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Las Fallas are Valencia’s most universal festival, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Thw name refers to the spectacular sculptural monuments made of wood and papier mâché that are placed in the city’s streets and squares to be admired before they succumb to the flames.
In addition to the large fallas, there are also children’s fallas, much smaller in size, designed by and for the little ones.
Once again, the Fallas of Valencia have proven to be more than just gunpowder and tradition. Under the critical eye of its Fallas artists, this 2025 the monuments have set fire not only to the streets, but also to consciences.
From the housing crisis, to international wars, to political figures like Donald Trump, Carlos Mazón, and other current leaders, no one has been unscathed by Fallas satire. Sharp Satire Against Politicians and the Powerful
Each falla planted in Valencia has been a truly critical front page. The caricature of Trump and his isolationist policies, the references to Mazón’s administration in the Valencian Community, and the ironic winks at European leaders resonate strongly.
The grotesque and colorful figures uncensoredly ridicule decisions that affect millions of people.
The Housing Crisis in Cardboard and Fire
One of the recurring themes this year has been the housing crisis. Las Fallas denounces, with dry humor, real estate speculation, gentrification, and the lack of access to decent housing.
All of this is displayed to the public in the form of ninots that, at the end, will burn, leaving a clear message: the old and corrupt must be reduced to ashes.
Wars, Inequality, and Social Criticism
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza, racism, economic inequality, and the climate crisis have also found their place on the monuments. This Fallas satire does not discriminate between topics or audiences.
The cremà is the final act of the Fallas, when the hundreds of fallas monuments succumb to the flames in spectacular bonfires. It takes place on the night of March 19th, and is staggered between 20:00 and 23:00, which means it is possible to see more than one falla burning.
Not everything burns in the Fallas. Every year a ninot from one of the fallas and a children’s ninot are pardoned by popular vote. The ninots that have been pardoned over the years – since 1934! – are kept and can be visited in the Fallas Museum.
Everything you need to know about the Fallas in Valencia.
In 1945, when the United Nations Charter was drafted, its authors and those who first adopted it carefully crafted language on how to deal with armed conflict in the world.
Between the signing of the charter in June and its coming into force in October, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities: Hiroshima, on 6 August, and Nagasaki, on 9 August.
It is hard to digest the fact that as the charter’s solemn preamble was being formalised, setting out to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind’, the United States armed forces were preparing to destroy two civilian cities in a country already on the brink of surrender.
Nonetheless, the authors of the charter thought long and hard about the problem of belligerent states and produced Chapter VII, which outlines two approaches to prevent war. The first approach was to use as many non-military methods as possible (Article 41) before the United Nations could authorise violence against a belligerent state (Article 42). .
The charter noted that the UN Security Council (UNSC) ‘may decide’ to call for the ‘complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations’.
The only time that the UNSC has used the full weight of Article 41 has been against the racist government of Southern Rhodesia from 1968 (UNSC Resolution no. 253) to 1979 (UNSC Resolution no. 460), with near full use of the article against Iraq from 1990 to 2003 and Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1995.
The most important thing about this resolution is that the use of sanctions (a word that does not appear in the charter) must be authorised by the UNSC. One state can apply its own sanctions on another state in a bilateral dispute, but it cannot legally force other states to abide by them. To do so is a violation of the UN Charter...Unilateral sanctions hurting civilians must be dropped, says UN
The last point is pertinent because the United States currently imposes sanctions (a form of Unilateral Coercive Measures- UCMs) against about forty countries without a UNSC mandate.
And these have been increasing: from 2000 to 2021, the last period reviewed by the US Treasury Department, the number of US sanctions increased by a remarkable 933%. The reason why US sanctions, which would be legal if they were merely bilateral, are illegal is that the United States chastises and punishes third countries that violate them and transact normal commerce with sanctioned countries.
Because the United States is at the center of the international financial system (with the dollar, the SWIFT global payments system, and its veto power in the International Monetary Fund), it is able to strangle countries that otherwise would be able to compensate for the loss of trade with the US by trading with the rest of the world.
