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"If you’ve been shocked by the lies and propaganda your government and your media have been churning out about Gaza, it would probably be a good idea to take another look at what they’ve been telling you about Ukraine too. And Russia, China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Yemen while you’re at it."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Empire Managers Say Russia, China And Iran Are Tricking Students Into Opposing Genocide

Empire managers and propagandists are losing their minds about student protests against the genocide in Gaza on university campuses, so naturally we’re seeing a mad push to frame this as the result of interference by Russia, China, Iran and Hamas. These demented conspiracies of foreign influence come even as Israel’s prime minister openly calls for the US government to quash the university protests by any means necessary.

In a speech supporting the ban of TikTok this past Tuesday, Senator Pete Ricketts said the protests are an example of “the Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to skew public opinion on foreign events.

“Look what’s happening in our college campuses right now around this country,” Ricketts said. “Pro-Hamas activists are taking over public spaces and making it impossible for campuses to operate.”

“Why is this happening?” Ricketts continued. “Well, let’s look at where young people are getting their news. Nearly a third of adults 18 to 29, these young people in the US are regularly getting their news exclusively from TikTok. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas hashtags are generating 50 times the views on TikTok right now despite the fact that polling shows Americans overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas. These videos have more reach than the top 10 news websites combined. This is not coincidence. The Chinese Communist Party is doing this on purpose. They are pushing this racist agenda with the intention of undermining our democratic values. And if you look at what’s happening at Columbia University and other campuses across the country right now, they’re winning.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) comes right out and admits it: they're about to ban TikTok because "young people are getting their news" from the app, and "pro-Palestinian" hashtags generate lots of views. He says Chinese Communists are "pushing this racist agenda" to undermine America pic.twitter.com/ahcRcnXXfU

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 23, 2024

These comments from Ricketts are repugnant and deceitful in a whole host of ways, but let’s touch on the big ones.

The senator’s claim that TikTok is being manipulated to artificially amplify pro-Palestine content is false, as evidenced by the fact that TikTok’s US-based rivals Facebook and Instagram have been showing the same massive gaps between the popularity of pro-Palestine content and the popularity of pro-Israel content. His argument is as logically fallacious as claiming that flat earth content is being artificially suppressed because it’s not as popular as round earth content. Pro-Israel content is just less popular, because it sucks and people don’t like it.

Ricketts’ assertion that “polling shows Americans overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas” is deceitful; polling shows a majority of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza, regardless of whether they “support” the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Also noteworthy is the way Ricketts just comes right out and acknowledges that TikTok is presenting a problem because its pro-Palestine content has been going viral among young people in ways the legacy media can’t compete with. This amounts to an admission that empire managers like Pete Ricketts really just want TikTok to be banned because young people are using it to share unauthorized ideas and information with each other, and would support its elimination even if they couldn’t justify it under the pretense of fighting China.

It’s probably also worth noting that Rickets has received at least $159,000 from the Israel lobby.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggests some pro-Palestinian protests, especially those against President Biden, have “a Russian tinge to it.”

“It's in Putin's interest for 'What's His Name' to win, and therefore I see some encouragement on the part of the Russians.” pic.twitter.com/WgDByTwkGZ

— The Recount (@therecount) April 24, 2024

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated the fartbrained opinion she’s been voicing for months that anti-genocide demonstrations can be attributed to Russia, telling RTÉ News this past Wednesday that opposition to President Biden’s backing of an active genocide has “a Russian tinge to it”.

“It’s in Putin’s interest for ‘What’s His Name’ to win, and therefore I see some encouragement on the part of the Russians,” said the longtime Democratic Party leader in reference to Donald Trump.

Anti-Defamation League president Jonathan Greenblatt says it’s actually Iran who’s tricking all these university students into thinking genocide is bad, telling MSNBC that the two main organizations behind the demonstrations — the Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — are actually “campus proxies” of Iran.

“Iran has their military proxies like Hezbollah, and Iran has their campus proxies like these groups like SJP and JVP,” Greenblatt proclaimed on literally no basis whatsoever.

