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As US Aid Shipments Begin, Gaza Pier Denounced as 'PR Move'
As humanitarian shipments began trickling into Gaza via a U.S.-built temporary floating pier, Palestinians and aid workers on Friday renewed criticism of what they called an expensive and largely ineffectual publicity stunt that is no substitute for a cease-fire and opening of more land crossings into the besieged coastal enclave. U.S. Army Central Command said that "trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore" at around 9:00 am local time Friday as part of "an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor." The $320 million Trident Pier—which consists of a floating offshore barge and...
Critics Denounce Israel's Defense Against Genocide Charges as 'Dishonest Talking Points'
The arguments presented by Israeli representatives at the International Court of Justice on Friday were not unexpected, as the government faced a new set of hearings on the Israel Defense Forces' assault on Gaza, but observers said the legal team's defense of the country's actions in the Palestinian enclave were "hard to stomach" in light of mounting reports about the lack of humanitarian aid and the rising death toll. Tamar Kaplan Tourgeman, principal deputy legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Gilad Noam, the deputy attorney general for international law, presented Israel's arguments against South Africa's claim...
'Alliance With White Nationalists': Texas Gov Rebuked for Pardoning Shooter of BLM Protester
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a pardon on Thursday for Daniel Perry, who was convicted of fatally shooting Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster in 2020. Abbott's pardon came less than an hour after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended it, Austin-based investigative journalist Tony Plohetski noted on social media. In addition to releasing him from prison, the pardon grants Perry "restoration of full civil rights of citizenship," including the right to own a gun. "Before Daniel Perry murdered a veteran in 2020, he told a friend he 'might go to Dallas to shoot looters.' A year before, he...
'Truly Disturbing': FEC Republicans Vote Unanimously to Give Even More Shadow to 'Dark Money'
All three Republican members of the Federal Election Commission on Thursday voted in favor of a new rule change that would have made it even easier for right-wing megadonors to hide their political campaign contributions from public view. While the three Democratic members forced a deadlocked vote that prevented passage of the proposal, pro-democracy watchdogs said the unanimous vote by the Republican-appointed members shows the powerful commitment by GOP forces to increase the ability for wealthy individuals and corporate interests to mask their political giving.FEC chairman Sean Cooksey was joined by his two Republican colleagues Allen Dickerson and James "Trey"...
'Shameful': 16 Dems Help GOP Pass Israel Security Assistance Support Act
Despite U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to veto the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, 16 Democrats in the House of Representatives on Thursday voted alongside 208 Republicans to pass the bill, which will now head to the Senate.House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chair Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) introduced H.R. 8369, which his office claimed "curbs President Biden's misguided efforts to withhold critical security resources appropriated in U.S. law by compelling the delivery of defense weapons to Israel as they fight to protect themselves against radical terrorists."The House vote was 224-187, with only three GOP members opposing the legislation—Reps. Warren Davidson (Ohio),...
'Jews for Jamaal' and Squad Push Back Against AIPAC Attack on Bowman
As the leading U.S. pro-Israel lobby's political action committee unleashes a nearly $2 million ad blitz targeting Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Jewish allies of the New York Democrat—who is an outspoken critic of what he and many experts call Israel's genocide in Gaza—on Thursday joined progressive lawmakers in condemning right-wing efforts to defeat pro-Palestine incumbents. United Democracy Project (UDP), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) super PAC, has booked $1.9 million in television ads to influence the outcome of the Democratic primary in New York's 16th Congressional District, according to Wednesday reporting by Sludge's David Moore. "This new ad spending in New...
"Yes, Trump, 'I Am a Hater' of Yours," Omar Responds to Ex-President
"Yes, Trump, 'I am a hater' of yours."That's how U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Thursday responded to former President Donald Trump's attack on her during an on-camera interview with the right-wing Minnesota outlet Alpha News.Reporter Liz Collin pointed out that the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party just endorsed Omar for reelection and asked Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, whether he thinks she is serving Minnesota's 5th Congressional District well. "Well she hates Jewish people and she hates Israel, there's no question about that, and I think she does a terrible job," Trump claimed, while noting that she may be popular in...
'Which Side Are You On?' Mountain Valley Pipeline Foes Block Road to Fracking Project
Decrying both the environmental harms and the U.S. fossil fuel industry's support of Israel's assault on Palestinian rights, a pipeline opponent on Thursday morning locked themself to two barrels in the middle of a road on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County, Virginia, blocking access to the Mountain Valley Pipeline easement. The campaigner, who was supported by other demonstrators in the road, was identified by Appalachians Against Pipelines as Mullein. The protest took place close to where environmental protectors spent more than two and a half years holding the Yellow Finch Tree Sit protest, stopping the destruction of the last remaining...
To End 'Failed Approach,' Biden DOJ Formally Moves to Reclassify Marijuana
As Democratic lawmakers push for the federal decriminalization of marijuana, U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the Department of Justice was formalizing a proposal to remove the substance from Schedule I—the legal classification which for decades has placed marijuana in the same category as heroin.The Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) proposal to reschedule marijuana under Schedule III—which would place it alongside substances like testosterone and steroids—was submitted as a Notice of Formal Rulemaking in the Federal Register, commencing a 60-day public comment period. After the comment period and any public hearings that are requested by interested parties, the DEA is...
'Dark Times': Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé Detained, Interrogated by FBI
In what one observer called "a whole new level of insanity and paranoia," renowned Israeli historian and professor Ilan Pappé—a staunch critic of Zionism—was detained and interrogated this week by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents as he entered the United States at Detroit's airport. In a Wednesday Facebook post, Pappé said that he was questioned by FBI agents for two hours after arriving at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport on Monday. He wrote: The two-men team were not abusive or rude, I should say, but their questions were really out of the world! Am I a Hamas supporter? Do I regard the Israeli...
