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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Katie Webster

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and boogie woogie piano player and singer Katie Webster. Enjoy!

^{Katie Webster - Two-Fisted Mama}

“Zionism offered itself as the solution to anti-Semitism, but became the main reason for its continued presence. The “deal” also failed to uproot the racism and xenophobia that still lies at the heart of Europe, and which produced Nazism on the continent and a brutal colonialism outside of it. That racism and xenophobia is now turned against Muslims and Islam; since it is intimately connected to the Israel–Palestinian question, it could be reduced once a genuine answer to that question is found.”

-- Ilan Pappé

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News and Opinion

Zionists Push Islamophobia Because It’s Easier Than Getting People To Like Israel

Have you ever noticed how whenever you see someone promoting hatred toward Muslims, nine times out of ten it will be someone who supports Israel? There’s a reason for that.

Zionists promote Islamophobia because convincing westerners to hate Muslims is easier than convincing them to love Israel.

Support for Israel is a hard sell. On paper it’s just a shitty, evil country full of shitty, evil people, and has no redeeming qualities as a state. Nobody can explain how it’s an important ally in a way that makes sense; all the problems they claim it helps solve are problems Israel itself creates with the help of western backing. Unless you’re a devout Jewish Zionist or Christian Zionist there’s nothing about the modern state of Israel you’d naturally be inclined to support.

Appealing to western racism, however, is much easier. We’ve got entire mainstream political factions whose whole platform is just grimacing in disgust at anyone who looks and acts a bit different. White supremacism runs deep, and westerners have been fighting and killing Muslims for many centuries, so there’s plenty of cultural memory to draw on for this specific form of hatred.

So they don’t worry so much about explaining the positives about the state of Israel, focusing instead on fearmongering about the religion whose adherents tend to wind up on the receiving end of Israeli military violence. They can’t convince us that Israel is good in and of itself, but they can convince many of us that it’s good to drop military explosives on Muslims.

Most of the Islamophobia you see in the west comes from Israel supporters and people who’ve been propagandized by Israel supporters. A small minority comes from extreme fringe rightists who hate both Muslims and Jews, but the majority is the product of western support for Israel and the west’s warmongering in the middle east which Israel consistently plays a role in.

That’s why you’ll see high-profile Israeli social media accounts fearmongering about the growing Muslim populations in Europe, for example. You wouldn’t think it would be any of Israel’s concern if there are a lot of Muslims in Belgium or whatever, but it is in Israel’s political interests to keep westerners fearful and disdainful toward members of the Islamic faith.

We’re seeing more and more of this as Israel increasingly alienates western centrists and progressives, relying more and more heavily on support from the western right. As the narrative that a poor persecuted religious minority needs to have its own homeland loses traction with its intended audience, we’re seeing it increasingly replaced with the narrative that them there Muslims need killin’, yeehaw.

Israel makes everything gross. It makes the world more violent, more sociopathic, and more hateful. The entire state is sustained by nonstop violence and hatred. It’s a malignant tumor on the flesh of our species.

As Occupying Power, Israel Must Allow U.N. Aid into Gaza

ICJ orders Israel to allow aid into Gaza and says restrictions breached international obligations

Israel must allow aid into Gaza, and its restrictions on doing so over the past two years have put it in breach of its obligations, the UN’s top court has found. The stinging advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague also found that Israel had a duty not to impede the supply of aid by UN organisations including the beleaguered UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, which has been in effect banned from the territory since January.

The court found Israel had not produced adequate evidence to justify ending cooperation with Unrwa on the basis it was not a neutral organisation under the Geneva conventions. The court instead found the organisation was the backbone of all humanitarian assistance in the area, requiring Israel to cooperate with the organisation in good faith.

The ruling that Israel has violated the UN’s immunities as set out in the UN charter, as well as ignored its humanitarian obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva conventions is bound to lead to further calls for Israel’s suspension from the UN. It is also possible that some countries will now claim that the UN secretary general António Guterres should seek damages from Israel for breaching the immunities of UN staff premises and entities inside occupied Palestine, by bombing them and ending cooperation with Unrwa. Israel has paid compensation in one previous case nearly 40 years ago.

Israel dismissed the ICJ findings. In a message on social media platform X, Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the court’s findings and added: “Israel fully upholds its obligations under international law.” ...

