Netanyahu contro tutti; ritorno a scuola in Ucraina tra allarmi e esplosioni 🗞️ Rassegna 03/09/2024

Israele

(REUTERS) Israelis strike and protest to demand Gaza hostage deal

• Israeli protesters took to the streets for a second day on Monday and the largest trade union launched a general strike to press the government to reach a deal to return hostages still held by Hamas, after six more captives were found dead in Gaza.
• The strike disrupted transport and medical services in several Israeli districts and many shops and businesses were closed after the head of the Histadrut union, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers, called a national stoppage.
• The recovery at the weekend of the six hostages, who authorities said were shot dead between just 48-72 hours before being found by Israeli forces, triggered a wave of grief and fury in Israel, prompting at least half a million people to take to the streets in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Sunday.
• The demonstrators are demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire agreement with Palestinian militant group Hamas to bring the remaining 101 hostages home.
• On Monday, thousands again gathered in Tel Aviv, waving blue and white Israeli flags or carrying photographs of hostages.
• In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said he was close to presenting a final proposal for a deal to release the hostages but said he did not think Netanyahu was doing enough to secure such an agreement.

(REUTERS) Israeli airstrike kills cleaning worker, relative in southern Lebanon, sources say

• An Israeli airstrike killed two civilians travelling in a car along Lebanon's southern coast on Monday, security sources said, including an employee of a cleaning company that is contracted by the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
• The force, known as UNIFIL, confirmed that a vehicle driven by the cleaning worker was hit by a strike near the southern Lebanon town of Naqoura, killing both the driver and passenger.
• The security sources said the strike was Israeli and that the two men travelling in the car were cousins. Lebanese armed group Hezbollah later said it had fired Katyusha rockets into Israeli territory in retaliation for the strike near Naqoura.
• Nearly 140 civilians have been killed by Israeli bombardment of Lebanon since Oct. 8, when hostilities broke out between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in parallel with the war in Gaza.
• In May, an Israeli strike on a village in southern Lebanon killed a technician contracted by a telecoms company to fix a phone tower.

Ucraina

(Associated Press) Ukraine’s children return to school as Russia launches drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv

• Russia launched an overnight barrage of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles at Kyiv, officials said Monday, as children were returning to school across Ukraine. Some pupils found classes canceled because of damage from the attack.
• Several series of explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital. Debris from intercepted missiles and drones fell in every district of Kyiv, wounding three people and damaging two kindergartens, the Interior Ministry said. City authorities reported multiple fires.
• After more than 900 days of war, Russia and Ukraine show no sign of letting up in the fight or moving closer to the negotiating table. Both sides are pursuing ambitious ground offensives, with the Ukrainians driving into Russia’s Kursk region and the Russians pushing deeper into the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine that is part of the industrial Donbas region.
• Russia launched 35 missiles and 26 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight from Sunday to Monday, the Ukrainian air force said. Nine ballistic missiles, 13 cruise missiles and 20 drones were downed, it said.
• Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, visiting Ukraine for the first time since taking office, traveled with Zelenskyy to Zaporizhzhia, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the front line.
• They visited an underground school, and Schoof announced his government would give Ukraine 200 million euros ($221 million) to help protect and repair the electricity infrastructure targeted almost daily by Russian bombs.

Russia

(REUTERS) Exclusive: U.S. researchers find probable launch site of Russia's new nuclear-powered missile

• Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of the 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as "invincible."
• Putin has said the weapon - dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO - has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik's strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap.
• Using images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite firm, the two researchers identified a construction project abutting a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names - Vologda-20 and Chebsara - as the new missile's potential deployment site. The facility is 295 miles (475 km) north of Moscow.
• Decker Eveleth, an analyst with the CNA research and analysis organization, found the satellite imagery and identified what he assessed are nine horizontal launch pads under construction. They are located in three groups inside high berms to shield them from attack or to prevent an accidental blast in one from detonating missiles in the others, he said.
• The berms are linked by roads to what Eveleth concluded are likely buildings where the missiles and their components would be serviced, and to the existing complex of five nuclear warhead storage bunkers. The site is "for a large, fixed missile system and the only large, fixed missile system that they're (Russia) currently developing is the Skyfall," said Eveleth. Russia's defense ministry and Washington embassy did not respond to a request to comment on his assessment, Burevestnik's strategic value, its test record and the risks it poses.

