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Category: Politics

Why does Israel have so many Palestinians in detention and available to swap?

Why does Israel have so many Palestinians in detention and available to swap?

Omar Shakir writes: The last week has seen, as of Nov. 28, the release of 69 civilians held hostage in Gaza in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners as part of a short-term cease-fire agreement between Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups. While many have rightly hailed the release of civilians held hostage by Hamas after the killings of hundreds of Israelis and other civilians on Oct. 7 — hostage-taking is a war crime — less attention has been focused on…

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Palestine advocates decry MSNBC’s cancellation of Mehdi Hasan news show

Palestine advocates decry MSNBC’s cancellation of Mehdi Hasan news show

Al Jazeera reports: MSNBC has cancelled Mehdi Hasan’s weekend TV programme, sparking anger from many Palestinian rights supporters who consider the progressive host a rare critic of Israeli policies on United States cable news. The decision, first reported by the news website Semafor on Thursday, came amid what advocates describe as a crackdown on criticism against Israel in the media, at universities and in arts. The country is currently leading a military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than…

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Henry Kissinger, America’s most notorious war criminal, dies at 100

Henry Kissinger, America’s most notorious war criminal, dies at 100

Travis Waldron and George Zornick report: Henry Kissinger — who as a top American foreign policy official oversaw, overlooked and at times actively perpetrated some of the most grotesque war crimes the United States and its allies have committed — died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut. He was 100 years old. Kissinger’s death was announced by his consulting firm on Wednesday evening. No cause of death was immediately given. Kissinger served as secretary of state and national security adviser…

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A political stalemate led to the bloodshed in the Mideast. Only a political settlement can truly end it

A political stalemate led to the bloodshed in the Mideast. Only a political settlement can truly end it

Omer Bartov writes: Like many other people in Israel and across the world, my first reaction to the attack on 7 October was of shock and horror. But that initial reaction was accompanied by rage, not only at the appalling massacre perpetrated by Hamas on women and children, the elderly and the handicapped, even babies, but also at those who could have prevented this act of violence, many that preceded it and the brutal retaliation that would come in its…

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Gideon Levy: ‘There is nothing cheaper than Palestinians’ lives in Israel’

Gideon Levy: ‘There is nothing cheaper than Palestinians’ lives in Israel’

  Veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy explains how Israeli public opinion has been conditioned to view Palestinian lives as less valuable, and how this has resulted in the lack of internal criticism towards Israeli war crimes. Levy also talks about the role of Israeli media and other things in this episode of Al Jazeera Sidebar with Jamal Elshayyal.

Trump caught moving money around to pay massive tax bill

Trump caught moving money around to pay massive tax bill

The Daily Beast reports: A court-ordered financial auditor has caught Donald Trump quietly moving $40 million from the Trump Organization into a personal bank account—seemingly so the former president could pay his whopping $29 million tax bill. Trump isn’t supposed to be moving any money around without alerting Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge in New York tasked with babysitting the Trump Organization for its relentlessly shady business practices. But on Wednesday, she notified a New York state court…

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White House highlights how funding for Ukraine benefits American workers and businesses

White House highlights how funding for Ukraine benefits American workers and businesses

Politico reports: Battleground states Pennsylvania and Arizona are reaping billions of dollars from Washington’s efforts to arm Ukraine, according to a graphic the Biden administration has circulated on Capitol Hill. The circulation of the graphic is part of the administration’s push to sell the American public — and their congressional representatives — on President Joe Biden’s proposal to spend billions of additional taxpayer dollars on the wars in Ukraine and Israel. During an Oval Office address last month, Biden highlighted…

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Elon Musk has boosted the ‘pizzagate’ conspiracy theory five times in the last two weeks

Elon Musk has boosted the ‘pizzagate’ conspiracy theory five times in the last two weeks

NBC News reports: Elon Musk continued to boost a debunked conspiracy theory Tuesday, posting and later deleting a meme on X that referred to a fringe, far-right claim that sought to connect members of the Democratic Party with child abuse. Musk wrote “does seem at least a little suspicious” alongside a meme drawing from the TV show “The Office,” which included fake dialogue superimposed on images of a character arguing that “Pizzagate is real,” a reference to a conspiracy theory…

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Indian official was behind plot to assassinate Sikh American in U.S., DOJ says

Indian official was behind plot to assassinate Sikh American in U.S., DOJ says

Reuters reports: An Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist, who is also a U.S. citizen, on U.S. soil, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday, in announcing charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Nikhil Gupta, 52, worked with the Indian government employee, whose responsibilities included security and intelligence, on the plot to assassinate the New York City resident who advocated for a Sikh sovereign state…

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The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth

The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth

Margaret Sullivan writes: The numbers alone are dreadful. Journalists are being killed in the Israel-Hamas war at the rate of more than one every day since 7 October – at least 53 so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ. This has been the deadliest period for journalists in the 30 years since the New York-based organization began keeping these dire statistics. But, of course, it’s not all about the numbers. There’s also the reality that the…

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Antagonisms flare as red states try to dictate how blue cities are run

Antagonisms flare as red states try to dictate how blue cities are run

The Washington Post reports: Despite long advocating small government and local control, Republican governors and legislators across a significant swath of the country are increasingly overriding the actions of Democratic cities — removing elected district attorneys or threatening to strip them of power, taking over election offices and otherwise limiting local independence. State lawmakers proposed nearly 700 bills this year to circumscribe what cities and counties can do, according to Katie Belanger, lead consultant for the Local Solutions Support Center,…

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The Fifth Circuit is making the Supreme Court look reasonable

The Fifth Circuit is making the Supreme Court look reasonable

Stephen I. Vladeck writes: Where to even start in cataloging the most ridiculous—and alarming—recent rulings to come out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit? There’s a case about whether a class action could go forward that boiled down to a dispute among three Fifth Circuit judges over the meaning of a Bible verse. There’s a case in which the Fifth Circuit allowed three doctors to sue the FDA over a tweet intended to discourage ivermectin use…

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Leonard Leo firm received $21M from Leo-linked group

Leonard Leo firm received $21M from Leo-linked group

Politico reports: Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s consulting firm received $21 million in 2022 from a group that is a pillar of Leo’s aligned nonprofit network, according to a new tax filing. That group, The 85 Fund, is part of an umbrella of nonprofits under investigation by the Washington, D.C. attorney general for potentially violating tax laws. Carrie Severino, a former law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, is a director of the group. The tax filing, obtained by the watchdog…

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Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned

Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned

Reuters reports: The wife of Ukraine’s military spy chief has been poisoned with heavy metals and is undergoing treatment in a hospital, a spokesperson for the agency said on Tuesday. Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR, which has been prominently involved in clandestine operations against Russian forces since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “Yes, I can confirm the information, unfortunately, it is true,” GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Reuters, without…

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U.S. oil and gas production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals

U.S. oil and gas production set to break record in 2023 despite UN climate goals

The Guardian reports: The United States is poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before in 2023, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded, providing a daunting backdrop to crucial United Nations climate talks that hold the hope of an agreement to end the era of fossil fuels. The US’s status as the world’s leading oil and gas behemoth has only strengthened this year, even amid warnings from Joe Biden himself over the unfolding…

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Biden calls climate change ‘the ultimate threat to humanity’ but won’t be attending latest UN summit

Biden calls climate change ‘the ultimate threat to humanity’ but won’t be attending latest UN summit

The New York Times reports: President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai, skipping an event expected to be attended by King Charles III, Pope Francis and leaders from nearly 200 countries, a White House official said Sunday. The official, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the president’s schedule, did not give a reason Mr. Biden will not make an appearance at the two-week summit, known as COP28. But senior White…

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