---

---

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Professor Longhair

---

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans piano player and songwriter Professor Longhair. Enjoy!

^{Professor Longhair - They Call Me Dr Professor Longhair}

"[Charlie Kirk's] murder has given the movement he represented — grounded in Christian nationalism — a martyr. Martyrs are the lifeblood of violent movements. Any flinching over the use of violence, any talk of compassion or understanding, any effort to mediate or discuss, is a betrayal of the martyr and the cause the martyr died defending.

Martyrs sacralize violence. They are used to turn the moral order upside down. Depravity becomes morality. Atrocities become heroism. Crime becomes justice. Hate becomes virtue. Greed and nepotism become civic virtues. Murder becomes good. War is the final aesthetic. This is what is coming."

-- Chris Hedges

---

News and Opinion

Trump Promotes A “Charlie Kirk Act” To Establish A Ministry Of Truth

It’s probably worth flagging the fact that the president of the United States is promoting the establishment of a Ministry of Truth to restrict speech in a suggested law called the “Charlie Kirk Act”.

President Trump’s Truth Social account posted a viral video from TikTok on Saturday in which a Trump voter named Elly May blamed the assassination of Republican political operative Charlie Kirk on the press, urging the president to push for legislation which would make “news corporations accountable for lying to the American people and spreading propaganda instead of truth.”

May frames the idea as a revisitation of the Smith-Mundt Act, but then goes on to describe authoritarian measures which have nothing to do with Smith-Mundt.

ALL OF THIS! @officialellymay pic.twitter.com/CuCVHLgOOg

— NukeTaco (@TacoforFive1) September 12, 2025

“President Trump, as a supporter who voted for you 3 times, I am hoping and praying that you will revisit what Barack Obama and Joe Biden got rid of back in 2013, which is the Smith-Mundt Act, which held news corporations accountable for lying to the American people and spreading propaganda instead of truth,” May says. “I think instead of bringing it back as a Smith-Mundt Act, you name it the Charlie Kirk Act, make it a law, and you make it damn near impossible for these people to continue to lie to the American public, which has brought chaos, hatred, division, and anarchy all across this country. Fines out their ass which will damn near bankrupt their companies should they lie to the American people ever again.”

“Because of their constant lies, a man lost his life, because of the constant hateful rhetoric of calling him a fascist, and a Nazi, and a white supremacist, and a bigot,” May said. “I think this would be a great legacy for him to have a law named after him to force journalists to finally start telling the truth and having the integrity that they have lacked for over a decade.”

“We are on a dangerous path right now with the constant lies and the propaganda,” May says. “And that doesn’t end just at news journalists. It needs to go to content creators who consistently spread lies and propaganda and half-truths across the internet. This needs to end, and people need to start being held accountable for baseless claims over absolute abysmal things.”

“Get this in front of Congress, get this passed as a law, and start holding these news corporations — be they right, left or center — accountable for their behavior,” May concludes.

May has been promoting a Change dot org petition to “Enact the Charlie Kirk Act to Restore Media Accountability,” which as of this writing has tens of thousands of signatures.

“This amended act will hold media outlets, radio stations, educators, and content creators accountable for the false narratives and erroneous information they spread deliberately or irresponsibly,” the petition reads, proposing heavy fines for those deemed to be in violation.

A couple of issues with this.

Firstly, the Smith-Mundt Act had nothing to do with holding “news corporations accountable for lying to the American people”; it was a Cold War-era law which prohibited official US government propaganda created by institutions like the State Department and the USAGM from being disseminated domestically. This law was controversially revised under the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 in the name of combatting Al Qaeda propaganda campaigns in the United States.

Returning Smith-Mundt to its original iteration would be a fine idea. American right wingers tend to make a much bigger deal about the changes made under the Obama administration than is actually warranted — anyone who remembers the lead-up to the Iraq invasion knows the US government had no trouble getting immensely consequential propaganda circulating throughout the American press prior to 2013. But anything that inhibits the US government’s ability to disseminate propaganda to Americans might be somewhat helpful, and couldn’t hurt.

