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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In Gaza: “At least 16 people were killed on Thursday after Israel conducted airstrikes on two school complexes in the northern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Civil Defense said. Israel’s military said that the attacks had targeted Hamas’s command-and-control centers ‘in the areas’ of two schools in Gaza City and that it had taken steps ‘to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.’”
* In Russia: “Ukrainian troops battled Russian forces Thursday for a third day in Russia’s Kursk region, occupying villages and part of a town, in what has become Ukraine’s largest incursion into Russia since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have confirmed the cross-border Ukrainian attack, which stunned Moscow and appeared to involve the use of Western-donated infantry fighting vehicles.”
* In Dhaka: “Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus returned home to strife-torn Bangladesh on Thursday, to lead a new interim government after weeks of tumultuous student protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to neighboring India.”
* In Japan: “The earthquake occurred off the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture on the main island of Kyushu at 4:42 p.m. local time (3:42 a.m. ET), at a depth of about 18 miles, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.”
* A Jan. 6 defendant heads to jail: “A Nevada man awaiting trial on charges that he stormed the U.S. Capitol has been jailed after he allegedly made threats directed at Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and other public officials. Bradley Scott Nelson’s ‘escalating rhetoric’ is grounds for keeping him detained until a hearing next week, a federal magistrate judge in Maryland ruled Tuesday.”
* On Wall Street: “The stock market surged Thursday following better-than-expected jobless claims that soothed recession fears sparked by last week’s weaker-than-expected jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a gain of 683 points, or 1.8 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.9 percent. The S&P 500 gained 2.3 percent, its best day since November 2022, according to CNBC.”
* ISIS’s reach: “A top U.N. counterterrorism official told the Security Council on Thursday that a vast stretch of Africa could fall under the control of the Islamic State group and affiliated terrorist organizations. ... In a regular report to the council, Vladimir Voronkov, the undersecretary for counterterrorism, told members that IS group affiliates have “expanded and consolidated their area of operations” in West Africa and the Sahel.”
See you tomorrow.