#ABOLISHSECONDAMENDMENT

Fourth Of July Weekend Saw Highest Number Of Mass Shootings Than Any Other Weekend In 2021

Robert Hart
Forbes Staff
Business
I cover breaking news.

At least 150 people across the U.S. were killed by gun violence in more than 400 shootings over the Fourth of July weekend, according to data collated by the Gun Violence Archive, an uptick that puts 2021 on track to continue, and exceed, the violent surge that made 2020 the deadliest year of gun violence in decades.

U.S. flags on the grounds of the Washington Monument at half-staff 

following a mass shooting. GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS


There were 14 mass shootings–defined by the Gun Violence Archive as when four or more people (excluding the shooter) are shot or killed–over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, more than any other weekend this year.


There have been 336 mass shootings this year, 20 of which occurred in July, roughly two every day this year.


In total, there were more than 400 shootings and at least 150 deaths from gun violence over the holiday weekend, though these figures may change as data over the 72-hour period from Friday to Sunday is updated.



Major cities bore the brunt of this violence, with 26 fatalities in New York and 14 in Chicago.


The figures also include four children who were shot in Virginia Friday and eight people who were hospitalized in a shooting near a car wash in Fort Worth, Texas.

KEY BACKGROUND

Records on mass shootings in the U.S. are patchy as the FBI does not track them and there is no agreed upon definition (the FBI does track mass murders, though this misses a great deal of gun violence). The Gun Violence Archive has been tracking shootings since 2013 and shown a broad upward trend in the number of people killed each day. 2020 was one of the deadliest years in decades, with nearly 20,000 killed by gun violence. An additional 24,000 people that year died by suicide with a gun. Crime declined, overall, during the pandemic, though gun violence and homicides bucked this trend. Experts have suggested increased civil unrest, interrupted court and police operations and deepening inequalities as possible contributing factors. Gun sales also spiked during the pandemic, including some 300,000 people who may have bought them without background checks.

BIG NUMBER

10,318. That’s how many have died by gun violence in 2021 so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 154 of these were children aged between 0 and 11 and 629 of these teens aged between 12 and 17. Calculations based on CDC data suggest there are an additional 12,342 deaths by suicide with a gun this year.

 
CRUCIAL QUOTE

President Joe Biden set out plans to tackle gun violence in late June, with a key focus on trafficking in regions like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. "We are announcing a major crackdown on the... flow of guns used to commit violent crimes," he said."It is zero tolerance for those who willfully violate key existing laws and regulations." A ban on assault weapons and background checks are also on the agenda.

 
#AMERICANGUNFETISH


FURTHER READING

Shootings never stopped during the pandemic: 2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades (Washington Post)

More Than One Mass Shooting Per Day Has Occurred In 2021 (Forbes)

Shootings And Gun Deaths Continue To Rise At Alarming Rate In Large U.S. Cities (Forbes)

Robert Hart
I am a London-based reporter for Forbes covering breaking news. Previously, I have worked as a reporter for a specialist legal publication covering big data and as a freelance journalist and policy analyst covering science, tech and health. I have a master’s degree in Biological Natural Sciences and a master’s degree in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow me on Twitter @theroberthart 

OPINION
No woman should be forced to endure an IUD

IUDs are invasive and risky. Britney Spears’ conservatorship highlights how women are expected to bear those risks.

Koraly Dimitriadis 

6 Jul 2021

AL JAZEERA

#FreeBritney activists protest at Los Angeles Grand Park during a conservatorship hearing for Britney Spears on June 23, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Spears is expected to address the court remotely. Spears was placed in a conservatorship managed by her father, Jamie Spears, and a lawyer, which controls her assets and business dealings, following her involuntary hospitalization for mental care in 2008 [Rich Fury/Getty Images]


Last month, the world listened as Britney Spears, the American singer and pop star, described in detail to a court her experience of being subjected to a conservatorship controlled by her father, James Parnell Spears. When Spears had a very public breakdown in 2007 it seemed appropriate her father take control to safeguard her estate. Over a decade later, however, her testimony raised hairs on my arms as I listened to her blow-by-blow account of an arrangement she calls “abusive”.

In a chilling scene reminiscent of something from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Spears revealed that she has been refused permission to remove an intra-uterine contraceptive device (IUD) which stops her getting pregnant. It is unclear whether Spears consented to have the IUD inserted, or how long she has had it, but one thing is clear. Under this conservatorship she apparently has no say on whether it remains.
KEEP READING‘I want my life back’ Britney Spears tells US judgeGender inequality: The economic effect of the pandemic on womenBreathing lessons: A survivor’s guide to long COVIDHow much of pandemic childcare burden fell on women vs men?

Her revelation triggered memories of my own experience with an IUD and reminded me of how angry I am that women are just expected to embrace these invasive devices – in many cases inserted without any sort of pain relief (as Caitlin Moran so elegantly explained in her Times column). I would like to know where the IUD-male-equivalent is? It seems that, just like Britney’s father, patriarchy prefers us sterile at the expense of our health, at their pleasure – essentially, controlling our bodies.

The West is quick to judge the enforcing of sterilisation and contraception on women in other cultures – such as that of the Uighurs by the Chinese government – but in the US, the so-called “land of the free”, a woman of Spears’ stature and fame is being denied agency over her own body.

