Gaza food crisis deepens as Israel blocks flour supplies, leaving only seven bakeries operating and 1.4 million Palestinians facing acute hunger.

Related: New U.S. and Israeli Military Actions Against Iran Would Be Underway

Gaza Food Crisis Worsens as Israel Blocks Flour Supplies

The Gaza food crisis has reached a critical point after Israel blocked commercial flour shipments, leaving Gaza’s last seven operating bakeries at risk of closing within 48 hours.

Abdul Nasser al-Ajrami, head of the Gaza Bakeries Association, warned on Thursday, October 22, that flour reserves in the enclave had been exhausted.

He said the remaining bakeries would stop producing bread within two days unless new supplies were allowed to enter.

“Israel kept the crossings closed throughout last week and continues to strangle the supply of commercial flour even after partially reopening them,” al-Ajrami said.

He added that the small amount of flour previously stored had already run out, forcing several bakeries to shut down.

Only seven of the 20 bakeries that had been operating in Gaza remained active when the warning was issued.

The closure of bakeries would deprive families of one of the few remaining sources of affordable food in the devastated territory.

Bread is a basic staple for Palestinian households, particularly as prices for other foods have risen sharply amid shortages and reduced humanitarian assistance.

The Gaza food crisis has worsened as commercial supplies have been blocked and international aid has been reduced.

Al-Ajrami said the flour currently sold in local markets comes from the United Nations World Food Programme, known as the WFP.

Commercial bakeries that depend on supplies brought through the crossings have been left without raw materials.

The shortage has intensified since the WFP announced a severe funding deficit and reduced food assistance for more than half a million people in Gaza.

The reduction has left more families competing for limited flour while prices continue to rise.

Gaza Food Crisis Deepens as WFP Cuts Aid

World Food Programme | United Nations News

The Gaza food crisis has been compounded by a major reduction in humanitarian assistance from the World Food Programme.

On October 19, the WFP announced that funding shortages had forced it to cut food assistance in Gaza by about one-third.

The agency said the number of people receiving food and cash assistance would fall from 1.6 million in September to 1.1 million in October.

That means approximately 500,000 people will lose access to critical food support as winter approaches.

The WFP has also halved food rations. Families receiving assistance will now receive one food parcel instead of two, along with a smaller bag of wheat flour.

The agency has reduced daily hot meals from 250,000 to 150,000 and cut cash assistance for 75,000 families.

The WFP said the cuts were not caused by a reduction in humanitarian needs or by a lack of access to deliver aid.

“We don’t have the funding to sustain the levels of assistance that are required,” said Shaun Hughes, the WFP’s representative and country director in Palestine.

The agency said it urgently needs $450 million to maintain critical operations in Gaza and the West Bank from October 2026 to March 2027.

The WFP received less than half of the funding allocated to its operations in Palestine in 2026 compared with previous years.

The funding shortfall has come at a time when approximately 1.4 million people, or 67 percent of Gaza’s population, face acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse.

The WFP estimates that around 200,000 people are experiencing emergency conditions and require immediate food assistance to prevent deaths from hunger.

The agency said it can still support bakeries that cover one-third of Gaza’s bread needs, provide nutrition assistance to 300,000 women and children and deliver school snacks to 200,000 students.

However, the reduction in aid has placed additional pressure on families already struggling to obtain basic food supplies.

Gaza Food Crisis Exposes Impact of Israel’s Blockade

United Nations Relief and Works Agency | World Health Organization

The Gaza food crisis is closely linked to Israel’s restrictions on the entry of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid.

Human rights organizations say Israeli authorities have repeatedly closed Gaza’s crossings since early October, obstructing the entry of essential supplies.

The closures have deepened shortages of flour, cooking gas, fuel and medical materials across the enclave.

The Rafah crossing has remained closed to sick and injured Palestinians waiting to be evacuated for treatment abroad.

International health organizations have also raised concerns about continued attacks on medical facilities and the detention of healthcare workers.

Gaza’s Ministry of Social Development warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face an imminent humanitarian catastrophe if restrictions on flour and bakery supplies continue.

The ministry called for immediate action to stop what it described as Israel’s systematic policy of starvation and the use of food as a weapon against civilians.

Israel has said the disruption in commercial deliveries stems from a fiscal dispute between traders and the administration led by Hamas.

Palestinian traders have rejected that explanation and say the restrictions remain in place.

The Israeli military has said commercial goods would resume entering Gaza after a five-day pause.

However, Palestinian traders reported that major cuts to food supplies remained in force and that the blockade had become increasingly severe.

The WFP said the halt in commercial truck entries through the Kerem Abu Salem crossing was further restricting supplies entering Gaza.

The organization warned that restrictions on goods entering the territory were holding back recovery and reducing the purchasing power of families.

