Two giant pandas are on their way from China to Washington’s National Zoo, kicking off a much-awaited return of the beloved bears to the American capital.

Bao Li and Qing Bao, both three years old, left the giant panda research base in Dujiangyan, a city near the bears’ native habitat in the mountains of southwest China, on Monday night local time. They will board a specially charted FedEx Boeing 777 cargo jet dubbed the “Panda Express” and take off for Washington in a few hours.

“We have prepared corn buns, bamboo shoots, carrots, water, and medicine to ensure the pandas’ needs are met during the flight,” the China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement announcing the pair’s departure.

The black and white bears are the first pair China has sent to Washington in 24 years. The previous pair returned to China with their cub last November, triggering a flood of tearful goodbyes at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

Over the past 11 months, the zoo’s panda exhibit, which used to draw millions of visitors, has been left empty. Now, having just completed a million-dollar revamp, it’s counting down the hours to welcome the new tenants.

China’s renewed panda diplomacy with the US is a rare bright spot in the fraught relations between the world’s two superpower rivals – which have been marred by tensions over trade, technology, geopolitics and more.

The male, Bao Li, appeared calm and composed as he slowly paced around the crate. Qing Bao, a petite female, was more restless. She stood up and stuck her snout and paws out through the bars as her crate was forklifted onto the truck.

Staff members waved photos of the two bears and banners as the trucks drove by, chanting slogans wishing them a safe journey.

A sendoff ceremony was held earlier on Monday at a hotel near the base, joined by a delegation from the Washington zoo who came to the Chinese province of Sichuan to help with the transition.

Speaking at the ceremony, the zoo’s director, Brandie Smith, hailed half a century of collaboration between the Smithsonian and its Chinese partners on panda conservation, since the first pair arrived from China in 1972.

“These beloved black and white bears are icons in Washington DC, and adored around the world,” Smith said. “Our team and legions of fans look forward to welcoming Bao Li and Qing Bao to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.”

The two pandas are loaned to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo for 10 years, with an annual fee of $1 million to support conservation efforts back in China.

While born in Sichuan, Bao Li has deep familial roots in Washington. His mother, Bao Bao, was born a celebrity at the National Zoo in 2013 and returned to China four years later. His grandparents, Meixiang and Tian Tian, lived at the zoo for 23 years until their lease ended last year.

“He reminds me a lot of his grandfather, Tian Tian,” said Mariel Lally, a panda keeper from the National Zoo who is accompanying Bao Li and Qing Bao on the flight to Washington.

‘A very comfortable ride’

Much preparation has been made for the two pandas’ journey across the Pacific Ocean.

Lally spent the past 10 days at the Dujiangyan base getting to know the two pandas and working with their Chinese keepers for the transfer. Two more colleagues – a vet and another keeper – arrived from Washington last week to join the training.

Bao Li and Qing Bao were taken off public display and placed in quarantine on September 13 – a day after Qing Bao turned three years old. (Bao Li had his birthday five weeks earlier.) They were kept in separate enclosures in a fenced-off quarantine zone lined with bamboo trees, tucked in a quiet staff-only area away from the crowds of tourists.

Ren Zhijun, a Chinese keeper who has been caring for the two bears in quarantine, said he was struck by the pair’s completely different personalities.

Bao Li is energetic and has a great appetite – living up to his name, which means “precious vigor.” The female, Qing Bao, which means “green treasure,” is “lazy and loves to sleep,” Ren said. “When she wants to have some exercises, she would climb a tree.”

Ren also noticed a big difference in their appetite: Bao Li, who loves bamboo shoots, can eat twice as much bamboo as Qing Bao, who counts carrots and apples as her favorite food.

Bao Li and Qing Bao spent their last few days in Dujiangyan getting trained for their first long-haul flight. Every morning, the pair would walk into their shipping crates voluntarily as soon as the door opened – with a little help of food.

“They go in there, they get their favorite treats, and it’s actually difficult to get them out of it,” Lally said. “They’re really comfortable in there, and the crates are humongous. They could lay down in either direction, stand up, do a cartwheel – you name it, there’s so much space.”

The crates are built in a way that allows the keepers to pass bamboo, bamboo shoots, fruits and fresh water to the bears on the flight.

“[They] will have a very comfortable ride even though it’s gonna be a long ride,” Lally said.

‘A new chapter’

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo was the first in the US to exhibit the rare, cuddly animals as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” – a strategic tool to win partners, build goodwill and showcase soft power.

It all began with US President Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking trip to Communist China during the Cold War. During that historic visit in 1972, first lady Pat Nixon was reportedly charmed by the pandas at the Beijing Zoo.

Days later, when seated next to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at a banquet in Beijing, Pat Nixon noticed a box of cigarettes on the table decorated with pandas. “Aren’t they cute? I love them,” she told his host. “I’ll give you some,” he replied.

