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This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Buddy Guy. Enjoy!

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

-- Malcolm X

News and Opinion

The Day the Media Decided Militant Jihadism Is OK

Here is a very strange thing. For years, Western media outlets and politicians have been recklessly indifferent to the fact that Hamas is not a jihadist movement, like al-Qaeda or Islamic State, but a specifically *Palestinian* national resistance movement — if one underpinned by an Islamist ideology that distinguishes it from secular Palestinian national movements like Fatah.. ... Hamas, unlike al-Qaeda and Islamic State, is not seeking to recreate a caliphate embracing all Muslims wherever they live, indifferent to national borders. It wants to create a Palestinian state in Palestine. ...

Hamas does not demand strict adherence to religious law, and it does not prioritise Islam over Palestinian national identity. Hamas does not oppress Christians (a Christian community existed quite peacefully in Gaza until Israel started bombing their churches), or force women to wear the veil. ...

We now have an al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria, rebranded as HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham). And Western journalists, led as ever by the BBC, are falling over themselves to explain how the group has transformed itself overnight from head-chopping jihadism into a moderate, “diversity-friendly” Syrian national resistance movement. The media is suddenly deeply concerned to clarify the difference between militant jihadism and Islamic national resistance, and insist that the latter is respectable. ...

Western media is quite capable of understanding the difference between jihadists and Islamic nationalists when they want to. But they only want to when the British and U.S. national security states tell them to. That is the behaviour of what we are told is a “free press”.

Syria suffers the most well-funded insurgency in history

1.1 million displaced by Syrian rebel offensive, UN says, as factional fighting continues

About 1.1 million people have been displaced since Syrian rebels launched the offensive that ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, the UN’s humanitarian agency has said, as fighting between different factions continues. “As of 12 December, 1.1 million people have been newly displaced across the country since the start of the escalation of hostilities on 27 November. The majority are women and children,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

Among those displaced are more than 100,000 people who have fled into Kurdish-administered areas in northern Syria amid escalating factional fighting and fears of retaliatory attacks. Tensions appear to be concentrated primarily on the town of Manbij, north-east of Aleppo, and the mixed Arab and Kurdish town of Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria. ...

Amid the chaos and fighting, rights groups warned that civilians were suffering the most. “The situation is exacerbating an acute and longstanding crisis, with overcrowded camps and severely damaged infrastructure and a lack of water, power, healthcare, food and weather-appropriate shelter,” said Human Rights Watch.

The non-profit organisation also warned of widespread ill-treatment by Turkish-backed rebel groups in the area, including unlawful detentions, sexual violence and torture, land theft and extortion.

Pffffttt! Look busy, Blinkiman.

US urges Syrian rebels to form ‘inclusive’ government

The US is mounting a fresh diplomatic effort in the Middle East, hoping to end the war in Gaza and push rebels who have taken power in Syria to form a “credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance”.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met Jordan’s King Abdullah in the Red Sea town of Aqaba on Thursday – the first stop of a short regional tour.

The future of Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad dominated discussions, as well as issues including the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, humanitarian aid, and “preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours”, a spokesperson said.

Blinken, who has made multiple trips to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began 14 months ago, was due to head to Turkey later on Thursday. So far any ceasefire in Gaza has been elusive, and, despite the fragile agreement concluded last month that has ended hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, US prestige in the region has been harmed as a result.

How Israel Got The U.S. To Start Iraq -Libya & Syrian Wars! – Jeffrey Sachs

UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.

Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.

While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."

“There is absolutely no basis under international law to preventively or preemptively disarm a country you don't like.”

UN experts said on Wednesday that Israel’s recent strikes on Syria violate international law. pic.twitter.com/HzBrxn6r27

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 12, 2024

Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.

Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.

"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."

Israeli attacks kill dozens of Palestinians hours after UN demands ceasefire in Gaza

Israeli attacks have killed dozens of people in Gaza, including children, Palestinian health officials reported, as the region is gripped by food shortages and fears of famine. The attacks were launched hours after the UN general assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

An Israeli strike late on Thursday killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded 50 others who were sheltering in a post office in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, medics told Reuters. That strike came after previous Israeli attacks elsewhere in Nuseirat and on aid convoys in southern Gaza in which dozens more were killed.

In the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalia, which the army has sealed off from the rest of Gaza since October, the health ministry said an orthopaedic doctor, Saeed Judeh, was killed by an armed quadcopter drone as he was travelling from Kamal Adwan hospital to treat patients at al-Awda hospital. The health ministry said his death raised to 1,057 the number of healthcare workers killed since the war began.

Palestinian medical officials had reported at least 28 people killed earlier in the day, including seven children and a woman. One of the strikes flatted a house in Nuseirat, according to al-Aqsa Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.

