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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Cousin Joe Pleasant

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans piano player Cousin Joe Pleasant. Enjoy!

^{Cousin Joe – My Tight Woman}

"One of the most boring political observations you can make about Republicans or Democrats is that they are “hypocrites” who say one thing and do another. That stops being interesting when you realize their words are never actually saying anything about their real principles and values; they’re always just making empty noises to advance whatever agendas they’re trying to push in a given instance.

Of course Republicans pretend to care about free speech and then support the suppression of the speech of their political enemies; their lip service to “free speech” was just something they said to attack the Democrats. Of course Democrats pretended to care about racism and injustice and then threw their support behind a live-streamed genocide; their lip service to justice and equality was only ever empty noise they were making to attack Republicans."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

Trump Administration Rushes To Kill Free Speech In Response To Kirk Assassination

US Attorney General Pam Bondi just said on a podcast that “hate speech” directed at conservatives was responsible for Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and that people who utter such speech will be prosecuted by the Trump administration.

Bondi’s comments came after the podcast’s host Katie Miller (wife of Trump henchman Stephen Miller) bizarrely suggested that Kirk’s murder at a university was a symptom of university campuses being too tolerant of mistreatment of people with conservative views.

Here’s a transcript:

Miller: “These universities are complicit in allowing conservatives to be harassed on campus. And what happens when you allow a university to harass conservatives and don’t expel or don’t take action is what happened last week.”

Bondi: “It is, and you know, on a broader level, the antisemitism that’s been happening at college campuses around this country is disgusting. It’s despicable. And we’ve been fighting that. We’ve been fighting these universities left and right, and we’re not going to stop. There’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place — especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie — in our society.”

Miller: “Do you see more law enforcement going after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people so we show them that some action is better than no action?”

Bondi: “We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, anything. And that’s across the aisle.”

At the same time, Miller’s husband Stephen circulated the baseless claim that an “organized campaign” by left wing “terrorist networks” led to Kirk’s murder, and that the Trump administration is going to “dismantle and destroy” these networks.

Appearing on the late Kirk’s podcast which was being guest hosted by Vice President JD Vance, Miller stated the following:

“We are going to channel all the anger we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks … The organized doxxing campaigns. The organized riots. The organized street violence. The organized campaigns of of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses. Combining that with messaging designed to trigger and incite violence and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement. With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks, and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”

On the same show, Vance urged American conservatives to report anyone who celebrated the killing of Charlie Kirk to their employer in order to get them fired.

“When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out, and hell, call their employer,” Vance said, adding, “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.”

Stephen Miller: “We are going to channel all the anger we have over the organized campaign to led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks … The organized doxxing campaigns. The organized riots. The organized street violence. The organized of… pic.twitter.com/XGtVUlWeac

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 15, 2025

If the Biden administration had been saying these things about right wingers, Trump supporters would’ve shrieked their lungs out. But because Trump supporters are mindless unprincipled NPCs, they’re perfectly fine with using authoritarian speech suppression and cancel culture against the other side.

One of the many naive mistakes I made when I first started this commentary gig was taking Trump supporters at their word when they said they support things like free speech, ending wars, and dismantling the deep state. I thought they can’t be all bad, because they’re saying they’re on the same side as me with many important issues that I care about.

This wishful thinking quickly fell apart as I watched them defend every single one of Trump’s acts of warmongering and authoritarianism and advancements of longstanding deep state agendas throughout his first term. Even actions which should have gone against their own basic partisan ideological biases like imprisoning Julian Assange were excused, justified, or spun as some kind of 4-D chess maneuver to actually rescue Assange. I stayed in dialogue with them the entire time, and they stood by literally every last bit of Trump’s warmongering, authoritarianism, and assaults on free speech.

Every once in a while you’d see one of them go “This is the final straw for me! I don’t support Trump anymore!” But then their disdain for Democrats would pull them right back into the fold and they’d be toeing the Republican Party line just the same as before.