Weeks later, a pair of pandas, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, arrived at the National Zoo in Washington. “I think pandamonium is going to break out right here at the zoo,” Pat Nixon quipped at the welcome ceremony.

She was right. On their first day of public display, the two pandas drew a reported 20,000 visitors. Since then, giant pandas have become the zoo’s star attraction, drawing millions of visitors.

The zoo’s 24-hour Giant Panda Cam has garnered more than 100 million page views since its launch in 2000. It went offline last November, when Mei Xiang, Tiantian and their youngest cub Xiao Qi Ji left for China.

For many DC residents, their departure signaled the end of an era: for the first time in 23 years, the giant panda exhibit at the National Zoo had become empty.

It also stoked fears that the US might soon be without pandas. San Diego and Memphis had already returned their bears to China in recent years, and the only four remaining in Atlanta are scheduled to depart this year.

While the flurry of departures was somewhat expected as the zoos’ panda leases expired, it came at a fraught moment in relations between the US and China. Some observers wondered whether Beijing was halting “panda diplomacy” with America and instead doling out new panda loans to Europe and the Middle East.

Then, in a visit aimed at stabilizing rocky ties, Chinese leader Xi Jinping signaled in San Francisco in last November that China would be sending new panadas to the US, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

A new round of “panda diplomacy” soon resumed. In June, a pair of pandas arrived at the San Diego Zoo, weeks after the National Zoo announced it would be getting two new bears by the end of the year.

Smith, the National Zoo’s director, called the upcoming arrival of Bao Li and Qing Bao a “historic moment” opening the next chapter of the zoo’s giant panda conservation program.

“Giant pandas truly represent how great conservation outcomes can be achieved through great partnerships and with public support,” she said.

But not everyone in China is happy about these new loans. A fringe but vocal group of online influencers have vehemently protested sending China’s “national treasures” to the US and other countries.

Some voiced concerns about their wellbeing, alleging without evidence that American zoos have mistreated pandas. Such claims, often fueled by nationalistic, anti-US sentiment, gained traction on Chinese social media in recent years following the controversy over the health of Ya Ya, a panda formerly at the Memphis Zoo.

When Bao Li and Qing Bao were taken into quarantine in September, the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda issued a statement rebuffing rumor about the mistreatment of pandas at the Washington zoo.

“The international cooperation on giant pandas holds great significance,” the center said, adding that it had clarified such rumors multiple times. “We fully understand everyone’s concern for the two giant pandas, but please do not believe internet rumors.”

Over the past week, the UN has said that the Israeli military has fired on its peacekeepers, forcibly entered its base, stopped logistics and injured more than a dozen of its troops in southern Lebanon.

Israel’s attacks on the peacekeeping mission, which has operated in Lebanon for more than 45 years, have been widely condemned by the international community. UNIFIL –  the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon – has called the violations “shocking.”

Israel has accused Hezbollah of operating in areas near UNIFIL posts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon are in “harm’s way.” He expressed regret that some UN peacekeepers had been injured over the past week and called on UN secretary general António Guterres to get the peacekeepers out “immediately.”

Guterres said that attacks on peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime,” and that “UNIFIL and its premises must never be targeted.” The UN has said that its troops remain in Lebanon despite the attacks.

Here’s what to know:

What’s happened in the past week?

UNIFIL’s Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions have been repeatedly hit by Israel.

On Wednesday, UNIFIL said IDF soldiers “deliberately fired at and disabled” a UN position in Labbouneh.

Two peacekeepers were injured Thursday after an IDF tank fired toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters, directly hitting it and causing them to fall.

On Friday, two UNIFIL troops were injured after two explosions occurred close to an observation tower. The IDF said it was responding to what it identified as an “immediate threat” against it, adding that it had instructed UNIFIL personnel to move.

Later Friday, a peacekeeper was shot in Naquora amid “military activity,” according to UNIFIL, which said UN buildings in Ramyah had sustained “significant damage” due to explosions from nearby shellings.

On Saturday, UNIFIL said IDF soldiers stopped a critical UNIFIL logistical movement near Meiss ej Jebel.

And early Sunday, UNIFIL said the IDF violated international law after backing its tanks into its post in Ramyah, forcibly entering the position and requesting that the base turn off its lights. The IDF later said one of its tanks backed into the post because it was evacuating soldiers wounded by an anti-tank missile.

Israel’s actions have drawn condemnation from several of its allies, including France and the UK, who said it was “appalled” by reports that Israel deliberately targeted UN bases last week.

What is UNIFIL?

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was established by the UN Security Council following Israel’s first invasion into southern Lebanon in 1978.

Its mandate was to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the country, restore international peace and security, and assist the Lebanese government to restore its effective authority in the area.

In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon for a second time and subsequently established a security zone inside the country, which remained until its withdrawal in 2000.

