Category World News

Israeli strikes kill four in new Lebanon ceasefire breach

By in News, World News

Published On 23 Oct 2025

The Israeli Ministry of Health claims that at least four people have died as a result of Israeli airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon, the most recent violation of the November ceasefire agreement.

Two people were killed in an attack on two mountainous regions in the east on Thursday, according to the ministry. In a separate attack in Arabsalim in southern Lebanon, two others were later reported to have died. An elderly woman was named as one of the victims, according to the official National News Agency (NNA).

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In the Bekaa region, close to Syria’s border, “Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent strikes on the eastern mountain range,” according to the NNA.

The Hermel range in the country’s northeast was also the target of two Israeli strikes, according to the report.

The Israeli military claimed to have attacked sites in east and north Lebanon that are linked to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including a “military camp and a site for the production of precision missiles” in the Bekaa Valley.

The military claimed in a statement that it had “struck several terrorist targets” in the area, including a “camp used for training Hezbollah militants.”

Later, it revealed that it had also “attacked a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the Nabatieh region.” Hezbollah did not respond right away.

Despite the truce calling for a full withdrawal earlier this year, Israel has continued to launch nearly daily assaults on Lebanese territory, particularly in the south, and to maintain a military presence at five border crossings.

Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in what it claimed was solidarity with the people of Gaza after Israel declared war on the besieged Palestinian territory in October 2023.

More than 4, 000 people had already died and almost 17, 000 had been injured by the ceasefire, which was reached in November of the following year.

Lebanon’s conflict with a plan being pursued by the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah, a strategy that the organization and its allies oppose, is putting pressure on the fragile truce even more.

Is Trump losing patience with Putin over the Ukraine war?

By in News, World News

Following the cancellation of a summit with President Vladimir Putin regarding the Ukraine war, US President Donald Trump now sanctions Russia’s two biggest oil companies.

Additionally, new measures targeting Russian assets and oil have been announced by the European Union.

Will they bring the war to an end any quicker?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft’s Eurasia program, Anatol Lieven

The New York Times’ Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for Europe is Steven Erlanger.

Published On 23 Oct 2025

Colombia’s Gustavo Petro dismisses threatened US aid cuts as ‘nothing’

By in News, World News
by Reuters

Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, has stated that while the suspension of American aid might not be beneficial to his nation, there might be some positive effects from changing military funding.

What happens if aid is taken away? Nothing, Petro said to reporters on Thursday, adding that American workers and US agencies frequently received aid.

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However, he continued, a halt in military cooperation would be significant.

Petro remarked that “we would now have some issues with military aid,” adding that the loss of US helicopters would be the most significant impact.

Trump, the president of the United States, threatened over the weekend to impose tariffs on Colombia and announced on Wednesday that all funding for the nation had been suspended.

Colombia was once one of the Western Hemisphere’s largest recipients of US aid, but USAID, the government’s humanitarian assistance arm, suddenly shut down this year. The military cooperation has continued.

Some US military personnel are still in Colombia and the two countries continue to share intelligence, even though the Trump administration has already “decertified” Colombia’s efforts to combat drug trafficking.

Petro has protested the US military’s Caribbean strike, which has resulted in the deaths of dozens of people and heightened tensions there. The actions have been condemned by a number of legal experts and human rights advocates.

Petro’s government claims that Trump’s use of the terms “bad guy” and “illegal drug leader” is offensive.

Petro has called off the ambassador of his country’s to Washington, DC, but he did manage to meet with the US’s ambassador in Bogota late on Sunday.

Trump said on Wednesday that he may take serious action against Colombia, adding that he has not yet announced any additional tariffs on top of the 10-percent rate currently in place for the country.

Petro claimed that Trump is unlikely to impose tariffs on Colombia’s oil and coal exports, which account for 60% of its US exports, while reducing the impact of tariffs on other sectors could be done by looking for alternative markets.

An increase in tariffs would change a well-known US policy position that free trade can boost legitimate exports over drug trafficking, and analysts predict that increasing duties will eventually lead to increased drug trafficking.

Petro reported that it has made record-sealed 2,800 metric tonnes of cocaine in three years, partly as a result of increased efforts to locate Pacific ports where container ships are used for smuggling. Despite his government’s struggle to control major centers for rebel and criminal activity.

Trump pardons Binance cryptocurrency founder Changpeng Zhao

By in News, World News

Changpeng Zhao, the owner of the sizable Binance cryptocurrency exchange, was pardoned by US President Donald Trump for breaking American money-laundering laws.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a statement on Thursday that Trump “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was a Biden Administration prosecutor in their cryptocurrency war.”

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Zhao expressed his deep gratitude for the pardon granted today in a post on social media platform X, and gratitude to President Trump for upholding the country’s commitment to justice, innovation, and fairness. He continued, “We will do everything we can to make America the home of crypto.”

After Binance admitted to having broken with an effective anti-money laundering program and owing a $4.3 million fine, Zhao, a billionaire and one of the most powerful figures in the crypto sector, stepped down as its CEO in 2023.

After serving a four-month sentence for breaking the Bank Secrecy Act, Zhao, a citizen of Canada who was born in China, was released from prison last year.

He was the first person ever to serve time in prison for violating US financial institutions’ “knowledge of their customers,” “to monitor transactions,” and “to file reports of suspicious activity.” No one has ever broken the law in the same way that Zhao has, according to the prosecution.

The president has a lot of authority under the US Constitution, including power to commutate sentences or pardons to overturn federal criminal convictions. Presidents have traditionally used these powers up until the end of their terms, but this is not required.

Zhao claimed to have never spoken to the president and that he had applied for a pardon from the Trump administration in May.

The most recent pardon that Trump has issued to crypto executives and entrepreneurs as well as others who have been found guilty of white-collar crimes is Zhao’s.

Although Zhao’s specifics are yet to be made public, the pardon may allow him to resume the company he co-founded in 2017. As the US crypto market booms under the Trump administration, it might also be a good thing for Binance to grow there.

In his second term as president, the Republican president pledged to reverse former president Joe Biden’s policies, which had targeted crypto companies for fraud and illegal finance violations. In 2024, the president’s second term received support from the crypto industry.

Trump also pardoned the three BitMEX co-founders, who had admitted guilt in 2022 for implementing a Bank Secrecy Act-compliant anti-money laundering program.

He also commuted the sentence of the executive of the now-defunct startup Ozy Media and pardoned the founder of the electric truck company Nikola for his role in the company’s fraud conviction.