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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Slim Gaillard

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Jazz multi-instrumentalist and singer Slim Gaillard. Enjoy!

^{Slim Gaillard}

"They actually expected a bunch of parades and trophies for pausing a genocide. They thought they’d get applause and adoration and then everything would go back to how it was pre-2023."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

Israeli Officials Are Openly Saying They Plan To Resume Attacks On Gaza

Israel’s top officials are openly declaring that they intend to terminate the Gaza ceasefire after they get their hostages back.

Defense Minister Israel Katz has posted a tweet in Hebrew which machine translates as follows:

“Israel’s great challenge after the phase of returning the hostages will be the destruction of all of Hamas’s terror tunnels in Gaza, directly by the IDF and through the international mechanism to be established under the leadership and supervision of the United States. This is the primary significance of implementing the agreed-upon principle of demilitarizing Gaza and neutralizing Hamas of its weapons. I have instructed the IDF to prepare for carrying out the mission.”

Hamas has not agreed to any demilitarization or destruction of its tunnels. There is no way to demilitarize Gaza and neutralize Hamas of its weapons against their will without continued warfare, something Israel has demonstrated it cannot do without killing shocking numbers of civilians.

Katz’s comments echo the public statements of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said in a televised speech on Friday that “Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized,” and that if Hamas doesn’t disarm voluntarily then “it will be achieved the hard way.”

In another statement Netanyahu said, “We have achieved tremendous victories but the campaign is not over; part of our enemies are trying to recover.”

Israeli outlet YNet reports that Israel is planning to resume its blockade and prevent reconstruction if all the bodies of the deceased captives are not returned, when Israel already knows that Hamas probably won’t be able to locate all the bodies of deceased Israeli captives due to the intensity of the Israeli bombing campaign over the last two years.

“If Hamas does not cooperate with the return process, and Israel suspects that it is deliberately hiding the bodies in order to preserve them as a bargaining chip, it is expected to impose a series of sanctions on it — including preventing the reconstruction of the Strip, the entry of caravans, the opening of bakeries and the entry of civilian equipment,” Ynet reports.

In a recent article titled “Israel assesses Hamas may not be able to return all remaining dead hostages,” CNN reports that “Sources say the Israeli government is aware that Hamas may not know the location of, or is unable to retrieve, the remains of some of the 28 remaining deceased hostages.”

As noted by Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, these two pieces of information would seem to indicate that Israel is planning to use the unreturned bodies as a pretext to break the ceasefire.

Reporter: Netanyahu has not said that the war is over yet.

Trump: The war is OVER! pic.twitter.com/9EhSvFOocT

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 12, 2025

It is perhaps somewhat noteworthy that Israel’s open preparations to resume the onslaught in Gaza directly contradict the statements of the president of the United States.

Asked by the press about Netanyahu’s refusal to say that the “war” in Gaza is over, Trump forcefully stated, “The war is over. The war is over, okay? You understand that?”

Trump suggested (without stating outright) that he has received “verbal guarantees” from Israel that the violence will not resume.

So here we have Israeli officials openly and explicitly saying that the attacks on Gaza have not ended, and the US president saying that they have. It’s not often you see these two governments directly contradicting each other with mutually exclusive positions in ways that will necessarily be proven or disproven by the events which follow.

So I guess we’re about to find out who has ultimately been in charge of the Gaza genocide this whole time.

Max Blumenthal : How Soon Will IDF Attack Gaza?

Worth a full read:

Chris Hedges: Trump’s Sham Peace Plan

There is no shortage of failed peace plans in occupied Palestine, all of them incorporating detailed phases and timelines, going back to the presidency of Jimmy Carter. They end the same way. Israel gets what it wants initially — in the latest case the release of the remaining Israeli hostages — while it ignores and violates every other phase until it resumes its attacks on the Palestinian people. It is a sadistic game. A merry-go-round of death. This ceasefire, like those of the past, is a commercial break. A moment when the condemned man is allowed to smoke a cigarette before being gunned down in a fusillade of bullets.

