The most disturbing aspect is the total impunity given to Israel by the international community – Israel’s Western allies in particular – for the genocide in Gaza and ongoing attacks in the occupied West Bank, he added.
“What they’re lacking is the political will to act and the moral courage to act, and that’s really shameful,” said Parnes.
(November 24, 2025)
“Germany’s decision to lift its partial suspension of weapons shipments to Israel is reckless, unlawful and sends entirely the wrong message to Israel: that it can continue committing genocide, war crimes, and apartheid against Palestinians and unlawfully occupy the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza without fear of consequence.
“Germany is one of Israel’s major arms suppliers. The partial and long overdue suspension of arms transfers by Germany was one of the few forms of meaningful pressure applied by the international community to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“Now is absolutely not the time to ease this pressure. On the contrary, this is the time to ensure that Israel stops its violations of international law, including its unlawful occupation as indicated by the International Court of Justice in July 2024 and agreed by the UN General Assembly. Regrettably, with this move, Germany is going down a dangerous path that must be immediately reversed and must not be followed by other states.
(August 28, 2025)
As US-led efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine struggle to gain momentum, Vladimir Putin’s latest territorial demands include the surrender of strategically vital and heavily fortified Ukrainian land in the east of the country. Moscow is calling on Kyiv to unilaterally withdraw from the approximately one-third of Donetsk province that remains in Ukrainian hands as part of any peace deal. In other words, Putin aims to secure territory at the negotiating table that his army has been unable to conquer in more that three and a half years of full-scale war.
There are signs that the Kremlin is not interested in a U.S.-brokered peace deal at all, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top officials reiterating maximalist demands and refusing to accept any compromise.
Instead of seeking peace, the Kremlin is trying to buy time and undermine Ukraine’s allies, analysts say. Another goal is to shift the blame to Kyiv by accusing it of rejecting Russian conditions that are effectively tantamount to capitulation.
(August 12, 2025)
– The fortress belt is made up of four large cities and several towns and settlements that run north to south along the H-20 Kostyantynivka-Slovyansk highway, with a total pre-war population of over 380,537 people. The belt is 50 kilometers long (roughly 31 miles, about the distance between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland).
– Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure in and around these cities.
– Slovyansk and Kramatorsk form the northern half of the fortress belt and serve as significant logistics hubs for Ukrainian forces defending in Donetsk Oblast. Druzhkivka, Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka, and Kostyantynivka serve as the southern half of the fortress belt.
– Ukrainian forces first began building up defensive positions in and around these cities after retaking them from pro-Russian proxy forces who attacked and seized Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kostyantynivka in April 2014.
– Russia’s failure to seize Slovyansk in 2022 and ongoing struggles to envelop the fortress belt underscore the success of Ukraine’s long-term efforts to reinforce the fortress belt cities.
(November 19, 2025)
Key Takeaways
Russia killed at least 26 Ukrainian civilians and injured at least 139 on the night of November 18 to 19 during its combined missile and drone strikes that disproportionately impacted civilian areas.
US and Russian officials reportedly drafted a 28-point peace plan that amounts to Ukraine’s full capitulation and would set conditions for renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The reported proposed peace plan would deprive Ukraine of critical defensive positions and capabilities necessary to defend against future Russian aggression, apparently in exchange for nothing.
This reported peace plan is fundamentally the same as Russia’s 2022 Istanbul demands, which Russia presented to Ukraine when the circumstances on the battlefield appeared to favor Russia more heavily.
Russia’s long-held demands are dependent on the false premise that a Russian battlefield victory is inevitable.
Ukraine’s interdiction efforts are preventing Russian forces from using vehicles and concentrating manpower in Pokrovsk and are likely slowing down Russia’s rate of advance within the town.
Russian forces recently advanced near Borova and Hulyaipole.
Shortly after midnight on June 20, activists from Palestine Action cut through the outer fence of Brize Norton and sped across the tarmac on electric scooters.
Undetected by guards, they proceeded to spray red paint into the turbines of two Voyager aircraft, used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) for air-to-air refueling and strategic air transport missions. Crowbars were also reportedly used.
Three days later, Britain’s home secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament that she had decided to proscribe Palestine Action under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act.
He also accused the Government of withholding critical information, which he said continued to stir panic and unease among the public.
