October 31, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• The Lebanese health ministry says at least 19 people were killed yesterday in Israeli strikes on two towns in the vicinity of the eastern Lebanon city of Baalbek. [more]
• The Palestinian Health Ministry says three Palestinians were killed today in an Israeli military raid on the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp that Israeli officials say targeted militants operating in the area. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 980 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Reports say at least nine people were injured, multiple buildings were set afire, and a kindergarten was damaged in Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early yesterday morning. [more]
• Russian military officials say their forces have taken control of the Kruhliakivka settlement in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. [more]

U.S. DROUGHT | Following record-low rainfall levels in many areas of the U.S. in October, reports cite drought and climate monitoring organization data as indicating that almost 50% of the country is experiencing drought – up from less than 12% in June. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | According to preliminary estimates from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew at a 2.8% annual rate in the July-September quarter – down from a 3% growth rate in the previous quarter. [more]

VIRGINIA | Responding to an emergency appeal yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a controversial purge of some 1,600 voter registrations in Virginia over the past two months that was undertaken by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration as part of efforts to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting. [more]

PENNSYLVANIA | A state judge yesterday extended, for one day, the deadline for voters in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County to apply for an early ballot for next week's election following complaints of overcrowded and unprepared election offices. [more]

U.S. AND CUBA | In the latest of what has become an annual event, the U.N. General Assembly voted, 187-2, yesterday to condemn the United States’ economic embargo of Cuba, which has been in place since 1960. Only the U.S. and Israel voted against the non-binding resolution. [more]

GLOBAL CORAL BLEACHING | At an emergency U.N. special session on the sidelines of the COP16 biodiversity summit in Columbia, researchers reported yesterday that about 77% of the world’s coral reefs are affected by bleaching caused by warming ocean waters, threatening ecosystems that support more than 25% of marine life and on which nearly 1 billion people rely for food and employment. [more]

SPAIN | Rescue and recovery efforts continue today in Spain’s eastern Valencia, Castilla La Mancha, and Southern Andalusia regions following flash floods in which at least 95 people have died. [more]

NORTH KOREA | Japanese and South Korean officials say North Korea conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test since last December yesterday. Reports say the missile flew for 86 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 4,350 miles. [more]

TAIWAN | Schools and offices are closed, and airline and train services have been suspended, across much of Taiwan today amidst the arrival of Typhoon Kong-reh, which made landfall on the territory this morning with wind gusts as strong as 141 miles per hour. [more]

MEXICO | Eight of Mexico’s 11 Supreme Court justices announced yesterday that they will leave the court rather than stand for election next year as mandated by the country’s controversial judicial overhaul passed in September. [more]

ALBANIA | Reports say there were sporadic clashes between protesters and police yesterday in Albania amidst demonstrations by opposition activists and lawmakers demanding that the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama be replaced by a caretaker Cabinet ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. [more]

EUROPEAN ECONOMY | E.U. statistics agency Eurostat reports that annualized inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro currency rose to 2% in October – up from 1.7% in September – with higher food and energy costs accounting for much of the increase. [more]

BASEBALL | The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees, 7-6, last night to win the 2024 World Series and claim the franchise's eighth league championship and second in five years. The Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, who compiled a World Series-record-tying 12 runs-batted-in over five games, was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1941, after nearly 15 years of work, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which features carvings of the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, was completed in the Black Hills of South Dakota. [more history]