October 7, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts involving Israel, Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon.

• Ceremonies are taking place across Israel today to mark the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,200 people. In the year of fighting since the attacks, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and regional conflicts involving Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants continue to escalate. [more]
• According to Brown University’s Costs of War project, the United States has spent at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel in the year since the Israel-Hamas conflict began. [full report] [more]
• Israeli officials say Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets into Israel this morning, injuring two people. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 956 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• The Russian government released its proposed budget for 2025 last week – earmarking a record $145 billion, or 32.5% of the total budget, for military and national defense spending as Moscow continues its invasion of Ukraine. [more]
• A Moscow court today sentenced 72-year-old American citizen Stephen Hubbard to six years and 10 months in prison for fighting against Russia as a mercenary for Ukraine. [more]

HURRICANE MILTON | Fifty-one Florida counties are under state of emergency declarations ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall along the state’s Gulf coast on Wednesday as a major storm. [more]

U.S. SUPREME COURT | The Supreme Court begins its new session today. Among the cases to be considered by justices this week are ones dealing with ghost guns, a death sentence in Oklahoma, and transgender rights. [more]

HURRICANE HELENE | As recovery efforts continue more than a week after Hurricane Helene struck the southeastern U.S., the death toll from the storm has risen to at least 225, making Helene the U.S. mainland’s deadliest storm since Katrina in 2005. [more]

U.S. EMPLOYMENT | According to the Labor Department’s jobs report released Friday, U.S. employers added a higher-than-expected 254,000 jobs in September. The report also notes that the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in the month – down from 4.2% in August. [full report] [more]

GLOBAL WATER AND CLIMATE | In its State of Global Water Resources 2023 report, the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization says the world’s rivers suffered their driest year in more than 30 years in 2023, with significant drying-up of water flows contributing to prolonged droughts in many regions and water insecurity for millions of people. The report also points out that the world's glaciers saw their largest mass loss in 50 years in 2023. [press release] [full report] [more]

HAITI | Following the killing of at least 70 people by heavily armed gangs late last week in Pont-Sondé, Haiti, the U.N. International Organization for Migration says nearly 6,300 residents of the region have fled their homes. [more]

NOBEL PRIZES | Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were announced this morning as the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of microRNA – tiny pieces of genetic material that alter how genes work at the cellular level. [more]

PAKISTAN | The Baloch Liberation Army separatist group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed two Chinese workers, and wounded eight other people, last night near the airport in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi. [more]

HUNGARY | Reports say thousands of protesters took part in demonstrations today in Budapest, Hungary, against what they say is the propagandist nature of the country’s public media corporation. The protest was organized by opposition leader Péter Magyar’s TISZA political party. [more]

RWANDA | Amidst an outbreak that has seen at least 46 confirmed cases and 12 deaths, health officials in Rwanda are reported to have approved a trial of an experimental vaccine against the deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus. [more]

SAMOA AND NEW ZEALAND | Authorities in the Polynesian island nation of Samoa say a fuel spill is highly likely following the grounding and sinking of a New Zealand navy ship off the Samoan coast yesterday. Preliminary reports suggest a loss of power aboard the ship led to its grounding. [more]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL | Following weekend games in which four of the top 11-ranked college football teams lost to unranked opponents, Texas returned to the No. 1 ranking, followed by Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, and Georgia. [full rankings] [more]

TENNIS | Coco Gauff beat Karolina Muchova yesterday to claim the women’s title at the China Open tennis tournament. [more]

FOOTBALL | In yesterday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers became just the ninth player in NFL history to throw for 60,000 career yards in regular season games. [more]

WEEKEND MOVIES | "Joker: Folie à Deux" topped the North American box office over the weekend with an estimated $40 million in receipts, followed by "The Wild Robot" and "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1944, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, at which the United States, China, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom formulated proposals for a world organization that became the basis for the United Nations, concluded in Washington, D.C. [more history]