Wednesday, May 04, 2022

With water running out, California faces grim summer of dangerous heat, extreme drought


Paul Duginski, Alex Wigglesworth
Wed, May 4, 2022,

California faces severe and extreme drought after two consecutive La Niña years, and the hot, dry summer season hasn't even started. 
(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)

Heat waves. Severe drought. Extreme wildfires.

As Southern California braces for unprecedented drought restrictions, long-range forecasts are predicting a summer that will be fraught with record-breaking temperatures, sere landscapes and above-average potential for significant wildfires, particularly in the northern part of the state.

“The dice are loaded for a lot of big fires across the West,” said Park Williams, a climate scientist at UCLA. “And the reason for that is simple: The vast majority of the western U.S. is in pretty serious drought.”

Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the temperature outlook for the transition from spring into summer this year calls for above-normal readings for most of the West.


At the same time, the agency also reported that while long-range forecasts had suggested the climate phenomenon known as La Niña was dissipating — raising a glimmer of hope that California might experience a normal winter in 2022 — it now appeared that the “little girl” was hanging on, possibly into a third year.

If NOAA is correct, high temperatures and the lingering La Niña will have major impacts on urban and agricultural water use across the American West, as well as for California’s increasingly extreme fire season.

Already, the federal government has announced that it will delay water releases from Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir, as a result of worsening drought conditions along the Colorado River. In an effort to boost the shrinking reservoir, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that it plans to hold back water to reduce risks of the lake falling below a point at which Glen Canyon Dam would no longer generate electricity.

Unlike its wetter and better known sibling, El Niño, La Niña typically brings dry winters to Southern California and the Southwest.

Now, with California’s rainy season largely in the rearview mirror and a hot dry summer rapidly approaching, forecasters say La Niña has a 59% chance of continuing through the summer, and up to a 55% chance of persisting through the fall.



The seasonal outlook from NOAA calls for a hot summer in the West. 
(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)

Experts say this summer could be a repeat of last year, when fires burned more than 2.5 million acres across California — more than any other year except 2020.

“Last year, one thing that made the fire season especially active were the extreme heat waves that occurred across the West during summertime,” Williams said. “So we’re in a similar situation this year, where we’re going into summer with extremely dry conditions, but we don’t yet know whether there are going to be more record heat waves this year. That’s why there’s still a lot of uncertainty in how the fire season is actually going to play out.”

Warming of the planet due to human activity has increased the likelihood of severe heat waves, and hotter temperatures also worsen drought by causing snowpack to melt earlier in the year, and causing more precipitation to fall as rain, instead of snow.

“The chances of having record-breaking heat waves this year are higher than normal,” Williams said. “But there’s still room for hope that we get lucky.”

Already this year, California has seen 1,402 fires that have together burned 6,507 acres. That compares with 1,639 fires that burned 4,779 acres at this time last year, said Capt. Chris Bruno of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Cal Fire is currently holding trainings in all its programs, from helicopter rescues to hand crews, and is bringing on seasonal employees to support operations with an eye toward reaching peak staffing — which averages 10,000 employees — by June or July, he said.

La Niña’s refusal to move on could also cause problems for places other than California.

La Niña influences climate around the globe, and is cyclical. It can bring drought to some parts of the world at the same time as it brings torrential rain to others.

“Both La Niña and El Niño are major disturbances in ‘the force’” said climatologist Bill Patzert. Some weather disasters around the world have been blamed on climate change but are actually typical of the La Niña impacts we’ve seen in the past, although they may well be intensified or changed by warming brought on by the burning of fossil fuels, he said.

“La Niña and El Niño have always had large global footprints,” Patzert said.

While California had its driest January, February and March on record, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest were wet. Across the Pacific Ocean, Australians were fleeing record flooding. Prolonged drought gripped equatorial eastern Africa, raising the specter of famine for millions of people in the Horn of Africa. At the same time, parts of South Africa, such as Durban, received record rainfall. Torrential downpours triggered flooding and landslides in Rio de Janeiro.

There are other influences as well. La Niñas usually weaken wind shear in the Caribbean and tropical Atlantic, contributing to increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin. Both 2020 and 2021 were active hurricane seasons, with 2020 going into the record books as the year with the most named storms of any season on record.

This year, forecasters at Colorado State University have predicted 19 named storms, including nine hurricanes. This would be the

seventh consecutive above-average Atlantic hurricane season, according to Patzert.

In the northern United States, La Niñas are typically associated with colder, stormier-than-average conditions and increased precipitation. In the southern U.S., they’re known for warmer, drier and less stormy conditions.

Thankfully, La Niña doesn’t last forever.

Both La Niña and El Niño are part of what is called the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. Between them is a neutral phase, which is what forecasters had thought we were headed toward this spring.

