Keanu Reeves spins out at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in pro auto racing debut

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Hollywood star Keanu Reeves made his professional auto racing debut on Saturday in an event in which “The Matrix” star spun out at famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Reeves spun into the grass without a collision on the exit of Turn 9 a little more than halfway through the 45-minute race. He re-entered and continued driving, signaling he was uninjured.

Reeves, who qualified 31st out of the 35 cars, ran as high as 21st and successfully avoided a first lap crash in Turn 14. Reeves finished 25th.

Reeves, who is 60 years old, is competing at Indianapolis in Toyota GR Cup, a Toyota spec-racing series and a support series for this weekend’s Indy 8 Hour sports car event. He has a second race Sunday.

Reeves is driving the No. 92 BRZRKR car, which is promoting his graphic novel “The Book of Elsewhere.” He is teammates with Cody Jones from “Dude Perfect."

Reeves has previous racing experience as a former participant in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in the celebrity race. Reeves won the event in 2009.

He is scheduled to attend a 30th anniversary screening of “Speed” on Tuesday in Los Angeles alongside his co-star Sandra Bullock.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Keanu Reeves walks in the garage area following a GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Fans watch as Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves waves to fans in the garage area following a GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves climbs out of his car following a GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

A fan holds a photo of Keanu Reeves as he drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves walks in the garage area following a GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves sits in his car before a GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Keanu Reeves drives during the GR Cup Series auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Ali Al-Taweel was born as Israeli warplanes started to pound the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ surprise cross-border attack on southern Israel.

Now, the Palestinian child will celebrate his first birthday as the Israeli-Hamas war reaches its one-year mark. For his family, it's been a year filled with uncertainty and anxiety as they moved place to place amid widespread destruction and limited resources.

“I had arranged another, very sweet life for him,” Ali’s mother, Amal Al-Taweel, told The Associated Press in an interview, “The war has changed everything.”

When the war began on Oct. 7 of last year, Al-Taweel was being rushed to a hospital in central Gaza to give birth to a child she and her husband, Mustafa Al-Taweel, had sought for three years. Days after Ali’s birth, his family returned to their home in the Zahrah neighborhood, just north of Wadi Gaza, but were forced to flee on Oct. 18, just a day before Israeli warplanes bombed the area, Al-Taweel said.

Since then, they have been living in relatives’ homes and shelters across central and southern Gaza, including the city of Rafah before the Israeli military invaded it in May. They now shelter in the house of Al-Taweel’s parents in the Nuseirat refugee camp, along with 15 other relatives.

“It was a very difficult year, bad in every way — from a health perspective, from a psychological perspective,” the 30-year-old said, adding that her child has been raised against the backdrop of daily bombing and killing.

The Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took about 250 hostage, including children and a newborn. Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history. The war has killed about 42,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

More than 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been forced to flee their homes and cram into a tent camp on Gaza’s shore. A quarter of the strip’s population faces starvation amid an Israel-imposed blockade, allowing only limited delivery of aid, according to the United Nations.

Al-Taweel said every stage of Ali's life has been difficult “from the time he started crawling, to when his teeth came out, to when he started his first steps, to when he started walking." And she worried constantly about his safety, recalling that he was slightly injured when a strike hit close to her sister’s house in the camp, shattering the windows.

Al-Taweel counted multiple challenges she and her husband, who lost his job as a day laborer in a seaside restaurant in Gaza City, have faced since the war began. Ali didn’t receive any vaccinations in his first six months, making him vulnerable to disease, his mother said. And, with the blockade in place, she has struggled to obtain formula and diapers.

“They do not exist, and if they exist, they are very expensive and we can’t afford them,” she said.

Israel has severely restricted aid deliveries of food, water, medicine and other supplies into Gaza during the war. U.N. agencies and aid groups working in the enclave have long complained about lack of access and crippling restrictions on aid delivery.

“There is no single word that can describe the past year,” said Sondos Alashqar, who works with the Medical Aid for Palestine group. Alashqar said that the hardships Palestinians saw during this past year exceeded what their grandparents experienced during the 1948 Nakba — or catastrophe — when some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from what is now Israel.

“We witnessed numerous death-and-life situations,” she said. “It was one of the hardest years we’ve even lived — harder than what our grandparents experienced.”

Al-Taweel said that constant bombing, displacement and destruction have made it difficult for her to raise her child as she had planned in his first year.

“It (the year) was full of tension, fear, anxiety, displacement, bombing and destruction,” she said. “He was not like any other child who lives in a safe, peaceful, and healthy (environment)."

Magdy reported from Cairo.

Mustafa Al-Taweel holds his child Ali, who was born on October 7, at his family home in Nuseirat, as the Israeli-Hamas war marks its one year anniversary, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Amal and Mustafa Al-Taweel play with their child Ali, who was born on October 7, at their home in Nuseirat, as the Israeli-Hamas war marks its one year anniversary, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian child Ali Al-Taweel, who was born on October 7, poses for a picture at his family home in Nuseirat, as the Israeli-Hamas war marks its one year anniversary, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)