House lawmakers to shine light on how AI can make Congress ‘more efficient’
A top House Republican lawmaker is eyeing the opportunities and risks of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technology into the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Congress. “I think of this as a tool in a toolkit that’s made Congress more efficient and more responsive. And with any new technology, there are great benefits and there are risks. And we’re managing between both of those,” House Committee on Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “Our hearing is going to give us that opportunity to both demonstrate that in a transparent way to the American public, but also to gain insights and information about how not only Congress, but all legislative branch entities such as the Library of Congress or [Government Accountability Office] can be utilizing AI to do the same,” he said. OPENAI’S SAM ALTMAN OPENS UP ABOUT SHOCK FIRING The hearing next week is called “Artificial Intelligence (AI): Innovations within the Legislative Branch.” In addition to how it affects Congress, the hearing will also look into how AI is being used at the Library of Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Steil’s committee has been releasing a series of monthly reports, led by Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., and her subcommittee on modernization, going back to September on AI integration strategy. Their most recent report from December listed current cases in which the House of Representatives uses AI, which includes “AI-assisted chatbots and other AI automations or support for Helpdesk,” as well as using AI to help draft constituent correspondence, emails, memos and briefing notes. ‘WILDLY OUT OF CONTROL’: DC RESIDENT RIPS NEW TECH AS OTHERS CITE FEARS OVER ELECTION INTERFERENCE, JOB LOSS AI is also used for internal research by House staffers and to make grammatical corrections in first drafts of bills and speeches, according to the report. Steil told Fox News Digital he also sees opportunities in using AI to streamline the GAO’s auditing process and further help lawmakers be more effective in constituent services. “AI has significant opportunities on our ability to audit the spending of taxpayer dollars and the efficiency in that,” he said. “You’ll see it in other areas as well, right? I mean, you’ll see it in what might be more mundane but very [Capitol Hill] focused about how all members can respond to their constituents, and the sifting of constituent requests.” OPENAI CEO SAM ALTMAN SAYS PALESTINIANS IN TECH FEAR RETALIATION FOR SPEAKING OUT “It can be important as an individual who’s trying to navigate through a federal agency in short order.” Steil said the “broader goal” of the hearing, however, is “how do you work to make your government, and in particular Congress, more efficient leveraging this technology?” The hearing on AI by the House Administration Committee is set to take place Tuesday at 10 a.m.
Trump aide’s sentence for defying Congress highlights ‘two-tier’ justice system: observer
As former Trump senior adviser Peter Navarro faces a prison sentence for flouting a congressional subpoena, one prominent legal expert is calling foul, pointing what he sees as a double standard by the Justice Department. Peter Navarro, who served in the White House under former President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday for flouting a House Jan. 6 Committee subpoena. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Navarro to four months in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $9,500. The punishment is two months shorter than the six months prosecutors sought, with the fine being significantly lower than the $200,000 sought by the Biden-Garland Justice Department. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES NEW RESOURCES TO COMBAT VIOLENT CRIME IN DC Navarro’s sentencing has raised questions about whether Biden’s DOJ would pursue similar charges against the president’s son, Hunter, whom two House committees also held in contempt for defying a lawful congressional subpoena. John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations, told Fox News Digital in an interview that because Hunter’s lawyers are still communicating with lawmakers and the entire House of Representatives has not yet found him in contempt, the scenarios are not perfectly synonymous. However, Shu, added, the DOJ’s convicting and sentencing Navarro, and former Trump aid Steve Bannon in 2022, look terrible for Biden’s DOJ because, prior to 2022, the DOJ has not prosecuted anyone for defying a congressional subpoena since the Watergate era, including in 2012, when Congress held former Obama attorney general Eric Holder in contempt. “The Biden DOJ did not offer a sweetheart plea deal to either Navarro or Bannon as it did to Hunter Biden in July 2023,” Shu noted, “and therefore it adds to the perception that it is biased and treats right-wing defendants more harshly than left-wing ones. “It’s a terrible look, regardless of whether it is true or deserved.” Shu said. Shu added that while he believes Navarro’s legal defense asserting executive privilege was “weak because executive privilege belongs to the office, not the person,” the DOJ has treated with kid gloves individuals who committed more serious crimes but received lighter sentences. Shu highlighted a list of individuals who committed more serious crimes, but earned a much lighter sentence from Biden’s DOJ. For example, former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith received a sentence of 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service after he defrauded the government by forging a document used in the Trump-Russia scandal. CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB Clinesmith pleaded guilty to “one count of making a false statement within both the