ISRAELI forces move into Gaza (Wikipedia/IDF).

Where to go to flee the war? Many Palestinians – described at tens of thousands – have fled into Rafah in Gaza Strip as Israeli forces move into the center of Gaza.

An estimated 85 percent of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people have fled from their homes, some of them seeking shelter in areas that have been bombed. Complicating the crisis is problems with the availability of humanitarian aid to the refugees.

United Nations officials have criticized what they call “severe restrictions” placed on the movement of food, water and medical aid into the area. Many, if not most, of the people displaced by Israeli bombardments are “fully dependent on outside aid, most of it from the UN.

Record decrease in homicides

MURDER is down in 2023 (Shutterstock).

The Year 2023 is likely to see a record-breaking one-year decline in murder. The FBI’s data for 2023 for the first three-quarters of the year shows dips into both violent and property crime with motor vehicle death the only category showing an uptick.

These numbers are coming down from a peak in 2020 when the pandemic jolted the nation, along with civil unrest in the wake of unrest over the police killing of George Floyd.

Big cities sometimes cited as crime dens are reporting decreases in violent crimes. Chicago has seen a 13 percent drop in murder and in New York, the decline is 25 percent.

Ohio governor vetoes transgender bill

A bill that would keep transgender girls and women from playing on high school and college teams for females was vetoed Friday by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican.

The bill would also prevent doctors from prescribing hormones, “puberty blockers” or gender reassignment surgery to patients under the age of 18.

His veto may not stand, however, since both houses of the state legislature have GOP “supermajorities” sufficient to override DeWine’s action.

Russians launch air attack

RUSSIA AND Ukraine are still at war (Shutterstock).

In what’s considered the biggest air attack of the war, Russia’s military launched missiles and drones against targets across Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian government, the attack wounded at least 144 people over 18 hours. An unknown number of persons may be buried under the rubble of buildings flattened by the missiles.

A hospital, apartment blocks and schools are reported to be among the buildings damaged by the attacks.

Weather: Rain and high surf

True winter weather is expected come to our West Orange County area on Saturday with rain and high surf along the coast. The daytime high should be 63 with an overnight low of 52. Sunday will be cloudy with slightly cooler temps of 62 (50). Monday will be slightly warmer at 63 (45) under partly cloudy skies. Tuesday will continue that trend at 66 (49).