New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire gunsAries - (21st March to 19th April) Daily Horoscope Prediction says, Do not let tremors impact the life Expect happiness in the relationship and ensure you deliver the best professional results. Keep the financial affairs steady and clean, Health is positive. Explore new dimensions of love today and also take new opportunities in your job to get the best results. Financially you will be strong today and your health will also be good. Aries Love Horoscope Today There can be changes in the relationship and some love affairs will pass through steamy time. It is wise to avoid arguments, especially in the second part of the day. Minor disagreements may take a dangerous turn if went unchecked. Do not let a third person dictate things in the relationship and ensure you have long and open conversations with the lover. Some females may receive proposals in the classroom or at the office. Do not let egos come in between you and the lover. Aries Career Horoscope Today There can be issues at work. The productivity may take a hit in the first part of the day. However, it is crucial to overcome these challenges. Do not give opinions at meetings unless asked. Your attitude is vital while doing team projects. Botanists, academicians, aviation, and media professionals will have a busy day. Lawyers will handle cases that will also invite public attention. Students looking for admission to foreign universities will have reasons to smile. Aries Money Horoscope Today Wealth will be your companion and this will help in making crucial monetary decisions. The second part of the day is good to buy electronic appliances and even vehicles. You may also try the fortune in the stock market today. However, you should be careful while lending a big amount to a relative as getting it back can be a tough task. Businessmen may have minor issues related to finance and this will require help from immediate friends. Aries Health Horoscope Today No major health issues will be there. However, you need to be careful about chest pain or viral fever. Some females will be under severe stress due to official pressure. Yoga and meditation can be helpful here. Spend more time with family and do not miss the medicines. Some seniors will have sleep-related issues and traditional methods are more fruitful here. Aries Sign Attributes Strength: Optimistic, Energetic, Sincere, Multitalented, Venturesome, generous, cheerful, curious Weakness: Reckless, Argumentative, Loud-mouthed, Impatient Symbol: Ram Element: Fire Body Part: Head Sign Ruler: Mars Lucky Day: Tuesday Lucky Color: Red Lucky Number: 5 Lucky Stone: Ruby Aries Compatibility Chart Natural affinity: Gemini, Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius Good compatibility: Aries, Libra Fair compatibility: Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, Pisces Less compatibility: Cancer, Capricorn By: Dr. J. N. Pandey Vedic Astrology & Vastu Expert Website: www.astrologerjnpandey.com E-mail: djnpandey@gmail.com Phone: 91-9811107060 (WhatsApp Only)
NoneKey details to know about the arrest of a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEOFDA Accepts Ascendis Pharma's Supplemental Biologics License Application for TransConTM hGH for the Treatment of Adults with Growth Hormone Deficiency
Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of First Mid Bancshares, Inc. ( NASDAQ:FMBH – Free Report ) by 327.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,347 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 26,315 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned 0.14% of First Mid Bancshares worth $1,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FMBH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in First Mid Bancshares by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 778,135 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,584,000 after buying an additional 36,769 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in First Mid Bancshares by 7.3% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 387,926 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,094,000 after acquiring an additional 26,560 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in First Mid Bancshares by 23.7% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 340,343 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,190,000 after purchasing an additional 65,314 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in First Mid Bancshares by 7.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 118,048 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,881,000 after purchasing an additional 7,849 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its holdings in First Mid Bancshares by 2.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 106,397 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,498,000 after purchasing an additional 2,186 shares in the last quarter. 47.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. First Mid Bancshares Stock Down 1.8 % First Mid Bancshares stock opened at $36.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.07. The company has a market cap of $884.50 million, a P/E ratio of 11.38 and a beta of 0.91. First Mid Bancshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.86 and a 1-year high of $43.86. First Mid Bancshares Dividend Announcement Analyst Ratings Changes Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of First Mid Bancshares from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on First Mid Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens cut First Mid Bancshares from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered First Mid Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.50. Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on First Mid Bancshares First Mid Bancshares Profile ( Free Report ) First Mid Bancshares, Inc, a financial holding company, provides community banking products and services to commercial, retail, and agricultural customers in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as demand deposits, savings accounts, money market deposits, and time deposits. The company’s loan products include commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, agricultural and agricultural real estate, residential real estate, and consumer loans, as well as construction and land development, 1-4 family residential properties, and multifamily residential properties loans; and other loans comprising loans to municipalities to support community projects, such as infrastructure improvements or equipment purchases. Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than First Mid Bancshares How Investors Can Identify and Successfully Trade Gap-Down Stocks Buffett Takes the Bait; Berkshire Buys More Oxy in December Best of the list of Dividend Aristocrats: Build wealth with the aristocrat index Top 3 ETFs to Hedge Against Inflation in 2025 Investing in Construction Stocks These 3 Chip Stock Kings Are Still Buys for 2025 Receive News & Ratings for First Mid Bancshares Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for First Mid Bancshares and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .OpenAI has teased , and repeatedly delayed, the release of Sora for nearly a year. On Tuesday, the company finally unveiled a fully functional version of the new video-generation model destined for public use and, despite the initial buzz, more and more early users of the release don’t seem overly impressed. And neither am I. The company first introduced Sora last February to critical acclaim for its hyperrealistic video renderings. “Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt,” OpenAI wrote in its announcement blog at the time. “The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world.” The company released more Sora-generated footage in March, this time of an elephant made of leafs , further hyping the model’s capabilities. The Sora program subsequently ran into a series of development delays, which OpenAI’s chief product officer Kevin Weil blamed in a recent Reddit AMA on the “need to perfect the model, get safety/impersonation/other things right, and scale compute.” At the same time, The Information reported that early iterations of Sora suffered from poor performance and struggled to maintain a focus on the user’s prompts, requiring up to 10 real-world minutes to generate a minute-long clip. The model was also recently leaked online by a group of disgruntled beta testers who objected to OpenAI’s “art-washing” practices , however, the company swiftly had the group’s unauthorized UI removed from Hugging Face in response. While OpenAI was tweaking and refining Sora’s performance, the company’s competition was eating its lunch. Adobe’s Firefly AI , Runway’s Gen 3 Alpha , Meta’s Movie Gen , and Kuaishou Technology’s Kling (not to mention countless free-to-use options ) proliferated throughout the internet this past year, with many offering clips of superior quality and faster inference times than what OpenAI had repeatedly promised. On Tuesday, OpenAI officially unveiled the production-ready version of Sora and released it to its $20-a-month Plus and $200-a-month (lol) Pro subscribers. Or, at least, the company did for a few hours. As technology commentator Ed Zitron noted on Bluesky Wednesday , “mere hours — maybe even less — after saying Sora was out, OpenAI stopped accepting new account registrations with no clear timeline. OpenAI bait-and-switched the entire tech media. There’s no way this company can afford to have their video generator available to the public.” For the folks who did manage to gain access, the videos that Sora managed to generate were less than impressive. As YouTube personality Marques Brownlee pointed out during his hands-on video with the model, it required multiple minutes to generate a single 20-second-long 1080p resolution clip and had significant difficulty in generating a subject’s legs and their movements, with the front and rear legs unnaturally swapping positions throughout the clip. One need only look at the generated video below of a gymnast swapping their arms, legs, and head on the fly as they tumble across a mat to see what he meant. Bluesky user Peter Labuza, who posted the gymnastics video, did not hold back on his criticism of the model, stating : “I’m sorry, but if you make a text-to-video generator and you tell it “make a cat run through a field” and you give it the starting image, and the cat simply STANDS, your generator Does Not Work.” Bluesky user Chris Offner held a similar opinion, sarcastically noting that “Sora is a data-driven physics engine” while sharing an absolutely bonkers clip of a skier defying most, if not all, known laws of physics. The Verge also tried out the model, bemoaning the fact that it still couldn’t avoid unsightly inclusions like “additional limbs or distorted objects.” Not everybody hated Sora on sight, mind you. X user Nathan Shipley showed off the model’s “remix” feature, which enables users to mask a generated video to the movements of objects in an uploaded sample. In this case, he made a generated crane’s head move in the same manner as a pair of scissors he videotaped himself holding. There’s no word yet on when the company will be able to reliably reopen account signups for interested Sora users. Whether OpenAI can court Hollywood with Sora in its current state, as Runway recently did with Gen 3 and Lionsgate , also remains to be seen. One thing remains certain, OpenAI, despite its initial lead in the AI boom, is quickly being surpassed by the rest of the industry, and lackluster product releases like what we just saw with Sora will only further harm the company’s reputation.
