Via THENUMBERS.COM, here's the weekend box office.
| 1 | N | Alien: Romulus | 20th Century… | $42,003,361 | 3,885 | $10,812 | $42,003,361 | 1 | ||
| 2 | (1) | Deadpool & Wolverine | Walt Disney | $30,003,064 | -44% | 3,960 | -370 | $7,577 | $546,819,959 | 4 |
| 3 | (2) | It Ends With Us | Sony Pictures | $23,807,130 | -52% | 3,739 | +128 | $6,367 | $97,591,827 | 2 |
| 4 | (3) | Twisters | Universal | $10,000,340 | -33% | 3,483 | -181 | $2,871 | $238,639,655 | 5 |
| 5 | (-) | Coraline | Fathom Events | $9,611,555 | 1,527 | $6,294 | $87,812,345 | 811 | ||
| 6 | (5) | Despicable Me 4 | Universal | $6,258,985 | -22% | 2,788 | -221 | $2,245 | $340,661,140 | 7 |
| 7 | (7) | Inside Out 2 | Walt Disney | $3,470,125 | -28% | 1,850 | -350 | $1,876 | $642,465,008 | 10 |
| 8 | (6) | Trap | Warner Bros. | $3,441,333 | -48% | 2,436 | -745 | $1,413 | $35,220,818 | 3 |
| 9 | (4) | Borderlands | Lionsgate | $2,427,379 | -72% | 3,125 | n/c | $777 | $13,619,616 | 2 |
| 10 | N | Stree 2 | Prathyangira… | $2,184,000 | 666 | $3,279 | $2,184,000 | 1 |
Also, in case you missed it, HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON just might be the biggest bomb of the summer. Third weekend and the heavily promoted film is already out of the top ten. Of films that were supposed to be hits and that had a shooting budget of $40 million or more, no film made less than this one. Zac Levy might need to look for another line of work. Maybe OnlyFans?
Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, August 19, 2024. Polio outbreak in Gaza, cease-fire or 'cease-fire' talks may be experiencing its last gasp, FAIR reports on how the media shut out student voices during the student protests, Kamala Harris delivered a major speech on the economy, Jill Stein gets a shot at a third vanity run, and much more.
Let's start with a report that came out Thursday by Felipe Rendall (FAIR) about the media:
Recent student-led campus encampments in solidarity with Palestine prompted considerable media conversation. But, according to a new FAIR study examining TV and newspaper discussions in the period from April 21 to May 12, those conversations rarely included students themselves—and even fewer included student protesters.
FAIR examined how often key corporate media discussion forums contain student and activist voices. The Sunday morning shows (ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN’s State of the Union and Fox News Sunday) brought on no students or activists, opting instead to speak primarily with government officials.
The daily news shows we surveyed—CNN’s Lead With Jake Tapper, MSNBC’s ReidOut, Fox News‘ Hannity and PBS’s NewsHour—were slightly better, with six students out of 79 guests, but only two of them were pro-Palestine protesters.
The op-ed pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and Wall Street Journal featured two students out of 52 writers, only one of whom was a protester.
Sunday Shows: Student-Free Zone
The agenda-setting Sunday morning shows, which historically skew towards government officials (FAIR.org, 8/12/20, 10/21/23), showed no interest in giving airtime to student or activist voices. For the first weeks following the first encampment set up at Columbia University, when the student protests began to command national media attention, FAIR analyzed every episode of ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN’s State of the Union and Fox News Sunday.
Out of 36 one-on-one and roundtable guests across all networks, 29 (81%) were current or former government officials or politicians, and five (14%) were journalists. One academic and one think tank representative were also featured. Of the 29 government sources, only six spoke about having personal experience with the protests, or about universities in states they represent.
No students or activists, and only one academic, were invited to speak on any of the Sunday shows. The one academic, Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, didn’t speak about his own experience with the encampments, but about his research on student safety.
Some guests utilized inflammatory language when discussing the protesters, who were never afforded the opportunity to defend themselves. On This Week, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (ABC, 5/5/24), referred to the encampments as “Little Gazas,” and said the students “deserved our contempt” and “mockery.” “I mean, they’re out there in their N95 masks in the open air, with their gluten allergies, demanding that Uber Eats get delivered to them,” he said. Later on, Cotton referred to a keffiyeh—a symbol of Palestinian identity and solidarity—that protesters had put on a statue of George Washington as a “terrorist headdress.”
