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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The Chambers Brothers

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and r&b vocal group The Chambers Brothers. Enjoy!

^{Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready}

"We are whirling through endless space with an inconceivable speed, all around us everything is spinning, everything is moving, everywhere is energy. There might be some way of availing ourselves of this energy more directly. Then; with the light obtained from the medium, with the power derived from it, with every form of energy obtained without effort, from the store forever inexhaustible, humanity will advance with giant strides. The mere contemplation of these magnificent possibilities expand our minds, strengthens our hopes and and fills our hearts with supreme delight."

-- Nikola Tesla

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News and Opinion

The Empire Backs Down, For Now

Trump has announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran after previously threatening to exterminate their “entire civilization”, citing “a 10 point proposal from Iran” as the reason for the climb-down.

Trump and his cronies are spinning this as a colossal victory for the United States and framing Tehran’s 10-point plan as a major capitulation to the president’s threats. But some reporters are noting that Iran has had the same terms on the table for weeks — which would mean that it is in fact the White House who is backing down.

Hours before the president’s announcement, Drop Site’s Ryan Grim posted a TikTok video arguing that Trump could save face while walking back from his apocalyptic threats by simply accepting Iran’s 10-point peace plan and acting like it’s a new proposal the Iranians had only just put forward. Grim argued that Trump could get away with this because the western media have been completely ignoring Iran’s stated terms for a ceasefire this entire time.

This is nuts, Trump really did do exactly what Ryan Grim suggested he do hours earlier: pretend Iran's ten-point plan is a new proposal, counting on the fact that the media hasn't been reporting on Iran's demands to make it look like a new offer Tehran put forward in desperation. https://t.co/ywm6f4e3PZ pic.twitter.com/5sTfJlrQGH

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) April 8, 2026

Interestingly, this appears to have been precisely what Trump wound up doing. After previously rejecting Iran’s proposals as “not good enough”, the president turned around and framed the Iranian offer as a brand new response to the pressures his administration was able to impose upon them.

All the way back on March 28, Drop Site News reported the following:

“Among Iran’s terms for permanently ending the war are a longterm guarantee that the U.S. and Israel will not attack Iran again and that any ceasefire also apply to Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine; reparations for the damages done to Iran during the war; sanctions relief; and that Iran retain control over the Strait of Hormuz.”

These are the same terms Iran is claiming it pressured the US to accept today. Iranian state media outlet Press TV cited Iran’s supreme national security council as saying “Iran achieved historic victory by forcing criminal US to accept its 10-point plan. US has accepted Iran’s control over Strait of Hormuz, enrichment right, removal of all sanctions.”

The New York Times reports the following:

“Two senior Iranian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said the proposal included a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked again, an end to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the lifting of all sanctions.

“In return, Iran would lift its de facto blockade of the key shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran would also impose a fee of roughly $2 million per ship that it would split with Oman, which sits across the strait. Iran would use its share of the proceeds to reconstruct infrastructure destroyed by American and Israeli attacks, rather than demand direct compensation, according to the plan.”

NY Times: "The Iranian 10-point proposal includes a lifting of all sanctions — placed on Iran by every American administration since the George W. Bush administration" pic.twitter.com/xRVPH4GvZq

— Steve Lookner (@lookner) April 7, 2026

So as things stand right now this certainly looks like a humiliating defeat for the empire. Iran gets a lot of things it didn’t have before the war, including tolling the Strait of Hormuz and relief from the US sanctions that have been crushing its economy for years, while the empire gets to resume its shipping for a hefty fee and pretend it just rescued the world from a nuclear Iran.

Quite the turnaround from a White House that just last month was saying “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi, who always has great insights regarding western warmongering toward Iran, writes the following:

“I cannot emphasize this enough. A new dynamic will be at play when the US and Iran meet in Islamabad to negotiate a final deal based on Iran’s 10-point plan: Trump’s failed war has eliminated the potency of American military threats in US-Iran diplomacy. The US can still issue threats, but everyone will know that they no longer carry much weight. Essentially, war with Iran was tried and failed. As a result, negotiations will have to be based on genuine compromises from both sides, rather than coercion from either side.”

