Sao Paulo, Brazil – The decision of Brazil’s top electoral court to bar former president Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva from contesting the country’s polls in October has forced his party – and a large chunk of the Brazilian electorate – into a rethink.
After a marathon session, which began on Friday and concluded in the early hours of Saturday, the Superior Electoral Court deemed Lula’s candidacy to be ineligible under Brazil’s “Clean Slate” law, which forbids those with appeals court convictions from running for office.
The 72-year-old, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption and money laundering, has been a clear leader in all opinion polls held so far in the run-up to the October 7 elections.
His leftist Workers’ Party, which has promised to “fight through all means to secure his candidacy”, is expected to file an extraordinary appeal to the Federal Supreme Court this weekend.
Ricardo Ribeiro, a political analyst at MCM Consultores, told Al Jazeera that the success of the court appeal depends on which judge hears the case.
“If it goes to [Supreme Court Justice] Ricardo Lewandowski, there is a chance that he will grant an injunction in favour of Lula’s candidacy,” said Ribeiro.
“Free Lula” posters at a rally of his supporters in Brazil. [Rodolfo Buhrer/Reuters]
What happens in Lula’s absence?
Still, the Workers’ Party is expected to decide on a new candidate to replace Lula – while its Federal Supreme Court request is pending.
According to the electoral court decision, the party has 10 days from Saturday to nominate a new presidential candidate, with all signs pointing towards Fernando Haddad, Lula’s running mate and a former mayor of Sao Paulo.
A party meeting is scheduled for Monday in the city of Curitiba, when Haddad’s candidacy is likely to be confirmed.
If Lula’s Supreme Court appeal is successful, the Workers’ Party will still be able to put the former president back on the ballot.
If not, the party will face the uphill task of transferring Lula’s votes to Haddad, a politician who is not instantly recognisable around the country and currently polls at just four percent.
“It’s the only strategy available to them,” said Ribeiro. “But Lula’s popularity means there is a good chance it will be successful.”
Indeed, Haddad can take heart in the fact that recent polls show 31 percent of the electorate would vote for any candidate endorsed by Lula, which would be more than enough to propel him into a potential second-round runoff with Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate with the Social Liberty Party.
Far-right candidate a frontrunner
With Lula’s removal from the presidential race, Bolsonaro, a former army captain and Rio de Janeiro congressman since 1991, has emerged as a frontrunner.
Due to the long-perceived inevitability of Lula’s candidacy being blocked by the electoral courts, major pollsters have been conducting two different scenarios: one which includes the former president, and one without him.
In opinion polls without Lula, Bolsonaro appears ahead of all competitors, with a vote share varying between 20 and 22 percent.
Bolsonaro has managed to present himself as a credible outsider candidate, despite a track record of homophobic, racist and sexist statements.
The far-right politician has a belligerent stance on crime, declaring in a recent TV interview that police officers who “kill 10, 15, or 20 people” should be rewarded and not punished.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist and professor of international relations at Rio de Janeiro State University, stressed that for a significant portion of voters, “Bolsonaro has been able to establish himself as the spokesperson for the feelings of anger and revolt which many Brazilians feel today”.
Bolsonaro is popular among young, educated, middle-class male voters. While his support appears to have hit a plateau, it has not yet dropped, suggesting that he has a solid voter base, which is likely to push him into the expected runoff, scheduled to take place on October 28.
To avoid a second round of voting, a candidate would need to win more than 50 percent of the votes on October 7.
What makes 2018 election different
In six of the seven presidential elections held since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985, the two candidates with the most votes have come from the centre-left Workers’ Party and the centre-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party – a trend set to be bucked in the upcoming election.
Geraldo Alckmin, the Social Democrat candidate who is seen as “market-friendly”, is severely lagging behind in the polls, despite having the support of a vast coalition of centrist and centre-right parties.
Alckmin is also considered as the candidate of the establishment, a particularly damning title given that the current government, under President Michel Temer, is hugely unpopular.
Alckmin’s broad coalition may yet work in his favour, benefitting from the start of election campaign messages broadcasted on television and radio.
In Brazil, free airtime is distributed among the parties in accordance with their number of seats in the lower house of Congress, with Alckmin’s numerous alliances giving him the lion’s share.
In each commercial block of 12 minutes and 30 seconds, the Social Democrat candidate will be allotted five minutes and 32 seconds. In comparison, Bolsonaro will receive just eight seconds.
“Alckmin’s biggest opponent isn’t the Workers’ Party, as it has been in years past,” said Santoro.
The Maryland Terrapins honored the late Jordan McNair during their season opener against the Texas Longhorns on Saturday by lining up with just 10 players on the field before their first offensive play.
Maryland Football @TerpsFootball
Terps line up with 10 men on the first play. Classy gesture from Texas to decline the delay of game.
The Terrapins also wore a helmet decal in McNair’s honor, and no player will wear his No. 79 for the next three years, which would have covered his remaining eligibility.
According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, McNair died of heatstroke suffered during a May 29 practice. The 19-year-old offensive lineman was hospitalized after collapsing during the practice and died two weeks later.
McNair was a 4-star recruit in the 2017 class and the seventh-best player from the state of Maryland, according to 247Sports.
Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin and a number of strength coaches and trainers were placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into the program. The university has since accepted “legal and moral responsibilities for the mistakes” that led to McNair’s death.
MCCAIN’S NATIONAL CATHEDRAL TRIBUTE — JOHN SIDNEY MCCAIN III left the Capitol for the last time this dreary morning. His family was on hand as his casket was put in the hearse which then headed to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Cindy McCain was accompanied by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly followed by his children, as she laid a wreath in her husband’s honor at the memorial. — Photo from Scott Mahaskey, our photo editor:McCain’s casket being carried out of the Capitol
VIRTUALLY EVERY POLITICAL POWER PLAYER past and present was on hand this morning for McCain’s invitation-only funeral at the National Cathedral. MISSING: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, who has been tweeting this morning about the Justice Department, the FBI and NAFTA. Trump left the White House at 10:35 a.m. wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and headed to Trump National Golf Club in Loudoun County, Virginia, via pooler Lorraine Woellert.