The Wall Street Journal tells us that rather than China, Russia or Iran, it’s actually Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis who are behind the university campus protests.

In an article titled “Who’s Behind the Anti-Israel Protests,” subtitled “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others are grooming activists in the U.S. and across the West,” The Wall Street Journal’s Steven Stalinsky makes another one of his signature chowderheaded arguments based entirely on vague insinuations, shoulder-socket-jeopardizing reach, Gish gallop fallacy, and no real evidence of any kind.

“Six months after the attack on Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others aren’t merely cheering those protesting in the streets,” writes Stalinsky. “They are working with and grooming activists in the U.S. and the West, through meetings, online interviews and podcasts.”

No no, not meetings, online interviews and podcasts! No wonder they were able to hypnotize university students into opposing daily massacres against a walled-in population driven by ethnically motivated hatred.

Stalinsky runs a think tank called the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which was literally founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer. Pro-Palestine activist and academic Norman Finkelstein has accused MEMRI of using “the same sort of propaganda techniques as the Nazis,” and even brazenly unprincipled empire propagandist Brian Whitaker has written that MEMRI “poses as a research institute when it’s basically a propaganda operation.”

All this drooling imbecility about completely fictional foreign interference being responsible for these campus protests looks even more ridiculous as the Israeli prime minister unabashedly flexes his nation’s extensive influence over US politics to call for a crackdown on campus demonstrations.

“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific. Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, addressing the American public in his perfect American English.

“It has to be stopped,” Netanyahu continued. “It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally. But that’s not what happened. The response of several university presidents was shameful. Now, fortunately, state, local, federal officials, many of them have responded differently but there has to be more. More has to be done.”

It is a very dark kind of hilarious to see imperial spinmeisters falling all over themselves trying to spin the campus protests as a product of imaginary foreign interference even as police launch violent crackdowns on those very same protesters across the United States to advance the interests of a foreign government.

It’s also a big loogie in the eye of any self-respecting free thinker. Unless your brain has been turned into bean curd by empire propaganda, the idea that young people would need to be manipulated into opposing the incomprehensible horrors that are being inflicted upon human beings in Gaza is an appalling insult to your intelligence.

But that just shows how desperate these freaks are getting. More and more people are waking up from the lies they’ve been fed about their government, their nation and their world as western institution after western institution completely discredits itself in the eyes of the mainstream public trying to defend the most indefensible things imaginable.

They’re frantically scrambling to try to remedy this PR crisis they’ve created for themselves, but everything they’ve tried so far has been a pathetic failure that has only made things worse for them, turning an entire generation into wide awake radicals whose bright young eyes will never, ever unsee what they have seen.

Alastair Crooke: America’s False Dawn

Worth a full read:

Craig Murray: Worse Than You Can Imagine

Governments cannot take big decisions extremely quickly except in the most extreme of circumstances. There are mechanisms in all states that consider policy decisions, weigh them up, involve the various departments of the state whose activities are affected by that decision, and arrive at a conclusion, though not necessarily a good one.

The decision to stop aid funding to UNRWA, the specialized U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians, was not taken by numerous Western states in a single day. In the U.K., several different government ministries had to coordinate. Even within only a single ministry, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO,), views would have to be coordinated through written submissions and interdepartmental meetings between the departments dealing with the Middle East, with the United Nations, with the United States, with Europe and then of course between the diplomatic and development wings of the ministry. That process would include seeking the views of British ambassadors to Tel Aviv, Doha, Cairo, Riyadh, Istanbul and Washington and to the United Nations in Geneva and in New York. ...

Consider that the parallel process had to be completed in the United States, in Canada, in Germany, in Australia and in all the other Western powers that contributed to starvation in Gaza by cutting aid to UNRWA. All of these countries had to go through their procedures, and it could only be by prior coordination – weeks in advance – between these states that they announced all on the same day the destruction of the life support system for Palestinians, then in absolute need. ...

