Tag: World News

Kyiv (TIP)- Ukrainian drones struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd region for the second time in almost three months, Ukraine’s general staff said Thursday. Russian officials did not confirm the attack, although the local governor said drones started a fire at an unspecified industrial facility in the region.
Ukraine’s general staff said in a statement that the attack took place the previous day. The refinery is the largest producer of fuel and lubricants in Russia’s Southern Federal District, processing more than 15 million tonnes of crude annually — about 5.6 per cent of the country’s total refining capacity, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war make no impact on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said foreign countries are helping Kyiv in its efforts to keep the power grid operating amid Russia’s onslaught.
“Practically every day, our power engineers, repair brigades, and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are carrying out restorations on-site after attacks: hits keep occurring across various points, especially in our communities, and especially near the Russian border and close to the front,” Zelenskyy said late Wednesday.
Also, saboteurs inside Russia burned dozens of locomotives in a bid to hamper the logistics of Russia’s armed forces, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.
The Freedom of Russia group used Molotov cocktails to set fire to the control and power supply systems of dozens of locomotives that transported military cargo, according to a statement from GUR, as the intelligence agency is known. It was not possible to independently verify the claim, nor did the statement say whether the GUR was involved in the operation. Russian officials offered no immediate comment.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has attempted to strike targets on Russian soil with domestically developed long-range drones.
Ukrainian forces also struck three fuel lubricants facilities in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and a storage and assembly base for Russia’s Shahed drones in an occupied area of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the general staff statement said.
In the Kostroma region northeast of Moscow, a Ukrainian aerial attack hit unidentified “energy infrastructure facilities,” Gov. Sergei Sitnikov said. There were no casualties and power supplies were not disrupted, he said.
Unconfirmed media reports said the attack targeted a hydroelectric power plant in the Kostroma region, one of the biggest in Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday its air defences shot down 75 drones overnight over multiple Russian regions and annexed Crimea. Russia, meantime, attacked the city of Kamianske in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region with drones overnight, killing one person and injuring eight others, the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said on his official Telegram channel.

Hanoi (TIP)- Typhoon Kalmaegi has killed at least 142 people and left another 127 missing after unleashing devastating flooding across the central Philippines, official figures showed Thursday, Nov 6, as the storm headed towards Vietnam. The typhoon is so far the globe’s deadliest of 2025, according to disaster database EM-DAT. Trami, also in the Philippines, was last year’s third-deadliest typhoon with 191 fatalities.
Floodwaters described as unprecedented rushed through Cebu province’s towns and cities this week, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers.
The national civil defence office on Thursday confirmed 114 deaths, though that tally did not include an additional 28 recorded by Cebu provincial authorities. More than 500,000 Filipinos remain displaced.
In Liloan, a town near Cebu City where 35 bodies have been recovered, AFP reporters saw cars piled atop each other by floodwaters and roofs torn off buildings as residents attempted to dig out of the mud. Christine Aton’s sister Michelle, who has a disability, was among Liloan’s victims, trapped in her bedroom as the floodwaters rose inside their house.
“We tried to pry open (her bedroom door) with a kitchen knife and a crowbar but it wouldn’t budge…. Then the refrigerator started to float,” Aton, 29, said.
“I opened a window and my father and I swam out. We were crying because we wanted to save my older sister.
“But my father told me we couldn’t do anything for her, that all three of us might end up dead.”
Chyros Roa, a 42-year-old father of two, said his family was saved by his dog’s barking when water rushed into their home in the early hours, giving them just enough time to reach their roof.
“The current was really strong. We tried to call for rescue, but no one came. We were told the rescuers were swept away by the current,” he said.
On Thursday, Nov 6, President Ferdinand Marcos declared a “state of national calamity”, a move allowing the government to release funding for aid and impose price ceilings on basic necessities.
“Unfortunately, there’s another (typhoon) coming with the potential to become an even stronger one,” he said at an afternoon press briefing.
Still more than 1,500 kilometres to the country’s east, tropical storm Fung-wong is slowly building strength as it heads towards the Philippines’ main island of Luzon.
It could reach super typhoon status before it makes landfall on Monday, Nov 10.