Once Israeli hostages are released, the genocide will continue.

I do not know how soon. Let’s hope the mass slaughter is delayed for at least a few weeks. But a pause in the genocide is the best we can anticipate. Israel is on the cusp of emptying Gaza, which has been all but obliterated under two years of relentless bombing. It is not about to be stopped. This is the culmination of the Zionist dream.

The United States, which has given Israel a staggering $22 billion in military aid since Oct, 7, 2023, will not shut down its pipeline, the only tool that might halt the genocide. Israel, as it always does, will blame Hamas and the Palestinians for failing to abide by the agreement, most probably a refusal — true or not — to disarm, as the proposal demands. Washington, condemning Hamas’ supposed violation, will give Israel the green light to continue its genocide to create Trump’s fantasy of a Gaza Riviera and “special economic zone” with its “voluntary” relocation of Palestinians in exchange for digital tokens.

Of the myriads of peace plans over the decades, the current one is the least serious. ...

Israel has carried out murderous assaults on Gaza for decades, cynically calling the bombardment “mowing the lawn.” No peace accord or ceasefire agreement has ever gotten in the way. This one will be no exception. This bloody saga is not over. Israel’s goals remain unchanged: the dispossession and erasure of Palestinians from their land.

The only peace Israel intends to offer the Palestinians is the peace of the grave.

Will Gaza Ceasefire Last? Trump’s Plan “Short on Details” Beyond Release of Captives

Hamas releases 20 remaining living Israeli hostages after two years in Gaza

All 20 remaining living Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas after more than two years in captivity in Gaza. Parents were reunited with sons and children with fathers as those held were handed over to the Red Cross before finally rejoining their families with the help of the Israeli army. Even before their release, Hamas had allowed some of the hostages to make video calls home on Monday morning.

Emotional footage was shared by Israeli broadcasters to an estimated 65,000 people gathered in front of large screens on “hostages square” in Tel Aviv and to millions more watching the coverage at home. In a statement the family of Omri Miran, 48, who was abducted in front of his wife and two children during Hamas’s attack on Israel of 7 October 2023 at Nahal Oz kibbutz, said his return was a victory for “an entire people”. ...

The crowd at “hostages square” in Tel Aviv on Monday morning roared their approval shortly after 8.15am local time as it was announced from a stage that the first seven live hostages had been released to the Red Cross. ... The crowd chanted their thanks to Trump, who is widely credited as bringing about the return of the hostages. On his arrival at the Knesset, Trump wrote a message in the guest book: “This is my great honour – a great and beautiful day. A new beginning.” Speaking by the side of Netanyahu, Trump added: “As far as I’m concerned, the war is over.”

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Who Would Trust Netanyahu?

Hamas deploys armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza

Hamas has started deploying armed fighters and police across parts of Gaza in an apparent attempt to reassert authority in the devastated Palestinian territory after the ceasefire deal agreed with Israel last week.

Images showed dozens of Hamas fighters at a hospital in southern Gaza during the release of Israeli hostages on Monday morning and there were reports of shootings and executions elsewhere in the territory. Telegram channels associated with Hamas said “collaborators and traitors” had been targeted, a reference to Israel-backed militia in the territory, while Hamas gunmen also engaged in bloody clashes with a powerful local family in Gaza City over the weekend.

The violence is unlikely to immediately threaten the current ceasefire agreement with Israel but raises significant concerns over the disarmament of Hamas, a key though ill-defined provision of the deal, and the challenges that will confront the new stabilisation force of regional troops that is to be deployed to Gaza. Asked by a journalist on Air Force One about reports that Hamas was moving against rivals to regain control in parts of Gaza, the US president, Donald Trump, suggested the militant Islamist organisation was acting within the parameters of the ceasefire deal.