JD Vance gives a full-throated endorsement of Cancel Culture, urging citizens to tattle to the employers of anyone "celebrating" Charlie Kirk's murder. Only problem: many who've already been fired didn't actually "celebrate" the murder, they engaged in protected political speech pic.twitter.com/cJxyoSNaKU

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) September 15, 2025

And it became clear to me that these people do not actually oppose the terrible abuses they claim to oppose, they just oppose them when the other party is doing them. They don’t oppose assaults on free speech, they just oppose assaults on their own speech. They don’t oppose war, they just oppose wars that they perceive as being started by Democrats. They don’t oppose the unelected power structure which runs the US empire, they just oppose the aspects of that power structure which they perceive as hostile to Trump.

And they’ve been demonstrating this even more clearly during Trump’s second term. They’ve defended every single one of their president’s genocidal, warmongering, tyrannical abuses. They stood by him when he deliberately torched the ceasefire with Hamas and the truce with the Houthis and reignited the bloodshed in Gaza and Yemen. They stood by him as he worked to stomp out free speech in the United States with moves intended to silence criticism of Israel. They stood by him when he announced his ethnic cleansing plans for the Gaza Strip. They stood by him when he bombed Iran. They’re standing by him as he expands his warmongering to Venezuela. Whatever authoritarian measures Washington decides to surf on the tide of the Charlie Kirk assassination will surely be complied with too.

They’re a bunch of worthless, power-worshipping bootlickers who support everything they claim to oppose. They’re garden variety Republican empire simps posing as populist revolutionaries, just as devoted to the imperial murder machine as the Democrats they despise.

Eventually you learn that anyone who aligns themselves with either mainstream party in any way is someone you can just dismiss as a compliant empire stooge. They might say “No no I’m this new special kind of Republican that opposes the war machine and fights for liberty,” or “No no I’m this new special kind of Democrat who opposes the oligarchy and works for peace,” but they’re lying. It’s a play. A performance. They’re just trying to herd people into the two mainstream imperial parties whose entire purpose is to protect and promote the interests of the empire.

They’re all part of the swamp, and you cannot use the swamp to drain the swamp.

Tucker, Candace WAR Over Israel Hijacking Kirk Legacy

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says UN commission of inquiry

A UN commission has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and massive destruction, and has called on member countries to punish those responsible for it. The United Nations independent international commission of inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the UN, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur”, said its head, Navi Pillay. “When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” she added. “All states are under a legal obligation to use all means that are reasonably available to them to stop the genocide in Gaza.”

The COI, set up by the UN in 2021 and staffed by three independent experts, cited the killing of civilians and children in a “scorched-earth military strategy”, starvation and deaths caused by restrictions on food and medicines, mistreatment of detainees, forced displacement and the physical devastation of much of the territory to support its finding.

The COI also accused Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister who has been accused of war crimes by the international criminal court, and other senior Israeli leaders of incitement of genocide, and said there was clear evidence of their genocidal intent, a key legal requirement. “The commission concludes that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent … The commission also concludes … that genocidal intent was the only reasonably inference that can be drawn from the totality of the evidence,” Pillay, a former UN human rights chief, told reporters. ...

UN insiders said on Tuesday that the report would influence key actors within the organisation and member governments but there was little chance that it would be “adopted by the UN in any collective way”.

Block the Bombs to Israel: Rep. Delia Ramirez Denounces Genocide in Gaza

Rubio says Netanyahu has full support of US over plans to destroy Hamas

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has put the Trump administration’s full support behind Benjamin Netanyahu in a visit to Jerusalem, saying Washington’s priorities were the liberation of Israeli hostages and the destruction of Hamas.

In public remarks standing alongside Netanyahu, Rubio did not mention the possibility of a ceasefire, and did not repeat his earlier criticism of Israel for carrying out an airstrike last week aimed at Hamas leaders in Doha, the capital of another close US ally, Qatar.

When asked whether he would rule out further strikes on Qatar, Netanyahu said Israel, like other countries, would follow the “principle that terrorists would not have immunity where they are, wherever they may be”. The state department announced that Rubio would make a stop in Doha on Tuesday on his way to London, as the Trump administration seeks to limit the damage to US relations in the Gulf caused by the Israeli strike last Tuesday.

