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Israeli Military Advances In Gaza Operation With New Raid Against Hamas

GAZA

(CTN NEWS) – Israeli forces entered a new phase of their conflict against Hamas in Gaza on Thursday, conducting a significant but limited incursion into the coastal strip.

This operation was described as a probing action, preparing for a more sustained ground offensive.

Backed by tanks, armored bulldozers, and infantry, the operation unfolded under the cover of night as they targeted Hamas positions in the northern part of Gaza.

This extended into the territory by about a kilometer from the border fence.

Simultaneously, officials confirmed that the militant Islamist group was holding 224 hostages.

The Israeli raid coincided with EU leaders’ preparations to call for the creation of “humanitarian corridors and pauses” to allow urgently needed aid into Gaza.

This proposal was part of the final draft of a text to be approved at a summit in Brussels.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and there are concerns that the death toll could rise further if Israel proceeds with a ground invasion.

The UN declared on Thursday that “nowhere is safe” in Gaza.

Hamas’s armed wing reported that “almost 50” Israeli hostages, held in the Gaza Strip since the attacks on October 7, were killed in Israeli bombing raids.

The Israeli military stated that Thursday’s operation, conducted amidst continued heavy airstrikes, aimed to search for tunnel systems and test Hamas’s responses, particularly from teams believed to be equipped with Kornet anti-tank guided missiles, a major concern for Israeli military planners.

While one Israeli tank faced anti-tank fire during the operation, Israeli forces withdrew without incurring casualties.

Footage released by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) showed a column of at least a dozen main battle tanks and other armored vehicles crossing through an opening in the Gaza border wall and firing on damaged buildings in a nearby built-up area.

Although Israeli troops have frequently entered Gaza during recent fighting, this incursion was described as significantly larger in scale, designed to shape conditions for the next stages of the conflict in immediate border areas.

The troops, reportedly from the Givati brigade and 162nd Armoured Division as per Israeli media, returned from the raid without any casualties.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated, “Through the raid, we eliminated terrorists, neutralized threats, dismantled explosives, and neutralized ambushes to enable the next phases of the ground forces’ operations.”

Since October 7, Israel has been conducting airstrikes in Gaza, following an incursion by Hamas militants who killed 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, and took hostages.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that among the casualties in Gaza were the wife and two children of Al Jazeera’s chief correspondent in the area, Wael Dahdouh.

He received the tragic news while broadcasting live images of the night sky for the network.

Al Jazeera reported that his family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Shortly afterward, the Qatari-based satellite channel switched to footage of Dahdouh at al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza, where he emotionally grieved over the loss of his son.

He commented, “They take revenge on us in our children,” as he knelt beside his son’s body, still wearing his press vest from his day’s work.

The Israeli military asserts that it exclusively targets militant facilities and alleges that Hamas operates among civilians in densely populated Gaza.

Palestinian militants have been launching rocket attacks into Israel since the onset of the conflict.

With a significant deployment of troops amassed along the Gaza border, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country is intensifying its military campaign, emphasizing that a substantial ground offensive is being prepared.

Netanyahu added, “I cannot say when, how, or how many, nor all the elements that we are taking into account, most of which are not known to the public.”

Amid growing international concern about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, the European Council was expected to join those urging a humanitarian pause in the conflict to facilitate access to aid for the 1.4 million Palestinians displaced by the fighting.

The draft text of an official EU declaration states, “The European Council expresses its gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for continued, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures, including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs.

The European Union will work closely with partners in the region to protect civilians, provide assistance, and facilitate access to food, water, medical care, fuel, and shelter, ensuring that such assistance is not abused by terrorist organizations.”

In tandem with this development, Israel conducted strikes on approximately 250 locations overnight, including an Israeli navy attack on what it claimed to be ground-to-air missile launchers near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Amid ongoing fighting in Gaza, reports emerged in Israeli media regarding negotiations aimed at securing a substantial release of hostages in the coming days.

According to unnamed Israeli and foreign sources cited by the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, advanced talks were underway to release a significant number of hostages, possibly within a few days.

Separately, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, suggested that Hamas was prepared to release civilian hostages to Tehran, as reported by Reuters.

However, the details of how this would be executed remained unclear.

On Thursday, Hamas claimed that as many as 50 hostages had already been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza.

When asked about this claim, an Israeli spokesperson declined to comment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) called for Hamas to provide proof of life for the hostages it was holding and urged their release on health grounds.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized the urgent need for care and treatment for the hostages, many of whom have pre-existing health conditions, including children, women, and the elderly.

The mental health trauma experienced by the hostages and their families is also a significant concern.

Amid growing international concern about the impact on civilians in Gaza, senior Israeli officials and Hamas, a group classified as a proscribed terrorist organization in multiple countries, including the UK, raised the possibility of an escalation in the conflict.

Saleh al-Arouri, the Lebanon-based deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, stated that “the [real] battles have not yet begun.”

On the Israeli side, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet and a former IDF chief of staff, indicated that the war was poised to enter new and more intense stages during an interview with Israeli radio.

US media reported that President Joe Biden had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone a ground invasion while Hamas still held hostages.

However, Biden denied making such a demand and stated that the decision to proceed was up to Israel.

The raid occurred as the United Nations reported being on the brink of depleting fuel supplies in the Gaza Strip, necessitating a significant reduction in relief efforts in the region, which has been under complete siege since the outbreak of the conflict initiated by Hamas’s actions in southern Israel earlier this month.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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