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New Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol outlines priorities to end coffee chain’s slump

New Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol will focus on improving the chain’s U.S. business in his early days on the job before he moves to fix its issues abroad, according to an open letter published on Tuesday.

″… In some places — especially in the U.S. — we aren’t always delivering,” Niccol wrote in the open letter addressed to customers, employees and stakeholders. “It can feel transactional, menus can feel overwhelming, product is inconsistent, the wait too long or the handoff too hectic. These moments are opportunities for us to do better.”

Niccol, who calls himself a longtime Starbucks customer, outlined four areas for improvement: the barista experience, morning service, its cafes and the company’s branding.

“This is our plan for the U.S., and where I need to focus my time initially,” Niccol wrote in the letter.

To tackle those challenges, Starbucks will invest in tech to improve baristas’ working conditions and allow them to craft drinks more quickly, make the company’s supply chain more efficient and upgrade its app and mobile ordering.

Later, Niccol plans to address its international business, such as in China, its second-largest market. Starbucks’ business in China has struggled to bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic, and increased competition has led the coffee chain to lean more on discounts and promotions to win back customers.

“In China, we need to understand the potential path to capture growth and capitalize on our strengths in this dynamic market,” Niccol said.

He also said the company will try to curb what he called “misconceptions” about its brand in the Middle East. Many U.S. brands, including Starbucks and McDonald’s, have faced boycotts tied to backlash against U.S. support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

But for Niccol’s first 100 days, he plans to spend time in the chain’s cafes and offices and meet with key suppliers in the U.S.

“Today, I’m making a commitment: We’re getting back to Starbucks,” said Niccol.

The coffee giant named Niccol as chief executive in August, in conjunction with the company’s ouster of then-CEO Laxman Narasimhan. The leadership shake-up followed several quarters of slumping sales for Starbucks as demand for its drinks declined, particularly in the U.S. and China.

Niccol’s official first day was Monday. He joined Starbucks from Chipotle Mexican Grill, where he spent six years as chief executive, turning it from a burrito chain in crisis into a consistent favorite of both diners and Wall Street. Now, he is tasked with executing a turnaround for Starbucks.

Read the full letter below:

An open letter for all partners, customers and stakeholders

As I step into my first week as ceo, I do so not only as a leader, but as a long-time customer. Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent time in our stores, speaking with partners and customers, and talking with teams across operations, store design, marketing and product development.

In each conversation, two truths emerged: First, Starbucks is a beloved brand with wonderful people. We are woven into the fabric of people’s lives and the communities we serve. Second, there’s a shared sense that we have drifted from our core. We have an opportunity to make the store experience better for our partners and, in turn, for our customers.

Starbucks was founded on a love for high quality coffee — handcrafted by our outstanding green apron partners and enjoyed with intention. Coffee is our heart. We own and operate Hacienda Alsacia, our coffee farm on the slopes of Costa Rica’s Volcano Poás, which serves as the heart of our research and innovation efforts. From our network of Farmer Support Centers, Starbucks agronomists share research, education and best practices with local farmers. We invest in the finest quality beans. Our skilled team of roasters carefully prepare these beans in five Starbucks roasting facilities across the U.S., in Amsterdam to serve EMEA markets, in Kunshan for China, and in Karnataka, India, for that growing market. We also operate Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in Milan, Shanghai, Tokyo, New York City, Chicago and Seattle, where we roast small batch Reserve coffees. We design the best equipment for our stores and invest in training for our baristas to ensure every cup reflects our commitment to excellence. Each cup is more than a drink; it’s a handcrafted moment, made with care.

Our stores have always been more than a place to get a drink. They’ve been a gathering space, a community center where conversations are sparked, friendships form, and everyone is greeted by a welcoming barista. A visit to Starbucks is about connection and joy, and of course great coffee.

Many of our customers still experience this magic every day, but in some places — especially in the U.S. — we aren’t always delivering. It can feel transactional, menus can feel overwhelming, product is inconsistent, the wait too long or the handoff too hectic. These moments are opportunities for us to do better.

Today, I’m making a commitment: We’re getting back to Starbucks. We’re refocusing on what has always set Starbucks apart — a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas. This is our enduring identity. We will innovate from here.