When an IUD was suggested to me many years ago as a remedy for my stomach problems and painful periods, the doctors said it was generally safe, but that it carried a small chance of complications, such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). The emphasis was on its safety, not on its risk. I was handed a glossy pamphlet with a picture of a couple embracing on the cover. It was an alluring image, which seemed to be offering the solution to my womanly problems – freedom from my periods and the freedom to have sex without the worry of pregnancy. I was young, naïve and impressionable. I just assumed PID was easily treatable should it occur.

For three years, the IUD ticked like a time bomb inside my uterus until I ended up in hospital, unable to walk properly, talk much or be touched because of the pain – it was as if my entire body had been shut down. I did not know it at the time, but I had developed PID. Five years on, I still have PID – inflammation in my uterus that still has not healed.


The stats show that more than 10 percent of women experience infection from IUDs and that up to 5 percent contract PID. But the problem with IUDs is that sometimes there is no way of knowing if they are doing damage until it is too late. My symptom was bleeding but that is a normal side effect of IUDs. My GP was not concerned when I presented to her. She prescribed hormones to settle it. I was sexually active so I had her do some swabs. She said I had some mild bacteria that would clear on its own. I asked if I needed to see a gynaecologist. She said it was not necessary.

A vagina is self-cleaning. It is a delicate ecosystem that balances out bacteria to protect itself from sexually transmitted infections. Some bacteria that gets passed through sex is more harmful than others. Some clears up on its own. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is an overgrowth of vaginal bacteria. IUDs can double the risk of BV because an IUD is a foreign object that alters the natural balance of the vagina. Without treatment, BV can lead to PID. Several studies have reported an increased risk of PID in IUD users – a three to ninefold increase compared with non-IUD users – but it is more prevalent in young women with many sexual partners.

When I got sick I felt ashamed, as if I had caused my illness. After years of reflection I do not think I should have felt this guilt. This is the system that patriarchy has set up for women, to punish us for our bodies, to make us feel ashamed for our pleasure, washing its hands of any accountability. Despite the risks, IUDs are being handed out to young girls as a solution to unplanned teenage parenthood. Many of these young girls risk permanent infertility if they develop PID.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – heralded as a feminist – is giving away IUDs for free, ignoring the thousands of women who have joined IUD Facebook support groups to share their terrible experiences. I believe the risks of an IUD should have been put on the front of that pamphlet I was handed – in red, bold font in the same way cigarettes have a photo of cancer on the packet.

Women must endure pain and shut up about it. You are considered a stronger woman if you endure a drug-free labour, for example. You are a stronger woman if you do not have health issues, if you have a perfect body and a smile all the time.


When I presented my ailment to my GP, I was dismissed. When I presented it to the hospital emergency department, nobody checked my uterus even when I told them I had an IUD.


Instead, they checked me into a pain management hospital for fibromyalgia. They had me doing therapy in a chlorinated pool while the infection pumped through my body, damaging my lymph nodes. It was only when I started bleeding more heavily that they called a gynaecologist. He took one look and asked me to cough while he pulled the IUD out.

I was prescribed antibiotics to clear the infection. But even after that, when my body started changing shape and expanding in unexplainable ways, I was again ignored and told by my new GP that it was my age, that it was weight gain. When I travelled overseas and my body blew up like a balloon after flying, the GP there just said it was fluid retained during the flight and that it would settle. I continued to travel without compression stockings, which I now know was a danger to my health, because when I returned home my GP referred me to a vascular surgeon who diagnosed lymphedema – damage to my lymph nodes caused by the infection from the IUD. My lymphatic fluid was not draining properly.

I now have to wear compression stockings daily and need manual lymphatic drainage. My periods are even more painful than before. While I may have learned to manage my conditions, and I am a “stronger woman” for all that I have endured, a part of me remains bitter and angry that I was not told more clearly about the risks of IUDs. To think that any woman is being forced to have an IUD, like Spears, is horrifying. It is a clear infringement on human rights.

In 2018, I interviewed Dr Lesley Hoggart, associate head at the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care at the Open University in the UK. She told me that she believes more research needs to be done into the IUD. Has my experience been captured in the research? Have the experiences of the thousands of women in Facebook groups been captured? Or are we still being ignored – swept away – just like Spears’ voice is in danger of being by the courts?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.



Koraly Dimitriadis is a Cypriot-Australian writer, poet and actor.

CLIMATE CHANGE BRINGS WATER WARS
Balochistan threatens to cut Karachi's water supply from Hub Dam
Balochistan government's spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani addressing a press conference in Islamabad, on June 6, 2021. — YouTube

"Sindh is supplying 42% less water to Balochistan," says Liaquat Shahwani.
Balochistan is getting only 7,000 cusecs of water from Sindh, he says.

"The Sindh government is hell-bent on turning Balochistan's land dry."

The Balochistan government on Tuesday warned that it will cut off Karachi's water supply from Hub Dam, as the provinces quarrel over water shortage.

Balochistan government's spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani, addressing a press conference in Islamabad, blamed the Sindh government for releasing less water to his province.

