October 17, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• The U.S. carried out long-range B-2 stealth bomber strikes on Houthi rebel underground bunkers in Yemen overnight, targeting sites used to support the group’s ongoing missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Damage assessments from the U.S. strike have not yet been released. [more]
• Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, warned today that any Israeli strike on Iran in retaliation for the recent Iranian missile attack on Israel would be met with reciprocal attacks. [more]
• Authorities in Syria say an overnight Israeli airstrike wounded two civilians and damaged a military post early today in the coastal city of Latakia – a continuation of regular Israeli strikes against Iran- and Hezbollah-linked sites in Syria. [more]
• A day after the U.S. demanded that Israel allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, Israeli officials say 50 trucks of aid were allowed into the Palestinian territory’s northern regions yesterday. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 966 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with European Union and NATO leaders today in Brussels to discuss his victory plan for ending the war with Russia, portions of which he disclosed to the Ukrainian Parliament yesterday. Among the major points in Zelenskyy’s plan are receiving an invitation to join NATO and getting permission to use Western-supplied longer-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia. [more]
• Australia announced today that it is donating 49 aging U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. [more]
• U.S. President Joe Biden announced a new $425 million military aid package for Ukraine yesterday, consisting of air defense capability, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles, and critical munitions. [more]

U.S. HURRICANE RECOVERY | According to the White House, some 8,000 federal workers are currently assisting in recovery efforts from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and more than $1.8 billion in federal funding for recovery efforts has been approved. [more]

U.S. SUBSCRIPTIONS | The Federal Trade Commission adopted a final rule yesterday that will require businesses to allow consumers to cancel unwanted subscription services as easily as they signed up for them. The so-called “click-to-cancel” rule also prohibits businesses from misleading consumers about subscriptions and requires them to obtain customer consent before charging for memberships, auto-renewals, and programs linked to free trial offers. [press release] [fact sheet] [more]

CALIFORNIA | The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has reportedly agreed to pay $880 million to settle more than 1,300 charges of child sex abuse committed by its clergy members. [more]

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION | The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring U.S. coal-fired power plants to capture 90% of their emitted carbon or face shutdown within eight years can remain in place while legal challenges play out. [more]

BANGLADESH | A special Bangladeshi court issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today in connection with what prosecutors say was her role in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during a student-led uprising earlier this year. Hasina fled to neighboring India in August following the violent protests. [more]

NIGERIA | The death toll from yesterday’s fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria’s Jigawa state has risen to at least 140, according to the country’s National Emergency Management Agency. Authorities say dozens of others were injured in the disaster, which occurred when the overturned tanker caught on fire as local residents were trying to salvage spilled fuel. [more]

EUROPEAN ECONOMY | The European Central Bank is expected to announce its third interest rate cut since June today after inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency fell to its lowest level in three years in September. [more]

ITALY | Italy’s upper house of parliament voted a measure into law yesterday that extends an existing domestic ban on surrogate motherhood by making it illegal for couples to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy. [more]

BASKETBALL | The New York Liberty lead the best-of-5 WNBA championship series, 2-1, after last night’s 80-77 win over the Minnesota Lynx. [more]

SOCCER | Mexico’s national soccer team ended a seven-game winless streak against the United States this week with a 2-0 win in Guadalajara. [more]

LITERATURE | Winners of the 2024 Kirkus Prizes were announced last night in New York. Percival Everett won the fiction prize for “James” – a retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the point of view of the enslaved man Jim. Adam Higginbotham won the non-fiction prize for his book “Challenger” about the 1986 space shuttle disaster, and Kenneth M. Cadow won the young readers prize for “Gather,” his young adult novel about a boy living in poverty with his mother. [press release] [more]

**R.I.P.” | Liam Payne, a former singer in the early 2000s chart-topping British boy band One Direction, died yesterday at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1346, at the Battle of Neville's Cross, the English defeated the Scots, who, as allies of the French, had invaded England in an attempt to distract Edward III from the siege of Calais, France. [more history]