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By Daniel Kovalik and John Perry

Nicaraguans will fill the streets later this month to celebrate the 46^th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.

On July 19, 1979, the Somoza dictatorship finally fell, ending 18 years of guerilla fighting and urban insurrections.

The regime had been supported for 43 years by successive US administrations (the history is told in Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention & Resistance).

Only three weeks before, over the two days June 27-28, Sandinista forces had been forced to leave the capital, Managua, where the working-class barrios that they controlled in the east of the city came under aerial bombardment. Under cover of darkness, an enormous, silent retreat took place. More than 6,000 insurgents left the city, mostly walking in single file, making their way by alleyways and then rural pathways for 20 miles, over bare volcanic hillsides, to reach the militant neighbouring town of Masaya. On the morning of the 28^th, when Somoza’s National Guard moved in for what they thought would be the final offensive, they found Managua’s eastern barrios almost deserted.

This strategic retreat, known as el repliegue, cost just six deaths among Sandinista fighters or supporters. One of these was Sócrates Espinoza Muñoz.

Sócrates was born in Masaya on July 1, 1955 into a family that, to outward appearances, supported the dictatorship. His father, Rosalío, was a sergeant in the National Guard and vehemently opposed the revolution. However, because his duties took him away from Masaya for long periods, he was unaware that the rest of the family not only supported the Sandinista uprising but used their home as a “safe house” to protect guerrilla fighters and hide weapons.

Sócrates joined the ranks of the Sandinista Front in 1977, identifying with its goals of social equality and freedom from the brutal dictatorship. He joined clandestinely, worked as a collaborator and took part in the final insurrection under the pseudonym “Edwin.” He joined a mobile unit on June 8 and learned to use the Mag 50 machine gun operated by his younger brother Rosalío (known as “Bronko”), who – 46 years later – recounted the events leading to Sócrates’ death.

On the morning of June 28, Bronko explained, their unit was covering the retreating forces as they reached the outskirts of Masaya, tired and in some cases wounded. After running out of ammunition, the unit was ordered to return to their temporary base by their commander, the 20-year-old Miriam Tinoco Pastrana (Comandante “Delia”), who would be killed in action only a week later. Sócrates asked for more ammunition, was given a band of 100 cartridges and he and Bronko set out again to cover the exhausted fighters who were still arriving. The National Guard’s base was in an old colonial fort on the summit of a hill overlooking Masaya, El Coyotepe. Sócrates and Bronko, skirting this hill as they looked out for retreating Sandinistas, came under attack, but managed to join other fighters and reorganize. By nightfall, now in heavy rain, with the Coyotepe now covered in clouds, they were patrolling the cotton fields to its north, guided by local peasants, often finding themselves knee-deep in mud. 

As they crossed one field, a flash of lightning revealed three silhouettes in a fence about 100 yards in front of them. Believing them to be National Guard soldiers who were fleeing, they set out to try to take them as prisoners. Bronko managed to grab a gun from one of them, and Sócrates threw himself on another. But a shot rang out, and Sócrates yelled, “they hit me.” Bronko killed the culprit and the others were captured. Sócrates’ companions found an empty house, took off a door and used it to carry him to safety.

Arriving in the city, they found that all the streets were blocked and cordoned off, and no vehicles were circulating. They had to navigate roadblocks, carrying Sócrates on their shoulders, eventually reaching the hospital. Doctors found that the bullet, which had entered his neck, had killed him. The following morning, under periodic gunfire from helicopters and an aircraft, Sócrates’ body was taken to his parents’ house and then buried in the nearby cemetery.

Dan Kovalik’s book, Nicaragua: A History of Us Intervention & Resistance, is dedicated to Sócrates Espinoza.

Standing at his grave 46 years later, surrounded by present-day Sandinista activists who had just adorned it with flowers, his sister Abigail extolled Socrates’ example of courage and commitment. “Like that of many who gave their lives for the Revolution”, she said “it is a legacy that we as revolutionaries must continue. No longer with weapons and risking our lives, but through the struggles for health and education where, for the huge advances we have made today, we have to thank our Sandinista government.”

Behind Abigail in the photo are Edwin and Paola, Sócrates’ son and daughter. As well as commemorating her father’s death, Paola was marking her birthday: she was born on June 28, 1978, exactly one year before Sócrates was killed.

Dan Kovalik is a human rights lawyer and author of a number of books, including “Nicaragua:  A History of US Intervention and Resistance.”

Nicaragua-based John Perry is with the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition and writes for MR Online, the London Review of Books, FAIR and CovertAction, among others.

30 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Jan Oberg and Oxfam International

Reposted from Baher Kamal’s excellent “Human Wrongs Watch” – which we recommend warmly, not because it is uplifting but because it monitors facts and truths about our international society that wealthy people – and Western ‘democratic’ leaders – everywhere would like you not to know about or think of.

That said, the facts that Oxfam continues to publish for those who care have only grown worse. It is one more reason, together with militarism and warfare, genocide and permanent, provocative policies, that will accelerate the decline and fall of the West.

Western capitalism has always been and will remain a wealth-creating machine for the few and unspeakable misery for the ‘damned of the earth.’ Even Oxfam’s recommendations will not be able to change that.

Compare that with China, which also has capitalist elements and thinking, but managed in about 30 years to eradicate poverty and lift half of its population out of poverty – and still sees itself as a developing country. Of course, say the ignorant, we cannot learn anything from China…

The West has concentrated wealth in a way that kills many times more people every day than all its wars. Johan Galtung coined the term for that sort of system: structural violence. Not only individuals or organisations harm and kill, evil systems kill too and more effectively, silently and by their structure and with much less media attention than direct violence.

You may also, simply, call it mal-development, a super dysfunctional system that does not deserve to continue to exist and harm and kill even more millions.

PS Check out another deeply disturbing article at Human Wrongs Watch, “Millions Go Hungry– While Billions Worth of Food Go into Landfills.” This is the West in a nutshell.

***

By OXFAM International

The world’s richest 1% increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion in real terms since 2015, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the world’s largest development financing talks in a decade, in Seville, Spain.

This is more than enough to eliminate annual poverty 22 times over at the World Bank’s highest poverty line of $8.30 a day.

The wealth of just 3,000 billionaires has surged $6.5 trillion in real terms since 2015, and now comprises the equivalent of 14.6% of global GDP.

Oxfam’s new briefing paper, “From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, Not Oligarchy”, launches today ahead of the June 30 fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, hosted by Spain and joined by over 190 countries.

Wealthy governments are making the largest cuts to life-saving development aid since aid records began in 1960.

Oxfam analysis finds that G7 countries alone, who account for around three-quarters of all official aid, are cutting aid by 28% for 2026 compared to 2024.

Whilst critical aid is cut, the debt crisis is bankrupting governments – 60% of low-income countries are at the edge of a debt crisis – with the poorest countries paying out far more to repay their rich creditors than they are able to spend on classrooms or clinics.

