A Circle Of Certain Death: Don't Be Afraid, Stand Next To Me
Unimaginably, Israel's campaign of genocide and elimination escalates, with up to 800 Palestinians killed in 17 days "in full view of the world." Amidst relentless bombardment, displacement, starvation, trauma and shelling so incessant their "bodies don't stop trembling," Gazans recount apocalyptic scenes: limbs and corpses in the streets, body parts "hanging on the walls," children shot filling water jugs, hundreds trapped in homes and hospitals without power, water, food, aid: "All that’s left is the will to breathe."
Surely emboldened by the unceasing flow of arms and blood money from a complicit U.S., and an accompanying silence from much of the world, Israel has undertaken a series of massacres in central and northern Gaza - Nuseirat, Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun - where an estimated 100,000 Palestinians are trapped without food, water or "any illusion of safety." In Beit Lahiya, Israel flattened a crowded five-storey residential building in a "horrifying" attack that killed 93 displaced Palestinians, including at least 20 children. Nabil Al-Khatib, 57, and his family were sheltering in a UNRWA school until Israel began bombing it. Flying shrapnel wounded eight of his children and grandchildren before they could flee during a brief lull. "We picked up the children and ran,” he said. "We left everything behind, our lives as we knew them. But we had each other." He saw others who "have already lost everything - their homes, families, limbs...The horrors we have lived are indescribable. Even mountains cannot hold it."
Survivors describe "a nightmare beyond comprehension," with savage air strikes "vaporizing" victims, corpses crushed under rubble, limbs torn off, people bleeding out on the street from lack of aid. A poet in exile mourned his 7-year-old cousin and 18 trapped members of his family killed in a strike; the day before, he said, "I told everyone tanks and soldiers were besieging them, but no one heard." Often, IDF soldiers invade homes or shelters, evict residents, and set fire to what's left so they cannot return. Despite "catastrophic" conditions, Palestinian civil defense forces have had to suspend operations in the wake of attacks on its teams: "Our work has completely stopped." And while Israel claims it allows civilians to flee south "in a safe manner and through organized routes," the Palestinian Authority says survivors face a far grimmer choice. "The Occupation army is forcing residents to either flee under bombardment, or (stay to) face being killed by a strike "in what resembles a circle of certain death."
Injured young man hugs body of child killed in Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp(Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Israeli military leaders' bloody new assault reportedly followed political leaders' approval of an extremist "General's Plan," which entails an ever-more barbarous approach to ethnic cleansing. Among its goals aimed at "changing the doctrine of war" are calls to "move from the concept of deterrence to decisiveness," hiring more "offensive" officers, and focusing on "a clear (if delusional) victory against the enemy." En route, it is hoped, "All of Gaza will starve." And so it is. On Oct. 28, in "a new way to kill children," the Knesset passed a bill banning the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the key source of humanitarian aid for 2.9 million people in some 30 refugee camps. The move to ban UNRWA, which runs 147 medical facilities and schools for 660,000 children along with providing vital food and water, came after months of Israeli efforts to discredit the group's work by charging several employees - 230 of whom Israel has murdered - with taking part in Oct. 7 attacks - a claim both the UN and EU refute for lack of evidence.
Still, after a year of blocking over 80% of humanitarian aid at every turn while denying it was - and with Gazans getting about 10% of the food they need - Israel's latest move, critics say, has hastened "the collapse of the humanitarian system." With their incursions in the north virtually blocking most access to food and water, aid agencies say almost all Gazans face "punishing food scarcity." Most are lucky to eat one skimpy meal a day, nine of 10 children lack the nutrition they need to grow, babies born healthy too often die when their ill-nourished mothers can't breastfeed, about 50,000 children under five need or will soon need urgent treatment for malnutrition, fuel shortages and high prices have caused a “crippling" lack of vital bread, and at least 37 children are dead of malnutrition. "There is nothing," says Oxfam's Mahmoud Alsaqqa, "You are talking about tens of days that they are not receiving any supplies." Says another worker, "In essence, if people don’t die from the war, they face the very real threat of dying from hunger.”
