It's Jaden McDaniels vs the Joker. JM: 28, 9, 3 in 41'. Joke: 28, 8, 10 in 39'.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
HT ATL (2-3) 36 NYC 83
Bob Pompeani
@KDPomp
83-36 #Knicks over ATL at HALFTIME
Elimination game
Largest Playoff halftime lead
In #NBA history
8:29 PM · Apr 30, 2026
·389 Views
Jay Busbee
@jaybusbee
Jalen Brunson misses a 3 that would have put the Knicks up 50 on the Hawks at the half. Can't let Atlanta hang around like that.
8:29 PM · Apr 30, 2026
·210 Views
@KDPomp
83-36 #Knicks over ATL at HALFTIME
Elimination game
Largest Playoff halftime lead
In #NBA history
8:29 PM · Apr 30, 2026
·389 Views
Jay Busbee
@jaybusbee
Jalen Brunson misses a 3 that would have put the Knicks up 50 on the Hawks at the half. Can't let Atlanta hang around like that.
8:29 PM · Apr 30, 2026
·210 Views
LOL. clap
📣Your attention please. Your attention, please...
In Atlanta, it's the Pigeons, formerly the Majestic Soaring Hawks 34 Mamdani City 83, :30.8 2Q.🤣
Public Occurrences April 30, 2026
U.S. Debt Tops 100% of Gross Domestic Product
Federal debt exceeding the size of the economy is a potent symbol of the gathering fiscal stresses on the U.S.
Sublede by Wally
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
FT Champions League semi-final, leg one, Atlético 1 Arsenal 1
"Arsenal are a wealthier, more powerful club and they should be better than they are under Mikel Arteta."--Mark Ogden, ESPN
Zollner Avoids Elimination 116-109; Sensitive City (3-2) Breathes Easier, 125-120 Ontario State
Superstar Cade Cunningham scored a franchise-best 45 in the playoffs. Paolo Banchero matched CC's 45 for Disney but missed 7 of his 12 freebies.
The Cadavers rose from the dead in the 4Q (25-17) to save the jobs of coach Kenny Atkinson and president Drunk Koby Altman.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
"3-2-1", NBA Draft Lottery Reform
16 teams make lottery.
"3": balls in the lottery hamper go to each of the 7 teams in each conference who finish with the 4th through 10th worst records.
"2": balls in hamper to the four teams, two in each conference, who finish 9th or 10th in their conference, and to the bottom three teams, dubbed the "relegation zone" for Lizards and like that.
"1": ball in hamper for losers of 7 vs 8 play-in games
In total, this means there would be 37 lottery balls assigned to 16 teams. CBS
FT SEVEN FOOT SIXERS BLOW OUT BEANS (3-2) IN BEANTOWN 113-97
Beans still has some of this weirdness in them at home.
Public Occurrences April 28, 2026
Florida Felon Indicts James Comey...Again
This one is based on the former FBI Director photographing and posting in May, 2025 some seashells that he saw in on a North Carolina beach arranged in "8647", which the indictment says was a threat against the Florida Felon's life.
If I didn't have to sleep, I wouldn't. I want to LIVE.
I sleep as little as possible, but the annoying fact is that all carbon-based life on earth must sleep. The mental, emotional and physical well-being of human life is contingent upon roughly one-third of our life spent sleeping. We must get a good sleep.
Which is why for about 30 years I have taken a prescription sleeping pill, temazepam, every night.
Now my (second) ex-wife is undergoing chemotherapy preparatory to cancer surgery. I keep close tabs on her. Yesterday she texted me on her (un) well-being. Didn't sleep at all Sunday into Monday night. Chemo rash. Itchy, painful. The awful side effects of chemotherapy have just about driven her mad. I went over to see her yesterday evening and we talked. Lidocaine gives her relief from the rash for about three hours. Not enough to get the sleep that she needs. I hesitatingly offered to go back to place and get one temazepam pill for her. She hesitatingly agreed.
I awaited the results with great anticipation today. At 11:20 am she texted me:
"Slept the entire night. First time In weeks (or maybe in my whole life????) 🙄"
My measured reaction:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! WOO HOO!!! i did one right thing!"
