[IsraelTimes] Suspect, 22, was in contact with Iranian agents, scattered nails on a major road in Beersheba, according to police and Shin Bet; will be expelled from BGU
Police and Shin Bet agents have arrested a Ben-Gurion University student on suspicion of attempting to attack a public figure at the behest of Iranian agents, authorities announced Thursday.
Bashar Hassan Qassem Musa, a 22-year-old resident of the Galilee village of Deir al-Asad studying information systems, was accused of maintaining contact with Iranian intelligence operatives for months before his arrest.
He allegedly carried out several missions for them, including an attempted attack on an unnamed public figure, scattering nails on a major route in Beersheba, and "encouraging divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... discourse."
Compare and contrast to what Mossad accomplished in Iran — really, there’s no comparison.
Police say he was ideologically motivated, spurred on by Israel’s ongoing war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... . As is usually the case with Iran-sponsored espionage, the suspect was said to have received financial compensation from his contact.
Later on Thursday, the suspect was indicted on charges of contact with a foreign agent, passing intelligence to the enemy and deliberate endangerment of human life on a transportation route.
Despite police’s claim that the suspect plotted an attack on a public figure, the allegation did not appear in the official indictment.
In a statement, Ben-Gurion University announced its intention to expel Musa permanently.
"Ben-Gurion University is shocked by the information indicating that collaboration with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has reached Beersheba as well. Since his arrest, the student has not been attending the university," the school said in a statement quoted by Hebrew outlets.
"The university is awaiting details and confirmation from the State Attorney’s Office, after which it will initiate a disciplinary process for his permanent expulsion," it continued.
Over the past two years, Iran has ramped up its efforts to recruit ordinary Israelis as spies in exchange for money. In most cases, Israelis are recruited by Iranian handlers online and begin by carrying out small, innocuous tasks that gradually grow into more serious offenses, like intelligence gathering and even liquidation plots.
During Israel’s 12-day aerial campaign against Iranian nuclear targets, police and Shin Bet went public with the arrests of five suspects thought to have collaborated with the Islamic Theocratic Republic via handlers they met online.
Earlier this week, three Israelis were arrested on such suspicions, one of whom allegedly gathered intelligence on the future daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Near the outset of the war with Iran, security forces arrested two Israelis for alleged espionage for Tehran.
Of the dozens arrested and charged with espionage for Iran, only a few have been sentenced so far.
[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister Lecornu reveals French army shot down ‘fewer than 10’ drones, using aircraft and surface-to-air missiles
La Belle France’s military took part in efforts to stop Iranian drones targeting Israel prior to this week’s ceasefire, the country’s defense minister Sebastien Lecornu said late on Wednesday.
"I can confirm that the French army intercepted fewer than 10 drones in the last few days during the different military operations conducted by the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... against Israel, either by ground-to-air systems or via our Rafale fighter jets," Lecornu said during a parliamentary debate on the situation in the Middle East.
Golly. Merci beaucoup! But ten? Why so few…or so many?
Early in the war, French President Emmanuel Macron said that La Belle France could help defend Israel against an attack from Iran "if in a position to do so."
Iran, meanwhile, had threatened to retaliate against US, UK, and French bases in the Middle East if they helped stop strikes on Israel, though it did not carry out that threat.
Iran launched some 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel during the war, according to the IDF.
The vast majority of the drones, which are slower-moving but harder to track than missiles, failed to even make it to Israel’s borders. Just one drone hit a populated area, a home in the northern town of Beit She’an, causing heavy damage but no injuries.
Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli and American air defenses at an interception rate of around 90 percent, similar to the rate in Iran’s April and October 2024 attacks on Israel.
At least 31 ballistic missile impacts were reported in populated areas or critical infrastructure sites, including a power station in southern Israel, an oil refinery in Haifa, a university in central Israel and a hospital in Beersheba. Dozens of other missiles struck open areas, without causing significant damage.
Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel during the 12 days of war claimed the lives of 28 people — all but one of them civilians — and maimed over 3,000 people.
A US-brokered ceasefire began on Tuesday, ending the fighting.
[IsraelTimes] Mohamed Sabry Soliman accused of trying to kill eight people because of their support for Israel
A man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages has been indicted by a US federal grand jury on 12 hate crime counts.
Mohammed Sabry Soliman was initially charged with only one hate crime count in federal court in the June 1 attack on demonstrators. The federal grand jury indictment, which was filed in court Tuesday, had been expected for weeks as a formality in advancing the felony criminal case toward trial. It is routine for prosecutors to add charges beyond the crimes alleged in an initial criminal complaint.
The indictment accuses Soliman of trying to kill eight people who were hurt by the Molotov cocktails and targeting them because of their perceived or actual national origin, which prosecutors say was their perceived or actual connection to and support for Israel. He was also indicted for another hate crime for trying to kill others at the event or nearby who were not injured.
Soliman was also charged with two counts of using a fire and explosive to commit a felony and one count of possessing an bomb while committing a felony, which are also considered to be hate crimes.
Investigators say Soliman told them he had intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling "Free Paleostine." Soliman, who is also being prosecuted in state court for attempted murder and other charges, told Sherlocks he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a "legal citizen."
He posed as a gardener, wearing a construction vest, to get close to the group before launching the attack, according to court documents.
Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the US illegally with his family.
Soliman is being represented in state and federal court by public defenders who do not comment on their cases to the media.
At a hearing last week, Soliman’s defense attorney, David Kraut, urged Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella not to allow the case to move forward because he said the alleged attack was not a hate crime. Instead, he said it was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel. An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
Soliman is scheduled to appear in federal court on Friday for a hearing in which he will be asked to enter a plea to the charges.
Run for Their Lives, the group targeted in the attack, started in October 2023 after Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... faceless myrmidons from the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. The Boulder chapter, one of 230 worldwide, walks at the mall every weekend for 18 minutes, the numerical value of the Hebrew word "chai," which means "life."
Submitted almost simultaneously with Skidmark, so I feel good about the confirmation. :-)
[IsraelTimes] With nearly 500 reported killed trying to reach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation locations, the IDF says it’s working on reducing friction points, even as gunfire and shelling persist
Nearly a month after deadly shootings were first reported around aid distribution sites in areas of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... under Israeli military control, mass casualty incidents are still occurring on an almost daily basis.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which manages the aid sites, has consistently disavowed any responsibility for the reported deaths of hundreds of people trying to obtain the humanitarian assistance it distributes. The Israel Defense Forces, which is accused of carrying out the shootings, has acknowledged regret in some cases and says it is instituting changes aimed at making it easier for Gazooks to reach the sites.
But while the IDF says it is looking into the incidents, they appear to have continued apace.
Between May 27 and June 24, there were at least 19 IDF shooting incidents related to humanitarian aid distribution, according to a review of reports out of Gaza conducted by The Times of Israel. These numbers have not been confirmed by Israeli authorities.
In many cases, the IDF has either declined to respond or stated it was unaware of the incidents. Many of the events were not documented with photographic evidence at the scene — only images of bodies and injured individuals arriving at hospitals in Gaza have surfaced.
On June 23, the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -run health ministry in Gaza announced that 467 people have been killed while waiting for humanitarian aid since the GHF began operating on May 26. An additional 3,602 people were reported injured in these incidents. These figures have not been independently verified. The IDF declined to answer The Times of Israel’s question regarding how many such incidents it knew of.
According to reports from the Strip, the vast majority of these incidents occurred near GHF distribution centers — either in western Rafah in the south or in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. One incident reportedly happened when a crowd gathered around a truck carrying humanitarian aid in Khan Younis.
Many of the maimed are brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
"Every day (in the last month) we receive around 60 maimed and 20 dead from these incidents," a doctor there told The Times of Israel via WhatsApp. "Most injuries are from live fire; some were hit by tank shelling."
The Red Thingy told The Times of Israel that between May 27 and June 19, approximately 1,874 casualties arrived at a field hospital it operates in Rafah, of whom 100 were declared dead.
According to the organization, about 90 percent of those treated came from mass-casualty events, and most reported being injured while trying to obtain aid at or near distribution centers in Rafah.
At a press briefing this week, Jonathan Whittall, head of office for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, alleged that the corpse count may be even higher than reported.
"We are seeing a pattern of killing as Israeli forces open fire on crowds gathering to collect food," said Whittall, who has met with some of the maimed. "Those who are shot are often beyond the reach of ambulances. We are told people are missing, presumed dead, inside these military-controlled areas."
’COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT’
The GHF operates four distribution centers, all of which are located in zones that are under IDF security control, far from where most civilians are living.
Three of the centers are located in western Rafah and one is in the Netzarim Corridor, near the Nuseirat and al-Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza. They do not operate simultaneously, with two or fewer typically open at any given time.
The GHF, which is backed by the US and Israel, was set up as an alternate mechanism to the UN-backed aid distribution efforts that have operated in the Strip for most of the war. According to Israel, the new system was needed due to assistance being siphoned off by Hamas, which sold the goods on the black market to fund its activities, including recruiting new fighters to rebuild its depleted forces. The claim has been denied by both the terror group and the UN.
After cutting off aid deliveries for over two months starting in early March, Israel has again begun allowing dozens of trucks of aid to enter the Strip daily. Some of the assistance goes to humanitarian groups backed by the UN, which continue to operate in populated areas, but much of it is earmarked for the GHF.
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , which had previously overseen most humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza, has opposed the new initiative, condemning what it described as a violation of the principle of independence for humanitarian actors. The UN further argued that the plan is inadequate and will not resolve the hunger crisis in Gaza, calling the model "a failure."
In addition to the shooting incidents, numerous accounts received by The Times of Israel described a lack of organized distribution mechanisms at the centers, leading to chaos and looting.
According to the GHF, as of June 19, a total of 572,640 boxes of food had been distributed since operations began, which it says amounts to roughly 33 million meals. The food provided generally consists of dry goods that require cooking, despite a severe shortage of gas.
Johnnie Moore, who heads the GHF, said the organization was working to improve operations and reach as many Gazooks as it could, but highlighted the complications of working in a war zone.
"It’s very important for people to understand that what happens within the distribution centers is one thing. This is an incredibly complex environment," he told The Times of Israel. "It is definitely the case that Hamas has tried to do everything that they can to specifically target civilians, to disincentivize them from getting free food."
"But it is an active war," he added. "It’s dangerous to be anywhere in the Gaza Strip. It’s most dangerous to be in the domain of Hamas."
SHOOTING INTO CROWDS
Most of the reported shooting incidents have taken place in the early morning hours, when civilians make their way through IDF lines to the aid distribution sites. Videos from Gaza have shown large crowds gathering around the centers.
In at least some cases, the shootings appear to be the product of large crowds nearing Israeli military positions as they attempt to reach aid.
On June 3, the army said, it fired at individuals who strayed from an approved path as groups of Gazooks moved toward a GHF site.
"The forces carried out warning fire, and after the suspects did not retreat, further fire was directed near individuals who continued approaching," the army said after the incident. "The shooting occurred approximately 500 meters from the site and targeted individuals whose movement toward the forces posed a threat."
According to reports, 24 people were killed in that incident.
A Paleostinian involved in rescue operations told Jordan’s al-Ghad news outlet that women and kiddies were among the victims. "There were many dead and maimed at the site," he said. "Most of the injuries were to the head."
On June 17, the IDF responded to reports that its forces had opened fire on people seeking aid who had crowded around an aid truck in Khan Younis.
"A crowd of Gazooks was identified near a humanitarian aid truck that had become stuck in the Khan Younis area, close to IDF troops operating in the vicinity," it said in a statement. "Reports of casualties from IDF fire due to the crowd’s approach are known. The details are under review. The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians and makes every effort to minimize such harm while maintaining the safety of its forces."
According to Gazooks, 59 people were killed, including from tank shells fired at the crowd.
"People took cans of food from the truck — because of the hunger. The trucks retreated due to the looting. They said more trucks would come. The crowd moved toward the red line. Within five minutes, a tank fired at us," a Gazook civilian recounted to the Arab 48 website from Nasser hospital. "I hid... then pulled a man, a girl, and a woman — injured from the gunfire — onto my cycle of violence and brought them here (to the hospital) to get treatment."
Another Gazook woman who was at the scene told Al Jazeera that the tank fire started almost immediately. "We didn’t even manage to grab the flour before the shells fell," she said. "It’s indescribable. People’s limbs were severed. People died. People turned into corpses."
Earlier this month, the IDF issued a warning to Paleostinians not to approach roads leading to GHF sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., designating those areas as closed military zones. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the GHF indicated that its centers could remain open during those hours.
A spokesperson for the GHF called the idea that the group was enabling massacres by opening during hours outside the IDF’s timeline "deeply misleading and offensive to the reality on the ground," noting the desperation of the people the organization is trying to help.
"We do not want to open our sites in the middle of the night. We are forced to because thousands of desperate civilians — many of them women and kiddies — are already gathering outside our gates," the spokesperson said. "Gaza at present is not a controlled environment. It is a humanitarian emergency. People are starving, and their desperation is creating dangerous conditions that no amount of timing or process can fix."
According to the spokesperson, who requested anonymity, UN aid trucks are also being "almost entirely looted by gangs. The UN acknowledges that some looting is a problem, but denies that most aid is being stolen.
"The uncomfortable truth is this: until there is enough aid inside Gaza, there will be no such thing as ’orderly’ delivery," the spokesperson said. "If the UN and other humanitarian organizations would join us, we could scale aid across Gaza and there would be less need for beneficiaries to attempt to enter the sites hours earlier or take desperate and dangerous shortcuts."
Asked about the numerous shootings, the IDF said it was working on improving procedures along routes to aid distribution sites.
"IDF forces are conducting systematic learning processes aimed at improving operational response and minimizing potential friction with the civilian population," it said in a statement to The Times of Israel. "As part of this, IDF forces have recently worked to reorganize the area through the installation of new fencing, signage, the opening of additional access routes, and more. The reported allegations are known and are being examined by the relevant bodies as is standard."
It also accused Hamas of "doing everything in its power to sabotage the food distribution effort in Gaza, disrupt humanitarian aid, directly harm the civilians of the Strip, and operate under civilian cover in an attempt to attack IDF forces."
The army declined to respond to a question about whether it was using live fire as a method of directing crowds, as alleged by an officer quoted in an article in the Haaretz daily regarding a deadly shooting on June 1.
Moore said he believed crowding around the GHF sites would ease once the organization was able to ramp up its activities and get more assistance to more Gazooks.
"As we’re able to scale the operation and move from two to four distribution sites per day, then some of that’s going to take care of itself naturally — especially when we can be more active in the north."
"What you’re seeing at the beginning here is a reflection of food insecurity," he added. "They need this stuff."
[IsraelTimes] Party, which established ties with Israel’s government earlier this year, hopes to join a future coalition government after the 2026 vote
The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... apologized on Thursday for the party’s past Nazi links and antisemitism, part of efforts to present a more moderate, mainstream image to voters ahead of a national election next year.
Good for them. Good luck in the next election, guys.
The Sweden Democrats were presenting the results of a specially commissioned study that found Nazi and antisemitic views to have been common at party functions and in its printed materials in the 1980s and 1990s.
"That there have been clear expressions of antisemitism and support for National Socialist ideas in my party’s history I think is disgusting and reprehensible," Mattias Karlsson, a member of parliament often described as the party’s chief ideologist, told a news conference.
"I would like to reiterate the party’s apology, above all to Swedish citizens of Jewish descent who may have felt a strong sense of insecurity and fear for good reasons."
The commissioning of the study sought to acknowledge and break with a past that has long hindered its cooperation with Sweden’s mainstream political parties. The Sweden Democrats hope to join a future coalition government after the 2026 election.
The study also follows a decision by Israel’s Foreign Ministry in February to establish ties with the party, along with two other far-right parties in La Belle France and Spain. That decision followed an assessment of the parties’ policies on Israel, relationship to their local Jewish communities and whether they had reckoned with past antisemitism.
