Hunter Biden's conviction is an important story. I do not feel like writing about it again (I covered it last time) so let me instead note this DEMOCRACY NOW! report.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
A federal jury in Delaware has convicted Hunter Biden of all three felony charges for illegally purchasing a gun at a time when he was using drugs. Hunter Biden becomes the first child of a sitting U.S. president to be found guilty of a crime. Special counsel David Weiss spoke after the verdict.
DAVID WEISS: Ultimately, this case was not just about addiction, a disease that haunts families across the United States, including Hunter Biden’s family. This case was about the illegal choices defendant made while in the throes of addiction: his choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun, and the choice to then possess that gun. It was these choices and the combination of guns and drugs that made his conduct dangerous. Second, no one in this country is above the law. Everyone must be accountable for their actions, even this defendant. However, Hunter Biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct. The prosecution has been and will continue to be committed to this principle.
AMY GOODMAN: Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, though that strictest sentence is highly unlikely and Biden could avoid jail entirely. A date for the sentencing has not yet been set.
President Biden has vowed not to pardon his son. In a statement on Tuesday, President Biden said, “As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that,” he said.
We’re joined now by Ben Schreckinger, a reporter for Politico. He’s the author of The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power.
Ben, if you could start off by responding to the verdict in this trial, what exactly it means, what Hunter Biden was charged with and convicted of?
BEN SCHRECKINGER: Sure. My first response is that it’s just not that surprising. This was a fairly straightforward case. Most criminal trials result in convictions. This wasn’t an exception. It is noteworthy, in part, for the reasons that the special prosecutor mentioned, showing that no person is above the law. You know, Hunter Biden was held accountable for his actions here.
Politically, this may actually be marginally helpful to President Joe Biden. The dominant images Americans are seeing out of this trial and its aftermath are of a loving father who’s supporting his son. A lot of people have been sympathetic to that aspect of Joe Biden’s relationship with his son. And it holds less political peril than investigations related to Hunter Biden’s personal finances or business dealings.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, and, Ben, I wanted to ask you about that, the difference in potential impact between this conviction and the trial that will be coming up in Los Angeles, the potential for that trial to be much more dangerous to President Biden himself and to other aides of the president.
BEN SCHRECKINGER: Yeah. Well, that trial is about Hunter Biden’s taxes, so — and as prosecutors have outlined, it will get into his foreign business dealings. The tax years he’s being charged for are not during his father’s time in office, but the sources of income, some of those trace back, like the money from Burisma. Those were engagements that did begin during his father’s time in office. And so, that may present a less relatable, less flattering picture of the way Hunter Biden was making his money, although it doesn’t really deal with some of the things that that investigation originated with, where prosecutors were originally looking at potential Foreign Agents Registration Act violations, potential money laundering violations. Those have not been charged and may never be charged. And those, you know, were avenues of inquiry that had to do more with President Biden and his political power than even Hunter Biden’s taxes do.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back for a minute and ask you about this case. You have Hunter Biden who is accused of lying on a federal firearms application, which is a crime that is not usually indicted alone. Like, you could be — you know, they convicted him of lying, saying that he was not using drugs at the time that he was going for a gun. But it usually happens, the indictment, if then you use the gun. Can you talk about the significance of this, and that David Weiss, the special prosecutor, was appointed by Trump, and President Biden decided not to get in the way of that, though he could have let him go — is that right — before this indictment?
BEN SCHRECKINGER: Yes, that’s right. Yeah, this was a trial that in some ways was never supposed to happen. David Weiss, I read, was not even present in the courtroom when the verdict was read out yesterday. David Weiss was originally charged with investigating Hunter Biden’s finances. This gun offense came up sort of tangentially in relationship to that investigation and was supposed to be dealt with as like, you know, a probationary diversion kind of agreement when Hunter Biden was going to enter into a plea deal. That plea deal fell apart. Arguments have been made that it fell apart because of political pressure being brought by Republicans in Congress. I don’t know if there’s any way we’ll ever know for sure if that’s the case. So, this was not really what the investigation into Hunter Biden was ever about. Once that plea deal fell apart, David Weiss decided to bring the charge.
