Category World News

Hezbollah leader says Lebanese gov’t must do more to end Israeli attacks

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Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has called on Lebanon’s government to work harder to end Israel’s daily attacks in the country, a day after an Israeli air strike targeted the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut for the third time since a ceasefire was agreed late last November.

Qassem said in a televised speech on Monday that Hezbollah implemented the ceasefire deal that ended the 14-month war, but Israel has continued to launch relentless air strikes.

Qassem’s comments came as the Israeli military said it carried out more than 50 strikes in Lebanon this month in response, it says, to threats against Israel and Hezbollah allegedly violating the United States-brokered ceasefire.

Rights groups have denounced Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying they are violating the truce deal.

On Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck Beirut’s southern suburbs after issuing a warning about an hour earlier, marking the third Israeli strike on the area since the November ceasefire. The Israeli military said it struck a precision-guided missiles facility.

‘Put pressure on America’

Following the strike, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of undermining stability in Lebanon and escalating tensions. He said Israeli attacks pose “real dangers to the security” of the region.

“Yesterday, an aggression targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut. This attack lacks any justification … It is a political attack aimed at changing the rules by force,” Qassem said of Sunday’s attack.

“The resistance complied 100 percent with the [ceasefire] deal and I tell state officials that it’s your duty to guarantee protection,” Qassem said, adding that Lebanese officials should contact sponsors of the ceasefire so that they put pressure on Israel to cease its attacks.

“Put pressure on America and make it understand that Lebanon cannot rise if the aggression doesn’t stop,” Qassem said, pointing to Lebanese officials. He added that the US has interests in Lebanon and “stability achieves these interests”.

Qassem said the priority should be for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, an end to Israeli strikes in the country, and the release of Lebanese people held in Israel since the war officially ended on November 27.

Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after its ally Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack and Israel responded with mass bombardment of Gaza. About 1,200 people in Israel were killed and another 251 others were abducted during the attack in southern Israel.

The war ignited further last September when Israel carried out waves of air strikes across Lebanon and assassinated most of the group’s senior leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah. The fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians.

Will the ICJ hold Israel to account?

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The Hague is hearing another case against Israel in what could be a test of Israeli defiance of international law.

The International Court of Justice is holding hearings this week to determine what responsibilities Israel has to ensure aid gets to Palestinians in territory it occupies.

But Israel has shown in the past it has no issue with ignoring international law or court rulings.

So will any of these decisions have an impact on the 2. 3 million Palestinians in Gaza struggling to find food under an Israeli blockade that’s now lasted nearly two months?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests: 

Sam Rose – senior acting director, UNRWA Affairs in Gaza

Michael Lynk – human rights lawyer and professor emeritus, Faculty of Law, Western University in London, Ontario

Israel’s Shin Bet chief ousted by Netanyahu says will stand down on June 15

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Israel’s domestic security chief Ronen Bar has said he would stand down on June 15, following weeks of boiling tensions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who cited a lack of trust as he attempted to fire Bar in a move that sparked mass protests.

The two men have publicly traded accusations and counteraccusations. Political turmoil ensued, but Netanyahu’s survival tactics appear to have prevailed.

“After 35 years of service, in order to allow an orderly process for appointing a permanent successor and for professional handover, I will end my role on June 15, 2025,” the Shin Bet chief told a memorial event at his agency, according to a statement on Monday.

Bar had contested the sacking in a legal case that polarised the country. In an affidavit before the Supreme Court on Sunday, Netanyahu described the Bar as a “liar”.

The comment came almost a week after Bar made a sworn statement to the court in which he accused the prime minister of demanding personal loyalty and ordering him to spy on anti-government protesters.

“The accusation, according to which I allegedly demanded action against innocent civilians, or against a non-violent and legitimate protest during the protests of 2023, is an absolute lie,” Netanyahu said in his court statement.

In turn, Bar denied accusations by Netanyahu and his associates that the Shin Bet security agency had failed to issue timely warnings about Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Bar argued instead that his ouster was motivated by a desire to halt the “pursuit of truth” about the events leading up to October 7 and also the corruption charges that hang over Netanyahu in an ongoing, long-drawn-out trial.

Netanyahu proposed Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit as the next Shin Bet chief, but reversed his nomination after the pick was criticised by the United States, a key backer of Israel.

Bar’s dismissal was announced by the government last month but frozen by the Supreme Court. The move triggered mass demonstrations, with critics accusing Netanyahu and his government of undermining the institutions underpinning Israel’s democracy by seeking Bar’s removal.

