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“War is the health of the state.”

-- Randolph Bourne

News and Opinion

The US Empire Does Not Seek Peace; Its Existence Depends On Endless War

On Tuesday the dementia-addled meat puppet who is still officially the President of the United States told the UN that he is working to bring a “greater measure of peace and stability to the middle east,” even as the US government pumps weapons into Israel so that it can continue its bloody massacres in Lebanon and Gaza.

On Wednesday Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told the press that “we don’t want to see this escalate” in Lebanon and that the US is working to “avoid a regional war”.

Only an idiot would believe these claims. They are self-evidently false. Nobody who seeks peace finds themselves in a constant state of war. This is true of Israel, and it is true of the US-centralized empire as a whole.

It is obviously false to say the US seeks peace in the middle east, but it’s not really accurate to say it seeks war either. To me that would be like saying water seeks wetness or fire seeks heat. War is just what the US empire is made of. It’s the thing that it is.

Everything about the US-centralized power structure is pointed at continuous military expansionism and mass military violence. Once you’ve decided that it’s your job to try to bring the entire population of your whole planet under the rule of a single power umbrella at any cost, you’ve accepted that you will be using violent force in perpetuity, because that’s the only way to subdue populations who have no interest in such an arrangement. You might tell yourself that you want peace, and at times you might even actively try to avoid war, but everything about the way you’ve arranged your operation makes war inevitable.

This is the kind of environment that western empire managers spend their careers being groomed into accepting as normal. So they might actually believe they are telling the truth when they say their government wants peace, but this is the same as a fire saying it’s doing everything it can to cool down the firewood.

It is the fire’s nature to burn, and it is the US empire’s nature to make war. War is interwoven into every fiber of its existence. It’s written into every part of its code. As soon as the mass-scale use of violence ends, the globe-spanning power structure that’s loosely centralized around Washington will end. War is the glue that holds that power structure together.

Look at this graph to see how Gaza has changed everything.

Israel is emboldened to carry out indiscriminate slaughter in Lebanon after almost a year of live-streamed genocide—backed fully by the U.S.—with zero consequences. pic.twitter.com/plhTU0oU8Z

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) September 25, 2024

Both the mainstream “progressivism” of Bernie Sanders and the right wing “populism” of Donald Trump try in their own ways to argue for a kinder, gentler empire which avoids unnecessary conflicts and abuses, but these arguments are deceptions in and of themselves, because the empire is made of conflict and abuse.

The less war, militarism, economic strangulation and proxy interventionism there is, the less US empire there is. The empire can’t roll back its violence any more than a shark can swim backwards. The only way to end the forward movement of a shark is to end its life.

The wars will not end until the US empire itself ends. This doesn’t mean ending the US as a country, it means ending the globe-spanning power structure comprised of allies, assets and subjects that’s held together by endless violence. Every foreign policy official in Washington, London, Paris and Canberra has been groomed to view this as the worst possible outcome and to avoid it at all cost, and to spend their careers fiendishly dedicated to the project of ensuring that the fire keeps burning and the shark keeps moving forward. Only ordinary members of the public with normal healthy human values will ever be able to see this.

The problem isn’t that western officials keep making bad individual decisions at each individual juncture in foreign conflicts of interest, the problem is that the existence of the western empire guarantees foreign conflicts of interest, and ensures that violent force will be used to control their outcomes.

Those who support the US empire will occasionally look back on history and acknowledge that in hindsight there were some bad individual decisions made with regard to Vietnam or Iraq or wherever, but they’ll never admit there is an innately murderous structure in place that guarantees Vietnams and Iraqs will continue to happen in the future. But that is the reality, and you’ll never hear it acknowledged in the state propaganda services known as the mainstream western press.

