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“In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.”

-- Adlai E. Stevenson II

News and Opinion

Worth a click and a full read:

Chris Hedges: The Purge of the Deep State and the Road to Dictatorship

The Trump administration’s war with the deep state is not a purgative. It is not about freeing us from the tyranny of intelligence agencies, militarized police, the largest prison system in the world, predatory corporations or the end of mass surveillance. It will not restore the rule of law to hold the powerful and the wealthy accountable. It will not slash the bloated and unaccountable spending — some $1 trillion dollars — by the Pentagon. All revolutionary movements, on the left or the right, dismantle the old bureaucratic structures. The fascists in Germany and the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union, once they seized power, aggressively purged the civil service. They see in these structures, correctly, an enemy that would stymie their absolute grip on power. It is a coup d’état by inches. Now we get our own.

Rearguard battles — as in the early years of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany — are taking place in the courts and media outlets openly hostile to Trump. There will be, at first, pyrrhic victories — the Bolsheviks and the Nazis were stalled by their own judiciaries and hostile press — but gradually the purges, aided by a bankrupt liberalism that no longer stands or fights for anything, ensures the triumph of the new masters.

The Trump administration has expelled or fired officials who investigate wrongdoing within the federal government, including 17 inspectors general. Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, such as the FBI and Homeland Security, are being purged of those deemed hostile to Trump. Courts, as they are stacked with complaint judges, will be mechanisms for the persecution of state “enemies” and protection rackets for the powerful and the rich. The Supreme Court, which has granted Trump legal immunity, has already reached this stage. ... We are repeating the steps that led to the consolidation of power by past dictatorships, albeit with our own idiom and idiosyncrasies. Those naively lauding Trump’s hostility towards the deep state — which I concede did tremendous damage to democratic institutions, eviscerated our most cherished liberties, is an unaccountable state within a state and orchestrated a series of disastrous global interventions, including the recent military fiascos in the Middle East and Ukraine — should look closely at what is being proposed to take its place.

The ultimate target for the Trump administration is not the deep state. The target is the laws, regulations, protocols and rules, and the government civil servants who enforce them, which hinder dictatorial control. Compromise, limited power, checks and balances and accountability are slated to be abolished. Those who believe that the government is designed to serve the common good, rather than the dictates of the ruler, will be forced out. The deep state will be reconstituted to serve the leadership cult. Laws and the rights enshrined in the Constitution will be irrelevant. ...

The chaos of the first Trump administration has been replaced with a disciplined plan to throttle what is left of America’s anemic democracy. Project 2025, the Center for Renewing America and the America First Policy Institute compiled in advance detailed blueprints, position papers, legislative proposals, proposed executive orders and policies. ... The hollowed-out remnants of the old system — the media, the Democratic Party, academia, the shells of labor unions — will not save us. They mouth empty platitudes, cower in fear, seek useless incremental reforms and accommodation, and demonize Trump supporters regardless of their reasons for voting for him. They are fading into irrelevance. This ennui is a common denominator in the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. It engenders apathy and defeatism.

Phil Giraldi : Trump Panders to Israel

Probes Reveal Depth of Big Tech Complicity in Israel's AI-Driven Gaza Slaughter

Several recent journalistic investigations—including one published Tuesday by The Associated Press—have deepened the understanding of how Israeli forces are using artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems sold by U.S. tech titans for the mass surveillance and killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

The AP's Michael Biesecker, Sam Mednick, and Garance Burke found that Israel's use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology "skyrocketed" following Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

"This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare," Heidy Khlaaf, chief artificial intelligence scientist at the AI Now Institute and a former senior safety engineer at OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, told the AP. "The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward."

As Biesecker, Mednick, and Burke noted:

Israel's goal after the attack that killed about 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages was to eradicate Hamas, and its military has called AI a "game changer" in yielding targets more swiftly. Since the war started, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to the AP report, Israel buys advanced AI models from OpenAI and Microsoft's Azure cloud platform. While OpenAI said it has no partnership with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in early 2024 the company quietly removed language from its usage policy that prohibited military use of its technology.

The AP reporters also found that Google and Amazon provide cloud computing and AI services to the IDF via Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021. Furthermore, the IDF uses Cisco and Dell server farms or data centers. Red Hat, an independent IBM subsidiary, sells cloud computing services to the IDF. Microsoft partner Palantir Technologies also has a "strategic partnership" with Israel's military.

