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"Someday, I have no doubt, the dead from today's wars will be seen with a similar sense of sorrow at needless loss and folly as those millions of men who lie in the cemeteries of France and Belgium - and tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others' lives."

-- Adam Hochschild

News and Opinion

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Netanyahu Arrest Warrant !!!

ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged Gaza war crimes

The international criminal court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.

It is the first time that leaders of a democracy and western-aligned state have been charged by the court, in the most momentous decision of its 22-year history.

Netanyahu and Gallant are at risk of arrest if they travel to any of the 124 countries that signed the Rome statute establishing the court. Israel claims to have killed Deif in an airstrike in July, but the court’s pre-trial chamber said it would “continue to gather information” to confirm his death.

The chamber ruled that there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore criminal responsibility as co-perpetrators for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”. ...

Netanyahu’s office denounced the chamber’s decision as “antisemitic”.

I take note of the decision of the @IntlCrimCourt to issue arrest warrants for Israel PM Netanyahu, former Minister Gallant, and Hamas leader Deif.

These decisions are binding on all States party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 21, 2024

The ICC’s arrest warrants are long overdue.

The Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary must immediately endorse this decision. That is the bare minimum.

Will the UK government now, finally, honour its international obligations to prevent genocide and end all arms sales to Israel?

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) November 21, 2024

Wanted for War Crimes: ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu & Gallant over Gaza

The Real Israel

One of the very few good things coming out of the relentless nightmare happening in Gaza is that at long last the western world is getting a clear look at Israel. The real Israel.

Not the Israel they teach you about in school. Not “the only democracy in the middle east,” where Jews were given safe haven after their victimization at the hands of the Nazis and managed to create a thriving society despite existing in a sea of savage enemies bent on their destruction.

Not that Israel. The real one. Arguably the most racist society on earth, whose existence has depended on nonstop violence, theft, tyranny and abuse since its very inception.

If Russia did this, the US govt would be shouting it from the rooftops and readying a shipment of ICBMs.

But ethno-supremacist Israel is responsible, so we only hear deafening silence. https://t.co/0vunVq4h1R

— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) November 19, 2024

The real Israel, whose government is deliberately and methodically starving Palestinian civilians to death by the tens of thousands just for being the wrong ethnicity.

The real Israel, whose snipers routinely murders Palestinian children by shooting them in the head.

The real Israel, whose military is so sadistic that it created an AI system to specifically target suspected Hamas fighters when they are at home with their families, and called the AI “Where’s Daddy?” because it would be killing fathers when they are at home with their children.

The real Israel, whose soldiers cannot stop posting footage of themselves mockingly dressed in the undergarments of dead and displaced Palestinian women and playing with the toys of dead and displaced Palestinian children.

The real Israel, where Palestinian doctors are raped and tortured to death.

Likely raped to death.
A doctor. A stellar surgeon. The embodiment of Palestinian ethics.
Likely raped to death.

The racism of Western media who are not covering this, and Western politicians who are not denouncing this, together with the thousand other testimonies and… pic.twitter.com/IRpCSi9nVZ

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) November 18, 2024

The real Israel, where the majority of men do not believe acquaintance rape or spousal rape are real crimes, and where the majority do not believe the soldiers accused of raping and torturing a Palestinian prisoner to the point of severe injury should face criminal charges.

The real Israel, who routinely bombs buildings full of civilians and then uses sniper drones to pick off the survivors, including children.

The real Israel, whose drones have been heard playing the sounds of crying babies and screaming women in order to lure out civilians so they can be killed.

The real Israel, who has damaged or destroyed 94 percent of the healthcare facilities in Gaza with hundreds of targeted attacks.

The real Israel, whose military forces target medical staff so methodically that doctors and nurses in Gaza reportedly change out of their uniforms when they leave the hospital in order to avoid assassination.

The real Israel, who hates truth so much that it has been killing historic numbers of journalists in Gaza while preventing foreign journalists from entering the enclave.

The real Israel, who has been knowingly attacking the locations of humanitarian aid workers.

The real Israel, whose citizens are so warped and twisted that they attend boat tours to cheerfully witness the devastation in the Gaza Strip.

The real Israel, whose citizens set up blockades to prevent aid trucks from getting to starving civilians in Gaza while they enjoy barbecues and set up bouncy castles and cotton candy machines for their children.

The real Israel, whose TikTok influencers started a viral trend mocking the suffering of civilians in Gaza.

