Israel targets Palestinian group in first strike on Beirut center

BEIRUT -- Israel hit a Beirut apartment block on Monday, killing three members of a Palestinian armed group in its first strike on the city center since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza nearly one year ago. Israel has turned its focus from Gaza to Lebanon in recent days, carrying out attacks on Iran's regional allies. Strikes on Hezbollah targets killed the Iran-backed group's leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday. Monday's drone attack targeted a "flat belonging to Jamaa Islamiya,&

World NewsSept. 30, 2024

[Graphic News] Ronaldo tops 2024 Instagram earnings list

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the highest-paid celebrity on Instagram, according to a survey by British data analyst Hopper HQ. Ronaldo can earn up to $3.43 million per post. Following closely behind is Lionel Messi, while Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner and Dwayne Johnson round out the top five. Hopper HQ reveals how much your favorite celebrities are earning from sponsored posts this year, using internal data, agency rates and publicly available information. Notably, all four membe

World NewsSept. 30, 2024

Nasrallah's killing reveals depth of Israel's Hezbollah penetration

In the wake of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's killing, Hezbollah faces the enormous challenge of plugging the infiltration in its ranks that allowed its arch enemy Israel to destroy weapons sites, booby-trap its communications and assassinate the veteran leader, whose whereabouts had been a closely guarded secret for years. Nasrallah's killing on Friday came barely a week after Israel's deadly detonation of hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and radios. It was the culmination of a rapid

World NewsSept. 29, 2024

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is killed in Beirut strike, Israel's military says

Israel said Saturday that it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, dealing its most significant blow to the Lebanese militant group after months of fighting. There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah. Nasrallah becomes the latest, and by far the most powerful, target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The army said that several top Hezbollah commanders were killed along with Nasrallah in a powerful airstrike Friday. The military said it carried o

World NewsSept. 28, 2024

Israel strikes Hezbollah in a huge blast targeting the militant group's leader

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut on Friday in a series of massive explosions that targeted the leader of the militant group and leveled multiple high-rise apartment buildings. At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said. It was the biggest blast to hit the Lebanese capital in the past year and appeared likely to push the escalating conflict closer to full-fledged war. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was t

World NewsSept. 28, 2024

Fed's favored inflation gauge shows cooling price pressures, clearing way for more rate cuts

The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure on Friday provided the latest sign that price pressures are easing, a trend that is expected to fuel further Fed interest rate cuts this year and next. Prices rose just 0.1 percent from July to August, the Commerce Department said, down from the previous month’s 0.2 percent increase. Compared with a year earlier, inflation fell to 2.2 percent, down from 2.5 percent the previous month and barely above the Fed's 2 percent inflation

World BusinessSept. 27, 2024

China’s biggest stock buying frenzy in years overwhelms exchange

Chinese equities capped their biggest weekly rally since 2008 with a burst of trading that overwhelmed the Shanghai stock exchange, underscoring a dramatic shift in investor sentiment after Xi Jinping’s government ramped up economic stimulus. In an echo of the rally that followed China’s massive stimulus during the global financial crisis, the CSI 300 Index of large-cap shares soared 4.5 percent on Friday — bringing this week’s gain to 16 percent. Trading activity was

World BusinessSept. 27, 2024

S. Korea pledges to maintain 'positive momentum' with Japan under Ishiba

South Korea on Friday pledged to continue its cooperation with Japan's incoming government in order to maintain "positive momentum," following the ruling party's election of former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba as leader, setting him up to become the country's new prime minister. "We will continue to work closely with the new Japanese cabinet to ensure the positive flow of South Korea-Japan relations," said a senior presidential official, who spoke on the c

World NewsSept. 27, 2024

Biden announces $8 billion in military aid for Ukraine

US President Joe Biden announced more than $8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday to help Kyiv "win this war" against Russian invaders, using a visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to make a major commitment. The aid includes the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb called the Joint Standoff Weapon, with a range of up to 81 miles. The medium-range missile gives Ukraine a major upgrade to the weapons it is using to strike Russian forces, allowing the Ukra

