Saturday, December 28, 2024

Top News | 10 Million Kids at Risk of Hunger in GOP-Led States

 


■ Today's Top News 


Calls for Trudeau to Resign as Exiting Canadian Finance Minister Warns of Trump Tariffs

"He has to go. Right now, Canadians are struggling with the cost of living." said the New Democratic Party leader. "And instead of focusing on these issues, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals focused on themselves."

By Jessica Corbett



Thousands Feared Dead in Impoverished French Territory of Mayotte After Cyclone Chido

"You feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war," said one resident. "I saw an entire neighborhood disappear."

By Julia Conley



10 Million Kids at Risk of Hunger Unless GOP-Led States Embrace Summer EBT Program

"Summer can be the hungriest time for children," said one anti-hunger advocate.

By Eloise Goldsmith

A dozen states are poised to walk away from a combined $1.14 billion in federal funding that would help alleviate hunger for nearly 10 million children next summer, according to Food Research & Action Center, or FRAC, a nonprofit that addresses poverty-related hunger.

The 12 states, all of which are GOP-led, face a January 1 notice of intent deadline to participate in the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Program, also known as SUN Bucks. Under the food assistance program, families with eligible school-age children can get $120 per summer to buy food.

"Summer can be the hungriest time for children," said Crystal FitzSimons, FRAC's interim president, in a Monday statement. "This funding is an opportunity for states to ensure children have access to the nutrition they need to grow, thrive, and return to school ready to learn. No child should have to go hungry during the summer months, especially when solutions like Summer EBT exist."

Currently, Idaho, Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida are set to potentially not participate in the program for this coming summer, according to FRAC. All other U.S. states, Washington, D.C., all U.S. territories, as well as the Cherokee Nation and the Chickasaw Nation are participating this coming summer.

The Summer EBT Program is one of multiple Summer Nutrition Programs administered through the U.S Department of Agriculture. Last summer, the SUN Bucks "bridged the gap" for some 21 million children in 37 states, as well as D.C., all U.S. territories, and multiple Native American tribes, per FRAC.

While the Summer EBT Program, or SUN Bucks, doesn't have widespread name recognition, a poll conducted by Data for Progress this past summer found that once voters read a description of the policy, it enjoyed strong bipartisan support from voters.

The governor of Tennessee has indicated that he will not renew the Summer EBT Program for the state, according to NBC News, despite the fact that FRAC estimates that hundreds of thousands of children would be eligible for the benefit this coming summer. According to FRAC, the program would result in approximately $77.2 million in benefits for struggling families in Tennessee.

FRAC and at least one other group are urging the governor to change course. According to NBC'reporting, advocates say Tennessee presents a particularly acute need for the program because the state's topography can make it hard for families to reach food banks or other meal distribution sites. Also, some communities in the eastern part of the state that struggle with hunger and poverty were also impacted by Hurricane Helen earlier this year.



Multiple People Killed in Wisconsin School Shooting

"This reality is inexcusable," said one prominent gun control group. "We owe it to our children to #EndGunViolence."

By Brett Wilkins



'Calculated Cruelty': Report Details Lasting Harms of Trump Family Separation Policy

Up to 1,360 children who were separated from their parents under the Trump administration have not been reunited six years later, according to the new report from a trio of human rights groups.

By Jake Johnson

A report published Monday by a coalition of human rights groups estimates that as many as 1,360 children who were separated from their parents under the first Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy have yet to be reunited, causing immense suffering for families ensnared in the punitive effort to deter border crossings.

The 135-page report was produced by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, and it comes as immigrant rights advocates brace for President-elect Donald Trump's return to power alongside officials who helped develop and implement the large-scale family separations.

"Forcible separation of children from their families inflicted harms that were severe and foreseeable," states the report, which examines public and internal government documents, materials from legal proceedings, and the findings of government investigations and features interviews with parents and children who were forcibly separated by the Trump administration.

"Once parents realized they would not be immediately reunited with their children, they were distraught," the report continues. "Some children sobbed uncontrollably. Many felt abandoned. Nearly all were bewildered, not least because immigration officials would not tell them where their parents were or gave responses that proved to be lies."

The groups estimate that the first Trump administration separated more than 4,600 children from their families during its four years in power, and nearly 30% of the children are unaccounted for and "may remain separated from their parents."

"A government should never target children to send a message to parents."

While family separations predated Trump's first term and have continued under President Joe Biden, experts argue the Trump administration's policy was uniquely expansive and cruel. The groups behind the new report said the Trump administration's family separation efforts "constituted enforced disappearance and may have constituted torture."

"We need to take away children," Jeff Sessions, then Trump's attorney general, reportedly said during a May 2018 call with five federal prosecutors, the report observes, citing handwritten notes from one of the prosecutors.

