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"The moon comes up and the sun goes down
This old world keeps spinning around
Just as sure as the day turns into the night
What you do in the dark will turn up in the light"

-- Ry Cooder

News and Opinion

Israel Bans Aid Groups For The Same Reason It Bans Journalists

Israel has banned 37 aid groups from working in the Palestinian territories, citing plainly spurious reasons. Among the aid groups banned are Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam.

Israel banned the aid groups from Gaza for the same reason it continues to ban journalists. Of course it’s about eliminating aid itself, but it’s also about eliminating witnesses. Doctors and aid workers largely became the de facto journalists on the ground in Gaza when Israel banned international news media and began systematically assassinating Gaza-based Palestinian journalists. So Israel wants to get rid of those de facto reporters to hide its crimes.

Doctors Without Borders was one of the top humanitarian groups publicly accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in 2025. A lot of what we learned about the Israeli massacres of starving civilians at “Gaza Humanitarian Fund” sites came from MSF doctors describing the gunshot wounds they’d been seeing at medical facilities. MSF were the first to report the horrifying story of IDF soldiers entering hospitals they’d attacked in Gaza and destroying individual pieces of medical equipment to make them unusable, providing unassailable proof that Israel was actually targeting Gaza’s healthcare system itself rather than “Hamas bases in hospitals” as Israel falsely claimed. Doctors Without Borders were constantly putting out reports condemning Israel’s attacks on medical facilities where it had staff, and its doctors often spoke to the western press about the horrors they’d seen in Gaza.

And now they’ve been taken out, one of dozens of aid groups who Israel will no longer allow to operate in the occupied Palestinian territories. They took them out for the same reason they took out the journalists, and for the same reason Israel and its supporters try to stomp out speech that is critical of the Gaza holocaust throughout the western world, and for the same reason witnesses who try to tell law enforcement about the crimes of the Mafia tend to go missing.

They want to keep their crimes in the dark.

MSF Feb 2025: Israel is systematically destroying medical equipment in Gaza's hospitals
MSF Aug 2025: Israel is intentionally depriving Gaza of water
MSF Aug 2025: Israel is intentionally destroying Gaza's healthcare system
MSF Sep 2025: It's genocide
Israel Dec 2025: *bans MSF* https://t.co/BBMN4pjVxw pic.twitter.com/7LoGEto6JN

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 30, 2025

Critics Warn Israeli Ban on Aid Groups in Gaza ‘Will Cost the Lives of Palestinians’

Human rights defenders warned Wednesday that a new Israeli ban on dozens of international humanitarian groups from operating in Gaza will have a “catastrophic” impact on Palestinians already reeling from more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war and siege.

The government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza—announced Tuesday that 25 humanitarian groups would be suspended from operating in Gaza starting January 1 if they did not comply with new requirements including providing detailed information on their staff, funding, and operations.

Israeli authorities say, largely without evidence, that the new rules are needed because some humanitarian workers are terrorists, and because Hamas is diverting aid—a claim refuted by Israeli military officials.

By Wednesday, the number of banned groups increased to 37. Targeted groups include ActionAid, Handicap International, Doctors Without Borders sections from six European countries, two Oxfam chapters, International Rescue Committee, American Friends Service Committee, World Vision International, Norwegian Refugee Council, Mercy Corps, Defense for Children International, two Caritas branches, and CARE.

“Israel’s suspension of numerous aid agencies from Gaza is outrageous,” United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said Wednesday in Geneva. “This is the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access, including Israel’s ban on UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, as well as attacks on Israeli and Palestinian NGOs amid broader access issues faced by the UN and other humanitarians.”

“I urge all states, in particular those with influence, to take urgent steps and insist that Israel immediately allows aid to get into Gaza unhindered,” Türk continued. “Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza.”

“I remind the Israeli authorities of their obligation under international law to ensure the essential supplies of daily life in Gaza, including by allowing and facilitating humanitarian relief,” he added.

#Israel’s suspension of multiple aid agencies from #Gaza is outrageous. The pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access & these arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation worse for the people of Gaza.

States must take urgent steps & insist that… pic.twitter.com/E1XxBFZOf0

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 31, 2025

European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness, and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said Wednesday that Israel’s move “means blocking life-saving aid.”

“The [European Union] has been clear: The NGO registration law can not be implemented in its current form,” Lahbib added. “All barriers to humanitarian access must be lifted.”

