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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: J.J. Cale

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Oklahoma songwriter and guitarist J.J. Cale. Enjoy!

^{J.J. Cale – Call Me The Breeze}

"Whenever I catch myself wondering if I’ve been too hard on the Democrats I re-watch last year’s video of DNC attendees covering their ears and mocking activists reading the names of children who’d been murdered in Gaza.

When they’re not in power it’s easy to forget how evil these people are."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

The Empire Is Scrambling To Fully Dominate Latin America

US forces have seized an oil tanker carrying some 1.8 million barrels of oil from Venezuela to Cuba as part of its ongoing series of warmongering escalations against the Maduro government.

When asked what would be done with the oil, President Trump told the press, “We keep it, I guess.”

Meanwhile Chuck Schumer is refusing to oppose Trump’s regime change interventionism against Venezuela, and CNN just had former US intelligence official Beth Sanner on to proclaim that the Trump administration’s act of piracy “is absolutely normal.” So Trump’s ostensible opposition in the political-media class are putting absolutely no inertia on this.

The US pirating a Cuba-bound oil tanker from Venezuela illustrates how the empire is hurrying to shore up control over Latin America in the same way the US and Israel are quickly shoring up control over the middle east. There’s a window of opportunity to shove through a bunch of pre-existing military agendas in both regions, and they’re aggressively seizing it before their attention has to turn to bigger geopolitical fish.

You often hear US imperialists saying that obtaining regime change in Venezuela will help achieve it in Cuba as well; Senator Rick Scott recently told 60 Minutes that if Maduro is successfully ousted “it’ll be the end of Cuba,” and that “America is gonna take care of the southern hemisphere and make sure there’s freedom and democracy.”

Stealing the oil hurts both Cuba and Venezuela, who are the two primary enemies of the US empire in the Americas because of their strongly socialist governments. They got a right wing government into Bolivia
this year, and now they’re hurrying to push regime change in Caracas and Havana while they’ve got a right wing tyrant in office with a gusano secretary of state
. The hope is to force the entirety of Latin America into full alignment with the empire before Trump leaves office. I have no idea if they’ll succeed.

Tucker VISITS GAZA REFUGEES, Slams Israel For "MASS MURDER"

Cold Weather Kills Baby in Flooded Gaza Tent as UN Warns of Crisis for Mothers and Children

Over two years into Israel's genocidal assault on and blockade of the Gaza Strip, the death toll continued to rise on Thursday, with local health officials and relatives confirming that 8-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar died of exposure after floodwaters hit her family's tent in Khan Younis.

Her death came as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory continued to sound the alarm about conditions for mothers and children, including infants like Abu Jazar.

As CNN reported Thursday:

Weeping and caressing the lifeless Rahaf in her arms, the baby's mother, Hejar Abu Jazar, kept ululating in despair. She said she had fed her daughter the previous night.

"She was completely fine. I breastfed her last night. Then all of a sudden, I found her freezing and shivering. She was healthy, my sweetheart," she cried.

"When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly," the mother told Reuters. "There was nothing wrong with her. Oh, the fire in my heart, the fire in my heart, oh my life."

The 8-month-old infant, Rahaf Abu Jazar, has tragically died in Khan Younis due to the severe cold.

As Gaza endures brutal winter conditions with no proper shelter, hospitals warn that more children are at risk of hypothermia, especially as families remain exposed to freezing… pic.twitter.com/tBB4krSgj9

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 11, 2025

Citing municipal and civil defense officials, the news agency also noted that the storm flooded most tent encampments across Gaza, leading to thousands of calls for help that largely went unanswered due to fuel shortages and damage to equipment such as bulldozers tied to Israel's blockade and bombardment of the exclave since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.

After more than two years of war, Hamas and Israel struck a ceasefire deal this past October, though hundreds of alleged Israeli violations have resulted in at least 383 Palestinian deaths and 1,002 injuries. As of Thursday, the Gaza Ministry of Health put the totals at 70,373 dead and 171,079 injured, though with thousands missing, those are likely undercounts.

