Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

A Black Texas high school student who has been suspended for more than a month over the length of his locs hairstyle has been referred to an alternative school, according to a notice sent to his mother from his school principal and obtained by CNN.

Darryl George, 18, will be placed in a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, also known as an alternative school, through Nov 29, the notice said.

The letter, signed by Barbers Hill High School principal Lance Murphy, cites violations for “multiple infractions of campus and classroom rules” including, “disruption of the ISS classroom, failure to comply with directives from staff/administration, violation of tardy policy and violation of the dress and grooming policy.”

“As the School Principal, I have determined that your child has engaged in chronic or repeated disciplinary infractions that violate the District’s previously communicated standards of student conduct,” Murphy writes in the notice.

The decision to send George to an alternative program is the latest escalation in a legal fight over whether the teenager’s locs hairstyle – which he often wears in braids or a ponytail – is a violation of the school district’s dress code which places limitations on how long a male students’ hair can be.

School officials had previously warned George and his family that continued violation of the dress code would result in a referral to an alternative program, CNN previously reported.

The George family refuses to cut the teen’s hair and argues the district’s policy is a violation of the Texas CROWN Act, a law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of hairstyles “commonly associated with race.”

Last month, George and his mother, Darresha, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the state’s attorney general, and school officials for allegedly failing to enforce the law.

George will be allowed to return to class on November 30, according to the notice.

But the notice also states the family will not be able to appeal the referral to an alternative school. The letter cites the Texas Education Code, which states “if the period of placement in the alternative education program does not extend beyond 60 days … this decision is final.”

Greg Poole, superintendent of the Barbers Hill Independent School District, told CNN George was not referred to an alternative school because of his hair.
“Confidentiality does not allow us to disclose the infractions that caused his current disciplinary placement but it was unequivocally not because of his hair,” he said.

Allie Booker, an attorney for George and his family, called the move “retaliation” for the family’s ongoing legal dispute with the school district.

On Wednesday, a judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied a motion filed by the Barbers Hill Independent School District to remove the case from federal court, according to court documents.

“Today they filed a motion to pull (the case) out of the federal court and the judge struck the motion for non-compliance with court rules, so they retaliated by putting Darryl in DAEP,” Booker said, referring to the alternative school.

District officials denied Booker’s claim, saying administrators do not intend to enhance the current disciplinary action against the student for the ongoing violation of its grooming policy, pending the court’s ruling on whether the district’s policy is legal.

Candice Matthews, a spokesperson for the family and a civil rights activist, told CNN George feels “horrible” about the referral but plans to show up for the program tomorrow. She also said George still does not plan to cut his hair.

The 18-year-old student has been serving in-school suspension since August 31 because of the length of his locs, according to court documents.

Clarification: On Thursday, the Barbers Hill Independent School District reiterated the district’s dress code allows students to wear locs but places limitations on the length of hairstyles for male students. The headline of this story has been updated to be more precise.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Darryl George’s age. He is 18 years old.

Some Palestinian-Americans have received their first set of instructions that family members stuck in Gaza may be able to evacuate into Egypt on Saturday afternoon, according to emails shared with CNN.

The US State Department’s Consular Affairs Crisis Management System (CACMS) told family members that on Saturday the Rafah crossing “may be open.”

A State Department spokesperson told CNN they “are actively discussing this with our Israeli and Egyptian counterparts.”

Anas Alfarra, a Lawful Permanent Resident of the US living in the San Francisco area who is trying to get family members out of Gaza, says the email falls short of what the US Embassy needs to be doing.

“Two ‘mays’ and a ‘wish’ in a situation that warrants much more,” Alfarra told CNN.

Mai Abushaaban, a 22-year-old from Houston who also received the email, has been desperately trying to evacuate her mother and sister from Gaza this week.

This comes after the United States has continued to press the Egyptian and Israeli governments on “the importance of the Rafah crossing being open for American citizens and foreign nationals of other countries who want to leave and have the right to leave to be able to do so,” a senior State Department official said Friday.

US officials have been engaged in discussions for days to try to secure a humanitarian corridor that would allow Americans and other civilians to safely leave Gaza ahead of an expected Israeli military incursion.

