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"It’s time for westerners to move on from our “Are we the baddies?” moment to our “Let’s actually stop being the baddies” moment. It’s great that we’re gathering all these insights into how profoundly evil our governments are, but at some point you need to stop gathering lumber and start building."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

The Real Violent Extremists Are The Freaks Who Run The US Empire

The real violent extremists are the oligarchs and imperialists who run the US-centralized empire from both mainstream parties.

Not Antifa. Not trans people. Not anti-genocide activists. Not protesters against ICE.

The extremists who are inflicting the real violence and abuse in our world are the ones committing genocide, starting wars, backing blockades, imposing starvation sanctions, arming proxy conflicts, circling the planet with hundreds of military bases, and flirting with nuclear armageddon.

The United States has become the greatest source of political instability in the world. pic.twitter.com/frn8lROHPu

— Jostein Hauge (@haugejostein) September 18, 2025

Donald Trump is a violent extremist. Joe Biden is a violent extremist. Keir Starmer is a violent extremist. Benjamin Netanyahu is a violent extremist.

Oligarchs who knit themselves into the murderous imperial power structure like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Miriam Adelson and Larry Ellison are violent extremists.

The Democratic Party is a violent extremist organization. The Republican Party is a violent extremist organization.

War profiteers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are violent extremist organizations.

Empire management firms which facilitate imperial violence and control like Palantir, Oracle and Starlink are violent extremist organizations.

There is no designated terrorist group foreign or domestic which can hold a candle to the death toll and human suffering that has been inflicted by the western empire.

I think it’s worth remembering this as the empire harnesses the emotional hysteria around Charlie Kirk’s death to whip up a moral panic about violent radical leftists in the United States in order to justify increased authoritarian measures to stomp out political dissent. The real violence is coming from the powerful manipulators who want you consenting to these measures. The call is coming from inside the house.

The US and its allies have killed millions of people in their wars of aggression since 9/11, and displaced tens of millions. Their cruel sanctions have killed tens of millions since 1970. Their policies of imperialist extraction force populations throughout the global south to live lives of endless poverty and toil. They are currently perpetrating a genocide in full view of the entire world.

New research published in The Lancet finds that Western unilateral sanctions have caused 38 million deaths since 1970. The average death toll ranges from 400,000 to over 1 million per year.

Staggering levels of violence. This system is intolerable and must be replaced. pic.twitter.com/jSWZX7blp2

— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) September 14, 2025

These are the violent extremists. The only reason they are able to claim that some kid wearing a keffiyeh or a balaclava is a violent extremist while they themselves are not is because they control the narrative. The plutocrats who benefit from the imperial status quo own and control the media platforms and information systems which people use to learn about the world, and they use this narrative control to frame the imperial status quo as normal and any opposition to it as freakish extremism.

That’s the only reason a westerner who supports genocide, warmongering, militarism and imperialism gets to call themselves a “centrist” or a “moderate”. They live in an empire whose propagandists actively normalize imperial abuses while spinning any deviation from this violent madness as abnormalities on the radical political fringe.

But it’s a lie. Genocide is violent extremism. Mass murder is violent extremism. Siege warfare is violent extremism. Global tyranny is violent extremism.

Peace is moderate and normal. Justice is moderate and normal. Health is moderate and normal. Equality is moderate and normal. Equitable wealth and resource distribution is moderate and normal.

The genocidal, ecocidal, omnicidal nightmare we see before us in our world today is what it looks like when the violent extremists are in charge.

Alastair Crooke : Israel Losing US Support Fast

Israel presses on with Gaza assault as Trump again claims ceasefire is close

Israel has pressed on with its offensive in Gaza as Donald Trump claimed again to be on the brink of a breakthrough in negotiations for a ceasefire in the devastated territory. Witnesses and medics said Israeli tanks were advancing through central and western neighbourhoods of Gaza City towards crowded coastal areas where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.

