International
Republican lawmaker hits Kamala Harris with articles of impeachment
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Republican lawmaker hits Kamala Harris with articles of impeachment
Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles has filed articles of impeachment of Vice President Kamala Harris over her handling of the southern border and for her insistence that Joe Biden was fit for the top of the Democratic ticket.
Harris has faced GOP attacks from all sides since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Republicans have accused her of ‘covering up’ the president’s cognitive decline and demanded she invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Biden.
The first article of impeachment, ‘willful refusal to uphold the immigration laws,’ stems from her alleged ‘inaction’ with border security and immigration law as ‘border czar.’ The second article of impeachment, ‘breach of public trust,’ alleges that Harris ‘knowingly misled’ the public and Congress about ‘the physical and cognitive well-being’ of Biden.
Since Biden stepped down from the presidential race, Republicans have again begun to paint Harris as Biden’s ‘border czar’ – under an administration that saw record border crossings.
Biden appointed Harris early in his administration to deal with the ‘root causes’ of immigration.
And calls for the 25th Amendment have swelled as Biden hit out in Delaware for 6 days with a Covid-19 diagnosis and the biggest decision of his lifetime weighing over his head. The president ultimately acquiesced to public pressure and stepped down from the running for 2024 on Sunday, nearly a month after his disastrous debate performance.
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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, first filed a resolution just after the debate to call on Harris ‘to convene the Cabinet and declare President Joe Biden as unable to carry out his duties as Commander-in-Chief.’
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Monday he was still considering whether to put the resolution on the House floor.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has called for Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment and on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment for the vice president failing to uphold border laws.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote a letter to every one of Biden’s Cabinet members urging them to invoke the 25th Amendment.
‘If President Biden is willing to admit he is unable to continue to stand as the Democratic Party nominee for President after the primary process due to his health, he is unable to continue to serve as President until January 20, 2025,’ Schmitt said in the letters.
Democrats have scoffed at the notion.
‘That’s a Jim Crow-era tactic,’ Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., told DailyMail.com.
‘Let the American people speak. Let’s go and vote. And I think it should also talk about whether or not a person that’s been convicted as a felon has the right to go into public housing, which is the White House.’
‘Totally stupid,’ Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Rep. Ted Lieu told DailyMail.com of the tactic. ‘He has done a phenomenal job as president, he’s going to continue doing a phenomenal job as president. The fact that he chose not to run for reelection has nothing to do with him being president right now.’
The fact that their calls will likely fall on deaf ears within the Cabinet did not deter Republicans.
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‘We cannot have a Commander in Chief in charge of the nuclear codes who is experiencing the level of cognitive decline that we see in President Biden,’ said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., in calling for the 25th Amendment.
‘The 25th amendment looks pretty good right about now,’ Rep. Nancy Mace, R-N.C., said on X in response to a clip of Biden caught on camera for the first time in six days.
‘She lied then, and she will lie again. Joe Biden is unfit to run for President and, therefore, unfit to serve as President, yet Vice President Harris lied to the American people and covered it up. We must immediately invoke the 25th Amendment,’ wrote Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., on X.
Congress cannot invoke the 25th Amendment – the Cabinet and vice president must agree to do that. The resolution would simply turn up pressure on them to so.
Still, the prospect of such a drastic step seems to have little opposition from even moderate Republicans.
‘It’s a sad situation and I feel bad for the president,’ Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., told DailyMail.com. ‘I just hope he’s able to govern.
‘I think it’s perfectly reasonable for somebody to ask if the president’s not fit to run as fit to govern,’ said Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.
‘I do think the president is much diminished from even just a couple of years ago. So I think clearly the reason we have a 25th amendment is so that those within the administration closest to the president can assess whether or not he is up to the job and I would certainly hope that assessment is ongoing.’
Republican lawmaker hits Kamala Harris with articles of impeachment
International
UN investigator accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Displaced-Palestinian-children-gather-to-receive-food-at-a-government-school-in-Rafah-in-the-southern-Gaza-Strip-on-February-.jpg)
UN investigator accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza
UNITED NATIONS: The UN independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, an allegation that Israel vehemently denies.
In a report this week, investigator Michael Fakhri claimed it began two days after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people, when Israel’s military offensive in response blocked all food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said accusations of Israel limiting humanitarian aid were “outrageously false.”
“A deliberate starvation policy? You can say anything — it doesn’t make it true,” he said in a press conference Wednesday.
Following intense international pressure — especially from close ally the United States — Netanyahu’s government gradually has opened several border crossings for tightly controlled deliveries. Fakhri said limited aid initially went mostly to southern and central Gaza, not to the north where Israel had ordered Palestinians to go.
A professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, Fakhri was appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council as the investigator, or special rapporteur, on the right to food and assumed the role in 2020.
“By December, Palestinians in Gaza made up 80 percent of the people in the world experiencing famine or catastrophic hunger,” Fakhri said. “Never in post-war history had a population been made to go hungry so quickly and so completely as was the case for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.”
Fakhri, who teaches law courses on human rights, food law and development, made the allegations in a report to the UN General Assembly circulated Thursday.
