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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Bullmoose Jackson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues singer and saxophone player Bullmoose Jackson. Enjoy!

^{Bull Moose Jackson - Big Ten Inch Record}

"It’s very important that Trump lose in November, because if he wins America will be plunged into darkness and depravity. It will probably start backing genocides and engaging in nuclear brinkmanship. Why, it might even circle the planet with hundreds of military bases and start working to destroy any nation anywhere on earth who disobeys it. The US would exist in a perpetual state of mass-scale violence and tyranny in order to ensure the subjugation of populations around the world and the imperialist extraction of the global south.

Can you imagine if something awful like that happened to the United States? Nobody wants to see that. This horrifying dystopian future must be avoided at all cost."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

US to resume sending 500lb bombs to Israel while withholding 2,000lb bombs, official says

The Biden administration will resume shipping 500lb bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000lb bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza, according to a a US official.

The US in May paused a shipment of 2,000lb and 500lb bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in Gaza during the war that began with Hamas’ deadly 7 October cross-border raid.

The administration’s particular concern had been use of such large bombs in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had taken refuge.

“We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000lb bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign, which they have announced they are concluding,” a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ... The US official said the 500lb bombs were put together in the same shipment with the larger ones that were paused and therefore got held up.

Despite the pause on one shipment, Israel has continued to receive steady flow of US weaponry.

Netanyahu "Trying to Do Everything to Prevent a Deal," Says Ex-Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy

US ‘pressuring UK to block ICC’s Netanyahu arrest warrant’

The US has been accused of putting pressure on the new Labour government not to drop a legal challenge mounted by Rishi Sunak’s administration over the international criminal court’s right to seek an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes.

In May, under the previous Conservative government, the Foreign Office challenged whether the ICC had any jurisdiction over Israeli actions in Gaza. In 2021, the ICC ruled that it did have jurisdiction over Israeli activity in Palestine.

The ICC has given the new Labour government until 26 July to decide whether to pursue the legal challenge. It did so after the ICC pre-trial chamber ruled on 26 June that it would allow the UK and other interested parties to make submissions over the jurisdiction. Other states and interested parties have been given until Friday to make their own submissions to the court.

The human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson makes the claim about US pressure on Labour in a Guardian article published on Wednesday in which he also warns that giving into US pressure would be “the first big moral mistake” of the premiership of Sir Keir Starmer. He writes: “The US is not a member of the ICC, and expects the UK to look after its interests there.” ...

Labour officials at the weekend told the Guardian that in opposition Labour had rejected the Conservative legal challenge to the ICC jurisdiction and its policy remained unchanged in government, but did not say if the claim was being withdrawn as a result.

Aaron Maté : Whitewashing Mass Murder

Israel Lobby Funded Half of New UK Cabinet

Pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified can reveal. The list of recipients includes Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Jonathan Reynolds, who will oversee arms exports to Israel as U.K. trade secretary, is another beneficiary, alongside Labour’s election mastermind Pat McFadden, whose responsibilities now include national security. Some of the donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region. Reeves, McFadden, Reynolds and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle were recently listed as vice-chairs of LFI.

The total value of the donations amounts to over £600,000.

LFI does not disclose its funders, but was revealed during an undercover Al Jazeera documentary in 2017 to have close relations with the Israeli embassy in London. The organisation’s parliamentary officer, Michael Rubin, was secretly filmed saying LFI and the Israeli embassy “work really closely together, but a lot of it is behind the scenes”.

While Starmer has not received funding from LFI, he has addressed a number of the organisation’s events. In a keynote speech to its annual lunch in November 2021, he repeated the racist and colonial adage that Israel was founded by “social democrats who made the desert flower”. In October 2023, Starmer said that LFI was “an invaluable source of energy and ideas for me and my team”. ... Israel lobby organisations have also funded advisers to Starmer’s cabinet team.

UNRWA Says Its Facilities Have Been Attacked by Israel 453 Times Since October

The United Nations agency tasked with providing aid and services to Palestinians in Gaza said Wednesday that two-thirds of the schools it administers in the enclave have now been attacked by Israeli forces, and nearly 200 of its staff members have been killed, as part of a broader and coordinated assault over the last nine months.

The news came in the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's (UNRWA) latest situation report on Israel's military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, and was reported the same day that Israel attacked the agency's Gaza City headquarters.

UNRWA said a total of 453 attacks have been waged by Israel on its facilities "and the people inside them" since October, while at least 524 people have been killed in attacks on schools run by the agency.

"U.N. structures, schools, and shelters are not a target," said UNRWA in a social media post.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed its latest attack on UNRWA's headquarters was aimed at defeating Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were using the building for military operations.

