America’s ‘Greatest Ally’ Cost US Taxpayers $310 Billion

by Joziah Thayer Posted on December  06, 2024

The Qualitative Military Edge agreement between the United States and Israel has cost U.S. taxpayers $310 billion since Israel was founded. Many people in the United States and around the world are upset with how the United States continues to support Israel as they besiege and bombard Gaza, resulting in what some estimates say are 200,000 deaths. What people may not be aware of is that it is U.S. law to defend and sustain Israel’s hegemony. The QME agreement between the United States and Israel has its roots in the 1960s during the peak of Cold War tensions. The U.S. saw Israel as an invaluable geopolitical ally to combat the expansion of Soviet influence into the Middle East. Lydon B. Johnson was the first president to speak publicly about arms deals with Israel.

The Six-Day War in 1967 proved Israel’s military capabilities, and the U.S. felt that Israel could be a valuable partner in combating Soviet influence in the Middle East. Following the Six-Day War, there was a spike in military and financial transfers to Israel using the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. The QME was further solidified during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when a U.S. airlift of military supplies to Israel was critical in turning the tide of the conflict.

In 2008, in the last months of the Bush administration, the QME agreement between the U.S. and Israel became an official U.S. law by amending the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 to become the Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2008. This law made it a legal requirement for the U.S. to ensure that any arms sales to Middle Eastern countries do not compromise Israel’s military superiority.

Legacy media will tell us that this legislation enjoyed bipartisan support, driven by a recognition of Israel’s strategic role in the region when, in truth, it was driven by AIPAC and Senator Joe Liberman, while one of the biggest opponents of the bill was Senator Rand Paul who railed against the budget of this bill especially as domestic debt soared and argued he for a more balanced approach that would not alienate Arab allies, in a time when the U.S. sought to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan.

In response to what the U.S. government called a failed state in Syria and a rise in ISIS and Al-Qaeda, the U.S. gave Israel F-35 fighter jets America’s most advanced stealth fighters, making Israel the only country at the time outside of the U.S. to operate the F-35. These jets made Israel a regional superpower because no other nation in the region had this capability. The decision to equip Israel with F-35s is not a secret; we were told this move was to counter Iran’s regional influence, while the real reason at the time was to put Israel on an even playing field with Russia in Syria.

The Naval Transfer Act of 2008 legally required the United States to ensure that Israel maintains a qualitative military edge over its adversaries. Specifically, it mandates that any sale of arms to Middle Eastern countries must undergo a rigorous review to confirm that it does not compromise Israel’s QME. The law defines QME as the capability to “counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat” with minimal damage to Israel’s forces and resources. The QME is a legal commitment from the U.S. to ensure that Israel is not only victorious in battle but will be able to win decisively. This law is reaffirmed by congressional vote year after year, with Congress passing various recent provisions that mandate the Department of Defense to report on Israel’s QME status periodically.

Israel is often called America’s greatest ally when, in truth, Israel is really America’s greatest overseas asset. Since 1958, the United States has been funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to Israel. American tax dollars built the democratic state of Israel, and while this issue is often seen as a policy decision, since 2008, it has been official U.S. law. Before 2008, it was just an unwritten rule that republican and democratic administrations signed off on for decades. Politicians and talking heads can repeatedly claim that Israel is an ally, which they are, but at what cost?

Security in the Middle East or Peace in the Middle East are just catchphrases used to perpetuate this false notion that only through Israel can we attain peace in the Middle East. Iraq, Syria, and Yemen were all conflicts that Israel vehemently pushed the international community to pursue. Netanyahu lied to Congress about WMDs in Iraq, moved mountains to destabilize Syria, and then cried to the UN about the Houthis in 2014.

The original basis of the Israeli QME was to use Israel to combat Soviet expansion into the Middle East, and this policy has not changed over the last 70-plus years. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 shifted the focus of the QME a bit to containing a new threat from Iran. Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan was in part to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region, and we know how that ended. The United States cannot allow Russia or China to build relationships with Middle Eastern countries because the U.S. will not be able to guarantee Israel’s qualitative military edge if they allow Russia and China to advance the militaries and economies of nations in the Middle East.

The current status quo policy on Russian or Chinese influence in the Middle East is not to prevent Russia or China from threatening America’s interests in the region; It’s about protecting Israel’s security under the guise of perpetuating Western ideology and control. Allowing this law to remain on the books codifies into public law that U.S. lawmakers in both Democratic and Republican administrations are beholden to Israel, no matter what. The international stage is far too dynamic to have policy decisions adhere to such a static law.