The Gaza food crisis has been aggravated by the destruction of infrastructure, displacement and the collapse of local agriculture and food production.

Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced, with many families living in tents or overcrowded shelters without reliable access to clean water, sanitation or cooking fuel.

The World Health Organization has warned that malnutrition, disease and the collapse of healthcare services are creating a deadly combination for civilians.

Geopolitical Context

The Gaza food crisis has implications beyond the immediate humanitarian emergency because it reflects the broader political and military conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Control over crossings, food supplies and humanitarian aid has become a central element of the conflict.

International law requires parties to a conflict to allow humanitarian assistance to reach civilians and to protect access to food, water and medical care.

Human rights organizations argue that the deliberate restriction of essential goods may constitute collective punishment and a violation of international humanitarian law.

The crisis has drawn attention from the United Nations, international courts and humanitarian agencies, which have repeatedly called for unrestricted access to Gaza.

The situation also has regional implications. Egypt, Jordan and other neighboring countries have faced pressure to facilitate aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

The closure of the Rafah crossing has left injured and seriously ill Palestinians unable to leave Gaza for treatment.

The Gaza food crisis could further destabilize the region by increasing displacement, deepening poverty and fueling anger across the Arab and Muslim world.

The United Nations has warned that famine risk remains high as winter approaches and humanitarian funding declines.

The WFP has said that recent modest improvements in food security remain fragile and could be reversed if access and funding are not restored.

The immediate priority is to allow flour, fuel and medical supplies to enter Gaza and to restore the operations of bakeries and humanitarian kitchens.

Without urgent action, the Gaza food crisis could push the territory into a new phase of mass hunger and deepen one of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies.

• I tried two of Ina Garten's most popular chocolate cakes for the ultimate dessert showdown. 
• Her chocolate cake with mocha frosting was delicious and easier to make. 
• But Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake is a total showstopper.

I've been making my way through Ina Garten's recipes to become a better home cook, so naturally, I've tried many of her desserts to satisfy my sweet tooth. 

From a blueberry-ricotta breakfast cake that won over my mom on Mother's Day to the iconic mocha icebox cake that Garten says makes "grown men weep," she truly has a dessert for everyone.  

But Garten really excels at chocolate, and I've made two of her favorite chocolate cakes. The question is, which one is best? 

First, let's make Garten's chocolate cake with mocha frosting.

Garten's chocolate cake with mocha frosting first appeared in her 2014 cookbook, "Make It Ahead." 

The "Barefoot Contessa" star has called this recipe a "dessert everyone will remember." I had to see if it lived up to the hype.  

Garten's chocolate cake features unsweetened cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract, and instant espresso powder.

To make Garten's chocolate cake, which serves 12, you'll need: 

• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature  
• 2 cups of sugar 
• 1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) of unsalted butter, at room temperature 
• 1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour 
• ⅔ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 
• ⅔ cup of half-and-half 
• ⅔ cup of the hottest tap water 
• 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract 
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt 
• 1 teaspoon of instant espresso powder

To make the frosting for the cake, you'll need:

• 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate
• 1 ¼ cups of heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter (diced), at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon of Kahlúa
• 2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

I sifted my dry ingredients and mixed the cocoa and espresso powders with half-and-half and hot water before I began making the batter.

I then placed the sugar and room-temperature butter into the bowl of my electric mixer — fitted with the paddle attachment — and beat them for about 4 minutes on medium speed. 

After adding the eggs one at a time, I added the flour and chocolate mixtures alternately in thirds, starting and ending with the flour mixture. 

I poured my batter into a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking pan and smoothed the top.

Before I made my batter, I had buttered my pan, lined the bottom with parchment paper, then buttered and floured it again. 

"There's no point in making a cake if you can't get it out of the pan," Garten said in the "Barefoot Contessa" episode where she demonstrated this recipe. 

I placed my cake in the oven, which had been preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Garten says the cake should bake for 25 to 35 minutes. You'll know it's ready when the cake tester or knife comes out clean from the center.

Once my cake was out of the oven, I let it cool for 45 minutes while I made the frosting. 

The mocha frosting for Garten's cake was quick to assemble.

I chopped my chocolate and added it to a bowl with my butter and espresso powder. Then I heated my heavy cream and mixed everything together before adding the Kahlúa and vanilla. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it in the fridge for 30 minutes, per Garten's instructions.

After the frosting has chilled, Garten says you should mix it on high speed for about 15 to 20 seconds, until it forms soft peaks. She also warns that it will curdle if you overbeat it. 

This step was, unfortunately, a bit of a struggle for me. The consistency didn't look thick enough when I took it out of the fridge, so I had to let the frosting chill for another 10 minutes. And after mixing the frosting with my electric mixer, it still didn't appear as whipped as it had looked in the "Barefoot Contessa" episode. 