VATICAN CITY (TIP)- Pope Leo XIV met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time on Thursday, Nov 6, and the two men discussed the urgent need to provide assistance to civilians in Gaza and to pursue a two-state solution to end the conflict in the region.
The meeting, which lasted about an hour and was described as “cordial” in a brief Vatican statement, comes nearly a month after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement came into effect in the Gaza Strip.
The pope and Abbas had not met in person previously. They had spoken over the phone in July to talk about developments in the conflict in Gaza and violence in the West Bank.
“During the cordial talks, it was recognized that there is an urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza and to end the conflict by pursuing a two-State solution,” the Holy See said.
In September, Pope Leo and his top diplomats told Israel’s president that a two-state solution was the “only way out of the war,” as the Vatican called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Abbas was visiting the Vatican to mark the 10th anniversary of the signing of the “Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine.”
He arrived in Rome on Wednesday afternoon, and visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major to pay his respects to late Pope Francis’ tomb. Over the years, Abbas had met the late Pope Francis several times, maintaining frequent phone contacts after Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s strikes on Gaza.

Beirut (TIP)- Israeli jets struck several towns in southern Lebanon on Thursday, Nov 6, after urging residents to leave, marking an escalation in their near-daily strikes on the country. The airstrikes came hours after militant group Hezbollah urged the Lebanese government not to enter negotiations with Israel.
Israeli Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned residents in Tayba near the border, Teir Debba located just east of the coastal city of Tyre, and Aita al-Jabal in southern Lebanon, to flee 500 meters (about 1,600 feet) away from residential buildings they are targeting, which they say have been used by Hezbollah. It later issued more warnings for the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Kfar Dounin.
The Israeli military said it targeted military infrastructure for Hezbollah in those areas, including “weapons storage facilities… constructed in the center of civilian-populated areas.”
It accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities almost a year after a US-brokered ceasefire went into effect that ended a monthslong war. While most residents evacuated the threatened areas ahead of the strikes, Lebanon’s health ministry reported one person wounded.
“We will not allow Hezbollah to rearm themselves, to recover, build back up its strength to threaten the state of Israel,” Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said at a briefing Thursday.
The strikes came as Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his government met in Beirut to follow up on a plan drafted by the Lebanese military to disarm Hezbollah and other non-state armed groups in the country. Information Minister Paul Morcos said, following the meeting, that the cabinet “commended the progress (the army) has made… despite continued obstacles, foremost among which is the continuation of Israeli hostilities.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has been critical of Israel’s strikes and ongoing occupation of five hilltop points on Lebanese territory but has said he is open to negotiations with Israel to end the tensions.
Aoun said in a statement after Thursday’s strikes that “every time Lebanon expresses its openness to peaceful negotiations… Israel intensifies its aggression.”
“Nearly a year has passed since the ceasefire came into effect, and during that time, Israel has spared no effort to demonstrate its rejection of any negotiated settlement between the two countries,” he said. “Your message has been received.”
Israel says its near-daily strikes have targeted Hezbollah officials and military infrastructure, while the Lebanese government that has backed disarming Hezbollah say the strikes have targeted civilians and infrastructure unrelated to the Iran-backed group.
The powerful group’s military capabilities were severely damaged in Israel’s intense air campaign over the tiny country in 2024, but Hezbollah have yet to disarm and its leader Sheikh Naim Kassem has said that the group will be ready to fight no matter how limited their capabilities might be.

Gyeongju (TIP)- Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Asia-Pacific leaders on Friday that his country would help to defend global free trade at an annual economic regional forum snubbed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Xi took center stage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that began Friday in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, as Trump left the country a day earlier after reaching deals with Xi meant to ease their escalating trade war. This year’s two-day APEC summit has been heavily overshadowed by the Trump-Xi meeting that was arranged on the sidelines.
Trump described his Thursday, Oct 30, meeting with Xi as a roaring success, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans. Their deals were a relief to a world economy rattled by trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Trump’s decision to skip APEC fits with his well-known disdain for big, multi-nation forums that have been traditionally used to address huge global problems, but his blunt dismissal of APEC risks worsening America’s reputation at a forum that represents nearly 40% of the world’s population and more than half of global goods trade.
Xi defends multilateralism
“The more turbulent the times, the more we must work together,” Xi said during APEC’s opening session. “The world is undergoing a period of rapid change, with the international situation becoming increasingly complex and volatile.” Xi called for maintaining supply chain stability, in a riposte to U.S. efforts to decouple its supply chains from China.
Xi also expressed hopes to work with other countries to expand cooperation in green industries and clean energy. Chinese exports of its solar panels, electric vehicles and other green tech have been criticized for creating oversupplies and undercutting the domestic industries of countries it exports to.
It’s Xi’s first visit to South Korea in 11 years, and he’s scheduled to meet new Japanese Prime Minister new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday. South Korean officials said a Lee-Xi meeting would focus on dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, who attended the summit on Trump’s behalf, said a U.S. move to rebalance its trade relationships would ensure that “each country operates on fair and reciprocal terms.” He added that the U.S. is “investing with its trading partners to build resilient production networks that reduce dependence on vulnerable sectors.”

