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8 Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza ambush; deadliest day in months

8 Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza ambush; deadliest day in months

Hamas fighters killed eight Israeli soldiers traveling in military vehicles in Rafah after firing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and then ambushing a support force deployed to the scene. The attacks on Saturday marked one of the deadliest days for Israeli soldiers in Gaza in months as its ground invasion of the southern region continues to ramp up. Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said in a statement its soldiers “carried out a complex ambush against enemy vehicles” in the Saudi neighbourhood of Tal as-Sultan district, western Rafah city. The armed group said it fired Yassin-105 RPGs at a D9 military bulldozer, killing and wounding an unidentified number of Israeli soldiers. A “rescue force” vehicle that later arrived was also attacked, “resulting in its destruction and the death of all its occupants”. Israel’s army said in a statement the eight soldiers “fell during operational activity in southern Gaza”, without elaborating. Daniel Hagari, Israeli’s military spokesperson, said an investigation will be launched into how exactly the attack occurred. “We’re working to disarm all the fighters in order to prevent Hamas from targeting civilians again like on October 7. Today, we received another reminder of the high price we are paying because of this war, and we have soldiers ready to sacrifice their lives in order to defend Israel,” Hagari said in a televised statement. At least 307 Israeli troops have been killed and thousands wounded since October 27 when the ground invasion of Gaza was launched. At least 37,296 Palestinians – mostly women, children, and elderly – have died since the war began on October 7, Gaza’s health ministry says. Saturday’s casualties will likely fuel calls for a ceasefire and heighten Israeli public anger. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian fighters in central Gaza. Rafah assault expands Despite international condemnation and censure, Israeli forces continue to push into and surround Rafah where at least 19 Palestinians were killed on Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians without food, water, and medicine remain trapped in the city. Air, sea and artillery attacks on the Tal as-Sultan area intensified after the deadly Hamas ambush. Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said Saturday’s attack shows Israel’s stated war goal of destroying Hamas remains elusive after eight months of combat. “The Palestinian resistance fighters have put up quite a fight,” he told Al Jazeera, noting a recent news report quoting US intelligence officials saying about 70 percent of Hamas’s fighting force remains intact. “What’s even worse, from an Israeli perspective, is Hamas has been able to recruit thousands of new members so there’s no manpower issue for Hamas.” Gideon Levy, an author and columnist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said the deaths of eight soldiers is a “heavy price for Israeli society”. “More and more people in Israel are asking what for and until when? This might become an endless war – a war of attrition in which as strong as Israel’s army is Hamas forces can always kill and sabotage, and then there will be direct retaliation. It leads nowhere. We’ll never achieve this ridiculous ‘total victory’ that Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks about,” Levy told Al Jazeera. Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant. Since a weeklong truce in November that freed more than 100 Israelis, repeated attempts to arrange a ceasefire have failed with Hamas insisting on a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu refuses to end the invasion before Hamas is “eradicated”. More than 100 captives are believed to remain in Gaza, though many are believed to be dead. The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al-Quds Brigades, said on Saturday Israel could only regain its people if it ends the war and pulls out troops from the besieged enclave. Adblock test (Why?)

