tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62006177749573842742024-03-09T21:46:24.259-05:00Democracy gone AstrayAstrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.comBlogger42147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-70356693303871961512023-10-18T12:34:00.003-04:002023-10-18T12:34:59.297-04:00‘There’s just no excitement’: Retail politics takes a nosedive in a Trump-dominated campaign If the Republican presidential primary this year is putting you half to sleep, you’re not alone. And it’s not just because Donald Trump is running away with the nomination.Operatives and party activists in key early voting states say they can’t recall a recent cycle in which they had such little interaction with candidates.There are the anecdotes: Over the Labor Day weekend, the unofficial start Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-28736040237778603362023-10-18T12:32:00.002-04:002023-10-18T12:32:19.263-04:00Blast kills hundreds at Gaza hospital; Hamas and Israel trade blame KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.The health ministry said at least 500 people had been killed. Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-114243980281699272023-10-18T12:29:00.004-04:002023-10-18T12:29:32.107-04:00Is an Israeli occupation of Gaza a mistake? Britain’s defense chief won’t say. The U.K.’s top defense official repeatedly declined to second President Joe Biden’s comment that an Israeli occupation of Gaza would be “a big mistake.”In an interview Tuesday evening, British Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps was given multiple opportunities to agree with Biden’s remark on “60 Minutes.” The president said that Israel had every right to defend itself and target Hamas Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-37746143527799370822023-10-18T12:27:00.006-04:002023-10-18T12:27:36.752-04:00Hamas says it’s closely coordinating war’s next moves with Hezbollah in Lebanon BEIRUT — Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah are closely coordinating their next steps in fighting against Israel, a senior Hamas representative in Lebanon told POLITICO on Tuesday, just hours after Tehran warned of “preemptive action” against Israel.Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Beirut, insisted Gaza-based Hamas had not given its ally Hezbollah any advance Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-12830115770653733162023-10-18T12:24:00.003-04:002023-10-18T12:24:51.139-04:00Israeli Policies Would Allow Arrests of Civilians Who “Harm National Morale”Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is promoting emergency regulations that would allow him to direct police to arrest civilians, remove them from their homes, or seize their property if he believes they have spread information that could “harm national morale” during Israel’s ongoing war against Palestinians in Gaza.These emergency regulations, titled “Limiting Aid to the Enemy through Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-25773631113679468522023-10-18T12:22:00.002-04:002023-10-18T12:22:30.345-04:00More Than 1,000 Gazan Children Are Dead. How Can We Even Begin to Mourn? My husband and I are 100 percent Palestinian from Gaza. We live in diaspora in the United States with my 5-month-old daughter. My husband’s entire immediate family is in Gaza. They live in the now-devastated Rimal neighborhood and are among the hundreds of thousands internally displaced in Gaza within the past seven days. This displacement is both due to airstrikes flattening more than 1,300 Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-15964174906269170472023-10-18T12:19:00.003-04:002023-10-18T12:19:50.280-04:00Jim Jordan’s allies tried strong-arming his GOP critics. It backfired. Jim Jordan’s allies attempted to badger House Republicans into making him speaker. Those tactics backfired on Tuesday, and could soon doom his speakership push outright.The Ohio Republican’s most vocal GOP defectors during Tuesday’s failed speaker vote said they were pressured to back Jordan by party bosses back home and national conservatives with big megaphones. Most of those skeptics viewed itAstrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-85816680545391584612023-10-18T12:17:00.004-04:002023-10-18T12:17:25.836-04:00If someone killed my child I’d want bloody revenge. But I’d be wrong – as is the Israeli governmentImagine being in Sderot, Israel, and hearing Hamas rockets land near your home. You’re scared; you instantly take mental stock of your family members’ location. Then you hear gunfire. Screaming. You recognise a scream. A few minutes later you’re holding your daughter’s corpse. She’s still warm and will be for a while yet, but she is dead. A Hamas bullet severed her subclavian artery, and that wasAstrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-80242091188204525492023-10-18T12:14:00.008-04:002023-10-18T12:14:53.360-04:00Russian sources disappeared after Trump declassified ex-spy’s evidence, UK court toldDonald Trump’s decision to declassify evidence given by a former British spy about the former US president’s alleged links with Russia led to the disappearance of two Russian sources, according to a court document.Christopher Steele, who used to run MI6’s Russia desk, compiled the notorious “Steele dossier” investigating Trump’s connections to Russia. In a witness statement released on Tuesday, Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-89895970900892337472023-10-18T12:10:00.005-04:002023-10-18T12:10:33.895-04:00‘They believed it was safe’: death toll rising after blast at Gaza hospitalHundreds of people are reported to have been killed in a massive explosion at a crowded hospital in Gaza City, in the biggest single loss of life in the blockaded territory in all the five wars between Hamas and Israel since the militants took over the strip in 2007.The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people were killed on Tuesday night in what it said was an Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-8463139751476223382023-10-18T11:39:00.002-04:002023-10-18T11:39:21.199-04:00Russia’s Putin, Hungary’s Orban reaffirm bond ahead of Beijing summitRussian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have underscored their countries’ strong ties ahead of an international forum in Beijing, saying that continuing “geopolitical tensions” due to the war in Ukraine do not affect their relationship.“Despite the fact that in the current geopolitical conditions, the possibilities for keeping contact and developing relations Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-56865184665360069322023-10-18T11:37:00.002-04:002023-10-18T11:37:08.184-04:00Gaza authorities say hundreds killed in Israeli air raid on hospitalHundreds of people have been killed in an Israeli air raid on a hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian authorities.The Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 500 people were killed in the attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza.The Hamas group, which governs the Palestinian territory, said the attack was a “war crime”.Images shared on social media Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-55832536095592229142023-10-18T11:34:00.001-04:002023-10-18T11:34:03.740-04:00‘From friend to enemy’: Palestinians in Israel suspended from jobs over warOn Saturday, October 7, Noura* went to work as usual early in the morning at the hospital in Israel where she’s been employed for more than two years.The Palestinian health care professional had taken a quick glance at the news, but in the rush to make it to work in time, she had not fully understood the magnitude of what was happening in the country: an attack by the Palestinian armed group Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-3865137665225293262023-10-18T11:31:00.003-04:002023-10-18T11:31:13.845-04:00‘Will we return?’: For my Palestinian family, history is repeating itselfDeir el-Balah, Gaza — On the eighth day, my family and I awoke still in shock, finding ourselves in a new location within the Gaza Strip, the town of Deir el-Balah in the south of the enclave.The harrowing scenes from the previous day remained etched in our minds. During the early hours of the previous day, while intense bombings continued to shake Gaza, journalists in WhatsApp groups began Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-91498189275128375972023-10-18T11:28:00.001-04:002023-10-18T11:28:10.030-04:00Gaza at breaking point as Israel evacuates northRamallah, occupied West Bank – Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip are facing a “real catastrophe”, United Nations officials warn, as Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the occupied enclave rages on for the 11th consecutive day. In a report on Tuesday, the UN said the Israeli army continued pounding southern areas despite previously telling residents to move south Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-21478616653705767102023-10-18T11:25:00.007-04:002023-10-18T11:25:53.801-04:00Will Israel actually allow much-needed aid into Gaza?Regional efforts are under way for the passage of much-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, with the United States expected to hold talks with Israel, which blocked the crossing linking Gaza to Egypt in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack.Hundreds of tonnes of necessary supplies from several countries and NGOs have lined up in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula just south of Gaza as Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-76848416875515755732023-10-18T11:22:00.004-04:002023-10-18T11:22:52.499-04:00Israel’s evacuation order is nothing but cover for ethnic cleansingOn October 12, after days of bombardments, the Israeli government ordered 1.1 million Palestinians living in the north of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City, the most populated urban area, to move to the south of the besieged territory. It promised that for a 24-hour window, the roads would be safe for those wanting to flee the impending ground invasion. Many began to move towards the southAstrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-7488635888349981152023-10-18T11:20:00.004-04:002023-10-18T11:20:43.201-04:00‘He’s unfit’: Israel fiercely divided over Netanyahu’s hostage responseDressed in a T-shirt bearing her missing granddaughter, Roni Eshel’s, smiling face, Zehava Eshel addressed a crowd of protesters gathered in front of the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv. “The country was supposed to protect her,” she said, her voice hoarse.The Israeli military have labelled 19-year-old Roni Eshel, an IDF soldier stationed at a base near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, as a Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-64255278947558638792023-10-18T11:17:00.004-04:002023-10-18T11:17:16.623-04:00The danger of leaving things be: how the world ‘failed miserably’ in the Middle EastJoe Biden’s high-stakes visit to the Middle East to avert an all-out war raises serious questions about the level and nature of the president’s previous engagement in the region.Just as Israel suffered a total intelligence breakdown over the horrific Hamas attacks, diplomats stand charged with their own collective system failure, at the heart of which was treating the Palestinian issue as best Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-9133748396950914262023-10-18T11:13:00.002-04:002023-10-18T11:13:06.529-04:00Gaza diary part three: ‘Now I am writing condolence messages just using autocomplete’Sunday 15 October12.30am My sister receives a phone call from her friend who is living abroad. With the poor internet connection, our loved ones are making international calls just to check on us. They talk for almost an hour, both of them crying. Their conversation is mainly about the guilt my sister’s friend is feeling due to being away from her, and my sister telling her how much stronger she Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-32886808827323883922023-10-18T11:10:00.001-04:002023-10-18T11:10:04.793-04:00Former Sen. Claire McCaskill Delivers Ominous Prediction For Rep. Jim JordanFormer Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Monday envisioned a short House speakership for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) should he gain enough support to win the leadership role.McCaskill told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace it was “astounding” that House Republicans want to elevate Jordan, who played a key role in Donald Trump’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, to the top job.The former Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-9526454678199627792023-10-18T11:06:00.002-04:002023-10-18T11:06:04.828-04:00NY Working Families Party appoints new leaders as it targets House races NEW YORK — The progressive third party that lent its cavalry to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s election win last year is vowing a “robust ground game” to help New York Democrats flip House seats next year.And the New York Working Families Party is plotting its 2024 strategy under new leadership, POLITICO reported exclusively Monday.Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper — co-founder of Make the Road New YorkAstrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-38645155830534255692023-10-18T11:03:00.004-04:002023-10-18T11:03:22.327-04:00Trump sues Christopher Steele over dossier containing ‘shocking and scandalous claims’ LONDON — A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday the ex-president plans to prove that “shocking and scandalous claims” about him in a largely discredited report by a former British spy were false and harmed his reputation.Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumors and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-20408392109599829312023-10-18T11:00:00.004-04:002023-10-18T11:00:45.161-04:00‘We don’t feel safe here’: Hongkongers in UK fear long reach of Chinese governmentAh Man*, 28, was forced to leave Hong Kong at the end of 2020 after being arrested at the height of the pro-democracy protests, when millions took to the streets in defiance of the growing influence of Beijing.But the UK has felt anything but a safe haven for the former Hongkonger after a string of incidents involving Chinese activists.In 2021, pro-democracy campaigners were reportedly attacked Astrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6200617774957384274.post-76319575783930840762023-10-18T10:57:00.001-04:002023-10-18T10:57:04.519-04:00Stephen Colbert Coughs Up Nauseating Reality-Check On Jim JordanBut something in the news this week made him even sicker: The notion of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) becoming the next House speaker.Colbert pretended to get the heaves as he talked about the possibility.“Gosh, got a little nauseous,” he said, covering his mouth for effect. “And I don’t think it’s the COVID.”Jordan, he noted, has a troubling background.“Jordan is an ultra-conservative election denierAstrayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13256869996902947860noreply@blogger.com0