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MAGA Melts Down Over Trump Giving Qatar a Military Base in U.S.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Qatar would build an Air Force base in Idaho.

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, October 11, 2025, https://newrepublic.com/post/201647/maga-donald-trump-qatar-military-air-force-base

The Trump administration’s approval of a Qatari air force base in Idaho isn’t popular with either of America’s political parties.

Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the forthcoming Qatari Emiri Air Force facility in America’s heartland Friday morning, thanking the Middle Eastern nation for playing a “core part” in negotiating the ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. Mountain Home Air Force Base will host Qatari F-15 fighter jets and pilots, and allow Qatari forces alongside American troops for F-15 pilot training.

The move, which stands in stark contrast to the president’s “America first” agenda, seriously rattled some of Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters.

“Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans,” posted far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who has operated as Trump’s informal “loyalty enforcer” since August. “I don’t think I’ll be voting in 2026. I cannot in good conscience make any excuses for the harboring of jihadis.”

“This is where I draw the line,” she wrote.

Other conservatives were left bewildered by the seemingly nonsensical decision.

“What’s the strategic rationale for this? Either ours or Qatar’s?” posted the National Review’s Noah Rothman. “You could rattle off all the problems/risks we’re inviting easily. But I have no idea what the steelman case for this would be? I’m sure we don’t need to import any more Qatari covert assets into this country.”

And still others pointed out the inconsistent hypocrisy of the administration’s policies.

“Joe Biden was criticized for a Chinese balloon flying over our airspace,” wrote GOP consultant Mike Madrid. “They’re giving Qatar an entire f’ing air base.”

Dan Caldwell, who was forced out of the DOD during Hegseth’s Signalgate disaster, wrote on X that the joint air force operation was being blown out of proportion.

“The freak out around this is of course totally unwarranted since this is actually a pretty common practice with countries that buy and operate a lot of U.S. military aircraft. Singapore has a similar facility and detachment for its F-15 training unit at this very same airbase,” Caldwell said.

But even beyond the Air Force base, Qatar appears to have bought itself a very sweet spot in Trumpworld. Just months ago, Qatar solidified a deal with the Trump Organization to build a Trump-branded golf course and a beachside project as part of a $5.5 billion development project. The tiny nation also bestowed a wildly controversial super luxury jumbo jet on to Trump, all in an apparent attempt to shore up its relationship with the U.S.’s notoriously flighty leader.

Those transactions began to pay off earlier this month, when Trump signed an executive order that pledged to give the tiny, energy-rich, non-NATO ally the same level of protection from the U.S. as some of America’s most powerful allies.

October 13, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Samantha Power secretly colluded with Israel to enhance UN role, leaked emails show

Wyatt Reed· The Grayzone, October 9, 2025

Behind closed doors, the noted ‘humanitarian interventionist’ successfully lobbied for Israel’s inclusion on important UN committees even after the Human Rights Council accused it of targeting civilians in Gaza.

The leaked emails also reveal that Israel furnished Power with a dodgy dossier on Syrian chemical weapons as she pushed regime change in Damascus.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power secretly coordinated with a top Israeli diplomat to secure Israel’s access to multiple prestigious UN committees, leaked files show.

Several unsolicited emails sent by Power to the then ambassador of Israel to the UN, Ron Prosor, show the diplomat celebrating her role in polishing Israel’s image on the global stage.

The emails between the two diplomats reveal how the US-Israeli special relationship operates at a granular level, and help map out the personal interactions which ensure Israel enjoys constant diplomatic cover at an international level. They are among the latest batch of hacked files belonging to Israeli government officials which were leaked by the Handala hacking collective.

A November 2013 email exchange between Power and Prosor reveals how the US ambassador helped secure Israel entry to the UN’s Western European and Others Group (WEOG). Three days before the vote succeeded, Prosor predicted “a Hanukkah miracle,” telling Power, “I know what [a] crucial role you played in making this happen. This success will last way beyond our time and will always carry your figure [sic] print on it.”………………………………………………………

Power was evidently rewarded with an invitation to a lucrative speaking gig in Israel. The next February, she appeared in Tel Aviv as a featured speaker at the national model UN conference, where she promptly blasted the UN for its supposed anti-Israel bias. “Bias has extended well beyond Israel as a country, Israel as an idea,” she claimed, complaining, “Israel is just not treated like other countries.”

Israel tailored a Syrian chemical weapons dossier for Power’s “non-technical brain”

Power used her platform at the UN to thunder for military intervention in Syria, frequently exploiting the US-backed opposition’s questionable claims of chemical attacks to make her case. And from almost the moment she entered her position, Israel was feeding her cooked intelligence apparently alleging that Syria held a vast arsenal of WMD’s.

An email chain beginning on Sept. 12, 2013 – just one month into Power’s UN tenure – suggests Prosor instrumentalized his American counterpart as a conduit for Israel’s dubious intelligence on Syrian chemical weapons. “I wanted to let you know that today we have transferred… technical information” to the US side, he wrote to Power, adding, “I know it is of significant value in dealing with the Syrian chemical arsenal.”

Prosor noted that he also distributed the report to Thomas Countryman, then the State Department’s top official in charge of non-proliferation………………………………………………………………………………….

