It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, October 03, 2024
Analysis: Israel and the forever war
Applying a military ‘solution’ to what are political problems has dragged Israel, step by step, into its present situation.
After a year of comprehensively destroying Gaza, its military using overwhelming force to suppress Hamas fighters, Israel is exhausted and increasingly isolated.
The excessive violence wrought on a civilian Palestinian population, held captive in its own enclave, has weakened support for Israel, despite resolute backing from the United States. Israel’s economy is in tatters, the port of Eilat having filed for bankruptcy. Its agriculture is stagnant and its tourism industry is nonexistent.
Instead of brokering a ceasefire to the Gaza onslaught – the root cause of the violence and rocket and missile barrages both on Israel and international shipping passing through the Red Sea – Israel has embarked on yet another military offensive, this time in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.
A war too far
The potential quagmire of a war with Hezbollah will drain Israel’s economy and its military. The chimera of the “buffer zone” will only draw Israel into a conflict it can’t win in the long term. The idea that Hezbollah can be somehow removed is naive, yet this idea has been acted on by Israel, the suffering of the Lebanese people and the destruction of large parts of Lebanon being the direct result.
As in 2006, all Hezbollah has to do is survive for the group to claim victory – and while Gaza is ongoing and Israeli troops are in Lebanon, Hezbollah rockets and missiles will continue to fall on Israel
Israel has bought into the concept of war on multiple fronts, with its armed forces training for such an eventuality. But the nature of this conflict is different.
A Hezbollah paramedic walks among the debris after an Israeli air strike hit an apartment in a multi-storey building in central Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, October 3, 2024 [Hussein Malla/AP]
Mistakes learned from past victories
Israel’s view of its history is infused with wars of the “few against the many” and a narrative of how one tiny country fought off multiple aggressors in short, sharp wars that left its enemies defeated and Israel victorious. Victories, however, can be dangerous – especially when hubris rears its ugly head in a militarised society, the army running like a spine through Israeli cultural and political life.
The vast majority of Israeli citizens have served in the armed forces, while most of the country’s leaders have served in the special forces or as generals. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow once wrote: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you see every problem as a nail.” The mistaken application of military force to what are fundamentally political problems has dragged Israel, step by step, into its present situation.
The country has lurched dramatically to the far right – especially amongst its young, who are increasingly intolerant of Palestinians and who are also of conscript age. A weak political system that leans on coalition governments, usually held hostage by small extreme political parties, is coupled with a leader whose political survival relies on the emergency conditions of war to stay in power. The resultant groupthink will be a calamity for Israel and for its neighbours.
Israel’s enemies know far better than to engage its powerful, well-equipped and well-trained military in a conventional war, and increasingly use asymmetric tactics to offset Israel’s advantage. Raids, rockets, ambushes, tunnel complexes, the slow gradual war on Israel’s economy – all these are slowly draining Israel, with its allies increasingly disenchanted by the wide-scale suffering the country has unleashed in the name of defence.
Yet Israel continues to use conventional arms against its opponents, the lure of decisive victories and neat solutions always just over the horizon.
Increasing isolation
With no sign of a solution to the war on Gaza in sight, Israel’s “normalisation” of relations with regional Arab states has been shelved, perhaps indefinitely. The United States has watched its extensive efforts to bring Israel into the regional diplomatic fold quickly dissolve.
Arab states have been increasingly vocal about the immorality of the war on Gaza, and the dangers to regional stability. This danger has been amplified by Israel’s ground offensive into southern Lebanon.
Warning after clear warning has been issued by leader after regional leader that another war, especially while the first one hasn’t been resolved, is beyond foolhardy, leading to widening economic disruption and the weakening of the international order.
In applying total support for Israel, regardless of any excess it commits, the US is degrading the power and global presence of the United Nations. Increasingly seen as irrelevant, the UN’s resolutions are ignored, and the voices within the UN General Assembly are disregarded.
Doing this decreases the relevance and consensus of the body, steadily heading the way of the League of Nations, where increasingly intolerant and polarising opinions helped lead to World War II, to date the biggest calamity humanity has ever inflicted on itself.
