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An Israeli strike on a school in Gaza killed at least 30 Palestinians on Saturday and injured over 100 more. Thousands of Palestinians had been seeking shelter at the school in Deir al-Balah. Many of the victims were children. Survivors decried the Israeli attack.
Umm Ahmed Hamdia: “Since November, we are here, nothing happened. Today they targeted us with missiles. We don’t know where to go. There is no safe place. They tell us, 'Go east,' then west. We don’t know where to go. The schools are not safe, the tents are not safe, and the houses are not safe. Where should we go? I’m going to sit in the middle of the street.”
On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis killed 10 people, including a 4-month-old baby girl.
Israel has issued new orders for Palestinians to flee the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps. According to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, 86% of the Gaza Strip is now under evacuation orders, leaving Palestinians with no safe place to go.
On Sunday, thousands of members of the Druze community in the occupied Golan Heights gathered for funerals of 12 children and teenagers killed in a rocket strike on a soccer field Saturday. Israel blamed the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for the strike, but Hezbollah denied the claim. Axios reports Hezbollah officials have told the United Nations that the deaths were caused by an Israeli anti-rocket interceptor projectile. The deaths occurred in the town of Majdal Shams in a part of Syria which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Diplomats fear the strike could spark a broader regional war.
On Sunday, Israel’s Security Cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to decide on the “manner and timing” of a military response. Netanyahu responded to the deaths in the Golan Heights by blocking the evacuation of 150 sick children in Gaza who were scheduled to receive treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council has declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of Sunday’s election, giving him a third term in office. But the opposition is rejecting the official results. According to the Electoral Council, early results show Maduro received about 51%, while opposition candidate Edmundo González received 44%. This is Maduro speaking from Caracas.
President Nicolás Maduro: “In this new term you’ve given me, in this new term you’ve given to yourselves, I swear I’ll give my whole life to carry out all the changes and transformations our country needs to head for a destiny of prosperity, a destiny of growth, of peace, of social happiness, to rescue all the rights violated by the economic war and imperialist missiles.”
A delegation from the National Lawyers Guild said they found the election to be “fair and transparent,” but Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo González rejected the official results.
Edmundo González: “What happened during today’s polling day was a violation of all rules, to the point that the majority of electoral registers have still not been handed over. Our message of reconciliation and peaceful change still stands. We are convinced most Venezuelans also want this. Our struggle continues, and we won’t rest until the will of the people of Venezuela is respected.”
González joined the race after the Venezuelan government barred opposition leader María Corina Machado from running. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the U.S. government had “serious concerns” about the Venezuelan election results.
Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met their Japanese counterparts and announced a new deal to establish a new military command headquarters in Japan to counter China.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: “The United States will upgrade the U.S. Forces Japan to a joint force headquarters with expanded missions and operational responsibilities. Now, this will be the most significant change to U.S. Forces Japan since its creation and one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years.”
In Bangladesh, authorities restored communications over the weekend after an 11-day blackout in response to student protests against government job quotas. The protests were met with a violent crackdown, with over 200 killed. But some students say they will resume demonstrations despite the rollback of the contested quotas, until leaders of the protest movement are freed. Local media say police arrested at least 9,000 protesters. People are also demanding accountability for those who were killed.
Shahida Begum: “My nephew was an innocent kid. Why did they kill him in such a brutal way? He was only a high school student.”
Human Rights Watch has accused warring parties in Sudan’s civil war, particularly the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, of committing widespread sexual violence, including gang rape and forcing women and girls into marriages in the capital Khartoum. Human Rights Watch also accuses both the RSF and the Sudanese military of committing war crimes by attacking healthcare workers and healthcare facilities. On Saturday, RSF forces attacked the Darfur city of El Fasher, killing 22 people.
Donald Trump is facing new criticism after suggesting that the 2024 election could be the nation’s last election if he wins in November. Trump made the comment in Florida at Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit.
Donald Trump: “Christians, get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You got to get out and vote. In four years you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
Donald Trump’s running mate Senator JD Vance has doubled down on his remarks that the Democratic Party is being led by what he called “childless cat ladies.” Vance made the original comment on “The Tucker Carlson Show” in 2021.
JD Vance: “We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, be it via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it’s just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
On Friday, JD Vance appeared on “The Megyn Kelly Show” and defended his remarks.
Sen. JD Vance: “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats. I’ve got nothing against dogs. And I’ve got one dog at home, and I love him, Megyn. But, look, this is not — people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said. And the substance of what I said, Megyn, I’m sorry, it’s true.”
In other election news, Kamala Harris has announced her presidential campaign raised more than $200 million over the past week — that’s more than President Biden had raised in the first three months of the year when he was still running for reelection. Meanwhile, some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, are openly pushing Harris to fire Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who has led Biden’s antitrust efforts. Hoffman sits on the board of Microsoft, which was sued by the FTC.
President Biden has called for major reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court, including 18-year term limits, an enforceable code of ethics and a constitutional amendment that would bar immunity for presidents who committed crimes while in office. In a new op-ed for The Washington Post, Biden also cited the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade by the far-right court. The president did not, however, call for expanding the Supreme Court, which many Democrats and judicial reform experts have done.
In Northern California, the rapidly spreading Park Fire has burned over 550 square miles, an area larger than the size of Los Angeles. The Park Fire is already one of the 10 largest fires in California’s history and has now become the largest active wildfire in the U.S., surpassing the raging Durkee Fire in nearby eastern Oregon.
In other climate news, police in New York City on Saturday arrested 59 protesters outside the home of Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser. The protest was part of Summer of Heat, a series of nonviolent direct action protests to end fossil fuel financing.
Police have raided and cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment outside the home of Secretary of State Antony Blinken in McLean, Virginia. The encampment had been set up for 183 days to demand an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
In news from the Paris Olympics, Waseem Abu Sal received thunderous applause on Sunday as he became the first Palestinian boxer to participate in the Olympics. During the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday, Abu Sal wore a shirt showing children being bombed — in defiance of strict rules against making so-called political statements. After losing his match on Sunday, Abu Sal said, “The Olympic Games are already a victory for Palestine.”
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