Police auditors, better known as “copwatchers,” have become both famous and notorious for using cell phone cameras and YouTube channels to monitor police activity, confront cops who are breaking the law, and fight for accountability and reform. But is copwatching a form of citizen journalism, or is it just provocation masquerading as accountability?

In this special Police Accountability Report livestream, (in)famous copwatcher Sean Paul Reyes, better known as Long Island Audit, joins hosts Taya Graham and Stephen Janis for a lively, candid debate about one of the most popular and controversial forms of police accountability today.

Credits: 

• Pre-Production; Stephen Janis, Taya Graham
• Production: Stephen Janis, Taya Graham, David Hebden, Ryan Johnson, Maximillian Alvarez

Transcript

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Taya Graham:

My name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Police Accountability Report livestream, the great American Copwatcher debate edition. Tonight, we are going to be exploring the controversy surrounding a popular Copwatcher, Long Island audit, specifically his encounter with Suffolk County Police Union officials that was the subject of our last episode. Now, a confrontation that started with Sean showing up at union headquarters to ask questions and then escalated when union officials stormed out of the building and put Sean Paul into handcuffs. Let’s just watch a few seconds of the encounter to set the scene.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Have you seen me leaving? I immediately began to leave. Lucivillo, would you like to come on? I am leaving. Would you like to come on the channel? I’m leaving. I am leaving. You seem to leave me? I am leaving. I’m leaving. I’m leaving. Lucivillo, you go on talk, you go, I’m leaving. I am leaving. Immediately begin to leave. That’s how the law works. Yes, I’m leaving. Get off the property. I am leaving. I’m getting off the property. You are trespassing. I am leaving. You will be placed. I am leaving. I am leaving. I’m going to place you under arrest. Do what you need to do. I’m identifying myself as a police officer. So do what you need to do. I am leaving. You need to leave. I am leaving. You’re such a tough guy. Do it then. Do it. Do it. I’m leaving. I’m leaving.

I’m leaving. Not resisting. I’m not resisting. Have you seen me leaving?

Taya Graham:

Okay. Now this video and our discussion with Sean set off a heated debate and it was so, let’s say lively that Steven and I decided that we needed to do a show to respond to your comments and discuss their implications. And luckily we were also able to get the man himself Long Island Audits to participate. But before we get to Sean, I want to give you a sense of the format of the show and how we’re going to handle the debate. And remember, this is very live, so please bear with any technical difficulties we might have. And I’m going to do my best to put on any comments from the live chat on the screen as we go through. So over the past week, Steven and I have been reviewing hundreds of comments on our YouTube channel and on Facebook and selecting what we hope is a representative sample of your thoughts.

Our goal is to select what best represents the framework of the discussion about Sean Paul’s work. And we’re going to show them on the screen. I’ll read them and then Sean, myself and Steven will discuss. But a big part of that is going to be what you think. And I mean the police accountability report community, in my personal opinion, is one of the most thouhtful and insightful collection of rebels. And yes, rebels I think is the right word on YouTube. Believe me, we feed off your ideas and your insights and tonight we need you to chime in. So Steven, first off, welcome to The Great Indoors.

Stephen Janis:

Thank you so much. Oh God, it’s some nice to be inside. Although yeah, it’s good to be back. It’s good to be back in the studio. Yo didn’t even have to coax me. I came in voluntarily.

Taya Graham:

Yes. Well, we gave you some coffee and left out some candy and he just followed them in.

Stephen Janis:

Free coffee. Though Max said it might come out of my paycheck, but that’s okay. It’s good coffee.

Taya Graham:

But look, before we introduce Sean, why don’t you explain a little bit why you felt like this debate needed to continue? What struck you as the critical question at the heart of it? So

Stephen Janis:

The critical question for me is the question of dissent, right? Democracy doesn’t function without free, fair dissent. And to me, journalism is the epitome of dissent because it’s saying the oligarchy truth is not the final truth. We can challenge that truth with a different reality. And when I see Sean entering the space of power and being challenged, just to ask a question, I think we have to ask critical questions about how do we preserve dissent and what this is really about. I mean, why would they just storm out at him and not allow him to ask a question? And to me, one of the defining points of this is we cover inequality in another show called the Inequality Watch. And I think as wealth becomes more and more concentrated in this country, I think the fight over the truth is going to become more important and therefore dissent is more important.

And to me, journalism is quintessential dissent. It’s organized, constructive and thoughtful dissent. And that’s what Sean was doing. I mean, he was just showing up to ask a question. That is our only army. He wasn’t ambushing them or doing anything. He just had a question. He did have a big truck. Yeah, I’ll admit that was kind of cool. We’ll talk about that. But it was just dissent. And to me, that’s what this is about. I mean, if they could take away our ability to show up at a building and ask a simple question about what they are doing with taxpayer money, then we’re done.

Taya Graham:

Then

Stephen Janis:

The oligarchs have won. So that’s why I though it’d be interesting. And I want to debate the people who somehow think that journalists are a pain in the ass. So hopefully we are. Yes. Anyway, that’s my though.

Taya Graham:

Thank you for asking. Technically, journalists are supposed to be a pain. We’re supposed to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Exactly. And honestly, what you mentioned is something that is a classic part of journalism, which is to follow the money. And I believe that’s what Sean Paul was trying to do. He’s just trying to find out where taxpayer money was going. But before I bring him in, let me just first shout out some of the people that I see in the chat. I’m going to look down here. I see Noli D. Thank you so much for being here. Lacey R. Thank you so much for being here. I think Joe Cool’s here, which is amazing. Oh wow. Joe Cool. Amazing copwatcher. And there’s another copwatcher down there. I’m not sure if I should shout him out. Yes, you should. Should I shout out the name?

Yeah. Eric Brant. Wow. Eric Brant, the man is in the chat. So we definitely have some copwatchers here who I’m sure have a lot of strong and thoughtful and insightful opinions about the nature of cop watching and journalism. Oh, and let me also say hi, Katie Keyne. It’s really great to see you again. Okay. And you too, Prairie745. All right. Now, without further ado, I want to bring in the man himself, Long Island Audit, also known as Sean Paul Reyes. Sean Paul, thank you so much for joining us.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here. Thank you.

Taya Graham:

We are so happy to have you. So now first, before we completely dive in, there’s been an update with the arrest that occurred during your encounter with the leadership of the Suffolk County Police Union. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

So the update is that the criminal charge of trespassing in the third degree that I was originally arrested for has been dismissed by the district attorney’s office. That charge required that the property being closed in a manner to exclude intruders, i.e. An offense. It wasn’t the case for that property. So they dropped it down to a trespassing charge, which is a violation, not a crime, which requires unlawfully entering or remaining on a person’s property, on private property. So that’s where it stands. And I mean, we can get into more detail on the order of protection and ex parte hearings, but I’ll defer

Stephen Janis:

To you. I mean, I don’t really understand. You were exercising your First Amendment as a journalist. You have some privilege to be able to go to places and knock on doors where you’re not wanted, right?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Right. Yeah. So generally the Supreme Court case, I don’t really remember what it is right now, but there is a Supreme Court case that even with a no trespassing sign, the public and people say, “Well, you don’t get extra rights because you’re a journalist or a YouTuber or whatever they want to call me.” And that’s the topic of today’s discussion. But generally, anyone has a license or privilege to approach someone’s door and do a knock and talk. You can knock and ask questions the same way a law enforcement officer can knock on your door, same way the solar panel, Girl Scout cookies, whatever. People knock on people’s doors and ask them questions. Once that privilege, that license or privilege has been revoked by the private property owner, then you must vacate the property.

Stephen Janis:

Which is what you were doing. But anyway, not to digress, Saya, go ahead. Sorry.

Taya Graham:

Okay. And let me just give a shout out to HBO Matt. HBO Matt, great to see you there. Another cop watcher. Wow. 1A and 2A auditor who’s in the chat as well right now. We got to shout out all those people out there doing that work. Okay. So Sean, now here’s the tough part. We’re going to start going through the comments. Now we’ve tried to pick a representative sample. And though I will say in general, more people support you than not. Some of your critics are pretty adamant that your work doesn’t benefit the community. So let’s start there. Okay. Let me hit you with comment number one. Okay. A clout chasing provocateur whose approach is ambush journalism. Real journalists make an appointment. People at work don’t just drop everything because this YouTuber shows up. Wow. Okay. So Sean, let me start with you. What do you think?

Is this a valid critique?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I don’t think it’s. I think anybody’s opinion is valid. Everybody can have their own opinion on what I do and how I go about it. So I’m not going to say that their opinion is invalid, but I would push back on their opinion that it’s ambush journalism. I mean, I’m asking questions. I don’t have to make an appointment. I can just walk up and ask the question. And really, to the person who made that comment, do you think if I would have called and made an appointment, they would have let me in and give me an appointment? Let’s be real here.

Stephen Janis:

I’m just laughing. Sory. I’m

Taya Graham:

Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.

Stephen Janis:

But go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Sorry.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Okay. No worries.

Taya Graham:

It just seems unlikely. Yes.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. More likely than not. They wouldn’t just, “Hey, yeah, we’ll pency in for 2:30,” right? Especially with the questions that I’m asking. I’m not asking, “How does it feel to save lives every day and put your life on the line, Mr. PBA president?” I’m asking why hundreds of millions of dollars of Suffolk County taxpayer money, hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 15 to 20 years have been put in the pockets of other people who have had their rights violated. So that’s my tax dollars. I’m a lifelong resident of Suffolk County. I’ve been investigating the police union and their power structure, and it comes from their donations to the legislators, to the county executive. There is more to the story than just showing up with my billboard truck. And again, I will say that most journalists don’t have a billboard truck. I do. And if you want to paint me out as it’s advocacy journalism, whatever word you want to put in front of journalism, it’s still objectively journalism, opinionated journalism, advocacy journalism.

It’s still journalism. Journalism is asking questions, doing investigations and disseminating that of matters of public interest to the public. Maybe it doesn’t interest you, but it interests me and it interests a lot of people out there, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people across my social media platforms. So if you don’t like the topic, you can tune into your favorite journalist that you want. I highly recommend the police accountability report here. Well, thank

You. But at the end of the day, ambush, whatever adjective you want to describe how I operate, it still doesn’t make what happened to me any less unlawful and any less a violation of my First Amendment rights.

Taya Graham:

Steven, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah. Well, I mean, I don’t like the word ambush because I don’t think asking a question. Ambush has militaristic overtones, but if we had to make an appointment with every person that we wanted to ask a question that they didn’t want to answer, we wouldn’t have a job. Now, we cover Capitol Hill, right? Reporters roam all around confronting people who don’t want to answer questions. The entire process is about people showing up when you don’t expect them. That’s the whole way it works. There’s no journalism without the so-called ambush. And so I don’t like that term because that’s not what you were doing. You were asking a question which is about as passive as you can get. But yeah, so that’s just BS because almost our entire work centers on the fact that we can just walk up to someone and put a mic in their face.

If we can’t do that, we can’t do our jobs.

Taya Graham:

Steven, I really do have to agree with you on that. I mean, we show up to all sorts of places without an appointment. I have to say, on occasion when I have asked for an appointment, there was a particular time in Trenton, New Jersey where I made an appointment with their press information officer, told her I was going to be there, and she ghosted me. Just a little TikTok about the fact that I had made the effort to travel there, confirmed everything with her. She wasn’t there. And perhaps she should have been at her desk and she wasn’t. But I can tell you within eight hours, my entire TikTok account was banned and taken down. We’re just posting – Questions are not

Stephen Janis:

Ambushed.

Taya Graham:

Questions

Stephen Janis:

Are.

Taya Graham:

So it can be difficult for a traditional journalist to get an appointment. And even just reporting on the fact I didn’t get the appointment, got my TikTok account banned, which I think was a little mean, to be perfectly frank. I agree. But before I go on to the next criticism, I want to shout out Ophelia Moonrose. I thought you had a great comment there. Big G audits, good making case precedent in your state. That’s awesome. So one of the criticisms that we’ve seen of auditors like Sean is that they’re all after clicks and views, but I thought this was an interesting take on that critique. So let’s put up comment number two. Okay.

And also, I apologize if I mispronounce names, please give me some grace there. I’ll do my best. Gerek Diffelton says, “Clicks and views, spreading awareness and capturing focus for issues you want the public to see is exactly the point of journalism. Sean uses outrageous reality to catch attention and the New York Post uses lies and misinformation.” Now, Sean Paul, I think you said something quite similar, right? And Steven, can a journalism org survive without clicks? No. I mean, if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did the tree fall? I mean, if no one sees your journalism, does it even count? Yeah.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. I mean, my response to that is obviously all journalists want clicks and views. All media outlets want clicks and views. And I can give you just a recent story. CNN ran a story on First Amendment auditors just recently, and I’m actually going to do a video of this on my channel. They reached out to me and their question was, “How much money do you make? Can you provide us with your financials?” And I answered them back. Yeah. I answered them back politely and I said, “I would love to discuss with you the financial aspects of what I do in a video format, just like how we’re talking right now in a Zoom or a live stream.” And they said, “Oh, we’re going to move in a different way for our story. No problem.” And then they came out with a story and it was about how First Amendment auditors make money.

And they found two random individuals who have no idea who they are. They’re a couple. They curse a lot. They scream a lot. The video was just them cursing and screaming at members of the public and law enforcement and getting kicked out of this public building. And they went over and these two, I call them useful idiots, that’s what they were because they didn’t even shout out their channel or anything like that. So I have no idea who these people are. And most probably in our community don’t know who they are either. But they went and they showed them their YouTube studio. Yeah, I made $600 on this video. I made this and the CNN reporter’s there and they followed them around when they did these audits. And it’s crazy because the goal of the CNN story was to portray First Amendment auditors as only wanting clicks and views and being provocative and looking for negative interactions.

The ironic part of that is that’s exactly what CNN did in their story. They didn’t want me to come on their story and be a part of their story because I would talk about boring things about how I’ve been invited to train police departments, district attorney’s offices. I’ve done ride alongs with law enforcement. I’ve worked side by side with law enforcement. I investigated corrupt mayors. I’ve broken stories on mayors using federal funds for receiving federal funds that they voted on for their construction companies. So again, and I don’t curse or scream in my video, so it wouldn’t be as entertaining for people, but CNN selectively chose these two useful idiots so that way they can get what clicks and views on their video. So again – Right.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah, go ahead. Maybe CNN doesn’t like the competition from you

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

From people. I don’t think so. I think they see it as a threat. I think that’s a good valid point because even Newsday is our local newspaper here on Long Island. News 12 Long Island is the broadcast arm of that. And none of them have covered, the New York Post covered this arrest because Lucavila wanted them to, the police union president. But none of the local outlets have covered this story. And I would argue that it is the quintessential public interest story. Whether you want to hit me out as a YouTuber, a gadfly, an agitator, whatever you want to call me. I’m still a public figure. And Lucavilla was the police union president and there was a confrontation where I was arrested. That seems like news that would be interesting for the residents in Suffolk County or Long Island that they report to, but they choose not to.

They pick and choose their stories. They pick and choose the themes of their stories. And I do the same thing. And my themes are focusing on police accountability, exposing what’s happening inside our police departments. I’m telling everybody watching now, and I say this on my channel, the police unions, especially here in the Northeast and specifically Suffolk County, they receive. Again, I don’t just go up there with a camera. I was just working before looking up. It’s a 501C. I’m looking up their financials. They have $15 million, the police union in Suffolk County, $15 million in assets. They bring in $5 million a year in annual revenue. They get paid through the contracts, through the contracts from the county. They get paid canine time, canine a pay. They don’t have a canine. I want to make this clear. There is not one canine that works for the PBA, the police union.

They get canine pay. They get hazard pay. They get a midnight pay. It’s a nine to five

Stephen Janis:

Job. One thing, Sean, that you’re touching on, which I think is really important, is how lucrative policing is in terms of their relationship with the government. Because I remember in Baltimore, we had take home cars. All officers had take home cars and they could drive back to Pennsylvania and the city paid for the gas. And it was like $100,000 benefit, but the mainstream media doesn’t want to take it on because they want police officers to feed them crime stories, which is more of their fodder. But what you’re doing is amazing because you’re actually challenging their lack of good reporting, which probably embarrasses them. I mean, to hell with the truck.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

And I completely agree with you when they want the murder scenes, they want the vehicle pile ups, they want to get that call. And if they’re adversarial, which you guys were talking about how a press should be adversarial. And I completely agree. I think that’s the foundation, an adversarial press towards the government. But they want those stories. And then it’s such a big story because they just got an 18% raise. Lucivillo, for example, gets paid $265,000 a year as the police union president. He keeps his full law enforcement officer capabilities, yet he doesn’t patrol, he doesn’t investigate crime. He sits in a desk defending officers who are accused of misconduct all day long and pushing his propaganda out to on. They own radio stations. They have podcasts. They’ve embraced social media in order to brainwash the people.

Stephen Janis:

Do you know where the $5 million revenue comes from? I mean, do they get it from donations or do they charge for services or something? Are they doing moonlighting or where’s it come from? Do you know?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. So I just started looking into it before I

Stephen Janis:

Came

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

On here. I was just looking at everything, all the documents –

Stephen Janis:

I’ll look into too. Yeah.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

501 documents, but their revenue comes from union dues. And again, they’re in violation of election law. In New York State, you can’t force somebody to donate to a candidate. So what they’re doing is they’re collecting union dues. And whether the police officer is a Republican or a Democrat, sometimes that money goes to somebody who the police officer doesn’t want it to go to. And that’s in violation of election law. And a Suffolk County legislator, Rob Trota, a former detective for the Suffolk County Police Department, he blew the whistle on this. So I give him all the credit and the district attorney said, “You know what? I don’t have jurisdiction.” It’s funny how the district attorney didn’t have jurisdiction for a New York state crime, but the district attorney can receive $500,000 in campaign contributions from the PBA. The Suffolk County executive gets a million dollars.

These legislators think about this. How can anybody be okay with the system where Suffolk County Police Union can funnel money into the pockets of politicians and those same politicians get them elected? They go door to door for them. They mail out, they have mailers, the whole apparatus. And then they get elected and then they in turn vote on these 18% raise increases, hazard pay for police union. 20

Stephen Janis:

Year pensions. 20 year pensions. 20 year

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Pensions.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah. I

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Like that. They make these backroom deals where there was an officer that was accused of using the surveillance apparatus for his own personal gain. And he went on to have 14 years. They said, okay, admit to this misconduct. And in 14 years, 14 years, when you get your full funded pension, you have to leave. That’s not accountability.

Stephen Janis:

Oh, and we’ve had multiple officers who have been charged, committed, charged, convicted of crimes who are allowed to keep working. I mean, the basic thing is you pointed out, I think, in both your Brian Fahey case, which we’ll get to, is these pensions are golden parachutes. Absolutely. They are multimillion dollar bonuses for these people. So a lot of what happened in Baltimore is that even though you’ve been convicted of a crime, they keep you on the payroll so that you get your pension qualification, which is like that’s when you hit the jackpot of the library. So that’s great work you’re doing there. You want to get to the next one so we don’t –

Taya Graham:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So I have another comment here. I shouldn’t point that way. Give you some fair warning. Here is a proponent of police power urging you to obey a lawful order, which of course has some pretty broad implications. So this is Jim 0417 commenting on the Sean Paul Reyes arrest coverage. I agree there is free speech. However, don’t push your luck. Just leave. Then no problem. No arrests. I am a retired police detective. And if I’m told something by the police, I comply. It’s just that easy. Now, Steven, I think this refers back to some of your thoughts on police power. What do you think?

Stephen Janis:

Well, I mean, I think the idea that there is this police control over space that somehow, if they deem a space to be theirs is sort of an extension of some of the worst aspects of this country’s lessening democracy. So I mean, I didn’t say this in the beginning, but I think one thing that Sean Paul exposes by going into police space and pointing a camera at them is their absolute thought of control over space, which I think is a way of showing how latent authoritarianism in America kind of makes its way through policing. Because it’s really weird when you think about it. You show up with a camera, they could have ignored him. They could have just answered his question. They could have done a lot of things, but they decided to confront him with power, with power and command over that space. So I think disobeying orders from police about space is pretty much the most fundamental American kind of descent you can do.

So I’m all for Sean going and pointing cameras because what amazes me of what you see. I mean, someone points a camera at you and you start ordering around and say you’re going to arrest him. What does that mean? What is that telling you about this country? What is it telling you about authoritarianism? Sean, are you surprised sometimes when people freak out because you show up just by showing up, not even doing anything?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. I’ve been doing this five years now and it still surprises me to this day because it’s so nonsensical. You’re 100% right. The police union president could have. He was upstairs in his penthouse suite. He didn’t have to come down with five other officers from the

Police union. He could have stayed up there, told the receptionist, “Tell him he needs to leave. He’s not welcome here.” And I would have left and there would have been no incident. There would have been no clicks and views. There would have been no story for that particular video. I just would have left. I was leaving. And these people, like this former officer that commented that, and I see it, especially in my county. I want to use my billboard truck to bring awareness to this and my voice and my platform, especially I’m going to focus on my county moving forward because it’s important to me. When I was protesting, one of the neighbors of the district attorney told me, “You’re a liberal communist.” And they were so violent in calling me a communist. And these people don’t even know the definition of communists, but they just repeat what they hear.

They have no idea what a communist is, what communism is. They have no idea what these terms mean, but they’ve heard other elected officials call people communists because of they don’t like them. And they say, “Oh, you’re a communist. You want to hold the police accountable? Then you’re a communist.” And it makes no sense. So I still get shocked to this day. Lou should have done that. Lucivilla, the police union president should have just told someone else to tell me, but he was looking for the confrontation. He came out with handcuffs in hand. He was looking for that to happen. Oh, so Sean, he

Stephen Janis:

Had his handcuffs. Had his handcuffs in hand?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

He had his hands. Remember, he’s not a real law enforcement officer. He doesn’t do law enforcement activity, yet he gets paid for law enforcement activity, but he doesn’t do law enforcement activity. He actually does the opposite. He shields officers in this county and they introduce legislation. They just introduced a bill into the New York State Senate where you have to be 15 feet away from a law enforcement officer. That came directly from him. He’s the one pulling the strings. And it doesn’t matter, Democrat or Republican, they all take PBA money. They all want to be seen as back the blue, especially in my county. And it’s just sad to me that people like that commenter, I don’t blame him. I think his ignorance comes from his lack of critical thinking skills, his lack of a variety of media consumption. And he just wants to blame somebody, just comply.

But the most ironic part is I was complying. I mean, how can you watch that video and not see that I was complying? Maybe I wasn’t complying in the way that you wanted me to. Maybe I wasn’t complying in the way Lucid Villa wanted me to, but legally I was complying.

Stephen Janis:

What was interesting is it was almost the opposite of when police use the stop resisting to do it. You were saying, “I’m leaving. I’m leaving. I’m leaving.” And basically making it clear that you were retreating and following and obeying the law and their requests. So it was just weird and ironic that they kept confronting you even when you said you were leaving, which I think has to do with this police preoccupation with space and dissent because you are showing them up for what they’re doing to the taxpayers of Suffolk County. And they don’t want that. And it’s interesting that it’s you that’s doing it and not the people, the mainstream media with all their money and power that are doing it. But it’s one guy with a truck and a YouTube channel that is actually doing this, which I think. Well, I mean, I think it’s really telling, right?

Because I’ve covered this kind of stuff in policing and you get so much pushback when you talk about their pensions or about the fact that they can work. The guys you’re talking about get some sort of dumb desk job where they sit and they file. They don’t do anything. I mean, we had the gun tray task force where they literally went on vacation in the Bahamas and got overtime. So what police are able to do with money and what they’re able to do with the resources of a community is confounding.

Yeah, they use that money.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Go ahead.

Taya Graham:

Oh no, I was just going to say, I think you explained that basically Suffolk County is the home of the million dollar pension, right? Yeah. So I actually did some calculating on how long it would take me to save that type of pension with a little bit of money I put aside each year. I would need to work 200 years to be able to have that be my pension. Yeah, it’s a Ponzi scheme. So that’s something to look forward to. It’s a

Stephen Janis:

Ponzi scheme.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

It is a Ponzi. They’re extorting the police officers in Suffolk County through the police union are extorting the taxpayers. And they put out buzzwords like, “Oh, because we protect you. We keep you safe. We do this. We put our lives on the line.” All propaganda, that means nothing. They’re law enforcement officers. Even for body cameras, we had to pay them. We had to pay them more money every single year. I believe they got an extra $2,000 a year each just for them to put on body cameras. In what other profession does your boss tell you, you need to put this on your uniform? And then they’re like, “Well, I’m not going to do it unless you pay me.” It is a racket. It is a racket and the people need to know about it. And a lot of people know and they don’t care. They back the blue regardless of what.

And that’s why we call them bootlickers.

Stephen Janis:

You know what?

Taya Graham:

I’d like to go onto the next comment. I think it’s very appropriate because it’s apparently, Sean Paul, you’re just not nice enough to rich people. That’s what this comment’s saying. I thought it was a little odd, but I thought it was worth talking about. So this commenter, Alma Adams, 3631, wrote on a recent episode, “I was on this guy’s side until he brought up Bezos and Musk.” How are they the bad guys again? I mean, did this guy go to Comedy College? I mean, I guess they all are these days. Comedy College. Okay. I’ve seen –

Stephen Janis:

Just a public service announcement. So we are very welcoming of a Marxist here and communists at the Real News Network. And

Taya Graham:

Libertarians and libertarians. And libertarians. And any

Stephen Janis:

Ideological strike

Taya Graham:

Really. Okay. We welcome all political viewpoints to have all types of thinkers with all types of ideologies who support democracy and want to have an interesting conversation about it. So communists, come on in and have

Stephen Janis:

Conversations. Why would you critique him that way when he’s talking about police pensions? I think that’s an interesting connection, right? Symbolic, Sean?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. I mean, again, there goes the commi thing. These people are, they’re just brainwashed. And it really disheartens me as an American and somebody who loves this country that there’s so many people out there who have been brainwashed by people like Elon Musk. I’ll call them out again, Jeff Bezos. They’re an oligarchy. They’re no different than And the oligarchs in Russia, the only difference is that you love them. The people love

Taya Graham:

Them. Exactly.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

You worship

Taya Graham:

Them. Well said.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

They’re no different. They’re celebrities here. That’s the only difference. The oligarchs in Russia are just hiding behind their fortresses and that’s going to happen too. Listen, in another life, I would have been a history teacher. I love history. One of my favorite quotes is, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And you, we are on the track for the oligarch. Thank you. Look at the wealth separation in this country. It doesn’t make any sense. You could call me a communist or whatever you want. I’m telling you, these billionaires don’t have the everyday. You’re sitting here, that person, the sad part is that person is defending the oligarchy and yet they’re living paycheck to paycheck every week. And that’s the sad part to me.

Stephen Janis:

And I think that’s the point of police power to project the idea that you’re not worthy of an equal society with an equal sharing of wealth. I think part of the thing is that police make you feel that there’s some sort of chaos outside of this constructed oligarchy. And that if you challenge police, you’re challenging law and order. And then there will be this chaos of, like you said, like commies, like Long Island Olives knocking on your door. And I think that’s part of the point of why policing fuses with Bezos and Musk in that sense.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

They’re meant to protect the oligarchy. That’s the whole point in

Stephen Janis:

Case

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Things go south. They’re the defense against the oligarchy. That’s the part. They’re not here to protect you. They’re here to extort you through tickets and everything else. You get pulled over, you’re paying hundreds of dollars for tickets. I don’t understand. Can police officers be heroes individually? Sure they can. Sure, they can engage in heroic activity. And I will admit that, but to call law enforcement officers generally heroes is disgusting. To me, it’s like, it just doesn’t make sense.

Taya Graham:

You know what? I just have to jump in here because when I heard you talking about oligarchy, and I think in a past life, you were a history teacher. I have no doubt. But when I think about Jeff Bezos and his net worth, and when I think about Elon Musk, our newest trillionaire on the planet, that kind of money, that kind of money is more than some countries have. That kind of money, it absolutely influences our government. It influences public policy. So to say that we shouldn’t criticize these people, hold them accountable is absurd to me. These people don’t deserve some sort of unique protection because they manage to win out in the lottery of life. These people, if they have the power of a government because of their bank book, they deserve to have questions answered and we deserve transparency.

Stephen Janis:

Great.

Taya Graham:

So I’m sorry, that just gets me a little heated because we actually have a show called the Inequality Watch, which I think Steven would argue is the oligarchy accountability report. I mean, how would you answer that comment or really?

Stephen Janis:

And it’s interesting because the two fews, like Sean has pointed out, Sean Ray has pointed out policing and inequality and oligarchy all kind of come into one big problem for all of us working people in a sense. So you want to do the next one?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. The people are working against their. I’ll just end with this. People need to stop working against their own interests and

Stephen Janis:

Fighting

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Against their own interests. I mean, you’re defending a man that has more money than he could ever spend in a million years and you can’t afford to pay your electric bill. It’s bizarre to me. It’s bizarre.

Taya Graham:

Yeah. I completely agree. I really don’t understand it. I try to understand the psychology of it, but it does allude me. But let me go to another comment here for you because I want you to see all of them. So this is someone who looks at Sean Paul’s work in kind of a broader context. And I’m wondering what you both think of it in terms of what at stake and whether we’re overlooking some of the broader implications of what auditors and First Amendment activists do. So let me read it and I’ll have Dave put up clip five. Okay. So democracy itself is at stake. Being ruled, terrorized, controlled, manipulated, dominated and lied to is not freedom. Okay. So to me, that’s very heavy, very powerful. So what do you think? Do you believe you’re fighting for democracy, Sean Paul?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I think I’m fighting for accountability and democracy. Anything that gives power back to the people. That’s why I wear my we the people hat everywhere I go. I want the people to have the power and I want people to act in their own interests when it comes to power because the people that are elected in our offices do not have our best interests at heart. It’s because you see the ads. Money controls politics between campaign spending. It all revolves around money. Look how much money Elon Musk put into the election. No one man should have all that power, right? Right. In the words of Kanye. But it’s crazy to me that people, even with flock cameras, the advent implementation of flock cameras, they’re here for your safety. Another favorite quote of mine is by Benjamin Franklin, “Those who give up their essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” And it’s so sad how quickly we’ve forgotten and have handed over all of our rights.

We’re going to have a surveillance state, police state, and all of these people in power that have all of this resources and money. And no one does anything about it. Most people don’t even go out and vote. Most people don’t make their voices heard because they’re too busy working. They have their own family drama, everything else, and they don’t pay attention or they only watch CNN or they only watch Fox News. They don’t broaden their horizons to try and really critically think and analyze what’s going on in our country. And I think that needs to change. So my platform is to try and bring accountability to those in power. And I can’t. I can’t do it by myself. All I can do is put it out there for people to see. And what they choose to do with it after that, I got to expose it.

I’m going to expose the police union here.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah. I mean, I think of all institutions, policing is the most anti-democratic. And like we said before, kind of the authoritarian impulses of society kind of course through it. And so your battle with them and the battle over space is pretty much to me the most so pro-democracy thing you can do as a reporter. I mean, in some ways the battle over democracy is incremental. When I worked for a TV station, when we go out to film, we had one space, which was a sidewalk because you couldn’t go on private property and you couldn’t go on the road because then they charge you with obstructing traffic. And yet even though the sidewalk was like the one place we could set up our camera and our tripod, police would still try to kick us off it. We constantly were battling. And it kind of was illuminating to me because here we have this one little space to do our jobs to expose X, Y, and Z, and we can’t even do this.

And so that’s why I think that sort of sense of taking all space over and sort of forcing people not to confront, not to ask questions, not to have a circulatory system to this democracy. I think that’s why it does make your work sort of pro-democracy because you’re fighting in some sense the most anti-democratic force. This doesn’t mean I’m anti-police or anything like that. I just think the institution itself, as you talked about before, is corrupted by the political economy that sustains it. So yeah, I think democracy is at stake in a sense, along with the broader issues that we covered on Capitol Hill, but this is an important component of it.

Taya Graham:

Steven, you were talking about how we’re covering Capitol Hill and it definitely seems like our democracy is under stress. I mean, what do you think about this idea in a broader context?

Stephen Janis:

Well, yeah, in the broader context, we just covered the federal government or the Republicans voting for a reconciliation bill that gets $70 billion. Let’s talk about real money. ICE has a hundred billion. Republicans get up and they give the ICE another 70 billion with absolutely no details or explanation of why. The point was just to fund ICE for an infinite length of time to fund ICE to do anything. So we’ve seen how ICE uses law enforcement tactics to disrupt democratic processes like in Minneapolis. And then of course killed two people that didn’t need to die. And so they give him $70 billion. And so I think here’s Sean fighting it on a local or a local level. In the national level, the same thing is going on. I mean, talk about giving unlimited money to law enforcement. I think there’s parallels there. Suffolk County has $5 million a year, 15 million here, extravagant pensions.

And then on Capitol Hill, $70 billion to an agency that doesn’t need it. They still had a hundred billion in the bank and they’re funded not year over year, but until 2029. So

Taya Graham:

The

Stephen Janis:

Unleashing of law enforcement through money, which we’ve seen in Suffolk County, we’ve written about this, is now playing out on a national level. And now you have a national federalized police force with unlimited funds.

Taya Graham:

You know what? Let me jump to our next comment because I want to make sure to get to as many of them as possible. Absolutely. And we’ve had some great comments that we’ve been putting on the screen from the live chat. I appreciate you. And don’t worry, I will ask about the tiger picture. Not now, but I will ask about the tiger pictures. There’s a person who’s obsessed with your painting, Sean. So before you go, you’re going to have to talk about it. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Stephen Janis:

I don’t know what you guys are talking about. Sorry.

Taya Graham:

It’s okay. I’ll

Stephen Janis:

Tell you. But I sure I’ll find out hopefully.

Taya Graham:

Back to police unions, one of our favorite topics. And full disclosure, I am a member of a union. I am a union steward. And I can let you know that the Communication Workers Association does not receive any taxpayer dollars. And I’m not receiving a million dollar pension. Like I said, I would need to work 200 years to earn that pension. Anyway, Sean, you explained on our show that you wanted the police union to answer questions about how they protect members who are accused of brutality and misconduct. One of the viewers weighed in on the power of police unions. Dave, if you don’t mind putting up comment six for me. Okay. Here we have Charles Harmon, 4159 says regarding the police union, “Police unions throughout the nation are the problem. Unlimited power and authority, the unions, qualified immunity, rampant racism and corruption. Nothing will be correct until we check this.” Wow.

I mean, Sean Paul, from your experience, how is bad policing a consequence of the power police unions?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

So because they shield officers who engage in misconduct and brutality against accountability. They’ll tell you that. That’s what they do. They say buzzwords and things like, “Oh, we’re just making sure they get due process, that they need to have the same rights as everybody else and everything else.” But there is no due process when there’s no accountability at the end of that process. That’s like if people would be happy if they said, “Oh, we’re going to give due process to immigrants and then we’re going to let them stay here.” People would be upset with that. When you bring up ICE, that’s a hot button topic on when I talk about ICE on my channel.

I completely agree with what you’re talking about. And again, that’s by design, the division. We can’t say that the ICE is receiving too much money without accountability, without body cameras, without having to take off their masks, not violate people’s rights. I went to the location and flew out there to Minneapolis where Alex Pretty was murdered and I was at a eulogy there. And it really hit me that a man was murdered and executed by ICE. And people say, “Well, he kicked a car two weeks ago and broke the taillight.” And it’s like, come on, you need to understand something. That is not. Yes, Alex Pretty engaged in violent behavior two weeks before he was executed. Even if he was executed that same day, kicking a taillight is not a death sentence. We need to understand this. Wanting accountability for ICE is not pro-immigration or pro-illegal immigration.

These people, they have this in their mind where if you criticize ICE in any way, it’s now you’re pro-illegal immigration, you’re pro this. When I talked about judicial warrants, the differences between judicial warrants and administrative warrants. And I put this on my channel and people, I got so much blow back from my community about, oh, but Sean, you’re just trying to protect illegal immigrants. And no, I’m trying to protect you. I’m trying to protect me. I’m trying to protect our country. Because there’s a big difference. You cannot go into someone’s house on an administrative warrant because an administrative warrant is basically like a decree from the king. Then we’d be going back to the decree from the king where he says, oh, that’s the warrant. And then we’re going to go. A judicial warrant is necessary to have a third party look at the facts of the case.

I’m trying to protect everybody’s rights, including illegal immigrants’ rights because whether you like it or not, they do have rights and it was by design. And you don’t have to like it, but you have to accept reality for what it is. And police unions generally in this country, but specifically in the Northeast, specifically in the Northeast, they are so powerful, so well funded through tax money. And they shield officers from accountability every single day. It happens all the time. And I think police unions should be abolished across the country.

Stephen Janis:

Sean, Ray, one time I went to police union headquarters and they actually have a bar in there and they offered me a beer, which is kind of funny. But when I asked Congresswoman Mike Lawler about ICE funding about $70 billion, you know what he said to me? He said, “Do you want to abolish ICE?” That was his answer to my question. Of course. So what you’re talking about, this sort of. Well, it’s part of the culture of policing, right? You are for or against. When someone says you can either be for or against something, you know you’re in really treacherous territory. Tay and I always make this joke, do you have to be for and against the sanitation department

Taya Graham:

To

Stephen Janis:

Ask us? Well, if you ask a question about why we’re spending so much money on sanitation,

Taya Graham:

You’re against

Stephen Janis:

Sanitation.

Taya Graham:

Right. If you criticize that we don’t get Tuesday and Thursday pickup anymore, we only get Thursday pickup, then you’re anti-sanitation. You hate sanitation workers.

Stephen Janis:

And you’re somehow un-American.

Taya Graham:

There’s no other organization and agency. That we can’t just criticize.

Stephen Janis:

And part of that is the union themselves because as Sean Wright points out, they have five people that are getting paid by the taxpayers sit there and espouse the perspective of the union. And let me tell you something, union officials have great relationships with the media. They didn’t have it with me when I was covering them, but I got a lot of crap because the media was so intertwined with the union officials on police uni officials. They are so much more powerful, even more powerful than union officials for other aspects of government. There’s no comparison to the power of the police union with the power of other public services.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I mean, just as I’m sitting there chained to a desk within hours of my arrest before I’m released, before anything else, the New York Post has an article out. Do you think that the New York Post was just looking at. No, they made a call to somebody at the New York Post and even they got a title change. The New York Post reporter that spoke to me when he went to my court, when it went to my arraignment, I said, “Why did you change the title of your second article? It was very critical of the police union because he was talking about how the video doesn’t seem to. It raises questions.” He said it in a very nice way too. He said, “It raises questions as to what the police union president stated in his original comments to the post. They changed the title of that article to Police Union President Receives Death Threats.” And I said, “Why did you do that?” He said, “Well, my first title, the police union president called my boss and he made a big stink and we had to change the title.” You want law enforcement officers to have that much power – That’s incredible.

Over the media, over your politicians, over your money, everything. That’s incredible. All because they’re heroes and you want to idolize them.

Stephen Janis:

Is he like the editor of the New York Post? I mean, just so people know, when Sean Ray, after the encounter, the New York Post ran very, I would say, inflammatory articles about your encounter with them. Not mentioning the pension or any of the questions you were asking, but simply talking about how once your video aired, people called, which happens with any publication. When I worked for a newspaper and we published a story, people didn’t like. We get tons of calls in hate mail. That’s normal. That’s not like you doing something. They made it seem like you had somehow corralled everyone to call. Yeah.That was something that you had done like, “Hey, everyone, call the police union. No.” And that’s extraordinary though that they have that kind of power.

Taya Graham:

It really is. You know what? Let me jump forward to comment eight because there are a few more comments I want to get to. I really want to check in on this one because – Give me some hard ones.Come on Tara. Because I’m going to try. People are going to town about qualified immunity in the comment section in our live chat right now. Favorite topic.

I think this is a really great time to discuss it. Yes. Okay. I mean, any discussion would be remiss without mentioning qualified immunity. And you know what? Let me just give a little explainer. I think everyone in our live chat, our PAR community knows qualified immunity, but just for anyone who might stumble across us, basically qualified immunity is a legal loophole that makes it extremely difficult to sue the police. So qualified immunity was created as sort of a threshold to give public officials immunity from violating people’s rights. And that was a consequence of a law passed during Reconstruction. I think it’s a 1983 part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was actually passed during Reconstruction to give people the right to sue again for the violation of their rights. But the qualified immunity loophole basically says you can’t sue someone if the right hasn’t been established, which means it has to been put through some sort of adjudication before you can sue someone like a cop.

And it has to be a case that is incredibly specific to your situation, but if it hasn’t been adjudicated upon, it’s going to be really difficult to sue. And I think Liberty Freak in the comment section and Mr. Brandt know a little something about that. Okay. With all that said, here’s the comment about it. Now this is from American Patriot 3515 on qualified immunity. We the people are getting sick and tired of that document known as the Constitution being used as toilet paper by law enforcement all across this country. We need to ban qualified immunity. That would be a good start. Okay. Sean Paul, to you. How big of a problem is qualified immunity when it comes to holding police accountable?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I think it’s a huge problem. Again, but I don’t want to minimize. I think the number one problem is the police unions. That is the number one problem because as things qualified immunity is horrible, but a lot of people focus on qualified immunity. That’s probably the number one thing that people who want police to be held accountable are saying, abolish qualified immunity, get rid of qualified immunity. But even if you did, the police unions are going to run rampant. It’s not going to change anything. I mean, you might be able to sue them and get some additional funds and everything, but most of the rights have been clearly established. But what judges, some judges will do, not all, but some judges will find a wiggle room. And this is what makes qualified immunity dangerous is that they’ll take, “Oh, well, this fact doesn’t add up right.” Or any layperson would be like, “Well, you can film,” for example.

I’ll give you an example of probably what a judge could do, is that you were filming the right to record the police on a public sidewalk is clearly established. But if you recorded them from the public parking lot, that’s not clearly established. So therefore right next to the sidewalk, so therefore he’s going to get qualified immunity. So eventually they’re going to run out of little loopholes to try and get people because it is qualified immunity. It’s not what prosecutors have, which is absolute immunity. Judges have absolute immunity.

So eventually they’ll run out of the little work. And I think qualified with the workarounds, I think qualified immunity is very important, but I want to stress to everybody that the police unions and the way they operate within the political system is far more dangerous when it comes to the lack of accountability and police power.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah.

Taya Graham:

Steven, I think there’s a case that talks a lot about qualified immunity. It’s the Eric Brandt and Liberty Freak case in the 10th Circuit. Maybe you want to explain

Stephen Janis:

About that? Well yeah, in 2021 or no, I think they actually, it was in 2019 that Eric Brandt and Liberty Freak were filming a police officer. They were filming just a traffic stop. And then a police officer drove up and got in front of them and then her drove his car at Eric. And this is in the 10th circuit. And I think the case was adjudicated in 2021, 2022. The initial district court said that the officer had qualified immunity because the right to film police had not been established. Now they won that case. The ACLU joined in, even the Cato Institute joined in, Electronic Frontier joined in. So they won it, but it can show you, as Sean, as you’re pointing out, that sometimes things slip through the cracks. And at that point in the 10th circuit, the district court judge had said, “Oh, there’s no established right to film police.” And this is in 2021, 2022.

