A Philadelphia company’s obscured support for killing Palestinians with autonomous flying bombs
Ghost and RoboTiCan were quick to capitalize on the Israeli invasion of Gaza, with Ghost’s Vision 60 robot dogs being deployed into Gazan tunnels
Philadelphia’s Ghost Robotics elevated its exclusive partnership with the Israeli military drone manufacturer RoboTiCan as the company began advertising its usage for bombing indoor Palestinians.
Jack Poulson, Oct 09, 2025, https://jackpoulson.substack.com/p/ghost-robotics-robotican-gaza-lethal-reyburn?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1269175&post_id=175669807&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=8cf96&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
It was a simple idea. Enclose the left and right sides of a quadcopter drone with 12-inch wireframe wheels to form a nearly 16-inch-long cylinder. In addition to providing the ability to switch between flying and rolling across the floors of houses and tunnels, the surrounding cage would further act as a sort of bumper to prevent the drone’s rotors from hitting walls in cramped spaces.
The Omer, Israel-based manufacturer RoboTiCan labeled the resulting product a ‘Rooster’ and pronounced it “the ultimate indoor drone system.” A February 2023 promotional video made explicit the driving use case for the product, showing a first-person view of the Rooster alternating between rolling and flying through a set of war-torn buildings, including by passing a brick wall graffitied with the slogan “FREE PALESTINE.”
Despite an initial pretense of nonlethality, the Rooster drones are now advertised as supporting 300 gram explosive payloads, and the flagship customers — beyond the Israeli military — include the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The result is an industrialized nation’s analogue of urban suicide bombers, though the weapons industry prefers the sanitized label of ‘loitering munition’.
The University of Pennsylvania spin-out Ghost Robotics — widely known as the weaponized competitor to Boston Dynamics — recently began advertising itself as the exclusive reseller of the Rooster in the United States. The move follows Ghost pitching its robots to U.S. commandos, including through a polished portrayal of its flagship four-legged ‘Vision 60’ robot executing two humans with attached SigSauer rifles. The U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division similarly experimented with attaching M16 rifles to the Vision 60 robots as part of Operation Hard Kill on August 1, 2024.
Adding further international complexity to the partnership between RoboTiCan and Ghost, the South Korean weapons manufacturer LIG Nex1 bought a 60% stake in Ghost for $240 million last year, establishing a beachhead in the United States for exporting its products. The majority control followed a separate contract between the Philadelphia-based Ghost and the South Korean company Ghost Robotics Technology (GRT), with GRT both serving as a reseller of the Vision 60 within Korea and as an intermediary for Vision 60 parts manufactured by its close affiliate and investee, Korea Robot Manufacturing Co. (KRM).
Following the Hamas raid of Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military responded with unprecedented death and destruction, killing at least 67,074 and injuring at least 168,716 of the roughly two million Palestinians in Gaza prior to Wednesday’s nominal ceasefire deal. Alongside the mass murder — including of at least 20,000 children — Israeli soldiers became infamous for posting photos of themselves modeling the clothing of Palestinian women whose homes had been assaulted. Israeli commandos also openly raided humanitarian flotillas bound for Gaza, brazenly portraying their kidnappings of peaceful human rights activists as counter-terrorism.
Ghost and RoboTiCan were quick to capitalize on the Israeli invasion of Gaza, with Ghost’s Vision 60 robot dogs being deployed into Gazan tunnels as a sort of aircraft carrier for the RoboTiCan Roosters. Promotional photos of the Rooster docked on top of the Ghost Vision 60 robot were widely published in the international press by early 2024, but RoboTiCan had begun promoting the usage of Vision 60 robots in Gaza by the end of 2023, including with footage of the robots firing assault rifles.
The Gazan use cases for the robotic duo were reported almost universally as surveillance and reconnaissance, despite RoboTiCan in December 2023 promoting its Channel 13 coverage with the headline “A robot in the Hamas tunnels: the electric dog that can neutralize charges and shoot.” RoboTiCan last month publicly repositioned the Rooster as a tool for lethal urban warfare, with CEO Hagai Balshai stating that the Rooster was “bringing precision and autonomy to environments that were previously off-limits to loitering munitions,” adding that, “Forces can now conduct surgical strikes inside structures.”
Ghost’s explicit promotion of its company as the exclusive U.S. reseller of the Rooster has come since the product’s lethal reorientation. Ghost’s nominally nonviolent support for the Israeli invasion of Gaza through RoboTiCan had already led to sustained protests against the company, including Ghost CEO and UPenn PhD Gavin Kenneally having the front door of his Fairmount townhome spraypainted with the word ‘MURDERER’ in the early morning of July 9, 2024, according to an apparent confession on the Philly Anti-Capitalist website.
A subsequent post to the same website the following October detailed both another defacement of Dr. Kenneally’s home — allegedly writing “Funded By Genocide” across his garage and smashing his windows— as well as the spraypainting of “NO KILLER TECH” across Ghost’s then-headquarters within UPenn’s innovation center. “Ghost Robotics AI-enabled machine-gun-armed robot dogs have been used against Palestinians in Gaza,” stated the explanation.