(Euronews) Putin arrives in ICC member state Mongolia without being arrested

• Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived on his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Mongolia late on Monday.
• But despite calls by the EU, the ICC and Ukraine for him to be arrested, Putin was instead warmly welcomed at the international airport in the capital Ulaan Bator by the foreign minister Batmunkh Battsetseg.
• It was not clear however why Mongolia's president Ukhnaa Khurelsukh was not there to welcome him in person, and it appeared to be somewhat of a diplomatic snub.
• The official visit comes amid an international warrant for his arrest nearly 18 months ago on charges of war crimes in Ukraine.
• Putin and Ukhnaa Khurelsukh are to attend a ceremony on Tuesday marking the 1939 victory of Soviet and Mongolian troops over the Japanese army that had taken control of Manchuria in northeastern China.
• Ukraine have called on Mongolia to arrest Putin and hand him over to the court in The Hague. Kyiv's foreign ministry said it “hopes that the Mongolian government will realise the fact that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal".
• The European Commission has also called on Mongolia to fulfil its obligations to the ICC and place Vladimir Putin under arrest.
• "Mongolia is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC since 2002 with the legal obligations that it entails. We have raised our concern about the visit and stated our position of the ICC clearly via our delegation in Mongolia," a Commission spokesperson said on Monday, referring to the treaty that underpins the tribunal. "The EU supports the investigation by the prosecutor of the ICC in Ukraine, and we call for the cooperation by all state parties." A spokesperson for Putin said last week that the Kremlin isn’t worried about the visit.

Europa

UK:

(REUTERS) UK suspends 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel

• Britain will immediately suspend 30 of its 350 arms export licences with Israel because there is a risk such equipment might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday.
• Lammy said the decision to suspend the licences did not amount to a blanket ban or an arms embargo, but only involved those that could be used in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
• Soon after the Labour Party won an election in July, Lammy said he would update a review on arms sales to Britain's ally Israel to ensure these complied with international law

Germania:

(Associated Press) A German far-right party wins its first state election and is very close in a second

• A far-right party won a state election for the first time in post-World War II Germany in the country’s east on Sunday, and looked set to finish a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote.
• A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made a strong impact, while the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular national government obtained extremely weak results.
• The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 32.8% of the vote in Thuringia — well ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, the main national opposition party, with 23.6%.
• In neighboring Saxony, projections for ARD and ZDF public television with the count well advanced put support for the CDU, which has led the state since German reunification in 1990, at 31.9% and AfD on 30.6-30.7%. AfD made substantial gains in Thuringia and smaller ones in Saxony compared with the last state elections in 2019.
• Other parties say they won’t put AfD in power by joining it in a coalition. Even so, its strength is likely to make it extremely difficult to form new state governments, forcing other parties into exotic new coalitions. The new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, took 15.8% of the vote in Thuringia and nearly 12% in Saxony, adding another level of complication.

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

Afghanistan: 

(Associated Press) A suicide bomber detonates in Afghan capital, killing at least 6 people and injuring 13

• Police in the Afghan capital say a suicide bomber carried out an attack Monday, killing at least six people and injuring 13 others.
• The blast took place in the southwestern Qala Bakhtiar neighborhood in Kabul, said Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul police chief.
• The dead included one woman, he said, while 13 people were wounded, all of them civilians who were taken to a hospital for treatment.
• A police investigation is underway. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
• The Islamic State group’s affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has carried out previous attacks on schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas throughout the country.