‘Non-survivable’: heatwaves are already breaching human limits, with worse to come, study finds
Analysis of six extreme heatwaves found when
temperature and humidity were accounted for, all were potentially deadly
for older people.
Extreme heat is already creating “non-survivable”
conditions for humans in heatwaves that have killed thousands and likely
many more, according to new research that warns people are more susceptible
to rising temperatures than first thought.
Scientists re-examined six
extreme heatwaves between 2003 and 2024 and found that when temperature,
humidity and the body’s ability to stay cool were accounted for, all were
potentially deadly for older people.
Guardian 8th April 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/08/extreme-weather-heatwaves-breaching-human-survival-limits-study-finds
Israel Carpet Bombs Lebanon After Announcement of Iran Ceasefire
Israeli forces announced on Wednesday that it struck 100 sites in Lebanon over 10 minutes.
By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, April 8, 2026
Israeli forces launched some of the most intense bombardments of Lebanon in recent years on Wednesday, striking Beirut and towns and cities across the country just hours after a ceasefire deal that reportedly includes Lebanon was announced.
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it targeted over 100 sites with strikes over just the course of 10 minutes in Lebanon. The UN also reported that it has recorded over 60 locations struck. The intensity of the strikes was unprecedented in recent times, one Al Jazeera reporter said, reminiscent of the scale of Israel’s invasion of Beirut in 1982 or Israel’s beeper attack in 2024.
Video of the strikes circulated online. One showed a massive fire in the wreckage of destroyed buildings in Beirut, sending plumes of dark smoke into the air. Another video purportedly taken in Beirut showed the top floors of a building completely destroyed and smoking, while the streets below were covered in flaming debris…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Since the latest escalation in Lebanon on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed over 1,450 people, including 126 children, Lebanese officials have said. Israel’s bombardments and expanded ground invasion have displaced 1.2 million people, or over a fifth of the population, in just weeks. https://truthout.org/articles/israel-carpet-bombs-lebanon-after-announcement-of-iran-ceasefire/
100 Strikes in 10 Minutes: Lebanon Bombed as Gaza Burns and Journalists Are Killed
April 8, 2026 , Joshua Scheer, https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/08/100-strikes-in-10-minutes-lebanon-bombed-as-gaza-burns-and-journalists-are-killed/
Al Jazeera English reports that Israel has carried out one of its most intense assaults on Lebanon since March 2, unleashing a rapid and coordinated wave of airstrikes that hit roughly 100 locations in just 10 minutes on April 8. The scale and سرعة of the bombardment underscore a sharp escalation in the conflict, raising urgent concerns about civilian safety, infrastructure destruction, and the potential for a wider regional crisis. The strikes reflect not only a show of overwhelming military force but also a deepening instability that threatens to push the situation beyond containment, with devastating humanitarian consequences to follow.
With more from Eye on Palestine reports extensive destruction following an intense and unprecedented wave of Israeli bombardment, with more than 100 airstrikes striking the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and multiple مناطق across the country. The масштаб and ferocity of the attacks have left widespread devastation in their wake, raising alarm over civilian casualties and the deepening humanitarian crisis as entire neighborhoods are reduced to rubble.
The killing of journalists is not collateral damage—it is the silencing of truth in real time.
While Israeli forces were busy carrying out attacks on Lebanon today, they also found time to kill yet another journalist. In 2025 alone, more than 120 journalists were killed worldwide, with the Committee to Protect Journalists reporting that Israel was directly responsible for two-thirds of those deaths. This is an unspeakable record—one that must not be ignored, but exposed and condemned.
Today on April 8, 2026, in Gaza City, Mohammed Washah, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his vehicle along Al-Rashid Street in western Gaza. He was not on a battlefield carrying a weapon—he was documenting one, doing the work of bearing witness as the world watched from afar.
His killing comes amid a day of overwhelming devastation across Gaza, where relentless bombardment has reduced neighborhoods to rubble, overwhelmed hospitals, and pushed civilians deeper into crisis. The scale and intensity of today’s attacks reflect a pattern of destruction that extends beyond military targets, raising urgent questions about the protection of civilians, journalists, and the very possibility of reporting from within the strip.
When journalists are killed, it is not only a life lost—it is a lens shattered. It is fewer images, fewer stories, fewer truths reaching the outside world. And in that silence, destruction becomes easier to carry out, and harder to challenge.
What is unfolding in Gaza and Lebanon cannot be viewed as separate crises—they are chapters of the same expanding catastrophe. From the shattered streets of Gaza City to the bombed neighborhoods of Beirut, the pattern is unmistakable: overwhelming force, collapsing civilian infrastructure, and entire populations pushed deeper into fear and displacement. The scale of destruction across both غزة and لبنان signals not just parallel conflicts, but a widening regional trauma where the lines between battlefield and المدني life are erased. As the violence stretches across borders, so too does the human cost—binding these tragedies together in a single, escalating reality that the world can no longer afford to treat in isolation. Even as the opposition party in the United States—the Democratic Party—refuses to even say the words
THE “SPIES” WHO CRIED GENOCIDE
An Investigative Exposé on the “Christian Genocide” Narrative and the Weaponization of Terrorism in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
The African Noticer, Apr 09, 2026
“If the Nigerian government is not going to protect you, go and protect yourself… Whatever you feel you have the power to do, do it to protect yourself.”
— Judd Saul, Iowa insurance salesman, issuing a public call to arms for Nigerian civilians. March 2026
When Your Source Is You, Yourself, and I
On March 20, 2026, the Nigeria-based outlet Sahara Reporters posted a video message from an American named Judd Saul, head of an Iowa nonprofit called Equipping The Persecuted, a missionary organization operating in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. In the video, Saul claimed inside intelligence on an imminent terrorist attack in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, naming exact dates, routes, and tactics. He said drone surveillance had verified machine-gun placements. Then he urged Nigerian civilians to arm themselves.
“More Attacks Coming! Be Vigilant!” -Judd Saul
The questions came immediately. Was he a missionary or a security expert? How does an insurance salesman from Sioux City, Iowa, obtain real-time drone surveillance of remote Nigerian river crossings? Why does he keep raising the same alarm pattern: terrorist incidents, herder-farmer clashes, and Christian massacres on a loop? And why does every alarm from this network arrive in the same packaging: there is a Christian genocide in Nigeria, and the Nigerian government is complicit in the systematic extermination of said Christians?
What happens after the alert is even more suspicious. These conservative U.S. publications (CBN, Washington Times, Epoch Times, etc.), congressional offices, and religious media outlets treat Saul’s “terror alerts” as primary intelligence. He has a website, Truth Nigeria, which publishes these claims. Then U.S. media outlets echo the narrative, and Saul is paraded around as a guest speaker on podcasts like Tim Pool’s The Culture War and the Lara Logan Show. He even held a press conference on Capitol Hill back in March. Once these media outlets echo the claim, it is then cited as independent corroboration of what Saul claimed in the first place. He is the source, the reporter, and the person who checks the facts all at the same time. No external source has ever confirmed the 89% success rate he publishes on his website, as no external source has ever been granted the ability to independently assess his methods.
Is this press operation legit, or is there some foolery afoot?
It’s time to put on our investigative journalism hats and do some noticing and networking.
