Mumia Abu Jamal Webinar:
The Path to Freedom
August 6. 2024, 3:00-4:30 P.M., Pacific Time
Peace and Power,
Please start Black August off by joining the Abolitionist Law Center on August 6th for a webinar "Overcoming Death By Incarceration: The Path to Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal." Register at this Link
This webinar will present important information on the path to freedom for one of our longest serving political prisoners. Topics to be discussed include legal strategies and updates in Mumia's case, commutation, International Advocacy and compassionate release.
The panel includes Saleem Holbrook, ALC Exec. Director; Bret Grote, ALC Legal Director; Ghani Kempis Songster, former Juvenile Lifer and organizer; Journalist & Professor Linn Washington, Jr. and Dr. Jennifer Black co-editor with Mumia Abu-Jamal of the recently released Beneath the Mountain (City Lights 2024). Plus a special message from Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Please circulate to your network. Flyer below.
In Solidarity
Robert Saleem Holbrook
Executive Director
Abolitionist Law Center
(267)-229-7678
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Please consider amplifying the new AFT4Palestine divestment campaign's launch tweet:
https://x.com/Aft4Palestine/status/1813973522995396761 (and follow us on social media too!)
We are already getting hit by the right-wing press and AFT leadership is getting thousands of emails (we have been told) so we need some grassroots help getting our campaign message out going into the AFT convention next week!
And if by any chance any of you will be at the AFT convention next week in Houston, please get in touch! We need volunteers to help with the floor campaign and we will also have a AFT4Palestine-ers meet up.
https://www.aft4palestine.org/take-action
Tell AFT: Divest from Genocide, Apartheid, & Scholasticide
The AFT currently holds only one bond of a foreign government in the form of an Israel Bond. Through its investment in Israel Bonds, our union is lending unrestricted funds to the Israeli government that can be used to fund any and all violence and human rights violations–with no guardrails. With resolution #34, we are asking AFT to support justice in Palestine by divesting from its Israel Bond.
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Casualties
· 39,480 + killed* and at least 91,128 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 28,903 Palestinians have been fully identified, and around 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.*
· 594+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank including eastern Jerusalem. These include 138 children.**
· Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
· 690 Israeli soldiers have been recognized as killed, and 4096 as wounded by the Israeli army since October 7.***
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on July 31, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health on July 30, this is the latest figure.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000 including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.
Source: mondoweiss.net
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Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
U.S. Parole Commission Denies Leonard Peltier’s Request for Freedom; President Biden Should Grant Clemency
In response to the U.S. Parole Commission denying Leonard Peltier’s request for parole after a hearing on June 10, Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, made the following statement:
“Continuing to keep Leonard Peltier locked behind bars is a human rights travesty. President Biden should grant him clemency and release him immediately. Not only are there ongoing, unresolved concerns about the fairness of his trial, he has spent nearly 50 years in prison, is approaching 80 years old, and suffers from several chronic health problems.
“Leonard Peltier has been incarcerated for far too long. The parole commission should have granted him the freedom to spend his remaining years in his community and surrounded by loved ones.
“No one should be imprisoned after a trial riddled with uncertainty about its fairness. We are now calling on President Biden, once again, to grant Leonard Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of mercy and justice.”
Background
· Leonard Peltier, Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), was convicted of the murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. He has always maintained his innocence. Amnesty International joins Tribal Nations, Tribal Leaders, Members of Congress, former FBI agents, Nobel Peace Prize winners and former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, whose office handled Peltier’s prosecution and appeal, in urging his release.
· Parole was also rejected at Peltier’s last hearing in 2009. Due to his age, this was likely the last opportunity for parole.
· A clemency request is pending before President Joe Biden. President Biden has committed opens in a new tab to grant clemency/commutation of sentences on a rolling basis rather than at the end of his term, following a review of requests by the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice.
Amnesty International has examined Peltier’s case extensively for many years, sent observers to his trial in 1977, and long campaigned on his behalf. Most recently, Amnesty International USA sent a letter to the U.S. Parole Commission urging the commission to grant him parole.
https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/u-s-parole-commission-denies-leonard-peltiers-request-for-freedom-president-biden-should-grant-clemency/
Write to:
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
USP Coleman 1
P.O. Box 1033
Coleman, FL 33521
Note: Letters, address and return address must be in writing—no stickers—and on plain white paper.
Sign our petition urging President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier:
https://www.freeleonardpeltier.com/petition
Email: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Address: 116 W. Osborne Ave. Tampa, Florida 33603
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Beneath The Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader (City Lights, 2024) is a collection of revolutionary essays, written by those who have been detained inside prison walls. Composed by the most structurally dispossessed people on earth, the prisoner class, these words illuminate the steps towards freedom.
Beneath the Mountain documents the struggle — beginning with slavery, genocide, and colonization up to our present day — and imagines a collective, anti-carceral future. These essays were handwritten first on scraps of paper, magazine covers, envelopes, toilet paper, or pages of bibles, scratched down with contraband pencils or the stubby cartridge of a ball-point pen; kites, careworn, copied and shared across tiers and now preserved in this collection for this and future generations. If they were dropped in the prison-controlled mail they were cloaked in prayers, navigating censorship and dustbins. They were very often smuggled out. These words mark resistance, fierce clarity, and speak to the hope of building the world we all deserve to live in.
"Beneath the Mountain reminds us that ancestors and rebels have resisted conquest and enslavement, building marronage against colonialism and genocide."