Most harrowingly, hunger, like bombs, hits mostly children. Over 16,700 children have died in Israeli air strikes, including at least 710 babies under 1, their ages listed as "zero"; many thousands more have been maimed and wounded. One aid worker mourns "an entire generation sacrificed," and warns those children who have survived to date "are running out of time." Most distressingly - at least to those who retain the moral clarity to insist that, no matter what, you don't kill children - "Kids aren't terrorists." Many warn that the war risks becoming, for a generation of occupied, traumatized, parentless, understandably enraged Palestinians, a "terrorism-creation factory" for decades to come. Bilal Salem, a photojournalist documenting the carnage in Gaza, breaks down when he describes the way children "cling to their parents, desperate for protection their parents can’t give." “We move through the ruins like ghosts, trying to capture what’s left of people’s lives," he says, "but the truth is, there’s not much left.”
Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attack mourn at al-Awda Hospital (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, after a year of Israel systematically targeting and crippling Gaza’s health system - one war crime among many - most of its 36 hospitals are barely functional, leaving hundreds of thousands of war victims without care. According to data from Gaza's Health Ministry, Israeli forces have killed 1,151 Palestinian health workers, including at least 165 doctors, 260 nurses, 300 support personnel, 184 health associates and 76 pharmacists. More than 300 health workers have been detained, and at least two prominent doctors have died under torture in Israeli custody. Most recently, Médecins Sans Frontières staffer Hasan Suboh was among those killed in one of Israel's attacks on homes in the north; his tattered MSF vest was found under the rubble. "To see it destroyed," said MSF in a statement, "is representative of how in this war, Israel, the U.S. government, and the rest of Israel's allies have disregarded the protection of healthcare workers, and ripped the rules of war to shreds."
The ongoing attacks in northern Gaza have left already frayed hospitals yet more overwhelmed, and literally besieged. Israeli forces have barred the World Health Organization from delivering supplies or evacuating patients, even as they've attacked those trapped inside. At Kamal Adwan Hospital, surgeon Dr Mohammed Obeid says at least 30 people are dead; another 130 patients need urgent care: “There is death in all types and forms. The bombardment does not stop. The artillery does not stop. The planes do not stop.” Dr. Mohammed Salha, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, says about 180 people - staff, patients, displaced families - are trapped inside as Israeli tanks stand guard and missiles bombard the area. Earlier, forces shelled the hospital's upper floors, killing or wounding over 40 patients and staff; the bombs set off a fire at a nearby school that took out the hospital's power. Israel ordered doctors to evacuate; they refused. “We are just waiting for death to come," said Obeid. "Or a miracle."
Boy injured in Israeli attack on Jabalia Refugee Camp is treated at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital (Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Amidst the vast devastation of Israel's genocide, survivors are often left with not just rage and sorrow, but a powerful desire to honor those lost to them, to insist on their humanity and tell their stories so "their deaths are recorded for posterity." Thus did Dr. Areej Hijazi, a Gaza obstetrician, write moving obituaries for three colleagues he studied with at Al-Azhar University whose deaths reflect the grievous depth and breadth of his community's losses. "These three dedicated physicians have been taken from us," he writes. "But their memories are alive in our hearts, and their work will continue to inspire us." Dr. Inas Mahmoud Yousef, 29, was a family doctor, mother to 3-year-old son Hassan, and pregnant with her second child when an Israeli missile hit her home last October. It killed her, Hassan, her unborn child; it also killed her husband’s parents, his brother, his wife and their two children. The only survivor was Inas’ husband, Dr. Ali al-Nweiry, an orthopedic surgeon; he had a spinal cord injury and is now a paraplegic.
Dr. Maisara Alrayyes, 28, was a member of Médecins du Monde, with a master’s degree in women's and children’s health from King’s College London. He was killed in a November airstrike with 11 relatives, including his parents and his wife, pregnant with their first child. The next day, Dr. Maisara’s two brothers couldn’t bear to leave their family under the rubble, and went to retrieve the bodies; another Israeli missile killed them. Finally, Dr. Nahed al-Harazin was head of obstetrics and gynecology at Al-Shifa Hospital. She was killed last December in an Israeli attack, along with her mother, two brothers, and their wives and children. Dr. Nahed and her family had refused Israeli orders to evacuate; she was so devoted to work that, during bombings, she'd sometimes walk the four kilometers to Al-Shifa if she had to. Once, Hijazi recalled, she reassured him when there was heavy shelling near Al-Shifa. "Don't be afriad," she told him. "Stand here next to me." "Mark the silence," writes poet Emily De Ferrari. "Mark the scream."
Body of Palestnian killed in Israeli attack on Jabalia lies in street(Photo by Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)
'Frightening': Over 1 in 3 of World's Tree Species Face Extinction
More than one-third of Earth's tree species are at risk of extinction, with logging, forest destruction for agriculture and urban development, and human-caused global heating most responsible for this "frightening" development that threatens life as we know it, according to a report published Monday.
