Category World News

Icelandic Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson has called for a new election in November and dissolves the three-party coalition government.

In a press conference on Sunday, Benediktsson said problems had mounted within the left-right coalition on issues related to foreign policy, asylum seekers, and energy, public broadcaster RUV reported.

The coalition comprised the right-wing Independence Party, which Benediktsson leads, the Left-Green Movement and the centre-right Progressive Party.

The prime minister said the issues were “less discussed in the last election]in 2021] than need to be discussed now”, emphasising “how different the]Left-Green] Movement’s vision for the future is, compared to what I want to stand for”.

Benediktsson told the Visir news outlet that it would be “best if the government]had] a common vision”.

“It’s disappointing when projects run aground or circumstances change”, he added.

According to RUV, the prime minister and Icelandic President Halla Tomasdottir will meet on Monday to discuss the need for parliamentary elections and the government’s dissolution.

The prime minister, who has already said he has strong backing from his party to stand in the November elections, is one of Iceland’s most experienced politicians. Prior to that, he was the foreign minister and the finance minister.

After Katrin Jakobsdottir left the Left-Green Movement’s run for president, which she lost, Benediktsson assumed the position in April.

The coalition received only one-fourth of the vote, or 24.6 percent, which is the lowest result for an Icelandic government in 30 years, according to a Gallup poll conducted on October 1.

Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement in Japan that fights to end nuclear weapons, has received the Nobel Peace Prize.

It includes Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing survivors.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, the group’s leader, claims that Gaza’s residents should have won in the end.

So, what’s behind the Nobel Committee’s decision?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Asmund Aukrust – Member of Parliament for Norway’s Labour Party

Lex Takkenberg, senior adviser for the non-profit Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development

At least four people were seriously hurt in the attack in the southern town of Binyamina on Sunday, according to Israeli Army Radio.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, no warning sirens were heard before the attack.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the Iran-aligned group said it launched a “swarm of drones” at a Golani Brigade camp.

One of the five infantry brigades of the regular Israeli army, the Golani Brigade is regarded as a top class unit.

Hezbollah claimed in a separate statement that it had missileed past the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights’ Tsnobar logistics base.

The United States announced that it would send a new air-defence system to Israel on the same day that Hezbollah launched a drone strike to boost its defense against missile attacks.

Following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1, US Defense Secretary Pat Ryder stated in a statement that US President Joe Biden had authorized the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel.

Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said that though the Israeli air defence system is very sophisticated and multi-layered, drones are hard to detect.

“Typically, the sirens sound as something is moving toward a location, telling people to seek shelter there.” That’s why those attacks have caused a sizable number of injuries over the past year,” she said.

“But the drones are harder to detect, and because they fly at lower altitudes, they are much more difficult to intercept. Many people would be in danger if they were intercepted, according to Odeh.

Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon is intensifying with Sunday’s attack.

Hezbollah and Israel’s conflict grew worse a year ago when the Lebanese organization launched rockets into northern Israel the day after Israel launched its assault on Gaza. In recent weeks, Israel has carried out airstrikes across Lebanon and sent ground troops into the south of the nation.

More than 2, 100 people in Lebanon have been killed since last October, the majority in the last few weeks since Israel intensified its attacks, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

According to Gideon Levy, an Israeli political analyst, the Hezbollah attack in Binyamina demonstrates how heavily Israelis pay for attacking Lebanon.

“Nothing less was expected. Lebanon’s war is just beginning, not yet over. And everyone who is so enthusiastic about this conflict should be aware that it will cost a lot, he told Al Jazeera.

To help strengthen Israel’s air defenses, the US Department of Defense announced on Sunday that Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin had authorized the sending of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) “battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel.”

“The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system. The Pentagon said in a statement that this action underscores the ironclad commitment to Israel’s defense and to protect Americans in Israel from any additional ballistic missile attacks by Iran.

In retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas, Hezbollah leaders, and an Iranian general, Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel on October 1 in less than two weeks.

Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have pledged to retaliate, posing a risk of a regional war in the Middle East.

Biden made the suggestion earlier this month that Israel should avoid attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities or oilfields, but the Israeli government has repeatedly defied the US president’s repeated public warnings.

The exact date and location of Israel’s US THAAD system are unknown. &nbsp, An unnamed US official told CBS News that “around 100 troops” will go to the country.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier on Sunday expressed concern that Washington was “putting]the lives of its troops in danger by deploying them to Israel’s US missile systems.”

While we have made great strides in the past few days to stop a full-fledged war in our area, Araghchi wrote on social media that he believes there are no bounds to protecting our people and interests.

Despite the US’s claim that it favors diplomacy and a regional de-escalation, critics have noted that Washington offers unwavering military and diplomatic support to Israel.

Since Israel’s military launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October of last year, the US provides at least $3.8 billion in military aid to the US annually, and the Biden administration has authorized $1.4 billion in additional aid.

After months of fighting with Hezbollah across the Israeli-Lebanon border, Israel recently expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon.

The Biden administration has rebuffed requests to halt weapons transfers to Israel in an effort to put pressure on the country to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israeli missile defense systems are already in place to intercept incoming rockets and missiles headed their way by using three integrated missile defense systems.

But the THAAD system that the US will deploy to Israel has a greater range than other systems and marks a “step up”, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reported from Washington, DC, on Sunday.

“The important point, too, is that the]THAAD] systems are so complex that it requires a crew of 94 to operate — a trained crew of 94 — and these will be US soldiers”, Hanna said.

As the US response to the ongoing crisis increases, “This is a system being put in place.”

Military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera that the announcement of the THAAD system indicated that an Israeli attack on Iran was “not imminent,” as Israelis would want the missile defense system in place before any attack, which would most likely be followed by another Iranian attack on Israel.

The Pentagon reported on Sunday that the US had previously sent a THAAD battery to Israel for training and an air defense exercise.

International organizations have been urged by Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman to respond to claims that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were put to death in the Kursk region of Russia.

DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, said that Russian troops killed nine Ukrainian “drone operators and contractors” on October 10 after they had surrendered.

Dmytro Lubinets argued on Sunday that the world “must not turn a blind eye” to the alleged executions.

The ombudsman described the incident as “an additional crime committed by the Russians,” and stated on Telegram that he had written letters to the UN and the International Red Cross in response.

Andriy Kostin, the attorney-general of Ukraine, added that his office had opened a criminal investigation into the alleged execution and that killing war prisoners was a “gross violation” of the Geneva Convention.

On X, Kostin wrote, “We are doing our utmost to find and prosecute all those responsible for the aggressor’s crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians.”

Russian officials didn’t respond to the allegations right away.

Following the surprise attack by Ukrainian forces across the border on August 6, Russian and Ukrainian troops are engaged in trade attacks in the Kursk region.

In early September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces controlled more than 1, 300sq km (500sq miles) of Kursk.

However, last week, Russia said its forces had taken back several villages from Ukrainian forces.

Russian forces used glide bombs against Ukrainian troops in western Kursk, according to the Russian defense ministry’s statement on Sunday.

The ministry claimed that the attack targeted a “strongpoint and concentration of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel.”

Separately, the Ukrainian Air Force said its air defences shot down 31 of 68 drones launched by Russia overnight in the regions of Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy and Cherkasy.

Over the past week, Zelenskyy said Russia launched about 900 guided aerial bombs, more than 40 missiles and 400 drones against Ukraine.