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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lynn August

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features zydeco singer and accordian player Lynn August. Enjoy!

^{Lynn August - Bruler Le Chemin-De-Fer A Soir}

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself -- that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word 'doublethink' involved the use of doublethink.”

-- George Orwell

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News and Opinion

Eventually all the contradictions had to come out into the light.

I saw a clip of ABC host Patricia Karvelas raking Netanyahu policy advisor Ophir Falk over the coals for his denialism of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, and the thought occurred to me that Israel really has lost the normies. All the mainstream western empire loyalists who dutifully toe the imperial line under normal circumstances are dropping away, one by one.

Patricia Karvelas roasts Netanyahu policy advisor Ophir Falk after he refuses to admit starvation in Gaza & that Israel is not letting journos in.
OF “there’s plenty of journalists”
PK “Nope, there’s not plenty”
“You constantly contest facts, why not let journalists come in…? pic.twitter.com/WbPj0UADL3

— stranger (@strangerous10) August 20, 2025

The fact that Israel has managed to alienate western liberals is so funny, because they’d be Israel’s biggest cheerleaders if they were given the tiniest bit of justification for that position.

So much about Israel fits in perfectly with western liberal mythology. A US-aligned capitalist democracy run by a plucky religious minority who survived horrific persecution, which embraces secular progressive values and reinforces the dominant western narratives about the wonderful things the US-led order has been able to accomplish since its triumphant glorious victory in the second world war. All Israel had to do was give them something, anything, and they’d still think Israel is the greatest thing in the world. They just needed an excuse — even a very meager one.

But Israel couldn’t even give them that. Genocide, racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and expansionism were just too important to its driving ideology. The Zionist project simply could not continue without going mask-off at some point, so now they’ve lost all the mainstream moderate liberals and pretty much everyone besides the “killing Muslims is good” far right extremists and the “we have to support Israel because God commands it” Christian Zionists.

Eventually all the contradictions had to come out into the light.

The Israeli press are pushing the narrative that if people in Gaza are suffering so bad they should leave, which is precisely the narrative I said we’d soon be hearing from Israel in facilitation of its longstanding ethnic cleansing agenda.

Last month I wrote the following in an article titled “They’re Starving Civilians To Steal A Palestinian Territory, And They’re Lying About It”:

“Western governments are beginning to speak out against the mass atrocity in Gaza, far too little and far too late. We can expect Israel and the United States to respond to this outcry by saying that Palestinians need to be evacuated out of Gaza as quickly as possible in order to rescue them from this deliberately manufactured humanitarian crisis. We can expect them to denounce anyone who opposes this ethnic cleansing operation as evil monsters who want to starve the poor Palestinians.”

The Jerusalem Post has just published an opinion piece titled “Gaza humanitarian crisis should expedite Trump’s relocation plan,” subtitled “Now that there is public awareness of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it should be leveraged to garner support for Trump’s Gaza relocation proposal.”

The article’s author, Gol Kalev, complains that “the Gazans” are being “denied the basic human right to flee a war” by the mean, nasty Europeans who just want to accuse Israel of war crimes and atrocities.

“They are needed under the rubble in Gaza — not just by Hamas, who uses them as human shields, but also by Europe and its proxies, who use them as pawns in their age-old opposition to the Jewish state, and as a proxy assault on America,” Kalev writes, arguing that public frustration “should not be directed at Israel, but at those standing in the way of Trump’s relocation plan, including European leaders.”

“Now that there is public awareness of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it should be leveraged to garner support for Trump’s Gaza relocation proposal — which could lead to safety and prosperity for Gazans, and peace for the entire region,” writes Kalev. “The public message must be clear: Let the Gazans be free — let them flee.”

Just as I said they would do, they’re disguising a naked ethnic cleansing operation as humanitarianism and denouncing anyone who wants to provide Palestinians with a massive relief effort in their historic homeland as an uncaring monster. We can expect to see more of this messaging going forward.

Famine declared in Gaza City for first time by UN-backed group

Israeli military’s own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war

Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare. As of May, 19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead”, a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found.

