Protesters step off for final permitted march of Chicago DNC. Screenshot: ABC 7 Chicago/YouTube
The Democratic National Convention has been packed with prominent speakers and musical interludes that all focus on unity and moving forward into a more hopeful future.
As a treaty conference began, the human rights group called for an end to arms transfers to Israel and said that unlawful deals have led to “devastating loss of life” in Gaza, Sudan, and Myanmar.
Control Arms At Occupy Wall Street 2011. Photo: Control Arms/flickr/CC
Amnesty International on Monday called for an end to arms transfers to countries including Israel, Sudan, and Myanmar, saying they cause “devastating loss of life” and contravene the Arms Trade Treaty, the parties to which are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland this week.
The United Nations treaty was signed by well over 100 countries in 2013 and went into effect in 2014, though 27 signatories, including the United States, the world’s largest arms exporter, still haven’t ratified the deal, which regulates the trade of conventional weapons including non-nuclear bombs, shells, and missiles.
Activists take part in a #NotAnotherBomb day of action calling for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel in Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 18, 2024. (Photo: Uncommitted National Movement/X)
On the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, proponents of a U.S. arms embargo on Israel—which is on trial for genocide at the World Court for its assault on Gaza that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians—took to the streets of cities in states from New York to Hawaii on Sunday to amplify their demand of “Not Another Bomb” for Israeli military forces.
“It is crystal clear: In order to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza, the U.S. must immediately stop arming Israel,” the Not Another Bomb campaign—an initiative led by the Uncommitted National Movement—said in a statement ahead of this weekend’s demonstrations.
“It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” said António Guterres after a 10-month-old infant became Gaza’s first new poliomyelitis case in 25 years.
A view of Jabalia refugee camp. Jabalia is the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight refugee camps. Photo: IRIN Photos/flickr/CC
Following over a month of warnings, Gaza recorded its first case of polio since the highly contagious virus was eradicated there 25 years ago, prompting a Friday call by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for a temporary truce to enable a vaccination drive in the embattled strip.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that an 10-month-old infant in the central city of Deir al-Balah “who has not received any polio vaccine dose” has tested positive for the virus, which often causes paralysis and can be fatal. The ministry said the baby is one of “a number of children” who have presented with symptoms consistent with polio in recent days.
One lawyer warned it will not only “push 9/11 victim family members over an emotional cliff,” but likely lead “prosecutors to resign and defendants to seek dismissal of all charges for unlawful command influence.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense/flickr/CC
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday withdrew plea agreements the Pentagon had reached with three men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and detained in Guantánamo Bay, the American military prison in Cuba infamous for torture.
“I have determined that… responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin wrote to Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier, the convening authority for the legally dubious Guantánamo Bay military commissions. “Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31.”
A new coalition of advocacy groups—some of them Jewish-led—are urging lawmakers to “amplify the voices of those in Israel, Palestine, and around the world who reject Netanyahu’s failed leadership.”
Members of the peace group CodePink hold a demonstration calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C. on July 22, 2024. (Photo: CodePink/X)
Pressure is mounting on U.S. lawmakers to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled address to Congress later this week, as a newly formed coalition of civil society groups announced a protest against the far-right leader—whose policies and actions in Gaza are on trial for genocide at the World Court.
As Netanyahu “brings to Congress his message of extending and expanding the devastating war in Gaza, neglecting the safety of Israeli hostages, and ensuring impunity for the actions of his government, an alternative message must be heard,” the new coalition said in a statement Monday. “To amplify a message of safety, freedom, just peace, collective liberation, and human rights for ALL Palestinians and Israelis, nine diverse groups have come together to form the Peace and Justice Protest Bloc.”
Poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples at six locations in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Friday, following announcements from both the Israel and Gaza health ministries.
Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was found in samples taken on June 23 from sites in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
U.S. troops prepare components of the Gaza aid pier on March 15, 2024. (Photo: United States Naval Institute)
After failing to re-anchor its “humanitarian pier” in Gaza, the Pentagon said Thursday that the much-ballyhooed project—which critics dismissed as a “public relations ploy” that did next to nothing to stop the deadly starvation spreading in the besieged Palestinian enclave—would shut down indefinitely.
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said U.S. troops had failed to reconnect the floating Trident Pier to Gaza’s shore due to “technical and weather-related issues,” according to The Washington Post.
“George Latimer in New York and Wesley Bell in Missouri are trying to become Democratic members of Congress off millions of dollars of money from rich right-wing Republicans,” said one group.
Politico reported Sunday that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is “the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year,” sparking new calls for candidates and voters nationwide to #RejectAIPAC.
“If you don’t want Republican megadonors to choose your next Democratic congressperson for you, then there’s only one option: #RejectAIPAC,” Naftali Ehrenkranz, digital director at Get Free, said on social media, pointing to the reporting.
A group of United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups sounded the alarm Friday that 18 million Sudanese are acutely hungry as a civil war that began in April 2023 continues to ravage the country.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), a group of 12 U.N. agencies and 7 humanitarian organizations, issued a statement on the staggering scale of hunger and insecurity in Sudan, including in the Darfur region in the country’s west. They called for an immediate influx of international funding—billions of dollars of which has already been pledged, but not yet delivered—so that food could be planted before the rainy season.
