'Satan Club' approved at Kansas high school

 By Stepheny Price 

Fox News
Published December 26, 2023

A high school in Kansas is embroiled in controversy after a "Satan Club" was approved despite a petition being brought against it.

Olathe Northwest High School, a school in a suburb of Kansas City, has been given the green light to establish a Satan worship/Satan Templist Club, according to Fox 4 Kansas City.



An Olathe Public Schools spokesperson stated, "the club application met the criteria to establish a student-initiated club and is now recognized as a student-initiated club at Olathe Northwest High School."

According to the school district, there was criteria the club had to meet before the application was approved.

'AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB' DRAWS CONCERN FROM TENNESSEE PARENTS: 'FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE'

Olathe Northwest High School in Kansas approved a "Satan Club." (Olathe Public Schools)

One of the terms of the application was that the application itself had to be signed by at least ten students interested in forming the group, while additional signatures needed to come from a student representative and faculty supervisor.

The students that would be the leaders of the club were also expected to make a presentation to administrators about what the group would bring to the high school.

A federal law, known as the Equal Access Act, prohibits public schools from discriminating against a student-initiated group based on a message that is philosophical or religious.

THE SATANIC TEMPLE TO HOST ‘AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB’ AT MEMPHIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A spokesperson for the district told Fox 4 KC that this means if the school allows one club, it allows all clubs if the application process is complete and the group meets the guidelines for recognition.

In response to the school's announcement, a concerned student created a petition online called, "Stop The Satan Worship Club at Olathe Northwest," in early December.

"This deeply troubles me and many others in our community as we believe that schools should be places of education and growth, not platforms for satanic indoctrination or controversial practices," Drew McDonald, the creator of the petition wrote in a post.

PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL DISTRICT AGREES TO $200K SETTLEMENT WITH THE SATANIC TEMPLE FOR AFTER SCHOOL SATAN CLUB

A t-shirt promoting an after-school Satan Club. A high school in Kansas has now approved its own after-school Satan Club. (After School Satan Club)

As of Tuesday, the petition had gained 81 new signatures, bringing the total to nearly 7,800. However, it was not enough to keep the group from being approved by the school.

"As an Olathe resident, taxpayer, and Christian, I am appalled that something of this nature was even considered for a Olathe public school. The administrators, executives, teachers that allowed this to happen do not have the children's best interest in mind. This needs to be expunged immediately," one person commented on the petition.

"We urge the relevant authorities in Olathe, KS - school administrators, district officials and local representatives - to reconsider this decision. We believe it is not in the best interest of our children or community," McDonald wrote.

The Kansas high school is now the latest school to create a club like this.

SATANIC TEMPLE LEADER TOUTS AFTER-SCHOOL CLUB AS ALTERNATIVE TO RELIGIOUS CLUBS 'PROSELYTIZING' TO STUDENTS

Last week, the Satanic Temple announced plans to host its first After School Satan Club (ASSC) in Cordova, Tennessee, at Chimneyrock Elementary School.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a school district reached a settlement with The Satanic Temple in a lawsuit that alleged the district discriminated against students by barring one of the group's After School Satan clubs from using a school building earlier this year.

Last year, elementary schools in Virginia, California and Massachusetts also hosted "Satan Clubs," and were met with criticism from concerned parents.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Olathe School District, but has not yet heard back.

OPERATION: GET FAUCI

CIA accused of hiding records that analysts took ‘monetary incentives’ to bury COVID lab leak finding

By Josh Christenson

NY POST

Published Dec. 26, 2023

CHINESE SUPPLIED COVID GENE CODE 01/20

CIA tried to pay off analysts to bury findings that COVID lab leak was likely: whistleblower

An offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of withholding records detailing payoffs to analysts to bury findings that a lab leak was the most likely explanation for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The think tank’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA Dec. 22, alleging the agency did not comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about analysts who allegedly “received monetary incentives to change their position on the origins of the virus,” according to a copy of the complaint first reported Tuesday by the Daily Caller.

The suit in Washington, DC, federal court asks for “a preliminary and permanent injunction compelling” the CIA to expedite the production of records requested by Heritage within 20 days or “by such other date as the Court deems appropriate.”

“The Biden Administration has refused to be transparent with Congress and the American people over the origins of COVID-19,” said Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project.

