Gaza's Children's Crusade: Dying One By One
This Armistice Day, Kurt Vonnegut - humanist, socialist, chronicler of the "terrible wastefulness of war" - would have turned 101; he deemed "sacred" the date when millions laid down their arms in a singular, merciful moment of grace. This Armistice Day, Gaza saw no mercy or grace - just hospitals gone dark, nurses shot, patients trapped, babies "dying by the minute." The devastation evokes Vonnegut's mournful fury at another awful war in 1969. "We have nothing to celebrate," he said. "Let the killing stop."
It was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 that "millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another," Vonnegut wrote of the Armistice. "I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind." "War Is Over!" headlines blared of the end of a senseless conflagration that killed over 40 million people, its "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" long symbolized by poppies. In a radio speech, Woodrow Wilson praised "the lofty levels of vision (upon) which the great war for democracy was fought"; in 1938, in tribute to "the war to end all wars," Congress declared Nov. 11 a national holiday "dedicated to world peace." But just three years later, America joined a second world war still more devastating. Born "accidentally" in 1922 on the date the first war ended and swept unceremoniously into the second, Vonnegut later wrote, "My own feeling is that civilization ended in World War I, and we're still trying to recover from it." He himself spent 45 years seeking to reckon with persistent wars he deemed merely a grotesque, eternal "puberty ceremony."
Vonnegut's seminal book Slaughterhouse-Five was his anguished effort to make sense of the trauma of his own war, when as a 22-year-old U.S. Infantry Scout during World War ll he was captured by German troops. Soon after, he was brought with other POWs to a Dresden work camp and then to Schlachthof-Fünf, an underground slaughterhouse where he survived Dresden's infamous 1945 firebombing by Allies that may have killed over 100,000 civilians. "I saw the destruction of Dresden," he wrote of the once-stately "Florence of the Elbe." “I saw the city before, (and) when we came up, the city was gone." Admitting how hard it was to confront his painful memories, he evokes Lot's wife, turned into a pillar of salt by God for ignoring His command not to look back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: "But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.” Slaughterhouse-Five, he notes, "was written by a pillar of salt," determinedly looking back in search of hope or at least comprehension. When a friend insists he not glorify the atrocities endured and committed by so many then-innocents - "You were just babies then!" - he vows not to, and adds the subtitle, "The Children's Crusade. He begins, "All this happened, more or less."
A socialist who cared about humanity as deeply as its violence and irrationality pained him, Vonnegut rendered a surreal reality more so, crafting an absurdist, fragmented tale about green, toilet-plunger-shaped aliens called Tralfamadorians abducting his PTSD-afflicted anti-hero Billy Pilgrim, who often gets "rudely unstuck in time," in order to haltingly, implausibly confront "the monstrous crimes of the 20th century." These apocalyptic horrors he saw, he carried the rest of his life: The massive firestorm that tore people's breath from their lungs, the streets and basements filled with bodies reduced to "little, brown, charred bundles," the smell of the endless, oozing corpses the POWS had to haul to towering funeral pyres as survivors threw rocks at them until soldiers with flame throwers took to cremating bodies where they lay after they'd been stripped of valuables. Faced with the unfathomable, he offers up for dark comic relief the Tralfamadorians, fatalists who "had many wonderful things to teach Earthlings about time," who have knowledge of the calamitous future but for whom there is no free will: "There is no why." Says Pilgrim, "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people...'So it goes.'"
Vonnegut died in 2007. This Armistice Day he would have turned 101; on Thursday, the Library of America is re-publishing four of his novels. Because, per Faulkner, "The past is never dead - it's not even past," Israeli leaders now intent on turning Gaza into Dresden cite the Allied defense of firebombing entire cities - as a rail hub, Dresden was "a military target" - to justify their slaughter of at least 11,255 Palestinian civilians, almost half children. "There are no innocent civilians," insisted Gen. Curtis 'Iron Ass' LeMay, who pioneered low-altitude incendiary bombings on Tokyo and other Japanese cities that burned to death hundreds of thousands. "It is their government and you are fighting a people...So it doesn’t bother me so much to be killing so-called innocent bystanders." (During the war in Vietnam, LeMay famously vowed to "bomb them back into the Stone Age," a pledge that even fog-of-war Robert McNamara said could see them all prosecuted for war crimes, as they should have been.) Today, Israel's military and political leaders have likewise, shamelessly made their genocidal intent plain: They are fighting "human animals," they will bomb Gaza "into rubble," they are "rolling out the Gaza Nakba." "There will only be destruction," said one general. "You wanted hell, you will get hell."
