First Thing: Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel

The strike, which Hezbollah said was retaliation for one that killed 22 people in Beirut, is the deadliest since Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon. Plus, trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year

Good morning.

Hezbollah has carried out its deadliest strike since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying the attack killed four soldiers at an army base in central Israel on Sunday.

Hezbollah described the strike, which Israel’s national rescue service said wounded 61 people in total, as retaliation for Israel killing 22 in an attack on Beirut on Thursday.

It followed reports that the US was stepping up its involvement in the region by sending a terminal high-altitude area defense (Thaad) missile battery to Israel, reportedly along with about 100 US troops. Retaliation by Israel against Iran is expected after Tehran fired a barrage of more than 180 missiles at Israel on 1 October.

How did Iran react to the news about American troops? Its foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, warned that the US was placing its soldiers’ lives “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel” and that Tehran had “no red lines in defending our people and interests”.

Man arrested near Trump’s California rally with loaded guns, police say

A man on the way to a Donald Trump campaign rally armed with loaded guns and fake identification was arrested by authorities in California on Saturday.

The suspect, named as Las Vegas resident Vem Miller, was apprehended by police at a checkpoint about a half mile from an entrance to the event in Coachella valley, shortly before it started, police said on Sunday.

Miller, who is believed to be a member of a rightwing anti-government organization, was arrested for possessing a loaded firearm and a high capacity magazine, and was released after posting $5,000 bail, police records show. Miller denied any wrongdoing and said the guns were for his own safety.

Riverside county’s sheriff, Chad Bianco, said at a press conference that he believed Miller planned to kill Trump, but admitted that was “speculation”. “What we do know is he showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with a fake license plate and loaded firearms,” he said.

Was there any other trouble? The FBI was also questioning another man after bomb-detecting dogs “repeatedly” alerted to him, the sheriff said.

Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year

The Earth’s ocean, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks together absorb abouthalf of all human emissions – but last year, in an unexpected and alarming development, land and trees emitted almost as much CO2 as they removed from the atmosphere, scientists have said.

Preliminary findings by a global team of researchers found that in 2023 – the hottest year on record – the volume of carbon absorbed by land temporarily collapsed. Just one major tropical rainforest, the Congo basin, remained a powerful sink that removed more carbon than it released, as deforestation and global heating harmed the carbon storage capacity of other rainforests.

“We’re seeing cracks in the resilience of the Earth’s systems,” Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told an event at New York Climate Week in September.

What could this mean for global heating? A rapid collapse of carbon sinks has not been accounted for in most climate models. If it continues, it could mean rapid global heating even beyond what has been forecast.

In other news …

The race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is growing ever tighter, with an NBC News poll showing the candidates both at 48% support, while a New York Times poll suggests Harris is underperforming among Latino voters.

China has launched major military drills around Taiwan’s main island in what it said was a warning against “separatist acts”, after a recent speech by Taiwan’s president.

The family of a US citizen killed by the IDF are demanding an investigation. Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was killed by an Israeli sniper at an anti-settler West Bank protest in September.

Stat of the day: the Netherlands’ prison population has fallen by more than 40% over 20 years

The prison population of the Netherlands has declined by more than 40% over the past 20 years as the number of violent crimes has plummeted. The Dutch are more likely to take the view that prisons do more harm than good, according to the criminologist Francis Pakes.

Don’t miss this: Maria Bakalova on playing Ivana in The Apprentice and the treatment of eastern European actors

The release of the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice has faced endless hurdles, including the actors’ strike and its director being affected by Trump’s Muslim travel ban. As its premiere approaches this week, the actor who plays Ivana, Maria Bakalova, spoke to the Guardian about the limited roles offered to eastern Europeans, the ultra-secretive casting process for Borat and why she thinks Trump is “one of the most vicious people of our century”.

Climate check: Europe’s medical schools to up their focus on climate-linked disease

As the climate emergency exacerbates existing diseases, including mosquito-borne ones, the crisis will form a bigger part of the training given to future doctors across Europe. Medical students in 25 universities will receive more training on how to recognize and treat heatstroke, and how antimicrobial resistance is being worsened by global heating.

Last Thing: Edith Pritchett’s week in Venn diagrams

What do the planet’s natural resources and a glass of water on your nightstand when you’re hungover have in common? Edith Pritchett answers this profound question, and a few more, in this week’s Venn diagram.

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