Pull for another Git branch without switching

I was able to pull changes from origin/master into master while working in another branch by using this command:

git fetch origin master:master

For a deeper dive into what's going on, check out the excellent answer to this Stack Overflow question. The main take-away for me was that this command only works for a fast-forward merge.

You can use git stash before checking out master and pulling, and after checking out live again use git stash pop (or if your git is older, git stash apply and git stash clear assuming you haven't stashed anything else)

Solve the problem first. They should not be pushing to a branch they have no business pushing to.

What you seem to be asking would be something like

git checkout live
git pull origin master

This will attempt a merge of the remote master and your live branch.