Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Justy Timberlake continues to get a pass from the media

I used to to concerts all the time.  Then came the pandemic.  Now the acts are back on the road.  As the BUSINESS INSIDER points out, it's not just Jennifer Lopez that is having difficulty selling tickets:



Lopez announced a tour to support her new album (and truly wild accompanying movie), "This Is Me … Now," earlier this year, but she wound up canceling a bunch of dates amid weak sales. She then rebranded the tour as a greatest-hits show, but fans still weren't tripping over themselves to see her. At the end of May, JLo decided to cancel her tour, saying she was "heartsick" but needed to spend time with her family and friends.

In JLo's defense, she's not the only one having trouble packing venues. The rock duo The Black Keys scrapped a planned arena tour and are expected to announce a "revised" set of dates at smaller venues. On social media, fans have noted that some shows from the pop artists Troye Sivan and Charli XCX as well as the band Wallows appear to be undersold. The Latin trap artist Bad Bunny recently pulled out of a show in Minneapolis, reportedly amid weak sales. Coachella lagged this year, and there's been chatter about a variety of acts not hitting home runs sales-wise, including Cardi B, Justin Timberlake, and Pink.

This doesn't mean the entire concert industry is in disarray. Taylor Swift is unstoppable. As is Beyoncé whenever she is on the road. Acts such as Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, and Olivia Rodrigo are selling a ton. Dead & Company, the successor band to the Grateful Dead, is adding dates at the Las Vegas Sphere. Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster and rules the roost in the live-events space, had a huge 2023, estimating that 145 million fans attended more than 50,000 events, a 20% increase in fans over the year before. However, not everything is going smoothly for everyone. For some artists, conditions aren't so favorable, and they're struggling to pull in the crowds they anticipated, at least right out of the gate.

"Concert promotion is a betting business. You don't always win. And sometimes, you can be humbled," said Jarred Arfa, the head of global music at Independent Artist Group, whose client roster includes Billy Joel, 50 Cent, and Metallica.


There are a combination of factors that are dragging down some artists' ticket sales. For one thing, a lot of acts are on tour at the moment. In the wake of the pandemic, artists have been eager to get back out there and recoup lost time and money. Even if the return hasn't been smooth, basically anyone who can be touring is, meaning the space is crowded and oversaturated.


Let's start with her new album.  I don't know why it was released.  It was a collection of songs.  They really didn't work together and there wasn't any song on the album that I felt had -- HAD -- to be recorded.  It was a bunch of mediocre songs that she sang very well.  I'm not trying to be rude here.  I listened and made a point not to review it.  I will also add that the genre is not my go-to.  But I didn't hear anything like "Waiting For The Night" that grabbed me.  

So once the album came out and didn't do well, the tour of the same name was a no-go.  And I don't think you can just rebrand it.  I mean if she'd released a re-mix of the same album with some of her hits on it too, she could have retitled the tour.  But an album selling poorly and then announcing your changing the tour songs?  It had the smell of failure on it and that wasn't going to sell.

If the album had sold, would it have been different?  I don't know.

Watching the glee over rumors of her having marital problems reminds me of the original backlash to Benifer and, two decades later, we may be seeing that again.

But she's not the only one struggling with ticket sales.

Justy sales poorly though the media doesn't want you to know that.  A friend with Justy Timberlake's management told me that they were going to get good press for Justy by having him defend a fan from the stage.  Sure enough they staged that and Justy did the defense.  The surprise for them?  Most outlets ignored it.  Maybe because they had also heard it was going to happen before it did.

Right now between today and July 9th, he's got 15 concerts coming up and all still have tickets for sale.  Lots and lots of tickets.  I wouldn't be surprised if one of his two Madison Square Garden concerts gets cancelled (or his two in Chicago).  They just cancelled his concert this Saturday:


Saturday 07:30 PM 
Sat7:30 PM
Columbia, SC Colonial Life ArenaJustin Timberlake - The Forget Tomorrow World Tour
CANCELLED




Justy can't sell and that album flopped.   It 'sold' 41,000 -- that includes customers streaming it on Spotify and other services.  No one cares Justy.  Jennifer Lopez saw 19,000 'sales' with her new album.  People are calling it a bomb but not with Justy because the corporate media always works overtime to protect men.  Both sold 3 million and 4 million with their first two solo albums.  Both are not selling now.  But only Jennifer gets spotlighted in the press. 