The Israeli military launched a long-threatened ground offensive in the north of Gaza 12 days ago after weeks of intensifying strikes on Gaza City, the biggest urban centre not under its control. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have complied with repeated orders to evacuate but many others have been unable to flee, often because they are ill, disabled, too frail or unable to afford expensive transport to safer areas.

The Israel military said the air force had struck 140 military targets across Gaza in the last 24 hours, including militants and what it described as military infrastructure. At least five people were killed in an airstrike in the Nasser area of Gaza City, local health authorities said. Medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on homes in central Gaza, bringing Sunday’s death toll to at least 21. The Gaza health ministry said later that Israeli fire had killed at least 77 people in the previous 24 hours. ...

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to visit the White House on Monday, told Fox News Sunday that Israel was working on a new ceasefire plan with the White House. “We’re working on it,” he said. “It’s not been finalized yet, but we’re working with President Trump’s team, actually as we speak, and I hope we can – we can make it a go.”

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Netanyahu Stumbles

Doctors Without Borders Suspends Operations at Gaza City Clinics ‘Encircled by Israeli Forces’

The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders has been forced to suspend all its medical operations in Gaza City as its clinics have come under “escalating attacks from Israeli forces.”

In a statement published Friday, the group—officially known as Médecins Sans Frontières—said “the relentless Israeli offensive in Gaza City, Palestine, has forced [MSF] to suspend vital medical activities in the area due to the rapidly deteriorating security situation.

“The situation includes continued airstrikes and advancing tanks less than one kilometer from our healthcare facilities,” the group continued. “The escalating attacks from Israeli forces have created an unacceptable level of risk for our staff, forcing us to suspend lifesaving medical activities.”

As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have pushed further into Gaza’s largest city in recent days, hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly displaced, and hundreds of thousands more have been trapped in the besieged city.

These rooms should be filled with newborn cries, the beeping of monitors, pregnant women being cared for, patients finding relief amid a genocide.

Instead, these rooms now stand empty because MSF was forced to evacuate our last functioning health facility in #Gaza city. pic.twitter.com/Fk8M2LsNc9

— Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (@MSF_canada) September 26, 2025

Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has destroyed much of the strip’s healthcare infrastructure and inflicted widespread disease and starvation.

Since it began in October 2023, MSF has provided over 1.1 million medical consultations, including in over 347,000 emergency cases, according to its website.

Just this week, even as Gaza City was pounded with airstrikes, the group says it carried out over 3,640 consultations and treated 1,655 people with malnutrition. They have also treated patients with severe trauma injuries and burns, as well as pregnant women and others who are unable to leave the city.

Earlier this month, Israel ordered everyone in Gaza City, over 1 million people, to evacuate or face the threat of military force. Hundreds of thousands have fled south. When the order was issued, MSF warned that it would be a “death sentence” for the many critically ill patients and newborn babies who’d be forced to abandon medical treatment.

“While large numbers of people have fled south due to evacuation orders, there are still hundreds of thousands in Gaza City, who are unable to leave and have no other option but to stay,” MSF said. “Those who are able to leave face an impossible choice: either remain in Gaza City under intense military operations and the deterioration of law and order, or abandon what’s left of their houses, their belongings, and their memories, to move to areas where humanitarian conditions are rapidly collapsing.”

The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 60 Palestinians have been killed and dozens more injured since dawn on Friday, bringing the official death toll since October 2023 to 65,549 people and the number of wounded to 167,518.

Meanwhile, at least seven hospitals have been forced to close due to heavy bombardment. Munir al-Bursh, the director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,723 healthcare workers and damaged 38 hospitals since the war began in October 2023.

“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities, as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces,” says Jacob Granger, the emergency coordinator for MSF in Gaza. “This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous, with the most vulnerable people—infants in neonatal care, those with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses—unable to move and in grave danger.”

Workers FORCE Italy To Send Navy Ship To Support Gaza Flotilla!

Pffffftttt! Sure you won't. It'd be a shame if some more Epstein shoes dropped...