Monday, April 27, 2026
Boulders, formerly Pebbles, ne "Nuggets" on precipice (1-3), have slight lead over Dire Wolves mid-way through 2Q
Boulders, formerly Pebbles, ne "Nuggets" on precipice (1-3), have slight lead over Dire Wolves mid-way through 2Q
Pat Riley's Season's End Presser*
2:30 pm:
I watched and listened to the whole thing. It went over one hour, longer than I had remembered these annual things going previously; he was right on time at 1 pm, ended at 2:06.
I'm tired. You know why I'm tired? Because listening to Riley is like reading a Tom Friedman column--you have to pay close attention to every word and study to get his main point(s), which are often surrounded by less consequential statements. Which is one reason I stopped subscribing to the New York Times!
(more (I have to study my notes))
*Updated:
To me, the most important things Riley said, in order of importance:
1) In answers to two questions (in the middle of the press conference, see above) Riley said he is going to have discussions with Erik Spoelstra on the "wheel" offensive philosophy. There could not be a basketball philosophy more antithetical to Riley's history and experience, but Spo is the coach and Riley deferred to him on this (and to positionless basketball a decade earlier) in 2025.
The first question was if Riley thought the roster needed to get bigger and longer.
A: There are different philosophies, e.g. playing big, playing small and fast, pace and space. Spo has a philosophy. (Spo invented "positionless" also.)
: Style of play and personnel dictate philosophy. Not the other way around. Riley then used a metaphor for his own philosophy, a traffic light. I hadn't heard this before and wasn't expecting it and it was confusing the way that Riley presented it. I understood Riley's philosophy to be an upside-down traffic light, red on top, cautionary yellow, green on bottom. He said Spo's philosophy was the traffic light right-side up: green, yellow, red. At first, I thought Riley was using the traffic light exclusively about playing fast or slow. He is not a fan of the "wheel", not a fan of breaking possessions down into three eight-second segments, whoever gets the ball last (since they're all positionless) takes the shot. Riley doesn't believe in that. Riley believes that when the clock is in the last segment "You get it to your guys", the main scorers.
Reading over my notes, he was also using the traffic light as metaphor for commitment and change. At the end of last season in this event, he attempted his own variation of, "If it's not necessary to change, it's necessary not to change." It was mangled and confusing (like the traffic light this time). But when you do decide to change, you have to commit whole-heartedly to it. Riley made this statement in the context of discussing Kel'el Ware and Bam Adebayo playing together. The question was very direct:
"Is it time in your mind to tell Spo to commit to Ware and Bam as a tandem or I'm going to get you a prototypical big (a big, slow space eater who can only play one position) to play with Bam?"
He likes Kel'el and Bam playing together, thinks Kel'el should be playing with Bam in the same unit, said Spoelstra "was up and down with it for a number of reasons" and gently criticized Spo for not being more committed to it.
In the second question he made the same point on Tyler Herro and Norman Powell sharing the floor:
"They can coexist if you're playing the right style."
And again in his answer to the last question from "Tim", noi:
"We have the kind of players who can play in Spo's system but I will talk to Spo about making tweaks."
My global take on this first major point is that he is not real happy with the job that Erik Spoelstra did this season.
2) Answer to Ira Winderman's first question (and first of session):
"We're not good enough."
In answer to Ira's third question:
"I didn't think that we were championship material." ( i.e., at trade deadline)
In the middle of the presser, in answer to unid'd pencil:
"You need talent to win in this league."
But he loves everybody in the rotation, specifically naming Bam, Tyler, Davion (twice) Jovic, Ware, Powell. He will "try" to upgrade but the overall tone was that he believes that this roster, with growth and development, has enough. eye roll.
In answer to Anthony Chiang's second question:
"We like our roster."
3) "I'm not retiring."
4) "I'm really pissed. I'm disappointed. Disgruntled." (confirming Dwyane Wade)
5) Is not trading Bam, confirming Barry Jackson.
6) Confirms that he loves veterans over rookies.
Public Occurrences April 27, 2026
Germany's Merz: Iran Humiliating Florida Man, Entire Toilet Nation
"The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result. An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible. The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either."
