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Again. Four people were murdered in a Georgia school shooting in a blood-soaked country that fixates on the unborn, spends $840 billion on defense, bans books despite zero mass reading deaths yet somehow can't protect their children from routine, rampant slaughter. It was the 8th school shooting of a shiny new school year; it happened on the 2nd day of school; the killer was 14 years old. Fucking unreal. Cue witless thoughts and prayers. From the deceased: "Thanks."
Wednesday's rampage at Apalachee High school, in the small city of Winder northeast of Atlanta, killed two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two math teachers, Christina Irimie, and Richard Aspinwall; at least nine others were wounded and taken to the hospital. Less than shockingly, authorities said the baby-faced killer, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was armed with a “black semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle,” which his father had bought him for Christmas; given Colt's tender age, some bitterly wondered how he even managed to get the bulky weapon into the school: "Surely, his Spiderman backpack must have sagged a little?" Colt surrendered to police, including two resource officers, minutes after the shootings. He has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder, and authorities say more charges will be coming. At the scene, Sheriff Jud Smith offered "our sympathies" to the community, adding, "Obviously, what you see behind us is an evil thing today."
Evil, yes. Rare, no. The killing fields that are now America's schools have seen so many shootings and gun deaths in the past two decades the awful data can't keep up with them. According to the Gun Violence Archive, this is the 385th mass shooting in the US this year with over 11,500 people killed by guns, excluding suicide. It was the 45th shooting on school grounds in 2024 - though the number soars to 218 including more varied situations - causing at least 38 deaths and 81 injuries in a country where, said Joe Biden, students now learn "how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write." It's also a country of barricaded schools and bulletproof backpacks where four people gunned down barely made the news, shooting drills are universal, firemen and first responders wear body armor, classrooms can boast sawdust-filled buckets in case of an extended lockdown, and surreal debates rage about the wisdom of arming underpaid, over-worked teachers who never signed up for this.
That's especially true of Georgia, ranked 46th with some of the country's weakest gun laws. Gun-control advocates give the state an "F" and its gun violence - at least 1,927 people killed each year - is well over the national average thanks to Gov. Brian Kemp, who loves guns so much he once ran an ad where he held a shotgun on a kid. Kemp and God-fearing GOP pols oppose red flag laws but passed a law requiring colleges to allow guns on campus; you can buy an assault rifle without a permit or background check, carry a concealed weapon without a license, leave guns out for your kids to find, shoot and kill someone even if you can walk away instead. Kemp has bragged he wears his "F" gun-safety rating ''as a badge of honor" and touted a $103.9 million plan to "harden" schools, with a $10,000 bonus to teachers willing to carry. On Wednesday, he said he was "heartbroken" by the shooting, urged thoughts and prayers, and called it "a day every parent dreads" by dint of his murderous actions.
Also, of course, Colt Gray's, though as a sick kid he's far less culpable. It turns out he'd been on the FBI's radar since last year, after they got several anonymous tips he was making online threats about shooting up a school. They interviewed him and his father, who said he had guns in the home for hunting but his son didn't have access to them; Colt, then 13, denied making the threats, and the FBI determined there was "no probable cause for arrest" or other action. This week, fellow students said Colt was quiet and reserved - "he never really talked" - and he often skipped classes. On Tuesday, the first day of school, he reportedly left classes early to go to a counselor's office because he was anxious. Wednesday, he left math class still going; when he tried to re-enter - killing fields/school doors lock automatically - a classmate started to let him in, saw his gun, and backed away. As she and other kids dropped to the floor, crawled to the back and huddled together, she heard him open fire in the hallway.
Later, dazed students described the bedlam: The screams, blood, terror, crying, teachers frantically yelling to get down, hands shaking as they tried to text family, 10 or 15 thunderous rounds of gunshots. Harrowing details emerged. His family thought and hoped Mason Schermerhorn, who had mild autism, "had just run away to get away from everything." Christian Angulo's father said they'd moved there from California "in search of peace.” Teacher Christina Irimie, a joyful, beloved member of the Romanian community, had baked a cake and brought pizza to school to celebrate her birthday with "her kids." Richard Aspinwall, also a football coach, was "as great as they come. Would do anything for anyone." He was teaching math when he heard the turmoil; he told his kids to stay put and went into the hallway to try to protect them. A few minutes later, they found him lying prone and bloody at the door of the classroom. Said one student, "He was trying to crawl back to us."