Trump Says He ‘Will Not Allow’ Israel To Annex the Israeli-Occupied West Bank

President Trump said on Thursday that he “will not allow” Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank, comments that came after he reportedly made such a pledge during a meeting with Arab and Muslim officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”

Israeli officials have been discussing the idea of annexing parts of the West Bank in response to several Western countries recognizing a Palestinian state. While some Trump officials have signaled the US wouldn’t oppose the plan, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the Trump administration has privately cautioned against the idea.

However, the official said that Israel did not feel the warning marked “an end to the discussion” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss it with Trump when he visits the White House next week for the fourth time this year.

George Galloway DETAINED as UK & US Bow to Israel | Patrick Henningsen, Larry Johnson & Matt Kennard

Workers Party of Britain leader George Galloway detained in London under counter-terror legislation

George Galloway and his wife Putri Gayatri Pertiwi were detained by Counter Terrorism Command officers at London Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning. Galloway, 71, is the leader of the Workers Party of Britain, and his wife is deputy chair of the party. Active in politics for over 50 years, former Labour Party MP Galloway has been elected to parliament seven times in five different constituencies. The pair were apprehended after visiting Russia, returning to the UK via a flight from Abu Dhabi.

Galloway and his wife were detained for several hours before being released without charge. Speaking about the event on his online talk show on Sunday evening, Galloway said they were questioned “far and wide” including about “your attitude to the conflict in Gaza; who persuaded you of this point of view; why do you admire Mr. Lavrov? [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov]; why are you so friendly to China?” Gayatri was asked why a fingernail was painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag. Galloway declared that none of this had “anything to do with terrorism” and “there is only one reason they detained us there, under that legislation, it was to gain access to our communications.”

Electronic equipment, including a phone, was confiscated. Galloway was instructed to give up a passcode of a phone that didn’t belong to him, but told the police, “I don’t have the password, but if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you.” After being told this would be an offence, Galloway said that until last year he was a member of parliament “in possession of vast amounts of confidential correspondence concerning my constituents.” As a journalist and broadcaster, as well as the leader of a British political party, he told police officers he had “contacts, sources in the police itself, in the security services itself… I have contacts in the civil services, the parliament, even in the government. Do you really think I would betray my sources to you?”

As a result of his detention Galloway said, “I missed the speech I was due to give in a meeting in central London in the presence of, amongst others, the ambassador of the… People’s Republic of China.” Galloway and Gayatri were detained under Schedule 3 of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, which allows police officers to stop, question, search and detain a person at a border area to determine if they have engaged in “hostile activity” against the UK. The legislation—in an all-embracing catch-all—defines “hostile activity” as anything that “threatens national security, threatens the economic well-being of the United Kingdom in a way relevant to the interests of national security, or is an act of serious crime.”

To ensure that literally anyone can be detained, it stipulates, “it is immaterial—(i)whether a person is aware that activity in which they are or have been engaged is hostile activity, or (ii)whether a State for or on behalf of which, or in the interests of which, a hostile act is carried out has instigated, sanctioned, or is otherwise aware of, the carrying out of the act”. Befitting the police-state regime that the Labour government is wielding against opponents of austerity and war, Schedule 3 allows designated police, immigration, and customs officers at ports and border areas to stop and question individuals without even a prior suspicion of involvement in “hostile activity”

Max Blumenthal : Iran Fully Prepared

Iran angry as sweeping UN sanctions take effect after failure of nuclear talks

Widespread UN sanctions against Iran have come back into force for the first time in a decade, prompting anger from Tehran, after last-ditch nuclear talks with western powers failed to produce a breakthrough. The sanctions, which came into effect late on Saturday and three months after Israel and the US bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme and are also expected to have wider effects on the country’s troubled economy.

