SACRAMENTO, California: California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies Thursday to start removing homeless encampments on state land in his boldest action yet following a Supreme Court ruling allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces.
This executive order directs state agencies “to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them.” It also provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same, which applies pressure on them, though they are not legally bound to the order.
California is home to roughly one-third of the nation’s population of homeless people, a problem that has dogged Newsom since he took office. There are thousands of tents and makeshift shelters across the state that line freeways, and fill parking lots and public parks.
Under Newsom’s direction, state agencies — including state parks and the department of transportation — would be required to prioritize clearing encampments that pose safety risks, such as those along waterways. Officials should give “reasonable” advance notice to homeless people, offer to connect them to local services and help store their belongings for at least 60 days. Local cities and counties are urged to adopt similar protocols.
Last month the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that said governments could not force people to leave encampments if there weren’t any shelter beds available. The case was the most significant on the problem to come before the high court in decades. Cities across the country have been wrestling with the politically complicated task of how to deal with a rising number of people without a permanent place to live and public frustration over related health and safety issues.
Newsom’s administration wrote in support of cities’ arguments that previous rulings, including one that barred San Francisco from clearing encampments, have prevented the state from solving a critical problem.
“There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday.
Newsom’s decision garnered praise from some local elected officials and business groups, who said they were left with no options to address homeless encampments before the Supreme Court’s ruling. San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently said the city will start an “aggressive” campaign to clear encampments across the city in August. Her office noted that the governor’s order does not affect the city’s operations.
“I applaud Governor Newsom’s emphasis on urgency,” Kathryn Barger, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors said in a statement. “He rightfully points out that local government remains at the helm of homeless encampment removals. Cities have an obligation to develop housing and shelter solutions in tandem with support services provided by County government.”
Even Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly blasted Newsom over his handling of the crisis, are rallying behind the order Thursday.
“It’s about damn time! Letting people live and die on the streets or in our parks is unsafe and unsanitary,” Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones said in a statement. He added, ”I am cautiously optimistic that the governor has finally taken note of the urgency of this problem, albeit many years later than needed.”
Homeless people and advocates say the sweeps are cruel and a waste of taxpayer money. They say the answer is more housing, not crackdowns.
“You get your highway off-ramp clean for a moment only,” Democratic Assemblymember Alex Lee said on social media. “Without meaningful services and housing, all sweeps do is making a prominent inequality less visible.”
While Newsom cannot order local authorities to act, his administration can apply pressure by withholding money for counties and cities. In 2022, he threatened to withhold $1 billion in homelessness spending from local governments over the lack of progress.
Newsom touted that his administration has spent roughly $24 billion cleaning up streets and housing people but acknowledged the persistent issue. Newsom’s administration has also come under fire recently after a state audit found that the state didn’t consistently track whether the huge amount of public money spent on this actually improved the situation.
Earlier this year, Newsom threw all of his political weight behind a ballot measure to allow the state to borrow nearly $6.4 billion to build 4,350 housing units, which passed with a razor-thin margin.
The order comes as Republicans have stepped up their criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris — a former California district attorney, attorney general and senator who just launched her presidential campaign. Harris entered the race over the weekend after President Joe Biden’s announced that he would not seek reelection.
Newsom himself has presidential ambitions, though he’s said he wouldn’t run against Harris or Biden. He has long been a top Biden campaign surrogate.
The timing of the executive order is “curious” given recent developments in the 2024 presidential race, California political analyst Brian Sobel said. He doubts though that Newsom’s move would have much impact on Harris’ campaign.
“Harris’ problem isn’t in California, because California is a done deal,” he said. “Where she needs to do well on issues like this are in swing states.”
Rather, the order is a logical step for Newsom, who called himself the state’s “homeless czar,” said Wesley Hussey, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento.
“I don’t think it’s being motivated by the presidential race as much as it’s definitely something that Newsom cared a lot about,” Hussey said. “If you’re going to put it in a political context of the election, this isn’t going to magically fix the problem.”
Newsom orders California state agencies to start clearing homeless encampments
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Newsom orders California state agencies to start clearing homeless encampments
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‘Gaza is America’s war and we can stop it the blink of an eye,’ US presidential candidate Jill Stein tells Arab News
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- Green Party candidate says the billions of dollars in military aid given to Israel should be used to address American needs
- Asked whether a third party could undercut the main candidates, Stein says Democrats and Republicans ‘don’t own those votes’
CHICAGO: Dr. Jill Stein, the US Green Party’s candidate for November’s presidential election, says Americans are losing “much needed benefits” due to tax money allegedly being redirected to fund Israel’s war in Gaza.