 

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2024.  THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that the Israeli government has lied repeatedly online in an organized propaganda effort to sway US lawmakers, deaths and starvation continue in Gaza, Robert Kennedy Jr remains unfit for office as does his running mate, and much more.

Let's start with the freak show that is US campaign politics and is there a bigger freak than tan bed enthusiast and roid addict 70-year-old Robert Junior -- the Kennedy failure?  

Five months away from the election and Theo Berman (NEWSWEEK) reports, "Currently, Kennedy is on the ballot in 18 states, including those with large Electoral College votes, such as California, Texas, and New York. If he were to win every state he is currently on the ballot for, he would take only 238 Electoral College votes, still below the 270 needed to win."  

Win?  As his fired NY campaign worker revealed -- he's on the ballot to fix it for Donald Trump.  He wants to deny Joe Biden enough electoral votes so that the House would vote and the convicted felon could have a second term.  Don't forget the remarks were denied and then his running 'mate' Nicole Shanahan said the same thing.

Poor Junior.  One thing sadder than being a whore is being a whore's whore.

Nicole made all her money laying on her back and traipsing from one gold digging marriage to the next -- no, that's not how the campaign promotes her rise but, yes, that is how she did it.  At THE NICOLE SHANAHAN SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES, students are taught not just advanced fellatio but also why not to sign a pre-nup and how to break one if you're forced to sign it.

And she's the biggest john Junior has these days.  As Noah Kirsch (DAILY BEAST) noted a few weeks ago:

Shanahan separately made news on Thursday when it was revealed that she had poured another $8 million into Kennedy’s campaign coffers, adding to the $2 million she previously gave in March, and other funds she has routed to his Super PAC.

People are going to say “Bobby only picked me for my money,” she quipped at a fundraiser in Tennessee. 


Oh, she's not just a whore, she's attempted to be a funny one but can people understand her punch lines when she's nose deep in pubes.  "Und thun he thaid 'Keepth the tipth!'  The tipth!  Keepth the tipth!"

Oh, Nicole, there's so much you shouldn't do in public with your mouth open.

She learns that a little bit each day now, doesn't she?   Kelly Rissman (INDEPENDENT) reports Nicole's latest open mouth in public embarrassment:

Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr’s running mate has aligned herself with fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old California-based lawyer and now RFK Jr’s vice-president pick, mentioned the disgraced conservative media host at a campaign event last Thursday in Maine, where Carlson has a home.

“I’m sitting across from Tucker, and he and I are so on the same page in every single way,” Shanahan beamed, according to the Daily Beast. “We are on the same page because we have left establishment thinking once and for all.”


Honey, don't be so modest.  You never thought, you rejected thinking long, long ago.

But that does give us an entry to make an important point.

Public health.  

This week, Anthony Fauci faced pushback in Congress.

Good.

He was lousy at his job and he was a public liar.  That's nothing new at this site and we also stated that once Joe was sworn in as president he should fire Fauci.

Fauci's problem was saying A and then saying B and then saying C and pretending like A, B and C were all the same without any contradictions.

The pandemic was a learn-as-you-go and most Americans grasped that.  When he was wrong, he needed to admit it and he didn't.  He eroded the public trust and he had too much baggage outside the office.  

Joe should have fired him immediately.  I have no idea what Donald Trump's current excuse would be for not asking Fauci for a resignation.

Joe firing Fauci would have allowed a page to be turned publicly.

I don't care about Fauci and I won't shed a tear if I read tomorrow that he died.

He didn't learn from the pandemic and he's not the only one.

COVID is still an issue but, more to the point, we could have a different outbreak.  If that happens, we need someone who believes in public health.

Junior and The Whore -- that is how they'll appear on ballots, right? -- don't give a damn about public health and don't understand.

The vaccines?  They were needed.  I did not condemn anyone who refused to get one.  I didn't get one until months after they were released because I was on chemo and my doctors were saying no.  And that was our position here by the way.  We did not insist trust the science and I noted that -- as a message -- was wrong.  People trust their doctors and that's why the biggest complaint about insurance companies after the cost is when they end up on a policy that does not let them keep their doctors.  The messaging should have been talk to your doctor. 

Some doctors -- medical ones -- did not support the vaccine.  And I don't mean in a "You can take the vaccine as soon as we end this round of chemo" manner.  Or in a, "You have pre-existing conditions that make me not recommend the vaccine for you."  

