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Israel warns over 1 million citizens to evacuate as Hamas sent missiles into Israel as a terrorist attack, Israel has declared war on Hamas, and the Hamas terrorist group has kidnapped over 20 individuals.

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By Kathleen Magramo, Adam Renton, Christian Edwards, Ed Upright, Aditi Sangal, Alisha Ebrahimji, Elise Hammond, Kaanita Iyer, Zoe Sottile and Tori B. Powell, CNN

Updated 7:44 a.m. ET, October 16, 2023

What we covered here

Israel's military has warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas following the group's October 7 terror attacks that killed 1,300 people.

Israel's evacuation order prompted tens of thousands of people to leave their homes in Gaza Friday, according to the UN's humanitarian office.

Gaza's humanitarian crisis is deepening with warnings people are at risk of starvation. At least 1,900 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

President Joe Biden says the US is "working like hell" to get Americans missing from Israel back to the United States. The first charter that the US State Department organized to get its citizens out of Israel has arrived in Athens, Greece, an official said, and more flights are planned for the coming days.

Here's how to help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza.

1:07 a.m. ET, October 14, 2023

President Joe Biden spent about 45 minutes Friday speaking to family members of missing Americans in Israel, according to the father of missing American Sagui Dekel-Chen.

"As an American citizen, as an Israeli citizen, as someone whose beloved son, we are sure is being held alive, dead, wounded, we don't know, I could not possibly ask for more than President Biden expressed about the United States' commitment to getting these people back," Jonathan Dekel-Chen told CNN's Abby Phillip.

Dekel-Chen said it wasn't an easy conversation, but that the president made it clear that he and the administration are in it for the "long haul."

"As crazy as this must sound, at that moment, as proud as I am to be an Israeli I was no less proud to be an American as a result of that phone call," he said. "And honestly most of the time he was listening to people's stories and their desires for his action, and his answers were inspiring."

Although the president could not give much information, according to Dekel-Chen, the president's "willingness to listen" was "extraordinary."

Dekel-Chen's son, Sagui has been missing since Saturday when his kibbutz was invaded.

Some context: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It's unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The IDF said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage.

The Israeli military says it has struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon after one of its drones was fired on.

The move came in response to "the infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel and fire on an IDF UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]," the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday morning local time, adding that it intercepted both the aerial objects and the fire.

A CNN team on the ground in southern Lebanon heard two loud explosions in the early hours of Saturday.

In an earlier statement, the Israeli military said the "infiltration of an unidentified object" took place near the city of Shfar'am in northern Israel.

Some Palestinian-Americans have received their first set of instructions that family members stuck in Gaza may be able to evacuate into Egypt on Saturday afternoon, according to emails shared with CNN.

The US State Department's Consular Affairs Crisis Management System (CACMS) told family members that on Saturday the Rafah crossing "may be open."

"We understand the security situation is difficult, but if you wish to depart Gaza you may want to take advantage of this opportunity," the CACMS email said.

A State Department spokesperson told CNN they "are actively discussing this with our Israeli and Egyptian counterparts."

"We support safe passage for civilians," they said. "We are working with our Israeli and Egyptian partners to establish a safe humanitarian corridor both for Gazans trying to flee this war and to ensure humanitarian assistance reaches those in need within the territory."

Anas Alfarra, a Lawful Permanent Resident of the US living in the San Francisco area who is trying to get family members out of Gaza, says the email falls short of what the US Embassy needs to be doing.

"Two 'mays' and a 'wish' in a situation that warrants much more," Alfarra told CNN.

Mai Abushaaban, a 22-year-old from Houston who also received the email, has been desperately trying to evacuate her mother and sister from Gaza this week.

"I've had to put a lot of pressure on the embassy," Abushaaban said. "It feels almost as though we were forgotten, I personally feel like we're second-class citizens."

This comes after the United States has continued to press the Egyptian and Israeli governments on "the importance of the Rafah crossing being open for American citizens and foreign nationals of other countries who want to leave and have the right to leave to be able to do so," a senior State Department official said Friday.

US officials have been engaged in discussions for days to try to secure a humanitarian corridor that would allow Americans and other civilians to safely leave Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli military incursion.

The United Nations on Thursday said it was informed by the Israeli military that "the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours," but IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN Friday that any deadline "may slip."

The State Department official told the press traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US' focus has been "on American citizens, but other countries you could presume are engaged in trying to get their foreign nationals out as well."

There are an estimated 500-600 Palestinian-Americans in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of people left their homes in Gaza on Friday after Israel's military warned over one million people living north of Wadi Gaza to move south, according to a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday.

Prior to the warning, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced, the statement added.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it had distributed food to 135,000 people in shelters across Gaza on Friday, but warned "humanitarian supplies are running low."

OCHA added that most people in Gaza now have no access to water.

"As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases," it said.

As Israel tightens its chokehold in Gaza, a humanitarian crisis in the territory is rapidly spiraling amid warnings that people are at risk of starvation.

It comes as Israel has ordered more than a million people in Gaza to evacuate southward ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation, according to the United Nations. Many people in the enclave left their homes on Friday.

The Gaza Strip is one of most densely populated places on earth, with some 2 million people crammed in 140-square-mile territory.
Here's where things stand:

Offensive action from Israel: In addition to continued airstrikes, Israeli troops have carried out local raids over the past day in the Gaza Strip, searching for hostages and collecting evidence to find people taken by Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces said. Meanwhile, Israel has amassed more than 300,000 reservists along the Gaza border for a potential full ground operation. Israel has also been accused by the Palestinian Ministry of Health of the "targeting and killing of medical and ambulance personnel during their humanitarian missions to evacuate the victims of aggression."

Humanitarian concerns: The UN said the calls for the evacuation of 1.1 million people in Gaza are "impossible" and has urged the Israeli military to withdraw, according to Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general. Dujarric said such a mass evacuation would have "devastating humanitarian consequences." Israel has blocked food, water and fuel from coming in leading to "catastrophic" conditions, the Palestinian Health Ministry warned.

What Hamas is saying: A senior Hamas official said Friday that the current situation in Gaza represents "an extraordinarily audacious and brutal endeavor to forcibly remove the Palestinian indigenous people from their land." The official called Israel's actions in Gaza "inhumane" and "barbaric," adding that Hamas "will not surrender our legitimate fight for freedom and self-determination."

International input: The White House says national security officials held calls with United Nations officials on Thursday and Friday about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but declined to offer details about progress on getting foreign nationals out of the area. Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, is circulating a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which calls for a ceasefire in the "Israel-Gaza" war. Nebenzia called for de-escalation in the conflict and said the resolution received a mixed reaction from the other 14 member countries. Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, said in a statement Saturday morning (local time) that it welcomes "Russia's tireless efforts" aimed at stopping Israel's aggression against the territory.

Attacks in Lebanon: Israel is conducting drone attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. It comes after the Israeli military shelled southern Lebanon in response to an explosion at a security fence near the Lebanese-Israeli border earlier Friday, the IDF said. There are rising fears of the Lebanon-based Shia militant faction Hezbollah entering the conflict.

Concerns about a wider regional conflict: Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said his country is "extremely concerned" about the conflict in Israel spreading and that it is working to de-escalate the situation. Of Israel's immediate neighbors, it is only at peace with Jordan and Egypt, and is officially in a state of war with Lebanon and Syria. Israel has said it is ready in case there are attacks from those two countries.

Sign up for CNN's Meanwhile in the Middle East, a three-times-a-week newsletter that explores the region's biggest stories.

Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, said in a statement Saturday morning (local time) that it welcomes "Russia's tireless efforts" aimed at stopping Israel's aggression against the territory.

"[We] appreciate Russian President Vladimir Putin's position regarding the ongoing Zionist aggression against our people and his rejection of the Gaza siege, the cutting of relief supplies, and the targeting of safe civilians there," the statement read.

What Putin has said: On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged both sides in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to "minimize or reduce to zero" civilian casualties, and the foreign ministry in Moscow made similar calls for calm on Friday.

His comments come as Russia continues a ruthless war campaign against Ukraine and is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. That case includes, among other things, allegations of targeting civilians.

In addition to Putin's comments, the Russian envoy to the UN circulated a resolution calling for a ceasefire Friday.

Remember: Israel has ordered a " complete siege" on the crowded Gaza strip - including halting supplies of electricity, food, water, and fuel - while also bombarding the densely populated territory in retaliation for Hamas' devastating October 7 terror attacks. At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed by near-constant shelling in Gaza, according to the health ministry, including journalists, medics and other civilians. The dead include 614 children and 370 women, says the Palestinian health ministry.

The number of Ukrainian nationals killed in Hamas' attack on Israel over the weekend has risen to 11, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

Nikolenko also said there are still nine Ukrainian citizens missing.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health accused Israeli forces of the "targeting and killing of medical and ambulance personnel during their humanitarian missions to evacuate the victims of aggression."

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. The IDF told CNN it will look into these allegations.

At least 15 health facilities were damaged and 23 ambulances were destroyed in airstrikes Friday, according to the Palestinian ministry.

A dramatic video posted on the ministry in Gaza's Facebook page captured the moment an ambulance was rocked by an explosion as it attempted to flee a chaotic scene.

In the video, explosions are heard going off when the person recording jumps into an ambulance. Several people can be seen inside the ambulance, including a woman on a stretcher and a young girl by her side.

An explosion rocks the ambulance carrying the child and woman. The young girl screams in panic as another explosion goes off.