Speaking to The Ray Hanania Radio Show during an episode broadcast on Thursday, Stein accused the mainstream media and the Democrats of trying to block her candidacy to artificially strengthen the candidacy of Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris.
She also said the US bore responsibility for the violence in Gaza, fueled by the perceived pro-Israel bias in the media and by politicians who received millions in campaign donations from pro-Israel political action committees to support the war.
“In the current case, the US is providing 80 percent of the weapons that are being used to murder women, children, and innocent civilians. We’re also providing money, military support and diplomatic cover and intelligence. So the US has total autonomy here,” she said.
“This is our war. It is really a misnomer in many ways to call this Israel’s war. This is the US’ war. We are in charge of this war and we can stop this war with the blink of an eye,” she added, urging voters not to get talked into “endorsing genocide.”
“There is no more critical of an issue than what’s going on right now in Gaza because this is really normalizing the torture and murder of children on an industrial scale. The destruction of international law and human rights.
“As Gaza goes, eventually we’re all gonna go. If we allow human rights to be systematically torn down and international law, the way it’s being done here, eventually that’s gonna rebound to us because the US has been the dominant power for the last several decades but we are no longer the dominant power economically and militarily.”
Stein said every vote for her candidacy and the Green Party could help bring an end not only to Israel’s war in Gaza but also to other conflicts around the world.
“What’s going on is terrible for the US and it’s terrible for Israel. We are hypocrites. We’re supposedly defending democracy, yet we are throwing candidates off the ballot here in our own country,” she said, referring to recent efforts by the Democratic Party in Montana, Nevada and Wisconsin to remove the Green Party from the ballot over alleged procedural issues.
“We’re also mobilizing Israel’s neighbors against Israel. In the countries that have had peace treaties, some of Israel’s most staunch partners, including Egypt and especially Jordan where there are huge rallies and demonstrations against Israel demanding the end of the peace treaty.”
Stein, who is Jewish American, has openly stated she supported Israel, Palestine, and the two-state solution, but has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, calling it “a fascist government” that was engaged in genocide.
She urged voters not to believe the one-sided picture often presented by politicians and the media, insisting that criticism of Israeli policies was “not antisemitism” but legitimate political discourse that must take place to make the US stronger.
“In the long-term interest of everyone in the region, the US and the Netanyahu government need to come into compliance with international law and specifically the rulings of the International Court of Justice,” she said.
“Which means an end to the genocide immediately and then a withdrawal to 1967 borders, which is what this agreement calls for. Withdrawal, an end to the occupation and an end to the ethnic cleansing, which has been going on for a very long time,” she said, referring to the civilian death toll of more than 40,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“To criticize Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism. Zionism and Judaism are very different things. Zionism is a political ideology. It is not the Jewish religion. There are many strong proponents of the Jewish religion who are fierce opponents of Zionism.”
Instead of financing Israel’s military campaigns, Stein said the next US president should “fund solutions” to improve the lives of Americans by addressing affordable healthcare, creating more jobs, improving education for children and strengthening social security for seniors and retirees.
Both the Democrats and Republicans were instead sending US tax money to Israel while depriving public services of the funding they need, she said.
“Half of the Congressional budget is being spent on the endless war machine,” she said, referring to legislation providing $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April.
Although this is in no way half of the Congressional budget, which is worth $6.8 trillion, Stein said the outlay nonetheless meant “we are not meeting the emergencies that we have on healthcare, housing, education and the environment.”
“So this is a disaster for every American, and it’s really important that we not be talked into drinking the Kool-Aid,” she said, using a term that means having a cult-like faith in a dangerous idea because of wrongly perceived rewards.
Stein, who ran for the presidency in 2012 and 2016, said she was again putting her name on the ballot because she was concerned about the problems that Americans were facing, which she believes neither of the two main parties are addressing.
Americans “need a new political option that is in the public interest,” she said, insisting the Green Party offered a greater focus on American needs than either the Republicans or the Democrats.
On the same episode of The Ray Hanania Radio Show, in an interview recorded a couple of days earlier, former Chicago Congressman Bill Lipinski — who represented one of the largest concentrations of Arab and Muslim voters in the US — said American voters should not take the role of third-party candidates like Stein for granted.
Although it is extremely difficult for a third-party candidate to break the two-party system and win a presidential election, Lipinski said they could have a disproportionate impact on the outcome, particularly in swing states where every vote counted.
Given today’s polarized, emotion-driven politics, Lipinski said the US election system should be changed to better accommodate third-party candidates.
“At times I would like to see a third party. There are other times when I think (it is better having just) two parties. In another time in another place, two parties were sufficient. Today, I don’t believe that’s the case,” he said.