THE NETWORK: THE AMERICANS AND THE NIGERIANS
The Many Hats Of Judd Saul
Judd Saul is a very busy man, with more occupations than Kirk on Gilmore Girls. When he is not attending the wedding of the Hungarian Ambassador to Nigeria in Budapest, he is a documentary filmmaker, political activist, journalist, security expert, missionary, and, since 2020, founder and president of Equipping The Persecuted, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has allegedly built, in just four years, an international media operation, a terror alert system, an orphanage, two K-12 schools, and what it claims is a staff of more than 115 Nigerian personnel across the Middle Belt. Whether all of that actually exists is a question the organization’s own filings do not answer. More on that later.
Saul the Insurance Salesman
Judd Saul grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and for most of his adult life has sold insurance out of a suite in Sioux City, in the same state, operating under FTM Insurance (For The Mission Insurance), where the tagline is explicit: every policy sold funds Christian aid to Nigeria. What a line! A marketing angle of using a charitable message to market your business. However, no reviews or comments have been found from customers who either complimented him on his product/service or acknowledged him as a vendor/agent to do business with. It appears that he has no customers to date.
Saul the Filmmaker
Saul’s documentary portfolio is essentially a filmography of civilizational, anti-woke, Islamophobic paranoia with a slight disdain for the IRS. His credits include Unfair: Exposing the IRS (2014), The Enemies Within (2016), America Under Siege: Soviet Islam, America Under Siege: Civil War, and Enemies Within the Church (2021).
Co-directed with controversial Iowa pastor Cary Gordon and conspiracy alarmist Trevor Loudon, that last film claimed American churches were being subverted by “cultural Marxism” and “intersectionality” (whatever that means). Even the ultra-conservative Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president called it “scandalous, scurrilous, slander.”
Saul The Missionary
Saul is the founder and president of Equipping The Persecuted, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit he started in 2020. According to its website, ETP supports persecuted Christians in Nigeria with food, medical aid, and even security equipment. Saul says the story began with a burden placed on his heart: in 2011, his grandfather-in-law, Duane Wessels, invited him on a mission trip to Nigeria. That trip, Saul says, is where he felt called to the lost and persecuted Christians of the Middle Belt.
It is a story designed to move conservative white evangelical Americans, who are primed to respond to the language of calling, sacrifice, and rescue. It probably also moves their wallets
Saul The Journalist
In 2024, Judd Saul launched Truth Nigeria. This media outlet functions as both a journalism operation and a fundraising instrument, its articles invariably directing readers back to Equipping the Persecuted donation pages. The journalistic operation Saul built to document the violence in Nigeria employs Douglas Burton, a former U.S. State Department official, as managing editor of Truth Nigeria. He gets his own section in Part Two of this series.
The 15 journalists listed under the Truth Nigeria banner, when researched, do not all hold up equally well under scrutiny:
- Segun Onibiyo, Abuja bureau correspondent, spent 24 days in prison in 2018 on charges of defamation and inciting disturbance against a sitting governor.
- Luka Binniyat, described as “award-winning” with 26 years of experience, cannot be linked to a single verifiable award or publication before Truth Nigeria.
- Lawrence Zongo, listed as a reporter: a community spokesperson with a disclosed ethnic stake in the conflict.
According to Judd Saul, in May 2025, the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s primary domestic intelligence agency operating directly under the presidency, arrested Truth Nigeria reporters. However, Saul did not mention any names or provide any evidence or sources that might substantiate his arrest claims. The narrative’s structural function is to create insulation for the organization’s unverifiable intelligence from anyone outside the organization. If the government is suppressing us, then no one can check our work. Convenient, and almost impossible to falsify by design.
Something is not Adding Up!
Finding financial documentation for Judd Saul’s organization was a feat in itself. Still, thanks to the all-seeing eyes of Uncle Sam, we dug up the 2024 Form 990 for Equipping The Persecuted (EIN: 85-2702281), and it tells a very strange story.
The organization is technically insolvent, spending $1.17 for every dollar raised, while Saul, the only compensated officer, collected $60,000. Management costs ballooned 310% over 2023. Only 57 cents of every donated dollar reached actual programming, well below the 75% threshold watchdogs consider the floor of acceptable.
The filings also raise basic operational questions. ETP claims to employ more than 115 Nigerian staff; however, as per it’s 990 filings, there are no employee salaries listed. The organization also claims to serve thousands of Nigerians monthly, operations that require significant ground-level infrastructure. MinistryWatch (a watchdog for evangelical charities) has stripped the organization from its database and issued a transparency grade of D. No independent audit seems to exist online.
Oh, they sell coffee, too! Their ETP Coffee brand, which includes products with names such as Guardian, Refuge, and Warrior, claims 100% of proceeds go to victims of the Christian genocide. But coffee has costs: sourcing, roasting, packaging, shipping, and processing fees. That kind of claim only works if someone else is quietly subsidizing production or if the claim is not true. Neither possibility inspires confidence
All this math makes my head hurt, so enough of that. The picture it paints, however, is difficult to shake: how does an organization that is, on paper, financially insolvent, with over $1 million flowing annually, extreme operational opacity, and unnamed donors, somehow stay afloat and shape U.S. foreign policy outcomes?
There are some intriguing personalities and histories associated with that question.
Let’s meet them!……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
We have an Iowa insurance salesman with no customers, a documentary filmmaker whose own seminary called his work slander, a nonprofit that spends more money than it raises while claiming to employ 115 people it does not pay, and a Liberty University kid in crusader patches screaming at Nigerian villagers to pick up AK-47s. All of them connected. All of them pointing at the same patch of ground. And we have not even gotten to the State Department spook, the CPAC missionary, the congressmen with oil stocks, or the part where Mossad shows up.
To Be Continued …
Part Two drops next Tuesday. If you cannot wait, and honestly, why would you, the full investigation is up right now for subscribers at The African Noticer https://ddgeopolitics.substack.com/p/the-spies-who-cried-genocide?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1769298&post_id=193402804&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks.
8 April 2026,
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
A good documentary on Chernobyl was on SBS tonight, available On Demand for the next 4 weeks.
A lot of original footage and interviews.
So many lies and coverups by the Soviet Union. Doctors were forbidden from diagnosing health issues caused by radiation and said people instead had “radiophobia”.
I remember originally seeing the scenes of the “bio-robot liquidators” – young army men who shoveled radioactive debris off the roof after the German robot failed. 80% of them died. It was heartbreaking.
8.4 million Soviet people were exposed to radiation. It’s unknown how many died, but it’s estimated at 200,000. though the official death toll is 31, which pro-nukers like to shout about.
Mysterious Flashes in 1950s Skies Linked to Nuclear Tests and UAP Sightings: Study
Apr 10, 2026, Sci News, by Natali Anderson
A new statistical analysis of archival sky surveys from the early Cold War has found that mysterious, short-lived bursts of light in the night sky were more likely to appear around the time of above-ground nuclear weapons tests and to increase alongside reports of unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs).
“Transient star-like objects have been identified in sky surveys conducted prior to the launch of the first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957,” said Dr. Beatriz Villarroel of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) and Dr. Stephen Bruehl from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“These short-lived transients — lasting less than one exposure time of 50 min — have point spread functions and are absent in images taken shortly before the transients appear and in all images from subsequent surveys.”…………………………………….
