WCK relief lead Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43, from Australia, was one of seven humanitarian aid workers killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Monday. (PHOTO CREDIT: World Central Kitchen/wck.org)
NATO 75TH 4/4/24
Biden to Netanyahu: Cease Fire -- Following the deadly Israeli Defense Force air strike on a World Central Kitchen caravan in Gaza Monday, President Biden in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for an immediate ceasefire in its war on Hamas. Biden "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," according to the White House readout of the call. "He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps."
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WCK and Israel – President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak by phone Thursday the first time since Israeli Defense Force air strikes killed seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Gaza, The Guardian reports. Biden is said to be "furious" over the strike.
WCK chief and founder, chef José Andres accused the IDF of targeting the organization’s caravan, NPR Reports. “Israel has a right to defend its people, but defending your people is not killing everybody else,” he said. Andres wrote this op-ed on his colleagues' deaths for The New York Times.
Biden calls the Israel-Hamas war “one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.” (The Washington Post)
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NATO Celebrates 75 – The 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 75th anniversary Thursday at its Brussels headquarters. It holds a summit in Washington, D.C., July 9-11.
Here are the top-12 contributors to NATO by percentage of GDP, according to worldpopulationreview.com:
1.) Poland – 3.9%.
2.) U.S. – 3.49%.
3.) Greece – 3.1%.
4.) Estonia – 2.73%.
5.) Lithuania – 2.54%.
6.) Finland – 2.45%.
7.) Romania – 2.44%.
8.) Hungary – 2.43%.
9.) Latvia – 2.27%.
10.) U.K. – 2.07%.
11.) Slovakia – 2.03%.
12.) France – 1.9%.
NATO’s minimum contribution requirement is 2.0%.
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Biden Leads, Very Slightly, in Penn – President Biden leads ex-President Trump 42% to 40% in the Franklin & Marshall College poll of registered voters in the swing-state of Pennsylvania, when third-party candidates are considered, though the president leads Trump 48% to 38% in a one-on-one race. Though statistically a tie for the November election, other findings from this April poll reflect a slight preference – or, let’s call it less dissatisfaction – for Biden.
The April poll found 17% said they are “better off” financially than a year ago, up from 15% in February and 11% in October. Biden’s approval ratings in the commonwealth are at just 35%, though more voters believe Biden has better judgment and is more “trustworthy” than Trump, while 40% said Trump would better-handle the nation’s economy. Both are “too old” to be president, 40% of voters said.
On the other hand: Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler has sponsored HR 7845, a bill to rename Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington (Virginia), “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” Reschenthaler has six Republican co-sponsors in the House.
“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges,” responds Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), (per Slate). “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
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[WEDNESDAY 4/3/24]
The Russia House? – It’s easy to think of last month’s merger between Trump Media and Technology Group and shell company Digital World Acquisition Corporation as a hail-Mary to raise the cash the ex-president needed to pay a $454 million civil judgment to New York State last month. Of course, Donald J. Trump’s share of the new corporation’s market cap wouldn’t be available to him on time, and anyway, an appellate court threw him a lifeline, allowing Trump to pay the reduced fine of $175 million as his attorneys appeal the judgment.
But the deal to merge Trump Media with the shell company had been lingering since 2021, when the media company’s Truth Social went live and promptly began to lose millions of dollars -- 58 of them just last year.
According to an exclusive story published by The Guardian Wednesday, something called the ES Family Trust has been providing Trump Media with emergency loans. Existence of ES Family Trust was first reported by both The Guardian and The Washington Post, but only the former says it has “learned from leaked documents” that Russian-American businessman Anton Postolnikov has been using the trust like a shell company.
Person of Interest
Postolnikov has been a “person of interest,” according to the report, in a years-long FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigation.
The trust has an account with Paxum bank, based on the island of Dominica, which counts Postolnikov as a part-owner, according to The Guardian’s report. But Paxum does not have a license to do business in the U.S. – thus the need for the ES Family Trust connection to Trump Media.
The news report says Postolnikov is nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, ally of Vladimir Putin.
An attorney for Paxum Bank warned The Guardian of legal action “for reporting the contents of the leaked documents.” After the story was initially published a statement from a Trump Media attorney called it a “false narrative that (Trump Media) has these fake connections to Russia. It is a hoax.”
There’s much more to the story, which you can read here.
--TL
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WEDNESDAY 4/3/24
Biden, Trump in Statistical Tie – President Biden and ex-President Trump are in a statistical tie for the November election, with Biden narrowly ahead, according to an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll outlined on Morning Edition Wednesday. Biden’s approval rating of 43% is his highest in three years, though his disapproval rating is at 53%.
Significantly, the poll also finds that most Americans, including Republicans, Democrats and independents, find criminalizing abortion "wrong."
Biden’s statistical tie and slight lead over Trump is slightly better news than numbers from the Gallup poll that Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay analyzes in “Build Back [Biden] Better” in The Gray Area. You can read that here.
