In a meeting with a top adviser to President Biden on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “military action” against Hezbollah was the “only way” to safely return its citizens to their northern homes. 

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with both Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to avoid a broader conflict between the Jewish state and the Iran-backed terrorist groups.

But Israeli officials appeared steadfast in their position on handling Hamas to the south and Hezbollah to the north, and noted the time to secure a cease-fire agreement to end the war in Gaza was running out, particularly as Hezbollah continues to “tie itself” to Hamas.

HEZBOLLAH RELIES ON ‘SOPHISTICATED’ TUNNEL SYSTEM BACKED BY IRAN, NORTH KOREA IN FIGHT AGAINST ISRAEL

Instead, Gallant told Hochstein that Jerusalem needed to “change the security situation on the northern border,” though he did not detail what this would entail.

Israeli security experts have been warning for months that Jerusalem faces a far greater threat along its northern border as Hezbollah – already better financially backed and militarily equipped than other Iranian proxy forces like Hamas – has been gaining power for decades.

Israeli citizens fled their homes in the north following the catastrophic attacks by Hamas in the south on Oct. 7, 2023, fearing a similar attack could be carried out by Hezbollah.

Additional evacuations have since been enforced by government officials along the northern border as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah routinely engage in cross-border skirmishes.

Israeli soldiers evacuate an injured man following a cross-border attack from Lebanon into Israel, Sept. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Ayal Margolin)

ISRAEL’S UN AMBASSADOR SLAMS WORLD BODY, SAYS UNRWA TAKEN OVER BY HAMAS TERRORISTS IN GAZA

It is unclear how many Israeli residents have been displaced since the onslaught of the war against Hamas nearly one year ago, though some estimates suggest that figure could be as high as 80,000.

“We are in a multi-front campaign against Iran’s axis of evil, which is striving for our destruction,” Netanyahu said following Houthi and Hezbollah missile strikes on Sunday. “I am attentive to the residents of the north. 

“I see their distress. I hear their anguish. The current situation will not continue,” he added. “This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border. We will do whatever is necessary to return our residents securely to their homes.

“I am committed to this. The government is committed to this, and we will not suffice with less than this,” Netanyahu warned. 

Israeli officials have shown increasing resistance to a cease-fire deal with Hamas and have said no deal can be reached without the return of all hostages, despite pressure from the Biden administration. 

An explosion takes place as Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon, as seen from Zibqin, Lebanon, Aug. 25, 2024. (Reuters TV via Reuters)

Netanyahu has also said there are major security concerns that cannot be compromised for the sake of a cease-fire, like the continued presence of Israeli forces in the Philadelphi Corridor in Gaza, which runs along the border with Egypt.

Following the Monday meeting between Netanyahu and Hochstein, the prime minister, according to a readout of the exchange, said Israel “appreciates and respects the support of the United States,” but added that Jerusalem “will do whatever is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”

Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this article.

Youth brain drain is becoming one of the most worrisome problems for Western Balkan countries. 

All six countries of the region — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia — rank among the top brain drain leaders in the world due to the pace and intensity of the phenomenon within their borders. 

They could lose between an estimated 25%-50% of their skilled and educated workforce in the forthcoming decades, according to the research of the German Marshall Fund. 

Young Macedonians who spoke to Euronews said they were disappointed by the level of corruption in the country as well as the absence of opportunities and perspectives. 

“You still see corrupt institutions, you do not see any rule of law, you do not see any improvement in terms of the economy or education, and that’s the first thing,” Petar Barlakovski, who studied in the UK, said.

“When one cannot see that the European Union is close, that it’s far, it is just as it was 10 years ago, one asks the question, is there a future in this country,” he added.

The Macedonian Ministry of Education spends millions of euros on scholarships for young people but then reportedly shows no interest in them, according to experts.

Risto Saveski, president of the Youth Educational Forum, told Euronews the ministry does not have evidence of how many students finish their studies abroad and whether they have returned to North Macedonia. 

The Western Balkan countries are rapidly losing their population. 

In the last three decades, due to massive emigration, Serbia has lost 9% of its citizens, North Macedonia lost 10%, while 24% left Bosnia and 37% departed from Albania. 

To find out more, watch the Euronews report in the player above. 