Sunday, April 26, 2026
First sentence in write-up on 7'6"ers-Beans:
By AP
Apr 26, 2026, 09:35 pm
PHILADELPHIA -- — Payton Pritchard hit six of Boston’s 24 3-pointers and scored 32 points...
Payton Pritchard 2025/26 (Beans, only team he has played for): 17, 3.9, 5.2 ppg, 46.4%.
Payton Pritchard: 6'1", 2020-26th pick, Beans.
Precious Achiuwa 2025/26 (Sacramento, his 4th team): 10.1 (career high), 6.7, 1.4 ppg, 52.8%.
Precious Achiuwa: 6'8", 2020-20th pick, Miami.
Pat Riley historically preferred veteran players to drafted rookies. Hell, he prefers the G League as a pipeline! Riley recently has seemed to place more value on draft picks than loose change, but I surmise that decades of neglect has withered the org.'s collegiate talent-spotting.
Beans (3-1) Blows the Hat off Billy Penn 128-96
I would take Beans against Zollner right now. They're not going to beat Beans.
Neemias Queta
Neemias Queta is 7'0" out of Utah State, fifth year, is starting for Beans today. On the season he is averaging 10.2 and 8.4 per game. He was selected by Excremento in the second round with the 39th pick. Ayo Dusonmu (Illinoise), the hero of Minnehaha's win over Pebbles last night, was selected 38th (Male Cows). Miami did not have a pick in either round in the 2021 draft.
The "Heat" draft with, it seems to me, average results. Missed hugely on Michael Beasley (2nd pick overall 2008) and Justice Winslow (10th pick 2015). They got Bam Adebayo (2017-14) and Tyler Herro (2019-13) at exactly the position they will be drafting in June. The "Heat" has never hit on a second round pick like Queta, Dusonmu, or "the greatest draft steal in NBA history", Nikola Jokic (2014-41).
For twelve straight years the Miami "Heat" have been an average 44-38 during the NBA regular season. They were 43-39 last season.
The current roster, therefore, is nearly identical in terms of talent to those of the previous eleven seasons. It finished 17 games behind the Eastern Conference leader.
It is impossible for a 43-39 roster to make up 17 games and jump eight other teams with better records and rosters through organic growth and better health in one season. With the exception of the Jimmy Butler years, 601 Biscayne has tried that approach for the other seven years. And failed.
The foregoing is apodictic. What follows is not.
It is impossible for one "whale" to make up 17 games and pass eight other better teams in one season.
Pat Riley hasn't landed a "whale" in 16 years, since 2010. And then he landed two, LeBron and Chris Bosh. Riley's most recent whaling excursion was after Giannis Antetokounmpo. He failed. The chalk is that he will try again this summer. I don't believe that Giannis wants to come to Miami, but let's say he does. I don't believe that the "Heat" will make that great leap up the East that incentives whalers after subtracting the players traded to Beer to get Antetokounmpo. Free agency is dead in the NBA. The draft, unless you beat prohibitive odds, is not an option. Whales don't fall to 13th. The only way to harpoon a whale is by trading bait fish. This is not to overvalue Miami's roster! It is dreck. You can get replacement dreck in the G League. This is to say that one whale + 14 minnows and medium-sized fish will not float the boat. Has not, demonstrably, for twelve straight seasons.
I would stair-step. 601 Biscayne won't because 601 Biscayne doesn't stair-step (yes, it's circular). The fan base, so long sold on great-grandfather Riley's whaling nous, will not be happy with the years-long timetable that stair-stepping takes. Whatevs. In the current NBA I would use a minnow as bait to lure a slightly bigger fish, use that fish to get a bigger, keep climbing that ladder step-by-step until you have a roster to which a whale can be attached that can float your boat to Larry O'Brien Island. If you can hook a beautiful blue marlin like Jimmy Butler with your minnows, mazel tov. But if you are so fortunate, don't think you're done. Keep climbing those steps. Jimmy Butler won as many NBA championships as the undersigned idiot blogger has won. 601 Biscayne should have stair-stepped for twelve years rather than hunt Moby Dick. But they didn't. They refused to "sell high", they gladly let some pretty good catches (most recently Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus) go without compensation! They let their minnows and bigger catches go until they ran themselves to death or broke pack and went elsewhere for nothing.
