9 weeks ago / 2:13 a.m. EDT
A Jewish American from New York, Natalie Sanandaji, shares chilling details about her escape from the Hamas terrorist attack on an Israeli music festival on October 7.
9 weeks ago / 11:38 p.m. EDT
Frequent exposure to painful and shocking images of war can have a negative impact on your mind. Dr. Sue Varma discusses the impact of repeated exposure and how to balance happiness and being informed.
9 weeks ago / 10:55 p.m. EDT
Seven influential accounts distort Israel-Hamas news on X, researchers say
A handful of influential but unreliable accounts, some of which were promoted by Elon Musk, dominate the flow of information on X around the war between Israel and Hamas and easily overtake established mainstream media., according to research published Friday by the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington.
The researchers analyzed viral posts about the conflict over a three-day period from the start of the attack on Israel on October 7. They concluded that the most popular articles about the crisis revealed how information on the platform is “faster, more disorienting, and potentially more shaped by Musk himself.”
The new work adds data to a wave of recent anecdotal accounts of researchers, academics And journalists who noted a change for the worse in the way news and information circulates and is promoted on Twitter over the past year, particularly since the start of the Israel-Hamas crisis. A separate analysis published Thursday by NewsGuard, a nonpartisan company that tracks false narratives online, found that verified accounts were responsible for nearly three-quarters of the most viral misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war on Twitter.
9 weeks ago / 9:55 p.m. EDT
More than words: Anti-Israel protests become physical in the Middle East
Protests against Israel and the United States intensified today as crowds clashed with authorities.
The protests also took place simultaneously in a pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah form and erupted from Baghdad to Bahrain.
A big fear for supporters of a ceasefire and long-term peace is the specter of a second war front between Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel, already focused on Hamas in Gaza.
Skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel have occurred along Israel’s northern border, and the country plans to evacuate 20,000 people from the northern town of Qiryat Shemona.
9 weeks ago / 9:37 p.m. EDT
Biden: Hamas attacked in part to derail possible Saudi-Israeli agreement
President Joe Biden suggested tonight that one of the reasons Hamas attacked Israel was to prevent the country from normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser, Biden said Hamas may have attacked Israel “because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis.”
“Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel,” Biden said, and “were close to recognizing Israel.”
9 weeks ago / 9:29 p.m. EDT
Father of freed US hostage says she looked ‘very good’ in phone call
The father of a U.S. citizen freed from Hamas captivity told reporters today that his daughter looked “very good” in a brief phone call and that he expects her to go home next week.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for two long weeks,” Uri Raanan, 71, said of Natalie Shoshana Raanan’s release. “I haven’t slept in two weeks.”
Uri Raanan said he had not spoken to his ex-wife, Judith Tai Raanan, who was also released by Hamas earlier in the day.
He said his daughter had gone to Israel for her grandmother’s 85th birthday when she was taken hostage. They didn’t talk about how she was treated during her captivity, he said.
“I’m going to hug her and kiss her,” Uri Raanan said of his planned return. “This is going to be the best day of my life.”
9 weeks ago / 9:21 p.m. EDT
‘We can’t close for a month,’ says Ashdod restaurant owner
ASHDOD, Israel — While in some parts of Israel restaurants and bars have remained open amid war, along Ashdod’s coast, empty chairs and tables abound.
Yefet Sogaoker’s family owns Namaste, which he says is the only Indian restaurant in the area, and he said it had already been affected by the war after closing its doors for the first week after the Hamas attack on October 7. Now the company only offers a delivery service and, he says, orders are rare.
Comparing the empty dining room and terrace to his memories of lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, he said he hoped government support would come soon if the situation persisted.
“We can’t close for a month,” he said.
9 weeks ago / 8:47 p.m. EDT
With today’s release of two American women, U.S. officials remain focused on the 10 other missing Americans as well as the 200 others believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas.
9 weeks ago / 8:13 p.m. EDT
The toll of journalists killed rises
The number of journalists killed in the war zone and skirmishes following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel rose to 22 today, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
The new issue includes the death of Mohammed Ali from Al-Shabab radio, described by the committee as “youth radio”. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, the statement said. The Palestinian Journalists’ Union and the Cairo-based Al-Dostor newspaper were cited as sources of the information.
Additionally, the committee said eight journalists were injured and three were missing or detained. No American journalist would have been killed.
The committee said it was unclear whether all of the dead were actively covering the war when they were killed.
9 weeks ago / 7:58 p.m. EDT
Video shot by Hamas shows release of two American hostages
A video shot by Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades shows the release of Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, two American hostages kidnapped by Hamas militants.