“A CIA whistleblower has made serious allegations that the agency bought off employees of the agency to further obstruct efforts to get to the truth of the virus’s origins. This obstruction cannot stand and we’re fighting in federal court to get to the bottom of this.”

A project of the conservative Heritage Foundation is suing the Central Intelligence Agency for withholding records about allegedly paying off analysts to bury its findings on COVID-19 origins.

Getty Images

The think tank’s Oversight Project filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against the CIA, alleging the agency did not comply with its September Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Future Publishing via Getty Images

A senior-level CIA agent told House Republican committee chairmen in September that the agency offered payments to six analysts tasked with determining the origins of SARS-CoV-2 if they said that the virus jumped from animals to humans.

The Sept. 12 letter from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) to CIA Director William Burns also demanded documentation and communications about the payments.

“According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the House panel chairmen wrote to Burns.
7A Sept. 12 letter from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) to the CIA also demanded documents about the payments.AP

“The seventh member of the Team, who also happened to be the most senior, was the lone officer to believe COVID-19 originated through zoonosis.”

“The whistleblower further contends that to come to the eventual public determination of uncertainty, the other six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position,” they added of the analyst group, which included “experienced officers with significant scientific expertise.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project filed its FOIA request for records related to the internal CIA analysis on Sept. 20 — but has yet to receive the documents or an explanation for the delay, the complaint states.

Wenstrup has since alleged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, was secretly “escorted” into CIA headquarters to “influence” the findings of those CIA analysts at one point.AP

Wenstrup has since alleged that the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was secretly “escorted” into CIA headquarters to “influence” the findings of those analysts at one point.

In February, the FBI became the first US intelligence agency to conclude the coronavirus pandemic most likely began with a lab leak.

The Energy Department delivered the same assessment that same month, citing new intelligence.

The US Intelligence Community found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists also became sick in the fall of 2019.AFP via Getty Images

But months later, in a 10-page report, the entire US intelligence community, which includes those agencies along with others, declassified its COVID origins findings, which had most “agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered.”

The report, however, found “biosafety concerns” and “genetic engineering” took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where several scientists became sick in the fall of 2019 with symptoms “consistent with but not diagnostic of COVID-19.”

A Government Accountability Office report in June found that US taxpayers footed the bill for more than $2 million of risky gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab, made possible through grants provided by the National Institutes of Health, which included Fauci’s NIAID, and the United States Agency for International Development.

A Government Accountability Office report in June found that US taxpayers footed the bill for more than $2 million of risky gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab.AP

Fauci is scheduled to sit for a deposition with the House COVID subcommittee on Jan. 8 and 9, 2024, to answer questions about his handling of inquiries about the US public health response and to “address the numerous controversies that have arisen during and after the pandemic,” according to Wenstrup.

John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence under former president Donald Trump, testified before Congress earlier this year that the “lab leak theory” was the “only” credible explanation for the pandemic.

“My informed assessment as a person with as much access as anyone to our government’s intelligence … has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense,” Ratcliffe told members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in April.

John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence under former president Donald Trump, testified before Congress that the “lab leak theory” was the “only” credible explanation for the pandemic.

AP

“If our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak was placed side by side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a natural origins or spillover theory, the lab leak side of the ledger would be long, convincing, even overwhelming — while the spillover side would be nearly empty and tenuous.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of nearly 7 million people across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.

Israel says Papua New Guinea to open consulate in settlement in West Bank

No state has previously opened a consulate in West Bank settlement, all of which are illegal under international law

Mohammad Sıo |26.12.2023


JERUSALEM

Papua New Guinea has decided to open a consulate in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s foreign minister said Tuesday.

"I am pleased to have had the honor of promoting the opening of the first consulate in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)," Eli Cohen said in a statement on X.

"I thank the government of Papua New Guinea for its courageous friendship and welcome step," he added. "Judea and Samaria are the land of our ancestors, and I will always work for the settlements.”

While Cohen did not specify the location or date for the opening of the consulate, news website Station 7, which covers settler affairs, said the consulate is scheduled to open in the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank.

Estimates indicate that about 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.

There was no official comment from Papua New Guinea on Cohen's statements.