The decision did not indicate an endorsement of every part of their respective platforms, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said at the time.
"The connection will be like with any other political party," Sa’ar told a group of Jewish and pro-Israel leaders in Brussels in February. "After I reviewed the matter and heard the opinion at a professional level — I didn’t see a reason not to do so. The opposite."
Though it was established in 1988, the Sweden Democrats party first entered parliament in 2010 and currently supports Sweden’s right-wing coalition government but has no members in the cabinet.
Tony Gustafsson, the historian hired by the party to write the book, said the party had emerged in the 1980s out of neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... and white supremacist organizations and that it had continued to cooperate with them into the 1990s.
"The collaboration seems to have involved using these groups to help distribute election materials," Gustafsson said, adding there were strong indications that one such group, the "White Aryan Resistance®," had served as security guards at party gatherings.
Gustafsson said there had been a clear connection to Nazism until 1995, the year that current party leader Jimmie Akesson joined the Sweden Democrats, but that the Sweden Democrats had begun distancing itself from such links thereafter.
The party has also confronted more recent accusations of antisemitism. In 2022, a Sweden Democrats official was suspended for calling Anne Frank, the teenage diarist and Holocaust victim, "immoral." In 2018, a party leader unsuccessfully proposed a ban on nonmedical circumcision of boys, calling it "backward."
[IsraelTimes] The military said Thursday that it had eliminated two Hezbollah operatives in separate Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in southern Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... in the span of two hours.
According to an Israel Defense Forces statement, one of the targets was a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, who was killed in an airstrike in the Baraachit area on Thursday.
Shortly afterward, a second strike targeted and killed a member of the group’s observation unit in the Beit Lif area.
In statements carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a man who was maimed "in an Israeli enemy dronezap targeting his bulldozer," as well as another injured in a strike on a cycle of violence, both died in the hospital.
Israel has continued to carry out targeted strikes on Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure since it signed a ceasefire with Lebanon in late November, alleging violations of the truce agreement.
According to the IDF, over 180 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in that time.
[IsraelTimes] Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it was the only aid group operating in the enclave Thursday, as UN officials say access to border crossing was blocked by Israel
Clan leaders in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... denied on Thursday that gunnies who were seen riding atop trucks of humanitarian aid in the Strip were Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... operatives, saying instead that they were protecting the aid from being stolen, after Israel scaled back aid deliveries to the territory over the assertion that Hamas operatives had returned to stealing the supplies.
Earlier on Thursday, after images were circulated of masked men on aid trucks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had declared in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz that there was evidence of Hamas once again taking control of aid entering the enclave’s north.
They said that the Israel Defense Forces had been instructed to present a plan to prevent this from happening within the next 48 hours.
Following the joint statement and a separate Channel 12 report claiming that all aid deliveries had been halted due to concerns that Hamas was stealing aid, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told news hounds that aid was continuing to enter the Strip from the south. While he declined to specify whether deliveries to the north had been stopped, two officials confirmed to Rooters that they had been.
At the same time, the Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in Gaza, denied that the masked men in the images were Hamas operatives, and said the trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process, managed "solely through tribal efforts."
The commission said that no Paleostinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had been involved in the process. The Paleostinian terror group, which has ruled Gaza for almost two decades but now controls only part of the territory, also denied any involvement.
Throughout the war in Gaza, which erupted with the deadly Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, numerous clans, civil society groups, and factions — including Hamas’s secular political rival Fatah — have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys.
Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazook society.
Amjad al-Shawa, director of an umbrella body for Paleostinian non-governmental organizations, said the aid protected by clans on Wednesday was being distributed to vulnerable families.
There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants, as Hamas continues to hold 50 Israelis hostage.
Aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, with Israel accusing Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies, while others say the looters frequently are desperate and starving Paleostinians.
"The clans came ... to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people," Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of Gazook clans, said, referring to Wednesday’s operation.
ONLY GHF WAS ABLE TO DISTRIBUTE AID THURSDAY
Although Mencer told news hounds that aid deliveries to the south of the Gaza Strip had continued as normal, the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it was the only group allowed to distribute aid on Thursday, suggesting that no trucks entered via the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
The humanitarian aid trucks that enter Gaza via Kerem Shalom in the south and Zikim in the north carry supplies including flour, food and medical equipment, and are intended to supplement the aid distributed by GHF, which operates on a smaller scale and is limited to certain areas.
A UN spokesperson confirmed to The Times of Israel that Israeli authorities had blocked its teams from accessing the Zikim Crossing, where they had been seeking to pick up assistance.
The UN has acknowledged that its convoys have been plagued by looting, but has blamed armed gangs rather than Hamas and has insisted that the solution is for Israel to allow much more aid into Gaza so that demand decreases.
An average of just 56 trucks have been entering Gaza per day since Israel partially lifted its blockade after 78 days on May 19. The UN says several hundred are needed daily to address the dire need in the Strip.
GHF argues that its model is more effective, asserting that its aid convoys have not been looted, as it has its button men who prevent such takeovers.
But the organization only operates up to four distribution sites across the entire Strip, none of which are in the north, and Gazooks are forced to walk long distances while crossing IDF lines to pick up the supplies.
The State Department on Thursday approved $30 million in funding for GHF, calling on other countries to also support the group despite the criticism.
"This support is simply the latest iteration of President Trump’s and Secretary Rubio’s pursuit of peace in the region," State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said of the approval.
The $30 million falls well below the $500 million that the US reportedly considered giving GHF earlier this month.
There have been near-daily mass casualty incidents in which the IDF has opened fire on Paleostinians it says strayed off approved access routes or were using them when forbidden. Some of these incidents have taken place on roads used by the UN for aid distribution and are not near GHF sites.
In a statement confirming that GHF was alone in distributing aid on Thursday, the organization’s interim executive director, John Acree, said GHF hopes "this will be a temporary pause and all other aid organizations will soon be able to resume distribution in the region."
"It is imperative that aid be distributed in a responsible way directly to the people who need it," he said.
GHF said that, in total, it distributed 38,880 boxes of food at three of its sites on Thursday.
It has said its boxes contain enough food for 5.5 people for 3.5 days, but the contents are dry food products that require preparation elsewhere in war-ravaged Gaza, where community kitchens and cooking supplies are limited.
MEDICAL AID REACHES GAZA FOR FIRST TIME IN MONTHS
Highlighting the difficulties in delivering aid to the population of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Thursday that it had finally delivered a medical shipment on Wednesday, for the first time since March 2.
It said, however, that the nine truckloads were "a drop in the ocean."
Wednesday’s shipment of supplies, plasma and blood will be distributed among hospitals in the territory in the coming days, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
He said the nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood and 1,500 units of plasma were delivered via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, "without any looting incident, despite the high-risk conditions along the route."
"These supplies will be distributed to priority hospitals in the coming days," Tedros said.
"The blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex’s cold storage facility for onward distribution to hospitals facing critical shortages, amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at food distribution sites."
The reported mass-casualty incidents at aid distribution points didn’t show any signs of slowing down on Thursday, as the Hamas-linked civil defense agency said Israeli forces had killed 56 people in the war-ravaged enclave throughout the day, updating a previous toll of 35.
Civil defense front man Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that six of those killed had been waiting for aid in two separate locations.
There was no comment from the IDF on the reported strikes.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 56,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 Death Eaters inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 440. The toll includes two coppers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
Out of the 217,000 conditional approvals, 165,000 permanent licenses have been granted, while 177,000 applications have been rejected, according to statistics presented to lawmakers. According to the ministry, around 335,000 Israelis currently hold firearms licenses.
Requests for gun permits surged following Hamas’s massive attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were slaughtered, many amid brutal atrocities, and a further 251 taken hostage to Gaza. Last March, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir celebrated the approval of 100,000 new gun licenses since October 7, stating that putting more weapons on the streets has made Israel safer. Women’s groups have decried the rising number of guns in Israeli homes, saying it poses a risk to victims of domestic violence.
[IsraelTimes] Abbas al-Ardawi detained for ‘incitement intended to insult and defame the security institution’ after now-deleted post saying French radar ‘served’ Israel against Iran
Iraqi authorities said they arrested a political commentator on Wednesday over a post alleging that a military radar system struck by a drone had been used to help Israel in its war against Iran.
After a court issued a warrant, the Defense Ministry said that Iraqi forces arrested Abbas al-Ardawi for sharing content online that included “incitement intended to insult and defame the security institution.”
In a post on X, which was later deleted but has circulated on social media as a screenshot, Ardawi told his more than 90,000 followers that “a French radar in the Taji base served the Israeli aggression” and was eliminated.
Early Tuesday, hours before a ceasefire ended the 12-day Iran-Israel war, unidentified drones struck radar systems at two military bases in Taji, north of Baghdad, and in southern Iraq, officials have said.
The Taji base hosted US troops several years ago and was a frequent target of rocket attacks.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the latest drone attacks, which also struck radar systems at the Imam Ali airbase in Dhi Qar province.
A source close to Iran-backed groups in Iraq told AFP that the armed factions have nothing to do with the attacks.
Ardawi is seen as a supporter of Iran-aligned armed groups who had launched attacks on US forces in the region in the past, and of the pro-Tehran Coordination Framework, a powerful political coalition that holds a parliamentary majority in Iraq.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry said that Ardawi’s arrest was made on the instructions of the prime minister, who also serves as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, “not to show leniency toward anyone who endangers the security and stability of the country.”
It added that while “the freedom of expression is a guaranteed right… it is restricted based on national security and the country’s top interests.”
Iran-backed groups have criticized US deployment in Iraq as part of an anti-jihadist coalition, saying the American forces allowed Israel to use Iraq’s airspace.
The US-led coalition also includes French troops, who have been training Iraqi forces. There is no known French deployment at the Taji base.
The Iran-Israel war had forced Baghdad to close its airspace, before reopening on Tuesday shortly after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire.
[World Tribune] The University of Wisconsin-Madison has approved $135,000 in funding for a LGBTQ student group which distributes sex toys and hosts "interactive" presentations on such things as "ethical porn" and "kink," a report said.
The group receiving the funding, Sex Out Loud, is part of Qouncil, the university coalition of LGBTQ+ organizations. The group advertises "free and confidential peer to peer counseling," as well as a "stocked library" and "free safer sex supplies (including condoms, lube, sex dams, gloves, and more)," Campus Reform reported on Tuesday.
The funding total is based upon a General Student Services Fund budget report reviewed by The Madison Federalist.
The university approved over $94,000 for Sex Out Loud salaries, such as the program facilitator, who provides presentations on "pleasure, kink, birth control, STIs, HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ health." The student group encourages applications from "LGBTQ+ persons, people of color, and self-identifying men."
An additional $22,400 is earmarked for supplies including sex toys. Sex Out Loud also promotes brands like "Cute Little F*****s" and "The Tool Shed."
[JNS] Ammaad Akhtar, 33, is accused of trying to give money, guns and ammunition to someone he thought was part of the terror group, and of making antisemitic threats.
The LinkedIn profile of Ammaad Akhtar identifies him as a resident of Stockton, Calif., and a "mechanical engineering graduate" who is "outgoing and friendly," a "great team player" and a "great leader."
A very different picture emerges about Akhtar, who remains listed as a hazardous substances engineer at the California Environmental Protection Agency, in the criminal complaint accusing him of trying to give money, guns and ammunition to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and of threatening to kill Jews.
The 33-year-old, who, according to his LinkedIn profile, is a 2023 graduate of the University of the Pacific, gave the money and weapons to an undercover law-enforcement officer he thought was an ISIS member in Iraq, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. He faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California confirmed to JNS that the suspect is a state EPA employee. (The phone line listed for Akhtar at his state office appeared to be disconnected.)
A California EPA spokesperson told JNS that "we became aware of this situation after the arrest and intend to fully cooperate with the federal investigation."
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/27/2025
07:59 ||
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#1
My CT investigations revealed many jihadist sympathizers working for the state of ca, who used state fax machine to organize protests, which they attended during work hours. Did management care? No.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
06/27/2025 9:52
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[FoxBiz]
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is rattling real estate developers and landlords over his sweeping proposal to tackle the city’s housing crisis. The Queens assemblyman wants to build 200,000 new publicly-subsidized affordable homes and immediately freeze rents for the city’s 2.4 million stabilized tenants.
#3
He’s a communist manipulating the Moslem vote for power. Who would benefit from this $100B project? His friends. Who would pay for this $100B project? Not his friends.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/27/2025 10:05
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[ZH] A taste: Did China come to the mullahs’ aid?No, they were not shy about ordering their Iranian lackey to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, through which 50 percent of Chinese-purchased oil passes. For President Xi, the Iranians are treated as little more than Uyghurs with oil.
LOL
Posted by: Skidmark ||
06/27/2025
02:35 ||
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[34 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[JustTheNews] Mexico on Tuesday said it would not sign an agreement with the United States, but that it has accepted more than 5,000 migrants from other countries who have been deported from the U.S. since Trump took office.
Noem claimed that migrants, who are often fleeing war-torn countries and oppressive regimes, should have the ability to choose other countries to move to instead of primarily fleeing to the United States.
#1
After 2 AM .. a very strange Advertisement by NOEM declaring if you were an ILLEGAL and still in the COUNTRY you had 3 days left to GET OUT with possibility of legal return.
[JustTheNews] Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons emphasized that federal law enforcement officers have been preparing for the upcoming holiday for months, including working with local law enforcement, and Americans should not fear large events next week.
[ZERO] A higher-than-expected number of miscarriages and other forms of fetal loss were associated with COVID-19 vaccinations in Israel, a new study has revealed.
Researchers found 13 fetal losses—four more than the nine expected—for every 100 pregnant women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during weeks eight to 13 in pregnancy, according to the study, which was published as a preprint on the medRxiv server.
Most people in Israel, including pregnant women, received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.
The team behind the study includes Retsef Levi, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who was recently named to the committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, and Dr. Tracy Hoeg, who works for the Food and Drug Administration.
The researchers analyzed electronic health records from Maccabi Healthcare Services, one of four organizations that provide health care to Israelis. They looked at 226,395 pregnancies that occurred between March 1, 2016, and Feb. 28, 2022. The primary analysis looked at fetal loss for pregnant women after dose one or dose three of a COVID-19 vaccine, with fetal loss including miscarriage, abortion, and stillbirth.
The researchers came up with an expected number of fetal losses based on a model that drew from data before the COVID-19 pandemic, then compared the expected number of fetal losses with those that occurred from week eight of pregnancy onward.
[Tablet Magazine] A few months before he was buried under the rubble of his Beirut bunker, the late leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, repeated to his followers, as he had done many times before, his famous line that Israel was "weaker than a spider’s web." That is, Israel was an artificial implant that structurally was bound to collapse. All it needed was sustained violence and patience. The end result was inevitable: Israel would vanish from the map with a wave of the hand.
The fantasy that Nasrallah peddled to his followers and "resistance" fans was not, on its face, entirely ungrounded. Iran, a much larger country than Israel, with 10 times the population, was a rising power. Its regional reach spanned from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. It had established missile bases on Israel’s borders and on a critical maritime passageway in the Red Sea. It controlled four Arab capitals and dominated the landmass across Iraq through Syria into Lebanon. In addition, Iran was allied with the United States’ two great rivals, Russia and China. In short, for Nasrallah and the resistance faithful, it appeared certain that Iran was inexorably ascendant.
In reality, Iran’s winning hand was a mirage. It took Israel 21 months to blow through it—15 of which were during a hostile American administration that actively tried to hobble the Israeli effort, to prevent the Iranian Wizard of Oz and his legions of flying monkeys from being scattered to the winds.
Gaza, Iran’s southern front, is now a wasteland, which, if President Donald Trump implements his stated plan, will be emptied of most if not all of its inhabitants—or at least those who choose not to live in rubble. Whether Trump’s Gaza plans rise or fall, it’s unlikely that Israel will ever cede control over the strip’s border with Egypt, which means that Gaza as an active front against Israel is gone for good.
