WORLD NEWS FLASH
UNITED STATES
On July 15, former President Donald Trump caught a break in one of his four criminal trials.
Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, citing that the appointed of Special Counsel Jack Smith violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In layperson’s terms, for a defendant in a federal case, the prosecution must employ federally appointed personnel. While U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland picked Smith to head up the case, he was not confirmed by Congress to perform such a task.
Basically, if Smith were to act in any unjust capacity, there is no consequence, as he has no legally linked involvement, and he can pretty much do whatever he wants. That is in conflict with the requirement that a defendant receive a “fair trial” and therefore Cannon dismissed the matter.
The case was not dismissed “with prejudice” and Smith can appeal, but anything worthwhile would come after the election. This is contrary to the Alec Baldwin “Rust” shooting trial, which was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be retried, and Baldwin is free to go.
Although Smith is also overseeing the Jan. 6 trial, there is no word if Judge Tanya Chutkan would dismiss that case on the same grounds, as unlike Cannon, she was not appointed by former President Trump.
TRUMP PICKS VANCE FOR VP
Hours after Cannon gave him a break, Trump answered one of the biggest questions of his campaign – who will be his Vice Presidential pick.
Not long before officially claiming the GOP nomination for President at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump chose Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association. J.D.’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country. J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond….
In response, President Biden made this post on X (fka Twitter).
“Here’s the deal about J.D. Vance. He talks a big game about working people. But now, he and Trump want to raise taxes on middle-class families while pushing more tax cuts for the rich. Well, I don’t intend to let them.” (Biden then dropped a link to make donations)
MASS SHOOTING UPDATE
Information recent as of 7-16-2024 at 12 p.m.
2024 Mass Shooting Stats: (Source: Mass Shooting Tracker – https://www.massshootingtracker.site/data/?year=2024)
- Total Mass Shootings: 345 (including Trump shooting)
- Total Dead: 429
- Total Wounded: 1429
- Shootings Per Day: 1.74
- Days Reached in Year 2024 as of July 16: 198
MIDDLE EAST
MORE VIOLENCE IN GAZA
New Israeli airstrikes reportedly struck southern and central areas of Gaza on Monday as UN humanitarians and partners continued to treat the victims of a deadly strike on Al Mawasi in southwest Gaza on Saturday that reportedly left at least 90 dead and around 300 injured.
In an update from Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis where victims have been admitted, veteran UN aid official Scott Anderson reported witnessing “some of the most horrific” scenes he had experienced in his nine months in Gaza.
“With not enough beds, hygiene equipment, sheeting or scrubs, many patients were treated on the ground without disinfectants, ventilation systems were switched off due to a lack of electricity and fuel, and the air was filled with the smell of blood,” said Mr. Anderson, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator and Director of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza.
The overwhelmed facility received more than 100 severe cases in one day, the UNRWA official continued. “I saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralyzed and unable to receive treatment and others separated from their parents,” Mr. Anderson said, adding that parents had moved into the “so-called humanitarian zone” of Al Mawasi, in the hope that their children would be safe there.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that it had been targeting a Hamas military commander at Al Mawasi, which lies west of Khan Younis city, by the coast. The sand and seafront zone is now home to hundreds of thousands of people, including many forcibly uprooted from Rafah in southernmost Gaza in early May ahead of an incursion by Israeli forces.
The renewed hostilities in Rafah and central Gaza followed media reports of another strike on an UNRWA school-turned-shelter on Sunday in Nuseirat refugee camp. At least 17 people are believed to have died in the attack at the school, according to the local authorities.
Two other UNRWA schools were hit last week, with 190 of the UN agency’s facilities struck since the war erupted.
On July 10, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, led an inter-agency mission to two informal shelter sites at Al Bureij and Al Maghazi refugee camps in Deir al Balah, central Gaza.
In Al Bureij, OCHA reported that 3,800 people were sharing 388 tents with no health services nor basic items including water and hygiene products. In Al Maghazi, more than 1,000 people including seven cancer patients were crammed into a damaged UNRWA school with no medical care, water or food.
“My colleagues from the humanitarian community are doing everything possible to increase medical capacity in Gaza, but impediments to humanitarian operations prevent us from supporting people anywhere near the scale necessary,” Mr. Anderson said, before repeating calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all remaining Israeli hostages taken during Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7, and a “meaningful opportunity” for healing to begin, stressing that civilians must be protected at all times.
Nine out of 10 Gazans are displaced and many “can’t afford to move anymore”, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator Anderson told UN correspondents in New York on Monday, speaking from Khan Younis.
UNRWA teams are trying their hardest to make sure basic necessities such as access to food, water, medicine and hygiene kits, are being met.
Among the constant impediments to reaching people in need are restrictions on movement, safety for humanitarian staff, telecommunications challenges and fuel, he said.
“Recently there’s been a substantial breakdown in law and order”, he added, with municipal policing virtually non-existent following the Israeli order for officers to stay at home last February.
ASIA
FORCED LABOR CONCERNS GROW
Forced labor is widespread and institutionalized across the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK / North Korea), maintained through violence and recrimination, the UN human rights office OHCHR said on July 16.
In a report based on 183 interviews with victims and witnesses of forced labor who managed to escape DPRK and now live abroad, OHCHR cited one person’s testimony that if a daily work quota was not met, workers would be beaten and have their food ration cut.
“These people are forced to work in intolerable conditions – often in dangerous sectors without pay, freedom of choice, the ability to leave, protection, medical care, time off, food, and shelter,” said OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell.
“They are placed under constant surveillance, regularly beaten, while women are exposed to continuing risks of sexual violence.”
The UN report into DPRK identifies six types of forced labor including work in detention, State-assigned jobs, military conscription and so-called “Shock Brigades,” where groups are forced to carry out “arduous manual labor,” often in construction and agriculture.
The most serious concerns arise in detention facilities, where victims are systematically compelled to work under threats of physical violence and in inhumane conditions. The report suggests that the widespread use of forced labor in DPRK prisons may constitute enslavement – a crime against humanity.
North Koreans are “controlled and exploited through an extensive and multi-layered system of forced labor” directed toward the State’s interests rather than the people’s, the report authors concluded.
Military conscripts are required to serve for 10 years or more and routinely forced to work in agriculture or construction, according to the OHCHR report’s authors.
A former nurse at a military hospital who treated soldiers during her compulsory service described their work as “hard and dangerous, without adequate health and safety measures”. She noted that many soldiers, weakened and tired, became malnourished and contracted tuberculosis.
Those enlisted into the “Shock Brigades” are often required to live on-site for months or years with little or no remuneration. Women, often the main income earners for families, are particularly impacted by these mobilizations, the UN human rights report noted.
It alleged that the DPRK sends selected citizens abroad to work and earn foreign currency for the State, taking up to 90 per cent of their earnings.
Once they are set to work, these North Koreans live “under constant surveillance and with their passports confiscated…in cramped quarters, with almost no time off and extremely limited possibilities to contact their families.”
The institutionalized labor system begins at school, the report noted, with children forced to perform tasks such as clearing riversides or planting trees. “From an early age, you have to make yourself available to serve,” one of the witnesses said.
The UN report calls on the Government of DPRK to “abolish the use of forced labor and end any forms of slavery.”