It is not clear what happened to the woman and child. The exact source and cause of the explosion was unclear.

"The Israeli violations against medical personnel, health institutions, and ambulance units are a blatant attack on the laws, conventions, and international norms that stipulate the protection of medical personnel and their facilities during times of conflicts and wars," the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Friday in a statement.

The ministry also said that "thousands of displaced citizens are sleeping in hospital courtyards, facing the immense number of wounded individuals who are congesting the hospital corridors, putting immense pressure on the fragile healthcare system."

The ministry went on to call for "immediate action to open a secure passage to ensure the arrival of medical supplies, fuel, delegations, ambulance vehicles, and allow the departure of hundreds of wounded and patients before it is too late."

The ministry also accused Israeli forces of targeting people in Gaza as they were trying to evacuate their homes.

"The Israeli occupation deceived the citizens and forced them into forced displacement, then multiplied its crimes by targeting them this afternoon," the health ministry said.
"The world witnessed that all the victims of this targeting are entire families, including unborn children. Three ambulances were targeted, and 10 of their crews were injured during the evacuation of the wounded."

What we covered here

Israel's military has warned 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs Israel is set to ramp up its retaliatory offensive against Hamas following the group's October 7 terror attacks that killed 1,300 people.

Israel's evacuation order prompted tens of thousands of people to leave their homes in Gaza Friday, according to the UN's humanitarian office.

Gaza's humanitarian crisis is deepening with warnings people are at risk of starvation. At least 1,900 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

President Joe Biden says the US is "working like hell" to get Americans missing from Israel back to the United States. The first charter that the US State Department organized to get its citizens out of Israel has arrived in Athens, Greece, an official said, and more flights are planned for the coming days.

Here's how to help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza.

1:07 a.m. ET, October 14, 2023

President Joe Biden spent about 45 minutes Friday speaking to family members of missing Americans in Israel, according to the father of missing American Sagui Dekel-Chen.

"As an American citizen, as an Israeli citizen, as someone whose beloved son, we are sure is being held alive, dead, wounded, we don't know, I could not possibly ask for more than President Biden expressed about the United States' commitment to getting these people back," Jonathan Dekel-Chen told CNN's Abby Phillip.

Dekel-Chen said it wasn't an easy conversation, but that the president made it clear that he and the administration are in it for the "long haul."

"As crazy as this must sound, at that moment, as proud as I am to be an Israeli I was no less proud to be an American as a result of that phone call," he said. "And honestly most of the time he was listening to people's stories and their desires for his action, and his answers were inspiring."

Although the president could not give much information, according to Dekel-Chen, the president's "willingness to listen" was "extraordinary."

Dekel-Chen's son, Sagui has been missing since Saturday when his kibbutz was invaded.

Some context: Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, kidnapped a number of people, including both civilians and soldiers, during its October 7 attack on Israel. It's unclear how many people are being held hostage; Israeli authorities have said as many as 150 people may have been kidnapped. The IDF said Friday that it had notified 120 families of those taken hostage.

The Israeli military says it has struck a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon after one of its drones was fired on.

The move came in response to "the infiltration of unidentified aerial objects into Israel and fire on an IDF UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]," the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday morning local time, adding that it intercepted both the aerial objects and the fire.

A CNN team on the ground in southern Lebanon heard two loud explosions in the early hours of Saturday.

In an earlier statement, the Israeli military said the "infiltration of an unidentified object" took place near the city of Shfar'am in northern Israel.

Some Palestinian-Americans have received their first set of instructions that family members stuck in Gaza may be able to evacuate into Egypt on Saturday afternoon, according to emails shared with CNN.

The US State Department's Consular Affairs Crisis Management System (CACMS) told family members that on Saturday the Rafah crossing "may be open."

"We understand the security situation is difficult, but if you wish to depart Gaza you may want to take advantage of this opportunity," the CACMS email said.

A State Department spokesperson told CNN they "are actively discussing this with our Israeli and Egyptian counterparts."

"We support safe passage for civilians," they said. "We are working with our Israeli and Egyptian partners to establish a safe humanitarian corridor both for Gazans trying to flee this war and to ensure humanitarian assistance reaches those in need within the territory."

Anas Alfarra, a Lawful Permanent Resident of the US living in the San Francisco area who is trying to get family members out of Gaza, says the email falls short of what the US Embassy needs to be doing.

"Two 'mays' and a 'wish' in a situation that warrants much more," Alfarra told CNN.

Mai Abushaaban, a 22-year-old from Houston who also received the email, has been desperately trying to evacuate her mother and sister from Gaza this week.

"I've had to put a lot of pressure on the embassy," Abushaaban said. "It feels almost as though we were forgotten, I personally feel like we're second-class citizens."

This comes after the United States has continued to press the Egyptian and Israeli governments on "the importance of the Rafah crossing being open for American citizens and foreign nationals of other countries who want to leave and have the right to leave to be able to do so," a senior State Department official said Friday.

US officials have been engaged in discussions for days to try to secure a humanitarian corridor that would allow Americans and other civilians to safely leave Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli military incursion.

The United Nations on Thursday said it was informed by the Israeli military that "the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours," but IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN Friday that any deadline "may slip."

The State Department official told the press traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US' focus has been "on American citizens, but other countries you could presume are engaged in trying to get their foreign nationals out as well."

There are an estimated 500-600 Palestinian-Americans in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of people left their homes in Gaza on Friday after Israel's military warned over one million people living north of Wadi Gaza to move south, according to a statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Saturday.

Prior to the warning, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced, the statement added.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it had distributed food to 135,000 people in shelters across Gaza on Friday, but warned "humanitarian supplies are running low."

OCHA added that most people in Gaza now have no access to water.

"As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases," it said.

As Israel tightens its chokehold in Gaza, a humanitarian crisis in the territory is rapidly spiraling amid warnings that people are at risk of starvation.

It comes as Israel has ordered more than a million people in Gaza to evacuate southward ahead of a potential Israeli ground operation, according to the United Nations. Many people in the enclave left their homes on Friday.

The Gaza Strip is one of most densely populated places on earth, with some 2 million people crammed in 140-square-mile territory.
Here's where things stand:

Offensive action from Israel: In addition to continued airstrikes, Israeli troops have carried out local raids over the past day in the Gaza Strip, searching for hostages and collecting evidence to find people taken by Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces said. Meanwhile, Israel has amassed more than 300,000 reservists along the Gaza border for a potential full ground operation. Israel has also been accused by the Palestinian Ministry of Health of the "targeting and killing of medical and ambulance personnel during their humanitarian missions to evacuate the victims of aggression."

Humanitarian concerns: The UN said the calls for the evacuation of 1.1 million people in Gaza are "impossible" and has urged the Israeli military to withdraw, according to Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general. Dujarric said such a mass evacuation would have "devastating humanitarian consequences." Israel has blocked food, water and fuel from coming in leading to "catastrophic" conditions, the Palestinian Health Ministry warned.

What Hamas is saying: A senior Hamas official said Friday that the current situation in Gaza represents "an extraordinarily audacious and brutal endeavor to forcibly remove the Palestinian indigenous people from their land." The official called Israel's actions in Gaza "inhumane" and "barbaric," adding that Hamas "will not surrender our legitimate fight for freedom and self-determination."

International input: The White House says national security officials held calls with United Nations officials on Thursday and Friday about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but declined to offer details about progress on getting foreign nationals out of the area. Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, is circulating a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which calls for a ceasefire in the "Israel-Gaza" war. Nebenzia called for de-escalation in the conflict and said the resolution received a mixed reaction from the other 14 member countries. Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, said in a statement Saturday morning (local time) that it welcomes "Russia's tireless efforts" aimed at stopping Israel's aggression against the territory.

Attacks in Lebanon: Israel is conducting drone attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. It comes after the Israeli military shelled southern Lebanon in response to an explosion at a security fence near the Lebanese-Israeli border earlier Friday, the IDF said. There are rising fears of the Lebanon-based Shia militant faction Hezbollah entering the conflict.

Concerns about a wider regional conflict: Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said his country is "extremely concerned" about the conflict in Israel spreading and that it is working to de-escalate the situation. Of Israel's immediate neighbors, it is only at peace with Jordan and Egypt, and is officially in a state of war with Lebanon and Syria. Israel has said it is ready in case there are attacks from those two countries.

Sign up for CNN's Meanwhile in the Middle East, a three-times-a-week newsletter that explores the region's biggest stories.

Hamas, the militant Islamic group that governs Gaza, said in a statement Saturday morning (local time) that it welcomes "Russia's tireless efforts" aimed at stopping Israel's aggression against the territory.

"[We] appreciate Russian President Vladimir Putin's position regarding the ongoing Zionist aggression against our people and his rejection of the Gaza siege, the cutting of relief supplies, and the targeting of safe civilians there," the statement read.

What Putin has said: On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged both sides in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to "minimize or reduce to zero" civilian casualties, and the foreign ministry in Moscow made similar calls for calm on Friday.

His comments come as Russia continues a ruthless war campaign against Ukraine and is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. That case includes, among other things, allegations of targeting civilians.

In addition to Putin's comments, the Russian envoy to the UN circulated a resolution calling for a ceasefire Friday.

