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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Memphis Minnie

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features early blues singer and guitarist Memphis Minnie. Enjoy!

^{Memphis Minnie - When the Levee Breaks}

“For the whole world of mere stunts and scoops and trading and self-advertisement is spiritually a world utterly dead; although it is very noisy. It is, in the very precise and literal meaning of the phrase, a howling wilderness.”

-- G.K. Chesterton

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News and Opinion

Saying You Listen To AI Music Is Like Saying You Have An AI Girlfriend

It pisses me off whenever I see someone claiming that “AI music” is about to make normal music obsolete.

There is no such thing as “AI music” or “AI art”. AI cannot make music. It cannot create the experience of an artist using skill and intention to transport something from inside them into an audience through vibrations in the air. It can only mimic the noises of that encounter.

It’s like someone going “There’s no need to converse with anyone anymore because they’ve invented a machine which makes noises that sound like human speech!” You’d want to tell them “Hey, that’s not the same thing mate. You’re talking about a completely different experience which in no way satisfies what people are looking for in a conversation.”

Proponents of generative AI will sometimes say things like “I played an AI song for my friend who hates AI, and he loved it!” like that proves something, the argument being that if you can’t tell the difference then there is no difference. But that’s the same as saying there would be no difference between getting catfished by a chatbot and truly finding the love of your life.

When you’re talking about human interaction, which is what art is at its very nature, it absolutely does matter if there’s someone on the other end of it. Of course it does. There is not a species on this planet that produces art or music without doing so to connect or communicate with other members of its species. “AI art” does not meet the same needs as real art, in the same way a chatbot that generates friendly words would not meet the same needs as a real friend.

Tech dudes do not understand the purpose of art or why people enjoy it

— Pander (@PanderShirts) September 29, 2026

Sure generative AI can produce a noise that sounds a lot like the noise made when a fiddler runs her bow across the strings. It can even produce an effect that looks like a video of a fiddler playing a fiddle at the same time. But there is no fiddler, and there is no fiddle, so it’s not fiddle music. It’s just something that SOUNDS like fiddle music.

The same is true of all music, and all art, and the entire range of ways human beings connect to each other. Merely looking and sounding like something is not the same as being that thing. They can generate a chatbot effect for you that looks and sounds like your dead husband, but it will never be your dead husband, and it would not be healthy for you to pretend it’s the same thing.

Generative AI fans frequently display their aversion to exploring the depths of their humanity in the way they’ll stand in public saying “Look, this machine can mimic the sounds of a musician, so normal music is obsolete!” It’s like, what? What do you think music is, exactly? Just noises with a beat you can dance to? I mean I guess that’s all it is for some people, but those people are having a very shallow experience of the thing that music is, and probably a very shallow experience of life in general.

An effect that simply goes through the motions of imitating art can only appeal to someone who has just been going through the motions of living their life. If you don’t understand the significance of the difference between real human connection and something that merely looks and sounds like it, then that means your whole life is about the appearances of things rather the things themselves. It doesn’t matter if your boyfriend really loves you, it just matters that he never leaves. It doesn’t matter if your wife really enjoys having sex with you, it only matters that she puts out and makes it fun for you. It doesn’t matter if your adult children enjoy spending time with you, it just matters that they turn up to family functions and show you the respect you feel you are owed.

People like this are missing out on so very, very much of the human experience, but they don’t know it because they’ve never explored anything outside their immediate comfort zone. They want custom-made music feeding them “infinite personalized tunes” that sounds like the songs they already know they like. They want custom-made podcasts of artificially generated voices feeding them political opinions they already agree with. They want a robotic spouse that caters to their every physical and egoic desire, and they’ll buy them up as soon as they become available.

Don’t be like them. Don’t live like that. Don’t life your life running from true human connection. Don’t be a coward hiding from your own inner dimensions. Dive into the depths of this crazy human adventure. Explore. Expand. Be vulnerable. Be brave. Otherwise you’re just killing time and waiting for death in the shallow end of the pool.

Douglas Macgregor: Israel vs Turkey and Qatar: New US War Strategy?