In 2000 UNIFIL established the Blue Line – an area spanning 120 kilometers (around 75 miles) along southern Lebanon to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. It acts as a de-facto border between the two countries since Lebanon and Israel have an ongoing border dispute.

The UNIFIL troops are tasked with monitoring border violations and keeping the area, which includes Hezbollah strongholds – secure.

While UNIFIL is a peacekeeping mission, troops can use force in certain circumstances, including self-defense, to protect civilians under the imminent threat of violence and to protect UN personnel facilities and equipment.

UNIFIL’s mandate is renewed annually by the UN Security Council at the request of Lebanon. The Security Council most recently extended the mandate until August 31, 2025.

Who makes up UNIFIL?

The mission is made up of more than 10,000 personnel from 50 countries, the majority of whom are troops.

Indonesia, Italy, India, Nepal, Ghana and Malaysia contribute the most troops. Spain, China, Ireland and France also make up a large presence. Some countries contribute only one UNIFIL troop, like the United Kingdom, Peru and Nigeria.

The peacekeepers operate in a 410 square mile area between the Blue Line and the Litani River in southern Lebanon. They hold 50 positions, with the UNIFIL headquarters situated in Naqoura in the southwest of the country.

A 26-year-old British man has died after falling from Spain’s tallest bridge during an attempt to climb one of its pylons.

The man fell from the Castilla-La Mancha bridge, which crosses the River Tagus outside the town of Talavera de la Reina in central Spain, according to a statement from the town council, published Sunday.

Local councillor Macarena Muñoz said he was accompanied by another British man, aged 24.

“According to what we have been able to find out they had come to Talavera to climb the bridge and create content for social media,” Muñoz said in the statement.

She noted that climbing the bridge is “completely forbidden and we have reiterated multiple times that it is not allowed under any circumstances,” adding that she was saddened by the incident.

The body of the man, who has not been named by local authorities, has been taken to a funeral home, according to the statement.

The cable-stayed bridge, which was completed in 2010, is 180 meters (591 feet) tall and its main span measures 318 meters (1,043 feet).

The British man is far from the first person to die in the pursuit of social media content in recent years.

And in November 2019 a French tourist died after falling from a waterfall in Thailand while attempting to take a selfie.

The 33-year-old man died when he slipped and fell from the Na Mueang 2 waterfall on the Thai island of Koh Samui – the same spot where a Spanish tourist died in a fall in July the same year, the AFP news agency reported.

A 39-year-old British woman was killed when a malfunctioning ottoman bed fell on her neck and asphyxiated her, a coroner’s report said.

Helen Davey, who lived in northeastern England and ran a beauty salon, died in June as she “was leaning over the storage area of an Ottoman-styled ‘gas-lift’ bed,” coroner Jeremy Chipperfield said in his report, released last week.

Ottoman beds have a base that can be raised – usually using gas-lift hydraulics – to access a storage space underneath. They are a popular choice for householders wanting to keep bedding or unseasonal clothes out of sight.

The mattress platform on Davey’s bed fell unexpectedly, “trapping her neck against the upper surface of the side panel of the bed’s base,” Chipperfield explained. “Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia. One of the two gas-lift pistons was defective.”

Davey was found by her daughter, Elizabeth, according to a statement read in court and reported by local paper The Northern Echo.

“I went upstairs, my mam’s bedroom door was wide open, and I saw her lying on her back with her head under the bed,” Elizabeth said in court.

“Her legs were bent as if she was trying to get up. I dropped everything that I was holding and tried to lift the top of the bed off her head. The bed was no longer a soft close and could fall heavily if it was released. It was so heavy for me to lift it up and try to pull her out. I managed to lift it up enough to use my foot to support it.

“I noticed that her face was blue with a clear indent on her neck from the frame. I managed to pull her clear. I feared that she was dead as she made no sound. I started CPR and noticed that she wasn’t breathing,” she said.

Chipperfield warned in a letter to Britain’s business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, that there is a risk of future deaths “unless action is taken,” highlighting the “existence and use of gas piston bed mechanisms whose failure presents risk to life,” as a “matter of concern.”

Under UK law, coroners must report to the relevant organization or government agency when they think action should be taken to prevent future deaths.

The THAAD defense system is one of the US military’s most powerful anti-missile weapons, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles at ranges of 150 to 200 kilometers (93 to 124 miles) and with a near-perfect success rate in testing.

Using a combination of advanced radar systems and interceptors, THAAD, short for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, is the only US missile defense system that can engage and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles both inside or outside the atmosphere during their terminal phase of flight – or dive on their target.

THAAD interceptors are kinetic, meaning they take out incoming targets by colliding with them rather than exploding near the incoming warhead.

According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, the US military has seven THAAD batteries, each consisting of six truck-mounted launchers – with eight interceptors apiece – a powerful radar system and a fire control and communications component.

One of those prized batteries is now being dispatched to Israel to help bolster its already impressive ability to counter incoming missiles “following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1,” according to the Pentagon. But to do that, it needs US boots on the ground.

