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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Tiny Powell

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and gospel singer Tiny Powell. Enjoy!

^{Tiny Powell - My Time After Awhile}

"Your national greatness, swelling vanity; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages."

-- Frederick Douglass

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News and Opinion

Israel Is Destroying Evidence Of Genocide In Gaza

Remember how we were always hearing that the official death toll in Gaza is an undercount because there are thousands of bodies trapped under the rubble?

Well, it looks like Israel has been moving those remains along with the rubble, conveniently destroying evidence of genocide.

Drop Site News reports:

The Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons has accused Israel of destroying evidence that could identify thousands of Palestinians buried beneath Gaza’s rubble or reveal the fate of those forcibly disappeared.

The center says Israeli forces are moving hundreds of tons of debris each day from destroyed neighborhoods inside closed military zones. Crushing and removing it could pulverize human remains, mix them with rubble and waste, erase the locations of burial sites, and destroy DNA and other forensic evidence.

Around 7,000 Palestinians remain missing in Gaza, including an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 believed trapped beneath the ruins.

“These sites are not merely construction waste,” the center warned. It called for urgent UN and Red Cross intervention, access for rescue and forensic teams, and independent oversight of all future rubble removal.

The Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons has accused Israel of destroying evidence that could identify thousands of Palestinians buried beneath Gaza’s rubble or reveal the fate of those forcibly disappeared.

The center says Israeli forces are moving… https://t.co/kEKEoyFE5m

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 6, 2026

Last month, a report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that “at least 10 million tonnes of rubble have been removed, crushed, or moved from their original sites within the areas under Israel’s unlawful military control.”

“In recent weeks, Euro-Med Monitor tracked nearly 100 Israeli trucks daily leaving the Gaza Strip with debris,” the report reads. “These trucks carry rubble to undisclosed sites within Israel and further south of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli authorities have not provided details on the quantities removed, the routes taken, the destination sites, or how the material is utilised. They also have not permitted independent oversight of the sorting, weighing, or transport processes. This lack of transparency makes it very difficult to trace the transported material, identify evidence, or recover any human remains that might be present.”

Euro-Med Monitor notes that this removal occurs while Israel is still under investigation by the International Criminal Court for the crime of genocide, adding that the Rome Statute considers “destroying, tampering with or interfering with the collection of evidence” as criminal acts that hinder the ICC’s justice mission when done deliberately.

In South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, the court ruled that “The State of Israel shall take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.”

These obligations are plainly being disregarded as Israel scrambles to cover up evidence of its crimes.

Mass Funeral Held in Gaza for 100 Palestinians, Including 62 Children, Whose Bodies Were Recovered From the Rubble#Gaza #Israel #Palestinians https://t.co/iXJYYC89BY

— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) September 6, 2026

On Sunday, Palestinians in Gaza held a mass funeral
for approximately 100 people, including 60 children. These individuals were not killed recently; the mass funeral was held because their bodies had been recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.

This is the sort of thing Israel is working to prevent as it clears out the wreckage from its genocidal onslaught.

You don’t generally look at construction equipment and think of it as a tool for genocide, but in occupied Palestine that’s exactly what this machinery is used for. They use it to knock down homes. To bury their victims. To conceal the evidence.

The state of Israel should have a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer on its flag.

Iran War Just Got Much Bigger / Matt Bracken & Lt Col Daniel Davis

Energy secretary says US might not reach nuclear agreement with Iran

US energy secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday morning that the US may not be able to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran that would prevent the country from having nuclear weapons. Asked on ABC on Sunday morning about any sign of such a deal, as negotiations appear stalled and the US-Israel war on Iran continues, Wright said: “There may not be a nuclear agreement.”

He talked about options for ending the “existential threat” of a nuclear armed Iran coming about by further US military action to knock out the country’s capacity to manufacture and deploy such missiles, saying: “It may be simply [a case of] destroying their capabilities to do it” or else “an agreement may await the next administration in Iran”.

He later said on CBS that the US was not shutting down diplomatic outreach and was “always open for a deal”. Wright told that network’s Face the Nation show that the “biggest role” of the US military in the Gulf region currently was to stop Iranian energy exports. “We are strangling their economy to try to bring either a change in policy from the existing regime or a new regime,” he said.

