireland, Armenia and Slovenia – announced they were recognising Palestinian statehood. He has also called for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank if the ICJ ruled that Israeli settlements are end of the waiver could have a devastating impact on the finances of Palestinians, particularly in the occupied West Bank, which has already suffered multiple economic blows over the past two years. The overwhelming majority of exchanges in the West Bank and Gaza are in shekels, Israel's national currency, because Palestine is not allowed to have its own central bank or print its own currency, which means that Palestinian banks are reliant on Israeli banks to operate. But Israeli banks only continue to work with the Palestinian banks because of the government waiver, which protects them from potential legal action relating to transactions with their Palestinian counterparts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has repeatedly threatened to end the waiver in the past, prompting rebukes from even Israel's closest allies. Janet Yellen, the United States Treasury Secretary in former President Joe Biden's administration, warned in May last year that 'to cut Palestinian banks from Israeli counterparts would create a humanitarian crisis'. In July, G7 countries urged Israel to 'take necessary action' to ensure the continuity of Palestinian financial systems. The UN has also warned that 'unilaterally cutting off Palestinian banks from the global banking system would be a violation of the fundamental principles of international law'. Under this pressure, the Israeli government has agreed to extend the waiver for short periods. However, far-right ministers like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have always objected. After one vote in November last year, Ben-Gvir, who has been convicted in Israeli courts of possessing a 'terror' organisation's propaganda material and supporting a 'terror' organisation, wrote in a post on X that he had a 'principled objection' to indemnifying the Israeli banks. The Palestinian Authority should be completely cut off and 'collapsed', he said.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
South Korea halts loudspeaker broadcasts along border with rival North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's military has shut down loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda along the inter-Korean border, marking the new liberal government's first concrete step toward easing tensions between the war-divided rivals. The South resumed the loudspeaker broadcasts in June last year following a yearslong pause in retaliation for North Korea flying trash-laden balloons toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign. South Korea's Defense Ministry said Wednesday the move was part of efforts to 'to restore trust in inter-Korean relations and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.' North Korea, which is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of its authoritarian leadership and its third-generation ruler, Kim Jong Un, did not immediately comment on the step by Seoul. From May to November last year, North Korea flew thousands of balloons toward South Korea to drop substances such as wastepaper, cloth scraps, cigarette butts and even manure. The North said its balloon campaign came after South Korean activists sent over balloons filled with anti-North Korean leaflets, as well as USB sticks filled with popular South Korean songs and dramas. Trash carried by at least one North Korean balloon fell on the South Korean presidential compound in July, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. Officials said the balloon contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt. South Korea, in response to the North Korean balloons, reactivated its front-line loudspeakers to blast propaganda messages and K-pop songs toward the North. The playlist was clearly designed to strike the nerve of Pyongyang, as Kim's government since the COVID-19 pandemic has been intensifying a campaign to eliminate the influence of South Korean pop culture and language amongst the population in a bid to strengthen his family's dynastic rule. The Cold War-style psychological warfare campaigns added to tensions fueled by North Korea's growing nuclear ambitions and South Korean efforts to expand joint military exercises with the United States and strengthen three-way security cooperation with Japan. South Korea's new liberal president, Lee Jae-myung, who took office last week after winning a snap election to replace ousted conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, has vowed to improve relations with Pyongyang, which reacted furiously to Yoon's hardline policies and shunned dialogue. In his inaugural address last week, Lee vowed to reopen communication channels with North Korea to ease tensions. But prospects for an early resumption of dialogue between the rival Koreas remain dim, as North Korea has consistently rejected offers from South Korea and the United States since 2019, when nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang collapsed over sanctions-related disagreements. North Korea's priority in foreign policy is now firmly with Russia, which has received thousands of North Korean troops and large amounts of military equipment in recent months for its warfighting in Ukraine. Yoon, who was removed from office in April over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December, had focused on strengthening military partnerships with Washington and Tokyo and on securing stronger U.S. assurances of a swift and decisive nuclear response to defend the South against a North Korean attack. In a fierce reaction to Yoon's policies, Kim in January last year declared that he was abandoning the long-standing goals of a peaceful unification with the South and instructed the rewriting of the North's constitution to cement the South as a permanent 'principal enemy.'
