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"Republicans in 2002: We need more authoritarianism and more wars in the middle east. Anyone who disagrees is a terrorist supporter.

Republicans in 2025: We need more authoritarianism and more wars in the middle east. Anyone who disagrees is a terrorist supporter, and antisemite."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

This Is Trump’s Genocide Now

This is Trump’s genocide. Trump is just as culpable for what happens in Gaza as Netanyahu. Just as guilty as Biden was during the last administration.

Trump signed off on the reignition of the Gaza holocaust. He spent weeks sabotaging the ceasefire and then gave the thumbs up to the resumption of the genocide. He did this while bombing Yemen and threatening war with Iran for Israel.

I don’t know why Trump has done these things. Maybe it’s all for the Adelson cash. Maybe Epstein recorded him doing something unsavory with a minor during their long association and gave it to Israeli intelligence for blackmail purposes. Maybe he owed somebody a favor for bailing him out of his business failures in the past. Maybe he’s just a psychopath who enjoys murdering children. I don’t know, and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that he did it, and he is responsible for his actions.

Trump supporters will justify literally anything their president does using whatever excuses they need to, but they are only revealing how completely empty and unprincipled their political faction is. They are unthinking worshippers of power who go along with whatever the president tells them to. By continuing to support Trump even as he continues Biden’s legacy of mass murder in the middle east, they are proving themselves to be mindless stormtroopers for the empire in full view of the entire world.

You can still support Trump if you hate immigrants and LGBTQ people and want lower taxes for the obscenely wealthy, but there is no legitimate reason to support him on antiwar or anti-establishment grounds. He’s just another evil Republican mass murderer president.

Chris Hedges: On the Precipice of Darkness

Israel launches ‘limited ground operation’ to retake Netzarim corridor in Gaza

Israeli forces have launched a “limited ground operation” to retake the Netzarim corridor, a newly widened road protected by fortified bunkers that divides Gaza and is seen as essential to controlling the devastated Palestinian territory.

The move is a significant escalation of Israel’s new offensive in Gaza and came less than 36 hours after a massive wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400, including 183 children and 94 women, the health ministry there said. Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of the ministry’s records department, described those attacks as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war.

More Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed about 20, bringing the death toll to 436 in 48 hours, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence service said. Among the new casualties was a UN staff member, who was killed when two UN guesthouses in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza were hit in an attack. The UN has called for an investigation. “The locations of all UN premises are known to the parties to the conflict, who are bound by international law to protect them and maintain their absolute inviolability,” a spokesperson for António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said. ...

The Israel Defense Forces denied hitting a UN building, saying “there was no IDF operational activity” in the area of the UN compound and “the IDF didn’t strike” it.

A series of Israeli evacuation orders telling about 150,000 people in the north and east of Gaza to leave their homes to avoid being trapped in a combat zone suggested ground assaults in coming days, but seizure of the Netzarim corridor is the first major move to retake territory in Gaza since Tuesday’s airstrikes, which shattered a two-month-long pause in the hostilities with Hamas. ... Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has said the new offensive will continue until “total victory” is achieved over Hamas and the 59 remaining hostages held by the militant group are freed.

Aaron Maté : Netanyahu Trumps Trump

Israeli Defense Minister Threatens ‘Residents of Gaza’ With ‘Utter Destruction and Devastation’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a direct threat to the civilian population of Gaza on Wednesday, telling the “residents of Gaza” to expel Hamas and free Israeli hostages or face “utter destruction and devastation.”

Katz warned that the attacks on Gaza will get much worse than the bombardment Israel unleashed starting on Tuesday morning, which has killed at least 436 Palestinians, including 183 children.

“Residents of Gaza, this is your last warning. The first Sinwar ruined Gaza and the second Sinwar will destroy it completely. The air force attack against Hamas terrorists was only the first step. The rest will be significantly worse, and you will pay the price,” Katz said in a video statement released on social media.

The Israeli minister said that soon, forced evacuations from “combat zones” will resume. “Unless all the Israeli hostages are released and Hamas is expelled from Gaza, Israel will act with force never before seen,” he said.

