Tuesday, October 8, 2024
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"People simply need more time to ensure their voices are heard on Election Day. That's only fair," an advocate said.
By Edward Carver
Rights groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking a court order for Georgia to extend its voter registration deadline until October 14, arguing that the impacts of Hurricane Helene made it difficult for many people to register in the period before the October 7 deadline.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Georgia, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the law firm Cooley LLP filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order against Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans.
The suit states that power and internet outages, damage to roads, and disruptions to postal and election services served to effectively disenfranchise would-be voters.
"People simply need more time to ensure their voices are heard on Election Day. That's only fair," Damon Hewitt, LCCRUL's president, said in a statement.
"This situation calls for a bit of compassion and a healthy dose of common sense, to make sure those who qualify to vote are able to register," Hewitt added. "Access to the ballot should not be reserved only for those who were not affected by a disastrous hurricane."
Amir Badat, special counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, agreed, saying that "just as the state has stepped in to provide essential services to impacted Georgians, it should step in to protect residents' fundamental right to vote by extending the voter registration deadline to October 14."
Georgia was widely devastated by the hurricane, which dropped more than 11 inches of rain on Atlanta, in the state's north, in a 48-hour period, and did the most severe damage in the south of the state, in towns such as Valdosta.
Georgia was one of many southeastern states hit by Helene, which struck Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26 and, even as its winds weakened as it traveled north, brought extremely heavy rainfall that triggered mass flooding, most notably to western North Carolina. The storm killed more than 230 people, making it one of the most deadly in U.S. history.
Democrats and rights groups in several of the states have moved to have voter registrations deadlines—which vary from state to state—extended in light of the storm. The state Democratic Party in South Carolina successfully sued to get an extension to October 14.
North Carolina and Georgia are considered the region's two key battleground states in the presidential election, with Florida possibly also in play. About 17% of North Carolina's voters are in declared disaster areas, according to an analysis by a local expert. The state has an October 11 deadline for certain types of voting, which officials don't plan to change, ABC Newsreported.
Tuesday's lawsuit in Georgia wasn't the first effort to change the final registration date—at least 40 advocacy groups had already written Kemp and Raffensperger to urge them to extend the deadline in affected counties. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund sent a similar letter to Florida officials, according to ABC News.
The new lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, and New Georgia Project, the rights groups' statement said.
Georgia has been a key site of voters' rights struggle this year, with right-wing forces going to extraordinary lengths to try to purge the voter rolls. The five-member Georgia State Election Board has three right-wing members who have been accused of trying to rig the system in favor of Republicans.
For Georgia and neighboring states, the damage wrought by Helene, and potentially by Hurricane Milton, which is expected to hit the region this week, could affect election turnout in multiple ways—not just hurting voter registration, but making it harder for registered voters to cast their ballots.
"Even if the states' election systems can weather the storm, Helene could hamper voters on the way to casting their ballots," The Hill reported Monday. "For some, wrecked roadways and homes mean physical barriers—while others simply may not have time to think about the election as they grapple with the fallout."
"Sky-high prices to escape Florida before a deadly hurricane—and Republicans still criticize price gouging bans," said one outraged resident.
By Julia Conley
U.S. President Joe Biden called on Floridians in evacuation zones to leave their homes "now, now, now" on Tuesday, and the mayor of Tampa issued a stark warning that those who "choose to stay" are "going to die" from the expected impact of Hurricane Milton—but desperate residents are grappling with the fact that hotels and airlines may make evacuating impossible for many.
Florida bars companies from price gouging during an emergency like Milton, but as thousands of people began evacuating the state's western coast on Monday, accusations poured in about sky-high airline ticket prices and hotels in neighboring states that are charging exorbitant rates.
A Hampton Inn in Brunswick, Georgia was offering rooms for $617 for Wednesday night, when Milton is expected to hit, but as The Daily Mail reported, comparable rooms are available in the middle of the week in November for just $131.
Hilton hotels in Kingsland, Georgia more than doubled their rates, and a Marriott hotel that normally charges just $94 per night was offering a stay for $548 per night—or more than $700 for people who wanted to park their cars.
"I'm about to show you why it's almost impossible for anyone to evacuate, and it will piss you off," said one man in a video posted to social media. He pointed out one-way ticket prices for airlines including American and United, flying from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Columbus, Ohio.
The tickets ranged from $812 to $2,199 per person.
"My wife's flight was canceled for tomorrow morning at 7:00 am," he said. "The only other flights out of the entire state of Florida right now are out of Ft. Lauderdale, and they are jacking their prices up."
Pro-worker media organization More Perfect Union also catalogued cases of alleged price gouging by airlines, with flights out of Tampa—expected to face devastating storm surges this week—costing more than $1,405.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the department had taken notice of the price gouging allegations and would be "keeping a close eye on flights in and out of areas affected by Hurricane Milton to make sure airlines are not charging excessively increasing fares."
