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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Sy Oliver

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features jazz trumpeter, singer, songwriter and arranger Sy Oliver. Enjoy!

^{Sy Oliver - Walkin' The Dog}

"Since opposed principles, or ideologies, are irreconcilable, wars fought over principle will be wars of mutual annihilation. But wars fought for simple greed will be far less destructive, because the aggressor will be careful not to destroy what he is fighting to capture. Reasonable - that is, human - men will always be capable of compromise, but men who have dehumanized themselves by becoming the blind worshipers of an idea or an ideal are fanatics whose devotion to abstractions makes them the enemies of life."

-- Alan Watts

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News and Opinion

On Israel, Australia, And Racism

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has a new article in Haaretz titled “Most of Israel’s Protest Movement Only Cares About the Lives of the Gaza Hostages — Not of Palestinians” where he discusses his frustration and disgust with the massive disparity between the value his countrymen place on Israeli and Palestinian lives.

“They worry about the lives of 20 hostages while ignoring the fact that their country kills 20 innocent people an hour on average,” Levy writes. “For them, humanity stops at the borders of nationality. They’ll leave no stone unturned to help any Israeli but avert their gaze with a lack of interest in the case of a Palestinian whose fate is often much worse. They are enraged at Benjamin Netanyahu’s cold-heartedness, but theirs is no less evident. When it comes to Palestinians, they exhibit the same evil and cold hearts.”

“How can one be shocked at the sight of starving hostage Evyatar David and shrug or even rejoice at the killing taking place in lines for food?” askes Levy. “How can one be shocked at the murder of the Bibas family yet show no interest in the 1,000 babies and 19,000 children killed by the IDF, or in the 40,000 Gazan orphans? How can one lose sleep over Hamas tunnels and show no interest in what goes on at the Sde Teiman or Megiddo detention centers, to our shame? How is this possible?”

And, of course, we know how it’s possible. It’s possible because of racism. It’s possible because Israelis see Palestinians as subhuman savages whose lives are worth far less than their own.

Levy acknowledges this further down in his piece:

“Viewing human beings — children, the disabled, the elderly, women, and other helpless people as dust, as people whose killing and starvation are legitimate, with their property worthless and their dignity non-existent — is tantamount to being Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

“Opposing total evil, one must stand for total humanity, which is almost non-existent in Israel.”

This is why I always dismiss anyone who tries to defend Israel by citing its widespread protests. They’re not protesting against the genocide, they’re protesting because of Israeli captives and Israeli casualties. It’s a shitty, racist society full of shitty, racist people.

I’ve been thinking about racism more than usual today because of the discourse around anti-immigrant protests this weekend here in Melbourne and around Australia, which were both full of violent neo-Nazis and numerous Israeli flags.

The Zionist institutions of Australia who’ve been shrieking their lungs out about pro-Palestine protests these last two years seem to be pretty chill about actual Nazis marching through their streets.

All the ugliest things about Australia are also the ugliest things about Israel, and our ugly things happen to get along swimmingly with theirs.

Hey @ZionistFedAus there were actual organised Nazis and antisemites on the streets today, and the people opposing them were pro-Palestine - got any statements you’d like to make? Probably not because you think it’s only antisemitic to oppose Israel’s genocide.

— Purplepingers ☭ (@purplepingers) August 31, 2025

To be racist is to admit that you are a dull, vapid person. It’s an admission that you are so intellectually, emotionally and spiritually shallow that you can only enjoy and connect with other human beings in the most superficial of ways. There is no depth to you. There has been no growth in you. You are stunted. You have been wasting your time on this planet instead of maturing and expanding your connectedness with the gift of human life.

"Uniting for Peace": How U.N. Could Override U.S. Veto, Send Peacekeepers to Gaza, Block Arms & More

How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza

One year ago, the United Nations General Assembly demanded that Israel must end its occupation of the Palestinian Territories within 12 months.

The General Assembly voted, by 124 votes to 14, with 43 abstentions, for a strong resolution that not only “demanded” an end to the occupation within a year, but called on all countries to refrain from trade involving Israeli settlements and from transfers of weapons “where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The General Assembly was meeting on September 18, 2024, in an Emergency Special Session, invoking the “Uniting For Peace” principle to act where the UN Security Council has failed to do so. The General Assembly had asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the legality of the Israeli occupation and the legal consequences arising from it, and the new resolution was triggered by the court’s ruling, on July 19, 2024 that the Israeli occupation is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible.”

