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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Cookie and the Cupcakes

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Louisiana swamp pop band Cookie and the Cupcakes. Enjoy!

^{Cookie & His Cupcakes – Mary Lou Doing The Popeye}

"When imperialism feels weak, it resorts to brute force."

-- Hugo Chavez

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News and Opinion

Everyone Wants Peace Until They Get Hit With The War Propaganda

Everyone’s anti-war until the war propaganda starts.

Every normal person will tell you they want peace and abhor mass-scale violence. Then the mass media start doing what they always do and churning out stories about atrocities in an empire-targeted nation, and all of a sudden people find themselves supporting airstrikes on that nation’s capital, and believing they came to that position all on their own.

This happens because most people are unaware that the western news media do not exist to report the news. They exist to administer propaganda on behalf of the western empire.

Our news outlets. Our search engines. Our social media algorithms. Our most prominent online information resources. Our mainstream podcasts and Youtube pundits. Our AI chatbots. They’re all rigged by the rich and powerful to manipulate our understanding of the world. And most of us have no idea this is even occurring.

Propaganda is very effective if you don’t know it’s happening to you. That’s why westerners are far more propagandized than the populations of nations with overtly authoritarian governments. In a nation with strict speech laws and press regulation people know the state media they’re being fed is government propaganda, whereas westerners are so propagandized they don’t even KNOW they’re propagandized.

This may be the largest propaganda campaign I've ever experienced in a push for war between the US and Iran. The desperation is extraordinary right now.

— Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) January 14, 2026

There’s an old joke that goes like this:

A Soviet and an American are on an airplane seated next to each other.

“Why are you flying to the US?” asks the American.

“To study American propaganda,” replies the Soviet.

“What American propaganda?” asks the American.

“Exactly,” the Soviet replies.

The mass-scale psychological manipulation worms its way into western minds without their having any idea that it’s happening. Then all of a sudden you’ve got Trump supporters who just spent ten years proudly proclaiming that their man is going to end all the wars and bring about world peace enthusiastically cheerleading for decapitation strikes in Tehran. They think they came up with the idea all on their own, but in reality they were skillfully manipulated into that position by the most powerful people in the world.

Ask yourself:

Why and who force fed a video of a radical feminist in Canada from 2022 into your timeline making you think it was an Iranian woman in Iran? pic.twitter.com/CeOpMLEkFr

— Owen Shroyer (@OwenShroyer1776) January 10, 2026

You see it over and over again. People’s natural, healthy impulse to support peace and oppose mass murder gets hacked and reversed by the mass-scale psychological manipulation of the most sophisticated propaganda machine that has ever existed. From cradle to grave they are attacking our innate goodness and working to twist us toward evil and abusiveness.

We think we live in a free society, but in reality we live in a mind-controlled dystopia where people are systematically psychologically conditioned to support the world’s ugliest agendas driven by the most powerful and depraved individuals on our planet. The more you think about it, the creepier it gets.

But, again, propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you. The more people understand that our view of world events is being aggressively manipulated by our rulers, the less effective these propaganda operations will become. All we have to do is help our fellow citizens and netizens wake up to the fact that that’s what’s going on. Once they lose the ability to manipulate the way we think, speak, act and vote, the possibility of a free and healthy world is just a click away.

Moscow Steps In US Iran Conflict; Trump Backs Off

Iran extends airspace closure

Iran further extended an order closing its airspace to commercial aircraft without explanation early on Thursday. A notice to pilots said the closure was estimated to last until 7.30am local time, the AP is reporting.

A previous order had closed the airspace for just over two hours.

The Iranian government offered no explanation of the decision to shut its airspace amid the tensions with Washington over Tehran’s protest crackdown.

MARANDI: MOSSAD ADMITS IRAN DEFEAT

COL Lawrence Wilkerson... Warns: An Israel–Iran War Would Be Catastrophic

Mossad must be desperate to get back in touch with its agents.

US lawmakers call on Donald Trump to restore internet access in Iran

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on Donald Trump to allow the US government to help open up internet access in Iran, which the country’s Islamic regime has blocked in an effort to suppress an eruption of unrest. ... Democrats and Republicans from the House of Representatives have written to Trump asking him to authorize the state department to collaborate with the Open Technology Fund, a congressionally funded non-profit dedicated to supporting technologies designed to overcome censorship.