US Senate blocks resolution demanding accountability over Israeli violence in West Bank

The US Senate on Tuesday evening rejected along mostly party lines a Democratic resolution that would have forced the state department to report to Congress on violence in the occupied West Bank, including the killings of nine American citizens by Israeli settlers or security forces over the last few years. The resolution, led by the Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen, would have given the state department 30 days to report to Congress on those deaths and on wider human rights conditions in the territory, including Israel’s detention of Palestinian children.

The resolution failed to advance by a vote of 47 to 51. Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, joined Republicans in voting against the resolution, while Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted in favor.

“While I was pleased that so many of my Democratic colleagues joined this effort, it’s clear the United States must do more,” Van Hollen said in a statement after the vote. “It is our responsibility to ensure recipients of US taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values – this resolution was an opportunity to shed light on a reality that flies in the face of that principle.”

Nine Americans have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 2022, and the senators say none of the cases has resulted in accountability. The most recent include Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old from Tampa, Florida, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in July 2025 while visiting family in the village of Sinjil. His family said the settlers surrounded him for more than three hours and blocked an ambulance from reaching him as he tried to protect their land. Weeks later, Khamis Ayyad, a 40-year-old father of five from Cicero, Illinois, died of smoke inhalation after settlers set fire to cars and homes in the village of Silwad.

Two other Americans, both 17, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour, were shot dead in separate incidents in early 2024. Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old raised in Seattle, was shot in the head by Israeli troops, and Amer Rabee, a 14-year-old from New Jersey, was shot 11 times, according to Van Hollen. The victim list also includes the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in 2022, and Omar Assad, an elderly man who died after Israeli soldiers bound and gagged him. Van Hollen said none of the cases has ended in accountability, from either the Israeli or US government, and he places the blame largely on Republican senators who continue to vote against it.

Jeremy Scahill EXPOSES SHOCKING Depravity In U.S. Iran School Bombing

Axios: US Officials Think Trump Could Order Resumption of Full-Scale Bombing of Iran After Midterms

US officials believe President Trump could order a return to “major combat operations” against Iran after the midterm elections, as Qatar-mediated negotiations have made little progress, Axios reported on Tuesday.

Iran has maintained that it’s ready to fully open the Strait of Hormuz and enter negotiations on a final deal if the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports, lifts sanctions on Iran, and releases some Iranian frozen funds, commitments that the US agreed to under the Memorandum of Understanding signed back in June.

But the Trump administration is reportedly demanding nuclear concessions from Iran before any of that happens, and Iranian officials say they would only consider doing so once the terms of the MoU were fulfilled.

Israel Begins PREEMPTIVE Strike? Fighter Jets SCRAMBLE, Iran HITS US Navy Ships

US Completing Its Withdrawal From Remaining Military Bases in Iraq

The US military is set to complete its withdrawal from its remaining bases in Iraq on Wednesday under a deal signed between the US and the Iraqi government in 2024.

The US is officially ending the mission of the anti-ISIS coalition that began in 2014 after the US redeployed troops to Iraq following a 2011 withdrawal.

Over the past few months, the US has had only a few hundred troops in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, which has come under significant attacks launched by Iran and its allies since the US launched the war against Iran on February 28. The US also maintained a small presence at its Camp Victory base in Baghdad, and Al Jazeera reported from the base on Tuesday that the last US military personnel have left.

The US will likely keep Marines or other military personnel at its embassy in Baghdad, the largest US diplomatic facility in the world, but it’s unclear whether that presence will be beyond the typical security contingent for a US embassy in a foreign country.

SMOKE RISING NEAR SAUDI EAST-WEST PIPELINE, DIRECT HIT? - w/ Fmr. CIA Larry Johnson

Saudi Arabia urged to reconcile with UAE to drive back Houthi separatists in Yemen

Saudi Arabia is being urged to reconcile with the United Arab Emirates over Yemen as the price Riyadh must pay to form a military alliance capable of driving the Houthis back. Relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, where both had backed anti-Houthi forces, plummeted in January this year when a force with which the UAE had been aligned – the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) – was attacked and defeated by Saudi Arabia in a move intended to squash its attempt to recreate a separate southern state. The UAE subsequently in effect quit Yemen.

