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So, the ICJ has ruled:

• for Israel to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts, prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide, and take immediate and effective steps to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.
• The ICJ also ordered Israel to preserve evidence of genocide and to submit a report to the court within a month regarding its compliance with the order.

It did not order a ceasefire.

The court will rule on whether or not a genocide is occurring in a month, at which point a lot more Palestinians will be dead, including from the Israeli engineered famined.

When Russia invaded the Ukraine, the ICJ ordered Russia out one month after the original invasion.

Biden delivers, Trump dithers President Joe Biden was in Superior, Wisconsin on Thursday to tout federal funds released to replace the obsolete Blatnik Bridge between Superior and Duluth, Minnesota. The bridge opened in 1961. “For decades, people talked about replacing this bridge, but it never got done, until today,” Biden told a crowd. He made sure to take a poke at Donald “91 Counts” Trump who over four years of inaction turned “Infrastructure Week” into a punchline. “On my watch, instead of Infrastructure Week, America is having an Infrastructure Decade,” Biden quipped. Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure investments already have poured $6.1 billion into Wisconsin and $5.7 billion into Minnesota: And I’m proud to announce $1 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be used to build this new bridge, a new bridge that will increase capacity for large trucks and oversized loads; a new bridge with a modern design, wider shoulders, smother on — smoother on and off ramps; a new bridge with a shared path for pedestrians and cyclists.

While the 17-judge panel ordered Israel to halt any genocidal acts in Gaza, it stopped short of ordering immediate ceasefire.

The post ICJ Ruling on Gaza Genocide Is a Historic Victory for the Palestinians That Israel Vows to Defy appeared first on The Intercept.

The greatest characters possess an irrepressible vitality.

Watching the world burn “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” J. Robert Oppenheimer invoked the line from the Bhagavad Gita in life and in film in reference to the towering pillar of fire he witnessed in exploding the world’s first atomic bomb. Donald “91 Counts” Trump is not literate enough to know the reference, but the 77-year-old toddler means to destroy ours if he does not get his way. With the country. With women. With his political adversaries. With Europe. With the itchy mind-worm of Daddy Fred’s judgment: Loser. Republicans have ginned up public concern over the southern border into a major 2024 campaign issue. They hold President Joe Biden responsible for a supposedly “open” southern border while actively working — at Donald Trump’s behest — to prevent any congressional action to address border issues. Military aid to Ukraine for repelling (Trump pal) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invaders is tied up in a border security deal being negotiated in the Senate (and opposed by House Republicans).

When COVID struck Rebecca Saltzman’s family, the virus unmasked a life-changing discovery: her husband and two of their kids had genetic heart disease. The kind where people drop dead. As their healthy wife and mother, Saltzman had a new role too—guiding her family through what Susan Sontag called the Kingdom of the Sick. In this column, she’ll explore the anthropological strangeness of this new place, the mysteries of the body, and how facing death distills life into its purest form: funny, terrifying, and sublime.

At the children’s hospital, we followed the stars on the floor. This was how we reached outpatient registration, where we checked in for Gus’s appointments and received his ID bracelet, then continued to the elevators that took us to whichever specialist we were visiting. If the stars changed color, we had gone too far.

The extension of the controversial counter-extremism program into immigration and asylum processes risks embedding racism at our borders

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is developing Empire of Dirt, "a very British Western," which probably sounds funnier than it should.

1. “You are so beautiful, and so smart!”

2. “It is literally impossible to be a woman!”

3. “It kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough!”

4. “I would literally commit murder for seven Cheesy Gordita Crunches from Taco Bell right now.”

5. “You can never say you want to be thin!”

6. “You can’t ask for money, because that’s crass!”

7. “You can’t squash other people’s ideas!”

8. “I’m having a blast, but… I wish it were a Baja Blast.”

9. “Don’t talk about your kids all the damn time!”

10. “Never forget that the system is rigged!”

11. “Always be looking out for other people!”

12. “Would you rather never be able to drink vodka sodas again or have hands made of Doritos Locos Tacos?”

13. “You’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood!”

14. “Never get old!”

15. “Never fall down!”

16. “Never get out of line!”

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Reacher, TWD: The Ones Who Live, SNL, WWE/Vince McMahon, Royal Crackers, Doctor Who, Night Court, and more!

An overwhelming majority of voters say Britain's wealthiest ever Prime Minister doesn't understand the pressures they face

‘I lived up on the cliff where people came to die’ – the incredible true story of the man who saved lives with an offer of tea

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, discusses developments in Pakistan and the broader regime at a time of crisis.

The post Pakistan Ambassador Opens Up appeared first on The Intercept.

Alan Watts, for all his faults, was a wildly imaginative and provocative thinker who reimagined religion in a secular age

- by Christopher Harding

Read at Aeon

On 13 January, 99 days into Israel’s most recent onslaught in Gaza, 23-year-old Haya escaped the Strip to Cairo. During the attacks, Haya’s family home was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, and many of her friends were killed.  ‘When I left Gaza, I couldn’t stop crying,’ she recalls. Haya is now physically safe, but fearing […]

Deletions seem more likely in the future as politicians fear the consequences of messages entering the public domain

"Does anyone think an ABC reporter would have been sacked for posting a message on social media supporting Israel?"

COFFS Harbour was one of Marine Rescue NSW’s locations of highest demand on the Mid North Coast in 2023. Last year, 390 search and rescue missions including 213 emergency responses were completed across the nine Mid North Coast units, with 907 people safely returned to shore. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth...

The post Coffs Harbour Marine Rescue experiences high call-out rate in 2023 appeared first on News Of The Area.

TWELVE sustainability workshops will take place at the Coffs Regional Community Gardens Association (CRCGA) Combine Street Community Garden thanks to grant funding from the City of Coffs Harbour. Funding was made available through the City’s Environmental Levy Grant. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us...

The post Council funding facilitates sustainability workshops appeared first on News Of The Area.

A WELL-TIMED donation from Sawtell Uniting Church to the Boambee Rural Fire Service (RFS) is set to complete upgrades and an extension to the fire station’s depot. The donation of $1,814.45 was given by the church in gratitude for the local RFS’ assistance at the Sawtell Carols by Candlelight event on 20 December at the...

The post Sawtell Uniting Church thanks Boambee RFS for vital service appeared first on News Of The Area.

Daily dispatch from the Death Cult We are a very primitive people using technology for primitive ends: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the execution of an Alabama inmate by nitrogen hypoxia, an untested method that experts have warned could cause him extreme pain and suffering. Should a separate appeal still pending in federal court not pan out the way advocates and his legal team hope, Kenneth Eugene Smith will be the first person in the United States to be lethally suffocated by nitrogen gas on Thursday evening. A terse court order noted that both Smith’s application for a stay and his petition for a writ of certiorari—a request for the high court to take up his case—had been denied. No justices publicly dissented from the order. Smith has been on death row for more than a quarter-century for the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of preacher’s wife Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett. In 2022, he survived an attempt by the state to execute him by lethal injection.