Activists protest outside the 9th Summit of the Americas at the LA Convention Center to deliver a letter rejecting President Joe Biden’s policy of sanctions, exclusions, and blockades against Latin America and the Caribbean, in Los Angeles, California, June 10, 2022. (Photo by RINGO CHIU / AFP) (Photo by RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images)
The use of the word ‘strangle’ is not innocent. It is important to understand how these sanctions work: there are primary sanctions on targeted countries; secondary sanctions on firms or countries that trade with the targeted country; and tertiary sanctions on firms or countries that face secondary sanctions. This is endless.
The gap between these unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) and a war with bombs is certainly great since the latter are far more destructive to the material infrastructure of the target country, yet the essence of the assault is the same: two forms of war, one with the harshness of blockades and the other with the viciousness of bombs. Sometimes people in power openly acknowledge the devastation.
It is what has garrotted Cuba since 1962. Study upon study shows that they hurt the poorest of people in the societies under attack. They are as ‘targeted’ as the ‘smart bombs’ that destroy entire neighbourhoods and wipe out entire families.
When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked in 2019 by the Associated Press’s Matt Lee about the UCMs imposed on Venezuela, Pompeo replied:
‘The circle is tightening. The humanitarian crisis is increasing by the hour. … You can see the increasing pain and suffering that the Venezuelan people are suffering from’. .. Pompeo
But despite hardship and a repressive police state most Venezuelans survive, due to social solidarity, cheap or free health, education and housing (when available due to the blockade) and a genuine bottom up movement of large production and consumption Communes, hardly ever mentioned in western reporting. see..Long Live the Commune! 1st laws of Communal Power presented to Venezuela parliament – The Free
The only hope is a Reset from below, a horizontal revolution to destroy collapsing Capitalism and States in favour of federations of workers Cooperatives
James Hansen’s recent analysis paints a dire picture: 3°C by 2050 is not just plausible but probable due to underestimated feedbacks and political inertia. Crossing 2°C unleashes irreversible feedback loops that render 3°C unavoidable, even with rapid emissions cuts.
The only hope is a Reset from below, a horizontal revolution to destroy collapsing Capitalism and States in favour of federations of workers Coops, to decarbonize, restore albedo, and prepare for a destabilized climate.
Without this, Earth’s systems will push civilization beyond adaptation limits by mid-century.
Under current policies (SSP2-4.5), CO₂ likely reaches 500–550 ppm by 2050, but Hansen’s effective forcing (including feedbacks) pushes Earth’s energy imbalance closer to 600 ppm-equivalent—enough to trigger 3°C warming even before mid-century.
These feedbacks add ~0.5–1.0°C to warming by 2050, even if emissions stop.
Likelihood of 3°C by 2050
Factor
IPCC AR6 (2023)
Hansen et al. (2025)
Climate Sensitivity
3°C per CO₂ doubling
4.8°C per CO₂ doubling
Aerosol Cooling Loss
Partially modeled
Underestimated by ~1.0°C
2°C Threshold
~2040–2050
2030–2035
3°C by 2050
Low probability
High probability
Hansen’s Conclusion:
Current policies (SSP2-4.5) lead to 3°C by 2050 due to:
Higher sensitivity (4.8°C vs. 3°C).
Albedo loss equivalent to +138 ppm CO₂.
Fast feedbacks (permafrost, ice melt) accelerating warming.
Regional Impacts at 3°C
Heatwaves: 60+ days/year above 40°C (104°F) in Chicago, Paris, and Beijing.
Food Collapse: 50–70% crop failures in breadbaskets like the U.S. Midwest and India.
Water Wars: Colorado River and Nile Basin nations clash over dwindling resources.
Mass Migration: 1–2 billion refugees from tropics and coasts.
Can We Avoid 3°C?
Immediate Action Required:
Phase out fossil fuels by 2040, not 2050.
