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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Angela Strehli

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Texas blues singer Angela Strehli. Enjoy!

^{Angela Strehli - Big Town Playboy}

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."

-- Philip K. Dick

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News and Opinion

Israel Apologists Support Genocide; Of Course They’re Fine With Lying

Israel apologists use language the same way malignant narcissists do. It’s never to communicate or connect or find out what’s true, it’s always to manipulate and get things they want.

Not one person sincerely believes Israel isn’t starving Gaza. Everyone knows it is, including the people who are saying it isn’t. They’re just throwing a bunch of language at it in an effort to keep the west supporting Israel’s genocide.

Israel’s official Twitter account is currently trying to claim that a photo of a dead skeletal man proves people are sharing disinformation about Israel, because it turns out the man had diabetes. Back in December 2023, Human Rights Watch published an article titled “Gaza Blockade Puts People with Diabetes at Risk.” It’s a well-documented fact that the first people to die in a famine are always small children and people with health problems, and yet the main hasbara arguments today are “Why is it always the children dying and not the healthy adults?” and “This person already had health problems!”

Israel apologists are having a parade about this clarification as though it's not a well-established fact that people with health conditions are always the first to die in any famine, and as though "See? We actually just starved a SICK child to death!" is a winning argument. https://t.co/p8PGBO3q2a

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 30, 2025

Just this morning I had someone on Twitter show me pictures which they claimed proves Gaza is not currently starving, and the pictures were from the West Bank.

Before that another hasbarist responded to footage I shared of far right Israelis blocking aid trucks into Gaza saying, “the trucks have been stopped because they are full of weapons heading to Hamas.” When I called him out for lying he said “why not? you all take AI produced photos and videos and run on the narrative that they are real.” Neither of these statements are true. He knew he was lying, and he didn’t care.

These are just some things I saw this morning before coffee.

They do this all the time. They lie and lie and lie and lie and lie. They are not normal people. They do not use language the same way normal people do.

Which should come as no surprise to anyone. If you’d support a genocide, of course you’d be willing to lie in order to justify it. If your moral line isn’t drawn before genocide, of course it’s not going to be drawn before lying either.

Another, more heartening, thing I saw on Twitter today was Israel apologists talking to each other about how their PR is failing and the media aren’t helping them.

“Israel needs a PR Iron Dome. It’s a matter of national security,” tweeted one.

“Our Hasbara isn’t working,” responded another. “We sit in a bubble of confirmation bias preaching to each other about things we know already. We’re not spreading the truth and we’re not coming up with any solutions to it. We really suck at this and we’re being too stupid to see our way out of it.”

“I have been saying they need a new army unit dedicated to just this (and combatting misinformation and disinformation),” said someone else.

In a separate conversation I saw another hasbarist admonishing his peers to “stop saying Israel is doing bad PR” and calling on Jewish billionaires to start paying influencers to promote Israeli information interests.

I find all this both encouraging and hilarious. They’re losing control of the narrative, and they know it.

People still supporting this genocide really think they'll be able to use "I didn't know Israel was lying" to defend themselves when this all comes crashing down.

You fucking knew. You knew the whole time. You lied your way into this, but you won't be able to lie your way out.

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 30, 2025

My favorite is the “we need a PR Iron Dome” one, because what could that possibly look like that Israel doesn’t already have? Lobby groups? Think tanks? Paid influencers? Online shills? A wildly sympathetic and some would say sycophantic mainstream press? How much more narrative control could Israel and its supporters possibly have?

And how revealing is it that simply ending the genocide never at any time enters the conversation? The world hates Israel because Israel is committing genocide, but they never see that as the problem — they see bad PR about the genocide as the problem. The problem isn’t that we’re doing genocide, the problem is that we’re not using the right words to explain why the genocide is good.

Again, these are not normal people. There’s got to be something seriously wrong with you as a person to keep supporting Israel in the year 2025.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Can Israel Save Itself?

Israel’s new measures do nothing to stop the starvation crisis in Gaza

Aid workers have said Israel’s new measures – meant to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza – fall far short of what is needed and aid access continues to be blocked amid the population’s spiralling famine. The new measures, which came into effect on Sunday and include daily humanitarian pauses, as well as airdropped aid and humanitarian corridors for UN aid trucks, were announced by Israel as international pressure mounted to alleviate the hunger crisis.

