Police made a number of further arrests on Friday evening as they mounted a significant security operation in Dublin to ensure that there was no repeat of Thursday’s disorder. A number of people were taken away in police vans following sporadic altercations.

Police arrested 34 people after Thursday night’s rioting when up to 500 people looted shops, set fire to vehicles and threw rocks at crowd control officers equipped with helmets and shields.

The violence began after rumors circulated that a foreign national was responsible for the attack outside a Dublin school on Thursday afternoon. Authorities haven’t disclosed the suspect’s nationality.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Ireland’s capital had endured two attacks, one on innocent children and the other on “our society and the rule of law.”

“These criminals did not do what they did because they love Ireland, they did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people, they did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped,” Varadkar told reporters on Friday morning. “They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos and they love causing pain to others.”

A 5-year-old girl was in critical condition at a Dublin hospital and a teacher’s aide was in serious condition, police said. A 6-year-old girl continues to receive treatment for less serious injuries and another child was discharged overnight. The alleged assailant, who was tackled by witnesses, remains hospitalized in serious condition.

Thursday’s unrest came amid rising tensions over immigration in Ireland that mirror trends in other parts of Europe. Earlier this year, people carrying signs reading “Ireland is full” demonstrated in Dublin, and protesters blockaded a hotel housing asylum-seekers in County Clare on the west coast.

An analysis of more than 13 million social media posts over the past three years found that right-wing groups were increasingly using platforms such as X, formerly known as Twitter, to stir up opposition to immigration. Recent activity has characterized the refugees and asylum-seekers as an “existential threat to Ireland,” according to a report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based group that seeks to combat extremism.

Ireland received more than 141,000 immigrants in the 12 months through April, the highest total since 2007, the latest government statistics show. The influx of migrants drove an 11.7% increase in Ireland’s population over the past 11 years, contributing to a steady increase in housing prices.

When he was questioned about anti-immigration tensions earlier this year, Varadkar told Ireland’s parliament that there was always a place for peaceful protest, but violence, intimidation and racism were never legitimate.

“I think when it comes to this matter, we should never lose sight of the bigger picture — we’re facing a major refugee crisis not just here in Ireland but all across Europe,” he said in May.

Commissioner Drew Harris, head of Ireland’s national police force, described those who took part in Thursday’s unrest as a “complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology.”

More than 400 officers, including many in riot gear, were deployed throughout the city center to contain the violence. A cordon was set up around the Irish Parliament building, Leinster House, and mounted officers were dispatched to nearby Grafton Street.

One officer was seriously injured in clashes with the rioters, some of whom were armed with metal bars and covered their faces.

“These (riots) are scenes that we have not seen in decades, but what is clear is that people have been radicalized through social media and the internet,’’ Harris told reporters.

“But I don’t want to lose focus on the terrible event in terms of the dreadful assault on schoolchildren and their teacher. There’s a full investigation ongoing. There’s also a full investigation in respect on the disorder.”

Varadkar praised people of multiple nationalities who intervened to stop the attack as it unfolded, describing them as “real Irish heroes.”

One of them was Caio Benicio, a Brazilian delivery driver who stopped when he saw the teacher’s aide trying to save the children. Spotting a knife, he ripped off his helmet and slammed it into the attacker with all his strength.

“I pray for her to survive,” Benicio said of the child in critical condition. “I’m a parent myself, I have two kids and I know how hard it is.”

Benicio told Britain’s Press Association that the disturbances seemed to be caused by a “small group of people” who “wanted an excuse to do what they did.”

“I’m here for about 20 years now, I don’t know politics here deeply to have an opinion about it,” he said. “What I can say is I know the protest is against immigrants and for me it doesn’t make sense, because I’m an immigrant myself and I was the one who helped out. For me it doesn’t make sense.”

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Pan Pylas contributed to this report.

In Florida, preliminary state statistics show more than 133,840 loggerhead turtle nests, breaking a record set in 2016. Same for green turtles, where the estimate of at least 76,500 nests is well above the previous mark set in 2017.

High sea turtle nest numbers also have been reported in South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, although not all set records like Florida, where Justin Perrault, vice president of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, said the number of nests is remarkable this year.

“We had more nests than we had ever seen before on our local beaches,” said Perrault, whose organization monitors Palm Beach County and broke a local record by 4,000 nests. “That’s quite a bit of nesting.”

There are seven species of sea turtles: loggerhead, green, leatherback, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, olive ridley and flatback. All are considered either endangered or threatened. They come ashore on summer nights, digging pits in the sand and depositing dozens of eggs before covering them up and returning to the sea. Florida beaches are one of the most important hatcheries for loggerheads in the world.

Only about one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings live to adulthood. They face myriad natural threats, including predators on land and in the ocean, disruptions to nests and failure to make it to the water after hatching. This year along one stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast where 75 nests had been counted, most were wiped out by the surge from Hurricane Idalia in August.

“Unfortunately, the nests pre-Idalia were almost all lost due to the high tides and flooding on our barrier islands,” said Carly Oakley, senior turtle conservation biologist at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Female turtles generally lay eggs in a three-year cycle, leading to up-and-down years of nests, she said. “The nesting process is very exhausting and, in this break, females regain the energy to do the process again,” Oakley said.

Climate change has added to those challenges, reducing beaches as sea levels rise and causing more powerful tropical storms. Hotter air, water and sand and changes in the ocean currents turtles use to migrate also lower the odds of surviving, according to Oceana, an international conservation group.

Sand temperatures play a major role in determining sea turtle sex. In general, warmer temperatures produce more female turtles, and sand temperatures are projected to increase dramatically around the world by 2100, according to researchers at Florida State University.

“So the warmer the nest is, the more likely that nest is to produce females,” Perrault said. “Additionally, hatchlings that come out of warmer nests are much smaller and often slower.”

A study led by FSU professor Mariana Fuentes that was published recently in the Global Change Biology journal found sea turtles will have to nest much later or much earlier than they currently do to cope with changing environmental conditions.

Even that may not be enough for every species, said Fuentes, who works in FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. Turtles have adapted to altered climates over millions of years, but today’s rapid changes could happen too quickly for them to evolve, she said.

“We have found that even if they do change the timing of their nesting, that’s not going to be sufficient to maintain the temperatures of current nesting grounds,” Fuentes said.

Sea turtle mothers already have to lumber out of the water to find a good spot to nest, which can be difficult in areas where humans have built seawalls. Some female turtles make several attempts, known as false crawls, before finding a suitable location.

Racoons, coyotes and other predators raid the nests and hatchlings, once they dig their way out, have to crawl to the sea before being snatched up by birds and other animals. Electric lights can disorient them, causing turtles to head the wrong way on the beach instead of following light from the moon and stars. And when the lucky ones finally start swimming, hungry fish await.

Michelle Pate, biologist at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said tens of thousands of hatchlings don’t make it to the water, even as nest numbers trend higher across much of the Southeast.

“If we can’t get hatchlings to emerge and make it to the ocean, then an increase in nest numbers doesn’t help,” she said.

The increase in turtle nests this year conceals an ominous future for the animals, Perrault said.

“Yes, we’re seeing record numbers, but our hatchling production may not be that great,” he said. “And so in the future, 20 to 30 years from now, and these things come back to nest, we may not be seeing these record numbers that we’re seeing now.”

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AP video journalist Cody Jackson contributed from Juno Beach, Florida.

“It’s only a start, but so far, it’s gone well,” Biden told reporters in Nantucket Friday afternoon. He also noted the release of several Thai nationals who had also been kidnapped by Hamas.

The three American citizens who fall into the category of women and children, including now-4-year-old Abigail Edan, were not part of this first release, but Biden renewed his commitment to seek their return.

“We also will not stop until we get these hostages brought home and an answer to their whereabouts,” he said.

Biden said he expects to soon get the names of those among the second wave of hostages who will be released Saturday, saying he was “hopeful it’s as we anticipate.” He said he did not know when the three Americans would be released, but confirmed he still does “expect it to occur.”

“My hope and expectation is it’ll be soon,” he said of the possibility of the release of the three Americans.

Biden suggested it is possible that the pause in fighting could extend by additional days to bring more than the expected 50 hostages home, telling reporters, “I think the chances are real.”

But asked whether all of the 10 unaccounted-for Americans are alive, he said, “We don’t know all of their conditions.”

And he offered a bleak assessment of Hamas’ objectives when asked whether he trusts the Palestinian militant group.

“I don’t trust Hamas to do anything right. I only trust Hamas to respond to pressure,” he said, later adding that Hamas “does not give a damn” about innocent Palestinian civilians.

The president also speculated on the reasoning behind Hamas’ October 7 attack: “I believe one of the reasons why Hamas struck when they did is that they knew I was working very closely with the Saudis and others in the region to bring peace to the region by having recognition of Israel and Israel’s right to exist,” he said, adding that he will “continue to work” on those efforts.

Biden cast the initial hostage release as the product of extensive US diplomacy and numerous calls he held with world leaders in the region, including the emir of Qatar, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. He thanked each for their “personal partnership” during the painstaking, weeks-long negotiations and noted he would remain in close touch with the leaders to ensure the deal stays on track. He said that he has been in constant contact with his team and will “remain engaged” over the course of the implementation process.

Biden also pointed to the humanitarian aid going to Gaza as part of this pause, saying those in the region are “not wasting one single minute” to bring in critical supplies like fuel, medicine, cooking gas and food. US special envoy David Satterfield is monitoring the progress on that front and Biden said he has asked Satterfield to keep him updated “minute by minute.”

Biden reiterated the need for a two-state solution in order to bring peace to the region in the long term.

“As we look to the future, we have to end this cycle of violence in the Middle East. We need to renew our resolve to pursue this two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side in a two states solution with equal measure of freedom and dignity, two states for two people and it’s more important now than ever. Hamas unleashed this terrorist attack because they fear nothing more than Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace,” he said.

Biden said that he and the first lady were keeping the hostages in their prayers as they begin a “long journey of healing,” expressing empathy for the trauma the group has experienced.

Video footage from a traffic camera shows the dark, long-horned bull mulling around the highway as troopers try to herd it from the safety of their vehicles.

Sgt. Kevin Watt told AZfamily.com that he came face to face with the animal, which was standing in the high-occupancy vehicle lane.

Watt tried scaring the bull off the road.

“I had my sirens going, everything I could to scare him off the roadway, but he seemed like he wanted to take me on,” Watt said.

Troopers managed to wrangle the animal off the highway and back to the cattle enclosure it escaped from. They discovered the gap in the enclosure that allowed the bull to escape and fixed it.

Authorities say they still don’t know who owns an enclosure so close to the freeway.

Nearly 100 people in 32 states have gotten sick from the contaminated fruits. Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio have the highest number of cases. Two people have died of the infections in Minnesota, and 45 people are hospitalized nationwide.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s original recall included Malichita brand whole cantaloupe, Vinyard brand pre-cut cantaloupe and ALDI whole cantaloupe and pre-cut fruit products. Rudy brand whole cantaloupes and Freshness Guaranteed brand and RaceTrac brand pre-cut cantaloupes joined the list Friday.

Health officials say anyone who bought the recalled fruits should throw them away and wash surfaces that touched them with hot, soapy water or in a dishwasher.

Most people infected with salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps within six hour to six days after consuming food contaminated with the bacteria. Illnesses typically last four to seven days. Vulnerable people, including children, people older than 65 and those with weakened immune systems may develop severe illnesses that require medical care or hospitalization.

Pérez Salas is “one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s lead sicarios, or assassins,” according to a news release from the Department of Justice. Known as “Nini,” Pérez Salas was captured by the Mexican National Guard on Wednesday in Culiacán, Sinaloa, according to Mexican officials.

CNN has reached out to the Mexican Attorney General’s Office for more details about the arrest but did not immediately receive a response. It is not clear if Pérez Salas has an attorney.

In February 2021, Pérez Salas was charged in the United States with cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and witness retaliation. The US State Department offered a reward of up to $3 million for information leading to his arrest.

The State Department said Pérez Salas worked directly with Oscar Noé Medina González, a subordinate of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to prison in the US in 2019.

The State Department also said Pérez Salas was responsible for the security apparatus of Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. He is accused of being one of the commanders of the “Ninis” cell, described as a “particularly violent” group of security personnel for Los Chapitos.

President Joe Biden praised Mexican security forces for Pérez Salas’ arrest on Wednesday.

“On November 22, Mexican security forces captured Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas (‘El Nini’), the notorious head of security for the Chapitos wing of the Sinaloa Cartel. For nearly three years, El Nini has been one of Mexico’s and the United States’ most wanted criminals, indicted by the United States for his roles in perpetrating violence and illicit fentanyl trafficking into the United States, and both our countries are safer with him behind bars and facing justice for his crimes,” the president said in a statement.

Biden heralded the US-Mexico partnership to “secure our communities against violence, counter the cartels, and end the scourge of illicit fentanyl” days after the US secured an agreement with China regarding the source materials used to make fentanyl.

Biden expressed his gratitude to Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador and the Mexican Army and special forces.

“I want to thank President López Obrador and the Mexican Army and special forces for effectively capturing El Nini, and express our appreciation for the brave men and women of Mexican security forces who undertook this successful operation to apprehend him,” he said.

The huge mass of ice broke away from the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in 1986, calved and grounded on the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea floor almost immediately.

The iceberg, named A23a, is about 400 meters (1,312 feet) thick, and almost 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) in area. Greater London, by way of comparison, is 1,572 square kilometers (607 square miles).

But now, nearly three decades later, the iceberg has probably shrunk enough in size to lose its grip on the seafloor as part of the natural growth cycle of the ice shelf, and has started moving, scientists Ella Gilbert and Oliver Marsh from the British Antarctic Survey told CNN.

A23a has held the “largest current iceberg” title several times since the 1980s, occasionally being surpassed by larger but shorter-lived icebergs, including A68 in 2017 and A76 in 2021, they added.

The iceberg, carried by ocean currents, will likely head eastward, and at its current rate is traveling five kilometers (three miles) a day.

Gilbert and Marsh added that while this particular iceberg probably broke away as part of the natural growth cycle of the ice shelf, climate change is driving changes in Antarctica’s ice and the continent is losing enormous quantities of ice every year.

The Niagara Falls Police Department named the couple as Kurt P. Villani and Monica Villani, both 53, of Grand Island, New York, a leafy Buffalo suburb close to the falls.

Online business records indicate the victims’ family owns Gui’s Lumber and seven Ace Hardware locations in western New York. A man who answered the phone Friday at a number listed for the business declined to comment.

Authorities have not yet released details on what exactly led to the couple’s crash Wednesday at the Rainbow Bridge, where their car raced through an intersection, hit a low median and was launched through the air before slamming into a row of security booths and bursting into flames.

The wreck prompted widespread concern on both sides of the border, as video and images of what appeared to be the aftermath of an explosion began to circulate online and officials closed the bridge and three other crossings in the area. Authorities investigated for several hours before the FBI’s Buffalo office said it found no signs the incident was a terror attack and turned the case over to local police as a traffic investigation.

The Niagara Falls Police Department has said the investigation will take time to complete given the complexity of the crash. The agency issued a statement Friday that named the victims but contained no other details.

“The City of Niagara Falls would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families as they deal with this tragedy,” the statement read.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has described the crash as “surreal” and said the vehicle was “basically incinerated” with nothing left but the engine and a scattering of charred debris.

“You actually had to look at it and say, was this generated by AI?” Hochul, a Democrat, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Because it was so surreal to see. How high in the air this vehicle went, and then the crash, and the explosion, and the fire.”