Scale carbon removal to 10+ gigatons/year (current capacity: 0.01 gigatons).
Solar Geoengineering: Temporarily offset albedo loss via stratospheric aerosols (risky but possibly necessary).
Current Reality: Policies remain aligned with 2.5–3.5°C by 2100, making 3°C by 2050 likely.
Conclusion
Hansen’s analysis paints a dire picture: 3°C by 2050 is not just plausible but probable due to underestimated feedbacks and political inertia.
Crossing 2°C unleashes irreversible feedback loops that render 3°C unavoidable, even with rapid emissions cuts. The only hope is a wartime-scale mobilization to decarbonize, restore albedo, and prepare for catastrophic climate destabilization.
Without this, Earth’s systems will push civilization beyond adaptation limits by mid-century.
At 3–4°C, Earth becomes a hostile planet where civilization persists only in fragmented, militarized enclaves. The transition would involve unimaginable suffering for billions, with the Global South bearing the brunt. However, humans are resilient—our species would survive, but the social, economic, and technological achievements of the past millennium would unravel.
Coastal megacities like Miami, Shanghai, and Mumbai lie half-submerged, abandoned to rising seas as governments prioritize inland fortress-cities. The tropics, once teeming with life, become uninhabitable dead zones where wet-bulb temperatures exceed 35°C for months on end, rendering outdoor labor fatal and driving billions northward.
In regions like South Asia and the Sahel, collapsed monsoon cycles and dried-up rivers ignite water wars, while failed states fracture into warlord territories battling over dwindling aquifers and arable land.
Agriculture, the bedrock of civilization, buckles under heatwaves and soil depletion. Once-fertile breadbaskets—the U.S. Midwest, India’s Gangetic Plain, China’s North Plain—yield only dust and stunted crops, triggering famines that ripple across supply chains. Global food production plummets by half, leaving 2 billion people chronically malnourished. Oceans, acidified and starved of oxygen, lose their fisheries, collapsing protein sources for 3 billion coastal inhabitants. The global economy, stripped of stability, fractures into hyper-localized survival networks: underground hydroponic farms in abandoned warehouses, black-market water traders, and solar-powered enclaves guarded by drones.
Human society splinters along stark lines of privilege and desperation. Wealthy nations like Canada and Scandinavia fortify their borders with AI-patrolled walls, preserving pockets of climate-controlled normalcy for elites. Meanwhile, equatorial regions descend into chaos, where resource scarcity fuels epidemics, child mortality soars, and ancient cultural traditions vanish.
Mass migrations—1 to 2 billion people fleeing heat, hunger, and conflict—overwhelm borders, sparking xenophobic violence and authoritarian crackdowns. Cities like Chicago and Berlin, struggling under heatwaves and infrastructure decay, ration electricity to a few hours a day, while their wealthy residents retreat into sealed, air-filtered high-rises.
Yet even in this unraveling world, glimmers of adaptation emerge. Polar regions and high-altitude zones—Siberia, Patagonia, the Tibetan Plateau—become lifeboats for humanity. Their cooler climates host starving refugee megacities. Until industrial collapse is completetechnologies like stratospheric aerosol injection and many try chaotically to stem the c9ollapse, only making things worse, contingent on global cooperation that rarely materializes.
Civilization, in any recognizable form, survives only in fractured dystopian remnants. Governance shrinks to city-states and corporate fiefdoms, while democracy vanishes under emergency decrees. Knowledge economies collapse, replaced by subsistence trades and barter systems.
The arts and sciences collapse, their progress halted by the daily scramble for survival. Humanity may survive, but as a desperate diminished species— haunted by the loss of biodiversity, cultural heritage, and the stable climate that once nurtured its rise.
This future is not yet inevitable, but it looms as the trajectory of complacency. Hansen’s work warns that every delay in slashing emissions tightens the grip of feedback loops, sealing a fate where 3–4°C becomes the gateway to a post-civilizational dark age.
