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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: The Jive Five

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features doo wop group The Jive Five. Enjoy!

^{Jive Five - Begging You Please}

Today in dystopia AI executives have become cultishly attached to the belief that their chatbots are actually conscious people, with The New York Times reporting that the leaders of Anthropic have been relating to their LLM “Claude” as a conscious being with a moral status on par with human beings.

Personally I refuse to even start entertaining claims that chatbots are conscious beings whose rights must be protected until I live in a society where all humans are treated as conscious beings whose rights must be protected.

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

They’re Still Trying To Rehab Biden’s Genocidal Image

Biden insiders are still trying to redeem themselves in the eyes of history through a New York Times article titled “‘Ready to Blow His Stack’: How Biden Nearly Cut Off Netanyahu Over Gaza” about how the previous president almost nearly sorta kinda thought about not committing genocide.

I am so fucking sick of this. You don’t get any points for ALMOST NOT slaughtering tens of thousands of children.

Enough. For sixteen months we were inundated with bogus Biden PR about how the president is inches away from stopping the genocide so we should actually believe he’s a swell guy. Stop. He’s a genocidal monster. That’s his only legacy. End of story.

Israel's Oct 7 Warning Could Blow Up the Ceasefire /Chas Freeman

Iran’s oil minister resigns as country’s economic crisis worsens

Iran’s oil minister has resigned days after allegations that an intermediary trust selling Iranian oil abroad owed millions of dollars’ worth of export receipts to the state. Mohsen Paknejad’s departure comes as Iran grapples with a dire economic situation, including inflation running at 85%. An overall drop in oil receipts has led to a massive shortfall in foreign exchange earnings and one of the biggest drops in the value of the rial since the Iranian revolution in 1979. The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said he had accepted the resignation of Paknejad, who had given personal reasons for going.

The rial is trading more than 10% lower than a month ago, largely due to the US naval blockade preventing Iran from selling oil, the mainstay of government receipts. Emergency government meetings over the weekend to combat the crisis have yielded little tangible progress, and there are growing reports that the professional middle class, notably teachers and nurses, are resigning in large numbers because their salaries are not keeping up with price rises. The central bank says its role is not to defend a specific rate, but manage fluctuations.

Iran has been using informal networks known as “trustees” to bypass US sanctions and repatriate oil revenues. A report last week by the Farhikhtegan newspaper alleged that a trust set up on Paknejad’s watch to recoup income from Iran’s overseas oil sales owed the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company nearly $2bn (£1.5bn) in revenues. Three individual trustees awarded oil contracts allegedly owe hundreds of millions of dollars each to the NIOC. Some of the leaks behind the reporting may reflect a power struggle inside the oil industry. Reza Sepahvand, a spokesperson for the parliament’s energy commission, has announced the launch of an inquiry.

Alireza Zakani, the mayor of Tehran, has announced he is freezing the price of 12 basic items including sugar, rice, oil and detergent for six months. There has been scepticism about how these price controls will be enforced, but he claimed the national government was going to study his plan. Ministers also said a second rise in public sector wages was likely.

Iran LIGHTS UP Hormuz In Historic Bombing Campaign

Saudi-backed forces recapture key areas around strait from Houthis in Yemen

Forces of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen have recaptured several key areas around Bab al-Mandab strait from Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Yemeni officials said on Monday. The officials said forces allied with the internationally recognized government have retaken the crucial town of Dhubab just north of the strait. They also captured the towns of Bab and Hadeid, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. Witnesses said they saw government tanks and forces entering the towns.

The government push came as part of a major offensive launched early Monday under an air cover by a Saudi military coalition, aiming to retake all territory held by the Houthis. However, the offensive came just after the rebels said they had captured more territory in the south-western part of Yemen, taking the key town of Turbah in a blow to the Saudi-backed forces as they advanced toward the strategic provincial capital of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city.

The Saudi-led coalition spokesperson, Maj Gen Turki al-Malki, said 100 fighter jets were providing support to the forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government fighting against the Houthis. He said the coalition had secured “air protection” of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait and destroyed hundreds of Houthi targets as part of the ongoing campaign.

