Expect this stupid shit to continue...... What Kamala Harris has said about her faith Harris grew up visiting both Christian churches and Hindu temples By Kelsey Dallas Aug 19, 2024 https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/08/19/kamala-harris-religion/ Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris stands during music worship on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, S.C. Meg Kinnard, Associated Press Kamala Harris comes to her 2024 campaign for president with much more exposure to the world’s religions than typical American politicians. The vice president was introduced to both Hinduism and Christianity as a child and has since become part of a Jewish family. Calling Harris a Baptist or a Christian is accurate, but it doesn’t capture the nuance of her religious background, experts say. “She has a unique and interesting religious identity. ... She’s been part of both mainline American Baptist churches and Hindu fellowships, and she’s married to a Jewish man,” said Nathan Finn, senior fellow on religious liberty with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. He added, “I don’t know that we’ve had another president who is this religiously diverse and who has had that kind of experience.”
ABC News UN bases in Lebanon hit by artillery more than 100 times in past year, official says Israeli forces have asked U.N. peacekeepers to withdraw. ByDavid Brennan October 11, 2024 LONDON -- United Nations peacekeeping bases in southern Lebanon have been hit by artillery fire around 100 times since the cross-border war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group began in October 2023, an official with the mission said. Some of the U.N. bases hit have sustained damage within the compounds, Andrea Tenenti, the spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, told ABC News shortly before the mission said two of its peacekeepers were injured by Israeli firing on Thursday. UNIFIL said in a statement that the IDF fired on three bases in southern Lebanon. The attacks included tank fire on an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura which injured two peacekeepers. "Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law," UNIFIL said....... Continues.... https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...illery-100-times-past-year/story?id=114673338
UN-backed experts say Israel is destroying Gaza’s health sector and both sides have tortured people By JOSEPH KRAUSS October 10, 2024 https://apnews.com/article/israel-p...an-rights-un-c75b4db37aa5ade8466e0daa446ad596 A U.N. commission on Thursday accused Israel of destroying Gaza’s health care system through “relentless and deliberate attacks” in its yearlong war with Hamas and said that Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages have been tortured and sexually abused. The expert panel was commissioned in 2021 by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council to look into rights violations and abuses in Israel and the Palestinian areas it controls. Led by Navi Pillay, a former U.N. human rights chief, the panel members are independent experts and do not speak for the world body. There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has long accused the U.N. of being biased against it and has not cooperated with the commission. Israeli forces have raided hospitals in Gaza on several occasions, accusing militants of sheltering there. Palestinian medical officials have denied such allegations and accused Israel of recklessly endangering civilians. Hospitals can lose their protection under international law if they are used for military purposes. The report accused Israel of deliberately killing, detaining and torturing Palestinian medical staff, of targeting their vehicles and of restricting permits for medical evacuations from Gaza. It said those amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of health care facilities in Gaza,” Pillay said in a statement. “By targeting health care facilities, Israel is targeting the right to health itself with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population.” The commission said children have borne much of the cost of such actions, pointing to attacks on medical facilities offering pediatric and neonatal care. The panel also said it found that thousands of adults and children detained in Gaza had been subjected to “widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence.” It said Israeli security forces had raped male detainees, attacked their genitals and forced them to perform humiliating or strenuous acts while stripped naked. It said children who had been detained had returned to Gaza unaccompanied and deeply traumatized. The commission further said the abuse had been institutionalized by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. He has boasted of making conditions in the country’s prisons as harsh as possible under Israeli law in what he says is an attempt to deter militant attacks. Israel detained nine soldiers in July over what their defense lawyer said were allegations of sexual abuse of a detainee being held at a shadowy facility where detainees from Gaza have been taken since the start of the war. The lawyer denied the allegations, and their arrest sparked protests by Israeli hard-liners. The commission also said that hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza were subjected to physical and sexual violence, forced isolation and threats, and given limited access to water, food and hygiene facilities. It said Palestinian armed groups were also guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and called on them to immediately release all the hostages. Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people. The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and the International Criminal Court is considering arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders. Israel has adamantly denied the accusations and says it abides by international law.
Photo: AP Iran's Quds force chief suspected of ties to Israel, collapses in interrogation Esmail Qaani reported to be under investigation in Tehran, suffers a heart attack during questioning; was rumored to have been killed in an IDF strike targeting Nasrallah's replacement as Hezbollah chief Lior Ben Ari https://www.ynetnews.com/article/syffl6hyyg#autoplay The commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Esmail Qaani is under investigation for ties to Israel, according to media reports and had suffered a heart attack during interrogations. "He was investigated for an intelligence brief, a source told Sky News Arabic. "He was moved to a hospital and his bureau chief is suspected of connections with Israel." Senior Iranian security officials said Qaani, who replaced Qasem Soleimani, the legendary commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds force killed by the U.S. in 2020, disappeared after an Israeli strike last week that targeted Hezbollah's deputy chief and head of internal security Hashem Sefieddine who was designated to replace the slain Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike on the Dahieh last month. Contact with Sefieddine was also lost after the attack and he is believed to have been killed, although Israel has not confirmed it. A source told the Reuters news agency that Qaani was in Dahieh when the IDF attacked but did not attend the meeting with Nasrallah's designated replacement. Another source said the Quds force commander had traveled to Beirut after the assassination of Hezbollah's chief and was last seen on Sunday of last week when he visited Hezbollah's offices in Tehran and photographed there with Sefieddine's brother Abdullah. The New York Times reported that Qaani traveled to Lebanon to help Hezbollah regroup after Nasrallah's killing. A source in the IRGC in Beirut told the paper that the commander's disappearance and the silence from officials in Tehran were causing panic in the ranks. Rumors about his fate spread quickly and varied between him having died to him being kept in isolation after the assassinations carried out by Israel on prominent Iranian leaders. According to a report published in the Saudi Al Hadath channel Qaani had recently met with Nasrallah and Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah's operations chief who was also assassinated by Israel The channel said he backed out of his original plan to attend the high-level Hezbollah meeting that was then targeted by the IDF and that led to increased suspicion.
Northern Gaza turning into ‘unhabitable ruins’ Thousands of people are trapped in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp as Israeli forces continue to attack the area, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said. “Nobody is allowed to get in or out, anyone who tries is getting shot,” Sarah Vuylsteke, MSF project coordinator, said in a post on X. The Israeli army issued evacuation orders for residents in the camp on October 7 “while carrying out attacks at the same time, preventing people from leaving the area safely,” MSF said. Forced evacuations and bombing of neighbourhoods are turning north of Gaza into “unhabitable ruins,” it added. “We were staying at the Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, but they bombed it. About 20 people were killed. I don’t know what to do, at any moment we could die,” said Haydar, MSF driver inside the camp. “People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave”.