---

---

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Them & Van Morrison

---

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b group Them & Van Morrison. Enjoy!

^{Them - Gloria}

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”

-- Alexander Pope

---

News and Opinion

Thoughts On The Ceasefire News

Israel continued to hammer Gaza with military explosives on Thursday despite the announcement of the first stages of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Israel always does this. When normal people get a ceasefire agreement they think “Good, this means we can finally stop fighting and killing.” Whenever Israelis get a ceasefire agreement they go, “This means we have to hurry up and kill as many people as possible before it takes effect.”

But it does appear that the killing and abuse will at least diminish for a time, which is an objectively good thing no matter how you slice it.

The first stages of the agreement reportedly entail a partial withdrawal of IDF troops, Israel’s starvation blockade officially ending, humanitarian aid being allowed into the enclave, and both Israel and Hamas releasing captives and stopping the fighting.

Drop Site News reports that according to Hamas sources, subsequent ceasefire phases will entail “No surrender, no disarming, no mass exile, but most of all a permanent end to the war.”

SCOOP: this is the agreement document between Israel and Hamas under the title "Comprehensive End to the Gaza War" - including the signature of the mediators. More details of my story - at @kann_news pic.twitter.com/1qGPGFck7q

— Gili Cohen (@gilicohen10) October 9, 2025

It remains to be seen if there will be any movement toward a lasting ceasefire beyond the first stage. When an agreement was reached late last year it never made it beyond the first phase and then the Trumpanyahu administration declared a siege and resumed the killing.

The far right members of the Netanyahu regime certainly seem like they don’t expect the ceasefire to hold.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement that Israel has a “tremendous responsibility to ensure that this is not, God forbid, a deal of ‘hostages in exchange for stopping the war,’ as Hamas thinks and boasts,” and that “immediately after the hostages return home, the State of Israel will continue to strive with all its might for the true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza.”

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued similar remarks, saying that he and his Jewish Power party will use their leverage to dismantle the Netanyahu government if it “allows the continued existence of Hamas rule in Gaza.”

Netanyahu himself has been studiously avoiding any talk of commitment to a lasting ceasefire, mostly limiting his public statements to the significance of freeing Israeli hostages.

Notice how it doesn’t say words like “ceasefire,” “withdrawal,” or “end of war.” pic.twitter.com/HqSWje4313

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 9, 2025

So there’s not a whole lot to feel optimistic about here. If the killing does stop on a lasting basis, it will be a pleasant surprise.

If it does, we can only surmise that the US and Israel calculated that the worldwide PR crisis created by the genocide was getting too severe to sustain, which would be a win for all of us. Trump has gone on record to say that “Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world. Now I am gonna get all that support back.”

Either that, or they calculated that they’re going to need all their firepower for a planned war with Iran. Which would of course be terrible for everyone.

We shall see. For now at least it will be nice for everyone to have a breather. If things really do calm down I’m going to do something I’ve never done in my entire writing career and try to take a full weekend off work to decompress. Focusing on a live-streamed genocide for two years takes a toll on the mind and body.

Here’s hoping for a better future.

Is the genocide over? Inside the Gaza ceasefire deal, with Jeremy Scahill

Hamas and Israel prepare to implement ceasefire as Netanyahu says deal approved by government

Israelis and Palestinians celebrated on Thursday night as Hamas and Israel’s government began preparations to implement a ceasefire deal that promises a durable end to a bloody two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands, destabilised much of the Middle East and prompted protests around the world. In Gaza, there was joy but much anxiety. Many expressed the fear that the new deal would collapse, bringing more suffering to the devastated territory. Though crowds gathered in some places to dance and sing, in many places witnesses reported muted reaction amid loud overflights by warplanes and drones.

In Israel, on a day of fast-moving and sometimes chaotic developments, hospitals readied to receive hostages to be released by Hamas, the ruling coalition government signed off on the new ceasefire deal and thousands took to the streets of Tel Aviv to express joy and relief. Late on Thursday evening, a statement from the government said it had “just approved the framework for the release of all the hostages – both the living and the deceased”.

