Annihilate Gaza: Israeli official
Press TV – August 5, 2014
Israeli Knesset’s deputy speaker Moshe Feiglin has called for the “annihilation” of the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip.
Feiglin, who is also a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, wrote about the plans in a post on his Facebook page at the weekend, the British Daily Mail reported on Monday.
The Israeli official also called for “the conquest of the entire Gaza Strip.” He spoke of plans for the destruction of Gaza, which would include expelling residents and shipping them across the world.
Feiglin also wrote about his plans in a letter addressed to Netanyahu, in which he said he wanted the measures to be enforced as soon as possible.
In the letter, Feiglin said he wanted Israeli military forces to find areas on the Sinai border to set up “tent encampments… until relevant emigration destinations are determined.” Furthermore, he wants Gaza’s electricity and water supplies to be disconnected before shelling the besieged area “with maximum fire power.”
The Israeli forces would then “exterminate” resistance centers and Israeli law would be extended to cover the entire Gaza Strip and “the city of Gaza and its suburbs will be rebuilt as true Israeli touristic and commercial cities.”
The Israeli military launched its recent offensive against the Gaza Strip on July 8. At least 1,867 Palestinians, including around 430 children, have so far been killed and over 9,500 others injured during the onslaught. Tel Aviv says 64 Israelis have been killed in the war, while Hamas puts the number at more than 150.
Humanitarian catastrophe: Lugansk, E. Ukraine, left with no water, power
RT | August 5, 2014
The eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk has declared a state of humanitarian catastrophe over a lack of medical supplies, electricity, lighting, mobile and internet communication. Some 250,000 civilians are unable to leave, the statement also says.
“As of August 5, Lugansk remains disconnected from electricity. The situation remains critical on the city’s territory. Lugansk has no energy, is in a state of humanitarian catastrophe. Since Sunday, part of the population in the region’s center have been without light or water, as well as mobile and internet communication,” the statement on the city council website read.
Due to high temperatures and the damage to most community services’ cars, rubbish collection “completely stopped,” which is why the city is basically “on the brink of an ecological catastrophe,” the administration said.
“Today 250,000 civilian Lugansk residents – mainly retirees and families with children who don’t have the money to leave the city and who have nowhere to go – have been the hostages to the situation: the people are forced to live in the conditions of armed clashes, with the lacking communications, the remaining nutrition disappearing from the counter of shops and supermarkets which are still working,” according to the statement.
An especially burning issue has become the lack of medical supplies.
“People can’t purchase the essential medical supplies, only a handful of drugstores are operating,” the statement added.
“Many people have left the town – I had almost no one left, only my sister. If you had gone out to your balcony in the evening, there would be a feeling that the city had died out,” a former resident of Lugansk, Olga, who recently moved to more peaceful Kharkov, told Ria Novosti.
Transport communication is no good in the embattled city these days, Olga said.
“The buses go to Kharkov, Starobelsk. <…> In the city, the buses are infrequent, they used to come every five minutes, now it’s half an hour. The drivers won’t keep to the route – it’s dangerous. Also, there is no petrol, and if there is, it’s very expensive. No trolleybuses or tramways are left.”
The shops work several hours a day, and Olga said the prices have increased, there are almost no cigarettes on sale, but it’s still possible to buy food.
In the evenings, people try not to go out. Attacks and clashes are an every-day occurrence.
The Ukrainian army has approached the outskirts of Donetsk and Lugansk, preparing to storm these cities, the speaker for the Council of National Security and Defense, Andrey Lysenko, declared, as quoted by Ria Novosti.
“The main forces of the anti-terrorist operation, including the territorial battalions have approached those areas. It doesn’t mean that the storming has already started, but preparation to free the cities is on,” he said.
The attack won’t be announced, only the seizing of the cities, Lysenko added.
The Subprime Economy is Back—But It Never Really Left
By JP Sottile | WhoWhatWhy | August 3, 2014
Remember the sub-prime economy?
It’s back, but it’s different this time. Well, sorta different. And you may be affected by it in all kinds of ways.
The new sub-prime economy is a direct result of the catastrophic financial ruin caused by the old sub-prime mortgage crisis. Wall Street’s biggest money has figured out how to profit off of people deep in debt and unable to climb out because of the still-limping economy.