In an earlier interview with CNN on Sunday, Wright declined to declare the strait of Hormuz safe for oil tankers – unless they are being escorted by the US navy – and stopped short of saying whether the navy would need to remain in the Gulf region “indefinitely” in order to keep the vital energy passageway operating, as the conflict drags on.

This came despite Donald Trump’s repeated claims that ships can safely navigate the narrow marine waterway, and the US president’s insistence last week that the US controls the strait, while floating the idea that it be named after him – statements that were followed by further strikes from both sides in the area.

SAUDI ON FIRE As Oil Prices SKYROCKET

Captain calamity: Pete Hegseth under fire for ‘inept’ leadership of US military

In a different Washington, under a different president, a return to the well-worn playbook of all-out sanctions to counter Iran might have been the signal for a publicity-hungry US secretary of defense to adopt a lower profile. But these are no ordinary times. And Pete Hegseth is no ordinary defense secretary.

Barely a week after the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, unleashed a supposed “economic D-day” aimed at crushing the regime in Tehran under the weight of commercial pressures, Hegseth once again returned to the limelight – and the center of controversy. The former Fox News host usurped Bessent from center stage as the conflict with Iran reverted to open warfare and discontent at the Pentagon was laid bare once more.

Turf wars within Hegseth’s own fiefdom resurfaced with the resignation of the army secretary, fresh revelations of blocked promotions and leaked disclosures of resistance from military top brass of extended deployments to the Middle East. While the Pentagon insists that any suggestion the defense department is in disarray under Hegseth is “completely baseless”, alarm over his conduct in the role – and the implications – has not merely been expressed by Hegseth’s political opponents.

“The secretary of defense is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States and the world,” said Randy Manner, a retired major general in the US national guard – in which Hegseth also served – and member of National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), a group of former military leaders. “He has done more harm to the national security of the United States than any secretary of defense since the country was created.”

Thom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, who is stepping down from the US Senate after clashes with Donald Trump, bluntly urged the US president this week to fire his defense secretary. “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” Tillis wrote on social media. “He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and wellbeing of our fighting force.”

IRAN ANNOUNCES "NEW EXCLUSION ZONE" AFTER MAJOR MISSILE LAUNCH– w/ Col. Douglas Macgregor

‘There Is No Ceasefire’: Israel Kills 12 More in Lebanon, Including Children

A series of Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon since Friday night have killed and wounded dozens of people, including women, children, and paramedics, despite a US-brokered ceasefire.

On Monday, Israeli strikes in Kfar Rumman killed 12 people: a paramedic and 11 people in a targeted residential building, including at least four women and two children, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

Al Jazeera reported that the attack on the targeted home killed three generations of one family, including a 2-month-old baby.

It was once a home for the family who lived here …. Three generations are now crushed under rubble #Nabatieh #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/OAbOxSm04P

— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) September 7, 2026

Another 11 people were killed in Lebanon on Sunday, and four others before that, bringing the death toll to 27, with at least 69 civilians wounded, according to the ministry. Women, children, medics, and journalists were among those harmed.

Those casualties followed Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claiming Friday that the IDF had taken control of Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher ridge, about six miles from the border, and vowing that his country’s military “will not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed.”

Since Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, resulting in the Israel Defense Forces’ genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah has sided with Palestinians in the besieged exclave, and the IDF has been attacking southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has also backed Iran since the US and Israel began bombing the country in February, leading to renewed Israeli violence in Lebanon. In addition to slaughtering at least 73,658 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, the IDF has killed more than 8,900 Lebanese and injured over 30,6000, according to the ministry.

The killing is part of the campaign.

Escalating the killing of children and paramedics, attacking journalists, and wiping out Palestinian and Lebanese families across the region is Israel’s PM Netanyahu campaigning for votes ahead of the late October election.

An Axios… https://t.co/U84LHfjv6z pic.twitter.com/Oehbu6G8Cf

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) September 7, 2026

That bloodshed over the past few years has fueled calls for cutting off the billions of dollars in military aid that the United States gives Israel annually. US Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) issued one such call after the attacks on Monday, stressing on social media that “Israel strikes Lebanon and kills kids. They continue to strike Gaza and kill kids.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “apologists have to explain why killing kids happens so regularly and effortlessly,” Pocan continued. “More and more members of Congress are saying it’s time to #BlocktheBombs.”

