Lovstuhagen

Sen. Chris Coons, an influential lawmaker and close Capitol Hill ally of President Joe Biden, opened the door Thursday to the US conditioning aid to Israel amid its ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Asked during an interview with CNN, Coons said "I think we're at that point," caging his comments on whether Israel conducts "large-scale operations in Rafah," the southern Gaza city where 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge after being displaced.

"If Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister, were to order the IDF into Rafah at scale, they were to drop thousand-pound bombs, send in a battalion to go after Hamas, and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, I would vote to condition aid to Israel," he said, referring to Israel's military. "I've never said that before. I've never been here before."

The comments come after Israel carried out strikes on a humanitarian convoy in central Gaza that killed seven aid workers in what the group's founder called a "direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the Israel Defense Forces."

Biden has expressed anger at the killings, but the White House has shown no willingness to change policy on Israel and has repeatedly rejected calls to condition aid. It is unclear if the growing number of the president's fellow Democrats who are backing the shift will affect his calculus.

The report conducted by the Immigration and Demography Observatory in collaboration with the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol) think tank found that 57 percent of those originating from the African region are living in social housing across France.

Even more concerning is the fact that 63 percent of descendants of these immigrants also occupy social housing, suggesting a generational trend of sub-Saharan migrant communities continuing to live off the state.

The study contrasts this figure with other migration backgrounds including those from China, of whom just 8 percent enjoy subsidized living arrangements. Similarly, just 14 percent of Southeast Asian migrants and 14 percent of those arriving from other EU countries live in social housing.

The percentage of French citizens living in social housing is 11 percent, the report adds.

Hong Kong activists and lawyers slammed a new policy governing the changing of gender on ID cards Wednesday, saying the rule shift, which follows a court decision, still requires invasive surgery.

The city’s top court decided in 2023 that it was unconstitutional for the government to require a person to complete full gender reassignment surgery before the “sex entry” on their ID card could be changed.

The policy presented “an unacceptably harsh burden on the individuals concerned”, the Court of Final Appeal ruled at the time.

The bodies of eight Chinese migrants were found on a beach in southern Mexico after the boat they were traveling in capsized, officials said Saturday.

The seven women and a man were aboard a boat operated by a Mexican that left Tapachula in Chiapas state, on the border with Guatemala, on Thursday, the prosecutor’s office added.

The shore where the bodies were discovered on Friday in the state of Oaxaca sits along a route frequently used by people trying to reach the United States.

Another migrant survived the ordeal. There was no word on what happened to the Mexican driving the boat.

Video reports coming from Mexico show government immigration officials rounding up large groups of migrants near Juarez. The Mexican immigration officials are reportedly sending the migrants back to the southern end of the country.

Video reports posted on X show large numbers of Mexican immigration enforcement vehicles loaded with migrants who were apprehended in Juarez approaching the border with El Paso, Texas. The migrants are reportedly being transported back to southern Mexico or other interior locations within the country.

...

Center for Immigration fellow Todd Bensman reports the moves by Mexican immigration officials are part of a Biden-Obrador election ploy intended to deflect from the magnitude of the border crisis in Texas.

It'll be curious to look at the numbers subsequently and see if such an agreement has been reached between the two governments but this seems quite speculative.

I am not sure what Obrador would gain...

Obrador quite recently is even making demands of Biden for payouts. I haven't heard about them being made.

John Eastman, the former Donald Trump election lawyer behind the so-called “fake electors” scheme, was officially disbarred by the state of California on Tuesday.

The California State Bar recommended last Wednesday that Eastman be disbarred for his actions surrounding the 2020 election and the pro-Trump efforts to overturn that election.

“Eastman’s wrongdoing was committed directly in the course and scope of his representation of President Trump and the Trump Campaign,” State Bar Court Judge Yvette D. Roland ruled. “Eastman’s actions transgressed those ethical limits by advocating, participating in and pursuing a strategy to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that lacked evidentiary or legal support.”

Iraqi ex-Muslim Salwan Momika, who burnt the Quran several times, was found dead in Norway, According to reports emerging from X on Tuesday. Momika had recently left Sweden and had sought asylum in Norway and was reportedly under the protection of the authorities.

Momika had recently put an update about him shifting to Norway from Sweden. He also revealed that he has applied from asylum and protection from the Norwegian authorities. Further he confirmed that he will continue his fight against Islamic ideology no matter whatever it costs.

“I was murdered by Internet bullies,” Piskor wrote. “Massive amounts of them. Some of you out there absolutely contributed to my death as you were entertaining yourself with gossip. I wasn’t AI. I was a real human being. You chipped little bits of my self esteem away all week until I was vaporized.”

Since 8 October, more than 230 Israeli soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah fighters in cross-border operations against the occupation state, according to field data obtained by The Cradle.

This suggests that the Lebanese resistance has achieved parity in the number of forces killed by both sides during the past six months of military clashes.

This feat is as significant as it is impressive, given that "relatively poorly armed and usually outnumbered popular resistance forces never achieve a 1:1 ratio against high-tech, heavily weaponized colonialist and neo-colonialist forces," as noted by one analyst in the aftermath of Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon.

While Hezbollah honors the martyrdoms of its fallen fighters by disclosing both name and number, the Israeli military tightly controls its casualty information flow, masking the true extent of its losses and downplaying the significance of crucial Israeli installations struck by Hezbollah drones and missiles in the country's northern front.

Recent reports suggest 258 Hezbollah fighters have been killed since 8 October, while Israel has claimed only 10 fatalities among its forces - a highly improbable figure given Hezbollah's extensive dissemination of war footage showing its Israeli troop targeting operations.

In comparison, during Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon, which lasted only 34 days, Hezbollah's losses are estimated to be around 250 dead fighters versus Israel's declared 121 troops deaths, although that number is believed to be significantly higher.