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Godfrey de Bouillon at the Siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade in 1099.
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Ugly American: Onward Christian Boot Camps, War Crimes, Rape

As a baleful Cabinet of Horrors coalesces, up next to run our vast military is "perfect Trump World monster" Pete Hegseth, a creepy, philandering, "inordinately unqualified" White Nationalist facing charges of drunken sexual assault. There's also his rabid Zionism, dodgy isolationism - a "globalist U.N" - zeal for war crimes and Christo-fascist call for a new "American crusade" against heathens, aka us: "God wills it." The goal: the launch of a Christian "educational insurgency" to take back America. Nothing to see here.

We didn't need it, but "more proof we live in Hell" came last week when Jack Smith moved to dismiss the two most brazen crimes by this country's most brazen criminal - the theft of both an election and a motherlode of classified documents. Smith acted "without prejudice" - rendering a legal return to the case possible if not improbable - thus preserving a long sorry line from Nixon/Watergate, Reagan/Iran-Contra, Bush/imaginary WMDs to Trump likely avoiding any consequences for his many appalling transgressions, at least in this life. Many are blaming a too-meek Merrick Garland for our latest "Mueller isn't coming" moment - his too little/ too late, his fear of appearing "partisan" or impolite when facing off against "a live grenade" - but we'd say it stems more deeply from the inviolability of our criminal master class, and of course a fascist-themed, Trump-rigged SCOTUS that protects them. (Thanks again, friggin' Susan Collins.)

Now gloatingly free of any accountability, he's lumbering ahead with his inept, corrupt Cabinet nominees, those loyal disruptors and bootlickers whose résumés of consequence-free bad behavior are enough as long as they bust things up once they get in power. Gaetz is gone, peddling tacky videos on Cameo; among the remaining cranks and clowns are RFK Jr., last seen on a podcast praising heroin as a study aid, and wrestling executive Linda McMahon, tapped to run the Dept. of Education until it's abolished. Along with her husband Vince, who has faced myriad earlier sexual misconduct allegations including rape and "depraved sexual demands," Linda is being sued by five adult sexual assault survivors who sayWWE allowed an announcer they knew was a pedophile - they'd fired him for it before rehiring him - to sexually groom, abuse and film them as children.

Still, Pete Hegseth could be the worst, with his Christian nationalist extremism and a "creeper vibe" so strong that even on the Fox set he was considered "a loose cannon," easy to provoke. An Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and former guard at Gitmo, he worked for a Koch bros' veterans' group but is otherwise entirely unqualified to lead a Defense Dept with three million service members and civilians and a $9-billion-plus budget - and that's without him being taken off duty for Biden's inaugural after his own National Guard unit called out his white supremacy tattoos, and his misogynist belief the Army's over 220,000 women soldiers in combat should go back to the kitchen. For one of them, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, that shows "his lack of understanding" of our military; no wonder, she adds, "There is already profound fear and anxiety among women in uniform.”

Bolstering her argument "this is not the kind of person you want to lead the Department of Defense" - never mind his X bio of "Christian, American, Husband, Father" - is his long tawdry history of infidelity with multiple wives and girlfriends."This guy's personal life is a total disaster," says a former RNC spokesman who calls his nomination "preposterous...He’s not qualified for the job and the judgment he’s shown privately leaves much to be desired." It was amidst some of that muck - Hegseth was getting divorced from his second wife after having a child with a co-worker who become his third wife - that he allegedly raped a woman during a 2017 encounter described in a graphic, 22-page, newly released police report from the city of Monterey, CA. Hegseth has denied the charge, but in 2020 he had the victim sign a nondisclosure agreement with a presumably hefty monetary settlement.

The incident happened the night of a GOP women's conference at a Hyatt Regency in Monterey. According to the police report, several women said a drunk Hegseth was putting his hand on their legs and asking them to come to his room; repelled by his "creeper vibe," one texted the victim "Jane Doe," 30, who works as an advocate, to see if she could help. Around 1 a.m., she confronted Hegseth near the pool about his behavior; they got into an argument loud enough hotel staff said they got multiple complaints, to which a "visibly intoxicated" Hegseth screamed he had "freedom of speech." Jane Doe, who police said was not drunk and "entirely coherent," apologized to the staff and tried to calm Hegseth. After they both joined other people at a nearby sports bar where Doe's memory got "fuzzy"; she believes someone drugged a drink she was handed there.

