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(Third column, 3rd story, link)
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We speak with Rachel Griffin Accurso, the educator known to millions around the world as Ms. Rachel, who has become a leading advocate for children in Gaza. Her YouTube channel for young children became wildly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and today has more than 16 million subscribers. Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, Accurso has used her social media reach to speak out for Palestinian children facing hunger, disease, injury and death. She has been hailed as the heir to Mister Rogers, the legendary PBS children's entertainer who also used his position in families' living rooms to speak out on social issues.
"I see all children as precious and equal. My deep care for children doesn't stop at any border," Accurso tells Democracy Now! in a wide-ranging interview.
We also speak with Tareq Hailat, director of the Treatment Abroad Program for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, who helped connect Accurso with a 3-year-old girl from Gaza named Rahaf, who lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike. Accurso and Rahaf filmed a video in which they sing and dance together.
Hailat describes Accurso as "one of the most significant, if not the most significant, voices for Palestinian human rights" in the world. "Her advocacy has touched the hearts of people that never would have ever heard about Gaza or the Palestinian children, and that's why her voice is so vital," he says.
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(First column, 10th story, link)
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Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was recently sentenced to 12 years of house arrest after he was found guilty of bribing imprisoned members of paramilitary groups to coax them into retracting damaging testimony exposing Uribe's ties to U.S.-backed, right-wing paramilitary groups. Uribe was a staunch U.S. ally who ruled Colombia from 2002 to 2010, during which time there were thousands of extrajudicial killings of civilians, who were then purposely mislabeled as rebel fighters in what became known as the "false positives" scandal. "Álvaro Uribe is a very powerful figure. He is the leading figure of the far right in Colombia and, I would say, a leading figure of the far right in the Americas," says leftist Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda. His own father, leading leftist politician Manuel Cepeda, was assassinated in 1994 by right-wing paramilitaries working with the government.
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President Trump is pushing for a major redrawing of Texas's congressional districts to favor Republicans and shape the outcome of future elections, including next year's midterms. Voting rights expert Ari Berman says this "unprecedented" Republican gerrymandering scheme manipulates an already-gerrymandered map that "limits democratic representation. It already limits representation for communities of color, and now that would be much worse." The map was released this week, and a hearing is underway today as Republicans try to ram it through.
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