Remember: Israel has ordered a " complete siege" on the crowded Gaza strip - including halting supplies of electricity, food, water, and fuel - while also bombarding the densely populated territory in retaliation for Hamas' devastating October 7 terror attacks. At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed by near-constant shelling in Gaza, according to the health ministry, including journalists, medics and other civilians. The dead include 614 children and 370 women, says the Palestinian health ministry.

The number of Ukrainian nationals killed in Hamas' attack on Israel over the weekend has risen to 11, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

Nikolenko also said there are still nine Ukrainian citizens missing.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health accused Israeli forces of the "targeting and killing of medical and ambulance personnel during their humanitarian missions to evacuate the victims of aggression."

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. The IDF told CNN it will look into these allegations.

At least 15 health facilities were damaged and 23 ambulances were destroyed in airstrikes Friday, according to the Palestinian ministry.

A dramatic video posted on the ministry in Gaza's Facebook page captured the moment an ambulance was rocked by an explosion as it attempted to flee a chaotic scene.

In the video, explosions are heard going off when the person recording jumps into an ambulance. Several people can be seen inside the ambulance, including a woman on a stretcher and a young girl by her side.

An explosion rocks the ambulance carrying the child and woman. The young girl screams in panic as another explosion goes off.

It is not clear what happened to the woman and child. The exact source and cause of the explosion was unclear.

"The Israeli violations against medical personnel, health institutions, and ambulance units are a blatant attack on the laws, conventions, and international norms that stipulate the protection of medical personnel and their facilities during times of conflicts and wars," the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Friday in a statement.

The ministry also said that "thousands of displaced citizens are sleeping in hospital courtyards, facing the immense number of wounded individuals who are congesting the hospital corridors, putting immense pressure on the fragile healthcare system."

The ministry went on to call for "immediate action to open a secure passage to ensure the arrival of medical supplies, fuel, delegations, ambulance vehicles, and allow the departure of hundreds of wounded and patients before it is too late."

The ministry also accused Israeli forces of targeting people in Gaza as they were trying to evacuate their homes.

"The Israeli occupation deceived the citizens and forced them into forced displacement, then multiplied its crimes by targeting them this afternoon," the health ministry said.
"The world witnessed that all the victims of this targeting are entire families, including unborn children. Three ambulances were targeted, and 10 of their crews were injured during the evacuation of the wounded."

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By Kathleen Magramo, Adam Renton, Christian Edwards, Ed Upright, Aditi Sangal, Alisha Ebrahimji, Elise Hammond, Kaanita Iyer, Zoe Sottile and Tori B. Powell, CNN

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October 13, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

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Gaza's humanitarian crisis deepened Thursday with warnings people are at risk of starvation as Israel maintained a siege and bombarded targets in response to the Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people.

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Alexander Lara Delgado was a 16 year old boy who stopped at the gas station for chocolate and a drink, a few moments later, his parents got a called saying that their son was shot down in gas station.

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He stopped at a gas station for a chocolate bar and Gatorade. Then he was gunned down | CNN

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Alexander Lara Delgado’s mother lost her only child on the early morning of January 7, awoken by a phone call that her son had been shot after his car was struck by another at the gas station and an altercation ensued. The happy, lovable and outgoing teen left behind both parents, four half-siblings…

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Basically Fox News featured a pregnant transgender man on the cover of a magazine and people are stating that current events regarding race and gender should not be discussed in the news. 60% of Americans think companies should not take a public stance on current events which is up from 52% last year.

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FIRST ON FOX: Most Americans do not want businesses to weigh in on the most contentious political and social issues in society, according to new polling.

Nearly 60% of Americans think companies should not take a public stance on current events, which is up from 52% last year, according to a new poll conducted by Gallup and Bentley University. Political party, race and age were most determinative of how Americans believed businesses should act.

Issues that Americans are most in favor of businesses taking a stance on include climate change (55%), mental health (52%), free speech (49%) and healthcare (48%) while the least popular areas include abortion (26%), political candidates (19%) and religion (15%).

Only 37% of Americans think businesses should take a public stance on LGBTQ+ issues, 45% on racial issues, 39% on gun laws, 34% on immigration policy and 27% on international conflicts.
TEXAS REP WESLEY HUNT CHALLENGES 'WOKE' CORPORATIONS WITH 'AMERICAN PRIDE MONTH' LEGISLATION

With the rise of corporate activism and events like Pride Month, more American businesses have felt pressure to inject their own opinions on the social, political and cultural issues that are part of the U.S. societal discourse. But, as more U.S. companies weigh in, Americans seem fatigued by these companies that inject politics into their messaging and are increasingly against companies issuing their opinions on the country's most contentious issues.

While some business leaders, including billionaire "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban, believe companies embracing "woke" ideology is just "good business," the new poll indicates that it could actually negatively impact their bottom lines.

Some of the most prominent instances where businesses stirred up controversy and backlash include Bud Light and Target, which resulted in massive losses worth billions of dollars for both companies.

Bud Light, owned by parent company Anheuser-Busch, faced a months-long backlash after it partnered with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney in an April Instagram ad about March Madness.

A few days later, Anheuser-Busch defended the partnership with a statement that said the pact helped to "authentically connect with audiences," but the plummet in sales indicated consumers didn't agree.

The Anheuser-Busch-owned brand's sales fell by 24.5% in four weeks alone this summer and saw a 23.9% decrease in sales on a dollar basis compared to a year ago, as previously reported.

In a similar message, Target's CEO said in an interview - preceding the backlash over the store's Pride displays that featured items such as assorted LGBTQ children's apparel and "tuck-friendly" women's swimsuits - that "woke" capitalism is "great" for the brand and was "the right thing for society." But, as sales continued to plummet, some locations moved the controversial merchandise to the back of the store.
200 LGBTQ GROUPS DEMAND TARGET RESTOCK PRIDE MERCH, RELEASE STATEMENT NOW: 'NO SUCH THING AS NEUTRALITY'
Following the rollout, Target's market value fell $15 billion in the weeks following the display of Pride Month merchandise.

FOX News contributor Caitlyn Jenner, who identifies as transgender, said most Americans don't have a problem with the LGBTQ community, but warned that brands like Bud Light and Target are simply "alienating a lot of the marketplace."

Political party identification has the strongest influence on whether Americans believe corporations should take a stance on political issues with Democrats the most in favor of companies weighing in.

Over 60% of Democrats said businesses should publicly announce where they fall on political issues, which is down from 75% in 2022. In contrast, just 17% of Republicans and 36% of independents came to the same conclusion as their Democratic counterparts, which is down from 18% and 40%, respectively, in 2022.

Race also played a significant role in how Americans indicated businesses should weigh in on political issues with Black and Hispanic Americans the most likely to be in favor of a public stance. Although, the percentage in favor declined from 72% to 61% among Black adults and 49% to 48% among Hispanic adults between 2022 and 2023. That number shrunk from 41% to 35% among White Americans.
CNN, POLITICO INDICATE THAT 'GO WOKE, GO BROKE' APPLIED TO NEWS ORGANIZATIONS
Younger adults are more likely than older Americans to be in favor of businesses taking stances on current events. Over 50% of adults ages 19-29, 47% of adults ages 30-44 and 35% of adults ages 45 and older are in favor of businesses taking political stances, but overall those numbers have declined since 2022.

The recent findings are part of a larger Bentley-Gallup Business in Society Report, which will be released on Oct. 11. Findingsare based on a web survey with 5,458 U.S. adults conducted between May 8 and May 15, using the probability-based Gallup Panel.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"The Bentley-Gallup Business in Society Reportconfirms that, like business leaders, the public has mixed views on whether businesses should weigh in on these often complex and nuanced issues," Gallup concluded. "Americans are less likely now than they were in 2022 to say businesses should take a public stance on current events, but taking a stance on some topics - climate change, in particular - is still relatively palatable to most Americans."

Other American businesses that have weighed in on social and political issues, and at times taken an activist stance, which ensued backlash include North Face, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Six Flags, Postmates, Starbucks, Kohl's, PetSmart and Ben and Jerry's.
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media

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Majority of Americans don't think businesses should take political, social stances on current events

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As more U.S. companies weigh in on social and political debates, Americans are increasingly against businesses issuing their opinions on the country's stickiest issues.

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A woman was shot on Wedensday at a bus stop in Blue Springs while waiting at a bus stop. A 24-year-old woman was reported to have shot a 35-year-old female who is expected to be fine, she is recovering in the hospital right now.

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FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

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BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - A suspect in a Blue Springs shooting is now behind bars and facing charges.

Meanwhile, the parent of a Lee's Summit student is recovering in the hospital after a shooting at a school bus stop.

"We have a lot of kids at this stop," Jamie Jolly said.

Remnants of a violent Wednesday afternoon sit near a bus stop near Imperial and Orchard Lane in Blue Springs. The neighborhood falls in the Lee's Summit School District.

"And the bus stop is right here at the corner," Jolly said.

Jolly said her daughter usually gets picked up and dropped off for school, but on Thursday her 11-year-old stayed home because of the scare.

"It was just very upsetting," Jolly said.

Blue Springs police Det. Sgt. Keegan Hughes said a group of parents, who have middle school-aged children, got into a fight. It turned physical.

Hughes said a family member of a student pulled a gun and shot a parent in the hip.

"You should be a good role model," Jolly said. "You shouldn't be bringing a gun to a bus stop to fight over issues your daughters have."

Jolly said her daughter had already gotten off the bus and ran home. In about five minutes, she heard gunfire.

"She heard a bunch of people screaming and yelling," Jolly said. "She came inside and then she heard the gunshots from inside."