Ghost Robotics appears to have attempted to prevent further protests of its facilities by hiding its headquarters. A January 22 press release stated that the firm had “signed a lease and relocated from Pennovation Works to a new, larger location in Philadelphia, PA.” But Ghost remained tight-lipped about where this “larger location” would be, with the firm’s LinkedIn profile and corporate records continuing to list the Pennovation Works address.
But a recently public, $120,000 agreement for Ghost to sell the U.S. Army Research Laboratory two of its Vision 60 robots lists a new address for the company. As recently as February, Ghost sold the U.S. Army’s Armaments Center a $3.2 million “Wolfpack” of Vision 60 robots through its old Pennovation Works address. Ghost’s newest contract instead lists its headquarters as Apartment 170 within the refurbished former central factory of the Pep Boys auto services company in the northwest Philadelphia region of Bala Cynwyd.
Acquired by Icahn Enterprises in 2016, Pep Boys ceased operations at the factory by early 2021, with investors turning what is now known as the Reyburn Manufacturing Company Building into a beautiful five-story condominium, complete with a rooftop pool and a podcasting studio.
With its loft-style apartments only located on the second through fifth floors, the Reyburn’s first-floor addresses are assigned to a detached, single-story partitioned warehouse on the north side of the building, with addresses counting down as you move north. The nonprofit Share Food Program occupies a section just north of a pink sign reading ‘106’, while the section assigned to Ghost remains unadorned.
Despite months of Ghost Robotics and its parent company refusing to respond to questions about the location of the company’s new headquarters, apparent confirmation came three weeks after the firm’s latest contract to sell the U.S. Army two Vision 60 robots. According to U.S. Customs records, a 740 kilogram “40 Foot General Purpose Container” with three motors from Korea Robot Manufacturing arrived at Ghost’s Suite 107 at the Reyburn Building on July 30, 2025.Subscribe
Israel Attacks Another Group of Civilian Ships Bound for Gaza
Israeli forces have once again targeted civilian vessels sailing to Gaza, aiming to break the blockade and deliver medical supplies.
October 08, 2025 by Ana Vračar, https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/10/08/israel-attacks-another-group-of-civilian-ships-bound-for-gaza/
In a new act of state terrorism, Israel has assaulted vessels from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and the Thousand Madleens to Gaza initiative in international waters, abducting more than 140 crew members. The attack comes barely a week after Israeli armed forces targeted the Global Sumud Flotilla, another civilian fleet sailing to break the illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver essential supplies.
“Unarmed crew aboard, including doctors, journalists, and elected officials, have been abducted, as well as the vital aid worth over USD 110,000 in medicines, respiratory equipment, and nutritional supplies that were destined for Gaza’s starving hospitals,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition stated soon after the event.
The latest mission to open a humanitarian corridor to Gaza by sea was specific considering that most of its crew consisted of health and media workers, two groups continuously targeted by Israeli forces during the genocide in Gaza. Nurse Stefano Argerio, speaking shortly before his abduction, emphasized the peaceful and civilian character of the initiative. “It’s a humanitarian, medical mission,” he told Public Services International (PSI), stressing that obstructing it would only add to Israel’s long list of crimes.
Aboard the “Conscience”, the fleet’s largest vessel, was Belgian physician Hanne Bosselaers of Medics for the People (MPLP-GVHV), who is also active in the People’s Health Movement (PHM). Having participated in preparations for the Global Sumud Flotilla, she joined this mission to help keep global attention on Gaza. “The Israeli armed forces want to totally annihilate it [Gaza], and they’re accelerating the process,” Bosselaers told the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB–PVDA). “Even if our media no longer shows it, we absolutely must keep our eyes on it. Humanity must heed the call of the Palestinians to stop the genocide.”
Bosselaers, who previously volunteered in Gaza, established contact with staff from the Awda Association while en route. “[They] told us live about how they experience genocide in their hospitals and health centers,” she said. “They have great confidence in our arrival and it gives them hope and courage to see that caregivers around the world are mobilizing, that they are not forgotten.”
Members of the Freedom Flotilla and Thousand Madleens to Gaza initiatives anticipated the risk of Israeli attacks, especially after the assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla. Yet, instead of retreating, they called for even stronger mobilization from the medical community in support of Gaza’s health workers and the flotillas’ missions. “We know that what can happen to us is still only a fraction of what Palestinians have endured every day for 77 years,” Bosselaers said. “We hope that seeing our rights violated as white Europeans might amplify the message and draw attention to the Palestinians.”
Pharmacist Aziz Rhali among GSF crew still held by Israel
As of the morning of October 8, six members of the Global Sumud Flotilla remain imprisoned in Israel: Abdeladim Bendraoui and Aziz Rhali from Morocco; Christoforos Schuff O’Moore, Eline Norli, and Samuel Rostol from Norway; and Reyes Rigo Cervilla from Spain.