It's a report that really needs to be amplified. And, let's also note, that reporting or 'reporting' was no better with some outlets, such as the largest owner of TV stations in the country, NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP INC, broadcasting lies across the nation where they presented 'average students' who were in fact fright-wingers often employed to bash student protesters. NEXSTAR knew of this, knew these were students and journalists against the Gaza protests but NEXSTAR repeatedly put them on air as random students they happened to encounter and never revealed the reality surrounding these paid liars.
That was Thursday. Friday, Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke in Raleigh, North Carolina about the economy and about building "an opportunity economy" for all.
And good afternoon to everyone here. Thank you to all of the incredible leaders with us today, including my friend, the governor, Roy Cooper. Where is he? (Applause.) Here with his daughter.
Every time I land in North Carolina, I — just literally coming down the stairs of Air Force Two, I will shout to Roy Cooper, “What number is it, Roy?” (Laughter.) And today, he shouted, “16,” which is the number of times I’ve been in this beautiful state since I’ve been vice president. (Applause.) Every time.
I want to thank your next governor, Attorney General Josh
Stein. (Applause.) He’s doing incredible work. He’s going to be an
extraordinary governor.
Representatives Adam[s], Manning,
Foushee, and Nickel, thank you all for your support, for your
friendship, for your leadership. (Applause.)
Chair Thomas of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, thank you for all that you do. (Applause.)
And
to all the leaders that are here today, including the students and
instructors here at Wake Tech North, thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)
So, thank you all.
So,
listen, this election, I do strongly believe, is about two very
different visions for our nation: one, ours, focused on the future; and
the other, focused on the past.
We see that contrast clearly in many ways, including when it comes to how we think about the economy.
So,
our country has come a long way since President Biden and I took
office. At that time, we sadly remember the millions of Americans that
were out of work. We were facing one of the worst economic crises in
modern history.
And, today, by virtually every measure, our economy is the strongest in the world. (Applause.)
We
have created 16 million new jobs. We have made historic investments in
infrastructure, in chips manufacturing, in clean energy. And new
numbers this week alone show that inflation is down under 3 percent.
(Applause.)
And as president of the United States, it will be my intention to build on the foundation of this progress.
Still,
we know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their daily
lives. Costs are still too high. And on a deeper level, for too many
people, no matter how much they work, it feels so hard to just be able
to get ahead.
As president, I will be laser-focused on creating
opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security,
stability, and dignity.
Together, we will build what I call an “opportunity economy” —
(applause) — “an opportunity economy” — an economy where everyone can
compete and have a real chance to succeed; everyone, regardless of who
they are or where they start, has an opportunity to build wealth for
themselves and their children; and where we remove the barriers to
opportunity so anyone who wants to start a business or advance their
career can access the tools and the resources that are necessary to do
so. (Applause.)
I will focus on cutting needless
bureaucracy and unnecessary regulatory red tape and encouraging —
(applause) — and encouraging innovative technologies while protecting
consumers and creating a stable business environment with consistent and
transparent rules of the road.
As president, I will bring
together labor with small businesses and major companies to invest in
America, to create good jobs, achieve broad-based growth, and ensure
that America continues to define the future and lead the world.
(Applause.)
And key — key to creating this opportunity economy is building up our middle class. It is essential. (Applause.)
The
middle class is one of America’s greatest strengths, and to protect it,
then, we must defend basic principles — such as, your salary should be
enough to provide you and your family with a good quality of life.
(Applause.)
Such as, no child should have to grow up in poverty. (Applause.)
Such as, after years of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity. (Applause.)
And you should be able to join a union if you choose.
Building
up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency, because I
strongly believe when the middle class is strong, America is strong.
(Applause.)
So, in the weeks to come, I will address in greater
detail my plans to build an opportunity economy. And, today, I will
focus on one element that’s on the minds of many Americans as they pay
their bills at the kitchen table or walk the aisles of a grocery store,
and that is lowering the cost of living. (Applause.)
So, every
day across our nation, families talk about their plans for the future;
their ambitions; their aspirations for themselves, for their children;
and they talk about how they’re going to be able to actually achieve
them financially. Because, look, the bills add up — food, rent, gas,
back-to-school clothes, prescription medication. After all that, for
many families, there’s mo- — not much left at the end of the month.
I
grew up in a middle-class household. For most of my childhood, we were
renters. My mother saved for well over a decade to buy a home. I was a
teenager when that day finally came, and I can remember so well how
excited she was. I kind of understood what it meant, but — we called
her “Mommy” — Mommy was so excited, it just made us excited that she was
so excited. (Laughter.)
Later in college, I worked at
McDonald’s to earn spending money. Well, some of the people I worked
with were raising families on that paycheck. They worked second or even
third jobs to pay rent and buy food. That only gets harder when the
cost of living goes up.
When I am elected president, I will
make it a top priority to bring down costs and increase economic
security for all Americans. As president, I will take on the high costs
that matter most to most Americans, like the cost of food.
We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply
chains shut down and failed, but our supply chains have now improved and
prices are still too high.
A lo- — a loaf of bread costs
50 percent more today than it did before the pandemic. Ground beef is
up almost 50 percent. Many of the big food companies are seeing their
highest profits in two decades. And while many grocery chains pass
along these savings, others still aren’t.
Look, I know most
businesses are creating jobs, contributing to our economy, and playing
by the rules, but some are not, and that’s just not right, and we need
to take action when that is the case. A- — (applause) —
As
attorney general in California, I went after companies that illegally
increased prices, including wholesalers that inflated the price of
prescription medication and companies that conspired with competitors to
keep prices of electronics high. I won more than $1 billion for
consumers. (Applause.)
So, believe me, as president, I
will go after the bad actors. (Applause.) And I will work to pass the
first-ever federal ban on prou- — price gauging [gouging] on food. (Applause.)
My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that
exploit crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food
businesses that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead.
(Applause.)
We will help the food industry become more
competitive, because I believe competition is the lifeblood of our
economy. More competition means lower prices for you and your
families. (Applause.)
Now compare what Donald Trump plans
to do. He wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax on
everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other
countries.
That will devastate Americans. It will mean
higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs: a Trump tax
on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax on
over-the-counter medication.
And, you know, economists have done the math. Donald Trump’s plan would cost a typical family $3,900 a year.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: At this moment when everyday prices are too high, he will make them even higher.
As president, I’ll attack and take on the issue of the cost of health
care. As attorney general, I took on insurance companies and Big Pharma
and got them to lower their prices. (Applause.)
And
together with President Biden, we’ve gone even further. We capped the
price of insulin at $35 a month and the total cost — (applause) — and
the total cost of prescription drugs at $2,000 a year for seniors.
We let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices for seniors.
And just yesterday — and just yesterday, we announced that we are
lowering the price by up to 80 percent for 10 more lifesaving drugs.
(Applause.)
AUDIENCE: We’re not going back! We’re not going back! We’re not going back!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And I pledge to continue this progress. I’ll
lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone with your
support, not only our seniors — (applause) — and demand transparency
from the middlemen who operate between Big Pharma and the insurance
companies, who use opaque practices to raise your drug prices and profit
off your need for medicine.
Two months ago, I announced
that medical debt will no longer be used against your credit score.
(Applause.) And I will work, as president, with states like here in
North Carolina — Roy Cooper, thank you again — to cancel medical debt
for more and more — millions more Americans. (Applause.)
As for Donald Trump, well, he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — which 45 million Americans rely on. Forty-five million Americans rely on it for health care.
That would take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny
people with preexisting conditions. We all remember what that was —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We’re not going back!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — and we’re not going back.
AUDIENCE: We’re not going back! We’re not going back! We’re not going back!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: We’re not going back. We’re not going back.
AUDIENCE: We’re not going back! We’re not going back! We’re not going back!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And — and remember — and this is why we’re not
going back, because we do remember — (laughter) — he tried to cut
Medicare every year he was president, threatening a program that tens of
millions of seniors count on.
And according to his Project
2025 agenda, he intends to undo our work to bring down prescription
drugs — the cost of prescription drugs and insulin costs.