Christmas cards sent out by gun-fetishist GOP lawmakers and their families. Photos from Twitter
There's been so much carnage - so much bloodshed, anguish, rage, grief - it's unfathomable that nothing has changed, that no substantive gun control measures have passed, that none of the morons and sociopaths who send out Christmas cards of their smirking kids cradling fucking assault weapons have stopped doing it, that none of these witless gun freaks have seen slaughter follow slaughter and not come even this excruciatingly slowly to the realization that, in the words of one gun-control advocate, "There is no world in which this is acceptable." Hell, even a Fox News host, in an interview after the Georgia shooting, exclaimed to his guest, "To be honest, this is so frequent it's almost surreal." Almost? In truth, many Americans have come to the sorrowful conclusion that if Sandy Hook didn't change any hearts and minds - those 20, small, shredded, shattered bodies - then nothing would. Which is why, even now, the inane thoughts and prayers and platitudes are still flowing.
"Let us join together in prayer for the victims," nattered Marjorie I'll-Take-Whatever-Publicity-I-Can-Get Greene, who's opposed a federal program to help states pass "red flag” laws, filmed herself accosting Parkland survivor David Hogg, pushed bonkers conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook and other tragedies, and made campaign ads featuring her shooting or giving away massive assault weapons. "This you?" asked multiple people re-posting those horrors. "Hey MTG," wrote John Pavlovitz. "How do you type with so much blood on your hands?" "And the guns?" asked another critic. "Or is this a bad time to mention them?" As always, probably. On Fox, a Blue Lives Matter spokesman argued it's all the fault of violent video games: "Human life has less value because many of the social mores have changed...It hardens the heart, if you will." Actually, experts saythey won't, citing studies finding "absolutely no causal evidence" of a link between video games and "gun violence in real life.”
As mainstream news did a quick, deep, thoughts-and-prayers dive into the Georgia killings, they naturally entirely ignored those in Gaza City, where an Israeli air strike killed more children, including Tala Abu Ajwa, 10, hit minutes after her mother gave in to her pleas to let her go outside to roller blade. Seeking her body after the blast, her father recognized the pink skate on her foot. In this country, we have technology to aid in that search: Officials praised school faculty as "heroes" who likely saved lives by using a new panic button alarm that notifies police of an "active situation." Still, students were spooked and angry about being left to fend for themselves in a hapless, bloodied country, echoing a 10-year-old Onionheadline: "No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." "I really don't want to go back," said one girl. "I want to go to school worrying about my GPA (and) my career. I feel like I shouldn’t have to go back to school worrying about dying.”
Of course teachers also were and will remain traumatized in a mix of grief, guilt, rage. Writing online about "planning no teacher should ever have to plan for and fear no one (teacher, child, parent, or anyone else) should ever have to experience," Jennifer Carter wrote, "I lied to my kids today in second period. I told them it was just a drill. I told them to get behind my couches (thank GOD I ditched desks and have bulky furniture!) and be quiet...The more quiet we are, the faster the drill will end." Trauma on trauma, victim after victim. In back-to-back hearings Friday, Colt Gray appeared in court - small, blank, bleach blond - followed shortly after by his father Colin Gray, 54, who wept and rocked in his seat as the judge calmly spoke. Colin is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Behind them sat victims' families and other supporters; court workers had set out tissue boxes at intervals.