Google told the AP that the company is committed to creating AI "that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security."

However, Google recently removed from its Responsible AI principles a commitment to not use AI for the development of technology that could cause "overall harm," including weapons and surveillance.

The AP investigation follows a Washington Post probe published last month detailing how Google has been "directly assisting" the IDF and Israel's Ministry of Defense "despite the company's efforts to publicly distance itself from the country's national security apparatus after employee protests against a cloud computing contract with Israel's government."

Google fired dozens of workers following their participation in "No Tech for Apartheid" protests against the use of the company's products and services by forces accused of genocide in Gaza.

"A Google employee warned in one document that if the company didn't quickly provide more access, the military would turn instead to Google's cloud rival Amazon, which also works with Israel's government under the Nimbus contract," wrote Gerrit De Vynck, author of the Post report.

"As recently as November 2024, by which time a year of Israeli airstrikes had turned much of Gaza to rubble, documents show Israel's military was still tapping Google for its latest AI technology," De Vynck added. "Late that month, an employee requested access to the company's Gemini AI technology for the IDF, which wanted to develop its own AI assistant to process documents and audio, according to the documents."

Previous investigations have detailed how the IDF also uses Habsora, an Israeli AI system that can automatically select airstrike targets at an exponentially faster rate than ever before.

"In the past, there were times in Gaza when we would create 50 targets per year. And here the machine produced 100 targets in one day," former IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi told Yuval Abraham of +972 Magazine, a joint Israeli-Palestinian publication, in 2023. Another intelligence source said that Habsora has transformed the IDF into a "mass assassination factory" in which the "emphasis is on quantity and not quality" of kills.

Here’s what happens if Israel’s AI system selects you for assassination. @AJIunit talked to experts about the @972mag investigation that revealed the extent to which Israel uses AI to target Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/8wLbD13DiS

— AJ+ (@ajplus) November 11, 2024

Compounding the crisis, in the heated hours following the October 7 attack, mid-ranking IDF officers were empowered to order attacks on not only senior Hamas commanders but any fighter in the resistance group, no matter how junior. What's more, the officers were allowed to risk up to 20 civilian lives in each strike, and up to 500 noncombatant lives per day. Days later, that limit was lifted. Officers could order any number of strikes as they believed were legal, with no limits on civilian harm.

Senior IDF commanders sometimes approved strikes they knew could kill more than 100 civilians if the target was deemed important enough. In one AI-aided airstrike targeting one senior Hamas commander, the IDF dropped multiple U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs, which can level an entire city block, on the Jabalia refugee camp in October 2023. According to the U.K.-based airstrike monitor Airwars, the bombing killed at least 126 people, 68 of them children, and wounded 280 others. Hamas' Qassam Brigades said four Israeli and three international hostages were also killed in the attack.

Then there's the mass surveillance element. Independent journalist Antony Loewenstein recently wrote for Middle East Eye that "corporate behemoths are storing massive amounts of information about every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and elsewhere."

Israel’s use of AI in Gaza is a terrifying model coming to a country near you | Op-ed by Antony Loewenstein pic.twitter.com/0maLjN12OA

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 12, 2025

"How this data will be used, in a time of war and mass surveillance, is obvious," Loewenstein continued. "Israel is building a huge database, Chinese-state style, on every Palestinian under occupation: what they do, where they go, who they see, what they like, what they want, what they fear, and what they post online."

"Palestinians are guinea pigs—but this ideology and work doesn't stay in Palestine," he said. "Silicon Valley has taken note, and the new Trump era is heralding an ever-tighter alliance among Big Tech, Israel, and the defense sector. There's money to be made, as AI currently operates in a regulation-free zone globally.

"Think about how many other states, both democratic and dictatorial, would love to have such extensive information about every citizen, making it far easier to target critics, dissidents, and opponents," Loewenstein added. "With the far right on the march globally—from Austria to Sweden, France to Germany, and the U.S. to Britain—Israel's ethno-nationalist model is seen as attractive and worth mimicking.

Hamas Open To STEPPING DOWN In Gaza Breakthrough

Hamas says it will hand over bodies of Bibas family and free six hostages

Hamas has said it will release six hostages from Gaza this week and hand over the bodies of four others, including the remains of two young children from the same family whose deaths had not previously been confirmed.

Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas negotiator, said the four bodies to be handed over on Thursday would include those of 32-year-old Shiri Bibas and her sons, Kfir and Ariel, who were nine months old and four years old when Hamas abducted them from the Nir Oz kibbutz during the 7 October 2023 attack that ignited the Gaza war.

The boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, was told by Hamas that his family was dead when he was released earlier this month, but Israeli authorities were not able to confirm their deaths, and family members said that the father had continued to believe they could still be alive. Hamas has claimed the young boys and their mother were killed by Israeli bombing.

Hamas has said it will release six surviving hostages on Saturday, which represents a slight acceleration of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Under the originally agreed timetable, they were to be released in two groups of three, the last on 1 March, when the second phase is due to begin. A further four bodies are to be handed over on schedule next week.

The release of six hostages on Saturday was confirmed by the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In return, all the remaining Palestinians due to be released from Israeli prisons in the first phase will be freed on Saturday. Israeli press reports said that Israel would also allow into Gaza some of the bulldozers and mobile homes that have been waiting on the Egyptian side of the border, to begin the vast task of rebuilding the devastated Palestinian territory.

COL. Douglas Macgregor : Israel, Egypt, and Riyadh

US B-52 Bombers Fly Over Nine Countries in the Middle East

The US conducted a major flyover of bombers and fighter jets over nine countries across the Middle East, in a show of force against Iran and its allies. The Central Command (CENTCOM) mission, included aerial refueling drills and live munitions drops.

CENTCOM chief Gen. Erik Kurilla declared, “Bomber Task Force missions demonstrate US power projection capability, commitment to regional security, and ability to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict in the CENTCOM region.”

The Air Force’s B-52 Stratrofortress bombers which led the mission are based in the UK, also involved were American F-15s and other fighters flown by unnamed partner nations. The warplanes first flew through Europe and then over nine partner nations under the CENTCOM area of responsibility, although it’s not clear which countries those were. “Live munitions drops at ranges in several partner nations” were conducted, the command explained in a news release.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Can Riyadh Bring Peace?

Princeton University implicated in Gaza and Sudan wars, report says

Princeton University receives millions of dollars worth of contracts from the US Department of Defence as well as weapons manufacturers, tying it to several sites of conflict around the world, including Gaza and Sudan, a new report released by an anti-war group has revealed. Several sources told Middle East Eye this week that the report is one of the first to showcase how modern American academia thrives as a US war machine service provider.

The report, published in early February and produced by a new anti-war group made up of independent researchers, comes on the heels of a student movement around the country that has called for universities to disclose and divest from companies purportedly profiting from the Israeli occupation and war on Gaza, which has been called a "genocide" by legal experts, human rights bodies and political leaders. ...

The new report, student organisers and faculty say, is not merely an indictment of Princeton's entanglement with the military or large corporations, it also shows that material considerations primarily drive the crackdown against protesters. "It’s not simply that protesters offended the delicate sensibilities of university administrators, it’s about their bottom line - the investments, contracts, and endowments they are desperate to protect," Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American studies at Princeton University, told MEE.

"This report exposes the deep hypocrisy that has been festering long before this latest wave of academic repression. Universities claim to be 'in service to humanity' while helping to develop technologies that obliterate flesh and blood human beings," Benjamin added. ... Meticulously referenced and drawn from publicly available documents, including university and company auditing reports, it alleges that Princeton has accepted funding from the Israeli Ministry of Defence, as well as collaborated with arms companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, among others.

Revealing OUTRAGE Over Trump Resuming Normal U.S./Russian Diplomacy

US and Russia agree to explore mutual opportunities of end to Ukraine war

US and Russian officials agreed to explore the “economic and investment opportunities” that could arise for their countries from an end to the war in Ukraine after talks in Saudi Arabia that amounted to a tectonic shift in Washington’s approach to Moscow. The statements from the two sides came amid concerns in Kyiv and across Europe that Donald Trump could push for a peace settlement that favours Vladimir Putin. No Ukrainian or European officials were present at the meeting.

Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump dismissed Ukrainian concerns about being excluded from the talks and, astonishingly, seemed to imply that Kyiv was to blame for the war. He said: “Today I heard, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited’. Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years [ago] – you should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

The president complained that he had seen no accounting of how US military aid is being spent and conspicuously avoided voicing support for Zelenskyy. “I think I have the power to end this war,” he said.

After the talks at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, the most extensive negotiations between the two countries in three years, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said agreement had been made to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks and to explore “opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine”. It marked a dramatic break with the Biden administration’s efforts to isolate Moscow.

