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News and Opinion

The reason Gaza ceasefire negotiations have kept failing

The reason Gaza ceasefire negotiations have kept falling through under both the Biden and Trump administrations is that Israel, with the backing of the US government, keeps insisting on the right to resume its genocidal slaughter after a temporary intermission.

A big part of the problem is that this is a genocide, not a war, but all the framing is around negotiating a “ceasefire” to end the “war” even as Israel keeps rejecting any ceasefire agreement which would require them to end the genocide.

Hamas insists on an end to the genocide, and Israel goes “No can do, but tell ya what: we can pause the war for a few weeks!” And then the mass media go “HAMAS REJECTS CEASEFIRE” while liberals go “Oh it’s so sad that they can’t negotiate an end to this terrible war!”

But it’s not a war, it’s a genocide. You can negotiate an end to a war, but you can’t negotiate an end to a genocide. Israel has openly declared that the killing will continue until there are no more Palestinians left in Gaza — either by death or by ethnic cleansing. Israel wants to eliminate all Palestinians from Gaza more than it wants the remaining hostages. It wants to eliminate all Palestinians from Gaza more than it wants peace. Hamas has nothing to offer Israel that it wants more than it wants to purge Palestinians from a Palestinian territory.

If this were being treated as a genocide, all law-abiding states would interfere to force Israel to stop. But because it’s being falsely treated as a “war” they just stand passively by and periodically cluck about ceasefire negotiations, thereby allowing Israel to continue its genocide. ...

Our rulers did not expect this. They did not expect the public to sustain ferocious opposition to the Gaza holocaust for 20 months. In October 2023 they would’ve been assuring each other that all the protesting and outrage would die off soon, because that’s what normally happens.

And it just didn’t. People refused to let this thing fade into the background. The mass media were forced to keep reporting on it — albeit with extreme bias — because if they didn’t report on it at all they’d lose their last shred of credibility in the eyes of the public, and people would keep sharing the information on their own anyway.

Remember how excited the Israel apologists got when those two embassy staff members were killed? They were like “Welp, that’s it for the pro-Palestine movement! Saying Free Palestine is not allowed anymore everybody! Ahh, thank goodness, I was worried people would never let this thing go.”

And it just didn’t pan out that way. Nobody bought it. The embassy staff killings were shuffled off in the daily news churn and forgotten, while Gaza remained.

And I just think it’s worth flagging what a miracle that is. How completely unexpected and unanticipated this would have been for our ruling institutions. They really thought we were all sufficiently ground down and subdued by life under the empire to just let them do what they want to Gaza without any resistance. And they were wrong.

There’s some life left in us yet. It is not a foregone conclusion that we will just passively watch our rulers carry us off over the ledge of dystopia, ecological disaster and nuclear armageddon. Revolution is not an impossible pipe dream. There is still a spark of hope.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Can the US be Trusted?

Israeli strikes on Gaza schools used as civilian shelters are part of deliberate strategy

A series of recent deadly airstrikes on school buildings sheltering displaced people in Gaza were part of a deliberate Israeli military bombing strategy, with further schools identified as targets, the Guardian has learned. At least six school buildings have been struck, reportedly killing more than 120 people, in recent months as part of a targeting effort by the Israeli military. This followed a loosening of controls on actions targeting Hamas operatives at sites with large numbers of civilians present, according to sources familiar with the strategy.

On Monday, four people were reportedly killed in the latest Israeli airstrike on a school turned shelter, in Deir al-Balah in the centre of Gaza. Videos on social media appeared to show the aftermath of what was said to be the location of al-Aishiya school. Announcing the strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, without providing evidence or naming the school, it had bombed a site “used by terrorists” in the area, claiming it had taken steps to reduce civilian harm. Al-Aishiya school was among a series of school buildings used as shelters identified by the IDF as targets in recent weeks, according to military sources.

Four further school buildings have been marked as potential targets to be bombed, according to the sources. The locations identified as potential targets include four schools: Halawa, al-Rafaa’i, Nusiba and Halima Sa’dia. All four are in or near Jabaliya in the north of Gaza.

