The Evening Blues - 10-12-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features obscure blues harmonica player Harmonica George Robinson. Enjoy!
Harmonica George - Get in the kitchen and burn
"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."
-- Oscar Wilde
News and Opinion
If The Truth Is A Threat To Israel, Then Israel Should Not Exist
Israel is so evil that it’s actually illegal for Israelis to tell the truth about it.
Benjamin Netanyahu has just ordered Israel’s military, its attorney general, and its security agency Shin Bet to investigate and prosecute the soldiers who anonymously shared their experiences in the Gaza Strip with the award-winning investigative documentary “NAZA”.
According to Haaretz, Netanyahu accused the soldiers of “serious information security offenses, criminal defamation and harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests,” adding that “there is concern that those involved in the defamatory film committed serious criminal offenses by exposing highly classified information and creating a breach in the information security of a highly sensitive intelligence unit.”
Netanyahu’s accusations of “defamation” are contradicted by his other accusation of “exposing highly classified information”. The 24 soldiers interviewed for the film are being prosecuted not because they told lies about Israel, but because they told the truth. The prime minister is claiming the truth causes “harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests” because Israel is a state that can only exist on a foundation of endless lies.
Netanyahu accidentally confirms NAZA's exposè
Instead of Israel's earlier claim that the movie is a "hoax," Netanyahu is formally saying the soldiers in NAZA "exposed classified information" & "breached information security in a sensitive intelligence unit" https://t.co/FUhIIvuXZR
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) October 11, 2026
If Israel considers the truth a national security threat, then Israel should not exist.
“That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.” This quote by PC Hodgell certainly applies to an apartheid state which assassinates Palestinian journalists, bans the foreign press from witnessing its atrocities in Gaza, constantly attacks press outlets who report on its abuses, spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on foreign propaganda, and prosecutes soldiers who tell the truth about its war crimes.
It also applies to the US empire, which prosecutes whistleblowers, imprisons journalists for exposing US war crimes, shrouds its actions in a veil of government secrecy, exerts extensive control over the flow of information via Silicon Valley, and manipulates the minds of the public using the most sophisticated propaganda system ever devised.
It also applies to abusive relationships that would collapse if the community could see what was happening, or if the victim fully understood what was being done to them.
It also applies to marriages where one spouse isn’t being truthful about who they are and what they do in secret.
It also applies to worldviews that would crumble if contradicting facts were heard and deeply listened to with courage and intellectual honesty.
It also applies to the psychological constructs we hold within ourselves that were built when we were too young to understand the traumas we were experiencing and the maladaptive coping habits we were subconsciously forming to deal with them.
It also applies to the ego itself, which dissolves when sufficient attention and clarity has been brought to its mechanisms through rigorous self-inquiry.
Netanyahu signed a formal letter ordering the IDF chief, Shin Bet head, and Attorney General to open a criminal investigation against everyone involved in the NAZA film.
He demands an urgent investigation into the soldiers (serving and discharged from Unit 8200) who were interviewed in the film.
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 11, 2026
At all levels, human dysfunction is held in place by untruth and dispelled by truth. The lies we hold onto as individuals, as communities, and as a society are what allows suffering and abuse to continue at whatever scale you’re looking at.
Humanity’s collective quest is to become a truth-driven species with a truth-based relationship with reality, because if you’re not dealing with reality as it actually is then you’re not able to respond to your challenges with wisdom and efficacy. We move in this direction by seeing through the mental narratives and perceiving reality as it is actually happening: as individuals, as a society, and as a species.
Tell the truth uncompromisingly, come what may. Let all that would crumble under untruth do so as swiftly as possible. May all be revealed. Let us face the ever-expanding light of truth with heroic courage.
Kiev, Iran, Midterms: Neocon Empire Is Crashing w/ Garland Nixon
Riyadh airport hit again after deadly Houthi missile attack, Saudi authorities say
A projectile hit a passenger terminal at the airport in Riyadh on Sunday, the day after a deadly missile attack on the facility carried out by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebel group killed 13 people. An unidentified projectile hit terminal 4 at King Khalid international airport, starting a fire, killing one person and injuring 11, according to Saudi civil aviation authorities. Air defences also intercepted a cruise missile in the vicinity of the airport. It was the latest of several attacks on the airport in the past week.