In the meantime, forecasters say, the dryness in the western U.S. has a silver lining, at least for Southern and Central California. While the National Interagency Fire Center is predicting that much of the northern portion of the state will see an above-normal potential for significant fires through August, meteorologists are calling for near- to below-normal fire activity in the southern reaches.

That’s because there hasn’t been enough rain to grow the grasses that often serve as fuel for Southern and Central California’s lower-elevation fires, said U.S. Forest Service meteorologist Matt Shameson.

“I’d say the fine fuels are about ankle to calf high,” he said. “Normally, they’re about knee to waist high.”

The region has seen no significant grass fires so far this year, which normally start across the lower elevations in the middle of April, he added.

Northern California has received more rain, particularly at the end of March through April, so there is a more robust grass crop, which helps spread fire by carrying it up into larger fuels like trees, he said. In addition, Northern California has more vegetation in general, so fires there are typically not limited by the amount of fuel available.

“I think that this year is going to pretty much mimic last year — very similar conditions are expected,” Shameson said. Southern California had fewer significant fires than average and saw less acreage burned, while Northern California shattered records, with the Dixie fire scorching nearly 1 million acres and burning across the Sierra Nevada for the first time in recorded history.

“I can tell you: They’re expecting another big fire season up north,” he said.

The effects of these repeated large, severe fires have the potential to be ecologically devastating and pose a real risk of compromising the state’s climate goals, experts say. The Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade ranges, which currently store close to half of California’s captured carbon, lost 1.1 million tons of stored carbon to wildfire, drought and invasive pests from 2018 to 2019 alone, according to recently published research by scientists at UC Berkeley.

“That’s a 35% reduction in just a year,” said author Alexis Bernal, a research specialist at UC Berkeley’s Stephens Lab. “And we know that these disturbances are only going to increase in frequency and intensity with climate change.”

She and other scientists are calling for land managers to increase forest resiliency by thinning vegetation and increasing the use of prescribed fires to reduce the density of forests so that blazes burn less severely through them.

Absent intervention, she said, it’s projected that the Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade region will lose over 75% of its above-ground carbon stocks by 2069, sending about 860 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

“That means the Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade region will no longer be a carbon sink, as it is now,” she said. “It will be a carbon source.”

Large, high-severity burn patches can also result in ecosystem collapse by converting forests into grass and shrublands, she added.

“These landscapes may no longer function as forests anymore,” she said. “They may function as something else, which would be pretty devastating for all living things, including ourselves, that rely on these forests to survive.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
CDC Reissues Mask Recommendation On Planes And Public Transportation Across America As Much Of The Northeast Moves Into “High Transmission” Category

Tom Tapp
Tue, May 3, 2022


The Centers for Disease Control and prevention announced a new recommendation that masks be worn by all persons 2 and older “in indoor areas of public transportation (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation hubs (such as airports, stations, etc.).” The CDC also encouraged people to wear “in crowded or poorly ventilated locations, such as airport jetways.”

The announcement comes a little over two weeks after a U.S. District judge in Florida ruled the CDC’s mask mandate exceeded its authority. The Justice Department has said it plans to appeal the ruling, if the CDC indicates it’s needed.

The CDC had, the week before the court ruling, extended the mask requirement through today. The recent announcement comes as a recommendation and not a mandate, however, which means it does not carry the force of law. Local governments, for the time being, can decide whether or not they want to follow the it.

Cases and hospitalizations have begun to rise across the United States as new, more transmissible variants spread in waves. BA.2 began driving cases last month, quickly becoming dominant nationwide. Even more transmissible Omicron BA.2.12.1, first identified in the U.S. in February, is well on its way to pushing BA.2 out. Data released today show that BA.2.12.1 now makes up 36.5% of all newly-sequenced positive Covid tests having made a jump of close to 100% in the past two weeks.

The CDC’s authority may be tested again as cities such as New York have moved into what federal health officials have dubbed the medium, or yellow, risk category for virus transmission. (The current categories are much more lenient than those in place last year.)

New York City is now seeing close to 2,500 new cases per day, that’s a big rise from 600 daily cases in early March. If New York and other regions move into red or high level of transmission, it could trigger the return of public health restrictions, such as masking. In fact, many areas of the Northeast are already in the red. See the map below.

. - Credit: CDC
The Associated Press reports that, based on CDC data, “half of Vermont’s 14 counties have now been rated as having high community levels of COVID-19.” The state’s largest city, Burlington, ended its indoor mask mandate just last month. There seems to be little enthusiasm for the return of such mandates either on the part of the region’s residents or their elected officials.


Scientists worried Mars rocks retrieved by NASA may host alien germs

Joshua Hawkins
Wed, May 4, 2022, 


NASA is planning to bring rocks from Mars to Earth. The space agency has asked for the public’s opinion on its plan to retrieve samples that Perseverance has gathered. It’s a monumental moment in our efforts to explore the Red Planet. Despite the excitement around it, some scientists are concerned alien germs could catch a ride back, too.

