Gaza Food Cuts, 9/11 Deals, & Attachment Style

News without the noise

Adam Rogers
October 20, 2026

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The World Food Programme reduced the number of people receiving food assistance in Gaza by 500,000 because of funding shortages. The U.N. agency said Monday that its monthly distributions will reach 1.1 million people in October, down from 1.6 million in September.
Those still receiving food will get smaller rations as the agency halves its allocations. It has also stopped cash assistance for 75,000 families and reduced daily hot meals from 250,000 to 150,000. The cuts follow a drop in funding of more than half from 2025 levels.
The agency says it needs $450 million to sustain operations in Gaza and the West Bank through March. About two-thirds of Gaza’s population faces crisis levels of hunger or worse according to the latest food-security assessment.

The Supreme Court declined to revive plea agreements Monday that would have spared accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants the death penalty.
The men had agreed in 2024 to plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment without parole. Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin canceled the agreements two days after a senior Pentagon official approved them. Their lawyers argued he acted too late, but a divided appeals court upheld his authority to intervene.
Monday’s decision leaves that ruling in place without resolving the case at trial. The military proceeding at Guantanamo Bay is scheduled to begin in June 2028. Relatives of September 11 victims have been divided over whether the agreements offered overdue finality or denied them a full trial.

National Taiwan University researchers developed a hand-cranked device that identifies blood type and measures red blood cell levels in about one minute without electricity.
Hospitals typically use powered laboratory equipment for these tests. The new device spins a tiny sample of finger-prick blood through channels in a plastic chip. Chemicals cause matching blood cells to clump into visible red bands that identify the blood group. The bands’ length also shows the proportion of red blood cells in the sample.
Results from 21 patient samples closely matched hospital analyzers. The researchers hope the device could help first responders select compatible blood for transfusions and assess blood loss or anemia in ambulances and remote clinics.

President Trump signed an order Monday creating a women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health and a White House task force to address research gaps and improve care. (More)

The Supreme Court agreed to review the federal ban on distilling liquor at home after appeals courts split over whether it exceeds Congress’s taxing power. The ban remains in place. (More)

Disaster survivors still await federal rebuilding aid as Los Angeles County and St. Louis alone need more than $10 billion following major disasters. (More)

A Kenyan court convicted cult leader Paul Mackenzie and about 30 others Monday of murdering 190 children and one adult through starvation. (More)

Australian lawmaker Helen Haines remains in critical condition following a vehicle attack outside her office Monday. Police have a man in custody as counterterrorism investigators examine the motive. (More)

Four Salvadoran soldiers remained unaccounted for Monday following an ambush in Haiti that marked the first major attack on a new international force deployed to confront gangs. (More)

U.S. stock markets closed mixed on Monday (S&P +0.41%, Nasdaq +1.11%, Dow -0.07%) as rebounding tech stocks drove S&P and Nasdaq gains. (More)

Elon Musk pledged to give one of his SpaceX shares to every child in America next year. Each share was worth about $146 at Friday’s close. (More)

Germany’s Merck agreed to buy Silence Therapeutics for $1.3 billion to expand its pipeline of medicines that silence disease-linked genes. (More)

Vijay Singh became the second-oldest PGA Tour Champions winner at 63 Sunday after finishing two strokes ahead of Ernie Els at the SAS Championship. (More)

The Tampa Bay Rays reached their first World Series since 2020 Monday by beating Cleveland 7–3 to win the ALCS in six games. They’ll face the Milwaukee Brewers. (More)

Tim McGraw joined the Country Music Hall of Fame Sunday alongside songwriter Paul Overstreet and bluegrass pioneers the Stanley Brothers. (More)

Researchers identified antibody patterns up to 10 years before inflammatory bowel disease diagnoses in a 500-person study. Further validation is needed before the findings could support a screening test. (More)

Stanford scientists restored bleached corals in seven weeks during laboratory tests by briefly placing them against healthy clones that transferred essential algae. (More)

Japan’s MMX spacecraft launched Monday afternoon on a mission to collect material from the Martian moon Phobos and return it to Earth in 2031. (More)

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