Only 16% of the targets for the Global Goals are on track for 2030.

• Oxfam condemns “private finance takeover” of development efforts, as over 3.7 billion people remain in poverty ten years after the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed
• New Oxfam analysis unveils “astronomical rise in private wealth”. Between 1995 and 2023, global private wealth grew by $342 trillion – 8 times more than public wealth.
• Oxfam analysis also shows governments are making the largest cuts to life-saving aid since aid records began. Aid cuts could cause 2.9 million more children and adults to die by 2030, from HIV/AIDS causes alone.
• Results of a new global survey show 9 out of 10 people support paying for public services and climate action through taxing the super-rich.
• Oxfam urges new strategic alliances to address inequality; urgently revitalize aid and tax the super-rich; and assert new “public-first” approach over private finance.

Oxfam’s new analysis examines the failures of a private investor-focused approach to funding development. A decade-long effort by major development actors to recast their mission as one of supporting powerful Global North financial actors has led in fact to a host of harms and at the same time only mobilized paltry sums.

The analysis also looks at the role of private creditors, who now outpace bilateral lenders by five times and account for more than half the debt owed by low- and middle-income countries, in exacerbating the debt crisis with their refusal to negotiate and their punitive terms.

“Seville is the first major gathering of countries worldwide at a time that life-saving aid is being decimated, a trade war has started, and multilateralism being fractured – all in the backdrop of the second Trump administration.

There is glaring evidence that global development is desperately failing because – as the last decade shows – the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else,” said Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

What the World Bank described as a “billions to trillions” paradigm shift has been a boon for wealthy investors – the richest 1% own 43% of global assets – but now faces overwhelming evidence of failure, even according to former champions.

Alarmingly, there is new momentum behind the idea of diverting the little aid that remains to private financial actors.

“Rich countries have put Wall Street in the driver’s seat of global development. It’s a global private finance takeover which has overrun the evidence-backed ways to tackle poverty through public investments and fair taxation.

It is no wonder governments are abysmally off track, be it on fostering decent jobs, gender equality, or ending hunger. This much wealth concentration is choking efforts to end poverty”, said Behar.

New Oxfam analysis shows that between 1995 and 2023, global private wealth grew by $342 trillion – 8 times more than global public wealth, which grew by just $44 trillion.

Global public wealth – as a share of total wealth – actually fell between 1995 and 2023.

Oxfam is urging governments to rally behind policy and political proposals that offer a change in course by tackling extreme inequality and transforming the development financing system:

• New strategic alliances against inequality. Governments must band together in new coalitions to oppose extreme inequality. Countries such as Brazil, South Africa and Spain are offering leadership to do so internationally. A new ‘Global Alliance Against Inequality’ supported by Germany, Norway, Sierra Leone and others sets an example for nations to back.
• Public-first approach – reject the Wall Street Consensus. Governments should reject private finance as the silver bullet to funding development. Instead, governments should invest in state-led development – to ensure universal high-quality healthcare, education and care services, and explore publicly-delivered goods in sectors from energy to transportation.
• Total rethink of development financing – tax the ultra-rich, revitalize aid, reform debt architecture, and move beyond GDP indicators. Global North donors must urgently reverse catastrophic cuts to lifesaving aid and meet the 0.7% ODA target as minimum. Governments must back efforts for a new UN debt convention, and support the UN tax convention, building on Brazil’s G20 effort to tax high-net-worth-individuals.

“Trillions of dollars exist to meet the global goals, but they’re locked away in private accounts of the ultra-wealthy. It’s time we rejected the Wall Street Consensus and instead put the public in the driving seat.

Governments should heed widespread demands to tax the rich – and match it with a vision to build public goods from healthcare to energy. It’s a hopeful sign that some governments are banding together to fight inequality – more should follow their lead, starting in Seville”, said Behar.

Oxfam’s media briefing note, “From Private Profit to Public Power: Financing Development, Not Oligarchy” can be downloaded here.

30 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Michael Whitney

The American people are not being told why Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran. Yes, Israel was rapidly running out of air-defense interceptors (making it more vulnerable to Iranian attacks.) But that issue is only of secondary importance. The real reason they wanted a ceasefire was because they were getting systematically pulverized and needed to stop the bleeding fast.

That’s why Israel ‘threw in the towel’ less than two weeks after the opening salvo, because Iran was decimating one target after another with no end in sight. So, Israel capitulated.

Of course, that is not the story we’ve been reading in the western media where there’s no mention of the vast destruction of Israeli strategic targets (by Iranian ballistic missiles); that news has been completely omitted from the mainstream coverage. But that’s why Israel persuaded Trump to find a diplomatic off-ramp; because the losses were beginning to mount and Iran was not ‘letting up.’

Did you know that it is illegal to post videos or photos of buildings that have been struck by Iranian missiles in Israel? In other words, if you publish photos of smoldering buildings, infrastructure or military bases, you will go to jail. This is how the government controls the narrative and convinces the public that they are winning a war they are actually losing. But don’t take my word for it; here’s a video clip of an Israeli newscaster explaining how government censorship is impacting the peoples’ ability to figure out what is going on:

CH13’s Raviv Drucker: We have to say there is a bit of an Iranian aspect to the way we report missile strikes on our side. I’m not talking about the Weizmann Institute, but there were alot of missile hits on IDF bases, on strategic sites, that we still don’t report about to this day. And there’s a clear reason for that, which everyone at home understands. But along that clear reason, it created a situation where people don’t realize how precise the Iranians were and how much damage they caused in many places. We just know about the Weizmann Institute; there are many places we don’t know about. See this.

Repeat: it created a situation where people don’t realize how precise the Iranians were and how much damage they caused in many places.

What can we glean from this statement?

That Iran’s new generation of ballistic missiles are abundant, precise and lethal. To his credit, the newscaster seems to think that ordinary people deserve to be told about these cutting-edge weapons so they can make informed decisions regarding their own safety. We agree with this view, but we also know that the heavily censored, state-controlled, agenda-driven media is not going to change the way it disseminates information. After all, the media’s objective is not to inform but to shape public opinion.

But we’re getting off-topic. What we want to show is that Israel did not agree to the ceasefire because it had achieved its strategic objectives, but because it was getting hammered and wanted to stop the bleeding. We make that judgement based on a shortlist of the key military, intelligence, industrial, energy, and R&D facilities that were struck by precision guided ballistic missiles that wreaked havoc across Israel.

