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Israeli troops and Hamas fighters waged deadly battles in and around two of the Gaza Strip's main hospitals on Thursday, as the Israeli government came under growing pressure at home and abroad to moderate its approach to the war that has the enclave was devastated.Fighting has raged for an 11th day at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, in an area first seized by Israeli forces in November. The clashes highlighted the difficulty the Israelis are having in maintaining control of places they had already captured as Palestinian militants disperse and then return.In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, increasingly unpopular and criticized on multiple fronts, met for the first time with the families of the soldiers kidnapped and detained in Gaza, who had accused him before the meeti...

For Dr. Theresa Cheng, the scene was “apocalyptic.”She had come to Valley of the Moon, an open-air detention site in rural San Diego's Mountain Empire, to provide voluntary medical care to asylum seekers who had breached the U.S.-Mexico border wall and were waiting to be arrested by the American authorities.Among the crowds at this and other sites, he found children with deep lacerations, broken bones, fever, diarrhea, vomiting and even seizures. Some hid in overflowing dumpsters and porta-potties. An asthmatic boy without an inhaler panted in acrid smoke from brush and garbage fires, which had been lit for warmth.With immigration processing centers at capacity, migrants, including unaccompanied minors, wait for hours – sometimes days – in outdoor holding areas, where housing, food a...

An influential United Nations human rights body gave a scathing assessment of civil rights protections in Britain on Thursday, accusing the Conservative government of backsliding and urging the country to abandon its controversial legislation requiring applicants to be sent asylum in Rwanda.The criticism from the UN Human Rights Committee came as it presented the conclusions of two days of meetings in Geneva this month with a delegation of 24 British officials to review the country's compliance with an international treaty protecting civil rights and politicians.“We are seeing a really regressive trend and trajectory” in Britain, committee member Hélène Tigroudja said at a news conference in Geneva. She said the trend is happening “in many, many areas when it comes to civil and politi...

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.archived recording 1This is what democracy looks like!This is what democracy looks like!astead herndonIn 2011, I was a college student in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.archived recording 2Thursday night, tens of thousands of protesters packed three floors of the Capitol building.astead herndonAnd during that time —archived recording 3The protesters first descended on the Capitol Monday, raging at the new Republican governor, Scott Walker.archived recording 4We’re broke, like nearly every other state across the country. We’ve got a massive deficit...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday, capping an extraordinary saga that has rocked the cryptocurrency industry and become a warning about greed and arrogance.Bankman-Fried's sentence was less than the 40 to 50 years that federal prosecutors had sought after a jury found him guilty of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering — charges that carried a maximum sentence of 110 years behind bars . But the sentence was well in excess of the six and a half years requested by his defense lawyers.Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, did not visibly react when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan handed down the sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan. His parents, law professors Joe Bankm...

Ireland plans to submit an argument in South Africa's genocide case against Israel to the International Court of Justice, according to the Irish government, a move that comes as the country has strongly condemned Israel's actions against civilians in Gaza.South Africa has filed a lawsuit against Israel in the United Nations court, alleging that Israel is committing genocide, a charge Israel has denied. Ireland did not outline the argument it intended to make, but the country's lawmakers have made repeated calls to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza.The United Nations allows countries to “intervene” in proceedings if they are parties to the United Nations' 1948 Genocide Convention. Micheál Martin, the Republic of Ireland's foreign minister and vice-presiden...

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it has finalized a new regulation that curbs the use of short-term health insurance plans that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act, reversing the Trump administration's move to give consumers greater access to cheaper but more succinct services. plans.Under the new rule, short-term plans will only be able to last 90 days, with consumers being able to extend a one-month extension.In 2018, the Trump administration issued a rule that allows plans to last just under a year, with the possibility of renewing them for a total duration of up to three years. Previously, under Obama-era policy, plans could last no longer than three months.The plans, often with lower premiums than those on Affordable Care Act marketplaces, do not have to c...

The British Museum on Thursday named Nicholas Cullinan, an art historian who currently heads the National Portrait Gallery in London, as its new director, ending a volatile period in which the august institution was without a permanent leader.It will immediately face a series of challenges, including the fallout from an embarrassing scandal in which the museum says a former curator stole more than 1,800 objects from its warehouses, then sold many of the artifacts on eBay.Cullinan is also expected to conduct a major fundraising campaign to finance a major renovation. And he will have to deal with growing calls for the return of disputed artifacts to their countries of origin, including the Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, and a collection of Benin bronzes.

astead herndonHi. It’s Astead Herndon from The New York Times. I’ll try to call you back later.belinda schoendorfHey. Hey. You there?astead herndonOh, hey. I thought it was the voicemail.belinda schoendorfSorry. Hey.astead herndonAre you there?belinda schoendorfIt was. I was outside, OK?astead herndonHey. Is this Belinda? How are you?belinda schoendorfYes. I’m good. I’m good, thank you.astead herndonI want to thank you for picking up again, even though it was a surprise. Do you mind if we record this for our show?belinda schoendorfAnd tell me — and what’s your first name? Is it Stephan, you said?astead herndonNo, no. It’s Astead, A-S-T-E-A-D. So yeah, it’s the we talked over the summer.belinda schoendorfA-S-T-E-A-D. Right.astead herndonAnd after you took that Times polling.belinda schoendo...

Amazon said Wednesday it added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic, a start-up that competes with companies like OpenAI and Google in the race to build cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems.Six months ago, Amazon invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic, making the San Francisco start-up Amazon's largest AI partner. Amazon said at the time that it had the ability to bring its total investment to $4 billion. According to financial documents, they had until the end of March to do so.However, the additional investment shows the enormous resources tech companies are pouring into AI and is indicative of how much financial support Anthropic needs to keep up with its peers.“We believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further enhance our customers' experience an...