Later, she found herself in Hegseth's room. She told police when she tried to leave he grabbed her phone, blocked the door, stripped naked and sexually assaulted her as she kept saying "no." She recalled his dog tags hovering over her, his ejaculating on her stomach, his tossing her a rag to "clean it up." Days later, she went to a hospital for a sexual assault exam, and a nurse called police to report her claim; after their investigation, a report was sent to the A.G., but no charges were filed. Hegseth denied Doe's claims: He told police she wouldn't leave his room, he "didn't remember" much, but the sex was consensual; he did, though, admit that Doe showed "early signs of regret.” Afterwards, Doe said she suffered from nightmares and memory loss; after the election and Trump nominated Hegseth, one of her friends sent his team "a detailed memo" about the incident, but heard nothing back.

Of course most head-in-the-sand Republicans, in thrall to a legally adjudicated rapist and lifelong predator who's been accused of dozens of sexual assaults, don't want to hear about any more, thanks. They dismiss the slimy drunken Hegseth story as "allegations that distract us," arguing, "What we need is real, significant change in a Pentagon that's been more focused on pronouns (than) on lethality." (Whew.) Hegseth, in turn, has lied about the outcome, claiming he was "totally cleared," which he wasn't. Even at Fox News, some remain disturbed: In a pained rebuttal, Fox contributor and rape survivor Leslie Marshall cited, "with all due respect to my former colleague," the claim against him and his three documented cases of adultery, which she insisted are "relevant... You can’t lead an entire organization and all those people if you can’t lead by example."

Hegseth already had a long, sexist record: When Trump refused to apologize for his "grab-'em-by-the-pussy" atrocity, Hegseth praised him for rejecting "the rules of a game that's stacked against him - and all patriotic Americans." Even away from women, and despite an Ivy League education, he embraces a sort of universal vileness, happily playing the provocative barbarian willing to offend all. In a tackystunt on Fox, mindlessly seeking to stick it to the libs, he brought in his Harvard diploma, which he theatrically mutilated, crossing out "Harvard" to scrawl, "Critical Theory University." Like any good showman, he seems to relish an on-the-air, in-your-face format for his most incendiary moves, like a recent turn on a right-wing podcast where he urged creating a system of "classical Christian schools" to launch the underground army for an “educational insurgency” to win back the nation.

With Trump having kow-towed to evangelicals by promising tax breaks for Christian academies or home schooling to train kids to "courageously reflect a Biblical worldview in all aspects of their lives," Hegseth's concept of a "holy war" against godless heathens who disagree with him, introduced in a couple of his books, fits snugly into the MAGA agenda. Notably, if unsurprisingly, he uses military language to describe it. School choice is "great," he argues, but "phase 2 stuff for later on, once the foothold has been taken and the recruits have graduated boot camp." "We call it a tactical retreat, where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize," he says. "As you do, you build your army with the opportunity later of taking offensive operations in an overt way." He pauses, smirks at having said the quiet part out loud, adds, "Obviously, all this is metaphorical and all that good stuff," and laughs uproariously.

In his books - The War on Warriors, Battle for the American Mind, American Crusade - Hegseth repeatedly lays out a fervid, fascist, white nationalist fever dream wherein the American left, the dreaded "Marxists," are "the enemy within." "The radical left never stops moving and planning. They do not respect ceasefires, do not abide by the rules of warfare, and do not respect anything except total defeat of their enemy - and then total control." Using the rhetoric of war - "Now is not the time to retreat,” "we won’t miss this war," "a clarion call to charge with everything we have into the breach" - he proposes "a frontal assault" to reclaim the nation's military from a "woke" left in a "cold civil war" that is not just political. In the military, "The expectation is we will defend (the country) against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Not political opponents, but real enemies. (Yes, Marxists are our enemies).”

