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This evening's music features blues guitarist Albert King. Enjoy!

"To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life."

-- Woodrow Wilson

News and Opinion

Amnesty Condemns Israel's 'Mass Incommunicado Detention and Torture' of Palestinians

Israel is using its dubious Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip—including women and children—indefinitely without charge and trial, according to an Amnesty International report published Thursday.

All 27 former detainees interviewed by the rights group described being tortured by Israeli forces.

Amnesty documented the cases of 21 men, five women, and one 14-year-old boy taken from Gaza and held in indefinite incommunicado detention in facilities including the notorious Sde Teiman camp in Israel's Negev Desert for periods of up to four-and-a-half months, without access to lawyers or contact with their families.

"All those interviewed by Amnesty International said that during their incommunicado detention, which in some cases amounted to enforced disappearance, Israeli military, intelligence, and police forces subjected them to torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," the report states.

Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law allows the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to detain anyone from Gaza that they suspect of being engaged in the fight against Israel or posing a threat to its national security indefinitely without charge, trial, or evidence. Last December, the law was amended to allow the IDF to hold suspects for up to 96 hours without a detention order, up to 75 days without being brought before a judge, and up to three months without seeing a lawyer.

"While international humanitarian law allows for the detention of individuals on imperative security grounds in situations of occupation, there must be safeguards to prevent indefinite or arbitrary detention and torture and other ill-treatment," Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said in a statement. "This law blatantly fails to provide these safeguards. It enables rampant torture and, in some circumstances, institutionalizes enforced disappearance."

"Our documentation illustrates how the Israeli authorities are using the Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily round up Palestinian civilians from Gaza and toss them into a virtual black hole for prolonged periods without producing any evidence that they pose a security threat and without minimum due process," Callamard added. "Israeli authorities must immediately repeal this law and release those arbitrarily detained under it."

According to the report, "those detained included doctors taken into custody at hospitals for refusing to abandon their patients; mothers separated from their infants while trying to cross the so-called 'safe corridor' from northern Gaza to the south; human rights defenders, [United Nations] workers, journalists, and other civilians."

Former detainees at Sde Teiman said they were blindfolded and handcuffed for their entire imprisonment, forced to remain in painful stress positions for hours on end, and prevented from speaking to other prisoners or even raising their heads.

Said Maarouf, a 57-year-old pediatrician kidnapped by Israeli troops during an attack on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City in December 2023, was detained for 45 days at Sde Teiman. He described being constantly blindfolded and handcuffed, beaten, starved, and forced to sit on his knees for long periods.

A 14-year-old boy taken from his home in Jabalia in January was held for 24 days at Sde Teiman. He told Amnesty that he was jailed with more than 100 adults in a single barrack and was kicked, punched in the head, and repeatedly burned with cigarettes. Amnesty observed bruises and burns on the child's body when it examined him in February. Like other detainees interviewed by the rights group, the boy said he was always blindfolded and handcuffed and was not permitted to see a lawyer or his relatives.

Earlier this year, Israeli medics working at Sde Teiman said amputations of hands and feet due to injuries from constant handcuffing were "a routine event."

The five women interviewed by Amnesty were initially jailed at a military detention center in an illegal Israeli settler colony in the occupied West Bank, then at Dimon women's prison in northern Israel. All five said they were beaten during transport.

One woman taken on December 6 said she was separated from her two children—ages 4 and 9 months—and initially held alongside hundreds of male prisoners. She was beaten, forced to remove her veil and photographed without it, and subjected to the mock execution of her husband.

"On the third day of detention, they put us in a ditch and started throwing sand," she said. "A soldier fired two shots in the air and said they executed my husband and I broke down and begged him to kill me too, to relieve me from the nightmare."

Another woman said guards threatened: "We will do to you what Hamas did to us. We will kidnap and rape you."

These and other accounts are consistent with the testimonies of Israeli whistleblowers and former prisoners at Sde Teiman and other Israeli detention facilities.

Former detainees and human rights defenders have described Sde Teiman as "Israel's Guantánamo" and "more horrific than Abu Ghraib"—the notorious U.S. military prison in Iraq where prisoners were tortured and dozens died. Palestinians held at Sde Teiman and at other detention sites described being electrocuted, mauled and even raped by dogs, constantly beaten, starved, and subjected to other torture and abuse. Other former Sde Teiman detainees said they witnessed a prisoner raped to death, possible executions, and other atrocities.