Marco Rubio told reporters that it was expected that the Saudi-backed government in Yemen would hit back at the rebels to reclaim territory. Asked if the Saudi-led coalition coordinated the action with the United States, the US secretary of state said that Saudi Arabia and the US had a defense agreement but would not offer more details. He said the Yemeni government was ousted from some of its territory by a Houthi campaign and the Saudis had come under attack, and “they have a right to defend themselves”.

SATELLITE IMAGES REVEAL MASSIVE DAMAGE AT SAUDI ARAMCO - w/ Fmr. CIA Larry Johnson

UK threatens to expel Israeli diplomats over planned East Jerusalem consulate closure

The UK has threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced to leave Israel as a result of Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem later this week. This could mean as many as 27 Israeli diplomats being expelled from the UK, a step that would arguably mark the lowest point in British-Israeli diplomatic relations since the formation of the state of Israel.

The mass expulsion threat – more reminiscent of British-Russian diplomatic relations – was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Ynet, citing a message sent to Israeli officials. The UK Foreign Office said it would not comment on speculation, rather than denying the report outright.

Israel has threatened to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem in protest at the UK decision to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and to impose sanctions on British firms that aid, support or facilitate the construction of further illegal settlements. The Foreign Office has been advised informally by the former UK attorney general Dominic Grieve that Israel is acting unlawfully if it closes the consulate on the basis it is sited in East Jerusalem, which is recognised by the United Nations and most of its members, including the UK, as being occupied Palestinian territory.

The ‌incident highlighted growing frustration among Israel’s longtime allies over its settlements in the occupied West Bank, viewed by much of the world as illegal under international law. In his statement to the UK parliament, Miliband said settler terrorists, supported by Netanyahu’s government, are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Israel disputes this.

Diplomats from other western countries have been very worried about the closure setting a precedent, and suggest that Britain had to respond strongly to the Israeli move because it has implications beyond the immediate dispute. Shutting down the consulate involves Israel claiming authority in Jerusalem that it does not have under international law, so it is effectively a challenge to the status quo.

Iran Broke the Bond Market and Nobody's Talking About It | Alex Krainer

Green party of England and Wales facing international ostracism over ‘Zionism is racism’ vote

The English and Welsh Greens are facing international ostracism after adopting a policy declaring Zionism as a form of racism, which has drawn dismay from the group representing European Greens. The co-leader of the German Greens separately said the policy was “intolerable and unacceptable”, running contrary to its belief in the right of Israel to exist.

The binding policy motion passed in a vote at the Greens’ conference in Brighton on Sunday. Four of the party’s five MPs opposed it. The policy says Zionism, the movement for a Jewish state, should be “treated as any other form of racism”, and backs a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine “with equal rights for all”.

The European Green party, which represents 47 parties, including the Green party of England and Wales (GPEW), said it supported a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and the new motion went against this. The alliance “will immediately demand clarity from the leadership and parliamentary group of GPEW, to understand the official party policy of GPEW, how they position themselves towards the self-determination of Israelis and Jews as well as the protection of Jewish people and members in the party”, it said in a statement.

One source in the party said the criticism from European Greens, especially those in Germany, was understandable given their differing stances on Gaza and Israel. They said: “The German Greens support arming Israel, opposed a ceasefire to Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, backed the suspension of funding to Unrwa and co-sponsored a Bundestag resolution describing the arguments and methods of the peaceful, Palestinian-led BDS campaign as antisemitic.”

In a statement, the Green party leader in England and Wales, Zack Polanski, said: “Antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli state are, and must always be, completely distinct – blurring the line between the two is not only wrong but antisemitic, and makes Jewish people less safe. It’s our role as a movement for justice to protect both the rights of Palestinians and our Jewish communities here in the UK. As leader I will not accept any exclusion, or refusal to engage with anyone, because of the religious or communal body they are part of.” He added: “Through the Green party’s unified stance and dedicated pressure, we have begun to shift this government away from its complicity with the Israeli government’s atrocities in Gaza, with the foreign secretary now taking the long overdue step of ending trade with illegal settlements.”

