Nate Hagens on perspectives of wealth and poverty.
At the same time that the power dynamic of the economic superorganism leads us to a hyperfocus on the pursuit of growth and monetary wealth, other forms of poverty increase: relationships, skills, health, and behavioral deficits….
How will the turmoil and decrease in total material wealth in the coming decades change what it means to be wealthy - and how does that influence the actions and investments we take on today?
Electric cars are not the future
For a city-dweller ditching a petrol car, the calculation then becomes: instead of an EV, can I buy a much cheaper, health-giving e-bike that I can charge in my flat, and supplement with the odd taxi ride? That is the trend. European and US car sales peaked in 2019. About 5.5 million e-bikes were sold in the EU in 2022, against just two million electric cars. Many car-owners now use bikes for short trips.
How degrowth and ecosocialism can work in tandem to stop consumerism and overconsumption and reduce emissions in order to transition to a zero-carbon, post-climate change world. Degrowth is a response to the rampant growth/profit capitalist paradigm that fuels consumerism and is causing climate change. Degrowth de-centers capitalism and consumerism and instead argues for a world wherein there’s a planned contraction of rich economies to allow for the well-being of everyone in the world.
To end the climate crisis we’ll have to uproot capitalism.
#ClimateEmergency
Abortion-rights coalition launches campaign to put amendment on Missouri ballot:
…a coalition of Missouri abortion-rights organizations plan to officially launch an effort Thursday to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot to legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability.
Missouri has one of the most restrictive laws in the country, banning all abortions except in the case of medical emergencies… Missourians for Constitutional Freedom announced Thursday it would begin to gather signatures to put an initiative petition on the statewide ballot rolling back that ban.
With US support and complicity: A crisis of humanity, a living hell, a blood bath, a situation of utter deepening and unmatched horror
Madame President, members of the Court, there is an urgent need for provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the irreparable prejudice caused by Israel’s violations of the genocide convention. The UN Secretary General and its Chiefs describe the situation in Gaza variously as a crisis of humanity, a living hell, a blood bath, a situation of utter deepening and unmatched horror, where an entire population is besieged…
#Gaza #Genocide
Thoughts on Octavia Butler's Parable series
I recently finished reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents and in the days since I’m finding that while I’m not actively thinking about the story, I’ve not been able to shake it. I feel it sitting in the back of my mind as a presence. I’m not ready to read her other stories but I want to know more about her as well as more background about the Earthseed story. I want to dig around in this thoughtscape.
The books were published in the early to mid 1990s and the story timeline in first book begins around 2024. And while the US of 2024 is not as broken down as it is in her books it certainly seems to be on the path she describes. We seem to be headed that way.
There is a simple and dark truth here of what we might expect in a more brutal world where social order is breaking down. We’re already getting glimpses how quickly humans can turn on one another and abandon previous social norms of respect. More is likely to come.
But in the midst of the brutality of this fragmented future Butler puts forth a young woman determined to spread her new “religion”, a discovery, which she calls Earthseed which she has written into a book, The Book of the Living.
Though it’s described as a religion or theology with verses that reference God, defined as change, it seems to me that it is better defined as an ethical framework and a description of the our relationship to nature, the universe. The first verse:
1. God is Change
All that you touch
You Change.All that you Change
Changes you.The only lasting truth
Is Change.God
Is Change.
Throughout the story we see Lauren Olamina, a young black woman determined to bend, adapt, learn and continue forward with her self-defined mission to carry humanity forward. As a contrast to the tech oligarchs so revered and despised today, she seems to have found a way of being change annd inspiring change that is not about her ego, gratification or other personal gain. Each step seems to be in service to the ideas or as she might say, her discovery of this fundamental truth of change.
So much about this story, the ethics and the main character is resonating with me. I’ve lived my adult life largely in opposition to the dominant social norms and structures I was born into: capitalism, the state, patriarchy - all systems of domination, command and control. Change is all I’ve ever wanted. But as I’ve lived, the changes I’ve witnessed have only carried us closer to the chaos and near oblivion we see in Butler’s telling of our present. We are here now in the midst of these long building crises.