At an emergency Arab and Islamic summit in Doha, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said Israel’s aim in carrying out the strike was to derail talks aimed at a ceasefire. “Whoever works diligently and systematically to assassinate the party with whom he is negotiating, intends to thwart the negotiations,” he told fellow leaders.

Israel Expands Aggression Across the Region as it Moves to Obliterate Gaza City

Rubio Says Diplomatic Solution for Gaza May Not Be Possible

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a diplomatic solution for Gaza may not be possible, comments that came as Israel’s genocidal war in the Strip continues to rage with full US backing.

Rubio blamed the lack of a deal on Hamas, even though Israel just bombed Hamas officials in Qatar, the country that has been mediating the ceasefire talks. Hamas officials said the strikes hit while they were gathered to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal from the US.

Israeli media has also reported that Netanyahu has been the impediment to a deal and has thwarted a potential ceasefire deal at least seven times.

Aaron Maté : The Dead And Injured In Gaza

Gulf leaders call on Trump to rein in Israel after Qatar emergency summit

Gulf leaders meeting at an emergency summit in Qatar have called on the Trump administration to use its leverage to rein in Israel following the unprecedented Israeli attempt last Tuesday to assassinate Hamas negotiators in Doha. Speaking after the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the group’s secretary general, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, said: “We … expect our strategic partners in the United States to use their influence on Israel in order for it to stop this behaviour … they have leverage and influence on Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence be used.”

The attack killed five Hamas officials and was denounced on Monday by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as “a cowardly and treacherous attack on Qatar’s sovereignty”. He said: “Israel claims that it’s a democracy surrounded by enemies when it’s in fact a colonial occupation carrying out crimes without limit.”

In a statement at the end of the summit, the GCC said its unified military command will be instructed “to take the necessary executive measures to activate joint defence mechanisms and Gulf deterrent capabilities”. An assessment will be made of the “joint defence council’s defence posture and sources of threat in light of the aggression against Qatar”, the statement said without providing further details. GCC’s defence ministers meet regularly, but the joint defence council has only been activated in this way twice before – in 1991 against Iraq and again in 2011 during the Arab spring.

The leaders held back from any immediate economic or political reprisals against Israel such as suspension of the Abraham accords, the 2020 agreement that saw five Arab states including the United Arab Emirates normalise their relations with Israel. The absence of any specific reprisals in the joint statement will come as a relief to the US, which has been trying to prevent a total collapse in Arab-Israeli relations, or even an escalation of the conflict. But the discussion due to be held by the GCC unified defence command could see some Arab voices calling for states in the region to end their dependence on the US as a security blanket.

Arab leaders have been shocked that Donald Trump has not shown more willingness to stop what they regard as Israel’s clear attempt to expand its territory, including mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Their mood will not be eased by reports from Israel that Benjamin Netanyahu gave Trump an earlier warning of the attack on Qatar than Trump has previously acknowledged.

Israelis Say Trump LYING About Qatar Strike Surprise

Trump Spoke With Netanyahu Before Israel Bombed Qatar and Didn’t Oppose the Strikes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed President Trump that Israel planned to launch airstrikes against Hamas officials in Qatar shortly before the attack took place, and Trump didn’t oppose the plan, Axios reported on Monday, citing several Israeli officials.

In the wake of the Israeli bombing of Qatar, a major non-NATO ally of the US, the White House claimed that by the time it learned about Israel’s plans to strike Doha, it was too late to stop it. Trump himself also claimed that he was not notified about Israel’s plans and that he was “very unhappy” about the attack.

The Israeli officials speaking to Axios said that while Netanyahu informed Trump of his plans to bomb Doha relatively late in the game, there was still time for the strikes to be called off. Three Israeli officials said Netanyahu notified Trump at about 8:00 am Washington, DC time and that the strikes hit Doha at 8:51.