The coordinated decision of the Western nations to fast track famine by stopping UNRWA funding was announced within an hour of the ICJ ruling that Gazans were at immediate risk of genocide, driving from the headlines that adverse ruling against Israel. This sent the clearest signal in response that the Western powers would not be stopped from genocide by international law or institutions.

The Western powers give not a fig for 16,000 massacred Palestinian infants. No evidence of mass graves in hospitals will move them. They knew genocide was happening and continued actively to arm and abet it. This genocide is the desired goal of the West. No other explanation is remotely plausible.

Biden and Netanyahu speak as pressure grows on Israel over Rafah and ceasefire talks

The White House on Sunday said Joe Biden had again spoken with Benjamin Netanyahu as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a ceasefire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza.

There were no immediate details of the conversation, which took place as Israel vows to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. The US secretary of state is returning to the Middle East on Monday.

A senior official from key intermediary Qatar, meanwhile, urged Israel and Hamas to show “more commitment and more seriousness” in negotiations. Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s headquarters in Doha, was instrumental along with the US and Egypt in helping negotiate a brief halt to the fighting in November that led to the release of dozens of hostages. But in a sign of frustration, Qatar this month said that it was reassessing its role.

An Israeli delegation is expected in Egypt in the coming days to discuss the latest proposals in negotiations, and senior Hamas official Basem Naim said in a message to the Associated Press that a delegation from the group will also head to Cairo. Egypt’s state-owned al-Qahera TV said the delegation would arrive on Monday.

Biden FURIOUSLY Blocking Bibi War Crime Arrest Warrants

US Reportedly Working to Stop ICC From Issuing Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly growing increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for him and other top government officials for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

The Times of Israel reported Sunday that the Israeli government, in partnership with the U.S., is "making a concerted effort to head off" possible arrest warrants from the ICC, which first launched its war crimes investigation in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2021.

Israel does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction and has refused to cooperate with the probe. The ICC says it has jurisdiction over Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Citing an unnamed Israeli government source, The Times of Israel reported that "a major focus of the ICC allegations will be that Israel 'deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza.'" Other officials who could face arrest warrants are Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.

The Times of Israel's reporting came shortly after Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote that Netanyahu is "under unusual stress" over the possibility of arrest warrants and is leading a "nonstop push over the telephone" to forestall ICC action.

Like Israel, the U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC in 2002. The legal body is tasked with investigating individuals, not governments.

The U.S., Israel's leading arms supplier, has opposed the ICC's Palestine investigation from the start, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying in a 2021 statement that the court "has no jurisdiction over this matter" because "Israel is not a party to the ICC."

But the Biden administration vocally supported the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes committed in Ukraine, even though neither Russia nor Ukraine are parties to the Rome Statute.

Seeing commentary that ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials would create a dangerous precedent because Israel isn’t a party to the Rome Statute.

Guess who else isn’t a party to the Rome Statute?

Russia.

ICC already crossed that bridge with warrant for Putin.

— Brian Finucane (@BCFinucane) April 28, 2024

The Israeli government has been accused of committing numerous war crimes in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas-led attack, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, and using starvation as a weapon of war. Late last year, the human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now submitted to the ICC the names of dozens of Israeli military commanders who are believed to have been directly involved in violations of international law.

Reports of potentially imminent ICC action have sparked alarm among conservatives in the United States.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on social media Friday that the court should "should stand down on this immediately."

In an editorial published that same day, The Wall Street Journal suggested the U.S. and United Kingdom could "risk finding Americans and Britons under the gun" next if they don't warn ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan against issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Human rights organizations and legal experts have said Biden and other U.S. officials could be held liable under international law if they continue supporting Israel's war on Gaza.

"Mr. Khan's candidacy was championed by his native Britain and supported by the U.S.," continues the Journal editorial, "so both countries may have influence if they warn Mr. Khan of what will happen if he proceeds."

The Times of Israel noted Sunday that according to reports in several Israeli media outlets, the U.S. is "part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials."

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued Sunday that "there is absolutely no reason for Biden to be involved in this."

