Namibia: To End Aids, Protect Everyone's Human Rights

8 December 2024
The Namibian (Windhoek)

The world has made enormous progress in reducing the impact of HIV over the past years.

On World AIDS Day (WAD), 1 December, UNAIDS highlighted that upholding the human rights of all people living with or at risk of HIV is vital for ending AIDS by 2030.

Globally, 30.7 million people - 77% of those living with HIV - were on treatment in 2023, up from just 7.7 million in 2010.

This has resulted in a dramatic decline in AIDS-related deaths, down by 51% over the same period.

In 2023, approximately 230 000 people were living with HIV in Namibia, with a prevalence rate of 9.7% among adults aged 15-49.

Women were disproportionately affected, making up 65% of those living with HIV and 4 000 (67%) of the 6 000 new infections.

Young people aged 15-24 were also significantly affected, contributing 2 100 (35%) new infections, with 81% of these among young women.

AIDS-related deaths are declining but still concerning, with 3 700 deaths in 2023 - a 33% decline in AIDS-related deaths since 2010, often linked to tuberculosis co-infection.

Namibia is nearing the 2025 Global 95-95-95 targets (95% PLHIV know their HIV status, 95% of those who know their status are on treatment and 95% of those on treatment are virally suppressed); with current rates at 93-95-98, the country aims to achieve 97-97-97 by 2028.

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Despite the availability of a range of effective treatment and prevention tools, progress is still not on track to end AIDS as a global health threat by 2030.

Evidence shows that in at least 28 countries, new HIV infections are on the rise.

So how do we protect the gains already made against HIV and make further progress towards that vital 2030 goal?

A new UNAIDS World AIDS Day report released on 26 November, 'Take the Rights Path', shows that upholding human rights is the pathway to a robust and sustainable HIV response.

The world can end AIDS as a public health threat if the human rights of all people living with, and at risk of, HIV are protected.

Gender-based violence increases vulnerability to HIV.

Upholding the rights of women and girls is central to ending the AIDS pandemic.

Namibia faces significant challenges with gender-based violence (GBV), which has a direct impact on the HIV epidemic.

Nearly 35% of women experience intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence.

This not only affects their physical and mental health but also increases their vulnerability to HIV infection.

INVEST IN YOUNG PEOPLE

The denial of education and information puts people at risk.

There is an urgent need to invest in girls' education and to provide comprehensive sexuality education - a critical component of HIV prevention.

Barriers to health need to be dismantled.

For instance, many countries still have laws that prevent young people from being able to get tested to learn their HIV status unless they get parental permission.

This scares young people away and leads many young people to remain unaware of their HIV status.

Namibia is commended for its supportive laws for adolescent and young people's sexual and reproductive health rights, including the National Policy on Sexual, Reproductive and Child Health.

The Childcare and Protection Act (2015) allows HIV testing for children aged 14 and above.

Although many countries have made great progress in reducing HIV's impact among children, the commitment to protect all children living with and affected by HIV is not being met.

One in three children do not receive HIV testing within the first two months of life, the provision of lifelong antiretroviral therapy to pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV has not increased over the last decade, and HIV treatment coverage is markedly lower for children at 57% than for adults at 77%.

PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS

Namibia has made remarkable progress on eliminating mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV.

In May 2024, the World Health Organisation (WHO) awarded Namibia the Silver Tier status for its achievements in reducing MTCT of Hepatitis B and the Bronze Tier for HIV.

The criminalisation and marginalisation of groups of people, such as gay men, transgender people, sex workers, and people who use drugs also undermine efforts to end AIDS.

The anti-rights backlash which threatens to undo much of the progress made in the global AIDS response needs to be challenged head on.

To protect everyone's health we need to protect everyone's rights.

THERE IS HOPE

Worldwide, a number of divisive laws that impede the delivery of public health services to vulnerable groups of people are being removed.

Namibia has made significant progress in addressing HIV-related punitive laws.

Notably, the Namibian High Court declared the law criminalising same-sex relationships unconstitutional in June 2024.

This decision is a major step towards reducing stigma and discrimination, which are significant barriers to accessing HIV services.

The new WAD report provides a clear roadmap: To end AIDS, take the rights path.

The report highlights that the global response is at a crossroads, with the potential to end AIDS by 2030 if human rights are protected and if marginalised communities are supported in accessing essential health services.

Discrimination, stigma and anti-rights policies hinder progress, creating barriers to HIV prevention, treatment and care.

Failing to act will result in higher infections, greater financial costs and human rights backsliding.

Urgent action is needed to meet the 2025 targets, or else millions will continue to acquire HIV and the financial and human toll of the epidemic will grow.· Medhin Tsehaiu is deputy regional director, UNAIDS Regional Office for East and Southern Africa.

Uganda: Minimising Gender-Based Violence Is Key to Reducing HIV/Aids By 2030


8 December 2024
Nile Post (Kampala)

By Robert Kigongo

Human rights framework strengthening, multi-sectoral and multilateral collaborative efforts, toll-free lines, and adding HIV protection measures among top priority health components.

I joined the AIDS Information Centre in Kampala to flag off "The 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence" However was mesmerized to learn about the nexus between Gender-based Violence and HIV/AIDS.

Gender-based violence is exposing millions of people to HIV/AIDS across the world depriving them of good health and well-being.

GBV is one of the worst forms of human dehumanization and denigration that is underscoring the observation of human Rights and reduced inequalities.

The nexus between Gender-based violence and HIV is that both calamities pose the greatest threat to public health robbing us of our right to a good healthy living, happiness, hope, faith, and sustainable economic growth.

While sharing with Maureen Namubiru (Not real name) one of the young girls living with HIV, I learn of the increasing number of new HIV infections and a decrease in retention and care especially among younger people and intimate lovers.

I have come to notice that Gender-based Violence is a criminally underrated factor causing HIV/AIDS spikes, the earlier we mitigate the underlying issues causing GBV the earlier we achieve UNAIDS 95,95,95 Targets by 2030.

According to UNAIDS, there are "38 Million people living with HIV globally, while in Uganda there are 1.5 people" There have been progressive efforts to minimize the epidemic in the last 41 years but the continuous gender-based violence has failed the world to miss out on the first 90,90,90 targets in early 2000's.

While gender-based violence cuts across all genders women and girls have been more prone and vulnerable to severe adversaries exposing them to high-risk sexual behavior causing STIs and HIV/AIDS.

In our close conversation with Maureen, she shared that she contracted HIV at an early age after having forced sex with a maternal uncle who was thrice older than her.

