Lankford says if border deal isn’t reached soon, negotiations will delay until the new year
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is determined to strike a border security deal in the national security supplemental aid package, no matter how long it takes – but the White House hasn’t advanced to offering a proposal in writing yet. “I’m gonna keep working as long as it’s daylight, and that’s the biblical admonition,” Lankford told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. “As long as there’s a shot, you just keep working, and then at some point, you realize they’ve run the clock out.” The Senate was expected to recess on Thursday for the holidays, but Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. announced part of the recess would be canceled and the upper chamber will reconvene next week to continue negotiating and vote on the supplemental. Lankford is part of a small group of negotiators fighting to get a stronger border security bill included in the Biden administration’s $106 billion supplemental request first sent to Congress in October. Republicans have argued for weeks that some $60 billion in aid to Ukraine must be tied to stricter border policies here at home, while Democrats have remained mostly unmoved – until this week – by proposals to slow the influx of illegal migrants. “The language when you go through immigration law is incredibly technical, and so far, the White House so far has not been willing to actually put things down in writing and go through that written process,” Lankford said. GOP LAWMAKERS SKEPTICAL ABOUT VOTING ON BORDER DEAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS AS DEMS THREATEN TO DELAY BREAK Prior to this week, Biden officials weren’t involved in the negotiations with lawmakers. But as the clock nears the end of the Senate session until January and with aid to Israel and Ukraine still in limbo, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other White House officials stepped in. “The White House has been so slow in actually coming to the table and working through the issues,” Lankford said. “This all has to be right – if the whole system doesn’t work, then you can’t do a little bit of border security, you’ve got to actually manage the border.” He added, “And so at this point, if things don’t come together very, very quickly, this moves to January.” Early Thursday morning, some GOP lawmakers said that even if a deal is reached, there won’t be enough time before the holidays to review it and schedule a vote. Lankford said lawmakers will need more time “to know what’s in it,” and to ensure that it is a feasible deal that could actually pass the GOP-led House. REPUBLICANS SEE PROGRESS IN BORDER TALKS, BUT UNCLEAR IF DEAL WITHIN REACH AS CRISIS RAGES Republicans are asking for immediate and heightened security screenings for asylum seekers, more detention beds to detain individuals, and additional parole officers. “We don’t know anything about them – with no criminal history, we know nothing,” Lankford said. The current supplemental package earmarks $14 billion for some border measures, such as additional agents and quicker asylum processing, but does not include policy changes The administration was reportedly open to a nationwide expansion of expedited removal, which allows for recently entered migrants to be quickly removed if they do not meet the initial asylum standard. Rapid expulsions are currently only being used near the border. CBS reported this week that the White House was willing to mandate the detention of certain migrants as their claims are considered, as well as a new Title 42-style authority. Title 42 was the COVID-era order that allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border until the Biden administration ended the policy in May. 5,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED EVERY DAY INTO US, ADMIN OFFICIALS PRIVATELY TELL LAWMAKERS Fox News reported that Tuesday saw another day in which overwhelmed officials at the border encountered more than 10,000 migrants in a single day. Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Jordan says former prosecutor who allegedly scuttled Hunter investigation ‘refused’ to answer questions
Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Lesley Wolf, the federal prosecutor accused of limiting questions during a Hunter Biden probe, refused to answer questions during a closed-door interview with House members Thursday. “Miss Wolf refused to answer most of our questions,” Jordan told reporters following the interview with Wolf, who was subpoenaed in November to appear before the panel. “She refused to answer based on instructions she was given from the Justice Department,” Jordan said. Wolf told the panel that she did not receive any additional instructions from DOJ after the House voted Wednesday night to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, Jordan said. HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATORS LIMITED QUESTIONS ABOUT ‘DAD,’ ‘BIG GUY’ DESPITE FBI, IRS OBJECTIONS: WHISTLEBLOWER According to IRS whistleblowers, Wolf was involved in alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the Hunter Biden investigation, which began in 2018. Gary Shapley — who led the IRS’ portion of the Hunter Biden probe — alleged that Wolf sought to block investigators from asking questions related to President Biden throughout the yearslong federal investigation into his son, Hunter Biden. Specifically, Shapley alleged that Wolf worked to “limit” questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as “dad” or “the big guy.” Despite Wolf not answering questions, Jordan said the core of the whistleblower allegations have been proved correct since they first came forward earlier this year. “I will say this, and this has proved true now for months, Mr. Shapley, Mr. [Joseph ] Ziegler’s testimony continues to be, you know, just as accurate as can be. No one has refuted that,” Jordan said. Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the interview with Wolf was a waste of time and showed Republicans were “desperate” to find something to justify an impeachment inquiry of Biden. COMER, JORDAN DEMAND HUNTER BIDEN APPEAR FOR DEPOSITION, SAY HE WILL NOT RECEIVE ‘SPECIAL TREATMENT’ “I think this is why Hunter Biden decided to require, to demand a public opportunity to make his testimony available to Americans across the country,” Ivey told reporters following the meeting. “What took place upstairs was a huge waste of time. They kept asking questions about documents that they knew she couldn’t comment on,” Ivey said. “So I think it’s unfortunate they’re dragging in people who — she’s not even a government employee anymore. But they’re still making her go through these motions because they’re still in the middle of this desperate search to try and find something that can justify the impeachment inquiry they just launched yesterday, but I think they’re gonna keep coming up with dry holes.” Fox News reported Thursday morning that Wolf is no longer employed by the Justice Department. A source told Fox that she had longstanding plans to move on from the agency. At the time of the investigation into Hunter Biden, Wolf was assistant U.S. attorney in Delaware. In October 2020, Wolf reviewed an affidavit for a search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and “agreed that probable cause had been achieved,” according to Shapley. However, Shapley said Wolf ultimately would not allow a physical search warrant on the president’s son. Shapley said Wolf determined there was “enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.” Hunter Biden defied his subpoena to appear for a deposition at the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Instead, he made a public statement on Capitol Hill, blasting the Republican impeachment inquiry and saying his father was “not financially involved” in his business dealings. Comer and Jordan have threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress. Hunter Biden’s public statement Wednesday came just days after he was charged out of Special Counsel David Weiss’ investigation. Weiss alleged Hunter Biden was engaged in a “four-year scheme” when the president’s son did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports. Weiss filed the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The charges break down to three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that were since paid. Weiss also indicted Hunter Biden in September on federal gun charges, to which the president’s son has pleaded not guilty. Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, this week moved to dismiss those charges altogether. Weiss’ investigation is ongoing.
Trump’s gag order challenge in New York AG Letitia James’ civil suit rejected
The New York State Appellate Division First Department has rejected former President Trump’s challenge to the gag orders imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron. The non-jury civil trial stems from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against Trump and his businesses in the state. Back in September, Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization had committed fraud while building his real estate empire, by deceiving banks, insurers and others, by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing. “He ruled against me without knowing anything about me,” Trump said on the stand. “He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me.” JUDGE IMPOSES PARTIAL GAG ORDER IN TRUMP ORG TRIAL, BLOCKING PARTIES FROM VERBAL ATTACKS AGAINST COURT STAFF Following the ruling, Engoron imposed a partial gag order to prevent all parties from engaging in any verbal attacks against court staff after Trump criticized a member of the judge’s office on social media. Engoron added that “personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, not appropriate” and warned they would not be tolerated. TRUMP, JUDGE ENGORON TRADE JABS DURING FORMER PRESIDENT’S TESTIMONY IN CIVIL TRIAL STEMMING FROM NYAG LAWSUIT Without naming the former president, Engoron was referring to a now-deleted Trump post on his Truth Social account about Engoron’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield. SUPREME COURT: TRUMP MUST RESPOND TO SPECIAL COUNSEL’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY PETITION BEFORE CHRISTMAS Trump and his family have denied any wrongdoing and have claimed that the former president has repeatedly said his assets were actually undervalued.