Aid groups have said Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip is the principal cause of the starvation crisis, which has seen 151 Palestinians die of hunger, more than half of whom died in the past month alone. While the crisis has deepened, Israel’s military has continued its attacks, killing at least 48 people seeking aid in Gaza on Wednesday, according to the territory’s ministry of health.

“Twenty-one months in, these are token gestures. They’re theatrics, they’re designed from my perspective to deflect scrutiny. We’re being blocked and delayed at every turn,” said Bushra Khalidi, the policy lead at Oxfam, commenting on the new Israeli aid measures. Most of the crossings into Gaza are still not in use. The UN has called for a full ceasefire and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the territory to urgently address the hunger crisis.

The number of aid trucks that have been entering Gaza since the new measures were announced has increased, with more than 200 trucks entering on Tuesday, according to Israeli customs authority (COGAT). This equates to about 70 trucks entering daily on average since May. However, the number of aid trucks still falls far below the 500-600 trucks the UN has said is necessary to sustain the 2 million residents of Gaza. Some aid agencies have suggested the true scale of need is now far greater than 600 trucks, given that Gaza is now facing famine.

“The needs are exponentially greater than they were prewar. But the access is actually worse. Starvation cannot be solved by 10 or even 300 trucks. What’s needed isn’t piecemeal fixes, but actual systemic changes,” Khalidi said. Residents and medical professionals said they have yet to feel a change to their daily conditions, with malnutrition continuing to grip the territory.

Why Only U.S. Pressure Can End Israel's Genocide in Gaza

Children and elderly people most vulnerable as Gaza famine deepens

Humanitarian experts and doctors are warning that children, elderly people and those with pre-existing health conditions are most at risk of famine in Gaza. Pro-Israeli activists and Israel’s foreign ministry have tried to challenge the veracity of shocking pictures that have appeared in the international media, despite widespread and well-documented evidence of growing and worsening famine under conditions of Israeli restrictions on aid.

One such picture, which was used widely by the international media, including the Guardian, showed a young boy suffering from severe malnutrition, who it subsequently transpired also had a pre-existing health condition. Experts say that children under the age of five, including those with other health issues, and elderly people, will always be most vulnerable in the circumstances of famine.

In recent days, aid agencies, governments and the UN’s food security monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative (IPC), have provided evidence of increasing starvation, in particular among children under five.

Estimates from other recent famines have suggested that the risk of dying for children under five can be twice as high as for adults, with a greater risk for children with health issues. According to the health ministry in Gaza, 154 people have died of hunger since the start of the war, including 89 children.

Complicating the issue, say other experts, is the fact that children weakened by malnourishment are vulnerable to other potentially fatal diseases, especially if they are living in the open and in unsanitary conditions.

Green Beret Gaza Whistleblower: Israel's War Is 'ANNIHILATION'

Trump backs Israel and rebukes Starmer over Palestinian state recognition

Donald Trump has doubled down on his backing for Israel after having appeared to give a green light to the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, to recognize a Palestinian state. Amid signs of mounting opposition among his Maga base to Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Trump criticized Starmer’s plan to grant recognition as “rewarding Hamas” even after having not taken issue with it when the pair met in Scotland this week.

Talking to journalists onboard Air Force One on his return to Washington, Trump said the US was “not in that camp”, referring to Starmer’s pledge, which followed a similar declaration by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, days earlier that France would formally recognize Palestinian statehood. “We never did discuss it,” Trump said, in reference to Starmer’s announcement. He added: “You’re rewarding Hamas if you do that. I don’t think they should be rewarded.”

His comments were in line with the US state department, whose spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, called the recognition decision “a slap in the face” to victims of Hamas’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the current war.

But they contrasted with his restrained stance when he and Starmer met at Turnberry in Scotland on Monday, after the UK prime minister said Britain would give recognition by September unless Israel met certain conditions, including allowing for a ceasefire in Gaza and allowing UN food aid to enter the territory to feed its population.

Israeli Forces Kill 103 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli forces killed 103 Palestinians and wounded 399 over the previous 24 hours as relentless US-backed Israeli attacks continue across the Strip.

The Health Ministry said that another body of a Palestinian killed in a previous Israeli attack was recovered from the rubble. “A number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, as ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them until now,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.

