The Evening Wrap: Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill over 270

Israeli strikes on Monday killed more than 270 Lebanese in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting. More than 1,000 other people were wounded in the strikes — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week. The toll surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000. Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut that the strikes hit hospitals, medical centres and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south. The Israeli military announced that it hit some 800 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes hit in residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut. The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, and it is where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging residents to immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons, including in the valley. The warnings left open the possibility that some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing that they are risk. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including at military bases. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa. The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of an all-out war, even as Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza and trying to return scores of hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack. The Lebanese Health Ministry put the death toll at 274. It asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone surgeries that could be done later. The Ministry said in a statement that its request aimed to keep hospitals ready to deal with people wounded by “Israel’s expanding aggression on Lebanon.” An Israeli military official said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said the strikes are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel. Lebanese media reported that residents received text messages urging them to move away from any building where Hezbollah stores arms until further notice. Storing and viewing child sexually exploitative abuse material an offence under POCSO: Supreme Court The Supreme Court on Monday held that storage and private viewing of child sexually exploitative abuse material was an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud set aside the Madras High Court judgment that mere downloading and private viewing of child pornography is not an offence under POCSO. The judgment was based on a petition filed by an NGO coalition, Just Rights for Children Alliance. The judgment, authored by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, bans the use of the term ‘child pornography’. The Bench urged the Parliament to amend the POCSO to replace the term with ‘Child Sexually Exploitative Abuse Material/CSEAM’. The Bench directed the courts across India to henceforth use CSEAM instead of child pornography in judicial orders. The judgment has also interpreted various provisions of POCSO. The Madras High Court had quashed the judicial proceedings against a 28-year-old man and held that downloading CSEAM was not an offence under Section 67B of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The High Court had categorically said that watching CSEAM was not per se an offence as the accused had merely downloaded it onto his electronic gadget and watched it in private. The High Court also referred to a case decided by the Kerala High Court where it had been held that watching pornography in private space was not an offence under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code. The judgment on Monday, September 23, 2024 directed the revival of criminal proceedings against the man. Chief Justice Chandrachud said the judgment was groundbreaking. ‘This is Arvind Kejriwal’s chair’: Atishi takes charge as Delhi CM with an empty chair beside her Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi took charge as the eighth Chief Minister of Delhi on Monday after taking the oath of office on Saturday. Refusing to sit on the chair used by her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi chose to sit on a different chair. “This is Delhi’s Chief Minister’s chair, this chair, is Arvind Kejriwal ji’s,” she said after taking charge at the Delhi Secretariat. The third and the youngest woman Chief Minister of Delhi, Atishi has retained the 13 portfolios she held in the Kejriwal government, including those of education, revenue, finance, power and PWD. “I have full faith that in the election which is due in February, the people of Delhi will elect Arvind Kejriwal ji as Chief Minister again. Till then this chair will be in this room, in expectation of Arvind Kejriwal ji,” she said. In her first interaction with the media, after being announced as the next CM, in the last week, she had called Kejriwal her “guru”. She said, “Rhere is only one Chief Minister of Delhi and the CM’s name is Arvind Kejriwal”. She had also underlined that she will be the Chief Minister only for a few months till the next Assembly election and making Kejriwal the CM again is her and the party’s only intention. “I will work for four months as the chief minister of Delhi as Bharat did by keeping Lord Ram’s Khadaun on the throne. Arvind Kejriwal has set an example of dignity in politics by stepping down. The BJP left no stone unturned to tarnish his image,” she said after taking charge. Saurabh Bharadwaj has eight departments under him, the highest after Atishi, including those of health, tourism, art and culture. New entrant Mukesh Ahlawat has a portfolio of labour, SC and ST, employment and land and building departments. Gopal Rai has been given the portfolio of development, general administration department, environment and forest — the portfolios he held in the Kejriwal government. Kailash Gahlot has also retained his previous portfolios — transport, home, administrative reforms, women