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For Immediate Release
August, 29 2017, 01:00pm EDT
Contact:
Evan Greer, press@fightforthefuture.org, 978-852-6457
Net Neutrality Advocates Unveil More Crowdfunded Billboards Exposing Key Lawmakers Supporting the FCC's Net Neutrality Repeal
New billboards in three states single out members of Congress who support the FCC’s plan to gut rules stopping ISPs from charging new fees, slowing traffic, or blocking websites
WASHINGTON
Today digital rights organization Fight for the Future unveiled 3 more crowdfunded billboards targeting Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Bob Latta, and Greg Walden, members of Congress who have publicly supported the FCC's efforts to gut net neutrality protections that keep the web free from censorship, throttling, and extra fees. The three new billboards are the latest in an ongoing campaign focused on lawmakers who oppose Internet freedom. Earlier this month the group launched an initial round of net neutrality billboards targeting six different lawmakers in states across the country.
The move comes just hours before the FCC's final deadline for public input on their controversial plan to repeal net neutrality. With lawmakers still in their home districts, the billboards - paid for by hundreds of small donations - appear in three different states.
See PHOTOS of the 3 new billboards here: https://imgur.com/a/UHfXJ
Since the massive July 12th day of action, millions have contacted their representatives - who have oversight over the FCC - to ensure these key protections are not changed or removed. The billboards send a strong message to any Members of Congress contemplating support for the FCC's plan to repeal net neutrality, which is currently being tracked through a "congressional scorecard" on BattleForTheNet.com. So far very few lawmakers have been willing to publicly support Ajit Pai's plan, likely in light of polling that shows voters -- including Republicans -- overwhelmingly oppose it.
The billboards encourage constituents to contact their elected representatives; for example, Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Rep. Greg Walden's (R-OR) billboard in Medford, Oregon asks, "Want slower, more expensive Internet? Rep. Walden supports CenturyLink's plan to destroy net neutrality. Ask him why: (541) 776-4646."
The outdoor ads feature some of the few members of Congress who came out with early support for FCC's plan to repeal net neutrality rules, including:
- Spokane, WA - Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (N. Monroe Street at W. Broadway Ave)
- Findlay, OH - Rep. Bob Latta (corner of E Main Cross St and East St.)
- Medford, OR - Rep. Greg Walden (N. Pacific Hwy at Elm Ave)
"It doesn't matter which party you're in, or how charming you are on TV -- if you attack net neutrality and Internet freedom we will make sure everyone knows that you're corrupt to the core" said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future (pronouns: she/hers), "every member of Congress should take note: supporting the FCC's plan to allow censorship, throttling, and price gouging may get you a few extra campaign donations from big telecom companies, but it will infuriate your constituents, and will come with a serious political cost.
The billboards highlight the increasing scrutiny on Congress - who have important oversight authority over the FCC. With no viable legislation on the table, net neutrality supporters remain opposed to any attempt at legislation that would undermine the strong rules at the FCC, which were fought for by millions of Americans, and are calling on lawmakers to publicly oppose Ajit Pai's plan, and require the FCC to act with transparency and address serious irregularities in its rulemaking process.
Fight for the Future was also one of the leading organizations behind the historic Internet-Wide Day of Action for Net Neutrality on July 12, which drove a record breaking 2 million+ comments to the FCC and Congress in a single day. Learn more at fightforthefuture.org
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Weighs Divestment From Companies Complicit in Israeli Crimes
The world's largest pension fund recently adopted new ethics rules that could preclude it from owning shares in several U.S. arms firms.
Sep 04, 2024
Norway's $1.76 trillion sovereign wealth fund—the world's largest—could soon be forced to divest from companies including linchpins of the U.S. military-industrial complex due to updated ethics standards for businesses complicit in Israeli human rights violations in occupied Palestine.
Reutersreported Wednesday that the Government Pension Fund Global Council of Ethics informed the Norwegian Ministry of Finance on August 30 that it "believes the ethical guidelines provide a basis for excluding a few more companies" to its divestment list, "in addition to those already excluded."