Earlier this year, Israeli officials claimed without evidence that a dozen of UNRWA's 13,000 staff members in Gaza had contributed to a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel last October 7. The allegation pushed countries including the United States, Germany, and Canada to suspend financial support for the donor-funded agency, which is the biggest employer in Gaza as well as a provider of education and public services to Palestinians there.

The suspension of funding to UNRWA, which has been lifted all donor countries except the U.S., U.K., and New Zealand, has been named as one cause exacerbating the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the agency, said Wednesday that four schools, including at least two run by the U.N., have been attacked by Israel in the last four days.

"Since the war began, two-thirds of UNRWA schools in Gaza have been hit, some were bombed out, many severely damaged," said Lazzarini. "Schools have gone from safe places of education and hope for children to overcrowded shelters and often ending up a place of death and misery... The blatant disregard of international humanitarian law cannot become the new normal." ...

UNRWA said at least 197 of its staffers have been killed since October 7, including three who were working as guards at an aid distribution center in central Gaza on July 5, when a missile struck the site.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: American Empire Collapsing

Scott Ritter On Putin's Knockout Blow To Nato

First F-16 jets heading to Ukraine after months of training and negotiations

The first F-16 fighter jets are on their way to Ukraine and will be flying sorties this summer, according to a statement from the Dutch and Danish governments that was released by the White House at the Nato summit.

Dick Schoof, the prime minister of the Netherlands, and Mette Frederiksen, his counterpart from Denmark, said the “transfer process” of F-16s to Kyiv was under way after months of pilot training and political negotiations.

The two leaders said that “Ukraine will be flying operational F-16s this summer” – the first of about 85 of the combat aircraft that have been committed to Kyiv to turn around its fortunes on the battlefield, and Ukraine signalled more may be to come.

The long-awaited supply of F-16s is part of what Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said would be “a substantial package” of support for Ukraine, which includes the donation of four Patriot air defence systems, Nato-led training for Ukraine’s troops – and a commitment that Kyiv’s eventual path to Nato membership is “irreversible”.

Allies also criticised China, with stronger language than used before, for assisting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “decisive enabler” of the war by supporting Moscow in its “no limits” partnership, and supplying components for military equipment and chemicals for explosives. “This increases the threat Russia poses to its neighbours and to Euro-Atlantic security,” they declared in the summit communique.

Turkey-Syria talks may unlock new trade corridors

Macron calls on parties to ‘rise to the occasion’ and form coalition

Emmanuel Macron has called on political parties to “rise to the occasion and work together” to build a mainstream coalition with a solid majority after voters in a snap election returned a hung parliament with no obvious route to a government. The French president, who has not spoken publicly since Sunday’s second round vote, said in a letter to the country that nobody had won the election, in which a left-green alliance come top but fell far short of an absolute majority. ...

He called on all parties “that identify with republican institutions, rule of law, parliamentarianism, a pro-European stance and French independence to have a sincere, loyal dialogue to build a solid – necessarily plural – majority for the country.”

His wording appeared designed to exclude Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), but also implicitly the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which is the largest party in the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance that emerged as the surprise election winner. ... The NFP has since said that, as the largest bloc in the new assembly, it must be allowed to field the next prime minister and implement “our programme, all of our programme, and nothing but our programme”.

Many in Macron’s centrist camp, however, echoed by MPs from the centre-right Les Républicains (LR), have said they would not support an NFP-led government and would back a no-confidence motion against a cabinet featuring members from LFI. ...

The NFP, however, has said it will suggest a candidate for prime minister by the end of the week.

Will a NEW Law Stop CONGRESS from Trading Stocks?!

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DO OR DIE: Biden 'Big Boy' Presser Today

Pffffftttt!!! The donor elites want to pick a new, younger, more exciting neoliberal stooge for presidunce. Get the popcorn as the democrats prepare to polish a turd, one way or the other.

‘Blitz primary’: the scenario that could turn replacing Biden into a ‘riveting spectacle’

In the morass in which the Democratic party now finds itself over Joe Biden’s troubled presidential candidacy, a prominent narrative is that the party is confronted by two dire options: an aged and weakened Biden stumbles on to November, or he stands down, igniting an acrimonious and chaotic scramble for his replacement. Either way, Donald Trump wins.

Over the past few days, however, energy has been building around a third, more optimistic solution. Advocates of this alternative model believe it could reinvigorate Democrats by putting the spotlight on young fresh talent, inspire the country with a powerful articulation of the party’s values and, critically, prevent Trump from returning to the White House bent on unleashing a full-blown attack on American democracy.

The idea is being floated by a loose affiliation of Democratic party stalwarts, including former senior government officials and elected representatives, major donors, and current party officeholders. They are calling their plan the “blitz primary”– a quickfire, tightly controlled selection process that would culminate with a younger successor to Biden being nominated at next month’s Democratic national convention. ...

