Queer Arizona State University Professor 'Bloodied' By College Republicans

Two members of a conservative group followed and harassed a queer Arizona State University professor who founded a drag story hour, starting an altercation that ended in the two people shoving the professor down and “bloodying his face,” the university president told faculty and staff on Saturday.

Security footage from the altercation last Wednesday shows two people — one with a camera — from the right-wing group Turning Point USA following and questioning professor David Boyles. After the professor appears to try to grab the camera or push it out of one of the men’s hands, the other knocks Boyles to the ground.

Ford Chairman Rebukes Auto Workers Union For Shutting Down Truck Plant

The executive chairman of Ford Motor Company broke his silence on the monthlong auto workers strike on Monday and said the work stoppage could “devastate local communities” if it continues.

Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and the company’s chairman since 1999, also criticized the United Auto Workers union for recently shutting down the company’s Kentucky Truck Plant, where it produces highly profitable large pickups and SUVs. Workers walked out of the Louisville facility, which employs 8,700, in a surprise strike last Wednesday.

Israeli Ambassador To U.K. Says There's 'No Humanitarian Crisis' In Gaza

The Israeli ambassador to the U.K. said Monday there is “no humanitarian crisis” in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Hamas launched an unexpected attack on Israel last week, taking more than 100 people hostage and killing an estimated 1,400 people, according to Israeli forces.

Israel declared war in response, announced a complete siege of Gaza — where Hamas are based — and launched a series of air strikes.

China woos global south and embraces Putin at belt and road Beijing summit

World leaders are gathering in Beijing for China’s belt and road initiative (BRI) forum, the third such event since the trademark global development drive was launched by President Xi Jinping 10 years ago.

The BRI was originally envisioned as a vast physical and digital infrastructure project to connect China with central Asia, south-east Asia, Europe and the rest of the world. It later broadened into a mammoth infrastructure financing vehicle for Chinese lenders to support projects in nearly every corner of the world, particularly in the global south. With that support came China’s mounting influence on the world stage, even as western countries became increasingly sceptical of the BRI.

Gaza diary part two: ‘We decide to stay. Then I start crying’

Friday 13 October

3am I manage to sleep for a couple of hours. Last night, there was no internet connection; even the mobile data was very bad. With eyes half-open, I check my phone and see many messages from people saying that residents of north Gaza and Gaza City should move south. The adrenaline starts, my heart is beating fast. In no time, my eyes are wide open and I get out of bed.

Gaza diary: ‘We survived another night. Every inch of my body aches – lack of sleep is torture’

Saturday 7 October

6am I wake up thinking about my tennis session. Tennis, don’t I sound fancy! This year I decided to take care of my mental and physical health. This means no stress, no negative energy and definitely more tennis.

I check my mobile to see what else I have scheduled. A visit to the doctor and some errands. I see a message from my friend telling me it seems we won’t meet for tennis. There is a “situation”. As a Gazan, there is no confusion about what is meant. An escalation. Again.

China and Russia harden positions on Gaza as war stirs geopolitical tensions

China and Russia have hardened their positions towards the conflict in Gaza in recent days, as the war between Israel and Hamas aggravates existing geopolitical tensions and underscores the growing gulf between the cold war allies and western powers such as the US, UK and France.

The Chinese foreign minister said over the weekend that Israel’s bombing campaign had gone “beyond the scope of self-defence” and that it “should stop collective punishment of the people of Gaza”.

Judge imposes gag order on Donald Trump in D.C. trial

A federal judge has barred Donald Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and court staff involved in his Washington, D.C., criminal case, imposing a gag order that sharply escalates the tension between Trump’s 2024 bid for the presidency and the realities of his status as a criminal defendant.

“First Amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said Monday as she issued the gag order. “His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify … public servants who are simply doing their job.”

ICC Should Investigate Netanyahu for War Crimes, Spanish Minister Says

Spain’s minister of social rights released a statement Monday calling on her country’s coalition government to petition the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes investigation into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the ongoing aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the devastating blockade that has prevented the free flow of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

“Using the horrific murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed factions as an excuse to justify Israel’s crimes in general and the massacre in Gaza in particular is unacceptable,” Ione Belarra, the leader of Spain’s left-wing Podemos party, said in a video statement posted to social media.

Jim Jordan-Backing Republican Receives A Blunt Reminder… But To No Avail

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) is all in for Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) bid to become the next House speaker.

And the Texas Republican told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he’s not letting Jordan’s role in Donald Trump’s failed plot to overturn the 2020 election result change his mind.

Even as US Jews Mourn Israeli Dead, We Must All Decry US-Backed Genocide in Gaza

As a rabbi for a Chicago-based synagogue that holds a deep shared commitment to the struggle for Palestinian liberation, I am holding so much intensity and emotion right now.

I am filled with horror hearing the cries for vengeance voiced by the Israeli government and media, and witnessing the shattering military response that Israel has unleashed on the people of Gaza.

“I Lived All My Life as Collateral Damage,” Says Palestinian Activist

Ezra Yachin, 95, is one of more than 300,000 army reservists Israel has mobilized since Hamas launched a surprise on Israeli targets last Saturday. Yachin will not see combat, but “has been motivating soldiers,” according to media reports. “Be triumphant and finish them off and don’t leave anyone behind. Erase the memory of them,” Yachin told Israeli soldiers, in a video that has since gone viral. “Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live. Every Jew with a weapon should go out and kill them. If you have an Arab neighbor, don’t wait, go to his home and shoot him.”