Next to go was Hezbollah, the oldest and best equipped of Iran’s regional terror assets—indeed, the lynchpin of its regional network. Within three months in 2024, Israel eliminated the group’s entire command structure, decimated its infrastructure along the shared border, and blew up its weapons caches. Despite a U.S.-imposed cease-fire, Israel has maintained operational freedom and continues to take out cadres and arms caches inside Lebanon at will, with Hezbollah unable to mount any response.
Not long after Nasrallah’s demise, the other big piece on the Iranian board tumbled. In a matter of days in December 2024, the Assad regime, the Islamic Republic’s strategic ally since the 1979 revolution, was gone. Hollowed out by a decade and a half of war, and with Hezbollah eviscerated and Russia bogged down in Ukraine, the 53-year rule of the Assad family was suddenly history. In its place, a new Sunni regime in Damascus, Syria, is now intercepting weapons shipments to Hezbollah.
Iran’s multiple militias in Iraq, another card in the mullah’s winning fantasy poker hand, didn’t bother to deploy in Syria and have largely been irrelevant in the axis’ confrontation with Israel. While Iran maintains political clout in Baghdad, its militias there have proved worthless as a military instrument in its regional project, as Iraqi Shia turn out to look good only on paper while displaying little motivation to get slaughtered by a superior enemy on behalf of Iranian adventurism.
With its Levantine network in shambles, Tehran’s most relevant proxy over the past 20 months has been the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis) in Yemen. The Houthis have held global shipping in the Red Sea hostage while occasionally lobbing missiles and attack drones at Israel. As a result, they too have been hit hard, by both the IDF and the United States and Britain. In recent days, the Houthis have threatened to resume targeting U.S. ships in the Red Sea, which would likely invite a punishing response.
Finally, there was Iran itself: the home base of the mighty resistance axis. In recent years, Israel had already shown how thoroughly it had penetrated Iran. From the theft of the mullahs’ entire nuclear archive to multiple sabotage operations and high-value targeted assassinations, including taking out Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the heart of Tehran in July 2024, Israel showed the ability to operate with ease throughout Iran—including in the country’s most sensitive and well-guarded places. The country’s intelligence services and decision-making echelons were forced to assume that Israel was privy to the regime’s secrets and could kill its leadership at will.
After making short shrift of Iran’s air defense systems in October, Israel demonstrated its total military superiority this month, gaining full control of Iran’s airspace and going to work on its nuclear facilities, ballistic missiles and launchers, command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the nuclear program’s top scientists, clearing the way for the United States to demolish Iran’s three main nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. And with that, Iran’s nuclear dreams went up in smoke, much like its regional enterprise.
Since Israel thrashed Hezbollah a year ago, and the cascade of wins that followed, the global reaction to its achievement has been one of surprise—shock at the comprehensiveness of the Israeli domination and the complete Oz-like hollowness of the Iranians. But the Iranian regional position, much like its nuclear program, was a function not of Iranian strength but most crucially of U.S. support. If the Iranians were illusionists, the fuel for their tricks came from an America that repeatedly wrote monetary and diplomatic checks under the assumption that the magic act was real.
This applied across the board. In Iraq, the American nation-building project ensured the Iranians a sanctions-busting vehicle and protection. Whenever a Sunni revolt against the post-2003 order emerged in Iraq, the Iranians relied on the United States to put it down and prop up Tehran’s assets in the country.
But it was in Syria where Iranian dependence on U.S. protection was most evident. When Syria’s Sunnis rose against Iran’s vassal, Bashar al-Assad, Iran mobilized its Lebanese and Iraqi assets to prop him up. Soon it was sending Afghan and Pakistani Shia into the Syrian theater, too. Still, it wasn’t able to put down the uprising, despite Assad using chemical weapons against population centers.
Yet it turned out that Iran and Assad had little to fear from direct American involvement in Syria. When Tehran’s ally, then President Barack Obama, finally intervened in 2014, it was against the Islamic State group, which the United States and Iran’s Iraqi assets were partnering against in Iraq as well. Regardless, by 2015, Iran’s position in Syria was still wobbly. It required Obama facilitating the entry of Russia’s air force into Syria to help Iran’s militias gain the upper hand, though even that was not enough to take back the whole country.
Similar to Iraq, the American nation-building enterprise in Lebanon was also a condominium with Iran designed to protect Tehran’s holdings. Much as the Obama administration teamed up with Iranian assets in Iraq under the cover of the "anti-ISIS campaign," it did the same in Lebanon behind the veneer of supporting "state institutions," which allowed Hezbollah to protect its flank while prosecuting Iran’s war in Syria. Moreover, at various points before Oct. 7, Washington intervened to dissuade Israel from responding to Hezbollah provocations, locking it instead in diplomatic and even economic arrangements with Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Even after the group opened the front against Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the Biden administration deterred Israel from attacking in response. Even the cease-fire the administration announced in November 2024 was reportedly imposed under threat of a U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution against Israel.
The IRGC and its regional proxies all benefited from American protection under the Obama team’s three terms in office. While Obama protected the IRGC from being designated as a foreign terrorist organization, and his deal with Iran removed international sanctions on regime terror chief Qassem Soleimani, the Biden administration likewise removed Yemen’s Houthis from the terror list. With Obama’s help, the IRGC consolidated its position across the region.
U.S. protection and funding—including, for example, the famous 2016 direct payment of $1.7 billion in cash—were at the heart of Obama’s deal with Iran. The JCPOA not only legitimized Iran’s nuclear weapons program but also protected Iran’s nuclear assets with an international, namely American, shield. That shield took the form, among other things, of leaks against potential Israeli preemptive strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. In fact, Obama administration officials bragged about blocking Israeli military action, declaring that it was now too late for Israel to do anything: The administration had successfully protected its new ally’s nukes.
For more than a decade, Israel has had to work around this American protective cover. Fear of leaks intended to sabotage Israeli operations was so pervasive under Biden that the Israelis did not give advance notification of the September strike that killed Nasrallah. The following month, ahead of Israeli retaliatory strikes against Iran, the administration made clear its objection to any Israeli targeting of Iranian nuclear or energy facilities. It took Israel as long as it did to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and regional project only because Washington hobbled it for all but six of the past 21 months, between diplomatic pressure and threats, slow-rolling arms deliveries, and micromanaging the Israeli war effort, especially in Gaza.
So what changed? As the past few weeks have demonstrated, the key variable—the difference between a U.S.-protected nuclear Iran that dominates the region, and the geopolitical picture we have today, with Iran cut down to size—is leadership. Any misalignment on either side, in the United States or Israel, could well have prevented the current outcome.
Had the Obama team’s campaign to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded at any point between 2021 and 2024, it seems unlikely that Netanyahu’s American-approved replacement would have been able to successfully navigate the post-Oct. 7 landscape and destroy Iran’s regional project. Likewise, had Trump lost the 2024 election or, worse still, had he not turned his head at that precise moment in Butler, Pennsylvania, the likelihood of American support for the destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons program drops to zero. Remove the great men of history, and everything defaults back to the Obama structural settings on the Democratic and also some of the Republican side of the aisle.
Even now, you can see it in some of the comms environment in Washington, after the U.S. strikes on Iran, where we’re hearing things from both Democrats and Republicans about the need for a "long-term settlement" with Iran, to be accompanied, no doubt, by endless new rounds of negotiations. Over what, exactly? A new and improved JCPOA, after having destroyed all their centrifuges and facilities? Why? Who cares?
President Trump put it best. When asked if he’s interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, the president was dismissive: "I’m not. ... The way I look at it, they fought. The war is done. I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear ... but they’re not going to be doing it anyway. ... I’ve asked [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio], ’You want to draw up a little agreement for them to sign?’ ... I don’t think it’s necessary."
The president is being praised for using military force while eschewing long-term commitments and entanglements. The corollary of that policy is, properly, for America to walk away after the strikes yet threaten to bomb again should the need arise. Everything else, whether it’s a new "deal" or the hope of "integration" for a "moderate" Iran, is static from the Obama signal.
Why the D.C. establishment, left and right, feels such an intense attachment to Iran defies any rational cost-benefit analysis related to the national interest. It therefore can only be explained by extrinsic factors that are probably best explained by a shrink who specializes in subjects like "white guilt" or "the burdens of empire"—which means I am obliged to take a pass. I can only observe that this attachment is a powerful one that must therefore signify something important to those who continue to feel its attraction, even when the United States and Iran are at war.
Fundamentally, D.C. is a pro-Iran town, where factions on the left and right have shown a core investment in ensuring that Iran has the means and the opportunity to go nuclear as part of their political programs at home. Why? Again, I can only speculate, as it so clearly defies basic calculations of the national interest. Perhaps they see Iran, as Obama did, as a useful tool in factional wars against domestic political rivals.
Luckily for the rest of us, the behavior of D.C. sewer dwellers matters far less now, thanks to President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. The illusion that the D.C. establishment has maintained, hand in hand with Iran, for decades, has been shattered. The proxy armies that formed Iran’s "Axis of Resistance" are no more. We can even pinpoint the moment when Israel pulled the curtain aside: Sept. 27, 2024, the day it killed Nasrallah, whose Iranian masters turned out to be part of the same illusion that he was.
Now that the Ayatollah’s monkeys have scattered, whatever remains or does not remain of Iran’s nuclear program doesn’t much matter, even while anonymous sources in Washington do their best to put cards back into the regime’s hand by claiming that Fordow wasn’t "fully" destroyed and other such irrelevancies. The spell is broken, and the regime’s regional alignment, which was at the heart of both its threat to its neighbors and its strategy of deterrence, has been shattered beyond any hope of easy repair. Now it’s time for Washington and regional leaders alike to deal with reality.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
06/27/2025
01:06 ||
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The £80million jets, a variant of the F-35Bs the UK already uses, can carry conventional weapons but can also be equipped with nuclear weapons - specifically the US B61-12 gravity bomb.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A world-renowned economist has changed his tune on President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Torsten Sløk, a chief economist at Apollo Global Management, posted a new note admitting that his initial reaction to the policy may have been wrong.
'Maybe the administration has outsmarted all of us,' he wrote.
The admission comes just months after Sløk warned the tariffs would be ‘painful’ and economically destabilizing.
Experts speaking to DailyMail.com warned that Americans should take his note with a grain of salt.
But now, he's framing the President’s policy as a clever long-game — one that invites global negotiation while increasing federal revenue.
In the note, Sløk outlined a potential scenario: the White House could maintain its current tariff rates — 10 percent on most imports, 30 percent on Chinese goods — and give trade partners a year to negotiate with the White House.
Extending the current 90-day pause on new tariffs, he argued, would give American companies time to plan ahead and could help stabilize markets.
'This would seem like a victory for the world and yet would produce $400 billion of annual revenue for US taxpayers,' he added.
The timing is key. Trump's 90-day pause on new tariffs, announced in April, is set to expire on July 9.
Without an extension, the tariffs would immediately increase, with billions of dollars worth of products suddenly incurring more taxes.
But if the President extends the pause but keeps tariffs where they are, Sløk says the policy could offer clarity for companies and leverage in negotiations.
Sløk's sudden, tepid support for the tariffs is an about-face. He initially criticized the import taxes, saying they threatened business stability, Wall Street's record highs, and the stability of US treasury bonds.
'The short-run effects of a trade war [are] certainly painful,' the economist told Yahoo Finance in February. Yahoo Finance articles are slanted against Trump, tariffs, and are generally pro-Deep State hedge funds. I only check it for the stock tickers
And not everyone is convinced. Neil Saunders, a retail expert at GlobalData, warned that they will mostly impact American consumers.
'Tariffs, at any level, increase the cost of doing business,' he told DailyMail.com. 'If tariff rates remain at current levels, prices should only increase modestly – although these hikes will come off the back of years of pretty hefty inflation.'
He added: 'The problem is, no one knows what will happen to tariffs. The policy has been erratic and remains uncertain.'
Trump has also been ramping up pressure on both domestic and global fronts while trying to start negotiations with nearly every country around the world.
At home, he's pushing Republicans to pass the sweeping 'Big Beautiful Bill' by July 4 — a legislative package that could outline his domestic agenda, but has drawn criticism from some of his most prominent allies.
Elon Musk, the biggest donor in the 2024 Presidential election, called it a 'disgusting abomination.'
At the same time, the President has escalated his rhetoric on Iran since America bombed the country's nuclear facilities.
In a Sunday night post on Truth Social, he wrote: 'It's not politically correct to use the term, "Regime Change," but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!'
As the tariff deadline approaches, the biggest unknown remains whether Trump is bluffing on country-by-country negotiations — or if the higher import taxes are here to stay.
'Unless their name is President Donald Trump,' Saunders said, 'anyone saying they know what will happen to tariffs is not being completely honest.'
#3
Bit slow Bubba, or this is an official surrender, because I heard a couple three weeks ago a radio short which went something like, "After months of being told otherwise, Americans are trying to come to terms with why prices have not increased."
Yes it is a loaded statement because media sucks, but there it is.
[FoxNews] Conservative majority affirms 30-day deadline for removal challenges despite liberal justices' objections
The Supreme Court installed a tighter timeline for removable migrants to challenge their deportations as part of its decision on Thursday in a case involving a Jamaican immigrant who had tried to avoid being sent back to his home country.
The Supreme Court found that once migrants receive a final order of removal, a 30-day window for them to seek review of that order is triggered.
The ruling was roughly 5-4, with the three liberal justices dissenting and Justice Neil Gorsuch joining most of the dissent.
Pierre Riley, the Jamaican national at the center of the case, had followed the law and challenged his final removal order in the immigration court system. But when he attempted to seek review from the appellate court of the immigration court findings, the appellate court said its hands were tied because it had been more than a year since Riley had received his initial removal orders.
Riley came to the United States on a six-month visa three decades ago. He never left, was arrested and convicted of drug felonies, and served in prison until 2021.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to deport him to Jamaica in January that year, kicking off the weedy legal process involving Riley challenging his removal.
The chain of events that ensued showcases how migrants facing removal can end up going down a windy due process road in the immigration and federal courts.
In this case, Riley argued to an immigration court that although he was removable, returning to Jamaica would put his life at risk, because a drug kingpin there had killed two of his cousins and would likely go after him, too.
Riley invoked what is known as a "convention against torture" rule, which migrants can use to contest being deported to a country.
An immigration judge, who is an administrative judge working within the Department of Justice, granted Riley "withholding of removal" to Jamaica, meaning he could be deported, just not to Jamaica. HELLO El Salvador!
The government appealed the immigration ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which overturned the immigration judge’s finding, meaning Riley could once again be deported to Jamaica.
Migrants’ next avenue of appeal is to ask a federal circuit court to review their deportation order, and Riley did this.
But upon reviewing Riley’s case, the appellate court found Riley was too late. The appellate court said that it had no jurisdiction to help him because the original removal orders he received in January 2021, more than a year ago, are what set off the 30-day clock to seek review of his deportation.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito acknowledged the "legitimate practical concerns" of Riley's case but said the law assumed immigration cases would be handled expeditiously and that the 30-day deadline being triggered right at the time a migrant is ordered removed should, in theory, be a non-issue.
"The Government reminds us that such proceedings have often lasted many months and even years. . . . That is surely not what Congress anticipated when it enacted the streamlined procedure," Alito wrote in a footnote.
Attorney Dilan Esper noted on X that Thursday's order could shed light on a recent controversial emergency order the Supreme Court issued this week that cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport migrants, including a group of men bound for South Sudan, to countries they are not from.
The order on Thursday indicated that the law does not offer a clear avenue for migrants to raise convention against torture claims for third countries if they have already received final removal orders and raised challenges to being removed to their home country.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent the majority opinion in Riley's case did not make logistical sense.
"In holding that Riley was required to file his appeal 16 months before the order he sought to challenge existed, the court surely moves from the border well into the heartland of illogic and absurdity," Sotomayor wrote.
