CBS News
Setback to Israel-Hamas cease-fire talks as far-right Israeli official visits contested Jerusalem holy site
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked anger Thursday with another visit to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, threatening to disrupt ongoing discussions about a cease-fire in the devastating war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Ben-Gvir said he went to the contested Jerusalem hilltop compound where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands to pray for the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza, “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.”
Standing in front of the golden-domed mosque, Ben-Gvir said he was “praying and working hard” to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t bow to international pressure, including from Israel’s most important ally the United States, to agree to a cease-fire in the war that officials in Hamas-run Gaza say has killed more than 38,600 Palestinians.
Ben-Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa compound, referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews, previously in May — an act of protest as various nations unilaterally recognized a state of Palestine. The U.S. government called that visit “unacceptable,” warning against “any unilateral actions that undercut the historic status quo.”
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That status quo is laid out under an agreement that sees the holy site administered by Jordan and an Islamic endowment called the Waqf. Under that long-standing agreement, Muslims are allowed to pray at the site, but Jews and Christians are not. Ben-Gvir has long decried that arrangement as discriminatory and called for greater Jewish access.
Prior to his membership in Netanyahu’s Cabinet, the far-right nationalist was convicted eight times on criminal charges, including racism and supporting a terrorist organization. As a teen he espoused views considered so extreme that he was banned from serving his compulsory military service.
As a key member of Netanyahu’s fragile coalition government, Ben-Gvir has the power, and has threatened to use it, to deprive Netanyahu of his current parliamentary majority, which could lead to early national elections that polls show the prime minister is unlikely to win.
His second provocative visit to Al-Aqsa came as Israeli strikes across central and northern Gaza reportedly killed at least 13 more people, amid fierce fighting across the decimated Palestinian territory.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had killed two senior commanders of the Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad group in airstrikes — one of whom it said had taken part in the Hamas-orchestrated Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw the militants seize about 240 others as hostages. It was that attack that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
A report published Wednesday by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch organization accuses Hamas and its allies of committing numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity during its terrorist attacks. The report makes it clear that the attack was deliberately planned to kill civilians and take hostages.
It provides a detailed list of alleged war crimes by Hamas that include the willful killing and kidnapping of civilians, the use of human shields and sexual and gender-based violence including forced nudity and posting sexualized images on social media. The organization said it was unable, however, to gather verifiable evidence of rape — noting that this does not mean it did not occur.
HRW told CBS News that due to lack of access, it had been unable to compile a comprehensive report on Israel’s conduct in Gaza. It said evidence had been found of Israel committing war crimes, including denying humanitarian aid, using starvation as a weapon of war, targeting aid workers and unlawful airstrikes.
The report came as Netanyahu faces huge pressure at home to reach a deal to get the remaining hostages — about 80 of whom are still believed to be alive — back home from Gaza. He was jeered in the Israeli Parliament on Thursday by opposition politicians for his failure to clinch an agreement.
Netanyahu has consistently blamed Hamas for the impasse, accusing the group last week of “clinging to demands that endanger Israel’s security.”
The Israeli leader is expected to visit Washington next week, where he will address the U.S. Congress. His critics say it’s a waste of time unless he’s able to announce an agreement to secure the release of the Israelis who have now been held in Gaza for almost 300 days.
CBS News
Suspected serial killer Bruce Lindahl linked to 1979 cold case out of North Aurora, Illinois
CHICAGO (CBS) — Police suspect Bruce Lindahl was a serial killer who targeted mostly female victims in Chicago’s western suburbs in the 1970s—and now they say they have tied Lindahl to yet another victim.
Police vowed to provide answers to the families of Lindahl’s suspected victims. The latest murder case they say they have solved dates back 45 years to 1979.
The body of Kathy Halle, 19, was discovered April 24, 1979, in the Fox River south of the I-88 bridge in North Aurora. She had been missing almost a month.
Her body was found by a boy fishing near her apartment. Now, authorities are connecting the murder to Lindahl.
Lisle Police Department investigators told CBS News Chicago back in 2020 that they were determined to connect the deaths of multiple women to Lindahl—who police say killed himself while killing another victim, Charles Huber, in 1981.
Lindahl is also linked to the 1976 murder of Pamela Maurer, a 16-year-old girl who left her home to go get a soft drink. The next morning, her body was found on College Road in Lisle—she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
In 2020, police exhumed Lindahl’s body and used DNA to solve the Maurer case. Now, Halle is the latest victim to be tied to Lindahl.
North Aurora police and the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office are set to hold a media briefing on the Maurer case on Wednesday—where more details are expected to be revealed. It is known that DNA was used to help solve the horrific mystery.