So, after pushing people to the margins with exotic financial instruments, Wall Street is now profiting off the increasingly marginal existence of many Americans. With more and more people renting their homes, the median household now 20% poorer today than it was in 1984, and almost half of all Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, the sub-prime economy has shifted away from big-ticket mortgages to profiting off the banalities of everyday life.
The numbers don’t lie: 35% of Americans—roughly 77 million people—have an outstanding debt currently being pursued by a collection agency, according to a new study by the Urban Institute. Although the individual amounts of delinquent debt range from as little as $25 to over $125,000, the national average is a staggering $5,178.
That’s a lot of bad debt in the system, and there are rich pickings in all of it.
Maybe that’s why the study was funded by Encore Capital Group—the country’s largest publicly-traded buyer of defaulted debt—and co-authored by its very own think-tank, the Consumer Credit Research Institute. The latter, founded in 2011, describes its work as a “ground-breaking effort to develop new knowledge about low- and moderate-income consumers” using techniques borrowed from economics, statistics and psychology.
The first go-round on the subprime roulette wheel was fueled primarily by the post-9/11 “go-go” housing boom. The middlemen of Manhattan systematically used predatory lending to ensnare hundreds of thousands of hopeful American Dreamers into an adjustable-rate, no-money-down, balloon-payment nightmare. So they made money handing out subprime mortgages like Halloween candy, bundled that risky, unsustainable debt into exotic financial instruments, and profited again by betting they’d fail.
But that was then, and things are supposed to be different now, right?
Now the financial system is supposed to be chastened. It is, according to its staunchest critics, wholly and restrictively regulated by Dodd-Frank. In fact, Dodd-Frank is so restrictive, they say, that it has impeded the “recovery” and needs to be loosened. That’s despite the fact that many key rules still haven’t been written and despite the omnipresence of corporate banking interests at every step of the rule-making process.
Things are different now. This new sub-prime bubble is not being inflated by predatory lenders targeting would-be homeowners. Even though the real estate market is improving in places like San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., homeownership is at a 19-year low, with more people opting to rent because of tighter finances.
Hedge Funds, Hedge Hogs
Well-positioned hedge funds gobbled up tens of thousands of homes left vacant by the bursting mortgage bubble. Sometimes entire neighborhoods were purchased by those firms, who—unlike Lehman Brothers—were not broken by the crash. Like JP Morgan hoarding the devalued financial assets of its failed competitors, hedge funds saw the sudden surge in low-cost real estate as a buying opportunity.
The Blackstone Group—one of the world’s largest hedge funds—went on a two-year buying spree that transformed it into “America’s largest landlord” with over 40,000 houses in its profitable inventory.
And that’s where bad debt is accumulating—in the day-to-day struggle to make ends meet.
To wit, the Urban Institute’s study focused on collections of non-mortgage bills. These include credit card bills, medical bills, and utility bills that are “more than 180 days past due and have been placed in collections.”
A good example of the financial jeopardy many face is in Detroit. That’s where the median household income is less than half the national average—and where tens of thousands couldn’t afford to pay their water bills.
The bankrupted city decided to do something about chronic delinquencies—they began shutting off people’s water. As the pace of the shut-offs sped up, the city paid $6 million to a private contractor to make sure the taps ran dry. So far, some 100,000 have been without water at times.
This is exactly the sort of compromised position many find themselves in with this new economy. And it’s where predatory lending is taking its toll, targeting the desperate with high-risk, high-interest and, therefore, high-reward loans that epitomize Wall Street’s unending “search for yield.”
Bad Credit? We Can Help You Make It Worse
And what a yield lending to subprime customers earns. The “Payday Loan” industry still gets away with interest rates as high as 700 percent, a story WhoWhatWhy reported in March. That kind of loan puts many people into a modern form of sharecropping, accruing debt faster than they can pay it off.
The $3 billion-a-year industry is finally being scrutinized by federal regulators at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Even so, the underlying business model is being profitably recycled.
Take, for example, the entry of banks and private equity firms into the used car business.