Whitewashing Israel’s atrocities against civilians, including children

One email forwarded by Power to Prosor on June 8, 2015, which was clearly intended to convey reassurance to Israeli diplomats, was originally written by a State Department official. Describing an upcoming UN report on Children and Armed Conflict, the US functionary confirmed that the Israeli military had not “been listed in the annex of the report” despite its well-documented abuses and rampant killings of minors in the Occupied Palestinian Territories……………………………………………………………

Power’s complicity in Gaza genocide spurs staff revolt

After working for much of the ’90s as a Soros-funded journalist in post-communist states, Power shot to fame upon publishing a book called “America and the Age of Genocide,” which hammered State Department leadership in the Bill Clinton administration for not taking more forceful action to intervene in the Rwandan civil conflict. During Obama’s second term, she enlisted Rabbi Shmuley Boteach as her personal liaison to the Zionist lobby, whose support she required to secure the position of UN Ambassador, as documented in a Foreign Policy article headlined “How Michael Jackson’s Rabbi Made Samantha Power Kosher.”

Most recently, Power served as the director of USAID under President Joe Biden. As Israel’s genocide in Gaza unfolded, she faced a growing wave of dissension from staffers in the organization. During a stormy meeting in February 2024, current and former USAID staffers confronted Power over her support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, and refusal to push for a ceasefire. Several staffers expressed outrage that Power had apparently covered up Israel’s killing of a USAID staffer inside Gaza in November 2023, according to the Washington Post. She pushed back by deploying debunked Israeli propaganda accusing Hamas of “sexual assault” on October 7.

Since leaving her office at the helm of USAID, Power has attempted to distance herself from Israel’s ongoing war crimes, and has criticized Israel for failing to provide sufficient aid to Palestinians……… https://thegrayzone.com/2025/10/09/sam-power-colluded-israel-committees/

October 13, 2025 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

In its 250th year, America’s genocide support has forever destroyed its worldwide moral authority


Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 10 Oct 25, https://theaimn.net/in-its-250th-year-americas-genocide-support-has-forever-destroyed-its-worldwide-moral-authority/

US political leaders’ statements touting US as the beacon of democracy, humanitarianism, fair play, decency on the world stage ring hollow to anyone with an iota of moral clarity.

The day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Israel embarked on grotesque genocide of Gaza’s 2,300,000 Palestinians crammed into the world’s largest open air prison controlled by Israel. Two years on a ceasefire may finally occur, blocking Israel’s lust to kill or expel every remaining Palestinian to bring Gaza into Greater Israel.

The carnage is immense and horrifying. Over 100,000 Palestinians dead, the remaining 2,200,000 suffering starvation and degraded health. All schools and universities gone. All medical facilities gone. All life sustaining infrastructure gone. 

Israel could not have conducted their genocidal rampage without the complete support of the United States.

The Democratic Biden administration and the Republican Trump administration, in the only policy they agreed upon, gifted Israel with over $20 billion in weaponry to wipe Palestinians off the Gaza map. The US joined Israel in seeking African and Middle East countries to take in the Palestinians not killed. The US repeatedly voted against UN General Assembly resolutions condemning the genocide; even using their veto to prevent UN Security Council anti-genocide resolutions. The US remains one of only 35 UN members, out of 193, refusing to recognize a Palestinian state.

US media imposed a near complete blackout on the genocide. But enough truth of its horrors got through to turn the American electorate against it. Instead of heeding voters, the President and Congress heeded the Israel Lobby and kept on voting for more billions to obliterate Gaza.

If the shooting stops today, Palestinians will continue dying for days, weeks, months from malnutrition and disease.

It took just under 250 years for America to shatter every principle of freedom, democracy, self-determination it claims to honor. If the degraded American Experiment manages to survive another 250 years, even another thousand years, it likely cannot do more damage to its promise to humankind that it’s done in this its 250th year.

October 12, 2025 Posted by | Religion and ethics, USA | Leave a comment

Donald Trump’s battle for relevance

10 October 2025 John Lord, https://theaimn.net/donald-trumps-battle-for-relevance/

Nothing exemplifies Donald Trump’s towering ego more vividly than his relentless pursuit of international media attention. Like a moth drawn to a flame, he flies from one controversy to another, each serving as a platform to elevate his self-image or distract from a previous scandal. In his world, the gravity of any situation is secondary to the spotlight it can shine on him. This insatiable hunger for validation requires constant nourishment, creating an atmosphere where his ego demands regular worship. His fervent ambition for a Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps in a bid to rival President Obama’s controversial accolade, stands as yet another testament to his overinflated sense of self-importance.

In the midst of the extensive character scrutiny surrounding Trump, one crucial aspect may have been overshadowed by the noise. Despite the mountains of documented negative assessments that follow him like a shadow, they often seem to fall on deaf ears, dismissed and overlooked in the larger conversation. Amid all the character analysis of Trump, the critical point may have been overlooked. That being the case, all the negative analysis he generates is never taken seriously.

During the harrowing Charlie Kirk Memorial service, a gathering meant for remembrance and solace, the atmosphere was thick with sorrow. Yet, in this sea of grief, his wife stood as a beacon of grace, her voice rising above the despair to remind everyone of the light amidst the darkness. It becomes painfully jarring to juxtapose this poignant display of compassion with Trump’s vehement declarations of vengeance with hate in his heart and his outpourings of acrimony. Such stark contrasts are particularly unsettling, coming from someone who openly professes to be a Christian man, leaving one to ponder the true essence of faith amidst such tumult.

His grandstanding endeavour to foster peace between Russia and Ukraine was merely a spectacle, a classic case of ego triumphing over genuine substance. For Trump, there was an air of inevitability in his efforts that hinted at a self-assured proclamation of, “I did my best.” At the same time, for Putin, it seemed to convey a dismissive sentiment of not being interested in peace.” In this intricate dance of pride and prejudice.

Both leaders’ egos found a comforting balm, even as the prospects for true diplomacy crumbled beneath them. Then, during the Epstein controversy, he decides to have FBI Director James Comey indicted by a grand jury, just days after Trump demanded the Department of Justice prosecute him “now” and fired the prosecutor who refused to bring the case.