Blue Springs police believe 24-year-old Vatece Davis pulled the trigger.

Police said she's being charged with unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action and stealing. Davis is being held on a $200,000 bond.

"We know this can be traumatic for students that were just getting off the bus and possibly saw this and worried about safety for them," Hughes said. "So we put extra officers in the neighborhood this morning for bus pick up and we're going to do the same thing for bus drop off."

Hughes said police will monitor the situation going forward.

The 35-year-old woman who was shot is recovering in the hospital and is expected to be OK.

Hughes also said the Lee's Summit School District had additional counselors and officers at schools to offer support and safety to students.

FOX4 emailed and called the school district multiple times Thursday but did not immediately hear back.

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Woman accused of shooting parent at bus stop in Blue Springs

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A suspect in a Blue Springs shooting is now behind bars and facing charges after allegedly shooting another parents at a Blue Springs bus stop.

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Israel dropped about 6,000 bombs on Gaza weighing over 4,000 tonnes, and killing over 1,400 people. Officials in Gaza said the dead included 447 children, 248 women and 10 healthcare workers. More than 150 people were killed on Thursday alone. These bombs have also totaled over 1,000 homes in Gaza.

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Palestinians sit outside their house after Israeli air strikes hit Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza [Hatem Ali/AP Photo]

Israeli air strikes are pounding the Gaza Strip for a sixth consecutive day as fears of a humanitarian disaster in the besieged Palestinian enclave mount.

Israel on Thursday said it has dropped 6,000 bombs weighing 4,000 tonnes on Gaza in the past six days, killing more than 1,400 people.

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Officials in Gaza said the dead included 447 children, 248 women and 10 healthcare workers. More than 150 people were killed on Thursday alone.

Entire neighbourhoods in Gaza - home to 2.3 million people, half of them children - have been destroyed by the incessant bombing, forcing 338,000 Palestinians to flee their homes and take shelter.

The death toll in the occupied West Bank has also surged to 31 while more than 600 people have been injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

On the Israeli side, at least 1,300 people have been killed since the armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel and took at least 100 people captive on Saturday.

Israel has imposed a complete siege of Gaza, cutting access to food, water, medicines and fuel, as its forces prepare for a possible ground assault.

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

Gazans rendered homeless by bombing

The United Nations humanitarian office said Israeli bombardment of Gaza has levelled more than 1,000 homes since Saturday while another 560 housing units have been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

More than 12,600 homes have sustained damage due to Israeli air strikes, said the agency, called the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

It said the reduction in water supplies due to Israel tightening its siege on the strip has resulted in dire water shortages for more than 650,000 people.

Sewage systems have been destroyed, OCHA added, sending fetid wastewater into the streets and posing a health hazard.

Israeli air strikes have made cemeteries in Gaza dangerous to reach so mourning families are burying their dead in informal graveyards dug in empty lots, reports said.

Hospitals 'risk turning into morgues'

Human rights groups said Gaza's health system, already stretched to its limits by a 16-year blockade, is on the verge of complete collapse. The enclave's only power plant was forced to shut down on Wednesday after it ran out of fuel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Gaza's hospitals "risk turning into morgues" as severely wounded civilians, including infants, are rushed inside its crowded wards, where beds and medical supplies are running out.

"As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk," said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC's regional director.

OCHA said all 13 hospitals in the territory are only partially operational due to severe shortages of fuel and crucial medical supplies.

Israel on Thursday said there would be no humanitarian exceptions to its siege of Gaza until all its hostages are freed by Hamas.

"Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be lifted, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home," Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said in a social media post.

Egypt says facilitating aid flights to Gaza

Egypt on Thursday said it was directing international aid flights for Gaza to an airport in northern Sinai although Israeli bombardments along the border have so far hampered the delivery of the relief.

The Rafah border crossing between the Sinai and Gaza remained open, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, adding that Egypt asked Israel to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes prevented normal operations there.

Israel's bombing and total siege on Gaza has caused alarm in Egypt, which shares a border with the south of the narrow coastal enclave.

El Arish airport in northern Sinai, about 45km (28 miles) from the Gaza border, was prepared to receive aid deliveries from Qatar and Jordan, but these would not leave the airport until humanitarian corridors had been established, Egyptian security sources told the Reuters news agency.

US secretary of state in Israel

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday as President Joe Biden's administration seeks to send a message of unequivocal support to its ally Israel and deter regional forces hostile to it from joining the fight alongside Hamas.

Blinken addressed reporters in Tel Aviv, saying the death toll for US citizens killed in the attacks by Hamas has risen to at least 25, up from 22 on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Thank you, America, for standing with Israel today, tomorrow and always."

Also on Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he expected Israel's military to "do the right thing" as it prepares for a ground assault on Gaza. He said the US has placed no conditions on military assistance to Israel.

Rights groups worry that, facing little outside pressure, Israel's assault on Gaza could move forward with little regard for civilian casualties or adherence to international law.

Palestinians killed by settlers in West Bank

While the world's focus has been fixed on events in Gaza and Israel, tensions in the occupied West Bank are also at a boiling point with an Israeli lockdown in place and Israeli settlers killing several Palestinians in a series of attacks over the past week.

On Thursday, a Palestinian father and his son were shot dead by Israeli settlers and soldiers taking part in a funeral procession held for four Palestinians killed in a settler attack the day before.

Also on Thursday, two Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces in a shooting near a police station in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli police said they opened fire at a group of Palestinians after one man allegedly shot at the police station.

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Israel says 6,000 bombs dropped on Gaza as war with Hamas nears a week

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Air strikes pound Gaza for sixth day as deaths and fears of humanitarian disaster in besieged Palestinian enclave mount.

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Somewhat recently, the CIA has acknowledged that the 1953 coup of Iran, that the US supported, was not very democratic. In 2013 the CIA admitted to being involved in the coup that took down Iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq. This is important because it doesn't look too good on a democratic country to be involved in an undemocratic coup.

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The CIA has for the first time acknowledged that the 1953 coup it backed in Iran that overthrew its prime minister and cemented the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was undemocratic.

The admission came in a new podcast revealing details about one of the most famed CIA operations of all times - the effort to spirit six American diplomats out of Iran under the guise of a Hollywood movie production.

The CIA in 2013 admitted its role in the coup that brought down Iran's then prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq, but until now has not publicly acknowledged that the move was undemocratic.

Much of the agency's official history of the coup remains classified, complicating the public's understanding of an event that still resonates, as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington.

The "CIA's leadership is committed to being as open with the public as possible", the agency said in a statement responding to questions from the Associated Press. "The agency's podcast is part of that effort - and we knew that if we wanted to tell this incredible story, it was important to be transparent about the historical context surrounding these events, and CIA's role in it."

Iran's mission to the United Nations described the 1953 coup as marking "the inception of relentless American meddling in Iran's internal affairs" and dismissed the US acknowledgments.

"The US admission never translated into compensatory action or a genuine commitment to refrain from future interference, nor did it change its subversive policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran," the mission said in a statement.

The CIA's podcast, The Langley Files, focused two recent episodes on the story of the six American diplomats' escape. While hiding at the home of the Canadian ambassador to Iran, a two-man CIA team entered Tehran and helped them fly out of the country while pretending to be members of a crew scouting for a made-up science fiction film.

The operation was retold in the 2012 Academy Award-winning film Argo directed by and starring Ben Affleck, which offered a dramatized version of the operation, with Affleck playing the late CIA officer Antonio "Tony" Mendez. The podcast for the first time identified the second CIA officer who accompanied Mendez, naming him as agency linguist and exfiltration specialist Ed Johnson. He previously only had been known publicly by the pseudonym "Julio".

In the podcast, CIA spokesperson Walter Trosin cites the claims of agency historians that the majority of the CIA's clandestine activities in its history "bolstered" popularly elected governments.

"We should acknowledge, though, that this is, therefore, a really significant exception to that rule," Trosin says of the 1953 coup.

CIA historian Brent Geary, appearing on the podcast, agrees.

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"This is one of the exceptions to that," Geary says.

Seven decades later, the 1953 coup remains as hotly debated as ever in Iran, where many see a straight line leading from the coup to the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ultimately toppled the shah.

The coup also prompted the CIA into a series of further actions in other countries, including Guatemala, where American clandestine operations in 1954 installed a military dictator and sparked a 40-year civil war that likely killed approximately 245,000 people.

But large portions of the CIA reappraisal of the coup remain heavily redacted, despite attempts to legally pry them loose by the George Washington University-based National Security Archive.

Further complicating any historical reckoning is the CIA's own admission that many files related to the 1953 coup likely had been destroyed in the 1960s.

"It's wrong to suggest that the coup operation itself has been fully declassified. Far from it," said Malcolm Byrne of the National Security Archive. "Important parts of the record are still being withheld, which only contributes to public confusion and encourages mythmaking about the US role long after the fact."

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CIA admits 1953 Iranian coup it backed was undemocratic

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The toppling of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and ensuing rule of the shah directly led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution

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Love Locks are when two locks are locked together with a couples initial on each one and the keys are thrown into a near by body of water. This may seem cute but the park considers it graffiti or littering

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Grand Canyon issues warning about ‘love locks’ | CNN

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“Love is strong, but our bolt cutters are stronger,” reads a new Facebook post from Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

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On Monday A person drove into a Chinese Consulate in San Francisco and was later shot by police. At 3:09 pm on Monday, a person crashed into the lobby of a Consult General of the Republic of China. Police responded within minutes, and confronted the said person by shooting them. He was then taken to the Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

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international relations and national security

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state departments and diplomatic services

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Person drives into Chinese consulate in San Francisco and is killed by police after confrontation, authorities say | CNN

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A person who crashed a vehicle into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco Monday was shot and killed after being confronted by police in the lobby, authorities said.

