Day: October 14, 2023

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed the world’s most populous nation will bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on Saturday, Modi said hosting the event is “the age-old dream” for India.

“Indians are not just sports lovers, but we also live it,” Modi said. “India will leave no stone unturned in the preparation for the successful organization of the Olympics in 2036 – this is the dream of the 140 crore (1.4 billion) Indians.”

“We want to realize this dream with your support. I am sure India will get constant support from IOC.”

A city or region wasn’t specified by Modi but Ahmedabad, which boasts the largest stadium in the world with a capacity of 132,000 and is named after the Indian Prime Minister, would be a likely contender as the main host city for the country’s bid.

Indonesia and Mexico have previously expressed official interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics, and last month Poland’s President Andrzej Duda told the IOC it wants to stage the Games.

No firm timeframe has been set by the IOC for when hosting rights for the 2036 Games will be awarded.

The 2036 Summer Games is the next available edition: Paris will host in 2024, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032.

Modi also told the IOC that India would consider bidding to host the Youth Olympics in 2029.

“Sport is not just about winning medals but also winning hearts,” he said.

Every remaining House Republican is an irredeemable piece of crap. That much has been clear for awhile. But at this point they seem to be finding their way into two separate camps: those House Republicans who want to go down the rabbit hole with a sicko like Jim Jordan, and those House Republicans who are afraid that putting Jordan in charge would ultimately cost their political power.

To that end, anti-Jordan scumbags like House Republican Mike Rogers are now publicly asking Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to work with them to make sure that someone other than Jim Jordan becomes Speaker. In response, pro-Jordan scumbags like House Republican Dan Bishop are firing back, accusing the anti-Jordan scumbags of being “the swampiest pieces of the Republican Conference.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

If you’re rooting for the Democrats, or simply rooting for America, then you love to see this kind of embarrassing Republican infighting spill over into public view. This kind of inept idiocy is precisely what voters in the middle hate. It makes them more inclined to go out and vote Democrat in 2024, thus handing the House majority to the Democratic Party. So by all means, House Republicans, keep publicly attacking each other like this.

The post House Republicans begin taking it out on each other as it all falls apart for them appeared first on Palmer Report.

Australian Indigenous leaders called on Sunday for a week of silence and reflection after a referendum to recognise the First Peoples in the constitution was decisively rejected by a majority of the population.

More than 60% of Australians voted “No” in the landmark referendum on Saturday, the first in almost a quarter of a century, that asked whether to alter the constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people through the creation of an Indigenous advisory body , the “Voice to Parliament“, that can advise parliament on matters concerning the community.

The outcome is a major setback for reconciliation efforts with the country’s Indigenous community, and also damages Australia’s image in the world regarding how it treats First Nations people.

Unlike other nations with similar histories such as Canada and New Zealand, Australia has not yet formally recognised or reached a treaty with its First Peoples.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people make up 3.8% of Australia’s 26 million population and have inhabited the country for about 60,000 years. But they are not mentioned in the constitution and by most socio-economic measures are the most disadvantaged people in the country.

“This is a bitter irony. That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason,” the leaders said in a statement that was released on social media platforms.

The leaders said they would lower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flag to half-mast for the week and urged others to do the same.

Australian Indigenous leader and former national rugby union player Lloyd Walker said the path to reconciliation seems difficult now, but the community needs to keep fighting.

“We can say it got out-voted but there was still 40% of the people that wanted it. Years and years ago we wouldn’t have that percentage for sure,” said Walker.

Jade Ritchie, a “Yes” campaigner said after the results on Saturday night that the whole nation should be grieving the lost opportunity.

“We had an opportunity to make real change,” she told Reuters.

“These gaps, this disadvantage, this disenfranchisement of a whole portion of our community …. we talk about this stuff all the time and government after government try to address these issues and here we are with a very moderate and fair proposal and a practical way forward, and it’s not been accepted.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese staked significant political capital on the Voice referendum, but his critics say it was his biggest misstep since coming to power in May last year.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said it was a referendum “that Australia did not need to have”, and that it only ended up dividing the nation.

One of the biggest reasons for the referendum loss, however, was the lack of bipartisan support, with leaders of the major conservative parties campaigning for a “No” vote.

No referendum has passed in Australia without bipartisan backing.

“Much will be asked of the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result,” leaders said in the statement.

“The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question.”

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A Guatemalan appeals court overturned a six-year prison sentence handed down in June to the founder of one of the country’s top newspapers, though his legal ordeal is not yet over.

Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin, founder of El Periodico, which was often critical of the government, had been found guilty of money laundering in a trial denounced by press freedom groups.