Now, of course they won, but it just shows you sometimes these things can be a little more complicated. But I do agree with you that police unions are this source and locus of power when it comes to policing. It’s almost impossible to battle police unions.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. I mean, I’m taking it on now and I’m not going to stop. And I don’t see an end. I think this is going to be for the rest of my career because what I’ve seen is just horrible, especially in my own county. And I want to bring awareness to it. But the machine is just, it’s so big that it would take people really waking up and voting out these politicians who can end these contracts, who can make sure there’s accountability. But again, they have a propaganda arm. They have everything. They’re an S corp. They get paid a salary. They have expenses. They do this. It’s just such a machine.

Stephen Janis:

And a lot of times they fund. If a police officer gets into trouble, I don’t know what goes on in Suffolk County, but the police unions, like all the officers who were charged with the death of Freddie Gray, which for everyone who doesn’t know, Freddie Gray was a young man who died in police custody in 2015 and set off basically an uprising here in Baltimore. But all the police officers didn’t have to worry about hiring a lawyer because the police union pays for the lawyers for police officers who get in trouble in Maryland. I don’t know how it is in Suffolk County, but they have a lawyer on twenty four seven for them. If anything happens to them, they get free legal services from pretty well-paid law firms. Very well paid

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

First. Yeah. But that’s the secondary, that’s like the safety net. Most times in my experience, police officers get indemnified by the county or municipality. We’re going to get to

Stephen Janis:

That. And yes,

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

You are correct. They get taxpayer funded lawyers and they’re not getting the county attorneys, especially in Suffolk County or Nassau County, the neighboring county on Long Island. They hire $2,000 an hour attorneys, private attorneys. And I’m sure if I looked into that, I’m sure those attorneys probably donated those law firms. Oh

Stephen Janis:

Absolutely. We had the same thing going on in Baltimore. Absolutely.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

It’s a whole racket. It’s a whole

Stephen Janis:

Racket.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

It’s a whole big club and we’re not in it, just so people

Taya Graham:

Know. We are not in it.

Stephen Janis:

It’s a classic political economy. We had law firms were getting millions of dollars from Baltimore City to handle these lawsuits and basically –

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Instead

Stephen Janis:

Of settling,

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

They couldn’t use that money to settle the case.

Stephen Janis:

Well, exactly.

Taya Graham:

Right. But

Stephen Janis:

That’s the

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Thing. Fight it. It’s insane.

Stephen Janis:

They would spend millions. We have a municipal cap in Baltimore in Maryland. It’s 500,000 or 900,000. And they would spend more money defending than just, might as well just pay it out. They would spend five, six, seven million dollars just to defend a lawsuit. They’d eventually pay out. But instead of just paying it out, I think they wanted to run up the billable hours, which is to your point. You have the law firms getting involved, making millions and millions of dollars. The politicians getting donations. It’s a pretty nice business. Nice work if you get it. And the amazing thing about it that you point out, I think that people don’t understand, is if you mess up, the more mistakes you make, the more lucrative it is. In our city, after the Justice Department investigated our police department and found the Department of Justice found it practiced unconstitutional and racist policing for like a decade, the police department got $70 million to fix the issues.

Tons of consultants

Taya Graham:

Like you said tons of work. That was the first thing that happened. They were handed millions more dollars.

Stephen Janis:

70 million. And it just went to all sorts of extracurricular activities, which eventually ends up in the pockets of the union.

Taya Graham:

Yeah, absolutely. You know what? Let me grab comment nine because I think it’s an interesting one because it kind of is a dig at me and Steven. There’s someone who thinks we shouldn’t even be talking to you, Sean Paul. Dave, can you put up comment nine and I’ll read it. Sean Frey, excuse me, 7975 says, “You going to hitch your wagon to that mule. Lost all respect for you.” Wow. Yeah. Steven, I’m not sure exactly where that’s coming from, but I’m sure you have something to say about it. Well,

Stephen Janis:

First of all, I want to say I have tremendous respect for Sean Ray and all the work that he does. I don’t even care what they say about that. But also I think we should disabuse ourselves with this notion that interviewing someone means somehow you’re hitched to their wagon. Covering what Long Island does, Long Island Odds does, does not mean we endorse anything he does. It just means that we feel that he is newsworthy and that what he does is worth showing to our audience. That’s all it is. It’s not like we’re saying we’re endorsing everything Sean Ray does or we’re in. Sean Paul, sorry. Sean Paul Ray does. We’re not saying that at all. What we do as journalists, we interview all sorts of people. I mean, should we not interview Republican politicians who disagree with us or should we not interview people who we don’t think are perfectly suitable?

That’s not what we do. That’s not the kind of judgment we make. We judge things based on their newsworthiness. And Long Island Audits has made a lot of news for a good reason, for accountability reporting, and therefore we will cover him. And I don’t really care what people say about it, but I do have tremendous respect for your work. So

Taya Graham:

Either

Stephen Janis:

Way.

Taya Graham:

Steven, I agree with you. What we do is cover things that are newsworthy. For example, we have covered victims of crime and we have also interviewed people who have gone to prison for crimes. Does that mean I shouldn’t interview someone because they’ve gone to prison? Right. Does that mean I should only interview people that I like and never someone that I might have some fundamental differences in? Half the politicians

Stephen Janis:

In Maryland have gone to prison and we’ve interviewed all of them.

Taya Graham:

Oh my gosh. And they’re Democrats for the record.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah. So we interview

Taya Graham:

People all the time. They actually did go to prison. Our previous mayor did actually, and I had a lovely interview with her. So I should not interview people because they’re problematic. If they’re newsworthy, if interviewing them is going to reveal something important, then I should interview them for the benefit of the public. It’s not about liking people. It’s not about hitching your wagon to a star. It’s about giving the public information that they can find useful. Period. Case closed. Case closed. Now, Sean, I’m not going to force you to react to this unless you want to. I will.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I will. So first of all, to me, this is indicative of the tribalism and the death of nuance. And these people, they want to be closed-minded. They don’t want to have conversations. And this person probably, he says, if you asked him, you do support the First Amendment, do you support the free press? Do you support? And you probably say, yes, yes, yes. I love the Constitution. But the minute that someone engages with somebody that they don’t like or starts talking to them, again, just because I’m on your channel doesn’t mean that I am not. We do not endorse each other for everything that we do. If tomorrow you did something I didn’t like, I have full rights to talk about that as well. I don’t have a blind loyalty to people. I love the work that you guys do and I appreciate it. And I think what you guys do on Capitol Hill is great.

I watch you guys all the time. And you really speak truth to power. It’s great. I wish I could be up there on Capitol Hill agitating people and provoking people. I wish you could too. I

Taya Graham:

Was going to say,

Stephen Janis:

You

Taya Graham:

Can join

Stephen Janis:

Us. Can you bring your truck up to Capitol Hill one time at least once? I

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Would love to bring the truck. Yeah, I

Stephen Janis:

Would love to. All right. We’ve got to do the truck one

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Time. I would love to join you guys over there a Capitol Hill.But again –

Stephen Janis:

We’re doing that. That’s the date.That’s the date. I love it. I want that truck on Capitol Hill, man. Right on the triangle. It would be

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Great. It’s crazy. And people are like, “Oh, journalists don’t have billboard trucks. That’s true. Most journalists don’t.” I wish we did. Right. I’m sure most journalists wish they did too. It’s a good way to spread your message around. And again, I’m not saying I’m not Caitlin Collins of CNN. I’m not – Neither

Taya Graham:

Am I.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Whoever from Fox News, I guess. I’m not those people. I’m Sean Paul Reyes. My platform is my platform. I objectively engage in journalistic activities. I objectively exercise my First Amendment right. And again, if you want to call it advocacy journalism, opinionated journalism, yeah, I have opinions. And I don’t hide that. I talk about things that interest me and interest my audience. And I think that me building platforms that have over two million subscribers and at this point, probably a billion views, 500 million, 600 million on YouTube alone. These are matters of public interest that people want to see. People are very passionate about it. I get death threats. I get people are passionate on the other side too. People threaten to kill me, threaten to kill my family. There’s a lot of things that go into this. And it’s sad to see that people can’t have conversations anymore.

Even if we were totally different, I would still come on your channel. I invited Lou, when the body camera footage comes out the Sunday on my channel, the Sunday morning at 10:00 AM, I invited him to come on the channel and he accepted. So Lou, if you’re watching this, you’re still welcome to. I think that he is a despicable thug with a badge, but I would bring him on my channel. Absolutely. Great point. So that way I can debate him. Absolutely. But he would never come. He says it on the body cam. “Yeah, I’ll come on your channel. Yeah, let’s do it. “While I’m sitting in handcuffs, while I’m standing there in handcuffs with a pinched nerve in my wrist because he put the handcuffs on so tight, he says,” I’ll come on. “I said,” Come on the channel. “Because I would have anybody on the channel if I thought it brought value to the greater conversation.

Absolutely. I think him speaking to me on my channel, I think it’s going to show you exactly what I’m talking about when it comes to the police union. They talk just generalities. Oh, they don’t get into any specifics about anything. It’s just you’re an agitator, how? You’re a provocateur, how? You hate the police, how? I’ve had police officers on my channel, I’ve gotten pushback from, if you want to talk about the other side of it, I’ve brought chief of polices, detectives, I’ve had law enforcement on my channel. I’ve done ride alongs, I’ve done trainings, I’ve done command staff meetings, district attorney’s offices, and some of the more anti-police who have just a bad taste in their mouth for police and don’t think that police should exist whatsoever, they’re like, “Why would you bring on a cop?” Because I want to have conversations with people who have different views than me.

I do so I can understand what it is I need to do and how I need to tackle a problem better. I would

Taya Graham:

Bring

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

On anyone. I would.

Taya Graham:

You know what? Steven, you know what this sounds like?

Stephen Janis:

What?

Taya Graham:

This sounds like a journalist.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah. Let me just make one public service announcement. I know, because I know he’s watching our editor, Maximolia Alvarez. We would like a truck. So just put that on our budget because I’m jealous of Sean. I want to show up at Capitol Hill with a truck.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

You can use my truck. We will definitely collaborate

Stephen Janis:

And I will. Oh, you were coming out with that truck. Absolutely. We would love that. We have to do a collab. I would love to do

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

It. After how it works and everything. It’s

Taya Graham:

Great. And I just want to shout out some of the people in the comments. First off, hi Car Thief News. Thank you. And also, I want to say hello to Wrights Crispy. Hello, another wonderful cop watcher out there. We still have Joe Cool out there, hippie auditor out there. I think I even saw John Felix. I don’t know if I hallucinated it, but I’m almost positive I saw the John Felix out there. And I just

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Want to –

Taya Graham:

I

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Like Joe Cool.

Taya Graham:

I know. I know. As a matter of fact, Steven, do you have a DVD next to you?

Stephen Janis:

Oh yeah.

Taya Graham:

You know what? Why don’t you show that DVD?

Stephen Janis:

Okay.

Taya Graham:

If people are interested in learning a little bit more about Copwatchers, there is something you can watch. It’s called I Am But the Mirror. The

Stephen Janis:

Story of American Copwatching.

Taya Graham:

Story of American Copwatching. Lacey Arnold D, if you wouldn’t mind dropping the link in the comments. It’s on Fossum. It’s an amazing documentary where we followed Copwatchers and in particular a very controversial one for several years. And we share their story. We share the story of how we learned about Copwatchers, their lives. Just about some of the

Stephen Janis:

Topics we talked about tonight too.

Taya Graham:

A lot of the things we. No, no, it’s okay. A lot of the things that we touched on tonight, it’s a very personal and intimate look at the lives of Copwatcher and some of the very personal costs that happen when you put everything on the line because you believe in accountability and transparency. So if you’re interested in Copwatching, definitely recommend it. Okay. I just had to throw that out there for people who might be interested in continuing this conversation in another way. Okay. I’m going to go to the comment 10, and I have to admit this as a little bit of a personal peeve for me. Okay. This is the infamous democracy versus republic debate. I know there’s some historians in the comments, so you’re welcome to weigh in on this. This is from Edward Cominar 1493. I stopped watching when you called us a democracy.

We are not a democracy. And since you believe that, I will not sub to your channel. Bye. Okay. Well, all right. I hate to say it, but this is not an airport. You did not have to announce your departure. It’s okay. I love that. But secondly, I want to put this up because very often when I use the word democracy in the show, someone brings up that it’s formerly a constitutional republic as a point as if I didn’t know this or wasn’t aware. So please let me break it down so maybe I don’t have to go through this again. One is a legal framework or structure of governance, i.e. A constitutional republic. And one is a process for conferring power within that structure. Neither are mutually exclusive. One does not preclude the existence of another. We can live within the structure of a constitutional republic while simultaneously participating in a democracy.

I mean, Steven, am I wrong here?

Stephen Janis:

No, no, no, no, no. The two exist, coexist. I mean, the process itself of voting is democratic. So I just wanted to put that up there because people say this constantly when we have this discussion. And just remember, they’re not mutually exclusive. They really work well together. So when we say one, we’re not precluding the other is the point.

Taya Graham:

Right. Just

Stephen Janis:

Wanted to make that point quick.

Taya Graham:

Yes. Think of the republic is the building in which the democracy is housed. How about that? That sounds good. Okay. So we don’t have to argue about this, you guys. I promise. I promise. Okay. I won’t ask you to. Let’s get to 11 because we’re – Running out of time. We do have some time. Yeah. We do have to watch out for time. Last

Stephen Janis:

Comment.

Taya Graham:

Okay. Last comment that we saved from earlier from Facebook and YouTube. Okay. Who is footing the bill? Okay. So I think this comment makes a really good point, so we need to highlight it. Dave, thank you so much for putting it up. This is Sean Strauss’s point. Remember, everyone, cops never pay a single cent for lawsuits. Even in a successful lawsuit where qualified immunity is denied, individual LEOs are still literally always indemnified by the municipality. It’s the taxpayers who pay for the lawyer’s fees, court costs settlements, and even judgements issued against them. We the people currently have no meaningful legal recourse to hold our LEOs accountable, neither civilly nor criminally. So either one of you can take this. Well, let’s have Sean do it. Yeah. Is it true that police are indemnified by the taxpayers?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

In most cases, yes. There was actually a case that I brought up. I’d covered this case where this man was walking down the street in New York City and officers hopped out like a gang. Literally a gang hopped out of a patrol vehicle and started going into his pants, checking him, searching him. He was just walking down the street, minding his own business, but apparently he must have looked a certain way or walked a certain way. Who knows what they were thinking? But they hopped out and they started searching him. They ended up grabbing his genitals and doing all types of craziness to him. And he got upset and I raid about it. He ended up filing a lawsuit. I covered this story probably three years ago. And then he had texted me, told me, “Hey, they ended up settling for $100,000.” And I bring this up because out of that $100,000, well, they had to hire their own attorneys, but as Steven indicated earlier, they hired their attorneys through the PBA, through their union.

They don’t call it a PBA, but their union, they hired them attorneys. And then they had to come out of pocket out of that $95,000 of that $100,000 settlement this gentleman got was taxpayer money. And the other 5,000 had to be split between the two officers who violated his rights. So at the end of the day, cops can be held accountable civilly, but nine times out of 10, 99% of the time they are indemnified by the municipality and the taxpayers end up funding the bill. I completely agree that there’s such a lack of accountability when it comes to government officials and our public servants, whether it’s locally, on the state level, federally. Federally is even worse. Federally, you can’t even. I didn’t know this until recently when I was unlawfully detained by border patrol and they went and cut open my suitcase, searched my vehicle, deleted the video from my phone.

Thankfully it was my recently deleted, put me in a jail cell.

You cannot sue the federal government under the 1983 civil rights lawsuit. You can’t. They’re not named as a. It’s for state actors, not federal actors. So you can file what’s called a tort claim, which that’s for actual damages. I could have filed a tort claim for the damage they did to my suitcase. It’s almost impossible to hold the federal government accountable. So it goes all the way. The lack of opportunities we have and the lack of avenues, I should say, that we have to hold state actors or federal actors accountable for their misconduct is basically nothing because they have unlimited money because it’s our money. It’s our money. They have unlimited money. They can just pay out lawsuits because it’s our money. Even if the federal government, they print the money. So they literally have unlimited money. And the state governments, they can’t print money, but they have a lot of it, especially places like New York, Maryland, where there’s high taxes.

They have a lot of money to be able to spare. They factor this in and they say, “Well, it is what it is.” It goes away. The person gets their money and they move on. And there’s never any accountability. If it came out of the law enforcement officer’s pockets.

Law enforcement is designed, is supposed to be, right? This is what they tell you to hold people accountable for their criminal actions, is to enforce the law. And the criminal justice system, again, I’m not co-signing their view, but they’re saying the criminal justice system is supposed to stop people from committing crimes. Not only the individual that’s being charged with a crime, but it’s supposed to serve as a deterrent to society as a whole to say, “Hey, you can’t do this because this will happen to you the same way it happened to this guy.” But in law enforcement, when there’s no accountability for the individual officer, that breeds a lack of accountability across the whole department and across the police as a whole. And because they know that, “Hey, I can do this.” Just recently, somebody was charged with a crime for using flock cameras to stalk their girlfriend.

And the investigator, the IA investigator who investigated him was arrested as well for doing the same thing after he did it. So it’s just the lack of accountability is astounding and it breeds more misconduct and more misconduct. And unfortunately, unless we change up, unless we get the right politicians in there, public servants to legislators, executives in the executive branch to hold them accountable, it’s not going to change.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah. I mean, it’s really interesting. I want to make this point before we wrap things up because one of the first times we started talking to Sean was when his encounter with Sergeant Fahey in Connecticut. Connecticut state trooper that seemed like his overtime was a little excessive for someone who worked at a desk and then retired with a pension. And I’ve been doing some digging on it. And it turns out that the couple thousand retired state troopers cost Connecticut taxpayers $110 million a year to fund their pensions. And we started looking at some of the last couple years, because the last couple years is what defines your salary. So what happens is that they start collecting a lot more overtime and therefore their final average pay goes up and therefore their final average pension becomes larger and more lucrative. And I think the point is in what you’re saying is that you are really attacking the crux of the matter in the sense that this is real dollars.

I mean, $110 million a year to fund the pensions for a couple thousand people is really an extreme use of resources in a country that purports not to be able to pay for healthcare for average working citizens. This is real money that keeps getting tossed around. When we looked at the budget for Suffolk County, it was like $1,400 a year for each household to fund police. I mean, think about that. So we are talking about hundreds of millions of billions of dollars being funneled into one organization that represents a very small number of people and hundreds of billions of dollars not going to pay for people’s healthcare or for childcare or for whatever, for education, you name it. So this is not a minor, this is a kind of a crux issue. And I think Sean, as you point out, these people are really the warriors on behalf of the oligarchy.

So yeah, I just want to make that point because that money struck me, $110 million. What could we do with that?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

The Suffolk County Police Department has a billion dollar budget. It’s insane that the amount of money that goes into these six figure pensions for the rest of your life, for the rest of your life, but yet I might not even get my social security one day, but yet they get from. They’re going to get six figures for the rest of their life.

Stephen Janis:

For the rest of their lives. Yeah. I mean, it’s extraordinary. And Suffolk County’s like the hotbed of crime that I

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Know of. No, it’s not. You know what they do? You know what they do, Steven? Again, I like the rank and file people of Suffolk County. I do. People, I’ll probably get chewed up for that. I like the rank and file officers because I think they’re pretty cool guys, but it’s the system, the police union, the administration. But what they do is they hide behind firehouses and just sit there all night long and just hang out. That’s what they do.

Stephen Janis:

Right. Right. Meanwhile, collecting $100,000 a year. Yeah. 200,

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

300, 400, $500,000 a year, that much.

Stephen Janis:

I mean, Suffolk County’s like Stony Brook University and a couple malls. I mean, seriously, a billion dollars, what? What’s going on there?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Keep us safe.

Taya Graham:

I wanted to say there have been some really great comments. And unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask some of the questions that were on the screen. So I just want to shout out a few people. I see Garden State Accountability, San Joaquin Valley Transparency. Otto, the watchdog is out there. Hey, Otto. It’s good to see you. How are you? One of our favorites. Leroy Truth. There’s a vigilance committee. Joe Kool is out there holding it down in the comment section. I love it. Big Nick South. Saw Rice Krispy. So I just want to make sure. I’m sorry if I didn’t get to mention everybody, but the comments are kind of flying by. I just want to thank all of you for participating. And I just want to ask, and there’s a great question on the screen of whether or not people. They want to know, do we think that this kind of cop watching, this kind of auditing, this kind of First Amendment activism, do you think it’s making a difference?

That was a question. It’s a good question. I’m so sorry. The name flew by too fast for. But I want you to know out there whoever’s in live chat, that was a great question. So Sean, I just wanted to ask you, do you think it’s making a difference?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I think it’s making a difference. I don’t think it’s making enough of a difference, but I do believe it’s making a difference. Even in the last five years, there’s a bunch of, you just named a bunch of people. There’s so many people that came before me. I’ve been doing this for five years. These people have been doing this for the last decade, 15 years. And I give them all the respect in the world for starting this. And I think it’s made a huge difference, but not enough of a difference. And I think law enforcement officers, they won’t just grab you and arrest you at a traffic stop anymore. No as much. I’ve noticed that when I walk into a public building now, most people, they’re like, oh, they know what you’re doing and everything else. And they treat you with respect and just the basics that should have been happening from day one.

But they don’t want to be famous online or infamous, I should say, online. So I think all of us together have really accomplished a lot. And I think my platform is really branching out into actually investigating in particular mayors, particular just like Lee Roy Truth or others out there who are focused then on one person or one organization. Because I feel like over the last five years, I’ve been stretched out and I feel like I’ve failed my county. Again, I’m proud one raised resident, Suffolk County, Long Island. And I feel like I failed my county by not taking this police union head on from the start. I’ve been all over the place from California and Hawaii, Florida and everywhere in between. And I think I need to focus my resources in one area and be able to really affect change, maybe even run for a legislator just to make them, even if it’s just to make them

Stephen Janis:

Spend money against me. Wait, wait, wait. So you’re going to run for office?

Taya Graham:

I’m

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Thinking about running for legislator in Suffolk County.

Stephen Janis:

That’s news. Okay. Can we just break news? We just break news.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I mean, listen, my legislator, I looked it up. He won with 8,000 votes. Oh my

Stephen Janis:

God. I’ve got an audience of a million. You got

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

The senate. My district is like 75,000. So 8,000. Get out to vote people. Come on. Whoever supports the police unit support, vote the opposite. I don’t care if it’s a Democrat or a Republican. Whoever the police unit supports, vote for the opposite of that person. Whatever it is.

Taya Graham:

That’s solid platform. That’s a solid platform. We

Stephen Janis:

Are covering your campaign beginning to end. One thing I want to say –

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Great campaign. I got the billboard truck already. It’s going to be great.

Taya Graham:

You’re

Stephen Janis:

Already

Taya Graham:

Halfway there.

Stephen Janis:

Taya’s from Long Island. My family’s from Long Island. Several of our other coworkers, we have a very strong Long Island.

Taya Graham:

We’re Long Island strong here at The Real News. So

Stephen Janis:

Just so you know, we’re in solidarity with you on Long Island.

Taya Graham:

Absolutely. Absolutely. I spent summers in Stony Brook in Suffolk County. And I spent summers in Stoney. I know how quiet it is. Okay. Last question. Last question, you guys, so we can wrap up. I just wanted to ask what you envision for the future of your work and perhaps kind of YouTube auditing in general. Do you think it’s going to evolve? Do you think the police are going to push back harder or where do you think we go from here? Because I think there’s going to be an auditor summit coming up. There are people who still want to get involved, become auditors, become First Amendment activists, become cop watchers, but there are some challenges there. So what do you see as its future?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Yeah. I’m familiar with the 1A auditor summit that’s supposed to be held next year. And I think it’s important. I kind of got into it already. I think it’s evolved to where. One of the things that frustrated me about First Amendment auditing is that there was never any follow up. And I think that’s what I would see somebody whose rights get violated and then I would never know what happened after that. I would never see them file a complaint. I would never see the results of the complaint. We all know that they’re going to investigate themselves and find out what we’re doing, but take that step because it’s important to show that’s part of the story. It’s important to show that you are filing a complaint with Internal Affairs who’s supposed to be an independent part of the police department, which they’re not. And it is important to show that they’re going to unsubstantiate it.

When your own eyes tell you exactly what happened, they will lie to you straight to your face. And I think it’s important for follow up. And I think more and more, I’m starting to investigate more into an investigative journalism kind of phase where I’m looking at the numbers, I’m looking at the papers. I’m talking to informants sources that are. I just got off the phone with a former law enforcement officer right before I almost was late because I was talking to a former law enforcement officer giving me all this information. And it’s important to evolve what you’re doing and to be passionate about it. And I think that moving forward, I think people like Leroy Truth, there are so many others out there that have really changed when it comes to actually focusing on particular issues and really digging into those issues because recording in public spaces is very important.

Recording law enforcement on a traffic stop is very important because it shows you what happens when power is challenged in any little way. These people with their ego, when you challenge their ego, I was arrested by Lucavillo because I said, “You’re such a tough guy, then do it. Let’s be real. Not because I broke the law. It’s because I went there asking questions about how his agencies are costing us hundreds of millions of dollars and I challenged his ego.” And he couldn’t control his emotions. Now imagine when you see those people, when you see these videos of these law enforcement officers who can’t control their emotions, if they’re doing it to me, if that man, Lucivillo, the police union president, is willing to do that to me, somebody with over two million subscribers across social media, hundreds of millions of views, what do you think he’s doing to John Smith down the street with no family, no money?

Stephen Janis:

Exactly.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

They run them through the system. The process is the punishment. The difference is that what law enforcement hasn’t figured out yet is that the process isn’t the punishment when it comes to people like me because the process, you’re thinking of I’m being punished. I’m not because I have a bunch of supporters that help me out with legal bills. I have a bunch of supporters that will write letters. So the process isn’t the punishment for me, but they’re so ingrained in that kind of way of thinking that this might not hold up in court. It’s probably not going to hold up in court, but he gets to sit in jail for seven hours. He has to pay a lawyer. He’s going to end up taking a deal anyway. And at the end of the day, if it all goes to shit, it’s going to get paid by his money anyway, taxpayer money.

It’s not going to affect me in any way. I’m not going to be held accountable.

Taya Graham:

Steven, let me ask you, what do you see as the future? I mean, you worked on that documentary, I am But the Mirror. You should know a little bit about Copwatching by now.

Stephen Janis:

Well, first thing I want to say is my editor-in-chief Max is in my ear and he’s telling me that this truck is on order for our billboard truck. So yes, I’ve been informed. I wanted to break that news that we will have the Tay and Steven billboard truck in operation shortly. But I think Sean injects creativity into journalism. I mean, journalists, we have a little high priestess sort of priest sort of feeling about bureaucratic. We can be a little bureaucratic and a little full of ourselves. And people like Sean come in and say, “Well, I’ve got a whole new way of approaching this, billboard truck included.” And I think that creativity is what flows from copwatchers because they went out – Yeah, that’s a great way to describe it. And they’re evolving, right? Sean says, “Yeah, I used to first film cops. Now I’m investigating overtime and going through public records and making record requests and following up.” It’s like we’re watching a whole new sort of journalism emerge.

And I think what’s great about copwatchers is they challenge the orthodoxy of what we do, which has a lot of orthodoxy in it and a lot of assumptions we make about the aesthetics of it, how it should be done. And Sean says, “No, I’m going to do it this way.” And actually it’s really effective and kind of very similar to what we do, but it kind of gives us a new way of looking at it. I mean, I have learned a tremendous amount from the copwatching auditing community as a journalist myself who came from a very conventional background. I work for a newspaper. If anyone knows what that is, I’m not sure if people are familiar with them, but they used to be delivered in your mailbox. And so I myself have said, wow, that’s a really cool way of approaching this. Or wow, I never thought of that.

Or just exposing things like now that I’m looking into the Connecticut State Pension System, thanks primarily to Sean and his encounter and what happened with Sergeant Hayes. So I think it’s a great way, a catalyst for journalism to change and evolve and adopt to an audience where audiences are, which is on YouTube and Instagram and places where Sean is quite popular. So yeah, it’s a good thing for all of us. And I’m looking forward to driving that truck

Taya Graham:

To Capital. Steven, that’s such a great point. I mean, in a way, you’re kind of making me think that it’s not as much about the future of copwatchers, but are journalists going to become more like cop watchers? Are we going to become more independent, more creative, more untethered from institutions, which can be controlling? We’re very fortunate as independent journalists that work for a nonprofit org to let you know, if we get five views on this or five million views on this, we don’t get a single nickel more. We’re a nonprofit org. We don’t run any ads on our channel. So literally we can report on what we want. So we are so lucky to be independent in that way. And I think copwatchers and the power that they show that basically a regular person who cares, who cares about transparency, excuse me, transparency, accountabilities, got a camera, willing to follow the money and do the work can actually make a difference in their community and help protect people and make change.

So I think if anything, if journalists are smart, they’re going to become a little bit more like copwatchers.That’s

Stephen Janis:

What I’ll say. Maybe should all become copwatchers. I’m an auditor. Sean, do you think I qualify to be an auditor or a copwatcher?

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

I’ve seen the work that you’ve done in Baltimore, both of you, and you guys do great work and I think you’d be perfect copwatcher. Thank you. And listen, I got to say that part of it’s waking up the public. The public is asleep. And sometimes you need a billboard truck, a flashy billboard truck to wake them up. I totally agree what you said, Steven. The institutions of journalism and everything else allegedly. I hate it when journalists say, allegedly, when I just watched the guy get punched in the face and allegedly he was punched in the face. And it’s too cutesy, too wanting. Instead of trying not to take a side because you don’t want to be part of the story and you don’t want to be in journalism. I’m going to tell this objectively. Sometimes there is no two sides to the story. Sometimes the police unions are just corrupt and you got to call them corrupt.

Stephen Janis:

Anything we say in journalism is like, it’s either raining or it’s sunny, but it’s not like there’s two sides to that, right? So yeah, good point.

Taya Graham:

You know what? I just have to say some of the folks, for example, Liberty Freak says that the police are going to push back harder. And you have a good point. I mean, I was just thinking about how there’s somewhere between 80,000 to 120,000 flop cameras across the country. The surveillance state is increasing. At the same time where there’s laws being made to say, stay further back while you’re recording, stay further back while you’re recording for us regular folks. Sure. Yeah. So it’s going to be interesting. Police like to

Stephen Janis:

Turn the cameras on up. As Sean has pointed out, they don’t like to have the cameras turned

Taya Graham:

On up. Exactly. Exactly. So Sean, we want to thank you so much for your time. And before you go, people want to know about the tiger painting. I’m sorry. I think

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

We’re going to get to that. So I’ll show it. This is not my portrait. I am in a hotel in Louisiana right now, so I have no idea what this is. And I was interested when I first saw it in my hotel room too. Okay.

Taya Graham:

So it’s not a family heirloom. Okay.

Stephen Janis:

No. So people are asking about a painting in

Taya Graham:

This

Stephen Janis:

Hotel

Taya Graham:

Room. Well, because Steven can’t see it. So there’s a tiger and this pretty woman wearing a dress with kind of like a boostier and petting a giant tiger. I’ll show you a screenshot of it later. It’s quite a shot. That’s pretty cool. Sean Paul, we have to thank you so much for your time. We took up more of it than we should have. I apologize for that. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you so much, your work, your willingness to speak about it, and your very singular insights into government accountability. And we look forward to speaking to you again soon and going to Washington DC with you.

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Love it. Can’t wait.

Taya Graham:

Thank you for

Sean Paul Reyes (Long Island Audit):

Having me and keep up the group work. Thank you

Taya Graham:

So much. Oh, thank you. You as well. Take care. Thank you. Okay. Steven, how was that for a conversation? I am so amazed about the things we learned from folks about talking about police power. And of course, one of my favorite topics, cop watchers. I got to do it. I got to say it again. Anyone who’s interested in the subject, check out the documentary, I’m But the Mirror. Steven, hold it up. Oh, okay. Sorry. Yeah. The story of American Copwatching and either Lacey R. Noli D. That’s me right there. If one of you put a link in the chat, I would very much appreciate it. And I just want to thankry a goofball. Everyone who was in the comments. And I really do apologize if I didn’t get to everyone’s comments. I tried to, with Max’s help, to put as many comments on the screen as I could.

And I just want to thank every single one of you that took the time to show up at this live. I appreciate it so much. And I’m going to make a point later on tonight to go through the comments that you guys leave underneath, give out some hearts, give some of my own personal responses. And I’m also going to go back to doing a comment of the week. So your comment might end up being highlighted on our channel if you take the time to make one. So if you can take a moment to leave a comment, maybe give us a little thumbs up, we really do appreciate it so much. So Steven, I’ve got to give you a chance before we sign off. Well, okay. And before I say thank you to all of our patreons, before I sign off, do you have any thoughts about tonight’s

Stephen Janis:

Discussion? Yeah, no. I mean, it was really interesting. And I think we’ve created a vicious cycle of comedy on comments, the comment on comments.

Taya Graham:

It’s very meta.

Stephen Janis:

It’s totally meta, so I’m pretty happy. But this is really cool to have this kind of debate and have the opportunity to hear what people think, because that really informs everything we do. If you don’t give feedback, you don’t think we read comments because sometimes you get like eight or hundred or thousand. I read a big majority of them and this time we really went through them. And what emerged was a really interesting dynamic debate that should be had every day about democracy, about journalism, about what we do, about how we should do it. That’s a great point. About how government kind of hoards resources and then uses them to attack us. And then how people on Long Island Audits are being creative and approaching it in their own way. I wish they had these debates when we go to conferences on journalism. I’d be much more interested to hear what people had to

Taya Graham:

Say

Stephen Janis:

If they were this vital.

Taya Graham:

So all

Stephen Janis:

Credits to the people on YouTube and to Long Island Audits for the way they bring out people and to talk about this. You don’t hear people debating democracy other than on CNN with a bunch of highly paid hairstylists. This is great because this is the people talking.

Taya Graham:

Yes.

Stephen Janis:

And more I hear, the better I feel about democracy.

Taya Graham:

Oh, Steven, that’s actually really beautiful. Yeah. It’s really beautiful. And I’m so glad – And the truck. And the truck. And the truck.

Stephen Janis:

And

Taya Graham:

That’s why I’m really so glad that we had this discussion and this debate to let people know we really do pay attention to your comments. And these spaces on social media, I think in particular YouTube, are places where we can really show that our democracy is so vital, that our First Amendment is still incredibly important. And that there’s real lifeblood in us that wants to have a healthy, equitable society where there’s not government overreach that is harmful. I agree. I agree. Honestly, Steven, our civic life in a lot of ways is becoming more and more precarious. And I think the right to disagree and to dissent is the most important part of it. Agreed. I mean, it’s the mechanism that keeps our democracy healthy. I would say this, this will be my little rant.

Stephen Janis:

Okay.

Taya Graham:

The right to dissent is a critical ingredient of our democracy, or if you’d like to call it constitutional republic. If you think about it, the right to vote is a form of dissent. It’s a right to express your disagreement with the people in power by voting to remove them. It’s actually the most potent form of communal dissent, actually. Our ability to collectively express dissatisfaction with political leaders and effectuate change is fundamental to who we are. But as Steven pointed out, it’s a facet of our system that can be easily manipulated or eliminated altogether. And it’s fragile and often challenging to preserve. Otherwise, I think copwatchers like Sean Paul wouldn’t continue to be arrested if the right to dissent was not in some sense provisional. So keeping dissent healthy and vibrant requires work. And that work can often lead to uncomfortable truths. So one of those truisms is that dissent, which makes us uncomfortable, is just as important to protect as that which we agree.

So what do I mean? So let me give a little bit of an analogy to explain. So imagine our collective discourse is a spectrum, a broad range of frequencies and colors intertwined, but separate. And in many ways, a spectrum of light is nature’s representation of the great Variety of colors and frequencies, all separate but equal, just like all of us in our different voices and ideas. And we need all of it because all of it is us. But acknowledging the existence of the spectrum requires acknowledging its full intensity. Let me give you an example. When noted cop watcher Eric Brandt, let’s say some people would say he provoked cops and waves, and please excuse my language, he waved a flag that said F cops. Well, a lot of people were made uncomfortable. And when Sean Paul shows up at a police union spontaneously, some people think his tactics are aggressive or even rude, but dissent does not always conform to our expectations of politeness or comportment.

It doesn’t always work when it complies with our expectations. Not every disagreement can be settled by a stoic debate or a polite exchange or even nuanced, reasonable discourse, even though sometimes I wish it could. No, I think sometimes these extremes are necessary to help keep the entire concept healthy. Sometimes more vibrant or discordant colors are necessary. Sometimes a more extreme approach is critical to making our entire project of finding ways to hold power accountable through public pushback, relevance. Sometimes dissent is just going to be ugly whether we like it or not. But my point is here that ultimately dissent must be created to survive. It must evolve to exceed the limits, as Steven pointed out, of the authoritarian impulses that exist within every government. It must be something that can accommodate citizen journalists with cell phones just as much as it protects reporters for the New York Times or Washington Post.

It has to be flexible, adaptable, and sometimes even confrontational. But the key is it’s up to us to define it. That is we, the people. It’s up to us to judge and debate what works and what doesn’t. It’s up to us to decide what we support and what we don’t. And that’s why we had this debate tonight and that’s why we ask for your comments. That’s why we do what we do. It’s an essential part of who we are. Proponents of free speech and protectors of the right of others to criticize our government and even us. Key to preserving it is discussions like this. And cop watchers are part of that recipe and so are you. So please help us fight for it together and argue like true Americans with courage and conviction and freedom to speak the truth even loudly to each other. And in the end, that’s all we have.

And I hope it’s all we’ll need. Once again –

Stephen Janis:

Very well done.

Taya Graham:

That’s my rant.

Stephen Janis:

It was a great

Taya Graham:

Rant. I had to do it.

Stephen Janis:

I agree with it entirely.

Taya Graham:

Well, Steven, I want to thank you for all the work you did to make this livestream possible today. Thank you so much. It was a very robust conversation. It

Stephen Janis:

Was. And we can disagree too. We disagree a lot of times. So just so people know.

Taya Graham:

Yeah.

Stephen Janis:

It’s not all perfect

Taya Graham:

Here. No, we actually agree pretty often. Except when we just disagreed now.

Stephen Janis:

Yeah, we just disagreed that we didn’t agree. Oh my God. Irony.

Taya Graham:

Okay. And I also want to thank Long Island Auditor’s time today and all the amazing folks that showed up in the live chat. Thank all of you. And I have to give a very special thanks to moderators Noli D and Lacey R for their support. Thank you both. Hi, Noeli D and hi to Ryan. Can I just

Stephen Janis:

Say quickly how good

Taya Graham:

Long

Stephen Janis:

Island Audits is? How good he is and how interesting? You’re

Taya Graham:

Going to blow your objective journalism cover here if you do that.

Stephen Janis:

Okay.

Taya Graham:

Right. I take that back. It’s not supposed to be about interviewing people we like or don’t like. It’s about to do the world. No, I’m just saying that

Stephen Janis:

His interview

Taya Graham:

Was

Stephen Janis:

Really good. He brings up a lot of points that surprise me. And yeah, so go ahead. I’m sorry. I just wanted to say that.

Taya Graham:

No, you absolutely have the right to say that. I just don’t want people to think that you were biased. Okay.

Stephen Janis:

Good point.

Taya Graham:

But you’re right. He was a terrific interview and that is fair to say. But we have to thank our very special helpers who might be unseen. Maxime Alvarez. Oh yes. Thank you, Max. Who’s getting the truck apparently. Jocelyn, Brian and Corey for moral support. And like I said, at the very end, I’m going to thank every individual Patreon. So I’m just letting you know because I love my patrons. I do. And I’ve got to say it, I want you watching to know that if you have video evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us and we might be able to investigate for you. Please reach out to us. You can email us tipsprivately at par@therealnews.com and share your evidence of police misconduct. You can also message us at Police Accountability Point on Facebook or Instagram or at Eyesonpolice on Twitter. And of course you can always message me directly at TeasBaltimore on Twitter or Facebook or Tea Graham on Facebook or Instagram.

And please like and comment. You know I read your comments and appreciate them. I think we proved that we read your comments. And we’re probably going to have a Patreon link pinned in the comments and maybe even the live chat below for accountability reports. So if you feel inspired to donate, please do. You know we don’t run ads or take corporate dollars, so anything could spare is greatly appreciated. And as you see, I do shout out my patreons. My name is Tea Graham. I’m your host of Police Accountability Report. And for all of you, please be safe out there.

And now we’re my patrons. Real quick, I got to run through. I got to thank these good people. Are you ready, Steven? Hang on. Yes. I’m going to try to do this. Okay. Matter of rights, Tamara Anderson, XXX, Chris Robinson, David Keeley, Ronald Hensley, Gary T, David Bach, BD Gates, Calvin Mack, True Too Blive, Martin G. Nope. Talia B. Louie, Artemis LA, Lacey R. Steven J, John P. Alan J, Kyle R. Keith Bernard, M. Marcia E. Don T. Kipke, Cameron J. Joe Six, Donald, sorry, Daniel W, Frank FK, Mary M. John K. Kurt A, Steven B, John M. Conrad B, Siggy Young, Joel A, Patty Blibbets, Sescal Samian, Jimmy Touchdown, who is my very first patron. Thank you. Bill D, Rhym P. John K. Dean C. Umish H. Graham Graham, B. Joseph P. Durdevil, William T. G. Kemmy, Steven D. Just my two cents, Peter J, Sean Best, Julius Geezer, Linda Orr.

Hi, Linda Orr. Cindy K. Social Naturalist. Douglas P. Tim R. Laurie. L. D.B.M. Hugo Flores Noli D. Chris M. Shussant. Kimmy Kat P. Janet K. Omar O. Potshot and Ron Fried. Thank you. You guys are great. We appreciate you, and I hope you all have a great night. Take care. Take care. We appreciate you. Say goodbye, Steven.

Stephen Janis:

Bye.

Taya Graham:

Be safe out there, folks. Be safe.

Republicans in Congress are attempting to push policies in the District of Columbia that would charge 14-year-olds as adults, increase mandatory minimum sentences, repeal the Second Look Act, and re-institute cash bail, which was banned in 1992. In this week’s episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa reports from U Street and sits down with Bethany Young and Darby Hickey from the DC Justice Lab to discuss how the GOP is using Washington, DC, as a laboratory to wage a national crusade against decades of criminal justice reforms.

This is part one of a two-part series. Subscribe to TRNN and stay tuned for Part 2 next week.

Additional links/info:

• DC Justice Lab website, Facebook page, X page, and Instagram
• Sarah Staudt, Prison Policy Initiative, “Bad Omens: Reform rollbacks in Washington D.C. are a warning sign for state-level advocates”

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Transcript

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Mansa Musa: Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars. We’re here in the historical part of the District of Columbia, U Street, 14th and U, 13th and U, 11th and U, 12th and U, all historic. Lincoln Theater and Benz Chillibo. We’re here today to talk to two representatives from DC Justice Lab about current legislation that Congress is attempting to pass to minimize the DC City Council’s ability to pass laws to govern this District of Columbia. Stay tuned for this interview. The District of Columbia has become the testing ground for Congress in terms of reforming so-called reform of laws that the city council has passed. So let’s talk about cash bill, what’s going on with it and what this bill is trying to do. Because when we look at what’s going on in over DC jail and how overcrowded it is, what’s our position on HI5214?