"Sindh is supplying 42% less water to Balochistan [...] the province is getting only 7,000 cusecs of water from Sindh," the spokesperson said.

"Chief Minister Sindh (Murad Ali Shah) had refused to provide Balochistan its due share of water," he claimed.

The spokesperson claimed that due to Sindh's "stubbornness," the province was suffering a loss of Rs75-77 billion. "The Sindh government is hell-bent on turning Balochistan's lands dry."

Shahwani claimed Sindh had not provided Balochistan with its complete share of water in the last 20 years, yet it continues to complain that Punjab has not provided 17% of its share to Sindh.

"Our due right share, according to the Indus River System Authority (IRSA), is 10,900 cusecs, including a shortfall of 30% which is 14,000 cusecs, but Sindh is providing 7,000 cusecs water," he said.

He said the Balochistan government already brought up the issue at various forums but the Sindh government "consistently denied facilitating it."

'Reservoirs received 62% less water than estimated this year'

A day earlier, Chairman Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Rao Irshad Ali Khan had said the country's reservoirs had received 62% less water than estimated this year.

The IRSA chairman made the statement during a meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Water Resources, with Nawab Yousuf Talpur in the chair.

The IRSA chairman, while briefing the committee, berated the Sindh government and said that on the one hand, it opposes constructing new dams and on the other, it demands additional water supply.

Responding to the IRSA chairman's comments, an MNA from Sindh said the province was not being provided 5,000 cusecs of water, which was reserved as its quota.

On the occasion, Punjab Minister for Irrigation Mohsin Leghari said that the issue should not be politicised. the Council of Common Interests is looking into the matter and has asked the attorney general to resolve it.

A representative of the Attorney General's Office said that the issue of water was more political than technical and should be resolved in the forum of the CCI.

The committee's chairman said that in the next meeting, the attorney general should come in person and give a briefing on the solution of the water distribution problem through IRSA's record.

Meanwhile, the committee was also informed that the country faced a 17% shortage of water supply during the Kharif season.

Ivan Krastev: Coronavirus pandemic marks the 'real beginning of the 21st century'

The Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev believes that the idea of a new normal induced by the COVID-19 pandemic is not going to go away anytime soon.






DW: Mr. Krastev, it has been a full year since COVID-19 started changing the world. From your perspective, how did it change Europe?

Ivan Krastev: There was a certain way of life that you either liked or disliked, but which you took for granted. Suddenly, we realized how fragile it all was. For example, we took it for granted that we could travel anywhere we want. Then suddenly all this disappeared overnight.

It is fashionable to compare COVID-19 to a war. But recently, when I was flying back to Sofia via Vienna, I realized that, paradoxically, the pandemic is just the opposite of a war. During a war, the most crowded places are railway stations and airports because people are on the move all the time, traveling in different directions, because they're trying to escape something. And, during the pandemic, these places are the loneliest places in the world.

So the world being frozen was one of the ways in which things changed. And I believe that this idea of normality having been taken from us is going to stay with us.


Transit centers have become lonely places because of pandemic travel restrictions

On the one hand, everything is frozen, but, on the other, people all over world are now connected virtually or digitally ...

I totally agree. Eastern Europeans of my generation talk a lot about freedom and what it means. Sometimes, this feeling is very physical. For somebody of my generation, just crossing borders was one of the most physical kinds of freedom that you could experience. And then suddenly we had to rethink all this.

The moment people were locked down in their homes, we understood more clearly than ever before that we are living in a common world, because suddenly we were discussing the same issue everywhere in every single language.

And, secondly, this interconnectedness became virtual, which suddenly meant that I was equally close to a friend living on the other side of the street and to a friend on the other side of the world, because basically, when you cannot leave your home, both of them are equally distant.

What's more, we suddenly started getting interested in things that we would not normally be interested in. So closing people up in their apartments actually opened up the world for many of them, because they now understood how interconnected we are.


In the pandemic, "suddenly, we realized how fragile it all was," Krastev says

There is the third effect on Europe, too: I took part in a big survey conducted by European Council on Foreign Relations before the adoption of the recovery plan. Back then people said that they were disappointed by the initial reaction of the EU. Spaniards and Italians were particularly bitter, but the major conclusions that people drew from this crisis was that we need more European consolidation.

One of the reasons for the paradox — people wanted more Europe even when they believed Europe didn't perform at the start of the crisis — is that Europeans were suddenly seeing the world with different eyes.

Six months ago, you wrote a book about the pandemic's impact on life in the European Union. What has changed since then?

When it comes to the push for European integration, this was a radical breakthrough. However, there was also a great loss — and I find this the very interesting psychological part of the crisis. We had the first lockdown. Then came the summer and we had the expectation that the worst was probably over. Nevertheless, the scientists went on warning us that it's not over.

Social effects of coronavirus

Then came the second lockdown and it became clear — at least from what I see in Austria and Bulgaria — that people were not willing to follow some of the governments' decisions. Basically, people were exhausted and some believed that the government was overreacting. Now, at least when it comes to vaccines and vaccinations, I find the level of mistrust we see in society is really starting to be self-defeating.

So you see more mistrust around Europe. Do you think this has anything to do with the conspiracy theories that are floating around?

