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Editorial: Effort to remove DA Price prompts smart recall rule changes

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

Sometimes it takes a highly charged political event to prompt elected officials to do the right thing.Such is the case in Alameda County, where the Board of Supervisors is considering placing on the March ballot a charter change that would revamp the process for recalling elected officials.The move has prompted accusations that it’s driven by an attempt to undermine the recall of the county’s controversial new district attorney, Pamela Price. Whatever the motivation, the recall has highlighted that the recall process under the county charter for petition signature-gathering and subsequent countywide balloting is a mess.It’s unfortunate that the proposed change comes in the middle of the signature-gathering effort for the recall. But, given the timing, it’s uncertain whether the new rules would apply to the current recall effort.That said, the proposed charter change, with a key clarification, deserves support of the Board of Supervisors and voters countywide.To their credit, rather ...

Opinion: Gas stoves are poisoning us; how the industry hid the danger

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

In discussions with medical patients about the well-documented air pollution risks from gas stoves, I am sometimes met with a degree of skepticism. People will ask: If gas stoves are this dangerous, how come I haven’t heard about it?It’s a reasonable question. We have an expectation that our government will shield us from serious health risks. But despite research showing that roughly 20% of childhood asthma cases in California can be attributed to gas stove use, public awareness of the polluter in their kitchens remains alarmingly low.A new report out last month from Climate Investigations Center makes clear why so many Americans are surprised to learn that gas stoves generate many of the same pollutants found in car exhaust. The culprit, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the gas industry.Beginning in the 1970s, the American Gas Association responded to increased scrutiny from regulators into the air quality impacts from gas stoves by developing a campaign to manufacture controversy over ...

Live updates | Palestinians report Israeli airstrikes including in southern Gaza

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

Palestinians in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes overnight into Saturday across the besieged enclave, including explosions in the south where Israel had told civilians to seek refuge as its ground operation intensifies in northern Gaza.Calls for a humanitarian pause increased with the UNRWA, the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, reporting the average Palestinian in Gaza is surviving on two pieces of bread a day, and only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday, “We are going full steam ahead” unless the hostages held by Hamas are released. The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. The UNRWA says 72 of its staff members have been killed.More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. ...

Berlin in the mix to host NFL game as league eyes future in Germany

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says Berlin has shown “a lot of interest” in hosting a game as the league plans to extend its agreement to play in Germany beyond 2025,“Düsseldorf, Berlin — there’s been a lot of interest there — so I think they’re all possibilities, yes,” Goodell said Saturday.Frankfurt is hosting two games starting Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs play the Miami Dolphins at Deutsche Bank Park. The first regular-season game was played last year in Munich.The NFL’s current deal calls for one game next season — it’s scheduled for Munich — and another in 2025, likely in Frankfurt.Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich were all finalists before the NFL selected its host cities. Berlin didn’t apply.Goodell, who took questions from the audience but not from media, didn’t reveal if the league has extended its deal but confirmed the NFL is committed to the country long-term.“We have every intention to continue to play here,” Goodell told the ...

Israeli strikes kill multiple civilians at shelters in Gaza combat zone, as Blinken seeks more aid

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli military strikes killed multiple civilians Saturday at a U.N. shelter and hospital in the main combat zone in the Gaza Strip as the assault intensified on the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers amid growing international uproar over the soaring death toll and deepening humanitarian crisis.Israel’s military has said it has encircled Gaza City, the target of its offensive to crush Hamas, but on Saturday offered a three-hour window for residents trapped by the fighting to flee south.The new attacks came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the region trying to find ways to ease the plight of the civilians caught in the fighting. He met with Arab foreign ministers on Saturday in Jordan, the day after talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there can be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. The Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that northern Gaza’s 1.1 million residents flee sou...

Analysis: New House Speaker Johnson caught up in ‘whirlwind’

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters ahead of the debate and vote on supplemental aid to Israel, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)(AP/J. Scott Applewhite) Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters ahead of the debate and vote on supplemental aid to Israel, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)(AP/J. Scott Applewhite) For all the latest developments in Congress, follow WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller at Today on the Hill.House Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t had much time to adjust to the demands of his new leadership post, amid war in the Middle East, a ...

Rashford misses United game after Ten Hag criticism for going to nightclub. Club says he’s injured

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford was missing for the Premier League match against Fulham on Saturday, a day after manager Erik ten Hag criticized the player’s decision to go to a nightclub party after a derby loss to Manchester City.United said Rashford’s absence was down to a heavy knock to his leg in training and that he failed a fitness test before the game.Ten Hag had been unhappy with Rashford going to a nightclub for a pre-arranged birthday party hours after the 3-0 defeat to City on Sunday. Rashford turned 26 on Tuesday.“I spoke with him about it,” Ten Hag said Friday. “It’s unacceptable, I told him, he apologized and that’s it. For the rest it’s an internal matter.”Ten Hag repeated that it was an “internal matter” when asked if Rashford had been fined for the incident.Rashford was among the substitutes in the 3-0 loss to Newcastle in the League Cup on Wednesday, with Ten Hag saying that was due to rotation rather than punishment...

Thousands expected to march in DC in support of Palestine

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a march in support of Palestine on Saturday afternoon in D.C.’s Freedom Plaza.Up to 30,000 people are expected to flood the streets of the District during the “National March on Washington: Free Palestine!” rally organized by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition.The purposes of the rally and march, according to the coalition, are to demand a cease-fire in the war, end federal aid to Israel and “end apartheid.”The “End the Siege in Gaza” rally will be from 2 to 4 p.m., then the march will begin, with demonstrators looping around the White House.WUSA9 reports that the coalition’s city permit outlines how marchers will leave Freedom Plaza, travelling north on 14th Street, then west on K Street to 17th Street and south on 17th Street to the White House, where they will demonstrate on a closed portion of Pennsylvania Avenue. The march route then continues to 15th Street, ...

Israel bombs ambulance convoy near Gaza’s largest hospital

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

The Israeli army bombed a convoy of ambulances near the largest hospital in Gaza on Friday, an attack that “horrified” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The facility — Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City — is overcrowded with patients and serves as a refuge for some 20,000 displaced people, according to local health authorities.The attack resulted in 15 deaths and at least 60 wounded civilians, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). In a statement, the PRCS said the convoy of five ambulances tried to transport casualties toward the Rafah border crossing, but was returning to the hospital because the road was blocked with rubble when it was targeted by two missiles.Israel acknowledged that it attacked an ambulance because it was used by the Hamas militia. The Israeli forces have been insisting on the evacuation of this hospital, claiming it houses the underground command center of the Islamist militants.The Gaza Strip — which is control...

The UN is in disarray over the Israel-Hamas war

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 21:00:48 GMT

The state of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians is nearly as old as the United Nations. But it’s hardly ever caused as much havoc at the typically staid institution as it has in the last month.Israeli officials have called for the secretary-general to resign, a top human rights official stepped down with an angry letter invoking “genocide,” and diplomats on a paralyzed U.N. Security Council are upbraiding each other for being too soft on Hamas, the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7.The frustration is palpable in Turtle Bay, the New York neighborhood home to the U.N. headquarters, diplomats and officials say. It courses through WhatsApp messages and the corridors. Informal meetings on totally unrelated topics inevitably turn toward the Middle East.And it’s getting worse as the body count rises — a number that already includes more than 70 U.N. employees.“You can feel that tension — it’s definitely a big crisis. The numbers are absolutely staggering,” said one diploma...