I was still able to spread the mocha frosting on the cake easily, but it didn't look as good as I had hoped. 

I loved the texture of Garten's chocolate cake, but the icing didn't blow me away.

Garten's cake is springy and light, and I loved the enhanced chocolate flavor thanks to the espresso powder. I think it's really easy for a chocolate cake to become too dense or heavy, but Garten's recipe has a lovely texture.

I just wish I had enjoyed the mocha frosting as much as the cake. The consistency tasted off, and the flavor didn't grab me. But, paired together, the cake and mocha icing still pack a punch that I know any big chocolate fan would love.

Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's chocolate cake with mocha frosting here.

Next up was Beatty's Chocolate Cake, which Garten called the "most fabulous chocolate cake" she's ever made.

The recipe for Beatty's Chocolate Cake actually comes from Garten's friend Michael Grimm, who has frequently appeared on "Barefoot Contessa."  

"He actually served this cake to me once at dinner, and I just begged him for the recipe," Garten said on an episode featuring the cake. "I didn't have to beg very hard." 

Beatty was Grimm's grandmother, and she baked this cake for her husband and the customers on his milk route, according to Grimm's friend Monte Mathews, who shared the cake's origin story on his blog Chewing The Fat. 

Beatty's Chocolate Cake features freshly brewed coffee, cocoa powder, and buttermilk.

To make Beatty's Chocolate Cake, you'll need: 

• 1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour (plus more for pans) 
• 2 cups of sugar 
• 1 cup of freshly brewed hot coffee 
• 1 cup of buttermilk (shaken) 
• ¾ cup of cocoa powder 
• ½ cup of vegetable oil 
• 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature 
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt 
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract 

To make the frosting, you'll need:

• 6 ounces of good semisweet chocolate
• 2 sticks (½ pound) of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 ¼ cups of powdered sugar (sifted)
• 1 extra-large egg yolk at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules (such as Nescafé)
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Pro tip: You can also use Garten's recipe for cupcakes. This recipe will make 24 cupcakes, just make sure to reduce the baking time to 25-30 minutes. 

First, I made the batter.

I sifted my dry ingredients into the bowl of my electric stand mixer and mixed everything together until combined. I mixed my wet ingredients in a separate bowl, making sure to shake the buttermilk before throwing it in. 

While the mixer was on low speed, I carefully poured my wet ingredients into the bowl with my dry ingredients. Then I added Garten's "secret" ingredient — the freshly brewed cup of hot coffee — while the mixer was still on low, letting it stir just to combine. 

I poured my batter into two 8-inch round pans.

Before adding the batter, I buttered my pans, lined the bottoms with parchment paper, then buttered and floured both pans again. 

I threw my pans into the oven, which was set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Garten says the cakes should bake for 35 to 40 minutes. You'll know they're ready when your cake tester or knife comes out clean. 

Once my pans were out of the oven, I let them cool for 30 minutes while I made the buttercream frosting. After 30 minutes had passed, I took my cakes out of their pans and let them sit on a cooling rack and a baking sheet. 

Garten calls her frosting the "easiest, most delicious buttercream you've ever seen."

After chopping and melting my chocolate, I added my butter to the electric mixer and beat it on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until it turned fluffy. 

I then added the egg yolk, vanilla, and sugar to mix everything together before throwing in the chocolate and instant coffee granules, which I had dissolved in hot water first. 

The winner was clear, Beatty's Chocolate Cake really ... took the cake.

I was blown away by how moist Beatty's Chocolate Cake tasted. The flavor was deliciously rich, but the texture wasn't heavy or dense. As I wrote in my original review, it's without a doubt one of the fluffiest cakes I've ever had — even from a restaurant or bakery. And I loved the buttercream frosting, which had the perfect amount of sweetness and paired beautifully with the chocolate cake.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake requires a bit of work and effort, but that makes it all the more special. It's a cake no one will forget.

Get the full recipe for Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake here. 

Austria has ordered four Russian diplomats to leave the country over suspected espionage, declaring them persona non grata following findings by Austrian security authorities, Austrian media outlet Heute reported on 23 October.

The expulsions come as European countries step up efforts to counter suspected Russian intelligence operations amid Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Three of the diplomats worked at the Russian Embassy in Vienna, while the fourth served in Russia’s delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is headquartered in Vienna. 

Austria’s Foreign Ministry said the four had engaged in “activities incompatible with their diplomatic status,” a term usually used for spying, Reuters reported. It did not disclose details of the alleged activities or the intelligence findings behind the decision.

The three embassy diplomats were declared persona non grata under Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The fourth, who worked on military security and arms control at Russia’s OSCE delegation, was also ordered to leave Austria. 

Vienna remains a hub for Russian intelligence

The latest expulsions bring the number of Russian diplomats Austria has expelled since 2020 to 18, according to Reuters. In May 2026, Austria expelled three Russian Embassy employees suspected of using antennas on diplomatic buildings to intercept satellite internet data transmitted by international organizations based in Vienna. 