The safety measures tied up traffic at a nearby airport in Buffalo and elsewhere on one of the busiest U.S. travel days of the year, ahead of the American Thanksgiving holiday. The bridges were later reopened.

About 6,000 vehicles cross the Rainbow Bridge each day, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. The short, steel bridge offers scenic views of the falls.

Israel — wrenched by the abduction of nearly 240 people in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war — cheered as 13 Israeli women and children emerged free from Gaza. Most were in their 70s or 80s, and the youngest was a 2-year-old. Also released were 10 people from Thailand and one from the Philippines.

In Gaza, the truce’s start Friday morning brought the first quiet for 2.3 million Palestinians reeling and desperate from relentless Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands, driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and leveled residential areas. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel went silent as well.

Increased supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel promised under the deal began to roll into Gaza, where U.N. officials had warned that Israel’s seal on the territory threatened to push it to starvation.

But relief has been tempered — among Israelis by the fact that not all hostages will be freed and among Palestinians by the briefness of the pause. The short truce leaves Gaza mired in humanitarian crisis and under the threat that fighting could soon resume.

Israel says the cease-fire could be extended if more hostages are released, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had received a new list of hostages to be released by Hamas on Saturday.

But Israel has vowed to resume its massive offensive once the truce ends. That has clouded hopes that the deal could eventually help wind down the conflict, which has fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East.FIRST HOSTAGES FREED

Under the deal, Hamas is to release at least 50 hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners over the four days. Both sides were starting with women and children. Israel said the four-day truce can be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed.

After nightfall Friday, a line of ambulances emerged from Gaza through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt carrying the freed hostages, as seen live on Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera TV. The freed Israelis included nine women and four children 9 and under.

The released hostages were taken to three Israeli hospitals for observation. The Schneider Children’s Medical Center said it was treating eight Israelis — four children and four women — and that all appeared to be in good physical condition. The center said they were also receiving psychological treatment, adding that “these are sensitive moments” for the families.

At a plaza dubbed “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv, a crowd of Israelis celebrated at the news.

Yael Adar spotted her mother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, in a TV newscast of the release and was cheered to see her walking. “That was a huge concern, what would happen to her health during these almost two months,” she told Israel’s Channel 12.

But Yael’s 38-year-old son, Tamir Adar, remained in captivity. Both were kidnapped on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. “Everyone needs to come back. It’s happiness locked up in grief.”

The hostages included multiple generations. Nine-year-old Ohad Munder-Zichri was freed along with his mother, Keren Munder, and grandmother Ruti Munder. The fourth-grader was abducted during a holiday visit to his grandparents at the kibbutz where about 80 people — nearly a quarter of all residents of the small community — are believed to have been taken hostage.

The plight of the hostages has raised anger among some families that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to bring them home.

Hours later, 24 Palestinian women and 15 teenagers held in Israeli prisons in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem were freed. In the West Bank town of Beituna, hundreds of Palestinians poured out of their homes to celebrate, honking horns and setting off fireworks that lite up the nights sky.

The teenagers had been jailed for minor offenses like throwing stones. The women included several convicted of trying to stab Israeli soldiers, and others who had been arrested at checkpoints in the West Bank.

“As a Palestinian, my heart is broken for my brothers in Gaza, so I can’t really celebrate,” said Abdulqader Khatib, a U.N. worker whose 17-year-old son, Iyas, was freed. “But I am a father. And deep inside, I am very happy.”

Iyas had been taken last year into “administrative detention,” without charges or trial and based on secret evidence. Israel often holds detainees for months without charges. Most of those who are tried are put before military courts that almost never acquit defendants and often don’t follow due process, human rights groups say.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, Israel is currently holding 7,200 Palestinians, including about 2,000 arrested since the start of the war.CEASE-FIRE TAKES HOLD

Friday’s halt in fighting brought Gaza’s uprooted population a moment to catch their breath after weeks of fleeing for shelter, searching for food and fearing for family.

After the truce began Friday morning, four trucks of fuel and four trucks of cooking gas entered from Egypt, as well as 200 trucks of relief supplies, Israel said.

Israel has barred all imports into Gaza throughout the war, except for a trickle of supplies from Egypt.

Its ban on fuel, which it said could be diverted to Hamas, caused a territory-wide blackout. Hospitals, water systems, bakeries and shelters have struggled to keep generators running.

During the truce, Israel agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,340 gallons) of fuel per day — still only a small portion of Gaza’s estimated daily needs of more than 1 million liters.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crowded into the southern portion of the territory, with more than 1 million living in U.N. schools-turned-shelters. The calm brought a chance for displaced residents of the south to visit homes and retrieve some belongings.

But the hundreds of thousands who evacuated from northern Gaza to the south were warned not to return in leaflets dropped by Israel. Israeli troops hold much of the north, including Gaza City.

Still, hundreds of Palestinians tried walking north Friday. Two were shot and killed by Israeli troops and another 11 were wounded.

Sofian Abu Amer decided to risk checking his home in Gaza City.

“We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said. “The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die.”

Israel’s northern border with Lebanon was also quiet on Friday, a day after the militant Hezbollah group, an ally of Hamas, carried out the highest number of attacks in one day since fighting there began Oct. 8.

Hezbollah is not a party to the cease-fire agreement but was widely expected to halt its attacks.A LONGER PEACE?

The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers.

The hope is that “momentum” from the deal will lead to an “end to this violence,” said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, which served as a mediator along with the United States and Egypt.

But hours before it came into effect, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops that their respite would be short and that the war would resume with intensity for at least two more months.

Netanyahu has also vowed to continue the war to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the hostages.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza government. Women and minors have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead, though the latest number was not broken down. The figure does not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north, where communications have broken down.

The ministry says some 6,000 people have been reported missing, feared buried under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death tolls.

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, without presenting evidence for its count.

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Federman reported from Jerusalem, Jeffery from Cairo. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials reported that the Kremlin’s forces escalated their weekslong and costly attempt to storm Avdiivka, a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine.

The stepped-up efforts came as both sides are keen to show they are not deadlocked as the fighting approaches 2024. Neither side has gained much ground despite a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June, and analysts predict the war will be a long one.

With winter weather setting in, bringing snow and freezing temperatures to the battlefield, Ukraine and Russia are looking to take ground that could provide platforms for future advances.

The Moscow-appointed governor for the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Crimea early Friday. He claimed that dozens of drones were shot down over the province and the northern part of Crimea.

Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal, and has used it as a staging and supply point during the war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 13 Ukrainian drones over Crimea and three more over southern Russia’s Volgograd region.

Ukrainian officials did not comment on the Russian reports.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s battlefield claims.

Russia has been trying to capture Avdiivka since Oct. 10, using heavy bombardments and reportedly taking heavy losses. The city is wrecked, and the battle has become reminiscent of the fight over the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, which was largely destroyed during nine months of fighting before Russian troops eventually captured it.

Avdiivka lies in the northern suburbs of Donetsk, a city in a region of the same name that Russian forces partially occupy. Avdiivka’s location grants Ukrainian forces artillery advantages over the city and could serve as a springboard for them to liberate Donetsk.

After intense artillery and aerial bombardments, Russian troops attacked the heavily fortified city from an additional direction and spread along the line of contact whereas before they attacked in columns, Vitalii Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration, said Friday.

The city is enduring up to 40 bombardments daily, he said.

In exchange for giving up ownership of drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma and for contributing up to $6 billion to fight the crisis, members of the wealthy Sackler family would be exempt from any civil lawsuits. At the same time, they could potentially keep billions of dollars from their profits on OxyContin sales.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Dec. 4 over whether the agreement, part of the resolution of Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy, violates federal law.

The issue for the justices is whether the legal shield that bankruptcy provides can be extended to people such as the Sacklers, who have not declared bankruptcy themselves. The legal question has resulted in conflicting lower court decisions. It also has implications for other major product liability lawsuits settled through the bankruptcy system.

But the agreement, even with billions of dollars set aside for opioid abatement and treatment programs, also poses a moral conundrum that has divided people who lost loved ones or lost years of their own lives to opioids.

Ellen Isaacs’ 33-year-old son, Ryan Wroblewski, died in Florida in 2018, about 17 years after he was first prescribed OxyContin for a back injury. When she first heard about a potential settlement that would include some money for people like her, she signed up. But she has changed her mind.

Money might not bring closure, she said. And by allowing the deal, it could lead to more problems.

“Anybody in the future would be able to do the exact same thing that the Sacklers are now able to do,” she said in an interview.

Her lawyer, Mike Quinn, put it this way in a court filing: “The Sackler releases are special protection for billionaires.”

Lynn Wencus, of Wrentham, Massachusetts, also lost a 33-year-old son, Jeff, to overdose in 2017.

She initially opposed the deal with Purdue Pharma but has come around. Even though she does not expect a payout, she wants the settlement to be finalized in hopes it would help her stop thinking about Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members, whom she blames for the opioid crisis.

“I feel like I can’t really move on while this is all hanging out in the court,” Wencus said.

Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller that hit the market in 1996, is often cited as a catalyst of a nationwide opioid epidemic, persuading doctors to prescribe painkillers with less regard for addiction dangers.

The company pleaded guilty to misbranding the drug in 2007 and paid more than $600 million in fines and penalties.

The drug and the Stamford, Connecticut-based company became synonymous with the crisis, even though the majority of pills being prescribed and used were generic drugs. Opioid-related overdose deaths have continued to climb, hitting 80,000 in recent years. That’s partly because people with substance abuse disorder found pills harder to get and turned to heroin and, more recently, fentanyl, an even more potent synthetic opioid.

Drug companies, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to pay a total of more than $50 billion to settle lawsuits filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments and others that claimed the companies’ marketing, sales and monitoring practices spurred the epidemic. The Purdue Pharma settlement would be among the largest. It’s also one of only two so far with provisions for victims of the crisis to be compensated directly, with payouts from a $750 million pool expected to range from about $3,500 to $48,000.

Lawyers for more than 60,000 victims who support the settlement called it “a watershed moment in the opioid crisis,” while recognizing that “no amount of money could fully compensate” victims for the damage caused by the misleading marketing of OxyContin.

In the fallout, parts of the Sackler family story has been told in multiple books and documentaries and in fictionalized versions in the streaming series “Dopesick” and “Painkiller.”

Museums and universities around the world have removed the family’s name from galleries and buildings.

Family members have remained mostly out of the public eye, and they have stepped off the board of their company and have not received payouts from it since before the company entered bankruptcy. But in the decade before that, they were paid more than $10 billion, about half of which family members said went to pay taxes.

Some testified in a 2021 bankruptcy hearing, telling a judge that the family would not contribute to the proposed legal settlement without being shielded from lawsuits.

Two family members appeared by video and one listened by audio to a 2022 court hearing in which more than two dozen people impacted by opioids told their stories publicly. One told them: “You poisoned our lives and had the audacity to blame us for dying.”

Purdue Pharma reached the deal with the governments suing it — including with some states that initially rejected the plan.

But the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, an arm of the Justice Department responsible for promoting the integrity of the bankruptcy system, has objected to the legal protections for Sackler family members. Attorney General Merrick Garland also has criticized the plan.

The opposition marked an about-face for the Justice Department, which supported the settlement during the presidency of Donald Trump, a Republican. The department and Purdue Pharma forged a plea bargain in a criminal and civil case. The deal included $8.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures, but the company would pay the federal government only $225 million so long as it executed the settlement plan.

A federal trial court judge in 2021 ruled the settlement should not be allowed. This year, a federal appeals panel ruled the other way in a unanimous decision in which one judge still expressed major concerns about the deal. The Supreme Court quickly agreed to take the case, at the urging of the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Purdue Pharma’s is not the first bankruptcy to include this sort of third-party release, even when not everyone in the case agrees to it. It was specifically allowed by Congress in 1994 for asbestos cases.

They have been used elsewhere, too, including in settlements of sexual abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America, where groups like regional Boy Scout councils and churches that sponsor troops helped pay, and against Catholic dioceses, where parishes and schools contributed cash.

Proponents of Purdue Pharma’s settlement plan often assert that federal law does not prohibit third-party releases and that they can be necessary to create a settlement that parties will agree to.

“Third-party releases are a recurring feature of bankruptcy practice,” lawyers for one branch of the Sackler family said in a court filing, “and not because anyone is trying to do the released third parties a favor.”

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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

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This story has been corrected to show that the appeals court ruling was unanimous, not 2-1.

Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo said Pistorius would be released from prison on Jan. 5. His parole will come with conditions, including that he not leave the area of Pretoria where he is set to live without permission from authorities. Pistorius will also attend a program to deal with his anger issues, Nxumalo said, and will have to perform community service.

Pistorius’ parole conditions will be in place for five years, the Department of Corrections said.

“Parole does not mean the end of the sentence. It is still part of the sentence. It only means the inmate will complete the sentence outside a correctional facility,” Nxumalo said.

Pistorius, who turned 37 this week, has been in jail since late 2014 for the Valentine’s Day 2013 killing of model Reeva Steenkamp, although he was released for a period of house arrest in 2015 while one of the numerous appeals in his case was heard. He was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison.

Serious offenders in South Africa must serve at least half of their sentence to be eligible for parole, which Pistorius has done.

Pistorius was at the height of his fame and one of the world’s most admired athletes when he killed Steenkamp. He shot her multiple times in the bathroom of his Pretoria villa in the predawn hours with his licensed 9mm pistol.

Friday’s parole hearing was Pistorius’ second in the space of eight months. He was wrongly ruled ineligible for early release at a first hearing in March. That was due to an error made by an appeals court over when the sentence officially started.

Pistorius was initially convicted of culpable homicide — a charge comparable to manslaughter — for killing Steenkamp. That conviction was overturned and he was convicted of murder after an appeal by prosecutors. They also appealed against an initial sentence of six years for murder, and Pistorius was ultimately sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison.

Pistorius testified at his murder trial that he killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom in the middle of the night when he fired four times through the door with his licensed 9mm pistol. Prosecutors argued that Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and reality TV star, had fled to the toilet cubicle during a late-night argument and Pistorius killed her in a rage.

Pistorius was eventually convicted of murder on a legal principle known as dolus eventualis, which means he acted with extreme recklessness and should have known that whoever was behind the door would likely be killed. It’s comparable to third-degree murder.

Steenkamp’s father, Barry Steenkamp, died in September. Her mother, June Steenkamp, did not oppose Pistorius’ parole.

Rob Matthews, a South African man whose 21-year-old daughter was murdered in 2004 and who became a Steenkamp family friend, read out a statement from June Steenkamp outside the prison before the hearing in which she said she was not opposing his parole and didn’t attend the hearing because “I simply cannot muster the energy to face him again at this stage.”

Nevertheless, “I do not believe Oscar’s version that he thought the person in the toilet was a burglar,” June Steenkamp said in the statement. “In fact, I do not know anybody who does. My dearest child screamed for her life. … I believe he knew it was Reeva.”

While out on parole, Pistorius is expected to live at his uncle’s luxurious mansion in a wealthy Pretoria suburb, where he stayed during his murder trial.

Pistorius was initially sent to Pretoria’s central prison, a notorious apartheid-era jail. He was moved to the city’s Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in 2016.

There have been only occasional glimpses of Pistorius’ life behind bars over the past decade. His father has said he has been holding bible classes for fellow prisoners, although there have also been flashes of trouble, including an altercation Pistorius had with another inmate over a prison telephone that left him requiring medical treatment.

Steenkamp’s killing happened when Pistorius was at the height of his fame and just months after he had become the first double-amputee to compete at the Olympics. He was also a multiple Paralympic sprinting champion and one of sport’s most marketable figures, having overcome the amputation of both his legs below the knee as a baby to run on specially designed carbon-fiber blades.

