Israel Kills Over 300, Wounds 1,150 in Lebanon Today
BEIRUT (AP) — Israel’s intense barrage of airstrikes on Wednesday hit without warning deep inside the Lebanese capital of Beirut, blowing buildings open to the elements and reducing apartment blocks to rubble in parts of the city that have traditionally escaped attack.
It was not immediately clear what was targeted.
[Civilians.]
...
The areas targeted in this wave of Israeli strikes included busy commercial strips, crowded residential neighborhoods and upscale districts along the city’s seafront...
One deadly strike hit along Corniche al-Mazraa, a main artery of the city, razing an apartment building near a popular shop selling nuts and dried fruit and setting parked cars ablaze, some with drivers inside.
Another crashed into the hilly residential district of Tallet El Khayat, flattening a multi-story building near an upscale mall — among those killed, residents said, was an award-winning Arabic poet and her husband.
Yet another struck the seaside district of Ain el Tineh, pulverizing an apartment building also home to an exotic plant shop right near the speaker of parliament’s residence and overlooking the city’s only public beach.
Further strikes blew up apartments near a well-known chocolate shop in the mixed commercial and residential area of Mar Elias, wiped out part of a building that housed a snack shop and hair salon in the Caracas district, destroyed the lower floors of a building along Beirut’s coastal corniche and left smoldering ruins in the densely populated neighborhood of Basta near a school sheltering displaced people in an attack that killed, among others, a young mother and her two sons.
5:05 pm:
Mrs. Trump’s name appeared in the Epstein files, too — another matter she evidently wanted to clear up on Thursday. In a 2002 email written to Ghislaine Maxwell, a woman named “Melania” wrote to Ms. Maxwell to praise a profile of Mr. Epstein in New York magazine. Ms. Maxwell called “Melania” “Sweet pea,” and “Melania” signed her email “Love.”
People call me "Sweet pea" all the time!
I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence.”
“My polite reply to her email doesn’t amount to anything more than a trifle,” she said.
Exactly! A trifle! I'm polite, too! Shut up before I punch you in the face.
Among the documents released by the Justice Department was a brief email from 2002 with the sender and recipient blacked out. It begins, “Dear G!” and ends “Love, Melania,” and compliments the recipient on a magazine article about “JE.”
"G"--could be anybody! Gloria, Grace. Doesn't have to be Ghislaine. "Melania"--lots of people in Slovenia are named Melania. "JE"--I was referring to JOHN EDWARDS.
“I know you are very busy flying all over the world,” it says. “How was Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in NY.”
Yes, YES! I shall summon reporters too!
Could I borrow your suit for my own summoning of reporters?
Melania Trump summoned reporters to the White House Thursday afternoon to give a surprising statement about Jeffrey Epstein. She said she had no relationship with him, was not a victim of his and had no knowledge of his crimes. She said she wanted to clear “my good name”...
She talked about “numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me” that “have been percolating for years now.”
Mine too! All FAKE PERCOLATING!
It was not clear why she chose to speak out now, or to what reports she was referring.
“Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City,” Mrs. Trump explained to the small group of stunned reporters arrayed in the entrance hall of the White House. The first time she ever “crossed paths with Epstein” was in 2000, she said, “at an event Donald and I attended together.”
nytimes
Yes, I TOO want the lies linking me to the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein to stop.👀
😐
Melania Trump holds extraordinary White House event to deny ties to Epstein, knowledge of his crimesReading an extraordinary statement at the White House, Melania Trump said she and her attorneys were fighting back against “unfound and baseless lies” in regards to her connections to the late financier...
...
The extraordinary and seemingly out-of-the-blue message came as her husband, President Donald Trump, and his administration had finally seemed to move past more than a year of controversy surrounding Epstein...
The first lady’s comments almost assuredly served to push the story back into the political spotlight even as the president urged the public and media to move on from the case.
...
It was not immediately clear what prompted the first lady to speak out about this issue now.
10:49 am:
European Leaders Demand That U.S. Cease-Fire With Iran Include Lebanon
Britain, France and European Union condemn Israel
nytimes
Ceasefire at risk with Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Iran’s closure of Strait of Hormuz
AP8:54 am:
Vance: Israel offered to restrain strikes in Lebanon during U.S.-Iran talks
The Israeli military's renewed attacks in Lebanon posed an immediate challenge to the stability of the ceasefire and led Iran to threaten to pull out of negotiations with the U.S. planned for Saturday. At least 254 people have been killed in Israel's strikes, according to Lebanese Civil Defense.
Stopping the Israeli strikes against Hezbollah, Tehran's proxy in Lebanon, was one of Iran's key demands for the ceasefire.
The Iranians are now threatening to resume the fighting and close the Strait of Hormuz if the fighting in Lebanon continues.
"The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose— ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.
Egypt, which helped mediate the ceasefire, accused Israel of a "premeditated" attempt to undermine the truce.
Ax
That is what it is. I agree with "Egypt." Netanyahu stated after the October 7 attacks that he intended to remake the entire Middle East. When he went to the White House before the War, he was determined to undermine the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks. He wants Palestine and Palestinians, Iran and Iranians, Lebanon and Lebanese, territory and people alike, utterly destroyed. It's genocide.
