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Israel Launches Most Intense Night Of Airstrikes In Gaza Since Start of Conflict

Israel

(CTN NEWS) – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have experienced the heaviest night of Israeli bombardment since the war with Hamas began three weeks ago.

Hamas-run authorities said hundreds of buildings were destroyed in air and artillery strikes, and that at least 377 people were killed in the past day.

Israel’s military said its warplanes hit 150 underground targets, including tunnels and other infrastructure.

Tanks and troops also went into the Strip and clashed with Hamas fighters.

The military said some soldiers would remain in the field, as Israel’s defence minister declared that the war had entered a “new phase”.

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had entered the second stage of the war with Hamas.

He said additional Israeli ground forces have gone into what he called “that stronghold of evil” – referring to Gaza – to “dismantle” Hamas and bring hostages home.

This will be a long and difficult war,” Mr Netanyahu added.

Israel began its bombing campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack by hundreds of Hamas gunmen on 7 October, in which 1,400 people were killed and 229 taken hostage.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 7,700 people have been killed in the territory since then, and the UN is warning that a “humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding”.

On Friday night, the Israeli military conducted a powerful operation in various dimensions to advance the goals of the ongoing war, with ground forces expanding their operations.

During the same period, Palestinian mobile phone and internet networks experienced disruptions, severely limiting communication both within the Gaza Strip and the ability to report on the situation.

Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, reported clashes with Israeli troops in the northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and the central Bureij area.

They also launched a series of rocket barrages towards Israel.

On Saturday morning, Rushdi Abu Alouf, a BBC correspondent in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, described a chaotic scene on the ground.

He noted that the bombardment in northern areas was on an unprecedented scale, while there were fewer strikes in southern areas.

Panic spread among the hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in the south after Israel instructed residents in the north to evacuate their homes.

The Israeli military reported airstrikes on 150 underground targets in northern Gaza, which belonged to Hamas, an organization classified as a terrorist group by Israel, the UK, and various other countries.

These targets included tunnels, underground combat facilities, and additional subterranean infrastructure.

Later, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that “last night, the earth in Gaza shook.

He emphasized that the Israeli forces had attacked targets both above and below the ground, targeting terrorist operatives across all levels and in various locations.

Gallant made it clear that the operation would continue until further notice.

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal informed AFP news agency that hundreds of buildings and houses had been entirely destroyed, with thousands of other homes sustaining damage.

He noted that the Israeli strikes had significantly altered the landscape in northern Gaza.

A video posted on Instagram by photographer Shehab Younis showed a severely wounded man being hastily evacuated from a building and placed in the back of a truck due to the unavailability of an ambulance.

In a voice note sent to the BBC, Younis described the situation as catastrophic, with people unable to contact emergency services because all means of communication had been disrupted.

William Schomburg, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross sub-delegation in Gaza, provided harrowing insights into the dire healthcare situation in Gaza.

Hospitals have been operating ceaselessly to cope with the high number of casualties.

Schomburg stated, “I’ve been able to visit different hospitals, including the Al-Quds hospital, and the scenes there are difficult to describe.”

He recounted the challenging conditions faced by healthcare workers who are tirelessly treating the wounded, all while dealing with personal tragedies.

He shared the story of a doctor who had lost his brother and cousin the previous night.

Healthcare facilities have been forced to transform into shelters for displaced civilians, who believe that hospitals are the only safe places available to them.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is hosting more than 600,000 of the 1.4 million people who have been displaced from their homes.

The agency lost most of its contact with its teams during what it referred to as the “worst and most intensive night” of bombings thus far.

Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, conveyed the immense challenges they are facing due to the disruptions in communications.

She reported that they had lost 53 colleagues and expressed fear that the number of casualties among their team might have increased as a result of the overnight bombardment.

Tensions have escalated in the Israel-Gaza conflict as Israel’s military operations continue against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Several factors are contributing to the intensification of this conflict, including the presence of Israeli hostages, the involvement of other governments, and the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza.

The situation remains complex, and the outcome is uncertain.

The presence of Israeli hostages in Gaza has heightened the stakes in this conflict.

Many of the hostages are Israelis, but there are also a large number of foreign citizens and dual nationals among them.

This means that several other governments, including the US, France, and the UK, have a stake in the operation to secure their safe release.

The pressure to ensure the safety of these hostages is mounting, and it has become a critical aspect of this conflict.

French strategic specialist Col Michel Goya has pointed out that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) face a difficult decision.

They must choose between sparing the lives of the hostages or launching an operation to inflict maximum damage on Hamas.

This decision is laden with moral, political, and strategic considerations.

Additionally, the families of those held in Hamas captivity have been making heart-rending appeals, adding to the pressure on Israel’s leaders.

The emotional toll on these families and the broader Israeli public cannot be underestimated.

Another important aspect is the historical context.

In 2011, Israel exchanged more than 1,000 prisoners for the release of a soldier, Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas for five years.

However, the consequences of that swap are still felt today.

One of the men freed in that exchange, Yahya Sinwar, has since become the political leader of Hamas in Gaza.

This complicates Israel’s approach to future large-scale prisoner exchanges.

The regional dynamics and how Israel’s neighbors respond also play a crucial role in the conflict’s duration and outcome.

Egypt, in particular, is a key player.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has become a humanitarian focal point, with limited aid entering Gaza.

Foreign nationals and Palestinians with foreign passports are trying to leave Gaza, adding to the complexity of the situation.

Egypt faces international pressure to be seen as supporting the Palestinians in Gaza, but it has been cautious about letting a mass influx of Gazans into northern Sinai.

Jordan’s King Abdullah has also set clear red lines, emphasizing that Palestinian refugees should not be pushed out of Gaza into neighboring countries.

Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is under close scrutiny, with potential risks of cross-border attacks by Hezbollah.

Iran, the main sponsor of Hezbollah, is also making threats against Israel and is the focus of international concern.

The US has deployed military assets to the eastern Mediterranean in response to these threats.

The situation in Gaza is further complicated by the potential consequences of significantly weakening Hamas.

Israel withdrew its army and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and has no intention of returning as an occupying force.

A power vacuum or the rise of other groups could pose new risks and challenges.

There’s also the question of what might replace Hamas if it were to be significantly weakened.

One possibility is the gradual return of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Gaza.

The PA currently controls parts of the West Bank, but it is weak there, and reconciliation and governance in Gaza would be highly complex.

The international community may need to provide an interim solution, as it did in Kosovo when the UN ran the region after Serbian forces withdrew in 1999.

However, it’s important to note that the UN is widely mistrusted in Israel.

Another option is to create an administration in Gaza run by local mayors, tribes, clans, and non-governmental organizations, with involvement from Egypt and the US, as well as other Arab states and the PA.

This approach could help stabilize the situation and rebuild Gaza’s devastated infrastructure.

Israel will likely insist on even tighter restrictions on “dual-use goods” entering Gaza and might call for an expanded buffer zone along the fence with Gaza to enhance the protection of Israeli communities.

In any case, Israel will seek to ensure that a similar attack does not happen again in the future.

The situation is complex, and the outcome remains uncertain.

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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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