British Member of Parliament Andrew Pakes (Labour-Peterborough) said on social media that “the Israeli government banning desperately needed aid from Gaza is not a sign of a working ceasefire.”

“This, at a time of extreme weather and lack of shelter,” he added. “We need accountability more than ever. And immediate help to save lives.”

Another outrageous action. The Netanyahu govt is banning over 30 aid orgs — including CARE, Mercy Corps & Doctors Without Borders groups — from providing life-saving aid to people in Gaza.

Another betrayal of humanity. And, once again, the Trump Admin says and does nothing.… pic.twitter.com/u6rxiA4WeH

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) December 31, 2025

Doctors Without Borders—which also goes by its French acronym, MSF—told Reuters Tuesday that “if MSF is prevented from working in Gaza, it will deprive hundreds of thousands of people from accessing medical care.” ...

The International Court of Justice—which is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa—last year issued a provisional ruling ordering Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and affirming an earlier order to prevent genocidal acts. Israel has been accused of ignoring these and other ICJ orders.

Responding to the Israeli ban, Refugees International vice president for programs and policy Hardin Lang said in a statement Tuesday that “this action will cost the lives of Palestinians.”

“Gaza is in the heart of winter, with hundreds of thousands of people living in makeshift shelters, damaged buildings, or the open air after repeated displacement,” Lang noted. “Removing these humanitarian organizations now will deepen exposure, illness, and preventable deaths. The targeted organizations provide much of the core relief capacity in Gaza, particularly on healthcare services.”

“The suspension is not motivated by a sincere desire to prevent diversion of aid; it is a pretext to further restrict aid to Gaza while silencing independent aid organizations,” he continued. “The Israeli government’s broad claims about systemic aid diversion have never been backed up with credible evidence—as even senior US government officials have publicly acknowledged.”

“Under US and international law, parties to a conflict must allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of impartial humanitarian relief,” Lang added.

Israel allowing traders to bring into Gaza ‘dual-use’ items barred from aid organisations

Israel is running a parallel system of controls for shipments into Gaza, allowing commercial traders to bring goods into the territory that are barred for humanitarian organisations. Basic life-saving supplies including generators and tent poles are on a long Israeli blacklist of “dual-use” items. The Israeli government says entry of these items must be severely restricted because they could be exploited by Hamas or other armed groups for military ends.

However, for at least a month, Israeli authorities have allowed businesses to transport multiple dual-use items into Gaza, including generators and metal pallets, which are more durable in winter rains and mud than wooden alternatives. These are now on sale in the open market in Gaza, according to military, diplomatic and humanitarian sources. They must pass through the same three tightly controlled Israeli checkpoints that currently bar shipments of these goods for aid organisations. “It seems highly improbable that the Israelis don’t know about them,” said one diplomatic source. “It’s very shocking that these things are able to enter through commercial channels.”

The disparity limits the work of humanitarian organisations supporting Palestinians at a time of desperate need, while providing lucrative opportunities to commercial traders who can secure import permits from Israeli authorities.

Israel has a long track record of exploiting access to Gaza to further its political goals, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights group that has been monitoring controls for 20 years. “On the surface the private sector [shipments of items on the dual-use list] can appear to be very confusing and an inconsistency,” she said. “But I see it as very consistent with their policy of trying to strengthen the hand of certain actors and weaken the hand of others.” Entry controls on items such as generators did not reflect “the inherent risk or danger of the item itself”, she said. “It’s a question of: whose hands is it in? Where is it? How is it being used?”

Israeli restrictions have long made trade into Gaza particularly lucrative for those Palestinians and Israelis who can secure permits. Items on the dual-use list now sell for huge premiums inside Gaza.

John Mearsheimer: Iran & Trump Threats Exchanged

Five-Year-Old Gaza Girl Dies After Building Collapses on Tent as US and Israel Prevent Reconstruction

A five-year-old Palestinian girl died in Gaza on Tuesday night after the wall of a building damaged by Israel’s bombing campaign collapsed on her tent, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, as the US and Israel continue to prevent reconstruction and a real relief effort from taking place. The girl, Ilaf Barbakh, was killed in the al-Mawasi tent camp, where she was sheltering with her family. ...

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, a man also died due to a collapsing building, bringing the total number of Palestinians who have died due to crumbling buildings amid harsh storms in recent weeks to 19. Several babies have also died due to exposure as families are sheltering in flimsy tents amid cold weather and floods.

