IndustryStandard

A majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives rejected the bill on Tuesday out of fear that it could grant President-elect Donald Trump the legal tools with which to target his ideological foes, but Republicans are swiftly pressing ahead.

“This bill was designed to criminalize organizations and activists who oppose the U.S.’s unconditional support of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of Lebanese civilians,” read the statement, which was signed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and others. “We will continue to stand firm in protecting all organizations’ freedom to speak and operate without fear of political retribution.”

With pro-Israel groups lobbying for the bill, it gained popularity among House Democrats, in part due to a provision providing tax relief to Americans held hostage abroad.

Ultimately, 144 Democrats voted no, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., barely meeting the threshold to block the bill from fast-track passage. Voting in favor were 204 Republicans and 52 Democrats. The narrow loss — with so many Democrats supporting the bill, opponents had no votes to spare — provoked outrage from supporters of the bill like Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who had spoken in favor of it prior to the vote.

Other angles:

https://files.catbox.moe/4dakpn.mp4

https://files.catbox.moe/nfzio2.mp4

Article about it

About 50 years ago, a man named Hans Bauer who worked in marketing for a German carmaker came up with the slogan Vorsprung durch Technik or “advantage through technology”. Poetry it wasn’t. The slogan seemed a little clumsy and too heavy on consonants, sounding harsh even to German ears. But it stuck because it captured something that rang true. The Germans had an edge in manufacturing cars and other machines.

The company that employed Bauer was Audi, which has used the slogan ever since. For a long time, there seemed to be no need for adjustment. True, whenever the Germans experienced an economic downturn, they asked themselves whether the all-important carmakers had lost their edge. But then some tweaks would be made, and the engine would roar back to life. This time feels different. And that’s not just because of recent bad news, which includes BMW and Mercedes posting profit warnings, Volkswagen pondering massive job cuts and, on top of it all, Donald Trump threatening to slap steep tariffs on US imports. It’s because the Germans are now realising they may have lost that special something called Vorsprung.

The history of the country’s car industry goes back to Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, inventors whose pioneering work didn’t translate into immediate business success. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, German carmakers were run by engineers who cared more about technology than sales. The production was time-intensive, and there weren’t enough buyers for the expensive and carefully crafted automobiles.

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration has concluded that Israel is not currently impeding assistance to Gaza and therefore is not violating U.S. law, the State Department said on Tuesday, even as Washington acknowledged the humanitarian situation remained dire in the Palestinian enclave.

Eight international aid groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, said in a report that Israel had failed to meet the demands by the Tuesday deadline.

Alleged context (feel free to correct if you have info in comments):

After Israeli Maccabi hooligans terrorized Amsterdam, the Dutch government demonized the pro-Palestine movement and banned protests. People came to protest anyways (peacefully)

The police arrested peaceful protesters and put them in a bus. They were driven to a parking lot. The police released them from the bus in a parking lot near a station.

While the protesters were walking to the station the police started hitting them. Allegedly for not moving fast enough.

The U.S. will not change its policy on arms transfers to Israel even though the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire, the State Department said Tuesday, the deadline the White House set for Israel to ramp up access to aid in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters the decision came as "Israel has taken a number of steps" outlined in a letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Israeli counterparts last month. "We continue to be in discussion with Israel about the steps they took and other steps they need to take," he said.

An average of just over 30 trucks a day have been let into Gaza in recent weeks, representing “just over six percent of the daily needs,” according to Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

“2024 – a masterclass in climate destruction.” That is how UN secretary general António Guterres started his address to world leaders at Cop29 on Tuesday.

“Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; Workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; Floods tearing through communities, and tearing down infrastructure; Children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops. All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change,” he said.

The world leaders event happens at the start of Cop, intended to spur and inspire their negotiators towards a strong final agreement. But it was Guterres that read the riot act, with very strong words on the human cost of the climate crisis, and the extreme urgency of action.

“No country is spared,” he emphasised, with global supply chain shocks sending prices soaring for everyone. “Unless emissions plummet and adaptation soars, every economy will face far greater fury.”

With solar and wind the cheapest source of new electricity almost everywhere, “doubling down on fossil fuels is absurd,” he said. “The clean energy revolution is here. No group, no business, and no government can stop it. But you must ensure it is fair and fast.”

Pogrom btw

Edit: The translation and perpetrators are accurate, but there are suggestions this did not happen in Amsterdam but in Israel. I removed the mention of Amsterdam from the title just in case.

Re-edit: Ai is pretty cool. It was in Amsterdam.

Proposition 36, a bill that upgrades a raft of petty theft and drug crimes from misdemeanors to felonies, was approved by 70 percent of voters in the initial counts. It is designed to incarcerate thousands more people by reversing a ballot measure passed 10 years ago, Prop 47, which downgraded theft and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors in response to massive prison overcrowding.

News outlets, experts and elected officials have been quick to frame the election day results on crime as a clear sign that California voters want to undo the criminal justice reforms of the past decade.

Advocates and organizers in criminal justice reform reject the idea that voters are shifting to the right. They instead point to the well-funded, corporate-backed campaign behind Prop 36 that distorted facts, and the complicity of media outlets eager to paint a picture of an unsafe California and echo the fearmongering that became central to Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign. And on the defensive side, some say Democrats and criminal justice organizations themselves failed to mount an opposition campaign until months before election day.