LOTS OF INTERESTING INTERACTIONS as guests mingled ahead of the funeral. JARED KUSHNER and IVANKA TRUMP spoke with former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Former President Bill Clinton talked with his Vice President Al Gore. And former President Barack Obama chatted with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
— LIKE OLD TIMES: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke with former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
SPOTTED at John McCain’s memorial service this morning at Washington National Cathedral: Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, former Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Gary Hart (D-Colo.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta sitting next to Ash Carter, Bill Cohen, John Kerry, Madeleine Albright, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Dick and Lynne Cheney, Justice Anthony Kennedy, David Petraeus, Stephen Hadley, Mitt and Ann Romney, Tom Ridge, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, John Bolton, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Kevin Hassett, U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Rick Davis, Carl Bernstein, Les Moonves and Julie Chen, Sally Quinn …
… Greta Van Susteren and John Coale, Harris Faulkner, Josh Rogin, Robert and Elena Allbritton, Jeff Bezos, Fred Smith, Amanda Bennett and Don Graham, Tom Brokaw, Jake and Jennifer Tapper, Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al-Otaiba, Qatari Ambassador to the U.S. Meshal Hamad Al-Thani, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, Abbe Lowell, Dana Milbank, Tom Malinowski, former Georgian President Misha Saakashvili, former Estonian President Toomas Ilves, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Richard Haass, Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, Max Boot, Michael Gordon, Leon Wieseltier, Abby Huntsman, Bill Browder, Tucker Bounds, Kristina Wong …
… Jay Carney sitting next to Walter Isaacson, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Abby Blunt, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Kurt Volker, Lanny Wiles, Martin Indyk, Gahl Burt, Brian Rogers, Jay Leno, Rudy Giuliani, Bill Kristol, Ken Mehlman, Dikembe Mutombo, Jim VandeHei, Paul Wolfowitz, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Ky.) and former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Clay Aiken, Harry and Florence Sloan and Janet Langhart. (Big thanks to Patrick Temple-West for his eagle-eyed spottings)
THE PROGRAM: Former President George W. Bush and former President Barack Obama, two of McCain’s political rivals, gave remarks. As did Meghan McCain, Joe Lieberman and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Sidney McCain, Jimmy McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were slated to give readings.
MEGHAN MCCAIN: “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness. The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served.”
— DIRECT SHOT AT TRUMP — A LINE THAT RECEIVED SUSTAINED APPLAUSE: “America does not boast because she has no need to. The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.” (A number of service members in uniform were seen clapping)
LIEBERMAN: “His death seems to have reminded the American people that these values are what makes us a great nation, not the tribal partisanship and personal attack politics that have recently characterized our life.” …
— “I never saw him say a bigoted word about anyone.” …
— “He always reassured our allies and unsettled our enemies.”
KISSINGER: “Honor was John’s Lodestar. It is an intangible quality. It is not obligatory. It has no written code. It reflects an inward compulsion free of self-interest. It fulfills a cause, not a personal ambition. It represents what a society lives for beyond the necessities of the moment. Law makes life possible. Honor and nobility for John it was a way of life.”
— “John believed in a compassionate America guided by core principles for which American foreign policy must always stand. With liberty and justice for all is not an empty sentiment he argued, it is the foundation of our national consciousness.”
— “None of us will ever forget even in his parting, John has bestowed on us a much needed moment of unity and a renewed faith of the possibilities of America. Henceforth, the country’s honor is ours to sustain.”
BUSH: “He respected the dignity inherent in every life — a dignity that does not stop at borders and cannot be erased by dictators. Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power. He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots. There was something deep inside him that made him stand up for the little guy – to speak for forgotten people in forgotten places.”
— “If we are ever tempted to forget who we are, to grow weary of our cause, John’s voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder: We are better than this. America is better than this.”
— “We will remember him as he was — unwavering, undimmed, unequal.”
— OBAMA on McCain defending his citizenship in 2008: “He saw himself as defending America’s character, not just mine … I was grateful but I wasn’t surprised. It was John’s instinct.”
— “He understood that some principles transcend politics and some values transcend party. He considered it part of is duty to uphold those principles and uphold those values. …
— “So much of our politics can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult, in phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It’s a politics that pretends to be brave, but in fact is born of fear. John called on us to be bigger than that. He called on us to be better than that.”
TOMORROW McCain will be buried at the Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.
— RAISING A GLASS TO MCCAIN: Pool report – per a tipster: “Over 100 McCain Senate Office, Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Armed Services current and former staffers to Sen. John McCain toasted him [Friday night] at PJ Clarke’s. (h/t Gigi the manager of PJ Clarke’s for being so kind with some nibbles and TLC to an emotionally drained crowd.)
“Former 2010 Irish intern Jack O’Donnell (from the U.S./Ireland intern exchange program) traveled from Dublin to join, and former Arizona State Director Pia Pelosi traveled from Hong Kong to toast the Senator. Other former staffers traveled from California, Utah and Arizona. The stories told at the party can’t be repeated, but the friendships will live on along with many wonderful memories.”
CLICKER – “Honoring John McCain: Images of remembrance and mourning” — 46 pix
WOW — THROWING SHADE — TRUMP 2020 SENIOR ADVISOR KATRINA PIERSON tweeted during McCain’s funeral — “.@realDonaldTrump ran for @POTUS ONE time and WON! Some people will never recover from that. #SorryNotSorry Yes, #MAGA”.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER … AND THE RACE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE … The “Rally for the Republic” — an event to boost JIM JORDAN for House speaker — is Sept. 26 on the west lawn of the Capitol.
FREEDOMWORKS is behind the event. Here’s their description: “FreedomWorks wants to flood the halls of Congress with the sound of your voice and make it perfectly clear to YOUR Members of Congress that YOU want conservative champion Jim Jordan as the next Speaker of the House and Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court!” The invite
NEXT UP — “Showdown — and potential shutdown — loom over border funding,” by CNBC’s Kayla Tausche: “When Congress returns from recess after Labor Day weekend, lawmakers will have just 11 legislative days before an Oct. 1 deadline to pass new spending legislation or a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open, or risk the third government shutdown in 2018.
“But the White House is considering at least one alternative option, according to three people who have discussed the idea with West Wing officials: A ‘partial shutdown,’ in which President Donald Trump would sign stand-alone bills to fund the majority of the government, while reserving the right to veto others if they don’t include funding for the border wall. ‘It hasn’t been ruled out,’ said a senior administration official, who said there are multiple scenarios being discussed with GOP leaders. ‘But it hasn’t been ruled in, either.’
