News Briefs for Friday, January 3, 2025
HAVANA TIMES – Here are the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Thursday January 2, 2024.
“How to Hide a Genocide”: Al Haq Report Shows How Israel Hides Behind “Safe Zones”
Jan 03, 2025
Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 35 Palestinians since dawn, with authorities reporting more than 70 civilians killed over the past 24 hours, including in the so-called humanitarian safe zone of al-Mawasi. This comes as the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq published a new report called “How to Hide a Genocide,” revealing how Israel uses evacuation orders and “safe zones” to obfuscate its genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip. Al-Haq writes, “With insufficient space, shelter, sanitation facilities, food, or water sources, and medical care, these safe zones are intentionally designed to ensure the destruction of all life sheltering there. What’s more, the safe zones … are routinely targeted by Israeli occupying forces by air, land, and sea.”
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Doha Ceasefire Talks Set to Resume as UNSC Takes Up Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals
Jan 03, 2025
As the relentless attacks on Gaza continue, Israeli negotiators are reportedly heading back to Qatar to resume ceasefire talks.
Here in New York, the U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting today to discuss Israeli attacks on Gaza’s hospitals, including northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, whose director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was abducted last week by Israeli forces. Israel has since refused to confirm his location or his condition. Medical workers around the world have been calling for his release and for the protection of Gaza’s crumbling health infrastructure. Reports on the ground in Gaza say the Israeli military is ordering the forced evacuation of Indonesian Hospital, where a handful of patients that were forced out of Kamal Adwan are now being treated. Al Jazeera also reports Israeli forces are intensively shelling the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza.
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3,500 Children in Gaza Could Die of Malnutrition as Hunger Grips Besieged Territory
Jan 03, 2025
Palestinian authorities warn 3,500 children are at risk of death due to severe malnutrition. Twenty-two percent of Gaza’s population is currently facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity. This is the displaced mother of a sick baby being treated at a U.N. facility in Deir al-Balah.
Misk al-Madhoun’s mother: “The reason behind my daughter’s condition is displacement. We fled from the north to Rafah and then to Deir al-Balah, where we lived in a tent. My daughter’s fever would reach 40 degrees daily. We took her to the American Hospital every day because of the fever, and they would prescribe paracetamol before sending us away. Her malnutrition worsened due to prolonged displacement, lack of food, and financial hardship since my husband’s work stopped during the war.”
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Texas Veteran Who Killed 15 People on Bourbon Street Previously Planned to Harm Family
Jan 03, 2025
New Orleans’s famed Bourbon Street reopened for business on Thursday, one day after a man crashed his pickup truck into crowds of New Year’s revelers, killing at least 14 people before he was shot dead by police. Investigators now believe the assailant, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Houston, Texas, acted alone. He served in the U.S. Army for over a decade, including at North Carolina’s Fort Liberty, previously known as Fort Bragg.
The FBI says he was inspired by the Islamic State and pledged his allegiance to the group in Facebook videos just hours before the attack. Authorities say Jabbar had expressed plans to harm his family by gathering relatives for a “celebration,” before deciding to attack Bourbon Street instead.
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Driver of Cybertruck That Exploded Outside Trump Hotel ID’d as U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger
Jan 03, 2025
The FBI has identified the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas Wednesday morning. Investigators say 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head moments before his rented Cybertruck, which was packed with fireworks and fuel canisters, dramatically burst into flames. Seven people suffered minor injuries from what the FBI now believes was an intentional explosion.
Livelsberger was a decorated active-duty Special Operations soldier, attaining the rank of master sergeant in the U.S. Army. From 2017 to 2019, he served three tours of duty in Afghanistan. Before that, he deployed to the Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Tajikistan. Livelsberger was on leave from his base in Germany and rented the Tesla Cybertruck on December 28. FBI special agent Spencer Evans says investigators are still searching for a motive.
Spencer Evans: “We know we have a bombing, absolutely. And it’s a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concern. It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of, you know, of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle. But we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology or that — you know, any of the reasoning behind it.”
The FBI says it had not found any association between the Cybertruck explosion and the attack in New Orleans earlier on New Year’s Day. Both suspects served in the U.S. Army, including overlapping assignments at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, but there’s no evidence they knew each other.
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Fate of House Speaker Mike Johnson Uncertain as 119th Congress Is Sworn In
Jan 03, 2025
On Capitol Hill, the 119th U.S. Congress is opening today with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate. For the first time ever, the U.S. Senate will have two Black women serving at the same time: Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware — both Democrats. Republicans will hold 53 Senate seats, and Democrats 47.