But that isn’t what this “Charlie Kirk Act” push is advocating. Smith-Mundt placed restrictions on what the US government is allowed to do with regard to propaganda, while the proposed “Charlie Kirk Act” would give the US government sweeping new powers to decide what does and does not constitute propaganda and untruth and administer penalties accordingly. One limits the US government’s ability to manipulate public information, while the other explicitly expands it. Nobody anywhere is claiming that propaganda generated by the US State Department or USAGM projects like Voice of America got Charlie Kirk assassinated by calling him a Nazi; they’re talking about creating a new law to stomp out the free speech of “media outlets, radio stations, educators, and content creators.”

You know without even clicking on it that it's going to be about something nightmarishly dystopian and authoritarian. pic.twitter.com/j8HMZjsQkl

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 14, 2025

The other issue is of course that giving the government the authority to penalize propaganda and lies means giving the government the authority to determine what constitutes propaganda and lies. They could decide it’s a lie to say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, for example, or that it’s propaganda to say the US shouldn’t be waging a proxy war in Ukraine. The “Charlie Kirk Act” is being pushed in the name of fighting propaganda, but it would actually be giving the US government unprecedented authority over what Americans are permitted to say on any platform.

This could of course turn out to be nothing and fizzle right away, but when the president of the United States starts pushing for the establishment of a Ministry of Truth to determine what Americans are allowed to say, I think that’s worth drawing attention to.

I’m just amazed at the virality of this whole thing. The American right’s frenzied emotional hysteria about the murder of Charlie Kirk has them promoting an initiative that is not meaningfully different from the Ministry of Truth proposed under the Biden administration’s “Disinformation Governance Board”, which was aborted after massive public outcry from the right. And that was just three years ago.

I’ve said it many times before and I’ll surely say it many times again: when everyone’s emotions are running hot, that’s when it’s most important to be intensely skeptical of everything your government does. We learned this lesson after 9/11, we were reminded again after October 7, and we may very well be getting another lesson with the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Trump Is Weaponizing the Murder of Charlie Kirk to Go After the Left: Mehdi Hasan

Worth a full read. Here's a snippet to get you started:

Charlie Kirk refused Netanyahu funding offer, was ‘frightened’ by pro-Israel forces before death, friend reveals

Charlie Kirk rejected an offer earlier this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to arrange a massive new infusion of Zionist money into his Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization, America’s largest conservative youth association, according to a longtime friend of the slain commentator speaking on the condition of anonymity. The source told The Grayzone that the late pro-Trump influencer believed Netanyahu was trying to cow him into silence as he began to publicly question Israel’s overwhelming influence in Washington and demanded more space to criticize it.

In the weeks leading up to his September 10 assassination, Kirk had come to loathe the Israeli leader, regarding him as a “bully,” the source said. Kirk was disgusted by what he witnessed inside the Trump administration, where Netanyahu sought to personally dictate the president’s personnel decisions, and weaponized Israeli assets like billionaire donor Miriam Adelson to keep the White House firmly under its thumb.

According to Kirk’s friend, who also enjoyed access to President Donald Trump and his inner circle, Kirk strongly warned Trump last June against bombing Iran on Israel’s behalf. “Charlie was the only person who did that,” they said, recalling how Trump “barked at him” in response and angrily shut down the conversation. The source believes the incident confirmed in Kirk’s mind that the president of the United States had fallen under the control of a malign foreign power, and was leading his own country into a series of disastrous conflicts.

By the following month, Kirk had become the target of a sustained private campaign of intimidation and free-floating fury by wealthy and powerful allies of Netanyahu – figures he described in an interview as Jewish “leaders” and “stakeholders.”

“He was afraid of them,” the source emphasized.

PROOF Charlie Kirk Was TERRIFIED Of Israel!

Rubio, Huckabee Pray At Western Wall As Gaza FLATTENED

Rubio in Israel for talks to limit diplomatic damage over Qatar strikes

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has held talks in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at limiting the diplomatic damage to both countries by Israel’s attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders in Qatar, its continued demolition of Gaza, and the accelerated expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli prime minister took Rubio on a tour of the Western Wall, where both men placed written prayers between the stones, before taking his American visitor underground to view archeological excavations. “This alliance has never been stronger,” Netanyahu told reporters. “It’s as strong, as durable as the stones in the Western Wall that we just touched.”

He paused in apparent expectation that the secretary of state would speak, but Rubio said nothing. Part of his mission on this two-day visit is to convey Donald Trump’s irritation at the Tuesday’s Israeli missile strike on Doha that was aimed at Hamas leadership but killed their aides and a Qatari security officer.

