While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 31
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A loud blast was heard in Beirut's southern suburbs - a stronghold of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
PHOTO: AFP
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Israel targets Hezbollah commander in strike on Beirut
The Israeli military said it carried out a targeted strike in Beirut on July 30 against the Hezbollah commander it said was responsible for a strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers at the weekend.
A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs - a stronghold of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah - at around 7.40pm (midnight on July 31, Singapore time), a Reuters witness said.
“The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians,” the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement.
A senior Lebanese security source said the commander’s fate remained unclear.
Vance calls last-minute Harris campaign a ‘sucker punch’
Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance described the last-minute entry of Kamala Harris into the US presidential race as a “sucker punch,” according to a recording of his remarks at a fund-raiser obtained by The Washington Post.
In remarks contrasting with his campaign’s public messaging - but revealing the upheaval in a race that had seemed set to feature Donald Trump against Joe Biden - Mr Vance told donors over the weekend that “all of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch.”
The Vance-Trump campaign has insisted that the Democratic vice-president’s entry into the race won’t upend their strategy, and that Ms Harris is tied to her boss Mr Biden’s policies.
Paris Olympics athletes and fans melt in ‘brutal’ heat
AFP
After heavy rain drenched last week’s opening ceremony, the Paris Olympics on July 30 wrestled with entirely different conditions as temperatures soared to 35 deg C.
Just to add to the mix, France’s meteorological service put the capital on a major storm alert, warning thunderstorms, heavy rain, hail and lightning were likely in the evening.
The forecasted return of some wet weather may come as relief to athletes, spectators and officials who baked in unforgiving weather throughout the day.
US must do more to counter China’s actions, No. 2 diplomat says
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on July 30 that Washington must do more to counter Chinese actions, including its strategy for creating military bases and its pursuit of rare-earth minerals in Africa.
Mr Campbell told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that competition with China was the “defining geopolitical challenge confronting modern American diplomacy” and said the US Navy and Air Force needed to step up their games in the Indo-Pacific.
“We need to do more, and we have to contest Chinese actions, not only in terms of their forward basing strategy, but their desire to go after Africa’s rare earths that will be critical for our industrial and technological capabilities,” Mr Campbell said.
Brilliant Biles leads US to Olympic gymnastics team gold
Simone Biles led the United States to a dominant victory in the women’s gymnastics team final on July 30, laying the ghosts of Tokyo to rest as she claimed a fifth career Olympic gold medal.
Three years after Biles battled a disorientating mental block in Tokyo, pulling out of the team final in which the US settled for silver, she and teammates Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee led wire-to-wire in reclaiming gold ahead of Italy, with Brazil taking bronze.
The Americans already had gold in hand when Biles electrified the Bercy Arena crowd with a gravity-defying floor routine that featured two of her signature skills - a double back flip with a half twist and the “triple-double” of two back flips with three twists.
