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“Harris, fight for young people:” 150 youth rally at DNC HQ
This afternoon, 150 young people rallied outside of the DNC Headquarters to urge Kamala Harris to put forward a comprehensive plan on the economy and climate. They held signs reading “6 Years to Stop the Climate Crisis” and “The Heat is Killing Us.” This was the first protest at the DNC since Biden dropped out of the presidential race and Sunrise Movement called on President Biden to pass the torch to a new nominee.
The rally comes just an hour after Sunrise volunteers confronted JD Vance over his flip-flop on climate change following donations from oil and gas lobbyists and CEOs. The activists at the DNC urged Harris to put forward a vision that could confront the false-populism of Vance and the far-right.
“I’m from Oregon, where every summer now, wildfires fill our air with smoke and burn down peoples’ homes. Every year I see it getting worse. I want a future in the place I love and call home.” said Adah Crandall, 18. “I’m here because young people need politicians to boldly confront the climate crisis. If Kamala Harris wants to be taken seriously by Gen Z, she needs to show us she’s serious about protecting our futures. That means campaigning on investing in green schools and housing, protecting our air and water from polluters, and rapidly building an affordable and renewable energy system.”
The past few days have seen promising youth polling for Harris, suggesting she could turn the page on Biden’s struggles with young voters. In an Axios poll, Harris turned Biden’s 6 point lead with voters under 34 to a 20 point lead.
“VP Harris has the opportunity to put forward a bold climate plan that mobilizes young voters and faces the scale of the climate crisis,” said Sunrise Movement Communications Director Stevie O’Hanlon. “Polls show that climate is where voters trust Harris most over Trump. Making climate core to her campaign is not only the right thing to do for the planet, but it's a good political strategy.”
The protest comes after Sunrise released a memo on Thursday outlining the kind of plan they say young people want to see from Harris to tackle climate change and cost of living. Sunrise has pledged to run a large youth voter engagement program aimed at driving record youth turnout in this election.
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
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As Venezuela Court Probes Election Results, US Declares Victory for Right-Wing Opposition
Venezuela's foreign ministry hit back at the U.S. State Department, accusing it of spearheading a "coup attempt."
Aug 02, 2024
The U.S. State Department has formally recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela's election as the nation's highest legal body began an investigation of the vote at the request of President Nicolás Maduro, who says he prevailed in the contest that is now under intense global scrutiny.
In a statement released days after Venezuela's election authority, Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), declared Maduro the winner with just over 51% of the vote, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed late Thursday that "it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election."
"Now is the time for the Venezuelan parties to begin discussions on a respectful, peaceful transition in accordance with Venezuelan electoral law and the wishes of the Venezuelan people," said Blinken, the top diplomat of a country that has repeatedly attempted to overthrow the Maduro government and hammered the country's economy with sanctions. "We fully support the process of reestablishing democratic norms in Venezuela and stand ready to consider ways to bolster it jointly with our international partners."
Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Ministry quickly hit back, saying Friday that it "rejects the serious and ridiculous statements attributed to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which he pretends to assume the role of the Venezuelan electoral authorities, demonstrating that the U.S. government is leading the coup attempt against Venezuela, promoting a violent agenda against the Venezuelan people and their institutions."
Blinken's statement accepting the right-wing opposition's claim of a decisive victory came a day after Maduro asked Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice on Wednesday to audit the presidential contest in the face of vocal concerns from regional leaders, election observers, and leading human rights organizations.
In a joint statement issued Thursday, the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico said they are "closely following" the vote-counting process and called on the CNE to "move forward expeditiously and publicly release the data broken down by voting station"—something the Maduro government indicated it will do but has yet to provide.
Meanwhile, the Carter Center—an organization whose founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, once praised Venezuela's election system as "the best in the world"—argued that the 2024 contest "did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic."
"In the limited number of polling centers they visited, Carter Center observer teams noted the desire of the Venezuelan people to participate in a democratic election process, as demonstrated through their active participation as polling staff, party witnesses, and citizen observers," the group said in a statement earlier this week. "However, their efforts were undermined by the CNE's complete lack of transparency in announcing the results."
The Carter Center also preemptively raised doubts about the legitimacy of the Venezuelan high court's assessment of the election.
"You have another government institution, which is appointed by the government, to verify the government numbers for the election results, which are in question," Jennie Lincoln, who led the Carter Center's election delegation to Venezuela, toldThe Associated Press. "This is not an independent assessment."
