Thursday, Dec 26th
Last update09:02:29 AM GMT
International Glance
The U.S. remains unwavering in its support for Ukraine as Russia's disregard for international norms and ongoing war of aggression continues to threaten democracies throughout the globe, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said today.
Austin underscored the imperative for countries around the globe to stand in defense of Ukraine's freedom and sovereignty in an address at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv, marking his fourth visit to Ukraine since taking office.
Israel's military carried out airstrikes overnight on targets in Lebanon that the military says are linked to a financial institution that undergirds the militant group Hezbollah. Lebanon is assessing the damage.
Late Sunday an Israeli military spokesperson published messages online in Arabic instructing Lebanese civilians to move away from specific buildings that house branches of the bank, called Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
While United Nations representatives said the warnings sparked panic in parts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israel's foreign minister said 15 buildings were struck and its military would continue to attack Hezbollah.
The U.S. has long sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan, saying it is used to manage finances by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militia and political movement that the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization.
The often denied but obvious involvement of foreign powers in Sudan’s deadly civil war is now firmly in the spotlight. Tens of thousands of people, including many civilians, have been killed since it began last April.
Now, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has accused the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) of bombing its ambassador’s residence in Khartoum, causing “extensive damage”. The SAF denied it, claiming that last month’s strike was the work of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), backed by the UAE.
What’s not in doubt is that both sides are committing war crimes and that they are able to do so because foreign governments are supporting them. The ceaseless flow of arms has resulted in a vast, growing humanitarian disaster. Last week, UN-appointed experts accused combatants of using “starvation tactics” against 25 million civilians. Additionally, 10 million people have been displaced, and diseases such as cholera are rapidly spreading amid the world’s largest hunger crisis.
A discrepancy in the official Israeli account of Yahya Sinwar’s final moments has emerged since his death which appears likely to add fuel to the martyr’s cult fast developing around the Hamas leader.
The Israeli autopsy carried out on Sinwar concluded that he died from a gunshot wound to his head, at odds with the initial Israel Defense Forces (IDF) version which implied he was killed by a tank shell fired into the wrecked building where he made his last stand.
Ukraine struck a manufacturer of military explosives deep inside Russian territory overnight, as well as storage infrastructure at a military airfield in the Lipetsk region, Kyiv's General Staff said in a statement on Sunday.
A Mexican Catholic priest was killed on Sunday in the southern state of Chiapas after officiating a mass, his religious order and authorities said, marking the latest death in a recent wave of violence in the area.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 73 people, including women and children, in the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the strip's Hamas-run authorities say.
Dozens of others are injured and many are still trapped under the rubble after the bombing late on Saturday night, officials added.
Israel said it was checking reports of casualties but said the figures published by Hamas authorities were "exaggerated" and did not match information held by its military.
The latest strikes come just hours after reports of "heavy gunfire" from Israeli troops at the Indonesian Hospital in the city.
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