Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

Russia is campaigning for a return to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council – after being suspended just last year for invading Ukraine. Will the rest of the world vote on Tuesday to reinstate it?

Russia’s war in Ukraine war is still grinding on, and several UN human rights investigations have accused Moscow of committing human rights abuses. The International Criminal Court has even issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the deportations of Ukrainian children.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin is hoping that enough countries in the world are ready to move on, for one reason or another.

As support for Ukraine wanes in some US political corners, the outcome of the Human Rights Council vote will offer fresh insight into how the wider world feels now about Russia – and how many countries may be willing to overlook its actions in Ukraine.

The vote is expected to begin on Tuesday morning inside the UN General Assembly in New York, where delegates from all 193 member states sit and do business.

The UN is the last refuge of scandalous countries. It’s where North Korea can help run a UN disarmament committee. Gabon – where a coup occurred recently – still sits on the prestigious Security Council.

The Human Rights Council is made up of 47 member states, distributed by geographic region and elected by fellow nations. On Tuesday, three countries will be vying for two seats for the Eastern European bloc: Russia is running against Albania and Bulgaria.

In theory, voting takes into account the candidate’ human rights records and commitments. But the ballot is secret, which makes it easy for nations to send their own messages. Some might approve Russia just to send a message to the US about its big power behavior. Other nations need the Kremlin to be generous with food and grain.

Russia joined the Human Rights Council in January 2021. But in April 2022, it became the first country to be removed from the council since Libya in 2011. Ninety-three nations supported the move to remove Moscow, while 24 voted against and 58 abstained.

China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria and Vietnam, alongside Russia, were among those opposing the move. Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Saudi Arabia abstained.

“Every day Russia and China remind us by committing abuses on a massive scale that they should not be members of the UN Human Rights Council,” Human Rights Watch UN director Louis Charbonneau said.

“No state is perfect,” he concedes, but emphasizes that the human rights records of Russia, Burundi, China, and Cuba – all vying for a three-year seat on the council or for reelection – are “abysmal.”

Last week, the Russian Mission to the UN held a reception in New York to support its candidacy to the council. “Russia stands ready to continue promoting human rights as a component in the rapprochement of States and groups of States and not as a matter of discord, pressure and mentoring,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told guests in a speech.

But US representatives here are relentlessly reminding countries of the human rights violations that have followed Moscow’s unprovoked invasion.

Though Russia says it does not strike civilian targets, a sleeping child was among those killed in a Russian missile strike in the city of Kharkiv last week, according to Ukrainian officials. Another child was among the dozens killed when Russian missiles hit a grocery store and café in the village of Hroza.

“We hope UN members will firmly reject its preposterous candidacy as they overwhelmingly did last year,” Jason Evans, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations told CNN.

Though we will know the result of the vote soon, expect countries to hide behind the secret ballot process.

CNN
 — 

Liberians are voting Tuesday in high-stakes presidential and parliamentary elections – the first since the 2018 exit of a UN mission that kept the peace for more than a decade in a country scarred by two devastating civil wars.

As well as the 14-year civil war that had claimed 250,000 lives by the time it ended in 2003, Liberia has grappled with epidemics, including the Covid pandemic and a deadly Ebola outbreak that killed more than 4,000 people in 2014.

Incumbent President George Weah, a decorated former football star, is seeking reelection for a second six-year term after a tumultuous first tenure tainted by corruption scandals and allegations of mismanagement.

Poverty is rife in Liberia, the World Bank says, further estimating that half of the country’s population survives on less than $2 a day.

More than 60% of Liberia’s 5.4 million people are below the age of 25, but unemployment is widespread among the country’s youth, some of whom were former child soldiers in the civil war.

Nineteen candidates are seeking to unseat Weah, who belongs to the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) party, but he faces a contentious rematch with former Vice President Joseph Boakai of the main opposition Unity Party (UP).

Tensions flared between supporters of the two parties ahead of the polls, Liberia’s police said on Facebook. This led to a “loss of lives and the destruction of properties,” the country’s electoral commission stated.

A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office in Liberia, Seif Magango, said at least two people died and 20 others were injured in the clashes.

Weah, the only African to have won football’s most prestigious Ballon d’Or award, clinched more than 60% of the ballots to beat Boakai in a runoff election the last time the two met at the polls in 2017.

Neither Weah, 57, nor Boakai, who turns 79 next month managed to achieve 50% of the votes in the first round of voting.

Boakai conceded defeat after an unsuccessful legal challenge.

Boakai told CNN that his young supporters are now desperate for change.

