News in :90 – Nov. 12, 2024

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, including 11 at a makeshift cafeteria in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, medics said. In Lebanon, warplanes struck Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed six people east of the city on Tuesday.

The new bombardment on both fronts comes on the verge of a deadline set by the United States for Israel to dramatically ramp up humanitarian aid allowed in Gaza or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding. A group of eight international aid agencies said in a report on Tuesday that Israel has failed to meet the U.S. demands.

In Lebanon, large explosions shook Beirut’s southern suburbs — an area known as Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah has a significant presence — soon after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 11 houses there.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Pressure on Welby had been building since Thursday, when release of the inquiry’s findings kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church.

“It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatizing period between 2013 and 2024,” Welby said in the statement announcing his resignation. “I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honored to serve.”

A judge postponed a decision on whether to undo President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case, after his lawyers called for freezing and ultimately dismissing the case so he can run the country.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan had been set to rule Tuesday on their earlier request to throw out his conviction because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer on presidential immunity. Instead, he told Trump’s lawyers Tuesday he’d delay the ruling until Nov. 19.

According to emails filed in court, Trump lawyer Emil Bove asked for the delay over the weekend, arguing that putting the case on hold — and then ending it altogether — is “necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”

Prosecutors agreed to the delay.

Milla Mirkovic can be reached at mirk1654@stthomas.edu.