jurisdiction of the executive branch and judicial branch of the U.S. government, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.” The D.C. District Court judge presiding over his case said at sentencing that, “[Clinesmith] lost his job, and his government service is what has given his life much of its meaning. He was also earning $150,000 a year and who knows where the earnings go now. He may be disbarred or suspended from the practice of law, you may never be able to work in the national security field again. These are substantial penalties.” The District of Columbia Bar Association reinstated Clinesmith’s law license before he finished his court-ordered community service. TRUMP WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL PETER NAVARRO SENTENCED TO 4 MONTHS FOR DEFYING JAN 6 SUBPOENA Shu also highlighted the recent case of Charles Littlejohn, who illegally obtained and leaked Donald Trump’s tax returns along with 7,500 other tax returns of wealthy individuals, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. “We’re talking about 7,500 felonies because each tax return is a felony, including that of Donald Trump. But the Biden DOJ allowed him to plead out to only one count. In other words, leaking only one return instead of 7,500,” said Shu. Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence the former IRS contractor to five years in prison. EX-FBI OFFICIAL WHO SHUT DOWN HUNTER BIDEN LINES OF INVESTIGATION VIOLATED HATCH ACT WITH ANTI-TRUMP POSTS CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “What if he had leaked Hillary Clinton’s or, God forbid, Hunter Biden’s tax returns? He’d probably be grinding big rocks into little rocks for the rest of his life,” Shu commented. Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Vulnerable House Dem caught on Zoom call lamenting ‘Trump Kool-Aid’ voters in her district
A Pennsylvania Democrat who’s facing a tough reelection battle this year said recently that she was “dismayed” to find out she would be representing a county that strongly supports former President Donald Trump following redistricting efforts in the state. In a recent Zoom call, Rep. Susan Wild recalled how she felt when she learned that her constituency would include a county that “drank the Trump Kool-Aid” after the electoral boundaries for her congressional district were redrawn in 2022. The comments from Wild, who has represented the Keystone State’s 7th Congressional District since 2018, came during a conversation with four other Democrats who represent portions of Pennsylvania at the federal level, including vulnerable House Democrat Matt Cartwright and Sen. Bob Casey. JAYAPAL, OTHER DEMS WITH CONTROVERSIAL ISRAEL POSITIONS SHOWER FELLOW DEMS WITH CAMPAIGN CASH “I acquired Carbon County as part of my district last year and Matt did not then represent it. Matt had actually represented Carbon County in the past, so it was very valuable for me in terms of talking to him,” she said. “After Trump came along, it went from a sort of working-class blue district to a – they drank the Trump Kool-Aid – and it really became a red county. So, I was dismayed when I got that as part of my district.” Carbon County, a GOP stronghold that backed Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections by 2 to 1 margins, was added to Wild’s district after the state redrew its congressional boundaries based on the 2020 census and gave Republicans a favorable chance in 2022. Despite the end result of the redistricting process, Wild narrowly defeated her Republican challenger in the state’s 2022 midterm elections, garnering a little more than 151,000 votes compared to Lisa Scheller’s 145,527 votes. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Wild said, “It’s the honor of my lifetime to represent Carbon County in Congress and am grateful for the partnership I have with my constituents there. The first thing I did upon representing Carbon County was open an office in Lehighton so I could assist as many constituents as possible in dealing with federal agencies.” “I’ll continue to work tirelessly on their behalf,” she added. SUSAN WILD COMPARES SUPREME COURT PRAYER DECISION TO TALIBAN, CALLS FOR COURT-PACKING The recent remarks from Wild, who previously served as chair of the House Ethics Committee, come after she said a few years ago that she “might have to school” the same rural Trump voters in order to win their support. During a virtual meet and greet in July 2022, Wild said the Republican voters of Carbon County may need to be educated on the error of their ways. “Carbon County has many attributes, but it is a county that – although it was once an Obama county – it since has become a Trump county,” she said at the time. “I’m not quite sure what was in their heads because the people of Carbon County are exactly the kind of people who should not be voting for a Donald Trump, but I guess I might have to school them on that a little bit.” “But most of all, it is a very rural county,” she added. Prior to her winning reelection to the House in Nov. 2022, the congresswoman and attorney of over three decades raised eyebrows the same month after she compared the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing prayer back in public schools to the Taliban. “It’s scary. This is what happens in theocracies,” she said during a July 2022 radio interview. “This is what happens in countries that we can’t imagine living in or being a part of – where the religion – you know, think about the Taliban.” A Fox News Digital review of campaign finance records last month revealed that several Democrats who refused to condemn Hamas’ actions against Israel had worked to shower Wild’s campaign with more than $47,000 since 2020. Each donation ranged between $250 and $10,000. Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar and Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.
