Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a suspected Israeli attack on Syria, Venezuela’s former opposition candidate fleeing to Spain, and a devastating storm in Vietnam.

Strikes on Syria

Overnight airstrikes killed at least 18 people in Syria’s Tartus and Hama governorates, Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabbash said on Monday. Nearly 40 others were wounded, including six critically—making it one of the deadliest attacks on Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began last October. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based war monitor, placed the death toll even higher at 25 people, including at least five civilians.

Israel is widely believed to be responsible for the operation; the Israeli military declined to comment on foreign reports. Israel has regularly targeted military sites in Syria linked to Iran and Hezbollah, accusing Tehran of using Syria to transport Iranian weapons to the Lebanon-based militant group, which—like Iran—is allied with Hamas. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, the Israeli military has launched more than 180 strikes on Syria since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The overnight assault reportedly targeted military sites, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying on Monday that strikes hit a scientific research institute in the Syrian city of Masyaf that worked on “developing short- and medium-range precision missiles.”

Syrian officials, however, said the attack hit civilian targets, including a highway in Masyaf. The strikes caused “truly significant” damage to water and electricity infrastructure, Electricity Minister Mohammad al-Zamel said. A Syrian military source told state media that Syrian air defenses intercepted and shot down some of the fired missiles.

Ending the Israel-Hamas war and “averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said on Monday. Israeli strikes on Syria have already heightened regional tensions, particularly when Israeli forces targeted an Iranian consulate building in Damascus in April. “The region is under fire, and everything is interlinked with what happens in Gaza,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told reporters at the time.

Türk also urged other countries on Monday to denounce Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law concerning its actions in the West Bank and Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed over the past 11 months. Violence in the West Bank has also escalated in recent weeks. On Friday, Israeli forces concluded a 10-day raid on Jenin that targeted suspected militants, killing at least 36 Palestinians. And on Sunday, a Jordanian citizen killed three Israelis at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank. Jordan’s Interior Ministry said the gunman appeared to have acted alone.

“It seems to me we are at a fork in the road,” Türk said, adding that continuing down the current path is “a treacherous new normal” that will enable the region to “sleepwalk into a dystopian future.”

Today’s Most Read

• Why America Should Drop Its Obsession With Being No. 1 by Danny Quah
• Russia Is No Conservative Haven by Adrian Karatnycky
• U.S. Strategy Should Be Europe First, Then Asia by A. Wess Mitchell and Jakub Grygiel

The World This Week

Tuesday, Sept. 10: The 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly begins in New York City.

Jordan holds parliamentary elections.

U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump hold their first debate.

Thursday, Sept. 12: G-7 labor and employment ministers begin a two-day meeting in Italy while G-20 agriculture ministers kick off a two-day session in Brazil.

China begins hosting the three-day Xiangshan Forum.

Friday, Sept. 13: U.S. President Joe Biden hosts British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

NATO defense chiefs convene in Prague for a three-day session.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts Kenyan President William Ruto.

Sunday, Sept. 15: The deadline for all U.S. troops to withdraw from Niger expires.

What We’re Following

In exile. Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González sought asylum in Spain over the weekend as part of a negotiated deal with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government to help restore “political peace and tranquility” to the country. His departure came just days after Maduro ordered González’s arrest for claiming that the opposition rightfully won the presidential election in July.

“My departure from Caracas was surrounded by acts of pressure, coercion, and threats,” González said upon arriving in Spain on Sunday. Opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, who has also been the subject of political threats but vowed on Monday to remain in the country, said González will return to Caracas on Jan. 10 for a swearing-in ceremony to mark the beginning of the next presidential term.

“His life was in danger, and the increasing threats, summons, arrest warrants, and even attempts at blackmail and coercion to which he has been subjected demonstrate that the regime has no scruples,” Machado said. More than 2,000 people have been arrested since late July for protesting Maduro’s victory claims, according to Human Rights Watch, and several Western countries have urged Caracas to recognize González as Venezuela’s next leader. “Today is a sad day for democracy in Venezuela,” European Union foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday.

Typhoon Yagi. Asia’s most powerful storm this year hit Vietnam over the weekend, killing at least 64 people and injuring more than 700 others. Typhoon Yagi reached winds of 127 miles per hour and triggered deadly landslides and flash flooding. Around 46,500 homes and hundreds of thousands of acres of crops have been damaged, and the storm destroyed a busy bridge in northern Vietnam on Monday, leaving at least 13 people missing.

Yagi has since been downgraded to a tropical depression, but authorities have warned that more destruction is likely still to come. Already, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh approved a $4.62 million package on Sunday to help the port city of Haiphong recover from the storm’s damage. Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades, which scientists attribute to warmer ocean waters from climate change. Before hitting Vietnam, the storm caused at least 24 deaths in southern China and the Philippines last week.

Breaching airspace. Two NATO members accused Russian drones on Sunday of having violated their airspace. A Russian drone reportedly flew into Romania on Sunday during overnight attacks on “civilian targets and port infrastructure” in Ukraine. Bucharest deployed F-16 fighter jets to monitor the situation and issued alerts to residents in the Tulcea and Constanta regions.

Hours later, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds said a Russian drone fell near the town of Rezekne on Saturday, adding that it likely came from neighboring Belarus. “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” outgoing NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana posted on X.

Such incursions into Latvian airspace are rare, but Romania has documented several incidents where Russian drone fragments have landed in its territory since Moscow’s full-scale war against Ukraine began more than two years ago.

Odds and Ends

Peru’s National Forestry and Wildlife Service confiscated nearly 400 frogs being illegally smuggled to the capital of Lima last Thursday. Authorities believe the amphibians were to be used in local remedies, such as medicine or cooking, to improve one’s sex drive. High demand for a frog-based brew known as the “Viagra of the Incas,” as well as climate change and pollution, have led the creatures to become an endangered species in Peru.