“Liberians want a change. The youths on the street are telling me they made a mistake (voting Weah in 2017) and want to correct the mistake … They are saying everywhere I go, ‘forgive us, we made a mistake,’” he said.

“This time around, Weah is quite aware that his popularity has dwindled and that he has no chance in this election,” Boakai added.

Around 2.4 million Liberians, mostly young people are registered to vote in the election, which analysts say is a two-horse race between Weah and Boakai.

“Many view Boakai as the next president of the country, who will rescue Liberians from the hands of President Weah, who they claim has failed during his six-year rule,” said Joel Cholo Brooks, the publisher of Global News Network Liberia.

“But for supporters of Weah, (they believe) he should be reelected to complete his many uncompleted projects.”

Ahead of the polls, Weah defended his administration’s performance, telling supporters at a rally “that his development record in the first six years of his presidency is unmatched to his predecessors,” according to a presidential statement.

He touted achievements in infrastructure and noted his government’s introduction of tuition-free education at Liberia’s public universities.

“I am the best among them,” Weah said of his opponents at another gathering last month. “I am a developer, and this is why I am developing the country,” he added as he appealed for votes.

Weah came under criticism last year after spending nearly two months overseas, during which he traveled to Qatar to watch his son, an American national, play for the United States in the FIFA World Cup.

Liberia’s finance minister, Samuel Tweah, said at the time that the president was entitled to a daily allowance of $2,000 during his trip but did not disclose the total cost of Weah’s 48-day tour – described by local media as the longest embarked upon by a Liberian leader in recent years.

“From the inception, they’ve been a corrupt government and everything they do is for personal interest,” alleged Boakai, Weah’s main opponent, who also told CNN of his plans to cut government spending and tackle mismanagement of lean public finances if elected.

Weah’s campaign manager, Eugene Nagbe, told CNN President Weah has made “systemic efforts to eliminate corruption from institutions in Liberia.”

“The president has constituted the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and given it autonomous power to prosecute those who will be found culpable of corruption,” Nagbe added.

Analysts are not convinced Weah has done enough to dispel corruption hanging over his government.

“The president has failed to fight corruption,” said Brooks, who added that “many of his officials who were accused of corruption are yet to be prosecuted.”

Last year, three close allies of Weah, including his chief of staff, Nathaniel McGill, were sanctioned by the US over what Washington said was “their involvement in ongoing public corruption in Liberia.”

McGill, Sayma Syrenius Cephus, Liberia’s chief prosecutor at the time, and Bill Twehway, who headed the country’s National Port Authority, were accused by the US Treasury Department of bribery, diversion of state funds, and manipulation of government contracts for personal gain.

The trio resigned their positions but no charges were brought against them, despite calls for their prosecution.

“Two of those who were sanctioned by the US government for massive corruption have been welcomed by the president by allowing them to contest for the Liberian parliament,” said Brooks.

McGill and Twehway are on the ballot for the country’s senate after being nominated by Weah’s CDC party.

Weah’s campaign manager told CNN no Liberian law prevents them from running from office, adding that the government was awaiting evidence from US to enable prosecutions.

Liberia’s Corruption Perception Index score has plummeted since Weah took office in 2018, dropping 22 points in five years to sit at 142. The index, put together by Transparency International, ranks 180 nations by “the perceived level of public sector corruption.”

“The perception is high … I’m not disputing the fact that we have gone down the table on the TI index … but the reality is that the president has been doing so much to fight corruption,” Nagbe said.

Oscar Bloh, head of ECC, Liberia’s largest election observation group, told CNN this election is different from previous polls in the country.

“This election is very critical compared to previous elections. This is the first time we have transitioned from the use of manual to a biometric voter registration system,” he said.

“This is also the first time that elections will be conducted without external security being provided by the UN mission that was present in Liberia. So security will be on the shoulders of Liberia’s security agencies,” he added.

A UN peacekeeping force, known as UNMIL, exited Liberia in 2018 after completing its mission of “helping to bring peace and stability” to the troubled country.

Bloh also expressed worry that the training of poll officials only began days before the elections.

A spokesman for the electoral commission, Henry Flomo, told CNN, “Everything is in schedule,” as dictated by law.

“Supreme Court says pasting (of the voter roll) should be at least two days to polling day,” Flomo added, but did not explain the reasons for the late training of election officials.

Polls will open at 8:00 a.m. local time Tuesday and close at 6:00 p.m. The election body is required by law to declare a winner no later than two weeks after voting ends.

To be elected, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the total votes. If no candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round of voting, a runoff election will be held two weeks later.

Bloh says a runoff is likely this time around.

“It’s unlikely that any of the candidates will win outright during the first round,” he told CNN.