And so Gaza has. Much of it is now rubble, "unrecognizable," a "graveyard for children." Over two-thirds of its 2.3 million people, lacking homes, food, water, have fled in terror. Vital, cancer, maternity, childrens' hospitals are bombed, closed, ravaged, evacuated amidst relentless Israeli airstrikes and loss of power. Previously bombed Al-Ahli Hospital serves as an outdoor field hospital, its three surgeons tending 500 wounded amidst IDF gunfire. Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, isencircled by IDF tanks and snipers, without power, "caught in a circle of death." Israeli bombs razed its maternity ward and intensive care unit, killing at least three nurses. Over 600 bloody patients lie on floors away from windows and gunfire without food, water, oxygen, pain medication; sometimes a wailing parent finds a dead infant among them. Doctors do ventilation by hand and wrap the most seriously wounded - burns, blast injuries, amputations - for warmth, but they are "dying by the minute." At least 43 of 63 ICU patients have died; so have six of 39 premature babies. With no working incubators, doctors have laid them out on beds, swathed in blankets, getting weaker in "a very bad situation where you slowly kill them." One doctor on the newborns: "A scream from these children to the world."
Outside Al-Shifa, where up to 50,000 Gazans initially sought shelter until Israel began, over 100 dead bodies pile up. Despite Israel's claim to provide safe passage, hospital staff say they watched helplessly as many were shot trying to flee. Staff shrouded the dead in white body bags until they ran out; now they wrap them in blankets, some with burnt limbs protruding. As more die, and without refrigeration, wild dogs have set upon the bodies; doctors say they've begun digging mass graves inside the complex. After an ultimatum to evacuate, some doctors left, prodded by armed soldiers, to walk for hours on a road strewn with bodies to a UN shelter with a "staggering" number of refugees. But the UN, sheltering some 800,000 people, says its fuel depot has run dry, Israel bombed its wells, and it will soon have to shut down all aid. With over 5,000 Gazan women due to give birth this month, Al-Awda hospital in the north, without power, is delivering 20 babies a day; some mothers and infants arrive wounded, gored by shrapnel, with burns or broken limbs. "We are being killed here," says one doctor. Says another of performing surgery on children without anesthesia, “I’m trying to understand what the world is waiting for...At what point does the world believe (it) is no longer acceptable (for) this to be done to people."
"Children are children, (and) one cannot but be equally horrified by what has happened to them, both here and there," writes Gideon Levy of a "fascist reality sweeping Israel" in which "one must now take sides: You are either shocked by the atrocities committed by Hamas, or by the atrocities committed by the IDF. Decide. Choose sides. Which dead children shock you more?" Genocide, mutual terror, and the murder of children are "not a path to peace," he argues, but "a nightmare future built on a nightmare present." Many Jews concur, including relatives of Hamas victims. "Revenge is not going to bring my parents back to life," said one. "It is going to bring more death." Yet just 31 members, 5.8%, of Congress have demanded a ceasefire most Americans support, a complicit Biden has imposed "no red lines" on how many civilians his "great, great friend" Netanyahu can kill, faced with an illegal raid on Al-Shifa he only squeaked, "My hope and expectation is there will be less intrusive action," and when the UN, on its 5th try, passed its first resolution calling for "extended humanitarian pauses" in airstrikes, the U.S. - WTF - abstained. In response, Israel swiftly declared the call had "no meaning," was "disconnected from reality," and "will not happen."
In the same spirit of cooperation, Israeli forces also stormed al-Shifa Hospital. Ignoring protests from doctors and rights groups, they interrogated medical staff, blew up a medicine storehouse, assaulted men sheltering in the emergency room, arrested several technicians, ordered about 1,000 males over 16, hands in the air, into the courtyard to "surrender" and stripped some naked, all in the name of uncovering Hamas operations. An IDF spokesman reported they "found weapons and other terror infrastructure" and "unique technological means used by Hamas." Doctors and Gaza officials denied the claims as "a farce." Israel also announced it let in a first fuel delivery for the UN, but banned use of any fuel by hospitals, who most need it. In Paris, Israeli arms makers attended a leading global security fair sponsored by France's Ministry of Interior to exhibit their newest innovations, like Smartshooter's “one shot one hit” technology "giving soldiers the tactical edge they need," now being tested on Palestinians as part of what Netanyahu in a U.S. media blitz has called his "battle of civilization against barbarism." In his earliest speech against the Vietnam War, Kurt Vonnegut had some words for that sort of "manly jubilation," especially when referencing "murdered children." "There will be no cheering," he said. "I quote God Almighty, who said this: Thou shalt not kill."
“Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us." - Medical staff in Gaza were so inundated by patients they wiped clean the board that usually tracks upcoming surgeries and left this message.
Hungry Palestinian children line up for food in RafahPhoto by Hatem Ali
A Gazan child watches as people sort through rubble after an Israeli airstrike on Rafah. Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Oil Lobby Flooded UN Climate Talks With 7,200 Lobbyists Over 20 Years
As the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis has wreaked increasingly deadly havoc across the planet over the last two decades, lobbyists and other representatives of oil and gas interests have attended United Nations-led climate talks more than 7,000 times in an effort to prevent world leaders from challenging their destructive business model.
