California ignoring Congress’ EV rule rollbacks, committee claims, demanding documents
EXCLUSIVE: In a sharp rebuke, a Kentucky congressman is pressing California’s top environmental agency for answers after learning the state may be ignoring Congress’ reversal of three key electric vehicle standards. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to Sacramento that it is “concerned about reports that California, and other jurisdictions who have adopted California standards for which waivers of preemption have been granted, are enforcing preempted vehicle emission regulations in violation of the Clean Air Act.” Earlier this year, Congress used the Congressional Review Act to nullify Biden-era waivers granted by the Biden EPA to California, allowing them to implement stricter standards than the federal government. Several states, including Pennsylvania and Delaware, along with the District of Columbia, have adopted California’s low-emissions standards as well. MAJOR BUSINESS GROUP INTERVENES TO BLUNT NEWSOM LAWSUIT ATTEMPTING TO REINSTATE EV MANDATES “The Committee has been made aware that CARB staff is denying auto manufacturers approval to bring vehicles to market unless the manufacturers agree to comply with the preempted regulations,” the committee continued. Rep. Brett Guthrie, chair of the House Energy Committee, a Republican, told Fox News Digital that the law is clear that the Golden State must end its “de-facto EV mandate.” “Enforcing a ban on the sale of gas-powered vehicles would have dire consequences for American families and businesses,” Guthrie said. “Forcing Americans to buy these vehicles would strain our electric grid, raise costs, and increase our reliance on China. Our investigation will look into whether California is continuing to enforce an EV mandate in violation of federal law.” Joining Guthrie on the letter were Reps. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., and John Joyce, R-Pa., chairmen of the environment and oversight subcommittees, respectively. CA DROPS ‘GREEN’ BIG-RIG MANDATES, ENDING LEGAL FIGHT WITH BILL BARR-LINKED GROUP The committee acknowledged a lawsuit against the recissions from California Attorney General Robert Bonta remains ongoing, but that the intermission does not allow the state to continue enforcing mandates under the nixed waivers. In a June statement announcing the lawsuit, Bonta called the situation “reckless, politically motivated and illegal.” The letter, addressed to Dr. Steven Cliff, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, said the committee had been purportedly made aware of CARB staff denying auto manufacturers’ approval to bring vehicles to market in the state “unless the manufacturers agree to comply with the preempted regulations.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “These efforts include CARB staff indicating that the agency would deny California Executive Orders (EO) for model year 2026 vehicles that meet all of CARB’s enforceable regulatory requirements and which California allowed for sale in model year 2025, on the basis that these vehicles do not meet the additional requirements in one set of the preempted regulations: ACC-II.” The committee further alleges that CARB’s online “repository” spreadsheet of model year 2026 vehicles showed the board has “exclusively approved” vehicles that would certify under the ACC-II green regulations. They closed by demanding documents showing whether CARB is continuing to enforce the car, truck or omnibus regulations Congress undid, and all records from the first of the year onward germane to the regulations and Biden-era waivers. Fox News Digital reached out to CARB and Gov. Gavin Newsom for comment on accusations that the board is discriminating against certain vehicles.