At his sensational trial, prosecutors argued there was another side to Pistorius’ life that involved guns and angry confrontations with others. Pistorius was also found guilty of a second charge of recklessly firing a gun in a restaurant.

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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

Just days before the killing of 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin, Italians were already applauding a blockbuster movie about a woman who endures beatings and belittling by her overbearing husband. The movie is set in 1946, 24 years before divorce became legal in Italy and on the eve of the first time Italian women were allowed to vote. The film’s exploration of the suffocating role of patriarchy in Italian society is painfully resonating today.

The moment is a remarkable confluence of fact and fiction, driving demands across Italy to protect women and to eradicate patriarchal mentalities woven into society.

Giulia Cecchettin disappeared after meeting her former boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, for a burger at a shopping mall, just days before she was to receive her degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Padua.

Her ex-beau, a year younger, friends and family said, resented that she had finished her studies ahead of him and feared she’d move on to pursue personal and professional dreams. Everything was ready to celebrate Cecchettin’s degree — red bows were tied to the metal fence outside her family home in Vigonovo, a town of 10,000 people near Venice — and a restaurant was booked for family and friends.

While at the burger place, she texted her older sister, Elena, for advice on what shoes to buy for the ceremony. It was the last her family would hear from her.

“Giulia’s case shook all of Italy,″ actress and director Paola Cortellesi said in an interview earlier this week in Rome. “Because in her disappearance, all of Italy knew that shortly there would have been the discovery of a young woman slain at the hands of a man.”

“Because by now it’s the same routine. It’s chilling to call it a routine,″ she said, referring to Italian statistics indicating roughly every three days a woman is murdered in the country at the hands of a man — often a spouse, a partner or an ex.

For the seven days before Cecchettin’s body was found, on Nov. 18 — covered by black plastic bags in a ditch near a lake in the foothills of the Alps — the nation’s newscasts gave macabre updates.

A few kilometers (miles) from her home, an industrial complex’s video camera on a deserted street captured the image of a man, alleged by investigators to be Turetta, chasing after Cecchettin who had bolted from the car before being struck repeatedly, knocked to the ground and bundled into the car, leaving hair and bloodstains on the sidewalk.

For days, roadside surveillance cameras recorded glimpses of Turetta’s car, first in northern Italy, then Austria, then Germany. On Sunday, Nov. 19, German police checked on a car parked on a highway shoulder and out of gas. Inside was Turetta.

On Wednesday, a German court ordered his extradition to Italy for investigation of suspicion of murder. A medical examiner’s report noted 26 wounds, apparently inflicted by a blade, on the woman’s neck, arms and legs, Italian media said.

As the real-life drama of Cecchettin’s killing played out, the movie “C’è ancora domani” (There’s still tomorrow) riveted audiences across Italy.

Cortellesi, who directed the movie, said her work swept up audiences “beyond the ordinary, precisely because, as I have been saying, it hit a raw nerve in the lives of everybody.” A noted Italian comic actress, Cortellesi also plays the lead role of Delia, an abused Roman wife hoping for a better future for her teenage daughter.

Cortellesi recounted how, at one screening, a woman stood up and revealed to a theater full of strangers that she, too, had an abusive husband, saying “I was Delia.”

Among the film’s fans is Daria Dicorpo, a middle-school teacher in Rome. “Unfortunately, the theme of violence against women is always actual,” she said.

In the movie, women, from lower to upper classes, are told by their husbands to keep their opinions to themselves, or, more bluntly, to shut their mouth. ”Instead, no, we have to yell, we have to communicate the beauty of being women,” Dicorpo said.

Italians had previously taken to the streets in silent, torchlit marches to protest the slayings of women. But Elena Cecchettin, Giulia’s sister, offered an alternative: “make noise” to honor her sister. “If you have keys, rattle them,” she called out.

In a letter to Corriere della Sera daily, Elena Cecchettin dismissed descriptions of her sister’s alleged murderer as a “monster.” Killers are “not sick, they are the healthy sons of patriarchy,” she wrote.

“Femicide isn’t a crime of passion, it’s a crime of power,” Elena Cecchettin wrote, using a term that refers to the slaying of women precisely because they are women or because of the power men hold over women.

On Wednesday, after final passage of a bill to protect women with such measures as increased use of electronic monitoring devices for men stalking or threatening them, lawmakers from the opposition 5-Star Movement pounded rhythmically on their desks “in a minute of noise.”

Director Cortellesi appealed to the two most powerful women in Italian politics today — far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni and Elly Schlein, who heads the Democratic Party, Parliament’s largest force on the left. She asked them to “do something (about women’s violence) that doesn’t have anything to do with keeping their electorate happy,” she said.

Schlein is pushing for bipartisan legislation to make lessons mandatory, starting in primary grades, to teach reciprocal respect between girls and boys, men and women. But the plan by Meloni’s education minister envisions lessons on “relationships” for high schools.

Italy’s RAI state TV reported that in the days since Cecchettin’s body was found, calls to a national hotline for women fearing for their safety at the hands of men have jumped from some 200 to 400 a day— including from parents of young women.

“Women are afraid,” said Oria Gargano, who heads Be Free, an organization fighting violence, sex trafficking and discrimination.

Among the handwritten notes tucked among the flowers, candles and bouquets left outside the Cecchettin family home was one reading: “Forgive us for not having done enough to change this culture.”

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AP journalists Trisha Thomas and Silvia Stellacci contributed to this report.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan by a woman known in the documents only as Jane Doe alleges that Foxx rubbed her breasts and groped her under her pants against her will.

The suit says she and a friend were seated at a table next to Foxx’s at Catch NYC in 2015. The woman’s asked Foxx for a photo, and the two women took several pictures with him, the suit says. It says that afterward, he began complimenting her “super model body” and told her she looked like the actor Gabrielle Union.

He then grabbed her by the arm and took her to a secluded area, where he put both hands under her crop top and felt her breasts, the suits says. She tried to pull away from Foxx as he reached into her pants with his hands and touched her genitals, the suit also alleges.

When the woman’s friend found them, he stopped and the women walked away, the suit says.

A statement in response released Thursday from a representative for the 55-year-old Foxx said the alleged incident never happened.

“In 2020, this individual filed a nearly identical lawsuit in Brooklyn. That case was dismissed shortly thereafter. The claims are no more viable today than they were then. We are confident they will be dismissed again. And once they are, Mr. Foxx intends to pursue a claim for malicious prosecution against this person and her attorneys for re-filing this frivolous action,” the statement said.

The woman is seeking damages to be determined at trial, the suit says.

The lawsuit was one of many filed this week under a temporary New York law, the Adult Survivors Act, that allows adult victims sue over alleged sexual attacks that previously would have been outside the statute of limitations. The law expired after Thursday.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly.

There were no reports of fighting in the hours after the truce began. The deal offered some relief for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment and dwindling supplies of basic necessities, as well as for families in Israel fearful for the fate of loved ones taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war.

The truce raised hopes of eventually winding down the war, which has flattened vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East. Israel, however, has said it is determined to resume its massive offensive once the cease-fire ends.

Not long after it took effect, four fuel tankers and four tankers with cooking gas entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt, Israel said.

Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,340 gallons) of fuel per day during the truce — still only a small portion of Gaza’s estimated daily needs of more than 1 million liters.

For most of the past seven weeks of war, Israel had barred the entry of fuel to Gaza, claiming it could be used by Hamas for military purposes — though it has occasionally allowed small amounts in.

United Nations aid agencies pushed back against the claim, saying fuel deliveries were closely supervised and urgently needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe since fuel is required to run generators that power water treatment facilities, hospitals and other critical infrastructure.

The Israeli military dropped leaflets over southern Gaza, warning hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who sought refuge there not to return to their homes in the territory’s north, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive.

Even though Israel warned that it would block such attempts, hundreds of Palestinians could be seen walking north Friday.

Two were shot and killed by Israeli troops and another 11 were wounded in the legs. An Associated Press journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital.

Sofian Abu Amer, who had fled Gaza City, said he had decided to risk heading north to check on his home.

“We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said. ”The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die.”

During the cease-fire, Gaza’s ruling Hamas group pledged to free at least 50 of the about 240 hostages it and other militants took on Oct. 7. Hamas said Israel would free 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Both sides agreed release women and children first, starting Friday afternoon. Israel said the deal calls for the truce to be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed.

The first hostages freed will be Israeli citizens, including some who have a second nationality, according to a Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details with the media.

The official would not comment on media reports that Hamas had also agreed to release non-Israelis, including 23 Thai nationals. Thailand’s foreign minister told reporters in Bangkok he had not been able to confirm the reports.

Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 prisoners eligible for release, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses. Three Palestinian prisoners are to be released for every hostage freed.

The deal was reached in weeks of intense indirect negotiations, with Qatar, the United States and Egypt serving as mediators.

The hope is that the “momentum” from it will lead to an “end to this violence,” Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters.

But hours before the deal came into effect, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was quoted telling troops that their respite would be short and that the war would resume with intensity for at least two more months.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also vowed to continue the war to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the hostages.

Israel’s northern border with Lebanon was also quiet on Friday, a day after the militant Hezbollah group, an ally of Hamas, carried out the highest number of attacks in one day since fighting there began Oct. 8.

Hezbollah is not a party to the cease-fire agreement, but was widely expected to halt its attacks.

The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers.

The soldiers will only be released in exchange for all Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, according to the Islamic Jihad militant group, which is reportedly holding about 40 hostages.

It is not clear how many of the hostages are currently serving in the military or whether the militants also consider reserve soldiers to be “military hostages.”

Close to 7,000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel on security charges.

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which resumed its detailed count of casualties in Gaza after stopping for weeks because of the health system’s collapse in the north.

The ministry says some 6,000 people have been reported missing, feared buried under rubble.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death tolls. Women and minors have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead, though the new numbers were not broken down. The figures do not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north.

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, without presenting evidence for its count.

Israel continued to strike targets throughout the night ahead of the truce, and also destroyed stretches of tunnels and a number of tunnel shafts in the area of Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, the military said.

Earlier this week, Israel showed a tunnel and rooms that military officials said were a major Hamas hideout beneath Shifa. Hamas and hospital staff deny Israeli allegations that Shifa was used as a militant command center.

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Mroue reported from Beirut and Rising reported from Bangkok.

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Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman will also attend the Tuesday service.

A number of ceremonies  are slated to take place next week to celebrate the life of Carter, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 96.

According to the Carter Center, members of the public will be able to pay their respects as the former first lady lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum on Monday, while the tribute service will be held for invited guests Tuesday at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University. A funeral service will take place Wednesday for family and invited friends at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, according to the schedule shared by the Carter Center.

Former President Jimmy Carter’s attendance “has not been confirmed” for events remembering his wife, The Carter Center told CNN.

Biden, speaking with reporters shortly after Rosalynn Carter’s death, praised the Carter family, saying: “They’re really an incredible family because they brought so much grace to the office.”

While Rosalynn Carter’s most lasting individual legacy will be her efforts to diminish the stigma attached to people with mental illnesses and her fight for parity and access for mental health treatment, she, along with her husband of 77 years, redefined and revolutionized the post-presidency.

Together they founded the Carter Center and traveled to hot spots around the world, including visits to Cuba, Sudan and North Korea, monitoring elections and working to eradicate Guinea worm disease and other neglected tropical diseases.

Shortly before her death, the Carter Center announced that Rosalynn Carter had entered hospice care in the couple’s home in Plains. She had been diagnosed with dementia in May. Former President Jimmy Carter began home hospice care in February, following a series of hospital stays.

CSX spokesperson Bryan Tucker said in an email Thursday afternoon that “the fire is completely out.” He said that authorities and CSX officials reviewed air monitoring data and decided it was safe to let displaced return home.

The CSX train derailed around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday near Livingston, a remote town with about 200 people in Rockcastle County. Residents were encouraged to evacuate.

Two of the 16 cars that derailed carried molten sulfur, which caught fire after the cars were breached, CSX said in a statement.

It’s believed that the fire released the potentially harmful gas sulfur dioxide, but officials have not released results of measurements taken from air monitoring equipment that was being deployed Wednesday night.

The derailment meant some Livingston residents woke up on Thanksgiving in a middle school shelter.

Cindy Bradley had just finished cooking for the big meal Wednesday when an official knocking loudly urged her to leave her small Kentucky home as soon as possible because a train had derailed.

She ended up at Rockcastle County Middle School in Livingston — unsure what was to come next.

“It’s just really scary. We don’t know how long this is,” Bradley told WTVQ-TV on Wednesday night, surrounded by dozens of cots.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency website, sulfur dioxide can cause respiratory problems, depending on the concentration and length of exposure. The gas is commonly produced by burning fossil fuels at power plants and other industrial processes, the EPA says.

Evelyn Gray noticed a problem when her back door was opened by someone telling her to evacuate.

“As soon as he opened the back door to come in the chemical hit me, and I had a real bad asthma attack,” Gray told the TV station.

The danger from sulfur dioxide tends to be direct and quick, irritating the lungs and skin, said Neil Donahue, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

“It is just nasty, caustic, and acidic stuff that hurts. It’s unpleasant to be in,” Donahue said.

Once the fire was put out, the threat from the chemicals was expected to diminish quickly, Donahue said.

CSX is now working to clean up an additional spilled chemical and restore the area.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in the county, assuring crews all the help from the state they need. He asked the public to keep in mind the emergency workers and people forced to spend Thanksgiving away from home.

“Please think about them and pray for a resolution that gets them back in their homes. Thank you to all the first responders spending this day protecting our people,” the governor said in a statement Thursday.

CSX promised to pay the costs of anyone asked to evacuate, including a Thanksgiving dinner.

The pause in fighting will start at 7 a.m. local time (midnight ET), with 13 women and children hostages to be freed at 4 p.m., according to a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, Majed Al-Ansari.

The list of hostages who are expected to be released has been handed to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, Al-Ansari said.

The Mossad will also hand over a list of Palestinian prisoners expected to be released to the Qataris, he added. “Whenever we have both lists confirmed this is when we can begin with the process of getting people out,” the spokesperson said.

An Israeli official told CNN a total of 39 Palestinian prisoners will be released Friday as part of the deal between Israel and Hamas.

The prisoners will be taken from two jails – Damon and Megiddo, both southeast of Haifa – and driven to the Ofer prison, south of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, for final checks by the Red Cross.

And Israel has started notifying the families of the first hostages set to be released on Friday, Israeli coordinator for hostages and missing persons Gal Hirsch said in a statement. “Liaison officers have informed all of those families whose loved ones appear on the list, as well as all of the hostages’ families,” the statement said.

An Israeli official told CNN Wednesday that the truce had been slated to begin at 10 a.m. local time on Thursday to be followed by the release of at least 50 women and children out of the more than 230 being held hostage in Gaza. But those plans were delayed late Wednesday, just hours before the pause in fighting was initially expected to begin.

“Nothing is finalized until it’s actually happening. And even amid the process, changes might occur at any moment,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in his daily press briefing on Thursday.

He said that the Israeli army continues to fight in the Gaza Strip “at this hour,” pointing out that once the pause goes into effect, IDF soldiers will be stationed along the “truce lines” established inside the territory.

Under the deal outlined earlier, 150 Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli jails. The prisoners concerned are women and children, Hamas said Wednesday, adding that the agreement also involves the entry of hundreds of trucks carrying aid relief, medical supplies and fuel to all parts of the besieged territory.

The Israeli government on Wednesday published a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners for possible release, as Israel is offering a potential second phase of exchanges.

