Unable to reconcile the demands of its US security alliance with its long-stated diplomatic position in support of international law, the Japanese government has opted to pretend that it doesn’t really know what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
The US House of Representatives voted 234-188 to censure Michigan lawmaker Rashida Tlaib, the chamber’s only Palestinian-American, for making public statements in favor of Palestinian rights and for calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after more than ten thousand Palestinians–the majority of them women and children–have been killed in retaliatory bombings.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been honored, together with South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, with a John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award,” despite the fact that he personally has been unwilling to take any political risks to improve Japan-South Korea relations.
The US political and media establishment is beginning to wake up to the fact that, having lost the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, it is now on the path toward losing its proxy war in Ukraine as well.
Craig Mokhiber stepped down from his position as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, posting a letter to his boss accusing Israel of carrying out “a textbook case of genocide” in Gaza and the West Bank.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has reportedly lobbied the government of Qatar to crack down on free expression in the Arabic news media.
Over twelve years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, yet the human toll and financial burdens continue to grow.
US President Joe Biden, already facing what increasingly appears to be an uphill battle to win reelection in November 2024, has further alienated much of the progressive wing of his Democratic Party with his extreme pro-Israel stance since the offensive launched by Hamas on October 7.
The Supreme Court ruled that a law requiring surgery to remove a person’s reproductive capabilities to register a gender change was unconstitutional, but it upheld a requirement, at least temporarily, for transgender people to undergo surgery that alters the physical appearance of genitals.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly rejected the notion that the continuing Israeli military attacks on Gaza represent a legitimate response to the threat of the Islamist Palestinian militant group Hamas.