Bethany Young: Yeah. Well, DC has had a pretrial system in place for the last 30 years or so that has worked well. People are kind of released or not based on kind of a demonstrated threat to public safety. It’s not necessarily about how much money they have or starting with the presumption that someone should be incarcerated. And that system has worked well. Most people come back without committing any other crime. Most people show up for their court date. So it’s not a system that’s broken. So this is kind of a solution in search of a problem, this congressional bill that you’re talking about.

Mansa Musa: Who profiting from? Because the intent is not to change, get safer streets because we already recognize that the streets are safe. So who profiting?

Darby Hickey: We haven’t had cash bail in over 30 years in DC. And you know what that means we haven’t had in this city? Our bail bondsmen or these companies that are very predatory to poor people that require these payments and that make money regardless of what the person does after they’ve been released. And they make billions of dollars a year and we haven’t had that exploitative system in DC during this time. And as we’ve all been discussing, we’ve been safer for it. So that’s who is going to profit off of this. So we know that this is not about safety. This is about harming poor people, exploiting them for money. And it’s also ideological because I think I’m glad you started with this one as an example of this rollback and of using DC as kind of a Petri dish of what they can force on places around the country.
Because you see them pushing also on the national level to roll back bail reforms. And it’s ideological. I call it dumb on crime approach rather than following the actual evidence that shows that reforming bail systems, getting rid of cash bail actually makes our community safer because we know even a short time in jail, that destabilizes your life and that leads to worse safety outcomes in the long run.

Mansa Musa: Let’s talk about another aspect of this is mandatory minimums. And DC has always been real equitable in terms of taking into account the social conditions, really with sentencing the way they’re supposed to make a determination before they sentence. It’s always been like that. Talk about this attack.

Darby Hickey: I do agree with you that many of our judges do a good job of taking into account the circumstances around an event when determining a sentence. We actually already have some of the worst mandatory minimum sentences on the books in the country. And under this new proposal in Congress, the minimum that someone will be sentenced that would be longer than what the maximum is in some other states for the same conduct. So it’s really singling out DC. And again, it’s furthering this ideological agenda of just lock people up. We know all the companies are going to make money off of that. And to disempower and harm our communities, including unfortunately disproportionately black communities in DC and across the country are disproportionately impacted by mandatory minimum sentences. Is

Bethany Young: That in DC, nine out of 10 people sentenced under mandatory minimums were black. And so kind of same kind of look at every statistic as it relates to the criminal legal system in DC, and you’re going to see mostly black people. I think it’s eight out of 10 arrests. Most of the people in the jail. Most of the kids that are detained are black, certainly most disproportionately impacting black people and poor people.

Darby Hickey: And then we got to look at, going back to your point earlier, that the interconnection between these different policies, you were speaking on the efforts to roll back voting rights. And how we know that some of the origins of some of these sentences and some of the restrictions on voting after being convicted came out of reconstruction, came out of the backlash to reconstruction and trying to disempower and disenfranchise black communities. And so we have to see this and connect this as part of that lineage as well.

Mansa Musa: And I think that when we look at the District of Columbia, how can you rule your house where somebody got the authority and ability to tell you what you can and cannot spend? Your own money, your own revenue that you generate. So in this regard, you’ve got Congress is interfering with the legislative process. The people that’s duly elected to determine what their constituents say they want, don’t have a voice. They can pretend like they do. They can vote on something. They can pass it. But if Congress don’t like it, the appropriation committee will just simply don’t fund it. And that’ll kill that, which brings me to, and this right here is one thing that I want y’all to dial down on heavily. This is about the youth because they got this push. They pushing this effort to criminalize the youth as young as 14. Talk about their attempt to push to make the laws change or create a law around dealing with our youth.

Bethany Young: A child, because we’re talking about children, could be charged as an adult. There are also some other laws that are for other young people, young adults would affect their ability to kind of have a second look at their sentences after they’ve served some time or that would impact their ability to have their records sealed after a certain amount of time and would affect the discretion that judges have in certain cases to sentence a young person in alignment with where they are developmentally. And what we know and what we’ve known for decades about laws like this is that they’re counterproductive. They’re as counterproductive as they are oxymoronic. If you think about treating a child as an adult, just because you say you’re an adult does not make a child an adult. And it actually ignores what science says about the developing brain. We know very well at this point that our brain, excuse me, as humans are developing well into our 20s, especially the part of the brain that deals with impulse control.
So there are certain things we take for granted with kids that they’re going to be impulsive, that they’re going to engage in risky behaviors. And we account for that. We know with the driving age, with drinking, with buying tobacco, with voting, with enlisting. We acknowledge in all of these different contexts that children are different and that we have to kind of help make decisions for them because their brains do not allow them to do this well. But in the context of crime and incarceration,
For some reason, we treat kids differently in that context and it doesn’t work. We know that for kids, contact with any part of the system. So even if they see someone getting pulled over by a police, they see their friends being encountered by police, that from that to being in a courtroom, to being arrested, to being incarcerated, that actually sets them back developmentally.

Mansa Musa: The fact that they’re saying in this cadence that youth are taking over the city and they’re using this as a pretext for getting tough on oil, as Bethany said.

Darby Hickey: What we’re seeing with these incidents with young people is, guess what? Young people are still recovering from the trauma of the COVID epidemic and of the shutdowns that happened and of the challenges with socialization they’ve had. We’re now learning so much more about the negative impacts of social media on them. And I’m a parent of a teen. Look, kids just want to get together. They want to not have to deal with adults. They want to be able to be with each other a little bit. And that’s what the vast majority of kids are doing in these situations. They’re just looking for a place to get together. And a lot of those places have disappeared. Yeah, we have our rec centers. Yeah, we have libraries. That’s really important. But think about the movie theaters, the malls. Union Station is largely blocked off to them at this
Point. So where else are they supposed to go is a question you keep hearing from them. I think it just goes back to a point that Bethany was making of like, these are children. Let’s give them the support that they need. Let’s invest in them. Let’s lift them up instead of continuing to tell them you are not welcome here. You can’t go there. This city and all the changing that has happened is not for you in these areas, which is putting a real distinct point on it, in my opinion, on top of the displacement and the gentrification that’s already happened in a city that has pushed so many people out of traditional neighborhoods like Southwest. You can even go back centuries, or decades rather, that was a very robust multi-ethnic community before it was destroyed by urban redevelopment back in the ’60s, I believe it was.
And then now has had this new wave happening as well. And you see it all over the city, unfortunately.

Mansa Musa: The attitude is we got to create a false narrative that in order for this place to be safe, we got to identify who’s making it unsafe, and that’s the youth. Which brings me to the point, the United States Attorney General for the District of Columbia recently said, “I know evil when I see it, no matter what their age.” How do y’all respond to that? They wearing hoodies. That’s evil. But he know evil respond to that.

Bethany Young: There is a really loud emotion that people respond to. And if you can make me afraid enough, I can support a lot of different things if you’re saying it’s in the name of safety. But what we know is that it’s not actually tied to safety, that the rest are down across the country, some of the trends that we’ve seen that we saw during COVID and immediately post, we’re turning the corner on those that the things that communities are doing to give young people other options to invest in them if given time are working.

Mansa Musa: When you create an environment where you have summer jobs, like me and my sister, we was first generation when they first started summer jobs and we did the projects in the District of Columbia. And when they created summer jobs, the whole city became vibrant because we had money. Young people had money and young people had Princeburg.

Darby Hickey: We know that giving people the right to determine their own future is what makes them great and what makes our democracy great.

Mansa Musa: So what’s y’all strategy now around what’s going on? Because when we went down to Congress, I was there. I forgot the congressman’s name out of Florida. They introduced the bill. His town don’t have problems. They reading articles that didn’t have nothing to do with the district. They reading the article from Arizona or New Mexico and just reading the facts of the article and making it seem like this is DC. Talk about where y’all at in terms of y’all advocacy and y’all strategy around changing this narrative or more importantly, mobilizing people to be effective in terms of advocating.

Bethany Young: So we’re continuing the work that we do locally on that in terms of shrinking policing, shrinking incarceration. We recently, along with about 30 other partners in the district, put together a 2026 public safety policy agenda that runs the gamut from community-based investments around non-police alternatives to safety like violence interrupters, credible messengers, investing and protecting in youth. So before a kid even gets into the system, what are the things that we can be doing to surround them to make sure that they’re thriving, that they have access to opportunities, that they’re building confidence and self-efficacy and skills all the way up until ways that our local officials can stand up and make a stronger statement

Mansa Musa: To the

Bethany Young: Federal government about the respect for DC laws. And we talked about this a little bit earlier. There’s only but so much they can do, but they can make their voices and their position known in a way that I don’t know that we’ve seen our elected officials locally do satisfactorily.

Mansa Musa: I like what you just said. Y’all got a document that y’all putting out. So this opened the doors up for insertion in terms of application, how to get people to stop. Okay. If we talking about incredible messages, fund that.

Darby Hickey: Although we do have these threats from the federal government right now, we also know, as we were just discussing with the curfew, that unfortunately our local elected officials are also making some bad choices around policies. And of course we want to defend their right to make that choice. We want to also convince them to make the right

Mansa Musa: Choice.

Darby Hickey: But that’s what this document lays out is this policy agenda is a number of recommendations that are not new, that we’ve been making, that people in the community have been making, that experts have studied and the evidence backs up. And so in addition to that, other things that we’re also doing are educating the council and staff, educating the mayor, educating the public about these proposals in Congress to roll back our laws or to impose bad nuance on us. The more of a united front and the more voice we have, the better chance we have of beating back these fundamentally undemocratic attacks that are trying to set us back years and years.

Mansa Musa: And we shouldn’t be handcuffed because someone is to your point, ideologically think that we should be back and change. So I want to commend y’all on y’all work.

Bethany Young: We can pick up a phone. We have resources that we can share around how to advocate in the legislative process, but keep learning about what’s happening. Make sure that you understand what it is because it can feel distant to some people. It can feel like that’s not happening to me. But rest assured that it’s going to get closer and closer. And before you know it, it’ll be. It’s kind of at all of our doorsteps at this moment. So continue to stay aware and engaged and ask people to do what they can to push back.

Mansa Musa: Okay.

Darby Hickey: Yeah, I think we see unfortunately this playbook being tried out here, but we know where it’s going next. We know it’s already been being used in other places. People saw the violence that happened in Minneapolis and Los Angeles and Chicago. That’s the same stuff that we’ve been dealing with. And actually we’ve still got the National Guard in

Mansa Musa: DC

Darby Hickey: And all the rest of the places they pulled back. So we are really struggling and we need help from everyone that’s willing to help. All our residents need to speak out. We all got to be in this together. And we need help from friends and family all over the country who actually have a vote in Congress and should be reaching out and doing what they can. We can’t be satisfied, like you said, with our colonial status right now. Home rule is a bare minimum. So we need statehood and we need people to support statehood for DC.

💾

Press freedom groups are issuing dire warnings on Thursday that House Republicans’ efforts to subpoena the nonprofit left-wing news organization BreakThrough News represent a dangerous new step in a McCarthyite war on political dissent.

On Wednesday, Fox News reported that BreakThrough, a New York-based outlet, was one of three nonprofits that had been issued subpoenas by the GOP-controlled House Ways and Means Committee as part of an investigation into $39 million worth of donations from tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, a self-described socialist who has used his wealth to fund left-wing nonprofits.

In letters sent Tuesday, the committee, led by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), said that BreakThrough, as well as two other organizations—the People’s Forum Inc., a New York-based activist hub, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research—had not turned over any documents that had been requested as part of an investigation into whether rules around tax exempt status for nonprofits should be tightened to protect against foreign influence.

The committee has accused Singham, an American who now lives in Shanghai, of exploiting the tax code and using shell companies and donor-advised funds to hide foreign money that has been used to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. It does not, however, make any specific accusation of legal wrongdoing.

The subpoena requires BreakThrough News to turn over records about its finances, foreign donors and grant recipients, fiscal-sponsorship arrangements, and communications with Singham and any foreign entities.

BreakThrough News is under attack.

The House Ways and Means Committee has made us the target of its latest witch hunt. We're not going down without a fight.

Go to https://t.co/2mYEsl3MYA and:

1- Add your name to the petition calling on the House Ways and Means Committee to… pic.twitter.com/Vr8uELkJJW

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) July 23, 2026

In a statement on Wednesday, BreakThrough News said it was “under attack.”

“For years, Republican lawmakers have painted a target on our backs, falsely claiming that our political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot,” the outlet said. “Now, the MAGA-dominated House Ways and Means Committee has issued us a subpoena—demanding internal communications, financial records and more. Make no mistake, this is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment generally.”

BreakThrough said it does not receive any funding from foreign governments or institutions and that it already complies with all the tax and public reporting requirements that nonprofits have to follow.

“We are not charged with any crime, because our only ‘crime’ has been to tell the truth–by covering the activities of the Palestine solidarity movement, unmasking the truth of ICE’s terror in our streets, and exposing Washington’s crimes around the world, from Cuba to the Congo,” the outlet said. “That’s the journalism they want to shut down. Their goal is to saddle us with legal proceedings and hostile media to drain our resources and stop this important work.”

While the committee stated that they are investigating BreakThrough over its financing rather than its politics, letters sent to the organization have treated the content of its reporting as circumstantial evidence of malign foreign influence, referring to it as “anti-American” and claiming that its negative coverage of Israel was “sowing division within the United States.”

Chip Gibbons, the policy director of the free speech advocacy group Defending Rights & Dissent, told Common Dreams that the subpoena of BreakThrough was a “deeply chilling assault on the First Amendment.”

“Such tactics are, quite literally, a throwback to the House Un-American Activities Committee, which today is mostly viewed as a disgrace,” Gibbons said. “I say mostly, because just three days ago [Secretary Marco] Rubio’s State Department released a report preposterously attacking the US left, including some of these groups, as Cuban fronts that cited old HUAC reports.”

He further emphasized in a press release that there was “no plausible need” for a news organization to provide documents as part of a broad congressional inquiry.

“The only thing these groups are accused of is essentially receiving donations from a US citizen who has been the subject of an intensive campaign of demonization,” Gibbons said. “It is lawful for Americans to donate to activist causes and media projects while holding views disfavored by Congress. This is clearly not a valid legislative inquiry at all, but an attempt to intimidate and chill dissenting opinions.”

Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, agreed that “Congress shouldn’t be using a tax investigation as a pretext to dig through a newsroom’s internal communications or financial records.

“Freedom of the press,” he said, “applies to all journalists, regardless of whether politicians like their editorial slant or their politics.”

House subpoena of @BTnewsroom threatens press freedom.

We strongly urge the House Ways and Means Committee to withdraw its subpoena against BreakThrough News and stop using congressional oversight as a tool to retaliate against independent media.https://t.co/xPZgHkLPZd

— Freedom of the Press Foundation (@FreedomofPress) July 23, 2026

In what it has portrayed as a fight against “left-wing terrorism,” the Trump administration has increasingly blurred the lines between violent activity and protected political speech that they claim “incites” violence.

National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, signed by Trump in September, designates large swathes of left-wing viewpoints on race, gender, immigration, and other topics as “indicators” of domestic terrorism that have been used to link entire groups of people to violent acts they themselves did not commit.

Rubio said last week that the administration would soon be designating more left-wing organizations as terrorist groups, while senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller said that the full force of the state would be used to “disrupt, identify, defund, de-bank, arrest, prosecute” those deemed to “foment” political violence, not just those who actually commit it.

He has previously pledged to use the law to “dismantle” organizations that use heated rhetoric to refer to their right-wing opponents, including calling them “fascist” or “authoritarian.”

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, described the subpoena of BreakThrough as an extension of a “retaliatory ethos” Trump has taken towards critical journalists “with the goal of shutting down criticism and dissent.”

She told Common Dreams, “BreakThrough News is not the first, nor will it be the last, to come under official attack for bringing people alternative and useful news coverage about ICE abuses, foreign policy, Palestinian rights, and other topics.”

“Allowing a congressional committee to harass an independent newsroom with a broad subpoena sets an awful precedent,” Stern said. “If lawmakers can abuse tax oversight to single out outlets whose reporting offends them today, no newsroom in America is safe from government intimidation tomorrow.”

For many around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a welcome distraction from the dismal state of the world and the daily overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism, and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that, no matter how much we love sports and want them to be an escape from politics and the pain of living in a broken society, there is no way to truly escape those things, and the manufactured illusion that sports are an escape from political reality is just that: an illusion.

At a live event hosted on July 16, 2026, at Chilo’s bar in New York City, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez spoke with legendary sportswriters Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff about what it means to love sports in an age of authoritarians.

Additional links/info:

• Chilo’s bar website and Instagram
• Jules Boykoff, OR Books, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine
• Dave Zirin, Penguin Randomhouse, The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn

Credits:

• Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich

Transcript

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Welcome back to the Real News Network. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. The 2026 World Cup is now officially over after Spain defeated Argentina in the final match on Sunday. And for many of us around the US and around the world, the World Cup was a very welcome distraction from the ambient awfulness and doom and the daily delugion overwhelm of relentless war, corruption, fascism and disaster. But the games were also an uncomfortable reminder that no matter how much we love sports and the global spectacle of the World Cup, no matter how much we want them to be an escape from politics and the pain of living in a broken society, there’s just no way to truly escape those things. And the manufactured illusion that sports are somehow an escape from political reality is just that, an illusion. So what do we do with that? How do we square our love for sports and all the beautiful things and experiences that we get from sports with all these gross, exploitative and societally destructive facets of sports today?

Hat does it mean to love sports in a disenchanted age of authoritarians, war and climate catastrophe? These are the kinds of questions that I got to dig into with legendary sports writers, book authors and real news contributors, Dave Zyron and Jules Boykoff at a live event that we hosted at Chilo’s Bar in Brooklyn, New York, just days before the World Cup final. And what you’re about to listen to is the audio recording of our discussion for that live event.

The name of this event is Loving Sports in an Age of Authoritarians. And we’ll get to the authoritarians by way of this first question, but it’s so much bigger than just any one authoritarian. How do we continue to love sports and the other things that we love when everything that we know is burning around us literally? We had to move this event inside because the fires in Ontario that literally wiped a First Nation off the map are making the air toxic to breathe. So how do we continue loving sports in a time like that? Dave Zirin, softball to you.

Dave Zirin:

Well, first of all, I wasn’t told there would be science at this event. Second, very quick joke my grandfather once told me that tries to answer that very heavy question. Guy goes to visit a buddy. Buddy opens the door. His buddy is naked wearing a top hat. And he said, “Dude, why are you naked?” And he said, “Nobody visits me. ” And then he says, “Then why are you wearing a top hat?” And he said, “Someone might visit.” And that’s how I feel about sports and the environment.

Let me make that leap for a second. It’s because we are in trouble. Dude is naked. Everything is out in the open. We can’t breathe outside for goodness sakes. And yet sports presents this face like everything’s okay. Look at these incredibly fit young people running around the field, loving the fresh air on the greenfield and then off the field you have environmental catastrophe. And we need to be able to reckon with that because honestly, we’re not going to have outdoor sports. We’re not going to have winter sports unless we do something about this environment. And frankly, I think that’s a way to reach sports fans is to say to them, if you really care about sports, then you’re going to care about climate change. If you really care about sports, then you should care about fossil fuels. You should care about the World Cup and the kind of footprint it puts down on our world just by the wealthiest of the wealthy flying their private planes into these different cities.

So I think it’s really important that we have one eye in the environment of all time and not just to save humanity, but actually let’s talk to sports fans and say, if you really want to save sports, you’re going to be on this side of the question too. And so that’s the top hat, that’s the naked guy. I don’t think I made the connection, but we try.

Jules Boykoff:

Love it, love it, love it. So on the topic of climate change and this World Cup, a couple quick facts. This is the most polluting World Cup in the history of men’s World Cups or women’s World Cups. And that’s because FIFA decided to hold it in three countries and include 48 teams, which is more than ever up from 32. And also because one of the countries, the United States, just doesn’t have a good train system to get people around. So everybody, if you want to get from Kansas City to your next game in San Francisco, you basically have to fly. So the lower end estimates are like nine million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and that’s a low estimate. Meanwhile, we got Giannian Fontino out here on his private jet crisscrossing North America. Yeah, thank you. Big boo for Giannian Fontino. And he even went to Qatar for a funeral the other day and then zipped back.

So the leadership is very much not coming from the top. But to build off what Dave was saying, I’m really interested in this idea that we can be more politically effective sometimes by being less explicitly political. And we’re living in a moment where we sort of have two models of that happening simultaneously. In New York City, since we’re here, I’ll mention Zoran Mamdani. Where was he watching a football match, soccer match yesterday or the other day in a local prison? And opening up conversations about kind of what that means, what’s the life of an incarcerated person? How can we bring sports into their lives as a positive? Then you have on the other side, one of the big topics of my book, which is Donald Trump and how he is the president in the United States that has used sports to his political advantage more than any in the modern era.

So we have two models of using sports toward political aims while not necessarily being explicitly political. And the last thing I’ll just say on this question is I’m wearing a Bosnia shirt. I was in Bosnia recently. I spent more than a month in Sarajevo and it was an exciting time to be there because the team had just qualified for the World Cup for the first time in a long time. The energy was really good in the city. And when I was there, I went to the Genocide Museum. And what struck me about the place was that there were so many exhibits at the museum that talked about the importance of soccer. There was one that literally was titled Soccer Saved My Life. There was another that talked about people in Shrebanitza that were huddling around a black and white television during the 1994 World Cup watching Roberto Baggio and getting this glimmer of joy in an increasingly difficult time for them.

So if they can do it in Bosnia and stick with sports and figure out how to use sports to their political advantage, and they’re definitely doing that in Bosnia, we can surely come together to attack the issue of climate change through sport with everyday people and talk about how it affects their everyday lives.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Oh yeah. Two quick thoughts or a thought and a question. Thought because I couldn’t agree with you more, Jules, about we can be more politically effective by being less obsessed with politics. And I really identify with what you said there because this is a question I get all the time as someone who goes around interviewing just regular working people across the political spectrum around this country every week. And people come up to me, they’re like, “How do you do it? How do you talk to people? ” I’m going to answer that question for all of you right now. Just be a person. Just don’t be weird. Just be chill. Just be interested in other people. I don’t know how to explain that. It’s just like you don’t got to beat people over the head with politics. Just talk to them as human beings, connect on what you connect on and go from there.

And for a lot of us, that is sports. I have some of the deepest political conversations with my buddies that I grew up with back home who live very different lives than I do or like the guys I worked in the warehouses and factories and restaurants with than I’ve had in academia. Because you start with sports and then you get into some real heavy shit real quick. So I couldn’t endorse that more. And to get spicy for a second, because again, this is a live bar debate. I want to push you both on the question of sports and climate because everything you said really resonated with me. But sports is also one of the most important cultural dream manufacturing or false dream manufacturing mechanisms that we have in society. And sports is where people are being trained to see that you can just build a dome and play in freezing weather or blazing heat.

So what do you say to someone who says, “Hey, we could have a World Cup in Qatar. It doesn’t matter how many brown people die to make it happen, but why don’t we just do that? “

Dave Zirin:

That’s a great question. I would say to the person, first of all, you think we’re having a sports conversation? We’re actually having a politics conversation Because you’re talking about a set of political priorities that are not in the best interest of the people in Qatar or on the world if you think that that’s the way sports is going to be sustainable. I would say to them that what you are promoting is an incredibly elitist view of sports where the only people who really get to play are the super professionals who are in this climate controlled atmosphere because they can produce profit while the rest of us just become watchers. And honestly, we have too much of that in this country right now.This is the statistic I hate the most. 60% of kids who play youth sports quit by the age of 12. And when they’re asked why they quit at the age of 12, it’s always because they’re told that they’re not good enough to keep playing when they’re 13, 14, 15.

And so then they become either the watchers or they become alienated from things like exercise, community, frankly, some of the things that make life worth living. And so sports should never be the province of experts. It should never be the province of the super skilled. Sports should be for everyone as a baseline for what we’re arguing for in this country. Sports for all. And so people who make the climate controlled argument are actually arguing sports for few. So I would be calling them out. You’re actually making a political argument that is actually not only dooming humanity, but it’s dooming our kids to a life of actually being alienated from what makes life worth living.

Jules Boykoff:

Yeah. Absolutely. So I think that the sports world needs to grapple with this idea of the mega. We’re now living in the era – Not the mega.

And that too, actually. Okay. But the mega, M-E-G-A. What I mean is we’re living in this moment of the VVIP, this new thing, the very, very important person. We’re also living in the era of the mega, mega sporting event. And the truth of the matter is this is not at all. It’s like an oxymoron to call it mega event sustainable. It’s just never going to be that. And so we need to have conversations about how do you reduce the size? Gianni and Fontino talked about making the next World Cup 64 teams instead of 48 teams, which will just make worse what we’re talking about right now. And they’ll come back at us when we say, “Oh, well, how about just going back to 32 or at least just keeping it at 48?” They’ll say, “Oh, but we’re trying to include more teams.” And of course that’s true, but right behind it is bubbling their cauldron of money and that’s all to their benefit to have more teams, more games, more $30 million per game went into FIFA coffers at each one of these games just from tickets alone.

So the truth of the matter is that they’re kind of actually giving an argument that’s both weak and somewhat trying to seem like they’re not racist, but actually are racist. And here’s what I mean. They’ll point to teams like Kate Vaird who was wonderful. If you didn’t watch the World Cup, they were one of the most exciting stories. And they’re like, “Oh, do you want to not include Cape Vaird at the World Cup now after these wonderful stories of all their triumphs?” Cape Vaird finished first in their group. They were coming to the tournament, whether there was 32 teams, maybe even 24 teams. So don’t tell me Cape Verde wasn’t qualifying. They’re a legit team. A lot of soccer people weren’t at all surprised. So thinking about how do we both make it more of a public good sports, but also shrinking it and moving some of the money from the shrinkage to what you’re talking about, addressing the fact that so many kids drop outs too early because that’s a tragedy.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Well, let’s stick on that for a second. I love the sports for all in sports is a public good. So sticking with the bar debate theme, in the socialist utopia, what is the world of professional sports going to look like? Are sports teams going to be publicly owned utilities? What is the better version of this shit look like that can still retain the things that we love, but isn’t draped in all this awful shitty stuff that makes us hate the things we love?

Dave Zirin:

Yeah. I mean, for sports in a socialist utopia. I mean, first I’d be so happy in the socialist utopia. I’d be like, “Oh yeah, there’s sports on. Cool.” Which would be sort of like the opposite of my current life, which is, “Oh, there’s sports on. Good. The world is burning. Ah, sports is on. ” So I think it would take that and sort of stand it on its head, which would be nice, I must say. But I think more than anything, I mean, there are things that are wrong with the sports world now that I could say in even a democratic, socialist, capitalist country, we’re going to do away with the public funding of stadiums and saying like, “Look, you’re a billionaire, James Dolan. You want refurbishing a Madison Square Garden? Find the money between the cushions of your couch and take care of it.

Don’t ask the taxpayers to do it for you. ” So real demands like that. Second of all, if even $1 of public money goes into a sports team or a stadium, guess what? That team becomes $1 public. So it’s like the more public money that goes in, the more we own the teams. And if they want all the money for their stadiums, guess what? Your team has just become the most effective public utility in the city of New York. Congratulations, you’re making the city billions. Our schools are now funded. All is good. And I’m so sorry, James Dolan, you only get one yacht, but somehow I think you’ll survive. James Dolan’s son, by the way, 32 years old, is now in charge of the New York Rangers. I think that makes him the first grand Nepo baby in doing that. So horrible people. Just the worst.

And one other thing I would say is I think this idea of sports for all, we can be very specific for people right now of what that means. It’s not just about ability. It’s an anti-racist argument. It’s an anti-sexist argument. It’s an anti-anti-poor people argument who are denied sports, denied physical education in so many public schools. We would have full funding for physical education throughout the country. And I think this is very vital. We would never in any sort of just society tell our transgender family that they have no place on the playing field, which is the official position, by the way, of this government and the International Olympic Committee. So there’s so much we can do. And this could be the sort of thing where we have on a whiteboard behind me with a pen, with a dry erase, be like, “What actually do you hate about sports?

Hat makes it hard for you to love sports? And what about the corporate control do you hate? What about the bigotry do you hate? Native American mascotry, let us know. ” And those are actually the things we can begin to check off and say, “Let’s have a better sports world, sports for all, sports in the name of justice and sports in the name of fun.”

Absolutely.

Jules Boykoff:

Absolutely. And now is a perfectly opportune time to try some of these things where you have owners of football clubs, soccer clubs in places like Vancouver, Canada that it’s rare that you see an owner advertising their own lack of skills saying, “I can’t possibly run this club unless I get a huge infusion of public money.” At a time when you’ve got people like Avi Lewis in Canada, political leader talking about re-nationalizing some industries, this is a perfect moment for doing that with a football club. Why not experiment? We tried to do this in Portland, Oregon where I usually live. When the owners of the team, a guy named Henry Paulson, former treasury secretary under George W. Bush and his son, Dave loves this, his name is Merritt Paulson.

Dave Zirin:

He’s like, “That’s made up. Come on. Son of a billionaire is named Merritt. Come on now.” Yeah,

Jules Boykoff:

It’s –

Maximillian Alvarez:

Just like meritocracy’s made up.

Dave Zirin:

Yeah, that’s a great point.

Jules Boykoff:

So many years ago when Portland got a major league soccer team, they were asking for $85 million in public money to refurbish the stadium. $85 million. That was going to come out of the budget where we fill our potholes. Some of it was going to schools, homeless services, you name it. And a lot of people fought back. Actually, Dave Zyron came to town and fought back next to us. And we didn’t totally win the struggle. They didn’t get $85 million. Instead, they got $12.9 million from a special tax from the Portland Trailblazers. So it was like sport to sport. But we did have a good conversation about what a publicly owned team could look like. And I just cannot wait to get fully behind the city that decides to go for it. I think Vancouver’s a possibility, but anywhere that happens, I want to be there trying to do what we can to help.

Hell

Maximillian Alvarez:

Yeah. Hell yeah. I love this. And we’re doing good on time so far, but I did want to give everyone their mandatory. FIFA is requiring that I let you know that this is your hydration break. So please go to the bar, stay hydrated, stay safe.

We’re going to get to and zero in on the World Cup, the authoritarians and the stink of Trump on the Knicks NBA finals victory. But by way of getting there, I want to focus in on again, another aspect of the sports for all discussion that really doesn’t get talked enough about, especially in leftist spaces, but I don’t think at all. Because the only time we’re talking about youth sports these days is when a bunch of weirdos obsess over the genitals of some of our children who are playing them. And that’s not what youth sports was to me. It was my life. It was like the place where I found my motivation, where I learned to work on a team where my dad coached my brothers and then he coached me. It was like youth sports so much a part of me and will always be a part of me.

And the older I’ve gotten and especially after I blew out my knee playing basketball and I lost basketball, the thing that I had played three to four times a week every week for my whole life, like countless hours in the driveway with my dad and my brothers was gone. And I’ve realized since that a huge chunk of my life was gone after that. Where else in my life do I walk up to strangers and say, “Hey, you got next? Can I play with you? ” And then you play with people that you don’t know. You have to learn in a finite space with rules quickly what everyone’s strengths and weaknesses are accomplishing a shared goal or not. It’s such a rarefied space and experience that I think so many of us need, whether it’s in organized sports or just more play. And so I wanted to throw this to you guys because I don’t think I get to hear you talk enough about the human good of sport beyond just the professional sports world and capitalist shit show that most people see on their TVs.

Dave Zirin:

Oh man. So what I love about sports, I mean, oh man, I had to give a toast for my dad on his 80th birthday. And I was trying to think of what do I possibly say about this 80-year-old guy who’s had such an impact on my life? And the first thing that came to my head is like, when did my dad ever mean the most to me in my entire life? And it was like, when was this moment? Because my parents were divorced. I saw my dad like four days a month growing up. So it’s like where was that real spot for us? And it was game six, 1986 World Series, Mookie Wilson, Ground Ball, Bill Buckner’s legs. You’d say to a baseball fan, game six, that’s all you have to say. And they know what you’re talking about. My dad took me there and I still have the ticket stub.

It says $15 to go to the best World Series game. And he got that ticket not by getting on his phone because back then phones were these mammoth contraptions attached to walls, but he got it by waiting online at Shea Stadium. And we got to go to this game and then we got the game of all games. And when that ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs, I went from being happier than I could ever remember being to being terrified because that stadium got so loud and grownups got so crazy. And that was before they stopped selling beer after the seventh inning. And we’re in extra innings at this point. And my dad just put his arm around me and held me close. And it was a moment where I never felt both more imperiled and then more safe in a moment. And I feel like there’s something about…

And that kind of hooked me for life on sports. Playing basketball for the New York City fighting Quakers in high school is also an experience unto itself. You didn’t want to mess with the fight in Quakers. And me being a five foot 10 inch center for that team.

Maximillian Alvarez:

They called you white chocolate thunder?

Dave Zirin:

They called me, why the hell is he here? The one story I’ll tell is I was playing one game against a freshman for Rice named Felipe Lopez who went on to become the number one recruited player in the country. He was in ninth grade. I was in 11th grade. That was their JV. They were playing our varsity. And I shot the ball and Felipe blocked it to half court, literally to half court. And the whole crowd goes. And I hung my head. I was so embarrassed. And he put his arm around me and walked me to half court and was just like, “It’s okay, man. I do that to everybody. Do not take it personal.”

And I met him as a sports writer. I met him 20 years later and I said, “Yo man, you blocked my shot to half court and then you put your arm around me. It’s a memory I’ll never forget.” And he looked at me and he said, “Yeah, I don’t remember that at all. ” And I was like, “Oh.” And he said, “You got to understand, I just blocked a lot of people. ” That was kind of my move. And I was like, “Okay, all good still.” So that’s why I love sports. I chose to show rather than tell. I love it. I love it. But you give me a good moment in a rocky relationship with my dad or a great moment and you give me Felipe Lopez blocking my shot, couldn’t be happier. That’s amazing.

Jules Boykoff:

So I’m really interested in when creative people who don’t necessarily consider themselves athletes engage the space of sports, bringing their creativity to it. And one of my favorite places for this is roller derby in Portland, Oregon where I live, where from the names that people adopt that are freighted with beautiful politics and fight back in them to the very format of the event and to the very nature of its inclusion, because trans folks are always included on the skating rink in Portland, Oregon. It’s a really big part of the culture. Not only that, it’s also a great chance for fundraising for those kind of causes at the local level. So I’m always about how can we use creative people’s minds to come up with new ways of doing things? How can we have the soccer fields open in New York City all night long, which has been happening recently during the World Cup?

Maybe the World Cup is just an entry into having that be something that we do more often. We’ve heard about midnight basketball. I love this idea of midnight soccer as well. So I just think that to build off what you’re saying, this is a really fruitful area where we can all come together and think collectively and make some really magical things happen for sure.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Hell

Dave Zirin:

Yeah. Jules, how do you not say that you played pro soccer? I was

Maximillian Alvarez:

Going to say you’re bearing the lead, bro.

Dave Zirin:

Just give everybody your resume. I said I played basketball for the fight in Quakers. I’m not saying you can total that, but you should try.

Jules Boykoff:

No, it’s true. I did play soccer for a big part of my life. And honestly, that is one of the many reasons why I think it’s worth fighting for. I had a nice professional soccer career and I also played for the US under 23 men’s national soccer team. Although before you get too excited about that, the last international match that I played for the US national soccer team at the U23 level was literally against the Soviet Union. But yeah, I mean, I’m not proud necessarily of who I was back then because I was an absolute maniac in ways that weren’t always good for me and the people around me, but it is definitely part of my life.

Dave Zirin:

But you stuck it to Khrushchev. And for that, America, thanks you, sir.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Thank you for your service. Well, I really appreciate you guys going with me and sharing that because I thought that was so powerful and again, made me feel closer to you in a way that our discussions about politics haven’t. And I think that’s kind of the point of why we’re all here. But I think it’s also really important to share with others out there, even those in our lives who don’t get why we love sports. And it’s not because we just are okay with ignoring all of the military jets flying over or Donald Trump’s bulletproof bullshit, a booth at the Knicks game. It’s that this thing we’ve loved for so long and have carried into our love for watching it and others do it. We’re holding onto that while it’s getting shrouded in so much crap. And that just makes it complicated for I think a lot of us.

But let’s sort of take that into the vibe and time that we’re in now where a lot of us are struggling with that, be it this great city during a game that was so special to it that Donald Trump put his stink on or folks around the world who loved the World Cup and have now know what that stink smells like and so much else. So let’s talk about the big title of the event here.First, how do we carry that love into sports today, especially the World Cup in a time like the one that we’re living in now?

Dave Zirin:

Wow. It’s a great question. I mean, the number one thing I say is like, look, the Knicks were ours long before they were the property of the Dawn family. That’s our team, not theirs. At best, they are renting it. It’s our team, not the team of somebody who got married at Mar-a-Lago, whose kid got married at Mar-a-Lago, who’s trying to change the name of Penn Station to Trump Penn Station and who’s given Trump millions of dollars throughout his political career. And even the worst indictment of all counts Donald Trump as a close personal friend. So these are all reasons to say, wait a minute, you’re not part of what we just want. And something you didn’t really get on TV during the parade, which I was at, I mean for the Knicks, by the way, Knicks in five, just throwing that out there, is that it was so raucous.

People were so incredibly pumped and enthused. And Mayor Mamdani, he gets up there and he does a sports speech that rivals like the Al Pacino speech in any given Sunday where he’s like, “Your claw for that inch.” The Pacino, your fingers plead for that inch. And here’s Mamdani up there. He’s saying like, “They gave us a 0.4% chance of winning when we were down 29. That’s what the statistician said. Well, guess what? You tell New Yorkers they have a 0.4% 10% chance they say, “Why are you giving me a head start?” I mean, I’m hearing this and I’m like, “Yeah, let me bash my head through the TV screen right now.” And then James Dolan gets up there and it was the only time of the whole day they cut this at people booed when he got up there. Here’s the Knicks winning the championship and people booed the owner.

And he gets up there and he says something completely snarky about Mamdani and it just didn’t fly. But that’s just to say it shows his alienation from the vibe and mood of the city. And if he wasn’t alienated from how this city was really feeling, he would never have invited Donald Trump to be there at game three when we finally had a home game in a finals at MSG in 27 years. That’s when you invite Donald Trump so it can be all about him and not the people themselves. Give me a break. And of course that’s the one game they lose in the last three rounds of the playoffs. But what’s so amazing about it is that people sort of get that. And then when he doubled up with the US Men’s World Cup team and tried to rig things for them, it’s that stink that he brings to the table.

My buddy calls what Trump does, he calls it athletic fracking environment. He doesn’t like sports at all. He wants to drill into it, destroy it, destroy everything around it if he can just get a drop of political benefit. So athletic fracking would not exist in a socialist utopia of a society. And frankly, in any sort of utopia, whatever you want to brand it, Donald Trump and the Trump family wouldn’t exist either. Or at the very least they’d be, shall we say, put in their place. But just one thing before I pass this to Jules, I got to tell a story about a very quick conversation I had with Lev in the back in the orange shirt, just to give you an idea about what sports could mean. If I could, he’s in the orang shirt.

And I’ll be real quick. I’ve been having a difficult year, if you will, or a decade, whatever you want to call it. And I was sitting with Lev the other day and I said to Lev, I said, “The last couple of months have actually been a lot better. I’m feeling really good. I don’t know why that is, but I’m just really doing better.” And Lev’s silent for a second and he just looks at me and he says, “The Knicks.” And I realized he was fucking right that having this run had this animating effect on so many other things in my life. And that’s, I guess in some ways that makes me just a weirdo, a diehard fan, somebody off the beam, whatever you want to call it. But I think it also kind of made me feel human for a second because it’s like I felt connected with the city in a way that I hadn’t, honestly, since nine eleven, but instead of it being this moment of abject tragedy, it was a moment of joy.

Jules Boykoff:

Wow. That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful.

Maximillian Alvarez:

And Jules, if I may, just to throw a little extra bit of sauce before you hop in, it’s not just Trump, right? It’s Kash Patel jumping around like an idiot with the men’s hockey team. As someone who you wore that jersey, does that piss you off? I mean, we don’t ever get to hear from your side of that.

Jules Boykoff:

Yeah. We often don’t get to hear from the athlete side of things despite the fact that they’ve got social media at their fingertips. There’s often a hesitancy to push back at things like ash Patel. And I think you make a good point, although the Trump curse is very real. I mean, talk to Harry Kane about it. He went golfing 18 months ago.

Dave Zirin:

And people were blaming Trump for them

Jules Boykoff:

Losing. Well, then he didn’t score after it was about the golf. I’m saying the Trump curse has many, many forms there. But yes –

Maximillian Alvarez:

Dave calls it the reverse Midas Touch. Absolutely. And that it is.

Dave Zirin:

I tried calling it the Trump Taint, but for a lot of reasons, not just… My editor at the nation was like, “No. We’re not doing that. “

Jules Boykoff:

Yeah. Very good call. Very good call. By the way. But you do make the really important point that it’s not just Trump himself and the Trump curse. It’s the Trump administration that is really doing this sort of athletic fracking that you’re talking about. The Cash Patel’s a really good example from the recent Olympics and the hockey team and sort of attaching themselves like a barnacle on the side of the ship that won that gold medal. But I mean, you’ve even seen during this World Cup a number of instances that maybe aren’t as high profile. Everyone knows about the Fuller and Balagun red card that President Trump made some phone calls to his BFF over at FIFA, Gianni and Fontino. And lo and behold, the thing gets overturned first time during a World Cup since 1962. The predecessor using that rule was Christiano Ronaldo a few months ago so that he could play in the World Cup because they wanted him even though he has credible allegations of rape in the United States against him.

So it was a horrible thing there all around. But what I’m trying to say is that it’s not just Trump, it’s also the administration. Think about the Department of Homeland Security during this very event. After the United States beat Australia, they went on Twitter, DHS did, and they posted two really interesting and terrifying tweets. One of them had three of the players on the tweet, a picture of them. And then behind them it said one homeland. It was basically short of just saying blood and soil. And it was like total pure fascism. And experts in fascism jumped up and said, “Wow, that sounds like a lot like a phrase that Nazis would’ve said.” And then they actually traced it out and it was very similar to a phrase used during World War II by Nazis. And I think it’s really interesting for a number of reasons and obviously disturbing for a number of reasons.

But if you’re going to talk about sportswashing, and I do talk about sportswashing in the book and more widely, and so maybe I should just define my term really quickly before I go into it for a sec. But sportswashing for me is when political leaders use sports to try to deflect attention from chronic social problems and human rights woes at home, to try to look important or legitimate on the world stage and to set themselves up for political, economic, sometimes diplomatic advancement. And a lot of people don’t like the term because of the way it’s been used in the past, which quite frankly has been done in an ethnocentric, if not xenophobic fashion where they say it’s those countries over there, Russia, China, Qatar that engages in sportswashing, but we are a democracy so it couldn’t possibly happen here. So part of the argument in the book is that even places that consider themselves democracies can very much engage in sportswashing.