—Joy James, author of New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency
Who stands beneath the mountain but prisoners of war? Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jennifer Black have assembled a book of fire, each voice a flame in captivity...Whether writing from a place of fugivity, the prison camp, the city jail, the modern gulag or death row, these are our revolutionary thinkers, our critics and dreamers, our people. The people who move mountains. —Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Filled with insight and energy, this extraordinary book gifts us the opportunity to encounter people’s understanding of the fight for freedom from the inside out. —Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of Golden Gulag and Abolition Geography
These are the words each writer dreamed as they sought freedom and they need to be studied by people inside and read in every control unit/hole in every prison in America. We can send this book for you to anyone who you know who is currently living, struggling, and fighting
Who better to tell these stories than those who have lived them? Don’t be surprised with what you find within these pages: hope, solidarity, full faith towards the future, and most importantly, love.
Excerpt from the book:
"Revolutionary love speaks to the ways we protect, respect, and empower each other while standing up to state terror. Its presence is affirmed through these texts as a necessary component to help chase away fear and to encourage the solidarity and unity essential for organizing in dangerous times and places. Its absence portends tragedy. Revolutionary love does not stop the state from wanting to kill us, nor is it effective without strategy and tactics, but it is the might that fuels us to stand shoulder to shoulder with others regardless. Perhaps it can move mountains." —Jennifer Black & Mumia Abu-Jamal from the introduction to Beneath The Mountain: An Anti Prison Reader
Get the book at:
https://www.prisonradiostore.com/shop-2/beneath-the-mountain-an-anti-prison-reader-edited-by-mumia-abu-jamal-jennifer-black-city-lights-2024
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Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky
In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries.
Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin:
“To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?”
Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine.
A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism.
To sign the online petition at freeboris.info
—Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024
https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine.
Petition in Support of Boris Kagarlitsky
We, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitsky
https://freeboris.info
The petition is also available on Change.org
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*Major Announcement*
Claudia De la Cruz wins
Peace and Freedom Party primary in California!
We have an exciting announcement. The votes are still being counted in California, but the Claudia-Karina “Vote Socialist” campaign has achieved a clear and irreversible lead in the Peace and Freedom Party primary. Based on the current count, Claudia has 46% of the vote compared to 40% for Cornel West. A significant majority of PFP’s newly elected Central Committee, which will formally choose the nominee at its August convention, have also pledged their support to the Claudia-Karina campaign.
We are excited to campaign in California now and expect Claudia De la Cruz to be the candidate on the ballot of the Peace and Freedom Party in November.
We achieved another big accomplishment this week - we’re officially on the ballot in Hawai’i! This comes after also petitioning to successfully gain ballot access in Utah. We are already petitioning in many other states. Each of these achievements is powered by the tremendous effort of our volunteers and grassroots organizers across the country. When we’re organized, people power can move mountains!
We need your help to keep the momentum going. Building a campaign like this takes time, energy, and money. We know that our class enemies — the billionaires, bankers, and CEO’s — put huge sums toward loyal politicians and other henchmen who defend their interests. They will use all the money and power at their disposal to stop movements like ours. As an independent, socialist party, our campaign is relying on contributions from the working class and people like you.
We call on each and every one of our supporters to set up a monthly or one-time donation to support this campaign to help it keep growing and reaching more people. A new socialist movement, independent of the Democrats and Republicans, is being built but it will only happen when we all pitch in.
The Claudia-Karina campaign calls to end all U.S. aid to Israel. End this government’s endless wars. We want jobs for all, with union representation and wages that let us live with dignity. Housing, healthcare, and education for all - without the lifelong debt. End the ruthless attacks on women, Black people, immigrants, and LGBTQ people. These are just some of the demands that are resonating across the country. Help us take the next step:
Volunteer: https://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer
Donate: https://votesocialist2024.com/donate
See you in the streets,
Claudia & Karina
Don't Forget! Join our telegram channel for regular updates: https://t.me/+KtYBAKgX51JhNjMx
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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The writers' organization PEN America is circulating this petition on behalf of Jason Renard Walker, a Texas prisoner whose life is being threatened because of his exposés of the Texas prison system.
See his book, Reports from within the Belly of the Beast; available on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/Reports-Within-Belly-Beast-Department-ebook/dp/B084656JDZ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protect-whistleblowers-in-carceral-settings
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Daniel Hale UPDATE:
In February Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale was transferred from the oppressive maximum-security prison in Marion, Illinois to house confinement. We celebrate his release from Marion. He is laying low right now, recovering from nearly 3 years in prison. Thank goodness he is now being held under much more humane conditions and expected to complete his sentence in July of this year. www.StandWithDaniel Hale.org
More Info about Daniel:
“Drone Whistleblower Subjected To Harsh Confinement Finally Released From Prison”
https://thedissenter.org/drone-whistleblower-cmu-finally-released-from-prison/
“I was punished under the Espionage Act. Why wasn’t Joe Biden?” by Daniel Hale
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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1) Two Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
By Ephrat Livni, August 1, 2024
Mourners and colleagues surrounding the body of the Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, who was killed with a cameraman, Rami al-Refee, on Wednesday. Credit...Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Al Jazeera, the influential Arab news network, said that two of its journalists were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike on their car in Gaza City.
The Qatar-based network said the reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman, Rami al-Rifee, were killed in Shati camp in northern Gaza after reporting from or near the house of the deceased Hamas political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday. The network accused the Israeli military of targeting the journalists with a “direct hit,” and reported that “their car was clearly marked as a press vehicle.”
“The assassination of Ismail and Rami, while they were documenting the crimes of Israeli forces, underscores the urgent need for immediate legal action against the occupation forces to ensure that there is no impunity,” Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement.