I wanted to bring to the attention of readers of The AIMN the latest developments in how Donald Trump is changing the face of the American nation as we once knew it. My sources of information come from various emails and publications I receive, which makes it impossible to always create a link.

Let’s continue to address the troubling actions taken by the Trump administration towards esteemed institutions like Harvard and Columbia, which have had their government funding revoked unless they conform to specific ideological standards regarding their educational content.

For years, Donald Trump has relentlessly pursued what he terms the “liberal bias” infecting the media landscape, casting journalists as the “enemy within” and striving to undermine their credibility. His fervent crusade against what he perceives as unfair reporting has triggered a series of aggressive assaults on public broadcasting, resulting in devastating funding cuts that have crippled institutions like PBS, NPR, and the Voice of America.

Furthermore, Trump has applied intense pressure on the Federal Communications Commission, effectively derailing a vital deal involving CBS’s parent company, Paramount, until CBS agrees to purge any programming that offers dissenting viewpoints, including the sharp and incisive commentary delivered by Stephen Colbert on his late-night show. This ongoing barrage raises urgent and troubling concerns about the erosion of fundamental principles in a free press and the vital independence of journalism. It poses a significant threat to the very fabric of the American media landscape, casting a shadow over the integrity of public discourse itself.

Robert Reich is always an astute observer:

“We are in the midst of the worst public tragedy of my lifetime – the despoiling and destruction of America. The destruction is now extending beyond American democracy to encompass the American economy, science, learning, and culture. People ask me, in outrage or despair, “How and why is this happening?”

Then, in a striking announcement, the White House declared that Rudy Giuliani, who is currently recuperating in a hospital following a harrowing car accident, will be bestowed with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom. This decision has sparked outrage, as Giuliani is widely regarded as a disbarred, disgraced figure – a man whose actions have overshadowed democratic principles in service of Trump’s ambitions. The situation is nothing short of disheartening.

We are all familiar with Trump’s terrible tariffs. This is how he responded to a judge’s decision that they were illegal. “If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America,” he continued. “At the start of this Labor Day weekend, we should all remember that TARIFFS are the best tool to help our Workers, and support Companies that produce great MADE IN AMERICA products.”

I’m old enough to remember when American politics was divided between those who wanted less government (they were called “conservatives,” or the Right) and those who wanted more social safety nets (called “progressives,” or the Left).

It’s hard to find Right or left these days. Instead, we have something no one has ever seen in America — a personal takeover of nearly all the institutions of government and, increasingly, the private sector, by a would-be dictator. I have recently read that large-scale pictures of Trump are appearing on government and privately owned buildings.

He is on the way to occupying Democratic-led cities with the Army, National Guard, and ICE – in what appears to be a dress rehearsal for the 2026 midterms.

He is passionately imploring Republican-led states to embark on a cunning and deliberate campaign of super-gerrymandering, a strategic manoeuvre designed to intricately reshape electoral districts. This calculated effort aims to carve out advantageous boundaries that will secure power and influence for years to come, manipulating the very fabric of political representation to gain more congressional seats for his party. This manoeuvre aims to fortify Republican dominance in the House as the pivotal 2026 midterm elections draw near.

At the same time, he is working to stifle dissent from influential institutions like universities, museums, law firms, and the media. His approach includes targeting outspoken critics, such as Adam Schiff and John Bolton, for prosecution, creating a chilling atmosphere that seeks to silence opposition and consolidate power. Just what we should title this man, who has no redeeming features, is up in the air. For the time being, I will settle for “Dictator.”

But that’s hardly all of it. There is much more. End Part One.

My thought for the day

Occasionally, it may seem that governing is solely concerned with addressing problems as they arise. But occasionally, an exceptional leader emerges with loftier ideals and a vision for a better tomorrow.

In a surprising turn of events, the Democrats have initiated a ground-breaking investigation into a staggering claim regarding Donald Trump. Midas Touch host Ben Meiselas brings to light the explosive assertion that Trump may have misappropriated an astounding $17 trillion, a figure he reportedly generated but which mysteriously vanished from the Treasury Department’s records. With no trace of this massive sum and Congress left in the dark, questions loom large: where has this money gone? It’s a remarkable narrative that raises eyebrows – can it really be true?

Where is the 17 trillion? Dems Launch an investigation…

Believe it or not?

Part two next week.

October 12, 2025 Posted by | PERSONAL STORIES, USA | Leave a comment

New nuclear push brings old dangers back — and bigger than ever 

by Kevin Kamps, opinion contributor   – 10/06/25 https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5537588-nuclear-power-dangers-regulation/

When President Trump and Keir Starmer, prime minister of the United Kingdom, signed a deal to rapidly expand nuclear power in the U.K., nuclear stock prices soared to record highs. But the boom ignores the overwhelming evidence that nuclear is a bad risk.  

The only U.S. reactors built in the last 30 years, Vogtle Units 3 and 4, cost over $35 billion, resulting in the world’s most expensive electricity. Prohibitive cost overruns also sank NuScale, the only U.S. attempt to commercialize small modular reactors. 

Notwithstanding, irrational nuclear exuberance is reaching a pitch. Spiking electricity demand, cratering nuclear regulation, reckless nuclear boosterism and federal attacks on renewables have produced a perfect storm fueling nuclear expansionism. Former regulators warn that with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission now compromised, the storm may blow us onto the rocks. 

Nuclear hubris is so extreme that NASA says it will put a reactor on the moon by 2030. But with regulatory guardrails down, we ought to worry more about preventing a nuclear moonscape on earth. 

One neon danger sign is the rise of “zombie nukes” — restarting old, disused reactors, including those previously shut down for safety reasons. It’s happening at Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant, Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island 1 and Iowa’s Duane Arnold. 