But what is Trump doing here in terms of is he trying to… Does sportswashing work? When people talk about does sportswashing work, a lot of times they mean does it work on an international audience? And the truth is Trump has very little interest in having sportswashing work on an international audience. He makes it clear with his actions. He doesn’t care what Europe thinks, Africa thinks, Asia, Latin America. He doesn’t care what they all think. But that sometimes misses the key audience of people in this country who I think are the prime audience for Trumpian sportswashing and for the DHS tweets. And when Trump keeps the Somali referee, Omar Abdul-Kadir Artan out of the country, he doesn’t care what the rest of the world thinks and they very much didn’t like it. But he likes the fact that the MAGA base sees a guy sticking it to a Somali person who, as you’ll know, he talked as trash and garbage in the past.

So when all these things are happening, if you look at it through the lens of Trump trying to cater to people here in this country ahead of a key election, everything starts to make a lot more sense through the lens of sportswashing. And so I think it also gives us this incredible opportunity to see things with clarity and to also kind of figure out how we’re going to push back against these things.

Dave Zirin:

Very nicely said.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Yeah. Beautifully, powerfully put. And as we sort of make the final turn here, I want to end with looking ahead to Sunday. But by way of getting there, let’s look back on the path to this Sunday with the World Cup finals. There’s been a whole lot of… Again, the theme of the night is how do you hold onto the thing that you love when the stink is all around you and everything is corrupting it? The whole world has been asking itself that question over the past month as they’ve been dealing with the Ronaldo stuff, the bracket like stuff, and the very fact that the two teams in the finals now were like sort of, it was impossible for them to face each other until now. And that feels in retrospect like kind of shady, the Egypt game.

Jules Boykoff:

There’s

Maximillian Alvarez:

So much that people have had to sort of work through with that stink, including the Donald Trump, the infamous Donald Trump call. So let’s take a look back at that really quick. And I wanted to ask you guys your hottest takes on the hottest controversies of this World Cup that have sort of brought that stink that we’re dealing with here in the US to a full-blown international scale.

Dave Zirin:

The hottest World Cuptake that I’ll have, first of all, is rooting for Argentina because of Diego Maridona, which was 40 years ago. It’s like, come on. That can’t be your reason for rooting for Argentina, is Diego Maridona. I think I want Argentina to lose. There are rumors that Jewels is pro Argentina.

Maximillian Alvarez:

You got to save it. That’s the

Dave Zirin:

Final

Maximillian Alvarez:

Question. That’s

Dave Zirin:

The final statement. I won’t go there. Then I won’t go there. I’m just going to say I love doing that to you. I’ve known Jewels a long time. But my number one hottest take from this World Cup is anybody who says that if the US’s best athletes just played soccer, like if LeBron James played goalie, then the US would win every World Cup I think is incredibly insulting to people who actually play soccer. The reason why the US doesn’t do better straight up is that the pipeline is a country club and it costs so much money to play youth sports. In this country does it different than every other country? The reason why a country of 300 million people that has a large imigrant population that is sports obsessed can’t field a halfway decent World Cup team. It’s because the way we do it in this country is pay to play.

You want to be trained at the top clubs? You better have minimum 10 grand on the table for your kid. And Lord knows how much under the table to make sure your kid gets those positions. As long as that’s the case, this country will always suck at soccer. So the next time someone says to you, “Why doesn’t the US do better at soccer?” Y’all would just look at him and be like, “Because of the way this country practices capitalism.” And if you’re not practicing soccer as a democratic socialist exercise, your team is going to suck. And that’s why the US sucks.

Jules Boykoff:

Do you want to argue for Argentina or for Spain though? Do you want to give your argument? No, go.

Maximillian Alvarez:

No,

Jules Boykoff:

That’s

Maximillian Alvarez:

The last

Jules Boykoff:

Question. Oh, that’s the last question. So I recently had the good fortune of interviewing this man named Timu Furulhom. Timu Furlholm played for the Finnish national men’s soccer team. And the thing that’s interesting about him is that after his career, he’s now become a member of the National Parliament in Finland as a leftist. He’s part of the Left Alliance. Now you’ll know that soccer has a pretty notorious history of soccer players turned politicians that are right wingers, including your buddy Romario from Brazil who started as a socialist on the left and kind of eked his way over and finally endorsed Bolsonaro at one point.

Dave Zirin:

My dear friend.

Jules Boykoff:

Your dear friend Romario. And so I was talking to him and we were talking about sort of the system in Finland and how the soccer system there was so different and how it was bricked into society in a way that’s not the country club soccer circuit that Dave so nicely described. And I was asking him about Finland is the happiest country in the world year after year. And instantly I could tell it was a bad question. He’s like, “Oh God, I’m so sick of hearing about that. ” And he said, he goes, “The thing about Finland is that we don’t try to take the moon from the skies. We want everybody to be able to play sports at whatever level they want. We want people to be able to go to music concerts and experience culture for free and easily.” And he also added, “We also want people to be able to take a one week trip to the Canary Islands every year,” which I thought, “Okay.”

Maximillian Alvarez:

Throw that in

Jules Boykoff:

There. That’s fine. Yeah. But I’m just saying there are models out there. I mean, Finland is not at the other end of the universe. And I do think that they provide some ideas for how we could move forward and how we could just have a whole different way of thinking about life and how soccer and culture and soccer’s a big part of culture, how it all kind of fits into one bigger hole. And by the way, before I have to defend Argentina, I just want to say I’ve been backed into a corner, but I’m going to do my damnedest here in a second. Thank

Maximillian Alvarez:

You. Jewels drew the short straw because we were like, “We got to debate. You can’t both root for the same team. So yeah, give it up to Jules for defending the Argentina side of our final celebrity death match here. But we’ve all been watching the World Cup. We got the final coming up on Sunday. None of us are all that excited. It’s Spain versus Argentina. Okay, but let’s make the most of it. So in our final round, which is going to be a genuine debate and the crowd is going to decide who won.

Dave Zirin:

Oh my God.

Maximillian Alvarez:

But again, we’re recognizing that Dave’s got a 0.4 second head start. So as principled leftists or people of conscience, who is the right team to root for this Sunday?

Dave Zirin:

Well, Nixon five, of course. That’s what you say in New York. Get a good response. Look, here’s the thing. I get asked sometimes, why are you always trying to make sports political? This is our escape. This is our fun. Why are you trying to make sports political? And the answer is you can say you don’t believe in gravity when you fall out of an airplane. It doesn’t really matter whether you believe in gravity or not. You’re falling out of an airplane. Whether I say sports are political or not does not change the fact that they are political. It’s just whether we’re going to be quiet about it or not. It’s just if you’re pointing at a building and saying it’s on fire, that doesn’t make you an arsonist. And so to take it to this particular thing, and Jules is going to win this debate because this is soccer.

I’m a visitor on his field here. But to take it this, it’s like the World Cup is political whether we want it to be or not, not just because it’s like nation against nation or whatnot, but this is the last thing that we have that the whole world watches. And that gives it a tremendous amount of power if that can be steered in one direction politically or another. And every single World Cup, at least since the 34 World Cup hosted by Mussolini in Italy, has attempted to use this particular event to steer people politically in one direction or the next. And we have a particularly fraught political battle coming this Sunday because think about it like this, whether Spain wins or whether Argentina wins, the leader of that country will get a boost in the rarest commodity in all of politics in 2026. And that’s hope.

People feel better in a very difficult time. People feel hopeful in a difficult time. Ask Mamdani what it meant to him to have the Knicks win. It actually does make a difference if you have that collective sense of we’re really doing something here. The direction we’re going really matters. So if you agree with me up to that point, then let’s take a quick look at what we’re dealing with. In Spain, the leader is a guy by the name of, I believe, Pedro Sanchez. Pedro Sanchez is a social Democrat. He’s the leader of an organization called the Socialist Workers Party there. They believe in a much progressive stance on immigration. They believe in mass social spending and having a social safety net. And most importantly, they have earned the undying hatred of Donald Trump because they refuse to let their bases be used in the war on Iran.

And the leader of that country, Pedro Sanchez, has called out Israel’s genocide in Gaza and he has refused aid and fuel and military aid that were preexisting contracts to Israel. He pulled because of what was happening in Gaza. So you have to think… Oh, and also he’s in a very polarizing situation where the country loves him, the country hates him. There’s all this going on there. And so you think, okay, what will it mean to this individual if Spain wins? Then you go to Argentina who’s running that place. Good Lord. Good Lord. Someone who genuinely looks like a Muppet named… And I love the Muppet. So that’s the nicest thing I’m going to say about him. Named Javier Miley and Omilei here. If you don’t know him, he’s a good friend of Trump, billionaire. And Israel loves him so much that when Benjamin Netanyahu was asked who he was rooting for in the World Cup, he said Argentina.

And they asked him because of Messi. And he said, not because of Messi, Milei. He’s the superstar. And he is also somebody who’s in a huge corruption scandal. His popularity is plummeting. The country is very polarized. And so then you think what it would mean to Miley if Argentina wins the World Cup. If nothing else, I think if Argentina wins, you’re going to see Miley on the field with Donald Trump holding up the trophy. If Spain wins, Donald Trump will find him. It’ll be probably swimming at the bottom of that algae belching reflecting people in Washington. Have a better time there than at the World Cup if Spain wins. So I say root for Spain because I want to see a world as far away from the vision that Javier Milay has for this world as humanly possible.

Jules Boykoff:

That’s good. That’s good. Really good. Really, really convincing argument. But it could be even more convincing because I have a few other things I want to add to that. No,

Dave Zirin:

You can’t. Get him.

Jules Boykoff:

Well, for starters, there’s a guy on Spain by the name of Lamin Yamal. Magical left foot, beautiful player, and by all appearances a beautiful human being. 19 years

Dave Zirin:

Old.

Jules Boykoff:

19 years old. And his dad’s family’s from Morocco. His mom’s family’s from Equatorial Guinea. And he’s sure to represent every part of his heritage and background in creative and beautiful ways. He also recently, he’s on Barcelona Football Club as well, which recently won La Liga. And at the celebration afterwards on the team bus, he was on the top and he was waving a Palestinian flag. He’s a Muslim man who’s been very outspoken for Palestinian rights. So how do you not like Lamit Yamal? He’s just a lovely human being. On the flip side, over on the Argentina side, there’s a guy named Enzo Fernandez. You might remember him most recently for scoring the first goal against England to equalize 1-1 off an assist from Leonel Messi. That was about the best thing he’s probably done in his life. He’s done some terrible things after the Copa America Tournament recently after they beat Columbia for the title.

He was caught on the bus singing racist songs and singing anti-trans songs right there on the bus.

Dave Zirin:

This is the best debate I’ve ever had. I’m

Jules Boykoff:

Killing it right now. Sorry, go ahead. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. I’m just trying to help you. I’m just trying to help you. Keep cooking. Keep cooking. Because you need a lot of help over there. Keep cooking. Keep coking. So there are so many reasons if you start going down the roster, but there is one reason why you might want to slow down or two reasons why you might want to slow down and have a little bit of sympathy for Argentina. One is the one that Dave just preemptively nixed going after the Meridana factor. I don’t think we can just skim over the surface of that that easy. I mean, this is one of the all time legends of athlete activism in the history of football. Dave, you yourself have written wonderful work, columns about this man. So I don’t think we should just get rid of him into history.

I actually like, unlike some people, I like having history present in a contemporary moment. Diego Meridana. And the other thing is I do have some sympathy for Leo Messi. 39 years old. He’s going to set a record for the most steps walked on the field in a World Cup. He does not run that much. They do not make this man play any defense whatsoever. It’s fun to watch in a sense because he’s just like kind of walking. Then they feed him the ball. It’s not a very complex offensive structure that Argentina’s working with here, especially for a World Cup final. But he’s 39 years old and in some ways an inspiration in that regard. I know he took a bunch of Saudi Arabia money for their tourism. I’ve wrote about that plenty. But I got put in this difficult position of trying to make Argentina look good and I just can’t do it.

Okay? Fine. Those things.

Maximillian Alvarez:

Let’s give it up for Jules Boycott and Dave Zauer and everybody.

Dave Zirin:

Yo, give it up for Max Alvarez and the Real News Network. Kayla Rivera

Maximillian Alvarez:

Too. Where’s Kayla? I don’t even see her. And last, give it up for Chelos Bar again for hosting us. Thank you so much Chelos for having us. Hell yeah. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Real News Network Podcast. Thank you to everyone who came out in person for this incredible event. Thank you to the good folks at Chilos Bar for hosting us. And thank you to Dave Zyran and Jules Boycot for this incredible and incredibly fun and meaningful conversation. We are absolutely going to be doing more in – person events like this in Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and more. So make sure that you are following us on social media and that you’re subscribed to our newsletter so you don’t miss the next one. And if you want to hear and be part of more important conversations just like this, then we need you to become a supporter of The Real News now.

Share this podcast with people in your circles, your friends, your family, your coworkers, and go to therenews.com/donate and become a supporter today. I promise you guys, it makes all the difference. For The Real News Network, this is Maximillian Alvarez signing off from Baltimore. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.

A groundbreaking new report reveals a direct link between prison phone call rates and prison safety: higher rates fuel more violence within prisons; lower rates and free phone calls dramatically reduce it. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host and former political prisoner Mansa Musa speaks with Peter Mayer, director of research and data innovation for Worth Rises.

Additional links/info:

• Worth Rises website, Facebook page, Bluesky page, X page, and Instagram
• Peter Mayer & Bianca Tylek, Worth Rises (May 2026), “Critical Connections: The Power of Free Communication in Prisons and Jails”

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Editor: Cameron Granadino

Transcript

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Mansa Musa:

Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars. I’m your host, Mansa Musa. Prior to being released from prison, I served 48 years and days and months. When I first went in prison, we ain’t had no telephone system. So everything was letters. Then they put a telephone system in. And when they put the telephone system in, this created a whole new attitude in the prison population. People was able to get on the phones to talk to their families. They had organized a phone system where you can get designated time so you ain’t have to worry about staying in line. It was like something unusual. And when they first started talking about it, most of us were skeptic. Oh, they ain’t going to put no telephone. But now this is a major feature in every prison in the United States of America and county jails and detention centers as well.

Joining me today to talk about the groundbreaking new report on this crisis is Peter Mayer. Peter is the co-author of Critical Connections: The Power of Free Phone Calls in Prisons and Jails and a Director of Research and Data Innovation at Worth Rises, the organization working to dismantle prison Prophet 10 as root. Welcome, Peter.

Peter Mayer:

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Mansa Musa:

Tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

Peter Mayer:

So I am the director of research and data innovation at Worth Rises. As you said, we are an organization that works to dismantle the prison industry and most famously in the sector of telecommunications. I come to this work through being an impacted person myself, spent some time in different county jails. I’m a person in recovery and so this stuff means a lot to me. And yeah, we have just recently released this report that you mentioned. The point of it is that it shows the impact of what free phone calls have done in several states and several dozen counties, which is sort of a new policy, a wave that’s sort of happening across the country as we are trying to make phone calls free for people in prisons and jails.

Mansa Musa:

Okay. So let’s start with the FCC vote on October 25th, the rollback rates. Instead of 86% cap, provides can charge 11 cent in prison and 18 cent in jail. What does this rollback mean for families right now?

Peter Mayer:

Yeah, so to give the background just a little bit, in 2024, the FCC set caps on how much the telecommunications corporations can charge incarcerated people and their families per minute for phone calls. And those caps were meant to be six cents in prisons, like you mentioned, and 12 cents in very small jails. Now those caps were never completely implemented and enforced as there was change in administration and the caps themselves were delayed. And then more recently in October 2025, as you mentioned, the caps were increased to 11 cents per minute in prisons and 19 cents per minute in what they call extremely small jails.

Mansa Musa:

Now

Peter Mayer:

Those caps just finally went into effect in April of this year and now are actually have the force of law. But the difference being, I mean it means that families are exposed to these inflated costs for just connecting with their loved one. I mean, what we’re talking about is real basic human connection, being able to get on the phone.

I know you know well, being able to get on the phone and talk to that family member is a basic human need. And the thing is when we talk about these things and we talk about the difference between six cents and 11 cents, that may not sound like that much to some people, but when you consider the fact that these are calls that are being made every week, every month, every year it stacks and it stacks and it stacks and stacks. And we think about us on the outside who we talk to when we talk to our friends, our family members, our siblings, things like that. I mean, I might be on the phone for an hour and a half with

Mansa Musa:

My

Peter Mayer:

Sibling or something, my brother or something like that. That stacks up really quickly. And so what the rollback, the increase of those caps means is that families continue to pay for these inflated costs that are really just trying to offhand the cost of surveillance to families.

Mansa Musa:

Okay. And in your report, you look at the history of the industry. How did we get from standard phone rates under the old AT&T monopoly to the high rate that we see now?

Peter Mayer:

Yeah. So it used to be that prison and jail phone calls were run by the same corporations that we are. AT&T had a monopoly on everything. And then in the ’80s when the AT&T monopoly was broken up,

All these smaller surveillance firms started to enter the market and they were having a hard time getting contracts with prisons and jails to surveil all calls because they were like, “We don’t really want to pay for all that for those monitoring tools.” So what they did is they created a new model where they would share a percentage of the revenue with a prison or jail. So what they would do is they’d go to that agency and they’d say, “Okay, we’re going to charge, let’s say 15 cents a minute and you’re going to get seven cents of that and we’re going to take the other eight cents.” And because of that model, prisons and jails who were at the time, populations were starting to explode as we

Mansa Musa:

All

Peter Mayer:

Know, and were having a really hard time sustaining financially. They were like, “Oh great, here’s a new revenue stream.” And so by doing that split model, which we call commissions or kickbacks, those companies were able to start cornering the market like crazy. And they created this incentive not to make the price as low as possible, but to actually for the agencies to pick whichever company was going to give them the largest amount, right?

Mansa Musa:

The large share

Peter Mayer:

In the kickback.

Mansa Musa:

Just three private corporations have control over the phone system in the United States. There’s Aventa, BuyerPath and ICS controls 90% of this market. So what’s the resistance y’all getting back from them? Because you’re telling me that you want to come in and break my monopoly, financial monopoly up by saying, “Well, I know you getting $2 a minute. I’m trying to really get it down to one penny a minute or just free altogether.” What’s their response? Or what’s been their response? Or have y’all been able to gauge it?

Peter Mayer:

Yeah. So just to be clear, that history that I just talked about, what happened is that private equity started consolidating these businesses buying up. And so now we have, like you said, we have Aventive, which is also known as Securus, most people known as Securus, BioPath, also known as GTL and IC Solutions, and they control nearly 90% of the market. And what we have seen is that they push back through things like pushing back on the FCC instituting rate caps, lobbying against our policies for free communication. Another thing that they’re seeing as their revenue stream is really being squeezed in the

Mansa Musa:

Phone

Peter Mayer:

Market because of these new caps and these states and counties going to free communication, what we’re seeing is that they’re moving into other revenue streams and also trying to rebrand their image a little bit. And so they’re moving into content on tablets, like

Mansa Musa:

Educational

Peter Mayer:

Training content, that kind of thing. And in doing that, because their image has become so toxic, they’re also trying to rebrand as a helpful corporation for people who are incarcerated when we

Mansa Musa:

Really

Peter Mayer:

Make that the whole name of the industry is exploitation. It’s the name of the game. It has been for a long time. So we try to not let them get away with that sort of rebranding into something else. One other just small point I’d make is that yes, we have the FCC rate caps that are the ceiling of how high they can charge, and that is a good enforcement mechanism.

Mansa Musa:

What we

Peter Mayer:

Really are trying to do is to get states and counties to move to completely free models for incarcerated people, meaning that that becomes a part of the agency’s budget. And when they do that, they renegotiate new rates. So when maybe

Mansa Musa:

Before

Peter Mayer:

Families were paying, let’s say six cents a minute, something like that, when that corrections department decides to go to a free, they renegotiate with the corporation. They get it down to one and a half, maybe two cents a minute.

Mansa Musa:

And it

Peter Mayer:

Shows that what that original cost was completely inflated. Because

Mansa Musa:

Now they’re

Peter Mayer:

Saying, “We can. Sure, we can do it for two cents.”

Mansa Musa:

And to your point, when the calls are free, it create a whole different mindset in the environment. But more importantly, y’all are able to show that whoever paying the bill, if the state paying the bill, they’re going to get the best deal possible. But when we paying the bill and they getting the kickback from us paying the bill, then they don’t care if it’s like $5. I told you in one place I was in Cumberland, Maryland, it was $5 a minute. And when I call, best thing I can say, this is where I’m at, I write y’all. But talk about, because in your report, you talk about the impact these exorbitant phone call prices have on families. Talk about that and talk about how much money they going in debt and how much are these families actually spending per phone call without any regulation.

Peter Mayer:

Yeah, sure. So I mean, it ranges quite a bit depending on the rates that are charged like we talked about. I mean, depending on where you’re at, it can be a huge difference. A couple points we talk about that were done by other researchers in the report is that we know that one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt trying to stay connected. That’s from a previous report by the Ella Baker Center. And also on a report done by Forward US that I was also a co-author on that families pay nearly $4,200 a year costs to visit, support with commissary, all the different

Mansa Musa:

Associated

Peter Mayer:

Lost income, those kinds of things. Now, when it comes to just phone calls on the states that went and counties that went free that we did an analysis of for this report, what we found is that families were saving between $172 to $1,800 a year after the calls went free. So that’s the amount that they would’ve been spending before. Now on top of that, these families are also getting another $244 to almost $3,000 in extra call time. So the way to think about that is not only are they no longer spending that hundreds of dollars on what they did just to stay connected a little bit before, but they’re also now getting to talk that much more and

Mansa Musa:

Getting

Peter Mayer:

Accrued value and extra money too. And so what that all looked like in the total in the aggregate is we see $622 million saved to date by families thanks to these jurisdictions going free. And most of that is flowing to lack and brown communities who have disproportionately borne this

Mansa Musa:

Cause. And I know for a fact that when we find family members had to pay, I remember guys have to wait the first of the month for their family to get checks. They want them to call all the family member wants you to call all the time. Family members have more than one child in prison. So I’m in one prison. Somebody in the county jail, somebody in another prison, all of us making calls at home to get to a point. I know one family member got to a point where mama just said, look, I can’t accept the calls no more. So if you can’t write a letter, and it created a whole different attitude in the environment, black market, a lot of drama, a lot of violence. Talk about you shared some personal stories like the woman Lorraine who said her husband can finally hear just information or sensory.

But talk about that because I know from experience and I know I interviewed somebody whose father got his children on the phone every day and did their homework with them. And 20 years, 30 years later, the child that I interviewed, a son that didn’t graduate from college with honors, but it was his father’s ability to talk to him on the phone or have that communication with him to have him do something. Talk about some of them things that y’all was able to get information about and the impact that it has on people in general.

Peter Mayer:

Yeah, absolutely. So as part of this report, a big part of it was we carried out qualitative interviews and a number of those interviews were with incarcerated people and their families. And then we did some with staff as well. And we heard so many powerful stories. I mean, just the value of these free calls is immeasurable in the amount of moments that people will then get to share with each other. Because the difference was that you’re talking about when a call is really expensive, all people can afford a lot of times is a quick check-in.

Mansa Musa:

I’m doing

Peter Mayer:

Okay, or

Mansa Musa:

I’m

Peter Mayer:

Not doing okay, what’s going on? That kind of thing. In some relationships they completely wither because it’s like, I can’t afford to talk to that person. After calls go free, now we’re seeing people have regular engagement and presence in their family lives. And because of that, they are feeling better. They’re having more of a reason to go on and to

Work on their rehabilitation to think about what’s going to be happening after this. I mean, like you were talking about, we hear from parents who said that after calls went free, they would call their kid every morning before school and talk to them every night after. They’d help them with their homework. They get to hear about that sports game, what the updates were right after. We heard from people who said, one of our favorite quotes in this is an incarcerated man who said, “The difference is that you can hear the smile on a call.” I

Mansa Musa:

Think

Peter Mayer:

We all kind of know what that means. When you’re on the phone with somebody and you can kind of tell that they’re smiling. And so that’s the difference is that people are having real everyday presence and it makes such a big difference both for the communities on the outside and for the incarcerated person on the inside. And that’s not just one, it is an incredibly valuable story I think in terms of just human connection and everything else. It’s also a really important policy point because these are all things that will strengthen public safety. These are all

Mansa Musa:

Things that will

Peter Mayer:

Strengthen communities. These are all things that will make what we purport the system to be able to supposedly be doing. This will actually do that. And that’s why these personal stories in the aggregate really show us that free calls is a policy that works.

Mansa Musa:

Yeah, and it makes sense. The whole concept of crime and punishment is I commit a crime. The sentence that I get is the punishment. The sentence that I get don’t say that I’m sentencing you to 20 years in solitary confinement. I’m sentencing you to scrub the floor with a toothbrush. They say, “I’m sentencing you to this time.” That’s your punishment to sentence. Nowhere in any criminal code do it say, “I’m sentencing you to pay astronomical prices to communicate with your family. I’m sentencing you to pay astronomical commissary prices to eat. I’m sentencing you to pay for your own clothing or your own room and board.” That’s just not deposit. That’s just something that it’s the profit. In prison, when they say crime don’t pay, crime does pay. It pay corporations. It pay corporations in form of like what we’re talking about now with phone. I remember when they had a commission of corrections in Maryland and everything that came across his desk, he had to prove it.

So one of the things he seen while he was in office was that everybody wanted clothing packages. So tennis shoes and stuff like that. When he left that agency, he went and got contracted with a clothing agency and was selling clothes to the prisons because he recognized the profit margin. But talk about finally your report outline four major policy recommendations. How do we successfully reform government contracts to build a phone system that focuses on human connection rather than corporate profit?

Peter Mayer:

Yeah, I mean so our policy recommendations are for all states and counties to transition to this free system. And in that we talk about a few different things. We talk about the actual policy that you design. In most states that’s been legislation that says phone calls are going to be free now. In a few places, New York is an exception. New York State where they passed it as a budget measure where they just add it into the budget, this is how much the DOC is going to have this in their budget to pay for this. And so there’s the legislation piece and then there is the procurement and the implementation piece. So on the procurement side, we also have how the corrections agency actually contracts out this work. And then

Mansa Musa:

We have

Peter Mayer:

The implementation of how this actually all goes through. And what we really are trying to emphasize in here without getting too much into the technical weeds is that this is not only very doable, it’s actually advantageous for states and corrections departments because it’s a good public safety investment and it will pay off in the end. And how they need to be able to do this is to one, design policies that will guarantee access. So that means tablets. We need tablet access for people inside so that everybody can actually get ahold on the phones and you no longer have any security issues around scarcity because phones can become a flashpoint when there’s only a few phones and everybody wants that time. So tablets make that not so much of an issue. And we saw corrections department officials that we interviewed, they love that because people are in their cells

Mansa Musa:

On wallets.

Peter Mayer:

They’re engaged. They’re engaged and they’re not congregating in the common areas with idle time where there’s more time for things to go wrong. People aren’t fighting over the wall phones, they’re on their tablets. So that’s one big piece. Another piece that we talk about is that the pricing is transparent and that agencies renegotiate their costs with

Mansa Musa:

Their

Peter Mayer:

Corporations. So like I touched on briefly before, when a state decides to go free, then that Department of Corrections needs to go back to the company that they’re going to contract with and say, we want a lower price because we know you can give us a lower price. And when we saw California as a price around 1.5 cents a minute, that’s one of the best prices we’ve seen in the

Country. So we want these agencies to go and say, if you can do this for California, we see some lower… Sorry, to be clear, we see some lower costs for other states that haven’t gone free yet, but that was the lowest implementation cost for free calls was California’s. So we want states and counties to say, we see that this can be this cheap. We need to get these lower costs. Other things we want is we want to make sure that things like video calls are not going to be used to replace visitation because that can happen sometimes. We don’t call it video visits because they’re not visits. Visit when somebody actually comes in, it’s a video call. So don’t try to replace it.

Other pieces have to do with we would like to see agencies start to unbundle these things. So part of the power of the monopoly is that when an agency gets a contract, they put all of it together in one thing for that company. So that means where they’re getting the tablets, the surveillance and security infrastructure in addition to the actual telecommunication infrastructure. We would like to see them start debundling this and having a competitive bidding process for the tablets themselves, a competitive bidding process for just the telecommunication service, and then pay for whatever security they want on top of and separate from that so that it doesn’t all get lumped together into

Mansa Musa:

One. Right. Which is being used to not allow the service. But what do you see on the landscape when you look at it down the road? Do you think we’ll ever get to a place in this country where taking all things into account how profitable this stuff is, that we’ll get to a place where the phone services will be free for people that’s incarcerated? Or will we always be negotiating penny here, penny there, which is not bad versus no money?

Peter Mayer:

I mean, if I didn’t believe we would get to a place where it could be free for everybody, I’m not sure we’d all be doing this work. I mean, that’s the thing about Worth Rises is that we really imagine when this organization was started by our executive director back in 2018, this was like an impossible dream. Now we have multiple full state corrections agencies doing free calls and a number of counties, and it’s moving in other places too. I absolutely think we’re going to get to a place. I think we’re going to get to a place someday where we look back on this and say, how could it ever have been that way?

I think we’re already moving pretty quickly towards it. We just need to continue the momentum on the policy front of corrections agencies and counties making this free and then also start to reform the actual industry so that it’s not these monopolistic corporations taking advantage, but we make it more like it is for any other state agency. If they were setting up their phone calls or setting up tablet acquisition or things like that, they wouldn’t do it all through one company. They’d be doing each little piece in different procurement pieces. Like you or I, we pay per line for our phone. We don’t pay per minute. You know what I mean? This should reflect more accurately the actual industry instead of being the way that it is. This model is outdated. It was built to exploit and it is going to go away eventually. I

💾

Introduction by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio

Toward the World War III

Bringing Ukraine into NATO is a way to demonstrate to Russia that Europe intends to protect its ally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This is the peace strategy of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, very similar to that of US President Donald Trump, who adamantly declared that the escalation of attacks on civilian oil facilities targeted by the Kiev army would force Moscow to negotiate (video).

Trump’s unfortunate statement stems from the fact that, on the one hand, he wants to please his moderate electorate, now tired of constant and costly wars, and on the other, he must answer to his real masters: the Zionist financial lobbies that divide up most of the speculation in the arms industry.

So he can continue to pretend to seek a peace agreement in Ukraine amidst the many exclamations he himself has encouraged with his continued support for Zelensky, but if he were to win the elections again in 2028 it would be inevitable for him to be dragged by the United Kingdom, NATO and the European Union into a direct war against Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, commenting on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s latest remarks that the proposals for a Ukrainian settlement made at the Alaska summit had failed, emphasized the importance of clarifying who truly bears responsibility for the outcome.

He reaffirmed that Russia’s conscience remains clear, underscoring the principle that “a man’s word is his bond: you say you’re going to do something, and then you do it.”

Lavrov pointed out that Kiev’s dismissive rejection of US proposals, formulated at the Alaska summit, is primarily driven by the continued influx of weapons, a significant portion of which originates from the United States.

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The Kremlin’s response, obviously, was the destruction of multiple Ukrainian energy facilities and the annihilation of over 200 gas stations in the country (video below), causing serious damage to the population that Zelensky has no say in.

WARS IN VIDEO – BREAKING NEWS from Middle East and Ukraine HERE

As two exceptional analysts, journalist Tucker Carlson and pacifist Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, point out below, every military strategy is now hastily geared toward triggering NATO’s Third World War against Russia.

Johnson appears to be the ideal provocateur for several reasons:

• As British Prime Minister, he blocked Zelensky’s peace talks in March 2022, believed by intelligence experts to be an agent of London’s MI6 counterintelligence agency.

Russian RAID in UKRAINE! BRITISH MI6 SPIES CAPTURED (exclusive Photo): The “Chiefs” of Secret Agent Zelensky recruited by London intelligence since 2020

• He subsequently joined the CEPA think tank in Washington, a control room of generals from NATO, the EU, and the United Kingdom to study military tactics in Ukraine, which has become a gold mine for the WEAPONS LOBBY and its pro-government allies, as confirmed by numerous Gospa News investigations.
• Finally, Bojo was the one who called the Azov Battalion heroic. Amnesty International and Russia had denounced them since 2014 for war crimes in the Donbass civil war, but they had never been prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, an expression of the nationalist and neo-Nazi culture of the Kiev regime.

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This is yet another confirmation that the British plan for a direct confrontation with Russia, also fueled by the plan to supply nuclear weapons to Ukraine according to a pact signed by former PM Starmer on January, 2025, seems to have truly begun its countdown.

The fact that the United Kingdom has decided to support Trump in his war against Iran, providing military support bases, means that the two most powerful NATO militaries is ready to support George Soros’s 1993 plan to project the Atlantic Alliance into the New World Order by imposing a police state in EU countries, destined to transform into military dictatorships with martial law for war purposes.

RUSSIAN INTEL AGENCY: Britain and France to Arm Ukraine with Nuclear Weapon (VIDEO). Starmer Ready to Activate the Shady Military Pact with Zelensky

A new pandemic, the migrant scare, and attacks on counter-information (anticipated as a primary target by the CEPA think tank since its inception) will be the excuses to implement these measures with different measures in various EU countries.

Below you can watch and read the topics which legitimez this analysis…

New PANDEMIC and Third WORLD WAR by Now Inevitable… Only Christ Can Help Us in Tribulations of Prophecies by Apocalypse and Medjugorje

Johnson presented his peace plan for Ukraine, a plan to start World War III

Former British PM Boris Johnson presented his “fake peace-plan for Ukraine”, a plan which might trigger the finally outbreak of World War III during an interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on SkyNews.

“One of the ways to end the war is for Washington, London, Paris and other capitals to reiterate what used to be the official policy: Ukraine should join NATO. You can’t hear it anymore. Today, you will no longer hear statements that Ukraine should become part of the North Atlantic Alliance”.

“You know how Putin will react to this? Putin will react by making a deal, because now he has no reason to believe that we are serious. Until he hears that the game is over and that the West has a long—term strategic goal of making Ukraine part of NATO, he will continue to put pressure on Ukraine, and some will continue to seek to divide it”.

Tucker Carlson: “The United States is waging a war against Russia”

“The United States is waging a war against Russia. American taxpayers’ money is being spent to help Ukraine target drones and missiles at targets in Russia”.

The famous journalist and oponionist Tucker Carlson warned in a new video.

“If you look at the situation more broadly, you can see that one country, the United States, is simultaneously waging two wars: one against Iran, the other against Russia. Make no mistake: the United States is at war with Russia. The Trump administration’s intelligence data, obtained from the CIA and other intelligence agencies, is being used by the Ukrainian government to target drones and missiles”.

“Thus, the U.S. government, at the expense of American taxpayers, is waging a war against the Russian government, regardless of whether U.S. citizens realize it or not and whether they want it or not. And, of course, most Americans, in his opinion, do not understand this. What is the result? Destabilize the Russian regime? Divide Russia into fifteen separate republics? Not yet“.

“This will lead to an increase in global energy prices, as Russia produces about 12% of the world’s oil and about 5% of petroleum products. And the war that the United States is waging against Russia is a war against energy. Russian oil refineries were attacked by missiles or drones, which were guided by the help of the United States”.

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Roger Waters on the West militarization and the EU leaders’ attempts to frighten the war with Russia

Roger Waters in an interview with RT — about the militarization of the West and the attempts of European leaders to frighten the war with Russia:

“I often tell people, ‘Do you know who Russians are? They won the Second World War (and 25 million of them died!), saving the world for us. Do you want to fight them?”

The co-founder of Pink Floyd, in a conversation with RT host Rick Sanchez, noted that the leaders of the European Union are “rattling weapons in front of Russia.”

---

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MILITARY PACTS FOR ATOMIC WAR. UK with MI6 Agent Zelensky, Russia with Iran for Nuclear Weapons

Denazification in Ukraine, Political Sovereignty of Donbass, Novorossiya in Russian Memorandum for Peace. Kremlin: “To Unveil the Warfare’s Roots”

WEAPONS LOBBY – 5. NWO’s Warfare Plan against Russia and Counter-Information. CEPA Project from Washington with NATO-EU & Defense Corporations

---

 

Daniel left school five years ago and still lives with his parents—pretty normal in a country where around a third of young British men haven’t moved out. What is different about Daniel is his identification as “hikikomori”—literally “pulled inward”—a form of extreme social isolation. Since leaving school, he has left his family home “maybe once a month.” Research into hikikomori is limited, though some links with social anxiety and autism have been drawn. In this piece, Eve Livingston explores what day-to-day life is actually like for the families living with this phenomenon, doggedly seeking access to a world built to avoid in‑person encounters.

Dip your toe into the world of hikikomori, and you’ll find that attitudes vary widely, even among the self-identified. Some, like Daniel, display a level of sensitivity and sometimes defensiveness about their lifestyle, while others are more open about a sense of sadness and sometimes hopelessness they felt towards their circumstances. 

“I am [a hikikomori]… it sucks and I hate my life,” reads one such comment on Reddit. “Every single attempt at recovery has ended up in an even deeper relapse and its [sic] so painfully boring and lonely… I fantasise about being free all the time but I know I’m probably just going to die this way.”

Hannah Engler Harvey | Longreads | July 30, 2026 | 3,927 words (14 minutes)

In the long, slow days of August, Christmas comes. The halls are decked with vintage glass holiday towns in two colorways, Pastel and Traditional. They are lit by a wall of electric candles whose realistic dancing flames were designed by Disney Imagineers. (Inventory is getting low in Beige, but consider the White as an alternative; Plum could pull double duty for Halloween.) Smiling people wear sweaters embellished with stars and snowflakes. They moan with pleasure as they sample handmade caramel marshmallows and defrosted barbecue ribs and special-edition three-and-a-half pound cheesecakes, on sale for $56.00 or three easy payments of $18.67. (But move fast: There are fewer than 750 left in Strawberry.)

It’s nice here, safe as a daydream. In the pretend kitchen, with the make-believe food and the fireless flames, there is something for everyone.

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The first thing to know about QVC, the most important thing, is that it is always on. 

My best friend Lizzie and I are couch potatoes, dedicated ones; our friendship set, like a custard, in front of the television. At first it was The Real Housewives and 30 Rock, then Difficult People and Dancing with the Stars. When we first moved in together, when we were both 24, we resolved, initially, to shake ourselves out of this instinct. I had just gone through my first adult breakup. She had finally had enough of her roommates and of Brooklyn. It was early 2020, the year of broken leases.

We found a place in a neighborhood we both loved, and ignored the fact that the door of the bathroom could not open past the toilet, and that Lizzie had to climb over her bed to get to her closet. It didn’t matter that it was small, we reasoned. We would never be there. 

Two weeks after we moved in, the city shut down, and we started paying for cable. 

What it boiled down to was this: If you watch enough television, you eventually get sick of deciding what to watch. The beauty of TV, for the true couch potato, is when it comes and finds you: the sick-day marathons of Intervention, the late-night reruns of Frasier and The Nanny, the reliable Sunday-afternoon showing of the movie Backdraft. This is what Lizzie and I had loved about television growing up, and this is what the prestige-TV era had taken from us. We were sick of ordering à la carte. We wanted a buffet. 

So, there on our pink Drew-Barrymore-for-Walmart sectional, balancing takeout containers on our laps, we watched. 

We watched old episodes of Match Game and Three’s Company; we watched Live with Kelly and Ryan and the movie channels and sports, if we were desperate. 

But there were times—the true couch potato always finds times—when the only thing to watch was QVC. 

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QVC (which stands for Quality, Value, Convenience) was founded in 1986 by the businessman Joseph Segel and still airs 24 hours of programming a day, approximately 20 hours of which are live broadcasts. The broadcasts are simple in structure. A host demonstrates products in an unscripted, conversational way, speaking directly to the audience from a set that looks like a living room. Sometimes, the host banters with a cohost. Along the way, they are joined by a rotating cast of brand representatives who are there to assist in selling their wares.

And this tactic has worked, at least on some tranche of the population. For the 40 years it has been around, QVC’s core demographic—women over 50—has held steady, and the channel has a remarkable ability to inspire loyalty. According to a 2021 article in Main Line Today, the newspaper local to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where QVC is headquartered, “Ninety percent of QVC customers are of the repeat variety.”

The personalities are the point. In a 2006 article in Studies in Popular Culture, Jennifer Courtney and Gabriel Wettach wrote that QVC’s innovation, as well as its biggest challenge, was to make its advertisements seem less like corporate directives and more like recommendations from friends or peers. “To create and maintain credibility with the audience,” they write, “QVC hosts must emphasize roles that convey authenticity, such as mother, beauty expert, or bargain hunter. . . . viewers must be able to trust or ‘relate to’ the host; invoking trusted personas creates a welcoming and reassuring environment.”

We are all living inside the world that QVC made, the commingling of identity and acquisition.

Twenty years later, this insight about the power of QVC hosts could be applied to far greater swaths of the consumer economy. Today’s Instagram influencers talk about how and when they use certain products in the same relatable way the hosts on QVC do. Shopping is integrated into most online and IRL experiences. We are asked to place things in context, imagine the lives we would have and the people we would be if we could only own the right items.

When I talk about QVC, people are baffled by my interest in it. To them, it seems like a relic, something whose relevance is shriveling up. On the contrary: We are all living inside the world that QVC made, the commingling of identity and acquisition. We occupy our homes like amnesiacs, trying to figure out who we are by looking around at what we own.

For me, QVC applies an unexpected salve to the wound it caused. I am too young for bladder-leak underwear or anti-crepe elbow cream; I have no lawn for ornaments or freezer space for a four-pound bag of pot stickers. Like most people my age, conditioned to view themselves from a distance, I have spent a lot of time curating my life: my physical space, my wardrobe, my media diet. All my algorithms are tuned to perfection. In other words, I spend so much time within a prison of my own preferences that it has become a relief to be offered things I would never want.

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To talk about what QVC is does very little to illustrate the experience of watching QVC, which is altogether more difficult to pin down. The sets are vividly lit, the people arranged like pints of ice cream in an illuminated freezer. For as long as I’ve been watching, the main set has been dressed with a bright yellow couch, glossy gray-brown laminate floors, and faux windows that look out onto a digital lawn. The artifice of the environment is in charming tension with flickers of helpless realism: a rep from Roberta’s Unique Gardens who struggles to lift a planter full of SunPatiens; a host whose Barefoot Dreams cardigan keeps rubbing against her mic. There is a hallucinatory quality to it: The brightness is the same at 8 in the morning and 11 at night. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to when they present certain products, whether they’re selling perennial plants or seasonal decorations or Beekman 1802’s goat milk skin care. (The reps from Beekman often bring a flock of real baby goats with them.) But there is also a groundedness, a kind of ruthless maternal practicality: Faroe Islands salmon is full of Omega-3s, which reduce triglycerides, crucial as we approach middle age. Elastic-waist pants are a godsend if you fluctuate sizes.

