Morning Report

TODAY’S INTERNATIONAL story

UN commission finds Israeli genocide in Gaza

What happened
Israel’s assault on Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide, a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council said yesterday. The panel’s 72-page report was released as Israeli forces launched a major ground assault on Gaza City, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee south.

Who said what
The three-member commission’s “deeply documented” and “painstaking legal analysis” found that Israeli leaders had committed “four of the five ‘genocidal acts’” prohibited under the U.N. Genocide Convention, The Associated Press said. “Genocide accusations are especially sensitive in Israel,” where “memories of the Holocaust” — the Nazi genocide against the Jews that prompted the 1948 convention — “are important in the country’s national identity.”

Israel’s government vehemently rejected the genocide accusation, calling the report “fake” and “libelous.” The panel “does not speak for the U.N.,” The Washington Post said, but its finding “echoes assessments by a growing group of governments and Israeli and international human rights organizations,” including the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

What next?
The international community’s “obligation to prevent genocide wherever it occurs” is “not optional,” commission chair Navi Pillay, a former judge on the Rwanda genocide tribunals, said in The New York Times. It “requires action,” including “halting the transfer of weapons” used in genocidal acts and “using all available diplomatic and legal means to stop the killing.” Pillay’s panel has no power to act, the AP said, but its findings “could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or the U.N.’s International Court of Justice,” which is currently “hearing a genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel.”

TODAY’S CRIME Story

Judge rejects top state charges in Mangione case

What happened
A New York judge yesterday threw out state terrorism and first-degree murder charges against Luigi Mangione, the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last year. The dismissal of the two most serious charges means Mangione, if convicted, faces up to life in state prison, but with the possibility of parole. In another high-profile murder case, Utah prosecutors yesterday said they would seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson for his alleged assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

Who said what
Manhattan Judge Gregory Carro said the prosecutors could pursue the other nine charges against Mangione, including second-degree murder, but the terrorism charge was “legally insufficient.” While Mangione “was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to ‘intimidate and coerce a civilian population,’” Carro said.

The decision was a “blow to the district attorney,” Alvin Bragg, The New York Times said, but legal experts called the terrorism charge an “overreach.” Bragg’s office said it would not appeal the ruling. Meanwhile, Mangione, a “cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, appeared in good spirits and raised his eyebrows at supporters” gathered outside the brief hearing, The Associated Press said.

What next?
Mangione also faces federal charges, including an “accusation for which prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty,” and state charges in Pennsylvania, where he was caught, the Times said. Carro scheduled a pretrial hearing for Dec. 1, days before Mangione’s next federal court hearing. Robinson’s next court day was set for Sept. 29.

It’s not all bad

ZEMU, the first U.S. passenger train powered by hydrogen, is now in service in Southern California’s San Bernardino County. The train uses hybrid hydrogen and battery technology to operate, with water the only emission generated by its propulsion system. The innovative train — ZEMU stands for zero-emission multiple unit — will improve air quality while “expanding clean-air transit options” for local residents, said San Bernardino County Transportation Authority Board President Rick Denison.

Under the radar

Human evolution’s role in autism rates

Autism spectrum disorder may be the result of millions of years of evolution. Rapid neuronal evolution in humans is likely ASD’s genetic cause, according to a study published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. Though autism can cause certain developmental difficulties, the evolution of ASD-linked genes may have contributed to humans’ complex minds today.

The study found that the “most abundant type of outer-layer brain neurons, called L2/3 IT neurons, evolved exceptionally quickly in the human lineage compared to other apes,” Oxford University Press said in a news release about the study. This “coincided with major alterations in genes linked to autism, likely shaped by natural selection factors unique to the human species.” These genomic elements remained “relatively stable throughout the rest of mammalian history,” said Newsweek.

Although the definitive reason for evolution taking this path is unclear, researchers have ideas. The theory proposed in the study is that the “evolution of autism-related genes slowed early brain development or expanded language capacity, extending the time window for learning and complex thought in childhood,” said Newsweek. This “extended development may have offered an evolutionary advantage by fostering more advanced reasoning skills.” Essentially, “some of the same genetic changes that make the human brain unique also made humans more neurodiverse,” said Alexander L. Starr, the paper’s lead author.

On this day

September 17, 2011

The first Occupy Wall Street protest was held in New York City. The demonstration, with about 1,000 people attending, eventually evolved into the Occupy movement, a series of global protests aimed at addressing income inequality and the world’s growing wealth gap. The movement lasted for about five years before tapering out.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Film icon’ with ‘deep conviction’

The late Robert Redford was “a film icon, director and man of deep conviction,” The Washington Post says on Wednesday’s front page. A “champion of indie filmmakers,” the “Sundance Kid’s reach surpassed the big screen,” the Los Angeles Times says. “Chaos, fear reign across Chicago” as feds make “show of force,” the Chicago Sun-Times says. “US citizen briefly detained in latest immigration blitz,” says the Chicago Tribune. “Trump is officially sending National Guard to Memphis,” The Commercial Appeal says. “Patrols in D.C. keeping agents from casework,” The New York Times says. “Trump gets rare repeat with royals in Britain,” USA Today says. “Epstein’s ghost to follow Trump across the pond as president meets with UK royals,” says the Miami Herald.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Ring and slither

It turns out that a prankster who kept pressing the doorbell at a German apartment building was not an annoying teenager, as residents initially thought, but rather a slug. The “relentless buzzing” occurred well after midnight, prompting several “uneasy” residents to call the police, said The Guardian. Officers arrived and found a slug “sliding up and down the bell plate,” and the slimy culprit was safely removed to a nearby lawn.

Morning Report was written and edited by Helen Brown, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.