“The strategy, said to be supported internally by senior policy advisor Stephen Miller and, to a lesser extent, budget director Mick Mulvaney, would eliminate traditional shutdown vignettes of withheld paychecks and closed national parks and veterans affairs facilities. It would allow the White House to exact leverage over a specific campaign issue before a potential party reorg in Congress — and prevent a forced signature on a wide-ranging and opaque spending bill that excludes his top priority.” CNBC
Good Saturday afternoon. SPOTTED: Mitt Romney having lunch on Friday at Del Mar … Cafe Milano last night at different tables: former Defense Secretary William Cohen, former Secretary of State John Kerry and Michael Steel
MCGAHN’S REPLACEMENT? — “President Trump is considering Washington litigator Pat Cipollone to replace outgoing White House counsel Donald McGahn,” by WaPo’s Carol Leonnig: “President Trump is eying Washington litigator Pat Cipollone to replace outgoing White House counsel Donald McGahn, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking. This week, Trump interviewed Cipollone, a former Justice Department attorney who practices commercial litigation at Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato & Missner, the people said.
“Trump is ‘strongly considering’ Cipollone for the job, one person said. Cipollone has been advising Trump’s outside legal team since at least June. He is also close to Emmet Flood, a White House lawyer who is helping handle the special-counsel investigation and is himself being considered for the top legal position.” WaPo
WHAT BILL SHINE IS UP TO – ANNIE KARNI and ELIANA JOHNSON, “‘I forget he’s even there’: Bill Shine lies low in the West Wing”: “Bill Shine, the White House communications director, has been on the job for almost two months. But he has yet to set up a voicemail greeting on his government-issued phone, still jokes that he doesn’t know his way to the nearest bathroom in the West Wing, often has to step out of meetings when classified information is being discussed for lack of proper security clearances, and claims he doesn’t even have a permanent office. When a reporter spotted him behind his desk and, pointing to his nameplate on the door, commented on the fact that he had finally procured an office, Shine replied: ‘It’s not an office, it’s just a sign.’ The ‘I just got here’ schtick is markedly different from the way other newcomers have behaved when joining the Trump administration carrying high expectations of turning things around.
“Shine’s method appears to be to elongate his grace period, in part because he hates attention. In a world where President Donald Trump makes everyone in his orbit famous – and where many aides actively seek out that reflected glow – Shine is staying in the shadows, drawing out his newcomer status, according to more than half a dozen White House officials and people close to the administration. One person close to the White House noted that two months since Shine stepped into the vacuum left by the departure last winter of Hope Hicks, not much seems to have changed at the White House. ‘I forget he’s even there,’ this person said.” POLITICO
— NY MAG’S OLIVIA NUZZI, “Why on Earth Is Trump Making Infomercials From the Rose Garden?”: “You may be wondering why, throughout the second half of August, the president of the United States has been standing in the Rose Garden and yelling. On August 17, he yelled about manufacturing. On August 18, he yelled about trade and, later that day, he yelled about meeting with foreign leaders. On August 22, he yelled about the stock market. And on August 24, he yelled about the economy. The resulting video clips, which range from 23 to 60 seconds in length, are like stream-of-consciousness infomercials for the flimsy concept of #AIGGADW (America Is Getting Great Again, Don’t Worry).
“With his hands conducting dramatically at his sides, he began the first episode like this: “Made in America is back! Now, some people would say ‘Made in the USA’ — I personally don’t care. The fact is, we’re back.” According to — I swear to God — five current and former officials from both Donald Trump’s White House and campaign as well as one former official from the Trump Organization, the purpose of this on-camera exercise is simple: It makes him feel (and, he believes, look) good. It’s also a reminder of a freer time in his life, on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, when he first perfected the cockeyed art of digital media virality with an off-the-cuff series of videos called ‘From the Desk of Donald J. Trump’ and ‘Ask the Donald.’” NY Mag
GUNS IN THE SCHOOLS? — “DeVos says she won’t block schools from using federal money to buy guns,” by Kim Hefling and Michael Stratford: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced on Friday that she would not stand in the way of states that want to use federal grants to purchase guns for schools, emphasizing that it’s a decision for local officials to make.
“‘I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act],’ DeVos said in a letter to Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House education committee. DeVos’ letter comes as Democrats and some education groups had asked the Trump administration not to allow federal education grants to be used for firearms after The New York Times first reported last week that the Education Department was considering the issue.
“Education Department officials said that they believe that states and school districts already have the flexibility to purchase firearms using federal education grants.” POLITICO
COMMERCE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — “Commerce’s Ross Loses Key Aide as Trade Disputes Escalate,” by Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs and Shawn Donnan: “Ross’s chief of staff, Wendy Teramoto, 44, described by officials as a key behind-the-scenes ambassador between the secretary and other high-level administration players, is stepping down this fall after working closely with Ross for more than 20 years, said four people familiar with her plans.” Bloomberg
2018 WATCH — “Racist robocalls mar Florida’s race for governor,” by Marc Caputo in Tallahassee: “A neo-Nazi group began bombarding the phones of Florida Democratic voters Friday with a robocall narrated by a person who mocks the party’s first African-American gubernatorial nominee, Andrew Gillum, in a black minstrel-style voice as jungle noises play in the background.
“The automated calls were issued by the Road to Power, an Idaho-based white supremacist group linked to other racist robocall campaigns in Charlottesville, Va., Oregon and California, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, which first reported the calls and is the hometown newspaper of Gillum, the city’s mayor.” POLITICO
THE INVESTIGATIONS — “Papadopoulos lawyers ask for no prison time for lying to FBI amid Russia probe,” by Josh Gerstein: “Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, the first suspect charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe, is asking a court to allow him to avoid prison time for lying to federal investigators.
“In a filing submitted shortly before midnight Friday, lawyers for Papadopoulos urged U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss to reject Mueller’s recommendation that their client get up to six months in prison for misleading the FBI about the timing and scope of his contacts with individuals connected to Russia.
“Papadopoulos’ attorneys say he didn’t lie out of concern he was involved in a dastardly plot, but due to more pedestrian worries about his job prospects and avoiding embarrassment to the Trump campaign.” POLITICO
HMM — “Georgia’s Voting Plan Has Drawn New Criticism, This Time Over How It’s Dealing With Voters Overseas,” by BuzzFeed’s Kevin Collier: “The state of Georgia has blocked all foreign internet traffic to its online voter registration site, BuzzFeed News has learned, a move that would do little to deter hackers but blocks absentee voters. The site, registertovote.sos.ga.gov, is accessible only to U.S. IP addresses.
“The decision has outraged technologists and voting groups. In theory, it’s meant as a security measure, based on the idea that a person visiting the site is more likely to be a foreign hacker. But in practice, it has the opposite effect: Georgians abroad who don’t know how to reroute their internet traffic with tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) or Tor will be prevented from registering to vote.” BuzzFeed
IN THE BLUEGRASS STATE — “Jerry Lundergan indicted on charges of illegal donations to daughter’s campaign,” by Louisville Courier Journal’s Phillip M. Bailey: “Veteran Kentucky Democratic strategist Jerry Lundergan was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury on allegations that he made illegal donations to his daughter’s 2014 U.S. Senate race and tried to cover them up. Federal court records show Lundergan and longtime political operative Dale Emmons are being charged for donations to Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes’ campaign.