“They do want to stop the problems and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time … You have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be – we want it to be safe. I think it’s going to be fine. Who knows for sure,” Trump said.

On Monday, the first steps of the first phase of the new agreement were completed with the release by Hamas and transfer to Israel of 20 living hostages. Simultaneously, Israeli authorities began freeing about 2,000 prisoners, including 250 serving lengthy sentences. Hundreds of trucks of aid and commercial goods have entered Gaza since Sunday, sending prices in markets tumbling. Famine was declared in parts of the territory in August and aid agencies say much greater quantities of supplies are needed urgently.

Prof. John Mearsheimer: "Israel is in DESPERATE STRAITS"

Ceasefire Sparks Fresh Calls for Global Media Access to Gaza

Since a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip began on Friday, press freedom advocates and critics of Israel's genocidal assault have issued new calls for international media access to the decimated Palestinian territory, including the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States.

"We encourage American and international media outlets to demand direct, unsupervised access to Gaza in the wake of the ceasefire agreement," the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement on Monday, as Hamas returned 20 hostages taken on October 7, 2023 and Israel released over 1,900 imprisoned Palestinians, most of whom were taken captive by Israeli forces over the past two years.

CAIR urged reporters to demand access to "the 1,700 Palestinian men, women, and children going free after Israel occupation forces abducted them from Gaza, held them without charge, and reportedly subjected them to torture in prisons run by Itamar Ben-Gvir," the country's far-right minister of national security.

As Drop Site News' Ryan Grim noted on social media, some Palestinians are already speaking out about the torture they endured:

If a single Israeli hostage was treated like this for one day, it would be a story we’d hear for decades: “Several returning captives told Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum they were tortured ‘more than once a day,’ electrocuted, and shot with rubber-coated bullets. One described the… https://t.co/9Yj97ulPbA

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 13, 2025

“Although many media outlets will understandably cover the release of Israeli hostages, it is important to also cover the stories of Palestinian civilians who were kidnapped and other Palestinian hostages who may not go free, such as Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya," said CAIR. "Ignoring Palestinian suffering would give the appearance of bias and create a warped, one-sided image for the public."

"It is particularly critical for American journalists to overcome the Israeli government's attempts to hide the aftermath of the US-funded devastation in Gaza," CAIR added. "Reporters must immediately receive access to Gaza so they can see and report on the consequences of the genocide for themselves."

Unsuccessfully pursuing a Nobel Peace Prize, US President Donald Trump announced last Wednesday night that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his proposed plan for Gaza. On Monday, Trump addressed Israeli lawmakers. He also signed a peace deal document, as did Egyptian, Qatari, and Turkish leaders.

A report published last week by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the Costs of War Project at Brown University found that the Trump and Biden administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since October 2023. The two-year Israeli assault—widely decried as genocide—has killed at least 67,869 Palestinians and wounded 170,105, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. Thousands of people remain missing, and experts believe the true toll is far higher.

Among those dead are hundreds of Palestinian journalists, who have worked to not only survive Gaza but also share stories from there over the past two years, as Israel has largely prevented any international reporters from entering the territory.

The various tallies of journalists slaughtered in Gaza go up to at least 271, which includes Saleh al-Jafarawi, a Palestinian reporter and content creator killed on Sunday. According to The New Arab:

Reports in Arabic media state that the armed militia was affiliated with Israel, and members of the group had been killing displaced Palestinians who were making their way back to their homes in the aftermath of the truce.

When he was found, after being announced as missing early on Sunday, he was wearing a press jacket.

The reporter had amassed a large following on social media for his fearless dispatches from on the ground, despite himself being displaced, starved, and his home bombed.

As Middle East Eye reported Monday, the slain journalist "was buried the same day as his brother Naji al-Jafarawi was released from an Israeli prison as part of an exchange of captives."

After Saleh al-Jafarawi's death, multiple social media users shared a video of him welcoming the ceasefire that started on Friday.

Jonathan Dagher, head of the Middle East Desk at Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), said in a Friday statement that "the relief of a ceasefire in Gaza must not distract from the absolute urgency of the catastrophic situation facing journalists in the territory."

Over 200 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces, "and the reporters still alive in Gaza need immediate care, equipment, and support," he noted. "They also need justice—more than ever. If the impunity for the crimes committed against them continues, they will be repeated in Gaza, Palestine, and elsewhere in the world. To bring justice to Gaza's reporters and to protect the right to information around the world, we demand arrest warrants for the perpetrators of crimes against our fellow journalists in Gaza."

"RSF is counting on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to act on the complaints we filed for war crimes committed against these journalists," added Dagher, whose group has filed five complaints with the tribunal since October 2023. "It's high time that the international community's response matched the courage shown by Palestinian reporters over the past two years."

#Palestine We join the @FPAIsPal in demanding the Israeli government to allow journalists and media workers to freely and independently access the Gaza Strip with the beginning of the ceasefire.https://t.co/TJfSwDLaqT

— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) October 13, 2025

The board of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem also released a statement on Friday. It said that "the FPA welcomes the agreement between the warring parties on a ceasefire in Gaza. With the halt in fighting, we renew our urgent call for Israel to open the borders immediately and allow international media free and independent access to the Gaza Strip."

"For the last two years, the FPA and its members have asked, through all channels, to be let into Gaza to report on the reality of the war. These demands have been repeatedly ignored, while our Palestinian colleagues have risked their lives to provide tireless and brave reporting from Gaza," the group continued.

Israel's Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a related case next week, "but there is no reason to wait that long," the group added. "Enough with the excuses and delay tactics. The restrictions on press freedom must come to an end."

Col. Larry Wilkerson: The Iran War Threat RETURNS — But Iran Has Transformed into a Military Giant!

COL. Douglas Macgregor : Gaza a Sideshow; Iran the Main Event

Trump sets sights on peace with Iran as he hails ‘end of Gaza war’

Donald Trump has vowed to use the power of his presidency to ensure that Israel recognises it has achieved “all that it can by force of arms”, and begin an age of cooperation in the Middle East that may ultimately extend as far as peace with Iran. In a speech to the Israeli Knesset, made hours after the last remaining Israeli hostages were released from Gaza, Trump hailed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” and an end to the “long and painful nightmare” of the Gaza war.

“This is not only the end of war – this is the end of an age of terror and death,” the US president said. “Israel, with our help, has won all that it can by force of arms. Now it’s time to translate those victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.” Repeatedly insisting that Israel’s military victory was complete, Trump’s remarks were intended as a reassurance to Arab states that he would neither allow Israel to reopen the conflict with Hamas nor permit Hamas to re-establish itself inside Gaza.

Trump then flew to Egypt to take the message of optimism to a summit of more than 20 world leaders dedicated to endorsing his peace plan, the rebuilding of Gaza and a limited form of Palestinian self-rule. The guarantors of the peace agreement – the US, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt – also signed a comprehensive document setting out their responsibilities in ensuring peace, and an eventual path to Palestinian self-rule.

The summit was jointly hosted by Trump and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. ... The US president also sent out a thinly coded message that Israel had been losing public support due to its reliance on force. He said: “There was getting to be a period of time over the last few months when the world wanted peace and Israel wanted peace. If you had gone on for another three or four more years, keeping fighting, fighting, fighting, it was getting bad, it was getting heated. So the timing of this is brilliant. I said: ‘Bibi [referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu], you will be remembered for this far more than if you kept the thing going, going – kill, kill, kill.’”

Trump also indicated he was going to put pressure on Arab states to sign the Abraham accords “quickly and without games”. The accords require Arab states to recognise Israel. Iran, he insisted, was also ready for peace.

U.S. Aims to STRANGLE China, REGIME CHANGE Venezuela, and ATTACK Iran | Brian Berletic

Macron accuses rivals of fuelling instability as he dismisses calls to resign

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has accused rival political parties of fuelling instability as he brushed aside calls by the opposition for him to resign amid France’s worst political crisis in decades. “Many of those who have fuelled division and speculation have not risen to the moment,” Macron said of French opposition parties, as he arrived in Egypt on Monday to attend a summit on Gaza. He said rival “political forces” were “solely responsible for this chaos” after they “instigated the destabilisation” of the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu. ...

It is France’s second government in a week: Lecornu’s first government collapsed after 14 hours amid backlash over a lack of fresh faces, and he dramatically resigned last Monday. Lecornu was then reappointed by Macron on Friday night and quickly assembled a new administration on Sunday. “How long will it last?” several regional newspapers asked, including La Provence in the south and La République du Centre. ...

Macron’s term ends in spring 2027. He declined to speculate on a possible dissolution of parliament and snap election if the latest government fails. “I’m not making any bets,” he said. “I want the country to move forward.” ...

The leftwing La France Insoumise party and the far-right National Rally are due to put down motions for a no-confidence vote. For the government to be toppled, several opposition parties would have to group together to back the vote, including the Socialists. The Socialist party has said it will wait to hear Lecornu’s policy speech before deciding. It has warned it could vote against the government unless Lecornu suspends Macron’s controversial 2023 law that installed a gradual rise in the retirement age from 62 to 64.

US news outlets refuse to sign new Pentagon rules to report only official information

Several leading news organizations with access to Pentagon briefings have formally said they will not agree to a new defense department policy that requires them to pledge they will not obtain unauthorized material and restricts access to certain areas unless accompanied by an official.

The policy, presented last month by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been widely criticized by media organizations asked to sign the pledge by Tuesday at 5pm or have 24 hours to turn in their press credentials.

The move follows a shake-up in February in which long-credentialed media outlets were required to vacate assigned workspaces which was cast as an “annual media rotation program”. A similar plan was presented at the White House where some briefing room spots were given to podcasters and other representatives of non-traditional media.

On Monday, the Washington Post joined the New York Times, CNN, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, HuffPost and trade publication Breaking Defense in saying it would not sign on to the agreement. Matt Murray, the Post’s executive editor, said the policy runs counter to constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press.

“The proposed restrictions undercut First Amendment protections by placing unnecessary constraints on gathering and publishing information,” Murray wrote in a statement published on X. “We will continue to vigorously and fairly report on the policies and positions of the Pentagon and officials across the government.”

Senate Candidate Platner Pledges 'There Will Be Consequences' for Trump Invading US Cities

As immigration agents continue to terrorize communities across the United States under the command of President Donald Trump, Democrat Graham Platner is speaking out from Maine, where he is running to unseat longtime Republican US Sen. Susan Collins next year.

In a video that Platner shared on social media on Sunday, he's seen taking questions from a crowd. One woman asks the oyster farmer and combat veteran to explain his feelings on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"So right now, armed, masked secret police are going around the country kidnapping American citizens, kidnapping people that are here legally, abusing people because of the color of their skin," Platner noted. "It's disgusting."

The candidate envisioned potential hearings about Trump's attacks on US cities whenever Democrats reclaim control of Congress.

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences. pic.twitter.com/mlar1wd5rv

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) October 12, 2025

"One of the reasons I want to go to the Senate is that when we have power again, I want to haul all of these people and the ones that made them do it in front of a Senate subcommittee, make them take their masks off," he said, drawing strong applause.

Before the Senate, those carrying out Trump's attacks can "explain to the American people how they can justify their illegal and unconstitutional behavior," he continued. "So, that's what I think about ICE."

Polling reported Monday by Newsweek shows that Platner or outgoing Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who's expected to enter the Senate race on Tuesday, are both well-positioned to oust Collins, who has held her seat since 1997. In the poll conducted by Zenith Research for More Perfect Union, Platner leads Collins by 14 points, while Mills is 8 points ahead of her.

While Maine has seen ICE enforcement actions and protests against the agency, it has not been a primary target—unlike Chicago, where the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Saturday upheld District Judge April Perry's block on Trump deploying National Guard troops in northern Illinois.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, the agency has arrested over 1,000 people since launching Operation Midway Blitz last month. Federal agents have faced intense scrutiny for their actions in and around Chicago, such as fatally shooting a driver, pinning a news producer to the ground and hauling her off in an unmarked vehicle before releasing her without charges, and violently cracking down on protests—including at a facility in suburban Broadview, which led to another ruling against the Trump administration from a district judge last week.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Goes NUCLEAR On Republicans Over Shutdown, Jobs & Healthcare!

Republican and Democratic senators dig in heels over government shutdown

Republican and Democratic senators Lindsey Graham and Mark Kelly have dug their heels in over the government shutdown – which is now approaching two weeks, with the former saying that the closure won’t push him to meet Democrats’ demands for a restoration of Obama-era healthcare subsidies. Graham said on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he was in favor of the Senate voting to reopen the government and prepared to “have a rational discussion” with Democrats – but not with the government shut down. ...

The dispute on the network continued with Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, criticizing Republicans for refusing to negotiate with Democrats. “We need a real negotiation, and we need a fix. We need this corrected for the American people. This is for so many people – their healthcare is running towards a cliff, and if we don’t fix this, it’s going to go right over it,” Kelly told host Kristen Welker on Meet the Press.

Against increasing pressure to reach a deal, with both sides weighing the political cost of a lack of a resolution, House speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that Republicans had “probably a hundred different ideas about how to fix it but we can’t do that overnight”. He said Democrats’ demands for a resolution to the healthcare subsidies issue without lengthy discussions were “impossible and inappropriate”.

Growing number of US veterans face arrest over Ice raid protests

US military veterans increasingly face arrest and injury amid protests over Donald Trump’s deportation campaign and his push to deploy national guard members to an ever-widening number of American cities. The Guardian has identified eight instances where military veterans have been prosecuted or sought damages after being detained by federal agents.

The latest incident occurred in Broadview, outside Chicago, where 70-year old air force veteran Dana Briggs was charged with felony assault on a federal officer on 29 September. A widely shared video on social media shows a masked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent advance on and knock over the elderly veteran during a protest outside an Ice detention center.

Federal prosecutors claim Briggs committed assault when he “made physical contact with an agent’s arm while the agent attempted to extend the safety perimeter”. Briggs pleaded not guilty and was released on an appearance bond.

Another veteran, John Cerrone, was arrested while protesting outside the Broadview Ice detention the day before Briggs. A social media video shows a group of masked agents tackle the 35-year-old marine corps veteran, who served as a combat infantryman in Afghanistan, as teargas floats in the air. Cerrone says he was held for nine hours at the Broadview facility, alone in a cell with walls covered by blood, hair and mucus. He says that while he was behind bars he was visited by an Ice agent who boasted that he had shot Cerrone in the head with rubber bullets and exclaimed: “Where is that pussy!”

“Their conduct was completely unprofessional in my experience in combat infantry,” Cerrone said. “Even in Afghanistan, we had very clear rules of engagement. The conduct of these agents was such that if it occurred in Afghanistan, they would be removed from the front line. They would be court-martialed.” Cerrone was released after receiving a citation for “exhibiting disorderly conduct on federal property”, a misdemeanor under federal law, which he plans to contest.

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The populist playbook: Democratic US Senate candidate seeks to replicate Mamdani’s success

During Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’s Fight the Oligarchy tour stop in Michigan, Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed hit on bold populist policies like Medicare For All and taxing the rich. But he drew among the loudest cheers from the crowd in Kalamazoo, when he bellowed his updated reversal of an Obama catchphrase that signified a new pugilistic tactic when dealing with Maga attacks. “When they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and choke them out,” he said.