Cuomo proposes ‘Zohran’s law’ to protect rent-stabilized housing from the wealthy
As part of his renewed New York City mayoral campaign, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing “Zohran’s law” to prevent high-income individuals from occupying rent-stabilized apartments. The proposal is a pointed jab at his opponent, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who occupies a rent-stabilized apartment in Astoria, Queens. “Rent-stabilized apartments when they’re vacant should only be rented to people who need affordable housing, not people like Zohran Mamdani,” Cuomo told reporters in a video posted on social media. Cuomo, who resigned as governor of New York in 2021 in the face of multiple controversies, told Mamdani over the weekend that it’s “time to move out.” The former governor’s message, posted on X along with an edited video of Mamdani admitting he pays “$2,300 for my one bedroom in Astoria,” has amassed more than 33 million views. “You don’t need to be renting rent-stabilized units to wealthy people,” he continued. “Otherwise, what you are doing is you are abusing the system. I am going to propose not renting out [rent-stabilized] apartments, by law, except to a person who actually needs affordable housing. And, I’m going to call it ‘Zohran’s law’ because it’s an abuse of the system.” CUOMO CALLS OUT NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE MAMDANI OVER ALLEGED RENT-STABILIZED APARTMENT: ‘MOVE OUT IMMEDIATELY’ Chief among Mamdani’s now-infamous progressive policy proposals is his commitment to freezing rents. “As Mayor, Zohran will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent,” according to Mamdani’s campaign website. SOCIALIST’S NYC MAYORAL WIN SPARKS FIERCE DEBATE OVER FEASIBILITY OF RADICAL POLICY AGENDA Mamdani has accused incumbent Mayor Eric Adams of appointing Rent Guidelines Board members to raise rents on stabilized apartments. While landlords and advocates argue the freeze would be illegal, Mamdani can accomplish this goal by appointing members to the board who wouldn’t vote to increase the rent. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s board voted to freeze the rent three times during his tenure. Cuomo was the favorite to win the Democratic nomination in June. But since Mamdani’s political upset and Cuomo’s subsequent decision to remain in the race as an independent candidate, the former governor has ramped up his social media strategy, opting for snappy videos and punchy attack lines. Cuomo had previously called the democratic socialist’s plan to freeze rent a “politically convenient posture,” and said such a move would hurt landlords who would be “unable to maintain their buildings.” As Cuomo’s fiery social media posts about Mamdani’s rent-controlled apartment made the rounds, de Blasio – who has yet to endorse a candidate in the race to run the nation’s most populous city – fired back at his governor. “I did a rent freeze and almost 2 million hard-working New Yorkers benefited. @ZohranKMamdani wants to do a rent freeze. You know who doesn’t want to do a rent freeze? @andrewcuomo, and he thinks he can trick us into forgetting that,” de Blasio trolled on X. In a prior post, Cuomo told his now more than 100,000 followers that because of Mamdani, “Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter,” and called on him to “move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it.” “No matter which way you cut it: Zohran Mamdani is a rich person. You are actually very rich. Yet you and your wife pay $2,300 a month, as you have bragged, for a nice apartment in Astoria. That should be housing for someone who needs it. We are in the middle of a historic affordability crisis. Millions of low income New Yorkers need this apartment and an apartment like it. Yet your apartment remains rented to rich people who don’t need it,” Cuomo continued. During a campaign event on Monday, Mamdani responded to Cuomo’s freshly proposed law “that will keep the rich out of New York’s affordable housing.” “What do we know about this policy proposal beyond the fact that it seeks to evict me from my apartment?” Mamdani questioned on Monday. “Like so much of Andrew Cuomo’s politics, it is characterized by a petty vindictiveness. It leaves far more questions than it has answers. How many New Yorkers would this apply to? How many New Yorkers would be evicted from their apartments? How many New Yorkers would have their lives upended by a former governor who is responding to the fact that he was handily beaten by a tenant of a rent-stabilized apartment?” Mamdani asked. “I live rent-free in his head,” Mamdani trolled Cuomo, arguing he had many years to implement such policies as governor but is now only focused on trying to reckon with a “political defeat.” Soon after Mamdani’s criticism, the Cuomo campaign unveiled his proposal to protect rent-stabilized apartments from being occupied by high-income individuals. “Under Cuomo’s proposal, when a rent-stabilized apartment becomes vacant, the incoming individual income would be capped so that the annual rent makes up at least 30 percent of that income. For example, if an apartment rents for $2,500 a month ($30,000 per year), the new tenant’s income could not exceed $100,000,” according to the plan. The Cuomo campaign also clarified that “Zohran’s law” would only apply to vacant apartments.
