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This evening's music features "The Atlanta Boogie Man" Tommy Brown. Enjoy!

"Israel keeps attacking Al Jazeera, assassinating journalists and bombing press offices for the same reason the mafia kills witnesses. They want to commit their crimes in the dark."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Europe Prepares For Hot War With Russia, US Readies For Hot War With China

Multiple empire managers have made separate public statements around the same time which, taken together, serve as a disturbing reminder of the dark things our rulers have planned for our future.

The US Navy chief has unveiled a plan to be ready for hot war with China by 2027 while the US deputy secretary of state calls China the “most significant challenge” the US has ever faced in its entire history, at the same time the EU’s defense chief says Europe must prepare to fight a hot war with Russia in the next few years.

In an article titled “EU’s Defense Chief Says Europe Must Be Ready To Fight Russia in 6–8 Years,” Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp writes the following:

Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister and the EU’s first defense commissioner, has said Europe must be ready to fight Russia within 6–8 years.

“Defense ministers and NATO generals agree that Vladimir Putin could be ready for confrontation with NATO and the EU in 6–8 years,” Kubilius told Reuters.

“If we take these assessments seriously, then that is the time for us to properly prepare, and it is a short one. This means we have to take quick decisions, and ambitious decisions,” he added.

These comments come not long after we learned that NATO is developing multiple “land corridors” to rush troops to the frontline of a future hot war with Russia in eastern Europe, while amassing hundreds of thousands of troops in preparation for such a conflict.

In another article titled “US Navy Chief Unveils Plan To Be Ready for War With China By 2027,” DeCamp writes:

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the highest ranking officer in the US Navy, unveiled a plan on Wednesday to be ready for a war with China by 2027 as the US military is preparing for a direct fight with Beijing despite the risk of nuclear war.

The plan lays out goals to be reached by 2027, including making 80% of the naval force ready for combat deployments on short notice. Franchetti told The Associated Press she wants to increase combat readiness so “if the nation calls us, we can push the ‘go’ button, and we can surge our forces to be able to meet the call.”

DeCamp notes that while Franchetti says the US is preparing for war with China by 2027 because that is “the year that that President Xi told his forces to be ready to invade Taiwan,” we’ve never actually seen any evidence that this is the case. This widely repeated claim entered the mainstream narrative solely based on unsubstantiated assertions from the US intelligence cartel, not from any known statements by Xi Jinping himself.

As a side note, Franchetti is the same official we discussed back in July who said that the AUKUS military alliance (which is geared toward roping Australia into a future US-driven military confrontation with China) will remain in place no matter who wins the presidential election. The fact that US warmongering will continue no matter who wins the presidential race is obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention, but it was very interesting to see a manager of the US war machine make such a frank admission in public.

Finally, in an article titled “Deputy Secretary of State: China Is the ‘Most Significant Challenge’ in US History,” DeCamp writes the following:

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Wednesday that China is the “most significant challenge” the United States has ever faced.

“There is a recognition that this is the most significant challenge in our history,” Campbell told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to AFP. “Frankly, the Cold War pales in comparison to the multifaceted challenges that China presents.”

Campbell is a long-time China hawk and has been pushing for more of a focus on the Asia Pacific since the Obama administration and is considered the architect of the so-called “Asia pivot.” He was confirmed as the deputy secretary of state back in February and previously served as the top Asia official on President Biden’s National Security Council.

To say that China poses the most significant challenge ever to a nation that has fought in two world wars and spent decades waging a world-threatening cold war says a lot about where these empire goons see things headed in the coming years.

In July the highest ranking US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, said he was “fully confident” that the US would win a war with China over Taiwan, saying, “These will be major conflicts akin to what we saw in WWII, and so we’ve got to come to grips with that.”

No one is more dangerous than warmongers who believe they can win an unwinnable war.

