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"It's the people, it's the citizenry of the world who are going toe to toe with the handful of politicians who are driving disastrous decisions for us."

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Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth, was a man too bigoted for the far-right Reform UK Party. Now sitting as an independent, his suspension has if anything accelerated the stream of bile the racist prick is rattling off on social media, presumably because he no longer has anyone to be racist to in person. Yesterday, […]

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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“What I saw in that room is one of the most troubling scenes I’ve ever seen in my time in public service.”

The post Video of U.S. Military Killing Boat Strike Survivors Is Horrifying, Lawmakers Reveal appeared first on The Intercept.

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Senate Democrats will force a vote next week on whether to extend tax credits for people on the health exchange.

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This comes weeks after another startup, in which Trump Jr. has held a $4 million stake, received a US Army contract.

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

Striking a shipwreck is so egregious that the Pentagon uses it as an example of a “clearly illegal” order in its manual.

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

Analysts argue that framing the conflict as religious persecution masks a deeper geopolitical struggle over Nigeria’s enormous mineral wealth.

The post US maintains “Christian genocide” narrative at UN special event appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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US Rep. Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, expressed horror on Thursday after watching a video of the September 2 double-tap strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking to reporters after a briefing on the strike delivered by Adm. Frank Bradley, Himes (D-Conn.) called the video he saw of the attack "one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service."

Himes proceeded to describe the video, which showed the US military firing missiles at two men who had survived an initial attack on their vessel and who were floating in the water while clinging to debris.

"You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, [who] were killed by the United States," he said.

Himes then started to walk away before a reporter asked him to describe more of what he saw in the video. The Connecticut Democrat then said the video showed a clear "impermissible action," according to the laws of armed conflict.

"Any American who sees the video that I saw will see its military attacking shipwrecked sailors," he said. "Now, there's a whole set of contextual items that the admiral explained. Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in position to continue their mission in any way... People will someday see this video and they will see that that video shows, if you don't have the broader context, an attack on shipwrecked sailors."

Himes finished his talk with reporters by saying that Bradley told him that there had not been a "no quarter" order given to the military by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and that he believed that the video should be made available for the US public to see for themselves.

Himes' reaction to the video stood in stark contrast to the reaction of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who praised the military for its actions.

According to HuffPost reporter Jen Bendery, Cotton described the strikes on the two survivors as "righteous strikes" that were "entirely lawful."

Cotton also claimed that the video showed "two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs, bound for the United States, back over, so they could stay in the fight."

Reports from the US government and the United Nations have not identified Venezuela as a significant source of drugs that enter the United States, and the country plays virtually no role in the trafficking of fentanyl, the primary cause of drug overdoses in the US.

Additionally, many legal scholars have said that a strike on the two men who survived the initial attack on the boat is very likely either an act of murder or a war crime, regardless of whether they were intending to traffic illegal drugs in the US.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

With Affordable Care Act premiums surging and lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle scrambling to cobble together a last-minute fix, recent polling data shows that a strong majority of the American public supports a transformative proposal that few members of Congress are vocally advocating.

Data for Progress released survey results late last month showing that 65% of likely US voters—including 78% of Democrats, 71% of Independents, and 49% of Republicans—either strongly or somewhat support "creating a national health insurance program, sometimes called 'Medicare for All,' that would cover all Americans and replace most private health insurance plans."

Overall support for such a system dropped just two percentage points when survey respondents were informed that Medicare for All would replace insurance premiums with higher taxes, abolish most private insurance, and eliminate copays and deductibles. In an analysis posted last week, The Lever's David Sirota observed that those results are a shift from earlier polling showing a sharp decline in support for Medicare for All once respondents were told the proposal would wipe out private insurance.

"That might have been the end of Medicare for All for another generation—except now the ACA is epically and undeniably failing to guarantee 'affordable' healthcare," Sirota wrote. "As private health insurers are now jacking up premiums for tens of millions of Americans, a new poll shows a huge majority of Americans now want Medicare for All—even if it entails eliminating private insurers and raising taxes."

The Data for Progress survey came as Republican and Democratic lawmakers continued floating temporary, Band-Aid solutions to avert catastrophic premium increases stemming in large part from the looming expiration of enhanced ACA tax credits, which lapse at the end of the year.