The presentations follow predictable, elliptical patterns; they are designed to be half-watched, for viewers who are flipping channels, or maybe falling asleep. The hosts repeat themselves—they must—revisiting colors, sizes, quantities, and prices every couple of minutes, the repetition contained within the steady stream of good-natured patter. The consistency of this patter is remarkable; to be able to just keep talking, no matter how boring the topic or useless the product, can be downright impressive to watch. A host might say all of these things and more during the course of an hour-long presentation on espadrille sandals: The weather is getting warmer, those outdoor barbecues are around the corner, days are getting longer, patio dining is here, summer is showing its face, it’s iced coffee season, it’s frozen margarita season, it’s baseball season, the weather is warming up. Sometimes it devolves into silliness. “Belts are really trending right now,” said designer Susan Graver on QVC3 the other morning. “Oh, I love to put one on.”

At first, we entered this world like anthropologists, observing the bizarre habits of the native species. But we soon became attached to its familiar rhythms. Lizzie developed a habit of turning it on in the morning and keeping it on in the background through a day of working from home or cleaning the house, and this routine lingered long after the acute phase of the pandemic began to wane. Certain things about our lives had changed for good. Never again would we go into the office five days a week, and never again would a day pass without the ambient, almost meditative thrum of QVC—not exactly white noise, but maybe ecru, or eggshell. 

In other homes, in other cities, we learned, other women were doing the same thing. Longtime QVC customer Arlyn David—a 62-year-old resident of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania—told Main Line Today in 2021: “If I’m home, I have it on.”

All my algorithms are tuned to perfection. In other words, I spend so much time within a prison of my own preferences that it has become a relief to be offered things I would never want.

QVC pioneered a new type of television programming, shopping and entertainment churned together in one comfortable swirl. But the entertainment is of a specific type: It provides something that Lizzie and I sometimes call “The Voices.” The Voices could come from a podcast, or from scrolling on TikTok; the point is that they give a restless mind something to do between bouts of more concentrated thought, like psychological chewing gum.

I have spent the last few years learning about how my generation’s attention spans have been torched by social media and smartphones and how our minds now require constant stimulation in order to function. But Arlyn David and her ilk are proof that the desire for The Voices predates millennial dopamine addiction by decades at least. What does the everpresence of QVC do for them?

Whenever I ponder this, I think of the house I grew up in, set back into trees at the end of a cul-de-sac, in an American suburb that thundered with silence. Perhaps The Voices answer a deeper, more basic human desire: the urge to fill a quiet house with conversation, no matter how inane.

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Like friendship, QVC has its own vernacular, formed over years and opaque to outsiders. For example: Weighty, substantial fabrics are sometimes referred to by hosts as “beefy.” Host Leah Williams was, by her own account, the first person to use this term. Then QVC stalwart Isaac Mizrahi borrowed it, and then his reps started using it when they went on for their presentations, spreading it back to the hosts. So everyone calls things “beefy” now, usually crepe pants or wool-acrylic blend sweaters. Another one: Cotton has “a dry hand.” This means that when you run your hand over the fabric, it feels dry to the touch, not slick and smooth like a synthetic blend. Fabrics that have a dry hand are cooler and less clingy on the body.

The colors on QVC have beautiful and evocative names, like Butter Rum, Flame, Celebration Pink, Nantucket Blue. Sometimes, when color names are too highfalutin, conflict occurs. The brand rep from the QVC brand Denim & Co. is always going at it with host Amy Stran over this. “This one is called Heather,” he’ll say, and Amy will rush in to offer an alternative: “But it’s really not gray at all, more like a beautiful smoky purple, a lavender.” Then, next time they go through colors, she’ll say, “This one is called Heather, but remember, think lavender.” Amy is very serious about colors. It really pisses her off when brands call black “onyx” or gray “silver.” She probably assumes it will confuse the customers. She is probably right. Whenever these tiffs would happen, Lizzie and I would lean forward over our knees, eager to see the two of them go at it.

If you watch enough, you start to notice these tensions; you become a scholar of them. Lizzie and I are fandom members of the country’s longest-running reality show. The faces of the hosts unfurl themselves under our unrelenting gaze, revealing an ill-advised spray tan, an early pregnancy, plastic surgery, dead teeth. QVC has deepened the language we share with each other, created a shared set of references, in the same way that going to college together did, or the time when we were both AMC A-Listers. It has become more than brainless viewing. It is a hobby.

We have the festering snobbishness of transplants. New York City is our home, but our impossible aspiration is to have never lived anywhere else.

There is even a subreddit dedicated to making fun of QVC personalities and their quirks: r/QVC_Snark. It is a community of insiders. The Redditors attack with the vicious specificity that only intimacy can produce. “Why is her head a literal box?” asks a recent poster, sharing a photo they took of host Courtney Khondabi on their TV screen. Or, of host Rick Domeier: “Rick has been wearing the same jeans for weeks now!” They make fun of the prices, usually during the food presentations ($100 hot dogs, $11 per 6 oz. piece of salmon) and the clothing segments (LOGO by Lori Goldstein is a popular punching bag: “All this needs is some lace and a ‘wide load’ banner across the ass”).

During the three years we lived together, Lizzie and I spent countless evenings performing QVC-themed comedy routines for an audience of one, doing spittakes with our wine, high on the feeling of being clever and understood. But we only discovered r/QVC_Snark later, after we were living on opposite sides of Manhattan. All this time, here were our people! One night I sent her a series of posts I collected during a lurking session, wishing I could see her reaction. After a few seconds, she responded: “Nothing but you has made me laugh this hard since I was a kid.” 

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Redditors will be Redditors, but look, we are all supposed to be in this together. The hosts and reps are wives and mothers too (or the gay best friends of wives and mothers, or at least the closeted neighbor of wives and mothers). They are wearing the sweaters, using the hand cream, planting the perennials, or at least, they say they are. Part of QVC’s structure—a crucial part, in some readings—is the connection between hosts and viewers, not theoretical, but literal. Almost every live broadcast has a call-in element that allows viewers to speak on-air to their favorite hosts, to ask questions about the product, or, more frequently, praise it and announce their intention to buy more.

“Speaking with a host is, for many callers, a meaningful, seemingly priceless exchange,” write Courtney and Wettach. “Callers frequently divulge personal information, telling the host about illnesses, financial status, and family matters.”

It’s true; I have seen it. A recent caller told QVC personality Kim Gravel, in a voice thick with tears, that she had gotten used to “not feeling part of the world,” due to her weight, but that Kim’s clothing line had given her the confidence to participate in life. “That is your ministry,” said the caller.

I looked up. Ministry! It was such an extreme word, and even odder applied to Kim Gravel. (Boisterous! Brassy! The onetime host of a Lifetime reality show called Kim of Queens where she ruthlessly prepared young girls for beauty pageants!) The longer I thought about it, the more I found myself relenting. Anyone who denies the therapeutic value of clothes that fit has never had the experience of not being able to find them.

This is, perhaps, at the heart of my ambivalence toward QVC, or more accurately, my inability to see my engagement with it as pure ridicule or even a hate-watch. Every so often, I am startled with a reminder of who else is out there watching. Skechers presents a pair of sandals with hands-free slip-on technology, so that you don’t have to bend over to put them on. On the Over 50 & Fabulous program, the women from Breezies sell underwear designed to withstand hot flashes and bladder leaks. Where else can these items be reliably purchased, or so frankly and cheerfully discussed?

Onscreen, listening to the caller’s praise, Kim was nodding. She was clearly touched, or at least, she looked like it.

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I sometimes imagine the person I would be if I took them all up on it. If, one day, a tower of packages arrived on my doorstep, containing Women With Control stretch denim, IHKWIP quilted tote bags, Clarks Cloudsteppers shoes, and silicon Cool Grippers pot-holder tongs. How would my life be arranged around these items? I imagine I would measure out the years in landscaping projects. My afternoons would be taken up by long car journeys, ferrying children to softball tournaments or play rehearsals, going to the grocery store and the nail salon.

I know women like this; I grew up with them. So did Lizzie. We have the festering snobbishness of transplants. New York City is our home, but our impossible aspiration is to have never lived anywhere else. We turn up our noses at the strip malls of our youth, and share our faltering moments only with each other: the secret joy of a Target where deodorant isn’t locked behind plexiglass, the frustrated desire to place groceries in the trunk of a car, the fizzy hedonism of a 44-ounce Diet Coke from a fountain. This, too, unites us: our aborted suburban futures, the secret panic that they may have only been deferred. Do we watch QVC to indulge these sublimated cravings for peace and comfort, taking furtive bites of soccer-momdom to keep us going when the subway is delayed and the rent is due? Or do we watch it to set ourselves apart, to reassure ourselves that we will never give in?

What happened within me when I cringed at the caller on the Kim Gravel broadcast? Why was my initial instinct an abstracted pity? Do I think I will never get there—never find a source of unexpected divinity, never be moved to tears by something ridiculous, that the material conditions of my life will never become more complex or more banal? Do I think I will never grow old?

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It’s not true that QVC has nothing to offer me. I order my mascara from there, almost exclusively, three tubes for $40 when a single tube of the same mascara at Sephora is $28. Lizzie and I went halfsies on a MacKenzie-Childs teakettle (in the limited-edition Tattoo design) that we gave to a friend for her birthday. They have great prices on Dyson products. And some of the purses are cute.

We do not call in, of course. We order online, like we do everything else.

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In April 2026, the QVC Group (which operates the three QVC channels as well as HSN, the Home Shopping Network) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, announcing that the company would be significantly restructured in an effort to reduce its debt (a process which included increasing CEO David Rawlinson II’s total compensation by 70% as they braced for impact). The shopping channels, they insist, will proceed as usual. Despite layoffs of over 900 employees in March 2025, the company says there are no plans for further cuts, and there will be no disruption to the flow of content upon which my fellow QVC-nuts and I have come to rely.

Still, there is danger on the horizon. Change is coming, and has been for a while. The 2000s have not been kind to the networks. There have been lawsuits: In 2000, the Federal Trade Commission barred QVC from making unverified claims about weight-loss products, such as the claim that Lite Bites items like granola bars and shakes enable customers to lose up to 125 pounds, and that Lipofactor Cellulite Target Lotion “causes measurable inch loss from users’ arms, thighs, and abdomens, without the need for a restricted calorie diet or increased exercise.” QVC violated the order, and the government sued in 2004. In 2024, QVC recalled 1.1 million pairs of Temp-tations oven gloves after customers reported burns caused by insufficient heat protection. The 2025 layoffs were preceded by staff reductions in 2023, and in 2020 during the pandemic, when the network also eliminated live programming on QVC2. Something has got to give.

Wouldn’t it be better for QVC to die with dignity, rather than contort itself to chase audiences it will surely never get?

The rumor on Reddit, at least, is that QVC will continue to invest in its social media platforms, working with fresh-faced TikTok creators while their seasoned hosts languish on cable, tailoring their product pitches to a richer, more sophisticated audience. The transformation has already begun. You can see it in the jewelry presentations (5-stone diamond eternity bands for $8,500), the beauty products (10-pouch boxes of ELEMIS Cellutox Herbal Bath Synergy bath salts for $262), and even the food (lobster tails, filet mignon tips, or 3 lb. of shrimp cocktail for $133). Hosts now talk about the lack of “chemicals” in their bagels, or the importance of building “hair health” with Dyson blow dryers.

Will this work? It seems unlikely. Lizzie and I are the only people we know who watch QVC, let alone shop there. When I brought up the topic to a group of women my age, half of them had never even heard of it. Wouldn’t it be better for QVC to die with dignity, rather than contort itself to chase audiences it will surely never get?

It turns out I am tender. I do not want QVC to change. There has been too much change already. A couple of years ago, I moved out of the apartment with the pink couch and into a place 13 blocks uptown, with a man who became my husband. Lizzie found a rent-stabilized one-bedroom on the other side of the park. I went back to school and made new friends; Lizzie started spending more time in London with her sister. For the first few months in my new home, I tried to watch QVC, but it made me sad: The Voices were still there, but the only voice I wanted to hear was a 30-minute subway ride away. 

We reached that inflection point, that warped and curved surface upon which women friendships sometimes teeter. We are at the age where everything gets ruined. Still, we talk all day long, an unending commentary on whatever is in front of us. Our enduring closeness is an anachronism, but a beautiful one. We should not still be here, the way we are, but we are. 

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I suppose it’s a lesson: Whatever will come will come. For now, it’s August, and Christmas, and there is still so much to do. The flameless candles have sold out in Beige. The man from Bethlehem Lights is here to present his pre-lit trees, stately faux spruces twinkling with proprietary Color Prism illumination technology, 81 color and light combinations, the best time to purchase is now. Why limit this glittering joy to the festive season? Many customers keep their Bethlehem Lights boughs decked all year long: red or orange lights for Harvest Time; red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July.

But you have to act soon. At the end of the broadcast, the eight-and-a-half-foot tree (“their most popular height,” according to the rep) will double in price. Under the bright overhead lights, in their living-room diorama, the people onscreen peer out at me, concern on their made-up faces.

They are worried, but they can’t seem too worried; they want me to pick up the phone, but not panic. This is the beauty of it—of all of it, in fact; this not-urgent urgency, this solvable problem. This is why we watch. The deals are going away, but there is no such thing as an ending. Tomorrow it will be Christmas again.

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Hannah Engler Harvey holds an MA in journalism from New York University. Her work has appeared in Longreads, Evergreen Review, Talk Vomit, among other places. She lives in Manhattan.

Editor and fact-checker: Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Copyeditor: Krista Stevens

For Eater, Bettina Makalintal reports on a refreshing trend in the restaurant industry: businesses embracing lo-fi, handwritten communications and announcements in response to the ceaseless AI slop we’re served across social media these days. From a grocery store’s hand-illustrated flyers to a burger joint’s Sharpie-scribbled menu specials, restaurants are choosing advertising with a human touch and rejecting polished AI-generated graphics.

It’s hard to think of a path of more friction than choosing to run a restaurant; why add even more friction to that? In these conditions, yes, it costs more to hire a photographer to promote your new menu than to generate one with AI, but it’s also increasingly clear that many people would rather see a badly taken, lo-fi photo than an engineered AI image. For one thing, it feels like a reflection of one’s values. To me, a restaurant that employs AI art is capitulating to the culture of slop, akin to reheating premade food from Sysco. It’s impossible to square with a value system that cares about craft and integrity.

What moves the star of Jackass to risk his life for our entertainment? This “very serious investigation” involves interviews with friends and family, a surf trip to Malibu, a gag with a fake raccoon, and a stop at In-N-Out:

He nosed the car into the drive-through line, drawing stares as he nosed—some for the vehicle, some for the driver. Mostly male stares. A teen-age boy stepped up to the passenger window and leaned in to take his order.

“One hamburger with tomato, lettuce, and mustard,” Knoxville said. “Fries, please. And a cup of water.”

“Onion?”

“No, sir.”

The teen-ager squinted. “You look familiar. Are you famous, by any chance?”

“Actually, completely by chance!” Knoxville improvised.

Every adult who purports to care about a free press should read at least one story about the frustrating hurdles and bad-faith nitpicking confronted by student journalists (and their advisors). Earlier this year, a young reporter for the Redwood High School Bark found a few local references in the US Department of Justice’s public files concerning Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Soon, the high school faced legal threats, and administrators grew concerned that students had published inaccurate information. Ara Rosenthal tells the story of the steady, diligent young journalists who weathered the worries and pressures of the adults around them—and kept their story intact.

The peg for Robert Zaretsky’s essay on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot feels flimsy: “the 70th anniversary of its American premiere,” which lagged the show’s proper premiere, in Paris, by three years. Disregard the peg; as Zaretsky makes clear, there’s not a bad time, these days, to consider Beckett’s best-known work, a demonstration of “solidarity and compassion” set against a “featureless, colorless vista.” The stage directions for Godot have Estragon, one of the play’s leads, look out into the auditorium as an extension of the devastation. “Inspiring prospects,” he says. Let’s hope so.

Of course, Godot never arrives. In a Sesame Street parody of the play, the tree, fed up with the melodramatic and nonsensical patter of two Muppets waiting for Elmo, uproots itself and walks off the stage. But we cannot uproot ourselves and walk off the stage; instead, stuck like Didi and Gogo in a state of non-arrival, we wait. For those who waited for an answer from Beckett, none ever came. He once snapped at the English actor Ralph Richardson, who asked if Godot stood for God. If he had meant God, Beckett said, he would have written God. The play, he insisted, strove to avoid definition. This strategy of avoidance leaves us to gaze at a landscape void of meaning, one that by turns is the source of our bemusement and amusement.

Britain finally has a published defence investment plan (DIP). Does it match the scale of the challenge facing Britain (and Europe)? Three questions can tell us. Readers will feel less optimistic as they proceed through the answers. But the good news is the British public are well ahead of the defence establishment on what needs to be done.

Question: Does the DIP match the Russian threat?

Answer: Somewhat.

Last year NATO’s secretary-general warned Russia would be ready to attack by 2030, if not earlier. The European Commission’s SAFE programme of massive defence loans is geared to that deadline. These prognoses presumably assumed Russia would make short work of Ukraine, and could then prepare itself for fresh aggression. But Ukraine has humiliated Russia’s navy and air force, and mauled its army. The tide of war may now be turning.

Still, if Russia looks like losing in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin may become even more dangerous. He would likely prioritise different ways of trying to coerce Ukraine’s allies—sabotage, subversion, cyber assaults, attacks on infrastructure (such as undersea cables and pipes), nuclear menaces and even the sort of air and missile attacks he has nightly rained on Kyiv. In this regard, the DIP rightly focuses on cyber/electromagnetic defence and prioritises underwater robotics as part of the new £5bn investment in drones.

However, the plan reaches the extraordinary conclusion that “Capable and effective Integrated Air and Missile Defence can only be accomplished as part of a NATO endeavour”. It took only one misdirected drone to bring down the Latvian government in May. Where are the proposals for an emergency ramp-up of production of air defence missiles by MBDA (Europe’s leading missile company, one third British-owned), and coordination with the plethora of “air shield” projects now springing up across Europe? Incoming British prime minister Andy Burnham may wish to consider whether, apart from a few RAF combat aircraft, he is content to rely for the defence of Britain’s skies on the kindness of others.

Question: Does the DIP reflect the lessons of Ukraine?

Answer: Not enough.

Those lessons are in effect the development of a new paradigm of warfare through the embrace of new technologies. The need for technological “transformation” was a major theme of Britain’s strategic defence review (SDR): and the DIP duly has a lot to say about drones and other robotics. But Ukrainian battlefield success has involved so much more: a fundamental move away from the cold war military currency of aircraft, ships and tanks (all now exposed as dangerously vulnerable) to a web of sensors and surveillance assets, identifying threats and targets for a panoply of different “kill” options, including missiles, drones, cyber and electronic counter-measures. These are connected through AI-assisted battle management systems and data clouds. Development and procurement cycles are shortened to weeks or even days; hardware and software updates take place within hours.

The DIP offers no sense of such radical transformation or urgency

The DIP offers no sense of such radical transformation or urgency. True, it envisages a new Digital Targeting Web, and drones are to be introduced alongside next-generation platforms: as uncrewed “wingmen” for the Tempest sixth-generation combat aircraft; as subsea robots controlled from mother ships; as constituents of local combat clouds operated by armoured vehicles.

But the balance of overall investment is still overwhelmingly directed towards those next-generation platforms: Tempest, the nuclear deterrent, the AUKUS programme with America and Australia for future nuclear-powered attack submarines, helicopters—the sort of stuff the traditional defence industry loves, and that governments like to term a “defence dividend” of regional job creation.

The DIP acknowledges defence must “ruthlessly prioritise and make tough short-term choices, disinvesting in [old] capabilities”. Yet it is hard to see where this is actually happening, apart from the sacrifice of some planned old-style destroyers and frigates. Predictably, mothballing the increasingly irrelevant aircraft carriers is not an option that has found favour. Overall the picture is one of “hybridisation”—grafting some of the new onto much of the old root-stock.

Question: Does the DIP reflect how Trump has changed the world?

Answer: Not at all.

President Donald Trump has sided with Putin over Ukraine, threatened NATO ally Denmark over Greenland and promised US troop reductions in Europe. But the DIP is happy to reaffirm that “the US remains the UK’s closest defence and security ally”. Faith in the “special relationship” is evidently undimmed in the British defence establishment.

Symptomatic is the DIP’s endorsement of last year’s bizarre decision to buy more American F35 aircraft to drop US free-fall nuclear bombs. Since half a dozen European NATO allies already provide this service, the additional deterrent value will be minimal. But the decision betrays an extraordinary insouciance about sovereign control of software-driven aircraft with source code the Americans have always refused to share, and that is now rumoured to contain a US-operated “kill switch”. (Compare the fate of American tractors stolen from Ukraine by the Russians, and promptly killed by the John Deere company—or the similar feature on Tesla cars.)

Continental Europeans are now taking the issue of excessive technological dependence on America with increasing seriousness. Calls for “strategic autonomy” and “buy European”, once viewed as Gaullist eccentricity, are now mainstream. Efforts to develop national alternatives to American big tech offerings for AI-assisted, data-driven command systems are proliferating. Little wonder that, as Keir Starmer has sought to strengthen ties with Europe, Britain has found its “defence card” commanding less respect than hoped: a year on from last year’s EU-UK summit, Britain’s anticipated quick admission to the EU’s main programme for defence industrial collaboration has yet to happen. With Palantir now well established with the UK’s defence transformation efforts, the next British prime minister needs to address European mistrust of Britain’s commitment to cross-Channel cooperation, Burnham can do this by ensuring the contract for the Digital Targeting Web does not go to US big tech.

The establishment trail the public

Overall, the picture emerges of a British defence establishment—an alliance of industry, armed forces and political interests—that expects its bills to be promptly paid by the government, without quibble; is ready to introduce some new capabilities battle-proven in Ukraine but while retaining much of the old; and has difficulty imagining a future not fundamentally dependent on America.

So the results thrown up by recent ECFR polling are striking. The “Briton in the street” is evidently well out in front of the elite consensus when it comes to internalising the implications of the Trump geopolitical earthquake. Polling respondents hold both EU member states and the EU itself in much greater esteem than they do the US. Many more Britons believe their continental neighbours would help them repel an attack than trust America to do so. When it comes to defence cooperation, fully 63% would prioritise relations with Europe, over 19% for the US.

When he takes office later this month, Burnham may find he has more political room for manoeuvre than he expects when defence investment next comes up for debate.

Source

Within a few weeks, Britain will have a new prime minister. Andy Burnham, who was recently elected as an MP following nine years as mayor of Greater Manchester, looks set to take over without competition following Keir Starmer’s announcement that he would step down from the role.

Burnham has wide support among Labour MPs who think he represents the best hope of reviving the party’s popularity and seeing off the populist-nationalist Reform UK party in Britain’s next election. However, his recent experience in regional politics and his sudden ascent to become prime minister-in-waiting mean that Burnham’s approach to domestic policy is much clearer than his approach to foreign affairs. Domestically, as prime minister, he is likely to focus above all on spreading power and opportunity across Britain’s regions and communities.

Nevertheless, to achieve both his aim of inclusive regeneration and to protect the country’s security, Burnham needs to make some fundamental choices about Britain’s place in the world. It is possible to anticipate at least some of how he is likely to approach Britain’s international role. While Burnham is likely to continue with Starmer’s current approach to crisis management, the pressure of global trends and his political instincts could push him to set out a clearer picture of Britain’s partnerships, with a greater emphasis on Europe and middle powers.

Burnham’s vision of renewal

In Burnham’s set-piece speech on Monday, he presented the vision that he said will guide his leadership of Britain. He sees the defining goal of his premiership as restoring the British people’s trust in government by making it deliver better for all parts of the country. Some of his policy ambitions continue in the broad direction pursued by Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves: a focus on industrial strategy, the pursuit of greater self-sufficiency in key sectors essential for national security, encouraging innovation, directing public procurement towards domestic production, encouraging inward investment in Britain and tackling the shortage of affordable housing.

Burnham has said less about the foreign policy questions that have taken up much of Starmer’s time as prime minister, including Ukraine, the Middle East, relations with Donald Trump’s America and China. He will likely emphasise that he is prioritising domestic affairs, in contrast to Starmer who sometimes seemed more comfortable dealing with global issues than difficult domestic choices (and was mocked by critics as “never here Keir”). This might make Burnham inclined to appoint a relatively senior politician as foreign secretary who could carry out some high-profile diplomatic commitments on his behalf.

Aligned on foreign affairs

In any case, British policies on Ukraine and the Middle East are likely to remain much the same, because Starmer’s positions are mainstream within the Labour Party. According to foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham is “100% behind [the UK’s] unwavering support for Ukraine” and is a fundamental believer in NATO and Britain’s multilateral partnerships. Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s influential national security adviser who played a key role in these areas, will likely stay on at least until the end of the year. Although Burnham has occasionally sounded more critical of Israel’s war in Gaza—he called for a ceasefire in October 2023, two months before Starmer—there is little reason to expect any significant change in policy.

Burnham is pro-European (and has a Dutch wife) and said in 2025 that he hoped Britain would rejoin the EU in his lifetime. But during the recent by-election that brought him back into parliament, held in a constituency that voted strongly for Leave in 2016, he emphasised that he was not advocating that Britain rejoin now. In the short-term, his government’s focus will be on completing the EU-UK agreements that were due to be signed at a summit meeting on July 22nd. The summit is also supposed to set a direction for the next steps in the reset process; it seems unlikely that Burnham will come into office with views that would significantly change Britain’s approach to negotiations.

For a medium-sized, open economy like Britain, prosperity, re-industrialisation and the kind of economic security that Burnham wants to focus on cannot be achieved without paying attention to international partnerships

Nevertheless, despite Burnham’s likely intention to broadly preserve Starmer’s foreign policy and to focus on domestic issues, he will have to answer big questions about Britain’s international role. For a medium-sized, open economy like Britain, prosperity, re-industrialisation and the kind of economic security that Burnham wants to focus on cannot be achieved without paying attention to international partnerships in areas like trade, supply chains, investment energy and technology. Britain is already overdue to develop a more defined national strategy for these sectors, for an age where the kind of rules-based international order that it once relied on (and saw itself as a guardian of) has given way to a messier and more uncertain world.

Finding Britain’s global place

While Starmer played a strong role in supporting Ukraine and building security coalitions with other European countries, he did not set out a compelling wider vision of how Britain should position itself and its interests in a challenging global context. Burnham, however, is well placed to take on this task. His commitment to inclusive growth at home pairs well with a revised view of how Britain works internationally: he could set out a vision of internationalism for Britain that is rooted in the needs and aspirations of communities across the country, in line with the goal of regional regeneration that he espoused.

To do that, however, he will have to take some decisions about Britain’s international partnerships and affiliations, and how they relate to each other.

Given the alignment in Britain’s interests and the extent of its links with Europe, its relationship with the EU must be at the centre of foreign policy. The idea of a closer relationship with Europe is increasingly popular and, at a time when the US has become unreliable as a partner, presents the best foundation for promoting British security and prosperity. Whatever institutional form it ultimately takes, Burnham could set a more explicitly political vision of Britain’s role in Europe as a central element in navigating a complex and uncertain world.

Alongside this, he will need to create a balance between Britain and the US that preserves the benefits of cooperation but gives Britain greater ability to withstand pressure. Central to this will be technology and particularly AI—a subject that was surprisingly absent from Burnham’s speech, but which ministers within Starmer’s government are thinking about. Some in Labour circles expect Burnham to adopt a less deferential approach to Trump than Starmer pursued, at least until the US-Israeli attack on Iran this year.

Beyond the traditional transatlantic relationship, Burnham will need to determine how Britain acts towards increasingly influential emerging and middle powers. Here, it may be significant that Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Treasury official and economist for Goldman Sachs, has emerged as one of Burnham’s key economic advisers. O’Neill coined the acronym “BRICS” and argues strongly for including non-Western powers in global economic management. Most relevantly, he has proposed that rethinking traditional Western economic models goes hand-in-hand with greater engagement with non-Western countries that have different political-economic models.

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Britain’s G20 presidency in 2027 could be the perfect opportunity for Burnham to set out an ambitious vision of how international economic cooperation can benefit the populations of all countries. At the same time, Burnham should confront the trade-off between global cooperation and sustainability, and the risks of dependency, de-industrialisation and vulnerability to coercion. China will bring these trade-offs into sharp relief, making it among the defining strategic questions of Burnham’s premiership.

Source

By Gospa News Editorial Staff

Versione Sintetica in Italiano

Since today, therefore, this War Daily Summary will no longer contain news only on the war (and related geopolitical issue) in the Middle East, but also on the war in Ukraine and any other international conflicts.

NEW ONGOING DAILY UPDATES ON WARS IN VIDEO (since August 2026)

Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of Strait of Hormuz talks with Iran

WARS in VIDEO (August 2026). TRUMP THREATENS TO BOMB OMAN. If it interferes with Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Children’s Massacre in Lebanon

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EXCLUSIVE MILITARY – GEOPOLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS

ASYMMETRIC WAR BETWEEN ZELENSKY AND PUTIN

Ukraine Drones funded by EU to Kill Russian Civilians, Moscow Missiles to Target Weapons Industries

Brief analysis by Fabio G.C. Carisio on August, 17, 2026

While the Russian Army continues to advance on the battlefield in Donbas, consolidating its military positions—predicting its complete annexation within a year—the Russian Aerospace Forces are engaged in an asymmetric strategic war against Kiev’s air force.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, using drones paid for by European Union citizens and built in a covert partnership with the US Pentagon and EU countries, continues to target Russia’s energy infrastructure and civilian buildings in a vain attempt to provoke a rebellion among the Russian population, as military bases are too well-protected to be attacked.

In the last few hours, more than a thousand kamikaze drones have been launched, killing at least six Russian civilians and seriously damaging the Wildberries (Russian Amazon) online distribution centers alone.

Without having to contend with the costs borne by the European Union, the leader of the pro-Nazi Zelensky regime can waste drones at will on massacres of civilians, as recently happened in Nizhnekamsk.

It should not be forgotten that European politicians and media censored or at least severely obscured the massacre of Russian schoolgirls that occurred on May 21, 2026, when more than one drone, using the lethal double-tap tactic, struck a dormitory in Starobelsk, in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which confederated with Russia after a popular plebiscite.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin, who could level much of Kiev in a single night with undetectable hypersonic missiles, to avoid a massacre of “Ukrainian brothers,” limits himself to striking the military and energy infrastructure that is bringing Ukraine’s military apparatus to its knees, increasingly short of Patriot air defense rockets.

Vital – 21 RUSSIAN STUDENTS KIILLED in Dombas by “Double-Tap” of Wave of Kiev Drones as Zionist-Style. RT Investigation

But the escalation triggered by Zelensky, with the applause of US President Trump, has inevitably led Russia to raise the level of retaliation and also include civilian targets, such as ships in the port of Odessa.

As long as European, American, and Zionist leaders speculate on the Weapons Lobby, the conflict in Ukraine can only continue to escalate toward a total “preventive” war, like that waged by Israel and the US against Iran, and desired by NATO and, above all, Great Britain against Russia.

Until Putin loses patience and carries out a massacre in Kiev… But from that moment on, thanks to vile Western propaganda, every day will be a good day for the start of World War III.

WEAPONS LOBBY – 20. HUGE BUSINESS OF ZIONIST TRUMP’s WARMONGERS. How a German Industry Became the Golden Goose for the US

The evidence presented in this analysis is documented in the exclusive investigations published below and in the last week’s updates below.

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio – founder and director of Gospa News

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ZIONISTS’ Neverending WAR CRIMES, as GENOCIDES. Iran: “US, Israel GUILTY of gravest MASSACRES since 1949”.

Latest Children’s Murdering in Lebanon, Minab and Qeshm

READ MORE IN THE INVESTIGATIVE ANALYSIS BELOW

ZIONISTS’ Neverending WAR CRIMES, as GENOCIDES. Iran: “US, Israel GUILTY of gravest MASSACRES since 1949”. Children’s Murdering in Lebanon, Qeshm, Minab

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MI6 in Damascus and Russia Agrees to train Al Qaeda Militia on the Coast

Russia miscalculated the longevity of their sphere of influence in Syria

ANALYSIS BY VANESSA BEELEY IN THE POST BELOW

ASSAD SENTENCED TO DEATH by JIHADIST GOVT. After MI6 in Damascus to meet Al Jolani, Russia Agrees to train Al Qaeda Militia on the Coast

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“I WILL NEVER SERVE THE UNITED STATES OF ISRAEL”. Disruptive Analysis by Scott Ritter.

Ex US Navy Intel Official on Trump-Netanyahu Affairs

READ IN THE POST BELOW

“I WILL NEVER SERVE THE UNITED STATES OF ISRAEL”. Disruptive Analysis by Scott Ritter, Ex US Navy Intel Official, on Trump-Netanyahu Affairs

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MI5 Intelligence Chiefs Secretly Lobbied UK government to designate IRGC as ‘Terrorist’ Organization

READ MORE IN THE POST BELOW

MI5 Intelligence Chiefs Secretly Lobbied UK government to designate IRGC as ‘Terrorist’ Organization

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Carlson & Waters: “HOW US, UK, EU and NATO are Triggering WORLD WAR III”.

The BOJO Fake-Peace Plan in Ukraine to Provoke Russia

GEOPOLITICAL AND MILITARY ANALYSIS IN THE POST BELOW

Carlson & Waters (VIDEO): “HOW US, UK, EU and NATO are Triggering WORLD WAR III”. The BOJO Fake-Peace Plan in Ukraine to Provoke Russia

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THE SYRIAN WHITE HELMETS INVADE VENEZUELA.

To Assist Final Western Regime-Change? (VIDEO) Kit Klarenberg Investigation

FULL INVESTIGATION AND VIDEOS IN THE POST BELOW

THE SYRIAN WHITE HELMETS INVADE VENEZUELA. To Assist Final Western Regime-Change? (VIDEO) Kit Klarenberg Investigation

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WEAPONS LOBBY – 22. “UKRAINE is a TESTING GROUND‘ for AI WARFARE and EU-NATO ARMS”.

Russian Intel Chief Claimed, US General confirmed it!

FULL INVESTIGATION AND VIDEOS IN THE POST BELOW

WEAPONS LOBBY – 22. “UKRAINE is a TESTING GROUND‘ for AI WARFARE and EU-NATO ARMS” Russian Intel Chief Claimed, US General confirmed it!

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US Sen. GRAHAM’s Mysterious Death after Zelensky Meeting (3 VIDEO). Scott Ritter: “A Most Sinful Man”.

Netanyahu: “We have Lost a Great Friend (VIDEO)”

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US Sen. GRAHAM’s Mysterious Death after Zelensky Meeting and Drone Check (3 VIDEO). Scott Ritter: “A Most Sinful Man”. Netanyahu: “We have Lost a Great Friend”

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The US MILITARY OCCUPATION of the Indian Ocean “Zone of Peace”

Among BioWarfare, Geoengineering and Directed Energy Weapons

READ FULL INVESTIGATION BELOW

The US MILITARY OCCUPATION of the Indian Ocean “Zone of Peace” among BioWarfare, Geoengineering and Directed Energy Weapons

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Related Breaking News – The FIDEL CASTRO’s DISTURBING “PROPHECY” on VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKE

He forecast that a seismic event could have been triggered with HAARP Dangerous US Military Tests

READ FULL INVESTIGATION BELOW

The FIDEL CASTRO’s DISTURBING “PROPHECY” on VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKE triggered with HAARP Dangerous US Military Tests

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DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”

ALL DETAILS IN THE POST BELOW

DEVIL NETANYAHU’s HOLOCAUST. Explosive UN findings: “Israel DELIBERATELY TARGETED Gaza CHILDREN”

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UKRAINE BIOLABS – 11. “NATO Lethal BIOWEAPONS Ongoing Program”.

Evidence from 3 New Russian & US INTEL VIDEOS by FSB Chief, Ritter (ex US Navy), Gabbard (ODNI)

ALL DETAILS IN THE INVESTIGATION BELOW

UKRAINE BIOLABS – 11. “NATO Lethal BIOWEAPONS Ongoing Program”. Evidence from 3 New Russian & US INTEL VIDEOS by FSB Chief, Ritter (ex US Navy), Gabbard (ODNI)

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IntelDrop – “ISRAEL ASKED FB to CENSOR Iran War Content” The Intercept unveils 

Help Us to Fight vs Zionist Censorship on All Social

ALL DETAILS IN THE INVESTIGATION BELOW

IntelDrop – “ISRAEL ASKED FB to CENSOR Iran War Content” The Intercept unveils. Help Us to Fight vs Zionist Censorship on All Social

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PENTAGON’s BIOLABS in UKRAINE, COVID-19 BIOWEAPON & MOSSAD-EPSTEIN Ring (video).

Sensational Revelations by a US Military Whistleblower on Gabbard-ODNI Dossier

PENTAGON’s BIOLABS in UKRAINE, COVID-19 BIOWEAPON & MOSSAD-EPSTEIN Ring (video). Sensational Revelations by a US Military Whistleblower on Gabbard-ODNI Dossier

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WEAPONS LOBBY – 21. SCHOOLGIRLS’ Massacre in Donbas by DRONE of Ex CIA CHIEF POMPEO.

Behind UAV FP-1 the Satanic Kiev Gang of Corruption, funded by SOROS’ Coup too

READ MORE IN THE INVESTIGATION BELOW

WEAPONS LOBBY – 21. NATO’s WarCrimes! Attack to Moscow, SCHOOLGIRLS’ Massacre by DRONE of Ex CIA Chief POMPEO. Behind UAV FP-1 the Satanic Kiev Gang of Corruption funded by SOROS too

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“ISRAEL ADDED in the UN’s BLACKLIST OF PERPETRATORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN WAR”.

Tel Aviv Ambassador said on X (VIDEO) All Previous Dossier about

“The UN added Israel to a blacklist of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict. We are done with the Secretary-General’s lies. Equating the democratic State of Israel with Hamas terrorists is a new low. Israel protects its citizens while Hamas massacres, rapes, and kidnaps”.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danonm said in a post on X. In the post below all the previous dossier on this topic.

“ISRAEL added in the UN’s BLACKLIST of Perpetrators of SEXUAL VIOLENCE in WAR”. Ambassador said (VIDEO). France urges to investigate on Flotilla abuse by Israel

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WARS  & GEOPOLITICS Updates in Video

Updates on AUGUST, 17, Breaking News in Video

BREAKING NEWS – Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of Strait of Hormuz talks with Iran

President Donald Trump threatened in an interview with Fox News to bomb Oman if it interferes in a potential deal with Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the news outlet reported.

Oman has been negotiating with Tehran over the vital shipping route, where maritime traffic has nearly ground to a halt as talks on ending the U.S. war with Iran have stalled.

Below the CNN Breaking News keynotes about:

• Threat to Oman: President Donald Trump warned of an attack on Oman if it “gets in the way” of efforts in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump previously threatened the US ally in May.

• Iran agreement expires: The 60-day deadline for the two sides to reach a deal toward ending the conflict has now passed. Trump again said he is in no rush and claimed his administration has established a direct backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the IRGC denies.

• Main priority: The president reiterated that the top goal in the war is preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, undercutting advisers who say keeping oil prices low is an important priority.

• Gaza ceasefire plan: Meanwhile, after Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today for over four hours, Kushner said Hamas could disarm soon but indicated the US would support further Israeli military action in Gaza if not.

«US President Donald Trump threatened today to attack Oman if it interferes with US efforts in the Strait of Hormuz, as the conflict with Iran continues and a two-month window for peace talks expires without a clear path to end the war» CNN has reported in a video.

Trump’s comments come as the 60-day window for peace talks between the US and Iran, agreed to in June, closed Monday without any concrete plans announced for the war to end. Meanwhile, Iran said Monday that its talks with Oman regarding the Strait of Hormuz are complex but continuing.

In the latest days POTUS said that he wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory: “I’ll Never Apologize” War Crimes

Ukraine again Failed to Shoot Down a Single Ballistic or Hypersonic Missile last Night

Ukraine again Failed to Shoot Down a Single Ballistic or Hypersonic Missile last Night

This follows from the summary of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Air Force Ukraine was attacked on the last night (August 16, 2026) nby Onyx, Iskander-M, S-400, KN-23 and Kh-59/69 missiles, as well as 106 drones.

3 FOOTAGES IN ONE VIDEO – legenda below

1st Footage – Kiev on fire after the heavy strikes which hit also the market of book in retaliation to the yet another attack on a distribution center of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer with two million visitors a day.

2nd footage – Russian troops are delivering precision strikes on Ukraine’s military and fuel infrastructure

In the Kiev-controlled part of the Zaporizhia region, a gas station and related equipment were hit. The fact of the attack was confirmed by the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov. In the north of the Kharkiv region, the Russian Aerospace Forces are launching guided aerial bombs at enemy positions and fortifications. This is reported by local publications.
Direct hits to infrastructure facilities were recorded in Sumy, and large fires broke out in the affected areas. A massive raid by unmanned aerial vehicles continues in the Odessa region, explosions are heard in Sanzheyka. Systematic attacks on the fuel infrastructure leave the Ukrainian army without fuel at a time when the Western allies are reporting on the supply of new batches of weapons that have nothing to refuel.

3d footage – Russian FAB-500s level Ukrainian drone hub

The Russian forces сonducted a strike on the Ukrainian National Guard’s drone command post in the settlement of Dobropolye in the Donetsk People’s Republic using four FAB-500 high-explosive aerial bombs, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said.

Russian forces strike defense industry facilities, oil refinery, steel plant

Russian forces struck defense industry facilities in Kiev, the Kremenchug oil refinery and a steel plant in Krivoy Rog, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“Russian forces struck Fire Point in Kiev, a company producing components, warheads and solid-fuel boosters for Flamingo ground-launched cruise missiles. Russian troops also struck Ukrdefense Company in Kiev, which produces components for strike drones, Khrushch interceptor drones and Garpiya air defense drones,” the Defense Ministry said.

Below the previous attack on Fire Point facility launched one week ago

Russian forces struck the Kremenchug oil refinery in the Poltava Region, where the remaining storage tanks continue handling fuel and lubricants supplied from abroad. The Russian military struck steelmaking facilities in Krivoy Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, producing rolled steel for weapons and military equipment.

Russian forces also struck a dry cargo ship carrying military equipment for Ukrainian forces at the port of Odessa, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

WEAPONS LOBBY – 21. NATO’s WarCrimes! Attack to Moscow, SCHOOLGIRLS’ Massacre by DRONE of Ex CIA Chief POMPEO. Behind UAV FP-1 the Satanic Kiev Gang of Corruption funded by SOROS too

Russian forces hit Ukrainian uncrewed boats production facility

Russian drones struck facilities for the production and storage of components for uncrewed boats used by Ukraine to attack Russian coastal cities, ships and infrastructure facilities in the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said.

“During the day, Russian attack unmanned aerial vehicles struck in the settlement of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky (40 kilometers southwest of Odessa): a production facility and a depot holding warheads and components for uncrewed boats used to attack ships and energy infrastructure facilities in the Black Sea, and Russian cities on the Black Sea coast,” it said.

Russian forces hit three dry cargo ships, two tankers at Odessa port

Russian forces struck three dry cargo ships and two tankers, as well as fuel tanks at the port of Odessa, the Russian defense ministry said.

“Three dry cargo ships and two sea-going tankers used to deliver military cargoes and fuels for the Ukrainian army, as well as fuel tanks and warehouses holding military products were struck at the port of Odessa,” it said.