Perhaps the strongest evidence that the US empire is not run by rational actors is the way all facts show that a war with China could not be won and would destroy the economy and the ecosystem — and yet all facts also show they’re preparing to wage this war anyway.

As we discussed recently, Russia has already stated that it is prepared to join with China in a fight against western aggressions. The western power structure that is centralized around the United States is preparing to wage a global war against multiple nuclear-armed states. Revolution is becoming a matter of existential urgency for our entire species.

Alastair Crooke : Israel’s War Without Limits

The Guardian may be catapulting propaganda for Israel here, this report says that Hezbollah launched missile strikes at civilian areas, other reports I've heard say that they were aimed at military targets and there was question as to whether the strikes on civilian areas were caused by Israeli interceptor missilies.

Hezbollah ‘enters battle of reckoning’ with Israel as world powers urge restraint

Hezbollah has said it has entered an “open-ended battle of reckoning” with Israel after launching a series of rocket attacks on the north of the country as world powers implored both sides to step back from the brink of all-out war.

In a significant escalation of the conflict, Israeli warplanes carried out their most intense bombardment in almost a year across southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah responded with its deepest rocket attacks into Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

The events prompted the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to warn of the risk “of transforming Lebanon [into] another Gaza”.

During a funeral for a top commander killed along with 44 other people in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, Naim Qassem, said on Sunday that an “open-ended battle of reckoning has started”. “Threats will not stop us,” he said. “We are ready to face all military possibilities.” ...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said early on Sunday that hundreds of rockets had been fired into Israel from Lebanon, with some landing near the northern city of Haifa. They said rockets had been fired “toward civilian areas”, pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.

Israel Bombs Lebanon After Blowing Up Pagers in "Act of Mass Mutilation." Is Ground Invasion Next?

Seven people killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza City school shelter

Seven people have been killed after an Israeli airstrike hit a school housing displaced people in western Gaza City, Palestinian health officials said, amid fears that Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis might be forgotten as tensions boil between Hezbollah and Israel.

The strike hit Kafr Qasem school in Beach camp on Sunday morning, officials in Gaza said. Among those killed was Majed Saleh, the director of the Hamas-run public works and housing ministry, they added.

Israel’s military said the strike had targeted Hamas fighters and that it had used aerial surveillance and taken other steps to limit the risk to civilians.

Gaza’s schools closed after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, and most have been transformed into shelters. About 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced, often multiple times.

Six other Palestinians were killed in separate airstrikes in central and southern parts of Gaza, the medics said.

Scott Ritter : Is Israel Prepared for a Three-Front War?

Lebanon reels from week of attacks that have intensified war with Israel

Thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded all over the ­country in a two-wave attack on Tuesday and Wednesday in a suspected Israeli operation, killing and wounding the Hezbollah members who ­carried them and nearby civilians. On Friday, an Israeli airstrike ­levelled a residential building in Beirut. The Israeli military said the attack killed Ibrahim Aqil and 10 other leaders of the elite Hezbollah Radwan commando unit.

By the week’s end, 76 people were killed – including 12 women and ­children – and more than 3,000 were wounded, more than doubling the total number of casualties since the war began on 8 October last year.

The sudden, brutal nature of the attacks shattered whatever sense of safety Lebanese people felt. “It was the first time that I felt that the war is around us, that we’re not safe any more. We don’t know where the next Israeli attack will be, I’m avoiding gatherings or unknown areas,” Amal Cherif, a 52-year-old activist and ­resident of central Beirut, said. When Tuesday’s pager attacks happened, she heard ­screaming and ambulances – despite the fact that her neighbourhood is not Hezbollah-affiliated.

Human rights groups condemned the pager attacks for being indiscriminate, and UN experts called the attack a “terrifying” violation of international law. “Such attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians and launching indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating the right to life,” UN human rights experts said in a statement. ...