CNN
 — 

A person who crashed a vehicle into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco Monday was shot and killed after being confronted by police in the lobby, authorities said.

The person was driving around 3:09 p.m. PT and crashed into the lobby area of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, which handles visas, according to Sgt. Kathryn Winters, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department.

Police responded within minutes of the wreck and confronted the driver in the lobby, shooting the person, Winters said. The driver was taken to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead.

It’s unclear how many people were inside the consulate when the incident happened but Winters said no one else appeared to be injured.

At a news conference Monday evening, Winters declined to say why police opened fire or whether the person killed was armed. Winters also did not say whether the crash was intentional or give any other information on the person or the incident.

A spokesperson for the Consulate General of China in San Francisco released a statement saying the crash caused “serious damage” to the building and put people in “serious threat” of being injured or killed. The statement added the consulate “strongly condemns” the incident and called for an investigation to be “carried out expeditiously and dealt with seriously in accordance with the law.”

Videos recorded by witness Sergii Molchanov show people running past a blue car smashed against a wall inside the consulate, which is scattered with debris.

“I was inside waiting for my turn to submit the documents for my visa and suddenly a car in full speed crashed via the main door and hit the wall, just 2 (meters) from where I was sitting,” Molchanov told CNN.

According to Molchanov, the driver exited the car shouting, “Where is CCP?” — an apparent reference to the Chinese Communist Party. The driver then started to fight with security guards, he said.

“Terrified visitors, including myself, ran and then police arrived,” Molchanov added, noting he heard two gunshots.

San Francisco police said they and officials from the US State Department are working with the Chinese consulate.

The consulate is located in the city’s Japantown area, several blocks northeast from The Painted Ladies, a row of colorful Victorian homes that is popular attraction in the Bay Area city.

Winters said authorities are working to determine what agency would lead the investigation into the incident.

“This is a unique investigation because it did happen inside the lobby of the Chinese consulate so there’s a number of agencies and jurisdictions that are involved, so this is far different than our normal officer-involved shooting,” Winters said.

Warning: This post contains graphic descriptions of violence.

Dash camera videos obtained by CNN appear to show what happened when Hamas militants arrived near the site of a music festival where more than 260 people were killed over the weekend.

At about 7:39 a.m. local time on Saturday, according to the car’s dash camera, an unknown driver was traveling northward on a highway just outside of Re’im, Israel, near the Nova Festival grounds. An armed man standing in the street starts shooting at the car.

The video, which has no audio, shows the car as it continues to slowly move up the road and bullets are fired into the vehicle. Its windshield shows some of the strikes. 

The video shows at least 10 more fighters open fire on the vehicle until it finally stops, crashing into another car. It’s not known what happened to the people inside. 

A second video — another dash camera from a parked car just up the road — shows more militants near a bus stop and bomb shelter. Militants surrounded a bomb shelter and were screaming at a shirtless man standing outside it. This incident happened at 7:56 a.m. local time, according to the video.

It’s unclear what is being said, but the man squats on the ground and they begin kicking him. It’s also not known what happened to the man.

The video then shows a militant throwing a grenade into the bomb shelter. Another man runs out, trying to escape the explosion. 

He runs out of frame, but the militants immediately fix their guns on him and begin firing. His fate is also unknown.

CNN visited that bomb shelter today. Its interior was covered in blood. 

CNN
 — 

Cataclysmic events like the Hamas onslaught on Israel trigger profound political shocks and strategic transformations that no one could predict at the time.

The rocket attacks, hostage takings and mass killings inside Israel came as the global order was already at a pivot point, with the post-Cold War era swept away by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s superpower ascent.

The raw shock over what just happened – the scenes of gunned down civilians at an Israeli music festival, the wrenching accounts of families torn apart and the fierce first burst of Israeli reprisal attacks on Gaza – are transfixing the world.

But politics is never still for long. The sudden and bloody shattering of a rare interregnum of calm and hope for diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East is already shifting calculations in Israel, the United States, the Arab world and across the globe.

The Hamas assault has been compared to the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 – as a comparatively low-tech assault on civilians that breached the homeland of a more powerful and sophisticated adversary, partly by defying the imagination of threat assessors in a complacent national security and political establishment.

The lesson of that historic trauma was that the political and military steps taken by American and other leaders when normal politics roared back to life did not just change the world through military action. They unleashed extraordinary political forces inside nations like the United States and Britain, creating conditions that are still influencing society and elections.

