Headlines in This News Package:

• Israel Expands Genocidal War Into Lebanon

• Students, Professors, and Workers Call for Resistance Against Milei’s Attacks on Public Universities

• Mexican Right Continues Attacks on Judicial Reform While the Fourth Transformation Continues to Advance

• Nearly 600 Parliamentarians From 73 Different Countries Call on the U.S. to Take Cuba off the “State Sponsor of Terrorism” List

[NEWS ITEM TEXT]

Israel Expands Genocidal War Into Lebanon

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After perpetrating a series of cyberterrorist attacks the week of September 16, Israel launched a series of deadly airstrikes in southern Lebanon on September 23. According to Lebanese health officials, Israel killed at least 182 people and wounded 727, including women, children, and paramedics.

Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza almost one year prior. Israeli forces in that time period killed over 42,000 people and decimated nearly all of the enclave’s health care facilities, educational institutions, and infrastructure. Unable to achieve its military objectives in Gaza, Israel has turned its focus to Lebanon’s Hezbollah which has maintained a Gaza support front since October 8, 2023.

Israeli warplanes also launched an aerial assault on a densely populated residential area within the Southern Suburb in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on September 20. At least 45 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the aggression. Israel claimed that Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of Al-Radwan Force affiliated with Hezbollah, as well as several other senior commanders, were assassinated in the assault.

With heightened tensions between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed his visit to the United States that was scheduled for September 24 over security concerns. Netanyahu is set to travel to New York in the last week of September 2024 to take part in the United Nations General Assembly. Netanyahu is expected to deliver a speech before the UN body, despite the UN condemnation of Israel’s aggressions and violations of human rights across the region.

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Students, Professors, and Workers Call for Resistance Against Milei’s Attacks on Public Universities

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Students, professors, and administrative workers at universities in Argentina are preparing for several weeks of mobilizations and work stoppages to protest President Javier Milei’s announced veto of the University Financing Law which would allocate necessary funds to universities. The university community called for a strike on September 26 and 27 and a national mass mobilization on October 2 in cities across the country, in Buenos Aires, people will march to the National Congress. Trade unions and social organizations from across sectors will also join students, professors, and university workers to defend public, free, and quality education in Argentina.

On September 12, the Argentine Senate approved a law that updates the amount of money universities should receive to maintain optimal functioning; this includes slightly improving the budget allocation to cover expenses for teaching, research, and administrative functioning. According to the law, the budget increase would be only 0.14 percent of GDP.

Milei has announced that it will veto the law. According to some official sources, the government plans to offer only 3.8 billion pesos to Argentina’s national universities while the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) says at least 7.8 billion pesos are required for the country’s universities to operate properly.

According to Víctor Moriñigo, president of the CIN and rector of the University of San Luis, “there is no certain intention of adjusting teaching and non-teaching salaries [to the current economic situation] to at least equalize the situation of loss [of purchasing power] in the face of inflation.”

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Mexican Right Continues Attacks on Judicial Reform While the Fourth Transformation Continues to Advance

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The right-wing Mexican opposition has vowed to continue trying to repeal the Judicial Reform approved and signed into law on September 15. According to spokespeople from the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), a set of legal actions will be presented to table the modifications to the constitution that the Judicial Reform entails.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said that PAN has every right to file as many complaints or challenges as they consider necessary, although according to him there is no reason to believe that the Judicial Reform is unconstitutional.

Another victory scored by AMLO’s government before the end of his term is the unanimous approval (492 votes in favor, 0 abstentions, and 0 votes against) in the Senate of the Constitutional Reform on the Rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples, which seeks, according to the presidency, “to settle the historical debt owed in Mexico and give them recognition as subjects of public, collective and individual law.”

A very important issue is the reform’s recognition of Indigenous normative systems, which, nevertheless, must be harmoniously integrated into the national legal system. Among these mechanisms are the free, prior, and informed consultation of the political processes that affect these territories. According to Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, general coordinator of Indigenous Rights of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), the Reform obliges the Mexican State to adapt its normative framework to international advances and the Reform.

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Nearly 600 Parliamentarians From 73 Different Countries Call on the U.S. to Take Cuba off the “State Sponsor of Terrorism” List

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People of conscience across the world continue to put pressure on the government of the United States to remove Cuba from the “State Sponsor of Terrorism” list. This time, a group of nearly 600 parliamentarians from 73 different countries penned a joint letter condemning the continued inclusion of Cuba on the list. The letter was coordinated and published by the Progressive International (PI) on February 20, 2024. The lawmakers are calling on their respective governments to “take immediate action to advocate for [the designation’s] removal.”

Cuba was added to the U.S.’s list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism” (SSoT) in 2021 by conservative President Donald Trump, but Biden, Trump’s more liberal successor, has thus far done nothing to remove this designation.

The specter of this designation hangs over Cuba, as countries and potential business partners refrain from trading with the country and over-comply with sanctions in fear of angering the U.S. or incurring penalties. This fear contributes to the goods shortages that the Cuban people already experience due to the blockade, such as the ongoing fuel deficit.

Signatories to the letter include but are not limited to, former president of the Belgian Workers Party Peter Mertens, Brazilian Deputy Célia Xakriabá, Canadian MP and PI Council Member Niki Ashton, Colombian Senator and PI Council Member Clara López Obregón, Ecuadorian Deputy Jahiren Noriega, leader of German party Die Linke Martin Schirdewan, Ghanaian MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and former leader of the UK Labour Party and PI Council Member Jeremy Corbyn.