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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Lester Davenport

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues harmonica player Lester Davenport. Enjoy!

^{Lester Davenport - Lester’s Comet}

"Both Zionists and far-right Jew haters want you to believe all this killing is about Jews and Judaism when it’s really about land. It’s one group wanting all the land that an indigenous population was living on. We’ve seen this exact same script played out many times with non-Jews as the perpetrators."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

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News and Opinion

Worth a full read:

Chris Hedges: The Horror, The Horror

DOHA, Qatar: I am in the studio of Al Jazeera’s Arabic service watching a live feed from Gaza City. The Al Jazeera reporter in northern Gaza, because of the intense Israeli shelling, was forced to evacuate to southern Gaza. He left his camera behind. He trained it on Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex. It is night. Israeli tanks fire directly towards the hospital compound. Long horizontal red flashes. A deliberate attack on a hospital. A deliberate war crime. A deliberate massacre of the most helpless civilians, including the very sick and infants. Then the feed goes dead. We sit in front of the monitors. We are silent. We know what this means. No power. No water. No internet. No medical supplies. Every infant in an incubator will die. Every dialysis patient will die. Everyone in the intensive care unit will die. Everyone who needs oxygen will die. Everyone who needs emergency surgery will die. And what will happen to the 50,000 people who, driven from their homes by the relentless bombing, have taken refuge on the hospital grounds? We know the answer to that as well. Many of them, too, will die.

There are no words to express what we are witnessing. In the five weeks of horror this is one of the pinnacles of horror. The indifference of Europe is bad enough. The active complicity by the United States is unfathomable. Nothing justifies this. Nothing. And Joe Biden will go down in history as an accomplice to genocide. May the ghosts of the thousands of children he has participated in murdering haunt him for the rest of his life.

Israel and the United States are sending a chilling message to the rest of the world. International and humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention, are meaningless pieces of paper. They did not apply in Iraq. They do not apply in Gaza. We will pulverize your neighborhoods and cities with bombs and missiles. We will wantonly murder your women, children, elderly and sick. We will set up blockades to engineer starvation and the spread of infectious diseases. You, the “lesser breeds” of the earth, do not matter. To us you are vermin to be extinguished. We have everything. If you try and take any of it away from us, we will kill you. And we will never be held accountable. ...

Israel reacted with indignation and moral outrage when it was accused of bombing the al-Ahli Arab Christian hospital in Gaza, which left hundreds of dead. The bombing, Israel claimed, came from an errant rocket fired by Palestine Islamic Jihad. There is nothing in the arsenal of Hamas or Islamic Jihad that could have replicated the massive explosive power of the missile that struck the hospital. Those of us who have covered Gaza have heard this Israel trope so many times it is risible. They always blame Hamas and the Palestinians for their war crimes, now attempting to argue that hospitals are Hamas command centers and therefore legitimate targets. They never provide evidence. The Israeli military and government lie like they breathe. ...

Israel and Washington’s cynicism is breathtaking. There are no differences in intent. Washington only wants it done quickly. Humanitarian corridors? Pauses in the shelling? These are vehicles to facilitate the total depopulation of northern Gaza. The handful of aid trucks allowed through the border at Rafah with Egypt? A public relations gimmick. There is only one goal – kill, kill, kill. The faster the better. All Biden officials talk about is what comes next once Israel has finished its decimation of Gaza. They know Israel’s slaughter will not end until Gazans are living in the open without shelter in the southern part of the strip and dying because of a lack of food, water and medical care.

This is the modern-day Trail of Tears. It's happening right in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/Ec5f4lfC3g

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 10, 2023

Gaza Hospitals Fail Under Israeli Bombardment; Doctors Without Borders Describes Horrific Conditions

Under bombardment, Gaza medics fight to save patients with no power, water or food

Inside a darkened operating theatre in Gaza’s largest hospital complex, staff swaddled dozens of tiny premature babies seven or eight to a bed, in a desperate effort to keep the infants warm – and alive. With no oxygen supplies or power for incubators, nurses attempted to provide what care they could for 39 babies who were transferred from the neonatal unit in another part of the sprawling complex after a strike on Dar al-Shifa’s intensive care unit.

Just getting them to the theatre was a potentially deadly mission after staff reported attacks on anyone moving inside the hospital compound. “The neonatal unit is not connected to the main surgical units within the al-Shifa medical complex; it was dangerous to go from the main building to get the babies,” said Marwan Abu Sada, the head of surgery at al-Shifa, which was once considered the heart of Gaza’s healthcare system and is now operating under fire.