Our rulers are too far absorbed into the imperial machine to recognize this as true, so you will reliably hear them babbling about seeking peace and avoiding civilian suffering — even as they take steps ensuring that peace will not happen and civilians continue to suffer. These are the only moves they can see on the chessboard. The options that would lead to real peace are not even recognized as legal moves in the game. So they keep moving the pieces around in accordance with the rules of empire, and saying “Oh how sad” when families are incinerated and children are ripped to shreds, but saying that it was the only move available on the board.

Our world is on fire, and the US-centralized empire is the flame. We ordinary people must find some way to extinguish it, before it torches us all.

Worth a watch:

"Hell Is Breaking Loose in Lebanon": Israel Rejects Ceasefire Proposal as U.N. Chief Calls for Peace

US thwarts French and British push for Lebanon ceasefire call at UN

An effort led by France and Britain to secure a joint statement by the UN security council calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon has stalled in the face of US objections. Washington is eager to avoid any suggestion there is any equivalence of blame for the eruption of the crisis that has led to the loss of life of hundreds of people in Lebanon.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has been firm in asserting Israel has a legitimate problem to solve, blaming Hezbollah’s continued rocket fire into Israel ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. At one point there had been suggestions the UN security council, due to start late Wednesday, would be deferred overnight to secure agreement on a joint statement, but diplomats said such hopes were fast fading.

The differences emerged at a G7 dinner on Tuesday night. Both Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, went public in calls for a ceasefire to end the fighting. France and UK had also called for a ceasefire in meetings with allies in Paris a week ago. European sources said the US had been working on a different, more complex, formula, and was sensitive to Israeli pressure or wording that would be seen to block its military offensive to degrade Hezbollah.

In a round of morning TV interviews Blinken was careful not to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon, referring instead to a diplomatic agreement. He told ABC News that Hezbollah had started firing rockets into Israel after the deadly attacks of 7 October, saying: “People who lived in northern Israel had to flee their homes – homes were destroyed; villages were destroyed – about 70,000 Israelis. Israel started responding. You have Lebanese in southern Lebanon who’ve also had to flee their homes. We want to see people get back to their homes. The best way to do that is through a diplomatic agreement – [one that] pulls the forces back, creates space and security so that people can get back to their homes, kids can get back to school.”

Joe Biden also told ABC television that all-out war was possible, but added: “We’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region.”

Biden HUMILIATED AGAIN By Bibi In Lebanon

Israel preparing for possible ground offensive in Lebanon, military chief says

Israel’s top general has said the country is preparing for a possible ground operation into Lebanon amid growing international pressure for a negotiated ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. As an intense bombing campaign inside Lebanon stretched into a third day, Israel’s chief of staff, Maj Gen Herzi Halevi, said the airstrikes aimed to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure and prepare for the possibility of Israeli troops crossing the border.

Halevi told troops during a visit to Israel’s north: “We are preparing the process of a manoeuvre, which means your military boots, your manoeuvring boots, will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points and launchpads into our territory [from which to] carry out attacks on Israeli civilians.” Despite Halevi’s comments, the Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said a ground offensive did not appear “imminent”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah aimed a long-range missile at Tel Aviv and Israel targeted the mountains north of Beirut for the first time in the war, drawing an Israeli warning that it was preparing a major response.

Halevi’s comments came amid growing pressure from the US for a pause in the fighting and a warning from Joe Biden over the need to avoid “all-out war” in the region. ... Biden, who has been widely criticised for mishandling the escalating Middle East crisis, suggested that getting Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire could help achieve a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. ...

Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the US was the only country that could end the conflict, but expressed disappointment after Biden addressed the UN on Tuesday. His remarks were “not strong” and “would not solve the Lebanese problem”, Bou Habib said.

SCOTT RITTER : Israel Suicidal for Invading Lebanon

With All Eyes on Gaza, Israel Bulldozed 'Mile After Mile' of West Bank

As the world watched Israel's assaults on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, The New York Times on Wednesday also directed attention to the West Bank, detailing how "Israeli military bulldozers tore up mile after mile" of Jenin and Tulkarm in recent weeks.

