内容摘要：The smugglers include millionaires, one of whom was accused of almost bankrupting Kenya through a similar, corrupt scheme also involving gold.

The smugglers include millionaires, one of whom was accused of almost bankrupting Kenya through a similar, corrupt scheme also involving gold.

had been picked up for distribution.“I have no flour, no oil, no sugar, no food. I collect mouldy bread and feed it to my children. I want to get a bag of flour for my children. I want to eat. I’m hungry,” a Palestinian told Al Jazeera.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the northern part of the Strip, which includes Gaza City, “has not seen a drop of aid coming in that has been allowed in the past few days”.“People in the central area, in the [southern] city of Khan Younis and Rafah are also struggling on a daily basis to find food supplies, particularly when it comes to flour and other basic necessities to help them survive these difficult conditions,” he added.Palestinians leaving aid points empty-handed

After a nearly three-month blockade, Israel, under pressure from Western governments and international humanitarian organisations, allowed limited aid to enter the enclave and the resumption of limited UN operations.However, Israel also pushed for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a shadowy United States-backed private aid distributor, to provide essential food aid to starving Palestinians.

The UN and other aid groups have refused to work with GHF, saying it

and its distribution model forces the displacement of Palestinians.Which brings us to the latest case, that of Larry Hoover, the notorious founder of the Chicago Gangster Disciples, convicted of ordering the murder of a rival, along with a laundry list of other offences. Prosecutors did not even bother to bring many cases to trial. Indeed, at a hearing last year, a judge asked one of Hoover’s lawyers: “How many other murders is he responsible for?”

Trump commuted his federal sentence, which is unlikely to achieve much more than to transfer him to the less pleasant Illinois prison, where he must serve 200 years on a state murder conviction. What does this achieve, and what was the president’s motive for doing it?One particularly odd element of these pardons is that CBS News reports that many of the beneficiaries had not even made a formal application. Trump just reached out and acted on his own. In some instances, he seems to have been relying on what he saw on television. He has said he is considering clemency for those convicted in the 2020 conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow the state government. “I did watch the trial,” he said. “It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job…”

Even if it is currently sometimes corrupt, or simply arbitrary, I would not abolish the president’s prerogative of mercy. I am in favour of considering second chances in all cases, for as a society we are much too punitive. But if citizens are to maintain any sense of respect for the judicial system, there should be a degree of consistency.Indeed, due process means that there is a process, and it should be followed. I filed a compelling 76,000 word clemency petition in the case of