[FoxNews] DHS spokesperson confirms three suspects arrested after one rioter threw a large knife at law enforcement officers
Multiple people have been arrested following a violent riot outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon, that involved knife-throwing and explosives.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital that one of the rioters had tried to fire a ‘Roman Candle’ firework at law enforcement.
The same person allegedly threatened officers with a large knife by swinging it and then throwing it at them, the spokesperson said.
No law enforcement officers were seriously injured during the attack, according to officials.
While the suspects' identities have not yet been released, DHS confirmed there have been three arrests.
"Unfortunately, these violent attacks are becoming more and more common," the spokesperson said. "Our ICE law enforcement is now facing a 500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations.
"Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: You will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be fully prosecuted by the law."
Fox News Digital previously reported that following a Portland "No Kings" protest on June 14, a mob had launched fireworks, smoke grenades and threw rocks at federal law enforcement.
The rioters broke glass and breached the ICE facility, leaving four officers injured.
[GEO.TV] The death toll from the latest Israeli attacks across the besieged territory has now risen to 72, Al Jazeera reported, citing sources at hospitals in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2025
00:00 ||
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[GEO.TV] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has clearly said that it has no plans to restart nuclear talks with the United States following recent American Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on its nuclear sites and accused Washington of exaggerating the impact of the US strikes.
The country's foreign minister dismissed any rumours of upcoming negotiations and said no discussions or agreements had been made.
The most serious conflict yet between Israel and Iran disrupted nuclear talks between the two countries. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... said Washington would hold discussions with Tehran next week, with his special envoy Steve Witkoff expressing hope "for a comprehensive peace agreement".
But Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed what he described as "speculation" that Tehran was ready to return to the table, saying it "should not be taken seriously".
"I would like to state clearly that no agreement, arrangement or conversation has been made to start new negotiations," he said on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
. "No plan has been set yet to start negotiations."
Araghchi's denial came as Iranian politicians passed a "binding" bill suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, and after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> accused Trump of exaggerating the impact of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
In a televised speech — his first appearance since a ceasefire in the war with Israel — Khamenei hailed what he called Iran's "victory" over Israel, vowed never to bow to US pressure, and insisted Washington had been dealt a humiliating "slap".
After the parliament voted, the rulers made it official
[IsraelTimes] Guardian Council spokesman says Iran’s ‘national sovereignty’ requires cutting ties; IAEA says it has yet to receive official communication from Tehran regarding decision
#2
Anyone surprised ?
Until those in power are removed, they will continue to seek genocide, mass murder and the elimination of ALL not following their evil application of what they call a Religion.
[IsraelTimes] After the US strike on Iran earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump agreed on a rapid end to the war in Gaza and expansion of the Abraham Accords, Israel Hayom reports, citing "a source familiar with the conversation."
According to the outlet, Trump and Netanyahu agreed in a phone call that the war in Gaza would end within two weeks. Four Arab states, including the UAE and Egypt, would jointly govern the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas. The terror group’s leadership would be exiled, and all hostages would be released.
----------- by my count the parties in the deal would include Israel, US, Egypt, UAE, Saudi A, Syria, Hamas and PA - I probably have left some others out
Egypt adamantly rejected taking back Gaza after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, though it happily accepted most of the Sinai Peninsula, and has rejected taking it on ever since. The Palestinian Authority has been demanding to be given charge of Gaza since it became clear Hamas was losing, but there is no chance they could control it on their own. HTS is still working to consolidate control of Syria… An interesting little problem.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/27/2025
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[GUARDIAN.NG] Four persons have been killed while 10 others sustained injuries when an Isuzu vehicle conveying passengers from Damboa to Maiduguri, Borno State rammed into an improvised bomb (IED) suspected to have been planted by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... terrorists.
The incident, which occurred around 3:30pm, involved a Suzuki pick-up truck that ran over an improvised bomb.
Confirming the attack, Borno State Police Command's spokesperson, ASP Nahum Daso, said the injured victims had been rushed to the state Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri for treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will not review the results of the women's boxing competitions at the 2024 Olympics. This was announced on June 26 by the organization's president, Kirsty Coventry.
"Will there be retrospective decisions on the Paris Olympics regarding women's boxing? We will not do anything retrospectively," she said.
Coventry noted that the main task of the IOC working group is to look to the future while learning from the past.
As reported by Regnum news agency, on June 26, the President of the International Boxing Association (IBA) Umar Kremlev called on the Algerian boxer Iman Kheli, who failed the gender test, to return the gold medal from the 2024 Summer Olympics.
On March 15, former IOC President Thomas Bach said that the gender scandal involving boxers at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was caused by fake news from Russia.
Last July, the IOC cleared two transgender athletes, Khelif and Lin Yuting from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), to compete in women's boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics. According to IOC spokesman Mark Adams, in this case the transgender athletes "were found to be women."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The United States has reduced spending on Ukraine for the 2026 fiscal year. This was announced on June 26 by a Pentagon representative.
"In particular, two funds were cut - the coalition support fund and the Ukraine security assistance initiative," a senior US military official said at a briefing.
Earlier, the US House Appropriations Committee approved the country's new military budget by a vote of 36 to 27. The document does not contain any articles on military aid to Kyiv.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on June 12, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that the West has no plan to ensure Ukraine's "victory" in the conflict with Russia. According to him, none of the Western leaders have yet presented a plan that would allow "squeezing out the Russian army" from the territories taken under control during the special operation.
On June 14, Hegseth announced cuts to U.S. spending on Ukraine in the next budget year. Later that day, Kyiv regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky said such words hurt more than bullets because they “hit the morale of Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously noted that no foreign arms supplies to the Kiev regime are capable of changing the course of the special operation, and the military aid provided to Ukraine by the West indicates the participation of these countries in the conflict.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
The enemy concentrated its main efforts on the Pokrovsk direction. There, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled more than 20 attacks in the areas of 13 settlements.
Since the beginning of the current day, 79 combat clashes have occurred on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an operational report on Thursday, June 26.
Thus, eight out of 14 Russian attacks have been repelled in the Severo-Slobodskoy and Kursk directions. Fighting is currently ongoing.
In the South Slobodskoy direction, the enemy attacked five times in the areas of the settlements of Glubokoe, Zybine, Kamyanka, Kindrashivka, Mala Shapkovka. Our soldiers gave a worthy rebuff.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy attacked our troops' positions four times in the areas of Golubovka, Stepova Novoselovka and Zelenyi Gai. One battle is still ongoing.
In the Liman direction, the invading army attacked 11 times near the settlements of Grekovka, Novy Mir, Ridkodub, and in the directions of Olgovka, Kolodyazev, Zelenaya Dolina, Torskogo. Two combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the enemy attacked twice in the direction of Markovo and Belaya Gora.
In the Toretsk direction, the enemy attacked five times, in the areas of Yablunovka and Rusiny Yar. Currently, one combat clash is underway.
In the Pokrovsk direction, the occupiers carried out 26 assaults in the areas of the settlements of Poltavka, Malinovka, Shevchenko Pershoye, Mirnoye, Mirolyubovka, Promen, Lisovka, Mirnograd, Novosergiyevka, Udachnoye, Alekseyevka, Novoukrainka and in the direction of Vladimirivka. The defense forces repelled 21 attacks, five more clashes are ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the enemy attacked eight times near the settlements of Zvezda, Yalta, Zaporozhye, Bogatyr, Fyodorovka and Otradnoye. Two combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Dnieper direction the enemy attacked unsuccessfully four times.
Let us recall that the Russian occupation army has advanced within four settlements in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions. This was reported by the monitoring project DeepState.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has handed over another batch of new Su-35S fighters to the Russian
Defense Ministry, which have flown to their home airfields. This was reported by the press service of the Rostec state corporation.
The 4++ generation fighters were manufactured as part of a state defense order and underwent a full cycle of factory tests in various operating modes before being handed over to the customer. Rostec Deputy CEO Vladimir Artyakov said that the Aerospace Forces pilots who accepted the aircraft gave them high marks.
"During the SVO, the aircraft proved itself to be the best in its class. It allows the use of a wide range of weapons in the entire range of altitudes and speeds, and the use of the most complex types of piloting and combat use technology," the Rostec press service quoted him as saying.
Artyakov noted that the Su-35S fighters have the best flight characteristics, excellent navigation and targeting systems. The planes help bring victory closer.
UAC CEO Vadim Badekha emphasized that the corporation aims to maintain the current pace of production of the most popular weapons, which include the Su-35S. The productivity of enterprises is growing, and it is planned to increase it by 30% by 2030.
“This work gives us the opportunity to use our existing resources to ensure large volumes of production under the state defense order, which is growing this year and will exceed the high figures of last year,” Badekha said.
The Su-35S multirole fighter is designed to perform a wide range of combat missions. The aircraft is capable of providing airspace dominance, hitting ground and surface targets at any time of day and night in various weather conditions, including adverse weather conditions, and operating at a considerable distance from base airfields.
[Real Clear Investigations] Following a years-long surge in illegal immigration, the Trump administration is poised to challenge a longstanding but legally fraught practice: counting illegal aliens in the U.S. census.
President Trump tried to end the practice during his first term, but President Biden overturned his predecessor’s policy before it was implemented. Now, buoyed by red state attorneys general and Republican legislators, the second Trump administration is determined "to clean up the census and make sure that illegal aliens are not counted," White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said last month.
What Miller didn’t mention are the political implications of the administration’s move. It could have significant political implications because the census count is used to apportion House seats, determine the number of votes each state gets in the Electoral College for selecting the president, and drive the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds.
Some immigration researchers project that including noncitizens in the census count disproportionately benefits Democratic states with large illegal alien populations. A recent study counters that, based on 2020 census figures, there would have been a negligible shift to the political map had the U.S. government excluded noncitizens from that count. But looking backward, those researchers found, red states would have benefited under the administration’s desired census counting shift. Had authorities excluded such migrants from the 2010 census, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and North Carolina all would have gained one seat in the House, while California would have lost three seats, and Texas and Florida would have each lost one seat — with the total number of Electoral College votes allotted each state changing accordingly.
Since the first census in 1790, the nation has counted not only citizens but also residents to determine such representation. In addition to citing its long history, defenders of the practice say it is only fair that states should be given the power and resources to represent and serve everyone within their borders.
[FREEMALAYSIATODAY] At least 17 soldiers were killed in northern Nigeria when button men stormed three army bases, security sources and a local official said today, the latest assault in a region plagued by violence.
Armed gangs operating in the northwest, known locally as bandidos, typically engage in kidnapping for ransom and target security forces.
The Nigerian army confirmed the attacks yesterday but did not provide details.
''Sadly, some gallant warriors paid the supreme price in the day-long battles while four troops maimed in action are currently receiving treatment for their gunshot wounds,'' the army said in a statement.
Two security sources said button men launched surprise attacks on the army's forward operating bases in the Kwanar Dutse Mariga and Boka areas in Niger state and another base in neighbouring Kaduna state, battling troops for several hours.
The sources and Abbas Kasuwar Garba, chairman for Mariga district, said all 17 fatalities were at the Kwanar Dutse Mariga base.
''It was an ambush. They (button men) came from nowhere and used heavy ammunition to attack,'' said a Niger-based army officer.
The Nigerian army said it launched counter-attacks, killing several button men.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2025
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#1
June To Date
Shot & Killed: 23
Shot & Wounded: 116
Total Shot: 139
Total Homicides: 28
[GEO.TV] A powerful thunderstorm brought both respite from the heat and disruption to daily life across Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
late on Thursday, as more than 200 power feeders tripped, plunging large parts of the city into darkness.
According to reports, several areas of the port city, including Surjani Town, Malir, North Karachi, I I Chundrigar Road, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, and Gadap, witnessed heavy downpours accompanied by lightning and thunder. Rain also lashed Clifton, Defence, Scheme 33, North Nazimabad, Model Colony, Safoora, Korangi, Landhi, and Saadi Town.
In the aftermath of the brief heavy downpours, residents in many parts of the megacity were left without electricity.
The spokesperson of the city's power provider, K-Electric, confirmed feeder trips in Gulshan-e-Maymar, Surjani, Nazimabad, and Gulshan-e-Iqbal, leading to outages in New Karachi, Jamshed Town, the old city area, and surrounding localities.
Maripur, Lyari, Keamari, Hawks Bay, and Quaidabad were among other areas also impacted by outages. In the meantime, the power supply was also suspended in PIB Colony, PECHS, and parts of Korangi.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2025
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[FoxNews] Experts warn Iranian operatives could be leveraging anti-Israel protests after Biden's border policies enabled terrorist entry
As the threat of Iranian retaliation looms, the potential for terror proxies to leverage new-age methods remains front of mind for experts pointing to antisemitic campus protests and social media propaganda as possible methods of creating chaos within the United States.
After strikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites by U.S. forces Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin warning of the heightened risk of domestic terrorism from Iranian-backed or domestic attackers.
"The likelihood of violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence in response to the conflict would likely increase if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland," the bulletin says.
Sleeper cells are groups planted within a country by a foreign government to live and work among citizens with the ultimate goal of eventually carrying out a terror attack or politically motivated act of violence.
Due to depleted funding and resources, terror organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas have been forced to "sit this one out" when it comes to aiding Iran in its attacks, significantly depleting the regime’s show of force when looking to retaliate against the U.S. and Israel, according to Barak Seener, a senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society.
"Iran’s ability to react militarily is increasingly minimalized," Seener told Fox News Digital. "We have to remember that Iran’s terrorist proxies have been severely degraded."
In response to the loss of Iran’s usual terrorist proxies, Seener points to the government utilizing sleeper cells to carry out its agenda on the soil of its adversaries.
"Iran will be seeking to flex by activating sleeper cells in the U.S., Britain, Europe or even Asia," Seener said. "[It’s] about conducting surveillance and then targeting either community centers or policy officials. So, Iran is not new to this game."
The threat to Americans’ safety has U.S. officials on high alert, and DHS and the FBI are ramping up security measures throughout the country. Since the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 11 Iranian nationals in the country illegally, including an alleged sniper in the Iranian army, according to DHS.
"It is our duty to keep the nation safe and informed, especially during times of conflict," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict brings the possibility of increased threat to the homeland in the form of possible cyberattacks, acts of violence and antisemitic hate crimes."
The FBI declined Fox News Digital's request for comment.
"A number of Lebanese, Iranian, South American operatives with Iranian connections have come through the borders," Seener said, referencing the Biden administration’s previous open border policies. "[There’s] just no way of tracking."
However, Seener also raised the possibility of Iranian operatives commandeering anti-Israel campus protests throughout the U.S. while using cyber warfare to launch disinformation campaigns on social media.
"Much of the opposition to U.S. foreign policy toward Israel and Gaza has been people that have been coming to the [country] on student visas," Seener said. "They’re not U.S. nationals. And, yet, they’re able to create a disturbance and contribute to an enormous disruption."
In response to the ongoing anti-Israel protests on college campuses, President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to revoke hundreds of student visas belonging to known activists.
However, the risk of Iranian sleeper cells pales in comparison to the possibility of an individual radicalized by the regime choosing to carry out an attack on U.S. soil, according to Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD executive officer with the Intelligence Operations and Analysis Bureau.
"If [Iran] was looking to insert an asset into America, why would you not go through a porous southern border," Mauro told Fox News Digital. "Insert foreign agents here and embed them in these campus protests." )
The campus protests provide the Iranian government an attractive target to embed with, with the primary goal of creating disruption and dissent on American soil, according to Mauro.
"They can be the recipient of funds," Mauro said. "They can contextualize what is going on for you. They can tell you who the big players are, how the disruption could go. And it just saps our blood and treasure here on the home front and creates chaos."
Like Seener, Mauro pointed to the possibility of the Iranian regime using social media and online platforms to radicalize Americans in an attempt to build homegrown terrorists from the ground up.
"That is a real low-rent, easy-to-run operation," Mauro said. "You get somebody who is leading a slipping down life [who] doesn’t have much of an identity, somebody who is looking for a persona, and you give them one. It’s subtle, and it’s a seduction process."