The move would effectively implement legislation – known as the “feasibility review of emerging equipment for digital open media” (Freedom) act – that was introduced in Congress last month to address Iran’s internet-censoring practices but which has not yet been passed. Members of Congress say the dire urgency of the situation in Iran calls for emergency measures to circumvent the legislative process.

They write: “The scale and intensity of these demonstrations, coupled with the regime’s use of force to violently quell peaceful protests and isolate the Iranian people from the outside world, warrant immediate attention.

“While Congress works to advance legislation like this through regular order, we are confident that the executive branch has the ability – and responsibility – to immediately begin interagency coordination, resume and leverage the Department of State’s collaboration with the Open Technology Fund, harness existing technologies like virtual private networks (VPNs), and fully assess emerging technologies such as direct-to-cell networks.

“Your strong support for measures like these are critical to helping the Iranian people bypass regime-controlled terrestrial communications infrastructure and providing them with a lifeline to the outside world at a time when the regime is cutting off access to traditional communication channels.”

Dismantling Media Iran Protest Propaganda

Gaza war leads to 41% fall in births prompting allegations of reproductive violence

Israel’s war in Gaza has led to a 41% fall in births in the territory and high numbers of maternal deaths, miscarriages, newborn mortality and premature births, two reports on the impact of the conflict on pregnant women, babies and maternity care reveal.

Two reports by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI) document how the war has led to high figures for maternal and neonatal mortality and forced births in dangerous conditions and systematically dismantled health services – consequences of “a deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians, meeting the legal criteria of the genocide convention,” researchers said.

Building on PHRI’s earlier findings, the reports place women’s testimonies alongside health data and field reports, documenting “2,600 miscarriages, 220 pregnancy-related deaths, 1,460 premature births, over 1,700 underweight newborns, and over 2,500 infants requiring neonatal intensive care,” between January and June 2025. Lama Bakri, of PHRI, said: “These figures represent a shocking deterioration from prewar ‘normalcy’ and are the direct result of war trauma, starvation, displacement and the collapse of maternal healthcare.”

Gaza’s health system has been systematically dismantled since October 2023. Israeli military operations have repeatedly struck hospitals, ambulances and medical staff, while siege conditions and sustained bombardment have cut supply lines and restricted movement between facilities, accelerating the wider collapse of public health in the territory. Israel maintains that Hamas has used hospitals to shelter its fighters, but such claims have not been supported by clear evidence.

As a result, mothers in Gaza are forced into unthinkable choices, routinely compromising their own health and survival to meet their children’s most basic needs. With maternal and newborn care dismantled by fuel shortages, blocked medical supplies, mass displacement and relentless bombardment, life in overcrowded tent encampments has become the only remaining option.

US announces start of second phase of Gaza ceasefire

The US has announced the start of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, including the creation of a committee of Palestinian technocrats who are supposed to take over the day-to-day running of the territory for a transition period. The announcement was made on social media by Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, but it lacked any detail or names of potential members of the proposed “national committee for the administration of Gaza”. The committee is not expected to begin work until mandated by a “peace board” chaired by Trump, which has yet to be created.

Witkoff said the second phase would begin the “full demilitarisation and reconstruction of Gaza, primarily the disarmament of all unauthorised personnel”. ... Though Witkoff did not provide any details of the proposed Palestinian interim committee, the Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, announced a few hours earlier that an agreement had been reached on all of its 15 members. Abdelatty said the committee would be “deployed to the Gaza Strip to manage daily life and essential services”.

The members are expected to be technocrats rather than politicians, but some are believed to have affiliation with the Fatah party, which is dominant in the Palestinian Authority. Two candidates touted as potential heads are Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister of planning in the Palestinian Authority, and Majed Abu Ramadan, the PA health minister.

According to diplomats in the region, the work of the Palestinian transitional committee will be overseen by Nickolay Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian and UN diplomat who has been touring the region holding talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Mladenov served as the UN envoy for the Middle East peace process from early 2015 until the end of 2020 and is widely respected across the region.

Mladenov in turn would report to Trump’s peace board, which is expected to comprise a group of world leaders. US officials said its membership would be announced in the next few days.

Pro-Israel group Betar to end New York operations after inquiry finds ‘violent conduct’

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced a settlement on Tuesday with Betar US, a far-right pro-Israel group, after an investigation from her office that found the organization engaged in what her office described as “bias-motivated assaults, threats, and harassment targeting Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers”.

The settlement requires Betar to “immediately cease instigating or encouraging violence against individuals, threatening protesters, and harassing individuals exercising their civil rights”, and subjects the organization to a suspended $50,000 penalty that will be enforced if the group violates the terms. James’s office also said that Betar was seeking to dissolve its not-for-profit corporation and had indicated that it was winding down operations in New York.