Although a June ceasefire brought some relief to the people of Lebanon, hundreds of thousands remain displaced by Israeli occupation and attacks. Agence France-Presse reported Monday that after the June ceasefire deal was reached, villagers returned home to Kfar Rumman.

Southern Lebanon, bombed by Israel again yesterday — every day.

9 dead. 2 kids.

There is no cease fire. pic.twitter.com/t90DT1AjwK

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) September 7, 2026

Following the attack after midnight Monday, “an AFP photographer saw the building that was hit in Kfar Rumman had been destroyed, with school books and remnants of furniture strewn across the rubble,” the agency detailed. It continued:

“Since we returned here, we’ve lived in fear,” Fouad Chakaron told AFP.

He insisted the targeted building was inhabited by “peaceful people with no connection to anyone.”

Neighbors fled after the strike, which also damaged nearby buildings, AFP’s photographer said.

Multiple outlets noted that the IDF didn’t issue an evacuation warning before the strikes on Kfar Rumman. Reuters pointed out that the IDF claimed steps had been taken to mitigate harm “to uninvolved individuals, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance,” and it is now reviewing the reported casualties.

The IDF said on social media Monday that it hit “several Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites across southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility. Additionally, the IDF struck terrorists who were identified transferring weapons in the area of Kfar Rumman, in order to remove the threat they posed. The strikes were in response to Hezbollah’s launch of two explosive drones toward IDF troops in the security zone.”

The deadly strikes on Monday came after Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health announced Sunday that “the Israeli raids launched by the occupation forces this morning led to the complete destruction of the Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh, which constitutes an additional serious violation of international humanitarian law that provides for the protection of health facilities.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the destruction of the hospital, which was reportedly emptied of patients and staff, and highlighted that attacks in the area also “resulted in the fall of innocent victims and caused severe damage to the building of the Ministry of Finance there.”

Israel’s assault on the Nabatieh region is “a dangerous escalation,” the president said, and “reveals a persistent pattern of attacks that goes beyond the alleged military targets to purely civilian administrations and health centers, reflecting a clear intent to strike the continuity of Lebanese institutions’ operations and disrupt people’s daily interests.”

While Aoun said he holds “the Israeli side fully responsible for this ongoing escalation,” he is also “calling on the United States of America and the international community to take urgent action to stop these violations and hold their perpetrators accountable, affirming that Lebanon, despite all these attacks, is committed to upholding its sovereignty, the stability of its south, and the safety of its citizens.”

The truth behind Burnham's sanctions on Israel

UK to adopt tougher stance on Israel with illegal settlements trade ban

Ed Miliband will announce what he has described as a broad reset of the UK’s relations with Israel on Tuesday, promising the government will take a more active approach in supporting the Palestinian cause.

In an intervention that is expected to draw fierce criticism from the US and Israel, the foreign secretary will impose a UK ban on the trade in goods and some services from illegal Israeli settlements. He has also told civil society groups he is determined to reassert support for a two-state solution to the conflict with an appeal for the protection of Palestinian rights and respect for international law.

In his statement to MPs, Miliband is expected to use firmer language than his recent predecessors in calling out the humanitarian injustices suffered by Palestinians in Gaza.

The steps he lays out are likely to fall short of the full set of demands made by Palestinian advocacy groups, but they will still be seen as a sign that the UK is moving beyond traditional rhetorical support for a two-state solution towards active steps to forestall the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank – widely seen as intended to destroy the prospect of a Palestinian state.

Israel has already threatened reprisals over Miliband’s previous claim that the Israeli military has held back aid into Gaza, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has claimed the Labour government is gripped by Jew hatred. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, spoke to Donald Trump and key Gulf allies such as Qatar on Monday to brief them on the government’s plans in the region.

Saudi Aramco's Jizan Refinery Hit Again as Houthi Attacks Escalate

Saudi Aramco's 400,000-barrel-per-day Jizan refinery was hit in a new attack Monday, threatening a major Red Sea refining hub while Saudi Arabia is moving more oil west to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

The Financial Times reported that the facilities in southwestern Saudi Arabia were hit Monday, citing two people with knowledge of the incident. One described the strike as similar in scale to an attack last month that temporarily disrupted operations. Aramco has not yet commented on the latest damage, and no group has been confirmed as responsible.

Jizan has become a repeated target since fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis resumed this summer. The Houthis attacked Aramco facilities in Jizan and Yanbu in July, when smoke was visible over the refinery, and struck Jizan again in August.

The refinery's location on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast has become increasingly important since the war with Iran disrupted exports through Hormuz.

Putin Issues an Ultimatum — Major Escalation Is Next

German chancellor vows to stay in office despite AfD triumph in state election

A “shocked” and chastened Friedrich Merz has vowed to stay in office despite the far right’s triumph in a state election that has brought anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin politicians within striking distance of power. The German chancellor, appearing ashen-faced in front of reporters in Berlin, said on Monday that the landslide victory by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt had shaken his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) “to its very foundations”.

The unpopular Merz, who had pledged to halve the AfD’s support at the national level, has watched the nativist party rack up electoral gains, none as convincing as its utter rout of the CDU in the eastern region on Sunday with nearly 44% of the vote. The AfD and its candidate Ulrich Siegmund fell short of an absolute majority but could yet create Germany’s first far-right state government since the Nazi period.

Merz appeared contrite and willing to work on his “communication” with voters. “This is the worst electoral defeat the [CDU] has suffered in years, in decades,” he said. “Of course this will have to have consequences.” Exit polls indicated the state’s voters were driven by deep dissatisfaction with the political establishment and its stewardship of Europe’s biggest economy, with one showing that only 9% approved of Merz’s performance.

Only 16 months in office, Merz conceded his own low poll ratings had played a role in his party’s loss. “I know that I personally was a constant topic in this election campaign,” he said. “We must try – myself included – to reach people more effectively, in the full range of their emotions.”

The CDU’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, indicated a willingness to water down contentious measures to shore up the statutory healthcare and pension schemes. However, Merz insisted: “My determination to continue on the path of reform is unbroken,” saying a sustainable system was essential for the sake of “our children and grandchildren”. He added: “Giving up is not an option for me.”

Canada’s retaliatory US tariffs set to take effect as trade dispute grows

Canada is set to impose retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of American imports early on Tuesday, escalating a trade fight with its largest trading partner as tensions between US president Donald Trump and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney intensify. The tariffs, which take effect at 12.01am on Tuesday, will range from 15% to 50% and apply to products covering C$27.6bn in imports from the US. The measures will target sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics – industries that have been most affected by US tariffs.

The retaliatory tariffs come “as a result of the United States’ decision to impose a 50% tariff on $27.6bn of Canadian goods effective August 22”, the Canadian government said. “Canada’s counter-measures do not apply to US goods that are in transit to Canada on the day on which they come into force,” it added.

Tensions between Canada and the US have intensified in recent weeks, with Carney last week urging the Trump administration to “start being serious” as the trade dispute has increasingly spilled into broader diplomatic tensions.

US STUNNED: Japan SOLD $88B Bonds as Canada Retaliation JUST Began

‘The most anti-union president’: how Trump turned his back on US workers

Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to champion US workers. Shortly before Labor Day last year, he said: “Every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker and “promote great-paying blue-collar jobs”. But in the year since last Labor Day, Trump has taken many actions that have hurt US workers and unions, with some labor experts saying they’ve been stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been.

In the months after Trump returned to office, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) cut workplace inspections by 20%, compared with Joe Biden’s last year in office. Even though Trump campaigned as a champion of coal miners, his administration has repeatedly delayed implementation of a rule to limit silica dust, which has afflicted and killed many coal miners with black lung. The United Mine Workers union has urgently called for “immediate enforcement” of the stalled silica dust rule.

