Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli military action in the West Bank, Taiwan bracing for Typhoon Champi, and a powerful earthquake in Tibet.
Is Hebron the Next Jenin?
Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli military checkpoint near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, killing two soldiers and injuring three others. Israeli forces said that the militants were linked to Hamas, which praised the attack. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out an extensive military operation in the West Bank “unlike any seen since the Six-Day War” in 1967.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israeli military action in the West Bank, Taiwan bracing for Typhoon Champi, and a powerful earthquake in Tibet.
Is Hebron the Next Jenin?
Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli military checkpoint near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Friday, killing two soldiers and injuring three others. Israeli forces said that the militants were linked to Hamas, which praised the attack. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out an extensive military operation in the West Bank “unlike any seen since the Six-Day War” in 1967.
“We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely,” Netanyahu said, ordering a full siege on Hebron and the complete closure of the West Bank starting Friday. Within hours, Netanyahu appeared to scale back such plans for the territory by saying that he would consider “a cordon” around the cities of Hebron and Halhul. However, he stopped short of rescinding the campaign completely, instead vowing to reprise a strategy used in the West Bank city of Jenin.
In early 2025, Israeli troops launched a broad campaign against militant groups in three refugee camps around Jenin, demolishing hundreds of homes and displacing thousands of Palestinians.
“Many viewed the timing as deliberate—a political lifeline for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose grip on power relies on appeasing his far-right coalition, delaying his corruption trial, and quelling public anger over the unresolved hostage crisis in Gaza,” Dalia Hatuqa wrote in Foreign Policy at the time.
After Friday’s shooting, Netanyahu characterized the refugee camps around Hebron as “essentially terrorist strongholds.”
“We will evacuate the residents, go house to house, remove weapons found there, and address and destroy all terrorist infrastructure,” he said.
Netanyahu is facing one of his biggest political challenges to date. On Tuesday, Israel will hold parliamentary elections that many analysts have called a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership, including his handling of the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
To win, Netanyahu will likely need the support of the hard right, including voters who want to see Israel annex the West Bank outright.
Netanyahu vowed on Friday to bolster Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. “You are a role model for the people of Israel, you are a role model for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu told Israeli settlers in the West Bank after the attack. “We are going to destroy the terror infrastructures, and we are going to build the settlement infrastructures.”
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What We’re Following
Typhoon Champi makes landfall. Much of Taiwan’s public services shut down on Friday in preparation for one of the strongest storms to hit the Pacific Ocean this year. Typhoon Champi skirted along northeastern Taiwan late Friday local time and is expected to move toward China and southern Japan in the coming days.
Already, Champi has killed at least one person, injured around 160 others, forced some 2,600 residents to evacuate, and plunged more than 77,000 homes into darkness. Meteorologists have recorded wind surges of upward of 119 miles per hour and rainfall measuring as much as 3 feet in some places. Taiwan’s Transportation Ministry canceled nearly 1,000 flights on Friday in response.
Scientists have argued that this year’s supercharged El Niño fueled Champi’s ferocity. According to a new United Nations climate report published on Wednesday, Earth is on track to warm an average of 2.6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century compared to preindustrial times if all countries meet their climate pledges under the Paris Agreement. This is considered unlikely and still falls far above the temperature that experts argue is needed to avoid the most detrimental impacts of climate change.
“Every additional fraction of a degree and additional year of warming above 1.5°C increases climate impacts and risks, such as the deadly floods, heatwaves and wildfires that have plagued many nations this year,” said Inger Andersen, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.
Tremors in Tibet. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Chinese region of Tibet on Thursday, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 70 others. Local authorities deployed hundreds of police officers and other volunteers to the quake’s epicenter on Friday to oversee rescue and recovery efforts, including the provision of shelter, food, and clothing. Nearly 340 homes were destroyed in the city of Nagqu, and more than 12,000 people have already been forced to evacuate.
According to Chinese state media, Thursday’s quake was the strongest in the area in the past five years. Although Tibet is sparsely populated compared to other Chinese regions, Beijing has already warned locals of further damage from aftershocks, rockfalls, and intermittent snowfall in the coming days. Communication lines were damaged across some parts of Tibet following the earthquake, and local railway authorities have issued emergency actions to stop trains from passing through the affected area.
Tibet is considered particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters. The region is one of the poorest in China, hindering its infrastructure development. And Tibet is still reeling from a devastating flash flood along its border with Nepal in August that killed more than 40 people in Tibet and left some 500 others missing. It remains unclear precisely how badly the floods hurt Tibet, as the Chinese government censored independent coverage of the incident.
Lula vs. Flávio. Brazil’s presidential election runoff is just two days away. Left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is up against far-right Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, whose father is serving a more than 27-year prison sentence for orchestrating a failed coup against Lula in 2022. Flávio himself has come under recent scrutiny over a major corruption scandal tying him to the man behind the biggest banking fraud in the country’s history.
According to Brazilian pollster Datafolha, Lula and Bolsonaro are tied at 50 percent of valid votes ahead of this weekend’s election, with the senator up by just 1 percentage point in total votes. Bolsonaro narrowly beat out Lula in the election’s first round earlier this month—securing 47.03 percent of the vote versus the president’s 45.16 percent. The two men square off Friday evening in a final televised debate.
A Bolsonaro win would add Brazil to the long list of far-right governments across Latin America. It would also amount to a win for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has backed both Bolsonaro and his father over the years.
What in the World?
Mauritius ended a curfew on Monday that was put in place last week due to escalating demonstrations protesting the rising cost of living and what other issue?
A. Water shortages
B. Dilapidated public school buildings
C. A recent policy to ration energy
D. A series of high-profile food recalls
Odds and Ends
Fur coats, detailed headpieces, and sleek black wheelchairs. Romania’s Palace of Parliament hosted an extravagant fashion show on Thursday dedicated to promoting inclusion and equal opportunities for people with disabilities. Dubbed “Atypic Beauty,” the gala saw models strut and roll down the catwalk in pairs to show off the work of Romanian designer Catalin Botezatu.
And the Answer Is…
A. Water shortages
Water shortages have been exacerbated by drought, climate change, and aging infrastructure, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi reports in Africa Brief.
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