About: the world this week, 28 July 2024 to 3 August 2024: Israel’s Golan; Britain’s stabbing; Venezuela’s turmoil; Prisoner swap; Wayanad landslip; Paris Olympics.

Everywhere

Israel’s Golan

The Golan Heights-Golan -is a 1200 square km rocky plateau, once a part of southwestern Syria, but now part of Israel. It overlooks Lebanon, borders Jordan, and is bound by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee, and Hula Valley in the west. The area’s water resources makes it one of the best in the land: a key source of water for an arid region. Rainwater from the Golan’s catchment feeds the Jordan River. The land is fertile and the rich volcanic soil is used to cultivate vineyards, orchards, and raise cattle. Golan is also home to Israel’s only ski resort.

Over 40,000 people live in Golan: more than half of them being Druze Arabs and the remaining Israeli settlers who make a living on farming and tourism.

Golan were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of it during the Six-Day War. This war came about as a result of years of increasing tension and vicious border skirmishes between Arabs and Israelis, following the creation of the State of Israel. The Six-Day War was a decisive victory for Israel during which it captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights; the status of these territories subsequently became a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel occupied the captured territory of Golan fully, annexed it, and applied Israeli law to the area in 1981, making it its own. The unilateral annexation was not recognised internationally, and Syria has been demanding the return of Golan. After annexing Golan, Israel gave the people living in the region the option of citizenship, but most rejected it and still identify as Syrian.

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Syria tried to regain Golan, but was thwarted by Israel, despite Syria inflicting heavy losses on Israeli forces. In 1974, Israel and Syria signed an Armistice and a UN observer force has been in place on the ceasefire line ever since. In 2019, the then US President Donald Trump officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over Golan. Israel argues the ongoing civil war in Syria underlines the need to keep the plateau as a buffer zone between Israeli towns and its unstable neighbour. It also says it fears Iran, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, is seeking to establish itself permanently on the Syrian side of the border, in order to launch attacks on Israel. In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of Golan and a peace agreement, but the negotiations collapsed.

This week, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, operating from Lebanon, launched an outrageous rocket attack on a football pitch in Majdal Shams in Golan killing, 12 children who were playing football. The attack was the deadliest against Israel since the Hamas massacre of 7th October that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.

Then in a swift, daring retaliation, Hamas’ Top Political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran in an unbelievable stealth operation on his residence – a Guest House he used to frequent – in Tehran within the control of the Iran Presidential Guard. He was killed by a rocket attack while sleeping in his bedroom. Reports said he was killed using a hidden explosive device- planted two months ago-detonated remotely. A bodyguard was also killed. Exact details are not know, and Israel was quick of issue a diplomatic, ‘we are not involved’ statement. Earlier, Ismael Haniyeh had attended the inauguration ceremony for Iran’s new president in Tehran. At the ceremony, the crowd chanted, “Death to Israel.” However, looks like the Angle of Death had other plans.

Iran was visibly rattled and embarrassed with the killing happening right under its nose. And and made noises about revenge and retaliation for ‘murdering a guest’ enjoying Iran’s hospitality.

In another raid in Beirut, Lebanon, Israel knocked-out Fuad Shukr ‘Sayyid Muhsan’, Hezbollah’s Most Senior Military Commander and its Chief, Hassan Nasrallah’s Right-Hand Man. He was responsible for the murder of the 12 children in Golan.

Then, in a third strike, Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hajj Habib Zadeh, was assassinated in Damascus, Syria. He is a top ranking military brigadier in the Iranian aerospace forces. And also one of the main figures in Iran who led and executed the 2024 Iranian strikes against Israel, known in Iran as ‘Operation True Promise’. One by one, Israeli’s enemies appear to be falling like dominos, in precision warfare.

In the short term, the three assassinations in Beirut, Tehran, and Damascus will halt ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas over release of the hostages, and keep the region on a knife’s edge.

