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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Billy "The Kid" Emerson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features R&B and rock and roll singer and songwriter Billy "The Kid" Emerson. Enjoy!

^{Billy "The Kid" Emerson - You Never Miss The Water}

"The presence of Western journalists in Gaza would not have made any dramatic difference to the way the slaughter of Palestinians was presented. Audiences would still have received a sanitised version of the genocide. Failure is baked into Western media coverage of Israel and Palestine.

When it comes to the festering wound in what was once historic Palestine, the job of Western journalists is to obfuscate, equivocate, distort and excuse."

-- Jonathan Cook

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News and Opinion

You Don’t Hate The Mass Media Enough

There was another IDF massacre in Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing dozens of Palestinians.

Israel as usual claimed it was responding to a ceasefire violation by Hamas, but of course there’s absolutely no evidence for this to be found. AP reports that according to the IDF the strikes were launched after a Hamas fighter “shot at troops in southern Gaza,” but that “no soldiers were hurt” in this alleged attack. Not so much as a scratch. So I guess we’re just expected to take Israel’s word for it.

Now check out these western media headlines about the massacre and notice the disgusting spin they are placing on the narrative to normalize the continued slaughter of Palestinians:

“Israel launches strikes in Gaza ceasefire’s latest test as hospitals say 24 killed,” by AP.

“Israel launches strikes in Gaza ceasefire’s latest test as hospitals say more than 20 killed,” by NBC News.

“Israel launches strikes on Gaza in further test of fragile ceasefire,” from Sky News.

“Israel launches strikes on Gaza in latest test to fragile ceasefire,” from France 24.

“Israeli Strikes Kill at Least Two Dozen in Gaza Amid Fragile Ceasefire,” from Newsweek.

Do you see what they’re doing here?

The western press see the killing of Palestinians as such a baseline norm that Israel can massacre dozens of people in Gaza and they’ll go, “Gosh I sure hope this doesn’t lead to any violations of the ceasefire!”

When Israel violates Trump's ceasefire, the mainstream media calls it "testing" the ceasefire.

There is no circumstance in this or in any other universe in which Hamas could kill 24 Israelis and the media would reduce it to Hamas "testing" the ceasefire. https://t.co/QfaJh2N8bR

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) November 22, 2025

It’s never a ceasefire violation to commit mass murder against Palestinians. It’s only ever a “test” of the ceasefire, or something that happens “amid a fragile ceasefire”. If Hamas suddenly attacked and killed dozens of Israelis, these empire propagandists wouldn’t be saying “Hmm I sure hope the fragile ceasefire holds up amid this challenging test.” They’d just call it what it is. And it would be the main news story in the world.

The imperial media have been framing Israel’s ceasefire violations like this the entire time. Just the other day NBC News ran a report about a different IDF massacre in Gaza titled “Israeli airstrikes kill 25 Palestinians in Gaza, rattling fragile ceasefire”. Last month CNN ran a headline claiming “US-brokered ceasefire appears to survive first major test” after Israel killed at least 44 people, when Israel had been violating the ceasefire every single day up to that point.

The mass media have been running egregiously misleading headlines throughout this entire genocide, which has an overwhelmingly distorting effect on public perception in an information environment where skim-reading has become the norm and most social media users share news stories after just reading the headline.

Killing Palestinians is so normalized and accepted as a baseline expectation in the western press that CNN calls this the "first major test" of the ceasefire after Israel killed people in Gaza every single day since the ceasefire agreement was signed. https://t.co/wTSEKzsDCN

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 19, 2025

It almost feels silly to point out that the mass media are wildly biased in favor of Israel two years into a genocide which they’ve actively run propaganda cover for in brazen acts of journalistic malpractice from the very beginning. But we can’t let it slip from our attention how evil these imperial spinmeisters are. How racist they are. How mendacious and manipulative they are. However much you hate them, you don’t hate them enough.

These are the people who are informing western perspectives about what’s going on in our world. They aren’t just deceiving the public with dishonest headlines and precipitously slanted reporting which gets loudly amplified by Silicon Valley algorithms, they are writing the stories which get used and cited by AI chatbots and online platforms like Wikipedia which people are increasingly turning to for information about world events. They are polluting the entire information ecosystem with a deluge of propaganda they are churning out day after day, year after year.

These freaks are attacking our minds. They are attacking humanity’s ability to understand its waking reality. They are continuously indoctrinating the public into an ignorant, western supremacist worldview which only values human life when it lives in the correct part of the world, speaks the correct language, practices the correct religion, has the correct skin color, and aligns with the correct geopolitical agendas.