Gonzales also pointed to the absence of Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge and Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, especially as the media briefing involved matters related to the country’s security assets.
(…)
Browne added that survivors of recent US kinetic strikes were taken briefly to the United States before being returned to their home countries without facing charges. He said the Government continues to encourage actions that the United Nations has found to violate international law and continues to presuppose that all those killed at sea were guilty. “It would appear that the guilt or innocence of these persons is predicated only on the basis of whether they are killed or whether they survive,” he said.
(Juni 15, 2017)
Mit seinen Beschlüssen 2 BvE 5/15 (verkündet am 14.10.2016, aber schon vom 20.09.2016) und 2 BvE 2/15 (verkündet am 15.11.2016, aber schon vom 13.10.2016) gab das Bundesverfassungsgericht das unauffällige Startsignal für den Beschluss des neuen B.N.D.-Gesetzes am 21.10.2016 im Bundestag.
Die Absegnung des B.N.D.-Gesetzes durch ihre Über-Dreiviertel-Mehrheit im Parlament, gegen die es laut Karlsruhe nun keine Opposition mehr im Sinne von Artikel 44 des Grundgesetzes gab, hatte die Regierung bis zu den Freifahrtscheinen der Verfassungsrichter taktisch verzögert.
Am 12. Dezember 1970 hatte das „Abhörteil“ (BVerfGE 30, 1) vom Verfassungsgericht Westdeutschlands die Aufhebung der Gewaltenteilung beim Brief-, Post- und Fernmeldegeheimnis durch die Verfassungsänderungen der „Notstandsgesetze“ als verfassungsgemäß beurteilt. Das damalige Urteil war gegen schwerste Bedenken und vorausschauende Warnungen der Verfassungsrichter Geller, Dr. v.Schlabrendorff und Dr. Rupp mit 5 zu 3 Stimmen entschieden worden.
Im Jahre 2016 nun übertrugen Andreas Voßkuhle, Peter M. Huber, Monika Hermanns, Sibylle Kessal-Wulf, Peter Müller, Doris König und Ulrich Maidowski die Machtfülle der in 1968 unter Besatzungsrecht geschaffenen „Notstandsgesetze“ der damaligen „großen Koalition“ auf deren heutige Nachfolger.
Und in Deutschland, wie es heute ist, eskalierten die Verfassungsrichter selbst die damalige antidemokratische und antiparlamentarische Auslegung des Grundgesetzes ein weiteres Mal.
Die durch die Verfassungsänderungen der „Notstandsgesetze“ und das nachfolgende erste Artikel 10-Gesetz vom 13. August 1968 geschaffene G 10-Kommission, als einziges parlamentarisches Gremium bevollmächtigt Inlandsspionage der Behörden zu verbieten, hatte dies siebenundvierzig Jahre effektiv nicht getan und lediglich als Feigenblatt der Regierungsmacht gedient.
Als die G 10-Kommission schließlich Mitte 2015 zum ersten Mal in ihrer Geschichte gegen die Regierung revoltierte und Einblick in die sogenannte „N.S.A.-Selektorenliste“ verlangte – eine Liste mit Spionagezielen, die der Bundesnachrichtendienst abgelehnt hatte, nicht etwa einer Liste mit tatsächlich anvisierten Zielen – verweigerte die Regierung selbst diesem Gremium die Einsichtnahme. Als die G 10-Kommission dann im Dezember 2015 endlich Verfassungsklage einreichte, stellte sie keinen Eilantrag.
Am 14. Oktober 2016 weigerte sich dann das Bundesverfassungsgericht im (wie erwähnt bereits am 20. September 2016 getroffenen) Beschluss 2 BvE 5/15, die Verfassungsklage der G 10-Kommission auch nur anzunehmen.
Begründung der Karlsruher Richter: Ihrer Interpretation des Grundgesetzes nach, sei die vom Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremium des Bundestages gewählte G 10-Kommission kein „Hilfsorgan“ (Wortlaut Artikel 10 Grundgesetz) des Bundestages, weil sie in dessen Geschäftsordnung (!) nicht „mit eigenen Rechten ausgestattet“ sei.