But the unexpected success in mid September of the Iran-aligned Houthis’ drive to the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait against pro-government forces has transformed the geopolitics of the region again. The push south defeated the previously UAE-backed National Resistance Forces led by Tareq Saleh, whose front rapidly collapsed. The future role of the UAE in Yemen was discussed at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday attended by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the UAE president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and a group of other Arab states, including representatives of Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu reportedly offered to help Saudi Arabia defeat the Houthis, an offer that Riyadh would probably find near impossible to accept, even though Donald Trump has failed to answer the Saudi call for US help in Yemen.

“Efforts are being made to try to end the rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and there may be some confidence-building measures. But the UAE has left Yemen, and it is unlikely that Riyadh would let them back in since they are aligned with the STC, and that would spell trouble … the UAE and Saudi Arabia are fundamentally on opposite sides,” said Baraa Shiban, a Gulf and Yemen specialist at the defence thinktank Rusi who has just spent a week in Taiz.

Ansar Allah Says Saudi Arabia Launched 35 Airstrikes in Yemen Over 24 Hours

Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Tuesday that Yemeni forces recorded 35 Saudi airstrikes over the previous 24-hour period, which comes as ground fighting between Ansar Allah and Saudi-backed forces continues mainly in the southwestern Taiz province.

“Over the past 24 hours, Saudi warplanes launched 35 airstrikes using F-15 and Typhoon aircraft, taking off from Khamis Mushait and Taif airbases,” Saree wrote on Telegram.

Saree alleged that the “strikes targeted civilian infrastructure, including communications networks and schools, in the governorates of Taiz, Al-Jawf, Amran, Saada, and Hodeidah.” He added that the latest attacks bring the “total number of Saudi-led airstrikes and missile attacks since the escalation began to 1,158.”

Saudi Arabia was notorious for bombing civilian areas during its war against Ansar Allah from 2015 to 2022, and the current conflict, which was reignited by Saudi airstrikes on the Sanaa International Airport in July, has followed a similar pattern. The US is supporting the Saudi airstrikes by providing targeting and intelligence support.

Mamdani releases plan to combat antisemitism and hate crimes in New York City

Zohran Mamdani debuted a sweeping plan Tuesday to combat antisemitism and hate crimes against Jewish people in New York City, moving to assuage concerns from critics who see his steadfast denunciations of Israel as antisemitic. The strategy includes increased security funding for synagogues, an increased focus on folding Jewish history into public school education, and a pledge to highlight important Jewish cultural and religious sites in the mayor’s day-to-day governance of the city.

Mamdani said the overarching goal of the initiative was to “confront the scourge of antisemitism now and in the future”, noting that Jewish people make up only 12% of the city’s population but are the victims of around half the city’s reported hate crimes. “This is not only unacceptable, it’s something we all have an obligation to change. And City Hall will lead the way,” he said in a video.

Mamdani, a Democrat and the city’s first Muslim mayor, has long been a vocal supporter of Palestinian civil rights and has accused the Israeli government of committing a genocide in Gaza. He has said his criticism of Israel does not amount to antisemitism, though his opponents have argued his heated rhetoric around the conflict has made Jewish people feel unsafe in the city.

Russia Pounds Kyiv as US Pushes Peace Talks /Patrick Henningsen

Yeah, right. Does anybody think that either Trump or the Tech Bros have anything that might be recognizable as a moral sense?

Trump announces vague ‘morally binding’ AI deal among tech CEOs for ‘tremendous self-policing’

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the heads of the largest US tech and AI companies had signed onto a “morally binding” agreement to put controls on artificial intelligence. He announced the deal, called the “Joint Commitment On Frontier Responsibilities,” following a White House luncheon with top tech executives.

“It’s almost like a constitution in a way, and the biggest ​people in the world signed that, and ​I signed it as president, and it really ⁠is a form of protection,” Trump said. Trump also signed an executive order renaming artificial intelligence to “superintelligence”, similar to a declaration he made at the United Nations last week.

The agreement, which Trump suggested would allow the companies to perform “tremendous self-policing” of their products and technologies, outlines a vague framework for how AI firms would establish safety standards as they test out new products. The tech industry has faced increased public scrutiny following a series of incidents where major AI companies inadvertently hacked into outside organizations during safety tests.