It was not immediately clear whether these buildings were also being used as shelters. Two of the schools appear to have been damaged by airstrikes at earlier stages in the offensive. According to latest UN assessments, 95% of Gaza’s schools have sustained some level of damage to their buildings. Approximately 400 schools were classified as having suffered a “direct hit”.

The Shared Mythological History of Israel and the US (w/ Joan Scott) | The Chris Hedges Report

Three killed as Israeli forces open fire near Gaza food distribution site

Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip opened fire as people headed towards a food distribution site at about sunrise on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, health officials and a witness said. The military said it fired warning shots at “suspects” who approached its forces.

The shooting occurred at the same location where witnesses say Israeli forces fired a day earlier on crowds of people heading towards the food distribution hub in southern Gaza run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The Israeli military said it fired warning shots on Monday toward “several suspects who advanced toward the troops and posed a threat to them”, about 1km (0.6 miles) away from the food distribution site at a time when it was closed. The army denied it was preventing people from reaching the site.

The UN and leading aid groups have rejected the foundation’s new system for food distribution. They say it violates humanitarian principles and cannot meet mounting needs in the territory of roughly 2 million people, where experts have warned of famine because of an Israeli blockade that was only slightly eased last month.

In a separate incident on Monday, an Israeli strike on a residential building in northern Gaza killed 14 people, according to health officials. The Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, saying five women and seven children were among those killed.

Seems to me that the IOF are shaky on the whole concept of what a "warning shot" is. As I understand them, they are fired above people and are not supposed to hit them. ...

Amnesty Implores Israel to Stop 'Starvation of Civilians as a Method of War'

As Israeli forces continued to kill and wound desperate, starving Palestinians at humanitarian aid distribution points in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International on Monday implored Israel to stop weaponizing starvation and called on the world's nations to "take positive action to end the genocide," including to "stop arming Israel and pressure it to unconditionally lift its cruel blockade" on the embattled enclave.

"The horrific incident in Rafah yesterday in which Israeli forces shot at starved Palestinians attempting to receive food near a militarized distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation demands an immediate, independent investigation," Amnesty said on social media.

Hundreds of Palestinians were reportedly killed or wounded in the attack, which Amnesty said evoked the so-called "flour massacres" of February and March 2024.

As was the case following Israeli forces' killing of at least 118 Palestinians and wounding of 760 others during the February 29, 2024 massacre of aid-seeking people, Israel has denied responsibility for Sunday's attack in Rafah. Bullet wounds caused by the same type of large-caliber ammunition used in several Israel Defense Force (IDF)-issued rifles and machine guns undercut Israeli officials' dubious claim that most flour massacre victims died in a "stampede."

On Monday, IDF troops reportedly opened fire on Palestinians gathered to receive aid near Rafah, killing at least three people and wounding 35 others.

The Palestine Chronicle reported Monday that "at least 52 Palestinians have been killed and over 300 wounded in Israeli attacks on or near" aid distribution points since May 27.

"Aid distribution must be conducted through safe, dignified, and effective means, managed by professional humanitarian workers, not security contractors," Amnesty stressed. "As the occupying power, Israel is obligated under international law to ensure provision of essential supplies to the occupied population."

Biden Spox ADMITS He Lied To Cover Israel War Crimes

Israeli Defense Minister: ‘We Will Build a Jewish Israeli State’ in the West Bank

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared on Friday that Israel would build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Katz’s comments came a day after the Israeli government approved 22 additional West Bank settlements, which are illegal under international law. The approval marked the biggest single settlement expansion in more than 30 years, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now.

Katz said the settlement expansion was a response to French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders who have been considering recognizing a Palestinian state.

Iran on brink of rejecting US proposal on nuclear programme

Iran is on the brink of rejecting US proposals on the future of its nuclear programme after the US draft insisted that Tehran would have to suspend the enrichment of uranium inside Iran and set out no clear route map for lifting US economic sanctions.

