Friday, October 27, 2023.Annette’s News Eoundup.
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Joe is always busy.
from the President -
Once again, our nation mourns after another senseless and tragic mass shooting.
Today, Jill and I pray for the Americans in Maine who’ve lost their lives, those in critical care, and the families, survivors, and community members enduring shock and grief.
Here's my statement:
One more thing.
Rep. Jared Golden reverses on assault weapons ban.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a conservative Democrat, reversed his previously held opposition and said on Thursday that he now supports an assault weapons ban following a mass shooting in his state.
“I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” Golden said at a news conference in Lewiston, Maine. “The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles.”
Golden said he would work with “any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.”
His reversal won immediate praise from fellow Democrats, including those who have called for tight gun restrictions.
“Powerful, brave, and moving. This is leadership,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on X.
He spoke alongside a fellow moderate, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who called for a ban on “very high-capacity magazines — I think that would have more input and more effectiveness.”
“There’s always more that we can do,” she said.
Officials have said at least 18 people were killed in a series of mass shootings Wednesday in the area. Law enforcement officers had surrounded a house near Bowdoin, Maine, on Thursday night and were calling for anyone inside to surrender. (Politico).
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Kamala is always busy.
Update on Hamas.
Doesn’t sound like peace seekers to me.
■ A Hamas delegation is currently visiting Moscow, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Russia says it held talks in Qatar with Hamas representatives regarding the hostages held in Gaza. The deputy chief of Hamas' political wing, Saleh al-Arouri, said that senior Hamas officials have met with Hezbollah Secretary General Nasrallah on the day the deadly assault was launched. (Haaretz, the Israeli English newspaper).
Hamas leaders arrive in Moscow as the Kremlin attempts to showcase clout.
The meetings with high-ranking members of the group that attacked Israel underscored how Russia is trying to present itself as an alternative platform for possible mediation.
A group of high-ranking members of Hamas arrived in Moscow on Thursday, meeting with a senior Russian official in what looked like an affront to the West aimed at demonstrating how the Kremlin still holds sway over key players in the bloody conflict in the Middle East.
A deputy foreign minister of Iran, another major power in the unfolding conflict, was also in Moscow on Thursday, meeting with his Russian counterpart.
The meetings highlighted how, despite a slow start, Russia is trying to retain the role of an important power broker in the Middle East, presenting itself as an alternative platform for possible mediation. They also underscored President Vladimir V. Putin’s vision of international conflicts as an extension of the grand collision between Western states and the rest of the world, with Moscow at the forefront of that fight.
But by conducting a meeting with Hamas members, Moscow also engaged in a balancing act, further risking its already fragile relationship with Israel. On Thursday, the Israeli foreign ministry called Russia’s decision to invite the Hamas delegation “a reprehensible step that gives support to terrorism and legitimacy to the horrific acts of Hamas terrorists.” The ministry called on Russia to immediately expel the Hamas officials.
The delegation of the Palestinian military group was led by Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, who met with Mikhail Bogdanov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Hamas said in a statement.
The two sides have discussed the release of foreign hostages from the Gaza Strip, the Russian foreign ministry said, according to RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency. They also discussed the evacuation of Russians and other foreigners from the region. In its statement, Hamas praised Mr. Putin’s position on the conflict and the active efforts of Russian diplomacy.
Since Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, Russia has kept a conspicuous distance from the conflict. Days after, in his first comments about the war, Mr. Putin called it “a clear example of the United States’ failed policy in the Middle East.”
In subsequent comments, Mr. Putin continued to accuse the United States of monopolizing the efforts to resolve the conflict and of neglecting the fundamental political issues that are preventing its resolution. He also called for an immediate cease-fire and the resumption of talks in the framework of the U.N.-approved two-state solution to the conflict.
But as the United States engaged in an intense flurry of talks with regional powers, presenting itself as the main power broker in the Middle East, Russia risked its assumed role as one of the major international powers with enough clout to be relevant in all major crises.
Recently, Russia has been trying to catch up. Last week, Mr. Putin called all major leaders in the region, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Mr. Bogdanov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, met with Hamas leadership in Qatar this week, according to Tass, the Russian state news agency. The meetings in Moscow on Thursday built on these efforts.
