---

---

The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Jackie Wilson

---

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer Jackie Wilson. Enjoy!

^{Jackie Wilson - Baby Workout}

"Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice."

-- Robert Kennedy

---

News and Opinion

You Are Morally Obligated To Oppose Genocide And Apartheid Regardless Of Your Religion

I judge Jewish people’s character based on whether or not they oppose the genocidal apartheid state of Israel. This is also how I judge the character of people who are not Jewish.

Ever since the UK Green party’s “Zionism is racism” motion we’ve been seeing this narrative circulating that Jews are somehow exempt from the basic human duty to oppose genocide and apartheid, just because support for Israel happens to be common among the Jewish community.

The British political/media class has been frenetically attacking the Greens’ objectively correct position as antisemitic, putting out statement after statement proclaiming that it is wrong to ask Jews to oppose a nakedly racist and destructive political ideology.

Fascinated by this idea that Jews are magical faerie elf creatures who are somehow exempt from the basic human duty to oppose genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 5, 2026

The Campaign Against Antisemitism, quoted in the Financial Times, accuses the Greens of imposing an “extremist purity test” on Jews.

The Movement for Progressive Judaism, quoted in The Guardian, asserts that “Jewish self-determination is a right. Declaring it racist is an attack on Jews. The Green party has chosen to brand Jews who hold this belief as racists and make their equal participation in the party conditional on renouncing it.”

“The Green party’s anti-Zionism motion is yet another attempt to tell Jews how we should think,” reads the headline of a Guardian article by Jonathan Freedland.

“British Jews should not have to disclaim a belief in Jewish self-determination and the existence of Israel in order to be accepted by a British political party,” said shadow home secretary Chris Philp in a quote published by the BBC.

“Asking Jews to pass a purity test and renounce self-determination according to a perverse interpretation arbitrarily applied, isn’t just an extreme position, it’s a racist one,” adds Baroness Luciana Berger.

The Green Party has today voted that Jews are racists unless they explicitly adopt an extremist purity test set out by the Party. Under that test, Jews belonging to pretty much any synagogue in the UK would fail.

The Green Party Conference’s intentions could scarcely have been clearer. They have adopted the Soviet doctrine that Zionism is racism, meaning that Green Party policy is that all peoples of the world have right to self-determination except for Jews.

Far from being anti-racist, that policy is racism in its clearest form. According to our polling, only 6% of British Jews do not identify as Zionists, and 89% consider anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism.

Whereas past leaders of the Green Party stepped forward to oppose this motion, the current leader of the Green Party showed no leadership at all, skipping the vote entirely.

On the advice of our legal team we wrote to the Green Party prior to the adoption of this motion. As the originating complainant in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s investigation that found unlawful discrimination against Jews in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, we have proven before that we will not stand by and let political parties bring antisemitism into the mainstream.

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) October 4, 2026

I am absolutely fascinated by this notion that Jews are some kind of magical faerie elf creature to whom the normal standards of human decency simply do not apply. If you happen to belong to this one particular religion, then it somehow becomes an abusive “purity test” to expect that you should oppose a fundamentally racist state premised on endless apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

It doesn’t work that way. We are all morally obligated to oppose genocide and apartheid no matter what our religion happens to be. You have a moral responsibility to reject racist political ideologies. If you don’t, then you are a racist. There are no special exceptions.

It is true that the majority of Jews support Israel. The argument that majority support makes it a valid position is a fallacy called argumentum ad populum; a position being popular among a given group says nothing about how correct it is. All manner of horrors were once supported by the majority of the public. At one time it was widely believed that it was perfectly legitimate to own a human being if their ancestors happened to be from Africa, but with greater moral clarity we all now recognize that that was wrong.

Zionism since its inception in the mid 19th century has been an explicitly racist, settler-colonial ideology. And Jews have no right to "self-determination" in the land of people who never oppressed them. The whole debate is disingenuous bollocks https://t.co/gu471vNcEd https://t.co/VJxvro9jSq

— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) October 6, 2026

Zionism is no different; it’s a political ideology whose material manifestations have never at any time failed to include racist policies and ethnic cleansing. If you believe Jews have a right to return after being absent from the land for millennia but don’t believe Palestinians have a right of return after decades in exile, then you are obviously a racist. If you support an ideology which dropped a brand-new ethnostate on top of a pre-existing ethnic group who suddenly became subjected to ethnic cleansing and apartheid, then you are of course a racist. Your religion of choice does not magically exempt you from this.