While "nearly nightly raids" by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "have become the norm" in the West Bank since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, the military last month "launched one of its most extensive and deadliest raids" in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory in years, the newspaper reported, citing videos and interviews with residents.

"We watched their bulldozers tear up streets, demolish businesses, pharmacies, schools. They even bulldozed the town soccer field, and a tree in the middle of a road," said Kamal Abu al-Rub, governor of Jenin. "What was the point of all of this?"

In addition to ground operations in the West Bank, the IDF has increased airstrikes that critics say run afoul of international law. The military defended the strikes and told the Times that in recent raids, troops found weapon stockpiles and killed or arrested dozens of militants—but also caused some "unavoidable harm to certain civilian structures."

In response to videos included in the reporting, freelance journalist Pete Tucker accused Israeli soldiers of "methodically laying waste to" the West Bank.

Malini Ranganathan, an associate professor at American University's School of International Service, said on social media that "Israel's criminality knows no limits. IDF bulldozers have been obliterating the West Bank, even tearing up roundabouts."

Israeli forces have damaged homes, shops, and roads along with internet, electricity, phone, water, and sewage lines in the West Bank. Emergency crews have been unable to respond to hundreds of calls per day, because they can't reach people in need.

"They are imposing conditions, materially and psychologically, that make people feel: Gaza is coming to you," Al Haq director Shawan Jabarin told the Times. "There is a feeling among Palestinians across the West Bank that what is coming is very bad—that it will be a plan to kill and expel us."

Since the October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,100 people, Israeli forces have slaughtered at least 41,455 Palestinians in Gaza and 716 in the West Bank. Across the Palestinian territories, over 100,000 others have been injured over the past year. The bloodshed led to an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The ICJ in July issued a nonbinding advisory opinion that Israel's decadeslong occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and must end "as rapidly as possible." Instead, Israel has ramped up attacks on not only the Palestinian territories, but also Lebanon, home to the political and paramilitary group Hezbollah.

This week's bombing campaign in Lebanon—which has killed at least 569 people—sparked fresh calls for the Biden administration to finally cut off weapons to Israel, as did the new reporting from the Times, which has been accused of pro-Israel bias in its coverage of the assault on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli destruction in the West Bank continues. The International Middle East Media Center reported that "on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers invaded the town of Beit Ula, west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank's southern part, [and] bulldozed over 20 dunams of land, uprooting more than 600 fruit-bearing trees, and demolishing several agricultural structures and wells."

Rights Groups List 50+ Calls for Gaza Genocide on Israel's Channel 14

Since the October 7 attack, Israel's right-wing Channel 14 has broadcast over 50 statements by presenters, panelists, and guests advocating or defending genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and more than 150 calls for war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to a report published Tuesday by an Israeli newspaper.

Haaretz reported that the Israeli human rights groups—Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, Hatzlacha: Movement for the Promotion of a Fair Society, and the Democratic Bloc—have compiled a list of genocidal statements and incitements to war crimes made by individuals appearing on Channel 14 since October 7.

The groups have written to Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara requesting a criminal investigation into the station for "systematic and widespread incitement." The organizations want Channel 14 sanctioned and fined.

"On October 7, the terrorist organization Hamas committed war crimes and crimes against humanity," attorneys Michael Sfard, Alon Sapir, and Einat Gaier—who are representing the groups—told Haaretz. This caused "massive grief, deep sorrow, and burning and understandable fury."

"Israeli society is deeply traumatized, and this trauma will take years to heal," the lawyers continued. "This is exactly the type of ground upon which moral monstrosities are liable to flourish, and are flourishing."

Shay Golden, on Israel’s Channel 14, threatens Palestinians, stating that they can't imagine how many will be killed and slaughtered.

Golden adds that even if Israel needed to boycott the entire world, they would be ‘prepared to fight the United States and the entire world' pic.twitter.com/g6IRDPHHtv

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 20, 2023

The Haaretz article lists each incident in which genocidal statements have aired on Channel 14, with one program, "The Patriots," appearing repeatedly on the list.

