Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Year: 2025

NYC Democratic socialist Mamdani to meet top Democrat with endorsement decision on the line

NYC Democratic socialist Mamdani to meet top Democrat with endorsement decision on the line

Controversial Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is working to secure key endorsements ahead of New York City’s November election.  On Friday, Mamdani is expected to meet with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in Brooklyn to discuss key issues. However, Jeffries did not give the press any hint whether he was ready to give Mamdani his endorsement. “As has been the case with every single high-profile endorsement decision that I’ve made in the past, I have a sit-down conversation, and then I take it from there,” Jeffries told reporters on Thursday. ZOHRAN MAMDANI PRESS CONFERENCE ABRUPTLY ENDS WITH AIDE PULLING HIM AWAY DURING REPORTERS QUESTIONS The self-professed socialist is also expected to meet with Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., though no date has been set. Many have speculated on how the two Democrats’ opposing stances on Israel will play into the meeting and Schumer’s decision. Longtime Democratic lawmaker Schumer, who is Jewish, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel and has condemned the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Meanwhile, Mamdani, who is Muslim, has been a staunch critic of Israel and a supporter of BDS.  Mamdani has faced backlash over his statements on Israel, including declining to say whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state and his initial refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” However, he recently began distancing himself from the phrase.  The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Mamdani told business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would “discourage” others from doing so. He is expected to clarify his position on the phrase as soon as this week. JEFFRIES GIVES ANSWER FOR NOT YET ENDORSING MAMDANI FOR NYC MAYOR While Schumer has not yet offered his endorsement, he has defended Mamdani from GOP critics. When President Donald Trump said he would “have to arrest” Mamdani if the controversial candidate were to become mayor of NYC and refused to work with ICE, Schumer called the threat a “pathetic absurdity.” “Trump keeps talking about great American values, but threatening to arrest politicians who disagree with him is as un-American as it gets. This would make America a dictatorship,” Schumer wrote on X. Mamdani may not have Schumer’s endorsement, but he did score the support of another prominent N.Y. Jewish Democrat, Rep. Jerry Nadler.  MAMDANI’S FAR-LEFT ALLIES AIM TO PRIMARY HAKEEM JEFFRIES AND OTHER NYC HOUSE DEMOCRATS The meeting with Jeffries comes on the heels of Mamdani’s recent visit to D.C., where he attended a breakfast hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and mingled with some of the party’s most powerful players. Since then, he secured the endorsement of Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who serves as the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. “He’s a very charismatic, relatable person,” Khanna told FOX & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones on Thursday.  Mamdani is running in a crowded race against former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, both of whom are running as independents, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

Longtime Joe Biden aide appears under House subpoena after Jill’s ‘work husband’ pleads Fifth

Longtime Joe Biden aide appears under House subpoena after Jill’s ‘work husband’ pleads Fifth

Former Biden administration staffer Annie Tomasini is on Capitol Hill Friday after being subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. She did not say anything to reporters on her way into her closed-door deposition with investigators. Tomasini, former Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for ex-President Joe Biden, was previously scheduled to appear for a voluntary transcribed interview on Friday. A committee aide told Fox News Digital earlier this week that Tomasini’s counsel requested the subpoena, but did not say why.  COMER DISMISSES BIDEN DOCTOR’S BID FOR PAUSE IN COVER-UP PROBE: ‘THROWING OUT EVERY EXCUSE’ She is the third ex-Biden administration aide to come under subpoena in Comer’s probe in recent weeks. Comer is investigating allegations that Former President Joe Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back against those claims. In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Biden affirmed he “made every decision” on his own. Just before Tomasini, House investigators heard from Anthony Bernal, a longtime aide to ex-first lady Jill Biden.  Bernal pleaded the Fifth Amendment on all questions about Biden and was out of the committee room less than an hour after going in. Lawmakers are largely not expected to attend the closed-door deposition, which is traditionally staff-led. Comer has been to several so far, and progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, has made surprise appearances as well. CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson revealed in their book, “Original Sin,” that Tomasini and Bernal “loaded a written Q&A into a prompter ahead of a local interview – a document that the campaign had used in prep with Biden.” Tomasini and Bernal brought out the teleprompter as his aides were trying to soften his blunders as Biden struggled to stay on message, according to the book. But the teleprompter fiasco became an easy attack line throughout Biden’s re-election campaign, as President Donald Trump “weaved” through his myriad unscripted moments. The book described how Tomasini and Bernal grew closer to Biden during the pandemic, eventually becoming Joe and Jill Biden’s most trusted aides.  Tapper and Thompson describe the “intensely loyal” duo – Tomasini and Bernal – as taking on an “older-brother-and-little-sister vibe” among Biden’s inner circle.   FAR-LEFT FIREBRAND SAYS SHE ‘NEVER HAD A CONCERN’ ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL STATE AS HOUSE PROBE HEATS UP Bernal and Tomasini later took on some of the residence staffers’ roles in the White House. Tapper and Thompson said the aides “had all-time access to the living quarters, with their White House badges reading ‘Res’ – uncommon for such aides.” “The significance of Bernal and Tomasini is the degree to which their rise in the Biden White House signaled the success of people whose allegiance was to the Biden family – not to the presidency, not to the American people, not to the country, but to the Biden theology,” the authors wrote.  A source familiar with the Biden team’s thinking called House Republicans’ probe “dangerous” and “an attempt to smear and embarrass.” “And their hope is for just one tiny inconsistency between witnesses to appear so that Trump’s DOJ prosecute his political opponents and continue his campaign of revenge,” the source said.