Israeli strikes on Gaza kill hundreds, Francesca Albanese reacts

Bombing Yemen is the next best thing to bombing Iran

Trump Threatens Yemen’s Houthis With ‘Total Annihilation’

President Trump on Wednesday threatened Yemen’s Houthis, saying they will be “totally annihilated” by the US bombing campaign on Yemen, and issued a new warning to Iran.

Trump’s latest threat came amid reports that the US bombed the Yemeni capital of Sanaa again on Wednesday. According to Yemen’s Al Masirah TV, the attack targeted a residential area and wounded seven women and two children. US strikes were also reported in Sadaa and hit targets across Yemen early Wednesday morning.

Trump previously said that he would blame Iran for each Houthi attack even though US officials have acknowledged the Yemeni group, officially known as Ansar Allah, acts independently and likely wouldn’t take orders from Tehran and has its own weapons supply.

Nuclear Iran War Plans IN DEVELOPMENT

Judge rules to move Mahmoud Khalil’s immigration case from New York to New Jersey

On Wednesday, Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York transferred Mahmoud Khalil’s case to New Jersey, where the 30-year-old Columbia University graduate student and legal US resident was immediately taken following his kidnapping on March 8.

Khalil has been targeted for deportation by the Trump administration for his role as lead negotiator for students with the Columbia administration during the anti-genocide encampment movement last spring. Khalil has not been charged with a crime, but this has not prevented the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio from imprisoning and attempting to deport him for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza.

Yesterday, in his first public statement since being abducted by the Trump administration, Khalil denounced both big business parties and the Columbia administration for facilitating the genocide and ongoing attacks on democratic rights.

“My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians,” Khalil wrote. He concluded his statement with a warning that attempts to imprison and deport him threatened “the fundamental civil liberties of all.”

In Wednesday’s order, Judge Furman ruled that his temporary restraining order preventing Khalil’s deportation remains in effect until and unless a district judge in New Jersey rules otherwise. For now, Khalil remains imprisoned in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 1,300 miles from his American wife, who is 8 ½ months pregnant with their first child. His next court hearing before an immigration judge is currently scheduled for March 27 at 8:30 a.m.

Trump-Zelensky call. Russia seeks security on west border

Trump and Zelenskyy share ‘frank’ but ‘very good’ call as Ukraine accepts partial ceasefire

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good telephone call” on Wednesday, according to Trump, in the first conversation between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart since their disastrous showdown in the White House three weeks ago.

Zelenskyy described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank”, and said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier. The White House said Trump had promised to help with a Ukrainian request to source more air defence batteries for Kyiv. ...

“We instructed our teams to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after the call.

Previously, Ukrainian and US negotiating teams had agreed on a full ceasefire, but Putin turned that down suggesting instead pausing mutual strikes on energy infrastructure and a ceasefire in the Black Sea.

Trump, posting on Truth Social, described his talk with Zelenskyy as a “very good telephone call” that lasted around an hour. “Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs. We are very much on track,” he wrote, in language that was noticeably less hyperbolic than some of his pronouncements on the conflict.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Can Europe Survive?

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

“I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added. ...

A diplomatic source told the French news agency that the incident occurred on 9 March. Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled.

The research minister, Baptiste, has been outspoken in his own criticism of the Trump administration, and Elon Musk, for making huge cuts to scientific research budgets.

On the same day that the researcher was denied entry to the US, Baptiste published a letter calling on American researchers to relocate to France. “Many well-known researchers are already questioning their future in the United States,” he wrote. “We would naturally wish to welcome a certain number of them.”

Economist Says Fed Warning Shows Trump Driving US Economy 'Toward Disaster'

A former Obama administration economic adviser said Wednesday that the Federal Reserve's forecast of increased unemployment, accelerating inflation, and slower growth driven by President Donald Trump's economic policies could portend a return of the "stagflation" that plagued the nation in the 1970s.

The Federal Open Markets Committee, which sets U.S. monetary policy, downgraded its economic outlook for 2025 from an initial projection of 2.1% growth to 1.7%. FOMC also revised its inflation forecast upward from 2.5% to 2.8%.

While FOMC said that "recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace," the committee noted that "uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased."