The list includes the ages of the prisoners, and the charges on which they are being held – throwing stones and “harming regional security” are among the most common. Others are listed as detained for supporting illegal terror organizations, illegal weapons charges, incitement, and at least two accusations of attempted murder.

Most of the Palestinian prisoners listed as eligible for release are male teenagers aged 16 to 18 – children under the United Nations definition – although a handful are as young as 14. Some 33 are women, according to a CNN count.

Delay until Friday

Israel’s National Security Council said earlier in a statement that the first group of hostages would not be released before Friday. An Israeli official told CNN the start of an agreed temporary truce in fighting was also delayed until Friday.

“Talks to release our hostages are advancing and are ongoing. The start of the release process will take place according to the original agreement between both sides, and not before Friday,” the statement said.

The comments over ongoing planning echo those from American officials.

A US National Security Council spokesperson stressed in a statement late Wednesday that the hostage deal “remains agreed,” adding that the parties were “working out final logistical details particularly for the first day of implementation.”

“It is our view that nothing should be left to chance as the hostages begin coming home,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. “Our primary objective is to ensure that they are brought home safely. That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning.”

One Israeli official familiar with the matter downplayed its seriousness, putting it down to “fairly minor implementation details.”

Netanyahu warned on Thursday, however, that getting the first group of hostages out of Gaza is “not without its challenges.”

“We hope to get this first tranche out, and then we’re committed to getting everyone out,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

Officials and analysts in Israel have long cautioned that any deal would be precarious up and until the hostages were safely across the border.

“The fighting will continue forcefully”

The IDF had continued ground and air operations in Gaza on Wednesday ahead of the expected start of the truce, carrying out strikes in the north-eastern and central parts of the Gaza Strip. Areas further south, including Khan Younis and Rafah, were also hit, according to Palestinian accounts.

Israeli forces continued to strike targets on Thursday, the IDF said, including in northwest Jabalya.

The IDF also said Thursday that Israeli soldiers had located a tunnel shaft inside a mosque and located and struck another tunnel shaft in an agricultural area in Beit Hanoun. It claimed IDF soldiers had located “numerous weapons” and identified a tunnel shaft inside a civilian residence in the area.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said Israel’s military operation against Hamas will continue “forcefully” after the brief truce and that the fighting is expected to go on for at least two more months.

“This will be a brief pause, when it ends the fighting will continue forcefully, and will create pressure that will allow the return of more hostages… Fighting of at least two more months is expected,” Gallant said while visiting Israeli troops on Thursday.

The deal had marked a major diplomatic breakthrough nearly seven weeks after the start of a conflict that has spiraled into a grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The announcement was greeted with relief and heightened anticipation from the families of those taken hostage.

The truce, meanwhile, would also allow the entry of “a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid,” as laid out by key negotiator Qatar in a statement.

There is an option for the pause to last as long as 10 days, but Israeli officials believe it is unlikely to last that long.

Netanyahu said when the deal was approved that for every additional 10 hostages released, there will be an additional one day pause in the fighting.

Hamas is holding 236 hostages captive in Gaza, including foreign nationals from 26 countries, according to figures from the Israeli military. The mass abductions at gunpoint took place during October 7, when Hamas militants struck across the border in a coordinated and bloody surprise attack killing around 1,200 people – the largest such attack on Israel since the country’s founding in 1948.

Prior to the deal, only a handful of hostages had been released.

Israel responded to the attack by declaring war against Hamas and imposing a siege on Gaza that cut off supplies of food, water, medicines and fuel, while launching a relentless air and ground assault. Some 12,700 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to data from the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank, which draws on information from Hamas-run health authorities.

The three-page filing does not contain details of the alleged assault but names Adams, the transit bureau of the New York Police Department and the New York Police Department Guardians Association as defendants.

“Plaintiff was sexually assaulted by Defendant Eric Adams in New York, New York in 1993 while they both worked for the City of New York,” the summons reads.

The filing seeks a trial and $5 million in relief. It was filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The woman’s attorney did not immediately return an emailed request for comment on Thursday.

In a statement, a City Hall spokesman said “The mayor does not know who this person is. If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it. But he would never do anything to physically harm another person and vigorously denies any such claim.”

Adams, a Democrat, was a New York City police officer who rose to the rank of captain before entering politics. He served as a state senator and Brooklyn borough president before becoming mayor.

The summons was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a special New York law that has cleared the way for a wave of lawsuits against famous men accused of sexual misconduct. The law has led to more than 2,500 lawsuits, including cases against former President Donald Trump, hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and the comedian and actor Russell Brand.

The filing comes as Adams has been dogged by an FBI investigation into his 2021 campaign that prompted agents to seize his phones and raid the home of his chief campaign fundraiser.

The New York Times and New York Post have reported that part of the investigation involves examining whether Adams inappropriately tried to help the government of Turkey get city approval to open a 35-story skyscraper housing diplomatic facilities in 2021, despite concerns about the tower’s fire safety systems.

Adams has sidestepped questions about the FBI investigation but has maintained he did nothing wrong.

The two musicians are famous as the members of the eponymous Hall & Oates rock duo that had tremendous success in the early 1980s with hits like “Private Eyes” and “Maneater.”

The suit by Hall against Oates as an individual and Oates’s trust is listed as a “contract/debt” dispute, but the details of the case are sealed, court records show.

On Friday, the court granted Hall’s motion for a temporary restraining order to take effect November 30, according to records.

Because the file is largely sealed, the nature of the restraining order is not apparent. Such an order might typically be entered in a business dispute to keep one party from harming the other party’s economic interests.

CNN has reached out to representatives and attorneys of both Hall and Oates for comment and more information.

The hitmakers met in the 1960s in Philadelphia, and according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, had 29 Top Forty hits from 1976 to 1990.

“Their most indelible earwigs (sic) include the ethereal chorus of ‘I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)’; the percolating beat and chiming harmonies of ‘Kiss on My List’; the weightless rhythmic flow and play of voices in ‘Maneater’; and the plangent, soul-searing refrain of ‘She’s Gone,’” Parke Puterbaugh wrote for Hall & Oates’ induction into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Search efforts for three people who remain missing have finished for the evening, and a search strategy will be announced Thursday, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in a Wednesday news release.

The landslide was reported around 9 p.m. local time Monday on the Zimovia Highway near Wrangell and walloped three homes in its path, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said. The state’s transportation department said the path grew to an estimated 450 feet wide and had a significant debris field.

A girl was found dead during initial search and rescue efforts Monday night, and the remains of two adults were recovered after they were located by a drone operator Tuesday, according to the department of public safety.

Nearby resident Eric Yancey said the lights at his house in Wrangell flickered within the hour before the landslide occurred. But that’s common during storms, so he wasn’t alarmed, Yancey told CNN in a phone interview.

About an hour later, Yancey said he heard about the severity of the landslide. People began contacting his brother-in-law, Frankie, who owned a big, well-lit fishing boat, he said. Frankie wanted to provide some light on the beach to find anyone who was stranded, Yancey said.

Yancey wanted to help and used one of his boats, a 75-foot landing craft with a ramp for accessing the beach, he said. He went to the beach to provide better light and help people who were stranded.

After getting a hold of Frankie and one of his wife’s sons, they all rounded up a crew and headed out to see how they could assist.

“On our way out there, we began having radio communications with the volunteer fire department folks who were on site,” Yancey said. “What was suggested to me was to run to a person’s private dock and pick up some of the people that had abandoned their houses because of the situation.”

It took him about an hour to get there by boat, Yancey said.

Once he was there, he initially rescued eight people who were at the private dock before going back to rescue another group of people, including children, at the dock several hours later. Just as he was about to leave, four more people showed up, Yancey said.

Yancey said he didn’t dock until 3 a.m. By then, he had helped rescue about 19 people and a few dogs and brought them back to town.

“We are a small town on an island, so everybody is pretty darn helpful in whatever ways possible,” Yancey said.

Community bands together

The area has been wet in recent days, which is typical for this time of year. But it was particularly rainy Sunday and Monday, with more than 3 inches of rain falling around Wrangell in the 24 hours leading up to the landslide, said Andy Park, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Juneau.

Winds of 61 to 87 mph Monday evening may have been a factor in the landslides as well, Park told CNN.

The southeast Alaska region is already at risk for debris flows, said Barrett Salisbury, a geologist with the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys. Heavy rainfall, rapid snowmelt or saturated soil only increase that risk, he said in a news conference.

The Wrangell community has come together after the landslide, as people with private boats have shuffled fuel and supplies to folks who need it, Yancey said.

Spenser Stavee, who now owns a company Yancey used to own, was running to the nearby town of Petersburg on Wednesday to get supplies such as food and fuel to the stricken community, Yancey said. The items will be donated to parks and recreation officials, who will then give the haul of supplies to people in need.

“We are going over there with boats to grab and bring it back,” Stavee said.

Alarms were raised from New York to Washington, DC, late Wednesday morning after the incident on the US side of the Rainbow Bridge crossing. Investigators believe the couple was traveling in a Bentley at high speed when it struck a curb at the checkpoint, then hit a guardrail that sent the vehicle airborne and into a screening area before it exploded, according to the sources.

Despite initial concerns of a terror attack, the FBI has not found any connection to terrorism and no explosives were found at the scene, the agency’s Buffalo field office announced Wednesday night. The case is being turned over to local police as a traffic investigation.

“I want to be very, very clear to Americans and New Yorkers: At this time there is no indication of a terrorist attack,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

“Two individuals died in the vehicle,” Hochul said, noting the car is associated with a western New York resident.

Investigators believe the man who died had plans to attend a KISS concert in Canada, but when it was canceled he went to a casino in the US instead. The crash occurred sometime after the couple left the casino, the sources said.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Hochul said of the vehicle’s occupants Wednesday. She noted it was still unclear whether the crash was an accident or an intentional act.

The explosion prompted a temporary shutdown of all four bridges between Canada and the US near Niagara Falls on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Three of the bridges reopened later Wednesday, but Rainbow Bridge remains closed.

Here’s what we know so far.

Crash looked ‘absolutely surreal,’ governor says

The vehicle was traveling at an “extraordinarily high rate of speed” when it approached the border crossing around 11:30 a.m. and hit a barrier, Hochul said.

The impact sent the car soaring several feet into the air before it came crashing down into a Customs and Border Protection booth and burst into flames, Hochul said. She described footage of the incident as “absolutely surreal.”

An officer working in the booth was treated for minor injuries, she said.

The vehicle was “basically incinerated” and pieces of the wreck were scattered across more than a dozen checkpoint booths, the governor said.

Rickie Wilson saw the car flying past him “almost like a movie,” and for a moment, he thought it was a plane, the witness told CNN affiliate WKBW.

FBI investigated explosion as possible terrorist threat

In the aftermath of the crash, federal investigators scrambled to determine whether the incident was an act of terrorism. Within hours, officials shared preliminary findings and assured the public they hadn’t found any indication of terrorist motivation.

“But we will continue to stay vigilant. We will continue to make sure that the information we have is passed onto the public,” US Attorney Trini Ross of the Western District of New York said in a news conference.

The leaders of both the US and Canada were briefed on the incident as the investigation was underway.

The initial explosion triggered heightened security precautions around the region, including the evacuation of local government offices on the US side.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport closed to international arriving and departing flights but later lifted the restriction, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration. All cars coming into the airport were also being screened by bomb-detecting dogs, a Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesperson said.

Amtrak temporarily suspended part of its cross-border route connecting New York to Toronto.

Officials investigating the crash had been looking into an individual but working through the Joint Terrorism Task Force did not initially find any concerning information, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia said Wednesday afternoon.

“We do not have any derogatory information on this person that we’ve identified,” he said. “We’re scanning his social media, there’s nothing there. We’re still running a full investigation so that’s a preliminary assessment.”

By Wednesday night, the FBI announced it had concluded its investigation at the scene and turned the case over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation.

In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a “super pig” that’s spreading out of control.

Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada’s leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, “the most invasive animal on the planet” and “an ecological train wreck.”

Pigs are not native to North America. While they’ve roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada’s problem dates back only to the 1980s when it encouraged farmers to raise wild boar, Brook said. The market collapsed after peaking in 2001 and some frustrated farmers simply cut their fences, setting the animals free.

It turned out that the pigs were very good at surviving Canadian winters. Smart, adaptable and furry, they eat anything, including crops and wildlife. They tear up land when they root for bugs and crops. They can spread devastating diseases to hog farms like African swine fever. And they reproduce quickly. A sow can have six piglets in a litter and raise two litters in a year.

That means 65% or more of a wild pig population could be killed every year and it will still increase, Brook said. Hunting just makes the problem worse, he said. The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3% and several states have banned hunting because it makes the pigs more wary and nocturnal — tougher to track down and eradicate.

Wild pigs already cause around $2.5 billion in damage to U.S. crops every year, mostly in southern states like Texas. And they can be aggressive toward humans. A woman in Texas was killed by wild pigs in 2019.

Eradication of wild pigs is no longer possible in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Brook said. But the situation isn’t hopeless everywhere and a few U.S. states have eliminated them. The key, he said, is having a detection system that finds them early and fast, and then responding quickly.

Brook and his colleagues have documented 62,000 wild pig sightings in Canada. Their aerial surveys have spotted them on both sides of the Canada-North Dakota border. They’ve also recorded a sighting in Manitoba within 18 miles (28 kilometers) of Minnesota.

“Nobody should be surprised when pigs start walking across that border if they haven’t already,” Brook said. “The question is: What will be done about it?”

Brook said Montana has been the most serious about keeping wild pigs out. It banned raising and transporting wild pigs within the state.

“The only path forward is you have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox,” Brook said.

That could include big ground traps with names like “BoarBuster” or net guns fired from helicopters. Some states and provinces embrace crowdsourced “Squeal on Pigs” tracking programs. Scientists have also studied poisons such as sodium nitrite, but they risk harming other species.

Minnesota is among states trying to prevent the swine from taking hold. The state’s Department of Natural Resources is expected to release a report in February identifying gaps in its management plan and recommend new prevention steps. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is using aircraft and drones to beef up surveillance along the northern border.

Minnesota was declared an eradicated state after USDA Wildlife Services shot and killed a group of pigs in 2016 that wandered off a farm and turned feral in the far northwest corner of the state — but not before they began to reproduce and root up a wildlife preserve. Gary Nohrenberg, the Minnesota director of Wildlife Services, said as far has he knows, no truly wild pigs have made their way to his state — yet.

Feral swine have been reported in at least 35 states, according to the USDA. The agency estimates the the swine population in those states totals around 6 million.

Since launching the National Feral Swine Management Program in 2014, the USDA has provided funding to 33 states, said Mike Marlow, an assistant program director. He said their goal is to eradicate wild pigs where populations are low or emerging, and to limit the damage where they’re already established such as Texas and southeastern states.

The program has had success in some states that had small populations like Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Washington, he said. The animals are spotted occasionally and quickly killed off in North Dakota.

“I think we’re making great strides toward success,” Marlow said. “But eradication is not in the near future.”

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Follow AP news about invasive species at: https://apnews.com/hub/invasive-species.

The term “Black Friday” in relation to shopping the day after Thanksgiving is most often traced to Philadelphia where police had to deal with large crowds who thronged the streets of the city before the annual Army-Navy game and to take advantage of sales. According to the Dec. 18, 1961, issue of Public Relations News, a newsletter, it became customary for police to refer to post-Thanksgiving shopping as Black Friday and Black Saturday because of the headaches they created.

Retailers began taking ownership of the term in the late 1980s as the opening bell for the holidays. Of course Black Friday has morphed more accurately into a month of offers that begin in October, when Halloween jack-o’-lanterns are still flickering.

