Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed by Israeli forces outside of Jenin. A second reporter Ali Samoodi was shot and wounded. Samoodi, who was near Abu Akleh when she was murdered, reported they came under fire from Israeli occupation forces without warning. "They didn’t ask us to leave and they didn’t ask us to stop (filming). They fired at us. One bullet hit me and another hit Shireen. They killed her in cold blood,” he said. In videos showing the moments after Abu Akleh was shot, both Abu Akleh and a second journalist are wearing internationally recognized...
NAFTA
Israel Police Injure Palestinian Protesters and Journalists on the Temple Mount
Israeli police attacked Palestinian protesters and journalists on the Temple Mount, leaving at least 152 injured from riot munitions, the Red Crescent reported. Israeli forces began targeting Palestinian protesters at the al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), the police raid was carried out after Palestinians set up wooden barriers at the site and some firecrackers were thrown. “Young men prepared wooden roadblocks around the al-Qibli prayer hall in anticipation of a possible Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raid,” the PCHR said. “They...
News Roundup 12/27/21
Covid Massachusetts halts all elective procedures. [Link] The USS Milwaukee will remain in Cuba after several sailors tested positive for Covid. [Link] USAID is running out of money to distribute covid vaccinations. [Link] The US donates 1.5 million vaccine doses to Egypt through Covax. [Link] Biden will lift the travel restriction from eight African countries on January 1st. [Link] US News LAPD officers killed a 14-year-old girl. [Link] The Pentagon cuts the cost of living stipend it gives to tens of thousands of soldiers living in high-cost areas in the US. [Link] Stu Scheller - who...
News Roundup 10/12/21
Asia Talks between China and India failed to reduce border tensions. [Link] The UK’s newest aircraft carrier docked in Singapore. The UK says the operation is a part of its “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific. [Link] Middle East Biden removed sanctions on two entities accused of making ‘dual-use’ parts for Iran’s missile program. [Link] Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says his country will look to quadruple its population in the occupied Golan Heights. [Link] The accused mastermind of the Jamal Khashoggi assassination is returning to his position of power in the Saudi royal family. Saud...
6/22/21 Kalmen Barkin on Israel’s New Coalition Government
Kalmen Barkin is back for an update on Israeli politics. Naftali Bennett has just taken over as Israel's prime minister, following Benjamin Netanyahu's failure to successfully form a coalition government. Bennett, explains Barkin, is quite far on the right, yet he and Netanyahu are bitter rivals—indeed, Barkin says, this whole election was less about specific policy issues than it was about mutual desire to oust Netanyahu. And so the new ruling coalition has elements from both the left and the right, and, for the first time, Arabs. Mainstream Israeli political parties have traditionally...
Why Americans Pay Triple the World Price for Sugar
Washington is once again massively screwing up the American sugar market. Because American farmers cannot compete with foreign sugar growers, the federal government has maintained an array of sugar import quotas and/or tariffs for most of the last 200 years. The regulatory regime has provided windfalls for generations of politicians and jobs for legions of bureaucrats while destroying more than a hundred thousand private, productive jobs. It’s Getting Worse The sugar regime is back in the news thanks to a squabble over Mexican sugar imports. Mexico is by far the largest sugar supplier to...