A year later, Israel has failed to comply with any of the demands of the 124 states. On the contrary. It has escalated its genocide in Gaza by cutting off nearly all food, medicine, and humanitarian assistance; launching relentless bombardments; expanding ground incursions; and displacing virtually the entire population. All over the world, people are calling on leaders and politicians to do whatever it takes to put a stop to this holocaust before it goes any further.

As world leaders gather again in New York for another UN General Assembly beginning on September 9, how will they respond to Israel’s ever-escalating genocide and continued occupation and expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem? Grassroots political pressure is building on all of them to turn the strong words in ICJ rulings and UN resolutions into meaningful action to end what the vast majority of the world recognizes as the most flagrant genocide of our time.

Countries have taken individual actions to cut off trade with Israel and cancel weapons contracts. Turkey announced a total trade boycott on August 29, and closed its airspace to Israeli planes and its ports to Israeli ships. Twelve members of the Hague Group, formed to challenge Israeli impunity, have formally committed to banning arms transfers and blocking military-related shipments at their ports. Sweden and the Netherlands have urged the European Union to adopt sanctions on Israel, including suspending the EU-Israel trade deal.

But most of the 124 countries that voted to demand an end to the occupation have done very little to enforce those demands. If they fail to enforce them now, they will only confirm Israel’s presumption that its corrupt influence on US politics still ensures blanket impunity for systematic war crimes.

In response to this unconscionable state of affairs, Palestine’s UN representative has formally asked the UN to authorize an international military protection force for Gaza to help with the delivery of humanitarian aid and protect civilians. So has the largest coalition of Palestinian NGOs, PNGO, as well as pro-Palestine groups and leaders such as Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins. There’s a growing global movement calling for the UN General Assembly to take up this request in another Emergency Special Session when it meets this month. That would be well within the authority of the General Assembly in a case like this, where the Security Council has been hijacked by the US abuse of its veto power.

Whether or not this initiative for a protective force succeeds, the truth is that the governments of the world already have countless ways to support Palestine—they simply need to muster the political will to act. Israel is a small country that depends on imports from countries all over the world. It has diversified sources for many essential products, and, although the United States supplies 70% of its weapons imports, many other countries also supply weapons and critical parts of its infernal war machine. Israel’s dependence on complicated international supply chains is the weakest link in its presumption that it can thumb its nose at the world and kill with impunity.

If the large majority of countries that have already voted for an end to the occupation are ready to back their words and their votes with coordinated action, a UN-led trade boycott, divestment campaign, and arms embargo can put enormous pressure on Israel to end its genocide and starvation of Gaza, and its occupation of Palestine. With full participation by enough countries, Israel’s position could quickly become unsustainable.

Two years into a genocide, it is shameful that the world’s governments haven’t already done this, and that their people have to plead, protest, and push them into action through a dense fog of spin and propaganda, while leaders mouth the right words yet keep doing the wrong things.

Many people compare the problem the world faces in Israel to the crisis over apartheid South Africa. The similarity lies not only in their racism, but also in the Western countries’ shameful complicity in their human rights abuses and lack of concern for the lives of their victims. It is surely no coincidence that the United States, with its own history of genocide, slavery, and apartheid, acted as the main diplomatic supporter and military supplier of apartheid South Africa, and now of Israel.

But it took over 30 years, from the first UN arms embargo and oil sanctions in 1963 to the final lifting of UN sanctions in 1994, before UN action helped bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. It was not until 1977 that the UN even made its arms embargo binding on all members. In the case of Israel and Palestine, the world cannot wait 30 years for its actions to have an impact. What will be left to salvage of Palestine if the UN can only counter Israel’s genocide and America’s bombs with endless court rulings, resolutions, and declarations, but no decisive action?

One initiative that will be debated and voted on in the General Assembly is the one advanced by France and Saudi Arabia. In July they hosted a high-level UN conference on the “Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the implementation of the Two State Solution.” But its agenda is weak, and it avoids any strong action to pressure Israel to end the genocide or the occupation.

The first steps the declaration calls for are a ceasefire in Gaza, the restoration of the Palestinian Authority’s control of Gaza, and then the deployment of an international military “stabilization” force. But Israel has already rejected the first two steps, and critics warn that a stabilization force would mean foreign troops deployed in Gaza, not to protect Palestinians from Israeli bombs and bulldozers, but to police them, contain resistance, and reinforce Israeli demands.

Moreover, the declaration contains no enforcement mechanism. Instead, it offers only carrots—promises of recognition, trade, and arms deals—while Israel pays no price for continuing its crimes.