A number of stores that were closed on Thanksgiving, including Walmart and Target, reopen early Friday as the holiday shopping season begins in earnest.

Here are the store hours on Black Friday for some prominent national chains.Walmart Black Friday hours

Walmart stores will open at 6 a.m.Target Black Friday hours

Most Target stores will open at 6 a.m.Best Buy Black Friday hours

Best Buy stores will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.Macy’s Black Friday hours

Macy’s stores will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.Dick’s Sporting Goods Black Friday hours

Dick’s Sporting Goods stores will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.Kohl’s Black Friday hours

Kohls stores will open at 5 a.m.Home Depot Black Friday hours

Home Depot stores will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.Lowe’s Black Friday hours

Lowe’s will open at 6 a.m.

The agency has received 52 reports of elevated lead levels among children who reportedly consumed the products, which is up from 34 cases reported last week. The reports span 22 states and involve children between the ages of 1 to 4, according to the FDA’s online update on the investigation.

The pouches were marketed to parents and children under three brands: WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree and Schnucks and Weis cinnamon applesauce pouches. They were sold by national grocery chains, including Dollar Tree, and online retailers such as Amazon.

The FDA said it is still working with Dollar Tree to get the recalled products off of shelves in several states.

“This product should not be available for sale and consumers should not purchase or consume this product,” the agency said.

Parents should dispose of the pouches by emptying the contents into the trash and discarding the packaging, the agency said.

The FDA said Wednesday it is investigating the source of the contamination in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency previously said cinnamon imported from a manufacturer in Ecuador was the “likely source” of the lead contamination.

Lead exposure can lead to serious learning and behavior problems. Heavy metals like lead can get into food products from soil, air, water or industrial processes, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

There’s no safe level of lead exposure, but the CDC uses a marker of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to identify children with higher levels than most. The affected children’s blood lead levels ranged from 4 to 29 micrograms per deciliter.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The diplomatic breakthrough promised some relief for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, as well as families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, announced the delay late Wednesday, without providing a reason. Negotiators were still “working to create the appropriate conditions” for the cease-fire and swap, according to Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman from the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, which played a key role in mediating with Hamas.

The Persian Gulf nation said early Thursday that a new time for the agreement to go into force would be announced “in the coming hours.” It was originally set to begin Thursday morning. The U.S. and Egypt also helped negotiate the deal.RISING TOLL IN GAZA

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, meanwhile, resumed its detailed count of Palestinian casualties from the war, saying over 13,300 have been killed.

The figures do not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north, where services and communication largely broke down earlier this month, and the ministry says some 6,000 people have been reported missing and are feared to be buried under rubble.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death tolls. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, though it has presented no evidence for its count.

The ministry stopped publishing casualty counts as of Nov. 11, saying it had lost the ability to do so because of the collapse of the health sector in the north.NETANYAHU SAYS TRUCE WON’T END WAR

The truce agreement had raised hopes of eventually winding down the war, now in its seventh week, which has leveled vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank, and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East.

Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel on Thursday as Hezbollah said it had fired 48 Katyusha rockets from southern Lebanon. The barrage came after an Israeli strike killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of the head of the group’s parliamentary bloc.

The Israeli military said it was striking the sources of the launches. Israel and Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war in 2006, have repeatedly traded fire across the border since the war in Gaza broke out.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war against Hamas after the truce expires, with the goal of destroying the group’s military capabilities, ending its 16-year rule in Gaza and returning all of the estimated 240 captives held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups.

“The war is continuing. We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu said, adding that he had delivered the same message in a phone call to U.S. President Joe Biden. Washington has provided extensive military and diplomatic support to Israel since the start of the war.

Israeli troops hold much of northern Gaza and say they have dismantled tunnels and much of Hamas’ infrastructure there. Israeli forces on Wednesday revealed what they said was a major Hamas hideout in a tunnel beneath Shifa Hospital.

The territory’s largest medical center has been at the heart of a fierce battle of narratives over both sides’ allegedly reckless endangerment of civilians. Hamas and hospital staff deny that Shifa was used as a militant command center.

Shifa’s director, Mohammed Abu Selmia, was detained by Israeli soldiers, according to Medhat Abbas, the director of the Gaza Health Ministry. There was no immediate comment from the army.

Israel, meanwhile, ordered the full evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in the north, Dr. Munir al-Boursh, a Health Ministry official inside the facility, told Al-Jazeera. He said hospital officials were trying to organize buses to evacuate some 200 patients, including children with burn injuries. Fighting has raged outside the hospital for days, and hundreds of people have already been evacuated to the south.

Israel has threatened to launch wider operations in southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people who fled the north have crammed into overflowing U.N.-run shelters with dwindling food, water and basic supplies.

For Hamas, the cease-fire would provide an opportunity to regroup after weeks of apparently heavy losses. Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar, who is believed to be alive and in hiding in Gaza, is likely to claim the release of Palestinian prisoners as a major achievement and declare victory if the war ends.HOSTAGES TO BE FREED IN STAGES

Under the truce deal, 50 hostages are supposed to be freed in stages, in exchange for the release of what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinian prisoners. Both sides are set to release women and children first, and Israel said the truce would be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed.

The return of hostages could lift spirits in Israel, where their plight has gripped the country. Families of the hostages have staged mass demonstrations to pressure the government to bring them home.

Qatar said the cease-fire would allow a “larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid” to enter Gaza, including fuel, but it gave no details on quantities. Israel cut off all fuel imports at the start of the war, causing a territory-wide blackout and leaving homes and hospitals reliant on generators, which have also steadily been forced to shut down.

Netanyahu said the deal includes a provision for the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit hostages remaining in captivity.

Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 prisoners eligible to be released, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses.

The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as Israeli soldiers. Hamas is expected to demand a large number of high-profile Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldiers.

More than 1.7 million people, three-fourths of Gaza’s population, have been displaced in the war. Many, if not most, will be unable to return home because of the vast damage and the presence of Israeli troops in the north.

Israel has barred imports to Gaza since the start of the war, except for a trickle of aid entering through Egypt’s Rafah crossing. Humanitarian aid groups operating in Gaza said the truce will prove too short and the Rafah crossing’s capacity insufficient to meet urgent needs.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press reporters Najib Jobain in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

In a statement, CENTCOM said the USS Thomas Hudner shot the drones down while it was on patrol in the Red Sea, adding that there had been no damage to the ship or injuries sustained by the crew.

Tensions have increased in the Red Sea region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claiming to have fired ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel.

On Sunday, the Galaxy Leader cargo ship was hijacked by the Houthis in the Red Sea with about 25 crew members on board.

The United States demands “the immediate release” of the cargo ship and crew seized by the Houthis in the Red Sea, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday.

Israel’s cabinet approved a deal on Tuesday to free at least 50 hostages during a four-day pause in the ongoing war with Hamas. Under the agreement, Israel must also release 150 Palestinian prisoners in a trade only for women and children on both sides of the conflict.

The deal is structured such that, each day, a group of hostages will be released to be taken to a designated border point. As of Wednesday, though, at least one official said releases are not expected to begin until at least Friday. 

“I was hoping for a Thanksgiving Day miracle and my hopes were dashed,” said Boston-area resident Jason Greenberg. 

Greenberg said five of his family members were taken hostage when gunmen stormed into southern Israel back in early October. 

Greenberg said two family members are now dead.

“I understand that this is the best deal that has been negotiated to date and that there is a delay, but there are 240 souls that need to be returned to their families,” he told 7NEWS. “So my hope is that, by Friday, hostages will start returning home to their families.”

With the planned pause in fighting also delayed, several explosions could be seen lighting up northern Gaza Wednesday.

Israeli leaders said their operations will continue until the pause begins. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war will also resume after the pause expires

“The war continues,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue with it until all our goals are achieved.”

Back in Massachusetts, Rep. Jake Auchincloss this week told CNN the recently approved deal is acceptable because it will bring hostages home. 

He continued, discussing the tenuous nature of ongoing negotiations.

“We should all be concerned that this deal could fall apart at any moment,” he continued. “The statecraft required to get here has been some of the toughest in modern memory.”

Waiting for releases, US officials reportedly have a certain list of hostages they believe will be released on day one. 

It was not clear as of Wednesday night whether any of the three remaining American hostages were on the list.

The truce raised hopes of eventually winding down the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 deadly rampage into Israel. Now in its seventh week, the war has leveled vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank, and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a nationally televised news conference that the war would resume after the truce expires. Israel’s goals are to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and return all 240 hostages held captive in Gaza.

“I want to be clear. The war is continuing. The war is continuing. We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu said, adding he had delivered the same message in a phone call to U.S. President Joe Biden. He also said he had instructed the Mossad spy agency to hunt down Hamas’ exiled leadership “wherever they are.”

The cease-fire efforts hit another hurdle when Israel’s national security adviser said in a late-night announcement that the deal would not take effect before Friday, a day later than originally expected. Tzachi Hanegbi gave no reason for the delay, but Channel 13 TV said there were still some last-minute details being ironed out.

If implemented, the deal temporarily freezes both sides at a tenuous moment.

Israeli troops hold much of northern Gaza and say they have dismantled tunnels and much of Hamas’ infrastructure there. But Israeli officials acknowledge the group’s infrastructure remains intact elsewhere. Netanyahu’s announcement Wednesday appeared to be aimed at public concerns that a truce will lead Israel to halt its offensive before achieving its goals.

Israel has said it is determined to take its ground offensive into the south. That could be potentially devastating for Gaza’s uprooted population, most of which is squeezed into the south with nowhere to go to avoid the assault.

Residents in Gaza City said the fighting intensified overnight into Wednesday, with gunfire, heavy artillery and airstrikes. Palestinian militants continued firing rockets at Israel throughout the day, without causing casualties.

A diplomatic breakthrough

The announcement of the truce capped weeks of indirect, stop-and-go negotiations to free some of the hostages taken by Hamas and other militants during their Oct. 7 raid. Egypt and Qatar, along with the United States, helped mediate the deal.

Fifty hostages will be freed in stages, in exchange for the release of what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinian prisoners. Both sides will let go women and children first.

Israel said the truce would be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed by Hamas. Hamas said hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid — including fuel — would be allowed to enter Gaza.

Netanyahu said the deal also included a provision for the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the hostages in captivity.

The cease-fire is to take effect at 10 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) Thursday, according to Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV channel.

Biden welcomed the deal, saying Netanyahu committed to supporting an “extended pause.” Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said he hoped it would eventually lead to a permanent cease-fire and “serious talks” on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 prisoners eligible to be released, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses.WILL THE WAR RESUME?

The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants broke into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking hostages.

Weeks of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, followed by a ground invasion, have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. It does not differentiate between civilians and militants, though some two-thirds of the dead have been identified as women and minors.

The ministry said that as of Nov. 11 it had lost the ability to count the dead because of the collapse of large parts of the health system, but says the number has risen sharply since then. Some 2,700 people are missing and believed buried under rubble.

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, though it has presented no evidence for its count.

Hamas, meanwhile, will have a chance to regroup. Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar will likely present the release of the prisoners — seen by most Palestinians as heroes resisting occupation — as a major achievement, and declare victory if the war ends.

Strikes continue

An airstrike overnight hit a residential building in the southern town of Khan Younis, killing 17 people, including children, said Ahmad Balouny, a relative of the deceased. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of two children pulled from the rubble.

Outside Khan Younis, workers dug a mass grave for 111 bodies that Israeli authorities handed over after troops took them from Shifa Hospital and other parts of northern Gaza. Israeli troops had taken the bodies apparently for DNA analysis amid the search for hostages in the north.

Strikes also leveled buildings in the Nusseirat refugee camp and the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The city’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said 128 bodies were brought in overnight after strikes.

In northern Gaza, about 60 bodies and 200 people wounded by heavy fighting were brought into the Kamal Adwan Hospital overnight, hospital director Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout told Al-Jazeera television Wednesday.

Over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced in the war. Many, if not most, will be unable to return home because of the vast damage and the continued presence of Israeli troops in the north. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said that more than 1 million Palestinians were seeking shelter in 156 of its facilities in Gaza.

The cease-fire deal promises an increase of aid to the south, bringing some relief to hundreds of thousands who have struggled to find food and water. Israel has barred imports to Gaza since the start of the war, except for a trickle of aid entering through Egypt’s Rafah crossing.

A Qatari statement said the cease-fire would allow a “larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid,” including fuel. But it gave no details on actual quantities.

Humanitarian aid groups operating in Gaza criticized the cease-fire, saying the truce was too short and the Rafah crossing’s capacity was insufficient to deliver enough aid to meet the urgent demand.

The Palestine Red Crescent aid group and U.N. teams evacuated 190 wounded and sick people, their companions and some medical teams from Shifa Hospital to hospitals in southern Gaza, Wednesday, a Red Crescent spokesperson said.

Deal could divide Israelis

The return of hostages could lift spirits in Israel, where their plight has gripped the country. Families of the hostages have staged mass demonstrations to pressure the government to bring them home.

But they could also find themselves divided as some hostages are freed and others not.

Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother, sister-in-law and two nephews — aged 4 and 10 months — are among the captives, said the deal puts the families in an “inhumane” situation.

“Who will be released, who won’t?” she asked. “No matter which way it happens, there will still be families that will remain worried and sad and angry.”

The animatronic model from “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” is part of a sale organized by Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies, which, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. More than 1,000 props and memorabilia from some of the best-known sci-fi, fantasy, action and superhero movies and TV series will be available at the auction.

Designed by the late Carlo Rambaldi, the model has some incredibly expressive moves. Its nostrils open and close, and its veins pulsate, while cables also allow for the movement of its eyes, lips, eyebrows, forehead and tongue.

This model comes from Rambaldi’s own collection, as did the animatronic figure of E.T. sold by Julien’s Auctions last November for $2.56 million.

His daughter, Daniela Rambaldi, recalls her father finding inspiration for E.T.’s expressive blue eyes from their family cat “Kikka,” the auction house said.

The story of the homesick E.T. and his bond with Elliott, the boy who finds him, Spielberg’s 1982 movie won near-universal acclaim and was nominated for nine Oscars, of which it won four.

Other artifacts from movie history are also up for sale, including a full Batman costume worn by Michael Keaton in “Batman Returns,” which has an estimate of up to $70,000, and a model of The Robot from the 1960s sci-fi series “Lost in Space.”

This model is “one of the rarest artifacts from the era ever offered at auction which also is still functional,” the auction house said, since only two full-scale models of The Robot were made during the show’s run. It is expected to be sold for up to $500,000.

Several items of Harry Potter memorabilia are for sale, too, including robes and the half-moon glasses worn by Richard Harris playing Albus Dumbledore in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” The robes – screen-matched for authenticity – and glasses are anticipated to reach up to $70,000 and $20,000, respectively.

And for Marvel fans, props such as Captain America’s shield, complete with battle scars, from “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and a helmet worn by Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man in “Captain America: Civil War” are expected to sell for up to $70,000 and up to $40,000, respectively.

Local authorities are warning people to keep their distance and avoid approaching the poisonous green mamba, which is between 1.8 and 2 meters (6 to 6.5 feet) long.

In the unlikely event someone is bitten by the snake, they should immediately call the emergency services, the spokesperson said.

The tropical snake has a fondness for warm, dark spaces, the spokesperson added, saying it is unlikely the runaway mamba has slithered out of its owner’s house to face the cold Dutch winter.

There are three species of green mamba, all native to Africa – one is found in the east and south of the continent, another in the west and another in the center. The municipality spokesperson did not specify which species the missing snake belonged to.

