20 Killed
Plus: Trump trial delays, a subway shooting, some choice words for Viktor Orban, and more...
20 killed and 100 injured: The Hamas-controlled Gazan health ministry accused Israeli troops of carrying out a brutal and "targeted" attack on "civilians waiting for humanitarian aid" in Gaza City while the Israeli military blamed Hamas gunmen for the unexpected attack that killed 20 and injured at least 100, possibly closer to 200.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in fact "facilitated the passage of a convoy of 31 humanitarian aid trucks containing food and supplies intended for distribution to civilians in the northern Gaza Strip," according to a military spokesman.
"Approximately one hour before the arrival of the convoy to the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy," said the IDF. "As aid trucks were entering, the Palestinian gunmen continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks. Additionally, a number of Gazan civilians were run over by the trucks."
For the last few months, aid convoys have been greeted by massive crowds flocking to them in desperate hopes of getting food. A little over two weeks ago, though, IDF forces did open fire on a crowd of Palestinians attempting to get food in a similar situation, killing approximately 100. "Israeli officials acknowledged their troops opened fire on the Gaza City crowd Thursday, saying they did so after the crowd approached in a threatening way," per NPR's reporting, which the IDF semi-contradicted, declaring that "dozens were killed and injured from pushing, trampling and being run over by the truck" (in an odd bit of blame-shifting). But again: it is very difficult to know what actually happened, whether such threats did in fact exist, whether IDF forces exercised proper restraint, and whether any Gazan health ministry officials—controlled by Hamas—are telling the truth. Skepticism is warranted, over and over again.
Trump trial delays: The prosecutors in the Donald Trump hush money case have proposed a 30-day delay to the trial's start since a new batch of evidence was made available earlier this week. Trump's lawyers had requested 90 days (par for the course for them), but some sort of delay now seems likely. "The Manhattan district attorney's office, which accused Mr. Trump of covering up a sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, said the delay would give Mr. Trump's lawyers time to review a new batch of records," reports The New York Times. "The office sought the records more than a year ago, but only recently received them from federal prosecutors, who years ago investigated the hush-money payments at the center of the case."
And a decision is expected today pertaining to Trump's Georgia case, as to whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is disqualified, which would mean a new prosecutor must be appointed, which would lead to delays (Willis' whole office would be thrown off the case). "Trump and others in the case are seeking to disqualify Willis after accusing her of financially benefiting by hiring her special prosecutor in the case, Nathan Wade, with whom she became romantically involved," per CNN.
"Defense lawyers claimed that the relationship between the prosecutors presented an untenable conflict of interest, because Mr. Wade was paid more than $650,000 in public funds while he was at least partly paying for cruises and other vacations he took with Ms. Willis," reports The New York Times.
It's an open question as to how these proceedings will affect Trump's ability to make his pitch to voters in advance of Election Day.
Scenes from New York: Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that she was deploying 1,000 total National Guardsmen and police officers to patrol the city's subway system. This week, there was a shooting on the A train that left a man in critical condition.
On the northbound A train, around 4:45 p.m., a fight broke out between a 32-year-old man and a 36-year-old man that ended in one man shooting the other while the train was still moving, leaving commuters trapped inside. When the doors opened at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in downtown Brooklyn, passengers flooded out and streamed up the stairs.
It was the 36-year-old man who appears to have started the fight, screaming "I will beat you up" and threatening the 32-year-old man. At one point, the older man was stabbed (seemingly by another passenger, who was working with the threatened man) and then pulled out a gun, which the 32-year-old man turned back around on him, shooting the aggressor.
It's not clear that bag checks—part of Hochul's plan, which is legally dubious—would have stopped this (the gun was in a pocket), or that an uptick in officers patrolling the stations themselves (vs. the actual subway trains, where this all transpired) would have helped much. There is already a Transit Police station at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, so officers apparently responded quickly once the train pulled into the station. But that's not to say nothing would stop threats like these, to which New Yorkers have become unfortunately accustomed: yelling about how you're going to beat up an apparent stranger is deranged behavior, seemingly only the type of thing a profoundly mentally ill person would start doing, yet mentally ill and homeless people customarily make train cars their temporary shelters—cops seemingly know this and allow it, which is a deliberate policy choice that could always be reversed.
QUICK HITS
- Zach Weissmueller and I hosted a very polarizing debate—Who's right about George Floyd?—between writer Coleman Hughes and investigative journalist Radley Balko that's getting a fair amount of criticism online. For background: Hughes wrote a piece for The Free Press on Floyd's death, Derek Chauvin's trial, and the documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis, which Balko responded to with a (very long) three-part series over at his Substack. We invited both on to hash it out, and a bit of chaos ensued.
- Hungary is "an ally that behaves unlike any other" and is "alone on the defining issue of European security of the last quarter century, Russia's war in Ukraine," said David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, in remarks made yesterday on the 25th anniversary of Hungary's admittance to NATO.
- "A recent pickup in inflation isn't likely to shift Federal Reserve policymakers' forecasts for three interest-rate cuts this year and four in 2025," reports Bloomberg.
- Crawfish emergency down in Louisiana.
- We should possibly do less U.S.-engineered regime change, not more.
- You won't believe these Canadian auto theft prevention tactics:
Canadian police advise home owners to leave their car fobs outside so armed thieves can steal them more easily without confronting home owners.
"They're breaking into your home to steal your car. They don't want anything else."
Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/H6jFUKltGk
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 14, 2024