Don't Say 'Climate': DeSantis Signs Bill Removing References From State Law
Forida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a bill that erases most references to climate change in state law, deprioritizes it in policy decisions, and eases regulations for natural gas pipelines while banning offshore wind installations in state waters. DeSantis signed the bill despite the fact that Florida is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the climate crisis—both from sea-level rise and extreme weather such as heatwaves and hurricanes. Indeed, on the day of the signing, Key West tied for its highest heat index on record at 115°C, heat that was made at least five times more...
'Consumers Win' as Supreme Court Rejects 'Radical' Attack on CFPB
Legal experts and progressive advocates on Thursday applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's 7-2 decision to uphold the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding mechanism but also cautioned against praising the far-right justices. While Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented, fellow right-winger Clarence Thomas penned the opinion in CFPB v. Consumer Financial Services Association of America, joined by the other three conservatives and three liberals—two of whom wrote concurring opinions. In the majority opinion, the court held that "Congress' statutory authorization allowing the bureau to draw money from the earnings of the Federal Reserve System to carry out the bureau's...
'Enough Is Enough': South Africa Urges ICJ to Halt Israeli Assault on Rafah
South African officials on Thursday made their case before the International Court of Justice to stop Israel's brutal invasion of Rafah, warning once again that Israeli officials have displayed clear "genocidal intent" and "genocidal conduct" in their military campaign in Gaza. The case for the ICJ to stop the attack on Rafah was made by a number of lawyers, legal experts, and ambassadors, with the South African representatives outlining the bare facts of Israel's military campaign, blocking of humanitarian aid, and statements of intent, just as they did when the court heard South Africa's original claim that Israel is committing genocide. That...
11,000% Return: Trump's $1 Billion Offer Could Yield $110 Billion Windfall for Big Oil
A new analysis reveals that the alleged $1 billion election year "quid pro quo" offer that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump made to executives of major oil company's could, if they agreed to the deal, bank them a handsome profit.According to the study by Friends of the Earth Action, first reported by The Guardian on Thursday, the "remarkably blunt and transactional" offer from Trump—in which $1 billion in campaign funding put together by the nation's major oil companies would be repaid upon his election with massive deregulation of the oil and gas sector as well as tax relief for the...
'Jail Time Should Seriously Be Considered,' Pocan Says of Big Oil Price Fixing
As Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan appeared before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Wednesday, Congressman Mark Pocan highlighted recent FTC action against fossil fuel industry price fixing and urged criminal consequences. "I just did a little napkin math," Pocan (D-Wis.) said. If collusion led to a $0.40-0.60 increase in the price for a gallon of gas for a vehicle, "for the average person filling their tank, that's $8 or $10 a week," he explained. "That's $500 a year of added cost." If half of the residents in Pocan's congressional district have a car, "that's $175 million a year," he...
1st Jewish Biden Appointee to Resign Over Gaza Quits on Nakba Day
Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Department of the Interior, became the first Jewish political appointee to resign her post in protest of U.S. President Joe Biden's support for Israel's genocide in Gaza. Call announced her resignation on Wednesday, which is also the 76th anniversary of the Nakba—or the expulsion of the majority of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 as part of the process of creating the current state of Israel. "Nakba and Shoah, the Hebrew word for Holocaust, mean the same thing: catastrophe," Call wrote in her letter. "I reject the premise that...
'Most Thorough Legal Analysis' Yet Concludes Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza
The University Network for Human Rights on Wednesday released and sent to United Nations offices a 105-page report that it called "the most thorough legal analysis" yet to find "Israel is committing genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The network partnered with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School for the analysis, which draws from "a diverse range of credible sources" and the territory's history. "After reviewing...
Sanders Warns 'Unjustifiably High' Prices of Weight Loss Drugs Could Bankrupt US Health System
Releasing the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee's findings on the prices of weight loss drugs in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday ramped up pressure on a Danish pharmaceutical company to lower the "outrageously high" prices of Ozempic and Wegovy, warning that the current pricing could bankrupt the country's healthcare system. As chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading an investigation into Novo Nordisk's weight loss drug pricing, and the report published Wednesday is the result of modeling his staff completed to show how the medications' exorbitant prices could impact prescription drug...
200+ Groups to Congress: Stop 'Zombie' Funding for Fossil Fuels on Public Lands
More than 200 environmental and climate advocacy groups sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday demanding that lawmakers stop funding the extraction of fossil fuels on public lands and waters. The letter argues that Congress' annual approval of taxpayer funds to subsidize oil and gas drilling and coal mining "undermine" the international agreement reached at the United Nations COP28 climate conference last year on the need for "transitioning away from fossil fuels." "Congress has coddled the fossil fuel industry for decades, scarring millions of acres of public lands in the process," Ashley Nunes, public lands policy specialist at the Center for Biological...
Analysis Warns Student Debt Crisis 'Would Likely Worsen' If Trump Elected
From attacks on abortion rights to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, many problems concerning Americans are expected to worsen if former U.S. President Donald Trump is elected in November—and the list included the student debt crisis, according to an analysis published Wednesday. Algernon Austin, the director for race and economic justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and CEPR domestic program intern Alex Richwine determined that the student debt crisis "would likely worsen" if the Republican returns to the White House after examining the Trump and Biden administrations' track records and a conservative coalition's sweeping policy document. "Collectively, students owed...
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