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June 6, 2024 » the 80th Anniversary of D-Day » We Shall Remember Them

2024-06-06 /

80 years ago today, 160,000 troops from Britain, Canada, USA, —along with a dozen other nations— stormed five sandy beaches along the Normandy Coast, intending to liberate France and mainland Europe from Adolf Hitler’s tyranny.

The Canadian Encyclopedia says »

Juno Beach was the Allied code name for a 10 km stretch of French coastline assaulted by Canadian soldiers on D-Day, 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. The Canadian Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade seized the beach and its seaside villages while under intense fire from German defenders — an extraordinary example of military skill, reinforced by countless acts of personal courage. The 3rd Infantry Division took heavy casualties in its first wave of attack but took control of the beach by the end of the day. More than 14,000 Canadian soldiers landed or parachuted into France on D-Day. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 warships and 10,000 sailors and the RCAF contributed 15 fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons to the assault. There were 1,074 Canadian casualties, including 359 killed.

Footage of Canadians landing on Juno Beach.

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Jewish anti-Zionism in the U.S. and around the world

2024-06-02 /

Anti-Zionist Jews have formed a large part of the protests across the United States, and indeed the world, against Israel’s war on Gaza.

In this Al Jazeera’s interview and Simone Zimmerman, co-founder, IfNotNow, a Jewish advocacy group which opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, we hear of her own transition away from Zionism forms the core of the 2023 award-winning documentary, Israelism.

More » Al Jazeera

Trump – the convicted felon and presumptive GOP nominee – vows to appeal guilty verdict in rambling speech after jury finds him guilty of 34 felonies

2024-05-31 /

A Manhattan jury on May 30, 2024 found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felonies.

After only two-days of deliberation, a unanimous, 12-person jury in the New York case concluded that Trump was guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

While Trump is no longer legally allowed to possess firearms, and may no longer be allowed to vote, he remains the presumptive Republican nominee is still allowed to run for president of the United States.

» Mother Jones » Convicted felon rambles through greatest hits of grievances, falsehoods, and legal nonsense

» The Journal » ‘I’d like them to say, “gee, we have to have a little sorrow for this man”, because they just don’t say that about me.’

» BBC » Can Trump run for president as a convicted felon?

» The Guardian » After guilty verdict on 34 felony counts, Trump criticized the process in speech repeating falsehoods and conspiracy theories

» Globe and Mail » Trump launched into attacks on the judge in his criminal trial and continued to undermine New York’s criminal justice system Friday as he tried to repackage his conviction on 34 felony charges as fuel, not an impediment, to his latest White House bid.

» El País » Landmark ruling against Trump triggers unprecedented political earthquake

» Mother Jones » Trump loses a big battle in his lifelong war against accountability

More » Axios / NBC News / CNN / NPR / Politico

Trump is to be sentenced on July 11.

Mexico is on the verge of electing its first female president

2024-05-30 /

The Journal »

Mexico is on course to elect its first woman president this weekend, with two front-runners competing to break the highest political glass ceiling in a country with a history of gender violence and inequality.

Ruling-party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum and opposition hopeful Xochitl Galvez, both 61, have dominated the presidential race in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people.

The only man running, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, is trailing far behind with just days left before the vote this coming Sunday. »

Natalie Kitroeff, writing in the NY Times »

Claudia Sheinbaum’s list of accolades is long: She has a Ph.D. and a shared Nobel Peace Prize and was the first woman elected to lead Mexico City, her nation’s capital and one of the largest cities in the Western Hemisphere.

Now she has another chance to make history. Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, is the clear front-runner in the Mexican election on Sunday, putting her in position to become the country’s first female president.

But she has an image problem, and she knows it.

Many Mexicans are wondering: Can she be her own leader? Or is she a pawn of the current president? »

Also » Axios / France 24 / Al Jazeera

Israel National Security Adviser said the war in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months, the rest of the year

2024-05-29 /

BBC »

“The fighting in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months,” the prime minister’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel’s Kan public radio.

He also said Israel’s military had taken control of 75% of the buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, as it pressed ahead with an assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Residents of Rafah meanwhile reported that there had been more Israeli air strikes and that tanks had mounted raids in central and western areas before retreating. »

Already, some 36,000 Palestinians, mostly children, women and non-combatants, have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli army since October 7, 2024. To date, the government of Israel has shown no intention of ceasing the genocidal actions against the innocent Palestinians, choosing instead to ignore the International Court of Justice order to stop its military operation in the Gaza city of Rafah.

Climate change is a human rights issue

2024-05-29 /

Kuan-Wei Chen, McGill University and Hoda Asgarian, Bond University, writing in The Conversation »

In April, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of a group of seniors who alleged that the Swiss government’s failure to meet climate change mitigation targets is having an adverse impact on their health, well-being and quality of life.

This landmark decision by the highest human rights court in Europe confirms not only that climate change is intimately linked to human rights, but effectively holds all European governments accountable to adopt more rigorous measures to combat climate change. »

More killing » Israeli kill at least another 37 Palestinians, most in tents, near Gaza’s Rafah as offensive expands

2024-05-28 /

The Israeli shelling and airstrikes continues despite an order from the top U.N. court on Friday for Israel to halt its offensive in southern Gaza.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive. The majority are children, women, and other non-combatants. Israel launched its air and ground war after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023 killing around 1,200 people and seizing some 250 hostages, according to Israel.

Samy Magdy and Wafaa Shurafa, writing for the Associated Press »

Israeli shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 people, most of them sheltering in tents, outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight and on Tuesday — pummeling the same area where strikes triggered a deadly fire days earlier in a camp for displaced Palestinians — according to witnesses, emergency workers and hospital officials.