We’ll focus initially on four key areas that we know will have the biggest impact:

Empowering our baristas to take care of our customers: We’ll make sure our baristas have the tools and time to craft great drinks every time, delivered personally to each customer. For our partners, we’ll build on our tradition of leadership in retail by making Starbucks the best place to work, with career opportunities and a clear path to growth.

Get the morning right, every morning: People start their day with us, and we need to meet their expectations. This means delivering outstanding drinks and food, on time, every time.

Reestablishing Starbucks as the community coffeehouse: We’re committed to elevating the in-store experience — ensuring our spaces reflect the sights, smells and sounds that define Starbucks. Our stores will be inviting places to linger, with comfortable seating, thoughtful design and a clear distinction between “to-go” and “for-here” service.

Telling our story: It’s time for us to tell our story again — reminding people of our unmatched coffee expertise, our role in communities and the special experience that only Starbucks can provide. We won’t let others define who we are.

To support this vision for our U.S. business, we’re making investments in technology that enhance the partner and customer experience, improve our supply chain and evolve our app and mobile ordering platform.

This is our plan for the U.S., and where I need to focus my time initially. But Starbucks is a global company. We operate in 87 markets around the world, where thousands of talented green apron partners share their love of coffee with customers every day. I know I have much to learn from these outstanding teams and I look forward to getting on the road and spending time with them. In China, we need to understand the potential path to capture growth and capitalize on our strengths in this dynamic market. Internationally, we see enormous potential for growth, especially in regions like the Middle East, where we’ll work to dispel misconceptions about our brand, and in Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America, where the love for Starbucks is strong.

My focus for the first 100 days is clear. I’ll spend time in our stores and at our Support Centers, meeting with key partners and suppliers, and working with our team to drive these critical first steps. Together, we will get back to what makes Starbucks, Starbucks.

On we go,

Brian

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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Broadband industry quietly abandons Capitol Hill fight to revive low-income internet subsidy

Internet service providers like Charter, Verizon and Comcast have quietly scaled back their efforts to revive the Affordable Connectivity Program, an expired federal internet subsidy that helped low-income households pay for broadband.

The $14.2 billion program provided a discount of up to $30 per month for some qualifying households and up to $75 a month for households on eligible tribal land. But it officially ended in June after Congress decided not to renew its funding.

The ACP served roughly 23 million households, two-thirds of which had either inconsistent or zero internet access prior to enrolling, according to a December survey from the Federal Communications Commission. In February, the ACP stopped accepting new applications as the program’s funding dwindled.

In the wake of the ACP’s expiration, broadband companies reported losing some customers. But overall, they have weathered the storm better than expected.

“Generally speaking, the impact on the companies so far is less than feared.” said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson. “But that doesn’t take away from the families for whom this was important, and could now lose access to broadband.” 

Since the ACP lapsed, some Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been working to bring back the program.

And though broadband companies lobbied to get the ACP renewed before it expired, since then they have done little to revive the program, as there is uncertainty over where the funding would come from and November’s election has cast a chill on Capitol Hill.

“I know the difference between when industry really wants something to happen, and when they say, ‘Well, we support it, sure,’ but they don’t put money into advertising, they don’t put money into lobbyists, they don’t put money into doing the kind of studies that support the case,” New Street Research analyst Blair Levin told CNBC.

Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the House have brought forward bills that would spend between $6 billion and $7 billion to relaunch the ACP, at least temporarily.

“My hope is that we can get something done rather quickly, especially as kids are getting ready to go back to school,” said Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, in August. He jointly proposed the House bill with Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill.

The ACP was originally funded as the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, a pandemic-era internet subsidy that quickly gained support when reliable access became a necessity in a world dominated by online school and work. 

Internet usage soared in 2020 and 2021. Even now, usage levels are well above pre-pandemic levels, according to broadband data provider Open Vault.

But as Covid grows more distant in public memory, convincing lawmakers to spend billions to extend these subsidies has become an uphill battle.

One key reason is election year timing.

For example, GOP Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was one of the lead supporters of the ACP. But after he was tapped to be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance quieted his advocacy.

In Congress, both the Republican House majority and Democratic control of the Senate could flip in November. This means Democratic leaders may choose to put other priorities ahead of the ACP, while they still control the Senate.