The U.S. House will swear in its first-ever openly transgender lawmaker, Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware. But the fate of the House speakership remained uncertain as of late Thursday, as Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican vote as his party holds a slim 219-215 majority in the chamber. Some Republicans fear a protracted battle for House speaker could delay the certification of Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory, which is scheduled for Monday.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are accusing Republicans of “doubling down on their extremism” as they introduced a new rule that would allow only Republican lawmakers to force a vote on removing the House speaker. Other proposals in the Republican Party’s rules package include fast-tracking crackdowns on transgender rights, immigrants’ rights and abortion rights; dissolving the congressional Diversity and Inclusion Office; renaming the Office of Congressional Ethics to the Office of Congressional Conduct; and a bill that would sanction the International Criminal Court.
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Biden Awards Presidential Citizens Medal to Republican Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney
Jan 03, 2025
President Biden on Thursday awarded former Republican Congressmember Liz Cheney a Presidential Citizens Medal for her work on the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Democratic lawmaker Bennie Thompson, who chaired the House committee, also received the award. Trump has threatened to retaliate against Cheney and Thompson, saying they should go to jail.
Among the other 18 Presidential Citizens Medal awardees was Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who received a posthumous recognition for challenging the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
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Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC Net Neutrality Rules
Jan 03, 2025
A federal appeals court has struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules, which prevented internet service providers from throttling, blocking or charging more for certain content. Net neutrality rules, which proponents say are critical to maintaining an open internet, were reinstated last year by the Biden administration after they were gutted by Trump’s FCC chair, Ajit Pai, in 2018.
But the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday the FCC lacked authority to regulate broadband internet as a utility, citing the Supreme Court’s overturning in June of the Chevron doctrine, a 40-year-old legal precedent that gave deference to government agencies over lower courts in interpreting laws and imposing regulations. Digital rights groups and FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel are urging lawmakers to take action to restore net neutrality through congressional action.
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Biden to Block Nippon Steel’s Takeover Bid of U.S. Steel
Jan 03, 2025
Two Biden administration officials say the president has decided to block the $15 billion takeover of U.S. Steel by the Japanese company Nippon Steel on national security grounds. The sale is opposed by unions including the United Steelworkers, whose support Biden won in 2020 after he pledged to oppose the merger.
China Sanctions U.S. Arms Makers as Xi Jinping Acknowledges “Uncertainties” of Trump Trade War
Jan 03, 2025
China has sanctioned dozens of U.S. weapons makers, the latest escalation of the U.S.-China trade war before Donald Trump takes office. On Thursday, China announced it had added 28 U.S. companies to an export control list and blacklisted 10 other U.S. companies from doing business in China, citing weapons sales to Taiwan. Among the affected companies are General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered his annual New Year’s address, saying China’s economy remains on course to expand by 5% this year, despite Trump’s threats of a renewed U.S.-China trade war.
President Xi Jinping: “The Chinese economy faces some new conditions, including challenges of uncertainties in the external environment and pressure of transformation from old growth drivers into new ones. But we can prevail with our hard work.”
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Security Forces Block South Korean Police from Arresting Disgraced President Yoon Suk Yeol
Jan 03, 2025
In South Korea, authorities suspended their attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a dramatic, six-hour standoff with Yoon’s supporters and his security forces. A court issued the arrest warrant for Yoon earlier this week, following his short-lived attempt to impose martial law last month. The warrant is valid until January 6. Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment proceedings are set to start on January 14.
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Dozens of Asylum Seekers Drown in Shipwrecks Near Tunisia and Libya Attempting to Reach Europe
Jan 03, 2025
At least 27 people died Thursday in two shipwrecks off the coast of Tunisia. One of the dead was a newborn baby. Eighty-three surviving refugees from various sub-Saharan African countries were rescued by members of the Tunisian National Guard.
Separately, at least 20 asylum seekers went missing Tuesday after their boat sank as it traveled from Libya to Italy. Authorities believe the passengers, including women and children, died in the tragedy.
The International Organization for Migration says at least 24,500 people have disappeared or died in the central Mediterranean since 2014 as they attempted to reach European shores. Most of the refugee boats set sail from Libya or Tunisia.
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Biden to Designate Two New National Monuments in California
Jan 03, 2025
Image Credit: protectchuckwalla.org
President Biden is preparing to designate two new national monuments in California ahead of Donald Trump’s return to power. The Chuckwalla monument, located next to the Joshua Tree National Park between the Colorado River and Coachella Valley, would create the largest contiguous protected area in the U.S. Biden is reportedly also announcing protections for the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, near Oregon, which the Pit River Tribe has been fighting to shield from energy development.