A new poll released Thursday by KFF found that "six in ten adults (61%) who buy their health coverage on the ACA marketplace say it is very or somewhat difficult to afford their deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for medical care."

"When asked what they would do if the amount they pay for health insurance each month doubled, one in three enrollees (32%) say they are very likely to shop for a lower-premium plan (with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs), and one in four (25%) say they would be very likely to go uninsured," KFF noted.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday pitched a three-year extension of the ACA subsidies ahead of a planned vote next week—a proposal that Republicans are certain to oppose.

On the Republican side, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)—who is linked to the largest Medicare fraud case in US history—is convening a group of Republican lawmakers to craft a likely dead-on-arrival ACA alternative that would implement some proposals floated by President Donald Trump, including new savings accounts that critics say would further enrich banks and insurance giants.

Scott warned in a statement to Axios earlier this week that "the more Republicans refuse to engage on this issue, the more we allow radical Democrats to lead our country on a slow creep towards the Socialist single-payer healthcare system they've always wanted."

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), meanwhile, is reportedly planning to finalize a healthcare bill early next week, though no details were immediately available.

There's also a bipartisan framework led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), which calls for a one-year extension of the enhanced ACA tax credits "with targeted modifications," including intensified means-testing that would phase out the subsidies for those with incomes between 600% and 1,000% of the federal poverty level.

The Medicare for All Act, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) in the House, would have no such means-testing, guaranteeing comprehensive coverage to all for free at the point of service.

"Everybody recognizes that our current healthcare system is broken. That’s why over 60% of the American people support Medicare for All," Sanders said at a rally with nurses in the nation's capital on Wednesday. "The day will come when working-class Americans will be able to go to the doctor, dentist, or a nursing home without having to worry about the cost. We’re going to win this fight."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams on Thursday said the Trump administration continues to tell the "cruel lie" that it does not separate children from their families in immigration enforcement, as he joined other city officials and advocates in demanding the Department of Homeland Security immediately release a six-year-old boy who was taken from his father during an immigration check-in in Manhattan more than a week ago.

"Six-year-old asylum-seeker Yuanxin has been separated from his father, held at an undisclosed location," said Williams.

As The City reported Tuesday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Yuanxin's father, Fei, when they arrived at 26 Federal Plaza—the ICE headquarters and immigration court that's become notorious for federal agents' violent treatment of immigrants and advocates under President Donald Trump—on November 26.

Fei, who sought asylum when he and his son crossed the US border in April, was sent to Orange County Jail in New York, while his son, a public school student in Queens, was separated from him. ICE agents did not tell Fei where they were taking Yuanxin.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, said in a statement this week that while agents were attempting to take Fei north to Orange County, he "was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child’s well-being." She accused him of attempting to "escape and abandon his son."

While acknowledging that the two had been separated, McLaughlin said, "ICE does not separate families.”

A judge "administratively closed" the family's asylum case in September, The City reported, which "would have been seen as a positive step and indicated that DHS wasn’t actively seeking the person’s deportation" under previous administrations.

They were also released on a yearlong parole after having been previously detained, and were required to visit 26 Federal Plaza for check-ins with ICE.

According to the Deportation Data Project, at least 151 children under the age of 18 have been arrested and detained by ICE since January.

Diana Moreno, an immigrant rights advocate who is running for the state Assembly in District 36, spoke to CBS News on Tuesday about Yuanxin's detention.

"To see their classmates disappear overnight is something that no parent wants to explain to their kid why this is happening," said Moreno.

— (@)

The New York Immigration Coalition also demanded that the father and son "be reunited with each other immediately," while Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani condemned the Trump administration's "cruelty."

"Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria," said Mamdani. "Now he's in custody, alone. ICE won't say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end."

— (@)

Chuck Park, a candidate for US Congress in New York's 6th District, also in Queens, said Yuanxin "looks like my son did at that age."

"Big glasses. Sweet smile," said Park. "Now alone, scared at an unknown ICE detention center. Taken from his dad at a routine check-in. This is what we're fighting against. This kid is who we're fighting for."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

As the construction of artificial intelligence data centers expands across the nation largely unregulated, experts warn that the unrestrained buildup of these facilities is causing electricity costs to skyrocket, accelerating the climate crisis, and putting the economy at risk.