Word of the day: stagflation. Fed projects slower growth and higher inflation. pic.twitter.com/UZXKZty7Tg

— Kathy Jones (@KathyJones) March 19, 2025

Fears of an economic slowdown or even a recession have increased dramatically since Trump took office and imposed tariffs on some of the nation's biggest trade partners while moving to gut critical social programs in order to fund a $4.5 trillion tax cut that will overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans.

"Inflation has started to move up now. We think partly in response to tariffs and there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during a Wednesday news conference, at which he said interest rates will remain unchanged. "The survey data [of] both household and businesses show significant large rising uncertainty and significant concerns about downside risks."

The economic justice group Groundwork Collaborative said the FOMC projections show that "Trump is steering our economy toward disaster," while warning of the possible return of stagflation, a combination of low or negative economic growth and inflation.

Alex Jacquez, the chief of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative and a former adviser at the White House National Economic Council during the Obama administration, said in a statement that "the Federal Reserve's projections confirm what millions of Americans are already thinking: President Trump is steering our economy toward disaster."

"Voters elected President Trump to lower the cost of living, and instead, they continue to be saddled with persistently high inflation and interest rates," Jacquez continued. "Launching chaotic trade wars with our allies and gutting Social Security, Medicaid, and other vital programs in order to fund tax breaks for his billionaire donors isn't making life more affordable for working-class families. It is, however, a perfect recipe for stagflation."

Trump's economic policies—which some observers believe could be designed to deliberately tank the economy so that the ultrawealthy can buy up assets at deep discounts—have sent consumer confidence plummeting. Meanwhile, recent polls have revealed that a majority of voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy and inflation.

The latest FOMC forecast came as the world braces for yet another escalation of Trump's trade war, with the president threatening to implement worldwide reciprocal tariffs starting April 2.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Monday that Trump's trade war is likely to slow economic growth in the United States and around the world.

"The global economy has shown some real resilience, with growth remaining steady and inflation moving downwards," OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. "However, some signs of weakness have emerged, driven by heightened policy uncertainty."

"Increasing trade restrictions will contribute to higher costs both for production and consumption," Cormann added. "It remains essential to ensure a well-functioning, rules-based international trading system and to keep markets open."

Musk echoes rightwing conspiracy theories to defend social security cuts

Elon Musk is claiming, without evidence, that Democrats have been using fraud in entitlements like social security and Medicare to attract immigrants and boost their voting ranks – language that also echoes racist rightwing conspiracy theories. The billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX and Donald Trump’s “first buddy” has been trying to justify cuts to programs like social security, arguing that the fraud has cost the government up to $200bn.

“This is why the Democrats are so upset about the situation,” Musk said on a podcast with the Republican senator Ted Cruz and radio host Ben Ferguson. “By using entitlements fraud, the Democrats have been able to attract and retain vast numbers of illegal immigrants and buy voters. Basically bring in 10, 20 million people who are beholden to the Democrats for government handouts and will vote overwhelmingly Democrat.”

Musk said that his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) will “turn off fraudulent payments of entitlements” to “illegals”, as he listed off a long slate of government programs including social security, Medicare, unemployment, disability and small business loans. He then voiced what sounded akin to the “great replacement theory”, which has been taken on by rightwing extremists and describes the theory that people in the US, specifically those who are white, are being “replaced” by immigrants.

“If the Dems can bring in 200,000 illegals and get them legalized … even without cheating, if you bring in illegals that are 10 [times] the voting differential in a swing state, it will no longer be a swing state,” Musk said. “And the Dems will win all the swing states in a matter of time.” Musk then warned of the “deep socialist state” that Democrats will achieve if they take over the federal government. “They will further cement that by bringing in more aliens, so you can’t vote your way out of it,” he said.

Over the last few days, Musk’s Doge has started to zero in on social security – what Musk has called “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” – arguing that the agency has seen billions of dollars in fraud, though not necessarily from immigrants. Musk has especially attached himself to an alleged list of dead people he says the agency is still giving money to. In a recent interview with Fox Business, Musk claimed that there were 20 million “dead people in the social security database”. At least 10 employees with Doge have been specifically tasked with trying to find people in the US who are dead but still receive social security payments. Those with the agency, including the acting commissioner, Lee Dudek, have said the list Musk is referring to are people who don’t have date of deaths on their records and are not necessarily receiving benefits.