The 2024 Global Tree Assessment—released at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia and published as part of this year's International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) "Red List" of threatened species—warns that more than 16,000 of the 47,000 tree species analyzed in the report are at risk of extinction.
The report blames deforestation and catastrophic global heating, caused by human burning of fossil fuels, as the main drivers of tree extinction. More than 5,000 tree species on the IUCN Red List are felled for construction timber, while 2,000 species are used for fuel, food, and medicines.
According to the report:
Trees now account for over one-quarter of species on the IUCN Red List, and the number of threatened trees is more than double the number of all threatened birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians combined. Tree species are at risk of extinction in 192 countries around the world...
The highest proportion of threatened trees is found on islands. Island trees are at particularly high risk due to deforestation for urban development and agriculture at all scales, as well as invasive species, pests, and diseases. Climate change is increasingly threatening trees, especially in the tropics, through sea-level rise and stronger, more frequent storms.
"Trees are essential to support life on Earth through their vital role in ecosystems, and millions of people depend upon them for their lives and livelihoods," IUCN director-general Grethel Aguilar said in a statement. "As the IUCN Red List celebrates 60 years of impact, this assessment highlights its importance as a barometer of life, but also, crucially, as a unique tool guiding action to reverse the decline of nature."
Climate, environmental, and biodiversity defenders pointed to the new report with alarm.
"The significance of the Global Tree Assessment cannot be overstated, given the importance of trees to ecosystems and people," said Eimear Nic Lughadha, senior research leader in conservation assessment and analysis at the U.K. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. "We hope this frightening statistic of 1 in 3 trees facing extinction will incentivize urgent action and be used to inform conservation plans."
Fran Price, the Worldwide Fund for Nature's forest practice lead, said in a statement that "IUCN's Global Tree Assessment paints a shocking picture of the state of the world's trees."
"Trees are invaluable allies in tackling climate change and a critical foundation of our natural world," Price added. "The report is an eye-opening reminder that current efforts are falling short in safeguarding these vital natural assets. It's time to take stronger action against illegal logging and trade and enact stronger laws that protect our trees."
David Hole, an IUCN-U.S. board member and Conservation International scientist, asserted that "trees directly underpin the survival of a staggering array of species—including us."
"This latest IUCN update is flashing a warning light that those green giants need more of our attention and support the world over," he continued. "Thriving, naturally diverse forests are essential in mitigating both climate change and biodiversity loss. Not only do they store more carbon, they are also more resilient to natural and human-driven threats."
"We know what we have to do," Hole added. "We need to provide real and effective protection for tree species across the globe—particularly those that are imminently threatened. And we must do that in ways that support local people and communities, and doesn't cut them off from what is often a critical resource."
There is hope: Besides cutting carbon emissions and combating deforestation, Hole pointed to the "enormous untapped potential" of restoring native trees in previously degraded agricultural lands.
"Not only could we store more carbon, we could also enhance food security, support biodiversity, and increase agricultural systems' resilience to the myriad pressures that climate change is increasingly placing them under," he said. "These are the types of innovative approaches that can make a big positive difference—and it is vital we start implementing them at scale."
Maine Nonprofit Cancels $1.9 Million in Medical Debt for 1,500 People
Mainers For Working Families, an advocacy group, announced on Thursday that it had partnered with a larger nonprofit to relieve $1.85 million worth of medical debt for 1,508 low-income people who live in Maine.
MFWF furnished a donation of $12,740 to Undue Medical Debt, a 501(c)(3) group formed by former collections executives, which bought the $1.85 million in debts; such debt is sold at pennies on the dollar.
The recipients, spread all over Maine, were people who live four times below the Federal Poverty Level or for whom medical debt totals more than 5% of their annual income.
"We can't turn back the clock for these people, but we had to do something," Evan LeBrun, MFWF's executive director, said in a statement.
"This is just a drop in the bucket," he added. "Now, it's up to our lawmakers to make healthcare affordable for everyone in our state and to eliminate medical debt."
BREAKING: Mainers for Working Families is partnering with @unduemeddebt to purchase and forgive $1.8 million in medical debt for over 1,500 Mainers across the state. pic.twitter.com/gkf4QELoiA
— Mainers For Working Families (@ForMainers) October 24, 2024
MFWF has worked on healthcare affordability issues since 2021 and medical debt since last year, a representative told Common Dreams. The group recently released a series of videos on the topic based on interviews conducted around Maine.
