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Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force set to wind down its operations in 2027, has operated in the area for two decades, and Israel appears to be making use of - and improvements to - tracks used by its patrols.

The post at Labbouneh, Israel’s most western position, is just 150 metres from a Unifil base and 2km from the force’s main headquarters on the coast.

Similarly, at Tal Dowary near Houla, the Israeli base has been established 1.5km from Unifil peacekeepers.

Satellite imagery shows work beginning at the sites in October 2024. At first, nearby buildings are destroyed. Israel has used air strikes, detonations and bulldozers to raze areas close to the border.

The images also show roads being widened, land degradation and earth fortifications emerging over the following months. By the turn of the year, accommodation units and vehicles have started appearing at the bases.

Work really gets going once the ceasefire begins and Israel has agreed to withdraw.

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Down here in the tombs, there aren’t any windows,” writes Tremane Wood from inside his cell, in a modern-day American “dungeon” that few people have ever heard of.

“It’s really like living in cave,” he writes in another letter. “It’s dark and damp. Sometimes this place drives people mad. The hardest part is the isolation.”

Or in another: “You end up loosing [sic] track of days and nights and what day it is … It’s a real form of psychological torture that some people never come back from.”

Wood, 46, spent 17 years incarcerated in H Unit – the underground cells at the state prison in the rural town of McAlester, Oklahoma, where no natural light ever reaches.

According to prisoner letters seen by the Guardian and published here for the first time, H Unit – also known by the prisoners as the “tombs” – features a series of windowless cells that are built banked into the earth. The letters also tell of infestations of vermin, unsanitary conditions, and frequent instances of physical and sexual violence.

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Military strikes that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, military and legal experts say, after reviewing media reports and visual evidence of a 10 June strike on Bemani, a small district about 2 miles from the strait of Hormuz.

It’s unclear if the strikes deliberately targeted the district’s water tanks, or if they unintentionally destroyed a key reservoir for about 20,000 people living nearby. But if the tanks were the target, then the legal question becomes critical, Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer, said. “It’s either a military objective or it’s a civilian object: attacking one is lawful, attacking the other is a war crime,” Finucane said.

Iran’s state broadcaster said Wednesday’s strikes were carried out by the US military, though the Guardian could not verify if that was the case.

“We are aware of reports and are looking into it,” Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command (Centcom), the operating authority for US military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement.

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On Wednesday, the New York Knicks overcame a 29-point deficit to defeat the San Antonio Spurs in the last seconds of the game, the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history.

This stunning achievement was thrilling for fans to watch — and stressful. For passionate fans, the rollercoaster of a close sports game can wreak havoc on your blood pressure and heart. That’s when the emotional anguish and electric atmosphere of watching a a nail-biting game, or “fanxiety,” can feel all too real.

In the United States, heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults, and multiple studies have found that cardiac events spike during and right after major sports games.

A 2022 study published in Current Problems in Cardiology reviewed cardiovascular studies related to watching sports and found that die-hard soccer, rugby, football and baseball fans had higher risks of dying from a cardiovascular event, particularly when fans watched close games of the final stages of competitions. The risk was higher with people who had a history of coronary artery disease.

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The Wall Street Journal eviscerated President Donald Trump and his “groundless” defamation suit against the paper, its owners and two of its reporters in a scathing 22-page motion to dismiss filed Wednesday.

Last year, Trump slapped the Journal with a lawsuit demanding a whopping $10 billion in damages for reporting about a salacious drawing he allegedly contributed to a book of birthday wishes for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The article included no accusations of criminal conducts, leading a judge to toss the original suit for failing to demonstrate the outlet acted with “malice” in publishing the piece — the strict legal standard set to prevent public figures and politicians from filing frivolous defamation claims that infringe on the First Amendment.

Nevertheless, Trump responded by filing yet another suit in May, which the Journal tore into as sloppy, redundant and “woefully” weak while standing by journalists Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo (who are also defendants) in its latest motion to dismiss.

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El Nino, Nature’s chaotic climate agent, has formed in a warmed-up Pacific Ocean and is expected to grow to historic strength, meteorologists announced Thursday.

Experts said the El Nino, a natural warming cycle, should further heat a globe already warming from fossil fuel pollution and will likely turbocharge extreme weather across the planet. Meteorologists forecast it will rival — or exceed — a record El Nino that began in 1997 and helped trigger billions of dollars in damage from heat waves, floods, droughts, tornadoes and wildfires.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officially confirmed the existence of the El Nino, which is a warming of the Pacific near the equator that affects weather patterns across the globe. NOAA’s announcement said there’s a 63% chance that the El Nino will get so intense this late fall and early winter that it “would rank among the largest El Nino events in the historical record going back to 1950.”

The warm, deep waters of an El Nino affect weather patterns by bringing “a lot of extra heat to the surface, fueling a lot of extreme events for a lot of places around the world,” said Clark University climate scientist Abby Frazier.

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President Trump on Thursday whipsawed between threatening new, major attacks against Iran and touting significant progress in negotiations to end the war, the latest frantic episode in the conflict that’s gone on for more than 100 days.

Trump said the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” and eventually take over its oil export hub Kharg Island in a Truth Social post at 8:22 a.m. EDT on Thursday, about five hours before calling them off.

“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved,” Trump said in a post at 1:28 p.m. EDT.

Trump’s team has been focused on striking an agreement with Iran to allow commercial and oil ships free and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and to restart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. 

He said the U.S. naval blockade against Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz “will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”

Trump’s team has been focused on striking an agreement with Iran to allow commercial and oil ships free and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and to restart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

He said the U.S. naval blockade against Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz “will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”

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Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s new pick to become the nation’s top intelligence official, has a long resume in business law, but little known experience in the spy world.

Trump announced June 11 that he will nominate Clayton, 59, for the position of director of national intelligence, which requires Senate confirmation.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump announced on his Truth Social media platform. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”

If confirmed, Clayton would succeed Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's first director of national intelligence who resigned in May to spend more time with her husband after his cancer diagnosis.

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