While some tents have been allowed into Gaza, Israel has maintained significant restrictions. “This month, the UN and its partners have provided tents, tarpaulins and bedding items to more than 80,000 households – or approximately 448,400 people,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Gaza on Wednesday.

Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: Russia & Iran Just Built a WAR Shield - China Warns

Trump Ends 2025 by Bombing More Boats, Bringing Death Toll to at Least 115

President Donald Trump’s administration ended 2025 by driving up the death toll from its boat-bombing spree aimed at alleged drug smugglers, announcing US strikes on five more vessels that brought the total number of people killed to at least 115.

Legal experts and some members of Congress have condemned the dozens of deadly strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since September 2 as “war crimes, murder, or both,” but that hasn’t stopped the administration from dropping more bombs. ...

The Washington Post‘s Dan Lamothe on Wednesday called out the “woeful gaps in disclosure in this new statement,” noting: “1) No details about where this occurred—not even a body of water. 2) It says a search and rescue effort was initiated, but includes no details about what has happened in the roughly 24 hours since. 3) How many survivors?”

Just hours after its first statement, SOUTHCOM said the task force “conducted a lethal kinetic strike” on two more boats Wednesday, killing “three in the first vessel and two in the second.”

On Dec. 31, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and… pic.twitter.com/4AE5u4cEff

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) January 1, 2026

As with the earlier post, there was a video but SOUTHCOM declined to disclose the location. Venezuelanalysis responded on social media, “US authorities no longer bother to specify where they’re conducting the extrajudicial murders.”

Although the US Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to declare war, the Trump administration has argued that the strikes are justified because the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, which the president has designated as terrorist organizations.

Despite lawmakers in both major parties rejecting that argument, both Republican-controlled chambers of Congress have so far failed to advance various war powers resolutions aimed at ending the boat bombings and reining in Trump’s march toward war with Venezuela—which he also attacked in December, according to Monday reporting.

Search for survivors after US strikes on alleged drug boats

The US Coast Guard was searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, officials said on Wednesday. In a statement, the US military’s Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three vessels.

“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” Southern Command posted.

Southern Command said later on Wednesday that it had carried out a separate strike on two vessels. It did not indicate where those strikes were carried out but said five people were killed as a result.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said eight people had abandoned their vessels, as a result of the strikes on the convoy of vessels. The Coast Guard told Reuters it had deployed a C-130 aircraft to look for survivors and was working with vessels in the area.

Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali reported: “A US official tells me that eight people abandoned ship and are now being searched for. The Coast Guard says it is working with vessels in the area and a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft has been deployed to the Pacific to help in the search.”

China Is CUTTING OFF Global CASH To U.S. Chip Giants – Financial Panic Has Started

Oil prices record steepest annual fall since Covid pandemic

Oil markets have recorded their steepest annual fall since the Covid pandemic and could be on track to plummet further as oil producers continue to pump more crude than needed by the global economy. Oil prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since 2020 and the first time that the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses.

The steady slide in prices has emerged despite ongoing conflict in some of the world’s most important energy-producing regions due to a “cartoonishly” oversupplied market, according to analysts. Crude fell below $60 a barrel for the first time in almost five years last month as political leaders began to inch towards a Russia-Ukraine peace deal which could increase the glut in the global market if western sanctions are lifted on Russian exports.

The International Energy Agency expects supplies to outstrip demand for crude by about 3.8m barrels a day this year, even following a recent decision by members of the Opec oil cartel to defer any increase in production until after the first quarter of the year. Opec normally tries to manage the output of its members to keep prices within a “Goldilocks” range: high enough to guarantee them healthy revenues, but without becoming so high that consumers take up cheaper, low-carbon alternatives such as electric cars and heat pumps.

On the last day of 2025, the price of Brent crude settled at $60.85 a barrel, down sharply from almost $74 a barrel at the end of 2024. The US oil price also fell 20% last year, to $57.42 on Wednesday from about $74 a year ago.

Richard Wolff: The West's Pre-Revolutionary Moment has Arrived

Their first instinct was to loot’: how Trump’s acolytes are plundering the Kennedy Center

“That’s the tactic they use,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated and then you pull the trigger.” Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his words proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.

