A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is now in force, but many residents of Israel’s northern communities refuse to return home, while those who have remained say the deal is unlikely to bring permanent peace.

The Israeli security cabinet voted on Tuesday to approve the United States-brokered deal, ending more than a year of hostilities that have killed thousands.

Hours into the ceasefire, Shtula remained a ghost town, with only a handful of residents living there.

The town is one of the most dangerous places in northern Israel, having faced the threat of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missiles for months. Residents worry that the threat will persist beyond a ceasefire.

Ora Hatan, who remained in her home in Shtula, said the morning of the ceasefire deal was “unusual” after months of relentless artillery fire.

Hatan’s fears have not, however, subsided with the ceasefire deal. “I don’t know how long it will hold – this agreement,” she said. “Nobody knows.”

But unlike other northern residents who would have liked to see Israel deepen its military offensive in Lebanon and establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, Hatan said she does not know what option the Israeli government had other than to reach a deal.

“What other option that we have? To arrive to Beirut?”

The 60-day ceasefire aims to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, a nearly two decade-old agreement that stipulated that the only armed groups present south of the Litani River should be the Lebanese military and UN peacekeeping forces.

This means that neither Israeli forces nor Hezbollah fighters are permitted to operate in southern Lebanon. While the resolution was established in 2006, both Israel and Hezbollah have accused one another of breaching it multiple times since.

Tuesday’s deal was hailed by world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, who also sought to reiterate that Israel “retains the right to self-defense” if Hezbollah “or anyone else” breaks the agreement.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the Lebanon ceasefire deal needs to ensure the safety of residents in northern Israel. “The emerging arrangement will have to meet only one test – guaranteeing full security for all residents of the north,” he posted on X Tuesday.

Hezbollah ‘will come back bigger and stronger’

While mediators hope the ceasefire deal and Resolution 1701 could form the basis of a lasting truce, many northern Israelis are less optimistic.

Before the ceasefire deal came into effect, some residents of the northern city of Nahariya were skeptical of the viability of a ceasefire deal between their country and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Nahariya is just six miles (10 kilometers) from the border with Lebanon.

Guy Amilani, a resident of nearby Kibbutz Eilon who was in Nahariya for the afternoon, said he hoped a ceasefire would now bring peace, but did not believe any cessation of hostilities would be permanent.

“It will be two years of quiet then they (Hezbollah) will start to shoot again,” he said. “Then in 30 or 40 years, my kids will guard the Kibbutz gates from whatever evil will come.”

An Israeli security official said Wednesday that residents of northern Israel can decide for themselves when to return home, adding that the decisions will vary between different communities and their proximity to the border. Issues relating to reconstruction and damage will also affect when people can return, the official added.

In September, Israel added a new objective to its ongoing war, turning its focus to the Lebanon border and the thousands of evacuated citizens. It came as officials and residents of Israel’s northern region grew increasingly vocal about the need to return to their homes, piling pressure on the government to act against the threat of Hezbollah’s rockets from southern Lebanon.

More than 62,000 people have been displaced from northern Israel since Hezbollah began firing at the Israeli-held Shebaa Farms the day after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, triggering more than a year of tit-for-tat strikes. The war has also displaced more than 94,000 Lebanese across the border, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

Hezbollah has said it fired in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza as Israel began bombarding the strip in response to the October attacks, which killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and saw another 251 taken hostage.

‘I can’t tell anybody to come back in this reality’

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told mayors of Israel’s northernmost communities that he will not immediately push residents to return to their homes following the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, according to a mayor who attended the meeting.

The meeting between Netanyahu and the mayors was a contentious one, coming after several mayors – including Shtern – slammed the ceasefire deal as a “surrender agreement.”

“I left very frustrated,” Shtern said, adding that Netanyahu did not manage to convince him that the agreement would leave his community safe.

Shtern said he feared Hezbollah would re-infiltrate southern Lebanon and once again pose a threat to Israel’s northern communities.

While Shtern acknowledged that the Israeli military dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah in recent months, he did not believe it would be enough to keep Hamas from regrouping and posing a threat to his community again.

“I can’t tell anybody to come back in this reality,” he said.

On Wednesday, Shtern said in a video statement: “No one is coming home, there is no decision to return.”

Ori Eliyahu, a formerly displaced resident of Shtula who returned to the border town two months ago, panned the Israeli government as a “joke” for negotiating a ceasefire agreement.