Through a broad command and control and battle management system, THAAD batteries can communicate with a range of US missile defenses, including Aegis systems – commonly found aboard US Navy ships – and Patriot missile defense systems that are designed to intercept shorter-range targets.

Those other missile defense systems are more numerous than THAAD, an illustration of the importance the Biden administration is placing on this deployment to Israel.

THAAD can be quickly deployed by US Air Force cargo aircraft like the C-17 and C-5, but the Pentagon did not give a timetable for when it will be active in Israel.

What makes THAAD so accurate?

What makes THAAD so accurate is the radar system that supplies its targeting information, the Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance radar, or AN/TPY-2.

The radar system, which can deployed with the missile battery or already be in place on US Navy ships or at other installations, can detect missiles in two ways. In its forward-based mode it is configured to acquire and track targets at ranges of up to 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles), and in its terminal mode it is aimed upward to acquire targets during their descent, according to the Missile Defense Project. Iran is about 1,700 kilometers (1,100 miles from Israel.)

“When it is put in place, it will actually add a layer to the existing Israeli air and missile defenses,” Leighton said.

Production models of the THAAD system have never failed to intercept incoming targets in testing, according to the Missile Threat Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

What about Israel’s other anti-missile systems?

Israel has multiple anti-missile systems already in place designed to shoot down incoming projectiles.

David’s Sling, a joint project of Israel’s RAFAEL Advanced Defense System and US defense giant Raytheon, uses Stunner and SkyCeptor kinetic hit-to-kill interceptors to take out targets as far as 300 kilometers away (186 miles), according to the Missile Threat Project.

Above David’s Sling are Israel’s Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, jointly developed with the United States.

The Arrow 2 uses fragmentation warheads to destroy incoming ballistic missiles in their terminal phase – as they dive toward their targets – in the upper atmosphere, according to the CSIS.

Meanwhile, the Arrow 3 uses hit-to-kill technology to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space, as THAAD can do.

The lowest level of projectiles fired at Israel is combatted by the Iron Dome defense system, made up of 10 batteries that each carry three to four maneuverable missile launchers.

This isn’t the first time Washington has sent a THAAD battery to Israel. One was dispatched in 2019 for an exercise.

Elsewhere THAAD deployments have also been watched closely by US rivals, most notably China.

The deployment of a THAAD battery to South Korea in 2017, as ballistic missile threats from North Korea ramped up, drew vehement opposition from Beijing, which experts said was worried that the powerful radar could be used to spy on activities well inside China.

The US has also deployed THAAD to Guam, to protect vital US military bases on the Pacific island from possible ballistic missile threats from North Korea or China.

Taiwan has condemned the latest round of Chinese military drills around the self-governing island as an “unreasonable provocation” after Beijing deployed warships and fighter jets in what it described as a “stern warning” to “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces.”

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said Monday that the drills, involving joint operations of the army, navy, air force and rocket force, are being conducted in the Taiwan Strait – a narrow body of water separating the island from mainland China – as well as encircling Taiwan.

China’s military exercises around Taiwan, a democracy of 23 million people, have become increasingly frequent in recent years and have tended to coincide with events that have angered Beijing.

In August 2022, China launched a week of military drills following a visit to the island by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Similar drills in May came after the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing has denounced as a “dangerous separatist.” The latest exercises are code-named Joint Sword-2024B, implying it’s a follow-up to the drills five months ago.

Ahead of the drills, the Eastern Theater Command released a propaganda video entitled “prepared for battle” on its social media accounts.

The roughly one-minute video shows fighter jets, warships and amphibious assault vessels in the air and at sea, and mobile missile launchers being moved into place. Accompanying text said the command is “prepared for battle at all times and can fight anytime.”

In a statement, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it strongly condemns the drills as an “unreasonable provocation” by China and said it has dispatched its own forces.

A statement from Taiwan’s presidential office called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability, and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”

President Lai had convened national security meetings to discuss responses to the drills, it added.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning entered waters near the strategic Bashi Channel south of Taiwan, which separates the island from the Philippines, and that it anticipates the carrier to sail toward the western Pacific Ocean.

The drills came after President Lai gave a speech on Taiwan’s National Day Thursday, saying the island “is not subordinate” to China and that Beijing “does not have the right to represent Taiwan.”

The speech followed earlier comments, where Lai said it was “absolutely impossible” for Communist China to become Taiwan’s motherland and that Taiwan is already a “sovereign and independent country.”

Lai has long faced Beijing’s wrath for championing Taiwan’s sovereignty and rejecting the Chinese Communist Party’s claims over the island.

Despite having never controlled Taiwan, China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “reunify” with the self-governing democracy, by force if necessary. But many people on the island view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese and have no desire to be part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Successive Chinese leaders have vowed to one day take control of Taiwan. But Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in decades, has ramped up rhetoric and aggression against the democratic island, fueling tension across the strait and raising concerns for a military confrontation.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it kicked off the Monday exercises  “with vessels and aircraft approaching Taiwan Island in close proximity from different directions.”

