First Thing: Israel launches fresh strikes after nearly 500 killed in Lebanon

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in southern Lebanon. Plus, in contrast to GOP narratives, murder fell by 11% from 2022 to 2023

Good morning.

Israel is carrying out a new wave of airstrikes on Lebanon on Tuesday morning, following its barrage on Monday that killed at least 492 and injured another 1,645, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. It is the country’s highest daily death toll since the end of its 1975-90 civil war.

Tens of thousands of people fled towards Beirut from Lebanon’s south as Israel carried out its most intense bombardment of Lebanon since the Gaza war began almost a year ago, targeting alleged Hezbollah positions. At least 35 children are included among those killed by Israeli strikes, an official from Unicef said.

The Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said the Israeli military was preparing for the “next phases” in Lebanon and was “targeting combat infrastructure” built by Hezbollah over the last two decades.

How is the US responding? The Pentagon has said the US is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East due to the escalating tensions, but declined to give a number.

Pennsylvania critical to White House hopes, Trump tells rally

Donald Trump told a rally in Pennsylvania that winning their state’s support would be crucial to his prospects of returning to the White House, in a rambling speech that sought to paint a bleak picture of America under the Democrats.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” Trump said, after coming onstage more than 45 minutes later than scheduled. “It’s very simple.” He attacked Kamala Harris, calling her “a dumb person”, and, at one point, questioned why his oratory is not more widely praised, despite getting “much bigger crowds” than wartime British prime minister, Winston Churchill.

Pennsylvania has been a mainstay for presidential candidates’ campaigns, with both Trump and Harris passing through it frequently in the race’s last two months. However, Trump has held significantly fewer rallies this time round compared with 2016, Axios recently reported, which said his campaign promises he will increase his number of rallies in the final stretch.

What is Pennsylvania looking like? Polls on average have given Harris a small lead over Trump. The state swung Democratic in 2020.

Project 2025 mastermind allegedly told colleagues he killed a dog with a shovel

The man behind the rightwing, anti-immigration policy manifesto, Project 2025, told colleagues around two decades ago that he had killed a neighbor’s dog with a shovel, according toformer colleagues who spoke to the Guardian.

Kevin Roberts, now the president of the conservative thinktank, the Heritage Foundation, is alleged to have told colleagues and dinner guests that he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004. None of the sources recall him saying it was due to the dog actively threatening him or his family.

When questioned by the Guardian, Roberts denied ever killing a dog with a shovel and did not answer questions about why several people told the newspaper he told them that he had. “This is a patently untrue and baseless story backed by zero evidence. In 2004, a neighbor’s chained pit bull attempted to jump a fence into my backyard as I was gardening with my young daughter. Thankfully, the owner arrived in time to restrain the animal before it could get loose and attack us.”

What did the neighbor say? He could not say if Roberts had killed his dog in 2004 – but said it went missing at that time.

In other news …

Japanese fighter jets used flares to warn a Russian reconnaissance aircraft to leave the country’s airspace, its defence ministry said in an unprecedented development.

World leaders will meet at the UN this week to negotiate a political declaration on drug-resistant infections, as superbugs like drug-resistant typhoid spread.

Missouri will execute a man by legal injection on Tuesday, despite efforts from prosecutors to have his case overturned and concerns that he did not get a fair trial.

Stat of the day: Murder dropped by more than 11% from 2022 to 2023, FBI data shows

Despite claims by Donald Trump that crime has soared under Joe Biden, the number of murders fell by more than 11% between 2022 and 2023 – the largest year-on-year decrease in two decades, according to FBI data, while overall violent crime has fallen by about 3%. While rape, burglary, and property crime were all down, car theft rose by around 12.6%, and shoplifting was back to levels seen before the pandemic.

Don’t miss this: If Trump wins the election, here’s what’s at stake for LGBTQ+ people

For LGBTQ+ people such as 17-year-old Levi Hormuth, a second Trump term would be devastating. Transgender youth have been front and center of the GOP’s culture war, and Trump has promised a slate of measures, including repealing federal laws against discriminating against LGBTQ+ people and revoking funding from hospitals that provide trans-affirming care to under-18s.

Climate check: Rich countries could raise $5tn of climate finance a year, study says

Rich countries could raise five times the money that developing nations are asking for via windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies, scrapping polluting subsidies and a wealth tax on billionaires, research shows. Poorer countries want at least $1tn (£750bn) a year in public money to help them deal with the effects of extreme weather and reduce their reliance on non-renewables.

Last Thing: Is it time to retire one of the world’s biggest beer measures?

A study last week found that replacing Brits’ measure of choice – the pint – with a two-thirds serve could reduce beer consumption by almost 10% and improve public health. The reaction from some quarters was hysterical. “Woke scientists want to shrink your PINT”! read one headline.

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