US-backed GHF ‘aid mission’ in Gaza ends – a timeline of violence
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the US and Israel to oversee the distribution of aid in Gaza, has announced it is ending its controversial “mission” and is closing aid distribution sites following a US-brokered ceasefire agreement. Under increasing international pressure to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip earlier this year, Israel and the US backed the GHF as an independent agency to administer aid. Israel completely blocked aid to the Strip from March this year, claiming that Hamas was stealing aid provided by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Israel did not provide any evidence for this and also blocked UNRWA workers from entering the Strip from February. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list While the UNRWA network operated about 400 sites across the Strip before that, the GHF, guarded by armed US private security contractors, set up only four “mega-sites” – three in southern Gaza and one near Gaza City – to distribute food and other aid to Gaza’s population of about two million Palestinians. Furthermore, since the organisation began operations in Gaza in May, Israeli forces and some US contractors have routinely opened fire on Palestinians arriving to receive aid. Disorganisation around the sites has caused large crowds to gather, and some people have suffocated or died in stampedes. While GHF Executive Director John Acree said in a statement on Monday that the organisation delivered the “only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals directly to Palestinian people in Gaza”, more than 2,000 aid seekers have been crushed to death or killed by gunfire, according to UN figures. Advertisement Here is how the GHF “mission” to Gaza unfolded this year: May 26 – GHF issues a statement announcing it will begin direct aid delivery inside the battered enclave, hours after its executive director, Jake Wood, resigned, citing concerns about the agency’s independence. The UN and other aid agencies refuse to work with GHF, warning that requiring Palestinians to gather at a few centralised aid points would put people at risk and undermine other aid efforts. May 27 – GHF begins operating in Gaza. Israeli forces open fire on thousands of Palestinians attempting to receive food in southern Gaza’s Rafah area, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens. Aid seekers are forced to clamber over fences and push through packed crowds to reach life-saving supplies. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says seeing thousands of Palestinians storming the aid site is “heartbreaking” as the chaos underscores the staggering level of hunger gripping Gaza. Gaza’s Government Media Office calls the incident a “deliberate massacre and a full-fledged war crime.” May 29 – Israeli forces open fire at an aid point in southern Gaza, killing 10 people and injuring dozens. Shortly after, multiple explosions are reported near another aid centre on the Netzarim Corridor, which divides northern Gaza from the rest of the Strip. It is not clear what caused the blasts, and there are no reports of casualties. May 30 – Israeli forces open fire on civilians waiting to collect food at a GHF distribution point on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza, wounding at least 20 people. June 1 – Israeli tanks kill at least 32 Palestinians waiting to get food at two aid distribution sites in Gaza, leaving more than 200 others injured. June 3 – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the killing and injuring of Palestinian aid seekers is “unacceptable” and calls for an independent investigation after Israeli forces open fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah. Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 27 Palestinians have been killed in the incident and 90 injured. June 8 – At least 13 Palestinians are killed, and more than 150 are injured when Israeli troops and US security contractors open fire on crowds waiting for food near two aid distribution sites in Gaza, one east of Rafah and another near the Wadi Gaza Bridge. Gaza’s Government Media Office accuses Israel of turning distribution sites into “human slaughterhouses”. July 16 – At least 21 Palestinians are killed at a GHF aid distribution centre in southern Gaza. Witness accounts say Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd, causing a stampede. At least 15 people died of suffocation, while others were shot. Twenty-four-year-old Mohammed Abedin, who survived the incident, told Al Jazeera that they were “shot at like animals”. Advertisement July 22 – The United Nations says the number of Palestinians killed while trying to access food in Gaza from GHF distribution points has topped 1,000. [Al Jazeera] August 1 – A former contractor for GHF, Anthony Aguilar, tells Al Jazeera about what he describes as the deadly and unprofessional practices he witnessed firsthand at aid distribution sites in Gaza. This includes firing what the organisation described as “warning shots” on an unarmed population using heavy artillery. “They call that warning shots, I call it a war crime,” he said. August 2 – At least 38 Palestinians seeking aid at distribution sites operated by GHF are killed, despite Israel announcing on July 27 it would begin implementing “tactical pauses” in fighting in some areas to allow Palestinians greater access to humanitarian aid. August 5 – Twenty-eight UN experts call for GHF’s dismantlement, describing it as an “utterly disturbing example” of aid exploitation for military purposes. August 9 – Israel allows some aid to be airdropped into Gaza by several countries, including Germany, Belgium and Jordan, amid global outrage, but a 15-year-old Palestinian boy is crushed to death by a falling pallet during an airdrop near the so-called Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. September 4 – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has recorded more than 2,146 deaths in the vicinity of sites run by GHF and along aid convoy routes. October 12 – GHF confirms it has suspended operations following the announcement of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on October 10. November 10 – A documentary, Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s
