August 21, 2024

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR | Updates from day 320 of the conflict:

• Hamas officials said yesterday that the latest U.S-sponsored Gaza cease-fire proposal is a “reversal” of a previous proposal which they had preliminarily accepted and accused the U.S. of including new conditions from Israel in the latest proposal. [more]
• Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group fired more than 200 rockets into the northern Israel region yesterday, and 50 more today, damaging a number of private homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and wounding at least one person. Hezbollah says the attacks were in response to a recent Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons depot some 50 miles inside Lebanon's border. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 909 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Russian authorities say Ukraine launched 45 drones at targets in multiple Russian regions, including Moscow, overnight. Reports cite media in Russia's Rostov region as saying an air defense system in the area was damaged in the attacks, despite Russian military claims that all of the Ukrainian drones were destroyed. [more]
• Ukraine’s parliament voted yesterday to ban the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church and any other religious group supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reports note that the move appears to be targeting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which historically has been tied to the Russian church, though the UOC has expressed its loyalty to Ukraine and has insisted that it does not operate under Russian church authority. [more]

MONTANA | The Montana Secretary of State’s Office yesterday certified that this November’s general election ballot in the state will include an initiative allowing voters to decide whether to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution. Montana is one of eight U.S. states with abortion-related initiatives on election ballots for November. [more]

MAINE | According to a state commission final report, both the Army Reserve and local police missed opportunities to intervene in Robert Card’s psychiatric crisis before Card went on a shooting rampage in October 2023 in Lewiston, Maine, in which 18 people were killed. [full report] [more]

ILLINOIS | Police in Chicago, Illinois, say Justin Zimmerman, who escaped from a Mississippi courthouse and is wanted on murder and armed robbery charges, was in a standoff with police at a restaurant in the city overnight, just blocks from the Democratic National Convention. [more]

U.S. VEHICLE RECALL | The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says BMW will recall some 720,000 X1, X3, and X5 vehicle models in the U.S. due to an issue with water pump electrical connections that could potentially lead to a fire. Vehicle owners are expected to receive notification of the recall from BMW in October. [more]

U.S. AND PANAMA | Panamanian officials say 29 Colombians who entered the country illegally through the Darian gap migration route were deported yesterday on the first deportation flight paid for by the U.S. under an agreement signed by the two countries in July. [more]

RED SEA | The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center says a commercial ship traveling through the Red Sea came under suspected Houthi rebel attack this morning and that the ship appears to have lost all power following the incident. [more]

CANADA | Canadian businesses in a wide variety of industries are preparing for potentially significant business interruptions tomorrow as a contract dispute continues between Canada’s two major freight railroads – Canadian National and CPKC – and the union that represents train engineers, conductors, and dispatchers. Reports note that a work stoppage at the two railways could also affect some 32,000 commuters in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver due to reliance on freight dispatchers in those regions. [more]

AUSTRALIA AND SINGAPORE | The Australian government granted preliminary approval yesterday to plans to build one of the world’s largest solar farms in remote northern Australia. Reports note that the $19 billion project aims to deliver up to six gigawatts of electricity per year to Singapore via submarine cable. [more]

IRAN | Officials in the central Iranian province of Yazd say at least 28 people died, and another 23 were injured, last night when a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq crashed near the city of Taft. [more]

MEXICO | Officials in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa say the recent murders of some dozen people in the state appear to be linked to infighting among factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel following the July detention of two of the cartel’s top leaders. [more]

INDIA | Indian media reports that internet services were cut off and schools were closed for a second day in a row today in the Mumbai-area town of Badlapur amidst ongoing protests over the alleged sexual abuse of two four-year-old girls. [more]

LIBYA | Stephanie Khoury, the top U.N. official in Libya, warned yesterday that the political, military, and security situation in the oil-rich north African country has deteriorated rapidly over the past two months and that the country will experience greater instability going forward without renewed political talks and elections that lead to a unified government. [more]

TENNIS | The International Tennis Integrity Agency says top-ranked men’s player Jannik Sinner tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March but that he will not be suspended following a determination that the performance-enhancing drug entered his system unintentionally. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by three Italian handymen. The painting was not recovered until 1913, and the media sensation surrounding the theft helped make it one of the world's most famous works of art. [more history]