Forced sex is seasoned with physical rape, defilement, and marital rape which often happens without condoms and consent leading to genital skin tearing through which the HIV penetrates the bloodstream.

According to UNAIDs "50 percent of women worldwide report being physically abused by their intimate partners"

Gender-based violence in African families spills over into interpersonal child sexual assault that eventually exposes minors to high-risk sexual behaviors.

GBV consequentially has exposed many young girls and adolescents to early child marriages, sex trafficking, prostitution, violent retaliation, and child poverty.

Gender-based violence has led to irreconcilable family breakups, parent absenteeism, infidelity, and unprotected sex eventually exposing adolescent girls and boys to desperate economically motivated sex for survival.

The UNAIDs came with 10,10,10 and 95,95,95 targets but Gender-based

Violence is posing the biggest threat towards the second 95 and the third 95 due to the trauma and stigma caused.

For instance, GBV is heavily threatening retention and care of viral suppression while many victims have missed out on antiretroviral treatment.

Unprecedently girls and women living with HIV are experiencing gender disparities and violence is crippling the third 10 of the UNAIDS GBV targets.

Gender-based violence bleeds sexual violence, trauma, depression, mental health, and stigma that affects viral load and treatment response failing all existing efforts and investments dwindling HIV by 2030.

My neighbors have also heard reported cases that men and boys go through terrible horror partner relationships categorically stating how have become punching bags for women and domesticated in homesteads, while some minor boys have equally faced sexual assault from men or fellow slightly older age mates in schools, orphanages and abusive homes.

Therefore, there is an urgency to deconstruct harmful sexually abusive stereotypes, negative social norms, and practices.

Some of the leading causes of gender-based violence must be confronted with an iron hand to achieve the UNAIDS 95, 95, and 95 Targets.

Failure to address gender-based violence risks a continued culture of violence against children, adolescents, and partners to HIV/AIDS risk behaviors.

I propose intensive training of local council leaders, security organs, and media on identifying and monitoring hotspots for gender-based violence and the provision of response services.

Supporting agribusiness and start-ups, the textile industry, and small enterprises that under-employ potential GBV victims is a critical economic intervention that addresses the allures of economically motivated sex.

We can all be potential victims of Gender-based violence women, children, and adolescents as vulnerable segments must receive sex education, protective gear such as condoms, lubricants, reproductive health materials, and protection skills.

Tracking data of GBV to HIV/ cases in communities must be captured and effectively monitored.

A holistic policy review of oppressive draconian laws that were recently passed by parliament against key and priority populations must be rescinded with immediate effect.

Human rights framework strengthening, multi-sectoral and multilateral collaborative efforts, toll-free lines, and adding HIV protection measures among top priority health components.

Communities, civil society, and local councils must work together to establish safe shelters for effective evacuation and emergencies for the survivors and victims of sexual violence and gender-based violence for rehabilitation, psychosocial assistance, and a fresh impetus.

From Washington to Kyiv, Accra to Cairo, Kampala to Cape Town, Tamale to Nairobi every woman deserves respect.

'I would not like to witness the efforts against HIV/AIDS made by Dr.Robert Gallo, Luc Montagnier, Noerina Kaleeba, Kenneth Mugisha, Philip Bongole Lutaaya, Lydia Barugahare and institutions like PEPFAR, AIC, USAID, CDC, Daily Monitor among others going to waste due to neglect of Gender-based violence escalation as a hotspot for HIV persistence after 2030'

Addressing the underlying factors like abuse of alcohol, ignorance, drugs, and substance abuse, poverty, and cultural norms upon which gender-based violence thrives is key to HIV/AIDS Zero generation.

Robert Kigongo is a sustainable development analyst.

'There are no drugs': Zimbabwe's sick turn to herbalists over ailing health system


Herbalists are in growing demand among Zimbabweans who feel let down by the public health system. (Phil Fisk/Getty Images)

Hospitals lack medicine, equipment and even staff as doctors and nurses quit for better salaries and conditions abroad.

Some hospitals solicit donations of medicines and essential items such as gloves and syringes.

Herbalists are in growing demand among Zimbabweans who feel let down by a public health system in ruins.

When Agnes Kativhu could not get treatment for breast cancer from Harare's main public hospital, she checked in to one of the many self-styled herbal clinics opening up across Zimbabwe's capital.

"I was a moving grave but am now well," Kativhu claimed in an interview at the centre, where she spent around a month.

"I never want to go back to the hospital because it broke my heart that they failed to give me a single tablet," the 67-year-old told AFP.

Unaccredited, unregulated and with unproven results, herbalists are in growing demand among Zimbabweans who feel let down by a public health system in ruins.


The country's largest public hospital, Parirenyatwa, has not had a functioning mammogram machine for 15 years.

It does, however, have the only operating radiotherapy cancer treatment machine available to the general public in the entire country of nearly 17 million people.

"We recognise that one machine is insufficient," said Nothando Mutizira, head of oncology at Parirenyatwa.

"However, we are managing to provide radiotherapy services with this single unit."


Like other public hospitals struggling through Zimbabwe's deep and enduring economic crisis, Parirenyatwa lacks medicine, equipment and even staff as doctors and nurses quit for better salaries and conditions abroad.

'No drugs'

Some hospitals solicit donations of medicine and essential items such as gloves and syringes.

"There are no drugs," said Simbarashe James Tafirenyika, president of Zimbabwe Municipalities Nurses and Allied Workers Union.

Even when a hospital has equipment, regular power outages put the machines out of service, he said.

Public hospitals are losing their staff to the growing private sector and countries like Britain - where qualified nurses can earn more money as carers - or even closer to home in the less well-off region.

"Some are migrating to South Africa, some are migrating to Zambia, some are actually migrating to Mozambique," Tafirenyika said.

The corridors at Parirenyatwa are jammed with patients and their families navigating paint-chipped walls under cracked ceilings. The waiting lists are long.

Those who can afford it, travel to neighbouring South Africa for treatment. Others go to herbalists.

Faith based on 'fear'

There is some misguided faith in the benefits of herbs and the risks of hospital treatment, said Lovemore Makurirofa, from the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe.

"Many people fear both the disease and its treatments, avoiding chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery," he said.

The emerging herbal clinics - which advertise for business on street corners via loudspeakers - frustrate the hospitals.

"When you ask patients why it has taken them that long to come and seek medical attention, usually they will tell you that they've been using herbal medicines for quite a long time," Mutizira said.

She added:
When patients eventually come, they come either with stage three or stage four cancer which is more difficult to treat, more expensive to treat and also the outcomes are much poorer.