“The indictment shows the two are accused of making illegal corporate contributions of more than $25,000 to Grimes in her bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Lundergan and Emmons ‘knowingly and voluntarily conspired with each other, and other, known and unknown to the grand jury, to commit … offenses against the United States,’ said the indictment filed in U.S. District Court.” Courier Journal
AT FOGGY BOTTOM — “State Department Team Fighting Russia Election Interference Still Waits For Funds,” by HuffPost’s Lauren Weber: “A State Department unit created two years ago to lead the U.S. fight against anti-democratic propaganda abroad, including Russian disinformation campaigns, still has not received millions of dollars in funding allocated to it by Congress.
“And even if some money comes through for the Global Engagement Center before the end of the fiscal year, it will now be just one-sixth of the amount originally directed to the center to counteract terrorist messaging and foreign efforts to influence elections. … Foreign policy experts suggest that the funding delay is a combination of previous disinterest at the State Department and current foot-dragging at the Defense Department.” HuffPost
CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker – 11 keepers
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Jackson Hole, Wyoming:
— “The Crazy Inside Story of Al Gore’s ‘Trump Tower Moment,’” by the Daily Beast’s Sam Stein: “Al Gore’s campaign was sent a cheat sheet to the most important event of the 2000 election—and they turned it over to the FBI.” Daily Beast
— “David Foster Wallace on John McCain: ‘The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub’” – Rolling Stone in April 2000: “One reason the media like John McCain is simply that he’s a cool guy. At 63, he’s witty, and smart, and he’ll make fun of himself and his wife and staff and other pols, and he’ll tease the press and give them sh*t in a way they don’t ever mind. Sometimes he’ll wink at you for no reason. If all that doesn’t sound like a big deal, you have to remember that these pro reporters have to spend a lot of time around politicians, and most politicians are painful to be around.” RS (h/t TheBrowser.com)
— “Who’s Killing Buck Birdsong’s Cows?” by Leif Reigstad in September’s Texas Monthly: “Usually, when you get into these deals where somebody is poisoning somebody else’s animals, they are not the cream of the crop people in the world. Someone will get pissed off at a neighbor and use antifreeze or rat bait to kill their dog. It is usually not somebody like Buck who is involved in something like that. He is an upstanding citizen, always has been.” Texas Monthly
— “The lost civilization of California wine,” by Esther Mobley in San Francisco Chronicle – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “A visit to California’s ‘strangest vineyard,’ the Renaissance Winery, owned by the Fellowship Of Friends, a religious group ‘known to many as a doomsday cult.’” SF Chronicle
— “We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage,” by Christine Kenneally in BuzzFeed: “Millions of American children were placed in orphanages. Some didn’t make it out alive.” BuzzFeed
— “‘Fake News’ and Unrest in Nicaragua,” by Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker: “Suppressing an uprising, President Daniel Ortega borrows tactics from autocrats abroad.” New Yorker
— “The Political Solicitor General,” by Lincoln Caplan in the Sept./Oct. issue of Harvard Magazine: “The ‘Tenth Justice’ and the polarization of the Supreme Court.” Harvard Magazine
— “Stickeen: The Story of a Dog,” by John Muir in Jan. 1909: “An adventure on an Alaskan glacier with a new best friend.” Longform
— “Riz Ahmed Acts His Way Out of Every Cultural Pigeonhole,” by Carvell Wallace in the NYT Magazine: “From HBO to ‘Star Wars’ to Shakespeare, he has discovered how to excel beyond tidy genres.” NYT Magazine
— “Bret, Unbroken,” by Steve Friedman in Runners World in May 2013: “His brain and body shattered in a horrible accident as a young boy, Bret Dunlap thought just being able to hold down a job, keep an apartment, and survive on his own added up to a good enough life. Then he discovered running.” Runners World
— “John Coltrane and the End of Jazz,” by Dominic Green in the Weekly Standard: “Coltrane’s late style emerged in his 1960s quartets. The further he went, the more ambitious and less accessible the music became, until it was incomprehensible to almost all of his audience and even to some of his closest collaborators. Jazz didn’t exactly die with Coltrane, but he certainly helped to kill it. No one, apart from Miles Davis, read its inner logic so clearly. No one did more to pulverize show tunes and the blues into stardust. After Coltrane, there was nothing left to say on the saxophone. But Kenny G said it anyway.” TWS
— “The Giulianis Break Up,” by Tish Durkin in New York Magazine: “And Rudy breaks down? How Judi diagnoses her ex’s new ‘dissembling’ condition.” NY Mag
— “The Needles and the Damage Done: The narrowfication of Manhattan architecture,” by Aaron Timms in the Baffler: “Gentrification is not quite the right word for what’s happening here. What’s emerging is a secessionist city. The techno-libertarians of Silicon Valley have long dreamed of an exit from regular society, through colonization of the seas and the stars. In the form of the supertall, they may have found, for themselves and others like them, an elegant solution: one that gives them a society apart, a realm of perfect exclusion and perfect control.” The Baffler
MEDIAWATCH — END OF AN ERA: “The Village Voice ends editorial production, lays off half of staff,” by CJR’s Alexandria Neason: “The Village Voice is suspending all editorial content and will lay off half its staff effective immediately, according to a member of the staff. Peter Barbey, who bought the famed alt-weekly from Voice Media Group in 2015, announced the decision today in a conference call. CJR acquired audio of the call from a Voice staff member.
“‘Today is kind of a sucky day. Due to the business realities, we are going to stop publishing Village Voice new material,’ said Barbey on the call. ‘About half the staff, it’ll be last day today. About half the staff staying on to wind things down and to work on the archive project.’” CJR
SPOTTED — Paul Ryan last night at Acqua Al 2 … Boris Epshteyn at Mama Ayesha’s last night. … Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine yesterday in the park between Russell Senate Office Building and Union Station … Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in coach on Friday morning on AA 2278 MIA-DCA “receiving sympathy on McCain from well-wishers on the plane and in the terminal,” per a tipster … Dave Chappelle briefly meeting yesterday with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in her office
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Andrew Wallace, portfolio manager for Verition Fund Management and Olivia Wallace, account manager for Fendi, on Friday welcomed Jack Henry Wallace, who came in at 8 pounds 6 ounces, and 20 inches. Pic(h/t grandfather Chris Wallace, for whom this is grandchild number 6)
TRANSITION — Jared Favole is moving to Boston to work for the crypto finance company Circle. He most recently was senior director at Hamilton Place Strategies and spent eight years at The Wall Street Journal.
