October 29, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Following the recent killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, the Lebanon-based militant group says it has elected Sheikh Naim Kassem – Nasrallah’s longtime deputy – as its new top leader. [more]
• The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says at least 90 people were killed early today in an Israeli airstrike that hit a five-story building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Israeli officials say their forces were targeting Hamas militants in the area, while Palestinian authorities say the building was being used to house displaced persons. [more]
• The Israeli parliament passed laws yesterday aimed at preventing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the major distributor of humanitarian aid in Gaza and which Israeli authorities say has been infiltrated by the Hamas militant group, from operating on Israeli soil and severing all ties between the Israeli government and the aid group. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 978 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Reports cite U.S. Defense Department officials as estimating that some 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to eastern Russia for training – up from an estimate of 3,000 last week – and that there are indications that some of the troops are moving toward Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine. [more]
• Ukrainian authorities say overnight Russian airstrikes killed at least four people in Kharkiv, wounded six people in Kyiv, and killed two and injured several others in Kherson. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | According to data compiled by the Associated Press, with one week to go before the 2024 general election more than 46 million people across the U.S. have cast early in-person or mail-in ballots. [AP early voting tracker] [more]

MORE U.S. ELECTIONS | Authorities in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, say one election ballot box in each city was set on fire yesterday, resulting in the loss of hundreds of submitted ballots. Local election officials have characterized the acts of arson as a “direct attack on democracy.” [more]

U.S. PORT EMISSIONS | In a visit to the Port of Baltimore today, President Joe Biden is expected to announce $3 billion in grants to expand the use of climate-friendly equipment and infrastructure at 55 ports nationwide through the Clean Ports Program. [more]

U.S. AND CHINA | The U.S. Treasury Department issued a final rule yesterday restricting and requiring the monitoring of American investments in China relating to artificial intelligence, computer chips, and quantum computing. The new rule is an implementation of a 2023 executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden aimed at limiting the development of advanced technologies by the Chinese military. [press release] [Treasury department info website] [more]

GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY | A new report from the United Nations Environment Program says that while countries have made progress in adding protected and conserved areas since the signing of a treaty to protect biodiversity in 2022, significant expansion of such efforts is needed to reach the treaty’s goal of protecting biodiversity on 30% of the planet by 2030. [press release] [full report] [more]

NORTH KOREA AND RUSSIA | South Korean lawmakers say a trip to Russia yesterday by North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui may be focused on discussions with Moscow about sending more North Korean troops to Russia and on negotiating what the North could get in return. [more]

CHAD | Authorities in Chad say at least 40 soldiers were killed yesterday in an attack on a military base in the Central African nation’s western region by unidentified assailants. Reports note that while no claims of responsibility for the attack have yet been made, it took place in a region in which the Boko Haram militant group has been known to operate. [more]

ITALY | Italian politicians have called for a formal investigation into citizens' data protection and privacy following an announcement by prosecutors in Milan that the personal data of at least 800,000 Italians was compromised in data breaches by a private investigative agency that compiled dossiers from law enforcement, tax authority, and other public sources. [more]

LITHUANIA | Final election results released yesterday show Lithuania’s center-left opposition parties, led by the Social Democrats, as having won a majority of the country’s parliamentary seats – ending the four-year rule of Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė center-right coalition. [more]

SWEDEN | Preliminary data from Sweden’s official statistics agency indicates that the country’s gross domestic product fell 0.1% in the July-September quarter – the economy’s second-straight quarterly decline, signaling the start of a technical recession. [more]

BASEBALL | The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees, 4-2, last night in Game 3 of the World Series to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is scheduled for tonight in New York. [more]

SOCCER | Spanish midfielders Rodri and Aitana Bonmatí were announced yesterday as the winners of the men’s and women’s Ballon d’Or awards, respectively, as the world’s best soccer players. [more]

MUSIC | Curators say a newly discovered manuscript at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City is very likely a previously unknown waltz by Polish composer Frederic Chopin, who died in 1849. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1929, ‘Black Tuesday’ descended on the New York Stock Exchange as prices collapsed amidst panicked selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America’s Great Depression began. [more history]