The herbalist who runs the Harare centre where Kativhu sought help for her breast cancer is confident of his abilities.

"I can treat any type of cancer," said Never Chirimo, 66. Herbs also enable him to diagnose cancer, he claimed.

But he would like to work more closely with the hospitals.

"What I want is an open dialogue with doctors. Ultimately, we should work together, as many cancer patients prefer herbal remedies over conventional medicine."

Another of his patients, 58-year-old Wilfred Manatsa said he spent $25 000 on treatment at a private hospital for prostate cancer and kaposi sarcoma.

Surgery would have cost another $7 000 that he did not have. He put his faith in the herbs.

"I put aside my prescribed medications and now rely solely on herbs," Manatsa said.

Oil giant BP to ‘significantly reduce’ investment in renewable energy for rest of decade


British oil giant BP is significantly reducing its investment in renewable energy for the “rest of this decade”, it said in a statement Monday, noting it was instead entering a joint venture with Japanese power company Jera to create one of the world’s largest offshore wind businesses. Since Murray Auchincloss became BP’s new chief executive in January, the company has scaled back on its climate targets.


Issued on: 09/12/2024 -
By: NEWS WIRES

Industrial chimneys near the Ruhr Oel petroleum refineries of BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany on March 8, 2022. © Ina Fassbender, AFP/File picture


British oil giant BP announced Monday it will “significantly reduce” investment in renewable energy through to 2030, as it combines its offshore wind business with that of Japanese power company Jera.

The equally-owned joint venture, Jera Nex BP, is set to advance the companies’ existing wind projects and create one of the world’s largest global offshore wind businesses.

However, the standalone business will “significantly reduce BP’s anticipated investment into renewables through the rest of this decade”, the British group said in a statement.

Together the companies will invest up to $5.8 billion by 2030, with BP contributing $3.25 billion.




It marks a sharp drop from previous suggestions that BP would invest around $10 billion in offshore wind between 2023 and 2030.

BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss has scaled back on the group’s key climate targets, putting more emphasis on oil and gas to boost profits, since taking the helm in January.

The new venture “will be a very strong vehicle to grow into an electrifying world, while maintaining a capital light model for our shareholders”, said Auchincloss.

The move follows an announcement by rival Shell that it will no longer develop new offshore wind projects and will separate its power division into two connected businesses.

Offshore wind is one of the major sources of renewable energy that Europe is counting on to decarbonise electricity production, but in recent years projects have been mired by soaring costs and supply chain issues.

BP and Shell recently reported falls to their third-quarter profits.

(AFP)

UPDATED

UnitedHealthcare CEO's killer arrested, had manifesto slamming 'corporate America'

Police said a fake New Jersey ID card, matching the one the suspect, Luigi Mangione, 26, had used to check into the New York City hotel before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's murder, was found in his possession.

Luigi Mangione, 26, an Ivy League graduate, was found at a McDonald's store in Altoona in Pennsylvania with a gun and a suppressor "both consistent with the weapon used in

the murder". (Photo: X)

India Today World Desk
New Delhi,

Dec 10, 2024 
Written By: Prateek Chakraborty

In Short

Luigi Mangione, 26, arrested in Pennsylvania for UnitedHealthcare CEO's murder

McDonald's employee spotted him in store and alerted police

Mangione had no prior arrests in New York; gun, fake IDs found in his possession

A 26-year-old man was arrested on gun charges in Pennsylvania in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week. Police said the man, identified as Luigi Mangione, was a "person of strong interest" and possessed a gun and multiple fake identity documents.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate, was found at a McDonald's store in Altoona in Pennsylvania with a gun and a suppressor "both consistent with the weapon used in the murder," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, CNN reported. Tisch said the McDonald's employee saw him sitting and eating and was suspicious of his movements, following which she called the police.

A fake New Jersey ID card, matching the one the suspect had used to check into the New York City hotel before the shooting, was found by authorities. A three-page manifesto was also recovered which "spoke to both his motivation and mindset", Tisch said.

New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the document did not contain any specific threats, but had indicated an "ill will towards corporate America". "These parasites had it coming," a line from the manifesto read, which was seen by a police official. Another line from the document read, "I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done."

According to Kenny, the suspect acted alone and he was self-funded. NYPD detectives were on their way to Pennsylvania where they could question the suspect, Tisch said.

HOW THE SUSPECT WAS IDENTIFIED AND CAUGHT

Kenny credited the McDonald's employee for recognising the suspect, saying it was due to the police's efforts to widely circulate the photos of the gunman without a face mask, which the NYPD released last week. He said that the firearm that was recovered from the suspect was a ghost gun "that had the capability of firing a 9mm round", and it may have been 3D printed, CNN reported.

According to Kenny, Mangione was born in Maryland and his last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii, and had no prior arrests in New York. Tisch said police recovered "clothing, including a mask, consistent with those worn by our wanted individual".

The suspect's arrest seemingly brought an end to a massive manhunt that stretched for five days and which saw police widening its search beyond New York and using its divers to search for clues and investigate evidence.

Police also recovered bullet casings with the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" inscribed on them at the scene. The words echo the phrase "delay, deny, defend", often used by critics of insurance companies that delay payments, deny claims, and defend their actions.

SUSPECT IS A POSTGRADUATE

According to the suspect's LinkedIn page, he worked as a data engineer and has a bachelor's and master's of science engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. A university spokesperson confirmed to The Guardian about Mangione's educational credentials.

Video footage showed the gunman riding a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC. Police said the suspect was believed to have left New York City in an intercity bus after he was captured on camera entering the bus terminal but not exiting it.

According to The New York Times, Mangione arrived in Altoona on a Greyhound bus, hours before the police identified him and arrested him.

SHOOTING OF UNITEDHEALTHCARE CEO

On December 4, Thompson, 50, died after being shot in the back and leg outside a hotel in Manhattan, where he was attending an annual investor conference. Police termed the shooting as a targeted attack. He left behind his wife and two sons.

The gunman arrived in New York City on November 24, having travelled on a bus from Atlanta. He checked into a hostel on Manhattan's Upper West Side using a fake identification card and paying in cash.

Earlier photos of the suspect, taken in the hostel lobby, showed him smiling and ostensibly flirting with the receptionist, providing one of the few unmasked glimpses of the individual.

The FBI joined the investigation and offered a USD 50,000 reward for information leading to the killer's arrest. Before the suspect was caught, the NYPD had released two new photos of the gunman that were believed to be captured from a dashcam mounted inside a taxi.

Reacting to the suspect's arrest, a UnitedHealth Group spokesperson said, "We hope today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian’s family, friends, colleagues, and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy."

"We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family’s privacy as they mourn," the spokesperson said.

A private memorial service for Thompson was held on Monday, a person familiar with the plans told CNN.

Police Say Luigi Mangione, Suspected Killer of Insurance CEO, Had 'Ill Will Toward Corporate America'

"I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done," the Ivy League graduate reportedly wrote in a manifesto admitting to killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. "These parasites had it coming."


Luigi Mangione is seen here in a 2016 photo posted on his Facebook page.
(Photo: Luigi Mangione/Facebook)

Brett Wilkins
Dec 09, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Luigi Mangione—the 26-year-old man arrested in Pennsylvania Monday on gun charges and suspected of last week's assassination of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson—was carrying a manifesto condemning insurance industry greed, police said after his apprehension.

Mangione, a Maryland native who according to his social media profiles has a master's degree in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, was apprehended after being recognized in a McDonald's in Altoona, The New York Timesreported. He has been charged with weapons, forgery, and other crimes and is scheduled to appear before a judge in western Pennsylvania.

New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione was in possession of a 9mm handgun—possibly a ghost gun made with numerous parts or a 3D printer—the type used to kill Thompson, as well as a silencer and what he described as an anti-corporate manifesto.

"It does seem he has some ill will toward corporate America," Kenny said.

A police official who said they saw the manifesto toldCNN that Mangione admitted to killing Thompson in the hand-written document, writing that he acted alone and was "self-funded."

"I do apologize for any strife or trauma," the document stated, "but it had to be done. These parasites had it coming."

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch claimed that Mangione was also carrying a fake New Jersey ID matching the one the suspecter killer used to check into a New York City hostel 10 days before Thompson was gunned down in broad daylight in Manhattan with a silencer-equipped gun firing 9mm bullets.

Three bullet casings were inscribed with the words "deny," "defend," and "depose"—a phrase commonly used by critics to describe insurance industry tactics to avoid paying patient claims. UnitedHealth, the nation's biggest private insurer, is notorious for denying more claims than any other insurance company.

Mangione's social media posts run the gamut from praising the opinions of right-wing figures like Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson to leaving positive reviews on Goodreads for books including Dr. Seuss' cautionary environmental tale The Lorax and the manifesto of Theodore Kaczynski—better known as the Unabomber.




"He had the balls to recognize that peaceful protest has gotten us absolutely nowhere and at the end of the day, he's probably right," Mangione controversially opined of Kaczynski, whom he called "an extreme political revolutionary."

"When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive," he asserted.

‘Parasites had it coming’: Chilling details about NY gunman

The New Daily
Dec 10, 2024, updated Dec 10, 2024


Chilling details have emerged about the man in custody over the suspected gunning down an American healthcare boss in a brazen shooting outside a Manhattan hotel.

The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday (US time) after a McDonald’s worker recognised him as the man sought over the death of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson.


The worker called local police, who said they found a man “wearing a medical mask and a beanie” and sitting “in the rear of the building at a table”, looking at a laptop, according to a criminal complaint read out in court.

Officers asked the man to pull down the mask – and “immediately recognised him as the suspect”.

The man gave the police a New Jersey ID in the name of Mark Rosario. When they asked him if he had been to New York City recently, he “became quiet and started to shake”, the complaint said.

After a search turned up no one of that name, the man told officers he was Luigi Mangione. Asked why he gave a false name, he said “I clearly shouldn’t have”, according to the complaint.

Mangione was found with a “ghost gun” – a firearm assembled from parts, making it untraceable – and a silencer consistent with the weapon used to shoot Thompson, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

He also had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the killer. The ghost gun may have been produced by a 3D printer, said Joseph Kenny, the NYPD’s chief of detectives.

Police also found a handwritten document that speaks to “both his motivation and his mindset”, Tisch said. While the document did not mention specific targets, Mangione harboured “ill will toward corporate America”, Kenny said.

“These parasites had it coming,” one line from the note reads, according to CNN.

“I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” another states.

A Goodreads account apparently belonging to Mangione also gave a four-star review earlier this year to a book written by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski earlier this year, according to The New York Times.

Kaczynski was a Chicago-born mathematician and domestic terrorist whose mail bombing campaign killed three people and injured more than two dozen others during the late 1970s and early 90s.

“It’s easy to quickly and thoughtlessly write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies,” the review reads.

New York CEO shooting: Murder suspect Luigi Mangione thought the Unabomber was an ‘extreme political revolutionary’

By Susie Coen
Daily Telegraph UK·
9 Dec, 2024 

The suspect being questioned in connection with the murder of American insurance boss Brian Thompson was an Ivy League student who thought the Unabomber was an “extreme political revolutionary”.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was eating in McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning when a staff member recognised him and tipped off the authorities.

The six-day manhunt for the New York assassin culminated in Mangione being found with the three-page manifesto, a ghost gun - a homemade firearm - and a silencer. He also had his passport and the fake ID the suspect used to check in at a hostel on the Upper West Side.

He was wearing clothing which matched the suspect and his manifesto showed he had “ill will towards corporate America” and is said to have listed grievances with the healthcare industry and railed against “parasites”.

Luigi Mangione, the man arrested over the death of insurance CEO Brian Thompson.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione is believed to be “our person of interest”.

The suspect now faces gun charges in Pennsylvania and the authorities will work on getting him to New York to face further charges, New York Police Department chief of detectives Joseph Kenny said. Mangione has not yet been charged.

A high-achieving mathematical whizz from Maryland, Mangione appears to have long wanted to make his mark on the world.

In one social media post, he said he used to get “bummed out” in maths class because “all the low-hanging fruit has been solved before I was born”.

He added that he was now grateful for his “21st century education” and he would focus on issues including “evolutionary psychology, primitive neuroscience, and information networks”.

Alleged New York CEO shooter Luigi Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

After becoming valedictorian of his 2016 high school class at Gilman School in Baltimore, which costs around US$40,000 ($68,000) a year, Mangione went on to study computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the most prestigious universities in America.

He then went on to work as a data engineer for TrueCar living in California and later Honolulu, Hawaii, according to his LinkedIn.
The Unabomber and the manifesto

According to his Goodreads account, Mangione was sympathetic towards Ted Kaczyski, the Unabomber, who he described as a “mathematical prodigy”.

In his review of Industrial Society and Its Future, the Unabomber Manifesto, he wrote: “It’s easy to quickly and thoughtless[ly] write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.

“He was a violent individual - rightfully imprisoned - who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterised as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.”

Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski , AKA The Unabomber, seen after his 1996 arrest. Photo / FBI

Mangione went on to share an online take he said was “interesting” which read: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.”

CNN reports that Mangione’s own manifesto railed against “corporate America”.

“I do apologise for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done,” a police source who had seen the document told the channel.

“These parasites had it coming.”

This handout image of the wanted man went viral. Photo / NYPD

Elsewhere online, Mangione went on to criticise fossil fuel companies, adding: “They have zero qualms about burning down the planet for a buck, so why should we have any qualms about burning them down to survive?

“We’re animals just like everything else on this planet, except we’ve forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlords when any other animal would recognise the threat and fight to the death for their survival. ‘Violence never solved anything’ is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.’”

Mangione’s social media accounts are filled with comments about the state of society and mental health.

In one post on X, formerly Twitter, he shared an analysis on the declining birth rate in Japan, criticising sex toys and maid cafes where “lonely salarymen pay young girls to dress as anime characters and perform anime dances for them”.

Mangione also reposted comments about a book titled The Anxious Generation and the impact of “seasonal and circadian rhythms” on mental health.

- Additional reporting, NZ Herald

T-Shirts, Tattoos, Lookalike Contests:

CEO Assassin is Folk Hero for Some

AMERICANS HATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES

Dec 09, 2024 
By Dan Gooding
Live News Reporter
NEWSWEEK

As the search for the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting continues in New York City, the gunman has become somewhat of a folk hero for many, with merchandise based around surveillance footage and a lookalike contest attracting multiple entrants.

The as-yet-unnamed assassin's reported message left on shell casings of "Deny. Defend. Depose" has made its way onto t-shirts with a modified UnitedHealthcare logo, and at least one person appeared to have gotten a tattoo of the suspect's face.

The image of the man suspected of killing Brian Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday spread quickly online as the New York City Police Department desperately tried to locate him. At the time of publishing, he is still on the run.

While Thompson's death shocked many and prompted other big businesses to look at beefing up their security, it also gave those frustrated with the American healthcare system a voice, with some going as far as to say they supported the shooter's actions.

Someone actually got a tattoo of the United Healthcare CEO Killer

Society is losing IQ points at an
alarming rate pic.twitter.com/Zp33Qd4VGV— Tony D'carlo (@TonyD713) December 8, 2024

Deny, defend, depose t-shirts

The words reportedly found on shell casings at the scene on Sixth Avenue, close to Central Park, were linked to a book published in 2010 by insurance law expert Professor Jay M. Feinman titled: Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claim and What You Can Do About It.

The book is fiercely critical of the insurance industry and its methods of approval and denial of patient claims.


Following Thompson's death, designs for apparel, including t-shirts and hoodies, appeared online, including from Goodshirts.com, with the words sitting alongside UnitedHealthcare's logo. Others played the video game Assassin's Creed and the Dunkin' logo

Apost shared by instagram

Another design, by Punk With a Camera, showed a printed version of the surveillance footage in which the suspect was seen shooting Thompson in the back, again with those three words underneath.

Newsweek reached out to PWAC on Monday for comment via email.

Quick-to-market t-shirts and other clothing have become more prominent in recent years, with retailers seeking to capitalize on viral moments and news stories, such as the attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in July.
Lookalike contest

In this image, distributed by New York City police, a man wanted in connection with the investigation into the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel is shown on December 4, 2024

New York City Police Department via AP

On Saturday, people dressed as the suspected assassin, as he has been seen in the various surveillance camera photos, showed up in New York's Washington Square Park for a lookalike competition.

The trend of these contests has grown in recent months, with many offering cash prizes for the winner. Posters for Saturday's event did suggest a prize, but it was reportedly a very small amount.

Multiple "lookalikes" did show up for the event in face coverings and hooded jackets, and wearing backpacks, garnering a mixed reaction from others in the park who appeared either amused or even scared of the competitors.

AUnited Healthcare CEO shooter lookalike contest was held today in NYC. pic.twitter.com/KYJuEOf03B— Leftism (@LeftismForU) December 8, 2024

While some social media users deemed the event inappropriate while the suspect remained on the loose, others said it highlighted a deep-rooted unrest about the healthcare system.

How to think about the public backlash to the killing of a health care CEO

Why Brian Thompson’s death has provoked such complicated reactions from the public.

by Aja Romano and Sigal Samuel

Dec 7, 2024, 
VOX

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department holds a wanted poster during an NYPD press conference regarding a homicide authorities believe was a targeted attack, at One Police Plaza on December 4, 2024, in New York City.

Alex Kent/Getty Images

A man was killed. That’s the kind of thing people normally get upset about. But not this week. This week, when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead in Manhattan, the internet erupted in cheers.


Many people, including many progressives and liberals, said they would refuse to mourn the UnitedHealthcare executive because of the habitual unfairness of health insurance providers like the one Thompson oversaw.


The backlash against Thompson spread across social media, from TikTok to Twitter, LinkedIn to Bluesky — typically acerbic jokes about the poster’s empathy being out of network or that Thompson’s claim to sympathy had been denied. Some users commented with “deny, delay, depose” — a reference to the three words reportedly inscribed on the gunman’s shell casings, themselves a reference to the well-known insurance system tactic of “deny, delay, defend” when warding off claims from patients.


The online reaction felt uncomfortable to some bystanders given that we’re all supposed to care about human dignity — the idea that every single person has intrinsic and inalienable value. The concept is at the heart of human rights: It’s because every person has value that they have the right to, say, not be murdered.


Yet the people posting vitriolic comments about Thompson feel justified in being smug about the death of this human in particular. That may be understandable, given the millions of Americans who suffered as a result of the industry that he represented. But disregarding human dignity by committing or cheering on an act of violence can’t be the answer. So, what is? Is there a better way to square moral outrage at someone and what they represent, while keeping faith with a belief in their human dignity?

How to think about human dignity

Our greatest philosophers and spiritual thinkers have considered this same dilemma over the course of centuries. We can learn from the insights they surfaced along the way.

The idea of human dignity crystallized in the wake of World War II, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed in its first article, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” But the concept goes back much, much further.

It goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which teaches that humankind was created “in the image of God.” Both Judaism and Christianity took this to mean that each person has something of the divine in them. That means they have inherent worth, a fundamental sanctity that should be respected. In other words, the theological doctrine of imago dei, or “image of God,” isn’t just a creation myth, it is the grounds of a moral imperative: You have to treat people as though there’s God in them, because there is.

