International News Briefs for Friday, January 17, 2025
HAVANA TIMES – Here are the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Friday January 17, 2025.
Israel Continues to Pound Gaza as Cabinet Votes on Ceasefire Deal
Jan 17, 2025
Israel’s war cabinet and government is convening to vote on the long-awaited Gaza ceasefire agreement. Two far-right Israeli Cabinet members — Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — have voiced opposition to the deal, with Ben-Gvir threatening to quit if it’s passed.
As Palestinians await confirmation the deal has been secured, Israel continues its deadly attacks across Gaza. Over 113 Palestinians have been killed since the truce was announced Wednesday. At least 28 of those were children. This is Sami Abu Tahoun, a displaced child living in al-Nuseirat camp.
Sami Abu Tahoun: “I only wish to return to Gaza City for one reason: I wish to see my father again. Since our displacement, I lost something essential in my life: the presence of a father. When my mother asked me to go pray, I refused because I wanted to pray with my father. We hope the war will end next Sunday as they say in the meetings.”
If approved, the deal would go into effect Sunday, including the release of the first captives. We’ll get the latest on the ceasefire after headlines.
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Israeli Forces Continue Raids on Occupied West Bank, Including Hospital in Nablus
Jan 17, 2025
Israeli troops have carried out another day of raids across the occupied West Bank. On Thursday, Israeli forces raided the Askar refugee camp, shooting and wounding three Palestinian teenagers. Separately, Israeli military vehicles entered the grounds of the Arab Evangelical Hospital in Nablus and took up positions in the courtyard. Overnight, Israeli soldiers raided the Tulkarem refugee camp, where there were reports of gunfire amid clashes with Palestinian fighters.
This all follows an Israeli airstrike on the city of Jenin Wednesday that killed six Palestinians and left scores injured. On Thursday, mourners held funeral processions for the dead even as they welcomed the Gaza ceasefire deal.
Jamal al-Zubaidi: “The Jenin refugee camp was supporting the Gaza people during the 15 months war on Gaza, and thus we expect calmer times for Jenin.”
Since October of 2023, near-daily Israeli raids on the West Bank have killed nearly 800 Palestinians and injured 6,700 others. Over 14,000 have been arrested.
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“How Does It Feel to Have Your Legacy Be Genocide?”: Max Blumenthal Confronts Outgoing Blinken
Jan 17, 2025
Image Credit: The National News // Drop Site News
Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken was confronted by two journalists as he delivered his final news conference Thursday. The Grayzone’s editor Max Blumenthal disrupted Blinken just minutes into his address to reporters.
Max Blumenthal: “You waved the white flag before Netanyahu.”
Aide: “We’ll have the time to take questions at the end.”
Max Blumenthal: “You waved the white flag before Israeli fascism.”
Aide: “You’ll have the time to take questions at the end.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “I look forward to taking questions when I get a chance to finish my statement. Thank you.”
Max Blumenthal: “Your father-in-law was an Israel lobbyist. Your grandfather was an Israel lobbyist. Are you compromised by Israel? Why did you allow the Holocaust of our time to happen?”
Aide: “It’s time to go. Thanks very much.”
Max Blumenthal: “How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide? How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide? You, too, Matt, you smirked through the whole thing every day. You smirked through a genocide.”
Blumenthal was addressing State Department spokesperson Matt Miller at the end of the video. Matt Miller then ordered security to preemptively remove independent journalist Sam Husseini, forcing him to shout his questions to Blinken toward the stage as he was forcibly carried out of the room, then handcuffed.
Sam Husseini: “Everybody, from Amnesty International — from Amnesty International to the ICJ, is saying that Israel is doing genocide and extermination. You’re telling me to respect the process. Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague? Why aren’t you in The Hague?”
Right before the journalists confronted the secretary of state, Blinken thanked the press for “asking tough questions.” Earlier this week, a ProPublica report detailed the Biden administration’s repeated pattern of issuing “empty threats” and warnings to Israel over the past 15 months, allowing Netanyahu to dismiss any red lines from Washington while continuing its genocide in Gaza with impunity.
Trump Nominees for Treasury, Interior, EPA Face Senate Hearings
Jan 17, 2025
Senate confirmation hearings continued Thursday for Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Scott Bessent, nominated for treasury secretary, advocated for more deregulation and higher tariffs and opposed increasing the federal minimum wage. Bessent also called for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which is projected to add $4 trillion to the federal deficit.
Scott Bessent: “This is the single most important economic issue of the day. This is pass/fail, that if we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity.”
Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, praised Trump’s agenda of so-called energy dominance but vowed to “follow the law and follow the Constitution.”
Former New York Congressmember Lee Zeldin, nominated to lead the EPA, asserted, “I believe that climate change is real,” but would not commit to regulating greenhouse gases if he is confirmed.
