The Evening Blues - 7-29-26
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues slide guitarist Homesick James. Enjoy!
Homesick James - 13 Highway
"An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise."
-- Victor Hugo
News and Opinion
We’re Being Plunged Into Dystopia When We Could Be Living In Paradise
It’s funny the things that get to you when you’ve been at this for a while.
Today the thing that smacked me upside the head and made me lay my face in my hands for a minute was a viral video clip of Canadian politician Bill Oliver accidentally reading out text from the AI chatbot which had authored his speech before the New Brunswick legislature.
“Public confidence in the office of an advocate matters,” Oliver said while reading from his prepared statement, before blurting out “Here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.”
I mean, damn dude.
I can’t get over how this is the future we wound up in. Things could have been so beautiful, and instead we wound up with this.
Canadian politician reads AI prompt aloud in legislature without realizing it:
"Here's a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points" pic.twitter.com/S2Q0aV2Ufp
— CR1337 (@CR1337) July 26, 2026
It’s not just all the war, injustice, ecocide and dystopia that hurts. It’s knowing it didn’t have to be this way. It’s knowing what could have been.
All this innovation that’s being poured into finding new ways to conduct mass military slaughter, to surveil and control our entire society, to restrict and manipulate the flow of information, to create artificial scarcity for products that people need, to create artificial demand for products that people do not need, to compete with rival corporations in order to turn billionaires into trillionaires — none of that needs to be happening. Humanity could be using its creativity and cleverness to make the world a better place instead.
If we were pouring all our resources, time and energy into collaborating with each other for the common good instead of competing with each other for power and profit, we could easily create paradise on earth. If all our brainpower was going toward improving life on this planet without worrying about our competitors or overlooking any possible advancement that doesn’t generate value for shareholders, our innovative potential would easily increase a thousandfold.
We could heal our biosphere while ensuring that everyone on earth has what they need to live. We could provide healthcare, education and rapid public transportation to everybody while using automation to eliminate the need for human toil. We could be living lives of ever-burgeoning leisure, wonder, and satisfaction, assured of a better future for our children and grandchildren.
Instead we get this shit. Mass murder and exploitation in an increasingly dystopian civilization on a dying world, where the front line of scientific discovery is the military-industrial complex and the construction of an AI tech surveillance network.
All because we haven’t yet managed to unplug ourselves from the abusive system of capitalism and its outgrowth into global imperialism. We’re being held strangling at this self-destructive chokepoint humanity created for itself a few hundred years ago, and soon it’s going to squeeze the life right out of us.
And it could have been so good. It could still be so good. We’ve just got to find some way to use the power of our numbers to throw off these oppressive chains and build the kind of world that needs to be built. Because the current system clearly is not working.
Scott Ritter: Iran Strikes U.S. Airbase & Command Center in Jordan with Ballistic Missiles
Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East late on Tuesday, shattering a brief pause in fighting as mediators tried to get both sides back to negotiations and toward a ceasefire, the US military said. “At 5.45pm ET today, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East,” US central command (Centcom) wrote on X. All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted, Centcom said in the statement, adding that US forces “remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness”. Iran’s target was a US base in Jordan, Axios cited a US official as saying.
Both sides had held fire over the weekend, after nearly two weeks of nightly strikes by the United States on Iran, and repeated missile and drone salvoes by Tehran targeting Washington’s allies around the Gulf. The latest flare-up in fighting came after Iran attacked several ships in the strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. Following the signing of an interim ceasefire deal in June, a battle for control over the strait has erupted.
Iran is demanding that ships use a route near its coastline and says it can charge fees. Ships were increasingly navigating a southern route along the coast of Oman under a US operation when Iran attacked some vessels. Oil prices had plummeted after the weekend lull in fighting and Donald Trump said there was a “good chance” of progress in negotiations to end the war. Early on Wednesday, US and Saudi warplanes carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants in Iraq, after they accused them of launching drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities in recent days.
The Iraqi militias have denied any role in the drone attacks. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups, called the Saudi claims “fabrications” and implied that Monday’s attacks were carried out by the Houthis, who had themselves claimed to have attacked Saudi oil facilities.