The US proposals were the first in written form since five rounds of indirect talks started, but Iranian diplomatic sources said the US proposals gave no ground on Iran’s demand to continue to enrich uranium inside the country. “Iran is drafting a negative response to the US proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection of the US offer,” a senior Iranian diplomat told Reuters.

The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by the Omani foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating talks between Tehran and Washington. A complete breakdown in the talks would trigger European moves to impose heavier UN sanctions on Iran and a possible joint US-Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. That could see Iran in turn launch reprisals.

Faced by such a catastrophe, Iran is likely to temper its response to the US plans so that further talks are possible. The best compromise available would be a US statement that Iran in principle is permitted to enrich uranium but in practice will not do so, at least inside Iran, for an indefinite period.

The US has said it would allow Iran to join a Middle East consortium to enrich uranium, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia, but this could not take place on Iranian soil. A regional consortium for a civil nuclear program would require huge trust between the countries involved and continued external inspection.

Russia's "PEARL HARBOR"?!

Underwater EXPLOSIVES Used On Bridge Connecting Russia To Crimea

Second round of Ukraine-Russia talks end with PoW deal but no ceasefire

Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul ended without agreement on a ceasefire on Monday, but with both sides agreeing to exchange more prisoners.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the two sides had agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, with the possibility of swapping an additional 200 PoWs. He said an agreement had also been made to return the remains of killed service personnel, but added that this would take careful preparation. Zelenskyy did not take part in the talks but was speaking during a visit to Lithuania, where he called for stronger sanctions on Russia if it did not agree to a ceasefire.

He said his negotiators had given their Russian counterparts a list of nearly 400 abducted Ukrainian children that Kyiv wanted Moscow to return home, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them. Ukrainian officials said that the focus of the prisoner exchange should be the wounded and sick as well as young soldiers between 18 and 25 years old. Russian officials confirmed that “all” sick and wounded prisoners would be swapped, and that the exchange would involve at least 1,000 PoWs.

Monday’s negotiations took place at the Çırağan Palace, a vast 19th-century Ottoman edifice on the banks of the Bosphorus that is now a luxury hotel. In one of its expansive conference chambers, the two delegations – each about a dozen strong – sat at long tables facing each other, about 10 metres apart. The Russians all came in dark suits, while the Ukrainians were mostly in military uniform. The whole meeting took less than two hours.

Istanbul talks. Russia offers Ukraine/West one last chance

Kiev accused of systematic torture of Russian prisoners

Ukraine has established a dehumanizing system of torture targeting captured Russian military personnel, a human rights advocate has claimed.

Maksim Grigoriev, who chairs an international commission investigating alleged Ukrainian government crimes, said his findings were based on extensive testimonies from Russian soldiers released in prisoner exchanges. He presented a report quoting statements from 30 individuals on Friday.

Grigoriev said the widespread nature of the alleged abuse indicates “a deliberate systematic practice of constant torture,” amounting to a crime against humanity. He claimed the purpose was not intelligence-gathering but rather the dehumanization of Russian captives, adding that violence was often inflicted out of malice.

Former detainees described beatings and various forms of abuse they say occurred while in Ukrainian custody. The report cites waterboarding, electrocution, and the use of attack dogs against prisoners as common methods.

Some testimonies included accounts of sexualized violence. One soldier alleged that his captors contemplated castrating him and pumping construction foam into his rectum. Another said inmates were forced to urinate on each other.

Several witnesses claimed Ukrainian personnel seemed to take pleasure in the abuse. One soldier, Vladimir Palitsin, said a man beat him with a metal rod: “He was hitting me and smiling. He was happy.” Others said Ukrainian medical staff treated injuries without anesthesia as a method of torture.

“THIS Is What Terrified People About My Trip To Iran!” – Max Blumenthal

Mexican president hails ‘complete success’ after just 13% vote in judicial elections

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the country’s unprecedented judicial elections after just 13% of Mexicans turned out to vote, a record low in a federal election. Roughly 2,600 posts, from local magistrates to supreme court justices, were up for grabs on Sunday, as an entire judicial system was put to the vote for the first time in the world. Despite the low turnout, Sheinbaum described the process as “a complete success”, adding: “Mexico is the most democratic country in the world.”