The price of war is always paid by the people of those nations, not the governments that orchestrate conflicts. American taxpayers have shouldered the burden of the war machine for far too long without reaping any rewards from so-called assets overseas the military-industrial complex claims to protect. We have built infrastructure in other nations as ours crumbles and assure the security of foreign lands as ours dwindles, but it seems as soon as someone mentions Russia or Muslim extremists, people forget all of this, standing in line with a war drum strapped to their chest, pounding away robotically.

Joziah Thayer is a researcher with the Pursuance Project. He founded WEDA in 2014 to combat mainstream media narratives. He is also an antiwar activist and the online organizer behind #OpYemen.

How an atheist hoaxer got Christian nationalists to publish Karl Marx

(RNS) — James Lindsay made his name submitting hoax articles to academic journals to mock liberals. Now he’s after Christian nationalists — by submitting a fake article taken mostly from the Communist Manifesto.

James Lindsay presents a session of "The EVILution of Communism Workshop"

 for New Discourses, Nov. 4, 2024. (Video screen grab)

Bob Smietana
December 5, 2024

(RNS) — An atheist writer and critical race theory critic who made his name submitting fake articles for publication in progressive academic journals and later attacking “liberal” evangelicals has a new target: conservative Christian nationalists.

James Lindsay, who describes himself as a “professional troublemaker,” rewrote parts of “The Communist Manifesto,” adding some critiques of “the liberal establishment,” and then sent it off to the American Reformer, an online magazine that seeks to “promote a vigorous Christian approach to the cultural challenges of our day.”

The essay, published with a fake byline of “Marcus Carlson,” was published in mid-November, and begins with a lead that mimics the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

“A rising spirit is haunting America: the spirit of a true Christian Right,” the essay begins, reminiscent of the opening lines of “The Communist Manifesto”: “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.”

Karl Marx, circa 1865. (Photo via Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images/Public Domain)

The idea, Lindsay explained, was to embarrass what he described as “Woke Right” conservatives by getting them to publish the works of actual communists.

“They published Karl Marx’s definitive Communist work, dressed up to resemble their own pompous, self-pitying drivel, when it was submitted from a completely unknown author with no internet footprint whatsoever bearing the name ‘Marcus Carlson,’” Lindsay wrote in revealing his hoax, an announcement that coincided with the magazine’s “Giving Tuesday” campaign.

The founder of American Reformer seemed to take the hoax in stride.

“Well, you have to hand it to James Lindsey — he ‘got us,’” Josh Abbotoy, co-founder of American Reformer, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, referring to Lindsay’s hoax.

The publication’s editors, who did not respond to a request for comment, added Lindsay’s byline to the story but did not retract it. However, in an editor’s note, they wrote that they’d be beefing up their editorial screening — and noted Lindsay’s lack of faith.

“The following article was written by James Lindsay, who, as an avowed atheist, is not eligible for publication in American Reformer,” the editors wrote.

The Karl Marx hoax is the latest twist in the story of Lindsay, a former massage therapist with a Ph.D. in mathematics who reinvented himself as an internet gadfly and self-proclaimed enemy of “woke” Americans — and an occasional ally of conservative Christians.

Lindsay first came to fame in 2018, when he and a pair of co-authors submitted a series of papers to what they called “grievance studies” academic journals, including one paper about “fat bodybuilding” and another about sex at dog parks. Some of the journals published the papers — which included fake research and, in one instance, a similar strategy of updated passages of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” with buzzy academic phrases — launching Lindsay into a career in mocking so-called woke liberals and critical race theory.

RELATED: Why grievance studies hoaxer and atheist James Lindsay wants to save Southern Baptists

He later teamed up with some conservative Southern Baptists who claimed their denomination had become too liberal, especially making videos about the “woke invasion” with Michael O’Fallon, an activist who also organized cruises for Calvinist Christian nationalists.

In 2023, conservative activist Charlie Kirk interviewed Lindsay at a Turning Point USA event for pastors, claiming he’d traveled the country with the atheist activist, trying to convince Christians to fight liberals.

Lindsay, who did not respond to a request for an interview, has now turned against what he calls “The Woke Right,” which he described on his podcast as conservatives using “woke methods” to promote conservative values.

The term “woke” was popularized during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, as a way of saying that people were aware of systemic racism. That led to a conservative backlash, including from some evangelical groups who objected to any mention of social justice in religious circles.