At that time 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks, according to health authorities in Gaza, a toll that included combatants and civilians. Fighters named in the Israeli military intelligence database accounted for just 17% of the total, which indicates that 83% of the dead were civilians. That apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars.

“That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time,” said Therése Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, which tracks civilian casualties worldwide. “If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.”

Many genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists, including Israeli academics and campaign groups, say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the mass killing of civilians and imposed starvation. ...

Itzhak Brik, a retired general, said serving Israeli soldiers were aware that politicians exaggerated the Hamas toll. Brik advised the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the start of the war and is now among his most strident critics. “There is absolutely no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually happening. It is just one big bluff,” he said. Brik commanded Israel’s military colleges, and said he kept in touch with serving officers. He described meeting soldiers from a unit identifying Palestinians killed in Gaza, who told him “most of them” were civilians.

Fired State Dept. Official Speaks Out, Suggested Condolences for Killed Gaza Journalists

UN and Red Cross warn of catastrophe if Israel launches Gaza City offensive

The International Red Cross and UN have warned of an impending catastrophe in the Gaza Strip if Israel launches an offensive to take over Gaza City, as the Israeli military told medical and aid groups in the Palestinian territory to prepare for imminent forced displacement.

At the same time a concerted campaign of international opposition to Israel’s defiance of ceasefire calls and its approval of a huge new illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank gathered pace, with the UK summoning Israel’s ambassador and joining 20 other countries in condemning the settlement plan as a “violation of international law”.

The Gaza health ministry on Thursday rejected the Israeli military’s call to displace personnel in the north before a military offensive to seize the area. It said to do so would “deprive more than 1 million people of their right to medical treatment and expose the lives of residents, patients and the wounded to imminent danger”. On Thursday evening, Benjamin Netanayhu announced during a visit to Israeli soldiers in the Gaza division that he had approved plans for the takeover of Gaza City and ordered officials to begin immediate negotiations over the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“We are in the decision-making stage,” the prime minister said. “I have come to the Gaza division today to approve the plans that the IDF presented to me … for the takeover of Gaza City and the defeat of Hamas ... At the same time, I have instructed to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and the end of the war on terms acceptable to Israel. These two things – the defeat of Hamas and the release of all our hostages – go hand in hand.”

Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court over allegations of responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, earlier told Sky News Australia that Israel intended to take over the whole of the Gaza Strip regardless of whether there was a ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas. The families of Israeli hostages have said such an operation would be a “death sentence” for their relatives. In the interview, apparently conducted earlier this week, he was asked whether Israel would take over all of Gaza, even if Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal. “We’re going to do that anyway,” said Netanyahu. “There was never a question that we’re not going to leave Hamas there.”

INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern : Weekly Wrap

'All Eyes On Gaza City' as Israel Ramps Up Campaign of Conquest and Ethnic Cleansing

Operation Gideon's Chariots 2—Israel's plan to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse Gaza—intensified Thursday, with fugitive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israeli forces will take over all of the embattled strip even if Hamas agrees to a ceasefire and one of his far-right ministers vowing to continue the genocidal war even "at the expense of the hostages' lives."

"We have begun the preliminary actions and the initial stages of the offensive on Gaza City, and already now [Israeli] forces are holding positions on the outskirts of Gaza City," Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Effie Defrin told reporters. "We will intensify the strikes on Hamas in Gaza City, the political and military stronghold of the terror organization."

Defrin added that the IDF is warning residents to evacuate in a bid to "minimize harm to civilians." However, critics say "evacuate" is a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, the stated goal of Israeli officials including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said earlier this month: "We conquer, cleanse, and stay until Hamas is destroyed. On the way, we annihilate everything that still remains."

This takeover forcibly displaces nearly 1 million people, almost all of whom have already been displaced countless times since the genocide began.

— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) August 21, 2025

Arutz Sheva reported that Operation Gideon's Chariots 2—which ultimately aims to force much of Gaza's population into a concentration camp in order to make way for possible Jewish recolonization of the strip—will involve five IDF divisions, two of them reserves. The news site said that the IDF will issue new emergency draft orders to 60,000 reservists, who will augment the 70,000 who are already activated.