Donald Trump’s announcement of his “peace proposal” last week triggered a frantic round of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm-el Sheikh. The US president said on Thursday he would try to go to Egypt for the signing of the new deal. In Israel, officials suggested that the US president was expected to visit there on Sunday.

Trump added that 48 hostages held by Hamas, of whom less than half are thought to be still alive, would be released on “Monday or Tuesday” and said that the deal had “ended the war in Gaza”. It was announced on Thursday night that the US would send about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor Gaza ceasefire deal.

World leaders scrambled to welcome the breakthrough, even if most of Trump’s broader “peace proposal” has yet to be negotiated or even explicitly acknowledged by Hamas and Israel. The US president told reporters in the Oval Office that nobody would be forced to leave Gaza under the terms of the deal. “No, it’s just the opposite,” he said. “This is a great plan.”

Ceasefire ANNOUNCED For Hostage Release, Israeli Retreat

US to send 200 troops to Israel to support and monitor ceasefire deal, reports say

US troops have been sent to Israel as part of the peace deal approved on Thursday to support and help monitor the ceasefire, according to multiple news reports. Senior US officials told reporters that 200 troops will initially be on the ground with a “civil-military coordination center” operated by US Central Command to help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into the territory wracked by two years of war, the Associated Press reported, citing two officials who confirmed the report on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not authorized for release.

The troops are part of a broader team that also includes partner nations, non-governmental organizations and private-sector entities there to help monitor the peace deal and the transition to a civilian government in Gaza, US officials said.

US service members have already begun arriving in the region from around the globe, according to one of the officials, and will continue to travel to the region over the weekend to begin planning and establishing the center. American troops will not be sent into Gaza, they said, and the coordination center will be staffed by about 200 US service members who have expertise in transportation, planning, security, logistics and engineering.

Israel and Hamas agreed to pause hostilities in Gaza on Thursday, a deal Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social network, saying it was the first step to “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace”. Many questions remain on next steps, including Hamas disarmament, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and a future government in the territory.

Israeli bombs continued to land in Gaza, killing a reported 30 people after the deal was announced on Wednesday, but Palestinians celebrated in the rubble-strewn streets left devastated by the war, even as strikes continued.

Netanyahu Makes Threats About NUKING U.S. Cities!

‘Everyone is still afraid’: ceasefire deal brings relief to Gaza but fears remain over future

On Thursday morning, there was little joy in Gaza. The news of the imminent ceasefire had spread rapidly across the devastated territory during the night, with a few gunshots fired into the sky in celebration, but as morning came the mood was of tense anticipation. “Everyone is still afraid,” said a 26-year-old woman in al-Mawasi, the squalid, overcrowded coastal strip where much of the population has sought shelter in makeshift tents and plastic shacks.

Nearby, Abbas Hassouna, 64, said he and his family were “waiting for an official announcement and real guarantees for opening the crossings, bringing in food, and stopping the killing, destruction and displacement”.

“When we see these things happen, only then will we truly believe them. But for now, fear remains. They could backtrack at any moment or break the agreement as before and we will remain in the same endless cycle with nothing changing except more suffering,” said Hassouna, who is from northern Gaza but has been displaced several times. ...

Aid agencies said they were preparing to “flood” Gaza with food and other essential supplies. The 20-point plan proposed by Donald Trump provides for a surge of humanitarian assistance. The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said his agency was prepared to “scale up its work to meet the dire health needs of patients across Gaza, and to support rehabilitation of the destroyed health system”.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, welcomed the deal as a “huge relief”, and said it had enough food stockpiled outside Gaza to provide for the devastated territory’s 2.3m population for the coming three months. Though more aid has reached Gaza in recent weeks, quantities are still grossly insufficient, humanitarian workers said.

