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28th World Investment Conference Kicks Off in Riyadh, Uniting Global Leaders in Investment for Sustainable GrowthDOF sees record-breaking non-tax revenues in 2024; surpassing targets by over 200%
After a disappointing end to their 2024 season, the Philadelphia Phillies appear open to some significant roster changes. The Phillies have made it clear that they are willing to trade outfielder Nick Castellanos this offseason, according to Matt Gelb of The Athletic . The Phillies have shopped several other players as well, including third baseman Alec Bohm and pitcher Ranger Suarez, but appear most motivated to move Castellanos. The reasons behind this are simple, and are also why a trade is not exceptionally likely. Castellanos has $40 million remaining on the five-year, $100 million deal he signed with the team prior to the 2022 season. His inconsistent production has not exactly justified that contract, and he hit just .254 with 23 home runs last season while playing mediocre defense in right field. He even got booed by Phillies fans during the playoffs against the New York Mets, though he still delivered some very big hits down the stretch. Trading Castellanos would clear some salary and potentially allow the Phillies to find an upgrade, but the salary is not particularly appetizing. That may force the team to run it back with him next year. This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.The critically acclaimed Stan Original Series Black Snow is back for a gripping second season, and leading the charge is none other than rising star Jana McKinnon. Stream Season 1 of Black Snow only on Stan. Known for her standout performances in the Stan Original Series Bad Behaviour and a slew of European film roles, McKinnon takes on the challenging lead role of Zoe Jacobs in Black Snow opposite Vikings alum Travis Fimmel. In Season 2, the Black Snow story shifts focus to Zoe Jacobs, who mysteriously went missing in 2003. Detective Cormack (Fimmel) returns to investigate Zoe's case, unearthing secrets within the tight-knit Sunshine Coast community. McKinnon spoke about how special it was to bring Zoe's full story to life. "In Black Snow Season 2, we follow Cormack as he investigates a new case: the disappearance of Zoe Jacobs in 2003," McKinnon explained. "The series moves between timelines, where we get to know Zoe, her friends, her community, and her world. Her story unfolds through her work at the community radio station, her relationships with her parents, and the challenges within her life." READ MORE: 'Should've kept me': Nikita Iman on her Drag Race Down Under exit and what really happened at the Comedy Roast While crime dramas often relegate missing characters to a single flashback, Black Snow digs deeper into Zoe's world. McKinnon described this as a rare and rewarding opportunity as an actor. "It's such a great opportunity to not just be the victim but to flesh out this character's whole life. I got to explore Zoe's world – the music of 2003, the cars, the technology. It's strange to think of it as a 'period' show, but technically, it is." "It's like this uncanny reflection of a time not too long ago." Reflecting on the early 2000s, McKinnon admitted she was too young to fully remember the era but appreciated its nostalgic vibe. "I probably remember the songs from the radio, even if I couldn't name them! But getting to revisit the culture, the music, and the tech from that time was so fun." The role wasn't without its challenges, though. Known for her emotionally intense roles, McKinnon shared how portraying Zoe required her to tackle raw and visceral themes of grief. "I often get cast in darker roles, but this one was particularly challenging because of how grief is portrayed. Zoe's way of processing her emotions is so specific and different from my own. It was a real challenge to dig into that." READ MORE: Why the 'From' Season 3 finale is a masterpiece with the 'best twist in TV history' - as finally, we get some answers McKinnon also had high praise for the Black Snow team, including Travis Fimmel, who stepped into the director's chair for the first time in Season 2. "I was one of the few cast members who only worked with Travis as a director. He brought so many ideas to the table and really helped shape the show alongside showrunner Lucas Taylor. I'm excited to see the episode [Fimmel] directed!" The production process itself was a highlight for McKinnon, who described the experience as both professional and heartwarming. "The cast and crew were amazing – so skilled and so enthusiastic. Many of the crew returned from Season 1, so it felt like being welcomed into a big family. It was a really beautiful and special experience, and I've made friendships that I know will last a lifetime." With her career spanning both Europe and Australia, McKinnon opened up about what sets Aussie productions apart – and yes, coffee was mentioned. "The biggest difference is that Aussies have much better coffee on set! But truly, the professionalism of Australian crews is unmatched. The teams are bigger, the work flows seamlessly, and it's so well-equipped to handle major Hollywood productions. I absolutely love working in Australia and hope to do more." Looking to the future, McKinnon revealed a surprising desire to explore lighter genres. "I'd love to do comedy! I tried it for the first time this year in a kids' movie in Germany, and I had so much fun. But I'm open to anything. I love deep, dark roles too. Right now, I'm just excited for what life throws at me next." READ MORE: Jana McKinnon on why so many will relate to the dark Stan Original series Bad Behaviour As Black Snow gears up for its highly anticipated release, McKinnon hopes the show will resonate on multiple levels. "I think audiences will really enjoy the mystery, but also the layers of the story – the friendships, the music, the community. The show touches on important themes, like housing insecurity, particularly for older women. It's political, but it never feels forced. It's such a rich, complex story." For McKinnon, the music and culture of 2003 are just as much a character as Zoe herself. "The soundtrack and the vibe of that year really make the show so immersive. There's this scene where Zoe mentions Kings of Leon as a 'niche indie band,' which is hilarious now. I loved digging into the music of that time – it makes everything feel so authentic." Black Snow Season 2 premieres New Year's Day, only on Stan. Don't miss the season two premiere of Black Snow, streaming from New Year's Day, only on Stan. Stream Season 1 of Black Snow only on Stan. Nine Entertainment Co (the publisher of this website) owns and operates the streaming service Stan . 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Songs that dominated Billboard charts the longestJimmy Carter, the 39th US president, has died at 100