The ministry said that the majority of the dead were killed while attempting to reach food aid. It said that it recorded the death of 60, and another 195 were wounded. Since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating in May, the ministry has recorded the deaths of 1,239 aid seekers and the injuries of 8,152.

Palestine Action co-founder wins permission to challenge ban

The co-founder of Palestine Action can bring an unprecedented legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, a high court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Chamberlain said the proscription order against the direct action group risked “considerable harm to the public interest” because of a potential “chilling effect” on legitimate political speech.

The judge cited the case of Laura Murton, who the Guardian revealed had been threatened with arrest by armed officers for holding a sign saying “Free Gaza” and a Palestinian flag. Chamberlain’s decision is the first time that an organisation banned under anti-terrorism law has been granted a court trial to challenge proscription.

The judge said: “If, as the claimant says, the proscription order is likely to have a significant chilling effect on the legitimate political speech of many thousands of people, that would do considerable harm to the public interest. “Reports of the kind of police conduct referred to … are liable to have a chilling effect on those wishing to express legitimate political views. This effect can properly be regarded as an indirect consequence of the proscription order.”

He continued: “I consider it reasonably arguable that the proscription order amounts to a disproportionate interference with the article 10 and article 11 (European convention of human rights) rights (freedom of expression and assembly, respectively) of the claimant and others.”

The group’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, called it a “landmark decision … especially at a time when protesters – mostly elderly citizens – are being dragged off in police vans, held in detention for more than 24 hours, having their homes raided and face criminal prosecution, simply for holding signs that they oppose genocide and expressing their support for Palestine Action”. More than 200 people are believed to have been arrested since the 5 July ban on Palestine Action, the first on a direct action group, placing it alongside the likes of Islamic State and Boko Haram.

The Price of Empire w/ Jeffrey Sachs

Trump imposes 25% tariff on India plus ‘penalty’ over ties to Russia

Donald Trump has announced the US will impose a 25% tariff on goods from India plus an extra “penalty” for the country buying arms and energy from Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Washington has set a 1 August deadline for countries around the world to reach agreements on trade, including India, amid the US president’s sweeping global tariff war. While saying that Delhi was a “friend,” Trump used his Truth Social platform to criticise India’s trade policies and said the White House would impose a 25% tariff “plus a penalty” of an unspecified amount.

He said the US had a “massive” trade deficit with India – when imported goods outstrip exports – and linked its “vast” purchases of military equipment and energy from Russia to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Criticising Indian tariffs applied to US imports as “far too high”, he also accused Narendra Modi’s government of applying non-monetary barriers to trade that were among the most “strenuous and obnoxious” in the world.

Trump wrote: “They have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE — ALL THINGS NOT GOOD! “INDIA WILL THEREFORE BE PAYING A TARIFF OF 25%, PLUS A PENALTY FOR THE ABOVE, STARTING ON AUGUST FIRST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. MAGA!”

Trump accused of ‘attack on Brazilian democracy’ after sanctioning Bolsonaro trial judge

Allies of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have accused Donald Trump of launching “a direct attack on Brazilian democracy” after the US treasury slapped sanctions on Alexandre de Moraes, the supreme court judge widely credited with helping save Brazilian democracy from a 2022 rightwing coup.

The highly controversial US move was announced on Wednesday by the secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, shortly before Trump followed through on a threat to hit Brazilian imports with 50% tariffs by signing an executive order “to deal with the recent policies, practices, and actions by the government of Brazil”.

Trump has partly attributed those tariffs to his outrage at the supposed political “witch-hunt” against his far-right ally the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly seeking to seize power after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.

Moraes is presiding over the trial, which is widely expected to result in Bolsonaro being convicted and sentenced to up to 43 years in jail, as well as several other criminal investigations into Bolsonaro and his family. Announcing the Magnitsky sanctions, Bessent accused Moraes of being “responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights and politicized prosecutions – including against former president Jair Bolsonaro”.

“Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch-hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Bessent claimed. ... A White House statement confirming the 50% tariffs on Brazil – albeit with numerous major exemptions, including oil, orange juice, timber and aircraft – said they were a result of “the government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters”.

Divided Fed leaves interest rates unchanged despite Trump pressure

The US Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, even amid intense pressure from Donald Trump to lower rates.