Russian air defenses down 822 Ukrainian drones overnight

Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Russian regions and the Black and Azov Seas overnight (august, 16, 2026), the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“Russian air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Tambov and Tula regions, the Moscow Region, the Krasnodar Region and the Republic of Crimea, as well as over the Azov and Black Seas, from 8 p.m. Moscow time (5 p.m. GMT) on August 15 to 8 a.m. Moscow time (5 a.m. GMT) on August 16,” the Defense Ministry said.

Three killed, one injured in drone attack on Russia’s Rostov Region

Three people were killed and one more was injured in a drone attack on southern Russia’s Rostov Region, Governor Yury Slyusar reported.

“Last night, three people were killed as a result of an aerial attack on the Rostov Region, and one more has been hospitalized with injuries,” he wrote on Max channel.

More than 150 UAVs were destroyed over three cities and nine districts in the region in the Ukrainian attack, the official added.

Below the previous UAV attacks on Russia town of Nizhenekamsk wichiu killed 11 civilians including children

Three injured as Moscow comes under massive drone attack

Three people were injured in a drone attack near the Moscow Automobile Ring Road (MKAD), according to Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

“Defense Ministry air defense capabilities have downed another nine drones targeting Moscow. Three people were injured near MKAD, they are being given all necessary assistance. Emergency specialists are working at the scene where [drone] debris fell,” Sobyanin wrote on Max channel.

Since midnight (August,16,2026), as many as 132 unmanned aerial vehicles flying toward the Russian capital have been shot down, calculations by TASS based on the mayor’s posts show.

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Updates on AUGUST, 16, Breaking News in Video

Elon Musk’s Starlink promised faster data for US Drone, Iran’s air defenses promised faster downing

Iranian state television is showing, for the first time, evidence that Elon Musk’s “Starlink” devices are being used in U.S. military drones.

The IRGC is now displaying wreckage from 171 downed US and Israeli aircraft and drones — including MQ-9 Reapers, Hermes 900s, an F-15 fighter jet, and Starlink modems recovered from the wreckage.

Saudi-linked port halts operations following attacks by Yemeni armed forces (Houthis)

Yemen’s Mokha port has suspended commercial and maritime operations after the Yemeni armed forces targeted it with more than 25 missiles in recent days, the port’s director said on Saturday.

The attacks killed seven people and caused an estimated $16 million in losses, the director told a news conference.

Mokha is a Red Sea port near the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a strategic chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and a key route for international shipping.

The port is controlled by Saudi-linked mercenaries. It has a smaller cargo capacity than Yemen’s main ports of Aden and Hodeidah, according to Iranian Press TV.

On Friday, spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement that the armed forces subjected Saudi Arabia-linked targets to fresh heavy strikes.

He added that the servicemen targeted “warships belonging to its (Riyadh’s) tools and mercenaries in the al-Mokha area, using a large number of ballistic missiles.”

Hezbollah: Israeli Occupation’s Continued Attacks on Lebanon will receive an Appropriate Response

Hezbollah condemned on Saturday the major Israeli enemy’s escalation in southern Lebanon, affirming the Israeli occupation army carried out brutal massacres against civilians and warning that continued attacks and violations of Lebanese sovereignty would be met with an appropriate response, Al Manar Lebanese TV has reported.

In a statement, Hezbollah said Lebanese residents woke at dawn to an aggressive escalation and a brutal massacre allegedly carried out by the criminal Zionist enemy against civilians in the south. It said Israeli strikes targeted a home on the outskirts of the southern town of Ansar and a building in Deir Al-Zahrani, killing 11 people, including women and children, and wounding 12 others.

“Those grave crimes add to Israel’s long record of “massacres, crimes, and the shedding of Lebanese blood, as well as the destruction of homes, the bulldozing of farmland, and the erasure of entire villages,” the statement read.

Hezbollah said responsibility for the Israeli enemy’s continued aggression and violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty rested with the Israeli government and the United States, which it accused of providing Israel with political and military backing and cover.

At the same time, the group called on the Lebanese authorities to explore every available means to halt the Israeli attacks rather than persist with the humiliating direct negotiations and offer “Israel” free concessions, despite the Israeli enemy’s repeated crimes and attacks, as well as its openly stated aggressive and expansionist intentions toward Lebanon.

The Lebanese Parents of Child Martyrs Association on Saturday condemned a new Israeli massacre in the southern town of Ansar that killed a family of six, including four children, and called on Lebanese authorities to document the attack and pursue accountability through regional and international legal channels.

«In a statement, the association condemned the Israeli occupation army’s pre-dawn attack on a family in Ansar on August 15, 2026, which killed Ali Al-Hajj Hassan, his wife, Zeinab Nassereddine, and their children Zahraa, Hassan, Hussein, and Abbas» Al Manar Lebanese TV has reported.

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Updates on AUGUST, 14-15, Breaking News in Video

Aoun, Salam condemn Israeli massacres in South Lebanon

Israeli forces carried out a series of airstrikes and attacks across South Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 11 in the past 24 hours, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Our correspondent reported that an Israeli strike on Deir al-Zahrani targeted a building along the town’s main highway. Ambulances rushed to the scene amid initial reports of a massacre, while rescue teams worked to assess the casualties and search for survivors.

The Health Ministry reported that the preliminary toll from the Deir al-Zahrani attack stood at two martyrs and nine wounded, bringing the reported toll from the two attacks to at least nine martyrs and 11 wounded.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned on Saturday the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, stressing that these violations constitute a “clear message to the negotiating process and to US efforts aimed at implementing the framework agreement”.

For his part, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the Israeli escalation since dawn as “extremely dangerous”, saying that the strikes and heavy bombardment targeting Nabatieh, Ansar, Deir al-Zahrani, and neighboring villages were undermining efforts to establish stability in the South, as he posted on his X account.

The Israeli escalation began with an Israeli airstrike on an inhabited home in Ansar, in the Nabatieh district, killing seven people, including three children and two women, while two others were wounded, according to the Health Ministry.

Houthis used 6 ballistic missiles in al-Makha attack, Yemen army says

Trump wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory: “I’ll Never Apologize” War Crimes

Trump wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory

Donald Trump said that after the completion of the military operation against Iran, he intends to declare the Strait of Hormuz the territory of the United States.

“After we finish defeating Iran … pretty soon I will declare the Strait of Hormuz the territory of the United States,” the American president said, adding that the United States allegedly already controls the passage of ships through the strait.

Meanwhile, a large-scale oil spill was reported in the Strait of Hormuz after a missile strike on the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier. The oil slick spread over more than 300 km, an area comparable to about 40,000 football fields.

“I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing” — Trump on his war-crime spree in Iran

Don told Americans to show some patience and PAY MORE for gas while he bombs more girls in Iran as part of his ego play.

“What we’re doing is a great service for — not only for ourselves, for the world,” the failed emperor declared.

Russian attacks hit 11 locations across Ukraine as grain ports come under fire

Cities across Ukraine are facing near-daily Russian attacks, with 11 locations hit overnight on Thursday, including Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kramatorsk.

Several people were killed and more than two dozen wounded, including children. Ukraine says more than 100 drones were launched, but it is no longer releasing figures for missiles used, citing security concerns and shortages of interceptor missiles.

Ukraine’s grain industry is also suffering from repeated Russian attacks on ports. Hundreds of vessels have been targeted by both sides in the Black Sea over the past month, prompting Ukraine to propose a ceasefire covering civilian vessels.

Kyiv says this would allow ports to reopen and farmers to export their harvest during a crucial period. Russia has not yet responded to the proposal.

These attacks came in retaliation for the ongoing lethal attacks on civilian buildings launched by the Ukrainian military.

Russian Armed Forces liberate Rybalskyoe in Zaporozhye Region

The Russian Armed Forces liberated Rybalskyoe in the Zaporozhye Region within 24 hours, the Defense Ministry reported.

“As a result of decisive actions by units of the Battlegroup East, the village of Rybalskoye in the Zaporozhye Region has been liberated,” the statement reads.

The liberation of Rybalskoye in the Zaporozhye region allowed the Battlegroup East to expand its zone of control northwest of Novoye Pole and continue its advance, the ministry added.

“During the fighting, units of the Battlegroup East broke through the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defenses. The enemy suffered losses of up to a company of personnel. Seven armored combat vehicles, 10 vehicles, 13 ground robotic systems, and more than 20 R-18 heavy hexacopters were destroyed. The liberation of Rybalskyoe allowed units of the Battlegroup East to expand their zone of control northwest of Novoye Pole and continue their advance in the special military operation zone in the Zaporpzhye region,” the ministry said.

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Updates on AUGUST, 12-13, Breaking News in Video

US Ambassador to Israel: “Settler Siege of Palestinian Homes Is Terrorism”

“The actions of those who carried out this horrific act of terrorism, aimed at intimidating and harassing this family, are abhorrent,” the US ambassador to Israel wrote on X, referring to Israeli settlers besieging the home of two Palestinian families in Qusra, in the West Bank.

“There is no excuse for such violent behavior,” Mike Huckabee wrote on X. Among the homes targeted is one owned by a US citizen.

The Israeli army (IDF) has reversed its decision to evacuate Palestinian families whose homes are under siege by settlers in the West Bank village of Qusra, near Nablus, for several days.

The public broadcaster Kan reported, specifying that the commander of the IDF Central Command, General Avi Blot, ordered that soldiers enter only unoccupied homes.

The decision, Kan emphasizes, follows criticism of Israel for its handling of the situation in Qusra. The IDF had initially asked residents of the besieged homes, as well as other residences, to leave their homes for a few days in anticipation of a military operation in the area.

COLONI ISRAELIANI KILLER sul TG1 DIVENTANO “ESCURSIONISTI”. Sdegno Social contro la Disinformazione RAI sul Massacro di Palestinesi a Tell

Israeli settlers lay siege to Palestinian family with two daughters

Armed Israeli settlers and Israeli occupation forces have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend in an effort to usurp their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through intimidation.

On Sunday afternoon, armed settlers and Israeli soldiers surrounded Yousef Hassan’s home, erecting a tent just outside and effectively trapping him inside with his wife and their two young daughters, leaving the family confined as the intimidation campaign unfolded around them.

The Israeli men gathered only meters from the location where 28-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh was killed by a settler in March. Another attacker stabbed Odeh’s father. No arrests have been made in connection with the killing and assault.

“Every night, the settlers throw stones, use obscene language, and shout during the night. We are living in a state of terror,” Hassan said.

‘We will not withdraw’: Katz on Israeli forces in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza

Israeli War Minister Katz openly declared that Israeli forces intend to maintain a long-term occupation of areas in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, ruling out withdrawal from what “Israel” has designated as so-called “security zones” and ordering the military to prepare for a prolonged presence.

Katz made the remarks on Wednesday during a visit to Israeli occupation forces deployed inside southern Lebanon, according to Israeli media platform Divuhim Online, as senior commanders discussed military preparations for a possible future confrontation with the Lebanese Resistance.

“The Israeli army is here to stay in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza and to protect the entire State of Israel,” Katz said. “We are up above and they are down below. I have instructed the Israeli army to take all necessary steps to prepare for a long-term presence in the area.”

Final Countdown to Complete 1948’s Nakba. Israeli Govt admits the ZioNazi Genocide’s Goal: Depopulate Gaza Strip

The declaration comes almost two months after Lebanon and “Israel” agreed to a US-sponsored framework involving the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, the disarmament of Hezbollah, and the deployment of the Lebanese Army, beginning in designated test areas known as “pilot zones.”

«His remarks provide an unusually explicit articulation of an Israeli policy increasingly centered on maintaining military control beyond occupied Palestine’s internationally recognized borders, under the pretext of creating buffer or “security” zones.» Al Mayadeen Lebanese TV freported. 

https://gospanews.net/en/2023/12/08/the-greater-israel-scheme-and-its-global-power-play-a-delusional-recipe-for-armageddon/

Such declarations reinforce longstanding warnings that Israeli military expansion is not intended as a temporary security measure, but as an effort to entrench occupation and impose new realities by force.

IRGC: No Ship Can Safely Pass through Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s Permission

Spokesperson for the Central Headquarters of Khatam al-Anbiya (PBUH) affirmed that no ship can pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian permission and supervision.

The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters is the highest operational military command center of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, located in Tehran.

Washington’s baseless claims about the normal movement of ships through Hormuz are nothing but lies, he added.

Meanwhile, hte head of the Basij Mobilization Group, Hojjatoleslam Hussein Taeb, said, “The Americans ignited a war in the Strait of Hormuz to change the balance of power, but they were defeated once again.”

He added, “The Strait of Hormuz is under the administration and control of the Islamic Republic, and Iran continues its path in complete security and stability.

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Updates on AUGUST, 11, Breaking News in Video

HUNTER BIDEN to Carlson: “Bibi Netanyahu evil incarnate…”

HUNTER BIDEN: ‘If it’s antisemitic to point out that Bibi Netanyahu evil incarnate… don’t know what to say to people anymore… just open your eyes’

TUCKER: ‘It’s such an obvious lie’

HUNTER: ‘How is it possible that they’re dividing us on things like that?’

TUCKER: ‘I agree’

Russian armed forces launched a coordinated attack on defense facilities in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia

The Russian armed forces launched a coordinated attack on defense industry facilities and transportation and logistics hubs in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense.

The video shows the aftermath of one of the attacks in Kyiv.

Defense Ministry’s statement  quoting by TASS:

“The Russian Armed Forces carried out a coordinated overnight strike using ground-based precision-guided weapons, resulting in the destruction of military-industrial facilities and transport and logistics centers in the cities of Kiev and Zaporozhye” the military said in a statement

The ministry later revealed in another statement that the targets of the overnight strike were successfully hit.

The Russian Armed Forces struck a Nova Post logistics terminal in Kiev, an automated compound storing and distributing dual-use goods, including components for long- and medium-range UAV production, robotic vehicles and electronic warfare systems.

Russian servicemen also hit the Kiev-3 transport and logistics center, also known as San-park, a large warehouse facility of approximately 50,000 square meters that stored up to 15,000 attack FPV drones, including those equipped with thermal imaging cameras, such as Beshket, Spuk, Komik-A, and Gorobets, as well as ground control stations and related components.

The Russian Armed Forces struck the Zaporozhstal steel mill (PJSC Zaporizhstal), a part of the Metinvest Group.

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Updates on AUGUST, 10, Breaking News in Video

Iran Links Hormuz Reopening to End of US Blockade

Spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Esmaeil Baghaei said the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen as long as the US maintains its naval blockade against Iran, stressing that Washington must end and make amends for its “destructive actions” before further steps can be discussed.

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Baghaei said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was a result of the US and Israeli military aggression against Iran.

He noted that negotiations between Iran and Oman over a shipping route are naturally a bilateral matter involving the two coastal states.

The spokesman stressed that reopening the Strait of Hormuz depends on the conditions imposed on Iran and the waterway by the US and the Zionist regime, saying that the necessary conditions for reopening do not exist while the US naval blockade remains in place.

“As long as the US naval blockade continues, the necessary conditions for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz do not exist,” Baghaei stated. He added that it is up to the US to stop and make amends for its destructive actions so that the sides could then discuss the next steps.

Asked about the possibility of Iran imposing transit fees on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Baghaei said discussions on such details are still underway and that Iran is not currently discussing the issue.

Drone attack on Nizhnekamsk kills thirteen people killed, including child

he number of people killed as a result of the drone attack on facilities in Nizhnekamsk has increased to 13, the press service of the head of Tatarstan told journalists.

Russian Investigative Committee Spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, told TASS that a child was among those killed. Industrial and civilian facilities in Nizhnekamsk came under a large-scale drone strike, causing fatalities.

According to the investigation, Ukraine used drones to strike residential areas and industrial facilities in Nizhnekamsk.

Ukraine lost 11 locomotives, having received 41 blows to the railway infrastructure

The Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia officially called the past days one of the most difficult and destructive weeks in its history. In five years, the country’s transport infrastructure has been attacked 41 times.

11 locomotives were damaged and disabled, tracks and station facilities used for military transportation were destroyed.

Passengers from trains had to be evacuated 350 times due to threats and arrivals. The loss of a key locomotive fleet and the constant destruction of tracks cause critical damage to the entire transport system of the country.

YAF-HOUTIS announce targeting of Saudi-backed factions in Mokha

The strikes by the Yemeni Armed Forces (aka Houtis) on Al-Mukha and Marib decimated Saudi officers and their troop concentrations, targeting a heavy and medium weapons depot alongside a secret storage facility, a senior Yemeni source told Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent in Sanaa.

Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the operation, carried out using a large number of ballistic missiles and drones, came in response to Saudi Arabia’s continued mobilization of its proxies, its supply of weapons and equipment to them, and its ongoing attacks along the western coast and in Taiz governorate aimed at deterring the Yemeni people from confronting the blockade and aggression imposed on them for the past 12 years.

“The strikes were precise and caused extensive damage to the equipment and weapons, killing and wounding dozens, including Saudi nationals”,Saree said on Telegram.

The Yemeni Armed Forces reaffirmed their commitment to the declared equation of “blockade for blockade and escalation for escalation,” vowing to continue targeting any military buildup directed against the Yemeni people and the free governorates.

The strike on Mokha is the second operation carried out by the YAF on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the YAF announced that they targeted a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, stating that the operation comes as a response to Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.

Saree announced that the forces successfully targeted the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, achieving a precise hit. He said the operation came in response to Saudi drone incursions into the airspace of Yemen’s Saada and Hajjah provinces.

The announcement came after Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry reported earlier that a fire had broken out at a facility belonging to Saudi Aramco’s refinery in Jizan, southwestern Saudi Arabia. The ministry said Aramco’s industrial security firefighting teams extinguished the fire and that there were no injuries.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman pays tribute to journalists killed in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine

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Updates on AUGUST, 9, Breaking News in Video

Israel rejects 15-point Gaza document, not to withdraw until Hamas disarms — Netanyahu

Israel rejects the 15-point document on Gaza and will not withdraw its forces until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the government’s weekly meeting.

“Israel does not accept the 15-point document. The Israel Defense Forces will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say the disarming of Hamas, it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. We are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament,”Netanyahu said, according to his office.

“Right now, we are talking with the Americans about this issue. They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable, and we know how to stand firm against these things,” he added.

Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons regardless of whether Washington and Tehran reach an agreement, Netanyahu said. “I greatly appreciate the historical partnership with the US against Iran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. And I wish to emphasize once again: with or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Iranian TV Airs Footage of Captured US and Israeli Aircraft

Footage appears to show a drone, aircraft parts, and other machinery.

This week, US media reports said that Washington faces depleted missile stockpiles—including long-range and air-defense systems—following the conflict with Iran, a claim the White House denied. The developments follow a war of words after Donald Trump said the two sides were talking again, which Tehran rejected.

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Updates on AUGUST, 7-8, Breaking News in Video

Russian MOD: “Plant Producing Warheads for Flamingo Missiles Hit in Kiev” – VIDEO

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Updates on AUGUST, 6, Breaking News in Video

Yemeni Armed Forces (Houtis) launch large-scale op. against Saudi troop concentrations

The Yemeni Armed Forces (aka Houtis army) carried out a large-scale military operation against Saudi military reinforcements, reporting hundreds of casualties and significant material damage, the YAF spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced.

The Yemeni military spokesperson said the operation was a response to continued Saudi actions, stating that “in light of the criminal Saudi enemy’s persistence in continuing the siege and aggression against our dear Yemeni people for nearly 12 years, our Armed Forces monitored large Saudi military concentrations that were in their final stages, aimed at escalating against the free provinces and the Yemeni people to deter them from their position on ending the unjust siege.”

The operation, according to the YAF, resulted in:

• the killing and wounding of hundreds of “Saudi enemy mercenaries”
• the destruction and burning of a large number of Saudi enemy camps, concentrations, weapons depots, and military equipment in the al-Wadi’ah area, east of the country
• the destruction of a large number of military vehicles stationed at the targeted bases

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have confirmed targeting multiple Yemeni Emergency Forces camps in the Marib and Hadramout governorates, including in the Ruwaik, Al-Abr and Al Thaniyah areas.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group used “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones” to destroy and burn campgrounds, troop concentrations, depots, weapons and military vehicles.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have killed at least 30 government soldiers and injured 15 in missile attacks on Yemeni military camps in Hadramout and Marib governorates, government sources told Al Jazeera.

Service fees for transit through Strait of Hormuz to depend on services provided

The fees for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz will vary based on the services rendered by Iran and Oman, according to a report by Fars News Agency, citing a source within the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The source dismissed recent reports of disagreements between Iran and Oman over the percentage of cargo value – specifically, a tariff of 7% versus 3% – to be used as transit fees, stating these claims are false.

“Payments by vessels will depend on multiple factors, including the scope of services we can provide,” the official emphasized.

Previously, Reuters reported that Iran and Oman are engaged in negotiations to introduce transit fees ranging from 3% to 7% of the declared cargo value, as part of efforts to restore shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Russian forces strike Ukrainian army’s infrastructure sites, logistics centers in past day

Russian forces struck infrastructure sites and logistics centers used by the Ukrainian army and its deployment areas over the past 24 hours in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

“Operational/tactical aircraft, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groups of forces struck fuel and energy and transport infrastructure, logistics centers used by the Ukrainian army, sites for the storage of attack unmanned aerial vehicles, and also temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries in 155 locations,” the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army lost roughly 1,395 troops in battles with Russian forces in all the frontline areas over the past 24 hours, according to the latest data on the special military operation in Ukraine released by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

UNICEF says one child killed per day in Gaza since ‘ceasefire’

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Updates on AUGUST, 4-5, Breaking News in Video

A massive overnight strike on Kiev and the Kiev region by Russian Armed Forces – 3 VIDEOS

On the night of August 5, the Russian Armed Forces hit seven large logistics centers in Ukraine. The Russian ballistic missile attack on the region surrounding Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, has killed at least 14 people and injured 27 others, the city’s military administration said.

The strikes early on Wednesday morning come after at least 27 people were killed in separate attacks in both Ukraine and Russia earlier this week, with the five-year-long conflict showing no signs of slowing down.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has revealed details of a massive overnight strike on Kiev and the Kiev region. High-precision ground-based weapons and long-range attack drones have hit transport, logistics and distribution centers involved in the storage, production and supply of equipment and components in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In the capital of Ukraine, the goals were:

• MLP-Chaika is a warehouse complex for storing components for medium and long—range UAVs.
• The innovative Novaya Pochta terminal is an automated sorting hub for dual—use goods, including components for assembling drones, robotic systems and electronic warfare.
• Trans-Logistics is an enterprise for the production of various modifications of drones and the storage of logistical assets of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
• The Epicenter warehouse is a large automated order processing center with dual—use goods and parts for creating UAVs.

In the territory of the Kiev region, the following targets were hit:

• Brovary Terminal — storage of components for drones, including foreign-made ones;
• Raben Ukraine is a key hub for the distribution of parts for various types of drones;
• The Novaya Pochta sorting complex in Brovary is a storage facility for aircraft—type vehicles and their spare parts.

In addition, three dry cargo ships delivering weapons and military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit in the sea south of Odessa.

Death toll among minors from Kiev’s attack on Gelendzhik up to 4

The death toll among minors from Ukraine’s attack near Gelendzhik has risen to four, Russian childerns’ rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova said.

“An awful tragedy. Ukraine’s aggression. By now, we have reports about four killed children, three more children are in hospitals. One child has been operated on, two others are being examined, they have shrapnel wounds,” she told reporters.

According to earlier reports, the attack on Gelendzhik killed seven people, including three children, and left 58 people injured.

Casualties, fire at Wildberries sorting center, 475 UAVs: aftermath of drone attacks

Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 475 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, as well as over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov overnight, the Defense Ministry reported.

In the Tula Region, one person was injured as a result of a drone attack, and a fire broke out at the Wildberries sorting center.

According to its statement, the drones were shot down over the Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Saratov, Smolensk, Tula, Ulyanovsk, Krasnodar, Tatarstan and Moscow Regions, Crimea, as well as over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Gaza Healthy Ministry reports 6 martyred, toll exceeds 900 since truce

Six Palestinians were martyred and eight others were injured over 24 hours as Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave continue despite the declared ceasefire, the Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Monday.

According to the Ministry, the victims included five people martyred in new Israeli attacks and one who succumbed to previous injuries.

The Ministry added that a number of victims remain trapped under rubble or stranded on roads and in inaccessible areas, as ambulance and civil defence crews continue to face difficulties reaching them.

The Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed since the announcement of the ceasefire on October 11 has risen to 904, while 2,713 others have been injured. Authorities also reported that the bodies of 777 Palestinians have been recovered during the same period.

According to the latest figures released by the Ministry, the cumulative death toll since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, has reached 72,797, in addition to 172,821 injuries.

ZIONISTs’ “SLAPS” Even to POPE: Catholics Persecution in Gaza! UN: “Over 100 Children Killed” during Fake Truce (VIDEOs)”.

Israeli forces continue their relentless attacks across the Gaza Strip despite the announcement of a ceasefire agreement, amid ongoing destruction and humanitarian deterioration throughout the enclave.

Israel kills 19 (4 children) in Gaza as attacks escalate despite latest Trump plan

On August, 2, Israeli forces have killed at least 19 Palestinians in Gaza, despite United States President Donald Trump announcing a plan he described as a “monumental step” towards peace and security in the shattered enclave.

Medical sources said that 14 Palestinians, including four children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Sunday.

The deaths on Sunday included three people killed in an air raid on a residential apartment in Al-Sousi Tower in western Gaza City – Abdullah Abu Taif, 33, his pregnant wife, Abeer Anan, 29, and their five-year-old son, Azzam – according to medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital.

An attack on an apartment in al-Qarara, northwest of the city of Khan Younis, killed three members of the Al-Hams family – father Mahmoud, 38, his wife, Fatima, 37, and their young daughter. Three others were wounded, medical sources at Nasser Hospital said.

Kamu Abu Muailiq, 68, and his wife, Huda, 59, were killed in an attack on their home near Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, medics said. In the same area, two brothers were killed as they rode a motorbike.

In northern Gaza, a Palestinian was killed after being directly targeted in the Jabalia refugee camp. In al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, one Palestinian was killed, and five others were wounded in an Israeli attack on a tent.

Two Palestinians, including one, were killed in an Israeli drone attack on a tent for displaced people in the Remal neighbourhood, west of Gaza City. Four others were killed in a strike on a vehicle in Gaza City.

The Israeli attacks since dawn caused the largest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials.

Gaza families bury 112 people recovered nearly three years after Israeli strikes: 44 Kids and 43 women among martyrs

Palestinians on Tuesday buried 112 members of a single clan killed in Israeli air strikes in November 2023, after their remains were recovered from beneath the rubble last month. Relatives of the Abu Shari’a and al-Hasayna family gathered in Gaza City to bid a final farewell to their loved ones, whose bodies lay in rows draped in Palestinian flags.

For many, it was a moment of both relief and renewed grief after nearly 1,000 days of waiting to recover the bodies of their relatives.

“There is a feeling of both pain and joy,” Amer Abu Shari’a, who lost relatives in the attack, told Middle East Eye. “Joy because we will bury and honour these martyrs after three years. But the sorrow has returned, as if the massacre happened today.”

On August, 4, Gaza and Palestine bid farewell to the largest funeral procession of martyrs in all of Palestinian history. Around 112 martyrs have been recovered from beneath their homes after nearly three years of war.

Today, the Al-Hassaneh and Abu Sharia families are burying 112 martyrs out of 308 family members who were killed and later recovered. Does the world see 44 children in a single funeral? Does it see 43 women?

Does it witness these scenes and still remain silent These are scenes from Gaza scenes that will forever remain in the history of Palestine.

Iran-Oman Strait of Hormuz corridor talks enter new phase despite US obstruction

The ongoing negotiations between Iran and Oman regarding the future operational arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz represent a pivotal moment in the region’s strategic landscape amid the US destabilising activities, Iranian Press Tv has reported.

These discussions, which began in the very first days following the Iran-US ceasefire on April 8 and entered a more serious phase after the June 18 agreement to end the imposed war, are a testament to Iran’s commitment to diplomatic engagement and its determination to safeguard its legitimate sovereign rights.

However, what should have been a straightforward bilateral process between two littoral states has been systematically disrupted and derailed by the United States and certain regional actors acting in concert with Washington (below the videos of latest US attack on July, 30). 

Their obstructionism has not only delayed a mutually beneficial outcome but has also exposed the hollow nature of American influence in a region where Iran’s strategic interests are paramount and non-negotiable, a senior Iranian official aware of the details of ongoing negotiations told Press TV.

Yemeni forces strike vital target inside Saudi Najran Airport with drone

The Yemeni Armed Forces have struck a strategic installation inside Najran Regional Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, in response to the Riyadh regime’s ongoing aggression and blockade against their homeland.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for Yemen’s Armed Forces, said on Tuesday afternoon that Yemeni military units targeted the vital target with a domestically-developed kamikaze drone. Saree noted that the retaliatory strike attained its desired objectives successfully.

He emphasized that the attack was a retaliation for Saudi Arabia’s violation of Yemeni airspace over the northern provinces of Sa’ada and Hajjah with unmanned aerial vehicles.

“We warn the Saudi enemy that any violation of our airspace will not go unanswered and unpunished,” Saree emphasized.

On July 20, the Sana’a government declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia, stating that its authorities have enforced “an unjust and oppressive siege” on Yemen for almost 12 years, “looting our resources and enforcing a total blockade.”

Since then, the Yemeni Armed Forces said they have launched attacks on Saudi vessels in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Houthis claim missile attack on Saudi oil tanker in Red Sea

The Houthis from the Yemeni Ansar Allah rebel movement have used ballistic missiles to hit a Saudi oil tanker Wafa in the northern part of the Red Sea, Houthi Military Spokesman Yahya Saria stated.

According to him, rebels “struck a Saudi oil tanker Wafa in the northern part of the Red Sea near [the port city of] Yanbu using several ballistic missiles.” Saria said the strike was accurate.

Indian cargo ship sinks near Yemen after Red Sea attack, crew rescued

An Indian cargo ship sank near Yemeni territorial waters after an attack in the Red Sea, but all 14 crew members were rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard, India’s Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Tuesday.

The vessel, identified as the Faize Noore Oliya, was struck by a projectile near Yemeni waters, causing it to capsize and sink, according to Sonowal.

“Indian MSV Faize Noore Oliya has been hit by a projectile near Yemeni waters, causing the vessel to capsize and sink. India strongly condemns this unprovoked attack on the defenseless mechanised sailing vessel. The safety of our people is our supreme priority & I am relieved to inform that ALL 14 seafarers (including 13 Indians) have been safely rescued by the Yemeni Coast Guard,” Sonowal wrote on X.

Earlier on Tuesday, Yemeni news portal HYemen24 reported that the Yemeni Coast Guard of the Saudi-affiliated Yemeni government had rescued the crew of an Indian cargo ship after it came under attack by a booby-trapped boat in the Red Sea.

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Updates on AUGUST, 2, Breaking News in Video

VITAL FOOTAGE: Massive Explosions in Kiev after 25 Russian missiles were fired including hypersonic Iskander and Zircon

While Western-backed forces continue to strike at shopping malls in Russia, such as Wildberries and now Ozon the Russian military space forces are intensifying their bombing, not propaganda, but military, against targets in the enemy’s military-industrial complex.

Last night, Russian troops attacked several Ukrainian areas, with virtually no effective air defense from Western-backed forces.

More than 25 Russian precision-guided missiles were fired at Kiev alone, including Iskander-M ballistic missiles and Zircon hypersonic missiles, which hit targets in the capital of Ukraine and its suburbs (Vasilkov, Boyarka) without encountering effective air defenses, as has been the case for several days. Only one anti-aircraft missile was launched that night, but it failed to intercept the target. Even Zelensky was forced to admit this (probably in order to better request new military assistance in this area):

“Ukraine’s air defense system was able to intercept only one ballistic missile during the massive Russian attack on Kiev last night.”

Russian Wildberries Warehouse Raid, Fire Breaks Out

Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retail platform, has been targeted again by Ukrainian forces: a logistics facility in the Samara region was hit, according to TASS. A fire broke out following the attack. According to initial reports, there were no injuries.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it destroyed 635 Ukrainian drones on the night of Saturday to Sunday in several regions of its territory and in annexed Crimea. In a statement published on the Russian state-run messaging app Max, the ministry stated that “overnight, air defense assets in action intercepted and destroyed 635 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Moscow, bomb at party for Russian general, many Killed and Wounded

A private party organized in the center of the Russian capital to celebrate a high-ranking officer has turned into carnage. At least three people were killed and 21 injured in the explosion that occurred this evening outside the Balzi Rossi restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow.

According to News-Pravda the death toll from the explosion at the entrance to the Balzi Rossi restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square has risen to five that include the woman who tried to bring in the explosive device, the security guard, and a cafe customer.

Among the guests at the event was General Alexander Chaiko, appointed to command the Russian Air Force just a month and a half ago.

According to the Interior Ministry, the explosion occurred at about 08:10 p.m. (05:10 p.m. GMT) near a summer cafe near house No. 1 on Kudrinskaya Square. According to the NAC, an unknown woman tried to bring an improvised explosive device there, but a guard stopped her.

An explosive device, a 1 kg TNT bomb filled with metal balls, detonated at the entrance to the Balzi Rossi restaurant. The device was in the possession of a “suicide bomber” who was probably used “in the dark.” As a result of the explosion, she died on the spot, her fragments were captured on video.

The Shadow of the Ukrainian Secret Services behind the Terrorist Attack

Investigators and criminologists of the Investigative Committee are working at the site of the explosion, the Investigative Committee said.

The police and Russia’s National Guard Rosgvardiya restricted access near the residential high-rise on Kudrinskaya Square, where the blast took place, a TASS correspondent reported.

The attack is part of a long series of targeted actions that, since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, have targeted senior officials, military leaders, and prominent public figures close to the Kremlin.

NATO-KIEV TERRORISM RAISES THE SHOT. Russia’s Chemical Defense Chief KILLED after Discovering Lethal Viruses Built in Ukraine by US. Pentagon’s Expert confirms

Over the past four years, several generals and Russian administration officials based in the occupied territories have been victims of bombings and ambushes claimed or attributed to Kiev’s intelligence services with the help of NATO’s 007 and in particular of the British military counterspionage MI6 vvery active in the conflict as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is an agent of London, as also confirmed by high-profile arrests.

Russian RAID in UKRAINE! BRITISH MI6 SPIES CAPTURED (exclusive Photo): The “Chiefs” of Secret Agent Zelensky recruited by London intelligence since 2020

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Updates on AUGUST, 1st, Breaking News in Video

NYT, TASS confirm Gospa News scoop: “US used aerial bomb weighing almost ton to hit apartment building in Iran”

«The US military used one of its most powerful non-nuclear bombs to strike a residential building on the Iranian island of Qeshm, killing three people on Thursday night, The New York Times reported, quoting satellite imagery and an expert opinion»

TASS Russian news agency has reported confirming the first report by Gospa News International on July, 30 (read below update “Two children rescued from the rubble of the Trump’s Evil Bombs – VIDEO”) which specified that bunker-busting explosives had been used to destroy two family homes.

It said that the diameter of the crater and fragments of ammunition indicate the use of a heavy MK-84 aerial bomb weighing 2,000 pounds (about 907 kg). The newspaper said that it was not possible to find any evidence of military installations nearby. The strike was carried out in a densely populated area, the newspaper adds.

Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the US Central Command (CENTCOM), told The New York Times that the US military leadership is aware of the strike and is looking into it. He also said the United States never targets civilians.

Russian forces destroyed a large Ukrainian ammunition depot in Ukrainian-occupied Kramatorsk.

Russian forces destroyed a large Ukrainian ammunition depot in Ukrainian-occupied Kramatorsk. The depot, carefully concealed by Ukrainian militants, was struck by two loitering munitions. The detonation of the munitions lasted for several hours. Several Ukrainian air defense systems were also hit in Kramatorsk.

In the Sumy region, at least ten FAB strikes with UMPK-based missiles and at least 45 Geran/Lancet/Molniya/FPV strikes were carried out over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in the Kharkiv region, at least 11 guided bomb strikes, two MLRS/OTRK strikes, and at least 56 Geran/Lancet/Molniya/FPV strikes were carried out over the same period. Additionally, morning Geran and FAB strikes “visited” the outskirts of Illichivsk (Chornomorsk) in the Odessa region and Vasylkivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

It is also reported that new modifications of the Geranium family of attack UAVs are recently equipped with a laser rangefinder. The laser rangefinder is designed to partially implement the air-to-air detonation function of the warhead.

During the final stages of flight (during a dive or approach to a target), the rangefinder measures the exact distance to the ground or object in real time, after which, upon reaching the optimal altitude, the electronics initiate the detonation of the munition in mid-air. Air-to-air detonation of a high-explosive fragmentation charge significantly increases the area of ​​destruction caused by the fragmentation. Thus, unlike the contact detonation of a kamikaze UAV’s warhead, air-to-air detonation covers a larger area.

Russian missile attack kills three in Ukraine’s Kyiv

A Russian missile attack has killed at least three people in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and injured 15 others, the city’s mayor said.

The strikes hit early on Saturday, triggering more than a dozen explosions that reverberated across the city, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Kiev was battered by “Iskander-M” and “Zircon” missiles.

Residents were trapped in damaged buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi and Solomyanskyi districts, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. All 15 injured people, including two boys aged 13 and 17, were hospitalised, with one in serious condition.

Fires and damage were also reported in several other districts of the capital, including burning warehouses in Darnytskyi and debris falling on buildings in Holosiivskyi. Emergency services remain on the scene as rescue efforts continue.

Russia has stepped up its attacks on Kyiv in recent months, taking advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of air defences capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

Russian forces hit over 80 vessels involved in cargo deliveries for Ukrainian army in July

Russian forces struck more than 80 seagoing vessels in Ukrainian ports and at sea that were involved in delivering cargo for the Ukrainian military, according to TASS estimates based on Russian Defense Ministry data.

Among them were two dry cargo ships, a sea ferry transporting military cargo and a screening boat hit in overnight group strikes on July 12, according to the ministry. On the same day, the ministry released footage that showed Geran-4 Seeker drones destroying a seiner converted to launch unmanned boats, a patrol boat, a ferry and a dry cargo ship.

According to the ministry, Russian forces struck 24 seagoing vessels used by the Ukrainian military during the week of July 11-17, including 14 dry cargo ships and one tanker.

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Updates on JULY, 31, Breaking News in Video

Military F-35B fighter jet crashes and burns at California Marine Corps base

Pentagon Weighs Kuwait Pullback as War on Iran Redefines Regional Posture

The United States is reportedly reassessing the scale of its military footprint in Kuwait, with officials weighing a potential drawdown of forces amid shifting dynamics in the ongoing conflict with Iran, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Citing sources familiar with the deliberations, the newspaper reported that the Pentagon’s strategic review comes as Kuwaiti officials have underscored the need for an unambiguous security commitment from Washington, stressing that any reduction in U.S. personnel must not undermine the Gulf state’s defensive capabilities.

The reported deliberations highlight a delicate balancing act for Washington as it seeks to adjust its regional posture while reassuring key Gulf allies of its continued commitment to their defense.

Below a video of previous Iranian attack on US Base in Kuwait

Hamas agree draft peace plan, as Israeli settlers raid West Bank

• The Board of Peace – the international body established to oversee Gaza’s governance – said Hamas has agreed to a roadmap to disarm and implement the next phases of the ceasefire.
• Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said disarmament is tied to full Israeli withdrawal from areas occupied over the past months, as the group will not implement any step of the Gaza peace deal if Israeli forces do not fulfil their obligations.
• The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) said it is ready to “assume its responsibilities” in Gaza, to ensure that the roadmap leads to “practical steps that have a tangible impact on citizens’ daily lives”.

• An Israeli drone strike hit the Karama area in Gaza City and another targeted a group of people standing next to Khadija mosque as the Israeli military continues to attack the Strip.
• At least 11 Palestinians have been injured during attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in Nablus and several surrounding villages.

At least 10 Palestinians, including 4 children, injured in Israeli raid on Nablus

IRGC avenges Qeshm massacre; targets Azraq base, destroys 3 US F-35s

Three US F-35 fighter jets were destroyed and three others sustained heavy damage in a missile attack on Azraq Air Base in Jordan, the IRGC’s Public Relations Department announced, framing the operation as retaliation for US aggression on residential homes on Iran’s Qeshm Island.

“We will punish the aggressor today,” the IRGC said in a statement, explaining that the operation was carried out in response to American aggression in the early hours of the day.

The statement added that US forces used bases in Jordan to launch bunker-buster bombs at two residential homes on Qeshm Island, killing a father, a mother, and one of their children and injuring two other children.

IRGC Strikes US Bases in Kuwait, Bahrain

The IRGC said Thursday it destroyed two drone hangars and a fuel storage facility at the US Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait in its latest retaliatory strikes, according to Al Manar TV.

According to the statement, the operation was carried out as part of what the IRGC described as the “punishment of the aggressor.” It added that the IRGC Aerospace Force and Ground Force continue military operations against US forces while nationwide public gatherings in Iran persist.

The statement also said that public rallies have continued for 150 consecutive nights, describing their purpose as demanding “revenge for the blood of the martyred Imam” and “the expulsion of American aggressors from the region.”

The suicide drones of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran targeted the electricity generators, navigation system, and the administrative and support buildings “belonging to the terrorist U.S. Army at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain”.

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Updates on JULY, 30, Breaking News in Video

Russian Forces Pummel Ukrainian Airfields, Defense Plants, and Logistics Nodes

Ukrainian drones attack Wildberries warehouse in Penza Region, one person hurt

Ukrainian drones attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Penza Region, leaving preliminarily one person injured, the Region’s Governor Oleg Melnichenko said.

“Enemy drones carried out a terrorist attack on a Wildberries warehouse. According to preliminary reports, one person was injured. Around 200 employees were evacuated,” he wrote on messaging app Max.

According to the governor, the attack caused a fire, which is being extinguished.

Two children rescued from the rubble of the Trump’s Evil Bombs – VIDEO

Two children were rescued and taken to hospital after a US strike hit a family home on Qeshm Island, while efforts continue to reach three relatives trapped beneath the rubble.

This attack confirms once again that US President Donald Trump’s War Department makes no distinction between military and civilian targets.

Beyond their relevance as a war crime, these attacks aimed at terrorizing the Iranian population in the hope of a revolution have no strategic military utility whatsoever and confirm the failure of the Trump administration’s wars, costly in terms of money and human lives of American soldiers.

After approximately 7,000 deaths since the start of the war in Iran, Trump can finally be accused of war crimes and genocide like his ally Netanyahu…

The Minab school massacre in Iran has not even slightly touched the evil pig heart of the American president.

The FIRST MASSACRE made by AI & TRUMP in the HUMAN HISTORY. FT: “Schoolgirls Killing in Iran by US Missiles shows the Artificial Intelligence Dangers”

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Breaking: US Launches Airstrikes in Iran – VIDEO

A new round of fighting emerging in Iran this week brought a new player that could change the game entirely.

U.S. forces launched new airstrikes against Iran on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command announced, while earlier, and for the first time, the Saudi Arabian military joined with the U.S. in striking Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, The Associated Press reported.

