Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues harmonica player Harmonica Fats. Enjoy!

"Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me."

-- Sojourner Truth

News and Opinion

Israel ‘Committing Genocide, Must be Prosecuted Internationally’ – African Union

The African Union has declared that Israel “is committing genocide” against the Palestinian people “and must be prosecuted internationally.”

“We call for an end to cooperation and normalization with Israel until it ends its occupation and aggression against Palestine,” the final statement of the AU’s 38th summit held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa from February 15 to 16, also stated, according to media reports.

The summit also demanded the immediate release of all Palestinian detainees and affirmed that the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land was unacceptable and violated international law, Al Mayadeen reported.

The AU is made up of 55 Member States which represent all the countries on the African continent.

Matt Hoh : Trump and Mass Killings in Gaza

Netanyahu seeks to draw Trump into future attack on Iranian nuclear sites

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that, with Donald Trump’s support, his government will “finish the job” of neutralising the threat from Iran, amid US reports that Israel is considering airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites in the coming few months. Trump has said he would prefer to make a deal with Tehran, but also made clear that he was considering US military action if talks failed, and his administration has laid down an early maximalist demand: Iranian abandonment of its entire nuclear programme.

“All options are on the table,” the US national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told Fox News on Sunday. The new administration will only talk to Iran, Waltz added, if “they want to give up their entire programme and not play games as we’ve seen Iran do in the past in prior negotiations”.

Earlier this month, Trump offered the Iranian regime a stark choice. “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear,” he told the New York Post. “I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it.”

In politics as in business, Trump’s vaunted “art of the deal” has relied heavily on bluster and threats, but analysts question how well that will work with Tehran. They also warn that the window for a diplomatic resolution to the standoff with Tehran will get narrower with each passing month, as Iranian nuclear capabilities progress, and Netanyahu works to persuade Trump to participate in joint strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities while it is at its most vulnerable.

Israel’s prime minister has tried and failed to convince successive US administrations to take part in military action against Iran, including Trump’s. During his first term in the White House, Trump declined, in line with his aim of keeping the US out of foreign wars.

Netanyahu ‘committed’ to Trump’s plan to take over Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he is “committed” to Donald Trump’s plan to take over and develop the Gaza Strip, amid uncertainty over whether Israel will send a delegation to Qatar to discuss the second stage of the fragile ceasefire in the war with Hamas. In a statement on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said: “Just as I have committed to, on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. I am committed to US president Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza.”

The remarks come after a report by Sky News Arabia on Sunday night that Hamas was prepared to hand over control of Gaza to its West Bank-based rival, the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority (PA), following pressure from mediator Egypt. The broadcaster said, citing Egyptian sources, that the Palestinian militant group had agreed to the establishment of a temporary committee to oversee the reconstruction of the territory, which has been levelled by Israeli airstrikes over 16 months of war.

Netanyahu’s latest comments will weigh heavily over the future of the month-old truce after it almost collapsed last week following news of Trump’s surprise plan for the US to “take over” Gaza and “relocate” its 2.3 million people to countries such as Egypt and Jordan. International humanitarian law experts say the proposal amounts to ethnic cleansing. ...

According to Israeli media, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party, which was opposed to the ceasefire, is still threatening to collapse Netanyahu’s coalition if Israel does not return to fighting when the first stage of the truce expires.

It is widely believed at home and abroad that Netanyahu, afraid that losing office will leave him more vulnerable to corruption charges, has prioritised the survival of his government over a hostage deal.

Palestinian Director Basel Adra: As "No Other Land" Gets Oscar Nod, Israel Attacks West Bank

Israel Plans 1,000 New Settlement Homes as West Bank Raids Intensify

Israeli authorities are planning to expand a Jewish-only settlement in the West Bank by nearly 1,000 homes, a Tel Aviv-based peace group said Sunday as Israeli soldiers and settlers escalated attacks on Palestinians in the illegally occupied territory.

Peace Now said Israel's Civil Administration has issued a new tender for the construction of 974 new housing units in Efrat, a Jewish-only colony located about 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem between Bethlehem and Hebron. The planned expansion will increase Efrat's population of approximately 11,800 residents by 40% and geographically isolate Palestinian communities in the southern West Bank.

Emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump's return to power, far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet have vowed to annex the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 in violation of international law.

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that "the goal for 2025 is to demolish more than the Palestinians build in the West Bank," according toAl Jazeera. This, following the largest Israeli seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank in decades last year.

