Afghan Talks Possible If War Gains Continue: Gates

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U. S. with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the U.

The presidential election between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will come to a head on Nov. 5 as final voters cast their ballots. That’s not the only thing that will be decided at the polls though, with abortion, marijuana, and local and state representative elections also set to be voted on down ballot [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] On election day, polling hours vary state by state—sometimes even county by county.

(To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter here.) Kamala Harris and Donald Trump couldn’t be further apart when it comes to climate change, and the election will have profound impacts for how the country—and the world—addresses the issue going forward. But no matter the election results, companies should think about new ways to talk about climate change. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In the years following the emergence of climate change as a global issue, companies often portrayed their environmental initiatives as efforts to “do the right thing.” Since then, the business case for acting on climate change has become stronger, from regulatory pressure to cut emissions to the effects of extreme weather on supply chains.

LONDON — Britain’s Conservative Party on Saturday elected Kemi Badenoch as its new leader as it tries to rebound from a crushing election defeat that ended 14 years in power. The first Black woman to lead a major British political party, Badenoch (pronounced BADE-enock) defeated rival lawmaker Robert Jenrick in a vote of almost 100,000 members of the right-of-center Conservatives. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] She got 53,806 votes in the online and postal ballot of party members, to Jenrick’s 41,388. Badenoch replaces former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who in July led the Conservatives to their worst election result since 1832.

NEW YORK — The 2024 presidential contest speeds into its final weekend with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a razor-thin contest. At this late stage in the campaign, every day matters. And while few voters might change their minds this late in a typical election, there is a sense that what happens in these final days could shift votes. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Harris and Trump are crisscrossing the country to rally voters in the states that matter most.

After serving in the U. S. Senate for four terms, people often ask me about how I think about this coming Presidential election. My answer: in a troubled world with lots of moving parts including multiple major wars and danger zones from the Middle East to Ukraine to Sudan to North Korea as well as nine nuclear weapon states, I will cast my vote primarily on national security concerns.