They make everything worse. It’s impossible to have enough disdain for these mass media propagandists.

Col Lawrence Wilkerson | "A Slower, More Demonic Murder Of Palestinians"

Gaza hospitals running out of supplies as Israeli airstrikes continue

Hospitals in Gaza are running out of essential supplies, with new waves of Israeli airstrikes killing more than 50 people and injuring more than 100 in recent days, medical and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said. Medics said on Sunday that stocks of gauze, antiseptics, thermometers and antibiotics were running low.

Mohammed Saqr, the director of nursing at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, said: “We are still suffering a severe lack of most of our supplies and medicines. We have daily crises, and the same shortages and deficiencies in supplies, and we are still exhausted as we are still receiving lots of casualties. “There isn’t much difference from the period before the ceasefire. Unfortunately, the bombing is still going on … We don’t feel there is a big change.”

Humanitarian organisations have sent hundreds of tonnes of supplies into Gaza since the US-backed ceasefire came into effect last month but stocks of medicine and supplies remain insufficient. Joe Belliveau, the executive director of MedGlobal, a US-based NGO, speaking from al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza, said: “There are staff shortages, not enough ambulances … The whole health system is still on its knees, with critical shortages across the board.”

Gaza’s health ministry has reported more than 300 deaths in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire, and medics say huge numbers of people are suffering the consequences of malnutrition, adverse weather conditions, a lack of shelter and new outbreaks of disease. ...

More food supplies are getting into Gaza since the October ceasefire but the amount is still falling short of the huge humanitarian need for supplies. Belliveau said: “We have seen malnutrition stabilise and that has really improved. The World Health Organization have had modest success getting medicine and medical supplies in but [MedGlobal] have two lorry loads that are stuck since 10 October waiting for permission from Israel.” Israel denies accusations it is deliberately obstructing aid, and accuses Hamas of stealing humanitarian assistance.

RUSSIA'S FM SPOKESPERSON MARIA ZAKHAROVA EVISCERATES ISRAEL | DANNY HAIPHONG INTERVIEW

67 Children Have Been Killed in Gaza Since ‘Ceasefire’ Began, as Israel Committed Hundreds of Violations

Eight children have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past two days. They are among 67 children who have been killed since last month's agreement for a "ceasefire" in Gaza was signed, according to a new report from the United Nations Children's Fund.

“Yesterday morning, a baby girl was reportedly killed in Khan Younis by an airstrike, while the day before, seven children were killed in Gaza City and the south,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires on Friday.

The seven children were among dozens of Palestinians who were killed or injured by an Israeli quadcopter attack in Gaza City on Wednesday, according to Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“At around 11:00 am, we heard gunfire from quadcopters,” said Zaher, an MSF nurse working at a mobile clinic in Gaza City. “Shortly after, we received two casualties. The first was a woman with a leg injury. A little later, a 9-year-old girl arrived with an injury on her face caused by gunfire from the quadcopters.”

Hamas has accused Israel of shifting the so-called yellow line truce demarcation in the Gaza Strip – forcing a new wave of forced displacement – in a “flagrant” breach of the ceasefire.

LIVE updates: https://t.co/Lwa473TTa6 pic.twitter.com/Ms6a0VAowc

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 21, 2025

Last month, Israel signed an agreement with Hamas that required both parties to cease hostilities with one another. But since the deal went into effect on October 11, Israel has carried out attacks in Gaza on 35 of the last 42 days.

The Gaza Media Office alleges that Israel has committed nearly 400 ceasefire violations in just over a month—which have included airstrikes, shellings, and direct shootings of civilians, as well as frequent incursions by Israel past the agreed-upon yellow withdrawal lines. At least 312 Palestinians have been killed and 760 injured.

“This is during an agreed ceasefire," Pires emphasized to reporters. "The pattern is staggering,”

Shortly after Pires' announcement, Israel launched a new ground invasion across the yellow line on Friday afternoon, which has reportedly left another displaced person dead near Khan Younis and thousands more people in North Gaza neighborhoods fleeing for their lives.

After two years of genocidal warfare, over 20,000 Palestinian children are confirmed to have been killed, while another 3,000 to 4,000 have lost either one or both of their limbs.

“As we have repeated many times, these are not statistics: Each was a child with a family, a dream, a life–suddenly cut short by continued violence," Pires said.

Gaza's health infrastructure lies in disrepair following two years of relentless bombing, which left nearly all of its hospitals and clinics either partially or fully destroyed.