Abseits dieser bizarr anmutenden Begründung hatte das Urteil einen verheerenden, tatsächlichen Kern: eben den Bezug auf die Legitimierung der „Notstandsgesetze“ Westdeutschlands durch das „Abhörurteil“ BVerfGE 30, 1, von 1970. In einem in der Tat historischen Schritt bestätigten die Verfassungsrichter nicht nur die seitdem als verfassungsgemäß geltende selektive Außerkraftsetzung der Gewaltenteilung, sondern vollzogen in deren letzter Konsequenz selbst die Erniedrigung der parlamentarischen G 10-Kommission und entblößten diese als Placebo, als jahrzehntelanges, lediglich im Falle von Folgsamkeit geduldetes Feigenblatt exekutiver Willkürmacht.
(November 7, 2025)
Over the past two years, Maj. Gen. Tomer-Yerushalmi — the official responsible for all internal investigations and legal enforcement in the Israeli army — has almost entirely refrained from probing the countless, well-documented allegations against its soldiers. The Sde Teiman guards’ crime, however, as captured in the leaked video, was apparently so blatant and grotesque that authorities had no choice but to issue indictments.
When Israeli military police arrived at Sde Teiman to arrest the suspects, however, they were met by right-wing rioters and soldiers, including several members of Knesset hiding behind their immunity. Attempting to block the arrests, they insisted that the perpetrators did nothing wrong and that their actions were merely part of the Israeli war effort.
Tomer-Yerushalmi leaked the video of the rape soon after, and it quickly spread online. Protests by right-wing Israelis in support of the abusers grew in turn. But while many around the world were aghast at what could only be described as “right to rape” protests, the discussion in Israel quickly faded in favor of daily news of “successes” on the Gazan front. The case was largely forgotten for months, until the investigation into the video’s leak was announced last week.
(October 16, 2025)
Euro-Med Monitor’s field team monitored the Israeli authorities’ handover of the bodies of 120 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), delivered in three consecutive batches: 45 on Tuesday, 45 on Wednesday, and 30 on Thursday, including dozens of unidentified remains.
Medical examinations, forensic reports, and observations by the field team revealed conclusive evidence that many victims were killed after being detained. Their bodies bore clear marks of hanging, rope imprints around their necks, injuries from close-range gunfire, bound hands and feet with plastic restraints, and blindfolds. Some bodies were crushed under tank tracks, while others showed severe signs of physical torture, fractures, burns, and deep wounds.
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said: “The bodies we received were bound like animals, blindfolded, and bore horrific signs of torture and burns that reveal the extent of the crimes committed in secret. They did not die naturally; they were executed after being restrained. These people were not buried underground, they were kept in the occupation’s refrigerators for long months.”
Israeli and Emirati online networks have worked in tandem to shape narratives around Sudan and Gaza, targeting Sudan’s army even as RSF massacres mounted in El Fasher.
On the defence-industrial side, firms are expanding inside the UAE, tightening a two-way flow of money, tech, and intelligence. Israeli defence firm Controp is opening a UAE subsidiary making it the latest emblem of this deepening security embrace.
All the while, Emirati rulers boast of their „development model“ as a „shining example for the region“: authoritarian, anti-political, drenched in consumerism and spectacle.
It is a façade of progress built on repression. A mirage of modernity concealing a machinery of tyranny.
In Gaza, we are used to waking up to the sounds of explosions, counting the days between meals, and cycling constantly between fear and hope. We thought our pain was unlike any other in the world until we saw Sudan burning under the same silence. There, as here, people die from hunger and under rubble, cameras and lenses absent, as if pain in the Global South is not meant to be heard in the North.
In Sudan and Gaza, children are snatched from their mothers’ arms before they even know what safety feels like. Last Tuesday alone, some 460 people were reportedly killed by paramilitary forces in the city of El-Fasher. Estimates put the rate of displacement in Gaza at 90%; in Sudan, more than 14 million people have been displaced. Homes are destroyed, access to clean water is severely limited, food remains deeply scarce, and the wounded lie scattered on the ground without medical care, just as we witnessed in our small city on the Mediterranean coast.
Yet what hurts more than bombing or hunger is silence.
The United States military is upgrading a long-abandoned former Cold War naval base in the Caribbean, a Reuters visual investigation has found, suggesting preparations for sustained operations that could help support possible actions inside Venezuela.