Born into a broken world Olamina finds the strength to persist. She refuses to give in or give up. Over and over we see her embrace and adapt to the events unfolding around her. She bends, is changed and yet, in that transformative process, she returns the favor with careful, thoughtful response. Always seeking to understand and help others understand, she uses and demonstrates a process of cooperative learning.
She builds her community and movement, working through set-backs and a never-ending stream of obstacles. Butler has given us a character who demonstrates characteristics that we desperately need in our moment today. For Olamina there is no choice but to move forward. Her process is self-sustaining in that her sowing relies not on the coercion of others but in their empowerment. Like a community garden, her movement grows because her seeds become new gardeners and those new gardeners plant new seeds.
I’ve only scratched the surface of what I’d like to write. I expect I’ll expand this post further or add other posts. There’s a great deal of material online about the Parable stories as well as Butler’s other work. Below is just a tiny sampling.
Earthseed, The Books of the Living, Wikipedia
How Octavia Butler’s Sci-Fi Dystopia Became A Constant In A Man’s Evolution…
What Butler saw in our future matters more today than ever. She saw a world headed toward collapse. She saw a Black, female prophet who understood that nothing was inevitable, that we have the power to change things and change course. On some level, as a 13-year-old, I understood that Butler’s work was not just a warning but also an invitation. It invites us to let go of the conventions that can lock us into a destructive future and to embrace our greatest power, to change. She introduces us to a humanist vision for the future that makes space for metaphysical spirituality without the need for a traditional, omnipotent God-figure.
How Octavia Butler Told the Future…
My turn toward Butler’s work as a model, and toward fiction and creative nonfiction as additional forms, is an attempt at finding new ways to meet our current predicament. I have found Butler’s work and, just as crucially, her method to be instructive in thinking of history more as a resource than as a discipline—a trove in which we can gather tools to help us face our crises.
We need Butler’s historical insight, her way of imagining characters into disastrous moments where past and future touch, as we try to interpret the present and contend with what is to come. With this goal in mind, it is possible to read Butler’s novels as guidebooks, or how-to survival tales.
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown:
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Inspired by Octavia Butler’s explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.
adrienne maree brown: Octavia Butler’s Visions of the Future Have Transformed Generation of Readers…
The visionary Black science-fiction writer Octavia Butler died 15 years ago on February 24, 2006, but her influence and readership has only continued to grow since then. In September, Butler’s novel “Parable of the Sower” became her first to reach the New York Times best-seller list. We speak with adrienne maree brown, a writer and Octavia Butler scholar, who says Butler had a remarkable talent for universalizing Black stories. “She wrote about Black women and about Black feminism, about Black futures, but she wrote in a way that appealed to all human beings,” says brown.
Remembering Octavia Butler: Black Sci-Fi Writer Shares Cautionary Tales In Unearthed 2005 Interview…
Butler was the first Black woman to win Hugo and Nebula awards for science-fiction writing and the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. Her best-known books include the classics “Kindred,” as well as “Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents” — two-thirds of a trilogy that was never finished. Her work inspired a new generation of Black science-fiction writers, and she has been called “the Mother of Afrofuturism.” Her 2005 interview with Democracy Now! took place shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and as President George W. Bush was overseeing the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When asked how she set out to become a science-fiction writer when there were so few examples of Black women working in the genre, Butler said she never doubted her abilities. “I assumed that I could do it,” she said. “I wasn’t being brave or even thoughtful. I wanted it. And I assumed I could have it.”
Climate Emergency Link Roundup
Global heating will pass 1.5C threshold this year, top ex-Nasa scientist says…
The internationally agreed threshold to prevent the Earth from spiraling into a new superheated era will be “passed for all practical purposes” during 2024, the man known as the godfather of climate science has warned.
James Hansen, the former Nasa scientist credited for alerting the world to the dangers of climate change in the 1980s, said that global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels, amplified by the naturally reoccurring El Niño climatic event, will by May push temperatures to as much as 1.7C (3F) above the average experienced before industrialization.