They identify distressed and marginal candidates for risky, high-interest loans on cars that all too often end up being lemons, according to the New York Times. After searching for potential customers with low credit scores, banks like Capital One and Wells Fargo work with dealers who send them “certificates” redeemable for a “no credit, no problem” loan. That traps the less financially savvy customers into long-term loans that eventually triple or quadruple the cost of the car—or worse.
A little-known company called USA Discounters has opened another front of the high-interest assault, targeting the rank and file of the U.S. military.
USA Discounters leverages the low-wage position of active-duty military families into high-yield loans for mundane household items like TVs and washers and dryers. Despite their name, the company sometimes charges double the normal retail price for items, and gives customers credit on terms that can quickly turn unfavorable.
And that’s really what the subprime economy is now—easy money at the lowerend of America’s wealth gap. And the lower end is growing.
Photo Credit: BUDGET PICTURE
35% of Americans are in Debt to Collection Agencies
By Noel Brinkerhoff | AllGov | August 5, 2014
More than a third of all adults in the United States find themselves dealing with collections agencies as a result of falling seriously behind on their debts.
It is estimated that 35% of Americans nationwide are in collections, according to Delinquent Debt in America, a new report from the Urban Institute. Debts in collection can include medical bills and traffic fines, as well as consumer credit accounts.
In some states, nearly half of those with credit files are being hounded by debt collectors. Nevada, “which was hard hit by the housing crisis,” the report says, has a 47% rate, the highest in the country.
A dozen states, including 11 in the South, as well as the District of Columbia, are above 40%: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia. At the other end are Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, which have the lowest rate of people in collections, about 20%.
Looking at the numbers of what people owe, it isn’t a shock to learn that so many Americans are so far behind on paying their credit cards, mortgages and other debts.
Nerd Wallet reported these sobering figures for the U.S. in April:
Average per household credit card debt: $15,191
Average per household mortgage debt: $154,365
Average per household student loan debt: $33,607
At any one time, about 5% of the population has a non-mortgage bill such as a credit card account, car loan or student loan that’s more than 30 days past due.
To Learn More:
Delinquent Debt in America (Urban Institute) (pdf)
American Household Credit Card Debt Statistics: 2014 (by Tim Chen, Nerd Wallet)
Debt Collection Complaints by Military Members and Veterans Skyrocket (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Largest Debt Collector Gets away with Minor Fine for Harassing Citizens (by Matt Bewig, AllGov)
Michigan community rebels against huge expansion, militarization of police
RT | August 5, 2014
After acquiring some military hardware, one local Michigan police chief’s plan to also add more than 30 non-certified officers to the force has residents in Barry Township clamoring for an investigation – and, in some cases, his job.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the township’s police chief Victor Pierce is under fire for what some in the area characterize as increased use of force by law enforcement, as well as for a proposal that would add more officers than are necessary to keep track of a population of 3,900.
Pierce is looking to add 34 individuals to the police reserve force in Barry Township – a significant increase over the four full-time officers currently employed. What’s more, these reserve officers are not certified – the department has already been warned that the officers need training and should only be deployed for special events.
“They’re not from around here,” Tony Crosariol, a biochemist who moved to the area seeking a peaceful life, said to the Free Press. “These reserve officers are not our friends, they are not our neighbors, their kids don’t play sports with my kids.”
Plans to expand the reserve force so much come on top of the fact that the police department is in possession of two armored personnel carriers and two Humvees, which arrived in the area courtesy of the US Department of Defense.
The debate over police behavior as well as the reserve force gained momentum in May after local resident Jack Nadwornik was confronted by a trio of officers who claimed he resisted arrest. Nadwornik was caught urinating outside a bar that had closed down for the evening, and suffered broken hand and was kneed in the back by police before being taken to jail and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Nadwornik and another witness said police claims about his behavior were not true.
The incident has galvanized critics who say police are using unnecessary force, and that their behavior stems from Pierce’s aggressive attitude towards law enforcement’s role in the community. Many have called for him to be fired or resign, but he has defended his position by citing events like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and threats of terrorism. He said he’s not trying to form “any kind of military machine or mind-set,” and that he’s simply looking to prevent tragedies from occurring in the future.
Despite the criticism, Pierce’s proposals have split the community, with some coming out in support of his plans and defending the police under his watch.