Sanaa (TIP)- Yemen’s Houthi-run government will put dozens of detained United Nations staff on trial, alleging that they have spied for Israel or had links to an Israeli air strike that killed the prime minister, according to officials.
Abdulwahid Abu Ras, Yemen’s acting foreign minister, told the Reuters news agency on Friday that a cell within the UN’s World Food Programme was involved in directly targeting the government.
The Houthi prime minister and nine other ministers were killed in an Israeli strike on the capital Sanaa in August, the first such attack to kill senior officials.
The UN, which has repeatedly rejected Houthi accusations, said on Friday that a total of 36 UN employees were arrested after Israel’s attack. It says that at least 59 UN personnel are being held by the group.
Abu Ras told Reuters that security agencies were acting “under full judicial supervision” and that public prosecutors were being kept informed “step by step”. It was certain, he said, that the process would lead “to trials and the issuance of judicial rulings”.
Separately, Nasruddin Amer, a senior Houthi official, told the dpa news agency on Friday that the detained UN workers would be tried on charges of spying for Israel.
“The judiciary will determine the penalty for those accused of spying for Israel in accordance with Yemeni law,” Amer said. “This is not a law we enacted. It is a law that has been in effect and applied in the country by previous regimes.”
The UN defendants are Yemenis and could face the death penalty under the nation’s laws.
Trial ‘not against the organisations’
Hundreds of UN personnel, including a small number of international staff, remain in parts of Houthi-controlled Yemen, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general.
Houthi security forces entered several UN offices in Sanaa on Sunday. The UN says it is operating under increasingly difficult conditions, hindering its ability to provide assistance to those in need in Yemen.
Amer told dpa: “The trial is not against the organisations, but against those who exploited humanitarian work to carry out espionage against our country and our people.”
Abu Ras claimed that the Houthis are supporting humanitarian provision, and will “assist organisations committed to the principles of humanitarian work, facilitating their activities and work”.
There was no immediate comment from the World Food Programme.
Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have targeted vessels in the Red Sea and carried out drone and missile attacks against Israel, saying that they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians under fire in Gaza.
Israel has regularly struck the war-torn country, targeting civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings and the main international airport, while killing dozens at a time.

London (TIP)- King Charles III has stripped his brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buckingham Palace said on Thursday, Oct 30, the king “initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew”.
After the king’s rare move, Andrew will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and not as a prince, and he will move from his Royal Lodge residence into “private accommodation”.
It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of that title. It last happened in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, who was a UK royal and also a prince of Hanover, had his British title removed for siding with Germany during World War I.
Demand had been growing on the palace to remove the prince from Royal Lodge after he surrendered his use of the title duke of York earlier this month over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir hit bookstores last week.
But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgement by removing the title of prince that he had held since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
Giuffre’s brother declared victory for his sister, who died in April at the age of 41.
“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family, brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” her brother Skye Roberts said in a statement.
Andrew faced a new round of public opprobrium after emails emerged earlier this month showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted.
That news was followed by the publication of, Nobody’s Girl, by Giuffre, who alleged she had sex with Andrew when she was 17. The book detailed three alleged sexual encounters with Andrew, who she said acted as if he believed “having sex with me was his birthright”.
Andrew, 65, has long denied Giuffre’s claims, but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations.

