KOMMERSANT (RUSSIA): Ливанская группировка “Хезболла”, противостоящая Израилю, во вторник столкнулась с крупнейшей атакой за многие годы. Днем в течение получаса в руках, карманах пиджаков и брюк сотен активистов “Хезболлы” в Ливане и Сирии взорвались пейджеры. Вечером в ливанском Минздраве отчитались: более 2,8 тыс. человек были ранены и как минимум восемь погибли. Взрывы произошли менее чем через сутки после того, как власти Израиля утвердили новые цели войны в Газе: в доктрину впервые включили и ливанское направление. “Хезболла” обвинила Израиль в “преступной агрессии”, пообещав “справедливый ответ”. В Израиле, как обычно в таких случаях, на официальном уровне произошедшее не комментировали. Между тем СМИ обращают внимание на то, что серия взрывов произошла сразу после экстренных и “драматичных”, как пишет израильский портал Ynet, консультаций премьер-министра Израиля Биньямина Нетаньяху с руководителями служб безопасности страны. За несколько часов до этой встречи кабинет безопасности Израиля, куда входят силовики и некоторые министры, обновил официальные цели в продолжающейся войне с палестинской группировкой ХАМАС, включив туда и северное направление. Израиль все дальше отходит от идеи дипломатического урегулирования конфликта с “Хезболлой” и все более серьезно рассматривает возможность силового решения проблемы.

ASHARQ AL-AWSAT (GB): Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters. The operation was an unprecedented Hezbollah security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others, including the group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut. Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers as a low-tech means of communication in an attempt to evade Israeli location-tracking, two sources familiar with the group’s operations told Reuters this year. But the senior Lebanese source said the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level”. The explosions maimed many Hezbollah members. Wounded men had injuries of varying degrees to the face, missing fingers and gaping wounds at the hip where the pagers were likely worn. “We really got hit hard”, said the senior Lebanese security source, who has direct knowledge of the group’s probe into the explosions.

THE JERUSALEM POST (ISRAEL): Hezbollah is facing chaos because a large number of its alleged members were wounded on September 17 by exploding communications devices. The full details of this incident are not yet known, and they will only be known over time. However, video and images from Lebanon show men, many of them in their forties, wounded in the hands and faces by exploding communications devices. Suffering so many casualties to key members of the terrorist group may not be crippling, but it clearly will harm a swatch of the group’s key members. This will put the men in hospital for a period of time. Some of them can go back to serving Hezbollah, but they will not have access to one of their hands.Hezbollah has already lost around 450 fighters in its eleven-month confrontation with Israel. This is a significant loss for the group. While Hezbollah can replace losses, it doesn’t have an endlessly deep batting order. This is not only because it has to invest in training and security ahead of recruitment, but it also draws its recruits from a narrow spectrum of Lebanese society.

L'ORIENT – LE JOUR (LEBANON): Explosion de bipeurs du Hezbollah: quel avenir pour le “front de soutien” libanais? Israël semble avoir amputé le parti chiite d’une partie importante de son réseau de communication. Prépare-t-il le terrain à une opération plus grande?

HINDUSTAN TIMES (INDIA): Taiwan’s Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the company did not make the pagers that were used in the detonations in Lebanon. American and other officials told New York Times that Israel executed the operation targeting Hezbollah by concealing explosives inside Taiwanese-made pagers imported into Lebanon. Hezbollah had ordered these pagers from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, the NYT report claimed.

THE GUARDIAN GB): Hezbollah pager explosions, if caused by the Mossad, would be a big escalation. It may not have been acknowledged by Israel but the extraordinary, coordinated attack on Hezbollah, blowing up thousands of pagers used by members of the Lebanese group, is almost certainly a Mossad operation. The Israeli intelligence service has been engaged in the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders for decades but, if its involvement is confirmed, this represents a significant escalation. It is unclear how the explosions were caused and, although there is inevitable speculation about hacking, it is most likely they were the result of sabotaged devices. Initial reports said the pagers that exploded were a new model manufactured by a company whose supply chain may have been compromised by the perpetrators of the attack. That could suggest the pager attack was a grim warning of the “anything you can do, we can do better” variety. But it would also be far from the first time Israel has engaged in an assassination or other spectacular attack and the results have backfired – or the situation not developed as intended.

TEHRAN TIMES (IRAN): The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured as the Israeli military exploded pagers in Lebanon on Tuesday. Amani has suffered minor injuries, the Fars news agency said. It said the ambassador was being treated in the hospital. Hundreds of Hezbollah members, including resistance fighters and medics, were wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded.

THE NEW YORK TIMES (USA): Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, announced her new team on Tuesday to lead the European Union’s executive arm, capping a difficult process as she navigates the rise of nationalist, far-right political forces and Europe’s shrinking share of the global economy. Ms. von der Leyen assigned top positions to leaders including Stéphane Séjourné of France, Spain’s Teresa Ribera and Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, solidifying the influential role that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, whose party has long been skeptical of the E.U., plays in determining European policymaking. Mr. Séjourne will oversee industrial strategy, Ms. Ribera will be in charge of competition policy and the transition to a cleaner economy, and Mr. Fitto of Italy will take control of issues involving the European Union’s single market, the zone where European goods and services can flow without internal borders.

