News Briefs for December 11, 2024
HAVANA TIMES – Here are the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Wednesday, December 11, 2024.
Israel Declares “Sterile Zone” in Syria Amid Massive Bombing Campaign
Dec 11, 2024
Israel’s military has continued its massive bombing campaign of Syrian military targets, carrying out some 480 strikes within just 48 hours. Israeli defense chief Israel Katz said his forces had destroyed 15 naval vessels, anti-aircraft batteries and weapons factories and were working to create a so-called sterile zone in southern Syria.
Israel Katz: “Together with the prime minister, I instructed the IDF to establish a sterile defense zone against weapons and terror threats in southern Syria, in order to prevent the establishment and organization of terror in Syria and to prevent creating a situation that would be similar to what existed in Lebanon and Gaza before October 7th. We will not allow this. We will not allow threats against the state of Israel.”
On Tuesday, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations called on the Security Council to act decisively to end the bombings, which he said targeted civilian and military infrastructure. The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, condemned Israel’s assault.
Geir Pedersen: “We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. This is extremely important.”
Pedersen said the United Nations would consider removing the Syrian armed group HTS from a list of designated terrorist organizations, but only if it supports a government that is inclusive of all communities.
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Syria’s Interim Leader Calls for Return of Millions of Refugees
Dec 11, 2024
On Tuesday, Syria’s new caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir met with members of Syria’s transitional government, pledging to bring back millions of refugees who fled Syria’s 13-year civil war and to keep Syria’s public services and institutions running after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, human rights groups have confirmed the killing of one of Syria’s most prominent opposition activists. The body of Mazen al-Hamada was discovered inside the notorious Sednaya prison near Damascus alongside about 40 others in the prison morgue who also showed signs of torture.
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Israeli Attacks Across Gaza Kill Dozens, Including Children
Dec 11, 2024
Israel has continued its relentless attacks across northern and central Gaza, killing dozens of people, including women and children, in the last day. Earlier today, Israeli forces bombed a residential building in Beit Lahia where displaced families were taking shelter, killing at least 20 people. At least seven Palestinians, all members of the same family, were killed in a separate Israeli attack on a house in the Nuseirat camp. People who lost loved ones were seen sitting and crying amid the destruction, with some victims still trapped under the rubble. This is one of the survivors, Issam al-Hossary.
Issam al-Hossary: “We were sleeping. We didn’t hear the sound of the missile at all. Suddenly, I found myself waking up like this, and I saw the rubble all over me and the children. I found myself trying to remove the rubble and pull out the children, and they were suffocating. I got out of the tent, and as I stepped outside, I saw the people — bodies everywhere, blood and limbs scattered among the trees.”
This all comes as Palestinian health authorities warn dozens of wounded patients receiving care at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza are at risk of dying due to a lack of water and food.
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Israel’s Yoav Gallant Welcomed to White House Despite ICC Arrest Warrant for Crimes Against Humanity
Dec 11, 2024
Image Credit: x / @yoavgallant
Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has met with President Biden’s special envoy for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett McGurk, at the White House. Their meeting on Tuesday came just weeks after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Gaza. On Monday evening, the prominent Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C., canceled a planned event featuring Gallant amid protests.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders have selected Brian Mast to lead the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Mast has previously compared Palestinians to Nazis, has said Palestinian civilians “are not innocent,” and called on Israel to destroy more infrastructure in Gaza.
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At Least 127 Killed as Sudan’s Army Battles Rapid Support Forces
Dec 11, 2024
In Sudan, at least 127 people have been killed over the past two days as fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces grows more bloody with the warring sides launching attacks across North Darfur. The army has also intensified airstrikes on regions controlled by the RSF. Meanwhile, RSF fighters have conducted deadly raids on villages, with both sides heavily targeting civilian communities. This is the governor of Khartoum.
Gov. Ahmed Osman Hamza: “This attack, instead of being directed at our heroes on the frontlines, is targeted at these innocent civilians in their everyday lives, whether on public transportation or in markets. This is an attack on the people, while wars should be fought on battlefields and with regular forces.”
The 20-month war has displaced some 11 million people from their homes and unleashed the world’s largest hunger crisis.
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South Korean Police Raid Offices of President Yoon Suk Yeol
Dec 11, 2024
South Korean police have raided the offices of President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived declaration of martial law last week. The police investigation comes as Yoon has been barred from exiting South Korea while he remains under investigation for committing treason. Separately, South Korea’s top prison official said the disgraced former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun attempted to end his own life while in custody. Kim was jailed on Sunday after he allegedly recommended imposing martial law.
