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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Jimi Primetime Smith

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Jimi Primetime Smith. Enjoy!

^{The Jimi 'Primetime' Smith & Bob Corritore Blues Band ~ Just Like A Fish}

"There is no privacy that cannot be penetrated. No secret can be kept in the civilized world. Society is a masked ball where everyone hides his real character, then reveals it by hiding"

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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News and Opinion

Israel Assassinates More Journalists To Hide Its Planned War Crimes

Ahead of a planned Israeli assault on Gaza City which UN officials warn will further exacerbate death and suffering for the Palestinian people, Israel has chosen to assassinate five Al Jazeera journalists who’ve been stationed there. Among those killed was Anas al-Sharif, one of the most high-profile surviving reporters in Gaza.

The IDF is of course claiming that al-Sharif was Hamas, because that’s what they always do. They’ve been murdering a historically unprecedented number of journalists and defending their systematic effort to blind the world to their actions in Gaza by claiming that every journalist they kill is Hamas. The journalists are Hamas, the hospitals are Hamas, the UN is Hamas, the peace activists are Hamas, the demonstrations are Hamas, telling the truth is Hamas, human empathy is Hamas, objective reality is Hamas. It’s all Hamas.

That Israel would feel the need to draw attention to its depravity with this targeted strike at this time shows it has some very ugly intentions for Gaza City that it doesn’t want the world to see.

Israel's Assault on Journalism: The Killing of Anas al-Sharif

This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.

Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my…

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) August 10, 2025

The rest of the tweet:

... people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that Allah would extend my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of occupied Asqalan (Al-Majdal). But Allah’s will came first, and His decree is final. I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.

I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.

I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you to take care of my family. I entrust you with my beloved daughter Sham, the light of my eyes, whom I never got the chance to watch grow up as I had dreamed.

I entrust you with my dear son Salah, whom I had wished to support and accompany through life until he grew strong enough to carry my burden and continue the mission.

I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessed prayers brought me to where I am, whose supplications were my fortress and whose light guided my path. I pray that Allah grants her strength and rewards her on my behalf with the best of rewards.

I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah (Bayan), from whom the war separated me for many long days and months. Yet she remained faithful to our bond, steadfast as the trunk of an olive tree that does not bend—patient, trusting in Allah, and carrying the responsibility in my absence with all her strength and faith.

I urge you to stand by them, to be their support after Allah Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles. I testify before Allah that I am content with His decree, certain of meeting Him, and assured that what is with Allah is better and everlasting.

O Allah, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family. Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for me with mercy, for I kept my promise and never changed or betrayed it.

Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.

Anas Jamal Al-Sharif
06.04.2025

Global outrage mounts as funeral held for five journalists killed by Israel

The death of the prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, prompted condemnation from around the world, as hundreds of mourners carried their bodies through the streets of Gaza City. Sharif, one of Al Jazeera’s most recognisable faces in Gaza, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night. Seven people were killed in the attack, including the Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and the camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, according to the Qatar-based broadcaster.

On Monday, the Guardian visited the site where the journalists were killed. Wadi Abu al-Saud, a Palestinian journalist who was near the tent when the Israeli strike occurred on Sunday, said the attack happened at 11.22pm, just after he had finished filming his latest news bulletin.

“I entered the tent opposite theirs, raised my phone to make a call, and then the explosion occurred, Saud said. “A piece of shrapnel hit my phone. I looked back and saw people burning in flames. I tried to extinguish them. Anas and the others had died instantly from the strike.” In two videos of the aftermath of the strike, Saud can be seen carrying the bodies of those killed. “From now on, I will not continue the coverage,” he said. “I will return to my life as a citizen. The truth has died and the coverage has ended.” ...

Sara Qudah, the Middle East and north Africa director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said: “Israel’s pattern of labelling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom.” ... Reporters Without Borders condemned the “acknowledged murder by the Israeli army” of Sharif in Gaza and called on the international community to intervene.

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said: “We are gravely concerned by the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza." ... The UN human rights office condemned the targeting of the journalists’ tent, saying it was “in grave breach of international humanitarian law”.Al Jazeera said the attack was “a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza” and called Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”.

Aaron Maté : Is Israel a Criminal State?

