WORLD BRIEFING: July 31, 2024
Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas leaders, was assassinated in Iran, the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas said on Wednesday, a severe blow to the Palestinian group that threatens to engulf the region in further conflict. Hamas accused Israel of killing Mr. Haniyeh, who led the group’s political operations from exile in Qatar. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly elected president of Iran. Mr. Haniyeh was a key figure in Hamas’s stalled cease-fire negotiations with Israel, and his assassination makes the prospects for a deal even more unclear. Israel’s military has not commented and said it does not respond to reports in the foreign news media. In recent years it has carried out a number of high-profile assassinations in Iran, rattling the country’s leaders and prompting a security overhaul including the ouster of a top security official. - NYT (In response, Qatar's foreign ministry said in a statement that the killing of Ismail Haniyeh was a "crime" and "a dangerous escalation.” Turkey said it “condemns the assassination, attack aimed at spreading the war in Gaza”’.)
Israel carried out a strike in Beirut on Tuesday night, saying that it had targeted a commander whom it blamed for an assault that killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights this weekend. The target of the strike was Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah official, who served as a close adviser to Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant group, according to three Israeli security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of the operation.
The Israeli military has designated just one area of the Gaza Strip as a “humanitarian zone” for displaced people — and that area keeps shrinking. In the latest downsizing, the military on Saturday ordered the evacuation of two more parts of central Gaza that had been part of the humanitarian zone. Similar orders have forced more than 200,000 Palestinians to relocate over the last week alone, according to the United Nations. A New York Times analysis of the latest orders showed that the zone has shrunk by more than a fifth in recent weeks, going from encompassing nearly 17 percent of the Gaza Strip to 13 percent now. Maps and analysis of satellite imagery show that the zone is already overcrowded, frequently damaged by strikes and lacking sufficient medical services. The Israeli military has said its recent evacuations and operations have targeted a renewed Hamas insurgency, and it accused Hamas of launching rockets from the areas that came under the latest evacuation order on Sunday. But the repeated redrawing of the zone’s borders is one more burden among many on Gaza’s 2.2 million people. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, said on Sunday that evacuation orders had affected “almost everyone in Gaza,” adding that many had been forced to flee once a month since the war began in October. The orders bring “more misery, fear and suffering for people who have nothing to do with this war,” Mr. Lazzarini said on social media. - NYT
Security forces in Venezuela have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at people protesting Sunday’s disputed election result. Thousands of people descended on central Caracas on Monday evening, some walking for miles from slums on the mountains surrounding the city, towards the presidential palace. Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory. The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro's declaration as fraudulent, saying that after reviewing 73.2% of the voting tallies, it was clear that its candidate, Edmundo González, had won convincingly. - BBC
Among the countries that reportedly congratulated Nicolás Maduro on his declared re-election, are: Russia, China, Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia, Cuba, Syria, Bolivia, Belarus, Qatar, Guinea-Bissau, Sahrawi and Serbia.
Overnight, Russia conducted one of the largest drone attacks on Ukraine to date, using almost a hundred Shahed drones, Ukrainian officials said. Additionally, one missile was launched from the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region. Ukrainian forces successfully downed all 89 drones.
Comedians John Mulaney and Jimmy Kimmel have both made clear they will not be hosting the 2025 Oscars. Variety reported that Kimmel turned down the gig earlier this summer, citing no particular reason, and Mulaney expects to be too busy with other projects (including a potentially renewed Everybody’s in L.A. on Netflix) to have the time.
In other Paris Olympics news…
The U.S. claims top spot in the total medal count with 26 (including four gold), followed by France (19) and China (14)
It's 9,000 degrees': Olympic athletes resort to ice blocks and mini fans amid 'crazy' Paris heat. But organisers insisted they would not put air conditioning in the Olympic Village, as athletes grow increasingly frustrated at the severe weather conditions in the French capital. Most of France is under heat warnings, with temperatures in Paris hitting 36C. US gymnastics gold winner Simone Biles posted a video on Instagram of her struggling with the lack of air conditioning. The New Zealand women's rugby sevens team was turning to slushies, ice blocks, shade, ice water and cold baths before competing. The equestrian teams sprayed their horses with cool water and kept them in the shade after riding the course - Euronews (Today a high of 33C is forecasted for the Paris region and poor air quality).
After receiving a slew of complaints and pivoting to allow national delegations to reserve mobile air conditioning units at their own expense, the organisers in Paris are facing accusations of creating a two-tier Games. Those who paid up for the units, including the France team, are sleeping comfortably but with the capital sweltering under a heatwave, Bernadette Szocs, a Romanian table tennis player, said she and her teammates had resorted to keeping their terrace doors open all night in hope of some relief from the heat. The issue of air conditioning had been a hot one before the Games. As part of Paris’s commitment to a greener Olympics, it was decided that air conditioning would not be installed with officials instead promising that the athletes rooms would be kept cool through a geothermal water system pumping cold water underneath the buildings. - Guardian
The women’s and men’s Olympic triathlons will go ahead on Wednesday in the French capital, Paris 2024 organizers and World Triathlon announced. Poor water quality levels in the River Seine had led to the cancellation of numerous training swims and forced the postponement of the men’s triathlon, which was scheduled for Tuesday. “The stakeholders involved have confirmed that the women’s and the men’s triathlons will go ahead as planned on 31 July at 8 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. respectively,” Paris 2024 and World Triathlon said. “The results of the latest water analyses, received at 3:20 a.m., have been assessed as compliant by World Triathlon allowing for the triathlon competitions to take place.” - CNN
Ouch! Sports broadcaster Scott Hanson revealed that he accidentally injured his finger while vigorously cheering for Team USA on Monday. Hanson, who is covering the Paris Olympic Games, took to X to show off his wound. “I was pounding the desk on Gold Zone when Team USA was winning a medal. I’m designated “likely” to return,” Hanson captioned the post, which featured a photo of him standing behind an anchor’s desk with a partially wrapped and bloody finger.
Hong Kong's Cheung Ka-Long's 15-14 win in the men's foil against Italy's Filippo Macchi in a disputed bout has seen a barrage of insults from both sides with the Italians launching a formal complaint against the result. Italians flooded Cheung's Instagram profile, posting that Italy had been "robbed" and that the result had been "stolen". Hong Kong users responded with posts on "loving pineapple pizza" and "pasta with soy sauce" to mock Italian cooking. Many internet users uploaded pictures of themselves eating pizza to express solidarity with Cheung. A Hong Kong Pizza Hut ad on Facebook that was trending online showed pizza covered in pineapples alongside a fencer skewering a pineapple. It said customers could add pineapple toppings for free when dining at the restaurant. - NBC