“Trump knew about the strike before the missiles were launched. First there was a discussion on the political level between Netanyahu and Trump, and afterwards through military channels. Trump didn’t say no,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

Col Doug Macgregor: Israel Launches New Gaza Offensive to Win War

Volunteer Doctors Describe How Israeli Troops ‘Deliberately Targeted’ Gaza Children

International medical professionals who volunteered in Gaza hospitals said they treated more than 100 Palestinian children who were shot in the head or chest by Israeli forces in what appears to be a pattern of deliberate targeting, according to an investigation published Saturday by a Dutch newspaper.

De Volkskrant interviewed 17 doctors and a nurse from the Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States who worked in six hospitals and four clinics in Gaza since October 2023. Fifteen of the 17 doctors described treating 114 children under the age of 15 who had a single bullet wound to the head or chest.

Former Royal Netherlands Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mart de Kruif told de Volkskrant’s Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra that such wounds mean that the victims were all but certainly shot on purpose.

“Just think about how small the head is compared to the rest of the body,” he said. “If you’re seeing a high number of gunshot wounds to the chest area and the head, that’s not collateral damage—that’s deliberate targeting.”

Thank you to de Volksrant in the Netherlands for doing what American media should be doing: clearly reporting on what physicians have seen in Gaza. @realDonaldTrump you can stop this slaughter of children with a wave of your hand. https://t.co/bAYpHCafKh

— Feroze Sidhwa (@FerozeSidhwa) September 14, 2025

Dr. Mimi Syed, a US emergency physician who volunteered for two four-week rotations at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and al-Aqsa Martyrs Government Hospital in Deir al-Balah, described one 4-year-old victim, a girl named Mira.

“They said she’d been shot by a quadcopter [drone] while walking around in the humanitarian zone declared by Israel,” Syed told de Volkskrant. “I was told to just let her die by my colleagues. The assessment was, unfortunately, that there wasn’t much we could do. But she was still moving a little bit. She was very young. A little girl. I just couldn’t look away. There was something in her face that struck me. So I took a chance.”

Working with colleagues, Syed saved Mira. Seeing so many similar injuries, she thought: “I have to document this. I realized—these are war crimes.”

Syed documented 18 children with single-shot wounds to the head or chest.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a 43-year-old California trauma surgeon, described his first day volunteering at European Hospital in Gaza in March 2024. Sidhwa—who has previously described seeing children as young as 3 years old being deliberately targeted in numerous interviews and his own writing—told de Volkskrant that he saw four boys under age 10 with identical head wounds within 48 hours of his arrival.

“I thought: What the hell?” he said. “How is it possible that, in this small hospital, four children are lying here with gunshot wounds to the head—all admitted within the past 48 hours?”

Over the following 13 days, Sidhwa saw nine more children with similar single gunshot wounds to the head and chest by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, who pride themselves on being some of the world’s best-trained marksmen. Israel and the US have frequently described the IDF as the “most moral army” in the world.

“I started to wonder if my hospital was near some crazy sniper,” he said. “Or a drone team killing children just for fun.”

Numerous previous investigations have documented IDF soldiers deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in Gaza. In July, the BBC examined the cases of more than 160 Palestinian children who were shot by IDF troops in Gaza and found that in 95 cases, the child was shot in the head or chest.

“Some of the cases we looked at like children were allegedly shot while fleeing battle zones, but many others were shot while playing outside their tents in humanitarian zones and some in areas the IDF themselves had marked as evacuation corridors,” BBC noted.

IDF officials deny that Israeli troops deliberately target children and have even claimed that Hamas may be shooting them in a new iteration of the age-old blood libel against Jews. Israeli and US officials have also claimed that hundreds of Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza not because of Israel’s near-total blockade on humanitarian relief but because Hamas is stealing the aid—even as IDF officers have refuted the theft allegations.

Israeli troops have admitted to being ordered to shoot to kill “anyone who enters” a so-called “kill zone” in central Gaza, including children.

Other IDF whistleblowers have described orders to open fire on Gazan civilians including children with live bullets and artillery at aid distribution centers.

“We’re killing their wives, their children, their cats, their dogs,” one IDF officer said earlier this year. “We’re destroying their houses and pissing on their graves.”