Yes. Absolutely. We're hearing a lot of them. And you know, where I live, you can really see all kinds of conspiracy theories and all kinds of mistrust in the scientific community and the government. When the crisis started, I not only hoped, but also expected, that trust in the experts would increase a lot because, after all, when it comes to individuals' health, when it comes to relatives and friends, people are much more ready to trust doctors and experts than, say, on matters of foreign policy.

In places like Germany, the majority is basically following the advice. But in other countries — not only Eastern European countries: Look at France — you can see that the level of mistrust in any type of opinion from an expert is such that some people are willing to believe the wildest conspiracy theories.

Is this threatening democracy in the European Union?

It is because trust is very important in a democracy. Where I come from, trusting governments all the time is not a good thing. Mistrusting the government is very important. But mistrust in the government should be based on a certain type of argument and a certain type of a rationale that empowers people.

What bothers me most about the level of mistrust that has been growing during this crisis is that people really start to mistrust the government and try to play on fears without basically being ready to suggest anything. For example,the opposition to the vaccine. This is a mistrust that paralyzes any kind of collective action.

It is interesting that nationalists and populists are not profiting from the current situation. A few months ago, many thought that politicians like Donald Trump and Viktor Orban might even grow stronger as a result of the crisis. But, in fact, the opposite has happened. Why?

This is certainly true. I would argue that populism is not rooted in fear, it is rooted in anxiety. This is a very diffuse kind of fear and people respond by looking for somebody to represent their anxiety. But then comes a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, and they look for politicians who can take responsibility and solve problems.

And, in this respect, the populists didn't offer anything. Certainly, many of these strongman leaders who try to pretend they're in control don't like this crisis because to a certain extent, crises like these need leaders who have the capacity to cooperate with society.

So what can democracies do to persuade people?

Liberal democracies should show that the collective interest is the priority. People have the right to dissent. But they should be ready to bear the consequences of doing so. For example, I don't see anything abnormal in, for example, airlines deciding that they want to be sure that the people boarding their planes have been vaccinated, because this is protecting others.

Does the strength of democracy constitute a risk in these circumstances?

There is a real risk. And this risk comes in what I hope will be the last stage of this crisis, namely how to organize vaccination. We have here a classical clash, which is typical for any liberal democracy, between individual rights and public interest. For example, I, as an individual, have the right to say I don't want to be vaccinated. This is my personal decision for reasons that could be very different from other people's. Or I can decide I have the right to choose the vaccines that I want to use.

At the same time, in order for society to go back to normality, you need the critical number of vaccinated people. And this is something that, in my view, is critically important today.

Thousands of Germans protested pandemic measures in Berlin

So how we are going to regulate the clash between individual rights and returning to normality — bearing in mind that, every month the crisis is prolonged, it comes with a very high economic cost: The pressure to do something about the economy will grow.

Europe cannot allow itself to be the last to recover from this crisis, and socio-economic differences are going to be of critical importance.

What challenges will the EU project face in 2021? And how can we confront them?

I believe it is extremely important for Europe as a whole to get out of the crisis in 2021 and to return to a certain level of normality. This basically means rebuilding the economy, opening the borders and moving into a post-pandemic situation.

I also believe that the way the European Union positions itself in the world in 2021 is going to be critical. In this respect, relations with the United States and China are going to be of ultimate importance.

The pandemic marks the real beginning of the 21st century.

Ivan Krastev is a political scientist and the chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is also a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria.

FAKE CHARGES

6 students among 9 arrested in alleged Hong Kong bomb plot


BY ZEN SOO ASSOCIATED PRESS
JULY 06, 2021 


Confiscated evidence are displayed during a news conference as nine people were arrested over the alleged plot to plant bombs around Hong Kong, at the police headquarters in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 6, 2021.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung) KIN CHEUNG AP

HONG KONG

Nine people, including six secondary school students, were arrested in Hong Kong on Tuesday for allegedly plotting to set off homemade bombs in courts, tunnels and trash cans as political tensions rise in the city where China is tightening its grip.

Police said they were detained on suspicion of engaging in terrorist activity under a harsh national security law that Beijing imposed a year ago as part of a crackdown on dissent in the former British colony that has long enjoyed freedoms not seen on the Chinese mainland.

Hong Kong authorities have used the law, enacted in response to anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019, to arrest many of the city’s prominent activists. Others have fled abroad as a result.

If the allegations are true, the group appears to represent a more radical fringe of the protest movement, which has demanded broader democratic freedoms for Hong Kong just as its liberties are under threat. Police said the group was attempting to make the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which has been widely used in bombings in Europe and elsewhere, in a makeshift laboratory in a hostel.

Police accused the group of planning to use the explosive to bomb courts, cross-harbor tunnels, railways and trash cans on the street “to maximize damage caused to the society.”

Since the 2019 anti-government protests, Hong Kong police have arrested several people over alleged bomb plots and for making TATP, including 17 detained that year in overnight raids that also seized explosives and chemicals.

Nine people between 15 and 39 years old were arrested Tuesday, according to Senior Superintendent Li Kwai-wah of the Hong Kong Police National Security Department.

Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said at a weekly news briefing that she hopes the members of the public will “openly condemn threats of violence.”