The tense and high-stakes dispute over the rightful winner of Venezuela's election has set off violence in the streets of the nation's capital and sparked fierce debate over the path forward for the Latin American nation's government.
Some on the progressive left, both in Venezuela and internationally, view the right-wing opposition's claims to victory as yet another in a long line of attacks on Venezuelan democracy by pro-corporate and fascist forces, while others—including left-wing regional leaders such as Chilean President Gabriel Boric—have expressed deep suspicions about the legitimacy of the contest, particularly given the CNE's lack of transparency surrounding the vote count. CNE has attributed the delayed rollout of full results to a cyberattack.
"The international community, and especially the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency of the election records and the process, and that international observers not affiliated with the government report on the accuracy of the results," Boric wrote on social media. "From Chile, we will not recognize any result that is not verifiable."
Others in Latin America have stood by Maduro, including Bolivia's government, which is led by a left-wing president who recently faced an attempted coup.
Venezuela's opposition, led by María Corina Machado, continues to insist it won Sunday's election, producing its own website purporting to demonstrate that González defeated Maduro with 67% of the vote.
On Thursday, Machado—who was barred from participating in the presidential contest—took to the pages of the U.S. business press to proclaim that she can "prove Maduro got trounced."
"Maduro didn't win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost in a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%," Machado wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. "I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80% of the nation's polling stations."
Maduro has pledged to release the full election results in the coming days and blamed Machado and the U.S. for stoking unrest and violence.
"If the U.S. government is willing to respect sovereignty and stop threatening Venezuela, we can return to dialogue," Maduro wrote in a social media post on Thursday.
"Venezuela is not your colony," Maduro said.
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After 300 Days of Israeli Assault, Many Gazans Too Malnourished to Donate Blood
"It's truly admirable that despite these dreadful circumstances people are still wanting to help one another and support hospital staff by donating blood—even if, devastatingly, they are far too sick themselves to be able to do so."
Aug 02, 2024
As Palestinians and humanitarians around the world marked 300 days of horror in Gaza, an aid organization highlighted a pernicious consequence of Israel's nearly 10-month assault: A hospital in the northern part of the enclave was forced to turn away many who arrived to give blood to help those wounded by bombs and bullets because the potential donors themselves were too malnourished and sick.
Gazans turned out in significant numbers in recent weeks to give blood at Al-Awda Hospital, an already underresourced facility that faced an influx of wounded patients following the Israeli military's latest attacks on Gaza City.
ActionAid International, a global humanitarian group, said Friday that "despite facing appalling personal circumstances, many people selflessly responded to Al-Awda Hospital's call-out for blood donations, but with the whole of Gaza at high risk of famine, many were deemed too unwell to undergo the process."
Dr. Mohammed Salha, the acting director of Al-Awda, said a "large percentage" of potential blood donors were turned away because they were "suffering from malnutrition." An estimated 96% of Gaza's population is facing crisis-level hunger.
"Malnutrition is widespread, specifically in the northern Gaza Strip," said Salha. "For over five months, no vegetables, fruit, or meat have been brought into the northern Gaza Strip."
Al-Awda is one of the few hospitals in Gaza that is still partially functioning amid Israel's devastating military assault, which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since October and sparked an unprecedented humanitarian emergency.
No one has been spared: Entire families, journalists, aid workers, nurses and doctors, and U.N. staff have been killed by the U.S.-armed Israeli military, and those who have survived have been repeatedly displaced and forced to live amid rotting trash, sewage, and the ruins of homes and buildings with little to no access to clean water, reliable food sources, bathrooms, and other necessities.
The fetid conditions have become what the World Health Organization described as a "perfect breeding ground for disease." Earlier this week, Gaza's Health Ministry declared the enclave a "polio epidemic zone" and warned the consequences could spill over into neighboring countries.
Lice, scabies, and rashes are also rampant in the enclave given overcrowded conditions. Israel's forced evacuations of large swaths of Gaza have meant that more than two million people have sought refuge in just 14% of the territory.
"In addition to the spread of many skin diseases... there are thousands of [people who] have come to the hospital here and the hospitals operating in the northern Gaza Strip [who are] suffering from viral hepatitis," said Salha.
"The world must not normalize the horrors we are witnessing in Gaza."
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said Friday that "it's no surprise at all that diseases and infections are running rampant in Gaza when people have been forced to live in such appalling and dehumanizing conditions, and have barely anything to eat."