In a statement on Sunday, as the Iranian rial plummeted to a record low against the US dollar, the Iranian foreign ministry hit out at the move. “The reactivation of annulled resolutions is legally baseless and unjustifiable,” it said. “All countries must refrain from recognising this illegal situation.” European and US diplomats stressed immediately after the resumption of sanctions that diplomacy was not over.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, urged Tehran to “accept direct talks, held in good faith”. He also called on UN member states to “immediately” implement sanctions to “pressure Iran’s leaders to do what is right for their nation and best for the safety of the world”.

The British, French and German foreign ministers said in a joint statement they would continue to seek “a new diplomatic solution to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon”. They also called on Tehran “to refrain from any escalatory action”. The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the sanctions “must not be the end of diplomacy” and that “a sustainable solution to the Iranian nuclear issue can only be achieved through negotiations”.

Iran has allowed UN inspectors to return to its nuclear sites, but the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the US had offered only a short reprieve in return for handing over its whole stockpile of enriched uranium, a proposal he described as unacceptable. An 11th-hour effort by Iran’s allies Russia and China to postpone the sanctions until April failed to win enough votes in the security council on Friday, leading to the measures taking effect at 1am BST on Sunday.

Netanyahu: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

‘I don’t care’: Colombia president Petro hits back after US revokes his visa

The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, has dismissed the US decision to revoke his visa and accused Washington of violating international law over his criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. “I no longer have a visa to travel to the United States. I don’t care. I don’t need a visa … because I’m not only a Colombian citizen but a European citizen, and I truly consider myself a free person in the world,” Petro said on social media on Saturday.

“Revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the US no longer respects international law,” he added in a post on X. ... Petro addressed pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside UN headquarters in New York during the UN general assembly on Thursday, calling for a global armed force with the priority to liberate Palestinians, and urged US soldiers “not to point their guns at people. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity.”

The state department posted on X that it would revoke Petro’s visa “due to his reckless and incendiary actions”.

Colombia’s foreign affairs ministry said using visa revocation as a diplomatic weapon goes against the spirit of the UN, which protects freedom of expression and guarantees the independence of member states at UN events. “The UN should find a completely neutral host country … that would allow the organisation itself to issue authorisation to enter the territory of that new host state,” the ministry said.

Bibi BRAGS About Social Media TAKEOVER To Influencers

Underreported Memo Is ‘Declaration of War’ Against Trump Opponents

In between his highly publicized designation of Antifa as a domestic terror organization and his indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, US President Donald Trump signed a little-reported national security memorandum that gives law enforcement new tools to target his critics.

Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on Thursday. The directive, titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” focuses exclusively on “anti-fascist” or left-wing activities, and mandates a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.”

“I don’t want to sound hyperbolic but the plain truth is that NSPM-7 is a declaration of war on anyone who does not support the Trump administration and its agenda,” journalist Ken Klippenstein wrote in a piece raising alarm about the directive on Saturday.

Klippenstein argued that the memorandum was worrying on several fronts. For one, its focus on preventing crimes before they are committed opens the door to rights violations.

“In other words, they’re targeting pre-crime, to reference Minority Report,” Klippenstein wrote.

For another, the memorandum casts a very wide net, targeting groups, individuals, funders, and “entities” and listing several protected beliefs as “indicia” of extremism.

These include:

“Anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity;

Support for the overthrow of the United States Government;

Extremism on migration, race, and gender; and

Hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

What’s more, the memorandum entrusts enforcement to the FBI’s over 4,000-strong Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF), which removes the legal challenges to directing the National Guard or other military forces to quash domestic dissent.

“For the Trump White House, the beauty of using an already existing network is that it bypasses Congressional oversight and scrutiny and even obscures federal activity to governors and legislatures at the state level,” Klippenstein wrote.

This is much, much more significant than the Comey indictment but has gotten like 0.1% of the media coveragehttps://t.co/AOoveczCJt

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) September 27, 2025

The types of activities that will be targeted are also quite broad, with the document defining “organized doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder” as “domestic terrorist acts.”