“Above-ground nuclear weapons tests (US, Soviet, and British) were conducted on 124 days (4.6%) during the study period.”
“UAP reports were recorded in the UFOCAT database on 2,428 days during the study period (89.3%).”
The researchers found that the transients were about 45% more likely to occur on days within a one-day window of a nuclear test than on other days.
The effect was strongest the day after a test, when the likelihood of observing a transient rose by roughly 68%.
The study also reported a modest correlation between the number of transients and the number of UAP sightings recorded on the same date……………………………………………..
This study adds to the small peer-reviewed literature seeking to apply systematic scientific methods to the study of UAP-related data.”
“The ultimate importance of the associations reported in the current work for enhancing understanding of transients and UAP remains to be determined.”
A paper on the findings was published on October 20, 2025 in the journal Scientific Reports. https://www.sci.news/astronomy/cold-war-transients-14688.html
“Heretic”: After Trump spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain likens Trump to Jesus during Easter, right-wing media figures lash out
Tucker Carlson called it “so vile” and “such a sacrilege,” while conservative influencer Brett Cooper said, “Maybe these people should not be involved in our government”
Media Matters, by Payton Armstrong, 04/08/26
Right-wing media figures are lashing out at President Donald Trump’s personal spiritual adviser and senior adviser to the White House Faith Office Paula White-Cain for likening Trump to Jesus during an Easter event, labeling her an “unabashed heretic” and “batsh*t crazy.”
White-Cain is a televangelist, pastor, and Trump’s longtime spiritual adviser who has “long been a prominent and polarizing figure in evangelical circles.” White-Cain has an extensive history of extreme rhetoric, including declaring that opposition to Trump is equivalent to opposition to God. Now a senior adviser to the White House Faith Office, White-Cain is part of Trump’s effort to expand “the power and influence of conservative Christians in government” in his second term.
At an April 1 closed-door Easter speech at the White House, White-Cain spoke next to Trump and directly likened him to Jesus, saying, “No one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our lord and savior showed us.” The White House deleted video of the speech, which “was initially posted on the official White House website and YouTube channel,” and clips continued to circulate on social media.
On April 4, Fox host (and the president’s daughter-in-law) Lara Trump hosted White-Cain to share a message for Easter, in which she said it was her “favorite subject to talk about” to “give honor to God and to president Trump for being bold and unwavering with his faith.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/heretic-after-trump-spiritual-adviser-paula-white-cain-likens-trump-jesus-during
Xi–Zheng Meeting Sends Clear Signal: Peaceful Reunification Framed as Strategic Imperative for Chia’s Future
Author: Xu Jijun, founder of Han Tang Zhi Ku Analytical Centre, Apr 10, 2026
On the morning of 10 April 2026, inside the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, met Zheng Liwen, Chair of the Kuomintang. The encounter marked the first meeting between leaders of the two parties in a decade. It unfolded at a moment of mounting global instability and heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait, giving it both historical weight and immediate political relevance.
The meeting was not merely ceremonial. It articulated a shared position that people on both sides of the Strait seek peace and oppose division. It also set out a political direction aimed at returning cross-Strait relations to a path of peaceful development, with the stated goal of eventual peaceful reunification.
A venue heavy with history
For mainland observers, the deeper meaning of the Xi–Zheng meeting is tied closely to its setting. The East Hall has hosted landmark moments in China’s modern history, including events linked to the return of Hong Kong and Macau. Its reuse for high-level dialogue between representatives of the two sides of the Strait carries unmistakable symbolism.
The message conveyed is straightforward. Both sides belong to one China, and Taiwan is regarded as an inseparable part of it. External complexities do not alter this premise. Questions concerning the Chinese nation are framed as matters to be resolved internally, with peaceful dialogue presented as the appropriate course.
A world defined by conflict
The significance of the meeting becomes clearer when placed against the current global backdrop. Armed conflicts in recent years have illustrated the scale of destruction associated with modern warfare.
The Russia–Ukraine conflict continues to impose heavy losses. According to the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE Institute), in its March 2026 assessment, Ukraine has suffered cumulative income losses of approximately 1.7 trillion US dollars since the escalation of hostilities in 2022, including projected losses through the end of 2026. Urban areas have been devastated, energy infrastructure repeatedly targeted, millions displaced, and environmental damage described as long-lasting.
Since February 2026, military action by the United States and Israel against Iran has produced similarly severe consequences. Around 80 per cent of Iran’s air defence systems have been destroyed, along with more than 450 missile installations. Its capacity for ballistic missile retaliation has reportedly fallen by 90 per cent. Production lines for “Shahed” unmanned aerial vehicles have been eliminated, reducing output by 85 per cent. The Iranian navy has seen approximately 160 vessels sunk or disabled, its naval headquarters destroyed, and its control over the Persian Gulf lost. Up to 90 per cent of the defence industrial base, including key shipyards, has been destroyed.
After just 38 days of conflict, Iran’s military capability, built over four decades, has been largely dismantled. Regional shipping has been disrupted, energy markets have experienced sharp volatility, tens of thousands have been killed, and millions displaced. Regional stability has effectively collapsed.
These developments illustrate the destructive potential of modern high-technology warfare. Precision-guided munitions, drone swarms, and long-range strike systems can disable power supplies, destroy transport infrastructure, contaminate land, and set back economic and social development by decades in a matter of weeks.
Taiwan and the global economy
Against this background, the text argues that any attempt to pursue “Taiwan independence” carries serious risks. A conflict in the Taiwan Strait would likely exceed the scale and impact of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Taiwan occupies a central position in the global semiconductor industry. Firms such as TSMC hold a dominant share of advanced manufacturing capacity. In the event of war, supply chains would be disrupted immediately.
Simulations by international institutions suggest that, in a worst-case scenario, global GDP could fall by nearly 10 per cent in the first year of a Taiwan Strait conflict. Economic losses could reach 10.6 trillion US dollars, equivalent to around 333 trillion New Taiwan dollars. Taiwan’s own economy could contract by as much as 40 per cent. The shock would be felt across mainland China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union.
The military consequences would be severe. High-density missile strikes, electronic warfare, and naval and air blockades could lead to large-scale destruction of infrastructure on the island. Casualties would be significant, while environmental and humanitarian damage could prove irreversible. Given the close social and cultural ties between people on both sides of the Strait, any armed confrontation would result in profound human cost. Regional tensions would escalate rapidly, posing risks to stability in East Asia and beyond.
Political signalling and red lines
Within this framework, the position presented is that “Taiwan independence” represents a path with no viable outcome. It is described as running counter to shared interests and broader historical trends.
The alternative, as outlined, lies in adherence to the 1992 Consensus and opposition to separatism. Zheng Liwen’s visit, described as a “journey for peace”, emphasised the notion of cross-Strait kinship and was framed as aligning with public sentiment and prevailing conditions.
The meeting between the leaderships of the Communist Party and the Kuomintang reaffirmed a shared political foundation. It also conveyed a clear warning that any attempt at secession would meet firm opposition from the Chinese population as a whole and would carry significant costs.