El-Sayed’s fiery speech and his populist campaign in Michigan’s Democratic primary for the Senate race comes on the heels of Zohran Mamdani’s stunning June win in New York City’s mayoral primary, which has generated momentum on the left-wing of the party. The Sanders-endorsed, anti-establishment El-Sayed, 40, follows a similar blueprint as Mamdani, and Michigan in some ways offers favorable terrain for the leftwing populist playbook. But at the same time a repeat of Mamdani’s success in the more conservative, upper midwest swing state is far from certain, and the race is viewed as a possible bellwether on leftists’ electability in statewide campaigns across the US.

“This is a time when that call for new politics is resonating beyond the places one would expect it to resonate, like in the far reaches of Michigan’s rural communities,” said Yousef Rabhi, a former Michigan House Democratic floor leader who has endorsed El-Sayed. “Abdul and Mamdani are speaking to this moment.”

Like Mamdani, El-Sayed eschews partisanship in favor of leftwing populist economic ideas, sharply criticizes Israel, and leans heavily on a sense of authenticity. In New York City, that formula resonated with younger people, activated disaffected voters and attracted support for Mamdani from across the political spectrum. Mamdani remains strongly ahead in the New York mayoral race Using that style in Michigan is a break from the moderate Democratic politics that for decades have dominated in the state, and which defeated El-Sayed in 2018 when he lost to now governor Gretchen Whitmer in a gubernatorial Democratic primary.

But since then, El-Sayed has run health departments in Detroit and Wayne county, and touts accomplishments like helping to eliminate $700m in medical debt for local residents. The economic playing field has also shifted since 2018, and El-Sayed thinks his message is more likely to resonate now than seven years ago. “People now understand Donald Trump was not the cause, but the symptom,” he said during an interview with the Guardian at a Detroit coffee shop.

Kamala, Marc Maron BLAME Gaza Protestors For Trump Win

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Planet’s first catastrophic climate tipping point reached, report says, with coral reefs facing ‘widespread dieback’

The earth has reached its first catastrophic tipping point linked to greenhouse gas emissions, with warm water coral reefs now facing a long-term decline and risking the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, according to a new report. The report from scientists and conservationists warns the world is also “on the brink” of reaching other tipping points, including the dieback of the Amazon, the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.

But some experts have questioned the report’s claims about the fate of coral reefs, with one saying while they are in decline there is evidence they could remain viable at higher temperatures than suggested. Tipping points are recognised by scientists as moments when a major ecosystem reaches a point where severe degradation is inevitable.

The world’s coral reefs are home to about a quarter of all marine species but are considered one of the most vulnerable systems to global heating. “Unless we return to global mean surface temperatures of 1.2C (and eventually to at least 1C) as fast as possible, we will not retain warm-water reefs on our planet at any meaningful scale,” the report says.

Coral reefs have been in the midst of a global bleaching event since January 2023 – the fourth and worst on record – with more than 80% of reefs in more than 80 countries affected by extreme ocean temperatures. Scientists say the event has pushed reefs into “uncharted territory”. The Global Tipping Points report, led by the University of Exeter and financed by the fund of the Amazon owner, Jeff Bezos, includes contributions from 160 scientists from 87 institutions in 23 countries.

It estimates that coral reefs hit a tipping point when global temperatures reach between 1C and 1.5C above where they were in the latter half of the 19th century, with a central estimate of 1.2C. Global heating is now at about 1.4C. Without rapid and unlikely cuts to greenhouse gases, the upper threshold of 1.5C would be hit in the next 10 years, the report says. “We can no longer talk about tipping points as a future risk,” said Prof Tim Lenton at the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute. “The first tipping of widespread dieback of warm water coral reefs is already under way.”

Climate investment is only growth opportunity of 21st century, says leading economist

Investment in climate action is the economic growth story of the 21st century, while growth fuelled by fossil fuels is futile because the damage it causes ends in self-destruction, the economist Nicholas Stern has said. The plummeting costs of clean technologies, from renewable energy to electric cars, plus the healthier and more productive societies they enable, meant investments could simultaneously tackle the climate crisis and faltering economic growth, and bring millions of people out of poverty, he said.

This requires big changes in policies and levels of investment and Stern, at the London School of Economics, acknowledged that the geopolitical environment was currently difficult but he said making the rational argument was vital. The US president, Donald Trump, recently called climate change a “con job” and is backing fossil fuel companies to “drill, baby, drill”. ...

Stern led a landmark 2006 review that concluded climate action would cost less than the damage caused by inaction and that climate change was the greatest market failure the world had ever seen. His new book, The Growth Story of the 21st Century: The Economics and Opportunity of Climate Action, is published on 5 November.

His conclusions from 2006 remain valid today but have intensified, he said, as the effects of global heating are arriving faster and with more severity than anticipated. “Every time you look at the science, it gets worse,” he said. For example, he said, the tipping points that were thought to be associated with 4C of global heating now look as if they could occur with about a 2C rise.

Despite this, Stern said the economic opportunities climate action presented had also intensified, due to the extraordinary pace of technological development. The cost of solar power and batteries has fallen 80% in the last decade, with offshore wind costs down 73% and onshore wind down 57%. Stern said the growing economies of scale of climate technology, more efficient use of resources and healthier populations – fossil fuel air pollution kills millions a year – would all boost productivity and economic growth.

Microplastics are brought into the wilderness on hiking shoes and gear, study shows

Hiking shoes and outdoor gear are likely a significant source of microplastic pollution in the wilderness, new research that checked for the pernicious material in several Adirondack mountain lakes in upstate New York suggests.

Researchers measured microplastic levels in two lakes that are the among highest sources of water for the Hudson River – one that sees heavy foot traffic from hikers, and another lake that is far away from a path and rarely touched by human activity.

The samples from the lake that sees heavier foot traffic showed levels that were about 23 times higher.

Soft-soled trail shoes and synthetic clothing “appear to be significant contributors to microplastics finding their way into these remote, otherwise pristine waters”, said Tim Keyes, a Sacred Heart University data scientist, who independently worked on the project with his company, Evergreen Business Analytics, and the Adirondack Hamlet to Huts non-profit.

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Also of Interest

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

Two years after October 7, Palestine has become a graveyard of failed strategies

Beware Trump’s Ceasefire Without UN Action

Patrick Lawrence: Let Us Now Bury the Truth (Again)

‘Locked up for 24 years’: release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees sparks joy and sorrow

The West Cannot Win A Trade War Against China

Mahbubani on Europe’s Strategic Disease

Maduro Offered the US Access To Venezuela’s Oil and Mineral Resources To Avoid War

Ben Jennings on Trump the peacemaker – cartoon

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Glenn Beck GRILLED Over Israel by Turning Point USA Students

Moscow Gives US Nuclear Warning On Tomahawks Says Trump Unfit Mediator; Kiev Faces Pokrovsk Disaster

The Jewish religion post-dates the time of Jesus

Miss Rachel CALLS OUT Obama For "Dehumanizing" Palestinians

1929 Crash AGAIN? Wall Street Whisperer DIRE WARNING

Ghislaine Maxwell Prison LOCKED DOWN For Secret Meeting

Putin challenged on Trump Tomahawk deployment

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A Little Night Music

Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart, the Harlem Congeroos - Hellzapoppin'

Slim Gaillard & His Trio - Dunkin' Bagel

Slim Gaillard - C Jam Blues Special

Slim Gaillard & His Trio - Chile & Beans O'Vootee

Slim Gaillard - Flat Foot Floogie

Slim Gaillard - A Tip On The Numbers

Slim Gaillard - Potato Chips

Slim Gaillard Quartette - Atomic Cocktail

Slim Gaillard - Momma's In The Kitchen

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