Friday Briefing: Israel expands evacuation orders in Lebanon

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October 4, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering the conflict in southern Lebanon and Donald Trump’s latest comments on Haitian immigrants.

Plus, paying countries to protect trees.

An Israeli airstrike on the town of Khiam, Lebanon, yesterday. Carl Court/Getty Images

Israel expanded evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 20 more towns and villages in southern Lebanon, signaling a potential expansion of its assault on Hezbollah. The areas covered in the evacuation order lie above the upper boundary of a buffer zone that the U.N. established after Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006.

The Lebanese Army said it had exchanged fire with the Israeli military after one of its soldiers was killed by Israeli fire. Although the clash appeared to be contained, the exchange was a potentially dangerous development. Lebanon’s armed forces are not actively engaged in combat with the Israeli military. They are backed and funded by the U.S. and are loyal to the state of Lebanon, not the Iranian-supported Hezbollah.

Beirut bombing: Lebanese health officials said the death toll from an Israeli strike near the heart of the capital city had risen to at least nine people. No apparent warning preceded the overnight strike.

Oil: Prices jumped after President Biden, when asked if he would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil facilities, said, “We’re discussing that.” Iran’s oil infrastructure accounts for about 2 percent of the world’s supply.

Springfield, Ohio, has become the center of controversy concerning its Haitian immigrants. Kaiti Sullivan for The New York Times

Trump threatened the legal status of Haitian immigrants

Donald Trump said that, if elected again, he would revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. Trump’s initial attempt to revoke their legal status failed during his first term as president after district courts temporarily blocked it. The Biden administration renewed their status after he took office.

Haitian immigrants, particularly in Springfield, Ohio, have been a recurring target of Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, who both have repeated false claims that the immigrants have killed and eaten pets.

The immigrants in question are living and working in the U.S. legally through a program that Congress created in 1990 for people from countries experiencing war and other crises. Haiti was initially designated a protected country in 2010, after an earthquake devastated the nation. It has since experienced a major hurricane, a cholera epidemic and political unrest.

More on the U.S. election Americans head to the polls in less than 40 days. Punishing hours, dilapidated facilities and an ill-conceived retiree program left the Secret Service without the personnel it needed in a year of threats and violence. Melania Trump, the former first lady, said in a video that there was “no room for compromise” on a woman’s right to “individual freedom.” Trump is refusing to disclose basic health information. If elected again, he would become the oldest president by the end of his term. Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we’ll find the answers.

Lenacapavir is a twice-yearly injection. Nardus Engelbrecht/Associated Press

Gilead will allow a generic H.I.V. shot in poor countries

The drugmaker Gilead Sciences announced a plan to allow several generic pharmaceutical companies to make and sell its groundbreaking H.I.V. injection, lenacapavir, which provides near-total protection from the disease. The companies will be allowed to sell the drug at a lower price in more than a hundred countries, including those with the highest rates of the disease.

Gilead says the deal will provide rapid and broad access to a medication that has the potential to end the decades-long H.I.V. epidemic. But the deal leaves out higher-income countries, reflecting a widening gulf in health care access that is increasingly isolating the people in the middle.

S. Iswaran pleaded guilty to charges of accepting gifts that included tickets to the musical “Hamilton.” Edgar Su/Reuters

Sports

Michael Jordan and his team, 23XI Racing, say NASCAR is run in a way that makes it hard to make money. Mike Stewart/Associated Press

The Royal Parks

A revolution is afoot in London’s green spaces, including Regent’s Park: Manicured is out, wild is in. Much of the park has been allowed to take on a more rugged look in response to the global climate and biodiversity emergency. However, the park’s famous rose garden and elegant tree-lined walkways will always remain well tended.

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

Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press

Brazil’s billion-dollar plan to protect trees

What if financial markets treated trees like shareholders?

That’s what a new fund in Brazil is pitching to the world. The fund, Tropical Forests Forever Facility, would pay developing countries a fee for every hectare of forest they maintain. It could ultimately pay out $4 billion a year to protect forests.

Over the past two decades, countries have been losing roughly nine million acres of tropical forest a year. The fund aims to flip the economics that have long fueled deforestation by effectively paying countries for the crucial benefits that tropical forests provide, such as storing planet-warming carbon and regulating rain patterns.

Armando Rafael for The New York Times

Cook: Canned tuna is a complementary addition to the punchy, briny flavors of puttanesca.

Read: Did you love “Heartstopper”? These seven love stories will also tug at your heartstrings.

Watch: In “Daaaaaalí!,” the French absurdist director Quentin Dupieux adopted the approach of Salvador Dalí, a Surrealist painter, to deliver a particularly loopy tale.

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

That’s it for today. Have a good weekend. — Gaya — Gaya

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