Vienna’s concentration of international organizations, including the OSCE and United Nations agencies, has made it a key location for intelligence activity. A 2024 report by The Wall Street Journal, described Vienna as a major Russian spy hub for operations targeting Western countries, including surveillance of arms supplies to Ukraine.

Explore further

WSJ: Vienna has become major Russian spy hub for anti-Western operations in Europe

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky said Moscow’s response to the expulsions was unavoidable, according to Russian state news agency TASS, AP reported.

Mango, il noto marchio internazionale di moda nato a Barcellona, dà il via a un piano di espansione sul territorio italiano che porterà all’apertura di circa 100 posti di lavoro da inserire in 22 nuovi negozi anche nelle Regioni del Mezzogiorno, tra cui Sicilia e Sardegna, entro il 2027.

Il piano di sviluppo è motivato soprattutto da un incremento del 30% del fatturato su suolo nazionale, rafforzato anche dalla partnership con il gruppo Coin.

Quali sono i profili ricercati

Le ricerche di personale per la rete di punti vendita riguardano diverse figure operative e gestionali, con contratti di vario tipo, che non escludono opportunità di tirocinio per giovani ai primi passi nel settore retail:

• direttore e assistente di filiale, per la gestione commerciale e organizzativa del punto vendita, il coordinamento del team e il raggiungimento degli obiettivi di vendita;
• direttore di reparto, dedicati alla supervisione dei settori e all’organizzazione dell’area vendita;
• visual merchandiser, responsabili dell’allestimento delle vetrine e dell’esposizione dei prodotti secondo le direttive aziendali;
• addetti alle vendite per l’accoglienza, l’assistenza al cliente e la cura degli spazi espositivi;
• addetto alla gestione del magazzino, il ricevimento delle merci e il riassortimento dei capi.

La mappa delle assunzioni

Le selezioni attualmente attive sono distribuite su gran parte della Penisola per le sedi già operative e per le nuove aperture in programma:

Come presentare la candidatura online

Per consultare l’elenco completo delle offerte di lavoro e inviare la propria candidatura bisogna accedere alla piattaforma per le carriere del gruppo consultando la sezione Lavora con noi. Attraverso il portale si possono filtrare le offerte per sede, tipologia oraria e contrattuale, selezionare l’annuncio d’interesse e compilare il modulo digitale, allegando il proprio Curriculum Vitae aggiornato.

È sempre consentito inoltrare la propria candidatura spontanea nel database, in modo che i recruiter possano selezionare i profili adatti alle necessità dei punti vendita.

Altri annunci per addetti alle vendite nel settore retail

Le selezioni di Mango non sono le uniche cui poter accedere senza esperienza. Si segnalano i reclutamenti curati da Poste Italiane per portalettere e addetti agli sportelli, le offerte di lavoro promosse da Fincantieri per figure operative e impiegatizie.

Russian hostile activity costs the UK at least £2 billion (US$2.7 billion) annually, according to a recent report by Scottish MP Graeme Downie, who has called on the government to measure what these actions cost Britain. But this figure is just the baseline. In reality, a profound shift in Moscow’s approach to sabotage means the […]

The post Russian espionage evolves from elite spies to gig operatives appeared first on Asia Times.

• My husband and I have different approaches to investing.
• He's risk-tolerant, and I'm a bit more risk-averse.
• Still, we've managed to talk through financial decisions and find a common ground.

The conversation started because of a windfall: it was the first month that we didn't have the preschool tuition payment because my son was starting kindergarten. "I'd love for this money not to just disappear into the monthly budget," I said to my husband.

He nodded, and immediately had a suggestion. "What if we used it to start up a brokerage account? It'd be good to have some investments that are accessible without penalty before retirement."

Our approaches to investing differ

I knew, deep down, that this was a reasonable response to my point: we both already were on board with the idea of paying ourselves first, where we commit to an amount ahead of time for savings and retirement investments and then live on whatever we earn above that. This strategy served us well, and I wasn't opposed… exactly.

"I was actually hoping to use some of it to add to our emergency fund," I told him slowly. "And maybe getting some additional solar panels I've been looking at."

We have recently lived through instability that made me really appreciate the kinds of standard comforts that are currently easily accessible. Our family experienced the impact of a major hurricane only two years ago (Hurricane Helene), and when water, electricity, and telecommunications were interrupted for days and then weeks, I realized that a relatively modest amount of money and supplies would have made weathering a period of instability easier.

This is the place where my husband and I diverge: I tend to see things somewhat pessimistically, believing there's a good chance supply chains will be interrupted more than a few times during our lifetimes due to a variety of factors.