Munich driven to TEARS. Collective west ends

‘The lurch to the right scares me’: could the left surprise in German election?

As the world’s richest person meddles at will on behalf of the far right in the German election campaign, a leftist party calling for taxing billionaires out of existence has risen from the ashes in the race’s final stretch. The far-left Linke, successor to the East German communists who built the Berlin Wall and just months ago on life support after an internal schism, has had a surprise resurgence before the 23 February poll.

As it responds to a radically shifting zeitgeist, the Linke is attracting strong new support from women and young voters with its call for “democratic socialism” marked by affordable housing, income equality, climate protection and pacifism. One of its rising stars, MP Heidi Reichinnek, 36, recently went viral on social media eviscerating the conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz in parliament for accepting support from the far right for his hardline immigration proposals.

“You’ve made yourself an accomplice and today you’ve changed this country for the worse,” Reichinnek, her forearm decorated with a tattoo of the revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, said in a rousing speech as the CDU leader tried to laugh off the frontal attack. “Resist fascism in this country. To the barricades,” she cried, quoting the old leftist anthem in a video watched more than 30m times in its first week online, according to the Linke. ...

Meanwhile, Sahra Wagenknecht, the left’s most prominent face before Reichinnek, defected from the Linke and formed her own party a year ago with a nativist call for slashing immigration, increasing social welfare benefits for German citizens and reviving ties to the Kremlin.

After a strong run in June’s European elections and three eastern state polls in September, however, her BSW party’s national campaign has since fizzled amid internal divisions.

Germany's Insane Hate Speech Laws Explained: With Journalist James Jackson

UnitedHealth Group resists shareholder proposal on delayed and denied care

UnitedHealth Group is attempting to swat down a non-binding shareholder proposal that asked the company to prepare reports on the costs of delayed and denied healthcare.

The proposal, filed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), represents a new frontier in seeking to hold insurance companies accountable for the “macroeconomic costs” of denied care – arguing they eventually hurt the bottom line of large investors.

The proposal asks UnitedHealth Group to prepare reports on the “public health-related costs and macroeconomic risks created by the company’s practices that limit or delay access to healthcare”.

“The investors we work with are interested in long-term value creation,” said Meg Jones-Monteiro, senior director of health equity at ICCR. The coalition represents primarily institutional investors, such as pensions and foundations. “When you think about the investment portfolios our members have, they are very diverse,” Jones-Monteiro. “What happens in one sector impacts another.”

The proposal is non-binding, but UnitedHealth Group is nevertheless fighting to stop it. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January, UnitedHealth Group attempted to exclude the proposal from proxy statements on technical grounds, arguing in part that the terms “public-health related costs” and “macroeconomic risks” are vague and subject to interpretation.

At last!

US postmaster to step down months after reporting billions in losses

The US postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, said on Tuesday he had asked the US Postal Service (USPS) governing board to identify his successor.

In November, DeJoy warned that the post office, which has lost more than $100bn since 2007, must continue to cut costs or will remain on the path to either a “government bailout or the end of this great organization as we know it”.

USPS did not say when DeJoy – who has headed the agency since 2020 – plans to step down. His announcement comes weeks after Donald Trump took office.

USPS is implementing a 10-year restructuring plan announced in 2021 that aims to eliminate $160bn in predicted losses over the next decade. USPS now projects $80bn in losses over the period and plans further cuts to address the shortfall.

GOP Pushes Drastic Cuts to Medicaid & Food Aid While Proposing Tax Cuts for Rich

CNN Made FOIA Request About DOGE—Only to Learn FOIA Staff Was Fired

When CNN put in a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of Personnel Management for information related to security clearances for billionaire Elon Musk and other personnel at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency who have been allowed access to sensitive or classified government networks, the outlet got an unexpected response.

"Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team," an OPM email address wrote back, according to Tuesday reporting from CNN. An OPM official told the outlet that the federal government's human resources agency did not layoff the entire privacy team, but did not comment further on the matter.

"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped CBS News journalist Jim LaPorta reacting to the news on X.

According to CNN, OPM's privacy team "is tasked with ensuring the agency's data privacy practices meet legal requirements and protect the trust of the public." Members of the agency's communications staff and employees who handle FOIA requests were also terminated, per CNN, which cited two unnamed sources.

Federal agencies are required to furnish information requested via FOIA unless the information falls within an exemption.