That's according to new research released Tuesday by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition just over a week before the start of COP28 in the United Arab Emirates.
Drawing on official attendance lists since COP9 in 2003, the research shows that the U.N. has granted at least 7,200 attendance passes to delegates for fossil fuel companies and industry trade groups, which often use their presence to peddle false climate solutions such as carbon capture.
The advocacy coalition stressed that its estimate likely understates the presence of oil and gas representatives at past U.N. climate summits given that many delegates didn't specify their affiliation or attended under the banner of nations where they do business.
At COP28, attendees will be required to disclose their affiliation under
new U.N. transparency rules put in place earlier this year after two consecutive climate summits were inundated by fossil fuel lobbyists. At COP26, oil and gas lobbyists had a larger presence than any single country, and more than 636 oil and gas lobbyists attended COP27.
Of the major oil and gas companies, Shell has sent the most staff—at least 115—to U.N. climate talks since 2003. The U.N. has granted a combined 267 attendance passes to disclosed staff from Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and TotalEnergies over the last 20 years, the new analysis says.
The report also shows that the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), a group whose members include Exxon and Chevron, has been granted at least 2,769 passes to attend U.N.-led climate talks since 2003.
"The research makes clear that the body in charge of implementing global policies to reduce GHG emissions is totally captured by the transnational companies that destroy the planet the most," Pablo Fajardo of the Union of Affected Communities by Texaco/Chevron said in a statement. "The COP must be freed from polluting companies, or the COP becomes partly responsible for global collapse."
George Carew-Jones of the YOUNGO youth constituency at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change noted that the U.N. currently "has no conflict-of-interest rules for COPs."
"This unbelievable fact has allowed fossil fuel lobbyists to undermine talks for years, weakening the process that we are all relying on to secure our futures," Carew-Jones added. "Young people around the world are losing faith in the COP process—we desperately need strong safeguards on the role that oil and gas firms are playing in these talks."
The new research is likely to intensify concerns that fossil fuel industry influence at COP28—which is headed by the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company—will derail yet another critical opportunity to rein in oil, gas, and coal production, something that previous U.N. climate summits have failed to do in the face of worsening climate impacts across the globe.
Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned Monday that "without protections against conflicts of interest at COP28, the fossil fuel industry will be out in force."
"As we near the end of a year of devastating climate change-fueled disasters and record-breaking global average temperatures, the options to limit the worst potential impacts of climate change are narrowing," Mulvey wrote. "The fossil fuel industry has a lot to lose in the negotiations at COP28, and a lot to gain from continued diversion, distraction, and delay."
After East Palestine, Will Cincinnati Voters Stop Norfolk Southern From Buying Their City's Railway?
Cincinnati voters will decide next Tuesday whether to allow the company responsible for the toxic train crash in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this year to purchase the last remaining municipally owned interstate railroad in the United States.
Norfolk Southern has been working to buy the Cincinnati Southern Railway (CSR) for years, but the effort largely flew under the national radar until one of the company's trains derailed in East Palestine in February 2023, unleashing chemical pollution that sparked major public health concerns and put the small Ohio town in the spotlight.
The wreck brought renewed scrutiny to Norfolk Southern's lax safety procedures, poor treatment of workers, and long history of lobbying against basic regulatory measures, making the hugely profitable corporation a poster child of rail industry greed and dysfunction.
Concerns about Norfolk Southern's practices in the wake of the East Palestine disaster have fueled opposition to the company's proposed $1.6 billion purchase of the CSR, which has been in public hands since its construction in the late 1800s.
The unelected Cincinnati board of trustees that manages the 338-mile CSR and the city's Democratic mayor announced and celebrated the proposed sale last November, setting the stage for the November 7 vote on Issue 22.
Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center organizer Magda Orlander toldIn These Times on Wednesday that public opposition to the proposed sale has been "snowballing" since early voting began in early October. The grassroots group Derail the Sale has formed in opposition to Issue 22 and a number of local organizations, including the Cincinnati NAACP and Neighborhoods United Cincinnati, have joined the fight.
"When a big corporation, with all these investment interests behind it, throws around a wad of cash like that, it's pretty clear who's getting duped," said Orlander, referring to the $4.25 million that Norfolk Southern has spent trying to build support for the sale, which recently won the approval of federal regulators.
At a rally against the sale last month, Brian Garry, the executive director of Neighborhoods United Cincinnati, said that the CSR is "the largest asset that we own."
"It's like our family savings and they're just selling it," said Garry. "They say they’re building Cincinnati's future? They're selling Cincinnati's future."
Cincinnati, which is roughly 300 miles from East Palestine, has been leasing its railway to Norfolk Southern for decades, and the existing agreement with the company currently brings the city roughly $25 million a year.