According to a news release from the James’s office on Tuesday, an investigation by the office of the attorney general (OAG) determined that Betar – which has been labelled an “extremist group” by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish advocacy group – “repeatedly targeted individuals based on religion and national origin”. It also uncovered evidence of what the office described as “Betar’s widespread persecution of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers, driven by broad hostility and animus toward several protected groups, in violation of New York civil rights laws”.

“New York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence, and intimidation to silence free expression or target people because of who they are,” James said in a statement on Tuesday. “My office’s investigation uncovered an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment and violence designed to terrorize communities and shut down lawful protest. This behavior is unacceptable, and it is not who we are as New Yorkers.”

The Guardian reported in March that Betar had claimed to have submitted a list of “thousands of names” to the Trump administration of students and faculty members who they believed to be on visas and had participated in campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, urging their deportation. That same month, Betar US drew headlines after it claimed credit for the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist and permanent US resident who was detained by ICE for months.

US Senate kills resolution that would have limited Trump action in Venezuela

The US Senate has voted against a war powers resolution that would have prevented Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without giving Congress advance notice. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, who had joined three other Republicans to advance the resolution alongside Democrats last week, flipped after they said they received assurances from the Trump administration.

With Hawley and Young’s votes, the Senate was split 50-50 on the resolution. JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Republican senators Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins cast their votes for the war powers resolution alongside Democrats.

Senate Democrats forcefully condemned Republican opposition to the resolution, which aimed to check the president as he threatens further action in other countries including Greenland, Iran and Mexico. “Make no mistake about it: this vote makes things more dangerous, not less,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said. “It emboldens Donald Trump to push further down this reckless path.”

Tim Kaine, the Democratic senator from Virginia who has championed several war powers measures, said he was prepared to file “a whole lot more” to block Trump from carrying out military operations without congressional authorization. “They can run but they can’t hide,” he said, referring to Republicans, whose support would be needed to approve the resolutions.

The president had put intense pressure on his fellow Republicans to vote down the measure that would have checked his ability to carry out further military attacks on Venezuela. Trump lashed out at the five Republican senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week. Yet even the possibility that the Republican-controlled Senate would defy Trump on such a high-profile vote revealed the growing alarm on Capitol Hill about the president’s expanding foreign policy ambitions.

Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests

A year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a global survey suggests much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again. The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant.

Most Europeans no longer see the US as a reliable ally and are increasingly supportive of rearmament, it found, while Russians now see the EU as more of an enemy than the US, and Ukrainians are looking more to Brussels than to Washington for support.

The poll, of nearly 26,000 respondents in 13 European countries, the US, China, India, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, South Africa and South Korea, found majorities in almost every territory surveyed expected China’s global influence to grow over the next decade. These ranged from 83% in South Africa, 72% in Brazil and 63% in Turkey through 54% in the US, 53% in 10 EU states and 51% in India to 50% in the UK. Most EU citizens expected China to soon lead the world in electric vehicles and renewable energies.

Moreover, few seemed concerned about it. The polling found that only in Ukraine and South Korea did majorities view China as a rival or an adversary, while more people in South Africa, India and Brazil saw China as an ally than they did two years ago. In South Africa (85%), Russia (86%), and Brazil (73%), majorities view China either as a necessary partner or as an ally. The EU view was unchanged: 45% see China as a necessary partner. Many countries expect their relationship with China to strengthen.

Amid increasingly favourable views of China, the status of the US as an ally has declined across almost all the countries surveyed, with India the only one where a majority still feels the US is an ally, sharing the country’s values and interests.

Trump insists Greenland is crucial for national security after Denmark talks

Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he said that “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.

The remarks, which came after a high-stakes meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials, indicate that fundamental differences remain between how Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk see the political future of the island.

“Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And the problem is there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there’s everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela,” he added.

The Danish foreign minster said earlier on Wednesday that Trump remains intent on “conquering” Greenland as the talks with US officials failed to solve a “fundamental disagreement” that has led to unprecedented tensions between Washington and a Nato ally.

It was “absolutely not necessary” for the US to seize Greenland, a largely self-governing part of the Danish kingdom, the Danish foreign minster, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said late on Wednesday. “We didn’t manage to change the American position. It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering Greenland. And we made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom.”