These firings at OPM, which is the chief human resources agency of the federal government, constitute "a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates," according to CNN, citing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter."

DOGE Cost Savings? Not So Fast. Robby and Lynda Debate

Trump threatens 25% tariffs on foreign cars and semiconductor chips

Donald Trump stood firm against warnings that his threatened trade war risks derailing the US economy, claiming his administration could hit foreign cars with tariffs of around 25% within weeks.

Semiconductor chips and drugs are set to face higher duties, Trump told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.

The White House has repeatedly raised the threat of tariffs since Trump returned to office last month, pledging to rebalance the global economic order in America’s favor.

A string of announced tariffs have yet to be introduced, however, as economists and business urge the Trump administration to reconsider.

Duties on imports from Canada and Mexico have been repeatedly delayed; modified levies on steel and aluminum, announced last week, will not be enforced until next month; and a wave of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, also trailed last week, will not kick in before April.

Trump administration gives schools deadline to cut DEI or lose federal funds

The Trump administration is giving the US’s schools and universities two weeks to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money, raising the stakes in the president’s fight against “wokeness”.

In a memo on Friday, the education department gave an ultimatum to stop using “racial preferences” as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring or other areas. Schools are being given 14 days to end any practice that treats students or workers differently because of their race.

Educators at colleges nationwide were rushing to evaluate their risk and decide whether to stand up for practices they believe are legal. The sweeping demand threatens to upend all aspects of campus operations, from essays on college applications to classroom lessons and campus clubs.

It’s meant to correct what the memo described as rampant discrimination in education, often against white and Asian students.

“Schools have been operating on the pretext that selecting students for ‘diversity’ or similar euphemisms is not selecting them based on race,” said Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights. “No longer. Students should be assessed according to merit, accomplishment and character.”

"I Am Finally Free!": Indigenous Leader Leonard Peltier Released After Nearly 50 Years Imprisoned

Wrongfully imprisoned for 50 years, an american political prisoner finally "free" in home confinement.

Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier released from prison: ‘Finally free’

The Native American activist Leonard Peltier – convicted in 1975 for the killings of two FBI agents – was released from federal prison on Tuesday after Joe Biden commuted his sentence at the end of his presidency in January.

In a statement, Peltier said that he was “finally free!”

“They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” he added. “Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom.

“I am finally going home. I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It’s a good day today.”

Peltier had maintained his innocence since his conviction before Biden ordered Peltier – now 80 and in poor health – to transition to home confinement after spending nearly 49 years federally imprisoned.

Pfffftttt!!!

DNC chair outlines pro-worker, union focus in first memo in fight against Trump

The newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, has warned his party that the Republicans are now seen as the party of the working class and vowed to win back the trust of American workers as the Democrats seek to rebuild after their losses in the 2024 presidential election. In his first memo in the role, seen by the Guardian, Martin said, after the election, “for the first time in modern history, Americans now see the Republicans as the party of the working class and Democrats as the party of the elites”.

The memo, titled “Democrats Will Fight Against Trump’s War on Working People”, comes as Martin is set to meet with United Steel Workers members in Pittsburgh. ...

“Unions protect workers regardless of identity, offer a pathway to the middle class, and raise standards for union and non-union members alike. Trump’s continued Project 2025 threats to unions are a direct attack on the wellbeing of working families everywhere,” Martin concluded. “As I take over as chair of the DNC, union workers and labor leaders will be core to my decision-making. As Trump wages his war on working families, Democrats will fiercely answer the call to my favorite old union song, Which Side Are You On? I’ll tell you what: Democrats are on the side of the worker. We will show Americans every day that workers in fact do have more power than any billionaire.”

If you want a picture of the future, imagine Chuck Schumer saying "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia" forever. pic.twitter.com/xyVcZxjDnw

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) November 8, 2024

Top US prosecutor quits over pressure to investigate Biden climate spending

A top federal prosecutor has quit after refusing to launch what she called a politically driven investigation into Biden-era climate spending, exposing deepening rifts in the US’s premier law enforcement agency.

Denise Cheung, head of criminal prosecutions in Washington, resigned on Tuesday after Trump appointees demanded she open a grand jury investigation into Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants based largely on an undercover video, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. ...

The dispute stems from the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin’s claim last week about $20bn in climate law funding being held in a Citibank account.