The United Nations on Thursday said it was informed by the Israeli military that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” but IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN Friday that any deadline “may slip.”

The State Department official told the press traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US’ focus has been “on American citizens, but other countries you could presume are engaged in trying to get their foreign nationals out as well.”

There are an estimated 500-600 Palestinian-Americans in Gaza.

CNN
 — 

House Republicans have picked Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as their new speaker nominee Friday, but more than 50 Republicans voted against supporting him on the House floor – leaving the party still in disarray as it has been unable to elect a speaker in the 10 days since the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy.

Jordan sent the conference home for the weekend following Friday’s party votes, and lawmakers said he planned to use the time to speak with his opponents and try to win them over.

Jordan is facing stiff resistance to be elected speaker on the floor thanks to the same math problem that doomed the bid of Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who initially won the GOP speaker nomination but dropped out of the race abruptly Thursday evening after facing a hardened bloc of opposition.

By failing to coalesce behind a candidate, the GOP conference has plunged the House into uncharted territory and effectively frozen the chamber at a time when major international and domestic crises loom, from Israel’s war against Hamas to a potential government shutdown in mid-November.

Jordan or any other Republican speaker candidate can only afford to lose four GOP votes when the House votes for speaker, if all members are voting, because winning a speaker vote requires a majority of the full House.

Jordan’s backers expressed confidence he still could get there, but the Ohio Republican faces a major uphill climb.

The House GOP conference selected Jordan on Friday as its latest speaker-designee in a 124-81 vote over GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia – who made a surprise last-minute bid. Jordan gained only 25 supporters compared to Wednesday’s vote when Scalise defeated Jordan, 113-99.

Jordan then called a second vote asking members if they would support him on the floor, in an effort to see if that could shrink his opposition. That vote, which was cast by secret ballot, was 152-55 – laying bare the long road ahead for Jordan’s speakership bid to succeed.

Jordan has made a name for himself as a staunch ally of Donald Trump and was endorsed by the former president in his bid for the speakership. The Ohio Republican serves as chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.

On his way into an earlier House GOP conference meeting Friday morning, Jordan told CNN’s Manu Raju that he thinks he will be able to get the 217 votes needed to win the gavel, but refused to say if he would drop out if he can’t get there by the end of the day.

“I think we’ll get 217 votes,” Jordan said. “I think we’ll get 217 votes – that’s the quickest way to get unified and get to the floor.”

After Jordan secured his party’s speaker nomination Friday, McCarthy urged the conference to rally around the Ohio Republican, according to multiple lawmakers in the room – a far different tone from when Scalise won the nomination earlier this week.

“He went up and gave a speech and said, ‘Hey, Jim is gonna be our next speaker. So let’s everybody cool off, drop the emotions, lets go, come back Monday and take care of business,’” said one GOP member, who is backing Jordan. “And he went into some of the crises our country is facing.”

After the meeting, McCarthy told CNN that Jordan will “get there,” despite the fact that he fell far short of the votes needed to win the gavel. The former speaker also told CNN earlier that he thinks Jordan should take the speaker fight to the floor even if he doesn’t have the votes locked up yet.Jordan has been meeting and having calls with holdouts as he attempts to lock down the 217 votes he will need to secure the gavel, according to a GOP aide.

The problem for the House GOP is that it’s not clear anyone can lock down the 217 votes needed to win the gavel, raising questions over how and when the standoff over the speakership will last and at what cost. Republicans have been mired down in infighting that has left the House paralyzed with no clear path to elect a new speaker after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster.

Tensions are boiling over among House Republicans frustrated at the impasse and concerned over the path forward.

Republican Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri told reporters after Scalise’s exit from the race Thursday evening that one lawmaker had remarked: “‘You know, you could put Jesus Christ up for speaker of the House and he still wouldn’t get 217.’”

Rep. Don Bacon, when asked whether he is a “no” on Jordan, told CNN’s Manu Raju that he’s “chewing on it right now” and said many Republicans are reluctant to reward what they see as “bad behavior” by giving in to what a small group of holdouts have been pushing for, though he said that’s not Jordan’s fault.