The forever war
Where will it end? How will it end? Will it ever end? It is highly unlikely that Israel’s enemies can be decisively defeated, but there is little prospect for peace. The forever war is set to stretch on, offering up bleakness instead.
An extremist ideology has grown within Israel that has no problem with ethnic cleansing, ideologues within Israel believing that their time has come, that the historic opportunity to be rid of the Palestinians once and for all is now.
Populations are now brutalised and displaced, economies shattered, air strikes, missile strikes, bombs, militias, an Israeli military and population totally desensitised to the suffering they are causing in the name of defence – and in the middle of this, traumatised Palestinians are seeing what little they have left destroyed.
And Israel? It’s not one iota safer.
Source: Al Jazeera
RIP Worker fatally crushed by mill machine had called for help 4 times, WA officials say
Helena Wegner Thu, October 3, 2024
A mill worker tried to call for help four times before he was fatally crushed by a packaging machine in Washington, officials said.
His death could have been prevented, labor officials said.
Now, Georgia-Pacific is being fined $648,292 for violating safety rules, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries said in an Oct. 2 news release.
The company did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Oct. 3.
The 32-year-old man was operating a packing machine alone on March 8 at the Georgia-Pacific Camas Mill, officials said.
He called for help four times within an hour to get help operating a machine that stacks boxes for shipping, officials said. But no one responded.
Boxes started piling up on the conveyor belt, so a co-worker went to investigate. The worker found the man crushed between the machine’s metal arms that help move the boxes onto the conveyor belt, officials said.
What safety rules were violated?
Labor officials said they discovered the machine’s safety guards had been removed in 2017. A fence was put around the machine, but it doesn’t keep workers from accessing parts of the machine that could cause serious harm, officials said.
“Two years ago, Georgia-Pacific’s own analysis showed that they needed doors guarding this machine that would not unlock unless power to the machine was shut off,” officials said in the release.
A machine can unexpectedly turn on if connected to a power source. This can be dangerous or even fatal if a worker is near the machine when it turns on, officials said.
Lastly, the company was fined for not following rules that protect employees working alone, officials said.
Anyone working alone at a pulp or paper mill needs to be checked on every two hours, officials said. Workers said they knew this policy, but it hadn’t been enforced in years, officials said.
“Tragically, our investigation found this fatal incident could have been prevented,” said Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety & Health. “They knew what needed to be done to make this equipment safer, but didn’t take action that could have prevented this worker’s death.”
Georgia-Pacific is appealing the decision from Labor & Industries.
Camas is about a 20-mile drive northeast from Portland, Oregon.
EU Commission Proposes Delay for Anti-Deforestation Law
Delay Would Enable Continued Deforestation, Rights Violations
Myrto Tilianaki Senior Advocate, Environment and Human Rights
Yesterday the European Commission proposed a substantial delay in the implementation of its landmark anti-deforestation law. This is bad news for the climate-critical forests around the world as well as the human rights of Indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities.
The European Union’s Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) is a piece of legislation that required considerable study, negotiation, and compromise. It requires EU companies to ensure the wood, palm oil, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber, and cattle they export or import has been produced in conditions that respect environmental laws and laws on land use rights, and that the products were farmed on land that was not deforested after 2020. It also requires the European Commission to designate areas as “low, standard, or high risk” for deforestation and forest degradation using a country benchmarking process.
The regulation entered into force in 2022 and requires companies to start complying on December 30, 2024. The commission proposed to push back the start of enforcement by 12 months for large companies and 18 months for micro and small enterprises. It also proposed delaying the country risk benchmarking process until June 2025, stating that the majority of countries would be ranked “low risk.”
The proposed delay is alarming, while the need for the EUDR is pressing. For example, HRW conducted an extensive assessment with partner organizations that indicates the Malaysian state of Sarawak is at high risk for deforestation and violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights. Millions of hectares of ancient rainforests in Malaysia are at risk of being razed for timber and oil palm plantations supplying international markets. The EU is the third-largest destination of Malaysian palm oil exports.