Republicans probe CCP-tied nonprofit funneling money to US eco groups
FIRST ON FOX: Republican leaders on three top House committees are probing an environmental group with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over its funding for U.S. climate initiatives. House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Science, Space, and Technology Chair Frank Lucas, R-Okla.; and Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., penned a letter to Energy Foundation CEO and President Ji Chou, informing him of their investigation into his organization. The letter comes following a Fox News Digital report that uncovered $3.8 million in donations the Energy Foundation sent to American climate groups. “China could greatly improve its economic and geopolitical position should renewable energy resource use and electrification increase in the United States. China dominates global renewable energy product supply chains, such as those for batteries, solar panels, and electrolyzers,” the Republicans wrote to Chou, noting the Director of National Intelligence’s findings last year that China’s green energy dominance “could pose a significant risk” to the West. “China has already attempted to influence United States policy and opinion regarding China through covert influence and exploit perceived societal divisions,” McMorris Rodgers, Lucas and Westerman added. “As such, we are alarmed by attempts of China-affiliated organizations attempting to influence United States energy policy.” BIDEN VETOES BIPARTISAN BILL PROTECTING US EV INDUSTRY FROM CHINA In their letter, they requested a series of documents and contracts related to the Energy Foundation’s financial activity. The investigation is part of Republicans’ broader efforts examining how environmental groups have been influenced by Chinese entities and have increasingly engaged with the Chinese government on climate change. While the Energy Foundation’s financial filings indicate that the group is technically headquartered in San Francisco, a Fox News Digital review determined that the majority of its operations are conducted in China with a staff that boasts extensive ties to the CCP. According to its 2022 financial statement, the group leases two office facilities in China under operating leases that have terms through April 2024. US MILITARY BASE’S GREEN ENERGY PROJECT WITH CCP TIES DISCONNECTED OVER NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS The group, which refers to itself as “Energy Foundation China,” was formed in 2020 when it split from the United States Energy Foundation, a larger group that identifies its headquarters at the same San Francisco address listed in the Energy Foundation’s tax forms. The Energy Foundation retained the original tax identification information from before that split. Among its apparent connections to the CCP apparatus, Chou himself previously served as the deputy director general of China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy, an agency within the Chinese government’s National Development and Reform Commission. In addition, Liu Xin, who heads the group’s environmental management division, previously served in a high-ranking role at the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. And Ping He, the program director of the group’s industry program, worked for eight years at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a leading state-run research institution. The group further notes on its website that it “is registered with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and supervised by the National Development and Reform Commission of China.” DARK MONEY GROUP PUSHING GAS STOVE CRACKDOWN HAS SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL STAKE IN GREEN ENERGY “The Energy Foundation’s ties to China are both extremely disturbing and reprehensible,” Tom Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research, told Fox News Digital in an interview last month. “These environmental organizations, the recipients of this money, are, in essence, sacrificing our national security and empowering China.” “We are the richest energy nation in the world with respect to coal, oil and natural gas,” he said. “And yet the Biden administration and the environmentalists fueled by China are promoting policies that would increase our dependence on China, which controls all the minerals and materials needed for batteries and wind and solar, and curtail our production of oil and gas here at home.” Among its more than a dozen grants in the U.S. last year, the Energy Foundation wired $900,000 to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based think tank that has engaged the White House on climate policy and advocates phasing down fossil fuel reliance and net-zero policies. The group also funded a study in 2022 highlighting the dangers of natural gas-powered stovetops, which ultimately led to calls for bans on the appliance. The Energy Foundation sent another $480,000 to the Washington, D.C.