But while it overturned his prison sentence on Friday, the court also ordered a new trial date to be fixed.

The prosecution had originally sought 40 years in prison for 67-year-old Zamora — whose newspaper shut down in May after nearly three decades in operation — for a string of charges including money laundering, influence peddling and racketeering.

Zamora had been accused of extorting businessmen in exchange for not publishing damaging information about them in El Periodico.

He has accused outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras of trying to silence him for bringing government corruption to light.

Zamora has been in pre-trial detention since July 2022, and must stay behind bars because he has other open cases against him.

His son, Ramon Zamora, said on X, formerly Twitter, that he hoped for a fair trial.

El Periodico, founded in 1996, has won international awards for its investigations.

It ceased its activities on May 15, after 27 years of circulation, citing what it called judicial persecution and financial pressures, aggravated by the arrest of its owner.

Zamora’s ordeal is not the only one sparking criticism from observers of Guatemala’s democratic institutions.

Guatemala’s highest court ordered authorities earlier this month to safeguard the inauguration of incoming president Bernardo Arevalo, an anti-graft crusader who has been targeted with legal challenges to his swearing-in in January.

Arevalo has described the legal moves against him as amounting to a coup to deny him the presidency, and uncertainty about his swearing-in has sparked massive protests.

I want to speak about the elephant in the room. We see it. We might be talking about it ourselves. It’s about Israel — and Donald John Trump. The question is — did Hamas somehow, some way, get inside information about Israel from Donald Trump.

Israel is a country that’s known to have superb intelligence. This is why so many are stunned — because the quality and scope of the intelligence Israel receives are well-known. So naturally, everyone is wondering how Israel did not see this coming.

Iran is almost certainly involved up to their necks. But some point out that information may have been given to Russia, who may have given it to Iran. An Alternet writer believes this. They say: “Iran almost certainly got the information from Russia. And who gave it to Russia? Sure looks like it was Donald Trump, at the request of Putin.”

Now we do not know anything for sure. But given that everybody’s talking about this possibility, it certainly is worth looking at. I have no doubt Trump would share secrets about ANY nation for the simple reason of loyalty. He has none.

Donald Trump is not loyal to anyone except himself. Not only do I think he’d share it, I think he would not think twice about it. Getting back to Alternet — when the writer of the piece I quoted woke up the next day, she found thousands of angry responses from Maga world saying Trump would never share classified information.

But we KNOW that isn’t true. We know Trump stole those classified documents and has shared valuable and secret intel about other countries. Why not Israel? I am not looking to be judge and jury here. But to use a very coming expression: “something stinks.”

Something stinks as it relates to Israel and how Hamas pulled off this beastly attack. Who else was involved? Is it possible that Trump DID share sensitive information? I do not know for sure. But I would not, under any circumstances put it past him.

The post Something stinks appeared first on Palmer Report.

(NewsNation) — The first chartered flights bringing Americans trapped in Israel back to the U.S. landed in Athen, Greece Friday. They are expected to arrive in New York City next.

The State Department says the flights provide options for U.S. citizens and their families to leave the war-torn nation as thousands of commercial flights have been canceled since the attacks began.

National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby says this is just the beginning for flights from the State Department.

United Airlines has announced all flights in and out of Tel Aviv have been suspended “until conditions improve.”

American Airlines has halted all flights to and from the city’s Ben Gurion Airport until December 4 and Delta Airlines say they are canceling all Tel Aviv flights through October 31.

However, both Delta and United have announced additional flights from Athens to help bring the Americans on the State Department’s chartered flights home.

The airlines have each added at least three flights from Athens to New York City and Newark over the next week. American Airlines says they plan to fly larger planes from Athens to New York to accommodate the Americans.

This comes after more than 30 lawmakers co-authored a letter to all three major U.S. airlines, urging them to ramp up efforts to bring U.S. citizens in Israel home.

So far, at least 29 Americans have been killed in the Hamas attacks and at least 14 are still unaccounted for.

U.S. citizens needing assistance leaving Israel are urged to complete a form at the State Department website.

Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died early Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, told The Associated Press via email, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being.”

Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a contract with Universal-International, a new name that she hated and a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others.

She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama “The Hustler”; the film version of Stephen King’s horror classic “Carrie,” in 1976; and the romantic drama “Children of a Lesser God,” in 1986. She also appeared in several acclaimed roles on television and the stage, including in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” in the 1990s as the villainous Catherine Martell.

