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"Force shites upon Reason's Back."

-- Benjamin Franklin

News and Opinion

Trump LA protest response risks turning US military into political force

The Trump administration’s deployment of national guard troops to Los Angeles to intervene in civilian protests in the face of opposition from the Californian governor is a major escalation that risks the politicisation of the US military, armed service veterans are warning.

Former top military figures have told the Guardian that the decision to put up to 2,000 troops under federal control and send them into the streets of LA is a violation of the military’s commitment to keep out of domestic politics in all but the most exceptional circumstances. The last time a US president federalised the national guard against the wishes of a state governor was in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson deployed them to protect civil rights marchers in Alabama.

“This is the politicisation of the armed forces,” said Maj Gen Paul Eaton. “It casts the military in a terrible light – it’s that man on horseback, who really doesn’t want to be there, out in front of American citizens.” Eaton, who commanded the training of Iraqi troops during the invasion of Iraq, predicted that the LA deployment would lead to the eventual invocation of the Insurrection Act. The 1807 law empowers the president to deploy the full US military against insurrection or armed rebellion. “We are headed towards the invocation of the Insurrection Act, which will provide a legal basis for inappropriate activity,” he said.

The largely peaceful protests in LA against Trump’s deportation efforts have entered their fourth day. National guard troops began arriving in the city on Sunday, with authorisation to protect federal personnel and buildings but not to engage in law enforcement activities.

Trump’s move in the absence of a genuine civil emergency has sent alarm through military circles, which have long prided themselves on being above politics. “This deployment was made counter to what the governor wanted, so it seems like a political forcing – a forced use of the military by Trump because he can,” said a retired senior US army officer who requested anonymity in order to preserve their lifelong non-partisanship.

Trump’s memo federalising the national guard for deployment in LA is written in sweeping terms, in effect casting it as a nationwide mobilisation. It says that regular military troops, as well as national guard forces, can be employed by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to protect federal functions anywhere in the country where protests are occurring. Most troublingly, the memo also acts pre-emptively – an action never seen before in the US – authorising the military to be deployed against anticipated protests. It says that troops can be sent to “locations where protest against [federal] functions are occurring, or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments”.

'I Am Disgusted by the Failure of the International System': UN Special Rapporteur

At Least 14 More Palestinians Killed at Aid Points as Israel Detains Humanitarian Volunteers

As activists who had been headed for Gaza with humanitarian aid remained in Israeli custody Monday, Palestinian rights advocates condemned reports that the death toll at aid distribution points set up by a private Israel-backed company continued to grow.

The Associated Press reported that "Israeli forces and allied local gunmen" were behind gunfire that killed at least 14 Palestinians who were taken to local hospitals on Monday, and roughly 100 people were injured.

The people killed were the latest among a total of at least 127 Palestinians who have been killed as they've approached distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group staffed by U.S. defense contractors and supported by the Israeli and U.S. governments—but rejected by the United Nations and groups that have long provided aid in Gaza, who say the GHF is not a neutral party and is endangering Palestinians by forcing them to walk several miles through their war-torn enclave to retrieve food boxes weighing 44 pounds each.

At Al Jazeera, Hind Khoudary reported that as Palestinians have approached the aid points in recent days, "the Israeli army starts opening fire, Israeli quadcopters hover above their heads, and Israeli tanks proceed to bear down on the aid seekers."

Among the people killed at a distribution point in Rafah near al-Mawasi was "a woman named Hanan who was solely responsible for feeding her kids and family," reported Khoudary.

"These distribution sites are in the middle of nowhere, where Israeli bulldozers destroyed residential homes," Khoudary added. "It's totally chaotic. Israeli forces have been firing live ammunition as well as tear gas canisters to disperse starving Palestinians."

Israeli forces killed 14 more hungry Palestinians on their way to collect food at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points today.

Among the dead was a woman, Hanan, who had been trying to feed her children and family. Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos:… https://t.co/EzM89XSXO0 pic.twitter.com/tIqyDMbu9u

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) June 9, 2025

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously admitted to opening fire on Palestinians at GHF sites, but have claimed "shots were directed near individual suspects who advanced toward the troops."