“I think Victor is doing a fine job,” said Delores Mohn, a retired schoolteacher who now works as a church secretary, to the Free Press. “He wants to do what’s right. Every citizen needs to know the laws, and if they are caught, they have to pay the price. I’m very grateful for them and have enormous respect for these officers.”
The situation in Barry Township isn’t the only example of local residents expressing concern over potentially aggressive police departments. As RT reported late last year, police in Salinas, California, came under intense scrutiny after acquiring a heavily armored military vehicle for its SWAT team. Designed for use in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, the truck is capable of surviving minefield explosions and rifle fire, leading many to wonder why it was being deployed in their city. Police Chief Kelly McMillin acknowledged concerns but insisted the vehicle would only be used to protect officers and enhance civilian safety.
Google Play offers ‘Bomb Gaza’ game that lets you kill Muslim women and children
By Tom Boggioni | Raw Story | August 4, 2014
Google Play, the official app store for Android operating systems, is currently offering a side-scrolling game called “Bomb Gaza.”
The description of the game states: “Bomb Gaza – drop bombs and avoid killing civilians. new version uploaded. improved performance. added new israel’s theme music.”
In a screen shot shown on the page (seen below) Israeli jets can be seen flying over a terrain dotted with cartoon Islamic terrorists and women attempting to protect children.
The game currently has a 3.7 star rating among users, with 47 reviewers giving it the highest rating, 5 stars, and 22 giving it a 1 star.
Commenters on the page both praised and condemned the game, with one writing, “Spineless disgusting filth trying to profit from genocide of Palastinians (sic) Trying to profit from the sufferings of others. Scumbag of the worst kind. Would you be doing the same if a member of your family was murdered? Utterly vile filth of a game from a sick twisted individual.”
According to the Google Play Developer Program Policies regarding Hate Speech: ” We don’t allow content advocating against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.”
There is no indication whether Google Play would consider the game “hate speech.”
The developer of the game, which was uploaded to Google Play on July 29, is listed as PlayerFTW.
Obama Claims CIA Torture Was Okay Because People Were Scared And The CIA Is A ‘Tough Job’
By Mike Masnick | Techdirt | August 4, 2014
On Friday, we wrote briefly about President Obama’s “admission” that “we tortured some folks.” At the time I was going off of the press reports of the conference, but now that I’ve read the full transcript of his statement, it’s much worse than just that brief comment. Here’s the relevant portion:
With respect to the larger point of the RDI report itself, even before I came into office I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values.
I understand why it happened. I think it’s important when we look back to recall how afraid people were after the Twin Towers fell and the Pentagon had been hit and the plane in Pennsylvania had fallen, and people did not know whether more attacks were imminent, and there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security teams to try to deal with this. And it’s important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had. And a lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots.
It was the “we tortured some folks” that reasonably made headlines, but the following paragraph, in which he tries to brush it off, is what’s really troubling. Imagine any other crime, and think about whether or not you’d have someone say it was okay because there was “enormous pressure” on the people committing the crime. Imagine any other crime, and being told “not to feel too sanctimonious” because of what a “tough job” any other criminal had. I’m sorry, but I don’t care how much pressure anyone was under, plenty of people who are actually “real patriots” know that you don’t torture people. Not only does it not work, it’s morally reprehensible. “You don’t torture” is a pretty straightforward concept — and one that was pretty clearly known and articulated prior to all of this. Nothing that happened on 9/11 or in the aftermath magically made war crimes like torture okay.
Those aren’t “patriots,” and defending them because of the “pressure” they were under is an incredibly cowardly and disgusting move.
Switzerland will not blindly follow EU sanctions against Russia – Swiss economy minister
RT | August 4, 2014
For Switzerland to copy and paste EU sanctions against Moscow is unwise, and would jeopardize the country’s role as a mediator, said Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann.
The Swiss government has no plans to follow in the EU’s footsteps and impose sanctions against Russia, Schneider-Ammann said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag.
Schneider-Ammann said that choosing a side would undermine the country’s neutrality in the matter.
“This role [as mediator] will be weakened, if we duplicate EU sanctions,” Schneider-Ammann said, adding that Switzerland holds the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is vitally important for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Another main concern for Switzerland, home to many Russian nationals, is any economic blowback from sanctions.
