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alarums and excursions

plural noun

Definition of alarums and excursions.

• clutter [ chiefly dialect ]
• corroboree [ Australian ]
• disturbance
• do [ chiefly dialect ]
• helter-skelter
• hoo-hah
• hubble-bubble
• hurly-burly
• hurry-scurry
• hurry-skurry
• kerfuffle [ chiefly British ]
• pandemonium
• splore [ Scottish ]

Word History

1605, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near alarums and excursions

alarum clock

Cite this Entry

“Alarums and excursions.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alarums%20and%20excursions. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

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Definition of 'alarums and excursions'

Alarums and excursions in american english, browse alphabetically alarums and excursions.

• alarmingly high
• alarums and excursions
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Alarms and excursions

Posted by Rosemary Dean on September 29, 2008 at 20:02

What is the origin, meaning, and the original context of the phrase 'alarms and excursions'?

• Alarms and excursions Victoria S Dennis 30/September/08

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Alarms and excursions

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My secret for getting my kids out the door on time every morning: 5 alarm clocks

• I was exhausted from arguing with my daughters, who are 9 and 5, in the mornings.
• I started setting alarms to remind them when it was time to move to the next morning task.
• Our system of five alarms has made mornings much more peaceful.

"What? I'm just dancing while I get dressed," my 5-year-old told me without breaking her rhythm.

She was indeed dancing, all over the living room, partially dressed, her discarded outfits and dirty jammies strewn in her wake. Objectively, the scene might have been adorable, but as the mother who had been asking her for 25 minutes to just get dressed, I wasn't amused.

I swallowed the scream I wanted to let loose and pointed at my phone.

"Listen, the alarm is about to go off."

I turned back to my coffee , and one minute later — before the alarm rang out — my daughter sat at the kitchen table, fully dressed, and started eating her toast. I wondered how this parenting hack I had stumbled upon worked so well.

I started setting an alarm for the time we needed to leave, and it worked like a charm

I don't think there are scientific polls about what percentage of parents find mornings incredibly stressful, but my anecdotal reporting shows it's close to 100%. Getting everyone up and out the door is a lot. Despite the fact that my girls have the same routine every morning, we were fighting the same battles over getting dressed, brushing teeth, and eating breakfast in a somewhat timely manner.

That is until we discovered alarms.

The first alarm I set was a reminder that it was time to leave for the bus. Initially, it was more for me than my daughters. But once we implemented it, I realized I wasn't yelling, "You need to go right now," anymore. Instead, when the alarm went off, my daughter would give me a kiss and head out the door — pure bliss.

I added an alarm for every problem area in our morning

With the success of the bus alarm, I added another. Then another. Then some more. Every phrase I was so tired of uttering each morning was replaced with an alarm to cue the kids. No more "brush your teeth," "it's time to put on shoes," or "you really need to get your coat on." Now, there was an alarm for that.

Today, we have five alarms set:

7:20 — Time to be dressed and at the breakfast table

7:35 — Eat your last bites of breakfast

7:40 — Brush teeth and hair

7:45 — Shoes, coats, and backpacks on

7:52 — Out the door to the bus stop

By the time the bus comes at 7:57, the girls are ready and waiting. Better yet, I no longer feel like I've worked a whole day just to get the kids out the door.

Even my husband got on board with the system

I'm not sure why the alarm system works so well for us, but it does. Rather than the girls fighting or talking back to me, they see the alarms as facts that can't be argued with. When they hear the alarm, they just take responsibility for what they need to do without me nagging them.

Last spring, I went on a girls' trip to Italy, leaving my husband with the kids for two weeks . Normally, I handle the morning routine, so when I called home the first day, my older daughter got on the phone: "Can you tell Dad about the alarms?"

At first, my husband rolled his eyes at just how many alarms we had set, but by the end of the week, he was a convert. "They love the alarms, hey?" he said when I checked in.

Yes, they do. And I do too.

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Examples of excursion

Word of the Day

be no reasoning with someone

If there is no reasoning with someone, it is impossible to persuade that person to change their opinions or actions.

Reunions and housewarmings (Words for different parties)

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Rolls-Royce pp 45–72 Cite as

Alarms and Excursions

• Ian Lloyd  

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Though it would be absurd to say that the outbreak of war in 1914 was completely unexpected, the extent to which expectation had led to action of any description is well illustrated by what happened at Derby during the first few days and weeks following the declaration of war. The board met immediately and authorised Johnson to ‘reduce the works wages to about one fourth by discharging about half the hands and allowing the remainder to work only half time’. He was otherwise ‘to effect such economies as he thought desirable’ and at the same meeting it was decided that the company ‘would not avail itself of the opportunity now possibly arising of making or assembling aero-engines for the British Government’. The possibility had obviously occurred previously but although Royce had been pressed to convert his car engines for aero work he consistently refused to do so on the grounds that they were unsuitable. The argument that other engines were even more unsuitable was not the type of argument which convinced Royce. Though Royce and Johnson had developed at Derby one of the most advanced engineering organisations in the country, the above statements bear eloquent testimony to the fact that the entire organisation was staggered by the outbreak of war and that the management had no idea whatever of the important contribution which a plant such as theirs was likely to make to the war effort, or of the consequent financial significance to the firm.