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Kentucky will aim to improve upon its best start in seven seasons when it hosts Western Kentucky on Tuesday night in Lexington, Ky., in the final game of the BBN Invitational. The Wildcats (5-0) are ranked No. 8 in the latest Associated Press poll and are setting impressive offensive milestones even for a program as tradition-rich as Kentucky, which includes eight national championships. The Wildcats have scored 97 or more points in their first four home games for the first time in program history and eclipsed the 100-point mark in three of those games. Their lone trip out of state was a solid 77-72 victory over Duke in a matchup of top-10 teams in Atlanta. Kentucky has also made at least 10 three-pointers in each of its first five games of a season for the first time ever. "I think Kentucky attracts good people," Kentucky coach Mark Pope said after the Wildcats' 108-59 win over Jackson State on Friday. "It's the one place in all college basketball where you represent just a fanbase in a different, unique way." Otega Oweh and Koby Brea have led the Wildcats' early scoring outburst. Oweh, who is averaging 16.2 points per game, had 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting against Jackson State. "He gets us off to unbelievable starts every night," Pope told reporters after that game. "He's probably been our most consistent guy in games." Brea, who scored 22 points against Jackson State and is averaging 16.0 points per game, is leading the nation in 3-point accuracy at 74.1 percent. As a team, the Wildcats are shooting 42.3 percent from beyond the arc. And the few times they miss, Amari Williams has been doing the dirty work on the glass, averaging 10.8 boards in addition to 9.6 points per game. Kentucky faces a different challenge than it's had to contend with so far in the Hilltoppers (3-2), who have won three in a row after losing their first two games to Wichita State and Grand Canyon. Their up-tempo play hasn't exactly resulted in great offensive output, but in the Hilltoppers' 79-62 win over Jackson State on Wednesday, they shot 45.2 percent from 3-point range (14 for 31). "I was happy to see a lot of different guys contribute tonight and, hopefully, get their feet under them a little bit and get some confidence," said Western Kentucky coach Hank Plona, who is in his first season as head coach. "Obviously, Tuesday will be quite a test and challenge for us and we'll need them to be at their absolute best." Western Kentucky has an experienced group, which returned mostly intact from last season. The team is led by Conference USA first-team selection Don McHenry, who is leading the team with 17.2 points and 2.2 steals per game. McHenry is one of four Hilltoppers with scoring averages in double figures. Julius Thedford (11.4 points per game) and Babacar Faye (15.0) are each shooting 40 percent or better from 3-point range. Western Kentucky also figures to challenge the Wildcats on the boards as it enters the game ranked in the top 25 in defensive rebounding (30.4 per game). Faye leads the Hilltoppers in that department, averaging 7.8 rebounds per game and figures to battle Williams inside. "We're not the biggest team in the world, but our depth and our quickness are our strengths," Plona said. --Field Level MediaPLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter's in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter's path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That's a very narrow way of assessing them," Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn't suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he'd be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter's tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter's lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor's race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival's endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King's daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters' early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan's presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan's Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.
JERUSALEM — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured. "The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media. He added that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. "We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave," he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment. U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service. Israel's army later told The Associated Press it wasn't aware that the WHO chief or delegation were at the location in Yemen. People are also reading... Beatrice house suffers severe damage from Christmas fire Is John Dutton real? Meet the powerful rancher seemingly inspiring the 'Yellowstone' legend At the courthouse, Dec. 21, 2024 Beatrice church starts construction on fellowship hall Former Beatrice man sentenced for sex assault of runaway Beatrice man pleads guilty to receiving child sex abuse images Gage County supervisors vote down FOP contract offer Downtown Beatrice festive for the holidays What’s open and closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2024? Main Street welcomes new director Gage County says board had authority to deny permit for broadband provider Nebraska volleyball libero Lexi Rodriguez signs with LOVB's Omaha team Matt Rhule and Nebraska football plan Pinstripe Bowl practice in Central Park As Brenda Lee turns 80, the Christmas song she sang as a teen is a holiday staple Beatrice Humane Society: Keeping your pet merry this season Smoke rises Thursday from the area around the International Airport after an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen. The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military said in a statement it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, claiming they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Israel's military added it had "capabilities to strike very far from Israel's territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively." The strikes, carried out more than 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad's regime and others learned" as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran. The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The U.S. military also targeted the Houthis in recent days. The U.N. says the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, while other missiles and drones were shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The U.N. Security Council has an emergency meeting Monday in response to an Israeli request that it condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying them weapons. Relatives and friends mourn over the bodies of five Palestinian journalists Thursday who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Journalists killed in Gaza Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in Gaza overnight, the territory's Health Ministry said. The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists worked for local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel that ignited the war. Israel's military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group. Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn't allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds. Israel banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accuses six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations. Mourners cry Thursday while they take the last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Israeli soldier killed Separately, Israel's military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities are women and children, but doesn't say how many of the dead were fighters. The offensive caused widespread destruction and hunger and drove around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter. Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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