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Friday, May 17, 2024 ■ Today's Top News
Alito Family's Upside-Down Flag After Jan. 6 Sparks Call for Justice's Recusal"This behavior is disqualifying for a Supreme Court justice," said one critic.By Julia Conley
US Lawmakers Sound Alarm Over Threat to Rooftop Solar in Puerto Rico"Net metering has proven essential for families in Puerto Rico and essential for Puerto Rico's progress towards its own renewable goals."By Brett Wilkins
'We'll Be Back,' Says UAW Chief Shawn Fain After 'Tough Loss' in AlabamaOrganizers are expected to continue their effort, drawing inspiration from a recent success in Tennessee that followed two defeats.By Jessica Corbett
Coral Bleaching 'Off the Charts' in Atlantic as NOAA Warns Ocean Going 'Crazy Haywire'"We had to add additional bleaching alert levels to appropriately categorize just how hot it was," said a coral reefs expert at the agency.By Julia Conley
As US Aid Shipments Begin, Gaza Pier Denounced as 'PR Move'"It's completely absurd," said one humanitarian worker. "The solution to the problem here is obvious."By Brett Wilkins
'Truly Disturbing': FEC Republicans Vote Unanimously to Give Even More Shadow to 'Dark Money'"Preventing the disclosure of the sources of political spending would deprive voters of critical information and undermine the essential need for checks on monetary power," warned one democracy watchdog.By Jon Queally | ||||||||||||||
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■ More NewsCritics 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 that the ICJ must stop the IDF's invasion of Rafah, from which 630,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee since Israel seized a border crossing there and began moving troops into residential neighborhoods. More than 1 million people have been forcibly displaced to Rafah since October as Israel has decimated cities across Gaza in what it claims is an effort to target Hamas fighters—but which has killed at least 35,303 people, two-thirds of whom have been women and children. The World Food Program and the U.S. Agency for International Development have both said in recent weeks, following months of warnings from humanitarian groups, that famine has taken hold in parts of Gaza due to Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid. Tourgeman claimed that South Africa—which launched the genocide case against Israel in December—has turned "a blind eye to Israel's remarkable effort" to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza residents and said Israel has taken "proactive steps" to ensure medical care is still being provided. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) disputed the claims at a press briefing shortly after the hearing. "The last medical supplies that we got in Gaza was before May 6," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said at a U.N. press briefing, referring to the date Israel seized the Rafah crossing. "We don't have fuel. We have hospitals under evacuation order. We have a situation where we cannot move physically." Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum reported Friday that U.N. officials had confirmed no aid has come through either the Rafah or Karem Abu Salem crossings in recent days. "That reflects how much Israel is working to erase truth and change the facts on the ground as it continues its relentless bombardment of Rafah and the Jabalia refugee camp," Abu Azzoum said. Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of Middle East studies and digital humanities at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, accused Israel of using the ICJ hearing to promote "dishonest talking points" to the international community. 'Alliance With White Nationalists': Texas Gov Rebuked for Pardoning Shooter of BLM ProtesterRepublican 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 wrote, 'to bad we can't get paid for hunting Muslims,'" Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) wrote in response to the news. "Gov. Abbott's alliance with white nationalists is putting dangerous people on our streets." 'Shameful': 16 Dems Help GOP Pass Israel Security Assistance Support ActDespite 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), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), and Thomas Massie (Ky.)—and six Republicans and 13 Democrats not voting. "These are the fringe extremists of the Democratic Party." "These 16 House Democrats just voted with Republicans to ignore U.S. human rights law and fast-track weapons to Israel," the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project said on social media, listing the lawmakers. "Shameful." Noting that the bill would cut off funds from the National Security Council as well as the Defense and State departments until withheld weapons were sent to Israel, Justice Democrats declared, "These are the fringe extremists of the Democratic Party." While generally supporting Israel's seven-month assault of the Gaza Strip—as critics worldwide decry it as genocide—Biden has recently halted the delivery of some weapons and threatened to withhold more from the Middle East ally, which has now killed over 35,272 Palestinians in the Hamas-governed enclave and wounded another 79,205, according to local officials. 'Jews for Jamaal' and Squad Push Back Against AIPAC Attack on BowmanAIPAC IS AN ANTI-DEMOCRACY ORGANIZATIONTheir ads are warped, contain disinformation & lies | ||||||||||||||
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■ OpinionUS Oligarchs Started One Civil War — and They Could Do It AgainThe ideology of the Republican Party and the stranglehold of powerful corporations of our political system overall has transformed America from a democracy into a late-stage oligarchy, and the point of no return is now visible.By Thom Hartmann Are Republicans the Party of the Working Class?Job instability, not racial resentment, is the key to understanding the decline of the working-class Democratic vote. But there's a way to turn things around.By Les Leopold US Affordable Housing Policy Works for Wall Street and Rich Developers, Not RentersCurrent policy doesn’t make sense if the goal is to provide affordable housing; if the goal is to create market conditions beneficial to real estate developers and investors, it appears to be working quite well.By Algernon Austin | ||||||||||||||
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