The series of attacks has prompted unity across Lebanon. Over the past year, the country has been divided over Hezbollah’s war with Israel, with some saying it was necessary to force a ceasefire in Gaza and others ­resenting Lebanon being dragged into the conflict. ... After the pager explosions, criticisms of Hezbollah’s war against Israel stopped. Lines have formed outside hospitals as people come to donate blood. Officials put out a statement saying that kidney donations were not needed and that eye transplants were impossible, after a number of citizens offered their own. “Israel is attacking us, it’s not any more against Hezbollah, it’s against civilians. Even if we are against Hezbollah, when Israel attacks Lebanon, people stand next to each other,” Cherif said.

"Israel Has No Right": Al Jazeera Managing Editor Slams Israel's Raid & Closing of West Bank Bureau

Critics Say IDF Shutdown of Al Jazeera's West Bank Bureau Is 'Aimed at Erasing the Truth'

Press freedom advocates accused Israel of "trying to erase the truth" after heavily armed soldiers raided Al Jazeera's bureau in the West Bank of Palestine early Sunday morning and ordered the outlet—which has been the world's sole media window on the Gaza genocide—to shut down for 45 days.

Al Jazeera—which is owned by the Qatari government—said Israel Defense Forces troops stormed its bureau in Ramallah, the capital of the illegally occupied West Bank, at 3:00 am Sunday during a live broadcast. IDF troops confiscated documents and equipment and took the microphone from the hand of bureau chief Walid al-Omari as he reported on the raid.

The network—which was ordered to cease operations for 45 days—said the soldiers tore down a poster of Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Palestinian-American Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead by Israeli troops in May 2022 while covering an IDF raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

"This is part of a larger campaign against the Palestinian outlets and media in general aimed at erasing the truth," al-Omari said in an interview with Al Araby Al Jadeed. "We've been under increasing incitement since the beginning of the war."

This is how heavily armed and masked Israeli soldiers raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in the occupied West Bank's Ramallah and imposed a 45-day closure order.

The network has condemned the action as ‘criminal’ and an affront to press freedom. pic.twitter.com/bofxlDFR9Y

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 22, 2024

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the shutdown as an "arbitrary military decision" and "a new aggression against journalistic work and media outlets."

Israel's Foreign Press Association said it is "deeply troubled by this escalation, which threatens press freedom, and urges the Israeli government to reconsider these actions," adding that "restricting foreign reporters and closing news channels signals a shift away from democratic values."

The IDF acknowledged the raid later Sunday, claiming without evidence that Al Jazeera's Ramallah bureau was "being used to incite terror [and] to support terrorist activities."

Sunday's raid followed a May raid and shutdown of Al Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau, which is believed to be the first such action against a foreign media outlet operating in Israel.

Why would Israel shut Al Jazeera's bureau in Ramallah? Because it has been the center of Al Jazeera's reporting on Israeli repression -- the apartheid -- in the occupied West Bank. Rather than stop the repression, Israel tries to stop the news about it. https://t.co/BwqKKFFBAL

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) September 22, 2024

Responding to the raid, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said that the group "is deeply alarmed by Israel's closure of Al Jazeera's office in the occupied West Bank, just months after it shuttered Al Jazeera's operations in Israel after deeming it a threat to national security."

Al Jazeera is the only international news network providing nonstop on-the-ground coverage of Israel's war on Gaza. Its reporters work under constant risk to life and limb, as more than 100 media professionals, the vast majority of them Palestinians, have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7. CPJ and others say have decried what they say are deliberate attacks on media workers and their families.

In December, Israeli troops killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa as he reported on the war in southern Gaza, an attack that also injured the network'sGaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, whose wife, son, daughter, and grandson were killed in a separate IDF strike.

Previous independent probes—including investigations of Abu Akleh's killing—have confirmed that Israel has deliberately targeted journalists.

Last May, CPJ published Deadly Pattern, an investigation that found the IDF killed at least 20 journalists over the past 22 years with impunity. While some of the slain journalists have been foreigners—including Italian Associated Press reporter Simone Camilli and British cameraman and filmmaker James Miller—the vast majority of victims have been Palestinian.