Trump lashes out at Crockett, renews call for cognitive test
President Donald Trump has renewed his call for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, to undergo a cognitive test. “‘Congresswoman’ Jasmine Crockett is a Low (Very!!!) I.Q. Individual, much in the mold of the AOC Plus Three Gang of Country Destroying Morons – Only slightly dumber,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social on Monday. “Each of these political hacks should be forced to take a Cognitive Exam, much like the one I recently took while getting my ‘physical’ at our GREAT Washington, D.C., Military Hospital (WR!),” Trump said. “As the doctors said, ‘President Trump ACED it, something that is rarely seen!’ These Radical Left Lunatics would all fail this test in a spectacular show of stupidity and incompetence. TAKE THE TEST!!! REP. JASMINE CROCKETT CALLS TRUMP A ‘PIECE OF S—‘ DURING LIBERAL RALLY Trump previously said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., should take a cognitive test in June when the progressive “Squad” leader demanded his impeachment over the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Meanwhile, as the White House pushes Republican states to redistrict mid-cycle ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Crockett has accused Trump of pushing a “white supremacy agenda” and “diluting the voices of people of color.” The Trump administration asserts that Democratic states have engaged in “gerrymandering” for years and encouraged illegal immigration to boost their congressional influence. In Texas, Democratic state lawmakers fled the state in an effort to stop the vote on a GOP redistricting plan that likely would have resulted in Republicans picking up five House seats. Crockett has accused Trump of hurling the low IQ insult as a racially-coded tactic to insult “people of color,” including “The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne tha God. TRUMP CHALLENGES AOC AND JASMINE CROCKETT TO INTELLIGENCE TEST AFTER CALLING THEM ‘VERY LOW IQ’ “Newsflash, Wannabe Dictator: I don’t care how many times you shake the Etch A Sketch trying to redraw these lines,” Crockett wrote on X last week. “I’m not disappearing. I’ll be back, still on your behind every step of the way. We’ve already been over this. I’ve got the degrees, the credentials, and the receipts. If you’re looking for ‘low IQ,’ try looking in the mirror – or at your own Cabinet.” Despite the president describing her as having a low IQ, Crockett said Trump has the “most incompetent Cabinet in the history of this country,” referring to the Signal-gate scandal earlier this year. Crockett has also dubbed Trump a “Temu dictator.” At a progressive rally in Phoenix, Arizona, earlier this month, the congresswoman said on stage, “Donald Trump is a piece of s—.” “This is a person who has a problem with people of color. Period,” she told CNN. “I don’t care how many Black MAGA [are] out there with [their] hats, I want to be clear, when we look at who it is that he’s kicking out of this country, it’s people of color.”
IAF releases new video on Operation Sindoor, shows air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan, WATCH here
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has shared a video on X revealing some portion of Operation Sindoor, which India launched in May to hit back Pakistan-based terror camps as an answer to the Pahalgam terror attack.
Gun rights YouTuber Brandon Herrera to challenge U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales again in GOP primary
Herrera, who came within 400 votes of ousting Gonzales in a 2024 runoff, is once again positioning himself to the right of the incumbent.
Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard in DC sparks backlash from residents—but some welcome it
President Donald Trump shared new details on Monday about his plan to take control of public safety in Washington, D.C., following a brutal attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer, but D.C. residents aren’t convinced. – Trump announced on Monday that he is activating the District of Columbia National Guard and seizing control of the Metropolitan Police Department after floating the idea since last week’s assault in Washington’s Logan Circle. Some Washington residents who spoke to Fox News Digital called it a “terrible idea” that “doesn’t make a lot of sense.” “I think D.C. politics should stay with D.C., and, unfortunately, the federal government is apparently overstepping their bounds right now, so I hope that D.C. is allowed to govern itself, as well as police itself,” one Washington resident told Fox News Digital ahead of Trump’s announcement. TRUMP IS THREATENING TO ‘FEDERALIZE’ DC WITH NATIONAL GUARD AND MORE. HERE’S HOW THAT COULD PLAY OUT Trump controversially federalized the California National Guard amid anti-ICE protests