As another stipulation of the ceasefire deal, Israel was required to lift its blockade on humanitarian aid entering the strip, which had left the people of Gaza on the brink of starvation and unable to perform basic medical care.

But in retaliation for what Israel alleged was a failure by Hamas to return the remains of some hostages abducted by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, Israel cut off the largest port of entry for humanitarian aid, the Rafah Crossing, which remains closed.

After several weeks in which aid was nearly all choked off, the number of trucks entering the strip has increased in recent days. But according to the World Food Program (WFP), hundreds of thousands of people still remain in dire need of food assistance, and the amount currently entering the strip is far too little.

Only about 30% of WFP's target food parcels have been allowed to be distributed, though it says that it has been able to move that number upward more quickly in recent days.

Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the WFP, said that while this is “a step in the right direction... a lot of these food supplies stay in border crossing points for long days and therefore you know the possibility of them going bad is high.”

On World Children’s Day, over 90% of children in Gaza show signs of severe trauma after more than two years of war. A generation growing up in fear now urgently needs protection and long-term support. pic.twitter.com/neiwLes0bH

— Olivier Salgado (@olivier_salgado) November 20, 2025

Pires said that as winter approaches, hundreds of thousands of children are “sleeping in the open” and “trembling in fear while living in flooded, makeshift shelters."

“For hundreds of thousands of children living in tents over the rubble of their former homes, the new [winter] season is a threat multiplier," he said. "Children are shivering through the night with no heating, no insulation, and too few blankets.”

As Gaza's medical system lies in ruin, UNICEF says over 4,000 children urgently need to be evacuated from the strip. But even after the ceasefire deal, Palestinian journalist Eman Abu Zayed reports in Truthout that securing medical referrals from the Israeli government and traveling for treatment outside the strip is a "near-impossible task."

“Gaza's doctors tell us of children they know how to save but cannot,” said Pires. He said they were children "with severe burns, shrapnel wounds, spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and children with cancer who have lost months of treatment. Premature babies who need intensive care. Children who need surgeries that simply cannot be done inside Gaza today.”

"Young and free-thinking people are recognizing the lies they have been told."

Why Trump’s lavish Saudi courtship leaves Israel on the back foot

The White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities. ... The F-35 stealth fighter jets on show in the flypast for the visiting royal are up for sale to Saudi Arabia, Trump confirmed. The sale would not be conditional and the specifications of Saudi F-35s would be the same as Israel’s.

If the deal goes forward, it will cut against one of the abiding principles of US-Israeli relations – that Israel always gets to buy the best military hardware, giving it a prized “qualitative edge” over other US allies in the region. Appearing to dump that principle, Trump made clear that both countries would get the best as they are equally close to Washington. “[Saudi Arabia] is a great ally and Israel’s a great ally,” the president said. “As far as I’m concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line.” That is not language that Israel likes to hear out of Washington and it was the latest of several setbacks in the bilateral relationship in recent months.

Potentially of equal importance to the F35 sale, the administration has announced it would lift the ban on selling advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The decision significantly boosts Riyadh’s ambitions of becoming a global tech hub with vast energy-intensive datacentres that will be the foundations of the global AI economy in which Saudi Arabia and the US could take a lead together. Gregory Gause, a visiting scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, compared the ambitions of a US-Saudi partnership in the AI economy with the US corporate-led development of Saudi oilfields in the 1930s. ...

There were other recent events which suggested at least a temporary US move away from Israeli primacy in Middle East policy. On Monday, a US-drafted UN security council resolution included language about a possible pathway to an independent Palestine, despite desperate Israeli efforts to have the clause removed. A few months earlier, at the end of June, Trump lifted some sanctions on Syria, again in conflict with Israeli preferences. And in May he toured the Middle East to showcase his foreign policy, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but not Israel.

All this marks a drift in US Middle East policy from what was arguably the high point in the US-Israeli relationship, when Trump fulfilled Benjamin Netanyahu’s longstanding aim and joined Israel in airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, triggering anxiety across the Gulf. In the wake of the Iran strikes, Netanyahu seems to have taken Washington’s backing for granted and overreached, bombing a target in the Qatari capital, Doha, in a bid to kill Hamas officials. Trump reportedly had very little notice of the plan to bomb a close regional ally. Trump reacted by humiliating Netanyahu during his visit to the White House in late September, forcing him to call his Qatari counterpart from the Oval Office in order to apologise. ... In Trump’s transactional White House, it is hard for Israel to compete against the Gulf. Prince Mohammed promised $1tn in Saudi investment in the US economy. Qatar has given Trump a $400m luxury plane to use as a new Air Force One.