and child development. The Delhi Assembly’s session will be held on September 26 and 27. Anura Kumara Dissanayake sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 9th President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office as President on Monday, promising change in the island nation long led by powerful political families, which is emerging from its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. Dissanayake emerged winner in Sri Lanka’s presidential race on Sunday. “I pledge... to demonstrate dedication to protecting and upholding democracy,” Dissanayake, 55, said in inauguration remarks at the president’s office, saying he was taking office at a challenging time in the Indian Ocean nation. “Our politics needs to be cleaner, and the people have called for a different political culture,” he added. “I am ready to commit to that change.” Dissanayake, 56, was sworn in by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya at the Presidential Secretariat. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who greeted him on Sunday, for his congratulatory wishes on winning the elections on Monday. “Thank you, Prime Minister Modi, for your kind words and support. I share your commitment to strengthening the ties between our nations. Together, we can work towards enhancing cooperation for the benefit of our peoples and the entire region,” Dissanayake said. Chinese President Xi Jinping said he will deepen ties with Sri Lanka and hoped that the bilateral ties under China’s Belt and Road project would ‘bear more fruit’. In Brief:Food safety authority issues show-cause notice to firm on contamination in Tirupati laddus The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the government’s food regulatory authority under the Health Ministry, has issued a show-cause notice to A.R. Dairy, one of the companies which supplied ghee to the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, for allegedly providing substandard product to the temple. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) had reportedly got samples of its laddu prasadam tested and allegedly they did not meet the set standards and were found “adulterated” with palm oil and animal fat, including fish oil, beef tallow. India reports first case of Clade 1 variant of Mpox India has reported its first case of the clade 1 variant of Mpox which, according to Health Ministry sources, has been confirmed in a 38-year-old youth who landed in Kerala last week from the UAE. The youth was admitted to the government medical college hospital in Malappuram’s Manjeri on Monday after he developed symptoms of the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Mpox a global public health emergency again in August 2024 due to the spread of a new and deadlier strain of the virus, Clade 1b. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 23 September 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( Lebanon sees deadliest day of conflict since 2006 as Israeli strikes kill more than 270 [Israeli strikes on Monday killed more than 270 Lebanese in the deadliest barrage]( since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting. [More than 1,000 other people were wounded]( in the strikes — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week. The toll surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000. Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut that the strikes hit hospitals, medical centres and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south. The Israeli military announced that it hit some 800 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes hit in residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut. The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, and it is where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging residents to immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons, including in the valley. The warnings left open the possibility that some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing that they are risk. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including at military bases. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa. The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of an all-out war, even as Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza and trying to return scores of hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack. The Lebanese Health Ministry put the death toll at 274. It asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to postpone surgeries that could be done later. The Ministry said in a statement that its request aimed to keep hospitals ready to deal with people wounded by “Israel’s expanding aggression on Lebanon.” An Israeli military official said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said the strikes are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel. Lebanese media reported that residents received text messages urging them to move away from any building where Hezbollah stores arms until further notice. Storing and viewing child sexually exploitative abuse material an offence under POCSO: Supreme Court The Supreme Court on Monday held that [storage and private viewing of child sexually exploitative abuse material was an offence]( under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud set aside the Madras High Court judgment that mere downloading and private viewing of child pornography is not an offence under POCSO. The judgment was based on a petition filed by an NGO coalition, Just Rights for Children Alliance. The judgment, authored by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, bans the use of the term ‘child pornography’. The Bench urged the Parliament to amend the POCSO to replace the term with ‘Child Sexually Exploitative Abuse Material/CSEAM’. The Bench directed the courts across India to henceforth use CSEAM instead of child pornography in judicial