Felix Baumgartner, extreme athlete, dies in paragliding crash in Italy

Felix Baumgartner, extreme athlete, dies in paragliding crash in Italy

The legendary daredevil, best known for his record-breaking jump from the stratosphere, lost control of his paraglider and crashed into a hotel pool. Renowned extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, most famous for jumping from a record 39 kilometres (24 miles) at the edge of space in the 2012 Red Bull Stratos project, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy on Thursday. The 56-year-old Austrian crashed his paraglider in Porto Sant’Elpidio, situated on the Italian Adriatic coast, after losing control and plunged into a wooden structure next to a swimming pool of the Le Mimose Family Camping Village, according to Italian media reports. A female hotel employee was injured by a piece of debris and taken to hospital with neck injuries. Baumgartner died at the scene of the accident, and investigations into the circumstances of the accident are under way. Italian media reported that Baumgartner had already lost consciousness in the air. The city’s mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, confirmed Baumgartner’s death in a social media post. “Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” the mayor said. Just two hours before his deadly crash, he posted on the social media platform Instagram with the foreboding caption “too much wind”. The famous 2012 jump from the edge of space that propelled Felix Baumgartner to global fame [Handout/Red Bull Content/Pool via Reuters] From skydiving to the stratosphere Born in Salzburg, Baumgartner completed his first parachute jump at the age of 16 and later became a parachutist in the Austrian military. Advertisement Baumgartner’s reputation as an extreme sports athlete grew exponentially when he turned his hand to the sport of base jumping in the 1990s. He set a new world record for the highest base jump from a building with his leap from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1999. Later that year, he completed a base jump from the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On July 31, 2003, Baumgartner again made global headlines for his base jumping feats when he became the first person to cross the English Channel in free fall after jumping out of a plane equipped with specially developed wings made of carbon. But it was Baumgartner’s record-breaking free fall from space in 2012 that shot the Austrian to worldwide fame. Over the desert of New Mexico, he jumped from a helium balloon almost 39km (24 miles) above the planet and became the first person to break the sound barrier in free fall. Baumgartner set three world records for his jump: He reached a maximum speed of 1,357.6 kilometres per hour (834mph), or Mach 1.25; completed the highest jump at 38,969 metres; and recorded the longest free fall with a length of 36,402 metres. His death was confirmed late on Thursday by the energy drink company Red Bull, which sponsored many of Baumgartner’s stunts. Baumgartner jumps out of a plane above Dover, England, on July 31, 2003, wearing a carbon fibre wing suit [Helmut Tucek/AFP] Adblock test (Why?)

