| For the last few months, aid convoys have been greeted by massive crowds flocking to them in desperate hopes of getting food. A little over two weeks ago, though, IDF forces did open fire on a crowd of Palestinians attempting to get food in a similar situation, killing approximately 100. “Israeli officials acknowledged their troops opened fire on the Gaza City crowd Thursday, saying they did so after the crowd approached in a threatening way,” per NPR’s reporting, which the IDF semi-contradicted, declaring that “dozens were killed and injured from pushing, trampling and being run over by the truck” (in an odd bit of blame-shifting). But again: it is very difficult to know what actually happened, whether such threats did in fact exist, whether IDF forces exercised proper restraint, and whether any Gazan health ministry officials—controlled by Hamas—are telling the truth. Skepticism is warranted, over and over again.
Trump trial delays: The prosecutors in the Donald Trump hush money case have proposed a 30-day delay to the trial’s start since a new batch of evidence was made available earlier this week. Trump’s lawyers had requested 90 days (par for the course for them), but some sort of delay now seems likely. “The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which accused Mr. Trump of covering up a sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, said the delay would give Mr. Trump’s lawyers time to review a new batch of records,” reports The New York Times. “The office sought the records more than a year ago, but only recently received them from federal prosecutors, who years ago investigated the hush-money payments at the center of the case.”
And a decision is expected today pertaining to Trump’s Georgia case, as to whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is disqualified, which would mean a new prosecutor must be appointed, which would lead to delays (Willis’ whole office would be thrown off the case). “Trump and others in the case are seeking to disqualify Willis after accusing her of financially benefiting by hiring her special prosecutor in the case, Nathan Wade, with whom she became romantically involved,” per CNN.
“Defense lawyers claimed that the relationship between the prosecutors presented an untenable conflict of interest, because Mr. Wade was paid more than $650,000 in public funds while he was at least partly paying for cruises and other vacations he took with Ms. Willis,” reports The New York Times.
It’s an open question as to how these proceedings will affect Trump’s ability to make his pitch to voters in advance of election day. |