Beirut, Feb 21: At least 12 people were killed and 24 wounded — including three children — in Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley Friday, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported. Another two people were killed by an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp earlier in the day.

Israel said it had hit “command centers” of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Bekaa Valley. There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah.

Local television footage from the scene of one of the strikes in the Bekaa showed the targeted site appeared to be an apartment building, and emergency crews were fighting a fire and searching in the rubble for survivors.

Earlier Friday, another Israeli strike had hit a Palestinian refugee camp in the port city of Sidon, killing two people.

The Israeli military said it hit a “Hamas command center” in the Ein el-Hilweh camp. Hamas acknowledged that two of its members had been killed in the strike but called the claim that a command center was struck a “flimsy pretext.” It said the targeted building belonged to a joint security force made up of various Palestinian factions that is tasked with maintaining security in the camp.

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets from Lebanon into Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. The low-level conflict escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, later reined in but not fully stopped by a U.S.-brokered ceasefire two months later.

Since then, Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the ceasefire.

The death toll from Friday’s strikes was unusually high and comes at a moment of intensified tensions in the region as the United States has threatened to strike Iran — a backer of both Hezbollah and Hamas — if negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program fail to produce a deal.

During last year’s Israel-Iran war, Hezbollah remained on the sidelines, but many in Lebanon fear that the country will be pulled in should another war break out.

Washington, Feb 20: The US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda.

The 6-3 decision centres on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping ìreciprocalî tariffs he levied on nearly every other country.

It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term.

The majority found that the Constitution ìvery clearlyî gives Congress the power to impose taxes, which include tariffs.

ìThe Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch,î Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

ìThe tariffs at issue here may or may not be wise policy. But as a matter of text, history, and precedent, they are clearly lawful,î Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent.

The tariffs decision doesn’t stop Trump from imposing duties under other laws.

While those have more limitations on the speed and severity of Trump’s actions, top administration officials have said they expect to keep the tariff framework in place under other authorities.

The Supreme Court ruling comes despite a series of short-term wins on the court’s emergency docket that have allowed Trump to push ahead with extraordinary flexes of executive power on issues ranging from high-profile firings to major federal funding cuts.

The Republican president has been vocal about the case, calling it one of the most important in US history and saying a ruling against him would be an economic body blow to the country.

But legal opposition crossed the political spectrum, including libertarian and pro-business groups that are typically aligned with the GOP. Polling has found tariffs aren’t broadly popular with the public, amid wider voter concern about affordability.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy tariffs.

But the Trump administration argued that a 1977 law allowing the president to regulate importation during emergencies also allows him to set tariffs.

Other presidents have used the law dozens of times, often to impose sanctions, but Trump was the first president to invoke it for import taxes.

Trump set what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries in April 2025 to address trade deficits that he declared a national emergency.

Those came after he imposed duties on Canada, China and Mexico, ostensibly to address a drug trafficking emergency.

A series of lawsuits followed, including a case from a dozen largely Democratic-leaning states and others from small businesses selling everything from plumbing supplies to educational toys to women’s cycling apparel.

The challengers argued the emergency powers law doesn’t even mention tariffs and Trump’s use of it fails several legal tests, including one that doomed then-President Joe Biden’s USD 500 billion student loan forgiveness program.

The economic impact of Trump’s tariffs has been estimated at some USD 3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Treasury has collected more than USD 133 billion from the import taxes the president has imposed under the emergency powers law, federal data from December shows.

Many companies, including the big-box warehouse chain Costco, have already lined up in court to demand refunds.