Music: Tom Misch — ‘I Wish’
Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now. Here’s how
Mehdi Hasan writes: Picture the scene. An Israeli prime minister launches airstrikes on an Arab population. Civilians are killed in their thousands. An American president, stunned and shocked by the scenes of carnage on his TV screen, makes a call to his Israeli counterpart. And … within minutes … the bombing is over. Sound crazy? Or maybe simplistic? Perhaps naive, even? Yet, the year was 1982. What was supposed to have been a limited incursion into southern Lebanon by the…
In shameless displays of social depravity, Israeli soldiers are looting Gaza homes en masse
Oren Ziv reports: Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza have not been shy about posting videos on social media gleefully documenting their wanton destruction of buildings and humiliation of Palestinian detainees. Some of these clips were even exhibited in South Africa’s presentation at the International Court of Justice last month as evidence of genocide. But there is another war crime being readily documented by Israeli soldiers that has garnered less attention and condemnation despite its prevalence: looting. In November, the Palestinian…
Doctors Without Borders slams U.S. on Gaza at UN, says children as young as 5 want to die
Reuters reports: The head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that medical teams in the Gaza Strip have come up with a new acronym: WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. “Children who do survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too,” MSF International Secretary General Christopher Lockyear told the 15-member council. “There is a repeated displacement, constant fear and witnessing…
Russia’s war machine runs on Western parts
Amy Mackinnon reports: Shortly before noon on Aug. 19, 2023, a Russian cruise missile sliced past the golden onion domes and squat apartment blocks of the Chernihiv skyline in northern Ukraine. The Iskander-K missile slammed into its target: the city’s drama theater, which was hosting a meeting of drone manufacturers at the time of the attack. More than 140 people were injured and seven killed. The youngest, 6-year-old Sofia Golynska, had been playing in a nearby park. Fragments of the…
Warren Buffett’s son Howard has given $500M to Ukraine — he warns the U.S. is making a historic mistake by pulling its support
Business Insider reports: Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the embattled nation needs its friends more than ever. Russia celebrated a landmark victory when it captured the eastern town of Avdiivka last week, and it is running low on artillery ammunition. Meanwhile, a $60 billion military aid package is snarled up in Congress due to opposition from some Republican Party lawmakers. But Howard Buffett, the elder son of Warren, the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO, has no…
Beyond shock and awe: Inside Trump’s potential second-term agenda
Politico reports: An increasingly detailed picture of former President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is emerging — one that would make the near-daily shocks of his norm-shattering first White House tenure look tame. Some of the particulars have already blown up into campaign furors, thanks to Trump’s public remarks about abandoning NATO allies and serving as a “dictator” on “day one,” as well as leaks of his private musings on a 16-week abortion ban. His supporters’ policy manifestos have yielded headlines…
One of the world’s largest cities may be just months away from running out of water
CNN reports: Alejandro Gomez has been without proper running water for more than three months. Sometimes it comes on for an hour or two, but only a small trickle, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then nothing for many days. Gomez, who lives in Mexico City’s Tlalpan district, doesn’t have a big storage tank so can’t get water truck deliveries — there’s simply nowhere to store it. Instead, he and his family eke out what they can buy…
Music: Rob Araujo — ‘Wavedash’
Lessons on genocide from Xinjiang and Gaza
Nader Hashemi and James A. Millward write: Days before the International Court of Justice’s initial ruling late last month that found there was a plausible risk of genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza, the United Nations Human Rights Council conducted its “universal periodic review” of China’s human rights record. China’s abusive treatment of Uyghur and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang province—which many governments around the world, including both U.S. administrations under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, have officially called…
I’m the mayor of Dearborn, Mich., and my city feels betrayed
Abdullah H. Hammoud writes: “Dearborn doesn’t sleep,” I recently told an out-of-state visitor to my hometown. It was a reference to the celebratory time of Ramadan, when our city breaks bread together for iftar at sunset and suhoor, before sunrise, each day. For a month, Dearborn is bustling around the clock: Business districts buzz during the day, and residents and visitors flock to break the fast together every night, gathering over hot, heaping plates filled with some of the best…
Beto O’Rourke supports uncommitted campaign in Michigan’s Tuesday presidential primary
Michigan Advance reports: Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) expressed support Friday for a campaign asking Democratic voters unhappy with President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war to vote “uncommitted” in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. “I do think it makes sense for those who want to see this administration do more, or do a better job, to exert that political pressure and get the president’s attention and the attention of those on his campaign so that the…
By share of GDP, East European and Scandinavian countries are giving the most to Ukraine
Council on Foreign Relations reports: Every year, the United States sends billions of dollars in aid—and much more than any other country—to beneficiaries around the world in pursuit of its security, economic, and humanitarian interests. Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has become far and away the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid. This marks the first time that a European country has held the top spot since the Harry S. Truman administration directed vast sums into rebuilding the…
As Ukraine’s economy burns, Russia clings to a semblance of prosperity
The Guardian reports: Factories destroyed. Roads blown to pieces. Power plants put out of action. Steel exports decimated. A flood of refugees out of the country. Ukraine – the poorest country in Europe – has paid a heavy economic price for a two-year war against Russia waged almost entirely on its own soil. The figures are stark. More than 7 million people – about a fifth of the population – have been plunged into poverty. Fifteen years of human development…
Trump NATO threat likely part of ‘calculus’ of Nalvany death, says Vindman
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman: “Donald Trump invited Vladimir Putin to attack NATO. I would say that probably was a contributing factor in the calculus around the assassination of Nalvany.”
Nazis mingle openly at CPAC, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and finding allies
NBC News reports: Nazis appeared to find a friendly reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference this year. Throughout the conference, racist extremists, some of whom had secured official CPAC badges, openly mingled with conference attendees and espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories. The presence of these individuals has been a persistent issue at CPAC. In previous years, conference organizers have ejected well-known Nazis and white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes. But this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn’t meet any perceptible resistance…