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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In Gaza: “Israel has ordered the entire population of northern Gaza to evacuate south, a warning that leaves more than 1 million people to decide whether to abandon their homes. Hamas urged Gazans to ignore it.”
* In France: “French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne declared a terrorist alert and mobilized the country’s security forces after a teacher was fatally stabbed and two other people were wounded in the northern city of Arras. ... French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the attack as a ‘barbaric Islamic terrorism.’”
* At the White House: “President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with the family members of some Americans believed to be held hostage in the Gaza Strip. On a Zoom call, Biden spoke with family members of 14 Americans who are unaccounted for in the Israel-Hamas war, the White House said, including some believed to be held hostage by Hamas.”
* Notable Washington Post editorial on the White House’s handling of the crisis in Israel: “At a time when the United States, and the world, desperately need decency and moral clarity, President Biden has provided both.”
* A tentative deal: “Kaiser Permanente and labor unions reached a tentative deal Friday morning, a little more than a week after workers at the nation’s largest health care nonprofit organization went on strike. The three-day walkout was the largest work stoppage of health care workers in U.S. history, according to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.”
* “Junk” fees aren’t front-page news, but they matter: “The White House on Wednesday announced new initiatives to rein in tens of billions worth of surcharges tied to goods and services, or ‘junk’ fees, in partnership with two of the nation’s leading consumer-protection agencies.”
* The inevitable result: “New College of Florida lost more than twice the normal number of students it usually does between fall semesters this year, according to a report sent to faculty from the college’s provost Wednesday. ... The drop in retention rate and the spike in the departure rate followed the dramatic overhaul launched by Gov. Ron DeSantis early this year with the appointment of six new members to the board of trustees, who fired the sitting president and appointed former DeSantis education commissioner Richard Corcoran as president.”
* A striking report on the conspiracy-fueled Epoch Times: “Funded through aggressive online and real-world marketing campaigns and big-money conservative donors, The Epoch Times now boasts to be the country’s fourth-largest newspaper by subscriber count. (Unlike most major newspapers, The Epoch Times isn’t audited by the two major independent collectors of circulation data.) The nonprofit has amassed a fortune, growing its revenue by a staggering 685% in two years, to $122 million in 2021, according to the group’s most recent tax records.”
Have a safe weekend.