Another red flag is so-called “advanced” reactors, including small modular reactors. Contrary to the name, small modular reactors are not new, not always small and probably not modular, comprising 127 different designs that are mostly speculative and haven’t been built yet. 

Small modular reactors aren’t “walk away safe” or carbon-free. Their lower output precludes economies of scale and their construction costs aren’t proportionately smaller than conventional nuclear, so their electricity is costlier. They also produce up to 30 times the waste and leak more neutrons. They emit greenhouse gases and thermal pollution. Subsidizing them and other nuclear undermines renewables and makes climate change worse. 

Holtec, a privately held firm facing ethical questions and known for hawking (though not yet building) small modular reactors and pioneering zombie nuke restart, was tapped in the U.S.-U.K. deal to develop nuclear-powered data centers in northeast England worth $15 billion. It gained notoriety by buying moribund U.S. nuclear plants cheaply under pretense of dismantling them and then pivoting to convert them back to operations, though it has no experience as a nuclear operator. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission obliged, granting regulatory relief and safety exemptions enabling Palisades to transition from decommissioning to “operations” status.

Holtec also plans to install small modular reactors there, next to a large cache of radioactive waste. It has similar plans for decommissioned nuclear sites it owns in New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York, and it intends to go public in the next few months with an IPO potentially valued at $10 billion. 

What could possibly go wrong? 

A nuclear engineer recently warned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards that once Palisades is restarted, it could fail within six months, with “unimaginable impacts to the general public,” due to mishandled steam generator tubes or its cracked primary cooling system.

Watchdog groups in Massachusetts, where Holtec wants to install small modular reactors on the closed Pilgrim nuclear site, are decrying a pending energy bill repealing a 1982 state law requiring a permanent repository for radioactive waste, as well as voting up a referendum before any new nuclear can be built. Neither condition is met, but Gov. Maura Healy (D) is bent on small nuclear reactors and nuclear-powered AI data centers anyway. 

At New York’s Indian Point, Holtec proposes to install small modular reactors and restart old, partially dismantled reactors, despite signing an agreement that prohibits even proposing renuclearizing the site without local, county and state support, which it doesn’t have.  

Last year, Holtec sued to block a state law prohibiting it from dumping radioactive water into the Hudson River, which Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed. Then nuclear lobbyists went into high gear in Albany, including hiring former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, prompting an ethics complaint. Hochul then flipped, directing the New York Power Authority to build at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear in the state.  

This about-face toward nuclear buildout is happening as the regulatory regime, never robust, is in free fall. Four former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairs (three in this article), have sounded the alarm. Nuclear Regulatory Commission commissioners testified before Congress that they expect to be fired if they question unsafe reactor designs and fail to rubberstamp them. Former Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Katy Huff and colleagues wrote that making nuclear regulatory decisions “for political reasons” is “setting the U.S. on the fastest path to a nuclear accident. … This is neither hypothetical nor hyperbole.” 

From their mouths to market handicappers’ ears. Amory Lovins wrote recently that nuclear-powered AI centers “may be a trillion-dollar bubble, but it’s sellable until market realities intervene.” The same is true of the harsh realities of nuclear’s inherent dangers. Let’s hope radiological disaster doesn’t intervene before nuclear’s unacceptable risks and costs get priced back in. 
 
Kevin Kamps is the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear.

October 11, 2025 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Holtec abandons nuclear waste project in New Mexico

by Energy News updated October 9, 2025, https://energynews.oedigital.com/energy-markets/2025/10/09/holtec-abandons-nuclear-waste-project-in-new-mexico

Holtec, a private nuclear power company, announced this week that it was abandoning a plan to store radioactive waste in New Mexico despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June which gave some hope for projects aiming at storing the material. The Supreme Court threw away a legal challenge in June by Texas, New Mexico, and some oil companies against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of nuclear storage projects in the drilling country. Some believed that this opened the door to temporary storage for these states.

New Mexico lawmakers and the Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham are opposed to storing nuclear waste on the site, even temporarily. They fear that without a permanent U.S. facility for nuclear waste, it will become a permanent solution.

Holtec announced in a Wednesday statement that it is leaving the HISTORE project in the Permian basin, near the oil hub Carlsbad. The statement said that the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance and Holtec had mutually agreed to cancel the agreement due to the unsustainable path for used fuel storage. This was reported first by Axios.

It’s been obvious for years that New Mexicans are opposed to spent fuel storage and disposition in the state. “We’re happy that Holtec finally acknowledged that reality,” Don Hancock, director at the Southwest Research and Information Center of Albuquerque for the nuclear waste safety programs.

Holtec’s Pat O’Brien, a spokesperson for the company, said that the company hoped to work with states that were willing to store the waste following outreach efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy which began during former President Joe Biden’s Administration.

O’Brien stated that Holtec believes communities in 15 to 20 different states are interested in hosting a potential storage facility.

The danger to human health makes it necessary to store nuclear waste for a long time. Nuclear power plants, both active and closed, store the waste.

After state legislators raised objections, the former Obama administration halted funding in 2010. (Reporting and editing by Paul Simao; Timothy Gardner)

October 11, 2025 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

The Wall Street Journal Has Many Ways to Deny Genocide

Gregory Shupak, FAIR, October 9, 2025

As more and more scholars, and one rights group after another, confirm that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, it’s becoming ever more obvious that those who deny the genocide are the intellectual and moral equivalents of people who deny other genocides, such as the ones inflicted on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or the Holocaust, or the Armenian Genocide.