Keep in mind, Operation True Promise III unleashed no less than 22 salvos of state-of-the-art ballistic missiles (many used for the first time) that delivered withering blows to a number of heavily fortified Israeli sites that were regarded as ‘the most protected military bases in the world.’ Iran’s missiles blew through Israel’s defenses like at every turn reducing their targets to twisted metal and broken blocks of cinder. (One weapons expert estimates that just 5 percent of Iran’s ballistic missiles were intercepted.) This is from an article at Press TV:

Iran destroyed the so-called “Israeli Pentagon”, the Kirya military-intelligence complex in central Tel Aviv, which is shown as a smoldering hulk in the few photos published on X. Despite being one of the most heavily fortified locations in the occupied territories, protected by a multilayered shield of Israeli and American defense systems, the complex was unable to repel the Iranian missile barrage in the very first phases of True Promise III….

In Haifa, a precision-guided Iranian missile struck a high-rise building housing branches of the Israeli ministry of interior affairs responsible for internal military coordination. The strike disrupted logistical networks and emergency response systems at the municipal level. Press TV

Iranian missiles also took-out the Aman military intelligence headquarters at the Glilot Mizrah Interchange, near Herzliya. Aman oversees elite spying units such as Unit 8200 (signals intelligence), Unit 504 (human intelligence), and Unit 9900 (geospatial intelligence). The compound also houses Mossad’s operational headquarters—the Israeli regime’s notorious foreign intelligence agency….

Iran also struck the ‘impregnable’ Nevatim Airbase in the Negev desertwith over 30 ballistic missiles causing extensive damage that (of course) was not reported. Nevatim houses most of Israel’s F-15s and F-35s although we do not have an estimate of how many of those warplanes were destroyed. Here’s more from Press TV:

Other targeted airbases included Tel Nof and Ben Gurion near Tel Aviv, Ramat David near Haifa, Palmachim on the Mediterranean coast, and Ovda near Eilat.

Iranian missiles, including those used for the first time, targeted the command and control centers of the Israeli military and Mossad in both Tel Aviv and Haifa…..

On June 16, Iranian ballistic missiles hit the Bazan Oil Refinery in Haifa—the regime’s largest fuel processing center, which supplies around 60 percent of its gasoline, 65 percent of diesel, and over 50 percent of its kerosene.

The strikes caused significant damage, forcing the complete shutdown of the refinery and its subsidiaries. The Israeli energy minister later admitted the facility would need major reconstruction, estimating a partial restart no sooner than a month.

A nearby power plant was also damaged, triggering widespread blackouts across central regions of the occupied territories.

On June 23, Iranian missiles struck near a power station in Ashdod, triggering a powerful explosion and localized blackouts. Explosions and outages were also reported near Hadera, where Orot Rabin—Israel’s largest power plant—is located

In addition, Iran directly targeted military-industrial sites involved in recent Israeli aggression. Chief among them was the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems complex north of Haifa—home to multiple factories and R&D buildings that produce key elements of Israel’s military hardware.

Rafael manufactures Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile interceptors, both of which have failed repeatedly in stopping Palestinian and Iranian missiles. It also produces cruise and guided missiles used in strikes against Iran, including Spice kits and Popeye, Rocks, Spike, and Matador missiles.

The Kiryat Gat Industrial Zone—a major center for microprocessor and high-tech military production—was also struck. Iranian strikes reportedly damaged key production lines vital to Israel’s drone and surveillance programs.

Further south, the Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park near Beersheba, which hosts firms working in cyberwarfare, AI, and military tech, was not spared. Many of these companies collaborate closely with the Israeli military and the Mossad.

Another high-profile target was the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv. Known for its military R&D and partnerships with Israeli military agencies, the institute suffered devastating damage to key laboratories. Members and professors of the institute confirmed the loss of years’ worth of research. The Weizmann Institute also plays a role in Israel’s clandestine nuclear program, with many of Dimona’s nuclear scientists having graduated from or taught at the institute. Press TV

Let’s summarize: In a little more than a week’s time, Iran struck or obliterated:

1. The “Israeli Pentagon”, the Kirya military-intelligence complex
2. The Weizmann Institute of Science which plays a role in Israel’s clandestine nuclear program
3. The Aman military intelligence headquarters at the Glilot Mizrah Interchange, near Herzliya. Aman oversees elite spying units such as Unit 8200 (signals intelligence), Unit 504 (human intelligence), and Unit 9900 (geospatial intelligence).
4. Branches of the Israeli ministry of interior affairs responsible for internal military coordination
5. The Mossad’s operational headquarters
6. Israel’s most protected Nevatim Airbase (and the Tel Nof Airbase)
7. Ben Gurion Airport (repeatedly) as well as Ramat David, Palmachim and Ovda near Eilat.
8. The Command-and-Control Centers of the Israeli military and Mossad in both Tel Aviv and Haifa…..
9. The Bazan Oil Refinery in Haifa—Israel’s largest fuel processing center
10. A giant power station in Ashdod, triggering a powerful explosion and localized blackouts.
11. The Rafael Advanced Defense Systems complex north of Haifa—home to multiple factories and R&D buildings that produce key elements of Israel’s military hardware
12. The Kiryat Gat Industrial Zone—a major center for microprocessor and high-tech military production
13. The Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park near Beersheba, which hosts firms working in cyberwarfare, AI, and military tech.

Get the picture? In just 10 days (June 13 to June 23) the Iranian military meticulously destroyed a sizable portion of Israel’s most prestigious military, intelligence, industrial, energy, and R&D facilities across the country. (Have you read about any of this in the western media?) Had the war continued for another week or two, the Holy Land would have been reduced to a smoldering third world wasteland unfit for human habitation. In short, this was no normal ceasefire. This was a desperate capitulation by an overmatched contender who quickly realized he was punching ‘above his weight’. Here’s how Trump summed it up:

“Israel got hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy, they took out a lot of buildings,” Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday. See this.

Yes, Israel took a real beating.

We should note that there is no formal agreement between Iran and Israel. (No signed document or explicit commitments) The ceasefire was brokered through back-channel diplomacy, primarily mediated by Qatar. A senior White House official and a diplomat briefed on the talks indicated that Israel agreed to halt strikes if Iran ceased its attacks, and Iran signaled compliance with these terms through Qatari mediation. Trump announced the ceasefire as a “complete and total ceasefire” to be phased in over 24 hours, although there have been numerous violations by both sides since the original deal was made on June 23. (Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi initially stated there was “no agreement” but indicated Iran would stop its response if Israel held up its end of the bargain.)

The problem, of course, is that the ceasefire is not going to hold because Israel and the US see the truce as merely a way to buy-time to regroup and prepare for the next round of hostilities. (The same as Minsk) Consider the comments of Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz who said the following on Saturday:

[https://twitter.com/SuppressedNws/status/1938618630050140381]

This doesn’t sound like a man who is looking for a ‘lasting peace’ or even a temporary end to the fighting. It sounds like someone who’s already settled on a strategy for resuming the hostilities and is merely waiting for the green light (from Bibi) to put the plan into motion.

But what might that plan be, after all, Israel was already employing its top-line military weaponry and advanced air-defense systems. What other tools do they have that could be used to produce a different outcome that the one they just experienced after just 12 days of conflict?

