Beirut society asks: What tech could be targeted next?
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Hi, I’m Emma Murphy, ITV News International Editor, reporting from Beirut, Lebanon where these are tense days. The targeting of Hezbollah's communication equipment has not just impacted those linked to the group but much of society.
Everyone is now aware of who is around them and questioning what technology they are carrying that could explode.
It reminds me of the Covid days when social distancing played on the mind.
These are some of the most damaging days in Hezbollah's recent history.
There is deep shock that somehow Israel - their nemesis - had managed to infiltrate their supposedly impenetrable communication system, not just to take intelligence but take out its operatives too.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and as I discussed on News at Ten last night, what’s striking about that is that this country is not officially in a state of war.
What is concerning people most is that the pager plot that Israel put into place this week was never meant to be activated quite so soon but it got rumbled, so they went early.
It was supposed to be a precursor to some ground invasion but they don’t have the troops in place and the worry is, from sources I’ve been speaking to, is that they will pause a ground invasion and potentially move those bomb attacks that we’ve seen over the past few days further north, bringing Beirut potentially back into the firing line.
There’s more from my colleagues on the crisis here:
Thanks for reading.
'They've overlooked my child's death'
Flaws in a fast-track legal procedure are resulting in people being wrongly prosecuted, a joint investigation between ITV News and the Evening Standard can reveal.
ITV News Correspondent Peter Smith spoke to Jenny Beasley, who was prosecuted for having no car insurance for a day as she had neglected to renew it while grieving the sudden loss of her baby daughter.
We also report that mistakes in the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) meant at least one person was convicted this year who was already dead.
‘I was Jeremy’s girlfriend… he took me to see Karl Marx’s tomb’
Like her or not, no one can deny Diane Abbott is a trailblazer.
This week, the veteran Labour MP spoke to ITV London’s Ronke Phillips about her near four decades in Parliament which so nearly came to an end just a couple of months ago as new leader Keir Starmer - as she described - sought to “get rid of me as they got rid of Jeremy (Corbyn)”.
She also gave a little insight into life with former Labour leader Corbyn...
You can read more of what she told Ronke on our website and watch the interview on ITVX.
And don’t forget our weekly Talking Politics podcast, hosted by presenter Tom Bradby.
We meet the ice scientists fighting against warmest season on record
Glaciers have shaped the arctic archipelago of Svalbard for millennia.
The islands have just had their warmest summer on modern record - temperatures 3C above the average.
ITV News Science Correspondent Martin Stew travelled north to meet the scientists tracking the shrinking glaciers and to ask: Is it already too late?
You can watch his special report on ITVX.
The battle for America
This election season has already been wildly unpredictable, with assassination attempts, a debate implosion, and a new Democratic candidate, writes Correspondent Robert Moore.
But none of that drama is at the forefront of voters' minds. Instead it is a more pressing issue of how to pay the bills and afford to eat.
Robert and the ITV Tonight team visited three crucial states to gauge opinion - watch the film here.
Why the world’s smelliest fruit is making your coffee more expensive
Vietnam, one of the largest coffee producers in the world, has seen a growing number of farmers abandoning coffee in favour of durian.
The reason? Durian is far more profitable. This shift in agriculture is happening at a time when the global coffee market is already strained by environmental challenges, making your cup of coffee more expensive than ever.
Our social team bring you the issue under the Here’s The Story brand on TikTok.
Damned United: When Clough clashed with Revie
In September 1974, Brian Clough had just been sacked after 44 acrimonious days in charge of Leeds United. Don Revie had left Leeds for the England manager job and was the man Clough replaced.
Remarkably, the pair were brought together by what was then Yorkshire TV for a clash of personalities and philosophies that became a seminal piece of television, all refereed by Austin Mitchell.
You can watch the story of how that clash unfolded in an ITVX special ‘Damned United’.
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Council turned ‘blind eye’ to neighbour complaints before fatal arson
Inas Himedan, her husband Yousef Khaled and their two children, aged two and four, fled their home in Huddersfield, after a fire was started in the early hours of 14 February.
Another tenant of the Kirklees Council-managed block, Raimondas Vejelis, 52, died in the incident. On Monday, arsonist Marcin Kramarski, 42, was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
Mrs Himedan, 33, has told ITV News Calendar she had pleaded with the council to move her family from the flat after months of problems with Kramarski before the incident.
Mum intimidated by masked men begs for threat to be lifted
A mother who fled her Northern Ireland home after she was ordered out by a masked gang has begged for the threat to be lifted.
Hannah Marshall has broken her silence to speak exclusively to UTV about a shocking act of intimidation caught on doorbell footage.
You can watch the incident on UTV’s Instagram page here.
What’s coming up…
Friday September 20: World Cup Finals of table football game Subbuteo. Players from 32 countries will take part in the event in Kent
Sunday September 22: Labour Party autumn conference, Liverpool, until September 25
Tuesday September 24: Ban on ‘zombie’ knives comes into force
Thursday September 26: Primark celebrates 50 years since opening its first UK store
And finally… did Homer’s favourite snack originate in Hertfordshire?
It’s Homer Simpson’s favourite snack but new evidence suggests the doughnut may have been first made in a village in Hertfordshire.
Early recipes dating back to 1800 trace the original doughnut to a baroness from Ashwell.
Historian Dr Heather Falvey says: “The original product had no hole and certainly no icing or sprinkles. It was more of a round product dropped into boiling fat and cooked.”
You can see more of what went into the earliest doughnut from ITV Anglia’s Sophie Wiggins on ITVX.