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| Smoke billowing during an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City on Thursday. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Fears of an Iranian strike drew a U.S. general to Israel
The U.S. sent its top military commander for the Middle East to Israel to discuss a widely expected retaliatory attack from Iran, officials said.
Iran’s leaders have repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for an April 1 strike in Syria that killed several senior Iranian commanders. Israel has put its military on alert, and President Biden said that Iran was threatening a “significant” attack. Gen. Michael Kurilla, the American commander, will also discuss the war in Gaza and humanitarian aid operations there.
Biden, who has become increasingly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the Gaza war, said that American support for Israel in the face of danger from Iran was “ironclad.”
Netanyahu said that his country was prepared for other challenges. “We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them,” he said.
Hostages: A senior Hamas official said that the group did not have 40 living hostages who met the criteria for a proposed exchange with Israel, raising fears that more hostages could be dead than previously believed.
Famine: The director of the United States Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, said this week that a famine is underway in northern Gaza.
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| O.J. Simpson was embraced by his lawyer Johnnie Cochran as a jury found him not guilty of murder in 1995. Pool photo by Myung J. Chun |
O.J. Simpson died at 76
O.J. Simpson ran to fame on the football field, made fortunes as an all-American in movies, television and advertising, and, in a 1995 trial that mesmerized the U.S., was acquitted of killing his former wife and her friend. He died yesterday at 76.
His trial, for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, lasted nine months and became an inflection point on race in America. A civil suit in 1997 found Simpson liable for the deaths and left him owing $33.5 million in damages, and he later served years in prison on charges related to the 2007 theft of a trove of sports memorabilia.
The story of O.J. Simpson generated a tide of tell-all books, movies, studies and debate over questions of justice, race relations and celebrity in a nation that adores its heroes but has never been comfortable with its deeper contradictions.
For more, here’s a critic’s notebook about Simpson’s place at the center of the American media; what his case meant for L.A.; and a timeline of his life.
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| Ukrainian soldiers training last month. The army has struggled to hold back relentless Russian assaults. David Guttenfelder for The New York Times |
Ukraine passed a mobilization bill
Ukraine’s Parliament passed a law aimed at replenishing the nation’s depleted fighting forces without creating a public backlash.
The carefully crafted law imposes new penalties on men who try to evade service and offers a mix of financial incentives for those taking up arms.
But it lacks a timeline for when conscripts will be demobilized, something that soldiers and their families had been demanding after more than two brutal years of war.
Draft: Many younger Ukrainians were unsettled when President Volodymyr Zelensky lowered Ukraine’s draft age to 25 from 27.
Demographics: Ukraine needs more soliders, but it has very few young men.Continue reading the main story
| MORE TOP NEWS |
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| Yuri Gripas for The New York Times |
| Summit: President Biden met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines at the White House, sending a blunt message to China: Stop harassing Philippine ships in the South China Sea.South Korea: The elections were disastrous for Yoon Suk Yeol, who will be the first president in decades to face an opposition-controlled Parliament for his entire term.Vietnam: A real estate tycoon was sentenced to death for financial fraud, including embezzling more than $12 billion.Julian Assange: The jailed WikiLeaks founder’s wife expressed cautious optimism after Biden suggested the U.S. might drop its case against him.Baseball: Prosecutors said Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter had stolen $16 million from the star player. |
Health
| Cholera: Companies are racing to replenish the global vaccine stockpile. But it will take years, and outbreaks are spreading.Dengue: A huge outbreak is sweeping Latin America as the need for new vaccines grows. |
The Week in Culture
| Lost tapes: Jimi Hendrix. Billie Holiday. David Bowie, R.E.M. and Iggy Pop. Master Tape Rescue has found long-vanished recordings from them all.45 years of “Dead”: George A. Romero’s zombie classic “Dawn of the Dead” is well into middle age.Swift: Taylor’s music is back on TikTok. |
A Morning Read
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| Victor J. Blue for The New York Times |
In some places, ordering a fried chicken sandwich has become an international affair.
Virtual hosts based in the Philippines are increasingly greeting customers in New York City, taking orders via video screen. Paid a fraction of New York’s minimum wage, they are seen as a godsend to small business owners, but labor groups see a model ripe for abuse.
| CONVERSATION STARTERS |
| SOS: Three men stranded on Pikelot, a tiny island in the Pacific, for more than a week were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after spelling out “HELP” with palm fronds on a beach.Pompeii: Archaeologists unveiled a formal dining room, complete with frescoes, in the ruins of the Italian city. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
An exceptional soccer talent: Pau Cubarsi, at 17, is showing skill on the big stage.
Tennis in its dirtiest version: Why Europe’s clay season should be on your radar.
Augusta National: Five holes that can decide the Masters.Continue reading the main story
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
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| Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times |
Aleksei Navalny’s memoir
Before his death in prison in February, Aleksei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, wrote a memoir about his life and activism.
“This book is a testament not only to Aleksei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship — a fight he gave everything for, including his life,” said his wife, Yulia Navalnaya.
Titled “Patriot,” the memoir will be released in several countries on Oct. 22.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
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| David Malosh for The New York Times |
Mix: Make this colorful salad — a Greek-Lebanese mash-up — for a bright brunch.