And yeah, you’re absolutely right, President Biden could have sacked David Weiss, as he did the other U.S. attorneys who were serving under Donald Trump. He kept him on. Merrick Garland appointed him as special prosecutor. Obviously, there would have been a lot of political scrutiny and uproar from Republicans if Weiss had been replaced. So, here we are.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Also, President Biden has said he will not pardon his son. Many in the media have commented on the difference between how Donald Trump conducted himself during his trial and how the Biden family and Democrats have responded to this case. The media cite a very different tone. What’s your response to that?
BEN SCHRECKINGER: Yeah, there’s a pretty sharp contrast in how Joe Biden has publicly responded to this trial of his son and how Donald Trump has responded to his several criminal indictments. Obviously, Donald Trump has lashed out at the judge, at prosecutors, you know, sought to portray the cases brought against him as part of a political witch hunt. President Biden has said that he’ll respect the legal process here. As you said, he has vowed that he will not pardon his son for this crime. So that’s, you know, quite a contrast and two very different approaches by two presidential candidates to the legal system here.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of the election, you have in September the tax trial in Los Angeles against Hunter Biden, and then you have the October sentencing in this — as a result of this conviction. This is all right before the November election. Before we go, Ben, you know, you wrote the book on the Bidens. In fact, it’s called that, The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power. If you can talk about some of Hunter Biden’s private communications revealed about his business deals, and what’s going to come out right before the election?
BEN SCHRECKINGER: Yeah. Well, a lot of what I’ve learned in recent months has come out of the Republican-led impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives. One of the more striking communications that’s come out there is one from the period when Joe Biden was out of office, Hunter Biden’s pursuing deals with a Chinese energy firm, which are relevant to his upcoming tax case. And he says something to the effect of, “You know, you haven’t paid me this money that I believe you owe me. If this doesn’t come soon, my father and I are going to come after you with everything we have.” Money does start to flow a few days after that. Joe Biden has said, you know, “I wasn’t actually with Hunter, despite what’s in that message. That’s not true.” Hunter Biden has said, you know, “I was in no state of mind to be speaking coherently.” He’s attributed, essentially, to his drug addiction that message. But, obviously, those sorts of communications have the potential to be more politically damaging than, you know, evidence presented at this trial, that was really more about Hunter Biden’s personal life.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Ben Schreckinger, we want to thank you very much for being with us, reporter for Politico, author of The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power. We’ll also link to your articles on the Bidens, and particularly on Hunter Biden.
When we come back, a federal jury in Florida has ordered the banana giant Chiquita to pay over $38 million in damages to the families of eight Colombian men killed by paramilitary death squads Chiquita funded. Stay with us.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Al Jazeera has obtained footage from Gaza that appears to show Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian people.
The videos were captured around al-Rashid Street, a coastal road connecting north and south Gaza. Israel had designated it a safe zone for Palestinians wanting to move between those areas.
Footage from June 1 shows a person walking along the beach before Israeli soldiers appear to have stopped them. Moments later, the person is shot.
Another video appears to show a group of Palestinians walking north on May 17. One of them steps out of the group and raises their hands in the air, apparently showing they are unarmed. They are shot within minutes. Soldiers are then seen coming in to take the person’s body away.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense, according to the document, has its own “landing zone” into Google Cloud—a secure entry point to Google-provided computing infrastructure, which would allow the ministry to store and process data, and access AI services.
The ministry sought consulting assistance from Google to expand its Google Cloud access, seeking to allow “multiple units” to access automation technologies, according to a draft contract dated March 27, 2024. The contract shows Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense over $1 million for the consulting service.
The version of the contract viewed by TIME was not signed by Google or the Ministry of Defense. But a March 27 comment on the document, by a Google employee requesting an executable copy of the contract, said the signatures would be “completed offline as it’s an Israel/Nimbus deal.” Google also gave the ministry a 15% discount on the original price of consulting fees as a result of the “Nimbus framework,” the document says.
April 23rd, Kelvin Chan and Wyatte Grantham-Philips (AP) reported, "Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war, bringing the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, a group representing the workers said."
On the issue of War Crimes, the United Nations issued the following this morning:
Palestinian armed groups and Israeli authorities have both committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the attack on 7 October and the subsequent military operations, according to a new report by a UN independent human rights body.
This was among the conclusions listed in the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, released on Wednesday.
“Amid months of losses and despair, retribution and atrocities, the only tangible result has been compounding the immense suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, with civilians, yet again, bearing the brunt of decisions by those in power,” the Commission said, stressing the impact on women and children.