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He claims it goes back 76 years to Israeli’s independence and its continuous dislocation of Palestinians. Since then, he accused Israel of deploying “the full range of techniques of hunger and starvation against the Palestinians, perfecting the degree of control, suffering and death that it can cause through food systems.”
Since the war in Gaza began, Fakhri said he has received direct reports of the destruction of the territory’s food system, including farmland and fishing, which also has been documented and recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and others.
“Israel then used humanitarian aid as a political and military weapon to harm and kill the Palestinian people in Gaza,” he claimed.
Israel insists it no longer places restrictions on the number of aid trucks entering Gaza, including food.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Netanyahu cited figures from COGAT, Israel’s military body overseeing aid entry into Gaza, that 700,000 tons of food items had been allowed into Gaza since the war began 11 months ago.
Nearly half of that food aid in recent months has been brought in by the private sector for sale in Gaza’s markets, according to COGAT figures. However, many Palestinians in Gaza say they struggle to afford enough food for their families.
Israel allows trucks of aid through two small crossings in the north and one main crossing in the south, Kerem Shalom. However, since Israel’s invasion of the southern city of Rafah in May, the UN and other aid agencies say they struggle to reach the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom to retrieve the aid for free distribution because Israel’s military operations make it too dangerous.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the humanitarian situation in Gaza “beyond catastrophic,” with more than 1 million Palestinians not receiving any food rations in August and a 35 percent drop in people getting daily cooked meals.
The UN humanitarian office attributed the sharp reduction in cooked meals partly to multiple evacuation orders from Israeli security forces that forced at least 70 of 130 kitchens to either suspend or relocate their operations, he said Thursday. The UN’s humanitarian partners also lacked sufficient food supplies to meet requirements for the second straight month in central and southern Gaza, Dujarric added.
He said critical shortages of supplies in Gaza are stem from hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, and Israeli obstacles and access limitations.
UN investigator accuses Israel of starvation campaign in Gaza
ARAB NEWS
International
Protesters rally in France against new PM appointment
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Protesters rally in France against new PM appointment
Protests are taking place across France over the nomination of right-wing Michel Barnier as the new prime minister, after an inconclusive election in which the left won the largest number of seats.
More than 100 protests are expected to take place on Saturday, with people already on the streets in cities including Bordeaux, Nice and Le Mans.
The demonstrations were called by trade unions and left-wing political parties, whose own candidate for prime minister was rejected by President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, said he is open to forming a government with politicians across the political spectrum, including the left.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a veteran firebrand from the radical France Unbowed party, called for the “most powerful mobilisation possible” in national marches.
Around 130 protests are being held, with the biggest setting out from central Paris this afternoon. Other cities staging protests include Marseille and Lyon.
The demonstrators are using slogans such as “denial of democracy” and “stolen election”.
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Parties on the left are angry that their own candidate for prime minister, Lucie Castets, was rejected by Mr Macron, who said she had no chance of surviving a vote of confidence in the National Assembly.
Mr Barnier may be able to survive a confidence vote because the far right, which also won a large number of seats, has said it won’t automatically vote against him.
However, that has led to criticism that his government will be dependent on the far right.
Ms Castets said she – like millions of French voters – felt betrayed and that the president had in effect ended up governing with the far right.
“We have a prime minister completely dependent on National Rally,” she added.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the protests, Mr Barnier is focussed on forming a new government.
After talks with the leaders of the right-wing Republicans and the president’s centrist Ensemble group, he said discussions were going very well and were “full of energy”.
Some on the left have blamed themselves for ending up with Mr Barnier as prime minister.
Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo pointed out that the president had considered former Socialist prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, for the job but that he had been turned down by his own party.
Another Socialist Mayor, Karim Bouamrane, blamed intransigence from other parts of the left alliance: “The path they chose was 100% or nothing – and here we are with nothing.”
Protesters rally in France against new PM appointment
BBC
International
Man who attacked judge in court pleads ‘guilty but mentally ill’
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Man who attacked judge in court pleads ‘guilty but mentally ill’
Deobra Redden, the man caught on video attacking a judge during an attempted battery conviction, has pled guilty with a significant caveat—he has been declared “guilty but mentally ill.”
In a statement released on Friday, September 6, by Redden’s lawyers at CEGA Law Group, they emphasized that their client acknowledges the severity of his actions and is seeking mental health treatment as part of his sentencing. The legal team is pushing for mental health reform and hopes Redden’s case will help spotlight the need for improvements in the system.
The attorneys expressed sympathy for Judge Mary Kay Holthus, the judge who was attacked, and thanked the Clark County District Attorney’s Office for working towards a resolution.
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The shocking courtroom incident, which was caught on video, shows Redden leaping over the judge’s bench as Judge Holthus was delivering his sentence for an earlier conviction. Holthus had made a comment about Redden “getting a taste of something else” before he ran towards her. Despite the chaos, the judge only sustained minor injuries after hitting her head.
Redden was quickly restrained and appeared in court days later, wearing a facemask and hand covers, where he was sentenced to 19-48 months behind bars for the attempted battery conviction.
Redden’s sentencing for the judge attack is set for November 7. His legal team is advocating for mental health treatment to be central to his punishment.
Man who attacked judge in court pleads ‘guilty but mentally ill’
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