A new report out Thursday from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen highlights the "unchecked expansion" of these data centers, often with little oversight, input from communities, or even financial responsibility on the part of the Big Tech firms profiting.

“We’re watching Big Tech overlords write their own rules in real time,” said Deanna Noël, Public Citizen's climate campaigns director and one of the report's authors. “Tech giants are cutting backroom deals with utilities and government officials to build massive data centers at breakneck speed, while passing the costs onto working families through higher electricity bills, polluted air and water, and false claims about job creation."

A forecast published earlier this week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance projected that the power demand for AI facilities will hit 106 gigawatts by 2035—a 36% jump from what it predicted back in April.

That dramatic increase, it said, can be attributed not just to the more rapid buildup of AI facilities, but also to the size of the ones being constructed: "Of the nearly 150 new data center projects BNEF added to its tracker in the last year, nearly a quarter exceed 500 megawatts," it found.

This faster-than-expected expansion has come with massive consequences for the people living near the power-sucking behemoths. Public Citizen's report found:

Residents’ electricity costs in some data center-dense areas have surged over 250% in just five years. At PJM—the world’s largest power market—capacity auction prices spiked 800% in 2024, in part due to data center growth. That same year, consumers across seven PJM states paid $4.3 billion more in electricity costs to cover data centers’ new transmission infrastructure.

On Wednesday, CNBC reported on findings from a watchdog report that PJM's 65 million consumers will pay a total of $16.6 billion to secure future power supplies needed to meet demand from AI data centers from now until 2027, approximately $255 per person on average.

In some of the states with the most data centers, residential electricity prices have spiked considerably over the past year. In September, they were up 20% in Illinois, 12% in Ohio, and 9% in Virginia, according to data from the federal Energy Information Administration.

The massive surge in electricity usage is also fueling the climate crisis. As of March 2025, 56% of the electricity used to power data centers came from fossil fuels, a share that is likely to increase now that the Trump administration has pushed to expand the extraction of coal and other planet-heating energy sources in order to power them.

"At the very moment we must rapidly phase out fossil fuels," Noël said, "the Trump administration is doing the opposite—fast-tracking data center development powered by coal, oil, and gas."

Tech companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google that benefit from these projects rarely have to bear the full economic cost, instead passing some of it onto taxpayers, often without public debate due to nondisclosure agreements that keep the details of proposals under wraps until deals are finalized.

"In the race to attract large data centers, states are forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue," a June CNBC investigation found. The report determined that 42 states provide full or partial sales tax exemptions to data centers or have no sales tax at all. Thirty-seven of those states have legislation specifically granting sales tax exemptions for data centers.

While these exemptions are often granted following promises of economic growth and job creation, as the Public Citizen report argues: "They rarely deliver on these promises. Data centers create few permanent, high-paying jobs, and generous tax breaks deprive communities of critical revenue needed to fund schools, infrastructure, and other public services."

Data centers have increasingly faced pushback from local communities. On Wednesday night in Howell, Michigan, over 150 people assembled at a town hall in opposition to a proposed $1 billion "hyperscale" data center project backed by Meta, following days of protest.

— (@)

“Already we have started to see many regions (across the country) realizing that the huge spike in electricity demand from data centers is straining the grid, and this is only going to get worse as the growth of data centers increases based on the projected and planned investments,” said one of the panelists, Ben Green, an assistant professor of information and public policy at the University of Michigan.

Economic analysts, meanwhile, remain skeptical about whether the rapid buildup of AI infrastructure will be sustainable in the long term, given the extraordinary energy demand.

In November, Morgan Stanley projected AI-related data center spending will total $2.9 trillion cumulatively from 2025 to 2028, with roughly half requiring external financing.

Abe Silverman, general counsel for the public utility board in New Jersey, pointed out to CNBC the unease communities are feeling about "paying money today for a data center tomorrow."

“We’re in a bit of a bubble,” he warned. “There is no question that data center developers are coming out of the woodwork, putting in massive numbers of new requests. It’s impossible to say exactly how many of them are speculative versus real.”

Cathy Kunkel, a consultant at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said, "It does tend to be consumers—residential, commercial, and other industrial ratepayers—that end up paying for overbuilt electrical infrastructure."