I have no idea what bigger fish may be lured by this "Heat" roster. No clue if there is another Jimmy Butler swimming out there who can be had for Josh Richardson. But 601 Biscayne should know.
Good morninga
My last post yesterday was on the Ice-Pebbles game and star Anthony Edwards' and Donte DiVincenzo's injuries in the first half. I didn't know the half of it.
Denver is really fucked. Sometimes a team can rally when they lose a star, but last night it wasn't a team effort, it was one dude. Ayo Dosunmu. From AP's report:
When the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired Ayo Dosunmu from Chicago in February, they expected to get a strong defender and savvy offensive player.
I can read his game in my mind: ~10 ppg, long, rangy, handsy defender. Complementary player.
Basketball-reference com: 6' 4" (okay, I missed on long), 14.4 ppg this season, 11.1 career. check. Started 19 games this season between Wind and Ice. Highest accolade was placing NINTH for Sixth Man of Year award this season. Right.
This guy is the reason Denver is really fucked. Went off for FORTY-THREE points last night. In absence of Ant and DiVincenzo. The highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in 50 years...AP.
You see what I mean? Denver, you're fucked. It's just not in the cards. Minniehaha has got your number, Gobert has got Jokic's number, Ayo Dosunmu is beating you like a red-headed step-child. This year was not meant to be for you. Enjoy your summer.
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Pebbles Are Dust. FT Dire Wolves (3-1) 112-96
A 30-18 4Q fueled a close game into a route. Rudy Gobert, apparently*, again turned Nikola Jokic into a joker: 8/22 (0/3). G3 (L), 7/26 (2/10); G2 (L), 8/20 (1/7); G1 (W), 11/19 (2/7). That's 39% for a CENTER!
*There is an alternative, not necessarily mutually exclusive, hypo that Jokic's arm or elbow or something is not full 100. He's wearing a sleeve.
Public Occurrences April 25, 2026
"Extraordinarily Brilliant" Florida Man Fires Entire National Science Board
10:18 pm:
No, Dinner was canceled.
HE'S NOT THERE.
Look at him. He's the ONLY ONE not reacting. He's oblivious.
Dinner Resumes: Nobody Hurt by Shooter at White House Correspondents Dinner
Why was he escorting you to the men's room, Shawn?
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Reporting from the Washington Hilton
A Secret Service agent in a tuxedo had escorted me to the men’s room moments before the shooting began in the hall just outside. We heard screaming and what sounded like plates shattering. We darted out of the bathroom. As we turned the corner, other agents had their guns drawn and pointed directly at us. They started screaming at us to run across the hall and get low. Behind them, crouched and huddled against a wall, was a small group of people -- mostly photographers and caterers. And then the cabinet officials were evacuated one by one. Agents in black tie were darting around the cavernous Hilton with machine guns, looking every which way.
Hey...
Disney beat Zollner again today. 113-105 the final in the Magic Kingdom. They lead the series 2-1.
...Man, if Zollner goes splat...
Чорнобиль (Chornobyl) +40 years
At 1:23 am April 26, 1986 the first explosion occurred in Reactor Unit 4 at the ChNPP (Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant). A second explosion that blew off the roof occurred immediately thereafter. A reactive core fire caused a meltdown spreading radiation into the atmosphere that spread across the Soviet Union and into Europe. A total of only 60 people were killed immediately and in the decades that followed. It was the worst nuclear accident in history.
5,000,000
Pageviews since June, 2010. Five months to the day since hitting 4M. As I have done with each of these milestones: Followers, readers, you humble an old man and bring him joy.🫶 Thank you so much.
Email Received
Rude
"Oh look, Bob, BURIAL insurance! I'm so happy I'm having my first organism in 40 years! OH!"
Friday, April 24, 2026
Houston, you have a "Lakers" problem
La-La Bron-Bron made it three-zip over the KD-less Rockettes in H-Town tonight. H has a very talented team, eapecially (obviously) with Kevin Durant, and one of the best, most respected coaches in the game in Ime Udoka.
La-La is very good too, especially when they have Luk-Luk, whom they did not tonight, and they have...JJ Redick as coach. Hmm. "Lakers" should not be winning this series 3-0.
Why have Pigeons become Majestic Soaring Hawks?
