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Category: Politics

Biden administration can see Israel has violated international law but doesn’t have the guts to take action

Biden administration can see Israel has violated international law but doesn’t have the guts to take action

CNN reports: The Biden administration said Friday that it is “reasonable to assess” that US weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law but stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law. The report which was drafted by the State Department said that investigations into potential violations are ongoing but noted that the US does “not have complete information to verify” whether the US weapons “were specifically used” in…

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Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump

Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump

  US Presidential candidate Dr Cornel West is a philosopher and prominent advocate for social and racial justice. He’s taught at some of the top universities in the US including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but has one major plan if he becomes President: to “dismantle the American empire”. The 71-year-old activist, who campaigned for Biden in 2020, has recently been vocal against both the Democratic and Republican’s party’s stance on Gaza, which he calls “morally bankrupt”. Though he faces very…

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Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit media could lose tax-exempt status without due process

Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit media could lose tax-exempt status without due process

The Intercept reports: It doesn’t take much to be accused of supporting terrorism these days. And that doesn’t just go for student activists. In recent months, dozens of lawmakers and public officials have, without evidence, insinuated that U.S. news outlets provide material support for Hamas. Some even issued thinly veiled threats to prosecute news organizations over those bogus allegations. Their letters were political stunts. Prosecutors would never have been able to carry their burden of proof under anti-terrorism laws, and…

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A majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing genocide

A majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing genocide

Medhi Hasan writes: Despite President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s impassioned denials, and the self-censorship of the New York Times, almost four in 10 likely voters and more than half of all Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, according to a new poll of 1,265 U.S. likely voters from Zeteo and Data For Progress, conducted from April 26 to 29. Seven months after the Oct. 7 attacks, and as the Israeli military…

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How Republicans echo antisemitic tropes despite declaring support for Israel

How Republicans echo antisemitic tropes despite declaring support for Israel

The New York Times reports: For all of their rhetoric of the moment, increasingly through the Trump era many Republicans have helped inject into the mainstream thinly veiled anti-Jewish messages with deep historical roots. The conspiracy theory taking on fresh currency is one that dates back hundreds of years and has perennially bubbled into view: that a shady cabal of wealthy Jews secretly controls events and institutions contrary to the national interest of whatever country it is operating in. The…

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A threshold crossed: On genocidal intent and the duty to prevent genocide in Palestine

A threshold crossed: On genocidal intent and the duty to prevent genocide in Palestine

In the Journal of Genocide Research, Dr Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law at SOAS University of London, writes: By any measure, Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is unprecedented. Israel claims that the killing of civilians is typical of warfare. Yet by the end of November 2023 it was clear that “even a conservative reading of the casualty figures” showed that “the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.” It also showed that the proportion of…

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Coalition of European countries consider recognizing Palestinian State on May 21

Coalition of European countries consider recognizing Palestinian State on May 21

RTÉ News reports: Ireland, Spain and a number of other EU member states are considering 21 May as the date on which they will jointly recognise the State of Palestine, RTÉ News understands. Two sources have said that 21 May is being looked at. A third source said contacts between Dublin and Madrid, as well as between Slovenia and Malta, have been intensifying with a view to the countries jointly recognising Palestinian statehood. In a statement jointly signed on 22…

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Trump requests $1 billion donation from oil execs in exchange for rolling back environmental regulations

Trump requests $1 billion donation from oil execs in exchange for rolling back environmental regulations

The New York Times reports: Former President Donald J. Trump told a group of oil executives and lobbyists gathered at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign because, if elected, he would roll back environmental rules that he said hampered their industry, according to two people who were there. About 20 people attended an April 11 event billed as an “energy round table” at Mr. Trump’s private club, according…

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Oil industry writes executive orders for Trump to sign

Oil industry writes executive orders for Trump to sign

Politico reports: The U.S. oil industry is drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders for Donald Trump aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs and increasing offshore oil leases in case he wins a second term, according to energy executives with direct knowledge of the work. The effort stems from the industry’s skepticism that the Trump campaign will be able to focus on energy issues as Election Day draws closer — and worries that the former president is too distracted…

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Vermont poised to become first state to charge big oil for climate damage

Vermont poised to become first state to charge big oil for climate damage

The Guardian reports: Vermont is poised to pass a groundbreaking measure forcing major polluting companies to help pay for damages caused by the climate crisis, in a move being closely watched by other states including New York and California. Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, which forces companies to pay for toxic waste cleanup, the climate superfund bill would charge major fossil fuel companies doing business within the state billions of dollars for their past emissions. The measure…

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Trump’s political fate likely won’t be decided by the courts after all

Trump’s political fate likely won’t be decided by the courts after all

Politico reports: What once resembled a wall of legal obstacles that stood between Donald Trump and his return to the White House is now looking like little more than a series of speed bumps. Prosecutors handling cases from Georgia to Florida to Washington, D.C., are discovering that bringing groundbreaking criminal charges against a former president is a lot easier than getting them to trial. The four criminal cases that Trump is facing have diverted him from the campaign trail and…

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Where are the artists and other celebrities willing to show the courage of America’s protesting students?

Where are the artists and other celebrities willing to show the courage of America’s protesting students?

The Nation reports: Honestly @macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine. — Tom Morello (@tmorello) May 7, 2024 The foremost authority on the revolutionary rock/rap band Rage Against the Machine, their own guitarist Tom Morello, tweeted this. Rage Against the Machine filled stadiums in the 1990s with its brand of radical, political fire. Now Macklemore is carrying the flame. For those who haven’t heard it, “Hind’s Hall”—named after Columbia’s renamed building…

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U.S. pauses Israel arms shipment over Rafah assault fears as Biden pushes for a cease-fire

U.S. pauses Israel arms shipment over Rafah assault fears as Biden pushes for a cease-fire

NBC News reports: The United States halted a large shipment of offensive weapons to Israel last week in a sign of its growing concern over a possible military offensive on Rafah, senior administration officials told NBC News. The decision comes as President Joe Biden pushes for Israel and Hamas to compromise and reach a cease-fire deal that would head off a large-scale assault on the city in southern Gaza, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering in dire conditions….

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Judge Cannon conjures a ‘myriad’ of excuses for postponing Trump’s stolen docs trial indefinitely

Judge Cannon conjures a ‘myriad’ of excuses for postponing Trump’s stolen docs trial indefinitely

Liz Dye writes: Judge Aileen Cannon has done her duty by not doing her job. It was clear for months that the Trump-appointee was going to hold this trial after the 2024 election, or never — and preferably the second. She spent weeks considering idiotic motions and holding hearings on such thorny issues as “should the Mar-a-Lago groundskeeper who is charged with obstructing the grand jury be allowed to see the highly classified evidence his boss stole.” Spoiler alert: No….

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Finally, a possible explanation for why Biden’s Iran envoy, Robert Malley, was suspended

Finally, a possible explanation for why Biden’s Iran envoy, Robert Malley, was suspended

Josh Rogin writes: Considering Iran’s collaboration with U.S. adversaries in the Middle East crisis and the Ukraine war, not to mention the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions, the Biden administration would surely like to have its top diplomat for Iran on the playing field. But the State Department’s special envoy, Robert Malley, has been sidelined while under federal investigation for going on one year — without any official explanation. Now, new information about the case is coming to light. Malley, who…

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