With regard to wages, workers haven’t been doing so well under Trump. While the White House boasts that wages have risen, the problem for workers is that prices – pushed up by Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war – have risen faster than wages over the past year, helping fuel the affordability crisis. In a move that will cut pay for many low-wage workers, the Trump administration has proposed eliminating federal minimum wage and overtime protections for 3 million often low-paid homecare workers who take care of seniors and the disabled.

Despite several court rulings to slow or stop this anti-union effort, Trump has pushed aggressively ahead with his unprecedented campaign to strip 1 million federal employees of their ability to bargain collectively – a move that Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s main labor federation, called, “the largest single act of union-busting in our history”. Trump has moved to end collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of workers at the Transportation Security Agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.

In another unprecedented move, Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, the pro-union chair of the National Labor Relations Board – the first time a president has fired an NLRB member. Trump has since named numerous pro-business officials to the labor board. “Trump’s actions make him by far the most anti-union president in our modern history,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants and a leading progressive voice in the labor movement, said in an interview. “His administration has been massively anti-worker, anti-union and anti-working class.”

US labor unions saw membership gains in 2025

After years of decline, union membership in the US increased by 411,000 members in 2025, the largest increase since 2008, according to a new report. The report makes clear the impact that “right to work” laws can have on union membership: most gains were concentrated in states that protect collective bargaining.

Union membership rates in those states were nearly triple than the 26 states with so-called “right-to-work” laws that weaken union membership, according to the report from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. States with collective bargaining protections saw an increase of nearly 305,000 union members in 2025, compared to about 107,000 in “right-to-work” states. States with protections have over 10.9 million members out of 76.9 million workers, compared to “right-to-work” states that have 3.7 million members out of 69.7 million workers.

“The data consistently shows that workers earn higher wages when they are union members and work in states that protect collective bargaining rights,” said Frank Manzo IV, economist at the ILEPI and coauthor of the report. “More Americans are turning to unions as a bulwark against the rising cost of living.”

In 2025, 19 US states passed 88 laws that expanded workers’ rights, according to a 3 September issue brief by State Futures and NYU Wagner Labor Initiative. Legislation included paid sick leave and medical leave passed in Virginia, warehouse worker protections passed in Connecticut and banning nearly all non-compete agreements in Washington. Earlier reports had shown that 2025 was a big year for unions: 16.5 million workers were represented by unions in 2025, the highest level recorded in 16 years, accounting for 11.2% of all wage and salary workers in the US. Union density, or the percentage of workers in a union, increased from 9.9% to 10.0% nationally in 2025.

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Midterm Election Mania | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas with Greg Palast

Legal veterans lead fightback against Trump’s ‘full-out assault on democracy’

A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US. Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.

Other groups that have accelerated their legal challenges to Trump’s moves to thwart voting rights and expand his executive powers in other ways, include the Brennan Center for Justice, Democracy Forward, members of the Democratic Attorneys General Association and the Washington Litigation Group. Last month, for instance, 24 Democratic attorney generals and other plaintiffs filed suit to block USPS from moving forward with rules to curb mail voting and in late August won a temporary 14-day restraining order from federal judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts.

In response, the DoJ’s solicitor general John Sauer on Thursday appealed to the supreme court to lift the injunction, arguing in heated words that the freeze would create “serious, irreparable harm on the federal government, the states themselves, and the voting public”. On 4 September Talwani made her injunction permanent, writing that implementing Trump’s order so close to the election “threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail.” She also stressed that “the record includes no evidence relating to fraudulent mail voting to support the rushed implementation.” Sauer on 6 September responded with another emergency appeal to the high court urging it permit the new USPS rules to go into effect, claiming that it “does not seize control of states’ administration of elections — it simply imposes reasonable preparation requirements for certain election-related mail.”

In a related twist, a detailed whistleblower complaint that Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut released last week alleged that the USPS has been proceeding with a “secretive, rushed” effort to implement Trump’s order that could lead to “catastrophic failure” with this year’s mail-in voting. About 50 million Americans, the majority of whom are Democrats, vote by mail, according to reports.

With the elections about two months away, the legal groups are stepping up efforts to thwart “self-serving attempts to take over the midterms”, said a former DoJ lawyer, which experts fear may create chaos and disenfranchise millions of voters.

Former Fetterman Staffers SPILL ALL THE TEA, and it's NOT GOOD

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Global move away from oil could lead to conflict and migration

Conflict, migration and economic upheaval will accompany the global move away from oil, unless governments act urgently to help the worst afflicted countries to cope, research has found. Nigeria, Iran, Angola and Algeria are among the countries that will be severely affected, as they rely strongly on oil revenues for their government and provision of public services, but have little diversification and too little capital to cushion the blow.

Oil use is already waning in many countries, with the growth of renewable energy, and has been hastened by the effects of the Iran war, which has constrained supply and sent prices soaring, triggering high inflation and political instability.

Global demand for oil is forecast to plateau in the coming decade, with a peak likely in the early 2030s, which will force producers to chase a shrinking pool of buyers. Many will try to hang on to their resource revenues as long as possible, according to research from the E3G thinktank published on Tuesday, but the cheapest producers with abundant resources – such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – are likely to win against those with less advanced infrastructure.

Putting off or slowing down the transition is an even worse option than confronting it, however, as the climate crisis is rapidly worsening. “None of this is an argument for slowing the transition,” said Maria Pastukhova, a co-author of the report. “A slow but chaotic transition can be just as destabilising as a fast one, maybe even more so.”

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute

For the Swedish-Sami politician Åsa Larsson Blind, it was something of a watershed moment in the national conversation around Indigenous rights. In late April and May, as the country geared up for this month’s elections, the deputy prime minister and energy minister, Ebba Busch, gave a series of speeches and articles publicly attacking the Sami’s rights to graze reindeer herds on their ancestral lands. Reindeer husbandry, Busch said at one press conference, “is an industry that affects very large areas, but has limited economic significance”.

Her Christian Democrats party, a junior partner in Sweden’s three-party centre-right coalition government, called for reindeer numbers to be cut, for reindeer husbandry to no longer be considered a “national interest” and for the state to “reclaim responsibility” for land used by herders. The government’s goal is to open up the country’s sparsely populated north for mineral resource exploitation – as Sweden and the EU more generally seek to reduce dependence on Chinese imports – and to expand its nuclear power capabilities.

Larsson Blind said that anti-Sami sentiment in the run-up to elections – especially at the local level – was not new, but that the scope of the recent rhetoric was “quite astonishing. If you look at it from afar, it means that the deputy prime minister is highlighting one group of people … as being the enemy of development in Sweden,” the board member of the Sami parliament, which exists to safeguard Sami interests, said in an interview. “She is really clearly not feeling the need to have the support of the Sami.”

Issues of Sami land rights have moved from local to national prominence in the run-up to the 13 September vote. In its manifesto, the Christian Democrats pledged to “resolve the conflicts between reindeer husbandry and industrial development” and to protect “everyone’s right to hunt on state-owned land”. The far-right Sweden Democrats – who could enter government for the first time after the vote – have also singled out reindeer herders in their manifesto, pitting them against industrial development, tourism and the wider Swedish public and questioning their land rights.

The row has centred on the state-owned mining company LKAB’s plan to expand a vast iron ore mine next to the town of Kiruna to encompass the Per Geijer deposit, which holds Europe’s largest known reserve of rare-earth elements. Many among the Sami population near Kiruna – Sweden’s most northerly town – fear the pitting of mineral resources against land rights heralds a larger threat to their livelihoods and culture.

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Also of Interest

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

War in the Twilight

Ghalibaf Says Iran Will Target US Energy Firms If US Attacks on Iranian Oil Infrastructure Continue

Lack of Fear of Death

Israel threatens senior Palestinian officials with 'all-out war' in occupied West Bank

The ‘Longstanding Tradition’ Of Defense Corruption In Ukraine

The ‘Red Scare’ Repression of ICE-Watch Activists

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A Little Night Music

Tiny Powell - Take Me With You

Tiny Powell - Get My Hat

Tiny Powell - Done Made It Over

Tiny Powell - Bossy Woman

Tiny Powell - Going Home

The Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi (w/Tiny Powell) - In The Wilderness

The Paramount Singers (w/Tiny Powell) - Working On The Building

Tiny Powell w/ The Paramount Gospel Singers - Heaven in My View

Tiny Powell - On The Blue Side

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