Scientists warn that Martian samples could hold alien germs


A concept of the Mars sample retriever that could bring alien germs to Earth

NASA is currently holding public meetings this week and asking for feedback about its sample retrieval plans. As it stands, the space agency plans to land a spacecraft with Martian samples at a U.S. Air Force base in the early 2030s. That’s still a long way off, but some scientists warn NASA needs to ensure we’re protected from any alien germs that might piggyback a ride back, too.

“I think that it’s a very low probability that there’s anything living at the surface of Mars,” says Peter Doran, a geologist at Louisiana State University. “But there is a possibility.” (via NPR)

NASA’s current plan will see a container with the samples shot into orbit from the surface of the planet. From there, another container will collect the sample container from orbit. From there, the samples will be delivered to Earth, so they can be studied. Again, it’s a monumental move, and one that we’ve been building toward for quite a while. But what happens if those samples do have alien germs on them?
Ill-suited survival


rover

If you’ve seen a lot of science fiction movies, then you’re probably in the concerned camp. While it might seem improbable that we’d have to worry about alien germs affecting us on Earth, it is always a possibility. However, Jim Bell, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University says that any life on Mars would be ill-suited to survive on the Earth.

“We’re talking about a completely different ecosystem, a completely different potential biosphere,” Bell says. “And, of course, we don’t know if there is or was a biosphere on Mars at all.” (via NPR)

As such, the chance of any alien germs surviving on the Martian samples is low. However, NASA isn’t disregarding the danger. The space agency is planning to take a conservative approach to bringing the samples to Earth. And NASA will sterilize and contain anything that has contacted Mars directly.

Of course, how NASA plans to carry this plan out is subject to change. And, in future months, we could see more news about how NASA plans to handle any alien germs that might be found. If we really do want to make Mars breathable, as well as find a way for humans to live on Mars, we’re going to need to study those samples more in-depth.
NANCY PELOSI HAS NEVER SAID FREE PALESTINE
Top Pro-Israel Group Reshapes Democratic Primaries With Multimillion-Dollar Barrage
AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS USED FOR ZIONIST LOBBYING
Daniel Marans
Tue, May 3, 2022,

The 2021 election of Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio), center, has become a model for pro-Israel groups hoping to beat back growing pro-Palestinian sympathy among Democrats. (Photo: Tom Williams/Getty Images)

The country’s most influential pro-Israel group has dramatically escalated its direct involvement in elections, reshaping Democratic primaries with its endorsements, campaign contributions and lavish super PAC.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) founded a super PAC, United Democracy Project, that has already spent nearly $3.5 million to influence just five congressional primaries, according to a HuffPost analysis of federal election disclosures. The size of the spending is a source of anger and anxiety for more left-leaning groups.

“They clearly are trying to intimidate people with large sums of money from small groups of people,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a more liberal pro-Israel group.

James Zogby, a pro-Palestinian activist and president of the Arab American Institute, said the new burst of spending confirmed the oft-denied influence of pro-Israel money in U.S. politics.

“It certainly makes [Minnesota Rep.] Ilhan Omar’s, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins’ comment seem less problematic than it appeared to some at the time,” said Zogby, referring to Omar’s 2019 tweet of rap lyrics implying that campaign money drove pro-Israel sentiment on Capitol Hill. (Omar apologized for the comments amid accusations of anti-Semitism.)

For decades, AIPAC, a right-leaning group that advocates for U.S. aid and diplomatic support for Israel with as few conditions as possible, has been known as a lobbying powerhouse capable of significantly shaping U.S. foreign policy.

But in previous election cycles, AIPAC deferred to its donors to bundle campaign contributions under the auspices of independent groups.

It is entirely consistent with progressive values to support America’s alliance with the Jewish state.Marshall Wittmann, AIPAC

In response to a small, but significant shift among some congressional Democrats toward greater criticism of the Israeli government, however, AIPAC launched United Democracy Project, alongside its first-ever list of direct candidate endorsements and campaign donation bundling program.

The group announced its new political ventures in December, but the full impact of its involvement has only become clear in recent weeks as it unveiled its endorsements and began spending big sums.

AIPAC’s “strength was that they had bipartisan support. They need that to continue, but they’ve made a calculation that they can’t sit around,” said Adam Loewy, a trial lawyer and AIPAC donor from Austin, Texas.

AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann would not directly say whether the group’s growing involvement is a response to the advent of left-wing factions like the “Squad.”

“It is entirely consistent with progressive values to support America’s alliance with the Jewish state,” Wittmann said in a statement. “We are engaged in races where there is a distinct difference between candidates on supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship — which is in the progressive tradition.”