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Has Trump Weakened the US?

MSF Says Israel Is ‘Asphyxiating’ Gaza, With Palestinians Pushed Into ‘Smaller and Smaller Area’

A year after a so-called “ceasefire” deal established the Israel Defense Forces’ “yellow line” in Gaza, separating the IDF-controlled eastern part of Gaza from about 47% of the strip that was originally set aside for Palestinians, the Israeli military has crept westward, block by block—effectively “asphyxiating” Gaza’s population of 2.1 million people, as one aid group said Monday.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known by its English name, Doctors Without Borders, said that the US-backed IDF now occupies about 65% of the Gaza Strip, “squeezing people into a smaller and smaller area” and leaving Palestinians uncertain about where the yellow line begins and ends as they are forced to repeatedly move.

“People risk being shot by Israeli forces when they approach it, and MSF teams continue to treat people with gunshot wounds sustained nearby,” said the organization.

MSF released its statement on the shifting yellow line and the organization’s struggles to provide medical aid for Palestinians days after the Danish Refugee Council reported on refugee camps near the boundary, where 80% of Palestinians interviewed by the DRC said they’ve faced water shortage and people reported rat and rodent infestations, continued food scarcity despite a ceasefire deal that required a ramp-up of humanitarian aid, and rapid spread of illnesses.

DRC accused Israel of “a policy of protracted displacement,” which was supported by MSF’s reporting Monday.

“The October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza was supposed to end civilians’ suffering,” said DRC. “Nearly a year on, it exists largely in name only. Displacement in Gaza has not ended; it has changed shape.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also warned last month about the IDF’s gradual push westward through demolitions and the movement of military forces, noting that residents have continued living in neighborhoods adjacent to the yellow line, such as Al-Tuffah and Al Zaytoun in Gaza City, “because they have nowhere else to go.”

“Where do we go? This is a question we’ve been asking ourselves for three years,” Safaa Mushtaha of Al-Tuffah told OCHA. “We accepted living near the yellow line, but it’s become unbearable.”

Ibtisam Malika, who also lives near the line, added that “every two to three months, we are forced to move and leave our belongings behind.”

MSF described how families are being “pushed into overcrowded and unlivable conditions” and how the group’s ability to deliver clean water has been impeded when there are attacks near the yellow line.

“The yellow line cannot be treated simply as a line on a map,” says Amande Bazerolle, head of emergency response for MSF in Gaza. “It has become a mechanism of encirclement and ethnic cleansing, while cutting communities off from the infrastructure, healthcare, water, and other essentials they need to survive.”

In Gaza, Palestine, Israel continues to systematically destroy the conditions people need to survive through violence, the deliberate blockade of essential supplies, and the destruction of healthcare and vital infrastructure.

https://t.co/y5xrIkqsCn

— MSF International (@MSF) October 5, 2026

One official said a majority of Palestinians in Gaza have less than six liters of water per day for drinking, bathing, and other domestic uses, and Israeli restrictions on the delivery of many items—ones that authorities claim are “dual-use” and could be used by Hamas for military purposes—have left families and medical providers without essentials.

“We are treating gastroenteritis, acute respiratory infections, a lot of skin conditions, hepatitis, bacterial skin infections, scabies, and lice,” said Dr. Murad Asaliyya, medical activities manager for MSF in Gaza. “At the same time, we are facing severe shortages in terms of medical supplies. Even the cream we need to treat scabies has been restricted by the Israeli authorities.”

Other crucial items that have been restricted by Israel include engine oil and spare parts, “crippling the infrastructure needed to keep hospitals, ambulances and water systems running,” said MSF.

MSF emphasized that the area near the yellow line is hardly the only part of Gaza where Palestinians face continued Israeli attacks. In June and July, the group’s medical teams treated more than 1,200 cases of “violent trauma” across the strip, “including blast injuries, burns, gunshot wounds, and injuries resulting from physical assault.”

