World Briefing: October 8, 2024

Ten firefighters in Lebanon have been killed after Israeli soldiers targeted a fire station affiliated with the Islamic Health Authority in the town of Baraachit, according to officials. Lebanon’s official National News Agency cited the Health Ministry as saying the killed firefighters were “in the building ready to go out on rescue missions”, adding efforts to remove the rubble were ongoing. - Al Jazeera

Hezbollah is again firing rockets at the northern Israeli city of Haifa, after the city was hit for the first time in 18 years on Monday. Israel reported more than 100 rockets in Haifa and the wider region on Tuesday, saying some were intercepted. Earlier, Israel said its troops have begun ground operations in south-west Lebanon - until now, its invasion had focused on the eastern side of the border. The ground offensive began on 30 September, and Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah sites. Further north, Israeli air strikes on Beirut continued overnight - the IDF says it killed a Hezbollah commander on Monday BBC

A nonpartisan group forecasts that Trump’s economic plan will push the United States $7.5 trillion deeper into debt in the next decade, more than double the $3.5 trillion that Kamala Harris’ plan would add - Daily Beast

The armed forces of the Philippines, the U.S. and four other countries began joint naval exercises off the coast of the Philippines' northern Luzon island facing Taiwan in a display of naval strength amid rising tensions with China. This year's drills, which involve almost a thousand sailors and personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United States and the Philippines, are high-intensity exercises focusing on anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air warfare. U.S. navy rear admiral Todd Cimicata told reporters in the port of Subic, to the west of Manila, that building partnerships with key allies created a "deterrent effect," though he added that the exercises were not targeted at any country. - Nikkei

Hurricane Milton in the southeast US dipped down to Category 4 strength overnight, but it is expected to rebound to a Category 5 later today. Even though it is forecast to weaken before it makes landfall, it is likely to keep growing in size — meaning its disastrous impacts will be felt over a much larger area. The storm is forecast to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm. Its dangerous eye and eyewall could come ashore anywhere from Cedar Key in the north to Naples in the south, possibly in the Tampa or Fort Myers areas. It’s been less than two weeks since Hurricane Helene walloped Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 storm, leaving at least 20 dead in the state. Now, officials are warning Milton’s impact could be even more severe and far-reaching, triggering mass evacuations and around-the-clock preparations along Florida’s Gulf Coast. - CNN

Russian ballistic missiles have once again struck Odesa port infrastructure. A 60-year-old cargo worker was killed, officials said. The missile hit a Palau-flagged civilian vessel. Five foreign citizens injured. Odesa is a crucial component of the global food supply chain. Around the same time, drones caused significant damage to apartment buildings in Odesa

A Russian court has sentenced a 72-year-old American citizen, Stephen James Hubbard, to six years and 10 months in prison after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Investigators said Hubbard, a native of Michigan, was paid $1,000 (£760) a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. They said Hubbard was provided with training, weapons and ammunition when he allegedly signed up in February 2022, the same month Moscow sent thousands of troops into Ukraine. He was detained by Russian soldiers on 2 April of that year, the RIA state news agency quoted the prosecutor as saying last month. Russian state media said Hubbard had pleaded guilty to the charge. But in interviews last month, Hubbard’s sister Patricia Hubbard Fox and another relative cast doubt on his reported confession, telling Reuters he held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to have taken up arms at his age. On Monday, Hubbard, wearing a beige sweater, sat in a glass courtroom cage in handcuffs. He stood up, seemingly with difficulty, to hear the judge in the Moscow city court pronounce him guilty, removing his hat to reveal a shaved head. Hubbard listened without visible emotion to the judge before conferring with his lawyer, who later declined to comment to reporters. Though RIA reported that Hubbard’s lawyer would appeal against the verdict. - The Guardian

Ukrainian 'Lady in Red' - iconic survivor of the Nova Music Festival reveals what she wishes she had done to save others and how she copes with the trauma. Vlada Patapov became known globally after she was pictured fleeing in terror as Hamas gunmen stormed the festival slaughtering more than 360 revellers and taking 40 people hostage. Her fate remained unknown after the striking footage of Vlada, with a red shawl around her shoulders, sprinting for survival across the desert flashed around the globe in the aftermath of the attack. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline the wedding planner said: 'If I had one wish, it would be to have told everyone at the festival one hour before Hamas attacked that something was going to happen then everyone could have got away. 'I survived but others weren't so fortunate. I think about that. It weighs on my mind. I am still traumatised by what happened a year on…I've been having therapy and counselling like many of the others who were there and I find speaking to people helps me cope with what happened that day. 'But then sometimes I think who can help me when all this is still going on around us and the fear is still here and it's still real.' Vlada, 26, has been battling PTSD while dealing with the emotional turmoil of survivor's guilt since the moment armed terrorists swooped from the skies in paragliders to join gunmen on motorcycles and trucks in the carefully planned murderous mission. Meanwhile the anniversary of the massacre and the ongoing conflict in the region escalating out of control have only added to her trauma.

The next year may be a turning point for the worst for many Ukrainian publications. According to a new study by the Media Development Foundation, reductions in donor funding, a staffing crisis and a lack of long-term planning threaten the very existence of many media in Ukraine. The entity found that 3 out of 9 media are already experiencing a reduction in available grant funds on the market. “If donor funding continues to decrease, more than half of respondents predict that smaller, less stable media may cease to exist,” it said. The instability of funding also leads to an extremely short planning horizon: most respondents have a strategic plan for only one year. Respondents expect the closure of the media or the reduction of personnel. Five predict that smaller, less stable newsrooms will cease to exist. Three respondents expect that editorial offices will have to cut staff. It added: “The media talk about team burnout due to the simultaneous performance of journalistic duties and additional activities within the framework of grant projects.”