that delved into riots in Los Angeles in June. Protesters were rejecting the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations and Trump’s robust immigration crackdown. TRUMP ADMIN CUTTING $20M IN DC SECURITY FUNDING AFTER FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ORDERED TO INCREASE PRESENCE The president bypassed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s authority to deploy National Guard troops to support ICE deportation. It was the first time a president federalized the National Guard in more than 60 years. Now, the tension between local and federal powers is unfolding in the nation’s capital. But just like in California, many Washington residents have concerns about seeing “troops on our streets.” “We have laws for a reason,” one resident told Fox News Digital. “Privatizing security is a terrible idea, and I think anything that Trump does is garbage,” another Washington resident added. Despite their apprehension about National Guard troops patrolling the nation’s capital, many residents said something needs to be done to address crime in Washington, D.C. While the Department of Justice indicated a 30-year low in violent crime last year, concerns about the city’s safety linger, with one resident telling Fox News Digital, “The city is getting dangerous.” “I think it’s a good idea,” one resident said of Trump’s new plan. “It’s something that needs to be done for the city to be safe. Right now, we’re not safe. The kids and the teenagers are doing everything. So yeah, I think that’s a great idea.” And another Washington resident said, “We need all the protection that we can get in the city, because the city is really getting dangerous,” telling Fox News Digital that she has to “make sure to come home before sundown” and she is afraid of getting robbed when she gets off public transportation. “Things do seem out of control and desperate, but I don’t know what kind of numbers to take, what numbers to read. One minute they’ll say crime is out of control. Next minute, they will say crime is down a certain percentage. It’s kind of confusing, and I don’t know who to believe in and which way to go, to be honest,” a Washington resident said, articulating the dichotomy between the low crime statistics and the alarming crime stories. But another D.C. resident said, “There’s no way he should be in control of anything,” and Washington, D.C., “should be a state,” so the district has more power to make decisions for itself. “I don’t think it’s necessary,” another Washington resident added. “I do think there needs to be some change within [the] Metropolitan [Police Department] because safety is an issue.” She added: “It needs to be localized.” Fox News Digital’s Diana Stacy contributed to this report.
Pirro calls out DC laws letting ‘young punks’ off the hook for violent crimes
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., vowed to “change the laws” in D.C. to crack down on what she described as a surge of young people committing violent crimes in the nation’s capital — part of a broader effort President Donald Trump announced Monday that includes deploying hundreds of National Guard troops and temporarily seizing control of D.C. police. Speaking at a White House press briefing Monday, Pirro lamented the share of crime in D.C. she said is being committed by so-called “young punks” in the city, whom she said are often granted probation or other lenient sentences due to their age. “That changes today,” Pirro vowed, flanked by President Trump and other Cabinet members. TRUMP IS THREATENING TO ‘FEDERALIZE’ DC WITH NATIONAL GUARD AND MORE. HERE’S HOW THAT COULD PLAY OUT “I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the [heck] out of you or anyone else,” Pirro said. “They don’t care where they are.” “But they know that we can’t touch them, because the laws are weak,” she said. “I can’t touch you if you’re 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, and you have a gun.” “We need to go after the DC Council and their absurd laws. We need to get rid of this concept of ‘no cash bail,’” she said. “We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens,” Pirro added. “And it starts today.” FBI OUSTS FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, AGENT INVOLVED IN J6 PROSECUTIONS, WITH MORE EXPECTED Pirro’s remarks came during a broader press conference during which Trump also vowed to deploy hundreds of D.C. National Guard troops into the nation’s capital, in a bid to “reestablish law order and public safety” in D.C. Trump vowed on Truth Social just one day earlier to evict homeless persons from that nation’s capital. “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on social media. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong,” he said on Truth Social. Violent crime in Washington, D.C., is currently down to a 30-year low.