Since Israel began relentlessly attacking Gaza in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, the military offensive has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, including more than 20,000 children, with experts warning that the true death toll is likely far higher. About 80% of all structures across Gaza have been damaged, said MSF.

The group released its findings as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich boasted in an interview about the IDF’s encroachment on the territory that had been ostensibly set aside for Palestinians last year, saying the moving of the yellow line and the destruction of Gaza and its infrastructure “encourages migration” and that “a world will not be built there.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:

The Gaza Strip should never be rebuilt — a memorial to sin.

That is also what will encourage migration from there the most. https://t.co/EnZCIPrs9x

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 5, 2026

“Destruction, displacement, and deprivation have become normalized—practices Israel is carrying out with impunity,” said Bazerolle. “Governments must act now to ensure Israel stops the destruction and killing, prevents ethnic cleansing, and stops denying Palestinians the means of survival.”

Public Enemy SHAMES Ed Sheeran, Macklemore SPEAKS at Music Fest

Fuel from South Korea being shipped to Russia

Fuel is being shipped from South Korea to Russia via sanctioned tankers as Moscow scrambles for supplies amid the war in Ukraine, a move one expert said “undermines” Seoul’s public backing for Kyiv. Guardian analysis of port records and ship-tracking data found that in July and August over 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, was loaded at several South Korean ports on to seven tankers that made 14 voyages to Russia’s far east.

Three of the vessels were under sanctions by the UK and EU, and one took on its cargo through a ship-to-ship transfer in South Korean waters – a method that can obscure where a cargo came from and lets ships avoid calling at port terminals. “It is shocking that EU-sanctioned tankers loaded fuel at South Korean ports and carried it to Russia”, said Isaac Levi, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finnish thinktank. “This undermines the sanctions regime and South Korea’s support for Ukraine.”

Seoul has sent Ukraine humanitarian aid and non-lethal military supplies such as helmets, body armour and demining vehicles, and in 2023 pledged $2.3bn in support, most of it in loans.

But South Korea has long sought to balance its support for Ukraine with its desire to improve ties with Russia. Throughout the war, Seoul has ruled out sending weapons directly to Ukraine, in line with its practice of not supplying lethal arms to countries at war. Moscow has signalled an interest in restoring relations with South Korea, including trade ties.

While the fuel trade involves vessels sanctioned by some of Seoul’s western partners, it does not appear to breach South Korean law. South Korea’s own measures against Russia rely mainly on export controls on goods such as industrial machinery, electronics and vehicles.

Flávio Bolsonaro poised to win Brazilian presidency after shock first-round victory

Flávio Bolsonaro is in pole position to win Brazil’s presidential election, after a far-right tsunami propelled him to a shock first-round victory over the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leaving progressive voters reeling.

The 45-year-old rightwing candidate received 56.1m votes to Lula’s 53.8m – 47.03% to 45.16% – meaning the 80-year-old leftwinger has a mountain to climb if he is to bounce back in the second round on 25 October. Never, since the return of democracy to Brazil in 1985, has the first-round runner-up managed to turn the game around and win the second ballot.

“Miracles are possible in politics. But I don’t see that happening,” the political scientist Miguel Lago said of Lula’s chances of snapping back. “I don’t see Flávio losing this election now.”

Speaking outside the White House on Monday, Donald Trump told reporters: “Well, it’s a big victory: close but a very, very big victory. Amazing, actually.” Trump, who is a longtime ally of the Bolsonaro family, predicted the runoff would be “a very close election”.

Why revolution is necessary. Worth a watch:

“There’s no such thing as democracy” Yanis Varoufakis

Accept ‘bad things’ in return for benefits of AI, says Sam Altman

Sam Altman says he believes the world should accept “bad things” happening with AI in exchange for the benefits of the technology. The chief executive of OpenAI cited hacks, scams and “other bad things that will happen” in an interview that sparked an instant backlash from critics of the big AI companies. His comments came after one of his company’s safety experts resigned, saying at the weekend that its “culture is broken”.