Undue Medical Debt formed in 2014 following inspiration from debt cancellation projects undertaken by Occupy Wall Street participants, including activist-intellectuals such as Astra Taylor and David Graeber. The nonprofit, which drew donor attention after it was featured by comedian John Oliver on his HBO show in 2016, has now canceled nearly $15 billion in medical debt, according to its website. Oliver himself made a contribution to the group, which was previously known as R.I.P. Medical Debt.
Nationwide, nearly 100 million people are dealing with unpaid medical bills, according to federal data.
The push for change in the field of medical debt has yielded a series of small victories. Last year, the three major consumer report agencies—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—stopped including medical debts below $500 on their credit reports, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In June, the CFPB moved to ban all medical debt from credit reports, drawing praise from progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has pushed medical debt cancellation in her current role and pledged, as part of her economic agenda, to work with states to states to cancel more debt if she wins in November.
A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April called into question the premise of Undue's work, finding that recipients of debt relief had no better credit scores or mental health than a control group. A co-author said the results had "disappointed" the researchers.
However, research has shown strong benefits to other forms of debt relief, and a 2023 survey conducted by Undue and other groups did show that medical debt negatively affected mental health for most people and caused 42% to delay further medical care.
Medical debt disproportionately affects people who are poor, Black, or disabled, according to Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. About 3 million Americans have more than $10,000 in medical debt.
One is a woman named Kim, a resident of Old Town, Maine, whom MFWF interviewed in a recent video. She lives off of $26,200 per year and has roughly $2 million in debt, thanks to her fight with Addison's disease, a chronic endocrine disorder.
"I am really hoping that someone sees what is actually happening out there," she said. "God, I hope so."
Efforts to address the issue at the Maine state level have achieved mixed success. A modest reform bill that prevents debt accrual on medical debt did pass in Augusta in April.
Ad Featuring Orgasm, Broken Condom, and Plan B Shows How MAGA Is Bad For Men, Too
With just five days until the U.S. elections, Democrats are continuing to highlight another presidential term for Republican nominee Donald Trump as a grave danger for women, as the nation learns about a growing number of women who have died because of abortion bans and voters in 10 states make their voices heard on proposed measures to protect abortion rights.
But a provocative ad that went viral on social media Thursday makes the case that men should be worried about letting the far-right MAGA movement take control of the White House and Congress, too.
The ad, by the Democratic political action committee Progress Action Fund, opens with a young man and woman having sex.
Just afterward, the man says he's realized the condom he was using broke.
"Oh, I have Plan B in the bathroom," replies the woman, referring to the emergency contraception pill approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999.
Her partner offers to get the pill, but makes another troubling realization as soon as he closes the medicine cabinet.
"Sorry," says a balding man who's appeared in the bathroom. "You can't use that... I'm your Republican congressman. Now that we're in charge, we banned Plan B."
"No, you can't do this," pleads the young man. "I can't have a kid right now!"
But the lawmaker explains that since he won the last election, whether or not the young couple has a child is no longer their decision.
"It's my decision," he says. "Now let's get back in there so we can give her the news... Daddy."
The nonprofit progressive advocacy group DemCast said the ad was one "every man in America" needs to see.
"The only way to guarantee our right to privacy is to vote for Democrats," said the group. "They have no interest in forcing guys to be dads before they are ready."
The production company Eleven Films said the ad provides a new perspective on the idea that "MAGA wants to control everything about you. Including when you can have a baby."
"Yeah, bro," said the organization. "Even you."
Nick Knudsen, co-founder and executive director of DemCast, said that the ad, "when tested, moves under-30-men by 2+ points away from Donald Trump."
Common Dreams was unable to independently verify the claim as of this writing.
Political action committee Defend the Vote said it had partnered with Progress Action Fund to air the ad in battleground states.
"There are only a few days left in the election," said the group. "Get out and vote to protect your freedoms!"
Democratic strategist Alicia Strohl Resnicoff said the ad and its reminder that the Republican Party aims to attack reproductive freedom, including the right to abortion care as well as contraception, "is the scariest thing you see today."
The ad was originally released on YouTube in mid-October, four months after Republicans in the Senate blocked consideration of the Right to Contraception Act. In 2022, when the right-majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should also review the precedent set by Griswold v. Connecticut, which affirmed in 1965 that couples have the right to use contraceptives.