To get a sense of how this idea played out in the ancient imagination, consider this story. According to the Bible, when Moses was liberating the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he parted the sea so they could walk through to the other side. Pharaoh and his Egyptian charioteers came chasing after them. But as soon as the Israelites made it safely through, God sent the waves crashing back down, drowning the Egyptians.

The ancient rabbis, embellishing this biblical story, wrote that the angels in heaven started cheering and praising God when they saw the Egyptians drowning. God got angry at the angels and rebuked them: “The work of My hands, the Egyptians, are drowning at sea, and you wish to say songs?”

The story shows the tension between anger at an oppressor and the idea of human dignity — and it comes out on the side of human dignity.


This idea filtered down through Western thought and was amplified in the Enlightenment era. The 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant gave it a secular formulation when he argued that you should never treat a human being as a means to an end; people are ends in themselves. That provided a foundation for human dignity as it came to be codified in the secular human rights movement and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


The same core idea arose among Eastern thinkers. Buddhist philosophy, for example, emphasizes that all beings have “Buddha nature,” or the potential to be enlightened. Yes, we sometimes commit harmful actions, but that’s because we’re subject to certain “causes and conditions” — like ignorance and suffering — that keep us trapped in wrong views and habits. This philosophy encourages us to feel compassion for the person who is trapped in suffering and therefore acting unskillfully. It doesn’t mean we have to approve of their actions, but we shouldn’t hate the person or wish them ill even if their actions have harmed us.



When a human being has acted in a way that’s morally repugnant, you can remember that all humans have value and dignity, while also recognizing that sometimes their conditions — the systems they’re embedded in — twist them into morally deformed beings. That is tragic, and we mourn for that. It has tragic consequences for many other people, and we mourn for that, too. And then we turn that mourning into action: action to change the conditions, so that in future, such tragedy won’t occur again.

How to think about the people trolling Brian Thompson


Why has the public response to the killing of Thompson overwhelmingly been derision for the deceased and admiration for the unidentified shooter?


It would be easy to write this trend off as performative callousness or as a sardonic form of social media politicking. And it’s true that there’s an overwhelming tendency across social media for people to respond to juicy political moments with politically edged sound bites and memetic phrases — for example, gags about the hollow refrain of “thoughts and prayers,” or the demonstrative lack of empathy many show whenever a prominent anti-vaxxer dies from Covid or another preventable virus.


Yet there’s more going on here than just knee-jerk trolling, and it’s important to take a step back and think about why frustration is so high. Rather than blaming one another for not responding to news of the shooting in the “right” way, perhaps we should recognize that deficit as a yearning for a society that shows more compassion by default to its most vulnerable members.

Related:The deep roots of Americans’ hatred of their health care system


On Reddit’s News subreddit, the top thread about the shooting quickly filled with first-hand accounts of people whose claims had been denied by UHC and other insurance providers. “My wife has MS, and we have been fighting with the insurance company for months because they have been denying her medication,” wrote one user. “I don’t condone violence against these CEOs, but I understand it.”


In her newsletter, independent journalist Marisa Kabas posited that the overwhelmingly negative public response to Thompson in the wake of the shooting was more than just performative vitriol. Comparing the reactions to the death of former Secretary of State and accused war criminal Henry Kissinger, she wrote, “[I]t quickly became clear [Thompson] was someone who many Americans considered to have violated the human contract.”


When someone “violates the human contract,” it challenges us to think about how compassion works: Does it flow toward the largest number of people experiencing harm, toward a high-profile individual victim, or is there room in the imagination for both?


Ideally, the answer is both.


But when we see how the world operates, and all the compassion needed and often denied, it’s little wonder we find ourselves at a deficit. In an ever more polarized society of vastly unequal wealth and large pockets of anti-capitalist sentiment, many people are out of patience with being asked to have compassion for those who have shown little for people in their care, for humanity, or for the planet.


CEOs are arguably high on that list. Corporate regulation has been whittled down over the last 40 years, and executives typically face little personal accountability for even their most inhumane decisions. A recent Supreme Court ruling that limits the power of federal agencies to oversee various business sectors has made seeking accountability even harder — and that has vast ramifications for the health care industry in particular.


Health policy outlet KFF concluded that following the SCOTUS decision, there would be even more barriers to “key health care protections such as prescription drug affordability in Medicare, eligibility rules for Medicaid beneficiaries, infectious disease control and public safety standards, as well as consumer protections for those in self-insured private employer-sponsored plans.” In a separate 2023 poll, KFF found that 58 percent of adults had experienced a problem with their health insurance in the last 12 months and that among that number fully half of them had been unable to resolve the issue. Then there are the hardships involved with paying for insurance to begin with.


Of course Thompson and his family deserve our compassion. But the system he was a key part of frequently operated with little compassion for the humans at the other end of his decisions, and the responses that default to jokes about being “out of network” underscore that. UnitedHealthcare routinely brings in revenue of over $100 billion, with a 2025 revenue forecast of more than $450 billion. Of that, Thompson himself may have taken home as much as $10 million a year.


These sums are staggering, and it feels profoundly difficult to reconcile that much money with the many deeply personal social media stories currently making the rounds — stories of denied claims and agonized fights for basic service, including the deployment of an AI-based claims approval system that was wrong up to 90 percent of the time. But it’s also worth noting that Thompson was reportedly aware of the problems in his industry. One employee told the New York Times that Thompson often spoke about the need to change health care in the US.


The humanity we show each other is a complicated thing. It’s possible that when we try to express our need for it — in this case, for other people caught in America’s health care system — we may be getting further away from that same humanity. It’s difficult, after all, to see the efficacy of a memetic response when it comes across as a callous disregard for personal tragedy, as a denial of care for a dead man and his family.


Perhaps what’s required to grapple with this moment is an expansion of compassion rather than a limiting of it. You can have compassion for Brian Thompson and his family, and you can also have compassion for the millions of Americans who suffered as a result of the decisions made by his industry and the company he oversaw.


And then you can refocus on calling for the kind of meaningful systemic reforms that can actually make a difference — before the next viral vigilante prompts another cyclical cultural conversation about who deserves our empathy.

Ding’s comeback win over Gukesh ties World Chess Championship final

Chinese titleholder forces India’s teenaged challenger to resign in game 12 and tie the scores at six points each.

China's chess grandmaster Ding Liren (right) and India's chess grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju compete during the start of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore on November 25, 2024 [File: Roslan Rahman/AFP]

Published On 9 Dec 2024

Defending champion Ding Liren has bounced back strongly to beat his teenaged challenger in the 12th game and level the score in the home stretch of their FIDE World Chess Championship match.