On October 12, former Israeli lawmaker Moshe Feiglin—who has quoted Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, while arguing for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—said on "The Patriots" that "if the goal of this operation isn't destruction, occupation, expulsion, and settlement, then we've done nothing."

Two days later on the program, presenter Nave Dromi said that "there are no innocents" in Gaza.

"In 1948, they brought the Nakba on themselves," she added, referring to the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine by Jewish militias during the foundation of modern Israel. "Now they'll have a second Nakba, but for real, to finish the job."

The following day, October 15, Channel 14 aired a prerecorded message from Israeli singer Eyal Golan, who asserted that "Gaza should be totally wiped out, not one person should be left there."

Golan's message was cited in the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Israeli State Attorney Amit Aisman is also considering a criminal investigation of Golan's remarks.

An Israeli soldier who was detained among ten others on accusations of participating in the rape of a Palestinian prisoner at Israel's Sde Teiman prison has appeared on TV to defend himself and his unit. pic.twitter.com/KXsTFoK5cB

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 9, 2024

The human rights groups and Haaretz documented many other instances of on-air calls for indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, shooting civilians, and to "just exterminate" Palestinians.

Channel 14 personalities were aware of the legal implications of these statements. Following the ICJ's January order for Israel to avoid genocidal acts—which the country's far-right government has been accused of ignoring—Israeli journalist Shimon Riklin said on air that a law professor "warned me before the broadcast that if I say these things on the show I could be sued in The Hague."

"But I want you all to know that since October 7, one of the things that helps me to sleep is when I see all kinds of buildings flying through the air in Gaza, I enjoy it," he said. "Let's have more! Destroy as much as possible, so they won't have anywhere to go back to. Hang on a second, The Hague is calling... Hello?"

That same day another Israeli journalist, Itamar Fleischmann, argued on air that "the more humane solution is to starve" Palestinians in Gaza.

"And the choice is up to the civilians there," he added. "You want to keep starving? Keep supporting Hamas... That's why in my view, the Israeli interest is starvation in Gaza and a humanitarian disaster in Gaza."

At least dozens of Gazans, mostly children, have starved to death amid Israel's siege of the embattled enclave, where more than 147,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured by Israel's nearly yearlong onslaught.

"Incitement to war crimes is part of the Channel 14 poison machine, and its aim is to create a forever war here," Zehava Galon, a former left-wing Israeli lawmaker and president of Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, told Haaretz.

In a social media post, Zulat for Equality and Human Rights said Tuesday that "we specifically present here evidence of a serious crime being committed on Channel 14 and it needs to be stopped immediately."

Channel 14 "turned these statements into a systematic agenda," the group added. "An urgent investigation is required so that this incitement cannot be legitimate and allowed in Israel. It's time for the instigators to pay the price."

Israel's ex-Defence Minister admits "the IDF is no longer a moral army"

Same Yaalon bragged in 2017 that "There are hardly any senior government officials & Knesset members who have had to kill more [Palestinians] than me"

So you can imagine how far worse things have become… pic.twitter.com/MxEaRgmQk6

— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) September 24, 2024

Worth a click and a full read. Here's some to get you started:

Media Complicit in the Crimes of Israel

The coverage of Israeli soldiers pushing three Palestinians off a roof in the West Bank town of Qabatiya — it’s unclear whether the men are dead or near-dead — is being barely reported by the Western media, even though it was videoed from at least three different angles and a reporter from the main U.S. news agency Associated Press witnessed it. AP’s news feed is accessed by all Western establishment media, so they all know.

Yet again, the media has chosen to ignore Israeli war crimes, [or refrain from describing them as “war crimes” even when there is definitive proof that they occurred. (Or perhaps more accurately — even more so when there is definitive proof they occurred.) Remember, that same media never fails to highlight — or simply makes up — any crime Palestinians are accused of, such as those non-existent “beheaded babies.”