“This is going to be a really close election so maybe they want to use floor time for judicial nominations,” said Gigi Sohn, a consumer broadband advocate and lawyer who formerly served as an FCC commissioner under the Biden administration, in an interview with CNBC.

Still, Sohn believes bipartisan support for the ACP should make reauthorizing it a political slam dunk for Democrats.

“This is one of the things that absolutely perplexes me, because to me, this is the kind of thing you absolutely want to do in an election year.”

As the Sept. 30 government funding deadline inches closer, congressional leaders are heads-down on the scramble to pass a stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown, pushing the ACP further down the priority list. After September, Congress is expected to be out on recess until after the election.

As some Capitol Hill lawmakers cling to the narrowing possibility of an ACP comeback, the private sector is reining in its hopes.

″[ISPs] are making their plans, they are telling Wall Street that this thing is dead and they’re just not putting effort into it,” Sohn said.

While broadband providers were generally supportive of the ACP, many in the industry believed the subsidy benefitted too wide a swath of U.S. households. In some instances customers used the benefit toward other products, such as mobile or pay TV.

For example, one in four New York households used the ACP, per a White House fact sheet released in February.

Starting from scratch with a new subsidy program, while also building digital literacy among low income consumers, could be a better alternative after the election, some people close to the companies say.

And disillusioned with the temporary model, industry players are more likely to lobby for permanent solutions like strengthening the Universal Service Fund, according to Sohn. But that comes with its own set of political obstacles, especially after a federal court found the USF to be unconstitutional.

With or without private sector resources, lawmakers assure they will not quit the push to bring the ACP back.

“What we’re focused on is the near-term problem,” Carey said. “Then we can build consensus to look at something for a longer-term plan.”

But dwindling support from industry partners casts doubt on the ACP’s future because companies are ultimately the ones who deliver the internet service and can help educate customers about the program.

“Industry is one voice in this because they are the structure providing this service,” Budzinski told CNBC. “It’s important that they be at the table.”

The ACP’s expiration has also cast a shadow over some businesses — namely the companies that had invested heavily in getting new and existing customers enrolled in the program.

Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey said in July that the ACP’s expiration impacted both losses and low income broadband connections after the company had “put a lot of effort into the ACP program.”

Charter was one of the ACP’s biggest industry proponents: It received roughly $910 million from the program from 2022 to February 2023, according to FCC data. Comcast and Verizon each received over $200 million from the program. 

When Congress decided not to renew ACP funding, these companies were forced to absorb the shock at a time when cable companies have already seen broadband customer growth stagnate due to heightened competition and a slowdown in home sales.

Charter and Comcast representatives declined to comment. Verizon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During the second quarter, Charter reported a loss of 149,000 internet customers, while Comcast reported a decline of 120,000 broadband customers. While some of this could be attributed to the ACP, the companies expect the biggest impacts to be felt in the third quarter.

Since the ACP ended, companies have tried to help customers transition to low income or different internet plans, in some cases reverting back to plans they had before the subsidy.

Comcast said in July that it has been helping customers migrate to other broadband plans.

Charter has tried to retain its low-income consumer base by rolling out new savings deals like offering ACP customers a free unlimited mobile line for one year. Others like Verizon decided to just pencil in the financial hit of the customer loss, reporting a loss of 410,000 prepaid wireless subscribers in its second quarter earnings. 

The initial bottom-line pain of the ACP’s lapse so far appears to be milder than what some company leaders and analysts had initially expected. But the process is far from over.

“We’ve only seen the first chapter so far, in that we’ve only seen the impact on gross additions. But we haven’t yet seen the impact on bad debt and unpaid disconnects,” Moffett of MoffettNathanson told CNBC. “That will come in the third quarter.” 

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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The White Stripes sue Trump for using ‘Seven Nation Army’ in campaign video

The rock group The White Stripes have filed suit against GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign for its use of the band’s megahit ‘Seven Nation Army’ in a since-deleted campaign video.

Lead singer and guitarist Jack White posted the front cover of the suit, filed in New York District Court, to his Instagram page Tuesday, with the caption, ‘This machine sues fascists.’ It’s a reference to words that folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote on his guitar, ‘This machine kills fascists.’

White Stripes drummer Meg White is also listed as a plaintiff in the suit, which charges Trump and the campaign with ‘flagrant misappropriation.’ The duo seek unspecified monetary damages and an injunction preventing Trump from using their songs.