The real Israel, whose citizens will travel to another country and tear down Palestinian flags and sing about how there are no children left in Gaza and then cry victim when people fight back.

This is the real Israel, in all its glory. And it is good that it is being seen.

The sooner everyone stops supporting this freakish, murderous society and begins insisting that normal human values win out over the demented forces which keep it going, the sooner there can be peace in the region. And the better off our entire species will be.

US vetoes UN security council push to call for ceasefire in Gaza

The US has vetoed a UN security council push to call for a ceasefire in Gaza that Washington said would have emboldened Hamas.

The resolution demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the war between Israel and the Palestinian group, along with “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

The UN security council voted 14-1 in favor of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the US veto.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said the resolution “was not a path to peace, it was a road map to more terror, more suffering and more bloodshed.

“Many of you attempted to pass this injustice. We thank the United States for exercising its veto.”

Israeli Use of AI Weapons in Gaza Denounced as Blatant Violation of Treaty Obligations

Amid reporting that the Israel Defense Forces is using an artificial intelligence weapons system touted as improving "operator lethality," Jewish Voice for Peace said Israel's use of technological warfare is "nothing new"—but pointed out that the new reports follow the country's signing of "the first global 'safety' AI treaty."

The Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, spearheaded by the Council of Europe, was signed by Israel in September, and "claims to be a legal framework governing AI systems to mitigate risks to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law—but the Israeli military is using AI to do precisely the opposite," said JVP.

The Jewish-led advocacy group spoke out after Middle East Eye (MEE) reported that the IDF has been using a weapons system in Gaza that came out of a collaboration between Israeli Weapons Industries and the Indian company Adani Defence & Aerospace.

The AI system, Arbel, was first unveiled at a defense expo in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in October 2022. MEE reported it is capable of turning "machine guns and assault rifles into computerized killing machines," using algorithms to increase Israeli soldiers' chances of hitting targets with accuracy and "efficiency."

The huge death toll in Gaza—which is conservatively estimated to be about 44,000 but which nearly 100 medical professionals estimated to be more than 118,000 last month, based on their experiences in hospitals there—has previously been linked to Israel's use of AI.

As Common Dreams reported in April, an AI machine called Lavender has been used by the IDF to devise "kill lists," with the military deeming 100 civilian deaths for every Hamas official an acceptable error rate. In December, the Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call reported that another AI machine called Gospel has been used to target dozens of buildings per day.

Defense analysts told MEE that Arbel has likely been used to "carry out the carnage of Palestinians in a more efficient manner in Gaza."

Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist who tracks the use of technological warfare in Gaza and the West Bank, told MEE that as Israel has used numerous AI systems over the past 13 months, "targeting civilians was the point. It was never about just going after Hamas."

"I have spoken to people in Gaza, I have seen the direct human impact of this kind of killing," he told the outlet. "It is horrific."

Research analyst Noah Sylvia of the Royal United Services Institute in London told MEE that the IDF "has demonstrated a disregard for civilian life in Gaza to the point of routinely targeting children with small arms, meaning that Arbel could easily be used to make the killing of civilians, of children, more efficient."

The impact of the AI system depends "on the military's operating procedures and commitment to international humanitarian law," said Sylvia.

Humanitarian groups and human rights experts have said Israel is blatantly disregarding international law with its near-total blockade of aid into Gaza and its attacks—some with U.S. weapons—on civilians infrastructure.

JVP said the IDF's use of Arbel indicates Israel is also violating the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, and noted reports that the military has also used "facial recognition technology and advanced weapons to monitor, silence dissent, cut internet access, and obscure its war crimes."

Marwa Fatafta, Middle East policy and advocacy director for Access Now, warned that Israel's partnering with India—where AI companies reportedly have the sixth-highest AI investments in the world at $7.73 billion—may provide "a new and terrifying blueprint for tech-enabled warfare... this time through Indian-Israel military tech."

"Rarely does a technology stay dormant in one location," Fatafta said. "The lawlessness and impunity in which Israel commits egregious crimes with the use of AI should terrify everyone."

Hochstein seems a bit over optimistic to me:

‘Positive progress’ made in Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire talks, US envoy says

The US envoy Amos Hochstein has said there is “positive progress” towards a ceasefire in Lebanon after talks in Beirut aimed at ending 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Hochstein has met Lebanese officials over the past two days after Hezbollah indicated it had agreed to the text of a US ceasefire proposal, although with some comments. He said on Tuesday that the gaps between Hezbollah and Israel had “narrowed”, raising optimism about a deal between the two parties. Hochstein will meet Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, on Thursday. ...