Loewy was more explicit about how the Squad and its allies had affected AIPAC’s calculus.

“AIPAC always had a saying, ‘Everyone is either a friend or a potential friend,’” he said. “There’s another category here. You’re not gonna have a potential friend in [Minnesota Rep.] Ilhan Omar. It’s just not going to happen.”

True to its history as a bipartisan, single-issue organization, AIPAC has endorsed 326 members of Congress and congressional candidates from both parties, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks at the 2019 AIPAC conference. AIPAC cultivates both parties, but its endorsement of Republicans who objected to the 2020 presidential election results has prompted some blowback. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks at the 2019 AIPAC conference. AIPAC cultivates both parties, but its endorsement of Republicans who objected to the 2020 presidential election results has prompted some blowback. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press)

But the nature of U.S. support for Israel is not a matter of debate among Republicans the way it is among Democrats, and AIPAC’s spending priorities reflect that reality.

AIPAC has begun intervening financially in Democratic primaries in two key ways: bundling donations by encouraging individual donors to earmark contributions under AIPAC’s auspices; and launching a super PAC, United Democracy Project, not subject to federal campaign finance limits.

United Democracy Project reported raising $15.7 million in the first quarter of this year. Its largest individual donor is Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban, who is also a prolific contributor to official Democratic Party organs and candidates.

In just a few weeks since it began spending that money, United Democracy Project has invested nearly $3.5 million in just five races. All of the contests are Democratic primaries in the U.S. House where AIPAC is backing more moderate Democrats against left-leaning candidates or members of Congress with more critical postures toward the Israeli government.

The super PAC has spent:

More than $282,000 in support of Rep. Shontel Brown in her rematch against Nina Turner in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District;


More than $1 million in support of attorney Steve Irwin, who is running against state Rep. Summer Lee in Pennsylvania’s 12th;


Over $885,000 in support of state Sen. Don Davis, who is running against former state Sen. Erica Smith in North Carolina’s 1st;


Nearly $893,000 in support of state Sen. Valerie Foushee, who is running in North Carolina against Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam;


And more than $333,000 in support of Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat facing a runoff against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th.

The Turner-Brown rematch in Ohio’s 11th on Tuesday is the first test this cycle of the right-leaning, pro-Israel lobby’s stepped-up spending.

In that race, AIPAC is supplementing the work of the super PAC Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), which unlike AIPAC, only supports Democratic candidates.

DMFI came into existence in 2019 to combat the shift toward pro-Palestinian sympathies in the growing left wing of the Democratic Party.

Brown’s victory last August in the special primary election to fill Ohio’s predominantly Democratic 11th district is DMFI’s biggest victory to date. DMFI, which spent over $2 million to elect Brown, took justifiable credit for offsetting Turner’s fundraising edge and turning Turner’s anti-establishment record into a liability in the eyes of voters.


Pro-Israel groups hope to defeat Nina Turner, a left-wing icon and former Ohio state senator, for a second time on Tuesday. (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)

This time, DMFI wanted to make sure Brown stayed in Congress, spending an additional $1 million in support of her reelection.

Brown’s win “sent a very important message that being pro-Israel was not just wise policy, but also good politics,” said Mark Mellman, president of DMFI. “We thought it was very important to confirm that message with another victory in the same place with the same two candidates, and that’s why we’re again the number-one spender in this race.”

Of course, these interventions have not gone totally unanswered on the left.

J Street, which supports a more proactive U.S. role in brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace, has also escalated its investment in Democratic primaries. J Street’s federal PAC, JStreetPAC, has endorsed 146 candidates this cycle, including Summer Lee, Jessica Cisneros, Erica Smith and Rep. Andy Levin, who are running against AIPAC-backed Democrats. And the group launched a super PAC, the J Street Action Fund, in January, with the goal of countering more conservative pro-Israel spending in elections.

“We’re adjusting to the change in the rules of the game,” Ben-Ami told HuffPost.

Thus far though, J Street has raised modest sums compared to AIPAC. The group’s first intervention was a $100,000 investment in digital advertisements in support of Cisneros’ primary run in Texas.

More spending is coming, but J Street acknowledges that it cannot match AIPAC, DMFI and similar groups dollar for dollar.

There’s change coming and I don’t think they know how to deal with it.James Zogby, Arab American Institute

“We have decent financial capacity, but we don’t have their financial capacity,” J Street spokesperson Logan Bayroff told HuffPost in a follow-up interview.

AIPAC and DMFI are not identical, but they are both part of a constellation of U.S.-based pro-Israel groups that fight against meaningful U.S. pressure on the Israeli government, which they believe is understandably concerned about Palestinian terrorism and other threats. While these groups tend to officially support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they do not think that the U.S. needs to facilitate the resolution of that conflict with anything more than gentle nudges. And notably, AIPAC, unlike J Street, doggedly fought then-President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear nonproliferation agreement with Iran on the grounds that it jeopardized Israel’s security.