The attack has shaken faith among Washington’s allies in the Arab world that the US can protect them, and particularly infuriated Qatar, a close ally who the US has encouraged to host Hamas officials and broker negotiations. On the eve of an emergency summit of Arab and Islamic leaders called by Qatar, its prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urged the international community to “stop using double standards” and punish Israel for what he described as its “crimes”....

Rubio, before his departure on Sunday, discussed the Qatar strike with reporters. “Obviously, we’re not happy about it. The president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next,” Rubio said. He added, however, that the incident was “not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis”.

Alastair Crooke : Trump's Escalatory Dominance Mimics Netanyahu's

From Gaza to Yemen to Doha, Will Israel Ever Be Held to Account for Its Terrorism?"

Responding to Israel’s September 10 attack aimed at Hamas negotiators in Qatar, all 12 members of the UN Security Council issued a toothless statement of condemnation that didn’t even mention Israel by name. This cowardly response underscores the pathetic international reaction to nearly two years of genocide.

Israel believes it can do whatever it wants, wherever it wants, with no consequences–which has been true for two years now. It has already destroyed Gaza. It is expanding settlements, annexing the West Bank, threatening Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. It has attacked aid flotillas, bombed refugee camps, and assassinated negotiators. Now it has bombed a U.S.-allied Gulf capital. And still, the world hesitates.

One would think that the bombing of Qatar — a U.S. ally, the home of U.S. Central Command, and the very place where ceasefire negotiations were being brokered–would be a game changer. The strike killed five Hamas staffers and a Qatari security officer. The senior Hamas leaders survived, but the real target was not just them. The target was diplomacy itself.

Trump, for his part, has been playing a double game: issuing ultimatums to Hamas while allowing Israel to bomb the very negotiators the U.S. asked Qatar to host. His excuse that his envoy “called too late” to warn Doha is laughable. The truth is simpler: Washington could have stopped this. Its air defenses sat idle. Its umbrella of “protection” never opened. The U.S. is not a bystander; it is complicit.

Netanyahu bragged about authorizing a “surgical precision strike” in Doha on what he called “terrorist chiefs.” But let’s be clear: this was state terrorism, carried out in broad daylight against a sovereign country at the heart of U.S. strategy in the Gulf. It was an assassination attempt deliberately timed to blow up the possibility of a ceasefire by killing the very negotiators needed to reach one. For nearly two years, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has consistently obstructed ceasefire talks. The strike on Doha is final proof that Israel has no interest in peace — only endless war.

In Europe, close Israeli allies Germany, France and Britain condemned the strike, as did China and Russia. Even in Israel, the attack provoked outrage from hostage families. Einav Zangauker, whose son is captive in Gaza, said Netanyahu had “essentially sentenced my Matan to death.” She asked the question millions are asking: why does Israel blow up every small chance for a deal?

And the Arab world? Qatar’s prime minister Mohammed Al Thani called the attack “state terrorism,” warning the region that Netanyahu is destabilizing everything and that Netanyahu needs to be brought to justice. Saudi Arabia called it “a violation of international law and an unacceptable aggression against a fellow Arab state.” Jordan warned of “dangerous escalation.” The UAE expressed “grave concern.”

Yet words are cheap. Where is the action? Where is the red line? Arab states have watched Palestinians burned alive in tents, starved at aid lines, bombed in their homes for two years — and offered little more than statements.

If the world allows Israel to get away with bombing Doha, then no country in the Middle East is safe. Arab leaders who rushed to normalize with Israel under Trump’s so-called Abraham Accords–the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan–now find themselves exposed as collaborators while Netanyahu bombs Arab capitals with impunity. The very least they must do right now is rescind those accords, and the rest of the Arab world must denounce any moves to normalize relations.

Qatar is convening an emergency Arab-Islamic summit, and has called for a collective Arab response. This must be more than words: a coordinated campaign to cut trade, sever ties, and impose sanctions on the rogue Israeli state.

From there the crisis will move to New York. As the new session of the UN opens and the U.S. continues to use its veto to stop the Security Council from taking action, the General Assembly must put the crisis at the top of its agenda. It must invoke the Uniting for Peace resolution to call for the following:

A UN protection force to deliver humanitarian aid, protect civilians, preserve evidence of war crimes, and facilitate reconstruction;

Comprehensive sanctions and military embargo;

Withdrawal of Israel’s General Assembly credentials;

Reactivation of the UN’s long-dormant anti-apartheid mechanism, and

Establishing a war crimes tribunal.

