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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The Fabulous Thunderbirds

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues rock group The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Enjoy!

^{The Fabulous Thunderbirds – I Hear You Knocking}

"There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain."

-- James A. Baldwin

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News and Opinion

The Western Media Helped Create These Horrors In The Middle East

The US and Iran are on the brink of war. Israel and the United States are planning a major attack on Iran, which according to Biden himself could entail strikes on Iranian oil sites. Iran is now saying that its days of “individual self-restraint” are over, and it is prepared to go all-in if the US and Israel keep ramping up escalations.

The IDF continues to slaughter civilians in Lebanon with US-backed airstrikes as news surfaces that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire with Israel shortly before Israel assassinated him. The US reportedly knew about the deal.

And of course Israel is still killing dozens of civilians a day in its daily massacres in Gaza. Ninety-nine American healthcare workers who volunteered in the enclave have published an open letter to their president detailing the horrors that they have witnessed, and estimating the current death toll from this onslaught is over 118,908.

And at this juncture in history, I think it would be good for us to give the western press their due credit for helping to take us here by manufacturing consent for the political environment in which such western-supported atrocities are possible.

All the mass media personnel who’ve been lying and manipulating for Israel helped pave the way to this.

All the pundits and reporters who’ve been assigning far more weight to the Israeli deaths on October 7 than to the vastly greater number of Arab deaths before and since.

All the editors who’ve been running “Gaza child walks into bullet” passive-language headlines designed to mask Israel’s responsibility for the killings.

Everyone who uncritically reported fake atrocity propaganda about beheaded babies and mass rapes as real news stories.

Everyone who uncritically parrots every claim made by the IDF and the Israeli government but refuses to report what Palestinians have been saying unless Israel confirms it.

NYT does it again. A barely-english sentence about Israel bombing another country that doesn’t mention Israel. pic.twitter.com/afn7nOjCDI

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 2, 2024

Everyone at the press galleries in Washington who fail to forcefully interrogate US officials for the lies and spin they’ve been spewing about Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.

Everyone who publishes White House press releases disguised as news stories about how angry and upset Biden is about the Israeli war crimes he knowingly refuses to prevent.

Everyone who reports on starvation and sickness in Gaza like it’s some kind of natural disaster and not the inevitable consequence of deliberate siege warfare by Israel.

Everyone who treated Iranian missiles targeting Israeli military facilities without killing anybody as more horrific and significant than Israel’s daily massacres of civilians.

Everyone who uncritically regurgitates the phrase “Hamas-run health ministry”.

Everyone who uncritically calls Hezbollah a “terrorist organization”.

All the high-profile opinion columnists who’ve been running nonstop apologia for Israel’s criminality and encouraging the west to support even further aggressiveness.

Delete your subscription to the New York Times.

I cannot stress this enough. pic.twitter.com/Ckrz3GZGCM

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) October 2, 2024

Reporters who refer to Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq and Syria as “Iran-backed” but never refers to the Israeli military as “US-backed”.

Everyone who helps frame the Biden administration as a passive and reluctant witness to Israel’s mass atrocities instead of a willing and active participant.

Everyone who called Israel’s invasion of Lebanon a “limited ground operation” after ridiculing Russia for calling its invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation”.

Everyone who framed the pager bombings and assassination strikes in Lebanon as heroic achievements of extraordinarily sophisticated intelligence when they’d be shrieking their lungs out if a nation like Iran or Russia did anything similar.

Everyone who helps lend credence to the false narrative that opposition to Israeli murderousness is indicative of an epidemic of “antisemitism” in our society.

Turned on CNN for a bit. Dana Bash's voice is quivering. Jim Scuitto noted that Mossad's HQ is in a densely packed civilian area.

Emotion and context the Lebanese and Palestinians are far less likely to get from the network's U.S. team.

— Arif Rafiq (@ArifCRafiq) October 1, 2024

All the mass media staff who helped manufacture public consent for the horrors we’ve been watching in the middle east are just as responsible for what happens there as the people who are physically inflicting the violence.

They may as well have dropped the bombs and launched the missiles themselves.

They may as well have pulled the triggers on the sniper rifles that shot all those Palestinian children in the head.

They may as well have personally inserted those iron rods into the anuses of Palestinian prisoners.

