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With eyes on U.S. college campuses, students stress: ‘Gaza is why we’re here’

With eyes on U.S. college campuses, students stress: ‘Gaza is why we’re here’

Al Jazeera reports: Global attention has turned to universities across the United States, where students have erected encampments to demand action to end Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. The growing protests have taken root on the campuses of some of the country’s top academic institutions, including Columbia and Harvard. And over the past weeks, they have spurred heated debates around freedom of speech, Palestinian solidarity activism in the US, and the use of force to disperse student protesters, among…

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Israel intensifies strikes on Rafah ahead of threatened invasion

Israel intensifies strikes on Rafah ahead of threatened invasion

Reuters reports: Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight after saying it would evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city and launch an all-out assault despite allies’ warnings this could cause mass casualties. Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist. “We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high,” Ibrahim…

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Blinken hasn’t decided whether to sanction Israel for committing gross human rights abuses

Blinken hasn’t decided whether to sanction Israel for committing gross human rights abuses

JTA reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has yet to make a determination on whether the United States will withhold some defense assistance from Israel because of human rights abuses by one of its army’s most notorious units. A source familiar with the State Department review of alleged abuses by units of the Israel Defense Forces on Friday pushed back against reports earlier this week that Blinken had made a determination to withhold funding from the Netzach Yehuda battalion,…

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The last thing this Supreme Court could do to shock us

The last thing this Supreme Court could do to shock us

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern write: For three long years, Supreme Court watchers mollified themselves (and others) with vague promises that when the rubber hit the road, even the ultraconservative Federalist Society justices of the Roberts court would put democracy before party whenever they were finally confronted with the legal effort to hold Donald Trump accountable for Jan. 6. There were promising signs: They had, after all, refused to wade into the Trumpian efforts to set aside the election…

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Two British men charged with helping Russian intelligence

Two British men charged with helping Russian intelligence

BBC News reports: Two British men have been charged with helping Russian intelligence services after a suspected arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business in London. Dylan Earl, 20, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, and Jake Reeves, 22, from Croydon, were investigated following a fire at a warehouse in east London in March. Three other suspects linked to the fire have been held on other charges. The investigation is being led by Met Police counter-terror officers. Mr Earl is accused of planning…

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The tech baron seeking to ‘ethnically cleanse’ San Francisco

The tech baron seeking to ‘ethnically cleanse’ San Francisco

Gil Duran writes: To fully grasp the current situation in San Francisco, where venture capitalists are trying to take control of City Hall, you must listen to Balaji Srinivasan. Before you do, steel yourself for what’s to come: A normal person could easily mistake his rambling train wrecks of thought for a crackpot’s ravings, but influential Silicon Valley billionaires regard him as a genius. “Balaji has the highest rate of output per minute of good new ideas of anybody I’ve…

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The universe as a network of rivers

The universe as a network of rivers

The universe as a network of rivers: This remarkable new map reveals how galaxies flow like water, following the pull of gravity across hundreds of millions of light years. https://t.co/krsqjnnoa3 pic.twitter.com/192Q28SrM9 — Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) April 26, 2024 Astrobites reports: Cosmography is the science of cartography, but applied to the Universe by mapping out the Large Scale Structures such as voids, filaments and superclusters. While galaxy surveys are able to create such maps from just looking at spatial information…

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The protesters Netanyahu is afraid of are mostly young women defending human rights

The protesters Netanyahu is afraid of are mostly young women defending human rights

Anti-Semitism on campuses in the United States is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. The world cannot stand idly by. pic.twitter.com/oHlwig1vCl — Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 24, 2024 Mr. Netanyahu, antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to millions. Do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government….

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Hamas would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established, official says

Hamas would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established, official says

The Associated Press reports: A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of talks for a cease-fire in Gaza. The suggestion that…

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Global breakdown of international law amid flagrant war crimes in Gaza & beyond, says Amnesty chief

Global breakdown of international law amid flagrant war crimes in Gaza & beyond, says Amnesty chief

  Amnesty International has released its annual report assessing human rights in 155 countries. The report highlights Israel’s assault on Gaza with evidence of war crimes continuing to mount, as well as U.S. failures to denounce rights violations committed by Israel. It also points to Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, and the rise of authoritarianism and massive rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. We speak to Agnès Callamard, the organization’s secretary general, who warns “the international system is on…

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Anguish and fear in Florida amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment

Anguish and fear in Florida amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment

NPR reports: Manuel Vasquez says he remembers when people started to leave. When one by one, people in this community started vanishing. It began about a year ago, in May 2023, when a new law was signed into law by Governor — and then presidential candidate — Ron DeSantis. It’s considered one of the toughest immigration laws in the country. Among other things, SB 1718 penalizes employers from using undocumented labor, prohibits undocumented people from having driver’s licenses, and defines…

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Half of Americans support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants

Half of Americans support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants

Axios reports: Half of Americans — including 42% of Democrats — say they’d support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. And 30% of Democrats — as well as 46% of Republicans — now say they’d end birthright citizenship, something guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Why it matters: Americans are open to former President Trump’s harshest immigration plans, spurred on by a record surge of illegal border crossings and a relentless messaging…

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Bill McKibben on Climate Crisis: How we got here and what we can do now

Bill McKibben on Climate Crisis: How we got here and what we can do now

  Over forty years ago, the publication of ‘The End of Nature’ popularized a topic that was then largely unfamiliar to the general public. The book’s author, Bill McKibben, brought the subject of global warming to light and has advocated for climate solutions ever since. In this #EarthDay special on environmental protection, he talks about the oil industry’s PR campaign, how renewable energies can not only help the planet but also curb power abuse, and why global warming is an…

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McKinsey is under criminal investigation for its opioid work

McKinsey is under criminal investigation for its opioid work

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department is investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids. The investigation is led by the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Massachusetts and the Western District of Virginia in coordination with the department’s civil division in Washington, according to two officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay about $1 billion to…

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