The escalating attacks threatened to draw more countries into the Yemen conflict and further widen the regional fallout of the US-Iran war, which has already spread to Lebanon and Iraq. After Saturday’s strike on Riyadh airport, the US president, Donald Trump, said he was weighing whether to join the Saudi military campaign in Yemen, telling reporters: “We’re going to look into it.”
The Houthis claimed that Saudi Arabia struck the airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sana’a, on Sunday, without providing more information on damage or casualties. The Houthis said a Saudi airstrike on Sana’a on Sunday hit a home and killed a child, as well as injuring six others.
The Houthis doubled down on their threats on Sunday, warning airlines, passengers and staff to stay away from Saudi airports. The group said “the worst is yet to come” if Saudi military action in Yemen continued. “We renew our warning to all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travellers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theatre of operations for our forces,” the Houthis said on X.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Riyadh Airport Closed After Missile Strike as MBS Moves Bunker to Bunker
‘We May’: Trump Says US Could Soon Start Bombing Yemen Again to Help Saudi Arabia
President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration could soon join Saudi Arabia’s military assault on Yemen following a deadly Houthi attack on Riyadh’s international airport, the latest salvo in a long-running conflict that has intensified since the US launched an illegal war on Iran earlier this year.
Trump told reporters that “we may” join US ally Saudi Arabia in directly attacking Yemen’s Houthis. The president said that “we’re going to look at it,” adding, “We move very quickly.”
The president’s remarks prompted swift pushback from progressives in the US. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is considering a presidential run in 2028, wrote on social media that “Congress never authorized Trump to wage war to defend the Saudi regime.”
“I introduced a Yemen War Powers Resolution (H.Con.Res.124) with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to mandate that the US stay out of war in Yemen,” added Khanna, who has been working for years to stop unauthorized US involvement in Saudi-led attacks on Yemen.
“Trump must honor the US-Yemen ceasefire and use diplomacy, not war,” wrote the California Democrat, referring to a 2025 agreement that the president reached with the Houthis following a weeks-long US bombing campaign. The US attacks came as the Houthis targeted shipping in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The Costs of War project at Brown University estimates that in the two years after October 7, 2023, the US spent between $2.76 billion and $4.95 billion attacking the Houthis. American forces have been bombing Yemen since 2002 and have for years supported devastating Saudi-led coalition attacks on one of the world’s poorest countries.
Trump said Saturday that members of his administration “have communication with the Houthis,” a political and military organization that claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack on the Saudi airport. The attack, which drew international condemnation, killed at least a dozen people—including one US citizen—and injured over 300 more.
The New York Times observed Sunday that “repeated, deadly Houthi attacks on the airport this week have struck at the heart of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitions to turn the city into a global travel and business hub, threatening to disrupt major international events planned for the coming weeks.”
“Across the border in Yemen, Saudi warplanes have been waging a deadly bombing campaign against the Houthis, who say that the country has been subjected to hundreds of airstrikes in recent weeks,” the Times added. “Since September 3, airstrikes have killed 91 people in Yemen, mostly women and children, according to Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi government-affiliated health ministry.”
The Houthis are also facing an all-out assault from Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, which is aiming to recapture Houthi-controlled areas. Trump administration officials told Axios earlier this month that the US military is providing Saudi Arabia with “everything short of direct combat, mainly intelligence and targeting data.”
The Saudi crown prince has reportedly pressured Trump to intervene directly in the Saudi-led assault on the Houthis.
The US-based advocacy group Just Foreign Policy said Sunday that “there is nothing less America First than waging an unconstitutional war to defend the corrupt Saudi regime.”
“The Saudis should use diplomacy to resolve their dispute,” the group added.