This may be where Israel finds itself now. The Jewish state is no stranger to rocket attacks from Gaza or Lebanon or bus and suicide bombings. But the Hamas invaders just shattered Israelis’ illusions of their own security more deeply than at any time since the Yom Kippur war in 1973 when Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked. This sense of emotional violation will condition Israel’s response in the days ahead and will influence how the rest of the world reacts to its fight-back.

Compounding Israel’s national wound is the extreme political challenge now facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who set himself up as the ultimate guarantor of Israeli security but whose long watch will now be mostly remembered for one of the most devastating defeats and intelligence failures in his nation’s history. For now, the schisms in Israeli society, which have been caused by Netanyahu’s far-right coalition and his attempts to reform the judicial system in a way that critics said threatened democracy, have closed in the wider cause of national unity. But the veteran Israeli leader has an incentive to launch a devastating response to the attack to cover his political vulnerabilities as well to avenge Israel’s agony. The excruciating reality that Hamas is holding Israeli hostages that it can use as leverage against Netanyahu makes the situation even more intense. The long-term political consequences are impossible to predict.

“What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will resonate with them for generations,” Netanyahu said in a national address on Monday.

The Israeli leader’s comments raised the immediate question of whether a relentless Israeli counter-assault could all but eliminate Hamas in Gaza in the days ahead. But another lesson from 9/11 is that wars launched in the dark weeks after an attack don’t always turn out as hoped and risk rebounding against leaders who launch them. Israel has already experienced the price of an incursion into densely populated Gaza, an urban warren of sprawling refugee camps, for instance. And after 9/11, the Bush administration’s war on terror caused after-effects for years – including war fatigue and cynicism about government that helped nurture the presidencies of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Those sentiments linger. In launching his independent bid for the presidency on Monday, which could have unpredictable consequences in critical swing states, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly slammed the military industrial complex and the “long pipeline of continuous wars” more than 20 years after 9/11.

Israel’s next moves will be critical. So far, the overwhelming emotions have been empathy and horror. But if Israel’s counter-attack against Hamas leads to even greater civilian casualties in Gaza or if the enclave is cut off from water and electricity for days in an Israeli siege, the politics even inside allied nations – where white and blue lights daub public monuments – may begin to change.

Joe Biden, one of the most unequivocally pro-Israel Democratic presidents in living memory, is expected to address the attacks in televised remarks on Tuesday. So far, he has buried his animosity with Netanyahu, who still hasn’t visited the White House during Biden’s tenure. The Israeli leader said on Monday he’s been in “continuous contact” with Biden since the attacks. The US is surging air defense materiel and munitions to Israel and has offered intelligence support for hostage rescue operations. As a show of support and deterrence to Israel’s enemies, Washington is moving an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean.

But at some point in the weeks ahead, the interests of the United States and Israel may diverge. If evidence emerges, for instance, that Iran played a direct role in planning the assaults by its proxy Hamas, the pressure on Netanyahu for a direct strike against the Islamic Republic will become intense. Washington will be concerned about the scale of any such action since the last thing that Biden needs as he embarks on his reelection race is for the US to get dragged into another Middle East war.

The American president also needs to protect his political flanks, especially from a GOP trying to portray him as old and weak. Republicans, led by ex-President Donald Trump, pounced on the Hamas attacks, seeking to saddle Biden with the blame over his attempts to defuse a US confrontation with Iran. Trump also attempted to fuse an inflammatory US domestic issue – the southern border – with events in the Middle East by claiming without evidence that the “same people” who attacked Israel were streaming into the United States. Another GOP presidential candidate, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, repeated his claim that Biden was “complicit” in “this actual war against Israel.”

Republicans have seized on the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian funds under a deal to free US hostages last month. The administration insists the money hasn’t been spent yet and can only be used to buy humanitarian and medical supplies under strict international monitoring. But by blurring the facts, Republicans are creating a damaging public narrative designed to influence voter opinion. This kind of hard knuckle politics can work. Incessant conservative media coverage of Biden’s handling of the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan is still frequently brought up at Republican campaign events by voters who may not be deeply familiar with the details of the US exit but see the drama as shorthand for incompetence.

Biden must also be aware of political fallout on his left. Progressive Democrats have been increasingly critical of Israel in recent years, both for its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, and the West Bank, which is led by the Palestinian Authority, and because of the extreme tilt of Netanyahu’s coalition, which is the most-right wing government in Israeli history. Biden, whose own party has questioned his reelection bid, cannot afford to lose progressive support next year.

