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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: James P. Johnson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Stride pianist James P. Johnson. Enjoy!

^{James P. Johnson - Ain't Misbehavin'}

“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!”

-- William Goldman

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News and Opinion

If Israel Gets To Undermine Our Rights, Then We Get To Undermine Israel

You are allowed to subvert and undermine Israel’s interests, because Israel is trying to subvert and undermine your rights.

You are allowed to interfere in Israel’s affairs, because Israel is interfering in your country’s affairs.

As Israel tries to exert more and more influence over western society and pushes western governments to crush our freedom of speech and assembly, we should be doing everything we can to make sure that western society turns against Israel, and that western governments alienate this freakish apartheid state on the world stage.

And we should feel perfectly entitled in doing so, because Israel certainly feels comfortable coming after us and our rights.

If Israel is going after us, then we get to go after Israel. It’s just basic self-defense at this point.

The Israeli embassy in the UK has issued a press statement taking credit for British police arresting protesters who made public calls to “globalize the intifada,” saying the following:

“The Embassy of Israel in the United Kingdom welcomes the joint announcement by the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police forces that they will arrest people promoting the phrase ‘globalise the intifada’.

“As Israel and the Jewish community have been saying for years, calling to ‘globalise the intifada’ is clearly incitement to violence, and a direct line can be drawn between these antisemitic chants and the acts of terror that we have seen against Jewish people worldwide.

“It is disappointing it has taken such a long time for British authorities to recognise this and it should not have been on the Jewish community to plead with the authorities to take these threats seriously, only being done so after more Jews have been killed.

“However, we now hope that real action is now taken to stop this chant before it can lead to further radicalisation and violence against Jews.”

Israel boasting of its ability to force western countries to erode the free speech rights of their own citizens by arresting people who utter phrases Israel dislikes.

In the country that gave birth to the Magna Carta, Israel keeps dictating who gets arrested for their speech: https://t.co/kPocWZVH9L

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 18, 2025

As we have discussed previously, there is nothing murderous or hateful about calling for worldwide resistance to a genocidal apartheid state and the empire that backs it, which is all people are advocating when they call for global intifada. Anyone who claims it’s a call to murder Jewish civilians like we saw last week in Sydney is lying, and is doing so in order to manufacture consent for authoritarian suppression of speech that is critical of Israel.

But we are seeing Israel and its propagandistic defenders in the western political/media class asserting in unison the ridiculous narrative that “globalize the intifada” means “kill all Jews throughout the world”. They are doing this to press governments to crush our civil rights. It is a direct attack on all of us. It’s personal.

Benjamin Netanyahu just appeared on the Murdoch-owned Sky News Australia to finger-wag at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to stomp out anti-genocide protests, which he called “antisemitic incitement”.

“You have to be prepared also to stop these hate marches,” Netanyahu told Murdoch muppet Sharri Markson. “Democracy and freedom is not the freedom to, what is it? The freedom to shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. It’s not the freedom to say ‘kill all the Jews’. It’s not. But that’s effectively what the government of Australia has allowed, and that was bound to reach these tragic outcomes just as I warned Prime Minister Albanese.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes aim at Australians' free speech rights, calling pro-Palestine protests "anti-Semitic incitement."

"You have to be prepared to stop these hate marches!" pic.twitter.com/jLIN5k4CDb

— Chris Menahan (@infolibnews) December 19, 2025

This happens as the Australian Israel lobby gets increasingly explicit about wanting to ban criticism of Israel and stop pro-Palestinian protests throughout the country, and as New South Wales moves to bow to each of these demands with a ban on the phrase “globalise the intifada” and a three-month ban on pro-Palestine protests following the Bondi shooting.

If Israel is working to subvert and undermine the rights of Australians, then Australians are entitled to subvert and undermine the interests of Israel. We should be opposing Israel MORE aggressively as its officials ramp up efforts to push our government to crush our rights, not less. We should be openly and unapologetically working to collapse Canberra’s support for the Zionist entity.

And the same goes for Americans. On top of all the other egregious lobbying efforts and manipulations, the government of Israel is pouring millions of dollars into propaganda operations targeting US churches and Christian organizations in an effort to recapture their wavering conservative Christian base. You can literally be sitting in your own church in your own neighborhood, minding your own business without a screen in sight, and suddenly find yourself getting throat fucked by state propaganda paid for by the Israeli government.