My husband has a generally optimistic, risk-tolerant approach to life. He knows we've made a solid plan for retirement, so he sees that a brokerage account offers promising returns (not guaranteed, but based on historical data) on funds that we've worked hard to earn. I'm sometimes fearful of the possibility of losing everything in a stock market crash.

I don't think either of us is truly at odds with the other person: my husband witnessed Helene and set to work setting up a battery backup system for our solar panels, an impressive feat and investment that falls more in line with my own risk-averse nature.

And I've never squashed his goals of investing for both short and long-term stability, even if, deep down, I want all our savings in high-yield savings accounts with FDIC protection.

We've learned how to figure out what's right for us

In order to make these conversations civil and positive, we tend to follow three steps.

First, we each get to make the case for why this investment, and why right now.

I think some of the way that we both get over our anxieties about spending or saving well is that we want to be heard, so he hears me out when I want to construct an expensive greenhouse on our property to grow more food, and I hear him out when he identifies that our current ages merit a somewhat risk-tolerant strategy so that we can reap the benefits when the market jumps higher.

Frequently, this process of hearing each other out helps us find an in-between pretty organically, and finding an in-between is the second step. Sometimes, we realize that, for instance, we are too busy to take full advantage of a greenhouse right now and should table it for a year or two. However, maybe this is a good year to invest in a higher-speed home charger for our electric car. Because many of his goals are "invest as much as possible," it's usually possible to buy some portion of the physical items I want while still contributing to our investments.

When I'm advocating for a deeper emergency fund, housed in a high-yield savings account rather than a market-invested brokerage account, I typically ask that we contribute in a percentage-based way. If I ask, for instance, for a windfall to be split 30/70, he gets to invest 70% of the money toward higher yields, and I get 30% in a very secure account. It's not exactly what either of us would like, but it ultimately gives us some benefits of both risk-averse and risk-tolerant strategies.

Finally, any time we find a split that really feels aligned for us, we see if we can make it a rule for the future, the third step. No one loves having to reinvent the wheel every time new money conversations come up. When that 70/30 split worked well for us once, I've returned to it for later money decisions, and while it sometimes needs to be adapted, it lets us balance each of our needs without a long discussion. My husband, famously of few words, likes when we can keep the conversations a little shorter and get back to playing a board game or watching a silly TV show to relax.

When we hear each other out, find a useful middle ground, and operationalize the result for future use, we find ways to invest in both a more secure and a more growth-focused future, favoring methods that work well for both our risk tolerance levels.

Official forecasts show country will meet energy demand by paying high prices to secure imports

Great Britain is expected to pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe this winter as its reliance on imports to ensure a steady supply is forecast to deepen.

Energy system operators have said the country will have enough gas and electricity to meet demand over the coldest months – in part because of paying higher market prices than neighbouring markets to secure imports.

“The ‘job’ … has been mostly accomplished,” said a senior official in Belgium’s spy service, Hugues Brulin, in a WhatsApp message to the Belgian then EU commissioner, Didier Reynders.

“Bravo for the work you did,” said Reynders.

It was back in 2022, and, at least on the surface, they were chatting about a staff reshuffle inside Belgium’s intelligence service, La Sûreté de l’Etat/Veiligheid van de Staat (VSSE) — which was already a peculiar thing for Brulin to be doing on WhatsApp with an EU official.

But their messages, seen by EUobserver and published in full below, were now also evidence in a Belgian police investigation into Reynders on money-laundering charges, which painted them in the light of a potentially criminal conspiracy.

They reconfirmed that Belgian authorities were looking into wider allegations of Reynders’ possible collusion with Russia.

Brulin’s real “job” had been to stop the VSSE from probing Reynders and his potential Russia links, according to five former and current Belgian intelligence officers who spoke to EUobserver.

And Brulin also WhatsApp-ed Reynders on how to “counterattack” a Russia whistleblower.

The 68-year-old liberal politician from Liège, in French-speaking southern Belgium, had had a glittering career before his sudden fall from grace in December 2024, when Belgian police raided his properties, and before he was subsequently charged in 2025 with having laundered some €1m via the ING Bank, using lottery tickets and cash deposits.

Reynders had been EU justice commissioner from 2019 until 30 November 2024 (just four days prior to the police raid) and Belgium’s foreign and defence minister from 2011 to 2019.

And Belgium had vetted and cleared him to read “top secret” national, EU, and Nato documents.

Meanwhile, Europe was scandalised to learn, on 10 October, that Germany’s former spy chief had been arrested for selling secrets.

But if a man with Reynders’ CV was also found guilty of corruption and foreign collusion, it would be yet another security fiasco for Western allies.