orders. The judgment has also interpreted various provisions of POCSO. The Madras High Court had quashed the judicial proceedings against a 28-year-old man and held that downloading CSEAM was not an offence under Section 67B of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The High Court had categorically said that watching CSEAM was not per se an offence as the accused had merely downloaded it onto his electronic gadget and watched it in private. The High Court also referred to a case decided by the Kerala High Court where it had been held that watching pornography in private space was not an offence under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code. The judgment on Monday, September 23, 2024 directed the revival of criminal proceedings against the man. Chief Justice Chandrachud said the judgment was groundbreaking. ‘This is Arvind Kejriwal’s chair’: Atishi takes charge as Delhi CM with an empty chair beside her Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi took charge as the eighth Chief Minister of Delhi on Monday after taking the oath of office on Saturday. Refusing to sit on the chair used by her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal, [Atishi chose to sit on a different chair](. “This is Delhi’s Chief Minister’s chair, this chair, is Arvind Kejriwal ji’s,” she said after taking charge at the Delhi Secretariat. The third and the youngest woman Chief Minister of Delhi, Atishi has retained the 13 portfolios she held in the Kejriwal government, including those of education, revenue, finance, power and PWD. “I have full faith that in the election which is due in February, the people of Delhi will elect Arvind Kejriwal ji as Chief Minister again. Till then this chair will be in this room, in expectation of Arvind Kejriwal ji,” she said. In her first interaction with the media, after being announced as the next CM, in the last week, she had called Kejriwal her “guru”. She said, “Rhere is only one Chief Minister of Delhi and the CM’s name is Arvind Kejriwal”. She had also underlined that she will be the Chief Minister only for a few months till the next Assembly election and making Kejriwal the CM again is her and the party’s only intention. “I will work for four months as the chief minister of Delhi as Bharat did by keeping Lord Ram’s Khadaun on the throne. Arvind Kejriwal has set an example of dignity in politics by stepping down. The BJP left no stone unturned to tarnish his image,” she said after taking charge. Saurabh Bharadwaj has eight departments under him, the highest after Atishi, including those of health, tourism, art and culture. New entrant Mukesh Ahlawat has a portfolio of labour, SC and ST, employment and land and building departments. Gopal Rai has been given the portfolio of development, general administration department, environment and forest — the portfolios he held in the Kejriwal government. Kailash Gahlot has also retained his previous portfolios — transport, home, administrative reforms, women and child development. The Delhi Assembly’s session will be held on September 26 and 27. Anura Kumara Dissanayake sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 9th President [Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office as President]( on Monday, promising change in the island nation long led by powerful political families, which is emerging from its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades. Dissanayake emerged winner in Sri Lanka’s presidential race on Sunday. “I pledge ... to demonstrate dedication to protecting and upholding democracy,” Dissanayake, 55, said in inauguration remarks at the president’s office, saying he was taking office at a challenging time in the Indian Ocean nation. “Our politics needs to be cleaner, and the people have called for a different political culture,” he added. “I am ready to commit to that change.” Dissanayake, 56, was sworn in by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya at the Presidential Secretariat. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who greeted him on Sunday, for his congratulatory wishes on winning the elections on Monday. “Thank you, Prime Minister Modi, for your kind words and support. I share your commitment to strengthening the ties between our nations. Together, we can work towards enhancing cooperation for the benefit of our peoples and the entire region,” Dissanayake said. Chinese President Xi Jinping said he will deepen ties with Sri Lanka and hoped that the bilateral ties under China’s Belt and Road project would ‘bear more fruit’. In Brief: Food safety authority issues show-cause notice to firm on contamination in Tirupati laddus The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the government’s food regulatory authority under the Health Ministry, has [issued a show-cause notice]( to A.R. Dairy, one of the companies which supplied ghee to the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, for allegedly providing substandard product to the temple. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) had reportedly got samples of its laddu prasadam tested and allegedly they did not meet the set standards and were found “adulterated” with palm oil and animal fat, including fish oil, beef tallow. India reports first case of Clade 1 variant of Mpox [India has reported its first case of the clade 1 variant of Mpox]( which, according to Health Ministry sources, has been confirmed in a 38-year-old youth who landed in Kerala last week from the UAE. The youth was admitted to the government medical college hospital in Malappuram’s Manjeri on Monday after he developed symptoms of the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Mpox a global public health emergency again in August 2024 due to the spread of a new and deadlier strain of the virus, Clade 1b. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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