Netanyahu: "I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism“

No person on the planet has done more to fuel the rise in antisemitism than this psychopath. pic.twitter.com/hJQ8N5y296

— Irlandarra (@aldamu_jo) December 17, 2025

Netanyahu has been taking aim at western governments as a whole, arrogantly issuing “demands” from western states that they do more to shut down anti-genocide protests and protect the information interests of Israel, framing it not as a plea but as a “warning”.

“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide. They would be well-advised to heed our warnings. I demand action from them — now,” Netanyahu said in a recent statement.

This is not something westerners need to take lying down. If Israel is trying to subvert and undermine our civil liberties in order to force our society to support genocide and apartheid, then we have every right to do everything we can to subvert and undermine the interests of Israel. They’re attacking our interests, so we get to attack theirs.

Our position should be one of outright hostility and aggression toward the Zionist state, and we should feel completely comfortable and entitled in this position. They’ll call us names and say our governments should silence us, but that’s just them proving that our position is correct. The west’s support for Israel needs to be brought crashing down.

Make it politically toxic to support Israel, or to have any connection to its lobbyists. Make alignment with Israel a career-ending mistake for celebrities. Do everything you can to weaken support for Israel among the western public, sharing as much information and thought on its criminality as you can. Do this completely unabashedly and unapologetically. Israel is coming after you, so you get to go after Israel.

Turn about is fair play. These freaks don’t get to stomp out our rights and poison our society for the advancement of the most evil agendas in the world and then expect zero resistance or opposition to this. That is not a thing.

Max Blumenthal : Netanyahu to Investigate Himself!

"Settler Terrorists": How Israel Uses Homegrown Extremism to Steal Palestinian Land

Israeli society shifts further right as polls show rising hostility towards Palestinians

House Dems Call Out Israel’s ‘Near-Daily Violations’ of Gaza Ceasefire

Dozens of congressional Democrats wrote to the White House on Monday to highlight “the long-standing relationship between the US and Israel,” and urge President Donald Trump “to exert maximum diplomatic pressure” to end the Israeli government’s violations of a ceasefire deal with Hamas that took effect in the Gaza Strip on October 10.

As of Monday, Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israeli forces of 875 ceasefire violations, which have killed 411 Palestinians and injured 1,112 others. The official death toll in the strip since October 7, 2023 is at least 70,937 Palestinians, with another 171,192 wounded, though global experts warn the true figures are likely far higher.

In the letter, Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan (Wis.) and Madeleine Dean (Pa.), along with 45 of their House colleagues, pointed to Israel’s “continued bombardment against civilians, destruction of property, and insufficient delivery of humanitarian aid.”

“It’s imperative that we hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions,” they wrote. “It’s also vital that we hold Hamas accountable for the violent crackdown it has pursued against any potential competitors in Gaza in violation of its commitment as part of the ceasefire to step back from governing the Gaza Strip.”

Under both the Biden and Trump administrations, the US has given Israel more than $20 billion in military aid since it began retaliating for Hamas’ attack over two years ago. The lawmakers on Monday called for Trump to take whatever action needed, “including leveraging US assistance, to ensure full compliance with the terms of the framework and an end to the continued acts of violence and destruction that undermine this fragile agreement and threaten the prospect of lasting peace in the region.”

“We recognize that both Hamas and Israel have committed ceasefire violations... However, we are deeply concerned that the Israeli response to violations by Hamas have been severe and disproportionate, resulting in massive loss of life,” they wrote. For example, “on November 29, the Israeli military killed two brothers, aged 8 and 10, in a drone strike after they crossed into an Israel-controlled area of Gaza, referring to the children as ‘suspects’ in a statement that failed to acknowledge they were children.”

In addition to “attacks by air, artillery, and direct shootings,” the House Democrats highlighted, “since the beginning of the ceasefire, Israeli forces have reportedly destroyed more than 1,500 buildings, many of which did not appear to be damaged prior to being destroyed... These include homes, entire neighborhoods, gardens, and small orchards.”