Haiti to replace national police chief in effort to counter gang violence

Haiti to replace national police chief in effort to counter gang violence

The newly installed government in Haiti has announced the replacement of the head of the beleaguered national police force, in the latest effort to respond to gang violence in the crisis-wracked country. Police chief Frantz Elbe will be replaced with former chief Rameau Normil, the prime minister’s office has confirmed. The move comes as Haiti’s new prime minister, Garry Conille, has faced increased pressure to strengthen the Haitian National Police. The force has remained woefully underfunded and ill-equipped despite being at the forefront of the battle against powerful armed gangs in the Caribbean country. Conille himself was installed by a transitional council in May after gangs earlier this year seized large swaths of the capital, Port au Prince, and deposed former Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Speaking to the Reuters news agency after the change was announced on Friday, Pierre Esperance, the National Network for Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), described Elbe’s time as head of the police as “catastrophic”. “The results of Elbe at the helm of the police are catastrophic,” Esperance said, adding he believed Elbe should be prosecuted. “He spent his whole time establishing relationships with the gangs, reinforcing the gangs and preventing cops from doing their job and risking their lives,” he said. Haiti’s police unions have also repeatedly called for Elbe’s resignation and arrest, pointing to gang raids on at least 30 police stations and substations in recent months as part of a series of attacks that began on February 29. On Wednesday, the SPNH-17 police union held a news conference condemning the state of the department under Elbe. SYNAPOHA, another police union, joined in calling on Conille to bolster the department earlier this week. The latest development has come as Haiti continued to await the deployment of a Kenya-led, UN-backed multinational security force composed of 1,000 Kenyan officers, as well as personnel from a handful of Caribbean countries. That force was meant to deploy in late May, but its arrival has been repeatedly delayed. For his part, Normil had headed the national police from mid-2019 to late 2020 under former President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated in 2021. Prior to that, he oversaw the detective division. The effective date of the replacement was not immediately clear. Fight against gang violence Haiti’s fast-shrinking police force has suffered from a lack of resources while fighting criminal groups armed with high-calibre weapons the UN says are largely trafficked from the nearby US. As of 2023, the police force had just more than 13,200 personnel, according to the UN. The international organisation has warned that only about 4,000 police are on duty at any given time in a country of 11 million. Meanwhile, a recent survey by RNDDH found that 20 police officers have been killed so far this year, with more than 320 since 2015. Police officers’ regular complaints included late pay, insufficient training, workplace harassment, dismissal threats, knife and gunshot injuries and equipment shortages. Nevertheless, Haiti’s new Conille-led government has promised to bring about change. “Haiti is confronted by major challenges. Violence and instability paralyse our daily lives,” Conille said at an official ceremony on Wednesday. “My government will work without rest to improve the conditions of each and every Haitian,” he said, adding that “without security, no sustainable progress can be achieved.” “It is crucial our police and soldiers are ready to face today’s security challenges,” Conille added, “and we will ensure that they have the tools they need to carry out their mission effectively and professionally.” For its part, Haiti’s ombudsman, the Citizens’ Protection Office, has called on Normil to produce a plan to control the gangs and improve the police force “without delay”. It has also called for authorities to offer explanations for the high rate of killings and the “spectacular” recent escape of about 4,500 prisoners under the “complete indifference” of previous authorities. Gang violence in Haiti has pushed 578,000 people from their homes, according to the UN’s latest estimates. Thousands have been killed and millions pushed into acute hunger amid the unrest. Adblock test (Why?)

Supreme Court signals interest in hearing a major climate change case that could be a ‘nightmare’ for liberals

Supreme Court signals interest in hearing a major climate change case that could be a ‘nightmare’ for liberals