"But once again," Parsi added, "Biden steps in to protect Netanyahu from the consequences of the war crimes he commits, which Biden claims he privately is frustrated about."

Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Activists Blocked from Sailing to Gaza But Vow to Keep Trying to Break Siege

Leaked State Department Memo: Israeli Assurances 'Neither Credible Nor Reliable'

A newly leaked internal memo shows that officials at four U.S. State Department bureaus don't believe the Israeli government's assurances that it is using American weaponry in Gaza in compliance with international law, rejecting them as "neither credible nor reliable."

The memo, first reported by Reuters on Saturday, is a joint submission from the State Department's bureaus of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Population, Refugees, and Migration; Global Criminal Justice; and International Organization Affairs.

The leaked document raises "serious concern over non-compliance" with international law, specifically citing the Israeli military's repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, refusal to investigate or punish those responsible for atrocities, and killing of "humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate," according to Reuters.

The memo also points to Israel's arbitrary rejection of humanitarian aid trucks, which has fueled famine in the Gaza Strip. The bureaus' conclusion matches that of officials at the United States Agency for International Development.

Human rights groups have been documenting Israel's atrocities and systematic obstruction of aid for months, but the Biden administration has continued approving weapons sales for the Netanyahu government despite U.S. laws prohibiting arms transfers to countries violating human rights and blocking American humanitarian assistance.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said Saturday that "the State Department's leaked confirmation that Israel has restricted the transport and delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance leaves no doubt: U.S. law requires the suspension of military aid to Israel."

"For too long, the Biden administration has breached or ignored U.S. laws that require the suspension of aid to an abusive regime like Israel, fueling Israeli belligerence and rewarding its atrocities," said Whitson. "It's time for real consequences."

In March, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant penned a letter assuring the Biden administration that the Israeli military's use of American weaponry has been in line with international law. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department subsequently indicated that the Biden administration has not found Israel "to be in violation of international humanitarian law," drawing outrage from analysts and members of Congress who say it is obvious Israel is committing war crimes. in Gaza.

The U.S. State Department is expected to deliver its final assessment of Israel's assurances to Congress in early May.

Anya Parampil: The State Dept. and Free Speech

Oh, my. More documents. It appears that the State Department is leaking like a sieve.

Leaked USAID Document Concludes Israel Impeded Gaza Aid

Officials at the United States Agency for International Development concluded in a confidential memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is violating a White House directive by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip during its ongoing genocidal assault on the Palestinian enclave, according to a report published Friday.

Devex's Colum Lynch reported that the confidential communication—entitled Famine Inevitable, Changes Could Reduce But Not Stop Widespread Civilian Deaths—states that USAID "assesses the government of Israel (GOI) does not currently demonstrate necessary compliance" with a February 8 White House memo requiring the secretary of state to obtain assurances from governments receiving U.S. military aid that such assistance is used in compliance with human rights law.

The USAID memo raises "serious concerns that the killing of nearly 32,000 people, of which the GOI itself assesses roughly two-thirds are civilians, may well amount to a violation of the international humanitarian law." That figure is now over 34,300 deaths, with at least 77,293 people injured and over 11,000 others missing and presumed buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings.

The document states that the "deterioration of food security and nutrition in Gaza is unprecedented in modern history, exponentially outpacing in six months the long-term declines that led to the only other two famine declarations in the 21st century: Somalia (2011) and South Sudan (2017)."

"Adequate health, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene... an immediate cessation of hostilities, and sustained humanitarian access will be required," the memo continues. "Absent these conditions, all available evidence indicates rising acute food insecurity, malnutrition, and disease will lead to a rapid increase in non-trauma deaths, particularly among women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities."

USAID says Israel is violating US laws prohibiting provision of US military assistance to those who violate humanitarian law & impede delivery of US humanitarian aid.