This article continues, but the full version is available only to EUobserver.com subscribers. Visit account.euobserver.com/membership

In 2016, the HBO comedian and political commentator John Oliver produced a terrific segment on how TV pundits routinely cite garbage science. After showing clips of newscasters and commentators making absurd claims such as, "A new study showing that drinking a glass of red wine is just as good as spending an hour at the gym," and The Today Show's Al Roker commenting, "You find the study that sounds best to you, and you go with it," Oliver commented, "No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You don't just get to cherry-pick the parts that justify what you were going to do anyway."

Then Oliver added a useful rule: "If they are going to keep saying 'a study says,' they should have to provide sourcing and context or not mention it at all." (Though the segment specifically targeted the misuse of "scientific" studies, all the same principles apply to the social sciences.)

What's so noteworthy about that 2016 segment is that in his other monologues, on issues ranging from SWAT teams to homelessness, Oliver has routinely ignored the principles he laid out. In his overly simplistic takes on complex policy issues (often designed to dunk on his ideological opponents for comedic effect), he often fails to provide appropriate context and appears to be guilty of choosing research "that sounds best," as Roker put it, or at least that supports whatever point he's determined to make.

Oliver is one of America's most influential pundits, so he should be held to the highest of journalistic standards. And Last Week Tonight is indeed more diligent than many TV news programs. The show employs researchers who interview the authors of the studies it cites. Oliver is a comic, not an academic, so we can excuse him for not posting footnotes, and he routinely cites his sources on screen. When we emailed the show's producers to point out problems with their research, to their credit, they sent back a detailed response that we'll quote from in this article. (In a few cases, they pointed to Reason articles using some of the same studies, albeit with full citations and more context. In cases in which their criticisms were correct, we've annotated the original articles.)

Many of the show's researchers are former reporters and editors who abide by journalistic standards. Nevertheless, the show has a long track record of citing social science findings without the appropriate context, massaging them to support whatever point Oliver is trying to make.

Rent

In his excellent 2016 segment on scientific studies, Oliver noted: "There is a lot of bullshit currently masquerading as science. Not all scientific studies are equal. Some may appear in less-than-legitimate scientific journals, and others may be subtly biased because of scientists feeling pressured to come up with eye-catching positive results."

Cut to a 2022 segment titled "Rent," and we find Oliver citing a study that his wiser self would have characterized as "bullshit."

"Right now, there is not a single county in the U.S. where a worker earning minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom rental home," he said. He was citing a study designed to produce an "eye-catching" result. It was published not by a reputable journal, but by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group that lobbies for government spending on housing and rent subsidies, including expanding the National Housing Trust Fund and increasing federal appropriations to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The biases are not particularly subtle. Why would a minimum-wage worker need a two-bedroom home? In the study, "can afford" doesn't mean "have enough money to buy the cheapest available," as most English speakers would interpret it. The authors use it to mean renting a two-bedroom home at the 40th percentile price point of the local market (that is, a little cheaper than the median unit), using no more than 30 percent of their income, excluding government benefits, pensions, or other nonearned support.

Oliver also didn't mention who these minimum-wage workers are. In 2025, according to the Current Population Survey, a third of hourly workers paid the federal minimum or less lived in a parent's or grandparent's home, a fifth were married and living with a spouse, and only one in eight lived alone.

When we asked the show's producers why they failed to disclose that their source was an advocacy group seeking government funds, they pointed to the onscreen credit and responded: "We trust our viewers' intelligence enough to think they might be able to read it and conclude that the National Low Income Housing Coalition is interested in building low-income housing, nationwide, possibly even as part of a coalition."

I don't share their confidence that most viewers can read the onscreen source line and tell from the organization's name whether it's an advocacy group. There's a double standard here: When Oliver doesn't like what a study says, he's not content to just trust his viewers; he makes it explicit, as he did with the "ethanol lobbying groups" mentioned above.

Oliver's producers wrote us: "When we rely on studies from advocacy groups, we look at the underlying data and speak to researchers to better understand it; we discard many studies as a result."

This one belonged in the trash.

Sports Betting

In a 2025 segment, Oliver cited an eye-catching statistic about how sports betting was driving a spike in bankruptcies. "Unsurprisingly, the rise of online sports betting has been found to correlate with a rise in gambling harms, with one study showing that in states that allowed it, there was a 28 percent increase in bankruptcies, translating to about 100,000 extra bankruptcies a year."

I'll give Oliver credit for saying "correlate with" rather than "cause," but the rest of that sentence ("in states that allowed it, there was a 28 percent increase") implies direct causality.

The bigger problem is that the "100,000" figure is clearly wrong. When I contacted the study's authors, they told me they don't know where that figure came from, and it doesn't appear anywhere in the study. Last Week Tonight's producers told us they pulled it from a Business Insider article, but in the video, Oliver said it came from the study.

If Oliver's researchers had done the same calculation as the authors, multiplying the per-person effect by the at-risk population, they'd have found about 30,000 extra bankruptcies a year, not 100,000, and a 6 percent to 7.5 percent increase, not 28 percent.