Biden’s legacy could also take a hit from the Israeli turmoil. His effort to shepherd a normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia that could revamp the geopolitics of the Middle East looks at best stalled. Saudi Arabia will not have the political room to negotiate with Netanyahu while hundreds of Palestinians are being killed in Israeli reprisal attacks in Gaza. Netanyahu has even less bandwidth to make hard territorial concessions to the Palestinians in the West Bank that the deal would likely require to get over the line. The historic nature of the proposed deal is one reason why Iran may have had a strong incentive to support Hamas’ attack, even if the US says at this point there is no concrete evidence proving its involvement.

The consequences of the attack on Israel could also negatively impact another Biden priority – the war in Ukraine. While Israel will get higher-tech weapons from the US than Kyiv – like interceptors for Iron Dome – a prolonged regional war could further strain US reserve armories already depleted by shipments to Ukraine. Biden might try to draw parallels between US support for Israel and his backing for Ukraine, another sovereign democratic nation facing outside attack. But Republicans who already oppose more aid to Kyiv are likely to argue that Washington should prioritize its old friend and cannot afford to help both.

All of these developments could precipitate wider strategic political reverberations. The US has been trying to pivot away from the Middle East and toward Asia for a decade and a half. But any sense in Beijing and Moscow that America is getting distracted by the region again will offer openings for US adversaries. The possibility that China, Russia and Iran could find common cause against the United States has long preoccupied US foreign policy experts. There is no formal anti-US alliance involving those three great adversaries. But as the world appears to be organizing itself into democratic and autocratic blocs, the authoritarian leaders in all three countries have discovered military, economic and strategic synergies through their common antipathy to Washington. And if the US is challenged or weakened in Europe, the Middle East or the Asia-Pacific region, all three could benefit.

In politics and international relations, everything is connected and one action sparks counter-reactions. So the war in Israel and Gaza will resonate far more widely than a cursed corner of the Middle East.

CNN
 — 

Here is a look at the 1983 bombing of a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 US service personnel.

On October 23, 1983, 241 US service personnel – including 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel – are killed by a truck bomb at a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon.

Three hundred service members had been living at the four-story building at the airport in Beirut. There were 1,800 Marines stationed in Beirut at the time.

A multi-national force with units from France, Italy and the United Kingdom was also on peacekeeping duty in Lebanon at the same time.

At the same time the Marine barracks was hit, a suicide bomber drove a pickup truck full of explosives and crashed into a building housing French paratroopers. Approximately 58 French soldiers were killed in the attack.

This was the deadliest attack against US Marines since the battle over Iwo Jima in 1945.

The bombing was traced to Hezbollah, a militant and political group that originated in Lebanon in 1982. Iranian and Syrian involvement was also suspected.

The Marines were criticized for having lax security at the barracks.

The commander of the barracks, Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, said in congressional hearings investigating the attacks that the compound was hard to defend because it was on flat ground and vehicles drove by it daily to access the airport.

1982 – US President Ronald Reagan sends Marines to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission.

October 23, 1983 – At 6:22 a.m., a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives drives into the Marine compound in Beirut and crashes into the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regimental Battalion Landing Team barracks.

February 1984 – US troops withdraw from Lebanon.

1985 – The Inman Report is released. It finds that Marine officers did not take proper steps to protect the barracks against terrorist attacks.

May 30, 2003 – A US federal judge rules that the terrorist group Hezbollah carried out the attack at the direction of the Iranian government. The ruling allows families of the victims to sue Iran.

September 7, 2007 – US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth orders Iran to pay $2.65 billion to survivors and to family members of the service members killed in the 1983 bombing.

March 1, 2010 – A lawsuit is filed in New York City seeking to force Iran to pay the $2.65 billion awarded to survivors and family members in 2007.

March 30, 2012 – Judge Lamberth issues a judgment against Iran of $2.1 billion, to be paid to the families and survivors of the attack.

July 2013 – US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest rules to release $1.75 billion of Iranian funds, held in a New York Citibank account, to set up a fund for victims of the 1983 bombing.

July 9, 2014 – A federal appeals court affirms a 2013 ruling that $1.75 billion in Iranian funds should be awarded to the victims’ family members.

April 20, 2016 – The Supreme Court rules that the families of the 1983 bombing victims should be allowed to collect the $1.75 billion in Iranian funds.

March 22, 2023 – A federal judge in New York orders Bank Markazi, Iran’s central bank, and Clearstream Banking SA to pay out $1.68 billion to family members killed in the bombing.

CNN
 — 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Saturday that would have explicitly banned caste discrimination in the state.

The measure, which passed the California legislature last month, specified caste as a subset of ancestry in the state’s civil rights statutes and would have given residents legal recourse against instances of caste discrimination.

India’s caste system evolved over centuries into a rigid social hierarchy based on notions of purity, with a person’s caste assigned at birth. While India formally outlawed caste discrimination shortly after its independence in 1947, caste-based prejudice and inequality persists and has since seeped into other countries.