Next National Lok Adalat to be held on THIS date, check eligibility criteria
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DOJ backs Texas in Supreme Court fight over Republican-drawn map
The Department of Justice threw its support behind Texas on Monday, arguing the new map the state’s Republican-led legislature approved was not an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Solicitor General John Sauer, who represents the Trump administration, wrote in an amicus brief that a lower court’s decision to block the map through the 2026 midterms was wrong and that the Supreme Court should intervene and reverse the decision. “This is not a close case,” Sauer wrote. TEXAS FILES EMERGENCY SUPREME COURT PETITION AFTER TRUMP-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL MAP BLOCKED BY FEDERAL JUDGES Sauer said the lower court misunderstood what drove the Texas legislature to shift five districts in favor of Republicans. He said the move was not based on race, which could violate federal voting laws and the Constitution. “There is overwhelming evidence — both direct and circumstantial — of partisan objectives, and any inference that the State inexplicably chose to use racial means is implausible,” Sauer wrote. Sauer also defended a letter Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon wrote to Texas this year demanding that it address “coalition districts” that favor Democrats, which the challengers to the map have seized on as evidence of race-based motives. Days after the letter, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, added redistricting to the legislature’s agenda, leading to a stunning boycott in which state Democrats temporarily fled the state. The lower court “misinterpreted the letter’s meaning; and more importantly, the court misunderstood the letter’s significance to the legislature’s adoption of the 2025 map,” Sauer said. The plaintiffs in the case, who include numerous voting and immigrant rights groups, argued that Dhillon’s letter demanded dismantling the coalition districts and packing Black and Latino voters into other districts. “The DOJ letter, riddled with legal and factual errors, incorrectly asserted that these districts were ‘unconstitutional coalition districts’ that Texas was required to ‘rectify’ by changing their racial makeup,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote. REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE TORCHES COLLEAGUES IN TEXAS MAP FIGHT Texas’ mid-cycle redistricting dispute is one of several that have cropped up across the country as President Donald Trump stares down the possibility of losing an acquiescent Republican-led House in 2026. California voted in favor of an eleventh-hour ballot measure that would cancel out the five Republican gains in Texas. Utah’s map has changed in favor of Democrats, Virginia has taken steps to redraw its map and Louisiana’s is pending before the Supreme Court. The DOJ recently sued Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, over California’s redistricting efforts, arguing that unlike in Texas, those were unconstitutionally race-based. Texas has asked the Supreme Court to pause the three-judge panel’s ruling in the Western District of Texas that found 2-1 last week that race was too much of a factor in its redraw. “This summer, the Texas Legislature did what legislatures do: politics,” Texas’ attorneys argued in their request, disputing all notions that the redistricting process used race as a factor. In a lengthy and wild tirade, Judge Jerry Brown, a Reagan appointee and the lone dissenter, called the three-judge panel’s decision the “most blatant exercise of judicial activism” he had ever seen and a work of “fiction.” Justice Samuel Alito has administratively paused the panel’s ruling, but the Supreme Court could now make a more lasting decision on the map at any time. Texas lawyers have also argued the high court should block the panel’s decision because it interfered with the 2026 midterms, for which candidates were already filing to run based on the new map.
‘Waddle’ the turkey faces press questions in White House briefing room ahead of presidential pardon
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced “Waddle” the turkey to reporters in the briefing room before President Donald Trump is scheduled to pardon him and his friend, “Gobble,” on Tuesday. A representative of the National Turkey Federation (NTF) who accompanied Leavitt confirmed to reporters that Waddle weighs over 50 pounds. Reporters peppered Waddle with questions ranging from his opinion on the peace negotiations in Ukraine to what crime he had committed to require a pardon. The NTF spokeswoman told reporters that after Waddle and Gobble are pardoned, they will move to North Carolina State University, where they will serve as “Turkey ambassadors for our industry.” Trump’s White House is kicking off Thanksgiving week with some classic White House holiday traditions, including the turkey pardon and the arrival of the official White House Christmas tree, marking the start of the season at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. AMERICAN TRUCKER SAYS TRANSPORTING CAPITOL CHRISTMAS TREE 3,000 MILES TO WASHINGTON, DC, IS ‘HUGE HONOR’ First lady Melania Trump held a poll on X to name this year’s turkeys, resulting in Waddle and Gobble. THANKSGIVING TRAVEL RUSH IS UNDERWAY AT AIRPORTS NATIONWIDE Last year’s pardoned turkeys, “Peach” and “Blossom,” and the ones before them, “Liberty” and “Bell,” all came from Minnesota. North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Ohio, California, Virginia and Missouri have all sent turkeys to the White House. Meanwhile, this year’s tree comes from Korson’s Tree Farms in Sidney Township, Michigan, which is about an hour northeast of Grand Rapids. The Fraser fir, which will stand in the Blue Room of the White House, will be presented by farm owners Rex and Jessica Korson. The two will also supply a smaller tree for the Oval Office. The family earned the honor by winning the National Christmas Tree Association’s National Tree Contest in July, the competition that selects the farm supplying the White House Christmas tree each year.