The memorandum also targets any individual or group who might fund activity the administration deems terrorism and directs the Internal Revenue Service to “take action to ensure that no tax-exempt entities are directly or indirectly financing political violence or domestic terrorism,” which could be a means of threatening the status of nonprofits.

Finally, as Drop Site News pointed out, the memo authorizes the attorney general to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations for the first time in US history.

“By targeting beliefs and protest activity, the directive positions dissent itself as a potential crime,” Drop Site wrote.

Trump has signed NSPM-7, a national security directive that dramatically expands federal powers against what it calls “domestic terrorism.” It orders a national strategy to “disrupt” individuals or groups “that foment political violence,” including “before they result in… https://t.co/QifVpUpg6l pic.twitter.com/3JP3WU5iz2

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 28, 2025

The Trump administration’s focus on violence associated with left-wing beliefs and groups is not supported by the facts. National Institute of Justice data found that right-wing violence had led to 520 deaths since 1990 compared with 78 deaths due to left-wing violence. However, the administration removed that study from the Department of Justice website shortly after Charlie Kirk was killed, The Guardian reported earlier this month.

The administration’s efforts, while accelerated, build on processes that began during the US response to the September 11 attacks, as Klippenstein explained:

A “pre-crime” endeavor, preventing attacks before they happen, is core to the post-9/11 concept of counterterrorism itself. No longer satisfied to investigate acts of terrorism after the fact to bring terrorists to justice, the Bush administration adopted preemption. Overseas, that led to aerial assassination by drones and “special operations” kill missions. Domestically, it led to a counter-terrorism campaign whose hallmark was excessive and illegal government surveillance and the use of undercover agents and “confidential human sources” to trap (and entrap) would-be terrorists.

However, the Trump administration is expanding the War-on-Terror mandate with fewer guardrails.

“Now, with Donald Trump’s directive retooling the counter-terror apparatus to go after Americans at home, this means monitoring political activity, or speech, as an investigative method to discover ‘radicalism,‘” Klippenstein said, noting that the NSPM-7 breaks with post-Watergate national security documents by failing to mention the First Amendment rights to protest and organize.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is already eager to make use of the document.

“We are witnessing domestic terrorist sedition against the federal government,” he wrote on social media on Friday. “The JTTF has been dispatched by the Attorney General, pursuant to NSPM-7. All necessary resources will be utilized.”

In an interview with Greg Sargent for the New Republic, Trump ally Steve Bannon confirmed that Miller and others in the administration were preparing to go after left-liberal groups and media whose criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could be interpreted as “goading” on violence against the agency.

Referring to Miller’s comments that calling ICE authoritarian incited violence and terrorism, Bannon responded, “Stephen Miller is correct—more importantly he’s in charge.”

The threats of investigations put liberal and left-leaning organizations in a tough place. On the one hand, they want to prepare as best they can. On the other, they do not want to obey in advance.

“Officials at these groups tell me they must strike a balance between being clear-eyed about how bad this could get while not letting it discourage political activity,” Sargent wrote. “That latter form of surrender is exactly what Trump and Miller want. And under no circumstances should anybody willingly hand it over to them.”

Clarence Thomas says precedent might not determine cases on upcoming supreme court docket

Settled legal precedent in the US is not “gospel” and in some instances may have been “something somebody dreamt up and others went along with”, the US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has said.

Thomas – part of the conservative supermajority that has taken hold of the supreme court over Donald Trump’s two presidencies – delivered those comments Thursday at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington DC, ABC News and other outlets reported. His remarks preceded the nine-month term that the supreme court is scheduled to begin on 6 October.

Among the various cases Thomas and his colleagues are expected to weigh in on is a request to overturn the 2015 Obergefell supreme court decision that legalized marriage for same-sex couples nationwide. Other cases being mulled by the supreme court for its 2025-2026 term involve tariffs, trans rights, campaign finance law, religious rights and capital punishment. Thomas was in the 5-4 minority that voted against the Obergefell decision.

Trump’s first presidency yielded him three supreme court picks that gave the panel a conservative supermajority which has frequently ruled in his favor after he returned to the White House in January.