While lawmakers, AI researchers and even some AI companies have called for more government oversight of artificial intelligence, Trump has broadly rejected calls for more regulation of the technology – citing competition with China and threats to economic growth. The joint commitment that Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Tuesday appears to carry no enforcement mechanisms or legal implications and is instead a voluntary commitment.

US senator blocks bill to ban Trump from demolishing Kennedy Center without Congress’s approval

A Republican senator has blocked a bipartisan bill that would have prevented Donald Trump from demolishing the Kennedy Center without the approval of Congress.

Mike Lee, of Utah, objected on Monday night when the Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley asked the Senate to pass the Protecting Presidential Memorials Act by unanimous consent. The bill, co-written with the Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, would have banned the demolition of any presidential memorial designated by Congress, including the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, unless lawmakers explicitly approved it.

“First, he destroyed its programming, and now, he wants to destroy the building itself,” Merkley wrote in a statement. “All because the law says Trump can’t put his name on the building.” He called the president’s threats “straight out of the authoritarian playbook”.

Murkowski, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds the center, said last week that lawmakers had authorized and funded substantial renovation work, but “what was not authorized is a demolition of the Kennedy Center”.

The fight over the Kennedy Center has been one of the longest legal dramas of Trump’s second term.

Venezuelan man shot by ICE agent in Texas charged with assaulting an officer

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced an assault charge against a Venezuelan delivery driver who was shot in his car by a federal immigration agent in Texas, accusing the man of striking an officer with his side mirror while trying to drive away.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, according to a criminal complaint. Garcés Pérez, whose attorney has said still has a bullet lodged in his back from the 20 September shooting, made an initial court appearance in an Austin federal court on Tuesday, according to the US attorney’s office in the western district of Texas.

A nine-page affidavit from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent amounts to the government’s fullest public account to date of the shooting in the Texas capital, which has set off protests and outrage from Democrats over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The document includes photos taken from body-worn cameras but no video was released, and the complaint did not say whether the agent allegedly struck by the side mirror sustained any injuries.

The accusations against Garcés Pérez were reminiscent of previous claims made by immigration agents after high-profile shootings, in which officers have similarly accused drivers of weaponizing their vehicles. In a handful of cases, those allegations have been undermined or walked back after the release of body-worn camera footage, and have renewed scrutiny about the DHS’s reliance on vehicular stops to execute arrests.

According to an affidavit signed by a DHS agent, officers first saw Garcés Pérez’s car parked outside of a restaurant with its emergency flashers on. They decided to pull him over after conducting a database check that showed the car was registered to Garcés Pérez who had a final order of removal from the US. The agents said that they turned on their lights to execute the stop, but in the same filing, Garcés Pérez told investigators that an unmarked SUV followed him and then abruptly cut him off on the side of the road.

US supreme court allows Trump officials to resume deportations to third countries

The Trump administration can resume quickly deporting immigrants to a “third countries”, or countries other than those immigrants’ homeland, without giving them any opportunity to contest their removals, the supreme court ruled on Tuesday.

The six-justice conservative majority of the high court temporarily lifted a lower-court decision that required the administration to provide immigrants sufficient notice and the opportunity to claim fear of torture or persecution in the countries where they are being sent. The Trump administration had claimed this stipulation had prevented it from “efficiently removing aliens” from the US.

As is typical in emergency orders, the justices did not explain why it granted the administration’s request. The three liberal justices of the court, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the order.

Tuesday’s ruling will take effect while the supreme court considers the larger question in the case. Justices said they would hear oral arguments in December. It is the second time the supreme court has sided with the Trump administration over “third-country” deportations.

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“GARBAGE! SHAM!” FURIOUS MAGA Voters ABANDON Trump

Impeachment Calls Grow as Dems Say Up to $20 Million in Taxpayer Funds Were Used for ‘Illegal’ Pro-Trump Ads

As critics condemn President Donald Trump’s trio of taxpayer-funded advertisements as illegal propaganda and “an impeachable offense,” The Wall Street Journal and leading congressional Democrats revealed Tuesday that the administration appears to have used US Department of Homeland Security funding to pay for the ads.