“They’ve done nothing. An anti-tank missile was shot here two days ago,” Eliyahu said Tuesday. While he has returned, he said residents with children were unlikely to do so – distrusting the deal with Hezbollah.

“Of course we do not trust them (Hezbollah),” he said.

It started out as a regular Tuesday morning for two men heading out on a trail for work in the backcountry of Canada’s northeast British Columbia when they spotted another man trudging out of the wilderness.

They recognized him as the lost hiker Sam Benastick, who had been reported missing more than a month ago, on October 19, according to the Northern Rockies Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

He was reportedly found on a service road, supporting himself with two walking sticks and a cut-up sleeping bag wrapped around his legs for warmth.

Benastick told police he initially stayed in his car for a couple of days before walking to a creek near a mountain, where he camped for another 10 to 15 days.

He then moved down the valley and built a shelter in a dried-out creek bed, RCMP said. It was from there that Benastick made his way to where the two workers found him.

The men took Benastick to a local hospital, where police attended to him and confirmed his identity, said RCMP.

“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome. After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this was would not be the outcome,” said Cpl Madonna Saunderson, BC RCMP Communications.

“I’ve got three kids and five grandkids. So I know what they were going through,” he said.

Reid kept in touch with the family who have been reunited at the hospital with Benastick. They told him their son nearly collapsed when he was found by the two workers on the road and was propping himself up on two sticks because he was “so weak.”

According to the RCMP multiple search and rescue teams had been looking for him along with the Canadian Rangers and “many local volunteers with extensive back country knowledge of the area.”

Benastick’s uncle, Al Benastick, described his nephew as an avid outdoorsman who was suffering from “frostbite and some smoke inhalation” in an interview with CBC News.

It was “kind of unbelievable” his nephew survived, he said. “Imagine being out there, being that cold, for that long.”

The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah is a major diplomatic breakthrough that follows 13 months of escalating conflict, upheaval and displacement in Lebanon.

It starts a 60-day truce that the US and other stakeholders hope will be permanent.

In that time, troops from both sides will retreat from southern Lebanon, while the Lebanese military and families who fled in recent months will move in.

But that is a complicated and delicate process that will be closely watched in the region and beyond.

During the 60-day period of the new agreement, Hezbollah fighters are expected to retreat 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border, while Israeli ground forces withdraw from Lebanese territory, clearing the buffer area designated in a UN Security Council Resolution in 2006.

That agreement, which formed the basis of Tuesday’s deal, stipulated that Israel must withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon, and that the only armed groups present south of the Litani river should be the Lebanese military and UN peacekeeping forces.

Israel’s forces must retreat beyond the so-called Blue Line, a “line of withdrawal” established by the UN in 2000 following 18 years of Israeli military occupation in southern Lebanon. That boundary serves as the de facto border between the two countries.

Israel launched its ground incursion into Lebanon at the beginning of October, a drastic escalation of a conflict with Hezbollah that had been characterized by daily, tit-for-tat missile strikes over the border since Hamas’ October 7 attacks in southern Israel last year.

After weeks of deadly fighting across southern Lebanon, Israel’s soldiers reached the Litani river on Tuesday for the first time since their campaign began – a symbolic milestone in the conflict just hours before the truce was agreed.

Those troops will now withdraw back into Israel. But Israeli leaders have insisted that they will take military action in response to any breach of the agreement, a warning that could reignite the conflict if realized.

The ceasefire is expected to finally end a violent chapter in the decades-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted the day after October 7, when the Lebanese militants fired missiles across the border in solidarity with Hamas.

The ensuing 13 months saw daily cross-border strikes, and then near-constant volleys of missiles and rockets. Attacks ramped up in the summer, culminating in mid-September with a promise from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country would change the “balance of power” on its northern front.

Israel’s ground incursion followed on October 1, fully opening a new front of conflict in the Middle East. More than 3,000 people have been killed since Israel stepped up its campaign on September 16, according to Lebanese health ministry figures.

People in Lebanon will hope that Tuesday’s deal brings respite to a country that has suffered immense damage over the past year.

Israeli aerial attacks have focused on the southern border regions of Lebanon, but have hit targets in the center and the north as well.

They include the capital, Beirut, where explosions have torn through buildings and homes in recent weeks. Israel’s military bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs 20 times in two minutes in the hours before the deal, in one of the most intense bombardments since the start of the war.

Syrian rebels have launched a large-scale attack on regime forces in western Aleppo, according to a Free Syrian Army source and local residents, marking the first major flare-up in years between both sides.

