When pagers exploded across Lebanon last week, the year-long war with Hezbollah was not at the top of the Israeli political agenda. Instead, the political class was convulsed with speculation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replace him with a military neophyte, Gideon Sa’ar, to shore up his domestic power. National security ...

Pope Francis has pledged to root out the “scourge” of clerical sexual abuse after Belgium’s prime minster urged him in unusually frank terms to take concrete action. Francis was addressing political leaders on Friday at the official residence of the King of Belgium, a country where devastating clerical abuse scandals have erupted in recent years. Before he spoke, both the ...

A Thai crocodile farmer who goes by the nickname “Crocodile X” said he killed more than 100 critically endangered reptiles to prevent them from escaping after a typhoon damaged their enclosure. Natthapak Khumkad, 37, who runs a crocodile farm in Lamphun, northern Thailand, said he scrambled to find his Siamese crocodiles a new home when he noticed a wall securing ...

Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel believes it killed in a strike on southern Beirut, turned Hezbollah into one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. His death caps a series of devastating blows for the group, already reeling from the humiliation of having its communications network comprehensively infiltrated, and suggests that one of Israel’s most formidable enemies is deeply ...

Israel’s audacious attack targeting Hezbollah’s leader on Friday has rattled the group, delivering its most severe blow since its founding. This has led its Iranian backers to warn that Israel has entered a dangerous phase of the conflict by altering the rules of engagement. As Tehran watches its most prized non-state ally take a beating, questions are mounting about how it may ...

A new rocket thruster could enable “never-ending” voyages into deep space by using any type of metal as fuel. A team at the University of Southampton is testing a new propulsion system which would allow metals found on comets and moons to be harvested in order to propel a spacecraft indefinitely. Most current rocket propulsion systems for spacecraft that have ...

NEW YORK — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed during a fiery address to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that his country would continue its military operation in Lebanon in defiance of a U.S. cease-fire proposal demanding a temporary halt in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. His swaggering, bellicose remarks included a warning to all of Israel’s enemies, namely ...

Former president Donald Trump is promoting $100,000 watches branded after him as he seeks a return to the White House, the latest — and priciest — product he has helped sell in a string of unusual for-profit enterprises for a presidential candidate. The Trump Victory Tourbillon is “almost entirely made out of 18 Carat Gold and decorated with 122 Diamonds,” ...

Among the allegations included in a federal indictment made public on Thursday is that prospective donors to New York Mayor Eric Adams were encouraged to avoid contribution limits by using straw donors, people who’d receive money from the actual contributor and give it to Adams under their own name. This allegedly helped Adams increase his contribution total and, as a ...

“It [the 2019 impeachment] was over a phone call with the president, and … he could have grandstanded and played cute. But he didn’t do that. He said President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. He said it loud and clear.” —Former president Donald Trump, remarks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower, Sept. 27 Zelensky was largely silent and ...