Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and gospel singers The Holmes Brothers. Enjoy!

"We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they're dazed and confused. The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic."

-- Hunter S. Thompson

News and Opinion

An article worth a click and a full read. Here's a couple of snippets to get you started:

Two Men Who, if Allowed, Could Decide Humanity’s Fate

We are on the eve of the possible final act of the tragicomedy that is Ukraine. It could come at the end of the month during the general debate at the U.N. General Assembly when the odd couple of the lame-duck and expired presidents of the U.S. and Ukraine could reveal to the world its fate. On one side, there will be Joe Biden, who Robert Gates, a former C.I.A. head and secretary of defense in several Republican and Democratic administrations, once said: “He has been wrong on nearly every major issue during his political career.” Next to him will be Volodymyr Zelensky, whose presidential term expired last May. ...

Let’s review what these two have done to bring humanity to the edge of the abyss, starting with the one whom his son has called the “Big Guy.” After the end of the Cold War, every U.S. president, starting with Bill Clinton, contributed in one way or another to closing the short historical window of opportunity for integrating Russia into the West. Many pragmatic or idealistic people in U.S. administrations, Congress, the media, and in other public circles have been trying to promote this integration. Regrettably, they have been losing on the whole to more powerful forces, often in the Deep State, who, for political, economic, or ideological reasons, prefer to have Russia as foe rather than friend. ...

Here are three key dates to remember (there were other important dates, but I believe these three were crucial):

February 2014 – Vice President Biden coordinated the regime change coup in Ukraine to replace an administration that preferred the country’s neutral status with a pro-NATO one, and which led to civil war;

December 2021 – President Biden rejected Russia’s call for strategic, stability negotiations based on Ukraine’s neutral status that could have prevented Russia’s February 2022 intervention in the civil war;

April 2022 – President Biden derailed, with the help of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Istanbul peace negotiations that took place in the weeks after Russia intervened, from February to April 2022, and prevented resumption of these negotiations ever since.

The second participant, Zelensky, should be credited with taking his popular, but provincial, comedy show 95th Quarter [...] onto the world stage with an audience of  Who’s Who in the West. To achieve such huge success, Zelensky has paid with hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives, millions of wounded and refugees, destruction of the country’s infrastructure, the ruin of its economy — while selling off remaining Ukrainian wealth to Black Rock‘s sharks. Now, he wants to do what he did to Ukraine to the rest of the world by involving the U.S. and NATO in a direct military confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia, basically plagiarizing Wag the Dog.

ANOTHER War on Terror?

Walkie-talkie blasts: attacks on Hezbollah kill 20 as Israel says military focus shifting north

A new series of extraordinary explosions aimed at Hezbollah – this time targeting walkie-talkies – has killed at least 20 and wounded more than 450 in cities across Lebanon, as international observers warned that the simultaneous detonation of thousands of booby-trapped communications devices may constitute a war crime.

The targeted detonations of the walkie-talkies came one day after more than 2,800 were injured and 12 killed by exploding pagers in an attack blamed on Israel that world leaders and diplomats have warned could lead to an all-out conflict between Israel and the powerful militant group despite efforts by the US and UN to avert an escalation with Hezbollah.

A source in Hezbollah confirmed that walkie-talkies used by the group were targeted in Wednesday’s attack. A senior security source said the individual explosions were “small in size”, similar to Tuesday’s attacks.

UN secretary general António Guterres condemned the attacks and called for restraint from both Hezbollah and Israel, while the UN security council was convened to meet on Friday to discuss the unprecedented operations in what appeared to be a massive supply chain breach by Israeli intelligence.

Guterres also suggested the operation may have been planned as a prelude to a major Israeli attack on Lebanon. “Obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation,” Guterres told reporters.

Lebanon: 37 Dead, 3,400+ Injured in Wave of Explosions in Electronic Devices Booby-Trapped by Israel

‘I’m terrified for what comes next.’ Chris Hedges

In Overwhelming Vote, UN General Assembly Demands Swift End to Israeli Occupation

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding that the Israeli government end its occupation of Palestinian territories within 12 months, affirming a recent International Court of Justice opinion that deemed the decadeslong occupation unlawful.

The Palestine-led resolution, co-sponsored by dozens of nations, calls on Israel to swiftly withdraw "all its military forces" from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The final vote tally was 124 member states in favor and 14 against, with 43 nations abstaining.