“We had five individuals today who said they would only vote for Jim and not Steve. So many of us feel it’s rewarding bad behavior if we do that. The problem for me though is it’s not Jim’s fault so I’m just grappling with that,” he said. “There’s a great quote … if you give a 5-year-old who is misbehaving terribly more ice cream, they will be worse behaving, right? That’s what’s going to happen here if we reward that behavior. So a lot of us are resistant to that.”

McCarthy’s support for Jordan Friday marked a notably different posture than the one he took toward Scalise, his former top deputy who has long been seen as his potential rival. Sources said that the former speaker did not give a speech after Scalise secured his party’s nomination on Wednesday.

In an interview on Fox News Thursday, McCarthy talked about how difficult it was going to be for the House majority leader to prevail and cast doubt on whether Scalise could go as many rounds as he did on the floor in January.

“He’s got an uphill battle to go. His number was much lower coming out of the conference,” McCarthy said of Scalise. “If you take the three delegates out, he didn’t have the majority there. So, it’s going to be difficult for him.”

Scalise’s exit from the race and McCarthy’s historic removal as speaker have put a spotlight on the power of a small faction of conservatives to sideline the agenda of a majority of the conference. House Republicans control just a razor-thin majority and a speaker candidate can only afford to lose four defections and still win.

On Thursday the night before he hopped into challenge Jordan, Scott told CNN the GOP’s inability to elect a new speaker driven by small group of holdouts “makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”

“We’ve got a very small group of people that they have to have everything their way. We had a group that sabotaged Speaker McCarthy and now we’ve had a group that sabotaged Steve Scalise, both of them great people,” he said.

In a reminder of the fundraising prowess that McCarthy brought to the table, which Republicans will now be missing as they look to maintain control of the House in 2024, the ousted speaker’s political team announced Friday that he had raised a record-breaking $78 million for Republicans this cycle.

McHenry remains interim speaker

Before Scalise withdrew, Republicans were already considering whether they should try to expand the powers of interim Speaker Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, so the House can pass legislation, like a resolution for Israel, multiple lawmakers told CNN.

“That is an option that we could pursue,” GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas told reporters.

A group of more centrist Republicans are circulating a letter asserting that McHenry should have more temporary power, sources told CNN – a sign of desperation as the GOP scrambles to coalesce around a speaker.

Attempting to expand the powers of the interim speaker, a role that is extremely limited, would put House Republicans in untested legal territory though and could be complicated to pull off, and some in the party have already pushed back on the idea.

“I’m not willing to look at that at all,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida.

Jordan has been the face of key House GOP investigations as chair of the Judiciary committee.

The Ohio Republican has served in Congress since 2007 and has a longstanding reputation as a conservative agitator who helped found the hardline House Freedom Caucus.

In addition to chairing the Judiciary Committee, Jordan is also the chair of the select subcommittee on the “weaponization” of the federal government. When McCarthy announced a House GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, he said House Oversight Chairman James Comer would lead the effort in coordination with Jordan as Judiciary chair and Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith.

While Republicans say their investigative work is critical to informing the American public and ensuring accountability, Democrats frequently criticize Jordan as a hyper-partisan Trump defender and have accused him of using his perch to shield the former president in the run up to the 2024 presidential election.

As Jordan oversees key House GOP investigations, Democrats also point to the fact that he stonewalled a subpoena for his testimony from the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Jordan as well as Scalise both supported objections to Electoral College results when Congress met to certify Biden’s presidential win on January 6, 2021, the same day a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol seeking to overturn the election.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN
 — 

The New York attorney general’s office says criminal charges won’t be brought against officers after a man covered in hand sanitizer was tased and caught on fire – an incident that left him dead weeks later.

Three officers with the Catskill Police Department were involved in the incident that left Jason Jones dead December 15, 2021, several weeks after he was tased by one of the officers.

The attorney general’s Office of Special Investigation released its report Friday into the events that led to Jones’ death. The investigation concluded “a prosecutor would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the Catskill Police Department (CPD) officers involved in the incident committed a crime, and therefore criminal charges could not be pursued,” Attorney General Letitia James’ office said in a news release.

