October 16, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Reports say U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent letters to their Israeli counterparts on Sunday warning that U.S. weapons funding for Israel could be stopped if the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza is not increased within the next 30 days. [more]
• Israeli airstrikes targeted the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, overnight for the first time in nearly a week. No immediate reports of casualties from the attack have been released. [more]
• The Associated Press cites unnamed U.S. officials as saying that Israel has assured the U.S. that it will not target Iranian nuclear or oil facilities in any retaliatory strike for an Iranian missile attack on Israel earlier this month. [more]
• Speaking before the U.N. Security Council yesterday, U.N. special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg warned that Yemen risks being dragged further into the escalation of regional violence in the Middle East by the ongoing targeting of shipping in the Red Sea by the country’s Houthi rebel forces. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 965 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to unveil portions of a comprehensive plan to win his country’s war with Russia to the Ukrainian Parliament today. The domestic unveiling of his plan, which comprises military, political, diplomatic, and economic elements, comes after weeks of discussions about the blueprint with Western allies. [more]
• Ukrainian officials say Russian launched 136 attack drones at targets across Ukraine overnight – one of Moscow’s largest salvos in months. Reports say at least 51 of the drones were shot down by air defenses and that the status of at least 60 others is under investigation. [more]

U.S. WORKPLACE | Data released by the National Labor Relations Board yesterday shows that petitions by workers to have union representation doubled to 3,286 during the Biden administration – up from a 22% decline during the Trump administration and the first increase in such petitions since the Ford administration nearly 50 years ago. [press release] [more]

GEORGIA | In a pair of election-related rulings this week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney struck down a new Georgia State Election Board ruling that would require the hand counting of paper ballots after the closing of polls and ruled in a separate case that election supervisors or superintendents cannot refuse to certify election results. [more]

OHIO | The U.S. Justice Department announced yesterday that it will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in Portage County, Ohio, during the early voting period and on Election Day after voters in the county raised concerns about intimidation resulting from the surveillance and the collection of personal information regarding voters. Reports note that the announcement follows a social media post by Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski in which he said that people with yard signs supporting Kamala Harris should have their addresses written down. [press release] [more]

AFRICA | The U.N.’s World Food Program says months of drought in southern Africa has triggered the region’s worst food crisis in decades, with some 27 million people considered to be malnourished amidst widespread crop failures. The agency notes that national disasters over the drought and resultant hunger have been declared in five regional countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. [more]

MEXICO | Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard announced yesterday that international companies have pledged as much as $20 billion for investments and other projects in Mexico in 2025 – a sign, Ebrard suggested, of international confidence in Mexico’s economy under newly installed President Claudia Sheinbaum. [more]

U.K. ECONOMY | The Office for National Statistics reports that consumer prices in the U.K. rose a lower-than-expected 1.7% in September – down from 2.2% in August and the first monthly inflation rate below the Bank of England’s 2% target rate since 2021. [more]

NIGERIA | Local authorities in Nigeria’s Jigawa state say more than 100 people were killed, and 50 others were injured, today near the town of Majiya when an overturned gasoline tanker truck exploded as the victims were trying to salvage fuel with cups and buckets. [more]

QATAR | Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s ruling emir, said yesterday that his country will hold a yet-unscheduled referendum on ending its experiment in electing members of the Arab Gulf state’s advisory Shura Council. Reports note that voting for members of the Council has taken place only once, in 2021. [more]

HONG KONG | Chief Executive John Lee has announced plans to significantly cut Hong Kong’s taxes on imported liquor as part of efforts to revive the Chinese territory’s reputation as a travel destination with a vibrant nightlife and dining scene. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1962, the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of Soviet nuclear missile bases in Cuba. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war. [more history]