Russian disinformation groups likely orchestrated baseless claims targeting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, falsely accusing the vice presidential candidate of sexually assaulting his students while he was a high school teacher, according to assessments by the U.S. intelligence community, independent researchers and a CBS News analysis.
At least four separate claims have spread since early October, racking up millions of views on social media platforms including X, owned by Elon Musk. Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, said at least two of the claims seem to be directly linked to Storm-1516, a Kremlin-aligned troll farm.
A Tuesday report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the intelligence community found Russian disinformation groups were behind recent “manufactured and amplified inauthentic content claiming illegal activity” targeting Walz’s earlier career.
The claims
The initial claim emerged on Oct. 5 during a Rumble livestream, where an anonymous man said Walz abused him when he was a Future Leaders Exchange, or FLEX, Program student in Minnesota from 2004 to 2005. The man, whose voice appears altered, was interviewed by John Mark Dougan, a former Florida sheriff’s deputy living in Russia with alleged ties to disinformation campaigns.
This was the first sign that the claim was created by Russian disinformation groups, Linvill said.
“To have [Dougan] out there being interviewed on this story is basically a neon sign saying that maybe it’s connected to Russia. Not only do I think Russia is behind these stories, I think Russia wants us to know that they’re behind these stories,” he said.
Both the U.S. State Department and FLEX told CBS News they have no record “of any FLEX student from Kazakhstan in Mankato area schools from 2000 through 2020.” Mel Helling, the communications director for Mankato Area Public Schools, told CBS News they have no record of the allegations. NewsGuard first reported the claim.
When contacted by CBS News, Dougan claimed he has the alleged victim’s U.S. visa and the FLEX Program certificate. CBS News reviewed the documents and found several inconsistencies: The date of birth on the visa does not match the age the alleged victim stated in the livestream and the certificate has an incorrect logo on it.
The claims were picked up by other accounts that are not linked to Russian disinformation. On Oct. 12, an X account credited as Matt Wallace posted a Rumble video where he claimed without evidence that Walz may have acted inappropriately with the students during trips to China. The video was later removed and the user did not respond to a request for comment.
A third claim surfaced on Oct. 13 when an X account dubbed “Black Insurrectionist” posted grainy screenshots of supposed emails alleging Walz’s misconduct with a minor at a concert in 1995.
The supposed emails appeared manipulated. Among the clues was a comma in the date-time stamp that is not typically found in emails. “Black Insurrectionist” later deleted their account. Researchers have not linked this account to Russian disinformation.
On Oct. 16, another claim circulated when a man purporting to be Matthew Metro, a former Mankato West High School student, posted a video alleging Walz sexually assaulted him in 1997.
However, The Washington Post and AFP reported that a man named Matthew Metro did attend the school but the person in the video is not him. The Post interviewed Metro, who said he never met Walz.
Hany Farid, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in manipulated media, said he believes the video was not created using AI; rather, he believes it is a “cheap fake,” in which a man is impersonating someone else.
A disinformation pattern
The video resembles the work of Storm-1516, Linvill said. The disinformation group previously promoted a false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was involved in a hit-and-run incident, according to a report by Microsoft.
“Suggestions of sexual deviance in various forms are a favorite theme of Storm-1516,” said Linvill. “This campaign has recently turned from a focus primarily on the war in Ukraine to more frequent targeting of the Harris-Walz campaign.”
Linvill said versions of the Walz allegations appear to be a Storm-1516 “narrative laundering campaign,” a process of presenting false claims in a way that makes them appear credible. This often includes presenting the claims through a person who claims to be a victim.
CBS News reached out to X and Rumble for comment but has not heard back as of publication.
Georgia’s Supreme Court rejected a Republican-led effort to implement more than half a dozen controversial new election rules before Election Day.
In a brief order issued Tuesday, the court declined to reinstate the seven new rules implemented by the State Election Board, and declined to consider an expedited appeal — effectively ending the effort to get the new rules in place in time for the upcoming election.
A lower level Georgia judge on Oct. 16 declared the rules “illegal, unconstitutional and void.” The rules, which include one that requires ballots to be hand-counted and two related to certification of results, were supported by three of the State Election Board’s five members, all of whom were endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
President Biden defeated Trump in the state in 2020, and Trump has since repeated disproven claims that fraud cost him the election.
The new rules were opposed by not just Democrats, but also state Republican officials who cast doubt on whether they were legal. They said a hand count could delay election results, and argued in court that it was too late to properly train election workers on the new responsibilities.
Other rules passed by the board — include one that would have required county officials “to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections,” a potentially laborious process — and another that would have required them to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying results. That rule did not explain what a “reasonable inquiry” entails.
The Georgia Supreme Court didn’t outright reject the appeal. In the order Tuesday, the court said it is declining to fast forward proceedings.
“When the appeal is docketed in this court, it will proceed in the ordinary course,” the justices wrote.