Israeli Beirut Bombing, BIBI Shares RYAN GRIM Epstein STORY In SHOCK Admission

Hezbollah chief of staff killed in Beirut airstrike, Israeli military says

Israel targeted one of Hezbollah’s most senior military commanders in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, dramatically escalating tensions with the group almost exactly a year after a ceasefire ended 14 months of clashes. The Israeli military said several hours after the attack that Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s chief of staff, was killed in the strike in Lebanese capital.

Lebanon’s health ministry said the attack killed at least five people and wounded 28. The official national news agency said three missiles were fired at the building. Late on Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed “the great commander” Tabatabai had been killed in “a treacherous Israeli attack on the Haret Hreik area in the southern suburbs of Beirut”, without specifying his position within the group. Videos showed damaged buildings in the densely populated Haret Hreik area of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel has launched increasingly frequent airstrikes in southern Lebanon this month, which it says are intended to thwart a military revival by Hezbollah in the hills north of the de facto border. The campaign is also designed to increase pressure on the Lebanese authorities and army to move faster to disarm the organisation, a key requirement of last year’s ceasefire deal. ...

The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, called on the international community to intervene firmly to stop Israeli attacks on the country. Beirut “reiterates its call to the international community to assume its responsibility and intervene firmly and seriously to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people”, he said in a statement.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper told readers last week that the “immediate flash point” was “now in Lebanon, not Gaza”, while Amit Segal, a journalist close to Netanyahu’s coalition government, said “a dramatic escalation against Hezbollah” was “more likely than not”.

Mohammad Marandi: A New Warsaw Pact? Russia & Iran Move to Challenge NATO

Trump Ambassador Meets Israeli Spy Who Pushed 'Nuking America'

Israel Receives 1,000th Aircraft Carrying US Military Supplies Since October 7, 2023

The Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) announced on Wednesday that it has received the 1,000th aircraft as part of an airlift operation delivering US military equipment to Israel that began following the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and the start of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.

“To date, over 120,000 tons of military equipment, munitions, weapons systems, and protective gear have been transferred to Israel via 1,000 aircraft and approximately 150 maritime vessels,” the IMOD said in a press release. The ministry said it and the IDF have been “conducting a cross-continental logistics airlift operation on a scale unprecedented since the establishment of the state.” ...

Through the airlift operation, Israel has received “advanced munitions, weapons, armored vehicles, medical equipment, communications systems, and personal protective equipment.” The equipment has not only supported Israel’s destruction of Gaza but also its war in Lebanon, its invasion of southwestern Syria, its war with Iran, airstrikes on Yemen, and military operations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Alastair Crook : 28-Point Plan Is Bait and Switch

European countries propose radically different Ukraine peace plan to US

European countries proposed a radical alternative Ukraine peace plan on Sunday that omits some of the pro-Russia points made in the original US-backed document and calls for Kyiv’s sovereignty to be respected. ... The 28-point US document leaked last week demands Ukraine hand over territory to Russia, limits the size of its army and agrees not to pursue the Kremlin for alleged war crimes.

As discussions began in Geneva, Donald Trump said Ukraine had shown “zero gratitude” for US efforts to end the conflict. In a conciliatory response, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was personally grateful to the US president for the military assistance Washington had given, beginning with Javelin missiles, which had saved Ukrainian lives. Trump’s hostile rhetoric came after a confusing weekend in which the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, admitted the White House plan was conceived in Moscow, only to then insist the US was its author.

Having been blind-sided by Washington’s initiative, Ukraine’s European allies published their Kyiv-friendly plan on Sunday. It says negotiations over territory should take place after a ceasefire is agreed and should start from the line of contact – the existing frontline. It says both parties would agree how any truce would be monitored “under US supervision”. Unlike the White House text, the European alternative does not call for Kyiv to withdraw from cities it controls in eastern Donbas. Nor does it rule out Ukraine’s membership of Nato, but points out there is no consensus over its membership.

There are further eye-catching proposals. They include that Russia give the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which would split power 50-50 between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine’s army would be capped during peacetime at 800,000 soldiers, 200,000 more than in the US draft. Frozen Russian assets would also be used to reconstruct Ukraine, rather than being partly given to US investors. If Moscow were to respect a “sustainable peace”, sanctions imposed since 2014 would be gradually eased and Russia would be brought back into the G8. ...