Despite an onslaught of attacks from the White House against the Fed, officials at the central bank said that economic “uncertainty” remains too high to lower rates.

But two of the Fed’s governors voted against the decision – the first time that multiple governors have voted against the majority since 1993. Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, both appointed by Trump, wanted rates to be lowered. Both have been floated as potential replacements for Fed chair Jerome Powell. ...

Speaking after the rate decision, Powell said that it was still unclear how tariffs would affect prices. “Higher tariffs have begun to show through more clearly to prices of some goods, but their overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen,” Powell said.

Sheinbaum demands return of Mexican citizens held at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that the country is demanding the repatriation of at least 30 of its citizens currently being held in the controversial Florida immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz”.

The Mexican leader said on Wednesday that a note had been sent to US authorities “demanding that any Mexicans who might enter this detention center should be repatriated immediately”.

Sheinbaum added: “They have no reason to enter these detention centers. Within the framework of the United States’ own laws, what we seek is for them to return to our country immediately and not be detained in this manner.”

The 39-acre (16 hectares) camp erected about 40 miles (64km) from Miami has come under heavy criticism from non-profit organizations who say detainees are held in overcrowded pods, along with sewage backups “resulting in cages flooded with feces”, and, in some cases, have been denied medical care.

Yet, the Trump administration and local Florida officials have flaunted the facility’s brutality since it opened earlier this month, emphasizing its isolated location in a swamp infested with pythons, alligators and crocodiles. Sheinbaum’s comments come after the Mexican consul in Miami, Rutilio Escandón, visited the Florida detention center this week, becoming the first overseas consul to do so.

US placed on rights watchlist over health of its civil society under Trump

A group of global civil society organizations have placed the US on a watchlist for urgent concern over the health of its civic society, alongside Turkey, Serbia, El Salvador, Indonesia and Kenya. On Wednesday, a new report released by the non-profit Civicus placed the US on its watchlist following “sustained attacks on civic freedoms” across the country, according to the group.

Civicus pointed to three major issues including the deployment of military to quell protests, growing restrictions placed on journalists and civil society, as well as the aggressive targeting of anti-war advocates surrounding Palestine. At Civicus, countries are assigned a rating over their civic space conditions. The ratings include “open”, “narrowed”, “obstructed”, “repressed” and “closed”. The group has declared the US’s civic space as “narrowed”.

According to the group, the “narrowed” rating is for countries that still allow individuals and civil society organizations to exercise their rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression but where violations of these rights still take place. “People can form associations to pursue a wide range of interests, but full enjoyment of this right is impeded by occasional harassment, arrest or assault of people deemed critical of those in power,” the rating description says, adding: “Protests are conducted peacefully, although authorities sometimes deny permission, citing security concerns, and excessive force, which may include tear gas and rubber bullets, are sometimes used against peaceful demonstrators.”

With regard to the media, countries with a “narrowed” rating allow media to “disseminate a wide range of information, although the state undermines complete press freedom either through strict regulation or by exerting political pressure on media owners”.

“The United States appears to be sliding deeper into the quicksands of authoritarianism. Peaceful protests are confronted with military force, critics are treated as criminals, journalists are targeted, and support for civil society and international cooperation have been cut back,” Mandeep Tiwana, Civicus’s secretary general, said in a statement. “Six months into Donald Trump’s second term, a bizarre assault on fundamental freedoms and constitutional safeguards has become the new normal,” he added.

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Kamala Harris announces she will not run for governor of California

Kamala Harris, the former vice-president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she will not run for governor of California – a highly anticipated decision that leaves the contest to lead the country’s largest blue state wide open.

“For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office,” Harris said in a statement, ending months of speculation about her political future after losing the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump.

“I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans,” she added.

Harris, 60, who previously served as California’s attorney general and US senator, had been exploring a run for the state’s top job since leaving the White House in January. But, she said in the statement, “after deep reflection, I’ve decided that I will not run for governor in this election”. The decision does not rule out a future run for public office, including a third bid for the White House, after unsuccessful campaigns in 2020 and 2024.

Texas Republicans unveil congressional map that could gift them five seats

Republicans have unveiled a new congressional map in Texas that would allow the party to pick up as many as five additional congressional seats, an aggressive maneuver that has already met decisive outcry from Democrats and comes as the GOP tries to stave off losses in next year’s midterm elections.