Before departure, Rhali, a pharmacist and long-time human rights defender, highlighted the importance of global solidarity among health professionals. “We must also emphasize the role of Gaza’s healthcare workers, who remain on the front line of resistance,” he said. “Despite everything, they stay, they work, they do their best to help the population … They need us, and we need them. Just as lawyers are pursuing justice through the courts – the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court – our role, as health workers, is to stand with our Palestinian colleagues. We can do that directly, by being on the ground with them.”
PHM Global Coordinator Román Vega told People’s Health Dispatch that Rhali had been struggling for months to reach Gaza and support his colleagues and patients. Instead of being allowed to provide essential care, “he was abducted by the genocidal Israeli regime,” Vega said. “We are deeply concerned for his safety, especially after hearing of the abuse suffered by members of the flotilla who have returned home. We are calling for his immediate release and for the protection of his life and rights.”
Russian Nuke Plant Latest To Suffer War-Inflicted Damage
The Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant was damaged in a string of incidents at four facilities in the region over the past two weeks.
Howard Altman, Oct 7, 2025, https://www.twz.com/news-features/russian-nuke-plant-latest-to-suffer-war-inflicted-damage
ussia’s atomic energy agency said a Ukrainian drone struck a cooling tower of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant (NNPP), located about 100 miles north of the border. While officials say there was no substantial damage to the plant, it was the fourth nuclear power facility in the region to have munitions land on or very close to it in the past two weeks.
Regardless of the level of damage incurred at NNPP, Russia is worried enough about drone strikes on its nuclear facilities that it is beefing up its defenses at a test site in the Arctic. You can read more about that later in this story.
The NNPP cooling tower was hit by a drone flying near the plant that was downed by electronic warfare, Russia’s Rosenergoatom claimed on Telegram. As a result, the agency said it hit the cooling tower of the No. 6 reactor and exploded upon impact. These structures are generally built to withstand light aircraft impacts
“There is no destruction or casualties; however, a dark mark remained on the cooling tower from the consequences of the detonation,” Rosenergoatom stated. “The safety of the nuclear power plant operation is ensured, the radiation background at the industrial site of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant and the adjacent territory has not changed and corresponds to natural background levels. Law enforcement agencies are working at the scene.”………………………………………………………………………………………..
Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on this incident, which took place as Kyiv’s drones frequently attack the Voronezh region. Despite Ukraine’s ongoing campaign against energy facilities in Russia, it is quite likely that this strike was inadvertent. Kyiv has been attacking oil and gas plants, not nuclear ones, though Russia claims it downed a drone in August that caused a fire and temporarily reduced the electrical output at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. However, we can’t tell for sure if either of these strikes was deliberate or not. Russia frequently blames damage from drone strikes on electronic warfare or air defense shootdowns, even if an intended target was hit.
It is also possible that the damage at NNPP was caused by Russian air defenses. These systems can fail, as you can see in the following video [on original] . Russia has also claimed that damage caused by failed air defenses was caused by enemy munitions in the past.
Regardless, as Ukraine develops newer long-range weapons with far larger warheads, even an accidental strike on one of these sites could have far greater consequences. You can read more about one of Ukraine’s newest long-range weapons in our story we published today here.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has yet to comment, but has expressed high concern about drones flying near the South (SNPP) and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi issued warnings about ZNPP. That plant has been operating on backup diesel fuel generators since Sept. 23, after power lines were downed. Ukrainian officials claim Russia cut the lines on purpose, which Russia denies. ZNPP is inactive; however, pumps are needed to keep water cooling reactors so they don’t melt down. The power outage is the longest experienced by ZNPP during this conflict, Grossi stated.
Trump Says Israel and Hamas ‘Signed Off on the First Phase’ of Gaza Plan
The announcement came as the confirmed death toll from Israel’s two-year genocidal assault on Gaza rose to 67,183 Palestinians, widely believed to be an undercount.
Common Dreams Staff, October 9, 2025, https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-ceasefire
Just over a week after unveiling a proposal for the Gaza Strip at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump said on social media Wednesday night that “I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan.”
“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed-upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” he claimed on Truth Social. “All Parties will be treated fairly!”
“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen,” Trump added. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
Netanyahu—who faces an International Criminal Court warrant over his country’s genocidal assault of Gaza—also took to social media, writing in Hebrew that it was “a great day for Israel” and he would “convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home.” The prime minister then thanked the Israel Defense Forces and Trump.
Trump’s announcement came shortly after Drop Site News‘ Jeremy Scahill spoke with a Hamas official who confirmed that “from our side, yes,” the Palestinians reached a deal, but they still needed to “finalize some points” with the mediators.
“It’s over, it’s over. It’s been decided,” a second source told the journalist. “Everybody’s agreed on it. There are a few things that will be discussed, but it’s over.”
Hamas led an attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,100 people on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have bombed and blockaded Gaza, whose health officials put the death toll at 67,183, with another 169,841 injured. Global experts have warned that these are likely undercounts, given the thousands of people missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the strip’s destroyed infrastructure.