“We also are gravely concerned that the Israeli government is not allowing sufficient levels of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The ceasefire agreement calls for 600 trucks per day to enter Gaza, but recent reports indicate that far fewer trucks are actually getting through,” they continued. While the global initiative that tracks hunger crises concluded last week that Gaza is no longer facing “famine,” it also stressed that “the situation remains critical” for 1.6 million Palestinians.

The mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza has been a factor in the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice as well as the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, which the Trump administration has retaliated against with sanctions targeting ICC judges.

“Mr. President, this ceasefire agreement is supposed to represent an opportunity for permanent, lasting peace in the region,” the Democrats said Monday. “While the agreement is not perfect, and the proposed peace plan faces many obstacles, we are hopeful that this moment is one that can be met with the conviction needed to end the cycle of bloodshed that has plagued the region for so long.”

“Unfortunately, the near-daily violations of the ceasefire threaten to plunge the region back into full-scale war,” they warned. “It is imperative that your administration exerts maximum diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government, including by leveraging US assistance, to bring an end to the near-daily attacks on civilians, including children, destruction of civilian property, and insufficient delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid.”

Aaron Maté : My Interview With Hamas

Netanyahu To Ask Trump To Support Another Attack on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to ask President Trump to support another US-Israeli war on Iran, according to an NBC News report from Saturday.

The report said that Netanyahu will stress Israel’s concern over Iran’s production of ballistic missiles and will present Trump with options for the US to join or assist Israel with an attack on Iran. Israeli officials are also warning that Iran is reconstituting its nuclear sites that were bombed by the US during the war in June, but that was not their immediate concern.

According to a report from Israel Hayom, Israeli officials are preparing an “intelligence dossier” on Iran to present to Trump. Netanyahu’s office has said the meeting will take place at Mar-a-Lago on December 29, though President Trump suggested last week that it wasn’t finalized, saying, “We haven’t set it up formally, but he’d like to see me.”

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, has been warning that another war with Iran was likely since Israel didn’t achieve all of its goals during its previous attack on the country, pointing to the fact that Iran’s missile strikes forced Israel to agree to a ceasefire quickly. “The June war resulted in mutual deterrence, a situation Iran can accept, but one that is intolerable for Netanyahu and his legacy. Ultimately, the conflict was neither a victory for Israel nor for Iran,” Parsi wrote in Responsible Statecraft on Sunday, responding to the NBC report.

Who’s the Real Criminal at Sea? Trump’s Tanker Grab vs. the Houthis’ Anti-Genocide Blockade

The United States has now intercepted multiple Venezuelan oil tankers as part of its escalating aggression against Venezuela, while also destroying dozens of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific under the banner of “drug enforcement,” killing over 100 people whose identities the U.S. has obscured. At the same time, the Trump administration has threatened a naval blockade of Venezuela—a sovereign country with which the United States is not at war.

How can Washington claim the right to seize or blow up vessels, disrupt maritime trade, and kill civilian boaters—while bombing Yemen and condemning its de facto Houthi government for intercepting ships in the Red Sea to counter Israel’s genocide in Gaza?

This contrast exposes a stark double standard in U.S. policy. The U.S. government labelled the Houthis’ actions as “terrorism”, piracy, and a threat to U.S. national security, even as the Houthi government presented plausible legal justifications for its actions based on the laws of war. But Washington has tried to normalize—or even glorify—its own attacks on tankers, pineros (ferries or water-taxis) and fishing boats, which violate the most basic principles of international law.

Beginning in November 2023, Yemen’s Houthi movement launched a naval campaign in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea in response to Israel’s assault on Gaza. The Houthis publicly announced their criteria, stating they would target only vessels linked to Israel, bound for Israeli ports, owned by Israeli companies, or connected to states materially supporting Israel’s war.