Unsurprisingly, Israel and the United States—Israel's top ally and arms supplier—were among the 14 countries that opposed the resolution, which is not legally binding. The United Kingdom, which recently suspended some arms export licenses for Israel, abstained from Wednesday's vote, a decision that the advocacy group Global Justice Now (GJN) said shows "complete disregard for the ongoing suffering of Palestinians forced to live under military-enforced racial discrimination."

"The vast majority of countries have made it clear: Israel's occupation of Palestine must end, and all countries have a definite duty not to aid or assist its continuation," said GJN's Tim Bierley. "To stay on the right side of international law, the U.K.'s dealings with Israel must drastically change, including closing all loopholes in its partial arms ban and revoking any trade or investment relations that might assist the occupation."

The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement welcomed passage of the resolution, noting that the U.N. General Assembly voted "for the first time in 42 years" in favor of "imposing sanctions on Israel."

The resolution specifically calls on all U.N. member states to "implement sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against natural and legal persons engaged in the maintenance of Israel's unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in relation to settler violence."

The resolution's passage came nearly two months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the U.N.'s highest legal body, handed down an advisory opinion concluding that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and must end "as rapidly as possible."

The newly approved resolution states that "respect for the International Court of Justice and its functions... is essential to international law and justice and to an international order based on the rule of law."

The Biden administration, which is heavily arming the Israeli military as it assails Gaza and the West Bank, criticized the ICJ's opinion as overly broad.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement Wednesday that "the Biden administration should join the overwhelming majority of nations around the world in condemning these crimes against the Palestinian people, demanding an end to the occupation, and exerting serious pressure on the Israeli government to comply."

"We welcome this U.N. resolution demanding an end to one of the worst and ongoing crimes against humanity of the past century," said Awad.

Ahead of Wednesday's vote, a group of U.N. experts said in a statement that many countries "appear unwilling or unable to take the necessary steps to meet their obligations" in the wake of the ICJ's opinion.

"Devastating attacks on Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory show that by continuing to turn a blind eye to the horrific plight of the Palestinian people, the international community is furthering genocidal violence," the experts said. "States must act now. They must listen to voices calling on them to take action to stop Israel's attacks against the Palestinians and end its unlawful occupation. All states have a legal obligation to comply with the ICJ's ruling and must promote adherence to norms that protect civilians."

Rest assured, if any other country had launched an attack on the US or Israel that killed 11 (inc children), with 4000 injured - 400 critically - we would call it both a terrorist attack AND a declaration of war.

Now, we do neither.

Yet again, we are seeing the abysmal failure… pic.twitter.com/DwDOyzDSnu

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) September 17, 2024

Gallant Says Israel’s Focus Has Turned North as Part of ‘New Phase in the War’

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that the focus of Israel’s military operations was shifting to the north as part of a “new phase in the war.” His comments came after Israel detonated thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon, killing dozens, including two children.

“In a conversation with the Air Force personnel at the Ramat David base, I emphasized: We are opening a new phase in the war,” Gallant wrote on X. “The center of gravity is shifting to the north through the diversion of forces and resources.” ...

According to a count from Al Jazeera, as of September 6, Israel has launched 7,845 attacks on Lebanon since October 7, 2023, killing 646 people. In that time, Hezbollah launched 1,768 attacks on Israel, killing 32 Israelis.

US says initial probe into Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi's killing does not exonerate Israel

Israel's initial findings on the killing of US citizen Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi do not exonerate Israeli security forces, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, warning that Washington would consider other measures if it is not satisfied with the results of a full Israeli probe.

Israel acknowledged that its troops shot 26-year-old Eygi, who is also a Turkish citizen, on 6 September while she took part in a protest against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but said it was unintentional.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week described Eygi's killing as "unprovoked and unjustified" and demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the West Bank.

Speaking at a regular press briefing on Monday, Miller said her killing should never have happened.

'The Genocide Gentry': Weapon Execs Sit on Boards of Universities, Institutions

A trio of human rights groups on Wednesday announced a new interactive initiative exposing what the coalition is calling a "Genocide Gentry" of weapons company executives and board members and "54 museums, cultural organizations, universities, and colleges that currently host these individuals on their boards or in other prominent roles."