Some Israelis denounced what they saw as an autocratic shift by Netanyahu, who has been launching impeachment proceedings against a number of critics, including Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

The Israeli parliament last month approved a law giving politicians more power over the appointment of judges, a key component of  Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the  country’s judiciary.

According to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who sponsored the bill, the measure was intended to “restore balance” between the legislative and judicial branches. Critics, however, said the new law was a “nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy”.

Power outage hits Spain and Portugal: What happened and what was affected?

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Major power outages across large areas of Spain and Portugal, as well as parts of southern France, knocked out traffic lights and disrupted public transportation and airport operations on Monday.

Officials did not say what caused the outages, but several denied any foul play.

“Grid operators in both countries [Spain and Portugal] are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,” the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, wrote in a post on X.

Costa was the prime minister of Portugal between 2015 and 2024.

“At this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack,” he said.

Here is what we know:

What happened in Europe and when?

Power outages swept across much of the Iberian Peninsula around 10:30 GMT — 12:30pm local time in Spain, and 11:30am in Portugal.

Parts of southern France were also briefly affected, but the service was quickly restored.

Critical infrastructure was heavily impacted: Metro systems in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon were shut down, while major airports such as Madrid-Barajas and Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado faced significant delays and partial closures.

According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the outage “set Spain back to the 19th century”.

“Trains are not operating and traffic lights are down, causing chaos. Many cities are completely dark,” Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said, reporting from Valencia Airport in Spain.

“Authorities have stated that it is the first time in history such a large-scale blackout has occurred,” she added.

Translation: Real-time electricity demand. Data from Red Electrica. This is how things are now, seven hours after the blackout: slow recovery, but still far from normal.

The graph shows that electricity use dropped from about 26,000 megawatts to just 12,000 in a few minutes.

Where did the outage happen?

Spain and Portugal, home to around 60 million people together, were the worst affected.

  • Spain: Major urban centres such as Avila, Madrid, Murcia, Galicia, Alicante, Zaragoza, Barcelona and Seville reported widespread disruptions. The Canaries and Balearic Islands were not affected.
  •   Portugal: Lisbon and Porto experienced comparable challenges.
  • Southern France: Parts of the French Basque Country saw brief power outages. But officials from the French electricity transmission network said the interruptions lasted only a few minutes.
  • Morocco: Some reports suggested that  internet providers in Morocco also struggled to keep their services up, briefly, because of network connections with France and the outages there.
People queue at a bus stop at Rossio Square, after the Lisbon subway was stopped, in Lisbon, Portugal [Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP]

What else was affected?

The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended for the day. Organisers said there would be no more action on Monday “in order to guarantee general safety”.

Madrid’s firefighters carried out more than 200 “elevator interventions” across the city while health services carried out 167 interventions, most for respiratory issues and anxiety attacks.

Meanwhile in Lisbon, according to local media reports, people rushed to grocery stores to stock up on water and non-perishable goods.

What caused the power outage?

Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said that everything points to the major blackout starting in Spain.

The exact cause is still unclear, and while there’s no evidence yet of a cyberattack, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he isn’t ruling anything out. He warned against speculation, but said “no cause can be discredited at this point”.

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the bloc’s cyber security arm, said at current evidence points to a cable fault.

But experts have also in recent weeks warned that an excess of solar power generation in the grid could trigger blackouts. In early April, Belgium’s electricity grid operator cautioned that too much electricity generation could destabilise the grid.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Spain has seen a record number of hours with negative power prices in recent months as more solar and wind energy has been fed into the grid. However, until now, the oversupply hadn’t led to blackouts.

What is the latest on the ground?

Electricity has returned to parts of northern, southern and western Spain, the grid operator said on Monday.

Spain’s Transportation Minister Oscar Puente said medium- and long-distance train services are unlikely to resume before tomorrow. Meanwhile, Red Electrica has estimated that full restoration could take between six to 10 hours.

Power has now been restored in parts of Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, Castile and Leon, Extremadura, Andalusia, and La Rioja, according to authorities.

According to Spanish news agency EFE, electricity consumption in Spain had reached over 50 percent of the usual level by 4:30pm local time (18:30 GMT).

Portugal’s grid operator, REN, said that production has resumed at the Castelo do Bode hydroelectric plant and the Tapada do Outeiro thermoelectric facility.