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Las Vegas Festival Drops Macklemore, Seattle Sports Teams Evaluate Ties to Rapper After He Says ‘F–k America’

Macklemore performs at Alcatraz Milan on May 3, 2023 in Milan, Italy. Photo: Roberto Finizio via Reuters Connect

Organizers of an inaugural music, art, and culinary festival that will take place in downtown Las Vegas in November said on Tuesday that Grammy-winning rapper Macklemore will no longer be one of the event’s headliners “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

Organizers of the Neon City Festival made the announcement in an Instagram post after Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, shouted “F—k America!” during his performance at the Palestine Will Love Forever Festival in Seattle on Sunday. His comment garnered massive applause from the audience, and the Seattle-based rapper also told the crowd gathered in Seward Park Amphitheater that Israel has been committing “a genocide since 1948,” a reference to the year the state of Israel was established.

All proceeds from the pro-Palestinian event will be given to various groups, including the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which faced allegations that several of its employees participated in the Oct. 7 deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.

The Neon City Festival will run free for all ages from Nov. 22-24. Macklemore was one of the festival’s headlining acts when they were first announced by organizers on Friday. They include the rock band Neon Trees, Australian DJ Alison Wonderland, DJ Seven Lions, and country artist Russell Dickerson. The festival’s full lineup will be announced this week.

Organizers of the festival made the announcement about the cancellation of Macklemore’s performance a day after two Seattle-based sports teams issued a joint statement distancing themselves from the rapper. Macklemore is a part owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and MLS’s Seattle Sounders FC. Both teams released a joint statement on Monday about Macklemore’s comments over the weekend.

“We believe that sports bring people together and unite us. We are aware of Macklemore’s increasingly divisive comments, and they do not reflect the values of our respective ownership groups, leagues, or organizations. We are currently evaluating our collective options on this matter,” the teams said.

In May, Macklemore released a song called “Hind’s Hall,” which praises college students in the US for participating in anti-Israel protests on university campuses amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In the song he also accuses Israel of genocide and occupation, and implies that the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks were an act of “resistance.” The track’s title is a reference to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, the building that anti-Israel student protesters broke into and occupied in April and renamed “Hind’s Hall” in honor of Hind Rajab — a child killed in Gaza during the ongoing war. All proceeds from the song went to UNRWA.

Macklemore released on Friday “Hind’s Hall 2” and the track features Palestinian-American artists Anees and Amer Zahr, Gaza-born rapper MC Abdul, and the Los Angeles Palestinian Kids Choir. The featured performers sing on the track “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a slogan that is widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and for it to replaced with “Palestine.”

In “Hind’s Hall 2,” Macklemore raps: “Long live the resistance if there’s something to resist/Had enough of you motherf—ers murdering little kids/PC for a minute I was trying to be a bridge/But there’ll never be freedom by pleading with Zionists/World screaming, ‘Free Palestine’/We seen the manual we know how you colonized.”

Macklemore also criticizes US support for Israel in the track. At one point he directs attention to US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and raps: “Hey Kamala, I don’t know if you’re listening/But stop sending money and weapons or you ain’t winning … When will Congress decide a Palestinian’s life/Is just as precious as an Israeli’s.”

The post Las Vegas Festival Drops Macklemore, Seattle Sports Teams Evaluate Ties to Rapper After He Says ‘F–k America’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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IDF Denies Troops Fired on Civilians After Incidents of Settler Violence

Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.

i24 NewsThe IDF released a statement after an incident during which Israeli soldiers opened fire on Israeli civilians in the West Bank on Saturday night, denying that the trooped fired live ammunition.

This comes at the heels of arson incidents by settlers against Palestinian villages, with clashes breaking out. The IDF said that its soldiers had come under attack on Friday as they entered the area of Kafr Malik, the site of the disturbances, by Israeli civilians. “The undermining of the rule of law and the use of violence by a radical minority harm security and stability in the area.”

The IDF later said that “an initial investigation indicates that IDF forces did not fire live ammunition at Israeli civilians in the area. It should be clarified that the battalion commander’s force operating in the Baal Hatzor area of the Binyamin brigade did not fire live ammunition at all.” On the other hand, the civilians claimed this was false, posting a video that showed shell casings on the ground right next to where the troops were deployed.

Meanwhile, the police requested the remand of six individuals, two of whom are minors, to be extended in connection with the incident.

The IDF later said that, “in another area within the sector, stones were thrown at a military vehicle near the site of the clash by masked individuals from an ambush. The force responded with a warning shot of three bullets.” A possible connection “between this incident and the claim that an Israeli civilian was injured by live fire” is being investigated.

After the incidents late last week, the IDF issued an unusual directive for soldiers to exercise special vigilance and also prepare for scenarios involving nationalist incidents perpetrated by Israeli citizens. The directive was issued after a military vehicle was set on fire inside a Jewish settlement, the tires of an armored David vehicle were punctured, and a community policing caravan near the community of Beit El was also set on fire.

“The security establishment system is highly alert,” a security official told i24NEWS. “We are seeing an escalation on the ground – and if you cannot leave a military vehicle in a Jewish community without it being burned in the sector, it is a sign that the situation is dangerous.”

The post IDF Denies Troops Fired on Civilians After Incidents of Settler Violence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Orders Evacuations in Northern Gaza as Trump Calls for War to End

US President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kent Nishimura

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.

“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.

But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.

“The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said.

The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they are buried.

“A month ago, they (Israel) told us to go to Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis) and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” said Zeyad Abu Marouf. He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli airstrike.

“We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,” Abu Marouf told Reuters.

NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH

The military escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.

Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened following US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

There has also been rising concern over how aid is being distributed to Gazans in the ruined enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

The post Israel Orders Evacuations in Northern Gaza as Trump Calls for War to End first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack Yet Against Ukraine, Kills F-16 Pilot

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

i24 NewsUkraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 537 drones and missiles against targets throughout Ukraine overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in what what described as the largest attack of the war.

Poland activated aerial defenses and scrambled jets as the six-hour onslaught continued. One Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed as Kyiv attempted to intercept the missiles and drones, with 475 shot down.

“Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude,” the air force said, as quoted in Politico. “He died like a hero!”

The cities of Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv were targeted.

The Russia attack came after Ukraine attacked the Kirovske airfield in the Crimean Peninsula, targeting air defenses, drones, and even destroying several helicopters and an air defense system.

The post Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack Yet Against Ukraine, Kills F-16 Pilot first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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