Alastair Crooke : How Saudi Arabia Is Collapsing
Saudi Airstrikes in Yemen Killed at Least 66 Civilians and Wounded 90 in September
Saudi airstrikes in Yemen killed at least 66 civilians, including eight children, and wounded 90 throughout September, according to the Yemen Data Project (YDP), as the war has significantly escalated since it was reignited by Saudi airstrikes on the Sanaa International Airport in July.
The deadliest single incident for civilians was the September 7 bombing of the Central Correction Prison in the northern al-Jawf province, where 35 civilians, including one child, were killed and seven were wounded when the facility was hit by a Saudi strike. Yemen’s Mine Action Center reported that its experts documented bomb fragments at the site and determined that the strike was carried out with a 2,000-pound US-made satellite-guided GBU-31 JDAM bomb.
Other significant incidents in September include the September 27 bombing of a market in the southwestern Taiz province, which killed seven civilians and wounded 40, including five children. On September 22, a Saudi strike hit a civilian home in the Red Sea port city of Mocha, killing six civilians, including a woman and two children.
The Saudi airstrikes are supported by the US, which is providing intelligence and targeting support. Amid the escalations in Yemen and the rapid gains by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, the US has resumed refueling Saudi warplanes, which was previously suspended back in 2018 due to pressure from Congress, as the Saudi air campaign at the time was also taking an enormous toll on civilians.
Amb. Chas Freeman: Israel is Commiting Suicide
After Former ICC Judge Wins Nobel Peace Prize, US Hits Court With New Sanctions
Not long after a former International Criminal Court judge on Friday won the Nobel Peace Prize for “ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted,” US President Donald Trump—who has long sought the award—continued his administration’s “campaign to dismantle” the ICC with new sanctions.
“Globalist experts that are an ocean away... want the International Criminal Court to do more, including the prosecution of American citizens and service members that are defending their country,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in a video posted on social media.
“They want to prosecute border patrol agents that are protecting our nation’s borders, and they want to prosecute our elected leaders that are ensuring our national security,” he continued. “President Donald Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans.”
“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us, because our message is clear: The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC,” Rubio said. “Both parties agree on this, but only President Trump has the resolve to take the action needed to end this threat once and for all.”
“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC—and we expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American service members for their defense, to rein in this rogue court,” he added. “If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC piece by piece until Americans are threatened no longer.”
The United States has never been a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the Hague-based tribunal to investigate genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Since 2002, a federal law known as the Hague Invasion Act has empowered the president to prevent the ICC from detaining US or allied personnel. Although the court has probed alleged crimes by US citizens, it has never prosecuted anyone from the United States.
Trump and Rubio have been particularly hostile toward the ICC and imposed a series of sanctions since the president returned to power last year. They are especially angry about the court’s 2024 arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who welcomed Friday’s sanctions announcement—and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over their ongoing US-backed assault on the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed over 74,000 Palestinians and has been widely denounced as genocide, including by a United Nations commission that was chaired by South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to serving on that panel and the ICC, she has been a High Court of South Africa judge, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda president, and UN high commissioner for human rights. She remains an International Court of Justice ad hoc judge.
Trump has publicly demanded the prize for years—while threatening to invade various nations, abducting a foreign leader, killing hundreds of people by blowing up dozens of boats on the high seas, and bombing more countries than any other US commander in chief this century, including Iran, where his and Israel’s illegal war is ongoing. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who often ridicules the president, even compiled a supercut of his frequent comments about the award on Thursday, in anticipation of Friday’s announcement.
After Pillay was revealed as the winner, Trump predictably attacked her. However, rather than commenting directly, he shared a post on his Truth Social platform in which US lawyer David I. Schoen claimed that the selection committee “shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize” by giving it to Pillay, calling her “an unabashed hater of America and Israel” who has “celebrated terrorists and rewarded Hamas.”
Schoen also suggested that Trump should receive the prize for the Abraham Accords, as well as because “he is making best efforts to end the Russia/Ukraine war, to stop Iran, the number one sponsor of international terrorism, and he is trying to rebuild Gaza despite the terrorists’ best efforts to control it.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Friday that the US leader “played a historic role in advancing peace in South Asia. His timely intervention helped bring Pakistan and India back from the brink and secure a ceasefire, that is holding till today. In recognition of his outstanding contribution, Pakistan had nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Earlier this year, shortly after US troops invaded Venezuela to abduct President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gifted her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. Pillay joked to those applauding her on Friday that “if you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”
“Navi Pillay has dedicated her career to defending human rights, fighting impunity and strengthening international justice,” Alexis Deswaef, president of the International Federation for Human Rights, said Friday. “At a time when those who uphold international law are increasingly under attack, this award is a powerful reminder that justice is essential to peace, and that those who defend it must be protected.”
While also celebrating Pillay’s win, Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard ripped the US war against the ICC on social media: “I am writing this from Nuremberg, where 80 years ago, American judges and lawyers played a crucial role in trying the highest Nazi leaders and commanders, and establishing the foundational principles of international criminal law. 80 years later, what a betrayal. The Trump administration’s decision is appalling. But ultimately, it is not about them. It is about us.”
The United States’ “grotesque decision is a test for all European governments which have been tiptoeing, shying away from confronting and responding to the predatory actions from the Trump administration,” said the French human rights leader. “They now need to rise to the moment. History demands of Europe that it stands for international justice and its institutions. There is only one possible response: impose immediately blocking orders. The US sanctions cannot and should not be implemented on European territory. This is not a USA moment. This is an ‘Us’ moment. Let’s rise to it. Because humanity must win.”
The ICC is the cornerstone of the international criminal justice system. It prosecutes individuals responsible for the most serious crimes under international law.
I have spoken with ICC President Tomoko Akane following the United States’ announced intention to impose sanctions. The six-month period before the measures take effect offers a window for dialogue.
The EU has always supported the Court, and the EU has options to ensure that it can continue its vital work. Protecting the ICC remains an EU priority.
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) October 9, 2026
Isabelle Hayslip, advocacy associate at the US-based Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), also highlighted that the European Union “has a tool built exactly for when rogue states use sanctions to further political aims: a blocking statute that can shield the court and Europeans from US sanctions.”
“If states won’t act now to protect the court as they have repeatedly vowed to do, then when?” Hayslip asked. “Every day they wait, European banks move closer to abandoning the court out of fear of Washington.”
The European Commission—the EU’s executive arm—said Friday that the bloc “has been a constant supporter” of the court, called the new sanctions “deeply regrettable,” and pledged to “work closely with the ICC to ensure it continues to operate effectively.”
“And we remain committed to working with all 125 states that are parties to the Rome Statute to preserve and respect its independence so that it can continue its vital mission,” the commission continued. “As there is a six-month delay before the measures are applicable, there is room for dialogue. The EU stands ready to take any necessary measures to enable the court to carry out its work both in investigating and prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity, and to protect the interests of EU operators within the single market.”
Noting that “ICC prosecutors also have tools when a state intimidates or retaliates to stop court officials from doing their jobs: The Rome Statute makes this a crime,” DAWN’s Hayslip argued that “they should investigate and prosecute Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and other senior administration officials for obstructing justice.”
Her organization and the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide previously took legal action in US court, suing over Trump’s related Executive Order 14203 in July.
“In applying tools reserved for the most serious criminals to the world’s only permanent international court, the US is claiming the power to jail for 20 years Americans who represent a victim, submit evidence, or handle payroll for the court,” Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director, stressed Friday. “We have taken the Trump administration to court, because such brazen declarations trample the fundamental constitutional rights of millions of Americans. No president has that power.”
The group’s executive director, Omar Shakir, said that “by sanctioning the entire International Criminal Court, the Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to the most important development in international justice in half a century.”
Shakir warned that “US sanctions threaten to shut the last viable road to justice for millions of victims of serious crimes, from Gaza and Sudan to Afghanistan and Ukraine—all to shield Israeli officials who have perpetrated a genocide from justice.”
The ICC itself forcefully condemned the Trump administration’s latest “unprecedented” sanctions as “an attempt to obstruct the course of justice” as well as “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law.”
ICC President Tomoko Akane vowed that “the court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes.”
‘CLEARLY A CRIME’: ‘NAZA’ director on Israeli military operations exposed in film
Trump announces partial ceasefire in Ukraine war as Zelenskyy says deal is ‘news to me’
Donald Trump has announced an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, apparently without consulting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the deal to stop long-range attacks was “news to me”. In a social media post, the US president claimed the two sides had reached an agreement. “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” he wrote on Truth Social.
He offered no further details. Zelenskyy said he was surprised by the announcement but would agree to it if Vladimir Putin did the same. “If President Trump negotiated it with Putin – please tell us when the ceasefire begins. We are ready and we will accept it,” the Ukrainian president told the Axios website. Earlier, Zelenskyy rebuffed Trump’s demand made on Saturday that Kyiv stop bombing Russian oil refineries. Zelenskyy said Moscow had to first halt its own “brutal” attacks on his country’s energy infrastructure.
Any deal to end long-range drone strikes by Ukraine on targets inside Russia would have to be “reciprocal”, he said. It should be backed by “real guarantees” – meaning punitive measures against Moscow from Ukraine’s allies, including the US.
There was no sign that the Kremlin was observing Trump’s ceasefire. According to Zelenskyy, Russian drones took to the sky “throughout the day” on Sunday. There were also “unfortunately” several airstrikes, he said, including on energy infrastructure. The Ukrainian president said the Russians hit thermal power station No 5 in the eastern city of Kharkiv – the latest of more than 200 strikes this week against electricity generation and transmission facilities in Ukraine. There were another 17 hits on gas and oil facilities, he added.
The fast-moving row between Washington and Kyiv began on Friday when Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports. He said the move would reduce global and domestic fuel prices before next month’s US midterm elections. A furious Zelenskyy called the decision “weak” and said it would generate “billions” in extra revenue for Putin, enabling him to wage war “even more intensely”. An equally irate Trump said Zelenskyy should “damn well stop” hitting Russian refineries. Ukraine needed a “new leader”, he said on Saturday.
Trump PANICS: Invents FAKE RUS-UKR Ceasefire
Trump’s deal with Putin will have little impact on US diesel prices, experts say
Donald Trump’s deal with Vladimir Putin to temporarily lift sanctions on US imports of Russian diesel will have little “meaningful” effect on motorists and businesses in the US and overseas, energy and foreign policy analysts have predicted.
The package announced by Trump involves 300,000 tonnes of diesel released immediately “to the American and global marketplace” followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and a further 1m tonnes after that. The 300,000 figure equates to about three-quarters of what the US would use in a day, according to calculations using figures from the US Energy Information Administration.
“Diesel prices for Americans and, indeed, the world, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my greatest priority,” Trump posted. However, experts suggested that the quantities involved – and the time it will take for the supplies to arrive in the US – is “too little, too late” to affect current high diesel prices, which observers have linked to challenging Republican party polling numbers before next month’s midterm elections.
Ashley Kelty, an energy analyst with the investment bank Panmure Liberum, said: “It is not going to have any impact on prices. The first amount [due to be shipped to the US] is so small. “They are going to have to charter vessels, load them and transport the cargo to the US. That will take about three weeks – so we are pretty much at the end of the month and about a week before the midterms.”
Scott Ritter : Trump/Putin: Whose Deal is Better?
OpenAI CAUGHT By Investors: 20 BILLION SHORT Of Promises
US man shoots off-duty ICE agent who allegedly attacked him and daughter
A 72-year-old man shot an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official in California early on Friday morning after the “intoxicated and agitated” official assaulted him and his daughter on their property, local authorities allege.
The Fresno police department said that the ICE official was receiving medical care after being shot in the midsection. The official, identified as David Gonzalez, is facing felony charges for assaulting the father-daughter duo, Fresno police said.
It was not immediately clear for how long Gonzalez had been with ICE and what exactly he did for ICE. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, referred all questions about Gonzalez to Fresno police. According to Fresno police, at about 3am, a woman found Gonzalez sleeping on her and her father’s front lawn. She told her 72-year-old father, who was inside, and then attempted to shoo Gonzalez off their property.
But when Gonzalez was awakened, “he appeared intoxicated and agitated” and physically assaulted the 72-year-old father, forcing him to the ground, police said. When the father’s daughter tried to intervene, Gonzalez physically attacked and took her to the ground as well, police said. The father feared for his and his daughter’s physical safety and shot Gonzalez once, police said. Shortly thereafter, the daughter’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived and placed handcuffs on Gonzalez.
“It is unknown at this time why Gonzalez was in the area at the time of the [shooting], but it has been confirmed he was off-duty and alone,” local authorities said. Fresno police on Friday said the investigation into the shooting was continuing while Gonzalez was in custody and receiving medical treatment. He was booked with battery likely to cause great bodily injury, felony vandalism and battery. The father and daughter were not booked with any crimes as they recovered from injuries of their own, police said.
ICE agent strikes man with vehicle during pursuit in Texas, officials say
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent driving a vehicle struck a man on Saturday while trying to pursue him and someone else in the Houston area, according to authorities. The federal agency had been trying to pull over and arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes in north-west Harris county, Texas, when he and the victim, Miguel Parra-Hernandez, exited the vehicle, officials said.
Surveillance footage showed the officer chase Parra-Hernandez and then hit him with his car. Parra-Hernandez suffered a broken leg and was taken to a hospital, the Harris county sheriff’s office said.
In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees ICE said the agency had been trying to arrest Mendoza-Cervantes after a judge had issued him a final order of removal from the United States.
DHS did not address questions from the Guardian seeking the name of the officer who struck Parra-Hernandez and whether he was equipped with a body-worn camera, which ICE policy requires.
‘Deeply concerning’: Democratic congressional candidate rebukes ICE’s presence in New York
Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier believes that the New York police departments’ conduct towards protesters after an ICE agent shot and wounded a man in the district she is running to represent violated “the spirit, if not the letter” of the city’s sanctuary laws. These rules ban local police from helping federal immigration authorities in civil immigration enforcement operations.
Protests broke out in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood after a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican man, while he was sitting in his car with a five-year-old in the backseat. The child was physically unharmed, and Belgal was taken to the hospital. He was reported as being in stable condition, before ICE reportedly took him into custody again. The Department of Homeland Security has said Belgal was undocumented.
During Thursday night’s demonstration, which drew a few hundred New Yorkers, including Avila Chevalier, the NYPD set up barricades and clashed with protesters who were demanding ICE leave their neighborhood. Police had also helped carry Belgal to an unmarked car, where they laid him in the backseat while he was still handcuffed. Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner, said during a Thursday press conference that the NYPD was not involved in the federal immigration operation prior to the shooting. Tisch said officers arrived for the purpose of preserving evidence. She also referred to Belgal’s previous criminal record during the event.
Avila Chevalier said in a phone interview on Friday that the police commissioner’s mention of Belgal’s prior arrests unfairly villainized him and “showed that Tisch was more interested in peddling the narrative of the Trump administration than in upholding sanctuary policies”. The NYPD said in a statement that they always provide such information, and that many news outlets had asked about Belgal’s criminal history. Avila Chevalier also said the police’s “inaction” in protecting protesters was a failure to uphold the spirit of the city’s sanctuary laws. She wrote on X earlier on Friday: “The NYPD spent more time protecting a militia that just shot someone than protecting New Yorkers.”
In the interview, Avila Chevalier appeared less concerned with the minutia of the city’s sanctuary law and more interested in getting rid of ICE entirely. “We wouldn’t need sanctuary policies if ICE didn’t exist,” she said. “The clearest solution here is the bold one: to demand that ICE be abolished.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani also reiterated calls to abolish ICE and has referred to Thursday’s shooting as “unconscionable”. But he is facing pressure from progressives over reforming the NYPD in the wake of anti-ICE protests. Many immigration advocates, including Avila Chevalier, are calling for Tisch to step down and for the disbanding of the strategic response group (SRG), a rapid response unit within the NYPD that has been criticized for cracking down harshly on protests.