The construction activity at the former Roosevelt Roads naval base in Puerto Rico — shuttered by the Navy more than 20 years ago — was underway on September 17 when crews began clearing and repaving taxiways leading to the runway, according to photos taken by Reuters.
Yes, New York is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. But its politics are still complicated and shifting. Its nearly 8.5 million people are spread across five distinct boroughs.
We visited all five to get a firsthand look as part of our All Over the Map project, which is aimed at tracking major stories through the eyes and experiences of everyday Americans.
(October 28, 2025)
According to The Associated Press, Israel notified the Trump administration before conducting Tuesday’s strikes — presenting the question of whether the U.S. would hold Netanyahu accountable for the latest round of ceasefire violations.
In this episode, Nigel exposes the full story behind Venezuela’s decision to suspend its gas agreements with Trinidad and Tobago — and why it could devastate our energy future.
Venezuela’s Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, announced the suspension of all joint projects with Trinidad, citing betrayal after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar welcomed U.S. warships into our waters. But this isn’t just political drama — it’s economic suicide. The Dragon Gas Field held over 4 trillion cubic feet of gas, nearly half our remaining reserves, and could have secured decades of energy and revenue for Trinidad and Tobago
העובדה שעולם הדימויים של השואה משמש הן כהצדקה להשמדת עזה והן כאמצעי התנגדות לה משקפת בין היתר את כפיפות הפלסטינים לשיח השואה, ואת הצורך שלהם להכניס את הטרגדיה שלהם לתבניות שלה כדי להישמע. הבנת המתחולל בעזה לא רק דרך הפריזמה של ג׳נוסייד אלא גם של הנכבה כמטרת על, המושגת על ידי השמדה מכוונת של בני אדם ומרחב החיים שלהם, מייצרת קוהרנטית רבה יותר. עם זאת, כיהודי-ישראלי, אל מול הזוועות בשנתיים האחרונות, אני לא יכול שלא לחשוב דרך השואה. השמדת עזה איפשרה לי להבין לא רק את היהודים, אלא גם את הגרמנים, את הרוב הדומם, את אלו שאיפשרו לזוועות לקרות במעשה או בשתיקה.
Yet to see the past two years not only through the prism of genocide but also as a second Nakba — a sustained project of erasure aimed at destroying both a people and the space they inhabit — may bring us closer to grasping the nature of Israel’s actions. Whereas genocide is often understood as violence for its own sake, the Nakba represents violence with a purpose: the removal and replacement of a people.
And yet, as a Jewish-Israeli faced with the horrors of the past two years, I cannot help but think in Holocaust terms. The destruction of Gaza has enabled me to better understand not only the stories of the victims but also of the perpetrators — the silent majority who facilitated atrocities through their actions and the stories they tell themselves to justify it all.
(October 23, 2025)
Former Grenada House Speaker Chester Humphrey accused Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar of capitulating to US policy in a way that was not befitting of the office she held.
“This is what is happening to the prime ministership in Trinidad and Tobago! It is being desecrated by someone who, first of all, may be in a state of stupor, does not understand the principles involved in the zone of peace,” Humphrey said.
Yet now is a time of reckoning. After two years of relentless violence, a fragile and uncertain cease-fire has settled over Gaza, bringing joyous scenes of Israeli captives reuniting with their families and of Palestinian prisoners returning home after years of detention. But that must be set against the apocalyptic reality survivors face: a moonscape of total devastation and unfathomable loss. Today there is a chance, if we want it, to begin to discover the true cost of this war. We might find that it’s even worse than we thought.
NEW YORK, NY — Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) was joined by Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams today for a press conference calling on New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to strictly enforce state and local laws and hold federal immigration agents accountable for unlawful conduct, including potentially arresting federal officers who illegally assault or detain New York residents. Assemblymember Tony Simone and Councilmember Alexa Aviles were also in attendance.
The press conference followed Goldman’s letter to NYPD Commissioner Tisch, citing numerous instances of federal immigration officers abusing their authority and detaining, arresting, and deporting American citizens and law-abiding, non-violent New Yorkers.
At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Goldman, who was focused on the detention of citizens — rather than the noncitizens, who remain detained in New Jersey — suggested that the involvement of the NYPD would help prevent federal abuse. “We will continue to call on the NYPD to make sure that they are present for these raids,” he said. “Because it’s the NYPD’s job to protect New Yorkers.”