The commission’s proposed delay would enable at least one more year of deforestation and human rights violations in Sarawak, as well as other areas where deforestation is driven by the supply chains of products widely consumed by Europeans. It would also disregard efforts by many companies and EU trading partners who deployed resources to comply with the EUDR on time.
There is still a chance to reverse course, as the European Parliament and Council could refuse to approve the commission’s flawed proposal. The European Parliament and Council should oppose this delay and remind commission President Ursula von der Leyen of the urgency of enforcing this landmark environmental law.
Sri Lanka's newly-elected president seeks ‘alternative' solutions to ease burden on country in IMF talks
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake says his government plans to reduce taxes for Sri Lankans
Anadolu staff |03.10.2024 - AA
(MANDATORY CREDIT - SRI LANKA PRESIDENCY / HANDOUT')
Sri Lanka's new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake takes oath as president of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka on September 23, 2024.
ANKARA
Sri Lanka's newly-elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reaffirmed his government's commitment Thursday to the goals of the IMF program, emphasizing "alternative approaches to ease the burden” on his people, according to media reports.
The Marxist-leaning Dissanayake revealed his government's plans to reduce the burden, including relief from high value added and income taxes in a meeting with an IMF delegation in Colombo, the News Wire website reported.
The IMF expressed an openness to discuss the proposals, according to the government.
While reaffirming the government’s broad agreement in principle with the objectives of the IMF program, Dissanayake stressed the importance of achieving the targets through "alternative means" that would relieve the burden on Sri Lankans.
He said his government plans to expand social spending and offer relief to those burdened by high value-added and income taxes.
The IMF reached a staff-level agreement to support crisis-hit Sri Lanka with an extended fund facility of about $2.9 billion following the island country's 2022 default.
Colombo has to pay $46 billion in foreign debt, with installments yet to resume since 2022.
In his inaugural address, Dissanayake, who was elected as the island country's ninth executive president in last month’s crucial election, said his government is negotiating with "relevant" creditors to expedite the process and secure necessary debt relief.
Analysts believe that pledging to continue with the IMF program and simultaneously changing to ease the burden on the poor, will not be easy for the new president.
Elon Musk secretly funded right-wing group long before endorsing Trump: Report
Elon Musk has quietly funded the conservative political group Building America's Future since 2022, contributing millions to support right-wing causes. The group has targeted the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris, through a $10 million ad campaign. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had financed other pro-Republican groups.
Musk secretly funded right-wing group Building America's Future since 2022
The group targeted Biden's policies, launched a $10M ad campaign against Kamala Harris
Musk's donations contradicted his previous claims of political neutrality
Elon Musk secretly funded a conservative political group in recent years, according to four people familiar with his donations, illustrating quiet financial support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire entrepreneur in July endorsed former President Donald Trump's bid for re-election.
Two of the people familiar with the donations told Reuters that Musk's contributions to the organisation, Building America's Future, had started by 2022. One of those people and a third source said the donations amounted to millions of dollars, significantly boosting a group whose advertisements and social media campaigns have criticized the Biden administration and progressive political platforms of the sort that Musk himself has increasingly denounced.
Reuters was unable to determine a precise amount and timeline for the contributions or identify documentation linking the organisation's finances to Musk. Earlier on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk had financed other pro-Republican groups.
Musk didn't respond to emails seeking comment.
A spokesperson for Building America's Future didn't respond, either.
The magnate behind ventures including carmaker Tesla, space contractor SpaceX and the social media platform X, Musk for many years was careful to avoid suggestions that he favoured either major U.S. political party. As recently as March, months before he publicly backed Trump and announced plans to finance a political action committee to work against Democrats, he wrote on social media: "Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President."
Donations to Building America's Future, however, would show he was already using his vast resources to fund right-wing causes. As a non-profit 501(c)(4) group, the organisation isn't required by federal law to disclose its financial backers.
Although such groups aren't allowed to finance candidates' political campaigns, they can espouse political causes. As such, they are commonly referred to as "dark money" groups – used by political operatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, to hide the financial origins of influence campaigns.
It's unclear whether Musk still funds the organisation or how much in total he may have donated.