This shall age like a milk let that sink in https://t.co/PMIWl8jAO4

— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) March 6, 2026

There are of course many, many reasons to be pessimistic. The US and Israel have demonstrated time and time again that they will attack Iran during negotiations, and even if the US holds up its end of the bargain we can always see Israel sabotage the deal with its own aggressions. By now Iran has to know that the only way to protect itself from Israel is to impose costs for Israeli aggression on the entire western world; Tehran will have us all heating our homes with trash fires and growing carrots in our backyards if the west can’t find a way to rein in Israel.

For what it’s worth, Zionist Twitter is in absolute meltdown right now, with notorious Israel apologists like Laura Loomer, Eve Barlow and Eli David rending their garments in outrage that the killing has ended with Iran positioned as it is. I’m as skeptical about this ceasefire as anyone, but the fact that the world’s worst people are in meltdown about it right now does provide a faint glimmer of hope.

We shall see.

U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Hangs in the Balance Amid Israeli Assault on Lebanon

The Iran–U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both.

The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments. pic.twitter.com/2bzVlHFKgi

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 8, 2026

Max Blumenthal : Israeli Agents in the White House

Middle East ceasefire threatens to unravel as Israel assaults Lebanon and Iran blocks oil tankers

The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril on Wednesday as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach. Iran and Pakistan, which brokered the 11th-hour truce, both asserted that the ceasefire included Lebanon.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, disagreed and Israeli forces unleashed their heaviest attack of the war so far on more than 100 targets, killing at least 254 people. Donald Trump, after initially remaining silent, said Lebanon was “a separate skirmish” and not part of the deal.

The scale of Israel’s attacks on Wednesday were condemned as “horrific” by UN rights chief Volker Turk. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief. It places enormous pressure on a fragile peace, which is so desperately needed by civilians,” he said.

In a sharply worded statement, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Israel and the US had violated several clauses of the provisional ceasefire, and decried Israel’s aggressive bombing of Lebanon and a US demand that Iran should have no right to enrich its own uranium. “In such [a] situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations is unreasonable,” the statement read.

While the statement did not announce Iran’s rejection of the ceasefire, it nonetheless indicated that tensions were strained less than 24 hours after Trump had announced that a ceasefire agreement had been reached. Iran’s Fars news agency said oil tankers passing through the strait of Hormuz had been stopped as a result of Israel’s “ceasefire breach”.

AFTER THE CEASEFIRE /Scott Horton & Lt Col Daniel Davis

At least 254 killed after Israel hits Lebanon with massive wave of airstrikes

Israel has carried out its largest attack on Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah began, killing at least 254 people and wounding 837, an assault that prompted Iranian officials to warn Tehran could withdraw from the ceasefire agreed with the US overnight. Warplanes levelled several buildings in the centre of Beirut, filling the skies with smoke in what Israel’s defence minister said was “a surprise strike” on the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah.

The Lebanese capital was filled with cars crumpled by the blasts and the flaming wreckage of buildings that first responders struggled to extinguish, as Israel bombed more than 100 Hezbollah military sites across Lebanon. The office of Israel’s prime minister said the two-week Middle East ceasefire did not include Lebanon, contrary to a statement made by mediator Pakistan – while Trump, after initially remaining silent, said Lebanon was “a separate skirmish” and not part of the deal.

Hospitals in Lebanon put out urgent calls for blood donations , while the ministry of health urged people to “clear the streets” so ambulances could reach the injured. People rushed home to check on their families. A man was filmed as he ran towards a struck building in the Chiyah neighbourhood, screaming: “There are people inside!” Pictures of rubble-covered children circulated on social media as people tried to find their parents.

Iranian sources told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that the country was ready to exit the ceasefire agreement if Israel “persists in violating the truce in Lebanon”, and the crisis was discussed by Iran’s foreign minister and his Pakistani counterpart.

The Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesperson suggested Israel would begin striking deeper in Beirut, having previously confined most of its strikes to the southern suburbs, where support for Hezbollah is common. The spokesperson said Hezbollah was “repositioning itself” in mixed neighbourhoods of the city and vowed to pursue Hezbollah fighters no matter their location.