Mohammed Moawad, Al Jazeera’s managing editor, praised Mr. al-Ghoul’s courage in a post on social media.
“Ismail was renowned for his professionalism and dedication, bringing the world’s attention to the suffering and atrocities committed in Gaza,” he said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has said the war in Gaza has led to the deadliest period for correspondents since it began gathering data in 1992, with at least 111 journalists and media workers among the more than 39,000 people killed in Gaza.
Mr. Moawad posted a message that he said had been written by Mr. al-Ghoul, in which the journalist reflected on being haunted by the incessant civilian suffering and death he’d seen while reporting on the conflict in Gaza.
“Let me tell you, my friend, that I no longer know the taste of sleep,” Mr. al-Ghoul wrote. “The bodies of children and the screams of the injured and their blood-soaked images never leave my sight. The cries of mothers and the wailing of men who are missing their loved ones never fade from my hearing.”
He added: “I am tired, my friend.”
An Al Jazeera video from outside a hospital showed two corpses on stretchers wearing vests meant to protect journalists, marked with the word “press.” The journalists were on their way to a hospital after being asked to leave the area by Israeli forces, according to Al Jazeera.
Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement on social media that the organization was “dismayed” by the journalists’ deaths.
“Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted,” she said. “Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Israel has a fraught relationship with Al Jazeera. In May, the Israeli government shut down the organization’s local operations in a step that critics denounced as anti-democratic and part of a broader crackdown on dissent over the war against Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Al Jazeera, a major source of news in the Arab world that has often highlighted civilian suffering in Gaza, of harming Israel’s security and inciting violence against its soldiers, though Israeli officials offered no examples. The initial order to shut down, set for 45 days, has since been extended.
The New York Times and other major international outlets have evacuated Palestinian journalists who had been working for them in Gaza. Israel and Egypt have restricted entry by international journalists into Gaza — with the exception of coordinated visits to specific sites with the Israeli military — so the stories that emerge from the war have often been left to local Palestinian reporters to document alone, working in extremely dangerous conditions.
“It is clear that journalists need to be protected,” Stéphane Dujarric, a United Nations spokesman, told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday. “These and other similar incidents must be fully and transparently investigated, and there must be accountability.”
Anushka Patil contributed reporting.
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2) Fears of Wider Mideast Conflict Deepen, With U.S. Seen as ‘Not in Control’
American officials said they had no advance warning of the attack on the Hamas leader in Iran, raising worries of a power vacuum that could lead to a broader geopolitical crisis.
By Mark Landler, Reporting from London, Aug. 1, 2024
People in Tehran on Wednesday held Iranian and Palestinian flags and images of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was killed in the city that morning. Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
For months, diplomats and analysts in foreign capitals have worried that prolonged political upheaval in the United States could invite aggression abroad, whether in Russia’s waging of war in Ukraine, North Korea’s rogue nuclear ambitions or China’s expansionist designs in the South China Sea.
Now, less than 100 days before Americans elect a new president, that broader geopolitical crisis has erupted in the familiar theater of the Middle East. The targeted killings of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders in Beirut and Tehran have deepened fears of a regionwide conflict — one that the United States, caught up in its own political drama at home, may have little capacity to avert or even contain.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the United States had not been involved in, or even informed of, the operation in Tehran, which the Iranian government swiftly blamed on Israel. To some, Mr. Blinken’s statement confirmed a dangerous power vacuum in the region.
“We thought it would be Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping or Kim Jong-un who would take advantage of this period in the U.S.,” said Vali R. Nasr, a professor of international affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “Nobody counted on an American ally doing it.”
“This is going to make the region extremely nervous,” said Mr. Nasr, who served in the State Department during the Obama administration. “It’s never good for the United States to be seen as not in control.”
For President Biden, who expended time and prestige trying to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to release hostages in Gaza, the back-to-back assassinations of the Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, and the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, could signal the futility of his diplomatic efforts, at least for now.
Moreover, the United States could find itself drawn into a direct conflict with Iran, something both countries have taken pains to avoid through months of tensions over the war in Gaza. In April, American officials worked behind the scenes to persuade Iran to limit its military reprisal against Israel after Israeli jets carried out a deadly strike on a meeting of Iranian generals in Damascus, Syria.
This time, however, the killing of Mr. Haniyeh, while he was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, suggests that American sensitivities counted for little, analysts said. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quickly blamed Israel and vowed “harsh punishment.”
“That is an attempt to humiliate the Iranians by showing they can’t protect their own guests at that ceremony,” said Daniel Levy, who runs the U.S./Middle East Project, a research organization based in London and New York. “It signifies another crossing of multiple lines by Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel brought his case against Iran directly to Washington. Addressing a joint session of Congress last week, he said: “Iran’s axis of terror confronts America, Israel and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization.”
Dozens of Democrats boycotted Mr. Netanyahu’s speech to protest Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza. But he appeared undeterred, and the visit gave him a firsthand look at a country in unusual political flux. He met with Mr. Biden only four days after he withdrew from the presidential race, as well as with Vice President Kamala Harris, who has swiftly become the presumptive Democratic nominee.
While Ms. Harris echoed Mr. Biden’s support of Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism, she also made clear that she would speak out on behalf of the civilians killed and maimed in the Gaza conflict.
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” she said, in language notably stronger than that normally used by Mr. Biden. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”
Mr. Netanyahu later traveled to Palm Beach, Fla., to meet with former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee. When Mr. Netanyahu handed him a photograph of a child who he said had been taken captive by Hamas during its deadly Oct. 7 attacks, Mr. Trump told him, “We’ll get it taken care of.”
