Pro-Palestinian protesters attempt to disrupt SOTU near Capitol: ‘Biden’s legacy is genocide’
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside President Biden’s State of the Union on Thursday night in an apparent attempt to disrupt proceedings. About 100 protesters showed up at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and 3rd Street in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night, about an hour before Biden was set to deliver his State of the Union address. Protesters could be seen holding up a sign that said, “Biden’s legacy is genocide.” Photos from the scene showed protesters, many of them wearing face masks, blocking the street. BIDEN UNDER FIRE FOR MIDDLE EAST POLICY; CRITICS CHARGE HE’S PREVENTING ‘ISRAEL FROM WINNING’ The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News Digital, “MPD is monitoring First Amendment activity at this location and no arrests have been made at this time.” Fox 5 DC reported earlier in the day that another pro-Palestine protest had taken place nearby in Lafayette Square around 6 p.m. ET. Police say one person was arrested and charged with reckless driving. The protests further highlight the growing animosity Biden faces within his own party from activists calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and demanding the president do more to address the issue of civilian loss of life in Gaza. Recent Fox News polling showed that support for Palestinians among Democrats has increased 17 points since October. SURVIVOR OF HAMAS TERROR ATTACK ON ISRAEL RECOUNTS PAIN, GRIEF OF LOSING ‘ANGEL’ BOYFRIEND ON OCT 7 That shift among Democrats leads to a starker party divide now (43% siding with Israelis vs. 42% siding with Palestinians) than in October (59% vs. 25%). The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET time to a joint session of Congress inside the Capitol.
MH370 went missing 10 years ago. An Indonesian family hopes it can be found
Medan, Indonesia – Herlina Panjaitan has not changed her mobile phone number since her son, 25-year-old Firman Chandra Siregar, went missing 10 years ago. Siregar, an Indonesian, was a passenger on MH370, the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared 40 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in the early hours of March 8, 2014 and was never heard from again. It is important to 69-year-old Panjaitan that her number remains the same, just in case her youngest son tries to call her. “That was the number I used at the time and that is the number Firman has for me. I still hope he will call and ask me to go and pick him up, wherever he is,” she told Al Jazeera. Panjaitan had travelled to Kuala Lumpur from her home in Medan, Indonesia with her daughter-in-law and grandson the night before Siregar departed for Beijing, so the family could spend some time together before he started his new job with an oil company in China. Before he left for the airport to catch the late-night flight, Panjaitan helped her son pack his belongings, including a bag filled with warm clothing for Beijing’s freezing winter. The family took photographs together, with Siregar beaming as he played with his nephew. Panjaitan proudly displays photos of Siregan in her home, including of his graduation from the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology [Aisyah Llewellyn/Al Jazeera] The pictures now hang on the wall of the family’s home in Medan, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Malacca facing Malaysia. “I told him to be careful and call me when he got to Beijing,” Panjaitan said. “There was no feeling that anything was about to go wrong.” The next morning, Panjaitan got a call from her daughter who worked at the Indonesian embassy in Mexico to ask her if she had heard the news about MH370. “She just said that she had heard that it had lost contact with air traffic control,” she recalled. “I didn’t know what to think.” Panjaitan and her family immediately rushed to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) where the families of the 239 passengers and crew on board were briefed on the plane’s mysterious disappearance. “That is when I started to believe that it had really gone missing,” she said. Ten years since it took off from KLIA, the plane’s fate has become one of aviation’s greatest mysteries. No one has been able to say with any certainty what happened to the Boeing 777 after Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah signed off from Malaysian air traffic control with the words “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero”, and prepared to enter Vietnamese airspace. According to satellite data, rather than continuing on to Beijing, the plane dramatically veered off course, flying back across northern Malaysia and skirting around Indonesia, before heading south towards the deep waters of the Indian Ocean. Panjaitan said that she called Siregar’s mobile phone after she heard the news and that it had rung several times but that no one had answered. A woman in Kuala Lumpur writes a message to mark the 10th anniversary of MH370’s disappearance [FL Wong/AP Photo] Two weeks later, then Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the plane had “ended” its journey in the remote southern Indian Ocean. ‘The best child’ Siregar, a graduate of Indonesia’s prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology, was the youngest of five children – three boys and two girls – and Panjaitan says he was “the best”. “That doesn’t mean my other children aren’t amazing,” she explained. “One works as a prosecutor and another is a diplomat, but Firman was just the best child and my other children understand what I mean when I say that. He was so handsome, so well-behaved, so respectful and so kind. “He never gave me any trouble as a child, and he knew what to do and what not to do without me telling him.” Before he went to Beijing, Siregar had introduced his mother and family to