Oliver also left out important context: He was citing an unpublished working paper. The peer-reviewed version appeared after the Last Week Tonight segment aired, and it included substantive changes. Working papers from credible researchers, like this one, are valuable, but Oliver should have made it clear he was citing a preliminary draft circulated to other researchers for comment, not a published study.

Homelessness

In 2021, Oliver did a segment making a case for a policy called "Housing First," which includes placing more homeless people in permanent supportive housing. The problem is that building and maintaining these units is expensive, so permanent supportive housing doesn't scale easily. Oliver set out to dismiss that objection by citing research showing the alternative is even more costly.

"One study in Florida," Oliver said, "found that, just between money spent on incarceration and emergency medical treatment, their communities and local governments had spent an average of just over $31,000 per person per year, when the estimated cost of providing them with permanent supportive housing would have only been around $10,000 per year."

The Florida study's finding was an outlier. The Central Florida Commission on Homelessness commissioned it, and Housing First advocates promoted it because it produced the headline they wanted. I give Oliver credit for noting that the study "tracked a decade's worth of spending on just 107 chronically homeless people," but he left out additional context.

In 2018, a committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine evaluated permanent supportive housing. It concluded that there is "no substantial evidence that [it] contributes to improved health outcomes" and "insufficient evidence" that it's cost-effective.

Studies exist on both sides of this issue, and we can debate whether permanent supportive housing is more cost-effective than the alternative, but Oliver cited one study and implied it was conclusive.

Oliver also neglected to mention that the paper was written by a consulting firm led by a supportive-housing advocate, though if you looked closely, you could see the organization's name on the screen as he delivered his monologue.

Ethanol

Oliver and I agree that the federal government shouldn't be subsidizing ethanol. But in a 2024 segment titled "Corn," Oliver pointed to a study claiming that ethanol is more harmful to the environment than gasoline and implied that only self-interested lobbyists say otherwise.

"While ethanol lobbying groups have long argued that it slashes greenhouse emissions," he said, "one recent study found that corn ethanol produced under the renewable fuel standard has a carbon footprint at least 24 percent higher than regular gasoline."

What Oliver doesn't mention is that the 2022 study he cited was highly contested. It was challenged not only by "ethanol lobbying groups" but also by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Biden administration. The study's claim that ethanol has a higher carbon footprint than gasoline also contradicts a 2010 Environmental Protection Agency projection that ethanol would be about 20 percent cleaner than gasoline. Argonne National Laboratory, running the government's standard model, credits ethanol with cutting greenhouse emissions by more than 500 million tons in 15 years.

The problem isn't that Oliver is wrong; it's how he presented this study. Whether ethanol mandates are good or bad for the environment is a complicated, contested issue, with strong studies on both sides (and plenty of weak ones). Plucking one from the pile and reporting its findings is misleading.

Ethanol subsidies are bad because they involve politicians using mandates to buy farmers' votes, and top-down mandates generally lead to less optimal decision-making. But it's not clear that ethanol increases carbon emissions.

SWAT Raids

In a 2014 segment on police militarization after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Oliver said, "There has been a massive rise in both the number and the use of police department SWAT teams," and showed a news clip that stated: "The number of SWAT raids has gone up by 1,400 percent since the 1980s. An estimated 50,000 now take place every year." Instead of mocking the clip, as he often does, Oliver cited it approvingly.

So where did the claim of a 1,400 percent increase come from? It's based on a voluntary mail-in survey, which isn't a reliable way to gather data. No official count of SWAT raids exists, and almost nobody tracks them, then or now, so the figure rests on departments' self-reporting of how often they "deployed," with no shared definition of what that means.

The 1980s figures that form the baseline for the 1,400 percent increase in SWAT raids come from a mid-1990s survey, making them especially unreliable. No one was counting SWAT raids at the time, and there's no way to verify them.

Oliver followed that clip by citing another study: "Just keep that clip in mind," he said, "when I tell you that 79 percent of SWAT deployments are now for executing search warrants, and most of those were for drug investigations."

Again, there's missing context. That 79 percent figure comes from a small, nonrandom sample generated by an American Civil Liberties Union records request; the organization could get data from just 20 of America's roughly 18,000 police agencies.

When we pointed out to Oliver's producers that the data on SWAT teams were stripped of their context, they replied that since this segment aired, "We've become more diligent about critically interrogating the sourcing on studies in our shows." They also argued that more "recent studies," if anything, suggest that the studies they cited "understated the true scope of things." And they pointed to instances of Reason citing the same data.

I agree with Oliver's position on SWAT raids, but he really should be agitating for better data. We're permitting state violence without anyone keeping the detailed records that could help us understand the costs and benefits. But that doesn't excuse citing two studies based on weak data and presenting them as fact.