Some analysts have suggested that Mr. Netanyahu, an astute observer of American politics, saw an opportunity in the political tumult in the United States to act against Hamas and its sponsor, Iran.
“Maybe he decided there is a definite vacuum in Washington, so this is the time to act,” Mr. Nasr said.
The loss of American influence in the Middle East would normally worry allies in Europe. But they have their own problems. In France and Germany, leaders are preoccupied by surging right-wing populist parties. In London, a new Labour prime minister, Keir Starmer, has edged away from the United States in its handling of Israel, after months in which London had been in lock step with Washington.
Britain last week dropped its objections to arrest warrants sought by the International Criminal Court for Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant. It is weighing whether to suspend weapons shipments to Israel, though it has put off a decision pending further legal review.
The strikes also came at a moment of rising Israeli anxiety about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which have expanded since the Biden administration’s efforts to revive parts of a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran collapsed in 2022.
Pointing out the lack of leverage the United States has over Iran on its nuclear program, some analysts suggested that Israel might have acted partly out of frustration that the West had not prevented Iran from edging closer to producing a bomb. Provoking a conflict, they said, could give Israel the pretext to strike its nuclear facilities.
“Israel has been quite concerned about the creeping development of the Iranian nuclear program,” said Jonathan Paris, a former Middle East fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The U.S. is noticeably not doing much about it. If I were an Israeli interested in deterrence, this might be one way to do it.”
The assassination could deprive the United States of a fresh diplomatic partner in the form of Iran’s new president, Mr. Pezeshkian. A heart surgeon who beat a hard-line conservative in July, he has portrayed himself as a reformer. But analysts said it would be difficult for him to pursue any diplomatic engagement with the West after such an embarrassing attack.
Still, other experts warned against exaggerating the importance of Mr. Pezeshkian, given the paramount role of Mr. Khamenei. The president’s “relative impotence was exposed on day one,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
Mr. Sadjadpour also cautioned against assuming that Iran would risk an all-out war over the killing of Mr. Haniyeh. It did not do so after the United States assassinated Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the powerful leader of its Quds Force, in 2020. Iran’s previous reprisals against Israel have never proved all that effective.
“Israel has routinely humiliated the Islamic Republic by assassinating high-level targets inside Iran, but Iran’s retaliations have never deterred future Israeli operations,” Mr. Sadjadpour said. “The parameters of an Iranian retaliation need to be face-saving but not life-threatening for the regime.”
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3) Sonya Massey’s Killing Is Black America’s Sorrow
By Charles M. Blow, Opinion Columnist, reporting from Chicago, July 31, 2024
Sonya Massey’s daughter and son, Jeanette and Malachi, put their arms around Sonya’s mother, Donna. Credit...Rashod Taylor for The New York Times
In the days before she was killed, Sonya Massey was having death premonitions. She kept telling her family that she was going to die, that someone was going to kill her. On July 6, a local sheriff’s deputy became the incarnation of her fears: He shot her in the face in her own kitchen.
Massey, a 36-year-old Illinois woman, had called 911 because she thought there was an intruder in her house. Two Sangamon County deputies arrived and entered her home, and one of them, Sean Grayson, began cursing at her and threatening her over a pot of boiling water that she was holding. Grayson shot her at close range as she ducked behind a counter saying she was sorry.
The Associated Press reported that according to her family, Massey had been struggling with mental illness and “had admitted herself to a 30-day inpatient program in St. Louis sometime during the week before her death, but returned two days later without explanation.”
At a news conference on Tuesday at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago’s West Side, Ben Crump, an attorney for Massey’s family, said “many people said she had a premonition” because when the officers arrived she repeatedly said, “Please, God,” she asked one of the officers to grab her Bible and one of the last things she said before she was shot was, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
Among the first things Massey said when she opened the door for the officers was: “Please don’t hurt me.”
It seems very clear that Massey was in distress, that what she needed was help. What she got was a bullet that hit her face just below her left eye and exited her head behind her ear.
In the wake of so many of these incidents, we see the wreckage of family members struggling to make sense of the senseless, facing the gantlet of news coverage while their emotional wounds are fresh and tender, expected to convert the screams stuck in their throats into coherent calls for justice.
On Tuesday I spoke with Donna Massey, Sonya’s mother, in a meeting room in the back of the church. Donna is a slight woman whose face was gloomy and drawn, like a cloud, still gray, but emptied of rain.
She told me that she has been hearing voices since her daughter was killed and that she now has a nightmare of being killed the same way. When I asked her about the terrible pain of having to bury her child, she burst into tears: “Oh, God. Nobody should have to do it, nobody.”
Sonya Massey’s 17-year-old son, Malachi, described to me the devastation of returning to the house where his mother was killed, how empty it felt, and how empty he felt: “I still feel lost without my mom right now.”
He is just a boy, a motherless child, whose world is now forever shattered.
This kind of devastation has happened so often, to so many families, that it has become a motif of Black existence in this country, an enduring injury, a simmering sadness, an ambient terror.
And America has refused to enact meaningful federal legislation to address the problem.
Had it become law, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was shelved in the Senate in 2021, may well have saved Sonya Massey’s life. One of its provisions, as described on the website of the House Judiciary Committee’s Democrats, was the creation of “a nationwide police misconduct registry to prevent problematic officers who are fired or leave one agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability.”
Grayson had worked at six law enforcement agencies in the last four years and was charged with two D.U.I. misdemeanors, one in 2015 and the other in 2016.
He has been fired from the Sangamon County sheriff’s office and charged with three counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated battery with a firearm and one count of official misconduct.