‘The path forward is clear’: how Trump taking office has ‘turbocharged’ climate accountability efforts

Donald Trump’s re-election has “turbocharged” climate accountability efforts including laws which aim to force greenhouse gas emitters to pay damages for fueling dangerous global warming, say activists. These “make polluters pay” laws, led by blue states’ attorneys general, and climate accountability lawsuits will be a major front for climate litigation in the coming months and years. They are being challenged by red states and the fossil fuel industry, which are also fighting against accountability-focused climate lawsuits waged by governments and youth environmentalists.

On day one of his second term, the US president affirmed his loyalty to the oil industry with a spate of executive actions to roll back environmental protections and a pledge to “drill, baby, drill”. The ferocity of his anti-environment agenda has inspired unprecedented interest in climate accountability, said Jamie Henn, director of the anti-oil and gas non-profit Fossil Free Media. “I think Trump’s election has turbocharged the ‘make polluters pay’ movement,” said Henn, who has been a leader in the campaign for a decade.

More state lawmakers are writing legislative proposals to force oil companies to pay for climate disasters, while law firms are helping governments sue the industry. And youth activists are working on a new legal challenge to the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel policies. ...

“I think people are really latching on to this message and this approach right now,” Henn said. “It finally gives people a way to respond to climate disasters, and it’s something that we can do without the federal government.”

‘An unprecedented situation’: EPA plan for LA wildfire cleanup stirs protests over toxic dangers

This weekend, more than a hundred demonstrators protested against a new plan by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use a local beach as a toxic waste sorting site, to process debris from the Palisades fire. They waved signs saying “Save Our Beaches” and “Sort Toxics at the Burn Site” as they walked up and down the path along Will Rogers state beach in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, just outside Los Angeles.

Their message? Wildfire debris isn’t just ash – it’s poison. “Asbestos, heavy metals, dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons will not remain contained,” a petition circulated by a local resident, Ashley Oelsen, says. “Toxic contaminants from the wildfire debris could leach into the soil and the waterways. Onshore winds will undoubtedly carry these hazardous particulates, compromising the air quality where people live, work and play. The risk to our ocean’s health is just as alarming.”

The celebrated stretch of beach isn’t the only place where a post-fire debris debate is brewing. With more than 6,800 structures destroyed in the Palisades fire – and another 9,400 in the Eaton fire across the city – there are tons of ash and debris – including burned-out cars, propane tanks, pool chemicals, paint and insulation with asbestos – that need to be cleaned up and removed. Winds and rain can carry bits of toxic material into other sensitive areas, so there is a rush to move quickly. The army corps of engineers estimates 4,250,000 tons of structural ash and debris need to be removed after the LA fires of 2025.

The EPA has planned to clean up hazardous materials in just a month – a timeframe it announced in late January, after Donald Trump visited the area. The size of the disaster makes that timeframe challenging – after the devastating fires in Lahaina, Maui, it took the EPA more than three months to remove hazardous materials from just 1,448 properties that burned. ...

Heal the Bay has opposed the EPA’s selection of Topanga beach as a site, due to its proximity to both the ocean, including a much-loved surf break, and streams that come down the canyon. “Topanga Lagoon is one of the last coastal wetland areas that exists, and so the protection of that area is incredibly important for us,” says Annelisa Moe, associate director of science and policy, water quality, at the non-profit organization Heal the Bay in nearby Santa Monica. “It’s also been a site getting ready for restoration work for the last 15 years.” That work now will have to change substantially.

Also of Interest

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

Trump’s Vision for Gaza

Police Pressure to Shut Down Meeting Forces New Berlin Venue for UN Palestine Rapporteur Francesca Albanese

Israel ‘just wanted to destroy’ in southern Lebanon, despite the ceasefire

Understanding Canadians Reaction To Trump’s Threats

Springtime for US-Russia Relations

Where Trump's Punishment Of Europe Should Lead To

Just How Far Could the Fallout of Javier Milei’s $LIBRA Coin “Rug Pull” Scandal Reach?

Trump administration firing FAA staff including safety workers despite recent crashes

A quarter of US shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances

Jewish Man SHOOTS Israeli Tourists He Thought Were Palestinian

A Little Night Music

The Champions - Annie Met Henry

The Champions - Mexico Bound

The Champions - I'm So Blue

The Champions - No Good Woman

The Champions - Come On

The Champions - Cute Little Baby

The Champions - The Same Old Story

The Champions - Big Bad Beulah

The Cadets - Do You Wanna Rock

The Cadets - Stranded in the Jungle

The Cadets - Love Bandit