In June 2022, as Joe Biden’s presidency interrupted Trump’s terms, that conservative supermajority also struck down the federal abortion rights which had been established decades earlier by the Roe v Wade supreme court precedent. Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in which he urged the court to “reconsider all … substantive due process precedents”, including in Obergefell as well as cases involving rights to contraception and same-sex intimacy.

Candace Owens DOUBLES DOWN, Calls Kirk Shooter Confession a "COMPLETE FICTION"

Children left short of clean water and sleep amid ‘prolonged’ detention by Ice, watchdog groups allege

Children, including the very young, have been spending weeks or months in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility in a remote part of Texas where outside monitors have heard accounts of shortages of clean drinking water, chronic sleep deprivation and kids struggling for hygiene supplies and prompt medical attention, as revealed in a stark new court filing.

Legal experts able to witness conditions made a barrage of allegations about deprivations, violations of legally agreed basic detention standards and humanitarian concerns at the only known Ice center currently holding families. At the facility in Dilley, a small town an hour south-west of San Antonio, kids and their parents described a “prison-like environment” where the guards reportedly call them “inmates” despite them not being criminals, and said they live in “cell-like trailers”.

In a response to the government’s court-ordered compliance report, attorneys at the legal groups responsible for monitoring child detention asserted on behalf of people held that: “Family detention is not only cruel and fundamentally harmful to children but also unjustified.”

The facility, titled the South Texas Family Residential Center, is run on behalf of Ice by the private corrections and detention company CoreCivic, which expects to make $180m annually in revenue from the property through at least March 2030.

‘Hell on earth’: immigrants held in new California detention facility beg for help

Immigrants locked up in California’s newest federal detention center have described the facility as a “a torture chamber”, “a zoo” and “hell on earth”, saying they were confined in filthy cells and suffered medical crises without help. Six people detained at the California City detention center, which opened in late August and is now the state’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center, shared accounts with the Guardian of poor conditions and alleged mistreatment by staff.

The detention center is located in a desert region 100 miles (160km) north-east of Los Angeles, on the grounds of a state prison that closed in March 2024. CoreCivic, the private prison corporation, re-opened the facility as an Ice detention center as the Trump administration has pushed to rapidly expand immigration detention capacity. Advocates argued the process was rushed, and city officials said CoreCivic is operating the facility unlawfully without the required permits.

The detainees, who are fighting deportation, said they have struggled to access hygiene and cleaning supplies, and lack adequate food and medications, and that officers have threatened solitary confinement and physical force over minor issues or after they spoke up.

In interviews over the last two weeks, California City detainees have claimed:

• staff were not consistently giving people daily medications, and some detainees fell unconscious due to health issues;
• some toilets and sinks were backed up or not functioning properly, creating a stench;
• detainees were left to clean their own cells, but not given proper supplies,
• detainees were confined to cells for hours, and when they were allowed outdoors, it was sometimes only for 30 minutes a day in a dusty area with nothing to do;
• small food portions left people hungry, with some saying they rationed meals and feared the water they were drinking was dirty.

Trump to meet with US congressional leaders in last-ditch effort to avoid shutdown

Donald Trump has reversed course and is purportedly planning to host a bipartisan gathering of the top four US congressional leaders at the White House on Monday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to avoid a looming government shutdown, the House speaker and the US president’s fellow Republican Mike Johnson said on Sunday. Trump’s climbdown comes days after he scrapped a planned meeting to discuss the crisis with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the respective Democratic minority leaders in the House and Senate.

The president accused the pair of making “unserious and ridiculous demands” in return for Democratic votes to support a Republican funding agreement to keep the government open beyond Tuesday night – but left the door open for a meeting “if they get serious about the future of our nation”.

Johnson, appearing on CNN, said he spoke with Trump at length on Saturday, and that the two Democrats had agreed to join him and John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader, for an Oval Office discussion Monday.