-based International Council on Clean Transportation, which advocates for widespread EV adoption and policies decarbonizing the transportation sector broadly. It also wired grants – one to the University of Maryland and another to the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs – worth a total of $450,000 and earmarked for projects to phase out coal power reliance. MEET THE DEEP-POCKETED CLIMATE NONPROFIT PUSHING GAS STOVE BAN WITH DIRECT LINE TO BIDEN ADMIN, CHINA LINKS It further sent $375,000 to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a group founded as “America’s first litigation-focused nonprofit dedicated to making dirty industries clean up their pollution” and which has filed dozens of legal challenges pushing far-left green measures. Through its legal efforts, the NRDC has opposed domestic fossil fuel drilling, coal plants, the Keystone XL oil pipeline and critical mineral mining projects. Bob Deans, NRDC’s director of strategic engagement, told Fox News Digital in December that the grant was used to “help China cut its carbon footprint by, for example, encouraging the use of energy efficient appliances and improving access to wind and solar power for drivers of electric cars in China, where electricity and transportation account for more than half of all carbon emissions.” He also noted the Energy Foundation’s San Francisco headquarters and said NRDC receives no funding from Chinese sources. And the Energy Foundation contributed another $350,000 to Harvard University, a grant earmarked for “outreach to build a clean energy future.” The Energy Foundation didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Former Green Beret shreds ‘criminally incompetent’ Biden, stresses need for more veterans in Congress
A former Green Beret running for Congress in North Carolina is taking aim at President Biden’s handling of his duties as commander in chief while stressing the need for more veterans to be elected to higher office. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Pat Harrigan, a former U.S. Army officer, firearms business owner and Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District, said Biden’s failures were one of the main things that drove him to enter the race. “I’m incredibly concerned for the future of our country. With the fall of Afghanistan – being a West Point graduate and a former Green Beret who spent a little over 18 months in Afghanistan – I honestly could not believe how we could have a criminally incompetent chief executive lead the exit and lead the failure of Afghanistan the way that it happened,” Harrigan said. HALEY TAKES AIM AT CONFUSED’ TRUMP’S MENTAL STATE IN VIDEO RAILING AGAINST NEW YORK COURT PROCEEDINGS “It’s just absolutely catastrophic for America… We have to go to Washington and make some change and make it very quickly, or this world is going to devolve into a place that I don’t think any American has ever truly experienced,” he said. Harrigan first ran unsuccessfully for Congress in North Carolina’s Democrat-leaning 14th Congressional District in 2022. After graduating from West Point and being commissioned as an Army officer in 2009, he joined the infantry and completed Ranger School before being assigned to a Special Forces unit at a small combat outpost in Afghanistan. “I was in the Arghandab Valley up north of Kandahar, 23 years old. I was leading almost 400 Americans and Afghans all by myself. I had nobody over me for about 65 or 70 miles away, and so I really got to kind of create my own adventure, cut my teeth, during some pretty significant combat operations,” he explained. HALEY FACES GROWING CALLS TO LEAVE 2024 RACE AS RNC NEARLY CONSIDERS DECLARING TRUMP THE PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE Harrigan said the experience gave him a “leadership perspective” to understand what’s at stake across the world, and why America’s strategic interests actually “secure the American way of life.” “We’ve done a terrible job of doing that in the last 20 years. I think we can do it much, much better. And I think… that when America fails to lead, the world burns and, boy, the world is burning today,” he said. “We just need principled leaders of character to return to Congress. We need veterans to return to Congress,” he said, noting the small percentage of veterans serving in Congress today and how it contrasts to the times following World War II when a majority of members had military experience. HALEY CAMPAIGN LASHES OUT AT RNC, RONNA MCDANIEL OVER RESOLUTION TO DECLARE TRUMP PRESUMPTIVE GOP NOMINEE “If we don’t have veterans at the helm, if we just have more go along to get along, same old, same old lawyers, term career politicians who are just climbing the political ladder to the next level in Washington, D.C., we’re going to have the same old problems that we’ve always had,” he said. During his time in the military, Harrigan opened a small firearms business that he ran out of