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Category: Law/Crime

Israel rebukes U.S. calls for investigation into mass graves in Gaza

Israel rebukes U.S. calls for investigation into mass graves in Gaza

Politico reports: Israel’s military says it already looked into reports of mass graves and found no wrongdoing by its forces, even as the Biden administration calls for an investigation into the matter. Over the past few days, U.S. officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, have called for Israel to “thoroughly and transparently” investigate reports of mass graves at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which Israeli forces last raided in February. The State Department came under fire from advocates for…

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‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

‘Political arrest’ of Palestinian academic in Israel marks new civil liberties threat

The Guardian reports: The arrest and interrogation of a leading Palestinian legal scholar based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem marks a new threat to civil liberties in Israel, her legal team and employer have said. Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 18 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as “terrible” and designed to humiliate. “This case is unique,” said Hassan…

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Some U.S. officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

Some U.S. officials say in internal memo Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

Reuters reports: Some senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters. Other officials upheld support for Israel’s representation. Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by May 8 whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that…

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‘Kill all Arabs’: The feds are investigating UMass Amherst for anti-Palestinian bias

‘Kill all Arabs’: The feds are investigating UMass Amherst for anti-Palestinian bias

The Intercept reports: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the University of Massachusetts Amherst in response to a complaint that alleges that the school took months to address the harassment of Palestinian and Arab students. In the previously unreported civil rights complaint, 18 students said that they have “been the target of extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab harassment and discrimination by fellow UMass students, including receiving racial slurs, death threats and in one instance,…

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FCC officially votes to reinstate net neutrality

FCC officially votes to reinstate net neutrality

TechCrunch reports: The Federal Communications Commission made its official vote Thursday to reinstate net neutrality, which bars broadband providers from slowing or even blocking internet traffic to some sites while improving access to others that pay extra fees. With some changes and protections, passing the order titled Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet restores rules passed back during the Obama administration in 2015 and rolled back in 2017, after Donald Trump was elected president. Since the FCC announced in September…

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Blinken hasn’t decided whether to sanction Israel for committing gross human rights abuses

Blinken hasn’t decided whether to sanction Israel for committing gross human rights abuses

JTA reports: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has yet to make a determination on whether the United States will withhold some defense assistance from Israel because of human rights abuses by one of its army’s most notorious units. A source familiar with the State Department review of alleged abuses by units of the Israel Defense Forces on Friday pushed back against reports earlier this week that Blinken had made a determination to withhold funding from the Netzach Yehuda battalion,…

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The last thing this Supreme Court could do to shock us

The last thing this Supreme Court could do to shock us

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern write: For three long years, Supreme Court watchers mollified themselves (and others) with vague promises that when the rubber hit the road, even the ultraconservative Federalist Society justices of the Roberts court would put democracy before party whenever they were finally confronted with the legal effort to hold Donald Trump accountable for Jan. 6. There were promising signs: They had, after all, refused to wade into the Trumpian efforts to set aside the election…

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Two British men charged with helping Russian intelligence

Two British men charged with helping Russian intelligence

BBC News reports: Two British men have been charged with helping Russian intelligence services after a suspected arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business in London. Dylan Earl, 20, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, and Jake Reeves, 22, from Croydon, were investigated following a fire at a warehouse in east London in March. Three other suspects linked to the fire have been held on other charges. The investigation is being led by Met Police counter-terror officers. Mr Earl is accused of planning…

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Global breakdown of international law amid flagrant war crimes in Gaza & beyond, says Amnesty chief

Global breakdown of international law amid flagrant war crimes in Gaza & beyond, says Amnesty chief

  Amnesty International has released its annual report assessing human rights in 155 countries. The report highlights Israel’s assault on Gaza with evidence of war crimes continuing to mount, as well as U.S. failures to denounce rights violations committed by Israel. It also points to Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, and the rise of authoritarianism and massive rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. We speak to Agnès Callamard, the organization’s secretary general, who warns “the international system is on…

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McKinsey is under criminal investigation for its opioid work

McKinsey is under criminal investigation for its opioid work

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department is investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids. The investigation is led by the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Massachusetts and the Western District of Virginia in coordination with the department’s civil division in Washington, according to two officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay about $1 billion to…

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Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

UN News reports: Disturbing reports continue to emerge about mass graves in Gaza in which Palestinian victims were reportedly found stripped naked with their hands tied, prompting renewed concerns about possible war crimes amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday. The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in…

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Team Trump is ready to lose the Supreme Court immunity case. They’re celebrating

Team Trump is ready to lose the Supreme Court immunity case. They’re celebrating

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump‘s inner circle doesn’t expect the Supreme Court to go along with his extreme arguments about executive power in the immunity case before the justices. But what the high court does now is almost beside the point: Trump already won. Three people with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone that many of the former president’s lawyers and political advisers have already accepted that the justices will likely rule against him, and reject his claims…

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Opening statements are the most important part of a trial – as lawyers in Trump’s hush money case know well

Opening statements are the most important part of a trial – as lawyers in Trump’s hush money case know well

Former U.S. President Donald Trump enters Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024. Victor J. Blue – Pool/Getty Images By Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University Though Hollywood movies about courtroom dramas often glamorize the closing arguments given by lawyers, in reality the opening statement is likely the most important single event of a trial. Such was the case in the hush money trial involving former President Donald Trump and alleged payments to porn star Stormy Daniels when lawyers for…

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The MAGA circus Trump wanted outside his trial hasn’t arrived

The MAGA circus Trump wanted outside his trial hasn’t arrived

The New York Times reports: Donald J. Trump was evidently not happy with what he saw out the window of his chauffeured S.U.V. as he rode through Lower Manhattan on Monday morning for the beginning of opening arguments in his first criminal trial. The scene that confronted him as he approached the dingy courthouse at 100 Centre Street was underwhelming. Across the street, at Collect Pond Park, the designated site for protesters during the trial, only a handful of Trump…

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U.S. poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

U.S. poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

The Guardian reports: A unit of the Israel Defense Forces is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, even as Congress voted for $26bn in new emergency aid to Israel. According to reports in the Israeli media, US state department officials have confirmed they are preparing to impose sanctions on the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights violations against Palestinians. The highly significant move, which would be the…

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Will a mountain of evidence be enough to convict Trump?

Will a mountain of evidence be enough to convict Trump?

The New York Times reports: In the official record, the case is known as the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, and, for now, the people have the stronger hand: They have insider witnesses, a favorable jury pool and a lurid set of facts about a presidential candidate, a payoff and a porn star. On Monday, the prosecutors will formally introduce the case to 12 all-important jurors, embarking on the first prosecution of an American…

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