had thoughts of east africa in recent weeks, floods in terms of the, the room, the and kenya of killed at least 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes. can you central region has been hit, especially hard and recent days. i'll just there was malcolm web reports from cash out of county, south of the capital of the reins mostly come at night leave devastation in the morning. thousands of people have been killed in flash floods here in kenya. holdings upon those mother was one of them. this is what remains of a home and have possessions. 6 people died here. we have press. this is exactly the phase. this is where we found them. the body of my mother's neighbor was trapped right across here and it seemed as though my cousin held her ankle with her head lost between her ties. people in the slums of the capitol, nairobi say the government some little to help president william root so called an

emergency meeting. earlier this week. i also asked the military and i'm happy that many missed up for defends is yeah. to provide some of the capabilities they have to support citizens. it's mostly can use red cross rescuing people and providing some food and shelter to those who've lost their homes. grace, why, why they told us nobody came to help her. and the ones that came gushing in and it keeps happening either commerce id number, but definitely sometimes you can't get food to eat for the day. so you just one meal in the evening. the water that comes from the upper house is, is a lot. it's read is lot, you cannot sleep at night and have to stay awake in case it comes again ada. the races thieves broke in and stole a neighbor's possessions when they fled for high ground. so she refuses to join the hundreds of thousands of people across east africa, has been displaced by the floods in the last month. scientists say that this kind

of extreme weather is becoming more frequent because of climate change. and the weather full cost of the site is going to be more heavy rain here in the days ahead . malcolm web houses 0 country jada account. so you can yes. and a series of possible tornadoes have hit the us state of nebraska. this one was filmed as it touched down beside highway. a 15 in butler county houses were badly damaged in omaha sub the outcome of the cities airport was also effected. 3 people were injured and about $11000.00, the households were left without power. that's it for me down jordan for now. mooney is of course of all websites. i'll just say era dot com there it is. news continues here off to upfront stage. and thanks for watching bye for now. the why have american evangelicals become his real strongest back?

or is us president joe find the right to stand with this real with no red line? as long as us support continues, is there anything that can stop is real, solve on concept, from going on in? definitely a quizzical look at us politics. the bottom line. tensions are high and universities in the united states. pro palestinian student protests are springing up around the country and universities are cracking down, putting questions, a free speech back in the spotlight. our school officials escalating their responses to anti war demonstrations. and can student protesters with span the pressure from universities to back down? that's coming up for the 1st israel continues, it's deadly campaign. and does the united states just approve roughly $15000000000.00 and military a to is what is this transfer of weapons against both domestic and international law. escaping report released this week, argues that by providing weapons that may be used in war crimes, the binding administration may have acted in violation of not just international law,

but its own regulation. let's make the to the reports office who let the task force investigating potential is really war price. the newly released report suggests that us weapons provided to israel had been used in a way that systematically disregards the principles of international law. the unabated supply of u. s. arms to israel, the reports authors argue, could be in violation of a new white house, memorandum known as the national security memo 20 or n s. m. 20. the memo released in february requires recipients of us for an assistance to provide written assurances that they will comply with us and international law and not impede us efforts to provide humanitarian assistance. but after months of israel's actions in gaza, from striking refugee camps and family homes to killing more than $200.00 humanitarian aid workers, they always argue that there is melting evidence doesn't just the us arms are being used in ways the contravene international law. joining us to discuss this are 2 of

the authors of the report. the etiquette is a human rights lawyer and professor at rutgers university. and josh paul was a former senior official at the us department of state. resigned this past october in protest of increased us armed sales to israel is now a non resident fellow at democracy for the arab world. now, when a thank you both for joining me. know what i'm going to start with you. but can you share some findings of the reports and key findings? specifically, what evidence you found that indicates that you as arms as to israel could be a violation of us law. and international law, particularly was discussed in vines memo. are absolutely, i want to emphasize mark that national security memorandum number 20 isn't anything new but actually lifts preexisting laws that have not been enforced as they should have. and it includes international humanitarian law. understanding very well that international humanitarian law as often contested and can be as slippery terrain. 2 thirds of our report focuses on us law alone on civil harm mitigation and