After 2 years, Israel genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza has failed
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 9 Oct 25
Israel has a grisly method of negotiating peace and release of remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. They’re continuing their genocidal ethnic cleansing of those pesky Palestinians who just won’t leave so Israel can annex Gaza to Greater Israel.
On Tuesday Israel bombed Gaza City, Khan Younis, even the Mawasi safe zone, killing at least 10. Hundreds of been slaughtered in the five days Israel has ignored President Trump’s demand to stop the genocide while peace talks continue in Egypt.
That should surprise no one interested in ending the genocide. Israel’s primary goal since the Hamas attack 2 years ago Tuesday was to exploit the attack to rid Gaza of all 2,300,000 Palestinians. While killing over 100,000, with the remaining 2,200,000 suffering starvation, degraded health, no habitable living conditions, Israel has failed to achieve its cherished goal: no Palestinians left in a Gaza annexed into Greater Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to maintain the genocide for political and personal reasons. The political is the aforementioned completion of Greater Israel including not only Gaza but the West Bank. The personal reason is to delay indefinitely his possible date with prison on corruption crimes.
Dead last on Netanyahu’s grotesque agenda? Getting back the remaining 48 Israeli hostages. Had he cared a whit about the original 251, many of whom his delay killed, he wouldn’t have embarked on genocide.
None of this could have occurred without the $20 billion in genocide weapons gifted to Israel by presidents Biden and Trump, paid for by John Q. Taxpayer. US near total support of the genocide continues even tho an increasing majority of Americans call it genocide and demand we end enabling it.
The current talks in Egypt are doing nothing to achieve the only path to peace: Palestinian statehood, recognized by 158 of 193 UN countries but not the US. Trump’s 20 point peace plan is simply US imagined neocolonialism to keep Gaza totally controlled by outside forces. Palestinians are excluded, keeping Gaza stateless in perpetuity.
The peace plan may release the remaining 48 hostages and achieve ceasefire. But it will neither achieve a Palestinian state nor Netanyahu’s dream of a Palestinian free Gaza annexed to Israel. Both likely outcomes may doom the peace negotiations to failure.
Peace is Possible – The Weaponization of Space with Bruce Gagnon.
Peace is Possible – The Weaponization of Space with Bruce Gagnon
West Hartford Community Interactive, 1 Oct 25
Joe Wasserman interviews Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator and co-founder of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_ps6sJI1XM
Australian Capital Territory went first and fastest to 100 per cent renewables: It now looks like the smartest policy of all
The ACT government continues to reap the rewards for its early and bold
push to 100 per cent renewables, which is now looking like the smartest
policy of all – shielding its residents from the ravages of largely
fossil-fuelled electricity price hikes.
The latest quarterly data assessing
the cost of the ACT government’s commitment to sourcing the equivalent of
its annual demand from wind and solar – which it met on schedule in 2020
– shows the additional cost of the policy in the latest quarter was just
$3 a megawatt hour. Indeed, three of the wind farms contracted by the ACT
government returned significant sums of money (a total of $4.4 million) to
the ACT because the contract prices they agreed to are significantly lower
than current wholesale electricity prices.
Renew Economy 8th Oct 2025, https://reneweconomy.com.au/act-went-first-and-fastest-to-100-per-cent-renewables-it-now-looks-like-the-smartest-policy-of-all/
Flamanville EPR: EDF anticipates limited power until 2031.
Flamanville EPR: EDF anticipates limited power until 2031. EDF has
informed the energy regulator that it has selected a final electrical power
output lower than that officially communicated. The reason: the hypothesis
of a deteriorated performance of the Normandy reactor, leading to a
restriction of its electricity production.
These are just five short lines
in a document of over 200 pages. But they are very important. In its report
on the cost of nuclear power, published Tuesday, September 30, the Energy
Regulatory Commission (CRE) addresses the issue of the electrical power of
the Flamanville 3 EPR, the restart of which was recently postponed until
mid-October, after numerous delays since its shutdown last June following a
leak in a primary circuit protection valve.
The energy regulator explains
that the production of Flamanville 3 is difficult to predict due to the
level of uncertainty over the timetable for the continuation of reactor
tests. Above all, it specifies that in terms of “the final nominal
electrical power of the EPR, EDF declared to the CRE a power 35 megawatts
(MW) lower than the power declared in the public data framework . “
La Tribune 7th Oct 2025, https://www.latribune.fr/article/entreprises-finance/energie-environnement/10816924410568/epr-de-flamanville-edf-anticipe-une-puissance-bridee-jusquen-2031
RADIOACTIVE material was accidentally released at Scotland’s Dounreay nuclear.
An investigation was launched in June 2024 after Nuclear Restoration Services
(NRS) – the firm which is responsible for the north Caithness complex’s
clean-up and demolition – informed the Scottish Environmental Protection
Agency (Sepa) of a potential leak of contaminated water. Scotland’s
environmental regulator confirmed that a “small leak” from a carbon bed
filter had occurred. Three different radioactive substances –
alpha-emitting Radionuclides, alpha-emitting Radionuclides and Caesium-137
– were all released, according to the Scottish Pollutant Release
Inventory (SPRI) data. Monitoring from NRS didn’t detect any increase in
radioactivity in groundwater downstream. But Sepa found that the firm had
breached environmental regulations and has ordered it to review its
groundwater monitoring arrangements and “establish the extent of
contamination” which has arisen from the leak.
