--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. Today's Tuesday, September 24th.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Israel and Hezbollah are trading fire this morning, one day after an intense series of Israeli airstrikes left Lebanon reeling.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Yesterday, hundreds of people in Lebanon were killed, and over 1,500 were injured, according to the country's health ministry, making it the deadliest day of Israeli attacks there in nearly two decades.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Officials said dozens of women and children were among the dead.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The Israeli Air Force said it hit about 1,600 Hezbollah targets as part of an ongoing effort to weaken the Iran-backed group that's been firing on Israel for months in solidarity with Hamas.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Hezbollah launched more than 150 rockets and other weapons of its own into northern Israel yesterday, sending people scrambling for shelter.
--:-- [Sound of a plane flying by]
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Times correspondent Christina Goldbaum has been reporting on the escalating conflict from Lebanon's capital.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: I'm in Beirut right now, where over the past few days, people have become increasingly on edge.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: As this once kind of distant prospect of the country spiraling into an all-out war with Israel has felt more and more like a real possibility.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: You know, since Monday, schools have closed because administrators were worried about airstrikes hitting the city.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: Fuel stations have become absolutely packed as some people fill up their tanks and head to the mountains in the north that they think are relatively safer in case there are many airstrikes in the city.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: On Monday, I spoke to one woman, Lama Ejul Sattar, who had brought her 10-year-old daughter to work with her in a mall in Beirut that's just outside of a neighborhood called Dahiya that's largely controlled by Hezbollah.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: And she told me that she came to work that day with both her and her daughter's passports just in case they suddenly had to evacuate the city.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: And as we spoke, she told me almost in a whisper so that her daughter wouldn't hear, death is very close, very worried it's near.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: And she said that any decision I make might not be the right decision, I'm not sure about anything.
--:-- Christina Goldbaum: Which is to say that that uncertainty in the city of what will come next is still hanging very heavy over folks who are trying to make these impossible decisions about what to do.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly kicks off today, bringing world leaders, including President Biden and the leaders of Israel, Lebanon, Iran, and Ukraine, to New York City.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: International challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: We see out-of-control geopolitical divisions and runaway conflicts, not least in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and beyond.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: In remarks ahead of the annual conference, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the global chaos that's the backdrop to the meeting.
--:-- Antonio Guterres: Normally, as part of the General Assembly, the UN Security Council holds one session on the sidelines.
--:-- Antonio Guterres: This year, they're scheduled to hold three, one on Ukraine, one on Gaza, and a broader meeting about how the UN can resolve international crises at all.
--:-- Antonio Guterres: Global institutions and frameworks are today totally inadequate to deal with these complex and even existential challenges.
--:-- Antonio Guterres: This General Assembly comes amid a really turbulent year for the UN itself.
--:-- Antonio Guterres: It has really struggled to remain relevant in mediating conflicts and in trying to play a political role.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Times reporter Farnas Fasihi has covered the U.N. for the past decade.
--:-- Farnas Fasihi: You know, every year world leaders gather at the General Assembly and they talk about the need for cooperation and diplomacy.
--:-- Farnas Fasihi: But then they leave and nothing concrete comes out of it.
--:-- Farnas Fasihi: So there is also a reckoning here that both the UN as an institution and world powers have not really been able to do what they're tasked to do at the UN, which is to mediate and prevent conflict.
--:-- Farnas Fasihi: Guterres talks about how the UN was created in the aftermath of World War II and the world was very different 80 years ago.
--:-- Farnas Fasihi: And so part of what we're going to be also hearing this week is how to make it more adaptable to today's needs.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: This morning President Biden is expected to address the General Assembly.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: It will be his fourth and final speech there as president and it comes as other world leaders are preparing for a new White House.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Many leaders are rushing to meet with Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump during or after their visit to New York.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: On Monday, I was in the federal courthouse in Florida, where Ryan Ruth appeared for the second time in front of a judge.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Times reporter Patty Mazze has been covering the investigation into the man who authorities allege was hiding with a loaded rifle near where Donald Trump was golfing.
--:-- Patty Mazze: Just after he was arrested earlier this month, Ryan Ruth was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and having a firearm with a wiped out serial number.
--:-- Patty Mazze: Now, federal prosecutors say they will also charge Ruth with attempted assassination.
--:-- Patty Mazze: What was interesting in the lengthy hearing was that we started to get a look at the details of what information they have already gathered in the time since Ruth was arrested.
--:-- Patty Mazze: Including a note that they say was written by Ruth.
--:-- Patty Mazze: The note was in a box of items Ruth had left with a friend in North Carolina several months ago.
--:-- Patty Mazze: And in it, he wrote about his plans to carry out an assassination attempt on Trump.
--:-- Patty Mazze: And he also mentioned several times that the attempt might fail, which his defense lawyers suggested was a sign of how unsophisticated and untrained Ruth was and how perhaps he intended to make more of a statement than actually succeed in this assassination attempt.
--:-- Patty Mazze: But prosecutors pointed to the note as evidence that Ruth had been planning an assassination attempt for a long time.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Yesterday, the FBI released its annual report on crime in the United States, and it shows a significant drop in violent crime across the country.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Notably, there was a remarkable 11.6% decline in the number of homicides last year compared to the year before.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: It is the largest year drop in homicides since the FBI started keeping national crime data in 1960.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Overall from 2022 to 2023 violent crime fell 3%.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And the number of other nonviolent crimes also fell.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Burglaries were down about 8 and larceny theft of personal property was down about 4%.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The one exception was car thefts, which rose more than 12%.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Still, despite what the data shows, a Gallup poll found that 77% of Americans believed crime was rising last year, even as it was falling.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Criminology experts tell The Times that people's perceptions of crime are often driven less by numbers and more by what they hear and feel in their communities, on TV, and in their social media feeds.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And finally, they're controversial, they're influential, and if you're applying to any kind of college in the U.S., they're probably also inescapable.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Today, U.S. News and World Report published its latest rankings of American colleges and universities.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: For decades, the list has been a guide for students and parents and a source of pride and or jealousy for schools.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: It's also faced intense criticism.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: The Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, called it a, quote, false altar and said it has created an obsession with selectivity in higher ed.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: In recent years, prominent schools like Yale and Harvard pulled out of the rankings, saying they've skewed educational priorities.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And U.S. News has been pressured to adjust its calculations to take into account things like retention and graduation rates.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Still, the publisher makes millions of dollars a year from schools who pay to be able to license the famous U.S. News badge and brag about their ranking.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: And many schools feel like they have to participate to catch students' attention.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: With all that in mind, the schools at the top of this year's list for best university, best liberal arts college, and best historically Black institution, Princeton, Williams, and Spelman.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: Today on The Daily, the story behind America's housing crisis and why it's so hard to fix.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: That's next in the New York Times audio app or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Michael Simon-Johnson: I'm Michael Simon-Johnson. We'll be back tomorrow.
