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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The Treniers

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early rock 'n rollers The Treniers. Enjoy!

^{The Treniers - It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings!}

"And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil."

-- William Shakespeare

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News and Opinion

Israel responds to ICC ruling with bombings in Lebanon, mass expulsions in Gaza

Israel has responded to last week’s arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by intensifying its rampage throughout the Middle East. On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 68 in the Basta al-Fawqa neighborhood of Lebanon. That day, 84 people in Lebanon were slaughtered in Israeli bombardments, with dozens more killed on Sunday. To date, 3,754 people have been killed and 15,626 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry. Nearly one-quarter of Lebanon’s population has been forced from their homes.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Saturday’s airstrike was an attempt to kill Mohammad Haidar, a Hezbollah military commander, but the attack was unsuccessful. Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s health minister, said that the strike targeted a multi-story building that was home to at least 45 people. “Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in the Basta area,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.

Ongoing strikes on Sunday “caused massive destruction over a large geographical area,” reported the NNA. “A series of violent strikes are targeting Haret Hreik, Bir al-Abed, and Ghobeiri in the southern suburbs of Beirut.” Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi reported that Saturday’s strike “marks at least the fourth Israeli strike this week carried out in central Beirut.” He added that the Israeli attacks involved “multiple strikes, no warning, on an area that is densely populated with missiles meant to penetrate deeply.”

Among those struck in the attacks were Lebanese troops, at least one of whom was killed. While the Israeli military is nominally targeting Hezbollah, and not the Lebanese government, Israeli politicians are openly advocating strikes on Lebanese government buildings. “The Lebanese government is allowing Hezbollah to operate freely. It’s time to take strong action against its infrastructure and assets,” said Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz. Israeli media publications are going even further, with an op-ed in the Maariv newspaper suggesting the bombing of Lebanon’s parliament building. “The parliament building is part of Hezbollah’s political infrastructure and could serve as a refuge for its members,” wrote military analyst Avi Ashkenazi.

The massive bombardment of Lebanon has been accompanied by the expansion of the ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza. The Israeli military issued a new set of expulsion orders for the Shujaiya neighborhood in northern Gaza, forcing large numbers of people to flee. Social media posts showed hundreds of people leaving the neighborhood in donkey carts and on foot. Avi Dichter, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, made clear that Israel intends to occupy Gaza for years. “Gaza will never be a threat to the state of Israel, no matter how long it is going to take. ... I think that we are going to stay in Gaza for a long time. ... I think most people understand that that will be years,” he said.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Donor Class and MIC Impairing the US

Israeli cabinet to decide on ceasefire deal with Lebanon

Israel’s security cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday to decide on a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon after more than a year of fighting between Israeli forces and the Shia militia Hezbollah.

Under the deal being considered, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would reportedly withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah would pull its heavy weapons north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army would move in to provide security in the border zone alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force, during an initial 60-day transition phase.

The White House national security spokesperson cautioned on Monday that the deal the Biden administration had been trying to broker for months had not yet been finalised. “There’s still some process, things that I think that they’re working through,” John Kirby said. Calling the discussions so far constructive, he added: “We believe that the trajectory of this is going in a very positive direction. But nothing is done until everything is done. Nothing’s negotiated till everything is negotiated.”

Hezbollah has not been a direct party to the talks, in which the Lebanese government has given assurances that the militia would abide by the terms of the deal.

Under the proposed ceasefire blueprint, the US would lead a five-country international monitoring committee that would act as a referee on infringements, and the US is reported to have offered guaranteed support for Israeli military operations over the border in the event that Hezbollah mounts an attack or reconstitutes its forces south of the Litani.

War Crimes in Lebanon: Human Rights Watch Says Israel Used U.S. Arms to Kill 3 Journalists

Israel used US weapons in strike that killed journalists

A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in a 25 October attack in south Lebanon which legal experts have called a potential war crime.