They got rid of Trae Young. They have good players. This season's Most Improved Player is Nickeil Alexander-Walker. He plays for the "Hawks." Last season's Most Improved Player was Dyson Daniels. He also played for the "Hawks." It's the first time in the forty-year history of the award that back-to-back winners have been from the same team.
Okay, you want to know what a weirdo I am, what I do all day in retirement? When I get interested in something, it can be ANYTHING, I can go on unfathomable deep dives. An example from today.
I bought Addie Pray, a used copy, it arrived on March 2. I love used books when they're inscribed by the previous owner. I research them, look them up, see who they were. It's the detective in me. I have done this many times before when I bought used books on eBay.
In the case of Addie Pray, which I bought through Jeff Bezos' evil empire, I hit the jackpot. It was inscribed by at least two previous owners. The first was a doctor, or his wife, from Texas. There was one of those old-fashioned return address stickers that you used to see on envelopes on the front inside hardcover. Then there was another, hand-written, inscription on the fly page or whatever you call it opposite: "From the Home of Dr. Joe & Barbara Lewis, summer 2021", the same names as on the return address sticker. In March or April, whenever I did this research, it didn't occur to me that it was strange that the same owner inscribed the book twice. I assumed that the hand-written was by Barbara Lewis (the writing is decidedly in a female hand).
Commence research on the Lewises. Dr. Lewis died on Nov. 23, 2023. So, the hand-written wasn't by him, just as I reasoned. Looked up Barbara Lewis. My hand-written notes: "? She died before he did, Feb. 8, 2000 ?" "Who wrote this?"
I got on the Lewises estate sale (deep depth), the contents of their house! Note by me: "estate sale April 30, May 1, 2021." Lotta books. No Addie Pray. Hand-written inscription "From the Home of" & etc. "summer 2021", both Lewises deceased, no Addie Pray.
At the bottom of the fly page there was an inked stamped impression, a circle with an address, "Chapel View Drive" on the outer ring, inside the circle was an elaborate monogram M with what looked like a Christian cross in the "v" of the M, and MARONEY bifurcating the M. I didn't pay the inked impression any mind until today. It only registered with me as from a church--"Chapel," and the cross-like thing. The impression was so fine that it looked part of the book, not made by a second owner with a hand stamp and ink pad.
Today, for some reason, the inked stamp registered with me. Googled the address. BEAUTIFUL home. Single-family home, not church. Googled Maroney with the address. "Dr. Kimberly Maroney." Well, I'll be a sumbitch. Googled Dr. Kimberly Maroney. Colorado. Got on the medical website she was affiliated with up there. "After more than twenty years practicing medicine on the South Texas coast, my family and I felt the mountains calling--and we made the move in 2021." "Published: September 8, 2021".
I had figured it out! Dr. Maroney and Dr. Lewis had to have known each other; Dr. Maroney got Addie Pray "From the Home of" Dr. Lewis after Dr. Lewis passed, hand-wrote the "summer 2021", affixed her monogram stamp, and by September was outta there for the Rockies.
That's what I did today. I am weird, yes I am. I enjoy figuring things out. This. Is. What. I. Do.
-The End-
Local cognos are unanimous that the "Heat" do not have enough. The undersigned Idiot Blogger whole-heartedly agrees.
Comes now D-Wade, the greatest Heater of them all:😳
"It’s not that the talent is not there. I mean, them guys are very talented. It’s just the meshing of the talent is not there. ...
“And it’s not just about going out and getting a star player. I know the star player will get you back in there. But you’ll be out in the first round with that star player, if your players don’t mesh, and that connectivity isn’t there.
“And so we’ve been a little disorganized, a little disgruntled organization for the last few years.
"When it comes to this unit and these groups that’s been put together the last few years, it hasn’t meshed."
Is it Spo pulling the wrong strings? No.:
“Sometimes you see certain teams and you know that they know everything about each other. They spend all the time together, and they just connect it. And you can see it on the floor.
“I haven’t really seen that necessarily in the Heat in a while. And it started when everything started going astray with Jimmy and the Heat, and we’ve been a disconnected organization from that point."
