First Thing: IDF moves more troops into Lebanon after Iranian missile attack on Israel

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to retaliate. Plus, Walz and Vance clash over abortion

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Good morning.

The conflict in the Middle East is escalating on multiple fronts.

On Tuesday night, Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel just after 7.30pm local time, with Israeli officials saying there were at least 180 ballistic missiles – but most did not reach their targets. The US and UK helped shoot the missiles down. Iran said the actions were a “legal, rational and legitimate response to the terrorist attacks of the Zionist regime”.

Israel vowed to retaliate. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told his security cabinet. The website Axios has reported that Israeli officials are considering a “significant retaliation” to the Iranian attack that could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites.

On Wednesday morning, Israel announced additional troops were joining its ground invasion into southern Lebanon. And overnight, at least five Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs in the early hours, Agence France-Presse reported.

Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli military strikes killed at least 60 people overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, health officials in the Palestinian territory said.

What are the hopes for de-escalation in the region? “In such dangerous times, the region has historically looked to Washington to contain and reverse the logic of escalation,” writes the Guardian’s Julian Borger. “But the man currently inhabiting the Oval Office is a lame duck president who has been ignored to the point of humiliation in recent months by the US’s closest ally in the Middle East.”

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Walz and Vance clash over abortion and immigration in vice-presidential debate

Tim Walz and JD Vance took to the stage on Tuesday night for a vice-presidential debate that served up less drama than September’s presidential head to head but offered revealing differences on abortion, school shootings and immigration.

Both men largely avoided attacks on each other, and instead concentrated their fire on each other’s running mates. It was a more policy-driven discussion than that of their running mates’, but one with a few gaffes that could overshadow some of the substance in the coming days.

There was no clear winner of the debate, with a snap SSRS/CNN poll showing 49% for Walz and 51% for Vance.

What are the presidential polls saying? It’s neck and neck. Nationally, Kamala Harris is averaging 48.6% versus Donald Trump’s 45.9%, but the races are even closer in the key swing states that will matter most in determining the outcome.

Ukraine accuses Russia of executing 16 PoWs on eastern front

Authorities in Ukraine have launched an investigation into what they said was the apparent killing of 16 Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered to Russian troops on the eastern frontline.

“This is the largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian PoWs on the frontline and yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents,” Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said on X.

His office said on the Telegram messaging app that it was looking into a video shared on social media that appeared to show the alleged killing. In the video, grainy drone footage shows a group of more than 10 people leaving a trench. They are lined up and then fall down after being fired upon by other, indistinct figures.

What’s the situation on the frontlines? Russian troops have nearly reached the center of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine, according to the regional governor. Vuhledar has strategic significance because of its high ground and location near the junction of the two main fronts. Meanwhile, an apparent Russian artillery strike hit a market in the southern Ukraine city of Kherson on Tuesday, killing at least six people and wounding three others.

In other news …

The Swedish government has been accused of trying to “outlaw poverty,” after it presented plans for a national begging ban.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has survived a second parliamentary confidence motion, as opposition parties kept his minority government alive for now.

Six people have been killed and 10 others wounded in a shooting and knife attack in the Israeli seaside city of Jaffa. It occurred minutes before Iran launched a huge missile attack on Israel.

The hip-hop mogul faces sexual misconduct allegations from 120 accusers in new lawsuit, after his arrest last month following a federal grand jury indictment.

The model Naomi Campbell’s charity has been reported to the UK Charity Commission after claiming to be a fundraising partner of Unicef.

Stat of the day: San Francisco swelters in 93C heat asheatwave scorches south-west

The Californian city recorded its hottest day of the year on Tuesday, while Phoenix set a record for the hottest 1 October on record, as the National Weather Service predicted record-high fall temperatures across the south-west. Across the Bay Area, multiple cities were recording temperatures “as much as 25 degrees above normal” for October, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Don’t miss this: Dump, post, repeat – how Instagram became a social media junkyard

“An Instagram dump is a set of ostensibly unedited, low-stakes, impressionistic photos posted in a seemingly random order and finished with a dispassionate caption,” writes Emma Madden. “That word implies that we are merely unloading clutter from our camera rolls on a whim, when what we’re really doing is much more involved.”

Climate check: More than 150 dead after Hurricane Helene dumps over 40tn gallons of rain

Rescue crews were still trudging through knee-deep muck and debris on Tuesday in the aftermath of the deadly category 4 storm that brought torrential rain to the southern US after it crashed ashore in Florida on Thursday. The amount of rainfall was enough to fill Lake Tahoe – with its depth of 1,645ft and surface area of 191 sq miles.

Last Thing: ‘I botched my final Harry Potter audition and felt dismay, remorse, shame – then relief’

“On the drive home, I experienced two emotions more starkly than I ever had before: disappointment that my life wasn’t about to be transformed, and regret at my half-hearted performance,” writes Jamie Clifton. But “you only get one shot at being an awkward, clumsy teenager”.

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