On 25 October at 3.19am, an Israeli jet shot two bombs at a chalet hosting three journalists – cameraman Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohammad Reda from pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, as well as cameraman Wissam Qassem from the Hezbollah-affiliated outlet al-Manar. All three were killed in their sleep in the attack which also wounded three other journalists from different outlets staying nearby. There was no fighting in the area before or at the time of the strike.

The Guardian visited the site, interviewed the owner of the property and journalists present at the time of the attack, analysed shrapnel found at the strike site, and geo-located Israeli surveillance equipment in range of the journalists’ positions. Based on the Guardian’s findings, three experts in international humanitarian law said the attack could constitute a war crime and called for further investigation.

“All the indications show that this would have been a deliberate targeting of journalists: a war crime. This was clearly delineated as a place where journalists were staying,” said Nadim Houry, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative.

After the strike, the Israeli military said that it had struck a “Hezbollah military structure” while “terrorists were located inside the structure”. A few hours after the attack, the Israeli army said that the incident was “under review” following reports that journalists were hit in the strike. The Guardian found no evidence of the presence of Hezbollah military infrastructure at the site of Israel’s attack, nor that any of the journalists were anything but civilians. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for clarification of which of the journalists were Hezbollah militants nor on the status of the strike’s review.

Israeli Siege Leaves 130,000 Kids Trapped and at Risk of Starvation in Northern Gaza

An estimated 130,000 children under the age of 10 have been trapped in areas of northern Gaza almost entirely cut off from aid assistance, food and medical supplies for 50 days, a major humanitarian group said Monday.

According to Save the Children, life-sustaining aid has largely failed to make it through to any of the people besieged by Israeli forces in northern Gaza since early October, when the IDF declared the territory a "dangerous combat zone" and ordered civilians to evacuate.

Earlier this month, Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator for the United Nations, warned that the Israeli offensive in the area that began in early October was "an intensified, extreme, and accelerated version of the horrors of the past year." ...

"Save the Children has been unable to access northern Gaza to deliver food parcels for 5,000 families, along with 725 hygiene kits and other aid supplies, for over seven weeks," said the group in its Monday statement. "Before the area was closed off, Save the Children worked through local partners to reach thousands of children in need, distributing over 1,000 food parcels and 600 hygiene kits, and reaching around 15,000 children and families in northern Gaza with psychosocial support, recreational activities, and case management."

Save the Children's warning comes not long after the Famine Review Committee released an alert stating that "there is a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip."

"The situation in northern Gaza is not fit for human survival and yet we know there are about 130,000 children under 10 trapped in those conditions, not to mention the thousands of older children and their families," said regional director Jeremy Stoner.

Trump Pentagon pick attacks UN and Nato and urges US to ignore Geneva conventions

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, has attacked several key US alliances such as Nato, allied countries such as Turkey and international institutions such as the United Nations in two recent books, as well as saying US troops should not be bound by the Geneva conventions.

At the same time, the man who would head America’s gigantic military has tied US foreign policy almost entirely to the priority of Israel, a country of which he says: “If you love America, you should love Israel.”

Elsewhere, Hegseth appears to argue that the US military should ignore the Geneva conventions and any international laws governing the conduct of war, and instead “unleash them” to become a “ruthless”, “uncompromising” and “overwhelmingly lethal” force geared to “winning our wars according to our own rules”.

Hegseth’s policy preferences may raise concerns about the future of Nato, the escalation of tensions with Israel’s arch-foe Iran, and impunity for US war criminals, such as those who Hegseth persuaded Trump to pardon in his first term.

Tom Hill, executive director of the Center for Peace and Diplomacy (CPD), told the Guardian that Hegseth’s nomination reflected the fact that for Donald Trump, “one of the bases of support he owes is the Christian nationalist evangelical movement”. In Hegseth, “what he is offering is Israel policy and a warping of foreign policy around Israel as a reward to this Christian nationalist base,” said Hill.

West Panic Deepens, NATO Talks War, Starmer Meets UK Defence Chiefs; Reuters: Rapid Russian Advance

France joins Biden's death cult:

France Says Ukraine Can Fire French Long-Range Missiles Into Russia

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in an interview published Saturday that Ukraine could fire French-provided long-range missiles into Russian territory following US and British authorization of such strikes.