While the use of propaganda and targeted social media is historically aligned with ISIS, Mauro pointed out changing digital times affecting how attacks can be waged.
"Traditionally, that’s not the Iranian MO," Mauro said. "That’s not the Hezbollah MO. But we’re in a new world."
However, the possibility for terror groups to come together with new strategies to use against a common enemy remains front of mind.
"Right now, the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Mauro said. "You could have the kind of elements that previously, people in remnants of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Syria, Iraq could [be] figuring right now that America is going to be a soft target because you have all this unrest among the progressives."
While the bulletin released by DHS does not cite any specific threats to the American people, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country are on high alert as they encourage people to remain vigilant with tensions between the U.S. and Iran continuing to rise.
"There are no rules of engagement to a rogue regime like Iran," Seener said. "Everything is fair game. Western democracies don’t operate in that manner, and it’s alien to us, but that is how Iran operates."
[NYPOST] The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that South Carolina can defund Planned Parenthood, clearing the way for other Republican-led states seeking to deprive the country's largest abortion provider of taxpayer money.
In a 6—3 decision that split along ideological lines, the high court found the 1965 Medicaid Act does not allow individual patients to sue states over decisions to disqualify their preferred providers from receiving Medicaid money — enabling South Carolina to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.
The ruling overturns lower court decisions that had allowed patients' lawsuit to move forward. The Richmond, Va-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals favored Planned Parenthood by slapping an injunction on South Carolina's implementation of its ban on funding for abortion.
''Like other States, South Carolina has an administrative process that lets providers challenge their exclusion from the State's Medicaid program,'' Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority.
''— private enforcement does not always benefit the public, not least because it requires States to divert money and attention away from social services and toward litigation. And balancing those costs and benefits poses a question of public policy that, under our system of government, only Congress may answer.''
In 2018, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order preventing all abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, from receiving Medicaid funding.
#2
...The vast majority of South Carolinians are perfectly happy with this. Some - including my wife - are furious.
I understand the foundation of their argument; that women will lose access to health care. At the bottom line, this is true.
But.
There are 2 PP clinics in SC, one here in Columbia and one in Charleston. The claim that women out in the boondocks will be unable to get health care is not at all accurate, there are many, many clinics out there, run and or supported by the big hospitals in the state. The crux of the matter is that they won't be able to get SC-paid for abortions.
Secondly, the money that goes to PP doesn't go to improving that health care; it goes back to Democratic politicians. Without exception. That is actually MY biggest complaint - I made it clear to my wife that if PP stopped all political donations, I'll write them a check and walk it down to the office myself. PP at bottom is a money laundering scheme that provides abortions and contraceptives on the side.
And finally - and full disclosure: I skipped this part of the discussion - PPs roots are in the frankly eugenicist beliefs of its founder, Margaret Sanger. Look up her statements on who should and should not be allowed to reproduce.
#3
Planned Parenthood is in the business of killing babies. It provides some healthcare as well in the same way that a deli also sells mustard. You can get mustard at the grocery store and you can get healthcare elsewhere. Healthcare and killing are not something that you want to get at the same establishment in the first place. Nobody would drop their kids off at a childcare center that is also an adult bookstore. There is an inherent incompatibility to Planned Parenthoos and healthcare.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/27/2025 8:05
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[ColonelCassad] Iran's official position on the end of the war with Israel. Ayatollah Khamenei on the war with Israel:
I consider it necessary to congratulate the great people of Iran:
First, congratulations on the victory over the lying Zionist regime.
For all their hype, for all their statements, the Zionist regime was practically defeated and destroyed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.
The American regime entered into a direct war, realizing that without its intervention, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed. But here, too, the Islamic Republic won, dealing the United States a crushing blow.
Trump exaggerated the extent of the damage to Iranian nuclear facilities, in fact, it is insignificant.
The second congratulation is the victory of our dear Iran over the American regime.
The American regime entered into a direct war, realizing that without its intervention, the Zionist regime would be wiped off the face of the earth. However, it did not achieve any results.
And here, too, the Islamic Republic won, responding to America with a crushing slap in the face.
The third congratulation is congratulations on the incredible unity of the people of Iran:
a 90-million people, united, united, shoulder to shoulder, stood up to defend and support the Armed Forces.
The US President said that Iran must surrender!
It is no longer about uranium enrichment, but about Iran's capitulation. These words are too big for the mouth of an American president.
No human logic can accept demands from an entire people: Come and surrender!
This man has exposed America's true intentions - they will only be satisfied with Iran's complete capitulation, nothing less. The Americans have committed a grave insult to the Iranian nation, but this will never happen - NEVER happen.
Never is a long time, and the Ayatollah is old. He will die before never is reached, and his successors will do as they must under the circumstances at the time.
Iran damaged the US base in Qatar,
How, when not one of Iran’s missiles even got close?
and the Americans are downplaying it.
Iran does not rule out repeat strikes on US military bases in the event of new aggression.
The Iranian nation is a great nation. Our cultural and civilizational wealth is hundreds of times greater than that of America and countries like it. The idea that Iran could capitulate to another country is absurd. The Iranian nation is worthy of respect and will always be so. It is victorious and will remain victorious by the will of the Almighty.
* * *
Iranian Chief of General Staff on the war with Israel:
Iran is a steadfast, insightful and noble nation.
Following the aggressive actions of the Zionist regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which took place with the knowledge, support and patronage of criminal America, your zealous sons in the armed forces, mobilizing their forces and capabilities, gave painful and extensive responses to the Zionist enemy. Despite extensive censorship of news and propaganda, the consequences of the damage inflicted on the occupied territories from south to north indicate that important military, strategic and research centers have been reduced to a pile of ashes.
As the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have repeatedly stated, Iran has not started and will not start any war, but if aggression is directed against the territorial integrity of the country, we will determine the outcome and end of this war and aggression.
In the recent imposed war, in addition to America's direct entry into the war, although the Zionist regime was the leader of the aggression against Iran, the intelligence, logistics and operational capabilities of Western countries, especially NATO, were completely at the service of the aggressor.
Using this description, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, relying on its internal capabilities and weapons, as well as the comprehensive support of the people, stopped the enemy's war machine, inflicting heavy losses on it.
The multi-layered air defense systems in the occupied territories, which the world community had previously described as impenetrable, became defenseless against Iran's powerful ballistic missiles and drones, and the residents of the occupied territories did not have a safe place for themselves, not even shelters, throughout this war.
Although the direct US military intervention in Iranian nuclear facilities was an attempt to save the Zionist regime from Iranian missile and drone attacks, the powerful response of the armed forces to the attack on the US base in Al-Udeid showed that no desperate actions can affect the strong and steely will of the Iranian nation and armed forces in confronting the aggressor. Therefore, the US leaders made pleas through some regional countries and actually surrendered to the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In conclusion, while sincerely paying tribute to the heroic nation of Iran, which provided its brave and courageous sons in the armed forces with unwavering and comprehensive support, we once again warn the Zionist enemy and its supporters that we are closely monitoring their actions and if they repeat any strategic mistake, we will send the aggressors to the black holes of history.
P.S. In general, Iran officially demonstrates satisfaction with the results of the war and considers the exchange of blows and the disruption of the US and Israel's plans as its victory. The main variable is the unknown state of Iran's nuclear program, which gives all participants in the war the opportunity to interpret its outcome in their favor.
US President Donald Trump made it clear that Washington wants Iran to capitulate, but this will never happen. This was stated on June 26 by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khamenei.
"The US president said in one of his statements that Iran should surrender. This man revealed the truth and made it clear that the US will only be satisfied with Iran's surrender and nothing else. The Iranian people should know that this will never happen," Khamenei said in an address to the nation.
He noted that the statement by the head of the White House reveals Washington’s true intentions regarding Tehran.
According to him, the Americans come up with various excuses, but their whole meaning comes down to one thing - Iran's capitulation. The Supreme Leader of the Republic noted that Trump's predecessors did not voice such unacceptable ideas.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The dollar has fallen sharply due to doubts about the independence of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) after reports of a possible change in its leadership by US President Donald Trump. This was reported on June 26 by Reuters.
Earlier it became known that the American leader could replace the current head of the Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell, by the fall with someone who would agree to lower rates.
"From a market perspective, of course, not only does this undermine the Fed's credibility and independence, it also poses a risk to the US rate outlook," Nick Rees, head of macro research at Monex Europe, told the publication.
Kieran Williams, head of Asian FX at InTouch Capital Markets, said markets would likely take a dim view of any premature move to appoint a successor to Powell, especially if it appeared politically motivated.
On April 17, Trump said Jerome Powell should leave his post as soon as possible. He responded by assuring that he would not leave. The American leader called the Fed chief "Mr. Too Late" and "a big loser." Trump called on Powell to cut interest rates immediately.
On April 22, amid statements from the head of the White House to the head of the regulator, the dollar index DXY, which reflects the value of the American currency in relation to six major US trading partners, reached its minimum value since March 2022 - 97.92 points.
The currency basket includes the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc. The index is calculated by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Immigration has had such a strong impact on American demographics that it is helping counteract the nation's declining birth rates, new data has revealed.
Birth rates across the US have steadily declined year-on-year, but a Census Bureau report published Thursday reveals America's population gain last year was largest it has ever been.
Birth rates go up when the populace trusts the future will be good, and down when they don’t, ie. up during Republican administrations and down under Democrats, at least starting during the Obama presidency. This is offset by the aging of the Baby boom bulge, so what we’re seeing is the net effect after four horrible years under the Biden Politburo. It will be very interesting to see the numbers by age cohort at the end of Trump 47.
The older population, adults aged 65 and above, climbed by 3.5 per cent from 2023 to 2024, figures show.
The number of youths - people under 18 - nationwide has continued to drop annually, with last year recording a decline of 0.2 per cent.
Although women are having fewer children, America's population is growing, especially among the Hispanic, Asian and black communities - which experts largely attribute to a rise in immigration.
The Hispanic or Latino population increased by 1.9 million last year, an increase larger than that of all other race or ethnicity groups combined.
The Asian and black populations rose by 4.2 and 1 per cent, respectively. America's white population was the only population that dropped, declining 0.1 per cent.
Census data doesn't say whether illegal immigration contributed to these figures, although the number of people intercepted crossing the border has slumped since President Donald Trump began his second term.
'This past year, the population gain was bigger than it's ever been before,' Bill Frey, a specialist in American demographics, told the Washington Post. 'Overall, it's because of immigration.'
The Asian population recorded the fastest growth - at 4.2 per cent or an increase of 898,113 people - in the US from 2023 and 2024.
California experienced the largest increase in its Asian population, followed by Texas.
The report notes that Texas' annual growth rate of 6.9 per cent was 'substantially faster' than the recorded 2.7 per cent in California.
America's Hispanic population, including both immigration and births, has increased by 9.7 per cent from April 2020 to July 2024.
Latinos, for the first time ever, now account for 20 per cent of the total population.
Despite this group growing the second-fastest nationwide, data shows that only nine states recorded that Hispanics accounted for one-fifth of their total population.
The white population was the only population that dropped between 2023 and 2024, declining 0.1 per cent or by 226,072 people.
Experts say the historic rise in immigration has largely contributed to population growth, as especially since the number of children being in the country is declining.
America's older population increased from 12.4 per cent in 2004 to 18 per cent 2024, the census bureau report revealed, while the share of children declined from 25 per cent to 21.5 per cent over the same period.
The gap between the two age groups dropped from 20 million in 2020 to just under 12 million last year.
'Children still outnumber older adults in the United States, despite a decline in births this decade,' Lauren Bowers, chief of the bureau's Population Estimates Branch, said.
'However, the gap is narrowing as baby boomers continue to age into their retirement years. In fact, the number of states and counties where older adults outnumber children is on the rise, especially in sparsely populated areas.'
Trump's administration has prioritized policies to encourage more people to have children, including tax incentives for parents, paid family leave, child subsidies, and his proposed $1,000 investment accounts for babies born during his tenure in office.
Trump, at the same time, has carried out a sweeping immigration crackdown that has removed millions of illegal migrants from the US.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a bride named Sitara armed herself with a knife on her wedding night and held her groom captive for three days, threatening to kill him. This was reported by the News18 TV channel.
The girl was forced into marriage by her parents to 26-year-old Nishad, although she loved another man. After the wedding, when the newlyweds were alone, the bride took a knife and threatened to cut the groom into 35 pieces if he touched her, according to the June 25 article.
That’s awfully specific…
"I was freezing. I sat on the couch all night, and she stayed on the bed with a knife <…> I couldn't sleep, afraid that she might stab me in my sleep. I read about such cases in the newspapers. I thought I might become another headline," Nishad complained.
What a strange country, that that is a standing headline.
Three days later, the groom told his parents about it, they contacted the bride's family, a general meeting was held with the participation of elders. The girl was asked to accept the marriage, but she did not allow the appointed husband to approach her.
The tense relationship lasted for a month, then the girl ran away at night, climbing over a fence. Her actions were condemned by both families.
"If I ever marry again, it will be to someone who truly understands the meaning of marriage. Sitara never accepted me," Nishad said.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Two weeks after the start of Israel's Operation Lion Force against Iran, the parties have put their guns away and are focusing on summing up the results. And everyone is coming up with different results.
The main controversy revolves around the first day of the clashes. The more time passes, the more the results of the operation declared by Tel Aviv diverge from reality.
And, paradoxically, the Israeli authorities have driven themselves into an image trap.
WITH AN EYE ON COLLAPSE
On June 13, almost simultaneously with the first air raids, Israeli intelligence services began a large-scale information game. The press and networks were filled with reports of the liquidation of key military and civilian officials of the Islamic Republic, the destruction of airfields and "missile cities", the death of leading nuclear physicists and fires at nuclear facilities.
Tel Aviv trumpeted: every second representative of the Iranian high command was killed.
The activity of Israeli agents sent into the country contributed to the escalation of panic. Mossad and military intelligence commandos approached headquarters and army facilities, adding to the statistics of targets hit.
The destabilization of Iranian society was carried out, among other things, from within. Mossad agents who spoke Persian called generals and representatives of the special services, threatening them and their family members with immediate liquidation if they refused to address the nation with calls to overthrow the regime.
The interesting thing being that they had the private phone numbers of such eminent persons, and apparently knew who answered the phone. Is Santa Claus a member of Mossad?
The operation was approached with intelligence: the agents managed to obtain not only the basic identification data of high-ranking officials, but also information about their dietary and daily habits, travel routes, and immediate circle of friends and acquaintances. It seemed that the highest ranks of Iran were visible to Tel Aviv as if in the palm of their hand.
They used to call people in Hezbollah, but it was easy enough to get the White Pages for that country before unlisted and cell phone numbers were a thing. In my ignorance, the current iteration suggests a thorough hacking of Iran’s phone system plus voice recognition.
The Israelis planned to release these videos to cause a government collapse in Iran.
ERROR IN CALCULATIONS
The operation to mislead the Iranian elite had every chance of success, especially in the first few hours of Lion Force, when the country's top leadership was in disarray and contact with some commanders was lost.
And the ongoing attacks on areas that were previously considered unreachable only increased the negative effect.
However, the Israelis were let down by their overconfidence.
They were convinced that videos of repentance from surviving Iranian commanders would follow one after another, and so they did not prepare alternative propaganda materials - for example, deepfakes designed for a mass audience.
By the time Tel Aviv realized that there would be no “repentance” from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Iranian authorities had managed to recover from the initial shock and take measures to minimize information impacts. A special Internet governance regime was introduced in the country, and public statements by military personnel and officials were placed under strict control.
Moreover, in an effort to create a beautiful picture for the Western observer, the Israelis went for a substitution of concepts, putting an equal sign between the army structures and the IRGC.
As a result, it seemed that the Iranian army had indeed been left without command and control. This version was eagerly picked up by Western politicians, who vied with each other in predicting the end of the Islamic Republic.
At some point, Tel Aviv also began to believe in this state of affairs.