The coalition—which consists of the Adalah Justice Project, LittleSis, and Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE)—published a map and database detailing the "educational and cultural ties to board members of six defense corporations" amid Israel's ongoing annihilation of Gaza, for which the U.S.-backed country is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

"Israel has destroyed every university in Gaza and nearly 200 cultural heritage sites since October 2023, using bombs and weapons manufactured by the companies included in the Genocide Gentry research," the coalition said. "As of April, these attacks have killed more than 5,479 students and 261 teachers and destroyed or critically damaged nearly 90% of all school buildings in Gaza."

Genocide gentry: members of the ruling class who hold prestigious positions at cultural & educational institutions despite their connections to warfare.

Visit https://t.co/m9EASnCd5i to find out if any of the institutions in your community are connected to the Genocide Gentry. pic.twitter.com/pcwusovzvu

— LittleSis (@twittlesis) September 18, 2024

"Universities across the country including the likes of Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and New York University have remained largely silent on Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza," the groups added. "Behind closed doors, these same universities are hosting executives and board members of the companies manufacturing the weapons used in these attacks as board members, trustees, and fellows."

Members of the Genocide Gentry include:

Jeh Johnson, Lockheed Martin board of directors: Johnson is currently a Columbia University trustee, and sits on the board of directors at MetLife and U.S. Steel. Columbia University notably shut down student protests demanding divestment from weapons companies like Lockheed Martin.

Brian C. Rogers, RTX board of directors: Rogers is currently a trustee of the Harvard Management Company, tasked with managing the $50 billion endowment. Notably Harvard administrators have cracked down on students demanding divestment from weapons companies like RTX, formerly Raytheon.

Catherine B. Reynolds, General Dynamics board of directors: Reynolds is a trustee of the Kennedy Center and sponsors a fellowship at New York University, which has also cracked down on anti-genocide protests and recently enacted a policy equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

"Students on university campuses across the country have not only been demanding divestment, but transparency," said Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project. "Transparency about their institutions' investments, partnerships, donors, and decision-makers, and their connections to individuals and companies directly enabling and profiting off war and genocide."

"This research helps provide some of this transparency by illuminating just how embedded the interests of the weapons industry are within our institutions, so we can begin chipping away at the power and influence that they wield," she added.

ACRE campaign director Ramah Kudaimi noted that "as part of its genocide since October 2023, Israel has targeted universities and cultural centers across Gaza, destroying campuses, museums, libraries, and more."

"That this is all backed by the United States means U.S. educational and cultural institutions have a responsibility to consider what their role is in helping end these war crimes, and that starts with reconsidering their connections with the weapons companies profiting from the destruction," Kudaimi said.

Munira Lokhandwala, director of the Tech and Training program at LittleSis, said: "This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions. Through this research, we show how the defense industry shapes and influences our civic and cultural institutions, and as a result, their silence around war and genocide."

"We must ask our institutions: What role are you playing in whitewashing war and destruction by inviting those who profit from manufacturing weapons onto your boards and into your galas?" she added.

Prosecutors charge 10 people at UC Irvine after pro-Palestinian protests

Prosecutors in southern California have charged 10 people, including two professors, with failing to disperse during a pro-Palestinian protest last spring at the University of California, Irvine, that led to a clash with police, officials said Wednesday.

The Orange county district attorney’s office said those charged included two UCI professors and four students. All are due to appear in court on 16 October to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges, the office said.

“The right to peaceful assembly is a constitutional right and we encourage protestors to exercise their right to peaceful assembly on any issue,” Todd Spitzer, the Orange county district attorney, said in a statement. “However, criminal activity which transcends peaceful assembly will not be tolerated.”

Prosecutors are continuing to review evidence to determine whether charges will be filed against the remaining 40 people arrested during the May incident on campus, the statement said.

Max Blumenthal : Israel/Ukraine and Max Locked Out of X

University of Maryland sued over cancellation of 7 October vigil for Gaza

A student group at the University of Maryland has sued the university, challenging its decision to cancel a vigil scheduled for 7 October to mark one year since the war in Gaza began with Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, was brought by Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations on behalf of the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The lawsuit states that the event, scheduled for 7 October, was an interfaith vigil planned with the school’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, and was intended to mourn lives lost in Gaza. It was initially approved by the school before the university revoked its approval earlier this month. ...