Over 100 Children Have Died of Severe Hunger Amid Israeli Siege

The Gaza Health Ministry announced on Monday that more than 100 children in Gaza have died of severe hunger during Israel's siege of the territory.

As Al Jazeera reported, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said that a total of 222 Palestinians have died from hunger during the siege, including 101 children. The vast majority of these deaths have come in just the last three weeks when the hunger crisis in Gaza started to garner international media attention, the ministry said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East on Monday emphasized the direness of the situation in a statement calling for a cease-fire to allow more aid into Gaza.

"People are being starved, children are being killed," the agency said. "Families have lost everything. Political will and leadership can stop an escalation and end the war. Every heartbeat counts."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that there is no starvation crisis in Gaza and has said such reports are part of a "fake" propaganda campaign waged by Israel's enemies.

However, it isn't just the Gaza Health Ministry warning of a hunger crisis in the region, as international charity Save the Children last week said that 43% of pregnant and breastfeeding women who showed up to its clinics in Gaza last month were malnourished, which represented a threefold increase since March, when the Israeli military imposed a total siege on the area.

The latest numbers about starvation in Gaza come as the Israeli government is pushing forward with a plan to fully invade and occupy Gaza, which experts have warned will only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis among its people.

"If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction," said Miroslav Jenca, the United Nations assistant secretary general, over the weekend.

Israeli Forces Kill 68 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Monday that Israeli forces killed at least 68 Palestinians and wounded 362 over the previous 24-hour period as relentless US-backed Israeli attacks continue across the Strip.

The Health Ministry said the body of a Palestinian killed in a previous Israeli attack was also recovered. “A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets, where ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them at this time,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. ...

Israeli troops also continued to gun down desperate Palestinians seeking aid. According to the Health Ministry, at least 29 aid seekers were killed and another 127 were wounded. Since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating at the end of May, the ministry has recorded the deaths of 1,807 aid seekers and the injuries of 13,021.

On top of the violent deaths, Palestinians continue to starve to death due to the US-backed Israeli blockade. “Gaza hospitals recorded five deaths due to malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including a child,” the Health Ministry said. “This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 222, including 101 children.”

Arkansan GOES OFF on Governor For INVESTING IN ISRAEL While State CRUMBLES

Palestinian activist killed by settler filmed his shooting, footage shows

Awdah Hathaleen, the prominent Palestinian activist who was killed late last month by an extremist Jewish settler in the West Bank, filmed the moment he was shot, newly released video footage reveals. Hathaleen, who worked on the filming of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which examined settler violence against the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta, was killed by Yinon Levi, a settler who was already under sanctions in the UK and EU for violent acts against Palestinians.

The footage – released by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem – appears to offer clear evidence of Levi’s direct involvement in the killing of Hathaleen, an English teacher and activist resident in Umm al-Khair in the south Hebron hills, on 28 July, in an incident that sparked international outrage.

Levi was arrested over the killing but quickly released by a court after a ruling that the evidence he had fired at Hathaleen had “weakened”. Levi has denied he fired the shot that killed Hathaleen. However, the footage filmed by Hathaleen himself shows Levi draw his weapon and fire in Hathaleen’s direction. Hathaleen is then heard groaning and falling to the ground. ...

Levi was sanctioned by the UK in 2024, along with others, because he “used physical aggression, threatened families at gunpoint, and destroyed property as part of a targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities”. Levi’s treatment by the courts since the shooting is in line with a long history of lenient treatment by both the Israeli civilian and military courts of Israelis who kill Palestinians.

Col Doug Macgregor: Russia SUDDEN ADVANCE Near Pokrovsk

Trump says he and Putin will discuss ‘land swapping’ at Ukraine war summit

Donald Trump has confirmed that he and Vladimir Putin will discuss “land swapping” when they meet on Friday in Alaska for a high-stakes summit on the Ukraine war. But the US president expressed frustration with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for putting conditions on such a potential agreement.

During a news conference at the White House on Monday, Trump said he was frustrated with Zelenskyy’s insistence that Ukraine would need to hold a national referendum on any peace deal that stipulated recognising Russian control over territory that it has occupied during the war.

“I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskyy was saying I have to get constitutional approval,” Trump said. “He has approval to go to war and kill everybody but he needs approval to do a land swap. Because there will be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody.”

