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Riiiight as I was saying “hey, we only take breaks for major bank holidays”… We had serious technical difficulties the past two days, so I really apologize for the gap in our coverage. We are back at it, and ready to catch you up before the weekend. Let’s jump in.
So the bill… Unfortunately, the bill has hit some road blocks. There has been some infighting among House and Senate Republicans to do with taxes, NOTHING to do with our bill… But that fighting is preventing our bill from hitting the floor for a vote until later notice. That said, there is still tons we can be doing… I am going to be linking something in our show notes called a UJoin. It’s basically where you can send an email to Oklahoma House Reps in a matter of seconds. There’s even a script that auto-populates, but you can tweak it to your liking! Reaching out to Oklahoma House Reps is the most important thing we can be doing, and letting them know we’d like them to vote YES on Senate Bill 1470, to help domestic survivors here in Oklahoma. If you’d like more info on our bill and exactly what it would do, there’s tons of info and resources linked in the petition in our show notes. Thank you guys, as always, for your support on this bi-partisan effort!
- Content warning: this story involves war
- Israel / Gaza updates
+7 aid workers lose their lives in Gaza
So word may have reached you guys by now, but an Israeli airstrike killed seven foreign aid workers from the group World Central Kitchen, who have now had to suspend their activities in Gaza after losing so many team members. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu did acknowledge the deaths, saying that Israel did hit innocent people unintentionally with that airstrike… But this is nothing new in this war… Tens of thousands of civilians have already lost their lives. Of the seven who died, one was Polish, one was Australian, one was an American-Canadian dual national, one was Palestinian, and three others were British nationals. The bodies of the six aid workers who were foreign, are being transported back to their home countries via Egypt.
World Central Kitchen was actually founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, and was coordinating with the US and many other countries to enable further aid to enter Gaza and feed the hundreds of thousands of people currently starving there, almost half of whom are children.
+Israel to shut down Al Jazeera
According to the BBC, the Israeli parliament has just passed a law that would pave the way for them to be able to ban Al Jezeera, a major Qatari news outlet, from operating in Israel. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has already come out saying he is banning the news outlet calling it a QUOTE “terrorist channel” END QUOTE.
It’s kind of crazy, too, because Qatar has been PIVOTAL, essential, really in the peace talks between Hamas and Israel and was responsible for helping get 105 hostages safely home to their loved ones… You’d think that Israel would want to continue fostering a positive relationship with Qatar… But it comes back to disagreements about the facts, which this entire conflict is riddled with, unfortunately. In every single story, this is a very different version told on both sides. And with Al Jezeera representing the Arab world, they tend to tell the story in the way that conflicts with Israel’s version of events… But at the end of the day, if you nothing to hide, you shouldn’t have to suppress the press. And it sends up red flags any time any nation tries to do so.
The White House, too, is concerned about this move… The Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said QUOTE “if this is true, a move like this is concerning” END QUOTE. Doesn’t sound particularly harsh, but it’s her job to keep everyone calm and deliver a sense of stability… This is about as strong of language you might get in an unscripted moment from a Press Secretary. So this move is definitely one that the White House will be watching… along with the rest of the world.
+Iran
So it *LOOKS LIKE* Israel hit a location on Monday in Damascus, Syria, where several prominent Iranian military officers were killed. Israel has not claimed the the attack was committed by them, but they never do in these instances where they seem to strike Iran. Iran vowed to retaliate and specifically said they feel the US is quote unquote “answerable” due to the US government’s support of Israel. There is also squabbling about whether or not the site hit was an embassy or consulate or a military building… Because, if it were an embassy or consulate, those properties are protected and considered to be part and parcel of the country they represent. Israel insists it was NOT an embassy, but rather, a military office of some sort, but again, haven’t even confirmed they carried out the strike.
- 9 people lose their lives in Taiwan
So by now, you guys probably already know that there was a MASSIVE earthquake in Taiwan… It was the biggest the island has seen in 25 years. Nine people lost their lives and over 1000 people were injured. The earthquake was a 7.4 magnitude and had more than 200 aftershocks, according to sources for The New York Times. Some buildings can be seen TILTED OVER, kind of crushed into the ground. But this is a far ry from what things COULD have been like. Back in the 90s, 2000 people were killed in an earthquake in Taiwan of a similar size, according to experts for NPR. So improvements apparently HAVE been made to the infrastructure, given that Taiwan straddles a faulting.
And that, is the News Du Jour!
Today, I wanted to leave you guys with the quote:
“To plant a garden is so believe in tomorrow.”