AT WAR: Israeli soldiers yesterday failed at an attempt to rescue hostages held in Gaza. A military spokesman said, “The forces raided a Hamas site and eliminated terrorists who had taken part in the abduction and captivity of hostages.” 

  Hamas said that an Israeli soldier held hostage was killed in the fighting. Two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded in the operation.

  Israeli forces today were continuing their ferocious bombing campaign and trying to dig Hamas militants out of their tunnels. At least 130 civilians were killed, just so far today.

   The US yesterday vetoed a resolution in the United Nations Security Council that would have demanded a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, saying a cease in fighting would block Israel’s goal of destroying the Hamas militant organization.  “This would only plant the seeds for the next war,” US representative Robert Wood said before the meeting. 

  The UN secretary-general and 13 members of the Security Council had backed the resolution. Only the US and Britain voted against it.

  UN Secretary General António Guterres had invoked something called Article 99 in the UN charter, which allows him to ask the Council to intervene in a matter that threatens world stability and security. 

  “There is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza, which would have devastating consequences,” Guterres said in his address to the Council. “I fear the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region.”

LONE STAR: The Texas Supreme Court yesterday put a hold on a lower court order allowing an abortion for a woman 20 weeks pregnant with a child that has a fatal genetic condition.

  The Supreme Court said that “without regard to the merits” of the arguments on both sides it wanted time to issue a final ruling. Texas has a six week limit on abortion with vaguely worded exceptions for the health of the mother and baby. 

  This came at the request of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who threatened prosecution if doctors went ahead with the procedure even under the lower court order granting permission. “Each hour it remains in place is an hour that Plaintiffs believe themselves free to perform and procure an elective abortion,” filings Paxton’s lawyers say. “Nothing can restore the unborn child’s life that will be lost as a result.”

HIGHER EDUCATION: Harvard President Claudine Gay gave The Harvard Crimson newspaper an apology for her testimony before Congress about how she answered questions regarding antisemitism on campus. 

  Dr. Gay said in the interview that she had become “caught up” in a volley of questions on Tuesday from New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, and “should have had the presence of mind” to “return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard and will never go unchallenged.”

  She joins University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magil in apologizing after giving what might be described as a nuanced response to questions about antisemitism on their campuses sparked by the Israel/Hamas war.

  The mistake three university presidents made before Congress was in giving intelligent answers based on circumstances rather than putting on a show of righteous indignation demanded by the politicians. They ended up looking bad.

GENE-IOUS: The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first gene editing therapy to be used in humans to treat sickle cell disease, a painfully debilitating blood disorder caused by a single mutated gene found mostly in Black people. About 100,000 Americans have the disorder.

  The treatment uses CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing tool. 

  As encouraging as this news might be, few patients are likely to receive the treatment, at least for now. There’s a limited number of medical centers authorized to provide it and not everyone can tolerate the treatment that will cost millions of dollars. 

ORANGE ALERT: A federal appeals court yesterday upheld but narrowed the gag order placed on Donald Trump in the criminal case accusing him of attempting to overthrow the 2020 election.

  A three judge panel said it was balancing Trump’s right to free speech against the integrity of the justice system. The judges ruled to allow Trump to keep verbally attacking special counsel Jack Smith, but bars him from saying anything defamatory about Smith’s staff, the court’s staff, or witnesses. He is also allowed to keep calling the prosecution of conducting a political vendettaengineered by President Biden and the Justice Department.

  Trump’s lawyers say they will challenge the gag order all the way up to the Supreme Court, but in the meantime their client is free to keep calling Jack Smith “a thug” and “deranged.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor Ryan O’Neal, who became familiar to American audiences on the prime time soap opera “Peyton Place” before breaking into stardom in the 1970 hit movie “Love Story,” has died at age 82.

  In “Love Story” O’Neal played an upper class Harvard hockey player who falls in love with the working class girl played by Ali McGraw. Tragedy ensues. 

  He went on to play in three Peter Bogdanovich comedies as well as “Barry Lyndon” and the war movie “A Bridge Too Far,” but despite being Hollywood handsome he was never the marquis star again after “Love Story.”

  O’Neal had been married twice before taking up with the still-married Farrah Fawcett of “Charlies Angels” fame and spending 20 years with her, although they never married. He had four children, three of whom became actors.

THE SPIN RACK: Michigan teenager Ethan Crumbley, who was a 15-year-old sophomore when he shot and killed four fellow students at his high school in November 2021, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison. — Ovarian cancer has returned for tennis legend Chris Evert. She had surgery and has started chemotherapy.

BELOW THE FOLD: Vladimir Putin says he will seek another term as president of Russia. What do you think his chances are?

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