Reuters videographer killed in southern Lebanon, other journalists injured

A Reuters videographer was killed while working in southern Lebanon, the news agency said Friday.

The videographer, Issam Abdallah, was part of a crew providing a live signal. According to the Reuters statement, two other journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, sustained injuries.

The statement didn’t include further details of Abdallah’s death, but it noted that Reuters is seeking more information and working with regional authorities.

“Our heartfelt prayers are with the families, the family of the journalist who was killed and also our prayers are with the injured journalists for their full and swift recovery,” said White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton during a press gaggle Friday.

“We know that the work that you all do is incredibly dangerous and today is a reminder of that,” Dalton said.

Separately, The Associated Press reported that an Israeli shell landed among a group of international journalists killing the Reuters journalist and injuring six others.

An AP photographer at the scene saw the body of the Reuters videographer and the six who were wounded, the AP reported, and images from the scene showed a charred car.

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DeSantis and Haley camps take whacks at each other before donor confab

Top officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign made the case to a gathering of top donors opposed to Donald Trump on Friday that rival GOP candidate Nikki Haley could not defeat the former president in a head-to-head matchup.

If they wanted to stop Trump, they argued, the Florida governor remained their best bet.

In another presentation made to the same group, Haley’s team argued the opposite. DeSantis’ campaign had flatlined, they insisted, pointing to data that showed that the former UN ambassador was ascendent and, therefore, the logical choice for the anti-Trump crowd.

Haley’s team, according to a person familiar with the arguments they made, pointed to public and private polling that showed her ahead of DeSantis in key early voting states. They also noted that Haley’s campaign has more cash on hand than DeSantis, who is leaning heavily on an allied super PAC to pick up much of the tab.

“By every metric,” the person said, “Nikki is moving up and Ron is moving down. It IS a two person race: one man and one woman.”

The dueling presentations were delivered to a major Republican donor network gathering that includes hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer and investor Ken Griffin, two of the biggest contributors in the party. It was delivered amid growing concern in some quarters of the party that a Trump nomination is quickly becoming inevitable.

Real estate developer Harlan Crow organized the conference in Dallas with an eye toward helping consolidate the field of Republican candidates. Many anti-Trump donors have been eager to winnow down the race to a one-on-one contest with Trump, who is leading in the polls against a splintered field.

Staffers for only two candidates — DeSantis and Haley — were invited to present their case, an indication that donors are increasingly zeroing in on those two contenders.

Haley advisers present included campaign manager Betsy Ankney and senior adviser Jon Lerner.

The DeSantis crew included senior adviser Ryan Tyson and campaign manager James Uthmeier, who made several arguments in an effort to win over the room, according to two people familiar with the presentation.

The first was that 90 percent of current DeSantis supporters would ultimately vote for Trump should he drop out, whereas Haley’s voters would disperse to other non-Trump candidates, namely DeSantis. That dynamic, they added, meant that the Florida governor was the one non-Trump candidate who could keep the former president’s vote share down in a primary. The DeSantis officials argued that Haley would ultimately lose a head-to-head contest with Trump by a 70-30 margin.

They also argued that DeSantis besting Trump in the Iowa caucus would provide a chink in the former president’s political armor. And they contended that the proof of their continued viability was evident by the fact that Trump’s team has continued to attack DeSantis, despite his diminished standing in the race. The former president in recent weeks has also begun to attack Haley — the former South Carolina governor — and has coined a nickname for her, “Birdbrain.”

The case from the DeSantis camp was made as their operation has faced a number of setbacks. The Florida governor has seen his polling numbers fall both nationally and in the key early voting states.

But while Haley has managed to improve her standing in the race over the course of several well-regarded debate performances, the main beneficiary of DeSantis’ fall has been Trump, who has consolidated support in the polls

Anti-Trump Republicans hope the gathering, held on the Old Parkland Campus, a development owned by Crow, signals a new phase of the campaign, in which candidates begin to drop out and consolidate around a single Trump opponent.