The world is watching, and millions of people across continents are demanding an end to this genocide. The UN General Assembly still has the chance to rise to the occasion, to prove that international law is not just words on paper. The bombing of Doha should be the breaking point — the moment the world finally acts.

Trump & Netanyahu HUMILIATED, Israel's Qatar Strike BLOWS BACK | Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson

Medics in southern Gaza sound alarm over wave of newly displaced Palestinians

Doctors and medical staff at the largest hospital still functioning in Gaza say they will be overwhelmed by a wave of new wounded and sick patients if hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee the north of the devastated territory in the face of an intensifying Israeli offensive. Dr Mohammed Saqr, the director of nursing at the Nasser medical complex near Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, said there were not enough staff to cope with even existing demand and that supplies of medicine and fuel were running low.

“We have been working for more than 23 months in an emergency situation so we are all exhausted,” Saqr said in a voice note sent from the complex on Friday. “Some of us are still in Israeli jails and others were killed inside the hospital and outside and others had to leave [the] Gaza Strip to escape death, so our numbers are not like before the war.”

There appears little chance of any new ceasefire after Israel’s strike on Qatar last week. The attack targeted the leadership of Hamas, who were meeting in the Gulf state to consider new terms for a deal set out by Donald Trump. Israel’s military has ordered 1 million people living and sheltering in Gaza City to leave before a new offensive. On Saturday the Israel Defense Forces said more than 250,000 people had already fled, though Gaza’s civil defence agency said the figure was closer to 68,000. ...

Health authorities in Gaza announced last week they would not evacuate Gaza City’s two main operational hospitals, al-Shifa and al-Ahli, and that doctors would not leave patients unattended. The UN’s World Health Organization has also pledged its workers would remain in Gaza City. But doctors at al-Ahli, which has been under evacuation orders for weeks, described a “situation beyond any human mind can imagine or can conceive” and said they could be forced to comply with the Israeli evacuation orders.

“You see towers 20 storeys high collapse in less than two seconds [when hit by an Israeli airstrike], you see thousands of families running for their lives in the streets with their kids, you see the kids being slaughtered, you see limbs being mutilated,” said Dr Khamis Elessi, a consultant pain specialist at the hospital. There are now three times more patients than beds at al-Ahli, which has received as many as 400 cases on some days in the past month. The facility has only three ICU beds. Many casualties with serious injuries, including broken limbs, have been sent home to wait for surgery.

Judith Butler Among 160 Named in UC Berkeley "Antisemitism" Files Handed to Trump Admin

‘We Took the Gloves Off’: Former Israeli Military Chief Admits 220,000 Gaza Casualties

Belying persistent efforts by Israel and its defenders to deny the staggering number of Palestinians killed during the 23-month Gaza genocide, the general who led the Israel Defense Forces during most of the war acknowledged this week that around 220,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded.

Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi—who stepped down in March after leading the IDF since January 2023—told residents of Ein Habor in southern Israel earlier this week that “over 10%” of Gaza’s population of approximately 2.2 million “were killed or injured” since October 2023.

“This is not a gentle war, we took the gloves off from the first minute” Halevi said, adding that “not once” has any legal authority “limited” his wartime conduct.

Following the October 7 attack, the IDF dramatically loosened its rules of engagement, effectively allowing an unlimited number of civilians to be killed when targeting a single Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking.

The IDF’s use of massive ordnance, including US-supplied 1,000- and 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs capable of leveling entire city blocks, and utilization of artificial intelligence to select targets has resulted in staggering numbers of civilian deaths, including numerous instances of dozens or more people being massacred in single strikes.

Halevi insisted that “we are doing everything in accordance with international law.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague disagrees, having issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including forced starvation and murder. Israel’s conduct in the war is also the subject of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case filed by South Africa and supported by around two dozen nations.

Halevi’s admission tracks with official Gaza Health Ministry figures showing at least 228,815 people killed or wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza. GHM also says that around 9,000 people are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Experts—including the authors of multiple peer-reviewed studies in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet—assert that the actual death toll in Gaza is much higher than reported.