Clear turning point
The brutal attack of 7 October by Hamas on communities in southern Israel marked a “clear turning point” for both Israelis and Palestinians and presents a “watershed moment” that can change the direction of the conflict, with a real risk of further solidifying and expanding the occupation, the Commission said.
For Israelis, the attack was unprecedented in scale in its modern history, when in one single day hundreds of people were killed and abducted, invoking painful trauma of past persecution not only for Israeli Jews but for Jewish people everywhere.
For Palestinians, Israel’s military operation and attack in Gaza have been the longest, largest and bloodiest since 1948, causing immense damage and loss of life and triggered for many Palestinians traumatic memories of the Nakba and other Israeli incursions.
Stop recurring cycles of violence
The Commission emphasized that both the attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza should not be seen in isolation.
“The only way to stop the recurring cycles of violence, including aggression and retribution by both sides, is to ensure strict adherence to international law,” it stressed.
“That includes ending the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory; discrimination, oppression and the denial of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, and guaranteeing peace and security for Jews and Palestinians.”
Deliberate targeting by Hamas
The Commission further noted that in relation to the attack of 7 October in Israel, members of the military wings of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, as well as Palestinian civilians who were directly participating in the hostilities, deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages and committed sexual and gender-based against civilians, including Israeli citizens and foreign nationals.
Such acts were also committed against members of the Israeli Security Forces (ISF), including soldiers considered hors de combat – such as injured soldiers.
“These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” it said.
The Commission also identified patterns indicative of sexual violence in several locations and concluded that Israeli women were disproportionally subjected to these crimes.
Failure to protect civilians
It also noted that Israeli authorities “failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front”, including failing to swiftly deploy sufficient security forces to protect civilians and evacuate them from civilian locations on 7 October.
In several locations, ISF applied the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ and killed at least 14 Israeli civilians. That Directive is reportedly a procedure to prevent capture of ISF members by enemy forces and was alleged to have been directed against Israeli civilians on 7 October.
“Israeli authorities also failed to ensure that forensic evidence was systematically collected by concerned authorities and first responders, particularly in relation to allegations of sexual violence, undermining the possibility of future judicial proceedings, accountability and justice,” the Commission added.
Violations by Israeli military
The independent Commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council, also concluded that, in relation to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.
The Commission further concluded that the immense numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects and vital civilian infrastructure were the “inevitable results of Israel’s chosen strategy for the use of force” during these hostilities, undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions, and thus unlawful.
“ISF’s intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population, particularly affecting women and children,” the Commission said, adding that this was confirmed by the substantial and increasing numbers of casualties, over weeks and months, with “no change in Israeli policies or military strategies”.
Recommendations
Among its recommendations, the Commission report called on the Government of Israel to immediately end attacks resulting in the killing and maiming of civilians in Gaza, end the siege on Gaza, implement a ceasefire, ensure that those whose property has been unlawfully destroyed receive reparations, and ensure that necessities crucial for the health and well-being of the civilian population immediately reach those in need.
It also called on the Government of the State of Palestine and the de-facto authorities in Gaza to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in the enclave; ensure their protection, including from sexual and gender-based violence; report on their state of health and wellbeing; allow visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), contact with families and medical attention, and ensure their treatment in compliance with international humanitarian and human rights laws.
“Stop all indiscriminate firing of rockets, mortars and other munitions towards civilian populations,” it added.
Australia's ABC notes, "Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such UN mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court." Will the report have any impact on the Israeli government? Probably not. At TRUTHOUT, Sharon Zhang observes:
As the UN Security Council passed a binding U.S.-sponsored resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday, Israel continued to slaughter Palestinians in Gaza — despite U.S. officials’ insistence that the ceasefire is backed by Israeli officials.
The resolution passed 14 to 0. Russia abstained from the vote because its representative said it is unclear whether or not Israel has actually signed on to the resolution, with conflicting accounts from U.S. and Israeli officials on Israel’s stance.
The proposal is similar to previous ones introduced by the U.S., with the first phase consisting of “immediate, full, and complete ceasefire” with the exchange of some Palestinians who are being imprisoned by Israel and some Israeli hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, according to a UN report on the vote.