Opposition factions announced the offensive Wednesday on their Telegram channel, calling it the “Deterrence of Aggression,” and claiming it was a response to recent artillery shelling from the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels seized 13 villages, including the strategic towns of Urm Al-Sughra and Anjara, as well as Base 46, the largest Syrian regime base in western Aleppo, according to a Wednesday statement by opposition factions.

It added that 37 people from the regime forces and allied militia were killed in the offensive.

Wednesday’s surprise attack marks the first significant conflagration between Syrian rebels and the regime since March 2020, when Russia and Turkey mediated a ceasefire agreement in the country.

Videos circulating on social media showed smoke rising from the western Aleppo countryside. Rebel troops are also seen operating in several villages near Aleppo city. In one video, a fighter is seen praying and celebrating in the village of Anjara, claimed to be his hometown. “Anjara is ours, not the Assad family’s,” the cameraman is heard saying.

Syrian state media has not reported on the clashes, while some pro-regime outlets mentioned the fighting without providing details on locations or outcomes.

The opposition factions conducting the offensive range from Islamic groups to the moderate Free Syrian Army, which was previously supported by the US and Turkey.

Syria’s civil war began during the 2011 Arab Spring as the regime suppressed a pro-democracy uprising against Assad, who has been president since 2000. The country plunged into a full-scale civil war as a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to combat government troops.

The conflict swelled as other regional actors and world powers – from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia – piled in, escalating the civil war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.” ISIS was also able to gain a foothold in the country before suffering significant blows.

Since the 2020 ceasefire agreement, the conflict has remained largely dormant, with low-level clashes between the rebels and Assad’s regime. More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the United Nations, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.

Seoul residents awoke to a gleaming world of white this week, as record snowfall caused both disruption and delight across the South Korean capital.

The city recorded 16.1 centimeters (6.3 inches) of snow on Wednesday – the heaviest daily snowfall in November since records began in 1907, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

The previous record, set in 1966, saw 9.5 cm (3.7 inches) of snow.

Further heavy snow fell throughout the day and overnight; by Thursday morning parts of Yongin city, south of the capital, had recorded 47.5 centimeters (18.7 inches) of snow, according to KMA.

Photos of the capital show trees sagging under the weight of the snow, and Seoul’s iconic palaces blanketed in white. Residents bundled up in thick coats, with some throwing snowballs, building snowmen and reveling in the fluffy snow.

They weren’t the only ones enjoying the wintry wonderland.

The country’s first ever twin panda cubs – born to nationwide enthusiasm last July – were seen frolicking at the Everland theme park and zoo Wednesday, sliding down a snowy field. It was the cubs’ first time experience in snow after keepers kept them indoors last winter to protect them from the elements, Reuters reported.

But the snow also brought widespread disruption, with travel halted in many places and transportation services suspended.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 130 homes in Seoul had reported losing power, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Hundreds also lost power in cities near the capital including Gwangju, the Associated Press reported.

More than 150 flights nationwide were canceled or delayed between Tuesday and Thursday, while over 100 ferry services were restricted, the Interior Ministry said. At least 18 roads around Seoul faced restrictions due to the snow, with authorities adding extra subway trains to accommodate the extra demand on public transit.

In Wonju, southeast of Seoul, there was a multi-car pileup on a highway, with videos showing emergency workers surveying damaged cars and directing slow-moving vehicles in other lanes.

President Yoon Suk Yeol was briefed on the snowstorm on Wednesday, and ordered “thorough management to avoid damage to the people,” according to his office. Yoon also asked authorities to ensure there was enough capacity on public transport to cope with rush hour on Thursday.

As of Thursday, heavy snowfall alerts remained in place for southern parts of Gyeonggi province, according to KMA, though the alert for Seoul has been lifted and snow has begun to lighten in the capital.

A controversial American live-streamer is facing the prospect of prison in South Korea for his offensive antics, in a case that is shining a light on the rise of so-called “nuisance influencers” seeking clicks overseas.

Ismael, who has built a reputation online for his provocative, often highly offensive video stunts, has been banned by multiple social media companies, after he was accused by critics of harassing locals in countries across Asia in an apparent effort to boost his online viewership.

Earlier this month, Ismael posted an online apology after he was accused of desecrating a South Korean monument to women subjected to sexual slavery in World War II, causing widespread outrage in the country.

The public backlash in South Korea appeared to reflect a broader frustration in the region with foreigners who exploit local customs for online fame, with Ismael being an extreme example of bad behavior.