The blitz primary is posited on Biden voluntarily stepping down as the party’s nominee and playing an active role in the process. With his involvement, a shortlist of five to eight younger candidates would be identified, drawn from the Biden administration, Democratic state governors and other rising stars of the party.

Names mentioned include Vice-President Kamala Harris; Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, and Andy Beshear of Kentucky; the US senator from Georgia, Raphael Warnock; and Biden cabinet members such as the commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, and the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

Obama MOVES ON Biden With George Clooney BRUTAL Op-Ed

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BP predicts global oil demand will peak in 2025, bringing to end rising emissions

BP has predicted that the world’s demand for oil will peak next year, bringing an end to rising global carbon emissions by the mid-2020s amid a surge in wind and solar power. The energy company’s influential outlook report has found that oil use will increase by about 2m barrels a day to peak at about 102m in 2025 across both of its forecasts.

The first forecast scenario shows the world’s current energy transition trajectory and the other shows the pathway to meeting global net zero targets by 2050. BP predicts in both scenarios that carbon emissions will reach a peak in the middle of the decade amid a rapid expansion of wind and solar power as technology costs continue to fall. However, the report sets out starkly different pathways for the future demand for gas, which has emerged in recent years as key growth area for energy companies including BP.

Under the report’s net zero scenario, gas use would peak around the middle of this decade before halving by 2050, compared with 2022 levels. But the current trajectory suggests gas demand will continue to grow throughout the forecast, expanding by about a fifth by 2050. In the scenarios, demand for liquefied natural gas, which is cooled to be transported on ships, climbs by 40% and 30% above 2022 levels respectively.

The report also suggests higher-than-expected oil consumption in the 2030s compared with BP’s previous forecasts, which would pose a serious threat to the world’s climate targets.

Senators accuse JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon of backtracking on climate commitments

JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest investor in fossil fuels, may have misled investors and the public by backtracking on its already weak climate and environmental commitments, six US senators have warned in a letter to the CEO Jamie Dimon.

Although a climate-disrupted world demands stronger action by the financial sector to reduce emissions and protect nature, the Wall Street firm is heading in the opposite direction, say the upper chamber legislators, who include Senate banking committee member Elizabeth Warren.

They have demanded clarification about the intentions of the world’s biggest bank. Senator Warren said: “If JPMorgan Chase has misled investors and the public, both Congress and regulators have a range of tools to respond as necessary.” They have given the bank until 24 July to reply.

The letter, shared exclusively with the Guardian, reflects growing concern that JPMorgan Chase is watering down public commitments it has made over decades. Campaigners say this poses a structural risk because short-term interests are taking precedence over long-term climate – and financial – stability.

JPMorgan Chase, which has $4tn in assets, has been criticised for making profits while the world burns. The letter notes that the company has financed over $430bn in fossil fuel projects since 2016, more than any other institution on the planet.

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Also of Interest

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

Nonstop News Stories Proving Palestine Supporters Right About Everything

A game of football, a boom, then scattered bodies: video shows moment of Israeli strike on Gaza school

Why the Israeli Army Is Expanding Its Invasion of Gaza City

Uproar Over Detention of Prominent French Scholar for Gaza Solidarity Posts

Scientists to Biden: Cancel New Nuclear ICBM System

Orbán Shuttle Diplomacy Highlights EU Representation Problem but Not in the Way the Pro-war Crowd Claims

US Announces It Will Deploy Previously Banned Nuclear-Capable Missiles To Germany

European leaders use Nato summit to sell military alliance to US voters

Chinese navy destroyer and helicopter shadowed Australian warship during high-profile standoff, documents show

Why are the US and IMF imposing draconian austerity measures on Kenya?

Why the US Doesn’t Have National Health Insurance: The Political Role of the AMA

Project 2025 Continues the Historic Racist, Fascist Project

Night owls’ cognitive function ‘superior’ to early risers, study suggests

‘All threats to the sea come from humans’: how lawyers are gearing up to fight for the oceans

Did Biden Say He Was F**king The NATO Secretary General’s Wife?!?

Is Joe Biden a "Good and Decent Man"?

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A Little Night Music

Bull Moose Jackson - I Know Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well

Bull Moose Jackson - Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style

Bull Moose Jackson - Meet Me With Your Black Dress On

Bull Moose Jackson - Watch my Signals

Benjamin "Bullmoose" Jackson - Cleveland Ohio Blues

Bull Moose Jackson - Moose On The Loose

Bull Moose Jackson - Why Don't You Haul Off And Love Me

Bull Moose Jackson - Cherokee Boogie

Bull Moose Jackson - I Want A Bow Legged Woman

Bull Moose Jackson - Nosey Joe

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