CBS moderators asked about the climate crisis in Tuesday’s debate between vice-presidential contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz, responding to pressure from activists who urged the network to tie the devastation of Hurricane Helene to the planet’s rising temperatures. “The fact that this question was asked … was a major win for our movement,” says Shiva Rajbhandari, a student climate justice organizer at UNC-Chapel Hill and a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement.

Vice-presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance faced off Tuesday night in their first and only debate ahead of November’s election. The debate started with a focus on the Iranian missile attack on Israel before moving on to the climate crisis, immigration policy, abortion rights and more. One of the most memorable moments was Vance’s refusal to admit that his running mate Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Israel has announced it is sending more troops into southern Lebanon as the Middle East moves closer to a full-scale regional war. On Tuesday, Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel that Iran says targeted Israeli military and security sites, a response that comes after a series of escalating Israeli attacks in recent months against Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian leaders.

Mexico is making history today as the country prepares to inaugurate the first woman to be elected president. Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City, won a landslide victory in Mexico’s June elections. Sheinbaum is a member of the ruling Morena party and a close ally of outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose six-year term ends today.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke publicly today for the first time since he was released in June from a London prison. Assange addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in France about his 14-year legal saga after publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange was freed after pleading guilty to a U.S. charge of obtaining and disclosing national security material.

Dockworkers from Maine to Texas have walked out on the job at all East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, launching the first strike of its kind in almost 50 years. The International Longshoremen’s Association represents some 45,000 workers at 36 ports who are demanding higher wages and guarantees that jobs won’t be automated.

Lebanese Prime Minsiter Najib Mikati says Lebanon is now facing “one of the most dangerous phases of its history,” as the Israeli military claims to have begun launching “limited and targeted raids” in southern Lebanon. However, Hezbollah has denied that Israeli soldiers have actually entered Lebanon. The possible Israeli ground operation comes after two weeks of Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have killed over 1,000 people and forced over a million Lebanese to evacuate.