Israeli forces have also attacked newsrooms in every major assault on Gaza, including in May 2021 when the 11-story al-Jalaa Tower, which housed offices of Al Jazeera, The Associated Press, and other media outlets, was destroyed in an airstrike.

U.S. investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill pointed out Sunday that Al Jazeera has also been targeted by American forces during the so-called War on Terror. He noted that U.S. forces "bombed its facilities, killed its Baghdad correspondent, and locked a cameraman in Guantánamo."

"Israel has repeated this pattern," Scahill added. "All journalists must condemn these violent assaults on freedom of the press."

Israeli Diaspora Minister Says Lebanon Isn’t a State, Advocates Taking South

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah are escalating substantially, with scores of people killed in Lebanon in the past week. Israel’s far-right government is stepping up the rhetoric and talking war.

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli is the latest voicing pro-war rhetoric, declaring overnight in comments on X.com that Lebanon does not, in his opinion, fit the definition of a state, and that this gives Israel every right to invade and seize southern Lebanon.

Chikli said that southern Lebanon is essentially under the control of “a hostile Shi’ite population.” He added that he believes neither Syria nor Iran counts as states, and so don’t merit protection for their status as sovereign nations.

Worth a click and a full read:

The Madness of Antony Blinken

On March 7, 2022, two weeks after Moscow entered the civil war in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS News from Moldova that the U.S. would give NATO-member Poland a “green light” to send Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine to enforce a no-fly zone against Russian aircraft. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer then also backed the no-fly zone. But within days the Pentagon shot down the idea as it engaged in a consequential battle with the State Department and members of Congress to prevent a direct NATO military confrontation with Russia that could unleash history’s most unimaginable horrors. ...

Biden ultimately sided with the Defense Department, and he couldn’t be more explicit why. He opposed a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine fighting Russian aircraft, he said, because “that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.” ... Blinken, who stepped out of line to speak above the heads of the president and the Pentagon, lost that round. It’s surprising he kept his job. But he survived and now he’s come back for more.

Blinken’s recklessness emerged yet again last week when he peddled a story — eagerly picked up by The Guardian and The New York Times — that Biden would approve a British request to fire its Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia.

The Guardian story on Sept. 11 said:

“The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia, with a decision understood to have already been made in private.

Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, Blinken said the US had ‘from day one’ been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed. ‘We will continue to do this,’ he emphasised.”

To fire British Storm Shadows, Ukraine would have to depend on British technical soldiers on the ground in Ukraine to actually launch them and on U.S. geolocation technology. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed those British soldiers are already in Ukraine. In other words, it would be a NATO attack on Russia, dressed up as a Ukrainian one. It would mean the U.S. and Britain were at war with Moscow, something Blinken seems to want and said was going to happen. ...

For at least the second time — publicly known — the Department of War secured peace from neocon recklessness fronted by Blinken.

Zelensky lays out delusional plan to trigger Russian revolt

Zaluzhny blasts Zelensky, Kursk disaster

UK FM Lammy urges ‘guts’ in ongoing US talks over Ukraine using missiles in Russia

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has indicated that delicate negotiations with the White House to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia are ongoing, arguing it was a time for “nerve and guts”. The apparent encouragement to Joe Biden comes just over a week after Lammy and Keir Starmer visited the US president in the White House but failed to resolve the sticking point between two countries.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, Lammy said the hardship and challenges of the war in Ukraine would get “deeper and harsher”, particularly heading into “the back end of 2025 into 2026” and beyond. “So this is a critical time for nerve and guts and patience and for fortitude on behalf of allies who stand with Ukraine,” he said in comments that appeared directed at a hesitant White House, concerned about the risks of allowing Storm Shadow missiles to be used to attack Russia. ...

