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“Wherever morality is based on theology, wherever the right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established."

-- Ludwig Feuerbach

News and Opinion

You Cannot Separate Yourself From What’s Happening In Gaza

The Gaza holocaust has reignited with as much sadistic fury as it ever saw under the Biden administration. More than five hundred people have reportedly been killed by Israeli bombardment since the onslaught resumed early Tuesday morning, including at least 200 children and 112 women.

I will admit to having been hopeful. I know it’s illegal to express hope online, but I really did hope that by some miracle peace would find some way forward in Gaza in spite of the frenetic efforts by Trump and Netanyahu and their cohorts to sabotage it. I had hope, and now I have grief.

Now this constant mass atrocity has been fully reanimated. And the people who rule over us are actively supporting this, while working to imprison, fire, silence and deport anyone who opposes it.

This is a broken civilization. A warped and twisted dystopia. The waking nightmare we are witnessing in Gaza is the result of everything that we have become as a society. Those dead and mutilated children on your social media feed are the fruit on the tree of the western world.

Please understand that this is personal now. This isn’t only about some strangers in the middle east. It’s also about you. It’s about your rights. It’s about your freedom to speak out against the criminality of your rulers. It’s about the kind of society you want to live in. It’s about the kind of future you want for your children.

We are not separate from what’s happening in Gaza, as hard as we might try to make ourselves feel that way. Gaza is here. The waves of blood are lapping at your doorstep. The dead and mutilated children are strewn about your living room and kitchen. They were placed there by the powerful people who run your government and its allies.

There’s no getting away from it. Gaza has been brought right to you and laid at your feet.

And it’s up to you how you’re going to respond to it.

A state of exception - The Grayzone live

Israeli strikes on Gaza add to soaring child death toll

At least 91 Palestinians have been killed and many more injured in a third day of Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to medical officials in the strip, who said a high proportion of the dead were women and children.

The timing of the strikes in the new Israeli offensive appears to have increased the proportion of women and children among the victims, with many sleeping when the missiles struck overnight or very early in the morning. Among those pulled alive from rubble on Thursday was a month-old baby girl, but her parents and brother were killed.

A first wave of airstrikes on Tuesday shattered a two-month pause in hostilities and killed more than 400, according to the health ministry in Gaza, in what may have been the single bloodiest day of the 18-month conflict. The dead included 183 children and 94 women, Palestinian officials said. ...

Thursday’s strikes appeared concentrated on the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis and the northern town of Beit Lahiya. ...

In its first military response to the Israeli offensive since the ceasefire was broken, Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv in Israel. No casualties or damage were reported.

Phil Giraldi : Death of Free Speech

Thousands protest in Israel over ‘attack on democracy’ by Netanyahu

Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for a new ceasefire in Gaza and to protest against what they say is an attack on the country’s democracy by the rightwing governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu. Key highways have been blocked and police have made at least 12 arrests amid heated scenes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. More protests were expected in the coming days as the campaign “gathers momentum and energy”, campaigners said.

The immediate trigger for the anger was Netanyahu’s attempt to dismiss Ronen Bar, the head of the internal security agency, but the prime minister’s decision to shatter a two-month-old truce in Gaza with waves of lethal airstrikes has fuelled the demonstrations.

Protesters accuse the government of continuing the war for political reasons and ignoring the plight of the 59 hostages – about 24 of whom are believed to be alive – still held by Hamas in the devastated Palestinian territory. “This government has now also started a war, once again, to protect itself, to divert the discourse from the things that bother the public in Israel. The government has lost all legitimacy on every possible level … They are failing,” said Eitan Herzel, chief executive of the Brothers in Arms protest movement. ...

Experts point out that Shin Bet, which has wide-ranging powers, is investigating Netanyahu’s close aides for alleged breaches of national security, including leaking classified documents to foreign media and taking money from Qatar, which is know to have given significant financial aid to Hamas. New suspects in the “Qatargate” affair were interviewed by Israeli police on Wednesday, local media reported.

Netanyahu is also facing a potential jail sentence at the conclusion of an ongoing corruption trial. The 75-year-old politician, who took power in Israel for the first time in 1996 and has served 17 years as prime minister, is giving evidence twice weekly. Other concerns for protesters include reforms that would introduce more political appointees to committees that select judges.