A Trump campaign spokesperson, as well as a legal representative for the former president, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jack White had foreshadowed the suit in an Instagram post a week ago after a Trump campaign staffer posted the video to social media Aug. 29, writing on Instagram: “Don’t even think about using my music you fascists. Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others).”

In the suit, the band notes it had previously “publicly denounced” Trump’s use of the same song during his 2016 campaign, adding they “vehemently oppose the policies adopted and actions taken by defendant Trump when he was president and those he has proposed for the second term he seeks.”

The White Stripes join a list of performers taking legal action against Trump for unauthorized use of their music that includes Abba, Isaac Hayes, Eddy Grant, Neil Young, Beyoncé and Celine Dion.

Released in 2003, “Seven Nation Army” has gone on to become a worldwide smash. Despite its garage-rock origins, the song is now regularly heard in sports arenas and became the unofficial anthem of Italy’s national soccer team.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

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Infected wounds, maggots and no escape. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis hits new lows as sanitary conditions plummet

Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic content.

A 14-year-old boy lies in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, severely burned from an Israeli airstrike. Doctors say nearly his entire body is affected. His wounds have now become infested with maggots.

When the boy’s dressings are changed, maggots fall to the floor. This happens every time, Dr. Mughani said.

There’s nowhere else for the boy to go. According to the United Nations, an estimated 12,000 patients are waiting to leave Gaza to receive urgently needed medical care, but medical evacuations have been suspended since the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt four months ago.

This case is a testament to the deteriorating sanitary conditions for the Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave after 11 months of war, both within and outside hospitals.

Even as the campaign to vaccinate Gaza’s children for polio continues, the United Nations and aid agencies warn of deteriorating public health conditions.

On Sunday, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN body in charge of the Palestinian territories, said on X: “While we vaccinate children against polio, many other diseases continue spreading in Gaza.”

“Piles of trash grow higher next to tents & shelters. Sewage keeps flooding the streets. Access to hygiene products is increasingly limited. Sanitary conditions are inhumane,” UNRWA said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned last week that limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, coupled with the lack of affordable hygiene items, was aggravating Gaza’s public health crisis.

In July, the price of soap had reportedly increased by nearly 1,200% across the strip from a year earlier, with the price of shampoo almost 500% higher in the same period, OCHA said.

“Humanitarian partners have been working to ensure that hundreds of thousands of hygiene kits can reach people in need, but those efforts continue to be hampered by active conflict, access restrictions, the lack of public order and safety, and evacuation orders issued by Israeli authorities,” OCHA said.

Families who have been displaced face extreme difficulties in maintaining basic hygiene in overcrowded shelters and displacement sites, the agency said, while critical facilities, such as health centers, community kitchens, child-protection spaces, nutrition centers, and schools, lack the necessary tools to ensure safe and sanitary conditions. This situation is likely to deteriorate further during the winter.

Selling homemade soap

Some residents have taken to making soap and detergents, and selling them.

“There is no alternative. There is nothing that can be brought in. There is nothing ready-made. Everything is closed,” Al-Taweel said.

But he was worried that the raw materials may also run out in the coming days.

“The ready-made product was cheap and available, but everything is expensive… People complain.”

“The shampoo is 15 shekels ($4). We used to sell it for 10 shekels.”

But she said they were often poor quality and very expensive.

“We have epidemics and a high (rate of) infections, parasites and fungal infections in children. There is no hygiene,”  Shahoura said.

UN agencies and partners are attempting to restore wells that were damaged due to fighting in Deir Al-Balah in late August, which reduced groundwater production by 75%. Eight wells were significantly damaged, four of which cannot be repaired at present, OCHA said.

As of this month, daily clean water production in the enclave was at a quarter of pre-war supply, OCHA said, citing agencies involved in public health in Gaza.

The volume of water transported through trucking operations however doubled between 19 August and 1 September. Even so, it is far less than can be generated from wells – and delivery has been hampered by fuel shortages and persistent traffic congestion in the AlMawasi area, where thousands of internally displaced have moved.

Saeed Rayyan, a Gaza resident, sells chlorine to sterilize tents and clothes.

Supplies of liquid chlorine were hard to come by, he said, so they often had to resort to powdered chlorine and caustic soda to try to preserve hygiene.