In a statement explaining his veto decision, Newsom said the measure was “unnecessary” because discrimination based on caste is already prohibited in the state.

“In California, we believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who they are, where they come from, who they love, or where they live,” Newsom said. “That is why California already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed.”

The California measure was opposed by some groups, including people of Indian origin, who said it unnecessarily painted an entire community with a broad brush. Though caste is commonly associated with India and Hinduism, it has since spread to other South Asian countries and religions.

In recent years, more caste-oppressed people in the United States have started speaking out about the discrimination they face — particularly in Silicon Valley, where a large proportion of workers are South Asian immigrants, CNN previously reported.

A coalition of civil rights groups, faith-based organizations and progressive legal scholars had backed the measure to amend the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, the Unruh Act, and the Education Code to include “caste” and other dimensions of ancestry. But the bill also saw intense, vocal opposition from some Indian Americans and Hindu organizations who argued it unfairly maligned South Asians and Hindus.

Equality Labs, a Dalit advocacy organization backing the bill, said though Newsom vetoed the legislation, the group still views it as a win. Dalit is a term those at the bottom of India’s caste hierarchy have adopted to refer to themselves.

“While it is heartbreaking to receive the Governor’s veto, it is not a reflection of the incredible democratic power that our communities showed. We did the impossible,” Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, said in a statement. “Caste-oppressed people have been mobilizing for years to fight against this form of historical violence and will continue to do so.”

Earlier this year, Seattle became the first US city to ban caste discrimination. Several institutions of higher education, including Brown University, the California State University System, Colby College and Brandeis University, have also added caste protections to their nondiscrimination policies.

In 2020, California sued the tech giant Cisco and two of its engineers for allegedly discriminating against an Indian employee because he was of a lower caste. While the state has since dropped the case against the two engineers, litigation against Cisco is ongoing. Cisco said at the time it is committed to cultivating an “inclusive workplace.”

Over the last two decades, caste has also been at the heart of controversies around how Hinduism is portrayed in California textbooks. Some Hindu groups argued proposed textbook language perpetuated bias and stereotypes against Hindus and lobbied to remove or change certain references to the caste system.

CNN
 — 

Here is a look at the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.

Past coverage of the 2022 and 2021 hurricane season and the latest weather news can also be found on CNN.

Follow the storm tracker for the path and forecasts of the latest storm.

The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The areas covered include the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

The National Weather Service defines a hurricane as a “tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph (64 knots) or higher.”

Hurricanes are rated according to intensity of sustained winds on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The 1-5 scale estimates potential property damage.

A Category 3 or higher is considered a major hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center advises preparedness:

April 13, 2023 – The Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project team predicts a “slightly below-normal” Atlantic hurricane season. The team forecasts 13 named storms, including six hurricanes, two of which will be major hurricanes.

May 25, 2023 – The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts a 40% chance for a near-normal season, predicting that there is a 70% chance of having 12 to 17 named storms, of which five to nine could develop into hurricanes, including one to four major hurricanes (Categories 3-5).

August 10, 2023 – NOAA releases its updated forecast, upping the odds for an above average hurricane season from 30% to 60% as ocean temperatures continue to climb above record levels this summer. The agency now predicts 14-21 named storms, including six to 11 hurricanes, of which two to five are forecast to be major. These ranges take into account the named storms that have already formed this season.

Pronunciation Guide

June 2, 2023 – Tropical Storm Arlene forms in the Gulf of Mexico.
June 3, 2023 – Arlene is downgraded to a Tropical Depression and later dissipates.

June 19, 2023 – Tropical Storm Bret forms over the central Atlantic.
June 24, 2023 – Dissipates.

June 22, 2023 – Tropical Storm Cindy forms over the central Atlantic.
June 25, 2023 – Dissipates.

July 14, 2023 – Subtropical Storm Don forms over the central Atlantic.
July 16, 2023 – Becomes a subtropical depression.
July 18, 2023 – Tropical Storm Don forms.
July 22, 2023 – Strengthens into a hurricane.
July 23, 2023 – Weakens to a tropical storm.
July 24, 2023 – Don weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

August 20, 2023 – Tropical Storm Emily forms over the central Atlantic.
August 21, 2023 – Emily weakens to a post-tropical cyclone and dissipates.