Decoding the paranoid, self-serving The War on Warriors, Joe Allen calls it "Pete Hegseth's Mein Kampf," "one long political rant" offering, just like Hitler and his orange descendant, "a contrived nightmarish vision of society, where true 'patriots' are persecuted by a twisted and evil political establishment." He decries Hegseth's "ugly and dangerous mind," muddled by Die Hard fantasies, which sees a fatally "woke" military that "believe power is bad, merit is unfair...white people are yesterday, and safety is better than risk-taking." The country, he raves, "needs patriotic, faith-filled, and brave young Americans, not diverse recruits pumped full of vaccines and even more poisonous ideologies...Busy killing Islamists in shithole countries - and then betrayed by our leaders - our warriors have every reason to let America’s dynasty fade away....Leftists stole a lot from us, but we won’t let them take this."

Trump proclaimed Hegseth would "return our military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability and excellence." His chosen fanatic vows to carry out those dubious tasks while removing officials not loyal enough to stay the despotic course, those losers who've embraced "gender equality, racial diversity, climate stupidity, vaccine worship, the LGBTQA+ alphabet soup in their recruiting," and the resulting "trannies from Brooklyn (and) lesbians from San Francisco" now serving their country. "We need to radically overhaul Pentagon leadership," he says. "Lots of people need to be fired." Also lots of international entities like an "anti-American, fully globalist UN" and a NATO that has "allowed itself to be invaded." "The defense of Europe is not our problem - been there, done that," he brays. "NATO is a relic that should be scrapped (for) freedom to be truly defended. This is what Trump is fighting for."

Also Israel, and God, in that order. Singularly bizarrely, Hegseth seems to frame US foreign policy almost entirely within the context of championing Israel (even more than we do now). “If you love America," he says in the true spirit of Christian fundamentalism dressed up as rabid Zionism, "you should love Israel." And if you love Israel, you must embark on "an American crusade" to protect it. His medieval crusader tattoos mean what we thought they meant - straight-up Christian nationalism, especially his “Deus vult,” Latin for "God wills it," a battle cry from the First Crusade. "Our present moment is much like the 11th century...We don’t want to fight, (but) we must," Hegseth rants. Christians "must pick up the sword of unapologetic Americanism and defend ourselves. Israel embodies the soul of our American crusade - the ‘why’ to our ‘what’. Faith, family, freedom, and free enterprise."

In 2019, Hegseth persuaded Trump to pardon several US soldiers charged or convicted of war crimes in Iraq, arguing that if our troops "make mistakes," they should "get the overwhelming benefit of the doubt." He continues to question the precepts of the Geneva Conventions, arguing that following certain civilized standards of war means "we are just fighting with one hand behind our back." What if, he asks, your enemy doesn't honor those same rules? What if, he muses, we treat them the way they treat us? "Hey, Al Qaeda: if you surrender, we will spare your life. If not, we will rip your arms off and feed them to hogs," he suggests in one book as an admirably unwoke way to move forward in warfare. “If we’re going to send our boys to fight we need to unleash them to win. To be the most ruthless. The most uncompromising. The most overwhelmingly lethal as they can be."

That same brutal ferocity, lest we forget, would logically then be utilized against Hegseth's real enemies, the "enemy within." Chillingly, he recalls serving in the National Guard in D.C. during Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd's murder; seething, he describes peaceful people of conscience set upon by tear gas and baton-wielding police as "violent professional agitators" and "armies of armed and violent left-wing extremists." "Most of us (in the Guard) wanted to fight back," he writes. "We could easily have pushed this line back, snatched the leaders or the loudest protesters in Antifa, and sucked them back behind the lines." He is back in war, where he wants to be. "If this engagement were to occur in Damarra or Kandahar,” he continues, "we would be home by breakfast.” Which presumably would be the ripped-off arms of possible Al Qaeda. Or not; it was always hard to tell.

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'Unacceptable': Campaigners Decry Climate Finance Failures as COP29 Enters Final Hours

As the clock winds down at the UN climate summit taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, green groups are sounding the alarm Thursday following the release of a draft climate finance deal that they say falls short of what's needed to support climate-vulnerable countries and adequately address the planetary crisis.

"The clock is ticking. COP29 is now down to the wire," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday, just a day before the two-week conference is set to conclude.

Finance has been a major focus of this year's summit. Under the 20125 Paris Agreement, countries are supposed to come up with a "new collective quantified goal"—or NCQG in COP jargon—that will govern how much money from rich countries will be transferred to developing countries in order to help the latter cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.

No equivalent climate finance arrangement has been agreed to before, though countries at the summit broadly agree that richer countries, who are responsible for much of historic CO2 emissions, should help poorer and more climate-vulnerable nations deal with natural disasters and their transition to green energy.

The draft text that dropped early Thursday, however, was received poorly.

Oxfam International's climate justice lead, Safa’ Al Jayoussi, said "COP29 must do more than simply repeat the same threadbare promises. Rich countries have spent decades now stalling and blocking genuine progress on climate finance. This has left the Global South suffering the most catastrophic consequences of a climate crisis they did not create. The draft text scandalously misses the crucial element of declaring a clear public commitment to a new climate finance goal."

Instead of specifying how much annually should be funneled towards developing countries via climate finance, the NCQG draft text displayed "X" in place of any actual figures or monetary commitments.

Oscar Soria, a director at the Common Initiative think tank, told the Guardian: "The negotiating placeholder 'X' for climate finance is a testament of the ineptitude from rich nations and emerging economies that are failing to find a workable solution for everyone."

"By the end of the UN climate talks, we must see at least a trillion dollars in public finance on the table," added Andreas Sieber, 350.org associate director of policy and campaigns. Economists told the summit attendees last week that developing countries need at least $1 trillion annually by 2030 to deal with climate change.

A specific and shared concern from campaigners was the draft text's inclusion of carbon market schemes as a way "to scale up" climate finance. While the draft promotes "high-integrity voluntary carbon markets" and other "instruments that mobilize new sources of climate finance and private finance" as part of the equation, critics have long warned that these market-based approaches are nothing but false solutions designed to benefit corporate investors, wealthier nations, and the fossil fuel industry itself.

"Labelling carbon credits as climate finance—which they are unreservedly not—should be axed from the text or risk creating a dangerous escape route for polluters. The same goes for explicitly allowing investments in fossil fuel infrastructure. This is fundamentally incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement," said Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International's global public finance manager, in response to the draft text.

While Article 6 of the Paris Agreement allows for the international transfer of carbon credits, groups warned the changes in the COP29 draft would dramatically strengthen the foothold of such schemes.

"Shockingly, COP29 is set to agree to carbon markets that are even worse than the voluntary carbon markets," said Kirtana Chandrasekaran, a climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth International. "We know these markets have failed. They are riddled with fraud and they do not reduce emissions or provide finance. Communities everywhere and, in fact, the planet itself is on the line."

Without addressing these concerns, advocates of a meaningful deal at the conference say COP29 is headed for failure.

As 350.org's Sieber argued, paying the "historic debt that rich countries owe will enable all nations to take action on climate at home and meet the collective goal agreed last year at COP28—to triple renewable energy, and transition away from fossil fuels. Right now, we only see cowardice and a void in leadership, ignoring the undeniable science that we can't keep polluting our planet with dirty oil, gas and coal."

"The time to course correct is now—the European Union and other rich countries must stop playing poker with the planet and humankind's future at stake," Sieber added. "It's time to put their cards on the table and commit real, transformative funding—no more excuses, no more delays, it's time."

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Low-Wage Workers to Democratic Leaders: Fight for Us or Face 'Consequences'

With Democratic leaders grappling with how to move forward following this month's devastating electoral losses and governors in the party moving to resist President-elect Donald Trump's policies, low-wage workers are planning on Wednesday to send a clear message to several Democrat-led statehouses: Prioritize workers and fair wages, or "face the consequences."

The national economic justice group One Fair Wage, which works closely with restaurant industry and other service workers, is organizing direct actions in Detroit, New York, and Springfield, Illinois, demanding that Democratic leaders in blue states "act decisively" to protect working people from Trump's anti-regulation, pro-corporate agenda.

The group said tipped service workers, advocates, and labor leaders will take part in the actions, in which participants will deliver an open letter calling for the passage of legislation to raise the minimum wage and eliminate subminimum wages.

"Workers in blue states are raising their voices because they cannot afford to wait any longer," said Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and president of One Fair Wage. "With a cost-of-living crisis squeezing families and an anti-worker Trump administration on the horizon, Democratic leaders must act boldly to protect workers and provide economic security. If they fail to prioritize wages and worker protections, they risk losing the trust—and the votes—of the very people they need to win."

