“Netanyahu knew.” This is Israeli newspaper Haaretz’s verdict on allegations that Benjamin Netanyahu was warned about the Oct. 7 attacks. The longtime prime minister is on the defensive before the crucial Oct. 27 election amid a string of claims that Arab officials told him a violent assault was being plotted. Netanyahu has dismissed the reports as lies and threatened to sue the paper.

What are the claims?
The allegations “began to trickle out” last month, when Haaretz published an excerpt from a book called “Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment,” said The Washington Post. Written by Israeli journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, the book details an encrypted call reportedly made by Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as MBZ, less than two weeks before Oct. 7, 2023, to warn Netanyahu about a planned attack. Netanyahu did not pass on the warnings to his security aides, according to the journalists.

The prime minister also got an attack warning from Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, according to The Wall Street Journal. Kamel reportedly flew to Israel to inform security officials in person that Hamas was planning a major assault and then allegedly phoned Netanyahu just days before Oct. 7.

What does Netanyahu say?
The Israeli leader strongly denies ever receiving any warning of an attack. He insists the report that he was warned by MBZ is an “absolute lie” and denies having spoken to the Emirati leader at that time.

Netanyahu has tried to “shift the blame” for not being alerted of the attacks to the former head of Israel’s internal security service, Ronen Bar, said Al Jazeera. Bar announced last month that he would sue the prime minister, a “longtime political nemesis,” for defamation over the claims.

How might they affect the election?
Polling suggests the events surrounding the attacks and “questions over responsibility for security failures that preceded them” are “important issues” for voters ahead of this month’s parliamentary elections, said Al Jazeera. Many of Netanyahu’s electoral rivals have promised to immediately establish an independent commission of inquiry if elected.

With the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. complete, the combined company Skydance now has control of both CNN and CBS News. Some seem happy that CNN promised to maintain editorial independence. But others worry the network could take the same controversial rightward shift as CBS.

What did the commentators say?
Skydance CEO David Ellison reportedly asked Thompson to stay at CNN, and the new company “confirmed that CNN’s Mark Thompson will stay on as editor-in-chief of the network, separate from CBS, where Bari Weiss remains at the helm,” said The Associated Press. But how Skydance’s “news operations will look farther down the road is yet to be seen.”

Ellison has pledged to maintain CNN’s editorial freedom, but he also has a “cozy relationship” with President Donald Trump, who has been “far from shy about targeting coverage he deems unfavorable” from CNN and CBS.

Many at CNN seem relieved that Thompson will stay aboard. “That sound you hear is a giant sigh of relief from the halls of Techwood,” said a CNN producer to The Guardian, referring to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters. Even so, the merger “raises uncomfortable questions about media capture” in the U.S., said the Columbia Journalism Review. CNN under Skydance “likely won’t replicate Fox News, but it will look to stay in Trump’s good graces.”

For CNN, Thompson remaining on board is the “best-case scenario under its new owners,” said the Poynter Institute. At the network, some “uncertainty about the new ownership has inflamed anxieties” about a potential Bari Weiss takeover, said The New York Times, which is especially true for CNN’s most famous anchor, Anderson Cooper, who “told colleagues that he did not want to work for her.”

What next?
Thompson staying on will “at least initially establish a boundary around Weiss’ authority,” said The Wrap. It may also “ease some concerns among lawmakers, regulators and other merger critics about Ellison’s potential influence” over CNN. But just because the two media powerhouses appear separate “does not necessarily mean CNN and CBS News will remain editorially distinct over the long term.”

A firefighting helicopter drops water on the Bryson Fire in Malibu, California. At press time, the blaze has burned 147 acres and is 17% contained. Much of Los Angeles County is under a Red Flag Warning because of the dangerous combination of powerful Santa Ana winds, high temperatures, and low humidity.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Notable entries in this genre consider the way violence, an endemic feature of human societies, can spiral out of hand. These four superb films approach that reality from very different vantage points.

‘The French Connection’ (1971)
A pulse-pounding narrative follows hard-nosed New York City cops Jimmy Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) as they try to bust up a heroin ring based in France. The movie (pictured above) is about “ugly things and awful people, headlined by one of the era's finest antiheroes,” said Tim Brayton at Alternate Ending. (Prime Video)

‘Fargo’ (1996)
In this mordantly funny parable, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) hires two inept sociopaths to kidnap his wife and puts himself on a collision course with small-town cop Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). The movie “rotates its story through satire, comedy, suspense and violence until it emerges as one of the best films I have ever seen,” said Roger Ebert at the time. (MGM+)

‘Memories of Murder’ (2003)
Director Bong Joon Ho’s iconic procedural follows a sometimes hilariously inept investigation into a series of small-town murders. The film “challenges and subverts the serial killer procedural in its entirety,” said Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian. (Prime Video)

‘Blue Ruin’ (2013)
Macon Blair stars as Dwight Evans, a man living on the margins of society who learns that his parents’ killer is being released from prison. Dwight then sets off to seek revenge. The movie succeeds by “probing deeper than usual into the effects (and practicalities) of violence,” said Kim Newman at Empire. (Peacock)