France has provided Ukraine with its version of the British Storm Shadow missiles, known as SCALP missiles, which have a range of about 155 miles. Barrot told BBC that there are no “red lines” when it comes to France’s support of Ukraine and that Ukrainian forces could fire the missiles into Russia “in the logics of self-defense.”

“The principle has been set… our messages to President Zelensky have been well received,” Barrot said. It’s unclear if Ukraine has yet fired French-provided SCALP missiles into Russia.

Aaron Maté : Biden’s Reckless War Escalation

Russian Airfield Hit in ATACMS Strike

Ukraine fired U.S.-made ATACMS missiles with cluster warheads at a Russian military airfield in Kursk Oblast on Sunday, according to the geospatial intelligence group Cyber Boroshno's post on Telegram. The tactical aviation airfield, Kursk-Eastern, also referred to as Kursk-Vostochny, was hit by two cassette ATACMS, and two submunitions, parts of the cluster warheads, detonated on the airfield, according to Pravda. ...

The Ukrainian strike reportedly hit a parking lot at the airfield, but it is unknown if there were combat aircraft there at the time the missiles hit. The Kursk governor, Alexei Smirnov, posted on Telegram that a Ukrainian missile was destroyed near the border of Kursk Oblast. Smirnov also wrote on Telegram that Ukraine sent seven missiles, and that seven drones were shot down by Russian forces.

The airfield, formerly a commercial airport, was one of many airports in southern Russia shut down and made a military site after the war began in February 2022, according to the Russian news outlet Novye Izvestia.

Ukraine not only struck the military airfield last night, but also hit a Russian missile production site, the Typhoon factory, in western Russia. The factory, known for producing parts for air defense systems, combat vehicles and coastal sets, was struck by Ukrainian missiles of an unspecified kind last night.

It's About Money': Lindsey Graham QUIET PART OUT LOUD On Ukraine

Germany draws up list of bunkers amid Russia tensions

Germany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians, the interior ministry has said, at a time of rising tensions with Russia. The list would include underground train stations and car parks as well as state buildings and private properties, a ministry spokesperson said.

A digital directory of bunkers and emergency shelters will be drawn up so people can find them quickly using a planned phone app. People would also be encouraged to create protective shelters in their homes by converting basements and garages, the spokesperson told a press briefing.

He declined to give a timetable, saying it was a big project that would take some time, involving the Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance and other authorities.

The country of 84 million people has 579 bunkers, mostly from the second world war and the cold war era, which can provide shelter for 480,000 people, down from about 2,000 bunkers previously.

Marine Le Pen renews threat to back censure motion that could topple Barnier as PM

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has repeated her threat to back a censure motion that could topple the French prime minister, Michel Barnier, after the two met for talks on his government’s budget. Barnier has been meeting party leaders to persuade them to back the budget in parliament amid speculation that the prime minister – appointed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, at the head of a minority government – may attempt to use a constitutional clause to force it through without a vote.

The leftwing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), has already threatened to table a censure motion if Barnier uses the measure, known as the 49:3, to push through the 2025 budget. After Monday’s meeting, Le Pen said she had reminded the prime minister of the far-right National Rally’s (RN) “red lines”, which include dropping budget plans to increase taxes on electricity and the delaying of increases to certain pensions to cover inflation. “We will see if today’s proposals are taken on board, but nothing is certain,” Le Pen said. ...

If MPs for the NFP and RN all vote for the censure motion it will pass and the government will fall.

Trump PUNISHES Mexico, Canada With SWEEPING Tariffs

Trump vows tariffs on Mexico and Canada and deeper tariffs on China

Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all products coming in to the United States from Mexico and Canada. “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump said the tariffs would remain in place until the two countries clamp down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and migrants crossing the border illegally.

In a follow-up post, Trump announced that the US “will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America”. He said that the reason for the additional tariff was China’s failure to curb the number of drugs entering the US.