The past years were the hottest on record. Yet we’re on track to burn more fossil fuels | Kim Heacox…
A vast majority of the world’s best climate scientists have told us again and again that to maintain a stable and liveable planet, we, the human race, must reduce the burning of fossil fuels – and emissions of greenhouse gases – by half by 2030. And end emissions altogether by 2050. Knowing this, what are we on track to do?
Just the opposite. According to a new United Nations-backed report, many countries – Russia, Saudi Arabia, the US and others – will increase coal, oil and gas production. So much so that by 2030 humans worldwide will burn more fossil fuels (and load our atmosphere with more greenhouse gas emissions) than at any time in our history.
Unless we turn things around, and soon, this could be our greatest failure: how a single intelligent species abandoned its better, wiser self and destroyed its own home.
Global warming pushes ocean temperatures off the charts: study…
Oceans cover 70 percent of the planet and have kept the Earth’s surface livable by absorbing 90 percent of the excess heat produced by the carbon pollution from human activity since the dawn of the industrial age.
In 2023, the oceans soaked up around 9 to 15 zettajoules more than in 2022, according to the respective estimates from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Chinese Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP).
One zettajoule of energy is roughly equivalent to ten times the electricity generated worldwide in a year.
To Prevent Climate Chaos, We May Have to Forsake Economic Growth…
With Earth’s average annual temperature speeding toward1.5 degrees Celsiusfaster than expected andglobal climate policy on a treadmill, an increasing number of researchers say it’s time to consider a “restorative pathway” to avoid the worst ecological and social outcomes of global warming.
In a recent studyin Environmental Research Letters, an international team of scientists wrote that reaching global goals could require focusing on ways to drive rapid changes in the way people live, move, work and eat; on making sure that global wealth is distributed more equitably; and on restoring and protecting biodiversity and ecosystems like forests, oceans, fields and rivers that are critical to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
‘Off the charts’: 2023 was hottest year ever recorded globally, US scientists confirm…
Last year was the hottest ever reliably recorded globally by a blistering margin, US scientists have confirmed, leaving researchers struggling to account for the severity of the heat and what it portends for the unfolding climate crisis.
Last year was the world’s hottest in records that stretch back to 1850, according to analyses released concurrently by Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) on Friday, with a record high in ocean temperatures and a new low in Antarctic sea ice extent.
First results are in: 2023 temperatures were stunningly warm…
The confused wiggles on the graph above have a simple message: Most years, even years with record-high temperatures, have some months that aren’t especially unusual. Month to month, temperatures dip and rise, with the record years mostly being a matter of having fewer, shallower dips.
As the graph shows, last year was not at all like that. The first few months of the year were unusually warm. And then, starting in June, temperatures rose to record heights and simply stayed there. Every month after June set a new record for high temperatures for that month. So it’s not surprising that 2023 will enter the record books as far and away the warmest year on record.
What Can I Do About the Climate Emergency?…
Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility is a climate anthology published last year and edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua. They’ve just added a chapter to the book that’s available for free download that contains practical advice on how to involved in combatting the climate crisis: What Can I Do About the Climate Emergency?
The climate movement needs you. In this pamphlet, we outline some of the ways you can join it, and we share examples of how ordinary people have found their role, their power, their impactful projects, and their climate community. There’s a place for you in the crucial work of speeding the transition away from destruction and toward thriving. Figuring out where your skills are useful and what you can stick with is important. Identifying whom to work with and what to work on is crucial. Some of us are good at staying with a legislative issue for a season or a year or a decade. Some of us are good campaigners. Some like protests and are ready to blockade and risk arrest. Some of us are homebound but can make calls and write letters. It all matters.
Finished reading: Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler 📚
Dark and difficult subject matter but a solid story.
I’m enjoying reading books again. The Libby app is a very nice reading experience and given that the books are checked out with a return date is helpful in keeping me on track.