Let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
In Gaza, the healthcare system is barely functioning, eight months into Israel’s devastating assault. In a statement Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry warned the few remaining hospitals still partially functioning could completely shut down if diesel generators needed for electricity are not replaced or maintained soon. The ministry said it expected a number of generators at hospitals to fail because Israel is preventing the entry of necessary spare parts. Health facilities that supply things like oxygen and refrigeration for medicine are facing a complete shutdown, which the Health Ministry said in a statement, quote, “means certain death for the sick and injured and the complete end of health services,” end-quote.
In addition to severe shortages of electricity, medical supplies and equipment as a result of the Israeli blockade, Gaza’s hospitals have been hit by Israeli airstrikes repeatedly over the last eight months. The World Health Organization said this week, since October 7th there have been more than 460 Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, affecting over 100 health facilities.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. A staggering 85,000 people have been wounded.
For more, we’re joined by Dr. James Smith, emergency medical doctor just back from Gaza, spent nearly two months there treating patients at trauma stabilization points in al-Mawasi and Rafah, also worked in the emergency rooms of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah and Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. He left Gaza Friday. He joins us today.
We welcome you to Democracy Now! If you can start off, Dr. Smith, by talking about the situation that you’re hearing from the doctors even in the few days since you have left, particularly after the attack on Nuseirat, which was considered the worst killing in six months, over 270 Palestinians killed this weekend, so many of them were brought to — so many others who were injured, it’s believed something like 700, brought to the hospital where you worked, to Al-Aqsa?
DR. JAMES SMITH: Thanks, Amy.
The situation in Gaza, and certainly in the middle area of Gaza, where I was working up until the 5th of June, remains catastrophic. The intensity of violence that Israel has meted out against the Palestinian people, the barbarity of it all, continues to — you know, you feel that you’ve seen the absolute worst, and the very next day it gets worse again. The massacre in Nuseirat on Saturday was certainly the worst of the violence that those neighborhoods have seen since the start of the genocide back in the beginning of October, 274 dead — killed, rather, as you’ve mentioned, approximately 700 injured. I would expect that in the coming days we will hear of more people who have died, who have succumbed to injuries that were sustained as a result of Israeli airstrikes and the Israeli ground incursion in that area, as a result of the collapsed healthcare system. As you mentioned, there are no fully functional hospitals any longer in Gaza and no health facilities that are able to absorb the sheer scale of need now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Smith, your second trip now to Gaza, this one lasted nearly two months. Could you talk about how conditions changed over that period of time? Has there been any improvement in the arrival of supplies to these hospitals or the food situation? Give us a sense of what you saw.
DR. JAMES SMITH: So, to be absolutely clear, the situation deteriorates day on day. This is the sort of fallacy of humanitarian access, or the veneer of a humanitarian system. There is no improvement in any conditions in Gaza. This overfixation on the number of trucks that are entering into Gaza — or, rather, the number of trucks that the Israeli state has permitted to enter into Gaza — is a distraction from the violence and its many manifestations. We have almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip now forcibly displaced. The majority of those people no longer have homes to return to; entire cities — and I have seen them myself — Khan Younis, Gaza City, other neighborhoods, parts of Rafah now — that have been completely destroyed; homes, schools, clinics that have been vaporized to dust, concrete and sand. There has been absolutely no improvement in any of the basic conditions that are required to sustain human life in Gaza at the present time.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how are you able to even administer, especially for those who require emergency surgery, of the wounded who come in? Talk to us about your direct experience with these kinds of — this kind of medical support.
DR. JAMES SMITH: Perhaps if I speak to you about my last day in Gaza at Al-Aqsa Hospital on the 5th of June. So, I was working in the emergency room that day. We had several electricity blackouts during that time. We were treating patients on the floor of the emergency room by torchlight. We had one young boy who came into the ER with an open femoral facture, bleeding profusely from his left upper leg, very, very severe injury. He had been injured as a result of an Israeli airstrike. The orthopedic surgeon, a junior doctor, very competent, but nevertheless still a junior doctor, came down to treat him, and without any anesthesia, because there wasn’t any, had to pull and splint his leg in order to stabilize him and to sustain his life long enough to get him into the OR.