This week, Israel also confirmed that Mohammad Deif, the military commander of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 Oct 2023 barbaric attack on Israel, is indeed dead-killed along with other Hamas Terrorists in Gaza, in an air strike on 13 July 2024. This means, the among the Top Three of the Hamas leadership two are gone and only Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, remains alive.

Britain’s Stabbing

Three children aged, 6, 7, and 9 were killed and ten others injured in a shocking knife rampage targeting a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance class in Southport, north of Liverpool, England. Two children died on the spot, and a third in hospital. Of those hospitalised, 5 children and 2 adults are in critical condition.

The attacker just walked into the premises armed with a knife and started to attack the children.

The frenzied attack has stunned Britain, leaving the Police clueless on why an unusually devastating incident took place in a country where gun ownership is heavily restricted, but knife crime has been described as a national crisis.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and detectives are on the job of finding the motive. Later, the suspect was identified and named as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana. This was also done to dispel a mistaken belief, which spread on social media that the suspect was a Muslim and subsequent riots in Southport with rioters attacking a mosque.

Venezuela’s Turmoil

Venezuela is wracked by protests and election uncertainty following this Sunday’s Elections, which was the most consequential one in years. Thousands of people across Venezuela are protesting the results of the country’s presidential election.

The National Electoral Council declared Authoritarian Leader, President Nicolas Maduro the winner. It said Maduro had won 51.2% of the vote while Gonzalez received 44.2%. This means a third six-year term for Madura who has been in power since 2013. But the opposition said the 73% of vote tallies to which it has access showed its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had won by a landslide, with more than twice as many votes as Maduro.

The results came as a surprise to many Venezuelans (and world leaders) after polls showed challenger Edmundo Gonzalez winning the election by 25 points.

Many Venezuelans staged ‘cacerolazos’, a traditional Latin American protest where people bang pots and pans in anger. Some blocked roads, lit fires, and threw petrol bombs at police as protests proliferated around the nation, including near the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas.

The opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, a former Diplomat stepped into the role after the highly popular Maria Corina Machado was barred from running, following allegations she didn’t include some food vouchers in her asset declaration.

Once the fifth – largest economy in Latin America, Venezuela has experienced the worst economic collapse of a peacetime country in recent history. This was brought about by a crash in the price of oil-a key export-combined with chronic corruption and mismanagement at the hands of Government Officials.

Towards the end of the week the United States said it recognises Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election, discrediting the results announced by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council – said to be Govt controlled.

Prisoner Swap

In the biggest prisoner exchange of its kind since the end of the Cold War, Russia and the West agreed to swap prisoners held in respective countries, this week. The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and 8 prisoners held in the West and sent back to Russia. The United States said it had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany, and three other countries. Also involved were Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Belarus. Turkey coordinated the exchange.

The last major exchange between the United States and Russia was in 2010 and involved 14 prisoners. The two countries also had a high-profile exchange in December 2022. When US Basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage was swapped for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25 year sentence in the US.

Prominent prisoners released on the Western side were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.

Prominent on the Russian side was Roman Seleznev – a Russian hacker and Vadim Krasikov- an alleged hitman and assassin.

India: Wayanad Landslide

Wayanad is a district in the north-east of India’s State of Kerala and the only plateau in the State. It is a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, which is the southern part of the Deccan Plateau. It sits high in the Western Ghats with altitudes ranging from 700 to 2100 metres. Wayanad is derived from, ‘vayal nadu’, meaning the ‘land of paddy fields’.

Wayanad has increasingly been hit by flooding and is prone to landslides caused by irregular and intense rainfall during the monsoon seasons.

This week, over 300 people died and dozens more are feared trapped or missing after heavy rains trigged a series of landslides in Wayanad. The landslides surged down the hills of the Western Ghats in the early hours of Tuesday morning, when people were asleep in homes and were crushed as a river of mud, rocks, and uprooted trees swept down the steep terrain. Many migrant labourers working on nearby tea and cardamon plantations had been staying in temporary homes and tents that were easily swept away.

Rescue operations were hampered by the collapse of a crucial bridge connecting Chooralmala to Mundakkai and Attamala.

