Source: Evening Standard
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
My Hope for Lebanon
A company of Lebanese soldiers assigned to maintain order in this anxious wartime capital is gathered at its headquarters 100 yards from the Mediterranean. I make the blunder of asking their commander how many of his men are Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druze.
Monday, November 4, 2024
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
Sports
FC Barcelona Fears First Team Star Will Be Banned From Playing, Reports SPORT
FC Barcelona is concerned that one of its main first-team stars will be banned from playing at the turn of 2025 because of issues related to his registration and Financial Fair Play (FFP) limits according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Friday, November 1, 2024
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
Sunday 18 February 2024 14:57:01
Russia Claims Alexei Navalny Died Of 'Sudden Death Syndrome' As Mother Searches For Body
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died from a heart attack at a Siberian penal colony where temperatures plummet to -30C, it is claimed.
Investigators told his mother Lyudmila Navalnaya her 47-year-old son had died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, though this cause of death has not been independently verified.
Anti-corruption campaigner Mr Navalny had been transferred to the jail in December, four months after a court sentenced him to 19 years on trumped-up "extremism" and "corruption" charges.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference Vladimir Putin was a "thug" and it was "absurd" to call him the "legitimate head of a Russian state". And he added: "Putin kills whoever he wants, be it an opposition leader or anyone who seems like a target. He maintains power through corruption and violence."
And Marina Litvinenko, whose husband, the defector Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned in London with radioactive isotope polonium 210 by Russian agents, said: "This is not just another death. We know about the first Ukraine war in 2014, we know about the Skripal poisonings in Salisbury when a British citizen was killed, then Alexei Navalny was poisoned in 2020 and arrested in 2021, and now you have full war in Ukraine.
"And this is all connected - there is one man at the heart of all of this who is responsible.
"Putin's regime will collapse sooner than people expect, and we will know the truth behind Navalny's death and that of my husband." But Putin expert Keir Giles, author of Russia's War on Everybody, urged people to manage expectations.
He said: "We cannot even know how many Russians were in sympathy with Navalny. What we do know is that it doesn't make any difference. Russia has a repressive capacity system to make sure there cannot be anything stronger than an irritating response to Navalny's death."
He said any order given by Moscow showed Russia was "back in its historical comfort zone of murdering opponents at home and abroad without qualms and without a care for international condemnation". But he said other factors could have played a part in Mr Navalny's death.
"The assumption by so many is the Russian system is smooth and efficient, and only works on the orders issued from the very top carried out promptly and without fail. It is not the case. It is hostage to misunderstanding and Russian chaos.
"A number of things could have led to Navalny's death without it necessarily involving a direct order." As tragic as Mr Navalny's death is, said Mr Giles, it did not represent the end of the last hope of opposition.
"It is simply not true Navalny was the only show in town.There are plenty of others in jail who are in as much danger."
These include journalist and opposition activistVladimir Kara-Murza, 42.
Mr Giles added: "Kara-Murza was poisoned, went back to Russia because he doesn't feel he was doing any good outside, is imprisoned and is in great danger."
Others at risk could include activist and member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, 35.
She fled Russia after being ordered to spend 21 days in a penal colony.
