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Early in the war against Hamas, as Israeli forces made their way from the northern Gaza Strip to the south, a neighborhood of Gaza City called Shajaiye loomed over the battle. In December, nine soldiers were killed there in what the Israeli army said was one of the deadliest days of the war for its forces.Later, with Shajaiye devastated and Gaza city appearing pacified, soldiers pressed on, eventually taking the battle to Gaza's southernmost city, Rafah, described as Hamas' last major stronghold. In turn, Palestinian civilians who had fled the fighting in Gaza City began to return.On Thursday they were on the run again.Israel ordered people in part of the eastern Gaza city to evacuate as Palestinian officials and residents reported heavy strikes and numerous casualties. People in...

The Supreme Court said Thursday it would dismiss a case over emergency abortions in Idaho, temporarily clearing the way for women in the state to have abortions when their health is at risk.The unsigned, one-sentence decision said the case was “imprudently granted,” meaning a majority of the justices had changed their minds about whether the case needed to be heard now. It reinstated a lower court ruling that had blocked Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion and allowed emergency abortions in hospitals if necessary to protect the mother’s health while the case worked its way through the courts.The decision, which did not rule on the substance of the case, closely mirrored a version that appeared briefly on the court's website the day before and reported by Bloomberg. A court spokeswoman ...

May has been a particularly deadly month for the Russian military in Ukraine, with an average of more than 1,000 soldiers wounded or killed each day, according to U.S., British and other Western intelligence agencies.But despite the losses, Russia is recruiting 25,000 to 30,000 new soldiers a month — about as many as are leaving the battlefield, U.S. officials said. This allowed his army to continue sending waves of troops against Ukrainian defenses, hoping to overwhelm them and break through the trenches.It's a style of warfare that Russian soldiers have likened to being put through a meat grinder, with commanding officers seemingly unaware that they are sending infantry soldiers to their deaths.At times, this approach proved effective, resulting in Russian Army victories at Avdiivka...

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Israeli media reported on Wednesday that additional troops would be sent to the northern border region. Netanyahu said in a television interview on Sunday that the war in Gaza was entering a new, less intense phase, allowing the military to turn more attention to Lebanon. "We may move part of our forces north," he said.On Wednesday, Herzl Halevi, the Israeli army's chief of staff, also visited the northern border with Lebanon and held a "situational assessment" with local commanders, according to an Israeli army statement.Israeli troops in the north trained on Wednesday for what the military called “extreme scenarios,” including “combat in complex and mountainous terrain, live fire and urban warfare.” The exercise was conducted “as part of increased preparation in the northern arena,...

The Supreme Court appears poised to temporarily allow emergency abortions in Idaho when a woman's health is at risk, according to a copy of what appeared to be the opinion that appeared briefly Wednesday on the court's website.The unsigned opinion dismissed the case on procedural grounds, saying the court would not, for now, address the merits of the dispute, according to the 22-page document, published by Bloomberg News. Such a decision would reinstate a lower federal court ruling that had suspended Idaho's near-total abortion ban and said the state's hospitals could perform emergency abortions if necessary to protect the mother's health.The case centers on whether a federal law requiring emergency care for any patient trumps Idaho's strict abortion ban, which bar...

The trial of Evan Gershkovich has begun in Russia.

The Supreme Court handed the Biden administration a major practical victory Wednesday, rejecting a Republican challenge that sought to block the government from reaching out to social media platforms to combat what it said was misinformation.The court ruled that the states and users who had objected to such interactions had not suffered the kind of direct harm that gave them the right to sue.The decision, made by a vote of 6 to 3, postponed the discussion until the next few hours on the fundamental questions relating to the limits imposed by the First Amendment on the government's power to influence technology companies that are the main custodians of information in the Internet age.The case arose from a flurry of communications from administration officials urging the platforms to rem...

Tuesday's ruling by Israel's Supreme Court ending a decades-long exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from the country's military service could herald a seismic shift in the country's trajectory, with social, political and security implications.The ruling will likely further test Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fragile governing coalition, which depends on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that support the exemption, even as Israel is at war in Gaza.The issue of ultra-Orthodox exemption has long polarized a country where most 18-year-old Jews, both men and women, are conscripted for years of mandatory service. Mainstream Israelis have long chafed at the lack of equality.More recently, the months-long war in Gaza and looming conflicts on other fronts have underl...

Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, called on a government watchdog to investigate why insurance companies continue to charge women for birth control, a move that brought access to contraceptives back into the spotlight.In a letter to the Government Accountability Office, the senator noted that insurance companies are charging Americans for contraceptives that, under federal law, should be free — and that they are also denying appeals from consumers seeking to have their contraceptives covered. Some experts estimate that such practices could affect access to birth control for millions of women.Since 2012, the Affordable Care Act has required that private insurance plans cover the “full range” of Food and Drug Administration-approved contr...