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Amy Coney Barrett may be poised to split conservatives on the Supreme Court

Amy Coney Barrett may be poised to split conservatives on the Supreme Court

Politico reports: A rift is emerging among the Supreme Court’s conservatives — and it could thwart the court’s recent march to expand gun rights. On one side is the court’s oldest and most conservative justice, Clarence Thomas. On the other is its youngest member, Amy Coney Barrett. The question at the center of the spat may seem abstract: How should the court use “history and tradition” to decide modern-day legal issues? But the answer may determine how the court resolves…

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What we gain by recognizing the role of chance in life

What we gain by recognizing the role of chance in life

Mark R Rank writes: Your luck, they say, can turn around. All you need to do is work a little harder. As a saying often attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca goes: ‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.’ A similar proverb is dated to the 16th century: ‘Diligence is the mother of good luck.’ And even the French chemist Louis Pasteur echoed the idea when he declared in 1854 that ‘chance only favours the mind which is prepared’….

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As Israeli generals approve Lebanon offensive battle plans, Hezbollah provides glimpse of surveillance intel

As Israeli generals approve Lebanon offensive battle plans, Hezbollah provides glimpse of surveillance intel

The Times of Israel reports: The head of the IDF’s Northern Command Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and head of the Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk approved Lebanon battle plans on Tuesday, the military said, following a recent intensification of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah. In a statement, the IDF said the generals held an assessment, during which “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved.” The top commanders also made decisions regarding “accelerating the readiness of the forces on…

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U.S. troop numbers in Jordan surge to record high amid Gaza war

U.S. troop numbers in Jordan surge to record high amid Gaza war

Middle East Eye reports: The number of US troops stationed in Jordan has soared to a two-decade high amid Israel’s war on Gaza, according to a new congressional report. US President Joe Biden informed Congress on 7 June that the US had deployed 3,813 to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a nearly 20 percent increase in troop numbers from December. The troop levels are higher than at any time since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, according to US troop…

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The sick and desperate children stuck in Gaza

The sick and desperate children stuck in Gaza

  It’s been more than a month since Israel began its offensive in Rafah targeting, it says, Hamas’ remaining battalions. Fighting has been raging around the southern city, which was a crucial hub for aid distribution across the strip – and the only possible route out of Gaza. Now, with mounting concern about rising levels of hunger, Israel has announced daily tactical pauses to increase the flow of aid. But for some it’s already too late.

Israel is killing entire Palestinian families. AP documents 60 who lost dozens or more

Israel is killing entire Palestinian families. AP documents 60 who lost dozens or more

The Associated Press reports: He is among the very last survivors of his Gaza family, a clan so close they knew without thinking how blood and marriage bound them across generations and city blocks. Then, branch by branch, 173 of Youssef Salem’s relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes in a matter of days in December. By spring that toll had risen to 270. Bones and flesh strewn over the ruins of family homes. Blond curls of a young cousin peeking…

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U.S. pier for Gaza aid is failing, and could be dismantled early

U.S. pier for Gaza aid is failing, and could be dismantled early

The New York Times reports: The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected. In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to…

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ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism

ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism

JTA reports: Wikipedia’s editors have voted to declare the Anti-Defamation League “generally unreliable” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding it to a list of banned and partially banned sources. An overwhelming majority of editors involved in the debate about the ADL also voted to deem the organization unreliable on the topic of antisemitism, its core focus. A formal declaration on that count is expected next. The decision about Israel-related citations, made last week, means that one of the most prominent and…

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Why intelligence exists only in the eye of the beholder

Why intelligence exists only in the eye of the beholder

Abigail Desmond and Michael Haslam write: What has intelligence? Slime moulds, ants, fifth-graders, shrimp, neurons, ChatGPT, fish shoals, border collies, crowds, birds, you and me? All of the above? Some? Or, at the risk of sounding transgressive: maybe none? The question is a perennial one, often dusted off in the face of a previously unknown animal behaviour, or new computing devices that are trained to do human things and then do those things well. We might intuitively feel our way…

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Weeks before Oct. 7, IDF said to have been warned of Hamas plan to take 250 hostages

Weeks before Oct. 7, IDF said to have been warned of Hamas plan to take 250 hostages

The Times of Israel reports: A document put together by the IDF’s Gaza Division less than three weeks before October 7 warned that Hamas was training for a large-scale invasion of Israel during which hostages would be taken en masse, according to an Israeli television report Monday. Chillingly, the September 19 document by Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200 — which was ignored — estimated the target number of hostages at 200-250, according to the Kan public broadcaster, citing unnamed security sources….

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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières: Gaza before October 7th

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières: Gaza before October 7th

📽️ Watch the documentary “Gaza before 7 October”, which captures the resilience of healthcare workers in Gaza, before the war erupted in October 2023, and the unfathomable loss and devastation that followed.https://t.co/PEzJvxAWuz — MSF International (@MSF) June 17, 2024 Most of the footage in this documentary was filmed in May 2023, some five months before the war that has now engulfed Gaza. The purpose of the original documentary project was to explore the impact of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, which…

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UNICEF decries Israel’s ‘war on children’ as starvation and deaths mount in Gaza

UNICEF decries Israel’s ‘war on children’ as starvation and deaths mount in Gaza

  The Israeli military on Sunday announced a daily “tactical pause” in its attacks on Rafah to allow humanitarian relief to enter the Gaza Strip, after systematically blocking aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza since October 7. While a full ceasefire is still vital, “any pause in the bombing is good news for children,” says UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, speaking to Democracy Now! from Rafah. “The physical and psychological exhaustion they face is almost impossible to capture,” he says, characterizing…

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New polling shows the real fallout from the Trump conviction

New polling shows the real fallout from the Trump conviction

Ankush Khardori writes: Donald Trump’s criminal conviction didn’t instantly upend the 2024 presidential race. But the results of a new poll should be worrying for Trump. In the weeks since the verdict, both parties have sought to shape the public’s initial reaction, with Republicans largely denouncing it and Democrats citing the result as further evidence that Trump is unfit for office. To figure out how this unprecedented moment is being processed by the electorate, POLITICO Magazine partnered with Ipsos in…

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Crypto industry aligns with Trump

Crypto industry aligns with Trump

The New York Times reports: Ryan Selkis, a cryptocurrency executive, was eating dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month when he got an unexpected invitation: Former President Donald J. Trump wanted him to come to the stage and say a few words. Mr. Selkis, who runs the crypto data firm Messari, was one of a couple hundred attendees at an event celebrating Mr. Trump’s series of nonfungible tokens, the digital collectibles known as NFTs. When he reached the lectern, Mr. Selkis turned…

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