This is an encouraging first step, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem. After over a decade of interviewing the families of Black people slain by the police, I have come to the conclusion that what we see in far too many of these situations is the manifestation of a societal sickness that fundamentally devalues Black life.
The Washington Post has been tracking fatal police shootings since 2015. As The Post reports, these shootings have risen in recent years and in 2023 “police killed the highest number of people on record.” A disproportionate number of those killings were of Black people. According to The Post, Black Americans “are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans.”
As long as this trend continues, telling us that as a society we still acquiesce to the assignment of value — and threat — on the basis of race, it will continue to short-circuit people’s natural empathetic impulses and pose an outsize danger to Black lives from the police.
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4) Many of Gaza’s Medical Workers Have Been Detained or Killed
Out of a prewar total of about 20,000 health workers, 500 have been killed in the war, according to the W.H.O., and more than 300 are in Israeli detention, Gaza’s health ministry says.
By Anjana Sankar, Aug. 2, 2024
A doctor inspecting damage at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis. Credit...Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock
Dr. Khaled El Serr last spoke to his family in mid-March, a week before Israeli troops raided the hospital in southern Gaza where he worked as a surgeon.
“No one has seen or heard of him ever again,” said his cousin, Osaid AlSerr, a surgical resident in the United States. “We do not even know whether he is dead or alive.”
Dr. El Serr was arrested by the Israeli military, according to Amnesty International, citing the accounts of co-workers and Palestinian detainees who have been released. But the military has refused to say whether it is holding him.
His story is not unique. More than 300 of Gaza’s health workers are in Israeli detention, the enclave’s health ministry says, while others have been detained for a time and then released. And according to the World Health Organization, 500 have been killed in the war, out of a prewar total of about 20,000.
Based on estimates of the war’s toll, that means medical workers have been killed and detained at higher rates than Gazans generally, a severe blow to a health care system whose facilities have been devastated by war, and a population weakened by hunger, lack of clean water and the rampant spread of diseases.
“That equates to an average of two health care workers killed every day, with one in every 40 health care workers, or 2.5 percent of Gaza’s health care work force, now dead,” Medical Aid for Palestinians, a British charity, said in a statement.
Asked about the detentions, the Israeli military said in a written response that “it does not deliberately detain doctors” but that “suspects of terrorist activities are detained” and taken for detention and questioning in Israel. Those found not to have been involved in “terrorist activity” are released back to the Gaza Strip, the military said.
Some of the doctors who have been released have said they were tortured in Israeli jails, which the Israeli military has denied. Others have died in custody, according to rights groups.
The director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, was taken into custody seven months ago, after Israeli forces first raided the hospital — the largest in Gaza — saying that Hamas fighters were using it for military purposes and had tunnels underneath it. No charges were brought against him.
Released on July 1, Dr. Abu Salmiya said at a news conference that he and others had been subjected to “extreme torture” His finger had been broken, he said, and he had been beaten over the head repeatedly. His release set off a round of finger-pointing among Israeli authorities over who had authorized his detention, but there was no additional clarity on the cause or conditions of his time being held.
One of the doctors who died in Israeli custody was Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, 50, the head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital. He died in April at Ofer Prison in the West Bank, prompting a wave of criticism from the United Nations and rights groups.
“Dr. Adnan’s case raises serious concerns that he died following torture at the hands of Israeli authorities — his death demands an independent international investigation,” Tlaleng Mofokeng, a U.N. special rapporteur on health care rights said in a U.N. news release. The statement said that the doctor had “reportedly been beaten in prison, with his body showing signs of torture,” but gave no other details.
Israel’s prison service confirmed his death but declined to say anything about how he died.
Dr. Iyad Rantisi, a 53-year-old gynecologist who worked at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, also died in custody, in Shikma Prison on Nov. 11, six days after he was arrested, the Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported in June.
Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, which Haaretz reported ran the interrogation facility at Shikma, said Dr. Rantisi had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in holding Israeli hostages. “The circumstances leading to his death are being checked by the relevant authorities,” the security agency said in a statement on June 19.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, many hospitals in Gaza have come under attack from the Israeli military, which has accused Hamas fighters of using them as bases. Hamas and Palestinian doctors have repeatedly denied that claim.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said it had gathered “credible information” that Israeli military raids on hospitals had often led “to mass detention and enforced disappearances, including of medical staff.” The “systematic attacks on hospitals” and the killing, detention and enforced disappearance of health workers had a devastating impact on the people,” the U.N. body said in a statement on June 25.
Only a dozen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functioning at all, according to Gaza’s health officials, with the others crippled in raids or rendered dysfunctional because of shortages of fuel and medical supplies. The detention of health care workers has further weakened Gaza’s fragile health care system as it tries to treat thousands wounded in Israeli airstrikes.
Dr. Ahmed Al Moghrabi, who worked as a plastic surgeon at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis before fleeing to Egypt, said the fate of many of his colleagues, including Dr. Khaled Al Serr, remains unknown.
He recounted the “utter chaos” he witnessed when Israeli forces laid siege to Nasser Hospital in February. He said that he saw snipers atop buildings surrounding the hospital, and that one of his nurses was shot in the chest. He said he left the building through a checkpoint that Israeli troops had set up yards away from the hospital.
“I was lucky that they did not detain me,” he said.
Dr. El Serr had returned to Nasser Hospital after the February raid because he was the only general surgeon at the facility, Dr. Moghrabi said. “He was a young and committed doctor who often took to social media to post about what was going on in Gaza,” Dr. Moghrabi said.
