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"Cruelty practiced as a matter of social principle or public policy, and presented to the community as a means to a higher goal is the most obscene and decadent phenomenon of any civilization."

-- Vernon Howard

News and Opinion

30 Bound and 'Executed' Palestinians Found at Gaza School After IDF Exit

Palestinian officials on Wednesday demanded an international inquiry after the decomposing remains of dozens of blindfolded and handcuffed bodies were found at a northern Gaza school following the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Gaza officials claim the 30 victims, who were found on the grounds of the Hamad School in Beit Lahia, were civilians who were killed "execution-style" by Israeli troops before they left the area.

Witnesses toldAl Jazeera that the victims were tortured before being murdered and placed in plastic bags. Photos showed the bags were zip-tied with tags containing Hebrew writing.

"As we were cleaning, we came across a pile of rubble inside the schoolyard. We were shocked to find out that the dozens of dead bodies were buried under this pile," one witness said. "The moment we opened the black plastic bags, we found the bodies, already decomposed. They were blindfolded, legs and hands tied."

The dead bodies of 30 Palestinians were discovered in zip-tied body bags at the Khalifa Bin Zayed school in Beit Lahia which at one point sheltered thousands of displaced people pic.twitter.com/egOReADe0T

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 31, 2024

The advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners Club called the grisly discovery "a clear indication that the occupation carried out a field execution."

The discovery prompted the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand an international investigation "to find out the truth and dimensions of the genocide to which our people are exposed."

There have been numerous reports of Israeli troops summarily executing Palestinians, both militants and civilians alike. Last month, witnesses described Israeli soldiers murdering men, women, and children at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School near the Jabalia refugee camp. Later in December came reports from United Nations human rights officials of Israeli troops fatally shooting at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their relatives.

That same week, the international NGO Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said dozens of elderly Palestinian men and women have been executed by Israeli forces during the war. The group subsequently submitted to the International Criminal Court and U.N. special rapporteurs evidence documenting "dozens of cases of field executions carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip."

Reacting to the discovery of the 30 bodies in Beit Lahia, Palestinian Canadian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu told Al Jazeera that the incident illustrates "precisely why Israel was taken to the International Court of Justice with the accusation that it is committing genocide."

The ICJ found near unanimously in a January 26 interim ruling that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and must "take all measures within its power" to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

A U.S. federal judge ruled Wednesday in a separate case seeking to hold the Biden administration accountable for its support of Israel that while "the ongoing military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people" and therefore "may plausibly constitute a genocide," the court lacked jurisdiction in the matter.

On Tuesday, Wafa—the official state news agency of the Palestinian National Authority—reported that the bodies of more than 100 Palestinian civilians stolen by Israeli troops from al-Shifa Hospital and a cemetery outside the facility were buried in a mass grave in Rafah after being returned via the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

According to Wafa, medical sources said some of the bodies were missing organs. Last November, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor expressed "concerns" about the possible theft of Palestinian organs by Israeli forces.

Democrats Are Demented Genocidal War Sluts

President Biden is reportedly preparing to begin a new weeks-long bombing campaign in the middle east in retaliation for a drone attack which killed three US troops this past weekend. These strikes are expected to include Iranian targets, tempting the nightmare scenario of a full-blown war with Iran, despite the public acknowledgement that there’s no evidence Iran was behind the drone strike.

Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp explains:

“US officials told NBC News that the US is planning to launch a weeks-long bombing campaign in the Middle East in retaliation for the drone attack in northeast Jordan that killed three American soldiers.

“The officials said that the targets are expected to include Iranian targets outside of Iran, and the campaign will involve strikes and cyber operations. Other reports have said the US is considering targeting Iranians in Iraq and Syria or the Iranian navy.

“While the potential targets are not inside Iran, direct attacks on the Iranian military could provoke a full-blown war between the US and Iran. The US is considering taking this course of action even though the Pentagon admitted it has no evidence Iran was directly involved in the drone attack in Jordan.”

Iran threatened to “decisively respond” to any US attack, either upon the Islamic Republic itself or upon the nation’s “interests and nationals under any pretexts.”