In an interview released on Monday, Altman was asked about how OpenAI’s approach to safety differed from that of Anthropic, which has called for the industry to slow down after one of its researchers quit, warning that AI experts believed “it could kill us all by the end of the decade”. “I think there’s a lot of daylight,” Altman said. “One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety people is that we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency [to use AI widely].

“I do think the lighter touch regulatory stance we advocate for comes with an accepting of the fact that some bad things are going to happen as society figures out the resilience. “I wouldn’t take a trade of saying we will make sure there’s no major hacks, there’s no misuse of this technology, there’s zero scams or all the other bad things that will happen because I think that people will do tremendously – orders of magnitude – more good stuff than bad stuff.”

The interview for Politico’s Decoded podcast drew a strong response from Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. He said he had “no dice” with the idea “a handful of tech oligarchs get to make that decision [on safety] for the rest of us”. His state last week asked a judge to bar OpenAI from developing new AI models without third-party approved guardrails.

Gary Marcus, a prominent AI sceptic and professor emeritus at New York University, said Altman was “saying the quiet part out loud: suck it up, so you can make us rich and powerful”.

Pennsylvania faces largest measles outbreak in decades as case count rises to 1,000

Pennsylvania has surpassed 1,000 measles cases this year, state health officials calculate, making it the largest state outbreak in more than three decades. The benchmark comes as neighboring New York declared a state of emergency about measles rates there. Pennsylvania’s health department said Monday 1,004 cases of measles had been confirmed. Five Pennsylvania residents ⁠have died ⁠after ​contracting the disease, with 198 hospitalizations.

Lancaster county, with sizeable Amish and Mennonite populations, remains the hardest hit, with 391 cases, according to official figures. Cases numbers have risen over the past three months, with the highest number of infections in the 24-49 age range. The numbers, however, are not included in a CDC count due to an ongoing dispute between Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr over how to classify measles-related mortality.

Shapiro has called Kennedy “incompetent”, and Kennedy has publicly questioned whether the state’s recorded fatalities were directly caused by measles. The CDC – which Kennedy oversees – currently lists two measles deaths in the US this year.

Shapiro has expanded access to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in affected communities. In New York state, governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Monday as well, citing 108 cases in the state as of 3 October. Ohio, which also shares a border with Pennsylvania, has also reported advancing numbers of cases, with more than 200 this year. Like in Pennsylvania, Ohio has a significant Amish population.

Trump approval ratings plummet to new low, polls show

Donald Trump’s approval ratings reached a record low on Monday, according to new opinion polls.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%. That polling included the president losing support among independent voters and Latinos, who had backed him in 2024. The dip could prove dire for the Republican party a month ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Before boarding a flight to Nebraska on Monday, Trump shrugged off questions about his approval ratings.

“I’m doing great,” Trump told a reporter, who’d asked about recent polls showing the president losing support among Latino voters, before blaming CNN and the media.

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Republican Ken Paxton admits forces in DC control his Texas Senate campaign

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general chosen by Donald Trump to run as the Republican candidate for a Senate seat, admitted in private that his campaign was being controlled by outside forces in Washington DC. Paxton, who is locked in a competitive race with the progressive Democrat James Talarico, told people at a fundraising event in September that he had never felt such little control over his campaign because of outside influence.

“I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it’s all coming – you know – from D.C.,” Paxton said, according to an audio recording obtained by Politico.

“I don’t control message or what we’re doing,” Paxton said.

An unnamed attender told Politico that Paxton never explicitly said he was referring to Trump’s team controlling his campaign messaging but that Paxton’s comments arose during a conversation about the national political environment. Paxton’s campaign adviser Nick Maddux said in a statement, “Campaigns don’t coordinate with Super Pacs, and that’s obviously what AG Paxton was referring to.

Though Paxton has been a well-known conservative figure in Texas for years, he has also been embroiled in a series of scandals. Paxton was impeached in 2023 on allegations including bribery and abuse of public trust – though he was later acquitted. Paxton’s wife, Angela Paxton, also divorced him on “biblical grounds”, citing adultery.