The report includes recommendations that the state’s Office of Public Safety provide additional training on Tasers and similar devices and to “comprehensively study all flammable substances that such weapons could ignite, list those substances in the training materials, and send updates promptly to all departments that have such weapons in use.”

Police originally escorted Jones from a bar on October 30, 2021 after a call about him being disruptive, according to the news release.

He ran from officers and entered the Catskill Police Department lobby, about a block away, according to the release.

He aggressively knocked on the windows, overturned a table, partially disrobed and eventually squirted what appeared to be hand sanitizer on his head and shirtless body, CNN previously reported.

The attorney general’s office released videos of the incident in January 2022 showing three officers confronting Jones in the lobby. In one of the videos, Jones is seen squirting what appears to be hand sanitizer on his head and shirtless body before going off screen. That’s when one of the officers is seen pointing a Taser at him and deploying the weapon. Jones is engulfed in flames and then falls to the floor as all of the officers exit the lobby, the footage shows.

The officers ran out of the room to look for a fire extinguisher, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office.

Nearly 14 seconds later, one of the officers returns to help Jones. A stretcher is brought in approximately 15 minutes later, according to the video, and Jones is then seen wheeled out of the lobby.

He was taken to the hospital and died 45 days later on December 15, 2021, CNN previously reported.

CNN
 — 

New Zealand goes to the polls Saturday in a general election that’s shaping up to be a tight race between the two major parties, with the economy and a cost of living crisis dominating campaigning nine months after former prime minister Jacinda Ardern suddenly resigned.

Final polls showed the main opposition center-right National Party, led by Christopher Luxon, with a slight lead over Ardern’s successor Prime Minister Chris Hipkins but there appeared a late rise in support for his center-left Labour Party ahead of the vote, according to CNN affiliate Radio NZ.

The election takes place on the same day as Australia’s Voice referendum to recognize Indigenous Australians in the constitution and create a permanent body to allow them to speak directly to government.

In New Zealand, neither party is expected to win enough seats to form a government outright, which means nationalist NZ First party and its leader Winston Peters could potentially become kingmaker in a coalition administration.

Coalitions are the norm under New Zealand’s mixed-member proportional system, which was introduced in 1996.

The only party to win a majority of votes and govern alone in the current political system was Labour in 2020, when Ardern won a landslide second term buoyed by her success at handling the country’s coronavirus outbreak.

But Ardern announced her shock resignation in January, saying she no longer had enough fuel in the tank to contest an election, and passed the reins of her party on to Hipkins.

A progressive global icon, Ardern’s time in power was defined by multiple crises, including the Christchurch terrorist attack, a deadly volcanic explosion, and a global pandemic.

Overseas she became famous for being a leader unafraid to show empathy and compassion at a time when populist demagogues were coming to the fore in many other western democracies.

But back home her popularity ebbed amid a rising cost of living, housing shortages and economic anxiety. And she faced violent anti-lockdown protests in the capital Wellington, with threats made against her.

Hipkins inherited these issues which have since been compounded by a sluggish economy, an historically high inflation rate of 6% and an accounts deficit that has concerned ratings agencies.

Sophia Ha, who is from Auckland but has lived in Sydney for last five years, was an ardent supporter of Ardern but is now unsure who to vote for.

“(She) was such a great representation for younger women in politics,” Ha told CNN. “I think she’s left a huge void that would be difficult to fill, but I think New Zealand really, economically speaking, needs assistance.”

Alex Wareham, a bartender from Auckland, said she wants to see the next government take real action on the climate crisis and fix the rising cost of living, but feels the parties are split on these issues.

“Some are more willing to take on cost of living, crime, fixing the economy after Covid, and other parties are taking the climate crisis a bit more seriously. But I think climate change will be on the back burner this election. It’s looking to be a bit more of a tax election, a bit more money talking,” she told CNN.

It’s also the first election in New Zealand following the end of strict coronavirus lockdown measures that have been a source of contention for many. The government’s “go hard and go early” approach to the pandemic saw New Zealand impose some of the world’s strictest border rules, separating families and shutting out almost all foreigners for almost two years.