One IDF soldier even boasted online about how “fun” it is to kill Palestinian children, while another is heard saying in a video uploaded to social media that “we are looking for babies, but there are no babies left”—so instead “I killed a girl that was 12.”

Yet another IDF soldier proudly claimed: “I just went to Gaza, and there were two little girls playing football. So, what did I do? I took my weapon and shot them in the head.”

Operating under loosened rules of engagement that effectively permit the killing of an unlimited number of civilians when targeting even a single low-ranking Hamas member, Israeli troops have killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children and disabled over 21,000 others in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza officials, United Nations agencies, and international humanitarian groups.

The use of artificial intelligence to rapidly select targets, as well as dropping fragmentation, incendiary, and 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs—many supplied by the US—has exacerbated the civilian casualty crisis and contributed to an unprecedented surge in amputations, often performed without anesthesia.

So many wounded Gazan children have also been orphaned that medical professionals have coined a grim new acronym to describe them: WCNSF—wounded child, no surviving family.

According to Gaza and United Nations officials, more than 1,500 medical professionals have also been killed in Gaza since October 2023, many of them while working, including the paramedics who were killed while trying to rescue Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl massacred along with six relatives while trying to flee to safety last year.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are also being deliberately starved in a US-backed Israeli war of conquest and occupation that is increasingly viewed by the world as genocidal, and that has left at least 238,500 Gazans dead, maimed, or missing. Last week, former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi acknowledged that Israel has killed or wounded 10% of Gaza’s pre-war population of approximately 2.2 million.

Early in the war, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called Gaza “the world’s most dangerous place to be a child.” Last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called “List of Shame” of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.

Whistleblower EXPOSES How Israel Brainwashes American Christians!

U.S. Acts as "Judge, Jury & Executioner" in Venezuelan Boat Strikes, Killing at Least 14

Trump announces deadly US strike on another alleged Venezuelan drug boat

Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States had carried out a strike on a second Venezuelan boat and killed three alleged terrorists he claimed were transporting drugs, expanding his administration’s war against drug cartels and the scope of lethal military force to stop them. The US president gave few details about the strike, saying in a social media post that the action was on his orders and that it had happened earlier in the morning. The post was accompanied by a video clip showing the boat, which appeared to be stationary, erupting into a fireball.

“The strike occurred while these confirmed narco-terroists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the US,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump’s announcement of the strike appeared to be worded in a way to suggest there was a valid legal basis for the strike – an issue that became a source of heavy criticism in Washington after the operation against the first alleged Venezuelan drug boat earlier this month, which killed 11 people. According to people familiar with the matter, the administration briefed Congress last week that the first strike was legal under the president’s article 2 powers because it involved a boat connected to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump designated a foreign terrorist organization.

The administration has provided little evidence that the first boat was carrying illegal drugs beyond asserting they had tracked the drugs being loaded on to the boat in order to be distributed in the United States, even if the boat at one point was said to have turned around.

Asked on Sunday about that first strike and claims it was a fishing vessel, Trump said in response to questions from the Guardian: “You saw the bags of white. It’s nonsense. So we knew it before they even left. We knew exactly where that boat, where it came from, where the drugs came from and where it was heading.”

UNHINGED "MAGA Leftist" CRASHES OUT Over Tariffs, Inflation

Trump official confirmed to Fed board but court rejects Lisa Cook removal bid

Senate Republicans voted on Monday to confirm a senior Trump official to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors as the White House raced to strengthen the US president’s control over the central bank ahead of its latest meeting. Hours before Fed policymakers convene for their September decision on interest rates, the Senate voted 48 to 27 to confirm Stephen Miran – already chair of Donald Trump’s council of economic advisers – as a governor.

The vote concluded just as a US appeals court declined the Trump administration’s request to fire Lisa Cook, a governor appointed by Joe Biden, before the two-day policy meeting begins on Tuesday. The ruling from the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means that Cook may remain in her position during the policy meeting where the Fed is expected to cut interest rates.