If the medical opinion you were given was not to take the vaccine, that's the card you drew and I'm not blaming you or even your doctor.  Others can if they want but I'm not going to.  

The vaccine came after the outbreak.  

This nonsense whining about having to wear a mask -- or a 'face diaper' as some MAGA idiots insist upon calling them?  Grow the hell up.  There was a global pandemic and if the worst thing that happened to you was that you had to wear a mask for a little while in public each day (healthcare workers had to wear them throughout their shifts, I have sympathy for them because I was in one as well due to various conditions and it was rough to wear some days), shut the hell up.  

It did not destroy your life.  

We don't need to hear crazy talk from 'Dr' (remember her thesis was later used for her book that got pulped because she completely misunderstood the historical records she was 'interpreting' but, hey, Oxford apparently has a crappy doctorate program) Naomi Wolf about smiles lost and hidden to the ages.

There was an international pandemic going on.  A mask was not the end of the world.

 If the mask did nothing else, it did get people on the same page.

Fauci couldn't explain anything and repeatedly contradicted himself.

We are learning as we go.  That's all he had to say.  Especially early on, most Americans would have been fine with that and been glad that he could mistakes were made and that they were learning from them.

Imagine a COVID-like pandemic in 2025 and you've got Junior and The Whore in the White House?  Is that not a suicide pact for the nation?  And Donald gets a poor grade here as well.  I would probably give him a B if I was grading in 2020.  I'd note that he was learning just like everyone else.  But it's an F now and that's because, since 2020, he's gone out of his way to appease the MAGA nuts and based on his statements and actions since leaving the White House, I don't believe he would put public safety above a bunch of whiners insisting that wearing a mask was like being in a concentration camp.  No, he's made clear since leaving the White House that he would on the side of the nutjobs risking everyone's lives.

So that's an issue -- public health and public safety -- that we need to be thinking about and discussing in the lead up to the election.  Jill Stein should especially be asked about that based on her past rejection of vaccines.  We need to know where anti-vax Jill draws her lines with regards to public safety.  A pandemic in our lifetime is no longer a what-if.  It's happened and it could happen again.  

Before we leave this topic, let's drop back to The Whore.  Matt Young (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Shanahan, who is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, posted Thursday night on X that she is, “gearing up to make some big donations to members of Congress who are protecting our Constitutional freedoms.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is at “the top of my list,” she added.

Shanahan scored big in her 2022 divorce from Google founder Sergey Brin, who has a net worth of $135.1 billion, according to Forbes. She has helped finance RFK Jr.’s 2024 campaign for president with the money she received from the split.

Her alignment with Massie is a telling admission for a largely unknown figure who only recently burst onto the political scene. The Kentucky congressman is among the U.S. House of Representatives’ most conservative members.


Massie is, of course, a notorious enemy of reproductive freedom and that's okay with Nicole The Whore because, as Matt explains in his article, she's not down with abortion anymore because things have changed.  Such as?  "But you have to also understand that this is before the age of apps, like cycle tracking apps."  

Yes, Nicole, I love the dilation and curettage app on my iPhone.  It's so easy and accessible as long as my phone is fully charged.

(That was sarcasm.)

And I'm still waiting for the press to get serious about Nicole.  She is not remotely qualified to hold office let alone to be the vice president.  I have not forgotten 2008 and how the press ripped apart Sarah Palin and Palin was a sitting governor.  Nicole's done nothing -- or at least nothing standing up or sitting down -- her entire life.  

Junior has a history of poor health and the idea that Nicole is not facing any of the vetting that the press gave Sarah Palin is appalling.

Yesterday, Kate Plummer (NEWSWEEK) reportedKate Plummer (NEWSWEEK) reported:

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s popularity has plummeted in the past year, polls have shown.

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Kennedy, the son of former Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, has seen his favorability rating decline from 42.1 percent on June 4, 2023, to 35.3 percent on June 4, 2024. It's a change from a net score of +15.5 percent favorable to -6.6 percent unfavorable in 12 months.


 The more people see Junior and not just "A Kennedy," the more they dislike him.

Let's stay on the topic of political liars. 




 Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war with Gaza, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation.

The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the State of Israel, four Israeli officials said. The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out, according to the officials and the documents.

The campaign began in October and remains active on the platform X. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats, such as Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel’s military.

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, was used to generate many of the posts. The campaign also created three fake English-language news sites featuring pro-Israel articles.