South African lawyer’s incredible speech accusing Israel of genocide at ICJ - YouTube
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi was giving evidence at the Hague against Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza in the case taken out by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
#Gaza #Genocide #Palestine
Irish lawyer’s stunning speech at The Hague accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza - YouTube
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh stood in front of the International Court of Justice as part of South Africa’s legal team taking action against Israel for it’s conduct against Gaza.
#Gaza #Palestine #Genocide
South Africa Lays Out Genocide Case vs. Israel at World Court in The Hague…
South Africa began to make its case Thursday at the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In their opening statements, South Africa’s lawyers argued that the sheer scale of Israel’s violence, which has so far killed more than 23,000 people since October 7, is part of a political and military strategy aimed at the destruction of Palestinian life, using statements from top Israeli leaders to show genocidal intent.
#Gaza #Genocide
South Africa Just Made Its Case Against Israel at the Hague…
South Africa’s genocide charges against Israel were formally brought to The Hague today, with the post-apartheid nation facing off against Israel for two days of emergency hearings. South Africa’s immediate aim is to win a ruling later this month – perhaps as early as next week – ordering Israel to cease and desist in its assault of Gaza.
An interesting patch of moss and lichen near the trail on my morning walk. The lichen appears to be taking over the moss.
The war on Palestine and Gaza: Link Roundup
#Gaza #Genocide #Apartheid
South Africa’s genocide case against Israel: How will the ICJ decide?…
Two days of public hearings in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel will start at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday, as pro-Palestine campaigners hope the World Court might halt Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza.
The case, filed by South Africa, sets a precedent as the first at the ICJ relating to the siege on the Gaza Strip, where more than 23,000 people have been killed since October 7, nearly 10,000 of them children.
Israel is murdering Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Where is the outrage? | Chris McGreal…
I am in awe of Wael Dahdouh’s strength to haul himself back in front of the camera and focus on the suffering of others even as he has repeatedly endured his own personal hell. The face of Al Jazeera’s reporting throughout Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza was on air in October when he learned that his wife, seven-year-old daughter, 15-year-old son and one-year-old grandson were killed in an attack. Still he went on reporting.
Last month, Dahdouh himself was wounded and his cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, killed in the Israeli bombing of** **a UN-run school used as a shelter. Then on Sunday, an Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Gaza killed Dahdouh’s eldest son, 27-year-old Hamza, who also worked for Al Jazeera, along with another journalist.
Israeli army appears to change tack on strike that killed Gaza journalists…
Al Jazeera journalists Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were killed in a targeted strike on their car in Khan Younis.
The Israeli military has seemingly walked back its justification for targeting a vehicle in Gaza last week, killing two Al Jazeera journalists, United States broadcaster NBC reported.
Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, was killed in an Israeli missile strike on Sunday in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Journalist Mustafa Thuraya was also killed in the attack, while a third passenger, journalist Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.
Despite All Evidence, Blinken Calls Genocide Case Against Israel ‘Meritless’…
In the same speech in which he admitted that 90% of people in Gaza arefacing acute food insecurityamid Israel’s blockade and bombardment, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Tuesday that South Africa’s lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide is “meritless” despite the exhaustive evidence set to be reviewed by a United Nations court this week.
How Israel’s “Send Palestinians to Congo” plan Evokes British Colonial Plans to send Jews to Uganda…
Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – Nothing illuminates the mutant perversion of Zionism under Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi) more clearly than this: He proposes to forcibly evict all Palestinians from Gaza (Palestine), and move them to Congo. This is what Great Britain proposed in 1903, as a solution to the “Jewish problem.” Rather than allow Jews to immigrate to Palestine and create a new Jewish homeland, they proposed to move them to Uganda, where the British Crown had plenty of room.
Report: Major News Outlets Like NYT Cover Gaza With Strong Bias Toward Israel…
As advocates for Palestinian rights have long maintained, major U.S. news outlets retain a strong bias toward Israel in their coverage of Israeli forces’ current bombardment of Gaza, a new analysis published by The Intercept shows.