By 2022, some conservatives had begun to turn the phrase on their own, accusing others in their ranks of being divisive extremists who seek out conflict.

“If the first words out of their mouth, for instance, are ‘establishment’ and ‘globalists,’ you can rest assured they are not very thoughtful and they are probably about to lie to you,” U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, told the Texas Tribune in 2022. “I’m just sick of it because it’s manufactured division.”

Neil Shenvi, a popular blogger and critic of critical race theory, labeled Christian nationalists such as Stephen Wolfe, author of “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” as part of the “woke right” for promoting the idea that conservative Christians — especially white Christians — are being oppressed by liberals.

Lindsay has taken up the fight, putting him at odds with the American Reformer and groups like it. Stephen Wolfe has also been among his targets, as has former Trump administration staffer turned Southern Baptist critic William Wolfe, Gab founder Andrew Torba, Candice Owen, Tucker Carlson and Joel Webbon, a Texas pastor known for his antisemitic takes, claims of “anti-white discrimination” and his hopes to ban women from voting.

The American Reformer hoax set off a social media feud between Lindsay’s allies and the supporters of those he criticized — with Lindsay’s post on X about the matter receiving 1.9 million views and 666 comments as of Thursday morning (Dec. 5).

While the American Reformer’s editors were fooled by the hoax, some of its readers were not. Within days of the article’s publication, readers noticed something was off and suspected plagiarism. “So, as an old commercial would go, is the above article real or is it memorex?” wrote a reader in the comments.

Opinion

When it comes to venerating St. Thomas Aquinas, are two heads better than one?

(RNS) — In his triple jubilee year, the great Catholic theologian has been celebrated this year in academic conferences and expositions of his relics — resurrecting an old controversy about where his true head lies.

This skull of St. Thomas Aquinas is currently touring parts of the U.S. (Photo courtesy of Thomistic Institute)

Jacqueline Murray
December 5, 2024

(RNS) — The head of the medieval Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas is currently touring 10 U.S. cities in a finale to its yearlong international journey marking the anniversary of the Dominican friar’s birth in Italy 800 years ago, as well as the 750th anniversary of his death and the 700th of his canonization.

Aquinas, the leading exponent of scholasticism, left an indelible mark on the Catholic Church and Western philosophical tradition. Thomistic theology, adapting the ideas of Aristotle to Christian thought, remains the foundation of Catholic teachings and underlies papal pronouncements on matters ranging from social justice to ecumenism. Pope Francis recently commented that Aquinas’ “remarkable openness to every truth accessible to human reason,” could “offer fresh and valid insights to our globalized world.”

With the three coinciding jubilees of a saint of such enduring consequence, Thomas has been celebrated this year in academic conferences and expositions of his relics. Francis, after medieval fashion, has granted a plenary indulgence to those who venerate Thomas by visiting or praying at remnants of his life.

Central to the latter has been his skull, displayed in a new, specially commissioned head reliquary. Since 1369, it has been kept below the altar of the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse, France, but in January 2023 the original reliquary’s 14th-century seals of authenticity were solemnly broken and the skull was placed in the new case, commissioned by the Dominican order. It was then sent on a yearlong processional route through various European countries, ending now in the United States.

Relics were a significant part of medieval Christianity. It was believed that physical mementos of a saint, such as a piece of clothing or a part of the body, could heal the ill, relieve drought or engineer other miracles. Enough of the right relics — those of national patron saints or avenging saints — could bring victory in battle.

Relics of the most popular saints conveyed tremendous prestige on a church or monastery in the Middle Ages, attracting pilgrims who brought with them the medieval equivalent of tourist dollars. Thus, relics were not only part of a spiritual economy of miracles and devotion but also a secular economy of power, prestige and money. This commodification of relics resulted in a roaring business of buying, selling and even faking relics. Bones and other remains of saints were disassembled to be sent as gifts to friends, political allies and special churches or traded for those of other, higher-status saints.


The relic of St. Thomas Aquinas’ skull is processed at Providence College, Dec. 4, 2024, during a tour stop in Providence, R.I. (Video screen grab)

Saints were even said to collude in this process. The sixth-century Welsh saint Teilo allegedly produced three complete bodies so various groups could claim to have authentic relics. All these activities account for the wide duplication of relics of the same saint in far-flung churches and shrines.

