By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a targeted Israeli strike on a top Hezbollah official, elections in the Czech Republic and Sri Lanka, and a European Union loan for Ukraine.
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Strikes on Lebanon’s Capital
Thick smoke rises above the southern suburbs of Beirut after an Israeli strike on Sept. 20.AFP via Getty Images
The Israeli military launched a “targeted strike” on a top Hezbollah figure in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh on Friday. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Hezbollah operations commander Ibrahim Aqil and around 10 other commanders were killed. Hezbollah has not confirmed Aqil’s death.
Aqil is accused of being involved in two 1983 terrorist attacks that killed more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. He is also believed to have directed the taking of U.S. and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. Last year, the U.S. State Department posted a $7 million reward for information leading to his identification, location, arrest, or conviction.
At least 12 people were killed and dozens more injured in Friday’s strike, Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry said, making it the deadliest single Israeli strike on Lebanon’s capital since the Israel-Hamas war began last October and Hezbollah stepped up rocket attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group.
This was Israel’s second strike in recent months aimed at a top Hezbollah official in Beirut, and it comes after a series of Israeli military escalations in the region. Earlier this week, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria, killing at least 37 people and injuring around 3,000 others. Most of those wounded were civilians, Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry said on Friday. Late Thursday, Israel also launched more than 100 strikes across southern Lebanon in one of its most intensive campaigns against Hezbollah in nearly a year.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed retribution against Israel for the device attacks in comments made during a public address on Thursday. The explosions were “a major assault on Lebanon, its security and sovereignty, a war crime—an act of war,” he said. Early Friday, Israel said the Iranian-backed militant group fired at least 140 rockets into its northern region. Countering Hezbollah attacks along the Israel-Lebanon border became an official war aim for the IDF on Wednesday.
Experts believe that Israel and Hezbollah are on the cusp of an all-out war. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby urged all parties involved to avoid further escalation, adding that the United States had “no involvement” in Friday’s Beirut strikes. But tensions appear to be skyrocketing, with Nasrallah saying on Thursday that Hezbollah would only stop its attacks on Israel if a cease-fire was implemented in Gaza and Israel maintaining that it will continue its war against Hamas until the group—which is also backed by Iran—is completely destroyed.
The United Nations Security Council convened an emergency session Friday afternoon to discuss the recent electronic devices attacks. “The region is on the brink of a catastrophe,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for U.N. chief António Guterres. U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon also urged “all actors to immediately de-escalate” on Friday. The peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, was first deployed to southern Lebanon in 1978 to address Israel-Lebanon-Syria hostilities. The force currently comprises around 10,000 personnel from 50 countries.
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What We’re Following
To the polls. The Czech Republic kicked off two days of regional and Senate elections on Friday, at a time when the Central European nation is struggling to recover from recent mass flooding. Interior Ministry officials took control of organizing votes in at least five towns where locals were swamped with cleanup and recovery efforts. Dozens of other towns across the country’s northeast have been forced to relocate polling stations to tents, shipping containers, or even the outdoors after flooding damaged prepared voting sites.
More than 8,000 candidates from more than 80 political parties and movements are vying for regional council posts this year. The ruling Spolu coalition, led by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, is expected to maintain its majority. However, analysts are keeping a close eye on the opposition ANO party, which could achieve some regional wins.
Also this weekend, Sri Lanka will hold a highly contested presidential election. This is its first such vote since the country defaulted on its loans in 2022, sparking months of food and fuel shortages, mass protests, and the ousting of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His replacement, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is seeking reelection against 37 other candidates, including top challengers Anura Kumara Dissanayake (from the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party) and Sajith Premadasa (from the populist Samagi Jana Balawegaya party).
Wickremesinghe is hoping that his efforts to improve Sri Lanka’s economy will bolster electoral support. But although inflation has decreased during his tenure, many of Wickremesinghe’s critics have blamed him for being part of the same political elite that caused the economic crisis in the first place.
More loans for Kyiv. The European Union announced on Friday that it will provide a roughly $39 billion loan to Ukraine as part of a $50 billion G-7 loan package agreed to in June. The cash will be backed by frozen Russian assets and will not initially include U.S. contributions, after talks between U.S. and European officials recently stalled.
“This is a huge step forward,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We should make Russia pay for the destruction it caused.” Zelensky said his priorities include rebuilding Ukraine’s energy network, erecting more bomb shelters, improving schools, and buying weapons and ammunition. The EU has already given Kyiv more than $132 billion in military and economic assistance since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Travel ban 2.0. Former U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to reinstate his controversial travel ban if he is reelected in November. Specifically, he promised to expand the policy to prevent refugees from Gaza from entering the United States, calling the area “terror-infested.” His comments occurred at an event focused on combating antisemitism during the Israeli-American Council National Summit, highlighting Trump’s efforts to court conservative Jewish voters.
During his speech, Trump said, “If I don’t win this election, [then] the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss.” He described any Jews who support Vice President Kamala Harris as “voting for the enemy” and said they “should have their head examined.” Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. Jewish people, who make up a little more than 2 percent of the U.S. population, are considered one of the most consistently liberal demographics in the country.
Trump also promised to strip the accreditations from colleges that fail to end “antisemitic propaganda” on their campuses—a nod to pro-Palestinian protests this year that led to the resignations of several top university presidents.
What in the World?
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a controversial constitutional reform into law on Sunday. What part of the government does the reform target?
A. The central bank
B. The Federal Electoral Institute
C. The Federal Telecommunications Commission
D. The judiciary
Odds and Ends
Everyone just wants to beef about something. For Turkey, that includes literal beef. Next Tuesday, the European Commission must determine whether Germany and Turkey should compromise on the status of doner kebab, a Turkish meat dish cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Istanbul wants the popular item to fall under “traditional specialty guaranteed” status, meaning that the beef must be prepared in certain ways. The German Food and Agriculture Ministry, however, says “the kebab is part of Germany, and the diversity of its preparation methods reflects the diversity of our country.” With Berlin known for its “doner diplomacy,” this food fight may just be beginning.
And the Answer Is…
D. The judiciary
The federal judiciary was one of the country’s last remaining bulwarks against the outgoing president’s agenda of institutional destruction, Emiliano Polo writes.
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