"The Netanyahu government is operating on steroids to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise," said Peace Now, referring to the longtime Israeli practice of violating international law by colonizing and annexing Palestinian land to establish what one legal scholar has described as "de facto possession with the aim of attaining de jure possession."

Peace Now continued: "It is now clear that military action alone will not bring a solution to the conflict or security to Israel, and that ultimately we will have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians. The Netanyahu government is harming Israeli interests and torpedoing the only solution that can bring us security and peace."

In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement Monday that "the ongoing de facto annexation of the illegally occupied West Bank through the expansion of racially segregated illegal settlements is just one aspect of the far-right Israeli government's ethnic cleansing of the entirety of historic Palestine and of its relentless efforts to block justice for the Palestinian people."

Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the Israel-based peace group Ir Amim, told Al Jazeera that "since the start of 2025, Israeli authorities have demolished 27 structures in East Jerusalem, including 18 residential units, in what appears to be a systematic effort to remove Palestinians from their homes while simultaneously expanding Israeli settlements."

The Israeli settlement population has increased exponentially from around 1,500 colonists in 1970 to roughly 140,000 at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993—under which Israel agreed to halt new settlement activity—to more than 500,000 today. Last July, the International Court of Justice, which is also weighing a genocide case concerning Israel's annihilation of the Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is an illegal form of apartheid that must end "as rapidly as possible."

News of the Efrat expansion came as Israeli soldiers and settlers escalated attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank over the weekend. Occupation forces carried out raids in the towns of al-Issawiya and Salfit, near East Jerusalem, as well as the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah. Israeli troops also continued their siege and assault on Jenin and the Nur Shams refugee camp, where two young women, one of them pregnant, were shot dead last week.

Armed Israeli settlers from the Mikne Avraham colony also invaded al-Minya, south of Bethlehem, wounding 16 Palestinians including a pregnant woman who was attacked with clubs and rocks, according to Middle East Eye. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Saturday that settlers sicced dogs on al-Minya residents, wounding two people.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 876 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Since launching "Operation Iron Wall" on January 21, Israeli forces have killed at least 53 Palestinians across the West Bank. The Israeli offensive has forced around 40,000 people from their homes in what experts say is the largest displacement in the West Bank since more than 200,000 Palestinians were expelled during the 1967 conquest and occupation.

Israel Continues To Block Entry of Temporary Housing into Gaza in Violation of Ceasefire Deal

Israel has continued to block the entry of temporary housing into the Gaza Strip despite agreeing to allow the deliveries as part of the hostage and ceasefire deal, Middle East Eye reported on Monday.

Under the deal, Israel agreed to allow 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes in Gaza, but so far, only 20,000 tents have entered, and no mobile homes have been allowed in. Tens of thousands of mobile homes are stuck at the Rafah crossing in Egypt.

The Times of Israel reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not given approval for the entry of mobile homes and construction equipment needed to clear the rubble. The report acknowledged that the move was a “potential breach of the ceasefire.”

"A Victory for Putin"? Jeffrey Sachs & Matt Duss Debate U.S.-Russia Talks to End Ukraine War

Zelensky Says Ukraine Will ‘Not Recognize’ Upcoming US-Russia Talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Ukraine will “not recognize” upcoming talks between the US and Russia and denied that his country was invited to participate.

“Ukraine will not accept. Ukraine knew nothing about this. And Ukraine regards any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as having no results,” Zelensky told reporters while visiting the UAE.

The Kremlin has confirmed the peace talks with the US will be held in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The negotiations will involve high-level Russian and American officials, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

War party meets in Paris

Milei CAUGHT Pumping INSANE CRYPTO SCAM

Argentina opposition calls for impeachment of Javier Milei after cryptocurrency collapse

Opposition politicians in Argentina have called for the impeachment of president Javier Milei after he touted a cryptocurrency which quickly collapsed and reportedly led to millions of dollars in losses this weekend.

Milei endorsed the little-known cryptocurrency token $Libra on Friday evening, announcing on X that the project was “dedicated to boosting the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small businesses and entrepreneurs”. His post linked to a website where the digital coin could be bought, the domain name of which included Milei’s popular catchphrase “long live freedom”.

“The world wants to invest in Argentina,” Milei added in the post to his more than 3.8 million followers. The token immediately soared in value, from almost zero at the time of its launch to nearly $5, before plummeting to under $1, according to trading sites. Argentina’s fintech chamber said that the case could amount to a “rug pull” – a scam which sees cryptocurrency rapidly inflated, or “pumped”, before crashing while insiders “dump” their stake, making the tokens worthless. Other economists and crypto specialists said the digital asset could be a fraud or Ponzi scheme.