The United States and its allies immediately denounced these actions as criminal. And there were legitimate grounds for scrutiny. Human rights groups raised concerns about attacks that struck vessels without obvious Israeli connections and about the safety and treatment of civilian crews. Over the course of the campaign, the Houthis targeted more than 100 commercial vessels, damaged dozens, sank several, and seized at least one ship outright—the Galaxy Leader—detaining its multinational crew for more than a year before releasing them in connection with Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

But as a matter of law, the Houthis consistently framed their actions as blockade and interdiction during an armed conflict, justified by Israel’s grave breaches of international humanitarian law. That legal framework exists. Under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law, parties to an armed conflict have the right—and in cases of grave breaches, the obligation—to interdict shipping that materially supports a belligerent committing mass civilian harm. In the case of Israel’s genocide, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found, and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has affirmed, that all states are obliged to cut off all military and economic support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The United States’ response was not to pressure Israel to halt its genocidal assault—an outcome that would have also immediately ended the Houthi campaign—but to unleash overwhelming force against Yemen. Beginning in December 2023, Washington organized Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational naval deployment backed by extensive U.S. airpower. Over the following year, the United States and Britain carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Yemen, bombing radar sites, missile launchers, ports, the capital, Sanaa, and other infrastructure. Several hundred Houthi fighters were killed, along with scores of civilians. One U.S. strike on the Ras Isa oil terminal killed dozens of African migrants when U.S. bombs hit a detention facility.

But how do the Houthi interdictions compare with the Trump administration’s actions toward Venezuela?

On December 10, Donald Trump boasted to reporters, “We have just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela — a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually,” as his administration released video of U.S. Marines rappelling from helicopters onto a civilian oil tanker. This was not a conflict zone. Venezuela is not at war with the United States. There was no UN Security Council authorization, no armed conflict, and no claim of self-defense.

Since then, additional Venezuelan-linked tankers have been intercepted or turned back, and the administration has openly threatened a naval blockade. Meanwhile, U.S. forces have destroyed dozens of small boats in the region under the pretext of counter-narcotics operations, killing over 100 people at sea without arrests, trials, or even public identification of the victims. These were not lawful acts of war or legitimate law enforcement. They were extralegal, summary uses of lethal force.

Under international law, seizing civilian commercial vessels in international waters or imposing a naval blockade outside of a declared armed conflict are “acts of aggression” and can constitute acts of war. The Trump administration claims its actions are justified by U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. But those sanctions are themselves illegal under international law. Only the UN Security Council has the authority to impose and enforce sanctions. Unilateral coercive measures—especially when enforced through military force—violate the UN Charter.

Legal experts have been unequivocal: the United States has no jurisdiction to seize foreign-flagged vessels to enforce its domestic laws or unilateral sanctions outside its territory, particularly in another country’s territorial waters.

The distinction could not be clearer.

The Houthis declared a blockade and attacked ships that violated it, based on a legal rationale rooted in the laws of armed conflict, to try to end mass civilian slaughter in Gaza, and their interceptions stopped when a ceasefire was declared in Gaza.

On the other hand, the United States, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has seized tankers, destroyed boats, killed people at sea, and threatened a blockade against a country it is not at war with—not to try to end a war or save a civiliam population from genocide, but simply in pursuit of extralegal regime change and U.S. control of that country’s most valuable resources.

If the United States wants safety at sea, whether in the Caribbean or the Red Sea, it should stop enforcing illegal sanctions by the illegal use of military force, and stop enabling genocide in Palestine. US murder and violence against other people and countries does not become lawful simply because officials in the White House wish that it was.

Col. Larry Wilkerson: Red Alarms Everywhere — The U.S. Is Walking Into it

War Crime, Murder, or Both? House Dems Demand DOJ Probe Into Hegseth Order to Kill Shipwrecked Sailors

Making clear that the Trump administration’s “entire Caribbean operation,” which has killed more than 100 people in boats that the US military has bombed, “appears to be unlawful,” two Democrats on a powerful House committee on Monday called on the Department of Justice to investigate one particular attack that’s garnered accusations of a war crime—or murder.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi four weeks after it was reported that in the military’s first strike on a boat on September 2, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered service members to “kill everybody”—prompting a second “double-tap” strike to kill two survivors of the initial blast.

A retired general, United Nations experts, and former top military legal advisers are among those who have warned that Hegseth and the service members directly involved in the strike—as well as the other attacks on more than two dozen boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific—may be liable for war crimes or murder.

Raskin and Lieu raised that concern directly to Bondi, writing: “Deliberately targeting incapacitated individuals constitutes a clear violation of the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual, which expressly forbids attacks on persons rendered helpless by shipwreck. Such conduct would trigger criminal liability under the War Crimes Act if the administration claims it is engaged in armed conflict, or under the federal murder statute if no such conflict exists.”