The economy minister warned that shutting out Russia could “result in a domino effect” which will “have a negative impact on our economy.”
Unlike its European neighbors who are dependent on Russia for natural gas, Switzerland is financially tied to Russia. Switzerland is home to an estimated $15.2 billion in Russian assets as of 2012, and oil exchanges in Geneva account for 75 percent of Russian crude exports, Reuters reports. Many Russians live in the country.
In March, after Crimea reunited with Russia and the US unveiled its first round of sanctions, Switzerland said it would take measures if needed.
Switzerland has however frozen assets of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and other former Kiev government officials.
The minister plans to visit Moscow in October to discuss Swiss-Russian bilateral economic cooperation. Schneider-Ammann is a member of Switzerland’s Free Democratic Party, and was first elected to the Swiss National Council in 1999.
Over 400 Ukrainian troops cross into Russia for refuge
RT | August 4, 2014
More than 400 Ukrainian troops have been allowed to cross into Russia after requesting sanctuary. It’s the largest, but not the first, case of desertion into Russia by Ukrainian soldiers involved in Kiev’s military crackdown in the east of the country.
According to the Rostov Region’s border guard spokesman Vasily Malaev, a total of 438 soldiers, including 164 Ukrainian border guards, have been allowed into Russia on Sunday night.
One of the Ukrainians was seriously injured on his arrival in Russia. He was taken to the hospital for surgery, the officials added.
The other Ukrainian soldiers have been housed in a tent camp deployed near the checkpoint via which they entered Russian territory. The Russian border guards are providing them with food and bedding.
Footage taken by the Russian media at the scene showed the Ukrainian soldiers being handed ration packs and resting in their temporary shelter. Those who agreed to speak on camera said they were relieved to be in safety for the first time in weeks.
“We were given an order to leave our positions and go to Russia trough a corridor. We were told it would be safe. Of course they, I would say, made us go fast from behind,” one of the soldiers, a BMP driver who would not reveal his name or even show his face on camera, said.
“It was so bad back there. Hot, and so many deaths and bad things,” another one, Dmitry, said. “Folks can rest here. They gave us a chance to wash, gave us new clothes. We are thankful.”
“We have been in those fields for more than six months and are very tired,” he added.
Another one, Yaroslav, said he wishes to go back to his family in Ukraine.
“I want to do something peaceful. My contract expired four months ago,” he explained.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian anti-government militia reported that it was in negotiations with a large contingent of Ukrainian troops they encircled in Lugansk region on a possible surrender. The negotiations were being hampered by the troops’ intention to destroy some 70 armored vehicles in their possession before laying down arms, which the militia wanted to capture intact.
The Gukovo border checkpoint, through which the Ukrainian troops crossed into the Russian territory, is located on Russia’s border with the Lugansk Region of Ukraine, indicating that these are the same troops that were negotiating with the militia. If so, it was not immediately clear whether the vehicles they had were really destroyed.
OSCE monitors and journos come under shelling from Ukraine at Russian border
The flow of deserters from the ranks of Ukrainian Army and National Guard seems to be increasing amid the escalating violence in Donets and Lugansk Regions, where Kiev is fighting against armed anti-government militias.
In late July 41 Ukrainian troops fled to Russia to escape fighting in eastern Ukraine. They are now being prosecuted in Ukraine for deserting in the heat of battle.
Several Ukrainian units have been reported to recently to be cut off from supply lines after attempted offensive operations, which brought them behind the militia-controlled territories and close to the Russian border.
The Ukrainian troops, while far superior to the militia in terms of heavy weapons, suffer from poor logistics. Many soldiers complain about lacking even basic supplies like food and water on the frontline. The situation is aggravated by cases of apparent negligence from the command, with units being supplied with faulty equipment, coming under friendly fire and simply left behind while retreating from militia counter-attacks.
A YouTube video allegedly shows a Ukrainian soldier explaining how he has to catch and cook snakes because his unit receives no rations.
Kiev’s National Guard unit mutiny: ‘We’ve been discarded like trash’
This causes serious morale problems in the army, with more critical voices saying the Ukraine de facto has no infantry troops and has no other way to fight but by leveling militia-held cities to the ground with artillery and air strikes.