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Ron DeSantis Names Trump Loyalist, Florida AG Ashley Moody to Fill Marco Rubio’s Senate Seat
Jan 17, 2025
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis named Florida attorney general and Trump loyalist Ashley Moody to fill Marco Rubio’s Senate seat. Rubio is expected to be confirmed as the next secretary of state. The Miami Herald reports Moody has sued the Biden administration nine times since 2023, including on immigration policy, transgender rights, COVID-19 policies and student debt relief.
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Giuliani Holds On to NY, FL Properties as He Settles with Defamed Georgia Election Workers
Jan 17, 2025
Image Credit: SIPA USA via Reuters
Rudy Giuliani has settled with two Georgia election workers he was found guilty of defaming. The deal allows Giuliani to avoid a trial and keep his apartment in New York and condo in Florida, in exchange for an undisclosed payment to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss and his pledge not to further defame the two women. The mother-daughter duo welcomed the opportunity to “move forward with our lives” after the deal was reached, calling the last four years “a living nightmare.”
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Death Toll from L.A. Wildfires Hits 27 as Study Says Disaster Could End Up Claiming 1,000s of Lives
Jan 17, 2025
In California, some mandatory evacuation zones around Los Angeles have been reopened after firefighters made significant gains battling two massive wildfires. As of Thursday evening, the Palisades fire was 27% contained, while the Eaton fire was 55% contained.
Officially, the death toll from the fires stands at 27. But a new study by Yale University’s Climate Connections predicts that toxic smoke, combined with disruption to the economy and health, may lead to thousands of deaths over the coming years. It’s already the costliest wildfire event in California history. A report from Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs estimates the cost to insurers alone could reach as much as $30 billion.
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Climate Activists Tell Oil Cos to “Pay Up” for L.A. Wildfires as Guterres Slams Fossil Fuel Industry
Jan 17, 2025
Image Credit: Sunrise Movement
On Thursday, dozens of climate activists with the Sunrise Movement held a protest outside a Phillips 66 terminal in Los Angeles, demanding oil companies “pay up” for the wildfires and other climate catastrophes. Last year, oil and gas interests successfully campaigned to kill a California bill that would have forced polluters to help cover the cost of climate disasters.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has blamed the fossil fuel industry for the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, linking them to the broader climate crisis, in a speech to the General Assembly Wednesday.
Secretary-General António Guterres: “Look no further than the hills of Los Angeles. It has gone from the home of disaster movies to a scene of disaster. Who pays the price for climate destruction around the world? Not the fossil fuel industry, pocketing profits and taxpayer subsidies as their products wreak havoc. Every people suffer.”
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Biden Administration Sanctions Sudan’s Army Chief al-Burhan Amid Mounting Humanitarian Disaster
Jan 17, 2025
The U.S. has announced sanctions against the chief of Sudan’s Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The Treasury Department accused Sudan’s military of lethal attacks on civilians, including the use of chemical weapons, and the denial of humanitarian aid. This comes just days after the Biden administration imposed sanctions on Sudan’s rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, and a week after accusing the RSF of committing genocide.
The U.N. says more than 150,000 people have been killed since fighting erupted in April 2023, and 11 million have fled their homes, while famine has spread to at least five regions. Earlier this week, a local volunteer network said over 120 people were killed during shelling in Omdurman, the twin city of Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
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Ohio Woman Sues Ohio City and Hospital After She Was Arrested over Miscarriage
Jan 17, 2025
Image Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo
An Ohio woman who was charged with felony abuse of a corpse after having a miscarriage has filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital and healthcare providers who treated her, as well as the police and the city of Warren for their role in criminalizing her pregnancy loss. In 2023, Brittany Watts was denied abortion care at 22 weeks pregnant despite being told her fetus was not viable and that she was at risk of hemorrhaging and sepsis. She miscarried at home several days later and was criminally charged two weeks later after a hospital worker reported her to police, falsely claiming she improperly disposed of the remains of her pregnancy.
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Biden to Commute Sentences of 2,500 Prisoners Convicted of Nonviolent Offenses
Jan 17, 2025
President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 federal prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. The order will benefit people who received harsher punishments than they would have under modern sentencing laws and practices — including those given lengthy sentences based on distinctions between crack and powder cocaine. Biden has now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any other U.S. president.
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JBS and Perdue Farms to Pay $8 Million for Child Labor Violations at Slaughterhouses
Jan 17, 2025
The meatpacking companies Perdue Farms and JBS will pay $8 million for exploiting immigrant children who worked in their slaughterhouses, after reaching a settlement with the Labor Department. The companies came under scrutiny in recent years after a series of reports revealed unaccompanied youth, mostly from Mexico and Central America, were being maimed and burned while working at meat plants, often on the graveyard shift. Federal law prohibits children from working in slaughterhouses due to dangerous conditions. The money will go to the children, as well as organizations that assist them, including Kids in Need of Defense.