Trump revives push to cut federal funding for sanctuary cities and states

Donald Trump has revived his stalled push to cut federal funding for a number of Democratic-run states, announcing that any with a perceived “sanctuary city” status will not receive payments after 1 February. The president made the statement during a freewheeling address at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday night, shortly after he gave the middle finger to a heckler at a Ford plant in the city.

“Starting February 1, we are not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,” he said. Critics immediately called the move “unconstitutional and immoral”. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), meanwhile, in a post on X, sought to justify Trump’s pronouncement by complaining that sanctuary jurisdictions “won’t let us in their jails to arrest the violent criminal illegal aliens in their custody”.

The post said: “As a result, DHS officers are forced to find the released criminal illegal aliens on the streets WITHOUT the support of local law enforcement … Sanctuary politicians are fighting for criminal illegal aliens. President Trump and [DHS] Secretary Noem are fighting for the victims of illegal alien crime.”

Trump’s previous efforts to use sanctuary cities, a loosely defined term for local jurisdictions that restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities, as a tool to withhold money to political rivals have run into trouble. In August, a district judge in San Francisco called the Trump administration’s push to deny funding to more than 30 cities “a coercive threat” and issued a preliminary injunction blocking it from doing so. A federal appeals court is currently weighing Judge William Orrick’s ruling.

Brandon Johnson, the Democratic mayor of Chicago, promised he would take legal action to fight the edict. “President Trump’s announcement that he will attempt to cut off federal funds from Chicago for political reasons is blatantly unconstitutional and immoral,” he said in a statement. “Those are funds that belong to the people of Chicago, not the president. Instead of investing in healthcare, education and jobs, this president is spending taxpayer dollars building up his personal militarized force in [Customs and Border Protection] and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and enriching his corporate donors.

Trump administration halts immigrant visa processing from 75 countries

The Donald Trump administration has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, marking one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the United States.

The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – who they describe as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.

The state department wrote on social media that it “will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates”.

“The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people,” the statement continued. “We are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused.”

The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration has intensified to record levels, even as nationwide protests over the killing of Renee Good have drawn attention to law enforcement practices. The state department says it revoked more than 100,000 visas since Trump returned to office, while the homeland security department reported last month that more than 605,000 people have been deported, while an additional 2.5 million left the country on their own.

JD Vance Accidentally Reveals HUGE HOLE in ICE ‘Self Defense’ Story

Whistleblower Exposes ICE Effort to Spy on Immigrants—and Americans

An “outraged” Border Patrol official has leaked files exposing numerous secret Trump administration efforts to spy on both migrants and American citizens, and to falsely portray every single person who enters the United States without authorization as a terrorist or drug trafficker, a US investigative journalist revealed Wednesday.

The disaffected Border Patrol official gave journalist Ken Klippenstein documents showing “the dizzying scope” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. These range from previously undisclosed code names of secret ICE missions to an explanation that a key objective of a nationwide campaign called Operation Abracadabra is “tying every individual who crosses the border illegally to a foreign terrorist organization [or a] transnational criminal organization.”

A document on another operation—code-named Benchwarmer—reveals that, in an effort aimed at “collecting information not normally gained” during standard interrogations, “plainclothes agents have been embedded in transport vans, sally ports, processing areas, and detention cells to gather important tactical intelligence and or information.”

Klippenstein wrote that opposition to ICE’s actions “has spread throughout the Department of Homeland Security” in the wake of last week’s killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis. Articles of impeachment filed Wednesday by Democratic members of Congress against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem note how she falsely accused Good of “domestic terrorism.”

The discontent with ICE “is also affecting the Justice Department,” said Klippenstein, who noted the resignation of half a dozen federal prosecutors “over pressure to investigate Renee Good’s widow,” and that FBI officials are “increasingly split” over the White House’s effort to link Good with extremists.

“The media is telling a certain story about ICE, giving the blow by blow on the most public horrors but never quite seeing the bigger picture that it’s part of a larger war,” Klippenstein asserted. “As a military intelligence source told me, the ICE crackdown isn’t just about immigration; it’s about gathering intelligence in support of [President Donald] Trump’s war on cartels—as well as on antifa, on the radical left, those who are ‘anti-American,’ and anyone else they consider terrorists.”

ICE has also come under fire during Trump’s second administration for its surveillance of people who criticize the agency on social media, using facial recognition technology to identify US citizens without their consent, and other policies and practices.

Time‘s Philip Wang reported Wednesday on dissent among ICE’s ranks over Good’s killing and the Trump administration’s response, which includes legally dubious claims of “absolute immunity” for Ross.