COLLISION WITH REALITY
As events unfolded, the Israelis, who had believed in the imminent collapse of Iranian statehood, began to encounter unpleasant surprises. The first clash with reality occurred on June 13, when Iran announced the launch of Operation True Promise 3.
Iran not only launched missiles (most of which, according to Tel Aviv, were destroyed in their silos) toward the Jewish state, but also created a constant burden on the enemy's air defense system. The strikes repeatedly hit their target.
The occasional strike did, not anywhere close to the number of missiles that took off.
This was in stark contrast to the Israelis' bravura announcement that their airspace was now "completely safe."
The second challenge was the sudden rise of patriotism in Iran for Tel Aviv. The hope of breaking the regime from within did not come true: ordinary citizens not only did not renounce the ayatollahs, but also joined in catching Israeli saboteurs operating on Iranian territory.
And the “depressed and detached” Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei acted too decisively, without being distracted by the search for compromises with either the United States or Israel.
The final blow to the image came after the active fighting had ceased, when one after another the commanders whom Israel had included on the list of those to be liquidated began to appear in public.
Among the first to appear was the commander of the elite IRGC special forces unit Al-Quds, Ismail Qaani, who suddenly appeared in a Tehran square during the celebration of the victory over Israel.
And then came the news that the political adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Shamkhani, whose murder the Israelis called "an open message from Khamenei," was also almost unharmed by the raids. Moreover, during the days of the fighting, he was constantly with the leadership, helping to coordinate the response operation.
IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE TO SPLIT IT
Against the backdrop of the sudden "resurrection" of Iranian military leaders, protest voices have already been heard in Tel Aviv. Israeli "hawks" and oppositionists who previously supported the strike on Tehran are now asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whether the game was worth the candle.
Monday morning quarterbacking is easy. Enduring the survival of the Jewish nation requires hard choices be made quickly with imperfect information. That they are nowsafeenough to carp should suggest to them that Bibi was not wrong, andthey need to get over themselves.
Moreover, he continues to talk about the Israeli army achieving all of its goals, although from the point of view of his opponents, the operation was “largely a failure” and the strikes were symbolic.
As they would say if God himself came down from the mountain in his burning bush to tell them that Bibi was following order from on high, because they define everything Bibi does or does not do, says or does not say, as wrong, such is their loathing of the man. Much like the NeverTrumpers on this side of the pond.
Of course, it is also inappropriate to say that Israel defeated Iran solely "on paper". Tel Aviv managed to eliminate at least half of the figures it had declared. Mainly nuclear physicists, who were a priority target for the Israelis.
On the other hand, the main goal – the division of Iran into warring camps according to the Libyan scenario – was never achieved.
The main goal was to end the nuclear threat, with a secondary goal of stripping Iran of Hezbollah and Hamas (with a stretch goal of the Houthis) as useable tools with which to surround Israel and annihilate her Thus far it appears that both goals have been adequately met, pushing Iran & Co between some years and a generation into the future as threat. Possibly longer — that remains to be seen.
It is not worth excluding the possibility that the Israeli authorities will soon appoint someone to blame for creating a false information picture that has created inflated expectations among the country's population.
And given the ongoing friction between Netanyahu's cabinet and the security forces, it won't take long to find a candidate.
Yeah, yeah. Bibi is a wily old operator, forever about to fall off the cliff he dances on so beautifully.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/27/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
The data indicate enemy advancement in Shevchenko, Kamenskoye and near Burlatskoye and Volnoye Pole.
The Russian occupation army has advanced within four settlements in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, the monitoring project DeepState reported on Thursday, June 26.
Thus, the enemy made advances in Shevchenko (Volnovakha district, Donetsk region), Kamyanskoye (Vasilievsky district, Zaporizhzhya region) and near Burlatskoye and Volnoye Pole (Volnovakha district).
According to the project map, the so-called "gray zone" in the Shevchenko and Volnoye Pole area is 29.87 sq. km, in the Burlatskoye area - 94.77 sq. km, the "gray zone" in the Kamyanskoye area is 25.64 sq. km.
In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the alleged “capture” of the settlements of Shevchenko and Novosergeevka in the Donetsk region.
The day before, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the loss of two villages in Donetsk region - Andreevka and Konstantinopol. Also then, it was reported about the enemy's advance near Alekseevka, Dneproenergiya and in Shevchenko.
Prisoners of war may be used for further exchange for Ukrainian servicemen held in Russian captivity.
The defenders of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with related units, captured 15 Russian servicemen while performing tasks in the Sumy region. This was reported by the Airborne Assault Troops command on Facebook on Thursday, June 26.
Most of the prisoners are soldiers from the Russian 810th Separate Naval Infantry and 155th Separate Naval Infantry brigades.
"These brigades were distinguished by their particular cruelty towards Ukrainian servicemen in enemy captivity," the statement noted.
In their units on the territory of the Russian Federation, they were subjected to inhumane treatment, psychological pressure and threats.
The press service emphasized that the prisoners had already been provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance. So now they can be used for further exchange for Ukrainian servicemen held in Russian captivity.
Let us recall that recently Ukrainian servicemen captured 10 Russian servicemen in the Kursk direction.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Tehran has not yet made a decision on whether to continue negotiations with Washington on resolving the Iranian nuclear issue and lifting sanctions.
What cards do they still hold there?
This was announced on June 26 by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic Abbas Araghchi on the air of the IRIB TV channel.
"I want to make it clear that no agreement has been reached yet and no decision has been made to start new negotiations. (…) No plan has been drawn up yet to start the negotiation process," Araghchi explained, noting that some statements about resuming dialogue should not be taken seriously, and there are no agreements with Washington yet.
At the same time, Araghchi noted that Iran is ready to conclude an agreement with the US, but only if it includes mandatory clauses on lifting sanctions against Tehran and permission to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. In turn, Tehran is ready to give guarantees that it will not produce nuclear weapons.
*Snicker*
Earlier, Regnum News Agency reported that US President Donald Trump announced on June 23 that an agreement had been reached between Iran and Israel on a ceasefire. As the politician explained, Tehran must be the first to stop military actions, and Tel Aviv must follow suit in 12 hours.
On November 24, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it had neutralized the alleged nuclear and missile threats from Iran. The document emphasized that all combat tasks had been accomplished, and therefore the American side's proposal for a truce had been accepted.
On the same day, the Iranian Security Council issued a statement about the victory over Israel. It noted that the enemy was forced to stop the strikes. Tehran emphasized that the troops remain in a state of combat readiness,
.. .the ones not dead yet, anyway…
and official statements from Tel Aviv do not inspire confidence.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khamenei recalled on June 26 that Trump had recently demanded Tehran's capitulation, but that would never happen. He also noted that no American leader had ever made such statements out loud.
So? The Donald is not like his predecessors.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/27/2025
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#2
President Trump had already said it doesn’t matter if they come to an agreement now, because after that last bombing run the nuclear problem is moot. The question is what happens to Iran next.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ramifications were predicted to be felt for generations after today, as in a historic 6-3 Supreme Court decision, 3 justices were ruled to be morons.
The ruling came near the end of the U.S. Supreme Court's current term, leaving legal analysts around the country saying that the decision was sure to have a long-lasting impact on all future cases.
"This was a ruling that shifts the balance in the country," one expert said. "According to this 6-3 decision, three of the justices sitting on the Supreme Court are morons, with the three morons themselves providing the dissenting opinion."
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, stating unequivocally that the dissenting justices were, in fact, idiots. "The evidence was clear," Thomas said. "Three of our colleagues are babbling fools. It is the opinion of this court that this be recognized and applied accordingly to all future cases brought before the court. Let the record also show that one of my dissenting colleagues got a pencil eraser stuck in her ear during closing arguments."
The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, provided insight into the court's reasoning. "What does ’dissent' mean?" Jackson asked. "How can the court conceivably rule that three of its justices are ’morons' when there remains no consensus among the justices of what a woman is? Someone said Justice Kagan is an example of a woman, but she sure doesn't look like one to me. Also, what is an ’opinion?'"
At publishing time, the court had issued an amended ruling on the case that would require all of the moron justices to pass a literacy test before joining in any future opinions.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/27/2025
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[Johnathon Turley] The warning was stark. At issue was a privileged class that has long dictated policy despite countervailing public opinion. At issue, the luminary warned, is nothing short of democracy itself. No, it was not the continued rallies of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., VT) to “fight oligarchy.” It was Justice Clarence Thomas rallying his colleagues to fight technocracy, or government by experts. He warned against allowing “elite sentiment” to “distort and stifle democratic debate.” Yet, the story is even more profound of an elite class which succumbed to the Icarian gene and fell to Earth due to hubris and excess.
In his concurrence in United States v. Skrmetti, a case upholding Tennessee’s ban on adolescent transgender treatments, Thomas called for his colleagues to stand against an “expert class” that has dictated both policy and legal conclusions in the United States.
The reference to “experts” is often used to insulate an opinion as self-evidently true on a given question when they speak as a group. It distinguishes the informed from the casual; the certifiably authoritative from the merely interested. Yet, what constitutes an “expert” can be little more than an advanced degree, and the “overwhelming opinion of experts” can be little more than groupthink.
Thomas warned his colleagues that “[t]here are particularly good reasons to question the expert class here, as recent revelations suggest that leading voices in this area have relied on questionable evidence, and have allowed ideology to influence their medical guidance.”
Indeed, those “good reasons” have become increasingly obvious to those outside of the Beltway. The public saw experts line up during the pandemic to support mandatory uses of surgical masks, shutting down schools, and requiring the ruinous six-foot rule of separation. Many of these rules were later found lacking in scientific support. At the same time, dissenting experts, including the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration, were blacklisted, censored, or fired for challenging these views.
We have seen the same orthodoxy on issues ranging from gender dysphoria to COVID measures.
In his concurrence, Thomas lashed out at the virtual mantra in court papers and the media of an “overwhelming medical consensus” in favor of transitioning children. This is often cited as the conclusive judgment of experts as opposed to citizens who overwhelmingly oppose treatments for children, including castration or surgical removal of genitalia. Thomas insisted that “so-called experts have no license to countermand the ‘wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices.’”
For decades, citizens largely identified the government with bringing modern approaches to programs eliminating long-standing social ills from poverty to illiteracy to inequality. Roughly 100 years ago, the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt transformed the government’s role in American life. A generation of experts brought new ideas of electrification, education, and economics to the country.
This veneration was furthered by Kennedy’s assemblage of “the best and the brightest” and Johnson’s “Great Society” reformers.
The courts later followed with greater and greater deference afforded to these experts, including the establishment of the “Chevron doctrine” insulating agency decisions from substantial judicial review. The Supreme Court ruled that courts were poorly equipped to second-guess the expertise of agency experts.
The Reagan Revolution challenged those assumptions. Reagan famously told voters that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”
Over the years, the mystique took on a more menacing aspect for many in the country as they watched academic and scientific groups become more advocates than experts. There seemed to be a shift from making for a better life to making us better people through progressive social agendas.
The result has been a dramatic change in trust for higher education and, by extension, the supremacy of the expert class. According to Gallup, only a third of Americans today have great confidence in higher education and roughly the same number have little or no confidence. That is a drop of over twenty percent in the last ten years.
Other polling shows drops in the trust for state and local public health officials as well as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The decline of the expert class can be traced to the changes in higher education over the last couple of decades. As I discuss in my book The Indispensable Right, an orthodoxy has taken hold of most universities with a purging of conservative, libertarian, and dissenting faculty. Within these ideological echo chambers, appointments, publications, and grants often seem to turn on conclusions that favor political agendas.
Over the years, dissenting faculty members have been forced out of scientific and academic organizations for challenging preferred conclusions on subjects ranging from transgender transitions to COVID-19 protections to climate change. Some were barred from speaking at universities or blacklisted for their opposing views.
As shown during COVID, many of the exiled experts were ultimately proven correct in challenging the efficacy of surgical masks or the need to shut down our schools and businesses. Scientists moved like a herd of lemmings on the origin of the virus, crushing those who suggested that the most likely explanation is a lab leak (a position that federal agencies would later embrace).
A series of really load booms and a fireball splintering were seen from Atlanta to Ft. Gordon Ga around 6-26-25
It had many seeing it, wondering if we had incoming from, NK, Russia, or Iran.
NO pre-alert, alarms or warnings were given to the public.
So much for Space Watch.
[TikTok] Meteorite crashes to Earth.
These are videos I found online of the meteor today that passed over the eastern United States.
Around 12:24–12:30 p.m. Eastern Time on June 26, 2025, a bright fireball streaked across the sky over parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The event was captured on multiple cameras and witnessed by hundreds. A flash was detected by satellite, and a loud sonic boom was reported across several counties.
The meteor is believed to have exploded midair near the Georgia–South Carolina border, and officials are investigating possible impact sites. NASA-affiliated scientists confirmed a meteorite fall near Blacksville, Georgia, and searches are underway for debris. The phenomenon lit up the sky in broad daylight and was powerful enough to rattle homes and trigger emergency calls.
#1
We were and are up here about 8 miles from the Blacksville / McDonough area of the stated impact. It was a loud sonic boom sound, several times and the blast waves shook the Metal building warehouse area down here in Locust Grove Ga.
[VANGUARDNGR] A Borno State High Court sitting in Maiduguri has again convicted and sentenced Aisha Alkali Wakil, popularly known as Mama Boko Haram, alongside her associates Tahiru Saidu Daura and Prince Lawal Shoyode, to 14 years imprisonment each for a contract scam involving N11 million.
Justice Aisha Kumaliya delivered the ruling on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, following a protracted trial that began after the trio was arraigned by the Maiduguri Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on September 14, 2020.
The defendants, who served as Chief Executive Officer, Programme Manager, and Country Director respectively of the NGO, Complete Care and Aids Foundation, were charged with two counts of conspiracy and obtaining money by false pretence.
According to a statement released Wednesday night by the EFCC Spokesman, Dele Oyewale, the convicts fraudulently obtained N11 million from one Muhammed Ambare of Muhammed Ambare Ventures in July 2018 under the guise of supplying and servicing two X-ray machines — a contract which turned out to be fictitious.
Count two of the charge stated:
''That you, Aisha Alkali Wakil, Tahiru Saidu Daura, Prince Lawal Shoyode, and Saidu Mukhtar (now on the lam), with intent to defraud, obtained N11,000,000.00 from one Muhammed Ambare under the false pretence of executing a contract for supply, installation, and servicing of 2 units of X-Ray Machine Model 1800, which you knew to be false—''
The defendants initially pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." , prompting the case to proceed to full trial. The EFCC, represented by prosecutors Mukhtar Ali Ahmed and S.O. Saka, presented a witness and submitted documentary evidence to support the case.
Justice Kumaliya found the three guilty on both counts, sentencing them to seven years on each count, to run concurrently — amounting to 14 years each. Additionally, the court ordered them to jointly refund N8 million to the petitioner or face another seven years behind bars in default of payment.
The case marks yet another legal blow for Wakil, who has faced multiple fraud-related convictions in recent years, despite her once-prominent public image as a humanitarian and peace advocate in the North-East.
[YouTube] Crime in Memphis is so bad… they tried to kidnap the mayor. In this eye-opening video, we dive into the shocking rise—and sudden fall—of violent crime in Memphis, Tennessee. From viral billboards calling to "defund the police" to property crime destroying lives and livelihoods, Memphis has been in a state of emergency. Newly elected Mayor Paul Young
…Democrat, BS electrical engineering, MS city planning, MBA, so he should be more analytical/logical than most Democratic politicians. Here’s hoping he really does turn the city around…
vowed to clean up the streets, and initial data shows he’s made real progress—but not everyone’s happy. Trenton Abston allegedly scaled the mayor's wall, armed with a taser and rope, demanding answers. Was it a confrontation… or an attempted kidnapping? We break down everything, from the crime epidemic to the justice system’s contradictions, and ask: Is this what justice looks like in America’s crime capitals?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] In Donbass, fighters of the Vostok group continue to develop the strategic success achieved after the liberation of the village of Komar, 78 km west of Donetsk, which until mid-June was used as the main stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the western regions of the DPR.