The group said that on 1 September, university administrators informed the Students for Justice in Palestine group that they were revoking permission to host the event over a concern for student safety.

Later that day, the university’s president, Darryll J Pines, sent a letter to the school community, stating that all “expressive events” scheduled for 7 October would be cancelled or rescheduled for other dates, and only university-sponsored events would be permitted on the day itself. He said that “questions have been raised about the events of the day” and that “numerous calls” had been made to cancel and restrict planned events.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we concluded to host only university-sponsored events that promote reflection on this day,” Pines said. He also added that at that time, there was no “immediate or active threat” to campus.

BRICS Meeting to Develop Multipolar World - Jeffrey Sachs, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

US sues owner and manager of ship that caused deadly Baltimore bridge collapse

The US justice department on Wednesday sued the owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly collapse of a huge road bridge in Baltimore earlier this year, seeking to recover more than $100m that the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port. The companies recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the vessel, the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit was filed in Maryland and alleges that the electrical and mechanical systems on the ship, the Dali, were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and veer off course in the darkness before striking a vital support column on the Francis Scott Key bridge in March and causing a substantial portion of the massive bridge to crumple into the river, killing six road construction workers. “This tragedy was entirely avoidable,” the government alleged in the lawsuit.

“With this civil claim, the justice department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer,” the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said in a written statement.

The case was filed against the Dali owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd, and its manager, Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore. The companies filed a court petition days after the collapse seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive marine casualty case in history.

US House fails to pass federal funding bill as shutdown deadline nears

A government funding package championed by Republican House speaker Mike Johnson failed to pass on Wednesday, with less than two weeks left to prevent a shutdown starting 1 October.

The final vote was 202 to 220, with 14 House Republicans and all but three House Democrats opposing the bill. Two Republican members voted “present”.

The bill was not expected to pass, as a number of House Republicans had voiced criticism of the proposal before the vote. Given Republicans’ narrow House majority and Democrats’ widespread opposition to the bill, Johnson could only afford a handful of defections within his conference. Johnson delayed a vote on the funding package last week in the hopes of consolidating Republicans’ support, but those efforts could not get the bill across the finish line.

Johnson’s proposed bill combined a six-month stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) Act, a controversial proposal that would require people to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote.

Federal Reserve cuts US interest rates for the first time in four years

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in four years, stepping back from its aggressive bid to cool the world’s largest economy and reduce inflation.

America’s central bank, which lifted rates to a two-decade high after price growth surged to its highest level in a generation, announced a cut of 50 basis points.

Policymakers at the Fed also expect to cut rates by an additional 50 basis points this year, according to projections released alongside the news. After rising on the news, Wall Street ended the day down slightly, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.29%.

The woman trying to upend the U.S political system | Jill Stein

Hope for coral reefs after IVF colonies survive record heat event

Young corals bred using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and planted in reefs around the US, Mexico and the Caribbean have surprised scientists, after most survived last year’s record marine heatwave, while older corals struggled. A study has found that 90% of the young IVF-created corals surveyed remained healthy and colourful, holding on to the algae that live within them and supply them with nutrition. In contrast, only about a quarter of older non-IVF corals remained healthy.

The rest, including large colonies that may have lived for centuries, were either bleached by the heat – expelling the algae from their tissues and turning white – or paled, expelling some of the algae. Some died in the heatwave before the survey was conducted.

Dr Margaret Miller, lead author and research director at Secore International, a reef conservation organisation, said: “[The heatwave] was a horrible time. But I was impressed and surprised that the data came out with such an extreme pattern.” The young corals were bred over the past five years using a version of IVF developed by Secore. Divers collected coral spawn, which was used to fertilise eggs in the laboratory. The resultant baby corals were then planted on reefs across the Caribbean to form colonies.

Most coral restoration efforts have historically focused on fragmentation techniques – where corals are broken into smaller pieces and transplanted to a new location. Rather than producing exact clones, as fragmentation does, breeding corals by IVF increased the genetic diversity, giving them a higher chance of adapting to heat over time. “Natural selection back in the reef environment will choose the best ones,” said Miller. ...