The National 7th Oct 2025, https://www.thenational.scot/news/25525191.radioactive-water-highland-nuclear-site-leaked-major-breach/
The People versus Murdoch: the rise of independent media
Independent media has profoundly reshaped modern communication, much to the chagrin of traditional print media. The MSM often dismisses us as falling below their standards, but I disagree. Today’s news stories are frequently little more than opinion pieces, unchallenged and unaccountable. Citizen journalists, however, hold the MSM to account – a role that sits uneasily with the media establishment.
The MSM [Main Stream Media] claimed, “The great thing about newspapers is that, love us or hate us, we’re the voice of the people. We represent the community, their views, their aspirations, and their hopes.” Represent the community? Don’t they mean control the community?
8 October 2025 Michael Taylor, https://theaimn.net/the-people-versus-murdoch-the-rise-of-independent-media/
Over a decade ago, I wrote about a subject that remains as relevant today as ever. For nearly twenty years, I’ve been hammering away at the keyboard – a space where I could speak freely, defy control, and fight for democracy and truth. It was a place to be heard. But it wasn’t always this way. Before the rise of bloggers and independent media, we were limited to listening to those who controlled the narrative.
Let’s revisit the days when we found our voice, thanks to the emergence of bloggers, citizen journalists and independent media.
Plato (428–348 BC) opposed the written word, arguing it would erode memory. He believed people would stop memorising facts or stories, and that spreading words indiscriminately was wasteful and untrustworthy. How prophetic. Spoken over two millennia ago, his words feel strikingly contemporary. Consider today’s mainstream media (MSM), which claims its journalists are reliable, truthful, and objective. Who do you believe – them or Plato?
In recent decades, the MSM has leaned toward stories that are trivial, narrow, shallow, and sensationalist – often at the expense of truth. As Plato might have lamented, the MSM spreads words indiscriminately, wastefully, and with questionable trustworthiness. Truth, it seems, doesn’t sell newspapers.
Some bloggers echoed Plato’s concerns, prompting a fierce backlash from the MSM. I recall reading articles from the Murdoch press that unleashed a near-xenophobic hatred toward the blogosphere, attacking it with more zeal than they ever directed at incompetent politicians. One such critique described the blogosphere as:
A small, incestuous clique of self-identified lefties, with readerships composed mostly of themselves… Naivety and self-righteousness define the vast majority of the Australian blogosphere, along with whining conspiracy theories. Those who hide under the veil of anonymity, taking cheap shots to satisfy their trendy social agenda.
The MSM claimed, “The great thing about newspapers is that, love us or hate us, we’re the voice of the people. We represent the community, their views, their aspirations, and their hopes.” Represent the community? Don’t they mean control the community?
Independent media has profoundly reshaped modern communication, much to the chagrin of traditional print media. The MSM often dismisses us as falling below their standards, but I disagree. Today’s news stories are frequently little more than opinion pieces, unchallenged and unaccountable. Citizen journalists, however, hold the MSM to account – a role that sits uneasily with the media establishment.
Many citizen journalists possess a natural gift for taking the day’s main story, transforming it into something worth reading, and fostering a range of opinions that the MSM often ignores. In just a few years, blogging – in particular- became a global phenomenon, reshaping journalism and unlocking publishing opportunities previously unimaginable. To me, blogging is journalism. While individual blogs may have limited readership, sites with aligned agendas often link together to amplify their impact. In contrast, MSM blog platforms typically filter out contributions that don’t fit their narrative, rendering them inaccessible to dissenting voices.
So, what impact have independent sites had? Their influence has been most profound in the political sphere.
In a March 2010 essay titled The Influence of Political Blog Sites on Democratic Participation, ShariVari wrote:
A computer-mediated environment makes it easier for citizens to express their feelings about political candidates and speak more candidly than in face-to-face settings. The internet’s diversity provides access to a wide range of opinions and information, potentially shaping or changing individuals’ political views. By disregarding blog sites with corporate or agenda-driven motives, political bloggers can foster peer-to-peer discussions of personal viewpoints.
This perspective was heartening for a then-blogger like me, who had lost faith in the MSM. It affirmed that independent voices could have an impact, however small at the time. If Australia followed the U.S. trend, a thriving blogging industry might one day emerge.
ShariVari concluded:
All research shows that increased opportunities for participation encourage democracy… Citizens are increasingly turning to and trusting the internet for accurate information, using it as a platform for participatory democracy, and becoming more knowledgeable about politics in the process. A Spiral of Silence – where people self-censor due to perceived minority views – is less likely in an online environment where citizens evaluate each other’s opinions without status cues like gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Blog sites are undeniably expanding the ways citizens participate in democracy.
Fifteen years ago, those in democratic societies seeking to share their ideas faced editorial gatekeepers whose policies often reflected their own ideologies or market-driven priorities. Today, this control is crumbling in the face of participatory media. Audiences no longer want to be passive consumers – they want to comment on and even create the news.