Last week, assault units managed to drive the enemy out of the village of Perebudova (Perestroika) on the H15 highway connecting the cities of Donetsk and Zaporozhye. At the same time, Russian troops did not stop at the success they had achieved and took up more advantageous positions "on the shoulders" of the retreating enemy.
“Having crossed the Mokrye Yaly River, the attack aircraft on the western bank planted Russian flags and created a bridgehead for further offensive,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
The department noted that the assault on Perebudova lasted for three days. At the final stage, the enemy almost stopped resisting and retreated. Beyond the Mokrye Yaly River, there are no longer any natural obstacles to the advance of our troops to the border of the Dnepropetrovsk region.
North of Perebudova, Russian troops liberated the small settlement of Zaporizhia. The "namesake" of the regional center is located in close proximity to the border of the DPR and the Dnipropetrovsk region.
According to the latest information, the Ukrainian Armed Forces units were also driven out of a village with an equally symbolic name - Yalta. Judging by the name, this Yalta in the Volnovakha district, as well as the more famous "namesake" near Mariupol, were founded by settlers from Crimea in the 18th century. Having occupied Yalta, our soldiers also reached the Mokrye Yaly River.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area, as a rule, make almost no attempts to launch a counteroffensive, but try to prolong military operations whenever possible. But such "cautious" tactics have led to the fact that no more than ten settlements belonging to the DPR remain under the control of Ukrainian troops in this section of the front. This was indicated by an informed source of the Regnum news agency.
"The enemy is currently concentrating its forces in the area of the villages of Poddubnoye and Mirnoye. And further north, in the village of Zelenyi Gai. As far as we know, they have no order to fight to the death, but they are dragging out time and waiting until new defensive lines are created in the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region. But now the pace of our offensive is such that we often break into unfinished, unequipped positions," the source noted.
Further success of the offensive in the western part of Donbas will allow the "Vostok" group to launch a large-scale offensive to create a buffer zone in the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Earlier, Russian troops liberated the village of Orekhovo and hung over the village of Novopavlovka from the north.
With the liberation of Yalta, the advancing troops have a new bridgehead to the south, which allows them to take Novopavlovka "in pincers" in the future. It was previously noted that the village is located at a crossroads and plays a key role in the logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In strategic terms, the success of the operation in the Dnepropetrovsk region may allow them to reach the enemy's supply routes in the city of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), the largest enemy defense node.
SOLDIERS IN UDACHNY
In the direction of Krasnoarmeysk itself, after a short pause, military actions have resumed in the area of the urban-type settlement of Udachnoye. Russian troops are advancing in the direction of the E50 highway, which connects Krasnoarmeysk with the territory of the Dnepropetrovsk region. Realizing the importance of defensive lines in this area, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has transferred reinforcements from the reserve and newly formed units from recruits here. At the same time, our offensive continues northeast of Pokrovsk in the direction of Shakhovo - Novotoretskoye.
In the area of Vladimirovka, Russian kamikaze drone operators hit several units of armored vehicles and motor vehicles heading to the front line. In all cases, FPV drones on fiber optics were used for the strikes, despite the fact that the targets were located in the operational rear of the enemy. Even the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, acknowledged the success of the Russian developers.
"We know that they have succeeded, for example, in producing drones with fiber optic control. Here, unfortunately, they have an advantage in both quantity and the range of their use. We already have examples of drones with fiber optics flying at a distance of up to 40 km," the enemy army commander admitted.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not abandoned hope of building a defense along the Kamenny Torets River and preventing the encirclement of Krasnoarmeysk from the north.
SUBURBS OF KONSTANTINOVKA
On another "hot" section of the front in the DPR, in the area of the city of Konstantinovka (the southernmost link in the agglomeration of Konstantinovka - Druzhkovka - Kramatorsk - Slavyansk), our troops liberated the village of Dyleevka. It is located 17 kilometers southeast of Konstantinovka.
The success of the assault was facilitated by the predominantly flat nature of the terrain, which did not allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to achieve fire control. The offensive in this direction continues toward two southeastern suburbs of Konstantinovka - Belaya Gora and Aleksandro-Shultino.
The enemy is trying to maintain control of the Kleban-Bykskoye Reservoir area south of Konstantinovka in order to prevent Russian troops from breaking through to the city from this direction.
"In fact, military actions are already underway on the administrative territory of the Konstantinovka community, roughly speaking, in the suburbs of Konstantinovka. We are already approaching from the east from Chasov Yar, from the east - from Yablonovka, but first we need to finish clearing the southern outskirts. Enemy forces are currently concentrating in Ivanopol - Pleshcheyevka to cover the city. So we can cautiously say that the battle for Konstantinovka has begun," the interlocutor of IA Regnum noted.
According to local reports, the Ukrainian Armed Forces garrison is actively preparing Konstantinovka for urban combat, setting up defensive lines in the industrial zone and densely populated areas. Ukrainian sources fear that the Russian Armed Forces will not directly assault the city, but will try to encircle Konstantinovka and establish fire control over supply routes, which is why the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area risk being surrounded.
THERE IS NO LINE OF DEFENSE
Russian troops are also developing an offensive in the Sumy region, gradually expanding the area of the buffer zone. Over the past week, assault units in the border area have managed to advance in the area of the villages and settlements of Radyanskoye, Andreyevka, Novaya Sich, Alekseyevka, Kondratovka, Khrapovshchina, Yunakovka and Sadki.
Ukrainian sources also report fierce clashes in the area of the semi-encircled village of Varachino. At the same time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not been able to build a stable line of defense here, despite the existing capabilities - this was noted by the Ukrainian resource DeepState. Analysts published photos showing construction materials that were intended for building defense along the state border line, including the so-called "dragon's teeth".
Satellite images show them piled up in the area of the village of Yunakovka. Ukrainian soldiers began digging trenches here a year ago, but the work was never completed. Analysts say the materials will now fall into the hands of Russian soldiers, who will use them for their own purposes.
Lacking a layered defense in the Sumy direction, the enemy is trying to patch up the holes by throwing its last reserves into battle. The day before, it became known that the 6th separate special forces regiment "Rangers" entered the battle near Yunakovka, which was used as infantry. However, a week later the unit was withdrawn from the front due to the losses it suffered.
The success of the Russian offensive led to the enemy command announcing the creation of an operational-tactical group in the Sumy direction. It will include a separate unit for the defense of the city of Sumy. The new group will be tasked with building fortifications along the right bank of the Oleshnya River, 10–15 km north of the city. However, Ukrainian sources fear that the new fortifications may not be built in time, given the pace of our military advancement in the border area.
In general, Russian troops continue to firmly hold the initiative at the front, attacking the enemy in the rear. The day before, it became known about a strike by the Iskander tactical missile system on the Ukrainian Armed Forces training ground in the Nikolaev region. This is already the third strike on the enemy's training centers in recent times.
The destruction of the Ukrainian army reserves before they even arrive at the front accelerates the collapse of its defenses, allowing Russian troops to move forward, often without encountering resistance.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 20:52 Shooting down of Ukrainian hexacopters by FPV drones in Novoselovsky direction —video. 19:51 Servicemen of the 6th Motorized Rifle Division of the "Southern" group of forces sharpen skills in operating infantry fighting vehicles and tanks in the rear area of the North Military District.
The tank crews fired from the T-72B3 tank cannon at moving targets from a stationary position and on the move.
The firing range also hosts fire training with BMP-2 crews. The servicemen improve their aiming skills, identifying advantageous positions for shooting, conducting reconnaissance, and interacting with infantry. Drivers-mechanics completed exercises in driving combat vehicles over rough terrain, overcoming natural obstacles and barriers.
19:25 Air strike on positions of the 141st Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces —video.
18:22 Situation in the South Donetsk direction
In the area of responsibility of the 29th Army:
- The assault groups of the Transbaikalians came close to Chervona Zirka from the east. All attempts by the enemy to stop the advance of the 36th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade were unsuccessful. Four forest belts were cleared from the enemy presence, the advance in depth to the borders of Chervona Zirka amounted to more than one kilometer.
– In the 5th Army’s area of responsibility: the 57th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade liberated the village of Shevchenko and also occupied enemy positions in the adjacent forest belt and on three heights. The advance was more than one and a half kilometers in depth and along the front. On the final day of the assault, up to 20 enemy manpower units were destroyed.
– In other areas, the situation has not undergone any significant changes.
17:54 Footage of the destruction of a Ukrainian Armed Forces bunker by artillerymen from the “Yug” group in the area of the settlement of Katerynivka —video.
16:53 New selection from drone operators of the Rubicon Center FPV drone crews destroyed:
armored and automotive equipment, communication systems, manpower, firing positions, fortifications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces —video.
16:25 The Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to camouflage their tank in a forest plantation, but our drone operators burned the armored vehicles with several drones —video.
15:40 Detachment "Anwar" cleans upbuffer zone of Sumy and Chernihiv regions from Ukrainian militants.
— VOP Armed Forces of Ukraine, settlement Khrenovka, Chernihiv region
— VOP Armed Forces of Ukraine, dugouts, electronic warfare, settlement Popovka, Chernihiv region
— UAV control point Armed Forces of Ukraine, settlement Sosnovka, Sumy region
15:05 UAV operators of the 44th Army Corps of the North group reveal and destroy the enemy in the Khar'kov direction with the help of Supercam S350 reconnaissance drones and FPV drones.
– Drone operators from the “West” group destroyed a pickup truck and personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Krasnolimansk direction.
– Attack drone crews of the Vostok group destroyed enemy vehicles with personnel in the South Donetsk direction.
– Scouts of the Southern group of forces destroyed two enemy UAV control points in the Northern direction.
– The Orlan-10 UAV crew adjusted the destruction of a Ukrainian Armed Forces floating craft by a Lancet loitering munition on the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region.
14:45 Calculations of the Geranium-2 UAV are being carried around temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces unit in the area of the settlement of Novoekonomicheskoe in the DPR.
14:05 Our border guards destroy an enemy self-propelled gun, –video.
The scouts discovered the movement of an enemy self-propelled artillery unit.
The coordinates were transmitted to border guard FPV operators, who carried out several targeted strikes, first stopping and then destroying the enemy weapon.
13:35 During an active offensive in the South Donetsk direction, servicemen of the 57th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade succeeded in breaking through the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defenses and gain a foothold in the Shevchenko settlement in the DPR.
With the support of artillery and attack UAVs, the Ukrainian formations were driven out of the village.
The village of Shevchenko became another point liberated during the active offensive of the units of the "East" military group in the direction of the Dnepropetrovsk region.
13:05 From 09:00 Moscow time to 11:00 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed and intercepted six Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the aircraft type over the territory of the Bryansk region.
12:54 Crews of Geranium-type unmanned aerial vehicles hit the Ukrainian Armed Forces UAV assembly shop at the Kramatorsk airfield —video.
12:21 Summary of Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation as of June 26, 2025
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to conduct a special military operation.
– Units of the North group of forces have improved their position along the forward edge.
They inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of three mechanized, ranger, airborne assault brigades, an assault regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and two territorial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Novaya Sich, Solyaniki, Khrapovshchina, Varachino, Yunakovka and Sadki in the Sumy region.
– In the Khar'kov direction, units of the motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and two territorial defense brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Udy, Ivashki and Volchansk in the Khar'kov region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 185 servicemen, an armored combat vehicle, nine vehicles, and six field artillery pieces, including a British-made 155mm FH-70 howitzer. An electronic warfare station, an ammunition depot, and two supply depots were destroyed.
– Units of the West group of forces have improved their position along the front line.
They defeated formations of three mechanized brigades, an assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Senkovo, Bologovka, Putnikovo, Sobolevka, Kupyansk, Olgovka in the Khar'kov region, Karpovka and Zelenaya Dolina in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 240 servicemen, a tank, five vehicles, three field artillery guns, three electronic warfare stations and three ammunition depots.
– Units of the “Southern” group of troops occupied more advantageous lines and positions.
They inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of six mechanized, mountain assault, airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Seversk, Serebryanka, Vasyukovka, Pereyezdnoye, Zvanovka, Pleshcheyevka, Chasov Yar, Ivanopolye and Ilyicha of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost up to 170 servicemen, two combat armored vehicles, seven cars and five field artillery pieces, including a US-made 155mm M-114 howitzer. An electronic warfare station, two ammunition and fuel depots were destroyed.
– Units of the Center group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defenses and liberated the settlement of Novosergeevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
They defeated the formations of four mechanized brigades, an assault brigade, two airborne assault brigades, an unmanned systems brigade, two assault regiments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, three brigades of naval infantry, a national guard brigade and an assault brigade of the National Police of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Krasnoarmeysk, Dimitrov, Mayak, Moskovskoe, Muravka and Udachnoye of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to over 545 servicemen, six combat armored vehicles, including two US-made HMMWV armored vehicles, 12 pickup trucks and four field artillery pieces, including a US-made 155mm M-777 howitzer.
– As a result of active and decisive actions by units of the “East” military group, the Shevchenko settlement of the Donetsk People’s Republic has been liberated.
The manpower and equipment of two mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and two territorial defense brigades were damaged in the areas of the settlements of Chervona Zirka, Kamyshevakha, Voskresenka of the Donetsk People's Republic and Sladkoe of the Zaporizhia region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 200 servicemen, two armored combat vehicles, five cars and two artillery pieces.
- Units of the Dnepr group of forces improved their tactical position. They defeated formations of two mechanized, mountain assault brigades and two coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Malye Shcherbaky, Kamenskoye in the Zaporizhia region, Ingulets and Antonovka in the Kherson region.
Up to 75 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, eight vehicles, an artillery piece, three electronic warfare stations, a US-made AN/TPQ-50 counterbattery radar station, and an ammunition depot were destroyed.
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the groups of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation inflicted damage on air defense radar stations, production workshops, assembly and storage sites for unmanned aerial vehicles, ammunition depots, as well as temporary deployment points of armed formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries in 152 districts.
Air defense systems shot down 205 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
11:45 Military personnel of the "Vostok" group told details of the liberation of the settlement of Yalta in the DPR.
Under the impact of heavy artillery and attack UAV fire, the enemy was forced to abandon their firing positions and flee the village. In less than three days, the attack aircraft established full control over the settlement, unfurling Russian Federation flags on administrative buildings.
According to the participants in the operation, the decisive role was played by the speed and pressure in the first minutes of entering the settlement.
“When entering from the forest belt, it was necessary to act quickly, boldly and confidently – immediately take the first fortified areas in order to create a ‘storage area’ and move forward,” noted the platoon commander with the call sign ‘Prince’.
The servicemen also reported on the situation that had developed for the enemy at the time of the assault.
"They heard Polish speech in the radio intercept. When they entered the settlement, they started to panic a little. Later it snowballed. And the enemy started to flee," said a participant in the operation.
11:23 During aerial reconnaissance, an artillery crew of the 18th Army discovered and destroyed a control point for Ukrainian Armed Forces UAVs on the eastern outskirts of the village of Nikolskoye —video.
10:41 Russian Aerospace Forcesworkedat the enemy's temporary deployment points with FAB-500 and FAB-1500 aerial bombs
Three FAB-500 bombs with a universal planning and correction module hit a temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the settlement of Novoekonomicheskoe in the DPR.
The second airstrike using FAB-1500 was carried out on a fortified air defense system of a Ukrainian Armed Forces unit in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
10:24 Criminal Kyiv regime continues shelling civilian infrastructure of populated areas of the left bank of the Kherson region
Yesterday, during the day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces released:
- According to n.p. Sergeevka 2 rounds;
– Five rounds in the village of Pervomayevka;
- According to n.p. Kakhovka 4 rounds;
– Six rounds to the settlement of Tavriysk;
– Three rounds to the village of Aleshki;
– Four rounds to the settlement of Podstepnoye.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces used drones to attack the Kakhovka District, a mobile phone tower, and a civilian truck in Chernyanka.