And while the declaration could pave the way for more Western countries to join the 147 countries that already recognize Palestine as an independent state, without concrete pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and end the occupation, such recognition risks being symbolic at best—and, at worst, may embolden Israel to accelerate its campaign of mass killing, settlement expansion, and annexation before the world can act.

What is urgently needed is for the General Assembly to hold an Emergency Special Session to vote on a UN protection force, as well as a UN-led arms embargo, trade boycott, and divestment from Israel, conditioned on ending the genocide in Gaza and the post-1967 occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The arms embargo and economic measures against Israel should be binding on all UN members, with the full support of the UN secretariat, which can provide staff to organize and supervise them, in coordination with UN members. China, the largest supplier of Israeli imports, and Turkey, which was the third largest before it cut off trade with Israel, should both be ready to take leadership roles in a UN boycott and arms embargo. The European Union collectively does even more trade with Israel than China, and has failed to unite against the genocide, but strong UN leadership could help Europe to overcome its divisions and join the campaign.

As for the United States, its role in this crisis, under former President Joe Biden and now under President Donald Trump, is to encourage Israel’s crimes, provide unlimited weapons, veto every Security Council resolution, and oppose every international attempt to end the slaughter. Even as majorities of ordinary Americans now side with the Palestinians and oppose US military support for Israel, the oligarchy that rules America is as guilty of genocide as Israel itself. As the world comes together to confront Israel’s crimes, it will also have to confront the reality that Israel is not acting alone, but in partnership with the United States of America.

Aggressors and bullies get their way by dividing their enemies and picking them off one at a time, as the world has seen the European colonial powers and now the United States do for centuries. What every aggressor or bully fears most is united opposition and resistance.

Israel and the US currently apply huge political pressure against countries and institutions that take action to boycott, sanction, or divest from Israel, as Norway has by its decision to divest its sovereign wealth fund from Caterpillar for supplying bulldozers to demolish homes in Palestine. In a world that is truly united to end Israel’s genocide, threats of US and Israeli retaliation would isolate the United States and Israel more than those they target.

Recent UN General Assemblies have heard many speeches lamenting the UN’s failure to fulfill its most vital purpose, to ensure peace and security for all, and how the veto power of the five permanent members (P5) of the Security Council prevents the UN from tackling the world’s most serious problems. If, at this year’s UN General Assembly, the world can come together to confront the holocaust of our time in Gaza, this could mark the birth of a reenergized and newly united UN—one finally capable of fulfilling its intended role in building a peaceful, sustainable, multipolar world.

Israel THREATENS Greta With HARD PRISON TIME as NEW FLOTILLA Sets Sail

Palestinians Recount Night 'Like Hell' After Israel Pounds Gaza City

Residents of Gaza City on Wednesday described an infernal night of relentless Israeli aerial and artillery attacks preceding the official launch of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the "decisive stage" of the 698-day assault and siege on the embattled strip.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warplanes, drones, and artillery unleashed a ferocious wave of attacks on Gaza's largest city Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, killing dozens of Palestinians and obliterating neighborhoods including Sheikh Radwan, where residents described their utter terror as drones dropped incendiary bombs and panicked families attempted to flee.

Gaza officials said later on Wednesday that at least 113 Palestinians were killed in the strip over the past 24 hours.

"Gaza is being erased," Hadi, a 27-year-old from Sheikh Radwan, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "Artillery everywhere, airstrikes everywhere, helicopters everywhere. Even quadcopters are firing at people in the streets, like they are being hunted down. No one knows where to go. We are fleeing to the unknown."

Journalist Mohammed Haniya posted on social media: "The bloody, explosive, Earth-shaking night of Gaza! How did we survive this morning? I can't believe it."

"It was a scorching night of fire from every side, from the explosions, to the dropping of incendiary bombs over our heads, to the aerial and artillery bombardment," he added. "We can't believe how we survived!"

Madleen Abu Saif, a 29-year-old Gaza City resident, told the Emirati newspaper The National that "it was very difficult; the shelling came with all kinds of weapons from quadcopters, tanks, warplanes—from everywhere. It was like hell."

"We tried to stay away from the windows and the street, and we stayed close to the house door so that we could evacuate immediately if necessary," she added.

Around 60,000-80,000 of the approximately 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City are believed to have fled over the past 72 hours. IDF officials—who are proven frequent liars—claimed Wednesday that Hamas, whose political arm rules Gaza and whose militant wing led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, is blocking civilians from leaving.

Hadi told Haaretz that "the war machines are closing in, but there's no official declaration of any invasion. Still, the feeling is that the occupation of Gaza has already begun."

That declaration came Wednesday morning, as IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir conducted a field visit to Gaza and said that Operation Gideon's Chariots 2—the campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse the strip—had officially begun.