European officials have been scathing about the US draft in private conversations. They say it undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and sets conditions for its EU accession. It would set a dangerous global precedent if accepted, they argue. It also rules out a French- and British-led peacekeeping force for Ukraine and limits where Nato aircraft could be based. One official said Putin was trying to turn back the clock 30 years on Europe’s security architecture and enforce demands made shortly before his all-out invasion. Russia’s president called for Nato’s military forces to withdraw to their 1997 borders, before the Baltic states and central Europe joined the transatlantic alliance.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : US Still Woefully Ignorant of Russia

US Flips Rewrites Peace Plan Accepting EU/Kiev Demands; Kiev Mirnograd Disaster Siversk Stepnogorsk

US Bombs Somalia for 100th Time This Year

US Africa Command announced on Sunday that its forces have launched two more airstrikes in Somalia, bringing the total number of US bombings in the country this year to at least 100, an unprecedented number.

AFRICOM said that the airstrikes were launched on November 21 and November 22 about 37 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso, where US-backed forces have been fighting against an ISIS affiliate in the Caal-Miskaad Mountains.

The command offered no other details about the strikes as it stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on civilian harm earlier this year. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” AFRICOM said. ...

The Trump administration has shattered the previous annual record for US airstrikes in Somalia, which President Trump set at 63 back in 2019. For context, President Biden launched a total of 51 airstrikes in Somalia throughout his four years in office, and President Obama launched 48 over eight years. Despite the unprecedented number of US airstrikes this year, there is virtually no media coverage of the air war in US media.

Epstein survivor condemns Trump for calling file release fight a ‘hoax’

A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse has condemned Donald Trump for dismissing the victims’ fight for transparency as a “hoax”. Shortly after signing a bill to release the Epstein files, the US president posted a lengthy social media rant accusing Democrats of weaponising the scandal against him.

Danielle Bensky, 39, who was abused by Epstein as a teenager, said: “[Trump] made something very political out of something that could have been really a beautiful moment for our history and for women and for survivors everywhere. “He is sort of missing the point entirely because this really should have been a day to celebrate all the achievements of all the survivors that led the charge in this.”

In Trump’s rambling message on Truth Social on Wednesday night, he failed to mention Epstein’s victims and instead used the moment to attack his political opponents, saying: “This latest Hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have!”

Bensky said Trump’s comments had undermined the tireless campaigning of the women abused by Epstein, such as Maria Farmer, Chauntae Davies and Virginia Giuffre, who killed herself in April. “He’s used the word ‘hoax’ more times than we can count. It’s incredibly disrespectful. At every turn, no matter how many of us have come forward,” said Bensky. ...

“We’ve put so much time and effort into talking to congressional leaders, we’ve been talking to senators, we’ve done everything we possibly can and it feels a lot like America is on our side and has really heard us. What a beautiful moment for American democracy and instead [Trump] chooses to just make it divisive … It’s a double-edged sword,” Bensky said.

Major MAGA Accounts Based In Third World

Many prominent Maga personalities on X are based outside US, new tool reveals

Many of the most influential personalities in the “Make America great again” (Maga) movement on X are based outside of the US, including Russia, Nigeria and India, a new transparency feature on the social media site has revealed. The new tool, called “about this account,” became available on Friday to users of the Elon Musk-owned platform. It allows anyone to see where an account is located, when it joined the platform, how often its username has been changed, and how the X app was downloaded.

As soon as the update was rolled out, users found numerous Maga and rightwing influencers who presented themselves as patriotic Americans were operating from other countries. ...

The account MAGANationX, with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading “Patriot Voice for We The People”, is actually operated from eastern Europe, according to the Daily Beast. Another popular profile, IvankaNews, an Ivanka Trump fan account with around one million followers that frequently posts about illegal immigration, Islam and support for Trump, was revealed to be based in Nigeria. Another user also uncovered several additional cases. Dark Maga, a smaller account with roughly 15,000 followers, is run from Thailand. MAGA Scope, which has more than 51,000 followers, operates out of Nigeria, while MAGA Beacon is based in south Asia. ...

Bots spreading misinformation and propaganda has been a long-running problem on Twitter, a problem that has been significantly exacerbated since Musk bought it in October 2022 and then renamed it X. Its AI chatbot, Grok, has also been found to frequently make and amplify false claims.

US senator slams Republicans’ silence on Trump’s violent threats to Democrats

Senator Mark Kelly on Sunday urged congressional Republicans to publicly reject Trump’s threats against him and five other Democratic lawmakers who stated that military personnel are not obligated to follow illegal commands. “We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the United States Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress,” Kelly, of Arizona, said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Kelly noted that both Donald Trump and Republican legislators had previously asked Democrats to moderate their language after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September, asking: “What happened to that?” “His words carry tremendous weight, more so than anybody else in the country, and he should be aware of that, and because of what he says, there is now increased threats against us,” Kelly said of Trump’s accusations.