Emma Logan has launched a new bespoke marketer consultancy, The Emma Logan Project , aimed at serving the needs and unlocking the potential of CMOs and their team. The former AANA director of member engagement said over the past 12 months, she has seen a very clear need among senior marketers for assistance on both team and individual levels. “Marketing is in a massive transition,” Logan said. “From technology and AI to data, climate change, social demographics, and politics. CMOs hold one of the most multifaceted roles in any business today and have the chance to make a meaningful impact and shape a more sustainable and equitable society.” “Marketers are more stretched than ever. In the past year, countless marketers have turned to me for support—whether it’s a team strategy day or collaborating on key projects. It’s clear we’re addressing a critical gap in the market. While marketers tirelessly promote their brands, they often overlook a vital element: building the personal brands of their leaders. Strong executive brands are essential for fostering trust, attracting opportunities, and positioning businesses.” Logan added: “The Emma Logan Project is about helping marketers become the kind of leaders who attract and retain top talent. It’s about redefining what it means to be a magnetic marketing leader. Whether it’s a marketer looking to build their executive marketing brand or a CMO aiming to elevate their team’s impact — and, in turn, drive exceptional business outcomes — my goal is to help them succeed.” The Emma Logan Project offers a suite of bespoke services tailored to CMOs and their teams, focusing on leadership development and team empowerment. Logan has already begun collaborating with marketing teams, including foundation client T garage, an insights and research consultancy. Jed Simpfendorfer , director of strategy, met Logan when he was the CMO of Carman’s. “Partnering with The Emma Logan Project has been a total game-changer for us,” Simpfendorfer said. “Emma gets us—our goals, our challenges—and she brings a fresh perspective that’s taken our approach to the next level. Her industry know-how and network is so impressive. She’s opened doors we didn’t even know existed! And in such a short time, the results speak for themselves. Emma’s not just a partner; she’s become an essential part of our team.” On the consultancy’s name, Logan shared: “I credit the name to my father, who for the past year has been asking: ‘How’s The Emma Logan Project?’. He knew that I was on a journey of restoring my passion for what I do and getting my sparkle back. “A journey that he aptly referred to as ‘The Emma Logan Project’. When it came time to decide on a name for my new business, I went back and forth on a few different options that didn’t feel quite right. I then realised it had been right in front of me the whole time – the perfect representation of everything my business is.”
California reports more illnesses in people who drank raw milk. Here are the risks, according to health experts
Fox attorneys seek to dismiss shareholder lawsuit over reporting of vote rigging allegations in 2020An Israeli airstrike flattened a multistory building in central Gaza, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens more, according to Palestinian medical officials, after strikes Thursday across the Gaza Strip killed at least 28 others. The latest deadly strike hit the urban Nuseirat refugee camp just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters in Jerusalem that the recent ceasefire in Lebanon has helped clear the way for a potential deal to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the deadly strike in Nuseirat. Israel says it is trying to eliminate Hamas, which led the attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza . The Israeli military says Hamas militants hide among Gaza’s civilian population. The fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, with experts warning of famine in some of the hardest-hit parts of the territory. Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and around 250 others were taken hostage. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Here's the latest: DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 25 Palestinians and wounding dozens more, Palestinian medics said, just hours after President Joe Biden’s national security adviser raised hopes about a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza. Photos from the scene of the blast that circulated on social media showed a completely collapsed building with people walking through its mangled and charred remains, smoke rising from piles of belongings strewn over the rubble. Officials at two hospitals in the Gaza Strip, al-Awda Hospital in the north and al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, reported they received a combined total of 25 bodies from an Israeli strike on a multistory residential building in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. Palestinian medics also reported that over 40 people, most of them children, were receiving treatment at the two hospitals. The al-Aqsa Hospital said that the Israeli attack also damaged several nearby houses in Nuseirat. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the deadly strike. Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, which led the attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that sparked the war in Gaza . The Israeli military says Hamas militants hide among Gaza’s civilian population. Israel’s war against Hamas has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, with experts warning of famine. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it. The U.N. says Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order after Israel repeatedly targeted the Hamas-run police force, make it extremely difficult to operate in the territory. UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. food agency is trying to deal with massive needs in Syria not only from escalating war-related food insecurity and an upsurge in displaced people fleeing Lebanon but also the dramatically new environment following the ouster of Bashar Assad, a senior U.N. official says. “It’s a triple crisis and the needs are going to be massive,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, in an interview with The Associated Press late Wednesday. The WFP estimated that 3 million people in Syria were “acutely food insecure” and very hungry. However, that estimate was made before the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon pushed many Syrian refugees back to their home country, plus the instability caused by the overthrow of Assad. Due to funding cuts, the WFP had been targeting only 2 million of those people, he said. Because WFP has been working