The drills focused on “sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas, assault on maritime and ground targets, as well as joint seizure of comprehensive superiority,” according to a statement from the PLA’s Eastern Command.

The PLA did not say whether the drills involved live fire exercises, and, as of now, China has not launched any missiles. Previous drills in 2022 did include the launch of missiles.

A map released by the command shows drills taking place in nine areas surrounding Taiwan as well as its outlying islands that are closer to mainland China.

The drills also involved China’s Coast Guard, operating in areas around Taiwan and its outlying islands of Matsu and Dongyin, located just off China’s southeastern coast.

Between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. local time Monday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry detected 25 Chinese aircraft, including 16 that crossed the Median Line, an informal demarcation point in the Taiwan Strait that Beijing does not recognize, but until recent years had largely respected.

A total of seven Chinese warships plus additional Coast Guard vessels were detected near the Taiwan Strait, according to the ministry.

The United States said it was “seriously concerned” by the military exercises, calling them a “response with military provocations to a routine annual speech” that “is unwarranted and risks escalation.”

“We call on the PRC to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Thirteen pregnant Philippine women accused of illegally acting as surrogate mothers in Cambodia after being recruited online may face prison terms after they give birth, a senior Interior Ministry official said Saturday.

Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng, who leads the country’s fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, said police found 24 foreign women, 20 Philippine and four Vietnamese, when they raided a villa in Kandal province, near the capital of Phnom Penh, on Sept. 23.

Thirteen of the Philippine women were found to be pregnant and were charged in court on Oct. 1 under a provision in the law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, she said.

The law was updated in 2016 to ban commercial surrogacy after Cambodia became a popular destination for foreigners seeking women to give birth to their children.

Developing countries have been popular for surrogacy because costs are much lower than in countries such as the United States and Australia, where surrogate services could cost around $150,000.

The surrogacy business boomed in Cambodia after it was put under tight restrictions in neighboring Thailand, as well as in India and Nepal.

In July 2017, a Cambodian court sentenced an Australian woman and two Cambodian associates to 1 1/2 years in prison for providing commercial surrogacy services.

The new case is unusual because surrogates normally are employed in their own countries, not transported elsewhere.

Cambodia already has a bad reputation for human trafficking, especially in connection with online scams in which foreigners recruited for work under false pretenses are kept in conditions of virtual slavery and help perpetrate criminal fraud online against targets in many countries.

Details of the new surrogacy case remain murky, and officials have not made clear whether the women were arrested or whether anyone involved in organizing the scheme has been identified.

Chou Bun Eng told The Associated Press that the business that recruited the surrogates was based in Thailand, and their food and accommodation in Cambodia were arranged from there. She said the authorities had not yet identified the business.

She said the seven Philippine women and four Vietnamese women who were caught in the raid but who were not pregnant would be deported soon.

The 13 pregnant women have been placed under care at a hospital in Phnom Penh, said Chou Bun Eng. She added that after they give birth, they could be prosecuted on charges that could land them in prison for two to five years.

She said that Cambodia considered the women not to have been victimized but rather offenders who conspired with the organizers to act as surrogates and then sell the babies for money. Her assertion could not be verified, as the women could not be contacted and it is not known if they have lawyers.

The Philippine Embassy in Cambodia, in response to a local press account of the affair, issued a statement on Wednesday confirming most of the details related to what it called the “rescue of 20 Filipino women.”

“The Philippine Embassy ensured that all 20 Filipinos were interviewed in the presence of an Embassy representative and an interpreter in every step of the investigation process,” it said.

More than 60 people have been injured, several of them critically, in a drone attack in north-central Israel, according to first responders.

There were no immediate official reports of deaths from the attack, but the high number of injuries – with rescue service United Hatzalah saying it “provided assistance to over 60 wounded people” – makes it one of the bloodiest since the war started last October.

The news comes after Hezbollah said Sunday it had fired a swarm of attack drones on an Israeli infantry training camp in Binyamina, a town north of Tel Aviv that lies some 40 miles from the Lebanese border. The Lebanon-based militant group said the attack was in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon Thursday that killed 22 people and injured 117, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Hezbollah said it had targeted the Golani Brigade, an infantry unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that has been deployed in southern Lebanon. The Hezbollah statement came shortly after the militant group released an audio message from its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on members to “defend your people, your family, your nation, your values and your dignity.”

Israeli air defence systems tend to be very reliable, but on Sunday, there were no reports of alerts in the Binyamina area at the time of the attack, raising questions of how the drone was able to penetrate so deep into the Israeli territory without being spotted.