IDF officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last month that the IDF is investigating the in-custody deaths of dozens of detainees, including 36 who died or were killed at Sde Teiman since October, when Israel began its retaliatory war following the attack by Hamas-led militants that left more than 1,100 Israelis and foreign nationals dead—some of whom were killed by Israeli troops.

Over 240 other people, mostly Israelis, were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. A Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday details war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and rape perpetrated by members of five Palestinian armed groups that took part in the October 7 attacks.

Since October, Israel's siege, bombardment, and invasion of Gaza has left at least 139,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people forcibly displaced, and starvation—sometimes deadly—running rampant.

So many taunts from Israel about invasion, but no action

Extremist Israeli minister makes provocative visit to al-Aqsa mosque

Israel’s extremist national security minister has visited the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem, recording a video saying he went to pray, in a provocative move as he seeks to disrupt ceasefire talks. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist and champion of the settler movement, recorded footage at al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims and Jews.

In the shadow of the Dome of the Rock, Ben-Gvir spoke with his personal security visible behind him and an armed member of the Israeli border police patrolling nearby. He said he had come to the compound to pray for the return of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering”.

He added that he was “praying and working hard” for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to resist international pressure to sign a ceasefire deal and instead continue a military campaign in Gaza. Israeli attacks have killed more that 38,000 people in the strip since the attack by Hamas militants on 7 October last year.

His visit immediately drew condemnation from the Jordanian foreign ministry, a powerful force within the body administering the holy Islamic compound, which called it “a provocative step” and a violation undertaken by “the extremist Israeli government”. ...

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council, said without naming Ben-Gvir that the White House was “concerned about rhetoric and actions that are counterproductive to peace and security in the West Bank”.

ICJ reaffirms Israeli occupation as illegal, calls for global compliance

Netanyahu Visits Israeli Troops in Rafah, Says Israel Must Maintain Control of Gaza-Egypt Border

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise trip to visit Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah and said Israel must maintain control of the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.

Netanyahu has previously said that any deal with Hamas must allow Israel to maintain control of the border, including the Rafah crossing, which has been cut off to aid deliveries since Israel took control of it on May 7. The prime minister’s demand has complicated talks not only with Hamas but also with Egypt, which opposes indefinite Israeli control of the border.

According to Netanyahu’s office, he said in Rafah that the Israeli troops there understand “that our holding the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing are vital for the future.”

Highly infectious poliovirus found in Gaza sewage samples

The poliovirus has been found in sewage samples from Gaza putting thousands of people living in crowded displaced persons’ camps at risk of contracting the highly infectious disease that can cause deformities and paralysis.

The Gaza ministry said tests carried out with the UN children’s agency, Unicef, “showed the presence of poliovirus” in the territory that has endured a devastating Israeli military offensive since the 7 October Hamas attacks.

The Israeli health ministry said poliovirus type 2 was detected in Gaza sewage samples tested in an Israeli laboratory. It said the World Health Organization had made similar findings.

“The presence of poliovirus in wastewater that collects and flows between displacement camp tents and in inhabited areas because of the destruction of infrastructure marks a new health disaster,” the Gaza ministry said.

It highlighted “severe overcrowding” and “scarce water” that is becoming contaminated with sewage and the accumulation of rubbish. The ministry said Israel’s refusal to let hygiene supplies into Gaza “creates a suitable environment for the spread of different diseases”.

Yemen’s Blockade Bankrupts Israel’s Port of Eilat

Despite the formation of a multinational naval coalition led by the United States, the Israeli-controlled Port of Eilat has reportedly gone bankrupt and is seeking a government bailout. The situation underscores the failure of U.S.-led efforts against Yemen’s Ansar Allah — known pejoratively as the Houthis — blockade in the Red Sea, enforced until Israel ends its war on Gaza.

“It must be acknowledged that the port is in a state of bankruptcy,” said Gideon Golber, CEO of the Port of Eilat, who has been vocal about the port’s dire economic condition for months and is now appealing for financial support from the Israeli government. Speaking to the Knesset’s Economic Affairs Committee on July 7, Golber noted that economic activity ceased following Ansar Allah’s Red Sea blockade. ...