World NewsSept. 26, 2024

Same-sex marriage in Thailand to become legal in January

DPA -- Same-sex marriage will be legal in Thailand from January after Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed the law on Tuesday, making the country the first in South-East Asia to legalize it. The upper and lower houses of the Thai parliament had already passed the legislation months ago, both with large majorities. Now that the king has signed the law, it will enter into force in 120 days. While Thailand is the first country in South-East Asia to allow for same-sex marriage, it is the third in al

World NewsSept. 25, 2024

[Graphic News] World produces 52m tons of plastic pollution annually: study

A recent study reveals that the world generates 52 million metric tons of plastic pollution each year, with a significant portion coming from countries in the Global South. This staggering amount could fill New York City’s Central Park to the height of the Empire State Building. The study, led by the University of Leeds, examined waste production across more than 50,000 cities and towns globally. More than two-thirds of this pollution comes from countries with poor waste collection servi

World NewsSept. 25, 2024

Soyuz capsule with 2 Russians and 1 American from the International Space Station returns to Earth

MOSCOW (AP) — A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station landed Monday in Kazakhstan, ending a record-breaking stay for the Russian pair. The capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe about 3 1/2 hours after undocking from the ISS in an apparently trouble-free descent. In the last stage of the landing, it descended under a red-and-white parachute at about 7.2 meters per second (16 mph), with small rockets fired in the final seconds to cushion the

World NewsSept. 23, 2024

WTO to examine China complaint over US electric vehicle subsidies

The World Trade Organization agreed Monday to establish an expert panel to examine US subsidies for electric vehicles after Beijing accused Washington of unfair competition. The United States slammed China's complaint, insisting the country was seeking "to distract from its own non-market policies and practices that undermine a fair, competitive, and mutually beneficial trading system." The world's second-largest economy initially brought the case to the WTO in March, chargin

World BusinessSept. 23, 2024

Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill 100 people. That would make it the deadliest day since October

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it struck hundreds of targets Monday in Lebanon in one of the most intense barrages in nearly a year of fighting against the Hezbollah militant group, and military officials said they planned to widen the offensive. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 100 people were killed and more than 400 wounded in what would be the deadliest day in Lebanon since the conflict started in October. Before the escalation beginning with the wave of pager explosions l

World NewsSept. 23, 2024

Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka was voting for its next president Saturday in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the island nation's unprecedented financial crisis. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is fighting an uphill battle for a fresh mandate to continue belt-tightening measures that stabilized the economy and ended months of food, fuel, and medicine shortages. His two years in office restored calm to the streets after civil unrest

World NewsSept. 21, 2024

California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction

California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday. California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children’s access to social media, but the

World NewsSept. 21, 2024

Rare Israeli airstrike in Beirut kills Hezbollah commander and more than a dozen others

Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the deadliest such strike on Lebanon’s capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 14 people killed and dozens more wounded in the attack. The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the strike on Beirut's southern Dahiya district killed Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah&rsquo

World NewsSept. 21, 2024

EU pledges to loan Ukraine up to $39 billion to help rebuild its economy and power grid

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union pledged on Friday to lend Ukraine up to 35 billion euros ($39 billion) as part of a loan package organized by the Group of Seven major industrial nations, as it seeks to help the country rebuild its economy and its war-shattered power grid. G7 leaders agreed in June to engineer a $50 billion loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival. Interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral, but progre

World NewsSept. 20, 2024

Global stock markets diverge after global rally

Global stock markets diverged and the dollar was mixed against main rivals Friday following an equities rally triggered by a jumbo US interest rate cut this week. In early afternoon deals, European stocks pared back hefty gains from the previous session, won after the Federal Reserve opted for a bumper 50-basis-point rate reduction and pledged further cuts as inflation cools. There had been fears the move could signal officials were worried about the economy and were behind the curve in easing p

World BusinessSept. 20, 2024