US maternity wards face wave of closures as Medicaid cuts kick in
Maternity wards across the United States are facing a wave of closures as cuts to federal Medicaid funding take effect, experts have warned. According to analysis by the non-profit Protect Our Care, 52 maternity wards have closed since the HR1 bill was announced in July 2025, with a further eight having announced their upcoming closure.
The bill, which will fully come into effect in the new year, will result in many adults covered through Medicaid having to meet new work requirements and being subject to more frequent eligibility checks, while there will be less federal funding for states for Medicaid. Hospitals which have already permanently closed their maternity wards include the Centra Southside Community hospital in Virginia and St Mary’s Sacred Heart hospital in rural north-east Georgia, which both cited upcoming federal policy changes to Medicaid as a reason.
Experts are expecting to see more closures of maternity units in the run-up to and after the federal changes to Medicaid come into effect in the new year. “We’re deeply concerned that these changes already have and will continue to worsen an already serious maternity care crisis,” said Erin Jones, senior director of legislative and strategic counsel of the non-profit March of Dimes. “Reduced funding and restrictions on how states finance Medicaid will put additional pressure on state budgets and hospitals, increasing the risk that communities lose essential maternity services and specialized providers close to home.”
She added that the consequences for maternity care would be particularly devastating within rural communities. The non-profit has identified 31 at-risk rural hospitals with labor and delivery services, with their possible closure leaving 96 counties without a labor and delivery unit. “Losing these services means fewer places to deliver safely and fewer options for pregnancies requiring specialized care,” Jones added.
About 40% of births in the US are paid for by Medicaid, while the country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among high-income nations, at a rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures. Vaishu Jawahar, director of policy and programs at Protect Our Care, added: “When you’re cutting Medicaid by a trillion dollars, you’re cutting this money from hospitals. So these hospitals are going into the red and being forced to make hard decisions, which usually results in maternity wards being closed as they are extremely expensive to run.”
Is American Nazi Collapse INEVITABLE?
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Trump a Lame Duck in 3 Weeks!
‘A living hell’: how Los Angeles got taken over by mosquitoes
Los Angeles might be best known for blue skies, beaches and film premiers — but for the last several years it’s held another, unenviable distinction: the most mosquito-infested city in America. And this year has been especially nightmarish, thanks to a series of heatwaves and an extra-powerful El Niño. Locals have called it a summer of “living hell” as clouds of mosquitoes swarm backyards and leave diners at open air patios scratching their ankles.
That double whammy of heat and humidity is making 2026 one of the worst mosquito years in recent history, causing a spike in cases of West Nile virus and raising fears that the nuisance bugs could spread other diseases including dengue, brought in by travelers. With moisture in this week’s forecast and overnight temperatures likely to stay above 50F (10C), there seems to be no end in sight for a problem that local authorities have struggled to contain for the last decade.
Los Angeles county has documented more than 180 cases of West Nile virus this year, according to the county public health department – the highest number in nearly a decade. And mosquito season is still far from over. “This year in particular for our area has been higher mosquito activity and higher disease activity,” said Anais Medina Diaz, communications director for the San Gabriel mosquito and vector control district. “We can attribute that to some connection to the environment and how warm it’s been this year – particularly because we had a very warm winter.
Mosquito activity plummets when temperatures approach 50F overnight. But this winter was exceptionally mild, with heatwaves in February and March that allowed mosquitoes to stay active. The unusually moist and humid summer made it easier for them to reproduce. The region has sweltered under a record-breaking heatwave since early October, although forecasts show relief on the way. But the temperatures won’t drop low enough in most places to halt mosquito activity entirely, while coming rains will give them new places to breed.
Southern California hasn’t always been such a mosquito hotspot. The region’s most common endemic mosquito, the Culex quinquefasciatus – often referred to by the more easily pronounceable name “quinx” – prefers to target birds over humans. That preference exposes quinx to West Nile virus after biting birds, such as crows, known to host the disease. Infected quinx can then spread the disease to humans when they do bite them. The Orange county mosquito and vector control district monitors disease threats with a massive array of traps scattered throughout the area. So far, some 850 of them have tested positive for West Nile virus, according to the control district’s public information officer, Brian Brannon. “That doesn’t mean 850 mosquitoes – that means 850 traps full of mosquitoes with West Nile virus,” Brannon said. “We’ve had a pretty busy season.”
The former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva has said that if Flávio Bolsonaro becomes president he will seek to finish the “perverse project” of rampant rainforest destruction initiated by his jailed far-right father. The Amazon was thrown into chaos during Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 presidency, when Brazil’s environment and Indigenous protection agencies were gutted and environmental criminals ran riot, causing surges in deforestation and violence.
Despite that, Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Flávio, is the favourite to beat the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the second round of the presidential election on 25 October. Flávio, 45, beat Lula, 80, by more than 2m votes in the first round last Sunday, amid a wave of anti-incumbency and anti-left sentiment that catapulted a record number of far-right politicians into an already conservative congress. Silva, a world-renowned environmentalist who was Lula’s environment minister until April, says a second Bolsonaro presidency will spell disaster for the globally crucial ecosystem, for its inhabitants and for the climate crisis.
“I’ve no doubt that this time they will try to finish the perverse project they started with [Jair] Bolsonaro. If they are elected – and God, and the Brazilian people, willing they won’t be – they will use their time to try to speed up as much as possible all of the regressions they can, including to keep themselves in power,” says Silva, who was appointed after Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election. “The vision they have for the Amazon is the same vision they have for everything. They are denialists. Their vision is that the forest must be removed for economic activities,” she adds. “They will again encourage illegal mining, the invasion of Indigenous lands, and violence against Indigenous and Quilombola communities.”
Silva fears aggressive resource extraction could be turbocharged by Donald Trump’s designs on Latin America, exemplified by the US commandeering Venezuela’s huge oil reserves after the capture of Nicolás Maduro. The Bolsonaros are long-term allies of Trump, who has called Venezuela’s oil “the spoils” of his brief war. “Brazil cannot [be governed by] a political group that wants to turn itself into an American protectorate, as is the case with Venezuela today,” says Silva, who believes a Flávio Bolsonaro administration would be “subservient” to the US.
Silva says the “Herculean effort” of environmental and security forces has paid off. Amazon deforestation has fallen nearly 50% under Lula, with an estimated 2,600 sq km (1,004 sq miles) lost this year compared with almost 11,600 sq km during Jair Bolsonaro’s last year in office. Illegal miners and ranchers have been evicted from a succession of Indigenous territories. Tens of billions of dollars of international funding for rainforest protection have been restored after being frozen during Bolsonaro’s era of destruction. Now, Silva believes all those achievements are in jeopardy. “It’s deeply sad and troubling,” says the 68-year-old, who was born in the Amazon to a family of rubber tappers. “It’s just like the myth of Sisyphus. Rolling the boulder all the way up to the top and watching it fall back down. Except it won’t fall on open ground – it’s going to fall right on top of all of us,” Silva says of the consequences of allowing deforestation to again spiral out of control.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Patrick Lawrence: In Praise of French Students
Iran War: Saudi Airports and Oil Facilities Blasted Again and Again
The Iranian-American scholar pressured by the FBI to return to Iran
Ukraine – Trump Breaks Energy Deadlock – Zelenski In Open Defiance
AI Leaders Privately Weigh Scenarios of Post-Catastrophe Public ‘Revolt’
Why a Chilean salt flat is a microcosm of the extractive frontiers of green capitalism
A Little Night Music
Harmonica George - Sputnik Music
Harmonica George - Sad and Blue
Harmonica George - Get Some Order (About Yourself)
Harmonica George - You Make Me Tick
Harmonica George - Freelance
Harmonica George - Call It What You Wanna
Harmonica George - Give Her The Feeling
And another (different) Harmonica George:
Big Jay McNeely feat. George "Harmonica" Smith - You Don't Have To Go
George "Harmonica" Smith - Juicy Harmonica
Comments
Nutty Yahoo has a sad
after his genocide policies have been exposed in film format.
Claiming this is secret information. What kind of cloud does he
live in? It is obvious to the rest of the world what's going on. Not
classified sensitive information.
Thanks for the. EB's!
Zionism is a social disease