The propagandists of the western press are just as essential to maintaining the western-backed atrocities that Israel is committing as the Israeli military itself.

No matter how much you despise these psychopathic manipulators, it’s less than they deserve.

Lebanon War "Giving More Space" for Israel to Keep Up Slaughter in Gaza

Israel orders evacuation of southern Lebanese city as Beirut strikes continue

The Israeli military has ordered evacuations of a Lebanese city and other communities north of a UN-declared buffer zone, signalling that it may widen a ground operation launched earlier this week against Hezbollah. On Thursday, Israel told people to leave Nabatieh, a provincial capital in southern Lebanon, and several towns and villages north of the Litani River, which formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the UN security council after the 2006 war in a resolution that both sides have accused the other of violating.

Some zones slated for evacuation are as far as 36 miles (60km) from the contested boundary between Israel and Lebanon, where there have been fierce clashes in recent days. The newly displaced will join more than a million people already on the move, further straining the Lebanese government’s limited resources and contributing to what aid agencies say is an acute humanitarian crisis.

The evacuation order came amid rapidly escalating tensions in the north as Hezbollah launched 200 missiles and drones at northern Israel in the space of a day, one of the highest totals of recent days. While a significant proportion of the munitions appeared to be aimed at areas right on the boundary being used by Israeli troops as gathering points for cross-boundary incursions, Israel’s home command issued new instructions late on Thursday to towns and cities further south into the Galilee to stay close to shelters amid fears of a widening barrage.

Israel also continued its air offensive against the militant group, hitting targets in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon. Multiple airstrikes were heard in the capital from Thursday afternoon until late into the evening, with one reportedly hitting the office of Hezbollah’s media department in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut.

A source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news agency that Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s stronghold in the capital’s south on Thursday evening, in one of the most violent raids since Israel intensified its bombardment campaign last week. According to Israeli media, Hachem Safieddine, the presumed next leader of Hezbollah, was the target of the airstrikes on Dahiyeh.

How Biden and Netanyahu PROVOKED the War in the Middle East

Biden says US ‘discussing’ possible Israeli plans to attack Iran’s oil industry

Joe Biden has said that his administration has been “discussing” possible Israeli plans to attack Iran’s oil industry in retaliation for the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Tuesday. Biden’s off-the-cuff remark did not make clear whether his administration was holding internal discussions or talking directly to Israel, nor did he clarify what his attitude was to such an attack.

“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel,” he told reporters outside the White House on Thursday. “And there is nothing going to happen today.” Nonetheless, at a time of high tension across the Middle East, the comment triggered a spike in global oil prices, with potentially damaging effects on his vice-president Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidential election just over a month away. ...

Biden has said that the US and its western allies in the G7 agree that Israel has a right to respond “proportionally”, and voiced his opposition to any strike against Iran’s nuclear programme. Asked by a reporter on Thursday about the possibility of an Israeli strike against Iranian oil facilities, Biden replied: “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little … anyway” – breaking off mid-sentence. A few minutes later, the oil price hit its highest level in a month, with Brent crude jumping as much as 5% to a high of $77.65 (£59.19) a barrel.

Any enduring price hike that raised the cost of petrol at pumps in the US – a near-certain outcome in the event of an actual Israel attack on the Iranian oil industry – would hurt Harris in an extremely close presidential race with Donald Trump.

Iran has informed Washington that a large-scale Israeli strike will lead in turn to Iranian attacks on Israeli infrastructure. Tehran also warned any other country assisting an Israeli attack would also make itself an Iranian target. In a statement issued by Iran’s mission at the UN in New York, Iran said: “Should any country render assistance to the aggressor, it shall likewise be deemed an accomplice and a legitimate target.”

Biden's Destructive Israel Policy Has Led Us to the Brink of War on Iran

On October 1, Iran fired about 180 missiles at Israel in response to Israel’s recent assassinations of leaders of its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hezbollah and Hamas. There are conflicting reports about how many of the missiles struck their targets and if there were any deaths. But Israel is now considering a counterattack that could propel it into an all-out war with Iran, with the U.S. in tow.

For years, Iran has been trying to avoid such a war. That is why it signed the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement with the United States, the U.K., France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union. Former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA in 2018, and despite President Joe Biden’s much-touted differences with Trump, he failed to restore U.S. compliance. Instead, he tried to use Trump’s violation of the treaty as leverage to demand further concessions from Iran. This only served to further aggravate the schism between the United States and Iran, which have had no diplomatic relations since 1980.

Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees his long-awaited chance to draw the United States into war with Iran. By killing Iranian military leaders and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil, as well as attacking Iran’s allies in Lebanon and Yemen, Netanyahu provoked a military response from Iran that has given him an excuse to widen the conflict even further. Tragically, there are warmongering U.S. officials who would welcome a war on Iran, and many more who would blindly go along with it.

Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, campaigned on a platform of reconciling with the West. When he came to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, he was accompanied by three members of Iran’s JCPOA negotiating team: former foreign minister Javad Zarif; current foreign minister Abbas Araghchi; and deputy foreign minister Majid Ravanchi.

President Pezeshkian’s message in New York was conciliatory. With Zarif and Araghchi at his side at a press conference on September 23, he talked of peace, and of reviving the dormant nuclear agreement. “Vis-a-vis the JCPOA, we said 100 times we are willing to live up to our agreements,” he said. “We do hope we can sit at the table and hold discussions.”

On the crisis in the Middle East, Pezeshkian said that Iran wanted peace and had exercised restraint in the face of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its assassinations of resistance leaders and Iranian officials, and its war on its neighbors.

“Let’s create a situation where we can coexist,” said Pezeshkian. “Let’s try to resolve tensions through dialogue… We are willing to put all of our weapons aside so long as Israel will do the same.” He added that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not, and that Israel’s nuclear arsenal is a serious threat to Iran.

Pezeshkian reiterated Iran’s desire for peace in his speech at the U.N. General Assembly.

“I am the president of a country that has endured threats, war, occupation, and sanctions throughout its modern history,” he said. “Others have neither come to our assistance nor respected our declared neutrality. Global powers have even sided with aggressors. We have learned that we can only rely on our own people and our own indigenous capabilities. The Islamic Republic of Iran seeks to safeguard its own security, not to create insecurity for others. We want peace for all and seek no war or quarrel with anyone.”

The U.S. response to Iran’s restraint throughout this crisis has been to keep sending destructive weapons to Israel, with which it has devastated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of women and children, bombed neighboring capitals, and beefed up the forces it would need to attack Iran.

That includes a new order for 50 F-15EX long-range bombers, with 750 gallon fuel tanks for the long journey to Iran. That arms deal still has to pass the Senate, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading the opposition.

On the diplomatic front, the U.S. vetoed successive cease-fire resolutions in the U.N. Security Council and hijacked Qatar and Egypt’s cease-fire negotiations to provide diplomatic cover for unrestricted genocide.

Military leaders in the United States and Israel appear to be arguing against war on Iran, as they have in the past. Even George W. Bush and Dick Cheney balked at launching another catastrophic war based on lies against Iran, after the CIA publicly admitted in its 2006 National Intelligence Estimate that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons.

When Trump threatened to attack Iran, Tulsi Gabbard warned him that a U.S. war on Iran would be so catastrophic that it would finally, retroactively, make the war on Iraq look like the “cakewalk” the neocons had promised it would be.But neither U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin nor Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant can control their countries’ war policies, which are in the hands of political leaders with political agendas. Netanyahu has spent many years trying to draw the United States into a war with Iran, and has kept escalating the Gaza crisis for a year, at the cost of tens of thousands of innocent lives, with that goal clearly in mind.

Biden has been out of his depth throughout this crisis, relying on political instincts from an era when acting tough and blindly supporting Israel were politically safe positions for American politicians. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rose to power through the National Security Council and as a Senate staffer, not as a diplomat, riding Biden’s coattails into a senior position where he is as out of his depth as his boss.

Meanwhile, pro-Iran militia groups in Iraq warn that, if the U.S. joins in strikes on Iran, they will target U.S. bases in Iraq and the region.

So we are careening toward a catastrophic war with Iran, with no U.S. diplomatic leadership and only Trump and Harris waiting in the wings. As Trita Parsi wrote in Responsible Statecraft, “If U.S. service members find themselves in the line of fire in an expanding Iran-Israel conflict, it will be a direct result of this administration’s failure to use U.S. leverage to pursue America’s most core security interest here—avoiding war.”