BIRTHDAYS: Dee Dee Myers, EVP and director of corporate communications at Warner Bros. and former WH press secretary … Steve Hildebrand is 56 … Brian Coy, comms director for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, is 35 … Sam Salkin … WSJ’s Kate Davidson … Xochitl Hinojosa, DNC comms director (hat tip: Adrienne Watson) … ABC News’ Tara Palmeri (h/t Devin Dwyer) … Joe Toohey … Sue Hensley, EVP of comms and public affairs at American Trucking Associations (h/t Stuart Roy) … Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.) is 71 … former Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) is 74 … C-SPAN Capitol Hill producer Craig Caplan … Bloomberg’s Lauren Kiel … Jackie Falk … John Gundlach … Yolanda Caraway … Al Thomson … Politico’s Samira John … Jillian Sobeck … John Jones … Radio free Asia chief Libby Liu … BGR Dem chief Jonathan Mantz is 49 (h/ts Michael Meehan and Kimball Stroud) … Neil Volz … Alexander Thomson … Wayne Crews … MSNBC’s Amitai Perline … Sacramento Bee cartoonist Jack Ohman is 58 …
… Liz Bartolomeo, comms director for the Democracy Alliance … Sean Quinn (h/t David Beavers) … Kenny Mayne … Mark Hudspeth, producer at “CBS Sunday Morning” … Andrew Satter … Jessica Estepa … Patricia Barba … Rahul Raina … Smoot Tewes Group’s Chris Fleming is 4-0 … David Natonski … Christopher Massicotte … Alexandra Dufour … Trevor Thomas … FP1 Strategies’ Lauren Aronson … Vanity Fair editor at large Cullen Murphy is 66 … Courtney Jamieson Dorning … Bear Tullis … Connie Haddeland … Susie Feliz of the National Urban League … Karl Ahlgren … Dan Bernal … Teresa Martinez … William Beutler … Ryan Smith … Kelly Plunnecke … Debbie Price … June Plunnecke … Richard Howard … Stephen Krasner … Arsalan Iftikhar … Christopher Healy … Al Thompson … Sigurd Neubauer … Chip Borman … Terry Nicolosi … Eve Gittelson … Eric Andersen … Grant Woodard … Caryl Hasse (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)
THE SHOWS by @Matt Mackowiak, filing from Washington, D.C.:
Fox
“Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) … AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. Panel: Marc Lotter, former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Marc Thiessen and Charles Lane
CNN
“State of the Union”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) … Andrew Gillum. Panel: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), former Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.), SE Cupp and former State Rep. Bakari Sellers (D-S.C.) (substitute anchor: CNN’s Dana Bash)
NBC
“Meet the Press”: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Ark.) … Andrew Gillum (D-Fla.). Panel: Kimberly Atkins, Matthew Continetti, Mark Leibovich and Amy Walter
CBS
“Face the Nation”: OhioGov. John Kasich … John Kerry … Jonathan Turley. Panel: Kelsey Snell, Margaret Talev, Edward Wong and Salena Zito
ABC
“This Week”: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … Leon Panetta. … Panel: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Cecilia Vega and Jennifer Jacobs … Panel: Matthew Dowd, Rick Klein, Cokie Roberts and Shawna Thomas
Fox News
“Sunday Morning Futures”: Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) … author Gordon Chang… Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) … Justin Walker … Gregg Nunziata. Panel: Ed Rollins and former Sen. Al D’Amato (R-N.Y.)
Fox News
“MediaBuzz”: Lanny Davis … Mollie Hemingway … Philippe Reines … Susan Ferrechio … Shana Glenzer … Father Thomas Reese
CNN
“Inside Politics”: Panel: Julie Pace, Jonathan Martin, Seung Min Kim and Jeff Zeleny (substitute anchor: Phil Mattingly)
CNN
“Fareed Zakaria GPS”: Panel: Steven Brill, Deborah Fallows and James Fallows … Dambisa Moyo … physicist Carlo Rovelli
CNN
“Reliable Sources”:Panel: April Ryan, Noah Shachtman and Errol Louis … Hadas Gold and Oliver Darcy … Matt Rivitz … Mike Daly (substitute anchor: John Avlon)
Univision
“Al Punto”: Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez … actor Demián Bichir … Andrew Gillum … Nora Sandigo Foundation founder and executive director Nora Sandigo and psychologist and author Maria Basualdo … Alejandro Berry and Ana Caty Hernandez
C-SPAN
“The Communicators”: author and WIRE co-founder and former editor in chief Louis Rossetto… “Newsmakers”: Steven Law, questioned by Jonathan Martin and Alexi McCammond … “Q&A”: Historian Charles Calhoun
MSNBC
“Kasie DC”: Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) … Larry Sabato … Philip Rucker … Shawna Thomas … Ken Vogel …Tim Alberta … Darren Sands … Jo Piazza
Washington Times
“Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at MackOnPolitics.com): Kathryn Lopez.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have admitted that the bombing of a school bus in Yemen last month – which killed 51 people, including 40 children – was “unjustified”.
A probe by the coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels concluded on Saturday that “mistakes” had been made in the August 9 air raid in Saada province.
Mansour Ahmed al-Mansour, a legal adviser to the military alliance’s Joint Incident Assessment Team, said that those behind it should be held accountable.
On the day of the bus attack, coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Malki had defended the air raid, saying his forces hit a “legitimate military target”, which included “operators and planners”.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said the coalition’s admission marked a “remarkable about-turn”.
“The Saudis and the UAE had earlier said it was a justified and legitimate military operation. They have now talked to the people in the area and they have concluded that it was an unjustified attack, which is a remarkable about-turn from the position that they took just weeks ago,” he said.
Universal condemnation
The probe came after the air attack sparked widespread international condemnation and calls for an independent investigation from the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF’s regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, tweeted at the time: “NO EXCUSES ANYMORE!!”
“Does the world really need more innocent children’s lives to stop the cruel war on children in Yemen?” he said.
Following the attack, individual members of the Congress in the United States also called on their country’s army to clarify its role in the war and investigate whether support for the air raids could render US military personnel “liable under the war crimes act”.
The US has been the biggest supplier of military equipment to Riyadh, with more than $90bn of sales recorded between 2010 and 2015.
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, has been bombing Yemen since March 2015 after the Houthis swept across the country, including the capital, Sanaa. The coalition’s stated aim is to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
Out of the 16,000-plus raids they have launched since the start of the conflict, only a handful have been investigated, despite nearly a third of all bombs hitting civilian targets.