Alexandra Appelberg, an editor with the Detaly news outlet in Israel, said that “Russia is trying to demonstrate that the West’s plan to isolate it following the invasion of Ukraine has failed and that it plays an important role.”
According to Ms. Appelberg, Russia has “practically no real levers” that can allow Moscow to influence the situation, but that it might want to “raise its prestige in the Arab world.”
Russia has historically capitalized on its ability to speak to all major parties in the ongoing conflict. One year after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Mr. Putin met with Khaled Meshaal, then the group’s leader, in Moscow. Despite its own traumatic history with terrorism, Russia has never designated Hamas as a terrorist group.
During a meeting with Russian religious leaders in the Kremlin on Thursday, Mr. Putin offered his condolences to Israeli citizens and said that Russia “knows firsthand what international terrorism is all about.”
But he also criticized Israel, saying that “the fight against terrorism cannot be conducted on the notorious principle of collective responsibility resulting in the deaths of the elderly, women, children, entire families.”
Mr. Bogdanov also met with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri Kani, on Thursday. In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said that the two sides acknowledged the need “to stop armed hostilities in the Gaza Strip and around it.” (New York Times).
Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders met to plot a path to ‘victory.’
A photo released by Hezbollah’s news media office shows Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, right; Ziad Nakhale, the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, center; and Saleh Al-Arouri, the deputy chief of Hamas, at an undisclosed location
Leaders from Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — the three primary Iran-backed groups currently fighting Israel — met to discuss what the alliance must do to achieve “a real victory for the resistance” amid this “sensitive stage” in the Middle East, Hezbollah said on Wednesday.
In a photo of the meeting released by Hezbollah’s news media arm, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the Lebanese militant group and political party; Saleh Al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas; and Ziad Nakhale, the secretary-general of Islamic Jihad, sit beneath framed portraits of Iran’s supreme leaders.
Hezbollah did not specify when the meeting took place, but it served as the latest evidence of deepening ties between the three militant groups. The deliberate symbolism in the photo was also readily apparent. Beneath the portraits, a bust of the Dome of the Rock, the Islamic shrine that is a widely recognized symbol of Jerusalem, can be seen adorned with a keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
A framed image of a Quranic verse is also visible. It reads: “They will not fight you all except within fortified cities or from behind walls.”
In recent years, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have sought to reforge an alliance after a period of colder relations between Hezbollah and Hamas, when the two armed groups backed opposing sides in the Syrian civil war.
Although scarce, the details of the meeting released on Wednesday come as tensions have risen on the Israel-Lebanon border and amid fears of a broader conflict that would draw in supporters of Hamas, which Israel aims to eradicate as part of an anticipated ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
If Israel pushes ahead with its stated goal of attempting to dismantle Hamas, analysts believe this may constitute one of Hezbollah’s so-called red lines with Israel. If Hezbollah feels pushed to act and enter into a war with Israel, the human cost would most likely be catastrophic. (New York Times).
One more thing.
Violence in the Middle East seems to be spreading.
US strikes back at Iranian-backed groups that attacked troops in Iraq, Syria: Pentagon - ABC News
U.S. military aircraft have carried out strikes in eastern Syria against facilities associated with Iranian-backed militant groups believed to be responsible for more than a dozen rocket and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria that injured 21 service members, the military said Thursday night.
"Today, at President Biden's direction, U.S. military forces conducted self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups," said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a statement.
"These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," he said.
"The President has no higher priority than the safety of U.S. personnel, and he directed today's action to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests," he added.
The retaliatory operations were carried out at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, in the wake of Hamas' terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and U.S. concerns about preventing that conflict from enveloping the rest of the region.
"The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin continued. "Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran's proxies against U.S. forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."
America has deployed two aircraft carriers as well as additional fighter squadrons and air defense systems to the Middle East to deter Iran or Hezbollah, the Iran-sponsored militant group that operates in southern Lebanon, from getting involved by launching a wider assault on Israel.
Senior U.S. officials have publicly blamed Iran for the more than 16 drone and rocket attacks on military bases in Iraq and Syria over the past week, which the U.S. believes have been carried out by Iranian-backed militant groups.
