Wednesday Briefing: Israel Targets a Hezbollah Commander
Not long after an explosion hit a southern suburb in Beirut, Lebanon, last night, Israel said that it had targeted a Hezbollah commander whom it blamed for a strike on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights over the weekend.
Tensions have soared between Israel and Hezbollah since Saturday, when the strike killed 12 children and teenagers as they played soccer. Hezbollah has denied that it was behind the assault, which hit the Druse village of Majdal Shams, but the Israeli military has said Hezbollah is the only militant group in the region that possesses the type of rocket used in the attack.
The target of the Israeli strike was Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah official who served as a close adviser to Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s secretary general, Israeli security officials said. It was unclear if Shukr had survived the attack. At least one person was killed in the strike and 35 people were wounded, Lebanon’s health minister said.
We have live updates.
In Gaza, Israel’s military has shrunk the only humanitarian zone for displaced Palestinians by a fifth.
Venezuela’s street protests turned deadly
At least 11 people — including one soldier — have died, and about 750 more have been arrested as a result of protests in Venezuela. The tally came as leaders on both sides of the country’s political divide called on their followers yesterday to take to the streets, a sign that the crisis set off by this weekend’s disputed presidential election is intensifying.
Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian president, was declared the winner despite irregularities. The opposition leader, María Corina Machado, released her own results using paper tallies that political party monitors receive: The opposition has about 73 percent of the tallies from Sunday’s vote, she said, which showed that Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, received over 3.5 million more votes than Maduro did.
With their diet of carrion and their featherless heads, vultures are often viewed with disgust. But they have long provided a critical cleaning service by devouring the dead.
Now, economists have put an excruciating figure on just how vital they can be: The sudden near-disappearance of vultures in India about two decades ago led to more than half a million excess human deaths over five years.
CONVERSATION STARTERS ARTS AND IDEAS The Booker Prize longlist
Six novels by U.S. authors, including Rachel Kushner and Richard Powers, are among the 13 titles nominated for this year’s Booker Prize, the award’s organizers announced yesterday. The judges will cut the list down to a six-book shortlist, scheduled to be announced on Sep. 16. The winning title will be revealed in London on Nov. 12.
The prize has been available to authors from outside Britain, Ireland, the Commonwealth and Zimbabwe only since 2014 — but ever since, British literary figures have complained about the prize’s dominance by American authors. This year’s longlist could reignite those concerns. Only two novels by British authors have been nominated: “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey and “Enlightenment” by Sarah Perry.
“Wandering Stars,” by Tommy Orange, is the first title by a Native American author to be nominated for the award. The follow-up to “There There,” his groundbreaking 2018 debut, the book is a “towering achievement,” our critic writes.
Read the full list of nominees.
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