CBS News
Woman, 2 girls crushed to death outside Gaza bakery amid food shortage, officials say
Two children and a woman were crushed to death Friday as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip amid a worsening food crisis in the war-ravaged territory, medical officials said.
The bodies of two girls aged 13 and 17 and the 50-year-old woman were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died from suffocation due to crowding at the al-Banna bakery. Video from The Associated Press showed their bodies placed next to each other on the floor inside the hospital’s morgue.
The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel has fallen to nearly its lowest level of almost 14-month-long war for the past two months, according to Israeli official figures. U.N. and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of which relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
Some bakeries in Gaza were closed for several days last week due to a shortage of flour. AP footage taken last week after they reopened showed large crowds of people cramming together, screaming and pushing, at one bakery in Deir al-Balah.
Palestinians across the Gaza Strip are heavily relying on bakeries and charitable kitchens, with many able to only secure one meal a day for their families.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP
In Lebanon, thousands of displaced people began returning to their homes this week after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.
Many found their homes reduced to rubble after intense Israeli airstrikes over the past two months leveled entire neighborhoods in eastern and southern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.
The truce was the first major sign of progress in the region since war began more than a year ago, triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza. For Palestinians in Gaza and families of hostages held in the territory, the ceasefire marked another missed opportunity to end fighting that has stretched on for nearly 14 months.
More than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people.
Gaza is in anarchy, U.N. says
The United Nations said on Friday that the Gaza Strip has descended into anarchy, with hunger soaring, looting rampant and rising numbers of rapes in shelters as public order falls apart.
Palestinians are suffering “on a scale that has to be seen to be truly grasped,” Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement after concluding his latest visit to the devastated Palestinian territory.
“This time I was particularly alarmed by the prevalence of hunger,” Sunghay told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Amman.
“The breakdown of public order and safety is exacerbating the situation with rampant looting and fighting over scarce resources.
“The anarchy in Gaza we warned about months ago is here,” he said. “Entirely predictable, entirely foreseeable. And as with all of the death and destruction I’ve seen during my past trips to Gaza, entirely preventable.”
As the ceasfire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect Wednesday, President Joe Biden said his administration would quickly launch “another push” with international partners to secure a deal to end the war in Gaza.
Mr. Biden, who has less than two months left in office, said in a social media post Wednesday that his administration would work in the coming days with Israel and other partners in the region to “achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the [Israeli] hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with President-elect Donald Trump Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Canada’s CBC News reported. The meeting comes in the wake of Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on goods coming from Canada.
Trudeau will dine with Trump at Mar-a-largo Friday night, according to senior sources who spoke to CBC News on condition they not be named due to the sensitivity of the trip. The sources said the meeting was pushed for by Canadian officials, the Canadian broadcaster said.
Trudeau’s plane landed at Palm Beach International Airport at about 5:30 p.m. local time.
The meeting comes after Trudeau earlier Friday cautioned that if Trump follows through on this threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, he would be raising prices for Americans and hurting American businesses.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said to reporters in Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.
“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for American citizens as well and hurting American industry and business,” he added.
Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now he’s talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products, including potatoes from Prince Edward Island.
Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his first term. Trudeau noted they were able to successfully re-negotiate the deal, which he calls a “win-win” for both countries.
“We can work together as we did previously,” Trudeau said.
Trump made the tariff threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.
The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.
Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border are few in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but they are ready to make new investments in border security.
“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Trudeau said. “But ultimately it is through lots of real constructive conversations with President Trump that I am going to have, that will keep us moving forward on the right track for all Canadians.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she is confident that a tariff war with the United States will be averted. Trump posted on social media that he had spoken with her and she had agreed to stop unauthorized migration across the border into the United States.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
Chef, restaurateur and TV cooking judge Tom Colicchio offers “Sunday Morning” viewers a recipe from his latest book, “Why I Cook,” what he calls Possibly the Best Grilled Cheese You’ll Ever Have. He writes:
“Like many other dads, I make a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids. This one started as a way to utilize the mozzarella from Lombardi’s Love Lane Market, an Italian deli in Mattituck that makes the world’s best fresh mozz. Paired with ‘nduja, a peppery spreadable Italian sausage, the grilled cheese essentially becomes a spicy pizza. It’s decadent for sure, but the spice of the ‘nduja cuts through the richness of the mozzarella. As always, but here especially, low and slow heat is important. It’s the key to developing a nice crust on the bread, while also melting the cheese.”