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody activated the state's price gouging hotline (1-866-966-7226) earlier this year, but price gouging was reported during Hurricane Helene last month in Florida as well as other affected states—including ones that ban price gouging during emergencies.
Evacuees also faced difficulty filling their cars on Tuesday, with 16% of gas stations in the state and 43% of those in the Tampa area without fuel.
Milton was classified as a Category 4 hurricane as of Tuesday afternoon, with 155 mile-per-hour winds. The storm weakened somewhat from Monday, when 175 mile-per-hour winds were reported, but forecasters said it "rebounded" in intensity. Meteorologists have expressed shock this week at how quickly the storm gathered strength in the Gulf of Mexico, which they said was due to record-high temperatures in the gulf and the Atlantic Ocean.
One Palestinian journalist said that "the situation in the north is horrific and very dangerous" and implored people to "please share what's happening."
By Jake Johnson
Israel's latest dayslong assault on besieged northern Gaza intensified Tuesday as the nation's tanks advanced deeper into the Jabalia refugee camp, where terrified residents reported being fired on by the Israeli military as they tried to flee.
Citing eyewitness accounts, CNN, Al Jazeera, and other news outlets reported that Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately at people in Jabalia, who are under Israeli evacuation orders. Residents are being told to move to Al-Mawasi, a badly overcrowded so-called "humanitarian zone" in southern Gaza that Israel's military has attacked repeatedly.
"Drones were firing at everyone passing by on the road," 28-year-old Mohammad Sultan, whose family fled their home in Jabalia, told CNN on Tuesday. Sultan said he and other civilians came under Israeli fire when he returned to grab food, water, and blankets.
"Three people were shot right in front of me," he said. "My brother and I tried to help the injured get to the hospitals, but a little girl was shot in the neck, and her father was also injured."
Reuters reported that the warning "Jabalia is being wiped out" was "repeated in many messages posted on social media by residents of Gaza" as Israeli forces assailed the refugee camp and nearby areas, killing dozens of people over the past several days.
"Jabalia is being bombed as if the war has just begun and the world is blind about it," a 60-year-old father of five told Reuters.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that "the threat of yet another massacre in northern Gaza is very real."
" Israel must be ordered to stop assaulting the Palestinians trapped there and withdraw immediately from the occupied Palestinian territory, as already decided by the [International Court of Justice]," she added.
Hossam Shabat, a Palestinian journalist reporting from northern Gaza, wrote on social media Tuesday that "the situation in the north is horrific and very dangerous; there are currently hundreds of thousands trapped, and the shelling is nonstop."
"Please share what's happening in the north," he added.
The northern part of Gaza has been utterly devastated by the Israeli military's yearlong assault, carried out with the support of the United States and other world powers. The United Kingdom-based humanitarian group Christian Aid said Monday that mothers in northern Gaza have reported "losing up to 30kg of weight" as the region faces famine conditions fueled by Israel's suffocating blockade and relentless airstrikes.
"We often survive on one meal a day if we can find one," one mother told Christian Aid's partners in Gaza. "My children cry and fall asleep hungry, and I spend nights crying because I am helpless and heart wrenched as their tears of hunger feel like a knife cutting through me, even though I always prioritized them over myself."
Al Jazeera reported Tuesday that at least 56 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli airstrikes over the past 24 hours, while noting that "the number of deaths reported by sources vary" given the difficulties of counting casualties under Israeli bombardment.
Al Jazeera's Abu Azzoum said the Israeli army is "systematically working to empty northern Gaza."
Such an effort would be consistent with reported Israeli proposals to "liquidate northern Gaza." As +972 Magazine reported last month, prominent Israeli officials including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have "called on the military to carry out mass extermination in northern Gaza."
"For some, it might be easy to write off Israeli proposals to 'finish the job' in northern Gaza as genocidal bombast, unlikely to be carried out," the magazine added. "Regardless of what happens over the coming months, the very fact that open proposals to starve and exterminate hundreds of thousands of people are up for debate demonstrates precisely where Israeli society stands today."
"We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt."
By Jessica Corbett
As Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida's Gulf Coast, demonstrating the dangers of global warming, international scientists on Tuesday published a terrifying annual analysis that highlights the need to swiftly phase out planet-heating fossil fuels.
"Our aim in the present article is to communicate directly to researchers, policymakers, and the public," the coalition wrote in BioScience. "As scientists and academics, we feel it is our moral duty and that of our institutions to alert humanity to the growing threats that we face as clearly as possible and to show leadership in addressing them."
"We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis," warned the 14 experts from Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Their latest edition, "The 2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth," shows that 25 of the 35 "planetary vital signs" the team uses to track the climate emergency are at record extremes. They include U.S.-heat related mortality, fossil fuel subsidies, coal and oil consumption, carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, per capita meat consumption, global tree cover loss due to fires, ocean acidity and heat content change, glacier thickness change, and ice mass change in Antarctica and Greenland.