Peaceful reunification and national strategy
eaceful reunification is presented as both a collective aspiration and a structural requirement for what is described as the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. It is framed as a pathway to shared economic benefits and improved living standards for people in Taiwan within a broader national framework.
The argument also stresses its role in preventing war, preserving stability, and enabling joint prosperity. At a regional and global level, it is depicted as contributing to stability in the Asia-Pacific and demonstrating China’s role as a responsible major power.
Historical experience is cited to support this position. Periods characterised by adherence to the One China principle and the promotion of peaceful cross-Strait relations have coincided with stability and active exchanges. By contrast, deviations from this approach have led to tension and economic disruption.
A milestone with wider implications
The Xi–Zheng meeting is thus framed as another milestone in the trajectory of cross-Strait relations. It highlights what is described as the mainland’s consistent commitment to the principle that both sides form one family, alongside a stated willingness to pursue peaceful reunification with sincerity.
For the international community, the meeting is presented as an example of the principle that China’s internal affairs should be resolved domestically. It offers a contrast to conflict-driven approaches that have produced severe consequences in other regions.
The conclusion drawn is one of confidence. With sustained efforts on both sides of the Strait, the prospect of peaceful reunification is portrayed as increasingly attainable. The broader objective, the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, is framed as a long-term historical trajectory.
No external force, the argument suggests, will ultimately be able to obstruct this course.
Conclusion
Peaceful reunification is presented as beneficial in the present and significant for generations to come. The current moment is described as a critical historical opportunity. By deepening economic integration, expanding cultural exchange, and strengthening cooperation in social development, both sides of the Strait are encouraged to move towards closer family ties, more integrated industries, broader opportunities for younger generations, and greater shared prosperity.
The overarching message is clear. The opportunity should be seized in the interests of people on both sides of the Strait and in pursuit of a more stable and prosperous future linked to the wider project of national rejuvenation.
From Risk to Target: The New Reality for Journalists in War Zones
April 9, 2026, Joshua Scheer, https://scheerpost.com/2026/04/09/from-risk-to-target-the-new-reality-for-journalists-in-war-zones/
As Journalists Are Killed, the World Looks Away
We reported on one of these deaths yesterday. Today, there are more.
The killing of journalists—already at record levels—continues at a pace that is both staggering and deliberate. What was once framed as the “risk” of war has become something far more disturbing: a pattern in which reporters are not just caught in violence, but increasingly subject to it.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least three more journalists were killed by Israeli forces in a single day across Gaza and Lebanon—with at least one case identified as a targeted attack.
They were not abstractions. They had names:
- Mohammed Samir Washah, correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher
- Ghada Dayekh, presenter with Sawt Al-Farah
- Suzan Khalil, reporter and presenter on Al-Manar TV and Al-Nour Radio
“Journalists are being killed at a pace and scale that should shock the conscience of the world,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “These are not isolated tragedies; they reflect a systematic failure to uphold the most basic protections owed to civilian journalists under international law.”
The killings came amid a renewed wave of Israeli bombardment across Lebanon—more than 100 strikes launched within minutes, even as ceasefire announcements involving Iran, Israel, and the United States were still fresh.
This is the context in which journalism now exists.
Not as a profession protected under international law—but as a target operating within it.
Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza and Lebanon is not incidental. It is part of a broader assault on press freedom—one unfolding in real time, with little sign of restraint and even less accountability.
And as the numbers rise, so does the question:
How many more must die before the world treats this as more than collateral damage?
The most striking—and politically explosive—finding in the Committee to Protect Journalists report is this: Israel was responsible for roughly two-thirds of all journalist killings worldwide in 2025.
From Risk to Targeting
War has always been dangerous for reporters. But what distinguishes Israel’s conduct, according to CPJ’s findings, is the shift from incidental risk to alleged deliberate targeting.
- CPJ documented 47 cases of journalists killed specifically because of their work in 2025.
- Israel accounted for 81% of those targeted killings.
These are not cases where journalists were simply caught in crossfire. They are cases where evidence suggests reporters were identified, tracked, and struck—sometimes by precision tools like drones.
In Gaza, where foreign journalists are largely barred, local Palestinian reporters have become the world’s only witnesses. That visibility has made them indispensable—and, increasingly, vulnerable.
Silencing the Witnesses
The report highlights a disturbing pattern: journalists who documented alleged war crimes—such as attacks on hospitals or starvation—were among those targeted.
This raises a deeper question:
Is the killing of journalists functioning not just as violence, but as information control?
In modern war, narrative is power. Eliminating those who document reality doesn’t just remove individuals—it erases evidence in real time.
The Role of “Deadly Smears”
Another key mechanism identified by CPJ is the use of unsubstantiated accusations against journalists after—or even before—they are killed.
Israel has repeatedly labeled slain reporters as militants, often without presenting verifiable evidence.
This serves two purposes:
- Justification after the fact
- Preemptive delegitimization of journalists as civilian targets
In effect, it blurs the line between journalist and combatant—undermining one of the most fundamental protections in international law.
Total Impunity
Perhaps the most damning finding is not just the scale of killings, but the absence of consequences.
- No one has been held accountable for any targeted killing of a journalist by Israel since October 2023.
This is not just a failure of justice—it is a signal.
A signal that such actions can continue without legal or political cost.
A Precedent Beyond Gaza
What happens in Gaza does not stay in Gaza.
When a state can kill journalists at this scale without accountability, it sets a precedent that other governments—authoritarian or democratic—can follow. The erosion of press protections in one conflict zone becomes a global permission structure.
The Deadliest Year for the Press: How War—and Impunity—Are Killing Journalism
In a world already fractured by war, the truth itself is increasingly under fire.
A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists reveals a staggering reality: 2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded for journalists, with at least 129 media workers killed globally—a historic high that underscores a deepening crisis for press freedom worldwide.
But beyond the numbers lies a far more disturbing pattern.
According to CPJ, two-thirds of all journalist killings in 2025 were carried out by Israeli forces, marking not only a statistical anomaly but a structural shift in how modern warfare treats the press. In Gaza especially, Palestinian journalists bore the brunt of this violence, with the majority killed while documenting the realities of a war zone increasingly sealed off from the outside world.
This is not collateral damage—it is, in many documented cases, targeting.
CPJ identified 47 journalists deliberately killed for their work in 2025, the highest number of targeted killings in over a decade. Israel alone accounted for 81% of those cases, raising profound legal and moral questions about violations of international humanitarian law, which explicitly classifies journalists as civilians.
Even more alarming is what follows these killings: nothing.
The report finds that no one has been held accountable for any targeted killing of a journalist in 2025. This culture of impunity—long entrenched but now accelerating—has turned journalism into one of the most dangerous professions on Earth, particularly in conflict zones where truth itself is treated as a threat.
And the methods of killing are evolving.
Drone warfare, once a distant technological abstraction, has become a frontline tool in silencing reporters. CPJ documented a surge from just two journalist deaths by drone in 2023 to 39 in 2025, with the majority linked to Israeli military operations in Gaza. These are not indiscriminate weapons—they are capable of precision targeting, raising further concerns about intentionality.
Yet the crisis extends far beyond any single battlefield.