Bipartisan bill would prevent millionaires from taking unemployment checks
FIRST ON FOX: A bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers of Congress introduced a bill to prevent millionaires from taking unemployment checks. Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, alongside fellow Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Braun, R-Ind., introduced the Ending Unemployment Payments to Jobless Millionaires Act of 2023 on Thursday. Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis is the lead sponsor of the House version of the bill. BLUE STATE DEMOCRATS PROPOSE HANDING OUT UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS TO WORKERS ON STRIKE The bipartisan bill would prevent people who make $1 million or more in income from receiving federal unemployment insurance benefits despite losing their job. “‘Bah humbug!’ to this reverse-millionaires tax taking money out of the paychecks of hardworking Americans to pay the wealthy not to work,” Ernst told Fox News Digital. “Ebenezer Scrooge certainly never would have learned the meaning of Christmas if he was visited by Washington bureaucrats instead of three ghosts.” “But just like Scrooge, it’s never too late for even the big spenders in Washington to change their ways!” she continued. “We can make that happen by passing this commonsense, bipartisan bill.” Tester told Fox News Digital that, at “a time when Montana families are struggling with rising costs on everything from housing to groceries, it defies logic for multi-millionaires to receive unemployment benefits on the taxpayers’ dime.” “I came to Washington to fight for working families, not fat cats who look for loopholes to line their pockets,” Tester said. “My bipartisan bill will cut wasteful spending and put money back in hardworking Montanans pocketbooks where it belongs.” Curtis told Fox News Digital that, because “of a quirk in regulations, unemployment benefits are given based on active income and do not take into account passive sources.” “IRS data shows thousands of millionaires are gaming this system to receive unemployment insurance,” Curtis said. “It is embarrassing this bill is even necessary. Millionaires should not be receiving unemployment benefits on taxpayer dime,” he continued. Ernst’s office told Fox News Digital that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provided information showing that millionaires collected over $200 million in unemployment compensation last year. Fox News Digital has reached out to the IRS for comment. Specifically, the bill reads that, notwithstanding “any other provision of law,” federal funds would be barred from being paid out “in a year to an individual whose adjusted gross income is equal to or greater than $1,000,000.” “Any application for unemployment compensation shall include a form or procedure for an individual applicant to certify that such individual is not prohibited from receiving unemployment compensation pursuant to subsection,” the bill reads. “The certifications required by subsection (b) shall be auditable by the Department of Labor or the Government Accountability Office,” the bill says.
Major pro-Israel group accuses Biden of fanning flames of antisemitism with claim of ‘indiscriminate bombing’
The Zionist Organization of America accused President Biden of fanning the flames of antisemitism with his claim that Israel was engaging in “indiscriminate bombing” in the Gaza Strip. ZOA National President Morton A. Klein issued a statement on Thursday saying the pro-Israel group “strongly condemns President Joe Biden’s dangerous, indiscriminate remarks on December 12th, falsely accusing Israel of ‘indiscriminate bombing’ in Gaza; criticizing and calling for changing Israel’s democratically elected government; and calling for Israel to ‘strengthen’ and reward the Palestinian Authority (PA) terror regime with a Palestinian Arab state carved out of Israel’s lawful land (a so-called ‘two-state solution’) – while the PA is celebrating the October 7th atrocities, continuing to pay terrorists huge lifetime pensions to murder Jews and insisting that Hamas must be part of a Palestinian state; and the PA’s ruling Fatah party is bragging about its brigades participating in the October 7th atrocities.” “Falsely accusing Israel of ‘indiscriminate bombing’ creates more fuel for attacking American Jews. Biden’s widely disseminated, reckless remarks will likely inspire more antisemitism, at a time when American Jews are being attacked on college campuses and American streets at record breaking levels. Even his spokesman John Kirby said no country, including America, does more to protect civilian lives,” Klein continued. “Biden voiced his unjustified criticisms of Israel and his statements interfering with and attempting to undermine Israeli democracy at a closed-door campaign reception on December 12, 2023. Biden’s remarks were then published on the White House website and amplified in media around the world.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, but they did not immediately respond. PRESIDENT BIDEN TELLS CROWD ‘I AM A ZIONIST’ AT HANUKKAH CEREMONY, CONDEMNS SILENCE ON ANTISEMITISM According to a transcript shared by the White House, Biden told donors at a campaign reception in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday about recent conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If you think about it, one of the things that Bibi understands, I think, now – but I’m not sure Ben-Gvir and his War Cabinet do, who I’ve spoken to several times – is that Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting it. But they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” Biden said during the reception. BIDEN TELLS DONORS ISRAEL IS LOSING SUPPORT GLOBALLY “It was pointed out to me – I’m being very blunt with you all – it was pointed out to me that – by Bibi – that, ‘Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died,’” Biden continued Tuesday. “I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War Two to see to it that it didn’t happen again – it didn’t happen again. Don’t make the same mistakes we made at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.’” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Klein pointed to Israel’s ground operation as evidence that the country is not looking to flatten the entire region with bombs. “If Israel was in fact engaged in ‘indiscriminate bombing’ in Gaza, Israel would have long ago flattened all of Gaza from the air. Instead, Israel has been making surgical strikes on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror targets and engaging in dangerous close quarters combat with Hamas and PIJ terrorists, which risks and costs Israeli soldiers’ lives,” Klein said in part, asking, “So why is Biden spouting these anti-Israel falsehoods that will increase attacks against American Jews, increase unwarranted pressure on Israel, and benefit the Hamas and PA terrorists?” “If Biden is sincere about supporting our ally Israel, rescuing American and Israeli hostages, stopping attacks on Jews in the U.S. and destroying Hamas, Biden needs to apologize for and stop making false allegations against Israel, the IDF and Israel’s democratically elected government, and stop calling for the strengthening of the PA terror regime,” he concluded.
NC Democrat Wiley Nickel leaving House over redistricting, but is eyeing 2026 challenge to Sen. Tillis
Democratic U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel said Thursday he won’t seek reelection to Congress next year, the result of congressional redistricting by Republican state legislators this fall that’s likely to shift North Carolina’s delegation to the right. And he said he’ll consider a U.S. Senate bid for an election that would be nearly three years away. The decision by the first-term congressman on the day before candidate filing ends for the March primary means three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina won’t run in 2024. Each of them blamed the reconfigured lines by GOP lawmakers — now the subject of litigation — that they say make it futile for them to run. Democratic Reps. Jeff Jackson of Charlotte and Kathy Manning of Greensboro already said they wouldn’t seek reelection. Nickel’s decision should benefit national Republicans in their efforts to retain a U.S. House majority in 2025. SWING DISTRICT DEMOCRAT COMPLAINS SHE WON’T RUN FOR RE-ELECTION BECAUSE RACE IS ‘RIGGED’ AGAINST HER “Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves and I don’t have a path to run for re-election in the 13th district. But I’m not giving up and neither should you,” Nickel said in a news release provided by Nickel’s campaign committee and geared to supporters. He planned a formal public announcement later Thursday. The release said Nickel, a lawyer and state senator from Cary before his 2022 victory, would now work next year to help get Democrats elected up and down the ballot, “fight to end partisan gerrymandering, and explore a path forward in the U.S. Senate.” 2026 is the next time a Senate seat is scheduled for North Carolina ballots. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis currently holds that seat. In a text, Nickel said that while he is looking at a Senate bid, he also planned to file paperwork soon with the Federal Election Commission to shift his House campaign committee to a Senate committee. Nickel, 48, said he expected to tour the state in 2024 to talk about gerrymandering. The 2022 elections were conducted under a map for the state’s 14 congressional seats drawn by state judges that resulted in Democrats and Republicans winning seven seats each. One of the seven belongs to Nickel, who narrowly won in the closely competitive Raleigh-area 13th District. But the Republican-dominated General Assembly, emboldened by a state Supreme Court ruling that tossed out previous partisan gerrymandering claims, enacted a map that made it likely for the GOP to win at least 10 of the 14 seats, according to election data. The recalibrated 13th Congressional District is now considered a strongly leaning Republican district and two other districts adjoining the 13th are heavily Democratic and where Democratic incumbents Deborah Ross and Valerie Foushee are seeking reelection. At least 10 Republicans have filed as candidates for the new 13th District, which, while still including parts of Raleigh, wraps around Wake County and stretches north to the Virginia border and south into several rural counties. NC FACES FEDERAL LAWSUIT OVER ALLEGED RACIAL BIAS IN NEWLY DRAWN CONGRESSIONAL MAPS Jackson, the 14th District incumbent, is running instead for state attorney general. Manning, who currently represents the 6th District, said last week that she would change her mind and run again for Congress should litigation alleging the retooled 6th District is an illegal racial gerrymander is successful. Nickel has been particularly vocal about the congressional map, declaring that litigation was needed to strike it down. More than 20 Black and Latino voters sued over the 6th and three other congressional districts earlier this month, but it appears unlikely that any resolution of the lawsuit will occur in time to delay the congressional primary elections. Absentee ballots for the primary start getting mailed to requesters on Jan. 19. Republicans backing U.S. House candidates were pleased with Nickel’s departure. “Wiley Nickel just gave Republicans an early Christmas gift with another pickup in the battle for the House majority,” Delanie Bomar, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a news release.