"It's truly admirable that despite these dreadful circumstances people are still wanting to help one another and support hospital staff by donating blood—even if, devastatingly, they are far too sick themselves to be able to do so," Jafari added.
As conditions on the ground in Gaza worsen by the hour, the prospects of a cease-fire agreement appear increasingly remote amid Israel's fresh assassination campaign, which analysts argue is a clear attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sabotage truce negotiations.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since the October 7 Hamas-led attack, said Thursday after speaking with Netanyahu that "we have the basis for a cease-fire."
Netanyahu, the president added, "should move on it." But Biden gave no indication that he intends to pressure Israel by cutting off the weapons supply to its forces, who have used American arms to commit horrific war crimes.
Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns with the U.K.-based group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said Thursday that "the world must not normalize the horrors we are witnessing in Gaza."
"Governments, including the U.K. government, must immediately cease arms transfers to Israel and redouble efforts to secure a permanent cease-fire," Talbot added. "Any delay will be measured not in days, but in Palestinian lives."
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'Confirming UN Agencies' Worst Fears,' Famine Declared in Sudan Refugee Camp
"We urgently need a massive expansion of humanitarian access so we can halt the famine that has taken hold in North Darfur and stop it sweeping across Sudan," said the head of the World Food Program.
Aug 01, 2024
Following 15 months of civil war in Sudan that's displaced more than 10 million people and blocked the delivery of food to desperately hungry Sudanese, the United Nations Famine Review Committee said Thursday that famine now exists in a camp housing hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people in North Darfur.
The Famine Review Committee (FRC) published a report "confirming U.N. agencies' worst fears" about the arrival of a long-forewarned famine in the Zamzam camp. It's the committee's first famine determination in more than seven years, and only its third since its current monitoring system was created 20 years ago.
FRC warned that "other parts of Sudan risk famine if concerted action is not taken," citing a June analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—which oversees the committee—"showing a dramatic decline in food and nutrition security" and 755,000 people "facing catastrophic conditions" in 10 Sudanese states.
Unlike the reigonalized Darfur conflict of a generation ago, the current hunger crisis is affecting almost all of Sudan, including the capital Khartoum. Fighting between rival factions of Sudan's military government broke out in April 2023 and spread rapidly throughout the northeastern African nation of 46 million people. The Sudanese Armed Forces—the official state military—is fighting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and is refusing to issue permits for U.N. food aid trucks to pass through RSF-controlled territory.
"We urgently need a massive expansion of humanitarian access so we can halt the famine that has taken hold in North Darfur and stop it sweeping across Sudan," U.N. World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said Thursday. "The warring parties must lift all restrictions and open new supply routes across borders, and across conflict lines, so relief agencies can get to cut-off communities with desperately needed food and other humanitarian aid."
"I also call on the international community to act now to secure a cease-fire in this brutal conflict and end Sudan's slide into famine," McCain added. "It is the only way we will reverse a humanitarian catastrophe that is destabilizing this entire region of Africa."
In Khartoum, hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to find food. People venturing outside of their homes in search of food run the risk of being shot or shelled. Fighting around Sinja, the capital of Sennar state, has fueled mass displacement and cut off crucial aid routes.
"Worse yet, the war in Sudan has by now displaced an astounding 10 million people from their homes, more than 4 million of them children—a figure that looks like but isn't a misprint," Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox wrote for TomDispatch this week. "Many have had to move multiple times and 2 million Sudanese have taken refuge in neighboring countries. Worse yet, with so many people forced off their land and away from their workplaces, the capacity of farmers to till the soil and other kinds of workers to hold down a paycheck and to buy food for their families has been severely disrupted."
Even Jazirah state—which is located between the Blue and White Nile rivers and is known as Sudan's breadbasket—is now suffering from emergency levels of food insecurity.
Some areas of Darfur haven't received any food aid in over a year as fighting has rendered it practically impossible for humanitarian workers to operate. According to a February report by Doctors Without Borders, one child is dying of starvation every two hours, and nearly 40% of infants and toddlers are malnourished.
"This famine is fully man-made," United Nations Children's Fund Executive Director Catherine Russell said Thursday. "We again call on all the parties to provide the humanitarian system with unimpeded and safe access to children and families in need. We must be able to use all routes, across lines of conflict and borders."
"Sudan's children cannot wait," she added. "They need protection, basic services, and most of all, a cease-fire and peace."
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