Well, we’ve come too far to let that happen. (Applause.)
So, we’re not going back on that, and let’s talk about the cost of housing. (Applause.)
So, now, the housing market can be complicated, but, look, I’m not new
to this issue. As state attorney general, I drafted and helped pass a
homeowner bill of rights, one of the first in America.
And
during the foreclosure crisis, I took on the big banks for predatory
lending with many of my colleagues, including Roy Cooper, and won $20
billion for California families when I was attorney general.
(Applause.)
So, I know how to fight for people who are being
exploited in the housing market, and I know what homeownership means.
It’s more than a financial transaction. It’s so much more than that.
It’s more than a house.
Homeownership and what that means —
it’s a symbol of the pride that comes with hard work. It’s financial
security. It represents what you will be able to do for your children.
(Applause.)
And sadly, right now, it is out of reach for far too
many American families. There’s a serious housing shortage in many
places. It’s too difficult to build, and it’s driving prices up.
As
president, I will work in partnership with industry to build the
housing we need, both to rent and to buy. We will take down barriers
and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels. (Applause.)
And
by the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by
building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the
middle class, and we will do that together. We will do that together.
(Applause.)
And — and we will make sure those homes actually go
to working- and middle-class Americans — (applause) — not just
investors. Because, you know, some corporate landlords — some of them
buy dozens, if not hundreds, of houses and apartments. Then they turn
them around and rent them out at extremely high prices, and it can make
it impossible, then, for regular people to be able to buy or even rent a
home.
Some corporate landlords collude with each other to set
artificially high rental prices, often using algorithms and price-fixing
software to do it. It’s anticompetitive, and it drives up costs. I
will fight for a law that cracks down on these practices. (Applause.)
We
also know that as the price of housing has gone up, the size of down
payments have gone up as well. Even if aspiring homeowners save for
years, it often still is not enough.
So, in addition, while we work on the housing shortage, my administration will provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000
to help with the down payment on a new home. (Applause.)
We
can do this. We can do this, all to help more Americans experience the
pride of homeownership and the financial security that it represents
and brings.
So, that’s my plan. But here’s what Donald Trump would do.
If his Project 2025 agenda is put into effect, it will add around $1,200 a year to the typical American mortgage.
He’s got it backward. We should be doing everything we can to make it more affordable to buy a home, not less. (Applause.)
Finally,
there’s one more way I will help families deal with rising costs, and
that’s by letting you keep more of your hard-earned money. (Applause.)
Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut, and
we will do this by restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle-class
and working Americans: the Earned Income Tax Credit — (applause) — and
the Child Tax Credit — (applause) — through which millions of Americans
with children got to keep more of their hard-earned income.
We know this works and has a direct impact on so many issues, including child poverty. We know it works.
So,
as president, I’ll not only restore that tax cut but expand it. We
will provide $6,000 in tax relief to families during the first year of a
child’s life.
Now, think what that means. (Applause.) Think
what that means. That is a vital — vital year of critical development
of a child, and the costs can really add up, especially for young
parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much
else. And we will do this while reducing the deficit.
Compare my
plan with what Donald Trump intends to do. He plans to give
billionaires massive tax cuts year after year and he plans to cut
corporate taxes by over a trillion dollars, even as they pull in record
profits. And that’s on top of the $2 trillion tax cut he already signed
into law when he was president, which, by the way, overwhelming- —
overwhelmingly went to the wealthiest Americans and corporations and
exploded the national deficit.
You know, I think that if you want
to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for — look who
they fight for. (Applause.)
Donald Trump fights for billionaires
and large corporations. We — I will fight to give money back to
working- and middle-class Americans. (Applause.)
So, I’ll end with this. Two days ago, Donald Trump was here in North Carolina.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE
VICE PRESIDENT: He said he was going to talk about the economy —
(laughter) — I think you all watched; you know what I’m about to say —
but he offered no serious plans to reduce costs for middle-class
families, no plan to expand access to housing or health care. And that,
actually, I think, for most of us, was not surprising because we
already know his plans. We know the Project 2025 agenda.
So,
there’s a choice in this election: Donald Trump’s plans to devastate the
middle class, punish working people, and make the cost of living go up
for millions of Americans; and, on the other hand, when I’m elected
president, what we’ll do — (applause) — what we will do to bring down
costs,
increase the security and stability financially of your
family, and expand opportunity for working- and middle-class Americans.
(Applause.)
So, now — now — now is the time to chart a new way forward. (Applause.) Now is the time to chart a new way forward, to build —
AUDIENCE: A new way forward! A new way forward! A new way forward!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: A new way forward, yes. A new way forward.
AUDIENCE: A new way forward! A new way forward! A new way forward!
THE
VICE PRESIDENT: To build — to build an America where everyone’s work
is rewarded and talents are valued, where we work with labor and
business to strengthen the American economy, and where everyone has the
opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead.
So, I thank you,
North Carolina. We’re going to get this done — (applause) — and with
your help. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
God bless you. (Applause.)
Betty noted the speech, "I like what she's talking about economically. A $25,000 credit will help a lot of people get homes. Purchasing homes means furnishing them. That means stimulating the economy. It's a great idea and I'm 100% behind it."
Disturbingly for Convicted Felon, crowds and enthusiasm continue to greet Kamala Harris even if they are becoming a thing of the past for Donald Trump.
Maybe Donald can start comparing himself with Jill Stein -- would that make him feel better? On Saturday, Jill Stein became the Green Party's presidential nominee -- declaring to the nation that they are corrupt and out of ideas. This will be her third run. She accomplished nothing in the last two and will accomplish nothing this go round. She speaks of wanting to build the party and liars let her. Your YOUTUBE crowd will never tell -- and, granted, some are too stupid to know -- that she chipped away at the Green Party in 2004. They were on the map because of Ralph Nader and the 2.8 million votes he brought the party in 2000. Instead of building on that, she backed the cowardly faction in the party. This was the group that did not want Ralph to run in 2004 -- back then Jill told journalists that the party shouldn't be about one person and running Ralph again would make it appear he was. Grasp that, as she now runs for the third time. Back then, she plotted and endorsed a "safe state strategy" where a supposed political party asked prospective voters not to vote for the Green Party if they were in a state that could go Republican. If it could go, vote for the Democrat. But if you were in a solidly "Blue" state that would go Democratic, vote for the Green Party.
Four years prior, Ralph Nader led them onto the political map. In 2004, Jill was pimping the party as the kid sister to the Democratic Party. And she never regretted that strategy which is why she selected who she did to be her campaign manager in 2012.
The video of Kamala speaking above isn't from PBS. That's what I generally post. I usually have a PBS friend calling me to say, "Hey, we're about to live stream Kamala's speech." PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, etc all stream Kamala's speeches and Donald Trump's speeches. No one's really interested in Jill Stein. So the video above is from Kamala Harris' official YOUTUBE channel. To be fair, I posted that one. 196,000 is the number of views on Kamala's weekend speech -- that people could have caught anywhere else.
That's Jill Stein's big speech this weekend. From Saturday. 196,000 views is what Kamala got for her speech on her channel. And Jill's speech on her own YOUTUBE channel? 1,189 views. Not much interest in yet another Jill Stein campaign. They could have gone with a new face, with a young face -- 50 would have been a young face. Instead they went with 74-year-old Jill Stein for the third time. She did her identity politic thing again. In 2012 it was "we're two women!" In 2016, it was "I'm White and he's African-American!" And now? As her campaign's press release declared, Jill stated, "This is truly a historic ticket bringing together a Jewish woman and Black Muslim man."
Some write ups took it out of the quotes and summarized it instead as "a Jewish woman and an African-American man." For Jill, a Jewish person can only be White. Why the press didn't clean that up for her, I have no idea. But at least one outlet stated that they went with African-American to note the reality that despite her repeatedly floating that she would choose a Palestinian running mate which, at the start of this month, morphed into her saying she would choose an Arab American man as her running mate, none she could find wanted to run with her. So she chose Rudolph Ware III who at some point began calling himself Butch Ware -- let's hope they get the name right, whatever it is, on the campaign legal filings or they'll have even more ballot access problems.
She went with American Butch for reasons no one knows.
Or cares.
This week, she'll try to use the Palestinian cause and the DNC convention to get some publicity because that's all it is. Not to get votes because she's never gotten votes. Though I did love the write up -- suck up? -- that THE NEW ARAB did on her where she admits she won't win but she thinks getting 10 million votes will change things. 10 million votes? She's never gotten 2 million votes. You need over 80 million to win and she's never gotten -- in her two previous runs -- even 2 million.
Ava and I covered her nomination early this morning (about five hours ago, in fact) in "Media: The embarrassments of the 2024 presidential campaigns:"
In her acceptance speech on Saturday, she insisted, "We are rising up and we are unstoppable."
She wishes. What is she? An eternal failure whose own campaign website doesn't provide a text for yesterday's acceptance speech probably because she served up more lies than even Donald Trump. For example, "In the last election in 2020, one out of every three eligible voters chose not to vote for the two candidates that were rammed down their throats. This is a revolution in the making."
One-third of eligible voters (not registered voters) did not vote in 2020. It wasn't due to "the two candidates that were rammed down their throats." Howie Hawkins, for example, was the Green Party's presidential nominee and he got 400,000 votes. The Libertarian Party's presidential nominee was Jo Jorgensen and she got 1.8 million votes. They weren't the only candidates in the presidential election but, along with Joe Biden and Donald Trump, they made up the top four vote getters. If people in 2020 wanted to vote for someone other than "the two candidates that were rammed down their throats," they had the opportunity to do so despite the lies of Jill Stein.
A month after the 2020 election, Domenico Montanaro (NPR) reported on the 80 million eligible voters (again, not registered voters) who elected not to vote in 2020
To better understand what motivates these nonvoters, NPR and the Medill School of Journalism commissioned Ipsos to conduct a survey of U.S. adults who didn't vote this year. The Medill school's graduate students did deep dives into various aspects of the survey here.
Nonvoters' reasons for not voting include:
- not being registered to vote (29%)
- not being interested in politics (23%)
- not liking the candidates (20%)
- a feeling their vote wouldn't have made a difference (16%)
- being undecided on whom to vote for (10%)
Yeah, Jill's lie isn't backed up by actual facts or data.
She's a grifter and a fake ass. She fails at everything.
We opened our piece with some news on Donald's campaign:
The 2024 presidential election plays out like a wheel series. Give it a week and each campaign will come even more into focus. Take the Trump campaign where the news emerged last week that former US House Rep Tulsi Gabbard -- or, as Trina calls her, Trashy Garbage -- was advising Donald Trump. Make sense, in 2017, she advised Bashar al-Assad so she has a history of playing footsie with brutal dictators.
Turning to Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues to push for a cease-fire or a 'cease-fire.' CBS NEWS notes, "Blinken, on his ninth diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, arrived in Israel on Sunday to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Issac Herzog on Monday. Blinken will travel to Egypt on Tuesday for meetings with officials there, the State Department said. He may stop in at least one other country in the region before returning home." 9th? Maybe 10th. REUTERS notes, "In his 10th trip to the region since war began last October, Mr Blinken on Monday will meet senior Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a senior State Department official." THE GUARDIAN goes with 9th trip and adds, "The US secretary of state has declared it to be 'maybe the last opportunity' to get hostages held in Gaza out after he arrived in Israel to push for a ceasefire agreement." AMMON NEWS adds, "US President Joe Biden said Sunday that a Gaza ceasefire remained a possibility, despite Israel and Hamas trading blame as top diplomat Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv to push a deal." And IRISH TIMES explains, "The mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – have so far failed to narrow enough differences to reach an agreement in months of on-off negotiations, and violence continued unabated in Gaza on Sunday."
On the way here one senior US official was using phrases including "critical moment" and "inflection point".
The Americans hope they can get this over the finish line perhaps as soon as this time next week.
But that level of optimism is not shared by the Israeli leadership or Hamas.
Each accuses the other of obstinate cynicism, and blocking a deal.
Meanwhile, AP notes, " Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 28 people overnight and into Sunday, including young quadruplets, local health officials said."
On October 25, Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News that “Muslims are not afraid of us anymore.”
It might sound odd that Feiglin saw the element of fear as critical to Israel’s well-being if not its very survival.
In actuality, the fear element is directly linked to Israel’s behavior and fundamental to its political discourse.