Netanyahu Just ATTACKED America, Israel in DEEP Trouble

PROOF Zionists CONTROL Trump’s Cabinet – Including Marco Rubio!

‘We Must Keep the Pressure On’: Humanitarians Say Ceasefire Doesn't Erase Gaza Genocide

After two years of destruction in the Gaza Strip, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas on Thursday that is expected to take effect within the next day. But even as the world reacts with jubilation that the nonstop death and destruction may soon abate, skepticism abounds about whether the agreement will result in a just and lasting peace.

Israel is expected to withdraw troops to an agreed-upon line and to allow an influx of aid into Gaza, along with releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Already, signs have emerged that the Israeli government may seek to collapse the fragile agreement, as happened earlier this year.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that within hours after the deal was announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Israeli tanks were filmed firing at civilians attempting to return to their homes in Gaza City.

BREAKING! “Ceasefire”, in Israel’s dictionary: you cease, I fire.

Just hours after the deal - as in January - Israel shoots at Palestinians waiting to return home.
Before any next step, member states must ensure that Israel honours the ceasefire. https://t.co/ne0YvhrVOj

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 9, 2025

Middle East Eye reported: "Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported in Gaza City and Khan Younis overnight, according to local media. Israeli quadcopters were also reported to have dropped bombs on civilians in Gaza City. At least nine people were killed in the attacks since dawn, health officials said."

Albanese said: "Just hours after the deal—as in January—Israel shoots at Palestinians waiting to return home. Before any next step, member states must ensure that Israel honors the ceasefire."

Whether the ceasefire will even be finalized remains an open question, as two leading far-right figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government—Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—have come out in opposition to the deal's ratification and suggested that their parties may defect from Netanyahu's government if they don't get their way, which could be enough to collaose his narrow governing majority.

In a video at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir said Israel must pursue "full victory in Gaza," a move seen as deeply provocative by the Arab world outside one of Islam's holiest sites, made only more so by his declaration that "we [Jewish Israelis] are the owners of [the] Temple Mount."

In recent months, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have said this goal of "total victory" includes carrying out the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza so they can be replaced with Israeli settlers.

Even if this ceasefire proves more durable than previous ones, human rights advocates say that simply halting the violence is not enough.

"We can breathe again, in relief for the end of the daily killing, the starvation, the human suffering beyond imagination, beyond words," wrote Yoav Shemer-Kunz, the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine in EUObserver. "This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza."

Over the past two years, more than 10% of Gaza's population has been the casualties of Israeli attacks: At least 67,000 people—including over 20,000 children—have been killed, while at least 169,000 people have been injured, many with life-altering wounds, according to official estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry. Other studies suggest the death toll may be even higher when the effects of disease and starvation are taken into account.

Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations human rights official, said that while Israel and the US had agreed to end the "military component of [the] genocide... they have not yet ended the food and medical components of the genocide."

Nearly 78% of the buildings, including over 9 in 10 homes, in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving its medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure in ruins.

And as a result of Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, Gaza is now the center of a historic famine. According to the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), nearly a third of the population—641,000 people—is estimated to face catastrophic conditions of hunger, while 1 in 4 children suffers from acute malnutrition.

"A temporary pause or reduction in the scale of attacks and allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza is not enough," said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International.

"There must be a full cessation of hostilities and a total lifting of the blockade," she said. "Israel must allow the unhindered flow of basic supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, and reconstruction material, into all parts of the occupied Gaza Strip, as well as the restoration of essential services, to ensure the survival of a population reeling from starvation, repeated waves of mass forced displacement, and a campaign of annihilation."

Though the deal signed Thursday calls for 400 aid trucks to begin entering the strip each day, marking a massive surge from previous levels, it is still fewer than the 600 per day that were allowed to enter during January's ceasefire, which occurred when starvation was at a less critical point.

Though the ceasefire will require the withdrawal of some troops, Israel has said it will still control 53% of the Gaza Strip after it goes into effect and the prisoner exchange ends.