With no news about Dr. El Serr since March, Amnesty International began a campaign in June urging Israeli authorities to release him. The rights group has demanded that Israel disclose the whereabouts and legal status of all Palestinian health care workers who have been taken into custody and release then unless they have been charged with a crime and given due process.
Dr. El Serr’s parents, who are in Rafah, are desperate to have information about their son, Osaid Al Serr said. “We are trying everything possible,” he said. “He was a doctor who went above and beyond to do his duty and did not deserve this fate.”
Osaid Al Serr said his cousin’s resilience was apparent during their regular communication on a WhatsApp group Dr. El Serr had set up early during the war to seek help from doctors abroad. “He would post about complicated cases and discuss medical approaches he could take,” he said. “These are doctors Gaza needs badly. They should not be in jails.”
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5) U.S. Poised to Send More Combat Aircraft to Middle East, Officials Say
How many planes to send is still being worked out, as are final approvals from senior officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.
One of the F15 fighter jets the U.S. sent to Israel since October 7.
The United States is preparing to send additional combat aircraft to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh this week, American officials said on Friday.
One U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that American forces in the Middle East were taking “necessary measures” to increase combat readiness and to protect U.S. troops and allies against any threats from Iran or Iran-backed militia groups.
How many planes to send is still being worked out, as are final approvals from senior officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. Officials said they were seeking to calibrate the American response to send enough of the right types of aircraft as quickly as possible to help defend Israel without appearing to escalate the conflict.
Any additional air power could be crucial. Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles against Israel in a major attack in April, but only a handful got through, causing only slight damage. U.S. Air Force jets based in Jordan and in Saudi Arabia coordinated with French, Jordanian and British Air Force fighters to shoot down more than 80 drones.
Iran telegraphed that strike in advance, giving the Pentagon sufficient time to move additional combat aircraft and Navy ships into place while U.S. commanders negotiated access to airspace for fighter jets to operate in and coordinated air defense batteries on the ground to help defend Israel.
It’s unclear whether Israel and its allies will have that much time to prepare for any new round of major Iranian attacks, officials said.
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6) San Francisco Takes Harder Line Against Homeless Camps, Defying Its Reputation
Mayor London Breed has told city officials to issue citations and encourage homeless people to leave town by offering free bus tickets.
By Heather Knight, Reporting from San Francisco, Aug. 3, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/03/us/san-francisco-homeless-london-breed.html
Employees from San Francisco Public Works removed a tent that had been left behind by a homeless camper on Monday. Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times
The homeless men who huddled in tents on a wide sidewalk near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco knew that city crews were coming to clear them out. But they did not budge.
They dozed. They bantered. One strummed a guitar. Fifteen times this year, the city has cleared the sidewalks near the local Department of Motor Vehicles office — and 15 times, the homeless campers have quickly returned.
But attempt No. 16 would be different, Mayor London Breed vowed. No longer would San Francisco allow homeless people to stay on the sidewalks if there was another place to sleep. The individuals camping around the D.M.V. branch had collectively turned down 89 offers of shelter this year, according to the mayor’s office, and Ms. Breed had had enough.
“We need some tough love on the streets of our city,” Ms. Breed said at a re-election campaign rally held four days before the Monday clear-out.
San Francisco has long had a reputation as a liberal bastion, a city that had hoped to solve its problems more through compassion than crackdowns. But with voters frustrated by homeless encampments, open drug use and a downtown that has lost some of its verve, Ms. Breed has taken a tougher approach as she fights for her political life in a hotly contested mayoral race.
Empowered by a recent Supreme Court decision and encouraged by Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Ms. Breed, a Democrat, has vowed to aggressively clear encampments this month and has told police officers that they can cite homeless campers for illegal lodging if they refuse shelter, with jail time on the table.
The Police Department, whose chief reports to Ms. Breed, told officers in a memo on Wednesday that they can now cite people for violations that included sitting, lying or camping on sidewalks; obstructing people’s ability to walk in public spaces; and creating a public nuisance through conduct that is “offensive to the senses.”
On Thursday, Ms. Breed directed city officials to offer bus tickets to homeless people before providing them a shelter bed or other services. It was the starkest sign yet that San Francisco had changed its tack — and stood in contrast to Los Angeles, where leaders criticized Mr. Newsom for issuing an executive order last week encouraging them to sweep homeless encampments.
“San Francisco will always lead with compassion, but we cannot allow our compassion to be taken advantage of,” Ms. Breed said in her busing order. “We will not be a city with a reputation for being able to solve the housing and behavioral health needs of people across our country.”
On Monday afternoon, the mayor made a personal visit to the sidewalk alongside the D.M.V., a few days after homeless campers had been warned their tents would be cleared through notices that were stapled to nearby trees.
Ms. Breed was joined by about 30 city workers, including her aides and security detail, public health officials and eight police officers. Their numbers dwarfed the four homeless people who were staying put on the sidewalk.
Joel Beiswanger, 49, sat amid a pile of his belongings as the police officers stood nearby and watched him. Wearing a bright orange sweatshirt and pajama pants emblazoned with Santa Claus, he said he found shelters too stressful and had nowhere else to go. He said he has been homeless on and off since he was 14.
Mr. Beiswanger took issue with Ms. Breed’s statement last week that she wanted to make it “uncomfortable” for people to live on the street.
“Where are the bathrooms at? Showers? Where is there comfort?” he asked. “Every week, someone comes through and takes everything you own, no questions asked. I guess it’s how you get your votes.”
Emmanuel Siple, 48, woke up from a nap in a tent nearby. He said a drug and alcohol problem and divorce had led him to live on the streets, and he resented being “micromanaged” by city workers. The threat of jail won’t convince him to stay in a shelter, which already feels like jail, he said.
