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"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

News and Opinion

START Is Finished

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it believes the U.S. and Russia are no longer bound by New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two powers, which is expiring today. “In the current circumstances, we assume that the Parties to the New START are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations in the context of the Treaty, including its core provisions, and are in principle free to choose their next steps,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Telegram on Wednesday, the day before the treaty officially expires.

The New START treaty caps the number of nuclear warheads each side can deploy at 1,550 and limits the number of deployed and non-deployed strategic launchers to 800. The Russian ministry’s statement noted that President Vladimir Putin had offered a mutual agreement to maintain those limits for another year to make room for diplomacy to negotiate a new treaty, but the Trump administration hasn’t responded to the proposal. ...

Arms control experts have warned that the expiration of the treaty without a replacement or an agreement on maintaining its limits will likely lead to an increase in the deployment of nuclear weapons and spark a new arms race.

Israel accused of spraying cancer-linked herbicide on farms in southern Lebanon

Lebanon has accused Israel of spraying a herbicide linked to cancer on farmland in the south of the country as a “health crime” that would threaten food security and farmers’ livelihoods. The country’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned what he called “an environmental and health crime” and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and he vowed to take “all necessary legal and diplomatic measures to confront this aggression”.

Israel’s government did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment, but the alleged spraying bolsters accusations that its military is carrying out a campaign of ecocide with the aim of making southern Lebanon uninhabitable, similar to its activities in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The latest incident is alleged to have taken place on Sunday morning. UN peacekeepers have said they were warned by the Israeli military to remain under cover while it carried out an aerial operation to drop what they said was a non-toxic chemical substance. Videos captured light aircraft spraying extensively over agricultural areas.

Lebanese authorities said that laboratory analysis identified that the spray contained glyphosate, a potent herbicide that was in 2015 classified by the World Health Organization as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. In a joint statement, Lebanon’s ministries of agriculture and the environment said some samples showed glyphosate concentrations “20 and 30 times higher than normal [use]”. Its use would, they said, “damage vegetation in the targeted areas, with direct repercussions on agricultural production, soil fertility and ecological balance.

The statement continued: “The two ministries affirm that the spraying of chemicals from military aircraft over Lebanese territory constitutes a serious act of aggression that threatens food security, inflicts severe damage on natural resources, and undermines the livelihoods of farmers, in addition to posing potential health and environmental risks to water, soil, and the entire food chain.”

Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: The New Axis? Russia, Iran War Shield & China’s WARNING

Ahead of US-Iran Talks, Netanyahu Tells Cabinet ‘Conditions’ Could Lead to Regime Change in Tehran

The day before US and Iranian officials are set to hold talks in Oman, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet and told his top officials that certain “conditions” are in place that may lead to the downfall of the Iranian government, according to Israeli media.

The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu conveyed the same message he delivered during a Knesset committee meeting earlier in the day, where he said that “there is a buildup of conditions toward a critical mass that could bring about the downfall of the Iranian regime,” though he also reportedly said he was unsure if those “conditions” would be sufficient to topple the government.

Netanyahu also told the Knesset committee that the coordination between the US and Israel is “as high and as close as possible.” An Israeli official told Ynet on Wednesday that US and Israeli officials have been holding a “crazy” number of meetings in recent weeks as President Trump has been threatening to attack Iran and ordered a major military buildup in the Middle East.

Dr. Mohammad Marandi LIVE! War With Iran, Zionism and The Epstein Class

Amb. Chas Freeman: Negotiations… or the Brink of All-Out War?

Global Sumud Flotilla Announces Spring Mission to ‘Break the Illegal Blockade of Gaza’

Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla—the largest-ever activist effort to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by sea—said Thursday that they will launch a new and bigger mission next month to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian exclave, whose people have suffered from 28 months of genocidal Israeli war and siege.

Global Sumud Flotilla called its spring 2026 mission, which is scheduled to depart from Barcelona on March 29, “a historic escalation in civilian-led maritime action to break the illegal blockade of Gaza.”

“We are sailing again this year. This time, we’re sailing with more boats, and more activists... and we are determined to break this illegal siege on Gaza and show the world that the peace talks are not really peace talks, but the further colonization of Palestinian territories,” organizer Yasmin Acar told South African Broadcasting Corporation News Radio. “We will not stop until the siege is broken.”