It meant New Zealand suffered far fewer Covid infections and deaths compared to many countries, like the United States or United Kingdom. But many residents felt the government went too hard on its measures.

“They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t,” said Wareham, who added that because people didn’t “have the human toll to focus on they are thinking our economy was ruined, the country was shut down.”

“It was always going to be a lose-lose for Labour, no matter which way you look at it… but it feels a National government during Covid would have done it the same way,” she said.

All the main parties have pledged to improve the economy, provide relief for the cost of living crisis, boost jobs, and improve health and education facilities, as well as housing.

Central to National’s 100-day plan is its promise for myriad tax cuts, including cutting a regional fuel tax. It also is pledging to change the Reserve Bank’s mandate to focus on inflation, remove what it calls red tape for businesses, extend free breast cancer screenings, crack down on crime and give police greater powers to search gang members, and roll back a raft of policies implemented by Labour over the past six years.

Labour’s policies include extending free dental care to under 30s, easing rising food prices by removing the goods and services tax from fruit and vegetables, teaching financial literacy in schools and expanding free early education, and extending financial support to working families.

Hipkins, 44, was first elected to Parliament in 2008 and spearheaded the country’s Covid-19 policies in 2020. Before becoming prime minister, he was minister of education, minister of police, minister for the public service, and leader of the house.

His campaigning was briefly hampered by a positive Covid-19 diagnosis at a critical juncture just two weeks out from the election, which prevented him from being on the road for five days.

Hipkins’ main contender Luxon is a businessman and former CEO of Air New Zealand who became leader of the National Party in 2021. Before becoming leader of the opposition, Luxon, 53, was party spokesman for various government departments and a member of several select committees.

Just under 1 million people have already cast their ballot as early voting began for those overseas late last month and in New Zealand on October 2.

Voters get two votes on the ballot: one for a candidate in their local constituency and one for the party. A party needs at least 5% of the vote or a winning constituency candidate to claim a seat in parliament.

To form a government, a party or coalition needs 61 of the 120 seats in New Zealand’s single-house parliament – about 48% of the popular vote.

Official results will be announced by the election commission about three weeks after the vote.

CNN
 — 

The vast majority of President Joe Biden’s time at the White House this week has been spent confronting the crisis in Israel, including four phone calls with his Israeli counterpart and well north of a dozen briefings from his national security team.

But, in a sign of the political crosscurrents, Biden has also been keeping most of his regularly scheduled programming, including a Rose Garden speech about “junk fees” and an address to a national group of firefighters.

The balancing act continued Friday in Philadelphia, where Biden visited a port terminal to announce the locations of seven new regional hubs to manufacture hydrogen – an event the White House had been planning well before the horrors of last weekend’s Hamas attack and gave no thought to canceling.

The dueling focuses – foreign and domestic – have at moments felt somewhat jarring. Biden’s outrage and fury at the images emerging from Israel has translated into some of his most forceful public speaking as president, making it somewhat dissonant to hear him deliver more routine speeches about airline fees, firefighter pay and the manufacture of hydrogen.

They also reflect a governing reality for an incumbent president in the middle of a campaign: elections are rarely won on foreign policy, and keeping the world from spiraling into war is only one part of the job.

Appearing overly focused abroad could be politically perilous for Biden, who was already contending with waning public support for the war in Ukraine. He may be a foreign policy president, but Americans still view the economy poorly, and his advisers continue to believe an economic message can break through.

White House officials said they assessed Biden’s schedule following last weekend’s attacks and determined what events to maintain and which to cancel. They did scrap some of their plans and replaced them with remarks focused on Israel.

The vast majority of Biden’s time in the residence and West Wing has been consumed by the foreign crisis. A White House list showed his briefings and phone calls stretching from morning until evening, including pre- and post-phone call meetings with his national security team following his conversations with Netanyahu and other regional leaders.

Despite that focus, he has also made time for his domestic agenda. He met Thursday with a group of American business leaders, including executives at Target and IBM, to discuss “Bidenomics.”