“I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail … Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America.”

Trump has previously pledged to end China’s most-favored-nation trading status and slap tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% – much higher than those imposed during his first term.

Trump adviser who funded supreme court takeover wants to ‘crush liberal dominance’

Leonard Leo, who financed and directed the rightwing takeover of the US supreme court, admitted he wants to “crush liberal dominance” across American society.

“I want to crush liberal dominance,” the dark money impresario told NPR, in an interview published three weeks after Donald Trump’s stunning election win. Leo added that he wanted to “make sure that there’s a level playing field for the American people to make choices about the lives that they want to have in their country”.

“I’m perfectly happy having a world where people can make choices between various kinds of things. But what I don’t want is a system where our entertainment system or our world of news media or our business and finance worlds are heavily dominated by left ideology that either chokes out other ways of thinking about things, or that just creates a system where sort of inappropriate political and policy decisions are being made in places where politics and policy don’t really have a proper place,” he said.

Leo had a prominent role in installing to the nominally apolitical US supreme court three hardline rightwingers who have helped hand down epochal rulings on abortion rights, presidential immunity, corporate regulation and more. Leo is a Catholic rightwinger from New Jersey who came to prominence with the Federalist Society as it helped transform US courts over the past 30 years. Funds at Leo’s fingertips include a record $1.6bn donation from Barre Seid, a Chicago billionaire – the sort of deal that saw one Leo-linked group, Donors Trust, called “the dark money ATM of the right”.

Texas woman dies after receiving inadequate treatment for a miscarriage

A Texas woman has died after receiving inadequate medical treatment for a miscarriage, according to a new report from ProPublica – the fifth pregnant woman the publication has found to have died since the fall of Roe v Wade after receiving inadequate care or being denied a legal abortion.

Porsha Ngumezi, a 35-year-old mother of two, died in June 2023 after experiencing a miscarriage in Texas, where nearly all abortions are banned, ProPublica reported on Monday. Ten weeks into her pregnancy, Ngumezi started to bleed and went to Houston Methodist Sugar Land, which is part of the Houston Methodist hospital chain and located in the Houston metropolitan area. While at the hospital, Ngumezi continued to bleed for several hours. She underwent multiple blood transfusions.

Doctors who reviewed Ngumezi’s case told ProPublica that she should have been offered a dilation and curettage, or D&C, a common procedure that can be used for miscarriages and abortions to clear tissue from the uterus. However, some doctors in states with abortion bans have become hesitant to offer D&Cs, doctors said, because they are afraid of being punished for violating abortion bans – even in situations where women’s pregnancies have ended, as in Ngumezi’s case.

Rather than being offered a D&C, a doctor gave Ngumezi misoprostol, ProPublica reported. Although misoprostol is frequently used in miscarriages and abortions, it can be dangerous to give to women who are – like Ngumezi – bleeding heavily. However, in states with abortion bans, doctors may feel more comfortable giving patients misoprostol than giving them D&Cs, because D&Cs can attract too much attention. ...

Ngumezi started complaining of chest pain, but the doctor treating Ngumezi did not order any additional tests, according to ProPublica. Several hours after her arrival at the hospital, Ngumezi started fighting to breathe. Her husband was at the hospital when Ngumezi died.

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Prosecutors drop election interference and documents cases against Trump

Special counsel prosecutors dismissed the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump in separate court filings on Monday, as they bowed to the reality that they would not be completed or proceed to trial before Trump returns to the presidency next year.

The withdrawals marked the end of the years-long legal battle between Trump and the special counsel Jack Smith, and reflected the extraordinary ability of Trump to sidestep an indictment that would have sunk the presidential bid of anyone else.

Trump’s election victory was always going to spell the end of the criminal cases against him – over Trump’s retention of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election – due to justice department policy that prohibits taking criminal action against a sitting president.

But the withdrawals also showed just how successfully Trump, with help from sympathetic judges, managed to beat the justice system with an audacious play of using a presidential campaign and the political calendar to sidestep deeply perilous charges.

