“A BBC investigation has exposed the French and UK operations of a powerful and violent smuggling gang taking people across the English Channel in small boats. A reporter, posing as a migrant wanting to cross, helped us gain unprecedented access to the smugglers’ notorious forest hideout in northern France – an area plagued by armed battles between rival gangs. Secret filming at a major UK railway station also captured associates of the gang collecting cash payments to secure migrant places on illegal Channel crossings. Two men met us on separate occasions on the busy concourse at Birmingham’s New Street Station to collect envelopes containing hundreds of pounds. Multiple sources have described how gang leaders, who keep one step ahead of the authorities by changing mobile phone numbers and the gang’s name, subjected their henchmen and migrants to violent beatings.” (08/05/25)
“The Lebanese government asked the national army on Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions will have weapons in the small nation by the end of the year, a move that aims to disarm the militant Hezbollah group. The announcement by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam after a nearly six-hour Cabinet meeting, came shortly after Hezbollah’s leader said his group would not disarm and warned that the Iran-backed faction would resume missile attacks on Israel if military operations against them intensify. Salam said the government asked the army to have the plan ready by the end of the month for discussion and approval. The government’s move came as Beirut is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.” (08/05/25)
“Santa Cruz County, Arizona, is the smallest county in the Grand Canyon State, but its location makes it significant. Home to more than 50,000 people, the vast majority of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino, the county is located in the southernmost part of central Arizona and shares a 54-mile stretch of border with the Mexican state of Sonora. Along this stretch of land is Nogales, the county’s administrative seat and a major port of entry into the United States; millions of people and billions of dollars in trade pass through it every year. Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, are bisected by a demarcation line established by the purchase, six years after the Mexican-American War, of Mexican land by the United States. But the sister cities — collectively referred to as Ambos Nogales — comprise a single urban area characterized by high levels of cross-border interaction and a common culture.” (08/05/25)
“In June, facing a military defeat, the leaders of Iran muted their rhetoric and agreed to a truce with Israel, ending the ’12-day war.’ A month later, a government largely controlled by ruling Muslim clerics has signaled another kind of truce – this time with its own people, and within a period of just 10 days. On July 20, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Cabinet sought to fast-track a sweeping internet censorship bill. Parliament passed it July 27. But, following public backlash, Mr. Pezeshkian abruptly withdrew it three days later. The bill was ‘not designed to fight lies, but rather to eliminate independent narratives, restrict freedom of expression,’ and target critics, wrote formerly jailed journalist Alireza Rajaei. The rapid about-face signals that the government is learning to acknowledge the power of popular sentiment. And what popular sentiment wants is freedom of expression: the ability to access and share information and viewpoints in real time.” (08/04/25)
“Despite the best efforts of Russiagate-complicit media to dismiss as ‘Russian disinformation’ the latest revelations in this escalating scandal implicating President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the treasonous ‘years-long coup’ against President Trump, the public is paying attention and wants heads to roll. According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) are following declassified releases over the past month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) ‘very closely’ (32%) or ‘somewhat closely’ (33%), repudiating the calculated media silence about the Obama administration’s fake narratives and manipulation of intelligence to frame Trump as a Kremlin stooge to cover up Clinton’s wrongdoing. The poll of 1,172 likely voters, conducted July 29-31, shows 54% believe Obama administration officials committed serious crimes in ‘manipulating intelligence’, with 37% saying ‘very likely’ and 17% saying ‘somewhat likely.'” (08/03/25)
“In July 2025, the Massachusetts legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill to make it the 38th state to follow the federal government, 45 other countries (almost all of them in the global North), and more than 50 U.S. local governments in adopting a strange definition of antisemitism. In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a group of 35 mostly European countries, drafted what it called a working definition of antisemitism. The Alliance had been founded in 1998 to promote Holocaust education and, in its own words, ‘to strengthen governmental cooperation to work towards a world without genocide.’ All too sadly, right now, its definition is being used to do the opposite: it’s helping to criminalize opposition to genocide.” (08/03/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“At least 100,000 Australians, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, marched for Gaza across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the pouring rain at a demonstration on Sunday. It wasn’t that long ago when I sincerely wondered if we’d ever see Assange’s face again, let alone in public, let alone in Sydney, let alone heading up what had to be one of the largest pro-Palestine rallies ever held in Australia. Dare to be encouraged. The light is breaking through. … The western political/media class is fuming with outrage about images of Israeli hostages who are severely emaciated, which just says so much about how dehumanized Palestinians are in western society. Everyone stop caring about hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians, it turns out two Israeli hostages are starving in the same way for the same reason.” (08/04/25)
“Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened to file bribery charges against Democratic legislators who fled the state to prevent a vote on a controversial redistricting plan that would significantly favour Republicans. At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable when 51 Democratic lawmakers left the state. The proposed congressional map, unveiled last week by Texas Republicans, would create more Republican seats in the US House of Representatives where they hold a slim majority currently. Abbott warned that lawmakers who refuse to return to vote on the map could face second-degree felony charges. ‘It would be bribery if any lawmaker took money to perform or to refuse to perform an act in the legislature,’ Abbott said on Fox News on Monday.” (08/04/25)
“Before I began my career as an English and media professor, I knew the system I was about to enter was already showing signs of decay. So, when Christopher Rufo announced the release of The Manhattan Statement on Higher Education in mid-July, I should have been overjoyed. Signed by a who’s who of conservative public figures, including Drs. Jordan B. Peterson, Victor Davis Hanson, Gad Saad, and Nashville’s own Carol Swain, the intended blueprint for President Trump’s higher education agenda aims to quell activism, uproot DEI initiatives, and lead to institutions of higher learning that ‘advance truth over ideology, with rigorous standards of academic conduct, controls for academic fraud, and merit-based decision-making throughout the enterprise.’ Yet, I’ve found myself uneasy. To its credit, The Manhattan Statement serves as a much needed articulation of the issues that initiated higher education’s largely self-inflicted crises.” (08/04/25)
“A group of some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, have written to US President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza. ‘It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,’ the officials said. ‘Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: End the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,’ they wrote. Their appeal comes amid reports that Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations in Gaza as indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas have stalled. Israel launched a devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.” (08/04/25)