The Supreme Court seemed to signal interest this week in taking up a challenge launched by Hawaii against big oil companies to hold them liable for climate change, and some Democrats are suggesting the high court is “captured” for the fossil fuel industry.  The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on a petition to hear a lawsuit brought by the City of Honolulu against major fuel companies including Sunoco, Exxon and Chevron, claiming the companies’ products cause greenhouse gas emissions and global warming without warning consumers about the risks.  The city employed a series of state laws like public nuisance and trespass measures and said the companies should pay billions to the state to abate the effects of climate change like weather events, sea level rise, heat waves, flooding and global warming generally.  The high court gave DOJ no deadline for the solicitor general’s input, but its request indicates a high likelihood the court wants to hear the case.  HERE’S HOW PROGRESSIVE LAWYERS ARE USING PUBLIC NUISANCE LAWSUITS TO OUTLAW GUNS The energy companies first appealed to the Hawaii Supreme Court, arguing federal law prevents individual states from effectively shaping energy policies for all states.  But that court disagreed and ruled that the case should advance to trial. One justice said “the Aloha Spirit inspires constitutional interpretation.” “It is important for the U.S. Supreme Court to grant review. The Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision flatly contradicts U.S. Supreme Court precedent and federal circuit court decisions, including the Second Circuit which held in dismissing New York City’s similar lawsuit, ‘such a sprawling case is simply beyond the limits of state law,’” Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, lawyer for the Chevron Corporation told Fox News Digital.  “These meritless state and local lawsuits violate the federal constitution and interfere with federal energy policy,” he said.  HAWAII’S BIG OIL SUIT A ‘STALKING HORSE’ FOR GREEN NEW DEAL PUSH NATIONWIDE, EXPERTS SAY But some Democrats and liberal advocates have begun preemptively criticizing the court.   Last week, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on X saying, “[t]his captured Court’s delays of and interference in fossil fuel emissions regulations have already saved the polluters hundreds of billions — way more than they spent to capture it. But there is no end to fossil fuel polluters’ greed and entitlement.” Lisa Graves, the executive director at the left-wing watchdog group True North Research, told the Rolling Stone that fossil fuel companies’ “efforts to evade legal accountability are being aided by… the very same groups that helped the majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court get their seats on the bench.”  The Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, and affiliated lawyers and groups have discussed the case in seminars and journal articles advocating that the Court take up the case. The Federalist Society has made recommendations to Republican administrations for justices and judges across the country. But Fox News Digital has previously reported that the Hawaii litigation has been pushed by liberal dark money groups and legal partners. Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, in his opinion rejecting the energy companies’ arguments, wrote, “Defendants knew of the dangers of using their fossil fuel products, ‘knowingly concealed and misrepresented the climate impacts of their fossil fuel products,’ and engaged in ‘sophisticated disinformation campaigns to cast doubt on the science, causes, and effects of global warming,’ causing increased fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, which then caused property and infrastructure damage in Honolulu.” Last year, Fox News Digital reported last year that Recktenwald quietly disclosed in May that he presented for a course in collaboration with a little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). According to the ELI, the Climate Judiciary Project is designed to educate judges across the country on how to handle climate change litigation that comes before them. “As the body of climate litigation grows, judges must consider complex scientific and legal questions, many of which are developing rapidly,” CJP states on its website. “To address these issues, the Climate Judiciary Project of the Environmental Law Institute is collaborating with leading national judicial education institutions to meet judges’ need for basic familiarity with climate science methods and concepts.” GOP STATE AGS PRESS SUPREME COURT TO TAKE UP HAWAII CLIMATE CHANGE CASE THEY SAY IS ‘GRAVE THREAT’ Sher Edling, LLP, the firm helping represent Hawaii at the Supreme Court works on dozens of climate-nuisance cases, representing cities and states across the country. The Daily Caller reported that the firm accepted $2.5 million in 2022 from The New Venture fund, an fund of the liberal dark-money firm, Arabella Advisors.  In addition to sharing funding sources, Sher Edling, LLP and ELI have shared personnel. In February, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas revealed that former Biden administration official Ann Carlson consulted for Sher Edling on climate litigation while serving on ELI’s board. “We have been raising awareness about the dangers of public nuisance litigation for well over a year,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, told Fox News Digital.  “These cases represent a coordinated, dark-money-fueled threat to everyday consumers. The cases, commentators, law firms, and state court judges are all funded, supported, and trained by left-wing dark money.”  “And these cases find support in the halls of congress from hypocrites like Sheldon Whitehouse, who bemoan dark money while filing legal briefs supporting liberal dark-money-backed public nuisance cases. Whitehouse’s true goal, and that of most nuisance suits, is to remove products and services from the market that do not align with the progressive agenda,” he said.  “Left-wing dark money groups such as the Climate Judiciary Project are indoctrinating judges all across the country with their far-left climate change propaganda,” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network told Fox News Digital.  “The possibility that the Supreme Court would hear this case is a nightmare for these groups, because this Court cares about constitutional tenets like federalism rather than left-wing policy goals,” she said. 

CNN finalizes rules for first Biden vs Trump debate, RFK Jr. could still qualify

CNN finalizes rules for first Biden vs Trump debate, RFK Jr. could still qualify

CNN has finalized the rules for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, which is less than two weeks. The campaigns of President Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to the rules, CNN said on Saturday, noting that it is not “impossible” for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to join the pair on stage. To qualify for the CNN showdown, a candidate must have received 15% support in four separate national polls, and be on the ballot in enough states to reach 270 electoral college votes. Currently, Kennedy is on the ballot in six states, totaling 89 potential electoral college votes. The 90-minute debate, scheduled to take place on June 27 in Atlanta, will be hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. It will be the first in-person face off between Biden and Trump since they stood alongside one another on debate stages during the 2020 cycle. TRUMP PREDICTS THERE’S A ‘10% CHANCE’ CNN WILL BE FAIR TO HIM AT FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE Both candidates accepted the network’s invitation to debate last month, agreeing to certain rules and formats that were outlined in CNN letters to their respective campaigns. CNN said there will be two commercial breaks during the debate, and candidates are not allowed to consult with other members of their campaign during that time. The network also noted that candidates’ podiums and positions will be determined by a coin flip, their mics will be muted outside of speaking time, and that candidates will be provided only with a pen and a pad of paper. Candidates will not be allowed to bring props or prepared notes.