“We called the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] and the Israelis just to ensure the passage of the babies from the neonatal ICU to the surgical area.” Thirty-nine infants managed to survive the transfer, but their conditions worsened over the weekend. “We lost the life of one baby today. Yesterday we lost two and I am afraid that all of the babies will lose their lives,” said Abu Sada. Al-Shifa had the largest neonatal unit in Gaza and nowhere else could care for the infants, he said, making evacuation impossible. “We no longer have any oxygen supplies, or even fuel to run a generator.”

Hospitals across Gaza City are in a struggle for survival, with only one facility able to receive the hundreds of wounded arriving daily. Staff in al-Shifa were working under bombardment and without power, clean water, or food. “Shifa is besieged; no one can get out, and no one can enter,” Abu Sada said. “It is dangerous for us, even the medical staff, to look out the window. We are so afraid of the shooting.” Amid fears of sniper fire, hospital staff have moved all 600 remaining patients away from the windows and into corridors deeper inside the complex.

.@WHO has managed to get in touch with health professionals at the Al-Shifa hospital in #Gaza.

The situation is dire and perilous.

It's been 3 days without electricity, without water and with very poor internet which has severely impacted our ability to provide essential…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 12, 2023

"We're Being Exterminated": Hear Dr. Hammam Alloh's Interview from Gaza Before His Death

Two major Gaza hospitals close to new patients as heavy fighting rages

Two major hospitals in northern Gaza have closed to new patients amid Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities, as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators. Intense clashes are continuing around Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, and another major facility, al-Quds, as Israel presses its offensive against Hamas in the territory. ...

Israeli forces appear close to reaching many of their objectives in Gaza, sweeping across a swath of the northern sector of the territory, which is seen as Hamas’s stronghold, though the organisation’s top leaders seem to have escaped the military onslaught so far.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Hamas’s attacks on Israel in which the militant group killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, did not justify the collective punishment of Palestinians. “You cannot use the horrific things that Hamas did as a reason for collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he told CNN.

Israel has said doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza must leave through “humanitarian corridors” that its forces have arranged so it can tackle Hamas gunmen who, it says, have placed command centres under and around them. ...

Hamas denies using hospitals this way. Medical staff say patients could die if they are moved, and Palestinian officials say Israeli fire makes it dangerous for others to leave.

Doctors Without Borders once again begging for a ceasefire

Here is the head of Doctors Without Borders mocking the idea of a “humanitarian pause” a few days ago. This placebo bullshit is what Warren, Sanders, Biden, etc are trying to pass off as a bold progressive gesture. https://t.co/KrEjiX484H pic.twitter.com/yg14jkaBnS

— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) November 10, 2023

Al-Shifa Hospital Siege; Muslim States Press Ceasefire; ICC Referral Israel

Over 50 Bodies Pulled From Rubble of Gaza School Bombed Amid Israeli Assault

Palestinian civil defense officials said Friday that more than 50 bodies were recovered from the rubble of a school in northern Gaza where civilians were sheltering when it was destroyed during overnight Israeli bombardment.

Palestine's WAFA News Agency reported civil defense and ambulance rescue teams removed the blasted and crushed remains of victims of Thursday night's missile and artillery strikes on the al-Buraq School in the al-Nasr neighborhood of Gaza City. The outlet said that most of those killed were women, children, and elders.

The Times of Israel reports that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials have not yet commented on the attack.

Injured survivors of the attack were rushed to al-Shifa Hospital, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes at least four times over the past 24 hours. ...

In an interview with Al Jazeera, al-Shifa general director Muhammad Abu Salmiya called Friday "a day of war against hospitals."

Israeli officials have made unsubstantiated claims of Hamas fighters operating from inside or under al-Shifa and other Gaza hospitals.

“It’s not just Israel’s genocide; it’s yours, and The Hague isn’t good enough for you” -- Irish MEP @ClareDalyMEP has some choice words for Ursula von der Leyen. pic.twitter.com/g9bcWmlp5F

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 10, 2023

18 Israelis injured in Hezbollah missile strikes as border tensions grow

Eighteen Israelis have been injured, one critically, after the Iranian backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon in a further sign that the skirmishes along the border are steadily escalating.