In an analysis of Gaza coverage from The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, researcher Othman Ali and writer Adam Johnson found quantitative evidence that, in the first six weeks after the October 7 Hamas attack, the outlets maintained a “gross imbalance” favoring Israel in the way that casualties and narratives were portrayed.
Will Israel Drag the US Into Another Ruinous War?…
America and Israel’s interests have never been fully aligned on Gaza. But as Israel’s bombardment of the narrow strip has continued for almost 100 days, the Netanyahu government is shifting in a direction that directly threatens the stated goals of the Biden administration: Israel wants to expand the war into Lebanon and appears to welcome open warfare against so-called Axis of Resistance—Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the revolutionary government in Iran. The assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut yesterday makes that clear. So far, President Joe Biden has refused the one step that can prevent both this escalation and the US from getting dragged into yet another war in the Middle East: a cease-fire in Gaza.
Biden’s Refusal of Gaza Ceasefire Could Drag U.S. into Middle East War…
Middle East policy expert Trita Parsi says President Biden’s reluctance to press Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza has the potential to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran and its allies in the region. On Monday, Israel reportedly killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, just days after an airstrike killed a senior Hamas leader in the capital Beirut. Meanwhile, the U.S. has exchanged fire with Yemen’s Houthi forces, who have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea to pressure Israel to stop its war. “The Biden administration clearly do not want an escalation,” says Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. But the longer Israel’s war on Gaza continues with full U.S. support, the less likely regional actors are to continue showing restraint, he says. “This is not going to work in the long run.”
Trying to sleep with two dogs and a cat. Last night was particularly fun. At 3:30 Cosmo (dog on left) decided to move closer. Annie in middle on her back. Cosmo's plan was to use Annie as a pillow. I was trying to take photos without waking.
Annie is now a pillow
Rosie on top of my arm.
I’m not sure what’s more frightening here. The lack of competence displayed by local officials that are obviously unprepared for what’s already happening and what’s coming in the near future. Or the citizens that are expecting unrealistic, magic wand solutions. They just expect that local officials will just conjure up solutions on demand.
It’s magical thinking with statements being made in these stories that defy reality. Local officials, citizens and businesses are all just of the opinion that they can and will push forward and reality will bend to their will because they want it to.
It’s absolutely bonkers.
Local communities face hard questions about housing in the age of climate change : NPR
Today on The Sunday Story, a visit to three communities in America trying to balance the need for housing with the threat of climate-driven disaster.
What's a professional?*
I opened Mastodon this morning to find this fun thread about the iPad. It seems to be a reference to the latest episode of the Talk Show, with John Gruber and Casey Liss.
Gruber continues with his odd, angry fixation on the iPad:
You’re making excuses for a platform that has baby computer limits. It’s a 14-year-old platform and you still can’t make iPad apps on an iPad.
Lol, really? Again, I’ll just say that I find it bizarre that pundits are so frustrated, angry even, about a device that they don’t even use. It’s as though they can’t conceive that not everything is made for them. Guys, use your macs and be happy that you have a computer that works for you.
Not everything in this world is made for you. It’s okay to just move on.
Along with Gruber Casey Liss chimed in calling the iPad a toy but suggesting it’s a matter of perspective.
I engaged with Casey a bit and during that back and forth I shared my observation that many if not most tech/Apple podcasts are casual banter meant to be entertainment rather than journalism. Not meant to be derogatory, just a simple statement. He didn’t think it was fair.
LOL. Wait. Fair?
For context, I mean, really. Listen to any random episode of these guys' podcasts, the Talk Show or Accidental Tech Podcast and it’s immediately obvious that this is not journalism.They’re doing casual banter full of opinion, speculation and hot takes often dramatically expressed with great exasperation. I mean, with ATP that seems to be their schtick, right?
I mean, look, at least some of these guys seem to make a pretty good living from podcasting. Which is to say, it’s their profession. They are, ostensibly, professional podcasters and writers. And it’s fine that what they are offering is punditry but they shouldn’t claim otherwise.