The fighting in Lebanon over the past year has killed 3,544 people, displaced 1.2 million, and destroyed swathes of south Lebanon. The World Bank said the conflict had so far cost Lebanon $8.5bn. Over the past week, Lebanese, Israeli and US officials have said that a ceasefire was increasingly possible – though the details of what that would entail are not yet clear.

Central to ceasefire negotiations is the presence of Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south and its sway over the country in general, the politics of which it has dominated for the past decade. Israel has said it wants Hezbollah to be pushed back beyond the Litani River, 20 miles away from its border, as a form of security guarantee for people in northern Israel, tens of thousands of whom have been displaced by Hezbollah rocket fire over the past year.

It had previously also said it wanted the power to unilaterally enforce a ceasefire agreement, which would give it de facto permission to carry out airstrikes in Lebanon at will. The Lebanese speaker of the house, Nabih Berri, said last Tuesday that “no sane person” would agree to such a condition. ...

In the days leading up to Hochstein’s visit, Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon, striking central Beirut three times in 24 hours after a break of more than a month. Hezbollah, in turn, launched missiles at Tel Aviv and attacked five military bases in Haifa.

Senate Rejects Sanders' Bid to Halt Arms to Israel Over Gaza Atrocities

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday refused to pass joint resolutions of disapproval proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders that would prevent the sale of certain offensive American weaponry to Israel, which has killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza since last fall.

S.J. Res. 111, S.J. Res. 113, and S.J. Res. 115 would have respectively blocked the sale of 120mm tank rounds, 120mm high-explosive mortar rounds, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), the guidance kits attached to "dumb bombs."

The first vote was 18-79, with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) voting present and Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and JD Vance (R-Ohio)—the vice-president-elect—not voting. In addition to Sanders (I-Vt.), those in favor were: Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

The second vote was 19-78—Sen. George Helmy (D-N.J.) joined those voting for the resolution. The third vote was 17-80.

The Guardian’s Anti-Semitism

From Monday’s Guardian editorial: “Despite being Israel’s primary arms supplier, the U.S. has failed to secure a ceasefire or hostage deal in Gaza, exposing Mr Biden’s lack of influence.” No, Guardian. It exposes something quite different — and all too obvious. U.S. President Joe Biden, like the rest of Washington, is right behind the genocide.

Ask yourself this. Why is an editorial in The Guardian, a supposedly left-liberal newspaper that spent years policing the left’s discourse on Israel — and looking for any hint of anti-Semitism, as part of a campaign to bring down former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn – peddling an argument that, in any other circumstance, it would call out as a clear anti-Semitic trope? This is what The Guardian is claiming:

That the president of the U.S. imperium, the commander-in-chief of the most powerful army the world has ever known, is incapable of standing up to tiny Israel. That, despite the U.S. supplying almost all the weapons Israel has needed to lay waste to Gaza, the Biden administration is powerless, it has no “influence” over Israel. Is Israel pulling the strings in Washington, Guardian? Maybe Israel’s long tentacles are wrapped so far around the globe that they reach the Oval Office? The fact that The Guardian, and the rest of the Western media, freely and constantly deploy this anti-Semitic trope about the U.S. being powerless to influence Israel — and no one says a thing in response — tells us something. It tells us that this particular anti-Semitic trope is crucially useful for the Western power elite.

What use could it be? This: Israel serves as the perfect alibi as the West extends its control over the oil-rich Middle East, disrupting the emergence of any non-subservient power blocs that might ally with potential rivals like China and Russia. And all the while, Washington can redirect the blame to a supposedly defiant Israel — or more specifically, a rogue Benjamin Netanyahu — for committing the atrocities the U.S. empire needs to maintain that control.

Israel is the West’s Teflon coating.

PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani rejects Israeli 'threats' to expand war against Iraq

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani blasted Israeli “efforts to expand the war” in West Asia on 19 November, after Israel’s foreign minister sent a letter to the UN Security Council urging action against the Iraqi resistance and stressing Tel Aviv’s right to “protect itself.”

In a cabinet session on Tuesday, Sudani said that “the message sent by the Zionist entity to the UN Security Council represents a pretext and argument to attack Iraq, and to achieve the entity's ongoing efforts to expand the war in the region.”