From Mexico to India, Sudan to the Philippines, journalists continue to be murdered for exposing corruption, documenting war crimes, or simply telling inconvenient truths. In many of these cases, weak legal systems and political complicity ensure that perpetrators are never brought to justice.
The result is a global chilling effect.
When journalists are killed without consequence, entire societies are pushed into darkness. Information disappears. Accountability collapses. Power operates unchecked.
As CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg warns, attacks on journalists are not isolated incidents—they are early warning signs of broader democratic decline.
And that decline is no longer creeping—it is accelerating.
What this report ultimately reveals is not just a record-breaking death toll, but a fundamental shift: the normalization of violence against the press as a tool of war and governance.
In such a world, the question is no longer whether journalism is under attack.
It is whether the truth can survive it.
Here is a list from The Guardian from last September. These are not just names—they are the people who risked everything to report what was happening on the ground in this conflict. We should remember them, hold onto them, speak them, because even now more are being killed—and more will be killed—as the genocidal empire pushes forward in Iran.
To remember them is to refuse their erasure. To say their names is to resist the silence that follows.
Ahmed Abu Aziz,Mohammed Salama,Moaz Abu Taha,Hussam al-Masri,Mariam Abu Dagga,Anas al-Sharif,Mohammed Noufal,Ibrahim Zaher,Mohammed Qreiqeh,Moamen Aliwa,Mohammad al-Khaldi,Ismail Abu Hatab,Moamen Abu AlOuf,Ahmad Qalaja,Ismail Baddah,Suleiman Hajjaj,Hassan Abu Warda,Hassan Samour,Ahmed al-Helou,Yahya Sobeih,Noureddine Abdo,Fatma Hassouna,Hilmi al-Faqaawi,Ahmed Mansour,Mohammed Mansour,Hossam Shabat,Mahmoud Islim al-Basos,Ahmed al-Shayyah,Ahmed Abu al-Rous,Mohammed al-Talmas,Saed Abu Nabhan,Omar al-Dirawi,Areej Shaheen,Hassan al-Qishawi,Ayman al-Gedi,Faisal Abu al-Qumsan,Mohammed al-Ladaa,Fadi Hassouna,Ibrahim Sheikh Ali,Mohammed al-Sharafi,Ahmed al-Louh,Mohammed al-Qrinawi,Mohammed Balousha,Iman al-Shanti,Maisara Ahmed Salah,Mamdouh Qanita,Ahmed Abu Sharia,Mahdi al-Mamluk,Ahmed Abu Skheil,Zahraa Abu Skheil,Bilal Rajab,Amr Abu Odeh,Saed Radwan,Nadia Emad al-Sayed,Haneen Baroud,Tareq AlSalhi,Mohammed al-Tanani,AlHassan Hamad,Abdul Rahman Bahr,Nour Abu Oweimer,Wafa al-Udaini,Mohammed Abed Rabbo,Hussam al-Dabbaka,Hamza Murtaja,Ibrahim Muhareb,Tamim Abu Muammar,Mohammed Issa Abu Saada,Rami al-Refee,Ismail al-Ghoul,Mohammed Abu Daqqa,Mohammed Abu Jasser,Mohamed Meshmesh,Mohamed Manhal Abu Armana,Amjad Juhjouh,Wafaa Abu Dabaan,Rizq Abu Shakian,Saadi Madoukh,Mohammed al-Sakani,Mohammed Abu Sharia,Rasheed Albably,Ola Al Dahdouh,Mahmoud Juhjouh,Bahaaddine Yassine,Mustafa Ayyad,Salem Abu Toyour,Ibrahim al-Gharbawi,Ayman al-Gharbawi,Mohammed Bassam al-Jamal,Mustafa Bahr,Mohamed Adel Abu Skheil,Saher Akram Rayan,Mohamed el Sayed Abu Skheil,Tarek El Sayed Abu Skheil,Mohamed el-Reefi,Abdul Rahman Saima,Muhammad Salama,Mohamed Yaghi,Zayd Abu Zayed,Ayman al-Rafati,Angam Ahmad Edwan,Alaa al-Hams,Yasser Mamdouh el-Fady,Nafez Abdel Jawad,Rizq al-Gharabli,Mohammed Atallah,Tariq al-Maidna,Iyad el-Ruwagh,Yazan al-Zuweidi,Mohamed Jamal Sobhi al-Thalathini,Ahmed Bdeir,Shareef Okasha,Heba al-Abadla,Abdallah Iyad Breis,Mustafa Thuraya,Hamza al-Dahdouh,Akram ElShafie,Jabr Abu Hadrous,Ahmed Khaireddine,Ahmad Jamal al-Madhoun,Mohamad al-Iff,Mohamed Azzaytouniyah,Mohamed Naser Abu Huwaidi,Mohamed Khalifeh,Adel Zorob,Abdallah Alwan,Haneen Kashtan,Assem Kamal Moussa,Samer Abu Daqqa,Ola Atallah,Duaa Jabbour,Shaima el-Gazzar,Hamada al-Yaziji,Hassan Farajallah,Abdullah Darwish,Montaser al-Sawaf,Adham Hassouna,Marwan al-Sawaf,Mostafa Bakeer,Mohamed Mouin Ayyash,Mohamed Nabil al-Zaq,Assem al-Barsh,Jamal Mohamed Haniyeh,Ayat Khadoura,Bilal Jadallah,Mossab Ashour,Sari Mansour,Mostafa al-Sawaf,Hassouneh Salim,Abdel Rahman al-Tanani,Amal Zohud,Abdelhalim Awad,Amro Salah Abu Hayah,Yacoup al-Borsh,Moussa al-Borsh,Ahmed al-Qara,Yahya Abu Manih,Mohamed Abu Hassira,Mohamad al-Bayyari,Mohammed Abu Hatab,Majd Fadl Arandas,Iyad Matar,Imad al-Wahidi,Majed Kashko,Nazmi al-Nadim,Yasser Abu Namous,Duaa Sharaf,Jamal al-Faqaawi,Saed al-Halabi,Ahmed Abu Mhadi,Tasneem Bkheet,Ibrahim Marzouq,Mohammed Imad Labad,Roshdi Sarraj,Mohammed Ali,Khalil Abu Aathra,Sameeh al-Nady,Issam Bhar,Mohammad Balousha,Abdulhadi Habib,Yousef Maher Dawas,Salam Mema,Husam Mubarak,Ahmed Shehab,Hisham Alnwajha,Mohammed Sobh,Saeed al-Taweel,Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi,Mohammad Jarghoun,Mohammed al-Salhi
Finland’s plan to bury spent nuclear waste carries risk to future generations.
Overall, the risks associated with nuclear waste repositories will mainly affect “future generations,”
“…………………After decades of construction, the world’s first facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel is set to begin operations in Finland, becoming a final resting place for tons of dangerous radioactive waste.
Construction of Onkalo – which means “cave” in Finnish – began on the west coast in 2004. It sits on the secluded island of Olkiluoto, in a dense wooded area. The closest town is Eurajoki, about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) inland, which is home to about 9,000 people. Many work at the nuclear power plant or storage facility.
The 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) project could soon become operational, with authorities expected to grant a license within months.
The Associated Press took a tour of the facilities where humans soon will not be allowed to tread.