From “Why I Cook” by Tom Colicchio, courtesy of Artisan
Possibly the Best Grilled Cheese You’ll Ever Have
By Tom Colicchio
Makes 2 sandwiches
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ pound fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
4 thick slices peasant bread (see Note)
3 ounces soft ‘nduja
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions:
Pour 1 tablespoon of the olive oil into a heavy-bottomed skillet and set over medium-low heat.
Layer the mozzarella slices on 2 pieces of the bread. Layer the ‘nduja on the other 2 slices of bread.
Add 1 slice of mozzarella bread and 1 slice of ‘nduja bread open face to the pan. Add 2 tablespoons butter to the pan. Cook for 2 minutes. Cover the pan and cook (still open face) for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Remove the hot melted slices from the pan and immediately flip them together to make a sandwich. Slice the sandwich in half crosswise.
Wipe the pan clean and repeat the process to make the second sandwich and serve immediately.
Note:
Any bread will do, but I prefer one without a heavy sourdough flavor.
From “Why I Cook” by Tom Colicchio. Copyright © 2024 by Tom Colicchio. Reprinted by permission of Artisan, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.
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Chef, restaurateur and TV cooking judge Tom Colicchio offers “Sunday Morning” viewers a recipe from his latest book, “Why I Cook,” for Skirt Steak with Shishitos, Hot Cherry Peppers, and Onions. He writes:
“This recipe started as a salad for our babysitter Tenzin, who is a vegetarian. I, clearly, am not. But the flavors of that salad — sweetness, acid, spice, saltiness, and umami — work so well together I knew they would go perfectly with steak. For the record, this combo of hot cherry peppers, shishitos, and red onions, which touches every flavor receptor, works just as well with grilled pork, chicken, or fish. Sometimes I’ll add raw cucumbers at the end; sometimes I’ll cut the onions into rings and grill them. And if you have leftover steak, just slice it, toss it briefly on the grill, and use.”
From “Why I Cook” by Tom Colicchio, courtesy of Artisan
Skirt Steak with Shishitos, Hot Cherry Peppers, and Onions
By Tom Colicchio
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1¼ pounds skirt steak
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 red onions, cut into 1-inch wedges
Kosher salt
½ pound shishito peppers
Freshly cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon chili crisp
¼ cup sliced pickled hot cherry peppers
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
½ cup fresh mint leaves
½ cup fresh parsley leaves
½ cup fresh basil leaves
2 or 3 scallions, sliced
Juice of 1 lime
Instructions:
Allow the steak to come to room temperature.
Warm a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan, about 2 tablespoons. Place the onions in the pan, season with salt, and cook until browned and soft, 6 to 7 minutes. Transfer the onions from the pan to a large bowl.
To the same pan, add 1 tablespoon oil and the shishito peppers. Season with salt and cook, turning occasionally, until the shishitos are charred and blistered, 6 to 8 minutes.
Transfer the shishitos to the bowl with the onions. Toss the onions and peppers with 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt and black pepper to taste. Add the fish sauce, chili crisp, and pickled peppers. Taste and adjust the amount of chili crisp and pickled peppers based on how much spice you like. Add the fresh cilantro, mint, parsley, and basil and mix.
Dry the skirt steak with paper towels and cut crosswise into pieces that will fit in the same heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Generously season the steak with salt and black pepper.
Heat the pan over medium-high heat. Pour in enough oil to coat the bottom, about 2 tablespoons. When the oil shimmers, add the steak to the pan (in batches, if needed, so as not to overcrowd the pan) and sear for 2 to 3 minutes per side for medium-rare.
Transfer the steak to a cutting board and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing against the grain and tossing with the onion/shishito/herb mixture. Spoon any accumulated juices over the steak, top with the scallions and lime juice, and enjoy.
From “Why I Cook” by Tom Colicchio. Copyright © 2024 by Tom Colicchio. Reprinted by permission of Artisan, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.
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