'Pocket warfare' in Lebanon, Sudan crisis, New French government

The World This Week

This week has seen a new method of technological warfare – used against Hezbollah in Lebanon. First Pagers, then Walkie-Talkies simultaneously exploding in people’s hands, pockets, bags. Dozens killed, thousands injured. No comment from Israel’s spy agency who is said to have meticulously planned and physically infiltrated the group’s supply chain. We will look at how it happened, why now, and what next?

It has been a week that has seen another apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump. A 58-year-old suspect, said to have hid for hours in the shrubbery at the seventh hole of the Trump International Golf Course before being spotted by the FBI agents on Sunday morning. The former president says he was bundled into a gold buggy as gunfire rang out and seized on the moment to claim it is the inflammatory language used by his rivals that is stoking political violence.

It has also been a week in which the head of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke to reporters about what he has seen on his visit to Sudan, a country in the midst of war with little sign of resolution. He said the mass displacement – now more than 12 million people – was shocking and had become the largest displacement crisis in the world. Dr. Tedros said he believes the “really low” attention that the global community is paying to the ongoing crisis is partly due to racism.

Finally, it has been a week of waiting for the new French government to be announced, a decision that is supposedly imminent. And Prime Minister Michel Barnier, only two weeks into the job is finding he is a hit with the public! New polls suggest he is now France’s most popular politician. It is his colleagues he has been struggling to convince – news of a clash with President Macron, and a barney between Barnier and his predecessor Gabriel Attal over plans to raise taxes. We will try and peak behind the curtains and let you know what is really going on.