The difference between survival and collapse hinges on this decade’s choices: rapid decarbonization, global equity, and a moral awakening to defend the fragile systems that sustain life. As Hansen warns: “Delay is denial.”
Traffic in Dublin’s city center came to a halt as Palestine solidarity demonstrators, frustrated by the collusion of the Irish Government with the Zionist genocidal massacres to block the main O’Connell Bridge.
The early evening protest for Wednesday at Leinster House was called by Collective Action for Palestine. It is not certain whether this is an actual organisation or a flag of convenience for a collection of solidarity groups and certainly many of those present were identifiable from different groups.
This included, from their banners, Mothers Against Genocide and Irish Jews Against Genocide but among the hundreds present, activists of other organisations such as Action for Palestine Ireland, Saoirse don Phalaistín, Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland and Social Rights Ireland were in evidence.
The People Before Profit party, which would usually mobilise strongly for marches called by the IPSC, did not have a noticeable present, which may reflect a lack of contact with the organisers of yesterday’s event or a lesser ability to mobilise quickly.
The solidarity protest rally becomes a march, proceeding southward up Kildare Street. (Source photo: Irish Independent)
Irish Republican organisations were also not noticeably present, with the exception of the AIA mentioned earlier.
The protesters’ rage and frustration was lit by images of dead and injured Palestinian children in the return to genocidal bombing of Gaza by the ‘Israeli’ armed forces, once again violating their ceasefire agreement, along with besieging and ethnic cleansing of cities of the West Bank.
The previous night Zionist state bombing had killed 414 Palestinians, including 174 children, and hospitalised over 550 more.
An early view of the Wednesday evening rally outside Leinster House (see in the background), home of the Irish Parliament. (Photo source: Journal)
The marchers called for action from the Government, such as imposing sanctions on Israel in general and enacting the rather mild Occupied Territories Bill, approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) but seven years since, still sitting in a drawer; awaiting enactment.
Those calls have been repeated week after week, month after month in the final months of 2003 and throughout last year but only words of concern from Government ministers resulted, followed by friendship visitsto the very supplier of the Zionists’ weapons of genocide.
Still as true today, unfortunately, as it was in August last year.
Successive governments of the ruling class of the ‘neutral’ Irish State have actively colluded too in genocide through refusing to bar Irish airspace to Zionist military supply flights1 or to monitor and prevent US military flights through Shannon airport.
MARCH AROUND SOUTHSIDE CITY CENTRE
From outside Leinster house the protesters proceeded southwards up Kildare Street, turning right to flank Stephens’ Green, where they paused to chant more slogans and display banners and placards to stopped Luas trams before then turning northward into Grafton Street.
In that pedestrianised shopping street the march stopped near one of the many buskers regularly performing there, apparently Italian who launched into an amplified rendition of a celebrated song from the Italian antifascist tradition, Bella Ciao, with many of the marchers joining in.
The northward march continued with stops up Westmoreland Street, where the clientele of a pub came out to cheer and applaud the marchers. Then on to the southern end of O’Connell Bridge, occupying both southward and northward-bound lanes with traffic blocked in both directions.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that President Trump “fully supports” Israel’s renewed massive bombing campaign in Gaza, which has killed at least 200 children since Tuesday.
Bruce claimed that the administration wants peace, but President Trump has emboldened Netanyahu and his government by supplying huge amounts of military aid and repeatedly calling for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza instead of pressuring Israel to implement the deal it signed in January.
“The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay. Unfortunately, Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,” Leavitt told reporters.
Yet Again the US shows it will not abide by any treaty it signs, leading the world in a Post-Truth race to coerce, lie, bully and slaughter to grab more power and wealth.
The US and Israel are blaming Hamas for the lack of a continued ceasefire and hostage releases. But it was Israel that repeatedly violated the deal signed in January, which would have led to the release of all Israeli captives, a permanent truce, and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Leavitt said that President Trump “fully supports Israel and the IDF and the actions that they’ve taken in recent days.”