Citizen journalists believe they are better equipped to provide the diversity that modern democracies need, a diversity often ignored by traditional media. Independent platforms allow them to expose doctored or omitted facts, highlight biases, and give voice to alternate perspectives. These sites encourage readers to think critically, ask probing questions, and challenge the MSM’s hidden agendas. Independent media is awash with objective, fact-based analysis that counters the narratives of established outlets.
The explosion of independent sites isn’t merely an echo of dissenting voices – it’s a response to the MSM’s failure to provide objective, impartial reporting. If the MSM were truly committed to quality journalism, there might be no need for the millions of blogs and independent platforms that exist today to fill the gaps they’ve left.
In essence, it’s the People versus Murdoch… then and now.
Ukraine has just generated another cash sink for Western taxpayers
In the meantime, Canadian cash for weapons, “for Ukraine,” is sure pumping up the integrated US/Canada military-industrial complex, which seems to be the go-to Western strategy for boosting their GDP these days
The office of the “Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine” has been created for Canada’s ex-deputy prime minister
Rachel Marsden, a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English. 4 Oct 25
Last month, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, was dropkicked from newish Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet. He did her a massive favor. Because now she doesn’t have to pretend to represent Canada anymore while following her true passion: representing Ukraine.
Freeland has a new role: “Special Representative for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” officially speaking. The first question that came to mind when hearing this was, “When does she finally get to move to Kiev, already?” Imagine my disappointment to learn that she doesn’t.
Well, actually, my first question was, “Is Ukraine under reconstruction now? Did I slip into a coma and miss the bomb show wrapping up?” Nope, the conflict is still raging. But I guess it makes it sound like she’s going to be keeping a careful watch over the money that Carney has “pledged” to Ukraine – perhaps in the same way that people “pledged” to pay me a dollar per lap for my childhood swim-a-thons, then bailed when I came back to collect after competing 500 laps. I guess time will tell. Canadian taxpayers can only pray that will be the case, and that Carney is just virtue signaling Canadian cash for Ukraine and not actually sending any there, in the same way that the jokers running the EU make a big stink about the evils of Russian energy while importing it on the down-low through third countries.
In the meantime, Canadian cash for weapons, “for Ukraine,” is sure pumping up the integrated US/Canada military-industrial complex, which seems to be the go-to Western strategy for boosting their GDP these days amid their tanking economies.
Another question: Will Freeland use her experience in blocking Canadian bank accounts as Trudeau’s finance minister during the Covid-era Freedom Convoy anti-mandate protests to block shady cash flowing to Ukraine? I’m guessing not, if only because those Canadian bank accounts were blocked under the ultimately false pretext (as determined by Canadian intelligence) that foreign cash was funding interference with Canadian government decisions. In Ukraine’s case, that foreign cash is considered a plus because it’s coming from the West. Seems like she’d be more likely to tackle anything that got in its way.
Anyway, Freeland has just used her new Canadian taxpayer-funded role to plead Ukraine’s case in the pages of the Financial Times.
She wrote that “the fact is that we need Ukraine to save us,” presumably from the other side of the world, in Ottawa. She then goes on to qualify some murky, contentious drone activity around the Ukraine–EU border as “recent incursions into Central and even Western Europe.” At least I think that’s what she’s referring to. Unless I somehow missed the Russian tanks rolling down the Champs-Élysées. She doesn’t specify. But no matter. All the better, apparently, to argue that these incidents “show NATO needs Ukraine as a shield against Russia.”
Sounds like what Vladimir Zelensky was saying just the other day. The Ukrainian leader was going off about an incident last month of some alleged 90 drones over Ukraine, which he said were heading for Poland. He said that if only 20 of them actually ended up there, it was only because Kiev shot the rest down. The implication? That Ukraine was saving Poland. Trump was asked about it at the time and didn’t exactly praise Zelensky as Poland’s savior. He basically shrugged, saying, look, whatever – could have just been accidental.
Freeland also cited Trump’s tongue-in-cheek remarks from the other week when he rapped on social media about how Ukraine was winning on the battlefield against Russia and probably could even conquer Russian territory. He then offered to sell the Europeans all the American weapons they wanted in that endeavor. What part of Trump’s wishing them “good luck” did Freeland not understand as a commentary on Trump being keen to profit off the EU’s delusions, as long as Washington doesn’t have to get its hands dirty? She grasped none of it, apparently. Because she wrote in the FT that “US President Donald Trump got it right at the UN last week: Ukraine is a winner, and Ukraine can win.”
Freeland literally had just written of Ukraine in the same piece, a bit further up, that “we have assumed it would lose, at least without extraordinary effort from us.” Really? Your whole posse in Canada has been saying otherwise for years. “Ukraine will win and Canada will be there until the end,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, in early 2023, when she was defense minister.
