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1. Impeachment
The House officially impeached President Trump. Votes for the two articles of impeachment were mostly split along party lines, with two Democrats voting against both and one splitting on the two. No Republicans voted in favor of the articles. While all this was going down, President Trump was at a “Merry Christmas” rally in Michigan, where he blasted Democrats for the impeachment push. The articles are supposed to go now to the Senate, but curiously, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stalled on the move. Some Democrats want to make sure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to the Senate trial procedures Dems have requested. As the full picture of last night’s historic decision comes into focus, you can follow today’s live updates and check out these other impeachment resources:
• Moderate Democrats who voted for impeachment may face a tough political future. Here’s what some said about the decision that could cost them their seats.
• How much do you actually know about the process? For instance, who officially presides over the Senate trial? Take our impeachment quiz.
2. Politics
It was a busy day in politics even without the whole “rare and historic day of impeachment.” While the House debated and voted, Sen. McConnell forced a deal with Democrats to expedite 11 federal district judge nominations. McConnell has had a lot of success changing the country’s judicial landscape, installing about 50 appellate court judges and clocking a big win for Trump and his agenda. Speaking of judges, a federal appeals court ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is unconstitutional. The ruling doesn’t invalidate the entire law, a longtime political target for Trump. But it does trot health care back into the political spotlight. Now, any Supreme Court action on health care will probably be pushed until after the 2020 election.
3. Korea
The US and South Korea are at stalemate on a cost-sharing agreement for US troops stationed in the country. President Trump reportedly asked Seoul to pay roughly 400% more to house US troops. The current agreement expires at the end of the year, and another round of talks is scheduled for January. There’s worry in Washington that if the two sides don’t reach a compromise, Trump could unilaterally start pulling forces from the region. The agreement is just one of the many delicate diplomatic situations tying the US to the Korean Peninsula. North Korea is openly flirting with more long-range missile tests and nuclear activities, putting a serious strain on the Trump administration’s unusual relationship with the hermit country.
4. Philippines
The people accused of planning a massacre that stunned the Philippines’ political establishment have been found guilty, 10 years later. A judge found Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. guilty in the killing of 58 people, including 30 journalists and relatives of a rival gubernatorial candidate, Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu. Several of Ampatuan’s relatives were also convicted in what’s been called the “trial of the decade.” Even now, the case has larger implications for the country’s political scene. The Ampatuans were backed by members of the Philippines police and army, and the government declared martial law after the massacre. Today’s verdict emboldens human rights activists to call for an end to localized corruption and militia activity that can be leveraged by powerful families or groups.
5. Obesity
It looks like we better get moving: According to a new study, half of Americans will be obese in the next 10 years if we don’t work together to solve the problem. The study casts obesity as a social, rather than individual, issue. Health care experts chimed in, saying the predicted rise in obesity would create untold strain on health care spending through the rise of obesity-related health consequences. But there is hope: Experts say there are some big-picture changes we can make, collectively and individually, to improve the outlook. For instance, communities could improve local public transportation systems, encourage walking instead of driving and keep schools open on weekends and during summers to allow access to gyms and swimming pools. Improving access to fresh produce also could have social and health-related benefits.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
The reviews are in, and the new ‘Cats’ movie is … weird
That’s how much the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is accused of stockpiling in accounts intended for charitable works, according to a whistleblower complaint. If true, the accounts would have helped the church avoid taxes and mislead its members.
You deserve a break. Enjoy some very good boys and girls from the Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation lining up to form the world’s cutest Christmas tree. (Click here to view.)
The race for mayor and city council will not cross the finish line until October of next year but the first big step is now
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Published Apr 25, 2024 • Last updated 50 minutes ago • 4 minute read
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The man insists upon a point to be made.
“This is not a takeover by the UCP of municipal elections and it’s not a takeover by the NDP of municipal elections. It won’t be allowed to be. It will be an overt prohibition. Nobody is taking over anything.”
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The man quoted is Ric McIver.
In a previous life McIver was a long-serving fiscal hawk on Calgary city council, nicknamed Dr. No by this scribbler because he was no fan of big spending.
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McIver is now Premier Danielle Smith’s point man on cities and he’s delivering news that could pave the way for a real shakeup at Calgary city council where lefties rule the roost.
Read on.
The race for mayor and city council will not cross the finish line until October of next year but the first big step is now.
It is Thursday and later this day the UCP government led by Premier Smith will roll out its plan to allow local political parties to contest the next city election in Calgary and Edmonton “where political affiliations are most obvious.”