Many Palestinians, progressive foreign policy experts, and some left-leaning U.S. lawmakers, by contrast, see Israel’s continued military occupation of Palestinian lands conquered in 1967 as a key impediment to a just peace, and believe that the United States, as Israel’s chief financial and diplomatic sponsor, has a special responsibility to encourage an end to that occupation. Absent U.S. intervention, Israel’s power over a stateless people will prevent the occupation — and the cycles of violence it inspires — from ending in a fair or timely fashion, according to these more pro-Palestinian voices.


The 2018 election of Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), left, and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) increased pro-Palestinian sentiment in Congress and scared right-leaning pro-Israel groups. 
(Photo: Jim Mone/Associated Press)

A growing number of these pro-Palestinian figures have abandoned a two-state solution in favor of a single, binational Arab-Jewish state on the land that is currently Israel. To achieve this goal, a contingent on the left has heeded Palestinian civil society groups’ call for a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The BDS movement, which has prompted charges of anti-Semitism from Israel and even some liberal critics of Israel, seeks to isolate Israel as the international community once did to South Africa’s apartheid government.

The BDS movement still does not have much purchase in Congress.

But the election of a tiny number of pro-BDS lawmakers, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), has at least had the effect of making groups like J Street seem moderate by comparison.

J Street continues to oppose BDS — and support a two-state solution facilitated by U.S. pressure and diplomacy.

“It does clarify that where J Street stands is right in the middle,” Ben-Ami said.

J Street itself has nonetheless moved to the left in the past two years. It now supports legislation that would prohibit Israel from using U.S. aid in territories that Israel has occupied since 1967. The bill, “The Two-State Solution Act,” has 45 co-sponsors in the House, but no chance of advancing further at present.

As a result of these shifts, some advocates for Palestinian human rights and independence view the unprecedented super PAC spending by right-leaning pro-Israel groups as a sign of desperation from people who are losing the philosophical debate.

“They see themselves as the little Dutch boy in the story putting his finger in the dike,” Zogby said. “There’s change coming and I don’t think they know how to deal with it.”

Zogby predicted a backlash to these pro-Israel groups’ “heavy and very transparent hand.”

Indeed, there were signs of that blowback even before AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, got going in earnest. The progressive caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, which had granted its stamp of approval to five different Democratic candidates in North Carolina’s 4th, withdrew its support for Valerie Foushee in mid-April after it emerged that AIPAC had bundled a majority of Foushee’s first-quarter campaign contributions. The caucus objected to Foushee accepting support from AIPAC given AIPAC’s endorsement for 109 out of the 147 congressional Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results.


Greg Casar, right, speaks to the press alongside fellow Texas progressive Jessica Cisneros. A pro-Israel super PAC is spending big sums against Cisneros, but Casar escaped unscathed. 
(Photo: Eric Gay/Associated Press)

And on Monday, the editorial board of North Carolina’s News & Observer newspaper cited the influx of AIPAC money for Foushee as a reason to endorse Allam.

“The heavy AIPAC support is clearly targeted at keeping Allam, a Muslim who has criticized Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people, out of Congress,” the newspaper wrote in its endorsement. “Foushee’s campaign should be about what she stands for and not what an increasingly conservative super PAC stands against.”

Bayroff, the J Street spokesperson, also noted that the five progressive candidates on the receiving end of AIPAC’s super PAC spending are all women of color and suggested it spoke to AIPAC’s bias.

Wittmann rejected the accusation, noting that two of the candidates it is supporting in those races — Foushee and Brown — are women of color as well.

“Our focus is exclusively based on the candidate’s views on the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said.

In any event, AIPAC supporters like Loewy accept pushback from progressives as the kind of collateral damage that is worth the possibility of greater influence in Washington.

“I’m happy [AIPAC’s] doing it,” Loewy said. “But I know there will be some drop-off from liberal AIPAC supporters uncomfortable with how aggressive they’re getting.”

Arguing that AIPAC’s more aggressive tactics are already yielding results, Loewy cited as an example the steps that Austin progressive Greg Casar took to head off pro-Israel spending ahead of his March 1 Democratic congressional primary. In a letter to an Austin rabbi in January, Casar renounced BDS, expressed interest in visiting Israel and indicated that he would not support singling out U.S. aid to Israel for scrutiny. The letter cost Casar the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America, but also spared him the brunt of a pro-Israel super PAC.

With a landslide primary victory in Texas’ solidly Democratic 35th Congressional District in hand, Casar is now all but assured to win a seat in Congress this November. In that way, Casar’s fate embodies the carrot-and-stick message that AIPAC wants all candidates to internalize: Accommodate yourself to the Israel lobby’s policy demands, and you may be spared a multimillion dollar assault on the airwaves.