“Iraq rejects these threats, the decision of war and peace is a decision in the hands of the Iraqi state, and no party is allowed to confiscate this right. Iraq rejects entering into war, in addition to its steadfastness in the principled position to end the war and seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples," the Iraqi premier added.

His comments follow a surge in Iraqi resistance attacks against Israeli military sites.

They also come as a response to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who sent a letter to the UN Security Council on 18 November urging it to pressure Baghdad into reining in resistance factions in Iraq that have been launching drone operations against Israel.

Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, aid groups say

As Gaza’s hunger crisis worsens, organized gangs are stealing much of the aid Israel allows into the enclave, operating freely in areas controlled by the Israeli military, according to aid group officials, humanitarian workers, transport companies and witnesses.

Officials said criminal looting has become the greatest impediment to distributing aid in the southern half of Gaza, home to the vast majority of displaced Palestinians. Armed bands of men have killed, beaten and kidnapped aid truck drivers in the area around Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point into Gaza’s south, aid workers and transport companies said.

The thieves, who have run cigarette-smuggling operations throughout this year but are now also stealing food and other supplies, are tied to local crime families, residents say. The gangs are described by observers as rivals of Hamas and, in some cases, they have been targeted by remnants of Hamas’s security forces in other parts of the enclave.

An internal United Nations memo obtained by The Washington Post concluded last month that the gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israel Defense Forces. One gang leader, the memo said, established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”

Aid organizations say Israeli authorities have denied most of their requests for better measures to safeguard convoys, including appeals for safer routes, more open crossings and permission to allow Gaza’s civilian police to protect the trucks. Israeli forces within view of the attacks have also failed on multiple occasions to intervene as looting was underway, aid workers, U.N. officials, transport workers and truck drivers say.

Scott Ritter : Russia fires first ICBM in combat for the first time in history!!!

Putin says Russia fired experimental ballistic missile into Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has said Russia fired an experimental medium-range ballistic missile at a military site in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, and that Moscow “had the right” to strike western countries that provide Kyiv with long-range weapons. Speaking during an unannounced televised address to the nation, Putin said Russia tested the new ballistic hypersonic missile Oreshnik to strike a military facility in Dnipro. ...

Initial unconfirmed reports from Ukraine had suggested Russia had used an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM): a weapon designed for long-distance nuclear strikes and never before used in war. There was no suggestion the weapon was nuclear-armed. ... “Whether it was an ICBM or an IRBM, the range isn’t the important factor,” Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at Oslo University who specialises in missile technology and nuclear strategy, told Associated Press. “The fact that it carried a MIRVed [multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle] payload is much more significant for signalling purposes and is the reason Russia opted for it. This payload is exclusively associated with nuclear-capable missiles.”

Putin also issued direct threats against Britain and the US, stating: “Russia reserves the right to use weapons against targets in countries that permit their weapons to be used against Russian targets.” He claimed that western defence systems would not be capable of intercepting Russian missiles like Oreshnik. Putin said that Russia would issue advance warnings before strikes on Ukraine and other countries to allow civilians to evacuate to safety.

US ATACMS escalation towards Russia begins

Ukraine fires UK-made missiles into Russia for first time

Ukraine has fired UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, multiple sources have told the Guardian. The decision to approve the strikes was made in response to the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine, which UK and US officials warned was a significant escalation of the near three-year conflict. ...

Videos uploaded to social media and circulated by pro-Russian war bloggers indicated that up to 12 missiles struck a target believed to be a command headquarters in the village of Maryno, the first confirmed use of British weapons on Russian soil during the war. Ukrainian media reported that the site may have been used by North Korean and Russian officers.

Unconfirmed images distributed via the Telegram messaging app appeared to show fragments of the missile at a location in the Kursk region. One weapons expert, Trevor Ball, formerly of the US army, said the images circulating did show Storm Shadow fragments, though he could not verify if they were current or old pictures. ...

Vladimir Putin has warned that the use of US and UK-made missiles inside Russia’s borders would be tantamount to Nato entering into a direct conflict with Moscow, though western politicians have dismissed his comments as empty threats.

Western officials have warned that Russia could escalate strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine or use other hybrid warfare tactics against targets in Europe and other US allies around the world. British spy chiefs have accused Russia of trying to “generate mayhem” on the streets of the UK with arson and sabotage campaigns, including the secreting of incendiary devices in parcels sent via DHL, one of which caught light in a Birmingham warehouse in July, starting a small fire. ...