There is a growing resistance to the military campaign among Ukrainian population, with several cases of mass protests against the latest mobilization drive, as mothers and wives of conscripts took to the streets to demand that their loved once not be drafted into the army.
Ken Loach slams BBC’s pro-Israel coverage of Gaza war
Press TV – August 4, 2014
Internationally-renowned filmmaker, Ken Loach, has slammed the state-run BBC for its pro-Israel bias in the coverage of the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
Loach, who has participated in an ongoing occupation campaign in front of the BBC headquarters in the British southwestern city of Bristol, slammed BBC policies, saying, “We should note that many at the BBC, including senior staff, are embarrassed by the broadcaster’s coverage that has an obvious pro-Israel bias.”
“They don’t put the views of Palestinians to the Israelis during interviews, while the use of language about Gazans is pejorative and the war crimes being committed against them ignored…. They’re not ‘militants’ or ‘terrorists,’ they’re ‘resistance fighters,’” he said, adding, “It’s the BBC, we own it, so it should be answerable.”
Loach noted that BBC editors will have to be accountable over the public protest against the broadcaster’s coverage of the Gaza war, stressing that BBC should undergo “tactical” transformations in its broadcasting policies.
Palestine campaigners have occupied the front lawn of the BBC headquarters in Bristol since last week despite the broadcaster’s threat to get them evicted from the site.
Other high-profile artists and campaigners, including celebrated comedian Mark Thomas, have also voiced support for the occupy campaign.
“The BBC reporting of the Israeli military assault on Gaza has failed time and time again to contextualize the violence, refusing to explain the occupation of Palestine and the siege of Gaza,” Thomas said.
The pro-Palestine campaigners also joined thousands of protesters against “Israeli genocide” on Saturday. The demonstration was the biggest protest in Bristol in a decade.
The campaigners also plan to present a “damning dossier” to BBC Bristol TV editor Neil Bennett next week, which incorporates evidence of the broadcaster’s biased coverage of the Gaza war.
They have also organized public burning of TV licenses and the occupation’s court summons and plan to resist any action aimed at evicting them from the site.
More than 1,822 people, including 400 children, have been killed and over 9,400 injured since July 8, when Israel began its offensive against the Gaza Strip.
While the Israeli military says 64 soldiers have been killed in the conflict, Palestinian resistance movement Hamas puts the fatalities at more than 150.
Iron Dome blocked just 8 out of 120 rockets: Israeli military
Press TV – August 4, 2014
The Israeli army has admitted that Israel’s Iron Dome missile system intercepted only eight out of nearly 120 rockets that were fired from the Gaza Strip into the occupied Palestinian territories on Sunday.
The military confirmed that around 110 rockets struck the occupied territories.
The development comes as the US Senate on Friday approved an additional USD 225 million in funding for the missile system despite Israel’s deadly war on the Gaza Strip.
Last month, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel sent a letter to congressional leadership requesting USD 225 million in additional US funding for the Iron Dome.
The money would be in addition to the USD 351 million that is already under discussion for Israel’s Iron Dome in fiscal 2015. It would bring total funding to USD 576 million, compared with the USD 176 million requested by the Pentagon for the fiscal year that begins on October 1.
On July 28, US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tel Aviv urgently needs more financial aid from Washington for its offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli warplanes have been pounding numerous sites in the Gaza Strip since July 8, demolishing houses and burying families under the rubble. Israeli forces also began a ground offensive against the besieged Palestinian territory on July 17.
According to Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasion have left at least 1,822 people dead and some 9,400 others injured.
The Israeli military says 64 soldiers have been killed in the conflict, but Palestinian resistance movement Hamas puts the fatalities at more than 150.
Iron Dome is a short-range missile system designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from a range of four to 70 kilometers.
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In Memoriam
James Petras, In Memoriam
02.13.2026
Professor James Petras, 89, world-renowned sociologist, public intellectual, and scholar of Latin American politics and global economics, died peacefully on January 17, 2026, in Seattle, WA, surrounded by family.
A prolific scholar and activist, he devoted his life to challenging power, imperialism, and inequality. … continue
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