Ms. Breed did not engage with the homeless men, observing them from across an intersection. She said she did not want to be recorded by a group of activists for homeless rights who had shown up to monitor the clearing and take videos of the workers.
For years, San Francisco has struggled to deal with encampments crowding sidewalks, and the authorities have said that some tents have been used as cover to sell and consume drugs — particularly fentanyl, which has contributed to a spike in deadly overdoses. The city lacks enough affordable housing, drug treatment programs and hospital beds to address the misery, and voters are steamed.
The mayor told reporters last week that she was “excited” about the Supreme Court, dominated by Republican appointees, upholding the ban in Grants Pass, Ore., on homeless people sleeping outside. For several years, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which oversees nine Western states including California, had blocked laws that made it illegal to camp when no shelter was available.
Governor Newsom’s recent order directed state officials to begin dismantling thousands of homeless encampments and urged local leaders to follow suit. Ms. Breed praised the enforcement approach, noting that her teams repeatedly offer shelter beds, but are turned down two-thirds of the time.
But advocates for homeless people called it cruel, saying it would do little to solve the underlying factors that lead to homelessness. City and county leaders in Los Angeles have criticized both the Supreme Court and Governor Newsom and vowed to solve homelessness in their own way, primarily by finding motel space and services for people before clearing them from the streets.
In San Francisco, however, a police officer this week told one homeless person that tents were being swept in the city because Ms. Breed and Mr. Newsom had declared “no more on the streets, no more encampments,” The San Francisco Standard reported.
Some of Ms. Breed’s challengers have criticized her approach. Aaron Peskin, president of the Board of Supervisors and the most liberal candidate in the mayoral race, said that he would add 2,000 shelter beds, fight evictions and boost the number of rent-controlled apartments.
“What is happening now is a quick and performative election-year gimmick,” he said.
At the D.M.V., activists had their own way of countering the sweep overseen by Ms. Breed. They parked a U-Haul van nearby and offered to store the men’s belongings in it until the city crews left. Ms. Breed, standing across the street, said they were only enabling homelessness and doing nothing to actually help.
Jeff Klein, 31, bought turkey and Swiss sandwiches for the men. Another activist gave them Oreo cookies. Mr. Klein said the city should have been spending its money on food and housing instead of paying for the workers involved in the clearing, most of whom did not engage with the homeless men or clean the camp.
“We have our values completely backward,” Mr. Klein said.
Lt. Wayman Young of the San Francisco Police has worked on the camp-clearing team for five years. He said that people living in tents in neighborhoods away from downtown are often disabled people, older citizens or teenage runaways — all of whom desperately need help.
Downtown is another story, he said, fueled mostly by the open-air drug trade. The team has found guns, knives, machetes and axes in the tents, as well as giant containers of urine and feces, rats, mold and drugs. Lt. Young said the police search the records of anyone who gets aggressive with them, and he estimated that roughly one in four have come back with warrants for crimes that ranged from car break-ins to sexual assault.
He said the new policy allowing citations will make it easier to keep sidewalks clear.
“We want them to go to shelter, and if they don’t, we have to enforce the law,” Lt. Young said. He added that those cited will be released on site and that it would be up to the district attorney to decide whether to charge them. Those with warrants will be taken to jail immediately.
In the first few days of the latest effort, city employees had 235 conversations with homeless people and removed 81 tents. Twenty-four people accepted a shelter bed, while the rest declined or did not respond. The police reported that they have made nine arrests, eight for outstanding warrants and one for illegal lodging, who was cited and released on site.
Among the arrested was Mr. Beiswanger, outside of the D.M.V., who had outstanding warrants for falsely identifying himself to the police and possessing methamphetamines. They took him to jail, and he has been released. He could not be reached for comment after leaving the camp.
The other homeless men by the D.M.V. loaded their belongings into the U-Haul van and wandered away. That, for the time being, was enough to avoid citations.
About an hour after the city crews left, the men retrieved their belongings, and carried them through Golden Gate Park to a different corner.
There, they erected a new encampment.
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7) An effort to vaccinate Gazans against polio faces hurdles, including the heat.
By Vivian Yee reporting from Cairo, August 5, 2024
A street covered in stagnant wastewater last month in Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip, near tents used as shelters by displaced Palestinians. Credit...Bashar Taleb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
With polio probably already circulating in Gaza’s population, United Nations officials say, aid agencies are preparing to mount a vaccination campaign with more than one million doses to prevent an outbreak there. About 18,000 doses are already on their way, Jonathan Crickx, a spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency, said on Sunday.
But the effort faces steep odds: Getting humanitarian supplies into Gaza is already a slow and challenging process, and the decimation of the strip’s health care system over 10 months of war will make distribution harder. Polio vaccines must be refrigerated, further complicating matters; already, truckloads of food have gone bad in the summer heat as they have waited to be sent into Gaza and picked up for distribution.
The World Health Organization said last week that traces of poliovirus had been found in six wastewater samples from Gaza, raising fears of an outbreak not only in the territory, but also across the border in Israel, given the frequent raids by Israeli soldiers. A spokesman for the agency, Christian Lindmeier, said last week that the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank was hoping to retest the samples to confirm the results.
If they are validated, some people in Gaza most likely already have the virus. About three-quarters of infected people do not show symptoms, so polio can spread even if no cases have been confirmed, Mr. Lindmeier said.