Russian general killed by car bomb in Moscow

A Russian general has been killed after an explosive device detonated beneath his car in what Moscow described as a likely assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services. Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian armed forces’ general staff, died of his injuries, a spokesperson for Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement.

Sarvarov, who oversees combat training and readiness for Russia’s armed forces in the war in Ukraine, has extensive experience in the Kremlin’s post-Soviet wars. He took part in both Chechen wars and later played a role in organising Russia’s 2015–16 military intervention in Syria.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, described Sarvarov’s death as a “terrible murder”. Other officials and prominent pro-war voices have called for swift retribution for the attack – the third bombing in Moscow in the past year to claim the life of a senior Russian officer linked to the invasion.

You cannot annex other countries, Danish and Greenlandic leaders tell Trump

The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland have demanded respect for their borders after Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to the largely self-governing Danish territory, which he has said repeatedly should be under US control. “We have said it very clearly before. Now we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law … You cannot annex other countries,” Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement.

The two leaders added that “fundamental principles” were at stake. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the US should not take over Greenland,” they said. “We expect respect for our common territorial integrity.”

Trump on Sunday appointed the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as US special envoy to the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island. The US president has on several occasions said the US needs to acquire Greenland for security reasons, while refusing to rule out the use of force. The US president wrote on social media: “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.”

Later on Monday, Trump reiterated that the US needed Greenland for “national security, not for minerals”, adding that there were Russian and Chinese ships “all over the place” and Landry would “lead the charge.” Landry, a former state attorney general who took office as Louisiana governor in January 2024, thanked Trump, saying it was “an honour to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US”.

Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told Danish television on Monday he would summon Washington’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Ken Howery, to the ministry in the coming days “to get an explanation”. Rasmussen said he was “deeply upset by this appointment of a special envoy”, and “particularly upset” by Landry’s statement, which he said Denmark had found “completely unacceptable”.

Trump announces plans for new navy warships to be known as ‘Trump-class’

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Donald Trump has announced plans for the US navy to build a new generation of warships – known as “Trump-class”.

The ships will be bigger, faster and a hundred times more powerful than any previous US-built warship, the president said on Monday. The project will begin with construction of two such battleships and eventually be expanded to 20 to 25 new vessels.

John Phelan, the navy secretary, added: “Our adversaries will know, when the Trump-class USS Defiant appears on the horizon, American victory at sea is inevitable.”

Past battleship classes were typically named after US states. But Trump, whose name already adorns many hotels and golf clubs, is currently on what critics describe as a narcissistic spree.

Earlier this month his administration renamed the US Institute of Peace in Washington after him. Last week the Trump-appointed board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center and a sign was added, despite the move requiring congressional authorisation.

Trump administration plans to promote loyal diplomats after recall of 30 ambassadors, sources say

The Trump administration has quietly recalled nearly 30 ambassadors and other senior overseas diplomats as the Trump administration plans to promote appointees loyal to the new administration to higher levels of the state department, according to diplomatic sources.

The recall of the ambassadors or heads of mission, which were confirmed by several current and former senior diplomats, was unusual for targeting career foreign service officers heading embassies overseas who are generally left in place after a change in administration because they strive to be apolitical. But the Trump administration had vowed to oust a “deep state” of civil servants in a process that critics have called a purge of a professional class of government employees including senior overseas diplomats.

“This is a standard process in any administration,” a current senior state department official said in response to a request for comment from the Guardian. “An ambassador is a personal representative of the President, and it is the President’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda.”

The senior official also confirmed that the recalled ambassadors would not be fired, but would be reassigned instead. The plans to recall the US diplomats were first reported by Politico. A partial list of the removals was first reported by the Associated Press.

A union representing US diplomats said it was “deeply concerned” by the process and numerous US diplomats told the Guardian that they believed the promotions process had been weighed to elevate diplomats seen as friendly to the administration. That process could politicise the foreign service, they said.

Number of people in ICE detention hits record high

The number of people in immigration detention in the US has hit an all-time high according to data published by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The data, which comes out every two weeks, shows that as of 14 December 2025, ICE held more than 68,400 people. This many people in immigration detention is a new record, breaking the previous high set at the beginning of December.