The drone attack on Sunday comes two days after another attack in which the IDF said two drones were launched from Lebanon. It said it intercepted one of those drones, but did not specify what happened to the other one. In the attack Friday, warning sirens had activated and while a nursing home in the coastal city of Herzliya, central Israel, was damaged, no casualties were no reported.

Critical injuries reported

In Sunday’s attack, United Hatzalah said helicopters and ambulances had evacuated all the wounded, whose injuries it described as ranging from “critical” and “serious,” to “moderate and light.”

The Binyamina attack comes almost two weeks after Israel launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon. The IDF has insisted the operation is “localized” and “limited” – even though the reality on the ground suggests it might be preparing for a wider invasion.

The IDF has issued evacuation orders for a quarter of Lebanon’s territory and deployed units from four different IDF divisions to the border area, while also continuing an intense bombardment campaign.

The injured from Binyamina were transported to hospitals across Israel. The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in north-central Israel said it was treating 36 casualties from what it described as a “UAV incident,” adding that there were “various degrees of injury.”

The Emek Medical Center in northern Israel said it was treating four injured people. Beilinson Hospital said it was treating a further three and Bnei Zion Medical Center in Haifa also said it was treating three.

Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing in an occupied part of her country, died in Russian detention last month, Ukrainian authorities said earlier this week.

Roshchyna, who was 27, disappeared in August last year during a reporting trip to a Russian-occupied area in Ukraine. She was missing for months, with her loved ones having no idea what happened to her.

According to the Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Moscow only informed Roshchyna’s family she was detained in Russia in April, months after she was captured. 

“I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia,” Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a statement.

Roshchyna’s colleagues said she traveled to the Russian-held territory – a dangerous ordeal for any Ukrainian – to report on the lives of people living under occupation. They said they believed the young journalist was killed by Russian authorities.

“We have every reason to believe that her death was either the result of a deliberate murder or the result of the cruel treatment and violence to which she was subjected during her time in Russian captivity,” Ukrainian journalists and media professionals said in a statement published in several Ukrainian media outlets.

The statement added that Roshchyna was healthy before her year-long imprisonment.

The Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General said it was investigating her death as a war crime combined with premeditated murder.

Journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya, who worked with Roshchyna as the former editor of Hromadske, a Ukrainian media outlet, said the young reporter was determined to do her job as best as she could.

“For her, there was nothing more important than journalism. Vika was always where the most important events for the country took place. And she would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians killed her,” she said in a statement published on Hromadske’s website, referring to Roshchyna by her diminutive.

Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said in a statement that some 25 Ukrainian journalists were being held in Russian captivity, and several others are considered missing.

The Ukrainian government says thousands of Ukrainians have been held in arbitrary detention in Russia. Lubinets, Kyiv’s human rights commissioner, said in July that 14,000 Ukrainian civilians were in Russian captivity, some of whom have been held since 2014 when the war broke out in eastern Ukraine and Russia annexed Crimea.

Yatsenko said that according to Russian authorities, Roshchyna died while being transferred from a detention facility in the southern Russian city of Taganrog to Moscow. He said the transfer was in preparation for her release as part of a prisoner exchange.

“Unfortunately, we did not have enough time,” he said in the statement.

Tetyana Katrychenko from the Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian rights group, said the detention facility in Taganrog was known for its cruel treatment of detainees, according to a statement published on her social media.

“Taganrog … is known as one of the most brutal places of detention for Ukrainians in the Russian Federation. It is called hell on earth,” Katrychenko said, adding that Roshchyna was held in Taganrog from at least May to September 2024. “She was held in solitary confinement,” she added.

Roshchyna was awarded the 2022 Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women’s Media Foundation. Her work appeared in a number of media outlets including Ukrayinska Pravda, Hromadske and Radio Free Europe.

It’s just past 4am.

Daniel Aula is in his one room apartment praying, thankful he’s alive, and thankful he’s heading to work.

Aula, originally from Haiti, has been living in Springfield over a year now. He knew about the quiet Ohio city through a friend and heard it had not only a low cost of living but also great work opportunities to match.

Why not?

It’s a world better than what he was running from. Aula had been a police officer back in crime-wracked Haiti, until he wasn’t. His house was burned down, he went into hiding, and was told people were coming to kill him.

While Aula has found opportunity in Springfield, he’s also found himself in the middle of a bitter national debate on immigration heading into November’s election, fueled in this case largely by rumors and threats.

The city of Springfield estimates there are between 12,000 and 15,000 immigrants living in Clark County, the county that holds Springfield, most of them believed to be Haitians arriving in just the past four years.

The image of a city dramatically altered by immigration has been seized upon by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance — who have made criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policy a cornerstone of their campaign.

Trump falsely told about 67 million viewers that Haitians in Springfield were “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats,” during the presidential debate on September 10.

And Vance has made repeated false claims about Haitians, fueling rumors that they kill pets and do not have legal status in the country.

Trump is already threatening to deport Springfield’s Haitian residents if elected.

