By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli operations targeting Hezbollah’s leadership, European tariffs on electric vehicles made in China, and Ukrainian defensive measures against Russia.
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Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine (center)
attends the funeral ceremony of late Hezbollah
commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on Aug. 1.Khaled
Desouki/AFP via Getty Images
The Israeli military said on Friday that its forces have killed “approximately 250” Hezbollah militants since launching a ground incursion in southern Lebanon on Tuesday—around 100 of whom have been killed in the past 24 hours, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said.
Those killed may include Hashem Safieddine, a cousin and possible successor of late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Safieddine was targeted in overnight Israeli airstrikes on a bunker in Beirut, where he was believed to be meeting with other senior Hezbollah officials. The United States and Saudi Arabia designated Safieddine a terrorist in May 2017 for his leadership role in the Iranian-backed group.
“Alongside our casualties, we’ve been able to inflict a serious blow to Hezbollah, to its senior level, and to its tactical-level commanders,” Shoshani said. More than 10 Israeli soldiers have been killed this week in fighting in southern Lebanon as well as a drone attack from Iraq on northern Israel.
The Israeli attack occurred mere hours before Tehran sent Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to Beirut to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. This was the first time that a senior Iranian official has visited Lebanon since Nasrallah’s death and Iran’s subsequent ballistic missile attack against Israel on Tuesday.
“We support efforts for a cease-fire on the condition that it would be acceptable to the Lebanese people, acceptable to the resistance, and thirdly, it would be synchronized with a cease-fire in Gaza,” Araghchi said. Iran has long backed Hezbollah and other proxy groups—including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and various militias in Iraq and Syria—as part of Tehran’s so-called axis of resistance against Israel and the United States.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against Iran for its Tuesday missile attack. Although the United States has urged Israel not to directly attack Tehran’s nuclear facilities, the White House said on Thursday that it was “discussing” possible Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated on Friday that Tehran and its allies will not back down in the face of Israel’s threats, calling Iran’s latest attack “minimum punishment.”
The IDF, however, continued its efforts against Hezbollah. Massive airstrike operations across southern Lebanon in recent weeks have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced around 1.2 million others. Overnight on Friday, Israel struck the Masnaa border crossing, the main thoroughfare between Lebanon and Syria through which tens of thousands of people have fled Israeli bombardments.
Israel’s military has accused Hezbollah of using Masnaa to transport military equipment. The group is widely believed to have received much of its weaponry from Iran via Syria, and its militants have a significant presence on both sides of the border. Most public border crossings between the two countries remain open.
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Tariffs on EVs. The European Union announced on Friday that it will impose tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Ten EU members voted in favor; 12 abstained; and five, including the bloc’s largest economy and major car producer, Germany, voted against. The duties will begin on Oct. 31 and last for five years.
The decision impacts billions of dollars in trade, as Brussels aims to curb what it has called unfair Chinese subsidies. The two sides remain in negotiations, though, to find an “alternative solution” within the rules set by the World Trade Organization. This could include a compromise that sees Beijing set minimum sales prices.
Discussions of imposing the tariffs began last year, when the European Commission launched an investigation into government subsidies given to Chinese EVs in an effort to counter perceived anti-competitive behavior hurting European businesses. China has denied this practice and threatened its own tariffs on European dairy, brandy, and pork.
On Friday, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry condemned the EU’s vote as “unfair, non-compliant and unreasonable protectionist practices,” though it did not mention any specific countermeasures. China is the European Union’s second-biggest trading partner after the United States.
On the defensive. Reeling from the loss of a defensive stronghold this week, Ukrainian military chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi ordered on Thursday for defenses to be strengthened in the country’s eastern Donetsk province. Russian troops forced Kyiv to withdraw from the strategic town of Vuhledar on Wednesday in a major setback for Ukraine.
Yet Kyiv is still carrying out attacks of its own. On Friday, a Ukrainian car bomb attack killed an employee who worked at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv accused Andriy Korotky, whom Ukrainian intelligence said was the head of physical security at the facility, of being a “war criminal” for voluntarily collaborating with Moscow, including participating in the repression of Ukrainians and identifying employees at the plant who hold pro-Ukrainian views.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which has opened a criminal case into the attack, said the bomb was planted under the seat of Korotky’s vehicle while he was at home and that it detonated shortly after he began driving. The Russian-appointed director of the nuclear site, Yury Chernichuk, called the attack “reckless” and said Kyiv “must be punished.”
Shipwreck in Congo. More than 75 people have drowned and dozens more remain missing after a ferry capsized in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Lake Kivu on Thursday. The vessel, carrying 278 passengers, was about to dock at Kituku port just outside the city of Goma when it sank. “We noticed that the boat was very overloaded, and there were also strong waves,” a dock worker who helped rescue efforts told the BBC.
Shipwrecks on Lake Kivu have become more common in recent years due to overcrowding; regional clashes between government forces and M23 rebels have made travelers overuse the maritime route to avoid dangerous roads. In 2019, more than 150 people died when a wooden boat capsized in the lake while heading to Goma.
Following her inauguration ceremony on Tuesday, new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that she aims for renewable energy to make up what percentage of the country’s power use by 2030?
A. 25 percent
B. 35 percent
C. 45 percent
D. 50 percent
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes promised on Tuesday that if he wins reelection, he will make a generic version of Ozempic available for all who want it. A patent for the diabetes drug, which is now being used to also treat weight loss, will expire in Brazil in the next two years, allowing cheaper versions of it to enter the market. “Rio will be a city where there will be no more fat people. Everyone will be taking Ozempic at family clinics,” he told Brazilian newspaper Extra ahead of municipal elections on Sunday. Paes said he lost 66 pounds while taking Ozempic, which costs around $182 a month in Brazil.
C. 45 percent
Sheinbaum, a climate scientist, hopes to turn around several years of increasing fossil fuel usage under her predecessor, FP’s Catherine Osborn writes in Latin America Brief.
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