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The PM is facing calls to resign over the revelation that Lord Mandelson did not pass security checks.
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Democratic Congressmember Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas resigned Tuesday. Both of them faced potential expulsion votes after they were accused of sexual misconduct involving former staffers.
Swalwell's resignation came just days after CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle reported multiple allegations against him, including twice raping a former staffer. Swalwell denied the allegations. He dropped out of the California gubernatorial race on Sunday. Gonzales had been facing calls to resign since February, when the San Antonio Express-News revealed he had an affair with a staffer who later took her own life, and also sent explicit text messages to another staffer.
"Congress itself shouldn't see these resignations as the end of the story here," says Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women's Law Center. "They actually should see it as the beginning of investigating not only what happened with these two individuals, but they need to understand whether or not they have a problem that is more of a pattern."
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As the United States and Iran prepare to hold talks in Pakistan aimed at ending the war, Israel is continuing to bomb Lebanon, where the death toll from Wednesday's massive wave of attacks has topped 300.
"It was 10 minutes of terror, a day that the Lebanese are calling Black Wednesday," says Lebanese Australian journalist Rania Abouzeid, speaking with Democracy Now! from Beirut. "It was hard to tell what was blowing up where, because those hundred or so attacks were all happening simultaneously."
Israel and the U.S. have claimed the Iran ceasefire deal struck this week does not include Lebanon, contradicting Iran's position. Abouzeid says direct talks between Israel and Lebanon are very "divisive" as many Lebanese fear being left out of a regional settlement, with Israel allowed to continue its attacks, displacement and occupation in the country.
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