Progress Action Fund has produced a number of ads exposing Republicans' plans to invade the privacy of people across the U.S. Last week the group posted one featuring the same "Republican congressman," who appears in a man's bedroom and snatches his phone out of his hands to stop him from watching a pornographic video. Project 2025, the far-right agenda that was co-authored by at least 140 of people from Trump's presidential term, proposes a nationwide ban on pornography.
"Creepy Republicans want control of your bedroom," said Eleven Films on Thursday. "Don't let MAGA in your sheets."
'No Democracy Without Press Freedom': Journalism Crisis Found in Key Swing States
Known for its World Press Freedom Index, the global advocacy group Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday turned its attention to four U.S. states that are expected to be crucial in deciding the winner of the presidential election next week—and found that journalism is grappling with numerous crises in states where voters are especially reliant on the media in the last days of the campaign.
The group, also known by its French name, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), focused on Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Nevada in the report, titled Press Freedom in the Swing States: The Climate for U.S. Journalism Ahead of the 2024 Election, and found that journalists they surveyed were concerned about hostility from local and state officials as well as the "economic viability" of local newsrooms and individual reporters.
"There can be no democracy without press freedom, so it's critically important to understand the issues confronting the news media in the places that are most pivotal in American presidential elections," said Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF USA.
Across the swing states, 94% of respondents said they have found that public officials ignore public records requests or stall in providing records, making reporting difficult and robbing news consumers of information. Arizona officials were found to be the most "egregious offenders," and the state had the lowest overall political score in the report.
The report comes days after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said at a rally in Arizona that the press is "the enemy of the people"—recycling comments he frequently made during his presidential term.
Eighty-five percent of journalists in Arizona reported that "leading politicians and political party leaders explicitly insult, threaten, or incite hatred against journalists" and "act in an antagonistic manner towards the media."
"The hostile political environment for the press exacerbates the economic pressures facing media outlets."
But Arizona was one of the swing states surveyed that has made an effort to protect journalistic sources, through a shield law that ensures reporters can protect their sources' identities; the Arizona Media Subpoena Law, which restricts subpoenas against journalists; and a recently strengthened anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) law, which now protects free speech and press freedom.
The same cannot be said for Florida, which does not have a shield law and has only a "vaguely worded" anti-SLAPP measure.
Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida's government has become increasingly hostile to journalists, with DeSantis championing bills to make it easier to sue media outlets.
"The state is withholding public records about the governor's travel," said an anonymous news director interviewed by RSF. "Violent threats to journalists from the public is a weekly regularity."
The report points to attacks on the media by a number of Florida agencies under DeSantis, including a letter from the state health department to a Tampa TV station that threatened the general manager with jail time if the station aired an ad promoting an abortion rights-focused ballot initiative.
"The hostile political environment for the press exacerbates the economic pressures facing media outlets," said RSF. "It likely also contributes to Florida's serious news desert problem. Over 300,000 Floridians have no local news source, the third highest figure of any U.S. state."
Annual wage data for Florida was not available to RSF, but reporters in Pennsylvania told the group that their biggest concerns are economic and center on whether journalists in the state will be able to continue providing their audiences with news that could affect their lives.
Eight-one percent of respondents in Pennsylvania said that "the average media outlet struggles economically and that journalists are generally unable to earn a living wage." The median wage for journalists in the state is barely half Pennsylvania's living wage, according to the report.
Ninety-four percent of journalists and media experts in the Keystone State also said they were concerned about animosity from politicians and the public, with reporters facing "persistent online harassment" and some reporting a bomb threat that targeted a newsroom, "being followed by unknown agitators," and one incident in which journalists were "in the sights" of a rooftop militiaman with a rifle.
"County commissioners and much of the GOP establishment will not speak with us because they believe we are biased against them, mainly because we reported on local [January 6 rioters], on our congressman voting against certifying Pennsylvania electoral votes in 2020, and our continued reporting on religious and right-wing groups inciting hate against LGBTQ people and all the associated campaigns, such as banning books from school libraries and changing school curricula," one editor told RSF.
Nevada had the highest overall press freedom score, with strong anti-SLAPP laws, widespread news distribution and few news deserts, and a median reporter salary slightly exceeding the state's living wage.
But 80% of respondents in the state said officials stall or ignore public records requests all or most of the time.
Several of RSF's recommendations for legislators centered on increasing government transparency to better allow journalists to do their jobs and to serve the public interest. The group called on legislators to:
- Ensure adequate funding and staffing levels in the offices tasked with responding to public records requests;
- Establish simple, coherent processes with clearly articulated timelines;
- Improve training for officials tasked with processing and responding to these requests; and
- Lead by example at the political level to encourage a culture of transparency.