Conservative former federal judge says Trump has ‘declared war’ on US rule of law

Donald Trump has “declared war on the rule of law in America” and is pitching the country into a constitutional crisis, a prominent former conservative federal judge said. “The president of the United States has essentially declared war on the rule of law in America,” J Michael Luttig told MSNBC. “In the past few weeks … the president himself has led a full-frontal assault on the constitution, the rule of law, the federal judiciary, the American justice system and the nation’s legal profession.

“When the president of the United States wages a war on the rule of law and the federal judiciary alley, America is in a constitutional crisis. The constitutional role of the president is to faithfully execute the laws. Needless to say, the president is doing anything but that at the moment. Most constitutional scholars have long agreed that a constitutional crisis exists at least when the president defies a court order. That’s essentially what the president is doing today and what it appears he intends to do in the future.” On Tuesday, Trump called for the impeachment and removal of James Boasberg, the chief US district judge in Washington DC. ...

Luttig said: “This is very deliberate by the president. As you know, he, the vice-president [JD Vance] and [Trump ally and adviser] Elon Musk have been taunting the federal courts for months, suggesting the president would soon defy the federal courts. Elon Musk called for an immediate wave of judicial impeachments … against all judges who issue orders blocking the power of the executive branch to unilaterally overhaul the government.” ...

Luttig continued: “As of today, we know that all of this taunting and intimidation was toward the end of provoking this constitutional crisis.”

White House calls judge challenging Trump deportation order a ‘Democrat activist’

The White House on Wednesday labeled the federal judge challenging the Trump administration on whether it defied his court order to halt flights deporting migrants without a hearing “a Democrat activist”. The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, singled out by name at a White House press briefing federal judge James Boasberg, who weighed the legality of Donald Trump’s deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, and is now evaluating the government’s compliance.

Boasberg had attempted over the weekend to prevent planes carrying the migrants from leaving, and has since demanded from the government details of the aircrafts’ exact itineraries to determine if they complied with his order. That argument is continuing in court, with the administration saying all flights took off before Boasberg’s order, while that is disputed and the judge has demanded a detailed itinerary. On Wednesday he threatened consequences if his order was violated, while giving the administration more time to present evidence.

Leavitt said: “The judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the president doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil. That is an egregious abuse of the bench. This judge cannot, does not have that authority.”

She added: “And it’s very, very clear that this is an activist judge who is trying to usurp the president’s authority under the Alien Enemies Act. The president has this power, and that’s why this deportation campaign has continued, and this judge, Judge Boasberg is a Democrat activist.”

Republican president George W Bush appointed Boasberg to the district of Columbia’s superior court, then Democratic president Barack Obama elevated him to the federal court. Boasberg is considered a centrist Democrat and was a roommate of US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, while both were studying at Yale University, the New York Times reported, as an aside.

Is that a drumbeat I hear in the distance?

Democrat calls for Schumer’s removal over support of Republican funding bill

A Democratic congressman has become the first to publicly call for Chuck Schumer to step down as Senate minority leader, highlighting growing divisions within the party over how to confront and counter Donald Trump’s administration. Glenn Ivey of Maryland told constituents on Tuesday that Schumer’s decision to allow a Republican funding bill to pass had surrendered crucial leverage against the administration.

“I respect Chuck Schumer. I think he had a great career,” Ivey said at a packed Maryland town hall. “But it may be time for Senate Democrats to get a new leader.”

The rebuke – met with applause at the meeting in Prince George’s county, home to thousands of federal workers bordering Washington DC – marks the first public demand from a Democratic lawmaker for Schumer’s removal. ...

But Ivey didn’t get off so easily either, and at one point the town hall turned on him, with attendees repeatedly interrupting the congressman to demand more aggressive action against Trump’s policies now, not during the 2026 midterm elections. “You are talking about voting! People are losing their lives!” one woman screamed from the rafters. “It is not business as usual! You are too calm.”