Two separate Israeli strikes in Rafah and Khan Younis killed at least 13 Palestinians who Gaza medics and Hamas said were part of a force protecting humanitarian aid trucks. Israel’s military said they were Hamas militants trying to hijack the shipment and said the strikes were aimed at ensuring the safe delivery of the aid. ... According to local media, their work was integral in facilitating the delivery of essential supplies to displaced Palestinians in Gaza, where food shortages and the looming threat of famine persist.

No comfort and little shelter in Gaza as nightmare of winter sets in

Tens of thousands of people sheltering on Gaza’s exposed Mediterranean coastline face harsh winter conditions with inadequate shelter, food and fuel, as temperatures plunge in the devastated territory and a series of storms destroy their makeshift tents.

In recent weeks, bad weather has forced hundreds living in the coastal strip of Gaza around al-Mawasi to evacuate their shelters, ruining cooking utensils, clothes, stocks of food and precious firewood. Al-Mawasi was designated a “humanitarian zone” by Israeli military offensives and is packed with people displaced during 13 months of fighting, airstrikes and artillery bombardment. ...

The UN and other agencies have predicted acute hardship during winter months, when temperatures in Gaza can dip as low as 5C with an average minimum temperature of 10C. More than two-thirds of buildings in the territory have been damaged, and swathes rendered uninhabitable. ...

Aid agencies, the UN and individual governments have called for an improved flow of aid into Gaza, particularly to the north where an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 people have been cut off from humanitarian assistance for more than two months by a blockade imposed on several neighbourhoods by the Israeli military.

Reports Target Israeli Army for 'Unprecedented Massacre' of Gaza Journalists

Reports released this week from two organizations that advocate for journalists underscore just how deadly Gaza has become for media workers.

Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).

The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.

"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."

Bruttin added that "many of these reporters were clearly identifiable as journalists and protected by this status, yet they were shot or killed in Israeli strikes that blatantly disregarded international law. This was compounded by a deliberate media blackout and a block on foreign journalists entering the strip."

When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.

Moscow HTS: Russia Bases Stay; IDF Mulls Iran Attack; Russia Strike Darkens Ukraine; Pokrovsk Crisis

Ontario leader threatens to halt energy exports to US if Trump imposes tariffs

The leader of Canada’s largest province says he’s prepared to halt energy exports to the United States, warning that other premiers “need to be ready to fight” as threats escalate ahead of possible American tariffs.

The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, says he’s weighing options to fight back against a 25% levy on all Canadian goods that the US president-elect Donald Trump has pledged to implement when he assumes office.

Following a meeting with the nation’s premiers and the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Ford said other leaders were also drawing up lists of exports that could be halted.

“But we will go to the full extent, depending how far this goes, we will go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York state and over to Wisconsin,” said Ford. “I don’t want this to happen, but my number one job is to protect Ontario, Ontarians and Canadians as a whole.”

Canada’s most populous province is also among the most vulnerable to American tariffs because roughly 85% of its exports – including billions in automotive parts – are sent to a handful of US states. As a result, Ford has emerged as the Canadian politician most vocal about the devastating effects the tariffs would have on hundreds of billions of shared trade.

Macron's plan to stay in power

Moar voting!!!

Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All

Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.

"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.

"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."

Asked about Thompson's alleged killer—26-year-old Luigi Mangione, whose reported manifesto railed against the nation's expensive healthcare system and low life expectancy—Sanders said: "You don't kill people. It's abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. It was a terrible act. But what it did show online is that many, many people are furious at the health insurance companies who make huge profits denying them and their families the healthcare that they desperately need."

"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.

"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."

"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.

This is mostly about the Luigi Mangione/United Health issue. There's a segment in the middle of this where Gray and Greenwald divert into a debate about a tangentially related law process in NYC, it ends around a minute and ten seconds and it's back to the Mangione case:

DEBATE: Glenn Greenwald vs. Briahna on Vigilante JUSTICE

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing may not have been a client, say police

There is no indication the man charged with killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, was ever a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said on Thursday.

Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York police department, told NBC New York in an interview on Thursday that investigators had uncovered evidence that Luigi Mangione had prior knowledge UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in New York City.

Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when he was detained by police in Pennsylvania.

“We have no indication that he was ever a client of UnitedHealthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth-largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America. So that’s possibly why he targeted that that company,” said Kenny.

Louisville and DoJ strike police reform deal in wake of Breonna Taylor shooting

The US justice department and the city of Louisville have reached an agreement to reform the city’s police force after an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor and police treatment of protesters, officials said on Thursday.

The consent decree, which must be approved by a judge, follows a federal investigation that found Louisville police have engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discrimination against the Black community.

Craig Greenberg, the Louisville mayor, said the “historic consent decree will build upon and accelerate this transformational police reform we have already begun in Louisville”. He noted that “significant improvements” had already been implemented since Taylor’s death in March 2020. That includes a city law banning the use of “no-knock” warrants, which were commonly used in late-night drug raids. ...

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, attended the announcement but said she wanted to see more action, not words, by city officials.

“We have a history of putting things on paper and not moving the needle, so we have to stay on top of the situation and definitely make sure they are doing what they say they are doing,” said Palmer, who was awarded a $12m wrongful death settlement by the city in 2020.

North Carolina GOP lawmakers override veto to strip power from Democratic officials

On the brink of losing their supermajority in the state legislature, North Carolina Republicans overrode a gubernatorial veto on Wednesday to enact a new law that gives them control over elections in the state and strips the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general of some of their powers.

Currently, North Carolina’s governor appoints the five members of the state board of elections, allowing him to select a three-person majority from his party. The new law transfers that appointment power to the state auditor. A Republican won control of the state auditor race this fall for the first time in more than a decade.

The bill also changes how local election boards in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties would be appointed. Currently the state board appoints members and the governor appoints the chair. Under the new law, the auditor-appointed state board would still pick the local boards, but the auditor would pick the chair. Taken together, the new law would give Republicans control over both the state and local boards of elections.

Lawsuits are expected challenging the changes, which were tucked into a bill that allocates more than $200m in relief money for Hurricane Helene.

Dozens Of FBI INFORMANTS Cleared of INCITING J6 Capitol Riot

‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research

World-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create “mirror life” microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth.

The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established in the environment and slip past the immune defences of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections.

Although a viable mirror microbe would probably take at least a decade to build, a new risk assessment raised such serious concerns about the organisms that the 38-strong group urged scientists to stop work towards the goal and asked funders to make clear they will no longer support the research.

“The threat we’re talking about is unprecedented,” said Prof Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh. “Mirror bacteria would likely evade many human, animal and plant immune system responses and in each case would cause lethal infections that would spread without check.”

The expert group includes Dr Craig Venter, the US scientist who led the private effort to sequence the human genome in the 1990s, and the Nobel laureates Prof Greg Winter at the University of Cambridge and Prof Jack Szostak at the University of Chicago.

‘Forever chemical’ found in mineral water from several European countries

Mineral water from several European nations has been found for the first time to be contaminated with TFA, a type of PFAS “forever chemical” that is a reproductive toxicant accumulating at alarming levels across the globe. The finding is startling because mineral water should be pristine and insulated from manmade chemicals. The contamination is thought to stem from the heavy application of pesticides containing TFA, or compounds that turn into it in the environment, which are used throughout the world.

Pesticide Action Network Europe detected TFA in 10 out of 19 mineral waters, and at levels as much as 32 times above the threshold that should trigger regulatory action in the European Union. The findings underscore the need for “urgent action”, the paper’s authors wrote, and come as authorities there propose new limits for some TFA pesticide products.

“This has gone completely under the radar and it’s concerning because we’re drinking TFA,” said Angeliki Lysimachou, a co-author with Pesticide Action Network Europe. “It’s much more widespread than we thought.” She added that researchers do not blame mineral water producers because the issue is not their fault.

Aside from use in pesticides, TFA is a common refrigerant that was intended to be a safe replacement for older greenhouse gases like CFCs, and it is often used in clean energy production. But recent research has also established it as a potent greenhouse gas that can remain in the atmosphere for 1,000 years. About 60% of all PFAS manufactured from 2019 to 2022 were fluorinated gas that turns into TFA.

It is an especially difficult chemical due to its high mobility and longevity in the environment. Meanwhile, filtration technology effective at removing other PFAS from water cannot can’t address TFA on an industrial scale.

Also of Interest

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

Hell Is What Humans Deserve

How the US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called it Peace

“Russia Dodged a Bullet by Wisely Choosing Not To Ally With the Now-Defeated Resistance Axis”

Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of 'Indiscriminate' Israeli Attacks on Lebanon

‘International law’ is an illusion for Palestinians

Sixty patients at Gaza hospital at risk of starving, authorities say

U.S. Nonprofit Raised $300,000 for Israeli Sniper Unit Associated With Killings of Unarmed Palestinians

Patrick Lawrence: The Centrists Cannot Hold

Is it clouds, shipping or a volcano? Scientists present potential reasons for record heat

Uhuru 3: Meet Black Liberation Leader Omali Yeshitela; Faces 5 Years in Prison in "Conspiracy" Case

A Little Night Music

Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - T-Bone Shuffle

Memphis Slim w Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - When Buddy Comes To Town

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Checking On My Baby

Buddy Guy – She's Out There Somewhere

Buddy Guy - Every Girl I See

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - She Left Me A Mule To Ride

Junior Wells w/ Buddy Guy – Ships On The Ocean

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Messing With The Kid

Buddy Guy – You've Been Gone Too Long