"Ecological overshoot, taking more than the Earth can safely give, has pushed the planet into climatic conditions more threatening than anything witnessed even by our prehistoric relatives."
The report emphasizes that "human-caused carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are the primary drivers of climate change. As of 2022, global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes account for approximately 90% of these emissions, whereas land-use change, primarily deforestation, accounts for approximately 10%."
"For many years, scientists, including a group of more than 15,000, have sounded the alarm about the impending dangers of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem change," the publication notes. "For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies."
"Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the three hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024, and current policies have us on track for approximately 2.7°C peak warming by 2100," the article adds. "Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we can now only hope to limit the extent of the damage. We are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world and human and nonhuman suffering."
Oregon State University professor William Ripple, who led the team with Christopher Wolf of Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates, said in a Tuesday statement that "ecological overshoot, taking more than the Earth can safely give, has pushed the planet into climatic conditions more threatening than anything witnessed even by our prehistoric relatives."
"We're already in the midst of abrupt climate upheaval," Ripple stressed. "For example, Hurricane Helene caused more than 200 deaths in the southeastern United States and massive flooding in a North Carolina mountain area thought to be a safe haven from climate change."
"Since the publication of our 2023 report, multiple climate-related disasters have taken place, including a series of heatwaves across Asia that killed more than a thousand people and led to temperatures reaching 122°F in parts of India," he continued. "Climate change has already displaced millions of people, with the potential to displace hundreds of millions or even billions. That would likely lead to greater geopolitical instability, possibly even partial societal collapse."
To avoid that dark future, the article argues, "we need bold, transformative change: drastically reducing overconsumption and waste, especially by the affluent, stabilizing and gradually reducing the human population through empowering education and rights for girls and women, reforming food production systems to support more plant-based eating, and adopting an ecological and post-growth economics framework that ensures social justice."
The assessment—whose authors include Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania, Naomi Oreskes of Harvard University, and Stefan Rahmstorf and Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research—comes just over a month away from the next United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, which is scheduled for November 11-22 in Azerbaijan.
Pointing to previous summits, Wolf said Tuesday that "despite six reports from the International Panel on Climate Change, hundreds of other reports, tens of thousands of scientific papers, and 28 annual meetings of the U.N.'s Conference of the Parties, the world has made very little headway on climate change."
"Humanity's future depends on creativity, moral fiber, and perseverance," he warned. "If future generations are to inherit the world they deserve, decisive action is needed, and fast."
"The Trump White House exercised total control over the scope of the investigation, preventing the FBI from interviewing relevant witnesses and following up on tips," reads a new report.
By Julia Conley
"Our suspicions are confirmed," said one veteran women's rights advocate on Tuesday after a U.S. Senate report was released on former Republican President Donald Trump's suppression of a federal probe into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) released a report after an investigation that he said took six years to complete due to a lack of access to Federal Bureau of Investigation correspondence and officials, but that ultimately revealed the Trump White House "exercised total control over the scope" of the FBI's investigation into allegations that Kavanaugh had committed sexual assault.
The report was released as U.S. voters in some states have already begun heading to the polls to vote in the 2024 election, in which Trump is running for a second term.
Whitehouse launched his investigation in 2018 after Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court—a major victory for the far right as it sought to gut federal abortion rights, which the justices did in 2022. Kavanaugh's confirmation followed allegations of sexual assault made by Christine Blasey Ford, who testified at an explosive hearing, and Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of the judge.
A supplemental background investigation into Blasey Ford's allegations was begun by the FBI in response to the allegations, but the probe failed to uncover corroborating evidence for Blasey Ford's claims—a fact that several senators cited when explaining why they voted to confirm Kavanaugh despite the accusations against him.
Whitehouse's report found that the supplemental background investigation was "flawed and incomplete"—criticisms that were shared by Democratic senators and rights advocates at the time—and furthermore, that Trump's claim that the FBI would have "free rein" over the probe was a "sham."
"The Trump White House exercised total control over the scope of the investigation, preventing the FBI from interviewing relevant witnesses and following up on tips. The White House refused to authorize basic investigatory steps that might have uncovered information corroborating the allegations," reads the report, titled Unworthy of Reliance.
The report confirms that the FBI received more than 4,500 calls and electronic messages about Kavanaugh, but on instructions from the White House, officials forwarded the tips to the Trump administration "without investigation."
"If anything, the White House may have used the tip line to steer FBI investigators away from derogatory or damaging information," said Whitehouse.
The report found that the FBI interviewed only 10 people before concluding the supplemental background investigation on October 4, 2018, two days before Kavanaugh was confirmed by an historically narrow margin.
