THE WAR ROOM: The International Court of Justice yesterday ordered an immediate halt to Israel’s military offensive in Rafah in a stunning rebuke to Israel’s prosecution of the war to eradicate Hamas militants in Gaza in which 35,000 people have been killed and 70 percent of the housing destroyed. Now Israel has sent troops and tanks into the southern city of Rafah, displacing about 800,000 people. 

  The court called the latest “exceptionally grave.” The judges said Israel must halt the operation and open the Rafah crossing for the “unhindered” provision of aid and that the the offensive could destroy Palestinian life in Gaza.

  The order is supposedly biding, but there’s no way to enforce it and Israeli leaders said they will ignore it. Israel says the death toll is the unavoidable consequence of fighting an enemy that merges itself with the civil population for defense.

THE SHOOTING GALLERY: the families and relatives of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting are suing the manufacturer of the automatic rifle used in the attack, as well as the publisher of Call of Duty video games, and the social media giant Meta. The lawsuits may be the first of their kind to connect aggressive firearms marketing tactics on social media and gaming platforms to the actions of a mass shooter.

  The families are represented by the lawyer who won a record settlement in Connecticut’s Sandy Hook school shooting. The complaint says that, “Over the last 15 years, two of America’s largest technology companies — Defendants Activision and Meta — have partnered with the firearms industry in a scheme that makes the Joe Camel campaign look laughably harmless, even quaint.” 

THE CRYING GAME:  Speaking at Harvard yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said that sometimes she cries after a decision she doesn’t agree with. “There are days that I’ve come to my office after an announcement of a case and closed my door and cried,” Sotomayor told the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University “There have been those days. And there are likely to be more.”

  Sotomayor is considered to be the most liberal on the nine-member court. Still to come are two major decisions regarding abortion and Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the federal election tampering case.

  “There are moments when I’m deeply, deeply sad,” the justice said. “And there are moments when, yes, even I feel desperation. We all do. But you have to own it. You have to accept it. You have to shed the tears, and then you have to wipe them and get up and fight some more.”

THE KILLER WHALES: Two weeks ago a pack of killer whales attacked and sank a 50-foot sailboat at the southern entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. It’s not an unusual event. In the past four years killer whales have attacked more than 670 boats, sinking five sailboats and two Moroccan fishing boats in that same general area.

   Often the whales attack the rudder of a boat and a team of Orca experts has just issued a report on what’s going on. The problem they say is bored teenage Orcas. 

  One Orca expert said, “The sea is a very boring place for an animal” and there’s not much for the orcas to interact with, so they play with the rudders. And sink boats when the play gets a little rough.

THE OBIT PAGE: Morgan Spurlock, the documentary film maker whose 2004 film “Super Size Me” followed him as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month, has died at age 53. The cause was cancer.

  Spurlock set the rule making the film that he would not ask for supersize portions but if the clerk asked if he wanted it, he would say yes.  It was gonzo journalism on film interspersed with interviews with health experts and visits to his increasingly disturbed doctor. At the end of the month, he was 25 pounds heavier, puffy, depressed, and having problems with his liver. 

  The film helped to inspire a backlash against fast food while earning $22 million and an Academy Award nomination for best documentary.

But Spurlock’s results were questioned late when he revealed that he was an alcoholic, and he slipped into relative obscurity when he admitted sexual misconduct, including a rape in college.

THE SPIN RACK: With criminal gangs controlling the streets, A young American missionary couple and a Haitian man who worked with them were shot dead by gang members in Haiti’s capital as they left a youth group activity held at a local church. — Stumpy, the beautifully struggling and deformed cherry tree that was beloved to visitors at Washington’s Tidal Basin was reoved yesterday. It was one of 158 cherry trees that will be cut down as part of new sea wall construction on the south side of the basin and along the Potomac River.

BELOW THE FOLD: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce finally responded to the graduation speech by kicker Harrison Butker that a woman’s place is in the home. “I can’t say I agree with the majority of it or just about any of it outside of just him loving his family and his kids.” Kelce said. 

  Butker had said Pride Month is an example of the “deadly sins” and that a woman’s most important title is “homemaker.”

  Kelce, the boyfriend of pop phenomenon Taylor Swift, said, “He said certain things I don’t agree with.” Not if he wants to hang on to Taylor Swift.

For an audio review of the week’s news, click here.

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