The hospital now has five ORs, but you have a surgical team or several surgical teams that are working 24/7. There is no rest for the surgeons in these hospitals, and the scrub nurses working alongside them, phenomenally difficult conditions. We have an emergency team that are, frankly, the most dedicated doctors, nurses and allied health professionals that I have ever had the privilege of working with. But the conditions in which they are working were unsustainable eight months ago. Now it is just a testament to the sheer determination of the Palestinian people and the desire of Palestinian healthcare workers to administer care to the Palestinian people that these hospitals are able to function in any way whatsoever.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Smith, you’ve been talking about the effects of the bombing of people who survived and been brought into the hospital. What about the issue of hunger? UNICEF just came out with a report saying nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food shortages. If you can talk about what that means and how that affects them long-term, if they survive, and also the lack of clean water and drinking sewage water, leading to diseases like, for example, cholera?
DR. JAMES SMITH: So, hunger is rife across the Gaza Strip. There is a fixation of sorts among epidemiologists and distant public health experts in the terms of malnutrition. But hunger is rife. As I’ve mentioned already, Israel maintains complete control over what and who enters into and out of Gaza. They are able to manufacture the conditions of life — or, rather, of death in Gaza. And they have complete control over how much food aid or how much food enters into Gaza.
In my final weeks in Gaza, I was struck that commercial trucks from Israel were given precedence of access over the humanitarian aid trucks. So, in the south of Gaza, we saw several markets in which there were several fresh fruit and fresh vegetable commodities bearing the slogans of Israeli companies, but very limited food aid that was able to enter into Gaza. On several occasions, the big U.N. agencies said that they would have to stop food aid distributions. It was incredible to me that the very state that was starving people and inflicting such violence upon them was then bringing in food that, of course, people can’t afford to buy anymore, and that people, those who could, were having to pay for food from, as I say, the very state, the very economy that is trying to strangle the Palestinian people.
To your other point about access to clean water and sanitary conditions, the smell of sewage was rife throughout every camp that I passed through in Gaza, from Rafah to Khan Younis and into Gaza City, several instances of sewage overflowing onto the streets. In all of the locations I worked across Gaza and all of the hospitals I visited, including in the north of Gaza, in Gaza City, we saw patients who were suffering from very severe bouts of acute watery diarrhea, a major outbreak of hepatitis A, which is spread as a result of poor sanitary conditions. And, of course, all of those things together — hunger, lack of access to nutritious food, the impact of a lack of clean, drinkable water on physical health — is catastrophic. It will certainly have a major impact on all those people who are suffering as a result other health or trauma-related problems, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Juan, we’re not able to hear you.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Dr. Smith, can you hear me?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah.
DR. JAMES SMITH: Yes, I can hear you.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, you mentioned that you traveled all around the different parts of Gaza. Did you have any interactions at all with the Israeli Defense Forces? Did they enter into the hospitals? Or did you have any interactions with them at checkpoints?
DR. JAMES SMITH: We had to pass via the checkpoints that the Israelis have constructed, that have now severed across the north and south of Gaza from the east to the west. We interacted with the Israeli occupation forces during those movements. They were incredibly frightening experiences. During one of those convoy movements, one of the Palestinian drivers that was working for a U.N. agency was detained, stripped naked and taken away by the Israeli occupation forces. Very, very frightening, very unpleasant. And, yes, I saw and have heard stories of incredibly horrific encounters between the Israeli ground forces at those checkpoints and the Palestinian people, some of whom are still trying to move from north to south.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, doctors who have died. We interviewed Dr. Hammam Alloh months ago, who was — when I asked him why he didn’t leave, as he talked about the intense bombing, he said he didn’t get his medical degree to desert his patients. He went home to help his family, and his house was bombed. You then have Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, who was arrested and died in an Israeli prison. As we wrap up, Dr. Smith, as you leave Gaza after two months, what about the doctors being imprisoned, doctors and nurses and staff being killed?
DR. JAMES SMITH: These are all the most egregious and horrific war crimes. And as I’ve mentioned, it was phenomenal to see the determination of my Palestinian colleagues, who will not abandon the Palestinian people or Palestine at this most horrific moment in their history. It’s tragic, beyond tragic, that so many Palestinian healthcare workers, that so many Palestinians have been killed during the course of this ongoing genocide. And it’s even more horrific that this violence is allowed to continue.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. James Smith, we thank you for being with us. In 20 seconds, the U.N. Security Council has just passed a resolution put forward by the U.S. for a ceasefire. Hamas has just accepted. U.S. said Israel was accepting, though Netanyahu has said other things about that. Your message to the world?