Milei deleted his post hours later, saying he was “not aware of the details of the project”, but the scandal has nonetheless sparked a political firestorm, and the federal prosecutor’s office will reportedly now examine whether the president engaged in fraud or criminal association or was in breach of his duties.

A group of lawyers filed fraud complaints in the criminal court on Sunday, saying they “criminally denounce the president of the Argentine nation, Javier Milei, because we believe that he is a fundamental participant in the development, execution and planning of the mega-scam related to the launch of the $Libra token”. Jonatan Baldiviezo, a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs, told the Associated Press that he saw an illicit association to commit “an indeterminate number of frauds” in the episode. “Within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential,” he said.

Biden Admin SNUCK $20B Into 'Green Banks' For Climate Projects At Last Second: Matt Taibbi

Trump administration files first supreme court appeal over firing of government watchdog

Donald Trump’s administration has asked the supreme court to approve the firing of the head of a federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers in the first appeal of Trump’s new term and a key test of his battle with the judicial branch. Hampton Dellinger, the head of the office of the special counsel (OSC), is among the fired government watchdogs who have sued the Trump administration, arguing that their dismissals were illegal and that they should be reinstated.

The OSC is an independent federal agency that serves as “a secure channel for federal employees to blow the whistle by disclosing wrongdoing”. It is also intended to enforce the Hatch Act, a 1939 law designed to ensure that government programs are carried out in a nonpartisan way, and to enforce a merit system by investigating and prosecuting racial discrimination, partisan political discrimination, nepotism and coerced political activity. ...

On Wednesday, the federal judge Amy Berman Jackson reinstated Dellinger to his position pending a 26 February court hearing, writing that the language of the 1978 law that created Dellinger’s position “expresses Congress’s clear intent to ensure the independence of the special counsel and insulate his work from being buffeted by the winds of political change”. According to that law, the special counsel “may be removed by the president only for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office”.

Now, the Trump justice department has petitioned the supreme court to undo Jackson’s order, arguing that allowing a judge to reinstate an agency head for two weeks, pending a 26 February hearing on the case, is an impermissible check on presidential power. “Until now, as far as we are aware, no court in American history has wielded an injunction to force the president to retain an agency head,” Trump’s acting solicitor general, Sarah M Harris, wrote in the brief, obtained by the Associated Press on Sunday.

The case is not expected to be docketed until after the supreme court returns from the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend, meaning the justices will not respond until Tuesday at the earliest.

Redditors Immediately Debunk Elon Social Security Fraud Claims

IRS reportedly preparing to give Musk’s Doge agency access to taxpayer data

The US federal tax collection agency is reportedly preparing to give a team member of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which has already gutted several federal agencies and sparked multiple lawsuits, access to personal taxpayer data. The New York Times and the Washington Post both reported early on Monday that the Internal Revenue Service had received a request for access to a classified system that contains sensitive personal financial records.

The request, which is reportedly under review, would give Doge officials “broad access to tax-agency systems, property and datasets, including tax returns”. One of these, the integrated data retrieval system (IDRS), gives tax agency employees the ability to see IRS accounts and bank information, the Washington Post reported. ...

The Doge team member is reported to be software engineer Gavin Kliger, who is a staff member at the office of personnel management, which manages the US civil service. The New York Times reported that Kliger, 26, one six young programmers hand-selected by Musk, was working out of IRS headquarters on Thursday and would be assigned as a senior adviser to the acting IRS commissioner, Doug O’Donnell, giving him broad access to its systems.

Kliger’s primary focus at the IRS is to provide engineering assistance and IT modernization consulting, the request to the agency said. Doge incursions into the US tax collection agency come as the agency is preparing to lay off thousands of workers hired by the previous Biden administration.

“Free Speech Caused The Holocaust!” – CBS Host Margaret Brennan

Florida man gets an ethnic twist:

Jewish man mistakes two Israeli tourists for Palestinians and opens fire on them in Miami

A Jewish man in Miami Beach is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors. According to arrest documents, at 9.30pm on Saturday surveillance video appeared to show Mordechai Brafman, 27, getting out of his truck and opening fire with a semiautomatic handgun at a vehicle as it passed. Brafman allegedly fired 17 times, striking one victim in the left shoulder and grazing the other’s left forearm.

While in custody, Brafman spontaneously told detectives that while he was driving his truck, “he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both”, arrest documents said. Law enforcement officials did not confirm if the victims were in fact Palestinians and the Miami Herald reported that they were actually two vacationing Israelis, naming them as Ari Rabey and his father. ...

