“Ask an Iranian in Tehran these days how the war is going and you might get this response: Which war? The on-again, off-again war on Iran by U.S. President Donald Trump? Or the war inside Iran by a regime whose new fear campaign against its people appears to be backfiring? Since January, when Iran saw the largest unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, executions of political dissenters have surged. In late July, the regime escalated its intimidation tactics by holding the first public executions since 2022 – but not before a large crowd tried to stop the construction of gallows in a public square. Videos on social media show security forces in the central city of Isfahan chasing protesters before two young men were hanged.” (08/03/26)
“Opposite every outrageous pronouncement from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the long shadow of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the formerly canonized COVID-era hero who has already been stripped of his sainthood. The lifelong liberal conspiracy theorist who endorsed President Donald Trump to secure a job in his administration sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash for an explosive interview on Sunday, just a few days after Fauci spent the entirety of a Senate Homeland Security Committee meeting pleading the Fifth Amendment. Yin and yang, but both incompetent and ruinous. Fauci’s sins are both too grave to exaggerate and too many to enumerate in full. The ex-NIAID director and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden sought to undermine the lab leak theory of Covid’s origins publicly even as he contemplated it privately.” (08/03/26)
“CCTV footage released on Monday showed the moment a pilot was caught at Jakarta airport trying to smuggle 70,000 ecstasy pills in his suitcase. A group of officers at the airport can be seen removing several bags full of drugs – which amounted to around four stone (26kg) – from a silver suitcase. The man told authorities that he was paid the equivalent of £9,000 to smuggle the drugs. According to authorities, the Malaysian pilot was under the influence when he was arrested.” (08/04/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The BBC recently interviewed an Israeli settler who said that all the Palestinians in four surrounding villages should be exterminated to avenge an Israeli who was killed while terrorizing a Palestinian village last month, adding that just a single Jewish life is worth ten million Palestinian lives. ‘I think now after they kill one Israeli people, we need to kill all the people in Tal and Sarra, even Jit and Farata,’ lawyer Yehuda Shimon told the BBC. ‘It sounds like you’re saying one Jewish life is worth hundreds or thousands of Palestinian lives,’ replied the BBC’s Lucy Williamson in the interview. ‘Million,’ Shimon corrected her. ‘One Jewish life, it’s ten million, okay?’ ‘That just sounds racist,’ Williamson responded, to which Shimon replied, ‘Yes, I know, I know. But this is the truth.'” (08/04/26)
“Floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains have left at least seven people dead in Sri Lanka ’s tea-growing mountainous regions, forcing the closure of some schools, officials said on Tuesday. Heavy downpours over the last two days have flooded homes, fields and roads in many parts of the country. The mountainous areas in the central region are the worst hit, according to the government’s Disaster Management Center. At least five people died after being buried in mudslides that overran two houses in the central region, while two others died in floods, said Pradeep Kodippili, the center’s spokesperson. Three others have been injured. He said 291 houses had been damaged and nearly 3,500 people have been evacuated. Navy and army personnel have been deployed to rescue those trapped in the floods. Local television channel Hiru TV showed troops and civilians rescuing people trapped by floodwaters in their homes or at risk of being buried by mudflows.” (08/04/26)
“According to a new survey, roughly 40 percent of college faculty would ‘oppose hiring a Trump supporter’. The results of the study are not surprising to many in the field of teaching. Indeed, it may be low given faculty reluctance to admit political bias or the delusion of others that they are without it. Yet, the virtual purging of Republicans from most departments reveals a long-standing ideological exclusion in higher education. While far-left hires are common, even a moderate Republican is a rarity on faculties in a country with a majority of conservative and libertarian voters. Even assuming that many faculty members will not expressly acknowledge their bias, this forty percent is willing to state that they will vote against candidates based on their political views without any consideration of the intellectual content of their scholarship.” (08/04/26)
“Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s migration policies faced fierce criticism as leaders from across the European Union met Tuesday following last week’s rush of migrants to the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa. The sudden arrival of 72,000 migrants on Thursday and Friday sparked a humanitarian crisis in Ceuta and reignited the immigration debate in the 27-nation bloc, though most of the migrants soon went back. More than 80 migrants died, including some who drowned or were trampled in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, according to Spanish and Moroccan authorities. Open letters from 22 EU leaders, and a quick retort from Sanchez, have exposed a roiling debate inside the EU pitting migration hawks against the progressive Spanish leader who has challenged consensus within the bloc on migration as well as NATO spending, Gaza and Israel.” (08/04/26)
“Twenty-five states sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday over a wave of tariffs against dozens of countries. The US says the tariffs, which range between 10% and 12.5%, were imposed due to trading partners – including the UK, China and the European Union – failing to properly tackle forced labour. In a legal document seen by the BBC, the coalition of Democratic states said the decision was ‘arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law’. In response, White House spokesman Kush Desai said the US was ‘using its lawful authority’ to address practices that burden American businesses. Desai added that any foreign countries failing to deal with the importation of goods produced with forced labour was ‘unreasonable’ and ‘must be addressed’.” (08/04/26)
“Currently we live in a world bristling with nuclear and conventional weapons, with a potential destructiveness unprecedented in history. A nuclear war, for example, would largely be over in one hour, with each second equivalent in destruction to World War II. Meanwhile, our security is increasingly threatened by skyrocketing global military expenditure at the same time as the United Nation’s capacity to maintain peace is being undermined by member states starving the organization of funds. In the aftermath of two world wars, there was considerable hope that humanity would learn its lesson and that each would be ‘the war to end all wars’.” (08/04/26)
“Residents of two villages have evacuated their homes near Guatemala’s Fuego volcano following an eruption, the country’s disaster management agency says. Video of the eruption shows clouds of gas and ash over the volcano as lava and pyroclastic flows roll down. The eruption began Monday morning and continued throughout the day, leading to the evacuation orders for the villages on the southern side of the mountain., according to Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of the Guatemalan disaster managing agency, CONRED. During a previous eruption of the Fuego volcano in June 2018, hundreds of people were killed and a whole village was destroyed. That episode affected as many as 1.7 million people, according to authorities. The Fuego volcano is one of the most active in Guatemala. Another eruption in June last year spurred preventive evacuations.” (08/04/26)