European diplomats have been taken aback by the lack of clarity on the US side about the territories Putin is demanding from Ukraine and the terms of a ceasefire. The discrepancies within the US reporting back on what Russia is seeking has alarmed European diplomats and only added to a fear that Trump, inflating his personal relationship with Putin, could make damaging concessions.

Describing his vision for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said an agreement would include “good stuff, not bad stuff, also some bad stuff for both”. “We’re going to change the lines, the battle lines,” he added. Trump, increasingly impatient with Putin in recent months, has long said he does not see a ceasefire occurring until he meets the Russian leader in person.

LtCOL. (ret.) William J. Astore : US Is Failing and Flailing

Trump announces another 90-day pause on China tariffs

Donald Trump has once again delayed implementing sweeping tariffs on China, announcing another 90-day pause just hours before the last agreement between the world’s two largest economies was due to expire.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for higher tariffs on China until 10 November, officials confirmed to Reuters.

Chinese officials said earlier in the day they hoped the United States would strive for “positive” trade outcomes on Monday, as the 90-day detente reached between the two countries in May was due to expire.

China’s commerce ministry, in a statement on early Tuesday, said it will suspend additional tariffs on US goods for 90 more days, after Trump signed an executive order extending the tariff truce. China will maintain its tariffs on US goods at 10%, the statement said, and take action to address non-tariff barriers facing American products. ...

The Federal Reserve and many economists have argued that the tariffs will push up prices in the US. Goldman Sachs strategists calculate that US consumers have absorbed 22% of tariff costs through June 2025. That share is expected to rise to 67% if recent tariffs follow the same pattern as earlier ones.

Trump is losing his foolish trade war. This will cost ordinary Americans greatly

The ever-bombastic Donald Trump has boasted repeatedly of his trade victories, while White House news releases trumpet his “historic trade wins”. The Wall Street Journal echoed Trump’s triumphalism with a headline saying, “Trump is Winning His Trade War”, and last week the New York Times used the exact same words in a headline. That must have been music to the president’s ears.

Forgive me for being a spoilsport, but I don’t see where the victory is or how Trump is winning. I keep reading how Trump’s trade war and tariff machinations have pushed up inflation, slashed US job gains, slowed economic growth and caused the manufacturing sector to sputter. The rate of job growth plunged by over 70% in the three months after Trump unveiled his 2 April “liberation day” tariffs that filled corporate executives with uncertainty and dread. Trump is palpably impatient for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, but the higher prices resulting from his tariffs are likely to delay the rate cuts he desperately wants. So can someone please tell me where is the victory here?

Trump further proclaims that his tariffs are wondrous because, he says, they will generate trillions of dollars in revenue for the US Treasury. But those revenues will come out of the hides of tens of millions of American consumers who will pay Trump’s taxes on imports. The Yale Budget Lab estimates that the price increases caused by Trump’s tariffs will cost the typical US household $2,400 in 2025. As a result of the tariffs, the budget lab says, apparel prices will soar 37% and shoe prices 39%. What Trump boasts as a win is a loss for millions of typical Americans.

Some economists are warning that Trump’s tariffs will bring back stagflation, a dangerous combination of rising prices and slowing growth last seen in the 1970s. Pointing to signs of stagflation, BMO Economics wrote: “Economic activity and job growth are sputtering under the weight of higher tariffs, increasing inflation and rising economic policy and trade uncertainty.” Doesn’t look as if Trump’s trade war is winning there. Trump recently said on CNBC’s Squawk Box that “people love the tariffs”, but evidently the people he’s talking about aren’t the American people. A recent Fox News poll of registered voters found that Americans overwhelming disapprove of Trump’s tariff policies by 62% to 36%. Ben May, a forecaster at Oxford Economics, said his tariffs will hurt US families because “they are obviously raising prices … and squeezing household incomes”.

US veterans agency lost thousands of ‘core’ medical staff under Trump

The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed “core” to the system’s ability to function and “without which mission-critical work cannot be completed”, agency records show. The number of medical staff on hand to treat veterans has fallen every month since Donald Trump took office. The VA has experienced a net loss of 2,000 registered nurses since the start of this fiscal year, the data show, along with approximately 1,300 medical assistants, 1,100 nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses, 800 doctors, 500 social workers and 150 psychologists.

