The Headlines - U.S. to Send Troops to Israel, and a Splintering Democratic Coalition

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Plus, SpaceX makes a tricky “catch.”   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel, by Helene CooperHezbollah Drone Strike Kills 4 Israeli Soldiers on Military Base, by Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Aaron Boxerman, Johnatan Reiss and Thomas FullerHarris’s Final Challenge: Restore a Splintering Democratic Coalition, by Jennifer Medina, Katie Glueck and Ruth IgielnikMan Is Arrested on Weapons Charges Heading to Trump Rally in Coachella, Officials Say, by Kellen BrowningWhy Politicians Ignore Abuses in India’s Sugar Industry: They Run It, by Megha Rajagopalan and Qadri InzamamSpaceX Advances Starship Program With a Launch and a Catch, by Kenneth Chang and Eric Lipton

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Monday, October 14th. Here's what we're covering. The Pentagon has announced it's sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, along with 100 American troops to operate it. It's the first deployment of U.S. troops to Israel since October 7th. In a statement, the Pentagon said the goal is to help Israel defend against any further

ballistic missile attacks from Iran, which launched about 200 missiles at the country earlier this month. The U.S. decision to send the missile system comes as senior Pentagon officials have been debating whether the increased American military presence in the Middle East is containing the conflict, like they hope, or inflaming it. Several Pentagon officials have expressed concerns in recent weeks that Israel feels comfortable carrying out an increasingly aggressive campaign against Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful ally, because they know that nearby American warships and attack planes are standing at the ready to blunt any Iranian response. According to a senior U.S. military official, it will take at least a week to get the new missile system and the American troops to

Israel. Meanwhile, Hezbollah carried out a drone strike on an Israeli military base over the weekend, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens more. The strikes being interpreted in Israel as a sign of resilience from Hezbollah, which has not stopped its cross-border attacks, even as Israel has pummeled southern Lebanon with deadly airstrikes. The Hezbollah drone attack also raised concerns in Israel about troubling gaps in the country's air defense systems. Three weeks out from Election Day, the New York Times polling average shows Kamala Harris and

Donald Trump essentially tied across the seven key battleground states. But the Harris campaign is facing a complicated path to victory. Polls from The Times and Siena College show Black and Latino voters drifting away from the Democratic Party in notable numbers. Times political reporter Jenny Medina says the results represent a changing reality for the Democrats. For decades now, Democrats have really counted on diversity as helping them, as helping them be key for support, and really believed that as the country became more diverse, they would have a solid majority.

They thought that would be even more true with Trump, who had made so many comments that people viewed as offensive. But instead of repelling those voters, Trump has actually attracted them. And we're seeing more support for him among Latino voters, which started in 2020, and now among Black voters. And that's, of course, particularly interesting as Kamala Harris is the candidate, because she would be the first Black and South Asian woman in the White House. And it's interesting to see that for a lot of people, this idea of representation doesn't seem to resonate. In Coachella, California this weekend, a man was arrested and accused of illegally possessing a shotgun and a loaded handgun

as he tried to get into a Trump rally. It's not clear what his motives were. In a joint statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Secret Service, and the FBI said they've determined the former president was not in any danger. The man, identified as Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, got through one level of security but was stopped at a second level before Trump arrived at the venue. What we do know is he showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with fake license plate, and loaded firearms. The Riverside County Sheriff said Miller appeared to consider himself a sovereign citizen, part of a far-right fringe group that believes government laws don't apply to them.

Miller has since been released on bail, according to the county's online inmate information system. And Miller said in a local news interview that he was shocked he was arrested. He said he supports Trump and was unfamiliar with California's gun laws. On today's episode of The Daily, a Times investigation into the Secret Service and how its failure to protect Trump from the assassination attempt in July exposed even larger issues within the agency. That's next in the state of Maharashtra are being subjected to a brutal system of labor. There's so much pressure to keep working that many women are getting unnecessary hysterectomies

just so they don't lose time to medical checkups or dealing with their periods. After the Times investigation came out, the U.S. Department of Labor added Indian sugarcane to its list of products made with forced labor. But on the ground, the practices have continued. Our team has been reporting on the sugar industry in Maharashtra for more than a year now. And a question that kept coming up is why nothing has changed, despite the fact that many of these abuses are an open secret. Megha Rajagopalan is an investigative reporter for The Times. One thing we wanted to look at is this question of who actually benefits and who profits from these abuses. And what we found is that the group of people that has the power

to make and enforce laws that could directly benefit laborers is also deeply enmeshed with the sugar industry. And those politicians often control the very sugar mills that they are charged with regulating. So reforming or changing the links between the state's elite political class and the sugar industry would require a really systemic reform and something that would completely change the industry. Mega says that as long as there are customers, and therefore profits, conditions in Maharashtra aren't likely to change. International brands, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, all buy sugar from mills there. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi pledged this year to look into abuses identified in their supply chains, but they have not yet provided any details on what steps they've taken. And finally, for decades, space travel has relied on rockets that were mostly one and done.

They'd cost tens of millions of dollars to make, you'd get one good launch out of them, and then they'd be toast. SpaceX has been trying to change that, finding ways to reuse rocket boosters to make the industry more efficient and cost-effective. This weekend, the company pulled off a major technical feat in that effort. Booster, ship, avionics power, telemetry nominal. That is the sound of 33 Raptor engines. It launched one of its Starship vehicles. And then... We are go for catch.

The rocket booster dropped away, falling through the sky at supersonic speeds. Look at the reentry. That's six and a half minutes. That is moving so fast. Look at how hard it is. Oh! Ignition.

It fired its engines to slow itself as it approached the ground and navigated right into two mechanical arms, nicknamed chopsticks, ready to catch it. We have successfully caught the super heavy booster back at the launch tower. The rocket booster successfully landed right back in Boca Chica, Texas, where it started. The head of NASA congratulated SpaceX for the successful launch and catch. NASA is relying on SpaceX to get astronauts to the moon for its Artemis mission.

Those are the headlines. I'm Tracey Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.