In addition to killing over 70,000 Palestinians, Israel "has also damaged or destroyed 94% of Gaza's hospitals, largely denying women access to essential healthcare, including reproductive healthcare," the UN Human Rights Office noted in a Thursday statement. "The Israeli blockade has also prevented the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including medical supplies and nutrients required to sustain pregnancies and ensure safe childbirth."

"As a result, women were three times more likely to die from childbirth and three times more likely to miscarry in Gaza by October 2024 compared to before October 7, 2023," the office said. "Newborn deaths have increased, including at least 21 babies who died on their first day of life as of June 30, 2025. And births have dropped by a staggering 41% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2022."

Malnutrition is threatening newborn babies in Gaza.

Some infants do not survive in the barely functioning neonatal units.

Those who do survive face severe malnutrition and lifelong medical issues.

The ongoing killing and harming of children must stop immediately. pic.twitter.com/SDczPtuBTC

— UNICEF Ireland (@unicefireland) December 9, 2025

Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, an American gynecologist, told the UN office about her experience volunteering in July at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest medical facility in southern Gaza.

"As we did our rounds, bombs were going off in the background. One time, a nurse was shot in the head through the window in Nasser," she said. "Sometimes quadcopters would come in and try to shoot nurses or literally chase them through the hospital corridors."

"I cared for pregnant women who had been shot in various locations, including the abdomen," the doctor continued. "Many women were simply too injured to survive. If their injuries did not claim their lives, then sepsis often did, as there were not enough medical supplies or antibiotics to treat the preventable infections that followed."

"Almost every pregnant woman I treated who had other children said she had already lost a child in the war," Sleemi added. "The collective pain and sorrow were overwhelming and ever-present."

Some of them have died of hunger. While speaking with reporters at UN headquarters in Geneva earlier this week, Tess Ingram, UNICEF communication manager, highlighted how the hunger crisis in Gaza is impacting mothers and young kids.

"At least 165 children are reported to have died painful, preventable deaths related to malnutrition during the war," Ingram said. "But far less reported has been the scale of malnutrition among pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the devastating domino effect that has had on thousands of newborns."

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within a protected group is an act of genocide. UNICEF data reveals that, between July-September, newborn mortality had increased 75% in Gaza. 141 babies died on the day they were born. https://t.co/3qKXsinVMI pic.twitter.com/O43o23owVd

— Heidi Matthews (@Heidi__Matthews) December 11, 2025

"The pattern is clear—malnourished mothers, giving birth to underweight or premature babies, who die in Gaza's neonatal intensive care units or survive, only to face malnutrition themselves or potential lifelong medical complications," she continued, recalling some of the newborns she saw in the strip's hospitals, "their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive."

Ingram stressed that "low birth weight infants are about 20 times more likely to die than infants of normal weight. They need special care, which many of the hospitals in Gaza have struggled to provide due to the destruction of the health system, the death and displacement of staff, and impediments by Israeli authorities that prevented some essential medical supplies from entering the strip."

She also shared the story of meeting a mother at a neonatal intensive care unit in Gaza City two weeks ago. The woman, Fatma, was there to see her baby, Mohammed, who was born premature and weighed only 3.3 pounds.

According to Ingram:

Fatma told me that unlike her first pregnancy, when she had access to antenatal checkups, vitamins, and nutritious food, "this pregnancy has been full of displacement, lack of food, malnutrition, war, and fear." She said she was malnourished for three months of the pregnancy, displaced three times, and her young daughter and husband were killed, two months apart, by airstrikes.

I have spent many months in Gaza over the past two years, and I see and hear the generational impacts of the conflict on mothers and their infants almost every day; in hospitals, nutrition clinics, and family tents. It is less visible than blood or injury, but it is ubiquitous. It is everywhere.

I have lost count of the number of parents like Fatma who have sobbed while telling me what happened to them, wrecked by how powerless they are to protect their children in the face of indiscriminate destruction and deprivation. Generations of families, including those born into the ceasefire, have been forever altered by what was inflicted upon them.