In 1274, Aquinas was summoned by Pope Gregory X to attend the Second Council of Lyon. According to his contemporary biographers, while traveling from his home near Naples, he was struck senseless by a falling branch and later died at the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova. His body apparently remained buried there for some 50 years, but after his canonization, in 1323, the Dominicans claimed it back from the Cistercians. In 1368, the body of this very Dominican saint was translated to Toulouse, where St. Dominic’s Order of Preachers had been founded, and interred in the Church of the Jacobins.

This is where the skull relic remained, safely under the altar, until it was removed last year. But recently, an account of a second skull also belonging to the saint has gained traction. In this telling, a sealed head reliquary containing a skull was discovered in 1585 at the Abbey of Fossanova, accompanied by notarized documents identifying it as the skull of Aquinas. While it has not garnered the same stature that has accrued to the head cherished by the Dominicans of Toulouse, the town of Priverno, near the Abbey of Fossanova, has revered this relic and kept it in a church in town.

The second skull, too, has made a recent public appearance. On March 7, after a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, the head was taken in procession through the medieval streets of Priverno. The skull was then reportedly driven back to the church in the front seat of a Jeep and returned to its resting place. This event has not occasioned much media attention in Europe or North America, and what few stories there are seem to rely on the same single source published by the Catholic News Service, a subsidiary of EWTN.

This purported skull of St. Thomas Aquinas was processed through the town of Priverno, Italy, on March 7, 2024. (Video screen grab/EWTN)

The existence of two heads for Aquinas is reminiscent of the kind of scholastic question the saint was renowned for resolving. Only one of the heads can be authentic, but which? Did the Cistercians keep the authentic head and send an impostor to Toulouse, along with the authentic body? For its part, the Abbey of Fossanova does not claim to have this relic but rather permits pilgrims to view his empty tomb.

Other questions arise. Is it significant that the friend and secretary who accompanied Aquinas on his last journey and who was with him at Fossanova, Reginald of Piperno (now Priverno), had local roots? Moreover, where are the notarized documents found with the head reliquary in the 16th century? Surely, they would be too important to have been lost in the mists of time. Finally, when was this head removed from Fossanova to the church in Priverno?
RELATED: Why you should get to know Thomas Aquinas, even 800 years after he lived

Perhaps unsurprisingly, scientific and medical researchers want to examine both heads. The Priverno head has already had a preliminary examination by a team of neuroscientists, who are trying to match the physical evidence with a subdural hematoma that would be consistent with the blow to the head Aquinas reportedly suffered. Other scientists are petitioning for permission to perform DNA testing on both heads.


The Roman Catholic Church, meanwhile, seems quite comfortable acknowledging both heads, reflecting the traditional medieval view of the coexistence and plasticity of multiple relics.

(Jacqueline Murray is University Professor Emerita in history at the University of Guelph in Ontario. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

AI Jesus might ‘listen’ to your confession, but it can’t absolve your sins − a scholar of Catholicism explains

(The Conversation) — In the future, a program like AI Jesus could be used to hear confessions around the clock. But with no experience of having a human body, it cannot engage or absolve human sins.

Joanne M. Pierce
December 5, 2024
The Conversation

This autumn, a Swiss Catholic church installed an AI Jesus in a confessional to interact with visitors.

The installation was a two-month project in religion, technology and art titled “Deus in Machina,” created at the University of Lucerne. The Latin title literally means “god from the machine”; it refers to a plot device used in Greek and Roman plays, introducing a god to resolve an impossible problem or conflict facing the characters.

This hologram of Jesus Christ on a screen was animated by an artificial intelligence program. The AI’s programming included heological texts, and visitors were invited to pose questions to the AI Jesus, viewed on a monitor behind a latticework screen. Users were advised not to disclose any personal information and confirm that they knew they were engaging with the avatar at their on risk.

AI Jesus confessional.

Some headlines stated that the AI Jesus was actually engaged in the ritual act of hearing people’s confessions of their sins, but this wasn’t the case. However, even though AI Jesus was not actually hearing confessions, as a specialist in the history of Christian worship, I was disturbed by the act of placing the AI project in a real confessional that parishioners would ordinarily use.

A confessional is a booth where Catholic priests hear parishioners’ confessions of their sins and grant them absolution, forgiveness, in the name of God. Confession and repentance always take place within the human community that is the church. Human believers confess their sins to human priests or bishops.
Early history

The New Testament scriptures clearly stress a human, communal context for admitting and repenting for sins.