his girlfriend and her parents, who had travelled from Bandung to meet Panjaitan and her husband Chrisman. “They said they wanted to get married and I was happy that he’d found his life partner,” she said. Six months after the plane went missing, Panjaitan and her husband went to Bandung to meet Siregar’s girlfriend and gave her their blessing to move forward with her life. “We said that if she wanted to get married in the future, she should do it,” Panjaitan told Al Jazeera. “She didn’t say anything, just cried. And we cried too, it was just so sad.” Many theories, few answers Endless speculation has filled the void left by the failure to find MH370. Some claim Captain Zaharie engineered a sophisticated murder-suicide plot to deliberately crash the plane into the ocean. Others suggest that the plane was hijacked, deliberately shot down, or suffered a technical malfunction that cut off its communication systems and incapacitated the pilots leading to its eventual crash. None of the claims has been proven. Searches have proved fruitless, including a significant underwater and air search across an area of 120,000sq km (46,332sq miles) that cost $147m and was led by an Australian team in conjunction with Malaysia and China. The Malaysian authorities have also launched several investigations that culminated in a 495-page report that was finally released in 2018. It found that while foul play was likely, it was not possible to say who was responsible. Last week, ahead of the 10th anniversary, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reiterated that Malaysia was prepared to reopen an investigation if new evidence emerged. Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, has also said that he has plans to meet US marine robotics company, Ocean Infinity, to discuss a new proposed underwater search. Panjaitan said that her family welcomes any renewed investigation. Some fragments from the plane have washed up on East African beaches, including a flaperon that forms part of the wing, but there has been nothing
North Korea’s COVID curbs still strangling economy, report says
Tightened border controls introduced to curb COVID-19 are still strangling North Korea’s economic activity and informal trade networks more than 18 months after leader Kim Jong Un declared victory over the pandemic, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said. North Korea was one of the first countries to act on reports of COVID-19 circulating in early 2020, sealing itself off from the outside world and its economic lifeline in China. As Pyongyang suspended freight shipments from China for two years, authorities also beefed up border barriers to prevent any movement between the countries – going as far as issuing a shoot to kill order for people and animals to prevent them from spreading COVID-19. Satellite photos of six locations on the China-North Korea border show that fencing was expanded to cover 321 kilometres in 2023, up from 230 kilometres before the pandemic, HRW said in a report released on Thursday. Existing fences were also updated to include more watchtowers, guard posts, and secondary and tertiary layers of fencing, the rights group said. Since then, heightened border security has made it nearly impossible for North Koreans to leave, with the number of defectors dropping sharply from 1,047 in 2019 to a low of 63 in 2021, and then 196 last year, the report said. “The government’s persistent drive to control its population, overbroad and prolonged responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and expanded nuclear weapons capabilities, have combined with the intensifying external pressures of UN Security Council sanctions to turn North Korea – already effectively a country-wide prison – into an even more repressive and isolated state,” the report said. As authorities ramped up border patrols during the pandemic, officials also cracked down on bribery that since the late 1990s had allowed North Koreans to evade government restrictions on daily life to the extent they could enjoy some freedom of movement and buy goods at formal and informal markets, according to HRW. “Almost all” cross-border movement of people and formal and informal commercial trade has stopped since the pandemic began, the report said, citing interviews with 16 North Korean defectors who were in contact with family or informal brokers and smugglers still in the country. “Informal traders can only get small packages that they can carry easily in their hands or hide in their body,” Lee Kwang Baek, director of the Unification Media Group, a Seoul-based NGO that broadcasts news to North Korea, said in the report. The new security measures have made civilians afraid to even approach border regions for fear they could be shot, according to testimony from a former North Korean trader quoted in the report. “My [relative] said there were no words to describe how hard life was. There was no [informal] trade with China, not even to get some rice or a bag of wheat. If [authorities] heard of a soldier allowing that, that person would just disappear,” the trade said in the report. “Soldiers are very scared … My [relative] said people in [her area] said there is not even an ant crossing the border.” North Korean authorities have also started cracking down on jangmadang, or informal markets, which had been tolerated to supplement people’s daily needs following a catastrophic famine in the 1990s, the breakdown of the government rationing system, and continuing international sanctions, according to the report. Officials have imposed tougher punishments from forced labour to capital punishment for “distributing imported products that don’t have official trading certificates and conducting economic activity in streets or places without permits,” HRW said. The rights watchdog said it had received reports of authorities clamping down on “foreign culture, copying South Korean slang, hairstyles, and