News Wrap: Syrian state media says Israeli airstrikes killed at least 15 people there

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Now for the day's other headlines, starting in the Middle East.

  Syrian state media says that Israel carried out two airstrikes today, killing at least 15 people. The attacks happened in the capital city of Damascus and in one of its northwest suburbs. Israel has ramped up attacks on Iran-linked targets in Syria since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

  Israeli military officials claim they struck strongholds of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah.

• Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Spokesperson, Israeli Defense Forces (through interpreter):

  We are identifying rockets and other weapons that Hezbollah is launching at Israeli territory that were manufactured in Syria and given to Hezbollah from Syria. We will attack all infrastructure we identify in Syria whose purpose is to produce weapons for Hezbollah.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Explosions also rumbled through the suburbs of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, where Israel has carried out intense bombing for a third straight day. State media said a separate strike in the east killed at least nine people.

  Also today, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. The group points to the forced displacement by Israel of nearly two million Palestinians, amounting to what it called ethnic cleansing. Israel has rejected similar such accusations in the past.

  Suicides within the U.S. military increased last year, continuing a long-term trend that the Pentagon has struggled to bring under control. A Defense Department report out today shows there were 523 suicides reported in 2023. That is up from 493 such deaths in 2022, when the number of suicides had actually gone down.

  Most of the 2023 cases involved young men who used a firearm. The long-running rise in suicides comes despite efforts by military leaders to expand mental health assistance and gun safety education.

  New Jersey is under a drought warning, as parts of the Northeast experience the driest conditions they have seen in nearly 120 years. Unprecedented blazes are burning in places that haven't seen significant rain since August. That includes a brushfire on the northern tip of Manhattan. It's now contained after a fire boat shot water onto the flames.

  In the meantime, New York and New Jersey officials have brought charges against two people accused of starting separate smaller fires in those two states.

  The Pentagon is pouring cold water on recent reports of alien sightings. In an annual report on unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, Defense Department officials say they have discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology. But the report acknowledges 21 cases that — quote — "merit further analysis."

  This comes after congressional hearings yesterday on reports of UAPs, often referred to in the public as UFOs. One former Defense Department official insists that the government knows more than it's letting on.

• Luis Elizondo, Former Defense Department Official:

  Let me be clear. UAP are real. advanced technologies not made by our government or any other government are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe. Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Yesterday's hearing comes more than a year after a whistle-blower accused the Pentagon of running a secret UFO retrieval program, which the Pentagon has denied.

  The satirical news publication The Onion is buying Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform Infowars for an undisclosed price after a bankruptcy auction. Families of Sandy Hook school shooting victims helped to complete the sale. Jones owes them more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the elementary school massacre a hoax.

  The father of one of the victims said — quote — "The death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for." The CEO of the company that owns The Onion says they plan to relaunch the Web site in January with satire aimed at conspiracy theorists.

• Ben Collins, CEO, The Onion:

  By the end of the day, it was us or Alex Jones. That's who could either continue this Web site unabated, basically unpunished for what he's done to these families over the years, or we can make a dumb, stupid Web site. And we decided to do the second thing.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Within hours of the deal's announcement, the Infowars Web site was down and Jones was broadcasting from what he said was a new studio. A bankruptcy judge has ordered a hearing on the sale after Jones challenged the terms of the auction.

  Turning now to the economy, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week to a six-month low. First-time jobless claims dipped by 4,000 to a total of 217,000. That is slightly lower than expected and signals ongoing stability in the U.S. labor market.

  Separately, wholesale prices ticked up 0.2 percent in October when compared to the month before. Economists say higher costs for services are behind the latest rise.

  On Wall Street today, stocks ended lower after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled there's no need to rush further interest rate cuts. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points, or nearly half-a-percent. The Nasdaq gave back more than 120 points on the day. The S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

  And Lindsey Vonn is coming out of retirement and heading back to the slopes. The three-time Olympic medalist bowed out of competitive skiing in 2019 after a record-setting career that included 82 World Cup wins and a range of serious injuries. Now, at the age of 40, she will return to the U.S. ski team just in time for the World Cup circuit this winter. Vonn had partial knee replacement surgery earlier this year. She says her training sessions have been pain-free.