Over the last two years, Building America's Future has attacked the Biden administration on a host of topics, including illegal immigration, an issue that Musk frequently comments on. One recent anti-immigration video posted online by the group claims that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the November election, "led the invasion" of migrants across the Mexican border and has always "put illegals first."
Building America's Future also recently launched a $10 million advertising campaign meant to undermine Black support for Harris, according to an August report by NBC News. The campaign criticises the White House's effort to ban menthol cigarettes. Research shows cigarettes, long marketed to African-Americans, are even more dangerous to smokers' health than regular tobacco.
"Instead of focusing on important issues," one video says, "Biden's priority is banning menthol cigarettes," trying to tell adults "what they can and cannot do."
Musk's political leanings have moved rightward in recent years.
Although he has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates including Biden and Hillary Clinton, Musk became an outspoken critic of the current administration, claiming the White House gave a "very cold shoulder" to Tesla and SpaceX. A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world's richest individual, has also become a fierce critic of identity politics. He has used his frequent posts on X to propagate demonstrably false conspiracy theories about Jewish people, immigrants and the looming "civil war" in Britain.
After Musk's recent embrace of Trump, the former president said if elected he would put Musk in charge of a government efficiency commission.
America PAC, a political action committee Musk recently said he is financing, as of this week has spent $77 million on a get-out-the-vote campaign to encourage infrequent voters to support Trump, according to federal electoral filings. Musk's exact financial contribution to America PAC is unclear.
China launches 3-month campaign against illegal online news services
By JIANG CHENGLONG | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-10-03 1
China's top cyberspace authority on Thursday announced a three-month special campaign to crack down on illegal online news services, including the dissemination of false news, as well as platforms conducting news interviews and releases without getting designated licenses.
According to a release on the official website of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the campaign aims to further regulate internet news information service activities, enhance the influence of "mainstream news and public opinion," and create a clean cyberspace.
A spokesperson for the office was quoted by the release as saying that the special campaign will focus on addressing five prominent issues.
Firstly, the campaign will target the fabrication and dissemination of false and misleading news information and the use of exaggerated headlines that are seriously inconsistent with the content, according to the release.
Meanwhile, the malicious alteration, distortion, splicing, and forgery of news information that misleads the public will be cracked down.
Secondly, it will address the misuse of public opinion supervision as a pretext to interfere with the presentation or search results of news information through editing, publishing, reposting or deleting news, thereby extorting or coercing others into providing financial benefits or engaging in business cooperation for improper gains.
Thirdly, the campaign will crack down on the impersonation of news websites, newspapers, radio, and television institutions to illegally set up websites, register accounts, and publish information.
Fourthly, it will target the unauthorized or overstepped provision of internet news information collection, publication, and reposting.
That includes conducting news interviews and releasing news information without obtaining the necessary licenses for internet news information collection and publication services.
Google CEO eyeing electricity from nuclear plants for its data centers
Julia Shapero Thu, October 3, 2024
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is considering using electricity from nuclear plants to power his company’s data centers, as the tech giant contends with the expansive energy demands of artificial intelligence (AI).
Pichai also plans to increase Google’s investment in solar and thermal power, he said in an interview with Nikkei.
“We are now looking at additional investments, be it solar, and evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors, etc.,” Pichai told the outlet while in Tokyo.
AI requires vast amounts of energy. A single ChatGPT inquiry requires nearly 10 times the amount of electricity as a typical Google search, and generating images uses more than 60 times as much energy as generating text.
To feed this energy-hungry technology, some tech companies are turning to nuclear power. Microsoft announced last month that it struck a deal to reopen Three Mile Island, the site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979, to power its data centers.
The drive for new energy sources also comes as Big Tech seeks to balance its energy needs with its previous commitments to cut emissions.
Google, which aims to become net zero by the end of the decade, revealed in July that its greenhouse gas emissions rose 13 percent in 2023 and were up 48 percent since 2019.
It pointed to AI, noting in its annual environmental report that reducing emissions might be a challenge “due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute.”