AP itself treats this latest atrocity in the West Bank as no big deal. It reports simply that it may be part of a “pattern of excessive force” by Israeli soldiers towards Palestinians. That comment, without quote marks and ascribed to a human rights group, is almost certainly AP’s preferred characterisation of the group’s reference to a pattern not of “excessive force” but of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. AP makes sure to give Israel’s pretext for why it is committing war crimes: “Israel says the raids are necessary to stamp out militancy.”

But it forgets yet again to mention why that “militancy” exists: because Israel has been violently enforcing an illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territories for many decades, in which it — once again illegally — has drafted in an army of settler militias to drive out the native Palestinian population. AP also forgets to mention that, under international law, the Palestinians have every right to resist Israel’s occupying soldiers, including “militantly.”

Western governments might characterise Palestinians shooting at Israeli soldiers as “terrorism,” but that’s not how it is seen in the international law codes that Western states drafted decades ago and that they claim to uphold.

Aaron Maté : Neocons Eyeing Iran

Trump's threat to blow Iran's largest cities and the country itself "to smithereens" is an outrageous threat that should be widely condemned as psychotic and genocidal.https://t.co/8LImpJLefl

— NIAC (@NIACouncil) September 25, 2024

Putin Orders Changes to Nuclear Doctrine in Major Warning to West

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday outlined changes that will be made to Russia’s nuclear doctrine as the US and NATO consider supporting long-range Ukrainian strikes inside Russia.

Putin said in a meeting with the Russian Security Council that under the new doctrine, an attack on Russia by a non-nuclear state that’s supported by a nuclear-armed power would be treated as a joint attack, a clear reference to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory that use NATO weapons and intelligence.

Based on Putin’s comments, it’s unclear if that means such an attack would trigger a nuclear response. But the new doctrine will allow the use of nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack that poses a “critical threat to Russian sovereignty.”

According to TASS, the doctrine will also allow the use of nuclear weapons in response to “aggression” against Russia and Belarus, and if Russia becomes aware of plans to launch massive airstrikes against its territory.

China test launches intercontinental ballistic missile for first time in decades

China has announced the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the “high seas” of the Pacific Ocean, flying over the northern point of the Philippines in what is believed to be the first such test since the early 1980s.

The launch of the missile, which the defence ministry said was carrying a dummy warhead, comes at a time of growing international scrutiny of the country’s nuclear arsenal, and prompted statements of concern from several nations.

The ICBM was launched by the People’s Liberation Army rocket force (PLARF) at 8:44am Beijing time on Wednesday. The Chinese defence ministry said the launch was part of a “routine arrangement in our annual training plan”, and the missile “fell into expected sea areas”. It did not provide further details except to say that the launch was not directed at any specific country or target. ...

The last similar launch was believed to be in 1980, when China sent its first developed ICBM, the Dong Feng-5, into the Pacific Ocean. Analysts speculated that the ICBM tested on Wednesday was a Dong Feng-41, which has a range of 12,000-15,000km, or its predecessor, the Dong Feng-31, which can travel 7,200-8,000 km.

Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew school of public policy, noted that ICBM test launches – such as those conducted by North Korea – are usually shot into high altitude, still travelling a long distance but landing at a point closer to the launch site than what China’s Wednesday test appeared to do. He said China’s decision to go long was “clearly” to send a message.

Justin Trudeau survives confidence vote but other problems still loom

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, has easily survived a vote of confidence after his main political rival failed to muster enough support to end nine years of Liberal party rule.

Legislators in the House of Commons voted 211-120 to defeat a motion by the official opposition Conservative party declaring a lack of confidence in Trudeau’s minority Liberal government.

Trudeau, whose popularity has slumped amid unhappiness over rising prices and a housing crisis, became more politically vulnerable this month when the smaller New Democratic party tore up a 2022 deal to keep him in power until an election scheduled for end-October 2025. ...

Despite surviving the vote, other challenges loom for Trudeau. Earlier in the day, the leader of the separatist Bloc Québécois said he would work to bring down the government unless it quickly agreed to the Bloc’s demands.