“You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country,” he told News Nation in an early October interview.

A shot at a new life

Springfield is Aula’s chance at a new life. He’s taking English classes, but he’s had so much to learn, namely how to get a job. Many in Springfield have been eager to help him, and to hire him.

Not long after he got to Springfield, Aula started working at Pentaflex, a company focused mainly on building metal stampings and assemblies for safety related functions like the brakes on a truck.

“Or they’d come in and they’d work for half a day and they’d just leave,” he said. “That is, you know, a real problem when you’re running a production facility. You need to have a reliable workforce that you can count on to be at work every day.”

“I don’t know a person in this town that wouldn’t want to get the hell out of (Haiti),” he said.

The rapid arrival of Haitians in Springfield has created both growing opportunities and pains. Some would come with any population increase; some have been specific to the culture differences and language barriers.

Multiple city and state officials point to the population influx of Haitians as a major boost to Springfield’s economy.

Over the last several years, “We’ve seen more growth than we’ve seen for decades past,” said Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck, including a “revitalization and resurgence of our downtown.”

The growing pains, however, were maybe encapsulated best by Springfield Mayor Rob Rue during a July 2024 City Commission meeting where he told a resident, “We were not in control of this.”

“We didn’t get a chance to have an infrastructure in place if there are going to be 20,000 more people from ‘20 to ‘25 — we didn’t get to do that. So, the most frustrating thing is we’ve got to spend tax dollars that were already in a flat budget, that we’ve got to vote on to try to take care of 15,000 more folks that are here and make sure that everybody has a safe environment to be in,” he said.

Springfield’s growing population has put pressure on services like health care, including wait times for things like blood pressure screenings, vaccinations and more. Visits requiring interpreters also take longer, making lines stretch even further. It’s part of why the state of Ohio helped open a mobile healthcare clinic, to try and ease some of those pressure points. State officials say they saw close to 100 patients in about a week’s time, which exceeded expectations.

“The system’s been strained for a couple of years, we just now have people paying more attention,” said Chris Cook, health commissioner for Clark County, which includes Springfield.

Cook said they also encourage new mothers to be part of their Women Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program and hope to have appointments within 10 days of the baby’s birth. But over time, waits grew to two months, he said.

“That’s not just our Haitian moms,” Cook said. “Everybody’s in the same line.”

Another major area of concern in Springfield has been housing, with signs of stress dating all the way back to 2018 in regard to availability and cost — years before Haitians began arriving after the Biden administration approved Temporary Protective Status in 2021 due to the violence, human rights abuses, and dire economic situation in Haiti.

City Manager Bryan Heck sent a letter to Sens. Sherrod of Ohio Brown and Tim Scott of South Carolina — then cc’d Vance in July of 2024 — regarding “a significant strain,” regarding housing.

Rent also went up, partly from the increased demand of a new population but driven also by the “greed of landlords,” as Mayor Rue put it during a July City Commission meeting. Prices were also likely affected by nationwide inflation in recent years.

Overall, according to the City of Springfield, “Haitians are more likely to be the victims of crime than they are to be the perpetrators in our community. Clark County jail data shows there are 199 inmates in our county jail this week. Two of them are Haitian. That’s 1% (as of Sept. 8).”

Andy Wilson, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, said at a September press conference, “The No. 1 issue we have in the public safety space with the Haitians, it’s not crime, it’s not violence — it’s the driving, that’s the public safety issue. So, what we want to do is we want to get driver’s education to that population.”

It’s an issue that state officials have found hard to immediately tackle, given that adults in Ohio can test for a driver’s license and receive it without having to go through a formal training program.

Governor Mike DeWine recently directed the Ohio State Highway Patrol to support Springfield Police with traffic enforcement “to address the increase in dangerous driving in Springfield by inexperienced Haitian drivers and all others who disregard traffic laws.”

While some Springfieldians gripe about the effects of immigration, others are stepping up. Cook and local United Way director Kerry Lee Pedraza, who grew up here, today co-chair what’s known as the “Haitian Coalition,” which is a combination of private and public entities working behind the scenes to find solutions that work for everyone in Springfield, not just Haitians.

In 2022, at their first meeting, Pedraza said there were 45 people from different organizations who showed up. They’ve only grown since then, but part of the problem recently is they have not had the “financial resource to help us to continue to do it, and to do it at a speed where everyone in the community is going to feel that there’s some relief.”

Regardless, the multilateral level of coordination across sectors has been “incredibly effective,” she said. “It actually could probably be a master class of how any community needs to come together around, take any social issue, and work together to create a really good solution.”

Living under the shadow of threats

In early October, at least 70 people were killed, including three infants, in a gang attack in central Haiti, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.

The UN reports more than 3,600 people have been killed so far this year. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been forced to flee their homes after gang attacks.