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Judge Halts Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Trump’s Nominee to Lead Education Department
Dec 11, 2024
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
A federal judge in Maryland has suspended a lawsuit against President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, which Trump has pledged to shut down. Linda McMahon, a former executive with World Wrestling Entertainment, faces allegations that she and her husband, Vince McMahon, failed to stop a ringside announcer from sexually assaulting young boys in the 1980s and ’90s.
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Justice Department Report Reveals How Trump Spied on Congress and Journalists
Dec 11, 2024
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said this week he is “inclined” to vote to confirm Trump’s pick to head the FBI, Kash Patel. Patel is a Trump loyalist who has embraced QAnon conspiracy theories, supported the January 6 insurrection and called for the FBI’s D.C. office to be closed.
Meanwhile, a new report by the Justice Department’s inspector general finds the former Trump administration’s DOJ secretly obtained phone and text message logs of 43 congressional staffers and two members of Congress in 2017 and ’18 as prosecutors investigated public leaks of classified government information. Kash Patel was among congressional staffers whose records were seized. The report also found the Trump Justice Department violated its own policies in how it subpoenaed phone and text records from journalists.
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2024 Remains on Track to Surpass 2023 as Hottest Year in Human History
Dec 11, 2024
In climate news, European Union scientists report average global temperatures over the past 16 months have exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, marking a grim new milestone in the climate crisis. Last month was the second-warmest November ever recorded, with 2024 likely to become the hottest year on record.
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Climate Protesters in Albany Demand New York Gov. Kathy Hochul “Make Polluters Pay”
Dec 11, 2024
Image Credit: Planet Over Profit
Here in New York, dozens of climate activists on Tuesday kicked off three days of peaceful actions at the state Capitol in Albany as they continue to demand Governor Kathy Hochul sign legislation to combat the climate crisis. The bill, named the Climate Change Superfund Act, would require large fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion over 25 years for climate damage repair, resilience and protection programs. This is one of the activists who participated in a sit-in yesterday.
Helen Mancini: “We’re heading into a presidential administration that will do everything in their power to roll back any progress that we’ve made on climate and continue America’s track of being the biggest expander of fossil fuels in the world. Shame! This is why, more than ever, we need state leadership. But these final weeks are an opportunity for our governor to make a commitment to our generation, to establish a new model for how we deal with climate disasters that makes polluters pay and not taxpayers.”
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Abolitionists Call on Biden to Commute Death Sentences of Federal Prisoners
Dec 11, 2024
House progressives have called on President Joe Biden to commute the death sentences of the 40 federal prisoners on death row and to resentence them to a prison term. On Tuesday, Congressmembers Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush and Adriano Espaillat were joined by death penalty abolitionists on Capitol Hill, where they called on Biden to act before Trump takes office 40 days from now. Congressmember Pressley noted that during his first term, President Trump went on an unprecedented execution spree, ordering the deaths of 13 people in a matter of months — more federal executions than in the prior 70 years combined.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “State-sanctioned murder is not justice. And the death penalty is a cruel, racist and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society. It is deeply discriminatory and has disproportionately been weaponized against Black, Brown and low-income families for far too long. It is long past time for President Biden to make good on his campaign promise to address the federal death penalty.”
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Federal Court Blocks Kroger’s “Anti-Competitive” $25 Billion Merger with Albertsons
Dec 11, 2024
A federal judge has blocked grocery chain Kroger’s $25 billion merger with Albertsons, siding with the Federal Trade Commission, which called the deal anti-competitive. The FTC had argued the proposed merger to create the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., with some 5,000 stores, would give customers already grappling with high food costs fewer options for groceries.
In related news, President-elect Trump on Tuesday named Andrew Ferguson to lead the Federal Trade Commission. Ferguson is a Republican former congressional aide and former Supreme Court clerk who has pledged to roll back federal oversight of most large U.S. corporations.
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Atomic Bombing Survivors Accept Nobel Peace Prize, Call for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Dec 11, 2024
Image Credit: © Nobel Prize Outreach AB. Production NRK
In Oslo, Norway, anti-nuclear activists who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have accepted the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for “efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.” Terumi Tanaka, who delivered the acceptance speech on behalf of the grassroots Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, warned that nuclear powers including Russia and Israel are threatening to break a long-standing taboo against the use of nuclear weapons.
Terumi Tanaka: “Our movement has undoubtedly played a major role in creating the nuclear taboo. However, there still remain 12,000 nuclear warheads on Earth today, 4,000 of which are operationally deployed, ready for immediate launch. The nuclear superpower Russia threatens to use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine, and a Cabinet member of Israel, in the midst of its unrelenting attacks on Gaza in Palestine, even spoke of the possible use of nuclear arms. In addition to the civilian casualties, I am infinitely saddened and angered that the nuclear taboo threatens to be broken.”