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September 23, 2024 
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Good morning. We're covering rising tensions in the Middle East and controversies in the Republican Party.
Plus: a Russian military officer's story of desertion and escape.
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| Damage from an early morning strike in Kiryat Bialik, Israel, yesterday. Shir Torem/Reuters |
Israel and Hezbollah trade strikes and threats
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel would take "whatever action is necessary" to diminish the threat posed by Hezbollah, while its deputy leader warned that the conflict was entering "a new stage."
The threats added to mounting fears that intensifying tit-for-tat violence between Israel and Hezbollah has put the region on the brink of a wider catastrophe. Over the weekend, the Israeli military carried out an airstrike in Beirut, killing several senior Hezbollah officials, including a top commander. Lebanese authorities said that the airstrike had killed at least 45 people, including women and children.
Later, in response, Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets, missiles and drones deep into Israel but avoided the center of the country. A video shows a direct hit on Kiryat Bialik, near the city of Haifa.
In Lebanon: After a week defined by explosions and funerals, residents living in a Hezbollah-dominated area of Beirut are grappling with uncertainty over what will come next — including the prospect of an all-out war with Israel. Some were quietly debating whether they should leave.
In the West Bank: Israel's military closed Al Jazeera's office for 45 days.
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| Kenny Holston/The New York Times |
Chaos and controversy surges in the Republican Party
Donald Trump's campaign over the past two weeks has been tumultuous.
This period began when Trump pushed baseless claims that immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating household pets. It ended with him facing attacks over his support of the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, who referred to himself as a "black Nazi" on the message board of a pornographic website. And in between, he urged a government shutdown, elevated a Sept. 11 conspiracy theorist, declared "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" on social media after she endorsed his rival and warned that "the Jewish people" would be responsible if he lost the election.
In the past, such a drumbeat of controversy in the final weeks of the campaign might have given voters pause, even prompting shifts in the race. But this year, the nation has met the crush of chaos with little more than a shrug and, some strategists say, a desire to tune out the campaign altogether.
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| Dietmar Woidke, center, the Social Democrat governor of the state of Brandenburg, Germany, yesterday Markus Schreiber/Associated Press |
A narrow win over the far right in Germany
Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party scored a narrow victory over Alternative für Deutschland, the far-right ethnonationalist party, in an election in the state of Brandenburg.
Although state elections don't directly affect the government in Berlin, they are often seen as a reflection of the government's popularity and the national mood. Germany votes for a new chancellor and federal government in a year.
What this victory means for Scholz's chances is not clear. His government is unpopular, and his party is polling at 14 percent. Many voters said they voted for the Social Democrats to ensure that the AfD would not gain power, according to polls sponsored by public television.
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| Anura Kumara Dissanayake, center, on Saturday. Chamila Karunarathne/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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| Mark Thompson/Getty Images |
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| Elinor Carucci for The New York Times |
For Ivan, joining Russia's military seemed like an honorable path. But after serving as a captain in the Russian Army and fighting in Ukraine, he fled the war and his country with his wife, Anna. His story, and those of 18 other deserters, paint a vivid picture of the Russian war operation and its corruption, chaos and brutality. Listen to Liev Schreiber narrate Sarah A. Topol's article, or read it in The Times Magazine.
Lives lived: Michael Siffre, a pioneer in chronobiology, the study of how our bodies understand the passage of time, died at 85.
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| Carolyn Fong for The New York Times |
How a former Apple designer is reimagining San Francisco
If you haven't heard of Jony Ive, you've most likely seen his work. During his 27 years at Apple, the British designer conceived the minimalist aesthetic that the iPhone and other products are known for.
But five years ago, at the pinnacle of his career, Ive left to start his own design firm, LoveFrom. Now, his latest projects lie in the Jackson Square neighborhood of San Francisco, where he has accumulated nearly $90 million worth of real estate on a single city block.
It is unclear what the real estate spending spree will amount to, but his goal is to draw creative types to the area. So far, he has turned one of his buildings into a home base for his agency's work on automotive, fashion and travel products. Another is the headquarters of a new artificial intelligence device company that he is developing with OpenAI.
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Food photo goes he
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| Julia Gartland for The New York Times |
Cook: Lemon-pepper tofu and snap peas is a quick, healthy dinner.
Watch: Anand Ekarshi's whip-smart Malayalam drama "Attam" is one of the best international movies to stream right now.
Read: The lavish coffee table tomes from Assouline are the Birkin bags of the book world.
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. See you tomorrow. — Justin
Reach Justin and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