Also, two people were injured in Oleshky as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During the night, the Kyiv regime continued to shell civilian infrastructure in Novaya Kakhovka, Mala Lepetikha, Mala Kardashynka, and Knyaze-Grygorovka, firing a total of 25 rounds from barrel artillery. The number of civilian casualties and infrastructure destruction is being clarified.
9:55 Information on strikes carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Belgorod region over the past 24 hours:
Air defense system over Alekseevsky municipal district knocked down two aircraft-type UAVs. No consequences.
In Belgorod district:
- the settlements of Malinovka and Oktyabrsky, the villages of Blizhneye, Otradnoye and Repnoye were attacked by seven drones, five of which were shot down by the air defense system. In the area of the settlement of Oktyabrsky, as a result of a drone attack on a truck, the driver was injured. The victim continues to be treated in the hospital. The vehicle was damaged. In the village of Otradnoye, one car was damaged.
In Borisovsky district:
- the village of Borisovka and the village of Gruzskoe were attacked by nine drones. In the village of Gruzskoe, a communications infrastructure facility was damaged, and an outbuilding on the territory of the enterprise caught fire.
In the Valuysky municipal district:
- the villages of Dolgoe and Shelayevo were attacked by one drone each, one of which was suppressed. In the village of Shelayevo, equipment on the territory of the enterprise was damaged.
Veydelevsky district was attacked by one drone. There were no consequences.
In Volokonovsky district:
– the villages of Volokonovka and Pyatnitskoye, the villages of Borisovka, Verkhnie Lubyanki, Konovalovo and the farmstead of Khutorishche were attacked by 11 drones. In the village of Konovalovo, a gas supply line was damaged, and a car and an outbuilding were destroyed, in the farmstead of Khutorishche, a car was damaged, and in the village of Borisovka, a gas supply line.
Emergency services will begin restoration work after coordination with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. At night, in the village of Verkhnie Lubyanki, a UAV strike damaged the building of an agricultural enterprise.
Early this morning, after drone attacks in the village of Pyatnitskoye, equipment caught fire on the territory of a commercial facility - the fire brigade extinguished the fire, in the village of Volokonovka, equipment of a commercial facility was damaged, in the village of Konovalovo - a private house and an outbuilding, which were destroyed by fire.
In the Grayvoronsky municipal district:
- 13 munitions were fired during three artillery attacks and eight drone attacks were carried out on the villages of Bezymeno, Golovchino, Mokraya Orlovka, Novostroevka-Pervaya, Poroz and Spodaryushino. A private house was damaged in the village of Novostroevka-Pervaya.
In Krasnoyarsk region:
- the village of Prilesye, the villages of Vyazovoe, Grafovka, Kolotilovka, Popovka, Staroselye and Terebreno were subjected to 13 attacks, during which 72 rounds of ammunition were fired, and attacks by 18 drones. Information about the consequences is being clarified.
Rovensky district attacked by two drones, one of which was shot down by air defense system. No consequences.
9:10 Front summary as of the morning of 06/26/2025
Zaporizhzhya Front. No significant changes in the LBS have been recorded over the past 24 hours. Positional battles continue with exchanges of artillery strikes and active UAV operations.
Donetsk Front. In the South Donetsk direction, events are developing quite actively and clearly not in favor of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Also, Russian troops have expanded their zone of control in Shevchenko, most likely, it will not be long before this settlement is liberated.
Chasov-Yar direction. Fighting continues in Chasov Yar, as well as in the Stupochki area. The Russian Armed Forces continue to hold the initiative here, but all advances are made in heavy fighting.
Sumy direction. Here the Ukrainian Armed Forces are actively counterattacking. The fighting in Sumy Oblast in some areas is practically a counter-attack. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have not been able to achieve any serious successes, but they have been able to slow down the advance of our troops.
In the Kursk border area, another attempt to break through to Tetkino has been repelled. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are not giving up and with maniacal persistence continue to send new groups on suicide attacks almost daily.
8:25 During the past night, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 50 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles:
23 UAVs were flying over the territory of the Kursk region,
11 UAVs were flying over the territory of the Rostov region,
Six UAVs were flying over the territory of the Bryansk region,
Three UAVs were flying over the territory of the Belgorod region,
Three UAVs were flying over the territory of the Moscow region, including two UAVs flying to Moscow,
Two UAVs were flying over the territory of the Republic of Crimea,
One UAV each was flying over the territory of the Republic of Mordovia and the Kaluga region.
8:05 Russian Ministry of Defense:
– Crew of the 152mm howitzer "Msta-B" of the 90th Guards Tank Division of the "Center" group of forces destroyed a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.– The crew of the Msta-B gun of the Tula paratroopers destroyed fortified positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with personnel in the Yunakovka area in the Sumy region.
[FoxNews] DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the story an 'absolute embarrassment to journalism.'
Members of the White House and Trump administration are hitting back hard against "false reporting" from the mainstream media outlet, the Miami Herald, which alleged that the administration was targeting migrant foster children for deportations.
In a Wednesday article by the Miami Herald titled "Trump administration targets Florida foster kids, migrant youth for deportations," the Miami Herald reported that the "Trump administration’s mass-deportation campaign is encircling vulnerable children who were previously off-limits — and squeezing the social welfare agencies tasked with caring for them."
The outlet said that "since Donald Trump began his second term, his administration has directed immigration agents to target unaccompanied minors, moved to cut contracts that fund their legal representation and sent Homeland Security agents to homes where unaccompanied children are released to conduct welfare checks."
The outlet also reported that the Trump administration is fast tracking deportations for minors who are documented victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment.
"The new guidance leaves unprotected those children who lack the ability to apply for lawful permanent residency because visas aren’t available — at the very moment when there is a years-long backlog for green cards," wrote the Miami Herald.
However, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, quickly shot back against the Miami Herald’s accusations, saying, calling the story an "absolute embarrassment to journalism."
"This story is completely false," said McLaughlin.
Contrary to the Miami Herald’s reporting, McLaughlin said DHS was "leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure they are safe and not being exploited."
She said that President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "take the responsibility to protect children seriously and are working with law enforcement to reunite the hundreds of thousands of migrant children the Biden Administration lost."
In response to the article, the Department of Homeland Security’s official X account posted a message pointing out that around 300,000 unaccompanied children were lost under the Biden administration.
DHS said that Trump and Noem are working to "reunite the children the Biden Administration lost."
Trump border czar Tom Homan also weighed in, posting on X that "under Joe Biden’s watch, hundreds of thousands of migrant kids were trafficked across the border, many turned over to pedophiles and forced labor."
"We are rescuing the children Joe Biden condemned. The Miami Herald should report on that," added Homan.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The statement by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about the victory over the United States currently reflects reality, since neither the Americans nor the Israelis have achieved their main goals, Boris Dolgov, a leading researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in a conversation with Regnum News Agency. At the same time, the expert believes that the conflict is certainly not over, but at the moment both Washington and Tehran are interested in dialogue.
Iran's Supreme Leader, in an address to the nation on June 26, declared the Islamic Republic's victory over the United States. According to the Ayatollah, the United States entered into direct conflict only because it understood that otherwise "Israel will be completely destroyed." At the same time, Khamenei emphasized, Washington achieved nothing - only received a "harsh slap in the face" from Tehran.
Dolgov also notes: the ultimate goals of Israel and the United States have not been achieved.
"Their minimum goal was to bleed Iran dry, that is, to completely destroy its nuclear program, and their main goal, at most, was to achieve a regime change in the Islamic Republic. Israel, I believe, would generally like to disintegrate the country, that is, destroy it as a state. The current ceasefire has at least postponed these plans. The positions of Russia, China, and Pakistan, of course, played their role. But Iran was able to respond to the attacks with dignity," the agency's interlocutor emphasized.
At the same time, he clarifies: the above-mentioned long-term plans of the US and Israel have not gone anywhere.
“Their goals are identical, we need to speak about this directly, it is unclear how long the ceasefire will last, but all the words of American President Donald Trump about his alleged desire to find a compromise are just camouflage,” the expert said.
Tehran and Washington will continue to exchange statements about one's victory over the other. But for Iran they play a much bigger role than for the United States.
"Of course, this is an element of propaganda, and it is of great importance in this confrontation and primarily affects the mood of Iranian citizens. It is clear that the statements are aimed at a domestic audience in order to support anti-American sentiments, which were already quite strong," the orientalist recalled.
As for the negotiation process between Washington and Tehran, Dolgov is sure that both sides need it. Therefore, rhetoric will not influence it.
"There are enough protest sentiments in the US, there were even demonstrations, and part of American society is against war with Iran, although, naturally, pro-Israeli positions are also strong. I am not even talking about the fact that Trump's opponents will take advantage of any of his mistakes: in the event of any losses of military personnel, shelling of ships, etc. Iran needs stable conditions to restore its infrastructure," Dolgov summed up.
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[NEWSMAX] The U.S. military, engaging in the "largest single Patriot engagement" in its history, was able to successfully repel Iran's retaliatory strikes on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar this week, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a press conference Thursday.
After receiving warnings that Al Udeid would be hit following the United States's strikes on three Iranian nuclear facility sites, a "minimum force posture" was adopted, meaning that most people left the base, "except for a very few" U.S. Army soldiers.
"At that point, only two Patriot batteries remained on base," Caine said. "Roughly 44 American soldiers were responsible for defending the entire base to include Centcom forward headquarters in the Middle East and the entire air base, and all the U.S. Forces there. The oldest soldier was a 28-year-old captain. The youngest was a 21-year-old private who'd been in the military for less than two years."
Iran launched its attack at about 7:30 p.m. local time, firing "round after round of Patriot missiles," said Caine.
Caine also gave extensive information about the Iranian nuclear target sites, calling them the "culmination of those 15 years of incredible work."
He would not offer an assessment of the strike's success, telling reporters that those duties are carried out by the intelligence community, "We know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function, and the pilots stated, 'This was the brightest explosion that I've ever seen. It literally looked like daylight.'"
"In the case of Fordo, the team understood with a high degree of confidence the elements of the target required to kill its functions, and the weapons were designed, planned and delivered to ensure that they achieve the effects in the mission space," said Caine.
He further noted that in the days before the attack against the Fordo mountain facility, the Iranians tried to cover the shafts at Fordo with concrete to prevent an attack.
Because satellite photos haven’t been a thing for decades, analysis of a time sequence is not even to be conceived of.
He also showed a video of the mission space and said that all six weapons at each vent "went exactly where they were intended to go."
Caine later added, in response to a reporter's question, that he has been under no pressure from the Trump administration concerning his reporting of the nuclear facility attacks.
Togo: The people have taken to the streets against President Faure Gnassingbé, driven by widespread corruption, insecurity, and deepening social issues in the country.
[Real Clear Investigations] Topline: The United States gave $960 million in foreign aid to Kenya in 2024, but the country’s auditor-general, Nancy Gathungu, says Kenya is struggling to use the money it already has.
Fourteen major government projects had a total of $4 billion in funding over the last five years but left projects partially completed with $2.4 billion of the funds unused, according to a press conference from Gathungu covered by The Eastleigh Voice and Capital News.
Key facts: Gathungu told reporters that the 14 projects now risk lapsing without achieving their goals.
#2
/\ Disproving Dawkins claims of evolution once again. Tens of thousands of years has only led them to continue to dance outside their rondavels creating nothing but dust. Another 'Blind Watchmaker' not Dawkins, by Warren Bonham follows. Graphic by Yehuda Pen:
Blind Watchmaker
A blind watchmaker tinkered for billions of years
without blueprints for making his intricate gears.
So, he failed many times but got up when he fell
and was shocked when he made not a watch, but a cell.
From that cell, which he made from primordial slime,
every creature evolved through the passage of time.
On a planet like ours, this was bound to unfold
through an unguided process, or so we’ve been told.
But the knowledge we gain from new questions we ask
shows blind watchmakers useless at their assigned task.
It seems more and more likely that we were designed
by a being possessing a limitless mind.
The Big Bang would have fizzled without someone there
who began time and made all there is from thin air.
And with three billion letters in our DNA,
it’s impossible chance had a big part to play.
And if physical laws were not quite so refined
then all known time and space would begin to unwind.
And there’s no way that randomly mutated genes
can make novel molecular-level machines.
If our minds remain open, the more we will find
that our science is clearer with God intertwined.
Every day, the skies speak, and the heavens declare,
if we’re willing, we’ll hear them say “God’s everywhere.”
[FoxNews] DOJ continues enforcement of Trump's executive orders ensuring taxpayer benefits aren't diverted to illegal aliens
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint challenging laws in Minnesota that provide free and reduced in-state tuition to illegal aliens, claiming the laws are unconstitutional.
Under federal law, higher education institutions are prohibited from providing benefits to illegal aliens not offered to U.S. citizens.
According to the DOJ, Minnesota’s laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens and are in direct conflict with federal law.
"No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens," Attorney General Pam Bondi said. "The Department of Justice just won on this exact issue in Texas, and we look forward to taking this fight to Minnesota in order to protect the rights of American citizens first."
By filing the lawsuit, the DOJ is demanding that Minnesota stop the enforcement of a law requiring public colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates and free tuition based on certain income circumstances to immigrants in the country illegally who maintain state residency.
Federal law prohibits higher education facilities from providing education benefits to illegal immigrants, which are not offered to U.S. citizens.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after the DOJ took actions against Texas for providing similar benefits to illegal immigrants.
Both lawsuits have been filed in response to two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump since returning to the Oval Office in January.
The executive orders were signed to ensure illegal immigrants cannot receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment.
One of the orders, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders," ordered all agencies to "ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens."
The other order, "Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens," directs officials to "take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens."
Ultimately, Texas complied with the DOJ and stopped enforcing the Texas Dream Act, which was originally introduced in February 2001.
The legislation, signed by Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, June 16, 2001, removed federal immigration status as a factor in determining eligibility to pay in-state tuition at Texas public colleges and universities for students who graduate from a Texas high school and who meet the minimum residency, academic and registration criteria.
While the state immediately stopped enforcement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has since intervened.
On Tuesday, the ACLU of Texas, alongside organizations like the Texas Civil Rights Project and Democracy Forward, filed a motion to intervene in the litigation to defend the constitutionality of the Texas Dream Act against the DOJ.
The ACLU said the DOJ’s order was agreed to by Texas without proper process and creates "sweeping uncertainty" for students and colleges.
"As students prepare to attend school in the fall, the failure of neither the DOJ nor the attorney general to defend the Texas Dream Act threatens their ability to afford tuition – and suddenly threatens their dreams of pursuing higher education," the ACLU said in a press release. "By moving to intervene, these groups and individuals hope to challenge this abusive litigation strategy and defend the Texas Dream Act, which has enabled a generation of Texans to grow their careers and become leaders in our communities."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...every time you hear the phrase 
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
[Real Clear Investigations] Following a years-long surge in illegal immigration, the Trump administration is poised to challenge a longstanding but legally fraught practice: counting illegal aliens in the U.S. census.
[FREEMALAYSIATODAY] At least 17 soldiers were killed in northern Nigeria when 
[FoxNews] Experts warn Iranian operatives could be leveraging anti-Israel protests after Biden's border policies enabled terrorist entry
[NYPOST] The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that South Carolina can defund 
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ramifications were predicted to be felt for generations after today, as in a historic 6-3 Supreme Court decision, 3 justices were ruled to be morons.
[Johnathon Turley] The warning was stark. At issue was a privileged class that has long dictated policy despite countervailing public opinion. At issue, the luminary warned, is nothing short of democracy itself. No, it was not the continued rallies of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., VT) to “fight oligarchy.” It was Justice Clarence Thomas rallying his colleagues to fight technocracy, or government by experts. He warned against allowing “elite sentiment” to “distort and stifle democratic debate.” Yet, the story is even more profound of an elite class which succumbed to the Icarian gene and fell to Earth due to hubris and excess.