The AP reported that men from a local militia called the Popular Forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, opened fire at a distribution site in Khan Younis after the men tried to organize the crowd and people "pushed forward."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that his government has armed Abu Shabab's militia as part of an effort to undermine Hamas. Abu Shabab denied the claim. Aid workers have said the Popular Forces have long looted trucks carrying humanitarian relief—something Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of doing as it has entirely cut off aid to Gaza since March.

An eyewitness named Hussein Shamimi told the AP that his 14-year-old cousin was killed in the attack on Monday.

"There was an ambush," said Shamimi, "the Israelis from one side and Abu Shabab from another."

At least four people were shot in the neck, another witness told the outlet.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in the U.S., called for an "immediate end" to the U.S. government's "complicity" in Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, and in the attacks on people at GHF aid points.

"The almost daily massacres of starving Palestinian families desperately seeking food denied to them by the Israeli-imposed campaign of intentional starvation are crimes against humanity carried out with the complicity of our own government," said Awad. "Food and other humanitarian supplies must enter Gaza unimpeded, without Israel being allowed to use starvation as a weapon of war and a tool for ethnic cleansing."

Also in Khan Younis on Monday, a Palestinian child became the latest to die of malnutrition at the Children's and Maternity Hospital.

At least 58 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition since Israel began its total blockade of aid in early March.

Meanwhile, organizers with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition reported Monday they had been unable to contact 12 international activists and volunteers who were aboard the Madleen, bound for Gaza, for 19 hours.

The activists, including Swedish climate leader Greta Thunberg, had been sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.

"These citizens were sailing peacefully under international law, in international waters, and Israel went and forcibly abducted them," Huwaida Arraf told Al Jazeera. "This was done, as Israel puts it, to 'maintain a maritime closure of Gaza'—which it has no authority to do."

Greta Thunberg CAPTURED By Israel!

Madleen. pic.twitter.com/WppCE7HyJm

— The Palestinian (@InsiderWorld_1) June 8, 2025

'Humanitarian' Façade by Israel Cannot Hide Genocide

The decision resonated as shocking for all sides. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose entire war strategy hinges on the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, unilaterally decided on May 19 to allow “immediate” food entry to the famine-stricken Strip.

Of course, Netanyahu still maneuvered. Instead of permitting at least 1,000 trucks of aid to enter the utterly destroyed and devastated Gaza per day, he initially allowed a mere nine trucks, a number that nominally increased in the following days.

Even Netanyahu's staunch supporters, who fiercely criticized the decision, found themselves confounded by it. The prior understanding among Netanyahu's coalition partners regarding their ultimate plan in Gaza had been unequivocally clear: the total occupation of the Strip and the forced displacement of its population.

The latter was articulated as a matter of explicit policy by Israel's Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich. “Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to... third countries,” he declared on May 6.

For food to enter Gaza, however minuscule its quantity, directly violates the established understanding between the government and the military, under the leadership of Netanyahu's ally, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.

These two significant additions to Netanyahu's war cabinet replaced Yoav Gallant and Herzi Halevi. With these new appointments, Netanyahu stood poised for his master plan.

When the war commenced on October 7, 2023, the Israeli leader promised that he would take control of the Gaza Strip. This position evolved, or rather was clarified, to signify permanent occupation, though without the Palestinians themselves.

To achieve such a lofty objective–lofty, given Israel's consistent failure to subdue the Palestinians over the course of nearly 600 days–Netanyahu and his men meticulously devised the "Gideon's Chariots" plan. The propaganda that accompanied this new strategy transcended all the hasbara that had accompanied previous plans, including the failed "Generals' Plan" of October 2024.

The rationale behind this psychological warfare is to imprint upon the Palestinians in Gaza the indelible impression that their fate has been sealed, and that the future of Gaza can only be determined by Israel itself.

The plan, however, a rehash of what is historically known as “Sharon's Fingers,” is fundamentally predicated on sectionalizing Gaza into several distinct zones, and leveraging food as a tool for displacement into these camps, and ultimately, outside of Gaza.

However, why would Netanyahu agree to allow food access outside his sinister scheme? The reason behind this relates profoundly to the explosion of global anger directed at Israel, particularly from its most staunch allies: Britain, France, Canada, Australia, among others.

Unlike Spain, Norway, Ireland and others that have sharply criticized the Israeli genocide, a few Western capitals have remained committed to Israel throughout the war. Their commitment manifested in supportive political discourse, blaming Palestinians and absolving Israel; unhindered military support; and resolute shielding of Israel from legal accountability and political fallout on the global stage.