“There are no alternative materials to eliminate diseases. There is no shampoo,” Rayyan added. People used dishwashing liquid and laundry detergent to try to stay clean.

“Due to the spread of epidemics and diseases and the lack of cleanliness in the tents, as well as the large accumulation of garbage in the country, there is no cleaning…  of the bathrooms and there is no (hygiene) supervision in the markets in general,” he said.

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Catherine, Princess of Wales, ‘doing what I can to stay cancer free’ after finishing chemotherapy

Catherine, Princess of Wales, has said she has completed her chemotherapy and is “doing what I can to stay cancer free,” as she plans to return gradually to public life in the coming months.

Catherine, who revealed in March she has been diagnosed with cancer, said in a highly personal video released Monday that she is entering a “new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of hope and appreciation of life.”

The princess, known as Kate, has made just two public appearances since her diagnosis, which came after she underwent major abdominal surgery shortly after Christmas.

“As the summer comes to an end, I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have finally completed my chemotherapy treatment,” said Kate, 42, who is married to the heir to the British throne, Prince William.

“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus,” she continued. “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

In a video message showing scenes from the English summer, Kate, William and their three children – Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George – are seen walking through forests, picnicking, playing among sand dunes and wading in the sea.

“The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family,” she says in the video, filmed last month in Norfolk, on England’s eastern coast. “The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you.”

“This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted. Of simply loving and being loved,” Kate says in the video message.

She said she is looking forward to returning to work and will be “undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can,” keeping a light schedule to allow her to recover fully.

She is expected to attend the annual Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph in London in November, honoring those who have served in war.

Kensington Palace initially said Kate’s surgery had been for a non-cancerous abdominal condition but, following frenzied speculation about her wellbeing and prolonged absence from public life, Kate revealed her diagnosis in a video message in March.

Her diagnosis stunned the country, coming just weeks after King Charles III announced in February that he had also been diagnosed with cancer. Neither royal has specified the type of cancer for which they are receiving treatment.

In June, Kate said she was making “good progress” in her recovery and that she expected her treatment to continue “for a few more months.”

The next day – making her first public appearance since Christmas Day – Kate joined Charles and family members on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour ceremony in June, marking the monarch’s official birthday.

Before her appearance at the ceremony, Kate said she was making “good progress” in her recovery and that she expected her treatment to continue “for a few more months.”

In July, she received a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd as she attended the Wimbledon men’s singles final with her daughter Princess Charlotte.

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‘Russian spy’ whale probably died after stick became lodged in its mouth, police say

A beluga whale discovered with a harness strapped around its neck in Norwegian waters five years ago – and found dead on August 31 – had a stick stuck in its mouth and its death was not related to human activity, police said on Monday.

The body of Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin – was spotted a week ago floating in the sea by a father and son fishing in southern Norway.

The animal became the subject of media attention when it was discovered off Norway’s Arctic coast in 2019 wearing a harness with what appeared to be a mount for a small camera.

Norway and Russia share a maritime border in the Arctic, leading to jokes that the whale was a Russian spy.

Norwegian police had opened an investigation into the death of the animal after two animal rights groups filed a complaint.

An autopsy showed a stick measuring 35 centimeters in length (14 inches) and 3 centimeters wide (1.2 inches) was stuck in the whale’s mouth, police for the South West district said in a statement.

“The autopsy showed that its stomach was empty. In addition, most organs had broken down,” police said.

“There is nothing in the investigations that have been carried out to establish that it is human activity that has directly led to Hvaldimir’s death.”

As a result, police would not investigate further, they added.

The animal rights groups had alleged the whale had been shot dead. On Monday, police said Hvaldimir had sustained some injuries but that they were “completely superficial,” adding “there was no evidence suggesting that Hvaldimir was shot.”

A full report will be ready in two weeks, it said.

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At least 21 killed in airstrike on Sudanese market as civil war rages

An airstrike targeting civilian areas in southeastern Sudan has left more than 20 people dead and dozens of others wounded, authorities in the embattled Sennar state said, as civil war rages between the country’s army and a paramilitary militia.

At least 21 civilians were killed and 63 injured in the air raid on Sunday, Sennar’s acting governor Tawfiq Muhammad Ali said Monday, according to state-run news agency SUNA.