The vote was the result of a radical reform by the governing Morena party, which said it would reduce corruption and impunity in the judicial system by making it more responsive to popular opinion. But the concept was challenged by critics who said it would bulldoze the separation of powers and could flood the judicial system with candidates who were under-qualified and aligned with political interests.

Given the sheer number of positions and candidates involved, critics had warned that a low turnout was likely. Parts of the opposition also called for a boycott. Still, the estimated 13% turnout is far below the more than 60% that tends to turn out for presidential elections, and also lower than any other federal vote in Mexico’s democratic history.

The opposition, which has been unable to find a response to Morena’s electoral machine since former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador first led it to power in 2018, seized on the low turnout to criticise the reform. “As we said from the beginning: the election of the judiciary was an absolute failure,” said Ricardo Anaya, a former presidential candidate from the conservative PAN party.

However, there is no minimum turnout required to formally legitimise an election in Mexico. The vote count is expected to be protracted, and results will drip in over the next two weeks.

Palantir: Peter Thiel's Data-Mining Firm Helps DOGE Build Master Database to Surveil Immigrants

US firms say Trump trade war is hitting production as dollar nears three-year low

US manufacturers have warned that Donald Trump’s trade war is hitting production, pushing the dollar close to a three-year low against sterling on Monday. The greenback suffered a fresh sell-off, after the closely watched ISM survey of the manufacturing sector signalled a third monthly decline in output in a row. The ISM purchasing managers’ index fell to 48.5% in May – below 50 signals contraction.

Comments from participants in the monthly poll underlined the damage being caused by the president’s on-off tariff policies. “Uncertainty due to the recent tariffs continues to weigh on profitability and service. An unresolved (trade deal with) China will result in empty shelves at retail for many do-it-yourself and professional goods,” a paper producer said.

A chemicals producer reported: “Most suppliers are passing through tariffs at full value to us.” Many US companies have struggled to keep track of the rapid reversals in trade policy in recent weeks.

The dollar dipped to $1.3542 against sterling after the downbeat manufacturing survey was published, close to the three-year lows in late May. It also fell by about 0.5% against a basket of currencies.

Concern about the probable economic impact of Trump’s tariff policies intensified over the weekend, after he announced a 50% tariff on steel on Friday – up from 25%. Trump also suggested China had “violated” the terms of a 90-day pause in the trade war between the two countries.

Philadelphia paper warns Fetterman to take Senate job seriously – ‘or step away’

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board has issued a sharp rebuke of Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman in a new opinion piece, urging him to take his job “seriously” and writing that “it’s time for Fetterman to serve Pennsylvanians, or step away.”

In a strongly worded piece published on Sunday, the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which endorsed Fetterman during his 2022 Senate campaign, said the first-term Democrat “has missed more votes than nearly every other senator in the past two years” and “regularly skips committee hearings, cancels meetings, avoids the daily caucus lunches with colleagues, and rarely goes on the Senate floor”.

The editorial board also wrote that six former Fetterman staffers told an Inquirer reporter that Fetterman was frequently absent or spent hours alone in his office, avoiding colleagues and meetings. “Being an elected official comes with public scrutiny,” the board wrote. “If Fetterman can’t handle the attention or perform his job, then in the best interest of the country and the nearly 13 million residents of Pennsylvania he represents, he should step aside.”

“Being an elected representative is a privilege, not an entitlement,” it added. “Being a US senator is a serious job that requires full-time engagement.”

Fetterman responded to the piece and allegations on Monday during a Fox News debate with Republican senator David McCormick. “For me, it’s very clear, it’s just part of like this weird – this weird smear,” Fetterman said. “The more kinds of, left kind of media continues to have these kinds of an attack, and it’s just part of a smear and that’s just not … it’s just not accurate.”