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

FACT SHEET: President   Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

Today, President Biden is issuing a landmark Executive Order to ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The Executive Order establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more. As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive strategy for responsible innovation, the Executive Order builds on previous actions the President has taken, including work that led to voluntary commitments from 15 leading companies to drive safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI. The Executive Order directs the following actions: New Standards for AI Safety and Security

As AI’s capabilities grow, so do its implications for Americans’ safety and security.  With this Executive Order, the  President directs the  most sweeping  actions  ever taken  to protect Americans from  the potential  risks  of  AI  systems :

• Require that developers of the most powerful AI systems share their safety test results and other critical information with the U.S. government.  In accordance with the Defense Production Act, the Order will require that companies developing any foundation model that poses a serious risk to national security, national economic security, or national public health and safety must notify the federal government when training the model, and must share the results of all red-team safety tests. These measures will ensure AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy before companies make them public. 
• Develop standards, tools, and tests to help ensure that AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy.  The National Institute of Standards and Technology will set the rigorous standards for extensive red-team testing to ensure safety before public release. The Department of Homeland Security will apply those standards to critical infrastructure sectors and establish the AI Safety and Security Board. The Departments of Energy and Homeland Security will also address AI systems’ threats to critical infrastructure, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cybersecurity risks. Together, these are the most significant actions ever taken by any government to advance the field of AI safety.
• Protect against the risks of using AI to engineer dangerous biological materials  by developing strong new standards for biological synthesis screening. Agencies that fund life-science projects will establish these standards as a condition of federal funding, creating powerful incentives to ensure appropriate screening and manage risks potentially made worse by AI.
• Protect Americans from AI-enabled fraud and deception by establishing standards and best practices for detecting AI-generated content and authenticating official content . The Department of Commerce will develop guidance for content authentication and watermarking to clearly label AI-generated content. Federal agencies will use these tools to make it easy for Americans to know that the communications they receive from their government are authentic—and set an example for the private sector and governments around the world.
• Establish an advanced cybersecurity program to develop AI tools to find and fix vulnerabilities in critical software,  building on the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing AI Cyber Challenge. Together, these efforts will harness AI’s potentially game-changing cyber capabilities to make software and networks more secure.
• Order the development of a National Security Memorandum that directs further actions on AI and security,  to be developed by the National Security Council and White House Chief of Staff. This document will ensure that the United States military and intelligence community use AI safely, ethically, and effectively in their missions, and will direct actions to counter adversaries’ military use of AI.

Protecting Americans’ Privacy

Without safeguards, AI can put Americans’ privacy further at risk. AI not only makes it easier to extract, identify, and exploit personal data, but it also heightens incentives to do so because companies use data to train AI systems.  To better protect Americans’ privacy, including from the risks posed by AI, the President calls on Congress to pass bipartisan data privacy legislation to protect all Americans, especially kids, and directs the following actions:

• Protect Americans’ privacy by prioritizing federal support for accelerating the development and use of privacy-preserving techniques— including ones that use cutting-edge AI and that let AI systems be trained while preserving the privacy of the training data.  
• Strengthen privacy-preserving research   and technologies,  such as cryptographic tools that preserve individuals’ privacy, by funding a Research Coordination Network to advance rapid breakthroughs and development. The National Science Foundation will also work with this network to promote the adoption of leading-edge privacy-preserving technologies by federal agencies.
• Evaluate how agencies collect and use commercially available information —including information they procure from data brokers—and  strengthen privacy guidance for federal agencies  to account for AI risks. This work will focus in particular on commercially available information containing personally identifiable data.
• Develop guidelines for federal agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of privacy-preserving techniques,  including those used in AI systems. These guidelines will advance agency efforts to protect Americans’ data.

Advancing Equity and Civil Rights

Irresponsible uses of AI can lead to and deepen discrimination, bias, and other abuses in justice, healthcare, and housing. The Biden-Harris Administration has already taken action by publishing the  Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights  and issuing an  Executive Order directing agencies to combat algorithmic discrimination , while enforcing existing authorities to protect people’s rights and safety.  To ensure that AI advances equity and civil rights, the President directs the following additional actions:

• Provide clear guidance to landlords, Federal benefits programs, and federal contractors  to keep AI algorithms from being used to exacerbate discrimination.
• Address algorithmic discrimination  through training, technical assistance, and coordination between the Department of Justice and Federal civil rights offices on best practices for investigating and prosecuting civil rights violations related to AI.
• Ensure fairness throughout the criminal justice system  by developing best practices on the use of AI in sentencing, parole and probation, pretrial release and detention, risk assessments, surveillance, crime forecasting and predictive policing, and forensic analysis.

Standing Up for Consumers, Patients, and Students

AI can bring real benefits to consumers—for example, by making products better, cheaper, and more widely available. But AI also raises the risk of injuring, misleading, or otherwise harming Americans.  To protect consumers while ensuring that AI can make Americans better off, the President directs the following actions:

• Advance the responsible use of AI  in healthcare and the development of affordable and life-saving drugs. The Department of Health and Human Services will also establish a safety program to receive reports of—and act to remedy – harms or unsafe healthcare practices involving AI. 
• Shape AI’s potential to transform education  by creating resources to support educators deploying AI-enabled educational tools, such as personalized tutoring in schools.

Supporting Workers

AI is changing America’s jobs and workplaces, offering both the promise of improved productivity but also the dangers of increased workplace surveillance, bias, and job displacement.  To mitigate these risks, support workers’ ability to bargain collectively, and invest in workforce training and development that is accessible to all, the President directs the following actions:

• Develop principles and best practices to mitigate the harms and maximize the benefits of AI for workers  by addressing job displacement; labor standards; workplace equity, health, and safety; and data collection. These principles and best practices will benefit workers by providing guidance to prevent employers from undercompensating workers, evaluating job applications unfairly, or impinging on workers’ ability to organize.
• Produce a report on AI’s potential labor-market impacts , and  study and identify options for strengthening federal support for workers facing labor disruptions , including from AI.