Biden is breaking the law & defying his own agencies to fund Israeli war crimes.https://t.co/zf56aGHTQM #Devex

— Tariq Kenney-Shawa (@tksshawa) April 26, 2024

During congressional testimony earlier this month, USAID Administrator Samantha Power answered in the affirmative when U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) asked whether "famine is already occurring" in Gaza.

"Yes," she said. "In northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition prior to October 7 was almost zero, and it is now one in three—one in three kids."

Biden's February directive states that "the recipient country will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance."

Not only has Israel blocked aid from entering Gaza as children there die of malnutrition and dehydration and millions teeter on the brink of starvation, Israeli troops have attacked Palestinian and international humanitarian workers attempting to deliver aid and desperate Gazans trying to receive it.

Observers say these attacks—which include the infamous "Flour Massacre" and the drone strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers—were deliberate, which Israel denies.

The blocking of humanitarian aid is a key component of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and supported by more than 30 nations. On January 26, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling that found Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered it to prevent future genocidal acts. Critics argue Israel has ignored the order.

-Story gets out that Blinken is ignoring Israeli human rights abuses
-PR story appears that Biden admin is going to do something
-Israel publicly acts outraged that laws may apply to them
-Biden admin quietly decides to do nothing

What a perfect summary of this admin pic.twitter.com/8QjM2v9NvD

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) April 26, 2024

You’re either for mass murder or against it

Biden has sparked a wildfire. pic.twitter.com/YXbHCKONcm

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 25, 2024

CAMPUS EXPLOSION: Jill Stein ARRESTED As More HOAXES Debunked

‘Do not bow’: ex-Black Panther praises pro-Palestinian student protesters from prison

In a powerful and rousing live address to students at the City University of New York (CUNY) on Friday night, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the pro-Palestinian movement growing at US colleges as being on the right side of history.

“It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes,” Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, said while calling from Pennsylvania’s Mahanoy state prison. “You are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history.

“You’re against a colonial regime that steals the land from the people who are Indigenous to that area. I urge you to speak out against the terrorism that is afflicted upon Gaza with all of your might, all of your will and all of your strength. Do not bow to those who want you to be silent.”

As hundreds of students and supporters at the CUNY encampment in Harlem cheered, he continued, “This is the moment to be heard and shake the earth so that the people of Gaza, the people of Rafah, the people of the West Bank, the people of Palestine can feel your solidarity with them.”

Abu-Jamal was a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther party and went on to become a radio journalist as well as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Association of Journalists. In 1982, he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia in 1981. Abu-Jamal spent almost three decades in solitary confinement on death row before his death sentence was overturned by a federal court, citing irregularities in the original sentencing process.

ADL FREAKS On Ilhan Omar: 'Blood Libel'

Northeastern University crushed an anti-genocide protest because someone was heard shouting, "Kill the Jews."

At :10, it is clear a pro-Israel counter-protester holding an Israeli flag was the one who uttered that phrase

Yet another Zionist hate crime hoax https://t.co/yA6CnRdNUV pic.twitter.com/xlnzFOanli

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) April 28, 2024

Columbia University calls for inquiry into its leadership as student protests sweep 40 campuses

At least 40 pro-Palestine protest camps have arisen across US campuses following Columbia University’s example earlier this month, as the New York school’s senate called for an investigation into its leadership, the New York Times reported. While many remain provocative though peaceful, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment by their institutions from companies with ties to Israel, hundreds of students and outside protesters have been arrested, and there have been some fierce clashes with police.

At least 100 more students were arrested overnight into Friday, mostly at Emerson College in Boston, while two dozen were taken into custody at Ohio State University.

At Columbia University, a proposal to censure university president Minouche Shafik fell short, but a resolution calling for an investigation passed by a vote of 62-14 on Friday, according to the New York Times. Shafik has been scrutinized since a decision last week to summon New York police to the campus and authorize them to dismantle an encampment, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 student protesters.

After a two-hour meeting on Friday, the university’s senate approved a resolution that Shafik’s administration had undermined academic freedom and disregarded the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by calling in the police and shutting down the protest. “The decision ... has raised serious concerns about the administration’s respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process,” it said.