“I’m embarrassed,” one former ICE agent of over 25 years told Wang. “The majority of my colleagues feel the same way. It’s an insult to us... to see what they’re doing now.”

Insiders have pointed to the Trump administration’s rush to hire and rapidly deploy more than 10,000 new ICE agents to carry out the president’s plan for the “largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants” in US history as a major cause for concern. Critics say that ICE’s ramped-up recruitment—which includes $50,000 signing bonuses and the use of racist messaging to lure applicants—is producing inadequately trained ICE officers who, confident of their impunity, are terrorizing communities.

“When thousands of over-militarized immigration agents descend on American communities akin to an invading military force, it seeks to terrorize us, actively harms public safety, and raises the likelihood of violence,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the advocacy group America’s Voice, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Meanwhile, the mass deportation agenda is diverting money, manpower, investigative attention, and resources away from real threats—like child exploitation, drug trafficking investigations, and... disaster preparedness funding—all for the purpose of becoming foot soldiers in Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant crusade,” Cárdenas added, referring to the white nationalist White House deputy chief of staff.

NEW ICE SHOOTING In Minneapolis: Is DHS Lying AGAIN?

Democratic lawmakers file articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem

The Democratic representative Robin Kelly on Wednesday formally introduced articles of impeachment against Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, following the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last week. “Secretary Noem has brought her reign of terror to the Chicagoland area, LA, New Orleans, Charlotte, Durham and communities east, north, to south to east to west” Kelly said in a press conference on Wednesday. “She needs to be held accountable for her actions”.

The new push comes amid mounting national outrage over the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, killed at the wheel of her car on a residential street by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during high-octane deployments of law enforcement in cities and towns across the country. Kelly, an Illinois Democrat, said she filed three articles of impeachment against Noem – obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust, and self-dealing – and has the backing of 70 members of Congress.

While Noem and the Trump administration have characterized the incident as an act of “domestic terrorism” by a “professional agitator”, video evidence and local officials have sharply contested that narrative. The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, described the shooting as a reckless use of power and demanded the agency leave the city. The administration has responded by sending more federal agents, as tensions between officers and residents escalate.

Late last year, the representative Delia Ramirez, a fellow Illinois Democrat, moved to impeach Noem, amid an immigration crackdown in Chicago. They accuse the secretary of willfully obstructing congressional oversight by withholding appropriated funds and repeatedly blocking lawmakers from entering DHS facilities. It further alleges a violation of public trust through the use of “warrantless arrests” and the use of “violence against US citizens and lawful individuals”. It also charges Noem with self-dealing for “inappropriately” using taxpayer dollars to fund an ad campaign for ICE recruitment, and awarding the $200m recruitment contract to a firm run by the husband of the senior DHS official and chief spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin.

Despite rising fury among Democrats over the administration’s increasingly violent enforcement tactics, the party is at odds over how to respond. House Democratic leaders have not endorsed Kelly’s impeachment effort, which is unlikely to succeed in the Republican-controlled House. Other Democrats have called for using an upcoming government funding deadline to try to rein in ICE and slash funding to the agency. Kelly, who is running in a competitive Democratic primary to replace retiring Senator Dick Durbin in Illinois, has positioned herself more aggressively on the issue than leadership.

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House oversight chair says panel will move to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt

The House oversight committee will move to hold Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress, its Republican chair James Comer said on Wednesday, after the former first lady joined her husband Bill Clinton in refusing to comply with a subpoena for testimony regarding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The announcement came a day after the Clintons said they would not honor subpoenas from the investigative panel to discuss Epstein, a former friend of the ex-president, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

“Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton joined her husband in defying a bipartisan, lawful congressional subpoena to show up today,” Comer told reporters on Wednesday morning, after the deadline for Hillary Clinton to appear passed. “We’re going to hold both Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress.”

The oversight committee will consider a contempt resolution next Wednesday, Comer said. The measure will need to be approved by the panel and the full House of Representatives, both of which are controlled by the GOP, before it is referred to the justice department, which would decide whether to seek an indictment before a grand jury.

Prop 50: appeals court rejects Republican bid to block California maps

A federal appeals panel on Wednesday upheld the California ballot initiative that allows temporary changes to congressional district maps designed to benefit Democrats in upcoming elections.

The measure, known as Proposition 50, emerged in response to actions taken in Texas, where Republican leaders sought to adjust congressional districts to increase GOP representation in the US House. As the midterm elections approach, a period when shifts in party control are common, Trump urged Texas officials to redraw their maps to boost Republican seats.

In response, Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders in California pushed for a special statewide vote. The election asked residents whether the state should adopt interim district maps aimed at flipping five Republican-held districts, including one formerly represented by the late congressman Doug LaMalfa.

After voters approved Prop 50, Republican opponents challenged the maps in court. They argued that the initiative violated the Voting Rights Act by intentionally crafting districts to advantage Hispanic and Latino voters.

The judges, however, rejected that argument in a 2–1 ruling on Wednesday. Supporters and critics of the measure now expect the dispute to advance to the US supreme court, which previously allowed Texas’s revised district lines to stand.

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Human activity helped make 2025 third-hottest year on record

Last year was the third hottest on record, scientists have said, with mounting fossil fuel pollution behind “exceptional” temperatures. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said 2025 had continued a three-year streak of “extraordinary global temperatures” during which surface air temperatures averaged 1.48C above preindustrial levels.

Current rates of heating could breach the Paris agreement limit of 1.5C (2.7F) – which is measured over 30 years to iron out natural fluctuations – before the end of the decade, according to the EU’s Copernicus climate agency. That is more than 10 years sooner than scientists expected when world leaders signed the pledge in 2015. “We are bound to pass it,” said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus climate change service. “The choice we now have is how to best manage the inevitable overshoot and its consequences.”

The eight datasets published on Wednesday are based on billions of weather measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations. They were separately compiled by several organisations that monitor the global climate in Europe, the US, Japan and China, with minor variations in their results. The WMO’s consolidated analysis found that 2025 was 1.44C hotter than the preindustrial period, when the large-scale destruction of nature and burning of coal, oil and gas began in earnest. Six datasets ranked 2025 as the third hottest year on record, while the other two ranked it as the second hottest.

The hottest year on record since the mid-19th century is 2024, which was plagued by heatwaves and wildfires. The Met Office said natural variation and reductions in heat-masking aerosol pollutants have made the last few years extra hot. Tim Osborn, the director of the University of East Anglia’s climate research unit, which worked with the Met Office to produce the data, said a natural weather pattern in the Pacific known as El Niño added about 0.1C to global temperatures in 2023 and 2024, which contributed to the “abrupt onset of the recent temperature surge”.

“This natural influence weakened by 2025,” he said. “And therefore the global temperature we observed in 2025 provides a clearer picture of the underlying warming.”

EPA to stop calculating money and lives saved by curbs on air pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency says it will stop calculating how much money is saved in healthcare costs avoided and deaths prevented from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants.

The change means the EPA will focus rules for fine particulate matter and ozone only on the cost to industry, part of a broader realignment under Donald Trump toward a business-friendly approach that has included the rollback of multiple policies meant to safeguard human health and the environment and slow climate change.

The agency said in a statement late on Monday that it “absolutely remains committed to our core mission of protecting human health and the environment” but “will not be monetizing the impacts at this time”. The EPA will continue to estimate costs to businesses to comply with the rules and will continue “ongoing work to refine its economic methodologies” of pollution rules, spokesperson Brigit Hirsch said.

Environmental and public health advocates called the agency’s action a dangerous abdication of one of its core missions.

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Also of Interest

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

Western Media Whitewashes Deadly Riots in Iran

Jonathan Cook: Genocide Is No Mistake

Three Palestine Action protesters end their hunger strike

The Black Book Of Capitalism: Sanctions Version

‘Are they going to bring their violence here?’: Fear – but little preparation – as threat of invasion looms over Greenland

Suspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donations

Renee Good, Keith Porter and the Normalization of Police Violence

Wolf’s dinner preserved in Siberia for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino

Bessent TRIGGERED As US Allies Prepare To DUMP USD, Canada Ditches Washington For China

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A Little Night Music

Cookie and the Cupcakes ~ Mathilda

Cookie and the Cupcakes ~ Got You on My Mind

Cookie and the Cupcakes - Married Life

Cookie & His Cupcakes – Who Would Have Thought It

Cookie and the Cupcakes - Blue bayou shuffle

Cookie & The Cupcakes - I'm Twisted

Cookie and the Cupcakes - A part of everything

Cookie & The Cupcakes Close Up The Back Door

Cookie and the Cupcakes - Betty and Dupree

Cookie and the Cupcakes - Mathilda finally came back

Cookie and The Cupcakes - Honey Hush

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