Want to catch up with the news quickly? Here are the top stories from Friday, October 20, 2023.
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1. U.S. says Israel "not responsible" for hospital explosion, but doubts remain
During his visit to Israel this week, President Joe Biden stated that it did not appear that the IDF was responsible for the deadly explosion that killed nearly 500 at a hospital in Gaza.
"But there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got a lot — we’ve got to overcome a lot of things," he said.
A summit scheduled for Wednesday between Biden and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority was cancelled following the hospital explosion.
2. European Union cracks down on social media war misinformation
The European Union increased its scrutiny of Big Tech companies by demanding on Thursday that Meta and TikTok detail the efforts they are making to combat illegal content and disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war.
Meta and TikTok have been given a week to submit the information, or they risk the commission opening investigations into their conduct. The request comes one week after a similar demand was made to Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter.
Photos and videos of the carnage from the Israel-Hamas war as well as posts that are pushing false claims and misrepresenting videos from other events have flooded social media since the outbreak of the conflict.
3. Exonerated man wrongly jailed For 16 years killed during traffic stop
A man who was wrongly incarcerated for 16 years in Florida and then exonerated in 2020 was fatally shot on Monday by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop, officials said.
Leonard Cure, 53, was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in Florida in 2003 and spent over a decade behind bar. Just three years after his release, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation news release, Cure was fatally shot Monday morning by a Camden County deputy during a traffic stop.
- Palestinians Lament Israeli Airstrikes Endangering Civilians in Gaza: 'We're Not Hamas' ›
- Bernie Sanders Condemns Israel's Seize of Gaza as ‘Serious Violation of International Law’ ›
- Israel's Story on the Gaza Hospital Strike Keeps Changing ›
- Israel Orders 1.1 Million Gazans to Evacuate, UN Warns of 'Devastating Humanitarian Consequences' ›