Ukraine’s President Voldymyr Zelenskyy called on Biden again on Saturday to allow Ukraine to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia. His plea came before a critical meeting between the two on Thursday at the UN general assembly in New York. The issue, he added, remained unresolved despite Starmer lobbying Biden in person nine days ago.

Zelenskyy wants to be able to use British, French and Italian Storm Shadow missiles, as well as US-made Atacms to hit airbases and other military targets inside Russia. He has argued that the Kremlin could be motivated to seek peace if it was clear that Ukraine could strike targets closer to Moscow.

Social Democrats fend off AfD in crucial German state election, initial results show

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland party has narrowly missed out on victory in an election in the German state of Brandenburg, according to initial results, three weeks after making historic gains in two other regions.

In what had been widely interpreted as a referendum on the federal government of Olaf Scholz ahead of next autumn’s general election, his Social Democratic party (SPD) appeared at the 11th hour to have clawed back its lead over the anti-immigrant populists who had been on course for months to seize victory in the state for the first time.

The SPD won 30.9% to the AfD’s 29.2%, according to provisional official results by the state electoral commissioner, with both parties making gains of 5 to 6 points on their performance last time. The fledgling leftist conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a pro-Kremlin party which has called for military aid to Ukraine to be halted, secured 12%, making it a likely contender in a new administration.

With much considered to be at stake in the election, turnout was high at 74%.

France’s new government under pressure as opponents threaten no-confidence vote

Mounting threats of a parliamentary motion of no-confidence have put Michel Barnier’s new government under considerable duress before it has even had a chance to start work, as street protesters continued to voice their anger over the French prime minister’s new administration.

Eleven weeks after Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, called a snap general election, the new government was finally appointed on Saturday night. But there was little sense that the new cabinet, which signals a clear shift to the right, would bring calm into the political realm.

Opposition politicians from the left immediately announced their plans to undermine the government of Barnier – best known outside France for his role as the EU’s Brexit negotiator – with a no-confidence motion in parliament. Far-right politicians have also criticised the new formation, calling it “same-old, same-old”.

Barnier has pulled together a government consisting mainly of members of his conservative Republicans (LR) party and members of Macron’s centrist alliance. Heated discussions between Macron and Barnier over the precise makeup of the cabinet, consisting of 39 posts, continued until shortly before the announcement of the lineup was made on Saturday night.

It has since been condemned by politicians from the left and right, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticising it as a “government of the general election losers”. He said that French citizens should have the chance to overturn the new administration “at the first available opportunity”.

FTC Sues Big Pharma Middlemen for Inflating Insulin Prices

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday initiated a legal process against middlemen that collectively administer about 80% of all prescriptions in the United States, accusing them of artificially inflating the list price of insulin drugs and blocking patients from accessing cheaper products.

The FTC action targets the "Big Three" pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs): CVS Health's Caremark Rx, Cigna's Express Scripts (ESI), and UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx. It also involves their affiliated group purchasing organizations (GPOs): Zinc Health Services, Ascent Health Services, and Emisar Pharma Services.

"Millions of Americans with diabetes need insulin to survive, yet for many of these vulnerable patients, their insulin drug costs have skyrocketed over the past decade thanks in part to powerful PBMs and their greed," said Rahul Rao, deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition.

"Caremark, ESI, and Optum—as medication gatekeepers—have extracted millions of dollars off the backs of patients who need lifesaving medications," Rao continued. "The FTC's administrative action seeks to put an end to the Big Three PBMs' exploitative conduct and marks an important step in fixing a broken system—a fix that could ripple beyond the insulin market and restore healthy competition to drive down drug prices for consumers."

The FTC's vote to begin the legal process by filing a complaint was 3-0. Led by Chair Lina Khan, the Democrats supported the move while the two Republicans, Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew N. Ferguson, recused. The American Prospect executive editor David Dayen noted that "the complaint, which was filed in an administrative court, has not yet been made public, as it is undergoing redactions. Agency officials expect it to be made public on Monday."