IDF Col. (Res.) Marco Moreno said Thursday that the only way to achieve security is via the "voluntary migration" of everyone in Gaza—another euphemism for ethnic cleansing, given Palestinians' unwillingness to voluntarily abandon their homeland.

"Even if Hamas disarms, raises a white flag, and disappears, it won't be long before a new organization rises in Gaza with the same agenda to destroy the state of Israel," Moreno said during a TV interview. "The only way to ensure true security is through the voluntary migration of all Gaza residents."

Israeli Settlement Minister Orit Strook, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, told the radio station Kol BaRama Wednesday that she favors continuing the war "even if it is clear that Hamas will execute the hostages," 20 of whom remain imprisoned since the October 7, 2023 attack.

"Of course, it is not only me who will vote to continue the war at the expense of the hostages' lives," added Strook, who is known for her extreme support for illegal Israeli settler colonization of Palestine and for allegedly filming her and her husband's sexual abuse of their daughter for pornographic videos.

Hamas condemned the Israeli operation in a statement accusing the Netanyahu government of "continuing its brutal war against innocent civilians, escalating its criminal operations in Gaza City with the aim of destroying it, and displacing its residents in a full-fledged war crime."

The United Nations human rights office said Wednesday that "Israel's reported decision to take full control of Gaza City and to forcibly displace its population will lead to mass killings of civilians and destruction of infrastructure vital to the survival of the population."

The explicit goal of turning Palestine's largest city into a wasteland has nothing to do with hostages or Hamas and everything to do with genocide. They can not be more clear about this. https://t.co/8IqXYGw6vF

— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) August 21, 2025

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said President Donald Trump—who has said he wants to empty Gaza of Palestinians and transform the strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East"—is "fully supportive" of Israel's campaign.

Israel is facing an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice, while Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 50 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces Thursday, including nine aid-seekers and five family members massacred in a drone strike in Khan Younis. Two massacres in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood killed four and eight people respectively, while four people were killed in a separate strike on a family home in the al-Shanti area.

Two more Palestinians also reportedly starved to death in Gaza, where at least 271 people including 112 children have died from malnutrition driven by Israel's "complete siege."

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 62,122 Palestinians—most of them women and children—and wounded more than 156,700 others, with thousands more missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Expert analyses including multiple peer-reviewed studies have concluded the official Gaza Health Ministry death toll is likely a vast undercount.

As Common Dreams reported Thursday, a joint investigation by Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham of +972 Magazine and Local Call and Guardian senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison revealed that, contrary to Israeli claims of a historically low civilian-to-combatant kill ratio in Gaza, a staggering 5 out of 6 Palestinians killed in the strip between October 2023 and May were noncombatants.

Kash Patel Pledges To Imprison All Child Predators EXCEPT ISRAELIS!

Pentagon To Spend $3.5 Billion Replenishing Munitions It Used Defending Israel

The Pentagon is planning to spend at least $3.5 billion replenishing weapons it has used defending Israel, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The report cited budget documents “prepared through mid-May,” meaning the $3.5 billion doesn’t include the cost for the US-Israeli war that was launched against Iran starting on June 13 and lasted 12 days.

The documents say the spending is necessary to make up for costs to the US Central Command amid responses to “the situation in Israel” or other hostile actions emanating from it, as well as US combat operations “executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel for the defense of Israeli territory, personnel or assets during attacks by Iran” or its allies.

The single biggest request is for $1 billion to replenish various models of the Standard Missile interceptor, which are primarily fired by US Navy warships and are produced by Raytheon. The request was mainly for SM-3 IB Threat Upgrade interceptors, which are used to shoot down ballistic missiles and cost between $9 million and $12 million per munition. ...

The US also used a significant number of SM-3 interceptors and a huge number of THAAD missiles during the 12-Day War, meaning more requests are coming. US officials told The Wall Street Journal that the US fired more than 150 THAAD missiles during the war, accounting for about one quarter of the Pentagon’s total stock of the interceptors and costing about $2 billion.

Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal is Trojan Horse for Iran | Ehsan Safarnejad

German Prosecutors Indict Ukrainian Operative for 'Sabotage' Attack on Nord Stream Pipeline

A Urkrainian man has been arrested on suspicion of helping to coordinate the sabotage of Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in 2022.