Normally found in trees, this timid snake produces a fast-acting venom that can kill within days, though it is rarely attacks humans, instead preying on birds, small mammals and lizards.

Cinnamon applesauce pouches sold under the WanaBana, Weis and Schnucks brands have been recalled, and the FDA is screening shipments of cinnamon from multiple countries for possible lead contamination. The agency says that it’s working with Dollar Tree on getting those products off shelves but that, in the meantime, consumers should not buy them.

The FDA, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local partners have been investigating reports of high blood lead levels in children who consumed the pouches, which were manufactured in Ecuador. There have been 52 reports of illness among children under age 4 in 25 states as of Wednesday.

In one product sample of a WanaBana Apple Cinnamon Puree from Dollar Tree, the level detected was 2.18 parts per million, the FDA said — more than 200 times greater than the action level the FDA had proposed in previous draft guidance for products intended for babies and young children.

“In response to WanaBana’s Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree pouch voluntary recall announcement, Dollar Tree locked its registers to prevent sales and instructed stores to remove the product from the shelves,” the company told CNN on Wednesday. “We are committed to the safety and integrity of the products we sell. If customers have this recalled product, they are advised to stop using it immediately and return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.”

Recalled products should be discarded by opening the pouches and emptying them into the trash before throwing away the packaging, the FDA says, to keep anyone from taking them out of the trash and consuming them.

Lead is toxic to humans, and there is no safe level. Exposure is not typically apparent right away, but it can cause developmental delays in children. Initial symptoms of lead poisoning may include head, stomach and muscle aches, vomiting, anemia, irritability, fatigue and weight loss.

The deal is structured in such a way that each day, a group of hostages to be released would be handed off to the Red Cross; the Red Cross would then take the group to a designated border point, which will largely depend on the location of those hostages, the source familiar said. Many of the first 50 hostages are expected to come out through Egypt, they said.

A source familiar with how hostages are expected to leave Gaza told CNN that the first swap is expected to take place on Thursday at 10 a.m. Israeli time (3 a.m. ET). 50 Israel hostages — including some with dual nationalities — are expected to be released over the four-day pause. 10 is the minimum number of hostages to be released each day, but that could be higher.

Every evening before the next day’s release Israel and Hamas will give the Red Cross the list of hostage and prisoner names being released.

Hostages will be brought by the Red Cross to Rafah where they will be met by specially trained Israeli soldiers. They will verify that the hostages released were the people expected and on the list. The families of the hostages will not be notified until the identities of those released have been confirmed.

Hostages will then be taken by helicopter to several designated hospitals in Israel where there will be special areas and rooms for them, closed to the public. There, their families will finally be able to see them after over six weeks in captivity.

The first two days of the hostage release will be treated as a “testing period,” the source said, to make sure the process is working. By day three, there is expected to be intense discussions about the potential second phase of the hostage release beyond the initial group of 50.

“The first swap is the most crucial to see that the mechanism is working as was agreed,” the source said.

In terms of the remaining hostages, including Israeli soldiers, Hamas had initially tried to designate all Israeli women under 45 as soldiers, given that women have to serve in the Israeli military and are often reservists, the source said. Israel rejected that, and the two sides agreed that only women serving, in uniform when they were abducted, would be designated as soldiers.

As part of the deal the Red Cross is expected to be able to visit and offer medical support to the hostages that remain in Gaza, the source said.

White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk told CNN’s Boris Sanchez Wednesday he could not speak to the schedule of when the Americans would be released. He confirmed that three US hostages – Edan and two women — are expected to come home as part of the 50 hostages released by Hamas. A total of 10 Americans are believed to be hostages.

“I was asked earlier do we know if the 50 are alive and well. We understand they’re alive, but they’re certainly not well,” McGurk said. “These 50 women, children and toddlers, it’s just unimaginable what they’ve gone through, but we’re gonna make sure that they get the care they need when they come home.”

McGurk said he is “hopeful” that the Red Cross will get access to the other hostages but noted, “I cannot confirm that nor guarantee that.”

McGurk suggested that the humanitarian pause and hostage releases could continue beyond the initial four-day period, saying they “do have some assurances” on this.

“For this humanitarian pause to continue, we have to see more hostages coming out,” he said. “We do have some assurance that even beyond the four-day period, on day five, day six, we will meet that benchmark to extend the humanitarian pause at least by those of period of days, but I can’t guarantee that.”

“We have to see and again, we’re dealing with Hamas, a terrorist group here, who’s holding toddlers and babies at the other end of the table,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Supreme Court “has now greenlit the (hostage) deal to go forward,” thus clearing the way for the process to move forward on Thursday, McGurk said.

Asked on “CNN News Central” if there are concerns around the release of the Palestinian prisoners, McGurk noted that “the Israelis are balancing a number of different objectives and risks and they determined that the release of the Palestinian prisoners in this circumstance, after a full debate within their government, was the way to proceed.”

“And I know that was actually discussed today before the Israeli Supreme Court and I understand the Supreme Court has now greenlit the deal to go forward,” he said.

A senior Israeli official told CNN Tuesday that there was a 24-hour window following the announcement of the deal for appeals to be lodged with the court.

The Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge to the Gaza hostage deal, which includes the release of at least 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

The Almagor association, which was set up in 1986 to represent victims of terror, had claimed that the government’s decision, among a series of objections, intensified the risk of “the recurrence of serious acts of terrorism to which all the citizens and residents of the country are exposed.”

Almagor had asked the Supreme Court to “annul the government’s decision … [and] order [the government] to discuss again the terms of the deal with Hamas,” according to information released by the court.

The court said it rejected the petition outright on the grounds that the hostage deal, “is a clear political issue to which this court does not consider its involvement as necessary.”

The ruling clears any legal objection in Israel to the execution of the deal that involves the exchange of Israeli hostages in Gaza for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The FBI’s Buffalo office said late Wednesday that it had concluded its investigation: “A search of the scene revealed no explosive materials, and no terrorism nexus was identified,” it said in a statement. “The matter has been turned over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation.”

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WATCH: Officials provide update after explosion at Rainbow Bridge border crossing

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Much remained unclear about the incident at the Rainbow Bridge, which prompted concerns on both sides of the border as the U.S. headed into the Thanksgiving holiday. Both U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were briefed soon afterward, and Trudeau excused himself from Question Period in the House of Commons to get further information, saying officials were “taking this extraordinarily seriously.”

A few hours later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and western New York’s U.S. attorney, Trini Ross, both sought to ease fears.

“Based on what we know at this moment,” Hochul said at a news conference, “there is no sign of terrorist activity in this crash.”

At a separate news conference with Ross nearby in Buffalo, Erie Country Sheriff John Garcia said, “We can go on with our lives.”

Security camera video released by the U.S. government showed the car race through an intersection on a wet road, hit a low median and vault high into the air in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection area just east of the main vehicle checkpoint. The car flew for yards (meters), twisting, and then crashed into a line of booths out of the camera’s view.

Rickie Wilson, a Niagara Falls tour guide, was by his parked car nearby and turned around when he saw something in the air.

“I first thought it was an airplane. It looked like slow motion,” he said. “I said, ‘My God, it’s a car. It’s a vehicle, and it’s flying through the air.’”

The identities of those in the car weren’t released. Hochul said it wasn’t clear whether the driver — a western New York resident — was intentionally heading for the bridge, which crosses the Niagara River.

The two people who died were a husband and wife, according to a person briefed on the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information about the people who were killed.

Matthew Miraglia, the FBI special agent in charge in Buffalo, said investigators so far had found no “derogatory” information on the driver.

“We’re scanning his social media. There’s nothing there,” Miraglia said.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday night that he had been in contact with both the FBI and the White House and investigators had found “no connection to any terrorist or criminal group.” Investigators swabbed the scene and found no evidence of chemicals or substances used for explosives, he added.

Officials said the car was traveling at tremendous speed as it approached the bridge at around 11:30 a.m. in downtown Niagara Falls in an area that includes several hotels and a casino.

Hochul said the car ended up “basically incinerated,” with nothing left but the engine. Debris was scattered across a dozen checkpoint booths. The governor, a Democrat, called video of the airborne car “absolutely surreal.”

Photos and video taken by bystanders and posted on social media showed thick smoke, flames on the pavement and a singed security booth. A Customs and Border Protection worker in a checkpoint booth was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released, Hochul said.

From inside Niagara Falls State Park, Melissa Raffalow said she saw “a huge plume of black smoke” rise up over the border crossing, roughly 50 yards (45 meters) away from the popular tourist destination. Raffalow told AP in a message that police arrived soon after, urging visitors to disperse as they began cordoning off the street.

Raghu Bhattarai said by phone that he was inside his restaurant, the Niagara Tandoori Hut, near the bridge when he heard a sound he described as a “boom.” A few minutes later, he saw black smoke rising.

The Rainbow Bridge — a short span that offers striking views of the falls — and three others between western New York and Ontario were quickly closed as a precaution, though the other three later reopened. The Buffalo-Niagara International Airport began security checks on all cars and told passengers to expect additional screenings.

The safety measures tied up traffic at the airport and elsewhere on one of the busiest U.S. travel days of the year, ahead of the American Thanksgiving holiday.

Sanchit Chatha, his wife Reyshu and their 13-year-old daughter, Trisha, had stopped in Niagara Falls for lunch en route home to Toronto from Buffalo when they started getting news notifications about the explosion. Worried friends called, knowing the family was in the area.

Trisha was concerned at seeing the bridges to Canada shut down, her mother said.

“She has a math test tomorrow,” the mother explained as the family waited to find out when the crossings would open.

In Toronto, about 100 miles (about 160 kilometers) away, police said they were increasing patrols as a precaution. New York City police were monitoring the news from Buffalo but already had boosted security at various spots because of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday.

About 6,000 vehicles cross the Rainbow Bridge each day, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. About 5% is truck traffic, according to the federal data.

The bridge, constructed in 1941, is just over 1,440 feet (439 meters) long and has a main span constructed of steel, according to the data.

Speaking on a recent episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” seven-time Super Bowl winner Brady was in a damning mood as he lamented the current standard of play in the NFL.

“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL. I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past,” he said.

Asked why he felt that way, Brady added: “I think the coaching isn’t as good as it was. I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it was. I don’t think the schemes are as good as they were.

“I think the rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. So I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it’s been.”

Brady, who retired from the NFL in February after a 23-year career with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, alluded to the increased scrutiny around roughing-the-passer – which is intended to protect quarterbacks from injury – and unnecessary roughness rules.

He found himself at the center of this debate last year when he benefited from a controversial roughing-the-passer call as the Bucs held on to beat the Atlanta Falcons.

“Guys are competitive. Guys play hard,” Brady said. “I look at a lot of [former] players like Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison and Ronnie Lott and guys that impacted the game in a certain way and every hit they would have made would have been a penalty [today].

He added: “Offensive players need to protect themselves. It’s not up to a defensive player to protect an offensive player.

“A defensive player needs to protect himself … I think a lot of the ways that the rules have come into play have allowed this – you can essentially play carefree and then if anyone hits you hard, there’s a penalty. And it’s very different than when I was playing.”

The 46-year-old said that his teams used to work on the “fundamentals” of players not being tackled, but added that, in today’s game, “they’re trying to be regulated all the time.”

Brady retired from the NFL with a record number of Super Bowl rings. He also won more games and passed for more yards and for more touchdowns than any other player in the history of the league.

Too much regulation or protecting players?

Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson, who was suspended by the NFL for four games – later reduced to two on appeal – in late October after multiple unnecessary roughness violations, posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, of Brady’s interview in apparent support of the NFL legend’s comments.

Tuesday’s post came after Jackson was again handed a four-game suspension for repeated violations of player safety rules after a hit – which was not penalized during the game – on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs in Denver’s 21-20 win on Sunday night. The win was the safety’s first game back from his October suspension.

Commenting on the latest suspension, which Jackson can appeal, NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan wrote in a letter to the Broncos safety: “You could have made contact with your opponent within the rules, yet you chose not to.”

Former Super Bowl champion cornerback Richard Sherman, who defended Jackson after his previous suspension, responded to the new suspension and Brady’s comments, posting on X: “The product is suffering. Calling a player ‘dirty’ because he plays a physical brand of football that would have him on every highlight tape on every network when this game was great. Skewed the game so that players don’t have to be as skilled to be productive.”

Likely a future Hall of Famer for his stellar Major League Baseball (MLB) career as an outfielder, Ichiro, 50, not only still likes to play, but he’s doing it as a pitcher.

A Japanese high school girls’ team found out just how well he can throw during Ichiro’s annual All-Star game on Tuesday.

The game, which was first played two years ago, was set up to encourage women to play baseball in Japan – and Ichiro was certainly all in.

According to MLB.com, Ichiro threw a 116-pitch, complete game shutout and struck out nine in the 4-0 victory at the Tokyo Dome.

He even dusted off an 86-miles-per-hour fastball during the game which, in truth, might give some of the best hitters in the world something to think about.

Ichiro was joined in the game by former MLB pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka – who played for the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets – and retired from professional baseball in 2021, with the pair excited to show off their skills once again.

As well as his prowess from the mound, Ichiro also picked up two hits in the game – a relief given he went hitless during the last two years of the exhibition contest, according to MLB.com.

“Personally, I am glad to be able to make a hit. I would like to continue training in hopes to motivate the female athletes,” Ichiro said after the game, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

The Japanese great certainly inspired the opposition during the game, both with his exploits as well as being struck out by Okayama Gakugeikan High School’s Ryona Domae in one inning, leading the aspiring young athlete to beam with excitement.

“I was really looking forward to this match with Ichiro. I was determined to get a win, but the fact that I got to strike him out is a memory I will cherish forever,” Domae said on Japan’s TBS Sports.

“Knowing that I was able to strike out Ichiro, I think I can compete with confidence in future matches.”

Ichiro praised the pitcher, saying to an ecstatic Domae: “I had a weird feeling [being struck out] – I typically have very few strike outs. You should be proud of yourself.”

MLB icon

Ichiro’s professional debut came with the Orix Blue Wave of Japan’s Pacific League on July 11, 1992. He played in Japan from 1992-2000, winning three consecutive MVP awards and seven straight batting titles.

When he made the move to the Seattle Mariners in 2001 – becoming the first Japanese position player to sign with an MLB team – Ichiro emphatically made his mark. He went on to win the American League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards that year, becoming just the second player ever to win both honors in the same season.

From 2001-2010, Ichiro won 10 consecutive Gold Glove Awards and made 10 straight trips to the All-Star Game.

In 2016, he recorded his 3,000th MLB hit to join an elite list of players to reach such a landmark.

In addition to the Mariners, Ichiro played for the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins in his MLB career.

For fans itching for more of Ichiro on the field after Tuesday’s game, the baseball great had some good news as he emphasised that the series would continue.

“I felt the energy of everyone and it was the most happiest moment me – and I believe it was for Matsuzaka and the high school team as well. Thank you so much everyone,” he added.

“But especially for the high school female athletes who will continue on with this sport, in hopes that I can be their motivation. I will continue my training and so will Matsuzaka. I want to do this again next year at the Tokyo Dome!”

Sights of people lining up at 5 pm Thanksgiving Day at large retailers to catch Black Friday deals are rare since the onset of the pandemic. Many stores opted to close its doors on Thanksgiving in 2020 to limit crowding and spread out the holiday shopping season — and made the decision permanent.

This year, the turkey day falls on Thursday, Nov. 23. Here’s what’s open and closed on Thanksgiving Day 2023.

Retail

Target is closed on Thanksgiving Day. The closure on Thursday began for the first time in 2020.