By Friday workmen on scissor lifts were adding metal lettering to the building’s facade, before dropping a blue tarpaulin to reveal a sign saying “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For the Performing Arts”. Family members of Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, condemned the move as “beyond wild” and pointed out that an act of Congress is needed to alter its name.

The takeover of the national cultural centre began in February when, in what many critics regard as a case study in institutional capture, Trump ousted members of the Kennedy Center board appointed by former president Joe Biden, took over as chairman and installed Richard Grenell, a longtime ally and former ambassador to Germany, as its president. In November Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate environment and public works (EPW) committee, launched a formal investigation into allegations of widespread cronyism, financial mismanagement and corruption at what he describes as a “secular temple to the arts”.

Democrats on the committee said they obtained documents that suggest the national cultural centre is being operated as a “slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies”, resulting in millions of dollars in losses and a significant deviation from its statutory mission. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/01/trump-kennedy-center-can... Whitehouse sent a letter to Grenell demanding detailed documents and records. Grenell issued a fiery response accusing the senator of “partisan attacks and false accusations”. He claimed that neglect by the centre’s previous leadership left it in “financial chaos” and was “quite literally making the building fall apart”.]

Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, remains undeterred and determined to press on with his investigation. Speaking in his office on Capitol Hill, he explained: “We began to get information about mischief taking place at the Kennedy Center and we got strong enough signals that we mounted an effort to dig into it and see what seemed actually to be going on. “It was out of that effort that the report and letter came, which basically suggested that, when the brigands took the ship, their first instinct was to loot it for their own benefit and hire their friends and put people up in fancy rooms at the Watergate [Hotel] and let favoured organisations get free access and it was all part of a Maga party atmosphere.

South Park writer buys ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ domain name

Donald Trump may be remaking the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts into a pool of his self-reflection, but a writer for South Park, the TV series that better reflects the obsessions and tendencies of the administration than any political pundit, has purchased the rights to trumpkennedycenter.org.

Toby Morton, a TV writer and producer who has worked on the long-running and joyfully offensive sitcom, said he purchased the domain in August after predicting the president would change the name from the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center after he installed himself as chair and stocked the board with loyalists. The name change has brought turbulence to the institution, with several performers abruptly pulling out of scheduled concerts in protest. The name change itself is being challenged in the courts.

In an email to the New York Times, Morton said that for the past five years he’d been “grabbing domains tied to politicians and authoritarian figures and turning them into blunt, often uncomfortable reflections of what they actually represent”. ... Visitors to trumpkennedycenter.org find an announcement for a show by the “Epstein dancers” and not a schedule for the center’s line-up of classical music, jazz, theater and ballet.

“Beginning January 2026, TrumpKennedyCenter.org enters a new era of devotion, unity and inherited authority,” a message on the website says. “We exist to preserve what must endure, to honor what must not be questioned, and to gather those who understand that greatness is not chosen, it is recognized.” ...

Morton is not alone in looking to make fun. A group of British satirists has acquired trump-kennedycenter.org at about the same time, and it is advertising its own brand of deranged comedy misinformation. “Saucy Jeff – a Rock’n’Roll Musical,” the website advertises, calling it a “new adaptation of the St Hubbins/Smalls-penned rock opera Saucy Jack, [which] brings this musical about friendship and sex crimes right up to date in the new location of Little Saint James, featuring Jeffrey Epstein as the protagonist.”

Yanis Varoufakis: Deepfakes of me are taking over YouTube

Trump backs away from deploying national guard in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland

Donald Trump has staged a sudden climbdown from his attempts to impose federal troops in law enforcement roles on Democratic-run cities, announcing on Wednesday that he was ending attempted deployments from Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland.

The unexpected shift came after justice department lawyers said they were no longer contesting a California court’s ruling that returned the national guard troops to the authority of Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor. It also followed a rare rebuke from the US supreme court, which blocked the White House’s efforts to deploy national guards in Illinois.

Trump attempted to paint the decision as temporary in a post on his Truth Social platform, vowing to redeploy at a later date and insisting the initiative had been a success. “We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” he wrote. “Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in. We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”

Yet there seemed little doubt that the latest move amounted to a retreat. Earlier on Wednesday, Newsom had hailed the justice department’s decision, announced in a filing with the ninth circuit court of appeals, backing away from its argument that Trump had a right to put state national guard troops under his authority indefinitely. ...

