October 10, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, says a proposed measure before the Israeli parliament that would ban the agency from operating in Israeli-controlled territory would leave hundreds of thousands of people in dire need of humanitarian aid. [more]
• The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reports that a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker ship in the Red Sea was the target of multiple air attacks today thought to have been carried out by Houthi rebels in Yemen. [more]
• Officials with the Lebanese health ministry say an overnight Israeli airstrike hit a civil defense center in the southern Lebanon village of Derdghaiya, killing five paramedics and rescue workers. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 959 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Beginning a series of visits aimed at strengthening Western support for Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in London today for meetings with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with the leaders of France, Germany, and Italy later this week. [more]
• Ukrainian officials say an overnight Russian airstrike on a civilian cargo ship in Ukraine’s Odesa port region – the third such strike this week – killed at least eight people. [more]

HURRICANE MILTON | Much of central Florida remains under states of emergency this morning after Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Sarasota on the state’s Gulf Coast. More than 3 million customers in the state remain without power and some 5 million residents are in areas under flash flood warnings as the storm exits Florida along its Atlantic coast. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Economists surveyed by data firm FactSet predict that government data due out later today will show that consumer inflation rose 2.3% in September, compared to the year-ago period – down from 2.5% in August and the lowest level since February 2021. [more]

U.S. ELECTION SECURITY | Police in Tempe, Arizona, say a Democratic National Committee campaign office in the city was struck by gunfire three times in recent weeks. No injuries were reported in connection with any of the shootings, and the incidents remain under investigation. [more]

U.S. DATA SECURITY | Hotel giant Marriott International has reportedly agreed to pay $52 million and make changes to its data security practices to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission and almost all U.S. states that the company’s practices allowed hackers to obtain passport data, payment details, and other personal information from hundreds of millions of consumers between 2014 and 2020. [more]

SOLAR STORM | The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch for today and tomorrow following detection of a strong solar storm headed toward Earth. Such storms can stress power grids and disrupt radio communications, and are also associated with the production of auroras in areas in which they are not normally experienced. [more]

NOBEL PRIZES | South Korean author Han Kang has been named the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature for what the award committee characterized as “her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” [more]

U.K. | According to new data from the U.K. Ministry of the Interior, religious hate crimes in England and Wales rose by 25% in the year ended March 2024, with the increase driven largely by a spike in anti-Jewish offenses following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict last October. [more]

AUSTRALIA AND CHINA | Following a meeting of Chinese and Australian leaders on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that China will resume importing Australian lobsters by the end of the year, removing the final official trade barrier between the two nations. [more]

MEXICO | The Mexican Senate voted unanimously yesterday to pass a constitutional reform that guarantees the country’s minimum wage will be revised annually to match or exceed increases in inflation. The measure has already been approved by Mexico’s lower legislative house and is expected to be signed by newly installed President Claudia Sheinbaum. [more]

MOZAMBIQUE | Amidst opposition concerns about the fairness of the southern African nation’s elections, the governing Front for the Liberation of Mozambique party is expected to extend its 49 years in power following yesterday's elections in Mozambique. [more]

BASEBALL | With a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies last night, the New York Mets advanced to Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series. [more]

TENNIS | 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal announced today that he will end his professional tennis career after next month’s Davis Cup Finals. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this data in 1911, a group of revolutionaries launched an uprising in Wuchang, China, which many regard as the formal beginning of the Chinese Revolution, a nationalist democratic revolt that overthrew the Qing dynasty. [more history]