HellsBelle

The Israeli military said it will close on Wednesday the last remaining route for residents of southern Gaza to access the north, as it presses its offensive on Gaza City.

The military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X:

"Al-Rashid Street will be closed to traffic from the southern sector area at 12:00 (0900 GMT). Movement southward will be allowed for those who were unable to evacuate Gaza City. At this stage, the [Israeli military] permits free movement southward without inspection."

In figures reported less than two weeks ago, the UN said that more than a quarter of a million people had been displaced from Gaza City in the previous month. Tens of thousands more have been forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in the face of a new Israeli offensive, it added.

The US government shut down on Wednesday, after congressional Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to extend funding for federal departments unless they won a series of concessions centered on healthcare.

The GOP, which controls the Senate and the House of Representatives, repudiated their demands, setting off a legislative scramble that lasted into the hours before funding lapsed at midnight, when the Senate failed to advance both parties’ bills to keep funding going.

"Republicans are plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill and risking America’s healthcare,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday evening, as it became clear a shutdown was inevitable.

MyPillow CEO, 2020 election denier, and alternative Covid-treatment champion Mike Lindell says he is “99% there” on committing to run for Governor of Minnesota.

The Star Tribune reported that Lindell has moved his residency from Texas to his native Land of 10,000 Lakes and has polled hypothetical matchups between himself and Governor Tim Walz, who is running for a third term. Lindell—who does not believe the outcome of most recent elections, even the ones Trump won—previously floated gubernatorial runs in 2018 and 2022 that ultimately never materialized.

He announced he was “considering” a 2026 run in March, saying to potential opponents, “Well, what are they going to do? ‘Well, Mike Lindell, you know he was a crack addict?’ Yeah, what else you got?” Lindell has openly discussed recovering from cocaine and crack addiction as he built MyPillow.

A Paris court on Thursday convicted ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy for accepting illegal campaign funds from late Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

The ruling is the latest in a string of legal hurdles for the right-wing ex-leader, 70, who denied the charges. Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012, has already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France's highest honour.

The judgement has been overshadowed by the death on Tuesday in Beirut of Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, a key accuser of Sarkozy in the case.

By 2050, the number of cancer cases and deaths are expected to balloon, according to a new report from The Lancet medical journal published today. Researchers say the trend is expected to play out in Canada, too — and health-care systems need to start preparing now to avoid preventable cancer deaths and avoidable health-care expenses.

In 2023, there were 18.5 million new cancer cases globally, excluding non-melanoma skin cancers. By 2050, that number is expected to grow to 30.5 million.

The number of cancer deaths are expected to increase even more dramatically by 2050. In 2023 there were 10.4 million cancer deaths. In 2050, researchers project 18.6 million people will die of cancer.

That reflects a 75 per cent increase in cancer deaths since 2024, say the researchers.

It was October 30, 2014, and Sweden was the first country to recognise Palestinian statehood as a current European Union member. (Some eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, had already done so in connection with Palestine’s declaration of independence in 1988, but the acknowledgements carried less weight since they were made prior to EU admission.)

The Socialist-led government in Stockholm had hoped that the move – which was widely described as both surprising and bold in European media – would put the Israelis and Palestinians on a more equal footing, and thus help revive the hopes of a two-state solution.

But for the Swedish plan to work, the tiny nation of barely 10 million needed other, more powerful, Western countries to follow suit. No one did.

Israel reacted to Sweden's decision with fury. Tel Aviv immediately recalled its ambassador, and local trade groups threatened with boycotts.

(Former Sweden Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom says), “If the European Union had committed itself back then, and used the political and economic tools it has at its disposal to stop the settlement expansion and encourage a two-state solution, we might not have been where we are today.”

A team of global scientists assessed that seven of nine so-called “planetary boundaries” — processes that regulate Earth’s stability, resilience and ability to sustain life — had now been crossed.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, freshwater depletion, overuse of agricultural fertilisers, and the release of artificial chemicals and plastics into the environment were all already deep in the red.

In their new report, the scientists said all seven were “showing trends of increasing pressure — suggesting further deterioration and destabilisation of planetary health in the near future."

(Report can be found at https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/)

A former Meta executive who wrote an explosive exposé making allegations about the social media company’s dealings with China and its treatment of teenagers is said to be “on the verge of bankruptcy” after publishing the book.

An MP has claimed in parliament that Mark Zuckerberg’s company was trying to “silence and punish” Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of global public policy at Meta’s precursor, Facebook, after her decision to speak out about her time at the company.

Louise Haigh, the former Labour transport secretary, said Wynn-Williams was facing a fine of $50,000 (£37,000) every time she breached an order secured by Meta preventing her from talking disparagingly about the company.

Proposals to expand the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba could bring an increase in shipping traffic and commercial activity — and some experts suggest that could affect the behaviour of the whales that are not only a major draw in the area's nearly $100-million tourism industry, but an important food source for some in the North.

"Living up north is so expensive, the food we buy is so expensive — that's why we need to hunt to survive up north."

(Johnny Mamgark, an Inuk [who] grew up in Arviat, Nunavut) is worried more shipping and marine traffic around the Port of Churchill would disrupt the beluga whale population in the area where his family and ancestors have hunted them for centuries.

All settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories are considered illegal under international law. But the planned expansion of Ma'ale Adumim is especially controversial, not least because the Israeli government has boasted it will bury the idea of a Palestinian state — as countries including Canada prepare to recognize one at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

"It is a retaliation, in a way, to the announcement by Canada and other Western states," Palestinian lawyer Hiba Husseini said in an interview at her law offices in Ramallah, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"[It] sends a strong message to the West: 'If you recognize the State of Palestine, it's really irrelevant for us on the ground. We do whatever we want to do because we control this entire land.'"

(Doug Kobayashi, mayor of Colwood, B.C.) idea was straightforward. After talking to doctors in 2022 about what was important to them, many said less paperwork, more financial stability and a better work/life balance.

Kobayashi's response: Make them municipal employees. This differs from the usual system where many family doctors in Canada are independent contractors and responsible for all aspects of the business plus seeing patients.

"As an employee, we want you to be a doctor 100 per cent of the time. No more administration, we'll look after this. We'll look after hiring your medical office assistants. We will give you a salary, a fixed salary. We will give you benefits, all the benefits," Kobayashi said.

A U.S. appeals court declined on Monday to allow Donald Trump to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook — the first time a president has pursued such action since the central bank's founding in 1913 — in the latest step in a legal battle that threatens the Fed's longstanding independence.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means that Cook can for now remain at the Fed ahead of its policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, when it is expected to cut U.S. interest rates to shore up a cooling labour market.

The court denied the Justice Department's request to put on hold a judge's order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former president Joe Biden.