VEDOMOSTI (RUSSIA): В июле фон дер Ляйен переизбрали главой Еврокомиссии на второй срок. Она также представила свою политическую программу на 2024–2029 гг. В ней упоминалось, что в ближайшие пять лет Евросоюз сосредоточится на создании оборонного объединения, при этом страны будут сами принимать решения об отправке своих контингентов. Фон дер Ляйен также предложила создать “Европейский щит демократии”, который будет противодействовать дезинформации и информационным манипуляциям. Из других инициатив главы ЕК до 2029 г. – создание Европейского оборонного фонда и развитие вооруженных сил стран Европы. Предыдущий состав Еврокомиссии и без того был ястребиным по отношению к России и ожидать более конструктивного подхода от новых европейских назначенцев не стоит, говорит научный сотрудник Центра европейских исследований МГИМО Артем Соколов. По его словам, названные 17 сентября фон дер Ляйен фамилии еще раз подтверждают, что во внешнеполитическом курсе ЕС никаких изменений ждать не приходится.

LE FIGARO (FRANCE): La création du poste de commissaire à la Défense, inédit à Bruxelles, est une décision personnelle d’Ursula von der Leyen, qui a fait du renforcement de la défense européenne l’une des priorités de son nouveau mandat de cinq ans à la tête de la Commission. La nouvelle Commission européenne envoie un message clair de fermeté à la Russie en confiant la politique étrangère et la défense de l’UE à deux Baltes, fervents défenseurs d’une aide accrue à l’Ukraine en guerre. Avec une menace russe aussi clairement identifiée, certains redoutent néanmoins que la diplomatie européenne, longtemps domaine réservé des grands pays, oublie le reste du monde, à commencer par l’Afrique ou le Moyen-Orient. Ursula von der Leyen a également souhaité la création d'un poste de commissaire européen à la Méditerranée, signe de sa volonté de ne pas négliger d’autres régions, également cruciales pour l’avenir de l’Union européenne.

THE WASHINGTON POST (USA): A report on the “future of European competitiveness” has been received as a declaration of continental intent. Whether it can be implemented is another matter. The hard realities of European slump and stagnation underpinned a mammoth report released last week by Mario Draghi, a former technocratic Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank chief for much of the past decade. The 400-page document on the “future of European competitiveness” was published on the invitation of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and therefore is being received as a kind of declaration of continental intent. Whether its vision can be implemented is another matter. Draghi called for a “new industrial strategy for Europe” to boost productivity, encourage innovation and close the growing gap not just with the United States but also with China, which is surging ahead in pioneering vast sectors of the new green and digital economies. That strategy would require significant economic restructuring and the summoning of hundreds of billions of euros worth of new public and private sector investment every year. The bottom line, many experts argued, was that Draghi’s diagnosis is fundamentally right.

USA TODAY: 14% of Republicans would “take action to overturn” the election if Trump loses, study finds. Nearly half of Republicans say they won’t accept the results of the presidential election if their candidate loses, and some of them say they would “take action to overturn” the results, according to data released Tuesday. About a quarter of Democrats said they wouldn’t accept the results if their candidate loses, and fewer Democrats than Republicans said they would “take action to overturn” the results. The report did not ask people what specific “action” they would take to overturn the election results, just that that 46% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats wouldn't accept results, and 14% of Republicans compared to 11% of Democrats said they would “take action”.

LE TEMPS (SWITZERLAND): La campagne électorale aux Etats-Unis va se jouer dans un climat empoisonné. Après la seconde tentative d’assassinat contre Donald Trump, les appels à l’apaisement sont inaudibles. Les initiatives existent pourtant pour faire baisser la tension, comme celles qui ont été menées en Pennsylvanie à la suite de la première attaque contre l’ancien président.

THE TIMES (GB): President Putin is unifying an authoritarian power axis of China, Iran and North Korea around his war in Ukraine, leaving Moscow increasingly beholden to Beijing, Nato’s chief has told The Times. “Russia is mortgaging its future to Beijing, and is, of course, not getting this for free”, explained Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary-general, who leaves office after a decade in October. In an interview with The Times, he warned that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and Kim Jong-un’s hermit regime in North Korea were becoming “more and more aligned”. At the head of this alliance is President Xi, with China the “decisive enabler” of Putin, said Stoltenberg.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES (USA): Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris disagree on many things, but both say they will pursue tough and confrontational policies toward China if elected president in November. Although a harder line on Beijing wins rare bipartisan support these days, many specific China policy positions of the Democratic and Republican nominees have received relatively little public attention. It’s unclear how they would respond to a military conflict with Beijing in the Taiwan Strait, a large-scale and threatening military buildup by Beijing, and the continued loss of American technology, intellectual property and industry to Chinese rivals. A review by The Washington Times of statements on China by the candidates and their advisers shows that both Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris expect to continue resisting what they say are the assertive anti-U.S. policies of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Although it may not be a top campaign issue, China will likely be a priority for whoever wins the Nov. 5 election. Mr. Xi has cast the U.S. as an enemy determined to cripple China’s rise as an economic and military superpower, an indication that relations between the two countries will remain tense.