The INSIDE Story Of Elon Musk In The White House: Tara Palmeri

GOP Lawmaker Drowned Out by 'Tax the Rich' Chant at Town Hall in Deep-Red Nebraska District

A small Nebraska city where U.S. President Donald Trump easily won the 2024 election was the site of the latest chaotic Republican town hall on Tuesday evening, with Rep. Mike Flood facing a roomful of about 200 voters, many of whom refused to accept his excuses for the Trump administration's drastic cuts to the federal government.

Flood came to the Columbus High School auditorium prepared with a graphic showing the national debt, with a giant screen showing the sum ticking up to $36 trillion—evidently confident that the number would help explain to voters why Republicans are pushing for hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and Social Security while backing billionaire Elon Musk's massive cuts to the federal workforce.

But when he displayed the number and told one voter who asked about cuts to the National Institutes of Health that, "ultimately, where we need to go is to a balanced budget," he was met with loud booing.

"How can you be against a balanced budget?" Flood asked the room—which prompted the reply, "tax the rich!" to ring out across the auditorium.

Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood is stunned as the crowd at his own town hall rejects his defense of Trump, Musk, and DOGE and drowns him out with chants of “TAX THE RICH! TAX THE RICH!” pic.twitter.com/VKeS68PiTB

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 19, 2025

Flood was meeting with voters in Nebraska's deep-red 2nd District for the first time since Trump took office. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently advised GOP lawmakers to avoid town halls and claimed protesters who have shown up to numerous meetings with Republican representatives are "Democrat activists who don't live in the district," but he and other critics have presented no evidence that the anger directed at Trump's allies in Congress is coming from anywhere but their constituents.

Flood also faced questions about Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with one attendee asking, "What makes Elon Musk a better person to audit our government for waste, fraud, and abuse than the inspectors general that Donald Trump fired?"

"Elon Musk gets $40 billion a year in funding from the federal government. What makes you think he has no conflict of interest?" asked the voter. "Do you think he would cut that before he would cut our Medicare, or our Social Security, or our jobs?"

Flood replied that he supports both Musk and DOGE, prompting more loud booing and thumbs-down gestures.

It’s not going well for MAGA. Republican Rep. Mike Flood tells his constituents he supports Elon Musk and DOGE, which triggers a massive roar of boos and thumbs down gestures from the crowd. pic.twitter.com/fBbPJdxDGl

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 19, 2025

Greenpeace must pay at least $660m over Dakota pipeline protests, says jury

A jury in North Dakota has decided that the environmental group Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the pipeline company Energy Transfer and is liable for defamation and other claims over protests in the state nearly a decade ago. Energy Transfer Partners, a Dallas-based oil and gas company worth almost $70bn, had sued Greenpeace, alleging defamation and orchestrating criminal behavior by protesters at the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and 2017, claiming the organization “incited” people to protest by using a “misinformation campaign”.

Greenpeace, which had denied the claims, said in a statement after the verdict that lawsuits like this were aimed at “destroying the right to peaceful protest”; constitutional rights experts had expressed fears that the case could have a wider chilling effect on free speech.

The nine-person jury in Mandan, North Dakota, found in favor of Energy Transfer on most counts after more than two days of deliberations. It awarded Energy Transfer at least $660m, according to calculations from Greenpeace. The environmental group, which had expressed concerns before the trial about getting a fair hearing in oil and gas country, said that a loss and an enormous financial award could bankrupt their US operation. Energy Transfer sued three Greenpeace entities, claiming that they are a single organization rather than independent members of the Greenpeace network.

Greenpeace will appeal the decision, the organization said.

The case has been closely watched by the wider non-profit community and first amendment experts amid concerns over how it could affect activism. “What we saw over these three weeks was Energy Transfer’s blatant disregard for the voices of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. And while they also tried to distort the truth about Greenpeace’s role in the protests, we instead reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to non-violence in every action we take,” said Deepa Padmanabha, Greenpeace’s senior legal adviser. ...