No state has previously decided to open a consulate in a settlement in the West Bank.

The UN and most of the international community consider settlements to be not just illegal, but also that they undermine resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state solution.

This September, Papua New Guinea opened its embassy in West Jerusalem, making it the fifth country to establish an embassy in the city after the US, Kosovo, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Israel occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981.

This move is not recognized by the international community, with Palestinians insisting on East Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio

Sudan war: Heavy hearts for the artists painting the pain of conflict

26th December 2023, 

By Ismail Einashe, BBC

Letter from Africa series, Nairobi

Artist Galal Yousif managed to flee Sudan when conflict erupted earlier this year with only a few belongings stuffed into a small backpack. The turmoil and bag, in which he had crammed his passport, two pairs of jeans, five shirts and a car key, is depicted in his painting Man With a Heavy Heart.

He first created the work as a mural in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, which he reached after a harrowing journey in June.

Having now found temporary refuge in Kenya, he has recreated it on canvas - a striking image of a man with a hand over his heart, surrounded by large circular red dots resembling gunshot wounds.

A moon shines behind his head and lying on the ground is the backpack - symbolising all that Sudanese people have lost in the eight-month conflict. He had initially packed his car key thinking he would be back home soon.

"I paint my pain," he tells me in his home-cum-studio in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

As an artist, he says his mission is to turn his personal experience into a collective visual narrative, offering a powerful glimpse into the "many people lost" in Sudan and the heavy toil of a "useless war".

The conflict began in April when two generals in the ruling junta fell out - pitting the army against the formidable paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The fighting has since forced around seven million people from their homes, the UN says.

Yousif heard the first signs of war while working late towards the end of Ramadan in his studio near the presidential palace in Sudan's capital.

In the early hours of 15 April, he noticed troops massing nearby. Sensing something was about to happen, he decided to drive back to his family's home in the north of Khartoum - reaching there just before dawn after which the fighting started.

BBC/Peter Njoroge

Galal Yousif has been in daily contact with his family in Rufa'ah until communications were cut last week


"Chaotic days" followed, he says, as there was no water, electricity and little food - and he struggled to care for his elderly aunt and uncle and other relatives.

Every night he heard the sounds of planes and gunfire and could see large plumes of smoke descending over the city - prompting him to take the decision to leave.

He hoped it was a temporary move - managing to get bus tickets for all the family to head to their ancestral home in the city of Rufa'ah - around 150km (93 miles) south-east of Khartoum.

As the situation deteriorated and with his relatives too frail to travel further, Yousif realised that as a well-established artist he could do more to support them if he headed to Nairobi. So he set off with his backpack on public transport to Metemma, a town on the border with Ethiopia where thousands of people were heading.

A month later he managed to get a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi where he has found a community of other Sudanese artists who had also fled the once-thriving art scene in Khartoum.

According to Khartoum art curator Rahiem Shadad, around 35 of these artists are now in the Kenyan capital, including other big names like Bakri Moaz, Yasir Algari and Hani Khalil Jawdat. Others have settled in Cairo.

Mr Shadad, who owns Khartoum's Downtown Gallery, representing many esteemed contemporary artists, tells the BBC his art space now lies in ruins.

A vast amount of artwork, including at least 165 framed paintings and 300 other pieces belonging to 60 artists, has also been lost, he says.

In recent months, the curator, who is also in Nairobi, has spearheaded numerous exhibitions of Sudanese art in the city.

He recently set up The Rest, a space for those in exile to live and work, with support from Nairobi's GoDown Arts Centre.

Despite this warm welcome by Kenya's art community, life is difficult for the Sudanese artists because of issues around asylum, lack of documents and their lack of substantial incomes.

"Some of these artists came with just $100 [£80] in their pockets," Mr Shadad says.

Many of them are also deeply traumatised by their experience and losing their entire catalogue.

"Emotionally and spiritually, I am not OK," artist Tibian Bahari tells me about not being able to return to Khartoum where her father and sister still live.

Tibian Bahari

Tibian Bahari, seen here at an Alliance Française exhibition in Nairobi, wants to keep the spirit and culture of Sudan alive through her art

Her aim is to keep Sudan - a "sacred and magical land" - alive through her work, which currently centres around depicting the country's topography.

This determination comes down to her clothing.