In the Gospel of John, for example, Jesus speaks to his apostles, saying, “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained.” And in the epistle of James, Christians are urged to confess their sins to one another.

Churches in the earliest centuries encouraged public confession of more serious sins, such as fornication or idolatry. Church leaders, called bishops, absolved sinners and welcomed them back into the community.

From the third century on, the process of forgiving sins became more ritualized. Most confessions of sins remained private – one on one with a priest or bishop. Sinners would express their sorrow in doing penance individually by prayer and fasting.

However, some Christians guilty of certain major offenses, such as murder, idolatry, apostasy or sexual misconduct, would be treated very differently.

These sinners would do public penance as a group. Some were required to stand on the steps of the church and ask for prayers. Others might be admitted in for worship but were required to stand in the back or be dismissed before the scriptures were read. Penitents were expected to fast and pray, sometimes for years, before being ritually reconciled to the church community by the bishop.

Medieval developments

During the first centuries of the Middle Ages, public penance fell into disuse, and emphasis was increasingly placed on verbally confessing sins to an individual priest. After privately completing the penitential prayers or acts assigned by the confessor, the penitent would return for absolution.

The concept of Purgatory also became a widespread part of Western Christian spirituality. It was understood to be a stage of the afterlife where the souls of the deceased who died before confession with minor sins, or had not completed penance, would be cleansed by spiritual suffering before being admitted to heaven.

Living friends or family of the deceased were encouraged to offer prayers and undertake private penitential acts, such as giving alms – gifts of money or clothes – to the poor, to reduce the time these souls would have to spend in this interim state.

Other developments took place in the later Middle Ages. Based on the work of the theologian Peter Lombard, penance was declared a sacrament, one of the major rites of the Catholic Church. In 1215, a new church document mandated that every Catholic go to confession and receive Holy Communion at least once a year.

Priests who revealed the identity of any penitent faced severe penalties. Guidebooks for priests, generally called Handbooks for Confessors, listed various types of sins and suggested appropriate penances for each.

The first confessionals

Until the 16th century, those wishing to confess their sins had to arrange meeting places with their clergy, sometimes just inside the local church when it was empty.

But the Catholic Council of Trent changed this. The 14th session in 1551 addressed penance and confession, stressing the importance of privately confessing to priests ordained to forgive in Christ’s name.

Soon after, Charles Borromeo, the cardinal archbishop of Milan, installed the first confessionals along the walls of his cathedral. These booths were designed with a physical barrier between priest and penitent to preserve anonymity and prevent other abuses, such as inappropriate sexual conduct.

Similar confessionals appeared in Catholic churches over the following centuries: The main element was a screen or veil between the priest confessor and the layperson, kneeling at his side. Later, curtains or doors were added to increase privacy and ensure confidentiality.


A 17th-century confessional at the Toulouse St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
Didier Descouens via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Rites of penance in contemporary times

In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council. Its first document, issued in December 1963, set new norms for promoting and reforming Catholic liturgy.

Since 1975, Catholics have three forms of the rite of penance and reconciliation. The first form structures private confession, while the second and third forms apply to groups of people in special liturgical rites. The second form, often used at set times during the year, offers those attending the opportunity to go to confession privately with one of the many priests present.

The third form can be used in special circumstances, when death threatens with no time for individual confession, like a natural disaster or pandemic. Those assembled are given general absolution, and survivors confess privately afterward.

In addition, these reforms prompted the development of a second location for confession: Instead of being restricted to the confessional booth, Catholics now had the option of confessing their sins face-to-face with the priest.

To facilitate this, some Catholic communities added a reconciliation room to their churches. Upon entering the room, the penitent could choose anonymity by using the kneeler in front of a traditional screen or walk around the screen to a chair set facing the priest.

Over the following decades, the Catholic experience of penance changed. Catholics went to confession less often, or stopped altogether. Many confessionals remained empty or were used for storage. Many parishes began to schedule confessions by appointment only. Some priests might insist on face-to-face confession, and some penitents might prefer the anonymous form only. The anonymous form takes priority, since the confidentiality of the sacrament must be maintained.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II addressed some of these problems, insisting that parishes make every effort to schedule set hours for confessions. Pope Francis himself has become concerned with reviving the sacrament of penance. In fact, he demonstrated its importance by presenting himself for confession, face-to-face, at a confessional in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Perhaps, in the future, a program like AI Jesus could offer Catholics and interested questioners from other faiths information, advice, referrals and limited spiritual counseling around the clock. But from the Catholic perspective, an AI, with no experience of having a human body, emotions and hope for transcendence, cannot authentically absolve human sins.

(Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

EU pushes back deforestation law by a year after outcry from global producers

Environmentalists immediately criticized the move.


A woman walks passed a 12-meter Amazon tree trunk placed in front of the European Union Council building by environmental activists in Brussels, July 2, 2008

 (AP Photo/Thierry Charlier), File)

BY RAF CASERT
 December 4, 2024

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed to delay by a year the introduction of new rules to ban the sale of products that lead to massive deforestation, caving in to demands from several producer nations from across the globe and domestic opposition within the 27-nation bloc.

Officials said Wednesday that the EU member states, the EU parliament and the executive Commission reached an agreement in principle following weeks of haggling whether the initial rules would have to be watered down even further than the simple delay by one year. Originally, it was supposed to kick in this month.

The deforestation law is aimed at preserving forests on a global scale by only allowing forest-related products that are sustainable and do not involve the degradation of forests. It applies to things like cocoa, coffee, soy, cattle, palm oil, rubber, wood and products made from them. Deforestation is the second-biggest source of carbon emissions after fossil fuels.

The lead negotiator among the different EU institutions, Christine Schneider, called the delay to implement nature protection rules “a victory,” adding it would give foresters and farmers protection from “excessive bureaucracy.”


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Environmentalists immediately criticized the move.

“With our planet’s forests destroyed further every day, we cannot afford delays to much-needed environmental protection laws like the EU’s anti-deforestation legislation,” said said Giulia Bondi of the Global Witness group. .

Officials from leading exporters of affected commodities — including Brazil, Indonesia and the Ivory Coast — fear the regulation could act as a trade barrier, hit small farmers and disrupt supply chains.

Under the deal, the rules are now scheduled to start Dec. 30, 2025, for large companies, and June 30, 2026, for small companies. The different EU institutions will still have to individually approve the deal but since they agreed on the measures, this is likely to be a formality.
In offering to delay the regulation by a year, the EU Commission has said it heeded the complaints of several global partners about their state of preparedness for the rules.

Some EU governments, including in Austria and Germany, have also sought to water down the regulation or delay its introduction.

With the delay, some governments sought to add more measures that would weaken the original rules and allow for more exemptions. Even if that was not agreed to in the current deal, Schneider said that the commission had “committed itself to updating the Deforestation Law within a year.”

Greenpeace has said that the extension would condemn the world’s forests to another year of destruction. It noted a U.N. finding that an area of forest about the size of Portugal is cut down worldwide each year.

“Instead of rolling back its environmental agenda, the EU needs to keep its commitments and show leadership to tackle the climate emergency,” said Bondi.

Global warming fills New England’s rich waters with death traps for endangered sea turtles


Hundreds of endangered sea turtles are struggling to survive, stunned by cold water after getting trapped in Cape Cod Bay’s hook-shaped geography
(AP Video: Rodrique Ngowi and Steven Senne)

A Kemp’s ridley sea turtle swims in a tank at a New England Aquarium marine animal rehabilitation facility in Quincy, Mass., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Intern Leighton Graham, left, and biologist Sammi Chaves, right, examine a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle at a New England Aquarium marine animal rehabilitation facility in Quincy, Mass., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Biologist Sammi Chaves, right, listens to the pulse of a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle at a New England Aquarium marine animal rehabilitation facility in Quincy, Mass., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

QUINCY, Mass. (AP) — As global warming fills the plankton-rich waters of New England with death traps for sea turtles, the number of stranded reptiles has multiplied over the last 20 years, filling one specialized animal hospital with the endangered creatures.

The animals enter areas such as Cape Cod Bay when it is warm, and when temperatures inevitably drop, they can’t escape the hooked peninsula to head south, said Adam Kennedy, the director of rescue and rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium, which runs a turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts.

More than 200 cold-stunned young turtles were being treated there Tuesday, Kennedy said.

“Climate change certainly is allowing those numbers of turtles to get in where normally the numbers weren’t very high years ago,” he said.

Cold-stunned sea turtles, sometimes near death, wash up on Cape Cod every fall and winter. The aquarium expects the number of turtles it rescues to climb to at least 400, Kennedy said. In 2010, the average was 40, he said.

High wind speeds and falling temperatures have fueled recent strandings, he said.

