World
ACLU asks top US court to review law against boycotting Israel
Washington, DC — A high civil rights group in the USA has requested the Supreme Courtroom to evaluate a decrease courtroom’s ruling that upheld an Arkansas state regulation penalising corporations that boycott Israel.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a petition on Thursday asking the highest courtroom to take up the case, arguing the Appeals Courtroom determination violates the First Modification of the US Structure, which protects the proper to free speech.
“When a state singles out specific boycotts for particular penalties, as Arkansas has accomplished right here, it not solely infringes the proper to boycott — it additionally transgresses the First Modification’s core prohibition on content material and viewpoint discrimination,” ACLU attorneys wrote of their submitting.
In June, the appeals courtroom dominated in favour of the regulation, saying boycotts fall below business exercise, not “expressive conduct” assured by the First Modification.
The regulation follows comparable measures handed by dozens of US states to curtail the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion, which pushes to stress Israel by means of non-violent means to finish abuses towards Palestinians.
A number of rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch, have mentioned Israel’s remedy of Palestinians quantities to apartheid.
The Arkansas case began in 2018 when The Arkansas Instances, a publication within the metropolis of Little Rock, sued the state after refusing to signal a pledge to not boycott Israel to win an promoting contract from a public college.
The regulation requires contractors that don’t signal the pledge to cut back their charges by 20 p.c.
A federal district courtroom initially dismissed the lawsuit however a three-judge appeals panel blocked the regulation in 2021, ruling it violates the First Modification. In June, a full appeals courtroom reversed the panel’s determination, primarily reviving the regulation.
The Supreme Courtroom is the ultimate degree of enchantment and evaluate within the US judicial system. If the highest courtroom refuses to take up the case, the appeals courtroom’s determination will stand.
The nine-seat Supreme Courtroom has a conservative majority with three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel.
Rights advocates have warned that anti-boycott measures don’t solely push to unconstitutionally silence Palestinian rights activism but in addition threaten free speech rights on the whole — and are getting used to limit boycotts of different entities, together with the fossil gas business.
Mind Hauss, a senior employees lawyer with the ACLU, mentioned the June determination to uphold the anti-BDS regulation in Arkansas “badly misreads” authorized precedents and withdraws safety for freedoms exercised by People for hundreds of years.
“Worse but, the choice upholds the federal government’s energy to selectively suppress boycotts that categorical messages with which the federal government disagrees,” Hauss mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
“The Supreme Courtroom ought to take up this case to be able to reaffirm that the First Modification protects the proper to take part in politically-motivated client boycotts.”
People for Peace Now (APN), an advocacy group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, additionally referred to as on the Supreme Courtroom to evaluate the ruling.
“A Supreme Courtroom determination on this case, if it decides to take it up, may have broad repercussions in the USA and past,” APN President Hadar Susskind mentioned in a press release.
“We hope the Courtroom discusses the matter and guidelines that states don’t have any enterprise imposing circumstances on the free speech rights of people, organizations and corporations. You could help or oppose boycotting Israel or the occupation, however as a authorities you will need to not impose your opinion on others or sanction them for his or her views.”
Anti-BDS legal guidelines typically prohibit boycotts of Israel in addition to any Israeli-occupied territories. Final 12 months, a number of US states threatened sanctions towards Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream firm determined to cease doing enterprise within the occupied Palestinian West Financial institution.
World
Israel hits Beirut’s southern suburbs with a dozen airstrikes
Meanwhile tens of thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict.
Israel also struck a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.
Israel’s attack on the Beddawi camp near Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli killed an official with Hamas’ military wing along with his wife and two young daughters, the Palestinian militant group said. Hamas later said another military wing member was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
Israel’s military said it killed two senior officials with Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon, where fighting has escalated in recent weeks. Israel has killed several Hamas officials there since the Israel-Hamas war began in addition to most of the top leadership of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Plumes of smoke dominated the skyline over Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah commanders and military equipment and aims to drive the militant group away from shared borders.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, paramedics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from homes in less than two weeks.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and Israel’s military have traded fire almost daily.
Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the intense ground clashes that Israel says have killed 250 Hezbollah fighters.
Israel’s military on Saturday said about 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Most were intercepted, but several fell in the northern Arab town of Deir al-Asad, where police said three people were lightly injured.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and in Lebanon.” The minister did not name the countries putting forward initiatives, saying they include regional states and some outside the Middle East.
Araghchi spoke a day after the supreme leader of Iran praised its recent missile strikes on Israel and said it was ready to do it again if necessary.
At least six people were killed in more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday, according to the National News Agency, a Lebanese state-run new outlet.
Nearly 375,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, fleeing Israeli strikes, in less than two weeks, according to a Lebanese government committee.
Associated Press journalists saw thousands of people continuing to cross the Masnaa Border Crossing on foot, even after Israeli airstrikes left huge craters in the road leading to it on Thursday. Much of Hezbollah’s weaponry is believed to come from Iran through Syria.
The Israeli military said special forces were carrying out targeted ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. It said troops dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.
Meanwhile, The Netherlands has become the latest European country to repatriate their citizens from Lebanon as the conflict escalates.
185 people arrived at Eindhoven Air Base from Lebanon on Friday evening, including more than a hundred Dutch citizens and their family members.
A Belgian, an Irish and a Finnish national were also on board.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs received around 500 registrations for two repatriations flights, with another expected on Saturday
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanese border almost daily since Hamas’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.
Israel declared war on Hamas following the attack, with more than 41,000 Palestinians reportedly killed in Gaza Strip in the Israeli response. Just over half the dead were women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since that conflict began. Most of them have died since September 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
World
‘Joker 2’ Ending: Was That a ‘Dark Knight’ Connection? Explaining What’s Next for Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for the ending of “Joker: Folie à Deux” now playing in theaters.
Joaquin Phoenix dons his clown makeup once again in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the follow-up to his Oscar-winning performance from 2019. This time, he’s joined by fellow Oscar winner Lady Gaga, who plays another iconic DC Comics villain, Harley Quinn.
The comic book sequel takes place after the events of “Joker,” with Phoenix’s killer clown Arthur Fleck on trial for the murders he committed in the first movie. His lawyer, played by Catherine Keener, argues that Arthur and Joker are two different people. She claims that after years of childhood abuse, Arthur developed an alter-ego that’s separate from his own mind. The prosecution is led by assistant district attorney Harvey Dent, played by “Industry” star Harry Lawtey, who’s later known as the disfigured villain Two Face in the Batman comics.
The jury sides with Dent and convicts Arthur of murder. However, before the trial can continue, a bomb explodes outside of the courtroom, sending the city into chaos. Arthur briefly escapes with the help of two Joker devotees, but he’s soon captured by police and brought back to Arkham Asylum. Also, it appears that Harvey’s face was injured in the courtroom explosion, potentially setting him up to become Two Face in the future.
The movie ends on a bloody note, as Arthur is ambushed the next day by a laughing, clearly insane Arkham patient. The inmate, played by Connor Storrie, tells Arthur a joke and then repeatedly stabs him in the stomach. Arthur falls over, bleeding profusely, and appears to die. Behind him, the unnamed psycho laughs uncontrollably and carves a Glasgow smile into his face with a knife.
Many DC fans have theorized that Arthur’s killer could be an homage to Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight,” since both of them sport the same gnarly scars around their mouths. Todd Phillips’ “Joker” and Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy take place in different time periods and universes, so it’s unlikely that Storrie’s character is related at all to Ledger’s.
In “The Dark Knight,” Ledger’s Joker backstory is largely unknown, and he offers differing accounts of how he got his facial scars. Early in the movie, he says his father drunkenly cut him as a child, but later he says the scars were self-inflicted after his wife was given a Glasgow smile over her gambling debt. “The Dark Knight” also took place in the modern 2000s era, while the “Joker” movies are in the ’80s, giving little evidence that the “Folie a Deux” character is anything more than a wink to Ledger’s Oscar-winning role.
It appears that Phoenix is hanging up his red suit and clown makeup with “Folie à Deux.” The “Joker” movies have existed in their own world, with no connections to Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” or James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe, so it’s unlikely Phoenix’s character will be resurrected or revisited. The next time we could see a live-action Joker may be when Barry Keoghan eventually reprises his role from the final scene of “The Batman,” perhaps in Reeves’ sequel in 2026.
World
Expert warns UN's role in AI regulation could lead to safety overreach
The United Nations (U.N.) advisory body on artificial intelligence (AI) last week issued seven recommendations to address AI-related risks, but an expert told Fox News Digital the points do not cover critical areas of concern.
“They didn’t really say much about the unique role of AI in different parts of the world, and I think they needed to be a little more aware that different economic structures and different regulatory structures that already exist are going to cause different outcomes,” Phil Siegel, co-founder of the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation (CAPTRS), said.
“I think that they could have done a better job of — instead of just trying to go to the lowest common denominator — being a little more specific around what does a state like the United States, what is unique there?” Siegel said. “How does what we do in the United States impact others, and what should we be looking at specifically for us?
“Same thing with Europe. They have much more strict privacy needs or rules in Europe,” he noted. “What does that mean? I think it would have gained them a little bit of credibility to be a little more specific around the differences that our environments around the world cause for AI.”
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The U.N. Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Body on AI published its suggested guidelines Sept. 19, which aimed to cover “global AI governance gaps” among its 193 member states.
The body suggested establishing an International Scientific Panel on AI, creating a policy dialogue on AI governance, creating a global AI capacity development network, establishing a global AI fund, fostering of an AI data framework and forming an AI office in the U.N. Secretariat.
These measures, Siegel said, seem to be an effort by the U.N. to establish “a little bit more than a seat at the table, maybe a better seat at the table in some other areas.”
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“If you want to take it at face value, I think what they’re doing is saying some of these recommendations that different member states have come up with have been good, especially in the European Union, since they match a lot of those,” Siegel noted.
“I think … it sets the bar in the right direction or the pointer in the right direction that people need to start paying attention to these things and letting it get off the rails, but I think some of it is just it’s not really doable.”
Multiple entities have pursued global-level coordination on AI policy as nations seek to maintain an advantage while preventing rivals from developing into pacing challenges. While trying to develop AI for every possible use, they also hold safety summits to try and “align” policy, such as the upcoming U.S.-led summit in California in November.
Siegel acknowledged the U.N. is likely to be one of the better options to help coordinate such efforts as an already-existing global forum — even as countries try to set up their own safety institutes to coordinate safety guidelines between nations. But he remained concerned about U.N. overreach.
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“They probably should be coordinated through the U.N., but not with rules and kind of hard and fast things that the member states have to do, but a way of implementing best practices,” Siegel suggested.
“I think there’s a little bit of a trust issue with the United Nations given they have tried to, as I said, gain a little bit more than a seat at the table in some other areas and gotten slapped back. On the other hand, you know, it already exists.
“It is something that the vast majority of countries around the world are members, so it would seem to me to be the logical coordinating agency, but not necessarily for convening or measurements and benchmarks.”
Siegel said the U.S. and Europe have already made “some pretty good strides” on creating long-term safety regulations, and Asian nations have “done a good job on their own and need to be brought into these discussions.”
“I just don’t know if the U.N. is the right place to convene to make that happen, or is it better for them to wait for these things to happen and say, ‘We’re going to help track and be there to help’ rather than trying to make them happen,” Siegel said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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