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JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, you’re still with us. There were reports that up to 80—electricity was cut in up to 80 percent of Gaza. What’s the situation now in terms of basic utilities there?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, power lines were cut, and Gaza was dark much of the night. Many of the hotels and media centers do have generators and power. There’s a severe problem with water, with water lines being cut, as well. And this has been a problem for Gaza not only during the war, but Gaza under siege. And tha...
AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, when the Israeli military drops pamphlets, calls people and says, “Leave,” where do people go?
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, it’s funny you say that. I mean, they’ve dropped leaflets and warned people to leave areas in the north—just in the last two days, in the north, in the South and in the east. You know, the only thing left is the west, and that’s where the sea is. So, you know, they’re driving people, a...
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to our discussion. We’ll also be joined by Glenn Greenwald to talk about where is Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC reporter who has been reporting extensively from Gaza. Why did NBC pull him? We want thank Dr. Basman Alashi for joining us, executive director of the al-Wafa H...
Glenn Greenwald: Why Did NBC Pull Veteran Reporter After He Witnessed Israeli Killing of Gaza Kids?
NEXTGlenn Greenwald: Why Did NBC Pull Veteran Reporter After He Witnessed Israeli Killing of Gaza Kids?
The excitement of election night might have been a little too much for CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
The veteran host was busy overseeing voting results Tuesday in the cable network’s live coverage, often appearing alongside analyst John King at the “Magic Wall,” the map where King examines returns in real time. But many viewers noticed that Blitzer could not help interrupting or rushing King throughout the night, as ...
Not sure what is more interesting…the election or when John king will punch Wolf Blitzer in the mouth. Stop interrupting him!
Over/under 99.5 times Wolf Blitzer is going to interrupt John King for the rest of this broadcast.
Did Eric Trump Break Election Law With Ballot Selfie?
A letter sent by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete,reveals that the total cost to the people of South Africa for former President Jacob Zuma’s legal fees now stands at R16,788,781.14. It was previously confirmed to stand at R15,3 million.
The letter received today therefore reveals an increase of R1,4 million. The additional amount was discovered after investigations by the Department of Justice, enumerated in an affidavit by the Director-General in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi.
The DA has launched an application to review and set aside the agreements between the Presidency and Jacob Zuma to cover the legal costs incurred by him for his criminal prosecution. The case will be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on 6 and 7 November 2018.
Over the last decade, Zuma has exploited our justice system with numerous court proceedings that had the intention of avoiding or delaying criminal prosecutions against him. He has also misused the courts to maintain his grip on power.
The taxpayer has so far footed the bulk of the legal bill for this. The DA will not stand by and let this unjust situation continue. South Africans have already paid too dearly for Zuma’s term in office and should not be required to foot the costs of his legal proceedings.
Zuma should not be entitled to any further financial support from the government or the people of South Africa and the DA looks forward to arguing our case in court.
In a response to a question for oral reply in the National Assembly on 14 March 2018, I provided information to the House on the amount spent by the Presidency on the personal legal fees of former President Jacob Zuma.
"According to information from the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, government has contributed R15.3 million to the personal legal costs of former President Jacob Zuma since 2006.
"Of this amount, approximately R7.5 million was spent in the period between 2006 and the withdrawal of the charges against the former President in 2009.
"An amount of R7.8 million has been spent since 2009."
Subsequent to the provision of this reply, and in the course of sourcing documents in respect of a court application, we have received additional information, which has required a revision of the total amount spent by the State on the legal fees of the former President.
The outcome of this further research is outlined in an affidavit submitted to the Gauteng Division of the High Court by the Director-General in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi.
In the affidavit, the Director-General indicates that, according to updated information provided to the Presidency by the Department of Justice, the total cost to the State of the former President's legal fees is R16,788,781.14.
I kindly request that you bring this information to the attention of the Members of the National Assembly.
Indianola City Council members tried to delay a vote to appoint four residents to city commissions and boards last week.
It was the first time the council had followed its new policies for boards and commissions appointments, which include an online application process and a review of the applications by the City Council Administrative and Policy Committee.
Council member Greta Southall initially pushed to delay the vote to appoint Kerri Przybylski and Jason Trotter to the Civil Service Commission and Cyd Dyer and Colleen Wilmott to the library board.
She said it bothered her that people applied after Mayor Kelly Shaw made his selections.
Shaw, who called in from an airport, said even if the vote was delayed and more people were considered he would probably submit the same names back in two week's time because they were the first people to express interest.
Council member Greg Marchant said the appointment process was delayed 23 days because Shaw vetoed the council's changes to the policy, and the board would be a lot further down the road with the application process if it weren't for the veto. He told the mayor he shouldn't be throwing the time delay on the council "bec...
Shaw argued that he had followed the council's new process, but Marchant said the council should be given more time to consider all the applicants.
Southall said this first vote on commission appointments would be the only time the process would need to be delayed because people didn't get a chance to apply for the commissions through the new online system before the applicants were chosen.
"Th e problem is only with the timeline of this," Southall said. "It's about not having enough time to collect a deep pool of applicants in this situation."
But, before Southall had made the motion to table the appointments, council member Shirley Clark had already made a motion to approve the appointment of Przybylski and Trotter to the Civil Service Commission.
Southall said she wouldn't vote against appointing anyone, and the appointment passed with a 4-2 vote. Marchant and council member Bob Kling voted against the appointments.
Dyer and Wilmott were then both voted onto the library board with a similar 4-2 vote.
Kling later said his vote "does not represent the person, but the process. I want to make that clear."
Kling voted for the council's new policies twice. Once before the mayor's veto and again after.
The council spent time congratulating city staff during the July 2 meeting on a job well-done after 80 mph winds ripped through Indianola June 28, causing damage and knocking out power around town.
City Manager Ryan Waller said the city had an emergency plan in place in case such an event would happen and that "it was a very well-oiled operation.
"Everyone was very clear on what responsibilities they had," Waller said.
Nearly 40 percent of Indianola was without power at about 2 p.m. Thursday, but the city had most of the power restored by Friday afternoon.
Until the dueling memos were filed last week, the sentencing hearing for Flynn — who pleaded guilty to lying about conversations during the transition period with the then-Russian ambassador — was expected to be devoid of the drama characterizing other of Mueller's cases.
Mueller's team has rejected any suggestion that Flynn was duped, with prosecutors responding in a sentencing memo Friday that there was no obligation to warn Flynn against lying.
Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, Dec. 17, 2018, after a second closed-door interview with two Republican-led committees investigating what they say was bias at the Justice Department before the 2016 presidential election, Dec. 17, 2018.
It's possible at least some of the defense arguments may resonate with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who directed prosecutors to produce FBI records related to Flynn's interview. That included portions of the notes from Flynn's Jan. 24, 2017 interview with FBI agents.
Responding to Sullivan's order, prosecutors filed a redacted copy of the FBI interview notes Monday evening. The notes show FBI agents interviewed Flynn about his Russian contacts, including past trips to the country and his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to the U.S.
The notes show Flynn told agents he didn't ask Kislyak not to escalate Russia's response to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration over election interference. But Flynn admitted as part of his guilty plea that he did.
FILE - Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak arrives at the State Department in Washington, July 17, 2017.
The notes also show Flynn told agents he didn't ask Kislyak to see if Russia would vote a certain way on a United Nations resolution involving Israeli settlements. But last year he admitted having asked Kislyak to see if Russia would vote against or delay the resolution. Court papers show Flynn made the request at the ...
In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, Sullivan said the experience inspired him to explicitly remind prosecutors in every criminal case before him of their obligation to provide defendants with favorable evidence. He says he has encouraged colleagues to do the same.
City officials discuss Kennedy construction plans and traffic.
The CTA and Metra will run longer trains over the weekend to accommodate an expected surge of riders avoiding increased congestion on Chicago-area highways due to demolition of the Ontario Street bridge downtown, which will reduce capacity on the inbound Kennedy from five lanes to only two lanes approximately 1 mile be...
The CTA will operate eight-car trains on the Red, Blue, Brown and Orange lines most of the weekend, as well as six-car trains on the Green Line, officials said during a news conference at an IDOT facility south of downtown.
The CTA will also reroute the No. 56 Milwaukee and No. 65 Grand bus lines, because Grand and Milwaukee avenues are recommended alternate routes for drivers staying off the Kennedy, officials said.
“We don’t want the buses stuck in traffic on Grand or Milwaukee,’’ CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.
Metra will add cars onto trains on the Union Pacific North, Northwest and West lines, the BNSF line and the Milwaukee North and West lines, officials said.
State Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider said serious traffic impacts to the entire expressway system in the Chicago region are inevitable unless tens of thousands of drivers who normally use the Kennedy yield to warnings to use alternate routes.
Drivers who normally take the Kennedy to reach the Eisenhower Expressway should instead consider Western Avenue, officials said. Both the Eisenhower and the Stevenson Expressway can be used by drivers traveling from the South and West Sides of the city. North Shore residents who normally drive the Edens Expressway to t...
Metra’s $7 weekend pass allows a fare-paying adult to take along up to three children ages 11 and under for free.
Earlier this year it was the cold weather that hurt their business and now downtown hotels, restaurants and merchants say they are worried that tourists and other visitors will be scared away by the drumbeat warning to drivers to stay off the Kennedy Expressway over at least the next two weekends because of major lane ...
“Chicago is open for business and there are a lot of great things going on, but plan accordingly,'' John Chikow, president and CEO of the Magnificent Mile Association, said Monday.
The association and the hospitality industry are promoting extra transit service being planned by the CTA and Metra as well as alternate driving routes during the Kennedy project to demolish the old Ontario Street bridge.
The demolition will require shutting down the inbound lanes of the Kennedy (I-90/94) and the reversible express lanes in the downtown area this weekend, with all inbound traffic squeezed into two 15-mph temporary lanes that will serve as part of a detour, IDOT said.
For roughly two weeks, transportation officials have been preparing the public for possibly the worst traffic jams in recent years starting this Friday night until early Monday, and then again the following weekend and to a lesser extent during the last weekend of June.
Transportation officials said they couldn't begin to predict the possible traffic impact on one of the busiest highways in the U.S., but the one certainty is that the planned reroutes won't be able to smoothly handle the expressway's normal traffic levels, which exceed a quarter-million vehicles a day.
Business owners, acknowledging there is no good time to do the highway work, are worried that the traffic squeeze will put a major hurt on them too.
“We cannot afford to have fewer people come downtown in the month of June,'' Chikow said.
He said he hoped the Illinois Department of Transportation would have provided a few more weeks' warning of the bridge demolition. For instance, he noted that the association typically begins publicity for the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival 45 days before the event.
The silver lining is that the largest number of visitors to Chicago typically come in July and August, said Meghan Risch, spokeswoman for Choose Chicago, which is the official destination marketing organization for the city.
Last year, Chicago received a record number of domestic visitors, almost 47 million, Risch said, adding that a visitor is someone who travels at least 50 miles to Chicago. Overseas visitors for 2013 are estimated at 1.4 million, she said.
Businesses are advising employees and customers to allow additional travel time over the next three weekends, even if they are planning to ride the CTA and Metra, both of which are planning to increase weekend capacity on bus and train routes.
The CTA plans to operate longer trains and some additional train runs and extra bus service on a few routes, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said. Details were still being finalized, he said.
Drivers can consider using one of the CTA's park-and-ride facilities, including along the Kennedy at Rosemont, Cumberland and Harlem — all served by the Blue Line's O'Hare branch. Weekend work to upgrade track and stations on the Blue Line has been rescheduled until after the Kennedy project, officials said.
For this first weekend at least, Metra will have additional cars on trains on the Union Pacific North, Northwest and West lines, the BNSF line and the Milwaukee North and West lines, Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said.
“We also will have extra crews and equipment ready to use if needed,” Gillis said.
Traffic aides will be assigned to intersections that are expected to be congestion hot spots, to keep traffic moving as much as possible during the Kennedy detours, Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications said.
Over the June 20-22 weekend, the outbound Kennedy lanes and the reversibles will be closed before the approach to the Ohio-Ontario interchange, with traffic detoured off and then back onto the expressway.
The 55-year-old Ontario bridge will be removed in segments over the three weekends to make way for a new bridge that is being completed, IDOT said. Pieces of the old bridge will be lowered onto the closed lanes of the Kennedy and hauled away.
The Kennedy feeder ramp bridges at Ohio and Ontario will be temporarily closed the last weekend, June 27-29, to facilitate shifting traffic to the new bridge structure, according to IDOT.
Events this Father's Day weekend include the Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park, Taste of Randolph Street in the West Loop and the Wells Street Art Festival in Old Town.
“She has always wanted to go to Chicago and we are going to make the most of it,'' said Precht, who is an executive with B.A.S.S., which conducts fishing competitions and tournaments.
The couple are already planning to ride transit and use their rental car sparingly.
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Florida-based graphic designer Caroline Staniski has embarked on a fun project exploring the personalities of the ampersand.
Like typefaces having unique personalities, she has given each ampersand a special identity in a form of an object. Playing with their color, design and aesthetic, she depicts the ampersand as unlikely objects such as a lightbulb filament and a turntable.
Click play on the video below to watch her animated collection.
The Port Authority announced Wednesday that a curated version of Smorgasburg’s world-class market will be a weekly fixture at the World Trade Center Oculus Plaza campus from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. every Friday from April 12 through Oct. 25.
Smorgasburg is the largest outdoor weekly food market in the United States. It was established in 2011 as a spinoff of Brooklyn Flea, and attracts 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a day to eat from 100 vendors at its Brooklyn markets in Williamsburg and Prospect Park in the spring and summer months, and thousands to its Sunda...
“We at Smorgasburg are humbled to return to the World Trade Center and to add to the fabric of such a storied site,” Smorgasburg co-founder Eric Demby said in a statement.
About 25 vendors will participate, offering a wide variety of food choices for those who work, live or visit the site.
The announcement comes after “a highly successful” three-day open-air food festival and community block party at the location last November, the Port Authority said.
A mortar shell killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others when it struck a large tent where supporters of President Bashar al-Assad had gathered for election campaigning in southern Syria, opposition activists said Friday.
State media reported the mortar strike late Thursday. State TV raised the death toll on Friday, saying the attack killed at least 39 people and wounded at least 305.
Assad, who has rarely been seen in public since the start of Syria's three-year old civil war, has not been seen campaigning since he declared his candidacy last month. He was not at the gathering that was shelled in the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising against his rule began in March 2011. More than 160,000 ...
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the mortar attack. Opposition fighters trying to overthrow Assad frequently fire mortar shells into Syria's major cities, including the capital, Damascus, from opposition-held suburbs.
The overnight attack underscored concerns that opposition forces will step up attacks against government strongholds in the run-up to the June 3 elections. Western leaders and opposition groups have described the vote held amid the civil war as a sham.

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