"I always wear my jalabiya every morning," she says, referring to the ankle-length, loose-fitting robe with wide long sleeves worn by both men and women in Sudan.

She feels a deep sense of "responsibility" to share "truthfully" her journey and map out the art of displacement and especially keep a space for Sudan's women artists.

Many artists were part of the civilian protest movement that prompted the overthrow of Sudan's long-time leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Afterwards, the army initially entered into a power-sharing arrangement with civilian groups, before seizing power and the decent into war.

These artists feel their dreams have been crushed by the conflict - and that the world has forgotten them in the wake of the conflict in Gaza.

In the last week, fighting has escalated. Yousif's family has been under attack by the RSF in Rufa'ah.

Before the phone lines went down, he heard that his family, including his aunt, uncle and some of his siblings, had been forced out of their home by the RSF. They had managed to seek shelter at his grandmother's house in city centre.

"For the second time, my family has lost our home, first in Khartoum and now in Rufa'ah," he says, describing a city under siege.

"Nobody can go out," he says, adding that they are virtually prisoners unable to move around or flee.


Like his painting, Yousif feels his heart continues to bleed.

Ismail Einashe

Man With a Heavy Heart exhibited at a show at the Alliance Française in Nairobi in September


More on the Sudan crisis:'When a bomb fell I told my son it was an action movie'
Sudan's army: Outnumbered on Khartoum's streets
'I saw bodies dumped in Sudan mass grave'
My family buried my grandmother while ducking bullets
The art fuelling Sudan's revolution
African art
Kenya
Sudan

WAR IS RAPE

Rape is ‘the most neglected war crime,’ sexual violence expert says

Ever since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, the group has been charged with committing acts of sexual violence. Host Carol Hills speaks with journalist and author Christina Lamb, who is recently back from reporting in Israel, where she spoke with first responders and others on the ground.

The World
December 18, 2023 · 

By Chris Harland-Dunaway   Aaron Schachter


The site of a music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Israeli officials say victim testimony and evidence gathered by rights groups indicate that Hamas militants carried out widespread sexual and gender-based crimes during their Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.
Ohad Zwigenberg/File/AP


Editor's note: This interview discusses reports of sexual violence committed by Palestinian militants, mostly against women.

The war between Israel and Hamas started 10 weeks ago.

Some 18,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza, with hundreds of thousands displaced and massive destruction across the territory.

On Oct. 7, Hamas militants from Gaza attacked and killed 1,200 Israelis. The militants took 240 Israelis as well as foreign nationals hostage. Deeply disturbing details about that day are still coming to light, including incidents of sexual violence committed by Palestinian militants, mostly against women.

Last week, Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict expressed “grave concern” about these allegations. And she pledged to visit Israel to meet with survivors and hear their testimony firsthand.

Christina Lamb is the author of "Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women." Here she is pictured at the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Conference in London in 2022.
Credit: Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office/Wikimedia

Christina Lamb, the chief foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times in the United Kingdom, recently returned from a reporting trip to Israel.

Lamb is the author of "Our Bodies, Their Battlefield," a book about what war does to women. She joined The World’s host Carol Hills to discuss what she heard on her reporting trip in Israel, including testimonies from first responders on Oct. 7.

“They told me how some of the young girls and women that had been killed, they'd been shot in the head, their jeans were pulled down, their underwear had been pulled down. They were often bruised legs and bloodied. And it seemed clear what had happened to them,” she told The World.

Lamb also spoke with people working in the morgue who identified bodies and then prepared them for burial.

“Again, they talked about women,” Lamb said.

“Some had even had their pelvis broken. They'd been attacked so brutally. I saw pictures and videos which the IDF [Israeli military] made available,” she said.

“But most convincing for me was talking to survivors of the music festival who told me about how they had actually witnessed as they were hiding and running for their lives. For hours after that, they had seen Hamas fighters attacking girls, gang-raping them, often by eight to 10 [men], and raping one girl and beating them and then shooting them in the head at the end.”