A tiny racist theocracy has gone full terrorist, genociding a minority and bombing its neighbours, claiming permission from God Almighty. Yet not a single Western State is applying full sanctions to stop the slaughter- On the contrary, bought or blackmailed Political elites and the richest Billionaires are doubling down on financing and cashing in on their favorite capitalist money spinner.Don’t forget all Google’s owners are Zionist conspirators, which explains the absurd $32B pricetag for a tech startup.The day before the Wiz deal, Israel resumed its genocide of Gaza with an unhinged bloodthirsty rampage, the deadliest twenty-four hours in the last nearly eighteen months of genocide.
On Wednesday, the State Department also affirmed the administration’s unconditional support for Israel. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the US will “stand with Israel in every circumstance.”.
A plumber from Lewes, UK, she chose resistance over comfort, traveling to Rojava in 2017 to join the YPJ in the battle against ISIS.An anarchist, feminist, and anti-speciesist, she stood against prisons, exploitation, and oppression in all forms.
She fought for workers’ rights, against fox hunting, and for a world without domination.
In Rojava, she embraced the Kurdish women’s revolution, studied Öcalan’s ideas, and lived the ideals of equality and self-determination.
On March 15, 2018, during the defense of Êfrîn, Anna was killed by Turkish artillery fire.
She gave everything for a cause greater than herself.
Today, her spirit lives on in all those who continue the fight for justice and freedom
At least 1,300 flights are expected to be canceled at what is one of the world’s busiest airports, due to the ” significant power outage”. It has happened as a result of a continuing large blaze at North Hyde Electricity Substation, more than 150 homes have also been evacuated.
Josh Salisbury 12 minutes ago Counter-terrorism police are being drafted in to investigatean electricity substation fire that has closed Heathrow Airport for the whole of Friday, sparking global travel chaos.
Tens of thousands lost their travel plans today as all Heathrow terninals remain without electricity.
Airline shares are hard hit at the closure of the UK’s main airport
Officials called it an accident but speculation is rife that the fire is sabotage.
The UK is covertly at war in several countries. It is deeply involved in the Ukraine war against Russia with special forces leading sabotage actions, the Kursk invasion and attacks on the Crimea bridge. In addition Great Britain is supplying arms and spying information for Israel’s Gaza genocide via its Cyprus base, and deeply implicated in the bombing of Yemen over many years.
Airport officials announced the UK’s London Heathrow airport would be closed all of Friday and have not given a timetable for when air traffic will be resumed .
Six schools forced to close due to substation fire Six local schools have been closed following the substation fire in Hayes, Hillingdon Council said.
At least 1,300 flights are expected to be canceled at what is one of the world’s busiest airports, served by British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines and other firms, due to the ” significant power outage”. It has happened as a result of a large blaze at North Hyde Electricity Substation, which is in Hayes, west London, following which more than 150 homes have been evacuated.
More than 600 flights were due to land at Heathrow on Friday – carrying up to 145,000 people. Worst affected is British Airways, which had been due to operate 341 flights with 67,962 seats.
25,000 litres of oil were alight after blaze – fire officials
The substation fire in Hayes which knocked out power to Heathrow involved 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) has said..
Speaking to broadcasters at the scene in Hayes, London Fire Brigade deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said the brigade recieved more than 200 calls to the fire.
“The fire involved a transformer comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight,” he said.
“This created a major hazard due to the still live high-voltage equipment and the nature of the oil-fuelled fire.”
The Metropolitan Police declared a major incident
Extremists Keep Trying To Sabotage Electrical Grid. Sep 12, 2024″Political extremists have attempted a number of attacks on electrical infrastructure and substationsin recent years, with a goal of sowing chaos and civil conflict.
Takhistov Charged in Energy Facility Sabotage Plot Jul 26, 2024Takhistov discussed infrastructure sabotage, specifically how to damage an electricalsubstation using Mylar balloons or Molotov cocktails
The Free 