AP-Newswatch

Lebanon assesses damage after Israel strikes Hezbollah-run financial institution

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese were surveying the damage after overnight Israeli strikes hit nearly a dozen branches of a Hezbollah-run financial institution that Israel says is used to fund attacks. Many ordinary people keep their savings there. The strikes targeted branches in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut. The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties. Israel invaded Lebanon this month, saying it aims to push Hezbollah from the border after attacks that began after Hamas militants launched their Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel from Gaza.

Israel’s wars are expensive. Paying the bill could force tough choices

On top of the grievous toll in human life and misery, Israel’s war against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups has been expensive. Now the painfully high financial costs are raising concerns about the long-term effect of the fighting on the country’s economy. Military spending has ballooned, and growth has stalled, especially in dangerous border areas that were evacuated. Economists say the country could face declining investment and higher taxes as the war strains government budgets and forces tough choices between social programs and the military.

Self-exiled Turkish spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen dies in the US

SAYLORSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive U.S.-based Islamic cleric who inspired a global social movement while facing accusations he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkey, has died. He was in his eighties. He spent the last decades of his life in self-exile but continued to wield influence among his millions of followers in Turkey and elsewhere. He espoused a philosophy that blended a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue. Once an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he became a foe, calling Erdogan an authoritarian. Erdogan called Gülen a terrorist.

Cubans struggle with an extended power outage and a new tropical storm

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba’s widespread blackouts stretched into their fourth day as Hurricane Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast with winds and heavy rain. In Santo Suárez, part of a populous neighborhood in southwestern Havana, people went into the streets banging pots and pans in protest Sunday night. The protesters describe nights without power and water as food rotted in their homes. Oscar weakened to a tropical storm but still may complicate restoring power. Some neighborhoods had electricity restored in Cuba’s capital, where 2 million people live, but most of Havana remained dark.

‘You are not my king,’ Indigenous Australian senator yells at visiting King Charles

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament. Sen. Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple Monday after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, made only an oblique reference to the issue in his speech welcoming the monarch, but the heads of all six of Australia’s states declined invitations to a reception with the royals, citing more pressing engagements.

Eyewitness video captures frantic efforts to save lives after deadly collapse of dock walkway

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Eyewitness video from the scene of a deadly gangway collapse at a dock in Georgia shows bystanders jumping into action after 20 people plunged into the water off Sapelo Island. Icy White of Atlanta was visiting isolated Sapelo Island with her family yesterday for a fall festival attended by hundreds. White says her family was waiting to board a ferry boat back to the mainland when a gangway snapped with dozes on people on it. Authorities say seven people died on what was supposed to be a day of celebration of the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.

Environmental delegates gather in Colombia for a conference on dwindling global biodiversity

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — As the world grapples with plummeting levels of biodiversity, Colombia is hosting two weeks of meetings for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference. The conference, which began Monday in the city of Cali, is a follow-up to a global treaty signed by 196 countries in 2022 to protect 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030. The conference will provide an opportunity for delegates to discuss their countries’ plans for safeguarding plants, animals and critical habitats. It also will provide a platform for environmentalists, Indigenous peoples and rights groups to have their say.