Global National: Nov. 5

The third communications blackout in Gaza since Oct. 7, confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel, has made it even more complicated to share details of the new stage of Israel’s military offensive. A day after meeting with foreign ministers from Arab states, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to the West Bank to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The unfolding crisis in Gaza has sparked protests across the world for weeks and emotions are spilling over into U.S. college campuses. Quebec is bracing for a major strike starting Monday morning. At the height of the pandemic, testing wastewater for COVID-19 became a great way to track how much the virus was circulating in specific communities, and Canadian researchers are now using the same method to test freshwater in Nova Scotia, where they’ve recently discovered COVID-19 and other human viruses in the province’s lakes. And finally, there is no easy way for the horrific conflict between Israel and Hamas to be explained, with devastating images and information circulating online — understanding trauma under these circumstances is crucial as it may look very different from one person to the next.