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Hamas' insane arsenal is a big factor in the war that they are in right now with Israel.There are decade old machine guns being used and Hamas is even using homemade rockets and homemade and modified AK-47's.This shows how much they are doing to make sure that they can get enough weapons and fire power to Israel to make sure they can win.

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international relations and national security

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Homemade rockets and modified AK-47s: An annotated look at Hamas' deadly arsenal | CNN

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Homemade rockets. Modified AK-47s. Decades-old Soviet machine guns. Cheap, second-hand, and purloined weapons comprised Hamas' deadly makeshift arsenal that fueled a devastating, multi-pronged attack on Israel over the weekend.

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On Friday morning, more than a million people in northern Gaza found themselves facing a terrible dilemma. The Palestinian health ministry said that 1,799 people have been killed and more than 6,400 injured since Israel began striking Gaza last Saturday. The UN estimates that more than 423,000 people have already fled their homes in the territory.

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On Friday morning, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza found themselves facing another terrible dilemma.

Should they follow the 400,000 friends, relatives and neighbours who had already fled their homes amid Israel's retaliatory airstrikes and its warning that almost half of the enclave's 2.3 million people should evacuate the area for their "own safety" ahead of the expected ground assault?

Or should they heed Hamas's call to stay put and stand firm against what it called "this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation"?

Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza City, broke down in tears as she tried to make sense of what is going on.

"Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel," she said. "The only concern now is just if you'll make it - if you're going to live."

According to the UN, 423,000 people have already fled their homes in the territory. Many others were cramming their belongings into suitcases and plastic bags, scooping up their children and beginning to move to safer areas on Friday.

"Right now, I'm leaving what I thought was the safest place I could go to," said Rama Abu Amra, a student who had fled several times with her family across Gaza City since the bombardments began. The sound of panicked crowds was audible in the background as she spoke.

"We're not safe at all, we're constantly under attack. I don't know, I'm just praying to God to protect us, to protect our homes, mine is really under attack. I might not find it again."

She said she was saying goodbye to everything that she loved: her home; her room; her childhood memories, even her box of university supplies.

"I never thought this would happen," added Abu Amra. "We've faced many wars before, many escalations before, but even those were easier."

But this time, she said, there was simply nowhere to run to. "We just don't know what to do. We hope to stay alive, because I really don't know if I will or not. Just pray for us. We have no internet, no water and no food. No connection, everything is so hard. We have never lived something like this."

Others, however, had made up their minds that there would be no repeat of what Palestinians call the Nakba - the catastrophe - of 1948, when 700,000 people were expelled or fled from their homes in the war surrounding the creation of the Israeli state.

Inside Shifa hospital, the largest of Gaza's 13 public hospitals, a man arrived to check on dozens of friends and relatives who had been brought from a building in Beach refugee camp that had been bombed by Israel. "I survived - I don't know why I survived," he told reporters. "It is so that I [can] tell the enemy, America, Europe and the world that this Palestinian people will not be defeated. They think there will be another displacement, or that we may go to Egypt. Nonsense."

With that, he went to the morgue to try to identify his dead relatives.

Despite the bombings and the mass displacements, Hamas urged the people of Gaza not to move. Once again, the spectre of the Nakba was invoked.

"We tell the people of northern Gaza and from Gaza City, stay put in your homes, and your places," said Eyad al-Bozom, a spokesperson for Hamas's interior ministry. "By carrying out massacres against the civilians, the occupation wants to displace us once again from our land. The 1948 displacement will not happen. We will die and we will not leave."

Gaza's health ministry said it would be impossible to evacuate the many wounded from hospitals, adding that hospital staff would not act in accordance with Israel's warning.

"We have a duty and a humanitarian mission, and we cannot evacuate hospitals and leave the wounded and sick to die," said a spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra. In the event of severe Israeli strikes, he added, there was simply nowhere else in the Gaza Strip to take and treat patients.

That view was echoed by the World Health Organization (WHO). "There are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators," said the WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević. "So moving those people is a death sentence. Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel."

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society - four of whose paramedics have been killed in Gaza in recent days - also said it would stay in Gaza.

"The decision has been made," it said in a statement posted on Instagram. "We have not and will not leave. Our paramedics will continue to provide their humanitarian missions until the last moment. We will not leave people to face death alone."

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it was not evacuating its schools, where hundreds of thousands have taken shelter. But it has relocated its headquarters to southern Gaza, according to the spokesperson Juliette Touma.

Pressed by reporters on whether the Israeli army would protect hospitals, UN shelters and other civilian locations, a military spokesperson described the areas as "a war zone".

Israeli military drops thousands of leaflets over Gaza telling civilians to evacuate - video

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari for the Israel Defense Forces said: "If Hamas prevents residents from evacuating, the responsibility lies with them."

Clive Baldwin, a senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch, said Israel's warning was simply not effective and called on world leaders to speak up. "The roads are rubble, fuel is scarce, and the main hospital is in the evacuation zone," he said. "This order does not alter Israel's obligations in military operations to never target civilians and take all the measures it can to minimise harm to them."

The UN's human rights office called for restraint on both sides, pointing out that 2,700 people, including civilians, had been killed since Hamas's assault on Israel almost a week ago. It voiced fears that senior Israeli military officials were giving the impression that obeying international humanitarian law had become "optional rather than compulsory" in the retaliatory strikes.

"We urge Palestinian armed groups to halt the use of inherently indiscriminate projectiles, which violate international humanitarian law, as well as attacks directed against civilians," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"And we urge Israel to ensure full respect for international humanitarian and human rights law in any and all military operations. Airstrikes and artillery strikes have already led to the destruction of large parts of densely populated neighbourhoods in Gaza, and rhetoric from high-level officials raises concerns that a message is being sent to the members of the Israeli Defence Forces that international humanitarian law has become optional rather than compulsory."
Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

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'We don't know what to do': People in Gaza caught between Hamas order and IDF tanks

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Israel warns people to leave before expected ground assault but Hamas says to stay put, warning of second Nakba

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MaryAnn Alvarado asks her students if they know how to get a gun, everyone of her students raises their hands. A lot of people have guns and think it's okay from where they live or just to protect their family. Guns are the leading cause of death between  24 and under. The 2023 Peril study showed that about one-third of youth under 18 believe they are safer with guns than without them.

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When MaryAnn Alvarado asks her students if they know how to get a gun, their response always takes her aback. "Everyone raises their hand," she said.

Alvarado, 36, runs Teens on Target, a program operated by YouthAlive! in Oakland, California, that trains middle- and high-schoolers to become violence prevention advocates in their own communities. For many of the teens she sees, especially those coming from underserved neighborhoods, gun violence is normalized, she explained, or they believe that stopping gun violence is impossible. Others feel like gun ownership is okay to protect their family. "I've heard youth say, 'I feel like everybody owns a gun here,'" she said.

In the US, Gen Z grew up doing active shooter drills and watching school massacres and other acts of violence unfold on TV. So it's perhaps unsurprising that many of them have been high-profile faces in the movement for gun reform. But at the same time, research shows many young people, like those Alvarado works with, remain open to - even interested in - gun ownership. What connects those two threads, experts say, is shared trauma and exposure to violence.

Guns are now the leading cause of death for American youth ages 24 and under, and the collective psyche of Gen Z has been reshaped as a result. A 2023 national study conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Everytown for Gun Safety and American University's Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (Peril) found that young people report feelings of anxiety, grief, loss and fear from gun violence regardless of whether they have experienced it directly or indirectly.

"We see a lot of rumination, a lot of hyper vigilance, a lot of anxiety and depression and concern around violence in public spaces," said Pasha Dashtgard, director of research at Peril.

Children pose as victims as Miami fire and rescue and Miami-Dade schools police officers perform rescue operation during a shooter drill in Florida. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

While one response to that sense of dread has been to join the gun violence prevention movement, another is to embrace firearms. The 2023 Peril study showed that about one-third of youth under 18 believe they are safer with guns than without them. 39% of participants reported having easy access to a gun, and about half of those answers were from young people who purchased a firearm themselves.

In another study from 2019, 42% of boys and men ages 13-21 reported they will likely own a gun in the future, while 76% of all respondents agreed that gun ownership makes a home safer. And between 2002 and 2019, rates of gun ownership among teens rose by 41%. During the pandemic, one-third of people who purchased guns were between 18 and 29 years old.

These swings coincide with rising ownership among demographics not historically linked to firearms, like women, Latinos and Asian Americans. In the latter two groups, new gun owners say that they are motivated to carry by the increased threat of racist extremism.

"Gun ownership has diversified dramatically," said Kelly Drane, research director at Giffords Law Center in San Francisco.

or young people who are drawn to guns, geography plays a big part in how those interests manifest. In rural areas, support for the second amendment and adherence to gun-related traditions can be driving forces behind ownership. Often, younger people in those parts of the country want to own guns to hunt with or to follow in the footsteps of gun-enthusiast parents and grandparents.

