World Briefing: September 29, 2024
Israel says it has carried out "large-scale" air strikes on Yemen, targeting what it calls "military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime". It says power plants and a port were hit in Ras Issa and Hodeidah - a Houthi media spokesman says: "The Yemeni support front will not stop". The strikes came as Israel carried out attacks across Lebanon, including on Dahieh, Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut. The suburb is where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed on Friday - Israel now says 20 other Hezbollah figures were killed in that attack. Lebanese media have reported more than 30 deaths on Sunday, including 17 people from the same family in Zboud in north-east Lebanon - BBC
Iran vowed revenge Sunday over Israel’s killing of a top Revolutionary Guard official in Friday’s major Beirut strike that also resulted in the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement that the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Deputy Commander Abbas Nilforoushan “will not go unanswered…This horrible crime of the aggressor Zionist regime will not go unanswered,” the top diplomat said, according to a foreign ministry statement.
Austria's far-right Freedom Party is heading for an unprecedented general election victory under leader Herbert Kickl, projections say. The projections, based on initial results, give Kickl's party 29.1% - almost three points ahead of the conservative People's Party on 26.2%, but far short of a majority. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) has been in coalition before, but the second-placed conservative People's Party has refused to take part in a government led by him. Kickl's main rival, incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the People Party, has said it's “impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories”. Some 6.3 million Austrians were eligible to vote in a race dominated by the twin issues of migration and asylum, as well as inflation and the war in Ukraine. Kickl has promised Austrians to build "Fortress Austria", to restore their security, prosperity and peace. He has also spoke of becoming Volkskanzler (people's chancellor) which for some Austrians carries echoes of the term used to describe Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. - BBC
At least ten people were killed in two consecutive Russian attacks on a hospital in Sumy, Ukraine. Initial shelling had killed one and damaged several floors of the building, but Russian forces struck again during the evacuation of the hospital’s patients, authorities said. At least 22 were reported injured in the attacks. Danielle Bell, head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, said “loitering munitions” – or suicide drones – hit the Saint Panteleimon clinical hospital in two attacks 45 minutes apart. “Most of the fatalities occurred during the second strike, which hit as first responders arrived at the site and patients attempted to evacuate,” she said. Sumy city is located 32 km (20 miles) from the Russian border.
China’s foreign minister warned fellow leaders on Saturday against an “expansion of the battlefield” in the war and said the Beijing government remained committed to shuttle diplomacy and efforts to push the conflict toward its end. China, along with Brazil, has proposed new talks involving Kyiv and Moscow and this week gathered Global South countries behind that plan. Zelenskyy dismissed China and Brazil’s efforts, questioning why they were proposing an alternative to his own peace formula - The Guardian
Hurricane Helene tore through multiple states, killing at least 62 people, knocking out power to millions and trapping families in floodwaters. In hard-hit North Carolina, days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many without basic necessities and overloaded state resources. - CNN
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Friday it had fined Air Canada (AC.TO), opens new tab $250,000 for operating flights in 2022 and 2023 in prohibited Iraqi airspace. The agency had jurisdiction because those flights had United Airlines’ (UAL.O), opens new tab designator code. The violations occurred on numerous flights between the United Arab Emirates and Toronto in airspace that was prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration to U.S. operators. Emirates was fined $1.5 million by the Transportation Department in June for operating flights carrying JetBlue Airways’(JBLU.O), opens new tab code over Iraqi airspace. It was the second time they had been fined since 2020. - Reuters