Miran’s appointment marks the first time in the history of the modern Federal Reserve, which stretches back almost a century, that a sitting member of the executive branch would also work at the highest levels of the central bank. ... While Miran described the Fed’s independence as “critical” during a confirmation hearing earlier this month, and pledged to preserve it as governor, his decision to only take unpaid leave from his current job at the White House, rather than resign, raised questions over his ability to operate independently.

Prosecutor in Epstein case sues Trump justice department over abrupt firing

Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor involved in cases against Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and who led the recent case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging her abrupt termination as politically motivated retaliation against her father, former FBI director James Comey.

According to the court documents, the justice department fired Comey without cause or explanation on 16 July, citing only “article 2 of the United States constitution and the laws of the United States” in a brief email. When she asked for a reason, the interim US attorney Jay Clayton told her: “All I can say is it came from Washington. I can’t tell you anything else.”

Just three months before her termination, the 35-year-old prosecutor received a glowing review from the same attorney who would later deliver news of her firing, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit seeks her reinstatement, back pay and a declaration that her termination violated the constitution. Her removal came after a sustained pressure campaign by Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and Trump administration whisperer with clear influence over personnel and policy decisions. In May, Loomer posted to her 1.7 million X followers calling for the firing of James Comey’s “liberal daughter”.

DNA evidence links suspect to killing of Charlie Kirk, FBI director says

Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, has said that DNA evidence found by investigators links the man accused of killing rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk to the fatal attack despite his alleged refusal to cooperate with authorities after his arrest. Speaking on the conservative-friendly Fox News network on Monday morning, Patel said that DNA found on a towel wrapped around the rifle believed to have been used to kill Kirk matches that of the suspect in custody, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. ...

Patel also said that additional DNA found on a screwdriver recovered from the roof of a building on the UVU campus also has been “positively processed for the suspect in custody”. The rifle itself, Patel added, is currently being processed at the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) laboratories in Maryland.

During Monday’s interview, the Fox News hosts also asked Patel about reports that the suspect had written a note prior to the shooting. “The written note we believe did exist, and we have evidence to show what was in that note, which is, and I’m going to summarize … the suspect wrote a note basically saying, ‘I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it.’

“That note was written before the shooting.” Patel said there was evidence that the note existed at the home Robinson shared with his partner but it was “destroyed”. “We have found forensic evidence of the note, and we have confirmed what that note says because of our aggressive interview posture at the FBI,” Patel said.

JD Vance threatens crackdown on ‘far-left’ groups after Charlie Kirk shooting

JD Vance assailed what he called the “far left” and its increased tolerance for violence while guest-hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast on Monday, saying the administration would be working to dismantle groups who celebrate Kirk’s death and political violence against their opponents. Vance, hosting the podcast from his office next to the White House, spoke to high-profile members of the Trump administration and some of Kirk’s long-time friends in the movement, including Tucker Carlson and Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

Vance said the administration would “work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”. The administration would be working to do that in the coming months and would “explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say”, Vance said.

Miller also detailed how the administration would use the federal government to achieve this goal. “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, [Department of] Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks,” Miller said, adding that they would do this “in Charlie’s name”.

Vance added: “When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. Hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.”

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Channel 4 to mark Trump’s UK visit with ‘longest uninterrupted reel of untruths’

More than 100 of Donald Trump’s inaccurate statements are to be dissected by Channel 4 to coincide with his state visit, in what it described as “the longest uninterrupted reel of untruths, falsehoods and distortions ever broadcast on television”. ... Channel 4 is dedicating its Wednesday night schedule to unpicking what it describes as the falsehoods expressed by Trump since taking office in a broadcast that insiders said would last several hours.

Trump v The Truth, starting at 10pm, is expected to cover everything from the president’s false boast that his administration had “stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, to his debunked claim to have sent Ukraine more than $300bn (£220bn) in wartime aid.

Smaller but similarly inaccurate claims about the price of eggs and the impact of immigration are also expected to be examined. The programme could also cause difficulties during the trip should it seek to examine his claims over his relationship with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. ...