Citing unnamed sources, the Journal reported that “Trump personally pushed for the ads and has been involved in their creation,” and that the money came from US Customs and Border Protection, an agency of DHS. Top Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives said the administration apparently used CBP funding allocated in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.

Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Homeland Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday sent a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the “outrageous scheme” of using “Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to bankroll the obscene political ads celebrating President Trump.”

The pair noted that on September 19, the Office of Management and Budget approved a release of money to CBP, including “$20 million in new funding under the line item ‘Commemorative Events,’ which we suspect may well be the funding tapped to run this government propaganda.”

“We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars,” they told Mullin, a former senator who voted for the GOP’s 2025 budget package.

Specifically, as the watchdog Public Citizen detailed in a Tuesday complaint to the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and broadcasters, the three campaign ads “appear to violate the federal law against using taxpayer funds to finance propaganda (5 USC §3107) and related provisions of the appropriations laws as well as the Hatch Act (5 USC §7324).”

Margaret Dylus-Yukins, senior legal counsel for ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, highlighted on Monday that the unlawful ads come on top of the war chest that Trump has raised—mostly from rich people and corporations—since the last election for the super political action committee (PAC) MAGA Inc.

“At a minimum, this is an appalling abuse of taxpayer dollars, particularly when hundreds of millions of private dollars are already flowing into US elections—and Trump has personally helped raise enormous sums from wealthy special interests for a super PAC devoted to advancing his political agenda,” Dylus-Yukins said.

Axios on Tuesday corroborated the Journal’s reporting that “Trump is personally selecting which government-funded ads his administration is airing ahead of the midterms,” and one unnamed official claimed that “this is just the beginning.”

With the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress just five weeks away, the administration has claimed the ads are “public service announcements.” Murray and Murphy called that defense “as absurd as it is offensive,” and pointed out that “the White House has failed to answer our most basic questions about where these funds coming from and who is responsible.”

“The American people deserve answers about how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself—while doing nothing to help them afford healthcare or housing. These ads need to immediately come off the air, taxpayers need to be paid back for this theft, and everyone responsible needs to be held accountable for this corrupt and illegal propaganda,” the senators argued, demanding answers to a list of questions within 48 hours.

Republicans cried that Trump needed money for the border and then he stole the money to pay for a millions in totally illegal, taxpayer funded campaign ads.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) September 29, 2026

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) also spoke out Tuesday, saying that “after gutting $1 trillion from Medicaid, stripping healthcare coverage from millions of Americans, giving the very richest Americans and large corporations massive tax breaks, adding more than $4 trillion to the deficit, and more than quadrupling funding for mass deportations, it turns out the Trump administration used Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill to pay for President Trump’s political ads.”

“When Democrats reclaim control of Congress next year, the House Appropriations Committee will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable,” that pair pledged.

With Trump’s approval rating dropping—largely due to poor economic conditions exacerbated by his illegal Iran War—Republicans are increasingly at risk of losing their current majorities in one or both chambers. In the House, that would likely mean not only DeLauro chairing the Appropriations Committee, but also Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.) Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) respectively leading the Oversight, Intelligence, and Judiciary committees.

Impeach him again.
https://t.co/iafKMWvOM9

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) September 29, 2026

“For two years, Trump and his family have run the presidency like a family business, getting richer by the billions while Republicans in Congress held the door open,” Congressional Integrity Project senior adviser Jeremy Funk said in a Tuesday statement.

Pointing to “Gulf money” for Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, “Pentagon contracts” for Donald Trump Jr., the first family’s lucrative cryptocurrency schemes, and “now taxpayer-funded ads starring Trump himself,” Funk charged that “every one of these rackets depended on a Republican Congress that refused to ask a single question.”

“That era ends in January,” he declared. “Jim Himes, Robert Garcia, and Jamie Raskin, and every other Democratic committee chair, has the receipts, and soon they’ll have the gavels and subpoena power. Trump’s cronies are already lawyering up. They should be. Accountability is coming for all of them.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who could become speaker if Democrats reclaim the chamber, made clear in an interview with The Associated Press published on Saturday that “we are going to hold the crooks accountable,” and “we haven’t ruled anything out,” including impeachment.

