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Briefing on Tuesday: Attack in Dagestan raises terror fears in Russia

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At least 20 people were killed in an apparently coordinated attack in the southern Russian region of Dagestan on Sunday. It was the deadliest attack in the region in 14 years.

Russian authorities described the attack as an act of terrorism, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible. The attackers targeted a police station, as well as synagogues and Orthodox churches. Fifteen of the victims were police officers. One of them was an Orthodox priest who was killed in his church. It is not known whether the attackers specifically intended to target police officers.

According to official reports, five attackers were eventually killed by security forces.

The attack was reminiscent of the intense violence that gripped the North Caucasus, a predominantly Muslim region, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That bloodshed was caused by a combination of Islamic fundamentalism and organized crime. Suppressing that violence became one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s central boasts after he came to power in 1999.

This legacy is now threatened by a resurgence of violence. In March, four gunmen killed 145 people in a concert hall near Moscow. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Analysis: Sunday’s attack highlighted the growing challenges facing Russia as the war in Ukraine strains its economy and security apparatus.

Recent comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant suggest that the country may soon scale back its operations in the Gaza Strip and shift its focus instead to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The intense phase of the war with Hamas is coming to an end,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. He added, however, that this does not mean the war is over and rejected the idea that a ceasefire is imminent.

Gallant was in Washington yesterday to discuss Gaza and Hezbollah with the CIA director and other U.S. officials as the U.S. works to counter a new Israeli military push in Lebanon.

In Gaza City: A senior official responsible for coordinating ambulance movements in the Gaza Strip was killed in an Israeli attack, the enclave’s health ministry said yesterday.

Dishes: A lawsuit filed in New York accuses senior officials at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine of knowing that Hamas had embezzled $1 billion in aid funds. The case faces high legal hurdles.

More than 1,300 people have died this month during the Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia due to extreme heat.

It is unclear whether the death toll this year is higher than in previous years – Saudi Arabia does not regularly publish these statistics. Officials say most of the deaths were not registered for the hajj. Pilgrims with permits are transported in air-conditioned buses and rest in air-conditioned tents, while pilgrims without permits have little protection from the heat.

The toll has exposed the dark side of fraudulent tour operators and smugglers who profit from Muslims desperate to make the journey.

AI is getting better at creating lifelike faces and realistic photos, which fools many, but there are telltale signs that can help you distinguish real images from fake ones.

My colleague Edward Wong, who worked in China for The Times first as a correspondent and then as Beijing bureau chief, knew that his father served in the Chinese army. But it was only when researching his new book, “At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning With China,” that Ed discovered the full story.

Yook Kearn Wong, Ed’s father, was stationed in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China, in 1952. There he participated in the efforts that laid the foundation for China’s control of the area. Later, after surviving a famine, he knew he had to leave China. He reached the United States in 1967.

“I am amazed,” writes Ed, “at how my family’s history winds like a Möbius strip around several generations and around the history of China.”

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