If the sale is approved, the $1.6 billion in proceeds would be placed in a trust fund operated by the unelected Cincinnati Southern Railway Board of Trustees, which unanimously approved Norfolk Southern's purchase last year.
Proponents of the sale have touted its potential economic benefits for the city, which—thanks to a recent change to a 150-year-old statute—could spend the sale revenue on infrastructure improvements.
But critics of the deal have cast doubt on the supposed financial boon the sale would bring to Cincinnati and raised concerns about potential economic risks.
"Money flowing into Cincinnati’s coffers under the current CSR lease agreement guarantees $25 million per year for infrastructure improvements in the city," Werner Lange, a retired educator with five grandchildren living in Cincinnati, wrote in a May op-ed for the Cincinnati CityBeat.
"Under the purchase agreement signed last November, there is absolutely no such guaranteed income, only speculation," he added. "According to recent state law, should there be more than a 25% loss on speculative investments made by appointed financial managers from the $1.62 billion sale price, then the city receives nothing—nada—until the stock market loss is rectified, if ever. A lesson often painfully learned too late, amplified by recent bank failures, is that a bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush."
"The Cincinnati Southern Railway is more than just a railroad; it's a testament to Cincinnati's visionary past and a beacon for a self-reliant future."
Safety and health concerns have also animated opposition to the sale.
Last month, leaders of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment—a community oversight committee formed in the wake of the February crash—implored Cincinnati voters to vote no on Issue 22, arguing that "there is no benefit from the sale of Cincinnati Southern Railway that outweighs the health of your families."
"Do not make the same mistakes our community did and ignore the dangers associated with Norfolk Southern," the council's president and secretary wrote in an op-ed for the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Open your eyes, look around you, research the facts to make an informed decision for your families' health, your children's health, and the health of future generations. We never want another community to feel the earth-shattering words of the Centers for Disease Control telling you that you all have had chemical exposure and they don't know what to do about that, but they do know how to treat the cancers it could cause in the future."
While the sale has garnered support from some unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, other rail unions and labor activists in Ohio and around the country have raised alarm about the prospect of Norfolk Southern buying up the nation's only municipally owned interstate railroad.
Railroad Workers United (RWU), an inter-union alliance representing rail workers across the United States, has helped organize local opposition to the Norfolk Southern sale, describing Issue 22 as a choice between public ownership of a critical community asset and the "short-term gain" offered by privatization. RWU supports the full nationalization of U.S. railroads.
Jason Doering, a locomotive engineer and labor activist, wrote in a social media post on Wednesday that "the citizens of Cincinnati are at a historical crossroads."
"The choice they make could either uphold a legacy of public ownership that has withstood the test of time or cede control to private interests, potentially eroding the very fabric of community self-determination and financial prudence that has defined Cincinnati for over a century," Doering wrote. "The Cincinnati Southern Railway is more than just a railroad; it's a testament to Cincinnati's visionary past and a beacon for a self-reliant future."
Fresh Calls for George Santos Expulsion After Ethics Report Drops
U.S. Rep. George Santos said Thursday that he will not seek reelection following the release of a sprawling House Ethics Committee report detailing an array of alleged misconduct and criminal violations, but government watchdogs said the congressman's plans to leave office after another whole year were far from sufficient.
"If George Santos had any shame or remorse over deceiving hard-working New Yorkers and his colleagues in Congress, he would resign immediately," said Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs for Stand Up America. "Since he refuses to step down, House Republicans should grow a backbone and expel him from the House of Representatives."
The latest demands for Santos' (R-N.Y.) immediate resignation or expulsion—which have followed him since before he even took office this year—came as the committee's report revealed new details about mounting allegations against him that he stole from his campaign coffers, fabricated loans, and engaged in fraud.
More than 170,000 pages of testimony and supporting documents showed House investigators that Santos "sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit," according to the report. "He blatantly stole from his campaign. He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit."
The committee conducted an in-depth investigation of a consulting firm called RedStone, which Santos allegedly established to help with his electoral campaign. But no Federal Election Commission registration for RedStone exists, and the probe found that thousands of dollars from the company were used by Santos to pay personal credit card bills and make a purchase of more than $4,100 at the luxury designer brand Hermes, as well as "smaller purchases" at the adult website OnlyFans.
"George Santos' pattern of dishonest and illegal conduct is outrageous and continues to get more," said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). "He should have resigned a long time ago. It is to the House Ethics Committee's credit that it conducted a serious investigation and uncovered even more wrongdoing by Santos. Enough is enough, Santos needs to resign today."
Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) is reportedly planning to file a motion to expel Santos Friday morning.
It would be the second expulsion vote centering on Santos this month. On November 1, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) joined 181 Republicans as well as 31 Democrats who opposed a resolution to expel Santos over his numerous lies.
Last month, federal prosecutors filed 10 charges against Santos, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States. Santos pleaded not guilty earlier this year to 13 other charges, including money laundering and stealing public funds.