"We will continue operating against Hamas' main strongholds until its defeat; we are instilling in them a sense of being constantly pursued everywhere," Zamir vowed.

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, responded by announcing a series of operations it called "Moses' Staff." Qassam Brigades said its fighters blasted an IDF bulldozer with a rocket near Salah al-Din Mosque in al-Zaytoun and fired mortar shells at Israeli troops gathered at Haj Fadel.

Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity—and IDF commanders told reservists Wednesday that the assault on Gaza was entering its "decisive stage."

More than 365 of the 60,000 IDF reservists being mobilized to invade Gaza said Tuesday that they would not report for duty.

"We refuse to take part in Netanyahu's illegal war, and we see it as a patriotic duty to refuse and to demand accountability from our leaders," IDF reservist Max Kresch explained at a press conference.

"Netanyahu's ongoing war of aggression needlessly puts our own hostages in danger, and has wreaked havoc on the fabric of Israeli society, while at the same time killing, maiming, and starving an entire population of Gazan civilians," Kresch added.

Israel's nearly 23-month assault and siege on Gaza—which is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case—has left more than 235,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and hundreds of thousands of others starving in what is now officially an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification-designated famine that has killed at least hundreds of people.

“Gaza Famine Is REAL!” – U.S. State Department Group

Democrats blast state department for lack of ‘basic oversight’ of controversial Gaza food organization

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

The letter, which was addressed to Rubio, Huckabee and Russell Vought, the powerful director of the office of management and budget and current administrator for the US Agency for International Development, was delivered to the state department over the weekend and shared exclusively with the Guardian. “The state department should immediately cease funding GHF and transfer or restore funding to experienced aid organizations given the strong and growing evidence that GHF is failing to accomplish its humanitarian mission,” they wrote.

Trump has said that the US disbursed $60m in food aid to Gaza, while the state department has only publicly acknowledged approval for a $30m grant for the GHF in June. The state department has not published details of its grant to the GHF, an omission that the senators said violates US law. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have died near GHF sites since its operations began in May, the UN reported in mid-August.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Trump and the International Order

Israeli drones dropped grenades near peacekeepers in south Lebanon, UN says

Israeli drones dropped four grenades near UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon, the agency’s force said on Wednesday, in what it described as “one of the most serious attacks” on its personnel since a November ceasefire. The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil, said the Tuesday morning attack came as it was clearing a road to a UN position close to the Israeli border, adding that no one was hurt.

The attack came despite Unifil informing the Israeli military in advance of where and when it would be conducting roadwork in south Lebanon. It was “one of the most serious attacks on Unifil personnel and assets” since the November ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, the force said.

Peacekeepers were working to clear roadblocks preventing access to a UN position south-east of the village of Marwahin when an Israeli drone dropped one grenade 20 metres away and three more 100 metres away from UN personnel and vehicles. After the attack, Israeli drones were seen returning towards Israel.

The force stopped the work “out of concern for the safety of peacekeepers following the incident”, Unifil said. It added that any attack on peacekeepers or interference with its mission was a serious violation of international law and that it was the responsibility of the Israeli military to ensure the safety of UN forces in south Lebanon.

The attack came days after the UN security council ordered the withdrawal of the peacekeeping mission at the end of next year after nearly half a century, following intense US and Israeli pressure.

AMB. Chas Freeman : A Runaway Presidency

Anya Parampil : US Murders on the High Seas

Experts Decry US 'Summary Execution' of Alleged Drug Runners Off Venezuelan Coast

Legal and human rights experts said that Tuesday's deadly US attack on a boat the Trump administration claimed was transporting cocaine off the coast of Venezuela violated international law.

"Drug trafficking is a crime, not an act of war," former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth said on social media following the strike, which US President Donald Trump said killed 11 people. "Traffickers must be arrested, not summarily executed, which US forces just illegally did."

"Trump admits he ordered a summary execution—the crime of murder," Roth added. "Drug traffickers are not combatants who can be shot on sight. They are criminal suspects who must be arrested and prosecuted."

Michael Becker, an associate professor of international law at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland, told the BBC Wednesday that the Trump administration's designation of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua and other drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations "stretches the meaning of the term beyond its breaking point."

"The fact that US officials describe the individuals killed by the US strike as narcoterrorists does not transform them into lawful military targets," Becker said. "The US is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organization."

"Not only does the strike appear to have violated the prohibition on the use of force, it also runs afoul of the right to life under international human rights law," Becker added.

