Important Takeaways:
- Israel and Iran have never been closer to opening up a new and far more dangerous front in the war that has engulfed the Middle East.
- Iran threatened on Tuesday that if Israel responds with force to the nearly 200 missiles it launched on Tuesday, it will attack again.
- If that happens, Israeli officials say all options will be on the table – including strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
- Many Israeli officials point to Iran’s oil facilities as a likely target, but some say targeted assassinations and taking out Iran’s air defense systems are also possibilities.
- “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies. They will understand. We will stand by the rule we established: whoever attacks us, we will attack him,” Netanyahu said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed amid intense clashes in southern Lebanon after commando units were ambushed by Hezbollah fighters earlier today, the IDF has revealed.
- News of the losses came as Hezbollah declared it was ‘only the first round’ of its fight against Israel, while the IDF released video footage showing its special forces carrying out the invasion for the first time.
- Hezbollah’s media officer Mohammad Afif sought to dispel speculation that the Lebanese militant outfit had been weakened by ongoing Israeli attacks
- ‘Our forces and resistance are fully prepared to confront and resist the enemy. I tell everyone that the resistance is fine and the command and control system is fine,’ Afif declared.
- ‘What happened today in Misgav Am, Maroun al-Ras and Adaisseh today is only the beginning,’ Afif said.
- Meanwhile, Israel’s military is preparing a response to yesterday’s shocking attack by Iran that saw nearly 200 ballistic missiles streak across the Middle East and rain down on Israel last night.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hurricane Helene has left officials in six Southeastern states grappling to respond to the widespread destruction it caused after hitting Florida as a Category 4 storm last week.
- More than 500,000 customers were without power in South Carolina and nearly 380,000 others in Georgia were without electricity on Wednesday morning, per poweroutage.us.
- Over 349,000 in N.C., nearly 47,000 in Virginia and almost 41,000 in Florida also had no power, according to the utility tracker.
- The American Red Cross has received more than 3,000 requests for help from those looking for lost loved ones in the last 24 hours, and the agency reported more than 2,400 survivors in 75 shelters from Florida to North Carolina, Axios reported.
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Important Takeaways:
- In addition to Monday’s financial settlement, West Point School Board agreed to change its policies and clear teacher Peter Vlaming’s firing from its record.
- The agreement comes nearly a year after Virginia’s Supreme Court reinstated Vlaming’s lawsuit, which was filed by the Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom.
- “Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say. The school board violated his First Amendment rights under the Virginia Constitution and commonwealth law,” said ADF senior counsel Tyson Langhofer.
- While Vlaming tried to accommodate the student by using the student’s new name, school officials ordered the teacher to stop avoiding the use of the requested pronouns
- “I was wrongfully fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers ascribe to only one perspective on gender identity — their preferred view.”
- West Point Public Schools has agreed to change its rules and conform to Virginia’s new education policies, which call for respecting free speech and parental rights. The policies, which were criticized by LGBTQ groups when they were unveiled in 2022, allow teachers to refer to transgender students by the name and pronouns associated with their sex assigned at birth.
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Important Takeaways:
- At a state banquet celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic on Monday, Xi used his address to underscore his resolve to achieve the “complete reunification of the motherland.”
- “It’s an irreversible trend, a cause of righteousness and the common aspiration of the people. No one can stop the march of history”
- Successive Chinese leaders have vowed to one day take control of Taiwan, but Xi, China’s most assertive leader in decades, has ramped up rhetoric and aggression against the democratic island – fueling tension across the strait and raising concerns for a military confrontation.
- Taiwan officials say Beijing has intensified military activities around the island in recent months, including drills in May that the Chinese military said were designed to test its ability to “seize power” over the island.
- The issue of Taiwan has become a major point of contention between China and the US, which maintains close but informal relations with Taipei and is bound by law to supply the island with weapons to defend itself.
- On Sunday, US President Joe Biden approved an additional $567 million in military support for Taiwan in the largest aid package America has granted the island.
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Important Takeaways:
- Comet
- The first few mornings in October will be a good time to see Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) — and its single tail — visible to the naked eye. Skywatchers in the northern hemisphere should look eastward an hour before sunrise, but it’s best to keep expectations in check — it may well be a binocular target only.
- ‘Ring Of Fire’ Solar Eclipse
- When: Wednesday, Oct. 2
- Today’s new moon coincides with a “mini-moon” — the opposite of a “supermoon” — creating an annular solar eclipse visible from the Pacific Ocean and southern Patagonia.
- Year’s Biggest ‘Supermoon’
- There are four “supermoons” — particularly close full moons — in 2024, but this one will be the closest. Called the “Hunter’s Moon,” it will be the tenth of the 12 full moons in 2024 and be best seen as it appears above the eastern horizon during dusk on Thursday and Friday.
- Orionid meteor shower
- When: early hours of Monday, Oct. 21
- Plan on seeing around 10 to 20 meteors per hour, possibly up to 40, all of which originate from a cloud of dust debris left in the inner solar system by Halley’s Comet. You’ll see the most if you dark-adapt your eyes for about 30 minutes.
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Important Takeaways:
- In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge Robert McBurney said Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act, infringes on a woman’s state constitutional rights.
- When originally signed into law, the LIFE Act criminalized most abortions after an embryo generates detectable cardiac activity, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy.
- Fourteen states now bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia was one of four where the bans kick in after about six weeks of pregnancy
- The new Georgia ruling, if it stands, could open up new avenues to access abortion not only for residents of the state, but for people in nearby states who currently face long trips to places like North Carolina or Illinois.
- Georgia could still appeal McBurney’s ruling. Kara Murray, communications director for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said in a statement Monday, “We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional, and we will immediately appeal the lower court’s decision.”
- “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, submitted the legislation after his sister, a Texas resident, unknowingly consumed an abortion pill after her husband put it in her drink.
- A person caught with the drugs without a prescription could face up to five years in prison and have to pay a fine of up to $5,000.
- But the law couldn’t be used to prosecute a pregnant person who holds the drugs for their own use, even without a prescription
- The bill began as an effort to criminalize giving someone abortion drugs without their knowledge, and the reclassification was later added as an amendment.
- The new law creates the crime of “coerced criminal abortion.”
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Important Takeaways:
- On Monday, the North Carolina State Climate Office provided a picture of how the “monster storm” was nearly a “worst-case scenario for western North Carolina.”
- “Torrential rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Helene capped off three days of extreme, unrelenting precipitation, which left catastrophic flooding and unimaginable damage in our Mountains and southern Foothills,” a post from the office says. “… the full extent of this event will take years to document – not to mention, to recover from.”
- Water was already beginning to inundate cities, “all while the heaviest rain from Helene was just beginning to fall,” the climate office said. The more than 300 miles of tropical storm-force winds Helene produced only amplified the situation, pushing more moisture up mountains.
- From the start of the precursor frontal showers on Wednesday evening to the heart of Helene moving through on Friday morning, it was one of the most incredible and impactful weather events our state has ever seen
- In Buncombe County, home to Asheville, Emergency Services Assistant Director Ryan Cole told the Citizen-Times that “catastrophic devastation” didn’t accurately describe the impact the deluge had.
- “It would go a little bit further and say we have biblical devastation through the county,” Cole said. “We’ve had biblical flooding here and it has been extremely significant.”
- The day after Helene made landfall, at least six tornadoes were confirmed, including an EF3 in Rocky Mount that destroyed several buildings.
- Officials often retire hurricane names when they are particularly devastating, and while such action has yet to be announced, the climatologists suggest it may only be a matter of time.
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Important Takeaways:
- The White House on Tuesday said the US believes Iran is preparing an imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel.
- “The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel. We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran,” a senior White House official said in a statement.
- “As of this moment, Israel does not perceive imminent threat from Iran,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
- During a short video message, Hagari said Israeli military planes are currently “scanning the sky” for any imminent threat from Iran.
- “We are on peak alert both on the offensive and the defensive,” Hagari added, warning Iran that any attack on Israel would “have consequences.” Tensions between Israel and Iran have ratcheted up significantly in recent weeks as Israel has stepped up its efforts against Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Iran-backed militant group.
- Israel on Monday launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.
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