NIKKEI (JAPAN): China-Pakistan defense ties threatened by new U.S. sanctions. Fresh U.S. sanctions on Chinese ballistic missile suppliers are threatening to disrupt Pakistan's defense ties with Beijing, entangling Islamabad in the superpowers’ tense rivalry, analysts said. Last week, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on the Beijing Research Institute of Automation for Machine Building Industry for what it said was the company's moves to procure equipment for testing Pakistani rocket motors.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA): Al Qaeda targets Russia’s African ally, in rare attack on capital. Insurgents hit base in Mali that hosts most of the country’s warplanes and Russian mercenaries hired by military government for security. Al Qaeda militants attacked security forces on Tuesday in Bamako, Mali, their first foray in years into the capital of a West African country already reeling from insurgent violence in rural areas. The militants hit an air base that hosts most of the country’s military aircraft and a contingent of Russian mercenaries that Mali’s military government hired to help secure the country, according to current and former European security officials. The militants also attacked a training school for gendarmes, Mali’s security ministry said.

ASIA TIMES (HONG KONG, CHINA): De-dollarization is only a matter of time. Speculation mounting BRICS to announce a gold-backed trading currency to break the greenback’s hold on global finance. At a campaign rally in Wisconsin, US presidential candidate Donald Trump stepped up his America First campaign earlier this month by vowing to impose 100% tariffs on goods from any nation that shifts away from the dollar. Trump did not tell his supporters that the measure to protect the dollar would be painful for American households, with many consumer goods likely to double in price. Around 70% of products sold at Walmart and Target are sourced from China, the nation at the forefront of de-dollarization. Trump made his announcement on the eve of the highly anticipated annual BRICS summit, scheduled for October 22-24 in Kazan, Russia. Crucially, the meeting may announce a roadmap for developing an alternative to the current dollar-centric global financial system. Details are still scarce but some observers expect the meeting will announce a multicurrency payment platform. Some BRICS watchers even predict the announcement of a roadmap for a gold-backed BRICS trading currency. The creation of an alternative to the current dollar system would be historic for several reasons. It would mark the first credible attempt to move past the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement that established the postwar global financial system. In 2016, BRICS countries overtook the G7 in combined GDP. The group now accounts for 35% of the world’s output, compared to the G7’s 30%. China alone contributes 30% of global industrial output, nearly double that of the US. Designing a financial or monetary architecture for countries as diverse as BRICS members is complex but there are several templates.

THE ECONOMIC TIMES (INDIA): India will account for 35% of the global increase in energy demand over the next two decades, according to Minister Hardeep Puri at the Gastech Conference. The event highlighted India’s significant role in global energy, focusing on balancing availability, affordability, and green transition. In his keynote address, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri underscored India’s increasingly dominant role in the global energy landscape. “If global demand is increasing by one per cent, ours is surging three times faster. Over the next two decades, India will contribute to 35% of the global increase in energy demand”, he said.

RENMIN RIBAO (CHINA): A Chinese team of scientists on Tuesday published the first research paper on the lunar samples brought back by the Chang’e-6 mission, saying that the Chang’e-6 samples exhibit “distinct characteristics” compared to previously obtained lunar samples. The study was carried out jointly by members from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, and the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering. The research paper was published in the National Science Review journal on the day of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. The team found that the Chang’e-6 soil samples have a lower density than previous samples, indicating a more porous and loosely structured composition. The plagioclase content of the Chang’e-6 samples is significantly higher than that of the Chang’e-5 samples, while their olivine content is significantly lower. The study has also revealed that the Chang'e-6 lithic fragment samples are primarily composed of basalt, breccia, agglutinate, glasses and leucocrate. Geochemical analysis of the Chang'e-6 lunar samples has shown that their concentration of trace elements such as thorium, uranium and potassium is markedly different from the samples retrieved by the Apollo missions and the Chang’e-5 mission.

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (JAPAN): As Japan celebrated Respect-for-the-Aged Day on Sept. 16, the number of those aged 100 or older again marked a new record as it has each year for more than a half-century. The number of centenarians hit 95,119 as of Sept. 15, representing an increase of 2,980 from the previous year, the 54th consecutive year of record-breaking numbers, according to data released on Sept. 17 by the welfare ministry. As of Sept. 1, 47,888 individuals had reached the age of 100 this fiscal year or were projected to do so by the end of the fiscal year in March. This represents a 781-person increase from the previous year and is the highest number ever recorded. Women accounted for 88% of centenarians, with 83,958 women and 11,161 men reaching the milestone.