Laurie made her debut at 17 in “Louisa,” playing Reagan’s daughter, then appeared opposite Francis the talking mule in “Francis Goes to the Races.” She made several films with Curtis, whom she once dated, including “The Prince Who Was a Thief,” “No Room for the Groom,” “Son of Ali Baba” and “Johnny Dark.”

Fed up, she walked out on her $2,000-a-week contract in 1955, vowing she wouldn’t work again unless offered a decent part.

She moved to New York, where she found the roles she was seeking in theater and live television drama.

Performances in “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Deaf Heart” and “The Road That Led After” brought her Emmy nominations and paved the way for a return to films, including in an acclaimed role as Paul Newman’s troubled girlfriend in “The Hustler.”

For many years after, Laurie turned her back on acting. She married film critic Joseph Morgenstern, welcomed a daughter, Ann Grace, and moved to a farmhouse in Woodstock, New York. She said later that the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War had influenced her decision to make the change.

“I was disenchanted and looking for an existence more meaningful for me,” she recalled, adding the she never regretted the move.

“My life was full,” she said in 1990. “I always liked using my hands, and I always painted.”

Laurie also became noted as a baker, with her recipes appearing in The New York Times.

Her only performance during that time came when she joined a dozen musicians and actors in a tour of college campuses to support Sen. George McGovern’s 1972 presidential bid.

Laurie was finally ready to return to acting when director Brian De Palma called her about playing the deranged mother of Sissy Spacek in “Carrie.”

At first, she felt the script was junk, and then she decided she should play the role for laughs. Not until De Palma chided her for putting a comedic turn on a scene did she realize he meant the film to be a thriller.

“Carrie” became a box-office smash, launching a craze for movies about teenagers in jeopardy, and Spacek and Laurie were both nominated for Academy Awards.

Her desire to act rekindled, Laurie resumed a busy career that spanned decades. On television, she appeared in such series as “Matlock,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Frasier” and played George Clooney’s mother on “ER.”

Tara Setmayer Is a regular guest on MSNBC and a former Republican communications Director. And she says Gym Jordan has almost no chance of being House Speaker. Tara said it is very unlikely Jordan will become the next speaker, particularly because of his history. Jordan has long been known as a conspiracy theorist and flamethrower, she explained. He’s not well-liked, and even his hometown paper back home in Ohio has terrible things to say about him.

He does nothing but stirs the pot; he goes after conspiracy theories, she explained. That is indeed true, and there’s another reason why it appears unlikely that the bullheaded screamer will obtain the speaker-ship. There really is a wee bit of an issue with Gym’s likeability.

To put it bluntly, Jim Jordan is about as well-liked as a multi-horned, demonic, man-eating monster. Jordan is the type of guy you can’t talk with without being screamed at. Few people wants to hear that horrible voice for the next year or so. It also doesn’t help that Jordan is not above playing dirty to get what he wants.

Reports are that he’s frantically trying to get the votes to no avail. Of course, a miracle could happen between now and this coming week and Jordan could secure the 217 votes he needs, but it’s looking less and less likely.

It’s like if you’re going to a restaurant and you look at the menu and the special of the night is Fettuccine, Alfredo. But fettuccine Alfredo is your least favorite dish, so you struggle to find something else you can order on the menu. I think that’s what’s going on with Jordan. He’s not made any friends in Congress because of his belligerent, loudmouth, pathetic antics, and very few people have faith in him.

So we will see how this plays out but right now, it’s looking like Gym is about to join McCarthy and Scalise at the bottom of the Speaker barrel. We’ll see what Republican fool is next in throwing their name into a contest they cannot win.

The post Jim Jordan is in real trouble appeared first on Palmer Report.

Prosecutors have brought hate crime charges against the teen accused of assaulting a Columbia University student as he hung up posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.

Maxwell Friedman, 19, was charged with assault in the second and third degrees as a hate crimes, as well as harassment and weapons possession, according to a complaint filed with the New York County District Attorney’s office.

Friedman, who uses she/her pronouns, was granted supervised release during her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday.

The complaint accuses Friedman of attacking a 24-year-old Israeli student in Columbia’s School of General Studies who was hanging the posters on Wednesday with a stick,  cutting him and fracturing his finger. It also says Friedman shouted obscenities at the Israeli student and his companions.

“F–k you. F–k all of you prick crackers,” the complaint quotes Friedman as having yelled.

She is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 29. Calls to her attorney were not immediately returned.

A friend of the Israeli student told the Columbia Spectator, a student newspaper, that Friedman had at first joined the group as they were putting up posters of kidnapped Israelis on Wednesday morning, saying that she is Jewish. 