"And the fear must end," she declared. "This ceasefire should offer families safety, not more loss. More than 70 children have been killed in the eight weeks since the ceasefire began. The ongoing attacks and the killing of children must stop immediately."

Trump To Appoint US General To Lead Gaza ‘International Stabilization Force’

President Trump is planning to appoint a two-star US general to lead the international force that may be deployed to Gaza under the US ceasefire deal, Axios reported on Thursday, a step that would mark a significant escalation of US involvement in the Palestinian territory, which has been destroyed by Israel.

Trump’s plan calls for the establishment of what’s being called an “International Stabilization Force,” and the idea is for the ISF to replace IDF troops who are currently occupying more than 50% of Gaza and continuing to kill Palestinians. But it’s unclear if the force will materialize as countries initially willing to participate are hesitant over concerns that their troops could end up fighting Hamas on behalf of Israel.

Playing into those fears, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said on Wednesday, while visiting Israel, that the ISF will be tasked with disarming Hamas. “The stabilization force in the Security Council resolution is authorized to [disarm Hamas]. We specifically put language in there that said, ‘by all means necessary.’ That’ll be a conversation with each country,” Waltz told Israel’s Channel 12.

“[Conversations on the] rules of engagement [for the ISF] are ongoing… President Trump has repeatedly said, Hamas will disarm one way or another — the easy way or the hard way,” he added.

Ms Rachel THREATENED

How long can Starmer ignore the Palestine Action hunger strike?

New Low for Fetterman: Senator Privately Urged Pardon for Netanyahu

US Sen. John Fetterman recently asked Israel's president to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is on trial in his country for alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust—Talking Points Memo revealed on Thursday.

In a previously unreported December 2 letter sent to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and obtained by TPM, Fetterman (D-Pa.) asserted, “In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room."

“I believe there is a strong case to be made for a pardon—not to erase the past, but to secure the future," Fetterman added.

Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump have also asked Herzog to pardon the beleaguered Israeli prime minister, who in addition to facing domestic criminal charges is also a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

Fetterman has taken more than $370,000 in campaign contributions from the pro-Israel lobby, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to AIPAC Tracker. He has been an ardent supporter of Israel's US-backed genocidal war on Gaza, which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.

In addition to repeatedly opposing calls by progressive members of his own party for an arms embargo on Israel, Fetterman has amplified Israeli claims regarding the war, and even giddily accepted a silver-plated beeper gifted by Netanyahu following the September 2024 pager bombings that killed at least 20 people in Lebanon, including children.

Asked Thursday about his letter to Herzog, Fetterman said, "I fully support it" and called the TPM's reporting "a pointless distraction."

“I know you guys use things like leaks, but I don’t know who did that," he told TPM reporters Kate Riga and Josh Kovensky, who broke news of the letter.

Responding to theTPM article, Israeli journalist Etan Nechin said on social media that "for someone who claims to care about hostages, going to bat for a leader who sacrificed them for his own political survival... is the height of cynicism"—a reference to allegations that Netanyahu prolonged the war, and thus the release of the more than 250 Israelis and others abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 attack, in order to delay his corruption trial.

INTEL Roundtable : Weekly Wrap 12-DEC

EU crosses RUBICON, permanent asset FREEZE. Falls into Russia's trap

US engaging in ‘extreme rightwing tropes’ reminiscent of 1930s, British MPs warn

The US is engaging in “extreme rightwing tropes” with echoes of the 1930s and threatening “chilling” interference in European democracies, British MPs warned ministers on Thursday. The House of Commons rounded on Donald Trump’s national security strategy, which stated that Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and vowed to help the continent “correct its current trajectory and promote patriotic European parties”.

Matt Western, a Labour MP and chair of parliament’s joint committee on the UK government’s national security strategy, said: “The United States consensus that has led the western world since the second world war appears shattered. “The prospect of United States interference in the democratic politics of Europe, I believe, is chilling … The absence of condemnation for Russia is extraordinary, though not surprising.” He said the US pivot left the UK “especially vulnerable”.