The Guardian, using ICE’s data, has continued to track the number of people arrested, detained and deported by the agency. The latest, published on 22 December covers 1 October through 14 December 2025. The Guardian has been tracking this data and has calculated the total number of people the administration has arrested, detained and deported since January 2025. In total, the administration has arrested more than 328,000 and deported nearly 327,000.

Schumer to ask Senate to back legal action over partial Epstein files release

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, announced on Monday he will introduce a resolution directing the Senate to take legal action against the justice department over its incomplete release of files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I am introducing a resolution directing the Senate to initiate legal action against DoJ for its blatant disregard of the law in its refusal to release the complete Epstein files,” Schumer said in a statement on social media. “The American people deserve full transparency, and Senate Democrats will use every tool at our disposal to ensure they get it. This administration cannot be allowed to hide the truth.”

If passed, the resolution would authorize the Senate to file a lawsuit seeking a court order forcing the justice department to release the complete set of documents.

The move comes after the Trump administration’s failure to meet a 19 December deadline established by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed last month and Trump signed into law. The law mandated the justice department release all documents related to Epstein by that date.

Instead, on Friday, the department published only a portion of the files, providing more than 7,700 links to photos and court documents. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, described this as “the first phase”, though missing the deadline for a full release means administration officials are breaking the law.

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‘Corruption, Pure and Simple’: Probe Identifies Rich Donors Benefiting From Trump Presidency

A detailed investigation published Monday shows that many wealthy and powerful contributors to US President Donald Trump’s staggering post-election fundraising haul—now at roughly $2 billion—have seen a return on their money in the form of pardons, corporate-friendly regulatory changes, government contracts, and dropped enforcement cases.

Drawing on campaign finance filings and previously unreported documents, the New York Times found that more than half of the 346 big donors it identified “have benefited, or are involved in an industry that has benefited, from the actions or statements of Mr. Trump, the White House, or federal agencies,” including Palantir CEO Alex Karp, ExxonMobil, Amazon, Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, Dow Chemical, and Goldman Sachs.

“So many of you have been really, really generous,” Trump told ballroom donors at a recent dinner.

The Times investigation focused on corporations and individuals who have donated at least $250,000 through various channels, including Trump’s inaugural committee, which raised nearly four times as much as former President Joe Biden’s; his White House ballroom project; and pro-Trump political action committees and nonprofits.

“The astounding haul hints at a level of transactionalism for which it is difficult to find obvious comparisons in modern American history,” the newspaper reported. “The identities of the donors behind much of the cash are not legally required to be, and have not been, publicly disclosed. In some cases, Mr. Trump’s team has offered donors anonymity.”

Since winning a second White House term, Trump’s political apparatus has reportedly raised more money than it did for the 2024 election campaign—an indication that corporations, their executives, and their armies of lobbyists saw in Trump’s return to the Oval Office an enticing investment opportunity.

Harrison Fields, a former Trump administration official who left the White House earlier this year to become a lobbyist, told the Times that post-election donors to the president “are not getting coerced.”

“They are making business decisions,” Fields added.

The Times investigation outlines numerous ways in which Trump donors have benefited directly or indirectly from the administration’s actions this year, while working-class Americans suffer the impacts of rising unemployment, tariff chaos, and a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

“While the donations far exceed most Americans’ means, the sums pale in comparison to the contracts being sought from the Trump administration,” the outlet noted. “Take Mr. Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense project, which could yield lucrative work for a number of contractors. Palantir has already held discussions about being involved. Firms including Lockheed Martin and Boeing also are expected to compete for pieces of the work; each company donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee.”

The technology firm Palantir has, according to the Times, “secured federal contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including to develop software to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement deport people.” The company donated $10 million to the White House ballroom project.

Trump’s post-election donors have also received ambassadorships, pardons for white-collar crimes, and industry-friendly policies.

“The crypto industry writ large has benefited from Mr. Trump’s cheerleading, as well as his championing and signing into law a bill creating the first federal rules for stablecoins,” the Times reported. “Mr. Trump has also favored the fossil fuel industry, directing tens of billions of dollars in incentives to companies, allowing drilling in the Alaska wilderness, and repealing environmental regulations. About two dozen companies with interests in oil, gas, and coal donated at least $41 million.”