Portland State University Pauses Ties With Boeing as Campus Protests Spread

The president of Portland State University announced Friday that the school would suspend its connections to the military contractor Boeing as campus protests against U.S. colleges' complicity in Israel's war on Gaza intensified.

In an email to students and faculty, PSU president Ann Cudd wrote that while the university has no investments in Boeing, it "accepts philanthropic gifts from the company."

"In consideration of the strong feelings that have been expressed, PSU will pause seeking or accepting any further gifts or grants from the Boeing Company until we have had a chance to engage in this debate and come to conclusions about a reasonable course of action," Cudd wrote. ...

Oregon Public Broadcasting noted Friday that PSU students and faculty have been pushing the university to cut ties with Boeing for months, citing its connections to Israel. Cudd said at a press conference last month that Boeing donated $150,000 to PSU to name a classroom and that a Boeing executive sits on the advisory board of PSU's business school.

DC Police Refuse GWU Request to Arrest Students

From the university’s perspective, it seemed like the perfect time for the police to move in and break up the students’ anti-genocide camp: 3 a.m. George Washington University had given the students until 7 p.m. on Thursday night to clear out. Instead more than a thousand students from other area universities and other supporters flooded the university yard, forming a circle around around the camp.

As the time advanced beyond midnight the crowd dwindled, leaving the encampment less protected. It seemed logical that under the cover of darkness, with fewer media also present, the police would intervene, as they have on a growing number of campuses around the United States. And that’s what the GWU president wanted.  But the Washington mayor and the police brass refused, according to The Washington Post.

“D.C. police rejected pleas from George Washington University officials to clear pro-Palestinian demonstrators out of an on-campus encampment early Friday morning, saying they worried about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters, according to two officials familiar with the talks,” the Post reported.

The newspaper said:

“Officers had assembled around 3 a.m. and were prepared to enter the encampment, but senior leaders in the police chief’s and mayor’s office ordered them to stand down, the officials said. The demonstrators were small in number and largely peaceful, and the city officials told their university counterparts they wanted to avoid images of violent altercations between police and protesters flashing across TV screens across the country. The George Washington campus is just west of downtown Washington, five blocks from the White House.”

This is a critical moment in the way the U.S. and European establishments deal with the exploding resistance to their unconscionable support for genocide. Either they face the stark reality that their actions are spurring fierce resistance that threatens their political survival, and thus stop arming and funding Israel, or they increase the repression against opposition, beginning with the student protestors. These decisions will be made in these days and will have enormous repercussions.

That the Washington mayor and police chiefs showed the guts to leave the students alone reveals serious doubts creeping into official thinking. Even public officials see what Israel is doing.

Prison officers traumatized by rate of executions in US death penalty states

The relentless pursuit of “non-stop executions” by a rump of US death penalty states is exposing prison staff to extreme levels of psychological and physical stress, according to traumatized corrections officers who are appealing for help. Though capital punishment is generally on the wane in America, with only five states carrying out executions last year, those states that remain active are showing a renewed determination. In some states, the pace of judicial killings is now so intense that prison guards are kept in an almost permanent state of readiness, with mock executions staged on a rolling basis.

In Oklahoma, officers at the state penitentiary in McAlester, which houses the death chamber, are so stretched by the schedule of 25 executions set in 2022 by the Republican-controlled state that the state’s own attorney general and the head of the prison service have appealed to the courts for a more staggered approach. They have requested that the gap between executions be widened from 60 to 90 days, so far to no avail.

The unprecedented move to try to cool the pace of executions followed a joint letter to the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, from nine former senior corrections officials. They warned that staff were being subjected to “lasting trauma” and a “psychological toll” that included post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse and distress due to the “non-stop executions”. ...

An appeals court judge responded to the request to extend the space between killings to 90 days by telling staff to “suck it up” and “man up”.