Within the first month of the blockade, economic activity at the Port of Eilat dropped by 85 percent, Golber told Reuters in December. Despite efforts from the U.S. and U.K. navies to combat the blockade, they remained confident they could restore the flow of ships to Israel. However, after continued defeats inflicted by Ansar Allah, which prevented ships from passing through waters defended by the U.S.-led coalition, another military operation, “Operation Poseidon Archer,” was announced. This operation aimed to destroy Yemeni military infrastructure but failed to locate critical targets. Following a large-scale Yemeni attack on American vessels on Jan. 10, periodic airstrikes and retaliatory attacks on ships continued. ...

While the economic collapse of the Port of Eilat has been unfolding over the past eight months, it has been covered in Israeli Hebrew media but received little attention in Western media. This is likely due to the stunning military failure of Operation Prosperity Guardian, which drained significant resources and U.S. taxpayer funds in an embarrassing and ultimately failed attempt to save an Israeli port.

Zelenskiy accuses Viktor Orbán of betraying Europe at leaders’ meeting in UK

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken aim at the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, accusing him of betraying fellow European leaders after Orbán’s recent “peace mission” to Moscow. The Ukrainian president kicked off the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace on Thursday with an emotional speech in which he made veiled but repeated references to Orbán’s recent attempts to get close to Moscow.

Zelenskiy was addressing a room packed full of European leaders and defence ministers, who have gathered in Oxfordshire at a pivotal moment for the war in Ukraine. He told the session: “We have maintained unity in Europe by acting together, which means that Putin has missed his primary targets … This is our advantage, but it remains an advantage only as long as we are united.”

Referring to Putin, he said: “He may try to approach you, or go to some of your partners individually, trying to tempt or pressure you to blackmail you so that one of you betrays the rest. We keep our unity.”

In an apparent reference to Orbán’s recent visit to meet Putin in Moscow, he added: “If someone in Europe tries to resolve issues behind our backs, or even at the expense of someone else, if someone wants to make some trips to the capital of war to talk – and perhaps promise something against our common interests or at the expense of Ukraine or other countries – then why should we consider such a person?

“The EU can also address all their issues without this one individual.”

Macron ally wins surprise re-election as national assembly speaker

French lawmakers have re-elected a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc as president of parliament’s lower house, a possible breakthrough in attempts to form a majority amid deadlock.

French politics have been in gridlock after a snap election this month left the country without any clear path to forming a new government as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games.

Lawmakers elected the president as parliament’s lower house, the national assembly, met for the first time since the elections.

With 220 votes in the third round, Yaël Braun-Pivet, 53, in a surprise move beat leftwing candidate André Chassaigne, who received 207 votes.

Seats in the 577-strong assembly are now divided between three similarly sized blocs.

CrowdStrike GLOBAL Outage STRIKES CHAOS On Banks and Airlines

Biden regime change

An article fresh out of The Guardian's sour grapes bin:

‘Make Trump Human Again’ seems to emerge as Republicans’ new theme

Even before Donald Trump takes the stage at the Republican national convention on Thursday night, promising a speech on national unity rather than the usual partisan rancour, his team has laboured hard in the wake of the rally shooting to give the impression that he is a changed man.

Gone was the Trump of “this American carnage”, the victim of witch-hunts who, if returned to the White House, would unleash a whirlwind of retribution on his enemies and be a dictator on day one. In its place was Trump the candy-peddling grandfather, the kiss-me-goodnight father, the comforting mentor and patriotic healer. It was as if the official theme of the week, Make America Great Again, had been hurriedly replaced by a new slogan: Make Trump Human Again.

Kai Trump, the former US president’s 17-year-old granddaughter, helped set the tone. In a convention address on Wednesday she shared her big secret about the 78-year-old Republican nominee. “To me, he’s just a normal grandpa. He gives us candy and soda when our parents are not looking.”

The theme of a “caring and loving” Trump – Kai’s words – was reminiscent of the narrative that has long been projected by Joe Biden, who presents his candidacy as a choice for dignity, respect and civility. It was as if the Trump team had adopted Biden’s playbook as empathiser-in-chief. ...

Whether Trump can sustain the new soft-soap image presented of him in Milwaukee this week remains to be seen. He is certainly trying to cement the Maga makeover.

Biden OUT THIS WEEKEND Per Report

Biden reportedly open to 2024 rethink as Pelosi steps up pressure campaign

Joe Biden has reportedly become more open in recent days to hearing arguments that he should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate, and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told Democratic colleagues that he could be convinced to leave the race soon.

