Good morning.
Israeli security forces raided Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and killed three Palestinians. Hamas has confirmed that one of the dead was a member, while Islamic Jihad claimed the other two.
Israel’s border police said the three Palestinians were killed in an operation by the force’s undercover unit. CCTV circulated online appeared to show about a dozen undercover troops, including three in women’s clothing and two dressed as medical staff, pacing through a hospital corridor with rifles.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, reposted the clip on social media, congratulated the forces who carried out the raid, and added: “Let all our enemies know that our forces will operate everywhere and by all means to protect our citizens and the state of Israel.”
In a statement, Israel’s military named the men killed as Mohammed Jalamneh, Mohammed Ghazawi and his brother Basel Ghazawi.
What is happening in Gaza? Hamas militants have returned to northern Gaza, where they are mobilising against Israeli forces and rebuilding a system of governance, aid officials, Gaza residents, analysts and Israeli officials say.
Georgia lawmakers advance bill that could punish Trump prosecutor
Georgia legislators in the state house passed a bill yesterday to revive a panel that can punish or remove elected prosecutors, potentially adding to career headaches for the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis.
When creating the first version of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Qualifications Commission last year, lawmakers cited the inaction of prosecutors in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case as its basis. They also referred to a decision made by the Athens-Clarke county district attorney to forgo charges on minor drug possession cases.
Accusations that Willis, who is leading the sprawling corruption case against Donald Trump and his allies over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, may have had an inappropriate relationship with a special prosecutor have been central to the effort to revive the law.
The governor, Brian Kemp, signed an earlier bill into law last year, creating a panel of eight appointees with the power to remove prosecutors if the panel decided a prosecutor was mentally or physically incapacitated, had engaged in misconduct, or failed to prosecute cases for which probable cause existed.
What has the reaction been to the law? It immediately drew fire from district attorneys across the state – including Willis – who argued that it would be used to politically target progressive prosecutors. Willis flatly described the law as “racist”.
Police make five arrests after six bodies are found in southern California desert
Authorities say arrests have been made in the investigation surrounding six bodies found last week at a remote dirt crossroads in the southern California desert.
Five suspects have been arrested in the fatal shootings, according to the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department. Officials say they think the killings stemmed from a dispute over an illicit marijuana trade.
Authorities found the bodies in the Mojave desert outside El Mirage last week after responding to a request for a wellness check. Five bodies were found late on Tuesday and a sixth last Wednesday.
Sheriff’s department officials said all six victims died of gunshot wounds, four of them had also been burned, and that the suspects were arrested at an illegal cannabis cultivation site that was under development.
Where were the bodies found? The victims’ bodies were found at the intersection of two dirt roads in the desert scrub. The area, 80km north-east of Los Angeles, is so remote that the sheriff’s department called in help from the California highway patrol’s aviation division to find the scene.
In other news …
Protesters in Peru are blocking access to Machu Picchu, leaving some tourists stranded amid local anger over a new ticketing system halting rail transport to one of South America’s most popular heritage sites. The protests, which began late last week, have left hundreds of tourists, who flock to Machu Picchu from all over the world, unable to reach the site.
Elon Musk, Neuralink’s billionaire founder, said the first human received an implant from the brain-chip startup on Sunday and was recovering well. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test its implant on humans.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned yesterday that Ukraine’s gains over two years of fighting were in doubt without new US funding. Nato’s chief is visiting Washington DC to lobby Congress, and at a summit this week EU leaders will restate their determination to continue to provide Ukraine with “timely, predictable and sustainable military support”.
Blockchain entrepreneur Sam Lee has been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud in the US for his alleged role in operating the HyperVerse crypto investment schemes, described in court documents as a “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” alleged to have defrauded investors of $1.89bn.
Don’t miss this: ‘I didn’t realise I was so loved’ – the people hosting their own ‘living funerals’
Picture the scene: all your friends and family have gathered together to celebrate your life. They share heartfelt tributes about how much you’ve meant to them and they laugh together at memorable moments. Some use it as a chance to say the things they wish they had said to you earlier. This probably sounds like a regular funeral, but what if there was one crucial difference? What if the person on the receiving end of this outpouring of love were still alive and able to attend?
Living funerals, which are also known as pre-funerals, offer a chance for people to say goodbye to their friends and families on their own terms and to celebrate their life while they are still alive. Isabelle Aron meets five people – some with a terminal diagnosis – who have done just that.
Climate check: move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year, study finds
A shift towards a more sustainable global food system could create up to $10tn (£7.9tn) of benefits a year, improve human health and ease the climate crisis, according to the most comprehensive economic study of its type.
It found that existing food systems destroyed more value than they created due to hidden environmental and medical costs, in effect, borrowing from the future to take profits today. Food systems drive a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, putting the world on course for 2.7C of warming by the end of the century.
Last Thing: ‘Let’s find out’ – shipwreck mysteriously appears on Newfoundland coast
A coastal community in Newfoundland has been left baffled by the sudden appearance of a centuries-old shipwreck. Gordon Blackmore, a local resident, was hunting seabirds on the sandy shores of Cape Ray when he spotted a dark shadow that had not been there when he visited a few days earlier.
Cape Ray, a community of 350 on the south-west coast of Newfoundland, known as “the Rock”, is the final resting site of at least eight ships. But what makes the latest discovery unique is the unexplained nature of the wreck’s sudden appearance.
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