Yet the Wall Street Journal persists in running genocide denial. Looking at how the paper does so enables us to not only refute their falsehoods, but also to gain insight into the tactics Gaza genocide denialists, and genocide deniers in general, employ. These include:

  • Hand-waving: brushing off the cataclysmic damage Israel and the US have done to Palestinians as merely the unavoidable byproducts of war;
  • Victim-blaming: saying that Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas are to blame for the suffering in Gaza;
  • Inverting perpetrator and victim: presenting Palestinians, and not Israelis, as genocidal, with Israelis, rather than Palestinians, cast as the targets;
  • Obscurantism: offering dubious pieces of information, usually in a decontextualized manner, as if they showed that Israel has pursued its military objectives humanely;
  • Repudiation: flatly rejecting well-documented facts while offering little or no counter-evidence.

‘Justifiable, even necessary’

Ami Magazine columnist Avi Shafran’s Journal piece (7/22/25) utilized both hand-waving and victim-blaming. He asserted:

When critics distort Israel’s goal of self-preservation into a desire for genocide, the accusers have gone from righteous protesters to ignorant haters…. Civilians suffer and die in the prosecution of justifiable, even necessary, wars. That tragedy is intensified when you are fighting an enemy who hides behind human shields. Eradicating the engines of terror in Gaza requires attacking the places from which they operate: hospitals, schools and mosques.

Israel’s supposedly “justifiable, even necessary” war has entailed such policies (as Human Rights Watch—12/19/24—notes) as

intentionally depriv[ing] Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water since October 2023, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths and thus committing the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.

Rather than offering a reasoned, evidence-based defense of such Israeli conduct, Shafran blithely wrote as if consciously withholding drinking water from a civilian population were as natural and inevitable as water boiling at a hundred degrees Celsius.

The author’s next move was to blame Palestinians for Israel killing Palestinians. Shafran, of course, didn’t offer a scintilla of proof for his claim that Palestinian fighters force their own people to be human shields, probably because it’s Israel—not Hamas—that routinely uses Palestinians as shields (FAIR.org, 5/13/25).

 ‘Systematically and deliberately devastated’ 

Equally weak is Shafran’s suggestion that it’s Palestinians’ fault that Israel attacks Palestinian hospitals, schools and mosques. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said that Israel damaged and destroyed more than 90% of the school and university buildings in Gaza, and found just one case where Hamas had also used a school for military purposes. The commission also said that Israeli attacks have damaged more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza, and noted that

all ten religious and cultural sites in Gaza investigated by the Commission constituted civilian objects at the time of attack, and suffered devastating destruction for which the Commission could not identify a legitimate military need.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://fair.org/home/the-wall-street-journal-has-many-ways-to-deny-genocide/

October 11, 2025 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

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

October 11, 2025 Posted by | Gaza, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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.

October 10, 2025 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Not surprising: Biden hid report on Ukraine scandal, docs reveal

 07 Oct 2025 , https://www.sott.net/article/502251-Not-surprising-Biden-hid-report-on-Ukraine-scandal-docs-reveal

Joe Biden asked the CIA to cover up a report about his family’s alleged corrupt business activities in Ukraine while he was serving as US vice president in 2015, according to declassified agency documents.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe published the mostly redacted records on Tuesday.

One of the documents was a government email sent to the agency and dated February 10, 2016.

“Good morning, I just spoke with Vice President / National Security Adviser and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding,” it said.

The sender’s name was redacted, leaving just the title PDB Briefer. The Presidential Daily Brief is a top secret document for daily distribution to the US president and a small number of top level approved officials.

The report in question said that Ukrainian officials in the administration of then President Pyotr Poroshenko “expressed bewilderment and disappointment” at Biden’s December 2015 visit.

These officials viewed the alleged ties of the US Vice President’s family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the US Government towards matters of corruption and political power.

Biden’s convicted felon son, Hunter, held a lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy conglomerate Burisma Holdings during his father’s vice presidential term.

The elder Biden has publicly admitted to pressuring Kiev into firing a prosecutor general who was investigating the company in 2016. However, he denied ever taking bribes or having knowledge of Hunter’s foreign business affairs.

In December of last year, Biden signed a broad pardon for his son, u-turning on prior promises not to do so. The pardon shields Hunter from any prosecution for crimes committed between 2014 and 2024.

Rampant corruption in Ukraine has led US officials to voice concerns over potential embezzlement of aid. Recent opinion polls say the majority of Ukrainians see the problem as getting worse.

October 10, 2025 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Trump dreams of nuclear as he axes grid projects

By FRANCISCO “A.J.” CAMACHO , 10/06/2025, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2025/10/06/trump-dreams-of-nuclear-as-he-axes-grid-projects-00594623

The Trump administration is wiping out projects meant to ensure the reliability of the electric grid — while pinning many of its promises of energy affordability on a nuclear moonshot.

The moonshot includes a goal to make three advanced reactors go critical by July 4, 2026. A prime player is the nuclear startup Oklo, which the White House is promoting as central to its aims of powering artificial intelligence and energy-sucking data centers, as I wrote in a recent deep dive.

Meanwhile, the administration is rolling back funding for power transmission projects that energy planners call essential to grid reliability as electricity demand rises. The Department of Energy’s latest plans to cancel $8 billion in clean energy funding include more than two dozen grid improvement projects, including a $464 million grant for Minnesota to build a transmission line that would deliver 28 gigawatts of power to the Midwest, write Josh Siegel, Kelsey Tamborrino, Jessie Blaeser and James Bikales.

In short, the Trump administration is cutting support for projects based on existing technology that would get more low-cost renewables on the grid, while doubling down on expensive — even speculative — nuclear power. Nuclear is a rare exception to the Trump administration’s fealty to fossil fuels.

As Zack Colman and Catherine Allen write today, states that rely heavily on wind and solar power typically have lower power costs than the national average. Nuclear remains expensive, with small modular reactors such as the one Oklo is pursuing still unproven commercially in the U.S. Oklo’s reactor doesn’t even exist yet — federal regulators rejected its first application.

