International

Hezbollah enters ‘new phase’ of battle against Israel: deputy chief

Published

6 months ago

September 23, 2024

A member of the Israeli security forces stands guard inside a cordoned-off area in Kiryat Bialik in the Haifa district of Israel, targeted by a reported strike by Lebanon's Hezbollah on September 22, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah enters ‘new phase’ of battle against Israel: deputy chief

BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s deputy chief, Naim Kassem, said on Sunday the group was in a “new phase” of its battle against Israel.

“We have entered a new phase, namely an open reckoning” he said, adding that only a ceasefire in Gaza would put a stop to cross-border attacks, warning “the Israeli military solution increases the dilemma for Israel and the residents of the north” of the country.

Kassem personally attended the funeral of military leaders Ibrahim Aqil and Mahmoud Hamad on Sunday in southern Beirut.

They were killed in the Israeli raid last Friday during a leadership meeting of the party’s elite Radwan Brigade.

Kassem’s latest remarks are seen as Hezbollah’s response to Israeli pressure to force the party to stop hostilities in southern Lebanon that have raged for almost a year, in order to allow civilians to return to their homes.

“The residents of the north will not return, but rather displacement will increase, support will expand, and the Israeli solution will increase their predicament,” Kassem said. “Go to Gaza and stop the war, and we do not need threats and we will not determine how to respond to the aggression. We have entered a new phase entitled the ‘open account’ battle.”

His statement came after a violent night of Hezbollah military operations against Israel, after an Israeli military graph indicating that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is at the top of its assassination list was published over the weekend.

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Kassem said that Israel “committed three painful war crimes for us, and they represent the highest levels of savagery that we have never seen.”

He added: “By targeting the leaders of Radwan, (Israel) wanted to paralyze the resistance, incite its environment, and stop the support front, but the resistance fighters disrupted that.

Kassem said: “Threats will not stop us, and we do not fear the most dangerous possibilities, and we are ready to confront all military possibilities.”

Thousands of Hezbollah members and supporters took part in the funeral of Aqeel and Hamad as Civil Defense personnel continued working for the third consecutive day to remove the victims of the raid on Al-Jamous neighborhood.

The number of dead has risen to 50 including women and children and 18 Hezbollah members. Thirteen people are still missing.

A member of the Civil Defense told Arab News: “The Hezbollah officials who were gathered at the time of the raid all died as a result of the intense pressure and were still in their chairs on the second floor underground.

“Their bodies were not disfigured as happened with the civilians living in the building, some of whom died of suffocation.

“We recovered the bodies of children who were burned, and their limbs were shattered when we tried to lift them. There are many remains whose owners are unknown.”

A Civil Defense statement on Sunday said: “One of the most main difficulties faced by the personnel was the fire that broke out under the rubble in a car park on the first lower floor.

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“The personnel made tremendous efforts in trying to reach the source of the fire due to the presence of several layers of concrete, which caused smoke to spread and hindered the search and rescue operations.”

On Sunday Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three people were killed in separate Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.

The ministry said an Israeli raid on the town of Aitaroun “led to the death of one person and the wounding of another, and that a raid on the town of Khiyam led to the death of one person. A raid on the town of Al-Malikiyah led to the death of one person and the wounding of three people.”

More than 60 airstrikes were recorded “in an initial response” to the explosions of pagers and two-way radios in various Lebanese regions last Tuesday and Wednesday. Hezbollah said it “bombed the Rafael military industry complexes” in northern Israel with “dozens” of rockets, and targeted Ramat David airbase with Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets.

The Israeli military said that “within hours, Hezbollah launched about 115 air threats toward civilian areas in northern Israel.”

Israeli media reported that two houses in the town of Kiryat Bialik near Haifa were hit, and three Israelis were injured.

The Israeli military responded with more shelling of southern Lebanese towns during the early hours of Sunday morning, and Israeli warplanes raided border towns in the south and western Bekaa, targeting the Deir Al-Zahrani area and Iqlim Al-Tuffah.

Hezbollah announced on Sunday afternoon that it had “launched two airstrikes with squadrons of suicide drones on newly established positions of Israeli soldiers around Al-Manara site and the Yiftah barracks.”

Hezbollah enters ‘new phase’ of battle against Israel: deputy chief

ARAB NEWS

International

$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned

Published

16 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Trends Admin

$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned

A coin collection, much of which remained buried underground for over 50 years, is expected to surpass $100 million at auction, according to experts.

Named the Traveller Collection, this extraordinary assemblage is believed to be the most valuable coin collection ever brought to auction.

The coins will be sold gradually over the next three years, with the first auction set for May 20.

Beyond its immense value, the collection’s origins make for a fascinating tale.

Spanning over 100 territories and encompassing coins from ancient times to the modern era, the collection is being auctioned by Numismatica Ars Classica.

What sets it apart is that most of the coins remained hidden underground for half a century before resurfacing.

According to a press release shared with CNN, the anonymous collector behind the collection began acquiring gold coins after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Over time, he developed “a taste for coins with great historical interest, beauty and rarity” and eventually amassed approximately 15,000 coins.

