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Top headlines
Lead story
Responding to the deadly attacks by Hamas that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, Israel’s government is preparing to mount a ground invasion into Gaza. The goal, says Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: “We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth. It will cease to exist.”
That statement and others from top Israeli officials make it clear, writes military historian Peter Mansoor of The Ohio State University, that this ground invasion will be a war “based on revenge.” As such, it bears a striking resemblance to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11 that killed thousands of Americans. The goal of that invasion: force the Taliban from power and destroy al-Qaida.
But not much consideration was given to what would happen in Afghanistan after those goals were reached – and the U.S. found itself tangled up in the longest war in its history. That’s where any Israeli invasion of Gaza has unfortunate similarities to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, says Mansoor.
“Wars that are based on revenge can be effective in punishing an enemy, but they can also create a power vacuum that sparks a long, deadly conflict that fails to deliver sustainable stability,” he writes. “That’s what happened in Afghanistan, and that is what could happen in Gaza.”
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Naomi Schalit
Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy
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Israeli tanks gather near the border with the Gaza Strip on Oct. 13, 2023.
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Mansoor, The Ohio State University
The US response to 9/11 included a declaration that America would destroy its enemies. The effort took decades, and thousands of lives on both sides, and never really succeeded.
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Environment + Energy
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Torivio Fodder, University of Arizona
The Osage murders of the 1920s are just one episode in nearly two centuries of stealing land and resources from Native Americans. Much of this theft was guided and sanctioned by federal law.
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Jim Krane, Rice University; Mark Finley, Rice University
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine reprised the risks of energy weaponization, but the oil landscape today and energy security itself are changing.
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Delphine Farmer, Colorado State University
Wildfire smoke, even from fires far away, carries potentially harmful gases that, once inside, tend to stick around. An air quality specialist offers an easy, cheap, effective way to deal with it.
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International
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Robert Goldman, American University
A scholar of the laws of war explores the complex issues raised by Israeli bombing of Gaza in retaliation for the slaughter of its citizens.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The result was definitive, a major rebuff for Anthony Albanese and, more important, for the many Indigenous Australians who had put their hopes in what was always a long shot.
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Mitali Mukherjee, University of Oxford
An onslaught of fake videos on social media is relaying confusing and deliberately misleading information about the Israel-Gaza conflict.
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Politics + Society
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Rebeccah Sokol, University of Michigan; Marc A. Zimmerman, University of Michigan; Patrick Carter, University of Michigan
Fatalities from gun homicides, suicides and accidents are all up for Americans ages 18 and under.
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Boaz Dvir, Penn State
Israel’s war with Hamas is unlike anything Israelis have seen before in some important ways, writes an Israeli filmmaker. But in other ways, it is reminiscent of the distant and not so long ago past.
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Science + Technology
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Marlys Fassett, University of California, San Francisco
Itch-sensing neurons in your skin are intertwined with your immune cells. Counterintuitively, the molecule that connects them triggers responses that both worsen and improve skin conditions.
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Brian Jackson, Boise State University
An astronomer explains why space looks so dark despite containing 200 billion trillion stars.
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Author Comment 💬 |
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“We may trade off stability when walking without shoes, as they may encounter variety of perturbations as they walk on different surfaces. Walking barefoot may redistribute pressure in different areas of the feet, causing more somatosensory information, but causing other issues such as excessive knee flexion during walking.”
– Gurpreet Singh on the story Are people born with good balance? A physical therapist explains the systems that help keep you on your toes -
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