Late in the afternoon, the Spectator article said, the group noticed her outside the university’s Butler Library, a bandana covering her face, as she tore down posters of the kidnapped. They approached her, and that is when the attack occurred, the victim’s friend told the Spectator.

Columbia’s response

Tensions have run high at Columbia and at other college campuses since Hamas attacked Israel last weekend, killing more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 150 hostages. Israel has since been bombarding the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, killing an estimated 2,000 Palestinians, and is preparing for a ground war. 

Responding to “the ongoing crisis in Israel and Gaza and recent incidents on campus,” Columbia administrators wrote to students on Thursday about how the conflict in the Mideast has spilled onto campus.

“Community members are observing and experiencing disturbing anti-semitic and islamophobic acts, including intimidation and outright violence — as was experienced on campus outside Butler Library late yesterday afternoon — with some students being targeted based on their religious identity or political speech,” they wrote. 

While the Columbia officials affirmed intellectual freedom, they also wrote that they “reject and will not tolerate hate speech, violence, or the threat or any acts of violence in our community.”

Columbia took pains on Thursday to keep dueling pro-Palestinian and a pro-Israel rallies on campus peaceful, allowing only those with university ID’s on campus and separating the demonstrators with about 30 police officers. No injuries were reported.

The post Prosecutors charge teen accused of attacking Israeli Columbia University student with hate crimes appeared first on The Forward.

The Lebanese army said on Saturday that Israel had fired a missile that killed a Reuters journalist in southern Lebanon, with a Lebanese military source saying the country had conducted a technical on-the-ground assessment after the attack that supported its claim.

The Lebanese military source also said the army had concluded the shell was fired by Israel based on observation by Lebanese army patrols in the area at the time of the incident. The source was not authorised to speak to media and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“The Israeli enemy launched a missile which hit a civilian car belonging to a media group which led to the martyrdom of the videographer Issam Abdallah,” the Lebanese army high command said in a statement posted on its website.

Reuters, in a statement, said: “We call on the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to conduct a thorough, swift and transparent investigation. It is critically important for journalists to be able to report freely and safely.”

Reuters video journalist Abdallah was killed while working with other journalists near the village of Alma al-Shaab, close to the Israeli border, where the Israeli military and Lebanese militia Hezbollah have been trading fire.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the claims made by Lebanon or to a request for comment on the Reuters statement, which was signed by President Paul Bascobert and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni.

Israeli army spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht earlier told a regular briefing that it was looking into the incident, adding: “We already have visuals. We’re doing cross examination. It’s a tragic thing.”

A Reuters witness at the scene said Abdallah, a Lebanese national, was struck by missiles fired from the direction of Israel.

State media earlier reported that Lebanon would submit a formal complaint to the U.N. Security Council on “Israel’s deliberate killing” of Abdallah.

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib later confirmed, without elaborating, that the complaint said Israel had targeted journalists with “direct bombardment”, which had resulted in Issam Abdallah’s death.

While other news outlets, including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, said the shells were Israeli, Reuters has not established that the missiles had been fired by Israel or that Israel was intentionally targeting the journalists.

Countries regularly write to the 15-member Security Council to register complaints and it is unlikely the body will take any action.

Abdallah was buried on Saturday. His body, covered in a Lebanese flag, was carried in a procession attended by hundreds of mourners through his home town of Khiyam in southern Lebanon. Journalists placed their cameras on the grave to honour his memory and prayers were said.

“They were sitting where there was no shelling, nothing. They were filming the shelling from afar. Why would they bomb them?” said Abdallah’s mother, Fatima Kanso, at the funeral, blaming Israel for her son’s death.

Abdallah was with two other Reuters journalists, Maher Nazeh and Thaer Al-Sudani, as well as journalists from media groups Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, when he was killed while providing a live video signal for broadcasters.

Nazeh and Sudani were both injured in the incident but were later released from the hospital. Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera each said two of their journalists were wounded in the incident.

Nazeh said they were filming missile fire coming from the direction of Israel when one struck Abdallah as he was sitting on a low stone wall near the rest of the group. Seconds later, another missile hit a car being used by the group, setting it aflame, he said.

UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said it could not say with certainty at this stage how the group of journalists was hit. However, it said it knew that Israel had struck a position 2.5km (1.5 miles) outside Alma al-Shaab at 5.20 p.m. (1320GMT).

The Reuters statement said it had requested Israeli assurances that Reuters journalists and offices in the Gaza Strip would not be targeted in Israeli military operations there.

Israeli forces are massing tanks and troops on the border with the southern enclave in preparation for a possible ground invasion. They are fighting a war with Gaza’s Hamas militants who launched a deadly assault on Israeli civilians and soldiers a week ago.

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