rawgod brought this up, also, and I’m running with it here, because the Don is dominating the news (it’s all he can dominate) and there’s no reason to cover him these days. Anyway, here is some info from 2 sources regarding the spiralling health catastrophe in Rafah.
U.N. agencies warn that the demolition of a critical water facility in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip increases the risk of infectious diseases as people are forced to drink unsafe water while sanitary conditions continue to deteriorate.
“Until recently, that reservoir served thousands and thousands of internally displaced people who had sought refuge in Rafah in the area,” James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, told journalists at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
“Now without it, vulnerable children and families are likely to be forced again increasingly to resort to unsafe water, so putting them again at all those risks that we see time after time, day after day in Gaza — dehydration, malnutrition, diseases,” he said.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported Monday that the troops blew up the central reservoir “on the orders of the brigade commanders” but without receiving permission from the senior level of the Southern Command. It added that the incident was being investigated by Israel’s Military Police as “a suspected violation of international law.”
Infections spreading
Elder said the destruction of the Canada Well reservoir “is yet another grim reminder of the assaults on families who already are in desperate need of water.”
“We have seen spikes in diarrhea, in skin infections — all due to a lack of access to hygiene and a lack of access to water,” he said, noting that people in emergencies require a minimum of 15 liters (almost 4 gallons) of water per person per day.
Now, the range of water availability in Gaza has been reduced to between 2 and 9 liters per person, per day, and some people are getting just a fraction of that, Elder said.
“Somehow, people are holding on, but of course, we are now in that deathly cycle whereby children are very malnourished. There is immense heat. There is [a] lack of water. There is a horrendous lack of sanitation, and that is the cycle,” he said.
The World Health Organization reports a surge in infectious diseases in the Gaza Strip. As of July 7, it has recorded nearly 1 million cases of acute respiratory infections, 577,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea, 107,000 of acute jaundice syndrome and 12,000 of bloody diarrhea. It also has recorded nearly 200,000 cases of scabies, lice, skin rashes, chicken pox and other illnesses.
Polio threat
The recent identification of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in Gaza’s sewage system is of particular concern. Under prevailing conditions in Gaza, there is a high risk of spread of this paralytic, deadly disease within the Palestinian enclave and across borders.
“Having a vaccine-derived polio virus in the sewage very likely means that it is out there somewhere in people,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said. “It most likely is in the population, but that does not necessarily mean that we see an outbreak of cases.
“But of course, we need to be prepared. We need to be utterly prepared. And we need vaccinations, and we need vaccination campaigns,” he said. (snip-More)
Health conditions are rapidly deteriorating in Rafah as a possible ground offensive nears. Project HOPE reports that 1 in 5 children under age two showed signs of malnutrition in an underserved displacement camp in Rafah.
This week, the Israeli Government announced plans to move forward with a ground offensive in Rafah despite concerns from the international community about the severe impact it would have on civilian lives. As the threat of forced evacuation or an escalation of violence looms, the health of people living in Rafah is rapidly deteriorating. Inhumane and crowded living conditions, limited access to clean water and food, and inadequate hygiene facilities have led to an increase in cases of hepatitis A, upper respiratory tract infections, tonsillitis, and urinary tract infections.
Malnutrition rates are on the rise due to limited availability, loss of income, and soaring food prices linked to the destruction of Gaza’s food system. At Project HOPE’s clinic in Jaafar Al-Tayyar, an underserved displacement camp in Rafah, 1 in 5 children under the age of two exhibited signs of malnutrition over the last month. The camp has turned into a breeding ground for disease and illness. Over 100,000 people are crammed into one area. Project HOPE’s team reports that it is common for 20-30 people to live in just one tent and hundreds share access to one toilet and shower, which not only creates serious hygiene and disease concerns but poses protection risks for women, children, and others.
Rafah was home to 280,000 people before the war. Today, over one million people seek refuge in the small city. Families live in overcrowded tents, homes, and makeshift shelters with limited access to the necessities to survive. Project HOPE calls upon all parties involved to implement an immediate and sustained ceasefire to prevent the loss of more innocent lives.
Dr. Nour Al-Din Khaled Alamassi, Physician for Project HOPE, said: “Everywhere around me, people are hungry. It is inevitable here, especially for children, pregnant women, and people with chronic illnesses. In our clinic, we constantly see people who are sick, uncomfortable, and hungry. Children’s bodies are deteriorating. Food is way too expensive and fresh foods like chicken or vegetables are impossible to find. We cannot rely on aid shipments for regular meals.
I recently met Nafisa Al-Dakakheneh, a 67-year-old, who moved from Gaza City to Rafah. She told me, ‘We had no food, no water, nothing – we’re tired. We were starving so we had no choice but to leave our home and come to Rafah.’ Nafisha has no home in Rafah. She sleeps on the hard ground under blankets hanging in the air as cover because she can’t afford a tent. Her grandchild tragically died in the hands of his mother due to lack of food and severe dehydration. Nafisa is terrified of dying. I resonated with her words, ‘We really need to feel like we’re human again.’
Naifsa’s story is not unique. If we do not die from violence, we could die from disease or hunger. More violence in Rafah would be devastating. The last safe haven in Gaza would be destroyed. Every day, I fear what might happen. I worry about having to be displaced constantly. We are living in a nightmare.” (snip-More)
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris worked tirelessly for months, behind the scenes to co-ordinate the largest prisoner swap in decades! No money was exchanged and no sanctions were lifted!! Trump, on the other hand, would get back on hostage and give the aggressor 200 of theirs back!! The world is going to miss Joe Biden being in Government!!
If Donald Trump returns to the presidency, he’ll have another shot at achieving a goal that eluded him last time: Changing the colors of Air Force One to his beloved red, white and dark blue.
And he’ll likely do it — even though replacing the traditional light-blue-and-white design with Trump’s preferred scheme would be complicated and expensive.
A former senior Trump White House official who remains close to him says it would be totally in character for the former president to insist on using his preferred colors on the planes.
“Absolutely. 100 percent,” said the former official, granted anonymity to discuss Trump’s thinking.
The Air Force is still modifying two Boeing 747-8s to replace the existing aircraft, and the two planes are on track to be delivered in 2026 and 2027, years late and well over budget. When they arrive, they’ll be sporting the traditional white-and-light-blue livery that has adorned presidential aircraft since the Kennedy administration.
But according to three people familiar with the program, there’s still time for Trump to order the color scheme back to his favored palette, similar to the pattern already on his private plane. In 2019, the then-president told ABC host George Stephanopoulos that he wanted to shake up the traditional pattern with a design he made himself.
“There’s your new Air Force One,” Trump said at the time, holding up mock-ups of the aircraft that at the time was supposed to be delivered by this year. “I’m doing that for other presidents, not for me.”
After POLITICO reported in 2022 that Trump’s preferred colors would lead to expensive design fixes, the Biden White House scrapped the plan and brought back the traditional palette.
The person familiar with Trump’s thinking said he expects him to change the colors back because of how proud the former president was of the design change.
“The model was on the coffee table in the Oval Office and he pointed it out many times to foreign and domestic visitors,” the person said. “He thought it represented America more and represented strength, the red, white and blue.”
Yet the cost of bringing back Trump’s favored shade hasn’t gone away.
At some point after Trump announced he was changing the colors in 2019, Boeing determined that the dark blue paint on the underside of the plane and its engines would likely contribute to excessive temperatures, a problem that Boeing would likely have to pay out-of-pocket to fix.
Specifically, the dark color would require modifications to cool some of its components, the three people familiar with the changes said. The people were granted anonymity to speak freely about the sensitive program.
The people said changing the color scheme this far in the process may require more engineering work, millions of dollars in cost overruns, and further delays.
“For example, Boeing would need to ensure antennas work with the new livery and that there is no interference,” one person said.
Boeing referred to the Air Force for comment. An Air Force spokesperson said the service does not speculate on hypotheticals. Asked for comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said “Sounds like Joe Biden hates the Red, White, and Blue.” He did not specifically answer whether Trump would change the color.
As president, Trump took pride in personally getting involved in the negotiations for the replacement aircraft once he learned of the cost. In February 2017, he said the Air Force was “close to signing a $4.2 billion deal” and “we got that price down by over $1 billion.”
The Air Force awarded Boeing a $3.9 billion contract in 2018 for the two modified 747-8s to replace the existing Air Force One aircraft, based on the 747-200B model that has been flying since the 1990s.
The company consented to a fixed-price contract with the Air Force, meaning any changes made to the airplane are at Boeing’s cost, not the government’s. The program is already more than $2 billion over budget.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told investors in 2022 that company executives should never have agreed to Trump’s terms for the Air Force contract six years ago.
The program faced major problems when a subcontractor hired to furnish the cabin interior went bankrupt, and Boeing had to switch to a new supplier. The program also faced hurdles due to labor shortages and a lack of employees with the proper clearances to work on the sensitive program.
During Trump’s presidency, Democrats registered their opposition to his decision to change Air Force One’s paint scheme. After winning control of the House in 2019, Democrats pushed to limit changes to the paint job or interior decorations on the program.
Defense legislation that passed the House that year included language limiting changes to the aircraft’s livery and interior design to what was included in the contract.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), who sponsored the proposal, said at the time that Congress needed to rein in “less essential aspects” of the new planes and close a potential “backdoor for the program to hemorrhage” money.
“The president will have an opportunity to make some suggestions and changes to the plane,” Courtney said during the 2019 House Armed Services Committee deliberations on the defense bill. “But we do want to keep this within the parameters of the existing contract process so that, again, we’re not creating additional costs for the operation of the plane.”
“Additional paint can add weight to the plane,” he noted.
Republicans, however, accused Democrats of using the program to take a swipe at Trump. Then-Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) criticized the effort as “an attempt to just poke at the president.”
“Prior to 2017, I don’t recall attempts to block things like paint colors,” he said.
The measure passed the House, but not the Senate. Lawmakers ultimately approved a compromise bill that required the Air Force to notify Congress before it undertook any “over and above” work on the aircraft.
I have followed Gronda for a long time, before she took her long break. But she is back and her writtings while in debth and a bit long are so very interesting and well researched that they are more than worth the time to read. I love them. I hope everyone here will. Hugs. Scottie
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