Promoting Innovation and Competition

America already leads in AI innovation—more AI startups raised first-time capital in the United States last year than in the next seven countries combined.  The Executive Order ensures that we continue to lead the way in innovation and competition through the following actions:

• Catalyze AI research across the United States  through a pilot of the National AI Research Resource—a tool that will provide AI researchers and students access to key AI resources and data—and expanded grants for AI research in vital areas like healthcare and climate change.
• Promote a fair, open, and competitive AI ecosystem  by providing small developers and entrepreneurs access to technical assistance and resources, helping small businesses commercialize AI breakthroughs, and encouraging the Federal Trade Commission to exercise its authorities.
• Use existing authorities to expand the ability of highly skilled immigrants and nonimmigrants with expertise in critical areas to study, stay, and work in the United States  by modernizing and streamlining visa criteria, interviews, and reviews.

Advancing American Leadership Abroad

AI’s challenges and opportunities are global.  The Biden-Harris Administration will continue working with other nations to support safe, secure, and trustworthy deployment and use of AI worldwide. To that end, the President directs the following actions:

• Expand bilateral, multilateral, and multistakeholder engagements to collaborate on AI . The State Department, in collaboration, with the Commerce Department will lead an effort to establish robust international frameworks for harnessing AI’s benefits and managing its risks and ensuring safety. In addition, this week, Vice President Harris will speak at the UK Summit on AI Safety, hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
• Accelerate development and implementation of vital AI standards  with international partners and in standards organizations, ensuring that the technology is safe, secure, trustworthy, and interoperable.
• Promote the safe, responsible, and rights-affirming development and deployment of AI abroad to solve global challenges,  such as advancing sustainable development and mitigating dangers to critical infrastructure.

Ensuring Responsible and Effective Government Use of AI

AI can help government deliver better results for the American people. It can expand agencies’ capacity to regulate, govern, and disburse benefits, and it can cut costs and enhance the security of government systems. However, use of AI can pose risks, such as discrimination and unsafe decisions.  To ensure the responsible government deployment of AI and modernize federal AI infrastructure, the President directs the following actions:

• Issue guidance for agencies’ use of AI,  including clear standards to protect rights and safety, improve AI procurement, and strengthen AI deployment.  
• Help agencies acquire specified AI products and services  faster, more cheaply, and more effectively through more rapid and efficient contracting.
• Accelerate the rapid hiring of AI professionals  as part of a government-wide AI talent surge led by the Office of Personnel Management, U.S. Digital Service, U.S. Digital Corps, and Presidential Innovation Fellowship. Agencies will provide AI training for employees at all levels in relevant fields.

As we advance this agenda at home, the Administration will work with allies and partners abroad on a strong international framework to govern the development and use of AI. The Administration has already consulted widely on AI governance frameworks over the past several months—engaging with Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the UAE, and the UK. The actions taken today support and complement Japan’s leadership of the G-7 Hiroshima Process, the UK Summit on AI Safety, India’s leadership as Chair of the Global Partnership on AI, and ongoing discussions at the United Nations. The actions that President Biden directed today are vital steps forward in the U.S.’s approach on safe, secure, and trustworthy AI. More action will be required, and the Administration will continue to work with Congress to pursue bipartisan legislation to help America lead the way in responsible innovation. For more on the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to advance AI, and for opportunities to join the Federal AI workforce, visit AI.gov .

Alarms and Excursions

We are delighted to announce greenwich theatre’s 2022 spring production.

Four old friends sit down for a quiet evening together. But they are harassed by various bells, sirens, buzzers, warbles, beepers and cheepers, all trying to warn them of something. What are these electronic voices so urgently trying to tell them? Can they understand the mysterious messages before disaster strikes? It’s a race against time — because there are seven more plays and twenty more characters still to come before the evening is through, plus a lot more strange noises — and increasingly desperate calls from eleven separate pay-phones…

Michael Frayn’s  Alarms and Excursions takes a hilarious look at society’s tortuous relationship with modern technology. Exposing how comically baffling new fangled machinery can be in its dealings with us, and the double-edged relationship we maintain with the tools which aim to stimulate progress – but more often than not leave us feeling more baffled than when we began.

Written by Michael Frayn and Directed by James Haddrell

Lighting design by Mark Dymock, Set and Costume design by Lauren Connolly and sound design by Matthew Giles

Age recommendation 14+ due to mild sexual reference 

Running time 2hrs30mins (including interval)

Meet The Cast

“I laughed out loud a number of times on first reading.” Read more of our chat with actor Dan Gaisford where he explains his relish of Alarms & Excursions.

“I think the play is a celebration of the mundane every day, which in reality is hilarious when you throw in a corkscrew, a trouser press or a pay phone or two!” Lauren Drennan speaks about what she believes Alarms & Excursions is about. Read more . 

What about the playwright?

Following an acclaimed revival of Frayn’s play HERE   in 2018, Greenwich Theatre now reunites with the incomparable writer for an unforgettable evening of comedy and ideas.

Superb. Frayn… told the cast it was the best version [of the play] he had ever seen. Who am I to disagree? – Greenwich Visitor

Photo by Jillian Edelestein

Michael Frayn is not only an acclaimed playwright, but a novelist and translator whose astonishing body of work includes the novels The Tin Men   (Somerset Maugham Award),  Headlong   (shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and  Spies  (winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year), and the plays  Noises Off ,  Benefactors  and  Copenhagen   (winner of both an Evening Standard award and a Tony Award).

Michael Frayn has the rare ability to construct farcical comedy around philosophical principles and the laughs and the ideas effortlessly intermesh. –  The Guardian

Dates & Performances

Alarms and Excursions - More Plays Than One

Michael Frayn In Company Brockley Jack Theatre (2009)

Michael Frayn's Alarms and Excursions is as much about man's inability to communicate with man as it is about man's inability to cope with gadgetry - including the bits of kit which should facilitate that very communication.

Across three playlets and five sketches there are some twenty-plus characters to be played by four actors and since the writing neither permits nor encourages any subtlety or depth, so the features that differentiate the roles are drawn with a broad brush. Whether this goes far enough in explaining why the director has sanctioned a diverse collection of accents for the characters is questionable, particularly when the cast are not always up to the job of maintaining a convincing accent throughout the length of a piece.