They intend to create rules city political parties will operate by.
With city political parties, a candidate’s political party will appear on the ballot.
Candidates can still run as independent candidates.
These city political parties will only be in Calgary and Edmonton, at least for now.
These parties will not have any formal affiliation with federal or provincial parties. There will be no city UCP or NDP or Liberal party.
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There will be no sharing of funds or voter lists between federal or provincial parties and these city parties.
The Smith government will discuss all the ins and outs with local governments in Alberta and regulations governing the parties will be on the books by the end of the year, or at least more than six months before the fall 2025 city election.
This will give the cities and the political players in those cities time to prepare for the vote.
For years, city conservatives, especially in Calgary, have been champing at the bit for the chance to do battle as a local political party.
The belief is, and there is evidence to back it up, if city conservatives could get their act together and agree to one candidate for mayor and 14 candidates for the 14 council seats they’d have a good chance of being the city council majority.
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Why?
Because if Calgarians knew exactly who they were voting for and if it was crystal clear what each of the candidates stood for then you would see more conservatives win instead of the election being a game of who has the most name recognition.
There will be those who will attack the Smith government and say this is about partisanship at the local level, folks picking sides.
Get real.
“There’s a lot of partisan behaviour and people in municipal politics now,” says McIver.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s actually part of free speech, part of the freedom of association, part of what we’re guaranteed in this country.
“Those who say partisanship doesn’t exist are wrong. My guess is people who say that probably haven’t sat through a lot of council meetings. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s a duck.”
And let us not forget in the last city election city unions bankrolled a campaign involving the endorsement of candidates, many of them winning council seats.
McIver says having city parties is an opportunity to hold politicians somewhat accountable.
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The cities boss says right now there are candidates at the doors with no party handle who can tell people they believe are conservative that they themselves are conservative and tell people they believe are liberal that they themselves are liberal.
With city parties, it will make it easier for those who want to vote one way or the other to find their candidate.
The candidate’s affiliation will be spelled out and if the candidate is elected and votes in a different way the voters can more easily call that politician out.
But people like Calgary Mayor Gondek don’t like the idea of city political parties.
What is McIver’s reaction?
“We heard that and we disagree. We think this is a positive thing,” says the man riding herd on the cities file for the UCP.
“It should increase accountability. It should increase the ability of voters to look at candidates and say this is my candidate, this is not my candidate.”
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In Israel, the far right is increasingly influential in politics, with a government reliant for its existence on a settler movement driving an ever-more extreme agenda.
Analysts point out that settler and ultra-right-wing voices have come to dominate the cabinet, providing legal and political cover for even more expansion into internationally recognised Palestinian territory, and underpinning much of the ferocity of Israel’s war on Gaza.
And yet, despite that, and irrespective of the international criticism of Israel that continues to grow, the United States continues to fund it.
US lawmakers in the Senate voted on Tuesday, by an overwhelming majority, to transfer $17bn in military aid to Israel.
Celebrating the passage of the bill, House House Majority leader Chuck Schumer told the Senate: “Tonight we tell our allies: ‘We stand with you.’
“We tell our adversaries: ‘Don’t mess with us.’ We tell the world: ‘The United States will do everything to safeguard democracy and our way of life.’”
Settlers and politics
But in Israel, “democracy” and the system that Schumer and other US politicians back involves the illegal settlement of occupied Palestinian land, displacing the native population, and creating a dual system of governance, with Jews ruled under Israeli civil law, and occupied Palestinians under military law.
These settlements now dot much of the occupied West Bank, either gathering in established clusters, or in outposts that even the Israeli state deems illegal, but does little about.
As their numbers and political support have grown, settlers have become more confident, attacking Palestinian villages in well-armed and coordinated raids, occasionally with military support, and evicting Palestinian villagers.
In tandem with the expansion of the settlements has been a wider rightward drift across Israeli society, which saw the country elect its most right-wing parliament or Knesset in its history in November 2022.
Among its members are extreme-right provocateur Itamar Ben-Gvir – convicted of incitement in 2007 – who acts as national security minister, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose claims to Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank run counter to international law.
“The settler and far-right movements have been growing rapidly within Israel for years, to the point where forming a government is impossible without participation from right-wing parties opposed to territorial compromise with Palestinians,” Omar H Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs said.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, members of the right-wing coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speak to a growing constituency characterised as “messianic” in its approach to Palestinians and their land, according to analysts.