“It was a very ambitious target and we are still going to be working very ambitiously towards it,” Pichai told Nikkei. “Obviously, the trajectory of AI investments has added to the scale of the task needed.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
European Union funds charity that compares abortion to Holocaust
EU hands €500,000 to charity that spreads disinformation about sexual and reproductive rights to teens and women globally
OPEN DEMOCRACY The EU has given €500m to an anti-abortion NGO | Credit: Pexels/art-partner images/Getty/Composition by James Battershill
The European Union has given more than half a million euros to a charity that peddles anti-abortion misinformation and whose founder compared reproductive rights to the Holocaust, an investigation by openDemocracy can reveal.
The US-based World Youth Alliance (WYA) – which has a European office in Brussels – is officially a “non-religious” non-governmental organisation, yet its values and teachings often echo religious conservative talking points on gender rights.
The charity falsely states abortion can cause infertility and negatively impact subsequent pregnancies – claims rejected by the UK’s National Health Service – while its founder, Anna Halpine, has likened abortion to Europe and Africa’s worst genocides.
In a 2019 interview with a Catholic graduate school in Colorado, Halpine said: “Recall the Nazis and their campaign to dehumanise Jews, this was also a central aspect of the Rwandan genocide, which first broadcast that one group of people were ‘cockroaches’ and not persons. In our own day, we can see this very clearly with abortion.”
Such disinformation about reproductive rights can endanger women. Yet the European Union is funding the WYA to spread its false claims around the world, despite the European Parliament urging member states to accept that access to sexual and reproductive health is a human right in a 2021 vote.
The EU gave the charity €572,000 of public money via its Erasmus programme between 2010 and 2022, according to data shared with openDemocracy by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF).
Organisations based in EU member states that are “active in the fields of education, training, youth or sport” can apply for Erasmus grants to fund internships and study abroad placements for young people in Europe. The WYA’s internships invite young people to help implement the charity’s “education, advocacy and culture” projects globally, including in the Global South.
Gillian Kane, director of policy and advocacy at the reproductive rights NGO Ipas, told openDemocracy: “It’s really difficult to square Erasmus’s commitment to academic rigour and cultural exchange with their ongoing funding of a youth organisation that peddles mis and disinformation on abortion, a safe medical procedure and basic human right.”
Research published by EPF in 2021 detailing anti-abortion activity in Europe found the WYA “tapped into EU funding by promoting its ‘Human Dignity Defenders’ training” – referring to the Human Dignity Curriculum (HDC), a sex education programme for teenagers developed by the WYA.
The curriculum claims “to promote a healthy and integrated understanding of sexuality among young people”, arguing that current sex education curricula are causing “an early sexual debut among youth” that “negatively impacts life plans by effects on health, education, earning power, and marriage”.
The Family Planning Association, a UK charity that seeks to enable people to make informed choices about sex, confirms that sex education “does not encourage children to have sex”.
WYA opposes comprehensive sex education, defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as accurate, age-appropriate information about sexuality and their sexual and reproductive health, arguing that such teaching is “objectionable or offensive”.
The Human Dignity Curriculum is directed by Clare Halpine, the sister of WYA’s founder. Earlier this year, Clare wrote that the Global Fund – the world’s largest financier of care programmes for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria – supports HIV-AIDS and TB treatment in Kenya as part of an imposition of “gender theory” via “ideological colonisation”. The Christian right has long claimed that efforts to improve and invest in inclusive programmes on sexual and reproductive health and rights are a form of neo-colonialism.
As well as executing or managing projects relating to education, WYA interns are encouraged to connect with young people in Africa and Latin America, who then campaign against reproductive and sexual rights efforts in their countries.
The amount the EU has given the charity for these internships has steadily increased – rising from just under €30,000 in 2010 to €125,000 in 2022, the most recent data available. The charity has the EU logo displayed prominently on its website, stating that it is “co-funded by the European Union”. According to its 2022 annual report, WYA had a total revenue of $804,000 – meaning EU funding makes up a significant source of revenue.
“It’s a scandal that EU funding went to support such an organisation,” said Neil Datta, founder and executive director of EPF. “This means that EU taxpayer money was used to disinform women about their health and legal rights in a manner which is contradictory to EU values.”