This brought back memories of severe flooding in Kerala in August 2018 when almost 500 people died in the floods caused by the unusually heavy rainfall, the worst floods to hit in a century.

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil who was the chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has termed the disaster a man-made tragedy attributing it to the Kerala Govt’s failure to implement crucial ecological recommendations. The panel had classified the region into three levels of sensitivity with the areas now struck by landslides being marked as highly sensitive. No development should have taken place in these highly sensitive areas. The areas have seen extensive development of constructions of resorts and artificial lakes. Stone quarries, operating a few kilometres from the disaster site, has exacerbated the situation.

The Indian Army was called to action for relief efforts and in a fantastic on-the double- job, built a temporary bridge-a Bailey Bridge-190 feet long, in a record time of 31 hours, to connect Chooralmala with Mundakkai over the Iruvanipzha River. The Bridge, which can take a weight of 24 tons, was promptly open to vehicle movement.

A Bailey bridge is a portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge developed by the British for military use during World War-II. It has the advantages of requiring no special tools or heavy equipment to assemble. The wood and steel bridge elements are small and light enough to be carried in trucks and lifted into place by hand, without the use of a crane. These bridges were strong enough to carry tanks.

Paris Olympics 2024

Once the Olympics got off the starting blocks, India reached the Podium quickly winning its first medal of the Summer Games. Manu Bhaker, 22, from Haryana State, is the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal since 2012 and also the first female athlete from country to win a medal in shooting. The last Olympic medallist for India in shooting was Gagan Narang who also won bronze in the London 2012 Games.

The medal was for the 10m Air Pistol category where South Korea’s Oh Ye Jin won Gold with 243.2 points -setting a new Olympic Record-and South Korea’s Kim Yezi won silver with 241.3 points, and India’s Manu Bhaker, the Bronze with 221.7 points. Vietnam finished fourth with 198.6 points. The Olympic record is 240.3 points and the World Record is 246.9 points.

Born in Jhajjar, Haryana, a state known for its boxers and wrestlers, Manu Bhaker took to tennis, skating, and boxing in school. And also trained in a form of martial arts called ‘Thang-Ta’ – originating from Manipur, which uses Swords and Spears-winning medals at the national level. Then, when just 14 years old, and soon after the 2016 Rio Olympics, she impulsively decided to try her hand at shooting, and loved it. Within a week, Manu Bhaker asked her father to get her a sports shooting pistol to begin training. At the 2017 national shooting championships, Manu Bhaker stunned Olympian and former world No. 1, Heena Sidhu scored 242.3 to erase Sidhu’s mark to win the 10m Air Pistol final. She then added a silver medal at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships. At 16, she won a gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and also became the youngest from India to win a Gold at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup.

In the middle of the week, Manu Bhaskar teamed-up with Sarabjot Singh to win the Bronze medal in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event. In doing so, she becomes the first Indian Woman, since Independence, to Win two medals in a single Olympics. And she is not done as yet… entering the finals of a 3rd event – the 25m Pistol Event.

Then is another shooting event, India’s Swapnil Kusale won the Bronze medal in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3-Positions Event. He is also the first Indian athlete to win a medal in this category.

In Hockey, India beat Australia 3-2 on Friday in its final Group Stage match to move to the second place in its Pool. And India has beaten Australia in the Olympics after 52 long years. Will India regain its past Olympic Hockey glory? The men’s team dominated the Olympics in the early years, winning six consecutive golds from 1928 to 1956 and added two more since.

In a superb comeback, US Gymnast Simone Biles won Gold in the all-around title. At 27, she is the oldest woman to take the title in more 70 years, the third to win two of them and the first to do it in Games that were not back-to-back.

With Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps gone, Biles is the last of the great Olympic stars of the 21st ­century who is still competing. She was the biggest draw at the Paris Olympics, the one athlete who can persuade people who do not much like or care for sport to switch on and watch the best to ever do it!

More inspiring and record-breaking stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Watch the world with World Inthavaaram.