To help newsrooms cope with volatile economic conditions and dwindling resources, RSF said state legislatures should "innovate new models" including increased public funding, tax rebates for news subscriptions, and policies requiring social media companies to compensate the news media for using their content.
"RSF," said Weimers, "hopes that this report will provide a starting point for all Americans to demand improvements in their states' media ecosystems: greater transparency, better access to information, and a marketplace that enables journalism to thrive."
Biden Admin Hasn't Acted on 500 Reports of Israel Attacking Gaza Civilians With US Arms
The Biden administration has reportedly received around 500 notices from international humanitarian groups, nonprofit organizations, and eyewitnesses alleging that the Israeli military has used American weaponry in attacks that harmed civilians in the Gaza Strip, likely in violation of both U.S. and international law.
But the administration, which has armed Israel's military to the hilt since the Hamas-led attack of last year, "has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims," according to The Washington Post, which first reported the nearly 500 notices on Wednesday.
Dozens of the reports delivered to the U.S. State Department over the past year "include photo documentation of U.S.-made bomb fragments at sites where scores of children were killed," the Post noted, citing unnamed human rights advocates who were briefed on the process.
"Yet despite the State Department’s internal Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, which directs officials to complete an investigation and recommend action within two months of launching an inquiry, no single case has reached the 'action' stage," the newspaper reported, citing unnamed current and former officials. "More than two-thirds of cases remain unresolved... with many pending response from the Israeli government, which the State Department consults to verify each case's circumstances."
"When it comes to the Biden administration's arms policies, everything looks good on paper but has turned out meaningless in practice when it comes to Israel."
John Ramming Chappell, a legal and policy adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told the Post that Biden administration officials are "ignoring evidence of widespread civilian harm and atrocities to maintain a policy of virtually unconditional weapons transfers to the Netanyahu government."
"When it comes to the Biden administration's arms policies," Chappell added, "everything looks good on paper but has turned out meaningless in practice when it comes to Israel."
William Hartung, a senior research fellow and arms industry expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told the Post that "it's almost impossible" that Israel isn't violating U.S. law "given the level of slaughter that's going on, and the preponderance of U.S. weapons."
Since last October, the U.S. has delivered more than 50,000 tons of weaponry to Israel, a flow of arms that has continued amid overwhelming evidence that the Israeli military has used American weapons to commit grave violations of international law.
In April, as Common Dreamsreported at the time, Amnesty International USA sent a research brief to the Biden administration detailing several cases in which the Israeli military violated international humanitarian law with U.S. weapons, including a pair of deadly strikes last year on homes full of civilians—attacks that killed 19 children.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military bombed a five-story residential building in northern Gaza, killing around two dozen children and scores of adults.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, told reporters Tuesday that the Biden administration is "deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life in this incident" and has "reached out to the government of Israel to ask what has happened here."
Later in the same briefing, reporters pressed Miller on actions the Biden administration is taking to push Israel to stop impeding shipments of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. It's been just over two weeks since the Biden administration sent a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off U.S. military assistance if the humanitarian situation in Gaza doesn't improve within 30 days.
"Obviously, the 30 days isn't up," Drop Site's Ryan Grim noted during Tuesday's press briefing. "But two weeks ago the situation in northern Gaza was bad; like, today it's utterly dystopian. The opposite of making progress has happened there."
Miller responded that "we have made clear that the situation in northern Gaza... needs to change."
Nevertheless, Miller insisted to reporters that the U.S. State Department has "not assessed [Israel] to be in violation of the law at this point," a statement that contradicts the findings of both internal department experts and outside analysts.
"All the laws and policies that are supposed to prevent U.S. weapons from being used to commit atrocities by foreign countries are being completely ignored by the Biden admin in its rush to continue unimpeded weapons flows to Israel to commit genocide," Josh Ruebner, policy director at the IMEU Policy Project, wrote Wednesday.
South Carolina Execution 'Assembly Line' Rolls On With Killing of Richard Moore
"The state is motivated to kill condemned people as quickly as possible, and they do that despite evidence that might change their minds," said one anti-death penalty campaigner.
Despite pleas from his sentencing judge, jurors in his trial, and the former head of the state Department of Corrections, South Carolina executed Richard Moore by lethal injection Friday evening after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the latest in a series of state-sanctioned killings.
The Charleston Post and Courierreported that Moore was pronounced dead at 6:24 pm local time, 21 minutes after the lethal injection was administered.
