Twenty-two people have been killed and 117 injured in Israeli air strikes on central Beirut, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

BBC reporters heard loud explosions echoing from the site of a strike in Bachoura, a small Shia area in the Lebanese capital. Rescuers were seen digging through rubble at the scene.

Ambulances rushed many injured to the American University hospital.

Unconfirmed media reports suggested the apparent target was Wafiq Safa, Hassan Nasrallah’s brother-in-law and one of Hezbollah’s high-ranking security officials. The group’s media office has not yet commented.

The Beirut strikes came after two relatively calm days in Lebanon’s capital, which has felt unusual after intensive strikes in recent weeks.

There was no warning beforehand.

This is the third time Israel has launched air strikes on the city outside of the suburb of Dahieh, where it has struck repeatedly, killing Hezbollah commanders and destroying munitions caches.

One woman outside the hospital, who did not want to be named, said she was in the building next-door to the blast and heard the explosion.

She said the building which was hit was entirely residential, adding that it was about four or five floors high. One of her relatives was being treated for head injuries.

The Beirut attack came hours after two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured in southern Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower, according to the UN.

An observation tower at a UN base in Naqoura was directly hit, causing the peacekeepers to fall, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said in a statement.

Unifil is a UN peacekeeping mission created in 1978, monitoring hostilities and helping to ensure humanitarian access to civilians in southern Lebanon.

The UN said Israeli forces had “repeatedly hit” UN positions in the last 24 hours. Israeli soldiers are also accused of deliberately shooting at the cameras and lights at two other Unifil bases.

The IDF said its troops had fired from the area around the base after ordering members of the base to remain in “protected places”.

Both peacekeepers were not seriously injured but remain in hospital, the UN said, adding that deliberate attacks on its peacekeepers were a “grave violation of international law”.

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers fired at a base in Naqoura, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system,” the UN added.

An Israeli drone was also spotted flying above the bunker entrance.

Also in Naqoura, Hezbollah said it fired rockets at Israeli soldiers on the ground and used guided missiles to destroy a tank heading towards the area, leading to casualties.

There are now four divisions of Israeli soldiers fighting inside Lebanon as it continues its ground operations against Hezbollah, launched on 30 September.

A spokesperson for Unifil told the BBC on Thursday the force was “alarmed” and “deeply concerned” by the Israeli army’s activity in the area where peacekeeping troops are based.

Positions hit by Israeli forces are well known as UN sites, Andrea Tenenti said, adding it would be important to have a discussion with Israeli authorities “to understand what happened”.

Since 1978, Unifil has been operating in southern Lebanon, between the so-called “Blue Line” – the unofficial boundary separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights – and the Litani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Last week, Unifil refused to leave its positions near the Blue Line after being ordered to do so by the IDF.

There are around 10,000 Unifil military peacekeepers in Lebanon, from 50 contributing countries. There are also about 800 civilian staff.

Indonesia, where the injured peacekeepers are from, supplies more than 1,200 troops to Unifil, more than any other country.

The defence minister in Italy, which contributes more than 1,000 troops to Unifil, said the incidents were “intolerable” and must be “carefully and decisively avoided”.

Around 190 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel by Hezbollah on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Lebanese ministry of public health said an Israeli air strike on the village of Karak in eastern Lebanon had killed four people, injuring 17.

Lebanon’s government says as many as 1.2 million people have fled their homes over the past year.

Hostilities in the region have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. A further 251 were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Since 7 October, nearly 42,000 people have been killed during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

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Make employers pay more national insurance

Change the rules on inheriting pension savings

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Tax-free lump sum could be capped

Introducing a single rate of pension tax relief

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UNILEVER is finally calling quits on selling ice creams to Russia, two and a half years after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The FTSE 100 giant has come under pressure for funding the Kremlin’s war by remaining in the country.

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Unilever had been branded an “international sponsor of war” by the Ukrainian government — puncturing the woke firm’s self-styled reputation for social purpose and values.

The backlash included protests outside its London HQ.

The invasion of Ukraine triggered an exodus of big Western firms, including BP, McDonald’s and Burberry.