Away from court, the story of Colt Gray's broken, "hostile," gun-obsessed home, where a Stars and Stripes flies and child services often visited, emerged. His mother Marcee has a long rap sheet spanning 17 years for buying/selling drugs, mostly meth and fentanyl, with arrests for domestic violence, bad checks, vehicle misdemeanors. With the parents locked in an ugly separation and custody battle - she has the two younger kids, he had Colt - Marcee charges Colin with abuse, and they were evicted. Neighbors describe "devastating," "constant" abuse: no food or clean clothes, Marcee driving drunk to take the youngest to day care, passing out in the driveway, locking the kids out of the house in winter, them banging on the door, crying, screaming, "Mom!" A former landlord said Colin was "trying (to) be a stand-up guy - I think the man really went through it." As to Colt, "This child has fallen between the cracks." Colt's aunt said he'd been "begging for help for months, but the adults around him failed him."
In response to Georgia's shootings, Dems offered empathy and cogent calls for gun control measures most Americans support. The GOP, short on empathy or cogent calls for anything and not up to domestic tragedies, stall in their thoughts-and-prayers shtick. In another dreadful speech, Vance, who took $493,000 from the NRA to declare school shootings "a fake problem," said it 's too bad about kids and teachers being gunned down, but with schools "soft targets, we’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to." He doesn't like school shootings but they're "a fact of life," says "the coward ass bitch guy standing behind bulletproof glass" who doesn't seem to get that "lots of horrible things were once facts of life until the government did something about them." So: women should both have kids and accept they might be shot dead at school. Give this guy a bulletproof Spiderman backpack, pray for the dead, fight for the living.
"Here's the smell of the blood still. What, will these hands ne’er be clean?" - Lady Macbeth
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday evening issued yet another call for a major mobilization to take on the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis in response to a new record in Phoenix, Arizona: 100 straight days of the temperature hitting at least 100°F.
"100 straight days of 100-degree heat," Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media, sharing a report from The Washington Post. "The heatwave has killed at least 150 people this summer in Phoenix alone."
"The climate emergency demands a massive-scale mobilization," stressed the senator, a longtime advocate for a swift, just transition away from oil and gas. "There is no choice. This is a moral imperative."
The death toll comes from the Post, which noted that in 2023, the hottest year on record globally, "heat deaths increased 50% from 2022, reaching a record of 645 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. This year, 150 heat deaths have been confirmed by the government and an additional 440 deaths are under investigation."
Increasingly deadly extreme heat is a national issue. Research published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Associationshows that heat-related deaths in the United States rose 117% between 1999 and 2023, with the highest rates recorded in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas.
After the 100-day mark on Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Wednesday that "with the high temperature exceeding 110°F at Phoenix Sky Harbor this afternoon, the number of days of 110°F+ high temperatures for the year now ties last year's record number of 110°F+ highs at 55 days. Expect a new record to be set tomorrow (forecasted highs of 110-115°F)."
The NWS warned Thursday that "unseasonably hot conditions are expected to persist into next week," projecting temperatures between 108-114°F in the Arizona city through Monday.
As the Arizona Republicreported earlier this week:
Not only was this the hottest summer on record in Phoenix, but in Flagstaff, Winslow, Kingman Douglas, and Tucson too.
"For most of the state, it's looking like the hottest summer on record," said Sean Benedict, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix. "There were several locations around Arizona that set the record for the hottest summer."
Climate Centralpointed out Tuesday that the extreme heat in and around Phoenix was "made at least four to five times MORE likely to occur (yes, even in early September) due to human-caused climate change."
As communities around the world have endured intense heat throughout 2024, scientists have warned it could break the 2023 record and become the new hottest year in human history. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month that the most recent July was just barely the second-warmest July globally—ending a streak that lasted from June 2023 to June 2024, during which each month was the hottest on record.
"Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the hottest month on record," C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said at the time. "July 2024 saw the two hottest days on record. The overall context hasn't changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero."
Although C3S has not yet released its official findings for last month, Agence France-Pressereported Tuesday that the agency's preliminary data show that "August 2024 should be on a par with last year's record 16.82°C (62.28°F)."
The C3S findings slightly conflict with those of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which found that the latest July "was Earth's warmest July on record, extending the streak of record-high monthly global temperatures to 14 successive months." NOAA also hasn't yet released its data for August.
What climate experts agree on is that much more must be done to address the crisis created by fossil fuels. As World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in response to this summer's findings: "Climate adaptation alone is not enough. We need to tackle the root cause and get serious about reducing record levels of greenhouse gas emissions."