India’s Gukesh Dommaraju was forced to resign in game 12 on Monday after finding his king cornered by the Chinese titleholder’s white pieces, which had advanced deeply into enemy territory.

Ding’s victory put both players at six points apiece, with only two more games to go in the classical format chess at Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa.

“It’s a very important 12th game. It’s maybe the best game I played in recent times,” Ding told reporters after the match.

After Sunday’s loss, the champion said he regained his energy with more sleep and some caffeine.

“Today, I took a cup of coffee before the game, which helped me feel much more energetic … a small cup of espresso,” said Ding, a native of Wenzhou city.

With the champion building a strong centre, Gukesh’s pieces were powerless to make any breakthrough.

The 18-year-old challenger seemed to gain the momentum for the title when he forced Ding to resign in the 11th game Sunday to take a 6-5 lead.

But it was not to be, and he has to wait, with two more games to be played on Wednesday and Thursday after a rest day on Tuesday.

“Obviously, it’s not pleasant to lose this game,” said a dejected Gukesh.

“At least the score is still tied and there are two more games remaining. So let’s see.”

Ding’s comeback on Monday was reminiscent of the 2023 World Championship, in which he overcame a 5-6 deficit by winning game 12 against Ian Nepomniachtchi in Kazakhstan.

He eventually forced a tie-breaker against the Russian and won, becoming the first Chinese player to be crowned world champion.

If both Ding and Gukesh are tied in 14 games, the match will move to a rapid-fire tie-breaker, which will be played on December 13.

At his age, Gukesh is the youngest player in history to compete in the World Championship, and he is looking to surpass Garry Kasparov as the youngest undisputed world chess champion.

WATCH: 

Biden announces creation of Native American boarding school national monument at Tribal Nations Summit

By — Matt Brown, Associated Press
By —Marc Levy, Associated Press

 Dec 9, 2024 

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden designated a national monument at a former Native American boarding school in Pennsylvania on Monday to honor the resilience of Indigenous tribes whose children were forced to attend the school and hundreds of similar abusive institutions.

Watch in our player above.

Biden announced creation of the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument as he hosted tribal leaders at a White House summit.

Thousands of children passed through the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School by the time it closed in 1918, including Olympian Jim Thorpe. They came from dozens of tribes under forced assimilation policies that were meant to erase Native American traditions and “civilize” the children so they would better fit into white society.

READ MORE: Boarding school history ‘a sin on our soul,’ Biden says in historic apology to Native communities

It was the first school of its type and became a template for a network of government-backed Native American boarding schools that ultimately expanded to at least 37 states.

“About 7,800 children from more than 140 tribes were sent to Carlyle — stolen from their families, their tribes and their homelands. It was wrong making the Carlisle Indian school a national model,” Biden told the White House summit. “We don’t erase history. We acknowledge it, we learn from it and we remember so we never repeat it again.”

“We don’t erase history. We acknowledge it, we learn from it and we remember so we never repeat it again.”

Thorpe’s great-grandson, James Thorpe Kossakowski, called Biden’s designation “historic” and an important step to expand Americans’ understanding of the federal government’s forced assimilation policy.

“It’s very emotional for me to walk around, to look at the area where my great-grandfather had gone through school, where he had met my great-grandmother, where they were married, where he stayed in his dorm room, where he worked out and trained,” Kossakowski, 54, of Elburn, Illinois, said in an interview.

The children were often taken against the will of their parents, and an estimated 187 Native American and Alaska Native children died at the institution in Carlisle, including from tuberculosis and other diseases.

WATCH: Sexual abuse of Native American children at boarding schools exposed in new report

“Designating the former campus of the Carlisle School, with boundaries consistent with the National Historic Landmark, as a national monument will help ensure this shameful chapter of American history is never forgotten or repeated,” Biden said in his proclamation for the monument.

There are ongoing efforts to return the children’s remains, which were buried on the school’s grounds, to their homelands.

“They represent 50 tribal nations from Alaska to New Mexico to New York and I think that symbolizes how horrific Carlisle was,” said Beth Margaret Wright, a Native American Rights Fund lawyer who has represented tribes trying to get the Army to return their children’s remains and who herself is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, which has children still buried there.

Carlisle was a model for many other schools that came after it and a huge majority of tribal nations that exist today have stories of their children being sent to Carlisle, Wright said.

In September, the remains of three children who died at Carlisle were disinterred and returned to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana.

At least 973 Native American children died at government-funded boarding schools that operated for more than 150 years, according to an Interior Department investigation.

During a series of public listening sessions on reservations over the past several years hosted by the Interior Department, survivors of the schools recalled being beaten, forced to cut their hair and punished for using their native languages.

The forced assimilation policy officially ended with the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978. But the government never fully investigated the boarding school system until the Biden administration.

Biden in October apologized on behalf of the U.S. government for the schools and the policies that supported them.

President Joe Biden meets attendees during the Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior on Dec. 9, 2024. Photo by Elizabeth Frantz/ Reuters

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents were taken to boarding schools against their families’ will, said no single action would adequately address the harms caused by the schools. But she said the administration’s efforts have made a difference and the new monument would allow the American people to learn more about the government’s harmful policies.

“This trauma is not new to Indigenous people, but it is new for many people in our nation,” Haaland said in a statement.

The schools, similar institutions and related assimilation programs were funded by a total of $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted federal spending, officials determined. Religious and private institutions that ran many of the schools received federal money as partners in the assimilation campaign.

Monday’s announcement marks the seventh national monument created by Biden. The 25-acre site (10 hectares) will be managed by the National Park Service and the U.S. Army. The site is part of the campus of the U.S. Army War College.

For Wright, one of the most powerful places at the Carlisle school is where imprints of the since-removed train tracks were that delivered children there.

“There’s no longer train tracks there, but you can see where they might have been and where their children would have arrived for the first time and seen a place so far away and seen a place so horrific,” Wright said.

Native American tribes and conservation groups are pressing for more monument designations before Biden leaves office.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

PELTIER ILLEGALY ARRESTED IN VANCOUVER BC BY RCMP
AND HANDED OVER TO THE FBI

Netanyahu to take witness stand for the first time in his corruption trial in Israel

By — Tia Goldenberg, Associated Press

Dec 9, 2024 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to take to the witness stand Tuesday for the first time in his trial on corruption allegations, a pivotal point in the drawn-out proceedings that comes as the leader wages war in Gaza and faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes charges.

READ MORE: ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials alleging war crimes

At home, Netanyahu is on trial for accusations of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, but his appearance on the witness stand will be a low point in his decades-long political career, standing in contrast to the image of a sophisticated, respected leader he has tried to cultivate.