During the 1930s, he and his wife traveled extensively across the Americas and Europe, acquiring rare and historically significant coins while meticulously documenting their purchases.

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Despite settling in Europe at a time when Hitler’s Nazi party loomed over the continent, the collector sensed the impending danger. In response, he carefully packed the coins into cigar boxes, which were then placed inside aluminum containers and buried underground, where they remained undisturbed for five decades.

Among the collection is a 50 Toman coin, part of an “exceedingly rare” set minted in Tehran and Isfahan during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

“The collection spans all geographical areas and contains exceptionally rare coins often in a state of preservation never seen in modern times. Several types have never been offered in a public auction, highlighting their considerable rarity,” the press release states.

When eventually retrieved by the collector’s heirs, the coins were placed in a bank vault before being presented to the auction house. However, due to the family’s request for privacy, specific details regarding their hiding and rediscovery remain undisclosed.

Fortunately, the collector’s meticulous records provided crucial information, enabling auction house experts to trace the provenance and value of many coins. Some of them link back to significant auctions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One of the collection’s standout pieces is a 100 ducat gold coin of Ferdinand III of Habsburg, minted in 1629 during his tenure as Archduke of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. Weighing 348.5 grams of fine gold, it ranks among the largest European gold coins ever minted.

Also included is a five-guinea coin of George III, dated 1777, valued at approximately $340,000 (300,000 Swiss francs).

Another exceptional highlight is an “exceedingly rare” set of five Tomans, minted in Tehran and Isfahan during the late 18th and early 19th centuries by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. Only five complete sets are known to exist, with one housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK.

Arturo Russo, director of Numismatica Ars Classica, stated in the release: “The vast range and superb quality of the coins offered, the sheer number of great rarities and the fascinating story of the collection’s formation will make these sales a landmark in the history of numismatics.”

David Guest, director of David Guest Numismatics and consultant to the collection, echoed the sentiment: “When it came to cataloguing the British coins from the Traveller Collection I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“Not only was the quality exceptional but many of the coins before me were of types not known to have been offered for sale in over 80 years and, in some cases, completely unrecorded.”

$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned

International

AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates

Published

2 days ago

March 27, 2025

Trends Admin

Bill Gates

AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates

Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft, has claimed that improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next decade may render humans superfluous for the majority of work.

In a recent interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s The Tonight Show in February, the billionaire philanthropist discussed how AI may take over many facets of life and business.

Gates remarked that expertise is currently “rare”, emphasising the continuous reliance on human specialists in industries such as medicine and education.

For example, we continue to rely on highly trained individuals, such as “a great doctor” or “a great teacher”, whose knowledge cannot be simply replaced by AI.

However, “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said.

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In other words, Gates believes that the world is entering a new era of “free intelligence”, as he described in a recent interview with Harvard University professor and happiness specialist Arthur Brooks.

According to Gates, this transition will result in rapid breakthroughs in AI-powered technology, making them more accessible and affecting almost every part of our lives.

These breakthroughs will vary from more effective treatments and diagnoses to widely available AI instructors and virtual assistants.

“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.

The discussion of how humans will fit into an AI-powered future continues.

Some analysts suggest that artificial intelligence will improve human productivity rather than completely replacing labour, hence driving economic growth and creating new jobs.

However, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman cautions that technological improvements in the coming years will disrupt the nature of most occupations across nearly all industries, potentially exerting a “hugely destabilising” influence on the workforce.

AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates

International

Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum

Published

2 days ago

March 27, 2025

Trends Admin

Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum

Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.

Tusk had said it would be adopted “without a moment’s delay” while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country’s borders.

But the law has been criticized by rights groups including Human Rights Watch, which said the EU should take legal action against Poland if it was implemented.

The group urged the country’s parliament last month to reject the bill, saying it “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations” and could “effectively completely seal off the Poland-Belarus border, where Polish authorities already engage in unlawful and abusive pushbacks”.

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The government said previously the suspension would only be applied temporarily to people who pose a threat to state security, for example large groups of aggressive migrants trying to storm the border.

Exemptions will be made for unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the elderly or unwell, anyone exposed to “real risk of serious harm” by being returned and citizens of countries accused of conducting the instrumentalization of migration – like Belarus

Tusk has dismissed criticism from human rights groups.

“Nobody is talking about violating human rights, the right to asylum, we are talking about not granting applications to people who illegally cross the border in groups organised by Lukashenko,” he said in October.

Since 2021, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland have seen a huge increase in the number of people crossing into their countries illegally from Belarus and Russia.

Polish authorities have sent thousands of troops and border guards to police its border with Belarus and built a 5.5-metre-high steel fence along 186 km of the frontier where at times several thousand migrants have been left stranded.

Rights groups estimate more than one hundred people have died on the borders between Belarus and Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since 2021.

EU eastern flank countries and the European Commission have accused the Belarusian and Russian authorities of weaponising migration to create a new route into the EU to destabilize the bloc.