In a six-page motion to dismiss the 2020 election interference case, prosecutors said even though Trump was not yet president, they had been told by the department’s office of legal counsel, which provides internal legal advice, to withdraw the case before his inauguration in January.

Green Party 2024 Election Results: What Happened? (w/ Jill Stein)

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PFAS and microplastics become more toxic when combined, research shows

Few human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests. The study’s authors exposed water fleas to mixtures of the toxic substances and found they suffered more severe health effects, including lower birth rates, and developmental problems, such as delayed sexual maturity and stunted growth.

The enhanced toxic effects raise alarm because PFAS and microplastics are researched and regulated in isolation from one one another, but humans are virtually always exposed to both. The research also showed those fleas previously exposed to chemical pollution were less able to withstand the new exposures. The findings “underscore the critical need to understand the impacts of chemical mixtures on wildlife and human health”, wrote the study’s authors, who are with the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. ...

Plastic is often treated with PFAS, so microplastics can contain the chemical. Researchers compared a group of water fleas that had never been exposed to pollution with another group that had been exposed to pollution in the past. Water fleas have high sensitivity to chemicals so they are frequently used to study ecological toxicity. Both groups were exposed to bits of PET, a common microplastic, as well as PFOA and PFOS, two of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds. The mixture reflected conditions common in lakes around the world.

The study’s authors found the mixture to be more toxic than PFAS and microplastics in isolation. They attributed about 40% of the increased toxicity to a synergy among the substances that makes them even more dangerous.

Gavin Newsom revives clean vehicle program to Trump-proof EV tax credits

California could offer state tax rebates for electric vehicle (EV) purchases if the incoming Trump administration eliminates the federal EV tax credit, the state’s governor said on Monday.

Gavin Newsom will propose creating a new version of the state’s successful Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which was phased out in 2023 after funding 594,000 cars and saving 456m gallons of fuel, the governor’s office said in a statement.

Money for the new rebate system “could come from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is funded by polluters under the state’s cap-and-trade program”, according to the statement.

‘Royalties for everyone’: Suriname president plans to share oil wealth

Suriname’s president has announced a program of “royalties for everyone” as the South American nation plans for a boon from recently discovered oil and gas reserves. Suriname and its neighbor Guyana, both former Dutch colonies, expect to make billions in the years to come from rich offshore crude deposits. ...

Experts have said Suriname – a country of 600,000 people – stands to make about $10bn in the next 10 to 20 years. Almost one in five Surinamese people today live in poverty, according to World Bank figures. Annual GDP is about $3.4bn.

Last month, French oil group Total announced a $10.5bn project to exploit an oil field off the coast of Suriname with a capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day. Production should start in 2028.

On Monday, President Chan Santokhi said royalties will be paid “so that every Surinamese can benefit and profit from oil and gas”. Each citizen would receive an amount of $750 in a savings account, with an annual interest rate of seven percent, he said in an Independence Day address.

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Also of Interest

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

Patrick Lawrence: Biden’s ‘Samson Option’

From Genocide Joe to Omnicide Joe

Washington Post Calls For Selective (Non-)Prosecution Of War Crimes

Sebastian Gorka: British intelligence asset?

The Wars Come Home

Pakistan: one killed, dozens injured as Imran Khan supporters clash with security forces

Revealed: how a San Francisco navy lab became a hub for human radiation experiments

Leonard Peltier: Amnesty Int'l Calls on Biden to Free Indigenous Leader "Before It's Too Late"

“Let’s Expose ALL Congressional Sex Crimes!” Says Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene

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A Little Night Music

The Treniers - Ragmop

The Treniers - Go! Go! Go!

The Treniers - Rockin' is our Business

The Treniers - Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)

The Treniers - Rockin' on Sunday Night

The Treniers - Day Old Bread and Canned Beans

The Treniers - Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie

The Treniers - This Is It

The Treniers - Good Rockin' Tonight

The Treniers - Poon Tang

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