Author: Reporter

After Donald Trump becomes president again on January 20, he is on the hook for achieving a hefty chunk of his promises even before the day is out. One of those promises is to make you dizzy. “Your head will spin when you see what’s going to happen,” he said of Day 1. Steady yourself. These are some of what the Republican promised voters he would get done on his first day in office: Launch the largest deportation in U.S. history to remove all people in the country illegally. Close the border. End automatic citizenship for everyone born in...

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He chose that location in part to honor President Abraham Lincoln as “a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today.” Now, millions of people honor King in the same way. On the third Monday of January — close to King’s January 15 birthday, federal, state, and local governments, institutions, and various industries recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For some, the holiday is just that — time off from work or school. But, King’s...

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes after the long-awaited ceasefire agreement halted the Israel-Hamas war, but many will find there is nothing left and no way to rebuild. Israeli bombardment and ground operations have transformed entire neighborhoods in several cities into rubble-strewn wastelands, with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris stretching away in all directions. Major roads have been plowed up. Critical water and electricity infrastructure is in ruins. Most hospitals no longer function. And it is unclear when, or even if, much will be rebuilt....

Yotam Vilk said the image of Israeli soldiers killing an unarmed Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip is seared in his mind. An officer in the armored corps, Vilk said the instructions were to shoot any unauthorized person who entered an Israeli-controlled buffer zone in Gaza. He saw at least 12 people killed, he said, but it is the shooting of the teen that he cannot shake. “He died as part of a bigger story. As part of the policy of staying there and not seeing Palestinians as people,” said Vilk, 28. Vilk is among a growing number of...

Leaving Israel is easier, Shira Z. Carmel thinks, by saying it is just for now. But she knows better. For the Israeli-born singer and an increasing number of relatively well-off Israelis, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack shattered any sense of safety and along with it, Israel’s founding promise: to be the world’s safe haven for Jews. That day, thousands of Hamas militants blew past the country’s border defenses, killed 1,200 people and dragged 250 more into Gaza in a siege that caught the Israeli army by surprise and stunned a nation that prides itself on military prowess. This...