According to Japanese news reports, foreign content creators have recently been accused of a string of transgressions in the country, from dodging railway fares to doing pull-ups on a shrine gate and “nuisance dancing” on Tokyo subway trains.

It coincides with a souring sentiment on mass tourism among many Japanese people as the country experiences record visitor numbers and a rise in reports of tourists behaving badly.

Earlier this month, a 65-year-old American tourist was arrested in Tokyo for allegedly carving letters into a shrine gate, just two months after a 61-year-old Austrian man was arrested for having sex on the grounds of a shrine.

Ismael’s recent trip to Japan was also met with controversy.

Last year, the live-streamer was arrested in Osaka on suspicion of trespassing in a construction site, according to the Kyodo News agency. Ismael also caused outrage in Japan by posting videos of himself taunting commuters about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while hurling insults.

John Lie, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said Ismael serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of disregarding cultural boundaries in an interconnected world.

Though it was possible he has a deeper motive, the provocateur’s behavior appeared primarily designed to attract attention in a “quest to be a social media celebrity,” Lie said.

“There’s nothing significant there save his provocateur persona: a garden-variety character in today’s social mediascape,” he added.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s military leader for crimes committed against the persecuted Rohingya minority group.

In his request for the warrant, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan alleged that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya” in both Myanmar and parts of Bangladesh between August 25 and December 31, 2017.

As a result of the violence, the ICC estimated that more than one million Rohingya were forcibly displaced from Myanmar — many fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.

Min Aung Hlaing is the leader of Myanmar’s powerful military, known as the Tatmadaw, which seized power in 2021. Since then, he has served as the military ruler of the country.

The investigation, which has been in development since 2019, implicates “the armed forces of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw, supported by the national police, the border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civilians,” Khan said in a statement.

Myanmar has routinely defended itself from accusations of genocide, saying its crackdown was aimed at Rohingya rebels who had carried out attacks.

Khan made multiple visits to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where he heard testimonies from various Rohingya refugees who he said made urgent pleas for justice to be reached.

The request from Khan is pending approval from the ICC judges before it can be enacted.

But even If the warrant is approved, the ICC could be limited in its jurisdiction as Myanmar is not among the 123 member states of the court. However, member countries could be obligated to transfer Min Aung Hlaing into ICC custody if he enters their territory after the warrant is issued.

Khan added that the court will remain focused on obtaining a warrant in the coming weeks and months and will file additional applications for arrest on the matter.

“We will be demonstrating, together with all of our partners, that the Rohingya have not been forgotten. That they, like all people around the world, are entitled to the protection of the law,” Khan said.

Khan’s application was welcomed by rights groups. Human Rights Watch (HRW) applauded it as a step toward accountability and ending “decades of impunity.”

Past United Nations investigations have presented evidence that the military carried out mass rapes, murders, and set fire to villages. It has also called for the country’s generals to face an international tribunal on charges of genocide,

The UN’s former High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in 2017 the military operation against the Rohingya appears to be a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

In 2020, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) enacted provisional measures compelling Myanmar to prevent acts of genocide against the Rohingya.

China has suspended a top military official and placed him under investigation for corruption, the defense ministry said, as leader Xi Jinping broadens a sweeping purge in the upper ranks of the world’s largest military.

Admiral Miao Hua, a member of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s top military body led by Xi, is under investigation for “serious violation of discipline” – a euphemism for corruption, Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said at a news conference Thursday.

Miao, 69, heads the Political Work Department of the CMC. He is widely seen as a close ally of Xi, having served in the army in the coastal province of Fujian when Xi was a senior official there in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The news of Miao’s suspension and investigation comes a day after the Financial Times reported that China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun had been placed under investigation for corruption, citing current and former US officials.

The Defense Ministry spokesperson dismissed the report as “sheer fabrication.”

“Those rumor mongers harbor evil motives. China expresses strong dissatisfaction over such smears,” he said.

Xi has waged a sweeping crackdown on corruption in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) since last year, focusing on the Rocket Force, an elite branch overseeing the country’s nuclear and conventional missiles.

The purge led to the downfall of several senior generals, including former defense minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe, who were expelled from the party in June over corruption allegations.

The ongoing turmoil in the upper ranks of the military comes as Xi is seeking to make China’s armed forces stronger, more combat-ready and more aggressive in asserting its disputed territorial claims in the region. As part of Xi’s ambition to transform the PLA into a “world class” fighting force, China has poured billions of dollars into buying and upgrading equipment.

Since last summer, more than a dozen high-level military officers and aerospace executives in the military-industrial complex have been stripped of their public roles.