Law firm that represented Nixon, BP during oil spill prepared university presidents for antisemitism testimony
A well-known international law firm that has been involved in several controversies throughout recent history reportedly helped prepare at least two university officials for their testimony on campus antisemitism to Congress last week. WilmerHale, a prominent Washington D.C., law firm that was formed by a merger in 2004 between Washington-based Wilmer Cutler Pickering and Boston-based Hale and Dorr, prepared the leaders of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania prior to their testimony in the House last week over whether they would discipline students who called for the genocide of Jews, according to a report from the New York Times. The two school’s presidents at the time – Claudine Gay of Harvard and Liz Magill of Penn – prepared separately for the congressional testimony with teams from WilmerHale, according to the outlet, which cited two unidentified individuals familiar with the situation in its report. WilmerHale also had a meeting with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth, according to one person who spoke with the outlet. HOUSE APPROVES RESOLUTION DEMANDING MIT, HARVARD PRESIDENTS RESIGN AFTER ANTISEMITISM TESTIMONY Known for its work in defending those who face government investigations, the law firm with offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia has had an extensive list of high-profile clients who have found themselves tangled up in controversies that captured the public’s attention. The law firm represented former President Richard Nixon amid his duel with Congress over the Watergate tapes, as well as oil titan BP PLC amid investigations by the government into the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Aside from the larger-scale controversies, WilmerHale has experience working with colleges and universities to mitigate certain crises. During last Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers for WilmerHale were present and sat in the front row. Those in attendance included Alyssa DaCunha, who leads congressional investigations and crisis management practices for the firm, and Felicia Ellsworth, who serves as vice-chair of the firm’s litigation and controversy department. Both DaCunha and Ellsworth were involved in preparing Gay and Magill ahead of the hearing, according to the report, which also noted that the “schools each independently hired WilmerHale, and the firm created separate teams to prepare each president.” WilmerHale did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Following the hearing, which included several lawmakers challenging the university presidents about the issue of antisemitism on their respective campuses, Magill, who had served as Penn’s president since July 2022, resigned. Magill’s resignation came after she failed to say during her testimony if calls for the genocide of Jews would violate university policy, a position she faced immense criticism for. One day after the hearing, Magill walked back her comments in a video posted to X, saying, “There was a moment during yesterday’s congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies. In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which says that speech alone is not punishable.” “I was not focused on, but I should have been, on the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” she added in the December 6 video message. STEFANIK SHREDS HARVARD OVER ‘COMPLETE MORAL FAILURE’ AFTER ALLOWING CLAUDINE GAY TO REMAIN PRESIDENT Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, whose exchange with Magill during the hearing quickly spread across social media, blasted the president’s video, calling it a “pathetic PR clean up attempt.” “This pathetic PR clean up attempt by Penn shockingly took over 24 hours to try to fix the moral depravity of the answers under oath yesterday,” Stefanik wrote in a post on X. “And there was not even an apology. By the way, the questions were asked over and over and over again.” “No statement will fix what the world saw and heard yesterday,” the New York congresswoman added. During the hearing on antisemitism, Magill, Gay and Kornbluth gave what Stefanik later said were “evasive and dismissive” answers when she asked them if calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their institution’s policies on bullying and harassment. “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes,” Magill responded, later adding, “It is a context-dependent decision.” “It can be, depending on the context,” Gay responded. Kornbluth responded to the question, saying that it would be considered harassment only if it’s “targeted at individuals, not making public statements” and if it was “pervasive and severe.” In an earlier statement to Fox News Digital, an MIT spokesperson said that “MIT and our president, Sally Kornbluth, reject antisemitism in all its forms,” and pointed to a statement from the school’s governing board. “The MIT Corporation chose Sally to be our president for her outstanding academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values. She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support,” the MIT Corporation wrote. The Harvard Corporation reaffirmed its support for Gay on Tuesday, hours after the resolution was introduced, stating that she is the “right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.” In a 303-126 vote Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution calling on the presidents of Harvard and MIT to resign after their testimony to Congress. “President Magill has resigned, and the other Presidents should follow suit,” states the resolution, which required two-thirds to pass. Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