clothes”. Young people found to have watched or distributed the Netflix Series Squid Game and South Korean films have been sentenced to hard labour or even executed, according to defectors cited in the report. Before the pandemic, a study by the United States-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recorded 436 officially sanctioned markets spread across rural and urban North Korea that provided access to food, medical supplies, and contraband films and music. Often run by married women looking to supplement low wages earned by other family members, the markets earned the government an estimated $56.8m per year in taxes and fees, according to CSIS estimates. Peter Ward, a research fellow at the South Korea-based Sejong Institute who was not involved in the report, said that North Korea has yet to move on from COVID like other countries have. “When we talk about post-COVID in the West, South Korea, Japan, we’re talking about 2022 when things start to normalise. North Korea’s normalisation has been delayed a lot and arguably they haven’t really finished normalisation yet,” Ward told Al Jazeera. “The black market… is partially supplied by cross border smugglers and smuggling networks, and these networks are substantially damaged by COVID-era lockdowns and border controls,” Ward added. Adblock test (Why?)
Uvalde city report clears local officers of wrongdoing, outraging families
Families were infuriated by praise for local law enforcement in a report on the Robb Elementary School shooting released Thursday by a private investigator.
House Republicans zero in on border chaos with video series on ‘Faces of Biden’s State of the Union in Crisis’
FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans, ahead of the State of the Union address by President Biden on Thursday evening are zeroing in on the ongoing border crisis in the first of a number of videos they say will highlight the “Faces of Biden’s State of the Union in Crisis.” The first video released by the House Republican Conference features Brandon Budlong, a Border Patrol agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council’s branch in Theresa New York. Budlong is also a guest of Conference Chair Elise Stefanik’s at the address itself. In the video, Budlong said he wishes people could see the work Border Patrol agents are doing and the increase in the workload. JOHNSON’S STATE OF THE UNION GUESTS INCLUDE MOTHER OF WOMAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY MS-13 GANG MEMBER “We’re not doing what we’re meant to be doing to keep our communities and the public safe, instead we’re streamlining millions of people in the country illegally.” He says the crisis at the southern border is leading to redeployment from the northern border, leaving the northern border more open to illegal immigrants and drugs. He mentions the death of Laken Riley in Georgia, and says it was “extremely frustrating” to him and his colleagues: “It makes you almost feel like you’ve failed at your job even though you did everything you could with the policies in place.” “This administration created this crisis, and they could fix it, but refuse to do so,” he says. Republicans have hammered the administration on the crisis, which they say is the result of Biden’s policies and the reversal of Trump-era policies which secured the border. On Thursday it will be one of a number of areas where they will attack the president’s record. “In his final State of the Union, Joe Biden will desperately attempt to ‘reset’ his failed Far Left policies that have hurt hardworking families and cost American lives,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital. “House Republicans will not let that happen. Filling the audience tonight will be the faces of Joe Biden’s State of the Union in Crisis. In Joe Biden’s America, it is crystal clear that the American people are struggling. From #Bidenflation and open borders to failed national security and an overwhelming crime crisis, House Republicans are giving a platform to expose the everyday impact of the real America under Joe Biden.” LIVE UPDATES: PRESIDENT BIDEN TO DELIVER STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS “We will not allow Joe Biden to brush his failures under the rug; these brave American voices and stories deserve to be heard,” she added. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. On immigration, the administration says it is dealing with a Hemisphere-wide crisis and a “broken” immigration system and needs funding and comprehensive immigration reform from Congress to fix it. DUELING BIDEN, TRUMP VISITS TO BESIEGED BORDER COME AMID FRESH SLEW OF VIOLENT CRIMES BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS In his address, Biden is expected to renew calls for Congress to pass a bipartisan Senate bill, which was backed by the NBPC and would include additional staffing for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other DHS agencies. The deal includes $1.4 billion in funding to cities and NGOs receiving migrants, action to tackle fentanyl smuggling and a limit on asylum claims. It would also increase detention beds to 50,000 and provide additional immigration judges. However, conservatives have opposed it, saying it is insufficient and that it would normalize high levels of illegal immigration. House Republicans have called for the passage of the GOP border legislation passed in the House last year, instead. Biden is likely to make similar appeals to those he made last week at the border in Brownsville, Texas. “Folks, the bipartisan border security bill is a win for the American people and a win for the people of Texas, and it’s fair for those who legitimately have a right to come here,” Biden said. “The U.S. Senate needs to reconsider this bill and those senators who oppose it need to set politics aside and pass it on the merits, not on whether it’s going to benefit one party or another party,” he said.