Tipping

In a 2025 segment on tipping, Oliver said, "Recent analyses have found that poverty rates for tipped workers are over twice as high as for nontipped workers."

Twice as high as for which nontipped workers? The analysis he's citing included all nontipped workers in the U.S., including CEOs and neurosurgeons. Oliver, who reportedly makes $30 million a year, also pulled up the nontipped average. The right way to evaluate tipping is to match tipped and untipped workers by job: Waiters have about the same poverty rate as fast-food workers, and hotel maids about the same as other cleaners. If you control for job, age, and hours, the gap closes.

It's another study designed to generate a talking point, which isn't surprising since it was published by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive, left-of-center think tank. The organization's name appeared onscreen as Oliver delivered his monologue, but, once again, viewers would need to hit pause to look it up and figure out what the Economic Policy Institute stands for.

Oliver's 2016 segment on "scientific studies" shows that he should know better. It's possible to construct arguments by citing good research responsibly, while providing the proper context and sourcing. It's possible to follow research where it leads, instead of retrofitting it to preconceived ideas. You just have to be willing to present data that capture reality in all its messiness, even if that means it won't generate an easy laugh line.

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The post John Oliver Warned Against Cherry-Picked Studies. Then He Cherry-Picked His Own. appeared first on Reason Magazine.

The selected productions will screen on public television and the digital platform Nuestro Cine MX.

Mexico will commemorate World Day for Audiovisual Heritage with a special program organized by cultural institutions, including film screenings, premieres, and activities to promote the preservation of the nation’s film heritage.

RELATED: Mexico Launches Film Educational Program for Elementary and Middle Schoolers

Between October 27 and November 3, seven films from the collection of the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) will be screened in eleven independent venues across nine states.

The selected productions will also screen on public television and the digital platform Nuestro Cine MX, expanding public access to materials considered part of Mexico’s audiovisual heritage.

One of the program’s main attractions will be the screening of the restored version of “Valle de Mexico” (1976), a short documentary by Ruben Gamez that portrays the region’s rapid urban growth during the 1970s.

The text reads, “We celebrate World Audiovisual Heritage Day with a program dedicated to the preservation of Mexican filmic memory. The screening will feature restored short films and digitized materials that are part of our collection.”

The restoration of this film was carried out by IMCINE in collaboration with Estudios Churubusco, using a positive print preserved in the archives of the National Film Archive (Cineteca Nacional).

The program also includes outstanding Mexican films such as “Un cuento de ciudad,” “Amada,” “El héroe,” “Hasta los huesos,” “El fantasma del convento,” and “Cronos,” works by renowned Mexican filmmakers.

Secretary of Culture Claudia Curiel said these activities reflect the institution’s commitment to preserving audiovisual heritage, as well as to encouraging new generations to learn about their history through Mexican cinema.

teleSUR: JP

Source: Prensa Latina

Norway has put into force a new round of sanctions against Russia that hits banks, listed oil refineries, ports, airports, and suppliers of Russia’s military industry, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry announced. The rules mirror the EU’s 21st sanctions package, which Brussels adopted in July.

The EU’s 22nd package, adopted on 12 October, is principally a list of names, while the 21st brought significant new measures, lawyers noted. Among them are new tools against the shadow fleet, the tankers with murky ownership that Russia uses to move oil around sanctions. That fleet also sails along Norway’s coast, and a new Norwegian Coastal Administration report found that it poses a growing threat to security and the environment there.

Banks, refineries, and Sheremetyevo

Norway is not an EU member, but it has joined every EU sanctions package against Russia, with a few exceptions and national adjustments. Oslo backed this one politically on 11 August, and the rules took effect on 21 October. Part of the package was already in force. It placed travel restrictions and asset freezes on 48 people and asset freezes on 168 entities, and it listed 41 shadow fleet vessels on 14 August.

Norway’s transaction ban now covers 33 more Russian credit and financial institutions. A separate ban covers 22 more abroad, including in India, Mongolia, Nigeria, and the UAE.

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Norway sends 69 Russians home without their ship, held for Ukraine

Another transaction ban reaches listed refineries in Russia and third countries that process Russian oil or help dodge sanctions. A Georgian refinery joins that list on 25 January 2027. The same ban adds two Russian ports and four Russian airports, including Moscow’s Sheremetyevo.

Drone gear and the shadow fleet

Export curbs on dual-use goods now cover 51 new entities that back Russia’s military industry. Some are in China, including Hong Kong, and others are in India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, and the UAE. The banned-exports list adds nickel and beryllium powder, along with drone gear such as jamming and interception systems, launchers, and servo motors.

Oslo can now also list ships that service sanctioned shadow fleet tankers or swap cargo with them at sea. Elsewhere in Europe, France’s navy and UK forces have boarded sanctioned shadow fleet tankers this year.