Everyone should be asked to pass the “purity test” of renouncing a genocidal apartheid state. Jews are no exception to this self-evident moral reality.

Oct 7 anniversary crashout - Max live on Judging Freedom

Houthi forces appear to make slow advance in south-west Yemen

Houthi forces appeared to be making slow advances on Wednesday in south-west Yemen, approaching the city of Taiz and firing a missile and an explosive towards the airport in Aden, the chief international hub of the Saudi-backed government.

The explosive hit the key airport moments before a plane was due to land. The British ambassador to Yemen, Abda Sharif, said the attack could have endangered thousands of people. It forced the flight – from Cairo – to be diverted to Jeddah and led to a review about the safety of flights in Aden.

Independent observers said there was a danger that the Houthis were on course to capture Yemen’s third city of Taiz, with some signs that forces linked to the Saudi Arabian-backed government were pulling back to secure Aden. Saudi warplanes had been using their air superiority to try to hit any Houthi accumulation of forces near the city, especially to the west.

Houthi forces also claimed that they had fired missiles towards two airports in Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh. Saudi authorities initially said the attacks had been repelled, but then said three people had been killed and 36 people wounded.

The Institute for the Study of War said it was adjusting its previous assessment that Houthi forces on the coastal plain were collapsing “in light of evidence in the last 24 hours indicating that the Houthis have stopped Yemeni government-aligned advances”. There has been widespread criticism on social media of some of the claims about Yemeni government advances issued at the beginning of the week.

Richard Wolff: BREAKING: Pentagon Prepares for New Iran War as Hormuz & Bab al-Mandab Burn

Syria May Send Troops to Yemen To Help Saudi Arabia Fight Ansar Allah

Syria is considering sending troops, including foreign jihadists, to help Saudi Arabia fight against Ansar Allah in Yemen, according to media reports, as Riyadh continues to seek international support for the war, which it reignited in July by bombing the Sanaa International Airport.

Reuters first reported that Syria, which is led by former al-Qaeda Commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, is considering providing military assistance to Saudi Arabia, which could range from “defensive aid” to actually sending troops to fight Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis.

A US official speaking to Reuters said that Saudi Arabia had requested that Syria send forces to fight Ansar Allah. The report came a day after Sharaa, formerly known by his al-Qaeda nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.

Shortly after Reuters published the report, Axios released its own report citing a US official who said the issue of troops came up during the meeting in Riyadh and that Sharaa was highly likely to agree to the Saudi request. MbS played a major role in normalizing Sharaa as Syria’s leader, including by arranging the first meeting between Sharaa and President Trump.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Trump’s War Is Spreading

Trump Might Bomb Iran Before Midterms

The White House has asked the Pentagon to develop plans for attacks on Iran that could be carried out before midterm elections are held on November 3, according to a report from The Atlantic.

Unnamed Trump administration officials told the outlet that the planning underscores how much Trump wants to reduce gas prices and show some progress in the conflict, but any US attacks would lead to Iranian retaliation and would further exacerbate the global energy crisis.

Despite the obvious risk of repercussions, a Republican source told The Atlantic that the potential strikes would “make the president look like he got a win and that gas prices would start going down.” The report said the administration is still debating the scope of potential strikes and whether they will be carried out before the midterms.

12 Tankers Hit in One Week, the Worst of the War

Gaza Genocide ‘Not Over,’ Says UN Expert as Israel’s Onslaught Enters Fourth Year

The top United Nations expert on Palestine said Wednesday—the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel—that Israel’s US-backed genocidal annihilation of Gaza continues, with daily airstrikes adding to a toll of 250,000 Palestinians killed or wounded as Israeli forces seize most of the coastal strip and raze as much of it as they can.

In an interview with the Turkish news agency Anadolu, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, said that “the situation on the ground is catastrophic.”