Trudeau’s Liberals will soon face a second vote on one of its budget measures, which is also a matter of confidence, but are expected to also survive that. Officials said the vote could take place on Wednesday or Thursday.

US Congress passes government funding package to avert shutdown

US Congress passed a three-month government funding package on Wednesday, sending the bill to Joe Biden’s desk and averting a shutdown that was set to begin next Tuesday.

The Senate approved the funding package just two hours after the House passed the bill on Wednesday afternoon, as lawmakers raced to return to their home districts six weeks before election day.

The bill won significant bipartisan support in both chambers, with the Senate voting 78 to 18 in favor of its passage after the House approved the legislation in a vote of 341 to 82. Every vote against the bill, which will extend government funding until 20 December, came from Republicans.

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, unveiled the legislation on Sunday after his original funding proposal failed to pass last week. Johnson’s original bill combined a six-month funding measure 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. Fourteen House Republicans and all but two House Democrats voted against that bill last Wednesday, blocking its passage.

Days later, Johnson announced that the House would move forward with a “very narrow, bare-bones CR” that will extend government funding for three months, conceding to Democrats’ weeks-long demands.

Trump-Zelenskyy feud escalates as Republicans demand envoy’s removal

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington as the feud between Donald Trump and Volodymr Zelenskyy escalated and Republicans accused the Ukrainian leader of election interference. In a public letter, Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week

Johnson complained that Markarova had organised the visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”. The event was attended by the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who has campaigned in support of Kamala Harris. “The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited,” Johnson wrote in a letter on congressional letterhead addressed to the Ukrainian embassy.

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” the letter continued. “This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country. She should be removed from her post immediately.”

On the same day, Trump in a campaign event in North Carolina attacked Zelenskyy directly and accused him of “refusing” to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin. “The president of Ukraine is in our country. He is making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president, me,” Trump said. “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy.”

The accusations against Zelenskyy came after a controversial interview with the New Yorker in which he questioned Trump’s plan to end Ukraine’s war with Russia and sharply criticized Republicans’ vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, as “too radical”.

Global heating ‘doubled’ chance of extreme rain in Europe in September

Planet-heating pollution doubled the chance of the extreme levels of rain that hammered central Europe in September, a study has found. Researchers found global heating aggravated the four days of heavy rainfall that led to deadly floods in countries from Austria to Romania.

The rains were made at least 7% stronger by climate change, World Weather Attribution (WWA) found, which led to towns being hit with volumes of water that would have been half as likely to occur if humans had not heated the planet. “The trend is clear,” said Bogdan Chojnicki, a climate scientist at Poznań University of Life Sciences, and co-author of the study. “If humans keep filling the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions, the situation will be more severe.”

Storm Boris stalled over central Europe in mid-September and unleashed record-breaking amounts of rain upon Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The heavy rains turned calm streams into wild rivers, triggering floods that wrecked homes and killed two dozen people. The researchers said measures to adapt had lowered the death toll compared with similar floods that hit the region in 1997 and 2002. They called for better flood defences, warning systems and disaster-response plans, and warned against continuing to rebuild in flood-prone regions.

“These floods indicate just how costly climate change is becoming,” said Maja Vahlberg, technical adviser at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and co-author of the study. “Even with days of preparation, flood waters still devastated towns, destroyed thousands of homes and saw the European Union pledge €10bn in aid.”

Rapid attribution studies, which use established methods but are published before going through lengthy peer-review processes, examine how human influence affects extreme weather in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The scientists compared the rainfall recorded in central Europe over four days in September with amounts simulated for a world that is 1.3C cooler – the level of warming caused to date by burning fossil fuels and destroying nature. They attributed a “doubling in likelihood and a 7% increase in intensity” to human influence.