Comes now D-Wade, the greatest Heater of them all:😳
"It’s not that the talent is not there. I mean, them guys are very talented. It’s just the meshing of the talent is not there. ...
“And it’s not just about going out and getting a star player. I know the star player will get you back in there. But you’ll be out in the first round with that star player, if your players don’t mesh, and that connectivity isn’t there.
“And so we’ve been a little disorganized, a little disgruntled organization for the last few years.
"When it comes to this unit and these groups that’s been put together the last few years, it hasn’t meshed."
Is it Spo pulling the wrong strings? No.:
“Sometimes you see certain teams and you know that they know everything about each other. They spend all the time together, and they just connect it. And you can see it on the floor.
“I haven’t really seen that necessarily in the Heat in a while. And it started when everything started going astray with Jimmy and the Heat, and we’ve been a disconnected organization from that point."
And I remembered...
The players split on Jimmy. Jimmy had taken Nikola Jovic under his wing, did a TV commercial with 3J, talked up Tyler. Jimmy was the leader of those teams whatever that C said on Bam's jersey. Then Riley suspended him and suspended him and suspended him some more. Then Spo told Jimmy he wasn't starting and kicked him out of practice.
The players were tilted. What do you say? Who do you support, the org or Jimmy? Nikola remained loyal; Tyler turned on Jimmy. They were "disgruntled", "disconnected." The team lost 10 or 11 straight after the trade. I didn't get the sense that the players "spend all their time together". They righted themselves and won their play-in against Atlanta. Spo has recounted many times that plane ride from Atlanta to Cleveland for the beginning of the playoffs. 35,000 feet up the clouds seemed to him to have parted. The sky was blue.
Then Cleveland blew them out of the sky
Spo had misread the atmosphere.
He fought all summer long with Kel'el Ware, a well-meaning, vulnerable young man who was really trying; said Kel'el lacked "professionalism". During the regular season, too. Paired him with Bam as a starter. Then yanked him. Banished to the bench, then reinserted him as a starter. Up and down the yo-yo went. Said that a young player like Kel'el sometimes subconsciously withholds effort to convince the coach to play him more. Spo had to walk that one back when D-Wade and Udonis Haslem defended Kel'el. Players don't like when one of their own is accused by the head coach of sabotaging the team.
It seemed to me at times this season that the disconnect between org and the players was still there. Hell, even Bam was disgruntled. I wrote that the players seemed to have lost "belief". When a game started going south, the body language was a tell.
So, Dwyane Wade opened my eyes to the "disconnect" in this roster, and he reminded me of its source in the Jimmy Butler trauma. He is absolutely correct.
But I fundamentally, vehemently disagree with him that the talent is there on this roster. These players could be connected at the hips and giving each other love bites, they're just not good enough.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Ontario State (1-2) Feasts on Smelly Cadavers (1-2) 126-104
The first three games have all been decided by double-digita but the +22 tonight is the series high.
THE "KNICKS" GOT IT TO BRUNSON FOR THE LAST SHOT!
And he turned it over. FT Majestic Soaring Hawks (2-1) 109 Mamdani City (1-2) 108.
Trump’s Dreams for a Battleship Led to His Navy Secretary’s Ouster
The Navy secretary, John Phelan, was supposed to deliver the first of the president’s ships by 2028. The timeline was nearly impossible.
NYT
Public Occurrences April 23, 2026
The United Criminal States of America and Israel
I then went to reporting on Israeli war crimes in Lebanon:
“The impunity Israel enjoyed in Gaza as it committed water war crimes is again on full display,” Bachir Ayoub, Oxfam’s Lebanon country director, said in a report published by the charity (https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/israeli-forces-using-gaza-playbook-lebanon-decimating-water-infrastructure) in late March. “The world has shown Israel can do what it wants, whenever it wants, without repercussion and again it is civilians who are paying the ultimate price for this inaction.”
Displacement through water
Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in less than two years on March 2. Hours earlier, Hezbollah had fired rockets at Israel, breaking a 15-month period of not responding to Israeli attacks and the more than 10,000 ceasefire violations.
Hezbollah’s attack was also in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days later. Over the next few days, Israel would displace more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon in a bombing campaign across the country.