in Syria during the 13-year civil war, he said, it has pre-positioned food in the country. It has 500 staff in seven offices nationwide and has operated across conflict lines, across borders, and with all different parties, he said. Skau said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the main rebel group now in control of Syria, has promised to provide security for WFP warehouses. Humanitarian aid supplies had been looted at U.N. warehouses in the disorder after Assad fell. “We’re not really up and running in Damascus because of the continued kind of uncertainty there,” he said. WFP initially thought of relocating non-essential staff but the situation in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been “quite calm and orderly," he said. In the short term, Skau said, “what we’re seeing is that markets are disrupted, the value of the currency dropped dramatically, food prices are going up, transport lines don’t work,” and it’s unclear who will stamp required papers for imports and exports. This means that a bigger humanitarian response is needed initially, he said, but in the next phase, the U,N. will be looking at contributing to Syria’s recovery, and ultimately the country will need reconstruction. Skau said he expects a new funding appeal for Syria and urged donors to be generous. JERUSALEM — President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters in Jerusalem on Thursday that Israel’s ceasefire in Lebanon has helped clear the way for another deal to end the war in Gaza. He plans to travel next to Qatar and Egypt — key mediators in the ceasefire talks — as the Biden administration makes a final push on negotiations before Donald Trump is inaugurated. Sullivan said “Hamas’ posture at the negotiating table did adapt” after Israel decimated the leadership of its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon and reached a ceasefire there. “We believe it puts us in a position to close this negotiation,” he said. Sullivan dismissed speculation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting for Trump to take office to finalize a deal. He the U.S. believes there are three American hostages still alive in Gaza, but it’s hard to know for sure. He also said “the balance of power in the Middle East has changed significantly” since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, especially with the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally of Hezbollah and Iran. “We are now faced with a dramatically reshaped Middle East in which Israel is stronger, Iran is weaker, its proxies decimated, and a ceasefire that is new and will be lasting in Lebanon that ensures Israel’s security over the long term,” he said. KHIAM, Lebanon — An Israeli strike killed at least one person Thursday in the Lebanese border town of Khiam, the Health Ministry said, less than a day after Israeli troops handed the hilltop village back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, Khiam is the first Lebanese town Israel has pull out of since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, and marks an important test of the fragile truce . Lebanon's Health Ministry and state news agency did not provide details on who was killed, and did not report airstrikes elsewhere on Thursday. The Israeli military said an airstrike targeted Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, without saying if the strike was in Khiam. Lebanese troops deployed in the northern section of the town on Thursday morning and were coordinating with U.N. peacekeepers to finalize Israel’s withdrawal before fully entering into other neighborhoods. An Associated Press reporter who visited Khiam on Thursday observed widespread destruction, with most houses reduced to rubble. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, with collapsed walls and debris scattered across the streets. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, sharply criticized Israel for striking the town less than 24 hours after the Lebanese army returned, saying it was “a violation of the pledges made by the parties that sponsored the ceasefire agreement, who must act to curb Israeli aggression.” The truce was brokered by the U.S. and France. Israel has previously said the ceasefire deal allows it to use military force against perceived violations. Near-daily attacks by Israel during the ceasefire, mostly in southern Lebanon, have killed at least 29 people and wounded 27 others. Khiam, which sits on a ridge less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war. The Lebanese army was clearing debris and reopening roads in the northern section of the town. Civilian access to other areas remained challenging as the army clears roads and works alongside the U.N. peacekeepers to ensure the area is free of unexploded ordnance. AQABA, Jordan -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging the many players in Syria to avoid taking any steps that could lead to further violence. Blinken spoke to reporters in Jordan on Thursday shortly after meeting King Abdullah II as he opened a trip in the region to discuss Syria's future after former President Bashar Assad's ouster. Blinken will next visit Turkey, a NATO ally and a main backer of Syrian rebel groups. Blinken called this “a time of both real promise but also peril for Syria and for its neighbors.” He said he was focused on coordinating efforts in the region “to support the Syrian people as they transition away from Assad’s brutal dictatorship” and establish a government that isn’t dominated by one religion or ethnic group or outside power. Blinken was asked about Israel’s incursion into a buffer zone that had been demilitarized for the past half century. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the move is temporary and defensive, but also indicated Israel will remain in the area for a long time. Blinken declined to say whether the U.S. supports the move, but said the U.S. would be speaking to Israel and other partners in the region. “I think, across the board, when it comes to any actors who have real interests in Syria, it’s also really important at this time that, we all try to make sure that we’re not sparking any additional conflicts,” he said. ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, arrived in Damascus on Thursday, according to Turkish media reports. Kalin was seen arriving at the Umayyad Mosque to pray, surrounded by a large crowd, according to video shown on Turkish television. The visit is highly symbolic. Turkish officials, who supported the opposition against Syria’s government, had predicted at the start of the civil war in 2011 that President Bashar Assad’s government would fall, allowing them to pray at the Umayyad Mosque. JERUSALEM — Paraguay reopened its embassy in Jerusalem Thursday, becoming one of a small handful of nations to recognize the city as Israel’s capital and marking a diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s international isolation has increased as the war in Gaza drags on, and Paraguay was the first country to move its embassy to Jerusalem since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that kickstarted the war. The United States, Honduras, Guatemala, Kosovo, and Papua New Guinea are among the few countries with Jerusalem embassies. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn’t recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv. Spirits were high at the ceremony marking the embassy’s inauguration Thursday, with Netanyahu and Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar lavishing praise on Paraguayan President Santiago Pena. “My good friend Santiago,” said Netanyahu, addressing Pena. “We’re a small nation. You’re a small nation. We suffered horrible things but we overcame the odds of history...we can win and we are winning.” Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion. Saar said Israel and Paraguay shared a “friendship based not only on interests but also values and principles.” He and the Paraguayan foreign minister, Rubén Ramírez Lezcano, signed a series of bilateral agreements and Saar said he would soon visit Asunción with a delegation from the Israeli private sector. “Israel is going to win and the countries we are standing next to Israel, we are going to win," Pena said. AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is renewing calls for Syria’s new leadership to respect women and minority rights, prevent extremists from gaining new footholds in the country and keeping suspected chemical weapons stocks secure as he makes his first visit to the Mideast since the weekend ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad . Making his 12th trip to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war erupted lasted year but amid fresh concerns about security following the upheaval in Syria, Blinken emphasized Thursday to Jordan’s King Abdullah II U.S. “support for an inclusive transition that can lead to an accountable and representative Syrian government chosen by the Syrian people,” the State Department said. Blinken also repeated the importance the outgoing Biden administration puts on respect for human rights and international law, the protection of civilians and stopping terrorist groups from reconstituting. Blinken met with the monarch and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Aqaba before traveling to Turkey for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Syria and the urgency of securing a long-elusive deal to release hostages and end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian territory since October 2023. Abdullah told Blinken that “the first step to reach comprehensive regional calm is to end the Israeli war on Gaza." GENEVA — The U.N. envoy for Syria is calling on authorities to save evidence from detention centers that were a hub of “unimaginable barbarity” that Syrians have faced for many years and cooperate with international investigators looking into such crimes. Geir Pederson referred to new images from the notorious Saydnaya military prison north of the capital, Damascus, after President Bashar Assad fled Syria as armed groups stormed in to overthrow his government over the weekend. “The images from Saydnaya and other detention facilities starkly underscore the unimaginable barbarity Syrians have endured and reported for years,” Pedersen said in a statement. Documentation and testimonies “only scratch the surface of the carceral system’s horrors,” he added. Pedersen urged authorities to cooperate with U.N. bodies like an independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which was created in 2011, and an independent group known as the IIIM that was set up five years later to also compile evidence of crimes. ROME — Leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations offered their full support for an inclusive political transition in Syria and invited all parties to preserve the country’s territorial integrity. In a message released by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office, the leaders said they were ready to support a transition that “leads to a credible government, inclusive and not sectarian, that guarantees respect for the state of law, universal human rights, including rights for women, (and) the protection of all Syrians, including religious and ethnic minorities.” The leaders also underlined the importance that ousted President Bashar Assad’s government is held responsible for crimes, citing “decades of atrocities.” They said they would also cooperate with groups working to prohibit chemical weapons “to secure, declare and destroy” remaining chemical arms in Syria. Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G-7, which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it struck Hamas militants in two locations in the southern Gaza Strip who planned to hijack aid convoys. Palestinian Health officials had earlier said that the two strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid deliveries. The committees have been organized in cooperation with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza. It was not possible to independently confirm either account of the strikes, which occurred overnight into Thursday. Israel has long accused Hamas of hijacking humanitarian aid deliveries, while U.N. officials have said there is no systemic diversion of aid . U.N. agencies and aid groups say deliveries are held up by Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid and movement within Gaza, as well as the breakdown of law and order more than 14 months into the war between Israel and Hamas. Israel has repeatedly targeted the Hamas-run police force, which maintained internal security before the war. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza, said a U.N. convoy of 70 trucks carrying humanitarian aid in southern Gaza “was involved in a serious incident,” resulting in just one of the trucks reaching its destination. It did not provide further details on the incident but said the same route had been used successfully two days earlier. Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, leaving the territory heavily reliant on international food aid. DAMASCUS, Syria — An American who turned up in Syria on Thursday says he was detained after crossing into the country by foot on a Christian pilgrimage seven months ago. Travis Timmerman appears to have been among thousands of people released from the country’s notorious prisons after rebels reached Damascus over the weekend, overthrowing President Bashar Assad and ending his family’s 54-year rule. As video emerged online of Timmerman on Thursday, he was initially mistaken by some for Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago. In the video, Timmerman could be seen lying on a mattress under a blanket in what appeared to be a private house. A group of men in the video said he was being treated well and would be safely returned home. The Biden administration is working to bring Timmerman home, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Aqaba, Jordan, without offering details, citing privacy. Timmerman later gave an interview with the Al-Arabiya TV network, saying he had illegally crossed into Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle seven months ago, before being detained. He said he was treated well in detention but could hear other men being tortured. AQABA, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Jordan on his 12th visit to the Mideast since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year and his first since the weekend ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad that has sparked new fears of instability in a region wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. Blinken was meeting in Aqaba with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday before traveling to Turkey for talks with Turkish officials on Friday. The meetings will focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian territory since October 2023. Blinken is the latest senior U.S. official to visit the Middle East in the five days since Assad was deposed as the Biden administration navigates more volatility in the region in its last few weeks in office and as President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. should stay out of the Syrian conflict. Other include national security adviser Jake Sullivan and a top military commander who traveled there as the U.S. and Israel have launched airstrikes to prevent the Islamic State militant group from reconstituting and prevent materiel and suspected chemical weapons stocks from falling into militant hands. Blinken “will discuss the need for the transition process and new government in Syria to respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance, prevent Syria from being used as a base of terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors, and ensure that chemical weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed,” the State Department said. The U.S. would be willing to recognize and fully support a new Syrian government that met those criteria. U.S. officials say they are not actively reviewing the foreign terrorist organization designation of the main Syrian rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, which was once an al-Qaida affiliate, but stressed they are not barred from speaking to its members. JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli forces will remain in a Syrian buffer zone until a new force on the other side of the border can guarantee security. After the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli forces pushed into a buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war. The military says it has seized additional strategic points nearby. Israeli officials have said the move is temporary, but Netanyahu’s conditions could take months or even years to fulfill as Syria charts its post-Assad future, raising the prospect of an open-ended Israeli presence in the country. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Thursday that Assad’s overthrow by jihadi rebels created a vacuum on the border. “Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th style attacks,” it said, referring to Hamas’ 2023 attack out of Gaza, which ignited the war there. “That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border.” The statement added that “this deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.” The buffer zone is adjacent to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, except for the United States, views the Golan as occupied Syrian territory. JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Thursday that the attacker who fatally shot a 12-year-old Israeli boy in the occupied West Bank overnight turned himself in to authorities. The attacker opened fire on a bus near the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit, critically wounding the boy, who hospital authorities pronounced dead in the early morning. Three others were wounded in the attack, paramedics said. The shooting took place just outside Jerusalem in an area near major Israeli settlements. JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government has evacuated 37 citizens from Syria following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government, officials said Thursday. The evacuees were taken by land from Damascus to Beirut, where they boarded three commercial flights to Jakarta, said Judha Nugraha, director of citizen protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The Indonesian Embassy in Damascus said all 1,162 Indonesian citizens in Syria were safe. Indonesian Ambassador to Syria Wajid Fauzi said the situation in Syria has gradually returned to normal. “I can say that 98% of people’s lives are back to normal, shops are open, public transportation has started running,” Fauzi said, adding that most Indonesian nationals living in Syria had chosen to stay. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, including seven children and a woman. One of the strikes overnight and into Thursday flattened a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at the hospital’s morgue. Two other strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid convoys . The committees were set up by displaced Palestinians in coordination with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received the bodies and an AP reporter counted them. The hospital said eight were killed in a strike near the southern border town of Rafah and seven others in a strike 30 minutes later near Khan Younis. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, with experts warning of famine. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it. The U.N. says Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order after Israel repeatedly targeted the Hamas-run police force, make it extremely difficult to operate in the territory. UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban . The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions to support the agency known as UNRWA. The votes culminated two days of speeches overwhelmingly calling for an end to the 14-month war between Israel and the militant Hamas group . General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly. Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a tiny minority speaking and voting against the resolutions.