Director Daniel Brennan has also not been strict enough with the cast about other fine details which diminish comic impact such as anticipating an interruption. In addition he has let the sense of period drift in a couple of crucial scenes: take Immobiles - in a world where everyone over the age of ten seems to have at least one mobile phone, to pull off a play where the action is predicated around being home to pick up messages from an answer-phone requires the setting to be very firmly seated in the answer-phone era and this has not been sufficiently achieved either through direction or design.

There is also a design faux pas in Toasters where the observant have to pretend that there is no table on set, otherwise the hilarity loses all meaning.

Having said that, my real gripe is with the choice of material and even to an extent the writing itself. You could expect a collection of eight pieces penned by a master farceur and wordsmith to provide much laughter and entertainment but in this instance the work seems rather badly aged and requiring of much more than the usual leap of imagination than it deserves. To qualify that criticism it has to be said that some of the writing is brilliantly successful in creating a farce whilst at the same time pointing up middle-class pretensions in Alarms and similarly comically in Leavings , and the second act opener is all the richer for balancing comedy with a bitter-sweet undertone.

However, the fact remains that no self-respecting politician today would let herself be made a fool of by a disgruntled autocue operator as in Glassnost , and Heart to Heart where dance-floor conversation drowned out by over-loud music leads to predictable misunderstandings no longer seems to stand the test of time, not just of itself but because we've seen it done before. Ditto satirising in-flight safety announcements which has also been done to death and this one fails to bring anything special to the party, though lovely-to-look-at Trudi Ross as Bloss has a wide range of effective facial expressions that keep our eyes on hers.

The other three members of the cast have their moments of glory. Trudi Boatwright is most effective as slightly frigid and snobby Melanie in Doubles , where she proves she can handle good dialogue adeptly and where she is clearly more comfortable than in the farce. In this playlet she is married to boring Miles. Nick Kneller plays this irritating bungler somewhere on the Autism spectrum-cum-boy-who-never-grew-up and this has to be his best performance of the evening. Kane Bixley's tolerant and gently-spoken Dietrich in Immobiles wins the man of the comic match award though and is also the only exception to the earlier criticism about bad accents. His performance here has real charm and shows a natural comic ability.

Alarms and Excursions has never offered an event of such uproarious delight to match Frayn's comic masterpiece Noises Off , but if you are willing to be underwhelmed by the weaker pieces, there are some terrific laugh out loud moments to enjoy.

"Alarms and Excursions" runs Tuesdays to Saturdays until 28th February 2009

Reviewer: Sandra Giorgetti

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Expert details the impacts the 'Great Trucking Recession' will have on Americans

'all the trucking companies right now are in dark times'.

Trucking company owner explains why California's diesel ban by 2036 is 'not practical'

JKC Trucking co-owner Mike Kucharski reacts to worries truckers feel amid California's push to ban diesel fleets on 'The Bottom Line.'

America's trucking industry is in a dire state, which is bad news for the American economy because it serves as an indicator of the mood of consumers and their pocketbooks heading into the holiday season, one expert warned. 

Post pandemic, there has been a surplus of trucks and drivers compared to the amount of freight that needs transporting. As lockdown spending slowed and the cost of living continues to rise, more truckers are fighting for the same loads, which results in a "dogfight" between truckers and trucking companies, JKC Trucking Vice-President and Co-Owner Mike Kucharski told Fox News Digital. 

"Everybody's calling this the great trucking recession, and it's true because all the trucking companies right now are in dark times," he said. "This is not a good time to be in the trucking industry. Just to paint a picture, the trucking industry is the engine that drives the American economy forward. We're fueling growth [and] prosperity by transporting goods to where they need to be and when the engine breaks down or stops, it works like a heart. When that ceases to be, it brings the entire economic system to a halt."

Yellow Corporation, for example, which is one of the nation's oldest and largest trucking companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, laying off 30,000 employees. Convoy Inc. , a Seattle-based trucking startup that was valued by investors at $3.8 billion just last year, shut down last month. 

Yellow Corp. box trailers sit at a terminal on June 28, 2023 in Medley, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)

"Because volumes are down, we may even see more trucking companies go out of business," Kucharski said. "It's going to be really interesting and scary to see how this all unfolds over the next few months because of what has happened in the last two years."

Kucharski's company, JKC Trucking Inc., specializes in a particular sector of the trucking industry known as LTL, or less-than-truckload carriers, which handles pallet-sized shipments of freight through a network of terminals. JKC is Chicago's largest specialty contract carrier for climate-controlled and dry freight loads specializing in LTL shipments for customers with one box, one pallet or half a truck to ship from the Midwest to California, Florida and major cities west of the Mississippi River. 

TRUCKING SPOKESMAN TALKS ‘SIMPLE’ DEMAND OF PROTESTING DRIVERS

Kucharski explained that freight volumes, specifically, are a critical indicator of the status of the industry, as well as the economy. But he said right now the industry is experiencing "volume volatility" meaning volumes and rates are down due to supply and demand. 

"Obviously an increase in freight volume typically suggests the economy is growing, as it indicates greater demand for goods and services," he said.

"We had COVID, we had a huge surplus of spending [and] we didn't have enough truckers to move it," he added. "Now everybody, the consumers, have depleted their funds and they're not buying as much."

FILE - An Amazon truck drives in in Philadelphia, Friday, April 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file) (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file / AP Newsroom)

In addition, the prices of everything, including energy and food, have "syrocketed." Consumers are buying less and truckers are fighting over freight "to make some profit or break even to survive another year," he said. 

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC PRESENTS NEW CHALLENGES, HURDLES FOR TRUCKERS: ‘THIS IS OUR WORK FROM HOME’

Kucharski said another factor in the "great trucking recession" is diesel fuel prices, which are a major operating cost for trucking companies. 