‘Regime of impunity’: Victims react to Fujimori’s prison release in Peru
He was horrible at math. Loved to play sports. And always seemed to be smiling. When Gisela Ortiz thinks back to her older brother Luis Enrique, she remembers someone who was kind and generous, willing to lend clothes out of his own closet to classmates in need. But when Ortiz was 20, her brother disappeared. She later learned that soldiers had burst into the university residence hall where he was staying and abducted him, along with eight other students. Together with a professor, they were taken into a field and executed, their bodies dumped in a mass grave. Luis Enrique was only 21 years old. Now, more than three decades later, the person Ortiz holds responsible has been released from prison — and Ortiz is among those raising their voices in protest. On December 6, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was freed, 16 years into a 25-year sentence. In 2009, he had been convicted of ordering massacres between 1991 and 1992 that claimed the lives of 25 people, including Luis Enrique. But critics have said that his record of human rights abuses stretches much further, to include allegations of torture, involuntary sterilisation and forced disappearances. The Inter-American Court had ordered Peruvian authorities to refrain from releasing Fujimori, given the severity of his crimes. “A regime of impunity has been established,” Ortiz said after Fujimori’s release. “Ignoring the ruling of the Inter-American Court really makes us a country that does not respect human rights at the international level, and that is a step that is difficult to reverse.” Families hold up photos of loved ones who disappeared under the presidency of Alberto Fujimori [Jacob Kessler/Al Jazeera] Peru is a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and is legally bound by the decisions of the Inter-American Court. But Fujimori has remained a towering figure in Peru’s conservative politics, with a broad base of popular support. Proponents credit him with stabilising the economy, combatting armed leftist groups and launching infrastructure projects that improved transportation, education and healthcare. The former president was first granted a humanitarian pardon in 2017, though it was later nullified. Peru’s Constitutional Court reinstated the pardon this month, partially on the basis of Fujimori’s advanced age and poor health. Still, César Muñoz, the Americas associate director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Fujimori’s release is an “extremely serious setback” for rule of law, not to mention for those harmed. “It’s a slap in the face to the victims,” Muñoz said. He explained that, according to international law, humanitarian pardons may indeed be granted to human rights abusers, but two conditions must first be met. The first condition requires countries to punish human rights abusers according to a consistent standard, without discrimination or favour. “You cannot have rules that change depending on who the person is,” said Muñoz. The second condition requires that medical professionals render an independent, thorough and impartial determination about the need for a humanitarian release. “Those two elements were not there” in the case of Fujimori’s pardon, Muñoz explained. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, wearing a face mask, exits a prison on December 6 near Lima, Peru, where his daughter Keiko and Kenji guide him to a waiting car [Courtesy of Elio Riera/Reuters] Following Fujimori’s release, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it “rejects Peru’s decision” and called for the country “to take effective measures to guarantee the victims’ right to access justice”. Cameras last week captured Fujimori, 85, stepping out of the prison gates and into the arms of his two children, Kenji Fujimori and Keiko Fujimori, both influential politicians. The news left Javier Roca Obregón, also 85, feeling “indignant”. He has long since lost hope of ever seeing his son, Martin Roca Casas, again. “I am 85 years old, and I have no hope,” Obregón told Al Jazeera. “I just want to die soon.” In 1993, Casas was a student at the National University of Callao when he was tortured and detained by Peruvian military forces. His body has never been recovered. Obregón and others believe Casas’s abduction was linked to his student activism. He remembers his son as a beacon of hope for other young people — “an example of overcoming” life’s obstacles. Shortly before he went missing, Casas participated in a march against a tuition increase at his university. When two people started to film the protest, he and other students grabbed the camera and destroyed it — an act Obregón suspects precipitated his kidnapping. “In Peru, the life of a poor person is worth nothing. The poor have no right to justice,” said Obregón, who originally hailed from the small, rural town of Yanama. “Just like a dog, they can kill it and then forget about it. That is what is being repeated.” Javier Roca Obregón, right, and his wife remember their son Martin Roca Casas, who disappeared after being detained by military officials [Jacob Kessler/Al Jazeera] Critics have said Fujimori governed with relative impunity during his term in office, from 1990 to 2000. His presidency oversaw the dissolution of Congress and the suspension of Peru’s constitution, allowing him to consolidate power. Carolina Oyague said it was a “terrible” feeling to see the video of a smiling Fujimori being released to his children. Her older sister Dora, 21, was one of the nine students abducted from the Enrique Guzmán y Valle National University of Education in 1993, alongside Luis Enrique Ortiz. Oyague remembers her sister as “cheerful and creative”, a budding entrepreneur who sold everything from makeup to cakes to pay for her education. It was not until September of this year that parts of Dora’s skeletal remains were recovered and presented to her family. To watch Fujimori walk free only a few months later left Oyague furious. “There’s no mea culpa,” she said. “He doesn’t even have a modicum of remorse.” Fujimori has issued vague apologies in the past but has never taken direct responsibility for the military killings or the other abuses that occurred
Turkish MP who suffered heart attack during speech in parliament dies
Hasan Bitmez dies at a hospital in Ankara two days after heart attack during anti-Israel speech. A Turkish opposition legislator who suffered a heart attack and collapsed in parliament during a speech railing against the government’s policy towards Israel has died. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday that Hasan Bitmez, a 54-year-old member of the Islamist Saadet Partisi, or Felicity Party, had died in an Ankara hospital two days after the incident. “You allow ships to go to Israel, and you shamelessly call it trade. … You are Israel’s accomplice,” Bitmez said in his speech targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Tuesday after placing a poster on the podium reading: “Murderer Israel; collaborator AKP.” “Even if you escape the torment of history, you will not be able to escape the wrath of God,” he said at the end of the 20-minute speech before collapsing at the lectern. Other members of the Grand National Assembly rushed forward to help, and Koca said on Tuesday that Bitmez had been “resuscitated in parliament and transferred within 20 minutes to hospital” where medical equipment had kept him alive. The opposition figure, who was married and a father of one, graduated from Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, worked for Islamic nongovernmental groups and was chairman of the Centre for Islamic Union Research. His speech accused the government of continuing friendly economic relations with Israel during its assault on Gaza, which has killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians. His remarks drew jeers from AK Party members. While Erdogan has worked to improve ties with Israel after a period of frosty relations, he has also railed against the current war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, calling Israel a “terror state” and pushing for a ceasefire. In a small ceremony on Thursday on the grounds of the Grand National Assembly, Bitmez’s coffin was draped with a Turkish flag, and a small Palestinian flag was attached as well. Adblock test (Why?)
How much environmental damage is Israel’s war on Gaza causing?
Israel’s military onslaught has devastated built and natural environments in Gaza. Palestinians continue to suffer in Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza – thousands killed and tens of thousands of others wounded. One of the most intense bombing campaigns since World War II will leave not just a legacy of grief for Gaza’s people, but one of lasting physical damage to the environment. Sanitation and water treatment systems have been destroyed. Thousands of Israeli and Western-supplied bombs pollute the air and ground. The war is leaving a new layer of toxic chemicals in Gaza’s soil, adding to those left behind after the many wars Israel has waged before. Can Gaza recover? Presenter: Adrian Finighan Guests: Nada Majdalani – Palestinian director of EcoPeace Middle East, an organisation that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists Marwan Bardawil – Head of Gaza Programme Coordination Unit of the Palestinian Water Authority Hadeel Ikhmais – Director general of the Climate Change Section of the Palestinian Authority’s Environment Quality Authority Adblock test (Why?)