Further complicating the incident, one of the injured men reportedly posted “death to the Arabs” in a message on social media after the shooting. “My father and I went through a murder attempt against antisemitic background,” he wrote.

Water chlorination levels in US and EU likely increase cancer risk, study finds

Chlorinating drinking water at levels common in the United States and European Union probably increases the risk of several cancers, a new analysis of recent research from across the globe finds. The process of disinfecting water with chlorine creates trihalomethane (THM) byproducts, which are found in virtually all public drinking water systems across the US and EU – nearly 300 million people in the US have concerning levels in their water, by one estimate.

While the chlorination process is a “cheap, effective, and readily available” method for killing organisms and infectious disease, it comes with trade-offs, the study’s authors wrote, including a 33% increased risk of bladder cancer and 15% increased risk of colorectal cancer. “What we see is alarming and we need some more high quality studies,” Emilie Helte, a lead author with Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, said.

The process of disinfecting water is an essential public health measure that dramatically increased life expectancy when the US began chlorinating drinking water in the early 1900s because it significantly reduced microbial infections and waterborne illnesses, like cholera and typhoid fever. It wasn’t until the 1970s that researchers discovered the process came with consequences. When chlorine is added to water, it reacts with organic compounds, like decaying plant material, to create any number of hundreds of potentially toxic byproducts. ...

The US and EU set limits on byproducts at 80 parts per billion (ppb) and 100ppb, respectively, but the new research points to increased cancer risks at levels as low as 40ppb, which is around what they have been found at in New York City. The EPA reports levels are typically in the 40 to 60ppb range and the public health advocacy non-profit Environmental Working Group estimates the safe level at 0.15ppb.

Solar has taken off in red states. Trump’s funding freeze is causing panic

On 20 January, Donald Trump paused billions of dollars of federal grant funding for clean energy and other projects around the country initiated by the Biden administration’s Green New Deal.

“We’ve been slavishly working on a plan since April 2023 that would provide solar energy to hundreds of households in two low- and moderate-income Columbus neighborhoods,” says Mike Mullett. The project was expected to be rolled out in April, with previously approved funding thought to have been made available by 14 February. “Unless the Trump administration makes a 180-degree turn on funding, that expectation will obviously not be met.”

The funding is part of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s $7bn Solar for All program, which is meant to help low-income families save money on electricity costs. About $117m was set for solar projects and initiatives in Indiana. Communities across Indiana, a solidly Republican midwestern state, were set to benefit more than most from the Biden administration’s ambitious clean energy push in what was an ultimately failed effort to win votes in Rust belt states whose voters have abandoned Democratic party politicians in recent decades. ...

Solar projects ranging from utility scale to single housing efforts have proved hugely popular in red states. Texas has the second-highest number of installed solar power units, after California, enough to power more than 4.5m homes. Florida follows close behind.

A quarter of a trillion dollars – 80% of the total funding for green energy manufacturing and other initiatives – was to go to projects in Republican-leaning congressional districts across the US.

Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: The Mafia State

Patrick Lawrence: Trump vs. the Deep State

Israel Confirms Troops Will Remain at Southern Lebanon Sites After Deadline

Israeli cabinet advances bills curbing efforts to document rights violations, war crimes

Tehran Hits Back at Netanyahu’s Threat To ‘Finish the Job’ Against Iran

Trump Reboots Manifest Destiny

Scott Ritter: Trump’s Munich Strategy

U.S. Questions For European Governments - Another Wake-up Call

Europe & Ukraine Aren’t At the Peace Table, That Means They’re On It

How to Cut the Billionaires Behind This Coup Down to Size

"Trump is a Monster, Elon is Worse!" Thousands Protest KING TRUMP, DEMOLITION of Government

Germany Going NUTS Policing “Hate Speech”!

A Little Night Music

Harmonica Fats - Tore Up (Over You)

Harmonica Fats - I Get So Tired

Harmonica Fats - My Baby Didn't Come Home

Harmonica Fats - Mama, Mama, Talk To Your Daughter For Me

Harmonica Fats - Long Cool (Summer Time Blues

Harmonica Fats - How Low Is Low

Harmonica Fats - The Big Round Wheel

Harmonica Fats - The Birds and the Bees

The We Three Trio with Harmonica Fats - Hey, Little Woman

Delores Ealy & The Kenyattes with Harmonica Fats - Big Surprise

Delores Ealy & The Kenyattes with Harmonica Fats - Come Into My Bedroom