“Once I heard from team members how much they appreciated that time with their families, it was an easy decision to make the policy permanent, and our store teams have had that time off ever since,” CEO Brian Cornell said in a statement in November.

Walmart also won’t be open on Thanksgiving.

“It’s a thing of the past. We’ll again be closed on Thanksgiving,” Walmart (WMT) US CEO John Furner said in an NBC interview last year.

Best Buy will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

Among department stores, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Nordstrom will be closed.

Pharmacies

Most Walgreens locations will be closed, marking the first time the pharmacy chain has closed stores on Thanksgiving day, it said. However, nearly all of its 700 24-hour locations will remain open to help meet healthcare needs. The chain has faced staffing shortages and walkouts from pharmacy employees in recent months.

CVS Health said it’s closing all of its non-24 hour stores early on Thanksgiving. Rite Aid said its pharmacies will be closed but its retail locations will be open with varying hours.

Groceries

If you need to pop in to a grocery store last minute, there are a few options.

H.E.B is open from 6 am to 12 pm. Whole Foods has modified hours, and said to check with local stores for details. Most of Albertsons’ stores — such as Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acma, Vons and Tom Thumb — will be open on Thanksgiving Day with modified hours. Kroger said most of its stores will close early, but to make sure to check specific hours for local stores.

All Publix stores will be closed on Thanksgiving. So will Aldi, Trader Joe’s and Costco.

Government offices

Thanksgiving is a government holiday, so federal offices, courts and post offices will be closed. Other government institutions — think the DMV and local libraries — will also be closed.

Banking

Thanksgiving is a banking holiday. The Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange will not be trading. Most banks branches will be closed, but online banking and ATMs will still be available for use.

Postal services

Don’t expect any packages on Thanksgiving day. USPS will be closed. All UPS and FedEx services will be closed except for UPS Express Critical and FedEx Custon Critical.

In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a “super pig” that’s spreading out of control.

Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada’s leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, “the most invasive animal on the planet” and “an ecological train wreck.”

Pigs are not native to North America. While they’ve roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada’s problem dates back only to the 1980s when it encouraged farmers to raise wild boar, Brook said. The market collapsed after peaking in 2001 and some frustrated farmers simply cut their fences, setting the animals free.

It turned out that the pigs were very good at surviving Canadian winters. Smart, adaptable and furry, they eat anything, including crops and wildlife. They tear up land when they root for bugs and crops. They can spread devastating diseases to hog farms like African swine fever. And they reproduce quickly. A sow can have six piglets in a litter and raise two litters in a year.

That means 65% or more of a wild pig population could be killed every year and it will still increase, Brook said. Hunting just makes the problem worse, he said. The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3% and several states have banned hunting because it makes the pigs more wary and nocturnal — tougher to track down and eradicate.

Wild pigs already cause around $2.5 billion in damage to U.S. crops every year, mostly in southern states like Texas. And they can be aggressive toward humans. A woman in Texas was killed by wild pigs in 2019.

Eradication of wild pigs is no longer possible in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Brook said. But the situation isn’t hopeless everywhere and a few U.S. states have eliminated them. The key, he said, is having a detection system that finds them early and fast, and then responding quickly.

Brook and his colleagues have documented 62,000 wild pig sightings in Canada. Their aerial surveys have spotted them on both sides of the Canada-North Dakota border. They’ve also recorded a sighting in Manitoba within 18 miles (28 kilometers) of Minnesota.

“Nobody should be surprised when pigs start walking across that border if they haven’t already,” Brook said. “The question is: What will be done about it?”

Brook said Montana has been the most serious about keeping wild pigs out. It banned raising and transporting wild pigs within the state.

“The only path forward is you have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox,” Brook said.

That could include big ground traps with names like “BoarBuster” or net guns fired from helicopters. Some states and provinces embrace crowdsourced “Squeal on Pigs” tracking programs. Scientists have also studied poisons such as sodium nitrite, but they risk harming other species.

Minnesota is among states trying to prevent the swine from taking hold. The state’s Department of Natural Resources is expected to release a report in February identifying gaps in its management plan and recommend new prevention steps. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is using aircraft and drones to beef up surveillance along the northern border.

Minnesota was declared an eradicated state after USDA Wildlife Services shot and killed a group of pigs in 2016 that wandered off a farm and turned feral in the far northwest corner of the state — but not before they began to reproduce and root up a wildlife preserve. Gary Nohrenberg, the Minnesota director of Wildlife Services, said as far has he knows, no truly wild pigs have made their way to his state — yet.

Feral swine have been reported in at least 35 states, according to the USDA. The agency estimates the the swine population in those states totals around 6 million.

Since launching the National Feral Swine Management Program in 2014, the USDA has provided funding to 33 states, said Mike Marlow, an assistant program director. He said their goal is to eradicate wild pigs where populations are low or emerging, and to limit the damage where they’re already established such as Texas and southeastern states.

The program has had success in some states that had small populations like Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Washington, he said. The animals are spotted occasionally and quickly killed off in North Dakota.

“I think we’re making great strides toward success,” Marlow said. “But eradication is not in the near future.”

The donations are in the form of shares, with a release from his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate detailing that 1.5 million shares are going to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which is named after his wife. Another 900,000 shares are being divided evenly among three charities run by his children.

Buffett said the donations “repeat those made at Thanksgiving last year” and that they “supplement certain of the lifetime pledges I made in 2006 and that continue until my death (at 93, I feel good but fully realize I am playing in extra innings).”

Last year, he donated about $750 million to the same foundations. He’s been making the same donations yearly since 2006.

In a letter to shareholders, Buffett wrote on Tuesday that he and his children “have a common belief that dynastic wealth, though both legal and common in much of the world including the United States, is not desirable.”

“We also agree that capitalism — whatever its weaknesses, including the vast disparities in wealth and political influence that it delivers somewhat capriciously to its citizens — has worked wonders and continues to work wonders,” he wrote.

The letter also said that “Berkshire’s advantage is that it has been built to last” and that the company’s “distinctive characteristics and behavior will be supported by my large Berkshire holdings.”

The 93-year-old remains in control of the sprawling company. He named Greg Abel, the head of Berkshire Hathaway’s non-insurance business, as his successor in 2021.

Berkshire Hathaway recently reported a surge in third-quarter operating earnings and a record-high cash pile of $157 billion.

Benjamin Charles Jones entered the store in Beavercreek, about 10 miles east of Dayton, around 8:35 p.m., said Capt. Chad Lindsey, acting Beavercreek Police Department chief, during a Tuesday news conference.

Witnesses saw Jones holding a rifle that police identified as a Hi-Point .45 caliber carbine long gun, which is a semi-automatic rifle, Lindsey said. He then walked through different parts of the store, appearing to shoot indiscriminately at patrons, he added.

“No shots were fired by any responding police officers,” the department said in a social media post.

The victims were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, Capt. Scott Molnar said in a news briefing on Monday.

One man and three women were injured. Three are in stable condition and one remains in critical condition, Lindsey said on Tuesday. Police didn’t provide specifics about their conditions.

The gunshot injuries sustained by the victims appeared to be “largely random,” Lindsey said, and the wounds were “throughout all different parts of the body.”

Police did not release any additional information about the victims but noted details about their backgrounds or races are considered part of the ongoing investigation into a possible motive behind the attack.

It’s at least the second deadly shooting at the same store where, nearly 10 years ago, police shot and killed a Black man who was holding an air rifle he had found on a store shelf and was not in its packaging. The killing sparked outrage and calls for reform.

Police responded to the scene within three minutes of receiving the first 911 call about the shooter, Lindsey said on Tuesday when he broke down the agency’s response to the shooting and shared footage from a responding officer’s body-worn camera.

Roughly seven minutes after the first call, officers found the shooter on the ground toward the store’s front entrance with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said. Police secured and cleared the building less than an hour after arriving on scene, according to Lindsey.

Monday night’s violence adds to a long list of shootings that have turned commonplace events and settings across the country – retail stores, schools, bowling alleys and birthday parties – into crime scenes.

There have been at least 609 mass shootings in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.

A gunman nearly a year ago killed six people at another Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia. Since then, thousands of people have been killed by gun violence in the US, according to the archive. Many simply found themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Walmart will offer emergency support to affected associates and set up an offsite resource center offering counseling, the company said in a statement.

“With details of Monday night’s shooting at our Beavercreek store still coming to light, we’re focused on providing our associates with the attention and support needed to cope with this tragedy,” the statement read.

No decision has been made on when the store will reopen, the company said.

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, were all investigating the shooting Monday night.

Students at nearby Wright State University shop at the store, they told CNN affiliate WKEF.

“It’s crazy thinking that we’re literally less than five minutes away where we live. They could have went to a campus and not a Walmart, and it could have been us,” Wright State University student Kailie Conley told WKEF.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Maria Sole Campinoti, Amanda Jackson, Lauren Mascarenhas and Nicki Brown contributed to this report.

“I’ve told all the players the same thing: Be ready to go,” Belichick said. “Hopefully, they will be.”

Pressed on the question more than a dozen times in the eight minute availability, Belichick repeated a version of the same answer. Asked if he had made a decision, he said, “We’ll let you know on Sunday.”

2021 first-round draft choice Mac Jones has started every game this season, but he hasn’t been able to finish three of them — twice in blowouts when Belichick said there was no point in sending him out there, and again in Week 10, a 10-6 loss to Indianapolis. With a chance to rally the Patriots, Bailey Zappe was 3 of 7 for 25 yards and finished by throwing an interception on a fake-spike play to seal the game.

Zappe, a fourth-round draft pick in 2022, appeared in four games, starting two — both wins — last season. The Patriots also have Will Grier, who started three games for Carolina in 2019, on the roster and rookie Malik Cunningham on the practice squad.

Asked whether all of them would be able to get the reps in practice to show what they can do, Belichick repeated, “Everybody needs to be ready to go.” He noted that Giants starter Daniel Jones was injured and replaced by Tommy DeVito in the Giants’ game against the Cowboys, and that regardless of who starts the others need to be ready.

“That could happen on the first play of the game. It could happen in the middle of the game. Everybody needs to be ready to go,” Belichick said. “That’s our job right now, to prepare the team to play well on Sunday. That’s all of them. Not one of them, not two of them, but all the guys. The guys who are active, if they get a chance to play, then hopefully they’ll play well, and we’ll coach well.”

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The truce marks the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel ignited a war that has devastated vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and raised fears of a wider conflict across the Middle East.

The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, which has played a key role in mediating with Hamas, announced the deal without saying when it would go into effect. Fifty hostages will be released in stages, in exchange for what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Both sides will release women and children first, and the supply of humanitarian aid flowing into the besieged territory will be ramped up.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would resume the war after the truce and keep fighting “until we achieve all our goals,” including the defeat of Hamas and the return of all hostages.

Residents in Gaza City said the fighting there had intensified overnight into Wednesday, with gunfire, heavy artillery and airstrikes in central neighborhoods.

“They are mad. Apparently they want to advance before the truce,” said Nasser al-Sheikh, who is sheltering with relatives in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.A DIPLOMATIC BREAKTHROUGH

The announcement capped weeks of indirect Qatari-led negotiations. between Israel and Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seized Gaza from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007. The United States and Egypt were also involved in stop-and-go talks to free some of the roughly 240 hostages captured by Hamas and other militants during their wide-ranging Oct. 7 raid.

President Joe Biden welcomed the deal, saying Netanyahu has committed to supporting an “extended pause” to make sure that the hostages are released and humanitarian aid can be sent to Gaza.

Qatar’s prime minister and top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said he hoped the deal would eventually lead to a permanent cease-fire and “serious talks” on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel said that the truce would be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages released by Hamas. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is standing by to assist any swap.

Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 prisoners eligible for release as part of the deal, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses. Under Israeli law, the public has 24 hours to object to any release.

The Israeli military says it has detained more than 1,850 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began, mostly suspected Hamas members. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed there, mostly during gunbattles triggered by army raids.WILL THE WAR RESUME?

As the full extent of the devastation becomes known and as hostages are released, pressure could grow on Israel to end its war without achieving its goal of crushing Hamas. Even the U.S., Israel’s chief backer, has expressed concerns about the heavy toll on Gaza’s civilian population.

An airstrike overnight hit a residential building in the southern town of Khan Younis, killing 17 people, including children, said Ahmad Balouny, a relative of the deceased. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of two children pulled from the rubble, one of them badly burned.

In northern Gaza, about 60 bodies and 200 people wounded by heavy fighting were brought into the Kamal Adwan Hospital overnight, hospital director Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout told Al-Jazeera television on Wednesday. He said the hospital is using cooking oil to keep its generator running.

Despite the massive destruction across Gaza and the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians, Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar will likely present the release of the prisoners — seen by most Palestinians as heroes resisting occupation — as a major achievement, and declare victory if the war ends without removing Hamas from power.

Hamas said hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid — including fuel — would be allowed to enter Gaza. It said Israeli aircraft would stop flying over southern Gaza for the duration of the four-day cease-fire and for six hours daily in the north.

The war erupted in early October, when several thousand Hamas militants broke through Israel’s formidable defenses and poured into the south, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing scores more. Israel responded with weeks of devastating airstrikes on Gaza, followed by a ground invasion.

More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli offensive, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. It does not differentiate between civilians and militants, though some two-thirds of the dead have been identified as women and minors.

The invasion has caused vast destruction in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, displaced over 1.7 million people and caused severe shortages of food, medicine and other basics throughout the territory. Israel cut off all fuel imports at the start of the war, causing a territory-wide power blackout.DEAL COULD DIVIDE ISRAELIS

The return of hostages could lift spirits in Israel, where ther plight has gripped the country. Families of the hostages — who include babies and toddlers, women and children, and people in their 80s with health issues — have staged mass demonstrations and pressured the government to bring them home.

But they could also find themselves divided as some hostages are freed and others remain in Gaza. Soldiers are likely to be the last to be freed, and their families may press the government to extend the truce until they return home.

Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother, sister-in-law and two nephews – aged 4 and 10 months – are among the captives, said the deal puts the families in an “inhumane” situation. Her brother, 34, is not expected to be among the first groups released.

“Who will be released, who won’t? Will the kids be freed? Will they be freed with their mothers or not?” she told The Associated Press before the deal was announced. “No matter which way it happens, there will still be families that will remain worried and sad and angry.”PAUSE COULD HELP HAMAS REGROUP

The structure of the deal could limit Israel’s ability to press its offensive, even after the truce expires.

Any pause would give Hamas a chance to regroup after suffering heavy losses, especially if it drags things out with additional hostage releases. Israeli troops and tanks are expected to remain in place, despite the risks of being stationary behind enemy lines.

Israel claims to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters and destroyed parts of the group’s tunnel system. But Israeli officials acknowledge much of Hamas’ infrastructure remains intact. The military says 68 soldiers have been killed in ground operations.

Some three-quarters of Gaza’s population has been uprooted from their homes, with most packing into overcrowded shelters. Many, if not most, will be unable to return home because of the vast damage in the north and the continued presence of Israeli troops there.

Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East have been drawn into the war, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah trading fire with Israel on a daily basis along the border and Yemen’s Houthi rebels launching drones and missiles as well as seizing an Israeli-linked cargo ship.

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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press reporters Najib Jobain in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip; Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed.

Kennedy, who was born in Brookline, was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas in 1963 while riding in an open top limousine as part of a motorcade welcoming him to the city.

His killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested but later shot and killed while in police custody before he could be charged for the crime.

The JFK Library in Dorchester is marking the occasion with a display of the American flag that was draped on his coffin during his funeral. There will also be an exhibit on display featuring items related to the assassination, including letters of condolence sent to First Lady Jackie Kennedy.

