Israel steps up attacks in Lebanon, Zelensky brings ‘victory plan’ to US, smallest country

👋 Blue!*

Welcome to Monday, where Israel intensifies its attacks on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in the US to present his “victory plan” against Russia, and Albania is on the verge of creating the world’s smallest state. We also have a piece of The timetranslated from German, about the need to give art space again to express social instincts and anger.

(*Tarifit, Northern Morocco)

💡 IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Perfect storm for Lebanon war: Hezbollah disarray, Netanyahu’s total victory frenzy

BEIRUT — Most leaders of the “Axis of Resistance” admit that the battle they are waging against Israel is not fought on equal terms. Even Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah used his speech on Thursday to say that the confrontation with Israel is unequal, militarily, security-wise and politically.

Yet, even with such admissions, these leaders are not taking the necessary steps to narrow those gaps. Starting with the October 7 operation, in which Hamas failed to make sufficient political gains to justify the enormous human and social costs that followed.

This was followed by the “war of support and distraction” that Hezbollah launched in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese “party of God” has still not shown us what it has secured for the people of Gaza, nor has it let us know to what extent it has distracted the Israeli army from its genocidal mission against the Palestinians.

“The battle is unequal…and we throw ourselves into it”!

What kind of strategy is this? What are the goals of those behind it? Moreover, we know that any objection to this illogical approach will be met with accusations of treason and “weakening the nation’s resolve.”

There is no room for reason in this debate, and no distance between those who engage in it and the label of “traitor.” In reality, Hezbollah, as the ruling power, has built an arsenal specifically aimed at anyone who has reservations about its role — not only its military role, but also its domestic political role in Lebanon.

For example, someone who says out loud that the decision of war in Lebanon is in the hands of a party, a faction and an external state would face serious consequences, possibly leading to their expulsion from the country. This person would find no one to defend them after more supporters joined the “al-Aqsa Flood” and the diversionary war, and after calls to postpone sensitive issues until “victory” is achieved.

In the midst of such a scene, there is no room for rational questions about the futility of continuing the war, given the “inequality” between the two sides. How can we translate this reasoning into action without being accused of “weakening the nation’s resolve”? (…)

— Reading the full article by Hazem El-Amin for Daraj, translated into English by Worldcrunch.

🗞️ FRONT PAGE

“The Brandenburg State”, Berlin newspaper The Daytime devotes its front page to the results of Germany’s latest regional elections, despite a rising far-right. In the northeastern state of Brandenburg, the Social Democrats (SPD) held on to a narrow victory with 30.9 percent of the vote, against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which won 29.2 percent. The paper also publishes a photo of Dietmar Woidke, Brandenburg’s current prime minister, inspecting a dam — likely amid the floods that hit central Europe last week — with the caption “Brown (the color representing the AfD) flood delayed.” Woidke will continue to govern the state, but the results remain worrying as the far-right gains ground across the country.

🌎 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW

• Israel warns civilians to evacuate as airstrikes continue on southern Lebanon. Lebanese residents have received telephone messages urging them to leave any building where Hezbollah is storing weapons “until further notice,” echoing an earlier message from IDF spokesman Rear Adm., as Israel says its military will launch “extensive strikes” against the militant group. Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported that at least 50 people have been killed in the strikes since this morning. The warning comes after a particularly fierce firefight on Sunday, in which Hezbollah fired some 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps has ordered all of its members to stop using any type of communications equipment following pager explosions in Lebanon last week. Read more in this analysis, translated from French by Worldcrunch: A war between Israel and Hezbollah solves nothing – and no one can stop it.

• Zelensky in the US will present a ‘victory plan’ to Biden, Harris and Trump. The Ukrainian president began with a visit to a Pennsylvania munitions factory involved in supplying Kiev’s war effort, before traveling to New York and Washington, where he is expected to meet President Joe Biden and presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this week. Zelensky will present his proposals for ending the war with Russia and achieving a “fair and stable peace.” The leader’s visit comes as the White House prepares a new $375 million military aid package for Ukraine.

• Sri Lanka swears in new leftist president. Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in early Monday morning in Colombo after being declared the winner of Saturday’s election with 42.31% of the vote, promising “a new, clean political culture” and “protecting democracy”. The 55-year-old leftist politician, better known as AKD, takes over from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was ousted from power in 2022 by mass protests amid an economic collapse. AKD had promised during its campaign to cancel an Adani-led wind farm project that had been criticised for its potential negative impact on the environment. Read more in this article translated from French by Worldcrunch.

• France’s new centre-right government takes power. More than two months after snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron, the country’s new right-wing government was unveiled this weekend and held its first meeting Monday morning, chaired by conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier. The announcement was criticized by the left-wing New Popular Front alliance, the coalition that won the most seats in the June-July parliamentary elections.

• Rival factions clash in Bolivia as former President Morales leads march on capital. Government supporters and security forces confronted protesters loyal to former President Evo Morales in a street battle in the city of El Alto on Sunday, leaving at least eight people injured. It is the second violent escalation as concerns grow over further unrest in the Andean country. Morales, who was president from 2006 to 2019, has been leading a week-long march on the capital La Paz as part of a power struggle against current President Luis Arce.

• Six dead after record rains cause flooding in Japan. Ten people are also missing after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in parts of Ishikawa Prefecture, which is still recovering from a deadly earthquake earlier this year. On Sunday, the cities of Wajima and Suzu received twice as much rain as they normally get in September in an average year. Military personnel were sent to the region to join rescue workers over the weekend.

• Albania wants to create a microstate similar to Vatican City. The country’s Prime Minister Edi Rama announced plans on Sunday to transform the Tirana-based Bektashi Muslims, an Islamic Sufi order, into its own sovereign state, as part of efforts to promote moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. The “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” will have its own administration, passports and borders on a 10-hectare plot of land, meaning it would be the world’s smallest state, just a quarter the size of Vatican City. Account this world tour of micronationswhich range from a personal hobby to a political position.

📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED

📰 IN OTHER NEWS

🇲🇽 Mexico’s ruling party has reformed the constitution to require judges to run for office. Is this a boost for democracy or does it give the country’s drug cartels a tool to own the courts?
— FINISHED

✊ “There is no future, only the present, and the present is war.” Since a military junta seized power in 2021, Burmese youth have been fighting alongside established ethnic militias to liberate their country.
— THE STAMP

😡 From painter to musician and writer, art was long their way to express social urges and anger. Now it has become a safe space full of educational purposes.
— THE TIME

📣 VERBALLY

“That must be it.”

— Asked whether he would run for president again in 2028 if he loses the November 5 election, Donald Trump said it was highly unlikely. “No, I don’t think so. I think that’s — that’s it. I don’t see that happening at all,” he said during an interview with the news program Full Measure, adding: “I think hopefully we’ll be successful.” The latest polls suggest that the Republican and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are currently neck-and-neck in key battleground states that are likely to be decisive in determining the winner.

📸 PHOTO OF THE DAY

During an official trip to the US, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania, which has increased production of 155mm artillery shells for Ukraine. “It is in places like this that you can really feel that the democratic world can prevail,” he wrote on X/Twitter. Zelensky is expected to hold talks with officials at the UN in New York on Tuesday and speak at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. — Photo: Volodymyr Zelensky via X (Twitter)

✍️ Newsletter by Anne-Sophie Goninet & Laure Gautherin