“They should not be wrongly influenced by the idea that ... breaking the law is in order, if you’re trying to achieve a certain cause,” she said. “They should not be influenced into thinking that they can find excuses to inflict violence.”

Authorities said they seized equipment and raw materials used to make the TATP, as well as a “trace amount” of the explosive. They said they also found operating manuals and about 80,000 Hong Kong dollars ($10,300) in cash.

Police froze about 600,000 Hong Kong dollars ($77,200) in assets that they say may be linked to the plot. Authorities said all nine planned to set off the bombs and then leave Hong Kong for good.

The arrests come as China is increasing its control over Hong Kong, despite a promise to protect the city's civil liberties for 50 years after the city’s 1997 handover from Britain. In the most glaring example of that campaign, police arrested at least seven top editors, executives and journalists of the Apple Daily newspaper, which was an outspoken pro-democracy voice, and froze its assets, forcing it to close two weeks ago.

Also Tuesday, Lam also said that an envelope of “white powder” had been sent to her office. Police said the substance was still being analyzed but that they did not believe it to be dangerous.





Police hold a news conference with confiscated evidence seen at front, the police headquarters in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Hong Kong police on Tuesday said they arrested nine people on suspicion of engaging in terrorist activity, after uncovering an attempt to make explosives and plant bombs across the city. Of the nine arrested, six are secondary school students, police said. The group were attempting to make the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in a homemade laboratory in a hostel. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) KIN CHEUNG AP

Woman sacked for asking if toy was racist wins employment tribunal

Marian had worked for Sainsbury's for 28 years and questioned the toy as she was changing prices


By Neil Shaw

Network Content Editor
 6 JUL 2021

Marian Cunnington


A woman who was sacked from her job of 28 years at Sainsbury's after questioning whether a cuddly toy was racist has won an employment tribunal.

Marian Cunnington, 52, was sacked after a comment she made while changing the prices of toys in her branch of Sainsbury's, reports The Mirror.

Marian told the tribunal that as she picked up a toy Bing - a character from a BBC children's cartoon, she asked: “Should we really be selling this toy? Black Lives Matter.”

Marian was dismissed for gross misconduct when a colleague alleged the comment she made was racist.

But a tribunal has ruled she was dismissed unfairly and deserves compensation.

Marian told the Mirror: “I’m not a racist and I’m a really good worker. When I was summarily dismissed I was in disbelief.

“Complete shock...when you have worked for a company for that long, to have it all ripped away and leave under such circumstances.

“It was very hard but then I knew that I hadn’t said anything racist. Obviously I have made a lot of friends in my team and none of them believed I had done anything wrong.”



Bing is a rabbit from a BBC show

PERHAPS SHE THOUGHT IT WAS THE RACIST BRER RABBIT OF DISNEY'S SONG OF THE SOUTH, JUST SAYIN

Marian had previously won awards for her work at the Sainsbury’s store in Bridgnorth, Shrops.

She was carrying out price changes on June 11 last year when she spotted the Bing toy, and gave evidence to the tribunal that she felt the toy could be offensive to black people, in the same way as the Robertson’s jam mascot.

The colleague who made the formal complaint claimed she heard Marian say: “I’m offended Black Lives Matter?”.

Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told Marian was suspended from work that later the same day and later told bosses: “I was actually standing up for BLM.”

She was sacked on July 2 and an appeal against the decision was turned down.

Employment Judge Richardson said the Sainsbury’s operations manager who fired Marian “could not explain what was offensive about the words ‘I’m offended Black Lives Matter’.”

The judge said the incident happened two weeks after George Floyd was killed in America.

He said: “...it is all the more reason to take great care that proper procedures are followed thoroughly, objectively and fairly so that justice can be done.

“Given the size and resources of [Sainsbury’s], the fact that so many fundamental procedural errors were made is unacceptable... the process followed was a disservice to [Marian] and also to [Sainsbury’s] cause to being an inclusive employer.

“In summary the decision to dismiss was not well-founded and is unfair.”

Marian has now found work with Marks & Spencer.

She said: “It was literally a week after the BLM movement came out of the George Floyd murder. That’s why it was hypersensitive.

“These companies want to be seen to be doing the right thing but that was at my expense.”

The Mirror has contacted Sainsbury's for a comment

.

Jared Kushner said 'I don't give a f--- about the future of the Republican Party,' according to new book
Jake Lahut

Trump son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

Jared Kushner reportedly had a blowup with the chair of the Republican National Committee last year.
A new book from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender details the pre-election exchange.

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump and an ex-White House adviser, got into "an intense argument" with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel ahead of the 2020 election, according to a new book.

"I don't give a f--- about the future of the Republican Party!'" Kushner told McDaniel in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. This is based on an excerpt of Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender's new book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost," which was published Tuesday by Fox News.

Before the Kushner blowup, the RNC had become closely intertwined with the Trump campaign during Brad Parscale's tenure.

"By 2020, the RNC wasn't merely an extension of the Trump campaign. (2020 campaign manager) Brad Parscale had effectively turned them into a full partner, and Ronna had become one of the president's closest advisers. The RNC was paying for the field staff. They were covering costs for state directors who couldn't get calls returned from campaign headquarters. Even the lease for the campaign headquarters was being paid for by the RNC," Bender writes.