The remarks by Halevi come less than a month after 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, as of May, 5 in 6 Palestinians—or 83%—killed by the IDF through the first 19 months of the war were civilians. The report, which drew from classified IDF intelligence data, blew the lid off of Israeli government claims of a historically low civilian-to-combatant kill ratio.

Responding to Halevi’s admission, Drop Site News national security and foreign affairs reporter Murtaza Hussain said on social media that he is “looking forward to the contortions of people whose paychecks are dependent on denying that any of this is the case.”

Israeli officials and media, along with their supportive US counterparts during both the Biden and Trump administrations, have generally cast doubt or outright denied GHM figures—which have been found to be reliable by the IDF, US officials, and researchers—by linking them to Hamas. This comes in addition to widespread Israeli and US denials of Israel’s forced famine and starvation deaths and IDF war crimes in Gaza.

However, there have been rare instances of frankness, including when Barbara Leaf, a senior State Department official during the Biden administration, said that Gaza casualties could be “even higher than are being cited.” Biden-era State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also admitted that the Gaza death toll “could very well be more” than GHM reported, even as he lied to the public about who was thwarting ceasefire efforts.

68 Palestinians Killed Across Gaza Over 24 Hours

The daily massacres in Gaza have continued, with the Gaza Health Ministry reporting 68 deaths across the Strip. Dozens of people were killed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza City.

Officials in Gaza recorded 68 deaths from the war, 346 injuries, and two Palestinians starved to death on Sunday. Many of the deaths occurred in Gaza City, where Israel is ramping up its military operation and destroying the infrastructure in the city. 

Over the past day, Israeli bombs have destroyed homes, high rises, shelters, and medical facilities. The Gaza Health Ministry reported 32 Palestinians were killed during the bombardment on Sunday.

Ray McGovern : Will Trump Follow Netanyahu's Lead?

Douglas Macgregor: 500 Years of Dominance Have Come to an End

Far-right AfD’s vote triples in elections in German bellwether state

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has more than tripled its support in local elections in the country’s most populous state, a poll seen as Friedrich Merz’s first significant electoral test since he took office as chancellor four months ago. According to exit poll results from North Rhine-Westphalia, Merz’s Christian Democrats won with 34% – about the equivalent of its historically worst result in the same poll in 2020 – while the AfD secured 16.5%.

North Rhine-Westphalia, home to almost a quarter of Germany’s citizens and made up of swathes of agricultural land, post-industrial towns and cities with large multi-ethnic and student populations, is viewed as something of a bellwether for the country as a whole.

Almost 14 million people were eligible to vote, equivalent to the size of some EU countries, and larger than the electorate of all east German states, where the AfD is strongest. The vote determines 20,000 seats in the councils of more than 320 towns, cities and municipalities as well as the positions of mayors and lord mayors across the state. Voter turnover was 59%, up from 2020.

Merz’s conservative CDU fulfilled predictions that it would retain its dominant position in the state. The Social Democrats, its junior coalition partner in the federal government, came in second with 22.5%, a small drop from its result in 2020 that defied pollsters’ predictions that it was facing heavy losses. The SPD has struggled to retain support in some areas, in particular former coalmining regions where it was once sure of victory.

The AfD’s strong showing lived up to pollsters’ predictions, more than tripling its standing from five years ago when it secured 5.1%, and giving its candidates who are running for mayoral positions a considerable chance of reaching second-round votes in two weeks’ time. The AfD’s gains appear to have been made on the back of heavy losses for the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic party. The far-left Die Linke secured 5.5%, putting it above its 2020 result of 3.8%.

Germany elections. SPD implodes, AfD triples, Merz panic

Trump insists foreign workers are ‘welcome’ days after arrest of hundreds of South Koreans

President Donald Trump has said foreign workers sent to the United States are “welcome” and he doesn’t want to “frighten off” investors, 10 days after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at a work site in Georgia. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize investment."

“I want them to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products, as they phase out of our Country, and back into their land,” he wrote.

About 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery factory, operated by Hyundai-LG, in the south-eastern US state of Georgia on 4 September.

Though the US decided against deportation, images of the workers being chained and handcuffed during the raid caused widespread alarm in South Korea. Seoul repatriated the workers on Friday. The South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, called the raid “bewildering” and warned on Thursday that the raid could discourage future investment. ... Korea’s trade unions have called on Trump to issue an official apology.