This is where is gets scary because Israel has only two options: Either it draws the United States deeper into the conflict (including the deploying of ground forces) or it ‘goes nuclear’. There is no third option. So, whatever Bibi and his generals have ‘up their sleeve’, it’s going to be of a different force and magnitude than what we saw during the last dust-up. Check out this baffling blurb from the Times of Israel‘s Saturday edition:

After the US strike on Iran earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump agreed on a rapid end to the war in Gaza and expansion of the Abraham Accords, Israel Hayom reports, citing “a source familiar with the conversation.”

According to the outlet, Trump and Netanyahu agreed in a phone call that the war in Gaza would end within two weeks. Four Arab states, including the UAE and Egypt, would jointly govern the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas. The terror group’s leadership would be exiled, and all hostages would be released.

However, Arab allies have repeatedly asserted that they will not take part in the postwar rehabilitation of Gaza absent Israeli acquiescence to the Palestinian Authority gaining a foothold in Gaza as part of a pathway to a future two-state solution, but Netanyahu has flatly rejected any PA role in the Strip….

Trump and Netanyahu were joined on the “euphoric” call late Monday night by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, says Israel Hayom….

Saudi Arabia and Syria would establish diplomatic ties with Israel, and other Arab and Muslim countries would follow suit…. Israel, for its part, would express its support for a future two-state solution, conditioned on reforms made by the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, the leaders agreed that Washington will recognize Israeli sovereignty in some parts of the West Bank. Times of Israel

People who follow events closely in the Middle East know that nothing in this article is true. There’s not going to be a rapid end to the war in Gaza, there’s not going to be a rapid expansion of the Abraham Accords, and there’s certainly not going to be Israeli support for a two-state solution.

So, what’s going on here, what is the point of this nonsensical propaganda that no one in their right mind is going to believe??

Let’s answer that question with a hypothetical: Let’s say, some unexpected 9-11-type catastrophe was to take place in the next few weeks that had Iranian fingerprints all over it. And let’s say this false flag was destructive enough that the “usual suspects” on Capitol Hill and the MSM demanded that Trump take immediate action and bomb Iran. If that scenario were to unfold, then wouldn’t it better for Bibi and Trump to be able to point to their recent efforts for resolving the Gaza crisis? Wouldn’t they benefit from the perception (by the public) that they had been actively pursuing peace but were unexpectedly derailed by Iran’s actions?

Indeed, they would.

Of course, this is all just speculation; I don’t know what’s going to happen. But when you have hardliners like Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and countless others in Netanyahu’s looneybin government who believe that Israel must “keep the sword raised” to ensure Iran does not recover its military capabilities (Smotrich), then a prudent person will prepare for the worst.

Keep in mind, a number of Israeli leaders have repeatedly stated that Netanyahu should “finish the job”, which is an intentionally vague term that refers to the use of a nuclear weapon.

In order to determine the probability of such an event, we must ask ourselves whether a government that justifies the killing and forced starvation of millions of women and children in their charge, has the moral scruples to oppose the use of the world’s most lethal weapon?

We should all be very worried that Netanyahu is going to do exactly what we would expect him to do.

*

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State.

29 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Operation Midnight Hammer (OMH) consisting in the deployment of B-2 Aircraft out of Whitman Air Force Base  was in many regards improvised. 

OMH was undertaken by US Central Command (USCENTCOM), based in Florida in close coordination with US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) in Omaha, Nebraska.

In this article, we first put forth detailed evidence which refutes President Trump‘s June 22, 2025 Address to the Nation. 

We then proceed to examine the broader political implications. This improvised so-called “Twelve Days War” against Iran was NOT authorized by the U.S. Congress. 

Trump’s War on Iran: June 22, 2025

During his 10 p.m. ET address to the nation, Trump said, “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

“After U.S. B-2 bombers dropped six 30,000-pound GBU‑57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on Iran’s Fordow nuclear site on Saturday night, President Donald Trump reposted an assessment from Open Source Intel that said “Fordow is gone”

Mr. President. Where is the Evidence? 

The above statement “Trump says Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities ‘completely and totally obliterated’ in US Strikes” is FALSE, MISTAKEN.

The following evidence was conveyed and confirmed within hours of President Trump’s Address to the Nation, largely from Iranian media and official sources:

“On June 22, according to the Iranian Tasnim News Agency, Menan Laehi, a representative of Qom Province in the Iranian Parliament, stated this morning (June 22) that contrary to claims made by U.S. President Trump, the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran has not been severely damaged;

The main damage is to the above-ground parts, which can be repaired.

He expressed confidence that “all items that could pose a threat to nearby residents” have long been cleared from the facility, and there are currently no reports of nuclear radiation.

He emphasized that Iran views this U.S. attack as a manifestation of direct U.S. involvement in the war, and it is now “Iran’s decision when and how to respond to the U.S.”

***

The following reports quoting Iran Military News states the following:

[https://twitter.com/iranianmilnews/status/1936616876987072862]

[https://twitter.com/IranIntl_En/status/1936769967476576643]

“If Fordo had been gone, you would have seen craters, electromagnetic ruptures, emergency airlifts, the work of seismographs and infrared flashes under the mountain

 There is no SAR confirmation at the moment.

There is no evidence of a cluster of craters.

There is no multispectral flash analysis.

There is no information about an underground fire.

There is no data on the BDA cycle. If Fordo is still in action tomorrow, Washington has just carried out the most expensive bunker-busting operation in history, only to watch Tehran climb the escalation ladder unscathed.

Perhaps not only did the attack fail, but they simply escalated without strategic success.” https://t.me/kavehintel/561 – zinc

In a followup article:

If Fordow is still spinning tomorrow, Washington will have carried out the most expensive bunker-penetration operation in history—only to watch Tehran climb the escalation ladder unscathed.

Not only may the strike have failed, but they have also escalated the situation without any strategic success.

Those sites were evacuated long time ago. That’s why there’s not much radiation as the result of these «attacks»” (Pravda, emphasis added)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Press Conference. Trump Accuses Pentagon Accredited Journalists of “Fake News”

Press conferences are intent upon conveying information and evidence to journalists as well as answering questions. But that did not happen.

Below is the complete video of the Press Conference (6/26/25)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEpsAYWB2rQ]

Click here

See AP report here  link to video on Iran war, AP 

“Operation Midnight Hammer”(OMH): 14 Bunker Busters Bombs Against Iran’s Nuclear Sites

The official story is as follows:

“A bomber mission of seven B-2 Spirit Bombers, accompanied by more than 30 Tomahawk Attack Missiles fired from an Ohio-class guided-missile nuclear submarine struck three Iranian nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo, Pentagon officials confirmed on Sunday.

In the words of President Trump:

 “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” (White House Address, June 21 Y, 2025).

