October 25, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Lebanese officials and media representatives say at least three journalists were killed in southeast Lebanon today in an Israeli airstrike that hit a compound housing journalists for various media outlets. Ghassan bin Jiddo, director of Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV, alleged that the Israeli strike was intentionally directed at journalists covering aspects of Israel’s military offensives. [more]
• Palestinian health officials say at least 38 people were killed today in Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 974 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing intelligence reports, said today that Russia plans to deploy North Korean troops in Ukrainian and bordering Russian combat zones starting this weekend. [more]
• Reuters cites unnamed European diplomatic sources as saying E.U. officials have begun talks to maintain sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine amidst concerns that a possible return to the White House of former U.S. President Donald Trump could undermine Western efforts to isolate Moscow. [more]

U.S. NATIVE AMERICANS | In a visit to Arizona’s Gila River Indian Community today – his first to a Native American community since being elected – President Joe Biden is expected to issue to issue a formal apology for the federal government’s role in forcing Indigenous children into boarding schools over a period of 150 years. The visit and apology follow an Interior Department investigation that found that some 18,000 Native American children were forced to attend boarding schools where many were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused and at least 950 died. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | In a rare public comment on domestic misinformation, the Pentagon yesterday denied suggestions by Republican activists, including former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that a recent revision to a Defense Department policy concerning intelligence-related support to civil authorities was pushed through to allow the use of force by military troops against American citizens during next month’s elections. [more]

OHIO | A county judge ruled yesterday that Ohio's so-called heartbeat" law, banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, is unconstitutional due to the state's Reproductive Freedom Amendment passed by voters last year. The judge's decision upholds the amendment's protection of the right to pre-viability abortion, effectively blocking the law's enforcement. [more]

U.S. LEAD RISK | The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new final rule yesterday that imposes strict new limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and child-care facilities. The agency estimates that the new rule, which comes two weeks after the establishment of a nationwide deadline for removing lead pipes, will reduce the lead exposures of up to 1.2 million people per year, helping to mitigate brain development issues in children and other lifelong health effects linked to lead exposure. [press release] [more]

NORTH CAROLINA | Reports note that six western North Carolina school districts were still closed as of yesterday – almost a month after Hurricane Helene struck the region. The Asheville City Schools system is scheduled to reopen with shortened, four-hour days next week, while the Buncombe County Schools system is expected to reopen today on a two-hour delay. [more]

NEVADA | A jury in Nevada yesterday awarded $5.2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages to multiple plaintiffs after finding Las Vegas-based bottled water company AffinityLifestyles.com Inc. and its Real Water brand responsible for causing liver damage in customers before the brand was removed from the market in 2021. Reports note that tests found Real Water contained hydrazine, a chemical used in rocket fuel that may have been introduced during treatment before bottling. [more]

PHILIPPINES | Landslides and flooding from Tropical Storm Trami have left at least 65 people dead in the Philippines, according to local officials. The storm, the 11th and one of the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year, is currently moving toward Vietnam, but could turn back toward the Philippines next week due to regional weather patterns, according to meteorologists. [more]

CANADA | Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, citing the need to stabilize population growth and address concerns about housing affordability and strains on public services, announced a significant reduction yesterday in the number of new immigrants allowed into Canada, lowering the target to 395,000 in 2025 and further decreasing it in subsequent years. [more]

U.K. AND AUSTRALIA | On the sidelines of the Commonwealth leaders' summit in Samoa today, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that their countries have agreed to collaborate on climate change and energy initiatives and to move forward with their commitment to develop nuclear submarines for both nations under the AUKUS treaty. [more]

IRAN | Imprisoned Iranian rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has reportedly been sentenced to an additional six months in prison on charges of “disobeying and resisting orders.” [more]

U.K. AND SLAVERY | Responding to ongoing calls for reparations and a reckoning over Britain’s role in the historic trans-Atlantic slave trade, King Charles III said at the Commonwealth leaders' summit in Samoa today that while “the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate… None of us can change the past but we can commit with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right the inequalities that endure.” [more]

PAKISTAN | Authorities in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province say militants attacked a security post in the Dera Ismail Khan district overnight, killing 10 security officers. [more]

HAITI | Amidst the ongoing surge in gang violence in an around the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, reports say gang members opened fire on, and hit, a United Nations helicopter yesterday, forcing it to land. No injuries were reported in the incident. [more]

SOCIAL MEDIA AND PRIVACY | European Union regulators fined business- and work-focused social media platform LinkedIn 310 million euros yesterday for violating the E.U.’s GDPR data privacy rules by using user data for targeted advertising without a lawful basis. [more]

SPACE | Four astronauts – three Americans and one Russian – whose mission aboard the International Space Station was extended to nearly eight months due to issues with Boeing's Starliner capsule and Hurricane Milton returned to Earth today aboard a SpaceX capsule. [more]

SOCCER | According to Major League Soccer Players Association data released yesterday, soccer superstar Lionel Messi’s $12 million base salary and $20.4 million in total compensation from Inter Miami this year was more than the entire combined payroll of 22 other MLS teams. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1415, the English army, led by Henry V, scored a decisive victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War, starting a new period of English dominance in the war that would last for another 14 years until England was defeated by France in 1429 during the Siege of Orléans. [more history]