But rates of gun-related deaths are on the rise in rural areas. "Young people in rural areas are particularly susceptible to using a gun for death by suicide," said Nick Wilson, senior director for gun violence prevention at the Center for American Progress.

Seventeen-year-old Erin DeSantis has lived her whole life in rural Pennsylvania, where guns have been a constant presence. Three years ago, she began to volunteer with the youth advocacy group Students Demand Action, and today serves on its national advisory board. But she's not unequivocally anti-gun, and even practices sport shooting. "I wanted to make sure that rural voices were part of the conversation," she said, "because we tend to get forgotten."

In urban settings, high rates of gun violence are directly correlated with exposure to systemic poverty.

An exhibit by March for Our Lives in Washington DC in 2019. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

Growing up in south central Los Angeles, Manny Macedo heard gunshots almost nightly. "I was kind of raised to just ignore it," he said. Now a junior at UC Berkeley, Macedo leads the university's Students Demand Action campus group, which he hopes will help keep his siblings and other kids in urban centers safe from guns.

While Macedo steered clear of firearms, other young people in his community carried - especially those involved with gangs. That's one of the most common routes toward youth gun ownership in underserved neighborhoods, said Fernando Rejón, executive director of the Urban Peace Institute, a Los Angeles-based violence prevention organization, as well as lack of trust in law enforcement.

For members of Gen Z in particular, social media can escalate gang conflict, leading to more gun-related deaths, Rejón explained, pointing to a recent shooting in LA's Watts neighborhood that was exacerbated by social media posts. "Social media has become a platform to kind of disrespect and challenge other individuals or groups," he said. "That violence can quickly manifest into reality."

In Oakland, Alvarado, has also witnessed how social media can encourage young people to participate in gun culture. "I've heard youth as young as sixth grade say there's a lot of promotion of violence on social media," she said, pointing to videos that "glorify having weapons" and that encourage 11- and 12-year-olds to think guns are "cool".

The notion that owning a gun can improve one's personal or community safety is not a new one, said Peril's Dashtgard.

"It's paired with this masculine protector thing," he said, recounting how one interviewee for the study explained that he keeps a gun in his truck in case he encounters a mass shooter. At the same time, myths that guns allow "the weak to stand up to the strong " are designed to appeal to women and other demographics traditionally seen as vulnerable.

While these narratives predate the internet era, they're perpetuated online, where young people find themselves sucked into channels and chat groups that promote guns as the solution to any number of grievances. From Reddit and Discord to SnapChat and Instagram, content designed to make young people amenable to guns is ubiquitous. Youth influencers have become part of the gun industry's strategy, as well. There's even a gun-focused YouTube lookalike, "GunTube", that's dedicated strictly to promoting pro-gun videos.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun manufacturers play on those narratives through youth-oriented advertising campaigns, seeing young people as an untapped consumer market, said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of Washington's Violence Policy Center. "The gun industry is like any other industry that has a profit motive. It has a goal to sell more guns regardless of the cost," he said.

The NRA did not respond to request for comment.

But guns do not make people or households safer, explained Nina Vinik, the founder of gun violence prevention group Project Unloaded, who hopes to snuff out protectionist falsehoods. In fact, people who own handguns are more likely than non-gun owners to be shot.

People gather for the March for Our Lives rally in Washington DC in June 2022. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Research conducted by Project Unloaded last year found that 70% of young people believe owning a gun makes them safer, and half of young people are interested in owning a gun. But it also showed that young people are open to having discussions about gun ownership, and that they are the most likely to have their minds changed by hard evidence.

"Most Americans have bought into the myth that having a gun is going to make them safer," said Vinik. "But for young people, that's not a belief that is deeply held. They want to learn more and they're interested in knowing more about the risks and responsibilities of gun use."

Vinik and Project Unloaded launched the Snug (Safer Not Using Guns) campaign last year, which uses TikTok videos and paid influencer messaging to connect with young people.

Anvesha Guru, a 16-year-old member of Project Unloaded's Youth Council, said that many of her peers in suburban Wisconsin come from gun-owning families, but are receptive when she talks about gun violence in a non-judgmental and non-partisan manner. "Young people have the ability to actually make an impact in gun deaths and decrease gun homicides [by] changing the narrative surrounding guns," said Guru.

Urban violence prevention groups take a similar approach, by using community navigators or "peacemakers" to intervene in conflicts and help steer young people away from guns. In Oakland, Alvarado sends high schoolers into middle-school classrooms to recount how gun violence has impacted them personally. She explained that the technique not only empowers high schoolers, but is effective at convincing younger students, who look up to their more senior counterparts.

On top of cultural and peer interventions, researchers emphasized the need for systemic changes that can address the root causes of gun violence among young people, including mental health challenges and socio-economic inequities.

"I don't want to disparage the work that a lot of really good organizations are doing in promoting gun safety and gun control legislation, but I really think that we should be looking further upstream," said Dashtgard.

"How are we going to create the conditions where people feel like they live in a safe community such that they don't need a gun to protect themselves?" he said. "It's a complicated thing to try and accomplish. But that's the real answer to this problem."

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Gen Z grew up with school shootings - why do so many think guns keep them safe?

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In the US, gun violence and shared trauma is normalized for young people - which could be why many are open to firearm ownership

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A lake called Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland has been contaminated by a blue-green alge. Lough Neagh is the biggest lake in the brittish iles and suppyls 40% of Northern Irelands drinking water.

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It is a grim milestone for Northern Ireland that some of its problems are now visible from space.

A vast blue-green algae is choking Lough Neagh, which supplies 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water, owing to excessive farm slurry, human sewage discharges and other management blunders.

The poisoning of the largest lake in the British Isles is bad enough, but it has become a symbol of wider dysfunction in Northern Ireland.

The Stormont executive and assembly have been mothballed for 20 months, leaving a discredited civil service and unpopular secretary-of-state, Chris Heaton-Harris, to run the region on a form of auto-pilot. Hospital waiting lists are the worst in the UK and schools, roads and housing are decaying, with worse feared given what has been termed a "punishment" budget. The police service is in crisis.

"There's an end-of-days feel to Northern Ireland," Sam McBride, the Northern Ireland editor of the Belfast Telegraph, wrote in a recent column. "A sort of half-hearted anarchy pervades. There are still laws, police and regulatory bodies. The streets aren't filled with looters. But so much of what an advanced democratic society takes for granted is crumbling."

It was a stark observation from a respected commentator, and few dissented. There is a sense that governance, public services and the state's legitimacy are hollowing.

The Democratic Unionist party ( DUP) is expected to put a brave face on the situation at its conference this weekend. The party's raison d'être is to show that Northern Ireland works and to defend its place in the UK. Yet it was the DUP that caused Stormont to collapse in February 2022, in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements, and while in government, it presided over policy fiascos.

Its leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, faces a difficult choice: try to persuade a divided, unruly party to return to Stormont even while an Irish Sea border remains in place, or hunker down for a prolonged boycott that destabilises the region.

A healthcare representative, Emma Creagh, on the picket line outside Craigavon area hospital in Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, in September. Photograph: Claudia Savage/PA

"Countries go through periods of calamitous breakdown. Northern Ireland is going through something like that," said Malachi O'Doherty, an analyst and author of the book How to Fix Northern Ireland, published in April to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. "People have lost faith in the political system."

Even if the DUP revives powersharing, people will assume it will be a matter of time before it or Sinn Féin again pulls the plug, said O'Doherty. "The hope we had 25 years ago is gone and I don't think it can be restored."

O'Doherty said Northern Ireland remains divided principally between two sectarian blocs that valued tribal advantage over administrative competence. "We don't elect people based on their programmes on how to run the country."

Even when the main nationalist and unionist parties have cooperated and run a devolved government - about 60% of the time since 1998 - the results have been, at best, patchy.

There was consensus on the need to rationalise the health service, but that risked angering voters so reforms were shelved, worsening gaps and delays in care. All five big parties - the DUP, Sinn Féin, Ulster Unionists, Alliance and the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour party) signed off on the 2013 "going for growth" strategy, which intensified farming and sent ever more slurry into Lough Neagh.

Downing Street and Heaton-Harris have been accused of using austerity to try to pressure the DUP back to Stormont. Education's allocation has fallen from £2.64bn to £2.57bn, hitting holiday hunger payments and other benefits. Many schools are financially unsustainable, according to the education authority.

Environmental campaigners holding a 'wake' at Ballyronan beach for Lough Neagh lake in September. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

While public services are fraying in England, Wales and Scotland, too, Northern Ireland's problems go beyond lack of resources. Paralysed civil servants must run departments but their collective reputation remains tainted from debacles such as cash-for-ash, a bungled green energy scheme that exposed administrative incompetence and lack of accountability.

A series of crises have buffeted the police, forcing the resignation last month of the chief constable, Simon Byrne, who was found to have acted unlawfully.

Some shrug all this off as doom-mongering. Great Britain and Ireland have similar problems, so it is unfair to cast Northern Ireland as dysfunctional, said Ian Marshall, a farmer and former UUP politician who also served in the Irish Senate. "There is frustration at the lack of an executive but people are just getting on with things. There is a resilience."

There is evidence for that. Local councils are functioning, business confidence is growing and an investment conference in September drew global investors.

But there was no disguising the flat atmosphere in April when Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and other dignitaries visited Belfast to celebrate the anniversary of an agreement that looks increasingly ropey.