“Today I would really like to see a third party because, unfortunately, the Republicans are controlled to a great extent nowadays by their extreme right wing, the Democrats by their extreme left wing. That’s not good for the parties. Nor is it good for the country.”
The Green Party has run candidates in several presidential elections, often making a significant impact on the final outcome. Ralph Nader, the party’s candidate in the 2000 poll, drew votes away from Democratic Vice President Al Gore, contributing to his loss to Republican George W. Bush.
When Stein ran as the Green Party candidate in 2016, she drew significant support away from Democrat Hillary Clinton, who lost to Republican Donald Trump.
To those who might argue that a vote for the Green Party means splitting the progressive vote, making it easier for the Republicans to succeed, Stein insisted that neither the Democrats or Republicans “own those votes.”
“They don’t belong to parties. They belong to people.”
You can listen to the full interview with US presidential candidate Jill Stein and former US Congressman Bill Lipinski online at ArabNews.com/RayRadioShow.
How one Pakistani father defied conservative 20th-century norms to see his 13 daughters gain master’s degrees
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- Fazal Haq withstood family pressure to ensure his children had the opportunity to pursue education
PESHAWAR: For Fazal Haq, a Pakistani octogenarian academic who grew up in the country’s conservative northwest, acquiring education was a gateway to empowerment and self-reliance for his children, especially his daughters.
In an era when education was a rare privilege in Pakistan’s northwestern Karak district, Haq stood as a beacon of progressive thinking by sending his first-born daughter, Nighat Parveen, to school in the 1970s.
Although he never formally attended college himself, the 82-year-old has earned postgraduate degrees in Arabic, Urdu literature, and Islamic studies. And all of his children — 13 daughters and four sons — also have higher-education qualifications.
“Fewer men attended school during his time, and the notion of women pursuing education was virtually unheard of,” Haq told Arab News this week. “Yet, despite societal constraints, I made a pioneering decision to send my daughter Parveen to school.”
Haq said his daughters’ early education proceeded smoothly but as they grew older, murmurs of dissent within his family became louder. Relatives questioned his wisdom for allowing his girls to be educated and the resistance escalated to threats of disownment, but Haq said he remained resolute and Parveen’s results in exams in both the 8th and 10th grades were better than many in their area. Her academic success reinforced Haq’s belief in his decision.
“That was a big relief, I would say one of my happiest moments,” Haq said.
Parveen, who passed her matriculation exam in 1986, told Arab News that, initially, she did not grasp the necessity of education and only saw herself fulfilling her father’s wishes on a path fraught with obstacles.
“I would often find myself as the only girl in a classroom full of boys. Sitting in a corner, isolated from my peers, I faced the weight of societal scrutiny and the discomfort of being an ‘outsider,’” she said.
“The psychological toll of being the only girl in a boys’ class was immense, but I remained steadfast in the pursuit of education.”
Parveen now stands as a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of education as she serves as the principal of Government Girls’ High School in Karak, shaping the minds of future generations.
She set the bar high for all 16 of her siblings, who now hold master’s degrees in disciplines including English literature, political science, history, botany, zoology, and physics. All of Haq’s daughters became teachers.
Haq has always seen education as a gateway to empowerment and self-reliance for women, contrary to the common perception in Pakistan’s rural communities, where most believed that investing in daughters’ education would only serve to benefit the household they joined when they married.
“Education equips women with knowledge and confidence to contribute actively to their family’s economic affairs, eliminating the need to depend on others for financial support,” he said.
Haq’s wife, Jahan Bano, had no formal education, but her ability to converse in English and engage in discussions about politics demonstrates her intellectual growth and self-confidence.
Both Haq and Bano feel proud that their perspective on women’s education, which was once widely disapproved by society, has now been embraced by those same critics.
“At this later stage of life, when I watch young girls in school uniforms going to school, college, and university from my balcony, I feel a strange sense of happiness,” Haq said.
Autopsy suggests tycoon Mike Lynch likely died of suffocation in yacht — source
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- Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, an onboard cook and four guests died when the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian sank
- The bodies of the dead, except for the cook, were found in cabins on the left-hand side of the 56-meter vessel
PALERMO, Italy: British tech tycoon Mike Lynch died of suffocation after running out of oxygen, an investigative source said, citing initial examinations carried out on Saturday after his body was recovered from the family yacht that sank off Sicily’s coast last month.
Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, an onboard cook and four guests died when the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian sank during a severe and sudden weather event off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, on Aug. 19.
Initial results on Hannah Lynch’s body, whose examinations were carried out on Saturday, were inconclusive, the source told Reuters, only ruling out any traumas or wounds as the cause of death and leaving open the possibilities she either ran out of oxygen or drowned.
The bodies of the dead, except for the cook, were found in cabins on the left-hand side of the 56-meter (184-feet) vessel, where the trapped passengers may have tried to search for remaining bubbles of air, the head of Palermo’s Fire Brigade said last month.
Preliminary results from autopsies on four other victims — Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda — indicated suffocation as the likely cause of death, judicial sources said earlier this week.
Fifteen people survived, including Lynch’s wife, whose company owned the Bayesian, and the yacht’s captain.
Initial examinations of the Canadian-Antiguan onboard chef Recaldo Thomas indicated he died by drowning, the investigative source said on Saturday.
Further forensic tests have been ordered all the victims, with results expected in the coming weeks, the source said.
The sinking has puzzled naval experts, who said a vessel like the Bayesian, built by high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, which is owned by The Italian Sea Group, should have withstood the storm and not have sunk as quickly as it did.
Ukraine mourns dead from major Russian strike, vows response with underground weapons production
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- The funerals took place in the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava for the victims of a Russian missile attack on a military training facility that left over 50 dead
- Sobbing relatives, many holding red carnations, stood over caskets placed outside the church, draped in yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags
POLTAVA, Ukraine: Funeral services were held Saturday for victims of one of the deadliest Russian airstrikes since the war in Ukraine began, as Ukraine’s president vowed to increase domestic military production by creating underground weapons factories.
The funerals took place in the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava for the victims of a Russian missile attack on a military training facility that left over 50 dead and more than 300 injured.
Hundreds of mourners, including grieving families, local residents, and officials, gathered at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the city, some 350 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, for the solemn ceremony. Sobbing relatives, many holding red carnations, stood over caskets placed outside the church, draped in yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags. An air raid siren sounded during the service.
Local residents knelt in silent tribute as hearses carrying the victims passed by on their way to a military cemetery outside the city for burial.
Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, targeting energy infrastructure across the country and causing deadly strikes in residential areas.
The attacks have underscored Moscow’s long-range capabilities as Ukraine braces for what will likely be another difficult winter as Russia continues to smash Ukraine’s power grid, knocking out some 70 percent of generation capacity and rupturing heat and water supplies.
The sound of explosions thundered over the Ukrainian capital overnight as multiple Russian attack drones were intercepted by the city’s air defenses. No injuries or serious damage were reported.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that 67 drones were launched over the country overnight, with air defenses active in 11 regions. Fifty-eight drones were shot down, with three more destroyed by electronic weapons systems, it said.
Debris from one drone was photographed on the street outside Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine’s parliamentary press service confirmed that drone fragments had been found but said there were no casualties and no damage to the parliament building.
Elsewhere, a Russian artillery attack Saturday on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka killed three men and injured three other people, said Donetsk region Gov. Vadym Filashkin. He said the attack damaged a high-rise building and local power lines.
Late Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the death toll from the Sept. 3 strike at the Military Institute of Communications in Poltava had risen to 55, with 328 people injured.
“That includes people with severe injuries, such as amputations and internal organ damage,” Zelensky said, speaking at a conference outside the Italian city of Milan.
“Our people are under constant threat of Russian missile and drone strikes — every night and every day.”
Zelensky renewed his call for the removal of restrictions on using Western-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory, adding that Ukraine was ramping up its own weapons production.
“We are setting up underground weapons production facilities so Ukrainian soldiers can defend themselves, even if supplies from our partners are delayed,” he said.
“We have developed new drones and missiles, and we are gradually bringing this war back to Russia. Eventually, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will feel the pressure to seek only one thing: peace.”
Kyiv has continued to launch its own strikes against Russia. In the Russian border region of Voronezh Saturday, Gov. Aleksandr Gusev said that a drone strike had sparked a fire and the detonation of “explosive objects.”
Writing on social media, he said that a state of emergency had been declared for the region’s Ostrogozhsky district and that several villages had been evacuated.
He did not provide the names of the villages affected and urged followers not to share photos or videos of the fire that could be geolocated. ___
Davies reported from Manchester, England. Evgeniy Maloletka and Alex Babenko in Poltava, Ukraine, and Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
Ukraine concerned at reports of Iranian ballistic missiles being sent to Russia
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- CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia
KYIV: Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it was deeply concerned by reports about a possible impending transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.
In a statement emailed to reporters, the ministry said the deepening military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow was a threat to Ukraine, Europe and the Middle East, and called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran and Russia.
CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing unidentified sources.
Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.
On Friday, the United States, a key ally of Ukraine, also voiced concern about the potential transfer of missiles.
“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said on Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.
“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict — which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from ceasefire negotiations — to be inhumane,” it said.
“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict.”