Los Angeles on edge as agents threaten to ‘flood the zone’ with immigration raids

A sense of apprehension hung over Los Angeles this week in the wake of a supreme court ruling that paved the way for federal agents to conduct warrantless raids and target people based on their skin color, accent or job. Immigrant communities have been on edge for months amid sweeping raids that have rounded up thousands of people. In July, a judge issued a temporary restraining order that barred agents from racially profiling people in southern and central California – slowing the raids but not stopping them.

Then on Monday, the supreme court ruling tossed that order aside, setting the stage for emboldened action as the Department of Homeland Security vowed to “flood the zone in Los Angeles”. Fear and fatigue are palpable in immigrant neighborhoods where many must choose between going to work and risking deportation, or staying home and falling behind on rent. Organizers and volunteers, meanwhile, are doubling down on efforts to keep people safe. ...

A report released this month by the Rent Brigade surveyed immigrants in Los Angeles and found that their earnings had dropped by 62% as they stayed home to avoid the raids. They fell behind on rent, placing them at risk of eviction. As a result, the report found 71% of immigrant renters have since returned to work out of fear of eviction – despite the risk of deportation.

On the sidewalk near the Westlake Home Depot, two volunteers set up a sunshade and table. They are with the Los Angeles Community Self-Defense Coalition, which has deployed volunteers to vulnerable workplaces since mid-June. Jocelyn Hernandez, a regular volunteer, watched for Ice activity and handed out flyers explaining rental protections and how to identify Ice vehicles. “I grew up in this area,” she said. “Seeing my community being ripped apart, that was my motivation for being one of the founding members of this space.”

She opposes the raids, especially in a community that is largely from Central America, where a history of US intervention fueled violence that forced people to flee their countries. Her parents are from Mexico and El Salvador. “The reason we immigrated here is because of a civil war that was founded by the United States,” Hernandez said. “We do expect this to get significantly worse,” she said in response to the court ruling.

Prosecutors’ ‘Cop City’ case collapses as judge tosses Rico conspiracy charges

Georgia prosecutors are facing what one expert called “probably the highest-profile failure of using conspiracy charges to indict a protest movement” in US history, after a two-year attempt to prosecute a criminal conspiracy in connection with opposition to the police training center known as Cop City. Fulton county superior court Judge Kevin Farmer announced his decision to dismiss charges against the case’s 61 defendants during hearings this week on a handful of defense attorney motions.

The hearings came after several years of delays in the case centered on Rico, a law created to go after the mafia and usually associated with organized crime, not protest movements. Farmer’s decision responded to a motion filed on behalf of defendant Thomas Jurgens, an attorney acting as a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild at a music festival on 5 March 2023 in a forested public park near the police training center site. Jurgens was one of dozens arrested that day and charged in connection with damage done to construction machinery at the site.

After an hour-plus of discussion in this week’s hearing, Farmer came back from a break and used only 18 words to stymie the state’s prosecution, nearly three years after arrests: “At this time I do not find the attorney general had the authority to bring this Rico case.”

The decision dismisses charges in 100 pages of the state’s 109–page indictment. It also covers one count of arson against five defendants, and the judge is expected to issue a separate ruling on domestic terrorism charges against the same five defendants. Farmer said he will soon issue the orders in writing.

The state has announced its intention to appeal. “The attorney general will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property,” Georgia attorney general Chris Carr’s office said in a statement.

All Sides Have BIG QUESTIONS About Charlie Kirk Assassin Story

President claims people on ‘the left’ are under investigation after Kirk shooting

As officials continue to investigate the motives of Tyler Robinson – the 22-year-old accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk – many Republicans have been quick to lash out at the political left.

Allies of Donald Trump have accused liberals of fomenting anti-conservative vitriol that would encourage violence – even as the president and his allies have often invoked violent imagery against their opponents.

“The problem is on the left,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “A lot of people that you would traditionally say are on the left … [are] already under investigation.”

Chris Hedges: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk

---

---

Kathy Hochul backs Zohran Mamdani in race for New York City mayor

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani in his run for mayor of New York City, a major boost for the democratic socialist. ... The endorsement suggests that centrist Democrats, some of whom have been wary of Mamdani’s campaign, may be willing to back the 33-year-old. ///

Hochul, the most powerful Democrat in New York, had resisted endorsing Mamdani or any other candidate for mayor, telling journalists in June: “Obviously, there’s areas of difference in our positions.” The governor appears to have come round, however, having met with Mamdani in recent weeks. ...