August 20, 2023 – Tropical Storm Franklin forms in the Caribbean Sea.
August 23, 2023 – Franklin makes landfall on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic.
August 26, 2023 – Strengthens into a hurricane.
August 28, 2023 – Becomes the first major hurricane of the season.
September 1, 2023 – Franklin weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

August 21, 2023 – Tropical Storm Gert forms over the Atlantic and later weakens into a tropical depression.
August 22, 2023 – Gert weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

August 22, 2023 – Tropical Storm Harold forms in the Gulf of Mexico. After making landfall on Padre Island, Texas, Harold weakens to a tropical depression.
August 23, 2023 – Harold dissipates.

August 27, 2023 – Tropical Storm Idalia forms.
August 29, 2023 – Strengthens into a hurricane.
August 30, 2023 – Makes landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 hurricane. Two people are killed in separate, weather-related crashes.
August 31, 2023 – Weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

August 31, 2023 – Tropical Storm Jose forms.
September 1, 2023 – The remnants of Jose are absorbed into post-tropical cyclone Franklin.

September 2, 2023 – Tropical Storm Katia forms.
September 4, 2023 – Weakens to a tropical depression.

September 5, 2023 – Tropical Storm Lee forms.
September 6, 2023 – Strengthens into a hurricane.
September 16, 2023 – Weakens to a post-tropical cyclone. Later in the day, Lee makes landfall in Nova Scotia.
– At least two deaths are attributed to dangerous conditions associated with Lee.

September 7, 2023 – Tropical Storm Margot forms.
September 11, 2023 – Strengthens into a hurricane.
September 17, 2023 – Weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

September 16, 2023 – Tropical Storm Nigel forms.
September 18, 2023 – Strengthens into a hurricane.
September 22, 2023 – Weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

September 22, 2023 – Tropical Storm Ophelia forms.
September 23, 2023 – Tropical Storm Ophelia makes landfall in North Carolina. Later in the day, Ophelia weakens to a tropical depression.

September 23, 2023 – Tropical Storm Phillippe forms.
October 2, 2023 – Tropical Storm Phillippe makes landfall in Barbuda.
October 6, 2023 – Weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.

September 28, 2023 – Tropical Storm Rina forms.
October 1, 2023 – Weakens to a tropical depression.

CNN
 — 

A listener-supported, nonprofit classical radio station in North Carolina says it will now air the full season of New York’s renowned Metropolitan Opera, reversing an earlier decision not to broadcast six performances over objections to “adult themes and language” contained in the operas.

In August, the 24-hour classical music radio station, WCPE, sent a letter to listeners explaining why six Met performances had been deemed unsuitable for broadcast, citing language, adult themes and in one instance, objections to the use of non-Biblical texts.

But in a brief statement posted on social media Thursday, the station, which serves the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, said it has now decided to broadcast the entire 2023-2024 season after “hearing from our supporters, listeners and the public.”

“The staff and volunteers of The Classical Station are dedicated to our mission to make the world a better place by providing a restful refuge from the worries of the world, and by building a community for all, brought together by the shared love of Great Classical Music,” the station said.

The decision comes during a season where the Metropolitan Opera has chosen to showcase new works outside the typical opera canon and written by people who are less likely to be featured prominently in the opera world.

Deborah Procter, the radio station’s president, previously said she had objected to broadcasting the six operas to “maintain the trust of listeners.”

“We want parents to know that they can leave our station playing for their children because our broadcasts are without mature themes or foul language,” she said in the August letter.

But in a statement shared with CNN, the Metropolitan Opera said all performances follow FCC guidelines regarding profanity and questionable language.

WCPE will now broadcast “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” after previously saying it found the opera to be “unsuitable for a general audience” because it “addresses adult themes and contains offensive language.”

The opera, composed by Anthony Davis and staged by Tony-nominated director Robert O’Hara, brings an “operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life” and features a largely Black cast, according to the Met.

The station will also broadcast five other operas, “El Niño,” “Florencia en el Amazona,” “Dead Man Walking,” “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” and “The Hours,” despite previous objections.

CNN
 — 

Deborah Matias, an American citizen who lived in Israel, was shot and killed by Hamas gunmen while shielding her teenage son from their bullets, her father told CNN.

Hayim Katsman, an Israeli-American academic, had been hiding in a closet with his neighbor when he was fatally shot, his sibling said.

They are among at least 11 US citizens who were killed in Israel after the Gaza-based militant group launched a devastating attack early Saturday that has left at least 900 people there dead.

There are also Americans who remain unaccounted for, President Joe Biden said in a Monday statement, adding it is “likely” some are among those being held hostage by Hamas.

In response to the attack, Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes. More than 680 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and medical care has been complicated by Israel cutting power to the territory. It’s unclear whether any US citizens are among those killed or injured in Gaza.

As desperate families in the US wait for any scraps of information about their missing loved ones, others are now confronted with the sudden loss of siblings, children or parents.

A teen laid under his mother’s body

Ilan Troen said he was on the phone with his daughter when she was killed.

Troen, a professor emeritus from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, said his daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Shlomi Matias, were killed by Hamas militants over the weekend. Troen’s grandson, 16-year-old Rotem Matias, was shot but will survive, Troen told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Monday.

“We were on the phone with Deborah as she was killed,” Troen said. “We were on the phone the entire day with our grandson, Rotem, as he lay first under her body, and then found a place to escape under a blanket in a laundry.”

Rotem was shot in the stomach, Troen said, but will recover.

“The brunt of the shot was borne by his mother,” he said. “The terrorists who came, they had explosives and blew up the front door to their house and then blew out the front door to their so-called safe room.”

Rotem hid for more than 12 hours after he was shot, texting on his phone to communicate with people who were coaching him on how to breathe and how to manage “the blood that was coming out of his abdomen,” Troen said, adding Rotem’s phone was down to a 4% charge when he was rescued.

Deborah Matias attended the Rimon School of Music in the Tel Aviv area, where she met her husband, Troen told CNN.

“Deborah was a child of light and life,” Troen said. “She, rather than becoming a scientist or a physician, she said to me one day, ‘Dad, I have to do music, because it’s in my soul.’”

Hayim Katsman was “very pro-peace” and had supported “a solution for this bleeding conflict” between Israel and Palestinians before he was killed, his sibling told CNN.

Noy Katsman – who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns – said they last heard from their brother Saturday morning when he wrote to say there were terrorists in Kibbutz Holit, which is in southwest Israel near Gaza.

When they tried to reach their brother again about four hours later, there was no response.

Hayim Katsman’s friend, Avital Alajem, described how she was hiding inside a shelter’s closet with Katsman when gunmen came and began firing at the door – striking Katsman multiple times.

“He was murdered,” Alajem told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Israel, early Tuesday. “I was saved because he was next to the door and they shot him.”

Katsman was remembered by his sibling as a “brilliant academist,” a musician who DJ’d and played bass, and a volunteer at the community garden in the city of Rahat.

Noy Katsman said their parents moved to Israel from the United States more than three decades ago and their brother was a US citizen.

Hayim Katsman earned his PhD in international studies from the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies in 2021, and was described as “an emerging scholar in the field of Israel Studies,” in a statement issued by The Association for Israel Studies.

Noy Katsman told CNN they hoped their brother’s death will not be used “as an excuse to kill other innocent people,” adding: “He wouldn’t have wanted that.”

Americans remain unaccounted for

Meanwhile, US officials are working with Israeli authorities to learn more about the whereabouts of Americans who remain missing and confirm reports of those being held hostage, Biden said.

Some American families have been voicing concerns that their loved ones are possibly being held hostage. CNN has not been able to independently verify those reports.

Jacob Ben Senior said his daughter Danielle was attending the Nova music festival near the Gaza-Israel border and has not been heard from since Friday. Ben Senior said he has been calling her phone since Saturday morning but has not been able to reach her.

Born in Los Angeles, Danielle Ben Senior is a 34-year Israeli-American citizen who has lived most of her life in Israel, according to her father. Danielle was working at the Nova festival with a group of event organizers, her father said.

A mother and daughter from the Chicago area who were visiting relatives in Israel are also missing and it’s feared they are being held hostage, a family member told CNN.

US citizens Judith Tai Raanan and Natali Raanan were visiting relatives in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz that was attacked by Gazan militants on Saturday. The family said they are in touch with the US Embassy.

Judith Raanan’s brother Adi Leviatan said he suspected the pair was taken hostage after not hearing from them since the weekend. Natali and Judith arrived in Israel on September 2, he said.

Nahal Oz is in southern Israel, about one and a half miles from the Gaza border. Dozens of Gaza fighters took control of a military base nearby, and an IDF spokesperson told CNN there was fighting in Nahal Oz on Sunday.

Abbey Onn, an American citizen who has been living in Israel for eight years, said she began getting messages Saturday that Hamas was in the area where her family members lived.

“We started getting messages via WhatsApp that Hamas was in the kibbutz, that they were in their homes, that they could hear gunfire and that they were scared for their lives,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper Monday.

Onn said her family members in that area include her 80-year-old cousin, Carmela Dan – who holds dual US-Israeli citizenship; Dan’s son-in-law Ofer Kalderon, 50; and Dan’s grandchildren, Sahar Kalderon, 16; Erez Kalderon, 12; and Noya Dan, 13.

She is now pleading for their return, saying, “These are civilians and we just want to make sure that they come home.”