| The site of an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese border village of Mahmoudiyeh. Rabih Daher/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Israel bombarded Hezbollah
Hours after Hezbollah’s leader vowed that “retribution will come” to Israel in retaliation for audacious attacks using Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies, Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in one of the most intense waves of bombardment this year.
Lebanese officials said Israel had carried out more than 70 airstrikes yesterday. The Israeli military said it had targeted about 100 rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah, along with other sites.
But it did not appear to be a major step toward full-blown war. There were no immediate reports of casualties, and the strikes seemed to have avoided major population centers and the Lebanese heartland.
Israeli fighter jets also ripped through the skies above Beirut during a speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, his first speech since the devices blew up on Tuesday and Wednesday. He accused Israel of breaking “all conventions and laws” and said that it would “face just retribution and a bitter reckoning.”
Analysis: Experts are divided on whether the wireless device attacks in Lebanon were legal.
Saudi Arabia: The crown prince said that the kingdom would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel before the establishment of a Palestinian state.
| Kamala Harris holds an edge over Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Kenny Holston/The New York Times |
Polls show a tossup between Harris and Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris impressed voters in her debate with former President Donald Trump — the most-watched broadcast in the U.S. aside from the Super Bowl — but new polls released yesterday showed she had not gained a decisive advantage.
In a national poll conducted over the week after the debate, Harris and Trump were tied among likely voters, at 47 percent. In a separate poll of Pennsylvania, the most prominent battleground state, Harris holds a four-point edge, 50 percent to 46 percent.
Analysis: My colleague Nate Cohn writes that the polls may point to a declining Trump edge in the Electoral College.
 More on the U.S. electionAmericans head to the polls in less than seven weeks.Trump said that he would visit Springfield, Ohio, the city where he has baselessly insisted that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets, “in the next two weeks.”JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, said he will keep calling Haitians in Springfield “illegal aliens,” though they are not.Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, called himself a ‘Black Nazi’ on a porn site. It could hurt Trump’s prospects in a crucial state. |
| Andrius Kubilius at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France on Tuesday. Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance, via Getty Images |
The E.U. has a new defense chief
With a long war in Ukraine on the E.U.’s doorstep and an uncertain American commitment to Europe, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has created a new post of defense commissioner.
But Andrius Kubilius, a former prime minister of Lithuania, will not have an army. In reality, he will be a commissioner for the European arms industry, trying to push toward more standardized production and cooperative purchasing power and coordination.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
| An image released by Ukraine’s Emergency Service showed a woman being assisted after the strike on the nursing home. Ukraine’s Emergency Service, via Associated Press |
| Ukraine: The Interior Ministry said that a Russian-guided aerial bomb had hit a five-story nursing home, killing at least one person and injuring 12 others. Venezuela: The opposition leader Edmundo González said he had been forced to sign a document recognizing Nicolás Maduro as the election winner before he could flee to Spain. Britain: Several women have accused Mohamed al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods who died last year, of rape and sexual assault, according to a BBC documentary. Investigation: Migrants intercepted at sea by the U.S. have long been sent to Guantánamo Bay, which operates outside standard American immigration laws. Reports obtained by The New York Times reveal how it works. Media: Olivia Nuzzi, a political reporter at New York Magazine, was placed on leave after disclosing a personal relationship with someone she wrote about. People familiar with the situation say it was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. |
Economy
| Inflation: The Bank of England held off on cutting rates but signaled that it was on the path to lowering them. Manufacturing: Chinese automakers are moving production to Europe as a way to avoid tariffs. Wall Street: Stocks hit a record high after the Federal Reserve’s big rate cut invigorated a global market rally. |
Climate
| Food: Governments are experimenting with methods of showing the true costs of what we eat. Using one method, we analyzed some staple foods. Trade: Governments worldwide want the E.U. to suspend a law aimed at protecting endangered forests that would also affect billions of dollars in traded goods. History: Prehistoric Earth was very hot. That could tell us about our future. China: Tropical Storm Pulasan made landfall near Shanghai, halting trains, grounding ferries and bringing the risk of floods and landslides. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
| Soccer: Arsenal’s Max Dowman has become the youngest UEFA Youth League goalscorer at 14.Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton has called out the FIA president for what he believes are ‘very stereotypical’ comments on foul language. |
| MORNING READ |
| Yulia and Bohdan Ivchenko in Kyiv. The war has delayed her efforts to get Ukrainian citizenship. Laura Boushnak for The New York Times. |
Ukrainian-Russian couples have long been common. Russia’s invasion has meant stigma, separation, legal troubles and a reappraisal of identities. Five couples spoke to us about their lives.
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
Kid lit’s new polymath
“Impossible Creatures,” by Katherine Rundell, tells the story of a boy who travels to an enchanted archipelago full of mythical beasts. It was an instant best seller in Britain, with reviewers comparing Rundell to J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman.
Rundell is a bit of an impossible creature herself. The youngest woman ever to become a scholar at Oxford’s All Souls College, she has produced more than a dozen works — including a spinoff of her thesis, which makes a erudite, joyful case for John Donne’s poetry — and picked up a dizzying constellation of awards. Read more about her.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
Cook: Grape jelly meatballs are the ultimate party meatball.