Oklo maintains that its “fast reactor” technology can be cheaper, faster and safer to deploy than existing nuclear reactors. (The technology’s fundamentals have been tested with mixed results in labs across the globe and are commercially used in Russia.) CEO Jacob DeWitte said he has not been in touch with Energy Secretary Chris Wright — who once sat on Oklo’s board — since Wright joined the Cabinet.

Nuclear ‘meme stock’?

Former Obama-era Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane has called Oklo’s regulatory record “extremely frustrating,” adding that regulators “asked [Oklo] questions over and over. They never got answers.”

Even so, Oklo executives have secured federal pilot project awards, stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and broken ground on a would-be reactor on DOE land in Idaho. (They may even get access to plutonium fuel reprocessed from the nation’s weapons stockpile, as Zack wrote last week.) That’s a level of White House backing that other companies with plentiful regulatory approvals and proven commercial deliverables aren’t getting. Democrats have pointed to Oklo’s ties to Wright as one potential explanation.

Some financial analysts and industry observers compare Oklo’s $138 share price to meme stock, saying it has gone viral regardless of its fundamental value.

The grid’s nuts and bolts

All of this is happening as grid operators warn of a widening gap between available power and surging electricity demand from AI.

Trump agencies have eliminated tens of billions of dollars in clean energy and climate funding in total, write Zack and Catherine, echoing investor and industry anxieties from the 2024 election cycle. In July, DOE canceled a nearly $5 billion loan guarantee for a transmission line that would bring 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy in the Midwest to dense population centers in the East.

The clawbacks could add up to higher utility bills, said Rob Gramlich, president of the consulting firm Grid Strategies.

“Whether one loves or hates wind and solar, they are what most utilities are relying on to provide large amounts of low-cost power and some amount of firm capacity for the next few years,” Gramlich said.

October 8, 2025 Posted by | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Support of Trump’s Gaza peace plan ignores major flaw

7 October 2025 AIMN Editorial, By Walt Zlotow, https://theaimn.net/support-of-trumps-gaza-peace-plan-ignores-major-flaw/  

Chicago Tribune’s (my local paper) support of Trump’s Gaza peace plan ignores major flaw… no call for a Palestinian state.

Everyone should join the Chicago Tribune’s hope for an end to the 2 year Israeli genocidal ethnic cleansing of 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza. In its editorial, ‘Why we support Trump’s proposal for peace in Gaza between Israel and Hamas’, the Trib called Trump’s 20 point plan “substantive”, not “Trump’s prior musings about U.S. control of Gaza or fanciful talk of Trump-branded resorts.”

The Trib’s substantive claim does not include creation of a Palestinian state, an entity recognized by 157 of the UN’s 193 countries (81%), but not the US. Israel’s 2 yearlong destruction of Gaza and gobbling up their West Bank land with hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers, makes Palestinian statehood impossible.

Creation of a Palestinian state should be recognized by the US and made Point 1 of Trump’s 20 point plan. But one must scroll down to point 19 before gleaning even a hint of a Palestinian state far in the future:

19. While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform programme is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.

If there was any doubt this precludes a Palestinian state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed after release of the plan that it did not call for a Palestinian state. To show his disdain for the plan, Netanyahu ignored Trump’s demand Friday to immediately cease bombing the now obliterated Gaza by killing over 190 Palestinians over the 3-day weekend.

The US should cease being an outlier by becoming country 158 to recognize the state of Palestine. It should further cut off all military aid to Israel until it enters into serious negotiations with both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (the rulers of Gaza and West Bank respectively) to create a Palestinian state that will live in peace with neighboring Israel. That is precisely what Trump’s proposed International Stabilization Force (ISF) should be tasked with.

That, and not the Trump peace plan that likely precludes there ever being a Palestinian state, would truly be substantive.

October 8, 2025 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Patrick Lawrence: Power and Justice 

You just know Trump’s name is written into this document, and at his insistence, in the cause of his vulgar pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize he will never get. But never mind this. The Gaza Peace Plan released Monday reads as if Netanyahu dictated it.

Trump. – If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.

 By Patrick Lawrence , ScheerPost, October 5, 2025 

Those were an eventful few days as the General Assembly convened at the United Nations Secretariat in New York Sept. 22.  France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and Andorra formally recognized the state of Palestine on the first day of the General Debate, Sept. 23. Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal had done so two days earlier. With Spain, New Zealand, Finland, Ireland, Norway and other nations also recognizing, virtually the whole of the Western bloc except the United States now accepts Palestine as a sovereign state.

The imperium fades further into its corner. Always good.

And eventful days have followed all the new endorsements of the sovereignty of the Palestinian people. President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, presented a grandly titled Gaza Peace Plan at the White House on Monday, Sept. 29. After several days of suspense and speculation, Hamas responded to this document on Friday. This was not the wholesale acceptance of the 20–point plan Trump seemed to think it was (or wish it was): No, this was skilled statecraft on Hamas’s part — “a responsible position in dealing with the plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump,” as the Hamas statement describes itself. “Responsible,” as I read the text, means responsible to the long-suffering Palestinians in Gaza and responsible to the principles of the Palestinian cause.   

What do we have here? How shall we understand these apparently disparate events? In my view, we witness a running confrontation between power and justice. This seems to me the defining struggle of our time, and it sharpens as we speak. 

You hear a lot of different things about those recognitions at the U.N. in support of a Palestinian state. “What a mockery,” Ali Abunimah, the principled director of The Electronic Intifada, wrote on “X” as heads of state stood at the podium and made these announcements. “Now they just need an actual state.” The Nation called the West’s declarations of support for an independent Palestine “a despicable sham.”