The people telling these stories were deeply traumatized, Lamb said.
Carol Hills: Christina, you've reported on the use of sexual violence in conflict zones for a long time. What are the challenges in determining whether or not these sorts of acts were actually committed?
Christina Lamb: So, I mean, first of all, some people are saying, in terms of why this hasn't been reported before in Israel, you know, where are the victims? Who are the survivors of rape? Well, first of all, I would say, having written about this research about it in many countries, it's very difficult for women to come forward. I've interviewed women who've literally taken 50 years to come forward. People often don't come forward at the beginning because rape, unfortunately, is the one crime where the victim is often made to feel that they've done something wrong, so they worry that they will be blamed. But the other thing is, I mean, nobody was looking for this on Oct. 7, when they received survivors —it's not something that had happened in conflict there before. When young women were brought into hospitals, nobody was asking them, "Were you raped?" Or if anything like that happened. So, no, there was no testing, no rape kits. So, there may be forensic evidence that was lost. Now, we don't know whether there were survivors of rape and that they just haven't spoken, or the other possibility is that most of the people who were raped were either killed or taken hostage. And it was notable that the ones, for the most part, that weren't released were the ones from the music festival — the young women in their early 20s. In fact, I spoke a lot to the mother of a 23-year-old, and she's absolutely desperate. Of course, her daughter is in Hamas captivity, but also thinking about this, you know, she said, “We know that when young women are in captivity, that this is something that happens.” And so she was very, very worried that her daughter was being raped in captivity.
Do you think there's a possibility that Hamas might not be releasing those hostages because of what they might say about how they were treated and what happened to them?
Well, that's the fear, definitely.
Is there any evidence that that's the case? 

So we just don't know.
I've just read these — but some of the hostages who have been released, I believe 10 of them, have said that they were sexually assaulted or abused in captivity.
I'm struck by so many things you've been describing, but one of them is when I asked you about how you determine whether sexual violence has occurred, you then explained how you talk to all these different people — emergency responders, relatives, and they could reel off things that had happened. And what I'm wondering is, when people discuss cause of death, and how people died and what happened, our questions about sexual violence are simply not routinely asked. And so how people died and what actually happened to them is simply not recorded.
This is one of the problems. I mean, rape in war is a war crime, but it is the most-neglected war crime. And I think it's very clear at the end of conflicts when they're at negotiations or sometimes even trials, it's not thought about. So the Yazidis, who were captured by Islamic State fighters in Iraq and held as sex slaves back in 2014, thousands of them, which, you know, was reported on a lot, a lot of them spoke about what had happened, which is very hard to do. But in the end, you know, nobody was actually prosecuted. And I went to some of the trials of Islamic State fighters in Iraq, and I asked the prosecutor, “These people that you were trying, did any of them take Yazidis as sex slaves?” And he said, “Yes, most of them.” So I said, “Why aren't you also trying them, then, for that? For sexual violence and abduction.” And he just laughed. He said, “Why would we do that? We're already trying them for killing and torture.” And he just couldn't see. To him, the rape was somehow a side issue? And I think that, far too often, is the case.

Hamas has strongly rejected all claims of sexual assault and rape by members of its armed wing on Oct. 7, or after that.

This interview was lightly edited and condensed.

BEACHFRONT PROPERTY CALL GAZA 666

Amid war and large-scale displacement in Gaza, Israeli settlers plan their return

More than 80% of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. The fear they may never be allowed back to their homes is bolstered by a growing movement in Israel to resettle in the Gaza Strip.

The World
December 26, 2023 · 

By Rebecca Collard






An ad from an Israeli real estate company, advertising a sea-front home in Gaza, transposed on the rubble of Palestinian homes, posted on Dec. 13, 2023. The post and the Instagram account have since been deleted after receiving elevated criticism on social media.
Screenshot from Instagram

 This month, as the Israeli Air Force continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, an Israeli real estate company posted images of Israeli settlements transposed on top of the rubble of Palestinian homes in Gaza.

“Wake up, a beach house is not a dream,” reads the ad, which includes a map of the future Israeli settlements in Gaza. “Now at pre-sale pieces.”

The company advertising beach-front homes for Israelis in the Gaza Strip also has settlements in the West Bank. And, while there has been no Israeli government approval of any new settlements in Gaza, the ad is part of a growing movement among Israeli settlers to return to Gaza, heightening fears that Palestinians displaced by the fighting may not be allowed to return to their homes.

