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One Year Later

One Year Later

Plus, rhino reunion.

October 08, 2024

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! Here are the Flag’s Top Five stories that should be on your radar to start the day:

US: Hurricane Milton is a Category 5. Florida orders evacuations and scrambles to clear Helene’s debris (AP)
World: Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensifies, as memorials mark war anniversary (Reuters)
Business: Starboard Value takes $1 billion stake in Pfizer: Reports (Yahoo Finance )
Technology: iOS 18.1 beta 6 adds four new toggles for Control Center (9To5Mac)
Sports: Caleb Williams and Bryce Young's divergent paths highlight many layers of Panthers' costly trade (Yahoo Sports)

And of course, some good news: Two Safari Parks Complete Rhino Swap to Unite Sisters for the First Time

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Left: What Really Happened on Tim Walz's Trips to China, Catherine Kim, Politico

Left: Harris - Not Cheney - Is Calling GOP Back To Party’s Roots, John Nichols, The Nation

Left: Grim Anniversary Highlights Dangerous Year in Mideast, Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC

Right: Trump's Butler Rally Highlights Deep Divide in 2024 Election, Paul Ingrassia, AMAC

Right: Kamala Harris' Record Shows She Hates America, John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist

Right: Musk: 'Destiny of America' Is on the Line, Salena Zito, Washington Examiner

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

One Year Later

Today’s Top Story: Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel, drawing media dialogue on the state of the war between the two.

Reporting from the Left: War rages on multiple fronts as Israel marks a year since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack (AP)

Reporting from the Right: One-year anniversary of Oct. 7 attacks arrives with lasting trauma for Israelis, American Jews: expert (Fox News)

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Everything Has Changed

The Top Argument From The Left: Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again, Noura Erakat, The Nation: “The United States and Israel are isolated globally, their influence reduced to the use of naked coercive force devoid of any legal or ethical persuasion. Their boundless destruction is matched only by their moral bankruptcy, now plain for those who want to see it. We are also forever changed: Our eyes wide open, primed to distrust media, social, and political authorities bullying us into becoming walking zombies obsessed with pop culture distractions, wide open to the fact that imperialism shapes the minute details of our daily lives, to the fact that Zionism is racism and that a free Palestine has the potential to set us all free. We must recognize our despair, and name it, to prevent its bottomless darkness from transforming our activist spaces into toxic places of harm. We must remember that surrender is not an option, and that history is more than even an epoch. We must turn to Palestinians for our greatest guidance and inspiration—they, who over 76 years, have been pummeled more than once, and who every time have risen like a phoenix to reconstitute themselves and continue forging a future with the fire of the most difficult sacrifice and the surety of collective victory. A genocide has threatened to erase Palestine, but it has ensured that Palestine now lives in each one of us, immortal. Nothing, and none of us, will be the same again.”

Honorable Mention #1: Is the Israeli military ever leaving Gaza? Joshua Keating, Vox.

Honorable Mention #2: A Year That Has Brought Us to the Breaking Point, Yousef Munayyer, The New Republic.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Israel Must Press Forward

The Top Argument From The Right: Why Israel Must Fight, The Editors, National Review: “As a result of the attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, about 100,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from their homes, and parts of northern and southern Israel are still uninhabitable. Meanwhile, Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired drones and rockets toward Israel. All of these attacks were either directly ordered by, or made possible by support from, the radical Islamic regime of Iran — which itself has launched two major ballistic-missile attacks aimed at Israeli civilians. Israel, as a sovereign nation, must ensure that its people can live in security — and the only way to do that is by neutering Hamas and Hezbollah and deterring their primary sponsor, Iran. Israel’s enemies, including those on college campuses, like to say that this didn’t start on October 7 — a transparent effort to change the subject and downplay the atrocities committed by Hamas on that day. …five Arab nations invaded with the goal of killing Israel in the crib. … Whether it is the mufti, the PLO, Hamas, the ayatollahs, or college protesters who chant “From the river to the sea,” the goal is the same — to snuff out Jewish statehood. Jews have suffered too much throughout their history by entrusting their survival to others, and Israel is not going to allow that to happen without a fight.”

Honorable Mention #1: Pro-Hamas Marches Sweep American Cities Leading Up To Anniversary Of Oct. 7 Massacre In Israel, Tristan Justice, The Federalist.

Honorable Mention #2: October 7 hasn't ended. One year later, 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza, Bethany Mandel, Fox News.

FLAG THIS

Destruction in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have caused extensive destruction in Gaza over the past year, resulting in severe humanitarian consequences. The crisis has been marked by large-scale deaths, displacement, and damage to essential infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s attack killed over 1,200 people in Israel and resulted in 251 hostages, with around 100 still held in Gaza.
Over 41,600 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, including more than 11,300 children and nearly 6,300 women.
90% of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced at least once in the past year.
Nearly 60% of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
227,591 housing units and 68% of the road network have been severely impacted.
Only 17 out of 36 hospitals are partially functional, facing shortages of fuel, medical supplies, and clean water (Axios).

WATERCOOLER

Chicago Fire Begins, Mental Health Days, Judo President

On This Day in 1871, flames spark in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting a two-day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million (in 1871 dollars; roughly $4 billion in 2021 dollars) in damages.

EducationWeek: Are Parents Giving Their Kids Too Many Mental Health Days?

BBC Culture: Is Rewatching Old TV Good for the Soul?

Nautilus: Why Revolutionaries Love Spicy Food

Today I learned Teddy Roosevelt received an honorary black belt in judo.