And officials left in place items like the junk fee event, which Biden used to appeal to Americans tired of seeing prices tick up due to hidden costs.

“Folks are tired of being taken advantage of and played for suckers,” Biden said during remarks in the Rose Garden.

One of Biden’s potential – though, according to polls, unlikely – Republicans challengers thought the moment seemed off.

“I don’t know why Joe Biden is doing press conferences in the Rose Garden talking about something other than America’s role as leader of the free world and the fact that there are Americans being held hostage in Gaza,” former Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview on Fox News.

The White House says Biden’s role is multifold and requires his attention across areas foreign and domestic. He’s also due to deliver remarks at a wind power facility in Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday.

“The president is going to make Americans a priority. He has to do multiple things at once. That’s what you’re going to see the president do,” press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said Thursday.

“He’s going to continue to talk about what he’s doing to bring back manufacturing, to create good-paying jobs,” she said. “That’s something that Americans also want to hear from (him).”

CNN
 — 

Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who entered the race for House speaker after House Majority Leader Steve Scalise dropped out, lost the GOP’s nomination to Rep.

Jim Jordan of Ohio in a 124-81 vote Friday.

After the vote, Scott told CNN he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Jordan.

“We had the vote; Jim Jordan won the vote. The party should unite behind the person who wins the vote,” he said.

Scott announced his intentions for the speakership in a Friday post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I have filed to be Speaker of the House. We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.”

Scott, an ally of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, told CNN he decided to run because “we have to do the right thing the right way. That’s something that we as a conference are not doing right now.”

“When I woke up this morning, I had no intentions of doing this. It took me a long time to even get to my wife to tell her to call all our friends and be in prayer because we haven’t done any preparation or any whipping or anything for this,” he said Friday.

Scott said Rep. Frank Lucas was going nominate him in the GOP conference meeting.

The seven-term representative told CNN’s Manu Raju on Thursday that the GOP’s inability to elect a new speaker “makes us look like a bunch of idiots.”

“We’ve got a very small group of people that they have to have everything their way. We had a group that sabotaged Speaker McCarthy and now we’ve had a group that sabotaged Steve Scalise, both of them great people,” he said.

Scott and Jordan were vying for the speaker’s gavel after McCarthy was ousted from the role this month and declined to run again. Scalise, whom the GOP conference voted to nominate over Jordan, dropped out of the race Thursday after House Republicans failed to coalesce behind him.

House Republicans picked Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, as their speaker nominee Friday afternoon, though it is unclear whether the Ohio Republican can win enough support to secure the gavel in a full House vote.

Scott has been a vocal defender of McCarthy, criticizing the Republicans who voted to remove the California Republican as speaker. Earlier this month, the Georgia lawmaker said Republican leadership “will have to decide to either hold these members accountable or lose the faith of the rest of the conference.”

“The eight Republicans who supported Joe Biden and the Democrats’ desire to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker are nothing more than grifters who have handed control of the House to the Democratic Party in the name of their own glory and fundraising,” he said in a statement.

After receiving a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Georgia, Scott spent 20 years owning and operating an insurance brokerage firm. He began his political career in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1997, where he served until being elected to Congress in 2011.

Scott, who represents Georgia’s 8th Congressional District, serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Armed Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee.

CNN
 — 

The BBC said Friday that a group of its journalists covering Israel’s war with Hamas were held at gunpoint and assaulted by Israeli police in Tel Aviv.

The disturbing incident, which the BBC said occurred on Thursday night, came as the team of three journalists drove to their hotel in a vehicle “clearly marked as media,” the British news network said.

The BBC said that the team was “dragged from their vehicle,” searched and pushed up against a wall during the stop. One of its journalists said that when he tried to film the incident, an officer threw his phone to the ground.

“Journalists must be able to report on the conflict in Israel-Gaza freely,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN.

An Israeli police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The incident came as Israel faces questions after firing artillery into southern Lebanon on Friday, killing a Reuters videographer and injuring six other journalists.

In that instance, the journalists were wearing jackets identifying themselves as members of the press. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged firing artillery into Lebanon on Friday but did not respond to additional questions specifically related to the victims.