A lower court ruled earlier this month that Trump had seized control of the national guard members illegally and ordered them returned to state authority. The administration had originally contested that ruling. Its change of tack amounted to the second setback in a week to Trump’s quest to federalize national guard units to quell displays of dissent against his highly contentious immigration policies, which he and other administration figures have depicted as violent riots. Last week, the US supreme court delivered a rare rebuke by refusing to allow the administration to deploy national guards in Chicago – a move opposed by the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, who are both Democrats.

Documents suggest Kilmar Ábrego García was retaliated against after wrongful deportation

A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Ábrego García reveals that high-level justice department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority”, only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S. Ábrego García, originally from El Salvador, has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee to charges of human smuggling. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive – a way for the Trump administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

To support that argument, he has asked the government to turn over documents that reveal how the decision was made to prosecute him in 2025 for an incident that occurred in 2022. On 3 December, US district judge Waverly Crenshaw filed an order under seal that compelled the government to provide some documents to Ábrego García and his attorneys. That order was unsealed on Tuesday and sheds new light on the case.

Earlier, Crenshaw found that there was “some evidence” that the prosecution of Ábrego García could be vindictive. He specifically cited a statement by the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, on a Fox News program that seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Ábrego García because he had won his wrongful deportation case. Rob McGuire, who was the acting US attorney for the middle district of Tennessee until late December, argued that those statements were irrelevant because he alone made the decision to prosecute, and he has no animus against Ábrego García.

In the newly unsealed order, Crenshaw writes: “Some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker, but he in fact reported to others in [the justice department] and the decision to prosecute Abrego may have been a joint decision.” ... A hearing on the motion to dismiss the case on the basis of vindictive prosecution is scheduled for 28 January.

Mamdani pledges ‘new era’ for New York and vows to govern ‘audaciously’

Zohran Mamdani vowed to “reinvent” New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising “a new era” for America’s largest city and an ambitious start to his term of office. ... Mamdani said a “moment like this comes rarely and rarer still is it that the people themselves whose hands are upon the levers of change”.

He said that in writing his remarks, he was advised to lower expectations. “I will do no such thing,” Mamdani said. “The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations. Beginning today we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.”

Mamdani did not shy away from his socialist politics. “I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being called radical,” he said to loud cheers from the gathered crowd. He ended by saying: “The work has only just begun.”

Mamdani now begins one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics as one of the country’s closest-watched politicians, whose platform promises free childcare, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1m households, and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.

But the estimated $10bn cost of providing those services may be hard to find. Mamdani has vowed to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and increase corporate taxes. But as a vassal city of the state government in Albany, he will need the legislative support of Governor Kathy Hochul, who running for re-election next year.

Abortion may no longer be a top priority for Democratic voters ahead of 2026 midterms, polls show

Up to seven states will vote on abortion rights this year. But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade.

In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same. By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found. PRRI’s findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned.

During the 2024 election, abortion was seen as the Democrats’ strongest issue, after the 2022 overturning of Roe sparked a wave of deeply unpopular state-level abortion bans. Kamala Harris put abortion rights at the heart of her presidential campaign, while Democratic Senate candidates and Super Pacs poured an astounding $175m into abortion-related TV ads – far more than any other issue. Donald Trump, who enabled Roe’s collapse by appointing three conservative justices to the US supreme court, repeatedly tried to downplay the fight over abortion rights, viewing it as a political liability and a sure-fire boost for Democrats.

But the power of the issue turned out to be overstated in 2024. Trump handily won the popular vote and Republicans ended up with control of both houses of Congress. Still, the president has largely avoided further action on the issue at the federal level, focusing instead on initiatives like cracking down on immigration, instituting steep tariffs and bulldozing the federal workforce. The tumult has further yanked Americans’ attention away from abortion, said Melissa Deckman, PRRI’s CEO.

“It’s just hard to catch your breath, because every day there’s a new, outrageous thing happening with the administration,” Deckman said. Abortion, she added, has been replaced as a top issue by affordability and the economy. “That seems to be first and foremost for everyone. But it’s also, for Democrats, the state of democracy writ large. We consistently find that Democrats are more concerned about the health of democracy.” August polling from the group Emilys List, which champions Democratic women who support abortion rights, found that voters are now prioritizing the economy over abortion. But it also found that 49% of female voters consider threats to abortion rights to be a “dealbreaker”. Abortion remains a galvanizing issue in state supreme court elections, which now often have the final word on the legality of state-level abortion restrictions.

