Palestinians celebrate the ceasefire today in Gaza City
“Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire after more than a week of intense violence that left hundreds dead, mostly Palestinians. While the agreement may end the immediate bloodshed, it likely won’t end long-term conflict between the two sides. Still, people in Gaza and Tel Aviv celebrated the much-needed respite. The UN Secretary General welcomed the ceasefire but said a return to negotiations between Israel and Palestinians -- as well as more humanitarian aid to the battered region -- is necessary. Since the latest fighting began, Palestinian militants fired thousands of rockets into Israel, and Israel Defense Forces carried out numerous airstrikes in the Gaza region. About 72,000 Gazans have been displaced by the violence, according to UNICEF.” Read more at CNN
“The ceasefire has held for 12+ hours, but people in Israel worry that they'll be back to a conflict in several months, Axios from Tel Aviv author Barak Ravid tells me.
Israel doesn't have a stable government that can make a meaningful change in policy.
The Israeli middle class — in Tel Aviv and surrounding cities — felt the conflict in a much more direct way than in the past.
This wasn't the first time Hamas fired on Tel Aviv. But this time, the number of rockets was massive. Millions of Israelis felt it directly, and realized how those who live in southern Israel, close to Gaza, have felt over the last 15 years.
For many Israelis, the most shocking thing was the violence between Jews and Arabs inside Israel.
It surfaced hatred among part of the Arab minority against the state that people didn't think existed. And it exposed deep racism among part of the Jewish population toward Arabs.
This wound will take a long time to heal.
What to watch: Secretary of State Blinken will travel to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the coming days, his first trip to the region.
The visit will focus on stabilizing the ceasefire and discussing humanitarian relief and reconstruction in Gaza, where over 200 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have seen their homes decimated.” Read more at Axios
“The average daily pace of US coronavirus vaccinations is down almost 50% from its April peak. This could spell trouble for states like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Georgia and Tennessee, which have the lowest vaccine rates per capita. The concern is that clusters of new outbreaks could pepper underprotected areas over the summer. Some states are getting creative in their bid to increase vaccine rates. New York, Maryland and Ohio are all giving away millions of dollars in vaccine ‘lotteries’ available to those who get a shot. Meanwhile, India has surpassed 26 million Covid-19 cases. However, daily infection numbers are slightly down from the height of the resurgent outbreak that has devastated the country for weeks.” Read more at CNN
“Storms, floods, wildfires — and to a lesser degree, conflict — uprooted 40.5 million people around the world in 2020. It was the largest number in more than a decade, according to figures published Thursday by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a nonprofit group based in Geneva that tracks displacement data annually.
It was all the more notable as it came during the worst global pandemic in a century.
Extreme weather events, mainly storms and floods, accounted for the vast majority of the displacement. While not all of those disasters could be linked to human-induced climate change, the Center’s report made clear that global temperature rise, fueled by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, ‘are increasing the intensity and frequency of weather-related hazards.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Thursday announced a plan to raise $700 billion through new tax-compliance measures, a potentially key source of revenue for the Biden administration’s multitrillion-dollar spending proposals.
In a 22-page report, Treasury officials identified a number of policies to increase enforcement aimed at closing the ‘tax gap’ between what taxpayers owe to the federal government and what they actually pay. These include increased reporting requirements, new tools for auditors, a bigger Internal Revenue Service budget and new rules on cryptocurrency.
Some of the changes — such as billions of dollars in additional spending at the IRS — would require congressional approval, and many Republicans have long tried to shrink the agency. But the White House said the proposed investments would pay off by allowing the agency to collect the taxes that are due.” Read more at Boston Globe
“House Democrats pushed through a $1.9 billion emergency spending measure Thursday to enhance security at the US Capitol after the Jan. 6 attack on it, despite Republicans’ vows to stop the measure in the Senate.
The legislation was barely approved along party lines, 213 to 212, as a group of Democratic progressives bucked Speaker Nancy Pelosi and registered objections to the bill; Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Cori Bush of Missour, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts voted against it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Jamaal Bowman of New York voted present.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Tennessee barred doctors from giving hormone treatments to transgender minors before puberty. Experts said they knew of no doctors in the state who did so.” Read more at New York Times
“The Justice Department under the Trump administration seized phone and email records of a CNN journalist, the network said.” Read more at New York Times
“Republican lawmakers in Texas are trying to reframe the state’s history curriculum and play down references to slavery and anti-Mexican discrimination.” Read more at New York Times
“Alabama is allowing yoga lessons in its public schools, but there’ll be no ‘namaste.’” Read more at New York Times
“Former president Donald Trump charged the Secret Service more than $40,000 this spring for rooms that Trump’s own protective detail used while guarding him at his Mar-a-Lago Club, according to federal spending records.
