September 20, 2024

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR | Update from day 350 of the conflict:

• In a statement released yesterday, an 18-member U.N. committee charged with monitoring compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child accused Israel of severe breaches of the treaty in Gaza, where, according to Palestinian health authorities, more than 11,000 children have been killed in the nearly year-long conflict sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 939 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Kyiv today, where she is expected to announce $180 million in E.U. funding to support Ukrainian energy production and infrastructure, which has been the target of Russian airstrikes as winter approaches. Von der Leyen has indicated that most of the funds will come from proceeds of Russian assets frozen by the E.U. over the invasion of Ukraine. [more]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will reportedly travel to the U.S. next week for meetings with both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and is expected to press his case for Ukraine to be permitted to use donated weapons to strike deep within Russia. [more]
• The BBC cites a new analysis of Russian government, media, and open-source reports as indicating that more than 70,000 people fighting in Russia’s military have died in Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022. [more]

U.S. ELECTIONS | In-person early voting for the upcoming presidential election opens today in Virginia, South Dakota, and Minnesota. About a dozen more states are scheduled to open early voting by the middle of October. [more]

U.S. PASSPORTS | The State Department announced this week that its new online passport renewal system is fully operational. The system allows renewals by adult passport holders whose passport has expired within the past five years or will expire within a year, but is not available for first-time passport applications, child passport renewals, for applicants who live outside the U.S., or for expedited applications. [more]

KENTUCKY | Authorities in eastern Kentucky say the remains of a body found near the town of London on Wednesday by a retired couple are believed to be those of Joseph Couch, 32 – the suspect in a series of shootings earlier this month along Interstate 75 in which five people were wounded. Police say it appears the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that DNA testing will be used to confirm if the remains are those of Couch. [more]

MORE KENTUCKY | Reports say Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines has been charged with first degree murder in connection with yesterday's shooting death of Kentucky District Judge Kevin Mullins in his Whitesburg courthouse chambers. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Authorities in southern California’s Orange County say eight firefighters were injured yesterday when the truck in which they were riding following a 12-hour shift fighting the area’s Airport Fire overturned near the city of Lake Forest. [more]

COLORADO | Closings arguments are scheduled for today in the Colorado trial of Ahmad Alissa, who is charged with the 2021 fatal shooting of 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder. Alissa’s attorneys have confirmed that he was the shooter, but claim he was legally insane at the time of the incident. [more]

U.S. MORTGAGES | Financing company Freddie Mac reports that the average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. fell to 6.09% in the week ended September 19 – down from 6.2% the previous week and the lowest level since February 2023. [more]

ASIA SECURITY | Leaders of the so-called Quad nations – the U.S., Australia, Japan, and India – are scheduled to meet this weekend in U.S. President Joe Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, for talks expected to center on tensions and territorial disputes between China and other countries in the South China Sea region. [more]

ISRAEL AND LEBANON | Reports cite U.S. government officials as saying that Israel informed U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of an unspecified military operation in Lebanon ahead of this week’s attacks in which pagers and hand-held radios used by Hezbollah militants exploded across Lebanon, killing at least 37 people and wounding nearly 3,000 others. [more]

INDIA | Striking junior doctors in India’s West Bengal state have reportedly agreed to a partial resumption of essential services at regional medical facilities amidst an ongoing strike that followed the rape and murder of a colleague last month. [more]

SRI LANKA | Voting will take place tomorrow in Sri Lanka’s first presidential election since the 2022 ousting of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and amidst the South Asian nation’s ongoing economic and political instability. [more]

NETHERLANDS | Dutch police say a suspect has been arrested following a stabbing attack in the port city of Rotterdam last night in which one city resident was killed and a visitor from Switzerland was seriously wounded. [more]

U.K. ECONOMY | The U.K.’s GfK Consumer Confidence Index dropped to a six-month low in September, with analysts suggesting that Prime Minister Keir Starmer's warnings about the state of the British economy and the projected need for tax increases are major reasons for the country’s declining consumer confidence. [more]

JAPAN AND CHINA | More than a year after China banned the import of Japanese seafood over the release of treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, the two countries say an agreement has been reached under which China will gradually resume the imports. [more]

BASEBALL | In last night’s 20-4 win over the Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball history to record fifty or more home runs and fifty or more stolen bases in a single season and the first to ever hit three home runs and have two stolen bases in a single game. [more]

TENNIS | World No. 1 Iga Swiatek announced her withdrawal from this month’s China Open tournament today, citing unspecified “personal matters” as the reason for the move. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1870, Italian troops occupied Rome, leading to the eventual incorporation of the city into the Kingdom of Italy and the limiting of papal governing authority to the Vatican itself and a small district around it. [more history]