Overnight, the Pentagon said it had seen no sign that Russia was planning to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, and accused Russian politicians of engaging in irresponsible rhetoric.

US Condemned Over Decision to Provide Landmines to Ukraine

The Biden administration's decision Tuesday to reverse its own policy and greenlight the provision of anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine drew international condemnation, with human rights organizations warning that generations of civilians will bear the costs of the move.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its work against the weapons, said Wednesday that it "strongly condemns" the Biden administration's move and noted that Ukraine is prohibited from acquiring or using landmines under the terms of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.
Neither the United States nor Russia—which has used landmines repeatedly against Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022—are signatories to the treaty. But in 2022, the Biden administration barred the transfer and U.S. of American-made landmines except in defense of South Korea, reversing a Trump-era policy that weakened restrictions on the weapons.

"The U.S. must respect its own policy prohibiting landmine transfers," ICBL said Wednesday. "As the world's largest donor to mine clearance, spending millions annually to protect civilians, it's inconceivable the U.S. would facilitate laying new mines."

"Ukraine has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty since 2022. ICBL urges Ukrainian officials to demonstrate this commitment by refusing this transfer. International humanitarian law cannot be set aside during conflict," the organization added. "Ukraine already faces years of demining due to Russian landmine use. Adding to this contamination would impact its own population for decades to come."

ICBL implored the administration to reverse its decision, saying that "the protection of civilians cannot be compromised, even in extraordinarily difficult circumstances."

It's unclear when U.S. landmines will be shipped to Ukraine, which is already littered with landmines that, at the current pace, will take an estimated 757 years to remove. An unnamed official toldDefense News that the U.S. landmines would be delivered to Ukraine "soon."

Max Blumenthal : Is Trump Pro-War?

Poll: Majority of Ukrainians Want Peace Talks To End War With Russia

A poll released by Gallup on Tuesday found that the majority of Ukrainians want peace talks to end the war with Russia.

The poll, conducted in August and October, found that 52% of respondents wanted talks with Russia to end the conflict as soon as possible, while 38% believed Ukraine should keep fighting, and 9% said they didn’t know or refused to answer. Out of the 52% who favor negotiations, 52% said Ukraine should be open to territorial concessions, while 38% disagreed, and 10% said they weren’t sure.

The survey marked the first time since the Russian invasion that a Gallup poll found the majority of Ukrainians favored negotiations to end the war.

NY Times’ BONKERS Smear Job Against Tulsi Gabbard!

House ethics committee deadlocked on whether to release Matt Gaetz report

The House ethics committee was deadlocked on releasing a report examining allegations of sexual misconduct against Matt Gaetz, the former Republican representative and Donald Trump’s choice to lead the US justice department, after the panel met behind closed doors on Wednesday.

Emerging from the meeting after roughly two hours, most members of the panel declined to offer details on their discussion, but the Republican chair, Michael Guest, told reporters that there was “not an agreement by the committee to release the report”.

Susan Wild, the top Democratic representative on the ethics committee, told reporters that the panel did hold a vote on the matter, but there was “no consensus”. Wild implied that the committee, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, broke along party lines and thus could not reach a decision. The panel plans to reconvene on 5 December, Wild added.

The panel has previously said it was investigating claims that Gaetz “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift”.

Guest told reporters before the meeting on Wednesday that he had “some reservations” about releasing the report when it had not yet gone through a review process. “That is something that we will be talking about today, and that’s another reason I have some reservations about releasing any unfinished work product,” Guest said.

Almost 120 countries vowed to triple renewables by 2030 – how is it going?

Almost 120 countries came together in Dubai last year at the Cop28 climate talks to pledge one of the most ambitious green energy targets in the history of the UN climate talks. The plan put forward was to triple the world’s renewable energy and double its energy efficiency by the end of the decade in an attempt to cut the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.

It was an “ambitious yet achievable goal”, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which could play a pivotal role in cutting the world’s emissions to keep global heating in check. But in a year, the world’s progress has struggled to keep up with the pace required to meet these goals.

The world’s renewable energy capacity was about 3.4 terawatts in 2022, but to meet the Cop28 targets countries would need to reach just over 11TW by 2030. The global energy thinktank Ember said in a January report that a tripling of renewables was “entirely achievable”. But in its most recent report it found that national targets by governments were “almost unchanged” and still added up to just over a doubling of the global renewables capacity by 2030.

