Statement: How did Iran-backed Hamas pull off such a large-scale attack against Israel? Follow the money. “The Biden administration has to answer for its policy of appeasing Tehran and granting the regime unprecedented revenues through ransom and illicit oil sales—money that is flowing directly to terror attacks on Israel,” said Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, and Robert Greenway, director of the Center for National Defense, in a statement released over the weekend. Read the statement here.

• Both Coates and Greenway appeared on news programs over the weekend to talk about this act of war. Watch Coates here and Greenway here.

Heritage is also hosting an event, "The Future of the U.S.-Israel Alliance at 75," with leading experts and a keynote from Amb. Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress.

• The three-hour event starts at 1 p.m. on Oct. 23.  Register here.
  

Ironic: A bombshell report by Heritage Senior Research Fellow Jay P. Greene, Ph.D., and Research Associate Madison Marino reveals that the presence of chief diversity officers (CDOs) in K-12 schools led to lower test scores among black and Hispanic students and wider achievement gaps between minorities and white students.  

• In districts with CDOs, black and Hispanic students “lost an additional 4.5 percentile points on their math achievement tests relative to districts that did not have a chief diversity officer,” said Greene. 
• Schools with CDOs were also more likely to not inform parents if their children started to gender transition, change their name, or use opposite-sex bathrooms.  

Read more about these shocking findings here. 

Empowering: A new budget will give every North Carolina family the right to choose how and where their children learn, making it the ninth state to offer universal school choice.   

• The budget expands the state’s existing private school scholarship program to all children, regardless of household income. 
• Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow in education policy, explains why this is a big win for families.  

Read more here.      

Inconvenient truth: Contrary to all the hype in the media, this summer's heat wave was a wash-up.  

• “Looking at just the surface thermometer data ... this summer ranked as only the 15th warmest since 1895,” write Heritage Senior Research Fellow Kevin Dayaratna and Visiting Fellow Roy Spencer. 
• "Sensationalized headlines based on cursory analysis fail to help anyone," they write.

Read more here. 

Priorities: While the Biden administration pays $2 million per day to provide illegal migrants room service and pet therapy, military members deal with rodent-infested barracks and sewage overflows.  

• This shocking disparity shows the administration’s priorities, says Robert Greenway, director of the Center for National Defense. 
• “If Biden won’t fix the discrepancy, Congress should,” writes Greenway.  

Read more about the situation here.  

All pain, no gain: A new Biden administration rule would raise fuel efficiency standards for new cars to unattainable levels: 66 mpg for cars and 54 mpg for pickup trucks—by 2032.  

• According to the government’s own estimates, this proposal would cost Americans $5.8 billion and would reduce average global temperatures by ... 0.000%! 

Fight back against this nonsense by submitting a comment by Oct. 16.  

Award: Heritage President Dr. Kevin Roberts received the National Religious Broadcasters’ 2023 First Freedoms Award, which recognizes stalwart defenders of religious liberty. 

• Michael Farris, NRB general counsel, praised Roberts for championing pro-life, family, and marriage policies, and said he’s led Heritage “with an entrepreneurial vision for lasting impact.”  

Read more about the award and Roberts’ remarks at the ceremony here. 

• Has America Entered the Fall of Rome?—EJ Antoni and Peter St. Onge 
• Hey, Republicans: Don’t Forget About Growth and Prosperity—Stephen Moore 
• Russia and China Are Running in a Nuclear Arms Race—-Robert Peters 
• Is DEI Losing Its Hold on College Campuses?—-onathan Butcher 
• Smithsonian's Planned Latino Museum Is Woke Move Intended to Radicalize U.S. Hispanics—Mike Gonzalez 
• The Livestock Industry’s Beef Is with Biden, Not Australia—Andrew Hale 
• Biden Marches with Autoworkers While Causing Their Problems—Diana Furchtgott-Roth 
• The Race for More Space: The Flawed Logic Behind Making Space a 17th Critical Infrastructure—Brian J. Cavanaugh 
• The BorderLine: Boggled by Biden’s Border Crisis? Relax, AOC Is in Charge—Simon Hankinson 
• Gavin Newsom Sends a Clear Message to Parents in California—Sarah Parshall Perry