In addition to transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy, some have called for going after corporate giants that continue to rake in record profits from their planet-wrecking products. In June, Public Citizen unveiled a legal memo detailing how local or state prosecutors could bring criminal charges against Big Oil for deaths from extreme heat—using Arizona as an example.
An ostensibly pro-worker policy proposal embraced by the presidential nominees of both the Republican and Democratic parties could actually be detrimental to the U.S. working class, potentially undercutting efforts to abolish subminimum wages and lift the long-stagnant federal pay floor while creating more ways for the rich to dodge taxes.
The proposal in question is exempting tips from federal income taxes, an idea that former President Donald Trump endorsed in June in a bid to win over hospitality and hotel workers. Vice President Kamala Harris backed the proposal weeks later, drawing "copycat" allegations from Trump. Unlike Trump, Harris also expressed support for increasing the federal minimum wage while outlining ways to prevent rich Americans from reclassifying their income as tips to avoid taxation.
But economists have argued in recent days that while it appears sensible and obviously pro-worker on its face, ending taxes on tips is not a meaningful solution to starvation wages and could ultimately harm low-paid employees.
"For starters, tip workers make up a small fraction of the U.S. workforce—about 2.5%—and more than one-third of them do not even earn enough to pay income taxes in the first place," Sylvia Allegretto, a senior economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research, wrote for The Progressive magazine earlier this week.
"Cutting the federal tax does nothing for this group, except reduce the amount that they contribute to Social Security. Some of these workers could also lose out on other vital programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit," Allegretto wrote, dismissing the "no taxes on tips" proposal as a "gimmick."
Allegretto also warned that "without adequate safeguards, some high earners would simply reclassify a portion of their income as tips," creating "one more avenue for the wealthy to avoid paying their fair share."
"There are plenty of policies that would improve the lives of low-wage workers—raising the federal minimum wage, for starters, and ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers is a good place to start," she argued.
"You're not hearing Trump or any Republicans talk about [raising the minimum wage], and they probably won't, but it's a big piece of the picture."
Other experts and advocates have similarly warned that the push to exempt tips from federal taxes is little more than a distraction from broader, desperately needed policy solutions for workers struggling with low wages, badly inadequate or nonexistent benefits, and a lack of on-the-job representation.
"The good news is that lawmakers have designed way better ways of helping working families... from eliminating the subminimum wage that allows workers who receive tips to be paid a paltry $2.13 an hour, to raising all minimum wages above the $7.25 where it has been mired for a decade and a half, to making it easier for workers to unionize," Joe Hughes, a senior policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote in a blog post last week.
"In terms of tax solutions," Hughes added, "lawmakers rightfully concerned about low-wage workers should instead consider expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit (and especially making the latter stronger for workers without children in the home)."
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, emphasized in an interview with The Guardian this week that Trump can't be trusted to pursue a genuinely pro-worker agenda.
"[Trump] can say it all he wants. He had four years to do it and he didn't do it," Barber said of eliminating federal taxes on tips. "But what he did do was give greedy people a $2 trillion tip through tax cuts."
Despite critiques of the proposal, Culinary Union Local 226—which represents tens of thousands of hotel workers in Las Vegas—has backed the push to exempt tips from federal taxation while acknowledging that wage increases are also necessary.
"It's like two sides to the same coin," Ted Pappageorge, the union's secretary-treasurer, toldFortune earlier this week. "You're not hearing Trump or any Republicans talk about [raising the minimum wage], and they probably won't, but it's a big piece of the picture."
Days after Trump endorsed exempting tips from federal taxes, a trio of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced the No Tax on Tips Act, legislation that would allow "taxpayers to claim a 100% deduction at filing for tipped wages."
The bill was backed by the National Restaurant Association, an organization that was exposed last year for using workers' money to finance lobbying campaigns against wage increases.
Brendan Duke, senior director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress, observed last month that the No Tax on Tips Act "contains few, if any, guardrails to prevent employees or business owners from recharacterizing income they receive as wages or business profits as tips."
