Neptuul, CC By-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Monday demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In addition to calling for a ceasefire, the resolution demands the “immediate and unconditional” release of hostages and a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza. It emphasizes that all parties must follow [...]

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The Supreme Court of Israel stopped a government plan to send a group of Palestinian patients to Gaza. The group, mostly cancer patients, will now be able to stay in East Jerusalem and Tel Aviv because of the Wednesday decision. Physicians for Human Rights—Israel (PHRI), a human rights advocacy group, filed a request with the [...]

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The American Library Association (ALA) announced on Thursday that censorship demands and book ban attempts in public libraries and schools hit a record high in 2023. The ALA documented 1,247 demands to ban 4,240 different books. This is a 65 percent increase from 2022, when 2,571 books faced censorship demands. In 17 states, book ban [...]

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Texas federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday suspending enforcement of a Texas state law that criminalized illegal entry to the US from abroad. The law, SB4, criminalized a number of immigration offenses under state law and empowered state law enforcement to make arrests and hold people in detention. SB4 will now be [...]

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The Alabama Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that puts a politically-appointed board in charge of the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), as well as a bill that makes it easier for municipalities to fire members of a local library’s board of directors. The bills are widely seen as a response to an ADAH [...]

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Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press conference that 31 of the hostages held by Hamas were dead, more than one fifth of the remaining 136 people who are still held captive in Gaza. The press conference followed a report in the New York Times that detailed a confidential [...]

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The US District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that accuses President Joe Biden of being complicit in genocide in Gaza because of the president’s support for Israel’s military operation. The decision, written by Judge Jeffrey S. White, hinged on jurisdictional questions and did not speak to the substantive claims [...]

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Thomas White, the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, said the agency’s compound in Khan Yunis, Gaza’s second largest city, was the site of “mass casualties” after it was hit by tank fire on Wednesday. The compound displayed the UN flag and served as a refuge for many of the people displaced by war in [...]

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Lybil BER, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel on Friday to “take all measures within its power” to prevent breaches of the Genocide Convention in the Gaza Strip, but declined to order a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War. The order followed proceedings initiated by South Africa and issued a number of provisional measures. This is not the court’s final ruling on [...]

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Minh Nguyen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68, which bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth and restricts transgender participation in sports. The Ohio House previously voted to override the governor’s veto on January 10. The two votes to override means the governor’s veto is void and the law [...]

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