So this looks to be yet another dramatic escalation in the middle east by the warmongering policies of the sitting US president, who has also been waging a new bombing campaign in Yemen and backing a genocide in Gaza of unbelievable savagery where starving Palestinians are now eating grass and drinking polluted water in a desperate attempt to survive. According to a memo obtained by The Intercept, US troops have been put on standby for possible involvement in Israel’s assault on Gaza as well.

In the midst of all that murderousness the Twitter account from this bloodthirsty ghoul of a president is posting cutesey tweets at Elmo from Sesame Street about the importance of emotional wellbeing, which is about the most dystopian thing you can possibly imagine.

“Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it,” Biden tweeted during an active US-backed genocide.

I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days.

Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it.

Even though it's hard, you're never alone. https://t.co/ffMJekbowo

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 31, 2024

Longtime Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi has been behaving even more freakishly. The former House Speaker said this past Sunday that people advocating a ceasefire in Gaza are promoting “Mr. Putin’s message,” claiming on no basis whatsoever that some pro-Palestine demonstrations are backed by Russia and should be investigated by the FBI.

In a video posted the very next day by antiwar activist group Code Pink, Pelosi is seen admonishing protesters against Biden’s Gaza genocide to “Go back to China where your headquarters is.” Pelosi’s demented accusation is presumably a reference to a New York Times smear piece which used sleazy insinuations to falsely imply a connection between Code Pink and the Chinese government without ever actually showing one to exist, and not even that smear piece ever claimed that Code Pink had a headquarters in China.

The “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party isn’t much better, with political pop stars like Bernie Sanders flailing all over the place to avoid advocating a ceasefire and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying she fully supports Biden despite his actions in Gaza and adamantly refusing to say if the president is backing a genocide.

A Democratic president engaging in genocide during a re-election year is highlighting the depravity of this warmongering capitalist party more starkly than anything else I can remember. Democrats frame themselves as responsible humanitarians who stand in opposition to the reckless murderousness and fascism of the Republican Party’s worst impulses, yet here they are openly falling all over themselves to justify mass atrocities driven by the racist feeding frenzy of a tyrannical far-right regime.

In reality the Democratic Party exists to promote the interests of the murderous US empire just as much as the Republican Party does. They might sometimes promote imperial interests in different ways, in the same way the left jab and the right cross are used differently in boxing. But just as a boxer uses jabs and crosses together to score a knockout blow, the empire uses the Democratic and Republican parties in conjunction to keep the imperial war machine trudging forward over human bodies, year after year and administration after administration.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction. “There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.

“Yet, as the ICJ [the international court of justice] has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide,” the judge in the case, Jeffrey White, said in his ruling, in a case brought by Palestinian human rights groups and individual Palestinians against President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary.

“This court implores defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza,” the ruling said.

The judge explained his decision that the matter lay outside the jurisdiction of his court, because the Palestinian groups were asking it to interfere with US foreign policy. “Because any determination to challenge the decision of the executive branch of government on support of Israel is fraught with serious political questions, the claims presented by plaintiffs here lie outside the court’s limited jurisdiction,” White said.

The Palestinian groups and their lawyers said they might appeal against the dismissal of the case, but welcomed the judge’s judgment on the potential for genocide.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Is Netanyahu a Terrorist?

? You mean they're not already limiting aid? WTF Guardian?

Israeli ministers reportedly considering limiting aid entering Gaza

Ministers in Israel’s war cabinet are reportedly considering limiting the amount of aid reaching Gaza, as rightwing protesters disrupt the entry of trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the besieged Palestinian territory.

Benny Gantz, a retired general who joined the emergency wartime government formed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after 7 October, and Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief of staff and war cabinet observer, suggested temporarily limiting aid to weaken Hamas, Israel’s Channel 12 reported late on Wednesday.

The two centrist National Unity party politicians put the proposal forward in meetings this week, the station said, after receiving a report from Israel’s internal security service which estimated that up to 66% of aid entering Gaza was being hijacked by the Palestinian militant group.

That figure cannot be independently verified, but reports of desperate people or armed men seizing aid deliveries have become common in the strip.

“We can consider reducing the scope of supplies as part of the pressure to build a different mechanism in the Gaza Strip and as part of the efforts to free the hostages,” the politicians reportedly said.

Hundreds of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by deranged, greedy settlers and Biden valiantly sanctions 4 settlers. Oh, yay. That's gonna make a difference.

