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Israeli strikes may have displaced a million people – Lebanon PM

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Israel’s continuing air strikes may have already forced as many as one million people from their homes across Lebanon, the country’s prime minister has said.

“It is the largest displacement movement that may have happened,” Najib Mikati said.

Lebanon’s health ministry reported more than 50 people killed in Sunday’s strikes – two days after Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Meanwhile, Hezbollah fired more rockets into northern Israel.

In a separate development, Israel said it had carried out “large-scale” air strikes on military targets of the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen.

Hezbollah confirmed on Sunday that top military commander Ali Karaki and a senior cleric, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, had also been killed in the Israeli air strikes.

“We need to keep hitting Hezbollah hard,” Israel’s military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said.

Another Israeli strike in the central Beirut neighbourhood of Kola early on Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the group said in a statement.

The PFLP is a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, a coalition recognised at the UN as the official representative of the Palestinians. The group is also considered a terrorist organisation by both the US and EU.

The statement named those killed as military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh, and fighter Abdel Rahman Abdel-Aal.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Mikati said the wave of air strikes had forced people to flee from Beirut and other parts of the country, including the southern border areas.

The local authorities are struggling to assist everyone in need, with shelters and hospitals under growing pressure, BBC correspondents in Lebanon report.

Aya Ayoub, aged 25, told the BBC she had to flee her house in Beirut’s southern Tahweetet al-Ghadir suburb with her family of six as it was too dangerous to stay.

Around her house, she said, “all the buildings are completely destroyed”, and she was currently staying with another 16 people in a house in Beirut.

“We left on Friday and had no place to go. We stayed until 02:00 in the streets until a group of people helped us get into a residential building that was under construction. We are living on candles at night, and have to get water and food from outside”.

Sara Tohmaz, a 34-year-old journalist, told the BBC she had left her house near Beirut with her mother and two siblings last Friday.

It took them almost 10 hours to reach Jordan through Syria by car, she said.

“I think we are lucky enough to have a place to stay in Jordan, where my mother’s relatives are based. We don’t know what will happen next, and don’t know when we will be back,” Tohmaz added.

The previously sporadic cross-border fighting escalated on 8 October 2023 – the day after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip – when Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Since then hundreds of people, including many Hezbollah fighters, have been killed, while tens of thousands have also been displaced on both sides of the border.

Also on Sunday, Israel said it carried out air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, striking power plants and a port in Ras Isa and Hudaydah.

Footage later emerged showing a huge explosion at the port.

Israel says it targeted the sites in response to recent missile attacks from the Houthis, as well as to destroy facilities being used to transport Iranian weapons.

The Houthis, a Shia group controlling large areas of Yemen, condemned the Israeli strikes as a “brutal aggression”.

They said four people were killed and 33 injured, vowing revenge.

There are mounting international fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Washington warned Israel against an all-out war with Hezbollah or Iran, saying a major conflict would leave Israelis unable to return to their homes in the north.

(BBC News)

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Passengers jump from plane’s wing after fire alert on Spain flight, triggers panic

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Wildfires have broken out on an island and in towns near Athens in Greece, with blazes also being sparked in Turkey and Syria.

The Hellenic Fire Service and local authorities said that two villages – Tsakeoi and Limnionas – had been evacuated on the island of Evia after the blaze started late on Friday.

One fire service official said more than 160 firefighters, 46 trucks and five aircraft were deployed in southern Evia to put out the fire.

Southern Evia, to the east of Athens, was one of several regions in Greece placed on high alert for wildfires over gale-force winds forecast for today.

Images from Koropi, a town to the southwest of Athens, also show houses burnt down and helicopters dropping water on burning forests.

It marks the latest wildfires to break out in Greece – where blazes are common during the summer – as it tackles strong winds and dry conditions amid an early summer heatwave in southern Europe.

Officials have linked the conditions to at least nine deaths across the continent.

A wildfire broke out in Achlia on the island of Crete on Wednesday, forcing thousands of residents and tourists to evacuate – with some taken to a nearby basketball arena and hotels in safer parts of the island.

The fire service official told Reuters on Friday that the fire in Crete was largely contained.

Meanwhile, blazes have also broken out on Turkey’s west coast – the latest in a series of blazes which started in late June – as well as its southerly neighbour Syria.

At least five fires have been reported in Izmir after extreme heat, strong winds and low humidity. Two people have been killed by the blazes, while tens of thousands have been evacuated.

Fires also flared on both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border on Friday, with a new blaze reported near the town of Dortyol in Turkey’s border province of Hatay.

According to Syria’s Civil Defence, wildfires have spread across large parts of mountainous areas in the Latakia province.

The government department added that conditions have hampered efforts to bring the fire under control, and noted unexploded ordnance could be in some of the areas affected.

Source: SKY NEWS

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Big Beautiful Bill පනතට අමෙරිකානු ජනපති අත්සන් තබයි

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Big Beautiful Bill ලෙස නම් කර ඇති පනතට අමෙරිකානු ජනපති ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් අත්සන් තබා තිබේ.

ඒ එම පනත අමෙරිකාවේ පිළිගත් නීතීයක් බවට පත් කරමින් ය.

ධවල මන්දිරයේ පැවති මෙම උත්සවය සදහා ට්‍රම්ප්ගේ ආධාරකරුවන් විශාග පිරිසක් පැමිණ සිටියේ ය.

එම පණතට ආරක්ෂාව සඳහා ඩොලර් බිලියන 150 ක අයවැය වැඩිවීමක් ඇතුළත් වෙයි.

2017 වසරේ ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් පළමු ධුර කාලය තුළ සිදුකළ බදු කප්පාදු දීර්ඝ කිරීමද ඇතුළත් ය.

අඩු ආදායම්ලාභීන් සහ ආබාධිතයන් සඳහා රජය විසින් සපයනු ලබන සෞඛ්‍ය සේවා යෝජනා ක්‍රමය සඳහාද දැඩි කප්පාදු සිදුවනු ඇති.

අතිකාල සහ සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය සඳහා නව බදු සහනද ඊට ඇතුළත් වෙයි.

ආගමන සහ රේගු බලාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා මෙම පනත මගින් වෙන් කර ඇති මුදල ඩොලර් බිලියන 100 කි.

කැපිටල් හිල්හි පැවති දීර්ඝ සැසිවාරයකින් අනතුරුව මෙම පනත පසුගියදා සම්මත විය.

පනතට පක්ෂව ඡන්ද 218ක් ලැබී ඇති අතර විරුද්ධව ලැබුණු ඡන්ද සංඛ්‍යාව 214කි.

එරට ඩිමොක්‍රටික් පක්ෂයේ සියලු දෙනා මෙන්ම අමෙරිකානු ජනපති ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප්ගේ පක්ෂය වන රිපබ්ලිකන් පක්ෂයේ දෙදෙනෙකුද ඊට විරුද්ධවූවන් අතරට ඇතුළත් ය.

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Namibia halts all state funerals amid criticism of high cost

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Namibia reportedly spent 30m Namibian dollars ($1.7m; £1.25m) on transport costs during founding President Sam Nujoma’s funeral

The Namibian government has announced a temporary ban on state funerals amid criticism over the rising costs of these burials.

Only President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has the power to exempt funerals from the moratorium, the government said.

Minister of Information and Communication Technology Emma Theofelus made the announcement following a Cabinet meeting earlier this week.

She said the moratorium would last until April 2026, while a review committee looks into the “criteria and processes associated with bestowing official funerals”.

Ms Theofelus told the BBC that a committee consisting of “no more than seven members” would be established to lead the review.
The government has not said whether the decision was related to mounting criticism of the increasing costs of the numerous state funerals as reported by local media.

The BBC has asked the presidency for comment.

The Windhoek Observer, a privately owned publication, said calls for the moratorium had been made as far back as 2021 when the rising cost of official burials came under scrutiny, especially at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It quoted Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare, who earlier this year revealed that official funerals had cost the government 38.4m Namibian dollars ($2.2m; £1.6m) in the 2024/2025 financial year.

By comparison, only 2.1m Namibian dollars was spent on 23 funerals during the 2022/2023 financial year, according to the news site.

The Observer said the state had spent 30m Namibian dollars just to transport the body of founding President Sam Nujoma around the country ahead of his state funeral in February this year.

Nujoma, who died at the age of 95, led the long fight for independence from South Africa after helping found Namibia’s liberation movement, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), in the 1960s.

After independence, Nujoma became president in 1990 and led the country until 2005.

(BBC News)

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