Iran’s surprise attack came as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington. Israel has been notably absent from the recent fighting with Iran Netanyahu said he had an “excellent” meeting with Trump at the White House, their first sit-down since launching the war, which offered Netanyahu a chance to smooth out strains in their relationship.
Max Blumenthal breaks down Netanyahu's most desperate DC visit yet
Trump praises back-to-back meetings with Zelenskyy and Netanyahu
Donald Trump hosted back-to-back White House meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, as Ukraine seeks more firepower for its air defenses and the Israeli prime minister tries to repair his strained relationship with the US president.
Trump described both meetings in positive terms on social media Tuesday evening, remaining vague about what was discussed. “Had a very good meeting!” Trump said of his sit-down with Netanyahu. “Obviously, many important subjects were discussed.” He posted a similar statement about his time with Zelenskyy, writing the “meeting went very well!”
It was Netanyahu’s first visit to the Oval Office since he and Trump launched their joint military campaign against Iran on 28 February. The two men are each facing pressure at home, with Netanyahu in a tough re-election fight, and Trump under pressure to end an unpopular war that has pushed up prices before November’s midterms.
Trump signaled some of that friction beforehand. Asked on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning about reports that Netanyahu planned to brief him on intelligence about Iranian activity at Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected nuclear site Trump has threatened to bomb, he said he knew “exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe”, adding that Netanyahu raises it because “he wants me to stay involved”.
Netanyahu also faces the task of reassuring Trump he will not obstruct US-led diplomacy in Gaza and Lebanon, as support for Israel among the US public has slipped, with a new AP-Norc poll showing a sharp decline amid accusations, denied by Israel, that its conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide.
Pepe Escobar : Will Iran Negotiate with the US?
By 22-Point Margin, Americans Think Netanyahu Should Be Arrested on US Soil
As with his proposals for government-run grocery stores and a tax on the second homes owned by rich New Yorkers, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an accused war criminal, to be arrested on US soil sparked outrage among Trump administration officials and others on the right.
And just like his other proposals, despite the claims that the mayor’s comments displayed “extreme views” and were dangerous and divisive, Mamdani’s demand that the US execute the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Netanyahu is broadly supported by the public.
A poll taken by The Economist/YouGov between July 25-27 found that 49% of Americans believe the US should arrest Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington, DC on Monday to meet with President Donald Trump and attend the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) funeral.
Just 27% of respondents said the US should not execute the warrant, while 23% were unsure, according to the poll released Tuesday.
New poll: Americans believe the U.S. should arrest Benjamin Netanyahu by a +22 margin
Total: 49-27
Black: 53-13
Hispanic: 52-15
Ages 18-29: 58-17
Harris voters: 74-10
Independents: 55-2023% of Trump voters agree as well
Economist/YouGov: pic.twitter.com/Ukkjat6wRZ
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) July 28, 2026
Nearly a quarter of people who voted for Trump in 2024 agreed with Mamdani, as well as 21% of people who identified themselves as supporters of Trump’s MAGA political movement. The view was also held by 68% of Democrats and 55% of Independents, as well as 24% of Republican voters.
Forty-seven percent of respondents also said they believed Netanyahu was guilty of war crimes.
With Americans increasingly disapproving of Israel and the powerful pro-Israel lobby, sympathizing with Palestinians, and now backing the arrest of Netanyahu by an “overwhelming margin,” said the Institute for Middle East Understanding, Trump is nevertheless “welcoming him back into the White House to lobby for more impunity, more war, and more of our tax dollars going to Israel.”
Columbia University professor Anthony Zenkus wrote that while nearly half of Americans believe the US should execute the ICC warrant, “we’ve got prominent Democrats and Republicans and their online supporters calling Mamdani a terrorist for wanting to do that very thing.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, are among those who have condemned Mamdani’s demand for Netanyahu’s arrest. Waltz said the US would not execute the warrant because the country, like Israel, is not party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and does not recognize the court’s authority. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has threatened to “dismantle” the court.