He did not say if Trump would be negotiating directly with the Democrats – but portrayed Trump as keen to “try to convince them to follow common sense and do what’s right by the American people”. ... According to CBS News on Sunday, meanwhile, Trump is not hopeful the meeting will lead to an agreement.

The network’s chief national correspondent, Robert Costa, told Face the Nation he spoke with Trump by phone Sunday morning and that a government shutdown “looks likely at this point based on my conversation … He says both sides are at a stalemate.”

US set for largest mass resignation in history as Trump continues deep cuts

The Trump administration is set to oversee the largest mass resignation in US history on Tuesday, with more than 100,000 federal workers set to formally quit as part of the latest wave of its deferred resignation program. With Congress facing a deadline of Tuesday to authorize more funding or spark a government shutdown, the White House has also ordered federal agencies to draw up plans for large-scale firings of workers if the partisan fight fails to yield a deal.

Workers preparing to leave government as part of the resignation program – one of several pillars of Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce – have described how months of “fear and intimidation” left them feeling like they had no choice but to depart. ... The total resignation program is set to cost $14.8bn, with 200,000 workers paid their full salary and benefits while on administrative leave for up to eight months, according to a Senate Democrats’ report in July.

Trump officials argue this outlay is worth it. The Office of Personnel Management claimed the one-time costs lower longer-term spending by the federal government. It also criticized job protections of federal civil servants, claiming the government should have a “modern, at-will employment framework like most employers”. A spokesperson for the White House claimed there was “no additional cost to the government” as employees would have received their salaries regardless of the program. “In fact, this is the largest and most effective workforce reduction plan in history and will save the government $28bn annually,” they added.

The total number of expected departures through the delayed resignation and voluntary separation programs, attrition, and early retirement programs is about 275,000 employees, the spokesman said. Several thousands of additional federal workers have been fired as part of reduction in force mandates ordered by the administration. The mass exodus is the largest single-year decline in civilian federal employment since the second world war.

Federal employees are entering a lagging job market as the unemployment rate in August 2025 ticked up to 4.3%, the highest since 2021, and only 22,000 jobs were added amid disruptions and uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariffs.

Eric Adams OUT As ADL Attacks Zohran

Eric Adams drops out of New York City mayoral race

The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, announced on Sunday that he is abandoning his faltering bid to win re-election, just over a month before election day, delivering the message in a social media video set to the strains of My Way.

Adams, who was trailing in the polls, was elected as a Democrat but ran for re-election as an independent after he was indicted on federal corruption charges, which were then dropped by the Trump administration in exchange for his cooperation on immigration raids.

In his video statement, seated on the steps of the mayor’s residence beside a photograph of his late mother, Adams said that it had been impossible for him to mount a winning campaign, blaming “constant media speculation about my future” and a decision by the city’s campaign finance board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars in matching funds over suspicious donations.

He also acknowledged that he had lost the trust of some New Yorkers after being charged with corruption but claimed the charges were unjust. “I was wrongfully charged because I fought for this city, and if I had to do it again, I would fight for New York again” Adams said, without explaining how allegedly obtaining illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel from foreign nationals for himself was in the best interest of New Yorkers.

The mayor will serve the remainder of his term in office, which ends on New Year’s Eve, and his name remains on the ballot for the November election since the deadline to remove it has passed.

A lot at steak: US beef and cattle prices soar to record highs

If beef is what’s for dinner, expect to pay more for it. The classic combination of tight supply and strong demand has pushed US cattle and beef prices to record highs, and there is little end in sight with farmers reluctant to expand their herds and selling off high-priced heifers to dig them out of debt. Ground beef prices hit a record high of $6.32 a pound in August, and beef prices were up 13.9% year-over-year according to the consumer price index, far outstripping overall inflation rise of 2.9%.

Meanwhile, a culmination of years of low prices, rising costs to raise cattle, and years-long droughts that dried up grazing pasture caused cattle ranchers to slash their beef herds to the lowest level since 1951. ...