Global Sumud Flotilla said: “A primary focus of the 2026 mission is the deployment of a specialized medical fleet. Carrying more than 1,000 healthcare professionals and stocked with lifesaving medicines and equipment, this fleet aims to stabilize Gaza’s healthcare system and support the efforts of local medical teams who have endured two years of genocide.”

Epstein Files FBI Report Claims Israel OWNS Trump

Private jet owned by Trump friend used by ICE to deport Palestinians to West Bank

On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags. Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.

Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. His sleek Gulfstream jet – which he has called “my little rocket ship” – was used to transport the men from an airport near a notorious removal centre in Arizona to Tel Aviv. The jet made three refuelling stops en route: in New Jersey, Ireland and Bulgaria.

A Guardian investigation has established the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. On Monday this week, Dezer’s 16-passenger luxury jet was used a second time to transport another group of Palestinian deportees. They landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport and also appear to have been taken to the West Bank. Former US officials and immigration lawyers said the flights – and Israel’s assistance in returning Palestinians to the occupied territory – marked a shift in policy driven by the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation campaign.

Dezer’s aircraft, which he has described as “my favourite toy”, was chartered by ICE through Journey Aviation, a Florida-based company (which declined to comment on the flights to Israel). Public records show Journey is frequently contracted by US agencies to charter private jets. US officials did not answer questions about the cost of the two recent flights to Israel but, according to ICE, chartered flight costs have ranged between nearly $7,000 and more than $26,000 per flight hour in the past. Aviation industry sources estimated the flights to and from Israel would have cost ICE between $400,000 and $500,000.

Epstein files shed more light on Steve Bannon’s efforts to influence European politics

Dozens of messages contained in the latest tranche of Epstein files lay bare the attempts by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon to tap Jeffrey Epstein for support and funding to bolster European far-right parties. The messages mostly date to 2018 and 2019, when Bannon, after being sacked by Trump, regularly visited Europe in his quest to forge a movement in the European parliament uniting ultra-rightwing and Eurosceptic forces from several countries including Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Austria.

Bannon especially set his sights on Matteo Salvini, the Italian deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League, who at the time was at the height of his political power. Italian opposition parties this week urged Salvini to clarify whether Epstein influenced the rise of the League after Salvini’s name was cited several times in messages exchanged between Bannon and Epstein.

In France, the leftwing party La France Insoumise also called for a cross-party parliament inquiry after several French figures including Jack Lang, a former culture minister, and his daughter appeared in the latest Epstein release, as did exchanges between Epstein and Bannon in which Bannon spoke of his desire to raise money for the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

In Germany, the files revealed exchanges between Epstein and Bannon promoting Alternative für Deutschland while denigrating the then German chancellor, Angela Merkel. In texts from 2018, Bannon bragged about his influence as an “adviser” to the new rightwing populists and saw the parties’ gains in Europe as a chance to use them to his and Epstein’s benefit.

In a message contained in one of the files and dated 5 March 2019, a couple of months before the European parliamentary elections, Bannon writes that he is “focused on raising money for Le Pen and Salvini so they can actually run full slates”. Others messages detail Bannon’s travels in Europe at the time and his ambition for increased nationalist power in Brussels, as highlighted in a flurry of exchanges between the pair at the time of the European parliament ballot in late May 2019.

Venezuela, Colombia & The Epstein Files: The Most Important Scandal Of Our Time

‘So Much for the Golden Age of America’: Layoffs Hit 17-Year High Under Trump

While President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that the US economy is the hottest in the world, new data released Thursday shows that announced layoffs in January hit a high not seen since the Great Recession of 2009.

The new report by corporate outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that that US employers announced more than 108,000 job cuts last month, more than double the nearly 50,000 job cuts that they announced one year before.

In fact, the announced job cuts were higher than any January since 2009, when the economy was in the middle of a global financial crisis.

Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said that the January 2026 job cuts were “a high number” and a signal that “employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”

The biggest cuts on the month came from UPS, which announced that it would be slashing 30,000 jobs, and Amazon, which announced workforce reductions of 16,000 jobs.

“So much for the ‘Golden Age of America’,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), as he noted layoffs surging to the highest levels in 17 years. ...

Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, said that the job cuts were yet more evidence that Trump and Republicans’ economic policies were a failure.