On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) denounced the White House for hosting the Israeli prime minister while Israel is “wrongfully detaining an American citizen,” 20-year-old student Sama Safi, who was detained in the West Bank on June 2.
“As I speak, we’ve not been able to get justice for American citizens killed by violent Israeli settlers or by the IDF,” Van Hollen continued, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “As I speak, Palestinians in the West Bank are under violent assault by Israeli terrorists who are terrorizing Palestinian villages, lighting mosques on fire, torching cars, pushing Palestinians off their lands, killing innocent Palestinians.”
“When Donald Trump meets with Bibi Netanyahu, things don’t go well for the United States of America,” said the senator, noting that five months after Israel convinced the administration to launch an “illegal war against Iran,” American soldiers are being killed and injured in the region.
“On top of all that,” said Van Hollen, “Prime Minister Netanyahu has a warrant out for his arrest for committing war crimes. He should be nowhere close to the Oval Office of the president of the United States.”
Iran Launches PREEMPTIVE STRIKE in Jordan + Saudi Arabia, US STRIKE Military in Iraq | Laith Marouf
Netanyahu Describes Meeting With Trump as ‘One of the Best Conversations’ They Have Ever Had
After meeting with President Trump in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the Iran war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the talks as “one of the best conversations” he’s ever had with the US president.
“It was a meeting with full cooperation, with mutual support, with understanding on the joint goal that Iran won’t have nuclear weapons, and also other goals,” Netanyahu said after the meeting. “It was one of the best conversations I’ve had with our friend, US President Trump.”
Ahead of the meeting, media reports said Netanyahu was expected to present Trump with some sort of intelligence to push for US strikes on Pickaxe Mountain, known as Kolang Kouh in Iran, but Tzipi Hotovely, Netanyahu’s communications director, denied the claims.
“There is no truth in the claim that Israel is pushing the US in a certain direction on the Iran issue,” Hotovely said, according to Axios. “The Prime Minister is not telling the US President what to do and is not pushing him in any direction. Both sides want to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons. There are many ways to achieve this goal.”
Nearly 10 months into a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, as Israel on Tuesday killed at least one Palestinian man with an airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, Doctors Without Borders declared that “the wounds of war are not only unhealed—they are still being inflicted.”
“This is not a ceasefire,” said the medical charity, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in a statement. “It is a continuation of the genocide, calibrated to be violent enough to keep Palestinians suffering every day, yet silent enough to avoid stirring international outrage.”
Israeli forces have killed more than 73,300 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 174,009 since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel—with global experts warning the true toll is likely far higher. Local authorities have documented at least 1,200 deaths and 3,900 injuries since the ceasefire was agreed to over nine months ago.
Experts with the United Nations and others around the world have denounced the Israeli assault and blockade as a genocide, and South Africa is leading a related case at the International Court of Justice. The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over the mass slaughter.
Nearly all of Gaza’s roughly 2 million survivors have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. MSF said that “the destruction of homes has not stopped with the announcement of the ceasefire. Sudden and arbitrary orders for people to flee their homes and shelters continue to be used as a tool of psychological warfare by Israeli forces.”
Rajaa Jendiya, who was widowed in the “flour massacres,” is living in a tent at a school-turned-displacement camp with her children. She told Middle East Eye that she often takes them to the hospital because of illnesses.
“Inside and around the school, you often see sewage water overflowing, while rubbish accumulates, attracting flies and insects,” Jendiya said. “These conditions become even worse with the heat, and many times my children have developed skin diseases.”
“Our medical team keeps saying, ‘it’s not a ceasefire at all. It’s not even close to being a ceasefire’. We need to advocate... for a true ceasefire in Gaza.”
Dr Randa Masoud, our medical coordinator in Gaza, describes the current levels of violence and the impact on people… pic.twitter.com/TdLTWdipHZ
— MSF International (@MSF) July 28, 2026
In such makeshift shelters across Gaza, “scabies, respiratory infections, rat bites, and other diseases are rife,” according to MSF.