Twenty-one service members have been injured, according to the Pentagon's latest information. Officials said all of those troops returned to duty after experiencing minor injuries or traumatic brain injuries, but an American civilian contractor died from a cardiac arrest that occurred during one of the attacks.
On Oct. 19, a U.S. Navy destroyer shot down four medium-range missiles and 15 drones that officials said were fired by Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen that the Pentagon believed could have been headed toward Israel.
The American troops in Iraq and Syria are stationed on a handful of bases equipped with weapons systems to help prevent rocket and drone attacks that have been historically carried out by militants sponsored by Iran.
The U.S. has previously responded to these attacks with airstrikes targeting the proxy groups, most recently in March.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden stressed that the U.S. reserves the right to retaliate.
"My warning to the ayatollah [is] that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared," Biden told reporters, referring to Iran's supreme leader.
Pentagon officials have also reaffirmed that the U.S. was not ruling out the possibility of a military response.
"I think we've been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas as it relates to these groups," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters earlier on Thursday.
Ryder pinned the blame for the recent attacks in Iraq and Syria on fighters supported by Iran and held Iran responsible but he said he wasn't going to telegraph any potential U.S. military response -- "other than to say we would do so at a time and place of our choosing."
Amid the unfolding war between Israel and Hamas, the U.S. has surged military assets to the Middle East both in support of Israel's response to Hamas and as a deterrent to other countries, like Iran and their proxies, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
"We're concerned about potential escalation. In fact, what we're seeing is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region," Austin told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
The U.S. has also sought to tamp down fears that the war could spiral out -- in the kind of escalation not seen in the Middle East in decades.
"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran. We do not want this war to widen," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. "But if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake: We will defend our people, we will defend our security -- swiftly and decisively." (ABC News).
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Meet Mike Johnson, MAGA House Speaker,again.
During the Louisiana Family Forum’s Pastor’s briefing following the 2016 Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Baton Rouge, then-state Rep. Mike Johnson was prayed over by a group of pastors. At the time, Johnson had filed in the state legislature the "Pastor Protection Act," a bill that would have provided a simple protection for pastors — prevent the state from forcing religious leaders to participate in same-sex wedding ceremonies.
From Pulitzer Prize Winner, @DavidCayJohnston on X.
.@HouseGOP members praying on the House floor offends both our Constitution and the New Testament, which denounces public displays of devotion.
The blasphemy of the new Speaker, who says God ordained him, is just as disgusting.
One more thing. Or two.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with the President at the White House yesterday.
Speaker Mike Johnson tonight: “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”
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Our neighbor to the North embraces fairness.
Canada to have first majority-female supreme court following nomination.
Canada’s supreme court.
Justin Trudeau has nominated the Alberta judge Mary Moreau to Canada’s top court, setting up the first majority-female bench in the supreme court’s 148-year history.
The naming of Moreau will give Canada’s top court five female judges and four male judges. Moreau was most recently the chief justice of Alberta’s superior court, and has worked in that court for 29 years. She will fill a vacancy on the supreme court created by the resignation of Russell Brown in June.
Mary Simon is Inuk, and speaks English and Inuktitut but not French.
Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Moreau has practiced criminal law, constitutional law and civil litigation after studying at the University of Alberta and the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec.
“A glass ceiling shattered,” Canada’s justice minister, Arif Virani, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, noting that Moreau’s appointment will give the supreme court bench a majority of women for the first time in its history.
Trudeau has made Canada’s top court more diverse with his recent appointments. In June 2021, Mahmud Jamal became the first judge of color to sit on the supreme court, and a year later Michelle O’Bonsawin became the first Indigenous person to join it.
“Throughout her impressive judicial career, Mary T Moreau has remained dedicated to fairness and excellence – and that’s why, today, I’m announcing her nomination to the supreme court of Canada,” Trudeau tweeted.
Eligible candidates were shortlisted by an independent, nonpartisan advisory board and handed to Trudeau, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
The candidates needed to have the ability to work in both official languages, English and French. To fill the current vacancy, the appointment needed to be from western Canada or northern Canada to meet regional representation requirements.(The Guardian).
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Hey, look who had a birthday yesterday.
Happy 76th birthday, Madame Secretary.
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