Brendan O'Leary, lauder politics professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Making Sense of a United Ireland, traced some of Northern Ireland's political deadlock to the Tories' return to power in 2010 and reduced cooperation between London and Dublin. "When the British and Irish governments don't cooperate things get worse in Northern Ireland."

Another factor was that when the two governments changed Stormont's rules in 2006 they left the dual premiership as the "lightning rod for other difficulties", said O'Leary. "Either first minister can bring down the house, or stop its construction."

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'The hope we had is gone': how 20 months of stasis has paralysed Northern Ireland

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While the DUP conference may put a brave face on the crisis, public services and even the state's legitimacy are hollowing

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A teacher in France has been killed and 2 people  have been seriously injured because of an intruder at the Gambetta highschool, who tried stabbing and killing 3 people with a knife. The man who started the attack appeared to be in his mid 20's, and the victims were a french language teacher as well as a staff member of the building and a security guard.

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The attacker, named as 20-year-old Russian national Mohamed Mogouchkov, is of Chechen origin and known to the security services for his involvement with Islamist extremism, according to police.

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Teacher killed in France school stabbing

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Two other people have been seriously injured in the knife attack in the northern city of Arras.

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15-year-old Shadrach Hall-Turner was playing video games in his friend's basement on a snow day. One of the teens with them in the basement was making a bet and carelessly shot Shadrach. later the teen was charged with first-degree manslaughter.

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The group's founder, the Isley Brothers, died at age 84. Rudolph Isley started the famous Rock And Roll group Isley Brothers this group is known for their famous songs "Shout' and "It's Your Thing". In 1989 Rudolph left the group 3 years after his brother passed away to become a Christian Minster.

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Rudolph Isley, a founding member of the Isley Brothers who helped perform such raw rhythm and blues classics as "Shout" and "Twist and Shout" and the funky hits "That Lady" and "It's Your Thing," has died at age 84.

"There are no words to express my feelings and the love I have for my brother. Our family will miss him. But I know he's in a better place," Ronald Isley said in a statement released Thursday by an Isley Brothers publicist. Further details were not immediately available.

A Cincinnati native, Rudolph Isley began singing in church with brothers Ronald and O'Kelly (another sibling, Vernon, died at age 13) and was still in his teens when they broke through in the late 1950s with "Shout," a secularized gospel rave that was later immortalized during the toga party scene in "Animal House." The Isleys scored again in the early 1960s with the equally spirited "Twist and Shout," which the Beatles liked so much they used it as the closing song on their debut album and opened with it for their famed 1965 concert at Shea Stadium.

The Isleys' other hits included "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)," later covered by Rod Stewart, and the Grammy-winning "It's Your Thing." In the 1970s, after younger brother Ernest and Marvin joined the group, they had even greater success with such singles as "That Lady" and "Fight the Power (Part 1)" and such million-selling albums as "The Heat Is On" and "Go for Your Guns."

Rudolph Isley left the group in 1989, three years after the sudden death of O'Kelly Isley, to become a Christian minister. He was among the Isleys inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

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Rudolph Isley, who started Isley Brothers and got the nation singing 'Shout' and 'It's Your Thing,' dies at 84

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Rudolph Isley, a founding member of the Isley Brothers who helped perform such raw rhythm and blues classics as "Shout" and "Twist and Shout" and the funky hits "That Lady" and "It's Your Thing," has died at age 84.

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in northern France a teacher was killed on Friday and several other people were injured at a public school in a knife attack. another staff member is in critical condition after getting stabbed multiple times.

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Teacher reported killed and several people wounded in France school knife attack | CNN

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A teacher was killed Friday and several people injured in a knife attack at a public school in Arras, northern France, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

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In Tijuana Mexico Estefanía Rebellón made a bus into a mobile classroom for migrant children. She herself was a migrant child growing up so she feels for them. It started as her taking $1,000 out of her saving and buying tents and school supplies. She say her group has served more than 3,100 children across the border.

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multiple kids and parents around the world are trying to start making the pumpkins they use on Halloween more unique and stylish

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5 cute, kid-friendly pumpkin decorating ideas | CNN

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Ah, pumpkin carving. It's theoretically a children's activity, but mom and dad are likely to end up wielding the large knives while the kiddos make a mess out of pumpkin guts. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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A family in florida was suprised too see a three legged bear stealing her alochic drink. the bear was named ¨tripod" and had been spotted by mutple people other than this lady. She also claims she ate her fish food and he prefers mango!

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A three-legged bear recently startled a Florida family when it walked onto their property, peered into their fridge and popped open some cool ones.

The cavalier black bear is known as "Tripod" in the Lake Mary community in which he's recently been spotted roaming, according to NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando. Most recently, he was seen by the Diglio family - who are local to the area - on their security camera on Aug. 3.

"Oh my God. I've never been this close to a bear," 13-year-old Joseph Diglio is heard saying in the video he captured. The video shows the bear prowling around the Diglio family's enclosed patio and clattering over a few items as he makes his rounds.

Though he tore a hole in the family's porch screen, Josaury Faneite-Diglio, Joseph's mother, says he didn't stop there.

"He ate the fish food we had outside next to our fish tank and then proceeded to the bar," Faneite-Diglio explained. "He took three White Claws, drank, and left very happy. His favorite flavor is mango and strawberry."

White Claws are an alcoholic seltzer water beverage that have fruit flavors.

Initially amazed by the scene, Joseph became concerned when he realized the bear could open doors.

"Once I saw him open the fridge, I got scared that he could open the doors to like the houses," he said, eventually locking the doors around the house.

Meanwhile, Faneite-Diglio says she wasn't quite so alarmed.

"I was not scared because we know the bear really well. He lives here; we respect their habitat as much as we can," she explained.

Bears have been known to help themselves to the contents of family kitchens in the past.

In August 2022, a man from West Hartford, Connecticut, came across a black bear inside of his kitchen. After welcoming himself to a bag of marshmallows and being shooed away, the bear returned days later and knocked through a screen door, perhaps hoping for more.

The man eventually called the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection who set up a humane trap with donuts for bait.

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A 3-legged bear named Tripod stole White Claws from a Florida family's fridge

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A three-legged bear recently startled a Florida family when it walked onto their property, peered into their fridge and popped open some cool ones.

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CNN analyzed dozens of photos and videos of Hamas militants to find the weapon that killed 1200 people. Israels standards of guns are different, but Hamas country’s military has access to some of the best equipment the US can provide. Their impact made for an unprecedented level of devastation.

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international relations and national security

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Homemade rockets and modified AK-47s: An annotated look at Hamas' deadly arsenal | CNN

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Homemade rockets. Modified AK-47s. Decades-old Soviet machine guns. Cheap, second-hand, and purloined weapons comprised Hamas' deadly makeshift arsenal that fueled a devastating, multi-pronged attack on Israel over the weekend.

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A teacher in France has been killed and two other people have been critically injured in a stabbing. Europe's number 1 reporter had said that the attacker was on a watch list of people who were on a security risk in connection with radical Islamism. There was a video on social media filmed by one of the students of a man in a grey sweatshirt carrying a knife and attacking people in the school court yard.

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A teacher has been killed and two other people injured in a stabbing in a school in Arras, northern France.

The interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said the attacker had been arrested. President Emmanuel Macron was heading to the scene.

The French broadcasters France Info and BFM reported that the attacker was a former student at the city school. Such attacks are rare in France.

A vice-president of the lower house of parliament, Naima Moutchou, said the National Assembly "expresses its solidarity and thoughts for the victims, their families and the educational community as we learn that a teacher has been killed and several others have been injured."
More details soon ...

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Teacher killed in Arras school attack in northern France

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Two other people injured and attacker arrested as President Macron heads to scene of stabbing

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In Florida, there were three tornadoes that struck overnight. All three tornadoes were determined to be EF2 tornadoes. One touched down on land, while the other two formed as a waterspout and made their way to land.

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ORLANDO, Fla - At least three EF-2 tornadoes touched down in Florida overnight and into the early morning hours on Thursday, toppling trees, power lines, damaging homes, and flipping at least one vehicle on its side, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service.

All three have been rated EF-2 tornadoes, which means their max wind gusts were estimated between 111-135 mph, strong enough to cause significant damage, the NWS said.

Tornadoes touched down in Palm Coast, Clearwater/Dunedin, and Crystal River. A fourth possible tornado is being investigated after damage reported in Sarasota.

CONTINUING COVERAGE

The NWS Jacksonville Office said the Palm Coast tornado touched down at 4:50 a.m. in Flagler County and traveled nearly a mile in six minutes, before dissipating. Its path is estimated to be 200 yards wide, and its maximum winds were estimated to be 115 mph at its peak, according to the NWS.

Near Tampa, a tornado touched down in Clearwater as an EF-1, and traveled to Dunedin as a stronger EF-2 tornado, the NWS said. The NWS said it started as a tornadic waterspout that made it to land, becoming a tornado.

It traveled across the Dunedin Channel before coming ashore near Dunedin, near Dunedin Causeway and Highway 19 in eight minutes - 1:47 a.m. to 1:55 a.m.

Further north in Crystal River, likely tornadic waterspout touched down around 2 a.m., came ashore, and made its away towards the Paradise Point Community. It traveled across U.S. 19 and Florida Highway 44, before ending northeast of Crystal City.

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NWS: 3 tornadoes ravaged Florida overnight in Clearwater, Crystal River, Palm Coast

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At least three EF-2 tornadoes touched down in Florida overnight and into the early morning hours on Thursday, toppling trees, power lines, damaging homes, and flipping at least one vehicle on its side, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service.