OK, there is a case here. These countries, one and all, call for a two-state solution, and a deader letter I cannot think of. Britain and France pile so many conditions atop their declarations — political candidates in the not-yet-realized Palestine will be vetted, Hamas (never mind its popularity) will be barred from any role in government, textbooks will be censored etc. — that you have to wonder what they mean by “sovereignty” and “self-determination.” Britain and France continue to arm Israel as it terrorizes the people we know as Palestinians.

But those many blurting these out-of-hand dismissals have it wrong, in my view. I am not in the habit of approving of anything Keir Starmer or Emmanuel Macron does, but in this case the British prime minister and the French president, odious “centrists” that they are, deserve what we used to call — alas, for the days when there was a serious left — critical support. The West ex-the United States has finally joined the global majority: Four-fifths of the U.N.’s 193 members now support a Palestinian nation.

No, I am with what many West Bank Palestinians have said since the General Debate convened. A woman named Raya, as quoted in the above-linked document: “Recognition is considered a good and unexpected step, but it will have no real value unless it is followed by serious and practical measures.…” From Alia: “It’s not about if they recognize us or not. It’s about if there is even something left to recognize.” And from Samia: “Recognition of Palestinian statehood is great but will be futile if the genocide on Gaza and occupation do not come to an end.”

See what I mean by critical support?

Flawed as all the statements of recognition are, they seem to have uncorked the bottle wherein the justice genie reposed. This is not to be missed. The walkout when Bibi Netanyahu spoke was even more fun to watch than last year’s. So was the straight-no-chaser language with which heads of state denounced the Israelis’ genocidal barbarities. Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, described Zionist Israelis as Nazis and called for the U.N. to organize an international force to break the Israeli blockade and stop the savagery.

Petro is right: The Israeli–American peace plan notwithstanding, it is ultimately going to take armed intervention to stop the Zionists’ terror spree. A head of state has finally put this thought on the table. 

While the General Assembly proceeded with its business, the Spanish and Italians dispatched naval vessels to sail with the aid flotilla of 50–odd ships then making its way to the waters off Gaza. The Israelis intercepted these vessels late last week — illegally, in international waters — and their crews were deported. But a new flotilla of 11 vessels instantly set sail across the Mediterranean. Also last week, Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish premier, announced that U.S. ships and planes transporting arms and matériel to Israel will be barred from transiting through Spanish ports and air bases. These moves cannot be seen as unrelated to developments on the diplomatic side.   

You didn’t have to be at the U.N. last month (and I wasn’t) to understand the gravity of these events — to feel the explosive energy in the air inside and outside the Secretariat. You could see it in the real-time videos posted on social media. The world, the non–West naturally in the lead, was at last declaring, “Enough!” Taking the occasion to its essence, this was a full-frontal confrontation with power in the cause of global justice. One dramatic scene stays with me even now: When Gustavo Petro resumed his seat after speaking, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was videoed standing above him and holding his head in a fraternal embrace.

“This historic moment,” the Brazilian president exclaimed when it was his turn at the podium. So it was.

And then what?

Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly had a difficult time settling on a flight plan when he flew from Tel Aviv to New York, given he is wanted under international law for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Norway, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands are among the nations that indicated they would honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant were he to enter their territory. How was it he was allowed into the Secretariat at all, it was logical to wonder.

We can surmise that part of the Israeli prime minister’s purpose in attending this year’s General Assembly — where he called those who walked out when he spoke “an antisemitic mob” — was openly to flout international law and, per usual, everything the U.N. stands for. The subtext from the moment Bibi arrived in Manhattan was clear: There is no question of the global majority bringing the Israeli terror machine to justice, he wanted to demonstrate, and power, not law, will remain what makes the world go around.

And this is how I read Netanyahu’s summit with President Trump on Monday —  their fourth since Trump reassumed office in January. The 20–point plan they released has all kinds of things going on in it, but, taking a step back, it is fairly understood as a reply to the global majority’s just-stated desire for a humane and moral order. Read for its larger meaning, this is a declaration that we — we, all of us — live in a lawless world now and that legitimacy, international institutions, and (certainly not) common notions of justice count for nothing. Force alone counts in the world Trump and Bibi propose to stand astride like the co-emperors who ruled the ancient world after Constantine established an eastern capital in 330 AD.

The text of this document can be read here, courtesy of the BBC. In broad outline — and a broad outline is all there is to it at this point — it calls for an immediate ceasefire, after which — within 72 hours — Hamas is to release all remaining captives still alive and the bodies of the dead. In exchange, Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Palestinians taken prisoner since the events of Oct. 7, 2023. Then Hamas is to disarm, and the Israelis are to begin a phased withdrawal of their troops, but these will continue to occupy “for the foreseeable future” an expanding buffer inside the Gaza Strip’s eastern border.

Then come the longer-term provisions. “Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone” in which Hamas will have no presence or role. “Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza.” And then the question of government and administration.

Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee… made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body headed and chaired by Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

You just know Trump’s name is written into this document, and at his insistence, in the cause of his vulgar pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize he will never get. But never mind this. The Gaza Peace Plan released Monday reads as if Netanyahu dictated it, and I will offer odds he did. This thing is written loosely such that it gives Bibi all the room he needs to betray it now that he endorses it. This would, of course, be in keeping with every other agreement with Hamas and/or the United States that Netanyahu has accepted to date.

Hamas, as widely reported, did not formally receive the peace plan until after it was made public and, of course, had no role in its composition. This was intended as a take-it-or-leave-it offer such that, as Bibi and Trump made clear as they stood at opposing podiums Monday afternoon, Hamas’s leaders may as well have guns pointed to their temples. 