"If hedge fund managers, lawyers, and other highly paid professionals can find ways to restructure compensation as tipped income given the lack of guardrails in Sen. Cruz’s bill," Duke wrote, "they could enjoy a serious tax windfall."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday blasted Dr. Ralph de la Torre—the CEO of a bankrupt health services company "who has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and healthcare providers"—for refusing to comply with a bipartisan subpoena compelling him to testify about his company's insolvency.
"Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. de la Torre is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating through our for-profit healthcare system," said Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
"Working with private equity vultures, he became obscenely wealthy by loading up hospitals across the country with billions in debt and selling the land underneath these hospitals to real estate executives who charge unsustainably high rent," the senator added. "As a result, Steward Health Care, and the more than 30 hospitals it owns in eight states, were forced to declare bankruptcy with some $9 billion in debt."
Steward is trying to sell all 31 of its hospitals in order to pay down its debt.
As Common Dreamsreported on July 25, the HELP committee, which includes 10 Republicans, voted 20-1 to investigate Steward Health Care's bankruptcy, and 16-4 to subpoena de la Torre.
"I am now working with members of the HELP committee to determine the best path forward," Sanders said on Wednesday. "But let me be clear: We will not accept this postponement. Congress will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America. This committee intends to move forward aggressively to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify to the gross mismanagement of Steward Health Care."
"It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages," Sanders added, referring to the 190-foot megayacht the CEO purchased as Steward hospitals failed to pay their bills.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—a HELP committee member—and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also slammed de la Torre on Wednesday, calling his failure to appear before the panel "outrageous."
"De la Torre used hospitals as his personal piggy bank and lived in luxury while gutting Steward hospitals," the senators said. "De la Torre is as cowardly as he is cruel. He owes the public and Congress answers for his appalling greed—and de la Torre must be held in contempt if he fails to appear before the committee."
De la Torre's attorney, Alexander Merton, lashed out against the Senate subpoena Wednesday in a letter
accusing HELP committee members of being "determined to turn the hearing into a pseudo-criminal proceeding in which they use the time, not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion."
The same day the HELP Committee voted to probe Steward and subpoena de la Torre, Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, introduced the Health Over Wealth Act, which would increase the powers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to block private equity deals in the healthcare industry.
Last month, Markey and Warren expressed concerns over the proposed $245 million sale of Steward Health Care's nationwide physician network to a private equity firm.
"Two Massachusetts hospitals are closing and communities are suffering because of private equity's looting of Steward," said Warren. "Selling Massachusetts doctors to another private equity firm could be a disaster. We can't make the same mistake again. Regulators must scrutinize this deal."
Two months after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring migrants who cross the southern border without authorization from receiving asylum, senior administration officials are reportedly considering making the policy—which was meant to be temporary—much harder to lift.
Biden's June directive invoked Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act—previously used by the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, to deny migrants asylum—"when the southern border is overwhelmed."
The policy shuts down asylum requests when the average number of daily migrant encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500. Border entry points may allow migrants to seek asylum when the seven-day average dips below 1,500.
"The move to make the asylum restrictions semi-permanent would effectively rewrite U.S. asylum law."
The changes under consideration would reopen entry only after the seven-day average for migrant encounters remains under 1,500 for 28 days.
"The asylum ban itself is arbitrary and duplicative. It has no relation at all to a person's asylum claims, meaning even a person with an extraordinarily strong claim would be denied for crossing at a time when many others, potentially thousands of miles away, are doing the same," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group, said Wednesday.
"There is no doubt that we need to rethink the current asylum system, which would include giving it an infusion of resources so that people don't have to wait five years for a decision," he continued. "But cutting it off to whole swathes of people for reasons unrelated to their claims isn't a fix."
"The move to make the asylum restrictions semi-permanent would effectively rewrite U.S. asylum law, which since it was created in 1980 has mandated that all people on U.S. soil be permitted to request humanitarian protections, regardless of how they got here," Reichlin-Melnick added.
