What A Day: Funds facts | Crooked Media
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What A Day: Funds facts

Displaced Palestinian children are playing as they shelter in a UNRWA-affiliated school in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on April 23, 2024, having fled their homes due to Israeli strikes amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via AP)

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Displaced Palestinian children are playing as they shelter in a UNRWA-affiliated school in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on April 23, 2024, having fled their homes due to Israeli strikes amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via AP)

THE STRUGGLE ISRAEL

Reports of mass graves outside of two Gaza hospitals have shaken the international community.

  • A report from the UN Human Rights office detailed the recovery of 238 bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste,” at Nasser hospital, 42 of which were identified. Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani said: “Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes.” After two weeks of intense fighting in late March, U.N. humanitarians assessed the damage at Al-Shifa hospital and confirmed on April 5 that it was “an empty shell,” where medical equipment had been reduced to ash.

  • Türk called for an international investigation into the allegations surrounding the mass graves. “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law,” he said on Tuesday, adding that “intentional killing of civilians, detainees, and others who are hors de combat is a war crime.” The IDF said that its operation at Nasser hospital was “precise and targeted,” and was done “without harming the hospital, the patients and the medical staff.”

What A Day

Tensions remain boiling in Gaza as the threat of an IDF invasion hangs over the city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians are sheltering.

  • U.N. officials and some donor nations are calling for the reinstatement of funding to UNRWA—the main U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinians—after an independent review found that Israel had not offered sufficient evidence to support its claim that as many as 10 percent of the agency’s employees are members of terrorist organizations. Led by its largest donor, the United States, more than a dozen countries suspended funding to UNRWA in January after Israel claimed that twelve agency staff had participated in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. A spokesperson for U.N. secretary general António Guterres said on Monday that he had accepted the report’s recommendations and asked donor nations “to actively support UNRWA, as it is a lifeline for Palestinian refugees in the region.” Several donor nations who had initially suspended funding the organization, including Australia, Canada, and Japan, have already resumed donations to the organizations, citing the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. In the United States, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has led the charge in Congress to resume funding to the agency, and backed the report’s findings.


A State Department spokesperson told reporters on Monday that the Biden administration was reviewing the commissioned report, but had no assessment yet of its conclusions. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday: “In terms of our funding of UNRWA, that is still suspended. We’re gonna have to see real progress here before that gets changed.” UNRWA has argued that Israel has engaged in a “deliberate, concerted campaign” to undermine its operations at the time of greatest need in Gaza. Israel’s Foreign Ministry called on donor countries to avoid sending money to the organization in a statement on Monday.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Disgraced former president Donald Trump is poised to receive an additional 36 million shares of Trump Media stock worth over $1.25 billion after trading closes on Tuesday. He’ll certainly need it to pay off his mounting court fees and legal penalties!

The Justice Department reached a $138.7 million civil settlement with hundreds of victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. The settlement in part resolves claims that the FBI botched the initial investigation and did not take early accusations seriously, allowing Nassar’s sexual abuse of young female gymnasts to continue for years thereafter. Nassar is serving multiple lifetime sentences in federal prison.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in an appeal from coffee giant Starbucks, which challenged a lower court ruling that the company must rehire seven employees at a Tennessee cafe who were fired over their efforts to unionize. The Court’s conservative majority (you know where this is going) appeared to agree with the corporation.

In the second day of the Trump hush money trial, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified how he coordinated “catch and kill” strategies with Trump to intercept negative stories about him.

More than 100 antiwar protesters were arrested at New York University on Monday night, according to the NYPD.

At the University of Minnesota, nine student protesters were arrested on Tuesday morning.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has one of the highest nationwide disapproval ratings of any American governor, but somehow remains relatively popular in Florida. Hard to think of a more foreboding superlative than “Popular in Florida.”

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