GERMANY – Massive train disruptions in Germany left hundreds of passengers stranded on Saturday, as authorities worked to restore traffic following a technical malfunction. Some traffic has since resumed. Train services in central Germany have been “massively affected” due to a technical fault, the German rail company Deutsche Bahn said.

There were widespread train cancellations in the greater Frankfurt area due to a radio communications failure, public broadcaster ARD’s news service Tagesschau reported. Trains traveling to or departing from Frankfurt were affected, and traffic through the major travel and financial hub was halted, according to Tagesschau. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Frankfurt’s Central Station on Saturday, without knowing when they could resume their journeys, Tagesschau reported.

One of the biggest transport associations in Germany, the Rhine/Main Regional Transport Association, or RMV, said in a post on social media on Saturday that due to a technical fault in radio communications, “train services in the RMV area have been suspended until further notice” and that neither S-Bahn trains nor regional trains could run.

“The duration of the disruption cannot currently be foreseen,” RMV said at the time. It remains unclear what caused the technical fault. Later on Saturday, Deutsche Bahn said the technical problem had been resolved. “Rail traffic in central Germany is starting up again. There may be disruptions until the end of the day,” it said. Frankfurt is one of the most important European transport hubs with around 1,200 local and long-distance trains in regular service every day, according to Tagesschau. (CNN)…[+]

ISRAEL – Three people have been killed and two wounded in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, authorities in the country said Saturday.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public health said three emergency workers were killed in the attack as they tried to contain a fire in the town of Froun, Nabatieh district. It said the attack was the second time an ambulance team had been targeted within 12 hours and was a violation of international law.

However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had “eliminated terrorists” from the Amal movement, a Hezbollah-allied Shia group. The Amal movement released a statement saying two of its members had been killed “while performing their humanitarian and national duty in defense of Lebanon and the South.”

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati characterized the strike as “a blatant violation of international laws and a blatant aggression against human values,” and called on Western ambassadors and other international representatives to attend an emergency meeting at his headquarters in Beirut on Monday.

He said the meeting aimed to demand accountability and “pressure the Israeli enemy that does not care about any law and continues to ignite the fire of its crimes against Lebanon and the Lebanese.”

Cross-border fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been an almost daily occurrence since the war in Gaza began. (CNN)…[+]

BRAZIL – Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began flooding Sao Paulo’s main boulevard for an Independence Day rally Saturday, buoyed by the government’s blocking of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform, a ban they say is proof of their political persecution.

A few thousand demonstrators, clad in the yellow-and-green colors of Brazil’s flag, poured onto Av. Paulista. References to the ban on X and images of Musk abounded. “Thank you for defending our freedom,” read one banner praising the tech entrepreneur.

Saturday’s march is a test of Bolsonaro’s capacity to mobilize turnout ahead of the October municipal elections, even though Brazil’s electoral court has barred him from running for office until 2030. It’s also something of a referendum on X, whose suspension has raised eyebrows even among some of Bolsonaro’s opponents all the while stoking the flames of Brazil’s deep-seated political polarization.

“A country without liberty can’t celebrate anything this day,” Bolsonaro wrote on his Instagram account Sept 4., urging Brazilians to stay away from official independence day parades and instead join him in Sao Paulo.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X’s nationwide ban on Aug. 30 after months of feuding with Musk over the limits of free speech. The powerful judge has spearheaded efforts to ban far-right users from spreading misinformation on social media, and he ramped up his clampdown after die-hard Bolsonaro supporters ransacked Congress and the presidential palace on Jan. 8, 2023, in an attempt to overturn Bolsonaro’s defeat in the presidential election. (CNN)…[+]

“I still haven’t received a call from the Education Ministry. I hope that my daughter can be placed at a Mulo school that is located near my home or workplace. I still have to buy school supplies but I do not know what I have to buy and which uniform I have to buy because some schools make it mandatory for their students to wear a uniform that has their logo on it,” said Nathalie Roos. Roos and hundreds of other parents expressed grave concern over the fact that their children still haven’t received a call from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture regarding a spot at a Mulo school. Another woman complained about sleepless nights as her son also does not know to which school he will have to go. “The school starts after three weeks and my son is eager to attend classes in the 9th grade but he is increasingly getting disappointed because he still has not been enrolled at a Mulo school.” All of the parents made it clear that they do not want their 11-year-old children to be put at a school that is hundreds of miles away from their home because that would mean that they would have to spend a lot of money on transportation. They also explained that they hope that the ministry also includes the construction of more classrooms and schools in its budget estimate for the school year 2024-2025. Sources indicated that the Ministry of Education plans on placing the students who did not find a spot at a Mulo school at one of the LBO schools. Although the LBO schools will be called AVO schools parents expressed concern over the fact that most of the subjects at these schools are taught at a beginner’s or intermediate level while the same subjects are taught at an advanced level at the Mulo schools. But in the 10th grade all of these students will have to take the state tests which means that the students from the LBO schools will be at a disadvantage when they take these state tests. Concerned parents explained that it is time for education officials to work with the statistics so that they can anticipate how many schools are needed in each region of each district. If the population is growing, it also means that more classrooms and more schools will be needed. “It is also called the Ministry of Science so they should address issues from a scientific perspective by working with the numbers.”…[+]