Why the young corals are more heat tolerant is not well understood. There are several hypotheses, but Miller suspects they may be better able to acquire symbiotic algae that tolerate heat, and may try out several types of algae, some of which handle heat better than others. “They are quite exploratory in those early stages,” said Miller. Eventually, the young corals settle on types of symbionts that will work for them, she said. Previous research suggests that if they live long enough, the young corals will probably become less tolerant to heat stress as they age, making them increasingly vulnerable as global temperatures rise.

Big Oil to Benefit From Biden's Carbon Capture Tax Credits

As the U.S. moves to invest in climate solutions, is the money going toward projects that will meaningfully reduce emissions and transition the nation's energy system away from fossil fuels?

A report released Wednesday by worker-owned corporate accountability and environmental justice research organization Empower found that just 34 carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Texas could receive between $3.2 billion and $33 billion in annual tax subsides.

At the same time, most of the carbon dioxide pipelines in the state are managed by the major oil and gas companies like Kinder Morgan, Occidental Petroleum, and ExxonMobil that played a disproportionate role in creating the climate crisis in the first place.

"Carbon capture and storage is the most expensive and least effective carbon mitigation solution. It's really not where we need to be investing our money," said Paige Powell, the policy manager at Commission Shift, at a press briefing announcing the new research. "And the public dollars coming from the federal government to fossil fuel companies are our dollars, our taxpayer dollars that could be better spent elsewhere."

For its report, Empower turned up 98 carbon dioxide-related projects in the state of Texas, including 47 pipelines and 13 Class VI Geological Storage projects. These projects are currently primarily funded through tax breaks and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) subsides; the report authors found little evidence of any private investments.

"Our report clearly lays out the way carbon capture tax credits rig the system in favor of the oil and gas industry to the tune of billions of dollars," Empower's Samuel Rosado said in a statement. "Public funding and tax breaks are the largest sources of revenue for CCS projects. Without the massive federal investment, the private sector deems most CCS projects unprofitable."

The main tax credit for CCS is the 45Q tax credit, which assigns a dollar amount for every metric ton of carbon dioxide captured and permanently stored. While this credit was first created by the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, the Inflation Reduction Act expanded it, raising the credit to $85 per metric ton. At the same time, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act earmarked more than $8 billion for the DOE's CCS programs.

"These are the key bills that were enacted that enabled CCS to be at least more financially available than it previously was," Rosado said in the briefing.

Yet climate and accountability advocates are concerned that the money is being misdirected.

Powell noted that CCS technology had been around for 50 years, but had failed to advance.

"All of these projects have been largely unprofitable, and they haven't expanded the way that renewables and other climate solutions have, primarily because the technology is problematic," Powell said. "It's unsafe, it's fraught with mechanical failures, and not to mention wildly expensive when compared to other climate solutions."

Dominic Chacon of the Texas Campaign for the Environment said that industry boosting of CCS amounted to a form of "greenwashing."

"It is essentially a marketing PR branding ploy to downplay the obvious risks associated with fossil fuels, to try and rebrand this industry as something that we need for the future," Chacon said.

Autumn Hanna, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, noted that there was a history of fraud in past allocation of CCS subsidies.

"A Treasury investigation found that from 2010 to 2019, 90% of tax credit claimants failed to comply with IRS [Internal Revenue Service] and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] requirements," Hanna said in a statement. "Instead of throwing good money after bad, we should focus our limited resources on climate solutions we know are safe and effective."

At the same time, most federal CCS subsides actually ended up going toward injecting carbon dioxide into depleted oil wells in order to extract even more oil, which is currently the only profitable use of the technology.

"Continuing to funnel these subsidies and tax breaks to the oil companies, which mostly use it to extract more fossil fuels, really weakens its supposed climate benefits," Hanna said in the briefing.

In Texas specifically, there are concerns about the safety of CCS infrastructure and its impact on ecosystems and communities, given the state's weak regulatory culture.

"Our state oil and gas regulator, the Railroad Commission of Texas, is reluctant to oversee the industry in a way that protects people and the environment," Powell said.

The Empower report found that 19 CCS projects overlap with at least 24 million acres of water, threatening both coastal and river environments. The report authors also ran into a lack of transparency.

After filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Environmental Protect Agency to access data about CCS projects, they received documents with entire pages redacted on the behest of the companies and with the permission of the EPA.

"This is very dangerous when it comes to corporate accountability and transparency on environmental issues, because entire pages were redacted from FOIA requests and public information requests that are incredibly important for communities and safety in these communities," Rosado said.