Yet the center of the party has appeared wary. Senior Democratic figures in the state, including the senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, are yet to endorse anyone for mayor. Chuck Schumer, the influential Senate majority leader who represents New York, has also yet to endorse in the race.

---

---

Rising Nato military spending to cause huge spike in emissions

A planned expansion of military spending by Nato countries could generate an additional 1,320m tonnes of planet-heating pollution over the next decade – on a par with the annual greenhouse gas emissions generated by Brazil, the fifth largest emitter in the world, according to a new report. Military activity is fossil-fuel intensive, yet official country data on military emissions is patchy or non-existent.

Now a review of 11 recent academic studies by Scientists for Global Responsibility has found that each additional $100bn of military spending leads to an estimated 32m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) being dumped into the atmosphere. The emissions come from direct sources such as fuel-guzzling combat planes, warships and armored vehicles, as well as indirect emissions from transporting equipment, complex global supply-chains, and the effects of war fighting itself.

Nato, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a political and military alliance between 32 European and North American countries. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and mounting threats by Donald Trump to abandon historic allies – Nato announced plans to increase military spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), as part of a broader security spending target of 5% GDP for each member country.

Meeting the 3.5% target will add 132m tCO2e into the atmosphere, which is about the same amount of carbon pollution generated annually by 345 gas-fired power plants – or the entire oil producing country of Oman, according to the report. The planned rise comes on top of the $200bn funding boost between 2019 and 2024, which already increased Nato’s military carbon footprint by an estimated 64m tCO2.

Much of US shark meat comes from endangered species

A recent study has revealed that the majority of shark meat available to American shoppers is mislabeled, with much of it coming from endangered species. The research, conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tested products from supermarkets, fish markets and online retailers. Astonishingly, 93% of the samples were either falsely labeled or so vaguely described that buyers had no way of knowing the species they were eating. Only one item carried an accurate, species-specific label.

“The purpose of this study was to quantify the identity of ‘shark’ meat sold in the United States,” Savannah Ryburn, a marine ecologist who headed the study, told the Guardian. “We purchased and DNA barcoded 29 shark meat products from grocery stores, seafood markets, and online vendors in the United States to determine their species identity.”

DNA analysis revealed meat from 11 different shark species, including the great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead, both classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Despite their fragile status, these species were found in American markets for as little as $2.99 per lb. The study, now published in Frontiers in Marine Science, reported that 27 of the 29 tested samples were marketed only as “shark” or “mako shark”. Of the two products with species names, one turned out to be misidentified.

Ryburn, who also co-teaches a seafood forensics course that produced the research, emphasized the impact of misleading labels: “Mislabeling and ambiguous labeling remove consumers’ ability to choose what they are putting in their bodies.”

“For example, two species in our study, scalloped hammerhead and great hammerhead, were ambiguously labeled as ‘shark’, even though they are strongly advised against consumption due to their very high contaminant levels,” she said. “Without accurate and precise labeling, consumers cannot avoid purchasing these products.”

---

Also of Interest

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

Jonathan Cook: Billionaires Want You to Think Israel Is in Control

Trump Calls European's Sanction Bluff

Chris Hedges: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk

Stephen Miller Says He and Trump Will Use Law Enforcement to ‘Dismantle’ the Left After Kirk Shooting

How the US right wing is taking over news media and choking press freedom

‘Just Kill Em’: Fox News Host Endorses Giving Homeless People ‘Involuntary Lethal Injection’

‘Like walking through time’: as glaciers retreat, new worlds are being created in their wake

The super-rich are swapping mansions for £2m motorhomes. Do they know something we don’t?

Bobby Hart, co-writer of Monkees hits like Last Train to Clarksville, dies aged 86

---

A Little Night Music

Professor Longhair – Tipitina

Professor Longhair & His Blues Scholars – In The Night

Professor Longhair – Go To the Mardi Gras

Professor Longhair – Cry To Me

Professor Longhair - How Long Has That Train Been Gone

Professor Longhair – Rum And Coca Cola

Professor Longhair – Mess Around

Professor Longhair – Who's Been Fooling You

The Velvetiers – Feelin’ Right Saturday Night

---