Parscale was demoted as campaign manager in July 2020 in favor of Bill Stepien, a Kushner ally and top aide under former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie amid the "Bridgegate" scandal.

McDaniel held a grudge against Stepien after the two of them clashed during the 2016 Trump campaign, when she was running the Michigan GOP ahead of a crucial victory there, according to the book.

This all led to "tensions at the highest level of Trump World that finally exploded into an intense argument between Ronna and Jared inside the Trump Hotel," Bender wrote.

McDaniel was already being left out of key strategy meetings and Kushner added insult to injury when he "considered" taking over the RNC's online fundraising platform, WinRed, because he "didn't think the RNC could pull off the new operation," the excerpt says.


McDaniel told Kushner that WinRed — which had to refund $122 million in online donations from people who unknowingly exceeded the federal limit on individual contributions — could be an effective "legacy project" for the GOP, but he didn't buy it.

"Jared wasn't interested," the excerpt says. "'I don't give a f--- about the future of the Republican Party!' he told Ronna inside the hotel meeting room. 'Good to know,' Ronna shot back. 'I will be running for chair for a second term, and I will make sure you don't come anywhere near this!'"

Bender's book goes on sale July 13.

Nikole Hannah-Jones rejects UNC tenure offer for position at Howard University

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 07/06/21

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on Tuesday announced she has decided to reject an offer to serve as the chair of the journalism department at the University of North Carolina, and that she will take a similar position at Howard University.

The decision follows a massive controversy at the North Carolina school, which initially did not offer Hannah-Jones tenure.

"It's a very difficult decision, not one I wanted to make," she told Gayle King on "CBS This Morning."

Hannah-Jones said she will serve as the inaugural Knight chair in race and reporting at Howard, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C.

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill trustees last week voted to approve tenure for the New York Times Magazine journalist after a broad backlash against their initial decision.

The move to at first deny her tenure came after conservative groups complained about her involvement in the creation of the Times’s 1619 Project.

“Today’s outcome and the actions of the past month are about more than just me," Hannah-Jones said when UNC approved tenure for her.

"This fight is about ensuring the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers, and students. We must ensure that our work is protected and able to proceed free from the risk of repercussions, and we are not there yet. These last weeks have been very challenging and difficult and I need to take some time to process all that has occurred and determine what is the best way forward."

On Tuesday, Hannah-Jones said that "to be denied it, and to only be granted tenure on the last possible day at the last possible moment after legal action, after weeks of protests, after it became a national scandal, it's just not something I wanted anymore."

Hannah-Jones initially accepted a teaching position at UNC without tenure, but said it was "embarrassing to be the first person [to serve as chair] to be denied tenure," and added she never wanted to create a national scandal over her hiring and tenure status.

"This has not become public because of anything I did," she said, noting that she was the first Black person to be tapped as chair of the department at UNC.

In a statement issued through the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Hannah Jones criticized UNC for the way she said she was treated through the hiring and tenure approval process.

“I was the first Black Knight Chair at UNC since the position was founded and the only one to be appointed without tenure. I would come to learn that not only had there been political interference, but the school’s top donor had been lobbying against me and questioning my credentials and integrity as a journalist," Hannah Jones said.

"I was determined to remain silent and to not comment to the press or to engage in the controversy, even as the man whose name is on the school of journalism where I would work continuously impugned my character and my work in the media, even going as far as to question whether I am a Black separatist," she continued.

“These last few weeks have been very dark. To be treated so shabbily by my alma mater, by a university that has given me so much and which I only sought to give back to, has been deeply painful."

She called the pushback on her appointment and fight for tenure a "dangerous attack on academic freedom," saying the UNC administration "sought to punish me for the nature of my work, attacks that Black and marginalized faculty face all across the country."

Ta-Nehisi Coates to join Howard University faculty

Democratic strategist Joe Trippi to join Lincoln Project

Also on Tuesday, Howard University announced journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates would be joining the school's faculty.

“That really is the community that made me,” Coates, who attended Howard, told The Washington Post. “I would not be who I am without the faculty at Howard.”

Updated 10:46 a.m.

Israel-Palestine: Life in Sheikh Jarrah has become a 'big prison' under Israeli siege

Israeli forces closed off the Palestinian neighbourhood in May, denying entry to visitors and controlling the movements of its Palestinian residents

A Palestinian woman stands by the gate of her home in Karm al-Jaouni and looks towards the house that Israeli settlers forcibly took from the Palestinian Ghawi family (MEE/Aseel Jundi)

By Aseel Jundi in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied East Jerusalem
Published date: 6 July 2021 


In the closed-off Karm al-Jaouni area in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, Palestinian residents describe life under a perpetual threat of forced expulsion as akin to being imprisoned in their own homes under constant Israeli scrutiny and restriction of movement.

Cement blocks meet visitors as they approach the neighbourhood, with Israeli police forces denying entry to non-residents. The only option left for those who wish to enter the area is to navigate their way around rooftops and reach the heart of Karm al-Jaouni, where families are threatened with removal from their homes to make way for Israeli settlers.

