News

Hamas Releases Two More Hostages As Israel Increases Airstrikes In Gaza

(CTN NEWS) – Hamas released two Israeli citizens on Monday, in response to mounting pressure to secure the release of hundreds of hostages who were taken during the Gaza-based militant group’s brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7.

“I can confirm that my mother, Yochi [Yocheved] Lifshitz, was one of the two hostages released to the Red Cross this evening.

I cannot express the relief of knowing she is safe now,” said Sharone Lifschitz, the daughter of one of the freed hostages.

She emphasized her continued focus on securing the release of her father, who is still believed to be in captivity.

The second hostage released on Monday was identified as Nurit Cooper by multiple sources.

During the October 7 attack, the militant group’s fighters killed over 1,400 people, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

This attack marked the deadliest incident involving militants in Israel’s 75-year history, revealing a significant intelligence failure by the country’s security forces.

In response to the attack, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

This offensive has resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 people and injuries to over 15,000 individuals in a span of just over two weeks, as reported by Palestinian health officials.

The intense military campaign has caused significant damage, including the destruction of entire neighborhoods, schools, and mosques, and further strained the already inadequate healthcare system.

The two women were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, according to a statement from the office of Israel’s prime minister.

The statement also indicated that their spouses, Amiram, an 85-year-old man, and Oded, an 83-year-old man, were abducted alongside them and are still held captive by Hamas.

The statement expressed gratitude for the efforts that led to the release of the two women on Monday.

It extended thanks to Egypt and the Red Cross for their assistance in this matter.

The office’s spokesperson stated that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and security forces worked diligently in various channels over the past few days to secure their release, overcoming numerous challenges posed by Hamas.

Hamas confirmed the release of the two hostages, following mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt, in a statement issued on Monday.

Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida explained the decision, stating that they had been compelled by humanitarian and health considerations to release the detainees.

He also mentioned that the Israeli authorities had refused to accept them since the previous Friday.

This development follows Hamas’ recent release of two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan.

At the time of their release, a Hamas spokesperson had claimed that the two American hostages were set free for humanitarian reasons, aiming to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by the United States government were false and unsubstantiated.

Uptick In Strikes

Israel has recently expanded its military campaign against Hamas and its regional adversaries, intensifying airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, targeting Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, and conducting operations in the occupied West Bank.

In Gaza, hundreds of casualties were reported after sustained aerial bombardments on Monday, as confirmed by the territory’s health ministry under Hamas control.

Overnight airstrikes resulted in the deaths of at least 28 people and injuries to dozens more in the southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Hamas-administered Gaza.

Previous statements from the ministry indicated that Israeli airstrikes also hit residential areas in other parts of Gaza overnight, including Beit Lahia in the north and Khan Younis in the south.

While a limited number of relief aid trucks have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt since the weekend, humanitarian agencies warn that the current rate of aid delivery is insufficient to meet the needs of the 2 million people living in the enclave.

Israeli airstrikes appear to be escalating, with overnight bombings on Sunday being some of the most sustained attacks on northern Gaza in the past two weeks.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are amassing large numbers of troops and tanks at the border, indicating preparations for a potential ground operation in the besieged territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced preparations for a “multilateral operation” against Hamas involving air, ground, and sea forces. He urged Israeli soldiers to “get ready.”

The Biden administration has reportedly urged Israel to postpone its planned invasion of Gaza to facilitate the release of more hostages held by Hamas and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave.

Hamas has taken foreign nationals as hostages, including individuals from the US, Mexico, Brazil, and Thailand.

However, information regarding the hostages’ status, location, and identities remains limited.

Some have been identified by their families through online videos, leading to desperate appeals for their return.

World leaders, including US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, have visited Israel amid the escalating crisis.

In a statement, Hamas indicated that it is working with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and other “friendly countries” to secure the release of foreign nationals held in Gaza.

Despite these efforts to free hostages, a senior Israeli official has asserted that there will be “no ceasefire” in Gaza.

Aid Slowly Reaches the Enclave

A total of 34 trucks filled with desperately needed aid traveled into Gaza from Egypt over the weekend.

However, none of them carried fuel supplies, which are vital for running hospitals and treating water in the isolated territory.

Israel has expressed concerns that fuel would be used by Hamas for purposes other than humanitarian.

An additional 20 trucks crossed into Gaza from Rafah on Monday, as reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Nevertheless, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric pointed out that the current aid provisions reaching Gaza were merely a fraction of what’s required.

