Naim Qassem, the leader of Hezbollah, asserts that the organization has the right to respond to the week-long strike in southern Beirut against Israel’s top military leader.
Qassem described the killing of Haytham Ali Tabtabai as “a blatant aggression and a heinous crime” in a televised speech on Friday, adding that the Lebanese armed group has “the right to respond, and we will determine the timing for that.”
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Do you anticipate a conflict later? It’s possible at some point. Yes, there is a chance of a war, and there is also one, Qassem said.
Qassem argued that Lebanon should develop a strategy to confront Israel, which rely on “its army and its people,” without specifically stating what the group’s role would be in any new war would be.
The Hezbollah leader added that he hoped that Pope Leo’s upcoming visit to Lebanon would “help bring about peace and put an end to the]Israeli] aggression.”
Qassem reaffirmed that Hezbollah had complied with the ceasefire that had been in place since November 2024 and that had called for the Israeli government to stop its ongoing attacks on Lebanon.
When he was struck, Tabtabai was meeting with four of his aides “to prepare for future actions,” according to Qassem.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee criticized Qassem’s remarks, calling Israeli military operations “inadequate.”
In a post on X, Adraee wrote that “Hezbollah continues to manipulate them and work covertly to keep its arsenal.”
Hezbollah has asserted that it will not give up its weapons as long as Israel continues to launch attacks on Lebanese territory and deploys its forces at five locations throughout southern Lebanon.
Israel has attacked Beirut several times and has been carrying out nearly daily strikes against southern Lebanon. The capital had not been hit in months prior to the assassination, though, prior to last week’s murder.
We recall the women’s nationwide shutdown of South Africa, where they halted their jobs in protest of gender-based violence.
This episode explores the significance and potential effects of a women’s shutdown in South Africa, as well as how its online expression amplified and connected the message to global activism trends in digital, color-based activism. We also examine the circumstances surrounding Mali, where a female TikTok influencer was killed, which raises questions about the dangers women face as their voices and visibility rise online.
After one of its longest outages in a long time, halting trading across stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies, the world’s largest exchange operator, CME Group, the world’s largest exchange operator, caused global futures markets to scuttle for several hours.
After being out for more than 11 hours due to an outage at a significant data center, trading in foreign exchange, stock and bond futures, and other products had resumed by 13:35 GMT on Friday, according to LSEG data.
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CME attributed the outage to a cooling failure at CyrusOne’s data centers, which claimed customer services, including CME, had been impacted by the facility’s claims to be in the Chicago area.
According to LSEG data, the disruption caused the trading of major currency pairs on CME’s EBS platform as well as benchmark futures for West Texas Intermediate crude, Nasdaq 100, Nikkei, palm oil, and gold.
“A black eye,”
Due to the United States Thanksgiving holiday, trading volumes have been thinned out, and there was a chance for volatility to increase significantly in the coming weeks as dealers closed positions for the month’s end, according to market participants.
According to Ben Laidler, head of equity strategy at Bradesco BBI, “It’s a black eye to the CME and probably a long-overdue reminder of the importance of market structure and how interconnected all of these are.”
“We compulsively assume that the timing is unfavorable in large part. Many things are rebalanced because it’s month-end.
“I should say that it could have been much worse; it’ll be a very low-volume day.” There would have been worse days like this, he said, if you had it.
Futures are a key component of financial markets and are used by dealers, speculators, and other businesses to hedge or hold positions in a variety of underlying assets. Brokers were left flying blind without these and other tools, and many were reluctant to trade contracts without any live prices for extended periods of time.
The incident raises broader concerns about reliability, according to Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at trading platform IG. “Beyond the immediate risk of traders being unable to close positions, and the potential costs that follow,” Rudolph said.
A few European brokerages announced earlier that they were unable to provide trading for some products and futures contracts.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission both confirmed they are aware of the problem and are currently monitoring it, with regulators also keeping an eye on it.
largest exchange operator
According to CME, the largest exchange operator by market value offers the broadest range of benchmark products, including rates, equities, metals, energy, cryptocurrencies, and agriculture.
According to earlier this month’s CME report, the average daily derivatives volume was 26.33 million contracts in October.
The operator had to stop electronic trading for some agricultural contracts in April 2014 due to technical issues, which at the time caused traders to return to the floor, more than a decade prior to the CME outage on Friday.
More recently, LSEG and the exchange operator in Switzerland briefly slowed down markets in 2024.
Chelsea and Arsenal: Whom? What: English Premier League Where: Stamford Bridge, London, United Kingdom When: Sunday, November 30 at 4:30pm (16:30 GMT) How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 14:30 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.