Pro-Israel groups’ heavy spending is “working,” said Loewy, who nonetheless contributed the maximum legal donation to Casar’s primary opponent, Eddie Rodriguez. “I think the Casar race is a very good example of how it’s working.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
FRAMED BY ZIONISTS
Aid worker held in Israel for 6 years insists he's innocent


Israel Palestinians World Vision
Amal el-Halabi holds her grandson Fares while her grandson Amro, 7, holds a picture of his father Mohammed el-Halabi, Gaza director of the international charity World Vision, who is detained and accused by Israeli security of diverting sums to Hamas that exceed its total budget, at his family house in Gaza City, Aug. 8, 2016. 
In May 2022, nearly six years after Israel accused Mohammed el-Halabi of diverting tens of millions of dollars from an international charity to Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, he has yet to be convicted in an Israeli court and is still being held in detention
World Vision as well as independent auditors and the Australian government, have found no evidence of any wrongdoing. 

Arabic on the picture reads, " the man of humanity."
 AP Photo/Adel Hana,

JOSEPH KRAUSS
Tue, May 3, 2022, 12:11 AM·5 min read


JERUSALEM (AP) — Nearly six years after Israel accused Mohammed el-Halabi of diverting tens of millions of dollars from an international charity to Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, he has yet to be convicted in an Israeli court and is still being held in detention.

World Vision — a major Christian charity that operates around the world — as well as independent auditors and the Australian government have found no evidence of any wrongdoing. El-Halabi's lawyer says he has rejected multiple plea bargains that would have allowed him to walk free years ago. Closing arguments ended in September.

The prosecution has requested another hearing Monday to extend his detention.

The explosive allegations resemble those made against six Palestinian rights groups last year. In each case, Israel publicly accused organizations of ties to militant groups without providing much evidence, sending shudders through their donors and partners and leading some to cut ties.


Critics say Israel often relies on questionable informants. They allege that Israel smears groups that provide aid or other support to Palestinians in order to shore up its nearly 55-year military occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

Lior Haiat, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Israel stands by the allegations against el-Halabi, which are “well established and rely on concrete evidence.” He said the defense had deliberately prolonged the trial after the prosecution rested in May 2018, allegations rejected by el-Halabi's lawyer.

“Israel does not aim to intimidate (non-governmental organizations), nor to keep them from operating in Gaza,” Haiat said. “But we definitely aim to prevent transfer of NGO money that should be helping the people of Gaza in to the hands of a terror organization like Hamas.”

After el-Halabi's arrest, World Vision suspended its activities in Gaza, where over 2 million Palestinians live under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed when Hamas seized power nearly 15 years ago. Israel says the restrictions are needed to contain Hamas, while critics view them as a form of collective punishment.

World Vision said its entire Gaza budget over the previous 10 years was $22.5 million, making the alleged diversion of $50 million “hard to reconcile.” El-Halabi had been appointed manager of its Gaza operations in October 2014, less than two years before he was arrested.

World Vision worked with several Western donor countries to construct an independent audit. World Vision declined to name the auditors because of a non-disclosure agreement, but last year the Guardian reported that it was undertaken by the international accounting firm Deloitte and DLA Piper, a global law firm.

Brett Ingerman, a lawyer with DLA Piper who headed the investigation, confirmed its role in the audit. He said a team of around a dozen lawyers, including several former assistant U.S. attorneys, reviewed nearly 300,000 emails and conducted over 180 interviews. A forensic accounting firm scoured nearly every financial transaction at World Vision from 2010 until 2016, he said.

In July 2017, they submitted an over 400-page report of their findings to World Vision, which shared it with donor governments. World Vision said it offered the report to Israel, but Israeli authorities refused to sign the non-disclosure agreement. The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the audit.

The report found no evidence that el-Halabi was affiliated with Hamas or had diverted any funds. In fact, Ingerman said it revealed the opposite.

“We had story after story of el-Halabi enforcing controls at World Vision and encouraging employees not to interact or transact with organizations that were even suspected of being affiliated with Hamas,” he said.

The Australian government conducted its own review, saying it found no evidence any of its funding to World Vision in the Palestinian territories was diverted to Hamas. Australia was the biggest single donor to World Vision’s humanitarian work in Gaza, providing some $4.4 million in the previous three fiscal years, according to its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

World Vision, which operates in nearly 100 countries and annually distributes some $2.5 billion in aid, said it fully supports el-Halabi. "We’re waiting here for an acquittal because it’s the only logical outcome,” said Sharon Marshall, a spokeswoman for the organization.

“It's far past time for him to be home with his family.”