The downside is that, at least in the tech “press”, punditry has largely displaced actual, fact-based journalism. And I suspect that many in the public don’t always discern between the two. So when popular podcasters that are viewed as having some authority are casually sharing misinformation, that’s not great.
I’ve written about it before:
- For the iPad fans, in case it’s not obvious, that’s a reference to Apple’s “What’s a computer” ad from several years ago.
Christina Warren:
NGL, a huge part of me loves this even tho I know I would use it once or twice and then never again.
Exhibit 32,018 as to why we are in a #ClimateEmergency. No care or concern about the reckless use and waste of resources. “If I can buy it and it interests me I will, regardless of the long term environmental costs. Not my problem.” Meanwhile, this same privileged 10% claim to care about climate while pointing fingers of blame at corporations and government.
The 10% refuse to take responsibility for the role that their hyper consumerism plays in furthering the crisis.
I love Warner Crocker’s incredibly detailed post about the various ways the iPad fits into his workflow. He gets into the specifics of when the iPad Mini is the better device, when the larger iPad is better and then how the Mac and iPhone are used. Making the best use of the strengths of each form factor for different parts of the process.
I think this might be my all-time favorite “how I use the iPad” posts. Helpful and entertaining!
The iPad Is My Perfect Theatre Rehearsal Tool…
I own the latest models of an 11-inch iPad Pro and also an iPad mini. Love them both. I use them in similar but different ways, fitting the tool to the job of the moment. I may be a gadget geek, but I’m primarily a theatre professional. Most of my work is directing plays. Both serve me well in my job. Currently, I’m working out of town on staging The Lehman Trilogy. Both the iPad Pro and the iPad mini suitably fill my down hours with entertainment and are reliable work horses for the gig. To be honest, their roles as tools are so familiar that to call my usage “rote” would be accurate.
There’s quite a bit more I’d like to quote but better you just read Warner’s post.
Several years ago Apple did a story highlighting how the iPad was being used by archaeologists. This is exactly that kind of story without the corporate baloney.
The war on Palestine and Gaza: Link Roundup
In Gaza, Palestinians Are Running Out of Water and Tears…
The number of Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7is more than 20,000 according to the Gaza Health Ministry, although no one can give an exact number under these circumstances. As I write, in early December, Israel has just bombed a residential bloc in the crowded Shuja’iyya district in Gaza City, destroying 50 more houses on top of their residents. The amount of destruction brought upon the people of Gaza, unseen since 1948, suggests one thing: Israel’s clear intention to depopulate Gaza, a plan that Tel Aviv tried to implement in the past but has never succeeded at.
WHO EMRO | WHO staff member killed in Gaza | News | Media centre
21 November 2023 – With heavy hearts, WHO announces the death of one of our staff in Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territory. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29 years old, had been with WHO since December 2019. She worked as a patient administrator at the Limb Reconstruction Centre, a critical part of the WHO Trauma and Emergency Team.
Dima died today when her parents’ house in southern Gaza—where she had evacuated to from Gaza City—was bombed. She was tragically killed alongside her husband, their six-month old baby boy, and her two brothers. Reportedly, over 50 family and community members sheltering in the same house also died.
U.S. condemns Israeli ultranationalist ministers' call to push Palestinians out of Gaza…
The Biden administration on Tuesday issued a strong condemnation of statements made by two senior Israeli ministers who called for pushing Palestinian civilians out of the Gaza Strip. **"**This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible," State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said.
**Why it matters: **It’s the strongest public condemnation the Biden administration has voiced against Israeli government officials since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
Yeah, too little, too late. Our support of Israel in the current conflict and previous decades of support implicate us in war crimes, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and now, genocide.
The World’s Most Documented Genocide in History…
International law is officially dead
Israel Rebuffs South Africa’s International Court of Justice Case Filing…
South Africa has filed a case at the main judicial body for the United Nations, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. “I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians,” says Francis Boyle, an international human rights lawyer who won two requests at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention of 1948 for provisional protection on behalf of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia. Boyle says Israel has a history of listening to the United States’ orders to stop its assaults on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We here in the United States of America have the power to stop this.”