Pere said the site – near three of Finland´s five nuclear reactors – was chosen for its migmatite-gneiss bedrock, which is known for its high stability and low risk of earthquakes.
“It´s the isolation from civilization and mankind on the surface that´s important,” he said, standing in a darkened disposal tunnel, soon to be sealed from humanity. “We can dispose of the waste more safely than by storing it in facilities located on the ground.”
Using unmanned machinery at a nearby encapsulation plant, radioactive rods will be sealed in copper canisters and then buried deep in tunnels over 400 meters underground, then packed in with “buffer” layers of water-absorbing bentonite clay.
Posiva, the company responsible for the long-term management of Finland’s spent nuclear fuels, says Onkalo can store 6,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel.
The final disposal canisters are designed to remain sealed “long enough for the radioactivity of spent fuel to decrease to a level not harmful to the environment,” it said………………………………….
Posiva estimate it will take hundreds of thousands of years before the radioactivity falls to normal, background levels.
According to a 2022 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, almost 400,000 tons of spent fuel have been produced globally since the 1950s, with two-thirds remaining in temporary storage and one third being recycled in a complex process.
The world´s spent nuclear fuel is currently temporarily stored inside spent nuclear fuel pools at individual reactors and at dry cask storage sites above ground.
There is currently no permanent underground disposal facility for commercial nuclear waste operational anywhere in the world. Sweden began building a repository in Forsmark – about 150 kilometers north of Stockholm – last year, but it´s not expected to open until the late 2030s. France´s Cigéo project is yet to begin construction and has seen opposition.
The Onkalo facility is expected to operate until the 2120s, when it will be permanently sealed.
But Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an American nonprofit organization, warned that geologic disposal of nuclear waste is still fraught with “uncertainties.”
“My view of nuclear waste disposal is that there´s no good option, but it´s important to find the least bad option, and geologic disposal in general is going to be the least bad option among a range of, you know, bad options,” he said.
Lyman said that the copper canisters that contain the spent nuclear fuel will eventually corrode, adding that there are different scientific opinions about how fast that could happen.
“The hope is that is such a slow process that most of the radioactive material will have decayed away by then. But again, there are uncertainties,” he said.
Still, Lyman said that permanently storing spent nuclear fuel deep underground is better than “leaving it on the surface of the Earth forever,” because nuclear material kept above ground “is vulnerable to sabotage.”
“For many decades after spent fuel is discharged from a reactor, it´s so radioactive that it makes transporting and reprocessing very difficult,” Lyman said. But eventually the main radioactive component will decay, he added, making it less risky to handle.
“So over time the plutonium becomes more accessible either to terrorists or to a country that may want to use it,” he said, adding that the only way a terrorist — or a state — could theoretically use the material for a nuclear bomb would be if they had “an off-site reprocessing capability.”
During reprocessing, spent nuclear fuel is separated to recover uranium and plutonium to recycle it for use in new fuel. The process also carries proliferation risks because the separated plutonium could potentially be diverted to build a nuclear weapon.
Overall, the risks associated with nuclear waste repositories will mainly affect “future generations,” Lyman concluded.
To deal with this challenge, an interdisciplinary field of study called nuclear semiotics has been established that looks into developing warning signs about nuclear waste repositories that can be understood by humans 10,000 years from now – or much longer given that it takes hundreds of thousands of years before nuclear waste is no longer dangerous.
For reference: the first humans lived around 300,000 years ago. The earliest writing system was developed in Mesopotamia roughly 5,200 to 5,400 years ago. Stonehenge in Britain is around 5,000 years old, while the Giza pyramids in Egypt are approximately 4,500 years old……………………………………………………….. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-15717853/Finlands-plan-bury-spent-nuclear-waste-carries-risk-future-generations.html
Trump’s vaunted 14 day ceasefire barely lasted 14 hours
Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL, Apr 9 2026
Israel, not happy that Trump abandoned their lust to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival, blew up the two week ceasefire Pakistan negotiated Tuesday.
How? By launching a massive bombing campaign on Beirut Lebanon killing over 200 and injuring over 500. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “The two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” Trump called it “a separate skirmish. Yeah, they were not included in the deal, because of Hezbollah. Veep Vance called Iran’s claim the ceasefire included Israeli attacks on Lebanon “a misunderstanding.”
Netanyahu, Trump and Vance all lied as Pakistan’s Prime Minister , Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated the ceasefire deal, said it includes Lebanon. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, didn’t mince words in blasting US, Israeli perfidy upending the ceasefire “The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” He noted that President Trump announced the ceasefire by stating Iran’s 10 point proposal “was a good basis for negotiations.” Next day Trump had his press spokesperson Caroline Leveatt proclaim that Trump had the proposal “throne in the garbage.”
As a result Israel’s grisly bombardment on Beirut with Trump’s support and death weapons made a mockery of the ceasefire on Day One. Iran has announced the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed till the ceasefire is truly implemented. The world economy will continue to head downward. Thousands will suffer and die. Vance and the two amateur diplomates Jarad Kushner and Steve Witkoff he’s supervising, may fine empty Iranian chairs at the planed ceasefire negotiations in Pakistan tomorrow.
And the Big Fool in the White House, like the crazed captain demanding his troops continue crossing the impassable Big Muddy, will bellow ‘Push on.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXnJVkEX8O4&t=3s
Trump pivots from “destroying Iranian civilization” to complete surrender in one day
Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL , Apr 8, 2026, https://theaimn.net/trump-pivots-from-destroying-iranian-civilization-to-complete-surrender-in-one-day/
Even a mentally degraded Donald Trump had to face reality. The US lost the war intended to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival to Israel in the region.
He cancelled his announced war crimes to “destroy Iranian civilization” and agreed to a two week ceasefire as a prelude for negotiating permanent peace based on Iran’s 10 point peace plan. Note that is not Trump’s 15 point peace plan which would have given Trump complete victory.
Here’s some of what Trump’s ceasefire acknowledges.
A guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again.
A permanent end to the war, not just a ceasefire.
An end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon and against Iranian allies.
The lifting of all US sanctions on Iran.
Iran agreeing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
US to leave the Middle East
End to US sanctions on Iran and release of frozen Iranian assets
In his delusional state, Trump announced the cease fire due to his astonishing claim his “war has already met and all Military objectives, and we are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning long term PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”
Iran announced the ceasefire “does not signify the termination of the war. Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force,”
Major hurtles must be overcome before the ceasefire holds and genuine peace can be negotiated. Israel is horrified by this development upending their 4 decade lust to destroy its Iranian hegemonic rival. It’s reported they are still bombing Iran and Iran is retaliating. No keen observer is optimistic the ceasefire will hold.
But it is not likely the US, clearly defeated in every make up war aim they floated to justify criminal war that killed thousands, damaged every US base in the region, brought the worst damage to Israel in its 78 years, and is crushing the world economy, can ever restart this deranged madness.
But with Trump in charge…you can never say never.
Tony Blair’s latest deceit-riddled column vilifies the UK left to justify genocide
Britain former PM shows there’s no price to be paid for engineering mass slaughter in the service of western empire. Which is why those crimes not only continue, but grow in scale
Jonathan Cook, Apr 08, 2026
Tony Blair, the man who led Britain into a disastrous and illegal war on Iraq more than 20 years ago based on false information, is still very much a sought-after commentator in the UK media.