Liam Byrne, another Labour MP and chair of the business select committee, said it was “not hard to see the rhymes with some extreme rightwing tropes which date back to the 1930s” and called for closer defence cooperation with Europe. Keir Starmer and his ministers have been cautious not to criticise Trump and have sought to play down the implications of the strategy document.

Col. Larry Wilkerson & Amb. Chas Freeman: The U.S. Just Triggered a Chain Reaction It Can’t Reverse

Trump expands Venezuela sanctions as Maduro decries new ‘era of piracy’

Donald Trump has exerted more pressure on Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, expanding sanctions and issuing fresh threats to strike land targets in Venezuela, as the South American dictator accused the US president of ushering in a new “era of criminal naval piracy” in the Caribbean.

Late on Thursday, the US imposed curbs on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil supertankers and the shipping companies linked to them. The treasury department alleged the vessels “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.

The targeted vessels recently loaded crude oil in Venezuela, according to state oil company PDVSA’s internal shipping documents. Four of the tankers are Panama-flagged, with the other two flagged by the Cook Islands and Hong Kong. In comments on Thursday night, Trump also repeated his threat to soon begin strikes on suspected narcotics shipments making their way via land from Venezuela to the US.

The comments come after the US seized a “dark fleet” tanker named the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela, sparking concerns among some US lawmakers that Trump is “sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela”. On Thursday, Maduro responded to the seizure, saying at a presidential event: “They kidnapped the crew, stole the ship and have inaugurated a new era, the era of criminal naval piracy in the Caribbean.” He added that “Venezuela will secure all ships to guarantee the free trade of its oil around the world.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US would take the Skipper to a US port. “The vessel will go to a US port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” Leavitt said during a briefing. “However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”

Scott Ritter: US Tanker Seizure DESTROYS Trump's Venezuela War, Russia Steps In

US lawmakers condemn seizure of Venezuelan oil tanker: ‘Trump is sleepwalking us into a war’

Senior Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican have condemned Wednesday’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker off the nation’s coast, with one saying Donald Trump is “sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela”. There is growing, at least somewhat bipartisan unease in Washington over the administration’s escalating military posture in the region. Trump has accused Venezuela of facilitating drug trafficking, and increased the US military presence in the Caribbean to a level not seen in decades. ...

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who serves on the Senate foreign relations committee, said the tanker seizure indicated the administration was being dishonest about its military operations in the region. “This shows that their whole cover story – that this is about interdicting drugs – is a big lie,” Van Hollen said. “This is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change – by force.”

Rand Paul, a Republican senator of Kentucky, told NewsNation that “seizing someone’s oil tanker is an initiation of war” and questioned whether “it’s the job of the American government to go looking for monsters around the world, looking for adversaries and beginning wars”.

Chris Coons, a Democratic senator, said he was also alarmed at the administration’s actions, telling the station: “I have no idea why the president is seizing an oil tanker and I’m fairly gravely concerned that he’s sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela.” Mark Warner, also a Democratic senator, highlighted what he characterized as inconsistent priorities, posting on social media: “So they can seize an oil tanker, but not a drug boat?” ...

In November, when Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command condemned it as a “blatant violation of international law” that undermined freedom of navigation and commerce.

25 years ago, Chuck Schumer and Susan Collins both voted to send me and friends to kill and die in Iraq.

Apparently neither of them have learned a thing.

Regime change didn’t work in Iraq, and it won’t work in Venezuela. https://t.co/G73vB6yHy5

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) December 11, 2025

‘The whole thing disgusts me’: Australians ditch US travel as new rules require social media to be declared

Australians are abandoning travel to the US, and boycotting World Cup matches there next year, as the Trump administration flags new rules that will soon require visitors to hand over their social media history when applying to enter the country.

In a notice published on Tuesday, the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) said tourists to the US from 42 countries including Australia would have to reveal all of their social media activity over the past five years under the new rules, which are up for a 60-day review before coming into effect. It would be a part of the application for a visa waiver under the ESTA application process.

The rules were drawn up in response to an executive order made by Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration in January which purported to “protect” the US from visitors, instructing that visas should be denied to anyone with “hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles”.

