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Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks during a press conference in Abu Dhabi, yesterday. The UAE’s nuclear plant was “carefully targeted” last month by attackers who aimed to cause a major incident, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday. The drone attack on May 17 hit an electricity facility at the plant, risking potentially shutting it down — a “serious situation indeed”, Rafael Grossi said.”From what we saw this was a very carefully targeted operation,” Grossi told journalists in Abu Dhabi after visiting the Barakah plant. The United Arab Emirates blamed militants in Iraq for the incident, which followed weeks of attacks by Iranian drones and missiles during the Middle East war.”In spite of the fact that the Emirati professionals acted very quickly and could address the situation, (it could have taken) out the reactor because of the loss of external power,” Grossi said. “This means that whoever was behind this knew exactly what they were doing. This is of extreme gravity.”Grossi said he was also visiting the UAE’s Gulf neighbours, who could be affected by any accident at the Arab world’s only nuclear plant. “I think this is pretty serious and this is why we have been very vocal,” he told AFP in separate remarks. “I’ve been to Kuwait…, now here, and I’m heading to Riyadh because several countries in the region have serious concerns,” he added.Grossi said he would hold a special session of the IAEA’s board of governors and that the body is providing technical expertise and support for the UAE. The “worst-case scenario” would be a direct hit on Barakah or Iran’s Bushehr plant — which has also been targeted in the war — with the potential for a leak of radioactive material, he told AFP.Cutting the power “has the practical effect of… necessitating emergency generation to keep the safety functions of the plant running”, he said.”To get to a meltdown would take much, much more. We would be talking of a situation where you would completely run out of external power.”Hamad al-Kaabi, deputy chairman of the Board of Management of the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, said Grossi’s visit “reflects the international community view that an attack on such a plant is not acceptable”.He said Barakah, which has been fully operational since 2024, remains a “cornerstone” of energy infrastructure in the oil-rich country. “Whether we expand (nuclear power) in the future is yet to be decided, but I think Barakah makes a compelling case,” he told AFP. “If anything, it’s proved that these plants can be maintained safely and securely.” Source link
In a south Lebanon hospital heavily damaged by deadly Israeli strikes nearby, Dr Nasser al-Masri held a new-born baby, calling him “a message of life and hope” despite the war.Israeli strikes near the Jabal Amel hospital in Tyre on Monday killed four people and wounded 127, including four doctors, 27 nurses, and eight administrative employees, Lebanon’s health ministry said.They also caused “severe and extensive damage” to the facility, it added.”Despite everything that happened yesterday, there was a scheduled delivery today… (and) the mother insisted on delivering at the hospital,” Dr Masri said.”This baby was born today, he’s just a few minutes old… He brought us a message of life and a message of hope for the future.”Glass was scattered across some hospital rooms on Tuesday, while dust and debris covered beds and tables.Medication was strewn on corridor floors, and staff tried to work as others cleaned up around them.”We’re taking in any patient that comes to us,” Dr Masri said, adding that “even two hours after the raids, we were able to work normally, and the administration is determined to stay and work”.Around the hospital, the devastation was stark: a nearby building had been levelled, others were severely damaged and debris was scattered round near parked ambulances.The roof of the hospital’s parking collapsed, crushing several vehicles. Bulldozers worked to clear away the rubble.Inspecting the damage, Mohammad Derbaj, head of the hospital’s maintenance department, charged that “the civilian buildings were not the intended target, but rather Jabal Amel was targeted in order to put it out of service, but we are steadfast”.”What happened has increased our determination and strength,” he added, as the hospital administration “made a decision yesterday that the hospital will return… We will work day and night to restore the hospital to what it was”.Israeli strikes have not spared Lebanese hospitals since the start of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2.The health ministry says 17 hospitals have been damaged, with three forced to close, and 128 rescuers and medical personnel have been killed.The Lebanese Italian hospital in Tyre was also damaged by an Israeli attack in April.A strike last month near the city’s Hiram hospital wounded 13 staff and damaged it, according to the ministry.At Jabal Amel hospital on Tuesday, Hussein Qassir, head of the intensive care unit, told AFP they transferred patients from one ICU ward after it sustained significant damage in the airstrikes.”We were expecting a strike near or adjacent to the hospital… but I didn’t expect that the intensive care unit would be this damaged (but) the situation could have been so much worse.”Despite this, we continue… it is our duty.”Abdinasir Abubakar, World Health Organisation Representative to Lebanon, said on Tuesday that “two out of three hospitals” in the Tyre district, Jabal Amel and Hiram, “are damaged although continuing to function, and the third hospital is overwhelmed as it deals with an influx of injured patients”.The historic city in southern Lebanon, which