Michael Garcia Bochenek, senior children's rights counsel at HRW and an author of the new report, said in a statement Monday that "it's chilling to see, in document after document, the calculated cruelty that went into the forcible family separation policy."

"A government should never target children to send a message to parents," Bochenek added.

The separations traumatized both parents and children, according to the report.

"Migrant children who have been forcibly separated from their parents demonstrate greater emotional and behavioral difficulties than children who have never been separated," the report notes. "Parents repeatedly told Al Otro Lado, a legal services organization based in Tijuana, that forced separation from their children was 'the worst thing they had ever experienced' and reported 'continued disturbances in sleep, nightmares, loss of appetite, loss of interest, fear for the future, constant worry, hopelessness, and loss of the ability to concentrate.'"

"In May 2018," the report adds, "a man killed himself after [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] agents forcibly separated him from his children."

HRW, TCRP, and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic called on Congress and the Biden administration to "put in place comprehensive measures to remedy the wrongs these families suffered" and urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—soon to be led by far-right South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem—to "adopt standards that presumptively keep families together, separating them only when in a child's best interest."

Trump campaigned during the 2024 election on a pledge to launch the "largest domestic deportation operation in American history," and he said during an interview aired last week that "we don't have to separate families."

"We'll send the whole family, very humanely, back to the country where they came," Trump said, suggesting he'll also deport children who are U.S. citizens.

When pressed on whether he intends to revive the "zero tolerance" policy, Trump said, "We need deterrence."

"When somebody comes here illegally, they're going out. It's very simple," he added. "Now if they come here illegally but their family is here legally, then the family has a choice. The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together."

The ACLU, which has represented separated families in court, has pledged to take swift legal action if the incoming Trump administration brings back "zero tolerance."

"I am hopeful that the Trump administration recognized the outpouring from the American public and the worldwide revulsion to ripping little children away from their parents and will not try to separate families again," ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told TIME magazine last month. "But if it does we will be back in court immediately."



Netanyahu Moves to Expand Illegal Israeli Settlements in Syrian Golan Heights

Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the plan as "a new stage in Israel's goal of expanding its borders through occupation."

By Jake Johnson


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■ More News


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Congressional Report Warns of Climate Threat to US Insurance, Housing Markets


Israel Kills Palestinian Known for Touching Tribute to Slain Granddaughter

Israel Defense Forces shelling on Monday killed a Palestinian man who became known around the world last year after he appeared in a video showing him mourning a granddaughter who was slain in another Israeli attack on Gaza.

Khaled Nabhan was killed during IDF bombardment of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Nabhan, also known as Abu Diaa, gained international recognition in November 2023 after widespread circulation of video footage of him cradling the lifeless body of his 3-year-old granddaughter Reem, who was killed along with her 5-year-old brother Tariq in an IDF airstrike on the Nuseirat camp. Nabhan and other relatives were wounded in the attack.

In the video, Nabhan kisses Reem's bruised and bloodied face as he bids farewell to the grandchild he called the "soul of my soul."

"She used to call me with her sweet voice, bring me food and water, and fill my days with happiness," Nabhan told Palestinian media at the time. "I would say to her, 'Oh my love, my heart, my eyes.'"

Tributes to Nabhan and condemnation of Israel's U.S.-backed war on Gaza were posted throughout social media on Monday.

"This isn't war it's the erasure of families and histories—with impunity," journalist Antoinette Lattouf said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Khaled Nabhan demonstrated more humanity in a single video than the entire Western bloc has in the last 14 months," said another account on X with more than 166,000 followers.

Nabhan's death came amid ongoing ferocious Israeli bombardment that killed at least scores of Palestinians on Sunday and Monday, pushing the death toll from Israel's 437-day onslaught to over 45,000—most of them women and children. More than 106,000 others have been injured and over 11,000 Palestinians are missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble.

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told reporters that at least 40 people including women and children were killed Sunday as Israeli troops stormed the Khalil Awida school in Beit Hanoun, where forcibly displaced Palestinian families were sheltering. According to Quds News Network, IDF troops kidnapped all the men sheltering there while forcing others to flee and leaving the wounded without medical treatment.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of Gaza's media office, said Sunday that 42 Palestinians were killed in an IDF strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp and four Gaza Civil Defense personnel and Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed al-Louh were slain in an attack on a field headquarters, among numerous other casualty events.

Israel—which is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice—said its forces targeted terrorists and their infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.


Sanders-Led Investigation Finds Amazon 'Manipulates' Workplace Injury Data


The online retailer Amazon repeatedly ignored or rejected worker safety measures that were recommended internally—and even misleadingly presents worker injury data so that its warehouses seem safer than they actually are, according to report from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that was unveiled on Sunday.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is chairman of the HELP Committee, called the revelations in the report "beyond unacceptable."

