December 10, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Reports cite U.N. officials as saying that large portions of Syria’s public sector services have been halted or severely dampened due to state workers failing to return to their jobs following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s government. [more]
• Amidst ongoing strikes on Syrian army bases aimed at preventing weapons from falling into the hands of hostile groups, Israel today denied reports that its forces have advanced into Syria beyond a buffer zone on the countries’ shared border. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1020 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that, as a move toward Ukrainian membership in the NATO alliance, he would be open to the potential deployment of Western troops in his country to guarantee its security following any end to its almost-three-year war with Russia. [more]

U.S. MONUMENTS | President Joe Biden yesterday designated the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in Pennsylvania to recognize and honor the thousands of Native American children who were forced to attend – often under abusive conditions – government-administered boarding schools over a period of more than 150 years. [more]

NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA | Twenty-six-year-old Luigi Nicholas Mangione was arrested yesterday in connection with last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk. Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery, and providing false identification to police. Manhattan prosecutors filed a charge of murder against Mangione later in the evening. [more]

U.S. BUSINESS OUTLOOK | The National Federation of Independent Business said today that its Small Business Optimism Index jumped to its highest level since June 2021 in November following the election of President-elect Donald Trump. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Lawmakers introduced legislation yesterday that, if passed, would make California the first U.S. state to require mental health warning notifications on social media sites. [more]

ALASKA | The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced yesterday that, in compliance with a 2017 law, it has approved plans for a sale of oil and gas leases in a 400,000-acre coastal region of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The sales are scheduled to be held January 9. [more]

NEW YORK | A Manhattan jury yesterday acquitted Marine veteran Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely, who Penny placed in a chokehold aboard a New York City subway following perceived threats to passengers. [more]

U.S. AND CANADA | Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned yesterday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada would raise the prices for many goods for Americans and said his country would retaliate if the Trump plan is put into effect. [more]

PHILIPPINES | Philippine authorities say more than 85,000 residents of the country’s central Negros island are being evacuated today following yesterday’s brief eruption of the region’s Mount Kanlaon volcano and the raising of the volcano’s alert level to indicate the possibility of further, potentially more powerful, eruptions. [more]

BRAZIL | President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is reported to be in stable condition in a São Paulo hospital intensive care unit following the 79-year-old Brazilian leader’s surgery for an intracranial hemorrhage that resulted from a fall in October. [more]

INDIA AND BANGLADESH | Hundreds of protesters took part in rallies near the Bangladesh diplomatic mission in the Indian capital of New Delhi today to demand an end to attacks on Hindu and other minority groups in Bangladesh, which are reported to have spiked following the forced end of former premier Sheikh Hasina’s government. [more]

SOUTH KOREA | Federal prosecutors are reported to be seeking the arrest of former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun for his role in last week’s short-lived imposition of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol. [more]

KENYA | Kenyan police arrested at least three people and used teargas to disperse protesters today in the capital Nairobi during efforts to break up demonstrations calling for an end to gender-motivated violence and the increased killing of women. [more]

ISRAEL | After having been ordered to do so by a court, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified today in his long-standing corruption trial in which he is accused of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in three separate cases. [more]

NETHERLANDS | Dutch police arrested three people yesterday in connection with an explosion in a residential area in a suburb of The Hague Saturday in which at least six people died and four others were injured. Details of what is thought to have caused the explosion have not yet been released. [more]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL | Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Colorado receiver and defensive back Travis Hunter, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, and Miami quarterback Cam Ward have been named as the finalists for this season’s Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding college football player. [more]

TENNIS | Following a year in which she won two Grand Slam titles and secured the world’s No. 1 ranking, Belarusia’s Aryna Sabalenka has been named the WTA Player of the Year. [more]

ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS | Nominees for this year’s Golden Globe awards were announced yesterday and included, for best motion picture drama: “The Brutalist”; “A Complete Unknown,”; “Conclave”; “Dune: Part Two”; “Nickel Boys;” and “September 5.” Nominees for best film musical or comedy were: “Wicked”; “Anora”; “Emilia Pérez”; “Challengers”; “A Real Pain”; and “The Substance.” [full list of nominees] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1768, the first part of the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest continuously published and revised work in the English language, was published and advertised for sale in Edinburgh, Scotland. [more history]