"This fragile ceasefire must be the beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel's unlawful occupation and blockade," said Oxfam International. "It must be focused on restoring rights and rebuilding lives. Any political or reconstruction plan must not entrench the occupation or further undermine Palestinian sovereignty."

Others emphasized the importance not just of remedies to the suffering of Palestinians, but legal accountability for those in Israel's government, including Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity.

"The current plan—the so-called 'Trump peace plan'—falls woefully short in this," said Callamard. "It fails to demand justice and reparations for victims of atrocity crimes or accountability for perpetrators. Stopping the cycle of suffering and atrocities requires an end to longstanding impunity at the heart of recurring violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. States must uphold their obligations under international law to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide."

Mokhiber said: "We must keep the pressure on until all perpetrators and complicit actors are held accountable for the genocide, the apartheid regime is dismantled, and Palestine is free."

Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: Iran’s DEFENSE Strategy could CRUSH Israel’s NEXT MOVE

Yemen’s Houthis To ‘Monitor’ Israel Compliance With Gaza Ceasefire Deal

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Ansar Allah, said on Thursday that Yemen will be “monitoring” Israel’s compliance with the Gaza ceasefire deal, warning Yemeni support for the Palestinians in Gaza would continue if the deal isn’t implemented.

“We must be at the highest levels of caution and readiness, and continue the massive popular momentum with the Palestinian people, until we determine whether the agreement will be achieved, or whether we will continue our path of support and assistance to the Palestinian people,” al-Houthi said, according to Yemen’s SABA news agency.

“We will remain vigilant, prepared, and monitor the progress of the agreement. Will it lead to an end to the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the entry of aid, food, medicine, and humanitarian needs to the Palestinian people? Will the Americans and Israelis stop their genocide against the Palestinian people and commit to a ceasefire? This is what we hope for, and it was our goal in the support operations and confronting the attack on the Palestinian people and the nation in general,” al-Houthi added.

Pepe Escobar : Is the Kremlin Losing Patience?

You can't make this shit up:

Zelensky Says Ukraine Will Nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize If He Sends Tomahawk Missiles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine would nominate President Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize if he provides the country with Tomahawk missiles, a step that would mark a significant escalation of the proxy war and risk a major response from Russia.

Zelensky told reporters that he and Trump discussed the possibility of the US supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, which are nuclear-capable and have a range of over 1,000 miles, during their recent meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“During our most recent meeting, I didn’t hear a ‘no.’ What I did hear was that work will continue at the technical level and that this possibility will be considered,” Zelensky said, according to POLITICO.

Russia's Strongest Strike: Kiev Blackout Air Defence Fails Energy Collapse; Moscow Pushes To Dneiper

Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize

With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump. The Norwegian Nobel Committee pointedly said on Thursday that it had reached a decision about who would be named 2025 peace prize laureate on Monday, several days before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire under the US president’s Gaza plan.

Taking into account the timeframe and the composition of the independent five-person committee, most Nobel experts and Norwegian observers believe it is highly unlikely that Trump will be awarded the prize, leading to fears in the country over how he will react to being overlooked so publicly.

Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said Oslo must be “prepared for anything.”

“Donald Trump is taking the US in an extreme direction, attacking freedom of speech, having masked secret police kidnapping people in broad daylight and cracking down on institutions and the courts. When the president is this volatile and authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything,” Bergstø told the Guardian. “The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes. But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.”

Trump has long been outspoken about his belief that he should be awarded the peace prize, an honour previously bestowed on one of his presidential predecessors, Barack Obama, in 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.

Nearly half of FBI agents in major offices reassigned to immigration enforcement

Nearly half of the FBI agents working in the US’s major field offices have been reassigned to aid immigration enforcement, according to newly released data, a stunning shift in law enforcement priorities that has raised public safety concerns.