Polls show Paxton and Talarico neck-and-neck, with Talarico having a small lead over the Texas attorney general.

Republicans PANIC: Spend MILLIONS TO Save KS, SC

Relatives of Epstein victim appear in attack ad targeting Republican congressman

Two relatives of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent Jeffrey Epstein victims who died last year, appeared in a political attack ad targeting the Colorado Republican congressman Jeff Crank, accusing him of refusing to meet with them. Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, and his wife, Amanda Roberts, expressed disappointment that Crank had voted to block a vote to release the federal investigative files relating to Epstein.

The couple claimed that Crank, who later supported the Epstein Files Transparency Act which authorized the release of a tranche of documents in a near-unanimous vote, refused to meet with them in Washington. “My sister Virginia was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. She spent her life trying to expose the truth. After she died, we promised to carry on her fight,” Sky Roberts said in the ad backing Crank’s opponent, Democrat Jessica Killin.

“But our own congressman Jeff Crank refused to meet with us,” Amanda Roberts continued. “Then, when he had the chance to expose the truth and release the Epstein files, he repeatedly voted to cover them up.” The couple have become increasingly politically active. Over the summer they urged senators on the Senate judiciary committee to block the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general. They also criticized a decision by the Department of Justice to restrict the release of unredacted files to Epstein investigators in New Mexico.

They also appeared at Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in February as guests of the Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee.

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Revealed: the methane mega-leaks from UN climate summit host Turkey

Two or three nights each week, the smell descends. Residents of villages on the rural outskirts of Istanbul don’t know what the smell is, but they have been plagued by it for years: a smell so bad they have to sleep with their windows closed even during hot summer nights. They know the source, too: the huge Silivri municipal waste dump a few miles away that is belching out stinking gases as food and other organic waste rots. These gases are more than a local problem. They include methane, a potent climate-heating gas, pouring out of the site in such vast quantities that the plume is visible from space. Satellite surveillance shows that the Silivri landfill is Turkey’s worst super-emitting waste site.

In fact, its average emission rate of 7.4 tonnes an hour makes it one of the worst identified anywhere in the world by a team of expert researchers at the University of California (UCLA). The planet-warming impact of this single leak is equivalent to 1.5m gas-guzzling SUVs gunning their engines and there are more super-emitting dumps across Turkey. They stretch from İzmir in the west, to Ankara in the centre and Antalya in the south, many with “mind bogglingly large” leaks, the UCLA researchers said.

The revelation that Turkey has some of the world’s worst landfill methane leaks comes at an awkward time: in November, the country will host the next UN global climate summit, Cop31, and has put cutting methane emissions at the top of the action agenda it wants all nations to agree on. Turkey’s first lady, Emine Erdoğan, has been a prominent campaigner for zero waste and methane cuts on the global stage – despite the super-plumes now revealed at home – and the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said waste management was a priority in a speech he made in June.

Staff from the Istanbul metropolitan municipality’s waste management division, İstaç, at the site in Silivri appeared surprised when shown satellite images of the massive gas leak emanating from a spot visible from their office windows. Methane, also known as natural or fossil gas, is transparent, and so the plume coming from the site is invisible to the naked eye. Fatih Arslan of İstaç cleared his throat while staring intently at the satellite images presented to him by the Guardian. “Well there’s not much to say,” he said, initially blaming the emissions on areas of the waste site not yet covered with clay after the dumping process. “It’s inevitable that this is happening … of course we have to make improvements,” he ventured. Their priority, he explained, was to cover exposed areas of the dump as quickly as possible and trap the methane produced by the rubbish for use as fuel. An on-site facility extracts 6,000 cubic metres of methane an hour from the landfill to burn for energy: letting methane leak into the atmosphere, he said, is therefore a waste.