DR. JAMES SMITH: I think I said this back in January when I spoke to you, Amy. The violence must end. And once the violence has ended, the real work of the pursuit of peace and justice for the Palestinian people must continue.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. James Smith, emergency room doctor, just out of Gaza, spent nearly two months in Gaza treating patients at trauma stabilization points in al-Mawasi and Rafah, also worked in emergency rooms at Al-Aqsa Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. He was speaking to us from Istanbul, Turkey.
We’ll be joined next by a Jewish American Army major named Harrison Mann. He’s the first military and intelligence officer to publicly resign over President Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Back in 20 seconds.
Today, a 3-day G7 summit started in Italy. Friday, Pope Francis is scheduled to address the G7 -- he will be the first pope to do so. The G7 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Italy holds the presidency (through the end of this calendar year) and the G7 website notes:
In line with previous G7 fora, representatives of a number of States and International Organizations will take part in the sessions, invited by the Nation that holds the Presidency.
Nations and International organizations
· African Development Bank – Akinwumi Adesina, President
· Algeria – Abdelmadjid Tebboune, President
· Argentina – Javier Milei, President
· Brazil – Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, President (G20 Presidency)
· Holy See – Pope Francis
· India – Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
· International Monetary Fund – Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Operating Officer
· Jordan – Abdallah II, King
· Kenya – William Ruto, President
· Mauritania – Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, President (Chair of the African Union)
· OECD – Mathias Cormann, Secretary General
· Tunisia – Kaïs Saïed, President
· Türkiye – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President
· United Nations – Antònio Guterres, Secretary General
· United Arab Emirates – Mohammed bin Zayed, President
· World Bank – Ajay Banga, President
Virginia Pietromarchi (ALJAZEERA) notes:
- On June 13, discussions will kick off at 11am (09:00 GMT) with a session on Africa, climate change and development.
- This will be followed by a session on the Middle East, where Israel’s war on Gaza is expected to dominate discussions.
- A lunch break follows — visiting leaders might want to try Apulia’s famous le orecchiette pasta while they’re in the region. Right after lunch, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to arrive for two sessions on Ukraine.
- On June 14, key topics of discussion will include migration, Asia Pacific and economic security. Sessions on artificial intelligence, energy and the Mediterranean are also on the agenda. At 6:45pm (16:45 GMT) there will be the closing session with the adoption of the G7 Summit Communique.
- On June 15, the host, Italy, will hold a news conference.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 250 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,202 with 84,932 injured." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
We'll wind down with this from Nada AlTaher's report for THE NATIONAL:
After 21 years working at the UN Development Programme in Gaza, Basel Nasser now faces the task of assisting his birthplace on a scale unlike anything he has ever experienced before.
Eight months into Israel's military offensive in the Palestinian enclave, more than 37,000 residents have been killed, nearly 85,000 injured and most of its population of more than two million displaced by strikes and a ground offensive that have destroyed more than half of its buildings.
“The numbers don't even remotely reflect the reality,” Mr Nasser told The National before taking part in the UN emergency conference on Gaza's humanitarian needs, hosted by Jordan at the Dead Sea on Tuesday.
As Minister of Relief Affairs in the Palestinian Authority's newly appointed government – a position created in light of the war in Gaza – Mr Nasser is already planning for the rehabilitation of Gaza and its people once the war ends.
Unlike previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas in the coastal strip, “virtually the entire population of Gaza will require aid” this time, he said.
He pointed out that the death toll provided by Gaza's health authorities does not include those who have died from hunger or from the lack of proper medical care in the Strip.
Gaza's residents have faced acute food shortages created by strict Israeli controls on the delivery of aid since the war began, with UN and aid groups warning that the territory faces the risk of famine.
There are no fully functioning hospitals after most were destroyed in raids and bombardments by the Israeli military, while the few that are still in partial service struggle with shortages of medical supplies and fuel to run their generators.
Israel dropped about 70,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip between the start of the war on October 7 and April 24, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
The following sites updated:
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Cheap and disgusting25 minutes ago
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French singer Françoise Hardy has died at 804 hours ago
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Another bad day for Doo-Doo DeSantis5 hours ago
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Old man stupidity6 hours ago
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