"George Santos built his political career on lies and deceit, so it comes as no surprise that the bipartisan ethics committee found he likely committed multiple crimes to obtain his seat in Congress," said Edkins on Thursday. "Even his Republican colleagues concluded his actions damage the reputation of the House of Representatives and warrant punishment. This report has one clear conclusion: Santos is wholly unfit to hold office."
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) also said he would soon be "submitting a privileged resolution" to expel Santos.
"The committee's condemning report has made it crystal clear that the GOP's decision to wait nine months was not only irresponsible but dangerous," said Garcia. "George Santos has no place in Congress."
Exposé of 'Scandalous' US Spying Sparks Calls for Congress to Act
Privacy advocates on Monday renewed demands for swift congressional action on government surveillance in response to new WIREDreporting on a federally funded program through which law enforcement obtains phone records from AT&T.
"This is a long-running dragnet surveillance program in which the White House pays AT&T to provide all federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies the ability to request often-warrantless searches of trillions of domestic phone records," U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote Sunday in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, which WIRED obtained and published in full.
Wyden—a lead sponsor of the Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA), a bipartisan bill introduced earlier this month—shared some of what he has learned about the program and urged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to release information about it.
Now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS), the program was initially revealed to the public as the Hemisphere Project by The New York Times in 2013. Information collected includes caller and recipient names, phone numbers, and dates and times of calls.
Based on what officials told Wyden's staff, "all Hemisphere requests are sent to a single AT&T analyst located in Atlanta, Georgia, and... any law enforcement officer working for one of the federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. can contact the AT&T Hemisphere analyst directly to request they run a query, with varying authorization requirements," the letter says.
The letter also explains that "although the Hemisphere Project is paid for with federal funds, they are delivered to AT&T through an obscure grant program, enabling the program to skip an otherwise mandatory federal privacy review" by the DOJ.
Citing a document provided by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Wyden noted that "White House funding for this program was suspended by the Obama administration in 2013, the same year the program was exposed by the press, but continued with other federal funding under a new generic sounding program name, 'Data Analytical Services.'"
"ONDCP funding for this surveillance program was quietly resumed by the Trump administration in 2017, paused again in 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, and then quietly restarted again in 2022," according to the senator.
"The public interest in an informed debate about government surveillance far outweighs the need to keep this information secret."
"I have serious concerns about the legality of this surveillance program, and the materials provided by the DOJ contain troubling information that would justifiably outrage many Americans and other members of Congress," he wrote, referencing materials the department gave his office. "While I have long defended the government's need to protect classified sources and methods, this surveillance program is not classified and its existence has already been acknowledged by the DOJ in federal court. The public interest in an informed debate about government surveillance far outweighs the need to keep this information secret."
WIRED pointed out that in addition to DAS not being subjected to a DOJ privacy review, "the White House is also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, reducing the public's overall ability to shed light on the program."
While the White House "acknowledged an inquiry... but has yet to provide a comment," WIRED reported, AT&T spokesperson Kim Hart Jonson declined to comment, "saying only that the company is required by law to comply with a lawful subpoena."
"There is no law requiring AT&T to store decades' worth of Americans' call records for law enforcement purposes," the outlet highlighted. "Documents reviewed by WIRED show that AT&T officials have attended law enforcement conferences in Texas as recently as 2018 to train police officials on how best to utilize AT&T's voluntary, albeit revenue-generating, assistance."
Responding in a statement Monday, Demand Progress policy director Sean Vitka noted that the reporting comes as members of Congress are considering whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows warrantless surveillance targeting foreigners located outside the United States and will expire at the end of 2023.
"Hemisphere appears to be Exhibit A for mass domestic surveillance, the data broker loophole, and even parallel construction," said Vitka. "These new details add up to a horrifying picture that proves the need for Congress to close the data broker loophole and enact comprehensive privacy protections for Americans before reauthorizing any spying powers, most notably Section 702 of FISA. The fact that a White House office—one that is actively fighting FISA reform—restarted funding for Hemisphere in 2022, in spite of recent Supreme Court precedent, is scandalous."
Demand Progress is among the groups backing Wyden's recently unveiled legislation—which, as WIRED reported, would close various loopholes, "effectively rendering the DAS program, in its current form, explicitly illegal."
Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, which also endorsed the GSRA, said of the reporting: "This is exactly why Congress must pass comprehensive surveillance reform as a precondition for ANY reauthorization of FISA Section 702. The Government Surveillance Reform Act would put an end to the abuses revealed in this latest bombshell story."
Freedom of the Press Foundation also acknowledged current reauthoriztion battle, saying on social media Monday: "So the [government] used loopholes to secretly restart a mass domestic surveillance program, and some lawmakers also want to re-up FISA Section 702 without real reforms because we can 'trust' authorities not to abuse their power to go after journalists and others? No thanks."