The health of the entire US economy, it turns out, may be hitched to this "bubble." As the Wall Street Journal reported in late November, "business investment in AI might have accounted for as much as half of the growth in gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, in the first six months of the year."

OpenAI founder Sam Altman raised eyebrows last month when he suggested that if the bubble bursts, his company is too big to fail, and would likely receive a large taxpayer-funded federal bailout: "When something gets sufficiently huge... the federal government is kind of the insurer of last resort as we've seen in various financial crises," Altman said. "So I guess given the magnitude of what I expect AI economic impact to look like, sort of I do think the government ends up as like the insurer of last resort."

A looming financial bubble related to AI's rapid growth, alongside the various other concerns related to the data center buildout, is why Public Citizen says policymakers must understand the gravity the situation and be willing to push back against an industry that has built an army of lobbyists to press its interests on Capitol Hill.

"Policymakers at all levels of government must act with urgency to rein in Big Tech’s unchecked expansion," Noël said. "By demanding transparency and accountability, enforcing strong community protections, and requiring clean and cheap renewable energy, policymakers can shield consumers from soaring electricity costs, reduce emissions to protect public health, and align this buildout with the clean energy transition.

"Without urgent intervention," she said, "Big Tech will continue getting a free ride while more neighborhoods are turned into sacrifice zones for Silicon Valley’s tech tycoons—fueled by the fossil fuel industry.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the commander of US Africa Command, visited Somalia’s Puntland region late last month and called for the US-backed war against the small ISIS affiliate in the area to be “intensified,” according to a press release from AFRICOM. The US has dramatically escalated its air campaign in Somalia this year, launching at least […]

From News From Antiwar.com via This RSS Feed.

Hegseth apparently told the admiral: “When you get an order … don’t ask questions.”

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

If you’ve not heard of ‘Kalshi’ before, it’s what’s known as a ‘prediction market’. If you’ve not heard of prediction markets, hold on to that feeling, because you won’t enjoy your enlightenment: The co-founder of Kalshi says: " The long-term vision is to financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion." […]

By Willem Moore

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

On an emotionally charged evening at Lusail Stadium, the Palestinian national team snatched a dramatic 2-2 draw against Tunisia in the second round of the group stage of the 2025 football Arab Cup. Palestine vs Tunisia: a draw that felt like a win in the Arab Cup After falling behind by two goals, the Palestinian […]

By Alaa Shamali

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

The widespread support for Mangione shows America is ready to mobilize to build a more humane health care system.

The post Luigi, a Year Later: How to Build a Movement Against Parasitic Health Insurance Giants appeared first on The Intercept.

From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.

If you’ve bought a computer in the past few years, you may have noticed that RAM chips are much more expensive. Unfortunately, this situation looks set to worsen: Micron, a major manufacturer of RAM chips, says it is exiting the consumer memory business and focusing on chips used in data centers (AI) ➡️ https://t.co/2Q1sZxOM0w This […]

By Willem Moore

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Green card and US citizenship processing will be paused for migrants from 19 non-European countries.

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

Wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu — in an Islamophobic propaganda campaign that appears to be coordinated with the US — has given a speech declaring that Israel is under siege. Who, you may ask? Well from, essentially, the whole world apart from the US according to Netanyahu. This includes China, Iran, and — bizarrely — […]

By Skwawkbox

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

The move came more than seven decades after Israel occupied the concerned territories, and over two years after it started its all-out aggression across West Asia.

The post UN adopts resolutions to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories and Syria’s Golan Heights appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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Highly invasive spyware from consortium led by a former senior Israeli intelligence official and sanctioned by the US government is still being used to target people in multiple countries, a joint investigation published Thursday revealed.

Inside Story in Greece, Haaretz in Israel, Swiss-based WAV Research Collective, and Amnesty International collaborated on the investigation into Intellexa Consortium, maker of Predator commercial spyware. The "Intellexa Leaks" show that clients in Pakistan—and likely also in other countries—are using Predator to spy on people, including a featured Pakistani human rights lawyer.

“This investigation provides one of the clearest and most damning views yet into Intellexa’s internal operations and technology," said Amnesty International Security Lab technologist Jurre van Bergen.