Australian tourists have described the US mandate to sweep social media posts, as well as collect comprehensive “high-value data” on family members such as phone numbers, dates of birth and residencies, as “horrifying” and “draconian”. But travel data reveals Australians were already avoiding the US before the detailed rules were announced. They have changed travel plans to avoid entering the US and even moved reunions with family members to other countries.

In 2019, the last free year of travel before the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered borders across the world, more than 100,000 Australians would regularly arrive in the US each month. That figure is now consistently in the low 50,000s, and below 50,000 for the first time last month, figures from the US department of commerce show. The number of Australians arriving in the US in November fell to just 45,408, 11% lower than the same month last year.

Trump administration creates new militarized zone in California along southern US border

The US’s southern border is poised to become more militarized following an announcement by Trump administration officials that armed forces would now oversee 760 acres of public land for a three-year period. The US Department of Interior said in a statement that jurisdiction over this acreage – located in California’s San Diego and Imperial counties – would be transferred to the US navy “to establish a National Defense Area to support ongoing border security operations”.

“President Trump has made it clear that securing our border and restoring American sovereignty are top national priorities,” said Doug Burgum, the US interior secretary. “This action delivers on that commitment.”

“By working with the navy to close long-standing security gaps, we are strengthening national defense, protecting our public lands from unlawful use, and advancing the President’s agenda to put the safety and security of the American people first,” he said.

The region spans from the western edge of the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area to approximately one mile west of the California–Arizona border. Trump officials claim that this area is among “the highest traffic regions for unlawful crossings along the southern border, creating significant national security challenges and contributing to environmental degradation”.

Expansive portions of the border region have been deemed militarized zones since April. This designation permits US military members to capture migrants and those whom they allege are illegally on US army, navy or air force bases, according to the Associated Press. The militarization zone classification also enables more criminal charges which, in turn, could mean greater prison terms. AP notes that more than 7,000 service members have been sent to the US border, as well as military surveillance equipment.

Rep. Delia Ramirez on ICE "Terror" & Her Push to Impeach Kristi Noem as DHS Chief

Kilmar Ábrego García released from ICE custody in fight over Trump immigration

Kilmar Ábrego García has been freed from an immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania after a federal judge in Maryland ordered his release on Thursday. Ábrego was released shortly before 5pm ET, his attorney told the Associated Press. He plans to return to Maryland, where he has lived for many years with his US citizen wife and child after first entering the country illegally as a teenager.

His lawyer added that he does not yet know what will happen next but is ready to continue fighting any additional deportation attempts on his client’s behalf.

The Maryland judge’s decision followed a habeas petition filed by Ábrego and his legal team, arguing that the federal government lacked authority to keep him in custody because no final deportation order had been issued. The ruling marks a significant legal win for Ábrego, whose previous wrongful deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador turned him into a symbol of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) strongly condemned the judge’s decision and announced plans to appeal, labeling the ruling as “naked judicial activism”.

Totally hilarious:

Wow. Just a complete admission here that the entire ‘Antifa’ threat narrative is totally manufactured by this administration. https://t.co/MzQw4pVOFR

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 11, 2025

Larry C. Johnson: A Twist in the Charlie Kirk Story - Is the U.S. Shifting Power?

Trump signs executive order blocking states from regulating AI

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that seeks to halt any laws limiting artificial intelligence and block states from regulating the rapidly emerging technology. The order also creates a federal taskforce that will have the “sole responsibility” of challenging states’ AI laws.

At a signing ceremony, the president touted AI companies’ enthusiasm for wanting to “invest” in the United States and said that “if they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you could forget it”.

Republicans earlier this year failed to pass a similar 10-year moratorium on state laws that regulate AI as part of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with the Senate voting 99-1 to remove that ban from the legislation. Trump’s order resurrects that effort, which failed after bipartisan pushback and Republican infighting, but as an order that lacks the force of law. ...

Trump’s order has received pushback from state leaders across the country and various civil liberties groups. They say this order will lead to more power in the hands of Silicon Valley companies and that, in turn, more vulnerable people and children will be exposed to the harms of chatbots, surveillance and algorithmic control.