Although the United States is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, US military legal advisers have asserted that the country should "act in a manner consistent with its provisions."

Luke Moffett, a professor of international law at Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland, told the BBC that while "force can be used to stop a boat," this should generally be accomplished using "nonlethal measures."

Such action, said Moffett, must be "reasonable and necessary in self-defense where there is immediate threat of serious injury or loss of life to enforcement officials," and the US attack was likely "unlawful under the law of the sea."

The peace group CodePink said Wednesday that "even if Washington's claims are accurate, drug trafficking does not justify a death sentence delivered by missile."

"International law is clear: The use of force is only lawful in self-defense or with explicit UN Security Council authorization," the group continued. "This strike had neither. It reflects the worst of US militarism—secretive, unilateral, and contemptuous of due process, human rights, and the rule of law."

"Under US law, it's equally indefensible," CodePink argued. "The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to authorize war. Unilateral action may only be used in emergencies or self-defense, and this strike meets neither."

CodePink continued:

With the US Southern Command assets already deployed in the region, why blow up a vessel instead of capturing and interrogating the crew? If the goal were really to uncover evidence of [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro's alleged involvement, this reckless approach raises only two possibilities: Either the narrative is fabricated and Washington used it as a pretext for a deadly show of force or it's real, and the US chose extrajudicial killing over law, evidence, and humanity.

CodePink called on Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) "to lead the fight in Congress to stop this escalation," urging him to "introduce legislation to block unauthorized military force, hold hearings to expose the dangers of border militarization, insist on transparency of all relevant directives, and rally Congress to cut off funding for these reckless operations."

Tuesday's attack came amid Trump's deployment of an armada of naval warships off the coast of Venezuela, whose socialist government has long endured US threats of regime change—and sometimes more.

Infused with the notion that it has the right to meddle anywhere in the hemisphere under the Monroe Doctrine, the US has attacked, invaded, occupied, and otherwise intervened in Latin American and Caribbean nations well over 100 times since the dubious declaration was issued by President James Monroe in 1823.

Since the late 19th century, oil-rich Venezuela has seen US interventions including involvement in border disputes, help with military coups, support for dictators, and attempts to subvert the Bolivarian Revolution—including by officially recognizing opposition figures claiming to be the legitimate presidents of the country.

Critics of US imperialism highlighted Washington's hypocritical policies and practices toward Venezuela.

Former Philippine President Duterte is in custody in The Hague, having been charged by the International Criminal Court for ordering the summary execution of alleged drug traffickers. Trump just ordered the summary execution of 11 alleged drug traffickers. https://t.co/T4tjhVNNeh

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) September 3, 2025

"Venezuela produces no cocaine, but US warships patrol its coastline under the banner of a 'drug war,'" New Hampshire Peace Action organizing director Michael "Lefty" Morrill wrote Wednesday.

Meanwhile, neighboring Colombia and nearby Peru—the world's two leading cocaine producers—get no such treatment. Nor does Ecuador, which has emerged as one of the world's leading trafficking hubs.

Morrill also briefly explored bits of the long US history of supporting narcotraffickers when strategically expedient, noting that former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega "was first a CIA asset, then branded a narco-dictator and dragged to a US prison."

"The Taliban was once a strategic partner in Afghanistan's opium trade, before being cast as the world's largest trafficker," he added. "'Drugs' are not simply powders; they are pretexts, shaped to fit the contours of empire."

The REAL Reason Trump Blew Up A Venezuelan “Drug Boat”!

Top Biden-era official warns US could stumble into ‘disastrous’ intervention in Venezuela

The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers. Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.

On Wednesday, the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, told Fox News the attack was designed to send a clear message to Venezuela’s authoritarian leader. “The only person that should be worried is Nicolás Maduro … who is effectively a kingpin of a narco-state,” Hegseth said, comparing the operation to US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and Houthi targets in Yemen.

The military buildup in the Caribbean has left some wondering if Trump is plotting to remove Maduro from power by force, despite the fact that in some ways his Venezuela policy has softened since he returned to the White House with the resumption of deportation flights and the easing of sanctions. Asked if the administration was seeking regime change in Venezuela, Hegseth said that was a decision for the president, but added: “We are prepared with every asset that the American military has.”

Speaking to the Guardian, Juan González, the national security council’s senior director for the western hemisphere during the Biden administration, called Trump’s naval deployment “a lot of political theatre”. But he cautioned: “[There is a] very high risk of military confrontation. I increasingly fear that the Trump administration may stumble into an intervention scenario in Venezuela, which would be frankly disastrous,” said Biden’s former aide, who believed US Venezuela policy was now largely being dictated by hardline members of the Venezuelan opposition who had the ear of Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, a longtime Venezuela hawk.