The evidence presented above refutes President Trump’s statement: (June 21, 2025 Nation Address).

Specifically regarding Forow. The B-2 bunker bomb operation was an absolute failure. 

Trump’s threats directed against accredited Pentagon journalists at Hegeth’s Press Conference are to no avail.

And eventually he will be obliged to acknowledge the truth, or will the “Big Lie” prevail. 

The GBU-57. Massive Ordnance Penetrator

 “30,000 lbs, with 5,000–6,000 lbs of explosives”

It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet into reinforced concrete or rock before detonation.”

The claim is that it can reach and destroy underground facilities such as nuclear enrichment sites.”

The initials “GBU” stand for “Guided Bomb Unit”

The “Bunker Buster Bomb Myth”. MIT Prof. Ted Postol

These claims are likely overstated or misunderstood, especially by political decision-makers, misinformed by defense contractors or military briefers.

The bomb must hit very close to or directly above a target, such as a tunnel or chamber, to do meaningful damage.

A blast cavity from the explosion is ~20–30 meters wide. If the actual tunnel is offset by more than that (30+ meters horizontally or vertically), it won’t be affected.”

Video: Prof. Ted Postol and Lt. Col. Daniel Davis

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TriASB-F5UY]

“U.S. attack models assume Iranian bunkers are simple, vertical shafts, but: Real underground bunkers may use offset tunnels, angled passages, or be built into irregular terrain like hills, making direct hits extremely unlikely.

Example: Iran’s Fordow facility is buried under a hill, making perpendicular impact very difficult.”  (Prof Ted Postol)

The Bunker Buster Gamble. Did it Pay OFF?

Prof. Ted Postol Examines in Detail the Bunker Buster Bombs used against Iran Nuclear Facilities.

“They Did not do Damage”

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA_eK13ptwA]

While the conduct of the attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities was an outright failure, there is nonetheless a “positive element” which will go down in Iran’s history. 

Failure of Trump’s OMH Attack.  A Chernobyl Style Catastrophe Was Avoided

Had the OMH Operation been conducted “successfully” from a military standpoint, this would have resulted in a Chernobyl style disaster characterized by a massive radioactive contamination and loss of life.

According to geopolitical and military analyst Drago Bosnic:”

The uranium used as fuel in nuclear power plants is enriched at 3.67%, which is considered far below the 90% or higher used in nuclear weapons. It should be noted that the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters used precisely this sort of nuclear fuel, which still resulted in massive radioactive contamination.

On the other hand, the Fordow facility had uranium enriched at 60%, meaning that radioactive fallout would’ve been far worse than Chernobyl.

Given the fact that no radiation was detected in the aftermath of the US strike, the only logical conclusion is that the reactors weren’t destroyed.  (Drago Bosnic, Infobrics, emphasis added)

What this analysis implies is that the failure of Trump’s military operation contributed to preventing an unspoken disaster.

The U.S. Congress has the Power to Declare War,  Not The President

War is a criminal act.  Military actions deliberately directed against civilians are illegal according to the laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC).

In the wake of 9/11, US-NATO have been routinely conducting “humanitarian wars” allegedly against terrorists. Humanitrian Warfare is supportive of Resposibility to Protect (R2P). The latter does not require US Congressional approval. Nor does it require a formal motion by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The Trump Administration casually invoked Article II of the US Constitution which defines the responsibilities of the Commander in Chief.

No consultations with the UN Security Council were undertaken. Breach of the Geneva Conventions. Scanty justifications were put forth by Trump officials.

“The administration is relying on the president’s authority under Article II of the Constitution, two senior administration officials told CNN, which says he has power to direct US military forces in engagements necessary to advance American national interests abroad.

The White House counsel’s office and the Justice Department were both involved in the legal analysis for the strikes. The administration relied, in part, on memos about war powers written by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel under previous administrations of both parties.”

“The president is clearly well within his Article II powers here,” one former senior US official told CNN. “End of story.” (CNN,emphasis added)

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.

28 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

On June 24, US President Donald Trump announced a truce between Israel and Iran following nearly two weeks of open warfare.

Israel began the war, launching a surprise offensive on June 13, with airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, missile installations, and senior military and scientific personnel, in addition to numerous civilian targets. 

In response, Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles and drones deep into Israeli territory, triggering air raid sirens across Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba and numerous other locations, causing unprecedented destruction in the country. 

What began as a bilateral escalation quickly spiraled into something far more consequential: a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran.

On June 22, the United States Air Force and Navy carried out a full-scale assault on three Iranian nuclear sites—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—in a coordinated strike dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. Seven B-2 bombers of the 509th Bomb Wing allegedly flew nonstop from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to deliver the strikes. 

The following day, Iran retaliated by bombing the Al-Udeid US military base in Qatar and firing a new wave of missiles at Israeli targets.

This marked a turning point. For the first time, Iran and the United States faced each other on the battlefield without intermediaries. And for the first time in recent history, Israel’s long-standing campaign to provoke a US-led war against Iran had succeeded.

Strategic Fallout

Following 12 days of war, Israel achieved two of its goals. First, it pulled Washington directly into its conflict with Tehran, setting a dangerous precedent for future US involvement in Israel’s regional wars. Second, it generated immediate political capital at home and abroad, portraying US military backing as a ‘victory’ for Israel.

However, beyond these short-term gains, the cracks in Israel’s strategy are already showing.

Netanyahu did not achieve regime change in Tehran—the real objective of his years-long campaign. Instead, he faced a resilient and unified Iran that struck back with precision and discipline. Worse still, he may have awakened something even more threatening to Israeli ambitions: a new regional consciousness.

Iran, for its part, emerges from this confrontation significantly stronger. Despite US and Israeli efforts to cripple its nuclear program, Iran has demonstrated that its strategic capabilities remain intact and highly functional. 

Tehran established a powerful new deterrence equation—proving that it can strike not only Israeli cities but US bases across the region.

Even more consequentially, Iran waged this fight independently, without leaning on Hezbollah or Ansarallah, or even deploying Iraqi militias. This independence surprised many observers and forced a recalibration of Iran’s regional weight.

Iranian Unity

Perhaps the most significant development of all is one that cannot be measured in missiles or casualties: the surge in national unity within Iran and the widespread support it received across the Arab and Muslim world.

For years, Israel and its allies have sought to isolate Iran, to present it as a pariah even among Muslims. Yet in these past days, we have witnessed the opposite. 

From Baghdad to Beirut, and even in politically cautious capitals like Amman and Cairo, support for Iran surged. This unity alone may prove to be Israel’s most formidable challenge yet.

Inside Iran, the war erased, at least for now, the deep divides between reformists and conservatives. Faced with an existential threat, the Iranian people coalesced, not around any one leader or party, but around the defense of their homeland. 

The descendants of one of the world’s oldest civilizations reacted with a dignity and pride that no amount of foreign aggression could extinguish.