Datta continued: “The volume and duration of the EU’s financial support to such an organisation is surprising and disappointing. The European Parliament has been very clear about the EU’s support on sexual and reproductive health and rights and it’s time the new Commission act on this commitment by stopping all EU funding to organisations which disinform women about abortion.”
International influence
WYA has also sought to influence reproductive and sexual health policies in several countries in Africa.
Apart from its youth internships, the WYA delivers training to medical professionals, university students and schoolchildren in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa from its office in Nairobi. This includes giving seminars on “protecting the right to life from conception”, and encouraging “a holistic approach to sex education” – euphemisms for curtailing abortion and contraceptive rights.
In 2022, the WYA campaigned to influence Kenya’s controversial Reproductive Health Policy, which puts the age of sexual autonomy at 21, promotes abstinence, and parental controls for access to sexual and reproductive health services. Kenyan pro-choice activists criticised the policy for, among other issues, obscuring the issue of unsafe abortion.
The charity’s intervention repeated false claims first made in a 2012 white paper that access to safe abortion does not reduce the maternal mortality rate. It is estimated that 22,000 women globally, including 2,600 in Kenya, die as a result of unsafe abortion annually, and the World Health Organisation is clear that providing safe abortion reduces deaths of pregnant women.
A year later, in 2023, WYA published a “declaration” on “foreign aid and coercion”, which called foreign aid a “form of ideological colonisation” that forces countries to adopt “so-called reproductive rights.” This ignores the strong pro-abortion grassroots movements in many African countries and the fact that the WYA is itself a foreign entity campaigning against abortion in the region.
The charity also promotes its period-tracking app, FEMM Health, on its social media – including on pages specifically targeting women in Africa. FEMM Health shares disinformation about hormonal contraception, which it claims is “detrimental” to a woman’s health. The NHS confirms that while “hormonal contraception can raise the risk of blood clots and breast cancer, the risk is very low”.
FEMM’s global program manager, Gabrielle Jastrebski, has further claimed that taking hormonal contraception is “the beginning of the road to abortion”. This is disputed by research published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which found that “rising contraceptive use results in reduced abortion incidence in settings where fertility itself is constant”.
“Anyone who says contraception is the beginning of the road to abortion is someone who doesn't care about the lives or health of people and families,” Mara Clarke, the founder of the SAFE abortion fund, told openDemocracy.
“And what they are truly against is not abortion and contraception but non-procreative sex. Either we believe in giving people what they need to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies – or we lose all claim to caring about families and health,” Clarke continued.
As well as receiving EU funding, the WYA is backed by the region’s old aristocracy. The late German aristocrat Count of Ballestrem served on the charity’s board and founded a support association to “raise consistent financial support from private individuals in order to facilitate the ongoing work on the World Youth Alliance”. His wife, Consuelo, Countess of Ballestrem, also sat on the Board. Its patrons include Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein and Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, while Elisabeth Hohenberg, of a German aristocratic family, sits on its Board of Directors.
Other funding comes from US anti-abortion interests. In 2019, the Guardian reported that US charity The Chiaroscuro Foundation provided $1.7mn over three years to assist WYA’s development of the FEMM Health period tracking app. The associated FEMM Health Foundation is backed almost exclusively by Sean Fieler, a wealthy Catholic hedge-funder who has long supported organisations that oppose birth control and abortion.
The European Commission and WYA did not respond to a request for comment.
Melania Trump offers staunch defense of abortion rights in new memoir weeks before election
Seema Mehta, Jenny Jarvie Wed, October 2, 2024 Former First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Republican National Convention in July. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Former First Lady Melania Trump offered a passionate defense of a woman's right to abortion, including in the late stages of pregnancy — a direct contradiction of the views of her husband, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to excerpts of her memoir that is scheduled to be released next week.
“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” the former president's wife writes in "Melania," according to a report published by the Guardian on Wednesday.
Melania Trump's comments are a political bombshell coming in the final weeks of a presidential campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats to women’s reproductive rights have played a central role. She has rarely been seen publicly during her husband's campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — an exceptionally tight contest that could be decided by a small number of voters in a handful of battleground states.
She appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee shortly after her husband survived an assassination attempt. Two of the former first lady's most high-profile appearances were headlining fundraisers, including one at her home in Trump Tower in Manhattan that raised a couple of million dollars for the pro-LGBTQ+ Log Cabin Republicans. Her participation in the events raised eyebrows when it was revealed she received six-figure payments to take part, though it is unclear who paid.
Melania Trump wrote that she has carried beliefs about a woman's right to bodily autonomy her entire adult life.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes," Trump wrote. “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.”
Trump and her husband's representatives did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that provided a federal right to abortion access, the issue has been central in the nation's politics. Advertisements in swing states such as Arizona feature the testimonials of women with unviable pregnancies who could not get timely medical care until their health worsened because of doctors' fears of running afoul of state laws.
ProPublica recently published a report about a Georgia woman who died because of lack of access to appropriate medical care as she suffered sepsis because of fetal tissue that was not expelled from her body after a medical abortion.
In addition to the presidential campaign, the matter has been on multiple state ballots and is expected to be critical in determining which party controls the House of Representatives — a result that could come down to suburban women in places such as Orange County and the suburbs of cities such as Philadelphia and Atlanta who may have conservative views but support abortion access.
Polling shows the majority of Americans do not approve of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson to overturn Roe, and support abortion rights.
Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School, said Melania Trump's support for abortion rights shows why curtailing them — once an academic discussion that has now become a reality — could be deeply problematic for Republicans.
"One of Donald Trump's biggest impacts is how he changed the Supreme Court and their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Some have said if Kamala Harris wins, it's because Roe was overturned," she said. "And now we have the wife of the president who helped [facilitate] Roe being overturned saying she strongly supports a woman's right to choose. ... And she's not the only Republican woman to think that."
In 1999, he described himself as "very pro-choice.” In 2011, when he was courting conservatives as he considered a 2012 run for the White House, he said “I am pro-life.” In the weeks before he won the 2016 election, he vowed to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Since the 2022 Supreme Court decision, Trump has frustrated his onetime allies in the antiabortion movement by repeatedly changing his message on abortion in response to GOP midterm losses and widespread public outrage and unease over abortion bans.
In early 2023, Trump blamed the “abortion issue” for Republicans underperforming expectations in the 2022 midterm elections. Six months later, on the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, he called himself the “most pro-life president ever” and boasted about appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.
Since then, Trump has gradually pivoted away from such strident antiabortion rhetoric.
In a September 2023 appearance on “Meet the Press,” Trump dubbed Florida’s six-week abortion ban “a terrible mistake.” He criticized Republicans who pushed for abortion bans without exceptions in cases of rape or incest and pledged to work with Democrats to pass a national bipartisan law on abortion.
“We’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it,” Trump said. “And both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement — both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us.”
From national to state and local races, Democrats have seized upon the issue of reproductive rights to drive their voters to the polls.
“Sadly for the women across America, Mrs. Trump’s husband firmly disagrees with her and is the reason that more than one in three American women live under a Trump Abortion Ban that threatens their health, their freedom, and their lives," Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear: If he wins in November, he will ban abortion nationwide, punish women, and restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.”
People who know Trump, whether friendly or adversarial with the former first lady, said her views were not surprising.
"She is her own woman, She has her own opinions," said someone with deep ties with the Trump campaign who has engaged with her regularly, and who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. "I think she and her husband's world views align on a lot of things. Just like any normal human beings, there are going to be areas where they disagree. She's not going to compromise on her beliefs. I think that's very clear if you've seen the trajectory of her entire career."
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shake hands before the start of their September debate. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
Stephanie Grisham, the former first lady's former chief of staff and press secretary turned critic, said in an interview she was not surprised by Trump's beliefs, but she was surprised by the timing.
“She has always been very independent and done her own things, so the fact that she has such a different position from him on this topic doesn’t surprise me at all," said Grisham, who resigned after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. "The fact that she’s choosing to share it in a memoir is what I find odd. Sharing that excerpt right now and talking about it in a memoir at all is kind of strange. I don’t know, maybe she’s trying to appeal to a different audience in order to sell more copies of the book.”
It's not unusual for a president or nominee and their spouse to disagree on policy. Former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, and former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush did not see eye-to-eye on reproductive rights. Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards and his late wife Elizabeth disagreed about same-sex marriage.
