Wednesday Briefing: Israel targets a Hezbollah commander

July 31, 2024

	By Whet Moser

Good morning. We’re covering an Israeli strike on a suburb in Lebanon and street protests in Venezuela.

Plus, the Booker Prize longlist.

A crowd of people gathered in the street at night. Two people stand atop a red emergency vehicle.

The site of an explosion in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

Israel targeted a Hezbollah commander in a Beirut strike

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.

A group of people on a street corner, some wearing masks. One person waves the Venezuelan flag, and another bangs on a pot.

Antigovernment protesters in downtown Caracas on Monday. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

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.

For more: Here’s how Venezuela’s government became authoritarian.

A closeup of Donald Trump, wearing a dark blue suit and pointing off camera.

”In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good,” Donald Trump told Christian conservatives. Doug Mills/The New York Times

‘Vote for me, you’re never going to have to do it again’

Donald Trump repeated his assertion that Christians would never have to vote again if they voted for him this November, and he brushed aside requests to walk back the statement.

Here’s the latest on the election:

This is what Vice President Kamala Harris is looking for in a running mate.
Dueling ads from Harris and Trump preview how she is being defined during the election.
A scorched-earth Republican primary in Arizona could help determine control of the Senate.

What do you want to know? We’re asking readers to send us their questions about the U.S. presidential campaign. We’ll take them to our reporters and find some answers. You can send us your question by filling out this form.

MORE TOP NEWS

Two men in ponchos carry a body, wrapped in cloth, through a muddy landscape.

Rescuers carried a body in Wayanad, a district in Kerala State in southern India. Reuters

India: At least 108 people were killed in Kerala after days of heavy rainfall set off landslides. Government officials described it as one of the region’s worst natural disasters.
Britain: A third child has died and five children and two adults remain in critical condition after a Taylor Swift-themed dance-class knife attack near Liverpool on Monday.
Ukraine: Large numbers of recruits will arrive at the front in the coming weeks, but some are poorly trained or out of shape, soldiers and military analysts said.
BBC: Huw Edwards, who until recently was a high-profile TV anchor for the broadcaster, has been charged with making indecent images of children, the police said.
Bangladesh: Since a crackdown on protesters opposing a quota system for jobs began two weeks ago, arrests have surpassed 10,000.
Thailand: Japan is losing its grip on Thailand’s auto market as Chinese manufacturers offer something Japanese automakers don’t: electric vehicles at affordable prices.
India: Auditors gave sugar mills a stamp of approval for their labor practices after inspections that were all but guaranteed not to find problems, a Times investigation found.
Western Sahara: France backed a plan for the autonomy of the long-disputed territory under Moroccan sovereignty, angering Algeria.
China: Shujun Wang billed himself as a scholar and a democracy activist. American prosecutors accused him of being a spy. His trial is this week.

Olympics

Simone Biles does a backflip on the balance beam inside a large stadium.

Simone Biles on the balance beam during the women’s team final in Paris. James Hill for The New York Times

Gymnastics: The U.S. women’s team won the gold medal in what Simone Biles has called a “redemption tour.”
Lighting the torch: The Olympic flame is an impressive spectacle, with the appearance of a burning hot air balloon. But it’s not a flame at all.
Sports science: Six Olympic athletes described the delicate mechanics behind their chosen events.
Swimming: China cleared of doping two swimmers who tested positive in 2022 for a banned drug, saying they had most likely ingested it unwittingly when they ate hamburgers.
Tahiti: The lush site of the surfing competition has a toxic nuclear legacy.

MORNING READ

A grayish-brown vulture sits on a thick tree branch with its head turned around, almost backward.

A drug given to cattle in the 1990s nearly wiped out the vultures in South Asia. Sanjay Baid/EPA, via Shutterstock

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

Cutting cravings: A study is trying to figure out why ultraprocessed foods are so hard to resist.
Assemble quickly: In the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, speed is key.
On the job: We asked five museum security guards for their favorite works.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

A stack of 13 books of different colors and sizes placed on a white table

The 13 novels nominated for the 2024 Booker Prize. Tom Pilston/The Booker Prize Foundation

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.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A white plate with a glazed pork chop topped by a green fennel frond.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Cook: Porchetta pork chops are an easier take on the Italian whole roast pig.

Watch: “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is a crime show and a coming-of-age tale.

Grow: Learn how to garden in a changing climate.

Move: It’s normal not to want to work out. Here’s how to make exercising a mood boost.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Whet

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