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"If you are willing to stir a pot, you better be willing to eat what comes out of it."

-- Wes Fesler

News and Opinion

Israel Cuts Gaza’s Internet Amid Soaring IDF Atrocities

The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday that internet and fixed-line services are down throughout the entire Gaza Strip following an Israeli attack on the last fiber-optic line in the enclave, AFP reports. Communications had already been cut off from northern Gaza the previous day.

“The southern and central Gaza Strip have now joined Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip in experiencing complete isolation for the second consecutive day,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Israeli forces are preventing repair teams from reaching the site of the attack.

“Only people who have e-sims have access to the internet across Gaza,” Gaza journalist Hind Khoudary said on Twitter. “It takes you more than an hour to connect, and another hour to post. But why did Israel bomb the main internet fiber route? Why is Israel insisting on isolating Gaza from the world? So we are now deprived from food, water, electricity, and internet.”

BREAKING | Internet has now been cut off across the entire Gaza Strip, adding south and central Gaza to the affected areas that were disconnected yesterday. According to SAFA news agency and reports from residents using e-SIMs, all of the Gaza Strip is suffering a blackout now.… pic.twitter.com/gPaI1TL1FS

— Translating Falasteen (Palestine) (@translatingpal) June 11, 2025

“Think of all the horrific images you’ve seen from Gaza. Now think of what worse carnage and murderous depravity Israel must be inflicting now to cut off the internet,” tweeted journalist Sam Husseini of the news.

Indeed, this latest move comes amid a particularly egregious spike in mass atrocities from the Zionist entity. Israeli forces just killed 120 people in a single 24-hour period and injured hundreds more, with scores massacred while seeking food from Israel’s notorious “death trap” aid distribution sites. Israel has been massacring starving civilians desperately seeking aid on a near-daily basis in Gaza over the past two weeks.

Israel is continually seeking out new ways to obstruct the world’s visibility into what’s happening with Gaza. That’s why they’ve been assassinating journalists who live in Gaza at a historically unprecedented rate while banning journalists outside Gaza from entering. It’s a nonstop war against visibility and truth, because Israel thrives on lies and darkness.

It has driven the Israelis mad that their global support is being eroded by Palestinians recording their own genocide and broadcasting the footage to the world. If they think they can get away with keeping Gaza in the dark they absolutely will do so, while continuing to seek out further ways to hide the truth from the world.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : War For War’s Sake

Israel striking 'dozens' of sites across Iran, official tells Reuters

An Israeli military official has told Reuters that the air force is striking “dozens” of targets across Iran, including military and nuclear sites.

The official has called the Iranian nuclear programme is an existential threat to Israel.

Speaking to i24 diplomatic correspondent, Amichai Stein, an Israeli military official said that the country was preparing for “days of battle” with Iran.

Israel Attacks Iran, Killing Top Military Leaders, Scientists; Hits Nuke Sites in Expanding Conflict

Netanyahu says Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation, saying the IDF had targted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.

He said that Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted.

Little Marco Rubio is Worried!

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that Israel’s strikes on Iran were unilateral and that the US was not involved.

In a statement, he said: “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”

SCOTT RITTER : Israel Strikes Iran

Prof. John Mearsheimer : FIRST STRIKE BY ISRAEL - Can Iran Defeat Israel?

Trump warns of ‘massive conflict’ soon if Iran nuclear talks break down

Donald Trump has warned that a “massive conflict” could break out in the Middle East soon if talks over an Iranian nuclear deal break down, amid concerns over a possible Israeli strike against Tehran. Trump said on Thursday he was worried that an Israeli strike could “blow” the negotiations, and he confirmed he had ordered some US personnel to evacuate from the Middle East in case of an Iranian counterattack that could include “missiles flying in their buildings”.

His warning came after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued its strongest condemnation of Iran in 20 years as it said the country had continued to enrich uranium to near weapons-grade levels and had failed to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations. Iran responded defiantly, calling the censure a “political resolution” and announcing it had built and would activate a third site to enrich uranium that could produce fissile material used to make a nuclear weapon.

