Millions Have Been Displaced in South Sudan, but Where Is the Outrage?

Never have I ever, grasped at the ground for proof that it was indeed beneath my feet.

Yet there I was, in the bone-crushing wake of my precious mother’s passing, needing confirmation that I was still standing right-side up. She named me Ebony, like the tree, and I was hugging my body, compacting, hoping to become as strong as the dense black Diospyros ebenum. I lowered my hands to my feet, my base, my root. My roots, and everywhere they’ve been.

The number of people reaching for their roots after fleeing Sudan to neighboring countries like South Sudan is 1.3 million. And South Sudan already holds 9.4 million people facing challenges due to ongoing flooding, food shortages, and declining humanitarian aid.

A mighty number of people are mysteriously silent as I, party of one, sit in my grief. When technology brings every corner of the world to light, how is it that we leave in the dark a country with a history of a kingdom once named “Land of Gold” by one of the most decorated and celebrated superpowers of the ancient world? A kingdom that reigned for centuries, whose leader conquered said superpower to become something, by definition, more powerful than a king?

Could I have guessed that at age 29 I would be capable of holding this ocean-size juxtaposition of solitude and anarchy? No. Yet, my mother did it at the age of two, in the very country I am describing. Fleeing what would become the 30-year war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, our family sought refuge in Khartoum, Sudan, a city once a part of the powerful Kingdom of Kush, which traded ebony and ivory and produced the 25th dynasty of pharaohs, one of the few lines not native to Egypt.

LOS ALTOS MIDDLE SCHOOL INVESTIGATES SWASTIKAS FOUND DRAWN ON LOCKERS, 1 BELONGING TO JEWISH STUDENT

The Los Altos School District is investigating an antisemitic event on the campus of Blach Intermediate School after several swastikas were found drawn on lockers in the boys locker room. One of those lockers belonged to a Jewish student.

"Our students aren't happy that this is the community in which, the school community in which they are in," Los Altos School District Superintendent Sandra McGonagle said.

At the beginning of the school day Friday, a student told administrators he found a swastika drawn on his locker with pen, four more were located on other lockers by staff.

After they were cleaned off, more of the hateful imagery appeared on lockers Monday morning. It is likely said to have been drawn by the same student.

Bulk carrier reportedly boarded in eastern Indian Ocean

A Malta-flagged, Bulgarian-owned bulk carrier was reportedly boarded on Thursday after being involved in an incident in the Arabian Sea off Yemen's Socotra Island, British maritime security company Ambrey said in an advisory note.

An Iranian-flagged fishing vessel in the area had switched off its AIS transponder six hours before the incident close to where the bulk carrier appeared to come adrift, Ambrey said.

"The Iran-flagged fishing vessel had previously been operating offshore Somalia," Ambrey added.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency also sent an advisory saying it had received a report of a distress call from a vessel being boarded by unknown persons east of Bossaso, Somalia. UKMTO map located the incident near the Arabian Sea off Yemen's Socotra Island, as the map showed.

EU Council decides to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova


The European Council has decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, Charles Michel, President of the EU Council, announced on X on Thursday.

The decision was called “a victory for Ukraine” by the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

“This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens,” Zelensky posted on X following the announcement.

“History is made by those who don’t get tired of fighting for freedom,” Zelensky said.

This is a breaking news story. More to come

Really ‘Jew-hate’

Unlike other media reporters and broadcasters, Dana Bash, CNN’s “Inside Politics” host, consistently calls antisemitism what it in reality it actually is: “Jew Hate.” Why is that noteworthy?

As both a Jewish American and communication scholar, I contend that the label “Jew Hate” more explicitly and concretely identifies the target of antisemitism, namely, Jews. In addition to giving antisemitism a face, this label more precisely captures the seriousness and dangerousness of the problem, as well as its harmful outcomes.

Bottom line: the term “Jew Hate” likely evokes a more visceral response, thus potentially having a greater capacity to persuade people to be outraged and take action to condemn antisemitism.

If the goal is to quell antisemitism and other forms of hate that dominate our public discourse, we must become even more cognizant of language choices and how those choices affect behavior. After all, words really do matter.
Richard Cherwitz

The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applicants

The largest credit union in the US has the widest disparity in mortgage approval rates between White and Black borrowers of any major lender, a trend that reached new heights last year, a CNN analysis found.

Navy Federal Credit Union, which lends to military servicemembers and veterans, approved more than 75% of the White borrowers who applied for a new conventional home purchase mortgage in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But less than 50% of Black borrowers who applied for the same type of loan were approved.

While many banks also approved White applicants at higher rates than Black borrowers, the nearly 29-percentage-point gap in Navy Federal’s approval rates was the widest of any of the 50 lenders that originated the most mortgage loans last year.

The disparity remains even among White and Black applicants who had similar incomes and debt-to-income ratios. Notably, Navy Federal approved a slightly higher percentage of applications from White borrowers making less than $62,000 a year than it did of Black borrowers making $140,000 or more.

Taliban sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, says UN report

Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, according to a U.N. report published Thursday.

Before the Taliban seized power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women protection centers in Afghanistan where survivors of gender-based violence could seek refuge. Now there are none, the U.N. report said.

Officials from the Taliban-led administration told the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that there was no need for such shelters or that they were a Western concept.

The Taliban sends women to prison if they have no male relatives to stay with or if the male relatives are considered unsafe, the report said. Authorities have also asked male relatives for commitments or sworn statements that they will not harm a female relative, inviting local elders to witness the guarantee, it added.

Hundreds march for Palestine downtown, protest Jerry Seinfeld show

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Syracuse to rally in support of Palestine, calling for a cease-fire and protesting Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up show Friday evening.

The local “Shut It Down For Palestine” demonstration — organized by the Syracuse chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Syracuse Collective for Palestinian Liberation, the Resilient Indigenous Action Collective and the Syracuse chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation — was the latest of several similar pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses and in cities across the country following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The protesters marched from Clinton Square down S. Salina Street to the Landmark Theatre, where Seinfeld’s stand-up show was scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Seinfeld was one of over 700 Hollywood celebrities to sign an open letter in support of Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

After 1,200 people were killed in the attack, Israel responded with a tightened siege on Gaza, bombarding the territory. Since Oct. 7, over 17,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Hamas not responding to attempts to get hostage negotiations back on track

Hamas has been unresponsive to overtures made in recent days to try to restart hostage negotiations, a source familiar with the efforts told CNN, as the US and other mediators try to resurrect talks that would see more hostages who were abducted on October 7 be released from captivity.

Qatar – which continues to play the role of interlocutor – has relayed to Hamas new ideas to try to get more hostages out of Gaza, including a potential deal that would include the release of not just the remaining women hostages, but men as well, according to one source familiar with the efforts and a senior US official.

“There’s not an active negotiation, but there’s a real exploration of ideas for how to get this going,” the senior US official said. But Hamas has not been responsive to the outreach, the source familiar said.

Qatar speaks with Hamas political officials in Gaza who then relay messages to the group’s leadership inside the strip who are actively trying to avoid detection by Israel. US officials had said getting answers from Hamas was an incredibly cumbersome process during the first round of negotiations that led to a series of hostages being released. It may now be even harder for Hamas leaders to engage in talks now given the Israeli focus on hunting them down.