The total five-year average of cold-stunned sea turtles in Massachusetts was around 200 in the early 2010s, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, growing to more than 700 in recent years.


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All the turtles at New England Aquarium’s hospital are juveniles, mostly critically endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles whose migratory patterns lead to strandings here. They were being treated for maladies ranging from pneumonia to sepsis.

The Kemp’s — the world’s smallest sea turtle — lives largely in the Gulf of Mexico and ventures into the Atlantic Ocean when juvenile. Some recent science, including a 2019 study in the journal PLoS One, says the warming of the ocean increases the chance of cold-stunning events once the turtles reach the Northwest Atlantic. Warmer seas may push the turtles north in a way that makes stranding more likely, the study said.

Upon arrival, the turtles are often critically ill.

“The majority of the turtles arrive with serious ailments such as pneumonia, dehydration, traumatic injuries, or sepsis,” said Melissa Joblon, director of animal health at the aquarium.

The turtle hospital rehabilitates the animals so they can be safely returned to the wild, sometimes locally and sometimes in warmer southern waters, Kennedy said. Around 80% survive.

Margot Madden, a biologist with the National Aquarium, uses a syringe to hydrate a Kemp's ridley sea turtle at a New England Aquarium marine animal rehabilitation facility in Quincy, Mass., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A Kemp's ridley sea turtle receives fluids from a syringe at a New England Aquarium marine animal rehabilitation facility in Quincy, Mass., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Some of the turtles that arrive at the hospital are green turtles or loggerheads, which are not as endangered as the Kemp’s ridley, but still face numerous threats.


“At the end of the day, getting these turtles back to the wild is what we are doing and what we want,” Kennedy said. “We want them back in the ocean.” ___

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

Car rams and injures orchestral musicians in Belgrade during a protest over station roof collapse


People hold banners showing Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, reading: “You have blood on your hands!” and stopping traffic, standing in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

A man draped in a Serbian flag stands in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People hold banners reading: “You have blood on your hands!” and stopping traffic, stand in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

A man draped in a Serbian flag stands in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

A woman holds a banner that shows Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, reading: “You have blood on your hands!” and stopping traffic, standing in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People hold banners showing Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic reading “You have blood on your hands!” and stopping traffic, stand in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

A woman holds a banner that shows Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, reads: “You have blood on your hands!” as she stops traffic, standing in silence to commemorate the 15 victims of a railway roof collapse five weeks ago, demanding accountability for the tragedy, in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

December 6, 2024

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra said four of its musicians were injured Friday in an incident during a weekly 15-minute traffic blockade commemorating the 15 people who died when a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in a northern Serbian city last month.

The traffic blockades have been held every Friday in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, and other cities and towns since the fall of the concrete construction in Novi Sad on Nov. 1.

Hundreds also took part in protests this Friday at various locations throughout the country, standing in silence to commemorate the victims and demanding accountability for their deaths.

Some members of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra joined a traffic blockade at a pedestrian crossing near their place of work on Friday, a statement said. A man refused to stop and drove his car through the protesters, hurting the musicians, the statement added.

Serbian media said police arrested a 67-year-old man from the northern town of Kikinda. The musicians received medical care, reports said.

The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra “most harshly condemns the act of violence against them (musicians) while they were expressing their personal civic opinion,” the orchestra said. It cancelled a scheduled performance on Friday evening.

Serbian university students have joined the protests in recent days, organizing 24-hour blockades at their faculties. Hundreds came out on Friday to halt traffic on busy streets in Belgrade and elsewhere.


Rallies in past weeks have occasionally been marred by violent incidents when pro-government supporters showed up and tried to disrupt the protesters blocking traffic.

The railway station building in Novi Sad was renovated twice in recent years. Many in Serbia believe rampant corruption and opaque deals resulted in sloppy work and led to the collapse of the canopy.

While prosecutors have announced the arrests of 13 people, a Serbian court has since released from detention former government construction minister Goran Vesic. This has fueled widespread skepticism of the ongoing investigation, as the ruling populists control both the police and judiciary.


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INTERNET ARCHIVE

Online library drops its legal battle to provide free e-books without publishers’ permission

BY HILLEL ITALIE
December 6, 2024


NEW YORK (AP) — A prolonged and closely watched copyright case involving an online library’s unauthorized offering of free e-books has ended after the defendant, Internet Archive, decided not to challenge an appeal’s court’s ruling against it.

In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a Manhattan federal court’s decision that found the Archive in violation of copyright law and granted a permanent injunction. The Archive had until this week to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but declined to do so.

