Author: Reporter

The Israeli army severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with airstrikes on November 6, preparing for an expected push by ground forces into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the month-old war. Already, the Palestinian death toll passed 10,000 people, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on November 6. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Some 1,400 Israelis have died, mostly civilians killed in the October 7 incursion by Hamas that started the war. The war has quickly become the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian...

Public opinions in 24 countries, mostly rich nations, have grown more favorable of the United States than of China, according to the latest survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center. The gap in favorability of the world’s two largest economies widened after views of the U.S. rebounded since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, the report found. Favorable views of both countries fell in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, but the ratings for China remained low during the latest survey, the Pew center said, “leading to some of the largest gaps in these views we have seen...

In fifth grade, Stella Gage’s class watched a video about puberty. In ninth grade, a few sessions of her health class were dedicated to the risks of sexual behaviors. That was the extent of her sex education in school. At no point was there any content that felt especially relevant to her identity as a queer teenager. To fill the gaps, she turned mostly to social media. “My parents were mostly absent, my peers were not mature enough, and I didn’t have anyone else to turn to,” said Gage, who is now a sophomore at Wichita State University in...

U.S. health officials plan to endorse a common antibiotic as a morning-after pill that gay and bisexual men can use to try to avoid some increasingly common sexually transmitted diseases. The proposed CDC guideline was released in October, and officials will move to finalize it after a 45-day public comment period. With STD rates rising to record levels, “more tools are desperately needed,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The proposal comes after studies found some people who took the antibiotic doxycycline within three days of unprotected sex were far less likely to...

Compared with the devil, angels carry more credence in America. Angels even get more credence than, well, hell. More than astrology, reincarnation, and the belief that physical things can have spiritual energies. In fact, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe in angels, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “People are yearning for something greater than themselves — beyond their own understanding,” said Jack Grogger, a chaplain for the Los Angeles Angels and a longtime Southern California fire captain who has aided many people in their gravest moments. That...