still hosts thousands of displaced people from nearby areas, has been subject to repeated Israeli strikes that have continued despite an April 17 ceasefire agreement that has not been respected by either Israel or Hezbollah.Israel’s military has repeatedly warned residents of Tyre and its surroundings to evacuate in preparation for what it said are operations against Hezbollah.Staffer Khalil Mustapha, displaced from the border town of Aitaroun, took shelter in the hospital after losing his home.”I no longer have a home. Israel destroyed it and I came to the hospital. I never expected their level of criminality would reach this point,” he said.Zainab Fakih, who works in the laboratory, was sitting with her colleagues when the attack came.”We were terrified… We opened the doors and rubble rained down on us, but luckily no one was hurt,” she said.”We didn’t think they would bomb the area around the hospital. But we come here because this is our job, even though our families object”, fearing for their safety. Source link
Yechiel Leiter (far L), Israeli Ambassador to the US, and Nada Hamadeh (far R), Lebanese Ambassador to the US, attend a meeting hosted by the United…
Benjamin Netanyahu is under criticism at home after US President Donald Trump declared Israel would halt plans to attack Iran ally Hezbollah in Beirut, highlighting pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election polls show him losing.Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on one another, hours after Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, prompting a warning from Iran that Israel was jeopardizing Tehran’s talks with the USLebanon’s government later announced a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, under which Israel would halt strikes on southern Beirut and Hezbollah would stop attacks on Israel.Netanyahu’s challengers in elections due by October accused the prime minister of having acquiesced to Trump on issues of national security.”The location is different, the story is the same,” said Naftali Bennett, a right-wing security hawk and former premier who also criticizes Netanyahu over Hamas militants’ resurgence in Gaza.”A government that has lost control of Israeli sovereignty,” Bennett said in an X post.Bennett and his coalition partner in the upcoming election, centrist Yair Lapid, have pressed for strikes against Hezbollah.”A full protectorate,” Lapid said in an X post, in effect accusing Netanyahu of allowing the US to dictate Israeli military policy as if Israel was an American client state.Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire despite an April 16 U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The latest conflict began on March 2 with Hezbollah firing into Israel in support of Iran.Israel has since deepened its invasion of southern Lebanon, displacing over a mn people and killing more than 3,400 as it bombards areas with attacks it says are aimed at rooting out Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not released figures on its war dead.Hezbollah has fired rockets and explosive drones at Israeli troops and northern Israeli towns. Israel says 26 soldiers and four civilians have been killed since March 2.Netanyahu disputes criticism of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, arguing that air strikes under his watch have dealt Hezbollah blows. After Trump’s announcement on Monday of a new Israel-Hezbollah agreement, Netanyahu said Israel’s stance in the conflict “remains unchanged.””(If) Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens — Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut,” Netanyahu said in a statement following Trump’s announcement.Israel’s military has continued to carry out attacks on southern Lebanon since Trump’s declaration on Monday.Yesterday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israel had refrained from carrying out strikes on Beirut at the request of the US But he warned that any new Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel would trigger strikes on southern Beirut suburbs, considered a stronghold of the militant group.Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military who is also running for prime minister, said on Monday that Trump’s push for Israel to halt attacks was unreasonable.”There has never been an Israeli prime minister who accepted such a humiliating demand,” Eisenkot wrote on X.The criticism underscores growing tensions within Israel’s political system over the extent to which military decisions should be coordinated with its closest ally, the US.Netanyahu’s coalition partner Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, said that Israel should tell Trump: “no”.English-language Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post wrote that Israel had “found itself in the humiliating position of having to seek American approval to defend its own citizens.””The US is now actively restraining Israel from taking decisive military action,” it said in an editorial. Source link
Australia’s players celebrate after the dismissal of Pakistan’s Maaz Sadaqat (not seen) during the second one-day international (ODI) in Lahore on June 2, 2026. Australia won…
Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen, in Gaza City, June 2, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip yesterday, Gaza health officials said.Medics said at least one person was killed and four were wounded when an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle east of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The blast left the vehicle a mangled skeleton.Another strike earlier in the day killed one person and wounded another in the nearby Zawayda town, they added, while Israeli gunfire killed one man in northwest Khan Younis, south of the enclave.The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either of the incidents.An October ceasefire, brokered by US President Donald Trump, has failed to halt Israeli attacks in Gaza.Israel and Hamas are deadlocked in indirect talks over implementing the second phase of the deal, which includes the group’s disarmament and Israeli army withdrawals.The ceasefire left Israel in control of more than half of Gaza, with Hamas controlling a sliver of coastal territory.Some 930 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the truce came into effect, according to figures from Gaza health officials that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants during the same period, the country’s military has said. Source link
Julen Lopetegui is set for his first FIFA World Cup as a head coach, with the tournament in North America offering a long-awaited opportunity on the…
Two projectiles hit a container vessel in the Gulf as it was leaving port in Iraq, a Swiss-based company said Tuesday, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted the ship.Both the company MSC, based in Geneva, and the British maritime security agency UKMTO reported no injuries to crew members in Monday’s incident.In Iran, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards said Monday they had targeted the Panama-flagged MSC Sariska V “belonging to the American-Zionist enemy” with a cruise missile.The spokesman said the container ship was targeted in retaliation for a US attack on the Iranian vessel Lion Star in the Sea of Oman.The UKMTO said the vessel was 40 nautical miles off the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr when the initial explosion occurred on Monday.MSC said that the first projectile hit the vessel as it was leaving port with the pilot still on board, and the second impacted the crew area soon afterwards.In a statement, MSC said it “is a neutral commercial carrier with no affiliation to the US or Israel”.It said all crew members were safe and unharmed. Source link
English cricket legend Andrew Flintoff England cricket legend Andrew Flintoff was named Tuesday as head coach of the Sydney Thunder, the Big Bash League team said, hailing it as their “most significant off-field acquisition in club history”.The 48-year-old has signed a two-year deal for what will be his first overseas coaching role, following weeks of speculation.Former England captain Flintoff starred for his country across all three formats and was last year linked with taking over from Brendon McCullum as England’s head coach.The charismatic former all-rounder has cut his teeth in coaching with the second-string England Lions, as well as the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.In 2022 the popular Flintoff was left with severe facial and rib injuries after a car crash while filming for the hit BBC television programme Top Gear.The Big Bash League is Australia’s premier Twenty20 competition. ‘CAN’T WAIT TO GET STARTED'”I can’t wait to get over there and get started,” he said in a statement released by the team.”I’m looking at this with a lot of optimism. You look at the franchise, you look at the players, you look at the support, and I think there’s something really big to build on.”The Thunder squad is led by former Australia opener David Warner and also includes Sam Konstas, the 20-year-old once seen as Warner’s successor at Test level.They finished bottom of the table last time out, and Flintoff replaces Trevor Bayliss, who departed the role in February after six seasons at the helm.”I want our players to connect with the people that come and see us. I want them to enjoy playing cricket,” said Flintoff, who had a stint in the BBL as a player over a decade ago.”However, all that is underpinned by hard work… I want them to play with passion and leave everything out there on the field.”I’m excited to come over, get involved and coach this team. I’m here to do the best job I possibly can for the team and everybody that comes out and supports us,” he said. Related Story Source link
Israeli arms exports have reached an all-time high for the fifth consecutive year, hitting more than $19 bn in 2025 driven by missile, rocket and air defence systems, the defence ministry announced Tuesday.Israel is among the world’s leading arms exporters.Its forces have fought on several fronts since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza, including against armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon and alongside the US against arch-foe Iran.”Israel’s all-time defence export record has been broken for the fifth consecutive year, with $19.2 bn in 2025 — a nearly 30 % surge compared to the previous year, more than doubling in five years and quadrupling in a decade,” a defence ministry statement said.Missile, rocket and air defence systems were the lead exports and accounted for 29 % of deals, it said, adding that a “notable surge was recorded in observation and optronics systems”.European countries purchased 36 % of exports, while Asia and the Pacific Region bought 32 %, and the Middle East and North Africa 15 %.”There is a clear and unmistakable thread connecting the IDF’s battlefield achievements across all fronts, the extraordinary capabilities of Israel’s defence industries, and the success of Israeli defence exports around the world,” Defence Minister Israel Katz was quoted as saying in the statement.In April, the ministry said it planned to accelerate its production of Arrow missile interceptors amid the war with Iran.The announcement came after questions in the international media over how long Israel’s interceptor stocks would last, with some analysts pointing to shortages of top-tier Arrow interceptors in particular. Source link