BBC News reported that a man who is only being identified as "Serhii K" was arrested on Thursday in the Italian province of Rimini on charges related to the planting of explosives under the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines that deliver gas from Russia to Germany.

German prosecutors alleged that the Ukrainian man was one of the "masterminds" of the attack on the pipelines, and that "he was part of a team that had chartered a yacht and sailed from the German port of Rostock to an area of the Baltic near the Danish island of Bornholm," reported BBC News.

The suspect is expected to be extradited from Italy to Germany, where he will be brought before an investigating judge, the German prosecutors said. They added that the man is "strongly suspected of jointly causing an explosion and of sabotage undermining the constitution."

Although there was initially speculation by somethat the Russia government was behind the Nord Stream attack, it now appears to have been part of an operation conducted at least in part by Ukrainian nationals. However, there is not yet any evidence linking the Ukrainian government to the attack.

Reporting by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in February of 2023 indicated US involvement with the sabotage, but those connections were never proven definitively.

The 2022 attacks on the pipelines came at a time when Europe was already facing an energy crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began earlier in the year. At the time of the attacks, Germany had already canceled plans for final approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under pressure from then-US President Joe Biden's administration.

Larry C. Johnson & Col. Larry Wilkerson: Russia Says ‘NO DEAL’ to NATO — Israel-Iran WAR Coming

Russia rules out European troops in Ukraine as Trump makes veiled threats

Moscow threw Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace initiative into disarray on Thursday, insisting it must have a veto over any postwar support for the country as its forces carried out a large-scale overnight missile barrage. In a series of hardline remarks, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said European proposals to deploy troops in Ukraine after a settlement would amount to “foreign intervention”, which he called absolutely unacceptable for Russia.

Lavrov said Russia wanted to return to discussing a framework first proposed during the initial peace talks held in Istanbul in 2022, under which Moscow and Beijing would help guarantee Ukraine’s security alongside European allies – terms Kyiv considers unacceptable. “We support the principles and security guarantees that were agreed … in April 2022,” Lavrov said. “Anything else … is of course an absolutely futile undertaking.” ...

After the recent Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, US officials said the Russian president had accepted the prospect of western security guarantees for Ukraine. But the latest statements suggest Moscow may be backing away from that understanding – or that Washington may have misinterpreted the Kremlin’s position from the outset.

Trump on Thursday appeared to vent his frustration at Russia’s obstruction. In a post on Truth Social, the US president blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for not allowing Ukraine to “fight back” against Russia. “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country. It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia. Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND. How did that work out? … Interesting times ahead!!!” Trump wrote.

Trump’s veiled threats against Russia will be welcomed in Kyiv and European capitals, though the US leader has previously backed away from imposing sanctions or boosting support for Ukraine.

Trump Fumes As Russia Widens Pokrovsk Breakthrough, Strikes US Owned Factory, Moscow Toughens Stance

Trump steps back from Russia and Ukraine peace talks for now, sources say

Donald Trump intends to leave Russia and Ukraine to organize a meeting between their leaders without directly playing a role for now, according to administration officials familiar with the situation, taking a step back from the negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The next stage in Trump’s eyes to end the war in Ukraine remains a bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, the officials said.

Trump has told advisers in recent days that he intends to host a trilateral meeting with the two leaders only after they have met first, although whether that initial conference takes place remains unclear and Trump does not intend to become involved in that effort.

In a phone interview with talk show host Mark Levin on WABC on Tuesday, Trump also said he thought it would be better for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet without him in the first instance. “I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they’re in the process of setting it up and we’re going to see what happens.”

Trump’s reluctance to push Putin and Zelenskyy to a meeting comes as he has acknowledged in recent days that ending the war in Ukraine has been more difficult than he had anticipated, after saying on the campaign trail last year he could achieve it in 24 hours. He has since sought a quick peace agreement after his deadline for Russia to end the war expired this month and said after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday that he had initiated steps for a bilateral meeting.

A senior administration official characterized the situation as Trump taking a “wait-and-see approach” to whether a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting could be scheduled.