"It costs more to deliver goods and therefore this cost is passed on to the consumer. Consumers are feeling strapped for cash due to the increased costs and interest rates, they are holding back on purchases seeing what's going to happen and now we have our drivers sitting on the sidelines with no work," he said.

"It's a vicious cycle and all the trucking companies are in a dogfight, to get this volume because we went from 100 miles an hour to almost a complete halt," he added. "Until the entire economy corrects itself, we're going to be in the slump, and we're going to continue to see other trucking companies go out of business. Everybody is in bad shape, I don't care if you're Amazon or a one-trucking operation, everybody across the spectrum is affected."

Kucharski said the current economic climate is "the aftershock of COVID." Pre-COVID Americans had more money in their savings, but after COVID, people had depleted their savings, which has led to bad economic decisions, he said. 

A truck carrying a load of cargo from Mexico pulls into the border checkpoint at Brownsville, Texas. (Photo by Brad Doherty/Bloomberg via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

TRUCKING, OIL COMPANIES RAMP UP WARNINGS ON DIESEL SHORTAGE: ‘WE PUT OURSELVES IN THIS SITUATION’

The holiday season is often a boon for the trucking industry, but Kucharski said spending dropped off after Thanksgiving last year, which resulted in the worst holiday season since the 2008 financial crisis. Unfortunately, he said there are fears that this holiday season could be "even more challenging than 2022."

"The rampant inflation has created financial hardships for Americans across the board," Kucharski said. "People are tightening their belts, you just have to right now, and this holiday season is going to be a major test and economical indicator of how economic pressures are impacting Americans and the trucking industry." 

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Middle East

Netanyahu's references to violent biblical passages raise alarm among critics.

How should the world interpret Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent allusions to the Hebrew Bible, when discussing his country's war on Hamas?

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel has many questioning the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Over the weekend, Israeli protesters gathered outside his home demanding he resign.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).

FADEL: They're asking how this government didn't know what was going on in the blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza where Hamas rules and Israel and Egypt control the borders. Why it took the military hours to rescue civilians as gunmen overran their towns, killing more than 1,400 people, according to the Israeli government, and taking more than 240 hostages. That's the backdrop of Israel's response in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials say Israeli bombardments and ground operations have killed upward of 10,000 people and induced a man-made humanitarian crisis. Netanyahu has dismissed calls for a pause in hostilities from much of the international community unless it means the unconditional return of the captives.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7. Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas.

FADEL: And his public statements have raised alarm among some critics. He's twice referenced violent passages in the Bible to justify Israel's devastating response, including this one.

NETANYAHU: (Through interpreter) You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.

FADEL: Speaking Hebrew, he's comparing Hamas to the nation of Amalek in a passage from the Book of Samuel. That passage says to smite the Amalekites after the nation launched a vicious surprise attack on the Jewish people. Motti Inbari is a professor of religion at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke.

MOTTI INBARI: The biblical commandment is to completely destroy all of Amalek. And when I'm talking about completely destroy, we're talking about killing each and every one of them - including babies, including their property, including the animals - everything.

FADEL: Already, Palestinians in Gaza and human rights groups accuse Israel of indiscriminate attacks that caused mass civilian casualties. Israel's army maintains it does not deliberately target civilians, that the deaths are a byproduct of Hamas entrenched in densely packed areas inside the Gaza Strip. Inbari says his concern stems from the symbolism Netanyahu projects with the biblical metaphors he's used.

INBARI: Well, you know, he's playing with words. He can always say that he didn't mean it like that. But it might be that people who are hearing him, you know, soldiers on the ground field that are coming from Orthodox background - and there are many soldiers in the ground field that are coming from Orthodox background. When they hear him talking about remembering Amalek, it sets for them something that may be understood differently, you know, by you and me. So there might be that there will be soldiers and commanders or people on the ground that will understand the message that is coming from above from the leadership of the state as allowing them to do something similar to what Hamas has done to Israel.

FADEL: Now, Netanyahu has quoted the Bible before as prime minister. But typically, Inbari says, Netanyahu is appealing to an international audience and citing the Jews biblical right to the land. Quoting these particular passages marks a shift, Inbari says.

INBARI: Ever since this war began, he is always quoting the Bible and in - his last statements were the strongest so far in the way he quoted the Bible. And I was intrigued, and I'm a little bit concerned about this, because typically when Hamas and Hezbollah have used the language of holy wars in the way in which they are, you know, described their fight with Israel, Israel never responded in such language because, first of all, Israel is a secular state. It's not a religious state, it's not a fundamentalist state. But secondly, when you are talking in the language of holy wars, there can be no resolution that includes a compromise to that conflict.

You are fighting in the name of God. And when you are fighting in the name of God, it is a total war until a total victory of the God of Israel over the God of the enemy, even though it's the same God in that context. But it is always, like, it's a total and complete war with no way of compromising. It's very unusual, yeah. And Netanyahu always tried to distance himself from his Orthodox partners. He always tried to show himself as a person who is a secular Jew. Although he has partners who are Orthodox, he's different from them. And he always tried to emphasize it to the general audience. Now he's blurring those lines, and you have to understand, Netanyahu is a very calculated person. So if he's using it, it's probably - there's a good reason for that. It's not a coincidence.

FADEL: Why do you think he's using it?

INBARI: His ratings are very low. He needs to reach back to his base and bring back his ratings. Now, the public polls that are conducted in Israel are terrible for Netanyahu right now.

FADEL: It's a really difficult place - right? - a massacre in Southern Israel...

INBARI: Yes.

FADEL: ...That left over 1,400 people killed. Over 200 hostages in Gaza. The images coming out of Gaza with so many civilians killed, thousands among them children. I mean, when you talk about this war and this development as disturbing, what is it?

INBARI: You don't want to turn Israel into a war with Islam, that Judaism against Islam, because Israel - well, just a few weeks ago, we were talking about peace with Saudi Arabia. So if Judaism is in war with Islam, Israel won't be able to have peace with Saudi Arabia and won't be able to have peace with Egypt and Jordan and other states. So it's not strategically smart to invoke this metaphor that Judaism is at war with Islam. Israel is at war with a segment of the Palestinian people. It's called Hamas. This is how we need to treat it, in my opinion.

FADEL: Motti Inbari, professor of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke. Thank you so much for your time and your insights.

INBARI: Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In a statement to NPR, the Prime Minister's office says, quote, "Israel's defined war mission is to destroy Hamas," unquote. It goes on to say "the proportional response to the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas is the destruction of Hamas. Anything less will not prevent future Hamas attacks," unquote. The White House says President Biden raised the need for humanitarian pauses in a phone call yesterday with Netanyahu, but that no agreement was reached. Later, in an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu suggested he might be open to what he described as tactical little pauses for an hour here or there to allow aid into or hostages out of Gaza.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Happy Children's Day 2023: Images, Quotes, Wishes for Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram Status and Stories

Happy children’s day 2023: this children’s day celebrates the innocence and purity of a child with the best and most creative messages, quotes and wishes. marked with great joy and educational activities, the day underscores the importance of protecting children's rights and nurturing their well-being..

Children’s Day 2023: Quotes

• “Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.” - Anonymous
• “Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” - Henry Ward Beecher
• “Children are our most valuable resource.” - Herbert Hoover
• “Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.” - Rabindranath Tagore
• “The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” - Oscar Wilde

• “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”- Frederick Douglass
• “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”- Albert Einstein
• “Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.”- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
• “We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.”- Jimmy Carter
• “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than how it treats its children.”- Nelson Mandela

Children’s Day 2023: Wishes for Facebook

• Wishing you a very Happy Children’s Day because even you were a child once. Look for that child inside you to celebrate this day with the greatest joy.
• As adults, we get so busy with life that we lose our real identity. On the occasion of Children’s Day, I am reminding you to find the child in you to have a joyous day.
• May every day of your life start with happiness and a smile, just the way it started when you were a child. Warm wishes on Children’s Day to you.
• If you think that Children’s Day is just for the little kids we see around us then you are wrong because we all have a kid inside all of us who must celebrate this day. Happy Children’s Day.
• I wish all the adults around me a very Happy Children’s Day. Cheers to the innocence we had. Cheers to the cuteness we won all the hearts with.

• On the occasion of Children’s Day¸, I wish that as adults we relive those beautiful times of childhood and celebrate this day with fun and joy. Happy Children’s Day.
• We are never too old to wish each other on Children’s Day. It is just a sweet way of celebrating the innocence and purity we all have in our hearts. Happy Children’s Day.
• In the race called life, we end up losing our hearts, we end up wearing masks. On Children’s Day, let us find our hearts and take off our masks. Warm wishes on Children’s Day to all.
• We may have grown up into adults but our heart still enjoys the small things that bring us joy because we are still a baby inside. Wishing everyone a very Happy Children’s Day.
• You are our tomorrow, you are our hope. You have the potential to bring a change in this world. Wishing a very Happy Children’s Day to kids who are stars of tomorrow.

Children’s Day 2023: WhatsApp Status

• With the amount of talent, passion and dedication you have as a kid, it is truly inspiring to see what wonders you will do when you grow up. Happy Children’s Day to you.
• May you find success when you grow up but you never lose the innocence you have in you. With lots of love, sending you warm greetings on Children’s Day.
• May the child in you live forever and bring you happiness and contentment. May you enjoy the most beautiful time of your life to the fullest. Happy Children’s Day.
• Never lose hope because there is always a tomorrow and there is always a new opportunity waiting for you. Wishing a very Happy Children’s Day to the little kids.
• You are the representatives of God on Earth and that’s the reason you are so much full of positivity and love. Sending you warm wishes on Children’s Day.

• Only children have the power to add just another energy to our world. We are truly blessed to have you in our world because you add brightness and happiness to it. Happy Children’s Day.
• Every little smile on your face brings the boundless joy of parenthood to our hearts. All the charm and joy of this day is for you. Happy World Children’s Day!
• A very warm wish for all the children on this special day. Happy International Children's Day!
• On this very special day, we look forward to spending some mesmerizing moments with you because you’re so special to us. Happy Universal Children’s Day!
• On this very special day, let us all celebrate the innocence and purity of our kids. Let them feel precious in every way that we can. Because they are our future! Happy World Children’s Day!
• If we want to see our future filled with happiness and harmony, we must teach our kids to be a good human being more than anything else. Happy Universal Children’s Day!

Children’s Day 2023: Instagram Captions

• Celebrating the pure joy of childhood. 
• In a world full of grown-ups, be a kid. Happy Children's Day!
• Every child is a gift of nature. Happy Children's Day!
• Because every child deserves a day to shine. 
• Let's celebrate the innocence and laughter that children bring into our lives. 

• Childhood is about innocence and playfulness. Cherish it! 
• To the little ones who make our world brighter. Happy Children's Day! 
• May the laughter of children echo forever. Happy Children's Day!
• In their smiles, we find the purest joy. Happy Children's Day! 
• Because every child is a story yet to be told. Happy Children's Day!

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President’s War Against ‘Fake News’ Raises Alarms in South Korea

He calls fake news an enemy that threatens democracy. Critics of President Yoon Suk Yeol say he is silencing journalists in the name of fighting disinformation.