So now we’ve gone from “Ukraine will win” to “Ukraine will only win if we do everything except pull the trigger” to “we need Ukraine because NATO is so weak.” Yeah, so weak that NATO is actually contemplating blasting Temu-grade drones out of the sky with F-16s, as the Romanian defense minister suggested during a recent Warsaw Security Forum panel.
Freeland adds that the West can learn from Ukraine about “how to fight a 21st-century war, and how to invent, manufacture and then keep reinventing the weapons we need for this new way of war in real time.” Look out, folks! Freeland has just discovered guerrilla warfare – but apparently not the double-edged sword it represents.
It’s all good when Ukrainian Nazis are getting schooled by NATO forces to fight Russia, and when they then graduate to fulfilling Freeland’s fantasy of pretending to teach NATO how to do guerrilla warfare – as though it’s a matter of NATO lacking ability and not just guerrilla warfare being way too cheap for NATO to justify washing tax cash into defense coffers.
What could possibly go wrong with letting Ukraine play asymmetric warfare “teacher” to justify the West turning it into a giant weapons toy box? It’s not like there haven’t been reports lately of Latin American drug cartels getting their drone training in Ukraine to use back home. We’re talking about Mexican and Colombian gangsters, according to Defense News, one of the leading military publications. Just your average start-up, really.
Freeland then proceeds to cheerlead the idea recently promoted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of straight-up stealing €140 billion in European-held Russian assets as a “loan” for Ukraine. Ukraine apparently just pays it back once Russia admits fault and writes a check, huh? In other words: never.
It’s one thing for Freeland to justify her new role by bloviating and virtue-signaling in the Western press. It’s another to make taxpayers foot the bill for it when her real job should be to end this war as quickly as possible through diplomacy so some legitimate reconstruction business can be done in Ukraine’s interests that doesn’t just involve perpetuating a taxpayer-funded racket.
No To Nuclear – Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress, and Provokes War
By Linda Pentz Gunter, 8 Oct 25, https://www.plutobooks.com/product/no-to-nuclear/
There is no silver bullet for the climate crisis—but that hasn’t stopped people searching. Seizing its chance, the nuclear power industry wants us to believe that theirs is the only technical fix for our deliverance. The public, politicians and the media have been easily swayed.
This should come as no surprise. After all, the pro-nuclear PR campaign is richly funded and has an army of lobbyists sowing myths while the industry reaps the rewards of taxpayer-funded subsidies.
No To Nuclear calls the industry’s bluff. Blasting aside its claims to be safe and green, Linda Pentz Gunter makes the irresistible case that nuclear power is too slow, too expensive, too dangerous and too integrally connected to the nuclear weapons complex, to serve as a rational energy choice.
The book also delves into the lives of Indigenous peoples and communities of colour, who have been harmed the most by the nuclear sector, and questions whether the way we devalue nature and the environment is costing us the chance of a genuinely just energy transition.
A crack in the AUKUS public relations pressure hull!
by Rex Patrick | Oct 5, 2025 , https://michaelwest.com.au/a-crack-in-the-aukus-pr-pressure-hull/
AUKUS is a hugely expensive Defence project facing considerable and, many argue, insurmountable hurdles. But does Defence have a Plan B? Rex Patrick reveals a crack in Defence PR’s high tensile pressure hull steel.
There has to be an AUKUS Plan B, surely. So MWM FOI’ed the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) to find out.
Hit ‘em with your Talking Points.
In response, the ASA partially released one document showing ‘talking points’ that had been given to the Project lead, Vice Admiral Jonathon Mead, in case he was asked about the US’s AUKUS review.
At first glance, MWM thought that the ASA’s back-up plan to defend the Nation was to
“roll out some talking points to fire at an approaching enemy.“
roll out some talking points to fire at an approaching enemy.
But a closer look revealed more.
A Crack in the Submarine Pressure Hull
The talking points weren’t the only documents.
Despite the public bravado, the FOI decision shows that there is some discussion going on behind the scenes.
There were three more documents that met the terms of MWM’s request. The decision letter reveals that the Government has been discussing with our AUKUS partners, and internally, on what to do if it all goes to hell in a nuclear handbasket.
Self-confidence Bluster Exposed
The ASA has claimed the documents are sensitive (something we’ll push back on with an appeal), and so we can’t see the exact details of what’s being said.
But we know there are conversations taking place.
“That’s a good thing.“
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AUKUS is a hugely expensive Defence project facing considerable and, many argue, insurmountable hurdles. But does Defence have a Plan B? Rex Patrick reveals a crack in Defence PR’s high tensile pressure hull steel.
There has to be an AUKUS Plan B, surely. So MWM FOI’ed the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) to find out.
FOI Asking about a Plan B
Hit ‘em with your Talking Points.
In response, the ASA partially released one document showing ‘talking points’ that had been given to the Project lead, Vice Admiral Jonathon Mead, in case he was asked about the US’s AUKUS review.
US AUKUS Review talking Points (Source: Defence)
At first glance, MWM thought that the ASA’s back-up plan to defend the Nation was to
roll out some talking points to fire at an approaching enemy.
But a closer look revealed more.
A Crack in the Submarine Pressure Hull
The talking points weren’t the only documents.