Greenpeace International was one of the three entities sued by Energy Transfer. Its general counsel, Kristin Casper, said the organization’s fight would continue: “Energy Transfer hasn’t heard the last of us in this fight. We’re just getting started with our anti-Slapp [strategic lawsuits against public participation] lawsuit against Energy Transfer’s attacks on free speech and peaceful protest. We will see Energy Transfer in court this July in the Netherlands. We will not back down, we will not be silenced.”

Criminalizing Dissent: Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M to Dakota Access Pipeline Firm over Protests

Trump administration may fire more than 1,000 EPA scientists and scrap research office

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to eliminate its scientific research office and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants.

As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists – 75% of the research programme’s staff – could be laid off, according to documents reviewed by Democratic staff on the house committee on science, space and technology.

The planned layoffs, cast by the Trump administration as part of a broader push to shrink the size of the federal government and make it more efficient, were assailed by critics as a massive dismantling of the EPA’s longstanding mission to protect public health and the environment.

The plans were first reported by the New York Times.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said he wants to eliminate 65% of the agency’s budget, a huge spending cut that would require major staffing reductions for jobs such as monitoring air and water quality, responding to natural disasters and lead abatement, among many other agency functions. ... The Office of Research and Development – EPA’s main science arm – currently has 1,540 positions, excluding special government employees and public health officers, according to one memo. A majority of staff – ranging from 50% to 75% – “will not be retained”, the memo says.

More than 150 ‘unprecedented’ climate disasters struck world in 2024

The devastating impacts of the climate crisis reached new heights in 2024, with scores of unprecedented heatwaves, floods and storms across the globe, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization. The WMO’s report on 2024, the hottest year on record, sets out a trail of destruction from extreme weather that took lives, demolished buildings and ravaged vital crops. More than 800,000 people were displaced and made homeless, the highest yearly number since records began in 2008.

The report lists 151 unprecedented extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any ever recorded in the region. Heatwaves in Japan left hundreds of thousands of people struck down by heatstroke. Soaring temperatures during heatwaves peaked at 49.9C at Carnarvon in Western Australia, 49.7C in the city of Tabas in Iran, and 48.5C in a nationwide heatwave in Mali. Record rains in Italy led to floods, landslides and electricity blackouts; torrents destroyed thousands of homes in Senegal; and flash floods in Pakistan and Brazil caused major crop losses.

Storms were also supercharged by global heating in 2024, with an unprecedented six typhoons in under a month hitting the Philippines. Hurricane Helene was the strongest ever recorded to strike the Big Bend region of Florida in the US, while Vietnam was hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, affecting 3.6 million people. Many more unprecedented events will have passed unrecorded.

The world is already deep into the climate crisis, with the WMO report saying that for the first time, the 10 hottest years on record all occurred in the last decade. However, global carbon emissions have continued to rise, which will bring even worse impacts. Experts were particularly critical of the purge of climate scientists and programmes by the US president, Donald Trump, saying that ignoring reality left ordinary people paying the price.

Also of Interest

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

Craig Murray: Genocidal Western ‘Democracy’

‘Our hopes are gone’: Gaza faces fresh devastation as ceasefire collapses

The far-right’s pretend fight against antisemitism is a perfect political strategy

Trump Seeks Russian Support For War On Iran

Florida mayor drops threat to evict cinema over No Other Land screening

How To Do Tariffs Right (Trump The Moron Edition)

Alito and Thomas Urged to Recuse From Key Case Over 'Cozy Ties' to Right-Wing Kingpin

Dark energy: mysterious cosmic force appears to be weakening

Why the U.S. Has DROPPED To Its LOWEST-Ever Spot On Annual World Happiness Report

Huge Tesla Investor Wants Elon OUT As Execs Dump Stock

CIA Secrets in JFK Files REVEALED?

A Little Night Music

Tiny Bradshaw - I'm A Hi-Ballin' Daddy

Tiny Bradshaw - Lay It on The Line

Tiny Bradshaw - Walk That Mess

Tiny Bradshaw - Soft

Tiny Bradshaw - Well Oh Well

Tiny Bradshaw - Knockin' Blues

Tiny Bradshaw - The Blues Came Pouring Down

Tiny Bradshaw - Heavy Juice

Tiny Bradshaw - The Train Kept A'Rollin'