"Tonight, the state of South Carolina needlessly took the life of Richard Moore—a loving father and grandfather, a loyal friend, and a devoted follower of Christ," the criminal justice reform group Justice 360 said in a statement. "He was not a danger to anyone, and the state eliminated a glowing example of reform and rehabilitation."
Moore, 59, was convicted of the 1999 murder of convenience store clerk James Mahoney. Moore—who was unarmed when he entered the store—argued that he shot Mahoney in self-defense after the clerk pulled out a gun during an argument over correct change. An all-white jury found Moore guilty of murder and armed robbery.
"This is definitely part of my life I wish I could change. I took a life. I took someone's life. I broke the family of the deceased," Moore said in a video accompanying his clemency petition. "I pray for the forgiveness of that particular family."
Death penalty opponents said Moore's case underscores capital punishment's literally fatal flaws.
"Richard Moore's case, like those of so many others on death row, was tainted with racial bias, including as the two prospective Black jurors were peremptorily dismissed, resulting in an all-white jury," Amnesty International USA researcher Justin Mazzola said in a statement after the execution.
"In addition to the racial bias, the crime that Moore committed was not premeditated, which raised serious concerns as to whether it rose to the level for which the death penalty is reserved in U.S. constitutional law," Mazzola added. "It's shameful that racial bias and lack of premeditation were not enough to convince Gov. McMaster to grant clemency to Richard Moore. Gov. McMaster could have used his clemency power instead of overseeing yet another execution in his state."
Moore was initially forced to choose whether he would be killed by electric chair or firing squad following the 2021 passage by South Carolina's Republican-led Legislature of a new capital punishment law amid a shortage of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital. Moore chose the firing squad.
In 2022, the South Carolina Supreme Court temporarily stayed Moore's execution. He subsequently changed his choice of execution method after the state restocked pentobarbital.
Advocates for Moore pointed to his flawless prison behavior and mentorship to other inmates. Among those urging clemency for Moore were Retired Circuit Court Judge Gary Clary, who sentenced Moore to die.
"Over the years I have studied the case of each person who resides on death row in South Carolina," Clary wrote to McMaster on Tuesday. "Richard Bernard Moore's case is unique, and after years of thought and reflection, I humbly ask that you grant executive clemency to Mr. Moore as an act of grace and mercy."
Jon Ozmint, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) from 2003 to 2011, wrote, that that Moore "has proven himself to be a reliable, consistent force for good on death row."
However, McMaster informed SCDC Director Bryan Stirling Friday that he had "carefully reviewed and thoroughly considered" Moore's application and "declined to grant executive clemency in this matter."
Moore is the second person executed in South Carolina since it resumed executions. In September, the state killed 46-year-old Freddie Owens. Four more South Carolina death row inmates have exhausted their appeals. They are likely to be executed in the coming months.
"It's like an assembly line," Paul Bowers of the ACLU of South Carolina toldThe Guardian. "The state is motivated to kill condemned people as quickly as possible, and they do that despite evidence that might change their minds."
'BIG Victory for PA Voters': US Supreme Court Denies GOP Bid to Block Thousands of Ballots
"This is a win for democracy and the rule of law," said one ACLU attorney. "The bottom line is that voters deserve to have their voices heard."
After allowing Virginia Republicans' voter registration purge earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a GOP effort to block thousands of ballots for the November 5 election from being counted in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.
Democratic elections lawyer and Democracy Docket founder Mark Elias called the decision "a BIG victory for PA voters."
The ACLU, the group's Pennsylvania branch, and the Public Interest Law Center were all involved in the legal battle and similarly celebrated the high court's decision.
"This is a win for democracy and the rule of law," declared Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. The court rightly rejected this eleventh-hour attempt to discount the votes of Pennsylvanians and interfere in the state's electoral process. The bottom line is that voters deserve to have their voices heard."
"A petty error that is irrelevant to a person's eligibility to vote should never interfere with the counting of ballots."
Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, stressed that "a petty error that is irrelevant to a person's eligibility to vote should never interfere with the counting of ballots, and provisional ballots are a decades-old fail-safe, a backup, for voters."
Public Interest Law Center senior attorney Ben Geffen called the decision "a step toward a more inclusive election process that respects the rights of all Pennsylvanians."
The case began with the mail-in ballots of two Butler County residents. Justices on the nation's top tribunal upheld the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's recent ruling that commonwealth voters who had mailed ballots disqualified for failing to return them in the required secrecy envelope still have a right to vote by provisional ballot.
