World
'Very tense' situation as floods in Russia see thousands evacuated
More than 100,000 people have fled their homes in Russia and neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has called the situation in Russia and Kazakhstan “very, very tense” as fast-melting snow and ice swell rivers in Russia’s southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan.
Both countries have declared a state of emergency after battling the rising rivers for over five days.
Kazakhstan has evacuated 96,272 people since the start of the floods. Russia itself has evacuated more than 7,000, mostly from the Orenburg region.
The floods in Orenburg began with the collapse of a dam on Saturday. Although President Vladimir Putin is frequently shown on Russian state television meeting officials and traveling across the country, the Kremlin said he is not yet planning to visit the flood-hit region.
The river’s water level in the city of Orenburg was above 10 metres on Wednesday, state news agency Ria Novosti reported, citing the regional governor. Photos shared by Russian news outlets showed roads covered in water, submerged fields and partially submerged houses.
The water was approaching high-rise buildings, Ria Novosti said, and more than 300 homes were flooded overnight, according to state news agency Tass.
People in the city of Orsk gathered in a rare protest Monday, calling for compensation after their homes were damaged. Protests are unusual in Russia, where authorities have consistently cracked down on any form of dissent following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the administrative building in Orsk on Monday, and videos posted on Russian social media showed people chanting “Putin, help us!” and “Shame!”
Other videos on social media showed angry Russians refusing to leave the areas near their homes because they said thieves were looting abandoned houses with boats.
A criminal probe has been launched to investigate suspected construction violations that may have caused the dam to break. Local authorities said the dam could withstand water levels up to 5.5 metres. On Sunday, the level in Orsk reached 9.7 meters, according to Russia’s water level information site AllRivers.
The Ural River, about 2,428 kilometres long, flows from the southern section of the Ural Mountains into the north end of the Caspian Sea, through Russia and Kazakhstan.
World
Nato ships in Hormuz if the Strait does not reopen by July
Re-open Hormuz and end the war in Iran. The fears of the G7 in Paris relate to the impact of the conflict on an already sluggish global economy given the fallout ‘on energy, food and fertiliser supply chains’. The imperative is therefore ‘a rapid return to free and safe movement across the Strait of Hormuz and a lasting solution to the conflict’. Trump, at the urging of the Gulf countries, suspends the resumption of hostilities and gives a new ultimatum to Tehran, ‘two or three days’. Additional time for negotiations desired by Qatar: ‘Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts need more time’
World
Hezbollah grooms children for martyrdom through its scout movement, report claims
Rubio addresses Middle East tensions and Cuba’s future in exclusive interview
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in an exclusive interview about escalating Middle East tensions, including the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire and the imperative to dismantle Hezbollah. Rubio also highlights Cuba’s status as a failed state and its national security threats to the United States, advocating for substantial economic reforms to address the country’s energy crisis. He further discusses the Trump administration’s firm stance against Iran’s use of the Strait of Hormuz.
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The U.S.-designated Lebanon-based terrorist movement Hezbollah exploits children from its version of the scout movement to carry out jihadi missions that result in their deaths, according to a recent report on Lebanon’s MTV television network.
The Lebanese network’s report — translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — comes amid U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Beirut.
The report claims that Hezbollah gives child fighters heroes’ funerals and publicly glorifies them before their peers in order to encourage other children to follow in their footsteps. The MTV report said Hezbollah believes that every drop of bloodshed by child soldiers brings victory closer.
ISRAEL POUNDS HEZBOLLAH TARGETS, DARING LEBANON TO RECLAIM SOVEREIGNTY FROM IRAN-BACKED TERROR PROXY
Hezbollah al-Mahdi scouts parade with large portraits of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an event for Jerusalem Day in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, on Aug. 1, 2013. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)
It also claimed that Hezbollah uses its scout movements to cultivate an entire generation of obedient children prepared to die, through rhetoric that glorifies death and martyrdom. The MTV report, according to the MEMRI translation, said that “Hezbollah child soldiers have been used since the 1980s by this outlaw armed group. Not just as armed fighters but as Khomeini-loyal scouts.”
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reportedly exploited the use of Iranian children during the country’s 1980-1988 war against Iraq.
Matthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, said that “Hezbollah’s recruitment and radicalization of youth through its Mahdi Scouts is long documented,” other experts talking to Fox News Digital concurred.
“Hezbollah has boy scouts, and they have been taught jihad, and it is a well-known thing in Lebanon,” Mideast expert Walid Phares told Fox News Digital.
UNRWA SCHOOLS ‘HIJACKED BY HAMAS,’ WATCHDOG REPORT WARNS
The Lebanon expert said they could be termed “children jihadists” who are preparing to become full Hezbollah fighters. Phares said they mostly assign them [the children of Hezbollah fighters] to spying and transporting ammunition. He argued if the scouts are getting funding from a ministry or national boy scouts association in Lebanon, they should be sanctioned if they have the evidence.
Multiple Fox News Digital Emails and phone calls to the World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) were not immediately returned. The U.S. branch of WOSM referred Fox News Digital to WOSM, which is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
A Hezbollah expert from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, Sarit Zehavi, called for action against the exploitation of children by the terror group.
“The only way to bring a change is to designate all of these allegedly civilian activities of Hezbollah and close the movement of its scouts, and enable the Shiites of Lebanon to have a different source of services, whether it is educational, formal or informal, which will be part of the Lebanese state, and not part of Hezbollah. The loyalty will be to the Lebanese state and not to Khomeini and the Islamic Republic.”
She added, “This is only something Lebanon can do with a lot of international pressure, of course, led by the United States.”
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An Israeli diplomat, Tammy Rahamimoff-Honig, posted on X: “Hezbollah sacrifices Lebanese children to further the ambitions of the Iranian regime. This isn’t ‘resistance’. It’s child abuse.”
Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.S. declined to provide comment for this article.
World
Video. Merkel warns Europe can no longer rely on old security certainties
Updated:
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was awarded the European Order of Merit on Tuesday. Merkel warned that Europe could no longer take peace and security for granted following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She also said changes in US security policy showed old certainties were fading.
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