Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on the first day of his new presidency, as part of a barrage of pro-fossil fuel actions and efforts to “unleash” already booming US energy production that included also rolling back restrictions in drilling in Alaska and undoing a pause on gas exports.

The emergency declaration, which made good on a campaign-trail promise but could be open to legal challenge, would allow his administration to fast-track permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure.

It comes amid stated concerns about the power grid struggling to handle a projected surge in demand from data centers. “[The declaration] … means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem and we do have that kind of emergency,” he said as he signed the order at the White House late on Monday.

Donald Trump on Monday moved to withdraw the US, the world’s second biggest emitter of planet-heating pollution, from the Paris climate agreement for a second time, and put the United Nations on notice.

On his first day back as president, Trump signed an executive order on stage in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC which he said was aimed at quitting what he called the “unfair one-sided Paris climate accord rip off”.

He also signed a letter to the United Nations giving it notice that the US was exiting, which starts the formal process of withdrawal from the world’s main effort to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

It will take about a year for the withdrawal to be formalized.

The thing some US empire managers dislike about him is the only thing I like about him: that he makes the US empire a less effective evil because of how much less hidden he keeps the inner workings of the machine. The hood stays popped open the entire time, showing the whole world how the imperial sausage gets made.

GAZA, January 20, 2025 (WAFA) - Israeli occupation forces fatally shot a child and injured another on Monday evening in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on Sunday morning.

Local sources confirmed that Zakariya Hameed Yahya Barbakh was killed near the Al-Awda roundabout in central Rafah after being shot by Israeli snipers. Another child was injured while attempting to recover Barbakh's body.

Earlier this evening, one civilian and a child were killed and nine others, including children, were injured by Israeli gunfire in Rafah city.

The ceasefire deal came into effect at 11:15 AM on Sunday; however, violations of the agreement by the occupation forces continue to claim civilian lives in Gaza.

I love how western media keeps talking about this shadow fleet, as if countries have to abide by unilateral western sanctions that have no basis in international law. 🤡

The UK’s Stop Trump Coalition has released a statement on the day of Donald Trump’s second inauguration – 20 January – pledging to “mobilise in our thousands and our millions”. It has been signed by more than a thousand grassroots campaigners, trade unionists, climate activists and others.

Unfortunately, the original Trump baby blimp – whose images were shared around the world – may not feature. It currently resides in the Museum of London

Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister urged his senior leadership to establish schools for Afghan girls, in one of the sharpest public condemnations of a policy that has contributed to the authorities' worldwide isolation.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai stated in a speech over the weekend that limits on girls and women's education were incompatible with Islamic Shariah law, requesting that "leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education," according to Tolo, a local broadcaster.

He asserted that injustice was being done against "twenty million people, out of a forty million people population," and noted that "in the time of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women."

The statements were among the harshest public criticisms of the school closures by a Taliban official in recent years. Taliban insiders and diplomats have previously told Reuters that the supreme spiritual leader Hibatullah Akhundzada imposed the closures despite internal dissent.

Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli occupation forces, stormed multiple Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank on Sunday evening, expressing outrage over a Gaza ceasefire deal widely perceived as a defeat for the Israeli entity.

The settlers targeted Palestinian vehicles and blocked key roads in areas including Turmus Ayya, ‘Atara, Ein Siniya, Ein Ayoub, Qalqilya, and Jaba’.

In Sinjil, WAFA news agency reported that two Palestinian homes and four vehicles were set on fire. Social media footage captured settlers throwing stones and Molotov cocktails during their attacks.

For the past four years, Alan Estevez has been finding new obstacles to place in China’s path as it tries to use US technology to develop cutting-edge chips and artificial intelligence.

“We’re running down the alley throwing garbage cans,” Estevez told the Financial Times on his penultimate day as under-secretary of commerce for industry and security in Joe Biden’s administration.

Estevez conceded that US policy could do no more than slow China since it had smart engineers, money to invest and government support. But he said Washington had been successful, pointing to statements from Chinese AI groups identifying US export controls as their main obstacle.

Archive link

https://archive.ph/7JcKG

A Palestinian teenager was shot and killed during an Israeli raid on the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a 15-year-old was shot in the chest with live bullets during the Israeli raid.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was later confirmed dead by the Palestinian health ministry.