“It’s really beyond what words can say, and it gives the sense that the destruction of Gaza is not over,” the 49-year-old Italian jurist continued. “Seventy percent of the strip is under the control of the [Israeli] army, which is leveling as much as it can. There is an environmental catastrophe, a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Respect for the rule of law has gone down the drain

The situation on the ground is catastrophic. It’s really beyond what words can say

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says ‘the destruction of Gaza is not over,’ describing the situation as a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

Albanese says the West Bank is ‘no better,’ accusing Israel of bombing, killing, arbitrarily arresting and detaining Palestinians and imposing a siege

Since October 2023, Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000 others, according to Palestinian figures
https://t.co/pPKH40U0tg

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) October 7, 2026

Israel’s assault on Gaza began in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,100 Israelis and others were killed—at least some by so-called “friendly fire” and under the fratricidal Hannibal Directive—and over 240 people were abducted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials soon began calling for the genocidal destruction of Gaza and its 2.2 million people. Netanyahu declared it a “holy mission” for Israel to fulfill a divine command to the Israelites to exterminate every man, woman, child, and animal in Amalek, the fictional archenemy of the ancient Jews.

Over the past three years, Israeli forces have killed at least 74,237 Palestinians and wounded at least 175,206 others in Gaza, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures—which not only have been affirmed by senior Israeli military and intelligence officials, but are believed by the authors of multiple peer-reviewed scientific studies to be a significant undercount.

Tens of thousands of those injuries are classified as “life-altering,” including thousands of amputations performed on adults and children, sometimes without anesthesia.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 10,000 of those killed were women, over 5,100 were elderly, and upward of 21,000 were children—figures supported by classified Israel Defense Forces intelligence data suggesting that 5 in 6 Palestinians killed by the IDF through the first 19 months of the onslaught were civilians.

Tens of thousands of children have also been left without one or both parents, with more than 2,700 families suffering so many deaths that they were erased from the civil registry in Gaza. The UN Children’s Fund called the strip the “world’s most dangerous place to be a child.”

In the wake of the October 7 attack, the IDF dramatically loosened 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, and the utilization of artificial intelligence to select targets, have resulted in staggering numbers of civilian deaths, including numerous instances of dozens or more people being massacred in single strikes.

At closer range, current and former IDF troops have accused their own of deliberately shooting Palestinian civilians, including children, sometimes out of sheer boredom. Palestinian medical professionals—who, like journalists and aid workers, have suffered hundreds of their ranks killed by Israeli bombs and bullets—have also described what they say is the deliberate shooting of Gazans, including children.

On October 8, 2023, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the “complete siege” of Gaza, explaining that “we are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” The siege, which is actually a tightening of a decadeslong blockade of Gaza, fueled famine and disease that killed many of the most vulnerable people in the strip. Nothing was spared, including hospitals and other medical facilities, whose staff members were sometimes abducted and tortured—allegedly to death in at least one case—by their Israeli captors.

Around 90% of Gaza’s population—around 1.9 million people—has been forcibly displaced, most of them multiple times. With the vast bulk of Gaza’s buildings damaged or destroyed, nearly two-thirds of Gazans continue to live in tents or makeshift shelters as the war’s fourth winter, and with it the prospect of more infants and newborns dying of hypothermia, approaches.

Despite a purported year-old ceasefire, Israeli forces continue to kill, wound, and displace Palestinians in Gaza to this day. Gaza officials say that at least 1,460 people have been killed and more than 5,100 others have been wounded since the ceasefire took effect. Israel is still blocking or delaying desperately needed humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, although there have been some improvements in delivery during the ceasefire period.

Meanwhile, Israeli calls for more ethnic cleansing, occupation, and possibly even the Jewish recolonization of Gaza continue. And while President Donald Trump no longer openly discusses a US takeover and redevelopment of the Mediterranean strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” his administration is still trying to determine Gaza’s future through vehicles like his widely derided “Board of Peace.”

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation. The ICC simultaneously ordered the arrest of three senior Hamas officials, but Israel has since assassinated them.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), also in The Hague, is currently in the written stage of a genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and formally supported by more than 15 nations. While a ruling in the case isn’t expected until at least the end of the decade, a UN commission of inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and other experts—including many Israeli and international Jewish academics, jurists, human rights campaigners, and others—have already concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Yet genocide denial persists in Israel, the United States, and among supporters of Israel’s destruction of Gaza around the world. And while numerous nations have severed diplomatic ties with Israel or imposed sanctions—sometimes both—the United States under both the Biden and Trump administrations has lavished the key Middle East ally with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, as well as diplomatic cover including a string of vetoes of UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions.