End of the Line for Diplomacy with Ukraine - John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

Pentagon asks civilian employees to join ‘volunteer force’ to aid Ice deportations

The Pentagon is recruiting civilian employees to join Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and asking staff to sign up for deployments to immigration enforcement facilities across the United States. The defense department has posted a job listing requesting volunteers for civilian federal employees apply to join a “volunteer force” supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations. On Wednesday, the department reportedly emailed civilian employees asking them to take up this opportunity.

“The Secretary of Defense has authorized DoD civilian employees to participate in details to the Department of Homeland Security to contribute to its operations along the Southern Border and its internal immigration enforcement activities,” reads the email, obtained by 404Media. Roughly 950,000 civilian employees work for the Pentagon. ...

The official said volunteer duties may include “data entry, operational planning support, processing and throughput logistics, and logistical support”. The job posting warns deployment locations “are not negotiable” and conditions “could be austere”. Assignments last up to 180 days at facilities along the border and throughout the US interior, and detailing means the staff keeps their salary and benefits. ...

The Pentagon initiative comes as the Trump administration works to expand immigration enforcement personnel, infrastructure and operations across the country. The Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump last month, includes budget for an additional 10,000 Ice agents, and Ice is reportedly offering signing bonuses of up to $50,000 and has reduced its age requirements in an effort to expand its forces.

FBI agents raid ex-national security adviser John Bolton's Bethesda home

Judge rules ex-Trump lawyer unlawfully serving as US attorney in New Jersey

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. In his order disqualifying Habba from prosecuting three defendants who challenged her appointment, chief US district judge Matthew Brann wrote: “The Executive branch has perpetuated Alina Habba’s appointment to act as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey through a novel series of legal and personnel moves.

“Along the way, it has disagreed with the Judges of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and criminal defendants in that District about who should or may lead the office. Faced with the question of whether Ms Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not.” The judge found that Habba’s term as the interim US attorney ended in July, and the Trump administration’s maneuvers to keep her in the role without getting confirmation from the US Senate did not follow procedures required by federal law. Brann said he was putting his order on hold pending an appeal. ...

In late July, when Habba’s four-month temporary appointment was coming to a close, it became clear that she would not get support from home state senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, meaning her chances of Senate approval were nil. Trump then withdrew her nomination, and federal judges in New Jersey exercised their power under the law to replace Habba with a career prosecutor when Habba’s temporary appointment lapsed. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, retaliated by firing that prosecutor and moved to re-install Habba as acting US attorney.

These are all the hospitals in America that are already facing cuts and closures so Trump can give more tax breaks to the rich.

via @ProtectOurCare pic.twitter.com/ws9PqqJWBA

— Americans For Tax Fairness (@4TaxFairness) August 20, 2025

Supreme court allows Trump officials to cut research millions in anti-DEI push

The Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the supreme court decided on Thursday. The split court lifted a judge’s order blocking $783m worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health to align with Donald Trump’s priorities.

The court split 5-4 on the decision. Chief Justice John Roberts was among those who would not have allowed the cuts, along with the court’s three liberal justices. The high court did keep the Trump administration anti-DEI guidance on future funding blocked with a key vote from Justice Amy Coney Barrett, however.

The decision marks the latest supreme court win for Trump and allows the administration to forge ahead with canceling hundreds of grants while the lawsuit continues to unfold. The plaintiffs, including states and public-health advocacy groups, have argued that the cuts will inflict “incalculable losses in public health and human life”. The justice department, meanwhile, has said funding decisions should not be “subject to judicial second-guessing” and efforts to promote policies referred to as DEI can “conceal insidious racial discrimination”.

The lawsuit addresses only part of the estimated $12bn of NIH research projects that have been cut, but in its emergency appeal, the Trump administration also took aim at nearly two dozen other times judges have stood in the way of its funding cuts.

Solicitor general D John Sauer said judges shouldn’t be considering those cases under an earlier supreme court decision that cleared the way for teacher-training program cuts that the administration also linked to DEI. He says they should go to federal claims court instead. Five conservative justices agreed, and Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a short opinion in which he criticized lower-court judges for not adhering to earlier high court orders. “All these interventions should have been unnecessary,” Gorsuch wrote.