US and European officials have been told that Israel is fully ready to launch a pre-emptive strike targeting Iran’s nuclear programme, even if Washington does not provide direct support, US media have reported. There is no clear timeline for when Israel would launch a strike, although it could come as soon as Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Trump administration has privately told Israel that it would not participate in a strike, according to Axios.

Trump conceded an Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear programme “could very well happen. There’s a chance of massive conflict,” he said. “We have a lot of American people in this area. And I said we have to tell them to get out soon. And I don’t want to be the one that didn’t give any warning and missiles are flying into their buildings.”

Max Blumenthal : Is Israel Aiding Ukraine?

More mass casualties near Gaza food points as GHF says five staff killed

The bloody chaos that has overtaken food distribution in Gaza has worsened with more mass casualties among Palestinians trying to reach humanitarian assistance, while the US-Israeli organisation tasked with aid deliveries claimed that five of its local workers had been killed by Hamas. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) claimed on Thursday that a bus full of its Palestinian staff was attacked by Hamas at 10pm local time on Wednesday, with at least five deaths and other workers taken hostage.

It was not immediately clear why the organisation was attempting a night-time delivery. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have warned Palestinians not to approach food distribution points before 6am. The GHF reportedly claimed on its Arabic Facebook page that it had carried out a 3am food distribution. The GHF did not respond to inquiries about the night distribution but its newly appointed chair, the evangelical preacher and Trump adviser Johnnie Moore, said on social media: “These dear people were murdered by Hamas because they just wanted to feed their people. They were not militants. They were humanitarians, many of them young people. ...

Hamas has not commented on the GHF claims, but said it had killed 12 members of the Israeli-backed Abu Shabab group after detaining them overnight. There have been increasingly bloody clashes in recent days between Hamas and the militia led by an Israeli-backed local warlord, Yasser abu Shabab. Reports from Khan Younis in southern Gaza said Abu Shabab members were publicly executed overnight in the city.

Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, nearly two-thirds of them as they were seeking food from GHF food points, according to local health authorities. There were more mass casualties reported on Thursday morning. The Palestinian civil defence agency told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Israeli forces had killed 22 people across Gaza, of whom 16 had been waiting to collect food.

Rights Group Warns of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's Complicity in Israeli 'War Crimes'

As Israeli occupation forces continued to massacre desperate aid-seekers in Gaza this week, human rights defenders accused the U.S.-backed organization Israel is allowing to distribute limited aid in the embattled strip of being a "death trap" and giving cover to Israel's program of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians.

Local and international media reported Thursday that at least 13 Palestinians were killed and upward of 200 others were wounded when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops opened fire on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.

Medical sources also said Israeli shelling killed 12 Palestinians and injured dozens more gathered at an aid distribution center near the southern city of Rafah, while IDF troops shot dead five other people waiting for aid northwest of Gaza City.

Thursday's massacres followed similar IDF attacks on civilians seeking aid that have killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians since the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began allowing a trickle of humanitarian relief to enter Gaza amid a "complete siege" that has fueled mass starvation among the strip's more than 2 million people, almost all of whom have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times.

Many hundreds of Palestinians, mostly children and elders, have recently died from malnutrition and lack of medical care in Gaza.

This, as Israeli forces continued Operation Gideon's Chariots, which aims to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population, possibly to make way for Israeli resettlement as advocated by many right-wing Israelis.

As the death toll among Palestinian aid-seekers mounts, critics have taken aim at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Delaware-based nonprofit tasked with distributing aid in the coastal enclave. Opponents have called GHF a "death trap" and a "ruse to weaponize aid."

This week, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) notified GHF "of its potential legal liability for complicity in Israel's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians."

The Center for Constitutional Rights warns Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that continuing operations will expose it to "liability for aiding and abetting and otherwise being complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in violation of international law and US law." pic.twitter.com/3jxsiL8YsV

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) June 11, 2025

CCR—which unsuccessfully sued U.S. President Joe Biden and two of his top officials for alleged genocide complicity in Gaza—said in a letter to GHF executive chairman Johnnie Moore that "there is a reasonable basis to believe that your operations, planned and undertaken in close coordination with Israel, are directly contributing to or otherwise furthering Israel's commission of forcible transfer and other atrocity crimes in the occupied Gaza Strip."