US Taxpayers Are FUNDING Censorship On Behalf Of State Department: Matt Taibbi

Biden administration proposes rules to ban Chinese-made cars over spying fears

The Biden administration has proposed new rules that would in effect prohibit Chinese-made vehicles from US roads after a months-long investigation into software and digital connections that could be used to spy on Americans or sabotage the vehicles.

The proposed rules come as Chinese automakers become more powerful in global markets, exporting a flood of high-tech vehicles and posing new challenges to western manufacturers, with governments fearing that installed sensors, cameras and software could be used for espionage or other data collection purposes.

Chinese-made vehicles aren’t yet widespread on US roads but are becoming more common in Europe, Asia and other markets.

The new rules, described as a national security action coming out of the US chamber of commerce, focus on Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) and software integrated into the Automated Driving System (ADS).

“Malicious access to these systems could allow adversaries to access and collect our most sensitive data and remotely manipulate cars on American roads,” the department said in a statement on Sunday. It added: “Certain technologies originating from the PRC or Russia present an undue risk to both US critical infrastructure and those who use connected vehicles.”

MAGA-Allied Georgia Election Board Votes to Hand-Count Ballots: Move Could Throw National Election

Trump says he won’t run for president again in 2028 if he loses in November

Donald Trump said in an interview released on Sunday that he did not think he would run for president again in 2028 if he loses this year’s race for the White House.

In an interview on the Full Measure television show with Sharyl Attkisson, the former US president – who ran in 2016 and 2020 – was asked whether he saw himself running yet again in four years time. “No, I don’t,” Trump answered. “I don’t see that at all.” He said: “Hopefully, we’re going to be successful.”

In the polls, Kamala Harris leads Trump in most head-to-head surveys after Trump had previously established a solid lead over Joe Biden – before he scotched his re-election campaign after a disastrous debate performance. But the presidential race remains tight ahead of November’s election, especially in the key battleground states that will hold the key to victory.

Attkisson asked Trump what positions he saw people such as the tech billionaire Elon Musk, the former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and the ex-independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, holding in his administration. Trump said he had not made deals with anybody because “it’s not appropriate to do it” and “it’s too early”.

Swiss voters reject biodiversity proposal in blow to conservation campaigners

Voters in Switzerland have rejected a proposal to make authorities do more to protect natural habitats from pollution and development, preliminary results of a referendum have showed.

The biodiversity initiative, which the Swiss government and parliament had already rebuffed, envisaged changing the law to set aside more land for conservation beyond areas that were already protected.

The initiative has been closely watched by conservationists outside Switzerland, at a time when concerns about global loss of biodiversity are growing. The proposal also intended to increase protections for endangered ecosystems in a country renowned for its lakes and snow-capped mountains.

In one of Switzerland’s traditional exercises of direct democracy, more than 60% of voters rejected the plan, according to a projected result published by the national broadcaster SRF. By mid-afternoon, the initiative had been rejected by too many cantons to pass, an official tally showed.

The Swiss Green party expressed disappointment at the results and said more needed to be done to protect the environment, warning that a third of all species and half of all habitats in Switzerland were under threat.

Americans most affected by climate crisis head midwest

As a Rust belt town of 65,000 people in eastern Indiana, Muncie may not be the most exciting place in the world. It doesn’t have beaches, year-round warm weather or much in the way of cosmopolitanism. But for Laura Rivas, a cybersecurity engineer formerly of North Miami Beach, Florida, Muncie is perfect. Before she moved there in 2022, life in Florida had become unbearable.

Climate crisis-strengthened hurricanes and flooding meant her homeowner’s insurance was skyrocketing. “The climate has gotten so bad – every hurricane season was worse than the last,” she said recently. The insurance companies “couldn’t afford [to operate in Florida] any more”. Miami has been dubbed “ground zero” for climate risk and sea levels along Florida’s coast have already risen by as much as 8in (20cm) since 1950.