🚨Intellexa Leaks:"Among the most startling findings is evidence that—at the time of the leaked training videos—Intellexa retained the capability to remotely access Predator customer systems, even those physically located on the premises of its govt customers."securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2025/...

[image or embed]
— Vas Panagiotopoulos (@vaspanagiotopoulos.com) December 3, 2025 at 9:07 PM

Predator works by sending malicious links to a targeted phone or other hardware. When the victim clicks the link, the spyware infects and provide access to the targeted device, including its encrypted instant messages on applications such as Signal and WhatsApp, as well as stored passwords, emails, contact lists, call logs, microphones, audio recordings, and more. The spyware then uploads gleaned data to a Predator back-end server.

The new investigation also revealed that in addition to the aforementioned "one-click" attacks, Intellexa has developed "zero-click" capabilities in which devices are infected via malicious advertising.

In March 2024, the US Treasury Department sanctioned two people and five entities associated with Intellexa for their alleged role "in developing, operating, and distributing commercial spyware technology used to target Americans, including US government officials, journalists, and policy experts."

"The proliferation of commercial spyware poses distinct and growing security risks to the United States and has been misused by foreign actors to enable human rights abuses and the targeting of dissidents around the world for repression and reprisal," the department said at the time.

Those sanctioned include Intellexa, its founder Tal Jonathan Dilian—a former chief commander of the Israel Defense Forces' top-secret Technological Unit—his wife and business partner Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou; and three companies within the Intellexa Consortium based in North Macedonia, Hungary, and Ireland.

In September 2024, Treasury sanctioned five more people and one more entity associated with the Intellexa Consortium, including Felix Bitzios, owner of an Intellexa consortium company accused of selling Predator to an unnamed foreign government, for alleged activities likely posing "a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States."

The Intellexa Leaks reveal that new consortium employees were trained using a video demonstrating Predator capabilities on live clients. raising serious questions regarding clients' understanding of or consent to such access.

"The fact that, at least in some cases, Intellexa appears to have retained the capability to remotely access Predator customer logs—allowing company staff to see details of surveillance operations and targeted individuals raises questions about its own human rights due diligence processes," said van Bergen.

"If a mercenary spyware company is found to be directly involved in the operation of its product, then by human rights standards, it could potentially leave them open to claims of liability in cases of misuse and if any human rights abuses are caused by the use of spyware," he added.

Dilian, Hamou, Bitzios, and Giannis Lavranos—whose company Krikel purchased Predator spyware—are currently on trial in Greece for allegedly violating the privacy of Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis and Artemis Seaford, a Greek-American woman who worked for tech giant Meta. Dilian denies any wrongdoing or involvement in the case.

Earlier this week, former Intellexa pre-sale engineer Panagiotis Koutsios testified about traveling to countries including Colombia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Mongolia, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan, where he pitched Predator to public, intelligence, and state security agencies.

The new joint investigation follows Amnesty International's "Predator Files," a 2023 report detailing "how a suite of highly invasive surveillance technologies supplied by the Intellexa alliance is being sold and transferred around the world with impunity."

The Predator case has drawn comparisons with Pegasus, the zero-click spyware made by the Israeli firm NSO Group that has been used by governments, spy agencies, and others to invade the privacy of targeted world leaders, political opponents, dissidents, journalists, and others.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has confirmed that he held a phone call with President Trump amid a major US military buildup in the Caribbean and the threats of an attack on his country. Maduro said the call, which occurred last month, was “cordial” and that he decided to comment on the conversation because it was […]

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Yasser Abu Shabab had become an infamous figure in Gaza over the past two years for his role in collaborating with the Israeli army, looting aid convoys destined for starving Palestinians, and sowing social strife amid the genocide.

From Mondoweiss via This RSS Feed.

For us here in Gaza, this “ceasefire” is a fiction. The bombing has continued as Israel expands its Yellow Line.

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

“Holidays are coming”, in association with Coca-Cola. But this year an awkward truth is chasing them all the way. Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is currently tailing the annual Coca Cola Christmas truck tour across the UK, in a bid to persuade shoppers to boycott Coca-Cola this festive season. An ad-van branded as part of PSC’s Don’t Buy Apartheid campaign is joining […]

By The Canary

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