Source: BBC
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Saturday 6 August 2022 11:54:29
France Drought: Parched Towns Left Short of Drinking Water
The French government has set up a crisis team to tackle a historic drought that has left more than 100 municipalities short of drinking water.
Trucks are taking water to those areas, as "there is nothing left in the pipes", Minister for Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu said.
The prime minister's office said it was France's worst recorded drought. Water use is being restricted in 93 regions.
Dry conditions are expected to continue for at least the next two weeks.
The state energy company EDF has had to reduce output at some nuclear power plants, as river temperatures are too high to provide sufficient cooling, AFP news agency reports.
There are fears that the drought - hitting nearly all of mainland France - will reduce crop yields, exacerbating the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
Europeans are already struggling with higher food prices as grain exports from Russia and Ukraine - among the world's top producers - are much lower than normal.
The heatwave that has baked France since June has prompted trees and bushes to shed their leaves early, creating scenes that look autumnal.
In July France had just 9.7mm (0.38 inches) of rain, making it the driest month since March 1961, the national weather service Meteo-France said.
Irrigation has been banned in much of the northwest and southeast of France to conserve water.
The corn harvest, used mainly for animal feed, is expected to be 18.5% lower this year compared with 2021, the agriculture ministry said. The main corn-growing areas are Alsace in the east and western regions, and the harvest is already underway.
Corn exports from France, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria are all expected to be lower this year because of the heatwave, and those lower volumes will push prices up, French BFMTV reported.
Livestock farmers in the Alps are having to descend into the valleys by truck every day to collect water for their animals, which adds several hundred euros to their weekly fuel bills, Broadcaster TF1 reported.