Shortly after receiving a notice in the mail in 2022 that her homeowner’s insurance would rise to almost $3,000 monthly, she saw her stepfather interviewed on local TV. His own property in Fort Myers had been destroyed by a tornado. Rivas made her mind up right then – it was time to go. Now, she owns a sizable three-bed home in Muncie, works from home and is excited to go ice fishing this winter. “My mortgage and homeowner’s insurance are $600 a month, total,” she said. “Five times less than my homeowners’ insurance for a home half the size in Florida.”

Rivas isn’t alone. Thousands of Puerto Ricans have fled devastating hurricanes on the island in 2017 and 2022 for new lives in Buffalo, New York, where a thriving community is adding to the former Rust belt city’s human tapestry. Californians fleeing wildfires are moving to Duluth, Minnesota, a city on the shores of Lake Superior that was once described as being “climate-proof”.

Planners in Detroit, Cleveland and beyond are looking at how to upgrade their infrastructure ahead of a possible growth of climate-induced migration.

US navy apologizes for razing of Native Alaska community in late 1800s

In a ceremony Saturday afternoon, the US navy apologized for firing upon and torching the Alaska Native village of Kake in 1869. Surrounded by tribal Chilkat weavings, historic photographs and other Lingít artwork in the Kake elementary and high school gymnasium, R Adm Mark B Sucato expressed the military’s regret, in the first of two apologies planned by the military for bombardments of Alaska Native communities in the late 1800s. ... A second ceremony is planned for 26 October, the 142nd anniversary of the navy’s 1882 bombardment of the nearby village of Angoon.

The bombardments of Kake and Angoon occurred just a few years after the United States bought the territory of Alaska from Russia in 1867. During those early years, the US army and navy patrolled the region, including from a fort in Sitka where, in 1869, a sentry killed two Lingít men. To settle the ensuing dispute, an army general dispatched the USS Saginaw, a warship, to Kake to “seize a few of their chiefs as hostages till [the accused] are given up” and to “burn their villages”

“They burned everything. All the shelters, all the food caches, the canoes,” Jackson told the Washington Post. Although no one was killed during the winter bombardment, he said the destruction of the community and its supplies and canoes led to many deaths.

Thirteen years later, the military bombarded a second village after another dispute – this time over the death of a Lingít medicine man. Although the elder’s death onboard a whaling ship was an accident, the tribe sought customary recompense of 200 blankets. Edgar Merriman, the naval commander of the department of Alaska at the time, denied the request and instead demanded 400 blankets from the tribe. When the Lingít only partly fulfilled the request, Merriman ordered US forces to bomb the settlement in Angoon.

Also of Interest

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

Biden Didn’t “Fail” To Get A Ceasefire; He Never Tried

US Officials Say There Will Be No Gaza Ceasefire Deal Before Biden’s Term Ends

Israel Hates Truth

Patrick Lawrence: The ‘War Party’ Makes Its Plans

Ukraine - Zelinski's 'Victory Plan' Charade

Chris Hedges and Glenn Greenwald on Media, Terror, Gaza, and More

Haiti and Springfield, Ohio

Supreme court’s Chevron decision adds ambiguity to cannabis law

Austrian city faces up to scale of damage left by deadly flooding

Hezbollah's Revenge: Israel Ignites Lebanon War In Massive Raid w/ Ghadi Francis & Lowkey

'Lebanon Will Be Annihilated': Israeli Minister Threatens ALL OUT War

A Little Night Music

Tommy Brown - The House Near The Railroad Track

Tommy Brown - Double Faced Deacon

Tommy Brown - Remember Me

Tommy Brown - V-8 Baby

Tommy Brown & The Griffin Brohters - Weepin' And Cryin'

Tommy Brown - Ain't So

Tommy Brown - Love Of Mine

Tommy Brown & The Four Students - The Thrill Is Gone

Big Walter Horton & Tommy Brown ~ Tribute 1954