The advocates called for greater transparency and accountability around public financing for untested and expensive climate solutions.

"I think it's important for us to ask ourselves, if carbon capture is receiving so much public dollars, why is there little public input?" Chacon asked. "There is no public transparency on this technology."

Hanna called for putting "the brakes on the whole thing until we start to really answer some big questions that are out there instead of just autopilot expansions and extensions that carry huge costs and, again, leave us with these big questions and this lack of transparency and oversight."

Community organizations in the Lone Star State are petitioning the EPA to reject the Texas Railroad Commission's request to have primary oversight over CCS projects in the state.

"Allowing Texas to continue down this path is irresponsible and only serves oil and gas interests. That's why it's critical that the Environmental Protection Agency not hand over regulation of dangerous CCS projects to the Railroad Commission of Texas, which has shown that it's in the pocket of fossil fuel companies, which stand to profit while putting our communities at risk," Powell said in a statement. "We need to chart a new course here in Texas and in Washington to incentivize climate solutions that actually work."

To that end, Commission Shift is also urging concerned residents to comment on new EPA draft permits for CCS projects in the Permian Basin.

"Let them know we need an extension to review the permits and that we really just don't want these here in the Permian, it's not the right place for all these projects," Powell said.

Floods in Poland and wildfires in Portugal show reality of climate breakdown, says EU

Soldiers, emergency workers and volunteers battled through the night to reinforce defences around Wrocław, Poland’s third biggest city, as the EU said flooding in central Europe happening simultaneously alongside wildfires in Portugal showed climate breakdown in action.

More than five times the average rainfall for the whole of September has fallen in five days on swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, triggering devastating flooding that has killed 23 people in four countries.

In Portugal, the government declared a “state of calamity” late on Tuesday night as dozens of wildfires continued to burn across northern parts of the country. The wildfires have killed at least seven people, destroyed dozens of houses and torn through tens of thousands of hectares of forest and scrubland. ...

Authorities said the Danube River was expected to peak around or slightly above 8.5 metres, probably on Friday or Saturday. “Due to heavy rains and floods, the situation is critical all across central Europe,” the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said. “According to the latest forecasts, the crucial time for Hungary begins on Wednesday, so flood protection is going full steam ahead.” Elswehere, notably in the Czech Republic, waters were mostly receding, leaving an estimated €4bn of damage.

In Strasbourg, the EU’s crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarčič, said the flooding in central Europe, combined with this week’s deadly forest fires in Portugal, were joint proof of climate breakdown. “Make no mistake. This tragedy is not an anomaly. This is fast becoming the norm for our shared future,” Lenarčič told MEPs. “Europe is the fastest warming continent globally and is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events.”

Also of Interest

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

Iran’s Crucial Decision on Israel

‘An Act of Terror’: Israel Behind Pager Explosions That Killed 11, Wounded Thousands

Israel's Pager Attack - A Sophisticated One-Times Shot With Little Effect

Patrick Lawrence: The ‘War Party’ Makes Its Plans

The cold comfort of a military coup

Iraqi PM Says End Date for US-Led Anti-ISIS Coalition Will Be Announced Soon

Whither Scottish Independence?

Why is Modern Monetary Theory So Important?

‘We empower ourselves’: the women cleaning up Bolivia’s Lake Uru Uru

Max Blumenthal: The Wars of Today and JFK's Peace Speech

LOCK THEM UP? Glenn Reacts to Hillary's Deranged Censorship Dream

Standing at Gaza Border Felt Like Visiting Auschwitz: Burmese Genocide Scholar Maung Zarni

NYPD MAFIA Allegations Reveal Eric Adams Corruption

“ABC RIGGED Debate For Kamala Harris!” – Whistleblower

A Little Night Music

The Holmes Brothers - There's a train

The Holmes Brothers - The Love You Save

The Holmes Brothers – Please Don't Hurt Me

The Holmes Brothers - High Heel Sneakers

The Holmes Brothers - He'll Have to Go

The Holmes Brothers - Down In Virginia

The Holmes Brothers - Run Myself Out Of Town

The Holmes Brothers - Drown In My Own Tears

The Holmes Brothers – Squeal Like An Eel

The Holmes Brothers – [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love And Understanding