The library said their focus is typically on the president’s legacy and not the assassination, but they wanted to do something to mark the anniversary.

“It’s a special commemoration, a somber occasion, of course,” said Alan Price, Director of the JFK Presidential Library. “Just in a very small capsule conveys the importance of that occasion. Some things that you ordinarily would never see.”

Kennedy was just 46 years old at the time of his death. He remains the youngest person ever elected President of the United States.

The landslide was reported Monday around 9 p.m. local time on the Zimovia Highway near Wrangell, and a preliminary survey by emergency responders determined it had walloped three single-family residences in its path, the department said in a release Tuesday. State troopers have assumed command of the search and rescue effort, although ground search efforts are temporarily paused until the slide can be assessed for safety issues by a geologist, they said.

The girl who died was found during initial search and rescue efforts Monday night, public safety department spokesperson Austin McDaniel told CNN. He did not provide the girl’s age.

Three adults and two juveniles remain missing, McDaniel said. One woman was rescued and is receiving medical treatment, he said, noting she is in good condition.

It has been wet in recent days — typical for this time of year there — but it was particularly rainy on Sunday and Monday, with more than 3 inches of rain falling around Wrangell in the 24 hours leading up to the landslide, Andy Park, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Juneau, told CNN.

Park said winds of 61 to 87 mph Monday evening may have been a factor in the landslides as well.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has issued a disaster declaration in Wrangell after the deadly landslide, his office posted on social media.

Alaska’s Department of Public Safety urges people not to enter the slide area as it has been active throughout the night and additional landslides are possible.

Alaska’s Department of Transportation shared an image of the landslide on Facebook which the agency estimates to be 450 feet wide, with a significant debris field, according to the post.

CNN reached out to Alaska’s Department of Public Safety for updates.

Pitching sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto is set to make a high-profile switch to Major League Baseball (MLB) during the offseason, after he was posted as a free agent by Japan’s Orix Buffaloes on Monday.

The 25-year-old is expected to attract the attention of the league’s biggest franchises and could receive a highly-lucrative contract worth around $200m, per Reuters.

A bidding war is expected to get underway on Tuesday and will run until January 4.

Yamamoto has certainly impressed during the early part of his career, being awarded the Eiji Sawamura Award – given to the top starting pitcher in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) – on three occasions.

He was 16-6 this last season with a 1.21 ERA; form that saw him win his third consecutive Triple Crown – in wins, ETA and strikeouts – in the NPB’s Pacific League.

The right-hander, who boasts a fastball comfortably in the mid-to-high 90s, has enjoyed success on the international stage as well, helping his country win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, before clinching the World Baseball Classic in March.

A free agent with his talent, at his age, is extremely rare in baseball. According to The Athletic, the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and the LA Dodgers are just some of the teams with a reported interest.

Yamamoto is set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and current star Shohei Ohtani who have made the switch from Japan to the MLB.

Home sales remained at 13-year lows as buyers competed for the few available homes on the market and continued to push up prices. Elevated prices, together with the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage nearing 8% in October, have created the least affordable market in several decades.

The median price for existing homes — which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — climbed to $391,800 last month. That was up 3.4% from a year ago and marked the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year price increases. It was the highest median price on record for the month of October. Prices rose in all four regions of the country, the Northeast, Midwest, South and the West, NAR found.

Higher costs to buy and finance a home pushed sales down to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 3.79 million, falling 4.1% from September and a 14.6% from a year ago, according to the report. This fell short of analysts’ expectations for a rate of 3.9 million units sold. Home sales slid from last month in the Northeast, South and West, but were unchanged in the Midwest.

“Prospective home buyers experienced another difficult month due to the persistent lack of housing inventory and the highest mortgage rates in a generation,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Multiple offers, however, are still occurring, especially on starter and mid-priced homes, even as price concessions are happening in the upper end of the market.”

Of the homes sold in October, 28% went above the listing price, which suggests there was a bidding war among would-be buyers.

“There are lingering effects of multiple offers, with more people waiving home inspection and appraisal contingencies,” said Yun. “Given the lack of inventory home sellers are in driver seat, they like the offers that waive those contingencies.”

In October, 24% home buyers waived home inspections, a year ago it was 20%; 21% waived appraisal contingency, compared to 18% a year ago.

Home sales were down in lower priced categories – under $750,000 – due to lack of inventory and sales grew in higher price categories where there was more inventory.

“Where there is more inventory more sales can get done,” said Yun.

Inventory of homes for sale at the end October was 1.15 million units, which was up 1.8% from September. Typical inventory levels prior to the pandemic was about 1.9 million, meaning there were about half the number of homes for sale compared to pre-Covid.

Properties typically remained on the market for 23 days in October, up from 21 days in September 2023 and October 2022. Over half of homes sold in last month were on the market for less than a month.

First-time buyers were responsible for 28% of sales in October.

“First time buyers are still not able to crack above 30% on a consistent basis,” said Yun.

All-cash sales accounted for 29% of transactions in October, unchanged from September but up from 26% in October 2022.

“The lack of inventory and higher interest rates really hitting the home sales market,” said Yun. “Maybe in a couple months we will see some improvement in affordability.”

The mysterious illness is described as an “atypical canine infectious respiratory disease,” the Oregon Department of Agriculture said in a November 9 news release. Symptoms include coughing, sneezing, eye or nose discharge and lethargy.

Veterinarians in Oregon have reported more than 200 cases of the disease since mid-August. Other cases have been reported in Colorado, Illinois and New Hampshire.

“Based on the epidemiology of the cases reported at this point, the cases appear to share a viral etiology, but common respiratory diagnostic testing has been largely negative,” Oregon State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz told the American Veterinary Medical Association.

In other words, dogs with the unidentified illness show similar signs of an upper respiratory disease but generally don’t test positive for common respiratory diseases. And the disease is generally resistant to standard treatments, said Dr. David B. Needle, a pathologist at the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and clinical associate professor at the University of New Hampshire.

“Fatalities do not seem to be a large part of the syndrome we are investigating, with rare animals developing an acute and sometimes fatal pneumonia after the longer chronic disease,” Needle said. “We think these may represent secondary infections.”

Where did the disease come from?

Needle said he’s part of a team trying to identify the disease and find common DNA segments by collecting samples from local veterinary clinics and comparing the results.

“If what we have identified is a pathogen, it is likely that the bacteria is host-adapted bacteria with long histories of colonizing dogs,” Needle said. An “evolutionary event” like spontaneous mutation or getting a gene from a different source could then have led the bacteria to become virulent, he said.

He said researchers have received samples from Oregon and expect to receive samples from Colorado, Illinois and other states for testing.

The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory has also reported cases of a mysterious canine disease, the lab’s director told CNN in an email.

“There has been an uptick in the numbers of dogs with respiratory disease, (coughing, lethargy, fever) and the signs have been persisting longer than a few days,” said Kevin Snekvik, the laboratory’s executive director and a professor at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Snekvik said his Washington lab has not reported any canine deaths from the mystifying disease, but said labs in other states have reported a few deaths.

What can dog owners do?

While the news may be concerning, “We suggest caution rather than worry,” the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association’s website says.

While this particular disease is unusual, “Periodic outbreaks of Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex (CIRDC) can occur in a dog population. At least nine different bacteria and viruses have been linked as causes of CIRDC, which is transmitted by respiratory droplets,” the association said.

“Infection with more than one bacterial or viral agent is common. Symptoms include coughing, sneezing, nasal and/or eye discharge, and lethargy. If your dog shows these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.”

Dog owners should help keep their pets healthy by making sure they’re up-to-date on all vaccines, such as those for canine influenza, Bordetella and parainfluenza, the association said. Other tips include:

• Reducing contact with large numbers of unknown dogs. Just like with other respiratory pathogens, the more contacts your dog has, the greater the risk of encountering a dog that’s infectious.
• Reducing contact with sick dogs. This can be harder to determine but if a dog looks sick (coughing, runny nose, runny eyes), keep your dog away from it.
• Keep sick dogs at home and seek veterinary care.
• Avoid communal water bowls shared by multiple dogs.

As part of a coordinated settlement across the federal government, Binance has agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines and other penalties. Zhao, one of the most powerful figures in crypto, has agreed to step down as CEO from the exchange that he founded.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, admitted to engaging in anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations.

US officials described this as the biggest-ever corporate resolution that includes criminal charges for an executive.

Following a years-long investigation, authorities allege Binance allowed bad actors to freely transact on the platform, enabling everything from child sex abuse and narcotics to terrorist financing for ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades.

Zhao, who has amassed a fortune estimated at more than $23 billion, pled guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.

US authorities hope the guilty plea from Binance and its founder, on top of the recent conviction of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, will send a clear message to bad actors across the crypto industry.

“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed – now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in US history,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Zhao faces a maximum of 10 years behind bars, though his ultimate sentence will likely be far lower. Federal guidelines likely place the high end of a possible sentence for Zhao around 18 months. Sentencing is ultimately decided by a judge.

According to the plea deal, Zhao agreed to prosecutors’ recommendation that he pay a fine of $50 million.

“Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profits,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Its willful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals and child abusers through its platform.”

The Binance guilty plea is part of a coordinated settlement reached with a wide range of government agencies, including the Justice Department, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Binance did not respond to requests for comment.

What Binance allegedly did wrong

Federal prosecutors unsealed court records on Tuesday alleging Binance, led by Zhao, processed transactions by customers who operated illicit mixing services and “laundered proceeds of darknet market transactions, hacks, ransomware and scams.” Prosecutors allege that Binance had lax anti-money laundering procedures.

This alleged misconduct paved the way for Binance to become king of the crypto exchanges, prosecutors allege.

“In part because of this scheme, and because Defendant prioritized growth, market share and profits over compliance with US law (Binance) became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors allege Binance, “knowingly failed” to register as a money service business, willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and willfully caused violations of US economic sanctions.

The charges, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, accused Binance of a “deliberate and calculated effort to profit from the US market without implementing controls required by US laws.”

Prosecutors allege the misconduct started as early as August 2017, continued until at least October 2022 and included certain Binance officers, directors, employees and agents.

Proponents of digital currencies point out that the great majority of business done via crypto is lawful and legitimate, and a cottage industry of companies have emerged in the last five years that work with law enforcement to track digital transactions.

Binance’s legal woes follow the collapse of another crypto exchange, FTX, and the conviction of it founder Sam Bankman-Fried on fraud charges. Those are the most extreme examples of the greater scrutiny that law enforcement and regulators have brought in recent months to the largely unregulated crypto industry.

But ransomware gangs from Russia and money launderers from North Korea, for example, continue to see crypto as core to their business model, and have often used publicly available tools, or “mixing services,” to hide their ill-gotten gains.

The US Justice Department in August unsealed federal charges against the co-founders of one such service, Tornado Cash, accusing them of moving $1 billion in cryptocurrency for criminals. One of the Tornado Cash co-founders has pleaded not guilty to the charges while the other remains at large.

What is Binance?

Binance was founded in 2017 by Zhao, a Canadian national. US market regulators this year brought civil cases against Binance, which they accuse of running an illegal exchange for unregistered securities in the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission in June sued Binance, saying the company ran an “extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law.”

Binance has long argued that it isn’t subject to US laws because it doesn’t have a physical headquarters in America.

The SEC also alleged that Zhao and Binance commingled customer assets and even diverted some to an entity controlled by Zhao.

Zhao claims that the company’s headquarters are wherever he is at any point in time, “reflecting a deliberate approach to attempt to avoid regulation,” according to a complaint by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That agency accused Binance and Zhao of violating US derivatives trading laws in multiple ways, including allegedly secretly coaching “VIP” customers within the United States on how to evade compliance controls.

A spokesperson for Binance said in June that the company takes the SEC’s allegations seriously, but it believes the agency’s accusations are “unjustified.”

“We respectfully disagree with the SEC’s allegations that Binance operated as an unregistered securities exchange or illegally offered and sold securities,” the company said in a statement. “Because of our size and global name recognition, Binance has found itself an easy target caught in the middle of a US regulatory tug-of-war.”

The freeing of the hostages will come in exchange for a four-day truce in Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza, the statement said. It made no mention of the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, though it is understood this is also a key part of the deal. Earlier reports suggested about 150 Palestinian prisoners, also predominantly women and children, would be released.

The deal was approved by the Israeli cabinet by a significant majority, a government source told CNN.

The statement held out the potential for the truce to extend beyond the original four-day period, saying that an extra day would be added to the truce for each ten additional hostages available for release.

It also made clear that Israel plans to resume its air and ground campaign “to complete the eradication of Hamas” once this round of hostage releases concludes.

Details of arrangements would be sent to families of the hostages later today, the statement added.

A diplomatic source familiar with the talks told CNN “details on when the pause starts are still unclear.”

There are 239 hostages being held captive in Gaza, including foreign nationals from 26 countries, according to figures from the Israeli military. The mass abductions took place during on October 7, when Hamas militants struck across the border in coordinated attacks killing around 1,200 people – the largest such attack on Israel since the country’s founding in 1948.

The deal followed mounting pressure on the Israeli government from the families of the hostages, who have demanded answers and action from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the return of their loved ones.

Many of the hostages were seized at gunpoint during Hamas’ rampage of violence though border communities near the Gaza Strip and the nearby Nova music festival.

Israel responded to the attacks by imposing a blockade on Gaza that cut off supplies of food, water, medicines and fuel, and launched a relentless air and ground assault that has plunged the enclave into a dire humanitarian crisis.

More than 12,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-run government’s press office.

Just a handful of hostages have been released prior to the deal. On October 20, two Americans – Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan – were freed on humanitarian grounds following negotiations between Qatar and Hamas.

Soon after, two Israeli women, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, were also released.

Lifshitz said she “went through hell,” describing being snatched from her home and driven off on a motorbike before being taken to a network of tunnels.

The total number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails is approximately 8,300, according to Qadura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a non-governmental organization.

Of those 8,300, more than 3,000 are being held in what Israel calls “administrative detention,” which means they are being held without knowing the charges against them or an ongoing legal process.

Best Buy, Lowe’s and Kohl’s all reported sales declines during their most recent quarter Tuesday and are forecasting holiday sales to drop from a year ago.

“Consumer demand has been even more uneven and difficult to predict,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said in a statement, noting that the company “prepared for a customer who is very deal-focused.”

Holiday sales are predicted to grow this year but at a slower rate.

In 2021, Holiday shopping sales spiked by 14% and grew by a healthy 5% last year. But Moody’s Investors Service said in a report today that consumers are “losing spending steam” and holiday sales will grow by just 1% to 3% this year.

Shoppers have become more cautious in the face of inflation, higher interest rates and the resumption of student loan repayments.

Moody’s analysts say the high cost of living and dwindling savings will cause low and middle income consumers to shrink their holiday budgets.

Many customers are pulling back on major discretionary purchases like TVs and furniture and have shifted to focus on essentials. Walmart, Costco and discount clothing stores such as TJ Maxx could benefit from shoppers seeking out value, Moody’s said.

“Retailers offering a combination of value and non-discretionary essentials will see their sales outperform the broader retail industry this holiday season,” according to Moody’s.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, retailers have started Black Friday deals earlier than ever to draw shoppers.

“One trend that’s sticking is a longer holiday season. Christmas creep has gotten particularly pronounced,” said Berna Barshay, an independent retail analyst.

Retailers have also been dealing with higher losses from shoplifting.

But there are signs that these problems could be easing.

Dick’s Sporting Goods in August blamed an “increasingly serious” theft problem for its profit plunge. But the company reported Tuesday that its profit bounced back this quarter.