By Choe Sang-Hun

Reporting from Seoul

Allies of President Yoon Suk Yeol are attacking what they see as an existential threat to South Korea, and they are mincing few words. The head of Mr. Yoon’s party has called for the death sentence for a case of “high treason.” The culture ministry has vowed to root out what it called an “organized and dirty” conspiracy to undermine the country’s democracy.

In this case, the accused is not a foreign spy, but a Korean news outlet that has published articles critical of Mr. Yoon and his government.

The president, a former prosecutor, is turning to lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he calls disinformation, efforts that have largely been aimed at news organizations. Since Mr. Yoon was elected last year, the police and prosecutors have repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.”

Some South Koreans accuse Mr. Yoon of repurposing the expression as justification for defamation suits and to mobilize prosecutors and regulators to threaten penalties and criminal investigations. Many are exasperated that their leader has adopted the phrase, a rallying cry for strongmen around the world that is also further dividing an increasingly polarized electorate at home.

South Koreans are proud of the vibrant democracy and free press they won after decades of military dictatorship, and, more recently, of their country’s growing soft-power influence .

Mr. Yoon may be best known overseas for aligning his country more closely with the United States​ — and for his rendition of “American Pie” at ​the White House. He espouses “freedom” in speeches, but his 18-month-old presidency has been characterized by a near-constant clash with the opposition and fears of censorship and democratic backsliding.

Leaders of the democratic world have all grappled with how to counter the corrosive effects of disinformation online. But Mr. Yoon’s critics, including the liberal opposition and journalists’ associations, accuse him of suppressing speech in the name of fighting disinformation. In a survey this year, a majority of local journalists said they felt press freedom was regressing under Mr. Yoon.

“It’s dangerous to leave it to the government to decide what fake news is,” said Pae Jung Kun, a journalism professor at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul. “It undermines the news media’s ability to hold the government to account.”

Mr. Yoon’s crackdown intensified in September, when his office singled out an independent news organization for a report it published last year.

Prosecutors ransacked the homes and offices of two reporters from Newstapa, which ran the article. Journalists from other outlets were also targeted, their cellphones and files​ confiscated to collect criminal evidence of defamation. The authorities have rarely taken such measures since South Korea democratized in the 1990s, though that has changed under Mr. Yoon. Government regulators fined three cable and TV channels​ that had picked up the Newstapa article​, also accusing them of spreading “fake news.”

The article that earned Newstapa the ire of Mr. Yoon was published three days before ​his election, in March 2022. It described an allegation that Mr. Yoon, as a prosecutor in 2011, had decided not to indict Cho Woo-hyung, a man ​involved in a banking and real-estate scandal, because of​ lobbying by a prosecutor turned lawyer. Mr. Yoon denied the claim during presidential debates​ and still does​.

Other news organizations had reported on the controversy before. But Newstapa acquired an audio file of a conversation between one of its freelance researchers and Kim Man-bae, a former journalist and a key figure in the scandal, who claimed that he had introduced Mr. Cho to the lawyer, who then used his influence with Mr. Yoon to get the case against Mr. Cho dropped. Newstapa said the freelancer was not on assignment when the conversation took place in 2021 and provided the audio only days before the vote.

After Mr. Yoon was elected, the Newstapa article was largely forgotten — until prosecutors raided the freelancer’s home in September, accusing him of taking $122,000 in bribes from Mr. Kim. The freelancer and Mr. Kim both denied bribery, and Newstapa said it was not aware of any financial transactions between the two when it published the article. But it stood by the decision to report the contents of the audio file and accused ​the president of trying to silence an outlet that refused to toe ​his line.

Mr. Yoon’s justice minister demanded accountability and called for a thorough investigation. The Korea Communications Standards Commission, which typically blocks websites featuring gambling, pornography or North Korean propaganda, said it intended to screen all online media to eliminate “fake news” after its new chairman, a Yoon appointee, called it “ a clear and present danger .”

“If we don’t stop the spread of fake news,” Mr. Yoon told his staff in September, “it will threaten free democracy and the market economy built on it.”

Newstapa was started in 2012 by journalists disgruntled with what they viewed as the collusion of politics, business and the news media. South Korea’s democracy appears rollicking, but its news organizations have long suffered low public trust , as people viewed them as kowtowing to corporate interests and pandering to partisan bias. Newstapa depends on donations to support its staff of 50 and has published investigative reports critical of South Korea’s elites, ​including big businesses and prosecutors.

“We have been a thorn in the eye for Yoon and prosecutors,” said Sim In-bo, a director of content at Newstapa. ​

​Analysts said the outlet had exposed itself to criticism by running an unsubstantiated allegation so close to a hotly contested election. ( Mr. Yoon won by the thinnest margin of any free presidential election in South Korea.) But they also called the government’s response over the top.

“President Yoon, a prosecutor all his life with little experience in politics, has developed a narrow and stern political perspective,” said Kang Won-taek, a political science professor at Seoul National University. “He still acts like a prosecutor. What should be resolved through the political process is taken to law.”

Mr. Yoon ​started as a media-friendly president. He was the first South Korean leader to allow journalists to ask questions when he arrived for work ​in the morning. But that openness did not last long.

After the South Korean broadcaster MBC published what it called a hot-mic clip of the president using an expletive to describe American ​lawmakers last year, he adopted a more hostile stance. Two months later, the next time Mr. Yoon traveled overseas, he banned MBC reporters from his presidential plane. The organization’s “fake news” report, he said, was a “malicious” attempt to create a rift in the alliance with ​Washington.

He also stopped taking questions in the morning.

In South Korea, conservatives and their rivals have both been accused of cracking down on critical news reports when they are in power. When the liberal opposition was in office, it also called fake news “a public enemy” and tried to introduce legislation that would allow hefty financial penalties. The attempt foundered after conservatives pushed back, calling it a “dictatorial” effort to muzzle unfriendly news outlets.