The Congressman also announced that his office would be starting a “Rapid Response Task Force” to coordinate a response to overreach by federal authorities.
“This is not immigration enforcement,” he said. “This is lawless terror to create a pretext for Donald Trump to send the military into New York City.”
(October 13, 2025)
tagesschau.de: Ist es denkbar, dass Israel die Kampfaktivitäten wieder aufnimmt? Beispielsweise dann, wenn die Waffen jetzt doch nicht so abgegeben werden, wie ursprünglich seitens der Hamas zugesagt.
Busse: Ich sehe ein Risiko, dass dieser Krieg wieder fortgesetzt werden könnte durch Israel. Und ich glaube, dass Teile dieses Plans von Trump auch so formuliert worden sind, dass man dafür, wenn man das möchte, einen Vorwand finden kann.
Aboud said it was frightening that T&T’s leader would endorse such actions, calling her comments “outrageous, violent, ignorant, aggressive, undiplomatic and unbecoming of a senior counsel.”
“Our people pay the price. I do not recommend that any of our boys move further than a mile from shore. I strongly advise all seamen to travel at five to ten knots because, at any moment, you can be bombed out of the sea. Even if it’s an accident, they will say, ‘We’re sorry, we thought…’ This is not what a responsible Prime Minister should be bringing to our shores and our people,” Aboud said.
The Trump administration is playing another long game, or trying to, in the streets of US cities under Democratic Party governance, using existing presidential emergency powers to send National Guard, Army troops and ICE agents to hunt down and arrest suspected undocumented immigrants and detain and deport them, without the due process demanded by the Constitution. What’s happening now may be a trial run for the use of those forces to interfere on the behalf of the president and the Republican Party in states where the Democratic Party has a chance to win crucial seats in next fall’s Congressional elections. I’ve been told by someone with inside knowledge that planning for such action is now under way in the White House.
Trump behauptet, er habe die rechtliche Befugnis, bei Feststellung eines Notstands Kriminalität in allen Staaten zu bekämpfen, einschließlich derer unter demokratischer Kontrolle. Mir wurde jedoch berichtet, dass das politische Team im Weißen Haus eine parallele, tiefere Motivation verfolgt: einen Präzedenzfall für bundesweite Notstandseingriffe zu schaffen – per präsidentieller Anordnung –, um vor den Kongresswahlen im nächsten Herbst mit Truppen intervenieren zu können.
Einige im Weißen Haus – nicht unbedingt der Präsident selbst – wissen, dass diese angerufenen Notstände „falsche Notstände“ sind. Aber wie ein Insider es formulierte: Wenn man es „wiederholt tut“, können solche Maßnahmen zukünftigen politischen Einfluss entfalten. Nennen Sie es eine neue politische Normalität.
Als hätte die deutsche Öffentlichkeit Jahrzehnte geschlafen. Nun ja: Das hat sie ja auch.
“No one expects that the force would fight Hamas,” a western diplomat told the Financial Times. They argued that the mere presence of the force would make it harder for either side to resume the conflict even if it did “absolutely nothing”.
There are reasons for scepticism about whether the ISF could reliably prevent either side from acting, as illustrated by a recent grenade attack by an Israeli drone near UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. There may be wider lessons from that deployment. You might have a model similarly mandated to patrol and report on ceasefire violations. But in southern Lebanon, they have been pretty toothless.
(October 7, 2025)
As of Oct. 2, roughly 60 per cent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged since Oct. 12, 2023, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by researchers at Oregon State University.
The figure marks a significant increase from nearly 13 per cent in November 2023, a month after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza.
(October 5, 2025)
Peace abroad and war at home? It’s an unusual note to strike in an electoral democracy.
A further possible boost to hopes for peace came with a supportive statement from Iran-backed Islamic Jihad, which is smaller than Hamas but seen as more hardline.
(…)
„What is important is that Netanyahu does not sabotage this, because now that Hamas agreed, Netanyahu will disagree, as he usually does,“ said Jerusalem resident Jamal Shihada.
The Global Sumud Flotilla seemingly breached Israel’s blockade of Gaza while provoking an Israeli response that triggered anger and reprisals from various governments. It’s one of the most successful acts of civil disobedience in recent history.