"Amazon's executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries at its warehouses. This is precisely the type of outrageous corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of," added Sanders, who has scrutinized Amazon's safety record in the past.

According to the report, Amazon's warehouses are "far more dangerous" than competitors' or the warehousing industry in general. The committee found that in comparison with the industry as a whole, Amazon warehouses tallied 31% more injuries than the average warehouse in 2023, when comparing Amazon's reported data and industry averages calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What's more, the company's injury rate is nearly double the average injury rate for all non-Amazon warehouses stretching back to 2017, according to the report.

This runs counter to how Amazon frames their injury rates in public statements. For one, according to the report, the company touts a 30% decline in injury rates since 2019, but that year saw a spike in injuries compared to the two years prior, meaning that the comparison is misleading. In fact, the injury rate for 2020 and 2023 were essentially the same, 6.59 and 6.54, respectively.

The report also alleges the company manipulates injury data by repeatedly comparing injury numbers stemming from Amazon warehouses of all sizes to the industry average for just large warehouses, a category that includes warehouses with 1,000 employees or more and tend to have a higher injury rate. Only 40% of Amazon's warehouses fall in this category, making the comparison a "false equivalence," the report states.

The report, which was based on an investigation that began in 2023 and included interviews with over 130 Amazon workers, also concluded that the company does in practice impose productivity quotas on workers—even though Amazon claims publicly that it does not—and this drive toward productivity and speed contributes to the company's unsafe working environment.

"Most workers who spoke to the Committee had experienced at least one injury during their time at the company; those injuries ranged from herniated disks and torn rotator cuffs, to sprained ankles and sharp, shooting muscle pains. Workers also reported torn meniscuses, concussions, back injuries, and other serious conditions," according to the report.

Amazon itself is aware of the connection between speed and worker safety, but "refuses to implement injury-reducing changes because of concerns those changes might reduce productivity," the report argues.

For example, four years ago the company launched an initiative called "Project Soteria," which found evidence of a link between speed and injuries and made a recommendations based on this link—but Amazon did not implement changes in response to the findings, per the report.

Later, in 2021, another team called "Project Elderwand" calculated the maximum number of times workers who have a specific role can repeat a set of physical tasks before increasing their risk of injury. That team developed a method to make sure that workers do not exceed that number, but upon learning how much this would impact the "customer experience," the company decided not to implement the change, the report states.

"My first day was the day [the facility] opened. People of all ages were there. Most were like me, though—young and healthy. Within weeks everyone is developing knee and back pain," said one former Amazon worker, who was quoted anonymously in the report.

In a public statement released Monday, Amazon rejected the HELP Committee's findings, writing that the premise of the report is "fundamentally flawed" and, in response to the report's section on injury rates, "we benchmark ourselves against similar employers because it's the most effective way to know where we stand."

The company also calls the Project Soteria paper "analytically unsound" (the report details that Amazon audited the initial findings of Project Soteria, and a second team hypothesized that "worker injuries were actually the result of workers' 'frailty'") and says that Project Elderwand is merely proof that the company regularly looks at its safety processes to "ensure they're as strong as they can be."

"As we have publicly disclosed and discussed with committee members during this investigation, we've made, and continue to make, meaningful progress on safety across our network," according to the statement.

Amazon's record on worker safety has been under close scrutiny in recent years. The Strategic Organizing Center, which is a democratic coalition of multiple labor unions, has also put out research on injuries at Amazon. Safety was among the reasons that workers at an Amazon facility in Staten Island chose to unionize in 2022. That Amazon facility and another in New York recently authorized a strike. Additionally, over the summer, California's Labor Commissioner's Office fined Amazon nearly $6 million for tens of thousands of violations of a California law aimed at curbing the use of worker quotas.


■ Opinion


What the Post-Election Autopsies Leave Out

Any serious analysis seeking to understand what happened on November 5 must begin with the recognition that the seeds of this year’s Democratic defeat were planted decades ago and are now bearing fruit.

By James Zogby


'Do You Hear What I Hear?' When Will Democrats Listen?

With our latest holiday-themed comic, we seek not only to empower the voices of working people, but also to push the Democrats to do so as we work to rebuild the party in favor of taking back and democratically transforming America.

By Harvey J. Kaye,Matt Strackbein


Aliso Canyon Gives Newsom a Chance to Prove Himself a Climate Champion

Trump and his “drill baby, drill” agenda poses an existential threat to our climate. We need governors to step up, lead the opposition, and advance bold policies at the state level to protect our people and planet.

By Wenonah Hauter,Alan Minsky


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