U.S. officials say Biden's order has resulted in a dramatic decrease in asylum claims.
According toThe New York Times:
Since Mr. Biden's executive order went into effect, the number of arrests at the southern border has dropped precipitously. In June, more than 83,000 arrests were made, then in July the number went down further to just over 56,000 arrests. Arrests in August ticked up to 58,000, according to a homeland security official, but those figures still pale in comparison to the record figures in December when around 250,000 migrants crossed.
Migrant rights advocates condemned the new rules. Less than two weeks after Biden issued the order, a coalition of rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration, arguing the policy was illegal and endangered migrant lives.
"We already know how devastating the Biden asylum shutdown is and it should be ended immediately rather than expanded," Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA's director of refugee and migrants rights, said Wednesday on social media. "High numbers of people being denied their human rights is not a sign of success, it's a disgrace."
Israel's war on Gaza has helped drive a more than twofold increase in the number of people facing catastrophic hunger in 2024 compared to last year, according to a report released by United Nations agencies and partner humanitarian groups on Thursday.
The report, a mid-year update of the Global Report on Food Crises, says that Gazans face "the most severe food crisis in the history" of the GRFC, which was first published in 2017.
The global number of people facing Phase 5—"Famine/Catastrophe," the highest level—in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system went from 705,000 in 2023 to about 1.9 million this year, including projections through September.
About 1.1 million people in Gaza faced famine in March and April, while roughly 750,000 more recently did so in Sudan, which is locked in a gruesome civil war. South Sudan and Mali also had smaller areas of people facing food insecurity catastrophe.
Despite the figures, the U.N. hasn't formally declared a famine in Gaza, though many U.N. officials and experts have characterized the situation as such.
Though the Gaza famine numbers peaked in April, the situation remains extremely dire, according to Víctor Aguayo, UNICEF's director of child nutrition, who visited the besieged enclave last week.
"I walked through markets and neighborhoods—or what is left of them," Aguayo told reporters on Thursday. "I listened to the struggles of mothers and fathers to feed their children. And there is no doubt in my mind that the risk of famine and a large-scale severe nutrition crisis in Gaza is real."
Aguayo called for a cease-fire and humanitarian intervention, saying that "it's important to remember that the nearly half of Gaza's population suffering from this devastation are children."
"The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen," he added.
Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the last 11 months, displacing nearly the entire population of 2.2 million, often multiple times, and destroying much of the enclave's infrastructure. They've also restricted emergency aid into Gaza, according to a large number of reports.
Rights groups have argued that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war—a war crime. U.N. experts have called it an "intentional and targeted starvation campaign."
Hamas and allied militant groups massacred more than 1,100 Israelis on October 7 and took roughly 250 hostages, dozens of whom are still being held. Israel's declared war aim is eradicating Hamas and returning the hostages. The effort has received widespread international condemnation, both from rights groups and multilateral institutions, including the International Court of Justice, which in January ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide, and the International Criminal Court, which in May sought warrants for the arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The United States has been Israel's chief diplomatic ally and weapons supplier throughout the 11-month assault, with the Biden administration approving another $20 billion in arms transfers last month.
Thursday's GRFC update shows that Sudan, like Gaza, faces a large-scale humanitarian crisis. As of August, 8.5 million Sudanese faced Phase 4—"Emergency"—conditions of food insecurity, far more than any other country in the world. Famine has been declared in a refugee camp near El Fasher in Darfur and is expected to last through October, the report says.
The two main warring parties are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group. The conflict began in April 2023 and has displaced more than 10 million people, just counting those who've stayed in the country.
As in Gaza, experts have accused armed forces of restricting aid and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, responded to the GRFC update by declaring that the hunger crises in both Gaza and Sudan were by design.
"That's because of the starvation strategy of the Israeli government and Sudanese forces," he wrote on social media.
The IPC classification system requires that an area meet three criteria to reach the Phase 5 "Famine" stage: 20% of households must face extreme lack of food, 30% of children must suffer from acute malnutrition, and two adults or four children out of 10,000 people must die each day due to starvation-related causes.