However, Unilever stayed put. The company, which also makes Dove, has now made a reported £430million selling its Russian assets to billionaire Alexey Sagal, who bought Heineken’s Russian subsidiary for €1.

Unilever did not say what it would be doing with the sale ­proceeds or whether it would donate them to Ukraine.

Rival KitKat-maker Nestle justified staying in Russia with slimmed-down operations of “essential products” such as baby milk.

But Unilever was still making products such as Magnums, ­Cornettos and Ben & Jerry ice cream from four factories in the country.

By remaining in Russia, Unilever contributed millions of pounds in taxes to the Russian government.

The Moral Rating agency had estimated Unilever’s business propped up the Russian economy to the tune of $650million (£498million) a year, which it said was “enough to pay for an Iranian drone every 17 minutes”.

Nataliya Popovych, a co-founder of the B4Ukraine coalition, said: “We are pleased to see Unilever make the right move, even though such a decision comes two years too late.”

Hein Schumacher, Unilever’s boss, previously said remaining in Russia was the “least bad” option, which avoided handing over its workforce, factory and assets.

Yesterday Mr Schumacher said the sale to Mr Sagal’s Arnest Group “ends Unilever presence in the country”.

He said: “Over the past year, we have been carefully preparing the Unilever Russia business for a potential sale.

“This work has been very complex, and has involved separating IT platforms and supply chains.”

SELLING UP TO BEAT BUDGET

FEARS that the Chancellor will hike capital gains tax in the Budget have prompted many business owners to fast-track selling their firms over the past year, figures show.

A poll of 500 owners by wealth advisers Evelyn Partners found 23 per cent of those to accelerate selling up had done so because they feared a hit from CGT relief.

A fifth were driven by concerns over inheritance tax relief, making it more costly to pass family firms to the next generation.

Evelyn tax partner Laura Hayward said: “The PM’s statement that the upcoming Budget would be ‘painful’ has put owner-managed businesses on edge.”

Charles Hall, of broker Peel Hunt, said rumoured changes to business relief would “fatally undermine” London’s junior Aim stock market, destroying up to £21billion of shareholder value and risking jobs.

SHARES in GSK briefly rose by 7 per cent yesterday as it agreed to pay £1.7billion to settle a legal dispute with 80,000 Zantac users.

The heartburn drug was pulled in 2019 amid fears of carcinogens. GSK did not admit liability. Shares closed up 3 per cent.

IKEA IDEA ON PRICE

IKEA’S decision to cut prices has led to lower revenues at the Swedish furniture giant.

It posted a 6.8 per cent drop in UK sales to £2.3billion after investing £117million in lowering prices by around 20 per cent on 3,481 products.

More than half of its sales this year have been online, compared with 38 per cent two years ago. Ikea UK boss Peter Jelkeby said: “Continuing to lower prices remains our long-term priority.”

TSB FINED£10M FOR BAD HELP

TSB has been fined £10.9million for its unfair treatment of customers.

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The Financial Conduct Authority said the bank had “woeful systems and controls” and created unrealistic repayment plans.

A TSB staffer had suggested a borrower removed the £20 a month they had allocated for children’s clothes and made sandwiches instead of paying for school meals.

In another case the bank applied arrears to a dead customer’s mortgage payments.

It also applied arrears to a customer after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis and did not flag another as vulnerable despite them making repeated references to suicide in calls.

The failings took place between June 2014 and March 2020.

TSB agreed to resolve the issues identified, which meant the fine was cut by 30 per cent from £15.6million.

DAWN OF THE A.I. BOSS

WORKERS will soon be right when complaining that their boss is a robot — with video call firm Zoom creating artificial intelligence avatars for conference calls.

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Its latest AI software means that bosses can use a digital version of themselves, or a generic avatar, to deliver brief video messages to workers on calls.

Zoom’s boss Eric Yuan has previously talked about creating a “digital twin” of himself as a way to solve busy people’s problem of how to be in two places at the same time.

The rise of remote working has meant bosses are increasingly delivering news of lay-offs via video calls — meaning workers could find themselves being let go by a robot in the near future.