The Premier League title race may be severely shattered by Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal on Sunday, which has the potential to open up.
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In other words, it runs the risk of turning into a procession.
The potentially crucial Premier League game is looked at by Al Jazeera Sport.
In what leagues does the Premier League include Chelsea and Arsenal?
At Stamford Bridge, Arsenal are six points clear of the leaders.
It’s possible Arsenal will lose the title if they lose against defending champions Liverpool and Manchester City.
Second-place Chelsea, winners of the FIFA Club World Cup in July, and a team worth more than $1 billion, are the closest competitors. However, it may be a step ahead of the curve if the team, who won the UEFA Conference League trophy last year, starts a serious title defense.
How did Chelsea perform before visiting Arsenal?
The Blues have won three straight games, winning only once out of nine of their final eleven games.
How did Arsenal perform before the Chelsea game?
Mikel Arteta’s men have won 14 games in 16 games and are regarded as one of Europe’s strongest squads.
What does Arsenal think of Chelsea’s trip?
Second-placed Chelsea, according to Arsenal manager Arteta, “fully deserve” to be regarded as Premier League title contenders.
Chelsea’s youngster, under the leadership of Enzo Maresca, are still viewed as outsiders who want to win the Premier League.
Arteta, however, does not underestimate the opponents.
He told reporters about Chelsea on Friday, “They are there because they fully deserve to be.”
It makes sense that what is happening there is very, very positive and they deserve to be there, according to what they have done in the last few years, the squad they have assembled, the numbers they have, the quality they have, the number of coaches they have, etc.
The former midfielder from Spain and Arsenal said he found watching Chelsea to be one of his favorite teams.
They are very clear about their goals, he said, and their fluidity, threat, individual talent, and ability to be very tough make them very tough.
It’s a big London derby, as one might say, without a doubt. We’re going to face a formidable adversary. We are fully prepared for it because they are in excellent form, and we are aware of the challenge and opportunity we have on Sunday.
Are Chelsea really Arsenal’s greatest threat?
The title defense of Chelsea will be put to the test when they square off against Arsenal.
Estevao, a Brazilian forward, has scored nine goals in his last 13 games for the club and nation, making a quick establishing name at Chelsea.
One of the main factors contributing to the Blues’ prolific Premier League start has been the 18-year-old, who signed from Palmeiras in the summer.
Liverpool’s title defense is currently in a crisis, with coach Arne Slot facing growing scrutiny after nine games without success in all competitions. On Sunday, the Reds travel to West Ham.
If Manchester City defeats Leeds United at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, they can move up to second.
When did Chelsea last capture the Premier League?
Chelsea won the league title for the second time in three years when they last won it.
When did Arsenal last last claim a Premier League title?
It will finally win its first league title since 2004, when Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles” went unbeaten for the entire top-flight campaign, on a wave of optimism and a growing belief.
After three straight seasons as the opponents, Arsenal feels like a long way away.
Champions League performances that were extraordinary. They now compete in the Premier League.
Chelsea produced their most impressive performance of the campaign on Tuesday, defeating Barcelona 3-0 in the Champions League, while Enzo Maresca, who is currently in his second season in charge of the Premier League, has a squad full of inexperience.
What transpired in the most recent game for Arsenal?
Bayern Munich’s 3-1 defeat on Wednesday provided further proof of Arsenal’s ability to win the biggest prizes, perhaps the Champions League as well, thanks to its 3-1 victory.
What transpired during Chelsea’s most recent encounter with Arsenal?
In the match between the teams last year at Emirates Stadium, Arsenal won 1-0, with Mikel Merino’s 20th-minute goal settling matters.
Last year’s corresponding fixture at Stamford Bridge ended with a 2-2 draw.
Chelsea vs. Arsenal: head-to-head
Arsenal won 84 of the 212 matches between the London rivals, while Chelsea won 66 of those matches.
news from the Chelsea team
Following a sooner-than-expected return from a toe injury, Cole Palmer will be fit for Chelsea’s top-of-the-table clash with Arsenal on Sunday.
Following what was described as an accident at home, the England forward suffered the injury. However, Maresca, the coach for Chelsea, confirmed that he was eligible to start against Arsenal.
Everyone is happy and Cole returned, according to Maresca. He can be very helpful to us. We are delighted to see him back, despite the fact that he is undoubtedly our best player. He needs to be completely healthy by this point. He has done fantastic in the past and has no doubt that he will continue to contribute greatly to this club.
Palmer has a groin injury that has kept him out since September. Before suffering a toe injury, which prevented him from winning against Burnley last weekend and Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, he was close to returning.
news from the Arsenal team
After being substituted in the first half of Arsenal’s midweek victory against Bayern Munich, Leandro Trossard will be tested to see if he will play.
After suffering an unspecified injury for Brazil earlier this month, defender Gabriel is still recovering.
Incriminating audio. A military demanding oversight. And a powerful leader from abroad, trying to sway voters to the right.
Those are just three of the scandals that have made Sunday’s presidential election in Honduras one of the most closely watched votes in the country’s history.
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Already, even before the polls have opened, some high-level politicians are alleging that a stolen vote is under way.
Outgoing President Xiomara Castro, for instance, has compared the situation to a “criminal conspiracy aimed at staging an electoral coup”.
But experts who spoke to Al Jazeera said that the public has grown accustomed to the uncertainty and upheaval.
After all, Honduras’s democracy is only about four decades old, and during that time, the country has struggled with government corruption and even a coup d’etat.
“Obviously, there’s a fear of violence or a coup,” said Daniel Valladares, an activist and history professor at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. “But it’s a fear we’ve always had.”
In the final days before the election, Valladares has observed a tense calm grip the Central American country.
“The environment is normal,” he said. “It’s the same thing people always say: ‘I hope there isn’t a sh** show.’”
The leading presidential candidates include Nasry Asfura of the National Party, Rixi Moncada of the LIBRE party, and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party [Leonel Estrada and Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters]
Unclear poll results
Part of the uncertainty ahead of this year’s election stems from the poll numbers. None of the five presidential candidates on the ballot holds a definitive lead.
There are, however, three frontrunners, considered to be neck and neck in the race.
Voters on Sunday are most likely to choose between Rixi Moncada, the candidate for Castro’s left-leaning LIBRE Party; Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party; and Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the conservative National Party.
None of the three has definitively pulled ahead, and voter surveys have fluctuated wildly.
For instance, one poll conducted by the Instituto de la Justicia found Moncada trailing. She had 25 percent support, compared with Asfura’s 31 percent and Nasralla’s 40.
Another poll, meanwhile, showed Moncada in the lead. More than 44 percent of those surveyed by the Mexican firm TResearch backed the left-wing candidate, compared with 19.6 percent for Nasralla and 14.8 percent for Asfura.
Other surveys have shown the three candidates in a virtual tie.
That ambiguity has led to recriminations from the major parties in the election, with each side accusing the other of manipulating the vote.
Asfura, for instance, has accused the governing LIBRE party of wielding “pressure” and “abuse” against election officials. He threatened to mobilise his supporters in protest.
“Yes, we are going to take to the streets so that there are elections and so that there is democracy and freedom,” he told the television network HCH.
Moncada, meanwhile, alleged at one of her rallies that there was an “illicit” partnership between rival parties to “steal the elections”.
“We will take the necessary measures to defend the vote of every Honduran man and woman,” she told the crowd.
Soldiers stand guard near boxes of electoral ballots in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on November 20 [Leonel Estrada/Reuters]
Infighting at the election council
The heated rhetoric stems from several scandals. But one of the most prominent erupted in late October.
A government body known as the National Electoral Council (CNE) organises the country’s elections. It is composed of three officials, selected to represent the country’s three main political parties.
But on October 29, Marlon Ochoa, the LIBRE representative, delivered audio to prosecutors that purported to capture a conversation between his CNE colleague Cossette Lopez and an unnamed military official.
In the recording, Lopez, who represents the right-leaning National Party, allegedly discusses plans to sabotage the electoral process by “altering the popular vote” and staging a possible boycott.
“What I am sure of is that the military is on our side,” Lopez allegedly said.
Attorney General Johel Zelaya has asserted that the recording is real, and he has opened an investigation into the incident.
But Congressional Deputy Tomas Zambrano, who is also featured on the recording, maintained the audio is “totally false, fabricated and manipulated with artificial intelligence”.
He and Asfura have defended Lopez, framing the investigation as a campaign to undermine her authority.
But the audio scandal was not the only conflict to shake the CNE.
Also in October, the head of Honduras’s armed forces, Roosevelt Hernandez, demanded that the military be allowed to conduct its own count of the upcoming election results.
Hernandez is perceived to be allied with LIBRE. Ana Paola Hall, the president of the CNE and a member of the Liberal Party, denounced his demand as “interference” in the election process.
Watchdog groups have echoed those concerns. Human Rights Watch, for instance, issued a statement saying the military “does not have any authority to access, count, transmit or review the results”.
Cossette Lopez, a counsellor at the National Electoral Council (CNE), has faced scrutiny over leaked recordings [Leonel Estrada/Reuters]
Trump weighs in
Adding to the election turmoil is pressure from abroad.
Honduras’s largest trading partner is the United States, and the two countries have closely collaborated on issues like combating drug trafficking.
But right-wing leaders in the US have spread false information before Sunday’s election, stirring further fears about the integrity of the election.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump weighed in personally on his Truth Social platform.
He endorsed Asfuro while falsely describing the conservative candidate’s two closest rivals as puppets of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
A Moncada victory, Trump wrote, would hand the country over to “Maduro and his narco-terrorists”. And Nasralla, the US president alleged, is a “borderline Communist” who seeks to split the right-wing vote.
“The Communists are trying to trick the people by running a third Candidate, Salvador Nasralla,” Trump wrote. “The people of Honduras must not be tricked again. The only real friend of Freedom in Honduras is Tito Asfura.”
Trump is not alone in turning up the heat from the US.
Florida Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, a Republican, has likewise accused Moncada of being in Maduro’s pocket, saying the LIBRE candidate would drag Honduras into a “socialist hell”.
Valladares believes the US pressure campaign is the result of coordination with Honduras’s right wing.
“The fact that they’ve gone so far as to request that a congresswoman write a note [about the election] is frightening,” said Valladares.
Honduran presidential candidate Nasry Asfura has received backing from US President Donald Trump [Leonel Estrada/Reuters]
Ghosts of the past
On Honduras’s left, the pressure has reawakened memories of the military coup that toppled President Castro’s husband, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya.
The ghost of the 2009 coup still looms large in the country. Three years into his term, Zelaya had proposed holding a referendum to rewrite Honduras’s constitution.
But the pushback was swift. The Supreme Court issued a secret warrant for his arrest, and soldiers forced Zelaya into exile, placing him on an aeroplane to Costa Rica against his will.
Political violence spiked after the coup, and a series of contested elections followed, with right-wing governments elected each time.
In an October 29 post, President Castro compared that turmoil to the present-day election proceedings.
“The same groups that violated the Constitution in the 2009 coup and perpetrated the electoral frauds of 2013 and 2017 are now attempting once again to supplant the will of the people, sow chaos, and hijack popular sovereignty,” she wrote.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Illiam Rivera, a biology professor and LIBRE activist, accused business interests in the country of attempting to torpedo the left’s chances of re-election.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” said Rivera. “The Honduran right, financed by the country’s economic power groups, has triggered an insane media campaign against the candidate of the LIBRE party, Rixi Moncada.”
Another activist, Guido Eguguire, told Al Jazeera that he feared a repeat of the 2017 election cycle.
“In 2017, there was a ‘blackout’ in the voting system that hid the results in real-time,” he said. “We’re worried that there will be dynamics like what will happen in 2017.”
Still, Eguguire said, what Honduras is experiencing now is nothing new. He described the corruption allegations as an endemic problem that Sunday’s vote alone would not solve.
“Fraud has been a common practice in the country,” he said. “Frauds and coups. It’s been part of our story.”
The Organization of American States, comprised of 33 member countries, has already announced it plans to send 100 election monitors to Honduras for Sunday’s vote.
France has charged the fourth alleged member of a four-person gang arrested over last month’s jewel heist at the Louvre, officials said.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office is heading the investigation, on Friday said the 39-year-old man has a criminal record, with six previous convictions.
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On October 19, the gang raided the world’s most-visited art museum in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated $102m before fleeing on scooters.
“Already convicted six times, this man was known to courts for various offences, such as pimping, driving without a licence, and receiving stolen goods,” Beccuau said in a statement.
The prosecutor’s statement did not say what role, exactly, the man is thought to have played in the heist.
The four suspects believed to have carried out the robbery have now been arrested and charged. They have been charged with organised theft and criminal conspiracy. The stolen jewellery is still missing.
The last suspected member of the gang was arrested on Tuesday at a construction site in the western French town of Laval, according to a source close to the case.
The other suspects already in detention – men aged 35, 37 and 39 – are suspected of having been part of the four-person team, two of whom entered the Apollo Gallery, while the other two remained outside, before fleeing together.
A 38-year-old woman, who is the partner of one of the men, is suspected of complicity. She has been released on bail.
The robbery has focused attention on security at the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum.
The thieves took less than eight minutes to force their way into the museum and leave, using a freight lift to reach the building’s window. Footage from museum cameras showed that the two who broke into the ornate Apollo Gallery used grinders to cut open jewellery display cases.