Trump ordered to pay $83.3 million to E Jean Carroll by Monday or post bond: judge
A federal judge denied former President Donald Trump’s request to delay enforcement and ordered him to pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million by Monday or post bond, according to a filing on Thursday evening. A federal jury in January decided Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll more than $83 million in damages after he denied allegations he raped her in the 1990s. The jury decided Trump must pay $18.3 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages. Trump has appealed the decision. But on Thursday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan demanded Trump pay the damages by Monday. “Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions,” Kaplan wrote, adding that “he has had since January 26 to organize his finances with the knowledge that he might need to bond this judgment, yet he waited until 25 days after the jury verdict.” Kaplan also said Trump has not “made any showing of what expenses he might incur if required to post a bond or other security, on what terms (if any) he could obtain a conventional bond, or post cash or other assets to secure payment of the judgment, or any other circumstances relevant to the situation.” Kaplan added: “Accordingly, his present application for a temporary administrative stay is denied.” The filing comes just days after lawyers for Trump filed motions for a new trial in the case and arguing that the court limited his testimony during the trial last month and that statements he made about her allegations were meant to “defend his reputation, protect his family, and defend his Presidency.” This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Indiana nears law allowing more armed statewide officials at state Capitol
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Four statewide elected officials in Indiana including the attorney general and secretary of state can carry handguns in the state Capitol under a bill that lawmakers revived and sent to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb Thursday. Members of the General Assembly and their staff already have the right to carry a handgun in the state Capitol and on the complex grounds. The new measure would also repeal a stipulation that lawmakers and their staff have a valid Indiana license to carry. INDIANA MOTHER APPEARED FIT AND HEALTHY BEFORE SUDDENLY DYING ABOARD AA FLIGHT, FAMILY AND FRIENDS SAY The original state Senate proposal on the matter failed to advance past a second floor vote last month. But lawmakers brought back the idea by adding the language to another bill in the session’s final days. However, the newest incarnation does not extend the right to the staff members of the elected officials as originally proposed. Holcomb’s office declined to comment on whether he supports the measure. The final compromise would allow the state attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller to carry a handgun if they are not otherwise barred by state or federal law. The language was added to House Bill 1084, which would prohibit a governmental entity from keeping a list or record of privately owned firearms or owners of firearms. The measure passed its final action in the state Senate, in a 39-9 vote with the Democratic caucus in opposition. Democratic Senate minority leader Greg Taylor said he voted against the change because it would also repeal a license requirement for members of the General Assembly and their staffs to carry on Capitol grounds. “We used to have at least an understanding,” he said about regulations on who can carry at the Capitol. Guns are allowed in U.S. statehouses in some form in 21 states, according to a 2021 review by The Associated Press. Indiana in 2022 repealed a state law requiring a permit to carry a handgun in public. Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott, who testified for the measure, said he was hopeful the conversation can continue next year to add statewide officers’ staff. “The 2nd Amendment Rights of Hoosiers shouldn’t end at the steps of the Statehouse,” he said in a written statement. Metal detectors are in place at public entrances on Capitol grounds. State employees with a valid access badge do not have to walk through detectors to enter the buildings.