I don't like propaganda campaigns and I especially don't like foreign powers using them on other nations.  There should be a huge uproar over this.  Probably won't be, but there should be.  Frankel notes,  "The secretive campaign signals the lengths Israel was willing to go to sway American opinion on the war in Gaza."





Joe Biden has said that there is “every reason” to draw the conclusion that Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political self-preservation.

Biden made the remarks about the Israeli prime minister in an interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday morning, drawing a sharp response from the Israeli government, which accused the US president of straying from diplomatic norms.

Netanyahu’s popularity plummeted after the 7 October attack by Hamas, which exposed serious flaws in Israeli security. Most political observers say Netanyahu would lose elections if they were held now, and would be forced into opposition, facing court hearings on corruption charges. But elections have been put off until the war is over, or at least until major military operations are deemed to have been completed.

Time asked Biden whether he believed Netanyahu was “prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation”.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” the president said in response, but added: “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”


Let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!




AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show looking at Israel’s war on Gaza and its impact on Palestinian children. More than 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed over the past eight months, and Palestinian officials are warning over 3,500 children are at risk of death due to starvation.

We’re joined now by Janti Soeripto, the president and CEO of Save the Children US.

Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. You and other CEO and presidents of major human rights and humanitarian organizations and NGOs have written an op-ed. Talk about what you are calling for, Janti.

JANTI SOERIPTO: Thanks, Amy, for having me.

And, yes, we wrote that op-ed in December for The New York Times, essentially calling out the risk of what we see happening now: casualties, deaths at a massive, massive scale, particularly of children, which, in our view, are avoidable if there was a ceasefire. And we have called on that for months and months now, ceasefire for all parties to adhere, to release hostages and to allow aid come in at a massive scale.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Janti, when you spoke at the United Nations in April, you said that more children have been killed in this conflict than have been killed in all armed conflicts globally over the past four years. Is it your sense that the world community is acting at a speed necessary for what’s going on here?

JANTI SOERIPTO: No. Looking at the results on the ground, clearly, clearly, that is not the case. We see — and sometimes these numbers, I think, numb people, right? Because behind every number is a child, are its parents, the community, the family that loses that child. And we’ve always said, for months now, put yourselves in the shoes of those parents, of those innocent civilians who are caught up in this conflict, and imagine that it was your child, your cousin, your grandchild that was exposed to this level of trauma, let alone death. And sometimes that makes people remember their humanity.

But if you look at the actions on the ground, even over these past couple of weeks, it has even gotten worse. I was in Gaza myself eight weeks ago, and I saw, sadly, exactly what I expected to see: scores of children, huge undernutrition, malnutrition, children without shoes, children without a home, people sleeping in tents, often with 20 or 30 people at a time, no access to clean water. Real health issues abound, children with rashes, coughing, fevers, pneumonia, etc. And it’s gotten worse since. When I was there eight weeks ago, not nearly enough trucks made it in. I think there were about 150 or so a day. Over the last couple of weeks, it has really slowed down to a trickle, because of the closure even of the few crossings that were open. And then there are areas within the Gaza Strip that have had no aid supplies whatsoever for the last — for these last past months.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you — we’ve seen all of the protests at American universities and schools, and the repression, as these students have sought to raise the issue of what’s happening in Palestine. But could you remind our viewers and listeners what the education situation is like in Gaza, what the school situation for many of these young people — for all of the young people of Gaza is right now?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Right. So, children have been out of school since the start of this conflict. We estimate — I mean, we don’t know the exact numbers, of course, because it’s so hard to get people on the ground, but we estimate that over 80% of schools are either damaged or completely destroyed. What’s left of some of these schools are actually populated by people who are displaced. So there is no way schools can function at this point in Gaza. Save the Children has been running, where we can do so safely, learning spaces, child-friendly spaces, as we call them, where children can be children. They play. They learn. But clearly, this is not even close to resembling, you know, a formal education system. We’re many, many months behind that.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what specifically are you calling for, Janti Soeripto? As you sit there in the nation’s capital, in Washington, D.C., what are you demanding of the Biden administration at this point? As you say, this is unprecedented, not to mention the 15,000 children dead, 3,500 facing death by starvation — even if they don’t die, how they’re affected for the rest of their lives.