“Donald J Trump loves making history,” said Ian Katz, Channel 4’s chief content officer. “So, on Wednesday Channel 4 will do just that: we’ll show what we believe to be the longest uninterrupted reel of untruths, falsehoods and distortions ever broadcast on television.

After Hochul’s Mamdani Endorsement, Trump Threatens New York Federal Funding

“Threatening voters and cities over their elections is what authoritarians do,” said one progressive organizer Monday after US President Donald Trump did just that—suggesting he would rip federal funding away from New York City, and possibly the state, if democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the November election.

The president’s threat came after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced her endorsement of Mamdani in an op-ed in The New York Times, after months of pressure from progressives.

Trump said Hochul had “Endorsed the ‘Liddle Communist’” and called the governor’s support “a rather shocking development.”

“How can such a thing happen?” Trump asked of Hochul’s endorsement of her own party’s popular and charismatic nominee. “Washington will be watching this situation very closely. No reason to be sending good money after bad!”

The comments appeared to be a threat to state or city funding, said critics including Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health. ...

The president previously threatened New York City’s funding in June and said in July that his administration could take over the city’s government if Mamdani wins the November election and enacts policies Trump doesn’t support.

“If he does get in, I’m gonna be president and he’s gonna have to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money. He’s gotta do the right thing,” Trump said on Fox News. “If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same... We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to.”

At The New Republic last week, Alex Shephard wrote that by refusing to throw their considerable influence behind Mamdani, Schumer, Jeffries, and Gillibrand are “suggesting that they will throw him—and the city he represents—to the wolves come 2026.” ...

Democrats including Schumer and Jeffries, he added, “are shooting their party in the foot... Predominantly renters, Mamdani’s voters were also disproportionately young, Asian, and Hispanic—all groups that moved toward Trump in last year’s election, and that Democrats will need if they want to take back Congress and the White House.”

“Democrats say they are determined to be a big-tent party,” Shephard continued. “But somehow there’s no room in it for the politicians who can actually help fill it?”

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Bali battles worst floods in more than a decade

At least 17 people have been confirmed dead in Bali, Indonesia, after the island’s worst flooding in more than a decade.

Torrential rain last Tuesday and Wednesday triggered widespread flooding and landslides, leaving a trail of destruction. Eight victims were found in Denpasar, the island’s capital, and rescue teams continue to search for several others who remain missing.

Most deaths occurred when victims were swept away by flood water. More than 385mm of rain was recorded within a 24-hour period, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of people. The floods submerged roads and damaged bridges, severely disrupting transport across the island.

Flooding is common in Indonesia during the wet season, which typically runs from September to March. However, scientists say the climate crisis is intensifying the rainy season, bringing heavier rainfall and more frequent flash floods. Overdevelopment and widespread deforestation are believed to be worsening the impact of flooding.

US judge rejects lawsuit challenge to SpaceX launch site over risks to wildlife

A US district court judge on Monday rejected a suit by conservation groups challenging the Federal Aviation Administration approval in 2022 of expanded rocket launch operations by Elon Musk’s SpaceX next to a national wildlife refuge in south Texas.

The groups said noise, light pollution, construction and road traffic also degrade the area, home to endangered ocelots and jaguarundis, as well as nesting sites for endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles and for threatened shorebirds. US district judge Carl Nichols in Washington said FAA had satisfied its obligation “to take a hard look at the effects of light on nearby wildlife”.

Donald Trump signed an executive order on 13 August – titled Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry – that would relax environmental rules for commercial spaceship companies, apparently benefitting Elon Musk. The companies may be able to forgo the environmental reviews that are required under the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa).

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A Little Night Music

Cousin Joe – Life's A One Way Ticket

Cousin Joe – Fly Hen Blues

Cousin Joe – That's What Love Is All About

Cousin Joe – Chicken A La Blues

Cousin Joe – You Ain't Such A Much

Cousin Joe – Messin' Around

Cousin Joe - Looking For My Baby

Cousin Joe - Evolution Blues

Cousin Joe - Everything Made of Wood Once Was a Tree

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