KYIV (TIP)- At a secret location in rural Ukraine, columns of attack drones are assembled at night and in near silence to strike deep inside Russia.
Their targets are strategic: oil refineries, fuel depots, and military logistics hubs. Since the summer, Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign has ramped up dramatically, pounding energy infrastructure across Russia and stretching Moscow’s air defenses thin.
Built from parts made in a scattered network of workshops, these drones now fly much further than at any point in the war. Officers in body armor move with quick precision; headlamps glow red to stay hidden. Engines sputter like old motorcycles as exhaust fumes drift into the moonless night. Minutes later, one after another, the drones lift from a makeshift runway and head east. The strikes have caused gasoline shortages in Russia, even forcing rationing in some regions and underscoring a growing vulnerability in the country’s infrastructure. Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, said Friday that more than 160 successful strikes had been carried out against Russia’s oil extraction and refining facilities so far this year.
Drones hammer refineries
Western analysts say the attacks on energy infrastructure so far have had a serious – but not crippling – effect. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly hit 16 major Russian refineries, representing about 38% of the country’s nominal refining capacity, according to a recent review by the Carnegie Endowment, a U.S.-based think tank.
But it argues the actual impact has been considerably more limited: most plants resumed operations within weeks, and Russia’s refining output has been cushioned by idle capacity and existing fuel surpluses.
The deep strikes have, however, given Kyiv the initiative at an important moment. The United States and Europe are ramping up sanctions on Russia’s oil industry even as Kyiv’s request for U.S. long-range Tomahawk missiles has stalled. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s improved long-range strike capability is causing real damage – forcing the Kremlin to import fuel and curb exports. “We believe they’ve lost up to 20% of their gasoline supply – directly as a result of our strikes,” he told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.
At the secret launch site, the commander overseeing the operation – a broad-shouldered man identified by his call sign, “Fidel,” in accordance with Ukrainian military regulations – watches through night-vision goggles as the drones climb into the star-filled sky.
“Drones are evolving,” Fidel told The Associated Press. “Instead of flying 500 kilometers (310 miles), now they fly 1,000 … Three factors go into a successful operation: the drones, the people and the planning. We want to deliver the best result. For us, this is a holy mission.”
Ukraine thrives on no-frills weapons
Much of Ukraine’s fleet is homegrown. The Liutyi, a workhorse of the nightly attacks, is a waist-high craft with a sausage-shaped body, a propeller at the back, and a distinctive triangular tail.
It looks neither sleek nor intimidating – more Home Depot than Lockheed Martin – but the ease of assembly means it can be kept hidden and constantly tweaked: optimized to slip through heavily monitored frontline airspace.
Typical of Ukraine’s no-frills war production philosophy, the Liutyi – whose name means “fierce” in Ukrainian – has become a symbol of national pride and recently featured on a local postage stamp. The reach of these drones – with some models doubling in range over the past year to routinely strike targets within a 1,000-kilometer radius of the border – marks a shift in the geography of the conflict. Attacks a year ago damaged refineries in a much narrower range, mostly in western Russian border regions. Costs have also come down, further testing expensive air defense systems, with long-range drones now being produced in Ukraine for as little as $55,000.

BEIJING (TIP)- China’s Communist Party elite vowed on Thursday, Oct 23, to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technological self-reliance, moves it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States. As expected, the Party’s Central Committee also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people’s livelihoods – long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritised manufacturing and investment – without giving many details.
In addition to mapping out economic and other policy objectives for the next five years, Party leaders during the four-day closed door meeting also replaced 11 members – the highest personnel turnover since 2017 amid an ongoing military corruption purge.
The Chinese economy’s overreliance on exports at a time of heightened trade tensions with Washington might push Beijing to find a better policy balance in coming years, although analysts expect efforts to be slow.
A communique reported by state news agency Xinhua after the meeting, known as a plenum, outlined China’s priorities in its next five-year development plan. Details and an annual growth target, which will be closely watched by global investors, will only be released at a parliamentary meeting in March.
Building “a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone” and accelerating “high-level scientific and technological self-reliance” were listed ahead of the development of “a strong domestic market,” the communique showed.
“The thinking is still focusing on the supply-side,” said Tianchen Xu, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, referring to Beijing’s traditional playbook of channeling resources to investment and manufacturing, bypassing households.
China’s economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in a year in the third quarter and investment posted its first non-Covid decline as fragile domestic demand left it heavily reliant on the unexpected humming of its export factories despite U.S. tariffs, stoking concerns about government efforts to address long-standing and deepening structural imbalances.
The communique said Beijing will strive to improve people’s welfare and the social security system, but did not provide details on how Beijing intends to achieve that or where the funds would come from.
Uncertainty over the timing, funding and size of such medium and longer-term policies are adding to economists’ and investors’ worries over the government’s ability to rebalance an economy in which household consumption lags global averages by about 20 percentage points of GDP.
One spotlight is they vowed to “invest in people”, Xu said, expecting measures to better protect people’s rights and interests and improve the social insurance system.
“Policymakers may increase the medical insurance and pension for the elderly in rural areas, but they may not have a clear idea on how to do that for now.”
China’s forceful industrial policies have built sophisticated supply chains in many manufacturing sectors but have also led to rampant overcapacity, feeding deflationary pressures as companies cut costs and jobs to stay afloat.