The numbers are at odds with claims by the VA secretary, Doug Collins, that veterans’ healthcare would not be affected by an agency-wide reduction of 30,000 workers to be completed this year through a combination of attrition, a hiring freeze and deferred resignation program. The reduction in medical staff is also feeding fears that the Trump administration is seeking to transform the VA, which currently operates the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, into a private voucher program.

“It’s a betrayal,” said Manuel Santamaria, 42, a disabled veteran who served as a US army medic and paratrooper in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It takes away the government’s accountability to veterans who have sacrificed for them.” ...

Veterans and employee unions note that even before these departures the VA was already understaffed. Last August, the VA’s inspector general reported that 86% of the agency’s 170 medical centers and more than 1,000 clinics reported a “severe” shortage of doctors, while 82% of facilities reported severe shortages of nurses.

The staff reductions reported by VA this year represent an additional 2% decrease in the number of nurses and 3% decline in the number of doctors, exacerbating the existing shortages.

US judge hears if Trump team broke law during LA Ice protests

A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday began hearing evidence and arguments on whether the Trump administration violated federal law when it deployed national guard soldiers and US marines to Los Angeles after protests over immigration raids this summer.

The Trump administration federalized California national guard members and sent them to the second-largest US city over the objections of the California governor, Gavin Newsom, and city leaders, after protests erupted on 7 June when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers arrested people at multiple locations.

California is asking Judge Charles Breyer to order the Trump administration to return control of the remaining troops to the state and to stop the federal government from using military troops in California “to execute or assist in the execution of federal law or any civilian law enforcement functions by any federal agent or officer”.

“The factual question which the court must address is whether the military was used to enforce domestic law, and if so, whether there continues to be a threat that it could be done again,” Breyer said at the start of Monday’s court hearing.

The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act prevents the president from using the military as a domestic police force. The case could set precedent for how Trump can deploy the guard in the future in California or other states.

Trump's D.C. Takeover: Federalizing Local Police, Deploying National Guard

Trump seizes control of Washington DC police and deploys national guard

Donald Trump has ordered the national guard to Washington DC and seized control of the city’s police force, describing a “lawless” city in ways that are sharply at odds with official crime statistics. The US president’s move was swiftly condemned as a “disgusting, dangerous and derogatory” assault on the political independence of a racially diverse city. The federal takeover is expected to be in effect for 30 days, the White House confirmed to the Guardian.

Speaking at a White House press conference on Monday, Trump said he was taking “a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in DC and we’re going to take our capital back.” He described Washington DC as “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world”, claiming its murder rate is higher than Bogotá or Mexico City, even though violent crime is at a 30-year low.

The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was among officials joining Trump on the podium, said 800 national guard troops would take to the streets of Washington over the coming week. “They will be strong, they will be tough and they will stand with their law enforcement partners,” he said. Trump, who lost the presidential election in DC to Democrat Kamala Harris by 86 percentage points, added that he may send in the military “if needed”.

By invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, the president is federalising DC’s Metropolitan police department for the first time in its history. He said he was declaring a public safety emergency and putting the police under the control of the attorney general, Pam Bondi. Trump vowed to allow police to “do whatever the hell they want” in the face of provocations. “That’s the only language they [alleged criminals] understand. They like to spit in the face of the police. You spit, and we hit, and they get hit real hard.” ...

The president can only exercise such control under the act for 30 days without Congress passing a law extending it.

Speaking of lawless:

Judge rejects Trump administration request to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts

Dismissing it as little more than a “diversion,” a federal judge in New York has formally rejected the Trump-led US justice department’s request to release transcripts of pre-indictment, grand jury interviews with witnesses in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote that the transcripts could not be released publicly – “casually or promiscuously” – as Donald Trump’s government had pushed for because it would risk “unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised”.

Nonetheless, while Engelmayer said that releasing the transcripts would jeopardize the confidence of people called to testify before grand juries, he also made it a point to write that the transcripts were “redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial”. Engelmayer also said that the government did not identify information of consequence in the record that was not already public in its request to release the Maxwell case’s grand jury testimony.

That observation raises questions about whether the Trump administration meant to substantially address the bipartisan calls for transparency in Epstein’s case through its move for the transcripts’ release. And Engelmayer sought to answer those questions in his ruling. “A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion – aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he wrote.