Update: From ICE Jail, Mahmoud Khalil Warns of Trump’s War on Dissent & Targeting Palestinians

Israel's Takeovers of Gaza Hospitals Amount to 'War Crimes,' Says Human Rights Watch

As the Israel Defense Forces continued a devastating assault on the Gaza Strip Thursday, a U.S.-based rights group said that the IDF "caused deaths and unnecessary suffering of Palestinian patients while occupying hospitals" there over the past 18 months, "amounting to war crimes."

"International humanitarian law provides that hospitals and their staff may not be deliberately attacked," states the new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. "Parties to the conflict must at all times respect and protect hospitals and take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to patients, staff, and facilities during the hostilities."

Like previous publications exposing the IDF's systematic destruction of the Gaza health system, the HRW report lays out how Israeli forces who occupied hospitals neglected their legal obligations and instead "severely interfered with the treatment" of injured and sick Palestinians, including by denying doctors' pleas to bring in supplies and blocking access to facilities and ambulances, "leading to the deaths of wounded and chronically ill patients."

Patients & doctors gunned down, abused, denied meds, water & electricity, pulled off life-saving treatment & forced out. Scores killed. Hospitals destroyed. As Israel reinvades Gaza, @hrw report out on war crimes Israel committed while occupying hospitals. https://t.co/fVcbilIktR pic.twitter.com/CNu7LZF1iR

— Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) March 20, 2025

HRW interviewed patients and healthcare workers present for Israeli takeovers of al-Shifa medical complex in Gaza City, Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, and the Nasser facility in Khan Younis. According to witnesses, the IDF "denied electricity, water, food, and medicines to patients; shot civilians; mistreated health workers; and deliberately destroyed medical facilities and equipment. Unlawful forced evacuations put patients at grave risk and left desperately needed hospitals nonfunctional."

In the section on Israeli activities at al-Shifa in November 2023, HRW reported that "Ridana Zukhra, 25, said she left al-Shifa with her children, brother, and cousin when Israeli forces ordered people to evacuate. Despite holding white flags, a tank fired at the group, badly wounding her daughter, Ghazal, 5, whose leg had to be amputated."

The report also shares accounts from the hospital five months later:

Dr. Badr B., 28, who asked not to use his real name for his protection, said that electricity at the hospital was cut off at about 2:00 am on March 18. Israeli forces broadcast a message that no one could leave, he said, and they shot and wounded four healthcare workers near the entrance. A doctor told the BBC that two patients on life support died because of the electricity cut.

Israeli forces seized the complex with "military vehicles, snipers, quadcopters [drones], soldiers, everything," Dr. B. said. Israeli forces ordered the 72 healthcare workers left at the hospital to transfer about 180 patients from the third and fourth floors of the ICU in the specialized surgeries building to the ground floor and warned they would "start shooting at these floors" within two hours. Dr. B. said that they began "shooting as we were evacuating the last group, three [patients] on crutches and the rest in wheelchairs." Staff then transferred patients to the hospital's reception building.

HRW also detailed Israel's December 2023 assault on Kamal Adwan and the February 2024 raid at Nasser, "when 850 patients and up to 10,000 displaced people were sheltering there."

According to the publication:

Duaa D., who asked that her real name not be used for her protection, said her son Mohammed, 20, was a kidney patient in Nasser hospital at the time, where there was no fresh food, clean water, or medicine for Mohammed's hypertension. Her two younger children, sheltering in a tent in the hospital courtyard, went sleepless with fear. Mohammed said he could barely walk and had lost almost half his body weight due to vomiting and diarrhea, that the water was contaminated, and that he could not digest the canned food due to his chronic illnesses.

On February 13, Duaa saw Jamal Abu al-Ola, 25, who had been sheltering in the hospital, in a white hazmat suit with his hands bound. NBC and other media reported that Israeli forces had detained and beaten him and ordered him to warn the hospital to evacuate, threatening to kill him and others if he did not return. Duaa said al-Ola shared the warning and left the hospital, but soon after was carried back in and "shot, with a fountain of blood pouring." Witnesses told news media that Israeli forces shot and killed him near the hospital entrance.

Duaa told HRW that she saw a large number of bodies on the ground and recalled an "unbearable" smell. "We saw cats and dogs eating bodies," she said. "Once a dog brought a human hand and gave it to its puppies."