There are several reasons for ranchers’ hesitancy, says David Anderson, livestock specialist at Texas A&M University. The last time cattle prices set a record in 2014, ranchers quickly bred more bovines, only to see prices collapse. Now he estimates cattle ranchers are making well-over $500 per head selling cattle and so far show little incentive to expand their herds.

After several years of losing money, ranchers are grateful for the higher returns but many are gun shy to rebuild. Brett Kenzy, a fourth-generation cattle rancher in South Dakota, who raises 2,700 head of cattle, isn’t planning to expand. “We have much better prices, but I see a real lack of confidence in the market,” he says. ...

Beef production has dipped further recently because the US closed the Mexican border to cattle imports to prevent the spread of New World screwworm, a species of flesh-eating fly larvae. With domestic supplies tight, it has a ripple effect on the national beef price, he says. ... Last year the US imported 16% of its beef needs, and tariffs will make your next burger more costly. Fifty percent of US beef consumption is ground beef, and Brazil is the biggest supplier of beef trimmings. The additional 50% tariff on Brazil imports means the total tax on those beef imports is 76.4%.

‘I couldn’t look’: European farmers on losing crops as the industry collides with worsening drought

Drought has cost Europe a staggering €11.2bn (£9.8bn) a year over the last few decades, a study found earlier this summer, and losses are set to mount as fossil fuel pollution clogs the atmosphere. Annual drought losses in the EU, the UK, Norway and Switzerland are projected to rise to €13bn (£11.3bn) if global heating reaches 2C (3.5F) above pre-industrial – an optimistic outcome based on current policies – and €17.5bn (£15.3bn) if it hits a catastrophic 3C (5F).

The food system is the most vulnerable. ... From the UK, which saw its driest spring in over a century, all the way through to Ukraine, a breadbasket facing desertification, the lack of water has also caused pain across lesser-known parts of the European economy. “It is indeed stressful,” said Martin Staats, president of the German inland shipping association. Low water levels were restricting movement and stopping companies from loading their ships full of cargo, he said. In the driest periods, ships have been forced to sit idly in harbours.

“If I compare it to Covid or with other economic challenges we face in the shipping industry, the drought is the biggest problem,” said Staats. “It’s not forecastable, it’s not foreseeable, and we cannot adapt the vessels.” The economic fallout of drought has been seen most clearly on the Rhine, which links Germany’s industrial heartland with Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest port. In 2018, the river was too hot to cool industrial facilities and water levels were too low to ship raw materials or goods. ...

Other sectors are struggling to adapt. France and Switzerland were forced to shut down nuclear power plants during the June heatwave because of a lack of water cold enough for cooling. At the same time, power-generating dams across the continent have been left with reservoirs that are far emptier than last year.

Europe’s hydropower generation typically peaks in May, as snow melts and spring showers fill streams and rivers, but in 2025 output fell to its lowest level for the month since 2017, according to data from thinktank Ember. In July, British energy company SSE blamed “unfavourable weather conditions across April and May” for a drop in total production that included a year-on-year fall in springtime hydropower generation of 40%.

Also of Interest

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

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Trump Again Applies His Tariff Wrecking Ball to US Citizens and Businesses with 100% Levy on Imported Patented Drugs, 25% on Imported Trucks, 30% to 50% on Furnishings

A 160-year-old campaign against civil rights heads to the supreme court

‘Huge energy challenges’: how can India make the leap to become a green, clean country?

Thousands Call to Arrest Netanyahu, March at U.N. Against Gaza Genocide

Milei needs a US bailout

A Little Night Music

Bo Diddley – Road Runner

Bo Diddley – You Don't Love Me

Bo Diddley – Say Man

Bo Diddley - I'm A Man

Bo Diddley – Who Do You Love

Bo Diddley – The Clock Strikes Twelve

Bo Diddley – Before You Accuse Me

Bo Diddley – Deed And Deed I Do

Bo Diddley – Crackin' Up

Bo Diddley – Bring It To Jerome