“Contrary to the government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest,” he added. “Far from it. It consists of garden-variety summary testimony by two law enforcement agents.”

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Cuomo CRASHING OUT As New Poll Shows Zohran Dominating

US Appeals Court Blocks Maine's Voter-Approved Ban on Overseas Corporate Money in Elections

The Associated Press reported Monday that a federal appeals court recently blocked Maine from enforcing a ban on foreign interference in elections that the state's voters passed in 2023.

After Hydro-Quebec spent millions of dollars on a referendum, 86% of Mainers voted for Question 2, which would block foreign governments and companies with 5% or more foreign government ownership from donating to state referendums.

Then, the Maine Association of Broadcasters, Maine Press Association, Central Maine Power, and Versant Power sued to block the ballot initiative. According to the AP, last month, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston affirmed a lower-court ruling that the measure likely violates the First Amendment to the federal Constitution.

Judge Lara Montecalvo wrote that "the prohibition is overly broad, silencing U.S. corporations based on the mere possibility that foreign shareholders might try to influence its decisions on political speech, even where those foreign shareholders may be passive owners that exercise no influence or control over the corporation's political spending."

As the AP detailed:

The matter was sent back to the lower court, where it will proceed, and there has been no substantive movement on it in recent weeks, said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the Maine attorney general's office, on Monday. The law is on the state's books, but the state cannot enforce it while legal challenges are still pending, Hayes said.

Just months before voters approved Question 2, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills vetoed the ban, citing fears that it could silence "legitimate voices, including Maine-based businesses." She previously vetoed a similar measure in 2021.

Still, supporters of the ballot initiative continue to fight for it. Rick Bennett, chair of Protect Maine Elections, the committee formed to support Question 2, said in a statement that "Mainers spoke with one voice: Our elections should belong to us, not to corporations owned or influenced by foreign governments whose interests may not align with our own."

A year after Maine voters approved that foreign election interference law, they also overwhelmingly backed a ballot measure to restrict super political action committees (PACs). U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Frink Wolf blocked that measure, Question 1, last month.

"We think ultimately the court of appeals is going to reverse this decision because it's grounded in a misunderstanding of what the Supreme Court has said," Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard professor and founder of the nonprofit Equal Citizens that helped put Question 1 on the ballot, told News Center Maine in July. "We are exhausted, all of us, especially people in Maine, with the enormous influence money has in our politics, and we want to do something about it."

Pro-Israel Democrat ALREADY PANICKING Over Third Party Challenger - w/ Kshama Sawant

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Canada wildfire season already second worst on record as experts warn of ‘new reality’

With hundreds of wildfires burning out of control, Canada’s 2025 fire season is already the second-worst on record, as scientists report climate change is prolonging and exacerbating the burning, leading to more destruction, evacuations and smoke-filled skies. More than 470 fires across the country are currently classified as “out of control”, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

7,318,421 hectares of land in Canada have burned due to wildfires this year – close to 78% more than the five-year average of 4,114,516 hectares, according to the CIFFC’s latest data. The 2025 fire season is only behind the explosive 2023 wildfire season, which resulted in an astounding 17,203,625 hectares burned.

“This is our new reality… the warmer it gets, the more fires we see,” said Mike Flannigan, the BC research chair for predictive services, emergency management and fire science at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

A June analysis on the 2025 fire season in Canada published by United Nations University in Shibuya, Japan, concluded that the fires are a “stark manifestation” of climate change and that warm, dry weather in the spring resulted in temperatures 2.5C above average. The warmer temperatures extend the fire season and increase the frequency of lightning that sparks fires, said Flannigan. A hotter climate also causes the atmosphere to suck moisture out of fuel, dead vegetation and the forest floor – creating ideal conditions for fires to start, he explained.

“It means more of the material is dried out, is available to burn when the fire does come, it leads to bigger flames, higher intensity, which gets to be difficult to impossible to extinguish,” he said.