Jordan’s ancient olive harvest wilts under record-breaking heat

Abu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat. He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but instead they stretch upward, nearly bare, with only a few shrivelled olives clinging to the withered stems.

Zoubi has tended these trees for almost two decades, learning their rhythms through seasons of abundance and scarcity. But nothing prepared him for this harvest. “I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” he tells the Guardian as he surveys the damage. “We’ve lost more than half of our crop before the harvest even started.”

His story has become familiar across Jordan’s olive-growing heartland. The country is facing its weakest olive oil season in four decades, with production down as much as 70% compared with last year. In a typical year, the olive-picking season begins in late September, and mills start processing by mid-October. This year, the harvest did not begin until early November.

According to the National Agricultural Research Center, the crisis threatens a sector that supports 80,000 families and generates more than $1.4bn (£1bn) for Jordan’s economy annually. With an estimated 12 million productive olive trees concentrated in the northern regions of Irbid, Ajloun, Jerash and Mafraq, olive cultivation has been the backbone of rural life for generations. Jordan has long achieved near-total self-sufficiency in olive oil production, covering 98% of domestic needs and generating export revenue. That independence now hangs in the balance.

In the hardest-hit northern regions, output has collapsed to just 10% of the average 200,000 tonnes that typically yield 30,000 tonnes of oil. Climate records from the Jordanian meteorological department document the severity of 2025’s conditions, including a 13-day extreme heatwave from 12-24 August, the longest on record for the kingdom. The 2024-25 rainfall season delivered a further blow, with precipitation levels ranging from just 15% of seasonal averages in Aqaba to 79% in parts of the southern Jordan valley. Northern and central regions received roughly 54% of normal precipitation, catastrophic for rain-fed olive groves that depend on seasonal water rather than irrigation systems.

EU’s new ‘green tariff’ rules on high-carbon goods come into force

The biggest shake-up of green trade rules for decades comes into force today, as companies selling steel, cement and other high-carbon goods into the EU will have to prove they comply with low-carbon regulations or face fines. But a lack of clarity on how the rules will be applied, and the failure of the UK government to strike a deal with Brussels over the issue, could lead to confusion in the early stages, experts warned.

Companies should welcome the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which aims to create a level playing field between the EU and overseas competitors, said Stéphane Séjourné, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for prosperity and industrial strategy.

“European industrial producers should be encouraged – and not deterred – in their decarbonisation efforts,” he said. “This CBAM reform brings crucial and long-awaited measures to ensure a level playing field between EU and non-EU industrial producers. By strengthening CBAM, we support our industry’s decarbonisation and secure European players’ competitiveness on the world stage.”

Many countries expected the EU to back down on the “green tariff” rules, in the same way that other environmental regulations have recently been watered down, but the bloc has pressed ahead despite protests from China, the US, Australia and others.

Chinese steel could lose its price advantage over European steel, for instance. However, that could create a glut of steel and other high-carbon products, which some fear could be dumped at low prices into the UK and other markets instead. The UK is expected to bring in its own CBAM next year.

Also of Interest

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

Patrick Lawrence: New Year’s Notes on Purported Leaders

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Israel deployed massive truck bombs in Gaza City prior to ceasefire: investigation

NY Times Expose: CIA Fights Russia – Trump’s Peace Deal Runs on Illusion

My Quest to Make the Pentagon Care About the Crimes It Covered Up

Trump is wrong: ‘woke’ policies aren’t the real threat to Europe

The Accelerating Nature Of Financialization Collapse

How Donald Trump launched a push to amass government data in 2025

500 Richest People Gained Record $2.2 Trillion in 2025, Fueling Calls for Wealth Tax

George Carlin was right all along about the SYSTEM, POLITICS, MEDIA & POWER. He wasn’t joking!

A Little Night Music

Sonny Landreth - Zydeco Shuffle

Sonny Landreth - Pedal to the Metal

Sonny Landreth - Next of Kindred Spirits

Sonny Landreth & Eric Clapton - Promised Land

Sonny Landreth - Back To Bayou Teche

Sonny Landreth - South of I-10

Sonny Landreth & Zachary Richard - Ay Ai Ai

Sonny Landreth & Mark Knopfler - Blue Tarp Blues

Sonny Landreth - Native Stepson

Sonny Landreth - Taylor's Rock

John Hiatt & Sonny Landreth - Soundstage 2003