His regular political pronouncements are treated as pearls of wisdom; his columns as consequential insights from a globe-striding elder statesman.
Even his leading role on Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the US president’s panel of autocrats seeking to elbow the United Nations – and international law – off the world stage, appears to have done little to dent his claim to moral authority.
Blair, more than anybody, illustrates the capacity of western leaders – with the help of a complicit establishment media – to rewrite their criminal past and escape accountability in perpetuity.
The former British prime minister’s latest political intervention is a lengthy, and typically repugnant, article published by the Sunday Times newspaper. It effectively blames “the left” for an arson attack last month on four ambulances owned by a Jewish charity in London.
No, Blair hasn’t unearthed any startling new information tying leftwingers to the attack. His article is a pure disinformation – propaganda designed to malign those critical of Israel.
More on that in a moment.
But as a prelude, let us note that there are many terrible things going on in the world right now that might be considered more pressing for Blair to write about than the torching of a handful of ambulances: whether it be a genocide in Gaza – where Israel destroyed not just four ambulances but the enclave’s entire health sector – or an illegal, joint US-Israeli war on Iran that has similarly targeted medical centres and other civilian infrastructure.
Twisted logic
Blair once served as a Middle East envoy to an international body known as the Quartet. In that role, he spent several years shuttling futilely between his eponymous institute in London and Israel and the Palestinian territories.
There are, however, two self-evident reasons why Blair may have been averse to dedicating his latest column to the catastrophes unfolding in the Middle East.
First, because his close allies – the leaders of the US and Israel – are indisputably the ones committing the crimes of genocide and aggression respectively in Gaza and Iran.
And second, because Blair was himself responsible for launching, alongside the US, a war of aggression on Iraq in 2003.
But it is not just that Blair is in no position to moralise on matters of the utmost global importance.
He has made it his primary duty in public life to excuse the West’s supreme crimes – crimes that, were there meaningful accountability for western leaders, would necessitate that he stand trial at the international war crimes court in the Hague.
That is the context for understanding both why Blair penned his column on the arson attack in London and the twisted logic that underpins his argument in that article.
Dirty war
Anyone who has studied Blair’s back-catalogue of opinion pieces will hardly be surprised by the Sunday Times headline: “We must end left’s unholy alliance with the Islamists.”
Or its subhead: “Parts of the left cast Jewish communities as supporters of Israel and Jews become ‘fair game’.”
Although the article ostensibly concerns an arson attack on a Jewish community ambulance service in London, Blair has much larger – carefully veiled – ambitions.
This is his latest manoeuvre in a dirty war to silence and crush Britain’s progressive left – waged by those, like Blair, who duplicitiously claim both to belong to that left and to serve as its natural leaders.
Blair is central to a cabal of so-called Atlanticists who view the world in Manichean terms, as “a clash of civilisations” between a supposedly superior, enlightened Judeo-Christian West, led by the US, and a backward, primitive Islamic East, now, it seems, led de facto by Iran.
Israel is presented as a first line of defence against this dangerous “Muslim” enemy.
Everything for Blair is seen through this racist prism.
He would sound more obviously like some Victorian, pith-helmeted empire-builder were it not for the fact that his fundamental, and fundamentalist, worldview continues to be shared by the entire UK ruling class, including the billionaire-owned media and the main political parties.
And for good reason. A Britain belonging to a “superior” West can openly aid Israel’s genocidal campaign of carpet-bombing and starvation in Gaza, and loan air bases to assist the US in its illegal war of aggression on Iran, and still pretend to itself that this is all being done “defensively”.
Christendom is still, apparently, “defending” itself against the rampaging barbarian hordes.
Achilles’ heel
In fact, Blair’s column in the Sunday Times should be seen as another front in a continuing war being waged by British prime minister Keir Starmer – a disciple of Blair – on the Corbynite left.
Their joint aim is to shepherd back into the Atlanticist fold a Labour party that supposedly lost its way under Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn’s crime was to have taken Labour towards internationalism – and the prioritising of human rights for all, not just westerners. That project necessarily entailed treating British Muslims as an integral part of British society, no less than British Jews.
Corbyn’s politics were an ideological assault on – and continue to pose a threat to – the Blair-Starmer worldview.
In other words, Blair’s article is part of a running battle – as the British establishment’s claim to moral authority is steadily eroded by its collusion in Israeli and US crimes – to prevent the progressive left ever reviving its political fortunes.
With the help of the Israel lobby, Blair and his ilk believe they have identified the achilles’ heel of a British left determined to highlight a brutal US-led western imperialism and its inherent hypocrisies.
The goal is to crop out the left’s increasingly persuasive critique of US imperialism and zoom in instead on the left’s parallel criticisms of Israel: its apartheid rule over Palestinians, its ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, and its genocidal campaign of destruction in Gaza.
Blair wishes to wave all this away, as if wielding a magic wand, by labelling it as “antisemitism”.
After that move worked so successfully in fatally wounding Corbyn as Labour leader, Blair and Starmer assume the same smear can be repurposed more generally – in this case, to implicate an undefined “left” over the torching of a handful of ambulances.
It goes without saying, that in prioritising the suppression of the left’s critiques of western imperialism, Blair and Starmer are leaving the door wide open to a resurgence by the far-right – which indeed is antisemitic.
That should serve as a reminder that Blair, Starmer and the rest of the British establishment have no real concern for the welfare of the Jewish community they profess to be protecting.
If the Jewish community turns out to be collateral damage in their war on the left, then so be it.
‘New antisemitism’
In the article itself, Blair argues that a so-called left-wing antisemitism “is a pernicious and novel development in progressive politics: the alliance with Islamists”.
First, notice the sleight of hand. British Muslims who, quite reasonably, are deeply critical of Israel because its army has been committing for decades war crimes with impunity against their extended families are reduced here simply to “Islamists”.
Blair is doing to Muslims precisely what he accuses – falsely – the left of doing to Jews. He is conflating Muslims, a religious group, with Islamists, champions of an extreme political ideology…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Blair appears to be excusing Israel’s starvation of the 2.3 million people of Gaza, half of them children.
According to Blair, no one, not even the progressive left, should be allowed to criticise an Israeli siege that has blocked food, water, fuel and medicines to Gaza – unless they first justify that blockade as essential to Israel’s “security”.
Again, maybe he needs to have a word with the judges of the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Because they are seeking Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, on charges of crimes against humanity over his efforts to starve Gaza’s population……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
What Blair wants is for the left to be utterly silenced so that its protests do not rouse uncomfortable twinges of guilt forcibly reminding him that long ago he became a soulless creature of the West’s war machine.
It is not just that Blair has faced no consequences for his criminal undertaking in Iraq. He has instead become fabulously wealthy, venerated by western establishments, and an oracle for an equally complicit, billionaire-owned media…………………………… https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/blairs-latest-deceit-riddled-column
Making London councils allies in the campaign to oppose Britain’s nuclear expansion
As weapons return to Suffolk and defence spending soars, London CND is pressing local candidates to oppose nuclear expansion and support the UN ban treaty. SALLY SPIERS explains.