The settlers who have occupied the house of the Ghawi family since 2009 stand, on alert, in front of the outpost at all times. Meanwhile, Palestinian residents try to get some much-needed rest during the day in anticipation of new rounds of attacks by settlers around sunset.

'I am 51 years old, but it feels like I’ve lived 1,000 years of worry,' says Saleh Diab (MEE/Aseel Jundi)

Behind the gate of Saleh Diab’s house, fragments of glass and stones of different sizes thrown by settlers in daily attacks are strewn around the yard. Israeli forces also regularly target the house, under the pretext that visiting solidarity activists attack the settler outpost opposite, leaving behind remnants of stun grenades and tear gas canisters.

“I am 51 years old, but it feels like I’ve lived 1,000 years of worry,” Diab tells Middle East Eye.

Palestinian children feel 'abandoned by the world' after Israel demolished their homes  Read More »

“I have suffered every day from Israeli occupation measures since I turned 17. I’ve been detained around 20 times since, and expelled from Sheikh Jarrah five times.”

Exhaustion is etched on Diab’s face, whose home is surrounded by three settler outposts. The first, facing his house, used to belong to the Ghawi family before it was forcibly taken by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces. The second one, located to the right, is the Kurd’s family home, which has been partially occupied by settlers. However, it’s the third outpost that is the most problematic for the family. Situated right behind their house is the sacred shrine of Shimeon al-Siddiq (founder of the Israelite tribe of Simeon), which many Jews visit to perform Talmudic rites.

Diab says that a week after the Ghawi family was forcibly removed from their home in 2009, eight other families in Sheikh Jarrah received eviction orders for the benefit of settlers.

“Since that day, we have been living in tragic conditions devoid of security and stability,” Diab says.

“The most difficult thing I have faced since is my children’s repeated questions about our fate after eviction, their academic future, and other answers that I cannot find the answers to.”

On 16 May, after a suspected car-ramming incident, the Israeli police placed cement blocks at three locations around the neighbourhood, with military police forces manning the posts at all times. Since then, Diab has been forced to keep his personal ID on him when out, in case he needs to go to the grocery store at the entrance to the neighbourhood.

“The permanent security posts have turned our lives into hell,” he says.

'The most difficult thing I have faced since is my children’s repeated questions about our fate after eviction'

- Saleh Diab, Sheikh Jarrah resident

“We have become prisoners in our own home as they prevent non-residents from entering the neighbourhood, forcing us to present our IDs and asking us questions, just like an interrogation, whenever we need to leave or enter.”

Diab stays up guarding his house until sunrise, before his brother takes over the watch in fear of a sudden attack by settlers.

“I fear the recurrence of what happened to the Dawabsheh family when settlers burned their house in the village of Duma while they were sleeping,” he says, in reference to the 2015 attack that killed a Palestinian couple, their 18-month-old son, and left four-year Ahmed Dawabsheh badly burned.

Every now and then, Diab goes to the iron gate, on a leg fractured by Israeli forces during attacks in May, to inspect the situation on the street and talk to neighbours before returning home.

“In this house, there are 23 members of the Diab family, including 11 children, living a harsh present and their future is bleak.”
‘This is my house’

In the house of the Ghousheh family, Maysoun and her two daughters sit with three men who had managed to sneak into the neighbourhood to offer solidarity.


Maysoun, who has been living in Sheikh Jarrah since 1990, tells MEE that after her neighbour Um Kamel al-Kurd was evicted from her home in 2008, all of the residents have been living the nightmare of forcible displacement.

Mayar Ghousheh poses in the courtyard of the Kurd family home (MEE/Aseel Jundi)

“Every day I start my morning waiting for the worst to happen,” she says, her voice cracking with anguish.

“The occupation authorities have prevented my family from visiting me, and the one time I tried to visit them, Israeli female soldiers guarding one of the security posts violently attacked us inside our car.”

The military post inches closer to Maysoun’s house day after day.

Two Israeli soldiers stationed themselves at the gate while MEE’s team was inside the house and even asked to see Maysoun’s ID, which she refused to show, saying in Hebrew: “This my house, and I don’t have to show you any proof.”

Maysoun says the situation has been particularly difficult on her youngest daughter, Mayar, who refused to go to school for two weeks out of fear that she would not be allowed to get back to her house.

'Every day I start my morning waiting for the worst to happen'

- Maysoun Ghousheh, Sheikh Jarrah resident

Maysoun tells MEE that the 11-year-old was recently referred to the school’s social worker as she suffers psychological distress, including insomnia, due to the developments in the neighbourhood.

Mayar looks at her mother, turns around, opens the main gate, casts a quick look around and dives back inside the house.

After Israeli forces closed off Sheikh Jarrah, Mayar says she has taken to buying sweets and cold drinks to sell to the neighbourhood’s residents.

“The siege pushed me to open a small grocery store in our house,” she says.
Aspiring journalists

Mayar says she dreams of becoming a journalist to relay the crisis in Sheikh Jarrah to the world, but she is not the only one.

14-year-old Nufuth Hammad has been documenting the lives of Sheikh Jarrah's residents (MEE/Aseel Jundi)

Outside the Ghousheh home, 14-year-old Nufuth Hammad roams the streets with a notepad and a pen, gathering the testimonies of Sheikh Jarrah’s elders about their past and present lives in the neighbourhood.