New York
CNN
 — 

Many schools, psychologists and safety groups are urging parents to disable their children’s social media apps over mounting concerns that Hamas plans to disseminate graphic videos of hostages captured in the Israel-Gaza war.

Disabling an app or implementing restrictions, such as filtering out certain words and phrases, on young users’ phones may be sound like a daunting process. But platforms and mobile operating systems offer safeguards that could go along way in protecting a child’s mental health.

Following the attacks on Israel last weekend, much of the terror has played out on social media. Videos of hostages taken on the streets and civilians left wounded continue to circulate on varying platforms. Although some companies have pledged to restrict sensitive videos, many are still being shared online.

That can be particularly stressful for minors. The American Psychological Association recently issued a warning about the psychological impacts of the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, and other research has linked exposure to violence on social media and in the news as a “cycle of harm to mental health.”

Alexandra Hamlet, a clinical psychologist in New York City, told CNN people who are caught off guard by seeing certain upsetting content are more likely to feel worse than individuals who choose to engage with content that could be upsetting to them. That’s particularly true for children, she said.

“They are less likely to have the emotional control to turn off content that they find triggering than the average adult, their insight and emotional intelligence capacity to make sense of what they are seeing is not fully formed, and their communication skills to express what they have seen and how to make sense of it is limited comparative to adults,” Hamlet said.

If deleting an app isn’t an option, here are other ways to restrict or closely monitor a child’s social media use:

Parents can start by visiting the parental control features found on their child phone’s mobile operating system. iOS’ Screen Time tool and Android’s Google Family Link app help parents manage a child’s phone activity and can restrict access to certain apps. From there, various controls can be selected, such as restricting app access or flagging inappropriate content.

Guardians can also set up guardrails directly within social media apps.

TikTok: TikTok, for example, offers a Family Pairing feature that allows parents and guardians to link their own TikTok account to their child’s account and restrict their ability to search for content, limit content that may not be appropriate for them or filter out videos with words or hashtags from showing up in feeds. These features can also be enabled within the settings of the app, without needing to sync up a guardian’s account.

Facebook, Instagram and Threads: Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and threads, has an educational hub for parents with resources, tips and articles from experts on user safety, and a tool that allows guardians to see how much time their kids spend on Instagram and set time limits, which some experts advise should be considered during this time.

YouTube: On YouTube, the Family Link tool allows parents to set up supervised accounts for their children, screen time limits or block certain content. At the same time,YouTube Kids also provides a safer space for kids, and parents who decide their kids are ready to see more content on YouTube can create a supervised account. In addition, autoplay is turned off by default for anyone under 18 but can be turned off anytime in Settings for all users.

Hamlet said families should consider creating a family policy where family members agree to delete their apps for a certain period of time.

“It could be helpful to frame the idea as an experiment, where everyone is encouraged to share how not having the apps has made them feel over the course of time,” she said. “It is possible that after a few days of taking a break from social media, users may report feeling less anxious and overwhelmed, which could result in a family vote of continuing to keep the apps deleted for a few more days before checking in again.”

If there’s resistance, Hamlet said should try to reduce the time spent on apps right now and come up with an agreed upon number of minutes each day for usage.

“Parents could ideally include a contingency where in exchange for allowing the child to use their apps for a certain number of minutes, their child must agree to having a short check in to discuss whether there was any harmful content that the child had exposure to that day,” she said. “This exchange allows both parents to have a protected space to provide effective communication and support, and to model openness and care for their child.”

TikTok: A TikTok spokesperson, which said the platform uses technology and 40,000 safety professionals to moderate the platform, told CNN it is taking the situation seriously and has increased dedicated resources to help prevent violent, hateful, or misleading content on the platform.

Meta: Meta similarly said it has set up a special operations center staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to monitor and respond to the situation. “Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation,” Meta said in a statement. “We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”

YouTube: Google-owned YouTube said it is providing thousands of age-restricted videos that do not violate its policies – some of these, however, are not appropriate for viewers under 18. (This may include bystander footage). The company told CNN it has “removed thousands of harmful videos” and its teams “remain vigilant to take action quickly across YouTube, including videos, Shorts and livestreams.”