The Norwegian Refugee Council and 15 other aid organizations just released a statement: “Israel’s siege now blocks 83 percent of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals.” They “demand international pressure for an immediate ceasefire, arms embargo, and end to Israel’s systematic aid obstruction.” The groups stated: “New data has revealed the scale of aid obstruction, and the consequential drastic fall in aid entering Gaza. This is driving a humanitarian disaster, with the entire population of Gaza facing hunger and disease, and almost half a million at risk of starvation.

“UN General Assembly, using Uniting for Peace, with a two-thirds of voting members could suspend Israel from participation in its activities as the General Assembly did to the former criminal apartheid regime in South Africa and to the genocidal Yugoslavia; Set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel in order to prosecute its highest level civilian and military officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide; Recommend an arms embargo and economic sanctions against Israel; Recommend UN members sever diplomatic relations with Israel. This current resolution doesn’t do those things. It does say that Israel must withdraw from occupied…

They call on members states to “embargo arms, oil and tech on Israel to stop settler terrorism and destruction in the West Bank and Israeli military genocide in Gaza.”

Census data on poverty rates from 2023 were just released. The data shows the consequences of failing to apply lessons from the pandemic’s anti-poverty measures. Poverty rates remain high relative to the progress made in 2021.

The number of U.S. residents without health insurance rose by 2 million during Donald Trump’s presidency and fell by 3.3 million under Joe Biden’s. That decrease led to the lowest rate of residents without health insurance in U.S. history. Under Trump, meanwhile, 39 states saw increases in their uninsured rates. 

“What Kamala Harris and Donald Trump said about Israel and Gaza in their debate was predictable. Even more certain was what they absolutely would not say — with silences speaking loudest of all.”

“Former President Donald Trump, with his typical level of restraint, recently stated that Israel will cease to exist if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected President in November. The real question is whether the Palestinians of Gaza will survive under either a Trump or Harris presidency.”

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports in “Israeli forces accused of killing their own citizens under the ‘Hannibal Directive’ during October 7 chaos,” that the “Israeli military is coming under increasing pressure to reveal just how many of their own citizens were killed by Israeli soldiers, pilots and police in the confusion of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities. Survivors and relatives have been asking not just ‘what went wrong,’ but whether the military invoked the controversial — and supposedly rescinded — ‘Hannibal Directive.’” In July, Haaretz reported: “IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers…

“This is just another example of the decades of impunity granted to the Israeli government and army, bolstered by the support of the U.S. and European governments, who are complicit in enabling genocide in Gaza.”

Study after study has demonstrated that providing parents with a guaranteed basic income both helps them and pulls children out of poverty. Yet an expanded Child Tax Credit, which removed millions of children from poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic, has not been restored since Congress allowed it to expire at the end of 2021. The current CTC provides $2,000 per eligible child.