Important Takeaways:
- The United Nations general assembly’s resolution on Wednesday advanced a dramatic legal shift, begun by the international court of justice (ICJ) in July, in how we understand Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
- The ICJ had found Israel’s prolonged occupation to be unlawful and ordered it to end “as rapidly as possible”.
- The headline on the general assembly resolution was that it ordered Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory within one year. But that is only the beginning.
- International humanitarian law, which governs warfare, is neutral about the fact of occupation but imposes duties on the occupier for how it must treat the occupied population.
- But the ICJ, and now the general assembly, also looked to a separate body of law which regards prolonged occupation as the illegal forcible acquisition of territory.
- Israel is violating both sets of laws.
- The general assembly and ICJ actions also have implications for the international criminal court (ICC), which is currently considering the prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three senior Hamas officials.
- The Israeli government will undoubtedly resist, but everyone else has a duty to press it to comply – and to avoid any contribution, military or commercial, to Israeli defiance.
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Important Takeaways:
- US officials believe hostage-ceasefire deal unlikely by end of Biden’s term
- Multiple senior US officials have reportedly acknowledged that a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas is unlikely before the end of US President Joe Biden’s term in office in January, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
- The US officials told the outlet that one of the biggest obstacles to a deal has been the ratio of Palestinian security prisoners Israel must release in exchange for each hostage.
- The US has said publicly that Hamas has raised the number of prisoners it originally asked for, even after executing six hostages earlier this month.
- More broadly, WSJ reported that Hamas has made demands and then refuses to agree to a deal after Israel accepted them.
- “There’s no chance now of it happening,” an official from an Arab country told the newspaper. “Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the [US] election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel and Hezbollah trade intensified fire across Lebanon-Israel border as fears grow of a full-blown war.
- The Israeli military said it has carried out a “targeted strike” in the Lebanese capital, claiming to have hit near key Hezbollah facilities in Dahiyeh.
- “The [Israeli military] conducted a targeted strike in Beirut. At this moment, there are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines,” it said, providing no further details.
- Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said Dahiyeh is considered a Hezbollah stronghold.
- “This is a major escalation. We are getting reports this could be a targeted assassination,” she said.
- Earlier on Friday, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets, a day after the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah promised to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the Iran-backed group said.
- Israel’s military said the rockets came in three waves on Friday afternoon, targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.
- Khan described the overnight attacks by Israel in Lebanon as the “largest” since hostilities began in October, following the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel that triggered its war on the Gaza Strip.
- “We’re not in a tit-for-tat, we’re in an open war.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Hezbollah’s operations commander, Ibrahim Aqil, was the subject of a $7 million State Department reward for information leading to his arrest.
- The Israeli military said it had killed Aqil and as many as 10 other senior commanders of the movement’s Radwan special forces unit.
- “This elimination is intended to protect the citizens of Israel,” an Israeli military spokesman said in a brief statement.
- The State Department has identified Aqil, also known as Tahsin, as a member of Hezbollah’s “highest military body,” the Jihad Council.
- In the 1980s, as different factions vied for control of Lebanon and a U.S. Marine detachment was deployed as a would-be peacekeeping force, Aqil was a top figure in Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization. The organization took credit for the April 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people, and the Marine Corps barracks in October of that year, which killed 241 Americans.
- Aqil also oversaw the abductions of American and German hostages in Lebanon, the State Department said last year. The department named Aqil a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in 2019.
- Israel’s Defense Forces said they struck more than 100 Hezbollah missile launchers as well as a munitions depot Thursday and Friday as well as targets in Beirut.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Kentucky couple have said a “date night idea” unfolded into a multi-day bounty hunt that led them to the body of a suspected gunman.
- The body is believed to be that of Joseph Couch, wanted for a shooting rampage on an interstate highway earlier this month. No formal identification has yet been made.
- Police scoured through dense rural brush for 11 days in search of Couch, and offered a $35,000 (£26,000) reward for information leading to his capture.
- Fred and Sheila McCoy had been live-streaming over a period of six days when they made their discovery.
- At about the same time as the McCoys stumbled upon the body, two Kentucky state police troopers had also been drawn to the site by the smell and the sight of circling scavengers.
- In a statement on Wednesday, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said it had located a body presumed to belong to Couch.
- The state medical examiner’s office in Frankfort is conducting an autopsy to confirm it is him.
- The manhunt sparked fear among the local community, with several school districts cancelling classes and business owners locking their doors.
- The McCoys have said they joined the search both for a piece of the reward and to bring a sense of normalcy back to the community.
- “We are very confident that this brings closure to the search for Joseph Couch,” police commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr said.
- He confirmed the McCoys would receive a full reward.