The ethics council has been investigating whether to blacklist more companies ever since Israel began its bombardment, siege, and invasion of Gaza 334 days ago in response to the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed or maimed more than 145,000 Palestinians, while forcibly displacing, starving, and sickening millions more and obliterating the Gaza Strip. Israel is currently
on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
Also under the council's consideration is Israel's conduct in the illegally occupied West Bank, where occupation forces have killed hundreds more Palestinians and settlers have carried out deadly pogroms under the protection—and sometimes with the participation—of Israel Defense Forces troops.
The fund's ethics rules—which are made by Norway's parliament, the Storting—were updated partly due to the ICJ's July advisory opinion that Israel's 57-year occupation is an illegal form of apartheid that must immediately end.
Companies under consideration include U.S.-based RTX (formerly Raytheon), General Electric, and General Dynamics.
Under its previous policy, the fund divested from nine companies operating in the occupied West Bank. Targeted businesses build homes and roads in illegal Israeli settler colonies, as well as provide surveillance systems for the Israeli separation wall, often called the "apartheid wall," along the Green Line boundary and inside parts of the West Bank.
In June, another Norwegian pension fund, Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), divested its nearly $70 million stake in Texas-based Caterpillar, citing the use of its bulldozers in ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
"For a long time, Caterpillar has supplied bulldozers and other equipment that has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure to clear the way for Israeli settlements," KLP head of responsible investments Kiran Aziz said at the time. "It has also been alleged that the company's equipment is being used by the Israeli Defence Forces in connection with its military campaign in Gaza."
Norway is one of several nations including Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and
Armenia that have recently joined the nearly 150 countries that have formally recognized Palestinian statehood.
"In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side, in peace and security," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in late May.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened "severe consequences" for Norway, Spain, and Ireland after they announced they would recognize Palestine.
In a move that the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
called an "alarming precedent," Israel last month revoked the accreditation and visas of eight Norwegian diplomats over the Nordic nation's support for Palestine.
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"International and U.S. law, as well as your administration's policies including NSM-20," said the groups, "require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government."
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As U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was telling reporters on Tuesday that assessments regarding whether Israel is abiding by international humanitarian law in Gaza are ongoing, more than two dozen rights groups were telling the Biden administration that it need look no further than its own memo released months ago to see that the U.S. must end its support for the Israeli military.
Groups including Amnesty International, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, and Refugees International were among 25 organizations that signed a letter sent Tuesday to President Joe Biden; Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee; and their foreign policy advisers. The letter was sent a day after the British government announced it was suspending 30 arms export licenses for Israel, citing "a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law."
The letter pointed out that it's been nearly four months since the administration released its report on May 10 on National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which "concluded that U.S.-provided arms had likely been used by Israeli security forces in manners 'inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations.'"
NSM-20, issued in February, required Secretary of State Antony Blinken to confirm that countries using U.S. weapons—including Israel, which has received more than 100 military transfers from the U.S. since last October—are not blocking U.S. humanitarian aid and are using the weapons in accordance with international law.
The groups on Tuesday noted that despite the finding in the May 10 report, the administration claimed that Israel's assurances that it had not used U.S. weapons in strikes that violated international law were "credible and reliable," and that the U.S. would not suspend weapons transfers at that time.
The claim that Israel's assurances were credible was in direct opposition to a leaked internal memo in which four State Department officials said they had "serious concern over non-compliance" with international law.
"Since your May 10 report, the U.N. estimates a 300% increase in acute malnutrition in Northern Gaza."
The official assessment released in May also "stood in stark contrast to the realities in Gaza and across occupied Palestine and appeared to blatantly disregard both the requirements of U.S. law and policy and extensive documentation submitted by human rights and humanitarian organizations and independent experts," reads the new letter, citing reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups that detailed how U.S. weapons have been used in attacks that killed civilians and could constitute war crimes.