In 2020, four major publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — sued the Archive, alleging that it had illegally provided free copies of more than 100 books, including fiction by Toni Morrison and J.D. Salinger. The Archive had contended that its program of scanning and sharing books, “controlled digital lending,” was protected by fair use law.

“After five years of litigation, we are thrilled to see this important case rest with the decisive opinion of the Second Circuit, which leaves no room for arguments that ‘controlled digital lending’ is anything more than infringement,” Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement.

The Archive’s director of library services, Chris Freeland, posted a brief statement on the Archive’s web site saying that “While we are deeply disappointed with the Second Circuit’s opinion,” they would “continue to honor” an agreement to “remove books from lending at their member publishers’ requests.”

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AND ITS MEMORY HOLE FOR THE NET

Hawaiian crow that went extinct in the wild decades ago released on Maui

Five ‘alalā, also known as Hawaiian crows, have been released into the forests of Maui for the first time. The release of the ‘alalā on Maui marks a key milestone in the ongoing conservation effort to restore this intelligent and charismatic species to its natural forest habitat.

 December 4, 2024


MAKAWAO, Hawaii. (AP) — Five Hawaiian crows on Wednesday were released on Maui for the first time as part of an ongoing effort to return the species to its home, conservationists said.

The Hawaiian crows, or alala, were last found on Hawaii’s Big Island, but they went extinct in the wild in 2002, officials with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said in a statement. The birds, described as intelligent and charismatic, are the last survivor of all the Hawaiian crow species. Habitat loss, predation and disease by introduced species are threats, among other factors.

“The translocation of alala to Maui is a monumental step forward in conserving the species and a testament to the importance of partnership in reversing biodiversity loss,” said Megan Owen, Ph.D., vice president of conservation science at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

The release is the result of years of preparation by multiple organizations and agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife and the University of Hawaii, she said.

The five alala released included two females and three males that spent months in a social group at Keauhou and Maui Bird conservation centers to establish strong bonds. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance evaluated the birds for the release based on how well they foraged for food and responded to predators. The birds were also assessed by veterinarians.

“It means a lot to me to care for the alala,” Keanini Aarona, avian recovery specialist at Maui Bird Conservation Center, said in the statement. “To me, and in my culture, the alala are like our ancestors — our kūpuna. The forest wouldn’t be there without these birds.”

Thirty of the birds were reintroduced between 2016 and 2020 in the Big Island’s Puu Makaala Natural Forest Reserve. After several successful years, alala numbers began to decline and reintroduction efforts were paused, officials said. The remaining alala were returned to human care.

PRICE GOUGING BY ANY OTHER NAME

Chipotle is raising US prices after promising bigger portions

INFLATION IS THE EXCUSE


 The Chipotle Mexican Grill logo is seen on a storefront, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. 

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

BY DEE-ANN DURBIN
December 6, 2024

Chipotle is raising its U.S. prices to offset inflation and to compensate for a promise to increase portion sizes.

Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, Laurie Schalow, confirmed Friday that the Mexican restaurant chain was implementing a 2% price increase nationally. Schalow said it’s the first time the California-based company has raised its prices in more than a year.

Chipotle revealed the price increase after an analyst report released earlier this week by investment bank Truist Securities noted a 2% price increase at approximately 20% of the chain’s 3,500 U.S. stores.

Truist, which raised its price target for Chipotle’s shares, also reported that customer traffic at the chain’s restaurants accelerated in November.

Chipotle said in October that its food, beverage and packaging costs all increased in the third quarter. It cited avocados as an example.
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Avocado shipments from Mexico to the U.S. were briefly suspended in June after two U.S. Department of Agriculture employees were assaulted and temporarily held by assailants in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Chipotle also cited the cost of ensuring it was providing “consistent and generous portions” to its customers. Former Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said in July that Chipotle was retraining workers at approximately 10% of Chipotle’s stores after customers complained on social media that they were getting smaller portions.


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Niccol left Chipotle in September to become the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, which has said it won’t raise prices through September 2025.





Restaurant price inflation has aggravated U.S. consumers. The price of food eaten away from home rose 30% between October 2019 and October 2024, according to government figures. The price of food eaten at home rose 27% in that same period.


Earlier this year, McDonald’s said it was seeing more customers eat at home instead of getting fast food because of price increases. The company responded with a $5 meal deal and other discounts.

DEE-ANN DURBIN