The records show that Trump’s club charged the Secret Service $396.15 every night starting Jan. 20, the day he left the White House and moved full-time into his Palm Beach, Fla., club.
Receipts: Charges to Secret Service from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club
Those charges, ultimately paid by taxpayers, continued until at least April 30, the spending records show, for a total of $40,011.15. The charges were for a single room used as a workspace by Secret Service agents, according to one person familiar with the payments.” Read more at Washington Post
“Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), the state’s chief elections officer, advised Maricopa County Thursday that it should replace all voting machines that were turned over to a private contractor for an audit of the 2020 presidential election, citing ‘grave concerns regarding the security and integrity’ of the machines that make themunusable for future elections.
Hobbs’ guidance, outlined in a letter to county officials, is the latest fallout from a review of the election ordered by Republicans in the Arizona state Senate, who used a subpoena to order the county to turn over voting machines and nearly 2.1 million ballots to reexamine last fall’s vote.
The chief executive of the private company hired to conduct the audit has echoed false allegations that the election was stolen, and the process has been widely criticized by election experts as insecure and unprofessional.
Read Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ letter
Millions of dollars worth of Maricopa’s voting equipment used in the 2020 election — including nine tabulating machines used at a central counting facility and 385 precinct-based tabulators — were removed from a county facility and placed in the custody of Florida-based company Cyber Ninjas at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum for the review in late April.” Read at Washington Post
“BOSTON (AP) — A highly contagious disease originating far from America’s shores triggers deadly outbreaks that spread rapidly, infecting the masses. Shots are available, but a divided public agonizes over getting jabbed.
Sound familiar?
Newly digitized records — including a minister’s diary scanned and posted online by Boston’s Congregational Library and Archives — are shedding fresh light on devastating outbreaks of smallpox that hit the city in the 1700s.
And three centuries later, the parallels with the coronavirus pandemic are uncanny.” Read more at AP
“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order that bans local governments– including counties, cities, public health authorities and public schools – from requiring masks goes into effect Friday night. Entities that defy Abbott's order could face a fine of up to $1,000. Texans can only be required to wear masks in businesses that require them, at state-supported living centers, government-owned or operated hospitals and several criminal justice facilities. Public schools may leave face covering requirements in effect until June 4, but Abbott's edict came as some were weighing whether to end the use of masks indoors for summer and fall or wait until more students are vaccinated against COVID-19.” Read more at USA Today
“Lives Lived: Paul Van Doren was a founder of Vans, the California sneaker company that became synonymous with skateboarding and grew into a multibillion-dollar business. He died at 90.” Read more at New York Times
“Slowly, persistently, Joe Biden is unpicking the legacy of Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy. He’s still far from restoring U.S. global leadership.
Weeks of negotiations appear close to a deal for the U.S. to return to the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program abandoned by Trump in 2018.
Biden brought the U.S. back to the Paris climate accord that Trump quit, then sought to shape a green agenda with a summit of core nations.
And leaders scarred by Trump’s abrasive approach to the western alliance are likely to embrace Biden with relief at the Group of Seven and North Atlantic Treaty Organization summits next month on his first European tour as president.
Yet allies and adversaries alike are showing the limits to U.S. authority.
The Iran talks were sustained mostly by the efforts of the European Union and Russia to keep the deal alive.
While Biden spoke of his administration’s ‘quiet relentless diplomacy’ over the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it was Egypt that was instrumental in mediating efforts to reach a cease-fire last night that halted 11 days of bitter fighting.
It’s too early to know whether Biden can cajole or compel Russia into a less adversarial relationship or be any more successful than Trump in persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
And over everything looms the superpower contest with China that may define his presidency.
Trump’s isolationism brought the curtain down on the post-Cold War era of U.S. global supremacy.
Biden may succeed in regaining some of the authority lost. But he can’t turn the clock back to an era of unchallenged U.S. might.” Read more at Bloomberg
“80% — The percentage drop in sales of hand sanitizer for the week that ended May 8 compared with the same period a year ago. After consumers went on a mad dash for hand sanitizer at the start of the pandemic, retailers are now struggling to get it off their shelves as Covid-19 cases decline and people continue to get vaccinated.
90 — The number of consecutive years that the age-adjusted death rate in the U.S. declined compared with the previous 10 years. The trend had indicated long-term improvement in Americans' health, but the streak ended with the pandemic, which saw the death rate inflate to its highest level in nearly two decades.
