Friday morning news: October 18, 2024

Sinwar killed, what’s ahead » How will the death of Hamas’s top leader affect the warfare in the Middle East?

That’s what world leaders are asking after Israel killed Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of last year’s October 7th attack on Israel, during a strike in Gaza.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller…

MILLER: The world is a better place with Sinwar gone from it, and it gives us an opportunity we didn’t have as long as he still called the shots for Hamas. Now what that will mean, we’ll have to wait and see in the days ahead.

President Biden says he congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that he’s now more hopeful about working out a cease-fire in the Gaza war sparked by last year’s Hamas attack.

The president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, says Sinwar’s death removes an obstacle to peace and that Israel has dismantled most of Hamas’s military capabilities.

SULLIVAN: We do know that Hamas does not pose the kind of threat it posed to Israel on October 7th, or anything close to it.

Sullivan says the White House will be talking to Israel about how to end the war, secure the release of hostages, and move to a new era in Gaza where Hamas is no longer in control.

Israel says this is a moment for Hamas to surrender and release hostages.

Swing state campaigning: Harris in WI, Vance in PA » News of Sinwar’s death is also resonating on the campaign trail, where Vice President Kamala Harris said it creates an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.

Both major parties’ tickets are rumbling through key swing states, fine-tuning their closing messages to persuadable voters.

In La Crosse, Wisconsin, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, stressed her middle class roots.

HARRIS: I will always put the middle class and working families first. It’s where I come from, and I will never forget where I come from.

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance was in Pittsburgh where he told voters what a new Trump Administration would do to strengthen the economy.

VANCE: If you want to lower prices on American families, the most important thing that we need to do is unleash Pennsylvania energy workers. Drill, baby, drill. That’ll lower prices for all of us.

With about two and a half weeks to go, polls indicate the presidential race is about as close as it could possibly be.

Trump keynotes Al Smith Dinner, Harris skips out » It’s a night of levity the leading presidential candidates usually share, but not this year.

Donald Trump keynoted the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York Thursday while Kamala Harris, citing the need to maximize her campaigning time, became the first presidential candidate to skip it in 40 years.

That left the host, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, disappointed.

DOLAN: It’s a shame because the nature of the evening is to bring people together. The nature of the evening is civility, patriotism, humor.

The Trump campaign suggested the pro-abortion Harris might be avoiding an uncomfortable night with the Catholic charity.

Harris did send a pre-recorded video.

North Korea amends constitution to call South Korea ‘hostile state’ » North Korea confirms it’s amended its constitution to define South Korea as a “hostile state.”

This comes just days after the North blew up rail links that connected the two countries, which are still officially at war.

AUDIO: [Yang Moo-Jin speaking in Korean]

Yang Moo-Jin, a university president in South Korea, calls this move North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s survival strategy, saying the dictator can control his own people better if connections between the countries are cut off and there is no competition between them.

Kim Jong Un is now calling the longstanding goal of peacefully reuniting the two Koreas… a thing of the past.

Zelenskyy says N. Korea has 10,000 troops for Russia » North Korea is preparing to mobilize about 10,000 soldiers to join Russia in its fight against Ukraine.

That’s what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NATO defense ministers in Brussels. Citing Ukrainian intelligence, Zelenskyy said North Korea has sent technical personnel and officers to Ukraine, but so far, they haven't been deployed to the battlefield.

He says if North Korea does step into the conflict…

ZELENSKYY: This will be the second, I think it's already the second country which is involved this war against us.

Zelenskyy has been meeting with leaders from the U.S. and Europe in recent days trying to drum up support for his so-called victory plan to end his country's war with Russia.

Teen smoking at new low » Teenagers are snuffing out the cigarettes. WORLD's Travis Kircher has more.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: New numbers released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control show cigarette smoking hit an all-time low among U.S. teenagers this year.

The data also shows a 20 percent drop in the estimated number of middle or high school students who recently used at least one tobacco product.

That includes cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches or hookahs.

That number dropped from 2.8 million to about 2.2 million, a 25-year low.

Officials cite a wide range of reasons for the drop. They include the rise in price of tobacco products, tighter age restrictions, and more aggressive enforcement against anyone caught selling to teens.

For WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Katie McCoy weighs in on what’s behind some of today’s hottest debates. Plus, the hymns we have in common.

This is The World and Everything in It.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.