Head of Bombed Gaza Hospital Appeals Directly to Biden
The director of the aid group that runs the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza—where Israeli attacks killed at least a dozen people on Monday—appealed directly to U.S. President Joe Biden, imploring him to push Israel to accept a cease-fire in a war that's killed or maimed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
"Gazans are facing death every day. Every five minutes, a Palestinian child is killed," Sarbini Abdul Murad, head of Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) Indonesia, wrote in a letter to Biden.
Noting that Israeli forces have attacked "babies, children, women, the elderly, the disabled, hospitals, ambulances, medics, schools, teachers, residential complexes, worship places, and much more," Murad asserted that "this is completely genocide and ethnic cleansing."
"It is very unfortunate that your siding with Israel by facilitating weapons of mass destruction has actually made the conflict even wider," Murad continued. "Your action clearly contradicts various international treaties and agreements that apply to the existence of Palestine. You have destroyed the international rules of the game, insulted the authority of the [United Nations], torn apart the sense of justice, hurt human values, and tarnished the face of human civilization."
"Mr. President, we believe you still have a conscience," Murad wrote. "Your great country certainly wants to be seen as honorable for its humanitarian defenses. Moreover, your administration has determined to make the principles of multilateralism, justice, and human rights the foundation of United States foreign policy. So, actually, this is the right to prove it."
Urging Biden to "avoid double standards in dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Murad added: "For the sake of peace and humanity, we demand that you immediately do [a] cease-fire. Restore the dignity of the United States as a country that upholds human rights. The cease-fire must be implemented now, so as not to increase the loss of life on both sides."
Murad's letter came as Israel Defense Forces tanks surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza after IDF artillery shelling killed 12 people in the facility's compound, including patients and their companions, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry also said many people were wounded in the attack, including patients in critical condition.
"The attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian laws. All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Monday.
According to Gaza officials, there are about 700 patients, staff, and other Palestinians trapped in the Indonesian Hospital. People trying to flee the compound have reportedly come under Israeli fire.
Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker at hospital, toldAl Jazeera that Israeli tanks could be seen maneuvering around the compound.
"You can see them moving around and firing," Abdallah said. "Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire."
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is "appalled" by the attacks on Indonesian Hospital.
"Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital," the agency said in a statement.
"There have been multiple and ongoing attacks on health facilities in the last six weeks, that have resulted in forced mass evacuations from hospitals, and multiple fatalities and casualties among patients, their companions, and those who had sought refuge in hospitals," WHO continued.
"The Indonesian Hospital had already reportedly sustained damages due to at least five attacks since October 7," the organization added, referring to the date when Israel began bombarding Gaza by air, land, and sea following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, with another 240 or so taken hostage.
"The world cannot stand silent while these hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair."
"WHO has recorded 335 attacks on healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, including 164 attacks in the Gaza Strip and 171 attacks in the West Bank," WHO noted. "There were also 33 attacks on healthcare in Israel during the violent events of October 7."
"The world cannot stand silent while these hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair," the agency added.
On Tuesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said two of its physicians—Drs. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad Al Sahar—were killed along with another doctor, Ziad Al-Tatari, in a strike on al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza.
"We condemn this strike in the strongest terms, and call yet again for the respect and protection of medical facilities, staff, and patients," MSF said in a statement.
Israeli officials
claim Hamas and other Palestinian militants are using hospitals as headquarters. However, Israel has provided no proof to support its allegations, which Palestinian and international medical professionals working in the facilities resoundingly refute.
According to Palestine's WAFANews Agency, at least 205 Palestinian medical workers have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets during the war.
The WHO said Tuesday that one of its employees, Dima Alhaj, was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza alongside her husband, their 6-month-old baby, and two of the woman's brothers.
Israel and Hamas appeared close to reaching a Qatar-brokered multiday cease-fire agreement on Tuesday, with hard-right holdouts in Israel's government—most notably, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—opposed to the deal, which would reportedly involve the release of around 50 civilian hostages held by Hamas and of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.
Gaza officials said Tuesday that the death toll from Israel's 46-day onslaught rose to at least 14,128, including over 3,900 women and 5,800 children. Tens of thousands more Palestinians have been wounded, nearly 1.7 million others have been forcibly displaced, and around half of all homes in the embattled strip have been damaged or destroyed.
'Jarring Wake-Up Call': Hunger Surges in US After Food Aid Cuts
"Effective federal public policies over the previous few years were spectacularly successful in stemming U.S. hunger, but as many of those policies have been reversed, hunger has again soared," said one expert.
Highlighting the end of a yearslong trend of declining hunger in the United States due largely to federal policies like the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals, a report published Wednesday details how the expiration of these programs has fueled a resurgence in food insecurity.
Hunger Free America's (HFA) 2023 National Hunger Survey Report found that "the number of Americans without enough food over a seven-day period was an average of 40% higher in September and October of 2023 than in September and October of 2021."