Donbass falling. Crimean Bridge obsession. $320B Reparations Loan

RFK Jr dismisses Trump as ‘unhinged’ after being called a ‘Democrat plant’

Robert F Kennedy Jr has dismissed Donald Trump as “unhinged” after a social media tirade from the former Republican president accused the independent White House hopeful of being a “Democrat plant” and “wasted protest vote”.

“When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged,” Kennedy wrote Saturday on X in a post that doubled as a debate challenge. “President Trump’s rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.”

Both Trump and Democratic incumbent Joe Biden have come to perceive Kennedy as a threat to their prospects in November’s presidential election over fears that he could siphon off enough votes to swing the race. But Friday, it was Trump who vented frustration at the specter of Kennedy, arguing in a screed on his Truth Social platform that the independent was dropped into the field to aid Biden’s chances of re-election and that his choice to select tech lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate was unserious.

“RFK Jr is a Democrat ‘Plant,’” Trump wrote. “A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.”

SCOTUS FATAL BLOW To Trump Jan 6 Prosecution

Alaska has a plan to save its salmon but some Native leaders are wary

Earlier this month Alaska officials announced a new plan they say could revive the Yukon River’s struggling salmon population. The 2,000-mile waterway that runs from Canada’s Yukon Territory to the Bering Sea has seen sharp declines in its Chinook, or king salmon, in recent years. The new strategy aims to restore the number of fish that reach their northern spawning areas near the Canadian border to 71,000, up from about 15,000 that reached the Canadian border in 2023, by suspending commercial, sport, domestic and personal use fisheries in the Yukon River until 2030. Previously, fishing closures were revisited each year.

But some tribal leaders say the closures unfairly burden Native communities, severing a crucial link to traditional culture, and that officials did not properly consult them while forming the plan. “I understand the intent of the agreement was to protect salmon, but this is not the solution,” said Brooke Woods, former executive chair for the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and a climate adaptation specialist at Woodwell Climate Research Center. ...

Subsistence harvests are only a small part of the problem, and cannot explain the lack of recovery, says Peter Westley, associate professor of fisheries at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Most of the mortality that explains the ups and downs of the Chinook population is what happens in the ocean,” said Westley.

In the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, hatchery fish have increased competition for resources, with hatchery pink salmon outnumbering Chinook roughly 300 to one. It’s a dynamic researchers describe as a “zero-sum game”. Boats trawling for pollock sweep up juvenile salmon in the Bering Sea, while commercial industries far from the mouth of the Yukon accidentally catch salmon en route to their spawning grounds.

Part of the problem is that while the state manages salmon while they are in the Yukon, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council manages fisheries in federal waters off Alaska. That’s why Westley said he was “very, very skeptical” that the new plan would work.

10 Years In FLINT Water Crisis Is Worse, Government COVER-UP Continues: Jordan Chariton

UN-led panel aims to tackle abuses linked to mining for ‘critical minerals’

A UN-led panel of nearly 100 countries is to draw up new guidelines to prevent some of the environmental damage and human rights abuses associated with mining for “critical minerals”. Mining for some of the key raw materials used in low-carbon technology, such as solar panels and electric vehicles, has been associated with human rights abuses, child labour and violence, as well as grave environmental damage.

Cobalt mining, for instance, has led to an upsurge in illegal labour and human rights violations, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Copper mining has also led to severe pollution and environmental damage in some regions. The global supply chain for other critical minerals, such as the rare earths needed for renewable energy production, is also increasingly a matter of concern for governments as they shift their economies to a low-carbon footing.

António Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, has gathered a panel of developed and developing countries with interests in the extraction and consumption of critical minerals with instructions to draw up a set of guidelines for the industries. “A world powered by renewables is a world hungry for critical minerals,” said Guterres at the launch of the initiative on Friday. “For developing countries, critical minerals are a critical opportunity, to create jobs, diversify economies, and dramatically boost revenues. But only if they are managed properly.”

Addressing concerns that the scramble for raw materials had been disastrous for some, he said: “The race to net zero cannot trample over the poor. The renewables revolution is happening, but we must guide it towards justice.”

Also of Interest

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

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