Furthermore, the Trump administration has moved to punish members of the ICC, ICJ, and UN, including Albanese—who has been relentlessly critical of both Israel’s genocide and Western complicity, especially by the United States.

On the other hand, increasing diplomatic recognition of Palestine by even Israel’s allies and a worldwide wave of protests against the Gaza genocide—including numerous demonstrations organized and led by Jewish groups—has shown Palestinians that much of the world stands in solidarity with them.

“There are really these two forces... symbolically, fighting against each other,” Albanese told Anadolu during Wednesday’s interview. “Those who want to continue the genocide, the exploitation, and the erasure of Palestine, and those who want to stop it.”

HOUTHIS SHUTDOWN SAUDI Airport In DEADLY Attack

Another coup d’état’: fears grow as Flávio Bolsonaro vows to ‘re-democratise’ Brazil

Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president, has vowed to “re-democratise” the South American country, increasing fears about a move into authoritarian rule if he wins power. Brazil was re-democratised in the 1980s after a brutal 21-year dictatorship that Flávio’s father, the disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, has long praised. Last year, Jair Bolsonaro, a former soldier who served under that military regime, was jailed for 27 years for trying to engineer a coup after he lost the 2022 election to the current leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Flávio, 45, beat Lula, 80, in Sunday’s presidential election first round and goes into the runoff on 25 October as favourite. On Tuesday, the rightwinger vowed to capitalise on the hugely increased far-right presence in congress after the election to change the constitution and “re-democratise this country”.

“The only thing standing in the way of Brazil becoming a barbarity is called Flávio Bolsonaro as president,” he claimed at a campaign event in Goiânia, a city near the capital, Brasília. The incendiary comments caused outrage among historians and opponents of Bolsonaro’s radical populist movement, who have accused him of co-opting the language of democracy to disguise an illiberal shift

Talíria Petrone, the leftwing congresswoman, wrote on “This is the announcement of a coup.”

France Protests Spiral Out of Control as EURO Crisis Looms

I see what’s happening here in Paris: reasonable student demands met with awful violence

It would be tough to argue that the demands of France’s protesting high school students are not reasonable ones, worth taking to the streets for: investment in crumbling schools, replacing absent teachers, reducing class sizes and overstuffed timetables, and bridging the inequality gap between schools in different areas. As the protests have grown in scope, the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has promised the government will listen and try to meet the main demands – but that’s unlikely to mean suddenly freeing up billions to invest in schools that have gone underfunded for years, as the videos posted online of rat-infested, flooded or crumbling classrooms testify.

The political debate surrounding the escalating social movement is angry and polarised: a foretaste of the how the country’s April 2027 presidential election is likely to play out. The high school movement comes at an already tense time, with France’s government once again trying to push through a budget full of spending cuts without a parliamentary majority. Last year, to get the budget over the line, the government had to use special constitutional powers to bypass the need for a parliamentary vote. This year’s budget, due for a vote in November, includes pension and healthcare cuts aimed at helping to plug the seemingly bottomless budget deficit – and is likely to be just as problematic for the government.

The intensity of the protests has prompted a mudslinging match between two of the favourites for the first round of the presidential elections. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of France Unbowed, is vocally on the side of the protesters (many of whom will vote for his party when old enough) but rejects the narrative that his party stirred up the unrest. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, is using the protests to call for an anti-riot law. She’s clearly not following the advice of the Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, who during a presidential primary debate among leftwing candidates urged people not to fall into the classic rightwing trap of focusing on the violence while ignoring the cause of the protests.

Faure made reference to the proverb of the wise man pointing at the moon and the fool looking at his finger: “look at the moon, not the finger,” he said – and it’s a sensible message for all the wannabe presidents. Many of the lycéens protesting today will be voting for the first time next April. Even if Le Pen is now looking at the finger, she certainly shouldn’t be written off for next year’s election; her message seems to be resonating with a large number of French citizens and she is the clear favourite for the first round of the presidential elections. We’ve been here before: if the polls are correct, it will be Le Pen’s third second-round run-off. The difference is that in 2022 and 2017 she was up against Emmanuel Macron – a centrist candidate who voters from across the spectrum could get behind to block her, even if many reported holding their nose at the ballot box.