"Over that time period, the number of people without enough food increased from 19.7 million to 27.8 million nationwide," HFA noted, attributing the rise in hunger to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals.
"Many federal benefit increases have either gone away entirely, or are being ramped down, even as prices for food, rent, healthcare, and fuel continue to soar," the advocacy group added.
Among the report's other findings:
- The states with the highest rates of food-insecure children were Delaware (21.4%), Nebraska (21.0%), Texas (20.7%), Georgia (20.0%), Kentucky (19.7%), and Louisiana (19.7%);
- Nationally, 9.1% of employed adults in the U.S. lived in food-insecure households during the three-year time period;
- The states with the highest rates of food insecurity among employed adults were Arkansas (13.7%), Texas (13.4%), Louisiana (12.5%), South Carolina (12.5%), and Oklahoma (12.4%);
- 7.6% of older Americans, defined as people 60 years and older, lived in food-insecure households;
- Louisiana had the highest rate of food insecurity among older Americans at 13.9%, followed by Mississippi (12.7%), the District of Columbia (12.6%), West Virginia (11.0%), and Oklahoma (10.4%); and
- The states with the lowest rates of food insecurity were New Hampshire (6.1%), Minnesota (7.3%), Vermont (7.7%), Colorado (8.4%), and North Dakota (8.6%).
"This report should be a jarring wake-up call for our federal, state, and local leaders," HFA CEO Joel Berg said in a statement.
The new HFA report follows federal data released in November showing the U.S. child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year, thanks in large part to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit. Under the policy—part of the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021—eligible families received up to $300 per child each month.
However, the program expired at the end of 2021 as congressional Republicans and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed its extension. Manchin infamously argued that parents would use the money to buy drugs instead of food for their children.
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans last year blocked the extension of a pandemic-era policy under which public schools offered free breakfast and lunch to tens of millions of children.
"Effective federal public policies over the previous few years were spectacularly successful in stemming U.S. hunger, but as many of those policies have been reversed, hunger has again soared," Berg said on Wednesday. "At exactly the moment when so many Americans are in desperate need of relief, many of the federally funded benefits increases, such as the Child Tax Credit and universal school meals, have expired, due mostly to opposition from conservatives in Congress."
"Just as no one should be surprised if drought increases when water is taken away, no one should be shocked that when the government takes away food, as well as money to buy food, hunger rises," Berg added. "Our political leaders must act to raise wages and provide a strong safety net, so we can finally end U.S. hunger and ensure that all Americans have access to adequate, healthy food."
Landmark Report Details Just Path to Energy Transition and 1.5°C Target
Recommendations include tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, phasing out fossil fuels by 2050, and providing the Global South with the means to fund its energy transition.
As world leaders prepare to gather at the COP28 global climate talks next week in Dubai, 350.orgpublished a report Wednesday detailing how negotiators can draft a just and effective global transition to renewable energy.
One of the main agenda items at COP28 will be a worldwide target for renewable energy. Yet this target must be accompanied by a 2050 phaseout of fossil fuels and funds to speed the transition in the Global South, 350.org concluded.
"A renewable energy target at COP28 will only constitute a meaningful step towards climate justice if it is accompanied by a clear roadmap for implementation that includes equitable mechanisms and commitments in the financial and policy realms, as well as an urgent and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels," Andreas Sieber, 350.org associate director of global policy, said in a statement. "Without these, any agreement would represent a hollow, 'easy win' for the COP28 President Al Jaber, and risk allowing polluting countries to hide behind a renewables goal while continuing to emit fossil fuels."
"To achieve the proposed global renewable energy target by 2030, massive growth in financial investment into renewable energy is required in the Global South outside China, from both private and public sources."
The report, fully titled Power Up for Climate Justice: Financing and Implementing a 1.5°C-Aligned Global Renewables Target, also details how the target itself can be meaningful.
"For the global renewable energy target at COP28 to address global energy needs and redress fossil fuel dependency, it must include commitments to triple fair, safe, and clean renewable energy capacity by 2030 and deploy 1.5 terawatts per year thereafter, double energy efficiency by 2030, and completely phaseout of fossil fuels by 2050," said 350.org executive director May Boeve.
The report further argues that the target should be based on demonstrably effective technologies like wind and solar power.
"There is no room for dangerous distractions and unproven technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage, nuclear energy, ammonia co-firing, which do not address the root causes of the climate crisis, and often cannot be implemented at scale," the report authors wrote.
They also emphasized the importance of providing poorer nations with the funds to scale up their renewable energy buildouts.
"To achieve the proposed global renewable energy target by 2030, massive growth in financial investment into renewable energy is required in the Global South outside China, from both private and public sources," Sieber said. "Barriers such as debt and the inequitable cost of capital in the Global South, significantly hinder investment in renewable energy."