Israeli Knesset member Limor Son Har Melech posted a video of herself in a boat with other settlers off the coast of Gaza earlier this month, as the war raged inside.

“First of all, it’s all very exciting,” said Son Har Melecha, a member of Israel’s far-right Jewish Power party. She goes on to call the return of Israeli settlements to Gaza a true picture of victory.

“Settlement in every part of the Gaza Strip … A large, extensive settlement without fear, without hesitation, without humiliation. This land is the land that the creator of the world gave to us.”

Returning Jewish settlements to Gaza is much more than messianic rhetoric.

A timeline line of Jewish presence in Gaza on the wall of the Gush Katif Museum

The boat trip wrapped up a day-long conference that included plans and logistics for building Israeli settlements in Gaza. In a WhatsApp group for would-be settlers, there is an online registration form asking applicants about their family size and current residence.

A leaked Israeli government document from October proposed relocating Gaza’s population to Egypt, and it’s something that has been alluded to by Israeli politicians.

“Oct. 7 definitely provided a lot more emboldening and legitimacy for those on the right who have been talking about expanding settlements,” said Mairav Zonszein, who is with the International Crisis Group. “Basically, one Jewish supremacist state between the river and the sea.”

Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 war, and soon after, Israelis began settling there, even though it’s illegal under international law to establish settlements in an occupied territory. By 2005, when Israel withdrew from Gaza in what it called its unilateral disengagement, there were around 9,000 Israeli settlers in more than 20 settlements in Gaza. The numbers were much smaller than those in the West Bank, but as the Second Intifada raged, it took more soldiers and resources to protect those settlers.

The Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem is named after the biggest of those settlement blocks. Gush Katif, which translates to the ‘Harvest Bloc,’ was built in the southwest of the Strip between, Rafah and Khan Yunis.

Here, the emboldening Zonszein talks about can be seen in piles of bright orange shirts stacked on tables and chairs, reading: “Going home. Going back to Gush Katif.”

 

A pile of ‘Return to Gush Katif’ T-shirts for sale at the Gush Katif Museum.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

The movement to return Israeli settlements in Gaza is not new.

Since Israel’s 2005 disengagement, settlers have kept the flame of reoccupation and resettlement alive, but motivation, planning and general Israeli support for that have risen sharply. Avner Franklin, a guide and group co-ordinator at the Gush Katif Museums, said they are selling a hundred times more shirts than before.

Until recently, returning Israeli settlements to Gaza seemed like a pipe dream of Israel’s religious right movement, but according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 12 last month, more Israelis supported the re-occupation and return of settlements in Gaza than opposed it.

Photos in the Gush Katif Museum show Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

Mani is visiting the museum to buy return-to-Gush-Katif shirts for her six children. She’s originally from Washington, DC. She did not want to give her last name because she said she is related to people who are in the US government. She said Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, which left around 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds more as hostages in Gaza, is proof Israel needs those settlements to keep Israelis safe.

“Sending Jews back into Gaza to live there will strategically help us both as a state and as a Jewish people to secure our future in Israel for hundreds and thousands of years to come,” she said. Americans need to understand that Israel is fighting the war in Gaza not just on behalf of Israel but the US and the entire world, Mani added.

“This is a war against evil,” she said.

But the US has said they do not want to see Israel reoccupy Gaza in any long-term way, and in recent days — as the death toll in Gaza has soared to over 20,000 — has urged Israel to use more resistance and avoid civilian deaths. But so far, Washington has not stopped arms transfers to Israel or been willing to use any of its other real levers to rein in the Israeli military offensive.

A six-foot tall menorah in the Gush Katif Museum. In December, Israeli soldiers brought it to Gaza and lit it for Hanukkah.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

“Settlements do not bring security. Settlements are one of the main obstacles in this conflict to any kind of resolution,” said Zonszein.

One room of the museum is dedicated to Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, with videos on a loop of Israeli soldiers forcibly removing Jewish settlers. Then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had pushed for Israel to build settlements in occupied territories after the 1967 war, was also the one who pushed for the Gaza disengagement. His finance minister at the time, current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted in favor of the plan at first but then resigned in protest, laying the groundwork for his return to the prime minister's office five years later.