The actions come after preliminary demographic data from the election showed working-class voters from a variety of racial backgrounds swung toward Trump. Two-thirds of Trump voters said they had to cut back on groceries because of high prices, according to a New York Times/Siena College survey, compared to only a third of people who supported Vice President Kamala Harris. Latino-majority counties shifted toward the Republican former president by 13 percentage points, and Black-majority counties did the same by about three points.

"Last week's electoral results made one thing clear: Voters overwhelmingly prioritize wages and affordability."

"Last week's electoral results made one thing clear: Voters overwhelmingly prioritize wages and affordability," said Jayaraman.

The actions were planned amid reports that U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, a key adviser to former President Barack Obama, is among those considering a run for chair of the Democratic National Committee—a plan that one former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said seemed aimed at ensuring "the Democratic Party continues to lose working-class voters." Other possible contendersinclude former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and, reportedly, progressive Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler.

One Fair Wage said that following Democratic losses across the country, and with Republicans set to take control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in January, Democratic leaders at the state level must "act boldly on behalf of working families."

In Michigan, workers will call on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to uphold the state Supreme Court's decision to raise the minimum wage and eliminate subminimum wages for tipped workers.

At the Illinois state Capitol, advocates plan to push for statewide legislation to extend fair wages for all workers, building on Chicago's minimum wage reforms.

In New York, One Fair Wage will lead the call for Gov. Kathy Hochul to "safeguard tipped and immigrant workers from the looming anti-worker policies of the incoming Trump administration."

The workers and supporters will deliver their demands to state lawmakers as well as hold "solidarity turkey giveaways for struggling families let down by elected officials."

Since the election, some Democratic governors have pledged to resist Trump's far-right agenda. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special legislative session aimed at "Trump-proofing" the state by finalizing climate measures and protecting reproductive and other kinds of healthcare. Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado announced a coalition that will resist Trump's deportation plan and reinforce key state institutions.

The governors' plans have not specifically mentioned efforts to protect workers from Trump's policies. The president-elect attempted to pass regulations that would make tips the property of employers during his last term, and the National Restaurant Association has pledged to revive such efforts in the next four years.

"There's a glaring omission in these efforts: low-wage and tipped workers," Angelo Greco, a political strategist working with One Fair Wage, told Common Dreams. "When Democrats say they will fight for the most vulnerable, who exactly does that include if not the people earning the lowest wages and facing the greatest economic instability?"

"Tipped workers—many of whom are women, people of color, and immigrants—continue to be paid below the minimum wage in a system rooted in the legacy of slavery," Greco added. "They face Trump's imminent rollback of Biden-era workplace protections, and now restaurant workers are on the front lines of his anti-labor rampage. If governors truly want to protect workers, they must include tipped workers in their efforts."

Jayaraman called on Democrats to "act now to protect workers and show that they are fighting for the people who need them most. Ignoring these demands will lead to alienated voters and further political losses."

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'Pathetic': France Says It Will Not Enforce ICC Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu

A day after French Prime Minister Michel Barnier told Parliament that the government would fulfill its obligations as a state party to the Rome Statute and uphold the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, the country's Foreign Ministry announced it would not detain the two officials if they set foot in France.

The Foreign Ministry claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have "immunities" because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statue and doesn't recognize the authority of the ICC.

"Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other ministers concerned and will have to be taken into account if the ICC were to ask us to arrest and surrender," said the ministry.

The ICC issued the warrants on November 21, saying it had found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Netanyahu and Gallant have intentionally deprived civilians in Gaza of food, water, medicine, and other essentials since Israel began its bombardment of the enclave in October 2023 and its near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has accused Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Article 27 of the Rome Statute states that all people subject to arrest warrants are equal before the ICC, including heads of state.

Article 98 has been invoked as a "loophole" by state parties in the past when governments have refused to arrest other leaders whose countries do not recognize the ICC; it states that the court can't request the arrest of a non-ICC official if the arrest would require an ICC member to violate its international law obligations on immunity.