The tent camp inferno has drawn widespread international outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies, over the military’s expanding offensive into Rafah. And in a sign of Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage, Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday.

ArabNews »

Saudi Arabia condemned on Tuesday the Israeli forces’ continued “genocidal massacres against the Palestinian people without deterrence” by targeting the tents of defenseless Palestinian refugees in Rafah. The Kingdom holds the Israeli authorities fully responsible for what is happening in Rafah and all the occupied Palestinian territories, a foreign ministry statement read.

More » Reuters / Vox

Daytime temperatures in Pakistan above 52° Celsius — 125.6 degrees Fahrenheit

2024-05-28 /

Akhtar Soomro and Ariba Shahid, writing for Reuters »

Temperatures rose above 52 degrees Celsius (125.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, the highest reading of the summer and close to the country’s record high amid an ongoing heatwave, the met office said on Monday.

Also » A weather station in New Delhi, India recorded (NDTV) record temperature at 52.3℃ (126℉). India also reported an all-time high in power demand.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu called the airstrike in the Gaza city of Rafah that killed 45 Palestinians sheltering in a refugee camp a “tragic mistake”

2024-05-27 /

Health officials said at least 45 Palestinians were killed in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday night, including displaced people living in tents who were burnt alive.

Netanyahu called it a “tragic mistake.”

Footage and images released from the scene of the strike show large scale destruction.

More » BBC / France 24 / France 24 / Euronews /  The Journal / CTV News / Axios / AP / VOA / Time / NYT / Arab News / Globe and Mail

World Leaders Outraged » Officials in France, Germany, EU call for ceasefire » (Salon)

French President Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate cease-fire (UPI)

UN Security Council Expected to hold emergency meeting today  (AP)

Meanwhile » Israel continues striking Rafah (Le Monde / BBC)

Israeli tanks advance into Rafah’s centre despite global outcry (Reuters)

International Court of Justice orders that Israel immediately halt its offensive on city of Rafahh

2024-05-24 /

Updates below »

Israel is unlikely to comply with the order.

The Journal »

The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to halt its offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah, a landmark ruling likely to increase mounting international pressure on Israel more than seven months into the Gaza war.

Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” the International Court of Justice said.

More » The Guardian / The Guardian / Globe and Mail / CBC / NBC / NY Times / Washington Post / Al Jazeera

» Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says military operations in Rafah need to stop now that the ICJ has ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city. (CBC)

» The US now has an opening available to stop the bloodshed

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Drinking unpasteurized, raw milk may be dangerous

2024-05-24 /

A new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows more evidence of the potential danger of drinking unpasteurized, or raw, milk containing H5N1 avian flu viruses.

Helen Branswell, writing in STAT »

“Raw milk is clearly highly suspected of transmitting [H5N1] to animals,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “It’s still unclear what the risk is for humans. But I wouldn’t want to take my chances on it.”

“Everyone is absolutely terrified” » Inside India’s secret war against its critics abroad

2024-05-24 /

Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, writes »

Interviews with political figures, experts, and activists revealed a sustained campaign where Narendra Modi’s government threatens American citizens and permanent residents who dare speak out on the declining state of the country’s democracy. This campaign has not been described publicly until now because many people in the community — even prominent ones — are too afraid to talk about it.

…

Prior to last year, the idea of India killing American citizens on American soil might have sounded absurd. But in the fall of 2023, both the Canadian government and a US Justice Department indictment alleged that Indian government agents had attempted to assassinate Sikhs living in North America. While federal agents disrupted the American plot, a Canadian citizen was killed by (alleged) Indian agents. The Modi government has denied involvement in both cases, but evidence — including reporting from the Washington Post and the Intercept —suggests they were deeply involved.

U.S. House of Representatives came to a pause over remarks about Trump’s 88 felony counts

2024-05-24 /

Again, evidence that democracy is under attack from the far-right.

The House floor unexpectedly came to a standstill for more than an hour on Wednesday after Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., listed off the criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.

Lauren Peller writing for ABC News »

Rep. McGovern: “Donald Trump might want to be a king. But he is not a king. He is not a presumptive king. He’s not even a president. He’s a presumptive nominee. And I know you’re trying to do your job and follow precedent but, frankly, at some point it’s time for this body to recognize that there is no precedent for this situation. We have a presumptive nominee for president facing 88 felony counts and we are being prevented from even acknowledging it. These are not alternative facts. There are real facts. A candidate for president of the United States is on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign, and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law. He is also charged with conspiring to overturn the election. He is also charged with stealing classified information. And a jury has already found him liable for rape in a civil court. And yet, in this Republican-controlled House, it’s okay to talk about the trial but you have to call it a sham.”

Republican Rep. Erin Houchin: “We take down his words.”

Rep. McGovern: “It’s okay to say the jury is rigged, but not that Trump should be held accountable.”

Rep. Houchin: “Mr. Speaker, I demand that his words be taken down.”

Rep. McGovern: “It’s okay to say the court is corrupt, but not Trump corrupting the rule of law.”

More » NBC / Axios / Politico

US Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general announced a lawsuit against ticketing giant Live Nation on antitrust grounds

2024-05-23 /

The U.S. government filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, seeking to “break up” the company, accusing it of unlawfully dominating the market.

Alexander Mallin, writing for ABC News »

The lawsuit, filed by the DOJ and 30 state and district attorneys general in federal court in the Southern District of New York, accuses the company of creating a monopoly over the live entertainment market that has harmed music fans, artists and promoters around the United States through higher prices and frustrating consumer experiences.

“The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “It is time to break up Live Nation.”

More » The Guardian / Le Monde / BBC / CBC / CNBC / Axios / Business Insider / The Verge / Gizmodo / Fortune / Fast Company / Al Jazeera / Matt Stoller

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