2021 (April 12 to May 12)

"Darwin was the first to use data from nature to convince people that evolution is true, and his idea of natural selection was truly novel. It testifies to his genius that the concept of natural theology, accepted by most educated Westerners before 1859, was vanquished within only a few years by a single five-hundred-page book. On the Origin of Species turned the mysteries of life's diversity from mythology into genuine science." -- Jerry Coyne

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New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
Israel said it bombed Gaza after Hamas used incendiary balloons. The violence erupted after Israel's new government approved a far-right Jewish march. |
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 7:59 PM EST |
It was the first eruption of hostilities since an 11-day air war between Israel and Hamas ended last month. |
BREAKING NEWS |
An Israel-Hamas cease-fire is set to begin now, offering hope of a respite from fighting that killed more than 230 people in Gaza and 12 people in Israel. |
Thursday, May 20, 2021 6:59 PM EST |
The Israeli aerial and artillery campaign has badly damaged Gaza’s infrastructure, including the fresh water and sewer systems, the electrical grid, hospitals, schools and roads. Many of the 230 people killed in the territory were civilians. More than 4,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since May 10, killing 12 people, mostly civilians. |
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New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
Israel destroyed a high-rise tower in Gaza City that housed media outlets including The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Here’s the latest. |
Saturday, May 15, 2021 9:12 AM EST |
In addition to the Israeli airstrike, Hamas militants aimed another round of rockets at Tel Aviv as the worst violence between Israel and Palestinians in seven years intensified. The attacks occurred after a senior American envoy, Hady Amr, arrived in Jerusalem to help broker a cease-fire. Mr. Amr, the United States deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, was scheduled to meet with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem and the West Bank. |
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
Israel sent its military into Gaza, a major escalation. It was not immediately clear if it was a limited bid to destroy rocket bases or kill Hamas leaders. |
Thursday, May 13, 2021 6:00 PM EST |
The news was announced by the Israeli Defense Forces in a one-line tweet. An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, confirmed that “There are ground troops attacking in Gaza, together with air forces as well.” |
Hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians worsened with mob violence between Jews and Arabs in Israeli cities while rockets and missiles streaked overhead. |
Israel claimed the assassinations of senior Hamas militants and pounded both military and residential areas across Gaza. The militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets aimed at cities across central and southern Israel. Above, a building in central Gaza was leveled to the ground after an Israeli air raid today. |
An Israeli military official said three infantry brigades were “preparing for a worst-case scenario,” confirming that a ground invasion of Gaza could follow the bombardment from the air. |
But the most shocking developments occurred on the streets of Israel, as rival Jewish and Arab mobs attacked cars, shops and people in several cities, leaving some fearing that the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict was heading into new territory. |
More than 50 Palestinians including at least 14 children have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities, and in Israel the death toll reached at least seven people including a 6-year-old. A U.S. envoy is heading to the region to urge calm. Airlines in the U.S. have started to cancel flights to Israel. |
Some of the worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in years showed no signs of subsiding. |
Israeli airstrikes left neighborhoods in Gaza trembling and rockets fired by Palestinian militants rained on cities in Israel, including Tel Aviv. By Tuesday night 30 Palestinians had been killed, including 10 children, and 203 others were wounded by airstrikes over the past two days, according to health officials in Gaza. At least three people in Israel were killed in strikes by Hamas, and at least 100 wounded. |
Shortly after 9 p.m. in Tel Aviv, militants fired another barrage. One rocket hit an empty bus south of the city, wounding at least three people, including a 5-year-old girl. Above, rockets launched from Gaza toward Tel Aviv. |
Palestinian militants said the barrage was revenge for an airstrike that hit a tower housing the offices of several Hamas officials, as well as an apartment owned by a Hamas leader. |
The conflict escalated rapidly after confrontations at the Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, a chronic flash point. |
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza, killing at least 26 over two days. Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at southern Israel, killing two Israelis. |
Tuesday, May 11, 2021 9:42 AM EST |
At least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in at least 130 Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday, and 122 others were wounded, according to health officials in Gaza. Two people in Israel were killed in strikes on the Israeli seaside city of Ashkelon on Tuesday, and at least 56 Israelis have received hospital treatment, according to medical officials. |
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New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
Gaza militants fired rockets and the police fought with Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem, in a sudden crescendo of violence that put Israel on edge. |
Monday, May 10, 2021 12:10 PM EST |
The escalation, which followed months of relative calm on the Gaza border, left residents of both Gaza and Israel bracing for further violence. |
New York Times
BREAKING NEWS |
An explosion in Afghanistan killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more, many of them students from a nearby girls school, an official said. |
Saturday, May 8, 2021 10:38 AM EST |
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the number of wounded and dead is likely to increase. The blast comes as rights groups and others have raised fears that the looming American troop withdrawal will endanger women if the Taliban widen their grip over parts of the country, given the oppressive rules they enforced under their regime in the 1990s. |