While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 21
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US citizens Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan are seen after being released by Hamas militants. PHOTO: REUTERS
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Hamas frees mother, daughter hostages from Gaza
The Islamist group Hamas released two US hostages, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, who were kidnapped in its attack on southern Israel on Oct 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.
The women, who were taken from Nahal Oz kibbutz, near the Gaza border, were on their way to a military base in central Israel, a statement from Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
Media reports in the United States said they were from Evanston, a suburb of Chicago.
They were the first hostages to be freed since Hamas gunmen burst into Israel nearly two weeks ago, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 200 hostages.
Ukraine repels new Russian onslaught on eastern front
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday Ukrainian forces had repelled a new Russian onslaught on the eastern town of Avdiivka and were holding their ground in heavy fighting.
Mr Zelensky and top military commanders visited the southern region of Kherson, where they discussed the situation there and around Avdiivka and Kupyansk, a town north of Avdiivka where Russian forces have also intensified attacks.
“Thanks to all our boys, who powerfully hold the defence and destroy the occupier day after day,” Mr Zelensky said, in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Republicans drop Jim Jordan’s US House speaker bid
REUTERS
Hardline conservative Republican Jim Jordan’s quest to become speaker of the US House of Representatives ended on Friday as his fellow Republicans revoked their support following a third, failed vote on the House floor, lawmakers said.
The secret-ballot vote means the chamber will be leaderless and unable to respond to President Joe Biden’s request for aid to Ukraine and Israel until next week at the earliest.
Opposition to Jordan’s candidacy from within his party grew over the course of the week. Some 25 Republican lawmakers voted against him in a third round of balloting on the House floor on Friday, more than the 22 who had opposed in the second round on Wednesday. Jordan received 194 votes, well short of the 214 he needed to claim the speaker’s gavel.
Another Trump lawyer reaches plea deal in Georgia case
EPA-EFE
A second lawyer who represented Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty on Friday to illegal efforts to reverse the former US president’s defeat in the state of Georgia, just days before he was about to go on trial.
Chesebro pleaded guilty in a Fulton County court to conspiracy to commit filing of false documents, one day after another former lawyer for Trump, Sidney Powell, also pleaded guilty. The two had been scheduled to be tried together beginning on Monday.
Chesebro agreed to testify against Trump and the other 15 co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on pole for US GP
REUTERS
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start on pole for the United States Grand Prix with world champion Max Verstappen down in sixth after qualifying on Friday.
Verstappen was set to take his 11th pole of the season only for the Red Bull driver’s last flying lap time to be deleted due to track limits.
Lando Norris’s McLaren will share the front row of Sunday’s race at Austin with Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes is on the second row with Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari.