Things began to change when US President Donald Trump slowly grasped that Netanyahu's war in Gaza was destined to become a permanent war and occupation, which would inevitably translate to the perpetual destabilization of the Middle East – hardly a pressing American priority at the moment.

Leaked reports in US mainstream media, coupled with the noticeable lack of communication between Trump and Netanyahu, among other indicators, strongly suggested that the rift between Washington and Tel Aviv was not a mere ploy but a genuine policy shift.

Though Washington had indicated that the "US has not abandoned Israel," the writing was clearly on the wall: Netanyahu's long-term strategy and the US' current strategy are hardly convergent.

Despite the formidable political power of the pro-Israel lobby in the US, and its robust support on both sides of the Congressional aisle, Trump's position was strengthened by the fact that some pro-Israeli circles, also from both political parties, are fully aware that Netanyahu poses a danger not only to the US, but to Israel itself.

A series of decisive actions taken by Trump further accentuated this shift, which received surprisingly little protest from the pro-Israel element in US power circles: continued talks with Iran, the truce with Ansarallah in Yemen, talks with Hamas, etc.

Though refraining from openly criticizing Trump, Netanyahu intensified his killings of Palestinians, who fell in tragically large numbers. Many of the victims were already on the brink of starvation before they were mercilessly blown up by Israeli bombs.

On May 19, Britain, Canada, and France jointly issued a strong statement threatening Israel with sanctions. This unfamiliar language was swiftly followed by action just a day later when Britain suspended trade talks with Israel.

Netanyahu retaliated with furious language, unleashing his rage at Western capitals, which he accused of “offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.”

The decision to allow some food into Gaza, though patently insufficient to stave off the deepening famine, was meant as a distraction, as the Israeli war machine relentlessly continued to harvest the lives of countless Palestinians on a daily basis.

While one welcomes the significant shifts in the West's position against Israel, it must remain abundantly clear that Netanyahu has no genuine interest in abandoning his plan of starving and ethnically cleansing Gaza.

Though any action now will not fully reverse the impact of the genocide, there are still two million lives that can yet be saved.

Mainstream media finally calls out Gaza 'genocide'

Mohammed Marandi: Iran CRUSHES Israeli Attack

Iran says it will release Israeli nuclear secrets as pressure grows to reimpose sanctions

Iran has said it will soon start releasing information from a hoard of Israeli nuclear secrets it claims to have obtained, as European countries push for a vote this week on reimposing UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme. The unverified claims by Iranian intelligence of a massive leak of Israeli secrets may be designed to turn the focus away from what Iran argues is its own excessively monitored civil nuclear programme.

On Sunday, Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, claimed Tehran had obtained “a vast collection of strategic and sensitive [Israeli] documents, including plans and data on the nuclear facilities”. He added evidence would be released shortly, and implied some of the documentation was linked to Israel’s arrest of two Israeli nationals, Roi Mizrahi and Almog Attias, over alleged spying for Iran.

Even within Iran there is scepticism that Iranian agents could have obtained such dramatic intelligence. The claim may be designed to warn off Israel from acting on its repeated threat to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites since Iranian insight into Israel’s own nuclear programme would increase the risk of effective Iranian reprisals. ...

Iran has already threatened countermeasures if the IAEA board says it is in breach, likely to include a further cutback to access by UN weapons inspectors, and a further speeding up of enrichment. Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson for Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that since the last time the IAEA board censured Tehran Iran had increased 60% enriched uranium production sevenfold and launched 20 cascades of advanced centrifuges.

Kremlin debates next move, reaching the Dnieper

Russia Says It’s Advancing Into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its troops are pushing into Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as Russian troops continue to make gains amid faltering ceasefire negotiations. ...

It’s unclear at this point if Russian troops have broken through into Dnipropetrovsk or if they’re still fighting on the border. Russian forces have also been making gains in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast as Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a “buffer zone” along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that Ukraine would face new “realities on the ground” due to its failure to recognize the realities of the war at the negotiating table.

“Those who do not want to recognize the war realities at the negotiations will get new realities on the ground. Our Armed Forces have begun an offensive in the Dnipropetrovsk Region,” said Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy of Russia’s security council.