Earlier in the week, Kelly and five other Democratic members of Congress released a video on X directed toward active-duty military and intelligence workers, stating: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.” All six participants have backgrounds in military or intelligence service. Kelly spent 25 years in the navy.

Trump reacted on social media on Thursday, writing that the lawmakers should be arrested and tried for “seditious behavior”. In another post, he declared “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and reposted a message saying “HANG THEM, GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!”

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Mamdani reiterates Trump is a ‘fascist’ just days after cordial meeting

Zohran Mamdani has reiterated his view that Donald Trump is a “fascist” and a “despot” just days after the pair had a surprisingly cordial meeting at the White House. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the New York City mayor-elect was asked if he still considered Trump a threat to democracy. “Everything that I’ve said in the past I continue to believe,” Mamdani replied. “I think it is important in our politics that we don’t shy away from where we have disagreements.”

Given the intense rhetoric Trump has used against Mamdani in recent months, including calling him a “communist lunatic”, the White House meeting was highly anticipated and expected to be contentious. Instead, it produced warm words, with Trump even saying, “I feel very confident that he can do a good job” and adding, “I think he’s going to surprise some conservative people, actually.”

The pair agreed to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns, and bonded over a mutual love for New York. “We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.

“It was a conversation where we spoke about the need to deliver on this agenda,” Mamdani told NBC on Sunday, saying that he appreciated how the president took the time to tour him around the cabinet and point out the portraits of previous presidents. “We were not shy about the places of disagreement about the politics that has brought us to this moment and we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on.”

Trump Zohran LOVE AFFAIR Continues With Policy Embrace

Supreme court blocks order that found Texas congressional map was likely racially biased

The US supreme court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas’s 2026 congressional redistricting plan pushed by Donald Trump likely discriminated on the basis of race.

The order, signed by Justice Samuel Alito, will remain in place at least for the next few days while the court considers whether to allow the new map, which is favorable to Republicans, to be used in the midterm elections.

The court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.

The order came about an hour after the state called on the high court to intervene to avoid confusion as congressional primary elections approach in March. The justices have blocked past lower-court rulings in congressional redistricting cases, most recently in Alabama and Louisiana, that came several months before elections.

The order was signed by Alito because he is the justice who handles emergency appeals from Texas.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes SURPRISE RESIGNATION ANNOUNCEMENT

Politicians shocked by Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise resignation announcement

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise resignation from Congress late on Friday, saying she refused to be a “battered wife” following her public fallout with Donald Trump, has been slammed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman and Greene’s frequent sparring partner. “She’s carefully timing her departure just 1-2 days after her pension kicks in,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement on her Instagram account, and criticized her voting record on healthcare.

Greene abruptly resigned from Congress, effective 5 January, in a 10-minute video post outlining her unhappiness with Republicans on issues including the public release of the Jeffrey Epstein files in the government’s possession, US financing of foreign conflicts, Trump’s decision to potentially back a candidate against her, and the cost of living and healthcare.

After her service to Trump, she said she objected to being “expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me”.

“I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better,” Greene said.

But Ocasio-Cortez said Greene “is saying a lot but her ACTIONS have not backed up the rhetoric. For all her talk, she’s STILL voting with them to gut healthcare … ” Greene voted in the summer for cuts to Medicaid and the reduction of enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, but then in October criticized the ACA cuts as premiums soared.

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End of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoff

The world edged a small step closer to the end of the fossil fuel era on Saturday, but not by nearly enough to stave off the ravages of climate breakdown. Countries meeting in Brazil for two weeks could manage only a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase-out of fossil fuels, and they achieved this incremental progress only in the teeth of implacable opposition from oil-producing countries.

The talks were hauled back from the brink of collapse in an all-night session into Saturday morning, after a bitter standoff between a coalition of more than 80 developed and developing countries, and a group led by Saudi Arabia and its allies plus Russia.

There was disappointment from campaigners, but relief that the talks had produced at least some progress. Developing countries achieved part of their goal at the global talks, which was a tripling of the financial support available from rich countries to help them adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis. They should receive $120bn (£92bn) a year for adaptation, from the $300bn developed countries pledged to them last year, but not until 2035, instead of the 2030 deadline they were demanding. Many had also hoped the increase would be on top of the $300bn.

A roadmap to the halting of deforestation was dropped from the final deal, a bitter disappointment for nature advocates at this “rainforest Cop” held in Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon River.

The agreement among 194 countries – excluding the US, which did not send a delegation – was reached in the early morning after 12 hours of nonstop extra-time talks among ministers in deserted conference halls, and completed at a closing meeting at 1.35pm, after negotiations were hauled back from the brink of collapse on Friday evening.

Climate Talks End With ‘Empty Deal’ That Fails on Forests, Finance, and Fossil Fuels

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, concluded on Saturday in Belém, Brazil with a deal that does not even include the words "fossil fuels"—the burning of which scientists agree is the primary cause of the climate crisis.

Environmental and human rights advocates expressed disappointment in the final Global Mutirão decision, which they say failed to deliver road maps to transition away from oil, gas, and coal and to halt deforestation—another important driver of the rise in global temperatures since the preindustrial era.

“This is an empty deal," said Nikki Reisch, the Center for International Environmental Law's (CIEL) director of climate and energy program. "COP30 provides a stark reminder that the answers to the climate crisis do not lie inside the climate talks—they lie with the people and movements leading the way toward a just, equitable, fossil-free future. The science is settled and the law is clear: We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and make polluters pay."

COP30 was notable in that it was the first international climate conference to which the US did not send a formal delegation, following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement. Yet, even without a Trump administration presence, observers were disappointed in the power of fossil fuel-producing countries to derail ambition. The final document also failed to heed the warning of a fire that broke out in the final days of the talks, which many saw as a symbol for the rapid heating of the Earth.

“The venue bursting into flames couldn’t be a more apt metaphor for COP30’s catastrophic failure to take concrete action to implement a funded and fair fossil fuel phaseout,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Even without the Trump administration there to bully and cajole, petrostates once again shut down meaningful progress at this COP. These negotiations keep hitting a wall because wealthy nations profiting off polluting fossil fuels fail to offer the needed financial support to developing countries and any meaningful commitment to move first.”

The talks on a final deal nearly broke down between Friday and Saturday as a coalition of more than 80 countries who favored more ambitious language faced off against fossil fuel-producing nations like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and India.

During the dispute, Colombia's delegate said the deal "falls far short of reflecting the magnitude of the challenges that parties—especially the most vulnerable—are confronting on the ground," according to BBC News.

Finally, a deal was struck around 1:35 pm local time, The Guardian reported. The deal circumvented the fossil fuel debate by affirming the "United Arab Emirates Consensus," referring to when nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at COP28 in the UAE. In addition, COP President André Corrêa do Lago said that stronger language on the fossil fuel transition could be negotiated at an interim COP in six months.

On deforestation, the deal similarly restated the COP26 pledge to halt tree felling by 2030 without making any new plans or commitments.

Climate justice advocates were also disappointed in the finance commitments from Global North to Global South countries. While wealthier countries pledged to triple adaptation funds to $120 billion per year, many saw the amount as insufficient, and the funds were promised by 2035, not 2030 as poorer countries had wanted.

"We must reflect on what was possible, and what is now missing: the road maps to end forest destruction, and fossil fuels, and an ongoing lack of finance," Greenpeace Brazil executive director Carolina Pasquali told The Guardian. "More than 80 countries supported a transition away from fossil fuels, but they were blocked from agreeing on this change by countries that refused to support this necessary and urgent step. More than 90 countries supported improved protection of forests. That too did not make it into the final agreement. Unfortunately, the text failed to deliver the scale of change needed.”

Climate campaigners did see hope in the final agreement's strong language on human rights and its commitment to a just transition through the Belém Action Mechanism, which aims to coordinate global cooperation toward protecting workers and shifting to clean energy.

“It’s a big win to have the Belém Action Mechanism established with the strongest-ever COP language around Indigenous and worker rights and biodiversity protection,” Su said. “The BAM agreement is in stark contrast to this COP’s total flameout on implementing a funded and fair fossil fuel phaseout.”

Oxfam Brasil executive director Viviana Santiago struck a similar note, saying: “COP30 offered a spark of hope but far more heartbreak, as the ambition of global leaders continues to fall short of what is needed for a livable planet. People from the Global South arrived in Belém with hope, seeking real progress on adaptation and finance, but rich nations refused to provide crucial adaptation finance. This failure leaves the communities at the frontlines of the climate crisis exposed to the worst impacts and with few options for their survival."