And, according to Fox News, a former deputy CENTCOM commander said those developments and others could signify Iran being pushed to a “tipping point.”

US forces have hit several locations in Ahvaz in southwestern Khuzestan province, with power outages reported in some parts of the city, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

At least seven locations in the city were hit, the IRIB state broadcaster added. It also said explosions were heard in the cities of Shadegan, Arvandkenar, and Abadan in Khuzestan province.

US completes new wave of strikes on Iran — CENTCOM Footage

Iraqi president denounces deadly US-Saudi aggression on Hashd al-Sha’abi bases – VIDEO

Iraqi President Nizar Amedi has categorically denounced joint Saudi-US strikes on positions of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU), commonly known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, across the country, which have killed at least 20 resistance fighters and wounded 32 others (details below in the yesterday updates).

Amedi, in a strongly worded statement released on Tuesday, condemned the aerial assaults “as an unacceptable act, a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty, and entirely contrary to international law and the United Nations Charter.”

“We reiterate our vehement opposition to the use of Iraqi soil or a military field to launch attacks against neighboring countries. We call on all parties to respect Iraq’s sovereignty and refrain from any action that undermines its security and stability,” the Iraqi presidency said.

Iraq’s Islamic Resistance: Our Response to US Enemy is Inevitable, Saudi Arabia may be also Attacked

Islamic Resistance in Iraq issued on Monday a statement which categorically denied any involvement in attacks against the Saudi entity or its facilities, affirming that the response to the US aggression is inevitable, Al Manar Tv has reported.

«After the Islamic Resistance categorically denied any involvement in attacks against the Saudi entity or its facilities, the American enemy committed a new crime by targeting members of the Popular Mobilization Forces and a convoy serving the visitors of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) in the holy city of Karbala, resulting in dozens of martyrs and wounded» the statement read.

«We affirm without doubt that the Saudi regime has never been, and never will be, anything other than a treacherous dagger and a corrupt tool directed by the White House and its suspicious intelligence agencies. Just as it once mobilized its capabilities to dispatch suicide bombers to shed Iraqi blood, today it has once again renewed its contract of subservience to carry out the crimes and directives of its masters in an attempt to undermine the will of our proud people».

So these are the decisions:

1. We grant the government authorities that demanded the Resistance disarm until the 23rd of Safar (August, 6 – ed) to demonstrate what actions they will take.
2. In order to safeguard the security of the visitors of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) and the honorable Arbaeen service processions, and to prevent any disruption to the blessed Arbaeen pilgrimage before its completion, our response against the American enemy is inevitable and may also target its instruments in Saudi Arabia whenever circumstances require.

Iran condemns ‘criminal’ US-Saudi strikes on Iraq,: “A plot to widen regional war” during sacred Arbaeen Procession 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has issued a fierce condemnation of joint airstrikes by the United States and Saudi Arabia on Iraq (details below in the yesterday updates), Iranian Press TV has reported.

Tehran says the attacks were a blatant violation of Baghdad’s sovereignty and a deliberate attempt by Washington and the Zionist regime to widen the regional war.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry specifically highlighted the “criminal and anti-human” targeting of official state facilities and service stations dedicated to the millions of pilgrims participating in the sacred Arbaeen procession.

ARBAEEN EVENT: The Huge SHIA PILGRIMAGE Told by a Devoted Irani Writer in the Day of Khamenei Funeral

“The Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns in the strongest terms the aggressive attacks by the United States and Saudi Arabia on several areas in Iraq, including against facilities and sites belonging to official Iraqi institutions, as well as the mawakib and stations of Arbaeen pilgrims.”

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Updates on JULY, 29, Breaking News in Video

Around 800,000 weapons intended for Ukraine end up on black market

About 800,000 units of weapons and ammunition have gone missing in Ukraine, ending up on the European black market, the Il Fatto quotidiano newspaper reported, citing that most of this arsenal comes from European military supplies.

The newspaper noted that since 2022, as many as 780,465 pieces of weapons have disappeared or have been stolen, with 149,000 of them in the first five months of this year alone.

Palermo Prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia told the anti-mafia commission that most of these weapons end up on the European market, catching the attention of the Italian mafia group Cosa Nostra.

The newspaper also emphasized that European countries providing military aid to Ukraine prefer to hide the details of their supplies to Kiev, making it harder for police officers to track the flow of weapons.

WEAPONS LOBBY – 19. EU’s MAD REARM by VON DER LEYEN to ENRICH GERMAN DEFENSE INDUSTRY. Rheinmetall 202 % in one Year, + 52 % in two Weeks

US-Saudi air strikes kill at least 20 Iraqi fighters. PMF a ‘significant infringement of Iraqi sovereignty’

Israeli airstrike destroys Gaza City mosque near displacement camp. Several Injured

Video footage captures an Israeli airstrike hitting Al-Muttaqin Mosque in Gaza City, next to Yarmouk Stadium, where dozens of displaced people are sheltering in tents.

The strike triggered a powerful explosion that destroyed the mosque and serious injured several Palestinians.

IRGC hits US airbase in Jordan with ballistic missiles, halts trespassing ships in Strait of Hormuz

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has staged a retaliatory ballistic missile strike against an American airbase in Jordan, besides halting three trespassing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

“In response to the aggressive actions of the child-killing US military, the brave fighters of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force launched several ballistic missiles at a US airbase and the US military’s Central Command’s headquarters in Jordan,” the Corps said in a statement in early Wednesday.

“As long as threats against the Islamic Republic continue and the unlawful and hostile actions of US forces against our interests persist, resistance will also continue,”it added.

The Jordanian Armed Forces says its air defences “dealt with five missiles coming from Iran that targeted the kingdom’s territory” at dawn today. It said the missiles were intercepted and shot down.

The United States has perpetrated numerous violations against Iranian territory since April 7, when US President Donald Trump announced a unilateral ceasefire in the latest bout of wholesale American-Israeli aggression targeting the Islamic Republic.

The violations continued even after Washington and Tehran signed a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding last month, whose first clause had clearly mandated cessation of aggression on all fronts.

The video below shows US soldiers running to shelter in one of the recent strikes on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan

Iran rejects Oman proposal for joint oversight over Strait of Hormuz

Yemeni Armed Forces Target Saudi Oil Tanker

The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a military operation targeting the Saudi oil tanker (NCC GHAZAL) for violating the maritime navigation ban imposed on the Saudi enemy and for ignoring warning calls, the spokesman General Yahya Saree said according to Al-Manar English Website.

The operation was conducted with a number of ballistic missiles and forced it to retreat and turn back, by the grace of God, he added.

The Armed Forces affirmed their continued implementation of the maritime blockade decision against the Saudi enemy, under the equation of “siege for siege” and “comprehensive escalation for comprehensive escalation”.

Thirty-seven commodity vessels passed through the Bab al-Mandeb strait yesterday, marking the highest daily count since July 19, when the Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, Reuters reports, citing shipping data.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran-aligned groups of ‘irresponsible escalatory’ attacks

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed launching retaliatory attacks against Iran-backed groups in Iraq, saying those strikes were coordinated with the US Central Command.

It says they were in response to drone attacks on its territory, in the oil-producing regions, in particular. Now, those regions have been targeted pretty relentlessly throughout the course of this war since it started in February. And that’s all part of Iran’s strategy to try and push up the oil price and disrupt energy supplies.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the timing of the drone attacks was really unfortunate, because GCC countries and Jordan had been trying to work collectively to try and de-escalate tensions during this five-day pause in hostilities. But they said “Iran-affiliated terrorist militias” chose the “irresponsible escalatory” approach.

Russia attacks on the port, marine, fuel and storage infrastructure of Ukraine used to Military goals

The Russian armed forces continued attacks on the port, marine, fuel and storage infrastructure of Ukraine, used in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In the border areas, calculations of the Geran drones destroyed gas stations in Mena, Chernihiv region, and Petropavlovsk, Kharkiv region. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the facilities were used to supply Ukrainian units with fuel.

On the outskirts of the village of Nikitovka, Sumy region, a Geran-4 Seeker drone struck an enemy attack UAV storage and launch site.

Strikes were also carried out on Ukrainian ports and naval vessels involved in the transportation of military goods.

More details in the description of the video in the Rumble Channel of Gospa News

Another Gas station hit with a glide bomb in Zaporozhye

Gas station hit with a glide bomb in Zaporozhye. Since may the Russian Aerospace Force has struck more than 200 gas and oil station (see update on July, 11) in retaliation of the previous attacks on civilian infrastructures unleashed by Kiev Army.

Senate confirms Clayton as new director of intelligence

The Senate voted along party lines to approve President Donald Trump’s choice for the next director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton.

Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US intelligence community who was confirmed in a 51-47 vote on Tuesday night, steps into his new job inheriting a diminished office whose authority and relevance are at a historic low point.

The new Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) succeeds Bill Pulte, a combative and controversial housing executive with no national security experience whom Trump installed as acting director for a 40-day tenure.

Clayton, whose legal career centered on corporate law before serving as a US attorney under Trump, must now chart a course for an organization that struggled with its mandate even before Donald Trump and his allies made it their top “Deep State” target.

Bombshell! ODNI (Gabbard Video) ACCUSES FAUCI of Pandemic’s SARS-COV-2 MANMADE with China. New Declassified Files by US IC

The ODNI position became available following the well-known resignation of Tulsi Gabbard, who, before leaving the scene, declassified important documents on the laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2, covered up by Anthony Fauci, and on the Pentagon’s investments in biolaboratories in Ukraine and around the world.

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Updates on JULY, 26-27, Breaking News in Video

VIDEO – Houthis drones targeted Saudi’s crude oil infrastructure. KSA reserves ‘right to respond’ 

Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen say they have targeted a number of “sensitive” crude oil supplies and transport sites linking eastern Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea city of Yanbu.

Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced a drone attack on oil infrastructure in eastern Saudi Arabia and Yanbu.

“By the grace of God, a number of sensitive targets and positions related to the supply and transport of crude oil from eastern Saudi Arabia to Yanbu were targeted with a number of drones. This came in response to the penetration of Yemeni airspace by drones belonging to the Saudi enemy.”

Infact, Yemen Houthi forces have before claimed they shot down a Saudi reconnaissance drone over northwestern Yemen (footage below or here).

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Updates on JULY, 25, Breaking News in Video

“Hundreds of Victims”: A Ukrainian Journalist on the Attack on an Exhibition in Kapitanovka

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan removed over ‘political’ sex abuse claims

The Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has voted to remove prosecutor Karim Khan over sexual misconduct allegations, his legal team has confirmed, suggesting that the move was “political”.

The vote on Friday came as the ICC faces backlash from the United States and Israel after Khan issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024.

Tayab Ali, head of Khan’s legal team, noted that a judicial panel had “unanimously” determined that findings by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services “did not establish misconduct or breach of duty by Mr Khan under the relevant legal framework”.

The administration of President Donald Trump had imposed sanctions on Khan and several other ICC officials and judges over the Netanyahu warrant. “The decision has grave implications beyond Mr Khan’s individual case,” said Ali.

“The independence of the International Criminal Court depends upon its elected officials being protected from removal through processes that are political, procedurally unfair or inconsistent with the findings of independent judicial bodies.”

The lawyer added that Khan was removed “by an executive vote while under sanctions and while the Court is under immense political pressure”.

Ali added that the decision by the Assembly of States Parties “does not follow the evidence or the findings of the only judicial determination in this matter”.

1,472 Civilians, including 45 Children, killed in Ukrainian attacks across Russia since 2022 — top investigator

Ukrainian attacks have targeted 54 Russian regions since 2022, killing nearly 1,500 people, including 45 children, Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said.

“Since 2022, investigators have opened 5,347 criminal cases involving attacks on 54 Russian regions outside the special military operation zone. The cases document artillery and missile strikes, drone attacks, and cross-border incursions carried out by Ukrainian nationalists,” he told TASS in an interview ahead of Russia’s Investigative Officers’ Day.

He said the attacks have killed 1,472 civilians, including 45 children, and injured 6,754 people, including 405 minors.

At least 256 children killed by Ukrainian forces in DPR

A total of 256 children have been killed in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) as a result of Ukrainian aggression that began in 2014, the republic’s human rights commissioner Darya Morozova has told TASS.

“Since 2014, a total of 256 children have been killed on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic as a result of aggression on the part of Ukrainian armed groups,” she said in the run-up to the Remembrance Day of child victims of the conflict in Donbass. “Every such loss is an irreparable tragedy for families and all our people.”

The ombudsperson added that a total of 1,076 children have been wounded in the reported period.

The Remembrance Day of child victims of the conflict in Donbass is marked annually on July 27. The date was established by the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin. The date commemorates a massive Ukrainian shelling attack on Gorlovka, which left 22 civilians dead, including 23-year-old Kristina Zhuk, who died holding her ten-months-old daughter.

VIDEO – Russian Heavy Strike on UAV Exhibition near Kiev: 10 Killed

A Russian missile strike targeted the CSA Open Air testing ground in Kapitonovka, Buchansky district, outside Kiev, where a UAV technology demonstration was underway.
Present were leading drone developers, manufacturers, and representatives of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces and special services planning strikes on Russian territory.

• Casualties: 10 killed, dozens wounded. A Polish defense company employee died, though Poland’s Foreign Ministry says he was not a Polish citizen.
• Damage: Fires destroyed 3 private homes and 8 cars. 23 homes, 2 hotels, a restaurant, and 34 vehicles were damaged.

The Russian Armed Forces carried out a strike using high-precision long-range weapons on a facility in a suburb of Kiev where Ukrainian-and foreign-made unmanned aerial vehicles, including advanced models, that are used in strikes on civilian facilities in Russia were demonstrated, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

At the time of the strike, drone developers, officials of Ukraine’s unmanned systems command, as well as the special services that plan attacks on Russia were present at the facility, the ministry said.

WEAPONS LOBBY – 21. NATO’s WarCrimes! Attack to Moscow, SCHOOLGIRLS’ Massacre by DRONE of Ex CIA Chief POMPEO. Behind UAV FP-1 the Satanic Kiev Gang of Corruption funded by SOROS too

According to the Ukrainian Council of Gunsmiths (a defense industry association), the strike targeted an area “where representatives of the Ukrainian defense industry were present.” Several people were killer and wounded, it said.

The council also said that information about the participants’ whereabouts had not been disclosed publicly. Valery Borovik, founder of the defense manufacturer First Contact, reported a “very serious strike” on the training ground where weapons were located.

Ukraine’s attack on Kirov, six civilians killed

Six people have been killed and 26 more injured in a Ukrainian missile attack on an enterprise in Kirov, the region’s Governor Alexander Sokolov reported on messaging app Max.

On the morning of July 24, a plant in Kirov came under a missile attack, Sokolov reported. Emergency response services are working at the site.

According to the latest information, six people were killed and 26 injured in the attack. All the injured are receiving medical assistance – from outpatient treatment to hospitalization, the region’s governor noted.

Twelve of those injured in the Ukrainian attack on Kirov were taken to hospitals, fourteen others received outpatient assistance, aide to the Russian health minister Alexey Kuznetsov said.

Zelensky says appointed Drapaty as new commander-in-chief instead of Syrsky

Vladimir Zelensky said he has appointed Mikhail Drapaty as the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army to replace Alexander Syrsky, whose resignation many Ukrainian politicians and protesters have been demanding for a week.

“It was decided that Mikhail Drapaty will be the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed force,” he said in a video address posted on his Telegram channel.

Along with Syrsky, Zelensky dismissed Chief of the General Staff Andrey Gnatov. “Today, we discussed with Alexander Syrsky and Andrey Gnatov future service arrangements and the proper handover of responsibilities,” he said.

OIC condemns escalating colonist terrorism and Israeli occupation crimes against Palestinians

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the escalating terrorism by Israeli colonists and the crimes committed against the Palestinian people under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, including the latest attacks in the towns of Tell in Nablus Governorate and Deir Jarir in Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, as well as the ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip that have resulted in dozens of Palestinians killed and injured.

In a statement issued on Friday, the organization denounced the continued attacks by colonists against unarmed Palestinian civilians, including the destruction of property, the burning of agricultural lands and homes, and the theft of livestock, amid the escalating pace of colonial expansion.

Final Countdown to Complete 1948’s Nakba. Israeli Govt admits the ZioNazi Genocide’s Goal: Depopulate Gaza Strip

The OIC warned of the dangers of this serious escalation, describing it as a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, relevant international legitimacy resolutions, and the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice.

The OIC General Secretariat affirmed that the continuation and escalation of such terrorism constitutes a practical implementation of Israeli colonial plans aimed at forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupied Jerusalem.

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Updates on JULY, 24, Breaking News in Video

Footage documents IOF-backed settler massacre of four Palestinians 

Footage documents Israeli settlers assaulting Palestinians in the West Bank town of Tell and committing a massacre. As shown in the video, armed Israeli settlers, protected by the IOF, are seen pointing their guns at unarmed Palestinians as they stormed their land before one managed to snatch a rifle to defend himself as he was being assaulted.

The Israelis opened fire, killing at least four Palestinians and injuring four others, including three critically, amid the raid on the town. In the ensuing confrontation, one Israeli officer was killed and three other Israelis were injured.

As oil soars, experts watch Red Sea tankers for clarity on Houthi blockade

As oil prices hit $100 a barrel on Thursday, experts say they are watching to see which vessels Yemen’s Houthis allow to pass through in the Red Sea as that will indicate how the crude market trends.

Brent futures rose $6.58 or 6.96 percent, to $100.65 a barrel, exceeding $100 for the first time since late May.

That was on the back of the Iran-aligned Houthis saying they were cutting off the passage Riyadh had been using to ship parts of its crude oil once Iran closed theStrait of Hormuz to retaliate against United States and Israel attacks.

On Monday, the Yemeni group declared a naval blockade on shipments from Saudi Arabia and said they would target Saudi, Israeli, and United States-linked tankers in the Bab el-Mandeb, which links the Red sea to the Indian Ocean.

On Thursday, the Houthis attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers, the group said, with a Saudi news agency later confirming that one of the two vessels was set ablaze.

It is not clear if the second one was also hit, according to marine analysis firm, Windward.

“The Houthis are quite mercurial and there is no complete clarity on what the blockade means,” said Michelle Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.

More details on the Houtis attack to two Saudi oil tankers in the yesterday updates

VIDEO – Iran strikes back: IRGC hits US bases, assets in Jordan, Kuwait

In response to the ongoing US aggression against Iran, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had carried out drone attacks targeting US military facilities in Kuwait and Jordan.

These strikes resulted in the destruction of strategic fuel reserves, major ammunition and supply depots, helicopter maintenance facilities, and critical air defense assets, including Patriot missile systems, a THAAD radar unit, C-RAM systems, and MQ-9 drone hangars. Additionally, troop quarters and communications infrastructure supporting these foreign forces were directly targeted.

In detail, the IRGC said its forces targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, destroying a large military equipment depot, a Patriot air defense system, and a hangar housing US MQ-9 drones. It also said attacks on Al-Udairi Camp, where US forces are stationed, killed and wounded several personnel and caused severe damage to several helicopters and drones.

US military assets at Camp Doha and Camp Arifjan were also targeted.

Video Shows Iranian Multiple Missile Strike on U.S. Air Base

A video has emerged online showing the impact of a cassette warhead from an Iranian ballistic missile on a U.S. air base. The video is reportedly filmed at a U.S. air base in Kuwait. The authenticity of the video has not yet been confirmed. Source: Telegram “CyberspecNews” via News-Pravda

US attacks Iran for 13th night as Trump threatens ‘bigger’ strikes

The United States military has said it bombed Iran for the 13th consecutive night after President Donald Trump threatened more intense attacks on the country amid risk of further escalation.

The Middle East-based Central Command (CENTCOM) of the US military said early on Friday that it targeted “Iranian military command centers, drone storage facilities, communication networks, coastal surveillance sites, and maritime capabilities”.

VIDEO – Four people were killed and five others injured as a result of the 13th US strike on the Iran

Four people were killed and five others injured as a result of the US strike on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, Press TV reports.

The Central Command of the US Armed Forces said that the strikes were carried out on Iranian military command centers, drone depots, communications centers, coastal surveillance points and marine facilities. According to the American side, the purpose of the operation was to reduce the threat to civilian sailors and commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The footage of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces shows the moments of strikes against targets in Iran.

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Updates on JULY, 23, Breaking News in Video

Yemen renews strikes on Saudi ships violating blockade in Red Sea

The Yemeni Armed Forces announced a military operation targeting two Saudi oil tankers (link video), identified as “ENCELIA” and “LAYLA”, noting that the vessels had violated a ban imposed by the Yemeni side.

Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the operation was carried out using a number of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, adding that the strikes accurately hit their targets.

Saree said the operation came as part of ongoing maritime operations, adding that the Yemeni Armed Forces had also forced approximately 10 ships to retreat and return.

He said the Yemeni Armed Forces would continue their maritime operations against the Saudi enemy and maintain a “blockade for blockade” response. 

The Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson warned Saudi Arabia against carrying out any blunders or aggression against Yemen, saying any such action would be met with major operations deep inside Saudi territory.

Iranian Forces Will Target Oil, Gas, Electricity, and Economic Infrastructure in Region

Khatam Al-Anbiya (PBUH) Headquarters issued on Wednesday a statement, affirming that the rogue, criminal, child-killing American president has once again threatened to target Iran’s infrastructure, according to Al Manar Lebanese TV.

“In accordance with last night’s warning, it is announced that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Should any vessel be permitted to transit the Strait, it must do so only through the designated route and in accordance with the arrangements previously announced.”

“Should the United States carry out its threats, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not allow a single drop of oil to be exported. The oil, gas, electricity, and economic infrastructure throughout the region will also be targeted (Link video)”, the statement affirmed.

“The repeated threats of criminal America and its terrorist military will result in nothing but the expansion of the war throughout the region and even beyond.”

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Updates on JULY, 22, Breaking News in Video

US President Trump accepts coffins with the bodies of American soldiers killed in the Middle East

US President Donald Trump salutes as the 4 US soldiers killed by Iranian strikes are brought back home.

Iran’s military says it attacks US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain

The Iranian Army announced on Wednesday that it had carried out an intensive drone attack targeting ammunition depots and logistical equipment belonging to the US Army’s Ground Forces Command at Doha Camp in western Kuwait, as part of the 21st phase of Operation Saeqeh.

The Iranian military said the operation came in response to repeated attacks by the United States against areas in Iran.

According to the Iranian Army statement, Doha Camp is one of the largest and most important US military bases in western Kuwait and serves as a logistical hub supporting US forces deployed across West Asia.

A statement from Iran’s military says Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq and Bahrain’s Isa Air Base have been targeted with drones.

“The army targeted the ‘housing and welfare buildings’ and ‘equipment warehouses’ of the terrorist US army at the Azraq base in Jordan with drones in the morning,” the statement, cited by the Mehr News Agency, said.

“[Drones] also targeted the ‘large equipment warehouses and sheds’ and the ‘heavy aircraft maintenance and repair sheds’ of the child-killing and criminal US army at the Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.”

Iran’s attack on Amazon infrastructure in Bahrain raises questions about Pentagon AI ops

The IRGC Aerospace Force has launched a barrage of cruise missiles against Amazon’s central data infrastructure in Bahrain, leaving the facility destroyed.

The AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region, opened in 2019, is a major cloud infrastructure hub that underpins digital services across the Gulf, providing large-scale computing capacity, data storage, and cloud resources for governments, financial institutions, and enterprises.

It’s not the first time that Iran has targeted the Amazon infrastructure:

In March, drone strikes on Amazon Web Services data centers in the UAE caused outages for apps and digital services, with a Bahrain facility also sustaining damage

️ In April, the IRGC warned of potential attacks against Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Oracle, Intel, HP, IBM, Cisco, Dell, Palantir and Nvidia assets in the Middle East

On April 1 an Iranian drone hit an Amazon data center in Bahrain, according to the Financial Times. On April 2, Iranian forces attacked an Oracle facility in Dubai.

CBS VIDEO – Nearly 100 U.S. soldiers injured in Iranian strikes this month, Pentagon says

Almost 100 U.S. service members have been injured, with most returning to duty, in Iranian strikes in the Middle East this month, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told CBS News.

VIDEO – Hegseth called a ‘failure’ as he reveals $37.5bn cost of war

The war on Iran has cost the US $37.5bn so far, the defence secretary says, an increase of nearly $8bn since the last public estimate.

Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the figure also included anticipated costs through to September 30.

This is the first time that Hegseth, who appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, has publicly faced questions from lawmakers since the US military started attacking Iran again earlier this month.

VIDEO – British interests in Middle East may become military target for Iran

British interests in the Middle East region may become a legitimate military target for Iran if London joins the US war against the Islamic Republic, a high-ranking Iranian source has told TASS.

“If media reports about the decision of the new British Prime Minister [Andy Burnham] to participate in the US war against Iran are confirmed, then, in addition to political and legal consequences, all British interests in the region will be added to the list of targets of Iran’s powerful armed forces,” the agency’s source said.

The source also recalled that “Britain has already once experienced the implementation of Iran’s threats during the 40-day war.”

According to Bloomberg, quoted by Fox TV, New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has just APPROVED the US military launching strikes against Iran from UK bases.

Oil prices climb to $92 a barrel

Oil prices are continuing their upward trajectory, with Brent crude futures gaining $1, or 1.1 percent, to $92.01 per barrel as of 03:30 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude went up 82 cents, or 1.0 percent, to trade at $85.16.

The gains came after oil settled at a five-week high on Tuesday, according to Reuters, in the wake of US forces attacking targets in southern and western Iran, and Iran striking US facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Brent futures closed at $91.01 per barrel on Tuesday, while WTI settled at $84.91.

️ VIDEO – US completes 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran — CENTCOM

The Pentagon says it targeted military operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage, and logistics infrastructure.

It was yet another night of escalation and exchange of fire between Iran and the US, as we witnessed the continuation of air strikes targeting cities across Iran.

First and foremost, we know that sounds related to the activation of the air defence system here in the capital were heard. In Tabriz, located in the northwest of the country, attacks were reported targeting a military base. We also know that, in Khuzestan province, in the three cities of Omidiyeh, Mahshahr and Behbahan, explosions were reported.

Moving on, explosions were heard in the city of Sirik, which is very important as it oversees the Strait of Hormuz. Further strikes were also reported in Chabahar and Konarak in the southeastern Sistan province.

Similarly, air strikes were reported in the cities of Bushehr, Kangavar, Kabudarahang and in areas in the vicinity of the city of Baneh in Kurdistan province for the very first time.

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Updates on JULY, 21, Breaking News in Video

IRGC declares ‘dark night for US radars’; Army strikes three bases in Kuwait

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has destroyed multiple US military radar and communications facilities in the region, while the Army reports drone strikes on three US bases in Kuwait in ongoing retaliation for American violations.

The announcements were made in a series of statements issued early Tuesday, describing the latest phases of the IRGC’s Operation Nasr- (Victory) 2 and the Army’s Operation Sa’eqeh (Lightning) in response to the United States’ renewed aggression against the Islamic Republic.

In its first statement, the IRGC said the second phase of wave 24 of Operation Nasr-2 targeted infrastructure supporting US military air defense operations in Kuwait. The Corps said the latest phase was staged “to clear the way by eliminating obstacles to large-scale air and missile operations” against American targets in the region.

According to the statement, missiles and drones struck and destroyed a long-range radar site, a communications center, satellite reception systems, and a missile defense radar belonging to the “child-killing US military” stationed in Kuwait. The IRGC also said an MQ-9 drone hangar at Ali al-Salem Airbase was hit in the country, adding that several drones were either destroyed or severely damaged as a result.

New satellite imagery confirms Iranian strikes hit the US Airbase Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Tuesday that its Aerospace Force had launched a missile strike against a US military base in Jordan, confirming that the attack “destroyed a missile defense radar system and an F-15 aircraft”.

New satellite imagery confirms at least two Iranian strikes hit the base, with two more suspected elsewhere. Two aircraft hangars were damaged and a hit occurred near personnel quarters.

Casualties: 3 US servicemen killed (2 confirmed dead, 1 initially MIA, remains later found). At least 4 wounded and evacuated to hospitals.

Equipment losses: A critical AN/TPY-2 X-band radar (THAAD component) was destroyed by a Shahed kamikaze drone early in Operation Epic Fury (Feb 28, 2026). The base hosts US F-16s, F-15Es, and reconnaissance systems.

IRGC-linked sources claim local agents aided the strikes, possibly to provoke a witch hunt within Jordanian intelligence, seen by Tehran as Tel Aviv allies.

Tehran attacks Gulf states, Jordan; 2 Hormuz tankers on fire

Iran continues retaliatory attacks across the region after a 10th consecutive night of US bombing, with the Revolutionary Guard saying it targeted US assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.

“Massive fires” broke out on two tankers that “took an unsafe route” in the Strait of Hormuz, says the IRGC. The IRGC said rescue teams are evacuating the crews of the vessels.

It again warned shipping companies to safeguard the health of their sailors, not to trust “false information from the US military” and avoid routes it described as “dangerous”. It wants ships to use a route closer to its shores.

The White House says strikes on Iran will continue until Trump decides otherwise

The White House says strikes on Iran will continue until Trump decides otherwise but diplomatic talks between the two nations are ongoing.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) concluded a new series of strikes against Iran at 9:00 PM Eastern time on July 20th.

U.S. forces targeted Iranian military command and control facilities, naval capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems, with the aim of disrupting Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

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Updates on JULY, 20, Breaking News in Video

US renews strikes on Iran as another soldier confirmed killed in Iraq

The US military says it has completed its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, targeting command centres, air defence sites, maritime assets, missile facilities, and communications networks.

A US service member has died in northern Iraq after a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone, according to CENTCOM. Another body was found in Jordan, but not yet identified.

VIDEO – The United States has launched a series of massive strikes against Iran.

Military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance facilities, marine facilities, missile and drone launch positions, as well as communications networks were hit, the Central Command of the US Armed Forces said.

Before the strike, Trump said that this attack was dedicated to the memory of three American servicemen who died in the Middle East.

According to WP sources, Washington is on the verge of returning to a full-scale war with Iran.

IRGC conducts high-fatality, destructive strikes on regional US targets

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced carrying out high-fatality and widely destructive retaliatory strikes against strategic American targets in the region in response to the ongoing violations by the United States.

The IRGC made the announcements in successive statements on Monday, during which it detailed strikes targeting American assets in Jordan and Kuwait as part of the 21st and 22nd waves of its Operation Nasr-2 (Victory-2).

IRGC: “20 hangars destroyed, dozens of US forces killed”

The 21st wave saw the IRGC carry out precision strikes leading to “the destruction of 20 hangars used to station troops of the child-killing US military in the al-Azraq area” in Jordan, which also resulted in “the deaths of dozens of American terrorist forces.”

The Corps thanked the Jordanian public and members of the country’s armed forces for providing it with intelligence that facilitated the reprisal.

Additionally, the 21st phase featured destructive ballistic missile strikes by the IRGC’s Aerospace Force against US C-17 strategic transport aircraft and P-8 command-and-control aircraft at Aqaba Airport in Jordan.

In a separate statement, the IRGC announced conducting the 22nd wave of Operation Nasr-2, saying it had struck multiple US military facilities at Ali al-Salem Airbase in Kuwait.

According to the second statement, an American early warning radar system was “completely destroyed” in a drone strike, while aviation equipment, a spare-parts hangar, and an MQ-9 drone shelter were also hit, causing several drones to catch fire.

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Updates on JULY, 19, Breaking News in Video

Zelensky again requests air defense missiles amid massive strike on Kiev

Vladimir Zelensky stated that the strike on Kiev on the night of July 19 was one of the most massive and again requested ammunition for air defense systems.

“One of the most massive ballistic attacks on Kiev,” he wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that “interceptors are needed every day.” According to him, the cleanup of the consequences of the explosions that rocked Kiev tonight continues. “More than 600 rescuers have been deployed,” Zelensky wrote.

“Overnight, Russia conducted one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv. The enemy launched more than 40 missiles of various types – most of them against the capital – and 120 attack drones.” President Volodymyr Zelensky took stock of the attack on the Ukrainian capital overnight in a post on

Ukrainian authorities regularly complain about a shortage of ammunition for the air defense systems in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and ask Western countries to increase supplies of the relevant weapons.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the strike on several Kiev-based enterprises producing military equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Russia’s Overnight Missile Assault Leaves Kyiv Burning

Russia launched an overnight ballistic missile attack on Kyiv, triggering powerful explosions and fires across multiple parts of the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian officials said at least one person was killed and several others were injured as residential buildings, a dormitory, warehouses, and a supermarket were damaged. Emergency crews responded as the attack left widespread destruction.

Foreign sailors posted videos of their arrivals at a port in the Odesa region

On July, 18 large-scale, combined attacks by the Russian Armed Forces on Ukrainian Black Sea port infrastructure, which have been ongoing for several weeks, are gradually leading to a blockade of maritime traffic. After the Kyiv regime began massively attacking Ukrainian civilian vessels in the Black and Azov Seas, the Russian military is mirroring this.

The Russian Ministry of Defense regularly reports attacks on vessels that still risk sailing to Ukrainian ports. All of them are sailing under the flags of third countries, and the sailors are mostly citizens of other countries. However, the cargo carried in their holds is military-grade. Therefore, the ships are a legitimate target for the Russian Armed Forces.

As a result of our army’s actions, maritime traffic at the ports of Odesa Oblast and Mykolaiv has already fallen by more than a third. This has been noted by both Western analytical resources and Ukrainian media. Insurance costs for ships and cargo exported from Ukrainian ports have risen sharply.

This represents almost the entire export of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products. As a result, foreign shipowners and chartering companies have begun to cancel existing contracts en masse.

Excerpt by Alexander Grigoryev from https://en.topwar.ru

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Updates on JULY, 18, Breaking News in Video

The number of victims of recent US strikes on Iran has exceeded 50 people, more than 500 injured.

According to the head of the press service of the Iranian Ministry of Health Hossein Kermanpour, the number of victims continues to grow. One of the most devastating was the strike on the seawater desalination plant in the Bongji district of the Hormozgan province. Tasnim news agency reported that the attack completely destroyed a pumping station and a transformer substation, shutting down the company.

The plant’s capacity was 3,150 cubic meters of water per day. As a result, 20 villages with a population of about 10,000 people were left without drinking water. Local authorities report that restoration work is underway at the facility. The representative of the Ministry of Health stressed that attacks on civilian infrastructure worsen the humanitarian situation in the region.

IRGC: “Two American fighter jets and three aircraft completely destroyed during attack to US Base in Jordan”

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted a simultaneous missile and drone strike against a US base in Azraq, Jordan, targeting fighter shelters and a large parking ramp, according to the IRGC’s Public Relations Office.

In a statement, the IRGC reported that the operation was carried out in the early morning hours as part of the 20th wave of Operation Nasr 2. The strike was launched in response to the US aggression the previous night, the statement said.

 “With a crushing and simultaneous missile and drone attack on the fighter shelters and a large parking ramp at the American base in Azraq, Jordan,” the IRGC said, “at least two American fighter jets and three American aircraft were completely destroyed while inflicting major damage on a number of others.”

IRGC announces strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain, destroys data intel center

Earlier on Saturday, the IRGC announced that its naval forces carried out drone and missile strikes on US targets in Kuwait and Bahrain.

In a statement, the IRGC said that its naval forces, in the 19th wave of Operation Nasr 2, carried out drone and missile strikes on “a fuel support pier for the US fleet at Kuwait’s Al Ahmadi port” and “a gathering point for enemy combat aircraft at Sheikh Isa in Bahrain.”

The statement added that its forces destroyed “a US data intelligence center in Bahrain known as Batelco” and also destroyed “a US signals and telecommunications center in Kuwait.”

Another power and desalination plant, the second, has been hit by an Iranian attack in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity announced the attack in a statement.

The Kuwait Fire Service said several of its men and a worker were injured while fighting fires at two sites following Iranian attacks this morning.

Tehran launched ballistic missile at US base in Saudi Arabia

Iran has launched a ballistic missile at a US base in Saudi Arabia, marking Tehran’s first direct attack on the Gulf country in nearly four months, according to Axios, citing a US official.

The last time Iran struck a target in Saudi Arabia was in early April, during an attack on the Jubail petrochemical complex. No further details were provided about the attack or its target.

US and Iran exchange deadly attacks for 7th night

• US Central Command says it launched its seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran.
• The southern cities of Sirik, Bushehr and Bandar Abbas have reportedly been targeted, along with Qeshm Island and the central city of Yazd.
• The IRGC has said that two oil tankers exploded after trying to pass through minefields in the southern Strait of Hormuz, a claim the US military has denied.
• Naval mines are underwater explosives designed to damage or sink ships.
• Back in April, the IRGC provided a map showing an approved passage through the Strait of Hormuz due to “the likelihood of the presence of various types of antiship mines in the main traffic zone”.
• This has meant that ships wanting to avoid the potential risk of mines in southern waters closer to Oman have had to pass through routes to the north, closer to Iran.Under the agreement reached between the US and Iran last month, which has now broken down, Iran had agreed to remove mines from the waterway.

IRGC Navy has released drone footage showing the attack on an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz

US CENTCOM footage showing US military personnel intercepting and inspecting a ship

CENTCOM has released new footage showing US military personnel intercepting and inspecting a ship under the blockade of Iran imposed by the Trump administration.

The statement said that the operation was carried out in order to ensure that the ship “complies” with the restrictions set by the United States.

Updates on JULY, 17, Breaking News in Video

US aggressive acts against Iran constitute war crimes: Iran envoy to UN

Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations has condemned the United States’ continued military attacks on Iranian territory, stating that the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure constitutes “serious violations of international humanitarian law” and amounts to “war crimes” for which Washington bears full international responsibility, Iranian Press TV has reported.

In a letter addressed to the UN Security Council and Secretary-General António Guterres, Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani detailed a wave of US attacks carried out between July 8 and July 16, targeting southern provinces, coastal cities, and ports along the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

According to the letter, US strikes have hit Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Ahvaz, Chabahar, Konarak, Jask, Sirik, Iranshahr, Abu Musa Island, Greater Tunb Island, and in the early hours of July 16, the cities of Shiraz, Khorramabad, Semnan, Urmia, and Hamedan.

The United States carried out a fresh wave of military strikes on Iran’s southern regions late Thursday and into Friday, hitting civilian infrastructure including bridges, a railway station, and residential neighborhoods.

In Hormozgan province, American airstrikes targeted three bridges in Khmer county, including the crucial Khmer Bridge connecting Bandar Abbas to Lar in Fars province.

Iranian army claims drone strikes on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain

US military completes major wave of strikes against Iran, CENTCOM says

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Updates on JULY, 16, Breaking News in Video

VIDEO – Hundreds of patients flee as US bombs near Iran cancer hospital

VIDEO – Russian Armed Forces have destroyed almost half of Ukraine’s port infrastructure

The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed almost half of Ukraine’s port infrastructure in the past two weeks. The ports of Odessa and Yuzhny were under attack — the country’s export and import capabilities have already dropped by 40%.

13 dry cargo ships connected to Ukrainian ports were hit. The strikes also hit the infrastructure of the ports of Odessa and Yuzhny, where military cargo and fuel were stored. When crossing by sea to the ports of the Odessa region, a naval vessel and a high-speed boat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were hit.

Currently, four official vessels remain under the flag of Ukraine: one of the last active ones is the Mekhanik Cherevko, which is located in Burgas, Bulgaria. The rest have either not been in touch for a long time, or are working on the Danube. (read more here in the video description inside Rumble Channel)

VIDEO – Iran says targeted US military sites in Kuwait, Jordan

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said Thursday it targeted US military infrastructure in Kuwait and Jordan while also announcing the downing of an American MQ-9 drone over southwestern Iran, as fighting between Tehran and Washington continued to escalate.

According to the IRGC, Iranian forces struck the early warning radar of the C-RAM air defense system at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, in addition to a gathering of US troops.

The IRGC also announced that it had shot down an American MQ-9 drone over the city of Andimeshk in Khuzestan Province, describing the operation as a response to overnight US attacks on parts of Iran’s southern coastline.

The Iranian army said it had targeted the fixed radar site, communications system, and fuel storage facilities at the US-operated Al Azraq Air Base in Jordan using suicide drones. The strike was described as part of Iran’s response to the US attack on an army barracks in Iranshahr.

Earlier, IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebi said Iranian military operations are currently focused on destroying US offensive infrastructure throughout the region.

“The enemy should not think that it is capable of continuing the current equation of the fighting and turning the war into a war of attrition.”

Iran threatens to ‘crush’ regional infrastructure if US attacks Iranian infrastructure

VIDEO – US attacks northern Iran and Hamadan province overnight

The US military has completed another series of strikes on Iran, according to the US Central Command. The strikes included the city of Bandar Abbas.

The IRIB state broadcaster is reporting an “enemy attack” in Kabudarahang county, in the western Hamadan province. Earlier, Iranian media reported attacks on the northern city of Semnan and said air defences were also activated in Tehran.

It was last week that we saw the US attack northern Iran for the first time since the memorandum of understanding was signed, or indeed, after the ceasefire was reached on April 8.

The first strike was in Aqqala, where a railway bridge was attacked.

US military carries out another wave of strikes

The US military has launched a second wave of strikes against Iran, with CENTCOM saying they “are targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz”.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna joins live from Washington, DC. He says US forces have launched strikes against Iran for a fifth consecutive day, targeting sites linked to Iran’s military control of the Strait of Hormuz and efforts to disrupt shipping through the strategic waterway.

Iran’s top negotiator and parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf says the country has “never welcomed war, nor do we now”, adding that “we must always be prepared for battle and stand firm to protect our national security and interests”.

Here’s what happened yesterday, July, 15, 2026 according to Al jazeera

• Explosions were reported late on Wednesday on Iran’s Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, and locations in Sistan-Baluchistan province.
• US forces enforced naval blockade measures against Iran by stopping three Iran-bound vessels.
• Iranian army said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until US accepts Iranian rules.
• Five drone attacks were reported across Erbil in northern Iraq.
• Kuwait’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted 21 Iranian drones.
• Iran’s top negotiator called for a “non-partisan” approach in handling war and talks with the US.
• UN chief said he is “deeply concerned” by recent US-Iran escalation.
• Iran had summoned the British ambassador over IRGC ban.

VIDEO Iranian Children’s Cancer Hospital Evacuated after US Missiles Hit a Medical Complex

Residents of Ahvaz have reported hearing multiple explosions after US strikes on several parts of the southwestern Iranian city, including the vicinity of a hospital treating cancer patients, particularly children undergoing chemotherapy.

According to Fars News Agency, several projectiles struck the area near Baqaei Hospital during the attacks on Wednesday.

Medical personnel, assisted by patients’ families, were evacuating the facility and relocating patients who had been frightened by the explosions. Initial assessments indicated that patients from the medical center would be transferred to another healthcare facility.

Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences, meanwhile, announced that, following enemy attacks on the city and explosions in areas adjacent to the hospital, the facility “has been temporarily taken out of service to ensure the safety of patients and staff.”