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Important Takeaways:
- Thurman obtained chemical-abortion pills in North Carolina. After returning home to Georgia, she experienced a rare complication. She had not yet expelled all of the fetal tissue. She checked into Piedmont Henry Hospital to receive a dilation-and-curettage (D and C) procedure to remove the fetal remains. There were delays in her treatment, her condition deteriorated, and she tragically died.
- This week ProPublica reported on the tragic death of Amber Nicole Thurman.
- ProPublica reports that a state committee deemed Thurman’s death “preventable” and argues that delays in Thurman’s care were caused by Georgia’s pro-life laws.
- Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media opportunistically pounced on this tragic story.
- Countless politicians and elected officials got in on the act.
- ProPublica, which broke the story, indicates that an official state committee tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths deemed Thurman’s death “preventable.”
- However, the full review of her patient case is not public. Furthermore, the ProPublica article contains no information from medical professionals directly involved with Thurman’s care. Communications staff from this hospital and the Georgia Department of Public Health also did not provide comments on Thurman’s case.
- Christina Francis points out in her recent Atlanta Journal Constitution opinion piece, Georgia’s pro-life heartbeat act was not responsible for Thurman’s death.
- That is because the law allows physicians to intervene in cases of medical emergencies or if the preborn child has no detectable heartbeat. Both of these clearly applied in Thurman’s case. Furthermore, a D&C to remove the remains of an unborn child that has died is not an abortion and is not criminalized in Georgia.
- In this case, Thurman’s death was caused by chemical-abortion pills.
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Important Takeaways:
- Prosecutors say Panos Anastasiou, 76, levied the threats over the course of about six months, but many were delivered in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision carving out broad criminal immunity for former President Trump.
- In one alleged message sent less than two hours after the July 1 decision, Anastasiou threatened to torture and execute six unnamed justices by “assassination,” according to the indictment. He allegedly sent a similar message that evening.
- Two days later, he made a threat to behead the six justices, prosecutors allege, which was purportedly followed the followed the next day with a threat of drowning, shooting, strangling and “lynching” the six jurists.
- Prosecutors say Anastasiou began sending messages through the Supreme Court’s website as early as March 2023 and started including threats this past January. More than 465 messages were sent in total, according to the indictment, and some allegedly targeted justices’ family members.
- The grand jury returned the indictment just days after authorities began investigating a man for apparently attempting to assassinate Trump at one of his Florida golf courses on Sunday.
- And it comes amid increased concerns about the protection of Supreme Court justices.
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Important Takeaways:
- The small asteroid was discovered on Aug. 7 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a NASA-funded program.
- Now named asteroid 2024 PT5, it will be captured in Earth’s gravitational pull between Sept. 29 and Nov. 25.
- After that, it will escape Earth’s orbit and be pulled toward the sun before continuing its travels around our solar system.
- During its 56-day orbit, Asteroid 2024 PT5 will travel in a horseshoe-shaped trajectory before leaving Earth’s gravity.
- It’s unlikely we can catch a glimpse of the passing mini-moon as it enters Earth’s gravity. The NASA JPL Small-Body Database states that 2024 PT5 won’t be visible to most amateur telescopes due to its extremely low absolute magnitude of 22, which is too dim even for backyard binoculars or telescopes.
- Researchers think 2024 PT5 came from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is a group of small asteroids that follow dynamically cold, Earth-like orbits, according to Astronomy & Astrophysics.
- Compared to Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of 2,159 miles, asteroid 2024 PT5 is just a tiny spec measuring at about 33 feet wide.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Israeli strikes targeted infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, including the areas of Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun and Kfarkela, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday. Israel also struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Khiam.
- “The IDF will continue to operate against the threat of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in order to defend the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement.
- “Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said. “The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines. The enemy will face a severe and fair punishment from where they expect and don’t expect.”
- “The Hezbollah terrorist organization has turned southern Lebanon into a combat zone. For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields,” Israel’s military said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Venezuela’s former opposition candidate, Edmundo González, on Wednesday said he was coerced into signing a letter effectively recognizing his defeat in July’s presidential election, which electoral authorities claim was won by President Nicolás Maduro.
- The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country’s political crisis, which was exacerbated by the disputed election results and González’s recent departure for exile in Spain.
- The document states it was meant to be confidential, but Jorge Rodríguez, head of the National Assembly and Maduro’s chief negotiator, presented it during a nationally televised press conference hours after a local news outlet published parts of it.
- “They showed up with a document that I would have to sign to allow my departure from the country,” González said. “In other words, either I signed or I would face consequences. There were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure.”
- The opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 80% of the nation’s electronic voting machines and posted them online. González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the voting records showed the former diplomat won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
- González then became the subject of an arrest warrant over an investigation into the publishing of the tally sheets.
- Venezuela’s next presidential term begins Jan. 10 and lasts six years.
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