Most of the generals purged were linked to the Rocket Force or military equipment, including Li and Wei, the former defense ministers.

Last summer, Li disappeared from public view after only months into the job, and weeks after a surprise shake-up of the leadership of the Rocket Force. He was removed from his post in October, without any explanation, and replaced by Dong, the current defense minsiter.

Miao, the latest top military official to be investigated, is widely seen as a political patron of Dong, who is also an admiral and once served as the top commander of the PLA Navy.

A Fujian native, Miao rose through the ranks in the political departments of the military. He was appointed the political commissar of the Navy in 2014 before being promoted to the director of the CMC’s Political Work Department in 2017.

Xi has made rooting out corruption and disloyalty a hallmark of his rule since coming to power in 2012, and the purges suggest that campaign is far from over within the military.

A Chinese acrobat who lost his wife and performance partner to a terrifying fall on stage last year was seriously injured in another show this week, state media reported.

Zhang Kai, 39, plunged several meters to a hard cement ground while performing an aerial silks routine on Monday night, after two pieces of fabric he was holding broke loose from the top of a crane.

The horrific moment was captured by Zhang’s own livestream of his performance in Henan province on Douyin, the sister app of TikTok in China, according to the state-run Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

Zhang, who suffered injuries to his face and leg fractures, was out of life-threatening danger as of Wednesday but remained in the intensive care unit, his family told the Chengdu Business Daily, another state-owned newspaper.

Zhang’s late wife, surnamed Sun, fell to her death during an aerial silks performance with her husband in a village in Anhui province in April last year, sparking horror and outcry on social media over the lack of safety measures for performers.

Online footage of that incident showed the couple being pulled high into the air by a crane above a large outdoor stage. As they swung in mid-air, Sun wrapped her arms around her husband’s head and hung off him during a transition act. But she lost her grip and plunged to the hard stage amid screams from the crowd. Zhang attempted to catch her with his legs but failed, the footage showed.

The tragedy caused shock on Chinese social media. Many users questioned why Sun did not wear any safety belt, and why there was no safety net or crash mat on the ground. Others called for stricter regulations on the acrobatic industry and better protection for performers.

An investigation into last year’s incident by the local government found the company which hosted the show had not obtained prior approval from authorities and failed to provide essential safety protection and emergency measures during the performance. The use of a crane in the performance was also a violation of regulations, the government said.

China’s Acrobats Association issued a statement at the time, calling for acrobatic groups and performers to pay greater attention to safety measures.

On his Douyin bio, Zhang, a father of two, said last year’s incident “took away the person I loved most, leaving me alone to support the entire family.”

Before Monday’s performance, Zhang said in a video on Douyin that he took the gig to stand in for a friend who was supposed to perform but couldn’t make it to the show that night, calling it a “new challenge.”

“Maybe when you guys see this, like me, you will feel a mix of sadness and an indescribable emotion,” he said as he turned his phone to show the construction crane used to hang the performance silks. “Later I’ll use this account to show you guys on livestream.”

On Douyin, many users wished Zhang a speedy recovery. Some urged him to switch to another job for his kids, citing the risks.

Six so-called “narco subs” stuffed with cocaine were captured in a Colombian-led international anti-drug operation, authorities in the Latin American nation said Wednesday, as part of a huge global bust.

The mission, involving 62 countries, seized more than 1,400 metric tons of drugs – mostly marijuana – between October 1 and November 14, according to Vice Adm. Orlando Enrique Grisales, chief of naval operations staff for the Colombian Navy.

Among the haul was 225 metric tons of cocaine, 5 tons of which was found aboard a semi-submersible vessel plying a marine trafficking route from Colombia to Australia, he said.

The vessel, intercepted in Pacific waters with enough fuel to reach Australia, is the third such “narco sub” intercepted on the route, Grisales told reporters.

“The first was discovered in Colombian waters, and thanks to the maps it carried, we identified the route. That’s when we began working with Australian authorities,” he added.

Australian police have warned in recent years that international drugs cartels are increasingly targeting the country, where a surge in cocaine use combined with some of the highest street prices in the world has fueled a lucrative illicit market.

It’s not the first time “narco subs” have been seized by authorities. Traffickers started using the vessels in the late 1990s as Colombian cartels looked for ways to evade US law enforcement patrols in the Caribbean Sea to transport their illegal cargo into the United States.

The 225-ton seizure of cocaine is a huge haul. In a report this year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that in 2022, global cocaine production reached 2,700 tons, a record high.