Several vehicles near the northern community of Dovev were hit in the missile strike, whose victims included Israel Electric Corporation employees who had arrived to repair power lines damaged by previous fire from Lebanon. Hezbollah sources had claimed they were soldiers, an assertion denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The Magen David Adom emergency service said one of the civilians injured in the attack was in a critical condition.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson, R Adm Daniel Hagari, said the IDF was “at a very high state of readiness in the north” and that “Lebanon’s citizens will bear the cost of this recklessness”. ...

Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Saturday that his group was using new weapons including attack drones “for the first time in the history of the resistance” in Lebanon.

Nasrallah’s speech prompted a warning from Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who said Lebanese citizens would “pay the price” and added: “What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.”

“What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.” -- Yoav Gallant

Israel targets hospital in southern Lebanon

Israeli army targeted on Friday the Mays Al Jabal Hospital in southern Lebanon, state media reported, as tensions between the neighboring countries remain high since the Oct. 7 cross border offensive by Palestinian group Hamas.

An unexploded 155-caliber artillery shell landed in the courtyard of the hospital, the official National News Agency reported. ...

Lebanon’s Health Ministry in a statement condemned the attack on the medical facility, adding that it injured a health worker and inflicted damage to the emergency department — "in flagrant defiance of all the international laws and treaties.”

US WARNS Israel WANTS Regional War

Gulf states fend off call from Iran to arm Palestinians at Riyadh summit

Gulf state leaders have fended off an Iranian-led attempt to call for arming the Palestinians and severing all diplomatic ties with Israel at an extraordinary summit in Riyadh, in a effort to retain control of the region’s diplomatic response to the Israeli assault on Gaza. Tehran, however, insisted on Sunday that its influence remained through its allied “resistance factions” operating in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. In a further sign that it has no intention of jettisoning a military path, militants near the Israeli border with Lebanon fired anti-tank missiles towards Israel, hitting a number of civilians, according to the Israeli military. ...

The relatively tepid outcome of the Riyadh summit, attended by 51 leaders in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), left some disappointed, but others insisting the moral force of the unified support for Palestine shown by the Islamic world would force the US to rein in Israel. ...

The final OIC communique [...] was long on condemnation and demands for an immediate ceasefire, but short on practical steps to help Hamas. It called for an end to the sale of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and a loosely worded proposal to break the humanitarian siege that did not explicitly mention the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. It also called on the international criminal court and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate possible Israeli war crimes, and for more decisive action from the UN security council. It also condemned “the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, the war crimes and the barbaric and inhumane massacres perpetrated by the occupation government”.

The lengthy statement made no mention of a ban on oil sales, a tactic used in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the severance of diplomatic relations with Israel or the arming of the Palestinians. All three proposals had been advanced by Raisi in a 10-point plan he presented to the conference.

Raisi praised Hamas in his speech, saying: “There is no other way than to resist Israel, we kiss the hands of Hamas for its resistance against Israel”. That view was not shared by most Gulf leaders, but it was echoed by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He said: “They want us to classify Hamas as a terrorist. No, it is not a terrorist. They are fighting for their homeland and struggling to obtain their rights.”

Israeli Minister Plan: TOTAL Gaza Ethnic Cleansing

Only the United States could invade and occupy territory in a country on the other side of the planet, kill the people who try to make them leave, and call it "self-defense". https://t.co/KmqEDNMSUR

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 9, 2023

Four More Attacks on US Bases in Iraq and Syria After US Airstrikes

US forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked by rockets or drones four times since the US launched another round of airstrikes in eastern Syria on Wednesday, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Sources told The Guardian that US forces were targeted in three separate attacks across Iraq on Thursday. The report described the attacks as the “most geographically widespread series of strikes on US assets in a single day since the Israel-Hamas conflict started.”

The Pentagon said since October 17, US forces in the region have been attacked 46 times due to President Biden’s full-throated support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza. A total of 56 American troops have been injured in the attacks.

The leader of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, one of Iraq’s Shia militias, said Thursday that attacks on US forces would continue until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. “There will be no truce with the US occupation in Iraq unless a genuine and binding ceasefire is established in the Gaza Strip,” said Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada leader Abu Alaa al-Walai, according to Al Mayadeen.

Pro-Israel groups target US lawmakers critical of Israel’s war ahead of primaries

The pro-Israel lobby in the US is airing attack ads and beginning to back primary opponents to challenge Congress members who are not voting for or supporting Israel’s war on Gaza. During the last 10 days, groups that support Israel have launched ads in at least seven districts targeting those who have been particularly vocal in calling attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, opposing Israeli military aid or criticizing Israel’s government.

The groups will probably pump tens of millions of dollars into primaries this cycle to back its candidates. While most of the targets are members of the “Squad” of progressive Democrats, one of them is a libertarian Republican who opposes foreign spending. “I don’t think [the pro-Israel] lobby can beat me, and they definitely can’t beat me with this topic,” said the Republican Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, referring to his recent vote against military aid for Israel.

A group of Super Pacs and dark-money non-profits – most notably groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) – tied to Israeli interests contributed about $43m to US campaigns during the last cycle, according to Open Secrets, a campaign finance watchdog. Among its targets is the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the House’s only Palestinian American, who co-sponsored a resolution urging Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire. She and other progressive Democrats later opposed a bipartisan resolution expressing support for Israel that failed to mention Palestinian victims, and have not supported US military funding for Israel.

In response, the DMFI has launched a six-figure ad campaign in Tlaib’s district that opens with ominous music and an image of a narrator rattling off a list of grievances. “She’s one of only seven Democrats in Congress to vote against missile protection for Israel, one of only nine Democrats against condemning the brutal attack on Israel by Hamas,” the narrator says. “Tell Rashida Tlaib she’s on the wrong side of history and humanity.”

Meanwhile, the Mainstream Democrats Pac, backed by the LinkedIn co-founder and billionaire Reid Hoffman, has voiced interest in supporting primary challenges against Tlaib and the progressive congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri. The latest round of ads also mark a shift in strategy. Attacks from these groups have typically focused on domestic issues, but this time they are hitting US lawmakers for not supporting Israel’s war effort, a move political observers say represents a risk given the divide among Democrats over the war.

NORD STREAM: Tucker Carlson Was RIGHT About Pipeline Explosion, WaPo Admits?

Nord Stream coordinator caught. Macron, next month will decide war. Arab League split on Gaza.

House speaker unveils Republican plan to avert government shutdown

US House speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican stopgap spending measure late Saturday aimed at averting a government shutdown in a week, but the measure quickly ran into opposition from lawmakers from both parties in Congress.

Unlike ordinary continuing resolutions that fund federal agencies for a specific period, the measure announced by Johnson would fund some parts of the government until 19 January and others until 2 February. House Republicans hope to pass the measure Tuesday.

“This two-step continuing resolution is a necessary bill to place House Republicans in the best position to fight for conservative victories,” Johnson said in a statement after announcing the plan to House Republicans in a conference call.

The House Republican stopgap contained no supplemental funding such as aid for Israel or Ukraine. ...

The legislation would extend funding for military construction, veterans benefits, transportation, housing, urban development, agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and energy and water programs through 19 January. Funding for all other federal operations would expire on 2 February.

Federal agency says it stopped measuring water pollution near ‘Cop City’

A federal agency that monitors water quality says it stopped measuring sediment pollution levels in a creek that runs alongside the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” months ago due to safety concerns. The issue is particularly important as a local environmental group’s motion to stop construction of the project will get its day in federal court on 15 November.

The motion for a preliminary injunction alleges that the project’s construction in a forest south-east of Atlanta has resulted in sediment discharging into Intrenchment Creek, endangering fauna and exceeding federally allowed limits. The environmental group hopes a district court judge will stop the project while the underlying lawsuit is resolved, based on alleged federal Clean Water Act violations.

The US Geological Survey’s (USGS)“streamgage” has been inactive since the agency removed it in February due to concern about the ongoing movement opposed to the training center, now in its third year. Although the gauge uploads sediment data remotely, USGS personnel had to visit the site periodically to clean out leaves and other debris. The agency decided its employees were under “unacceptable” risk in making those visits, wrote spokesperson Jason Burton in an email.

But in March, within weeks of USGS removing the gauge, Dekalb county closed the public park portion of nearby South River Forest, removing access by activists to what had been ongoing campsites in protest against “Cop City”. Police officers have also monitored the construction site on the ground and by helicopter since then, and there have been no incidents that authorities have described as violent or dangerous. A march to the construction site is planned for 13 November – but it too is described by organizers as a nonviolent, peaceful protest.