The Nuclear Question

Despite the battlefield developments, the real outcome of this war may depend on what Iran does next with its nuclear program. 

If Tehran decides to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)—even temporarily—and signals that its program remains functional, Israel’s so-called “achievements” will be rendered meaningless.

However, if Iran fails to follow this military confrontation with a bold political repositioning, Netanyahu will be free to claim—falsely or not—that he has succeeded in halting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The stakes are as high as they’ve ever been.

A Manufactured Farce

Some media outlets are now praising Trump for supposedly “ordering” Netanyahu to halt further strikes on Iran. 

This narrative is as insulting as it is false. What we are witnessing is a staged political performance—a carefully orchestrated spat between two partners playing both sides of a dangerous game.

Trump’s Truth post, “Bring your pilots home,” was not a call for peace. It was a calculated move to reclaim credibility after fully surrendering to Netanyahu’s war. It allows Trump to pose as a moderate, distract from Israel’s battlefield losses, and create the illusion of a US administration reining in Israeli aggression.

In truth, this was always a joint US-Israeli war—one planned, executed, and justified under the pretext of defending Western interests while laying the groundwork for deeper intervention and potential invasion.

Return of the People

Amid all the military calculations and geopolitical theater, one truth stands out: the real winners are the Iranian people.

When it mattered most, they stood united. They understood that resisting foreign aggression was more important than internal disputes. They reminded the world—and themselves—that in moments of crisis, people are not peripheral actors in history; they are its authors.

The message from Tehran is unmistakable: We are here. We are proud. And we will not be broken.

That is the message Israel, and perhaps even Washington, did not anticipate. And it is the one that could reshape the region for years to come.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

25 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least 10 starving civilians were killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday morning while seeking aid near a distribution site run by the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central Gaza.

Local sources confirmed that ten Palestinians were killed and several injured while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.

Since the GHF started its operations on May 27 in Gaza, over 520 aid seekers have been killed and over 3,799 others injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Additionally, 39 others have been reported missing after heading to the GHF sites to obtain food.

Israeli mass killings of aid seekers near GHF aid sites have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are later targeted by Israeli forces.

The most recent massacres took place on Tuesday near two GHF aid distribution sites, one in Rafah, southern Gaza, and the other near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, where Israeli forces killed more than 25 people in each attack.

Gaza’s Government Media Office described these sites as “mass mass traps” and “slaughterhouses”

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report last month warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.

The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.”

“Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said.

The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”.

“It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said.

“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”

25 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- A new report from the Harvard Dataverse reveals that about 377,000 people from Gaza’s pre-genocide population of 2.227 million have gone missing since October 2023, with an estimated half of them believed to be children.

The report, authored by Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, uses data-driven analysis and spatial mapping to examine how Israeli attacks on civilians and Israel’s aid blockade have led to a dramatic drop in the enclave’s population.

According to Garb’s findings, the actual number of people killed may be far higher than the official death toll, which currently stands at over 56,000.

Maps in the report, based on Israeli military estimates, indicate that the remaining population in Gaza City is around one million, with 500,000 in al-Mawasi “safe zone” and 350,000 in central Gaza, totalling approximately 1.85 million.

Before the ongoing assault, Gaza’s population was estimated at 2.227 million. The discrepancy points to at least 377,000 people now unaccounted for.

While some may be displaced or missing, the scale of the gap has led analysts to conclude that a significant number are likely dead, suggesting the real death toll could be many times higher.

The report also critically assesses the role of the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying its structure appears to have been shaped more by Israeli military strategy than by humanitarian needs.

Using location data and spatial analysis, Garb finds that most of Gaza’s population was unable to reach GHF aid compounds.

According to the report, poor infrastructure, lack of motorised transport, and a near-total absence of safe passage routes made access even more difficult.

Garb writes that the design and operation of the aid compounds “seems likely to be an engine for continuous friction and mishap”, noting that the allocation model, providing rations for exactly 5.5 people for 3.5 days, effectively forced civilians to make repeated, dangerous crossings into militarised zones.

“The fact that four of the five compounds lie south of the Morag corridor – repeatedly indicated by Israeli officials as the intended destination for concentration of Palestinians to be displaced from the remainder of Gaza in an impending intensification of the military attacks – is not reassuring,” the report warns.

The report highlights that little to no measures were taken to protect the dignity or safety of civilians seeking aid. The sites lacked basic facilities such as shade, water, toilets, first aid stations, or dedicated access for vulnerable groups. There was typically only one entry and exit point, no crowd management, and scenes of chaos were common.

The report argues that the very architecture of these aid compounds was designed in a way that risked repeated outbreaks of disorder, conditions then used to justify violence against civilians.

“Overall, these aid compounds seem to reflect a logic of control, not assistance, and it would be a misnomer to call them ‘humanitarian aid distribution hubs’. They do not adhere to humanitarian principles, and much of their design and operation is guided by other objectives, which undermine their declared purpose,” the report concludes.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that at least 450 people have been killed and around 3,500 wounded near or on the way to GHF aid sites since the foundation started its operations in Gaza on May 17 while trying to access humanitarian aid.

25 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

De-escalation has become one of those coarse words in severe need of banishment, best kept in an index used by unredeemable hypocrites.  It is used by the living dead in human resources, management worthies and war criminals.  It’s almost always used to target the person or entity that exerts retribution or seeks to avenge (dramatic) or merely overcome (mildly) a state of affairs imposed upon them. 

You might be bullied in the workplace for being fastidious and conscientious, showing up your daft colleagues, or reputationally attacked by a member of the establishment keen to conceal his corrupt practices.  When contemplating retaliation, the self-appointed middle ground types will call upon you to “de-escalate” the situation, insisting that you appeal to the better side of your bruised nature.  After all, you know it was your fault.

The joining of the United States in the war against Iran made Washington a co-conspirator to soiling international law and profaning its salient provisions.  The US was in no immediate danger, nor was there any imminent threat, existential or otherwise, to its interests vis-à-vis Tehran.  Yet President Donald Trump, having had the poison of persuasion poured into his ear by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had succumbed.  His will annexed to that of the Israeli premier, Trump ordered the US Air Force on June 22 to conduct bombing raids on three Iranian nuclear facilities: Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.  They were recipients of that hefty example of phallocratic lethality known as the bunker buster, the GBU-57A Massive Ordnance Penetrator.  With his usual unwavering confidence, Trump declared in an address to the nation that all the country’s “nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

In violating international law and desecrating that important canon injuncting states from committing crimes against peace, Israel and the United States are not the ones being told to restrain their violence and acknowledge breaching the United Nations Charter, risking yet another conflagration in the Middle East.  It is their targeted state, the Republic of Iran, whose officials must “de-escalate” and play nice before the diplomatic table, abandoning a nuclear program, civil or military.  “Iran, the bully of the Middle East,” Trump directs, “must now make peace.”