Moreover, the letter states, "the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has only worsened" since the NSM-20 report, but the U.S. policy of providing "virtually unconditional military support for the Israeli government continues."
The letter notes that the U.S. continues to support the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) despite continued restrictions on aid flowing into Gaza by Israel, with the level of aid entering Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing dropping by more than 80% over the past three months.
"As a result of the compounding access and delivery challenges, malnutrition and the perpetual risk of famine remains rampant across Gaza," wrote the groups. "Since your May 10 report, the U.N. estimates a 300% increase in acute malnutrition in Northern Gaza, while the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading analyst on food insecurity, found in June that all of Gaza is at high risk of famine and 96% of the population is currently food insecure."
Annie Shiel, U.S. advocacy director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, noted that the Biden administration's continued military support for Israel as famine takes hold of Gaza may violate the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act—Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
The Biden administration's continued support for the IDF sends "a political signal of unconditional support for Israel's conduct," said Shiel. "The U.S. has the leverage to bring about a cease-fire—but chooses not to use it."
The letter on Tuesday also pointed to numerous reports that U.S.-made weapons have been used by Israel in attacks that killed civilians since May 10, including:
- A strike that used U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs on a camp for internally displaced people in west Rafah on May 26, killing at least 36 people, including six children;
- A July 9 airstrike on a school that killed at least 27 people and used an American small-diameter bomb; and
- An August 10 attack on a school in Gaza City that was being used as a shelter, which killed 93 people using a U.S. small-diameter bomb.
"These developments should compel the United States to suspend arms transfers to the Israeli government under the Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits arms transfers when 'the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipients' commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit' serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law," wrote the groups.
The organizations urged "an immediate, public review of Israel's compliance with NSM-20, accounting for the numerous apparent violations of international law and restrictions on humanitarian aid documented by civil society and the media since May 10 and throughout the NSM-20 reporting period."
As U.S. support continues, said the groups, "the risk of United States' and U.S. officials' complicity in Israeli violations of international law due to U.S. arms transfers has only increased."
"We urgently call upon your administration to change its approach and suspend weapons transfers to Israel, which continue to cause devastating harm and risk making the United States complicit in war crimes," they wrote. "International and U.S. law, as well as your administration's policies including NSM-20, require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government."
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Casualties Reported at High School Shooting in Georgia
A source at the local hospital told CNN that gunshot victims were being received, but the scope of the shooting or the number of people wounded, or possibly killed, was not immediately known.
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This a breaking and developing story... Please check back for updates...
Just days into the new school year, students at Apalachee High School in the town of Winder, Georgia were on a "hard lockdown" Wednesday morning after an active shooter situation unfolded, with reports of casualties and injured victims being transported by ambulance, at least one medi-vac helicopter landing in front of the school, and a large police presence at the scene.
While law enforcement has yet to provide any official statement on the situation, early reports indicate that a suspect has been taken into custody and that at least two victims were killed and another four wounded.
As NBC News reports:
LIVE: NBC News Special Report: School shooting reported at Apalachee High School near Atlanta; authorities report "casualties" and one suspect in custody. https://t.co/XIW82ysI6L https://t.co/hlkS7nZmHK
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 4, 2024
A source at the local hospital toldCNN that gunshot victims were being received, but the scope of the shooting was not immediately known.
The "Everything Georgia" social media account said that while "more details" would be emerging, that early reports suggested it could be a "large-scale tragedy."
According to the local 11Alive news channel:
The 11Alive SkyTracker flew over the school, where it appeared one individual was airlifted from the scene.
Many law enforcement, fire and ambulance vehicles were visible. Students could be seen assembling at the football field.
Gov. Brian Kemp said in a post on X he has "directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state. We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation."
"Shooting at my daughters school, Apalachee HS," said Ash Walsh, a local resident posting on X. Walsh said her own daughter stayed home for the day due to an enrollment issue, but that a school shooting "has been a huge fear of mine for years."
"Reports from inside school," she said, "are saying 4 shot but not confirmed yet. I'll post any updates I get from inside the school."
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