Bill Van Esveld, associate children's rights director at HRW, demanded accountability for Israeli troops' well-documented war crimes.

"Israeli forces repeatedly demonstrated deadly cruelty against Palestinian patients in hospitals that they seized," Van Esveld said. "The Israeli military's denial of water and electricity left sick and wounded people to die, while soldiers mistreated and forcibly displaced patients and health workers, and damaged and destroyed hospitals."

"The Israeli military's occupation of Gaza's hospitals has transformed sites for healing and recovery into centers of death and mistreatment," he added. "Those responsible for these horrific abuses, including senior officials, should be held to account."

Footage online has shown the influx of dead bodies in Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital following another intense wave of Israeli shelling.

Israel’s latest assault has killed 95 Palestinians since dawn on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 710 since bombing began on Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/J0ZZgGYzXX

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 20, 2025

The report was published just days after Israel fully abandoned a cease-fire that took effect in January. Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Khalil Al-Dakran toldAnadolu Agency on Thursday that "the bodies of 710 people were transferred to hospitals since Tuesday, in addition to over 900 others injured."

Al-Dakran said that 70% of the injured were women and children, and "many of the injured died due to the lack of urgent medical care amid an Israeli blockade on Gaza, which causes a severe shortage of essential equipment and medicine."

Since the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel, the IDF has slaughtered at least tens of thousands of Palestinians—leading to an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice. The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

White House: Trump ‘Fully Supports’ Israel’s Gaza Slaughter

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that President Trump “fully supports” Israel’s renewed massive bombing campaign in Gaza, which has killed at least 200 children since Tuesday.

“The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay. Unfortunately, Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,” Leavitt told reporters.

The US and Israel are blaming Hamas for the lack of a continued ceasefire and hostage releases. But it was Israel that repeatedly violated the deal signed in January, which would have led to the release of all Israeli captives, a permanent truce, and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

US Ultimatum to Lebanon: Negotiate or We’ll Back Further Israeli Escalation

US Deputy Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus has delivered an ultimatum to the Lebanese government demanding that they form committees to participate in direct negotiations with Israel by month’s end or face an escalation of US-backed Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory.

The negotiations were announced a little over a week ago, and Lebanon has said no direct talks were happening. Israel has expressed hope that these talks would ultimately give way to normalization of Israel-Lebanon relations.

The US wants direct Lebanon participation, and wants three committees specifically on the issues of the active Israeli occupation of five military outposts inside Lebanon, the border itself, and the potential Israeli release of Lebanese prisoners.

Since Israeli DM Israel Katz has promised Israel will continue to occupy those outposts irrespective of how the negotiations do, Lebanon has seen little interest in participating. Israel released a handful of prisoners when the US first announced the talks as a sign of goodwill.

US-Iran conflict and Russian mediation

Congressional Republicans threaten revolt over Trump-led defence shake-up

Republicans on Capitol Hill are threatening a revolt against a defence shake-up reportedly planned by the Trump administration that could see the US relinquish its command of Nato forces in Europe. The two top Republicans on the Senate and House of Representatives armed services committees, Roger Wicker and Mike Rogers, signaled their opposition in an extraordinary joint statement warning that the change would “risk undermining American deterrence around the globe”.

The statement – a rare display of congressional Republicans rebelling since Donald Trump’s return to the White House – followed an NBC report that the Pentagon is considering giving up the role of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (Saceur), a position held by an American general since the Nato alliance was formed in 1949. The proposed shake-up could also include folding separate US Europe and Africa military commands into a joint command structure based in Germany and the scrapping of plans to expand American forces in Japan as part of a military buildup in the far east.

Wicker and Rogers said such changes would not be accepted without recourse to Congress, which holds the “power of the purse” under US constitutional norms. “US combatant commands are the tip of the American warfighting spear,” they said. “Therefore, we are very concerned about reports that claim DoD is considering unilateral changes on major strategic issues, including significant reductions to US forces stationed abroad, absent coordination with the White House and Congress.

“We will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the joint staff, and collaboration with Congress. Such moves risk undermining American deterrence around the globe and detracting from our negotiating positions with America’s adversaries.”