With suddenness, the advocates and publicists for international law vanished across the broadly described West.  In Europe, Canada, the US and Australia, the mores and customs observed by states could be conveniently forgotten and retired.  In its place reigned the logic of brute force and unquestioned violence.  Provided such violence is exercised by that rogue combine of Amerisrael, deference and dispensation will be afforded.  The same could never be said for such countries as China and Russia, abominated for not accepting the “rules-based order” imposed by Western weaponry and force.   

The lamentable, plaintiff responses from Brussels to Canberra tell a sorry tale: pre-emptive war waged against a country’s nuclear and oil facilities is just the sort of thing that one is allowed to do, since the rotter in question is a theocratic state of haughty disposition and regional ambition.  You can get away with murdering scientists in their sleep, along with their families, liquidating the upper echelons of their military leadership and killing journalists along the way.

The approved formula behind these responses is as follows.  From the outset, mention that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon.  If possible, underline any relevant qualities that render it ineligible to any other state that has nuclear weapons.  Instruct Tehran that diplomacy is imperative, and retaliation terrible.  Behave and exercise restraint. 

Here is Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of the UK, speaking from his Chequers country retreat: it was “clear Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon”, which was “why our focus has been on de-escalating, getting people back around to negotiate what is a very real threat in relation to the nuclear program.”  If one was left in any doubt who the guilty party was, UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds helped dispel it, calling Iran “a threat to this country, not in an abstract way, not in a speculative way”.

The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, after convening his security cabinet on the morning of June 22, conveyed his views through German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius: “Friedrich Merz reiterated his call for Iran to immediately begin negotiations with the US and Israel and to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict.”

French President Emmanuel Macron similarly got on the de-escalation bandwagon with gusto, giving a teacherly warning to Iran to “exercise the greatest restraint” and dedicate itself to renouncing nuclear weapons.  It was the only credible path to peace and security for all.  The president conveniently skipped past the huge elephant in the room: Israel’s illicit possession of nuclear weapons, undeclared, unmonitored and extra-legal, as a factor that severely compromises the issue of stability in the Middle East.

From the European Union, the attackers and the attacked were given equal billing.  “I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation,” urged Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission.  The obligatory “Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, as it would be a threat to international security” followed.  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also thought it perfectly sensible to matronly instruct the Iranians on the next step: “Now is the moment for Iran to engage in a credible diplomatic solution.  The negotiating table is the only way to end this crisis.” 

All these comments are deliciously rich given that Israel has never entertained negotiations on any level with Iran, dismissive of its nuclear energy needs, while the first Trump administration sabotaged the diplomatically brokered Joint Plan of Comprehensive Action that successfully diverted Tehran away from a military nuclear program in favour of a lifting of sanctions.  Talk from Amerisrael and their allies would seem to be heavily discounted, if not counterfeit.  The glaring, coruscating message to Iran: retaliation bad; de-escalation good.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

23 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Tom Engelhardt

How strange. I’ve been going to demonstrations for a long, long while now. I began once upon a distant time in opposition to the nightmarish all-American war in Vietnam. And almost 60 years later, that war, in some sense, has come home. Hence, the other day, I found myself at the “No Kings” demonstration in New York City, one of more than 2,000 (yes, 2,000!) across this country of ours at which millions — yes, again, literally millions! — of Americans reportedly turned out. These days, in New York where I live, such demonstrations are often launched from Bryant Park, right behind the classic 42nd Street library on Fifth Avenue, and the marchers normally walk down Fifth for perhaps 20 blocks. The last time I went to a demonstration there, I didn’t walk myself but stood and watched all the marchers with their signs go past me, and it took perhaps 35 minutes or so for them to slowly, slowly do so. That time, which was then typical of such demonstrations, most of the protesters were, like me, also old and White.

No more. The other day at that No Kings march in New York, I wove my way ever so slowly through the crowd to Fifth Avenue and 40th Street just after the march had begun and started watching the demonstrators, packed into literally every square inch of that wide avenue, ever so slowly crawl by me. That crowd ranged from babies in strollers to old people like me, and looked like it represented a distinct cross-section of everybody in America, whether by race or age. How many of us were there? Who knows? CBS News simply and vaguely said “tens of thousands,” while the local Fox News station, which obviously had no interest in playing up such demonstrations, still claimed that “tens of thousands of people marched in New York City and the Tri-State area.” If I had to guess, I would say that at least a couple of hundred thousand people crept down Fifth Avenue that day (and on that figure the British Guardian agrees, suggesting “over 200,000” in New York and “millions” nationally).

After all, when I finally left, almost two hours later, exhausted from just standing there taking notes in an ongoing drizzle, the last of the crowd hadn’t even made it from 40th Street onto a still utterly packed Fifth Avenue (as it had been from the moment I arrived), with that parade of anti-Trump protestors still just creeping along. To depart, in fact, I had to literally weave my way through a still-impressive crowd of No Kings demonstrators with a typical array of signs still waiting to join the march. In short, that demonstration, just one of thousands across the country, was beyond huge! And signs? I watched what must all too literally have been thousands of homemade signs go by me, while listening to endless periodic chants from the crowd.

It was, I have to say, quite something, even for someone like me who has seen so many protests in my lifetime and, in its size, it seemed to offer a genuine sense of how deeply disturbed so many Americans are by a president, or do I indeed mean a “king,” who wants to be able to do anything he madly desires without opposition from anyone. And that included having his own military parade in Washington on that very day, his birthday (though it evidently turned out to be a distinctly underwhelming affair that many spectators evidently left early).

“No Kings, No Tyrants, No Fascists, No Dictators, Dump Trump”

Let me just start — even days after the event occurred — by saying how striking I think it is that increasingly significant numbers of Americans are visibly ever more deeply disturbed by the man who did indeed get only 49.7% of the popular vote in 2024 and, according to CBS News, won the presidency thanks to a “mere 0.15% of voters nationwide” who proved the difference between victory and defeat. Not that you would know it from his ever more disturbing excesses, including that mega-military birthday parade (for both the 250-year-old U.S. Army and the now-79-year-old Donald Trump) with tanks, artillery vehicles, and paratroopers at the cost of at least $25-$45 million taxpayer dollars (at a time when he’s slashing benefits for military veterans) slated to begin in Washington not long after the “No Kings” demonstration I attended ended.

I must admit I found it moving that so many of us wanted to express ourselves in person and through signs and chants. And New York wasn’t faintly alone in responding, among other things, to the criminal way Donald Trump dealt with the first of the recent demonstrations against his rule in Los Angeles. There were, after all, an estimated 2,100 or more No Kings protests across this country that day, in red states and blue ones, red cities and blue ones.