EU holds talks amid fear that Trump-Putin meeting will sideline Ukraine
The talks come ahead of a landmark meeting between the presidents of the US and Russia in Alaska on Friday. European foreign ministers are holding emergency talks to discuss their next steps before a meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, as Europe fears Ukraine will be excluded and forced into unacceptable territorial compromises to end the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fourth year. In a pre-US-Russia summit push aimed at consensus, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the NATO secretary general and several European leaders to a virtual meeting on Wednesday. The European Union’s top diplomats held a meeting by video link on Monday with their Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha. “The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine,” leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Finland, and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement ahead of the call. Zelenskyy said on Monday that concessions to Moscow would not persuade it to stop fighting and that there was a need to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin. “Concessions do not persuade a killer,” he said. Zelenskyy insists he will never consent to any Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory nor give up his country’s bid for NATO membership. European leaders have also underscored their commitment to the idea that international borders cannot be changed by force. The EU has insisted that Kyiv and European powers should be part of any deal. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said “the US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously”, but “any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security.” Advertisement Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday said that the US had pledged to consult with Europe ahead of the summit. “I will wait… for the effects of the meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin – I have many fears and a lot of hope,” he said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also expressed support for Trump’s efforts to end the war with Ukraine, as long as the terms for ending the war are not dictated. “Any peace must be built with Ukraine, not imposed upon it, and we will not reward aggression or compromise sovereignty. Ukraine will decide its own future, and we will support it every step of the way,” he said. Trump announced last week that he would meet Putin in Alaska on Friday to try to resolve the ongoing conflict. The meeting will be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since 2021. The US president is reportedly open to inviting Zelenskyy to Alaska, but there has been no confirmation as of yet. Putin has insisted the conditions must be right for him and the Ukrainian leader to meet in person. Aerial assaults intensifying In the meantime, aerial exchanges have intensified with diplomatic momentum to end the war in play, with Ukraine claiming to have hit a facility that produces missile components in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region. Local authorities said one person was killed in the attack and two were wounded. An official told Reuters that at least four drones hit the Arzamas manufacturing plant producing control systems and other components for Russian X-32 and X-101 missiles. The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence units destroyed a total of 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 12 over the Tula region, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. The ministry also said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Lunacharske in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which Ukraine renamed Fedorivka in 2016. Russia carried out several deadly attacks in various Ukrainian locations over the weekend, including in the fiercely contested areas of Kherson and Zaporizhia. Adblock test (Why?)
Here are the names of the journalists Israel killed in Gaza
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, 28, has been killed along with four of his colleagues in a deliberate Israeli attack on a media tent sheltering journalists outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. Al Jazeera reporter Hani al-Shaer said an Israeli drone hit the tent about 11:35pm (20:35 GMT) on Sunday. In total, seven people were killed in the attack, including Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, 33, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, 25; Mohammed Noufal, 29; and Moamen Aliwa, 23. [Al Jazeera] Israel deliberately kills Al Jazeera journalists This is not the first time Israel has targeted Al Jazeera journalists covering the war in Gaza. Before Sunday night’s attack, at least five Al Jazeera journalists had been killed by Israel. [Al Jazeera] On December 14, 2023, Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa was targeted by an Israeli air strike while reporting alongside Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, who was injured in the same attack. Abudaqa was left to bleed to death at the Farhana school in Khan Younis, where they were filming, as emergency workers were blocked by the Israeli military from reaching the site. On January 7, 2024, Wael’s eldest son and fellow Al Jazeera journalist, Hamza Dahdouh, was killed in a missile strike on the vehicle he was travelling in in Khan Younis. On July 31, 2024, Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli attack on the Shati refugee camp despite their vehicle bearing clear media markings and both wearing vests identifying themselves as members of the news media. People inspect a vehicle in which Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed by an Israeli strike on July 31, 2024 [Ayman Al Hassi/Reuters] On December 15, Israel killed Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed al-Louh in an air strike in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp. Mourners attend the funeral of Ahmed al-Louh, a video journalist for Al Jazeera, and members of the Palestinian Civil Defence who were killed in an Israeli strike on a civil emergency centre in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip [Ramadan Abed/Reuters] On March 24, Hossam Shabat, 23, was killed in an Israeli attack in the eastern part of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. [Al Jazeera] Gaza: The deadliest war