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The sheer "you got got" energy emanating from that picture captures what Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies did to the Braves in dispatching them from the Division Series for a second year in a row. The Braves won one game. The Phillies got the other three and only trailed after three innings.

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The defining image of the Atlanta Braves' 2023 season is one that they would do well to remember when it comes time to get motivated for 2024.

It's this one, in which Bryce Harper is staring a hole through Orlando Arcia's soul at the precise moment the Braves' season became doomed:

The sheer "you got got" energy emanating from that picture captures what Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies did to the Braves in dispatching them from the Division Series for a second year in a row. The Braves won one game. The Phillies got the other three and only trailed after three innings.

In the immortal words of Joe Girardi, it's not what you want if you're the Braves. Least of all after a season in which your offense made all kinds of history-including a record-tying 307 home runs and the same wRC+ as the 1927 Yankees-amid a 104-win effort, tying the mark for the franchise's second-best ever campaign.

At best, it's a missed opportunity. At worst, it's a danged waste.

What it's not, though, is the end of an era. Or even proof that it's time to go back to the drawing board. Sometimes, a loss is just a loss.
It Wasn't Just the Phillies Who Beat the Braves
Hats can, should and indeed must go off to the Phillies.

That they were the better team in this series is beyond dispute, and the how is largely the same story of their 3-1 defeat of the Braves in last year's Division Series. The Phillies got big hits when they needed them and their starting pitchers were excellent. The Braves didn't enjoy either thing in 2022 or 2023.

What's also indisputable, though, is that the Phillies didn't get the Braves at their best.

This is true if for no other reason than what the injury bug did to Atlanta's starting rotation. In between Spencer Strider's starts in Games 1 and 4, Max Fried didn't have his best stuff in Game 2 after returning from an 18-day absence with a blister and Bryce Elder only started Game 3 because Charlie Morton was out with a sprained finger.

It went predictably poorly, with Elder failing to make even one clean trip through the Phillies' lineup en route to giving up six runs and only getting eight outs.

Meanwhile, the offense that was so good comically better than everyone else's in the regular season just didn't show up.

It's common for offenses to lose something from the regular season to the postseason, with the median OPS drop amounting to 81 points. But these Braves went far beyond that, as their OPS dropped 326 points from .845 to .519. That's the biggest drop among playoff teams that got to play in at least four games.

Was it good pitching? Undoubtedly, and especially by Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola.

But was it also rust? There's at least some smoke there. The Braves did have to sit for five days after the end of the regular season, which could explain why their strikeout rate jumped from 20.6 to 24.1 percent and why they suddenly couldn't hit fastballs anymore.
The Braves Did Learn a Valuable Lesson About Urgency
Ah, but the Braves aren't getting off the hook that easily. Part of the reason they weren't at their best for the Phillies is because they left good enough alone on at least two occasions.

Looming largest in the Division Series was their failure to deepen their rotation at the Aug. 1 trade deadline. With Fried and Kyle Wright (who's unfortunately out for all of 2024 after having shoulder surgery) on the injured list at the time, they knew it was something they needed to do and they were even eyeing the biggest fish on the market:

It's what if Orlando Arcia hadn't even been around to poke the bear?

He got the job because the Braves basically gave up on trying to keep Dansby Swanson in town and, well, somebody who was already in house had to get it.

Arcia was indeed good in the first half of 2023, even making the National League All-Star squad as a starter. But whether he ever deserved that honor was specious at best, and he eventually devolved into one of the lineup's weakest links in the second half.
There's Work To Do, But Nothing To Blow Up
If the lesson here is to never leave anything to chance, then the Braves would do well to not sit idle this winter.

If nothing else, it'll be a good time to be in the market for starting pitching. The free-agent market will contain such gems as Aaron Nola, Blake Snell, Eduardo Rodriguez, Lucas Giolito, Jordan Montgomery, Sonny Gray and Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Corbin Burnes is likely to be on the trade market.

Otherwise, here's a quick review of all the key players the Braves have locked up through at least 2024:

Hitters: Acuña, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna, Travis d'Arnaud, Arcia, Michael Harris II

Starting Pitchers: Strider, Fried, Elder, Michael Soroka, AJ Smith-Shawver

Relief Pitchers: Raisel Iglesias, A.J. Minter, Michael Tonkin

This isn't even counting Morton, Eddie Rosario and Kirby Yates. The Braves hold $34.8 million worth of club options on them for 2024, and the chances of all three being picked up seem strong.

Which is to say that no matter what happens, the 2024 Braves are mostly going to resemble the 2023 Braves. As in, a team that will be pretty much guaranteed to be one of the top contenders in Major League Baseball before Acuña so much as puts a toe in the batter's box.

Ultimately, the Braves were the elite team that was promised. It wasn't just the 104 wins, but the league-best plus-231 run differential. And also their final 14-game advantage over the Phillies in the NL East. Heck, they even went 9-8 against the Phillies in 17 head-to-head contests.

Save for an additional starter and maybe a new shortstop, the Braves darn well should run it back. This team is too good to not get another shot, not to mention probably too ticked at the Phillies to be denied a chance for revenge.

Until it comes, all they have to do is keep that image of Harper in mind.

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The Braves Will Be 2024 Favorites Despite Wasting Historic 2023 Season

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The Braves took one on the chin, but nobody thinks they won't be back, right?

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A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by the French security services over suspected radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school, and critically has wounded two other people in northern France

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ARRAS, France - A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by the French security services over suspected radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and critically wounded two other people in northern France on Friday, authorities said.

The attack was being investigated as potential terrorism amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty. was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen near a Paris area school.

French anti-terror prosecutors were leading the investigation into the stabbings at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18 and is located in the city of Arras, some 115 miles north of Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the school hours after the attack, said the victim "stepped in and probably saved many lives." Macron also said that police thwarted an "attempted attack" in another French region after the teacher's fatal stabbing.

The president did not provide details, but police said a man armed with a knife was arrested coming out of a prayer hall in the Yvelines region west of Paris. The man's motives weren't immediately clear, police said.

The suspected assailant in Arras was arrested. The National Police force identified him as a Russian national of Chechen origin who was born in 2003. The French intelligence services told The Associated Press the man had been closely watched since the summer with tails and telephone surveillance and was stopped as recently as Thursday for a police check that found no wrongdoing.

Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene said the suspected attacker, a former student at the school, shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great" in Arabic.

Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer, rushed to the school and saw a male victim lying on the ground outside the school and the attacker being taken away.

"Colleagues arrived quickly but unfortunately couldn't save the victim," Hamzi said. He said the victim had his throat slit.

"I'm extremely shocked by what I saw," the officer said. "It was a horrible thing to see this poor man who was killed on the job by a lunatic."

Police said two other men, a second teacher and a security guard, were in critical condition.

Macron traveled to Arras along with the interior and education ministers. Macron stopped for a moment before the blanket-covered body of the teacher, which was in the parking lot in front of the school. A puddle of blood was visible as forensic experts worked around the body.

Macron then went to see students from the school in an adjacent building. School attacks are rare in France, and the government asked authorities to heighten vigilance at all schools across the country.

Julie Duhamel, an official with the Unsa teachers' union in the Pas-de-Calais region that includes Arras, told Franceinfo that teachers had noted the suspect's radicalization "a few years ago."

The suspected assailant's telephone conversations in recent days gave no indication of an impending attack, leading intelligence officers to conclude that the assailant decided suddenly on Friday to act, intelligence services told the AP.

The suspect's brother was arrested in the summer of 2019 by the DGSI - France's counter-terrorism intelligence service - on suspicion of being involved in planning of attack that was thwarted and is in jail, French intelligence said.

Police said another brother was taken into custody for questioning on Friday.

Hundreds of police deployed around the school and nearby neighborhoods, including heavily armed units, and barricaded a wide perimeter around the school after the attack.

Friday's attack had echoes of Paty's slaying on Oct 16, 2020 - also a Friday - by an 18-year-old who had become radicalized. Like the suspect in Friday's stabbings, the attacker had a Chechen background.

Martin Doussau, a philosophy teacher at Gambetta-Carnot, said the assailant was armed with two knives and appeared to be hunting specifically for a history teacher. Paty taught history and geography.

"I was chased by the attacker, who ... asked me if I teach history. (He said), 'Are you a history teacher, are you a history teacher?'" said Doussau, who recounted how he barricaded himself behind a door until police used a stun gun to subdue the attacker.

"When he turned around and asked me if I am a history teacher, I immediately thought of Samuel Paty," Doussau told reporters.

Prosecutors said they were considering charges of terror-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.

The attack came amid heightened tensions around the world over Hamas' attack on southern Israel and Israel's blistering military response, which have killed hundreds of civilians on both sides.

France is estimated to have the world's third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., as well as the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts since last Saturday's attack by Hamas militants and the Israeli military's subsequent bombardment and siege of Gaza.

France's National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, held a minute of silence for the victims at the opening of its Friday session.

Macron said the school in Arras would reopen as soon as Saturday morning.

"The choice has been made not to give in to terror," he said. "We must not let anything divide us, and we must remember that schools and the transmission of knowledge are at the heart of this fight against ignorance."

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A teacher in France is stabbed to death in attack investigated as potential terrorism

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ARRAS, France - A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by the French security services over suspected radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and critically wounded two other people in northern France on Friday, authorities said.