August 30, 2024

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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR | Updates from day 329 of the conflict:

• Following confirmation of a case of polio in a baby in Gaza, the World Health Organization said today that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a series of three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against the disease. [more]
• The American Near East Refugee Aid group says an Israeli missile hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a Gaza hospital yesterday, killing several people. Israel's military says it targeted the convoy only after it was seized by gunmen. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 918 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Reports say at least two people were killed, and 11 others were injured, overnight in a Russian airstrike on a factory in Ukraine’s eastern Sumy region. [more]

TRUMP NEW YORK TRIAL | Attorneys for former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge yesterday to move Trump’s business records falsification and hush money case, in which he is scheduled to be sentenced on September 18, from state to federal court, saying the prosecution violated his constitutional rights and was not in accord with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. [more]

MASSACHUSETTS | Amidst ongoing aerial spraying and calls for residents to take steps to prevent mosquito bites, health officials in Massachusetts yesterday confirmed a second human case of the potentially fatal mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis virus. [more]

U.S. LISTERIA OUTBREAK | Reports cite documents obtained through federal Freedom of Information Act requests as showing that a Boar’s Head deli meat plant in Virginia linked to a recent listeria outbreak that has killed at least nine people was cited for noncompliance with federal rules at least 69 times over the past year. Operations at the Jarratt, Virginia, plant were suspended in late July. [more]

FBI INVESTIGATIONS | According to a Justice Department watchdog report released yesterday, the FBI’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations is lacking and increases the risk of such cases not being properly investigated. The report notes the Bureau’s failure to report allegations of child sexual abuse to local authorities as a particular area of concern. [full report] [more]

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY | U.S. Army officials say a campaign staffer for former President Donald Trump pushed an Arlington National Cemetery official aside earlier this week while the official was trying to prevent filming and photographing, which is prohibited for political purposes at the cemetery, during a Trump wreath-laying ceremony. Trump aides have denied the Army account of the incident. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | In an upward revision of its preliminary assessment, the Commerce Department reports that the U.S. economy grew at a 3% annual rate in the April-June quarter – up from a 1.4% growth rate in the first quarter of 2024. [more]

U.S. EMPLOYMENT | According to a new Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis, the U.S. economy is projected to add 6.7 million jobs from 2023 to 2033. Total employment is projected to increase to 174.6 million and grow 0.4% annually, which is slower than the 1.3% annual growth recorded over the 2013-2023 decade. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | The Pentagon and Secret Service each confirmed yesterday that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved a request to provide the Secret Service with additional military support for protecting presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the upcoming election. [more]

GREECE | Authorities say millions of dead fish weighing more than 100 tons have been collected from around the port of Volos in central Greece this week following a mass die-off that has been linked to extreme weather and water level fluctuations. [more]

EUROPEAN ECONOMY | European Union statistics agency Eurostat reports that inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency fell to 2.2% in August – down from 2.6% in July – signaling the likelihood of an interest rate cut in September by the European Central Bank. [more]

ISRAEL AND WEST BANK | Reports say Israeli forces continued their now-three-day operation in the West Bank city of Jenin today, striking what Israel says was a terrorist cell. [more]

NEW ZEALAND | King Tuheitia, the seventh monarch in New Zealand’s Maori indigenous tribe Kiingitanga movement, died today at the age of 69 following a recent heart surgery. [more]

FRANCE | French prosecutors say the man facing terrorism charges in connection with the setting of several fires last weekend around a synagogue in southern France claims his actions were taken to defend Palestinians and to change Israeli policies. [more]

GERMANY AND AFGHANISTAN | German authorities say 28 Afghan nationals who were convicted of crimes in Germany were deported to Afghanistan today in the first such move since the August 2021 Taliban return to power. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser characterized the deportations as a security measure. [more]

JAPAN | The Japan Meteorological Agency predicts that up to 11 inches of rain could fall in areas of Japan’s Shikoku and Honshu islands through tomorrow as the remnants of Typhoon Shanshan make slow progress northward after causing significant flooding in the country’s south. [more]

VENEZUELA | Amidst ongoing political unrest, Venezuelan government officials say all 24 of the South American country’s states were at least partially impacted by a wide-spread power outage this morning, which President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed on “electrical sabotage” and as an attempt by Maduro’s opponents to remove him from office. [more]

TENNIS | In key second-round action at the U.S. Open tennis tournament yesterday, No. 3-seeded Carlos Alcaraz lost to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp, and Naomi Osaka lost in straight sets to Karolina Muchova. [more]

BASKETBALL | Stephen Curry, the NBA’s all-time 3-point leader, has reportedly signed a new one-year, $63 million, extension with the Golden State Warriors that will keep him with the team through the 2026-27 season. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1916, on his fourth attempt, explorer Ernest Shackleton successfully returned to Elephant Island in Antarctica to rescue 22 of his stranded crew members, who had survived on the barren island for four and a half months after the sinking of their ship, the Endurance. [more history]