Vatican City (TIP)- Britain’s King Charles and Pope Leo prayed together in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday Oct 23, in the first joint worship including an English monarch and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke away from Rome in 1534.
Latin chants and English prayers echoed through the chapel, where Leo was elected the first US pope by the world’s Catholic cardinals six months ago in front of frescoes by Michelangelo depicting Christ delivering the Last Judgment.
Charles, supreme governor of the Church of England, was seated at the pope’s left near the altar of the chapel as Leo and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led a service that featured the Sistine Chapel Choir and two royal choirs.
Although Charles has met the last three popes, and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI travelled to Britain, their previous encounters never included joint prayers.
The King and Queen Camilla are on a state visit to the Vatican marking the closening ties between the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion, five centuries after their turbulent separation.
“There is a strong sense that this moment in the extraordinary setting of the Sistine Chapel offers a kind of healing of history,” Anglican Rev. James Hawkey, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, told Reuters.
“This would have been impossible just a generation ago,” he said. “It represents how far our churches have come over the last 60 years of dialogue.”
Cottrell, the Anglican Archbishop of York, stood in at the Sistine Chapel service for Sarah Mullally. She was recently announced as the first woman to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, but will not take the role until next year.
The split between the Catholic Church and the Church of England was formalised in 1534, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Henry’s desire for a male heir – and a new wife who might provide one – was the immediate catalyst, but other factors were also at play, involving the English crown’s seizure of church assets and the growth of Protestant ideas in England.
As England swung between Catholicism and Protestantism during the reigns of Henry’s daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I, hundreds of Catholics and Protestants were executed for their faith, often burned at the stake.
Charles and Camilla, who visited the Vatican earlier this year to see Pope Francis, also had a private meeting with Leo on Thursday morning. At home in Britain, Charles’ disgraced brother Prince Andrew is engulfed in a deepening crisis over abuse allegations and his ties with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

BEIRUT (TIP)- Israel intensified its aerial assault on Lebanon’s eastern regions on Thursday, Oct 23, striking what it claimed were Hezbollah military targets amid growing fears that cross-border hostilities could spiral into another full-scale war.
The Israeli army said its warplanes targeted “a camp and a precision missile production site belonging to Hezbollah” in the Jurd Baalbek-Hermel region — a rugged, mountainous area near the Syrian border long believed to be the site of Hezbollah infrastructure.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry confirmed that two people were killed and several others wounded in the wave of strikes, which hit the outskirts of the towns of Taraya, Shmustar, Bednayel, and Nabi Sheet, as well as rural areas in Janta, Al-Gharbieh, and Sherbin.
The attacks caused panic at secondary schools in Shmustar and Taraya, where shattered glass injured students and teachers. Several pupils reportedly fainted amid the chaos.
The latest escalation comes as Israel continues to strike deeper into Lebanese territory, while tensions mount over Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm — a longstanding demand by domestic and international actors seeking to bolster state sovereignty.
Despite Lebanon’s efforts to enforce disarmament measures and assert control over southern regions, Hezbollah maintains a parallel military presence, defying UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
In a statement, Minister of Education and Higher Education Rima Karami appealed to “the major and influential countries of the world to exert pressure to halt the ongoing aggression that targets schools and civilians.”
Israeli media reported that five fighter jets carried out strikes on 16 targets in eastern Lebanon, while army spokesman Avichay Adraee said the air force raided “several Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa region, including a camp used to train Hezbollah members, where members of the party were seen inside.”
Adraee claimed that “Hezbollah used the camp to train and prepare its members to plan and oversee the execution of operations against Israel.”
He said that “the Israeli army targeted military infrastructure within a Hezbollah precision missile production site, as well as infrastructure located at a military site belonging to the party in Sherbin.”
Adraee added that “the storage of weapons and the presence of this infrastructure, along with Hezbollah members conducting military training, constitute a blatant violation of agreements between Israel and Lebanon and a threat to Israel that must be eliminated.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the Israeli attacks as “unjustified and unacceptable.”

KYIV (TIP)- Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital for the second night, injuring four people, officials said early on Thursday, Oct 23. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said drones had damaged several dwellings and other buildings, including a kindergarten.
City officials warned residents of a possible missile attack on the capital. On Wednesday, Oct 22, missile and drone assaults throughout the country killed six people, including two children, and forced nationwide power outages.
“At 7:20 a.m. there was an explosion, and within a moment, I started to feel pain on my face. I immediately started screaming. When I swiped my face, I thought I felt tears on my hand, but I was bleeding,” Nadiia Zinchuk, a 24-year-old shop employee, told Reuters near a building hit in Kyiv.
Officials described the assault as an attempt to destroy the country’s energy system as winter approached in the more than 3-1/2-year-old war.
“Most regions of Ukraine were targeted,” Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said. “This is the second such attack in a month, indicating a methodical campaign by the enemy to destroy Ukraine’s energy sector ahead of winter.”
Hrynchuk said Russia was also targeting repair teams working at energy facilities.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian targets.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Hrynchuk spoke during the day to her U.S. counterpart Chris Wright, describing the aftermath of the attack and the country’s need for additional equipment.
The ministry said the U.S. Energy Secretary offered Hrynchuk support to ensure Ukraine would get through the winter.
Russia launched 405 drones and 28 missiles during Tuesday night’s attacks, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Air defence units shot down 333 drones and 16 missiles.
Ten people were rescued from a fire in a high-rise building in Kyiv’s district of Dniprovskyi, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko, with a child among the five people admitted to hospital on Tuesday.
Officials said fires broke out in the districts of Desnianskyi, Darnytskyi and Pecherskyi, the last home to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history.
Most regions of Ukraine experienced power outages as a result of the Russian attacks.
In the central region of Poltava, Russian attacks damaged oil and gas facilities in the Myrhorod district, the regional governor said.
In the frontline Southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, which has been subjected to continued strikes and shelling by Russian forces, 13 people were wounded in overnight attacks, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Wednesday.
City and regional officials have again started to roll out help stations, called “points of invincibility”, where residents facing outages of power, heating and water can warm up, charge their phones and get food and hot drinks.
Russia has consistently attacked Ukrainian energy facilities since launching a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, maintaining they are a legitimate military target in the war.

Brussels (TIP)- European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has welcomed the agreement on European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), which will see EUR1.5 billion towards strengthening European defence industry and supporting Ukraine.
The presidency of the Council and negotiators from the European Parliament (EP) reached a provisional agreement on the EDIP- which is a dedicated financing programme for defence worth EUR1.5 billion for the period 2025-2027, the official website of the Council of the EU and the European Council noted.
EDIP is set to boost the EU’s defence readiness by enhancing the competitiveness and also aims to support defence industrial cooperation with Ukraine and Ukrainian companies via dedicated Ukraine Support Instrument, with a view to its future integration into the EDTIB.
In a post on X, Ursula von der Leyen said, “I welcome the agreement on the European Defence Industry Programme. EUR1.5 billion to strengthen Europe’s defence industry. Support Ukraine. And ensure we are defence-ready by 2030, in line with our ‘Preserving Peace’ roadmap. Because when we invest in readiness, we invest in peace. Congratulations to @eu2025dk for seeing this crucial programme through.”
Notably, of the total budget, the provisional agreement earmarks EUR300 million for the Ukraine Support Instrument.
The Council and the European Parliament agreed that the cost of components originating outside the EU and associated countries (EEA states) should not exceed 35 per cent of the estimated cost of the components of the end product, thereby striking a balance between the European preference principle and cooperation with partner countries to the benefit of European industry.
Signficantly, the provisional agreement becomes the first ever EU security of supply regime in the area of defence, designed to ensure timely and reliable access to defence products and components during crises, the website noted.
Through the EDIP, the EU is establishing a European military sales mechanism that will offer, among several other features– a centralised catalogue of defence products and will facilitate the delivery of defence products, amplifying demand at EU level and increasing the competitiveness of the European defence industry on the international market. It also provides the possibility to establish ‘pools’ of defence products to allow for a swift delivery of equipment.
The development comes on the heels of the proposal tabled in March 2024 for a regulation establishing the EDIP.

Lima (TIP)- At least one man was killed in violence at a rally in Peru’s capital on Wednesday, said President Jose Jeri, whose accession days ago has failed to stamp out angry protests against the country’s political class.
The Ombudsman’s Office said 102 people were injured, including 24 civilians and 78 police, updating earlier tolls.
Youth-led demonstrations brought thousands of Peruvians, frustrated by the authorities’ failure to resolve a worsening crime crisis, onto the streets in Lima and several other cities.
Some protesters tried to breach the security barrier around Congress as night fell, an AFP correspondent said. Others in the crowd also hurled stones and lit fireworks.
Police in riot gear responded with tear gas.
“I regret the death of 32-year-old citizen Eduardo Ruiz Sanz,” Jeri said on social media platform X, without elaborating on the circumstances.
The National Human Rights Coordinator, an NGO, said the man may have been shot by a plainclothes police officer.
AFP images showed the blood-covered face of a police officer who had been hit by a stone.
Jeri also said the “peaceful demonstration” had been infiltrated by criminals seeking to “cause chaos.”
The South American country has been rocked by protests for weeks, and lawmakers voted on Friday to impeach then-president Dina Boluarte, who critics blamed for a surge in crime and accused of corruption.
“I think there is general discontent because nothing has been done,” 49-year-old freelancer Amanda Meza told AFP while marching toward Congress.
“There’s no security from the state,” she said, adding that cases of extortion and contract killings “have grown massively in Peru.”
Jeri, a right-wing politician who had served as leader of Congress, became interim president until elections in April.
Oct 15 protests were called by a youth-led collective, artists’ groups and labor unions.
Feminist groups also joined the calls to rally against the new president over sexual assault accusations.
A complaint was lodged against Jeri last year, but prosecutors closed the case in August due to a lack of evidence.
Boluarte’s impeachment last week followed protests by bus companies, merchants and students over shakedowns by criminal gangs and attacks on those who refuse to pay protection money.
Extortion and contract killings have been a feature of daily life across Peru.
Gangs such as Los Pulpos and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, which operates across Latin America, hold people from all walks of life for ransom.
Jeri has vowed to “declare war” on organized crime in an attempt to take the heat out of the protests.

Paris (TIP)- French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes in parliament on Thursday, Oct 16, winning crucial backing from the Socialist Party thanks to his pledge to suspend President Emmanuel Macron’s contested pension reform.
The two motions presented by the hard-left France Unbowed and the far-right National Rally (RN) secured just 271 and 144 votes respectively – well short of the 289 votes needed to bring down Lecornu’s days-old government.
Lecornu’s offer to mothball the pension reform until after the 2027 presidential election helped sway the Socialists, giving the government a lifeline in the deeply fragmented National Assembly.
Despite the reprieve, the motions underscored the fragility of Macron’s administration midway through his final term.
“A majority cobbled together through horse-trading managed today to save their positions, at the expense of the national interest,” RN party president Jordan Bardella wrote on X.
The French bond market remained steady after the back-to-back votes, with the government victory widely expected by investors.
By putting the pension reform on the chopping block, Lecornu threatens to kill off one of Macron’s main economic legacies at a time when France’s public finances are in a perilous state, leaving the president with little in the way of domestic achievements after eight years in office.
There are 265 lawmakers in parliament from parties that said they would vote to topple Lecornu, and only a handful of rebels from other groups joined their cause.
If Lecornu had lost either vote, he and his ministers would have had to immediately resign, and Macron would have come under huge pressure to call a snap parliamentary election, plunging France deeper into crisis.
But despite the outcome of Thursday’s votes, Lecornu still faces weeks of arduous negotiations in parliament over passing a slimmed-down 2026 budget during which he could be toppled at any point.
“The French need to know that we are doing all this work… to give them a budget, because it is fundamental for the future of our country,” said Yael Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly and an ally of Macron.
“I am pleased to see that today there is a majority in the National Assembly that is operating in this spirit: work, the search for compromise, the best possible effort,” she added.
After winning the pension concession, the Socialists on Wednesday set their sights on including a tax on billionaires in the 2026 budget, underlining just how weak Lecornu’s hand is in the negotiations.