Recent formal declarations of famine by the United Nations have occurred in an area of South Sudan in 2017 and two regions of Somalia in 2011.
“If Speaker Johnson drives House Republicans down this highly partisan path," said Democratic leaders, "the odds of a shutdown go way up."
Leading U.S. Senate Democrats on Friday accused House Republicans of "wasting precious time catering to the hard MAGA right" as House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a stopgap funding bill tied to a proposal that would require proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections.
The proposal—the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act—has been pushed by Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump and was passed by the House in July, with five Democrats joining the GOP in supporting the bill.
Non-citizens are already barred from voting in federal elections. With about 21.3 million eligible voters reporting in a recent survey that they would not be able to quickly access their birth certificate, passport, naturalization certificate, or certificate of citizenship in order to prove their status, critics say the proposal is a clear attempt to stop people of color and young Americans from taking part in elections.
Johnson proposed including the legislation in a stopgap bill, or a continuing resolution, that would keep the government running roughly at current spending levels through March 28—a move that would postpone major spending negotiations until after the next president takes office.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said that "avoiding a government shutdown requires bipartisanship, not a bill drawn up by one party," and alluded to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) attempt last September to ram a spending bill through with immigration and border policy changes in order to avert a government shutdown.
"Speaker Johnson is making the same mistake as former Speaker McCarthy did a year ago," said Schumer and Murray in a statement. "The House Republican funding proposal is an ominous case of déjà vu."
“If Speaker Johnson drives House Republicans down this highly partisan path," they added, "the odds of a shutdown go way up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will be on the House Republicans' hands."
Johnson is expected to bring the bill to the House floor on Wednesday after lawmakers return from summer recess. Congress has a September 30 deadline to make changes to the spending bill in order to avoid a partial government shutdown on October 1.
The House speaker called the proposal "a critically important step" toward funding the government and ensuring "that only American citizens can decide American elections"—prompting one critic to accuse Johnson of pushing a "manufactured" issue.
"Anyone who reads the SAVE Act understands it is a bad bill," said attorney Heath Hixson, "a poorly worded unfunded mandate that'll lead to voter suppression and racist outcomes."
Floridians and reproductive rights advocates responded with alarm on Friday to Tampa Bay Timesreporting that Florida law enforcement officers have been sent to the homes of multiple voters who signed a petition to get an abortion rights measure on the November ballot.
While Isaac Menasche told the newspaper that he isn't sure which agency the plainclothes officer who came to his home is with, fellow Lee County resident Becky Castellanos said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Officer Gary Negrinelli showed his badge and gave his card.
Both visits were about potential fraud related to the petition for Amendment 4, which would outlaw pre-viability abortion bans in Florida. Menasche was asked if he signed the petition, which he had. Negrinelli inquired about Castellanos' relative, who also signed the petition.
"This is pure voter intimidation, just like with the 'election police' in 2022. It's Gestapo tactics."
The officer inquiries appear "to be part of a broad—and unusual—effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration to inspect thousands of already verified and validated petitions for Amendment 4 in the final two months before Election Day," the Times reported.
The Republican governor signed the state's six-week ban that would end if the ballot measure passes. He has also faced criticism for creating an Office of Election Crimes and Security, whose work has led to the arrest of Floridians who believed they were legally allowed to vote following the passage of a referendum that restored voting rights to many people with past felony convictions.
As the Times detailed Friday:
Since last week, DeSantis' secretary of state has ordered elections supervisors in at leastfour counties to send to Tallahassee at least 36,000 petition forms already deemed to have been signed by real people. Since the Timesfirst reported on this effort, Alachua and Broward counties have confirmed they also received requests from the state.
One 16-year supervisor said the request was unprecedented. The state did not ask for rejected petitions, which have been the basis for past fraud cases.
While Department of State spokesperson Ryan Ash said the agency has "uncovered evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions" and "we have a duty to seek justice for Florida citizens who were victimized," a representative for the coalition behind Amendment 4 criticized the state effort.
