“U.S.-Iran ceasefire is on shaky ground” as “Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon,” the Arizona Republic says on Friday’s front page. “Israel agrees to talks with Lebanon but vows no letup on Hezbollah,” The New York Times says. “Netanyahu keeps on fighting, but the payoff remains unclear,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Iranians fly flags of victory after pause in attacks,” The Washington Post says. “Gas prices top of mind for many amid war,” USA Today says. “Fuel prices up again,” says The Dallas Morning News. “Houston teen soccer captain deported,” the Houston Chronicle says. “Hurricane forecast: El Niño, caution,” says The Palm Beach Post. “California could be in path of a ‘super’ El Niño,” says the Los Angeles Times.

President Joe Biden has vowed to "stay in the race" and "beat" Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal says on Friday's front page. But even at his "high-stakes" news conference yesterday, Biden "made some flubs". The president's "make-or-break Q&A" was the "Blunder of the World", says the New York Post. 

Biden isn't the only one feeling the heat, amid record-high temperature that are "stunning even forecasters", says The New York Times, as Las Vegas "hits 118". But in Vermont, a year after floods devastated the region, there is a "painful deja vu" for locals, says The Boston Globe, after tributaries of the Winooski River "burst their banks again" amid "heavy storms".

There was some good news for the nation though. As inflation eases, rates cuts "may not be far behind", says The Washington Post, giving "long-awaited relief" to households and businesses.

Former President Donald Trump is "teed up to testify" Monday in his New York civil business fraud trial, following last week's testimony by sons Eric and Donald Jr., the New York Daily News highlights. The New York Times reports that, based on its new polling, Trump is also teed up to beat President Biden in five of six key swing states in 2024. 

If Trump were to win next year, he and his allies are working to "plot their revenge" on critics using the Justice Department, The Washington Post reported. The Boston Globe, pointing to Tuesday's local elections around the country, suggests a lot depends on how potent an electoral issue new restrictions on abortion access continue to be.

The major newspapers report on Israel's military advancing ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, the growing calls for a cease-fire or "humanitarian pause," and Secretary of State Antony Blinken's flurried Mideast tour to try and keep the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading. The Houston Chronicle looks at how the conflict is already spreading locally, in communities across the U.S.

The Washington Post, like other major U.S. newspapers, reports that Israeli troops have encircled Gaza City as Israel faces increasing pressure to stop killing so many Palestinian civilians in its campaign to destroy Hamas. The Post also prominently reports that "the fallen star of crypto," Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty on all counts for stealing $10 billion from investors in his FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

USA Today, citing Israeli security officials, reports that the Hamas fighters who attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 were carrying, and probably high on, the synthetic stimulant Captagon, also called "the jihadi drug, Captain Courage, the Poor Man's Cocaine." Narcoterrorism experts said the amphetamine, produced in Syria and popular among Islamic State militants, gives fighters "almost superhuman powers," including alertness and imperviousness to hunger, and could also help explain why the Hamas attack was so vicious.

The New York Times and New York Post highlight the federal raid on the chief fundraiser for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, reportedly on suspicion Adams' 2021 campaign illegally accepted money from Ankara — or as the Post put it, "Turkey and the $kimmings." 

Hundreds of foreign nationals and wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt on Wednesday, "escaping the territory's misery" after weeks of negotiations, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Some Americans were among those allowed to leave, though more remain trapped. In northern Gaza, "Israel turns up the heat on Hamas as calls for cooling off mount," The Wall Street Journal says, noting the growing calls for a humanitarian pause in Israel's bombing. 

The New York Post devotes its front page to the anti-Israel protesters who, in "petty acts of hate," tear down posters showing hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. 

The New York Times puts the death of "title-winning, temper-losing" college basketball coaching legend Bobby Knight on the front page. Knight, the fiery "maestro" who led Indiana University to three NCAA championships, was "all the rage," The Washington Post agrees. The Journal also gives front-page space to the Texas Rangers winning their first World Series in a 4-games-to-1 rout of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The New York Post spotlights a "bellowing Robert De Niro" testifying at the federal lawsuit filed against him by a former assistant, noting that the actor "begrudgingly copped" to once asking her to scratch his back "before exploding, 'you got me!'" 

But the top story in all Wednesday's papers is Israel's bombing of Gaza's crowded Jabaliya refugee camp, which killed a senior Hamas leader but also "left scores dead and wounded" civilians, The Washington Post noted. Video of the scene showed Palestinians digging with their hands through rubble around a massive crater "to extract bodies and survivors, many of them children," The Wall Street Journal said.

The Houston Chronicle also highlights "a growing rash of violence targeting postal carriers" in America's fourth-largest city and across the country. The New York Times looks at how an Orlando, Florida, school district's banning of cellphones made students "agonize but perk up."

The Los Angeles Times, like most major U.S. newspapers, leads with the Israel-Hamas war, but focuses on how Israel's confirmation Monday that Hamas murdered a young German-Israeli festival-goer, Shani Louk, at least gave closure to the 22-year-old's family and friends. Hundreds of other Israelis are being held hostage in a war zone or dead but not yet identified.

The New York Times reports on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rejection of a cease-fire, and on how President Biden has "tempered" his "unambiguous support" for Israel's response to the massacre with intensifying criticism of its Gaza offensive. The Wall Street Journal says in Israel, too, Netanyahu is fighting for "political survival."

The Houston Chronicle leads with Saturday's stabbing murder of a Muslim pediatrician outside her home. The Chronicle also profiles the "rather ordinary" life of a suburban mom with a "corporate 9-to-5" who also happens to be a sought-after ghost hunter.

The war in Gaza leads most major newspapers Monday. The New York Times takes a deep look at Israel's "hubris and missed signals" as Hamas prepared the attack that shattered "the country's once invincible sense of security."

The Washington Post looks at how the toll of another Mideast war, in Yemen, is being exacerbated by a "brutal mix of heat and hunger." The Post also reports that a string of conservative rulings from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is "testing the Supreme Court" to see how far right it will veer.

USA Today and the New York Daily News lead with the continued mourning of 'Friends' star Matthew Perry and the "anguish" from the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, last week.