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Israel and U.S. are on alert for Iran to retaliate against Israeli attack on Damascus embassy

Israel and U.S. are on alert for Iran to retaliate against Israeli attack on Damascus embassy

The New York Times reports: Iran vowed on Friday to avenge Israel’s killing of senior commanders and other officers of its elite Quds Force, at a public funeral held for the dead men, elevating fears of open war but leaving unsaid how it would retaliate or when. U.S. officials in Washington and the Middle East said on Friday that they were bracing for possible Iranian retaliation for the Israeli airstrike on Monday in Damascus, Syria. U.S. military forces in the…

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Top Israeli spy chief accidentally exposes his true identity in online security lapse

Top Israeli spy chief accidentally exposes his true identity in online security lapse

Huge embarrassment to Brigadier-General Yossi Sariel the commander of the prestigious Israeli intelligence unit 8200. The Guardian exposes his full name following a book which Sariel himself authored in 2021. He wrote a book about AI under his name's acronym as YS and published… — Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) April 5, 2024 The Guardian reports: The identity of the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 is a closely guarded secret. He occupies one of the most sensitive roles in the military, leading…

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What liberals get wrong about ‘white rural rage’ — almost everything

What liberals get wrong about ‘white rural rage’ — almost everything

Nicholas Jacobs writes: Research both by me and by others has illuminated how resentment is driven by the complex rural identity that, while occasionally intersecting with national political currents, is rooted in the unique context of rural life. Rage, both as a soundbite and as presented in the book [White Rural Rage, by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman], oversimplifies and misrepresents these debates. And so does the assumption that all the holders of these views are white, and that this…

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Solar eclipses are always with us

Solar eclipses are always with us

Marina Koren writes: Cosmically speaking, the alignment of Earth, the sun, and the moon is ordinary. But from our corner of the universe, the occurrence produces something wondrous: a total solar eclipse. On April 8, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, casting a shadow along a narrow strip of the country, from Texas to Maine. Outside this path, the sun will not disappear, and the best and safest way to observe the event is with eclipse glasses….

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A blinking red light for Israel in American politics

A blinking red light for Israel in American politics

Politico reports: In notably blunt terms Thursday, top U.S. officials made a series of warnings to the Israeli government that they were nearly out of patience with its conduct of the war in Gaza. President Joe Biden and his top deputies said they would consider changing their policy towards Israel unless more consideration was given towards the humanitarian crisis its military was producing. A top Biden ally in the Senate argued that aid could be conditioned should Israel follow through…

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Chef José Andrés: Israel is engaged in ‘a war against humanity itself’

Chef José Andrés: Israel is engaged in ‘a war against humanity itself’

  World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés is speaking out after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza: “Humanitarians and civilians should never be paying the consequences of war. This is a basic principle of humanity.” video showing the Israeli army shooting a Palestinian civilian several times after he managed to get an aid package thrown from the air . The Israeli army continued shooting him after he was injured while he was trying to crawl…

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‘Stop it now’: Jill Biden privately urges an end to conflict in Gaza

‘Stop it now’: Jill Biden privately urges an end to conflict in Gaza

The New York Times reports: One of the strongest voices inside the White House urging an end to civilian casualties in Gaza is the person closest to the president: Jill Biden. At a meeting with Muslim community members at the White House on Tuesday evening, one guest told President Biden that his wife had disapproved of him coming to the meeting because of Mr. Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Mr. Biden replied that he understood. The…

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MSF dismisses Israeli claim of ‘regrettable incident’ in strike against aid workers in Gaza

MSF dismisses Israeli claim of ‘regrettable incident’ in strike against aid workers in Gaza

Reuters reports: The Doctors Without Borders medical charity (MSF) said on Thursday it rejected Israel’s position that an airstrike which killed seven aid workers was a “regrettable incident”, saying many humanitarian personnel have been attacked previously. Seven workers from World Central Kitchen, which provides food relief in crisis and conflict zones, were killed when their convoy was hit on Monday night shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to the Palestinian enclave by sea. “We…

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Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law

The Guardian reports: A fourth former supreme court justice has put his name to a letter warning Rishi Sunak that the UK is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel, as the number of legal experts signing the letter rose to more than 750. Lord Carnwath joins Lady Hale, who was president of the UK’s highest court, and lords Sumption and Wilson, in urging ministers to act to prevent the “plausible risk” of genocide in Gaza. Another new signatory…

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Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce

Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce

Politico reports: The Biden administration put the finishing touches Thursday on a plan to restrict presidents from unilaterally nixing civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce, as former President Donald Trump renews his vow to uproot a perceived “deep state” if he is returned to the White House. While a future president could take steps to squelch the new directive, it reflects a larger effort by the Biden administration to put a protective wall around its policies….

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Why Judge Aileen Cannon is on thin ice in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case

Why Judge Aileen Cannon is on thin ice in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case

Norman Eisen, E. Danya Perry and Joshua Kolb write: On Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith threw down the gauntlet in an extraordinary filing in the Mar-a-Lago prosecution, the case that centers around former President Donald Trump’s retention of classified documents and his resistance to government attempts to recover them from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Smith warned Judge Aileen Cannon that her approach to the law governing the handling of presidential records — and so Donald Trump’s culpability in the case —…

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In Gaza, Israel unleashed a rogue army in which ‘every commander makes his own rules’

In Gaza, Israel unleashed a rogue army in which ‘every commander makes his own rules’

The Times of Israel reports: [O]n Tuesday evening, the Haaretz daily spoke to unnamed military sources who revealed that the cause of the strike [killing seven World Central Kitchen staffers] was undisciplined, rogue commanders, not a lack of coordination between the IDF and the WCK. A source in the intelligence branch told Haaretz that the IDF’s Southern Command “knows exactly what the cause of the attack was: in Gaza, everyone does as they please.” Army regulations require final approvals from…

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José Andrés: Let people eat

José Andrés: Let people eat

José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, writes: In the worst conditions you can imagine — after hurricanes, earthquakes, bombs and gunfire — the best of humanity shows up. Not once or twice but always. The seven people killed on a World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza on Monday were the best of humanity. They are not faceless or nameless. They are not generic aid workers or collateral damage in war. Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, John Chapman, Jacob Flickinger,…

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‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

The Guardian reports: The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war. In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict. Their…

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