Lawrence Wilkerson: New World - Iran Ceasefire Fails, NATO Is Dead & the U.S. Risks Civil War

‘In no way do we trust America’: Iranians react to two-week ceasefire

The video from the streets of Tehran shows crowds gathering in small groups, some waving Iranian flags while others wear them draped over their backs. In Enghelab Square, a centre for pro-regime rallies throughout the 40-day war, people are holding heated discussions. It is clear there are mixed feelings. Footage captured by a pro-regime figure and posted online offers a peek inside the domestic reaction to a two-week ceasefire announced overnight.

It was filmed by Majid Nouri, the son of an infamous former Iranian prison official, and he provides a running commentary on the disagreements, which he said started overnight and stretched into Wednesday morning. It provides rare insight into disquiet among the pro-regime camp in Iran, which agreed to a ceasefire after weeks of riling up the nation with promises of a total win over the US and Israel. “Around 3am in the morning after the news [of the ceasefire] came out, there were debates and arguments between people,” he tells the camera. “Still they are talking in groups and some good debates have formed between people. Mainly they are shocked, they are upset.”

The crowds, said Nouri, did not expect a ceasefire and had been debating for hours. “The initial fever and anger will calm down and I think the atmosphere will become much better. In no way do we trust America. I don’t think there is one Iranian who trusts America. And God willing victory is ours.” Later reports by news agencies said pro-government demonstrators chanted: “Death to America, death to Israel, death to compromisers!” Organisers tried at one point to calm demonstrators, but they continued the chants, the Associated Press reported. People also burned US and Israeli flags in the street.

As the sun rose over the Iranian capital, however, life largely returned to normal, without any sense of grand euphoria. Instead, the mood was marked by a mix of exhaustion, cautious optimism and mistrust. “Most people here don’t trust the US and still don’t know exactly what is going to happen, so they are unsure whether they should be happy or worried,” said Ali, a 31-year-old man in Tehran. “People want the war to end for good, and with the conditions that Iran has set, but there’s no guarantee these will be secured. There’s also no guarantee the ceasefire will last beyond the two weeks. For now, we have to wait and see.”

Scott Ritter & Larry Johnson: Iran Retaliates, Hormuz CLOSED – Israel ENDS Trump Ceasefire

In a war with no winners, Netanyahu looks like the biggest loser

In a war where there have been no winners, Israel’s prime minister looks set to be the biggest loser entering a fragile and vague ceasefire with Iran. After years of Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats against Iran, his stunts at the UN’s general assembly, the dodgy dossiers endlessly wafted under the noses of the world’s media, and diplomatic pressure on successive US presidents to agree to a war against Iran, Israel’s conflict has turned out to be a bust.

The US intelligence community’s verdict that Israeli predictions of regime change and revolution in Iran were “farcical” turned out to be correct. The Israeli assessment that the war would last at best a handful of days, at worst a handful of weeks, was woefully wide of the mark. Even two days ago, according to Israel’s Channel 12, Netanyahu was pushing Donald Trump not to agree to a ceasefire. For a day, the US president issued his genocidal warnings to Tehran and then buckled, by some accounts sidelining Israel in his deliberations.

“There has never been a political disaster like this in our entire history. Israel was not even close to the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security,” Israel’s main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, wrote on X. “The army carried out everything that was asked of it, and the public showed remarkable resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and did not achieve any of the goals he himself set. It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence, and lack of strategic planning.”

The reality is that Netanyahu gambled everything on his war and in his failure to secure the fall of the theocratic regime, the seizure of Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or meaningful state degradation, Israel’s global standing – already massively tarnished by its actions in Gaza, where it has been accused of committing a genocide – has been damaged.

The fallout in terms of public opinion and diplomacy is likely to be even more serious for Netanyahu and Israel. In America, in particular, a political consensus dating back to the 1960s is visibly crumbling. Israel’s role in pushing Trump to war in Iran has been assailed by both progressives and Maga’s far right, while support for Israel more broadly is at historic lows even among Jewish voters.

Iran Releases Another LEGO Animation Mocking Trump as Information War Continues

Aid Groups Warn Excluding Lebanon From Ceasefire ‘Risks Prolonging the Crisis’

Humanitarian aid organizations warned Wednesday that the Iran ceasefire touted by US President Donald Trump as a monumental step toward peace is at risk of collapsing entirely if it doesn’t halt Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, which reached its most intense phase yet in the hours after the two-week truce was announced.

David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said the

ceasefire announcement late Tuesday was a “welcome step” but warned it was “partial, fragile, and incomplete,” pointing to Trump and Israel’s claim that Lebanon was not included in the deal’s terms. Pakistan, the key mediator of the truce, has said Lebanon was part of the agreed-upon ceasefire, and a halt to Israeli attacks on the country was included in a widely circulated 10-point Iranian plan that Trump characterized as “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

Miliband said Wednesday that leaving “one front of the conflict burning risks prolonging the crisis, not resolving it.”

Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, similarly warned that the current ceasefire deal, as implemented, “is not enough.”

“We’re urgently calling for a definitive ceasefire for the wider region, which includes Lebanon, to protect children from further harm,” said Alhendawi. “A whole generation of children bears the brunt of this conflict. A definitive ceasefire for the entire regional conflict, including Lebanon, is the only way to truly protect children’s lives and futures and end the suffering. The violence must end before more children suffer irreparable harm.”

Iranian officials have responded with outrage to Israel’s intensified assault on Lebanon, which has killed hundreds of people on Wednesday alone and wounded many more. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said the Trump administration “must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel.”

“It cannot have both,” he added. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Iran has informed regional mediators that its participation in planned in-person talks in Pakistan’s capital “is conditional on a ceasefire in Lebanon” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “continue to strike” the country.

“Sounds like somebody needs to rein in Israel ASAP,” Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, wrote on social media.

Trump insisted to a PBS reporter on Wednesday that Lebanon was “not included in the deal,” claiming the Israeli assault on the country is “a separate skirmish.”

But top Iranian officials, aid organizations, and US lawmakers who support a lasting peace agreement view the conflicts across the region as interconnected.

“Aggression towards Lebanon is aggression towards Iran,” Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, aerospace commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday.

US Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) urged the Trump administration “must immediately make clear to Israel that the ceasefire agreement is not and cannot be functional without a ceasefire in Lebanon.”

“The American people want this war to end,” Beyer added, “and bombing downtown Beirut is not a path to peace.”

Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in a statement that “until there is an end to all hostilities, across the entire region, no one will feel truly safe.”

“Israel’s ongoing invasion in Lebanon, its destructive occupation of Palestinian territory, ground incursion and airstrikes in Syria, its continued attacks in Gaza, and violent attacks and territorial expansion in the West Bank are still continuing despite the provisional cessation of violence with Iran,” said Behar. “This deadly toll across the Middle East is intolerable and must stop.”

Yanis Varoufakis: CHINA Is Biggest Winner Of Iran War

Under Trump, US Disapproval of Israel, Netanyahu Hits All-Time High in Pew Research Poll

The bipartisan support Israel and its powerful lobby have enjoyed for decades in the US—with lawmakers from both parties insisting the federal government must help Israel “defend itself” with nearly $4 billion per year in military aid—is likely to shift considerably in the coming years as public support for the country continues to collapse, particularly among young voters, in the latest Pew Research poll.

The survey was taken last month as the US-Israeli war on Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pitched to President Donald Trump in an unusual Situation Room meeting in February, was escalating and spreading across the Middle East. It found that overall, 60% of US adults had an unfavorable view of Israel.

That share has grown considerably since 2022, before Israel began its US-backed war on the population of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. That year, just 42% in the US viewed Israel unfavorably.

Public opposition to the country’s government has also gone up by seven percentage points since last year, according to Pew. The share of adults who describe themselves as having a “very unfavorable” view of Israel has gone up by 9% since 2025 and has nearly tripled since before Israel began waging war on Gaza.

Journalist Prem Thakker commented that it was “absurd” to continue providing a country that a sizable majority of Americans disapprove of with military funding.

Think how absurd this is, simply: a foreign country that a majority of Americans now disapprove of gets $3.8 billion a year from them https://t.co/V847d3rb0E

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) April 7, 2026

Over the past two-and-a-half years—as US public support for Israel has steadily declined—that funding has helped Israel to kill more than 72,000 Palestinians; injure more than 172,000; displace more than 90% of Gaza’s population; carry out nearly 800 attacks on the healthcare system, damaging 94% of hospitals; damage or destroy 97% of school buildings; and impose a mass starvation policy through a blockade on humanitarian aid. Israeli officials have publicly called for the killing of 50 Palestinians for every Israeli killed in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, for Gaza to be burned to the ground, and for Israelis to “remember what Amalek has done to you,” a reference to the Israelites’ enemies in the Old Testament, whom King Saul was ordered to massacre.