his double-wide trailer home, first selling to just friends and family before it became popular and outgrew his family’s kitchen table. “My last deployment to Afghanistan, my wife actually built a warehouse behind the double-wide, and by the time I got back, that warehouse was built, and we’d already grown out of it. So my wife was an intricate part of our ascent into the business world,” he said. Harrigan explained that his business now operates out of a 120,000-square-foot facility on about 80 acres, does “everything underneath the small arms umbrella, from gun parts to complete firearms themselves,” and produces about 1,000 guns a week. VENTURE CAPITALIST, CONSERVATIVE FIREBRAND RAISES EYE-POPPING AMOUNT IN BID FOR ARIZONA HOUSE SEAT He says operating a small business has made him “incredibly passionate” about American manufacturing, and that it’s important to have “vibrant” production in the U.S. He added that his own small business story was “a testament to the conditions that are set by the right frame of government, an economic system that allows people to go out and create their own success stories.” If elected in November, Harrigan said the first issue he would want to address is the crisis at the southern border. “That southern border needs to close immediately. And I’ve been saying this for years: President Trump’s position on the border, which is to create a massive wall in order to safeguard our domestic security, should be our one and only priority. We have got to protect this nation,” he said. “I think it’s very clear the American people need that border shutdown. We have 300,000 people a month coming across that border. We do not know who they are. We do not know what their intentions are. We know that we have dozens and dozens and dozens of folks on the terrorist watch list who have just walked across our leaky southern border, and that’s got to stop,” he added. Harrigan faces a crowded Republican primary field that includes state Rep. Grey Mills Jr., activist Brooke McGowan, entrepreneur Charles Eller and nurse Diana Jimison. Considering the district’s conservative leaning, the primary winner will likely replace Rep. Patrick McHenry, who served briefly as speaker pro tempore of the House following House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster last October. McHenry announced in December he would not seek re-election. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Iran executes four convicted of Israeli bomb plot
The defendants were accused of plotting a bomb attack on a factory making military equipment. Iran has executed four men it says were linked to an Israeli intelligence operation. The death sentences were carried out on Monday after the Supreme Court rejected appeals, according to Iranian state media. The quartet was accused of planning a bomb attack ordered by Israel’s Mossad agency. The men were convicted of illegally entering Iran from Iraq’s northern Kurdish region to attack a factory in the central city of Isfahan that produces equipment for the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics. The operation was planned for summer 2022 but was averted by Iranian intelligence. “The death sentence of four members of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organisation … was carried out this morning,” the Iranian judiciary’s website Mizan Online reported. Iran and Israel are longtime foes. They’re currently locked in a row over Iran’s nuclear programme. Israel accuses Iran of backing armed groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, with which it is fighting. Iran says Israel has carried out a number of killings of Iranian officials and scientists, accusations that Tel Aviv neither confirms nor denies. Wave of executions Iran executes more people per year than any other country except China, according to Amnesty, and usually does so by hanging. In late December, it put to death three men and one woman convicted for alleged links to Mossad. Last week, Mohammed Ghobadlou, an Iranian man sentenced for his participation in antigovernment protests in late 2022 was executed. Critics said the defendant had suffered from mental health issues. “We are alarmed by reports of unfair trial proceedings in the case of Mr Ghobadlou, as well as in other cases, which fell far short of due process and fair trial standards required by international human rights law by which Iran is bound,” experts from UN’s human rights agency after the sentence was carried out. “We are dismayed by the unprecedented rise in executions in Iran and note that at least 834 people were executed in 2023, including 8 people associated with the nationwide protests,” the experts said. “We urge the Iranian government to stop this horrific wave of executions.” United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said last year that Iran had an “abominable” track record of executions, with an average of more than 10 people hanged each week. Adblock test (Why?)
