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Why does the PM insist on blowing up any deal that comes close?” despaired the mother of a hostage held in Gaza, following Israel’s airstrike in Qatar on Tuesday. For anyone who doubted Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to the forever war he unleashed after 7 October, the attempt to wipe out Hamas’s ceasefire negotiation team in Doha offered grim confirmation that peace – and the return of Israeli hostages – is low on Mr Netanyahu’s list of current priorities.

Just how close Hamas’s leadership was to endorsing ceasefire proposals backed by Donald Trump – which were being discussed in the capital of an established US ally – is unclear. However, Mr Netanyahu’s strike has ensured that its negotiators will not agree to sit round a table again anytime soon.

Israel swiftly stated that the attack was in response to the Hamas-claimed shooting in Jerusalem on Monday, in which six people died. But it also occurred as the Israeli military ordered the complete evacuation of Gaza City, ahead of a full-scale invasion that will bring further death and destruction to a starving, traumatised population.

It could not be plainer that ending the suffering is not compatible with the goals of Mr Netanyahu, and the far-right allies on which his government depends. But faced with such contemptuous intransigence – and growing evidence that those goals include establishing a “Greater Israel” stretching beyond 1967 borders – the west’s response is pusillanimous and painfully inadequate.

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The Trump administration can go ahead and purge more than 1,600 research grants issued by National Science Foundation (NSF) worth more than $1bn, after a judge declined to grant a preliminary injunction in a case brought by a coalition of organizations representing thousands of scientists.

The NSF is the premier federal investor in basic and cutting-edge science and engineering, which until Trump’s second term enjoyed bipartisan support, with the agency’s independent review process revered globally as the gold standard.

Shortly after the president’s inauguration, the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) led by the billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk was given free rein to overhaul the NSF to comply with what the administration said were its “changing priorities”.

Doge inflicted widespread and chaotic cuts to NSF staff, programs and research grants – particularly targeting grants that complied with congressional mandates to improve participation by women, people of color and people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem).

The congressional push to improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science and engineering was designed to nurture and attract untapped talent in marginalized communities, in order to boost American innovation, the economy and national defense.

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Two Democratic senators claim they have reached the “inescapable conclusion” that Israel is acting on a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to force locals to leave, and they say the US is complicit.

Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both members of the Senate foreign relations committee, released their findings in a report on Thursday after returning from a congressional delegation to the Middle East where, they note, the destruction goes beyond bombs and bullets. They say they also found a systematic campaign to strangle humanitarian aid, which they call “using food as a weapon of war”.

“The Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza,” Van Hollen said at a Thursday press conference. “What they’re doing, and what we witnessed, is putting those goals into action.”

At least one hundred people have died from famine in Gaza, the United Nations said this week, citing the Gaza health ministry.

The senators, who visited Egypt, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan, argue that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a deliberate strategy to ethnically cleanse the local population rather than collateral damage from the war against Hamas. Their report is titled The Netanyahu Government Is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. America is Complicit. The World Must Stop It.

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The disruptions were also sex-specific — affecting donor liver cells of males and females in different ways, according to the research.

“These chemicals change our bodies,” said senior author Ana Maretti-Mira, an assistant professor of research medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, in a statement.

Several of these compounds, also known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), interrupt liver cell signaling and immune functions but do so via unique mechanisms, scientists observed in the study, published in Environment International.

The disruptions were also sex-specific — affecting donor liver cells of males and females in different ways, according to the research.

“These chemicals change our bodies,” said senior author Ana Maretti-Mira, an assistant professor of research medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, in a statement.

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The Education Department announced Wednesday it is ending discretionary funding to multiple Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) grant programs. 

The funding violated the law, according to the Trump administration, because it goes to institutions that “meet racial or ethnic quotas.”

“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”

“Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color. Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that person’s life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit,” she continued. “The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership of a racial group.”

The administration did not specify where the $350 million in discretionary funds that was expected for these programs will go.

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Twenty-four years after Sept. 11, 2001, Americans remember the nearly 3,000 lives in the terror attacks at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah. Follow along for live updates.

Many in the crowd at ground zero held up photos of lost loved ones as a moment of silence marked the exact time when the first hijacked plane struck the iconic twin towers.

Family members then read aloud the names of the victims, with many giving personal remembrances, well wishes and updates on their lives.

Zoe Doyle, daughter of Frank Joseph Doyle, said her family created a nonprofit in his honor that’s built schools in South Africa and is feeding and educating thousands of children.

Manuel DaMota Jr. said he remembers his father and namesake, Manuel DaMota, not just with grief, but with gratitude for the example he set.

“In a world filled with division and conflict, I do my best to honor my father by choosing connection, empathy and hope,” he said.

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker M Chief of Department John Esposito laid a wreath at the Firemen’s Monument as the nation marks 24 years since the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

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Brazil's Supreme Court has reached a majority vote to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro, with three of the five justices on the panel voting to find him guilty of attempting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election.

The verdict is historic: It marks the first time a former Brazilian head of state went on trial for attempting to overthrow the government.

The 70-year-old far-right leader, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, and seven alleged co-conspirators faced accusations ranging from plotting a coup, attempting to overthrow Brazil's democratic order, and participating in an armed criminal group.

Justice Cármen Lúcia's guilty vote on Thursday delivered the majority needed to convict Bolsonaro.

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The FBI has released images of a person of interest sought in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

"We are asking for the public's help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University," the FBI's Salt Lake City office said on X on Thursday while sharing two images of the individual, who is wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses and was captured in a stairwell in one of them.

The FBI said it is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for Kirk's murder.

A press update with FBI and Utah law enforcement officials initially scheduled for Thursday afternoon was subsequently postponed due to "rapid developments" in the investigation, the Utah Department of Public Safety said.

The FBI said it is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for Kirk's murder.

A press update with FBI and Utah law enforcement officials initially scheduled for Thursday afternoon was subsequently postponed due to "rapid developments" in the investigation, the Utah Department of Public Safety said.

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