Only $260 billion was invested in the Global South in 2022, the report notes, even though the International Energy Agency has said that $1.9 trillion is needed per year by 2030 in order to limit global heating to 1.5°C while providing energy to around 5 billion people—an amount of finance seven times 2022 levels.
The report offers several suggestions for how that funding can be realized, including canceling debt; sending the Global South $100 billion a year in concessional finance, providing it with $200 billion a year in grants; and channeling money away from fossil fuels by taxing profits, shifting subsidies and investments from fossil fuel projects to renewables, taxing wealth, issuing more Special Drawing Rights from the IMF, and using existing infrastructure funds.
The report comes at a crucial time for climate action. This year, 2023, is likely to be the hottest year in 125,000 years, and the U.N. concluded this week that current pledges put the world on course for 2.9°C of warming beyond preindustrial levels. But 350.org argues it's not too late to limit warming with ambitious action.
"The Paris Agreement is the landmark multilateral framework to stop climate change, and COP28—which includes the Global Stocktake of whether the world is on track to meet this target—is a pivotal moment to achieve its intended goal: limiting global heating to no more than 1.5°C," the report authors said.
NJ Joins Growing List of States Phasing Out New Gasoline-Powered Cars
"The steps we take today to lower emissions will improve air quality and mitigate climate impacts for generations to come, all while increasing access to cleaner car choices," said Gov. Phil Murphy.
New Jersey on Tuesday joined eight other U.S. states in committing to phase out new gasoline-powered light-duty motor vehicles by 2035 as a key part of the fight against pollution and global heating—which is primarily caused by burning fossil fuels.
Democratic N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy and state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced that they're adopting the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) Rule—developed by California authorities to achieve 100% new zero-emission vehicle sales in 2035—"setting the state on the road toward better air quality and cleaner choices for new car buyers while combating the worsening climate crisis."
The phaseout—which won't begin for a few years—is seen as a major boost for electric vehicles (EVs) and clean power in the state.
As Murphy's office explained:
The rule will take effect starting in model year 2027, providing time for auto industry transition and continued development of charging infrastructure and a more robust and cleaner electrical grid in New Jersey. It does not ban gasoline cars, nor does it force consumers to buy EVs. Rather, the rule will provide certainty to vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, utilities, and charging infrastructure companies to make the long-term investments that will be crucial to large-scale deployment of light-duty [zero-emission vehicles] and consumer choice.
"The steps we take today to lower emissions will improve air quality and mitigate climate impacts for generations to come, all while increasing access to cleaner car choices," Murphy said in a statement. "Indeed, together with my administration's continuing investments in voluntary electric vehicle incentives, charging infrastructure, and the green economy, these new standards will preserve consumer choice and promote affordability for hardworking New Jerseyans across the state."
LaTourette said that "cleaner cars and trucks mean cleaner air for our children and families, because the tailpipes of our own vehicles are a leading cause of poor local air quality."
"As New Jersey transitions to a zero-emission vehicle future, we will improve our quality of life and public health," LaTourette added. "At the same time, we will reduce climate pollutants from the transportation sector, the greatest source of planet-warming pollution in New Jersey and the nation."
Local Democratic leaders, green groups, and climate campaigners welcomed Murphy's announcement.
"As Newark continuously moves toward a healthier and more economically successful community, we welcome the Advanced Clean Cars II Rule, knowing it will reduce emissions that degrade our environment and cause respiratory problems like asthma," Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said.
"As the largest automobile transportation hub and energy generation center in the state, Newark has much to gain through this rule, through greater investment into [zero-emission vehicles], more jobs for city residents, and more availability of these vehicles for motorists," he added.
"This is a huge win not only for the environment, but for public health and the communities who suffer every day from the pollution from congested roadways."
Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, called the adoption of ACCII "a historic and monumental step in our transition toward a cleaner transportation sector, and carbon and co-pollutant emission reductions."
"This is a huge win not only for the environment, but for public health and the communities who suffer every day from the pollution from congested roadways," she added.
While the New Jersey Business and Industry Association opposes the adoption of ACCII, Richard Lawton, executive director of the N.J. Sustainable Business Council, welcomed the move, asserting that "consumers and companies are experiencing firsthand how EVs are cleaner, technologically superior, and less costly to operate and maintain than internal combustion engines."
"By accelerating the growth of the EV market, ACCII will spur continued investment and innovation in the transition to a clean energy transportation sector," Lawton added. "Thanks to this decision, New Jersey can look forward to increased economic development, more good-paying jobs, and cleaner air."
New Jersey joins California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington state in committing to adopt the ACCII rule.
Meanwhile at the federal level, the Biden administration earlier this year proposed a rule aimed at ensuring that as many as two-thirds of all new light- and medium-duty passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032 are EVs.
A report published last year by the American Lung Association concluded that, in addition to slowing global heating, a nationwide transition to zero-emission vehicles and renewable electricity would bring $1.2 trillion in public health benefits to the United States over the next 30 years.