Johns Hopkins to lose 2,000 jobs after Trump’s $800m cut in USAid funding

Johns Hopkins University announced it was planning to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution. The funding for the positions had come from the US Agency for International Development, which the administration has gutted with enormous cuts. A total of 247 domestic US workers and another 1,975 positions abroad in 44 countries will be affected by what amounts to the largest layoff in the history of the university.

The job losses will affect the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and its affiliated non-profit for international health, Jhpiego. The school of public health includes more than 80 research institutions that focus on issues such as gun violence, maternal health and the economic impacts of Alzheimer’s disease.

The grant elimination announcement comes on the same day that hundreds of professors, researchers and other staff with the school of public health held a rally meant to show support for “American scientists and science amid federal layoffs and cuts to research funding”, according to the Hub, a publication of the public health school.

“This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800m in USAid funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the university said in a statement shared with media. Johns Hopkins receives the most federal research funding, and is the largest private employer, in both Maryland and Baltimore and employs more than 150,000 people, the university said in a statement to the Guardian.

Lutnick Urging Fox Viewers to Buy Tesla Stock Decried as 'Abuse of Power for Personal and Family Gain'

"Buy Tesla. It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again... Who wouldn't invest in Elon Musk?"

That's what U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, told viewers of Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Wednesday—comments that watchdog groups swiftly condemned as unethical and illegal.

In addition to serving as CEO of companies including electric vehicle maker Tesla, Musk heads Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the administration's sweeping attack on the federal bureaucracy. Musk is also the richest person on Earth, with an estimated net worth of $310-327.5 billion, some of which he put toward electing the Republican president

Earlier this month, Trump hosted a Tesla car show at the White House. His and Lutnick's stunts come as the company faces protests over Musk's work for the administration. Axios reported that "Tesla shares were down about 1.7% in premarket trading Thursday to $231.75. The stock is down 5% in the last five days, 35% in the last month, and 42% so far this year."

The commerce secretary not only urged Fox's audience to invest in Tesla, he also heaped praise on Musk, calling him "probably the best entrepreneur, the best technologist, the best leader of any set of companies in America."

BREAKING: US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says to "buy Tesla, $TSLA. It is unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap." pic.twitter.com/otiyPi52AT

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) March 20, 2025

Responding to Lutnick's remarks in a Thursday statement, Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director for ethics at Campaign Legal Center, said that "the president's Cabinet members take an oath to serve the American people, and with that oath comes the ability and privilege to exercise a vast amount of power."

"Such power is intended to promote the public interest," Payne continued, stressing that officials like the commerce leader are "legally barred" from promoting their personal business interests. "Secretary Lutnick's actions violate the ethics rules that were enacted to hold public officials accountable to the American people. His statement is part of a pattern of behavior showing that Trump's indifference to ethics is trickling down to his most senior officials."

"The American people deserve a government that prioritizes public good," he added. "Most people will conclude that promoting a stock is not tied to any public good and ethics laws agree. The Office of Government Ethics and Commerce ethics officials should hold Lutnick accountable and reassure the public that their officials will face consequences if they use their public office to enrich themselves or their allies."

Trump’s Commerce Secretary told people to buy Tesla stock last night.

The White House announced that it will use Starlink internet earlier this week.

And Trump held a Tesla showcase at the White House last week.

The robber barons of the first Gilded Age would be jealous.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) March 20, 2025

Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog Accountable.US, not only criticized Lutnick's remarks but also highlighted how the Cabinet member could benefit from them, declaring that "this is what abuse of power for personal and family gain looks like."

"When the billionaire commerce secretary used the Trump administration bully pulpit to try to rocket Tesla stock value, he conveniently forgot to mention his family business empire holds nearly $840 million in the company," Carrk explained. "While Secretary Lutnick is busy making TV appearances in a government capacity to potentially enrich his family business and his close ally Elon Musk, the rollercoaster Trump tariff policies he helped orchestrate are doing little to lower costs for working people—in fact quite the opposite."

Asked about Lutnick's comments on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "I think the commerce secretary was reiterating that the president supports an American-made company like Tesla, who produces a very good product for the American people, which was beloved by the American people, particularly Democrats, until Elon Musk decided to vote for Donald Trump."

"And now we have seen despicable and unacceptable violence taking place across our country at Telsa dealerships, against workers, employees, and also innocent Americans who drive these vehicles," she added. "It's actually a scary time in our country because of this political violence from the left, and the White House and the president's entire administration condemn it wholeheartedly."