“Trump’s campaign to threaten, harass and punish states that seek to pass commonsense AI regulations is just another chapter in his playbook to hand over control of one of the most transformative technologies of our time to big tech CEOs,” said Teri Olle, the vice-president of Economic Security California Action, which co-sponsored AI safety legislation in California this year. “This is not about allowing for American innovation.”

Senate rejects dual healthcare bills as Obamacare tax credits expiration nears

The US Senate on Thursday rejected competing proposals to address the imminent expiration of subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans, greatly increasing the chances that healthcare costs will soon rise to unaffordable levels for millions of Americans.

The votes, part of a deal brokered between Republican majority leader John Thune and the Democratic senators who agreed to reopen the government after a historically long shutdown last month, came as premium tax credits for an estimated 21.8 million enrollees of the plans are set to expire at the end of the month. Health policy research group KFF estimates that annual premiums will more than double if the subsidies are allowed to expire.

A Democratic-backed bill to extend them for three years failed to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance, with 51 votes in favor and 48 against. Four Republicans – Josh Hawley of Missouri, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska – supported it, along with all Democrats. Montana Republican Steve Daines did not vote.

A Republican proposal for the government to make payments into health savings accounts (HSAs) for enrollees of Obamacare, as the law is commonly known, in lieu of the tax credits, was also voted down. All Republicans except Rand Paul of Kentucky voted in support of it, and Daines did not vote.

Leaders from both parties blasted the other’s proposals ahead of the vote, with Thune accusing Democrats of trying to pump money into propping up the Affordable Care Act, which most lawmakers in his party have opposed since its creation in 2010. “Apparently they think that a three-year extension with no reforms, to try and disguise the real impact of Obamacare’s spiraling costs, is actually a plan,” the majority leader said before the vote. Democrats countered by accusing Republicans of not being serious about their promise to lower the cost of living in the United States.

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Indiana Republicans reject effort to redraw voting maps in rebuke to Trump

Indiana Republicans rejected an effort to redraw the state’s congressional map on Thursday, a stunning and blunt rebuke of Donald Trump and Republican efforts to reconfigure the state’s congressional districts to add two more Republican-friendly seats.

The measure failed 19-31, with 21 Republicans joining 10 Democrats in rejecting the new maps.

Republicans currently represent seven of Indiana’s nine congressional districts. The new map would have favored Republicans in all nine districts. It would have accomplished this by carving up the Democratic-stronghold of Indianapolis into four districts and appending a slice of its voters to heavily GOP districts. It would have also split the congressional district in the north-west of the state, currently represented by Frank Mrvan, in two. ...

The push in Indiana came amid a nationwide push by Trump across the country to redraw district lines to add Republican seats ahead of next year’s midterms. Republicans currently hold a razor thin majority in the House and are expected to lose seats. Republicans, in Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri have all redrawn their maps to add Republican seats (organizers in Missouri appear to have successfully deployed a unique legal mechanism to block the maps there). ...

Heritage Action, the advocacy branch of the conservative Heritage Foundation, also posted on Thursday that the state would lose federal funding if it did not pass the map. “President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state. Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame,” the organization posted on Twitter.

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Economic growth no longer linked to carbon emissions in most of the world

The once-rigid link between economic growth and carbon emissions is breaking across the vast majority of the world, according to a study released ahead of Friday’s 10th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The analysis, which underscores the effectiveness of strong government climate policies, shows this “decoupling” trend has accelerated since 2015 and is becoming particularly pronounced among major emitters in the global south.

Countries representing 92% of the global economy have now decoupled consumption-based carbon emissions and GDP expansion, according to the report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Using the latest Global Carbon Budget data, it finds that decoupling is now the norm across advanced economies, with 46% of global GDP in countries that have expanded their economies while cutting emissions, including Brazil, Colombia and Egypt. The most pronounced decouplings occurred in the UK, Norway and Switzerland.

