In Brief, March 29, 2025

BEIRUT — Israel on Friday launched an attack on Lebanon’s capital for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November.

Associated Press reporters in Beirut heard a loud boom and witnessed smoke rising from an area in the city’s southern suburbs that Israel’s military had vowed to strike.

It marked Israel’s first strike on Beirut since a ceasefire took hold last November between it and the Hezbollah militant group, though Israel has attacked targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then.

Putin: Put Ukraine under external governance

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Friday to temporarily put Ukraine under external governance as part of efforts to reach a peaceful settlement, in remarks that reflected the Kremlin leader’s determination to achieve his war goals.

In televised remarks broadcast early Friday, Putin reaffirmed his claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term expired last year, lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal. Under Ukraine’s constitution it is illegal for the country to hold national elections while it’s under martial law.

NATION

Lawyers appear in NJ court in activist’s case

NEWARK, N.J. — Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on Friday to free their client from an immigration detention center in Louisiana, describing his imprisonment there as a “Kafkaesque” ploy to chill free speech.

The parties appeared Friday morning before a judge in Newark, NJ, to debate where Khalil’s legal fight to be released from federal custody should play out.

Utah OKs bans fluoride in public drinking water

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, pushing past opposition from dentists and national health organizations who warn the move will lead to medical problems that disproportionately affect low-income communities.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation Thursday barring cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems.