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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Piano Red

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b piano player William "Piano Red" Perryman. Enjoy!

^{Piano Red – Rockin' With Red}

"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one."

-- George Washington

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News and Opinion

Israel Admits It Bombed A Hospital To Kill A Journalist For Doing Journalism

The IDF has admitted to bombing a hospital in order to assassinate a prominent Palestinian journalist in Gaza, explicitly stating that they assassinated him for engaging in journalistic activities.

The official Israel Defense Forces account made the following post on Twitter (emphasis added):

“Don’t let Aslih’s press vest fool you:
Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih, a terrorist from the Hamas Khan Yunis brigade, was eliminated along with other terrorists in the ‘Nasser’ hospital in Khan Yunis.
Aslih participated in the brutal October 7 massacre under the guise of a journalist and owner of a news network. During the massacre, he documented acts of murder, looting, and arson, posting the footage online.
Journalist? More like terrorist.”

Documenting newsworthy acts and posting the footage online is also known as journalism. It’s the thing that journalism is.

Aslih was killed in the hospital’s burn unit where he was recovering from a previous Israeli assassination attempt in which they bombed a tent near that same hospital.

That’s right kids, Israel will literally assassinate a journalist by bombing a hospital, openly admit that they bombed the hospital to assassinate the journalist for engaging in journalistic activities — and then call you an antisemite if you say Israel bombs hospitals and assassinates journalists.

The following things are Hamas: journalists, journalism, the new pope, the last pope, the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, human rights, critical thinking, hospitals, schools, campus protesters, Greta Thunberg, doctors, women, children, Ireland, and Ms Rachel.

Israel Bombs Gaza Hospitals, Killing and Wounding Dozens of Palestinians

U.S.-backed Israeli forces bombed two hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing and wounding at least dozens of Palestinians including patients, forcibly displaced people, medical staff, rescue workers, and a well-known journalist.

Early Tuesday, Israel bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, killing at least two people including photojournalist Hasan Eslaih, who was receiving treatment after surviving a previous Israeli attempt to assassinate him last month.

Gaza officials said Eslaih, who was the director of the Alam24 News Agency, is at least the 215th media worker killed by Israel since October 2023. Eslaih lost a finger and was badly injured in an April 7 Israeli strike on a tent outside the same hospital in which numerous people were burned alive. More than a dozen patients were reportedly injured in Tuesday's attack.

"The burn unit was struck, 18 hospital beds in the surgical department, eight beds in the intensive care unit, and 10 inpatient beds were destroyed," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the attack. "This is huge blow to the already overwhelmed health system."

"We repeat our call: Attacks on hospitals must stop," Tedros added. "The aid blockade must end to allow immediate entry of food, medicines, and equipment to support patients and the rehabilitation of hospitals. The best medicine is peace."

Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill said following the attack that "the U.S. is facilitating these war crimes and most Western journalists remain totally silent."

Israel assassinated journalist Hasan Eslaih in the burn unit of Nasser hospital where he was receiving treatment following Israel’s previous attempt to assassinate him on April 7. The U.S. is facilitating these war crimes and most Western journalists remain totally silent. https://t.co/V2RVzfFG4B

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) May 13, 2025

Later on Tuesday, Israel bombed a courtyard and surrounding areas of the European Hospital, also in Khan Younis, killing at least 28 people and injuring scores more. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack, claiming it targeted "Hamas operatives who were inside a command and control complex built within an infrastructure under the hospital."

British surgeon Tom Potokar was inside European Hospital when it was bombed. He said that "this is where kids with cancer are waiting to be evacuated and supposed to be 'deconflicted."

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, 38 hospitals, 81 health centers, and 164 medical facilities have been destroyed, damaged, or rendered inoperable since Israel launched its assault on the coastal enclave after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs condemned the strikes, saying on social media that "these attacks are unacceptable and must end. Healthcare is not a target."

Attacks on medical facilities are war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

The Gaza Health Ministry decried "the repeated targeting of hospitals and the pursuit and killing of wounded patients inside treatment rooms," adding that such attacks confirm "Israel's deliberate intent to inflict greater damage to the healthcare system."

In the United States, the advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement that fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "bombs hospitals, slaughters Palestinian civilians, destroys homes, and seeks to starve and ethnically cleanse the population of Gaza, all in a brutal campaign to continue Israel's genocide and stay in office indefinitely."

CAIR added that U.S. President Donald Trump "must act to stop these crimes against humanity, which our nation has unfortunately enabled for decades, and finally allow the Palestinian people to live in peace and freedom."

IDF strikes have obliterated Gaza's medical infrastructure along with the rest of the densely populated strip. Last year, an independent United Nations commission found that "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."

The commission's report detailed hundreds of IDF attacks on Gaza healthcare facilities and the killing or wounding of around 1,700 medical workers, calling such killings "widespread and systematic."

Israel's 585-day onslaught and siege—which officials say has left more than 186,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened—is the subject of an ongoing genocide case brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague by South Africa.

Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including extermination and starvation as a weapon of war.

Trump/Netanyahu RIFT Getting More Real?

Divide between Trump and Netanyahu?

Israeli Cabinet Approves ‘De Facto’ Annexation of Large Portion of West Bank

The Israeli Security Cabinet approved a resolution that will give Tel Aviv full control over Area C of the West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich touted the decision as a “de facto” annexation of over half of the West Bank.

On Tuesday, the Israeli cabinet gave Smotrich the authority to reclassify portions of Area C, which makes up 60% of the West Bank, as “state land.” “As part of the normalization and de facto sovereignty revolution we’re leading, the cabinet has approved a historic decision: for the first time, Israel is taking sovereign responsibility for the territory and launching formal land registration,” Smotrich explained. “This will provide legal certainty, support settlement expansion, block the PA’s takeover efforts and eliminate the threat of a Palestinian terror state.”

Smotrich is an Israeli settler who has called for greater settlement expansion. His plan for the West Bank includes giving the Palestinians the choice between subjection, emigration, and death. Smotrich has repeatedly advocated for lethal force to be used against Palestinian children.

Area C was a designation created by the 1995 Oslo Accords. Under the deal, the Palestinian Authority was scheduled to take authority over the area. However, Tel Aviv has never relinquished control. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Security Cabinet’s decision means Tel Aviv will never hand authority over Area C to the PA.

Bibi Allies LASH OUT Freed US Hostage Mom

Iran proposes partnership with UAE and Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium

Iran has floated the idea of a consortium of Middle Eastern countries – including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – to enrich uranium, in a effort to overcome US objections to its continued enrichment programme. The proposal is seen as a way of locking Gulf states into supporting Iran’s position that it should be allowed to retain enrichment capabilities. Tehran views the proposal as a concession, since it would be giving neighbouring states access to its technological knowledge and making them stakeholders in the process.

It is not clear if Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, made the proposal in relatively brief three-hour talks with the US in Oman on Sunday, the fourth set of such talks, but the proposal is reportedly circulating in Tehran. After the talks, Araghchi flew to Dubai where he spoke to the UAE’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The UAE currently does not enrich uranium for its own nuclear programme.

The consortium would be based on Iranian facilities with enrichment returned to the 3.67% levels set out in the original 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers, which Donald Trump unilaterally ended in 2018. The US has demanded that Iran ends enrichment and dismantles all its nuclear facilities. But amid divisions in Washington, Trump has not made a final decision on the issue and praised Iran’s seriousness in the talks.

U.S. & Saudis Sign $142B Arms Deal as Trump Meets with Syria’s New Leader & Drops Syrian Sanctions

US and Saudi Arabia sign $142bn arms deal as Trump to meet Syrian leader

The United States and Saudi Arabia have signed a $142bn arms deal touted by the White House as the “largest defence sales agreement in history” in the first stop of Donald Trump’s four-day diplomatic tour to the Gulf states aimed at securing big deals and spotlighting the benefits of Trump’s transactional foreign policy.

During the trip, the White House also confirmed that Trump would meet with Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former rebel commander whose forces helped overthrow Bashar al-Assad in 2024. The informal meeting will be the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and a Syrian leader since 2000, when Bill Clinton met with the late leader Hafez al-Assad in Geneva.

Speaking at an investment forum on Tuesday, Trump said that he planned to lift sanctions on Syria after holding talks with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said.

Sharaa’s pitch to woo the US president offered access to Syrian oil, reconstruction contracts and to build a Trump Tower in Damascus in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. Though the details of the sanctions relief were still unclear, Sharaa’s team in Damascus was celebrating.

The visit was heavily focused on business interests and securing quick wins – often with characteristic Trumpian embellishment – for the administration. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed pledged to invest $600bn in the United States during a lunch with Trump, including $20bn in artificial intelligence data centres, purchases of gas turbines and other energy equipment worth $14.2bn, nearly $5bn in Boeing 737-8 jets, and other deals.

US-China tariff TRUCE. US-UK tariff DEAL

Prof. Glenn Diesen : Is Europe Preparing for War?

Trump administration piles pressure on Harvard with $450m more in cuts

Eight federal agencies will terminate a further $450m in grants to Harvard University, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday, escalating its antagonization of the elite institution over what officials frame as inadequate responses to antisemitism on campus.

The latest funding cuts come after the administration cancelled $2.2bn in federal funding to the university, bringing the total financial penalty to approximately $2.65bn.

“Harvard’s campus, once a symbol of academic prestige, has become a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination,” the Trump administration’s taskforce to combat antisemitism wrote in a statement. “This is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it’s not academic freedom; it’s institutional disenfranchisement.”

The cuts represent a flexing of federal power over the US’s oldest and wealthiest university, first triggered by campus protests against Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza – one that is only expected to expand in the coming days – but encompasses a far broader set of grievances against the institution and others like it perceived as politically liberal.

Harvard has so far refused to yield, with the university’s president, Dr Alan Garber, who is Jewish, calling the previous attacks “illegal demands” from the administration “to control whom we hire and what we teach”. The university has refused to comply with the administration’s demands, outlined in a letter last month, which included shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion programs; cooperating with federal immigration authorities; and banning face masks, which appeared to target pro-Palestinian protesters.

Ireland hopes to entice academics as US becomes ‘a cold place for free thinkers’

Ireland is to launch a scheme to poach academics and university lecturers from overseas on the basis that the Trump administration has made the US “a cold place for free thinkers and talented researchers”. The higher education minister, James Lawless, will on Tuesday seek cabinet approval for a “global talent initiative” to entice top international academics, including those seeking to leave the US or deterred from working there.

The plan envisages deploying roving academic talent scouts who will offer potential recruits attractive packages, with the Irish government contributing up to half of the salaries offered by Ireland’s third-level institutions. The talent hunt will reportedly prioritise experts in renewable energy, food security, digital technology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and healthcare.

Lawless told an Irish universities association seminar on Monday: “Today, as US research freedoms come under threat, Ireland has a unique opportunity to emulate their post-war success by offering a stable, open, EU-aligned environment where world-class researchers can thrive, contribute and shape the future of science. Ireland will be a welcoming host for the best and brightest fleeing the US university system.”

Perceptions of the US as a haven for research had changed in recent months, the minister said. “It has become a cold place for free thinkers and talented researchers. We all know how that will grind advanced research to a halt. And that is nothing in the face of the human suffering of targeted student arrests and deportations”. Reports of library culls “bring to mind book burnings of old”, he said.

As a precedent Lawless cited Ireland’s success in enticing Erwin Schrödinger to Dublin on the eve of the second world war. The Austrian physicist helped to set up the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS).

'Bill Is DEAD': Republicans REVOLT On Trump 'Beautiful' Budget

'Gift-Wrapped Favor to Big Tech': GOP Sneakily Pushes Ban on State AI Regulation

A provision that U.S. House Republicans added to the budget reconciliation bill—unrelated to the GOP's goal of slashing Medicaid access in the legislation—represents, as one journalist said, "one of the most radical positions Republicans have taken" thus far on artificial intelligence and the regulations that experts have demanded in order to ensure the technology is used safely.

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) added the language Sunday night ahead of a markup session Tuesday, in what appeared to be an effort to stop state governments from enforcing existing and proposed laws to protect the public from AI systems.

"No state or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this act," reads the provision.

With Congress "captured by Big Tech," saidAmerica 2.0 publisher and editor Dave Troy, "states are the only ones who can even try to regulate AI in the U.S."—but that would change under Guthrie's proposed ban.

Under the law, state governments could be barred from using federal funds to develop oversight for AI or support any initiatives that differ from the Trump administration's stance on AI, which was on display earlier this year when President Donald Trump issued an order revoking the Biden administration's executive action to ensure the "safe, secure, and trustworthy development" of the technology.

Laws like one passed in New York in 2021 mandating bias audits for AI tools used in hiring decisions; a law in California requiring healthcare providers to disclose their use of generative AI; and another California measure that would require AI developers to document the data they use to create trainings—which could crack down on AI firms that hide their use of copyrighted material—could all be rendered unenforceable by Guthrie's proposal.

At 404 Media, Emanuel Maiberg wrote that "the AI industry has been sucking up to Trump since before he got into office," with tech mogul Elon Musk leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Silicon Valley investor David Sacks appointed "AI czar," and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appearing with Trump in January as he unveiled an AI data center development plan.

The inclusion of the AI provision in the budget reconciliation bill could limit debate on the proposal.

Federal grand jury indicts Wisconsin judge over alleged Ice obstruction

A federal grand jury has indicted a Wisconsin judge who was arrested by the FBI last month on allegations that she helped an undocumented immigrant avoid federal authorities. Hannah Dugan, a county circuit court judge in Milwaukee, was charged on Tuesday with concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Dugan was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in April, sparking public protests and rebukes from lawmakers. Her arrest has escalated a clash between Donald Trump’s administration and local authorities over the Republicans’ sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to make a national example of Dugan to chill judicial opposition to the crackdown. ...

Dugan faces up to six years in prison if she’s convicted on both counts. Her team of defense attorneys responded to the indictment with a one-sentence statement saying that she maintains her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court.

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Not a peep in the media or the chattering classes about Miriam Adelson's $100m "gift" to Trump so far ...

Chuck Schumer says he’ll obstruct Trump’s justice department picks over Qatar jet gift

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, announced on Tuesday he would obstruct all Trump administration justice department nominations until the White House provides answers about plans to accept a luxury aircraft from Qatar for presidential use.

The New York senator declared the hold amid growing controversy over the constitutional and security implications of accepting a foreign government’s offer to provide what would become the new Air Force One.

“In light of the deeply troubling news of a possible Qatari-funded Air Force One, and the reports that the attorney general personally signed off on this clearly unethical deal, I am announcing a hold on all DOJ political nominees, until we get more answers,” Schumer said in a Senate floor speech.

Schumer called the proposed arrangement “not just naked corruption”, likening it to something so corrupt “that even [Russian president Vladimir] Putin would give a double take”.

Though the procedural maneuver cannot completely block nominees, it forces Senate Republicans to use valuable floor time to overcome Democratic opposition through individual confirmation votes.

Pete Buttigieg RUNNING in 2028?! Fmr Mayor Does Veterans TOWNHALL in Iowa

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Louisiana: controversial Denka plant suspends production after dire losses

A controversial chemical plant in the centre of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” region has indefinitely suspended all production following dire financial results, the facility’s operators announced on Tuesday.

The Denka Performance Elastomer plant in St John Parish has long been associated with chronic air pollution issues and was the subject of a years-long Guardian reporting series examining the disproportionate cancer risk rates experienced by the majority-Black fence-line communities that surround the facility.

Denka, a Japanese chemicals firm, cited growing regulation during Joe Biden’s presidency and a “sustained slowdown in the global market demand” for its product, a synthetic rubber called neoprene, which is manufactured at the site. The company had not decided on permanent closure, a statement said, adding the chemicals giant was “exploring all available options for the future of the site, including sale of the facility”.

The fence-line community’s fight for clean air has become a national and international environmental justice clarion call, prompting a number of interventions from the Biden administration. These included the introduction of a new rule governing emissions on the plant’s primary pollutant, a likely human carcinogen named chloroprene, and a US justice department lawsuit seeking to compel Denka to lower its pollution.

The Trump administration sought to undo many of these initiatives. Donald Trump’s justice department dropped the litigation in March citing “ideological overreach” and a new executive order targeting so-called “DEI programs”. Denka said the administration had also “committed to rewrite” the Biden-era chloroprene rule. Still, the company said in a statement that it had endured “extraordinary loss in its financial results” for the last year amounting to a 16.1bn yen (roughly $109m) in losses. Although citing a decline in global demand, the company also blamed the uncertainty caused by increased regulation under Joe Biden for its facility’s financial collapse in America.

Starch-based bioplastic may be as toxic as petroleum-based plastic

Starch-based bioplastic that is said to be biodegradable and sustainable is potentially as toxic as petroleum-based plastic, and can cause similar health problems, new peer-reviewed research finds. Bioplastics have been heralded as the future of plastic because they break down quicker than petroleum-based plastic, and they are often made from plant-based material such as corn starch, rice starch or sugar.

The material is often used in fast fashion clothing, wet wipes, straws, cutlery and a range of other products. The new research found damage to organs, changes to the metabolism, gut microbe imbalances that can lead to cardiovascular disease, and changes to glucose levels, among other health issues. The authors say their study is the first to confirm “adverse effects of long-term exposure” in mice.

“Biodegradable starch-based plastics may not be as safe and health-promoting as originally assumed,” Yongfeng Deng, a study co-author, said in a media statement. “This is particularly concerning given their potential for accidental ingestion.”

Plastic is a notoriously toxic material that can contain any of more than 16,000 chemicals, many of which are known to be hazardous to human health or the environment, or have no public toxicological profile. Common plasticizers, such as phthalates and bisphenol, are among the most toxic human-made substances, and linked to health issues from cancer to hormone disruption.

While bioplastics have been pushed as a safer alternative, previous research has found they don’t break down as fast as the industry has claimed. Meanwhile, there is a dearth of research on the material’s toxicity. Still, its production has proliferated in recent years – nearly 2.5m metric tonnes were used last year, and that figure will more than double over the next five years, according to an industry trade group estimate. Like petroleum-based plastics, bioplastics shed and turn into micro-bioplastics – clothing, for example, can shed at high levels when washed, and that can end up in food and water.

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Also of Interest

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

Trump Slams ‘Neocons,’ ‘Nation Builders’ in Saudi Speech

What The Endgame in Gaza Means For Middle East Security And Oil Prices

Kurdish PKK Will Disarm and Disband, Seeking End to Decades of Conflict in Turkey

Uncertainty Of Future Tariffs Continues To Hamstring Economy

Violent apprehensions, warrantless arrests, deported children: how many more ICE abuses of power will it take for Democrats to speak up?

How Lies About Biden's Health Led to Trump's Victory

The Horror of School

Journalists Exposed Bukele's Ties to Gangs. Then They Had to Flee El Salvador to Avoid Arrest

Phil Giraldi : Is Trump Tired of Netanyahu?

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A Little Night Music

Piano Red - Dr. Feelgood

Piano Red - Red's Boogie

Piano Red (a.k.a. Dr. Feelgood) - What's Up Doc

Piano Red - Wild Fire

Piano Red – Sugar Bee

Piano Red - Right String, But The Wrong Yo-Yo

Piano Red - Big Rock Joe From Kokomo

Piano Red - Red's Blues

Piano Red – Low Down Dog

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