BENGALURU, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Seven Indian privately-held startups have been chosen for a first-of-its-kind India-U.S. space and defence collaboration programme, potentially unlocking a lucrative and strategic market for Indian firms, an investor who co-launched the project told Reuters on Friday.

The companies include space imaging company KaleidEO, rocket makers EtherealX and AI-driven company Shyam VNL. They will participate in a programme for defence and dual-use technology and explore opportunities to work with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit, the Department of Defense and other government agencies on satellite observation and emerging space and defence technologies.

Indian investor Indusbridge Ventures and U.S.-based FedTech, which established the programme in September 2024, selected seven Indian companies and talks are underway about specific projects.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/24966502

[video interview and article]
Jeremy Scahill
Jan 19, 2025

cross-posted from: https://hcommons.social/users/adachika192/statuses/113853649916061526

Gideon Levy & Mouin Rabbani on Ceasefire: “Netanyahu Will Do Everything Possible” to Kill It Later | Democracy Now! (2025-01-17)

“MOUIN RABBANI: Well, it’s quite clear that Biden had next to nothing to do with this [ceasefire] deal. This is a deal that was formulated by Netanyahu and presented on his behalf by Biden in May of last year and was accepted by Hamas in early July of last year. … And the only reason that Israel did not agree to this text until this week is because it didn’t have to worry about U.S. pressure…“

“… the only thing that has changed in the past month is that there was an unambiguous message from the incoming Trump team to Netanyahu that they do not want to have to deal with a … foreign policy crisis during the inauguration and on their first day in office. And they especially don’t want to deal with a crisis that includes American hostages in the Middle East.”

#USPol
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe @israel

Abu Obaida announced that as part of the prisoner exchange the Qassam Brigades will release the following "Israeli" captives on Sunday: Romi Gonen, 24; Emily Damari, 28; and Doron Steinbrecher, 31.

"Israel" has reported financial losses amounting to $67 billion as a result of its ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) news website mentioned on Saturday.

It highlighted that this figure includes $34 billion in direct military expenses and $40 billion in general budget losses, marking the largest economic setback in the Israeli occupation's history.

Over the past year, approximately 60,000 Israeli businesses have shut down, representing a 50% increase compared to 2023, the news website said. It added that the Israeli tourism sector has also suffered significantly, with a 70% decline in visitors leading to losses exceeding $5 billion.

Meanwhile, the construction industry reported losses of $4 billion, with more than 70 companies ceasing operations, according to MEMO. Additionally, data revealed that one-third of the population under Israeli occupation now lives below the poverty line, with a quarter experiencing food insecurity.

Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed "TikTok Refugees" joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb.

The Chinese-language app had about 3.4 million daily active users across both iOS and Android devices in the United States as of Monday, up from fewer than 700,000 the day prior, and around 300,000 the week prior, according to the Similarweb estimate.

The influx of users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.

The data suggests an even larger shift to RedNote by U.S. users this week than was previously known, explaining its dramatic rise to the top of U.S. app store download rankings. Reuters reported on Tuesday that more than 700,000 new users had joined the app in only two days.

Meanwhile, U.S. usage of TikTok declined ahead of the ban, down 2.1% week over week to about 82.2 million daily active users, Similarweb said.

Archived

The hashtag “Your turn, dictator” has been widely shared on Egyptian social media in the past two weeks. Modeled after the 2011 rallying cry “your turn, doctor” used against then-Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the latest hashtag was coined by Ahmad al Mansour, an Egyptian national who recently served in the ranks of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) in Syria. Since HTS took control of Syria in December, Mansour has posted videos threatening Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi. “Listen, stupid,” Mansour routinely begins his videos.

On Tuesday, January 14, the X account for the “The 25 January Revolutionaries Movement” announced that Mansour and several of his associates were arrested and went missing after he was invited to meet with HTS officials, including Syrian Minster of Defense Murhaf Abu Qasra.

The Israeli army claimed on Saturday that it successfully intercepted a missile launched from Yemen with air raid sirens going off in the greater Tel Aviv area and Jerusalem following the attack, Anadolu reports.

The Israeli ambulance services reported dealing with several cases of panic and injuries as residents rushed to shelters following the activation of the sirens.

In addition, flight operations at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv were temporarily suspended following the missile launch, according to Israeli Channel 12.