While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 28
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Smoke rising above Beirut's southern suburbs during an Israeli strike on Sept 27, 2024.
PHOTO: AFP
Israeli air strikes rock Beirut, target Hezbollah command
The Israeli military told residents in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate late on Sept 27, after strikes that it said had targeted Hezbollah’s central headquarters and with no word hours later from the group on the fate of their head Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The order to evacuate, made by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee via X, told residents to get at least 500m away from three specific buildings in the area.
It was the first announcement of its kind for the densely populated neighbourhoods south of Beirut.
A source close to Hezbollah told Reuters Mr Nasrallah was alive. Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported he was safe. A senior Iranian security official told Reuters Tehran was checking his status.
Ukraine’s Zelensky presents ‘victory plan’ to Trump
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his war “victory plan” to Donald Trump during a closed-door meeting on Sept 27, after the Republican presidential candidate said he would work with both Ukraine and Russia to end their conflict.
The meeting between the two men at Trump Tower in Manhattan was their first in-person encounter since 2019.
Mr Zelensky said he was talking with both Trump and his Democratic rival in the Nov 5 election, Vice-President Kamala Harris, because Ukraine needed strong US support in its continuing war with Russia.
At least 33 dead as Storm Helene slams US
Tropical Storm Helene brought life-threatening flooding to the Carolinas on Sept 27 after leaving widespread destruction as a major hurricane in Florida and Georgia overnight that killed at least 33 people, swamped neighbourhoods and left more than four million homes and businesses without power.
Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Sept 26 at 11.10pm ET (11.10am on Sept 27 in Singapore) and left a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbours, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.
Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states, including in Atlanta, where an apartment complex had to be evacuated due to flooding.
US’ Blinken and China’s Wang meet on UN sidelines
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept 27, where Ukraine’s leader this week dismissed Beijing’s formula to end Russia’s war in his country.
They met at China’s UN mission in New York after the White House and the European Union said this week they were deeply concerned by a Reuters report that Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war.
Beijing, for its part, has repeatedly complained about US ties and arms supplies to Taiwan. It has also urged the US to remove tariffs on Chinese goods and denounced US proposals to ban Chinese software and hardware in vehicles on its roads due to national security concerns.
Britain’s youngest killers in 30 years sentenced
Two boys who were aged just 12 when they killed a 19-year-old man in a “horrific” machete attack in central England in 2023 were on Sept 27 sentenced to a minimum of eight years and six months in custody.
The boys, now 13, are the youngest people to be convicted for murder in Britain since two 10-year-olds killed toddler James Bulger in 1993, one of the most infamous murders in the country’s recent history.
Their victim, Shawn Seesahai, was stabbed in the back, legs and skull during the attack in a park in Wolverhampton in November.
