World
Lebanese doctor races to save the eyes of those hurt by exploding tech devices
BEIRUT (AP) — For almost a week, ophthalmologist Elias Jaradeh has worked around the clock, trying to keep up with the flood of patients whose eyes were injured when pagers and walkie-talkies exploded en masse across Lebanon.
He has lost track of how many eye operations he has performed in multiple hospitals, surviving on two hours of sleep before starting on the next operation. He has managed to save some patients’ sight, but many will never see again.
“There is no doubt that what happened was extremely tragic, when you see this overwhelming number of people with eye injures arriving at the same time to the hospital, most of them young men, but also children and young women,” he told The Associated Press at a Beirut hospital this past week, struggling to hold back tears.
Lebanese hospitals and medics were inundated after thousands of hand-held devices belonging to the Hezbollah militant group detonated simultaneously on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, killing at least 39 people. Around 3,000 more were wounded, some with life-altering disabilities. Israel is widely believed to have been behind the attack, although it has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Although the explosions appear to have targeted Hezbollah fighters, many of the victims were civilians. And many of those hurt in the attack suffered injuries to their hands, face and eyes because the devices received messages just before they detonated, so they were looking at the devices as they exploded.
Authorities have not said how many people lost their eyes.
Veteran and hardened Lebanese eye doctors who have dealt with the aftermath of multiple wars, civil unrest and explosions, said they have never seen anything like it.
Jaradeh, who is also a lawmaker representing south Lebanon as a reformist, said most of the patients sent to his hospital, which specializes in ophthalmology, were young people who had significant damage to one or both eyes. He said he found plastic and metal shrapnel inside some of their eyes.
Four years ago, a powerful blast tore through Beirut’s port, killing more than 200 people and wounding more than 6,000. That explosion, caused by the detonation of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrates that had been stored unsafely at a port warehouse, blew out windows and doors for miles around and sent cascades of glass shards pouring onto the streets, leading to horrific injuries.
Jaradeh also treated people hurt in the port explosion, but his experience with those wounded by the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies has been so much more intense because of the sheer volume of people with eye injuries.
“Containing the shock after the Beirut port blast was, I believe, 48 hours while we haven’t reached the period of containing the shock now,” Jaradeh said.
Jaradeh said he found it hard to dissociate his job as a doctor from his emotions in the operating theater.
“No matter what they taught you (in medical school) about distancing yourself, I think in a situation like this, it is very hard when you see the sheer numbers of wounded. This is linked to a war on Lebanon and war on humanity,” Jaradeh said.
World
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World
Russia unleashes major drone, missile attack on Ukraine as US diplomatic talks continue
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Russia launched a major attack against Ukraine overnight as talks between Ukraine and the U.S. continued in Florida this week.
Moscow sent 653 drones and 51 missiles across Ukraine, leaving eight people injured, Ukrainian officials said.
French president Emmanuel Macron condemned the attacks, writing on X “We must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it towards peace.”
Macron said he plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and their British and German counterparts in London on Monday.
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Ukrainian Fire Point’s Flamingo missiles are inspected in the Ukraine on Thursday. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Zelenskyy said on Saturday that he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials involved in the talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Miami.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday shared a readout of the talks, which also included President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The readout called the talks “constructive discussions on advancing a credible pathway toward a durable and just peace in Ukraine.”
“American and Ukrainian parties underscored that an end to the war and credible steps toward ceasefire and de-escalation are necessary to prevent renewed aggression and to enable Ukraine’s comprehensive redevelopment plan, designed to make the nation stronger and more prosperous than before the war.”
People gather in Kyiv on Saturday during a blackout caused by Russia’s ongoing strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Following Russia’s Friday night barrage, Ukraine’s air force said 29 locations were hit, and the military was able to shoot down 585 drones and 30 missiles.
Three of the eight wounded were hurt in the Kyiv region, local officials reported.
The “massive’ attack also targeted power stations in the country and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost power overnight, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant seen in 2022. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
Zaporizhzhia is under Russian control and not in use, but it needs power to cool its shutdown reactors to prevent a catastrophic incident.
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Zelenskyy said that a drone strike had also “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, near Kyiv.
In retaliatory strikes, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces said its military hit Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery.
World
Ukraine peace talks stall as Russia unleashes huge waves of attacks
Negotiations fail to yield progress, while Moscow launches over 700 drones and missiles across Ukrainian territory
Three days of negotiations between Ukrainian and United States officials have ended without a breakthrough, as Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
The talks in Florida concluded on Saturday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describing a phone call with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as “substantive”, though both sides acknowledged that meaningful progress hinged entirely on Moscow’s willingness to pursue genuine peace.
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The impasse underscores the gulf between diplomatic efforts and the grinding reality on the ground, where Russian forces continue advancing in eastern Ukraine.
Russia deployed 653 drones and 51 missiles in the overnight barrage that began on Friday, striking energy facilities and critical infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, which Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko confirmed hit 29 separate locations.
The assault temporarily severed power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, raising new concerns about reactor safety.
The facility, which has been under Russian occupation since early in Moscow’s invasion, requires continuous electricity to cool its six shutdown reactors and prevent catastrophic failure, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Energy facilities were the main targets,” Zelenskyy said of the latest assault, noting that one drone strike destroyed a railway station in Fastiv, near Kyiv. Ukrainian air defences intercepted 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force reported.
Moscow claimed its strikes targeted “military-industrial complex enterprises and the energy facilities that support them”, asserting that all designated targets were hit.
The diplomatic push comes as battlefield dynamics increasingly favour Russia.
Moscow’s forces are closing in on Pokrovsk, a former logistics hub in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and have nearly surrounded the neighbouring city of Myrnohrad.
Russian troops captured roughly 505 sq km (195 sq miles) in November alone, nearly double October’s territorial gains.
Russia now controls almost the entirety of the neighbouring Luhansk region and holds the majority of coastal territories stretching to Kherson. The front lines have largely stabilised along these positions, though Moscow continues to make incremental advances.
French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Zelenskyy alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday to assess the US-mediated negotiations.
Macron condemned Russia’s “escalatory path” and insisted that “we must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it to make peace”.
The talks in Miami followed a Tuesday meeting between Witkoff, Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, which failed to produce an agreement.
A joint statement released on Friday acknowledged that “real progress towards any agreement” depends on Russia demonstrating “serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps towards de-escalation”.
Adding another layer of complexity, the International Criminal Court’s deputy prosecutor said on Friday that the arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine cannot be halted by peace negotiations.
The warrant could only be temporarily deferred by United Nations Security Council action, prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told reporters, emphasising that “there must be the possibility of accountability in order for peace to be enduring”.
Putin has signalled he will not soften his territorial demands, ordering Russian forces to prepare for continued winter combat operations.
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