Lawyers for Washington state will have past grocery chain mergers – and their negative consequences – in mind when they go to court to block a proposed merger between Albertsons and Kroger.

The case is one of three challenging the $24.6 billion deal, which was announced nearly two years ago. The Federal Trade Commission is currently fighting the merger in federal court in Oregon, where closing arguments are expected Tuesday. Colorado has also sued to block the merger.

But if the merger goes through, Washington residents would feel the impact more than the people of any other state. Albertsons and Kroger own more than 300 grocery stores in the state and control more than half of grocery sales there.

Under a plan to ease regulators’ concerns, Kroger and Albertsons would sell 579 overlapping stores, 124 of them in Washington, if the merger goes through. That’s the highest number among the 19 states with stores on the list. The state attorney general’s office says the proposed buyer, C&S Wholesale Grocers, has little experience running stores or pharmacies.

Washington seeks to avoid the situation it found itself in a decade ago, when Albertsons bought the Safeway chain. To satisfy regulators concerned about that deal’s potential impact on supermarket competition and consumers, Albertsons sold 146 stores to Haggen, a small grocery chain based in Bellingham, Washington.

But Haggen struggled with the expansion. Within six months, it had closed 127 stores — including 14 in Washington — and laid off thousands of workers. Haggen sold its remaining stores to Albertsons in 2016. Now, 10 Haggen stores in Washington are on the list to be sold if the merger happens.

“It’s pretty terrifying,” said Tina McKim, a founding member of Birchwood Food Desert Fighters, a group that sprang up in 2016 after Albertsons closed a store in Bellingham’s Birchwood neighborhood.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who is running for governor, wants to block the merger not just in the state but nationwide. In its complaint, filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle, Washington says eliminating the “robust competition” that exists between Albertsons and Kroger would lead to higher prices, lower quality and, most likely, store closures.

Albertsons and Kroger say the merger would help them better compete with growing rivals like Walmart and Costco. They are trying to get the case dismissed, arguing a state court isn’t the proper venue to consider a nationwide ban.

“Under our federalist system, Washington cannot wield its antitrust law to dictate merger policy for the rest of the country,” Albertsons and Kroger said in a court filing.

Brad Weber, a Dallas-based partner with the law firm Locke Lord who specializes in antitrust issues, said the Superior Court judge could decide to halt the merger nationwide or limit his ruling to Washington. Judge Marshall Ferguson might also order the companies to make changes to their plans to divest stores to preserve competition.

Ferguson may also decide to delay the case until there’s a ruling from the U.S. District Court in Oregon. Weber said. In that case, the Federal Trade Commission has asked a judge to temporarily block the merger until it is considered by an in-house judge at the FTC.

Albertsons and Kroger insist that their plan, including the sale of stores to C&S, will lower grocery prices and preserve competition. But Washington residents like McKim remain skeptical.

In 2016, Albertsons acquired a Haggen supermarket and then promptly closed an Albertsons store about a mile away in Birchwood. When it sold its former store two years later, Albertsons included a restriction: for the next 20 years, no grocery store could open in the Birchwood shopping plaza.

It was a huge blow to the community, McKim said. For 35 years, the Birchwood store had served older adults, students, people with disabilities and lower-income residents who suddenly had no easy access to fresh food.

“We were all really shocked by that. How is it possible to deny food access to a neighborhood?” McKim said. “It made it really hard for anyone without a car to be able to go to another grocery store.”

McKim’s group tries to fill the void by collecting food donations and bringing in produce from local farms, but “it’s nowhere near the level of access people need,” she said.

This summer, after an investigation by Washington’s attorney general, Albertsons removed the restriction on the shopping plaza. A Big Lots that moved into the former grocery store is closing soon, McKim said, and she hopes the space will attract another supermarket. But even if it does, the community may never get back the unionized jobs it lost when Albertsons shut its doors, she said.

McKim said her area does have a Walmart, but it’s even further away from Birchwood than the Albertsons-run Haggen store, which is on the list of stores that would be sold to C&S. She’s also not convinced Kroger and Albertsons need to merge to compete with Walmart.

“This city is growing so quickly, the need for food is absolutely critical everywhere,” McKim said. “When you see other stores succeed, it’s because they curate to the neighborhood’s needs.”