Personnel data obtained by Mark Warner, a Democratic senator, and shared with the Guardian, suggests the Trump administration has moved 45% of FBI agents in the country’s 25 largest field offices to support the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown. Across all of the FBI’s offices, 23% of the roughly 13,000 total agents at the bureau are now working on immigration, according to Warner, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.

Warner’s office said the FBI agents now deployed alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent have been taken away from their work tackling cybercrimes, drug trafficking, terrorism, espionage, violent crimes, counterintelligence and other efforts that are part of the bureau’s mission – some areas that Trump has claimed are White House priorities.

The data, first reported by the Washington Post, suggests the FBI is dramatically shifting its objectives in an effort to back Trump’s increasingly aggressive immigration raids, with the administration targeting 3,000 daily arrests and seeking to expand its detention capacity to detain more than 100,000 immigrants.

The data is understating the scale of the reorganization, as the FBI only provided counts for agents who are now spending more than half of their job doing immigration enforcement, according to Warner. The senator’s office said it was likely that more than a quarter of FBI agents’ total hours were now dedicated to immigration, and that in some field offices, more than half of the agents had been redirected to DHS.

Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s effort to deploy national guard in Chicago

A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from federalizing or deploying the national guard in Illinois after Donald Trump ordered hundreds of troops to Chicago to help with immigration enforcement and to battle what the White House says are high crime rates in the city.

US district judge April Perry issued her decision from the bench after more than two hours of arguments from lawyers for the federal government and the state of Illinois, which sued the Trump administration over the deployment. The order took effect on Thursday and will remain in place for two weeks.

According to reporters present in the courtroom, Perry said she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion in the state of Illinois”. On Thursday evening, around the time of Perry’s ruling, about half a dozen guard soldiers were milling around inside the gate at the Ice center in Broadview. A group of about 10 protesters were outside.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker said in a statement: “Donald Trump is not a king – and his administration is not above the law.” Quoting the judge, he said: “Today, the court confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the national guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago.”

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, who attended the court hearing, called the decision a “win for the people of Chicago and the rule of law”. He vowed that the city would “continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to end the Trump administration’s war on Chicago”.

Letitia James criminally charged in Trump’s latest effort to punish rivals

A federal grand jury has indicted Letitia James, the New York attorney general, for bank fraud, according to a person familiar with the matter. Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, personally presented the case to the grand jury on Thursday, the person said. US attorneys do not typically present to a grand jury.

“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York state attorney general,” James said in a recorded video statement on Thursday.

“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.”

Halligan was installed in the role last month after Donald Trump became frustrated with the pace of investigations against his rivals. “No one is above the law,” Halligan said in a statement. “The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”

The US president has made little secret of his desire to use the justice department to punish his rivals. “What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” he said in a September post on Truth Social that was addressed to Pam Bondi, the US attorney general. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”

---

---

Democratic candidates can win Rust Belt voters by … attacking the Democratic party

If anyone could have broken through as a progressive in red America, it was Sherrod Brown. For decades, the Ohio senator railed against corporations for shipping good-paying jobs overseas and pleaded with Democrats to take the struggles of deindustrialized communities seriously. Yet in 2024, even Brown, a model economic populist, fell to a Republican challenger. Does that prove, as writers such as Jonathan Chait have argued, that the idea of winning back the working class with progressive economic policies has been tried and has failed?

We wanted to know why Democrats keep losing working-class support in the Rust belt, and what could turn things around. So, with colleagues at the Center for Working-Class Politics, the Labor Institute and Rutgers University, we surveyed 3,000 voters across Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. The research suggests the story is more complicated – and that Democrats’ problems in the Rust belt are real, but solvable.

We found a consistent pattern we call the “Democratic penalty”. In a randomized, controlled trial, respondents were shown hypothetical candidates with identical economic populist platforms. The only difference was that some were labeled Democrats, while others were labeled independents. Across the four states, the Democratic candidates fared eight points worse. In Ohio the gap was nearly 16 points; in Michigan, 13; in Wisconsin, 11. The voters most alienated by the party label were the very groups Democrats most need to win back: Latinos, working-class Americans, and others in rural and small-town communities.