The Dekalb county commissioner Ted Terry – a former Sierra Club director whose district includes the “Cop City” site – said the idea that activists are somehow a threat to the water-monitoring efforts is wrong: “There’s an officer on every corner. The assumption that it is not a safe place is preposterous.”

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RFK Jr BLOWING UP 2024 Race, WINNING OVER VOTERS From Establishment Wings

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EU strikes landmark deal on law to restore and protect nature

EU lawmakers and member states have struck a deal on a landmark law to protect nature after watering down rules that critics argued would trouble farmers. The nature restoration law, a hotly contested pillar of the European green deal, will force EU countries to restore at least 20% of the bloc’s land and seas by the end of the decade. It contains binding targets to restore at least 30% of degraded habitats by then, rising to 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050.

“We are faced with an increasingly dramatic reality: the EU’s nature and biodiversity are in danger and need to be protected,” said the Spanish environment minister, Teresa Ribera.

Politicians have fiercely contested the provisions in the law amid a simmering backlash to green policies across the continent. Opposition from the European People’s party (EPP), the centre-right group to which European Commission president and green deal champion, Ursula von der Leyen, belongs, nearly threw out the bill entirely in a vote in July.

Environmental campaigners offered tepid support for the deal struck late on Thursday night between the European Council, which represents the member states, and the parliament. “We are relieved to see that the negotiators have not completely failed European citizens,” said Sofie Ruysschaert, the nature restoration policy officer at BirdLife Europe.

The EPP, the biggest political group in the parliament, said it was pleased other groups had moved towards its position. It said “notable improvements” to the text include removing a requirement that would have ensured 10% of farmland had landscape elements such as hedgerows and flower strips, and adding a line stating that countries are not obliged to use money in the EU’s farming fund to protect nature. The group also secured several carveouts for farmers, including an “emergency brake” to freeze environmental targets if food production is threatened.

Countries meet in Kenya to thrash out global plastic pollution treaty

Government delegations will gather in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out details of what could be the first global treaty to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

A key focus for the discussions on Monday will be whether targets to restrict plastic production should be decided unilaterally or whether states should choose their own targets; this is, say environmentalists, the “centre of gravity” for the treaty’s ambition.

At the last round of negotiations in Paris in May run by the international negotiating committee (INC) the US, Saudi Arabia, India and China favoured a “Paris-style” agreement where states would have the freedom to determine their own commitments, while others, including Africa and many developing countries, preferred strong global commitments.

But there are signs, some observers say, of a shift in the US’s position on this key issue, though details have yet to emerge. “The main takeaway for many environmental groups, after INC2 [the negotiations in Paris], was how bad the US position was, in terms of Paris-style voluntary commitments,” said Graham Forbes, the global plastics campaign lead for Greenpeace USA. He said there had been signals of a shift.

“We are going to be watching very closely to see how that plays out. We need to be speaking about rules and putting in place regulations.”

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Also of Interest

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

Biden Visits Hitler’s Bunker, Sends for a Decorator: Israel and Ukraine Edition

What Would It Look Like If You Were Standing On The Wrong Side Of History?

Hamas Didn’t Attack Israelis Because They Are Jewish

Nasrallah's Second Speech On Gaza

Biden Could End All This With One Phone Call

Three rights groups file ICC lawsuit against Israel over Gaza ‘genocide’

As Blinken’s visit exposes Ankara’s complicity, Italian, Greek, Turkish unions call for industrial action to halt Israeli genocide

Ilhan Omar faces Democratic primary challenge from ex-Minneapolis official

In response to question, how many Gazans must die, Florida legislator shouts, “All of them.”

McBride Trial Tests Australian Justice

US Military has Overextended Itself - John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen

Netanyahu Inciting HAMAS RADICALIZATION By Killing Gazan Children: Musk On Lex Fridman’s Show

New plan; invade Russia, win war. Elensky, call Trump get money. Netanyahu wants Tony Blair.

Trump WINS 2024 General Election Over Biden In NEW POLL, Reelection Campaign SPIRALING

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A Little Night Music

Lester Davenport - I Smell A Rat

Lester Davenport - I'm Gonna Move

Lester Davenport - My Baby's Gone

Lester Davenport - Knocked On Every Door

Lester Davenport - So Worried

Lester Davenport - It Won't Work Like That

Lester Davenport - Slow Down Baby

Lester Davenport - When The Blues Hit You

Lester Davenport - Mad Dog On The Loose

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