Timeline: The Biden administration on Gaza, in its own words
Washington, DC – As Israel’s war in Gaza prompts mounting human rights concerns, the United States has slowly notched up criticism of the Israeli government while simultaneously continuing to arm and support its ally. On Sunday, US Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the sternest statement yet on the war’s toll, marking a shift in rhetoric within the administration of President Joe Biden. An estimated 30,800 Palestinians have been killed, with more at risk of malnutrition and starvation. “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act,” Harris said. “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid — no excuses.” However, critics were quick to point out that the Biden administration is pushing forward with its military and diplomatic support for Israel, despite acknowledging the crisis. Thursday marks five months since the Palestinian group Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel, starting the present-day war. Israel has led a deadly bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, in addition to a siege that limits Gaza’s access to key resources like food and water. As the conflict enters its sixth month, Al Jazeera looks at key statements from the Biden administration on the war and how Washington’s position evolved over time. October 7, 2023: Shortly after Hamas’s attack on Israel, Biden delivers a message of uncompromising support to the US ally while also warning other parties against entering the war. About 1,100 Israelis were killed in the attack, with more than 200 others taken captive. “My administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering,” Biden says. October 10, 2023: Biden sets the stage for a forceful Israeli response after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I just got off the phone — the third call with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And I told him if the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive and overwhelming,” he says. October 12, 2023: Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to Israel to voice support for the country. “If you’ll permit me a personal aside, I come before you not only as the United States secretary of state but also as a Jew,” he tells Netanyahu. October 16, 2023: Biden warns Israel against establishing a permanent military presence in Gaza. “I think it’d be a big mistake,” he tells CBS News. October 18, 2023: After the US sends aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Biden again warns parties in the region to not enter the war. “My message to any state or any other hostile actor thinking about attacking Israel remains the same as it was a week ago: Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” he says during a visit to Israel. October 18, 2023: The US vetoes a United Nations Security Council proposal that would have called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting. “We are on the ground doing the hard work of diplomacy. We believe we need to let that diplomacy play out,” US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield says after the vote. Palestinians gather to inspect a destroyed building following the Israeli attacks in Rafah on March 5 [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency] October 25, 2023: Biden questions the mounting Palestinian death toll. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” he says. October 26, 2023: White House national security spokesperson John Kirby acknowledges that there have been a large number of civilian casualties and predicts that more innocent people will be hurt in the conflict. “That’s what war is. It’s brutal. It’s ugly. It’s messy,” Kirby tells reporters. November 3, 2023: Blinken calls for humanitarian pauses to allow more aid into Gaza and enable the release of Israeli captives. “We believe that each of these efforts would be facilitated by humanitarian pauses,” he says. November 8, 2023: Senior State Department official Barbara Leaf says the Palestinian Authority should rule post-war Gaza. “Whatever its shortcomings, it is the government for the Palestinians in the West Bank. We do believe that ultimately Palestinian voices and aspirations have to be at the centrepiece of post-conflict governance and security in Gaza,” she tells US lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. November 15, 2023: Washington abstains on a UN Security Council resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses”, with Thomas-Greenfield decrying the council’s failure to condemn Hamas. “What are they afraid of? Let’s be crystal clear: Hamas set this conflict in motion,” she said. November 21, 2023: Biden welcomes a deal for a four-day pause in the fighting. “I appreciate the commitment that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government have made in supporting an extended pause to ensure this deal can be fully carried out and to ensure the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza,” the US president says in a statement. December 8, 2023: The State Department bypasses Congress to deliver thousands of tank shells to Israel on an emergency basis. “We want to make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Hamas,” Blinken says. December 8, 2023: The US vetoes a UN Security Council measure that would have urged an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. “The resolution retains a call for an unconditional ceasefire. This is not only unrealistic but dangerous; it will simply leave Hamas in place,” US diplomat Robert Wood says. December 12, 2023: Biden accuses Israel of indiscriminate bombardment in Gaza, a war crime. “They’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he says of Israel. December 13, 2023: The White House downplays Biden’s comments on the bombing of Gaza. “Israel will do exactly what they say they’re doing, which is to continue to go after the terrorist leaders and to do so in a way that minimises civilian harm,” Kirby says. December 22, 2023: The US abstains on a UN Security
‘Terrible tragedy’: Canada rocked by mass killing of Sri Lankan family