Last year, the UN blacklisted the Saudi-UAE alliance for causing the majority of reported child deaths and injuries in Yemen.
Khalil Mack has developed into a dominant pass-rushing force since the Oakland Raiders used the fifth overall pick on him in the 2014 draft, but they weren’t able to reach a new deal with him and reportedly traded him to the Chicago Bears on Saturday.
Adam Schefter of ESPN first reported the sides have an “agreement in place” as they work through the final details.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport added:
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet
Before the end of the day, the #Bears are expected to negotiate a long-term deal with Khalil Mack that should eclipse the deal for Aaron Donald. Either way, Chicago just made a huge move.
Rapoport noted the deal was for two first round picks, as well as other assets, although it’s unclear what those are at this point.
Mack was set to be a free agent following the 2018 campaign before this news and held out for the entirety of training camp and the preseason in search of a new contract.
It reached a point thatManish Mehtaof the New York Daily Newsreported “more than a dozen teams” asked about potential trades for Mack as his holdout continued.
The holdout came afterMike Florioof Pro Football Talk reported in December 2016 the defensive end’s contract situation was intricately tied to that of teammate Derek Carr. Oakland selected the quarterback in the second round of the same draft it landed Mack, and each player was eligible for a new contract following the 2016 season.
However, he reported the Raiders were focused more on Carr than Mack at the time because they could extend the defender’s four-year deal an additional year, as he was a first-round pick.
In Carr’s case, they would have needed to use the franchise tag to keep him off the market in 2018 if they didn’t agree to a new deal. They ultimatelysignedthe quarterback to a five-year extension before the 2017 season.
Mehta noted Mack was “looking to become the first non-quarterback to make $20 million per year.” That is one expensive defender, but Mack has produced at a head-turning level since he entered the league.
He played all 16 games as a rookie in 2014 and notched 75 tackles and four sacks. He then became a Pro Bowler and First Team All-Pro member in 2015 with 77 tackles and 15 sacks. He followed that up with 73 tackles and 11 sacks as the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 and had 78 tackles and 10.5 sacks in 2017.
He also helped lead Oakland to the postseason for the first time in his career in the 2016 campaign and is still in the early stages of his prime with the potential to earn multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards throughout his career.
Mack will likely shift back to outside linebacker in Chicago’s 3-4 defensive scheme and should further bolster a pass rush that finished seventh in the NFL with 42 sacks last season.
Jeju, South Korea – When Cristina arrived on South Korea’s Jeju island last December, she thought the move from Anyang, just outside capital Seoul, would help her catch up on life after a busy decade.
Working with the migrant community in Seoul, Cristina’s organisation wanted to expand into other parts of the country. Jeju, a tourist destination with a visa-free policy in order to boost tourism, had migrants who might have needed help, Cristina thought before relocating.
“When I first came to Jeju, I thought there wasn’t much work to do here. It’s a small island, not too many people and I will be able to get some rest too,” Cristina, who is from Romania, told Al Jazeera in her refugee shelter at the Naomi Centre.
“But then God sent me so many people. I don’t get any rest now and there are no off days. God sent me here to help these Yemeni refugees.”
More than 550 Yemeni nationals have arrived on the island since April, seeking asylum and refugee status. The government has barred them from leaving the island and entering mainland Korea.
Although they are allowed to work, the opportunities are limited to washing dishes at restaurants, fish farming or fishing at sea. They are often subject to long hours of manual labour, resulting in injuries and health issues. There have also been reported cases of assault at work and non-payment of wages.
South Korea’s refugee acceptance rate stands at around four percent. The Yemenis’ arrival, mostly from Malaysia – to which they fled war-torn Yemen – sparked an online outcry and protests on the island, as well as Seoul.
The island has a population of around 600,000 and a recent survey of 500 islanders revealed 90 percent felt insecure about going outside since the Yemenis’ arrival.
Most of the Koreans protesting and calling on the government to deport the asylum seekers have never met a Yemeni. But an increase in fake news has inflamed an anti-Islam sentiment among the Koreans, driving protests and forcing the government to take Yemen off the visa-free list and also tweak its refugee policy.
The Yemenis arrived on the island with limited cash, unsure of how they would survive and what their future would look like. Without jobs, and with their movements restricted, almost all of them were staring into the unknown, fearing the worst – being homeless – when the cash runs out.
Lee Jung-hoon is a 65-year-old Jeju resident who has given shelter to five Yemenis, providing them food and teaching them the Korean language on a daily basis.
Cristina has been working in South Korea for a decade now [Faras Ghani/Al Jazeera]
“As far as I know, nobody is sleeping on the streets now because people who have nowhere to go can get help from NGOs or some locals who are willing to help out,” said Jung-hoon, flanked by three of the young Yemenis he is helping out.
Ammar, one of the refugees Jung-hoon helped out, found a job at a fish farm on Jeju. But the work was not easy.
“I worked from 5am to midnight. I only got four hours of sleep. I developed some health issues because of the lack of sleep and the hard labour. And that forced me to quit,” added Ammar, his Arabic translated into English by Azzam, 20, who wants to finish off the business administration degree he was pursing in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital.
Pastor Jung-hoon added that some refugees were still living in hotel, but would be needing shelter soon as they will be running out of money.
“I’m working with some other people and we have around 60 Yemenis in a shelter. We’re planning a bigger one where we can house 100 of them. We’ve also asked Jeju’s mayor for help. And despite all the anti-Islam sentiment that we see, there are many, many locals coming out to help these refugees.”
A few kilometres away, Mohammad Salem takes a break from his interpretation job at a refugee assistance centre. When he arrived in May, with his wife and his newborn kid, Salem had just $2,000 in his pocket.
After three weeks of stay at a hotel, and spending on food, he had difficulty sleeping, fearing the family would be forced to sleep on the streets after the money runs out.
Azzam wants to go to Seoul and finish off his undergraduate degree [Faras Ghani/Al Jazeera]
“I did some research about organisations helping out on the island and was lucky enough to find Cristina’s contact,” said Salem, sighing as he remembered the anxious days and nights prior to that.
“She was like an angel that came down from the sky to help us. She found us a local couple who gave us a room in their house. This was just two days before we would’ve been kicked out of the hotel.
“We’ve been with the Korean family for two months now. They buy food and toys for my son. They are like my parents now.”
Cristina, meanwhile, remembers the first Yemeni who came to her for help. Now, she says she has helped more than 200 others, and also assisted other NGOs with their requirements – shelter, food, medicine, health checkups and other commodities.
“There are so many people coming forward and offering help. Some offer shelter, others offer money and some are helping out with food. The NGOs contact me and tell me what they need and I can then help out accordingly.”