Accessing healthcare has also become difficult in the coastal strip, as Israel has killed and detained Palestinian medical providers, and bombed civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, including in the months since the ceasefire deal was reached.
As MSF detailed Tuesday:
On July 16, an Israeli strike near an MSF clinic in Al-Mawasi sent four injured people to our teams. The following day, two apartment buildings housing our staff in Gaza City were struck without warning, trapping families inside as explosions shattered windows. In one building, rubble and bodies crashed into the lower-floor apartment of an MSF staff member.
The same day, MSF teams in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, treated 12 people—seven of whom were children—who were injured after Israeli forces struck a funeral in Al-Nuseirat. In total, this strike killed eight people and injured 20. Among those killed was the 21-year-old son of an MSF staff member. Our colleague got the news while working in another emergency room.
“These were not isolated incidents,” the organization stressed, “but merely a snapshot of 48 hours in Gaza.”
Israel has also limited the flow of food and medicine into the war-torn territory. Calling out the country for using humanitarian assistance “as an instrument of oppression,” MSF emphasized that “the Israeli state has an obligation under international law to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to aid, regardless of political negotiations, military agreements, or conduct of hostilities.”
Since October, when the Israel Defense Forces controlled about half of Gaza, the “yellow line” indicating IDF occupation has kept shifting, to push Palestinians into “an ever-shrinking area,” MSF explained. “Today, almost 2 million Palestinians are confined to approximately 30% of the strip.”
Since the Gaza 'ceasefire' took effect on October 10, 2025, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,207 Palestinians and injured 3,914 others.
Israel has violated the agreement at least 3,795 times.
: https://t.co/jjnDndMPlc pic.twitter.com/RLGlsHUtzU
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 28, 2026
After speaking with residents in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Rafah, and Gaza City’s Zeitoun, Tuffah, and Shejaia neighborhoods, Reuters reported Tuesday that “Israeli forces have advanced the yellow block markers during the past 10 days, triggering new waves of displacement in areas already devastated by months of conflict.”
While loading bags and mattresses onto a truck in Zeitoun, Assem Dawla told the news agency: “The whole war is displacement, displacement. You can’t stay anywhere without [Israel] telling you, ‘Get out of here, we want to come in.’”
Staying near the yellow line comes with risks. MSF said that “just this week, one mother told our teams that her 14-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, was shot five times by Israeli snipers near the yellow line while he was playing near his home.”
“A ceasefire should ensure that hostilities are paused, weapons are silenced, and that people are safe from strikes across the strip,” the group asserted. “Using it as a weapon of war and reinforcing the confinement to a fraction of Gaza cannot be justified.”
House Democrat Unveils Bill to Cut Off Funding for Trump’s Iran War
A Democratic lawmaker in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday introduced legislation that would cut off funding for President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran.
In announcing the “No Funds for Illegal Wars Act,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said that it was time for the legislature to take the next steps to end the unlawful conflict Trump started in February without congressional authorization.
“As more of our servicemembers are killed in Iran, and energy prices continue to skyrocket here at home, Congress cannot sit on its hands. We have voted to end this illegal war not once, but twice—and we need to enforce the law.”
Larson emphasized that his bill would not merely end funding for the illegal Iran war, which has cost tens of billions of dollars and thousands of lives. The legislation, the Connecticut Democrat said, would also “block Donald Trump or any future president from waging war without explicit approval from Congress, as both the Constitution and War Powers Act require.”
Larson last week joined Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) in filing a resolution that would require House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to “initiate or intervene in litigation” to enforce the war powers resolution that passed in both chambers of Congress last month and compel the president to end the conflict.
Trump predicted that the Iran war would only last a few weeks when it began, but the conflict is now in its sixth month and the president last week said he was considering authorizing what he described as a “massive attack” on Iran that he vowed would be “bigger than ever before.”
US Russia Sanction Bill Revives China Economic War; Kiev Gives Up Refinery Strikes; Odessa Blockade
US diplomats stage UN walkout after France criticizes human rights record under Trump
US diplomats walked out of a United Nations meeting after France criticized the country’s human rights record under Donald Trump. The staged walkout, which occurred on Monday during a UN security council meeting on the Ukraine-Russia war, came days after the Trump administration cited “forced labor” allegations as it imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries.