CCP-linked firms quietly hold stakes in US solar companies fueling Dems’ green push
A pair of major North American solar companies, including one touted by Senate Democrats in 2023, could face scrutiny over their ties to China. While the feds have created barriers to Chinese firms flooding the solar market, many have found ways to localize operations in the U.S. or North America in a manner that allows for public investment and even deferential press coverage at times. After then-President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, Senate Democrats praised the law for its substantive investments in “green” energy, including solar. One company that received top billing was an Ontario-based firm that was founded by a Chinese entrepreneur and keeps much of its assets in China. “The Inflation Reduction Act is already paying huge dividends for the American people,” blared a topline from Senate Democrats in 2023 after investments were being made in several companies. ARREST OF CHINESE NATIONALS IN SWING STATE, ISRAEL’S FIGHT WITH IRAN ARE ‘WAKE UP’ CALL ON CCP THREAT: EXPERTS The release cited a Reuters report that Canadian Solar – based in Guelph, Ontario, but founded by Qu Xiaohua and with its main operating arm listed on Shanghai’s SciTech board – committed to $250 million to a 5GW module facility in Texas after the IRA took effect. Trina Solar North America president Steven Zhu boasted to China Daily, a Chinese state-run propaganda outlet, that the project represents “a significant investment in American manufacturing that will bolster the U.S. solar market in addition to positioning Texas as a leader in the transition to a sustainable future.” Canadian Solar saw a 34% spike in its stock performance in the first half of 2022, according to a Benzinga analysis, which quoted company CEO Shawn Qu as saying he was “excited to see the [IRA] in the U.S. coming into effect.” The report said “alternative energy companies” like Canadian Solar stood to get a leg up thanks to about $370 billion in subsidies from the IRA. THINK TANK FOUNDER FACES SCRUTINY OVER CHINA CORPORATE TIES DESPITE DECOUPLING ADVOCACY A 2025 company filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) referenced that due to the company’s business in China, the CCP “may intervene or influence the operations of our PRC subsidies at any time” and that the firm is “exposed to legal and operational risks associated with having a significant portion of our manufacturing operations in China.” The Canadian-based company with a large Chinese manufacturing footprint – praised by Democrats – extends China’s state-backed dominance, yet can still qualify for IRA tax incentives meant for American allies – something that Congress has been focused on. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, recently sounded the alarm on companies affiliated with China that receive or are qualified for federal subsidies – including through Biden’s IRA. TOP HOUSE REPUBLICAN THREATENS TO EXPOSE CCP OFFICIALS IF CHINA INVADES TAIWAN Moolenaar previously focused on another Chinese firm called Gotion, telling The Midwesterner there are “about 30 tax credits” in the law “Biden calls his Inflation Reduction Act [that] will go to companies who are manufacturing, in some way, green energy.” Moolenaar’s “No Gotion Act” would ensure no subsidies go to firms based in officially designated politically-concerned countries like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. He also inserted language in the 2024 funding bill for the Department of Energy that would prohibit the agency from awarding contracts to companies tied to the CCP. 4 WAYS AMERICAN STATES AND CITIES CAN MEET THE CCP THREAT TO OUR WAY OF LIFE Fox News Digital reached out to Moolenaar for additional comment. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., chair of the House Homeland Security Transportation Subcommittee, said at the time that the U.S. cannot continue “ceding dominance over our critical supply chains to our greatest geopolitical rival.” Gimenez, who was born in communist Cuba and fled to the U.S. as a child, said Western nations were too slow to recognize threats from Huawei and TikTok, and that doing business in China ensures the CCP will get a cut; “a steep cost.” WHITE HOUSE FINALIZES RULES INCREASING CLEAN ENERGY SUBSIDIES FIVEFOLD IN BID TO SUPPORT GREEN JOBS Canadian Solar had about 12,000 employees in China at the beginning of the year with less than 6,000 in the rest of the world combined. The Coalition for a Prosperous America raised red flags in a report last year on Chinese dominance in the solar industry, and the fact that they’re largely kept afloat by “massive financial support” from the Chinese government – with reports citing as much as Y1B ($140M) in subsidies in recent times. Those subsidies, CPA argued, threaten all solar firms in the West. BIDEN FINALIZES CRACKDOWN ON US MILITARY TECH INVESTMENTS IN CHINA WITH ONE WEEK TO LAME DUCK SESSION In 2024, Trina Solar, then a subsidiary of a Chinese solar giant by the same name, forged an agreement to sell its Texas-based manufacturing assets to another U.S.-based but Chinese-tied company, which is now known as T1 Energy. Trina Founder Gao Jifan is also a Chinese National People’s Congress delegate. Gao has several links to CCP-connected organizations, as a profile on the Chinese-controlled search giant Baidu lists several curriculum vitae, including a former vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products – a semi-governmental trade association made up of representatives from several industrial and green-energy corporations like Huawei and Trina Solar. More recently, in 2023, Gao was vice president of the China Association for the Promotion of Industry-Academic-Research Cooperation, a group under the auspices of the CCP’s Ministry of Science and Technology that connects research universities and manufacturing outfits in the fields of nanotechnology, material manufacturing and green energy. TRUMP IS TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE CCP. IT’S LONG PAST TIME WE PROTECTED OUR BASES AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE On its homepage, T1 bills itself as “building domestic solar and battery supply chains to invigorate America with scalable, reliable, and low-cost energy,” and saying that “America needs advanced manufacturing capacity to unlock our