A room in the Gush Katif Museum showing images of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

Zonszein said that for now, it is not Israeli government policy to resettle in Gaza, but she said, as the war goes on, if Israel develops a military presence in northern Gaza, settlers could make attempts to set up settlements.

“I don't see that happening right now…,” Zonszein said, “But it could happen in a more kind of tacit way. I wouldn't rule it out. Let's put it that way.”

Related: Stateless Palestinians in Jordan struggle to make a future

Biden’s Strict Hydrogen Tax Rules to ‘Loosen,’ Plug Power CEO Expects

December 28, 2023

Plug Power Inc. dubbed the new US rules on how hydrogen projects can qualify for a lucrative tax credit “disappointing,” but also expects restrictions around a key measure of President Joe Biden’s signature climate law to get looser once they are finalized by the Treasury Department. 

Andy Marsh, president and chief executive officer of the Latham, New York-based hydrogen producer, said:

We do expect the regulations to loosen up.

Andy Marsh, president and chief executive officer of the Latham, New York-based hydrogen producer, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “I’ve talked to many senators who tell me it will get easier — not harder.” 

Under the draft proposal issued by the Treasury Department, hydrogen projects would need to adhere to strict environmental requirements to ensure the energy-intensive production of the fuel doesn’t end up causing a influx of climate warming greenhouse gas emissions. 

In order to qualify for the tax credit worth as much as $3 per kilogram, hydrogen projects would need to use electricity from newly built clean energy sources and, starting in 2028, ensure that production occurs during the same hours as those clean sources were operating. The Biden administration is taking public comment on the requirements, which are subject to change before being finalized.  

It remains to be seen if Plug Power’s hydrogen plant that’s under development in Georgia will qualify for any of the tax credit, let alone the maximum amount, Citigroup Inc. analyst Vikram Bagri wrote in a research note following Treasury’s publication of the rules. The hourly-matching requirement dealt Plug a “weak hand” that provided “narrow pathways” for its Georgia plant, the note said.

Marsh, in his interview, said the company’s modeling showed the regulations as written would reduce US hydrogen output 70% by 2030. Plug and other hydrogen producers are planning an aggressive effort to “help straighten the regulations out,” he said.

“We are confident there will be changes once there is a comment period for the regulation,” Marsh said.

READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central

Biden’s Strict Hydrogen Tax Rules to ‘Loosen,’ Plug Power CEO Expects, December 26, 2023

Plug Power CEO Expresses Discontent Over New Hydrogen Tax Credit Rules

By: Salman Khan
Published: December 26, 2023 


Plug Power Inc.’s CEO, Andy Marsh, has expressed his discontent towards the newly imposed U.S. rules determining the qualification of hydrogen projects for significant tax credits. Despite voicing his disapproval, Marsh is hopeful for the future, anticipating a relaxation of the regulations once they are officially finalized by the Treasury Department.

Marsh’s Outlook on the New Regulations

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Television, Marsh expressed his disappointment with the new rules, viewing them as potential hindrances to the company’s plans. The new regulations pose challenges such as negative gross margins, liquidity concerns, delays in hydrogen plant projects, and regulatory hurdles. These challenges are significant for Plug Power, a hydrogen producer based in Latham, New York, as they directly impact the company’s operations and potential tax incentives.
Financial Struggles Amid Regulatory Challenges

Regardless of Marsh’s optimistic outlook, the company faces financial struggles. Plug Power’s stock has plummeted over 62% year-to-date, and the company is embroiled in a battle against cash burn and poor financial performance. Investors are maintaining a watchful eye on the company’s long-term prospects, as skepticism looms over its ambitious revenue and gross margin targets set for 2027.
Analysts’ Take on Plug Power

Analysts have reacted to the company’s performance by downgrading the stock, underscoring concerns about high capex, inflation, and reliance on subsidies. The new hydrogen tax credit rules have only added to these worries, further compounding the company’s financial challenges. While Marsh has expressed his concerns about the regulations, he remains steadfast in his optimism, believing that the Treasury Department will loosen the reins on the final regulations.

Plug Power CEO says leaked hydrogen tax credit rules could do more harm

Proposed rules would make it much more difficult to claim hydrogen tax credit than industry had hoped

By Larry Rulison

ALBANY TIMES UNION

Dec 20, 2023

COLONIE — The CEO of hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer Plug Power says that the Biden administration may be making a mistake with its proposed clean hydrogen tax credit

The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to release the so-called 45V tax credit that would provide up to a $3 subsidy per kilogram of clean hydrogen produced through electrolyzers, which turn water into hydrogen. The new rules are expected to be officially released by the end of the year.