While the Times emphasized that it is “not possible to prove that any of the donations directly led to favorable treatment from the Trump administration,” the newspaper added that “many of the deep-pocketed individuals and corporations who have given large sums have a lot riding on the administration’s actions, raising questions about conflicts of interest.”

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Trump officials halt offshore wind-farm projects over ‘national security risks’

The Trump administration has said it is immediately pausing all leases for offshore wind farms already under construction, in the heaviest blow yet to an industry that the administration has relentlessly targeted throughout the year.

Trump’s Department of the Interior said that it was halting the building of five wind projects due to “national security risks”. The department said it would work with the US Department of Defense to mitigate the risk of the wind turbine towers creating radar interference called “clutter” that could in some way hamper the US military.

“The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” said Doug Burgum, secretary of the interior. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.”

The halt will affect the Vineyard Wind 1 project off the coast of Massachusetts, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind in New York, Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind in Virginia.

All of the projects were reviewed and approved under Joe Biden’s administration, which found there were no undue national security concerns raised by the developments. Democrats have pointed to two assessments by the Pentagon of Revolution Wind that found the project “would not have adverse impacts to DoD missions in the area”.

2025 is ‘year of the octopus’ as record numbers spotted off England’s south coast

Record numbers of sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates over the summer have led the Wildlife Trusts to declare 2025 “the year of the octopus” in its annual review of Britain’s seas.

A mild winter followed by an exceptionally warm spring prompted unprecedented numbers of Mediterranean octopuses to take up residence along England’s south coast, from Penzance in Cornwall to south Devon.

“The scale of the catch [recorded by local fishers] was of the order of about 13 times what we would normally expect in Cornish waters,” said Matt Slater, a marine conservation officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust. “When we added up the numbers, approximately 233,000 octopuses were caught in UK waters this year – that’s a huge increase from what you would normally expect.”

The common or Mediterranean octopus, Octopus vulgaris, is native to UK waters but ordinarily in such small numbers it is rarely seen. A sudden increase in the population – a bloom – is caused by a combination of a mild winter followed by a warm breeding season in the spring. The ideal conditions meant that more of the larvae of the common octopus were likely to survive, said Slater, possibly in part fuelled by the large numbers of spider crabs that have also been recorded along the south coast in recent years.

The last time an octopus bloom of the size observed in 2025 was recorded was 1950, with records from the UK’s Marine Biological Association showing the last bloom recorded prior to that was in 1900.

US farmers say Trump’s $12bn package not enough to undo damage from tariffs

Donald Trump, having promised to “NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN”, appeared to come through for them this month when he unveiled a $12bn aid package. Industry leaders say thousands of farms will still go bust this year. While the US president has vowed to increase domestic farm production, and even claimed this formed a “big part” of his plan to lower grocery prices for Americans, many US farmers are grappling with mounting financial issues – compounded by Trump’s agenda.

Grain farmers, in particular, have been hit by trade disruptions caused by tariff hikes, and $11bn of the US Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance Program will go to row-crop farmers. Trump’s trade war with China has hit soya bean farmers the hardest, as China bought 54% of US soya bean exports last year, according to the American Soybean Association.

But the one-time payments do little to assuage the financial stressors that row-crop farmers have faced for the past three years because of rising input costs and lower crop prices. This year alone, US crop farmers have lost $34.6bn, before crop insurance and other government support, according to the American Farm Bureau. Neither row-crop, nor specialty producers, who raise fruits and vegetables, made money in 2025, and the 2026 outlooks are bleak.

While federal aid was welcomed, Dan Wright, president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said it fell short of what is needed. He said: “A program that provides roughly $50 an acre will not save the thousands of family farms that will go bankrupt before the end of the year.”

Over the next several weeks, farmers will meet with their bankers for loans to buy seed, fertilizer and other inputs for spring planting. Many are likely to carry over debt from operating loans taken out last year. Agricultural credit conditions have fallen for crop farmers, according to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, and weaker farm income has reduced farmer liquidity, and increased financing demand.

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