“'If you give more tax cuts to corporations, those corporations will create more jobs,’ is the lie politicians who are funded by corporations tell people to justify giving their corporate donors more tax cuts,” she wrote. “Trump’s corporate and billionaire tax cuts create profits—not jobs.”

You Don’t Own Your Narrative Anymore — Naomi Klein and Yanis Varoufakis

Republicans dismiss whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard

The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, withheld classified information for political reasons.

The responses this week from Senator Tom Cotton and Congressman Rick Crawford mean the complaint is unlikely to proceed further, though Democratic lawmakers who also have seen the document said they continue to question why it took Gabbard’s office eight months to refer the complaint to Congress as required by law.

Gabbard’s office has rejected any allegations of wrongdoing as well as criticism of the timeframe for the referral, saying the complaint included so many classified details that it necessitated an extensive legal and security review. Select lawmakers were able to view the complaint this week. ...

Democrats are pushing for explanations about why it took Gabbard’s office months to refer the complaint to the required members of Congress. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said the law requires such a report to be sent within 21 days. “The law is clear,” Warner said at the Capitol. “I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint.”

Warner said he also still had questions about the details of the complaint, noting that it was heavily redacted. The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Jim Himes of Connecticut, said in a written statement that he would keep looking into the matter.

Calls to shut down Texas ICE facility for children grow amid measles outbreak

At least two cases of measles have been confirmed at a major immigration detention center for children and their parents in Texas as cases of the dangerous virus in South Carolina, Arizona, Utah and other US states continue growing and alarming experts. In January alone, the US saw 25% of the total confirmed in all of last year, and the outbreak shows no sign of slowing as federal officials stay silent on vaccination.

The vast majority of patients are not vaccinated, but there have been no national campaigns announced or recent statements from leaders such as Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Last year, Kennedy positioned measles vaccines as a personal choice and recommended unproven treatments for the highly contagious illness.

The measles outbreak is “frightening” and “very worrisome”, said Jason Bowling, professor of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio and director of hospital epidemiology at University Health. “I unfortunately do not see this slowing down across the United States,” said Anna-Kathryn Burch, division director of pediatric infectious diseases at Prisma Health Children’s hospital in the Midlands in South Carolina. What’s happening in South Carolina could happen anywhere the vaccination rate dips too low, Burch said. “It’s not a matter of if, but more likely when.”

The Dilley family detention center in south Texas, one of two immigration facilities for children in the US, reported two measles cases on Friday. “We are aware of the cases and are assisting by providing doses of measles vaccine as requested by ICE,” said Chris Van Deusen, director of media relations at the Texas department of state health services, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from San Antonio, is calling for the detention center to be “shut down immediately”. Dilley is not equipped to deal with the spread of measles, Castro said in a post on X. “Children and families, who have committed no crime, should not be suffering and do not belong in prison.” Detention centers can be “epidemic engines” that become “basically factories for manufacturing virus at incredible scale and incredible pace, and inevitably they overthrow the walls of these prisons”, said Eric Reinhart, a political anthropologist and psychiatrist who researched the spread of Covid in jails and prisons.

Victims of ICE Aggression SPEAK OUT at Unofficial "Hearing"

ICE agents in Oregon cannot arrest people without warrants, judge rules

US immigration agents in Oregon must stop arresting people without warrants unless there is a likelihood of escape, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. US district judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across while conducting ramped-up enforcement operations – which critics have described as “arrest first, justify later”.

Similar actions, including immigration agents entering private property without a warrant issued by a court, have drawn concern from civil rights groups across the country amid Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Courts in Colorado and Washington DC, have issued rulings like Kasubhai’s, and the government has appealed them.

In a memo last week, Todd Lyons, the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), emphasized that agents should not make an arrest without an administrative arrest warrant issued by a supervisor unless they develop probable cause to believe that the person is in the US illegally and likely to escape from the scene before a warrant can be obtained. But the judge heard evidence that agents in Oregon have arrested people in immigration sweeps without such warrants or determining escape was likely. ...

Kasubhai said the actions of agents in Oregon – including drawing guns on people while detaining them for civil immigration violations – have been “violent and brutal”, and he was concerned about the administration denying due process to those swept up in immigration raids. “Due process calls for those who have great power to exercise great restraint,” he said. “That is the bedrock of a democratic republic founded on this great constitution. I think we’re losing that.”

Democrats have said well ICE can wear masks as long as they promise to be nice. pic.twitter.com/RFNwbdIGof

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) February 5, 2026

Trump’s border-czar takeover does little to calm Minneapolis tensions: ‘The agenda is still the same’

In his clearest attempt yet to “de‑escalate” tensions in Minneapolis, Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border czar”, announced on Wednesday that the administration will draw down 700 federal immigration officers as the statewide crackdown continues. The Twin Cities remain on edge, waiting to see whether the fear will ease.

When Homan arrived in Minneapolis more than a week ago, his task was to bridge the widening gulf between local officials and federal law enforcement. Trump dispatched Homan, whom he called “tough but fair”, abruptly, to replace senior border patrol official Gregory Bovino, as the immigration operation in Minnesota spiraled into crisis. ... Trump downplayed the move as “a little bit of a change”, even as he acknowledged Bovino was “a pretty out‑there kind of a guy”.

Homan’s background running ICE – where agents are expected to investigate criminal records and addresses rather than rely on broad street sweeps – could, in theory, lower the temperature. But experts warn that any shift depends entirely on whether he reins in the tactics that have colored the operation so far. “It’s too soon to say if immigration enforcement has dialed back its demographic profiling while targeting immigrants,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, while noting that ICE is “continuing its aggressive and reckless behavior towards protesters and other observers”. Homan told reporters Wednesday that roughly 2,000 federal immigration officers remain in Minnesota — far more than the 150 typically stationed in the state.

One of Homan’s longstanding goals for boosting deportation numbers nationwide is gaining access to local jails. On Wednesday, he said the recent ability to scale back federal immigration officers was due to “unprecedented collaboration” from county sheriffs. According to Homan, some jails have already agreed to notify ICE when they release an undocumented immigrant. Many sheriffs across Minnesota – including those in the state’s largest counties, Hennepin and Ramsey – generally limit working with ICE.

During his tenure leading ICE, Homan frequently argued that any undocumented immigrant was fair game for removal. Before re‑joining the Trump White House, he telegraphed his aims at a national conservatism conference in 2024. “I’ll be on [Trump’s] heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” he said. “They ain’t seen shit yet.” ... In Minneapolis, he underscored that his mass deportation effort hadn’t changed, whether people have criminal convictions or not. “If you’re in the country illegally, if we find you, we will deport you,” he told reporters. Experts say Homan’s takeover may change the tone, but not the mission.

Trump offers contradictory account of Tulsi Gabbard presence at FBI raid in Georgia

Donald Trump on Thursday offered a new and shifting account of why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present last week at an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia, saying she went at the urging of the attorney general Pam Bondi. “She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam’s insistence,” the US president said at the National Prayer Breakfast, a high-profile event of political and religious leaders. “She went in and she looked at votes that wanted to be checked out from Georgia.”

The remarks contradicted Trump’s assertion just a day earlier that he did not know why Gabbard had appeared at the FBI raid, and diverged from her account to lawmakers that she had traveled to Fulton county at Trump’s express direction. The shifting explanations have intensified scrutiny of the unusual role Gabbard played in the operation. As director of national intelligence, she has no domestic law enforcement authority, making her presence at an FBI raid out of the ordinary.

Trump’s account at the prayer breakfast marked a departure from remarks in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday. “I don’t know,” Trump said when asked why Gabbard was present, before suggesting, without offering evidence, that China had interfered in the 2020 election.

Michigan accuses big oil of being ‘cartel’ that fuels climate crisis and high energy costs

Amid rising concern about global heating and soaring energy costs, Michigan has sued big oil for allegedly fueling both crises – a move experts have hailed as groundbreaking. In a first-of-its-kind complaint, the state’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, accused four fossil fuel majors and the top US oil lobbying group last month of acting as a “cartel” to stifle the growth of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs), while suppressing information about the dangers of the climate crisis. The conduct, the lawsuit alleged, violates federal and state antitrust laws.

The companies’ “collusion” drove up Michigan utility costs and slowed the transition away from gas-powered cars, according to the filing. Absent the industry’s efforts to repress clean technology, EVs “would be a common sight in every neighborhood – rolling off assembly lines in Flint, parked in driveways in Dearborn, charging outside grocery stores in Grand Rapids, and running quietly down Woodward Avenue”, it said.

Electricity costs in Michigan have surged, with average residential rates increasing by nearly 120% in the last two decades. And though electric car adoption is increasing, EVs and hybrids accounted for less than 4% of total registered vehicles statewide last year. “Michigan is facing an energy affordability crisis as our home energy costs skyrocket and consumers are left without affordable options for transportation,” Nessel said in a statement. “These out-of-control costs are not the result of natural economic inflation, but due to the greed of these corporations who prioritized their own profit and marketplace dominance over competition and consumer savings.”

Michigan’s case specifically targets BP, Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil, as well as the largest US oil lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute (API). “This is yet another legally incoherent effort to regulate by lawsuit,” an ExxonMobil spokesperson said. “It won’t reduce emissions, it won’t help consumers and it won’t stand up to the law.” Ryan Meyers, general counsel for the API, said: “These baseless lawsuits are a coordinated campaign against an industry that powers everyday life, drives America’s economy and is actively reducing emissions. We continue to believe that energy policy belongs in Congress, not a patchwork of courtrooms.”

The oil industry has long attempted to have lawsuits voided by saying they are pre-empted by policies, but plaintiffs say climate accountability lawsuits focus on business practices and the distribution of misleading information, not emissions regulations. The 126-page lawsuit was brought by Nessel’s office alongside Sher Edling – a California-based law firm which is representing a slew of municipalities in climate accountability litigation – and two other firms, DiCello Levitt and Hausfeld, which have also handled climate complaints and are based in Chicago and Washington DC, respectively. The new challenge accuses the defendants of engaging in a vast “conspiracy”, starting almost 50 years ago when a 1979 Exxon internal report predicted the world would see catastrophic global heating without a massive shift to renewable energy.

UK to cut climate finance to poor countries by a fifth despite promising more help

The UK plans to slash its aid to poor countries stricken by the climate crisis by more than a fifth, the Guardian has learned, despite promises to increase assistance and warnings from campaigners that the move will cost lives and livelihoods. Ministers plan to cut climate finance for the developing world from £11.6bn over the past five years to £9bn in the next five. In real terms, accounting for inflation, this would represent a cut of about 40% in spending power since 2021, when the £11.6bn budget was agreed.

The slashing of climate aid, imposed by the Treasury, is planned despite recent warnings from the UK’s spy chiefs that the collapse of ecosystems such as the Amazon or the Congo would inflict serious damage on the UK’s national security, including soaring food prices and the risk of war.

It comes just a year after the UK and other rich countries promised to triple global climate finance to the poor world to $300bn (£220bn) a year by 2035, in recognition of the disasters countries are already experiencing. Although that deal did not specify how much must come from each, a reduction from the UK will make the total harder to reach.

Donald Trump is withdrawing the US from the Paris agreement and its parent treaty, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and has scrapped the US’s climate finance targets. Adow said: “If the UK breaks its commitments, it gives cover for others to do the same, with devastating consequences for global climate action.”

Also of Interest

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

How Arms Control Went Out The Window

Does the US Still Have a Constitution?

Rate of Israeli Strikes on Lebanon at Highest Level Since Ceasefire

How Boeing Made Record Profits And Burned Down The Company

Database of Court Filings Shows ‘Startling Pattern of Abuse’ by Federal Agents Against Citizens in Minnesota

Democrats’ 10 demands to ‘rein in’ ICE – the full list of proposed reforms

Fresh Fury as Schumer, Jeffries Bend on Demand to Unmask ICE Agents in Funding Talks

Brad Karp: Wall Street law firm boss resigns after emails to Epstein released

Oregon must dismiss more than 1,400 criminal cases due to attorney shortage, court rules

Trump ODDLY TROUBLED by Clintons' EPSTEIN TESTIMONY

Right of Return: Omar Shakir & Ken Roth Debate "Blocked" Human Rights Watch Report on Palestine

It's OVER For Keir Starmer!

A Little Night Music

James Brown - Maceo Parker Instrumental

Maceo Parker - Chicken

Maceo Parker - Elephant's Foot

Maceo Parker Solo - Atomic Dog

Maceo Parker - Let's get it on

Maceo Parker - Rabbits in the Pea Patch

Maceo Parker - Pass The Peas

Maceo Parker-Fred Wesley-Bootsy Collins - Let Him Out

Maceo Parker - Hallelujah I Love Her So

Maceo Parker - Shake Everything You've Got

Maceo Parker & Trombone Shorty - Full Concert [HD] | Live at North Sea Jazz Festival 2012