“I think they ultimately want to try to get the US in a situation where there’s a conflict with Venezuela. I think that’s the goal,” said González, who also served in the Obama administration.

Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson: Trump Is Collapsing the Pillars of the U.S. Economy —Disaster Ahead!

‘Slap on the wrist’: critics decry weak penalties on Google after landmark monopoly trial

A judge ruled on Tuesday that Google would not be forced to sell its Chrome browser or the Android operating system, saving the tech giant from the most severe penalties sought by the US government. The same judge had ruled in favor of US prosecutors nearly a year ago, finding that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly with its namesake search engine.

Groups critical of Google’s dominance in the internet search and online advertising industry are furious. They contend the judge missed an opportunity to enact meaningful change in an industry that has suffocated under the crushing weight of its heaviest player. Tech industry groups and investors, by contrast, are thrilled. Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, have risen 9% since Tuesday afternoon.

Judge Amit Mehta did order Google to share data from its search engine with its rivals. He also enjoined the company from entering or maintaining exclusive contracts relating to the distribution of its products including Chrome, Google Assistant and the Gemini app. That penalty will not, however, prevent it from paying distributors such as Apple and Mozilla, which use Google as the default search engine for their respective browsers. Google faces a separate hearing later this year on its monopoly over online advertising technology. ...

Mehta’s decision resulted in an immediate wave of backlash from big tech critics who have been closely following the antitrust case for years. Many of these thinktanks and advocacy groups had long called for Google to be broken up for its monopolistic tactics, arguing that forceful action was needed to restore meaningful competition. Instead of opening up the online search industry, however, critics of the ruling allege that it will now retrench Google’s dominance while setting a precedent that big tech need not fear serious consequences for breaking the law.

“Google for years has wielded its vast power over all layers of the digital economy to crush competitors, halt innovation and rob Americans of their right to read, watch and buy what they want without being manipulated by one of the most powerful corporations in human history,” Barry Lynn, executive director at the Open Markets Institute thinktank, said. “Judge Mehta’s order that Google share search data with competitors and cease entering into exclusive contracts does nothing to right those wrongs. Instead, it lets Google and every other monopolist know that even the most egregious violation of law will be met with a slap on the wrist.”

"Morally Right": Ro Khanna on Epstein Files Transparency Act, Arms Embargo on Israel

Release of ‘missing minute’ of Epstein video contradicts Bondi claim cameras stopped recording

A so-called “missing minute” of CCTV footage, a key ingredient of conspiracy theories surrounding the prison death of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been found, contradicting the assertion of Pam Bondi, the attorney general, that it was recorded over. The video was in a cache of material, including 33,000 pages of records relating to the disgraced financier and former Donald Trump associate, released late on Tuesday by the US House oversight committee. The panel has been looking into Epstein’s August 2019 death at Manhattan’s Metropolitan correctional center.

In July, the same month as a government review confirmed Epstein died by suicide, the FBI released hours of surveillance footage taken from outside Epstein’s jail cell on the night he died. Observers quickly realized from time stamps that a block of one minute, from 11.59pm to midnight on 10 August, was not there. Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at 6.30am.

Conspiracy theorists leapt on the development as “proof” there was something suspicious about Epstein’s death, fuelled by Bondi’s insistence at the time that the prison’s CCTV system was routinely reset every 24 hours. That, she told a cabinet meeting on 8 July, meant every night’s footage would feature a “missing” minute.

But CBS reported later that month that there was no blackout in the recording, and that the justice department, bureau of prisons, and the FBI had a full version including the previously unaccounted for 60 seconds. The revelation was supported by Tuesday night’s congressional release that included the footage among two hours of previously unseen video. It reveals nothing out of the ordinary, with a handful of guards working outside the cell.

Court ruling blocking Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act hailed a ‘victory’

A court ruling that blocked Donald Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans he alleged were part of a criminal gang has been hailed as “a victory for the rule of law”. In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Trump administration using the 1798 law to justify rapid deportations.

Circuit judge Leslie Southwick, writing for the majority, rejected the administration’s assertion that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had engaged in a “predatory incursion” on US soil. The Alien Enemies Act gives the government expansive powers to detain and deport citizens of hostile foreign nations, but only in times of war or during an “invasion or predatory incursion”.

Democrats welcomed the ruling by the fifth circuit, the first federal appeals court to rule directly on a 14 March presidential proclamation invoking the act. ... Legal advocates agreed that the president had used a false premise to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, which has been only used three times before in US history, all during declared wars – in the war of 1812 and the two world wars.