Under Mr. Yoon, the two sides swapped stances. The difference is that the conservative government, rather than trying to introduce a new law, is resorting to an old weapon.

“The government and public figures used libel and slander laws , which broadly define and criminalize defamation, to restrict public discussion and harass, intimidate or censor private and media expression,” the U.S. State Department said in its​ annual human rights report on South Korea in March.

Convictions on defamation charges in South Korea, which are based on whether what was said was “in the public interest” and not on its veracity, can result in fines or up to seven years’ imprisonment.

Mr. Yoon’s office said it had to take legal action to prevent disinformation from spreading and being accepted as fact. But the government’s definition of fake news has raised questions about how to draw lines between disinformation and free speech.

The Foreign Ministry sued MBC after it refused to retract its hot-mic report. Since Mr. Yoon took office, the police have repeatedly raided the offices and homes of reporters and producers at The Tamsa , a YouTube channel that reported on corruption allegations involving Mr. Yoon, his wife​, his mother-in-law (who is in prison for forgery) ​and his justice minister. And in September, prosecutors raided the office of JTBC, a cable channel that reported the same allegation against Mr. Yoon as Newstapa. The authorities have searched the homes or offices of four other journalists who reported similar claims before the election.

South Koreans, distrustful of traditional media, have increasingly migrated to YouTube and other online sources for news. These platforms wielded huge influence during the last presidential election, spreading openly partisan views.

“The so-called new media outlets are more aggressive in gathering and distributing facts on key issues of the moment than traditional media,” said Ahn Soo-chan, a journalism professor at Semyung University. “And political power becomes more aggressive in trying to control them.”

Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun

US voices concern over killing of Palestinians as Gaza death toll tops 11,000

• LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
• Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas escalates near Gaza hospitals
• Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah targets near its northern border
• Israel revises its Oct. 7 death toll to about 1,200

GAZA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday expressed growing concern about the rising Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip where health officials said the number killed in a five-week-old Israeli bombardment had topped 11,000.

Fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants escalated near and around Gaza City's besieged and overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.

In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the Gaza cross-fire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."

Blinken welcomed daily four-hour humanitarian Israeli pauses that the White House announced on Thursday but said more action was needed to protect Gaza's civilians.

Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-long war with Hamas but says the Islamist militants, who attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and took hostages, would exploit a truce to regroup.

"Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.

He said later that at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.

Gaza officials said missiles landed in the courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave's biggest hospital, in the early hours, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital.

Israel's military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people as well as patients and doctors.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa hospital's basement, which meant the hospital could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.

Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals, charges Hamas denies.

Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times.

"One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack," he said by phone. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.

GAZA DEATH TOLL TOPS 11,000

Palestinian officials said on Friday 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since Oct. 7.

[1/7] Palestinians fleeing north Gaza move southward as Israeli tanks roll deeper into the enclave, in the central Gaza Strip, November 10. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Acquire Licensing Rights

On Friday Israel's Foreign Ministry said around 1,200 people had been killed, mostly civilians, in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, a revision of the earlier death toll, although it added that might change again once all the bodies are identified.

Israel has also said about 240 were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, while 39 soldiers have been killed in combat since.

The Palestinian Red Cross said Israeli forces were shooting at Al-Quds hospital, and there were violent clashes, with one person killed and 28 wounded, most of them children.

Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht told an evening briefing the army "does not fire on hospitals. If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals we'll do what we need to do. We're aware of the sensitivity (of hospitals), but again, if we see Hamas terrorists, we'll kill them."

The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day, and the army said Palestinians on Friday were allowed to leave over seven hours along a road south, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting.

Palestinians said an Israeli missile struck the road used by people to flee south and Hamas-run media said three people were killed.

More than 100,000 residents had fled south over the last two days as Israeli forces operate "deep in Gaza City", chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

But evacuations from Gaza into Egypt for foreign passport holders and for Palestinians needing urgent treatment were suspended on Friday, sources said. A Palestinian official and an Egyptian medical source blamed problems bringing medical evacuees to the Rafah border crossing from inside Gaza.

The armed wing of Hamas said on Friday it was still firing rockets and shells into Israel and fighting off troops in Gaza.

Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas to alert people to Hamas rocket fire. Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from a salvo.

Tensions also flared again on Israel's northern border. The Israeli military said it struck targets belonging to the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah in response to aerial attacks over the past day that wounded five soldiers.

Gaza's hospitals were struggling to cope, even before the conflict closed in on them, with medical supplies, clean water and fuel to power generators running out.

In the wake of the blast at Shifa hospital, many people fled. Ayman Al-Masri, wounded early in the war, told Reuters he had taken shelter there with his mother and sister 10 days ago.

"We want a truce, we want a solution, a political solution. Tens of our children are killed every day," he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the healthcare system in Gaza had reached a "point of no return."

More than 100 United Nations employees have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said, making it the deadliest conflict ever for the U.N. in such a short period of time.

Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Claudia Tanios, Maytaal Angel, Emily Rose, Maayan Lubell, and Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Rami Amichay in Tel Aviv, Clauda Tanios, Jana Choukeir and Adam Makary in Dubai, Emma Farge in Geneva and other Reuters bureaus; Writing by Philippa Fletcher, William Maclean, Nick Macfie and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Howard Goller and Rosalba O'Brien

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

A senior correspondent with nearly 25 years’ experience covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict including several wars and the signing of the first historic peace accord between the two sides.

Humeyra Pamuk is a senior foreign policy correspondent based in Washington DC. She covers the U.S. State Department, regularly traveling with U.S. Secretary of State. During her 20 years with Reuters, she has had postings in London, Dubai, Cairo and Turkey, covering everything from the Arab Spring and Syria's civil war to numerous Turkish elections and the Kurdish insurgency in the southeast. In 2017, she won the Knight-Bagehot fellowship program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA on European Union studies.

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