Gaza Is a Prison Under Siege. This Is My Letter to the World Outside.

I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”

—Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1964

Letter From the Gazan Prison

I say to moderates in the United States and Europe that you have to go to the root of the problem in Palestine. Unfortunately, the world for decades didn’t care about the suffering, the genocide and the oppression of Palestinians. But just when Israel screamed, all the world suddenly awakened and started to talk as if the events started just on October 7.

US-led diplomatic effort fails to ease Palestinians’ plight in Gaza

An intense US-led diplomatic effort failed on Monday to ease the plight of 2 million Palestinians trapped under bombardment in Gaza, with supplies of water, food and medicine all running out, raising the prospect of a humanitarian disaster.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived back in Israel after a tour of the five Gulf Arab states and Egypt as part of an ongoing but faltering diplomatic mission. US media reported that Joe Biden was considering a trip as an already dire situation drastically deteriorated.

A spooked and lonely Taiwan looks for new friends

The words "democratic Taiwan" appeared more times in the island's national day celebrations this year than any other - by far.

"We have brought the international spotlight to Democratic Taiwan," declared President Tsai Ing-wen last week, in her last national day address before she steps down as the first democratically elected female president.

In the West Bank, Horror Mixes with Fear of What’s to Come

RAMALLAH — My morning last Saturday, like so many others in this region of the world, began with a barrage of successive messages on my phone that startled me awake. I stood up and stared bleary-eyed into my phone. The headlines slowly burrowed into my foggy brain: Hamas had launched an operation and militants had broken through the fence that had kept Palestinians in Gaza under siege for 16 years.

I sent frantic WhatsApp messages to friends from Gaza who live in the West Bank: My neighbor Ola told me her family had to flee their home to another part of the densely populated enclave. My friend Tahreer said five of her extended family were killed in Israeli shelling and her friend Eman had learned that her father, mother and brother had all died in an airstrike.

The World Can No Longer Sideline the Israeli-Palestinian Issue. But the U.S. Doesn’t Have to Be the Only Broker.

In September 2020, former President Donald Trump hosted a White House signing ceremony to celebrate the Abraham Accords, a series of peace agreements his administration helped broker between Israel and several Arab states. In a moment of triumph, Trump hailed these historic peace deals as “the dawn of a new Middle East.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, a new Middle East appeared to emerge. But it was not the one that Trump, or President Joe Biden after him, hoped for.

Israel has endured its fair share of violence over the years. Yet the shocking attacks by Hamas have ushered in a grim new chapter in the region that highlights a bitter truth: While Israel’s normalization with other Arab states is an important diplomatic achievement, it hasn’t brought Israel peace or security.

Graham to Iran: ‘If you escalate the war, we’re coming for you’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened Iran on Sunday, calling the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “a proxy of Iran” and warning that Iran would face consequences should Hezbollah escalate the tense situation along Israel’s northern border.

“If Hezbollah, which is a proxy of Iran, launches a massive attack on Israel, I would consider that a threat to the State of Israel, existential in nature,” Graham said Sunday during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.

Majority of Americans say Israel’s response to Hamas attack is justified, CNN poll finds

Nearly all Americans surveyed in a new CNN poll feel some level of sympathy for the Israeli people after the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas, and a majority say Israel’s military response is justified.

Ahead of Israel’s expected ground invasion of Gaza, most respondents said the Israeli government’s military response to the Hamas attacks is fully justified (50%) or partially justified (20%). A total of 21% said they weren’t sure, while 8% said it is not justified at all.

J Street Alumni Condemn “Pro-Peace” Group for Opposing Gaza Ceasefire

While Israel continues its war against the Gaza Strip, over 100 former J Street staffers and representatives from its network of university groups are pushing their former organization to join mounting calls for a ceasefire.

The letter comes in response to J Street’s push for a congressional resolution that pledges unconditional support to Israel’s war in Gaza. The group, according to a report in The Intercept, is threatening to withhold its endorsement from Democrats who refuse to sign on. The resolution — led by Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and now backed by more than 420 members of Congress — makes no mention of Palestinian civilians, of which Israel has now killed over 2,600, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Palestinians in Gaza can go to ‘tent cities’: Former Israeli minister

Former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has told Al Jazeera that people in Gaza should evacuate their residences and relocate to the Sinai Desert in Egypt, where temporary tent cities could be established for them, amid the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The interview has been shared widely on social media, with Ayalon receiving widespread criticism for his comments, which many said were a call for “ethnic cleansing”.

“We told the Gazan people to clear the area temporarily, so we can go and take Hamas out, and then, of course, they can come back,” said Ayalon, speaking to Marc Lamont Hill on an episode of UpFront that aired on Friday.

Putin to meet Xi in China this week

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing this week — a rare international visit by the Russian leader.

During the October 17-18 visit to Beijing, Putin will attend a forum marking 10 years of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global infrastructure program that has helped boost its influence worldwide. 

Opposition wins Polish election, according to exit poll

WARSAW — Poland’s opposition parties look like they’ve won a solid victory in the country’s general election — and if the result holds it signals a radical change both in Poland and in the EU, where the current Law and Justice (PiS) party government has warred for eight years with Brussels over accusations it’s backsliding on the bloc’s democratic rules.