Let me, in that context, give you a little sense of what I saw in an up-close-and-personal fashion. And remember this took place on the street in my hometown, about which, in 2016, Donald Trump, while campaigning for president in Sioux Center, Iowa, had indeed said: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” Well, fortunately, no shots were fired that afternoon in New York, though, of course, they were indeed fired that very day in truly shocking targeted political assassinations in Minnesota, killing Melissa Hortman, a state legislator, and her husband, and wounding state Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife.

Oh, and as is a typical New York thing to do, I took the subway from my neighborhood to the stop nearest the protest site. And the subway car I entered turned out to be full of other protestors heading for 42nd street as well, including a woman giving out little American flags, and a couple of people with homemade signs, one of which said: “Stop bullying and lying to & stealing from the American people”; a second said, “impeach Humpty Trumpty”; and a third, “No kings, no tyrants, no fascists, no dictators, dump Trump.” And mind you, that was just a single subway car.

And simply walking the few blocks from the subway stop to the area where the demonstration was to take place, I found myself almost instantly on ever more crowded streets surrounded by people carrying homemade signs and already starting to scribble them down in the little notebook I was carrying with me (along with an umbrella on that distinctly drizzly day). As I was heading there, I even passed a woman who had decorated her umbrella with the words “No Dick… Tator, No Fascists,” and a man with a sign that had an image of George Washington and the words “Democracy, yes, Kleptocracy, no.”

“Elect a Clown, Expect a Circus”

Now, consider what follows my portrait of the mood of that moment. There were literally thousands of signs I watched go past me that day — and mind you, we’re talking about an afternoon when it was lightly raining and not a faintly comfortable moment to demonstrate. So, here’s just a little potpourri of some of the ones I scribbled down. Probably the single most prominent word on so many of them on that No Kings day was indeed “king” and it gave you a sense of the greatest fear of all too many Americans that Donald Trump is turning what was once our democracy into his — yes! — perverse kingdom.

Most of the signs I saw had clearly been written or drawn by hand, sometimes with images added. Here are just a few of the ones that caught my eye (or were short enough that I could scribble them down before they passed me by): “King Trump, you’re fired!”; “Immigrants belong, Kings be gone!”; “ICE is the new SS” (a reference, of course, to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi paramilitary outfit); “Deportation without due process is tyranny”; “King Tut, King Coal, Carole King, Not a king” (with an image of Trump, of course); “No kings since 1776”; “Yes, masks, no kings” (a sign held by a man wearing an N-95 Covid-era mask of the sort that I still often wear myself); “When cruelty becomes normal, compassion looks radical”; “The real criminal is in the White House”; “Elect a clown, expect a circus”; “Not my dictator”; “This American girl says no to kings”; “No kings for these old queens” (signs held by two men); “ICE burn in hell”; “Where is Melania from?”; one with no words, just Trump holding a bloody knife in one hand and the cut off, bleeding head of the Statue of Liberty in the other; “Your only throne is a golden toilet”; “Don’t be a chicken in a coup!” (with a yellow chicken doll hanging on the sign); “If she was president, we’d all be at brunch right now” (with a photo of Kamala Harris); “Trump lies while America dies”; “It’s really bad, even I’m out here”; “Two paths and America chooses the psychopath”; “Rebelling against tyrants since 1776”; “Without immigrants, Trump would have no wives”; “The cruelty is the point”; “Elect an ass, expect shit”; “Deport Trump!”; “ICE belongs in Margueritas, not schools”; “Preserve PBS”; “Impeach diaper Don”; “Not a king, just a taco” (a reference to the phrase “Trump Always Chickens Out”); “America wasn’t great in 1768” (with an image of British King George III); “The Mayflower was full of immigrants”; “Trump cut my social security and went golfing”; “Heil, no!”; “Immigrants make America great!”; “Faux-King joke” (with a ludicrous crowned Trump image); “The greatest threat we face is not simply their actions. But our silence — Cory Booker”; “Trump lies while America dies”; and, of course, tons of “No Kings!”

And here were some of the things that parts of the crowd began chanting in unison as they walked by me: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!”; “Money for education, not deportation!”; “No KKK, No fascist USA, No ICE!”; “Say it loud, say it clear, ICE is not welcome here!”; “Our streets! Our streets!”; “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!”; “This is not what democracy looks like!”; “No ICE, no ICE, no KKK, no Fascist USA!”; “Tell me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”; “Whose street? Our street!”

Yes, in the city that Donald Trump once considered his own, it couldn’t have been clearer that it truly wasn’t faintly his anymore.

And despite what had happened in Los Angeles, though the police were there in significant numbers (as they always are at such demonstrations), they in no way took center stage. Yes, Mayor Eric Adams claimed that more than 34,000 police had been mobilized for the demonstrations in New York. Still, I saw just a couple of police cars with their red lights flashing as I first approached Fifth Avenue and 40th Street and then a group of perhaps 20 policemen (and at least one policewoman) as I was heading back down that street on my way home. Otherwise, at least as far as I could see, they weren’t overly evident. And, again, it was New York City, so no local official had just been assassinated (as in Minnesota that day) and, unlike in San Francisco or Culpeper, Virginia, no car tried to hit any protestors in that march; nor, as in Austin, Texas, had the police told local officials not to attend such a protest because of a threat to them related to the Minnesota assassinations.

So, at least for me, and possibly millions of other Americans, No Kings Day proved an event to remember. Yes, in truth, I still find it hard to believe that we have three and a half more years of King Donald to go (and when, like me, you’re 80 years old, it becomes ever harder to imagine living through those years to another, possibly better future). Still, being at that demonstration was a good reminder that those of us who see in Donald Trump’s version of America an increasingly menacing threat to freedom are anything but alone.

Tom Engelhardt created and runs the website TomDispatch.com.

23 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network)

Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least 13 Palestinians were killed earlier on Monday by Israeli forces while waiting for food near aid distribution sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in central and southern Gaza. Israeli attacks on starving aid seekers have become a grim daily reality.

In central Gaza, local sources confirmed that at least three aid seekers were killed by an Israeli tank shell near the GHF aid distribution site close to the Netzarim Corridor.

In southern Gaza, reports say that 10 people were killed by Israeli gunfire northwest of Rafah city, near the GHF aid site while waiting for food.

Israel has regularly attacked starving aid seekers, particularly those waiting for food near aid distribution sites operated by the GHF, killing over 450 and injuring more than 3,466 since GHF launched its operations on May 27, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report last month warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.

The UN confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.”

“Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said on Tuesday in a statement.

“I saw people torn to pieces; it’s a disaster. Seeking food should not be a death sentence.” Dr. Wafaa Abu Nemer, MSF paediatrician.

Israeli mass killings of aid seekers have become a grim daily reality amid chaotic scenes, as desperate Palestinians are given only a narrow window to rush for food and are later targeted by Israeli forces.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds as they sought aid on Gaza’s deadliest day at aid sites so far.

The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”.

“It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said.

“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”

23 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org