The victims of a rare Ottawa mass killing included four children and two adults. A 19-year-old acquaintance was arrested. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned the mass killing of an Ottawa family that had recently moved from Sri Lanka, calling it an act of “terrible violence”. Trudeau’s comments on Thursday came in the hours after a family and their acquaintance were killed in an apparent late-night stabbing in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven. The victims include a 35-year-old woman and her four children, ages seven, four, two and two months. A 40-year-old family friend was also killed. The attack has resonated across Canada, which, unlike its southern neighbour the United States, rarely sees mass casualty attacks. There were just 14 murders in Ottawa, a city of one million, in 2023. The year prior, the tally was only 15. “Obviously, our first reactions are all ones of shock and horror at this terrible violence,” Trudeau told reporters. “We’re expecting that the community reaches out to support family and friends, as Canadians always do. And we expect the police of jurisdiction to be doing the work and keeping us all informed of this terrible tragedy.” An Ottawa Police Service officer stands near a door smeared in blood in Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven in Ontario, Canada [Blair Gable/Reuters] The motive for the killing was not immediately clear, although police said 19-year-old Febrio De-Zoysa, a student from Sri Lanka, has been arrested and charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Police said De-Zoysa was an acquaintance staying with the family but had no previous contact with law enforcement. ‘Senseless act’ Ottawa police chief Eric Stubbs said, during a televised news conference, that the family was found inside a house after authorities responded to an emergency call shortly before 11pm local time Wednesday (02:00 GMT Thursday). The husband of the 35-year-old mother killed in the attack was injured but survived and was taken to a hospital in stable condition. De-Zoysa was arrested at the scene. Stubbs said an “edged weapon” was used in the killings. “This was a senseless act of violence perpetrated on purely innocent people,” he said. On social media, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe called the attack “one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city’s history”. I was devastated to learn of the multiple homicide in Barrhaven, one of the most shocking incidents of violence in our city’s history. We are proud to live in a safe community but this news is distressing to all Ottawa residents. Ginny and I are thinking of the family members and… — Mark Sutcliffe (@_MarkSutcliffe) March 7, 2024 Mass killings are relatively infrequent in Canada, which has a population of just over 38 million. However, 2022 saw two prominent attacks. In December of that year, a man shot five people in a Toronto suburb before being fatally shot by police. Several months prior, in September, a man also stabbed and killed 11 people in the western province of Saskatchewan. He died of a cocaine overdose shortly after being arrested. The rate of such attacks is far lower than in the US, which has a population of 331 million. In 2023, there were 42 mass killings, defined as incidents in which four or more victims are killed, according to Northeastern University’s mass killing database. The number was the second highest in the US since 2006, the year when the database began tracking mass killings. In 2019, there were 46 attacks, accounting for 234 victims killed. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Designated survivor’ chosen to protect line of succession during Biden’s SOTU
During every State of the Union, one member of the president’s cabinet is ushered away from Washington, D.C. and labeled the “designated survivor” with the intention of ensuring that someone in line for presidential succession is kept safe in the event of a catastrophic event during the speech. The precaution, which dates back to the Cold War, is “taken to provide continuity in the presidency in the event a catastrophe were to result in the death or disablement of the President, the Vice President, and other officials in the line of presidential succession gathered in the House chamber,” according to a Congressional Research Service report earlier this year. The identity of the designated survivor is kept under wraps until around the time the speech begins, but last year’s role was filled by former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. “I didn’t even know where I was going,” Walsh told the Washington Post. “God forbid something were to happen, but there’s a quick second you think about that. It’s something that will be in history. I was the first labor secretary in the history of the United States to be designated.” BIDEN RIPPED FOR VIDEO WITH ACTORS WHO PLAYED PRESIDENTS GIVING POINTERS FOR STATE OF THE UNION: ‘PATHETIC’ In 2022, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was the designated survivor, and before that, in 2021, there was no official designated survivor due to cabinet members not being present for the address as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The rules state that the designated survivor must be a natural-born U.S. Citizen, at least 35 years old, and he or she must have been a resident of the United States for the past 14 years. BIDEN WON’T ANNOUNCE IMMIGRATION EXECUTIVE ACTION DURING STATE OF THE UNION: OFFICIAL According to the National Constitution Center, the procedure originated in the 1950s, but the government did not start identifying the designated survivor by name until 1981. “Since then, a designated survivor has been used for the State of the Union, inaugurations, and presidential speeches to joint sessions of Congress,” the National Constitution Center explained. “It is believed the President makes the decision of which Cabinet member is absent with permission from these events.” Biden’s speech is set to begin at 9 P.M. ET on Thursday night in the House chamber of the Capitol Building.