Waste from agricultural plant poisoned US town’s water with Pfas, lawsuits allege

Wastewater from an industrial soya bean farm and processor has poisoned a Maryland town’s drinking water with Pfas, several lawsuits allege, raising questions about residents’ health and “forever chemical” pollution from industrial agricultural operations nationwide. Perdue Farms acknowledged that its 300-acre Salisbury, Maryland, operation is polluting local waters, but the chemicals’ sources have not been confirmed. It appears the Pfas is in part also coming from some combination of sludge used as fertilizer and pesticides, attorneys for plaintiffs say.

The latest suit was filed in late July under the nation’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which requires toxic waste to be disposed of in a way that doesn’t harm human health. Some residents say the contaminated drinking water has sickened them, and the attorneys charge that Perdue, a company with $11bn in revenues, is not acting quickly enough, or taking proper measures to rein in the pollution since it was discovered in 2023.

“The fact that they’ve had two years to do an investigation and they have not … is exceedingly frustrating,” said Phil Federico, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the RCRA lawsuit. “[Pfas] are a carcinogen for God’s sake – they cause cancer.” ... The suit alleges Perdue’s operation, 100 miles (160km) south-east of Baltimore, is spitting approximately 180,000 gallons of Pfas-contaminated wastewater daily into local waters, emitting Pfas into the air and contaminating groundwater.

Perdue’s operation includes cropland, a soya bean processing facility, grain storage and an oilseed refinery, among other facilities. The company in 2023 applied for a permit to increase the level of contaminated wastewater it discharges. The RCRA lawsuit comes after the Maryland department of environment in 2023 discovered the Pfas during routine testing of waterways and initiated regulatory action to force Perdue to rein in its pollution.

Early 2024 testing showed levels of some Pfas compounds in local streams and rivers that were as much as 350 times higher than federal limits for drinking water. State regulators also identified a huge Pfas plume in the groundwater probably stemming from the property. A class-action lawsuit filed in late 2024 on behalf of 500 nearby residents alleges Perdue learned of its pollution but did not warn area residents about the potential contamination of their water for over a year. The company showed “reckless indifference to the health and safety of the public”, according to the complaint, and it demands the company pay for clean water and health monitoring.

Swarm of jellyfish shuts nuclear power plant in France

A swarm of jellyfish has forced the shutdown of one of the largest nuclear power plants in France after entering the water intake systems used to cool the coastal reactors.

Three reactors at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France shut down automatically late on Sunday, according to the French nuclear company EDF, after the filter drums of the pumping stations became packed with a “massive and unpredictable” swarm of the marine creatures.

The entire nuclear plant, capable of powering about 5m homes, was brought offline when a fourth reactor shut down shortly after the free-swimming invertebrates jammed the power plant, which had already lost its two other reactors for planned summer maintenance work. EDF, which is owned by the French state, said the event did not affect the safety of the facilities, staff or the environment. .

The Gravelines plant draws water used in its cooling systems from a canal connected to the North Sea, which is home to several native species of jellyfish often seen around the shoreline in the summer when the waters are warmer. Jellyfish have a long history of derailing the normal operations of coastal power plants, which tap the ocean for the vast amounts of cool water needed to keep temperatures in check.

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Also of Interest

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

Backing Netanyahu, Trump Suggests Israel Needs To Ramp Up Military Pressure on Hamas

Jonathan Cook: ‘Blood Libel’ Paradox & Israel’s Genocide

Palestine Action founder attacks 'defamatory' Labour claims about group

Do The Same Sorts Of People Lead All Societies?

https://x.com/yeghig/status/1954274142942797852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctw...

Trump Extorts Companies To Pay Taxes On Exports

Ohio requires buses for private school kids. Public school students have to find their own ride

Immigration crackdown causing ‘Trump slump’ in Las Vegas tourism, unions say

"They Need Ozempic!" Piers Morgan STUNNED By Huckabee Starvation Denial

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A Little Night Music

Jimi ‘ Primetime ‘ Smith - I can’t hold out

Jimi Primetime Smith & Kirk Fletcher - Don't You LieTo Me

Jimi “Primetime” Smith & Bob Corritore Blues Band - Tore Down

Jimi Primetime Smith - Hideaway

Jimi Primetime Smith - Next Time You See Me

Jimi Prime Time Smith - Last Night

Jimi Primetime Smith - How Many More Years

Jimi Primetime Smith & Kirk Fletcher - Honey Bee

Jimi Primetime Smith & Kirk Fletcher - Crossroads

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