Not just about the Druze: Israel’s rationale for its attacks on Syria

Not just about the Druze: Israel’s rationale for its attacks on Syria

On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video message to his country’s Druze minority. He implored them not to cross into southwestern Syria to support Syrian Druze militiamen in their fight against local Bedouin and government forces in Suwayda. And yet, as Netanyahu made the statement, his own forces were bombing the Syrian capital Damascus, hitting the country’s Ministry of Defence, and killing at least three people. Netanyahu claimed that he had deployed Israel’s military might in the defence of the Druze. “My brothers, the Druze citizens of Israel, the situation in Suweyda in southwestern Syria is very serious,” the principal architect of the 2018 nation-state law that’s been widely criticised for marginalising the Druze and other minorities said. “We are acting to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the gangs of the regime,” he assured them, referring to the Syrian government. Israel’s Druze Sectarian tensions between the Druze and local Bedouins in Suweyda are longstanding. Meanwhile, attempts by the newly formed Syrian government, which took power after the fall of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, to assert control over the region have been frustrated in part by Israel’s repeated threats against the presence of the Syrian military near its border. There are roughly 700,000 Druze in Syria. Another 150,000 Druze live in Israel, where, at least before the 2018 law emphasising only Jewish self-determination, many regarded themselves as bound by a “blood covenant” with their Jewish neighbours since 1948 and the founding of Israel at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed in the Nakba. While some now feel like “second-class” citizens, the majority are still supportive of the Israeli state, where they serve in the military. Advertisement “The Israeli Druze see themselves as Druze, as Israelis, and as Arabs,” Rami Zeedan, an associate professor at the University of Kansas and the founder and editor-in-chief of Druze Studies Journal, said. “Part of the identification with Israel is the feeling of both Jews and Druze being persecuted minorities,” he added. “Israeli Druze still feel that they have much more to gain from Israel compared to any other hypothetical future. As a cornerstone of this alliance is the protection of the Druze community.” “The Israeli Druze are now trying to use that and urge the Israeli government to protect fellow Druze in Syria,” he said, explaining, in part, the justification for Israel’s strikes on Syria, where the Druze community has traditionally been anti-Israel, even as some leaders grow closer to Israel. ‘Pure opportunism’ But the reality is that Israel has long attacked Syria, even before the latest outbreak of violence involving the Druze in Suwayda. Since the ousting of al-Assad after a 14-year war, Israel has struck Syria hundreds of times and invaded and occupied about 400 square kilometres (155sq miles) of its territory, excluding the western Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967. Leading analysts within Israel suggest that these latest attacks may not have been entirely motivated by concern for the welfare of the Druze, so much as the personal and political aims of the Israeli government and its embattled prime minister. “It’s pure opportunism,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera. “Of course, it’s nice to pretend that we’re helping our friends the Druze, in the same way as we never helped our other friends, the Kurds,” he said, referring to another regional ethnic group. Pinkas sketched out a number of the motivations behind Israel’s recent strikes on Syria, from boosting Netanyahu’s newfound self-image as a wartime leader, to pushing back his corruption trial, to reinforcing the “delusion” that, over the previous 21 months, Israel has somehow managed to reshape the Middle East through military force alone. “Lastly, he doesn’t want to see a unified Syria with a strong central government controlled by al-Sharaa,” Pinkas said. “He wants a weak central government dealing with areas controlled by the Kurds [in the north] and the Druze and Bedouin in the south.” “Basically, if Syria remains un-unified, Israel can do what it wants in its south,” he added. Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasised that Israel will only stand for a demilitarised Syria south of Damascus, including the region that encompasses Suwayda. This, in effect, creates a buffer zone for Israel, adding to the military reasoning for Israel’s actions in Syria. Advertisement Hollowed out by war The attacks on Syria have the additional effect of sustaining the sense of crisis that has gripped Israeli society and sustained its government through numerous scandals since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war on Gaza. Israel has since attacked Lebanon, Iran, Yemen and Syria. “It’s not that people are tired of war; it’s like they no longer even care. It’s ennui,” Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg said of the public response to the latest attacks. “War gives people energy and meaning, but it’s fleeting. People have even forgotten about the war with Iran,” he said, referring to the 12-day war in June that prompted global fears of regional escalation. All the caveats and cautions that would normally precede military action had, Goldberg noted, been replaced by ever-fresh dangers requiring new escalations. “It’s dangerous,” he said. “Israelis don’t care about the Druze. It’s just a new threat, a new front, and now there’s this tired, ‘OK, dude. Let’s do it [attitude]’.” “War has hollowed us out.” Adblock test (Why?)

Low turnout in Togo municipal polls after deadly protests

Low turnout in Togo municipal polls after deadly protests

Heavy security presence in Lome amid public anger over leader Gnassingbe’s alleged power grab. Togo has voted in municipal elections amid reports of voter apathy, after the country was rocked by deadly protests last month. Polling stations in Togo’s capital Lome were largely deserted on Thursday. The low turnout came after June’s protests against constitutional reforms that could keep leader Faure Gnassingbe in power indefinitely. Rights groups blamed the police for the deaths of seven marchers in the protests, whose bodies had been fished out from the capital’s rivers by activists. “People are … afraid of being attacked by protesters for legitimising these elections, or afraid of being dispersed by security forces,” Edem Adjaklo, a voter in the Gakli neighbourhood, told The Associated Press news agency. “They feel it’s pointless to vote because the results are always the same – predetermined.” The sense of unease in Lome was reportedly heightened by a heavy police and military presence at major intersections. Despite a call for demonstrations against Gnassingbe, the streets of the seaside capital were quiet on Thursday. Gnassingbe has ruled the country since 2005, after the death of his father and predecessor as president, Gnassingbe Eyadema. The constitutional reforms, approved by a parliament dominated by Gnassingbe’s Union pour le Republic (UNIR) party, swapped the presidential system in the country for a parliamentary one. Under the reforms, Gnassingbe was sworn in two months ago as president of the Council of Ministers – effectively as prime minister – a role with no official term limits, which would allow him to be re-elected indefinitely. Advertisement Critics called it a “constitutional coup”. Diaspora-based social media influencers and civil society groups had called for a boycott of the elections, the first national vote organised since the constitutional reform. This year’s bout of protests was triggered after popular rapper and TikToker Tchala Essowe Narcisse, popularly known as Aamron, was arrested for publishing a video where he called for protests to mark the president’s June 6 birthday. Anger had also been simmering over the state of the economy, widespread unemployment and the repression of government critics. Public demonstrations have been banned in the country since protests between 2017 and 2018, which saw thousands of protesters taking to the streets in demonstrations tagged “Faure Must Go” and “Togo stands up”. Although officially a democracy, Togo operates in practice as a militarised state, with the army heavily involved in politics. Adblock test (Why?)