But getting anything into Gaza is difficult nowadays. Aid groups say that since the war began, Israeli security restrictions on imports, attacks on aid convoys, damaged roads and the fighting and looting inside Gaza have kept them from distributing enough food, water, fuel, medical supplies, shelter equipment and materials for repairing sanitation and electricity systems. Even less aid has made it to where it needs to go since one of the main border crossings closed amid an Israeli offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah in early May.
“It’s not enough just to get it across the border,” Mr. Lindmeier said last week.
Without a halt to the fighting — or, at a minimum, roads cleared of rubble and conditions that would allow workers to administer the vaccines widely — the vaccine doses will sit at the crossing, stuck there just as other types of aid have been, he added.
From July 1 to July 29, according to U.N. data, an average of 77 truckloads of aid entered Gaza each day. From January to April, before the crossing closed, the daily average was 132 — which was not enough to keep thousands of Gazan children from descending into malnourishment, hospitals stocked with medicine and equipment, families in sturdy shelters or water and sewage systems up and running.
As the threat of famine and epidemics has hovered over Gaza for months, aid officials and health experts have said it is not enough to simply distribute canned food. They say people need a health care system capable of treating malnourishment and related diseases; clean water and functioning sewage systems to prevent infectious diseases from spreading; and a diverse diet.
Hepatitis A, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, lice and scabies are already surging through the population, health officials say.
Israel says it is doing its part to facilitate the entry of aid. It says the United Nations’ numbers do not reflect airdrops, other aid routes the organization does not monitor or trucks carrying commercial goods for sale, which have kept Gazan markets supplied with limited amounts of fresh fruit, vegetables and other foods. But many people cannot afford to buy food, or they have trouble finding cash to pay for goods.
The U.N. data also includes only trucks that it is able to pick up at the border and move into Gaza, rather than the total number of trucks that pass Israeli inspection. Aid officials say organized crime and looting in Gaza often makes it too unsafe for them to move the trucks from border crossings to their destinations, leaving many supplies stranded.
Under Israeli requirements, the trucks Israel screens are half-full, but the inspected supplies are then reloaded onto new trucks on the Gaza side until they are full, meaning the number of trucks collected by the United Nations is far lower than the number that Israel says it has signed off on.
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8) Britain’s Weekend of Violence: What We Know
The country begins a new week on edge after anti-immigrant riots, fanned by disinformation from the far right, broke out in cities across Britain.
By The New York Times, Aug. 5, 2024
After a weekend of violent uprisings across Britain, set off by a deadly stabbing rampage and a disinformation campaign aimed primarily at immigrant Muslims that followed it, tensions are high from the streets to government leaders’ offices.
Here is what we know as the country enters a new week of uncertainty.
Where has the unrest taken place?
Protesters over the weekend took to the streets of a dozen cities across the United Kingdom, most of them in England. Trouble broke out from Aldershot in the south to Sunderland in the north and Liverpool in the west. Belfast, in Northern Ireland, was also drawn into the fray.
In some cases, the protesters were merely unruly, but in others the violence was far more pronounced.
On Sunday, rioters set upon a hotel that has housed asylum seekers in the town of Rotherham, in northern England, breaking windows before surging inside as the police struggled to control them. It remained unclear whether asylum seekers were still staying at the hotel and no guests were injured in the melee, police said.
In Middlesbrough, a group of rioters, some masked, hurled bottles and rocks at officers. Cars were set on fire, and at least nine people were arrested. On Saturday, a library and a food bank were set alight in Liverpool as groups damaged and looted businesses, and in Hull, fires were set and storefronts smashed in the city center.
Nearly 150 people were arrested over the weekend, national police representatives said, and dozens of police suffered injuries, including some that required trips to the hospital.
What set off the protests?
The unrest began after a 17-year-old wielding a knife attacked a children’s dance class on Monday in the seaside town of Southport, which is near Liverpool. Three children were killed, and eight were wounded.
The suspect was born and raised in Britain, but online rumors soon circulated that he was an undocumented immigrant. To counter those false claims, the authorities took the unusual step of publicly identifying him. But with migration a flashpoint issue in Britain, especially on the far right, the rumors were all it took.
Extremist groups urged their followers to take to the streets, and the day after the stabbings, they began to do so, starting in Southport.
How have the authorities responded?
The riots prompted a heavy police response. Nearly 4,000 additional officers were deployed, a law enforcement association said.
“Be in no doubt: Those who have participated in this violence will face the full force of the law,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement on Sunday.
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder,” Mr. Starmer said, “whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves. This is not protest. It is organized, violent thuggery.”
BJ Harrington, the head of public order for Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, said online disinformation had been “a huge driver of this appalling violence.”
Intelligence teams, detectives and neighborhood officers, Mr. Harrington said, are working to identify the people fomenting the violence.
“They won’t win,” he said.
Even as the authorities vow to crack down on the violence, they have long struggled to tamp down disinformation on social media, one of the accelerants behind the riots. Britain and other democracies have found that policing the internet is legally murky terrain, where individual rights and free speech protections are balanced against a desire to block harmful material.
What are the political implications?
The riots are the first political crisis for Mr. Starmer, who took office only a month ago after his Labour Party defeated the Conservatives, who had been in power in Britain for 14 years.
While in power, the Conservatives tried to capitalize on public unhappiness over immigration, vowing to reduce it (though they failed to do so). But in recent days, they joined Labour in condemning the violent protests.
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is now the opposition leader, said the unrest had “nothing to do with the tragedy in Southport.” The police, he said, have “our full support to deal with these criminals swiftly.”
Mr. Starmer held an emergency meeting on Monday, part of an established protocol that brings together relevant government ministers, civil servants, and representatives from the police and intelligence services.
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