"This militarized system of food distribution funneled through three distribution hubs in Rafah and one near Deir el-Balah requires malnourished Palestinians to travel great distances and often relocate within Gaza to access food aid under a regime overseen by Israeli forces and U.S. private military contractors," the letter continues.

"In the 10 days since GHF began its stop-and-go operations, reports range from at least 95 to as many as 130 Palestinians having
been killed and hundreds wounded while seeking food at GHF sites," CCR added. "We urge you to immediately cease and desist such operations and actions in Gaza. Failing to do so could result in the initiation of civil litigation or criminal prosecution in domestic courts in different countries, including under the principle of universal jurisdiction, or could subject you to the jurisdiction of international bodies."

Those bodies include the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands—which is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel—and the International Criminal Court, also based in the Dutch city, which last year issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and forced starvation.

The Gaza “Humanitarian Foundation” is an engineered instrument of humiliation, deprivation, & demographic manipulation. However, essentially they are a horrific death trap exploiting the deliberate starvation of the besieged Palestinian people to entice them to their death at the…

— Hanan Ashrawi (@DrHananAshrawi) June 11, 2025

On Thursday, Zeteo published an interview with an anonymous former private U.S. security contractor who was hired to facilitate GHF aid distribution who said: "I thought I was signing up for an aid mission. But what I've witnessed in Gaza is horrific."

"You have guys with hardly any knowledge of the culture, no deployment experience, and are not necessarily qualified to be using the weapons they had in charge of security at aid sites in a place where we know millions are desperate for aid," he continued. "What could go wrong?"

According to the former contractor:

One episode sticks with me. We were monitoring an empty site all day; sometime after dark, dozens of flatbed trucks finally brought aid. The Israeli military soon radioed in that 200 to 300 civilians a couple of kilometers (less than two miles) north were approaching. We then observed an Israeli drone go out there.

Shortly thereafter, that area started getting lit up with artillery. The generous interpretation? Maybe the Israelis were firing between our position and the people in order to keep them from moving forward. I don't think that's the case. After all, tanks fire all day long near these aid sites. Snipers fire from what used to be a hospital. Bombs and bullets fly all day long in one direction—toward Palestinians. It's very clear that the Israeli military will take any opportunity available to fire.

Last month, Jake Wood, a former U.S. marine and co-founder of the disaster relief group Team Rubicon, resigned as executive director of GHF. Wood cited "the lack of independence from Israel and the likelihood that the plan would result in forced displacement," according to CCR.

Earlier this month, Christoph Schweizer, CEO of Boston Consulting Group—which played a key role in creating GHF—apologized for and ended BCG's participation in the endeavor.

"I deeply regret that in this situation, we fell short—of our own standards and of the trust that you, our clients and our broader communities place in BCG," he wrote. "I am sorry for how deeply disappointing this has been."

Harvard researcher released from US custody after arrest for smuggling frog embryos

A judge released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the US on Thursday, freeing her on bail after a brief hearing.

Kseniia Petrova, 30, who was brought into court wearing an orange jumpsuit, had been in federal custody since February. She was seen walking out of the courthouse laughing and hugging supporters.

Lawyers on both sides came to an agreement on conditions for Petrova’s release, which included limiting her travel. Authorities are still holding on to her passport. Petrova must return to court next week for a probable cause hearing on the smuggling charge.

“I hear it’s sunny. Goodbye,” magistrate judge Judith Dein said in Boston after approving the agreement.

Petrova was returning from a vacation earlier this year in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was questioned about the samples while passing through a US Customs and Border Protection checkpoint at Boston Logan international airport.

US immigration agency flies drones capable of surveillance over LA protests

Customs and Border Protection is flying surveillance drones over the Los Angeles protests, the agency confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The drones in question are MQ-9 Predators, some models of which are equipped with technology that would enable high-altitude surveillance. In a statement to 404 Media, which first reported the presence of the drones, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the drones were deployed to support “our federal law enforcement partners in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with aerial support of their operations”. Ice conducts raids and arrests, activity that has ramped up under Donald Trump’s administration and against which protesters in Los Angeles have been demonstrating.

CBP also said in a statement that its air and marine operations were “not engaged in the surveillance of first amendment activities”, but that they are “providing officer safety surveillance when requested by officers”.