The Associated Presspointed out that "as of Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned have arrived at elections offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature, or a date, according to state records."
As the AP reported:
The ruling comes as voters had their last chance Friday to apply for a mail-in ballot in a bellwether suburban Philadelphia county while a county clear across the state gave voters who didn't receive their ballot in the mail another chance to get one.
A judge in Erie County, in Pennsylvania's northwestern corner, ruled Friday in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party that about 15,000 people who applied for a mail ballot but didn't receive it may go to the county elections office and get a replacement through Monday.
There were no dissents in Friday's decision, though Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a brief statement joined by fellow right-wingers Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch that "the application of the state Supreme Court's interpretation in the upcoming election is a matter of considerable importance."
While voting rights advocates celebrated, NBC Newshighlighted that "the Supreme Court action does not definitively resolve the legal issue, which could yet return to the justices... More litigation is possible in the coming days."
The Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania had asked the justices to block the state court's ruling—a request that, as SCOTUSblognoted, "came just eight days before Election Day, with Pennsylvania expected to play a key role in the 2024 presidential race."
Former Republican President Donald Trump is battling Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House. There is also a key U.S. Senate contest underway in Pennsylvania: Democratic Sen. Bob Casey versus Republican Dave McCormick.
Critics of Trump and his allies are already warning that he may deny the election results if he loses next week, as he did in 2020, even inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as Congress certified President Joe Biden's victory. Trump is running for president despite facing state and criminal charges stemming from his "Big Lie" about the last cycle.
Humanitarian Group Leaders Say Israel Causing 'Apocalyptic' Situation in Northern Gaza
"The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence."
The heads of 15 humanitarian organizations operating under the United Nations umbrella on Friday accused Israel of creating "apocalyptic" conditions in northern Gaza and called on Israeli forces to stop attacking the Palestinian enclave and the aid workers trying to help its people.
"The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic. The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and lifesaving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue," the 15 group heads wrote in an open letter. "Just in the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands have once again been forcibly displaced."
The letter's 15 signers include directors of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, a forum of United Nations and non-U.N. humanitarian partners, including the International Council of Volunteer Agencies.
"Hospitals have been almost entirely cut off from supplies and have come under attack, killing patients, destroying vital equipment, and disrupting lifesaving services," the group leaders wrote. "Health workers and patients have been taken into custody. Fighting has also reportedly taken place inside hospitals."
"Dozens of schools serving as shelters have been bombed or forcibly evacuated. Tents sheltering displaced families have been shelled, and people have been burned alive," the letter continues. "Rescue teams have been deliberately attacked and thwarted in their attempts to pull people buried under the rubble of their homes."
The signers wrote that "we have received reports of civilians being targeted while trying to seek safety," and that "the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence."
The letter warns: "Humanitarian aid cannot keep up with the scale of the needs due to the access constraints. Basic lifesaving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need."
"In a further blow to the humanitarian response, the polio vaccination campaign has been delayed due to the fighting, putting the lives of children in the region at risk," the signers added.
The humanitarian leaders lamented this week's approval by Israeli lawmakers of a pair of bills targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
"If implemented, such measures would be a catastrophe for the humanitarian response in Gaza, diametrically opposed to the United Nations Charter, with potential dire impacts on the human rights of the millions of Palestinians depending on UNRWA's assistance, and in violation of Israel's obligations under international law," the letter states. "Let us be very clear: There is no alternative to UNRWA."
The humanitarian leaders then turned their attention to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel led by South Africa and backed by around 30 nations and regional blocs. Israeli forces have been accused of flouting ICJ orders that the country prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, allow humanitarian aid into the strip, and stop the assault on Rafah.
"Israel must comply with the provisional orders and determinations of the International Court of Justice," they asserted.
Since October 2023, Israel's assault on Gaza has left more than 155,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing, and millions more displaced, starving, or sick. The Israel Defense Forces' renewed offensive in northern Gaza has killed or injured thousands of Palestinians since last month amid fears Israel is implementing the so-called "General's Plan" to starve and then ethnically cleanse northern Gaza to make way for Israeli recolonization, a policy promoted by senior members of Israel's far-right government.
The humanitarian leaders' letter also states that "Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups must release the hostages immediately and unconditionally and must abide by international humanitarian law."
"The entire region is on the edge of a precipice," the signers concluded. "An immediate cessation of hostilities and a sustained, unconditional cease-fire are long overdue."