Currently, most hydrogen is made directly from natural gas, but Plug Power — which is based in Latham — has built its business strategy on producing clean hydrogen using this electrolysis method. The company has been building industrial-scale electrolyzer facilities across the U.S. and also internationally.

The tax credit for clean hydrogen production would essentially put clean, also known as green hydrogen, on par with hydrogen produced from fossil fuels. The tax credit was authorized under the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included many climate change provisions to encourage the use of more carbon-neutral technologies and fuels.

Earlier this month, several news outlets reported leaked details of the clean hydrogen tax credit rules. Among them is a requirement that to be eligible for the tax credit, a production facility must be directly tied to new clean power sources such as wind or solar farms that have been built within the past three years, along with other stringent rules that would likely sideline potential projects.

Hydrogen advocates have said if the rules are too strict, they may do more harm than good getting the clean hydrogen industry off the ground.

Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh released a statement to the Times Union this week that showed how concerned Plug Power is about the proposed rules.

“As one of the first companies to build clean hydrogen projects at scale, Plug is deeply concerned that the Biden Administration’s rumored guidance on the Clean Hydrogen Production Credit will achieve the exact opposite outcome Congress intended,” Marsh said in the statement. “The administration has the opportunity to achieve tremendous decarbonization and job creation benefits by helping our nascent industry compete with incumbent fossil technologies. That will all be lost if they advance rules which exceed the scope and authority of Congress’ mandate in enacting the Inflation Reduction Act.”

A Treasury Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some news outlets have reported that the new rules may not be released until early 2024.

APOPHIS IS LOKI BY ANY OTHER NAME

NASA launches mission to intercept ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid as it nears Earth’s orbit

By 

Social Links forAlyssa Guzman

Published Dec. 26, 2023

A NASA spacecraft that recently returned from deep space has been relaunched for a mission to study the “God of Chaos” asteroid as it begins to near Earth’s orbit.

The agency’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx — now named the OSIRIS-APEX — has been sent off to study the asteroid Apophis’ extremely close flyby of Earth in 2029, the likes of which “hasn’t happened since the dawn of recorded history,” NASA announced.

The spacecraft returned to Earth in September after spending seven years collecting samples from the space rock Bennu.

Apophis, also known as the “God of Chaos,” is expected to fly by Earth on April 13, 2029, about only 20,000 miles away — closer than some manmade satellites — and could even be visible in the Eastern Hemisphere.

3

The space company’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx — now named the OSIRIS-APEX — returned to Earth this September after spending seven years collecting samples from the space rock Bennu.via REUTERS

The rock, which measures around 370 yards across, only comes this close to Earth every 7,500 years.

Earth’s gravity will affect the space rock as it nears orbit and OSIRIS-APEX will study the aftermath to see “how its surface changes,” according to Amy Simon, the mission’s project scientist.

The effects of Earth are expected to change the length of the asteroid’s day, which is currently around 30.6 hours. It could also cause the “God of Chaos” to experience landslides and quakes.

3

The rock, which measures around 370 yards across, only comes this close to Earth every 7,500 years.NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We know that tidal forces and the accumulation of rubble pile material are foundational processes that could play a role in planet formation,” Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina, principal investigator for OSIRIS-APEX at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said in a statement.

“They could inform how we got from debris in the early solar system to full-blown planets.”

The spacecraft will meet the S-type asteroid on April 13, 2029, but will not land on it, rather “operate in proximity” to it for 18 months. Not only will it look at surface changes, but it will map the surface and analyze the rock’s chemical makeup, NASA said.

3

Apophis, pictured in 2021, is still five years out from Earth, but when it arrives in April 2029, it will come within 20,000 miles of Earth’s surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech and NSF/AUI/GBO

It will also go within 16 feet of the rock’s surface so it can fire its thrusters downward to see what is stirred up, giving scientists a “peek at the material that lies below.”

Although the rock is still five years away from Earth, scientists will be watching it as it nears its first of six close passes with the sun.