Bibi:

If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accepted and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself.

Trump, following this remark:

Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.

And for good measure, Trump again Friday on Truth Social, his digital bullhorn, warned Hamas that it had until Sunday to accept the plan:

If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.

Tell me, is this statecraft, or is this power using the threat of genocide as blackmail? Corollary question: Is the overarching proposal here that a regime guilty of the most savage acts of barbarity at least since the Reich shall now proceed on with impunity — no responsibility for its crimes, no answerability to the institutions of global justice?  

As to the question of statehood, Hamas’s longstanding demand and the vital preoccupation of the 100–plus nations attending the General Assembly just days earlier, there is no provision at all in this plan unless we count this (and I cannot):

While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA [the Palestinian Authority] reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.

It is simply unbelievable to me that these two grotesquely irresponsible people would expect anyone to take this kind of language at all seriously. Try to count the escape hatches in this provision, which is No. 19 of the 20 comprising the plan. I identify at least three, maybe four……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

I cannot honestly read this moment with any certainty. On Thursday, bang in the middle of these proceedings, Israel Katz, the Zionist state’s defense minister and another of the fanatics in the Netanyahu government, announced that if the half-million residents remaining in Gaza City do not evacuate they will be considered terrorists; the implications of this status will be evident. What is our question: Will the Netanyahu regime hold to the “peace plan,” or how long will it take for Bibi to abrogate it? In the day since Hamas announced its openness to negotiation based on the plan, let me remind you, Israel has not stopped the bombing. …………………………………………………………………….

There is absolutely zero interest in the wishes of Palestinians in this plan. No mention at all of the West Bank or the escalating cruelties of diabolic settlers as they steal ever more Palestinian land. And not to be missed, indifference to what the majority of humanity just made clear at the General Assembly. 

This is power announcing its utter contempt for anything other than raw force —  forms of force that see no need any longer to disguise themselves.

There is no discounting the significance of events last week at the U.N. and outside its gates. The world has broken its silence. At the highest levels of government in the non–Western majority, it is learning — I can no longer bear this co-opted phrase, but here goes—to speak truth to power. Power and justice are, so to say, now on the record as in open conflict. This is not nothing. There is more to come. I have no trouble anticipating which will finally, however far in the future, win out over the other. https://scheerpost.com/2025/10/05/patrick-lawrence-power-and-justice/

October 8, 2025 Posted by | Gaza, Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Kremlin welcomes Trump’s comments to extend nuclear arms pact

The Kremlin has welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February

ByVLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press, October 7, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kremlin-welcomes-trumps-comments-putins-offer-extend-new-126253222

MOSCOW — MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Monday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits under the 2010 New START arms reduction treaty for one more year, and he urged Washington to follow suit. When asked about the proposal, Trump said Sunday it “sounds like a good idea to me.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Trump’s statement, noting that “it gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.”

While offering to extend the New START agreement, Putin said its expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. He also argued that maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.”

The Russian leader reaffirmed the offer Thursday, noting that Russia and the U.S. could use the one-year extension to work on a possible successor pact.

Such an agreement will involve complex talks that could deal with battlefield nuclear weapons and prospective strategic weapons systems that Russia has developed, Putin said.

“We haven’t forgotten about anything that we have planned, the work is ongoing and it will produce results,” he declared at a forum of international foreign policy experts.

He mentioned the longtime U.S. push for including China in any prospective nuclear arms control pact but emphasized that it’s up to Washington to try to persuade Beijing to do so. China has rejected the idea, arguing that its nuclear arsenals are far smaller than those of the U.S. and Russia.

Putin also argued that the nuclear arsenals of NATO members Britain and France should be included in a prospective agreement.

He noted at the forum that some in the U.S. oppose New START’s extension, and “if they don’t need it, we don’t need it either. We feel confident about our nuclear shield.”

Putin’s offer came at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, with concerns rising that fighting in Ukraine could spread beyond its borders.

The New START, signed by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The pact also stipulates the need for on-site inspections to verify compliance, although inspections were halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

The treaty was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.

Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the treaty’s looming expiration and the lack of dialogue to secure a successor deal, warning of the possibility of a new nuclear arms race and the increased risk of a nuclear conflict. 

October 8, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Russia, USA | Leave a comment

Trump Swears At Netanyahu As Israel’s Standing in the U.S. Continues to Decline

Dimitri Lascaris. Oct 07, 2025, https://reason2resist.substack.com/p/trump-swears-at-netanyahu-as-israels?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2811845&post_id=175468550&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

After Trump and Netanyahu presented an ultimatum to the Palestinian resistance on September 30, Hamas issued a statement in which it accepted key parts of the ultimatum but diplomatically rejected other parts.

Hamas also signalled its strong willingness to negotiate the points of contention.

Hamas’s response prompted Trump to demand an end to Israel’s bombing of Gaza, but Netanyahu refused to comply. Israeli forces continue to this day to murder Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu reportedly told Trump that Hamas has rejected the Trump ‘peace plan’. Relying on an anonymous source, Axios claims that this prompted a fiery response from Trump.

Despite the theatrics, Hamas and Israeli negotiators have convened in Egypt. New negotiations are said to have begun.

Against this backdrop, the Washington Post just issued a poll showing that Israel’s standing among American Jews continues to plummet.

In the latest episode of Reason2Resist, I argue that, whatever happens in the negotiations in Cairo, Israel has lost the propaganda war, and it is only a matter of time before the U.S. government is forced to rein in its rabid Israeli attack dog.

I also discuss a new, $10 million lawsuit that he and four other Canadian lawyers have filed against Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). The lawsuit has been filed on behalf of 10 current and former students of the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. They allege that TMU’s administration falsely accused them of antisemitism.

October 8, 2025 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

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