A Month After Trump Doubles Down on Atrazine, WHO Dubs It ‘Probably Carcinogenic to Humans’

Just a month after the Trump administration doubled down on the alleged safety of atrazine, a United Nations agency said on Friday that the pesticide—which is banned by dozens of countries but commonly used on corn, sugarcane, and sorghum in the United States—probably causes cancer.

"It is outrageously irresponsible that we still allow use of this dangerous poison in the United States," said Nathan Donley, the Center for Biological Diversity's environmental health science director, in a Friday statement. "This finding is just the latest indictment of the industry-controlled US pesticide oversight process that is failing to protect people and wildlife from chemicals linked to numerous health harms."

Research into and alarm over atrazine have mounted since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer initially concluded in 1999 that it was not classifiable as carcinogenic to humans. IACR has now announced new findings for atrazine and alachlor, another herbicide widely used on crops, as well as the agricultural fungicide vinclozolin.

Of the three, only atrazine was previously examined by IARC. From October 28 to November 4, a working group of 22 international experts from a dozen countries met in France to evaluate the carcinogenicity of pesticides. They classified vinclozolin as "possibly carcinogenic to humans, and both alachlor and atrazine as "probably carcinogenic to humans."

The latter two decisions were based on a combination of limited evidence for cancer in humans, sufficient evidence for cancer in animals, and strong mechanistic evidence in experimental systems. IARC said that "for atrazine, positive associations have been observed for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that is positive for the chromosomal translocation t(14;18)."

The results of the IARC Monographs evaluation of 3 pesticides – the herbicides atrazine & alachlor & the fungicide vinclozolin – have now been published in @TheLancetOncol.
The summary article presents the conclusions of IARC Monographs Meeting 140.https://t.co/IrNZCuf8v1 pic.twitter.com/XWsCJbpQOt

— IARC (@IARCWHO) November 21, 2025

A couple of weeks before that IARC meeting, the Trump administration sparked outrage with a US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) draft opinion claiming that atrazine does not pose an extinction risk to a single protected animal or plant.

That draft opinion came as President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were already under fire for the second Make America Healthy Again report. After the first MAHA publication noted concerns regarding pesticides, even naming atrazine, agribusiness lobbyists confronted the administration, and the following document ultimately featured pesticide industry talking points.

The second report's "only mention of pesticides is an Orwellian promise to ensure 'confidence in EPA's robust pesticide review procedures'—procedures courts have repeatedly found unlawful and that frontline communities know cannot be trusted," the Center for Food Safety said after its September release. "Instead, it says that it will speed up pesticide approval and it will 'partner' with the pesticide industry to 'educate' the public about the 'robust review' of EPA's regulation of pesticides to provide the public with 'confidence.'"

Then came the USFWS draft, which Center for Food Safety senior attorney Sylvia Wu said "makes clear that despite the rhetoric of MAHA, there will be no robust review of the dangers of pesticides by the Trump administration... Instead, a toxic poison like atrazine will continue to contaminate our lands and waters, making our children sick for decades to come."

Wu's group has long been critical of atrazine. During the first Trump administration, it was part of a coalition that sued over the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2020 reapproval of the herbicide. So was the Center for Biological Diversity—which was also angered by the USFWS document, with Donley calling it "an absolute joke."

Donley took aim at the Trump administration again on Friday, after IACR announced its new classification for atrazine.

"Despite its rhetoric to the contrary, there is no better friend of atrazine than the Trump administration," he said. "Hiding behind the rhetoric of MAHA, EPA reapproval of a poison that's likely to keep Americans sick for generations is moving ahead full steam."

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Also of Interest

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

What the US Founders Feared Most

Jonathan Cook: Breaking Out of Media Group-Think

Jeffrey Epstein Claimed to Have Meddled in Israel’s Elections

Yet Another Dead-on-Arrival Ukraine Peace Scheme: Leaked 28 Point Plan Predictably Unable to Reconcile Irreconcilable Positions

Kellogg Fired Over Leaking 28-Point Plan – Proposal Designed To Trap Putin

“Never Again” Only Means Jews! – Zionist Fmr Obama Staffer Sarah Hurwitz

The Craziest Thing Trump Has Ever Said About The Palestinians!

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A Little Night Music

Billy The Kid Emerson - Move Baby Move

Billy The Kid Emerson - Red Hot

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - When It Rains It Pours

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - The Pleasure Is All Mine

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - Satisfied (Feel So Good)

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - The Woodchuck

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - Little Fine Healthy Thing

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - No Teasing Around

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - If Lovin' s Believing

Billy "The Kid" Emerson - Shim Sham Shimmy

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