Maher Hanna, el-Halabi's defense lawyer, said Israeli authorities have offered him multiple plea bargains that would have allowed him to walk free in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser charges, a routine tactic in trials of Palestinians.

“He is not willing to admit to things he didn’t do," Hanna said. The defense lawyer was allowed to see the classified evidence, which he declined to discuss, saying only that it was “extremely unreliable and problematic, and does not prove anything.”

Hanna also rejected any allegations of foot-dragging as “beyond unfair,” saying the court scheduled sessions months apart and made it difficult for him to call witnesses, including individuals named in the charge sheet.

He blamed Israel for the delay, saying it hoped to avoid the embarrassment of top officials having publicized explosive false allegations. Then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had released a video address repeating the charges at the time, saying they proved he cared more about the Palestinians than their own leaders.

“If facts matter, he will be cleared. If facts don’t matter, he will be convicted,” Hanna said.

Closing arguments wrapped up last September. El-Halabi is still being held in a prison in southern Israel.

"It makes a mockery of due process and the most basic fair trial notions to hold someone for nearly six years in pretrial detention based largely on secret evidence,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Even if el-Halabi is acquitted, the ordeal may deter other aid organizations from operating in the Palestinian territories.

“We haven’t been able to respond to major needs in Gaza, and that’s where some of the world’s most vulnerable children are," said Marshall, the World Vision spokeswoman. “Other organizations that don’t have the organizational resources that we have to absorb a hit like this, they just can’t risk that kind of problem.”
APARTHEID REGIME POLITICAL PRISONERS
Israel holding more than 600 without charge, most since 2016


Palestinians attend a protest in solidarity with Hisham Abu Hawash, center, an Islamic Jihad member held by Israel under administrative detention, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Jan, 2, 2022. HaMoked, an Israeli rights group that regularly gathers figures from prison authorities, said Monday, May 2, 2022, that as of May 2022, there were 604 detainees held in administrative detention, the highest number since 2016. The banner in Arabic reads, "Those starving behind bars feed the universe with dignity." 
(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)More

JOSEPH KRAUSS
Mon, May 2, 2022,


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is holding some 600 Palestinian detainees without charge or trial, the highest number since 2016, an Israeli rights group said Monday.

Israel says it uses so-called administrative detention to thwart attacks and to hold dangerous militants without revealing sensitive intelligence. Palestinians and rights groups say the system is widely abused and denies due process, with some detainees held for months or years without seeing the evidence against them.

HaMoked, an Israeli rights group that regularly gathers figures from prison authorities, said that as of May there were 604 detainees held in administrative detention. Nearly all are Palestinians, as administrative detention is very rarely used against Jews.

HaMoked says 2,441 Palestinians are serving sentences after being convicted in military courts. Another 1,478 detainees are being held for questioning, have been charged and are awaiting trial, or are currently being tried.


Israel has seen a wave of attacks in recent weeks that have killed at least 15 people. It has carried out arrest raids across the occupied West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing more. Those operations have ignited violent protests and gunbattles.

At least 29 Palestinians have been killed, according to an Associated Press tally. Most were killed after carrying out attacks or during clashes with Israeli forces, but an unarmed woman and two people who appear to have been bystanders were also killed.

The last time Israel held this many administrative detainees, in October 2016, was also in the wake of a surge in violence, including stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks carried out by Palestinians.

“Administrative detention is used only when the security forces have credible and well-established information of an actual security threat posed by the detainee, and when other avenues to remove the threat are not feasible,” the army said in a statement.

Israel says all administrative detention orders are subject to judicial review. Detainees can appeal to a military court of appeals or Israeli’s Supreme Court, but rights groups say the courts overwhelmingly defer to the security establishment.

Jessica Montell, the director of HaMoked, said violence does not justify detaining hundreds of people for months or years without charge.

“It’s like an assembly line of administrative detention, far in excess of what can be justified under international law," she said, which only allows preventive detention under rare circumstances for a limited period of time.

Those held could include dangerous militants, but also cases of mistaken identity. A teenager with a rare neuromuscular disorder has been held in administrative detention for over a year.

“We have no idea what they’re suspected of, and many of them also have no idea what actually are the allegations against them, because it’s entirely based on secret evidence," Montell said.

Several Palestinians in administrative detention have gone on prolonged hunger strikes in protest, with many developing lifelong health issues. Administrative detainees and their lawyers have boycotted Israeli military court proceedings since the start of this year in protest. The courts are holding hearings without them, according to B'Tselem, another prominent Israeli rights group.

The West Bank has been under Israeli military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.

The territory's nearly 3 million Palestinian residents are subject to Israel's military justice system, while the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers living alongside them have Israeli citizenship and are subject to civilian courts.
Jack Ma 'Arrest' and SEC's DiDi Investigation Whack China Tech Stocks

Tech-focused investors in Hong Kong responded in negative fashion to real news and rumors alike.

Change trains: Mexico favors N. Mexico over Texas

MARK STEVENSON
Tue, May 3, 2022
















MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government is snubbing Texas and moving a proposed border rail link to New Mexico after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott backed up border crossings with state inspections in April.

Mexican diplomats met Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and touted a rail line linking Mexican seaports on the Pacific with the San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa crossing in New Mexico, about 20 miles (36 kilometers) west of El Paso, Texas.

Mexico had considered a route through Texas, but in recent days officials have said they can no longer rely on that state. Abbott had required all commercial trucks from Mexico to undergo extra inspections, tying up traffic and causing millions in losses.

Roberto Velasco Álvarez, Mexico's director for North American affairs, wrote in his Twitter account about the meeting in Washington.

“There is a regional vision and management of migration, legal pathways and more development options, as well as advances in infrastructure with New Mexico that will allow us to develop immediate alternatives to commercial traffic that currently passes through Texas,” Velasco Álvarez wrote.

Mexico's Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier was more forceful last week on the fate of a proposed rail line linking the Pacific coast port of Mazatlan in Mexico's Sinaloa state with the U.S. and Canada.

“There is a very important project that will hopefully be finished soon that will connect Sinaloa and, we used to say Texas, but I don't think we're going to use Texas anymore because we cannot put all our eggs in one basket and be held hostage to those who want to use trade as a political issue,” Clouthier told a business conference.

“So we are going to look for another connection point because we cannot go through again what we went through a few weeks ago,” she said.

Some truckers reported waiting more than 30 hours to cross during the state inspections. Others blocked one of the world’s busiest trade bridges in protest.

Abbott, who is up for reelection in November and has made the border his top issue, fully lifted the inspections after reaching agreements with neighboring Mexican states that outline new commitments to border security.

But those Mexican states have little authority or manpower to intercept drugs or migrant smuggling — the two issues Abbott cited in implementing the inspections, though state officials found little of either — so the agreements were seen as a way of pressuring Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to act.

López Obrador, has described Abbott's actions as “vile." But Abbott hasn't backed down, and has said he is considering invoking defense powers by declaring that Texas is being “invaded."

On Monday, López Obrador brushed it off, saying, “Now that there are elections, some politicians in the United States are making accusations.”

“But how are they going to talk about an invasion?” Lópz Obrador said, referring to the fact that Texas — like much of the rest of the U.S. Southwest — once belonged to Mexico.

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mayorkas had expressed concerns regarding the scheduled May 23 lifting of Title 42, the pandemic-era health rule that denies migrants a chance to seek asylum.

“His perspective is just that there could be a problem with increased (migrant) flows, and for that reason we are going to work regionally” on the issue, Ebrard said.

Ebrard also said Mexico continued to argue for Cuba and Venezuela to attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas in June in Los Angeles. The Biden administration has suggested that Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are unlikely to be invited.
WHITE SUPREMACY
Abbott says Texas could 'resurrect' SCOTUS case requiring states to educate all kids




Niki Griswold, Austin American-Statesman
Wed, May 4, 2022, 6:53 PM·2 min read

Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that Texas would consider challenging a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring states to offer free public education to all children, including those of undocumented immigrants.

"Texas already long ago sued the federal government about having to incur the costs of the education program, in a case called Plyler versus Doe," Abbott said, speaking during an appearance on the Joe Pags show, a conservative radio talk show. "And the Supreme Court ruled against us on the issue. ... I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler versus Doe was issued many decades ago."

The remarks came days after a leaked draft of a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court opinion revealed that a majority of justices are poised to revoke Roe v. Wade, the landmark case establishing the right to abortion.

More: Abortion would be illegal in Texas if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

Although the court has yet to officially issue a ruling in the case, civil rights advocates have raised concerns that the court's conservative majority might be amenable to other attempts to overturn established precedent, including those related to LGBTQ rights and interracial marriage.

Abbott raised the possibility of challenging the ruling on education during a discussion about border security, after Pagliarulo asked whether the state could take steps to reduce the "burden" of educating the children of undocumented migrants living in Texas.

More: Texas Republicans say border is 'out of control' as election, end of Title 42 loom

Here's the exchange in full:

"We're talking about public tax dollars, public property tax dollars going to fund these schools to teach children who are 5, 6, 7, 10 years old, who don't even have remedial English skills," Pagliarulo said. "This is a real burden on communities. What can you do about that?"

"The challenges put on our public systems is extraordinary," Abbott said in reply. "Texas already long ago sued the federal government about having to incur the costs of the education program, in a case called Plyler versus Doe. And the Supreme Court ruled against us on the issue about denying, or let's say Texas having to bear that burden. I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler versus Doe was issued many decades ago."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Abbott: Texas may challenge requirement to educate undocumented kids