Two brothers shot by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, white flag ignored
Khan Younis, Gaza – “Amal” in Arabic means hope, the kind of name given to a new neighbourhood to encourage people to move there and dream of their families growing up there. But last week, what weak glimmers of hope the Barbakh family had that they would make it out of al-Amal alive were quickly dashed when Israeli sniper fire took the lives of two of their sons. This photo taken by Ahmed Barbakh shows his two brothers shot on the street, Ramez was shot in the heart and fell on top of his 13-year-old brother who had been shot repeatedly. The white flag is visible where it fell from Nahedh’s hand [Courtesy of the Barbakh family] The two boys were waving a white flag. Orders to evacuate Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency has investigated the crime in which 13-year-old Nahedh and 20-year-old Ramez Barbakh were shot to death by sniper fire. On the morning of Wednesday, January 24, the Barbakhs were getting ready to leave al-Amal, west of Khan Younis, and move further south as they had been ordered to do by the leaflets dropping on their neighbourhood since the day before and by announcements by Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli army. “We didn’t know what to do,” the boys’ mother Islam told Al Jazeera. “In the beginning, we weren’t even sure about these evacuation orders because we hadn’t seen them ourselves. We were trying to lay low in our house and keep everybody safe. “But finally we realised that we would have to go and started trying to come up with a plan. My husband and sons thought maybe we could break a rear wall and go out that way, because we could hear that there was firing outside.” Eventually, though, the couple decided that the best way would be the most direct: they would walk out of their house with a white flag and make their way to al-Mawasi as directed. #عاجل 🔴🔴 الى سكان منطقة خان يونس في أحياء النصر، الأمل، مركز المدينة والمخيم (المعسكر) في بلوكات 107-112: من أجل سلامتكم عليكم الانتقال فورًا إلى المنطقة الإنسانية في المواصي عن طريق شارع البحر pic.twitter.com/K4MtDeKMSR — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) January 24, 2024 Translation: #URGENT to the residents of Khan Younis in the neighbourhoods of al-Nasser, al-Amal, town centre and the camp, in blocks 107-112: For your own safety, you must move immediately to the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi via the coastal road. “I called Nahedh over,” said Mohamed-Adel, their father. “I gave him a white cloth to wave above his head as a white flag. I thought, there’s no way anybody would want to hurt a child or would be scared of a child.” As the rest of the family was bundling together the last of their belongings that they thought they could take with them, Nahedh took a few cautious steps out of the front door, waving his white flag overhead and walking cautiously out to the corner so he could look at the main road to see which way his family should go. ‘They just lay there all day’ According to what the family told Al Jazeera, as Nahedh took a few steps out of the door, he was shot in the legs and fell to the ground. His father called to him from within the house’s doorway, coaxing his little boy to get up just a little bit and try to get back into the house. When Nahedh got up to try to make it back into the house, he was shot twice more, in the back and in the head. His brother Ahmed, 18, told Al Jazeera that the shooting was coming from the direction of al-Katiba about 400 metres [1,312 feet] away, an area where Sanad was able to confirm Israeli military activity on the day in question. Islam was paralysed with shock when she saw her children shot in the street [Courtesy of the Barbakh family] Seeing what had happened to his little brother, Ramez ran out of the house to try to pull him out of harm’s way. He was shot in the heart and fell on his stricken brother, white flag and all. Islam was unable to comprehend what had befallen her family, paralysed with anguish as she looked out of her window at her two sons lying crumpled on the road. “I kept hoping that they were still alive, that there was some breath in them,” she said. “I couldn’t think of anything other than ‘I want my children, I want my children.’ “I’m not sure how I stayed inside the house, but all I remember is screaming out of the window at anyone I saw on the other side of the street, asking them to help, to do anything. “They didn’t do anything, they couldn’t. Whenever I called out to someone, my husband and sons would shush me any way they could. They were there to kill people,” she continued. The family could not approach the bodies of Nahedh and Ramez and eventually had to flee the neighbourhood without knowing what became of them. “They were just there, in the street, all day,” said Islam. “When we left we couldn’t remove their bodies nor could we even stop to check on them. There was constant shooting.” Mohamed-Adel Barbakh talking to Al Jazeera [Courtesy Barbakh family] Only one photo survives of that crime. It was snapped by Ahmed, the boys’ brother, who told Al Jazeera he “took a photo of my murdered brothers so I never forget them, and to document this crime that was committed, the crime of shooting a child who is carrying a white flag and then shooting his brother who rushes out to save him”. What the investigation revealed The Sanad investigation pinpointed the exact location where Ramez and Nahedh were targeted by Israeli snipers, near the Harun ar-Rashid school in al-Amal, also known as “Block 109” on the map the Israeli army released of Gaza. According to the testimonies,
CAA to be implemented across India in a week: BJP leader Shantanu Thakur’s ‘guarantee’
Shantanu Thakur has said that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be implemented across the country in a week.
AAP to go alone in Haryana assembly polls, Lok Sabha with India bloc, says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that the party will contest alone on all 90 seats in the Haryana assembly elections.
Israel, genocide and whether the ICJ matters
[unable to retrieve full-text content] International Court of Justice orders Israel to avoid genocidal acts, provide humanitarian aid — but will it be enough?