Thursday Briefing: The U.S. pushes for a cease-fire in Lebanon

September 26, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering the push to pause fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and Trump’s fading edge in the Electoral College.

Plus, 3,600-year-old cheese.

Silhouettes of people looking up in the sky at plumes of smoke.

An Israeli defense system intercepting missiles over northern Israel on Wednesday. Atef Safadi/EPA, via Shutterstock

U.S. diplomats push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah

The U.S. is working to broker a short-term cease-fire to halt the violence between Israel and Hezbollah, an American official said yesterday, in the hope of averting a wider war in the region.

The diplomatic push comes after the Israeli military said it shot down a Hezbollah missile fired at Tel Aviv, the first time that the group took direct aim at the city. Israel’s military also told its soldiers to prepare for a possible ground incursion into Lebanon as it continued its barrage of attacks on the country yesterday. At least 51 people were killed and 223 others wounded in airstrikes, the Lebanese health minister said.

The immediate goal is to reduce the risk of a wider conflict that would destabilize the region. But American officials also hope that finding a way to de-escalate the threat of war with Hezbollah could put pressure on Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader, to agree to a deal that would end nearly a year of fighting in Gaza and lead to the release of the remaining hostages captured during the group’s Oct. 7 attacks.

West Bank: Videos from Tulkarm and Jenin show bulldozers destroying infrastructure and businesses, as well as soldiers impeding local emergency responders.

Donald Trump in a navy suit and red tie stands in front of a crowd.

Donald Trump makes remarks at the Mosack Group in Mint Hill, N.C. on Wednesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Trump’s Electoral College edge appears to be fading

In 2016, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by almost three million votes. But, with more than 300 electoral votes, he still won the presidential election, leaving many to believe that Republicans hold an intractable advantage in the Electoral College.

But there is growing evidence that Trump’s once formidable advantage in the Electoral College is shrinking, according to my colleague, Nate Cohn, our chief political analyst. And it does not seem that Vice President Kamala Harris will necessarily need to win the popular vote by much to prevail. In his latest newsletter, Nate explains why.

More on the U.S. election

Americans head to the polls in less than 50 days.

Politicians often lean toward hyperbole, but Trump’s frequent use of the word “love” in the former president’s fund-raising notes is an increasingly common tactic for him.
President Biden told the hosts of a talk show on ABC that “there’s not a lot of redeeming value” to Trump. Asked if he would have won if he stayed in the presidential race, Biden replied: “Yes. I was confident I would beat Trump. He’s a loser.”
Trump complained about the pace of the F.B.I.’s investigation into the two assassination attempts against him and said they might have been tied to Iran — even as officials have said there is no evidence to suggest it.

Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we’ll find the answers.

Two Shinto shrine maidens guiding a couple toward a wedding ceremony. Behind the couple, another person holds a large umbrella over their heads. The group is standing outside a shrine.

A wedding ceremony at a Shinto shrine in Tokyo. Androniki Christodoulou/Reuters

Japan’s next prime minister could reverse the marital naming law

Much as abortion rights have become a litmus test in American politics, Japan’s marital naming law has helped define the election to replace Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who announced last month that he would step down. Tomorrow, the governing Liberal Democratic Party will hold the election, in which the nine candidates have differentiated themselves through their positions on the law requiring married couples to share a family name.

Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, is the youngest candidate in the race and has vowed to pass a law allowing married couples to retain separate surnames if he is elected. The leading conservative candidate, Sanae Takaichi, 63 — who would be Japan’s first female prime minister — has said that the naming law should remain in place to preserve family unity and to protect future offspring from confusion.

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EXPLORE MORE

MORE TOP NEWS

A portrait of the Senegalese president Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who has a beard and close-cropped hair. He is sitting in a chair wearing formal black attire.

Senegal’s president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in the presidential palace in Dakar, the capital, on Friday. Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times

Senegal: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye went from prisoner to president-elect in 10 days. In his first interview with a Western media outlet, he made the case for a world order that would give more weight to Africa.
U.S.: The House passed a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown just ahead of the November elections.
Russia: President Vladimir Putin said his country should be able to deploy nuclear weapons if it was attacked by a nation supported by a nuclear power.
OpenAI: Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, said she would leave the company after working there for more than six years.
China: Beijing said that it had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean, its first such public announcement in 44 years.
Taiwan: The island held trade talks with American officials and companies in hopes of making itself a bigger player in the supply chain for drones for allied countries.
Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau survived a vote of no confidence yesterday. Here’s how Canada fell out of love with him.
France: Gisèle Pelicot waived anonymity to make public the rape trial of her former husband and 50 other men. Her poise has made her a hero.

Sports

Manchester City soccer players celebrating a win with one another on the playing field. Behind them, a large crowd roars with excitement and cheers them on.

Manchester City teammates celebrated a goal in front of a large crowd earlier this year in London. Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Premier League: Who’s the most valuable player in the English soccer league? Defeat rate is one way to determine it.
Baseball: Shohei Ohtani’s season began with injury and scandal. It’s finishing as one of the greatest ever.

MORNING READ

A gloved hand holding up a small piece of mummified cheese. Behind the hand is a blurry background.

The world’s oldest cheese was found on a mummy in the Tarim Basin of northwestern China. Wanjing Ping/Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Humanity’s love affair with cheese goes back millenniums. About 3,600 years ago, chunks of cheese were laid out like a necklace in a young woman’s grave in China — and now they are considered the oldest in the world. A study published yesterday sheds light on the ancient cheese and offers insight into the origins of the dairy product known as kefir.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

A rogue plan: Silicon Valley’s latest hot idea involves releasing pollutants into the sky to help cool the planet.
A pedestrian utopia: Pontevedra, a small city in northwest Spain, has been a pioneer in prioritizing people over cars for more than 20 years.
Dream home, dark legacy: When a Berlin couple discovered who once lived in the house they were touring, they still wanted to make the place their own.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

Two people operate a giant Nintendo 64 controller while playing a Mario video game that is displayed on a large projector screen.

Interactive exhibits at the new Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, Japan, are a nostalgic experience for those who grew up playing the company’s games. Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

How Nintendo went from playing cards to Super Mario

How did a local storefront selling handmade playing cards in the 1880s turn into the Nintendo we know today? The Times spoke with Shigeru Miyamoto, an executive at Nintendo who created mascots like Super Mario, Princess Zelda and Donkey Kong, to discuss its transformation from a video game company into a global entertainment brand.

Following a path of originality has defined Miyamoto’s work at Nintendo and the company’s counterintuitive approach. This arc of the company’s journey will be on display at the Nintendo Museum, which opens next month in Kyoto.

“It might seem like we are just going the opposite direction for the sake of going in the opposite direction, but it really is trying to find what makes Nintendo special,” Miyamoto said. “There is a lot of talk about A.I., for example. When that happens, everyone starts to go in the same direction, but that is where Nintendo would rather go in a different direction.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

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Armando Rafael for The New York Times

Cook: This pantry pasta recipe transforms a whole jar of sun-dried tomatoes into a perfectly easy pasta sauce.

Listen: Can we stop eating microplastics? Wirecutter’s sustainability editor discusses how to minimize our exposure to them.

Read: An admirer of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky retraced the path he once took through three German spa towns.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all of our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Gaya

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