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Biden’s refusal of Gaza ceasefire could drag U.S. into Middle East war

Biden’s refusal of Gaza ceasefire could drag U.S. into Middle East war

  Middle East policy expert Trita Parsi says President Biden’s reluctance to press Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza has the potential to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran and its allies in the region. On Monday, Israel reportedly killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, just days after an airstrike killed a senior Hamas leader in the capital Beirut. Meanwhile, the U.S. has exchanged fire with Yemen’s Houthi forces, who have attacked commercial ships in the Red…

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Israel is not promising to ‘scale back’ its war on Gaza

Israel is not promising to ‘scale back’ its war on Gaza

Spencer Ackerman writes: Readers of The New York Times were treated on Monday morning to a breaking-news alert heralding what seemed like a welcome development: “Israel says it has begun to scale back war.” That description, which led the Times website, is about as close to the opposite of the way Israel’s war is heading as could appear in the leading US newspaper. The Israeli Defense Forces spokesman, Radm. Daniel Hagari, gave the Times the interview that it used for…

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Evolution might stop humans from solving climate change, says new study

Evolution might stop humans from solving climate change, says new study

University of Maine: Central features of human evolution may stop our species from resolving global environmental problems like climate change, says a new study led by the University of Maine. Humans have come to dominate the planet with tools and systems to exploit natural resources that were refined over thousands of years through the process of cultural adaptation to the environment. University of Maine evolutionary biologist Tim Waring wanted to know how this process of cultural adaptation to the environment…

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Israel’s talk of expanding war to Lebanon alarms U.S. — but not enough to demand a ceasefire

Israel’s talk of expanding war to Lebanon alarms U.S. — but not enough to demand a ceasefire

The Washington Post reports: President Biden has dispatched his top aides to the Middle East with a critical objective: Prevent a full-blown war from erupting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has made clear it views as untenable the regular exchange of fire between its forces and Hezbollah along the border and may soon launch a major military operation in Lebanon. “We prefer the path of an agreed-upon diplomatic settlement,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday,…

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CPJ urges investigation into whether Israel is targeting journalists in air strikes

CPJ urges investigation into whether Israel is targeting journalists in air strikes

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an independent investigation into an Israeli drone strike that killed Al-Jazeera journalist Hamza Al Dahdouh, who is the son of Al-Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh, and freelance journalist Mustafa Thuraya on Sunday as they drove their car to an assignment in southern Gaza. “The killings of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya must be independently investigated, and those behind their deaths must be held accountable. The continuous killings of…

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Seizing Russia’s frozen assets is the right move

Seizing Russia’s frozen assets is the right move

Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Kosenko write: As Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to wreak havoc both regionally and globally, the Ukrainian people and their allies demonstrate remarkable determination and courage. But nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, it is increasingly clear that the international community can and must do much more to help. While the G7 countries and other governments around the world have been extraordinarily generous in supporting the Ukrainian war effort, there are signs…

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Trump tries reappropriating ‘insurrection’ on Jan. 6 anniversary

Trump tries reappropriating ‘insurrection’ on Jan. 6 anniversary

The Washington Post reports: Republican polling leader Donald Trump observed the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by glorifying people charged in the riot, repeating baseless claims that left-wing or government interlopers caused the breach, and attempting to turn the term “insurrection” against his political opponents. The remarks were part of an ongoing escalation of Trump’s and other Republicans’ efforts to minimize, justify and deny the violence of three years ago while also defending…

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The real reasons the GOP suddenly pretended to care about Harvard

The real reasons the GOP suddenly pretended to care about Harvard

Will Bunch writes: The true meaning of Claudine Gay’s ouster can be seen in a story that’s gotten zero coverage in the New York Times or the rest of the mainstream media. At Louisiana State University, whose undergraduate enrollment of just under 29,000 is exactly four times that of Harvard, the looming arrival of a new right-wing GOP governor across town in Baton Rouge has sparked a quiet but significant effort to dismantle diversity efforts and kill anti-racism education in…

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‘He’s a cipher’: How Austin’s need for privacy just backfired

‘He’s a cipher’: How Austin’s need for privacy just backfired

Politico reports: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is one of the most reclusive Pentagon chiefs in recent memory. That’s creating a major problem for him now. Austin’s failure to inform his most senior advisers, congressional leaders and even President Joe Biden of his hospitalization last week due to complications from a medical procedure has erupted into a controversy that’s left senior White House and Pentagon officials infuriated and befuddled. Some Republicans quickly called for investigations or even for Austin to be…

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Pharmacies share medical data with police without a warrant, inquiry finds

Pharmacies share medical data with police without a warrant, inquiry finds

The Washington Post reports: The nation’s largest pharmacy chains have handed over Americans’ prescription records to police and government investigators without a warrant, a congressional investigation found, raising concerns about threats to medical privacy. Though some of the chains require their lawyers to review law enforcement requests, three of the largest — CVS Health, Kroger and Rite Aid, with a combined 60,000 locations nationwide — said they allow pharmacy staff members to hand over customers’ medical records in the store….

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UN warns Gaza is now ‘uninhabitable’ as war continues

UN warns Gaza is now ‘uninhabitable’ as war continues

The Associated Press reports: The UN humanitarian chief has described Gaza as “uninhabitable” three months into Israel’s war with Hamas, warning that famine was looming and a public health disaster unfolding. In a grim assessment of the devastating impact of Israel’s military response to the horrific Hamas attacks on 7 October, Martin Griffiths said that Gaza’s 2.3 million people face “daily threats to their very existence” while the world just watches. He said tens of thousands of people, mostly women…

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Safe zones: Israel’s technologies of genocide

Safe zones: Israel’s technologies of genocide

Nicola Perugini writes: “This evacuation is for your own safety,” the Israeli military declared on October 13, when it ordered 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza to leave their homes. Thousands heeded the warning and headed south, only to be bombed along the way and upon arrival. The massive evacuation order was only the inauguration of an array of announcements and legal technologies developed by the Israeli military and its legal team in order to organise the violence against the…

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Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

+972 Magazine and Local Call report: In early December, images circulated worldwide showing dozens of Palestinian men in the city of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, who were stripped to their underwear, kneeling or sitting hunched over, then blindfolded and put into the back of Israeli military trucks like cattle. The vast majority of these detainees were civilians with no affiliation to Hamas, Israeli security officials later confirmed, and the men were taken away by the army without…

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‘He’s breathing’: My two hours under Gaza’s rubble after an Israeli strike

‘He’s breathing’: My two hours under Gaza’s rubble after an Israeli strike

Mohammed R Mhawish writes: On the morning that the unthinkable happened, my father was holding the radio close, hoping the news bulletin might bring some kind of relief such as news of a ceasefire. My mother was attempting to strike a reassuring tone following another long and sleepless night in our family home in central Gaza City. “I am hopeful today shall pass peacefully, or at least be anything unlike last night,” she told us. That morning – December 7…

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