Historically, Israel has carried out massacres with a specific political strategy in mind: to instill the desired fear to drive Palestinians off their land. Deir Yassin, Tantara and the over 70 documented massacres during the Palestinian Nakba, or Catastrophe, are cases in point.
Israel has also utilized torture, rape and other forms of sexual assault to achieve similar ends in the past, to exact information or to break down the will of prisoners.
UN-affiliated experts said in a report published on August 5 that “these practices are intended to punish Palestinians for resisting occupation and seek to destroy them individually and collectively.”
Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza has manifested all these horrific strategies in ways unprecedented in the past, both in terms of widespread application and frequency.
In a report entitled ‘Welcome to Hell’, published on August 5, the Israeli rights group, B’tselem, said that Israel’s detention “facilities, in which every inmate is deliberately subjected to harsh, relentless pain and suffering operate as de-facto torture camps”.
A few days later, the Palestinian rights group, Addameer, published its own report, “documented cases of torture, sexual violence, and degrading treatment”, along with the “systematic abuses and human rights violations committed against detainees from Gaza.”
If incidents of rape, sexual assaults and other forms of torture are marked on a map, they would cover a large geographical area, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and Israel itself – mostly notably in the notorious Sde Teiman Camp.
Considering the size and locations of the Israeli army, well-documented evidence of rape and torture demonstrates that such tactics are not linked to a specific branch of the military. This means that the Israeli army uses torture as a centralized strategy.
Here's UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' statement in full:
Gaza is in a humanitarian freefall.
Just when it seems the situation could not get worse for Palestinians in Gaza, the suffering grows – and the world watches.
In recent weeks, the poliovirus has been detected in wastewater samples in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
That means the virus is now circulating, with hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza at risk.
Polio does not care about dividing lines – and polio does not wait.
Preventing and containing the spread of polio will take a massive, coordinated and urgent effort.
The United Nations is poised to launch a vital polio vaccine campaign in Gaza for more than [640,000] children under the age of 10.
The World Health Organization has approved the release of 1.6 million doses of the polio vaccine.
UNICEF is coordinating delivery of the vaccines and the cold chain equipment to store them.
And UNRWA, the largest primary healthcare provider in Gaza, has medical teams ready to administer the vaccines and assist with logistics.
But the challenges are grave.
Health, water, and sanitation systems in Gaza have been decimated.
The majority of hospitals and primary care facilities are not functional.
People are constantly on the run for safety.
And routine immunizations have been severely disrupted by the conflict, increasing the spread of other preventable diseases like measles and hepatitis A.
We know how an effective polio vaccination campaign must be administered.
Given the wholesale devastation in Gaza, at least 95 per cent vaccination coverage will be needed during each round of the two-round campaign to prevent polio’s spread and reduce its emergence.
The vaccination effort will include 708 teams at hospitals and primary health care centres – many of which are barely functioning -- and by 316 community outreach teams throughout Gaza.
And we also know what a successful campaign will require:
The facilitation of transport for vaccines and cold chain equipment at every step.
The entry of polio experts into Gaza.
Fuel for health teams to conduct their work.
Reliable internet and phone services to inform communities about the campaign.
An increase in the amount of cash allowed into Gaza to pay health workers.
And, above all, a successful polio vaccination campaign needs safety.
Safety for health workers to do their jobs.
Safety for children and families to get to the health facilities.
And safety for those health facilities to be protected from bombardment.
I am appealing to all parties to provide concrete assurances right away guaranteeing humanitarian pauses for the campaign.
Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
But in any case, a Polio Pause is a must.
It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.
Polio goes beyond politics.
It transcends all divisions.
And so
it is our shared obligation to come together.
To mobilize – not to fight people, but to fight polio.
And to defeat a vicious virus that, left unchecked, would have a disastrous effect not only for Palestinian children in Gaza, but also in neighbouring countries and the region.
Thank you.
Polio is a highly contagious disease that mainly affects children under the age of 5. It targets the nervous system and can cause paralysis and death in extreme cases.
The resurgence of the virus – eliminated in most of the developed world – highlights the struggles facing Gaza’s two million residents, who have lived under Israeli bombardment since October last year. Many people in the enclave are deprived of food, medical supplies and clean water, with up to 90% of the population internally displaced.
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