In one of the most damning findings, the court said that Israel as occupying power is under a duty not to use starvation as a method of warfare pointing out that Israeli government blocked all UN aid into Gaza from 2 March to 18 May. The court found that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the aid agency set up by Israel, was not an adequate substitute, and that its existence did not relieve Israel from the charge that it was using starvation as a method of warfare.

U.S. KNEW Israel LIED About BREAKING CEASEFIRE

Heh, look at that, The Guardian can't stop lying about Israel running over it's own unexploded ordnance which killed a couple of IOF soldiers and blaming it on Hamas days after the story has been debunked.

‘Hogwash’ that Israel is a US client state, says Netanyahu

On the second day of a US diplomatic push aimed at shoring up the fragile Gaza ceasefire, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed as “hogwash” suggestions that his country was a client state of Washington. Despite the US providing an estimated 68% of Israel’s foreign-sourced weapons, Netanyahu, when asked on Wednesday if Israel was beholden to Washington, said: “I want to put it very clearly. One week they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash.”

At the end of a meeting with the US vice-president, JD Vance, in Jerusalem, part of a US diplomatic blitz in support of the truce plan, Netanyahu added: “We have a partnership, an alliance of partners, who share common values and common goals. We can have discussions, we can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole I have to say that in the past year we’ve had agreement – agreement not only on goals but how to reach them.”

Vance replied: “We don’t want a vassal state, and that’s not what Israel is. We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally here.” Vance’s visit follows that of the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Their objective, according to analysts, was to calm tensions after the ceasefire had been shaken by repeated violations since it was put in place on 10 October, with Palestinian militants killing two Israeli soldiers and Israel bombing Gaza on Sunday.

The US vice-president spoke of the tough task ahead in disarming Hamas and building a peaceful future for Gaza, as Washington sought to reassure Israel over the next steps of the truce, including recovering the remaining bodies of Israeli hostages in Gaza and the rebuilding of the devastated territory. “We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said.

He cited an “international security force” as one of the bodies that would have to be set up in Gaza. Under Trump’s 20-point plan, this military mission would keep the peace in the territory as Israel withdraws.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : What Ceasefire?

Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel

Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as “unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza.

Over 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The letter’s release comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday amid reports they plan to shelve proposals for sanctions over human rights violations.

“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories write. “Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.”

Signatories include former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, British author Michael Rosen, Canadian author Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning film-maker Jonathan Glazer, US actor Wallace Shawn, Emmy winners Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder, and Pulitzer prize winner Benjamin Moser.

The signatories urge world leaders to uphold international court of justice (ICJ) and international criminal court rulings, avoid complicity in international law violations by halting arms transfers and imposing targeted sanctions, ensure adequate humanitarian aid to Gaza, and reject false claims of antisemitism against those advocating for peace and justice.

Max Blumenthal : Israel Resumes Killing and Blocking Aid

Israeli Knesset Advances Bill To Annex the West Bank During Vance Visit

The Israeli Knesset on Wednesday advanced a bill to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank as Vice President JD Vance is visiting Israel.

According to Haaretz, the bill to annex the Palestinian territory passed a preliminary vote in a vote of 25-24 and still needs to go through three more votes to become law. The effort was opposed by most members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which condemned the vote as a “stunt by the opposition aimed at harming our relations with the United States.”

The bill was introduced and supported by far-right parties, including Jewish Power and Religious Zionism, which are both in Netanyahu’s coalition government. Just one Likud MK, Yuli Edelstein, broke with his party to support the bill, and he has reportedly been removed from the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for the vote.

While Netanyahu and his Likud party are staunch supporters of expanding illegal Jewish settlements and hope to eventually annex the West Bank, they’re also working to maintain good relations with the Trump administration. President Trump recently said he would “not allow” Israel to annex the West Bank.

Israel-Iran War RED ALERT: Tehran’s Missiles LOCKED ON Tel Aviv, IDF SOUNDS ALARM

Lebanese Army Removes Barriers as Israel Continues to Attack Southern Border Regions

The Lebanese Army was in the south of the country near Aitaroun today, removing concrete barriers set up by the IDF just days prior. The barriers blocked multiple roads leading to the farmland south of the village, and included signs warning “danger of death” for farmers who attempted to access their fields. The army reported removing both concrete blocks and the piles of dirt that the IDF moved into the roads, and said they were accompanied by UNIFIL peacekeepers for the operation.

Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have continued apace, with multiple incidents most days. In the past 24 hours Israel has carried out airstrikes against Nabatiyeh, and released video of a ground operation adjacent to Shebaa Farms. ...

Hopes of Israel ever complying with the ceasefire seem to be fading as well, as US envoy Tom Barrack reportedly told Lebanese officials that Israel had rejected a proposal for direct negotiations because the proposal came with an expectation Israel would stop attacking during the talks and ultimately withdraw its ground troops from Lebanese soil. Both expectations were already built into the ceasefire, though seemingly the US, which was meant to oversee that ceasefire, has chosen to ignore that.

COL. Douglas Macgregor : NATO Collapsing

No More Trump Illusions, War Till Victory; US Sanctions Russia Oil Pressures India; Pokrovsk

US imposes sanctions on Russian oil over Putin’s ‘refusal’ to end war in Ukraine

The US has sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, as the Trump administration increased pressure on the Kremlin to negotiate an end to its war against Ukraine. The sanctions were the first against Russia since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, and were targeted to cut key revenues from oil sales that finance the Russian war machine.

The move against Russia marks the latest swing of the pendulum under the Trump administration from coercing Kyiv to sue for peace to growing frustration with Vladimir Putin’s maximalist demands. ...

Trump, speaking in the Oval Office with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Wednesday, also confirmed he had cancelled a planned summit with Putin in another sign of a breakdown in negotiations between Washington and Moscow. “We cancelled the meeting with President Putin,” Trump said. “It didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get so I cancelled it. But we’ll do it in the future.”

A report in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday said the administration had lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, allowing Ukraine to use them for attacks deep inside of Russia despite concerns from Washington about a potential escalation of tensions with the Kremlin.

But Trump denied on social media that he had lifted any restrictions. “The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia is FAKE NEWS!” Trump said. “The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them.”

Richard D. Wolff & Michael Hudson: Trump FUMES as China, India & Russia Unite — The Shift Begins!

US military kills two people in strike on alleged drug-trafficking boat in Pacific

The US military has attacked and destroyed another boat in its ongoing and controversial fight against what it says are drug-trafficking activities.

The strike for the first time was carried out on the Pacific side of South America. Previous attacks have hit seven vessels in the Caribbean and killed at least 32 people.

The latest strike took place off the coast of Colombia and killed two people, according to a person briefed on the operation. It marked a departure from previous strikes, which have occurred off the coast of Venezuela, where the US has deployed an extraordinary military presence.

In a brief video released by US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, a small boat, half-filled with brown packages, is seen moving along at sea. Several seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is seen floating motionless in flames. ...

In striking a boat in the Pacific, the administration widened the scope of its campaign, although the reasons for the expansion were not immediately clear. The White House did not respond to a request for comment and Hegseth gave no additional details other than the video on X.

... And they say something is rotten in the state of Denmark ...

Trump says he has final say on paying himself $230m for past investigations

Donald Trump declared himself the arbiter of whether or not his own administration should pay him damages over past federal investigations, telling reporters that any such decision “would have to go across my desk”. The president insisted on Tuesday that the government owes him “a lot of money” for previous justice department investigations into his conduct, while at the same time asserting his personal authority over any potential payout.

“It’s interesting, ’cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?” Trump said at the White House, responding to questions about administrative claims he filed seeking roughly $230m related to the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago and the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The New York Times had reported the claims on Tuesday.

Trump’s comment lays out a circular situation: Trump as president would in effect decide whether Trump as claimant receives taxpayer money for investigations into Trump as defendant. “I’m suing myself,” Trump said last week, in many ways recognizing the absurdity. “I’ll say, ‘Give me X dollars,’ and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit.” Trump suggested he might donate any proceeds or use them to fund a ballroom he is building at the White House.

Trump’s claims were filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a 1946 law allowing citizens to seek damages from the government for wrongful acts by federal employees. The process is normally handled by career officials in the justice department’s civil division, who are deliberately insulated from political interference. But Trump’s allies now occupy key positions in the very department that would evaluate his claims. Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s lead defense lawyer in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, is now deputy attorney general. Stanley Woodward, who represented Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta, is associate attorney general.

The Federal Tort Claims Act specifically bars claims arising from discretionary or policy actions, meaning a president seeking compensation for law enforcement investigations into his own conduct would fall well outside the statute’s intended scope. No sitting president has ever sought damages from the federal government over investigations into their own actions.

Trump poised to send scores of federal agents to San Francisco

The Trump administration appeared poised to send dozens of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major immigration enforcement operation, prompting condemnation from California leaders.

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 federal agents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The agents are reportedly set to begin using the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city located across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether national guard troops would also be involved.

The deployment follows weeks of threats by Donald Trump to target the Democratic-run city. California’s governor Gavin Newsom criticised the move, calling it “right out of the dictator’s handbook”. ...

San Francisco is the latest major city targeted by Donald Trump’s campaign of mass immigration arrests. The deployment is expected to trigger a showdown between the administration and local leaders, who have pledged to block militarized immigration enforcement in the city.

San Franciscans have been readying for months for Trump to make good on repeated threats to send troops to the city. At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, San Francisco’s mayor Daniel Lurie reiterated that the city was prepared. “For months, we have been anticipating the possibility of some kind of federal deployment in our city,” said Lurie, adding that he had taken further executive actions on Wednesday to “strengthen the city’s support for our immigrant communities, and ensure our departments are coordinated ahead of any federal deployment”.

Metaphor?

White House East Wing will be torn down ‘within days’ even as no plans filed for Trump’s new ballroom

Trump administration officials confirmed to various outlets on Wednesday that the White House’s East Wing will be demolished “within days”, a revelation given the administration has not submitted plans for the new ballroom to the federal agency that oversees construction of federal buildings.

In discussion with reporters in the Oval Office, Donald Trump was asked by Jeff Mason of Reuters to respond to the widespread surprise that the entire East Wing is being torn down. Trump said the wing he described as a separate building “was never thought of as being much; it was a very small building”.

“Rather than allowing that to hurt a very expensive, beautiful building,” he continued. “In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure.” Then, pointing at a model of the new ballroom on a table in front of him, and a new structure leading to the ballroom in the location where the East Wing used to be, Trump added: “The way it was shown, it looked like we were touching the White House. We don’t touch the White House.”

The New York Times, citing a senior administration official, reported that the ballroom plans will mean the demolition of the entire East Wing. The official also said the demolition should be finished by this weekend.

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Dem-on-Dem WAR at 'No Kings' Rally | Useful Idiots

Boycotts, strikes and more protests: organizers on what’s next for No Kings

The No Kings alliance, the groups behind the mass days of protest last Saturday and in June, is building a nationwide rapid response network that will call on supporters to take new actions each week. Leaders of the organizations told the Guardian that there was energy for “some type of disruption”, and future actions could include targeted boycotts, campaigns at universities, more street protests, and electoral organizing in local communities.

After an estimated 7 million people took to the streets last weekend, tens of thousands joined a national call on Tuesday to hear what’s next for the growing movement. Leaders celebrated the broad turnout, saying it showed how much opposition to Trump there was in all corners of the US, and talked about how to sustain and grow a movement during an increasingly authoritarian moment for the country.

The next steps for this burgeoning resistance will show the durability of the movement and whether it can pressure Democrats or pillars of civil society to stand stronger against Trump, or whether it can force defections from Trump’s Republican allies to fracture his power. Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, elevated the idea of a general strike at his city’s rally, an idea that some labor leaders, including the United Auto Workers president, Shawn Fain, and his Association of Flight Attendants counterpart, Sara Nelson, have called for, though no more imminent plans have emerged.

“If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country, taking it to the ultra-rich and big corporations, we can do the same today,” Johnson said, clips of which spread widely. ...

Nationwide, the movement remains leaderless, though some elected officials, including Senator Bernie Sanders, attended protests and spoke to the crowds. On The Daily Show this week, Sanders said Democrats now need to set out their vision for the country, citing access to healthcare and home ownership as part of it. “I think that many of my colleagues in the Democratic party have not had that vision,” he said.

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US demands EU reverse new climate rules to allow surge in gas imports

The US has demanded that the European Union roll back its climate and human rights rules in order to allow greater imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as the Trump administration approved a controversial gas export hub along the Gulf of Mexico coast. A letter jointly sent by the US and Qatar, two of the three largest LNG exporters in the world, warned the EU that its new rules pose an “existential threat” to European economies as they would hinder imports of gas from countries such as theirs.

The EU should either completely repeal or substantially cut back the new rules, known as the corporate sustainability due diligence directive, according to the letter. The directive, which is set to be debated by EU legislators in the coming week, requires gas exporters to the 27-country bloc to show they protect human rights and are cutting their planet-heating emissions, or risk hefty fines.

“Its implementation could jeopardize existing and future investments, employment, and compliance with recent trade agreements,” the letter states. “There is little debate that natural gas and LNG will remain a critical energy source and a key part of the EU’s energy mix for many decades.”

The letter is the latest push by the Trump administration to not only boost the use of fossil fuels on US soil but also ensure the world remains wedded to them, taking aim at countries’ climate laws as it does so. Trump himself urged the UK to drill for more oil and halt wind energy, calling turbines “ugly monsters” and a “con job” during a meeting with Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, in July.

During the same trip, the EU agreed to purchase $750bn of US oil and gas by 2028, in order to replace fuels coming from Russia, although the viability of this deal has been questioned. A subsequent trip to Europe by Chris Wright, the US energy secretary, also highlighted the administration’s hostility to climate action, with Wright calling net zero policies a “colossal train wreck” and the Paris climate agreement “silly”.

Trump SHUNS US Ranchers, Plans To IMPORT Argentinian Beef

Climate disasters in first half of 2025 costliest ever on record

The first half of 2025 was the costliest on record for major disasters in the US, driven by huge wildfires in Los Angeles and storms that battered much of the rest of the country, according to a climate non-profit that has resurrected work axed by Donald Trump’s administration that tracked the biggest disasters.

In the first six months of this year, 14 separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage hit the US, the Climate Central group has calculated. In total, these events cost $101bn in damages – lost homes, businesses, highways and other infrastructure – a toll higher than any other first half of a year since records on this began in 1980.

The bulk of this toll was caused by the ferocious wildfires that razed parts of Los Angeles in January, a disaster that destroyed about 16,000 buildings and resulted in the indirect deaths of around 400 people. At $61bn in damages, the LA fires are one of the most expensive climate-related disasters on record in the US, and the only top 10 event that is not a hurricane.

The mounting cost of fires, storms, hurricanes, drought and floods – all worsened by the human-caused climate crisis – was charted over the previous 45 years by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), until the Trump administration “retired” the dataset in May, citing “evolving priorities, statutory mandates and staffing changes”.

Information on billion-dollar disasters until the end of 2024 is still available, frozen, on Noaa’s website, but Climate Central has sought to extend this work, citing its importance as a barometer of the climate crisis as well as a planning resource for cities and states facing increasing dangers from extreme weather impacts.

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Also of Interest

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

Patrick Lawrence: Against Chutzpah

Al Jazeera documentary reveals new evidence in Hind Rajab family’s killing

“We Estimate That Nearly One Million of Gaza’s 1.1 Million Olive Trees Have Been Destroyed”

What is Poland hiding besides the Ukrainian Nord Steam suspect?

US ‘Night Stalkers’ seen in Caribbean as fears of regime change rise in Venezuela

Harvard Slashes Ph.D. Admissions

Coffee Break: Gerontocrats Bad Jacket Tactics Not Working in U.S. Senate Primary?

Melania GETS SUED in NY over EPSTEIN CLAIMS!!!

Google hails breakthrough as quantum computer surpasses ability of supercomputers

Did you see an infantile, juvenile flight of fancy?

EVEN MORE Serious Questions Surface About Charlie Kirk’s Security Team!

Trump throws Orban under the bus, as he rides escalation escalator

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A Little Night Music

Katie Webster - I Wanna Know

Katie Webster - Mama Don't Allow

Katie Webster - Hoo Wee, Sweet Daddy

Katie Webster - San Antonio Here I Come

Katie Webster - Goodbye Baby I'm Still Leaving You, Pt. 2

Katie Webster - A Little Meat On The Side

Katie Webster - Try a little tenderness

Katie Webster - Came Home This Morning

Katie Webster - C.Q. Boogie

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