"This is very clearly a fishing expedition," ACLU of Florida spokesperson Keisha Mulfort, whose group is part of Floridians Protecting Freedom, told the Times. "It is more important than ever for Floridians to reject these authoritarian tactics and vote yes on Amendment 4 in November."
Promoting the report on social media, the ACLU of Florida added, "This is what state-authorized election interference looks like."
Democrats in the state were similarly critical. Florida state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani (D-42) shared a social media post in which Menasche described feeling "shaken" and "troubled" by the encounter with the officer.
"This is unhinged and undemocratic behavior being pushed by DeSantis and his cronies in an effort to continue our state's near total abortion ban," said Eskamani. "It's clear voter intimidation and plain corruption—continue to call it out and fight back. Vote @yes4florida and spread the word."
Responding to Eskamani, Pamela Castellana, chair of the Brevard Democratic Executive Committee, said: "This literally took my breath away. This is pure voter intimidation, just like with the 'election police' in 2022. It's Gestapo tactics. If you live in Florida you know. If you don't—please help me get the word out. Stop authoritarianism."
Journalist Jessica Valenti argued Friday that Republicans "don't care that voters want abortion rights restored—and if they need to dismantle democracy to keep it banned, so be it."
"We've seen lots of Republican attacks on pro-choice ballot measures—but what makes this one especially insidious is that it's trying to gaslight Americans into thinking that voters don't really want abortion rights restored, but that the overwhelming support is fabricated," she added.
In addition to raising concerns about the fraud allegations, Amendment 4 supporters are outraged over the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration on Thursday launching a webpage claiming that the ballot measure "threatens women's safety."
Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D-35) pledged that she is looking into "appropriate legal action," while Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement that "this kind of propaganda issued by the state, using taxpayer money and operating outside of the political process, sets a dangerous precedent."
"This is what we would expect to see from an authoritarian regime," added Jackson, "not in the so-called 'Free State of Florida.'"
"Dr. de la Torre will be held accountable for his greed and the damage he has caused the American people and our nation's healthcare system."
Taking aim at Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre's refusal to comply with a Senate subpoena, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday said the committee he chairs will still hold a hearing next week on the company's bankruptcy and healthcare industry greed.
"Working with private equity vultures, Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and healthcare providers across the country," said Sanders, who heads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
"This outrageous display of corporate greed has resulted in more than 30 Steward hospitals in eight states being forced to declare bankruptcy, putting patients and communities at risk," added the senator, who said the hearing is set to take place next Thursday at 10:00 am Eastern time.
"Ralph de la Torre has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and health care providers across the country."
Steward is trying to auction off all 31 of its hospitals in order to pay down its debt. As Common Dreamsreported, the HELP committee—which includes 10 Republicans—voted 20-1 in July to investigate Steward Health Care's bankruptcy, and 16-4 to subpoena de la Torre.
"Dr. de la Torre will be held accountable for his greed and the damage he has caused the American people and our nation's healthcare system," Sanders said Friday. "Is it my hope that Dr. de la Torre will do the right thing, change his mind, and join our hearing to provide testimony? Yes. But let me be clear: With or without him, this hearing is going forward."
"We will expose his fraud, and put his greed on display," the senator added. "I look forward to hearing from patients, medical professionals, and community members whose lives have been upended by Dr. de la Torre and his private equity cronies."
Another HELP committee member, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is a bankruptcy law expert, on Wednesday accused de la Torre of using Steward-owned hospitals "as his personal piggy bank."
De la Torre—who according to Steward's bankruptcy filing received more than $4 million in compensation between May 2023 and April 2024—has also come under fire for his 2021 purchase of a 190-foot megayacht believed to be worth around $40 million. That year, Steward's owners paid themselves millions of dollars in dividends.
On Thursday, CBS Newsreported that in 2017 Steward executives including de la Torre illegally conspired with Maltese officials in order to secure a hospital contract, according to a whistleblower.
While a spokesperson for the executive denied any wrongdoing, whistleblower Ram Tumuluri alleged in a complaint to the U.S. Congress that "in touting Steward's supposed competitive advantage in Malta... de la Torre boasted that he could issue 'brown bags' to government officials if necessary to close transactions."