The trial will take up a chunk of Netanyahu’s time at a crucial point for Israel. While he makes his case for weeks from the stand, he will still be tasked with managing the war in Gaza, maintaining a fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and keeping tabs on threats from the wider Middle East, including Iran.

It will be the first time an Israeli prime minister has taken the stand as a criminal defendant, and Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to delay the proceedings, citing the ongoing Gaza war and security concerns. The judges ordered the trial to resume Tuesday, moving the proceedings to an underground chamber in a Tel Aviv court as a security precaution.

WATCH: War crimes court issues warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister

Netanyahu’s appearance in the courtroom will also draw attention to other legal issues in the Israeli leader’s orbit. Close advisers in his office are embroiled in a separate series of scandals surrounding leaked classified information and doctored documents. While Netanyahu is not suspected of direct involvement in those, they could weaken his public image.

Here is a look at the ongoing trial.

Where does Netanyahu’s trial stand?

The trial, which began in 2020, involves three separate cases in which prosecutors say Netanyahu exchanged regulatory favors with media titans for favorable press coverage and advanced the personal interests of a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for lavish gifts.

Prosecutors have called roughly 140 witnesses to the stand — fewer than the 300 initially expected to testify.

Those witnesses have included some of Netanyahu’s closest former confidants who turned against him, as well as a former prime minister, former security chiefs and media personalities. Lawyers have submitted thousands of items of evidence — recordings, police documents, text messages.

A new documentary, “The Bibi Files,” has shined new light on the cases by obtaining footage of Netanyahu being questioned by police, as well as interrogations of his wife and some key witnesses. In a glimpse of what can be expected in the courtroom, Netanyahu appears both combative and anxious at times, accusing police of unfairly picking on him and denigrating other witnesses as liars.

The prosecution called to the stand its final witness over the summer, bringing to an end three years of testimony and setting the stage for the defense to lay out its case, with Netanyahu its first witness. Netanyahu’s appearance will give Israelis a chance to see the long-serving Israeli leader answer to the charges before the three-judge panel.

What are some notable moments from Netanyahu’s trial?

The prosecution has sought to portray Netanyahu as media-obsessed, to push its narrative that he would break the law for favorable coverage.

Witness accounts have shed light not only on the three cases but also on sensational details about Netanyahu’s character and his family’s reputation for living lavishly on the backs of taxpayers and wealthy supporters.

One former aide and a key prosecution witness called him a “control freak” over his image. Another witness described expensive gifts for Netanyahu and his wife.

Arnon Milchan, an Israeli producer of Hollywood blockbuster films such as “Pretty Woman,” took the stand last year by videoconference, describing how he routinely delivered tens of thousands of dollars of champagne, cigars and other gifts requested by the Israeli leader.

One key witness, a former top aide to Netanyahu, stunned prosecutors by backtracking from his earlier claims against the prime minister, opening the door for the defense to erode his credibility as a witness. The trial was jolted by Israeli media reports that police used sophisticated phone-hacking software to spy on this witness.

What happens next in Netanyahu’s trial?

The prosecution formally rested its case in July, and the court recessed for the summer and fall. The defense has repeatedly asked for delays in Netanyahu’s testimony, which have mostly been denied.

Like other witnesses, Netanyahu will testify three days a week, for hours at a time, and his testimony is expected to last weeks. The defense will seek to depict Netanyahu as a law-abiding leader who was a victim of careless and biased police investigations.

Netanyahu’s critics have sought to draw a clear line between the cases and the war in Gaza. They say the allegations led Netanyahu to promote a contentious judicial overhaul plan last year that bitterly divided the country and created an image of weakness that encouraged the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war.

Netanyahu’s critics, including families of hostages held by Hamas, now accuse him of dragging out the conflict — and risking the lives of their loved ones — to avoid an embarrassing investigation and new elections that could force him from power.

If he is eventually voted out of power, being away from the prime minister’s seat would make it harder for Netanyahu to rail against the justice system and delegitimize the verdict in the eyes of the public.

A verdict isn’t expected until 2026 — at least — and then Netanyahu can choose to appeal to the Supreme Court. Israel’s courts are notoriously sluggish, and the case was further delayed last year when courts went on hiatus for two months after war broke out following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Once the defense rests, each side will summarize their cases before judges convene to deliberate over Netanyahu’s fate.

UH OH

Mysterious illness, dubbed "disease X," has killed dozens of people in Congo, WHO says


By Sarah Carter
December 9, 2024

CBS News


A mysterious illness, which the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling "disease X," has killed at least 31 people — mostly children — in the remote Panzi region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization says.

The WHO said Sunday that 406 cases of the disease have been recorded in the Kwango Province, approximately 435 miles southeast of the capital Kinshasa. More than half of those who died were children younger than 5 years old who were severely malnourished, the health agency said.

The actual number of deaths in the region is difficult to determine, and some reports say as many as 143 people have died. A team of scientists from the World Health Organization is on the ground investigating the illness, which researchers believe started circulating in October.

The DRC's Ministry of Public health sent an alert to WHO on Oct. 29 saying it was concerned about a mysterious illness that had caused "increased" deaths in the Panzi health region, according to the WHO. The ministry said in a press briefing on Dec. 5 that the mortality rate was about 8% and that several deaths were reported outside of health facilities.

The community deaths are of concern, local health officials told CBS News, and the WHO said they need to be investigated.

Doctors say the disease presents much like a respiratory infection, with people suffering from fevers, headaches, coughing, runny noses and body aches. The WHO said rapid response teams have been sent to identify the cause of the outbreak and help coordinate a suitable response.

"The teams are collecting samples for laboratory testing, providing a more detailed clinical characterization of the detected cases, investigating the transmission dynamics and actively searching for additional cases, both within health facilities and at the community level," the WHO said in a statement Sunday.

"Given the clinical presentation and symptoms reported, and a number of associated deaths, acute pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19, measles and malaria are being considered as potential causal factors with malnutrition as a contributing factor," the WHO said. "Malaria is a common disease in this area, and it may be causing or contributing to the cases."

The area where the outbreak is taking place is remote, located roughly 48 hours by road from the capital Kinshasa. The rainy season, which brings an influx of malaria cases, is complicating the situation, the WHO said. There is also no functional laboratory in the region, and communication infrastructure is limited. The area is also at risk of attacks by armed groups, the WHO said.

Experts have warned about the risks of further spread of the disease and said they have not ruled out that it is airborne. The WHO said the risk at a global level remains low, but that due to the proximity of the boarder with Angola, there is concern of cross-border transmission.