Biden escalates toward disastrous war against Iran

The United States and Israel stand on the verge of a direct attack on Iran, with the most far-reaching and catastrophic consequences for the Middle East and the whole world. Using Iran’s attack on Israeli military infrastructure Tuesday as a pretext, the White House has effectively given Israel carte blanche to carry out an illegal attack against the second most populous country in the region (after Egypt). “We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us [referring to the G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond,” Biden said Wednesday. Reuters commented in a news report, “[T]he US is not pressing Israel to refrain from retaliation.”

One year after the start of the Gaza genocide, it has become clear that Israel seized upon the events of October 7 to implement long-held plans to ethnically cleanse and annex all Palestinian territories. This is part of a regional war throughout the Middle East to conquer what the Zionist state claims to be its biblical borders.

For the United States, it has been a means to cement imperialist control over the oil-rich Middle East region and to establish the Middle East and Central Asia as a firm base for US military operations in order to press ahead with its confrontation with Russia and China. It is high time to put an end to the myth that Israel is an actor independent of the United States. Israel’s primary function is to serve as an attack dog and instrument of the interests of American imperialism throughout the entire region.

As always, neither the US government nor the media is making any effort to inform the public about the monumental consequences of the plans now underway. ...

The developing US-Israeli war with Iran threatens to engulf the entire region in flames. This week, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan warned, “The Israeli government is acting in the illusion of a promised land, with religious fanaticism. After Palestine and Lebanon, our homeland will be the place they look at. Everything is aimed at this now.” Erdogan’s statement is an indication of the extent to which the actions of Israel and the US are provoking alarm throughout the region and the world. There is a growing sense that the United States and its Israeli attack dog are out of control.

On a knife-edge, frustrated Biden fails to stop Middle East escalation

Chris Hedges Q&A on Rising Tensions in Middle East

Khamenei to US & Europe: ‘Get Lost’

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that the United States and some European nations are responsible for the turmoil in the Middle East, and that the people of the region will enjoy peaceful coexistence only after the interlopers leave.

Khamenei — who has led the Islamist theocracy since 1989 — spoke to a group of scientists and scholars in Tehran on Wednesday, one day after Iran retaliated for recent Israeli assassinations of Iranian, Hezbollah, and Hamas leaders by firing around 200 missiles into Israel.

“In our region, the root cause of problems, which leads to conflicts, wars, concerns and hostilities and such like, results from the presence of the same people who claim to advocate peace and tranquility in the region; that is America and some European countries,” the 85-year-old Shia cleric said, according to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV.

“If they get themselves out of this region, beyond a shadow of a doubt these conflicts, these wars, these clashes will come to a complete halt, and the countries of the region will be able to govern themselves, govern their region, and live together in peace, blessing, and prosperity,” Khamenei added.

Khamenei had two additional words of advice for U.S. and European meddlers: “Get lost.”

Prof. John Mearsheimer: Israel NOT Going To Win In Lebanon

Ukrainian Lines Collapsing In East With World's Attention On Middle East War

Moscow’s wide-reaching offensive in eastern Ukraine has continued making steady gains, as looming major war between Israel and Iran has largely taken over the news cycle and daily headlines.

Currently Russian forces have advanced to merely within a few a few kilometers of Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub in the region. As we've highlighted before, the collapse of Pokrovsk will likely portend a Russian takeover of the whole of Donetsk.

On Wednesday the Ukrainian army announced that it has fully withdrawn from the eastern town of Vuhledar, describing that it abandoned the area after being almost fully encircled, and coming under heavy Russian artillery bombardment. ...

Vuhledar is a significant achievement, and suggests Russia forces will continue to plow through Ukrainian defenses, given it was dubbed a "fortress" city given its long having heavily-fortified surroundings and being in an upland position.

Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony. The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who the UK expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.

However, there will be an exception for the key island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a joint UK-US military base, and which will remain under UK control. Plans for the base were the reason the UK severed the Chagos Islands from the rest of Mauritius when it granted the latter independence in 1968 and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people.

There was a mixed reaction to the announcement from Chagossians, not all of whom are happy that sovereignty has been handed to Mauritius. ...

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said in a report last year that the UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by the forcible displacement of islanders, lamented the deal. Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at HRW, said: “The agreement says it will address the wrongs against the Chagossians of the past but it looks like it will continue the crimes long into the future.

“It does not guarantee that the Chagossians will return to their homeland, appears to explicitly ban them from the largest island, Diego Garcia, for another century, and does not mention the reparations they are all owed to rebuild their future. The forthcoming treaty needs to address their rights, and there should be meaningful consultations with the Chagossians, otherwise the UK, US and now Mauritius will be responsible for a still-ongoing colonial crime.”

Quebec separatist leader holds Trudeau to ransom: ‘We saw an opportunity’

The leader of the Quebec independence party propping up the government of Justin Trudeau has insisted that the political lifeline depends on the quick passage of two pieces of legislation, and warned Canada’s embattled prime minister that he remains “very vulnerable”.

The Bloc Québécois leader, Yves-François Blanchet, told the Guardian the Liberals must act swiftly to enshrine protections for dairy farmers and boost payments to seniors to stave off a fatal vote of non-confidence. He warned that unless both pieces of legislation are passed into law by 29 October, his party would begin discussions with other parties to trigger a federal election.

“We have not had a friendly relationship with the Liberals for the last five years,” said Blanchet. “But we saw an opportunity to pursue issues that were good for Quebecers and also good for Canadians.”

The Bloc’s newfound political power follows a tumultuous month in parliament, in which Jagmeet Singh, leader of the leftwing New Democratic party (NDP) – ended a pact with Trudeau’s Liberals. Since then the Conservatives have twice attempted to topple the government with no-confidence votes, both of which failed.

Amid the instability, Blanchet’s party sensed a rare political opening. The Bloc carefully assessed which pieces of legislation might be able to drive a wedge between Liberals and the NDP in order to extract as much political benefit as he could for his constituents. They settled on a bill to enshrine protection for dairy farmers and another that hikes payouts for seniors – two key voting constituencies for the party.

Another US judge blocks Biden’s latest student loan forgiveness plan

A US district judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Joe Biden’s administration from implementing a plan to forgive student loan debt held by millions of Americans. The ruling by St Louis-based Matthew Schelp handed a victory to six Republican state attorneys general who challenged the US president’s plan.

Schelp, an appointee of Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from “mass canceling” student loans and forgiving principal or interest under the plan pending the outcome of the state’s lawsuit.

The ruling presents another hurdle for the Biden administration, which has seen previous loan relief plans blocked. Biden campaigned for president in 2020 with a pledge to bring debt relief to millions of Americans who turned to federal student loans to fund their costly higher education.

Schelp ruled after another judge on Wednesday transferred the litigation from Georgia and removed that state from the case by finding it would not experience any legal harm under the debt relief plan.

The state attorneys general have accused the US Department of Education of overreaching its authority by proposing a regulation that instead should be addressed through legislation in Congress.

US dock workers agree on deal with port operators to end strike

The US ports strike that shut down shipping on the east and Gulf coasts for three days came to an end on Thursday after dock workers struck a tentative deal with port operators.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) announced that the union had reached an agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) on wages, suspending their walkout until January. Work would resume immediately, the union said.

The strike – which involved 45,000 workers across 36 ports, from Texas to Maine – was the first to hit the east and Gulf coast ports of the US since 1977. The tentative agreement is for a wage hike of around 62%, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Both sides said in a statement they would return to the bargaining table to negotiate all outstanding issues.

Concern had been mounting about the potential economic impact of the strike, and the threat of shortages. JP Morgan analysts estimated the walkout could cost the US economy as much as $5bn a day.

Three Memphis ex-police officers convicted of least serious charge in Tyre Nichols’ killing

A jury has convicted three former Memphis police officers of witness tampering in the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols, but acquitted them of the most serious charges.

Jurors found Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith guilty of witness tampering. Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but convicted of the lesser charge of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury. Bean and Smith were acquitted of all civil rights charges.

They were among five officers who were fired from the Memphis police department after the 7 January 2023 incident, which sparked protests in Memphis and across the US when footage of officers beating a young Black man was made public. Two of the other former officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr, pleaded guilty to depriving Nichols of his civil rights and testified for prosecutors in the federal case.

Haley, Bean and Smith had pleaded not guilty to the federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene and obstructing justice through witness tampering. The five former officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.

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Wildfires are burning through humanity’s carbon budget, study shows

Wildfires are burning through the carbon budget that humans have allocated themselves to limit global heating, a study shows. The authors said this accelerating trend was approaching – and may have already breached – a “critical temperature threshold” after which fires cause significant shifts in tree cover and carbon storage. “Alarmingly, the latest temperature at which, globally, these impacts become pronounced is 1.34C – close to current levels of warming [above preindustrial levels],” said the UK Met Office, which led the research.

Forests are going up in smoke in Brazil, the US, Greece, Portugal and even the Arctic Circle amid the Earth’s two hottest years in recorded history. Each fire has a double impact on the global climate: first, by emitting carbon from the burned trees, and second, by reducing the capacity of forests to absorb carbon dioxide.

This adds to the heat in the Earth system, which has already been raised by the burning of gas, oil and coal. Global temperatures are already 1.3C higher than in the preindustrial age, according to the Met Office.

As temperatures rise, droughts become more frequent, rainy seasons shorten and forests become more vulnerable to fire. This is made worse by human clearance of land for farms, which is particularly pronounced in South America. A separate study last week showed the continent is becoming warmer, drier, and more flammable. Other research showed the Amazon is undergoing a “critical slowing down”, with more than a third of the rainforest struggling to recover from drought after four supposedly “one-in-a-century” dry spells in less than 20 years.

Cornell Study Shows LNG Worse for Climate Than Coal

On the heels of Hurricane Helene devastating the U.S. Southeast and sparking fresh calls for action on the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, a long-awaited study revealed Thursday that the planet-heating pollution from liquefied natural gas is worse than that of coal.

"Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States have risen dramatically since the LNG-export ban was lifted in 2016, and the United States is now the world's largest exporter," wrote Cornell University scientist Robert Howarth, who analyzed the greenhouse gas footprint of LNG produced in and exported from the U.S.

Howarth found that "the greenhouse gas footprint for LNG as a fuel source is 33% greater than that for coal" in terms of its 20-year global warming potential, and "even considered on the time frame of 100 years after emission... which severely understates the climatic damage of methane, the LNG footprint equals or exceeds that of coal." ...

The study, published online by the journal Energy Science & Engineering, follows U.S. President Joe Biden pausing approvals for all LNG exports to non-fair trade agreement countries and comes a month out from the presidential election, in which Democratic Vice President Kalama Harris is facing Big Oil-backed Republican former President Donald Trump.

Spider lovers scurry to Colorado as tarantula mating season gets under way

Love is in the air on the Colorado plains – the kind that makes your heart beat a bit faster, quickens your step and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

It’s tarantula mating season, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate, and hundreds of arachnophiles flock to the small farming town of La Junta to watch them emerge in droves.

Scientists, spider enthusiasts and curious Colorado families piled into buses just before dusk last weekend as tarantulas began to roam the dry, rolling plains. Some used flashlights and car headlights to spot the arachnids once the sun set. ...

Colorado Brown tarantulas are the most common in the La Junta area, and they form their burrows in the largely undisturbed prairies of the Comanche national grassland.

In September and October, the mature males wander in search of a female’s burrow, which she typically marks with silk webbing. Peak viewing time is an hour before dusk when the heat of the day dies down.

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Also of Interest

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

How Western Media Lets Israel Get Away With Murder in Lebanon and Gaza

Biden Is Pushing Israel Towards Larger War

What are the risks involved in Israeli options for retaliatory strikes on Iran?

Patrick Lawrence: ‘Who Do You Want to Win?’

For the First Time Ever There Will be a Vote in Congress on Blocking Weapons to Israel

Could a ban on sea farms save Canada’s salmon?

Asteroid that eradicated dinosaurs not a one-off, say scientists

What Is Israel's Endgame in Lebanon? Airstrikes Intensify, Hospitals Overwhelmed, 1.2M Displaced

Prof. John Mearsheimer: OIL CRISIS Possible As Middle East Conflict Escalates

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A Little Night Music

The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Wrap it up

Fab T-Birds & Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tuff enough

Fabulous Thunderbirds - Powerful Stuff

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - The hustle is on

Fabulous Thunderbirds - Look At That

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Diddy Wah Diddy

Fabulous Thunderbirds - Twist of the Knife

The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Tip On In

Stevie Ray & Double Trouble with Jimmie Vaughan & The Fabulous Thunderbirds - The Things That I Used To Do

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Live from London 1985

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