As outrage over the Trump administration's promotion of Musk's company mounted on Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recalled more than 46,000 of Tesla's Cybertrucks—or nearly all of them on U.S. roads—due to concerns about an exterior panel that can detach while driving, creating safety problems.

Judge blocks Elon Musk’s Doge from accessing social security records

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) from accessing social security records as part of its hunt under Donald Trump for fraud and waste, calling the effort a “fishing expedition”.

Judge Ellen Hollander granted a temporary restraining order that prevents Social Security Administration (SSA) workers from allowing Doge to have access to records that contain personally identifiable information.

Musk, the world’s richest man and a huge political backer of Trump, has been tasked by the US president with slashing costs and employees at the federal government: a mission that has caused chaos and disruption across the US amid mass firings and huge numbers of government projects and contracts being canceled. ...

In her ruling Hollander also instructed Doge to “disgorge and delete” any non-anonymized data it has obtained from the SSA since Trump took office, and said the agency cannot install or access any software in social security systems.

Judge demands answers from White House on deportation flights to El Salvador

A federal judge instructed the Trump administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and executive branches.

James Boasberg, the US district judge, demanded answers after flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after the judge temporarily blocked deportations conducted under an 18th-century wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return planes that were already in the air to the US when he ordered the halt.

Boasberg had given the administration until noon Thursday to either provide more details about the flights or make a claim that they must be withheld because they would harm “state secrets”. The administration resisted the judge’s request, calling it an “unnecessary judicial fishing” expedition.

In a written order, Boasberg called Trump officials’ latest response “woefully insufficient”. The judge said the administration “again evaded its obligations” by merely repeating “the same general information about the flights”. He ordered the administration to “show cause” as to why it didn’t follow his court order to turn around the planes, increasing the prospect that he may consider holding administration officials in contempt of court.

Glacier meltdown risks food and water supply of 2 billion people

Retreating glaciers threaten the food and water supply of 2 billion people around the world, the UN has warned, as current “unprecedented” rates of melting will have unpredictable consequences. Two-thirds of all irrigated agriculture in the world is likely to be affected in some way by receding glaciers and dwindling snowfall in mountain regions, driven by the climate crisis, according to a Unesco report.

More than 1 billion people live in mountainous regions and, of those in developing countries, up to half are already experiencing food insecurity. That is likely to worsen, as food production in such regions is dependent on mountain waters, melting snow and glaciers, according to the World Water Development Report 2025. Developed countries are also at risk: in the US, for example, the Colorado River basin has been in drought since 2000, and higher temperatures mean more of the precipitation is falling as rain, which runs off more quickly than mountain snow, exacerbating drought conditions. ...

The rate of change of glaciers is the worst on record, according to separate research from the World Meteorological Organisation, which published its annual State of the Climate report this week. The largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record occurred in the past three years, the study found, with Norway, Sweden, Svalbard and the tropical Andes among the worst-affected areas.

Eastern Africa has lost 80% of its glaciers in places and, in the Andes, between a third and a half of glaciers have melted since 1998. Glaciers in the Alps and the Pyrenees, the worst affected in Europe, have shrunk by about 40% over roughly the same period.

The decline of glaciers has had a further impact, added Abou Amani, director of water sciences at Unesco, in that the loss of ice replaces a reflective surface with dark soil that absorbs heat. “Glaciers melting have an impact on the reflectivity of [solar] radiation and that will impact the whole climate system,” he warned.

US rejects Mexico’s request for water as Trump opens new battle front

The United States has refused a request by Mexico for water, alleging shortfalls in sharing by its southern neighbor, as Donald Trump ramps up a battle on another front. The state department said on Thursday it was the first time that the United States had rejected a request by Mexico for special delivery of water, which would have gone to the border city of Tijuana.

“Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries under the 1944 water-sharing treaty are decimating American agriculture – particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley,” the state department’s bureau handling Latin America said in a post on X.

The 1944 treaty, which governs water allocation from the Rio Grande and Colorado River, has come under growing strain in recent years due to the pressures of the climate crisis and the burgeoning populations and agriculture in parched areas. The treaty sets five-year cycles for water deliveries, with the latest set to end in October 2025.

