Wikileaks founder Assange to be freed under plea deal, filings say – National & International News – Mon 24Jun2023

Wikileaks founder Assange offered plea deal which would release him from prison, filings say.

Louisiana parents sue over Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Bombings continue in Gaza even as Israel sets sights on Lebanon.

NATIONAL NEWS

Wikileaks founder Assange offered plea deal which would release him from prison, filings say

According to court filings unsealed today, US prosecutors have offered Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a deal that will see him plead guilty to one count of espionage in a US court in the Northern Marianas islands. Subject to a judge’s approval Assange would be credited for the five years he’s spent in London’s Belmarsh prison during extradition proceedings and would serve no further jail time. Assange would then return to his native Australia.

Before his incarceration in Belmarsh, Assange, now 52, lived for 7 years in a room in the London embassy of Ecuador, which had granted him asylum. After his asylum was revoked, Assange was arrested and the US charged him with dozens of counts of espionage and hacking related to a leak of classified documents in 2010. Among the material leaked was the infamous Collateral Murder video in which the crew of a US military helicopter in Iraq targeted and killed a Reuters camera crew and then killed the occupants of a minivan who stopped to help.

Calls for Assange’s release and pardon have grown louder in recent years amid concerns that his incarceration could criminalize acts of journalism. President Biden recently hinted during a press conference that he was considering dropping charges against Assange.

Assange is married to attorney Stella Assange with whom he has two children who were born during his time at the Ecuadorian embassy.

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Louisiana parents sue over Ten Commandments in classrooms

Last week, Louisiana became the first state in almost 40 years to require that the Ten Commandments be visibly posted in all state classrooms. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1980 case Stone v. Graham that the state of Kentucky had violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution by requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms. Nearly two decades before, Engel v. Vitale outlawed prayer requirements in public school classrooms, also citing the Establishment Clause.

However, the current 6-3 conservative majority court has issued decisions in recent years that seem to push back the pendulum of the separation between church and state in schools. This shift has emboldened some conservative Bible Belt states to test those waters once again.

 A group of parents has already filed suit against the state of Louisiana challenging the new requirement. The plaintiffs include parents of Christian, Jewish and Universal Unitarian faith as well as non-religious parents. Their filing states that the new law  “substantially interferes with and burdens” parents’ First Amendment rights to raise their children in the religion of their choice, or to reject religion entirely. The parents also fear the display sends a message that any children who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments “do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences”. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Bombings continue in Gaza even as Israel sets sights on Lebanon

In recent weeks, Israel has somewhat scaled back its ground-based military actions in Gaza, apparently with a view to remobilizing its forces on its northern border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently declared that the “intense phase” of its military operations in Gaza. 

However, the Israel Defense Force has continued bombing civilian targets in Gaza. including recently a UN aid distribution center and . On Friday, the IDF bombed a Red Cross aid center and a tent encampment in Al-Mawasi, an area previously declared a “safe zone” for evacuees from Rafah. Two strikes there killed at least 25 people and injured 50 others, many of them children. On Sunday, the IDF bombed a UN aid distribution center in Gaza City (central Gaza), killing at least 8 people.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu has insisted that military operations in Gaza will continue until Hamas is “eliminated” and all hostages are returned. Israel’s military leadership seems eager to furnish an off-ramp by declaring “victory” of a sort over Hamas militants in Rafah. This is despite recent statements from IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari, who admitted that Netanyahu’s goal of “eliminating Hamas” is not feasible. Hagari likened such rhetoric to “throwing sand in people’s eyes”.