for journalists Israel’s war on Gaza has been the single deadliest conflict for journalists. Advertisement According to Brown University’s Costs of War project, more journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, than in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan – combined. [Al Jazeera] According to Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, 2024 was the deadliest year for journalists with more than 120 killed. Since the start of this year, more than 50 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza. Targeting journalists is a war crime Al Jazeera has condemned the targeted killing of its correspondents as “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom”, noting that al-Sharif and his colleagues were among the last voices reporting from inside Gaza as international media remained barred by Israel. The Palestinian mission to the United Nations accused Israel of “deliberately assassinating” al-Sharif and Qreiqeh, saying they “systematically exposed and documented Israel’s genocide and starvation”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson called for an investigation and stressed that journalists everywhere must be allowed to work without fear of being targeted. Amnesty International condemned the killings as a war crime and honoured al-Sharif as a “brave and extraordinary” reporter, noting he received the Human Rights Defender Award in 2024 for his commitment to press freedom. Al Jazeera Media Network condemns the targeted assassination of its correspondents Anas Al Sharif and Mohammeel Qraiqea, along with photographers Ibrahim Al Thaher, and Mohamed Nofal, by Israeli forces.#JournalismIsNotACrime pic.twitter.com/F3p9PbhGZF — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 11, 2025 Every month, 13 journalists are killed in Gaza Nearly 270 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza in 22 months of war – or about 13 journalists every month – according to a tally by Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022. What makes this statistic even more stark is that Gaza is losing voices on the ground at a time when Israel has banned international media from entering the besieged enclave. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said the killings of journalists and their detentions since October 7, 2023, have created a news void that will cause potential war crimes to go undocumented. Advertisement In June, the RSF, CPJ and news organisations published an open letter stating that many Palestinian journalists who have been relied on by reporters outside Gaza have faced a plethora of threats and many “face constant threats to their lives for doing their jobs: bearing witness”. The targeting of reporters has continued ever since despite international condemnation of Israel’s actions. In a statement, Amnesty International said: “Israel isn’t just assassinating journalists but attacking journalism itself by preventing the documentation of genocide.” The names of the journalists and media workers killed in Israel’s war on Gaza are listed below: [Al Jazeera] Adblock test (Why?)
Norway wealth fund divests from several Israeli companies due to Gaza war
The world’s largest fund has divested its stakes in 11 Israeli companies and is reviewing more. Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund says it is terminating all contracts with asset managers handling its Israeli investments and has divested parts of its portfolio. The announcement on Monday came after an urgent review launched last week after media reports said the fund had built a stake in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel’s military, including the maintenance of fighter jets, as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the Palestinian population rages. The fund, an arm of Norway’s central bank and the world’s largest, held stakes in 61 Israeli companies as of June 30 but in recent days divested stakes in 11 of these, it said in a statement. “We have now completely sold out of these positions,” the fund said, adding that it is continuing to review Israeli companies for potential divestments. “These measures were taken in response to extraordinary circumstances. The situation in Gaza is a serious humanitarian crisis,” Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, said in a statement. “We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence.” The fund stated that it has “long paid particular attention to companies associated with war and conflict”. “We constantly monitor companies’ risk management related to conflict zones and respect for human rights,” it said. The Norwegian government began its review after Aftenposten, the country’s leading newspaper, revealed that the fund had a stake in Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd (BSEL), which provides parts to Israeli fighter jets that are being deployed in the war on Gaza. Advertisement Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had said at the time that the investment was “worrying”. The sovereign fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, has sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecommunications group in the past year. In June, Norway’s largest pension fund also decided to sever its ties with companies doing business with Israel. That same month, however, Norway’s parliament rejected a proposal for the fund to divest from all companies with activities in occupied Palestinian territory. Several of Europe’s biggest financial firms have cut back their links to Israeli companies or those with ties to the country, according to an analysis of filings by the Reuters news agency, as pressure mounts from activists and governments to end the war in Gaza. Last month, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, called on countries to cut off all trade and financial ties with Israel, including a full arms embargo, and withdraw international support for what she termed an “economy of genocide”. In a report titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, Albanese detailed “the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory”. The report singled out companies – including arms manufacturers, technology giants, heavy machinery companies and financial institutions – for their “complicity” in Israel’s repression of Palestinians from sustaining Israeli expansions onto occupied land to enabling the surveillance and killings of Palestinians. Adblock test (Why?)