Cuomo SHOOK After Socialist Rival SURGES In NYC Mayor Race

Fema chief tells staff he did not know US has hurricane season

Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the US disaster agency said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

The US hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year’s season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.

The remark was made by David Richardson, who has led Fema since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Fema’s parent agency, said the comment was a joke and that Fema was prepared for hurricane season.

The spokesperson said that under homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and Richardson “Fema is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens”. Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency’s disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, the sources told Reuters.

Richardson’s comments come amid widespread concern that the departures of a raft of top Fema officials, staff cuts and reductions in hurricane preparations will leave the agency ill-prepared for a storm season forecast to be above normal.

Trump officials open up millions of acres in Alaska to drilling and mining

Millions of acres of Alaska wilderness will lose federal protections and be exposed to drilling and mining in the Trump administration’s latest move to prioritize energy production over the shielding of the US’s open spaces.

Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said on Monday that the government would reverse an order issued by Joe Biden in December that banned drilling in the remote 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), the New York Times reported.

The former president’s executive order was part of a package of protections for large areas of Alaska, some elements of which the state was challenging in court when he left office in January.

Burgum was speaking in Alaska on Monday accompanied by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, and energy secretary Chris Wright. He said the Biden administration had prioritized “obstruction over production” and Biden’s order was “undermining our ability to harness domestic resources at a time when American energy independence has never been more critical”. ...

Environmental groups had long feared Alaska would be the US president’s number one target given the state’s abundance of untapped oil and gas reserves, and immediately criticized the move to open up drilling in an area crucial to the survival of imperiled Arctic species.

Key US weather monitoring offices understaffed as hurricane season starts

More than a dozen National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico coast are understaffed as the US plunges into an expected active season for ruinous storms, data seen by the Guardian shows.

There is a lack of meteorologists in 15 of the regional weather service offices along the coastline from Texas to Florida, as well as in Puerto Rico – an area that takes the brunt of almost all hurricanes that hit the US. Several offices, including in Miami, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico and Houston, lack at least a third of all the meteorologists required to be fully staffed.

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the Miami-based nerve center for tracking hurricanes, is short five specialists, the Guardian has learned, despite assurances from the Trump administration that it is fully staffed ahead of what’s anticipated to be a busy hurricane season that officially started on Sunday.

The center and local field offices work together to alert and prepare communities for incoming hurricanes, but they have been hit by job cuts and a hiring freeze imposed by the president, with more than 600 staff departing the NWS since Trump took power.

“The system is already overstretched and at some point it will snap,” said Tom Fahy, legislative director of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, an independent labor union and provider of the office staffing data. “We are at the snapping point now.”

Also of Interest

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

West already lost credibility by giving Israel free rein, says UN rapporteur over Macron's Gaza remarks

Witkoff Says Hamas’s Response To Gaza Ceasefire Proposal Is ‘Totally Unacceptable’

Freedom Flotilla Sets Sail for Gaza Carrying Aid and Demands: 'End the Blockade. End the Genocide'

“Germany Steps Up to Replace ‘Unreliable’ US as Guarantor of European Security”

Ukraine - Strategic Escalation Intended To Influence Talks

Hegseth Says US Ready to ‘Fight and Win’ a War With China Over Taiwan

The Best Short Summary Of Why China Is Winning & The West Fading

Donald Tusk will call vote of confidence after Polish election setback

South Korea goes to the polls to elect new president after Yoon crisis

Trump’s tax bill helps the rich, hurts the poor and adds trillions to the deficit

At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics shutter amid political turbulence

A Little Night Music

Jimmy Dawkins – Moon Man

Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins – Triple Trebles

Jimmy Dawkins - Me, My Gitar and the Blues

Jimmy Dawkins - 'Feel So Bad' live 1975

Jimmy Dawkins – I'm Good For Nothing

Jimmy Dawkins – Cotton Country

Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins – It Serves Me Right To Suffer

Jimmy Dawkins - Kant Sheck Dees Bluze

Jimmy Dawkins - Every Day I Have the Blues