Joe Biden issues executive order against Israeli settlers in West Bank

Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians, amid fast-growing frustration in Washington at Israel’s trajectory in the midst of its war in Gaza.

The order initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four individuals, and US officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war. According to at least one report before the executive order, options included the potential to sanction officials.

Palestinian authorities say some Palestinians have been killed, and rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing evacuations.

In the order, Biden said that extremist settler violence in the West Bank had “reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region”. He said: “These actions undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom.

“They also undermine the security of Israel and have the potential to lead to broader regional destabilisation across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel and interests.”

Biden OKs 'MULTI-TEIRED' Strikes On Iranian Targets In IRAQ, SYRIA; Houthis Launch MORE Attacks

US orders reprisal strikes against Iranian-backed militia

The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said. Austin said all drones in the region attacking the US were of Iranian origin. The retaliatory strikes are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location.

“We will have a multi-tier response and we have the ability to respond a number of times depending on the situation,” he said at a Pentagon press conference on Thursday. “We look to hold the people responsible for this accountable and we also seek to take away capability as we go forward.”

Austin insisted that a lot of thought in Washington had gone into ensuring that the US response did not trigger a major escalation. “There are ways to manage this so it doesn’t spiral out of control, and that’s been our focus throughout,” the defence secretary said.

Iran has repeatedly warned the US not to launch any strike on Iranian territory, saying if the US escalates in this way its response will be swift and dramatic. Austin stressed the US was not at war with Iran and Washington did not know if Tehran was aware of the specific drone strikes on Sunday mounted by what he described as the axis of resistance.

He said in a sense “it did not matter since we do know that Iran sponsors these groups and funds these groups, and in some cases trains these groups”.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: America the Bully

US Rep. Mast, a Former IDF Soldier, Says Palestinian Babies Killed in Gaza Are Not ‘Innocent Civilians’

Members of the antiwar activist group Code Pink confronted Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces, about the Palestinian babies being killed by Israel in Gaza. Mast told them the babies were not innocent. ...

Another activist asked about the 500,000 Palestinians who are starving in the Gaza Strip. “The half a million people starving to death are people that should go out there and put a government in place that doesn’t go out there and attack Israel on a daily basis,” Mast said.

“They’ve destroyed more infrastructure in Gaza than they did in Dresden,” during World War II, one activist said. Mast replied, “And there’s more infrastructure that needs to be destroyed.”

For Western Media, Only Israeli Lives Matter

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Gaza on Jan. 22. Mainstream media outlets around the world reacted in unison: this was the “deadliest day” for Israel since Oct. 7. This exact phrase was used in headlines on Jan. 23 carried by news agencies such as Reuters and AFP, and major broadcasters including the BBC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC and ITV News.

The exact same phrase was also used by leading news titles including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Jerusalem Post, The Guardian, London’s Evening Standard, Financial Times, The Independent and Yahoo News.

On the same day, Israeli forces killed almost 200 Palestinians in Gaza including at least 65 people in Khan Younis alone.

These deaths received no headlines in the above outlets. Where they were reported, they were listed as part of the regular daily round-up of events in an unfolding genocide that has now seen more than 26,000 people killed in Gaza.

How is it possible that the world’s media could embrace exactly the same phrase in relation to Israeli victims but largely ignore the identities of the much higher number of Palestinians killed?

Why would Jan. 22 be described as “deadly” for one group of people but not for another?

The US Toppling of Imran Khan

A principal instrument of U.S. foreign policy is covert regime change, meaning a secret action by the U.S. government to bring down the government of another country. There are strong reasons to believe that U.S. actions led to the removal from power of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in April 2022, followed by his arrest on trumped-up charges of corruption and espionage, and sentencing this week to 10 years imprisonment on the espionage charge. The political objective is to block Pakistan’s most popular politician from returning to power in the elections on February 8.

The key to covert operations of course is that they are secret and hence deniable by the U.S. government. Even when the evidence comes to light through whistleblowers or leaks, as it very often does, the U.S. government rejects the authenticity of the evidence and the mainstream media generally ignore the story because it contradicts the official narrative. Because editors at these mainstream outlets don’t want to peddle in “conspiracy theories,” or are simply happy to be the mouthpieces for officialdom, they give the U.S. government a very wide berth for actual regime-change conspiracies.

Covert regime change by the U.S. is shockingly routine. One authoritative study by Boston University professor Lindsay O’Rourke counts 64 covert regime change operations by the U.S. during the Cold War (1947 and 1989), and in fact the number was far larger because she chose to count repeated attempts within one country as a single extended episode. Since then, U.S. regime change operations have remained frequent, such as when President Barrack Obama tasked the CIA (Operation Timber Sycamore) with overthrowing Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. That covert operation remained secret until several years after the operation, and even then, was hardly covered by the mainstream media.

All of this brings us to Pakistan, another case where evidence points strongly to U.S.-led regime change. In this case, the U.S. desired to bring down the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the charismatic, talented, and hugely popular leader in Pakistan, renowned both for his world-leading cricket mastery and for his common touch with the people. His popularity, independence, and enormous talents make him a prime target of the U.S., which frets about popular leaders who don’t fall into line with U.S. policy.

Imran Khan’s “sin” was to be too cooperative with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, while also seeking normal relations with the United States. The great mantra of U.S. foreign policy, and the activating principle of the CIA, is that a foreign leader is “either with us or against us.” Leaders who try to be neutral amongst the great powers are at dire risk of losing their positions, or even their lives, at U.S. instigation, since the U.S. does not accept neutrality. Leaders seeking neutrality dating back to Patrice Lumumba (Zaire), Norodom Sihanouk (Cambodia), Viktor Yanukovych (Ukraine), and many others, have been toppled with the not-so-hidden-hand of the U.S. government.

Like many leaders in the developing world, Khan does not want to break relations with either the U.S. or Russia over the Ukraine War. By sheer coincidence of prior scheduling, Khan happened to be in Moscow to meet Putin on the day that Russia launched the special military operation (February 24, 2022). From the start, Khan advocated that the conflict in Ukraine should be settled at the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield. The U.S. and E.U. arm-twisted foreign leaders including Khan to fall into line against Putin and to support Western sanctions against Russia, yet Khan resisted.

Khan probably sealed his fate on March 6 when he held a large rally in northern Pakistan. At the rally, he berated the West, and especially 22 EU ambassadors, for pressuring him to condemn Russia at a vote in the United Nations. He also excoriated NATO’s war against terror in next-door Afghanistan as having been utterly devastating to Pakistan, with no acknowledgment, respect, or appreciation for Pakistan’s suffering.

Khan told the cheering crowds, “EU ambassadors wrote a letter to us asking us to condemn and vote against Russia… What do you think of us? Are we your slaves ... that whatever you say, we will do?" He added, “We are friends with Russia, and we are also friends with America; we are friends with China and with Europe; we are not in any camp. Pakistan would remain neutral and work with those trying to end the war in Ukraine.”

From the U.S. perspective, “neutral” is a fighting word. The grim follow-up for Khan was revealed in August 2023 by investigative reporters at The Intercept. Just one day after Khan’s rally, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu met in Washington with Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., Asad Majeed Khan. Following the meeting, Ambassador Khan sent a secret cable (a “cypher”) back to Islamabad, which was then leaked to The Intercept by a Pakistani military official.

The cable recounts how Assistant Secretary Lu berated Prime Minister Khan for his neutral stance. The cable quotes Lu as saying that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.”

Lu then conveyed the bottom line to Ambassador Khan. “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister. Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead.”

Five weeks later on April 10, with the U.S. blunt threat hanging over the powerful Pakistani military, and with the military’s hold over the Pakistani parliament, the Parliament ousted Khan in a no-confidence vote. Within weeks, the new government followed with brazenly manufactured charges of corruption against Khan, to put him under arrest and prevent his return to power. In utterly Orwellian turn, when Khan made known the existence of the diplomatic cable that revealed America’s role in his ouster, the new government charged Khan with espionage. He has now been convicted on these charges to an unconscionable 10 years, with the U.S. government remaining silent on this outrage.

When asked about Khan’s conviction, the State Department had the following to say: "It’s a matter for the Pakistani courts." Such an answer is a vivid example of how U.S.-led regime change works. The State Department supports Khan’s imprisonment over Khan’s public revelation of U.S. actions.

Pakistan will therefore hold elections on February 8 with its most popular democratic leader in prison and with Khan’s party the subject of relentless attacks, political murders, media blackouts, and other heavy-handed repression. In all of this, the U.S. government is utterly complicit. So much for America’s “democratic” values. The U.S. government has gotten its way for now—and has deeply destabilized a nuclear-armed nation of 240 million people. Only Khan’s release from prison and his participation in the upcoming election could restore stability.

Political crisis in Kiev

EU agrees €50bn package for Ukraine as Viktor Orbán bows to pressure

A robust and united position among EU member states convinced Viktor Orbán to end his “blackmail” and support a €50bn (£43bn) funding package for Ukraine, European prime ministers have said.

The Hungarian prime minister, who had been vowing to block the funds since December, performed one of the fastest U-turns seen at a leaders’ summit after six weeks of brinkmanship.

There was relief that the deal was finally done but also a sense of fury among leaders who had been dragged to Brussels for the second time in as many months to try to get the package over the line after Orbán blocked the aid in December.

The Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said: “Nobody can blackmail 26 countries of the EU. Our values were not for sale.”

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, who said he had “nothing nice” to say to the Hungarian prime minister, warned there would be no reward for Orbán or anyone who had tried to solicit “rotten compromises”.

Max Blumenthal: Biden’s Ukraine Blunders

House Dems Urge Biden to 'Swiftly' Appoint Postal Board Governors

Scores of U.S. House Democrats on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to "swiftly" nominate two members to the Postal Service Board of Governors to fill empty seats amid delayed deliveries and higher customer prices.

"Given the fundamental role that the Postal Service plays in the lives of countless Americans, there must be great care taken to choose those who influence its direction," Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said in a letter to Biden signed by 80 other Democratic lawmakers.

"Unfortunately, the Postal Service currently suffers from slow rates of delivery service and increased costs," the lawmakers asserted. "Despite the passage of the Postal Service Reform Act, the Postal Service still faces a litany of challenges. Five price hikes since 2020, continual service delivery problems, and constant declines in mail volume are all indicators that the business model of the Postal Service needs careful attention."

Georgia senate passes bill curtailing charitable bail funds for protest groups

The Georgia state senate passed legislation Thursday mostly outlawing bail funds for protest groups, and added dozens of offenses to the list of charges requiring cash bail to secure release.

The passage of SB63 by a 30-17 vote in the Republican-dominated state senate arrives as three activists operating the Atlanta Solidarity Fund face state-level racketeering and charity fraud charges in connection with the prosecution of dozens of protesters against “Cop City”, an Atlanta project to build a police-training facility.

The bill would require any individual or group raising money as a charitable bail fund and soliciting donations for the release of accused persons to register and meet the requirements of a bail bond company. Under Georgia law, a county sheriff has absolute discretion over who can register as a bondsman, giving local law enforcement an effective veto over the bail component of political protests, said state senator Josh McLaurin, an Atlanta-area Democrat.

“The program that [US senator Raphael] Warnock’s church runs, a Mother’s Day bailout they do every year, will now be illegal under this bill, because charitable organizations will no longer be allowed to bail out more than three people a year,” McLaurin said. ...

“This bill basically says that if you are arrested and you’re poor, you’re going stay in jail,” McLaurin said.

Verdict in Trump’s New York fraud trial delayed until early to mid-February

The verdict in Donald Trump’s $370m fraud trial will be coming later than expected, with a decision expected in early to mid-February, a New York court spokesperson said on Thursday.

The New York judge Arthur Engoron had initially said he would aim to deliver a verdict on the potential $370m fine by 31 January. “I will do my best” to meet the deadline, he said on 11 January after the trial’s closing arguments.

Engoron had found Trump guilty of fraud – inflating the value of his assets on financial documents – in a pre-trial ruling in late September. The trial was over whether Trump and his company had committed fraud with intent, which is punishable with a hefty fine. The New York attorney general’s office, which brought the suit against Trump, is asking for $370m in disgorgement and to ban Trump from doing business in New York.

The court spokesperson said the new timeline was a “rough estimate” and the decision will be a written filing.

Dearborn Mayor to Biden: “Lives of Palestinians Should Not Be Measured Simply in Poll Numbers”

Palestinian American Leaders Decline Invite From Secretary Of State

Several members of the Palestinian-American community refused to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, D.C. Thursday to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“After nearly four unbearable months of constant US-enabled Israeli violence against our families, friends and other innocent civilians in Gaza, and throughout Palestine, we cannot imagine what Secretary Blinken could have to say or discuss with us,” read a published statement by a group of Palestinian leaders who were invited to the meeting.

The rejection comes one week after Arab and Muslim community leaders declined to participate in a listening session with President Joe Biden’s campaign in the metro Detroit area last week.

Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities across the country have been turning their backs to the Biden administration, citing frustrations with the U.S. strategy in Gaza. The White House has faced staunch criticism for its continued support of Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed over 26,000 Palestinians.

Angry voters have taken to social media, signed petitions and even launched an #AbandonBiden campaign in battleground states. When asked about the rising number of Arab Americans who pledged to not vote for Biden’s re-election, the president dismissed those reports.

Haley & Trump BEAT Biden in STUNNING New Poll, RFK Jr SLAMS Joe's Record With Black America

Catalonia declares drought emergency, extending restrictions to Barcelona

After more than 1,000 days of drought, the Catalan government has formally announced a state of emergency, extending water restrictions to Barcelona and the surrounding region. Announcing the measures on Thursday, Pere Aragonès, the Catalan president, said that in some areas it had not rained at all for three years, describing the situation as the worst drought in modern history.

It is estimated that 500mm of rain needs to fall in Catalonia to make up the deficit. Water reserves have fallen below 16%, a level low enough to trigger the emergency declaration.

Measures already in place in the north of the region, including a 20% reduction in agricultural irrigation and a ban on watering public parks, will be extended to Barcelona. Public and private swimming pools will close, with exemptions for those in sports centres, although some pools are adapting to use sea water. Parks will no longer be watered but groundwater will be used to save the city’s 35,000 trees from dying.

There will be no showers on the beach nor ornamental fountains. Water parks and ice rinks will close and car washing is to be limited to commercial use. The restrictions will remain in force for at least the next 15 months. ...

The situation in Barcelona would be far worse were it not home to Europe’s largest desalination plant, built after the last serious drought in 2008, which supplies the city with 33% of its drinking water. A further 25% comes from recycled wastewater.

California drenched as atmospheric river tears across the state

The first of two severe storms drenched California on Thursday, bringing intense downpours that flooded roads and toppled trees. But the worst is far from over – officials warned residents to prepare for a “significant threat” as larger storm is expected to douse the state over the weekend.

“Confidence is increasing for another impactful storm system to move through Sunday into Monday,” the National Weather Service’s Bay Area division wrote on Twitter/X Thursday afternoon.

The back-to-back storms, caused by strong atmospheric river systems, will pack more of a punch because of their close timing. Areas across the state were soaked by Thursday morning, adding to the potential dangers posed by the incoming storm.

The first fast-moving storm kicked off with heavy rain and gusty winds that hit the San Francisco Bay Area and then moved south, arriving in Los Angeles in time to snarl the Thursday morning commute and cause flooding.

The Marin Headlands and coastal mounts north of the Bay Area were hit the hardest, with many areas getting more than 4in of rain. The 2.35in of rain that fell in San Francisco was enough to push the city’s seasonal totals past the average even after a somewhat slow start.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

ICJ Rules Against Ukraine on Terrorism, MH17

US Attacks on the ICJ Are a Declaration of Empire

Five Things Liberals Say To Avoid Taking A Real Position On Gaza

Death and Donations: Did the Israeli Volunteer Group Handling the Dead of October 7 Exploit Its Role?

Freedom of Navigation: Houthi Attacks Only Part of How a Historical Anomaly Is Unwinding

Ukraine - The Power Scuffle Continues

The Simplest Rule of System Stability & How Breaking It Destroyed Post-War Liberalism

California announces initial set of first-in-the-nation reparation bills

Trump Prosecutor Fani Willis Is In Deep Sh*t!

A Little Night Music

Maceo Parker - Chicken

Maceo Parker - Pass The Peas (Live)

Maceo and the Macks - Soul Power '74

Maceo Parker - Children's World

Maceo Parker - Basic Funk 101

Maceo Parker - Cold Sweat / Ride the Pony

Maceo Parker - Elephant's Foot

Maceo Parker-Fred Wesley-Bootsy Collins-The JB'S - Let Him Out

Maceo Parker - I Got You (I Feel Good)

Soulive with Maceo Parker 4/27/16 New Orleans, LA @ Fiya Fest