The following day, the Trump administration criticized the credibility of the UN human rights system and opposed the reappointment of Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, prompting an extraordinary intervention on social media from France’s UN mission in Geneva. “The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore,” the French Geneva mission said in response. “Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it.
Last March, Türk said he was “deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction” in the US. In June, Türk took sharp aim at the Trump administration by calling for “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations” into the deaths occurring in US government immigration custody.
In addition to the US, nine other countries voted no to Türk’s re-appointment, including Russia, North Korea, Israel, Nicaragua and Mali. His re-appointment was ultimately approved, with 144 countries including France, China and the UK in favor, while 13 countries abstained.
The US walkout came after Trump faced bipartisan criticism over his use of “forced labor” as “a pretext” for imposing controversial new tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on imports from more than 80 countries. Those include longstanding allies such as the UK, Canada, Australia, and the European Union, alongside Mexico, India and China. Criticizing the tariffs, Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House’s ways and means committee, said last week: “Forced labor is a real and pervasive problem in our supply chains and demands serious enforcement. It should never be cheapened into a pretext for a tariff policy built on dubious legal theories and personal grievances.’’
Rania Khalek Responds After Stephen Miller SUBPOENAS Her
California’s largest ICE facility neglected detainees’ medical needs
California’s largest immigration detention center has failed to comply with a judge’s orders to provide adequate healthcare, according to a court-appointed monitor who found the facility was struggling to meet a wide range of medical standards. The California City detention center, located north-east of Los Angeles, was found to have major flaws in the care it provides residents, including significant gaps in emergency care, failures to provide medications in a timely manner, inadequate screenings for health conditions and a lack of accommodations for people with disabilities.
A federal judge had ordered the inquiry in February in response to a lawsuit alleging medical neglect. The judge demanded the government demonstrate it was providing required medical treatment across eight components of California City’s healthcare system. The California City detention facility was out of compliance with all eight areas identified by the judge, said the monitor, Dr Muthusamy Anandkumar, in a report filed with the court on Monday, writing: “The facility lacks a reliable system to consistently provide adequate health care, placing individuals at serious risk of both immediate and long-term harm.”
The findings are significant as this is the first court-ordered investigation of the full scope of medical care at any Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the US, according to lawyers for the detained immigrants. The monitor’s conclusions echo some of the significant concerns that residents have raised about conditions and healthcare over the last year.
The report comes as the Trump administration is arresting a record number of immigrants, with more than 65,000 people in ICE detention as of 11 July, prompting growing concerns across the country about overcrowding and dangerous and potentially deadly conditions in custody.
Anandkumar suggested the failings were structural, writing: “This pattern indicates broader problems in the facility’s health care delivery system rather than occasional lapses in care.”
The professor facing prison in ‘antifa’ case: ‘They want to scare all who oppose ICE’
Erik Davis was driving to a medical appointment in St Paul, Minnesota, on 16 June when federal agents surrounded his car. “They hauled me out … and put me in a belly chain,” recalled the 53-year-old. He was arrested on the spot on charges of being part of a “conspiracy” to “impede or injure” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Davis, a college professor and father of two, was one of thousands of Minnesotans who had rallied earlier this year when the Trump administration launched an aggressive crackdown on immigrants in the Twin Cities.
Now the government alleged that he and 14 others used “force, intimidation, and threats” to prevent officers from carrying out their duties. In its 94-page indictment, the government has argued that Direct Action Minnesota, the loose coalition of organizers that Davis was connected with, conspired to obstruct federal law enforcement and had “ties” to “antifa”. The prosecution follows a pattern seen in other cases against demonstrators this year, with the government highlighting the comments and actions of some activists in the coalition to paint all 15 defendants as agitators pursuing violence against ICE.
One such case in Chicago spectacularly collapsed last month. Demonstrators in Texas were recently convicted of terrorism charges and sentenced to decades behind bars, though in that case one protester shot and injured an officer. Prosecutors have not alleged any specific injuries to officers in Minnesota. Civil rights advocates have said these prosecutions, even when unsuccessful, are part of an effort to criminalize lawful community organizing, weaken movements opposing deportations and turn the lives of activists upside down.