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After Texas, Trump's Redistricting Push Goes National

Newsom signs proposal for new California voting map favoring Democrats

California governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a sweeping redistricting proposal aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries to create five new Democratic US House seats – a direct response to the gerrymandered maps Republicans in Texas are advancing at the behest of Donald Trump.

The Democratic-controlled state legislature voted to advance a legislative package revising California’s maps after hours of debate. With Newsom’s signature, the measure now heads to voters in a special election this November. Newsom, who led the redistricting push, said California was “neutralizing” Texas’s maps designed to help Republicans stave off losses in next year’s congressional midterm elections.

“They fired the first shot in Texas,” the governor said, surrounded by Democratic lawmakers at a signing ceremony on Thursday afternoon. “When all things are equal, [when] we’re all playing by the same set of rules, there’s no question that the Republican party will be the minority party in the House of Representatives next year.”

The nation’s two most populous – and ideologically opposed – states were racing on parallel tracks toward consequential redistricting votes, potentially within hours of each other. As Democrats in Sacramento signed off on a legislative package that would put their “election rigging response act” before voters in a special election this fall, Republicans in Austin were nearing a final vote on their own partisan map. “We will not let our political system be hijacked by authoritarianism. And today, we give every Californian the power to say no,” saidassembly speaker Robert Rivas, a California Democrat, in remarks before the vote. “To say no to Donald Trump’s power grab and yes to our people, to our state and to our democracy.”

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Solar panels in space ‘could provide 80% of Europe’s renewable energy by 2050’

Solar panels in space could cut Europe’s terrestrial renewable energy needs by 80% by 2050, a study has found. Using a detailed computer model of the continent’s future power grid, the researchers found that a system of space-based panels designed by Nasa could reduce the cost of the whole European power system by as much as 15%. It could also cut battery use by more than two-thirds.

The study, led by researchers at King’s College London, is the first to assess the possible impact of space solar energy on Europe. The space-based solar power (SBSP) panels that yielded the positive results uses a heliostat design. The design, which the system imitates, uses mirror-like reflectors to collect sunlight in orbit. The sunlight is then transmitted to stations on Earth and converted to electricity before it is delivered to an energy grid.

The computer model of the continent’s power grid spans 33 countries, and simulates electricity demand, generation and storage to identify the lowest-cost option to meet Europe’s electricity needs. When the researchers integrated the SBSP concept into the model based on Nasa’s predictions of its potential energy capacity, results showed that it could replace as much as 80% of Europe’s land-based renewable energy.

Land-based renewable energy is irregular and weather-dependent, complicating reliable supply, and comes at varying costs, the researchers point out. SBSPs could be an alternative centralised energy resource that operates above the atmosphere with continuous gigawatt-scale power.

Brazil authorities suspend key Amazon rainforest protection measure

One of the key agreements for Amazon rainforest protection – the soy moratorium – has been suspended by Brazilian authorities, potentially opening up an area the size of Portugal to destruction by farmers. Coming less than three months before Brazil hosts the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, the news has shocked conservation groups, who say it is now more important than ever that consumers, supermarkets and traders stand up against Brazilian agribusiness groups that are using their growing political power to reverse past environmental gains.

Brazil is the world’s biggest soya bean exporter. The legume, used largely for animal and fish feed, is one of the most widely grown crops in Brazil, and posed a huge deforestation threat to the Amazon rainforest until stakeholders voluntarily agreed to impose a moratorium and no longer source it from the region in 2006. ... In the 19 years since, the moratorium has been hailed as a conservation success story that has improved the reputation of global brands, enabled soy production to expand significantly without Amazon destruction and prevented an estimated 17,000 sq km of deforestation.

But earlier this week it was revealed that the anti-monopoly agency, Cade (the administrative council for economic defence) had given grain traders, such as Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and Cofco, 10 days to suspend the moratorium or face financial penalties. Cade’s general superintendent, Alexandre Barreto de Souza, said he had instigated an investigation into the moratorium, noting that it involved sharing commercially sensitive information.

Greenpeace Brazil called the move a “terrible mistake”, which was the result of political pressure from the “regressive wings of agribusiness” that aimed to punish those who protect forests and reward those who profit the most from Amazon destruction. “Without the soy moratorium, considered one of the most effective multi-stakeholder agreements in the world, soy will once again become a major driver of Amazon deforestation, and this will bury any chance of Brazil meeting its climate targets,” Cristiane Mazzetti, the group’s forest campaign coordinator, said.

Politically, the timing could not be more embarrassing for the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In November, Brazil will stage the first climate conference to be held in the Amazon, which the hosts had hoped would be a showcase for the gains it has made in reducing deforestation. But in the Brazilian congress, the dominant agribusiness lobby has passed legislation that undermines indigenous land demarcation and the environmental licensing system, a step that conservation groups have described as the biggest setback in 40 years. The new ruling on the soy moratorium adds to the retreat.

A coal-fired plant in Michigan was to close. But Trump forced it to keep running at $1m a day

Donald Trump has made several unusual moves to elongate the era of coal, such as giving the industry exemptions from pollution rules. But the gambit to keep one Michigan coal-fired power station running has been extraordinary – by forcing it to remain open even against the wishes of its operator. The hulking JH Campbell power plant, which since 1962 has sat a few hundred yards from the sand dunes at the edge of Lake Michigan, was just eight days away from a long-planned closure in May when Trump’s Department of Energy issued an emergency order that it remain open for a further 90 days.

On Wednesday, the administration intervened again to extend this order even further, prolonging the lifetime of the coal plant another 90 days, meaning it will keep running until November – six months after it was due to close. The move, taken under emergency powers more normally used during wartime or in the wake of disaster, has stunned local residents and the plant’s operator, Consumers Energy. “My family had a countdown for it closing, we couldn’t wait,” said Mark Oppenhuizen, who has lived in the shadow of the plant for 30 years and suspects its pollution worsened his wife’s lung disease.

“I was flabbergasted when the administration said they had stopped it shutting down,” he said. “Why are they inserting themselves into a decision a company has made? Just because politically you don’t like it? It’s all so dumb.”

The 23 May order and the latest edict, by the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, both warn that the regional grid would be strained by the closure of JH Campbell with local homes and businesses at risk of “curtailments or outages, presenting a risk to public health and safety” without it. ... But Miso, the grid operator for Michigan and 14 other states, has stressed it has had “adequate resources to meet peak demand this summer” without JH Campbell and Consumers Energy had already set about making plans for life after its last remaining coal plant. ...

Wright – whose department has bizarrely taken to tweeting pictures of lumps of coal with the words “She’s an icon. She’s a legend” – has said the US “has got to stop closing coal plants” to help boost electricity generation to meet demand that is escalating due to the growth of artificial intelligence. The administration has also issued a separate emergency declaration to keep open a gas plant in Pennsylvania, although it has sought to kill off wind and solar projects, which Trump has called “ugly” and “disgusting”.

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Also of Interest

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

Israel steps up Gaza bombing as it signals ceasefire deal rejection

Israeli Forces Kill 70 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours

What is Israel’s ‘most moral army in the world’ doing in Gaza?

In Norway we see ourselves as ethically virtuous – so why is our oil wealth enabling genocide?

US To Fund $500 Million Boeing KC-46 Tanker Aircraft Deal for Israel

Gaza - First They Came ...

Pro-Israel lawyers investigated over alleged legal threats to suppress support for Palestine

Delirious New Cold Warrior Ted Cruz Proposes US/Israel/Taiwan/Somaliland Pact

Ukraine's Future - A 'Steppe Corridor' - A Neutral, Transit-oriented State

Majority of college students say they will be affected by Trump’s new tax bill: ‘Honestly, I’m cooked’

'Make Billionaires Pay': Coalition Opposed to Destructive Oligarchy Forges Mass Mobilization

Remnants of 2,000-year-old sunken city lifted out of the sea off Alexandria

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A Little Night Music

Lynn August - 58 Pink Cadillac

Lynn August - Miss Ann

Lynn August - Miguen

Lynn August - Slippin' and Slidin'

Lynn August - It's My Soul

Lynn August - Blind Man

Lynn August - I'd Rather Go blind

Lynn August - Zydeco Bogaloo

Lynn August - Let the good times roll

Lynn August - I'm A Hog For You

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