Of the more than 130 countries that signed up to the pledge, only eight had updated their renewable targets by October, according to Ember, resulting in only a modest increase in overall renewable energy targets globally. To date, the global industry is on track to reach 7.2TW by the end of the decade, according to Ember’s analysis of targets for 96 countries and the EU as a bloc. This is a 2.1-times increase from 2023, which would still leave a shortfall of 3.7TW.

The analysis has been confirmed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), which is responsible for providing the official progress report of the UAE Consensus energy goals set at Cop28.

Five firms in plastic pollution alliance ‘made 1,000 times more plastic than they cleaned up’

Oil and chemical companies who created a high-profile alliance to end plastic pollution have produced 1,000 times more new plastic in five years than the waste they diverted from the environment, according to new data obtained by Greenpeace.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) was set up in 2019 by a group of companies which include ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips, some of the world’s biggest producers of plastic. They promised to divert 15m tonnes of plastic waste from the environment in five years to the end of 2023, by improving collection and recycling, and creating a circular economy.

Documents from a PR company that were obtained by Greenpeace’s Unearthed team and shared with the Guardian, suggest a key aim of the AEPW was to “change the conversation” away from “simplistic bans of plastic” that were being proposed in 2019 amid an outcry over the scale of plastic pollution leaching into rivers and harming public health. Early last year the alliance target of clearing 15m tonnes of waste plastic was quietly scrapped as “just too ambitious”. ...

The data reveals the five companies alone produced 132m tonnes of two types of plastic; polyethylene (PE) and PP (polypropylene) in five years – more than 1,000 times the weight of the 118,500 tonnes of waste plastic the alliance has removed from the environment in the same period. The waste plastic was diverted mostly by mechanical or chemical recycling, the use of landfill, or waste to fuel, AEPW documents state.

The new data was revealed as delegates prepared to meet in Busan, South Korea, to hammer out the world’s first treaty to cut plastic pollution. The treaty has a mandate to agree on a legally binding global agreement to tackle plastic pollution across the entire plastics life cycle. But the talks, which have been subject to heavy lobbying by the alliance and fossil fuel companies, are on a knife-edge in a row over whether caps to global plastic production will be included in the final treaty.

Milei plan to privatise Argentina river sparks fears among local communities

River communities in Argentina fear that Javier Milei’s plans to privatise operations on a key shipping route could lead to environmental damage and destroy their way of life. Since taking office almost a year ago, the self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” president has pledged to privatise a number of the state’s assets. The latest is the Paraguay-Paraná waterway – a shipping route of strategic importance for Argentina and its neighbours.

Announcing the decision on Tuesday, cabinet chief Guillermo Francos said that Argentina will no longer be involved with the management and maintenance of the waterway. He said that a 30-year concession will involve a “major modernisation of the management of the waterway” which will “gradually boost international trade”.

The waterway, which is more than 3,400km (2,100 miles) long, provides inland areas of Paraguay, Bolivia and southern Brazil with access to the sea. It is vital for transporting soya bean and grains overseas, and nearly 80% of Argentina’s foreign trade is channelled through it. ...

Juan Carlos García, 68, who was born in the Paraná delta and is a descendant of the Indigenous Guaraní people, described feeling a “great pain” at hearing the news. “We will struggle,” he said. “The environmental damage will be terrible.” The Paraná River delta is home to abundant species of flora and fauna, and is a migratory corridor for birds. Its wetlands also help regulate the climate, store water and act as a carbon sink. García fears increased shipping will increase pollution and dredging activities, thereby disrupting habitats.

Also of Interest

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

Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC on the issuance of arrest warrants in the Situation in the State of Palestine

Craig Murray: US-Israeli Barbarity in Lebanon

Israel Has Killed Over 200 Children in Lebanon in Less Than Two Months

Watermelon Index names and shames companies complicit in Israel's war on Gaza

Biden To Send Antipersonnel Mines To Ukraine

Thousands eager to escape Trump keen to snap up €1 Sardinian home, says mayor

A Little Night Music

Louis Jordan – Choo Choo Ch'Boogie

Louis Jordan - Five Guys Named Moe

Louis Jordan - Let The Good Times Roll

Louis Jordan – Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby

Louis Jordan - Mop! Mop!

Louis Jordan - Saturday Night Fish Fry

Louis Jordan - Beans and Cornbread

Louis Jordan – Jack, You're Dead

Louis Jordan - If You're So Smart How Come You Ain't Rich