The absence of fuel has serious consequences, including the inability to run water desalination plants, a shift of focus by humanitarian partners toward water transportation, the closure of bakeries, and the inability to power hospitals.

Aid workers and international leaders are sounding the alarm, emphasizing the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society stressed that the supplies provided are just a drop in the ocean compared to the actual needs.

Gaza typically receives around 455 aid trucks per day, according to the United Nations.

By the weekend, Gaza was more than 7,200 truckloads of aid short of what it would normally receive between October 7 and October 22.

To put it in perspective, this amounts to merely half of 1% of the usual aid.

As conditions in the territory continue to deteriorate, medical professionals in Gaza hospitals face dire shortages of morphine and painkillers, making it necessary to conduct surgeries without these critical supplies.

These severe shortages are further compounded by the lack of fuel for power.

Doctors Without Borders has raised concerns about these conditions and reported cases of parents writing their children’s names on their limbs in case they or their children do not survive.

At a central Gaza hospital, the situation has been described as “catastrophic” due to the depletion of electricity and fuel supplies.

Medical facilities are overwhelmed as the hospital has received numerous casualties.

Dr. Iyad Issa Abu Zaher, director general of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza, described the day as “bloody,” stating that the hospital received up to 166 bodies and over 300 injured individuals.

The hospital is struggling to admit this number of injured individuals, with videos showing grieving family members trying to identify the bodies.

In another Gaza hospital, doctors are warning that most critically ill infants in the neonatal unit, who rely on ventilators, will die if the electricity supply is disrupted.

Dr. Fu’ad al-Bulbul, head of the neonatal department unit at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, emphasized that if the electricity is cut off, it would result in catastrophic events within the unit, with the inability to save all the babies.

Gaza Residents: Nowhere Is Safe

During the weekend, Israel issued another call for civilians to evacuate the northern areas of the Gaza Strip.

This warning received condemnation from the World Health Organization, with the Palestinian Red Crescent describing it as a “death penalty for patients.”

For those who chose to stay behind, they reported that there was no safe haven in the Gaza Strip amid the intense Israeli bombardment.

Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, one of the largest in Gaza, resulted in at least 26 casualties, as reported by Atef Al Kahlout, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.

In Rafah, a southern city, 29 people lost their lives when four houses were struck, according to Ashraf Al Qidra, the Ministry of Health spokesperson in Gaza.

Large plumes of smoke billowed into the Gaza skyline as a result of Israeli airstrikes, as witnessed on a live feed from Al-Jazeera and reported by Reuters.

The bombings targeted various areas in Gaza, including Rafah, Khan Younis, central Gaza, and Gaza City, hitting homes and structures.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) disclosed that they had struck 320 “terror targets” in Gaza, including tunnels and numerous operational command centers affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

A resident of Jabalia, Mahmoud, expressed the sentiment that “they want us all dead” and claimed that this situation had little to do with a war against Hamas.

He also mentioned that his paralyzed mother refused to evacuate, believing there was no safe place for her.

Another resident of Jabalia, Mohammad Salama, shared a tragic account of losing 18 family members in a strike on Monday morning, primarily women and children.

He emphasized that there were no terrorists present, asserting that the victims were innocent civilians.

On Sunday, there were limited clashes between Hamas and Israeli forces inside Gaza, marking one of the first significant ground skirmishes within the strip since the October 7 attack by Islamist militants on Israel, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

During an operation near Gaza’s Kibbutz Kissufim on Sunday, an IDF soldier lost his life, and three others sustained injuries, according to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari.

Hamas reported that its fighters had successfully destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli troops to retreat without their vehicles.

The United States and its allies have stressed the importance of Israel being clear and strategic about its objectives in any ground operation within Gaza.

They have warned against a prolonged occupation and placed strong emphasis on minimizing civilian casualties.

However, it is noteworthy that the past two weeks have witnessed a higher number of casualties in Gaza than in any previous conflict with Israel.

The escalating death toll has led to protests across the Middle East and beyond, with social media platforms inundated with images depicting the dire situation in Gaza.

On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden engaged in a series of discussions with world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in efforts to address the ongoing conflict and prevent its escalation.

The White House confirmed that during their conversation, Netanyahu and Biden agreed on the continued flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

MORE RELATED NEWS:

US rejects Israel-Gaza ceasefire as Hamas released 2 female hostages

LEGEND LOST: Veteran Indian Spinner Bishan Singh Bedi Died at the age of 77

Israeli and Hamas Troops Clash on the Ground as the Death Toll in Gaza Rises to 5,087

News

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

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’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.

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

News

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

(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

News

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP