Tag Archives: Joe Biden

Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon’s Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?

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“It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region,” said one group.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-26-2024 by Common Dreams

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Photo: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on “all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted.”

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US Labor Board Bans Captive Audience Meetings to Ensure ‘Truly Free’ Worker Choice

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“Today’s decision better protects workers’ freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights,” said the chair of the National Labor Relations Board.

By Brett Wilkins Published 11-13-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: DG EMPL/flickr/CC

In a decision that advocates say will likely be reversed during the second administration of Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday ruled that employers cannot force workers to attend anti-union speeches.

The NLRB’s 3-1 decision in Amazon.com Services, LLC means that workers will no longer have to take part in so-called “captive audience meetings,” which employers often use as a union-busting tool and a form of coercion. The agency explained that such meetings violate Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act “because they have a reasonable tendency to interfere with and coerce employees.”

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‘Grotesque’: Israeli Knesset Bans UN Agency in Charge of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza

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“This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly’s founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel’s international legal obligations.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-28-2024 by Common Dreams

The polio vaccination campaign reached over 145,000 children in Khan Younis and Rafah, southern #Gaza, with the vaccine and 119,000 aged 2-10 with supplementary vitamin A to increase their resistance to disease.. Photo: UNRWA/Facebook

Over a year into Israel’s obliteration of the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers faced sharp criticism on Monday after voting for a pair of bills targeting the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian aid in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

The first bill, which says that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “will not operate any missions, won’t provide any service, and won’t hold any activity—directly or indirectly—in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel,” passed the Israeli parliament 92-10.

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death is a defining moment, but it will not end the war

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By Ian Parmeter, Australian National University. Published 10-17-2024 by The Conversation

Yahya Sinwar, the former Palestinian leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Screenshot: Al Jazeera

The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the group’s horrific October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel, is no doubt a consequential moment in Israel’s year-long war against Hamas.

But is it a turning point?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s killing – long a major objective of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – would signal the “beginning of the end” of the war. But he made clear the war is not over.

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US Deploys B-2 Stealth Bombers to Attack Yemen Without Congressional Approval

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“Why is the U.S. bombing Yemen—with a B-2 bomber no less—with zero congressional authorization?”

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-18-2024 by Common Dreams

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit – Stealth Bomber. Photo: Jonathan Cutrer/flickr/CC

The Biden administration on Wednesday deployed B-2 stealth bombers to launch multiple airstrikes on Yemen, attacks that underscored the United States’ deep involvement in a deadly regional war that is threatening to engulf the entire Middle East.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the strikes targeted “numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons storage facilities within Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that contained various advanced conventional weapons used to target U.S. and international military and civilian vessels navigating international waters throughout the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.”

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Federal Judge Blocks Alabama’s Election Eve Voter Purge

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“This ruling strengthens our democracy by safeguarding access to the ballot for all eligible voters including naturalized citizens who were unfairly targeted and removed from the rolls,” said one case litigant.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 10-16-2024 by Common Dreams

Sign directing voters to the unlocked door of a voting precinct in Madison County, Alabama. Photo: domesticat/flickr/CC

Citing a U.S. law prohibiting states from removing people from their registered voter lists within 90 days of an election, a U.S. federal judge on Wednesday ordered Alabama officials to pause a controversial voter roll purge until after next month’s contest.

U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco—an appointee of former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican nominee—wrote in her preliminary injunction that GOP Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by launching a campaign purportedly targeting “noncitizens registered to vote.”

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Georgia Judge Rules Election Officials Can’t Refuse to Certify Results

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One commentator called the decision a “huge victory for democracy” and a “huge defeat for Trump’s attempts to scuttle the election.”

By Julia Conley. Published 10-15-2024 by Common Dreams

Screenshot: 11Alive/YouTube

Democratic officials and voting rights advocates on Tuesday celebrated “a victory for voters” in the crucial battleground state of Georgia after a county judge ruled that local officials must certify results regardless of claims of “election fraud”—an occurrence experts have found to be “vanishingly rare” despite Republican claims to the contrary.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge James McBurney handed down a ruling late Monday in a case brought by Fulton County Board of Elections member Julie Adams, who worked with the America First Policy Institute, a group with ties to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, on the lawsuit.

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Alarm as Pentagon Confirms Deployment of US Troops to Israel

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“Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel’s behalf,” wrote one journalist.

By Jake Johnson. Published 10-13-2024 by Common Dreams.

Pentagon Press Secretary U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder conducts a press briefing at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., March 8, 2024. Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense/flickr/CC

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that it has authorized the deployment of an advanced antimissile system and around 100 U.S. troops to Israel as the Netanyahu government prepares to attack Iran—a move that’s expected to provoke an Iranian response.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary for the U.S. Defense Department, said in a statement that at President Joe Biden’s direction, the Pentagon approved the “deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses” in the wake of Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

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Does the US actually want to de-escalate the Middle East war?

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Unwavering military and political support for Israel means US is embroiled in war – even if it doesn’t want to be

By Paul Rogers. Published 10-11-2024 by openDemocracy

Screenshot: CNN

One year into the devastating war in Gaza, and the conflict has spread far beyond Gaza itself, including not only Iran, Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East region – but also, arguably the US, given its unwavering support – both verbally and materially – for Israel and its actions.

While much of Gaza lies in ruins with most houses, universities and hospitals destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced multiple times and an official death toll of 42,000 – there is now scarcely a whisper about even a pause in the fighting, yet alone a ceasefire.

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Airlines and Hotels Price Gouge Floridians Fleeing Milton

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“Sky-high prices to escape Florida before a deadly hurricane—and Republicans still criticize price gouging bans,” said one outraged resident.

By Julia Conley. Published 10-8-2024 by Common Dreams

I-75 in Tampa on October 8, 2024. Photo: Matos Zuly/X

U.S. President Joe Biden called on Floridians in evacuation zones to leave their homes “now, now, now” on Tuesday, and the mayor of Tampa issued a stark warning that those who “choose to stay” are “going to die” from the expected impact of Hurricane Milton—but desperate residents are grappling with the fact that hotels and airlines may make evacuating impossible for many.

Florida bars companies from price gouging during an emergency like Milton, but as thousands of people began evacuating the state’s western coast on Monday, accusations poured in about sky-high airline ticket prices and hotels in neighboring states that are charging exorbitant rates.

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