Under the treaty, Mexico sends water from rivers in the Rio Grande basin to the US, which in turn sends Mexico water from the Colorado River, further to the west. But Mexico has fallen behind in its water payments due to drought conditions in the arid north of the country. ...

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Thursday before the state department announcement that the water issue was “being dealt with” through the two countries’ boundary and water commission. “There’s been less water. That’s part of the problem,” she told reporters.

Hawaii observatory to be evicted amid federal cuts as volcano shoots 700ft lava

As Hawaii’s most active volcano shot out fountains of lava on Thursday, some of them reaching as high as 700ft, scientists from the US Geological Survey have been posting regular updates on the scale and pace of the eruptions.

But those same scientists, along with their volcano-monitoring equipment, may soon be evicted from their office because of Elon Musk’s federal government cost-cutting, the Honolulu Civil Beat reported.

The Geological Survey office in Hilo, Hawaii, has appeared on an internal list of federal offices whose leases are due to be cancelled on 30 September, as part of an effort by Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” to terminate leases for hundreds of federal offices this year, the Associated Press reported.

“It remains unclear exactly how that lease cancellation will affect the observatory’s research and public services,” the Honolulu Civil Beat reported. ...

For the past hundred years, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has been tasked with monitoring the islands’ geologic activity, for the purposes of both scientific research and public safety warnings. Today, according to the observatory’s website, a team of more than 30 people monitors data collected 24 hours a day in order to provide local residents updates on what’s currently happening, and what might be coming next.

West Papuan Indigenous people call for KitKat boycott over alleged ecocide

West Papua’s Indigenous people have called for a boycott of KitKat, Smarties and Aero chocolate, Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers, and the cosmetics brands Pantene and Herbal Essences, over alleged ecocide in their territory.

All are products that contain palm oil and are made, say the campaigners, by companies that source the ingredient directly from West Papua, which has been under Indonesian control since 1963 and where thousands of acres of rainforest are being cleared for agriculture.

More than 90 West Papuan tribes, political organisations and religious groups have endorsed the call for a boycott, which they say should continue until the people of West Papua are given the right to self-determination.

Raki Ap, a spokesperson for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which is overseeing the call, said: “These products are linked to human rights violations, in the first place, because West Papuans are being forced, with violence, to get off the land where they’ve lived for thousands of years, which has now resulted in ecocide.

“This is a signal to the countries who are dealing with Indonesia, especially those in the Pacific region, to take notice of who they’re dealing with and how they are basically allowing Indonesia to continue the colonial project in West Papua, the human rights violations, and also ecocide.”

[More at the link. -js]

Also of Interest

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

Jonathan Cook: Israel Doesn’t Care About the Captives

Israel, Not Hamas, Is Derailing the Gaza Cease-fire and Preventing the Hostages' Return

Israeli settler violence is rapidly emptying Jordan Valley of Palestinians

Palestinians say Arabs not doing enough to help devastated Gaza

Gaza protesters sue UCLA for civil rights violations after ‘brutal attack’ in 2024

Will Trump Send U.S. Citizens to El Salvador?

Perilous Times for Freedom in the US

US universities face choice to surrender or fight back against Trump’s ‘takeover’

Ukraine, Russia Trade Massive Drone Attacks Amid Ceasefire Talks

Europe Can Have Both A Welfare State & A Warfare State

Declassified JFK Assassination Files Expose Covert CIA Operations from the Vatican to Latin America

“I WAS THERE When Big Pharma Corrupted The Media!” – Sharyl Attkisson

Frontline update, Kursk cauldron and Sumy buffer w/ Patrick Lancaster

A Little Night Music

Mighty Joe Young – Big Talk

Mighty Joe Young – Take My Advice (She Likes The Blues And Barbecue)

Mighty Joe Young – Take Over Chicago

Mighty Joe Young – Love Bone / Jody

Mighty Joe Young - Everyday I Have The Blues

Mighty Joe Young - Hard Times

Mighty Joe Young - Early In The Morning

Mighty Joe Young - Suffering Soul

Mighty Joe Young - I Have The Same Old Blues

Mighty Joe Young ~ That's All Right, Baby Please & Wise Fool's Express - Live 1978

A 1976-1978 Live Blues Compilation - Mighty Joe Young, Albert King, Lurrie Bell