More important is the spectacular shift in China. The world’s biggest emitter is sharply reducing its economic dependence on coal and other fossil fuels. Between 2015 and 2023, China’s consumption-based emissions rose 24%, less than half the growth of its economy (more than 50%). For the past 18 months, its emissions have plateaued and many analysts believe they may have peaked. If China can turn the corner, the rest of the world should follow.

In total, 21 countries have improved in the past decade. Among them are Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Egypt, Italy, Mexico and South Africa – all of which were able to grow economically while reducing emissions.

‘Not normal’: Climate crisis supercharged deadly monsoon floods in Asia

The climate crisis supercharged the deadly storms that killed more than 1,750 people in Asia by making downpours more intense and flooding worse, scientists have reported. Monsoon rains often bring some flooding but the scientists were clear: this was “not normal”.

In Sri Lanka, some floods reached the second floor of buildings, while in Sumatra, in Indonesia, the floods were worsened by the destruction of forests, which in the past slowed rainwater running off hillsides.

Millions of people were affected when Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka and Cyclone Senyar hit Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia in late November, and the events became some of the deadliest weather-related disasters in recent history.

The analysis by World Weather Attribution, a consortium of climate scientists, found the intensity of five-day episodes of heavy rain had increased by 28-160% in the region affected by Cyclone Senyar owing to human-caused global heating. In Sri Lanka, the periods of heavy rain are now between 9% and 50% more intense.

While at least 1,750 people died in the floods and hundreds more remain missing, cyclones also have a wide and enduring impact on health. Recent studies have found deaths from, for example, diabetes and kidney disease increase after such storms. Many people have also lost their homes and their livelihoods, with the poorest affected most.

Sea urchin species on brink of extinction after marine pandemic

A marine pandemic is bringing some species of sea urchin to the brink of extinction, and some populations have disappeared altogether, a study has found. Since 2021, Diadema africanum urchins in the Canary Island archipelago have almost entirely been killed by an unknown disease. There has been a 99.7% population decrease in Tenerife, and a 90% decrease off the islands of the Madeira archipelago.

In the same period, mass deaths have been detected in species from the Red Sea, Mediterranean, Caribbean and western Indian Ocean. Iván Cano, a researcher at the University of La Laguna and author of the study, said: “What we have seen since 2021 is really, really concerning. We are talking about the disappearance of several species in a really short time.”

Sea urchins are remarkable creatures. A relative of the starfish, they breathe through their feet, and while their spikes are a formidable defence against predators, they also provide refuge for smaller marine creatures. They are known as “ecosystem engineers”, and affect their surroundings by grazing on algae, breaking down food for other animals, and acting as food for predators.

By controlling algal growth they promote the survival of hard coral, itself the habitat for thousands of marine species. Their loss has been felt in Caribbean reefs, where coral cover has halved and algal cover increased by 85%.

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Also of Interest

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

Kill Them All

Israel’s Biggest Con Trick: Hiding the True Numbers It Has Killed in Gaza

Hillary Clinton Rebuked as Genocide Denier

Craig Murray: The Troubled Case Against Palestine Action

Putin Doubles Down On Backing Maduro As US Prepares To Seize More Oil Tankers

US Sanctions Six Companies Accused of Transporting Venezuelan Oil as It Prepares More Seizures

Will CentCom Condemn This Blatant Act Of Piracy?

‘Total Amateur Hour’: FBI Official Says Antifa Is #1 Threat in US—But Can’t Say Where, Who, or What It Is

Grand jury again declines to indict Letitia James on mortgage fraud charges

Accused Charlie Kirk killer makes first in-person court appearance

Newly released photos from Epstein estate include images of Trump, Clinton

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A Little Night Music

JJ Cale – Devil In Disguise

J J Cale – I Got The Same Old Blues

J J Cale – If You're Ever In Oklahoma

J.J. Cale – Hey Baby

J J Cale – Going Down

J J Cale – Cajun Moon

J.J. Cale – After Midnight

J J Cale – Soulin'

J.J. Cale – Lou Easy Ann

J.J. Cale – Cocaine

Eric Clapton with J.J. Cale - Further on up the Road

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