The Washington Post reported that Pelosi has taken a prominent role in passing messages from House Democrats to the White House, relaying concerns that Biden is incapable of beating Donald Trump in November, and has said she thinks Biden is close to making a decision to end his campaign.

Pelosi has been widely reported as orchestrating the renewed pressure on Biden to give up his re-election bid, which has intensified in recent days after a brief pause following last Saturday’s failed assassination attempt on Trump, to which the president responded with a series of authoritative statements calling for calm.

Though he continues to insist he will be the party’s nominee in November, Biden has reportedly started asking questions about negative polling data and whether the vice-president, Kamala Harris, considered the favourite to replace him if were to withdraw, fares better. ...

Biden’s newfound receptivity to at least the possibility of stepping aside represents a shift from the position he adopted at a press conference at last week’s Nato summit in Washington, when he told journalists he would only drop out if polling data showed him “there’s no way you can win”.

RNC Recap

US oil company ran 1977 article predicting climate crisis could cause starvation

The corporate predecessor to America’s largest refiner of oil, Marathon Petroleum, explained in a company periodical nearly 50 years ago that global temperature rise potentially linked to “industrial expansion” could one day cause “widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities”. This decades-old description of climate breakdown is from a 1977 issue of the magazine Marathon World and is attributed in the article by an unnamed author to several experts including a scientist working for a top US agency.

“Although climatologists disagree on the underlying reasons, many see a future climate of greater variability, bringing with it areas of extreme drought,” said the magazine, previously published by Marathon Oil Company, which later split into Marathon Petroleum as well as the exploration and production company Marathon Oil.

Marathon Petroleum is among several oil and gas companies – including Exxon, Shell and BP – currently being sued by the city of Honolulu for allegedly engaging in a coordinated communications effort “to conceal and deny their own knowledge” of catastrophic climate impacts caused by burning their products. That lawsuit alleges that Marathon knew of the dangers of global temperature rise long before the general public due to its membership in the American Petroleum Institute, which began studying the link between fossil fuels and global heating decades ago.

This newly surfaced article shows the company was undertaking efforts on its own to stay up to date on the latest climate science and the threats a more volatile climate could pose to humankind. Entitled “World Weather Watch”, the article summarizes the debate, quoting J Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), a federal US government scientist who during the 1970s warned that industrial carbon dioxide emissions could melt the polar ice caps and pose threats to human civilization.

“The climate is not going to get better, only worse. Over the long haul, we are going to have to brace ourselves for the prospect of a lot of poor harvests,” Mitchell said in the piece. Marathon World cited research from Mitchell and other climate scientists showing that “industrial expansion during the last century may be affecting the weather through carbon dioxide pollution”.

Costco’s ‘emergency food bucket’ is a hit with apocalypse-minded shoppers

The growing threat of climate change and the increase in unpredictable natural disasters that comes with it is leading survival-minded shoppers to a bucket of possible salvation from Costco. The big box warehouse club retailer is selling the “Readywise Emergency Food Bucket” for around $80 to its US customers.

“In a world where unpredictability has become a constant, our assortment takes on a vital role in emergency preparedness,” reads the product’s description on Costco’s website. “Imagine the sudden onset of severe weather, the challenges of unexpected job transitions, or the unsettling thought of food shortages. These are the moments when having a reliable source of sustenance becomes a game-changer.”

The bucket features 150 food pouches with a variety of flavors including chicken alfredo, creamy pasta and vegetables, teriyaki rice, cheesy macaroni, as well as puddings, cereals and something called “orange drink mix”. Most notably perhaps, the meals also have a 25-year shelf life.

Also of Interest

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

ICC warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant expected within 2 weeks

National religious recruits challenge values of IDF once dominated by secular elite

How Much Does Genocide In Gaza Effect The US Presidential Election?

In Dearborn, home of largest Arab American community, despair and apathy dominate

UK Climate Campaigners Get 'Utterly Disproportionate' Sentences

Playing for survival: the blind Japanese woman keeping a music tradition alive

Secret Service Flagged Trump Gunman 20 MINUTES BEFORE Shooting!

A Little Night Music

Albert King – Cold Feet

Albert King – Cross Cut Saw

Albert King - Nobody Wants A Loser

Albert King - Murder

Albert King – Down The Road I Go

Albert King – Watermelon Man

Albert King - Cold Women With Warm Hearts

Albert King – All Shook Up

Albert King - Howlin' For My Darling

Albert King - Full Concert (Live in Switzerland, 1984)