Republicans already hold 25 of Texas’s 38 congressional seats. But at the urging of Donald Trump, Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, called a special session this month to redraw the state’s congressional districts. After contentious hearings across the state, Republicans unveiled their proposed map on Wednesday.

“We expected them to be greedy,” said Sam Gostomski, executive director of the Texas Democratic party. “The bottom line is, they are going to turn Texas into almost certainly the most gerrymandered state in the country.” ...

Republican legislators held three hearings to hear from voters about redistricting. But the proposed maps were not presented at the meetings, rendering the legally required hearings into a pro forma exercise. “How do people even know what to comment on if the maps aren’t published?” state representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, a Democrat from San Antonio and a member of the Texas house’s redistricting committee said. “I call it a sneak attack to put the maps out after the hearing.”

Zohran Mamdani's support for Palestinian rights sealed mayoral primary win

Last month, New York City's Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, not only mounted one of the biggest upsets in establishment politics in years, but he also won the most votes of any candidate on a primary ballot in the city's history.

New polling numbers released on Tuesday now show that his open support for Palestinian rights was the issue that "supercharged" his campaign.

An overwhelming 78 percent of New Yorkers who voted for Mamdani agreed with him that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, and 79 percent agreed that weapons transfers to Israel should be restricted.

Out of New Yorkers who voted for him, 63 percent of those also supported arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - per the warrant from the International Criminal Court - if he visits New York City, something Mamdani has said he would do if he were to be elected mayor in November.

The poll was commissioned by the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project and conducted by Data for Progress, which collected responses from 513 Democratic primary voters from 11-17 July 2025.

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Countries failing to act on UN climate pledge to triple renewables

Most global governments have failed to act on the 2023 UN pledge to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, according to climate analysts. The failure to act means that on current forecasts the world will fall far short of its clean energy goals, leading to a continued reliance on fossil fuels that is incompatible with the target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C.

A report by the climate thinktank Ember found that only 22 countries, most within the EU, have increased their renewable energy ambitions since more than 130 signed up to the renewables pact at the UN’s Cop28 climate talks in Dubai almost two years ago.

This means that the global sum of national renewables targets is now just 2% higher than at Cop28. While this could be enough to double the world’s renewable energy capacity from 2022, to reach 7.4 terawatts (TW) by 2030, governments would fall well below the 11TW needed to meet the UN goal of tripling renewables, according to the analysts.

“Tripling global renewables capacity by 2030 is the single biggest action this decade to stay on track for the 1.5C climate pathway,” the report said. “Yet, despite the landmark Cop28 agreement to reach 11,000GW of renewables by 2030, national targets remain largely unchanged and fall short of what is needed.”

The report found that beyond the EU only seven countries have updated their renewable energy goals since the pact was signed, including Mexico and Indonesia, which have watered down their targets. Countries that have failed to act include the US, China and Russia, which are some of the world’s largest energy users and together are responsible for almost half of the world’s annual carbon emissions.

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Also of Interest

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

As Gaza starves, Trump tells Israel to 'finish the job'

US Embassy Neglects Gaza Flotilla Volunteers

Global Hunger Monitor Says ‘Worst Case Scenario of Famine Playing Out in Gaza’

NYT Condemned for Clarifying Starving Palestinian Child's 'Preexisting Health Condition'

How Palestine Action Was Banned

Iran To Respond in ‘Decisive Manner’ If US and Israel Attack Again

President Lula hits back as Trump tariffs threaten US-Brazil trade showdown

Obama Colluded with the Surveillance State Against Trump

Bessent Admits Trump Tax Scam Offers 'Backdoor for Privatizing Social Security'

Yes, Human Population Needs To Be Lower

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A Little Night Music

Angela Strehli - Mean Mistreater

Angela Strehli - I'm just your fool

Angela Strehli - Tough Times

Angela Strehli - Kiddio

Angela Strehli - Howlin' For My Darlin

Angela Strehli - Soul Shake

Angela Strehli - Two Bit Texas Town

Angela Strehli - Go On

Angela Strehli - SRV

Stevie Ray Vaughan with Jimmie Vaughan and Angela Strehli - You Were Wrong

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