Despite being detained last month, Hammad walks confidently and without fear of armed settlers and Israeli forces, who patrol the streets around the clock.


“I am fully aware that I could be arrested at any moment because our movements are restricted, even within the neighbourhood itself,” she tells MEE.

“Is there a childhood harsher than ours?”

Saving Lifta: Palestinians rally against latest threat to depopulated Jerusalem village   Read More »

Hammad was detained after a settler filed a complaint against her for drawing the Palestinian flags on children’s faces and listening to a song about Jerusalem with her friends, saying that such songs are sound pollution and that she should not be allowed to glorify the Palestininan flag while living on Israeli land.

The Israeli police interrogated Hammad for several hours before releasing her.

The Hammad family was forcibly displaced from the city of Haifa during the Nakba, or Catastrophe, in 1948. The family moved to Karm al-Jaouni in 1956 as part of an initiative by Jordan and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to settle 28 families in Jerusalem in return for their UNRWA documents.

The selected families were provided with housing units, built by the Jordanian government, for three years, after which the ownership of the property was transferred to them.

Hammad’s grandfather, Aref, a member of the Sheikh Jarrah Refugees Housing Units Committee, says that 160 residents have received eviction orders in recent months, including 46 children coming from 12 different families.

According to Aref, there are 28 extended refugee families, composed of 500 members in total, living in an area of 18 dunums in Karm al-Jaouni.

Back at the home of the Ghousheh family, 11-year-old Mayar reflects on recent events and the terrible impact they have had on her, physically and emotionally.

“My life has completely turned around in the last few months. I’ve been wounded several times in the daily attacks by police forces and settlers, and stun and tear gas grenades have destroyed our windows,” she says.

“I’ve endured many things that I’m not supposed to go through as a child.”

Israel's colonial violence and international humanitarian aid

July 6, 2021 

A Palestinian man carries on his shoulder sacks of flour received from a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) distribution centre in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern of Gaza Strip , on January 29, 2020 [MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images]


Ramona Wadi
walzerscent
July 6, 2021 


Whenever Israel bombs Gaza, donor countries are expected to raid their treasuries and manage the resultant humanitarian crisis. The aftermath of the latest colonial aggression against the enclave is no different. On one hand, the reconstruction of Gaza will probably follow previous mechanisms in which the UN plays a role that is decided by Israel. For the Palestinian people's immediate needs, now more precarious than ever, the Israeli government is seeking countries willing to stand alongside Qatar to help desperate Palestinian families.



Death toll in Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip keeps rising…- Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Two European countries have so far been approached, Germany and another one are as yet unnamed. Israel has attempted to exploit reconstruction to demand the release of two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas. Palestinian factions reject this and communicated their decision to the UN in June.

So far the only dilemma raised by the international community is the question of rebuilding Gaza without Hamas involvement, ostensibly to ensure that funds and material are accessed only by the Palestinian people. To implement such a strategy, the Palestinian Authority – a body whose corruption is known to the international donors which continue to fund it — would play a role alongside Israel. The PA has contributed to Gaza's humanitarian predicament through sanctions of its own imposed with the intention to destabilise Hamas and reduce its political support and influence. It is in no position to guarantee that aid will reach the people most in need without PA officials from the top downwards pocketing their "share" first. It is foolish to believe otherwise.

READ: Children in Gaza call on the world to save them

Since the international community has equated Palestinians with humanitarian aid, there is little questioning of Israel's expectation that individual countries will provide humanitarian assistance after its bombs have finished destroying Palestinian lives and infrastructure. Equally disturbing is that the international community does not challenge the status quo of tidying up the mess after Israel's carnage. It's more of the same: the US pays for the bombs; others pay for the clean-up.

Billions of US dollars in military aid have disfigured Gaza beyond any hope of proper reconstruction, given Israel's frequent bombing of the enclave. The international community, blinded as it is by Israel's twisted security narrative, has no qualms about the territory being used as the testing ground for the settler-colonial state's new weapons because Palestinians are part of a dissociated humanitarian narrative that is profitable for both the coloniser and the donors.

Humanitarian aid is supposed to be a temporary endeavour, not part of Israel's colonisation plans. When the humanitarian crisis is exacerbated, Israel seeks to keep Palestinians quiet through its European allies. These are the same allies that purportedly champion the establishment of "an independent and viable Palestinian state."

READ: Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza

Meanwhile, through donations to keep Palestinians quiet, humanitarian aid provides more benefits for Israel than incentives for the people. The politics of humanitarian aid focus on preventing the emergence of a Palestinian state. In Gaza, humanitarian aid after the destruction of the infrastructure keeps Palestinians focused on the imminent matter of survival, thus pushing political action by the people further out of the equation.

Without addressing Israel's culpability and accountability, it seems that it will have no problems in recruiting countries to repair the damage that its bombs and politics inflict upon Palestinians in Gaza. Calls to hold Israel accountable, and for sanctions to be enforced against the settler-colonial state, pass unheeded. When countries step up with their financial assistance for Palestinians in Gaza, let it be known that the humanitarian façade cannot compensate for the political damage inflicted through collaboration with the murderous, rogue state of Israel.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.