Davis, the government says, has attended and facilitated meetings about protests and discussed his “anti-authoritarian” ideology with other activists. He is not accused of violent acts, taking any specific actions at protests nor having any encounters with ICE agents. He is facing six years in prison. “It’s petty revenge,” Davis said. “They’re trying to portray being part of a community as an illegal conspiratorial act.”
Davis, and other defendants interviewed by the Guardian, are confident that the case against them will collapse. But the government is trying to send a signal, he said: “This isn’t just about us. It’s about trying to scare everybody who opposes ICE.”
ICE agents used racial slurs during Los Angeles crackdown, court files show
ICE agents deployed last summer to the Los Angeles area referred to the subjects of their immigration operations with racial slurs, according to newly released court documents. On 4 July 2025, an unidentified agent wrote in a text chain, “btw tonks everywhere selling food for the 4th festivities in long beach right now”, invoking an anti-immigrant slur, which the US border patrol has previously warned against.
In a different string of messages sent on 2 July 2025, an agent wrote: “Some of these people are stupid. Why would you post on social media that you’re wet,” using the abbreviated version of a slur long used to denigrate undocumented Mexicans who cross into the US by the Rio Grande, a river stretching from Colorado into the Gulf of Mexico. “Tonks” and “wet” also appeared in other correspondence.
The slurs were made public on Monday in a motion filed for a case five men brought against the Trump administration in June 2025, alleging that the stop-and-arrest practices of ICE agents during the Los Angeles raids were unlawful. Lawyers for the men have requested that a federal judge bar any further detention stops based on race or socioeconomic status. In June 2025, three of the men filing the lawsuit were arrested while waiting at a bus stop to be picked up for work. A fourth plaintiff had his arm twisted and was pushed against a gate during questioning by masked immigration agents, even as he explained he was a US citizen.
Maya Joachin, deputy director of immigrants’ rights at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a press release the records evidenced “a pattern of racial profiling”. She said: “Immigration officers are flagrantly violating the law by detaining people without justification and often primarily because of the color of their skin.”
Texas Republicans PANIC As Dems Take Lead in Shock New Poll
White House teleprompter operator accused over Trump bets no longer in job
A White House teleprompter operator who reportedly used inside knowledge to make bets about Donald Trump’s speeches on the online prediction market Kalshi is no longer in his post, according to a White House official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the personnel matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that Gabriel Perez “no longer works in the federal government”.
The official would not say whether Perez resigned or was fired.
‘Making a Killing, Literally and Figuratively’: Big Oil Profits Set to Double Amid Deadly Heat
An analysis published Tuesday highlights how the world’s top fossil fuel companies are expected to rake in nearly twice as much in second-quarter profits as they did during the first quarter of 2026, a windfall that comes as their polluting products help fuel extreme heat that kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world annually.
Oxfam International’s analysis warns that the profits of the world’s six largest oil and gas companies are on track to skyrocket from $23 billion during the first quarter of the year to $45 billion in Q2 as emissions from their products intensify deadly heatwaves.
“Projected full-year profits of BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies amount to $147 billion, more than their combined profits over the previous 21 months (Q2 2024 to Q4 2025),” the report states. “Among the biggest winners, Chevron is expected to report that it has quadrupled its profits to $1,200 a second in the last three months, while ExxonMobil’s profits are expected to have tripled to $1,800 a second.”
“Oil and gas corporations share an outsized responsibility for the climate crisis,” the publication continues. “Emissions from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies were sufficient to cause around 1 in 4 heatwaves reported globally between 2000 and 2023—heatwaves that would have been virtually impossible without human-made climate change.”
Conflicts like the US-Israeli war of choice on Iran and the ongoing Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine, as well as Big Oil greed, are among the leading factors blamed for spiking fuel costs.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that top US fossil fuel executives have sold nearly $400 million in their own companies’ stock since Trump launched the Iran War on the last day of February.
“Fossil fuel corporations are making a killing, literally and figuratively,” Mariana Paoli, Oxfam’s climate policy lead, said in a statement Tuesday.
“As extreme heat, floods, and storms devastate communities across the world, the industry is preparing another bonanza of profits,” she continued. “Families are paying the price three times over—through destroyed homes and harvests, through soaring energy prices, and through a cost-of-living crisis worsened by dependence on fossil fuels.”
“Big Oil’s greed is incompatible with a livable planet, and unless governments rein it in, they will make a mockery of international climate targets,” Paoli added.
The report comes amid a summer of dangerous heat events in the United States, including prolonged “heat domes” that have pushed temperatures to life-threatening levels and contributed to at least dozens of deaths, as well as more record heatwaves in Europe that have left thousands dead and fueled massive wildfires.
“Yet rather than scaling back fossil fuel production and accelerating the transition to renewable energy, the six largest fossil fuel corporations plan to increase oil and gas production by 14% by 2030 compared to 2024 levels, equivalent to pumping an additional 2.5 million barrels of oil a day,” Oxfam noted.
Paoli said Tuesday that “while Big Oil fuels extreme weather events, rich countries are refusing to increase the public climate finance that poorer countries urgently need to cope with the climate crisis.”
“Until governments make the richest polluters pay, fossil fuel corporations will keep driving us deeper into climate chaos,” she added. “Taxing the richest polluters could help close the gap in funding for climate adaptation and speed the transition towards renewable energy. Fossil fuel corporations must feel the heat, not us.”
Oxfam contends that the “rich polluter profit tax” it has modeled could raise as much as $400 billion globally in its first year based on 2024 figures, compared with the estimated $290 billion to $1 trillion needed annually by 2030 to compensate for the loss and damage caused by climate change in the Global South. Unlike one-off windfall profits taxes, the rich polluter profit tax would be permanent.
“We are facing a climate emergency, therefore governments should each impose this tax swiftly,” Oxfam said last month. “Countries across all continents should form a ‘coalition of the willing’ to coordinate and speed up their efforts and counter fossil fuel company lobbying and tax avoidance.”
The Oxfam analysis follows the release earlier this month of a World Health Organization (WHO) report showing nearly 500,000 annual heat-related deaths worldwide in the years 2000-19—a figure expected to grow as extreme temperatures driven by the climate emergency become the new normal.
“Mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions is imperative and urgent to limit the magnitude of human costs from extreme heat,” WHO said.
Kenya investigating unexpected deaths of 15 elephants in national park
Officials are investigating the deaths of 15 elephants over the past month in Kenya’s Amboseli national park. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said 10 of the elephants showed signs of partial paralysis before dying within two days.
The remaining five carcasses were too decomposed or had been scavenged, making it impossible to establish the cause of death, the wildlife authority said.
Most of those affected were female elephants and their calves, with only one male among the dead. The deaths happened in the Kimana sanctuary and Kuku ranch areas surrounding the park, officials said.
Kenya has previously recorded incidents of elephants being poisoned as a result of poaching and human-wildlife conflict.
“Environmental investigations are also being undertaken, including the analysis of water sources and other potential environmental contaminants within the affected areas, to establish whether the elephants were exposed to a common source,” the authority said in a statement.
Cyclosporiasis cases show ‘vulnerabilities’ in US food safety system
An outbreak of cyclosporiasis highlights how US states and the federal government work together to track foodborne illnesses – and where they diverge. Experts said the enormous number of cases, potentially more than 11,000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) count, is symptomatic of “vulnerabilities” in food safety systems in the US.
There are cyclospora outbreaks every summer, and public health workers even sometimes call it “cyclospora season”. Cyclospora is spread in food and water contaminated with human feces, the protozoa’s only known host. However, this year, numbers surged. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating six outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, including one large nine-state outbreak. Only one source has been identified: iceberg lettuce sold by Taylor Farms de Mexico.
Taylor Farms initiated a voluntary recall of lettuce sold to restaurants in 27 states’ grocery stores in 15 states. Taco Bell was linked to cases in nine states, and the FDA said the restaurant chain was no longer using the lettuce. Michigan has been the hardest hit in the outbreak. State officials there report more than 7,000 cases.
One of the most confusing aspects of the outbreak has been how state and federal figures differ – a reflection of the way the US tracks foodborne illness. States hold authority over the health and welfare of residents, which makes public health outbreaks a state responsibility. They then must coordinate with federal officials, who in turn coordinate with multiple investigating agencies, depending on the type of product suspected.
Only 47 require cyclosporiasis to be reported to the CDC through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). In other states, such as Pennsylvania, reporting is voluntary. What’s more, reporting is not necessarily timely. The CDC assumes a six-week reporting lag between illness onset and receiving a report. The CDC may then initiate more testing to determine if states are experiencing an outbreak such as genotyping, or the “fingerprint” of an outbreak. This outbreak has also come in the context of significant strain on state and federal health departments. The Trump administration initiated major cuts to public health in 2025.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.
Is Netanyahu’s Trump card losing its power in Israel?
Ukraine: Long-range Campaign Fails As Russia Hits Back
‘Lindsey Liked War’: Trump Laughs Off Graham’s Giddiness Over Iran Onslaught
Canadians spent $3.3bn less on travel to US in 2025 after Trump’s return to office
A Little Night Music
Homesick James - Working With Homesick
Homesick James - I Got To Move
Homesick James - Crossroads
Homesick James - Sugar Mama
Homesick James - The Woman I'm Lovin'
Homesick James - Dust My Broom
Homesick James & Snooky Pryor - Nothing But Trouble
Homesick James - Homesick
Homesick James - Stones In My Passway
Homesick James - Shake Your Money Maker
Comments
Well, time for a dip into the sea of chaos, I think:
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
yep, there's a lot of moving parts doing their thing, most of them seem to be aimed at dragging the world into war. i guess we'll see if there are any sensible, unbought leaders left.
have a good one!
How nice that the Global South
.
.... and the quasi-socialist cultures are holding it together, and not sliding into the abyss of economic destabilization and streaming mental delusions that are underway in Neocon-Psychopathic strongholds like the US, the UK, and Israel — (along with their brain-injured allies).
The ensuing period of Reckoning is going to last for a much longer time than I initially thought. The affected populations do not have the mental or moral capacities to analyze their situation. Instead, the post-colonial political plantations are making plans to "get out the vote" again. Their media-based ''belief-engines' assure them that voting is their only hope. There is no tipping-point that suddenly returns people to rationality, unfortunately. USians are riding on the runaway train of an obsolete Constitution. They have no brain neuroreceptors to access this concept.
For the lucky few who are comfortable with cognitive dissonance — there is a lot of creative humor being generated by our global situation.
Humor is a good thing.
evening pluto...
sometimes humor is all that we have.
the longer the psychopathic elites are allowed to mess around off leash, the longer our period of reckoning will be.
have a good one!
Oh my!
The rest of the tweet:
When I first encountered Daniel Davis in these pages
... as a geopolitical explainer, my first instinct was to warn people. But then I assumed Davis' mental condition was quite obvious. Plus I don't want to believe that I live in a world where I have to go around warning people. That's a pre-school activity.
I don't understand
your comment about Daniel Davis.
Could you elaborate?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It is going to be a long night and the reprecussions do not
look good!
evening humphrey...
sounds like somebody is going to take the bait.
One of the things I loved about working in Singapore
.
Is the melting pot of cultures there. The people
are an almost equal mix of Malaysian, Chinese, Indian
and a rag-tag mix of brit / aussie expats. Good food and
and a strange 'big brother' aspect to the governance of the
island nation. Situated on the equator, so tropical hot year round.
Zionism is a social disease
evening qms...
i don't know much about singapore, though i have the impression that the government leans into authoritarianism pretty hard and favors some fairly draconian methods for keeping the population in line. on the other hand, perhaps if you're not a kid with a wild hair in an inconvenient place and no penchant for silly crimes like vandalism it might not be a bad place to visit?
have a good one!