This pattern helps explain why figures like Brown can run as tough economic populists and still struggle, while independents like Dan Osborne in Nebraska dramatically overperformed expectations on nearly identical platforms. It’s the Democratic brand that’s unpopular, not the populism. When we forced respondents to choose tradeoffs among 25 economic policy proposals, the results were even clearer. Across partisan and class divides, voters consistently prioritized concrete measures framed in terms of fairness and accountability for elites: capping prescription drug prices, eliminating taxes on social security income, and raising taxes on the super-wealthy and large corporations. These policies polled far ahead of flashy ideas such as $1,000 monthly cash payments or trillion-dollar green industrial plans, and well ahead of traditional conservative staples such as corporate tax cuts and deregulation.

So what’s the path forward? Not every candidate can reinvent themselves as an independent populist. In many districts, doing so would simply split the anti-Republican vote. But Democrats can blunt the “Democratic penalty” by speaking against their own party establishment and making a populist case that neither major party has delivered for working people. Candidates who take this approach appeal more effectively to the very voters Democrats have been losing.

---

---

US west coast faults could trigger catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes

Warnings about the looming threat of “the big one” – a catastrophic earthquake that could devastate cities – have stoked fears across the US west coast for decades. But according to a new study, a high-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific north-west could set off a secondary one on California’s San Andreas fault, causing an unrivaled catastrophe. “The bigger one” would have the potential to wreak havoc up and down the coast at once, researchers say.

“We could expect that an earthquake on one of the faults alone would draw down the resources of the whole country to respond to it,” said lead author Dr Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist and geophysicist. “If they both went off together, then you’ve got potentially San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver all in an emergency situation in a compressed timeframe.”

The Cascadia subduction zone, which can produce magnitude 9 earthquakes on its own, has triggered temblors on the San Andreas fault in the past, according to the study, which was published on 29 September. Goldfinger said the findings came after decades of head-scratching and a lot of data that was difficult to explain.

Drilling into deep-sea sediment cores that contain thousands of years of geologic history, the researchers combed through the layers left from ancient earthquakes. They thought the submarine landslide deposits were from San Andreas quakes “but they were upside down from what we typically see”, Goldfinger said. “We realized that it wasn’t a single deposit,” he added, “it was two.” The patterns, studied over decades through generations of graduate students led to a lightbulb moment around 2017 when the scientists realized they were evidence of synchronicity between the Cascadia subduction zone and the San Andreas fault.

By analyzing the sandy structures within turbidites, which are layers of sedimentary deposits, the scientists were able to determine some ruptures happened just hours – or sometimes even minutes – apart. There was evidence, according to the study, of 18 synchronized earthquakes during the last 3,000 years. Their findings suggest that these back-to-back quakes are not the exception but rather occur in the majority of cases.

---

Also of Interest

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

I’d Like To Be Optimistic About the Latest Gaza Peace Plan

Jonathan Cook: I Grieve

Francesca Albanese Wins ‘Lay Down Your Arms’ Award

When Presidents Kill

Head of largest US bank warns of risk of American stock market crash

Secret Meeting Files PROVE 50-Year Media Conspiracy w/ David Sirota | Useful Idiots

"Enshittification": Cory Doctorow on Why Big Tech Sucks, Keeps Getting Worse & What to Do About It

Gaza Ceasefire: "Massive Political Pressure" Needed to Prevent Israel from Restarting the War

Russia hardline position, talks with Trump exhausted

---

A Little Night Music

Them Featuring Van Morrison - Could You Would You

Them - Here Comes the Night

Them - Baby Please Don't Go

Them Featuring Van Morrison - Something You Got

Them - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Them - Friday's Child

Them - Mystic Eyes

Them - (Get your kicks on) Route 66

Them Featuring Van Morrison - Turn On Your Lovelight

Van Morrison: Live at Montreux 1980

---