Scottish salmon farm cleared tonnes of dead fish before inspection

The removal of tonnes of dead fish from a salmon farm before a Scottish parliament fact-finding mission there gave a misleading impression of conditions, an animal rights charity says. Footage secretly filmed by Animal Equality UK shows salmon being disposed of on Monday morning before a visit to Dunstaffnage salmon farm, near Oban, later that day by committee members carrying out an inquiry into the industry. The committee said the footage raised questions about fish mortality.

Animal Equality UK said tracking data also showed a delousing boat visited the farm three days earlier and dead floating fish were filmed there on the Saturday. ...

The Holyrood rural affairs and islands (RAI) committee is conducting an inquiry into salmon farming as a follow-up to its 2018 inquiry, which expressed concern about “extremely high mortality rates” at certain sites. It also said the industry had not yet identified an effective way to deal with “the significant challenge presented by sea lice infestation”.

Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, said: “To remove tonnes of dead fish just hours before politicians arrive to investigate is outrageous and depicts a wholly inaccurate image of the industry. We urge the RAI committee to see the industry for what it truly is: deceptive and deadly. “Given the unnatural conditions, sea lice and diseases run rampant on many Scottish salmon farms." ...

The RAI committee is scheduled to hear formal evidence from salmon farming representatives on Wednesday next week. Its inquiry is said to be assessing “what progress has been made in developing the industry since 2018 and how the various fish health, environmental and climate change challenges it faces are being addressed”. A spokesperson for the committee said: “We have heard concerns about fish mortality on salmon farms during the wide range of evidence taken throughout our inquiry and this footage raises further questions for the committee.”

Hurricane Helene forecast to be most powerful storm to hit US in a year

Tropical Storm Helene strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday morning. The tempest was labeled a category 1 hurricane and the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it was packing maximum sustained winds of 80mph (128km/h) as it churned in the eastern Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of the Yucatán peninsula.

It is expected to hit Florida’s Gulf coast later on Thursday as a forceful hurricane and is forecast to potentially be the most powerful storm to hit the US in more than a year.

The storm will almost certainly continue intensifying throughout the day and into Thursday, when it will bring life-threatening storm surge to much of Florida’s coastline, according to forecasters. ... The storm could build to a category 3 hurricane as it roars across the Gulf. It threatens “the entire west Florida coast and Big Bend area”, the NHC said on Wednesday morning.

The hurricane center, part of a federal agency, said Helene was expected to have a bigger high-wind expanse than 90% of other major hurricanes, with its wind field and rain bands expected to stretch more than 140 miles east of the eye.

Also of Interest

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

How Political Corruption Allows Antony Blinken To Break The Law

U.S. Gov't Agencies Found Israel Was Blocking Gaza Aid. Blinken Ignored Them to Keep Weapons Flowing

NYT Repeats US Gov’s Evidence-Free Claim That Gaza Protests Are Part of Iranian Plot

A Rude Greeting for Netanyahu’s Coming UN Visit

Israel Sends Truck Full of Bodies of Unidentified Palestinians Into Gaza

Iran president’s high-wire appeal for diplomacy buffeted by winds of war

Who Holds All These US Treasuries? Update on the Investors in the Ballooning US National Debt in Q2

93F and no electricity: why some US utilities can cut power despite heatwaves

Israel’s Killing Spree Expands to Lebanon: Why Lebanon Will Win w/ Ghadi Francis

"The Middle East: Where American IDEAS go To DIE" US Former Diplomat

NYC Mayor Adams charged with bribery, wire fraud in 5-count indictment

Keir Starmer freebies scandal

A Little Night Music

Jimmy Rogers - Act Like You Love Me

Jimmy Rogers - Little Store Blues

Jimmy Rogers - Blues All Day Long

Jimmy Rogers-Walking By Myself

Jimmy Rogers-Chicago Bound

Jimmy Rogers-Sloppy Drunk

Jimmy Rogers All Stars - Blow Wind Blow

Jimmy Rogers – Ludella

Jimmy Rogers- You´re Sweet

Jimmy Rogers - Rock This House