Given Haiti’s anarchial unrest in recent years, Haitians were added to a Biden-Harris administration parole program, limited to only a few countries, that allows vetted participants to enter the United States as long as they are sponsored by US residents.

Others have Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a renewable program that shields some at-risk nationalities from deportation and allows them to live and work in the country for a limited period of time.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas designated Haitians for Temporary Protected Status starting in 2021 and has subsequently extended and redesignated Haiti through February 2026.

Those in the United States under the parole program are able to apply for TPS.

“We frequently see people who have just entered within the past month or two,” said Katie Kersh, a senior attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE), where she specializes in immigration and civil rights and has represented Haitians for years.

She and her team have been working to provide free legal clinics assisting Haitians in Springfield and beyond who have arrived in the past two years assisting them with applications for TPS, asylum, work permits and more.

Kersh said Haitians do hear Trump’s comments about deportations, and even she “can’t tell anyone that there’s no likelihood that there could be some sort of mass enforcement action.”

However, a broader revocation of previously granted parole or TPS would “be definitely challenged in the courts and probably successfully. So that’s a big thing that we’re trying to tell people, that it would be really, really procedurally and legally difficult for that to happen,” Kersh said.

Still, many Haitian residents in Springfield live in fear of Trump’s threat of removal, unsure over their future and their safety.

But first, he made a stop with an immigration advocate to consider his options if there was any mass deportation effort that included him. He’s been a little more nervous than usual lately.

“As I was walking down the road, a white man drove by and yelled Trump!” Lebon said in Creole. Lebon took it as a threat.

He said he had never dealt with anything like that since living in Springfield.

“It was peaceful here, understand, there were no such things. Everything started after the remark,” he said.

The “remark” in question came during the presidential debate in early September, but it all likely stemmed from August 28, 2024.

A Springfield resident reported to police that she suspected her Haitian neighbors of chopping up her cat after finding “meat” in the backyard.

Soon after, social media posts began circulating about pet-eating Haitians and were even promoted by neo-Nazi groups, some of which have shown up to Springfield in person marching against Haitians being there.

Just days after the initial police report, the owner’s cat “Miss Sassy” was found safe in her basement. While the literal cat was found, the metaphorical cat was out of the bag, and the claims spread far and fast, eventually making its way onto the debate stage.

First Vance’s team picked up the rumors, with the senator claiming, “You have a lot of people saying ‘my pets are being abducted’” and “’slaughtered right in front of us.’”

And then Trump made the claim at the debate.

“To see that continue to be retweeted by Vance himself the next day and then sitting there watching the presidential debate” was “difficult,” Heck said.

Days after the presidential debate, city buildings and schools were hit with multiple threats of violence, prompting evacuations and cancellations of events. While state officials later said these threats ended up being hoaxes, many “from overseas,” they still prompted real evacuations and warranted a beefing up of security both for city officials and schools.

Gov. DeWine’s ‘obligation to tell the truth’

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was born in Springfield, Ohio. While he grew up in a town nearby, he took his now-wife, Ohio first lady Fran DeWine, on dates to Springfield when they were both in high school.

The DeWines fund a school in the dangerous Cité Soleil, an impoverished neighborhood in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince — an area entirely under gang control, where thousands of civilians live as a captive population.

DeWine is also a Trump-supporting Republican. All those aspects of his life have collided this past month in a way he simply described as “kind of strange.”

While DeWine readily acknowledges not everything has been perfect as the Haitian population has grown, he also said it’s unmistakable that “if you look at Springfield’s growth in the last few years, that’s been fueled, a lot of it by the Haitian immigrants who were taking jobs that were open.”

He even said he had one employer “look me in the eye” and tell him, “’I don’t think our company really would be here today if it wasn’t for Haitians.’”

Historically, Haitians are hardly the only group to immigrate to Springfield. For starters, “The Gammon House” in Springfield was a stop on the Underground Railroad, serving as a symbol of a step toward freedom and a new life for the freed slaves in America. Some of the first Greek establishments opened in Springfield in the early 1900s, but the area also saw an influx of Germans, Irish, and later on Hispanics.

In 1970 the population in Springfield was around 82,000. The 2020 federal census showed a drop to around 58,000.

While Trump’s deportation threat may not be easily carried out, DeWine believes removing Haitians from Springfield would not be good for the city.

But not enough of a mistake to change his vote.

“I support my party,” he said. “Going against the nominee of the party, I think makes me a less effective governor of the state of Ohio.”

“I think the decision to who you support for president is based upon multiple issues,” he said.

And, he said, he is supporting the Haitian community.

Daniel Aula’s fate may hang on how America votes on November 5. But he is sanguine about the heated rhetoric around his community’s presence in town — and still, despite everything, grateful to be here.

“The world, it’s like a village,” Aula said. “Like a village, angry people and happy people have to live together.”

“Even the people (who are) angry about me, I love all of them,” Aula said. “I love all of them, even the people that hate me.”