Norman Eisen, the founder and executive chair of the Democracy Defenders Fund, which has been helping lead national court fights against the Trump administration, said: “This was a striking result from the extremely conservative fifth circuit, affirming what is obvious to any American who looks outside their window. There is no invasion by Venezuela or its gangs that authorises Trump’s declaration of such under the Alien Enemies Act.

“Indeed, that was also the view of more than 20 conservatives from every administration, from Nixon to Trump 1, who we at Democracy Defenders Fund represented in filing a brief explaining that this bogus declaration was a betrayal of conservative principles.”

Trump unlawfully cancelled $2.2bn in Harvard research grants, judge rules

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school. The decision by US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston marked a major legal victory for Harvard as it seeks to cut a deal that could bring an end to the White House’s multi-front conflict with the country’s oldest and richest university.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school became a central focus of the administration’s broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at US universities, which Trump says are gripped by antisemitic and “radical left” ideologies. Three other Ivy League schools struck deals with the administration, including Columbia University, which in July agreed to pay more than $220m to restore federal research money that had been nixed because of allegations the university allowed antisemitism to fester on campus. ...

Among the earliest actions the administration took against Harvard was the cancellation of hundreds of grants awarded to researchers on the grounds that the school failed to do enough to address harassment of Jewish students on its campus. The Trump administration has since sought to bar international students from attending the school; threatened Harvard’s accreditation status; and opened the door to cutting off more funds by finding it violated federal civil rights law.

Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, in a separate case has already barred the administration from halting its ability to host international students, who comprise about a quarter of Harvard’s student body.

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Mamdani Rejects 'Corrupt Politics and Backroom Deals' After Latest Trump-Cuomo Revelations

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani lashed out at rival Andrew Cuomo after a new report revealed that US President Donald Trump was considering intervening in this November's election.

According a report in The New York Times published on Wednesday, Trump advisers have discussed offering jobs within the administration to incumbent New York Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa in a bid to get them to drop out of the race, which would leave Cuomo as the only significant challenger to Mamdani.

The New York Times' sources said that talks have been going on between the administration and "some of the city's biggest real estate executives and among allies of Mr. Cuomo" about ways to get Adams and Sliwa out of the race.

"Those New Yorkers have been frantically searching for any way to halt the rise of Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman and democratic socialist who they fear will sour the city's business climate, and have discussed potentially offering [Adams] public or private sector jobs to encourage him to drop out," the report explained.

Mamdani quickly jumped on the Times report and used it to again tie Cuomo to the president, who is a massively unpopular figure in the city.

"Today's news confirms it: Cuomo is Trump's choice for mayor," Mamdani wrote in a social media post. "The White House is considering jobs for Adams and Sliwa to clear the field. New Yorkers are sick of corrupt politics and backroom deals. No matter who's running, we will deliver a better future on November 4."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an ally of Mamdani who is planning to campaign with him at a town hall-style event this weekend, also ripped the attempt by the White House to help Cuomo. He also took a shot at members of the Democratic Party who have refused to endorse Mamdani despite his clear victory in the Democratic mayoral primary earlier this year.

"The NYC mayor's race is a clear example of a corrupt political system," he wrote. "Zohran Mamdani wins the Democratic primary. The oligarchs spend whatever it takes to defeat him. Democratic leadership refuses to endorse him. Together, we will take them all on and elect Zohran as mayor."

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By Keeping Climate Funds on Ice, the DC Circuit Is Complicit in Trump’s Overreach

On September 2 the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that $16 billion in climate grants will remain frozen. The case, Climate United Fund v. Citibank and Environmental Protection Agency, grew out of the Trump administration’s February decision to halt the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The order was only a few lines long, a clerk’s note that the mandate would be withheld until rehearing petitions were resolved. In appellate procedure, withholding the mandate means the decision below is not yet enforceable. The court could have allowed the money to move while review continued. It chose not to.

This is not paperwork. This is power. Power in this case means leaving billions locked in a Citibank vault while families ration air conditioning, patch storm-wrecked homes, and haul water across dry land.

The money is real. Congress appropriated it. Treasury obligated it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded it. Projects were ready. Tribal governments had contractors lined up to install solar pumps. Rural co-ops had bids in hand to replace cracked water lines. Community lenders had retrofits prepared for families who spend half their paychecks on electricity. Yet the funds remain frozen, generating interest for a bank that once needed a taxpayer bailout and still bankrolls oil expansion.

Judges call this a pause. A pause in Washington is a crisis everywhere else. ...