She was like an angel that came down from the sky to help us
Mohammad Salem, Yemeni asylum seeker
Back at the church, pastor Jung-hoon resumes the Korean language class, impressed by his students’ ability to pick up vocabulary and pronunciation quickly. He also realised that despite his efforts, those young refugees needed to get out and mingle more frequently.
“By teaching them Korean, we are preparing them to get decent jobs and to be able to interact with the locals. We also run a healing camp, provide tour of the island and also have football camp. At night, we make them write letters to their families.”
But Jung-hoon admits the private organisations could only do so much and it is the government that needs to get more involved.
“It’s the fake news that’s the root of the problem. The government, superficially, says it will fight against this. But no action has been taken so far. Nothing is stopping this fake news from spreading and causing more problems.
“But at least, living on Jeju, you realise most of the people here are not that bad.”
The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) calls the decision by the Trump administration to no longer commit funding “deeply regrettable” and “shocking”.
UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness said on Saturday that the move would affect “millions of people” including “some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised on this planet”.
For nearly 70 years, UNRWA has provided lifesaving assistance to more than five million Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Set up in 1949 to serve the needs of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were driven from their homes after the creation of Israel, the organisation has been providing refugees with access to food, education, healthcare, social services and employment.
But over the past year, the US government has made it increasingly clear it considers the work the organisation does, and who it considers as refugees, to be an obstacle in the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In January, a month after President Donald Trump’s decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that prompted widespread international condemnation, the White House decided to cut $65m in aid to UNRWA.
It was later reported that the Trump administration had withheld about $305m in funding, and only delivered $60m to UNRWA.
UNRWA told Al Jazeera it spent the next eight months scrambling for financial assistance, and was only able to continue operating after large contributions were raised by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which donated $150m between them.
But on Friday, the US announced it would stop all funding calling the UN agency an “irredeemably flawed operation”.
The decision was quickly criticised by the Palestinian leadership, and a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushed back against claims that the agency was inefficient.
“UNRWA has a strong record of providing high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances,” a statement by Stephane Dujarric read.
“The Secretary-General calls on other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance, as well as a sense of hope this vulnerable population.”
What is UNRWA?
Originally established as a temporary solution, UNRWA was set up after the creation of Israel in 1948 to assist the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were forcibly expelled from their towns and villages.
Since then, it has helped four generations of Palestinians with basic needs, including housing, healthcare, education and social services.
Employing more than 30,000 staff, it mostly works in education, and operates closely with local government bodies.
It helps more than half of Gaza’s two million population, a region which has been devastated by more than 10 years of blockade.
According to UNRWA, the strip suffers from a 44 percent unemployment rate.
Gunness, the agency’s spokesman, told Al Jazeera that if UNRWA didn’t receive emergency funding in the next 30 days, when its funds are expected to run dry, a “doomsday scenario” could unfold.
“Let there be no mistake; this decision is likely to have a devastating impact on the lives of 526,000 children who receive a daily education from UNRWA, 3.5 million sick people who come to our clinics for medical care, 1.7 million food insecure people who receive assistance from us, and tens of thousands of vulnerable women, children and disabled refugees who come to us.
“If we don’t fill a funding gap of $217m very quickly, they are all likely to suffer”.
I was born in a tent in a refugee camp. I was raised in camp. Without the help of UNRWA I would not have had clothes, food or schooling.
Mohammad Oweis, Palestinian refugee
What programmes does it offer?
According to UNRWA, the US provided $364m to the agency last year and the money it contributed, along with the $650m donated by other UN member states, provided essential relief to more than five million Palestinian refugees.
The funds helped provide for basic commodities such as flour, rice, sugar, powdered milk, canned meats, pharmaceuticals and drugs, and general supplies such as school textbooks and equipment.
Mohammad Oweis, a Washington DC-based political analyst and researcher, who specialises in the Middle East, said the agency helped people such as himself go on to live a better life.
“I was born in a tent in a refugee camp. I was raised in camp. Without the help of UNRWA, I would not have had clothes, food or schooling,” he said.
Why is funding being cut?
Key to the Trump administration and Israel’s criticism of UNRWA is the way the agency counts the refugees, including in the total tally the decendants of refugees who were originally displaced by the creation of Israel.
Israel fears that the passing of refugee status from parents to children could threaten the country’s so-called “Jewish character”, as Palestinians claim the right of return to their ancestral homeland.
Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for UNRWA to be scrapped, and accused the agency of helping “fictitious refugees”.
“UNRWA is an organisation that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem and the narrative of the right-of-return, as it were, in order to eliminate the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
WATCH: UNRWA concerned about Palestinian refugees in Syria’s Yarmouk (2:38)
His comments were echoed by Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, earlier this week who accused the agency of exaggerating the number of Palestinian refugees it currently provides aid to, as the US is reportedly planning to cap the number it officially recognises as refugees at only 500,000.
“We will be a donor if it [UNRWA] reforms what it does … if they actually change the number of refugees to an accurate account, we will look back at partnering them,” Haley said.
By undermining UNRWA’s definition of refugees, the administration appears to be attacking the Palestinian belief in the “right of return” – that one day the refugees will be able to go back to their ancestral homes.
Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian information minister and secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said the decision to slash funding was “not just an economic act, but also a political one.”
“The US tried to liquidate the issue of Jerusalem by saying they were removing it from the negotiating table, now they want to kill UNRWA with the aim of killing the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
“These are actions aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue completely while trying to normalise relations with Israel and the Arab countries.
“This will fail and what the Americans have done will make us more determined to stick to the rights of Palestinian refugees, especially after their nationalistic law, which is nothing but a system of apartheid.”
Sam Bahour, a co-founder of the ‘Right to Enter campaign’ which highlights Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement, agreed saying the funding cut would awaken the Palestinian community.
“They are trying to force down Palestinians throats this idea that they will no longer return home, and this is something the Palestinians have historically refused to accept.”
In emails leaked to Foreign Policy magazine last month, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, described the agency as not conducive to “peace”.
And during his visit to Jordan last June, he reportedly pushed for the refugee status of the two million Palestinians registered in the country to be dissolved.
Gunness rejected the administrations’ claims, saying it marked a 180-degree turn from the praise UNRWA received by the US last year.
“Late last year the US President said our programmes had a great impact, they we were transparent and we had conducted root and branch efficient reforms – saving the agency tens of millions of dollars.
“But within months of receiving that high praise, we then get the decision to cut off aid. We need to ask the US administration if and why they are politicising aid”.
By cutting aid, the US is violating international law.
Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)
What will the cut mean for ordinary Palestinians?
With the UN struggling to grapple with a host of crises, including wars in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the shortfall could have disastrous consequences for the five million Palestinian refugees.
According to Gunness, the $217m shortfall means that by the end of September “UNRWA will be running on empty and won’t have enough money to pay for for its 22,000 teaching staff”.
“After September we wont have enough money to run our schools, health clinics and our relief and social services programmes. That is the doomsday scenario.
“We are working tirelessly to avoid that.”
Is anyone stepping in?
UNRWA’s planned budget for 2018 was over one billion dollars. So far, Gulf States, Norway, Turkey and Canada have stepped in with pledges of $238m to help meet the budget deficit.
Gunness said it was “remarkable” the agency had managed to raise so much in the past eight months, adding it had a “long way to go,” as these pledges still needed to be paid out.
“We have been very generously supported by over 20 major donors and were looking for money from all of them and also from new donors,” he said.
On Friday, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said his country would host a fund-raising at the UN headquarters in September with the aim to “close the gap and put in place a plan that will ensure UNRWA’s continued, ongoing funding for the coming years”.
Meanwhile, the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said his government had pledged to significantly increase its future contributions, from roughly $94 million this year to an unspecified larger amount.
The Reuters news agency quoted him as saying that “the loss of [UNRWA] could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction”.
How have the Palestinian Authority and Hamas responded?
Senior members of Palestinian Authority denounced the decision and said it violated international law.
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah tweeted: “We reject the US administration’s decision to stop its funding of UNRWA in its latest blatant aggression against the rights of the Palestinian people, international law and UN General Assembly resolution 302 of 1949, which specified that the UN agency was established to provide its services in all areas until the refugee issue is resolved”.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Ryad al-Maliki said: “We will challenge the Trump decision & UNRWA is here to stay as long as there is one Palestinian refugee left.”
Saeb Erekat, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, said the pro-Israel bias of President Trump’s administration has disqualified it from any role in the peace process.
“By cutting aid, the US is violating international law. UNRWA is not a Palestinian agency but was established by the United Nations, and there is an international obligation to assist and support it until all the problems of the Palestinian refugees are solved.”
Meanwhile, senior Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri tweeted: “The US decision to cancel aid to UNRWA aims to remove the right of return and represents a serious American escalation against the Palestinian people. The decision reflects the Zionist background of the American leadership that has become an enemy of our people and our Muslim nation as a whole.
“We insist that we will not succumb to such unjust decisions”.
John McCain’s ceremony is only the latest from which he has been shunned. Might be for the best because he’s been known to make it all about him.
Donald Trump gets to do things his way much of the time. He met with Kim Jong Un in Singapore and Putin in Helsinki, got the tax cuts he wanted, and has played golf nearly a third of the days since he was inaugurated.
Funerals are another story. When Barbara Bush was laid to rest in April, word went out that he was persona non grata. And now, as Senator John McCain lies in state in the Capitol rotunda before Saturday’s services at Washington’s National Cathedral, Trump has also been asked to stay home. On Friday, streams of mourners passed by the late senator’s casket. At the same moment, the president headed to North Carolina to raise money for two Republicans in tight races.
Story Continued Below
These disinvites are hardly surprising. Who can forget Trump’s taunting Jeb Bush during the primaries as Low-Energy Jeb, or his declaration that McCain, who endured more than five years of torture as a POW, was not a real hero because he was captured. There aren’t too many ways of snubbing a sitting president, but this is one of them and McCain, who planned every minute of his multi-day memorial, wasn’t going to miss the chance.
To judge from Trump’s performance at the funeral of his own father, Fred, in June 1999, McCain made the right call.
More than 650 people, including Joan Rivers, Donald Trump’s ex-wife Ivana, and scores of politicians and other real estate figures, attended the service, held at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. The long-time head pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, had died, but Fred Trump and his son Donald had remained firm adherents of Peale’s admonition to keep laser-focused on success. Early in the proceedings, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani offered a brief thank you to the man who had built homes for thousands of New Yorkers. Then Donald’s three siblings offered loving tributes to their father, and his nephew Fred Trump III, spoke of his grandfather’s ongoing connection to ordinary people.
At an earlier wake for his father, Trump had recalled his father as “wonderful,” “the best,” “a fine man” who “gave us all a good start,” according to the New York Post. But when it came time to eulogize his father at the funeral, the focus shifted noticeably. He began by saying it was the toughest day of his own life. It was ironic, he said, that he’d learned of his father’s death right after reading a front-page story in the New York Times about the success of one of his own developments, Trump Place. He then enumerated all his other projects and said his father supported each one, and he finished by noting that on everything he’d ever done, Fred had known he would be able to pull it off.
Decades earlier, Alice Longworth Roosevelt, the sharp-tongued daughter of Teddy, famously and fondly said of her father that he “wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.” Presumably, she was overstating the behavior of our 26th president for effect. But as Donald Trump’s performance at his own father’s service proved, her words provide a remarkably apt description of our 45th commander in chief.
The funeral of Fred Trump wasn’t about Fred Trump; it was an opportunity to do some brand burnishing by Donald, for Donald. Throughout his remarks, the first-person singular pronouns—I and me and mine—far outnumbered he and his. Even at his own father’s funeral, Donald Trump couldn’t cede the limelight. This wasn’t Trump’s only awkward funeral moment.
In 1986, after Roy Cohn, Trump’s longtime mentor and legal hitman, died of AIDs, Trump dutifully attended his memorial service. But he wasn’t a featured guest, according to Wayne Barrett’s biography of Trump. He “stood in the back of the room silently, not asked to be one of several designated speakers, precisely because those closest to Cohn felt he had abandoned the man who had molded him.”
The service was packed with every important New York pol and Page Six celebrity in the city, but Trump, who certainly was no stranger to the tabloids, kept a conspicuously low profile because he had broken ties with Cohn as Cohn became progressively sicker, transferring his legal business to other attorneys. Cohn, wounded, told friends shortly before he died that “Donald pisses ice water.”
Trump has all but acknowledged that grieving doesn’t come easily to him.
When his parents died—his mother died in 2000, one year after her husband—he said it was the closest he ever came to shedding tears. “I don’t believe in crying,” he said in 2005 to biographer Tim O’Brien. “… It’s just not my thing. I have nothing against it when someone cries, but when I see a man cry I view it as a weakness. I don’t like seeing men cry. I’ll give you an example. I never met John Gotti, I know nothing about John Gotti, but he went through years of trials. He sat with a stone face. He said, ‘Fuck you.’”
via @CollegeGameDay 
Daily Trends Hunter 