The Department of Homeland Security on Monday posted a video on X that the agency said was DHS drone footage and bore a CBP air and marine operations watermark. It included zoomed in clips of protestors on the streets.

"We Are in the Midst of the Creation of a Police State": Rep. Ilhan Omar on Trump's Authoritarianism

Judge rules Trump illegally called up National Guard and must return control of troops in LA to governor

In a ruling on Friday, Judge Charles Breyer temporarily barred Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops in Los Angeles and ordered the National Guard to return to the control of California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who sued Trump over the move. Breyer’s order in Newsom v. Trump will take effect at noon on Friday.

“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions” the judge wrote in his 36-page order. “He did not. His actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”

Senator Alex Padilla forcibly removed from Kristi Noem’s LA press conference

Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration polices, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles on Thursday.

In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service and FBI agents.

“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla shouts, as he struggles to move past against the men pushing him back toward the exit. “Hands off!” Padilla says at least three times. Outside the room, he is pinned to the floor and placed in handcuffs.

Emerging afterward, Padilla, the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and border safety, said he and his colleagues had repeatedly asked DHS for more information on its “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” but had not received a response to his inquiries.

“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the DHS responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers, throughout the LA community and throughout California and throughout the country,” Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, told reporters. “We will hold this administration accountable.”

Video from CBS News of the moment when Senator Alex Padilla interrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday shows that he was not close to or lunging at her, and she continued with her prepared remarks pic.twitter.com/Poyal5bniG

— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) June 12, 2025

Liars.

"I am Senator Alex Padilla." https://t.co/HAloEDxfj7 pic.twitter.com/iiINwoXfGZ

— Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) June 12, 2025

Trump to merge wildland firefighting forces, despite warning of chaos

Donald Trump has ordered the US government to consolidate its wildland firefighting force into a single program, despite warnings from former federal officials that it could be costly and increase the risk of catastrophic blazes in the middle of peak wildfire season.

The order aims to centralize firefighting efforts, which are now split among five agencies and two cabinet departments. Trump’s proposed budget for next year calls for the creation of a new Federal Wildland Fire Service under the US interior department.

That would mean shifting thousands of personnel from the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service – where most federal firefighters now work – with fire season already under way. The administration has not disclosed how much money the change could cost or save.

In his order, Trump cited the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January as highlighting a need for a quicker response to wildfires.

“Wildfires threaten every region, yet many local government entities continue to disregard commonsense preventive measures,” the order said. The order also directed the defense secretary to prioritize the sale of excess aircraft and aircraft parts to support wildfire mitigation and response, according to the White House.

Trump blocks California rules for greener vehicles and gas-powered car ban

Donald Trump has blocked California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, signing a resolution on Thursday to stymie the state’s ambitious attempt to tackle the climate crisis by pivoting to greener vehicles.

The state quickly announced it was challenging the move in court, with California’s attorney general holding a news conference to discuss the lawsuit before Trump’s signing ceremony ended at the White House.

The resolution was approved by Congress last month and aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.

California has some of the worst smog and air quality issues in the nation, and has for decades been able to seek waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency that have allowed the state to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.

But Trump, who has pledged to revive the US auto manufacturing industry and boost oil and gas drilling, called California’s regulations “crazy”.

“It’s been a disaster for this country,” he said at a White House ceremony where he signed the resolutions.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Attack dogs: how Europe supplies Israel with brutal canine weapons

An Israeli Soldier Killed a Palestinian Asleep in His Bed

Trump’s Authoritarian Leap

As Trump Sets Military Against Civilians, Soldiers Have Duty to Disobey

Troops are now patrolling Los Angeles. This is a disaster waiting to happen

Rob Urie: Why Retaliation Rhymes with Negotiation, US – Russia Edition

State & Police Vulnerabilities In An American Insurrection Scenario

A Little Night Music

The Electric Flag – Sweet Soul Music

The Electric Flag – Qualified

The Electric Flag – Over Lovin' You

The Electric Flag – Lonely Song

The Electric Flag – My Woman That Hangs Around The House

The Electric Flag – Texas

The Electric Flag – Earthquake Country

The Electric Flag – Killing Floor

The Electric Flag (w/ Erma Franklin) - San Francisco 1968