But the ICC rejected Jordan's Article 98 claim when it refused to arrest former Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir in 2017 and Mongolia's when it refused to turn over Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year.

"No international court has ever found that a head of state or high ranking individual has immunity before it, and Article 27 was meant to codify that principle," said Leila Sadat, former ICC special advisor on crimes against humanity, told Middle East Eye.

Former HRW executive director Kenneth Roth suggested the ICC should reject France's claim that Netanyahu has immunity, asking if French President Emmanuel Macron would also allow Bashir or Burmese army general Min Aung Hlang to walk free.

"So they will apply this to Putin as well?" added political analyst Yousef Munayyer.

The Middle East Monitorreported that France's statement on Wednesday came after a phone call between Netanyahu and Macron following the ICC's announcement last week.

RMC Radio reported that Macron told the Israeli prime minister that France "would uphold international law and noted that judges could grant immunity to heads of state."

Amichai Stein of the Israeli public broadcasting network KANN reported that senior U.S. and Israeli officials pressured France to make the statement on Wednesday, saying Macron's government would not take a leading role in Tuesday's Israel-Lebanon cease-fire deal unless France asserted it would not arrest Netanyahu and Gallant.

Matt Duss of the Center for International Policy called France's announcement "pathetic" and urged "more legal sanctions against Netanyahu and other ministers as quickly as possible," noting that the ICC warrants "apparently worked as leverage" to secure the cease-fire.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said immediately after the ICC warrants were announced that "decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute, which includes all E.U. Member States."

But as HRW noted, along with France's announcement on Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to Hungary and has said he wouldn't face arrest there, even though the country is a party to the Rome Statute.

"Ensuring the ICC has the ability to implement arrest warrants will require defending the court against external pressure and coercive measures. That means that right now E.U. support for arrests should include preparedness to adopt measures to protect the court from possible U.S. sanctions," wrote Alice Autin of HRW's Communications and International Justice Program.

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Black Friday Actions in 30+ Countries Aim to 'Make Amazon Pay'

Amazon workers and their allies are participating in a series of global actions aimed at holding the online retailer "accountable for labor abuses, environmental degradation, and threats to democracy," according to the labor group UNI Global Union.

Dubbed "Make Amazon Pay," the campaign is set to last from November 29 to December 2 and will include strikes and protests across six continents, according to the group—and is timed to disrupt Black Friday (or "Make Amazon Pay Day") and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest online shopping days of the year.

"When we announced our intention to protest today, our management attempted to stop us in multiple ways. We want to say to Amazon—you could not stop us today, you cannot stop us in the future," said the general secretary of the Amazon India Workers Union during a demonstration held in India on Friday.

Make Amazon Pay Day was launched in 2020 by UNI Global Union and the left-leaning movement group Progressive International. It has expanded each subsequent year, say organizers, and today the coalition behind Make Amazon Pay Day brings together a wide range of groups, including climate, racial, and economic justice organizations.

According to Progressive International, actions taking place as part of the campaign include but are not limited to: strikes at multiple warehouses in Germany; direct actions in French towns and cities led by the justice group Attac; a rally in India by Amazon workers over unsafe working conditions; and a protest by trade unionists at an Amazon call center. All told, actions are supposed to take place in over 30 countries.

"This fight is global. Every picket, every strike, every action of solidarity matters. Another world is possible, and we are building that world one strike, one conversation at a time. Together, we are unstoppable," said Christy Hoffman, UNI Global Union's general secretary, on Friday while speaking to striking workers in Germany.

The campaign alleges that Amazon "squeezes" workers, communities, and the planet. For example, "while tripling profits in early 2024, Amazon surveils and pressures drivers and warehouse workers at the risk of severe physical and mental harm," according to campaign materials.

Responding to the campaign, an Amazon U.S. spokesperson told Newsweek: "The fact is at Amazon we provide great pay, great benefits, and great opportunities—all from day one. We've created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world, and counting, and we provide a modern, safe, and engaging workplace whether you work in an office or at one of our operations buildings."

Online, progressive political figures lent their support to the effort.

"Today, I stand with Amazon workers in over 30 countries around the world striking and protesting to #MakeAmazonPay," wrote Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the British Labour Party.