124 million — The number of people who sank below the international poverty line—defined as living on $1.90 a day—according to the World Bank. As incomes in the developing world have declined because of the pandemic, food prices of staples like corn and wheat have risen. ‘The combination of the two, rising prices and no purchasing power, is the most lethal thing you could deal with,’ said Arif Husain, chief economist at the United Nations World Food Program.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Crushed hopes | What should have been a promising year for Africa is turning into a terrible one, with the pandemic pushing tens of millions of people into ‘extreme poverty’ — meaning they live on less than $1.90 a day. Prinesha Naidoo reports how a lack of vaccines is leaving the world’s poorest continent vulnerable to new waves of infections and extended lockdowns just as a long-envisioned free-trade area comes into effect.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Several high-profile pieces of legislation have reached critical junctures in Congress. The White House had hoped to pass a police reform bill by May 25, the anniversary of George Floyd’s death. The Democratic-led House passed it, and bipartisan talks are ongoing with the Senate. But the House won’t be back in session until June, so it’s not likely the bill will hit the deadline. A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation to reform the US Postal Service after the financially struggling agency asked Congress for help. The reforms could save the USPS $45 billion over the next 10 years. Meantime, hope is fading for a bipartisan deal on gun background checks, one of several gun control measures championed by Democrats. And the chances of the Senate agreeing to create a body to investigate this year's fatal assault on the Capitol are rapidly falling to zero.” Read more at CNN
“Myanmar's junta-appointed election commission will dissolve the political party of the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta, which took over in a brutal February coup, has claimed the country’s November elections, which were swept by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party, were fraudulent. Suu Kyi has been in detention since she was arrested hours before the coup. More than 800 people have died in the ensuing violence. Now, opponents of the military’s rule have formed an undercover National Unity Government and hope to set up a People's Defense Force to challenge the junta.” Read more at CNN
“South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit the White House today for an important summit that may set the tone for how the longtime allies work together over the next several months. Moon is in need of more Covid-19 vaccines for his country, while Washington needs Seoul's help in pressuring China on areas of mutual concern, like human rights and trade. Both allies are also keen on discussing diplomatic solutions regarding North Korea. Moon's visit will be only the second time Biden has hosted another world leader in person since taking office in January. The first, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, came last month.” Read more at CNN
“Global minimum taxes. In OECD talks, the Biden administration has agreed to a 15 percent global minimum tax on large multinationals, the Financial Times reports, a reduction of its previous demand of a 21 percent minimum. The move would apply to profits generated in each country regardless whether it has a physical presence in the country. The measure is fiercely opposed by low corporate tax countries such as Ireland, which currently has a 12.5 percent rate.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Chad’s democracy. The African Union has called for a democratic transition in Chad within the next 18 months in response to a military takeover following the death of President Idriss Déby in April. The junta has already put a civilian transitional leadership in place and said in April it would hold elections within 18 months. On Thursday, the African Union said it ‘categorically rejects any form of extension of the transition period.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“A driver of a Japanese bullet train is facing disciplinary action after he left the controls unattended to take a bathroom break while the train and its 160 passengers were traveling at more than 90 miles per hour. The driver left the cockpit for three minutes in total, as an unqualified train conductor remained behind. According to Central Japan Railway, the trainline’s operator, the driver felt abdominal pain and wanted to avoid delaying the train by having to stop at the next station. The driver may have gotten away with the infraction had the company not noticed an extremely rare occurrence for Japan’s Shinkansen trains: It was running one minute behind schedule.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday morning that it will end its use of two facilities, including the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga., where a whistleblower alleges a doctor performed unwanted hysterectomies and other medical procedures without consent.” Read more at Time
“Lady Gaga has told new details about sexual assault she suffered when she was 19. Speaking on The Me You Can’t See, Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry’s new Apple TV+ series about mental health, she said the rape – that she first disclosed in 2014 – was by a music producer and left her pregnant.
‘I was 19 years old, and I was working in the business, and a producer said to me, ‘Take your clothes off,’’ she said. ‘And I said no. And I left, and they told me they were going to burn all of my music. And they didn’t stop. They didn’t stop asking me, and I just froze and – I don’t even remember.’ She said ‘the person who raped me dropped me off pregnant on a corner.’
She did not name the producer, and said: I’ do not ever want to face that person again.’” Read more at The Guardian
“LONDON — Twenty-five years before Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, unloaded to Oprah Winfrey about their struggles as members of the British royal family, Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, set the standard for the sensational royal tell-all, in her 1995 interview with a BBC journalist, Martin Bashir.
On Thursday, an inquiry concluded that Mr. Bashir deceived Diana’s brother, Charles, Earl Spencer, to obtain the interview. And it faulted the British Broadcasting Corporation’s management for covering up Mr. Bashir’s conduct, which included creating fake bank statements to undermine a rival news organization.
‘Without justification, the BBC fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark,’ Lord John Dyson, a former justice of the British Supreme Court, said in a 127-page report on the inquiry, which he conducted at the request of the broadcaster’s current management.
The conclusions, though not unexpected, are a black eye for the BBC at a time when it has been under pressure from the Conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson for its news coverage. The government has threatened to overhaul the compulsory license fee that finances most of the BBC’s operations, and it faces competition from a fledgling news channel, GB News.”