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Russia launched 'renewed offensive' against Ukraine, Kirby says

Russia appears to have launched a “renewed offensive” against Ukrainian troops in the eastern part of the country as the war inches closer to entering its second winter, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.

But Russian troops haven’t made much progress, Kirby said, adding that the new attacks are “not a surprise.”

“The Russian military appears to be using human wave tactics where they throw masses of poorly trained soldiers right into the battlefield without proper equipment, and apparently without proper training and preparation,” he said.

The announcement comes on the fourth day of Russia’s intense offensive on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, though its forces have made little headway, CNN reported on Friday. Russian forces have launched hundreds of attacks on Kyiv’s troops in the city using tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Kirby also said that North Korea and Russia’s military cooperation has been “expanding.” In recent weeks, North Korea has provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions, he said.

“We also are increasingly concerned about Russian assistance” to North Korea, he said.

In return for support, Kirby said, the U.S. believes Pyongyang wants to obtain fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles and equipment to make ballistic missiles, among other materials to build advanced technologies.

The U.S. has seen Russian ships off-loading containers in North Korea, he said, but didn’t specify what was delivered. In response, Washington will continue to sanction those involved in the military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

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Ukrainian pilots expected to start F-16 training in Arizona next week

Ukrainian pilots are expected to begin training to fly the F-16 fighter jet at an Air National Guard base in Tuscon, Ariz., next week, according to four U.S. officials.

A small number of pilots, who arrived in the United States last month to participate in an English language course at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, have passed their first test for English proficiency and are headed to Morris Air National Guard Base in Arizona, according to one of the officials, who like the others were granted anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement. There, they will train with the 162nd Wing, the main F-16 training hub for the Air Force, two of the officials said.

The pilots will first learn the basics of operating the F-16 in the classroom and in simulators before moving on to flying the actual jets, as is typical for any Air Force pilot training program. However, the course may be accelerated due to the urgent need to get them back to the battlefield, the first official said.

The group of Ukrainian pilots has been participating in an English language program at the Defense Language Institute English Language Center at Lackland, said Air Force spokesperson Rose Riley.

“Testing will determine their next courses and when the pilots would be able to commence F-16 training. Training location options are still being considered at this time,” Riley said.

The news comes as the U.S. announced on Wednesday that it will head up a coalition of countries training Ukrainian pilots and crew to operate and maintain the F-16s, alongside the Netherlands and Denmark. So far, 11 countries have signed up to help with the training, while the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium will donate aircraft.

During a press conference in Brussels earlier this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the F-16s would arrive on the battlefield next spring at the earliest.

The training begins amid concerns that the Pentagon is running out of money to continue sending military aid to Ukraine, after lawmakers passed a last-minute spending bill to avert a government shutdown that did not include funding for Kyiv. And it comes days after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, sparking a conflict that has rocked the region.

Officials in Kyiv have been pushing to get modern fighter aircraft to the battlefield for more than a year. The Ukrainian military, working with DOD, has managed to integrate Western air-launched missiles with its Soviet-era fighter jets, according to one of the U.S. officials, an effort Politico reported was ongoing in March. However, Ukrainian officials say modern fighter jets will give them an advantage.

President Joe Biden finally approved an international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s in May, but the coalition took months to straighten out the details of the program. Initially, officials said the pilots and maintainers would train in Europe; the Pentagon announced last month that some of the training would take place in the U.S.

A group of Ukrainian pilots training in Europe are already learning on F-16 flight simulators, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said earlier this month. The next stage is “flights with an instructor in real jets,” he said.

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DeSantis orders Florida to organize charter flights for Americans stranded in Israel

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed an executive order directing the state to help ferry Americans out of Israel who were left stranded amid the conflict.

DeSantis’ order came just hours after the Biden administration announced it too would arrange charter flights for Americans stuck in Israel, beginning on Friday. Though some airlines are continuing to fly in and out of Israel, many others have stopped service, leaving tourists, foreign workers and Israelis scrambling to find ways out of the country.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said the federal government’s charter flights were ordered partly because of the decision by U.S. airlines not to fly into Israel for the near future.

The Florida governor’s order directs the Florida Division of Emergency Management to charter flights for stranded Florida residents and deliver supplies to Israel, Alecia Collins, a spokesperson for the agency, said. The governor estimates that 20,000 U.S. citizens, including Floridians, remain in Israel.

“This Executive Order will allow the State to carry out logistical, rescue and evacuation operations,” Collins said.

The FAA has recommended caution for pilots flying into and out of Israel but issued no restrictions.

DeSantis' administration asserts that Americans stranded in Israel have reached out to the Florida governor’s office for help after they failed to receive a response from the U.S. Embassy in Israel. The governor’s executive order also criticizes the Biden administration for failing to make rescue plans, echoing rebukes from DeSantis that the White House has not done enough to help Americans.

"We will not leave our residents behind,” DeSantis said in a social media post.

DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern wrote in an email that the governor’s office received messages from 35 stranded travelers.

The DeSantis administration was also critical of the U.S. Embassy in Israel and a notification program for overseas travelers, also overseen by the U.S. Department of State, saying the agency has been unreachable for stranded Americans.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DeSantis’ support for Israel goes back to his days in Congress. Since becoming governor, DeSantis has also regularly supported increased security funding in the state budget for Jewish day schools. He even led a trade mission to Israel during his first term as governor in 2019.

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U.S. Supreme Court puts temporary stay on Florida sports betting case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily put on hold a lower court ruling that gave a green light to a $2.5 billion gambling deal between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency requests from the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday issued an administrative stay in the case while the full court considers a request for a long-term stay that was made last week by lawyers representing Florida casino operators.

The decision doesn’t indicate which way the Supreme Court may ultimately rule, but it likely means that the Tribe will not resume sports betting anytime soon in the nation’s third-most populous state.

Roberts in his order gave lawyers for the Department of Interior until Oct. 18 to respond to the request for the longer stay. The lawyers representing the owners of the Magic City Casino in Miami and the Bonita Springs Poker Room want the temporary pause while it asks the Supreme Court to consider the legal dispute.

A federal appeals court in June concluded a lower court judge had wrongly blocked the deal and said that any dispute over the compact between Florida and the Tribe should be fought in state court. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in September turned down a request for a rehearing.

Florida’s gambling deal with the Tribe was approved by the GOP-led Legislature in May 2021 and later signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The compact not only authorized sports betting, but it authorized the Tribe to add craps and roulette to its current casinos and build additional casinos on the Tribe’s Hollywood reservation that is already home to Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Shortly after the deal was approved, the Seminoles began offering sports betting through a mobile app.

But in late 2021, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich with the District of Columbia concluded the deal was illegal because it allowed people to place sports bets anywhere in the state in violation of federal laws governing gambling on Native Americans’ lands. The lawsuit was filed against U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland because her agency did not block the compact.

Friedrich also ruled that the only sports betting allowed outside of tribal lands in Florida is through a citizen initiative. Voters in 2018 approved an amendment — backed by the Seminole Tribe and Disney — that said voters must approve any future expansions of casino gambling.

The Seminoles halted use of the mobile betting app shortly after the ruling was issued, but has not taken any steps to revive it even after the appeals court rejected Friedrich’s reasoning. That has meant sports betting has been sidelined in Florida during the 2023 NFL and college football season which is usually a time of heavy betting.

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U.S. Pentagon chief to travel to Israel

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Israel on Friday, a senior Defense Department official announced.

What's happening: Austin will travel to Israel from Brussels, where he met with his international counterparts and discussed aid for Ukraine, said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive plans. He will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other Israeli officials.

Context: Austin's visit comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel on Thursday. He also met with Netanyahu and Israeli officials.

Plenty to talk about: Austin has directed significant military moves to support Israel in recent days, deploying an aircraft carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean and additional fighter aircraft to the Middle East. DOD is also sending munitions and Iron Dome air defense interceptors to Tel Aviv.

In addition, DOD officials are working on Israeli requests to also transfer precision-guided small diameter bombs, and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions, the senior DOD official said.

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