"While billionaire Bezos tours the world on his $500m yacht, Amazon workers in 20+ countries are rising up this Black Friday to demand fair wages, union rights, and climate action. Amazon must pay its fair share and respect workers. I stand with #MakeAmazonPay," chimed in U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on X.

Following the inaugural Make Amazon Pay campaign in 2020, hundreds of lawmakers from dozens of countries endorsed the effort with an open letter to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

"The world knows that Amazon can afford to pay its workers, its environmental cost, and its taxes. And yet—time and again—you have dodged and dismissed your debts to workers, societies, and the planet," the letter alleged. U.S. signatories included Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).

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'Heartbreakingly Devastating': US Reportedly Plans to Approve $680 Million in Arms to Israel

Just hours after a cease-fire between the Israeli government and Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect, the Financial Times revealed that "U.S. President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel," which has also spent the past nearly 14 months decimating the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the British newspaper reported that "U.S. officials recently briefed Congress on the plan to provide thousands of additional joint direct attack munition kits to Israel, known as JDAMS, as well as hundreds of small-diameter bombs."

The Biden administration's decision to advance the sale was subsequently confirmed by Reuters, which reported that "the package has been in the works for several months. It was first brought to the congressional committees in September then submitted for review in October."

Human rights advocates critical of Israel's assaults on Lebanon and Gaza—which has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—responded with alarm to the new reporting.

"If these reports are true, it's heartbreakingly devastating news," said Amnesty International USA. "These are the weapons that our research has shown were used to wipe out entire families, without any discernable military objective."

Amnesty highlighted a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel. Although they failed to pass the Senate last week, the group was among several that noted over the course of three votes, 17, 18, and 19 senators supported halting weapons sales, "sending a clear signal that U.S. policy must change."

"Yet, the Biden administration seems to be ready and willing to keep piling more and more, despite Gaza descending into what President Biden just yesterday described as 'hell,'" Amnesty added Wednesday. "Sending more weapons that have been used to maim and kill with impunity doesn't just put in jeopardy Palestinian lives and the elusive cease-fire the president is seeking, but also President Biden's own legacy."

The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project declared Wednesday that "President Biden is spending the final days of his presidency going against the will of most Americans, U.S. law, and international law."

"The weapons included in this package have been used by Israel in numerous apparent war crimes," the organization noted. "On July 13, 2024, Israel attacked a so-called 'safe zone' in al-Mawasi, in which internally displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds more. A CNN investigation found that Israel carried out this attack with at least one JDAM."

John Ramming Chappell, an adviser on legal and policy issues at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, similarly stressed that "these are the very same weapons that for months Israeli forces have used to kill Palestinian civilians and violate international humanitarian law."

"Continuing arms transfers risks making the United States and US officials complicit in war crimes," he said. "These arms sales are unlawful as a matter of both U.S. and international law. They are immoral. The congressional committees of jurisdiction can and must place a hold on the sales."

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, pointed out that "aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity is itself a crime for which U.S. officials may (and should) face prosecution at the ICC."

Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, though Palestine is. Both the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump's pick for national security adviser have attacked the warrants for Israeli leaders.

In a speech to Israelis on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that one of the reasons for the cease-fire in Lebanon "is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission."

According to the Financial Times:

U.S. officials have denied there is any explicit link between the cease-fire deal and approval for the latest weapons delivery. While the cease-fire deal includes a so-called side letter from the U.S. to Israel, setting out Washington's support for a certain freedom of Israeli action, people familiar with the text said it included no guarantees of weapon sales.

U.S. officials also deny that there have been deliberate delays to weapons shipments, aside from shipments of 2,000-pound bombs, which Biden paused earlier this year over concerns about their use in densely populated areas of Gaza.

The Times of Israelreported that Biden's State Department declined to confirm the advancement of the package but said that U.S. support for Israel in the face of Iran-backed threats is "unwavering" and all weapon transfers are carried out in line with federal law.

"We have made clear that Israel must comply with international humanitarian law, has a moral obligation and strategic imperative to protect civilians, investigate allegations of any wrongdoing, and ensure accountability for any abuses or violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law," the State Department said.

As of Wednesday, officials in Gaza said the death toll had hit at least 44,282 Palestinians with another 104,880 people injured.

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