The people interviewed by the FBI had "firsthand knowledge of the allegations," but agents did not speak to "the witnesses potentially with the most firsthand knowledge"—Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh.
"Sometimes having what you know confirmed doesn't make it better," said Ilyse Hogue, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, now called Reproductive Freedom for All. Hogue and other reproductive justice advocates sounded the alarm in 2018 that the FBI's probe was "a total joke" that "disregarded women."
With the Trump administration circumscribing the FBI investigation and prohibiting officials from following up on leads, said Whitehouse, "senators cast their vote on the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee credibly accused of sexual assault by multiple women on the basis of a truncated and incomplete investigation about whose scope the senators had been misled."
Debra Katz, a lawyer for Blasey Ford, applauded Whitehouse's probe and called for the Office of the Inspector General at the FBI to investigate the "sham" that took place in 2018.
"The congressional report published today confirms what we long suspected: The FBI supplemental investigation of then-nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh was, in fact, a sham effort directed by the Trump White House to silence brave victims and other witnesses who came forward and to hide the truth," said Katz and Lisa Banks, another attorney who represented Blasey Ford.
Whitehouse said his investigation showed how the FBI's supplemental background investigation process "can be easily manipulated," and "would benefit from greater transparency."
"The FBI and White House should implement clear, written procedures that apply uniformly to the conduct of supplemental
background investigations—or at least to situations like the Kavanaugh nomination, where major allegations of misconduct surface after a nominee's initial background investigation is complete," reads the report. "Only then can the Senate be assured that a supplemental background investigation is used to gather rather than suppress information."
"I'm afraid that if Israel will start a war, a comprehensive war against Iran... America will join in to help Israel," said former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "And that is what Netanyahu believes."
By Jake Johnson
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the British outlet Channel 4 on Monday that he believes current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran, an effort that the ex-Israeli leader called "reckless."
Asked whether he thinks Netanyahu "wants to draw the United States into a confrontation with Iran," Olmert replied, "I suspect that he does."
"I think that's reckless because I'm afraid that if Israel will start a war, a comprehensive war against Iran, and it will expand and Israel will not be in a very comfortable situation, America will join in to help Israel. And that is what Netanyahu believes to be the case," said Olmert, who served as Israel's prime minister from 2006 to 2009 and was succeeded by Netanyahu.
Olmert expressed support for Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah—a move that prompted Iranian retaliation earlier this month—and said that "something needs to be done" with regard to Iran.
"What needs to be done needs to be done with care, with sensitivity, with responsibility, and with a sense of proportion," Olmert added. "And I'm not certain that Netanyahu wants this proportion. He looks at the leadership of the international community, the Western world, and he says, 'Who are they? I'm Bibi Netanyahu.'"
Watch the interview:
Olmert's remarks came amid growing concern that the U.S.-armed Israeli military could be preparing to bomb Iran's nuclear energy facilities in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack last week. The New York Times noted Monday that "there is a rising call inside Israel, echoed by some in the United States, to seize the moment" and strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
Former president Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee, said over the weekend that Israel should "hit the nuclear first and worry about the rest later."
Speaking to reporters last Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the U.S. and Israel are "discussing" a possible attack on Iranian oil infrastructure. The president has said he would oppose an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran has pledged to retaliate against an Israeli attack with a "crushing" blow, heightening fears of a full-blown regional war as Israel continues its devastating assault on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, said Monday that "President Biden needs to decide if he is finally going to rein in and end his unconditional arming of Netanyahu, or if he will let Netanyahu draw the United States and its forces into war with Iran—a country that is nearly four times the size of Iraq and has twice the population."
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has done nothing to distance herself from Biden's unconditional support for Israel despite vocal calls for her to back an arms embargo against the country.
In a closely watched "60 Minutes" interview that aired late Monday, Harris said that "Israel has a right to defend itself" while conceding that "far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed."
But she did not say she would be willing to use U.S. military aid to Israel as leverage to secure a cease-fire agreement.
Harris also named Iran when asked which country she considers to be the United States' "greatest adversary"—an answer that CBS did not air as part of its televised broadcast of the "60 Minutes" interview.
Harris went on to say that one of her "highest priorities" as president would be to "ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power." Asked whether she would take military action in the face of "proof that Iran is building a nuclear weapon," the vice president responded that she is "not going to talk about hypotheticals."
Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, called Harris' answer on Iran "completely out of touch" and said it underscores "the irrational U.S. obsession with Iran, which is driven by politics and donor money, not U.S. interests."
Last week, a coalition of more than 80 advocacy organizations warned the Biden-Harris administration that "it is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran by Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Israel."
"It is in the strong national interest to utilize diplomacy, backed by full American leverage—including withholding further offensive weapons transfers to Israel’s military—to move all the parties back from the brink and toward a ceasefire that ends the devastation of Gaza and Lebanon and reverses the slide to regional war," the groups added.
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