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At least 30 people, including five children, were killed by an Israeli strike on a UN school on Thursday in the central Gaza Strip, according to health officials in the territory.
Israeli forces said the Unrwa school was a Hamas compound, containing militants involved in the 7 October attack on southern Israel. Hamas accused Israel of “false, fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people”.
Israel has announced a new military campaign in central Gaza as it battles a group of fighters relying on hit-and-run insurgency tactics. The charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said that since Tuesday at least 70 dead and more than 300 wounded, mostly women and children, had been brought to al-Aqsa hospital after “heavy Israeli strikes” in central Gaza.
Meanwhile, months of extreme hunger have killed many Palestinians in Gaza and caused permanent damage to children through malnutrition, two food security reports have found. The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April.
Here’s the latest with the impending famine in Gaza: Two UN organizations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.
And the latest from Jerusalem: Violent clashes broke out during the annual Jerusalem Flag Day march, which commemorates the anniversary of Israel taking control and occupying East Jerusalem in 1967.
Court pauses Trump’s Georgia election case as it considers disqualifying prosecutor
The Georgia court of appeals has paused the trial of Donald Trump and other defendants while it considers whether to disqualify the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, who is the lead prosecutor in the case.
Trump had appealed against an order by the Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee that declined to disqualify Willis after revelations about a romantic relationship with her chosen special prosecutor. As part of their effort to dismiss the case, Trump and his co-defendants alleged Willis’s relationship meant she should be recused from the case.
On Monday, the appeals court selected a three-judge panel to hear the appeal and docketed the case to be heard in October. On Wednesday, the court paused the case while this argument played out.
Which case is this one again? Trump was charged alongside more than a dozen associates last year with racketeering over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the state, after Georgia voted for Joe Biden to become US president. The charges stem in part from the phone call Trump made to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find 11,780 votes”.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s George Floyd rant condemned by Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus has condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene after she accused Democrats of worshiping George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
On Monday, Greene, a Republican representative of Georgia, went on an expletive-filled rant in which she accused Democrats including Jamie Raskin of Maryland of worshipping Floyd, whose death sparked global outrage and protests over police brutality.
Responding to a suggestion that she worshipped Donald Trump, she told a reporter: “The media worships George Floyd. Democrats worship George Floyd. There were riots, burning down the fucking country over George Floyd, and Raskin is in there, saying we worship him [Trump].”
What did the Congressional Black Caucus say? “This is unhinged, even for @RepMTG,” they wrote in an X post.
In other news …
Boeing’s Starliner capsule finally made its long-delayed first crewed flight from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday. Two Nasa astronauts are going to the International Space Station.
A cyber-attack forced several NHS hospitals in London to resurrect long-discarded paper records systems because IT networks were disrupted. The attack is thought to have been carried out by a Russian group.
The UN condemned the public flogging of at least 63 people by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The corporal punishment at a sports stadium included 14 women.
Stat of the day: Nvidia hits $3tn and surpasses Apple as world’s second most valuable company
Shares of Nvidia climbed 5.16% to record highs on Wednesday, with the AI chipmaker’s stock market valuation hitting $3.01tn and overtaking Apple to become the world’s second most valuable company.
Don’t miss this: 200 surviving veterans are focus of D-day’s 80th anniversary
A total of 156,115 men landed in Normandy in the early hours of 6 June 1944, launching an invasion against Nazi Germany that culminated, in 1945, in the fall of Adolf Hitler’s genocidal regime. But in 2024, French officials estimate that a mere 200 D-day veterans, mostly Americans but also Britons and Canadians, have returned to the scene of battle this time. “I’m not a hero. It is the ones who did not come back who were the heroes,” said Ken Cooke, 98, who, 80 years ago, stepped on to Gold beach at 7.45am aged just 18.
… or this: How steroids got big
Once upon a time, only hardcore bodybuilders pumped themselves up with testosterone. Today it is no longer niche, with an estimated 500,000 men in the UK aged 15-64 using steroids in the past year. But how dangerous is it? Stephen Buranyi investigates for the long read.
Climate check: UN chief urges global ban on fossil fuel advertising
Fossil fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising, akin to restrictions on big tobacco, the UN secretary general has said while delivering the latest scientific warnings of global heating. António Guterres called on news and tech media on Wednesday to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by taking advertising money from fossil fuel companies.
Last Thing: Experience – ‘I live on a train’
‘My typical day involves arriving into a city between 6am and 8am on an overnight InterCity Express train,’ says Lasse Stolley. ‘I’ll go to the railway company’s guest lounge and eat breakfast. I’ll then have a quick wash in the bathroom, or go to the local swimming pool to shower. I have so many new experiences; life is extremely varied and every day is different.’
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