Monday Briefing: Hezbollah strikes an Israeli military base

Plus, the latest from the U.S. election campaign trail.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 14, 2024 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering a Hezbollah attack on an Israeli military base and the latest from the U.S. campaign trail. Plus: Can governments get their citizens to have more babies? Securing a road in Binyamina, Israel, after a drone attack on Sunday. Amir Levy/Getty Images A Hezbollah strike kills 4 Israeli soldiers A drone strike by Hezbollah on a base in northern Israel killed four soldiers and wounded dozens of other people, the Israeli military said yesterday, in what some saw as evidence of a worrisome gap in Israel's air defense systems. Cross-border attacks by the militants have continued despite heavy Israeli bombardments aimed at Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Israel is also at war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and was struck by Iranian missiles on Oct. 1. Concern about further attacks prompted the U.S. to announce yesterday that it was sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, along with around 100 troops to operate it, bringing American forces closer to the war in the Middle East. As Israeli troops moved into southern Lebanon in recent days, they have found themselves at loggerheads with U.N. peacekeepers. Israeli tanks entered a U.N. base yesterday, drawing a protest from the U.N. mission, which said the incursion had endangered the peacekeepers there. In the West Bank: Reporters for The Times rode along on two bus trips — one for Israelis, the other for Palestinians — that tell a story of separate and unequal roadways. In Lebanon: Israel's military showed journalists parts of what it said was Hezbollah's entrenched military infrastructure. Investigation: Secret documents seized by the Israeli military show that Hamas tried to persuade Iran to join its devastating Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Republican volunteers talked about door-to-door campaigning in Kenosha, Wis., last month.  Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times One race, two very different campaigns In the final weeks of the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are using vastly different tactics. Harris's team has deployed flotillas of paid staff members to organize and turn out every vote they can find. Trump's campaign is pursuing less frequent voters, while relying on less experienced outside groups to reach a broader swath. Harris's support among Hispanic voters is in dangerously low territory for Democrats, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. Trump has maintained his strength with them, even as he deploys a sharply anti-immigrant message, but about one-quarter of respondents said they were undecided or persuadable. Read more about Trump's success with Hispanic and Black voters. Trump campaign: With three weeks to Election Day, the former president is feeling aggrieved, unappreciated by donors and fenced in by security concerns, insiders say. The latest: At a rally in North Carolina, Harris challenged Trump to release medical information and meet her for another debate. He has tried to bat down questions about his age and cognitive state. And in Coachella, Calif., a man was arrested and accused of illegal weapons possession while trying to enter a Trump rally on Saturday evening. From Opinion: Ezra Klein offers advice for maintaining your sanity in the last weeks before Election Day. More on the U.S. election Americans head to the polls in less than four weeks. Control of the Senate appears likely to flip from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the Nov. 5 election, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College. Trump is stoking resentments and pointing to scapegoats in an attempt to convince Black and Latino voters to support him. Watch or listen to a political round table with Times journalists and The Daily's Michael Barbaro as they discuss which voters matter most to both campaigns. Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we'll find the answers. A SpaceX rocket booster returned to the launch pad during a test flight yesterday in Boca Chica, Texas. Eric Gay/Associated Press SpaceX advanced its Starship program SpaceX pulled off a feat of technical wizardry during its Starship rocket's fifth test flight yesterday morning, flying a 233-foot rocket booster back to its launch site near Brownsville, Texas, and catching it with two giant mechanical arms as it descended. The company, founded by Elon Musk, has built and flown the world's largest and most powerful rocket and demonstrated key technology needed to let it fly again and again quickly, more like a jetliner than a rocket. MORE TOP NEWS Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times Ukraine: Russia stepped up its assaults on Black Sea port infrastructure, in what Ukraine calls an attempt to disrupt its exports. Italy: Karima el-Mahrou, who was at the center of revelations of bacchanals at Silvio Berlusconi's villa, is still fighting a court case 14 years later. Japan: Nihon Hidankyo, a collective of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. South Korea: In a lonely nation with the world's lowest birthrate, many people are turning to dogs for companionship. France: A rating agency warns that the country is one of the most financially troubled in Europe, with a ballooning national debt and deficit. India: Sonam Wangchuk, an activist from the remote region of Ladakh, is leading protests to demand more control over how that land is used and governed. War games: China began holding military drills around Taiwan earlier today. What Else Is Happening Northern lights: A dazzling display lit up night skies last week. See photos and videos. Fisher-Price: The company recalled more than two million Snuga Swings after at least five infants died while sleeping in the product. Animal control: A woman in Washington State called an emergency hotline after about 100 aggressive raccoons showed up in her yard. Business: Companies like Amazon have required workers to return to the office five days a week, despite findings that show benefits for employers that allow some remote days. Real estate: Billy Joel will sell the Long Island house that the musician first saw while dredging oysters as a teenager. (The listing price is $49.9 million.) Incarceration: The San Quentin prison once housed California's death row. It's now known for creative pursuits, including a film festival. SPORTS NEWS Soccer: The U.S. men's national team opened the Mauricio Pochettino era with a 2-0 win over Panama. Formula 1: Jannik Sinner won the Shanghai Masters after a straight-sets victory over Novak Djokovic. Football: Catch up on the N.F.L. Week 6 top story lines, as rookie quarterbacks are in the spotlight. Running: At the Chicago Marathon, Ruth Chepngetich became the first woman to finish in less than 2 hours 10 minutes. (For more on running, read how "shoe doping" changed marathon times in ways we still don't understand.) MORNING READ Photo Illustration by Matt Chase In the 1990s, Japan began rolling out policies designed to encourage people to have more babies. But none have worked, and the number of babies born in the country last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899. Governments across Europe, East Asia and North America are now following suit, but modern families just don't seem to want to get bigger. So what, if anything, might induce people to have more babies? Lives lived: Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland who campaigned for the country to leave the United Kingdom, died on Saturday after delivering a speech in North Macedonia. He was 69. CONVERSATION STARTERS Sexy, strange and surreal: Parris Goebel's muscular dances for Rihanna, SZA and other stars are reshaping what modern pop choreography looks like. A century-old clue: A boot found on Mount Everest could shed light on the mysterious disappearance of two pioneering climbers in 1924. Hedgehogs and centrifuges: Millennials and Gen Z place a high value on happiness, which helps explain why they spend more than older generations on nonessential purchases. Moose staking: While reporting on Newfoundland's invasive moose population, the Times correspondent Ian Austen recounted the difficulty of spotting one in the wild. ARTS AND IDEAS Brian Rea 20 years of Modern Love Daniel Jones has edited The Times's Modern Love column for two decades this month. After reading some 200,000 stories — some perplexing, some devastating, some inspiring — he recalls seven lessons that have helped him love better. One standout: Appreciate the beauty of impermanence. "A compatibility question on a dating app asks if you would choose to live forever if you could," Daniel writes. "Many people say yes, which always surprises me: Have they considered what living forever would mean? Nothing that's limitless can be precious. Life and love are fleeting, which is why we hold onto them so dearly." Read all seven lessons. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. RECOMMENDATIONS Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Cook: Sugo finto, "fake sauce" in Italian, is a vegetable ragu full of real flavor. Read: "Unleashed," Boris Johnson's new memoir, makes the case for a Donald Trump comeback — and, perhaps, his own. Watch: Stream our pick of scary movies ahead of the spooky season. Comfort: What not to say to a grieving friend. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. It's great to be back. See you tomorrow. — Natasha Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Europe Edition from The New York Times. To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Europe Edition, unsubscribe. 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