All the while, Israeli officials and bipartisan US lawmakers who continue to support the Israeli government—and take donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other influential pro-Israel lobbying groups—have accused Americans who have spoken out against Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza of being antisemitic.

In the poll released by Pew, the shift away from support for Israel is most pronounced among voters aged 18-49, with 70% of respondents in that age bracket reporting unfavorable views. Majorities of both Democrats (84%) and Republicans (57%) under 50 had unfavorable views. In 2025, just 50% of Republicans under 50 viewed Israel negatively, while 71% of young Democrats said the same—representing a 13-point jump in just a year among the latter group.

Americans’ views on Netanyahu have also grown more negative, with 59% of respondents saying they did not trust the prime minister to do the right thing in terms of world affairs—up from 53% last year.

The poll was released as Israel continued its assault on Lebanon, which it began attacking in March after Hezbollah retaliated against Israeli forces for the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israeli officials claim the two-week ceasefire reached between the US, Israel, and Iran does not include Lebanon, despite statements from Pakistan, which helped broker the deal declaring otherwise.

Israel has killed more than 1,400 people in Lebanon in the last month, in addition to striking Iran along with the US in attacks that have killed more than 2,000 people.

The Pew survey was released days after a poll by the IMEU Policy Project

and Data for Progress found that among Democratic primary voters in Texas, the US relationship with Israel was not seen as an abstract foreign policy issue, but one that significantly impacted how many chose between US Senate candidate James Talarico and his primary opponent, US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).

The poll found that Talarico gained a 4-to-1 advantage over Crockett when he spoke out against providing US weapons to Israel. Nearly 90% of respondents agreed with his stance, and 44% of his supporters said his position deeply influenced their vote.

“Democrats,” said political operative Isi Baehr-Breen in response to the poll of Talarico supporters, “are gonna have to choose between Israel and winning elections.”

Bibi REJECTS US Ceasefire: PROMISES MORE WAR

Democrats renew push to curb Trump’s Iran war as calls to use 25th amendment mount

Democratic party leaders have vowed to renew the effort to curb Donald Trump’s war in Iran after several days of escalating tactics that culminated in a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday evening. In recent months, several war powers resolutions have failed in Congress after a handful of Democrats voted alongside Republicans. But Trump’s aggressive overtures this week – including a Truth Social post that said “a whole civilization” could be wiped out if Iran did not agree to demands, have pushed some to act.

“We need a permanent end to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, on CNN shortly after Trump announced the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday. “House Democrats have demanded that Speaker Mike Johnson immediately reconvene the House back into session so we can move a war powers resolution that will end this conflict permanently.”

Despite the congressional recess, lower-chamber Democrats will ask unanimous consent to pass a war powers resolution during Thursday’s pro forma session, according to a source familiar with the discussions. Representative Glenn Ivey, of Maryland, will lead the effort, and will invite all members who are in Washington on Thursday to join. However, the motion is unlikely to succeed, since a single objection would block unanimous consent and require Democrats to pursue a formal vote on the resolution.

In a press conference in New York on Wednesday, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said Democrats in the upper chamber would force a vote when Congress returns next week. “This war has made us worse off today than before it started,” he said, noting the cost of the war and the effect on gas prices. “This is one of the very worst military and foreign policy actions that the United States has ever taken.”

Meanwhile, more than 70 Democrats are calling for the 25th amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office after his Truth Social post on Tuesday and an expletive-filled post on Easter Sunday. The outburst raised questions about the president’s mental health, and also spurred grave concerns about whether he would follow through on his threats to bomb Iran’s critical infrastructure – which would amount to war crimes under international law. Some lawmakers have called for his cabinet to invoke the amendment to declare him unfit for office, others have called for his impeachment and conviction – and some have called for both.

Wrongful-death lawsuit in LA police killing of 14-year-old girl to begin trial

A wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles police department for an officer’s fatal shooting of a 14-year-old girl in a clothing store is set to begin trial on Wednesday.

Valentina Orellana-Peralta was shopping for Christmas clothes with her mother at a Burlington store in the San Fernando valley’s North Hollywood neighborhood on 23 December 2021, when she was struck by a bullet that had gone through the dressing room wall.

Police were responding to calls for help after a man wielding a bike lock attacked two women in the building. As armed officers walked through the store, Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr fired his rifle three times, killing the man and Orellana-Peralta.

The lawsuit filed by the girl’s parents alleges wrongful death, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Her mother, Soledad Peralta, “felt her daughter’s body go limp and watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms”, the lawsuit states.

It alleges that the LAPD failed to adequately train and supervise the responding officers and “fostered an environment that allowed and permitted this shooting to occur”.

LA teen loses eye after being shot by US agent at No Kings march, lawyer says

A freshman at the University of Southern California has lost an eye after he was shot last month with a “less-lethal” projectile by a Department of Homeland Security agent at a No Kings march, according to his attorney. On 28 March, Tucker Collins, 18, took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles to photograph throngs of protesters, who held signs and chanted slogans denouncing the Trump administration’s policies, his lawyer V James DeSimone said in a statement on Wednesday.

Collins followed behind a group that was headed toward the Metropolitan detention center, the downtown LA facility that has been a focal point for demonstrators in the past months. In a video from that day shared by DeSimone on social media, Collins is seen holding a camera pointed toward demonstrators outside the federal facility, when suddenly he falls to his knees. A projectile, typically used as a crowd control device, had struck Collins in his right eye, fracturing the bones in his eye socket, according to DeSimone. That eye has since been surgically removed.

“He was not threatening anyone. He wasn’t attacking anyone. DHS officers took out his eye and they did it despite a federal injunction that plainly forbids firing these weapons at people’s heads,” DeSimone said. In September, a California judge issued a court order limiting the DHS’s use of force against journalists and legal observers exercising their first amendment rights, who posed “no threat of imminent harm”.

“They didn’t shoot him for their own protection – Tucker was shot in another overt act of repression,” DeSimone said. DeSimone will be filing a federal tort claim against DHS on Collins’s behalf, an avenue of legal recourse for injury caused by the “wrongful or negligent act” of a federal employee.

Pam Bondi will not appear at scheduled House hearing on Epstein files, DoJ says

Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi, the former US attorney general, will not appear next week for a scheduled deposition before the House oversight and government reform committee to answer questions about the justice department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its release of the Epstein files, the committee said.

In a statement on Wednesday morning shared with the Guardian, a spokesperson for the House oversight committee said: “The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on 14 April for a deposition since she is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general.” The spokesperson added: “The committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition.”

In a letter obtained by the Guardian, Patrick Davis, the assistant attorney general, wrote to James Comer, a Kentucky congressman and chair of the House oversight and government reform committee, telling him that “the committee issued the subpoena to Ms Bondi in her official capacity as attorney general”.

“Ms Bondi no longer holds that office,” the letter reads. “As a result, because Ms Bondi no longer can testify in her official capacity as attorney general, the department’s position is that the subpoena no longer obligates her to appear on 14 April.” The letter adds: “We kindly ask that you confirm that the subpoena is withdrawn.”

The committee’s subpoena has not been withdrawn, according to a person familiar with the matter. ... On Tuesday, the Democratic representative Ro Khanna and Republican representative Nancy Mace, sent a letter to Comer urging him to “make clear” that Bondi “remains obligated to comply” with the committee’s subpoena and appear for her 14 April deposition. “The removal of Pam Bondi as attorney general does not diminish the committee’s legitimate oversight interests in seeking her sworn testimony or the need for accountability and information,” they wrote.

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‘Non-survivable’: heatwaves are already breaching human limits, with worse to come

Extreme heat is already creating “non-survivable” conditions for humans in heatwaves that have killed thousands and likely many more, according to new research that warns people are more susceptible to rising temperatures than first thought. Scientists re-examined six extreme heatwaves between 2003 and 2024 and found that when temperature, humidity and the body’s ability to stay cool were accounted for, all were potentially deadly for older people.

The absolute limit for humans to survive had been assumed to be a six-hour exposure to a wet bulb temperature of 35C – a measure that accounts for temperature and humidity but has rarely been observed on the planet at that level. Heatwaves in Mecca (Saudi Arabia, 2024), Bangkok (Thailand, 2024), Phoenix (United States, 2023), Mount Isa (Australia, 2019), Larkana (Pakistan, 2015) and Seville (Spain, 2003) had seen thousands of deaths despite none approaching that wet bulb limit, the research found.

But when scientists applied a new model of human survivability that takes into account the body’s ability to function and stay cool depending on age, they found all six events had seen non-survivable periods for older people who could not find shade.

Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, the study’s lead author at the Australian National University, said the results were shocking. “My first thought was ‘Oh shit’ – I really didn’t expect to see that, especially when you zoom in to individual cities,” she said. “If it’s already happening now, then what does a future that is two or three degrees warmer hold?”

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggested deaths from heat, particularly in developing and densely populated areas, were “undoubtedly and seriously underreported”, Perkins-Kirkpatrick and colleagues wrote. The results showed, they wrote, that “deadly conditions have already placed hundreds of millions of people at grave risk”. The only way for the human body on its own to keep its core temperature within safe limits is by sweating, and for that sweat to be able to evaporate. But when high temperatures and humidity combine, this reduces the evaporation of sweat and if left unchecked, can cause heatstroke. Prof Ollie Jay, a co-author of the study, said older people were particularly vulnerable because their ability to sweat is reduced, particularly for people over 75.

Trump’s EPA chief Zeldin gives keynote speech at climate-denying group’s event

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gave the keynote speech at a conference on Wednesday morning, one which was hosted by a prominent climate-denying thinktank that previously compared those concerned about the climate crisis to the Unabomber on billboard posters in 2012.

“No longer are we going to rely on bad, flawed assumptions instead of accurate, present-day facts, without apology or regret,” Zeldin said at the Heartland Institute’s conference on climate change in Washington DC, referring to well-established climate science. Zeldin has been widely criticized by climate experts. Last month, more than 160 environmental and public health organizations called for him to resign or be fired, saying no EPA administrator in history “has so brazenly betrayed the agency’s core mission”.

In his speech, Zeldin poked fun at the media for calling him “controversial” for not “following blind obedience to whatever the dire, doom and gloom position of the day is from John Kerry or Al Gore or AOC” – referring to the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “It’s controversial that we won’t sign up for the script that the world is imminently about to end,” he said.

He derided previous administrations’ heeding of climate scientists’ warnings about the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions, and for ignoring “what’s good and necessary about carbon dioxide for the life of the planet”.

“What happened for years and decades in this country is that the elite, the ruling class, the people who would run the agencies, the people who have decided that they are in charge of the science, the politicians, the biggest grifters: there would be a cabal that would decide exactly which model is the chosen model, which methodology is the higher methodology,” he said. “And if all of you in this room, if any of you in this room dare to challenge any of that, well shame on you.”

The Heartland Institute has accepted money from big oil companies including Shell and ExxonMobil, and from the Mercers, a family of Republican mega-donors. The thinktank was a contributor to Project 2025, the far-right policy blueprint for Trump’s second administration. The Heartland Institute rejects the scientific consensus that the climate crisis is real, human-caused and urgent. Since the early 2000s, it has been a leading promoter of climate doubt, even branding climate science as “fake news”.

‘Opportunistic’ Fossil Fuel Execs Cashed In on Trump’s Iran War With Record Stock Sales

After pouring money into President Donald Trump’s successful campaign to take back the White House, US fossil fuel industry executives cashed in on his and Israel’s war on Iran with record-setting stock sales, according to a VerityData analysis reported on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.

“Much of the selling for the first quarter began before the US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28,” and some “were prearranged under plans that allow executives to sell stock automatically at specific times or share prices without making in-the-moment decisions that could leave them open to allegations of improper trading,” the newspaper acknowledged.

However, as share prices for the industry skyrocketed—Iran responded to the US-Israeli assault by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route for fossil fuels—executives at Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Diamondback Energy, and other oil and gas companies collectively sold $1.4 billion in stock.

“At nearly a dozen companies, the number of executives selling in the quarter reached or surpassed 10-year records, and in some cases set all-time records,” the Journal detailed. “The sales hit a 15-year peak, with nearly six executives selling for every one that bought shares in the first quarter—well over double the usual ratio.”