Larry Johnson : LIVE FROM MOSCOW: What the Russians Are Thinking

Ukraine claims to have damaged Russian fighter jets in night-time raid

Ukrainian special forces claim to have damaged two fighter jets in a night-time raid on an airfield deep inside Russia as Kyiv seeks to disrupt Vladimir Putin’s steady advances on the frontline. A week after the spectacle of Operation Spiderweb, when drones struck the Kremlin’s nuclear-capable bombers, the general staff of the Ukrainian army claimed a fresh success.

Special operations forces were said to have launched an assault on the Savasleyka airfield, located in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia, about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border. The army did not provide any details about the nature of the operation and questions remain about the extent of the damage inflicted.

The airfield is used by Russia to deploy MiG-31K fighters carrying Kinzhal ballistic missiles that have been used against Ukrainian armed forces and its cities. “According to preliminary information, two units of enemy aircraft were hit (probably MiG-31 and Su-30/34 aircraft),” the general staff said in a statement. “The results of the combat operation are being clarified.” ...

The operations inside Russia came as the Kremlin stepped up its night-time missile and drone strikes and made progress in pushing back the frontline in the north-east Sumy region and in Donetsk in the east. On Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday morning, Russia launched 479 drones at Ukraine in the war’s biggest overnight drone bombardment, the Ukrainian air force said.

About 20 missiles were also fired into Ukraine, targeting mainly central and western regions. The operational command of the Polish armed forces said it scrambled fighter jets in response to the aerial attacks in western Ukraine.

China CRIPPLES US Military With Mineral Withholding

Women and men diverge more than ever on support for abortion rights

Three years after the fall of Roe v Wade and months after an election that heavily focused on the fight over abortion rights, men and women have never diverged more on their support for access to the procedure, according to new polling from Gallup released Monday.

Sixty-one percent of women now identify as “pro-choice”, but only 41% of men say the same, Gallup found. The same percentage of women identified as “pro-choice” in 2022, just after the decision to overturn Roe was leaked, but at the time, 48% of men also did so. Prior to Roe’s collapse, men and women were never more than 10 points apart from one another on the issue, according to decades of Gallup polling.

Men and women are also in record disagreement over whether abortion is moral, as 57% of women and 40% men say that it is. Just 41% of men say that abortion should be legal in all or more circumstances, while 56% of women say the same.

These gender gaps are likely less due to post-Roe changes in men’s attitudes towards abortion than in changes in women’s attitudes, said Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of US social research. Specifically: women have become a lot more supportive of abortion since Roe fell. In 2021, 52% of women and 45% of men identified as “pro-choice”.

“In general, we see that with abortion, that the party that wants to change the status quo is the one that has more energy on the issue,” Saad said. “For years, it was more the pro-life respondents who said that they will only support a candidate who shares their views on that issue. Whereas, since 2022, we’ve seen it flip.”

Democratic lawmakers denied entry to detention centers in LA and New York

Democratic members of Congress from California and New York say that they were blocked from entering federal detention facilities over the weekend while seeking to inspect conditions and check on individuals detained during immigration raids and related protests.

In Los Angeles, the US House members Maxine Waters, Jimmy Gomez and Norma Torres each said that they were denied entry to the Metropolitan federal detention center, outside of which there had been anti-immigration customs enforcement (Ice) protests. Gomez and Torres attempted to visit the facility on Saturday, saying they sought to investigate “Ice’s inhumane detention of immigrant families”.

In a video posted outside the building after they were turned away, Gomez said that their positions in Congress gave them the right to conduct oversight of the detention conditions and the welfare of the people detained. Gomez also claimed that officers outside the federal building sprayed an irritant in the air to “push us back” and “get us to leave” – and said that most of the people around them were attorneys, members of Congress, journalists and organizers. “This is really to prevent us from doing our jobs” Gomez said, and Torres called it “unconscionable”.

In the video outside the detention center, Gomez said there were “only about 20” protesters outside the building. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement to the Guardian that “at the time lawmakers tried to enter the federal building, more than 1,000 rioters had surrounded the building”. The spokesperson said, in part, that “the lawmakers were turned away in the interest of their safety and the safety of our law enforcement”.

California AG Bonta Sues Trump for Deploying Troops, Warns President Is Trying to Provoke Violence

California to file lawsuit over Trump’s ‘unlawful’ deployment of national guard

California on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing the US president of “unlawfully” federalizing the state’s national guard to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles. The court filing alleges that Trump’s extraordinary deployment of troops to Los Angeles was an “unconstitutional and illegal” violation of state authority.