Despite the public bravado, the FOI decision shows that there is some discussion going on behind the scenes.
More Documents about Plan B (Source: Defence)
There were three more documents that met the terms of MWM’s request. The decision letter reveals that the Government has been discussing with our AUKUS partners, and internally, on what to do if it all goes to hell in a nuclear handbasket.
Plan B Talk Going On (Source: Defence)
Self-confidence Bluster Exposed
The ASA has claimed the documents are sensitive (something we’ll push back on with an appeal), and so we can’t see the exact details of what’s being said.
But we know there are conversations taking place.
That’s a good thing.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge, commenting on the FOI decision, said, “Labor has managed to combine two of their worst behaviours in one go here, using exemptions in FOI to refuse to release documents while secretly doubling down on a plan B for AUKUS. I don’t think treating the Australian public like mushrooms is a viable long-term political strategy for Albanese”.
It’s Senate Estimates this coming week. The Coalition is a unity cheer squad with Labor when it comes to AUKUS, so we won’t see them probing hard on a Plan B. Hopefully, Shoebridge will squeeze some more out of Defence, at least until MWM’s FOI appeal is finalised.
For now, at least, we now know the ASA’s public AUKUS bluster is a deception. They’re not so confident after all.
Rex PatrickRex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the “Transparency Warrior.”
Arrests as protesters target Christchurch aerospace summit
RNZ 8 October 2025
Thirty people have been arrested at a demonstration outside an aerospace summit in Christchurch.
RNZ’s reporter at the scene said about a dozen were chained together near the entrance to Te Pae Convention Centre.
Several protesters have been carried away by police outside the national aerospace summit in Christchurch.
Several protesters tried to storm the building that was being blocked by police while others carried banners, waved flags and chanted “shame” nearby.
Vision shows police pushing demonstrators into a garden bed outside the building.
Defence Minister and Minister for Space Judith Collins arrived at the event earlier, accompanied by a large security escort.
Collins and the wider aerospace sector were targets of chanting by protesters.
She told RNZ the protesters “live in another world” and they should “follow the rules”.
Peace Action Ōtautahi alleged Collins had overseen the “intense militarisation” of the aerospace industry, bringing it closer to the US military.
Greens MP Teanau Tuiono, who is the party’s spokesperson for Defence and Space, spoke to protesters and voiced his support for demonstrations.
RNZ’s reporter said several protesters tried to storm the convention centre being blocked by police.
Police remained at the scene and said they were continuing to monitor the situation.
Superintendent Lane Todd said the police’s role was to ensure safety and uphold the law while recognising the lawful right to protest.
Peace Action Ōtautahi said they were protesting the aerospace industry’s ties with the United States and Israeli defence forces.
Aerospace New Zealand president Mark Rocket said it recognised the right for lawful protest as part of a vibrant community, but it was also important for the industry to get together to discuss opportunities for the country…………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/575302/arrests-as-protesters-target-christchurch-aerospace-summit
Everything Before AND After October 7 Explains Why October 7 Happened
Caitlin Johnstone, Oct 07, 2025, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/everything-before-and-after-october?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=175515184&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Everything before October 7 explains why October 7 happened, and so does everything that’s happened since.
Look at what happened before October 7 and you’ll see year after year of murder, oppression and abuse.
Look at everything that’s happened since October 7 and you’ll understand the kind of sadistic, psychopathic regime the Palestinians have been living under this entire time.
Israel supporters don’t want you looking at what happened before October 7, and they don’t want you looking at anything that’s happened since. They just want you to pretend history began and ended with a bunch of Hitlerite savages attacking innocent Jews for no reason.
And they don’t even want you looking at the day of October 7 too closely, either. Looking too closely at the events of that day bring up inconvenient questions about the Hannibal Directive and what percentage of the death toll was actually caused by the IDF firing on their own people. Inconvenient questions about the suspicious stock trading in the lead-up to the attack and the mountains upon mountains upon mountains of evidence that high-level Israeli officials allowed the attack to proceed undefended in order to advance the genocidal land grab we’re seeing advanced now.
They only want you looking at the parts of October 7 that make Israel look like an innocent little lamb who was attacked completely out of the blue and had no choice but to reluctantly respond with military force.
Forget the scorched earth incineration of the Gaza Strip.
Forget the bombed-out hospitals and methodically dismantled healthcare system.
Forget the hundreds upon hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza who’ve been deliberately starved to death.
Forget the fact that every relevant human rights institution on earth has determined that Israel is committing genocide, and that zero comparable humanitarian institutions have said it isn’t.
Forget the fact that human rights experts had been describing Gaza as a giant concentration camp or open-air prison for years prior to October 7.
Forget the fact that Israel had been routinely murdering Palestinian children and other civilians in the months prior to the Hamas attack.
Don’t look at any of that stuff. Just look at the stuff that makes Israel look like the victim.
That’s the story, anyway. Luckily, fewer and fewer people are buying into it.
The longer this genocide goes on for, the more the world has come to view October 7 as Israel reaping what it had long been sowing.
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