The aerial bombing, blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was also confirmed by activist group Emergency Lawyers, which keeps track of human rights abuses and civilian casualties. The lawyers’ group said more than 30 people were killed in the RSF attack, which it said targeted a market and other civilian locations.

The RSF, which assumed near-total control of the city after capturing it in July, has yet to comment on the claims.

The activist group also attributed a similar airstrike in the nearby al-Souki town that killed four people to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The conflict has left at least 18,000 people dead and displaced more than 10 million others since April 2023. The fighting has also triggered “one of the worst humanitarian disasters” according to the United Nations, with over half of the country’s population facing acute hunger.

On Friday, a UN inquiry into the Sudanese conflict found that both warring factions have committed “an appalling range” of human rights abuses that “may amount to war crimes.”

Some of those violations by the SAF and RSF included “indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through airstrikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies,” according to the UN report.

The report called for the deployment of an independent force to protect civilians as well as a nationwide arms embargo.

Those recommendations were rejected by the Sudanese foreign ministry which denounced the UN report.

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Israeli forces detain a United Nations convoy in Gaza

The Israeli military has detained a convoy of United Nations vehicles in northern Gaza, according to a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces were acting “following intelligence that a number of Palestinian suspects were present in the convoy” and delayed the convoy in order to question them, it said.

The IDF said that the convoy was not involved in the transport of polio vaccines but used instead to exchange UN personnel, and that the incident is “ongoing.”

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the organization is aware “of an ongoing incident involving UN personnel and vehicles” and is working to establish the facts, Reuters reported.

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Gaza hostage families urge Trump and Harris to bring Americans home

Ahead of a key US presidential debate this week, families of several American hostages held in Gaza are calling on US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to offer new ideas for securing the immediate release of their loved ones.

“Enough is enough,” said Adi Alexander, whose 20-year-old son Edan was serving in the Israeli military when he was abducted by Hamas on October 7.

“Perhaps the deal proposed by President (Joe) Biden back in December was good then, but maybe we need something different now,” he added.

“I would challenge the candidates and ask them, you know, how to get our kids back,” said Ruby Chen, another US-Israeli citizen whose 19-year-old son, Itay, was killed during the attacks last year. His body is still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

“Our children may be not as famous as a basketball player, but you know, from our perspective, the creativity they have shown has to come back again here in our case, and to do everything possible, everything within their means – whether it’s putting more pressure, whether it’s finding creative ways to bring our kids back home.”

There is even support among the relatives of the US hostages for Washington to apply greater pressure on Israel, whose veteran prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is accused by critics of thwarting US-led hostage negotiations to appease hardliners in his fragile coalition.

The relatives said they would now support moves to curb US diplomatic, financial and military aid to Israel as a way of pushing Netanyahu toward a deal.

“But we are urging our leaders to take brave action and to put politics aside. We are not playing here. This is a real life-and-death situation,” he added.

Over 100 hostages remain in Gaza today, as living conditions in the Palestinian enclave crumble under Israeli forces’ months-long siege. Freed hostages have described suffering from frequent shortages of food and water in Gaza, and some have also reported physical and mental abuse by their captors.

The recovery earlier this month of six murdered hostages’ bodies prompted mass protests in Israel, with demonstrators demanding Netanyahu’s government strike a deal to free those who remained in captivity. Many wondered if the nationwide outrage might be enough to force his hand.

Instead, a defiant Netanyahu has doubled down on his strategy in the strip, stressing his commitment to fighting until Hamas is defeated and repeating his refusal to withdraw soldiers from the border between Gaza and Egypt – a significant new sticking point in talks to reach a deal.

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Israel strikes humanitarian area in Gaza

Many are feared killed and wounded after Israeli forces struck a humanitarian zone created to shelter displaced people in southern Gaza, in what Israel said was an attack on Hamas terrorists in the area.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday evening that it “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the humanitarian area” in Khan Younis, Gaza.

The strike was carried out with the direction of the Israel Security Agency and the Israeli Air Force, and steps were taken to mitigate civilian harm, it also said in a statement.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional means,” it also said.

According to Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal, civil defense and medical teams are working “to control the situation” following the strike.

The IDF has accused Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip of continuing to “systematically abuse civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including the designated Humanitarian Area, to carry out terrorist activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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