Previewing the suitearlier on Monday, the attorney general, Rob Bonta, said the move “trampled” the state’s sovereignty, overriding objections by the governor Gavin Newsom and going “against the wishes of law enforcement on the ground”. Bonta said the legal action will ask the court to declare Trump’s call deployment of the guard unlawful and will seek a restraining order to halt the use of its troops to manage the protests.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California national guard troops,” the attorney general said during a virtual news conference on Monday. Later, the US military said it was activating a battalion of 700 marines to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel while additional national guard troops arrive in the city. ...

“This was not inevitable,” Bonta said, arguing that the demonstrations had largely dissipated by the time Trump, on Saturday, announced his plans to assert federal control over at least 2,000 national guard troops for at least 60 days, which Bonta said inflamed the situation. On Sunday, roughly 300 California national guard troops arrived in Los Angeles, prompting an outpouring of anger and fear among residents. Trump’s call-up order “skipped over multiple rational, common sense, strategic steps that should have been deployed to quell unrest and prevent escalation”, he said. ...

Newsom has accused Trump of intentionally sewing chaos, claiming Trump “wants a civil war on the streets” and appealing for protesters not to give the administration the spectacle of violence it is hoping to stoke. “This is a manufactured crisis to allow him to take over a state militia, damaging the very foundation of our republic,” Newsom said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Every governor, red or blue, should reject this outrageous overreach. This is beyond incompetence – this is him intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities, and endangering the principles of our great democracy.”

Pentagon deploys 700 US marines to Los Angeles amid immigration protests

Hundreds of active-duty US marines are to be deployed in Los Angeles, the US military confirmed on Monday, making good on Donald Trump’s threat to send more troops to the city to quash protests against government immigration raids and deportations.

In a statement, the US Northern Command announced that a battalion of 700 marines had been activated to work with the roughly 2,100 national guard troops mobilized by the Trump administration to Los Angeles, to help protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents.

The marines are moving from their base at Twentynine Palms in southern California to the Los Angeles area. The move risked dramatically escalating tensions in a city on edge after four days of protests against the administration’s immigration crackdown. As of Monday afternoon, the day’s demonstrations had remained largely peaceful.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told news agency Reuters, said there was no expectation that Trump was, for now at least, about to invoke the Insurrection Act, as some critics had suggested. But the person added that the situation was “fluid” and might change. Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office called the mobilization of marines “completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented”.

“Trump is escalating this situation even further – deploying active duty Marines, the ‘best of the best,’ against their own countrymen in an American city,” the office wrote in a follow-up post. “Completely unnecessary and only inflames the situation more.” In a statement, LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said the department had not received “any formal notification” of the marines’ activation and said the “arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles – absent clear coordination – presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city”.

Sly Stone, pioneering funk and soul musician, dies aged 82

Sly Stone, the American musician who lit up generations of dancefloors with his gloriously funky and often socially conscious songwriting, has died aged 82. “After a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family,” a family statement reads. “While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come.”

With his group Sly and the Family Stone, Stone tied together soul, psychedelic rock and gospel into fervent, uplifting songs, and became one of the key progenitors of the 1970s funk sound alongside James Brown and others. The group’s hits include three US No 1 singles – Everyday People, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) and Family Affair – plus Dance to the Music, I Want to Take You Higher, Hot Fun in the Summertime and more. The 1971 album There’s a Riot Goin’ On, a moody reflection on civil rights and the corrupted idealism of the postwar era created predominantly by Stone apart from the rest of his band, is widely regarded as one of the greatest of the 20th century.

Born Sylvester Stewart to a Pentecostal religious family in Texas in 1943, Stone grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. His first music came in a gospel quartet with three siblings, the Stewart Four, who put out a locally released single in 1952. As a young man he became well known in the fertile musical scene of countercultural San Francisco: a multi-instrumentalist and radio DJ who had a series of local bands and worked as a producer for garage rock and psychedelia groups such as the Beau Brummels.

In 1966, he fused his band Sly and the Stoners with his brother Freddie’s group Freddie and the Stone Souls, to form Sly and the Family Stone.

‘Ticking timebomb’: sea acidity has reached critical levels, threatening entire ecosystems

The world’s oceans are in worse health than realised, scientists have said today, as they warn that a key measurement shows we are “running out of time” to protect marine ecosystems. Ocean acidification, often called the “evil twin” of the climate crisis, is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed by the ocean, where it reacts with water molecules leading to a fall in the pH level of the seawater. It damages coral reefs and other ocean habitats and, in extreme cases, can dissolve the shells of marine creatures.

Until now, ocean acidification had not been deemed to have crossed its “planetary boundary”. The planetary boundaries are the natural limits of key global systems – such as climate, water and wildlife diversity – beyond which their ability to maintain a healthy planet is in danger of failing. Six of the nine had been crossed already, scientists said last year.

However, a new study by the UK’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), the Washington-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oregon State University’s Co-operative Institute for Marine Resources Studies found that ocean acidification’s “boundary” was also reached about five years ago. “Ocean acidification isn’t just an environmental crisis – it’s a ticking timebomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies,” said PML’s Prof Steve Widdicombe, who is also co-chair of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network.

The study drew on new and historical physical and chemical measurements from ice cores, combined with advanced computer models and studies of marine life, which gave the scientists an overall assessment of the past 150 years. It found that by 2020 the average ocean condition worldwide was already very close to – and in some regions beyond – the planetary boundary for ocean acidification. This is defined as when the concentration of calcium carbonate in seawater is more than 20% below preindustrial levels.

The deeper in the ocean they looked, the worse the findings were, the scientists said. At 200 metres below the surface, 60% of global waters had breached the “safe” limit for acidification. “Most ocean life doesn’t just live at the surface,” said PML’s Prof Helen Findlay. “The waters below are home to many more different types of plants and animals. Since these deeper waters are changing so much, the impacts of ocean acidification could be far worse than we thought.”

Trump’s EPA to claim power-plant emissions ‘not significant’ – but study says otherwise

Donald Trump’s administration is set to claim planet-heating pollution spewing from US power plants is so globally insignificant it should be spared any sort of climate regulation. But, in fact, the volume of these emissions is stark – if the US power sector were a country, it would be the sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reportedly drafted a plan to delete all restrictions on greenhouse gases coming from coal and gas-fired power plants in the US because they “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” and are a tiny and shrinking share of the overall global emissions that are driving the climate crisis.

However, a new analysis shows that the emissions from American fossil-fuel plants are prominent on a global scale, having contributed 5% of all planet-heating pollution since 1990. If it were a country, the US power sector would be the sixth largest emitter in the world, eclipsing the annual emissions from all sources in Japan, Brazil, the UK and Canada, among other nations.

“That seems rather significant to me,” said Jason Schwartz, co-author of the report from New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity. “If this administration wants to argue only China has significant emissions they can try to do that, but a court will review that, and under any reasonable interpretation will find that US power plant emissions are significant too.”

Fossil fuel-derived electricity is responsible for the second largest source of emissions in the US, behind transportation. No country in history has caused more carbon pollution than the US, and while its power sector’s emissions have declined somewhat in recent years, largely through a market-based decline in heavily-polluting coal, it remains a major driver of the climate crisis.

Also of Interest

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

The L.A. Riots/Protests & the Paradox of Protest

Is the US on the Path to Becoming a Failed State?

Enforcing Silence

Trump Administration Violating Yet More Individual Rights in Escalation Over ICE Raid Protests in Los Angeles

Israel Seizes Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Ship Madleen

Israel Says Captured Gaza Aid Flotilla Activists Taken to Ashdod Port

Mike Huckabee Working For The Antichrist

‘Hamas has Defeated Us’ – Ret. Israeli Maj. Gen. Brik Speaks of ‘Collective Suicide’

Russia Seeks 'Asymmetrical' Response For Strike On Its Nuclear Assets

Greenwald: The TRUTH About Palantir CEO Alex Karp

Theo Von VS JD Vance On Gaza 'Genocide'

A Little Night Music

Tommy Ridgley - Early Dawn Boogie

Tommy Ridgley - Shrewsbury Blues

Tommy Ridgley – The Girl From Kooka Monga

Tommy Ridgely - Spreading Love

Tommy Ridgley - Boogie Woogie Mama

Tommy Ridgley - When I Meet My Girl

Tommy Ridgley - Good Times

Tommy Ridgley – I Want Some Money Baby

Tommy Ridgely - Lay It On Me, Nola