Judges insist they are bound by law, not outcomes. But law already spoke. Congress passed the appropriation. Treasury obligated it. EPA awarded it. The Constitution gives Congress the purse for a reason. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 codified that a president cannot cancel or withhold funds Congress has approved. President Richard Nixon tried, and Congress stopped him. What this administration has done—freezing appropriations indefinitely under the language of review—is a backdoor impoundment. And by withholding the mandate, the DC Circuit has not merely tolerated this maneuver. It has validated it.

This is the judiciary’s quiet habit: Retreat into formalism while people pay the price. Courts claim neutrality but exercise discretion constantly—choosing when to grant stays, when to expedite review, when to let money flow. To call delay neutral is a fiction. Delay is a ruling in all but name. The choice to freeze funds is as consequential as striking them down.

The consequences reach far beyond climate. If this precedent stands, any appropriation can be stalled. Veterans’ healthcare, housing aid, disaster relief—all can be frozen at a president’s discretion so long as courts are willing to play along. Congress will hold the purse only on paper. In practice, presidents will wield the choke chain, and judges will provide cover.

Every day of delay bleeds value. A retrofit not installed means another summer of unbearable bills. A pump not delivered means another year of hauling water. A roof not secured means another tarp, another moldy wall, another child growing up in a house that never dries. A dollar spent today prevents five dollars in damage tomorrow. A dollar withheld compounds harm. The storm does not wait for petitions. The fire does not wait for oral arguments. The flood does not wait for a court’s sense of timing.

Judicial restraint here is not harmless. It is complicity. By refusing to act, the DC Circuit has turned oversight into obstruction, procedure into punishment. It has helped the executive hollow out Congress’ most basic power. It has reduced law to theater while real life burns. ...

The storm will not wait. The fire will not wait. The flood will not wait. Politicians will still gather in front of cameras to praise oversight and congratulate themselves on restraint. Judges will polish their dockets and write opinions about consistency.

But history will record something else. The money was there. The need was there. The chance was there. And power chose not to use it. That is not oversight. That is abdication. It is not neutrality. It is complicity. And it is a verdict that will damn the judiciary as much as the executive.

How to protect US students from heat in schools – and is it time to rethink summer break?

As schools are returning to session following one of the hottest summers ever recorded, districts are faced with a new problem: how to handle increasingly extreme heatwaves, both in and outside the classroom. Unbearably hot days are no longer just a summer problem. In the US districts from the north-east to the mountain west to the deep south are shortening days, delaying openings, and reworking calendars as temperatures spike during August and September, the typical back-to-school months.

A handful of potential methods for protecting students from extreme temperatures have been put forward, including modernizing HVAC systems, creating more shade on playgrounds, swapping their blacktop surfaces for grass and, perhaps most provocatively, reworking school calendars. There’s even some talk of replacing summer vacation with a spring or fall break, if schools can be kept cool enough, when homes for some students may be hotter.

School schedules are already beginning to shift. New York City recently urged schools to move end-of-year activities indoors during a June 2025 heatwave. Philadelphia dismissed students early at more than 60 campuses during late August 2024 because buildings lacked adequate cooling. Detroit also cut days short in the first week of the 2024–25 school year as heat indices climbed. In Colorado’s Poudre school district, most schools announced two-hour early releases for 14 and 15 August due to high temperatures. In June, the notoriously cold state of Alaska had their first statewide heat advisory.

As the climate crisis is already shaping the way we discuss the future of education in the US, rearranging the calendar has become one tactic for school districts to tackle the issue.

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Also of Interest

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

The Feds Defend Their Tortures Again

What Happens as Trump’s Losses Mount?

Ukraine's Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization

Trump’s Caribbean massacre: A naked crime of US imperialism

It’s time for Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries to step down

“AI” Insanity. Does This Industry Make Sense?

The Dubai of South America’: how the promise of riches from lithium mining turned to dust in Bolivia

McDonalds CEO: Americans SKIPPING BREAKFAST As They Go BROKE

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Is NATO Finished?

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A Little Night Music

Ella Fitzgerald, Sy Oliver - Basin Street Blues

Sy Oliver - Organ Grinder's Swing

Sy Oliver – Kissin' Bug Boogie

Sy Oliver - Nashville Blues

Sy Oliver - Rhythm Is Our Business

Sy Oliver - Lammar's Boogie

Sy Oliver - 'Tain't What You Do ( It's The Way That Cha Do It )

Sy Oliver - There's Good Blues Tonight

Sy Oliver - One O'Clock Jump

Sy Oliver - Gran'ma Plays The Numbers

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