
Who is conservative influencer Emily Austin? The sports journalist just met Trump at the Capitol – she's also interviewed Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul and collaborated with MTV
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson recently opened the doors of the Capitol to a host of primarily conservative influencers before President
Donald Trump 's Congress speech.
Around the same time, Democrats welcomed online creators to make promotional content. However, the move backfired when a TikTok video captioned 'choose your fighter', posted by Sulhee Jessica Woo, went viral for the wrong reasons.
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The clip, which featured several Congresswomen, including
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , posing like video game characters while their accomplishments were listed on-screen, was dubbed 'cringey' by netizens. Johnson added, 'This next generation is so thirsty for authenticity, they just see all this performance stuff and it's detestable to them and they want something that's real,' per the Daily Mail.
One of the invited influencers who had the chance to interact with the Speaker after Trump's address was 23-year-old Emily Austin. Describing the experience as 'great', Austin told the Daily Mail, 'It's been clear that this new administration is really keen on empowering independent journalists.'
So who is Emily Austin, who was once a media consultant for the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations? She is strongly supportive of Israel and in 2023 was deemed crucial to curbing antisemitism by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post and by the philanthropic Ruderman Family Foundation. What else do we know about her?
What is Emily Austin's background?
Emily Austin (second from left) was one of many conservative influencers invited to Washington recently. Photo: @emily.austin/Instagram
Austin hails from Brooklyn, New York, where she was born to Israeli parents, per The Sun. She was raised on Long Island and graduated from North Shore Hebrew Academy before studying journalism at Hofstra University, both nearby. Austin also attended Touro University, per her LinkedIn page, though it is unclear when. Her parents are secular Jews but she follows Jewish traditions, according to The Sun.
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Asia Times
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Can Israel still claim self-defense to justify its Gaza war?
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The modern principles of self-defense were outlined in diplomatic exchanges over an 1837 incident involving an American ship, The Caroline, after it was destroyed by British forces in Canada. Both sides agreed that an exercise of self-defense would have required the British to demonstrate their conduct was not 'unreasonable or excessive.' The concept of self-defense was also extensively relied on by the Allies in the Second World War in response to German and Japanese aggression. Self-defense was originally framed in the law as a right to respond to a state-based attack. However, this scope has broadened in recent decades to encompass attacks from non-state actors, such as al-Qaeda following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Israel is a legitimate, recognized state in the global community and a member of the United Nations. 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If Israel can no longer rely on self-defense to justify its Gaza military campaign, how would its actions be characterized under international law? Israel could claim it is undertaking a security operation as an occupying power. While the International Court of Justice said in an advisory opinion last year that Israel was engaged in an illegal occupation of Gaza, the court expressly made clear it was not addressing the circumstances that had evolved since October 7. Israel is indeed continuing to act as an occupying power, even though it has not physically reoccupied all of Gaza. This is irrelevant given the effective control it exercises over the territory. However, the scale of the IDF's operations constitutes an armed conflict and well exceeds the limited military operations to restore security as an occupying power. Absent any other legitimate basis for Israel's current conduct in Gaza, there is a strong argument that what is occurring is an act of aggression. The UN Charter and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibit acts of aggression not otherwise justified under international law. These include invasions or attacks by the armed forces of a state, military occupations, bombardments and blockades. All of this has occurred – and continues to occur – in Gaza. The international community has rightly condemned Russia's invasion as an act of aggression in Ukraine. Will it now do the same with Israel's conduct in Gaza? Donald Rothwell is professor of international law, Australian National University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


RTHK
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