For the head of the facility, Ebu Bekir Ikinci, the current situation is actually a vast improvement on the past. He showed newspaper headlines from Istanbul in the 1990s, when the streets were piled high with rubbish and, in 1993, methane trapped at a dump exploded, killing 39 people. A year later, Erdoğan became the mayor of the city with a promise to bring in better waste management. “The baseline scenario we use for emissions from waste is what would happen if the waste was not stored at all,” said Arslan, pointing to the deadly scenario from the 1990s. “Compared to that, the emissions now are way better. This is actually very good.”

Supreme Court Justices Skeptical of Big Oil Bid to ‘Escape Trial for Climate Deception’

The US Supreme Court on Monday appeared skeptical of efforts by ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy to prevent a Colorado climate liability lawsuit from going to trial, with justices across the ideological spectrum questioning the fossil fuel companies’ arguments for shutting down the case before evidence of their alleged deception can be heard.

The case—Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County—could determine the fate of nearly 60 similar lawsuits filed by states, counties, cities, and Indigenous tribes seeking to hold fossil fuel companies financially accountable for climate-related harms.

Boulder sued ExxonMobil and Suncor in 2018, alleging that the companies knew for decades about the dangers associated with burning fossil fuels while misleading the public about those risks. The city and county seek compensation for costs associated with wildfires, drought, flooding, extreme heat, and other climate impacts.

The companies, backed by the Trump administration, argue that federal law preempts the state law claims because greenhouse gas pollution crosses state and national borders. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in May 2025 that the climate lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor could proceed under state law.

Kannon Shanmugam, an attorney for the companies, contended in oral arguments Monday that climate accountability lawsuits “reflect an all-too-regrettable trend of trying to resolve political issues in court rather than in the political branches where they belong.”

However, Chief Justice John Roberts appeared unconvinced that the interstate argument means that state courts can’t consider climate claims.

“There are a lot of familiar situations where conduct outside of a state has broad effects among other states,” the conservative justice said, “and yet we allow state courts in a particular state to bring litigation that affects that.”

Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court’s three liberals, also pressed the companies over their claim that federalism prevents Boulder’s lawsuit from proceeding. Kagan repeatedly demanded a legal foundation for the argument, asking: “Where’s the text for that? Where’s the support for that? Where’s the precedent for that?”

Kagan also compared the case to successful lawsuits against tobacco and opioid companies, calling the fossil fuel cases “Chapter 3” in that legal history.

“This is the same kind of lawsuit against the same kind of actors for the same kind of harm,” she said. “And I guess I’m not understanding how this one would be preempted, and the other is not?”

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Also of Interest

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

Chris Hedges: Frats & the Cornell Rape Case

Iran War: Saudi-Backed Forces Launch Major Yemen Campaign; More on Oil Transits and Economic Conditions

US Resumes Refueling Saudi Fighter Jets for Yemen War After Eight Years

Attacks on Tankers in the Strait of Hormuz Escalate

Yes, More Oil Is Flowing Through the Strait – and Here’s Why Iran May Want It That Way

CIA Report Warns Israel Could Head Toward Civil War, Total Collapse

Attrition War With NATO – Attacks On Bridges In Ukraine

In both France and Spain, ruling parties must prove they can give young protesters hope

Ben Jennings on US bombers withdrawing from RAF Fairford – cartoon

Supporters of Imran Khan start march on locked-down Islamabad

‘More Performative Killing at Sea’: Another Trump Boat Strike Leaves 4 Dead

This nurse was assaulted by ICE – and it was caught on video. Now she wants her day in court

It’s time to abolish ICE

New “Privacy-First” Phones & Computers Give The Middle Finger To Big Tech! w/ Hakeem Anwar

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A Little Night Music

The Jive Five - Johnny Never Knew

The Jive Five - These Golden Rings

The Jive Five - When I Was Single

The Jive Five - Say You'll Be There

The Jive Five - You Know What I Would Do

The Jive Five - She's My Girl

The Jive Five - What Time Is It

The Jive Five - Hully Gully Callin' Time

Jive Five - My True Story

Jive Five - Show Finale - PBS SoundStage

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