Contributing Writers

Today is the first anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel, when Hamas’s military wing broke out of Israeli-constructed barrier fencing in the Gaza Strip. In the ensuing firefight, an estimated 1,200 people died. About 250 people were taken hostage and brought back to Gaza in a bid to pressure Israel to release some of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners it holds in Israeli custody.

We speak with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary, Separated, based on NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book of the same name. The film details the horrors of the Trump “zero tolerance” immigration policy, under which thousands of immigrant children were forcibly separated from their parents after they crossed the southern U.S. border, part of the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.

As Israel’s military escalates its attacks on Lebanon, it has continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where almost a year of war has now wiped 902 entire Palestinian families off the civil registry. There are another 1,300 families where only one family member has survived. The official death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 41,800, but that is believed to be a vast undercount.

Israel is further escalating its war on Lebanon, carrying out its heaviest airstrikes so far on Beirut overnight in the densely populated southern suburbs. Lebanon’s health minister said Thursday at least 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, including at least 127 children, most of them in the past two weeks. More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

We speak with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary, Separated, based on NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book of the same name. The film details the horrors of the Trump “zero tolerance” immigration policy, under which thousands of immigrant children were forcibly separated from their parents after they crossed the southern U.S. border, part of the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.

As Israel’s military escalates its attacks on Lebanon, it has continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where almost a year of war has now wiped 902 entire Palestinian families off the civil registry. There are another 1,300 families where only one family member has survived. The official death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 41,800, but that is believed to be a vast undercount.

Israel is further escalating its war on Lebanon, carrying out its heaviest airstrikes so far on Beirut overnight in the densely populated southern suburbs. Lebanon’s health minister said Thursday at least 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, including at least 127 children, most of them in the past two weeks. More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

We speak with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary, Separated, based on NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book of the same name. The film details the horrors of the Trump “zero tolerance” immigration policy, under which thousands of immigrant children were forcibly separated from their parents after they crossed the southern U.S. border, part of the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.

As Israel’s military escalates its attacks on Lebanon, it has continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where almost a year of war has now wiped 902 entire Palestinian families off the civil registry. There are another 1,300 families where only one family member has survived. The official death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 41,800, but that is believed to be a vast undercount.

Israel is further escalating its war on Lebanon, carrying out its heaviest airstrikes so far on Beirut overnight in the densely populated southern suburbs. Lebanon’s health minister said Thursday at least 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, including at least 127 children, most of them in the past two weeks. More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced.

Abortion was a main focus of Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. The Ohio senator tried to soften the Republican ticket’s position and repeated Donald Trump’s claim that states are best equipped to decide on reproductive health access, while Walz highlighted that state differences on abortion have already contributed to the deaths of pregnant people following the end of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion was a main focus of Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. The Ohio senator tried to soften the Republican ticket’s position and repeated Donald Trump’s claim that states are best equipped to decide on reproductive health access, while Walz highlighted that state differences on abortion have already contributed to the deaths of pregnant people following the end of Roe v. Wade.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached 190 as fallout from the storm becomes clearer. Hundreds remain missing and presumed dead. President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to deploy 1,000 active-duty troops to help with flood relief efforts. Power outages and water shortages remain rampant across six southeastern states hit by one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

A deliberate, man-made famine is underway in Gaza, according to many human rights experts. Starving Gaza is a new documentary by Al Jazeera English’s Fault Lines investigating how Israel has killed civilians seeking aid and attacked humanitarian networks. The harrowing film is based on the work of Palestinian reporters in Gaza who are suffering the same conditions as their subjects.

A deliberate, man-made famine is underway in Gaza, according to many human rights experts. Starving Gaza is a new documentary by Al Jazeera English’s Fault Lines investigating how Israel has killed civilians seeking aid and attacked humanitarian networks. The harrowing film is based on the work of Palestinian reporters in Gaza who are suffering the same conditions as their subjects.

Israeli strikes continue to rain down on Lebanon, including a strike that killed rescue and health workers in Beirut. Lebanese authorities say 1.2 million people have been displaced by the Israeli attacks. Israel announced eight of its soldiers were killed while invading southern Lebanon this week. Israel launched the ground invasion after assassinating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, despite Nasrallah reportedly agreeing to a 21-day ceasefire.

Israeli strikes continue to rain down on Lebanon, including a strike that killed rescue and health workers in Beirut. Lebanese authorities say 1.2 million people have been displaced by the Israeli attacks. Israel announced eight of its soldiers were killed while invading southern Lebanon this week. Israel launched the ground invasion after assassinating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, despite Nasrallah reportedly agreeing to a 21-day ceasefire.

Abortion was a main focus of Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. The Ohio senator tried to soften the Republican ticket’s position and repeated Donald Trump’s claim that states are best equipped to decide on reproductive health access, while Walz highlighted that state differences on abortion have already contributed to the deaths of pregnant people following the end of Roe v. Wade.

Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance focused heavily on immigration policy. Walz promoted the asylum restrictions of the Biden administration and touted his running mate Kamala Harris’s bill to further militarize the southern U.S. border. Vance, meanwhile, continued Donald Trump’s demonization of immigrants, including the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, that they falsely accused of eating people’s pets.

CBS moderators asked about the climate crisis in Tuesday’s debate between vice-presidential contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz, responding to pressure from activists who urged the network to tie the devastation of Hurricane Helene to the planet’s rising temperatures. “The fact that this question was asked … was a major win for our movement,” says Shiva Rajbhandari, a student climate justice organizer at UNC-Chapel Hill and a spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement.

Vice-presidential nominees Tim Walz and JD Vance faced off Tuesday night in their first and only debate ahead of November’s election. The debate started with a focus on the Iranian missile attack on Israel before moving on to the climate crisis, immigration policy, abortion rights and more. One of the most memorable moments was Vance’s refusal to admit that his running mate Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Israel has announced it is sending more troops into southern Lebanon as the Middle East moves closer to a full-scale regional war. On Tuesday, Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel that Iran says targeted Israeli military and security sites, a response that comes after a series of escalating Israeli attacks in recent months against Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian leaders.

Mexico is making history today as the country prepares to inaugurate the first woman to be elected president. Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City, won a landslide victory in Mexico’s June elections. Sheinbaum is a member of the ruling Morena party and a close ally of outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose six-year term ends today.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke publicly today for the first time since he was released in June from a London prison. Assange addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in France about his 14-year legal saga after publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange was freed after pleading guilty to a U.S. charge of obtaining and disclosing national security material.

Dockworkers from Maine to Texas have walked out on the job at all East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, launching the first strike of its kind in almost 50 years. The International Longshoremen’s Association represents some 45,000 workers at 36 ports who are demanding higher wages and guarantees that jobs won’t be automated.