LONDON Region CND has launched a campaign to make London nuclear weapon-free. There are compelling reasons for local council candidates to oppose the expansion of Britain’s nuclear weapons by promising to sign up to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
US nuclear weapons have returned to Britain for the first time since their complete removal in 2008. These weapons have been sited at US air base Lakenheath in Suffolk, approximately 75 miles from London. The majority of voters are opposed to US nuclear weapons being stationed in the UK, according to a 2025 YouGov poll.
In addition, Keir Starmer has announced Britain is buying 12 nuclear-capable jets (F-35As) from the United States. These are equipped to carry and fire the same nuclear weapons that are based at Lakenheath.
These weapons will not in any way be an independent nuclear deterrent. The US president must authorise the use of these missiles. Buying them and having them on our territory meshes us even deeper into US foreign policy.
We have all witnessed President Donald Trump threatening Nato countries to get them to enter a crazy illegal war of his making. US foreign policy is aggressive, expansionist, threatening to its allies and it is highly unpopular with British people.
We cannot believe for one minute these jets and weapons will protect the security of the people of these islands.
Given the proximity to London, it seems more likely they actually constitute a threat to Londoners from either attack or accident. Councils have a duty to ensure their residents are safe. Opposing Britain’s nuclear expansion and supporting the TPNW is an obvious first step in fulfilling this duty.
And then there’s the cost. The nuclear capable jets that Britain is buying are estimated to cost £80 million each, almost £1 billion in total. When he first announced the increased spending on defence, John Healey argued the money would secure British high-skilled jobs.
Whether you are convinced by this argument or not, it is clear that this £1bn is going to secure high-skills jobs in Indianapolis where the jets will be built, not Britain.
LONDON Region CND has launched a campaign to make London nuclear weapon-free. There are compelling reasons for local council candidates to oppose the expansion of Britain’s nuclear weapons by promising to sign up to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
US nuclear weapons have returned to Britain for the first time since their complete removal in 2008. These weapons have been sited at US air base Lakenheath in Suffolk, approximately 75 miles from London. The majority of voters are opposed to US nuclear weapons being stationed in the UK, according to a 2025 YouGov poll.
In addition, Keir Starmer has announced Britain is buying 12 nuclear-capable jets (F-35As) from the United States. These are equipped to carry and fire the same nuclear weapons that are based at Lakenheath.
These weapons will not in any way be an independent nuclear deterrent. The US president must authorise the use of these missiles. Buying them and having them on our territory meshes us even deeper into US foreign policy.
We have all witnessed President Donald Trump threatening Nato countries to get them to enter a crazy illegal war of his making. US foreign policy is aggressive, expansionist, threatening to its allies and it is highly unpopular with British people.
We cannot believe for one minute these jets and weapons will protect the security of the people of these islands.
Given the proximity to London, it seems more likely they actually constitute a threat to Londoners from either attack or accident. Councils have a duty to ensure their residents are safe. Opposing Britain’s nuclear expansion and supporting the TPNW is an obvious first step in fulfilling this duty.
And then there’s the cost. The nuclear capable jets that Britain is buying are estimated to cost £80 million each, almost £1 billion in total. When he first announced the increased spending on defence, John Healey argued the money would secure British high-skilled jobs.
Whether you are convinced by this argument or not, it is clear that this £1bn is going to secure high-skills jobs in Indianapolis where the jets will be built, not Britain.
In mid-March, London Councils which speaks for all London authorities, described the financial situation of our councils as being “extremely challenging.” They “are grappling with a £1bn budget shortfall this year.”
How can prospective councillors not question the expenditure on nuclear-capable jets? There cannot be a single council in this country that has the resources to mend potholes effectively. Our councils need that money to provide basic services that keep the capital functioning.
Incredibly, neither decision — bringing US nukes back nor expanding our own nuclear capabilities — has been debated in Parliament. War is most definitely on people’s minds. Last year, voters identified defence as the fourth-most important concern for them.
The only way this concern seems to be discussed is in terms of increased spending on defence. But these important matters could be discussed in council chambers if councillors were willing to consider signing up to the TPNW or even making their mayors a mayor for peace.
This would send an important message to the government that is entirely in line with the view of the majority of the British public.
There is movement. It seems likely Green candidates will support the TPNW at council level. Labour candidates must be feeling the burn from the Greens and other parties. Supporting the TPNW will be a popular move with voters and Labour candidates would be foolish to ignore it.
London CND is asking voters to write to their council candidates to urge them to sign their support for the TPNW.
Councils and individual councillors can sign the cities pledge of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, the authors of the TPNW.
Mayors can sign up to mayors for peace. Cities and mayors throughout the world, and particularly Europe, have already signed. What a coup it would be for peace if London and London Councils were to sign.
Further information on how to support the London CND campaign is available on the London CND website Make London Nuclear Free Campaign, “London’s TPNW Pledge” www.londoncnd.org.
Sally Spiers is vice-chair of London CND.
The Iranian people achieved decisive victory against America’s criminal war on them
Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL, 10 Apr 26, https://theaimn.net/the-iranian-people-achieved-decisive-victory-against-americas-criminal-war-on-them/
The Chicago Tribune’s editorial ‘There has been no victory yet for the Iranian people’ represents an astonishing betrayal of the urgent need to condemn President’s criminal war on Iran. The Trib’s focus is not on the 42,000 Iranian buildings damaged or destroyed, of which 36,000 were residential homes. The No mention of the school bombed killing over 150 little girls, among over 3,000 dead Iranians Trump murdered in his senseless war. Absent was any mention the US began the war with a heinous war crime, greenlighting Israel’s assassinating Iranian ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Stating the Trib was “relieved” Trump didn’t kill off Iranian civilization as threatened, a genocidal war crime, without the most urgent of condemnations is deplorable.
The Trib states both the US and Iran declaring victory is “hardly surprising.” That certainly applies to Trump’s America which can never admit defeat, but not Iran. They punched back with astonishing effectiveness. Their tens of thousands of well-hidden missiles shot down US planes, sent aircraft carriers scurrying beyond their range, badly damaged US Gulf States bases requiring thousands of US personnel to be relocated to hotels.
Result? Trump cried uncle and entered into a tenuous ceasefire without achieving a single of the shifting war objectives.
Worse yet? The US war failure shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off a fifth of the worldwide oil supply. This has sent the world economy teetering toward recession, if not depression.
Trump’s acceptance of Iran’ s 10 point ceasefire plan as a basis for upcoming negotiations verifies Trump’s catastrophic loss. It requires end to US criminal war with no further attacks on Iran, Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities and defensive missile arsenal. US to leave the Middle East. US to end all sanctions on Iran. US to pay reparations for war damage.
Most disappointing in the Trib’s Iran war editorial is regurgitating Trump’s “three justifiable reasons….for this war” All three are nonsense. Did it occur to the Trib Editorial Board that if those reasons were truly justifiable, the Trib should be encouraging Trump to press on to total victory?
The editorial concludes “that inevitably leads us to an accounting that little has been achieved. A hollow victory at a heavy price.” Indeed, nothing was achieved but senseless death and destruction, the US possibly on the way out of the region, and the world economy in jeopardy from the US handing over the Strait of Hormuz to an emboldened and soon to be prosperous Iran.
Sure sounds like a resounding Iranian victory and US loss to this observer.
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