Americans worry democracy in danger amid gerrymandering fights, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Most Americans believe that efforts to redraw U.S. House of Representatives districts to maximize partisan gains, like those under way in Texas and California, are bad for democracy, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found. More than half of respondents - 57% - said they feared that American democracy itself was in danger, a view held by eight in 10 Democrats and four in 10 in president Donald Trump’...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called up 60,000 reservists for duty in the upcoming assault on Gaza City, the last stronghold of Hamas terrorists, over a six-month period to complete the conquest of the territory. In a statement Wednesday, the IDF said: As part of the preparations for the next phase of Operation “Gideon’s Chariots”, approximately 60,000 reserve orders were issued this morning. In addition, 20,000 reservists who have already been called up will receive a notice extending...

The Israeli military says it is calling up about 60,000 reservists ahead of a planned ground offensive to capture and occupy all of Gaza City. A military official said the reservists would report for duty in September and that most of the troops mobilised for the offensive would be active-duty personnel. They added that troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia areas as part of the preparations for the plan, which Defence Minister Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and will be...

As the earliest stages of a massive assault on Gaza City take shape, Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reservists to take part in the impending military operation. The takeover and occupation of the largest city in northern Gaza, which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was one of the last Hamas strongholds, will require the military to bring in 60,000 more reserve troops and extend the service of another 20,000.

Texas cannot mandate public schools in the state to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a San Antonio judge said Wednesday. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signed a bill in May mandating the display of the prominent Christian religious laws in public schools. Texas is the largest state to attempt to require the display of the Ten Commandments. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled that children would inevitably be taught about the commandments because of their...

A district judge ruled Wednesday that Texas can’t require posters of the Ten Commandments to go up in certain school districts where parents have challenged the move.  U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sided with a group of families fighting against a new law set to take effect Sept. 1 that would have put posters of the Ten Commandments in easily readable letters in every public school classroom in Texas. “They just want to be left alone, neither proselytized nor ostracized,...

A federal judge in Texas temporarily halted on Wednesday a state law that would have required the Ten Commandments to be visibly displayed in every public school classroom by Sept. 1. The law, passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature, mirrors one in Louisiana that was declared “plainly unconstitutional” in June by a panel of judges from the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. A federal judge also blocked a nearly...

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