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Previous Updates on Middle East Warfare

MAIN DAILY BREAKING NEWS IN VIDEO

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  • Israeli Minister: “First line of Lebanese villages has been destroyed. No One Dictate us”
  • IDF: “Killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters in strikes on more than 80 targets in Lebanon”
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  • VIDEO – Netanyahu Vows Troops Will Stay in Lebanon Despite US-Iran Deal

 

• PREVIOUS BREAKING NEWS BELOW IN THE WARS DIARY HERE 
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  • IRGC launches 12 ballistic missiles at US al-Azraq base in Jordan, US Fighter Jets damaged
  • IRGC Navy closes Strait of Hormuz for all vessels in respomse to renewed US’ strikes
  • Iran retaliates against 21 US-linked targets
  • ‘Israel’ launches aggression on Iran, Iran responds
  • BREAKING: House passes resolution rebuking Trump’s Iran war
  • Footage of the moment a Ukrainian drone struck a bus in Donbas, killing 8 civilians
  • Footage of Heavy Missile strikes on Kiev overnight as retaliation to Starobelsk
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  • WATCH: Israeli troops cross Lebanon’s Litani River as tensions escalate with Hezbollah
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IRAN-US WAR. Naval Battle for Hormuz. Domicide: new Kind of Zionist War Crimes in Lebanon: ‘Israel’ demolishes entire Villages

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Previous Updates on Ukraine War

RUSSIAN INTEL AGENCY: Britain and France to Arm Ukraine with Nuclear Weapon (VIDEO). Starmer Ready to Activate the Shady Military Pact with Zelensky

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The cover image shows Dr. Fauci showing Trump the 2020 COVID studies during Operation Warp Speed ​​to fund the Moderna vaccine.

by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio – Gospa News founder and director

UPDATE ON AUGUST, 7, 2026

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

Trump suggests Fauci should be prosecuted. But he only faces a few months in prison

U.S. President ​Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that Dr. ‌Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted, hours after Republican Senator Rand Paul said that he would ask the Justice ​Department to do so after US Senate panel voted the contempt of Congress.

When asked if the Justice Department should prosecute Fauci, Trump ‌told ⁠reporters that former aides Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon had faced similar action “over something that essentially was never prosecuted before, and there are ​sort of telltale ​signs ⁠of similarity.”

The Republican president added: “When you see that happen, you sort of ​say maybe he should (be prosecuted). What ​he did ⁠is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly.”

The criminal offense of contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $100,000 nor less than $100 and imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.

Therefore, even if the preemptive pardon Biden received, which protects the virologist from any conviction, is not deemed valid, he would only risk a few months in prison.

A ridiculous punishment when compared to the fact that the American virologist, a White House consultant also during the first Trump administration, was accused of having contributed to the laboratory construction of SARS-Cov-2 and of having induced the Biden administration to impose mandatory vaccination on many professional categories despite the vaccines being experimental and potentially lethal, as demonstrated by multiple scientific studies even before they were released on the market.

FAUCI & CDC KNEW THAT COVID VACCINES COULD TRIGGER MISCARRIAGE (5 videos). As Denounced by Gospa News in 2021 on 3,573 Cases of Fetal Death among Vaccinated Women

US Senate panel votes to hold former official Fauci in contempt of Congress

A United States Senate panel has voted to hold former health official Anthony Fauci, a key figure in the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in contempt of Congress.

The move on Thursday came after Fauci last week invoked the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which includes the right to remain silent, during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The 8-5 vote fell along party lines.

Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), charged that the Republican-led hearing was designed to entrap him. He had previously been pre-emptively pardoned by former President Joe Biden after a politically divisive government response to the pandemic, which included school closures and vaccine promotion.

VIDEO – Dr. Fauci’s Contempt of Congress referral is being Reviewed by DOJ already

Fauci blames the committee chairman, Sen. Rand Paul: “He wants me behind bars”

In his opening statements last week, Fauci accused the committee chairman, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, of having an “unhinged obsession” with him, arguing he had previously cooperated in several congressional hearings and investigations following the pandemic.

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something – anything – that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words – quote – ‘behind bars’,”Fauci said.

After the vote on Thursday, the panel could refer Fauci to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.

Speaking before the vote, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said there was “virtually no chance that a court would actually approve any contempt because [Fauci] had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination, which entitled him to invoke the Fifth Amendment”.

Rand, meanwhile, argued that Fauci’s decision to deliver an opening statement decrying the hearing before invoking his Fifth Amendment right during questioning, showed he was “trying to have it both ways”.

Democrats and critics have charged that last week’s hearing, which comes six years after the pandemic spread across the US, was a purely political exercise that shed no new light on the issue.

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ARTICLE POSTED ON AUGUST, 1, 2026

Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment refusing to anwer alla questions on Covid-19 before the US Senate

The investigation into Covid-19, from the origins of SARS-CoV-2, built in laboratories in China and the US, to experimental vaccines comparable to innovative and dangerous gene therapies, concludes in three sentences.

Anyone who expected to see a Western-style battle before the United States Congress between former White House virologist Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul was certainly disappointed.

Those of us who knew full well that Fauci has enough biological weapons secrets to arrest hundreds of Pentagon officials feared he would get away with it by invoking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to answer any questions to avoid the risk of perjury.

Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked at least 111 questions today during a contentious congressional hearing on the origins of COVID-19 and his role in leading the government’s response to the pandemic. And at least 111 times (details in The Defender article among the sources), Fauci said the same thing:

“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

But the key phrase that foreshadowed this attitude had already emerged from the famous “Diaries” of the former Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases…

Perhaps the only truly important one in a diary of private notes that contradicts his policy on the Covid emergency, as his emails, which ended up in the two investigations of the Senate and the House of Representatives, had already done.

The notable passages document his initially amicable relationship with President Trump—who called him “the smartest person in the world” and said “We are counting on you.”

And in light of the statements of the POTUS, who has returned to lead the star-spangled nation, it seems we can still count on it…

WUHAN-GATES – 89. “FAUCI & US INTELLIGENCE Hid SARS-Cov-2 BIO-WEAPON LAB-MADE”. CIA Whistleblower before Senate (VIDEO). He Tells the same that Gospa News wrote

This testimony was particularly anticipated after a CIA whistleblower confirmed both Fauci’s role in SARS virus experiments in China and his attempts to hide the artificial origin of the Covid pandemic virus, supported by the same counterintelligence agency.

Sen. Rand Paulwarned former government health official Fauci that there would be “repercussions”

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky warned former government health official and COVID czar Dr. Anthony Fauci that there would be “repercussions” for his refusal to answer questions during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Paul proceeded to ask questions of Fauci anyway, who then repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment (details in The Western Journal article among the sources),

The senator responded, “The chairman has denied your assertion of privilege and directed you to answer [the questions]. You nonetheless refused and stand on privilege despite the existence of the pardon.”

“The committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so. It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions,”Paul said.

WUHAN-GATES – 87. “HOW CIA COVERED UP COVID LAB-ORIGIN” (2 videos). US Senator confirms the MILLENNIUM CONSPIRACY Exposed in 86 Gospa News Investigations on SARS-CoV-2

“Then Chairman Paul put a contempt resolution on next week’s Senate calendar” The Substack Duty to Dissent detailed (among the sources).

But a few hours before the important hearing, US President Donald Trump intervened. In one of his many posts on Truth, where he practices the administration of a democratic country without having to verify that it is within the law, he effectively “protected” the former White House health and Covid-19 emergency adviser from the media spotlight.

Trump blames Fauci of “Crazy Ideas,” not Bioterrorism: to protect Warp Speed ​​on Moderna vaccine

He called him a “crazy man” and not the bioterrorist many believe him to be, given that he is among the prime suspects for having created a SARS-CoV-2 in various experiments funded by the Pentagon’s DARPA in the US, China, Ukraine, and the UK...

He is also accused of having sworn on the efficacy and safety of experimental mRNA vaccines that turned out not to be so.

But precisely because Trump doesn’t want to admit that he funded a project to test dangerous gene therapies on hundreds of millions of American citizens, with high risks of adverse reactions such as myocarditis, strokes, and turbo-cancer, he has effectively issued an unwritten “pardon” that will protect Facui from the risk of prison or even a possible federal trial.

«Many more people died of Covid under the Biden Administration than under the Trump Administration. “Operation Warp Speed” was a SPECTACULAR SUCCESS, in fact, many say, one of the most successful things ever done by an American President. I overrode Fauci on this. His ideas were CRAZY!» Trump posted.

«Also, I said from the beginning that the Virus came from the Wuhan Laboratory in China. Fauci strongly disagreed, always trying to protect China. I Inherited Fauci, who was there since the 1980’s, but with each passing day, relied less and less on him. He made too many bad calls, like on MASKS. Remember at the beginning he was an anti-masker. He then switched to a super-masker» the US president added on Truth.

WHITE HOUSE “LAB LEAK” Report on COVID-19 ORIGINS. A simple Abstract over Misinformations unveiled by Trump to Unmask the Biden-Fauci Censorships on SARS-Cov-2 Manmade

«In any event I didn’t let him shut the Country down, although he wanted to. I went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide. The Republican governors did a much better job than the Dumocrats. Fauci was largely taken out of play, and then along came Sleepy Joe Biden, who made Fauci a “King!” I called Biden to tell him Fauci was no good, either didn’t have a clue, or was dishonest. The call was well received, but sadly, not acted on. Biden went on to give Fauci vast destructive power. The rest is history! President DJT»

The ODNI-Gabbard Dossier on Fauci, Wuhan and SARS-Cov-2 Manmade

These words reveal a distancing from the state virologist, clearly highlighted in the dossier that Tulsi Gabbard, the outgoing director of the ODNI, declassified as the last act of her tenure as head of the US Intelligence Community.

Bombshell! ODNI (Gabbard Video) ACCUSES FAUCI of Pandemic’s SARS-COV-2 MANMADE with China. New Declassified Files by US IC

This dossier highlights the well-known and notorious research activities on the Gain-of-Function-enhanced SARS virus in the laboratories of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but it contains perhaps less damning documents than those published by Gospa News on the Pentagon’s secret activity in the construction of recombinant chimeric viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, whose lethality derives primarily from the insertion of the HIV-AIDS pathogen plasmid.

Trump’s words of heavy moral censure, faced with the gravity of a laboratory-prepared pandemic and a holocaust caused by COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that can cause cancer (as Moderna knew well before releasing them), feel like a small slap in the face.

WUHAN-GATES – 82. SYNTHETIC VIRUSES: BIOWEAPONS Hidden by PENTAGON. Exclusive US AIR FORCE Secret Paper confirms Dangerous Tests by JASON Group on SARS-Cov2

Too Many Secrets behind Moderna Vaccine funded by Trump

“The rest is history” conclude Trump… Why bring to trial the human archive of American bioterrorism, which since the anthrax emergency in 2001 has hidden behind the alibi of national biodefense?

Why make Americans wonder why Ralph Baric, Fauci’s operational arm at the University of North Carolina, published a study in 2017 on “The Recipe for Building a Laboratory-Based COVID”during the Trump administration, and in 2018, DARPA, together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, funded top-secret experiments on the SARS virus at the UK’s Pirbright Institute?

WUHAN-GATES – 81. EXCLUSIVE & EXPLOSIVE STUDY! The “Recipe” to Build a Covid in Laboratory published by Fauci’s collaborator prof. Baric on 2017. Where was Trump?

Why should Americans risk knowing that Trump’s own aides, or even Trump himself, knew full well about those dangerous experiments, just as the White House knew—or should have known—that Operation Warp Speed ​​funded Moderna’s vaccine, developed with the help of DARPA, Fauci, and Baric, but curiously patented nine months before the emergence of Covid-19 in China.

But we must not forget that during its multiple research activities on vaccines, Big Pharma Moderna of Cambridge (Massachusetts), financed by the Bill Gates foundation, developed in 2016 an artificial human gene that turned out to have a genomic makeup practically identical to that of SARS-Cov-2.

WUHAN-GATES – 79. mRNA KILLER VACCINES Ready Before COVID PANDEMIC. Exclusive DARPA Paper proves Plot among Pentagon, Gates & Moderna

“The rest is history” sentenced Trump…

“Rest in Peace” doctor Fauci, now you can secretely work in the Italian National Anti-Pandemic Center through one of your best close collaborator of NIAID: Barney Graham, former deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center (VRS) inside the ational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (in the previous pics above beside Trump),

His hidden employer, however, always has the same three-letter name: CIA aka Central Intelligence Agency.

Stay tuned and subscribe Gospa newsletter because in the next days we will publish an investigation on the Genesis of Fauci Bioterrorism… 

PS I’ve added below the article by John Leake, published on Peter McCuollough’s Substack, “Focal Points,” which confirms my analysis in every detail in his post titled “Why Prosecuting Fauci is Off Limits”

by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio – Gospa News founder and director

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Why Prosecuting Fauci is Off Limits

Discovery and prosecution of the former NIAID director would expose the entire rotten edifice of the US government. The liabilities would be astronomical.

by John Leake – originally published on his Substack Focal Points

All the links to previous Gospa News article have been added in the aftermath

Octavian (later the Emperor Augustus) was offended when Mark Antony cheated on his sister (Octavia the Younger) with Cleopatra. However, he also knew that the embarrassing affair that became the talk of the town in Rome served his ultimate design to get rid of Mark Antony.

Had Antony shown real contrition, left Cleopatra, and returned to Rome to patch things up with Octavia, it would have derailed Octavian’s plan to seize unrivaled power.

PENTAGON’s BIOLABS in UKRAINE, COVID-19 BioWeapon & MOSSAD-EPSTEIN Ring (video). IntelDrops by US Military Whistleblower on Gabbard-ODNI Dossier

A close study of history teaches us that whenever the populace is treated to the spectacle of a powerful man being pilloried and lampooned, it is almost certainly a distraction from the true, behind-the-scenes exercise or preservation of power.

I’m pretty sure that everyone in Washington understands that prosecuting Anthony Fauci—and the official discovery it would entail—would be the end of the US government because the liabilities would be incalculably astronomical.

Fauci’s NIAID was the lynchpin of the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex that perpetrated a massive crime against all of humanity.—literally ALL of the earth’s inhabitants. As I noted in my poster yesterday (President Biden’s Preemptive Pardon of Fauci) the following is clearly evident from the enormous paper trail.

• Knew that Daszak, Baric, et al. were conducting GoF research with their colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (a Chinese biosecurity lab connected with the Chinese military).
• Knew that Baric et al. were creating SARS coronavirus variants capable of infecting and causing pathogenesis in humans.
• Knew that the NIH continued to fund (and therefore to endorse) the research of Baric et al. even after the federal pause on GoF in October 2014.
• Knew that Moderna patented the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site in 2016.
• Knew that his own NIAID began collaborating with Moderna in 2016 to develop an mRNA vaccine against coronaviruses.

WUHAN-GATES – 56. Deep Investigation on “Moderna’s Artificial human gene like SARS-Cov-2”. Huge Plot EU, China, US Darpa & Fauci

NIAID Collaboration with Moderna

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists at NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center and the biotechnology company Moderna had collaborated for four years on mRNA vaccines for other emerging infectious diseases.

• Knew (documented in his private email correspondence with eminent virologists in February 2020) that the genome SARS-CoV-2 displayed clear features of lab manipulation.
• Fraudulently concealed that SARS-CoV-2 was produced in a lab by directing the publication of The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, authored by the same virologists who had just told him in private that the virus appeared to have come from a lab.

WUHAN-GATES – 84. PROOFS of SARS-Cov-2 SYNTHETIC VIRUS: 7 Laboratory-Acquired Infections on 2020 by NEW Research Strains in a US BSL-3 Lab

In other words, Anthony Fauci was a leading conspirator in perpetrating this crime, fraudulently concealing it, suppressing early treatment for it, and promoting the dangerous, experimental mRNA vaccine that NIAID (of which he was the director) developed with Moderna.

The trouble for the sewer known as the US government is that EVERY stinking agency—HHS, DoD, DARPA, BARDA, CIA, FBI—all of them understood the obvious reality of what was going on.

As for the parcel of imbecilic and venal elected representatives in Congress and the White House—stupidity and cowardice aren’t a persuasive defense.

Senators Paul and Johnson are perfect gentlemen, acting in good faith, but I suspect they too know that if this horror show is officially revealed in the discovery phase of a criminal trial against Anthony Fauci, it would be the end of the entire rotten edifice of the US government. The liabilities with respect to all of humanity would be too astronomical.

Fauci also understands that he is, in the language of the Sicilian and Neapolitan mafia, “intoccabile”—untouchable.

FULL ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE ON FOCAL POINTS

John Leake – originally published on his Substack Focal Points

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Kit Klarenberg Investigation: “Are the White Helmets in Venezuela to assist regime change?”

by Carlo Domenico Cristofori

Russian FSB Director claimed that Ukraine has become a “testing ground” for Western and NATO weapons 

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov claimed that Ukraine has become a “testing ground” for advanced Western and NATO weapons systems, artificial intelligence warfare, and new military tactics during a security summit in Irkutsk soem weeks ago.

WARS in VIDEO. DEADLY Russian STRIKE near KIEV vs Military Exhibition of DRONES used to Terrorist Attacks. Footage on 4 Palestinians MURDERED in WEST BANK by Israeli IDF-Backed Settlers

Speaking at the meeting of the CIS Security and Special Services Heads Council, Bortnikov accused Western countries of using Ukraine as a platform for developing modern warfare technologies and conducting operations against Russia.

The FSB chief also discussed tensions in the Middle East, Afghanistan, cyber threats, terrorism, NATO activities, and alleged foreign intelligence operations across the CIS region.

The remarks come amid ongoing geopolitical tensions between Russia, NATO countries, and Ukraine as the conflict continues to reshape global security dynamics.

If you don’t see the video preview, click here to watch it directly on the Gospa News Rumble Channel.

We have published multiple investigations in the Weapons Lobby series confirming the statements of the head of Russian counterintelligence, highlighting the colossal conflicts of interest of the world’s most notorious arms dealer, US President Donald Trump, who has been elected thanks to the votes of the Zionist financiers who control most of the US, European Union, and other NATO countries’ war industries.

But following the statements of the FSB director, we feel it appropriate to republish some excerpts from an old article from Defense One, the American specialistic magazine closely linked to the US Pentagon, in which it was none other than a US Army and NATO general who encouraged the warlords’ Weapons Lobby to use Ukraine as testbeds for new weapons, despite the high risks for its troops and population of facing the inevitable consequent Russian retaliation.

WEAPONS LOBBY – 20. HUGE BUSINESS OF ZIONIST TRUMP’s WARMONGERS. How a German Industry Became the Golden Goose for the US

But in this investigation, we will also analyze Trump’s latest statements in favor of escalating the conflict in Ukraine, which would obviously bring enormous profits to his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, former director of the CIA, who has become a consultant to the most important Ukrainian drone manufacturer, Fire Point, implicated in a corruption scandal as well as in an international intrigue that reaches as far as a Pentagon contractor.

If you don’t see the video preview, click here to watch it directly on the Gospa News Rumble Channel.

Finally, an excellent article published by British journalist Vanessa Beeley, a world expert on Islamic terrorism, confirmed the FSB alert on the role of terrorists in the plot that aims to transform NATO into the New World Order as theorized by George Soros in 1993, thanks to the military investments of the countries of the European Union and the West, and therefore the taxes of Italian, European and American taxpayers.

US General: “Test your arms and gear in Ukraine” NATO’s military chief urges companies”

“Those few that have tried it have either learned a lot, or they’ve decided to go home because they can’t compete in that environment. But that is going to be the environment that we face,” said Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who leads U.S. European Command and serves as NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe since 2025.

Grynkewich, who was speaking virtually to an industry group in Washington, D.C., urged any companies seeking to sell new products to NATO allies to attend September’s Defense Tech Valley conference in Ukraine, as reported by Defense One almost an year ago.

Paradoxically, despite this appeal to the Warlords of the Weapons Lobby, he participated in negotiations in Abu Dhabi involving American, Russian, and Ukrainian officials, during which it was agreed to restore military-to-military communication between the U.S. and Russia, which had been suspended since late 2021.

Before that, in his role as commander of NATO forces, Grynkewich also had the authority to be in contact with the Russian Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, for deescalation purposes, exactly the opposite of what he suggested to the war corporations in his interview for the specialized magazine close to the Pentagon…

“They’re bringing in dozens and dozens of companies from across Europe who have co-production or co-licensing agreements and partnerships with the Ukrainians. It’s an incredible opportunity to see what the modern battlefield looks like today, what it might look like tomorrow, and what we might need in the future,” he said.

NATO allies across Europe are raising defense budgets to meet a new, higher spending pledge. Much of what they buy will go to Ukraine, and much of what they spend will flow to the United States through a recent initiative dubbed the NATO Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL. The month-old effort has already attracted more than $2 billion in pledges, with more expected.

WEAPONS LOBBY – 21. NATO’s WarCrimes! Attack to Moscow, SCHOOLGIRLS’ Massacre by DRONE of Ex CIA Chief POMPEO. Behind UAV FP-1 the Satanic Kiev Gang of Corruption funded by SOROS too

Grynkewich described how European Command plays a central role in coordinating Ukraine’s requests for future capabilities with European and U.S. inventories.

“The Ukrainians will let us know what their requirements are. We then bring that into a combined U.S. European Command-and-NATO working group that elevates those requirements. And then I, as [Supreme Allied Commander], will elevate the requirement and send it back to them at the working group,” he said. “Some things are only going to come from the U.S. factory,” such as PAC-3 missiles.

If you don’t see the video preview, click here to watch it directly on the Gospa News Rumble Channel.

FSB Twarted Terrorist Attack with 13 FPV drones equipped with AI systems

Confirmation of the use of the war in Ukraine as a testing ground for new, increasingly sophisticated weapons also comes from a terrorist attack foiled in recent days by Russia.

The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was preparing a large-scale terrorist attack on a military airfield in Rostov-on-Don using FPV drones with artificial intelligence. But the alleged perpetrator reported an impending terrorist attack and the attack was thwarted at the stage of preparation, which was already under the control of FSB officers.

The Ukrainians planned to use 13 FPV drones equipped with AI systems. The combat load of each drone was more than 1 kg of TNT explosive.

If you don’t see the video preview, click here to watch it directly on the Gospa News Rumble Channel.

Having received this proposal from the representative of the General Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the citizen, having shown consciousness, voluntarily contacted the territorial security authority and reported a planned sabotage and terrorist act (DTA) by the Ukrainian special service.

The further development of the situation was carried out under the supervision of the FSB of Russia. The coordinates of the location of the cache with FPV drones and instructions on how to commit DTA were received from an employee of the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

INTEL WAR between RUSSIAN FSB and BRITISH MI6 behind Ukraine Conflict. Moscow expels UK Diplomat for working as a Spy. “Britain Terrorist State“ Protest before MFA (video)

After the detection of the UAVs and their deactivation, as well as receiving an advance of 20% of the promised monetary reward, communication with foreign intelligence was interrupted.

The Jihadist Terrorists’ Support to Trump and NATO Wars

«As I had predicted in my first article related to Trump’s apparent decision to use the quisling, unelected Syrian “President” Abu Mohammed Al Jolani (Ahmed Al Sharaa rebrand) as a battering ram against the resistance in Lebanon» British journalist Vanessa Beeley wrote in her Substack titled “What did Jolani and Trump agree at the Ankara NATO summit and was Erdogan sweet-talked into alliance?”.

The Grim NATO’S JIHADs. How Atlantic Intelligence “14 Eyes” uses ISLAMIC TERRORISTS: from Italy to Libya, Ukraine and Syria

She pointed out two crucial topics:

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Biblical Introduction in Honor and Devotion to the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, May 31, 2026 whe this article was originally published in Italian version

Jesus Christ to the Apostles (Gospel of St. John, 14:11-21)

“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe it for the sake of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

“The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you. In a little while, the world will see me no longer, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

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by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

Religious Terrorism in the Holy Land Prophesied by the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem

«The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in the Holy Land affirm before the faithful and the world that the flock of Christ in this land is entrusted to the Apostolic Churches, which have carried out their sacred ministry for centuries with unwavering devotion. Recent activities undertaken by local individuals promoting harmful ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead public opinion, sow confusion, and undermine the unity of our flock».

In light of the religious terrorism practiced daily by the IDF under the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Lebanon, where Christians represent nearly 40% of the population, unlike in Palestine, where they are a minority that even before the vile and inhumane genocide was less than 2%, the words written by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, appear truly prophetic.

“Such initiatives (Christian Zionism – ed.) have found favor with certain political actors in Israel and elsewhere, who seek to advance a political agenda that could harm the Christian presence in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East.”

The Persecution of Christians in Lebanon and Palestine by Netanyahu’s Zionist Regime

To confirm the validity of these statements, simply read the exclusive investigation by Gospa News titled “RELIGIOUS TERRORISM IN THE HOLY LAND. All the Crimes of Netanyahu’s IDF Against Christians (Dossier & 10 Videos)”.

For those who are unaware of the persecution of believers in Jesus Christ carried out by the Zionist Netanyahu, thanks to the international military support of US President Donald Trump, a Protestant Presbyterian but increasingly close to the most extremist pastors of the American Evangelical Church, please read the article before proceeding.

Theophilus III’s statement, although published on January 16, 2026, received very little attention in the West for the simple reason that, despite being signed and attributed generically to the “Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches of Jerusalem,” it was published only on the Cyrillic and English website of the Orthodox Patriarchate of the disputed holy city, but, as far as we can tell after careful research, not on that of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem of the Catholic Church, whose heroic regent is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

This lack of consensus prevented us from including it in our investigation entitled “FRASONRY & ZIONISM – 5. Netanyahu launches Christian Zionism: the “False Religion” prophesied by Emmerich and born from the Synagogue of Satan.”

But I was extremely pleased to find it in retrospect because it represents a highly authoritative confirmation of the alarm, reeking of heresy, highlighted by Gospa News.

It may seem paradoxical, but I was able to uncover it only through research on the website of the Qatari Islamic TV station Al Jazeera, one of our important international sources on the wars between Israel and the US in the Middle East.

Before analyzing the reason why the Catholic Church’s Patriarchate of Jerusalem has not given it prominence, we feel it is our duty to clear the field of any responsibility on the part of Cardinal Pizzaballa. He is one of the very few Christian voices in the world, among all denominations, with the courage and candor to speak the truth “like a voice crying in the wilderness,” mindful that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, dead and risen, is not only “the WAY AND THE LIFE, BUT ALSO THE TRUTH” (Jn 14:6).

Precisely for this reason, he suffered the terrible humiliation of Palm Sunday when the Israeli police prevented him from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to attend the Solemn Mass, which was forbidden to the faithful for public order reasons and reserved only for the shrine’s clergy.

Update – Israeli Police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Celebrate Palm Sunday Mass

We analyzed his story in our investigation into the 155 cases of Christian persecution recorded in 2025 by the Jerusalem-based interfaith organization Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue.

This is why the words of Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III about “Christian Zionism” as a threat to Christianity seem prophetic to us: because they were confirmed in a subsequent report on Israeli human rights violations specifically directed against followers of Christ.

TERRORISMO RELIGIOSO IN TERRA SANTA. Tutti i Crimini dell’IDF di Netanyahu contro i Cristiani (Dossier & 10 Video): Stragi, Bombe CHIRURGICHE su Chiese e Conventi a Gaza e in Libano: distrutto Mausoleo di S. Pietro

The Theological Rationale of Theophilus III: “No Christian Authority Outside the Church”

Before addressing the embarrassing situation of the Apostolic Catholic Church regarding this “heresy” born in the context of the ethnic and para-religious supremacism of Zionism, which can easily be identified with the “false religion” of various biblical prophecies, particularly that of the Christian nun and seer Anna Katharina Emmerick, reported in the previous investigation, let us examine the appropriate and solid theological rationale for Theophilus III’s statements.

“Sacred Scripture teaches us that ‘we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another'” (Romans 12:5). Claiming authority outside the communion of the Church harms the unity of the faithful and burdens the pastoral mission entrusted to the historic Churches in the very land where our Lord lived, taught, suffered, and rose from the dead,” the statement reads.

“The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches also note with concern that these individuals have been officially welcomed, both locally and internationally. Such actions constitute interference in the internal life of the Churches and a disrespect for the pastoral responsibility entrusted to the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches of Jerusalem.”

FREEMASONRY & ZIONISM – 5. Netanyahu launches Christian Zionism: the “False Religion” prophesied by Emmerich and born from the Synagogue of Satan

The statement from the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem states, implicitly referring to proponents of “Christian Zionism,” such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promoted it in a public meeting with evangelical pastors in Florida, the U.S. state where President Trump lives.

“The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches of Jerusalem reaffirm that they are the only ones to represent the Churches and their flock in matters relating to Christian religious, communal, and pastoral life in the Holy Land. May the Lord, Shepherd and Guardian of souls, grant wisdom to protect His people and safeguard His testimony in this sacred land,” concludes Theophilus III.

Nostra Aetate: The Vatican’s Original Sin on Freemasonry and Zionism and the Root of Catholic Freemasons

Why has the Catholic Church failed to heed this alarm raised by the Orthodox Church, at least for appropriate reflection and ecumenical debate?

For the simple reason that, as we explained in our previous historical revisionism investigation, “FREEMASONRY & ZIONISM – 6. The License to Kill of the SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN”, stems from the Conspiracy on the Heretical Aberrations of the Catholic text “Nostra Aetate,” it was the Second Vatican Council itself, with an ambiguous and ominous document, that effectively legitimized all religious worship, paving the way for the Great Architect of the Universe, idolized by Freemasonry according to a deistic conception of the Natural Divinity, opposed to the theistic vision, both Christian and Muslim, of the revealed God.

FREEMASONRY & ZIONISM – 4. How SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN was LICENSED to KILL! It arose from Conspiracy behind the Heretical Catholic text “Nostra Aetate”

In light of the anti-Christian tendencies of contemporary society, which have found concrete expression in preventive wars unleashed in the form of genocide by Zionist leaders like Netanyahu and Trump against three monotheistic nations: Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, it seems truly inevitable to identify the Pagan Deity of contemporary false religions in the fallen angel Satan.

Yet despite this, the Vatican itself, as we have highlighted in previous investigations, is teeming with cardinals we can easily and hastily label “Catholic Freemasons,” given that they are no longer ashamed even to publicly demonstrate their veneration for the Lodges of the “Hooded Ancient Masons,” excommunicated by Leo XII!

Among the pathogenic germs of this diabolical and perverse para-theological syncretism, the new WORLD VIRUS has found fertile ground, capable of infecting so many souls with arcane and fallacious metaphysical seductions that it now appears to be a SPIRITUAL PANDEMIC.

FREEMASONRY & VATICAN – 2. Cardinals, Bishops kneeling before Satan at the Masonic Summit in Italy

It facilitated a highly dangerous alliance between Catholics and the Zionist Political Movement, which, to legitimize the creation of the State of Israel, barricaded itself behind extremist interpretations of the Talmud, the condemnation of anti-Semitism, and constructed its own religious deviance, bitterly contested even by Orthodox Jews who are most observant of the Torah and the Tanakh.

Let us briefly recall that the book of the Torah is equivalent to the Judeo-Christian Pentateuch, the Tanakh to the Old Testament, and the Talmud is the transcription of oral laws often altered by the ancient Israelites according to the customs of their time.

From the good intention of weaving an interreligious ecumenical brotherhood, as we have detailed in previous investigations, a sort of “license to kill” has arisen, based on the “good faith” of the contemporary heirs of the Synagogue of Satan, aptly described by St. John the Apostle and Evangelist in the Book of Revelation.

FREEMASONRY & ZIONISM – 1. Apocalyptic “Cataclysms” by Synagogue of Satan: Genocides in Palestine & Plotted Pandemic for Lethal Vaccines.

Thus, in order not to commit an act of lèse-majesté against Zionist Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been issued an arrest warrant for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and accused of genocide by Catholic bishops and many nations around the world (but not by the Vatican), and now also of war rape by the UN (Israel has been blacklisted), even American Pope Robert Prevost has been forced to take a resounding “moral slap” from the Israeli regime without uttering a word…

He was forced, precisely by the aberrant theological foundations of the conciliar text Nostra Aetate, to believe the solemn lie that the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Israeli Zionists against Christians in the Holy Land were “occasional incidents”…

“ISRAEL added in the UN’s BLACKLIST of Perpetrators of SEXUAL VIOLENCE in WAR”. Ambassador said (VIDEO). France urges to investigate on Flotilla abuse by Israel

And therefore, according to Tel Aviv’s false narrative, they are not part of that social process aimed at eliminating Orthodox and Catholics in favor of Anglicans, who, being among the founding fathers of the Church, are among the founding fathers of the Church.

Freemasonry, have supported and allowed the Zionist Political Movement to gain control of the global financial system, especially in the field of military armaments, as we have seen in the investigation “WEAPONS LOBBY – 20.”

WEAPONS LOBBY – 20. HUGE BUSINESS OF ZIONIST TRUMP’s WARMONGERS. How a German Industry Became the Golden Goose for the US

Today, this alarm of mine may seem like that of “one who cries in the wilderness,” and it would even risk appearing “anti-Semitic” if I had not repeatedly clarified that Zionism is a socio-political deviation from the authentic Israelite religion and that I feel so devoted to Judeo-Christian culture that I have no problem affirming my orthodoxy toward the biblical, Jewish, and Semitic tradition of the Covenant with God, confirmed by my circumcision.

ZIONIST DEVIL BIBI HIT CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GAZA: 3 Deaths, Priest Wounded. Likely REVENGE vs Italian UN Diplomat who led to Embargo on Israel by Hague Group Nations

The Medjugorje Prophecy of Satan Freed from Chains

However, it was confirmed by the warning message launched by the Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, but above all, it is in perfect harmony with some apocalyptic prophecies of Medjugorje, such as the one from January 1, 2001, a few months before the September 11, 2001, attack on New York, which occurred amidst the vile international plots of the CIA (USA) and the MOSSAD (Israel).

“Dear children, this evening, in a special way, I wanted you here. In a special way, now that Satan is freed from his chains. I invite you to consecrate yourselves to my Heart and to the Heart of my Son.”

Why would the Queen of Peace, who has been appearing at the shrine in Bosnia-Herzegovina since June 24, 1981, as recently partially recognized by the Vatican, have warned us if it were just a massacre like so many in ancient, medieval, and contemporary history?

Precisely because it is part of a plan of diabolical global conspiracies aimed at altering human and especially Christian spirituality, which I described well from a historical investigative perspective in a previous investigation of ours into a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency who played curiously murky and occult roles in the Twin Towers attack, as well as in the war in Ukraine and the laboratory-generated SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

45th Medjugorje Anniversary – MISTERY in VATICAN! Late Cardinal Ruini Certified the Holy Lady’s Apparitions as Authentic (Video). Then “Masonic Clergy” Hid this

Biblical and Christian Prophecies on the Synagogue of Satan, False Religion, and Antichrists

But, above all, from a metaphysical, soteriological, and eschatological perspective, this New World Order conspiracy was well-foretold by at least three fundamental Christian and Marian prophecies:

• that of the Book of Revelation of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist on the “Synagogue of Satan”
• that of the German nun and blessed Katharina Emmerick on the “False Religion,” which we discussed in our latest investigation into Christian Zionism
• and finally that of the French nun Melanie Calvat, seer of La Salette, on apocalyptic disasters, Antichrists, and the Church of Darkness, which we will publish as soon as we have gathered all the material needed to interpret it from a contemporary perspective.

For now, we invite you to read the article published on Christian Renaissance (the website of the Gospa Edition network I founded, test in Italian available in English with machine translation) on the life of this itinerant nun who traveled between convents in France, England, and Italy, precisely because she was inconvenient for her dire predictions about the evil drift of many members of the Catholic clergy…

Sister Maria della Croce, as she was called after her vows of co-construction, when she was near death while being hosted in the French parish of Diou (in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region), expressed a final wish that takes on the significance of a withering warning:

“Feeling the end of that long and tormented life approaching, Mélanie said she did not want to “die among the Freemasons,” so she wrote to a friend, Rosa Giannuzzo, to contact her former confessor, Father Alfonso Fusco, so that he could find her a place where she would not be known, so that she could live out her last days in hiding.”

He then passed away in Puglia, in Altamura, taking with him the secrets of the Antichrists that the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church was reluctant to hear and spread… Just as today, in every Easter rite of renewal of baptismal vows, in almost every parish it is preferred to recite only the CREED, but the tradition of adding the RENOUNCEMENT OF SATAN has almost died out.

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio – founder and director of Gospa News

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On May 3, an unusual procession moved through Washington DC. Several hundred people walked beneath the monuments of the American capital carrying portraits of Red Army soldiers. Children waved Soviet flags. A live orchestra played wartime songs at the World War II memorial. The Russian embassy had filed the permit; the DC Metropolitan Police provided an escort. Russian state media celebrated the event as proof that, with the return of Donald Trump, historical truth too had returned to America.

One organizer told Russian state television: “We love, respect Russia, honor the memory of our heroes.”

Similar marches took place in Paris, Amsterdam and Busan. In Berlin, authorities announced that Soviet flags, Russian symbols and military songs would once again be banned near Soviet war memorials during May 8 and 9 commemorations.

But in Moscow, Victory Day itself appeared haunted by fear.

For decades, May 9 has been Russia’s most sacred annual political ritual, binding victory, patriotism and state power into a single language. But this year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was reduced to announcing that the Immortal Regiment march in Moscow would continue only “in electronic format.”

The run up to this year’s Victory Day became the most anxious Moscow has experienced in recent memory. The Kremlin canceled the traditional procession in the Russian capital, moving it online. Military equipment was removed from the parade. Mobile internet access across Moscow was intermittently shut down in the days leading up to May 9. Spectator numbers in St. Petersburg were reportedly slashed from thousands to just a few hundred. The Victory Parade in Kaliningrad was canceled entirely. Russian media outlets published extraordinary reports about Vladimir Putin retreating deeper into protected bunkers amid fears of Ukrainian drone strikes and assassination attempts.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry even warned foreign governments to evacuate diplomats from Kyiv before May 9, threatening massive retaliation if Ukraine targeted the celebrations with drones.

And then came another extraordinary twist. Volodymyr Zelensky publicly “allowed” the parade to proceed. In a deliberately tongue-in-cheek decree issued after negotiations around a temporary ceasefire, the Ukrainian president formally excluded Red Square from Ukraine’s operational strike plans for the duration of the celebrations, even listing the exact geographic coordinates of the square itself.

Watching it all unfold, I kept wondering whether empires collapse more easily than the systems of feeling they create. The Soviet Union fell apart more than 30 years ago, but the architecture built around victory, sacrifice and historical grievance survived it, stretching across borders, diasporas and rival political projects. What began as Soviet myth-making about liberation has evolved into a transnational political language through which governments, activists, diasporas and rival ideological movements compete over legitimacy, victimhood and belonging.

Over the years, at Coda, in our Rewriting History current, we have tracked how the remembrance of World War II became central to Putin’s machinery of legitimacy and repression. Soon after he came to power, Russian public culture became saturated with stories of the Great Patriotic War. Watching Russian state television often felt as if the war had ended yesterday. New films, schoolbooks, drama series, speeches, parades and television specials turned victory into the emotional foundation of Putin’s Russia. Scholars of Russian memory politics have described how, under Putin, collective memory of the war became a tool for claiming legitimacy, discrediting opposition and presenting the Russian state as the eternal defender against fascism.

 It resonated because it tapped into genuine emotion passed on for generations. It was never just propaganda. It rested on something real: the scale of Soviet loss and the private grief carried by millions of families.

The Immortal Regiment began in 2012 in the Siberian city of Tomsk as a local act of remembrance. Ordinary people walked through the streets carrying photographs of relatives who died in the war. By 2015, Putin was leading the Moscow procession himself, while state-backed organizations coordinated chapters in dozens of countries. But in Putin’s Russia, where victory had already become the central organizing myth of the state, the boundary between private mourning and political mythology dissolved.

The speed of that transformation still feels important to me. It says something about the way modern political systems absorb private emotion and fold it back into the language of the state.

The Kremlin framed these Victory Day rituals as a defense against what it called Western attempts to “rewrite history” by minimizing the Soviet role in defeating fascism or equating Stalinism with Nazism. Ukraine and many Eastern Europeans came to see the marches instead as vehicles for imperial nostalgia and wartime propaganda. 

But the argument, it seems, is no longer only about what happened in the past. It is about who gets to turn memory and grief into political legitimacy in the present.

This year Germany found itself in the extraordinary position of having to ban Soviet flags and military songs near Soviet memorials, effectively regulating the symbolic language of antifascism itself. Historian Timothy Snyder once warned that “if fascists take over the mantle of antifascism, the memory of the Holocaust will itself be altered.” That is precisely the moral and historical dilemma Berlin has now forced into the open. What happens when the symbols of genuine antifascist sacrifice become inseparable from the imagery of an ongoing war? When the flags carried by the soldiers who liberated Auschwitz are also flown at embassy-organized rallies while Russian bombs fall on Kharkiv? 

At Coda, we explored some of these tensions years ago, in our documentary “What To Do With Stalin,” which examined the strange afterlife of Stalin’s image across the former Soviet world. While filming in Georgia, we encountered arguments that now feel strikingly familiar: whether remembering Stalin represented patriotism or denial, historical pride or historical amnesia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdfTH6rfe7E

Even then, it was obvious these battles were never really about the past.

Putin himself acknowledged as much during this year’s Victory Day speech, describing the war in Ukraine as a “just” continuation of the struggle against fascism and accusing the West of fueling confrontation with Russia “to this day.” Hours later, he suggested the war might finally be over. “I think that the matter is coming to an end,” he told reporters.

Victory Day 2026 may ultimately be remembered not for the military parade itself, but for revealing how unstable that memory system has become. Moscow performed triumph while fearing attack. Berlin restricted Soviet symbols in the name of democratic security. Washington hosted embassy-linked Soviet commemorations beneath American monuments.

I was ten years old when the Soviet Union collapsed. For those of us who grew up inside it, the end of the empire felt at once chaotic and exhilarating. Borders opened, old certainties disappeared and ideology lost its grip almost overnight. I still feel fortunate that, as a child, I witnessed an empire built on terror and repression collapse into history.

In the decades that followed, we watched Russia slowly turn the symbols and emotional reflexes of the Soviet system into instruments of political power once again. Victory Day became one of the most potent of these instruments: a ritual that fused together grief, patriotism, historical trauma and state legitimacy into a single, powerful sentiment.

Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev, praised what he described as the Trump administration’s dramatically changed attitude toward Victory Day commemorations. The holiday, he said, now played “an unequivocally positive role” in Russia-US relations. He pointed specifically to the marches held in the center of Washington, DC.

But the more I think about this year’s Victory Day, the less it feels like a story about Russia alone. When the Soviet Union collapsed, many of us assumed its emotional architecture would disappear with it. Instead, parts of it were patiently cultivated and repurposed for a new era by the men in charge of Putin’s Russia.  

The emotional logic that once underpinned the Soviet system no longer belongs only to Russia and the shattered geography of its former empire. Grievances, historical trauma and rituals of belonging now shape political life all around the world. Digital networks and algorithmic systems did not create these emotional impulses, but they amplified them at a scale the Soviet state could only dream of. Perhaps that is the true afterlife of an empire: not the survival of its borders or ideology, but of the emotional systems it builds to organize fear, belonging and historical destiny.

Additional research by Masho Lomashvili and Irina Matchavariani

The post The afterlife of empire appeared first on Coda Story.