Trump's book suggests she has other disagreements with her husband on issues such as immigration, but that she prefers to deal with them outside of the public eye.
"Occasional political disagreements between me and my husband [are] part of our relationship, but I believed in addressing them privately rather than publicly challenging him,” Trump wrote.
A notable section of Trump's writing focuses on late-term abortions, which were a flashpoint in the sole debate between Donald Trump and Harris, with the Republican claiming that Democrats support allowing babies to be killed in the final months of pregnancy and after they are born.
“It’s an execution,” Trump said.
Killing babies after they are born is not legal in any state.
Very few women have abortions after the first or second trimester — fewer than 1% of such procedures are performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such procedures are almost always performed because of dire threats to the health of the mother or the fetus.
Her views on late-term abortion reflect the reality that women choose this route because of dire jeopardy to their health or their baby's.
“It is important to note that historically, most abortions conducted during the later stages of pregnancy were the result of severe fetal abnormalities that probably would have led to the death or stillbirth of the child. Perhaps even the death of the mother," Trump wrote. "These cases were extremely rare and typically occurred after several consultations between the woman and her doctor. As a community, we should embrace these common-sense standards.”
Mehta reported from Los Angeles, Jarvie from Atlanta.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” Melania wrote. “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”
Donald Trump nominated the three justices who secured the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — and ensured the court could overturn Roe v Wade, the decision that guaranteed nationwide access to abortion.
Trump, however, has come out against a national abortion ban, saying he would veto it if elected and that the decision should be left to the states.
Melania Trump waves next to JD Vance at the Republican National Convention. Melania came out in support of abortion rights in her forthcoming memoir, sparking anger from anti-abortion advocates (AFP via Getty Images)
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, blasted Melania on X, calling her “wrong.”
“Melania Trump’s support of abortion is anti-feminist and clearly outside the teaching of our Catholic faith,” Hawkins wrote. “She is wrong.”
“What a lost opportunity to inspire a generation of young women,” the anti-abortion activist added. “I won’t be buying Melania’s book.”
Allie Stuckey, a conservative commentator, political podcast host and anti-abortion activist, called the former First Lady’s position “disgusting” and “incoherent.”
“Melania coming out unapologetically in favor of abortion 50 days before the election is demoralizing, even if she’s not the one signing bills into law,” Stuckey wrote on X. “I’ve said I’d vote for Trump on the immigration issue alone, and that’s still true. But let’s not pretend pro-lifers have no reason to feel frustrated.”
This move could hurt Trump’s cause because my anti-abortion activists have been passionate campaigners, GOP strategist Liz Mair told The Guardian.
“This might be just another thing that piles on to make pro-lifers think: ‘I just can’t with this guy.’ A lot of them were single-issue voters anyway,” Mair told the outlet. “He’s not really giving them much of an incentive to show up and do anything to his benefit.”
Kamala Harris, who has repeatedly blamed Trump for ending nationwide access to abortion, is currently ahead with a 2.8-point lead, according to the latest average of national polls.
Harris also retains a 12-point lead among women, while Trump has a 14-point lead among men, a New York Times/Siena College poll revealed last month.
The Independent has contacted Melania Trump’s office for comment.
Ebola-like Marburg virus linked to 8 deaths in Rwanda
WHO assesses risk of outbreak as 'very high at the national level, high at the regional level'
The Associated Press ·
An electron microscope photo of the Marburg virus. (Thomas Geisbert/University of Texas Medical Branch)
Rwanda says that eight people have died so far from the highly contagious Marburg virus.
The announcement comes just days after the country declared an outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever that has no authorized vaccine or treatment.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals.
Rwanda, a landlocked country in central Africa, declared an outbreak on Friday and a day later the first six deaths were reported.
Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said on Sunday night that so far, 26 cases have been confirmed, and eight of the sickened people have died.
"WHO assesses the risk of this outbreak as very high at the national level, high at the regional level and low at the global level," the WHO said on Monday. "Investigations are ongoing to determine the full extent of the outbreak and this risk assessment will be updated as more information is received."