JANTI SOERIPTO: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, there are numbers that are estimated that 17,000 children have lost their parents or at least one parent. So, no, the trauma is unimaginable. We’ve been calling four months now for a ceasefire, for all parties to adhere to it, for the violence to stop, and then for allowing massive aid to come in, to flood Gaza, to make sure people get access to clean water, to food, to shelter, and every other basic supplies in order to start rebuilding their lives, and for humanitarian workers to be able to do their work safely and securely.

AMY GOODMAN: Janti Soeripto, I also want to ask you about your recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo — 

JANTI SOERIPTO: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — where over 7 million people have been forced from their homes in one of the world’s largest displacement crises. Can you talk about what Save the Children is calling for there now and what you found?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Well, first and foremost — and that’s partly why I traveled — attention for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a vast country, a country that contains multitudes. So, as you say, one of the largest — the largest displacement crisis in the world today, over 7 million people displaced. Huge conflict, particularly in the east of the country, with scores of armed groups and international armies fighting, which displaces people and puts people at risk. And at the same time, unbelievable wealth of resources, critical for our energy transition for the world — the lungs of Africa, as it’s called, and it’s also one of the biggest carbon sinks in the world. So, the DRC should play a much more important, critical role for the international community, and it should get attention and the support its population deserves.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And briefly, what do you think Washington could do right now in terms of what’s going on in the Congo?

JANTI SOERIPTO: Support the peace process. There has to be peace in the DRC to really have sustainable development and support for its population, in particular the many, many millions of children. Support the peace process that’s running. Make sure men with guns come to the table and agree that this is no way to support this great country. And then, really put funding behind the work in Congo. Currently, the humanitarian resource plan for the DRC is funded, I think, by 17%, so 17% of the required funding — that’s an estimation of the United Nations — is currently funded. So, that gives you a sense of how big the gap is between what is needed and what we actually have.

I was visiting an IDP camp there in the east last week, and Save the Children was literally the only humanitarian organization in that particular camp, of 20,000 people who were displaced, who was actively providing some services there. And that is really a rare sight to see.

AMY GOODMAN: IDP camp is an internally displaced persons camp. I want to end with your Twitter thread. You said, “Firstly, we’re all more connected to the DRC than we realize. The country holds over 70% of the world’s cobalt supply, a mineral used in virtually all batteries, including cellphones, laptops and electric vehicles.” Just an interesting note to end on. Janti Soeripto, we thank you so much for being with us, president and CEO of Save the Children US.

That does it for our program. Democracy Now!_ is produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Hana Elias. Our executive director is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Jon Randolph, Paul Powell, Mike Di Filippo, Miguel Nogueira, Hugh Gran, Denis Moynihan, David Prude, Dennis McCormick, Matt Ealy, Anna Özbek, Emily Andersen and Buffy Saint Marie Hernandez.

Our podcasts are available where you get your podcasts, both video and audio podcasts. And you can go to our website, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.


Another detail of the ongoing slaughter?  AL MAYADEEN notes:

In late April, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that "Israel" dropped more than approximately 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza, over the six months between October 7 and April 24, surpassing the combined amount of bombs dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London during World War II.

"It is estimated that Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip in addition to its bulldozing operations, destroying all buildings at a distance of up to one kilometer in the east and north of the Strip to create a so-called buffer zone," according to the Geneva-based human rights monitor organization.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 243 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 36,550, with 82,959 wounded."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."


ALJAZEERA notes this morning, "Morgues are overflowing and hospitals are struggling to cope with a surge of casualties in Deir el-Balah, medical sources tell Al Jazeera, as at least 75 people are killed in the past 24 hours by Israeli strikes on central Gaza."   CNN reports:

Israel is phasing out the use of the detention camp of Sde Teiman in Israel’s Negev desert, a state attorney told Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday during a first-ever hearing about the facility where hundreds of Palestinian detainees from Gaza have allegedly been held under conditions of extreme abuse.

State attorney Aner Helman told the court that 700 inmates had been moved to Ofer military facility in the occupied West Bank, with another 500 were set to be transferred in the weeks to come. Around 200 detainees will remain in Sde Teiman, said Helman, who added that the state would provide an update on their status within three days.

The hearing comes in response to a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and other human rights groups, which drew heavily on CNN reporting about the makeshift prison to make a case for it to be shut down.

CNN’s investigation, in which Israeli whistleblowers as well as Palestinian former detainees and eyewitnesses described horrific conditions at the facility, including continuous blindfolding and handcuffing, sparked an international outcry.

Read the full story here






The following sites updated: