Israeli strike on Mawasi kills dozens near Gaza’s Khan Younis - The Washington Post

Israeli strike kills 19 in Gaza humanitarian area, health officials say

"Gazan authorities reported deaths after missiles struck Mawasi, a safe zone designated for displaced people. The IDF said it was targeting Hamas militants.

Jennifer HassanUpdated September 10, 2024 at 8:53 a.m. EDTPublished September 10, 2024 at 12:14 a.m. EDT

JERUSALEM — An Israeli strike Tuesday on Mawasi, a coastal tent encampment in southern Gaza that Israeli forces designated a humanitarian zone, killed at least 19 people and injured more than 60, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Rescue workers were still trying to reach people trapped under rubble and debris, it added. A Gaza Civil Defense official, Mohammed al-Mughair, put the death toll at 40 earlier Tuesday. Ahmad al-Naqa, another Civil Defense official, said later in the day that the previous number was an estimate and that the Health Ministry reports the final numbers.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a Hamas command and control center hidden at Mawasi. It said it targeted “a number of senior” Hamas figures who were embedded within the humanitarian zone, accusing them of being “directly involved” in the Oct. 7 assault on Israel and of planning to carry out further attacks on Israelis. The IDF said it could not yet confirm whether the targeted people were killed.

In a statement, Hamas called the IDF’s claims “a blatant lie” and accused Israel of trying to justify “these heinous crimes.” Asked for comment on the targeted people, Hamas reiterated its claim that its members do not use civilian areas for military purposes.

Israeli warplanes hit the area with about five missiles in the middle of the night, leaving three large craters inside the camp and sending ambulances scrambling, said another Gaza Civil Defense spokesman, Mahmoud Bassal, on Tuesday morning. The strike took place near the British Hospital, he added. Unverified videos of the strike’s aftermath appeared to show people digging in the sand with their hands for survivors.

Mawasi — a remote coastal area between Khan Younis and Rafah in southwestern Gaza — has for months been declared a humanitarian zone by the IDF amid evacuation orders and intense fighting. Overflowing in areas up to the shoreline with hundreds of tents sheltering displaced individuals and families, Mawasi is the last IDF-designated safe zone in Gaza, though aid groups say nowhere is safe and that they are unable to effectively work in area.

A previous Israeli strike on the area in July killed at least 90 people, according to local health authorities. Israel said then it was targeting top Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif in that attack, a claim that Hamas has also denied.

Rami al-Shareef, a father of three displaced from Gaza City, has been in Mawasi with his family since May.

“I was lying inside the tent trying to sleep, and suddenly there was a loud sound of bombing, and we didn’t know what happened,” he said Tuesday. “There was the sound of three missiles. I went out with all the people in a panic after I checked on my three children and my wife, and they were fine.”

The 41-year-old said the targeted area was about half a kilometer away from the tent where he was staying. “I saw a deep hole,” he said. “We don’t know who the target was or who the person was in the place,” he said.

“There is nothing that justifies killing people while they sleep,” Shareef said. He said Israeli forces should wait to target wanted militants instead of putting people in harm’s way, adding: “Civilians should not be killed in this way.”

Here’s what else to know

The IDF said it was “highly likely” that Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire." Witnesses said Eygi, 26, was shot dead by Israeli forces while she was attending a demonstration in the occupied West Bank last week. The IDF said forces were not aiming at her, but at the “key instigator of the riot.” Eygi’s body is being repatriated to Turkey.

Polio vaccinations for children began in northern Gaza on Tuesday morning, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, after the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that aids Palestinian refugees said its convoy was stopped on Monday despite previous coordination. The IDF said it held up the convoy for questioning in the northern Gaza Strip based on intelligence that it said indicated “that several Palestinian suspects were present within” and did not give specifics. The IDF added that the convoy was for a U.N. personnel rotation and was not transporting polio vaccine doses at the time. UNRWA said Tuesday that the convoy was stopped for eight hours and that the workers have since been released. Vaccinations took place in central and southern Gaza this past week.

Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, threatening sanctions for a move that pulls Tehran more deeply into the Russia-Ukraine conflict as Kyiv seeks U.S. permission to strike more deeply into Russian territory.

A man accused of burning an Israeli flag at a Columbia University protest in April has been indicted, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced Monday. James Carlson, 40, of Brooklyn is accused of burning an Israeli flag that belonged to a Jew and had been stolen by another protester. He faces charges of criminal mischief and arson — one felony and three misdemeanor counts.

At least 41,020 people have been killed and 94,925 injured in Gaza since the war began,according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 340 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.

Kasulis Cho reported from Seoul, Harb and Hassan from London and Balousha from Cairo."

Israeli strike on Mawasi kills dozens near Gaza’s Khan Younis - The Washington Post

Tyreek Hill details police stop outside stadium before Miami Dolphins game

Tyreek Hill fears he could have been shot in 'worst-case scenario' during police stop outside stadium

"The star Miami Dolphins WR was pulled over and handcuffed just outside Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday before his team's season opener.

Sept. 9, 2024, 6:04 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 10, 2024, 7:40 AM EDT

MIAMI — Tyreek Hill believes that if he weren't a famous football player, officers may have shot or arrested him during a police confrontation that "went from 0 to 60," the Dolphins star said Monday.

The wide receiver was driving to the Dolphins-Jacksonville Jaguars game on Sunday when Miami-Dade police stopped him just outside Hard Rock Stadium, handcuffed him and put him face down on the pavement.

"If I wasn't Tyreek Hill, Lord knows, I probably would have been, like, worst-case scenario, I would have been shot or would have been locked up" and "put behind bars, you know, for a simple speeding ticket," Hill told NBC News. 

"And that's crazy that officers would take it, you know, to that level." 

The Miami-Dade Police Department has launched an internal affairs investigation, and at least one officer has been taken off the streets in the wake of the confrontation, which was captured on video that has been widely shared on social media.

Hill insists he was cooperative with police, rolling down his window and giving his identification. He said he was in no rush because he was within the shadows of Hard Rock Stadium and had no reason to be anxious or in a hurry.

"It just went from 0 to 60, man, from the moment that those guys pulled up behind me, knocked on my window, it went from 0 to 60 immediately," said Hill, adding that he called team security officials from the car.

Ignacio Alvarez, of the ALGO law firm, is representing the unidentified officer who was taken off frontline duties and said in a statement Tuesday morning that the decision to place his client was "premature," although he respected calls for a thorough review. 

"We call for our client’s immediate reinstatement, and a complete, thorough, and objective investigation, as Director Daniels has also advocated. Our client will not comment until this investigation is concluded and the facts are fully revealed," Alvarez said.

A representative for the police union said Hill was at fault for not being “immediately” cooperative with officers.

The police department declined to comment on the union’s account, saying police officials must wait until the internal affairs investigation is completed before they publicly discuss the incident. 

Hill was cited for reckless driving and driving without a license, said his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. 

Hill, 30, thanked teammates — tight end Jonnu Smith and defensive lineman Calais Campbell — who were driving by, saw him being detained and stopped to help.

Campbell was handcuffed even though he was standing off to the side, Hill said. The highly respected Campbell, 38, is a former Walter Payton Man of the Year winner.

"When I saw Jonnu and Calais pull up ... I didn't feel alone anymore," Hill said. "They ended up handcuffing Calais for just being 6-8 I think. But it was crazy. It was crazy how that same officer who took me down handcuffed Calais for just standing on the side." 

Ultimately, Hill said, he’s happy no one was injured or worse.

“That officer was really on a power trip,” he said. “He felt like he just needed to ... do something that day, you know. But like I said, I’m glad nobody was hurt.” 

Hill is one of pro football's best-known playmakers.

His 77 career touchdown catches are fifth among active players and 36th all time, just behind No. 35 DeAndre Hopkins (78) and the retired Harold Carmichael and Charley Taylor, who are tied with 79. Carmichael and Taylor are both in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The incident didn't appear to affect Hill's on-field performance in Sunday's season opener; he caught seven passes for 130 yards and a touchdown in Miami's 20-17 victory.

Faced with first-and-10 from the Miami 20, late in the third quarter with the Jags leading 17-7, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa connected with Hill on a slant at the Dolphins' 46-yard line. 

Hill then raced past two Jaguars defenders to complete the electrifying 80-yard TD, which sparked the Miami comeback.

Hill put his hands behind his back, feigning that he was being handcuffed, as teammate Jaylen Waddle came up to walk him off as if he were the arresting officer. 

"You got to learn how to laugh and have a good time," he said. "Man, whenever people think you're ... having a bad situation or having a low moment, I always try to find the good in every situation. That's one way I'm able to stay so strong-minded as a young male, well, as a young Black male." 

He said he was also grateful that his pregnant wife, Keeta, wasn't in the car.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been along for the ride. But she was running late Sunday and decided to travel to the stadium on her own, they said.

"I'm so relieved she wasn't [there], because if they would have tried to pull my wife out the car, Lord knows what would [have] happened," Hill said. "I'm glad she wasn't in the car." 

Jesse Kirsch reported from Miami and David K. Li from New York City."

Tyreek Hill details police stop outside stadium before Miami Dolphins game

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Trial Begins Over ‘Trump Train’ Encounter With 2020 Biden Campaign Bus - The New York Times

Trial Begins Over ‘Trump Train’ Encounter With 2020 Biden Campaign Bus

(As decent people know Trump and his supporters are nothing but thugs who are supporting a felon for US President.)

"A federal civil jury will consider the fast-moving confrontation on a Texas highway between President Trump’s supporters and a Biden bus just before Election Day in 2020.

Sept. 9, 2024Updated 12:08 p.m. ET

A campaign bus for Joe and Kamala Harris in Phoenix in 2020. Days before the 2020 election, supporters of President Donald J. Trump, driving in vehicles as part of a so-called “Trump Train,” surrounded a Biden-Harris bus as it drove along a Texas interstate highway.Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

Days before the 2020 election, supporters of President Donald J. Trump driving in vehicles festooned with flags as part of a so-called “Trump Train” surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus as it sped along a Texas interstate highway.

Images of the impromptu convoy of antagonists were memorable: a large bus decorated like a Biden campaign sign and, all around it, dozens of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles with pro-Trump banners waving. Photos and videos provided a visual preview of the kinds of political confrontations that would culminate months later with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Now those same images from Interstate 35 will be used as evidence in a federal civil trial that seeks to hold the Trump supporters responsible for assault and political intimidation tactics. Opening arguments begin on Monday.

The plaintiffs in the case include Wendy Davis, a former Texas state senator, and members of the 2020 Biden presidential campaign, along with the driver of the bus. They have argued that the Trump supporters drove recklessly and dangerously, slowing at times to as little as 15 or 20 miles per hour, and tried to force the bus off the road. They said some of those in the caravan appeared to believe that Kamala Harris, then a U.S. senator and candidate for vice president, might be aboard, though she was not. There was one collision between vehicles, but no one was hurt.

The trial, which was expected to last two or three weeks, comes in the midst of a presidential campaign in which Mr. Trump is again the Republican candidate and Vice President Harris is at the top of the Democratic ticket. Fears of political intimidation and potential violence have only intensified, particularly after the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump at a rally in July.

The complaint includes images of the incident that a defendant posted to social media.United States District Court for The Western District of Texas

“The Trump Train began harassing the bus by surrounding it, forcing it to slow down, honking, yelling and making hand gestures,” the plaintiffs argued in their complaint. Later, they said, one of the trucks intentionally collided with a Biden-Harris campaign staff member’s sport utility vehicle as it was following the bus.

Because of what happened on the highway, the campaign canceled the political events it had planned to hold in Austin later that day over safety concerns, the lawsuit said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued that in organizing to harass and intimidate the campaign bus, the defendants violated state law and the federal Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The act, passed in response to racial and political violence, in part bars groups of two or more from conspiring “to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner” to a candidate for president.

The defendants are a half dozen of the participants in what they saw as a rolling protest, one of many such “Trump Train” gatherings across the country that were organized mostly on social media by groups of Mr. Trump’s supporters during his first re-election run.

They have argued that their actions in driving alongside the bus in protest were protected by the First Amendment. They have denied driving recklessly and argued that the campaign staff member initiated the collision. They had sought to have the case dismissed before trial, arguing that the 1871 law did not apply in their case, but U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman denied that motion.

“While the First Amendment protects forms of political advocacy, the facts of this case go well beyond protected expressive conduct,” Judge Pitman wrote in his order last month. “A jury could reasonably find that Defendants unlawfully conspired and drove in a dangerous manner such that they threatened or assaulted Plaintiffs.”

The encounter between the Biden-Harris bus and Trump supporters took place on Oct. 30, 2020 — the last day of early voting in Texas during that election — and stretched on for much of an 80-mile trip between San Antonio and Austin. A campaign staff member in a sport utility vehicle was also accompanying the bus.

At times, the bus was escorted by local police. But at other times, such as when it passed through San Marcos, about 30 miles southwest of Austin, it had no police escort, despite calls to 911 from inside the bus asking for help.

It was during those times, when no police officers accompanied the bus, the plaintiffs said in their complaint, that the Trump supporters drove in an aggressive and threatening manner.

A separate case that was brought by the plaintiffs against the local law enforcement officials in the city of San Marcos who did not respond was settled last year. The $175,000 settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing but said the city’s police response “did not reflect the department’s high standards for conduct” and agreed to mandatory training for officers.

The plaintiffs have been represented by lawyers from the Texas Civil Rights Project, the law firm Willkie Farr and Gallagher and a nonpartisan group, Protect Democracy, which describes its mission as defeating “the authoritarian threat.”

“Every American has the fundamental right to participate in the democratic process and to support the candidates of their choosing free from fear, intimidation or violence,” Christina Beeler, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement.

Jerad Najvar, a lawyer representing two of the defendants, Joeylynn and Robert Mesaros, said that the case was “ironic.”

“While the plaintiffs argue they were intimidated by the Trump Train, in fact, this lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to silence political opponents,” said Mr. Najvar. “It is an abuse of the judicial system.”

Lawyers for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment. 

Francisco Canseco, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, said in legal filings that his client denied sideswiping the campaign sport utility vehicle and that the defendant was the one who was sideswiped by the campaign vehicle, which he said tried to drive the defendant off the road. 

Two people who were originally named in the suit settled last year were dismissed from the case. They each released statements of contrition.

“After the Biden campaign abandoned the rest of their bus tour, I sent a text saying that ‘we canceled them,’ as at the time I felt we had succeeded in our efforts to send a message,” Hannah Ceh, who was a passenger in one of the pickup trucks, said in her statement.

“Looking back, I would have done things differently,” she added. “I apologize to the occupants of the bus for my part in actions that day that frightened or intimidated them.”

Her parents, Steve and Randi Ceh, did not settle and remain defendants in the suit.

Outside the courthouse on Monday morning, a small group of supporters of the defendants waited to enter the building and attend the hearing.

Shelly Grunden, a friend of Joeylynn Mesaros, said she woke before dawn and drove to Austin from San Antonio to show support.

Ms. Grunden said she met Ms. Mesaros because both were involved in conservative political circles.

“I feel like they’re using her as an example, like they did with Trump,” Ms. Gruden said of Ms. Mesaros, adding that she considered the actions of those in the Trump Train to be protected speech.

She said the expensive legal process had taken a toll on the Mesaros family, and that she hoped they would prevail in the trial. “Karma is going to come around,” Ms. Grunden said. “God doesn’t take kindly to evil.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 14 of the New York editionwith the headline: ‘Trump Train’ Encounter With Biden Bus in 2020 Goes to Trial in Texas."

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“Beyond Catastrophic”: U.N. Issues Dire Warning on Gaza as Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination Drive | Democracy Now!

“Beyond Catastrophic”: U.N. Issues Dire Warning on Gaza as Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination Drive

The United Nations is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “beyond catastrophic” as more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amid Israel’s relentless assault. Israel’s 11-month campaign has killed more than 15,000 children and enabled the besieged territory’s first polio outbreak in a quarter-century. INARA founder Arwa Damon just got back from spending two weeks in Gaza, where the nonprofit currently provides medical and mental healthcare to Palestinian children. “Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it,” says Damon, who reports that humanitarian assistance has diminished significantly while displaced Palestinians play a “macabre, dark, twisted game” of trying to escape constant Israeli bombing.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s talk specifically now about Gaza, where you just were for two weeks. The U.N. is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains, quote, “beyond catastrophic” as more than a million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amidst Israel’s relentless assault, this coming as Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel is hindering the delivery of polio vaccines as it refuses to coordinate the entry of medical teams to parts of southern Gaza. This is Karam Yassin, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.

KARAM YASSIN: [translated] We want to play with our friends, go to school, eat and drink. But this vaccination is of no use. It’s only useful against polio, but the war has destroyed us. It has destroyed our houses. I wish I can play with my friends, go to school. I wish to eat and drink like I used to before.

AMY GOODMAN: And this is a Palestinian mother, Ghada Judeh, who recently got her children vaccinated at Yafa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where she’s also volunteering for the polio vaccination campaign.

GHADA JUDEH: [translated] We are displaced from Deir al-Balah. I gave my children the polio vaccine to protect them from disease, but I can’t protect them from strikes and from death, unless you help us, just as you helped us and delivered the medications to us to protect our children. So, please, stand with us to stop the war so that our children can live peacefully and to continue their studies.

AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, can you talk about the crisis in Gaza, where you just spent two weeks?

ARWA DAMON: I mean, let’s start by talking about how it is that polio reemerged in Gaza after 25 years. And it really boils down to the fact that Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it. And what has happened in Gaza right now is that you have a situation where piles and piles of trash are everywhere. Open sewage is running in the streets. Hygiene is just about impossible, made even more impossible, Amy, because we have not been able to get in to southern or central Gaza hygiene or even just bars of soap in months right now.

And so, polio is seeing right now this vaccination effort, but let’s talk about the other diseases. Let’s talk about the fact that in Nasser Hospital alone, the head of the pediatrics department said that two children per week were dying of hepatitis A, also largely due to the lack of hygiene. Let’s talk about the fact that meningitis, that can potentially be deadly, is spreading, or this horrific skin disease called impetigo, that basically is these blisters that start to form, and then they pus open and ooze and bleed, and then, eventually, as they’re healing, crust up but are horrifically itchy. And the more severe cases, children need to be hospitalized for that. And if they’re not hospitalized, it can lead to, you know, potential kidney failure, which can also lead to death.

Let’s talk about the fact that when you’re driving through Gaza and people recognize that you’re a humanitarian organization, children run up to the car and gesture like this, that they want soap. A bar of soap is something that we are not able to provide to the Gazan population. The lack of hygiene and the fact that if we were able to provide Gazans with a bar of soap, studies show that that would reduce communicable diseases by about 40%, means that Gazans are suffering exponentially more now than they need to be. And very little aid is getting in. If you look at the number of humanitarian trucks that, you know, have gotten in in August and July and June, it’s roughly 60 to 70 total.

AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk about, when it comes to this polio vaccine, the kids have to get two doses of it? I mean, how do they come out of places where they are hiding, where they’ve been displaced one, two, three, eight, nine times? How do they feel safe enough to go to places where they get this polio vaccine and then have to go back? And what does it mean that Israel says it’ll bomb this area but not this today, and then tomorrow they will bomb this area, and then you can go over there that they bombed the other day?

ARWA DAMON: I mean, you know, you talk to Gazans, and they really feel as if they’re sort of part of this very macabre, dark, twisted game where they’re just getting shuffled around trying to stay ahead of the bombing, but then, you know, still risking it.

Now, when it comes specifically to the polio vaccine, there are theoretically these pauses that have been set up in specific areas. And then, within those specific areas, where these pauses are meant to be lasting for a day or two or three or however long it is deemed to take, there are numerous points, as well as mobile points, that people are able to go to to actually receive the polio vaccine itself. But it is extraordinarily challenging. It is very, very difficult even under the best of conditions to undertake a vaccination campaign, you know, this wide and this broad.

And frankly, I hope I’m wrong, and I hope the doctor that I was speaking to is wrong, but he was saying that he doesn’t really believe that it is going to be all that successful, and that the fact that Israel is allowing this to proceed is just a smokescreen so that it can sort of continue to push forward this narrative of, “Oh, but we’re allowing humanitarian assistance. Look, we allowed the polio vaccine to happen,” and not really address the sort of bigger picture issues when it comes to the reality that humanitarian assistance is barely trickling in to Gaza, that the levels of aid that were able to provide to the people have diminished significantly, and that the number of people in need has grown drastically, and that people are being crushed into this smaller and smaller space. I mean, the conditions there, Amy, are inhumane. People there aren’t living; they’re barely surviving.

And there are alternative routes that Israel can provide for aid organizations to be able to get assistance to the people. I’ll give you one example. So, we were talking about the lack of hygiene kits and soap in the southern and central part of Gaza. Now, the southern and central part of Gaza is, for example, receiving fresh vegetables on the commercial market. What this means is that most people can’t afford them, but we, as aid organizations, can purchase them — albeit prices are quite astronomical — and deliver fresh food parcels to the people. Now, in the north of Gaza, there is no vegetables on the commercial market, but, ironically, hygiene kits are getting in to the north. What we are not permitted to do is move vegetables from the south to the north, where they’re needed, or hygiene kits from the north to the south. And this is just one sort of example of the various different hurdles and obstacles that are deliberately being placed in our way.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Arwa, I wanted to ask you personally about your own life experience and how it’s informed what you’ve done, from being an international reporter at CNN to founding INARA. Your mother Syrian, your father American, you grew up in places like Morocco and Turkey.

Just two days after October 7th, you wrote a piece for New Lines Magazine titled “As Gaza Braces for a Ground Invasion, the Circle of Violence Continues.” You write in it, “We need to understand the past, the traumas of the past, traumas that have been passed on generation to generation, both on the Israeli and on the Palestinian side. We need to understand those intense emotions that can embed themselves in and change our DNA — paralyzing fear, the desperate need to belong, the longing for home and safety, the desire for a dignified life. We also need to understand how those emotions have been historically manipulated, twisted, and how from the start the failings of the key power brokers — incidentally neither Palestinian nor Israeli — have led to where we are today.” Your final thoughts, Arwa Damon?

ARWA DAMON: You know, I’m a big believer in the need to understand a person or even, you know, a country’s emotional trajectory, because we need to understand how and why it is that people act and think a certain way, if we want to alter the path that we’re on. And I think, obviously, you know, in my journalistic career, I tried to focus on that by storytelling and by sharing the human story that exists beyond the bombs and the bullets. And in the humanitarian space, I mean, look, I still tell a lot of stories, but I also believe that it’s very important for us to do what we can for those in need, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it can also help alter the balance of their own psyche.

When you see a child who has been so deeply traumatized, you look at that little kid, and their eyes are deadened. That spark of life doesn’t exist. But when you begin to provide them with medical and mental assistance, when you begin to support them and their family, you see that spark begin to reemerge. And I think that is something that we should not negate and that we should really be focusing our efforts and our capacities on trying to bring, because the more that we abandon populations, the more violent our world is going to become.

AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, we want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, founder of INARA, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children in Gaza, previously spent 18 years at CNN. She just returned from a two-week trip to Gaza. She is joining us from the capital of Ukraine, from Kyiv.

Coming up, we speak to Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s nephew. He says President Trump once told him as they sat in the Oval Office that disabled Americans “should just die.” Fred Trump has written his memoir. It’s called All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. Stay with us."

“Beyond Catastrophic”: U.N. Issues Dire Warning on Gaza as Israel Hinders Polio Vaccination Drive | Democracy Now!

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks about new memoir - The Washington Post

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir explores prejudice, parenting

Ann E. MarimowSeptember 5, 2024 at 10:34 a.m. EDT

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is photographed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on September 04, 2024. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

"As the hardworking child of academically focused parents, Justice Ketanji Brown Jacksondreamed of reaching the highest levels of the legal profession. She even wrote in her college application to Harvard about becoming the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.

But when the Biden administration called in 2022 with news that she was being vetted for that exact role, Jackson hesitated. She worried about the harsh spotlight on her family and the potential impact on her older daughter, Talia, who is on the autism spectrum.

Jackson and her equally driven type-A husband had initially struggled to grasp their child’s neurological differences, and Jackson wanted to be sure her daughter was comfortable with the possibility of the diagnosis becoming public.

“They had not asked for their lives to be raked over, simply because their mother dreamed of entering a realm where no one with her background and experiences had ever been before,” Jackson, 53, writes in her new memoir, “Lovely One.” Both Jackson’s daughters and her husband encouraged her to pursue her dream.

Supreme Court 2024 major cases

The story of Talia Jackson’s diagnosis was not widely known until now and is one of the biggest revelations in Jackson’s highly personal memoir, published this week. The book does not touch on the current cases or controversies before the Supreme Court, where Jackson is one of three liberals on a bench with a conservative supermajority that has dramatically shifted the law to the right in recent years.

Nor does Jackson write about the oral arguments in which she has become known for her extensive questioning, or her sharp separate dissents, including when the court majority in July granted Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution for official acts. She spends just four of nearly 400 pages on the grueling Senate hearings ahead of her confirmation in April 2022, when she was narrowly confirmed despite Republican efforts to paint her as a left-wing lower-court judge who coddled criminals and terrorists.

Instead, Jackson reflects on her groundbreaking path and the impact of key experiences, including her mentors, her uncle’s incarceration and the pain of being overlooked as a Black woman in the corporate legal world despite her sterling résumé.

“No one arrives at the highest of heights on their own, and there were lots of contributing factors — people, circumstances — that prepared me for this job, and I thought that needed to be recognized,” Jackson said in an interview Wednesday night before a book talk.

Jackson received an $893,750 advance from Penguin Random House for the book, according to her financial disclosure report. She is one of at least four Supreme Court justices — the others are Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — with forthcoming or just-published books about their lives and the law.

The justice has embarked on an extensive media tour, speaking with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” this week and giving more than a dozen book talks this month, including in California, Illinois, Seattle and Florida, ahead of the court’s new term that begins in October. At the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, an audience of nearly 2,000 people gave her a lengthy standing ovation, with many participants clutching copies of her book.

Jackson says she was compelled to tell her story because of intense public interest in her nomination. She shares the reality of her balancing act as a working parent and partner to her husband, Patrick Jackson, a prominent surgeon, recalling quick naps she took in a grocery store parking lot on her way home from work years ago when she was seven months pregnant with their second child. And she details what it took to rise through the ranks of the legal profession, especially “as a woman of color with an unusual name.”

Even though Jackson had graduated with top honors from Harvard Law School and worked for three federal judges, she says, there were instances during her stints at corporate law firms when she felt her views were ignored at meetings — even though she was the only one in the room who had clerked at the Supreme Court.

More than once, Jackson writes, she would be standing near the copy machine or waiting for an elevator only to have an older law partner walk up and, assuming she was a secretary, ask which of his colleagues she assisted.

Such encounters, she writes, “reinforced for me that due respect for my talent, intellect, and legal abilities would not be automatically extended in some private-sector settings.” She recalls wanting to yank her two Harvard degrees off the wall to carry around with her.

Jackson first learned about the inner workings of the Supreme Court while clerking for the man she would eventually replace on the bench. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who retired in 2022, was constantly on the move, she writes, leaving his chambers to talk with and try to persuade other justices on various issues.

In the interview, Jackson said she finds herself thinking about how Breyer might have handled areas of disagreement among the current justices — who, unlike trial judges, must hash out their decisions together. He has told her that it takes time to acclimate to the ways of the court and encouraged her to build bonds by eating lunch with her colleagues.

“Collective decision-making is really a challenge. I think it’s been, not an easy transition from when I was my own person in the courtroom,” Jackson said, referring to her eight years as a judge in D.C. federal court. The steepest learning curve, she said, is “trying to deal with incorporating other people’s thoughts and ideas and getting their feedback. And how do you manage that in terms of what you would like to say and what they’re saying. That’s hard.”

Jackson is a prolific writer, tied with Justice Clarence Thomas for the most overall opinionsin the last term and often writing a separate dissent or concurring opinion. She said that it’s not easy to figure out when to go it alone but that she thinks it is important to do so in some instances. “I want people to know what’s going on in the court and I want people to appreciate the issues,” she said. “And if we have differences of opinion, I think it’s fine to have people understand that and see what the different ideas are.”

The title of Jackson’s book is a reference to her given name — Ketanji Onyika. It translates to “lovely one,” and was chosen by her parents from a list sent to them by Jackson’s aunt, then a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa.

The memoir traces the backgrounds of her grandparents, who had only grade school educations, and her parents, who went to racially segregated schools and were the first in their families to go to college. Jackson contrasts their stories with the history of her husband’s Boston Brahmin family, whose ancestors include King Edward I of England, four Mayflower passengers and a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Jackson’s parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, began their careers as teachers and had high expectations for their firstborn. They filled her bedroom with encyclopedias, atlases, and magazines with stories of famous African Americans. That was where Jackson first read in detail about Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to argue at the Supreme Court and serve on the federal bench. Motley shared a birthday with Jackson and, the justice writes, inspired her childhood dreams.

Coached by her grandmother and parents, Jackson learned not to dwell on encounters with racism in her predominantly White world in Miami, and to revel in her success as a class president and a champion public speaker on the high school debate circuit.

“I came to enjoy catching people off guard, disarming their conscious or unconscious stereotypes about Black people with my intelligence, articulation, preparation and ability to function well in a world that I knew expected me to fail,” she writes.

In tracing her career through the legal profession, Jackson writes for the first time about the life sentence her uncle received for a nonviolent drug offense. Jackson was a federal public defender in D.C. when Thomas Brown Jr., her father’s brother, called from a Florida prison asking his niece for help in seeking leniency — an episode first reported by The Washington Post when she was under consideration to become a justice.

“My heart raced and my hands shook as I sifted through the files, and my brow felt clammy as I studied each sheet of paper,” Jackson writes of reviewing Brown’s case files. “The tiny pilot flame of hope that I had nursed since I’d spoken with my uncle slowly bloomed into righteous anger — then died — as I realized that there was nothing in the files that either justified a life sentence or warranted a retrial or a resentencing in his case.”

After a referral from Jackson, a private law firm eventually took her uncle’s case pro bono, and President Barack Obama years later commuted his sentence. He was released in 2017. The case brought questions of sentencing policy and fundamental fairness into sharp relief for the young public defender.

“It’s one thing to read about cases and their outcomes,” she writes, “but I now had firsthand experience of the myriad ways in which criminal justice policy can destroy the lives and livelihoods of real human beings.”

The book also details her courtship and marriage to Patrick Jackson, whom she met in history class at Harvard, and the initial concerns expressed by their friends and families about their interracial relationship. Eventually, Jackson writes, the couple’s loved ones fully embraced them.

But perhaps the biggest challenge they faced was the struggle to understand their older daughter’s troubles in school.

“Unfortunately for Talia, her well-meaning, utterly devoted parents had some blind spots, likely stemming from a heightened work ethic that Patrick and I had internalized to an almost ridiculous degree,” Jackson writes.

“We took far too long to understand that Talia wasn’t neurologically wired like Patrick or me, and although she was indeed extraordinarily bright, we couldn’t simply parent her as we ourselves had been parented.”

Talia’s diagnosis with autism — in 2012, when she was 11 — was devastating, but also a relief, Jackson writes: “We could at last accept that her life was likely to be fundamentally different from the one we had envisioned for her when she was a newborn.”

The memoir includes some lighter moments as well, following Jackson as she shops in New York’s Garment District for her first judicial robes after her 2013 confirmation to the U.S. District Court in D.C., and recounting the day she discovered her signature hairstyle — tightly coiled sisterlocks.

Even in the glare of public life after her Supreme Court nomination, Jackson writes, her low-maintenance, chin-length locs “freed me to show up in the most formal legal settings wearing a neat, precise style that I love and one that also communicates my appreciation for my God-given hair texture.”

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks about new memoir - The Washington Post