Israel continues to bombard Lebanon, killing at least 25 people so far today, including a family of nine in the border town of Shebaa. Israel has killed over 700 people in Lebanon since Monday.

In an apparent flip-flop, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening he does support a U.S.-led temporary ceasefire effort, though he’s done nothing to slow down Israel’s assault and Israeli officials have threatened to launch a ground invasion. Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

Abdallah Bou Habib: “Lebanon is living through a crisis that threatens its very existence. The future of our people and our prosperity are in peril, and this is a situation that requires international intervention on an urgent basis before the situation spirals out of control with a domino effect, making the crisis impossible to contain.”

The U.N. says some 30,000 people have fled Lebanon for Syria in recent days. Meanwhile, Syrian media says an Israeli airstrike from the occupied Golan Heights earlier today killed five Syrian soldiers on its border with Lebanon.

Israel’s assault on Gaza continues with another airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in Jabaliya, which killed at least 14 people Thursday.

Rami Abdul-Nabi: “Where are these people supposed to go? They are not here for leisure or fun. These are people whose homes were destroyed in the north, in Beit Lahia, Jabaliya base, Beit Hanoun. This is a question for the international community, which has double standards. We demand the international organizations, the international community, the United Nations to provide us with safe places.”

Israel’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it secured another $8.7 billion in funding from the United States. Israel has killed over 41,500 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7 and wounded 96,000 others, according to official numbers.

More than 100 U.S. lawmakers have signed on to a letter by Washington Congressmember Adam Smith demanding an independent investigation into Israel’s killing of Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi earlier this month in the occupied West Bank. Eygi’s family has also demanded the U.S. investigate, after the Biden administration said it would instead rely on Israel’s internal probe.

A Cornell University student is facing deportation to the United Kingdom after administrators suspended him for taking part in a campus protest calling on Cornell to divest from companies that support Israel’s assault on Gaza. Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. student in Africana studies, says he was advised to leave the U.S. “promptly” after his academic suspension led Cornell’s immigration office to cancel his F-1 student visa. Democracy Now! spoke with Momodou Taal on Thursday.

Momodou Taal: “Yes, it’s about freedom of speech, but that cannot be divorced from Palestine. The issue why we’re facing such repression and such repressive tactics is because it’s about Palestine. It’s because you’re speaking anti-Israel and anti-Israel’s genocide in Gaza. These issues are not, like, separate. So, absolutely, I think I’m a visible person. I’m quite outspoken on this issue. And I think this is the reason why I’m being targeted.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has declined the prestigious Noguchi Museum award, after the museum recently fired three employees for wearing a keffiyeh. Lahiri, who teaches at Barnard, was one of many academics who signed on to a letter in May expressing support for Gaza solidarity protesters on campus.

Protests targeting Benjamin Netanyahu took place across New York City Thursday as he arrived in town ahead of his address to the U.N. General Assembly this morning. Yesterday morning, activists blocked traffic near the U.N. headquarters, unfurling a banner that read “NO WAR CRIMINALS IN NYC–STOP THE GENOCIDE!” before police began arresting people. More protests and arrests took place throughout the day and into the night. This is Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink.

Jodie Evans: “He’s executing state-sponsored terrorism. The fact that he was allowed to land in this city and he is staying in a hotel and he is not arrested is a shame on everyone in power in the United States and in the city.”

At the U.N. General Assembly, leaders of low-lying Pacific nations urged the global community to take decisive action ahead of a major declaration, scheduled for 2026, on how the world will tackle sea level rise, an existential threat for many island nations. This is Feleti Teo, prime minister of Tuvalu.

Prime Minister Feleti Teo: “We expect the declaration to include the following: firstly, to ascertain the principle of statehood continuity as a tenet of international law and international cooperation, and to affirm that statehood cannot be challenged under any circumstances of sea level rise. Our membership in the United Nations and its specialized agency is permanent, notwithstanding the impact of climate change.”

Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida’s Big Bend region overnight as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing 140 mile-an-hour winds and record storm surge to the Gulf Coast. The storm rapidly moved inland and across Georgia, triggering flood and landslide warnings across the southern Appalachians. Up to five related deaths have been reported so far, and at least 2 million people are without power.

Sunrise Movement has welcomed the economic and climate proposal released by Kamala Harris this week as a “significant step forward.” The influential climate group said Harris’s plan would help “lower prices, expand green energy production, and create green, union jobs,” but called for even bolder steps to tackle the unfolding climate disaster.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday he has no intention of stepping down after federal prosecutors indicted him on corruption charges. This is Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Damian Williams: “Mayor Adams engaged in a long-running conspiracy in which he solicited and knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors and corporations. As we allege, Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal and even though he knew these contributions were attempts by a Turkish government official and Turkish businessmen to buy influence with him. … We also allege that the mayor sought and accepted well over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits from some of the same foreign actors who arranged many of the illegal campaign contributions.”

In exchange, prosecutors allege Adams helped Turkey’s government open a new 36-story consular building near the United Nations without a fire inspection. We’ll have more after headlines.

Special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday filed a 180-page brief detailing Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election and arguing his case in light of the Supreme Court decision this summer that granted Trump broad immunity against criminal charges. Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan will decide whether the contents of the dossier will be made available to the public before the November election.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has unveiled a Supreme Court reform bill that includes expanding the court by six justices, mandating audits for justices, automatically scheduling Supreme Court nominees for a Senate vote and requiring supermajorities to overturn laws passed by Congress. Wyden said, “The Supreme Court is in crisis. … More transparency, more accountability and more checks on a power hungry Supreme Court are just what the American people are asking for.”

President Biden signed a three-month spending bill Thursday, keeping the government funded through December 20, after Congress passed the bill on Wednesday. House Democrats backed the bill after Speaker Mike Johnson withdrew a GOP- and Trump-backed measure that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

President Biden has signed an executive order targeting guns. Biden’s order creates a task force to investigate new technologies including 3D printed guns and machine gun conversions. It also orders the drafting of federal guidelines to limit the psychological harm to students of active shooter drills in high schools.

​​President Biden said Thursday the U.S. will surge nearly $8 billion in new military aid to Ukraine, including long-range missiles. Biden made the announcement ahead of a meeting at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Biden reportedly did not grant Ukraine permission to fire U.S.-made weapons deep into Russian territory. Zelensky also met separately Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris, who pledged her “unwavering” support to Ukraine after the talks.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “History has shown us if we allow aggressors like Putin to take land with impunity, they keep going. And Putin could set his sights on Poland, the Baltic states and other NATO allies. Putin started this war, and he could end it tomorrow, if he simply withdrew his troops from Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons to respond to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian territory if they were supported by a nuclear-armed nation.

A Hong Kong court on Thursday sentenced two editors of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Stand News to jail time after their conviction last month on sedition charges. Chung Pui-kuen will serve 21 months; Patrick Lam received an 11-month sentence but will avoid jail on medical grounds. It’s the first time journalists have been convicted of sedition since Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China in 1997, and comes as part of Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s autonomy.

In Haiti, the U.N. says over 3,600 people have been killed in gang violence in the first half of this year. Earlier this week, Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conille said his country is “nowhere near winning this” as he addressed Haiti’s spiraling security and humanitarian situation on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Despite the dire situation, the group Haitian Bridge Alliance said the Biden administration chartered yet another deportation flight with Haitian asylum seekers on Thursday.

New data from Argentina’s statistics agency shows the country’s poverty rate has skyrocketed to 53% after six months of far-right libertarian President Javier Milei’s austerity policies. That’s up 11% since 2023, as the number of people living in extreme poverty grew by 3 million during the first half of 2024. This is Irma Casal of Buenos Aires, one of the many people who say they’ve suffered under the new government’s economic shock therapy.

Irma Casal: “Since Milei’s government took office, our work has dropped. We work twice as much for less, and we have to continue. At my age, I’m not getting hired anywhere else, except maybe dragging a cart and nothing more. So I keep pushing forward.”