“CEOs stood out as big sellers in many cases,” the newspaper highlighted, noting that “Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth sold some $104 million worth of shares between January and March. ConocoPhillips’s Ryan Lance netted about $54.3 million in share sales in March alone. Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of oil field services company Baker Hughes, sold about $33 million worth of stock that same month.”

VerityData’s head of research, Ben Silverman, said that “it speaks to the opportunistic behavior of everyone involved—it could be opportunistic set months earlier, it could be opportunistic in the moment... There was a breathlessness to the selling, and the message they sent was to cash in now because the ride won’t last forever.”

In her Heated newsletter, climate journalist Emily Atkin pointed out that “this isn’t the first time a small group of extraordinarily wealthy oil CEOs used a war to make themselves richer. In the weeks after President Joe Biden said that he was ‘convinced’ Russia would invade Ukraine in 2022, Big Oil CEOs sold almost $99 million worth of shares, according to an analysis by Friends of the Earth and BailoutWatch.”

According to Atkin:

What really makes this story remarkable is not simply that oil executives got rich from a war. It’s how perfectly legal and normal it all is, and what that legality reveals about who wins and who loses when America goes to war.

When America goes to war, the costs are distributed broadly, onto every American who drives a car or heats a home. The benefits are distributed narrowly, flowing to a small group of men whose compensation is designed to capture exactly this kind of windfall.

And the cash windfall these oil executives make from the war won’t go primarily toward yachts and private jets (they already have those). It will go toward political campaigns and lobbying organizations dedicated to fighting climate regulation, blocking clean energy policy, and fueling authoritarianism.

The Journal reporting came on the heels of Trump and Iran agreeing to a fragile two-week ceasefire negotiated by Pakistan late Tuesday. While Israel is supposedly on board, it escalated attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday.

As a Pakistani official publicly reiterated that Lebanon is still part of the deal and Iran threatened to back out altogether, Janet Abou-Elias, a researcher with the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Common Dreams that Israel’s assault “appeared to be a direct attempt to blow up the ceasefire, and it worked.”

Meanwhile, although oil prices dropped after the ceasefire announcement, “’fossilflation’—or inflation caused by volatile and rising prices of oil and gas—is still likely to continue,” the global climate group 350.org warned on Wednesday.

“Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens and the ceasefire holds, oil and gas prices will stay above pre-war levels, and consumers will pay,” said Andreas Sieber, 350.org’s head of political strategy. “Volatility remains high, and supply will stay tight due to infrastructure damage and inventory rebuilding.”

The group said last week that war-related spikes in oil and gas prices “have already cost consumers and businesses an additional $104.2-$111.6 billion” globally, and an analysis from Democratic members of the congressional Joint Economic Committee found that Americans spent an extra $8.4 billion at the fuel pump during the first month of Trump’s war.

Throughout the conflict, 350.org and other green groups have advocated for a windfall profits tax targeting oil and gas giants, as well as renewed calls for a swift and just international transition away from climate-wrecking fossil fuels.

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Also of Interest

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

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Says US Violating ‘Three Clauses’ of Tehran’s Ceasefire Proposal

DAY 40: Netanyahu Says Iran War Is Not Over

War On Iran: – April Ceasefire – A Tick Tock Of Statements And Comments

Iran War: MSM Ceasefire Reporting Obscures Iran Agreeing to US Capitulation, Trump Depicting Different Deal; Israel Not a Party, States It Will Not Comply; Reason to Doubt Much Hormuz Traffic Increase Soon, Which Would Mean More Supply Pressure

Israel got away with targeting healthcare in Gaza. It’s no surprise it is doing it in Lebanon too

Grief, anger, disbelief: War proponents lose it over​ ceasefire

If Dems Retake Congress, Platner Says ‘Compelling Case’ Exists for Impeaching ‘At Least Two’ Supreme Court Justices

Chile’s far-right government rips up plan for memorial at Pinochet torture site

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A Little Night Music

The Chambers Brothers – The Weight

The Chambers Brothers – Stealin' Watermelons

The Chambers Brothers – I Wish It Would Rain

The Chambers Brothers – In The Midnight Hour

The Chambers Brothers – Blues Get Off My Shoulder

The Chambers Brothers – Smack Dab In The Middle

The Chambers Brothers – 1-2-3

The Chambers Brothers – I Can't Turn You Loose

The Chambers Brothers – Time Has Come Today

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