As things stand, that may be harder for many in 2027. Le Pen’s opposition is fragmented, with several potential candidates still in the running on the left and centre right – and because of that, Le Pen’s second-round adversary may prove easier for her to beat, to the benefit of absolutely no one.

Netherlands DITCHES MICROSOFT For Linux and Open-Source Solutions

María del Carmen Abascal, symbol of Spain’s housing protests, dies aged 87

María del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction set off a nationwide wave of protests against Spain’s housing crisis, has died. News of her death came two weeks after Maricarmen, as she had come to be known across Spain, was evicted from the Madrid apartment where she had lived for more than seven decades.

The pensioner, whose apartment had been purchased by an investment firm who sought to hike her rent by 230%, swiftly became a symbol of the many left behind by Spain’s surging housing market. Scenes of the eviction, which saw police use rounds of teargas as they carried out the order, made headlines across Spain. The shocking images – showing Abascal being forcibly removed from her home on a stretcher, flanked by protesters and police – swiftly crystallised into anger.

About 10,000 people took to the streets of Madrid hours later, wielding signs such as “Shame” and “We’re all Maricarmen”. From Spain’s north to the south, people poured into plazas to protest the suffering wrought by rents that had soared 80% in the span of a decade while house prices had climbed 63%.

From the hospital where she was being treated for severe exhaustion, Abascal cheered on the fledgling movement. “I would like to be there with you all,” she said in a video shot from her hospital bed. “But I’m not that lucky. So from here, I ask you all for courage and to fight and defend what is yours.” As encampments began springing up across the country, the investment firm that bought Abascal’s home said she could return. The deal did little to quell the anger that had boiled over in the wake of the eviction.

This week the wave of outrage led the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to call a snap general election after rightwing and far-right parties voted down two emergency decrees his government had proposed to address the housing crisis. Sánchez offered his condolences to Abascal’s family and friends. “A hug also to everyone who’s feeling this loss today as their own,” he wrote on social media. “Rest in peace.” The Podemos MEP and former equalities minister Irene Montero was more blunt. “This isn’t a death; it’s a murder,” she wrote on social media. “Such bloody anger. Thank you for fighting, Maricarmen.”

NATO Generals Rush To Kiev; Surovikin Directs Dnieper Bridge Strikes; Peskov: Peace Talks Pointless

Millionaire tax no more? Rightwing groups lead effort to repeal Washington state law

Voters in Washington state will soon decide the fate of the state’s so-called “millionaire tax” – a 9.9% income tax on earnings above $1m that was signed into law in March and is now facing a conservative-backed effort to repeal it. An initiative on November’s ballot aims to overturn the tax, claiming that the tax represents a slippery slope, and would eventually result in taxes for more than just millionaires. A coalition of advocacy groups and unions opposing the initiative say taxing the state’s 20,000 highest-earning households could raise approximately $3.5bn in necessary annual revenue to fund core priorities like education and healthcare, and expand tax credits and sales tax exemptions.

Facing dwindling federal funds under the Trump administration yet home to substantial tech-industry wealth, including prominent billionaires such as Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and, until recently, Jeff Bezos, Washington has joined other states and municipalities by turning to its wealthiest earners as a source of revenue. Massachusetts, Maine and New York already impose a unique tax rate on millionaires, and Hawaii passed a similar measure in May.

California, whose resident billionaires possess a collective net worth hovering above $2tn, will see voters decide on a proposed one-time, 5% tax on billionaires’ wealth. The measure is opposed by most billionaires as well as Gavin Newsom, the governor; some progressive groups also question the long-term benefits of the one-off tax.

Washington’s governor, Bob Ferguson, has said he would veto any effort to expand the millionaire tax to encompass lower-earning households. And, after decades of voter-rejected efforts to reform the state’s tax structure, which has historically lacked an income tax and instead levied sales taxes, property taxes and fees, Washingtonians in recent years have approved new progressive revenue streams, including a capital gains tax. Advocates claim that the millionaire tax is part of a clear mandate to better align the state’s largely regressive tax code with its progressive values.

The statewide fight over an income tax really began in the 1930s, according to the Washington state senate majority leader, Jamie Pedersen, an architect of the millionaire tax. Nearly 100 years ago, the state’s supreme court ruled that income taxes constituted a property tax, hamstringing efforts to diversify beyond flat-rate excises. A reliance on sales, property and other taxes leaves the state with “the second-worst tax code in the nation when it comes to who actually pays as a share of their income”, said Emily Vyhnanek of the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, a non-partisan research group. Those in the lowest-earning quintile spend up to 13.8% of their annual income on state taxes, while those in the top 1% currently spend about 4%, they said.

Democrats sue to stop Trump from using taxpayer funds for self-promoting ads

The Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration in federal court on Wednesday, asking a judge in Washington to stop the president from using taxpayer funds to air a series of ads promoting himself, arguing that the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda. The ads promoting Donald Trump, including one recycled from his 2024 presidential campaign, have cost taxpayers more than $12m so far, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.

Ken Martin, the DNC chair, said in a statement that Trump was misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November. Americans deserve better than to have their hard-earned tax dollars used for Trump’s illegal schemes.”

After a bipartisan backlash to the use of public money to promote himself during the final month of the midterm campaign season, Trump claimed on Monday that he would direct the Maga Inc Super Pac he controls to pay for the ads instead. The next day, however, the White House said Trump’s political action committee would not reimburse taxpayers for the money it had already spent on the ads. Then, when the government unveiled a fifth ad in the series, celebrating Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela, it was also paid for by the US government.

The DNC complaint, filed in the US district court for the District of Columbia, alleges the ads violate federal law, including a ban on congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda”.

“President Trump personally directed this illegal activity. The White House office crafted the partisan campaign. The office of management and budget shifted $20m to pay for it. And US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has carried it out. These unlawful actions are ultra vires and violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA),” the complaint states. The suit also notes the first ad in the series features an image of Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, awarding Trump the so-called “Fifa peace prize” to support its case that the ads all violate a prohibition on the use of taxpayer funds for “self-aggrandizement”.

Tennessee: brutal and incompetent. Quite the combination.

Christa Pike ‘angry, confused’ and unable to move arms after failed execution, lawyers say

Christa Pike awoke “angry and confused” after surviving two lethal injections, her attorneys said on Wednesday, as a judge ordered Tennessee state officials to preserve all evidence related to the failed execution. Pike, 50, was taken to hospital unconscious but alive from Tennessee’s execution chamber last Wednesday after two supposedly lethal doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital.

She was declared brain dead on Monday, her attorneys said, and her team was informed of plans to remove her from life support the next day. “But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone … Christa woke up and began talking,” Randy Spivey, one of her lawyers, said at a press conference on Wednesday. He was told her first words were “Where am I?” and “Who are you?” Pike remains hospitalized and shackled to her bed, despite pleas from medical staff for prison officials to remove her restraints, her lawyers said. She has pneumonia, a blood clot, and is unable to move either of her badly injured arms, they added.

The update on Pike’s condition came after a contentious court hearing in Nashville, where judge I’Ashea Myles ordered the state to preserve “anything that was in the actual room” during the attempted execution a week ago. Pike’s legal team accused Tennessee officials of “secreting away” evidence. Attorney Luke Ihnen said items from the attempted execution could be key to future legal challenges by Pike, should the state attempt to kill her again.

“The state has made no promises that Ms Pike will not be subject to a future execution, and the evidence that we are seeking to preserve now is relevant for any future challenge that she makes, because as we pled in January, the same thing is likely to happen,” Ihnen said.

---

---

Paxton admits Trump’s Iran war and US gas prices are plaguing Republicans in leaked audio

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running as the Republican candidate in a competitive Senate race, admitted privately that rising fuel prices as a result of Donald Trump’s Iran war were hurting his party before the midterms in the latest leaked audio recording.

Asked what issues were “dragging” his campaign at a closed-door fundraising event, Paxton replied, “It’s not tariffs … it’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel,” according to an audio recording shared with Axios. “When it’s over $6 per gallon for diesel … people are feeling the pinch,” Paxton said.

Paxton acknowledged affordability was Republicans’ “biggest problem” heading into next month’s election, citing polling numbers that indicate Democrats are ahead in many competitive races – including his own.

Trump has tried to change the narrative around affordability, insisting his administration has done more to lower everyday prices for Americans than Democrats. Trump, who picked Paxton to run as the Republican in the Texas Senate race, will join Paxton at a rally in San Antonio on Wednesday evening. But Paxton appeared to recognize the uphill battle facing Republicans, telling people at the closed-door events that “so many factors in this federal race are uncontrollable”.

“I don’t make the decisions, and I don’t, you know, I don’t know what’s behind some of the decisions,” Paxton said. Recent polling from the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates most adults blame Trump for poor economic conditions. Approximately 74% of Americans said the economy was leaning poorly. Another 65% of survey respondents said they blame Trump’s policies directly for higher costs.

Trump Voters BACK Abdul in SHOCK Michigan Focus Group

172 Billionaire Families Have Spent Record $1.7 Billion on 2026 Midterms So Far

An analysis released Wednesday shows that 172 billionaire families in the United States have collectively spent more than $1.7 billion on the 2026 elections—a record-shattering sum for a midterm cycle.

The analysis by the Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) Action Fund shows that the “vast bulk” of billionaire political spending this election cycle has

flowed to super PACs, a product of the Supreme Court’s notorious 2010 Citizens United ruling. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums in support of favored candidates, giving billionaires a powerful vehicle to influence elections.

ATF Action Fund found that billionaire political spending has increased 53-fold since the Citizens United decision. This cycle, less than 20% of billionaire donations went to committees subject to contribution limits.

“With each passing election since the Citizens United decision, billionaires have systematically bought up our democracy,” said Jodie Rubenstein, ATF Action Fund’s executive director. “These billionaires are backing a crooked tax system that shifts wealth upward through massive tax giveaways to the wealthy and big business. We can’t let billionaire money erode our democracy while working families struggle to get by.”

“Working- and middle-class Americans must fight back and make clear this November that our democracy is not for sale,” Rubenstein added.

The top-spending billionaire families so far this cycle are those of Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, cofounders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The two families have pumped a combined $149 million into the 2026 elections, with donations flowing to both Republicans and Democrats. Andreessen and Horowitz have given major donations to Leading the Future, a super PAC that opposes strict artificial intelligence regulations.

The families of investor George Soros, businessman Jeff Yass, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are other leading spenders this cycle. The top 15 billionaire spenders have accounted for $962 million in combined 2026 election outlays, according to the new analysis.

GOP candidates have been the chief beneficiaries of billionaire election spending this cycle, ATF Action Fund found, with 113 billionaire families giving mostly to Republicans and 45 donating predominately to Democrats.

“A large group of billionaires is sending their checks to MAGA Inc., which has raised over $222 million from them since January 2025,” the new analysis shows. “In fact $1 out of every $2 to Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC comes directly from a billionaire on our list.”

---

---

World must change way it produces food to avoid biodiversity collapse, says WWF

Conservation comebacks for wild tigers, tuna and green​ sea turtles prove that global nature loss can be reversed, ​scientists have said. ​But a report warns food production must be the next ​“positive tipping point​” if the world is to avert biodiversity collapse. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) analysed nearly 36,000 animal populations and more than 5,000 species, producing the largest ever database of vertebrate wildlife. Scientists found populations had declined by an average of 73% since 1970, showing that “nature continues to be degraded at an alarming scale”, with “no sign of losses slowing”.

Nature loss is no longer just an environmental challenge but a direct threat to the global economy, the report says, noting that about half of global GDP – roughly $58tn (£44tn) in 2023 – depends on nature and its ecosystem services. The authors write that species collapse now poses an “existential threat to economic stability, geopolitical security and human wellbeing”.

Animal populations were found to be falling most sharply in tropical, biodiversity-rich regions, while trends in northern temperate parts of the world appeared much gentler. In Latin America and the Caribbean, land and freshwater wildlife populations fell by an average of 95% between 1970 and 2022, while the equivalent declines were 80% in Africa and 23% in Europe and Central Asia. Freshwater wildlife suffered the sharpest losses across the world’s ecosystems, with monitored populations in rivers and lakes down by an average of 85%, compared with 69% for land species and 59% for marine species.

Tanya Steele, the chief executive of WWF UK, said: “Nature loss is not just a crisis for wildlife. It’s already sending us the bill through growing risks to our food security, water supplies, economy and resilience to climate shocks. “We stand at a fork in the road: either we continue paying the rising price of nature loss, or we invest in nature’s recovery and a future where people and wildlife can thrive together.”

Humanity must likewise adapt the way it produces food, Dr Mike Barrett, the chief scientific adviser for WWF UK and a co-author of the report, said. “Agriculture is the single largest cause of habitat loss and degradation and therefore the loss of biodiversity. It’s also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and so helps drive climate change, so you have that feedback.” Dr Steve Smith, a research fellow at Global Systems Institute and a co-author of the report, said: “The biggest prize for nature recovery would be a sustainable and healthy food system, but it’s currently the farthest away from positively tipping. For example, agricultural expansion drives almost 90% of deforestation worldwide.”

Landslides, flash floods and raging seas: is California ready for the ravages of El Niño?

On a cloudless autumn afternoon, sunlight sparkled on the water that had quietly swallowed a busy intersection to the north of San Francisco, as the surrounding rush-hour traffic slowed to a painful crawl. There were no crashing waves or storm surges to blame for the flood. Marin county was one of many areas up and down the California coast affected by high tides last week, as parts of the Pacific swelled with excess warmth. The submerged streets stood as an early signal of California’s vulnerabilities as it braces for what could be a tumultuous winter.

“If you think this is bad, just wait until December,” a state worker grumbled as he directed swarms of cars past the choke point toward a sidestreet. Experts have warned that a potentially historic El Niño is brewing, with the power to unleash extreme weather around the world. The climate phenomenon, characterized by warmer than average equatorial sea surface temperatures, is already under way, according to federal forecasters, and it is expected to strengthen through the northern hemisphere’s autumn and winter.

California is poised to be in its crosshairs. Landslides, flash floods and encroaching sea levels are all on the menu – and they could all happen at once. “What we’re really looking at is the compounding element,” Nick Brubaker, the chief resilience officer for the office of emergency management in Marin county said. The biggest concern isn’t just rising tides. It’s the way everything could collide.

Dangerous spikes in temperature are likely. Some areas could see supercharged storms and relentless rains. Others face explosive surf, strong currents and devastated marine ecosystems. The effects of El Niño will add an additional foot of sea level rise in California on top of the 8in to 12in caused by the climate crisis there over the last century, according to Michael Anderson, a state climatologist.

And in recent wildfire burn scars, including the slopes of Big Sur that burned this summer and neighborhoods devastated by the 2025 firestorm in Los Angeles, there will be higher chances of debris flows. The risks are but a taste of what’s to come as the world warms. Preparations are already under way at all levels of government as officials work to secure vital infrastructure, preset response resources and inform the public of the incoming hazards. “We are trying to make sure that people are aware that this may be one of the most significant El Niño years that we’ve seen,” Brubaker said.

---

Also of Interest

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

Iran War: The Real and Narrative Battle for Mocha, Saudi Airports Hit

By Netanyahu’s Own Math, Gaza Is 3,900 September 11ths

Israel Above the Law – Palestine Beyond Justice

‘Neither war nor peace’: Palestinians in Gaza on existing amid disease, despair and ruins

Israel demolishes properties of Palestinian who saved 30 Israelis on 7 October

Mamdani and the Zionist Shakedown

Saudi Arabia Has Truly F**cked Around & Is About To Find Out

Britain Gets in on US Control of Venezuelan Oil

Scaremongering About French Debt

Skepticism mires Trump’s Iowa steel plant project: ‘Promises are not the same as jobs’

Detained immigrants at Georgia ICE facility launch mass hunger strike

---

A Little Night Music

Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher

Jackie Wilson - Stop Doggin' Me Around

Jackie Wilson - You Better Know It

Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite

Jackie Wilson - Nothin' But The Blues

Jackie Wilson - I'll Be Satisfied

Jackie Wilson – That's Why (I Love You So)

Jackie Wilson - The Way I Am

Jackie Wilson - Who Who Song

Jackie Wilson - Lonely Teardrops

---