u. s. military best practices as well as 620. i am the point assistance act and then when we're looking at, i chose humanitarian law. we're looking at customary international law that is less contested. based on that framework, we found things that were really striking, right? that included we documents, 16 incidents that are credible that are compelling, that are undeniable. 11 out of those, 16 incidents, there wasn't even a target. that is real, says that it was trying to attack, there's an incident, incidents of the u. s. u. s. provided weapons. so we're focusing specifically on those instances where is really use us provided weapons. so we take thousands of lines of data. and from that we're looking in which of these instances are there credible violations of, of law. and then in those as those which of those are used by or you know, are supplied by us weapons. and then we evaluate them well. events. 16, well, we know we found far more than 16. we decided to focus on 16 to provide an analysis

for them, including an 8 and then included and 18 page annex for the white house to use. the objective here is that the department of state and defense are supposed to write their own report and then submit that to congress in order to trigger enforcement mechanisms which we hope will result in that the association of arms transfers to israel. right now here what we, what we're providing is enough for the department of state and defense to submit this report if they wanted to. what i was saying about the 11th about the 16 incidents that we scrutinize in detail is of them 11 out of the 16. there isn't even a target which really just invalid the argument about human shields. and that's before we get into this misinterpretation of how we evaluated it, international law, and how is realized evaluated in this moment. 11 of a 16, there isn't even a military target. half of those incidents are resident with the turn their home homes. the reason i ask is because it is rarely representative would probably say

those homes had a mass competitive in there, or there was some kind of military action going on. so when you say it wasn't a military target, what do we mean? so that's where it is so far as i'm going to say in response for us to say that in these instances, they didn't even say there was a target inside. nor did they, when they were asked for comment, provide justification. so this is blatant we're giving the us government the lowest hanging fruit, the least controversial cases where there isn't going to be that back and forth exchange. that's number one on the number to saying that there's a how much combatant inside, for example, isn't enough. that isn't the beginning and the end of the analysis, both in us law and, and international law is realized that but if somebody was using human shields illegally, that doesn't absolve as real of its responsibility to protect civilians and to reduce harm. that's it, just by his memorandum requires that countries receiving military aid have to provide credible and reliable assurance is that they're using his aid in compliance

with us law and international law of the us says that these really government has provided them with these assurances. but for weeks now, groups like ox, fam, human rights watch and others, but not to mention dozens of members of congress have written to the by the administration, the dispute of the credibility of israel's claims. so how is the us evaluating the credibility of israel's assurances like, is it, is there transparency, even here on how we assess that? well, so that's the question mark. i think the authors, there's none so blind as those who will not see. we have seen a consistent pass and from the administration of denying from the podiums that the problems of state at defense at the white house that there been any violations of international humanitarian law. 5 to go from divisional. in spite of, you know, massive reporting, including all over 4 sandwiches in ways and metro analysis as the mentioned of thousands of other reports and hundreds of other lines of data that have been contributed by both international

n g o's and by 8 organizations on the ground. the problem is that the administration today has not actually office own lawyers to take a look at these allegations to come to a determination is a fact regarding whether they have been violations of international humanitarian law. those a less a for members of congress just last week, urging them to do so. i would sing them as well to all the intelligence community for its assessments. our understanding is that today, so the administration has simply not off those whose opinions would be binding opponents, such as lawyers as to whether these violations are happening. it is all hope to prove by providing the level of detail contained in this report that you know, the administration will have to when it reports to congress by may 8th, as it is required to do at least acknowledge the fax, at least come to tons with some of these issues and some of these incidents i would be concerned, but what we will see instead is a continuation of the problem in which they have some feet, dodge the question. according to a new report commissioned by the united nations,

israel has yet to provide any evidence to substantiate his claims that a number of hon. uh, employees are members of terrorist organizations, is, when is your made these accusations the us was with to cut much needed funding to. and really, despite the fact that they play the indispensable role in providing humanitarian assistance, the guidance in the meantime, the u. s. has continued to fund israel's military despite the fact that they are clear this tremendous evidence of human rights violations. what do you make of this stark contrast between the, the administrative response to unreal versus how they are regarding the is really military? i think what fix what, what's evidence in the pattern um, over many, many decades, not just in the past 6. my are almost 7 months now, which is that there is both a difference to israel and what is real says without an adequate amount of scrutiny . and there is also a lack of even acknowledgment and respect for what palestinians are saying. i think one of the things that's happening here when we talked about them being human is ation of palestinians. is the realization that even nicks their testimony,

less credible. so that folks will hear them perhaps, and the state department just aren't taking them as seriously unless somebody else is speaking for them. so i think that's 1st and foremost, the 2nd is that this should tell us, right, but there is an object problem with scrutiny of israel and the information that they're providing and that there isn't enough scrutiny and, and what they're providing and in their prevention of access to who might of terry and aid we document in the report. this is a violation of 620. i am the for an assistance act. we're not even talking about under international law. you cannot starve communities. we're basically saying the us shall not provide arms to a situation where they're also trying to get, you know, providing humanitarian cord or an access to food. well, it was a little small stretch, told the us that we will not allow some one and a half $1000000.00 worth of in that you're trying to bring into gaza. because it's going to be distributed to honor what in the us that on their hands and started dropping food from the sky. and so we know that the administration know something

pro public a has just published a report that there is enough and could, and considerable all internal descent within state and before secretary of state and to me blinking. we also know that the administration is now towing with the idea of applying sanctions to the net. somebody who the battalion in the westbank for, for the killing them aside. the 78 year old palestinian man who was killed even before october 7th. so we understand that the administration is feeling the heat from everywhere, but we also think that that's a little bit too too late and far too little given what we're, what we're looking at. let me pick up on that in december after reviewing allegations that several is really security units have committed, grieve, human rights violations, especially the state department panel, known as the israel lahey vetting forum, recommended that secretary blinking to disqualify these units from receiving us 8 or 4 months later, a state secretary state blinking has finally addressed the recommendations and he

stated to the press of the results of the investigation, we made public in just a few days. you worked at the state department for years. what would be the significance if he does decide to sanction them? so if yeah, i mean, so not only that i work at the state home for several years, but i sat as a member of the israel, a he reading for him for several years. and the allegations we are talking about now, allegations that have been sitting for years, these dates back to 20 to 2022, or even many years earlier. i know there's always been an effort to elevate these concerns to put the memo to the secretary, which is by the way, a requirement only for as well. there is no other country for which we need to seek the sectors approval before in boston, boston literally know what the cut over the country where a unit becomes ineligible for assistance under the label. and we have to offer this extra to sign off on that. so the very fact that it is this actually making this decision demonstrates the double standard when it comes to israel, a box, you know, for us, we'd been asking the department to move forward on these sorts of allegations. and

so yes, could never get some positive political level. i think there's always been told agreement within the experts within the state department or that these, this is all happening is that day it is of to be cut off under the light he law from us grant assistance, but guessing anyone who was in a, from this clear points a job or send a confirm job to actually do what was necessary to move that paperwork to the secretary. at least the price of the time i left. it never happened. i think it's a good sign in some ways, but that is now that has been at least a memo going forward. i think it's important to note festival that this lady passing well, this lady restriction only applies to us funded assistance. so the same units that will not be eligible if this actually makes us determinations. for brand systems can still turn around with the money and buy anything they liked from the us in terms of weapons. this is a very narrow restriction. at the same time, it will relates to the things that happened before the car conflicting casa. so on the one hand, the us can say, look, we all taking steps. on the other hand,

it can continue to the flow of items that we know all creating. so much suffering and also killing so many civilians and gaza unimpeded. are there other legal instruments that can be used against the united states if it continues the armies room. so i know from colleagues inside the department that they are an increasing number of people who are declining to be a part of this because precisely, they are afraid of being on holiday initially one day and having a knock on the door and saying the icpc would like to talk to you that does have an impact and what i would say to the colleagues who are not stepping back from this work is that they should be thinking about that as well. because there is some real liability. we have both for a government officials who are authorizing the transfer weapons and for those in the defense industry, who are, you know, to building the homes that are being used. and i think, you know, any level of due diligence would tell them that the ons they all making will be used to kill thousands of civilians that are also kinds that are going to be made. and that are being made in domestic quotes around both around the country, but also internationally. you know,

there are lots of crimes here that have universal jurisdiction. and the fact that the us justice system may or may not be an effective tool in this case, does not mean that that will not be just the systems in europe or not numerical for that matter in africa. where such cases kind of be brought. and you know, once those, all the, those charges and all significant and will have an impact on people. we've actually seen maybe the 1st time it's opening question by members of congress, right. should we be funding israel? is there meaningful shift in washington? i know that, is it meaningful? i think that's, that's a big question. are we seeing many shift? obviously, we've seen an insurgency within the democratic party, but they're obviously a minority and they the same body censored, the one palestinian american member of congress for staying from the river, tennessee. right. some invocation of that while they failed to say anything to their own fellow members who have called for a dropping and an atomic bomb on the gaza strip or with call to kill off all palestinian children. not only the representative of the bleeding, you know, d,

unionization, and racism that afflicts you know, the logic within congress. but it's also telling us that, you know, what does meaningful change look like at the top. you know, i think we need to think about us congress as being, you know, the role that it plays as it has in the past. it will probably be the last domino to fall in. the shifts at the us make similar to the way that it was the last time or to fall in the movement against apartheid in south africa. you know, the regular administration was the last to hop on that train. and so i think that we're going to see this shift continued to move until we push down that final domino just when you resigned from the state department in october, you mentioned that you stayed in a public letter of israel's actions in gaza and unbridled support that it receives from the united states. uh quote, is not in the long term american interest. would you mean by? well, no, that's exactly right. and i think we see that, you know, we've existed in the last 30 years and this moment of american hegemony where we

can do a lot of dumb things around the world and not pay a cost for them at that moment is going if it is not already gone, we are in an error, strategic competition where that is a cost attached to all supports as well. and we'll paying that cost every day in terms of our ability to, for example, rally partners to support ukraine in terms of, you know, all credibility at the united nations. i think that there is a deep concern. what's even more concern is, you know, this country has worked for generations in the post cold war era to build an international system. and that is an the national system that protects us. oh, with its noise, with its nose, we on now the ones tearing it default to protect israel and to allow israel to continue its actions and its violations of that international law that at the end of the day, will come back to bite full of us. just call in order to get thank you so much for sharing your report with us and thank you for talking doesn't upfront thank you. like the college students in the united states are

taking to their campuses. they're protesting, israel's ongoing war and gaza, and they're calling on universities to invest and to several all ties to israel. this wave of protests began after students at columbia university set up a guys assigned with verity and can't middle in april 18 following the university presidents congressional testimony about anti semitism on campus. so one of officials calling the police who arrested more than a 100 pro palestinian protesters. dozens of students were suspended and evicted from the university housing. medi. my one is a student at columbia university and one of the lead organizers with students for justice in house that she joins as now met him. so good to see you. welcome to upfront. good to see you too. thank you for having me. i met him. you're one of over $100.00 student protests there is that were arrested on colombia as campus, and you've also been suspended as a consequence of protesting. can you talk to me about what happened on april 18th? so that whole morning we were anxious awaiting the police because the school have

threatened to call them we just weren't sure when they would come and then um, we also were confused because normally the president supposed to consult with the university senate before calling the police on the campus and we later found out that they did not approve the presence of police on campus. in any case, we received word through allies in the administration that the police were coming in. and so we all got into the middle of our encampment. we locked arms began chanting and singing, and then they came on suddenly all at once and they started picking us off one by one and uh, taking us to the corrections vans and even when you're going to the precinct we were continually chanting as we were going in to take our mug shots, it was this, the protests never ended. so the sense of community made the whole experience. feel a little bit better then, then it could have been. now this experience, is it totally new to you or your part of students, but just as in palestine, you guys were banned from campus last year. and you said before that you faced

consequences were standing up on this issue. ah, how surprised are you or not surprised? are you up by the university's response to your protests, into the demonstrations that are going on? it feels like it's supposed to be an exception to free speech. columbia has continually violated their own policies with regards to a suspension of s g, p, and g d, p. in the fall semester we have a student governing board. we have so many protocols in place for to handle student groups if they violate policies, but colombia did not go through any of this when it suspended us and made a utilized real decision and blast it to the press. and here we are again with the, with the president, unilaterally calling the cops on her own students, taking over a 100 of them out in the zip ties. due to some sort of safety concern when the police chief himself said that there was no safety concern that he could see there was no clear and present danger. and the only danger really is for their investments that they have. they want to keep funding. in addition to the spread of

student activism across the country, following the risk that columbia faculty have spoken out against universities, response even joined in with student protesters. oh, what's it been like to see that level of support from faculty? it's incredible. um, it shows that we're a united front and really we are united front and this because they are also being subject to this. the cost is campaign. that is, you know, can you put them on their academic freedom and trying to get them fired from their jobs just as our school is cracking down on us with disciplinary measures. so it's really important and i means a lot you talked earlier about the police chief saying that there was no unsafe conditions that there were no safety concerns that warranted police intervention. but people are raising concerns about safety. they have the reports of violence at protest. uh, the use of anti semitic rhetoric, harassment, some jewish students have said that they feel unsafe on campus. and they've been targeted by protests to some of the even left campus because they say they feel unsafe. and of course,

university administrators are in this interesting position where they have to tow the line between allowing for free speech, but also addressing student safety concerns. what do you make of all this? as i think that with every social movement, there are detractors. but we stand for human rights and equality for all people. we're in fox, our leadership is multi religious and lead by many jewish people. we. we just recently held the state or celebration and i think that frankly, government officials and the media are, are over over blowing some things and sewing nicest syria in order to manufacture consent to genocide and, and find an excuse to, to stifle our movement. and the knox violence upon us. um, of course there are detractors and the movement that will try to infiltrate. but i think that the majority of the movement is extremely peaceful and that's not what we stand for. and we've taken great, we've gone to great lengths to try to, to establish community guidelines and make sure that everyone adheres to them. there have been outside protests outside of the campus gates and i think that's the

majority of what has been going on. has been out there, but inside you walk around and you see people piece, we chatting and reading on the lawn. and i think the fact that the president made classes online for the rest of the semester only is play into this nice peer and hyper paranoia. a mass graves, more than 300 bodies, was uncovered and also the hospital in southern guys of this week. a similar mass grey was recently reported and as schiffer hospital following, israel's troops departure prompting the un to call for an independent investigation . now the us media has been focusing a lot of attention on the protests and concerns over school policy and concerns about free speech and anti semitism on campus, all of which are important. what do you feel like the media is engaging with the substance of what you're actually protesting for? which is israel's continue to saw on gather as i do, but they are not engaging with what we are trying to bring attention to in the 1st

place. i've that we've had this issue from the beginning of the genocide. every time we talked to the news, they tend to hyper 6 a on our safety or, you know, the campus situation. we, we had, we began to some comment on the day of the congressional hearing, completing some of the isn't with docusign as i'm in an effort to redraw attention to the fact divestment, our demand and situation. because the a now a week later, we've seen that instead of talking about the literal mass graves that are being uncovered as we speak, they are still making it about anti semitism on campus and things like this, which is incredibly frustrating. because the whole reason we are out here in the 1st place, the whole reason we are willing to risk arrest and, and sleeping the cold and sleep in the rain is because we know we can't, we can't stand by any longer as our money is funding this and we want our government and our school to wake up. so it's disheartening to see what outcomes do you expect from this. what do you hope to achieve from these demonstrations and

from this kind of long term resistance on campus. and we hope to achieve our demands 1st and foremost of divestment and amnesty for students. but beyond that, we're creating a sense of community on this, on this campus. we're reclaiming our education. we've been having kitchens. people have been bringing food and meeting each other and mingling on the lawns. it's been really beautiful to see um and, and, and just educating people about the posting and struggle of these are going to be the future leaders in our country. and i think that's also why the establishment of the leads are so scared because they know that if people see posted in the human, now they might, you know, when they pick positions of power, they might be able to make change in that regard. so, um, i think there's a lot going on here and i'm very proud of what we're doing. i met him. thank you so much for joining me on upfront. thank you. lovely to meet you. you too. all right, everybody, that is our show upfront. we'll be back the

the latest news as it breaks, another mazda grey of yours more power, city, and body. love are 3 of the, the identities are large, the last, you know, not a president in war with in depth reports the scale. this was something they've never seen before from the heart of the story, almost 500 medical workers have been killed in spite because trip putting more pressure on the health care system that tens of thousands rely on a g. a serena has spent most of his life on the water. he's a fisherman just like other than his family. but things are different now from when

he was a boy. in 2022 long days mcgarr would declared and endangered species. i'm the one out there that we have going on today. he's taking us to the band. so if the only stop leak in central den bode yeah, he sees that he used to see monkeys in droves, him hunting for crap. i down there the more now. so that's why i don't see the rain molnar, calling me about some of the power while the off some of the i can only logan carnegie. the monkeys are frightened for good reason. traffic is just you and sell them to the highest bidder. to buy medical research, this black market treat not only indeed just wise brian made populations,

but boots public health at risk. because unlike captive bred monkeys, there's no guarantee the animals up that engine free. the all the student protests and sell it down to a palestine split across the us to europe and beyond. does police move to shut down some demonstrations the i'm dire in jordan, this is out a 0 life and the whole set coming. american politician, bernie sanders slams vermont's bi israel's prime minister, according to student protests on to semitic months. it is not anti semitic to point out that your bombing.