While some elected Democrats and political commentators have argued that impeaching Trump a historic third time wouldn’t be a good use of the party’s time—particularly as the Senate acquitted him in both of the previous cases—Jeffries’ comments came just days after Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who is retiring after this term, introduced over two dozen more articles of impeachment against the president.

Meanwhile, Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who served as the White House ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush, told The New York Times on Sunday that the use of federal funds for the ads could be “an impeachable offense.”

“This is very dangerous,” Painter said. “We do not allow government-sponsored propaganda in the United States.”

Dems SURGE +16 As Republicans SCREWED In Midterms

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Antarctic winter sea ice falls to third-lowest level on record as scientists warn of ‘now problem’

Antarctica’s winter sea ice has peaked at its third-lowest level on record, falling a million square kilometres – or almost 400,000 square miles – short of the long-term average, scientists have confirmed. Confirmation of the peak meant the four lowest years on record for the continent’s sea ice – a vital component of the planet’s climate and critical for marine life – had all occurred in the past four years.

Satellites have been watching the continent’s sea ice since 1979, and this year data showed the sea ice peaked on 14 September at 17.59m square kilometres, about a million square kilometres short of the average maximum or an area roughly twice the size of Spain.

Dr Walt Meier, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, said the centre had held off in declaring the maximum because there was a “lot of potential variability” at this stage in the continent’s sea ice cycle. But the levels of sea ice had been falling since 14 September and he now thought “the maximum has been reached”.

“The past four winters have had the lowest sea ice maximum on record – that’s a very clear indication of a system that has changed,” said Dr Ariaan Purich, a Southern Ocean expert at Monash University in Melbourne. “This is not a one-off event any more. The sea ice is no longer covering the same extent of ocean that it used to. We are seeing low winter after low winter and that suggests the sea ice is behaving differently because we have warmed our climate.

“This is not a future problem. It’s a now problem.”

UN warns of ‘narrowing window’ to restore world’s forests

The world faces a “narrowing window” to restore forests essential for food security and resistance to the climate emergency, a United Nations report has warned. More than 489m hectares (1.2bn acres) of forests have been cleared since 1990, while an even greater area is degraded, the world body said in a call for governments to make forest restoration a national priority. The State of the World’s Forests report acknowledges recent steps forward in protection and tree planting around the globe but says action has not kept pace with commitments.

Over the past two decades, national, regional and global initiatives have promised to place more than 1bn hectares of land under restoration, but barely a fifth of that is actually being restored, the report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes, saying: “Progress is uneven, and it is insufficient to meet growing global needs.”

Forests, which cover 4.14bn hectares (about a third of Earth’s land surface), store 714 gigatonnes of carbon and host up to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. They also play an important role in regulating rainfall and in reducing hunger, with nearly one-third of the global population depending on them for livelihoods.

Threats are intensifying. Every year, about 127m hectares of forest are affected by fires, with further damage caused by insects, diseases and severe weather events. This is making forests ever more vulnerable, as it comes on top of pressure from farm expansion, the climate crisis, pollution and the extraction of fossil fuels and other resources.

“This widening gap between demand and sustainable supply highlights a structural imbalance that threatens both ecological integrity and the long-term viability of forest-based economies,” the report states.

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Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: Trump & the Age of Evil

Judge Lets Lawsuit Proceed After Police Target Miami Beach Resident Who Criticized Pro-Israel Mayor

IRGC writes an open letter to American people

The Potential AI Lockdown Of Knowledge

‘Rogue’ AI Agents Will Kill Billions?

The Maga cult is finally crumbling

Trump’s border wall construction cut into an ancient ground carving older than Stonehenge

The night sky is getting 10% brighter every year. We’re forgetting what darkness feels like

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A Little Night Music

Memphis Minnie - Hoodoo Lady Blues

Memphis Minnie - If You See My Rooster

Memphis Minnie - Kissing In The Dark

Memphis Minnie - Dirty Mother For You

Memphis Minnie - Down By The Riverside

Memphis Minnie - No Need You Doggin' Me

Memphis Minnie - Good Biscuits

Memphis Minnie - Killer Diller Blues

Memphis Minnie - Jump Little Rabbit

Memphis Minnie - Hot Stuff

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