In today’s newsletter:

• Iran warns of potential change in its nuclear doctrine

• Lai’s Taiwan National Day speech

• South Korea’s Han Kang wins the Nobel literature prize

Good morning. A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has warned Tehran could change its nuclear doctrine if Israel targets the Islamic republic’s atomic facilities.

As Iran and the wider Middle East brace for the Israeli response to last week’s Iranian missile attack on Israel, Brigadier General Rasoul Sanaei-Rad told Iranian news agency Fars: “Striking nuclear sites could certainly have an impact on the calculations during and after the war.”

Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other militant leaders. Afterward, prominent right-wing Israelis called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to target Iran’s nuclear programme.

But western diplomats have warned that would be the most extreme retaliation. The US has urged Netanyahu against targeting Iran’s nuclear sites or its oil infrastructure.

Here’s what to know about Iran’s nuclear programme — long viewed by Israel as its most serious strategic threat.

• Middle East news: Israeli forces fired a tank shell at the UN peacekeepers’ headquarters in southern Lebanon yesterday, the UN said, injuring two international troops.

And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Economic data: Malaysia reports August manufacturing sales and the industrial production index. The US publishes September PPI inflation rate data for September.

• Monetary policy: South Korea announces its interest rate decision.

• Chinese economy: A press briefing on Saturday with China’s finance minister has fuelled investor expectations that the government will announce more stimulus measures.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has urged Beijing to co-operate with Taipei and the international community to maintain peace in his first National Day speech yesterday. Lai asserted that China had “no right to represent Taiwan” but said he was willing to work with Beijing to protect peace and prosperity for people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

2. South Korean writer Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for literature. Han — the first Asian woman and South Korean writer to win the award — was recognised for her “intense, poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”, the Nobel committee said.

3. Seven & i Holdings plans to split its convenience store operations from non-core businesses as the Japanese retail conglomerate faces an unsolicited $47bn buyout proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard. The 7-Eleven owner said it would separate 31 subsidiary businesses — including supermarkets such as Ito-Yokado — and put them in a new holding company. Here’s more on the reorganisation.

4. US inflation fell to 2.4 per cent in September but still exceeded economists’ expectations, cementing the belief that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by a quarter point at its next meeting in November.

• Hurricane Milton: Rescue operations were under way in Florida yesterday as officials sought to assess the damage inflicted by the storm, which triggered widespread flooding and left millions without power.

5. Exclusive HSBC’s new chief executive plans to target the lender’s expensive layer of senior bankers in a cost-cutting move aimed at saving as much as $300mn. Georges Elhedery is drawing up plans to merge HSBC’s commercial banking unit with its global banking and markets unit. Here’s what else we know.

The Big Read

Russia has created a “shadow fleet” of more than 400 vessels moving about 4mn barrels of oil a day, circumventing western sanctions to create billions of dollars a year in additional revenue for its war in Ukraine. The FT’s latest investigation shows how complex arrangements involving a British accountant, a London-listed broker and Dubai-based companies helped one of Russia’s biggest oil producers buy ships while hiding its involvement.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Activist battle: A seemingly misfired email has embroiled Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla and his company in a high-stakes activist campaign.

• Trump biopic: The Apprentice has been hit with legal threats that scared off Hollywood studios. Screenwriter Gabriel Sherman reveals the wild inside story of his new film.

• 80-hour weeks: Wall Street’s moves to cap weekly hours for entry-level bankers are butting against the reality of a competitive industry.

Chart of the day

A scramble for Chinese equities united the global investment industry last month, just as attitudes towards European and Japanese stock markets became heavily bifurcated along geographical lines. Despite strong domestic enthusiasm, foreign exchange traded fund investors turned their backs on European and Japanese stock markets in September.

Take a break from the news

Before he was Japan’s prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba was a Dragon Ball cosplayer. In 2018, he donned a purple cape and a hooded pink bodysuit at an event in his native Tottori, dressed as Majin Buu from the popular Japanese anime series. Ishiba is a serious politician, and his wardrobe decision is only weird if you (incorrectly) believe his anime fandom is niche, writes Leo Lewis.

Additional contributions from Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo