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This evening's music features soul singer Wilson Pickett. Enjoy!

"As long as war is looked upon as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."

-- Oscar Wilde

News and Opinion

The ‘Human Shields’ Lie Has Been Conclusively, Irrefutably Debunked

One aspect of the recent revelations about the IDF’s Lavender AI system that’s not getting enough consideration is the fact that it is completely devastating to the narrative that Israel has been killing so many civilians in Gaza because Hamas uses “human shields”.

If you missed this story, a major report from +972 revealed that Israel has been using an AI system called Lavender to compile kill lists of suspected members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad which have been carried out with hardly any human verification. One automated system, psychopathically named “Where’s Daddy?”, tracks suspects to their homes so that they can be killed along with their entire families. The IDF has been knowingly killing 15 to 20 civilians at a time to kill one junior Hamas operative, and up to 100 civilians at a time to take out a senior official. 

+972’s Yuval Abraham writes the following:

“Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called ‘Where’s Daddy?’ also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.”

(Another +972 report by Abraham back in November revealed that IDF AI systems ensure that the Israeli military is fully aware of every child it’s going to be killing in each airstrike, and that it deliberately targets civilian infrastructure as a matter of policy.)

When questioned about these systems by +972, the IDF Spokesperson responded that “Hamas places its operatives and military assets in the heart of the civilian population, systematically uses the civilian population as human shields, and conducts fighting from within civilian structures, including sensitive sites such as hospitals, mosques, schools and UN facilities. The IDF is bound by and acts according to international law, directing its attacks only at military targets and military operatives.”

The “human shields” narrative that’s become so popular in Israel apologia insists that the reason the IDF kills so many civilians in its attacks on Gaza is because Hamas intentionally surrounds itself with noncombatants as a strategy to make the innocent Israelis reluctant to drop bombs on them. But as The Intercept’s Ryan Grim recently observed on Twitter, this is soundly refuted by the revelation that Israel has been intentionally waiting to target suspected Hamas members when it knows they’ll be surrounded by civilians.

“Israel’s argument that they kill so many civilians because Hamas uses ‘human shields’ is torn apart by the revelation that the IDF prefers to attack its ‘targets’ when they are at home with their families,” tweeted Grim. “It is not Hamas using human shields, it is Israel deliberately hunting families.”

“A human shield is only a shield if your enemy values human life and seeks to minimize civilian deaths,” Grim adds. “Israel deliberately maximizes the number of civilians it can kill by waiting until a target is with his entire family. Palestinians are not shields to Israel, they are all targets.”

This is such an important point. Advocates for Palestine like Abby Martin have for years been presenting compelling arguments against Israel’s “human shields” claims, and common sense shows that the presence of civilians is clearly not a deterrent to Israeli airstrikes, but because of these +972 revelations the lie has now been thoroughly, irrefutably debunked. Civilians aren’t getting killed because Hamas hides behind them, civilians are getting killed because the IDF waits until suspected Hamas members are around civilians to target them with high-powered military explosives.

A popular quote attributed to former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir says “Someday we may be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for making us kill their children.” You see this quote pop up all the time in varying iterations, shared approvingly by Israel apologists around the world as though it’s something wise and brilliant instead of a horrific defense of murdering children. But it turns out this morally depraved quote isn’t even true by the most generous of interpretations: Israel isn’t being “forced” to kill Palestinian children, it is knowingly choosing to.

The “human shields” narrative is just one more instance in which Israel pretends to be the victim while actually being the victimizer. They lied about beheaded babies so that they could get away with murdering babies. They lied about mass rapes so that they could get away with committing rape. They lied about Hamas using civilians as human shields so that they could kill civilians. They lie about being victims so that they can victimize.

Lavender & Where's Daddy: How Israel Used AI to Form Kill Lists & Bomb Palestinians in Their Homes

Joe Biden calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza and says Israel must protect civilians to keep US support

Joe Biden has called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, telling Benjamin Netanyahu that future US support for Israel will depend on it taking concrete action to protect civilians and aid workers. As the two leaders held their first phone call since Israeli airstrikes killed seven employees of the international food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), Biden issued the strongest US rebuke toward Israel since the start of the conflict.

In Thursday’s call, which lasted less than 30 minutes, the US president “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers”, the White House said in a statement.

“He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.” Biden said that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” and urged Israel to reach a deal with Hamas “without delay”, the White House said.

The statement marked a sharp change in Biden’s rhetoric and suggested, for what appears to be the first time, that strings could be attached to continued US support. ... Biden’s comments were echoed by his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who said US support would be curtailed if Israel failed to adjust its conduct. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he told reporters in Brussels.

MSNBC Panel TURNS On Israel, TRASHES Biden For His INACTION

Biden DEMANDS Cease-fire In Call With Netanyahu: Bibi Can't Hide Behind Hostages Anymore

Biden, Netanyahu Discuss Israeli Killing of Foreign Aid Workers

President Biden on Thursday spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the targeted Israeli killing of seven workers for the World Central Kitchen. According to the White House readout of the call, Biden took a harsher tone with Netanyahu than before, but it’s unclear if the rhetoric will amount to a change of the policy of unconditional military support for the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. ...

After the call, the Israeli cabinet approved steps to allow more aid into Gaza, including the opening of another border crossing and using Israel’s Port of Ashdod as a hub for humanitarian supplies. The White House said it welcomed the steps and that they should be implemented “immediately.”

It’s unclear at this point if the steps will bring much relief to the Palestinians in Gaza since many aid groups suspended operations after the killing of the World Central Kitchen workers. US officials also didn’t spell out what other steps they wanted Israel to take and didn’t say what the consequences would be if Israel didn’t do enough. ...

The White House readout of the Biden-Netanyahu call also said Biden “underscored” the need for an “immediate ceasefire.” But the readout suggested the type of ceasefire he was talking about would be linked to a hostage deal. ...

Biden also expressed US support for Israel as it is preparing for potential Iranian retaliation over the Israeli bombing of Iran’s consulate in Syria. “The two leaders also discussed public Iranian threats against Israel and the Israeli people. President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those threats,” the readout said.

No more Mr Nice Guy

Israel to reopen Erez crossing into Gaza after Biden sounds warning over protecting civilians

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said his security cabinet has approved a series of steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the temporary reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the 7 October Hamas attack.

The office of the Israeli prime minister said early on Friday that the Erez crossing, which lies in northern Gaza and for years served as the only passenger terminal for people to move in and out of the territory, would be temporarily reopened.

According to the statement, more aid would be allowed through the port of Ashdod, which lies about 40km (25 miles) north of Gaza, and authorities would also allow “increased Jordanian aid through Kerem Shalom”, a border crossing in southern Israel.

The statement was released hours after a warning from US president Joe Biden that future US support for Israel would depend on it taking concrete action to protect civilians and aid workers.

“Israel will allow the temporary delivery of humanitarian aid through Ashdod and the Erez checkpoint,” said the Israeli statement. “This increased aid will prevent a humanitarian crisis and is necessary to ensure the continuation of the fighting and to achieve the goals of the war,” the statement added. White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson welcomed the moves by Netanyahu, adding that the plan “must now be fully and rapidly implemented”.

American opinion turns against Israel

Food charity demands independent inquiry into Israeli killing of aid staff

The international food charity World Central Kitchen has called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed seven of its aid workers in Gaza on Monday, as Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu held their first phone call since the attack.

WCK asked Australia, Canada, Poland, the US and the UK, whose citizens were killed, to join it in demanding “an independent, third-party’’ inquiry into the strikes. “This was a military attack that involved multiple strikes and targeted three WCK vehicles,” the charity said in a statement. “All three vehicles were carrying civilians; they were marked as WCK vehicles; and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities, who were aware of their itinerary, route and humanitarian mission.

“An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers.”

WCK asked the Israeli government to retain all the necessary evidence, including communications, video and audio recordings of the fatal strikes on their convoy. The bodies of six foreign staff of WCK were repatriated from Gaza via Egypt on Wednesday, while the Palestinian employee was buried in Gaza.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday that Israel’s explanation for the deaths was “not good enough”, while a diplomatic crisis between Poland and Israel has erupted after Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, pushed back at what he said were attempts by the “extreme right and left in Poland” to accuse Israel of “intentional murder”.

INTERVIEW: ‘Genocidal, brutal and illegitimate’

Israel on high alert after Iran’s missile retaliation threat

Israel has suspended leave for combat units and heightened its air defence command to deal with possible missile or drone attack from Iran following the killing this week in an airstrike of senior Revolutionary Guard commanders in Syria.

The Israeli military is also considering reopening shelters in Tel Aviv as a precaution against a possible attack, according to Mehr News Agency.

“In accordance with the situational assessment, it has been decided that leave will be temporarily paused for all IDF (Israel Defense Forces) combat units. The IDF is at war and the deployment of forces is under continuous assessment according to requirements,” the military said in a statement.

Iran has vowed revenge after an airstrike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said: “We consider this aggression to have violated all diplomatic norms and international treaties. Benjamin Netanyahu has completely lost his mental balance due to the successive failures in Gaza and his failure to achieve his Zionist goals.”

Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes

A doctor at an Israeli field hospital inside a notorious detention center where hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are temporarily held is sounding the alarm about torture and horrific conditions at what some human rights defenders—including Israelis—are calling "Israel's Guantánamo Bay" and even a "concentration camp."

In a letter to Israel's attorney general and defense and health ministers viewed byHaaretz—which reported the story Thursday—the anonymous physician describes likely war crimes being committed at the Israel Defense Forces' Sde Teiman base near Beersheva. Palestinian militants captured by IDF troops, as well as many civilian hostages ranging in age from teenagers to septuagenarians, are held there in cages, 70-100 per cage, until they are transferred to regular Israeli prisons or released.

"From the first days of the medical facility's operation until today, I have faced serious ethical dilemmas," the doctor wrote. "More than that, I am writing to warn you that the facility's operations do not comply with a single section among those dealing with health in the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law."

Hostages are having their legs amputated from being zip-tied by all 4 limbs for months; they're being forced to defecate in diapers & fed through straws.

Those are Gazan hostages at Israel's Sde Teiman "concentration camp", so you won't see one word about it in Western media pic.twitter.com/jY5z5b12lQ

— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) April 4, 2024

Gazans arrested and detained by Israeli forces are not legally considered prisoners of war by Israel because it does not recognize Gaza as a state. These detainees are mostly held under the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows the imprisonment of anyone suspected of taking part in hostilities against Israel for up to 75 days without seeing a judge.

Human Rights Watch has warned that the law "strips away meaningful judicial review and due process rights."

Sde Teiman detainees are fed through straws and forced to defecate in diapers. They're also forced to sleep with the lights on and have allegedly been subjected to beatings and torture. Other Palestinians taken by Israeli forces have described being electrocuted, mauled by dogs, soaked with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and blasted with loud music at temporary detention sites.

The whistleblowing Sde Teiman physician said that all patients at the camp's field hospital are handcuffed by all four limbs, regardless of how dangerous they are deemed. In December, Israeli Health Ministry officials ordered such treatment after a medical worker at the facility was attacked. Now the camp's estimated 600-800 prisoners are shackled 24 hours a day.

At first, the cuffs were plastic zip ties. Now they're metal. The doctor said that more than half of his patients at the camp have suffered cuffing injuries, including some that have required "repeated surgical interventions."

"Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event," he told Haaretz.

The whistleblower also alleged substandard medical care at the facility, where there is only one doctor on duty, who is sometimes a gynecologist or orthopedist.

"This ends in complications and sometimes even in the patient's death," he said. "This makes all of us—the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the Health and Defense ministries, complicit in the violation of Israeli law, and perhaps worse for me as a doctor, in the violation of my basic commitment to patients, wherever they are, as I swore when I graduated 20 years ago."

The doctor claims in his letter that he warned the Health Ministry's director-general about the appalling conditions at Sde Teiman, but that there have been "no substantial changes in the way the facility operates."

An ethics committee visited the camp in February; the physician said that its members "are worried about their legal exposure and coverage in view of their involvement in a facility that is operated contrary to the provisions of the existing law."

Last month, Haaretz revealed that 27 detainees have died in custody at the Sde Teiman and Anatot camps or during interrogation in Israel since October 7. While some were Hamas or other militants captured or wounded while fighting IDF troops, others were civilians, including some with preexisting health conditions like the diabetic laborer who was not suspected of any offense when he was arrested and sent to his death at Anatot.

One former Sde Teiman detainee claims that he personally witnessed Israeli troops execute five prisoners in separate incidents.

Responding to the 27 detainee deaths and invoking the U.S. military prison in Cuba known for torture and indefinite detention, the Haaretz editorial board wrote last month that "Sde Teiman and the other detention facilities are not Guantánamo Bay and... the state has a duty to protect the rights of detainees even if they are not formally prisoners of war."

"Israel's indifference to the fate of Gazans, at best, and desire for revenge against them, at worst, are fertile ground for war crimes," the editors said. "Indifference by Israelis and desire for revenge must not constitute license to shed the blood of detainees... The fact that Hamas is holding and abusing Israeli hostages cannot excuse or justify the abuse of Palestinian detainees."

In December, the Geneva-based advocacy group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor—which has also accused IDF troops of allowing Israeli civilians to witness the torture of Palestinian prisoners—demanded an investigation of what it called the "new Guantánamo."

Israeli rights groups and individuals have also condemned the abuses at Sde Teiman, which, like Guantánamo, has been described as a "concentration camp."

"Enough, just enough. We have to stop this gallop into the abyss," urged Hebrew University senior lecturer Tamar Megiddo on Wednesday. "This war has to end. This government needs to end."

INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern: Is/Was WWIII Pre-Planned?

British Rebellion Grows Against Arming Israel

Even Winston Churchill’s grandson is calling for Britain to stop shipping arms to Israel. Asked whether it was time for Britain to stop sending weapons to Israel after it killed seven international aid workers this week, the Conservative peer Lord Nicholas Soames said, “It’s probably time that that happened now, yes, I think if we’re determined to show that we are not prepared to countenance these ongoing disasters.”

The rebellion within British ruling circles against knee-jerk support for is Israel is spreading after the killing of the aid workers and after leaked audio recordings on Saturday revealed the British government is ignoring the advice of its own lawyers not to continue supplying weapons to Israel for its Gaza operation without risking complicity in crimes against humanity.

On Wednesday, more than 600 British lawyers, academics and retired senior judges — including three who sat on the country’s Supreme Court — wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak imploring him to cut off military aid and even called for sanctions against the most senior Israeli leaders.

The rebellion is erupting in both major parties, as well as in the Liberal Democrats, which on Thursday wrote to No. 10’s ethics advisor to urge a probe into whether U.K. arms sales could be a breach of Britian’s ministerial code. The letter said “the UK must not be complicit in breaches of international humanitarian law,” The Guardian reported.

The Labour Party is in upheaval as the mayor of London and 50 Labour MPs on Thursday said Britain should no longer arm a state that is increasingly unable to hide its crimes. “In my view, the fact the government is not publishing the legal advice, one can only draw one conclusion,” Mayor Sadiq Khan told the Politics Joe website. “I think the government should be pausing all sales of weapons to Israel. I think we should be holding to account the Israeli government.” He added: It’s got to stop.” As he tries to unify a fractious party over the issue, Labour leader Keir Starmer has not gone beyond calling for the legal advice mentioned in the leaked audio to be made public.

Jeffrey Sachs: Biden is a miserable failure

“Ukraine WILL Join NATO,” Vows Anthony Blinken

NATO summit in Brussels prepares massive escalation of war on Russia

The leading NATO powers are using the summit in Brussels on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the military alliance to massively escalate the war against Russia. In order to prevent the imminent collapse of the Ukrainian military, the alliance is feverishly working on measures that threaten to provoke a direct military conflict with the nuclear-armed power and plunge the entire continent into a devastating war.

“Europe now faces war on a scale we thought was resigned to history,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a press statement at the start of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers. In recent days, Russia has launched “new major attacks” on Ukraine and “continues to press along the front lines.” Therefore, NATO “must stand firm in our support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg continued. And he welcomes the fact “that Allies continue to make major deliveries of weapons, ammunition, and equipment.” However, Kiev “has urgent needs. Any delay in providing support has consequences on the battlefield as we speak,” he warned.

Despite the high death toll—Ukraine has already sacrificed hundreds of thousands on the battlefield—and the growing danger of a nuclear escalation, the leading imperialist powers are unwilling to deviate from their war objective: to impose a military defeat on Russia in Ukraine in order to bring Kiev under their control and subjugate the resource-rich and geostrategically important Eurasian landmass as a whole. Stoltenberg stressed, “Ukraine will become a member of NATO. It is a question of when, not if.” And he left no doubt that the NATO offensive in Ukraine is part of a global war by the imperialist powers. ...

NATO is therefore called upon and must “shift the dynamics of our support.” There is a need to “ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul. … So that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments.” The meeting would discuss “how NATO could assume more responsibility for coordinating military equipment and training for Ukraine anchoring this within a robust NATO framework.” Another issue would be the “multi-year financial commitment to sustain our support.” Stoltenberg did not give any concrete details, but it is clear that the NATO powers are working on a massive escalation of war ahead of the NATO summit in Washington in July. According to media reports, this includes a €100 billion war fund for Ukraine over the next five years. At the same time, the military alliance is amassing ever larger numbers of troops on the Russian border and holding huge military exercises.

The largest NATO base in Europe in terms of area is currently being built in Romania to accommodate 10,000 soldiers and their families. Germany is preparing the permanent stationing of two combat brigades in Lithuania. At the same time, there is open discussion about the deployment of ground troops to Ukraine. As recently as late March, the Chief of Staff of the French Army, Pierre Schill, boasted that France could “deploy 20,000 soldiers within 30 days.” The leading European NATO powers in particular are responding to the debacle of the Ukrainian army with declarations supporting a stronger European role in the war. In a joint article for the US daily Politico, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, Annalena Baerbock, Stéphane Séjourné and Radosław Sikorski, declare that they will continue their “support” for Ukraine “as long as it takes, and as intensively as needed.”

GOP Speaker gives in to Biden on Ukraine

Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan, intelligence officials claim

The Indian government assassinated individuals in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil, according to Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives who spoke to the Guardian.

Interviews with intelligence officials in both countries, as well as documents shared by Pakistani investigators, shed new light on how India’s foreign intelligence agency allegedly began to carry out assassinations abroad as part of an emboldened approach to national security after 2019. The agency, the Research & Analysis Wing (Raw), is directly controlled by the office of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who is running for a third term in office in elections later this month.

The accounts appear to give further weight to allegations that Delhi has implemented a policy of targeting those it considers hostile to India. While the new allegations refer to individuals charged with serious and violent terror offences, India has also been accused publicly by Washington and Ottawa of involvement in the murders of dissident figures including a Sikh activist in Canada and of a botched assassination attempt on another Sikh in the US last year.

The fresh claims relate to almost 20 killings since 2020, carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan. While India has previously been unofficially linked to the deaths, this is the first time Indian intelligence personnel have discussed the alleged operations in Pakistan, and detailed documentation has been seen alleging Raw’s direct involvement in the assassinations.

The allegations also suggest that Sikh separatists in the Khalistan movement were targeted as part of these Indian foreign operations, both in Pakistan and the west. According to Pakistani investigators, these deaths were orchestrated by Indian intelligence sleeper-cells mostly operating out of the United Arab Emirates. The rise in killings in 2023 was credited to the increased activity of these cells, which are accused of paying millions of rupees to local criminals or poor Pakistanis to carry out the assassinations. Indian agents also allegedly recruited jihadists to carry out the shootings, making them believe they were killing “infidels”.

Macron to say France and allies could have stopped Rwanda genocide in 1994

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said France and its western and African allies “could have stopped” Rwanda’s 1994 genocide but did not have the will to halt the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

In a video message to be published on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, Macron will emphasise that “when the phase of total extermination against the Tutsis began, the international community had the means to know and act”, the presidency said on Thursday.

The president believes that at the time the international community already had historical experience of witnessing genocide with the Holocaust in the second world war and the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during the first world war.

Macron will say that “France, which could have stopped the genocide with its western and African allies, did not have the will” to do so, the official added.

The president will not be going to Kigali to attend commemorations of the genocide this Sunday alongside Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, but instead France will be represented by its foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné.

Majority in Southeast Asia would choose China over US, survey suggests

More than half of people in Southeast Asia would side with China over the United States if forced to choose, a survey has found, underscoring Beijing’s growing influence in the region.

In the State of Southeast Asia 2024 survey released this week, 50.5 percent of respondents said they would favour China, up more than 11 percentage points compared with last year.

The latest edition of the survey, conducted annually by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, is the first to show China being preferred over the US.

Last year, only 38.9 percent of respondents preferred China, with 61.1 percent favouring the US.

China was also chosen as the most influential economic power in the region by most respondents, with 59.9 percent of respondents picking it over the US. ...

Ian Chong, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China, cautioned that the survey results should be taken as a snapshot of how university-educated Southeast Asians felt during January and February of 2024.

“It’s not necessarily pro-China. It’s anti-US sentiment tied to support for Israel’s excessive actions in Gaza, and also the fact that support for Israel means the US is willing to veto and stall UN processes,” Chong told Al Jazeera.

Judge rejects Trump attempt to toss classified documents case with caveats

The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of retaining classified documents denied his effort to have the case dismissed on the contention that the Presidential Records Act allowed him to transform them as personal property and possess them at his Mar-a-Lago club.

The ruling by US district judge Aileen Cannon was significant as it struck one of Trump’s main defenses and suggested the case is headed to trial.

Cannon’s three-page order rejecting Trump’s motion to dismiss rested on the fact that Trump’s argument about the Presidential Records Act did not directly address the applicability of the Espionage Act, which he has been charged with violating, meaning it did not give her a basis to toss the case.

But the order left open the possibility that Trump could raise his Presidential Records Act theory as a defense at trial, and the possibility that Cannon could instruct the jury to credit Trump’s theory in such a beneficial manner that it could potentially ensure Trump’s acquittal.

No Labels will not mount third-party 2024 bid after failing to find candidate

The centrist group No Labels will not field a third-party candidate for US president this year, it announced on Thursday.

“Americans remain more open to an independent presidential run and hungrier for unifying national leadership than ever before,” the group, which previously said it raised $60m, said in a statement.

“But No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. Citing unnamed sources, the paper said Nancy Jacobson, founder and chief executive of No Labels, “told allies this week” an announcement would be made on Monday.

The group had not been able to find a workable ticket, the Journal said, despite reaching out to 30 potential candidates. No Labels then confirmed its decision.

Schools close and crops wither as ‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia

Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.

A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. In updates posted on X, he said heat that was unprecedented for early April had been recorded at monitoring stations across the region this week, including in Minbu, in central Myanmar, where 44C was recorded – the first time in south-east Asia’s climatic history that such high temperatures had been reached so early in the month. In Hat Yai, in Thailand’s far south, 40.2 C was reached, an all-time record, while Yên Châu in north-west Vietnam hit 40.6C, unprecedented for this time of year.

The latest intense weather follows warnings last month by the World Meteorological Organization that the region had also been “gripped by severe heat conditions” in February when temperatures frequently soared into the high-30s – well above the seasonal average. It attributed the scorching weather to human-induced climate change, as well as the El Niño event, which brings hotter, drier conditions to the region.

“The level of heat the globe has experienced over the last 12 months, both on the land and in the ocean has surprised science,” said Prof Benjamin Horton, the director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. “We always knew we were going to be headed in this direction with our increasing greenhouse gases, but the fact that we’re shattering all these records in 2023, and 2024, is perhaps slightly ahead of time.”

“We’re just not prepared. There’s very few, if any, places in the world that are resilient to this type of heat,” he said, adding that societies needed to adapt. Governments across the region are grappling with how to respond. In the Philippines, almost 4,000 schools have suspended in-person classes as the heat index passed 42C in some areas, a dangerous level that the weather bureau warned could cause heat cramps and exhaustion.

Amazon increased US plastic packaging despite global phase-out, report says

The amount of plastic packaging waste created by Amazon has increased in the US even as the online retail giant sought to phase out plastics elsewhere in the world, a report claims, amid growing pressure for a global treaty to end plastic pollution.

Amazon created 208m pounds (94m kg) of plastic packaging in the US in 2022, equal to the weight of nearly 14,000 large African elephants, which is a 9.8% increase in the amount of packaging it produced in 2021, according to Oceana, a US marine conservation group that used industry data and Amazon’s market announcements to form its analysis.

The increase in 2022 occurred even as Amazon made headway in reducing its plastic use elsewhere in the world, cutting its plastic packaging globally by 11.6% compared with a year previously. In Europe, the company has replaced its plastic delivery sleeves with paper and cardboard, amid new rules from the European Union aimed at stamping out single-use plastics.

Oceana said that the persistent reliance on plastics in the US is “troubling”, pointing to evidence that much of this waste will end up ingested by marine animals or strewn along coastal areas. According to the group, up to 22m pounds (9.9m kg) of Amazon’s global plastic packaging from 2022 will have ended up in the world’s waterways and seas. Oceana’s analysis cites a 2020 scientific study published in Science that found 11% of plastic waste globally ended up in aquatic ecosystems in 2016.

“This sort of plastic film is a big problem for the oceans and a lot of it can’t be recycled,” said Matt Littlejohn, senior vice-president of strategic initiatives at Oceana. “Amazon is one of the most innovative companies on the planet. It has eliminated plastic packaging in Europe and they can clearly do so across the US, too, even without regulatory pressure. This is a completely solvable problem. They have just got to get on with solving it. They know what to do.”

Also of Interest

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

Stop Reporting On Biden’s Angry Feelings Toward Israel. It’s Not News. It’s Not Interesting.

‘Deliberate Israeli Policy’ to Kill Starving Palestinians, Target Aid Trucks – Euro-Med Monitor Report

‘There Are Limits to Our Patience’: Iran at United Nations Security Council

The US Is Waging an Illegal War for Faster Shipping

US and UK Have Bombed Yemen 148 Times Since January

Military pier project in Gaza could be 'on ice'

What is wrong with Biden spokespeople?

Blinken Vows ‘Ukraine Will Become a Member of NATO’

The Ukrainian Army Is No Longer Mechanized

Israeli Director of "No Other Land" Slams Claims of Antisemitism over Apartheid Comment at Berlinale

A Little Night Music

Wilson Pickett - 634-5789

Wilson Pickett - It's Too Late

Wilson Pickett - Sugar Sugar

Wilson Pickett w/Duane Allman - Hey Joe

Wilson Pickett - I Found a Love

Wilson Pickett - Something You Got

Wilson Pickett - Engine #9

Wilson Pickett - She's Lookin' Good

Wilson Pickett - Better Him Than Me

Wilson Pickett - Everybody Needs Somebody to Love