War Between Hezbollah and Israel Drags Beirut Back Into Despair – The Wall Street Journal

  1. War Between Hezbollah and Israel Drags Beirut Back Into Despair  The Wall Street Journal
  2. Dozens killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including 29 in central Beirut  CNN
  3. Israel Conducts Widespread Strikes Near Beirut  The New York Times
  4. Beirut strike 'so powerful it was felt across the city'  BBC.com
  5. IDF 36th Division raids 150 targets, kill dozens of terrorists in two month Lebanon operation  The Jerusalem Post
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Angela Merkel ‘tormented’ by Brexit vote and saw it as ‘humiliation’ for EU

Former German chancellor’s book tells how she tried to help David Cameron win over Britain’s Eurosceptics

Angela Merkel has said she was “tormented” over the result of the Brexit referendum and viewed it as a “humiliation, a disgrace” for the EU that Britain was leaving.

In her autobiography, Freedom, due to be published on Tuesday, the former German chancellor says she was dismayed by the notion that she might have done more to help the then British prime minister, David Cameron, who was keen for the UK to stay in the EU, but that ultimately, she concluded, he only had himself to blame.

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Democrats search for answers as blue Philadelphia turns towards Trump

Trump grew his support in nearly all of Philadelphia’s wards – what went wrong for Harris in a key Democratic city?

When Kamala Harris stopped at the west Philadelphia barber shop Philly Cuts just days before the election, its manager, James Browne, said the vice-president came off “almost like a favorite aunt”.

Harris seemed “genuine, kind, nice, very comforting” during the half-hour she spent in the shop while campaigning in the largest city in battleground state Pennsylvania, Browne said. “Meeting her in person was very different than seeing her on TV.”

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Iranian minister to meet European counterparts after nuclear offer rejected

Meeting comes amid fears Middle East tensions will lead Iran to redouble its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, will meet his European counterparts in Geneva on Friday after the collapse of a deal last week under which Iran would have limited its uranium enrichment to 60% purity, just below the threshold to make nuclear weapons.

The offer was regarded by Iran as a first step to rebuilding confidence between it and the west over what it insists is its civilian nuclear programme. There are growing fears that wider tensions in the Middle East could result in Tehran redoubling efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon and trying to declare it necessary for its national self-defence.

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If David Crisafulli wants ‘generational government’, the LNP can’t afford to wage ideological warfare

New Queensland premier must tread carefully to avoid ‘culture wars’ that plagued previous LNP government

It’s been just a month since the Liberal National party emerged from Queensland’s political wilderness, and David Crisafulli has already been talking about how it can govern for decades.

And the new premier knows the precise answer to that question.

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Thorpe and Faruqi to ask Senate to investigate alleged racism and sexism in parliament

Exclusive: Two senators sponsor motion calling for a review of rules covering discriminatory language and behaviour

Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi will ask the Senate’s procedure committee to investigate racism and sexism in federal parliament, raising concerns about “white privilege” and how women of colour are treated in politics.

The two senators, former colleagues in the Greens before Thorpe quit the party for the crossbench, have co-sponsored a Senate motion calling for investigation into whether the chamber’s rules should be updated to “eliminate language, behaviour, decision-making, and practices that are sexist, racist or otherwise exclusionary and discriminatory”.

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Perverse incentives leave young Australians locked out of community housing, study finds

Researchers find providers stand to lose 46% of possible income if they rent to young people compared with those on higher welfare payments

Thousands of young people are missing out on a safe place to live each year because community housing providers get more rent from older adults, research has revealed.

The lead author of the University of New South Wals research, Dr Ryan van den Nouwelant, said providers stood to lose 46% of the possible rental income if they chose a young person over an adult on a higher social security payment.

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Italian police and social workers leave Albania after staffing empty migrant centres

Centres had been open for over a month but received just 24 asylum seekers, whose detention was deemed unlawful

Dozens of Italian police officers and social workers deployed by Italy’s far-right government in migrant centres in Albania have returned home, after it emerged that the facilities, praised as a model to reduce refugee arrivals, have been empty for weeks.

Just over a month after the much-publicised opening of the multimillion-euro detention centres for asylum seekers in Albania, which were supposed to receive up to 3,000 men a month, more than 50 police officers were moved back to Italy two weeks ago while dozens of social workers have left over the weekend, with their presence in Albania considered “needless”.

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