Israel has killed journalists (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/2/un-experts-urge-investigation-into-israels-killing-of-lebanese-journalists), medical workers (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/14/israel-kills-12-medics-in-attack-in-southern-lebanon-as-war-drags-on), and devastated southern Lebanon’s medical infrastructure (https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/3/how-israel-is-destroying-healthcare-infrastructure-in-southern-lebanon). Experts told Al Jazeera that those acts, along with the destruction of Lebanon’s water infrastructure, are part of a concerted effort to create an uninhabitable buffer zone (https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/25/israels-toxic-legacy-bombing-southern-lebanon-with-white-phosphorus) in southern Lebanon.
Israel is currently occupying dozens of villages in southern Lebanon and preventing thousands from returning home. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier in April that Israeli forces “are remaining in Lebanon in a reinforced security buffer zone”.
“This is a security strip 10 kilometres [6.2 miles] deep, which is much stronger, more intense, more continuous and more solid than what we had previously,” Netanyahu said. “That is where we are, and we are not leaving.”
One way to prevent Lebanese from returning is by striking Lebanon’s water infrastructure.
“Israel has declared its intent on raising [towns and villages] to the ground and preventing people from going back there,” Rami Zurayk, professor and chairperson of the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera. “Every drop of water that Israel steals is a drop of the water that is taken from the local population … Israel uses water in order to displace people, and it displaces people in order to steal the water.”
Israel damaged six water facilities in southern Lebanon during previous attacks on Lebanon since 2023, and in the first four days of the renewed conflict this year, “damaged at least seven critical water sources including reservoirs, pipe networks and pumping stations that supplied water to almost 7,000 people in the Bekaa area alone”, according to Oxfam International. Key infrastructure has been damaged in areas like Britel and Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley, and in Marjayoun, in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s water infrastructure is being “directly and indirectly attacked and on purpose”, asserted Nadim Farajalla, an environmental engineer and chief sustainability officer at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. “We saw it in 2024 and now in 2026.”
The indirect attacks hit things such as the electricity infrastructure, so that pumping stations cannot work to move water or sewage. The direct attacks have hit the pumping stations, as well as municipal workers operating water wells (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/29/israel-kills-municipal-worker-at-water-well-in-south-lebanon-mayor).
The aim behind these attacks is “to force people to leave”, Farajalla said. “Without electricity, you can stay in the dark and cook with gas, but without water, how will you live?”
Israel has denied that its attacks are a deliberate attempt to weaponise access to water, instead framing its operations as necessary for national security.
...
Water as a weapon
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) “obliges parties to a conflict to take constant care to spare water resources and water infrastructure,” Tadesse Kebebew, a legal researcher and project manager at the Geneva Water Hub, wrote (https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2025/04/24/the-imperative-to-protect-water-and-water-systems-during-armed-conflict/) for the ICRC in 2025.
Israel ratified the Geneva Convention – the basis for IHL – in 1951. But Zurayk said that “Israel has never paid attention to any of those conventions.”
In Gaza, for example, Israel controls Palestinians’ access to water. Israel has impeded Palestinians’ access to water in the West Bank, too.
“The use of water as a weapon has also been going on in Lebanon for a long time,” Zurayk said, citing Lebanon’s accusation that Israel had obstructed access to water from the Wazzani River, which crosses the Blue Line that separates Lebanese and Israeli territory, including the bombing of pumping stations.
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Still, Israel has never been held accountable.
“The international community stood by in Gaza and watched Israel’s weaponisation of water and its catastrophic consequences to men, women and children there,” Ayoub said in the Oxfam report from March. “The same devastation must not be allowed to play out again in Lebanon. Israel must be held to account for its violations and must not be allowed to occupy more land, deny more civilians of their basic rights, and continue to abuse international law without consequence.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/22/how-israel-is-destroying-lebanons-water-infrastructure
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Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Zollner's Heavy Motown Metal Kills Mice
The Least pole-to-pole season's leaders whooped the Mice 98-83, evening the series at 1-1 after a convincing, never-trailed, "Magic" 112-101 dub in G1. The series now heads to Central for G's 3 and 4.
He is...UNBELIEVABLE!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive “Mail In Ballot Drop!” Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of “Justice.” President DONALD J. TRUMP
Apr 22, 2026, 1:34 PM
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