Settlers’ ideologies – which claim, among other things, a religious justification for their taking of Palestinian land – have been a growing political presence since the 1967 war, which resulted in Israel occupying the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
“The US has played a significant role in this rightward shift by ensuring Israel’s impunity for relentless illegal settlement building, thereby undercutting those within Israeli politics who warned of the consequences of unfettered expansionism,” Rahman said. “This demonstrated to the Israeli public there would be no penalty for supporting those in Israel who want all the land ‘between the river and the sea’.”
Israel has seemingly run a violent campaign in the occupied West Bank in parallel to its war on Gaza, which followed a Hamas-led attack into Israel in which 1,139 people were killed and some 200 taken into Gaza.
As of March of this year, 7,350 Palestinians had been arrested by Israeli forces across the West Bank, many without charge and with no hope of due process.
In the last few days, rights group Amnesty International has sharply criticised settler attacks on Palestinians and what it calls the established system of apartheid that reigns in the occupied West Bank.
In the days following the discovery of the body of 14-year-old Binyamin Ahimeir, himself from an illegal Israeli West Bank settlement, hundreds of settlers went on a deadly rampage between April 12 and 16, torching homes, fruit trees and vehicles.
By the end of their attack, four Palestinians lay dead, killed by either settlers or Israeli military forces, Amnesty said, including Omar Hamed, a 17-year-old boy from near Ramallah.
An estimated 487 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank in attacks by armed settlers, often supported by security forces according to witnesses, or by security forces in near-nightly raids on towns and refugee camps and in other incidents.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 34,262 people. The true figure is likely far higher.
Netanyahu and the settlers
While Netanyahu has officially rejected settler ambitions for Gaza, he does have two settler ministers in his cabinet and the movement is continuing to grow.
Expectations that prime minister Netanyahu might act as a check on settler ambitions have also proven ill founded. Since at least 2015, both he and his Likud party have been joining with the extreme elements of the right by running campaigns noted for their dog whistle racism, Eyal Lurie-Paredes of the Middle East Institute said.
“It’s not just about the present,” Lurie-Paredes added, “It’s about the future.
“Most political party, not just Likud, has ever really opposed the settlements. They’re a winning card. The main two sectors of the population of settlers – national orthodox and ultra-orthodox – have the highest birth-rate among Israeli Jews high birth-rates. Out of Jewish first graders, more than 40 percent belong to these groups.
Additionally, Israeli governments have created a more enhanced welfare state in the West Bank for Jews, offering them better infrastructure and cheaper housing – which or drive people to move there and increase their belonging to the settler movement” he added.
Referring to the years leading up to Israel’s founding in 1948, Tel Aviv-based analyst Dahlia Scheindlin said “Settler politics have always been there.”
“However,” she noted, “it had never really been especially religious. That element only really entered the political mainstream after the 1967 war. From that point, the idea developed that territorial expansion was part of messianic redemption took hold as a specific theology among certain religious Jews.
“In tandem to this was a state that was ready to facilitate settlements covertly. However, more recently, Likud’s own populist mandate has become indistinguishable from that of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and now we have a government openly embracing settlers, the extreme right and their politics.”
The US and the settlers
The US says it opposes the creation of settlements and has recently sanctioned bodies involved with the movement, some known to be close to Ben-Gvir and said to be actively fundraising for the settler movement within the US.
The US government has also said it is considering sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda battalion, which operates within the occupied West Bank and draws its recruits from Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews, on repeated allegations of rights abuses.
Nevertheless, while the US may oppose settlements on paper, the Israeli government publicly embraced the settler mission of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in June of last year, overturning legislation that had stood for 27 years, and giving Smotrich effective control of the expanded and accelerated settlement-building process. Netanyahu himself has repeatedly rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, and has presented himself as a bulwark against Palestinian self-determination.
Other than a brief period under former President Donald Trump, when the United States supported the notion of settlements, Washington has regarded them as illegal since 1978. In 1983, the census showed that the settler population of the West Bank was 22,800. It is currently estimated at 490,493.
And now, that dominance of the settler ultranationalist trend in Israeli politics threatens Gaza.
At a “Settlement Brings Security” conference in Jerusalem in January, around a third of Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers, as well as up to 15 additional Knesset members, including members of his own nationalist Likud Party, walked past a large map of Gaza with a bold star of David emblazoned above it.
For Palestinians in Gaza, the threat of a new wave of displacement to make way for any such illegal settlement is real – championed by figures at the very top of Israeli politics.
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