However: Trump leads Biden in six of the seven most competitive states according to a Wall Street Journal poll, citing “dissatisfaction with the national economy and deep doubts about Biden’s capabilities and job performance.” The poll of main battleground states show the ex-president leading the president by anywhere from two percentage points to eight percentage points.
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Israeli Strike on WCD Convoy – President Biden is “outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday,” reads a White House statement released on X-Twitter.
“They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.”
Israel “deeply regrets” the hit on the World Central Kitchen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, and the Israeli Defense Force called its attack a “grave mistake” that was the result of a “misidentification,” The Washington Post reports.
The tide has been turning against the Israeli government – not the Israeli or Jewish people – since Hamas terrorists – not the majority of Palestinians -- killed 1,200 and kidnapped 240 on October 7 (per The Times of Israel). The Israeli government under its hard-right leader, Netanyahu, is capable of war crimes.
Your thoughts … as always, are welcome. Go to the left or right column, depending on your political leanings, and leave a comment, or email editors@thehustings.news.
--TL
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TUESDAY 4/2/24
Seven Food Relief Workers Killed in Gaza – The Israeli military has taken responsibility for a strike that killed seven workers for celebrity chef Jose Andres’ aid group, World Central Kitchen, Monday as their convoy was leaving a warehouse (per The Washington Post).
“Unfortunately, there was a tragic incident in which our forces unintentionally hit innocent people in Gaza Strip,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.
WCK CEO Erin Gore described the incident as a “targeted attack,” and the organization says it is suspending its food relief efforts in Gaza. The seven killed in the Israeli attack include a U.S.-Canadian dual citizen, at least one Palestinian, as well as workers from Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom, per WaPo.
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April 2 Primaries – Presidential primaries are Tuesday for Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. In addition, there is a non-presidential primary in Wisconsin and runoff elections in Arkansas and Mississippi (per the AP).
--TL
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MONDAY 4/1/24
Is Military Aid to Ukraine on the Way? – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA, above) said Sunday night touted a package that could forward military aid to Ukraine, after the House returns to Capitol Hill Tuesday, April 9. The three-plank bill would use the Repo Act, a “loan concept” and release of U.S. natural gas exports, Johnson told the eponymous host of Fox News’ Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy Easter evening. There has been much uncertainty over the legality of the Repo Act, which could forward more than $300 billion to Ukraine from seized Russian assets.
“If we could us the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to allow the Ukrainians to fight them, that’s pure poetry,” Johnson said.
Even GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump supports providing aid to Ukraine as a loan, he said, and releasing natural gas exports that he said the Biden White House has prohibited would “help unfund” Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
Democratic support: Johnson will have to count on pretty much all House Democrats to pass aid for Ukraine and then again if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) carries through her threat to file a motion to vacate. The House currently consists of 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats, with four seats vacant. That leaves Johnson with a one-vote Republican margin.
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Tide Turns for Netanyahu – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rocked international politics last month when, as the highest-ranking Jewish leader ever in the U.S., he called for immediate elections in Israel to replace its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu over his hardline response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. Now Israeli citizens are calling for the same, as hundreds of protesters have taken to Tel Aviv’s streets over the weekend, according to The Washington Post. They demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ attack took an estimated 1,139 Israeli and foreign nationals’ lives last October.
Protesters also demand negotiations for Hamas’ release of more than 100 hostages the terrorist group continues to hold.
“In order to win, we need new leadership,” one Israeli protester told NPR. Netanyahu’s response is that elections now “could paralyze Israel for months.”
In Gaza, meanwhile, residents describe “total destruction” around al-Shifa hospital after Israeli troops “destroyed all sense of life there,” according to the AP, quoting a local resident. Israel’s military continues to restrict emergency food supplies from entering Gaza as Palestinians there suffer ever growing cases of starvation.
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Putin Loses One – A group of anti-Kremlin Russians posted a photo of opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a hacked prison contractor’s website, CNN reports, citing interviews with hackers and its own data. The hacked-in picture appeared with the caption, “Long Live Alexei Navalny!” The opposition leader was killed in a Russian prison February 16. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin “won” re-election, again, in March.
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Egg Roll – After the White House issued a declaration last Friday that March 31, Easter Sunday, was “Transgender Day of Visibility,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called it “outrageous and abhorrent” on social media and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said, “There is no length Biden and the Democrats won’t go to mock your faith, according to a timeline by Forbesmagazine.
Then Trump campaign spokewoman Karoline Leavitt issued a statement saying it was “appalling and insulting” that Biden “formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Transgender Day of Visibility.’”
The GOP reaction led the White House to reply that President Biden has made the same proclamation every year of his administration, on March 31, the annual date of the international celebration, which does not change from year-to-year. The date of Easter Sunday does change, year-to-year.
The annual White House Easter egg roll was scheduled for Monday.
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Up on The Hill – The spring/Easter/Passover break for Congress continues through the week of April 1. The Senate returns on Monday, April 8, and the House returns Tuesday, April 9.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa